"I can't really understand how-"

"Oi!" Bakugou called up, not knowing that he was interrupting Kirishima mid-sentence. The red head took a second to pause his audio recording, then decided to head out to see what it was that his boyfriend wanted.

"You okay?" He asked as he began walking down the stairs. Bakugou was sat in the living room a moment ago, but as soon as Kirishima spoke, he practically darted to the bottom of the stairs to meet him there.

Once Kirishima had made his way down them completely but before he had time to really process Bakugou's actions, a blare of white flashed across his eyes.

Bakugou was holding his phone out, almost in Kirishima's face. The red head took a second to adjust his eyes, but ultimately read the words that were on the screen.

It was a text from Midoriya. It didn't seem like there were many previous messages, as the last ones were at least a month old. Kirishima scanned his eyes to the longer paragraph at the bottom of the screen, assuming that thats what he was supposed to look at.

Hey Kacchan! Todoroki, Uraraka, Iida and I are gonna be throwing a little get together/party thing later. It's a little last minute, but we'd like you to come! And don't worry, Kirishima is invited too. We haven't really properly hung out recently, so we thought it'd be cool if you could tag along. It'd be cool to get to know Kirishima better too! We're going to be doing a video, so you can be involved if you want (obviously not your faces though haha). See ya!!

Kirishima could practically hear the chipper voice speaking as he read, a smile appearing on his face when he noticed that they even wanted to include him. After he had finished reading, he was about to speak, until he looked past the phone and spotted Bakugou's expression.

His eyes were just so... Strangely scared. Maybe scared isn't the word, but there was something about the way he looked, almost like they was begging for Kirishima to just decline so he had an excuse not to face it.

"Do you wanna?" The blonde asked as he refused to make eye contact, already knowing what the answer would be before asking. It was Kirishima, after all. When would he ever refuse this?

However, the red head actually thought. It wasn't about what he wanted, it was about what Bakugou was comfortable with. Of course he'd love to go, but he'd also love to stay in and do nothing if that's where the person most precious to him would rather be.

"That depends," he answered to the blonde's surprise, who suddenly scowled as though he thought the other was messing with him. "Do you?" Kirishima asked in return, trying his hardest to soften his expression as much as possible.

"Well-" The blonde was about to answer, but stopped himself. That brief moment of hesitation spoke so much to Kirishima already. The way Bakugou would glance to the right was telling. If he didn't want to, he would've straight up said no.

"You do, don't you?" His voice was soft as he spoke.

"Fuckin' maybe." Bakugou replied, not really remembering how much he had told Kirishima about his history. "but I just think-"

He was cut off before he could get another word out. Kirishima gently placed a hand on his shoulder and used the other to lower the hand Bakugou had the phone in. He knew what the blonde was going to say, what he was thinking. It was almost predictable, but in a way that made Kirishima happy that he understood.

"You wouldn't be overstepping any boundaries. They invited you. They didn't have to do that. They want you there, Kat!" He reassured again, slipping the hand that rested on the blonde's shoulder down to his hand, intertwining their fingers. "And I'll be there every step of the way."

Although trying to resist, Bakugou couldn't help but crack a smile, letting out a big breath through his nose. He brought his phone out again and began typing with the hand that wasn't occupied by his boyfriend's.

"Fuck, what do I say?" The blonde asked as the screen lingered on the rejected keyboard.

"Just say something like 'sure, that sounds great! What time do you want us there?'"

Bakugou laughed, knowing that Kirishima was half joking with that answer, as Midoriya would probably think that Bakugou had been kidnapped and that a fake was on his phone.

He ended up sending 'what time?', which got the message across, pretty much.

After looking at the blonde bite the inside of his cheek as he put his phone back into his pocket, Kirishima couldn't help but have that thought process that people have when they look at someone they adore.

"You're so amazing." He ended up whispering, barely even realising that he'd said it in the first place. When he did realise though, he didn't take it back. Or flinch at all really. He was too absorbed in the moment.

Bakugou turned to him unexpectedly. He never did know how to respond properly and sincerely to things like that, so this time he just did the only thing he thought would portray how he felt properly.

Rather suddenly, he grabbed the other's shirt collar with his free hand and pulled him in abruptly, planting his lips firmly onto Kirishima's. They both had their eyes open for a second, which you'd normally consider awkward, but this time it was actually super romantic.

Seeing the emotion in Kirishima's eyes as he dropped them shut was something that just reminded the blonde that everything he had ever been through was all worth it to get to this moment.

Kirishima gently squeezed his hand tighter, pulling him further in as he placed his hand just below Bakugou's jaw.

———

Kirishima did not think that he'd be actually nervous about this. He never normally was when meeting friends, yet this was somewhat different to the point where it made him actively aware of his worrying.

