Author's Note:
Hello! This is the promised Kirishima birthday fic I've been looking forward to since fOrEvEr (and it's also taken me forever to write, goodness).
I'll pretend like it isn't wildly obvious that I wrote this during wildly different moods and levels of sleep deprivation.
Huge thank you to my IRL friend for helping me get this fic out on time! The ending was her idea!
Not much to say other than Happy birthday, Kirishima! He's undeniably my personal best boi and I love him with all my heart <3
Anyways, I hope you enjoy!
-Sugar
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Eijirou knew he was in for quite a night when he awoke to your dark form hanging over him. Your hands gripped his shoulders from your stance at the side of his bed, and it took him a moment to even register that it was, in fact, you.
"(Y/N)? What time is it?" He yawned and rolled to his side, tugging his camo-print blanket over his shoulder. "Do you need cuddles again?" His voice made it evidently clear how deep a sleep he'd just come out of.
"Nah. It's like—two AM? I don't know, I was just thinking to myself and stuff and then it hit me that today is a very important day."
". . . It's nighttime."
You rolled your eyes in the dark. "Yeah, buuuut, it's also your birthday! Yay!"
Kirishima ran a hand over his face, wondering if/when he would be able to go back to sleep. "Yep. It's my birthday."
You ignored the less-than-enthused tone in his voice. "I better have been the first person to wish you a happy birthday. You know, on your birthday. You didn't get any phone calls yet or anything?"
"Nope. You're the first."
"Yeah!" You pumped your fist in the air.
"Is that what you wanted?" he asked. "Because I've got a pretty good idea of what I would like as my first present." Eijirou shuffled over a bit to make more room for you, lifting the blanket next to him. "Snuggles with my pebble."
You paused at his proposition, looking into the shadowy abyss that was Kirishima's bed. There was a part of you that wanted to curl up in his warm arms, falling together with him into the realm that is sleep. You could already feel the kisses he'd leave on your cheeks, whispering broken 'good night's and 'I love you's as you drifted off. But no, you had something a little different in mind.
"Actuallyyy," you said, drawing out the word. "I was wondering if you wanted to go on a little date."
Kirishima furrowed his eyebrows together in the dark. "Like . . . right now?"
"Yeah."
". . . where?"
"I was thinking Denny's. You know how it's got that certain vibe right about now? It'll be like we're stepping into a whole other world."
Kirishima looked at your shadowy face. It was clear that you were almost as tired and sleep deprived as him, and your brain probably wasn't all there. A part of him could recognize that he wasn't exactly being himself either due to his cut-off sleep. He wasn't as peppy as usual (though, to be honest, who is at this hour of the morning?). However, Kirishima had to admit that he was intrigued by the idea. You had both discussed this concept once a few weeks ago while you were scheming date ideas. He'd thought it sounded fun at the time, but he certainly hadn't expected it tonight.
"If you really don't want to, we don't have to," you said, growing a little anxious at his lack of response. "I just thought it could be something different that we could do together."
Eijirou sighed quietly to himself, considering. It was Friday night—no, Saturday morning—so it wasn't as though you had classes in a few hours. He peeled the blanket off himself and sat up, rubbing at the back of his head. "Why not? Let's go."
"Yayyyyy!" you lowered your voice to a stage whisper, watching as he got up and fumbled around for his crocs and a pair of pants.
It was then that he looked to you. "Were you wanting to get dressed first?"
He'd noticed your choice to keep on your pajama pants, baggy and sweeping just at your ankles. These were your favorites—sinfully fuzzy and comfortable and absolutely adorable.
"This is my fashion statement," you said, all serious.
Eijirou shrugged. "Cool."
He opened his door for you, exaggerating a bow as he let you through. You feigned importance, nodding and curtseying at his gesture. The two of you giggled as Kirishima quietly shut the door behind himself.
"We have to be really quiet," you whispered, taking out your phone and turning on the flashlight. You padded down the hall with Kirishima in tow, making your way to the stairs. It wasn't long before you were at the door on the ground level, finding your own shoes while Eijirou slid on his crocs. You double checked that you had your bag containing your wallet around your shoulder before sidling up to Kirishima and intertwining his hand with yours.
"Isn't this exciting?" you asked, grinning at him.
"Yeah, this is crazy."
You giggled and opened the door, grateful that there wasn't an alarm system.
The night air hit your skin deliciously, flooding your lungs as you inhaled. A chill October breeze ruffled your hair, and a light spattering of gooseflesh arose on your arms. You started down the sidewalk leading away from the Heights Alliance building, taking a moment to look up above you. Stars spattered the canvas of the night sky, and you found yourself enraptured by their profound beauty. Eijirou followed your gaze, looking from the diamond-studded tapestry of the atmosphere to its reflection in your soft, wide eyes.
"I can never get over how beautiful the world we live in is."
Shit, why did you have to be so cute? Eijirou watched you gaze up at the sky for a few moments longer before you reached for his hand.
"Sorry," you whispered. "I just love being out at night."
Kirishima grinned. "Me too."
You walked in the dark, hand in hand as you navigated to the local Denny's. You'd been there before, but never as late as this. You'd especially never gone out alone with someone like Eijirou at such an hour. It was . . . beyond thrilling; wandering the chilled empty streets with none other than your beloved. It was as if you were the only two in existence—lost in a dream—and a part of you liked it that way.
Both you and Kirishima passed under a street lamp. You took the opportunity to get a good look at him in the yellow glow. His red hair was undone and framed his face in familiar spikes. The sight made you giddy, and you couldn't help but reach up to touch him.
"Your hair looks so cute when it's down like this. So soft." You began to attempt to run your fingers through it when they found a slightly more tousled patch. "Ope, you've still got some bed-head there. My bedhead redhead. Heheheh."
Kirishima snorted at your choice of words, letting you finger comb out the little tangle on the back of his scalp. "Um, thanks."
One block later, you caught sight of a familiar yellow sign. You happily patted Kirishima's arm. "We're almost there!"
Now that he was up and moving around, Eijirou felt a little more awake. You had been right; he did almost feel as though he were in another world, being out so late. The streets were almost completely void of activity on this side of town, and street lamps lit warm pools of light onto the pavement to break up the darkness.
Eijirou walked you to the front entrance, pulling open the glass door for you to go in. You stood with him in the waiting area, and he let you lean against his arm while you watched for someone to come over and seat you.
Sure enough, a young man a few years your senior came around the counter. He looked from you to the screen of the device before him. "Just the two of you tonight?"
"Yeah," Kirishima said.
Your waiter grabbed two menus and led you to a table in the back by a window. The only other person in there with you was an older man sitting at the other end of the restaurant. He looked just as half-asleep as the two of you were as he sipped at a mug of coffee.
Kirishima slid into the booth first, and you decided to sit down right next to him. He tenderly wrapped a warm arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer to his side. "So what were you thinking about getting?" he asked as the waiter walked off.
"It's your birthday. You pick."
"Oh, right." Kirishima picked up one of the menus, thumbing through the laminated pages. "Do you want to split a milkshake? I'm not super hungry."
"Ooh, that sounds good. What flavor should we get? Whatever you want."
"Hmm." The redhead next to you scanned over the kinds of ice cream listed. "How about . . . vanilla strawberry swirl?"
"Yummy." You settled in closer beside him, letting his warmth envelop you. A wave of tiredness decided to settle onto your eyelids, and you fought to keep them from closing all the way. You had to admit to yourself that you were tired, but this was still something you'd wanted to do with your boyfriend for some time. You'd stay here chatting and enjoying yourselves, and then you'd go back to his room and cuddle until you fell asleep. That sounded so nice . . . .
The waiter came up to your table again, and it was only now that you realized that you were practically shoved up into Eijirou's armpit. The sleepy haze that clouded your mind made you feel a little more lenient about your display of affection, but even so, you moved to straighten yourself.
"What'll you have to drink?" he asked, taking out a small pad of paper.
"I don't think we'll need anything." Kirishima looked to you to confirm. "We're ready to order." He placed his milkshake request and watched as the other man made his way back to the kitchen. "So." Eijirou wrapped his arm around you again, pulling you back to your previous position. "Denny's at an ungodly hour of the morning. Thoughts?"
