Bakugou squinted his eyes at first before an almost sly smile appeared on his face as how competitive he was had been completely exposed easily. Kirishima spoke his language, knew exactly how to get Bakugou in a place he wanted him to be in. It was a talent really. He somehow took his nerves out by being such a smooth talker, knowing that the outcome would be in his favour.

"Hah?" Bakugou stood up and turned the TV on as well as the switch, his gait clearly showing that he had a newfound determination coursing through his veins. Every single one of his moves was snappy and focused, completely different to before when he was swift and almost elegant.

He grabbed the red side of the controller and threw it to Kirishima, which he caught swiftly, the cocky smile still on his face as he looked up to Bakugou with half-lidded eyes.

"Let's fucking do this." The blonde talked loudly as he sat down, this time closer to Kirishima with his elbows resting on his knees.

Kirishima mirrored his actions, sliding down the couch until he was next to Bakugou. Honestly, he wasn't that confident, he'd never really been the best at racing games, but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to give it his all with the competitive spirit that Bakugou obviously loved. He clearly loved a challenge and winning one at that.

"Best of three. Winner gets to tweet from the loser's Twitter account after each round." Bakugou suggested, looking at Kirishima expectedly. Kirishima confidently nodded, liking that there were some actual stakes to this. Bakugou was clearly planning a clean sweep.

The first round was surprisingly close. Kirishima was actually winning for the first lap, but Bakugou quickly kicked into gear and just managed to pull ahead. It was too close for comfort for the blonde, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't let his one win get to his head.

"You fuckin' suck!" The blonde exclaimed as he leant back slightly, although it was clear that he was relieved he won.

His eyes were figuratively on fire, his spirit shining through as his victory clearly left satisfaction within himself. He knew that Kirishima didn't let him win and that they both gave their all. If that wasn't the case, Bakugou would've lost his shit and gotten pissed off at the red head. It was nice for him to know that Kirishima didn't underestimate him.

"Give me your damn phone." He smugly reminded the other, holding his hand out expectantly.

Kirishima sighed as he unlocked his phone, opened the Twitter app, and handed it to Bakugou, who got to work immediately. Kirishima checked immediately upon receiving his phone back, admittedly slightly nervous.

"Come on dude, they'll totally be able to tell that isn't me." Kirishima teased, pretty certain of what he was saying. The wording of that was so unlike him.

"Whatever you say, hair for brains," Bakugou smirked, completely confident that no one would think to clock on. "I still have two more tweets to write, after all." He resumed his position from before, tilting his neck to crack it.

Kirishima scoffed as he followed Bakugou's actions, replicating them to the best of his ability. He gently bit down on the corner of his lip as he slowed his breathing and tried to focus. Bakugou was giving him a run for his money, and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to run as fast as humanly possible.

The next round surprisingly went Kirishima's way. Bakugou got too eager and messed up what was supposed to be the boost at the start, and not only was he super unlucky with items, but Kirishima was playing rather smart by tricking Bakugou into falling off the edge by purposefully slowing down and then driving him off the edge.

"Fuck sake! You played so damn dirty!" Bakugou's eyebrows knitted as he slammed his controller down next to him. Before Kirishima had the chance to say anything, a phone was placed into his chest. "Hurry up."

Kirishima smiled as he looked at Bakugou's angry profile, how there was a vein on his forehead that strained.

He quickly typed something out and posted it before handing Bakugou's phone back to him by gently placing it on his lap. The blonde immediately picked up the phone and read the tweet, before putting his phone beside him again and ignoring what he just read.

"Sore loser, eh?" Kirishima teased but regretted it a second layer as a smile was once again on Bakugou's face.

He blocked out his surroundings and was clearly ready for the next round from the inhumane grip he had on the controller. Kirishima was genuinely slightly scared for a second, but it was a good kind of fear that motivated him even harder. He swore that he had never heard his own heart this loud in his ears before. He could sit this way with the man beside him forever.

There was so much energy transferred through such little actions that only the two of them could possibly notice.

Just before they began the last map, Bakugou snuck a glance at Kirishima's profile. The red head had a determined smile on his face, his breathing steady and practised. He was completely in the zone, ever so slightly wiggling his fingers that were solid on the controller.

Ever since Bakugou was a kid, he was told he had one hell of a 'game face' and he never really knew what people meant - until now, that is. Until he saw it himself, but on someone else.

