Archive of Our Own ^beta

Eijiro may be able to turn himself to rock, but that’s not going to do anything when his heart is threatening to beat out of his chest. In short, he’s nervous.

Really, it’s because of his own doing. But he simply couldn’t help himself!

It started when he and Midoriya were paired together for a partner project. It had been a blessing in disguise of schoolwork. For once, Eijiro was excited about school. Once they decided to work in Midoriya’s room, since Kaminari and the rest are always bursting into Eijiro’s (even his burning crush on Midoriya wouldn’t be enough to stop them), Eijiro just had to take it one step too far. The results wouldn’t be good for his heart.

He just had to screw himself over and recommend a sleepover. It had been a joke at first, but he had been so nervous it came out as anything but.

He groans and buries his face in his hand. Midoriya had been so accepting, yet clearly excited, about the whole thing. There had been no way for Eijiro to backtrack and admit his mistake. How could he when Midoriya was barely restraining unbridled joy? His lack of nervousness, however, had made Eijiro think that he really does just see Eijiro as a friend.

No matter how his friends rejected that idea, Eijiro doesn’t see how Midoriya could think otherwise.

Back when they were talking, Eijiro had asked if he should bring his futon to sleep on. However, Midoriya had just shrugged and went back to looking over the project syllabus, “You can just sleep on my bed,” he had said so nonchalantly. And truly, if Midoriya had liked him, wouldn’t he be more nervous than that?

Eijiro had frozen in that moment and initially refused, “What? No, I couldn’t. Where will you sleep?” he’d asked.

Midoriya hadn’t seemed to care at all; he’d just said it would be fine and they moved on like Eijiro’s heart wasn’t hammering away at a hundred beats per minute.

Now, Eijiro can’t stop thinking about Midoriya’s room. How are the two of them to fit on Midoriya’s tiny twin sized bed? His face goes as red as his hair when he thinks about the two of them squeezed into it. No way is he going to make it through the night! He’s more likely to pass out first.

Kaminari, with his impeccable timing, decides to show up at Eijiro’s room during his minor freak out. Alongside him is Mina and Sero - the latter leans on the edge of Eijiro’s door with a knowing smirk. Naturally, all of them know about his giant crush and have heard him talk about Midoriya non-stop, but Sero is the one who most likely overheard his conversation with Midoriya.

Judging by his smile, he already told the others. Not very manly at all. (But it’s not like Eijiro could have kept it from them).

Sero just shrugs and watches as Eijiro is helpless swarmed by Kaminari and Mina – both of them firing off questions about conversation. Eijiro answers them all of them to the best of his ability. He’s not sure if they’re completely satisfied by his answers but the questions eventually fade off and he stands up from his chair, “What am I gonna do? Midoriya is just too manly and strong!” he laments. How was it fair to Eijiro for Midoriya to have all that power but still be as sweet as a cookie? (Midoriya would be a snickerdoodle).

His crush had started when he and Midoriya started spending more time together during their internships - and then they kept getting paired together for hero missions. Super strength and unbreakable skin go pretty well together (to no one’s surprise).

The more time they spent together, the more it became clear to Eijiro that Midoriya is just – he’s everything a hero should be: kind, strong, strategic. In Eijiro’s quest to catch up to Midoriya’s incredible abilities, Eijiro found himself catching feelings as well.

And now they had come to bite him in the butt.

Mina steps up to him, determination in her eyes and she grabs his hands, “You’re going to stay strong, show no fear, and confess!” she demands. He’s not surprised she would recommend something like that. Mina has always been more confident than him, especially when it comes to relationships. She’s also been his number one supporter when it comes to getting with Midoriya.

While he doesn’t think it’s very manly to keep his feelings a secret, they’re still something that he’s struggling to get used to. And Midoriya seems so impossibly unused to friends that Eijiro doesn’t want to pressure him into anything untoward, so to say. That would be even more unmanly.

