2am Knows All Secrets [Kiribaku]

the sight of starlight

A few pairs of eyes followed them, curious, as they entered the classroom together the next morning.

Determined to stop his shoulders from drawing up to his ears and the blush from creeping onto his face, Eijirou ignored the looks and kept chatting Bakugou's ears off about some new exercise he wanted to incorporate into his workout routine. It wasn't like anybody knew about them. Just Kaminari, maybe. Probably. The rest of their class would surely follow in Sero's footsteps, taking note of Eijirou and Bakugou's restored friendship and nothing more. They were fine.

It was still weird to think about some of their classmates noticing the ups and downs in their relationship enough to talk about it, to have opinions about it. But that was just normal high school gossip. Nothing malicious. Even so, all of this attention on them did nothing to ease his nerves.

Despite the eyes on them, Bakugou maintained an air of cool indifference. He just stared forward as they crossed the room, his ears trailing on Eijirou the only sign that he was listening. His eyes were clear and focused with none of that sleepless haze to them. The night before had been smooth sailing. They'd slept well. Really well. Eijirou tried to stomp down memories of falling asleep with Bakugou in his arms, of Bakugou's lips on his own as he kissed him awake just that morning—

Ack! Enough! The last thing he needed was to make his already out-of-control blush any worse. Someone might notice!

With a bright smile and a pat on Bakugou's shoulder, Eijirou wrapped up their conversation and headed to his desk. There were one or two curious whispers as they took their seats, and maybe they weren't even about him and Bakugou, but Eijirou ignored them all the same, instead turning to Kaminari. Kaminari, who was giving him a look. A very flat, very annoyed look — ohhh, right. Eijirou had kinda left him on read yesterday. Whoops.

As Mr. Aizawa entered the room to start the morning announcements, Eijirou gave Kaminari an apologetic wince. Kaminari would just have to deal for a while longer.

Classes and training passed without incident, and Bakugou and Eijirou fell back into their routines with nothing more than a curious raised eyebrow or two thrown their way. Even lunch was uneventful, with Kaminari's interrogation dying in his throat, killed by their oblivious friends filing into the seats around them. At least he'd read the atmosphere enough to keep quiet about the development around others.

That evening, though, it didn't take long for Eijirou to get cornered.

He shouldn't've even sat down. He should've just followed Bakugou up to their rooms for a relaxing night of textbooks and worksheets and maybe even some cuddling if Bakugou was up for it, but nooo, Eijirou just had to pick a couch to plop down on to relax after a whole evening of cardio, giving Kaminari the perfect opening to plop onto the cushion next to him.

"You didn't even answer my text," Kaminari whined. "No change of subject, no dodging the topic, no nothing! And after all of my nuggets of wisdom? Unbelievable." He shook his head.

"Sorry," said Eijirou with a grimace, "I... got busy."

"So that's what the kids are calling it these days."

Eijirou gave him a shove, and Kaminari flailed to keep upright, cackling all the way, and shoot, the group at a study table across the room was starting to look their way. From the sounds of it, they were working hard on their essay outlines for Mr. Snipe. They wouldn't want to be disturbed! And Eijirou certainly didn't want any more eyes on him just then.

Between Kaminari's wheezy giggles and Eijirou's harsh shushing, they still earned a few glances. With each one, Eijirou sank deeper and deeper into the couch cushion. When Kaminari finally settled, Eijirou let out a sigh.