He blamed it partly on the fact that these people had known Bakugou for a long time. Even with their past, the red head was the outsider. Although he considered himself good at making friends and talking to people, he didn't quite feel confident enough to just tag on to other friend groups and hope for the best.

Midoriya's house was a fairly short walk away from their own. Him, Todoroki, Uraraka and Iida all lived in the same house, and from what Kirishima had seen through videos, it was huge. It was surprising that they didn't throw parties all the time.

There were going to be a few more people there than just that. In a later text, Midoriya had mentioned that more school friends would be showing up, as well as friends they all had besides that.

Even as they were walking up to the driveway, Kirishima wondered if all of these new people would overwhelm him, especially since he hadn't really had a proper conversation with Midoriya and the others before.

It was 4pm when they arrived, around the time that Midoriya gave the two. Bakugou hated being late to anything, even if it did happen to involve the green haired boy.

Kirishima was rather baffled as they were about to ring the doorbell. He'd seen this place in videos, but it did indeed look incredibly surreal when suddenly actually being there.

"You doing alright?" Kirishima asked moments before Bakugou pressed the doorbell button.

The blonde sighed, or more so let out a deep breath, but let out a sound of positive acknowledgment. Somehow, it calmed Kirishima's nerves also. Seeing Bakugou more relaxed made him feel better himself.

Bakugou rang the doorbell, an annoying tone playing for a second before a distinct voice was heard on the other side of the door.

"I'll get it!"

It was definitely a male voice, and a fairly deep one at that. It didn't exactly sound like Todoroki or Iida, as there were a certain distinct way he pronounced the letter t. It was similar to how Kirishima spoke.

When the door opened a second later, a boy with (mostly) yellow hair stood there, a smile coming to his face as his eyes automatically focused on the blonde.

"Hey, Bakugou! Don't think I've seen ya since high school!" He responded, seemingly a little surprised, although he was more than likely aware Bakugou was going to be there.

Bakugou didn't really have any distinguishable reaction to this person, he just began to greet him.

"Oh, du-"

Much to Bakugou's surprise, Kirishima actually intervened. Bakugou turned to look at him as he spoke, taking note of the expression on his face as well as the shock in his voice. He himself was actually shocked too, at what happened next.

"Kaminari?!" The red head exclaimed, noticing that the person hadn't quite looked at him properly yet. At the sound of his name though, he naturally scanned his eyes to the left.

His face lit up after a second, as he realised who it actually was standing there.

"Holy shit, Kirishima‽" He exclaimed. "Fancy seeing you here, bro!" He added on. "I didn't think that the Kirishima those guys had mentioned would be you!"

A confused Bakugou scanned his eyes back and forth between the two, trying to think about how in the world they knew each other, and seemingly well. Their playful greeting went on way too long for his liking, so he cleared his throat rather loudly to gather their attention.

"Um... the fuck?" He asked, almost scowling as he tried to make it look like his frustration wasn't mostly directed towards Kaminari.

Before either of them really had time to answer, he cut through them to enter the house, Kirishima following along behind.

"We were besties in middle school, and our families have always been close." Kirishima answered, huge smile on his face as he was happy to see an old friend again.

In reality, it had only been around five months since they last saw each other, but that didn't make this surprise any less pleasant.

Bakugou replied with a 'tch', grinding his teeth together afterwards. He didn't quite know why, but he really didn't fucking like seeing Kirishima's eyes so happy while looking at someone else.

"They mentioned a Kirishima would be coming with Bakugou, but I didn't think it'd be you!" Kaminari closed the door quickly, not wasting much time before throwing his arm over Kirishima's shoulder. Bakugou's eyebrow twitched.

"How the fuck did you not know?" The blonde snapped, expression turning sour as he briefly scanned his eyes over Kaminari's face, noting what had slightly changed. "You know he's Red Riot, right?" Bakugou didn't even mean to talk in a condescending manner, but it somewhat came off like that.

"Yeah, I don't know how I didn't realise, to be honest. Kinda dumb on my part." He used his other hand to ruffle his hair, cheeks tinted with embarrassment.

"Nothing's really changed then?" Kirishima laughed, somewhat expecting Kaminari's next move of removing his arm from Kirishima's shoulder and playfully punching his arm with it.

Bakugou stood and watched with his natural bitchy face just remaining the same. He didn't realise that he was clenching his fists until they started to physically hurt and he actively relaxed them.

"The others are by the pool, I'll take ya through! This place is a damn maze." The yellow haired boy commented, beginning to walk through the house.

A second after Kirishima started following, Bakugou walked up from behind him and rather abruptly swept his hand into his, the blonde's arms and back clearly tense.

Kirishima assumed it was because of the Midoriya situation, so he squeezed Bakugou's hand that little bit tighter as he accepted the sudden closeness.