It was one back and forth battle. They both weren't going down easily. There was never a time when the match was decided, when either of them was extremely ahead, at least until the very last stretch. Or so they both thought.

The character Kirishima was playing had a higher speed stat, so naturally, he had a slight advantage in direct one on ones. He was ahead of Bakugou to a point where he couldn't catch up normally. That is until Bakugou became the luckiest man alive and ended up getting a certain item from the last set of item blocks. Kirishima was lost in his own gameplay, focusing on the upcoming finish line and nothing else.

"Take this!" Bakugou yelled as he launched the item, his body still tense as it wasn't over until it was over.

A second later, the item hit.

"Blue Shell?! How the hell did you-"  Kirishima's mouth dropped open in surprise as he stared wide-eyed at the TV. He couldn't even finish his sentence as Bakugou crossed the finish line only a second before he did.

The red head dropped the controller into his lap, only now realising that during the heated battle, both he and Bakugou had ended up touching knees. And not even just lightly either, they were practically resting on each other.

Bakugou surprisingly wasn't as fond of the win as Kirishima thought he'd be. In the moment, the blonde was relieved, but after the fact, he was kinda nonchalant about it.

"I only won that out of luck from an item box." He sighed, seemingly disappointed as he glanced down.

Maybe, Kirishima thought, just maybe he thinks I'll think he wasn't worthy of that win because the final decision was based on chance? I know he doesn't care what people think, but this is about his pride and dignity. He'll think I believe that because he believes it himself.

"Well, this is kind of a game of luck in that retrospect anyway! But I also got lucky a lot of times too. Like when I got those Bullet Bills or Dash Mushrooms. I would've lost the second round if it wasn't for those. Still, it was a good game though, right? Definitely got my heart racing." He didn't like to see Bakugou seem defeated although he won. He could see where the blonde was coming from, but the win was well earned and this just happened to secure it for him.

Bakugou glanced down to their touching knees and then back up to Kirishima's face, which was showing a shining smile that reflected all the words he spoke. Bakugou huffed to himself in a slight laugh as he let himself smile a little.

"Besides, with luck like that, I'd hate to play Mario Party against you!" Kirishima laughed, trying to change the mood a bit. He read Bakugou's actions as an 'I guess you're right' and carried on with his thought process. Bakugou couldn't have been more grateful for that.

"Is that a challenge?" Bakugou said half-jokingly, though he wouldn't turn it down if Kirishima took it up.

The red head just chuckled as he grabbed his phone and held his hand out to Bakugou, expecting him to immediately take hold of the electronic device. However, he hesitated.

"Go ahead. You earned it." He reassured again, putting the emphasis back on his outstretched hand.

Bakugou finally took the phone, but he can't deny that his hand did linger on top of Kirishima's for longer than what would be comfortable for some people. It wasn't enough to be deadly noticeable, but it was there nonetheless, and it made Kirishima's skin tingle in the aftermath.

Bakugou's normal face returned as he held the phone in his hand and began typing out a tweet.

"Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you." He smirked for a second as he continued typing away.

No matter what he could've tweeted, it could never take away from the amazing view Kirishima got from staring at the profile of Bakugou's face. His eyes crinkled slightly at the edges, which was clearly caused by the expression on his face.

The knots in Kirishima's stomach were jumping all over the place, some pulling tighter and others looser, which was causing the butterflies accompanying them to weave in and out of the spaces, dragging his poor overactive nerves along the way.

The phone was handed back to him a second later. It seemed as though Bakugou had waited for a reply or two and refreshed on the tweet before handing it back, making sure that Kirishima saw them, for whatever reason. The red head noticed this, and after reading the tweet which wasn't exactly threatening, albeit confusing, after seeing the top reply, it started to make some sort of sense.

Did he do that on purpose? Say something kinda vague yet kinda suggestive just after we've been tweeting at each other? If he did, that's actually super smart! He doesn't seem to care about putting ideas into people's heads, which is admirable. I don't either as long as it's not all based on lies, but it's always best to watch out for the other person's stance on it. Am I reading too much into this? Yes? No? Maybe?

Bakugou was watching closely for his reaction, so when he let out a light chuckle and smile, a wash of relief fell over him. He wasn't sure exactly if Kirishima could see what he was trying to do or hint at, but he didn't mind it either way, and he was confident that if Kirishima really wasn't cool with it, he'd say so.

Just then, at the moment Kirishima put his phone down and was about to say something, his stomach let out a huge rumble, that couldn't possibly be ignored. The red head was clearly immediately embarrassed, as he rubbed the back of his head and closed his eyes as he spoke.

"Yeah, I kinda skipped lunch." He awkwardly chuckled, not really knowing how to act after that. The timing was too convenient for inconvenience.

Bakugou scowled slightly, seemingly genuinely annoyed at Kirishima neglecting to have his lunch. It was unclear to Kirishima what reason that was for. He felt kinda bad about it though, just seeing Bakugou's displeasure made him second guess his earlier decision.

"And why the hell did you do that?" The blonde asked, an annoyed tone practically screaming its obviousness.

Kirishima audibly swallowed before talking, immediately not sure whether to be honest or not. But ultimately, he didn't have time to think of an excuse, considering he already said he skipped it and not that he just forgot, which would be the most understandable thing to say.

"So, uh... You know when you like, get nervous?" He started, already aware he was too far into this to back out. You've fucked it, Eijirou. "And like, you feel like you're gonna vomit?" He took a peek to Bakugou to try and see his reaction, but his face had barely changed at all. "Yeah well I tend to kinda sorta maybe actually throw up sometimes, so I just decided against having anything to throw up this time, haha." He actually laughed aloud, the feeling of nerves once again bundling up as he didn't really want to face anything right now.

Bakugou didn't say anything, he just stood up (unfortunately disconnecting their knees), and began walking in the direction of the door. As he reached it, he turned to face Kirishima, his facial expression again somewhat blank, but there wasn't any sign of anything necessarily negative.

"You coming or not? Hearing your stomach constantly rumbling would just piss me off." He turned back around and continued to walk in the direction of the kitchen. In some sort of rush, Kirishima quickly struggled to his feet and followed after the blonde, clearing his throat as he did so.

"I'll make you an omelette or something. Not gonna make an actual meal 'till dinner because that'd just be dumb." Bakugou said as he walked over to the stove and started putting a cooking apron on, which was black with an orange cross over the chest area. The tone of annoyance in his voice had disappeared completely, but it still didn't make Kirishima feel any less bad about this.

"Hey, it's okay! You don't need to make anything, I'm not that-" Bakugou had turned to face him with a look that said 'reeeaally?' when Kirishima was interrupted by his stomach rumbling once again.

"Just sit down. I actually happen to enjoy cooking so this isn't a god damn burden on me or anything." Bakugou replied, taking his attention back to what he was doing as he grabbed the egg carton, milk and cheese from the fridge.

His hands were quite full and one of them with eggs at that, so he had to close the fridge with his hip, which Kirishima admittedly was watching closer than he should've been. I mean, could you blame him? Bakugou moved so swiftly across the kitchen, it was impossible to tear his eyes away.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Kirishima asked as he fidgeted in his chair, not liking the fact that he was just sat doing nothing while Bakugou accommodated for him.

"You can shut up and wait," Bakugou replied, continuing what he was doing. Kirishima complied and pulled out his phone, eager to check the replies to that tweet again.

Most of them were in the same nature as the one he saw before, but it didn't tear the smile from his face nonetheless. There'd been several times where he'd nearly pressed the heart button on some replies, which would've ended in embarrassment since people definitely would've found out.

But the fact that Bakugou decided to even do this gave him an idea. There was one particular reply that seemed like it might have pissed Bakugou off slightly, but not in an actual angry way, so he decided to retweet it. The reply read 'I can tell you're the top', and Kirishima just knew that the wording of it especially would get a good reaction out of the blonde.

He briefly checked the other tweets too to see if anyone had any suspicions, but they were both completely in the clear. More than that, no one would ever know unless they actually came out and told them.

"I'm surprised no one questioned the tweets at all." He giggled, weirdly proud of himself for it.

"Tch, you're acting as though you didn't tweet literal kissy faces at me before." Bakugou giggled in a teasing manner, turning his head around to see Kirishima's reaction.

"Well yeah, but I always directed it towards you, at least. I ain't no wuss!" It was one of those situations where he thought he probably said more than he should have, but Bakugou just laughed and turned around again, something resembling a smile on his face. Kirishima couldn't see, but as Bakugou was out of his sight, the smile increased in size.

A few minutes later, a plate was placed in front of the red head with a folded in half omelette. It looked literally perfect, like it was taken directly from a professional cookbook.

"Woah, dude! I didn't know you could cook this well!" Kirishima excitedly exclaimed, mouth practically watering as he stared at the food.

"You haven't even tried it yet." Bakugou sat down in the chair next to him and pulled out his phone, scrolling through social media as if he wasn't awaiting Kirishima's reaction.

Kirishima eagerly took the knife and fork in hand and cut off a piece, taking a long whiff as he closed his eyes. Eventually, he actually put the food in his mouth, and it melted perfectly. The texture, the flavour - everything - it was all literally complete perfection.

"H-holy shit, dude! Where'd you learn to cook like this?!" He exclaimed, resisting the urge to absolutely wolf down the rest.

"I used to help my mother in the kitchen when I was little." He answered back, clearly proud of that and the reaction Kirishima gave. He knew he was a great cook, but it never got old to see people eating what he made, which didn't happen often. "What, can't you make a simple omelette?" He teased, slightly scared that he was letting his walls down a little too much.

"Honestly not really," The red head spoke between mouthfuls, trying hard to remain polite. "All I really eat is instant ramen, to be honest with ya."

Bakugou turned to face Kirishima in disbelief, glancing over his muscles for a split second before questioning him.

"How the hell do you have a body like that if you don't have a strict food schedule?" He asked. He himself did stick to one briefly, but the fact that Kirishima seemed so careless about it really baffled him.

"Oh, you noticed?" He flexed his arm and teased, winking in the process. The wink was too much for god sake Eijirou calm down, man. "I work out quite a lot, but it's mostly for fun and relief. I don't really take it too seriously. I consider myself to be pretty healthy so that's all that I really care about." He was scared he had talked a bit too much, but Bakugou actually seemed intrigued, and his face after Kirishima flexed was a sight he wouldn't have traded for the world.

Bakugou narrowed his eyes, clearly gritting his teeth as he was aware he was being teased, even if only acutely.

"'Pretty healthy'? Fucking hell, you've gotta be kidding." He put his attention back on the phone in front of him as he dropped the conversation, nervous of where that potentially could've gone.

There was a chance it could've ended up with Bakugou directly complimenting Kirishima, which he wasn't exactly sure he would be able to forgive himself for.

Just about a minute later, Kirishima finished the food and peeked over to Bakugou's phone. He was scrolling through YouTube recommended, and with perfect timing, a certain eye-catching video appeared.

'Proof that Ground Zero and Red Riot are dating'

Bakugou hovered over it for a split second, but then continued scrolling as if nothing happened. Kirishima quickly took his sight away from the blonde's phone and shook his head a little before announcing that he was done. Bakugou hadn't seen that Kirishima had seen, so there was nothing for the red head to be worried about.

"Thanks for the meal!" He clasped his hands together, turning to Bakugou a second after. "Seriously, I can't say thank you enough! That's actually the best thing I've eaten since living on my own."

"And you didn't even make it." Bakugou stood up and waited at the door for Kirishima to place the plate and cutlery in the dishwasher.

"I guess it is kinda sad, huh?" He chuckled and followed Bakugou back into the living room, secretly hoping that they would sit as close as they did before.

---

They ended up sitting and watching movies for a while. They'd watched both of the Kingsman films, Spiderman: Homecoming and an anime film called Doukyuusei, which left Kirishima a crying mess. Bakugou had a few sniffles too, but they weren't as exaggerated as Kirishima's were. He felt as though the red head was getting his feelings out for him, in a weird way.

Also, instead of Bakugou making something for dinner, they ended up ordering Chinese food. They ate it on the couch during the last half hour of the film, Kirishima using it as some sort of comfort.

They didn't end up as close as they did during the Mario Kart battle, but that was mostly because they were both actually thinking about it. They moved noticeably closer during the last movie, and that was simply because they'd both never seen it before and were focusing on it. It was like they both had a strong magnetic field, one north and the other south.

After that, the back of Kirishima's hair had started to fall out of shape, and he was more than ready to sleep. He'd been up since very early hours, anticipating this day. But it really did fly by, and it couldn't have gone better. He was so, so happy.

"God damn it, man! I love a good romance." The red head exclaimed, yawning in the middle of the sentence.

"Anyone who says they don't is a fucking liar." The blonde stretched as he stood up, lifting his arms up behind his head.

"You not sleep much last night either?" Kirishima asked, wondering if it was for the same reason as him.

"Of course I did, hair for brains. It's not a crime to be tired." He turned the TV off as he was clearly lying, or downplaying the truth.

Kirishima stood up too and rubbed his eyes. He hadn't really realised just how long they'd both been sat there in each others company. It'd been a good ten hours now at least. They'd only known each other face to face for that long, but it genuinely felt like they knew each other for years prior.

It was brilliant.

They both headed to the stairs without having to exchange any more words. Kirishima went up first this time. Bakugou examined his head from the back, seeing the odd strands of hair that kept resilient and stayed spiked out, and the others that flopped down to the base of his neck. His roots weren't on show, he must've re-dyed his hair fairly recently.

"Remember what I said about the bathroom." Bakugou reminded as he waited outside his bedroom door.

"Yeah, I got ya," Kirishima replied as he saw Bakugou half disappear into his room. "Hey!" He stepped further towards the blonde, not really knowing what he was going to say until he said it. "Thank you. For everything." He closed his eyes as they wrinkled due to the shining smile on his face.

When he said that, he didn't only mean for letting him stay at his house. He meant for everything. For the fact that they were even in a position to be able to be in the presence of each other, for the fact that Bakugou literally just existed. That's what Kirishima meant, and just with those few words, Bakugou felt what he meant. He knew.

"G-goodnight." The blonde responded, sending a little wave as he entered his bedroom, closing the door abruptly behind him.

Kirishima stayed stood where he was for a second, smiling at the closed door before heading into the room he was staying in. He knew already that in the language of 'angry explosive blonde' that that response meant 'thanks'.

The red head changed into a baggy black top and some sweatpants to sleep in, and he brushed through his hair, taking it all down, before climbing into bed. The bed was super comfortable, welcoming Kirishima's aching back with open, warm arms.

He laid down on his back so he was facing the ceiling and pulled his phone out, deciding to just double check on everything before going to sleep. Low and behold, he noticed something on Twitter, confusion coming across his face. The shock of this suddenly appearing made him drop his phone on his face.

A lot, and I mean a lot of people were sharing around a certain clip of an old video of Bakugou's. Kirishima decided not to watch it until he found why it was gaining traction, which didn't take long at all.

It was because of that video he saw in Bakugou's recommended earlier.

He grit his teeth and pressed on the video, honestly not entirely sure if this was weird or not. He decided against thinking about it literally at all.

The video was pretty typical for one of this nature. Just a fangirl putting together a compilation of their tweets to each other, their references to each other in videos, etcetera. It wasn't until a minute from the end where the clip finally played. The text on the screen before the clip reading 'I'm pretty sure that Zero isn't straight. Listen to this clip very closely'.

The clip was from a Q&A he did at 20,000 subscribers, which was a long, long time ago.

Someone had asked the question 'Do you plan on getting married?', and Bakugou responded in such a nonchalant way.

"I'm not sure. If I find a guy crazy enough to want to marry me then he'll already know what he's getting himself into. I don't see why not."

So yeah, that's the clip. In a video years ago, he referred to his future spouse with male pronouns. This went under the radar for so long, it really was surprising to come up now all of a sudden.

It made Kirishima think back to his own videos. Surely he would've done that too at some point. It just came naturally, and in this day and age, he really didn't feel any need to put effort into hiding it or making a big deal out of it. Neither did Bakugou, it seemed.

Maybe it was bad of Kirishima to assume, but he never really doubted that Bakugou liked guys to begin with, despite not knowing about what he said in this video. It's not even that he didn't know, more that he just never gave any thought to it. Maybe it was just the aura in the air around them.

Many people were freaking out over this. Not in a bad way at all, they were just made aware that their ship wasn't a complete shot in the dark sexuality-wise. At least on Bakugou's end, Kirishima wasn't sure if they knew about him, and it seemed that they didn't either.

Kirishima wondered what exactly Bakugou was gonna do. Address it? Leave it? Either way, attention had been brought to it nonetheless, and there's no way Kirishima could pretend as though he didn't know. How is he gonna respond, if at a-

Then his phone rang with a notification, that Bakugou had tweeted. He pressed on it faster than he could see what was written from the notification alone. As soon as it loaded, Kirishima chuckled in an exhale after he read it.

That... Is so Bakugou.

---

I'm so glad you're all enjoying this! The feedback has been insane and I'm so grateful. I sometimes feel like I can go on writing about pretty much nothing and that it might get boring, so I'm sorry if that's the case!