Goodbye Solitude

Chapter 1

"Yo! Bakugo!" Kirishima stomped across the corridor of the Hero Home Office, still wearing his hero costume, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear. "I heard that you stomped that bat villain today. Good job!"

Bakugo, who was already in street clothes, snorted. "Of course, shitty hair. As if I'd let such a weak villain escape me. Wings or not." Stop looking at his teeth.

Kirishima threw back his head and laughed. His pointy, white teeth gleamed under the florescent lights. "No doubt, my man, no doubt." He patted him roughly on the shoulder and Bakugo had to brace himself not to get knocked forward. When had this bastard gotten so strong? He glared up at him. Or so tall? Bakugo wasn't a short man, by any means, but sometime before their UA graduation Kirishima went through some kind of insane growth spurt. Now he towered almost a foot over him, and his biceps were bigger than Bakugo's head.

Bakugo shifted uncomfortably. "I take it that you had a pretty good day, too."

"Hell yeah, I beat a super strong villain. He folded a car in half right in front of me, too." His massive chest puffed out in pride. "We should go out for drinks tonight! To celebrate!"

"But it's Friday. Don't you have to work tomorrow?" Bakugo asked. Technically, they both had patrolling shifts. Eighty percent of their hero work involved boring patrolling, nowadays it seemed. Every hero was required to have two days off a week and you were penalized if you violated that rule. Kirishima had Sundays and Mondays off and Bakugo had Mondays and Tuesdays off. That meant that Sunday night ended up usually being their designated go-out-and-get-shitfaced night.

"You only live once!" Kirishima dismissed. "Don't worry, we'll celebrate in moderation." He grinned again, teeth bared only inches away from Bakugo's face.

Bakugo sucked in a breath and looked away. Those fucking teeth. He could feel his face growing hot. What the hell? He started walking away quickly. "Fine, your funeral then. Don't say I didn't warn you! See you at Detroit."

"The bar or the city?" teased Kirishima, as if he hadn't made the same joke a hundred times already.

Bakugo ducked into the closest bathroom and into one of the stalls. He took deep breaths to calm his thundering heart. It was always like this when he hadn't seen Kirishima in a few days. One look at that damn smile and he went all stupid. It wasn't fair that he was still like this. Other than growing bigger it's not like Kirishima had really changed that much over the years. Same dorky hair, same stupid hero costume. It was like after a while his brain blotted out the memory of how his smile made him feel, making the next time he saw Kirishima feel like the first time all over again.

It was those teeth, those weird ass teeth. Ever since he met Kirishima in UA he had trouble taking his eyes off those damn teeth. For the life of him he couldn't figure out why he found them so fascinating.

After a few minutes of meditative breathing he ventured out of the bathroom, poking his head out the door warily. The coast was clear. Kirishima had vanished, probably to take his hero costume off for the day, he guessed. There was a locker room on the first floor with public showers. Bakugo's assigned locker was mercifully on the opposite side of the locker room from Kirishima.

He took care of some paperwork and headed home. Sometimes he was tempted to start taking the train home, like most people, but he liked the independence having a car provided. Plus, trains were notoriously disgusting. Drunk people hurled in them and bums slept in them all the time. No thanks. He dug his keys out of his pants pocket and pushed the keyless entry button. The lights of his black Lexus LC flickered on and he smiled slightly. His car was, other than his apartment, the most expensive thing he owned. It was his baby, and he'd fuck up anyone who dared hurt his baby.