He wants Midoriya to be happy no matter what, even if that means sacrificing his own feelings.

“Yeah, and am I supposed to do that before or after we share a bed?” he asks, already starting to overheat. If he wasn’t himself, he might think his quirk were fire related just because of how hot he feels right now.

Kaminari chimes in, “Do it in the morning! With a kiss!” he says excitedly.

Though Mina seems to have the most experience with relationships compared to the rest of them (as she had a girlfriend in middle school), Kaminari is usually one of the most enthusiastic about his potential future relationship with Midoriya. Though, his suggestions aren’t always the most realistic and seem to be a bit more fantastical.

Either way, Kaminari has taken on the proud name of ‘wingman’ and constantly is setting up scenarios to help them get together. So far, none of them have worked anymore than when Kaminari tripped Eijiro so that he would fall onto Midoriya. It backfired in the best way possible because Midoriya ended up catching him and Eijiro got to enjoy being in Midoriya’s arms for a mere five seconds.

“I dunno, that seems kind of skeevy. What if Midoriya gets grossed out?” he asks. He’d hate to mess with Midoriya like that. Or make it seem like he only brought up the idea of a sleepover for ulterior motives.

Mina just shrugs and Sero chimes in, “I mean, we’ve all seen the bi flag pin on his backpack, I doubt that will happen. If anything, he’ll probably be more flustered than you!” Sero finally closes the door and walks in.

Eijiro gets a bit lost in thought thinking about a world where Midoriya would blush like that over him but it’s too much. Who let him be so unbearably cute? Eijiro is getting heart palpitations just thinking about him. Don’t even get him started on Midoriya’s freckles (he’s ranked them, and they’ve all tied for number one). Or how his cheeks look as soft as mochi… Eijiro would give anything to pinch one of them.

He looks up at his friends and opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, Mina holds up a very pink hand and stops him, “Before you start ranting about his blush all over again, your phone just got a message,” she informs him. His heart jumps and he looks over to his phone on his desk. Sure enough, the screen has lit up with a notification.

He reaches and grabs it a bit too hard, his quirk activating out of adrenaline. There’s a small cracking noise that accompanies the motion. But he just winces a little bit and move on. A little destruction can be easily ignored when Midoriya could have texted him.

He opens his messages and sure enough, there’s a message from his crush.

Midoriya

Hey, if you’re free already, do you want to come over now?

With a dopey grin, Eijiro sends his affirmative right away. He is seriously the luckiest guy in the world.

“I gotta go, now,” he says and grabs the bag he had already packed for the night. It was full of homework, a change of clothes, and some other stuff. It wouldn’t really matter if he’d forgotten something considering that they all live in the same building, but he doesn’t want to miss a single second spent with Midoriya.

Even though his friends are still in his room, he doesn’t make them leave. He trusts them to stay in his room without him and to not mess everything up. They’ve done it before. Anyway, he has more important things to worry about after all.

Like how to not make a fool of himself while staying with Midoriya. He rushes out the door and down the hall. It barely takes him any time at all to arrive at Midoriya’s room considering the speed he’s going at.

Before he can knock, the door is pulled out and he’s greeted with Midoriya’s smiling face. Eijiro’s heart jumps up into his throat.

Midoriya is dressed in casual clothes – jeans, a stylized All Might t-shirt, and a light-colored cardigan that’s a little bit tight around his arms. None of it really goes together but Eijiro’s never much cared for fashion. He thinks that Midoriya looks like a dream. All he wants to do is hug Midoriya for forever.

“Hey, Kirishima. Thanks for coming over. You ready to get our research on?” he asks with a nervous smile. It’s dorky in a sweet way that only Midoriya can pull off. No one else could look as cute as him when getting excited about research of all things.

“Always,” Eijiro says with no hesitation and a lop-sided grin. In most cases, this wouldn’t be true at all. He’s only ready because he’ll be doing it with Midoriya. Maybe if Midoriya were his partner for every project, his motivation would be through the roof.

