Sparks

A Contract is Formed

Denki drummed his fingers against the surface of his kitchen table. Bakugo had sent him a text saying that he was coming over. An hour ago. Just as Denki was about to reach for his phone, he heard his front door open. He rolled his eyes, annoyed by Bakugo's overconfident ease regarding his apartment. He got up and met Bakugo at the threshold, finding a few bags of groceries and one stamped with a take out logo perched on the step,a thin black folder leaning against them. "I was starting to wonder if you'd changed your mind."

Bakugo finished with his shoes, stepping up into the hallway and pulling Denki into a hug. Denki hummed as Bakugo's lips pressed against his neck for a moment before Bakugo released him to retrieve the bags. "Stopped to get some stuff. Shoulda told you I'd be a while."

"It's okay..." Denki trailed after him into the kitchen, "You don't have to keep buying food for me, y'know. I can feed myself."

Bakugo gave him a strange look as he set the bags on the table and started putting things away. "Can you?"

Denki's brain short circuited. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Bakugo didn't answer and put a few vegetables and a carton of eggs inside the fridge before reaching for the remaining dry goods to put in the pantry. Denki pulled them away, holding them ransom. "What did you mean just now?"

Bakugo sighed. "You barely ever have any real food-

Denki's ears rang, memories playing in slow motion. The kitchen of his first apartment strewn with torn open packages, dishes pulled from the cabinets and smashed. 'Never any real food, can't even cook-'

"You won't eat unless I tell you to-" Bakugo was still talking, but his voice was muffled by the ringing in Denki's ears. 'You don't eat unless I say so, bitch!'

Denki flinched back from a hit that wasn't coming, and disguised it by stacking things in his pantry. He mentally shoved the memories back into the drawer they'd burst out of and slammed it shut. "What are you talking about?"

He winced, he hadn't meant to snap. Bakugo sighed and Denki turned back to him. Bakugo's eyes fixed on his. "Do you have an eating disorder Denki?"

Denki froze. "Do I- what?"

"Don't make me ask again."

It might've been meant as a threat, save for the slightest quiver in the tone of Bakugo's voice. Denki inhaled. "I don't."

Bakugo looked exasperated, but Denki kept talking. "I don't. I promise. I can't cook, you know that, so why would I buy a bunch of stuff I can't use? And... and-"

He grasped at straws, trying to scrape together some kind of believable excuse for the rest. "My last dom... liked to eat together, so it just became a weird habit, that's all. I didn't even realize I'd been doing it until just now."

Bakugo"s eyes narrowed as if he didn't quite believe him, but let it go and started setting boxes of food on the table. Denki sighed, retrieving two sets of chopsticks from a drawer. "Have you... been thinking that this whole time?"

Bakugo shrugged. "Just thought it was weird."

~

Bakugo cleared off the table gesturing for Denki to stay put as he retrieved the folder he'd brought with him, forgotten on the step. He rejoined Denki, dropping it and a pen from Denki's junk drawer on the table between them. "If we're gonna be serious, I think we need to establish some rules."

Denki stared at the folder. "Is that a contract?"

"Sorta. More like a list of rules and punishments." He smirked as Denki groaned and dropped his head to the table, muttering something about 'goddamn negotiations'. Bakugo elected to ignore him, flipping the folder open to read what he'd already come up with. "Rules for Denki: