Archive of Our Own

Eijirou sits up at the bar tonight instead of at their usual table and listens to the chatter of conversations around him.

They come here every Friday night. It’s been a tradition for the last five years, but tonight it was canceled, which is totally fine with him, but he didn’t really have anywhere else to go, and it kind of didn’t occur to him that he could just stay home until he got here, and at that point it was kind of too late to turn around and leave without looking strange.

But it turned out to be okay. Eijirou found an unoccupied stool next to an old man with a sudoku book, and the bartender is nice and talks to him when she’s not busy with customers. She has two kids, and one won a science award last week. The other plays baseball.

He enjoys himself, and even though he would like it more if the others were here, this isn’t a bad way to spend an evening, and he’s not really by himself.

Someone climbs up onto the stool beside him, and he looks to see if they seem like they’ll be friendly too, but he’s immediately surprised to see a familiar sloped nose, a razor sharp jaw, and a scar that couldn’t belong to anyone else, the rest of his biggest giveaways cleverly disguised beneath a dark beanie.

Eijirou’s face lights up at once.

“Hey!”

Shouto gives him a small smile in return. “Hello.”

“What are you doing here?”

“We always meet here on Fridays,” he says.

“Yeah, but Katsuki and Izuku had to pull out.”

“I know that,” he says. “Then why are you here if it’s surprising that I am?”

Eijirou pauses, and Shouto blinks back at him without any hint of a challenge on his face. He can’t help but laugh. Alright, he’s got a point. “Nothing better to do, I guess.”

Shouto nods once in agreement.

“It’s good to see you, though,” he adds. “Patrol go okay?”

“Yes, there were no incidents,” Shouto says.

“Good,” he says. “That’s great.”

“I wish there were, though,” he says. “It was boring.”

Eijirou laughs, delighted, and the bartender approaches them, now seeing the new arrival.

“What can I get for you,” she asks.

Shouto doesn’t think twice before saying, “whatever he’s having is fine.”

“Sounds good,” she says and moves back to the refrigerator behind the bar. She takes one of the bottles off the shelf, pops the cap, and slides it back to him.

“Add it to mine, please,” Eijirou says, and she raises her eyebrows before nodding and making a note on his tab.

“I can pay for my own drinks,” he says.

“I know that,” he says and doesn’t explain himself further. Shouto doesn’t really push the subject. “Didn’t think you were a beer guy.”

“I don’t like the taste of alcohol enough to know what to order,” he says. “I usually get what Izuku gets, and I can’t remember what those drinks are called.”

“It’s not too late to ask for recs,” he says.

Shouto puts his hand around the bottle, a gentle refusal. “This will be fine. It will seem like we’re here together intentionally.”

“Aren’t we?”

“I am, but you didn’t expect me to come,” he says, and Eijirou can’t argue with that. He brings his bottle to his lips and takes his first swig with Eijirou watching carefully before he makes an odd expression between displeasure and confusion. It brings back memories of Katsuki hacking out a why do you always get shit that tastes like piss, Shitty Hair, and Eijirou winces.

“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t like it,” he says, reaching out to take the bottle from him. “Here, I’ll drink it, and we’ll ask for something better.”

Shouto pulls his beer away out of reach and shakes his head. “I will drink it, it’s mine.”

“Bro.”

“I don’t know why I expected it to taste like soda, but it’s nice that it doesn’t burn my throat going down,” he says.

“Oh yeah, it’s not sweet,” Eijirou says, relaxing. He doesn’t hate it, he just expected something different. “It’s better with food though. Something greasy like karaage or tonkatsu or, like, grilled meat.”

Shouto nods, accepting this new information like it’s important. “I see. I suppose we should’ve met at a restaurant instead for the full experience.”

“Yeah, that would’ve been better,” he agrees. “Hey, the next time they bail, you wanna go somewhere else?”

“To a place with food to drink with?”

“Yeah,” he says.

“If we have plans to go to a restaurant, I think we should invite the others to go with us rather than plan to go alone without them.”

He has a point, but Eijirou feels his stomach twist a little anyway. He manages a lighthearted laugh. “Oh yeah, probably.”