"This is kind of a vibe," you said, looking at all the empty tables bathed in fluorescent light. "It's even weirder because I'm tired. Otherwise it would just be an empty restaurant."
"It's pretty neat," Eijirou agreed, taking a look out the dark windows. It was nearly impossible to see out of them due to the bright light within the building.
"So how does it feel to be a whole year older?" you asked, adjusting yourself so you could look at his face.
"Um, the same, kinda? I don't think I've changed all that much this past year."
"Look at us," you said. "Closer to being adults, to going pro and being heroes . . . . I'm kind of scared."
"Scared? But isn't it exciting too?"
"Of course, yeah." You began to fiddle with one of the paper placemats, studying the color-printed image on it. It depicted one of the meals on the menu, and you let your eyes trace over every detail of it. "I guess the concept of being all grown up and independent is starting to hit me. There's so much I don't know yet."
The redhead nodded at your musings. "We can be there for each other, you know. You shouldn't ever have to feel like you're on your own in everything."
You hummed, examining the shading on a portion of rice depicted on the paper mat in front of you. "Are you thinking that we'd . . . still be together then? After we graduate?"
Kirishima flushed at your question. "I mean—I'd like to. It's all a matter of time, but . . . ." He trailed off, unwilling to be so vulnerable yet to voice his visions.
"I'd love that too," you said, hoping you hadn't come across as implying that you wanted your relationship to be cut short after high school. "What's your dream? A smaller one that's beside the pro-hero one. What do you want our future to look like?"
Eijirou shrugged, tracing his fingertips down your arm. "I don't know."
"Oh, come on, of course you do," you teased. "It's alright. Just tell me about the thoughts that make you the happiest. I don't care how realistic they might be. Let's just say we could do anything."
Emboldened by your words, your boyfriend took a quick breath. "Maybe we could move in together some time. Be heroes by day and then come home and see each other. I'd like to wake up with you in my arms . . . every day." His cheeks had flushed a bit at voicing his fantasy, avoiding your eyes in case you decided it sounded silly.
"That sounds wonderful," you said, finally catching his crimson gaze with your own. His face melted into a sweet smile and he took hold of your hand in his, making a point of intertwining your fingers together.
The atmosphere around you felt a little strange. You were alone and yet so exposed at the same time. The man at the opposite end could glance over at any time. Your waiter could come back with your milkshake. And yet at the same time it felt as though it was just you and Kirishima, sharing your private musings.
"Do you ever miss being a kid?" you asked, turning to look out the inky black window.
Eijirou winced a bit, his expression growing a little distant and troubled at your words. This, however, went unnoticed by you, and you merely continued to mindlessly stroke at the side of his hand with your thumb. "I guess there are some parts I miss . . . ," he began. "But I like who I am now a lot better."
He hadn't told you about the majority of his self views yet. It wasn't that he didn't trust you, he simply didn't think you needed to know about that side of him. It was in the past and it didn't matter anymore, right?
"I like how you are too, but like, the nostalgic stuff. You know—tv shows, games, people who you don't talk to anymore. I still think about my Nintendogs and cry sometimes."
Eijirou looked back at you. "For real?"
"Yeah," you said. "They're just . . . there. In the game. Waiting for me. And who knows if I'll ever even put the game back in again?" You put your elbows on the table and your chin in your hands, letting your mind wander back to thoughts of them. An unexpectedly large wave of disproportionate sadness crashed into you, and it was as if you couldn't think of anything else for a moment.
"Hey, are you good?" Eijirou asked.
"I don't know."
He put a hand on your back. "Do you still have your DS? You could show them to me sometime."
Your focus shifted dramatically at his words. "Really?"
"Yeah, I'd like to see them."
A little part of you began to buzz with an odd spike of happiness. You must have been really sleep-deprived to be feeling emotional like this.
Just then, your waiter came out of the kitchen with your milkshake. "There you are," he said as he put it down in front of you. "Enjoy."
It really did look good, in a tall clear glass with the vanilla ice cream swirled within stripes of pink strawberry.
"Would you like me to sing you Happy Birthday?" you asked.
"You don't have to," Kirishima said with a chuckle.