The red head let out a long whistle as he looked around the place, before turning to Bakugou.

"This place is a lot bigger in person!" He exclaimed as they made their way through yet another door, leading them to a pool with a fair amount of people sat around the area.

Bakugou didn't reply properly, just barely nodded, causing Kirishima to get slightly more concerned. Why was he being so quiet?

"Hey guys!" Midoriya shouted, waving as he was the first to notice them. It drew other people's attention, who also started to greet them.

There was a mix of people Bakugou recognised, and ones he didn't. It looked like some sort of high school reunion, which he automatically despised. He only really had a couple of friends in high school, one of them happening to Kaminari ironically, so most of these people's names didn't immediately spring to mind.

"Red Riot in the flesh!" Someone unfamiliar to Kirishima approached them, with an honestly somewhat crazy expression on his face. His tone of voice was also rather condescending.

"Fuck off, copycat!" Bakugou exclaimed, grabbing the top of Kirishima's arm as he dragged him away. Before Kirishima asked, Kaminari answered as he followed along.

"Neito Monoma. He hasn't really changed, his intentions are mostly to annoy people. Almost anyone he comes across, actually. Always seemed to have a knack for getting under Bakugou's skin."

Kirishima nodded, not putting up much resistance as he was dragged. Surprisingly, close to wear Midoriya and Uraraka were hanging around. Even with their past, it seemed that subconsciously, Bakugou was generally a lot more comfortable around those lot.

"He didn't 'get under my skin', he was just fucking annoying." Bakugou retorted, taking a seat on a piece of tiled flooring as far away from the pool as possible.

Kirishima and Kaminari joined him, both sighing as they relaxed.

"Anyway, to get all the bullshit mandatory stuff out the way, how've ya been, dude?" Kaminari asked as he turned to face Kirishima more. Bakugou listened in, although it felt like he wasn't welcome too.

Kirishima took a second to reply, his eyes visibly lighting up at the chance to talk about this. It was a shame that Bakugou couldn't really see his face to see that.

"The last few months have been insane in the best way possible!" He chipperly responded, smile beaming as it even took Kaminari by surprise. He expected the usual 'everything's been okay' and for them to move on.

Bakugou smirked at the way he could tell the red head was a second away from bursting with all the good things that had happened recently. Kaminari seemed eager to listen. Too eager for Bakugou's liking, actually.

"I'm living down here now, ya know." The red head proudly added.

"You are?"

"Yep! With this one right here!" Kirishima nudged closer to Bakugou, throwing his arm over the blonde's shoulder.

Bakugou had to admit that it made him feel smug and more at ease. He'd discovered that he really fucking liked it when Kirishima wasn't shy to show even the smallest forms of affection in front of people.

"Woah, Bakugou‽ Living with someone‽ We are talking about the same person here, right?" The yellow haired boy sounded baffled, face contorting into an expression of curiosity. "How'd you convince him to let you do that?"

"What do you mean?" Kirishima's face dropped slightly, understanding why Kaminari was so surprised, but also not all at the same time. "It was originally supposed to be a week long thing while I went to my sister's wedding. But then things happened and it ended up being permanent!"

Kaminari suspiciously scanned his eyes between the two, a knowing look on his face.

"'Things happened'..." he suggestively commented, squinting his eyes.

Kirishima laughed a bit, but Bakugou's face suddenly turned a shade of crimson as he immediately began shouting.

"Get your mind out of the gutter! Ask any vulgar questions and I'll kill you!" He shouted, seemingly randomly to those around them.

To Kirishima and Kaminari though, it seemed justified. Kirishima and Bakugou both knew how Kaminari's mind worked when it came to things like this, and wanted anything but to fuel it.

"Okay, okay! Jeez!" Kaminari innocently raised his arms, though he knew why Bakugou said that.

A few seconds later, Midoriya came jogging over, happy as always.

"Hey guys! Glad you could make it." He was directing it towards Kirishima and Bakugou, as he already greeted Kaminari when he'd arrived.

"No problem, man! Thanks for inviting us!" Kirishima replied, giving a wide toothy grin. Bakugou took a second to respond, but when he did, it made Midoriya all the more chipper.

"Yeah. Thanks." The blonde almost muttered, but he said it nonetheless.

"No problem! We're gonna do some filming over there, we'll make sure to keep you out of it! Let us know if you need anything." He finished with, jogging back over to the friends that were waiting for him.

"Doesn't that idiot know not to run near a pool?" Bakugou muttered again, causing Kirishima and Kaminari both to start laughing.

This had the potential to actually be a somewhat good time.

I made a post asking about which Midoriya ship you guys wanted to see, but the responses were completely even, so it's probably better asking here. Comment on the ship you'd like to see most!!

IzuOcha (Midoriya x Uraraka)

Tododeku (Midoriya x Todoroki)