“But if they cancel again, we can go without them,” Shouto says, and Eijirou relaxes, satisfied with that.

“Yeah, totally,” he says. “We’ll all go, and if they cancel, it’ll just be you and me.”

Shouto nods and raises his bottle again to drink from it, and this time Eijirou doesn’t stop him and Shouto’s face doesn’t sour. He exhales in relief. It seems his taste isn’t that bad after all. Take that, Katsuki.

“You boys want a puzzle?” 

Eijirou turns towards the old man sitting at his other side and sees him holding up two ripped out pages of his sudoku book, his cheeks flushed and merry from his now empty glass next to him, and Eijirou smiles cheerfully.

“Sure! Thank you!”

He gives him the pages before climbing off and muttering something under his breath, and Eijirou sets them between he and Shouto, avoiding a small puddle of condensation that would make it all gross.

“Do you know how to play?” Shouto asks.

“Not really,” he says.

“I can show you,” he says. “Every row and column must have the numbers one through nine in them, and so must every smaller section, and they can’t overlap.”

“Oh, that sounds complicated,” he says.

“It’s not once you get the hang of it,” Shouto says. He pulls a pen out of his pocket and writes the number two down in one of the squares. “See.”

“How do you know it goes there?”

“There are already eight other two’s marked on the page, and there are no other places in the grid that wouldn’t intersect,” he says. “It’s a free number given to get you started. This puzzle is for beginners.”

The old man huffs, mildly offended, but he doesn’t say anything else before staggering away. Eijirou’s cheeks burn hot in embarrassment, but Shouto doesn’t seem to have heard him.

“Would you like to try?”

“What if I get it wrong?”

“An ancient spirit of sudoku will come and punish us,” he says calmly. Eijirou looks at him, surprised, before bursting out with a laugh. He gives him a fake punch to the arm, and Shouto smiles to himself before writing another number down and handing him the pen. “You can do it. It’s not difficult.”

Another round of beer and several mistake-covering scribbles later, they finish the first puzzle, and Eijirou feels like he just got a good grade on an exam. This must be how it felt for all the nerds in their class. He’s gotta admit, it’s kind of addictive.

“Can we do the other one?”

“You can start this one,” Shouto says, passing the other page towards him, and Eijirou bites his lip nervously. “It’s alright, you can do it.”

“Because it’s for beginners?”

“Yes,” he says, and Eijirou laughs. 

He laughs more than he has all week.

“Mean,” he teases and takes the pen before giving it his best shot. Shouto leans towards him so he can see better, and Eijirou is only a little nervous when he writes down a four. “Is that right?”

“I think so,” Shouto stays, studying the page for a moment. He points at the square above it. “I think this is a one.”

Eijirou writes that down. “And this should be a seven, right?”

“Yes, that seems right,” he says, and Eijirou’s smile widens. He’s getting it. He’s really getting it.

Unfortunately that means that they finish the second puzzle much faster than the first, and they run out of sudoku pages. Maybe he should’ve asked the old man to leave the whole book, but that might’ve been rude.

Shouto looks at him for a moment before taking a swig of his beer. He seems used to it now, and Eijirou wonders idly if it means he’ll order it himself next time or if he’ll stick to Izuku’s lemon drops and cosmos. He might’ve made a bet about it if there was anyone else in on this.

“I didn’t realize how much time has passed,” he says. 

Eijirou looks up at the clock behind the bar and sees that it’s been an hour since he sat down and winces, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve been in anyone’s way—that he’s aware of. “Did you have to go?”

“No, I’m just surprised,” he says. “It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy.”

Shouto hums and takes another drink. “You came alone tonight.”

“Yeah.”

“I apologize if you were planning on finding someone to take home,” he says. “I think I may have prevented that.”

Eijirou laughs. “Nah, I come here for you guys. Wasn’t even on my mind.”

“Not tonight,” Shouto reminds him. Eijirou holds up his bottle in acknowledgment and takes a drink. “Because you didn’t want to stay home.”

