His cellphone alarm jingled bright and early at 7am, as usual. Bakugo pulled open his eyes, glaring at all the shitty light that filled his bedroom. Reaching under his pillows he searched for his phone, his groping growing more frantic the longer the alarm went off without finding it. Then it dawned on him that it was still in his pocket and he dug it out. He had slept with his in his pocket the whole night. The battery was now only at 52% and he hated it. Starting the day at anything less than 100% did not sit well with him. He plugged it into the charging cord and hoped it gained a little battery life while he got ready for work.
He plopped back on his bed, trying to gauge how bad his hangover was. Did he need aspirin or could he tough it out?
"Bakugo?" Kirishima dragged himself into his room, clutching his head. "How are you doing?"
"Apparently better than you."
"That's good, I feel terrible. You have some Excedrin or something?" He squinted his eyes and looked down at Bakugo, who reluctantly sat up in bed. He paled. "What the hell happened to you?"
"What?" Bakugo tilted his head in confusion.
"Where you attacked in the middle of the night?" he demanded angrily.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"The blood, man! Blood all over!"
Bakugo stumbled out of bed and flew into the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror. Minor, obviously only surface-level, streaks of blood tracked from his forehead to cheekbones in vertical stripes. The worst part was his neck. It was a mess of dried blood.
Then it all came back to him.
He swung around to glare accusingly at Kirishima, who was watching him in the bathroom mirror. "You!"
Kirishima's face shifted from worry to bewilderment. "Me what?"
"You don't remember?" he snorted in disbelief.
"Remember what?"
"You bit me!"
His red eyes grew huge in his face. "No way!"
"Yes way! You tripped on my shoes and fell on me. Next thing I knew, you bit me!"
Kirishima leaned against the bathroom door and buried his face into his hands. "Kill me now," he murmured. "Should we go to the hospital? What if you need stitches? I'm so sorry, super sorry."
Bakugo pulled a mass of toilet paper off the roll and got it a bit wet. Chunks of wet paper fell into the sink as he blotted at the blood on his neck, inspecting the damage in the mirror. "Hmmm, no hospital. I don't think it's that bad. I think this is like a head wound, I think it just bled more than most wounds do."
Kirishima looked under the sink, the cabinet door hitting Bakugo lightly in the legs. "You got any first aid stuff under here? Oh! Here we go!" He pulled out rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, gauze, and every box of Band-Aids he owned and threw them all on the bathroom countertop.
Kirishima poured some of the alcohol on a cotton ball while Bakugo stubbornly kept trying to use the rapidly disintegrating toilet paper. "Here, let me help." The redhead pushed his hand in the way and started cleaning his neck.
Bakugo huffed in irritation but let him gently wipe off his neck. He looked away, trying to not feel self-conscious about the fact that they now stood so close to each other. The bite mark stung as the cotton ball touched his raw wound and he hissed quietly. As the blood was removed, it revealed two perfectly symmetrical, dotted, crescent marks that were impossible to play off as anything but a bite mark.
He stared at the angry red marks on his skin in fascination, and reached up to touch them.
Kirishima grabbed his hand. "Wait, what if you get germs in it? It looks pretty bad, we don't want it to get infected." He grimaced. "I can't believe I did this to you."
He sounded so dejected that Bakugo finally admitted, "Yeah, it was weird, but I think I made it worse when I was trying to push you off me. Don't beat yourself up."
A blush lit up Kirishima's face and he ducked his head in shame. "That makes it sound even worse! I'm a terrible person! How can I call myself a hero!"
"Knock it off, I told you not to beat yourself up. You said you're sorry. You were wasted. I forgive you, so case closed." Bakugo examined his first aid supplies and debated how best to cover this up. Everyone was going to see it, there was no hiding it. "I gotta take a shower and get ready for work. You should probably start thinking about heading out soon too. We both have to patrol today, remember?"
"I'll make us something to eat for breakfast and just shower at work in the locker room." There was something very domestic about Kirishima cooking for the two of them.
Bakugo showered as quickly as possible, avoiding touching the bite mark and making it more irritated. Some shampoo did slide over it though, making it sting again. When he got out of the shower, he stared at it again for several long minutes before reaching for the first aid supplies. There was no way Band-Aids could cover this up. Instead, he put gauze over it and tapped it to his skin using medical tape. It wasn't exactly subtle, but it was better than walking around looking like an angry dog's chew toy.
After finishing getting dressed, he followed the smell of food to the kitchen, where Kirishima was making omelets. He wasn't usually much of a breakfast person, usually opting for black coffee and a protein bar, but he didn't complain. Food was food, and eggs were pretty good for you. Breakfast was a quick, mostly subdued event. Neither of them talked very much. Kirishima kept glancing over at the bandages, frowning.
"That was good, thanks." Bakugo said, putting his plate in the sink, and heading for the door. "Want me to give you a ride to work?"
Kirishima hesitated. "Sure, that sounds good." He retrieved his shoes from the living room and they both left the apartment. When Bakugo unlocked his car with the keyless entry remote Kirishima's eyes lit up. "I keep forgetting that you have such an awesome car. I don't think I've ever actually been inside of it." He climbed in and oooed and awwwed over the lit-up dashboard with all the fancy electronic buttons, heated seating, satellite radio, etc.
"You're making me want to buy a car! I've been riding the train for ages now."
Bakugo smiled, enjoying showing off his car. "I can see the perks of riding the train but I love driving."
"I can't say I blame you, with a car like this!"
The longer they talked the more the oppressive awkwardness between them faded back into a comfortable comradery. If it wasn't for the medical tape tugging at his skin every time he moved his head, he would've forgotten all about Kirishima's weight on top of him and the tingle of teeth clamping on his neck. His hands tightened around the steering wheel.
Bakugo parked his car in the Home Office parking lot and he and Kirishima headed to the building's locker room, separating to go to their lockers. The locker room reeked of body odor and voices seemed to carry and bounce all over the huge room. The rows of lockers were all a pale blue, separated by wooden benches. The spray of multiple showers could be heard in the distance. Bakugo opened his locker and dug out his hero costume.
He was slipping his boots on when he heard a familiar voice say, "Whoa, Bakugo! What happened to your neck?" Denki stared down at him as he crouched down to tie his laces.
"Um, a villain?"
"Huh, I don't remember hearing about you getting hurt. Did you fill out the paperwork about it yet?" The blonde man's brow furrowed in concern.
"I will, I will," he grumbled.
"Okay, I just don't want you to get into any trouble so I was just checking."
"I get it, Pikachu. Don't worry about me." He paused. "I heard about you and Shinso. Congrats and stuff."
Denki's face went red suddenly. "Who told you? It was Kirishima, wasn't it? That asshole has a big mouth!" He scowled now.
Bakugo smirked. "Maybe."
"Well, thanks. Things are really new right now, so I'd appreciate it if you kept quiet about this for a while. Not that it's you that I have to tell that to, apparently..." He marched off, in search of a particular redhead.
As Bakugo got ready to go out on patrol it seemed like every person he bumped into asked about his injury. His simple, vague excuse of "a villain" somehow turned into a story about a villain with an invisibility quirk and a really sharp knife. Before he knew it, he caved into the pressure of his coworkers and filled out work injury paperwork that he discreetly slipped into a garbage can when no one was looking.
For the rest of the day he patrolled the area he was assigned, walking along the streets and keeping an eye out for anything odd. It was a beautiful day out, sunny and warm. His hands felt sweaty in his gauntlets and as time went by the medical tape started to slip, making him have to adjust the gauze repeatedly. When it came time for his lunch break, he found a pharmacy and bought more medical tape to fix the stupid thing. Before he replaced the tape, he caved in to the impulse to look at it again. His skin was less red and more of a pretty pink around the bitemarks.
He kind of liked it.
Shocked by this thought, he quickly slapped the gauze back on and re-taped it down. He put a way more tape than he really needed over it, and instantly regretted it. It looked even more conspicuous now but he'd have to buy more gauze at this point to fix what he'd done. Fuck it. If he dicked around anymore then this and he'd have to skip actually eating on his lunch break.
The rest of his shift was mind-numbingly dull. Pedestrians walking along the sidewalk recognized him and gave him a wide berth. His temper had been notorious ever since his UA days. Most of the time he was fine with the isolation. But sometimes...
Finally, five o'clock rolled around and he headed back to the Home Office. He changed out of his hero costume and hung it back in his locker. As he snapped the locker door shut, he got a text on his phone. It was from the Hero Commission president, requesting that he come to his office before he left for the evening.
Great. What did he do now?
He took the elevator up to the top floor, walking down the long corridor, and knocking on the president's office door.
"Come in!" the president called.
Bakugo swung the door open, his footsteps faltering when he saw Kirishima standing in front of the president's desk. The president waved him over. Bakugo stood next to Kirishima, but other than glancing at him, he pretended like he wasn't there.
"Hello Bakugo, I'm sure you're wondering why I wanted a word with you."
"You could say that," he said wryly to mask his nervousness.
"One of our janitors found this in a wastebasket and thought it was important." The president slid a paper across his desk toward Bakugo. He peered at it, paling as he recognized the work injury paperwork that he filled out earlier and threw away. "Getting a work-related injury and failing to fill out the proper paperwork is a very serious infraction. You know this. I have suspended hero permits over this." Bakugo frowned, opening his mouth to fight for his job. "I don't want to have to do that to you, though. You're one of our best heroes but because of all the complaints made about your personality I can't just ignore this. From now on, until I am satisfied that you've changed for the better, I'm assigning you a partner."
"But I work alone!" he protested, his eyes wide with panic.
"Not anymore." He nodded in Kirishima's direction. "Now Kirishima is your partner, and every day that you work, he works. So, your days off will now be the same as his. If you can't work well with Kirishima, who is one of our most popular heroes, then I will have to consider far more severe alternatives. I don't want to hear about any complaints and no rule breaking. Understand?"
Bakguo nodded numbly, swallowing the rage burning in his throat.