He’s invited in and he first looks at the bed. As he had thought, it’s exactly the same as last time. Nothing about it has grown to fit two teens comfortably. It’s the same size as Eijiro’s and he knows from experience that they’ll have to be squeezed together to fit. His cheeks flush thinking about it.

Midoriya takes note of his lack of control over his blush, “Oh, do you need me to open the window? Is it too hot in here?” he asks, genuinely concerned about Eijiro.

Eijiro claps his hands against the sides of his face and shakes his head, “No! I’m completely fine,” he insists. Maybe if he’d had a quirk like Todoroki’s, he’d be able to get rid of his blush in a flash. Though, who knows. The stoic teen probably doesn’t ever have to worry about blushing and embarrassing himself.

Now, if only he can make it through this project in one piece. It’s easier said than done.

Somehow, Eijiro was able to get through it without becoming too distracted. And if Midoriya noticed that Eijiro would sometimes stare at his lips a bit too much, he didn’t say anything about it.

They ended up making a good team. That was probably because of Midoriya. He’d so easily been able to pull himself into the research and was able to lay out a clear plan. It didn’t leave a lot of room for getting distracted or diverging from the task. Midoriya was clearly a lot better at him than research, but he gave good tips and never judged Eijiro for not knowing something.

As the day moved on, his anxiety quickly eased away. Midoriya was surprisingly nice to be around.

He had treated Eijiro so gently. It was such a contrast to how he was in their practical training classes or when he fought. But it was that kindness that make Eijiro fall for him in the first place. Midoriya drew people in by simply seeing the best in them. There was a gravity around him that Eijiro couldn’t help but get pulled into. He felt like he was better just for being around the smaller teen.

However, sometimes, Midoriya was hard to read. Even when it was clear he wanted to, he would seem reluctant to join in on group activities. It was like he was scared to get turned away or rejected. While he liked being around everyone in class, he was only close with a few. And even then, it felt like he was holding them all at arm’s length – not letting anyone too close, worried about how they’ll see him.

He was hiding something from them all, no matter how much he trusted them. If anyone knew, it would be Bakugou, but even then they were still distant.

Eijiro had to wonder, if one day Midoriya was truly suffering, would he even tell anyone about it? He already hid his physical pains to some extent, why would he treat his psyche any different?

So what did he really think about this sleepover? Eijiro doesn’t want to be in a situation where he’s forcing Midoriya into something he doesn’t want to do but is too nice to turn down, “Are you really sure it’s okay that I sleep over?” Eijiro asks him.

“Oh,” Midoriya says, his voice catches a little bit like he’s been hurt, “You don’t want to?” he asks. His whole face has sunk in what seems like disappointment.

Eijiro is quick to fix his mistake. He waves his hands around and starts blurting out words to make sure Midoriya knows that he does actually want to go through with the sleepover, “No, that’s not it at all. I’d love to stay. I’ve actually been looking forward to this since I asked. I just felt a little bit awkward since I invited myself over,” and since Midoriya only has one bed.

Midoriya’s concentrated face quickly gives way to a smile; Eijiro can practically imagine bunny ears (like the ones from his costume) perking up above Midoriya’s head, “I was actually really happy when you said you wanted to sleep over. I haven’t had one since I was super young. Plus, you’re so cool and friends with everyone. So, yeah. Don’t feel awkward about it. I’m excited for tonight!”

“You didn’t get to have a lot of sleepovers?” Eijiro asks in confusion, completely skipping over the part where Midoriya called him cool because who wouldn’t want to spend more time with Midoriya?

Midoriya thinks about it for a second, “Well, unless you would count that one time I slept over in the hospital with Iida and Todoroki,” he pauses, “or the summer training camp!”

“Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t count those,” Eijiro cuts in quickly. His brow furrows, trying to figure out what is wrong with the rest of the world.

His furrow is lightened a bit when Midoriya laughs a bit before continuing, “Then, I haven’t had a sleepover since I was five or so?”

Eijiro is incredibly shocked by this information, but he does his best to wipe his face of any conflicting emotions lest Midoriya gets insecure about it, “Then this one will just have to make up for all you’ve missed!” he says cheerfully. His face breaks out into a big smile. It pales in comparison to the one Midoriya gives him in return. His smile alone makes every fight he’s ever won worth it, since it meant he got to be here to see it.

“So, what do you even do at a sleepover?” his crush asks, tilting his head a little bit to the side.

Eijiro gets a slightly mischievous look on his face. He’s gonna make this the best night possible for Midoriya.

Despite how he’s trying to fight it, Midoriya is clearly on the verge of falling asleep. His head keeps jerking upright every few minutes and his usually wide eyes are half lidded as he does his best to focus on the movie playing.

At this point, Eijiro is watching Midoriya more than he’s watching the movie. How could he pay attention to it when Midoriya is being this unbearably cute? He almost doesn’t want to interrupt Midoriya’s attempt at focusing, but it’d probably be best for him to actually go to bed before he falls asleep, “Hey, Midoriya, maybe we should finish this movie another time?”

That gets Midoriya to spring upright, “What, no. I’m totally fine. We should just keep watching until it’s done,” he says tiredly. Eijiro calls bullshit.

Instead of calling Midoriya out, he just laughs and says, “Well, Mido-bro, I’m actually getting a bit tired,” he tries convincing his annoyingly stubborn friend.

Midoriya tilts his head to the side as if he’s trying to weight the validity of that statement. He must really be tired because he doesn’t put up a fight or display any of his usual stubbornness, “Hmm, okay. We can go to bed and finish it later. I’ll go change into my pajamas in the restroom. You should change too. And feel free to get the bed ready,” he says.

Then he goes and leaves Eijiro by himself. Eijiro rushes to change into his comfy clothes and then awkwardly sits back onto Midoriya’s bed, not really sure where else to go. He moves the laptop they’d been watching the movie onto the side table and awaits Midoriya’s return.

Tonight had been one of the best he’d ever had. They had played some obscure All Might themed card game, spent some time reading manga (Midoriya made sure to show Eijiro all of his favorite parts while he was reading), he was allowed to look at some of the Hero Analysis notebooks he was always working on, and then they got through one and a half movies. It had been a pretty packed night and it was already pretty early in the morning. It was no wonder that Midoriya was tired.

Out of the silence comes a knock from the bathroom door and Midoriya speaks through the door, “Can I come out now?”

Eijiro chokes out a “Yeah,” and Midoriya steps out.

“Oh, did you want to sleep on top?” Is all Midoriya asks, seeming a bit taken aback.

Now, Eijiro’s confused, “What?”

“Well,” Midoriya starts explaining, “It’s a trundle. You didn’t know that?” Eijiro wordlessly shakes his head, his cheeks steadily turning red. How dumb could he be to think Midoriya would be fine with sharing his bed? “Oh, wait, did you think that-“

Eijiro hardly wants to admit it, but it wouldn’t feel right to lie about this, “Yes,” he says a bit too fast, “I mean, I wanted to.” He wants to hit his head against the wall for orchestrating all these events. Especially when he sees how Midoriya’s whole face goes blank.

Midoriya turns around and heads back into the bathroom. There are a few minutes of silence that Eijiro spends questioning everything. He probably made Midoriya so uncomfortable. The second his friend comes out he’ll have to apologize! He’s never felt so unmanly before.

He stands up from the bed and paces around a few times thinking about what he’ll say.

When Midoriya emerges from the bathroom, his face is incredibly flushed, and he can’t make eye contact with Eijiro. Eijiro is determined to fix this as fast as he can.