“You didn’t really say why you came out,” he says, not mentioning that Shouto likes being at home. Like, he’s got the best couch in the world, an entertainment system to die for, and a personal convenience store of a kitchen. Eijirou is pretty sure he only comes out ever because Izuku invites him. Well, except for tonight, obviously, but Shouto doesn’t answer, and Eijirou doesn’t make him. “Hey, you wanna get out of here?”

Shouto looks at him, his eyebrows raised, and Eijirou feels his cheeks grow a little warmer.

“I mean to get some fresh air or something,” he clarifies.

“Fresh air,” Shouto says.

“Yeah, like, go for a walk, maybe,” he says. “See what’s going on outside.”

“I do not know if I would consider the air outside very fresh,” he says.

Eijirou deflates. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Shouto finishes his beer quickly and climbs off of his stool, taking care to make sure his beanie is still secured.

“Where you going?” Eijirou asks.

“You wanted to go for a walk, didn’t you?”

Eijirou’s whole world lights up. “Yeah, let’s go.”

He pays for their drinks quickly and follows Shouto out of the bar out into the cool air of the night, his heart beating just a little bit faster.

They haven’t been alone much since they were in school, but there hasn’t really been a reason for them to be.

Shouto looks at Eijirou expectantly, and Eijirou’s face drops. They haven’t been alone in years, and now they are, and Eijirou asked him to go on a walk with him without coming up with a destination first.

“I think there are some shops this way,” Shouto says, pointing across the street, and Eijirou smiles in relief.

“Let’s go check ‘em out.”

He and Shouto cross the street together, and then Shouto takes a step to the other side of him, suddenly enough to get Eijirou’s attention. He looks at him curiously.

“You should stay on this side of me,” he says. “It’ll be warmer.”

“Oh,” he says with a smile. “Thanks, bro.”

Shouto smiles back at him, pleased.

They don’t actually go inside any of the stores, but they do stop at the windows and point out all the interesting things inside. They see strange zebra print cowboy hats at the first shop, and then at the second they see shirts with flashing bulbs attached to the fronts, and then a little while later they see a flower shop that isn’t open this late, but Eijirou makes a note to come back to it if he can ever find a reason to.

“Are you cold?” Shouto asks.

“Nah, I’m fine,” he says, and Shouto nods.

“If the temperature becomes uncomfortable, you can walk closer,” he says. “I won’t mind.”

Eijirou smiles at that. “Thanks, man.”

He doesn’t mention that he doesn’t really get cold easily, not with a hardening quirk he can activate beneath his clothes and ignoring the whole shirtless costume thing, but it was nice of him to offer, he thinks. Like really nice of him. What a cool dude.

“There’s a crepe cart,” Shouto says, immediately moving towards it, and Eijirou steps a little faster to catch up with him

“You hungry?”

“A little bit,” he says.

“Cool, me too,” he says.

It’s a good excuse to keep walking for a while, and they get around the entire block before either of them finish eating.

They talk some more, catch up on each other’s patrol stories, and talk about their friends in a way that would make both Katsuki and Izuku scream.

He’s having a blast, and it shouldn’t be a surprise because he always enjoys himself when he’s with Shouto. He’s an amazing guy.

He’s funny, smart, thoughtful, gorgeous, manly, badass, and just weird enough that he always keeps Eijirou on his toes.

He’s really happy he came out tonight.

He might even say he’s… lucky.

Huh.

Eijirou stops and sees a walk-in full of gashapon machines with various toys and prizes, but what catches his eye is a particular machine with bright yellow and white lights that says Lucky at the top.

He’s heard of these before. You stick in a coin, and a little ball with a fortune falls out. It usually tells you to do or say something for good luck, and so he occasionally sees people post their “dares” on social media along with a picture of their fortunes for fun. He’s never tried it before, but tonight he feels compelled.

“Hey, check this out,” he says, and he leads Shouto towards the machines. 

Shouto’s eyes dart towards one filled with collectible stuffed cats, and Eijirou’s metaphorical tires screech as he stops himself right in front of that one instead. 

What? He’s not a jerk.

He digs out his wallet and hands Shouto a coin with a playful quirk of his eyebrow, and Shouto looks at it for a moment before accepting it. “Wanna try?”

