Red Ink

Part 9 - Sleeping Arrangements

Kirishima's walls were absolutely covered in photos.

Some were polaroids, some were news clippings, but most were picture prints from his camera roll. Images of him with various friends in a range of different locations were stacked amongst each other, not lined up or organized, but placed in distinct groupings.

The first group of photos looked to be from dorm rooms– probably UA. Those pictures were notably rowdier, starring different teenage boys pulling ridiculous stunts. There was a blonde with a black streak in his hair and a lanky, dark haired boy with odd-looking elbows in most of them. They pulled crazy faces and a majority of the pictures were quite blurry. A lot of them looked frustratingly familiar.

Another group of photos was of Kirishima, Whirlwind, and Bakugou, the three of them flipping off the selfie camera or lounging in different rooms in the agency. Newspaper clippings formed the majority of this group. News reports of their heroic exploits or Tink's successful equipment production line were printed in magazines from different eras. A more recent one was a picture of Tinkerbell showing off a diamond ring on her finger with Katsuki sticking his tongue out at the camera. An engagement announcement, most likely.

The last group of photos had pictures of Kirishima and another pink looking girl with dark eyes. They were hugging in most of them, smiling at the camera with shit-eating grins in exotic locations. Some were on the beach, some in forests, some overlooking giant cliffs, but in all of them they seemed to be having a wonderful time together. Y/N felt her stomach flip.

"She's beautiful. Girlfriend or friend?" She asked.

Kirishima saw what Red was looking at and paused. "A friend from back in the day," He said, but the playfulness had vanished. "We took a few months after highschool to travel."

Red nodded and turned to look at the rest of his room. It was more colorful than other men's rooms she'd been in, which only made her like it more. He even had a sun plushie on his shelf next to an assortment of collectible hero figurines.

Unable to resist, she made her way over to examine them. She used to collect them as a kid but had long since discarded the hobby– given her history, it didn't feel right to hold onto them. Kirishima's collection, however, was impressive.

She gasped. Unable to reach, she opted for pointing at one in particular and turning to yell at Kirishima directly. "No way... you've got the limited edition Deku figurine? How did you get this?"

Kirishima laughed. "You like action figures, huh?" He strutted over next to her and crossed his arms. "Got it from the man himself, actually."

"You're joking," Y/N breathed. "You met him? Did you guys go to school together?"

"Same class. One of my best friends, actually. We usually get drinks once a month as a gang... if he's not too busy, of course. He's got the worst work schedule of all of us," He sighed. "Here." He reached up to grab the figurine from the top shelf and handed it to her. The fact that she couldn't reach it was getting to him in the best way– he'd have to put more things up high next time she came over.

Y/N took it with a nervous kind of awe and turned it to fully examine it. The realization of just how many connections Kirishima had was beginning to set in. This guy was among the top– even if he wasn't ranked, everybody he knew was.

The absolute hell that would unleash if he knew about—

"You want it?"

Her eyes darted to his, trying to see if he was joking. He didn't look like he was. "The figurine?"

"Yeah."

She barked out a nervous laugh. "Ha! No, no no no. This thing is worth thousands. Besides, I don't really collect anymore." A bit too quickly, she shoved it back in his hands and then linked her fingers behind her back with an awkward cough. "Um, thank you though. That was very generous."