“I’m so sorry, Midoriya. I shouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t manly of me to make you uncomfortable. I can leave now. Don’t feel like you have to-“

“Wait, what? No! I mean, I didn’t feel uncomfortable, I just, I didn’t expect you to,” Midoriya pauses and looks down and to the left – it’s a similar face to when he’s stuck on a hard problem in class. He also looks a bit frustrated like there is something he wants to say but can’t.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to leave?” Eijiro tries to check again. He feels like he’s ruined the mood for the night. He doesn’t want to make this worse for Midoriya.

Midoriya’s face softens, “It’s really okay, Kirishima. I, well, yeah,” he says sheepishly.

Eijiro can hardly stand the awkwardness of the whole situation, but he ends up taking the lower bed of the trundle. Neither of them talks and despite how the silence weighs down on him, he somehow manages to fall asleep despite it all.

In the morning, Eijiro wakes up the same as usual: his blanket has been kicked off half-way, the sun is shining onto his face because he forgot to close the blinds, there’s a heavy warmth wrapped around him, and a slight muteness to the world around him.

The familiarity of Midoriya’s room welcomes him when he opens his eyes. He almost feels like the stiff feelings from yesterday have been wiped away. Will he ever be able to recover the friendship he’d formed with Midoriya?

Sure, Midoriya let him stay over still, but what if-

There’s a movement behind him. Eijiro slowly cranes his head backwards and the first thing he notices is a hand on his shoulder. It’s not scarred but it’s unmistakably Midoriya’s. Which means-

Eijiro’s head snaps back in place. Did he completely misread that’s night’s talk with Midoriya? Did the other teen come down here on purpose? Or is it possible that he just fell from the top of the trundle? Either way, there was nothing to stop Eijiro from enjoying this moment.

When he’d spent time imagining him and Midoriya together, it was always him with his arms around the smaller teen. This new development was certainly surprising but definitely not unwelcome. Midoriya was incredibly warm despite not having any blankets around him.

As his head sinks into the pillow, there comes a new sensation. He slowly realizes that it’s Midoriya’s breath against his neck. This is nearly too much for him.

From behind Eijiro, Midoriya hums and his hand tightens around Kirishima’s shoulder, “Are you up?” Midoriya’s voice comes out and asks. Usually, Midoriya’s voice is a bit high and pretty cheery. But right now, his voice is slightly raspy and low from being tired. Eijiro wants to listen to it every morning for the rest of his life.

He nods his head and hopes his neck hasn’t turned red to match his face, “I thought that-“

“Do you really like me?” Midoriya cuts him off, it’s a bit out of character for him (the interruption and the question) but Eijiro juts nods in response. There’s a small squeak that comes from Midoriya and then his hand is pulled back, and he turns around so that they’re back-to-back.

Using one arm to prop himself up, he turns around to see where that confident Midoriya went. He smiles when he sees that Midoriya has his face buried into his arms. But it does nothing to hide how the tips of his ears are a bright red, “C’mon Midoriya, it’s not very manly to hide,” he jibes, “But I’ll still like you, whether you hide or not,” he teases. It certainly has an effect on him because Midoriya turns over even more – practically trying to bury himself into the mattress below.

Eijiro puts a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder and pulls just a little. When there is no resistance from Midoriya, who could easily stop him, he flips Midoriya onto his back so that Eijiro has both his hands around Midoriya’s shoulders. Eijiro’s legs are still both on one side, creating an awkward stretch for Eijiro but he pays it no attention, “Midoriya, do you like me too?”

Slowly, Midoriya’s arms recede from his face and Eijiro inhales sharply at the sight. He’s blushing all over his face and it threatens to overtake his collection of freckles. But on top of that, his lips are slightly red from being bitten and his eyes are still half lidded from being tired. Even in all of Eijiro’s dreams, Midoriya had never looked so good.

Midoriya opens his mouth a little before looking away and down, “I do, I really like you Kirishima. And, that’s okay?”

Eijiro wants to kiss him, but he exhibits some restraint and goes for a hug instead. He scoops Midoriya up and buries his head into Midoriya’s curls, “How are you so cute?” he whispers, mostly to himself but it still manages to fluster Midoriya.

He makes a slightly strangled sound and melts into Kirishima’s hug. His arms come up to return the gesture and Kirishima doesn’t think he’s ever been happier.

8 Years Later

Wrestling out of his husband’s grasp is one of the hardest parts about waking up. It doesn’t help that Izuku had a late-night shift yesterday and can easily over-power Eijiro’s escape attempts. But even usually, he hardly ever lets Eijiro go to work without throwing a little bit of a fuss.

Izuku’s arms are wrapped tight around Eijiro, and it makes him think back to that first night they spent together. Izuku had been a lot shorter back then and he hadn’t held on so tight. Now, his husband hardly has any shame when it comes down to keeping Eijiro in their bed. “Don’t go to work, stay here and cuddle,” Izuku pleads in his usual morning voice. It’s hard to say no to but Eijiro is strong!

After seven years together he had to build up some kind of resistance or he would have never made it as a hero, “You know I have that mission today. Plus, maybe we’ll run into each other on patrol.”

Izuku groans, clearly not a morning person, “Maybe if we still worked at the same agency, we could patrol together,” he complains.

Eijiro snorts and turns in Izuku’s arms. He leans forward and kisses his husband first on his nose, then on his favorite freckle, and finally on the mouth. Izuku pulls him tighter but before they can get distracted, Eijiro manages to pull away, “You know why I had to leave. You and me on patrol rarely goes well, you can barely keep your hands off of me.”

Izuku looks at Eijiro like he’s said something ridiculous, “Maybe I’d be able to if your costume weren’t like that,” he moves one of his hands to Eijiro’s bicep where his wedding band surrounds his whole arm. Izuku has a similar one, but it’s covered by his sleep shirt right now.

Eijiro uses that moment of separation to straddle Izuku and pin his hands on the bed, “That’s hardly an excuse,” he leans down to give Izuku one last, chaste kiss before rolling off of the bed and standing up. His escape was a lot smoother than most mornings, but he messes up by looking back at his husband. Izuku’s big eyes are looking at Eijiro like he’s betrayed him and it’s far too powerful.

“I’m sorry, baby. How about, since I’ll be getting home earlier tonight, I cook something for us?”

Izuku immediately brightens up like he always does. Eijiro is not a good cook. Especially when compared with Katsuki or Auntie Inko, he’s practically a toddler in the kitchen, but Izuku will eat anything he makes and with gusto. Because of that, Eijiro spent a long, long time with Auntie Inko trying to learn how to make Izuku’s favorite dish. Even then, his katsudon is always flawed somehow but Izuku devours it every time. “I would love that,” Izuku says. Eijiro can almost see hearts forming in his green eyes.

His husband is ridiculous.

“Mm, then I’ll see you tonight. And you’ll finish up your paperwork and not stay too late?”

Izuku groans and pulls their blanket past his nose so only the top of his head is peeking out, “I promise I’ll do my best?” he asks.

Eijiro barks out a quick laugh, “Mhm, if you don’t, I might just watch the All Might: End of an Era documentary without you,” Eijiro teases him. He would never really watch it without Izuku, but his husband has been wanting to rewatch it with Eijiro.

Izuku gasps dramatically and sits up in bed, “You wouldn’t!” he accuses.

Eijiro pauses before giving a response and instead saunters off to the restroom to start brushing his teeth, “But are you willing to risk that?” he calls out before closing the door.

From within the restroom, he hears Izuku yell a promise that he’ll finish his work on time.

He leans against the door and smiles. When they first started dating, things hadn’t been this easy. But he’s definitely glad they didn’t let any miscommunications get in the way because he couldn’t imagine his life without Izuku by his side.