“It seems like it would be a waste of money,” he says.

“Nah, we’re not gonna go crazy,” Eijirou says. “Go for it. See what you get.”

Shouto puts the coin into the machine, and he moves a lever until a baseball sized ball falls out. He picks it up out of the return, and he pops it open, revealing a little red stuffed friend wrapped in plastic.

It’s too difficult to open here, but since there’s only one red cat on the board, it’s not hard to guess which one it could be.

It’s a bright red cat with dragon wings and horns, and Shouto smiles at it, content.

“Wanna try again for something else?”

“No, this is the one I wanted,” Shouto says.

“Oh, for real?”

“Yes, I like this one the best,” he says. “Did you want to try a machine?”

Well, now he feels kind of silly. “Nah, I mean, I was thinking about getting one of those fortunes, but that’s probably stupid.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid,” he says. “What would you want it to say?”

Eijirou laughs. “Anything that could bring me some good luck. Lottery numbers would be preferred, or maybe a map to some super cool buried treasure or something.”

“Then you will have to try just in case,” he says, and this time Shouto gives him a coin to use, which Eijirou accepts a little sheepishly.

He puts it in, and a small plastic ball falls out.

He holds it in his hands for a moment before looking up at Shouto, not yet opening it. “You should get one too.”

Shouto’s eyebrows raise. “I should?”

“Yeah, if it’s just me who gets lucky– I mean, if I’m the only one who gets a good fortune, that wouldn’t be cool, you know? I don’t wanna be selfish and hoard all the luck for myself.”

Shouto nods like he agrees with the logic, and Eijirou puts in another coin for another fortune. When it falls out, he hands it to Shouto.

“Should we open them now or wait until later,” Shouto asks.

“I guess now? I don’t know, do you wanna keep yours a secret?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he says.

“Okey dokey,” Eijirou says and cracks his ball open. He picks out the tiny rolled up strip of paper and peels it apart so he can read what it says.

“What does yours say?”

“‘Do something bold you’ve never done before and receive three weeks of good luck’,” he says and looks up at him. “What should I do?”

“I would advise against anything illegal,” he says. “I am not good at lying under pressure.”

Eijirou laughs. “Good point. No streaking.”

“It’s very interesting that your mind went to running around naked,” Shouto says.

“I wouldn’t do anything that could fuck with anyone’s day,” he says. “Although, I guess seeing a random naked dude’s butt would kinda suck.”

“The only person on the street is me, so if you decide to streak, no one would be inconvenienced,” he says, and Eijirou laughs even harder.

“Thanks, you’re a good friend,” he says, and Shouto smiles slightly. “God, what could I do? I couldn’t jump off the roof, and I don’t think being crazy on Twitter would do my career any favors. I could eat something spicy, but Katsuki has me doing that all the time anyway. I don’t know. Maybe this isn’t a good one for me.”

“Not necessarily,” he says. “Is there something I could help with?”

And then for just a second Eijirou gets the worst idea he’s ever had, and it must flash over his face because Shouto’s eyebrows raise.

“You had an idea,” he says.

“No, I didn’t,” Eijirou says.

“Yes, you did, I saw it, you thought of something.”

“No, I didn’t,” he says. “I mean yeah, I did, but it’s not, like, an idea. It’s not something I could ever do or, like, get away with, and I said I didn’t wanna do anything that could ruin someone's day, so it’s a bad idea, and we should just forget about it. Really.”

“Would it hurt?” Shouto asks. Eijirou shakes his head. Not unless he did it wrong. “Would it cause me a great deal of public humiliation?”

“I didn’t think you got embarrassed,” he says. “But no, absolutely not. I would never do anything bad to you, ever, but it might not be good, and I don’t wanna do that either.”

“I don’t care,” he says. “I want you to get your good luck. It will be nice since you bought my drinks tonight.”

“Three shitty beers,” he says, but he takes a step forward anyway. “That’s nothing to write home about.”

Shouto doesn’t step back, even as he keeps moving, slowly and cautiously. “They weren’t shitty. I liked them more than gin.”

Eijirou moves closer until they’re almost chest to chest.

“Yeah, gin’s kinda gross,” he says, his voice lowered from the proximity, and still Shouto doesn’t move.

He’s right there.

Eyes heavy, mouth just slightly parted, and his fingers trailing down Eijirou’s arm.

He’s right there.

“It’s disgusting,” Shouto says. His breath is warm against his mouth, and Eijirou does something bold that he’s never done before.

He kisses Todoroki Shouto, his best friend’s husband’s best friend and the Number Nine Hero, the coolest and most manliest guy he knows and one everyone in the whole world would kill to get a piece of.

“Do you feel luckier?” Shouto asks.

“Yeah,” he breathes, and Shouto kisses him back, pressing his lips to his with his head tilted just enough for room, and Eijirou feels his breath seize in his lungs.

It’s not like any kiss he’s ever had before. Sure, Shouto has that whole hot and cold thing going on, but Eijirou has kissed a few people whose quirks affected their mouths before, and it’s… different.

It’s electric, and intense, and it feels better than kissing ever has before, like he could do it all day and night and never want to stop. It’s like a burst of caffeine in his veins and the feeling of falling into his bed after a long day all at the same time, and then boom. Shouto’s quirk hits.

Shouto pulls back as flames flicker out like a second tongue, and Eijirou chases it in awe, his face hardening where it needs to so he can feel it.

And then he chokes on steam a little and pulls away so he doesn’t cough in his face, and he laughs at himself because what a problem to have.

But Shouto isn’t amused at all.

Eijirou’s face drops with a final cough.

“I’m sorry,” Shouto says, and Eijirou’s eyes widen.

“Bro, what are you sorry for? I was the one who just tried to suck your face off out of the blue.”

“Well, I think you should be more considerate of your own abilities, but no, that isn’t the case when I was very much encouraging you to do that.”

Eijirou pauses, stunned. “You were.”

“Yes, quite pointedly, I thought,” he says. “But I let my quirk get out of control, and I’m sorry.”

“Noooo,” he says, moving back to him. “Bro, you are totally fine. Your quirks are so badass, but I’m a loser who can’t kiss you without–.”

Shouto frowns. “Without… what?”

“Gasping like a princess hanging out of a tower,” he says.

“I don’t understand the reference.”

“I don’t think it is one,” he says.

“Oh.”

“I just got excited and breathed wrong, and that’s on me,” he says.

“You breathed wrong,” Shouto says, looking over him.

“Yeah, you know when something feels really good, and you–,” he says and thankfully cuts himself off before he says something insane.

“I think I understand,” he says.

“Cool,” he says. “Awesome.”

“Would it be bad for your health to continue?”

“Nah,” he says, moving back to his lips like he can’t physically hold himself back anymore. He almost stupidly said yeah, so bad because of the whole heart exploding feeling he immediately subjected himself to, but he decided to not give Shouto his own heart attack if he takes him seriously.

No, no bad jokes. Just kissing Shouto.

Just.

Kissing.

Shouto.

“Fuck,” he breathes, properly taking in what he’s done and what he’s doing, and Shouto moves closer, if that’s even possible. Their feet have to cross to keep themselves up, but he says a huge thank you to the universe for that late bloomer growth spurt that just saved him the experience of doing this on his tippy toes.

His mouth parts into a smile, but thankfully he doesn’t laugh.

“So what did yours say?”

“‘Go home with the person you last kissed’,” Shouto says against his mouth.

“It does not.”

“Yes, it does,” he says.

“Let me see it.”

“No, you’ll have to trust me,” he says. “I helped you with your fortune. Now I think you’re supposed to help me with mine.”

Eijirou smiles at him, thoroughly amused. “You’re kinda smooth, ‘Roki.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah, I’m impressed,” he says.

“Thank you,” Shouto says.

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you want to keep walking?”

“No,” Eijirou says.

“Neither do I,” he says.

“We could call a cab?”

“I prefer agency cars,” he says. “Unless we’re not sharing one.”

“To be sneaky?”

Shouto nods, and Eijirou grins.

“Alright,” he says. “Let’s get out of here.”