"You can't stop me." You took a breath and began to sing, quiet enough so the entire restaurant wouldn't be disturbed by your volume, but obnoxious enough to pull some laughs from Eijirou. "'Aight, go ahead," you said, handing him a spoon.
He dipped it into the strawberry ice cream, catching some of the whipped cream on the end. You watched as he put it to his lips, grinning at the taste. You followed suit right after him, taking your own spoon and helping yourself.
The conversation shifted to a lighter-hearted one. The sleepy hum of exhaustion buzzing in the backs of your heads seemed to make everything funnier, and numerous times one of you would say something to make the other crack up. Even the dumbest things that weren't even funny at all forced you to clap your hands over your mouths to keep the otherwise silent atmosphere around you as such.
You slowly made your way through your shake, occasionally changing it up by feeding each other spoonfuls of ice cream. Eijirou even had the audacity to deliberately get some on the tip of your nose, only to lean in and kiss it off of you himself.
"Tasty," he remarked, pressing his forehead against yours. His voice suddenly dropped as he met your eyes. "I think I want more."
As if you weren't enough of a flustered mess already, he met his lips to yours. He tasted sweet, with remnants of the ice cream lingering on his mouth. You felt secluded in your booth in the back of the restaurant, but even so, a new thrill coursed through you. It was rare for the both of you to have such moments as these in public, and your heart sped even further as your spine pressed into the cushioned back of the seat.
Nothing too extreme happened, just three sweet pecks against your lips, but even so, you couldn't help but flush a bit with these feelings of excitement and adoration for him.
A few minutes later, you had finished your ice cream and were ready to go. You went to the front and paid for the shake (it was your treat since it was his birthday, and he only protested for a brief minute about letting you pay). Eventually you were back outside in the cool night air, hand in hand as you walked back to the dorms. At this point, the two of you were about ready to crash, and you couldn't wait to get back inside and fall asleep in each other's arms.
Which is exactly what you did. Back in his room, you found yourself tucked snugly under his multi-colored blanket, face buried in his warm chest. The darkness was silent and peaceful, and now the weight of your eyelids pressed down tenfold. Your consciousness began to peter out, drifting from thought to thought, breaths deepening within your lungs.
Yet the same couldn't be said for the man around you. His mind had decided to wander to something you'd said to him earlier, and now he couldn't think of anything else. He couldn't quite see your face in the absence of light, but he knew you were probably on the verge of sleep. He felt you shift around a bit in his arms, and that prompted him to speak up.
"(Y/N)?" he whispered.
"Hmm?"
"Um, you know how we were talking earlier about what we missed from being a kid?"
"Yeah?" Your voice was faint, only functioning because you wanted to hear what he had to say.
"Well I guess I . . . thought of something."
"What's that?"
Kirishima chose to ignore the slight slur in your voice, stroking the top of your head absentmindedly with his fingertips. "I miss . . . feeling safe. I was thinking about how when you're a kid you don't really know anything about what the world is really like. Your parents protect you and there isn't anything you really need to worry about. The choices you make don't change the lives of other people, you can just . . . be. We don't—we can't have that anymore."
His words had stirred you awake, and now you were more intent on what he had said. He was right. Back then, there was almost no fear. You hadn't needed to worry about villain attacks, or kidnappings, or saving the lives of others. Ignorance was bliss, and every day that sweet bliss seemed to slip further and further from being your reality anymore.
"You're right," you muttered, taking his large hand and beginning to fidget with his fingers. Your voice was now more solid, more focused and awake. "As heroes and adults, we need to take on more responsibility. The world isn't a safe place." You pulled his hand closer to your face, letting your lips graze his knuckles as you mused to the solid form in front of you. "Taking on this job . . . we had to give up on that. We have to bear a burden so others don't have to. We chose this job to protect those people, to make sure no one else had to live in fear. The things we've had to go through, as a class and as a society—it sucks. But that's simply how our world works now. We just need to do our best to correct it."
Eijirou brought up his hand a bit to caress your cheek. You leaned into his touch, gazing into the space you assumed his scarlet eyes were staring back. You turned to press a kiss into the palm of his hand.
"I guess I do still feel safe sometimes, though," he muttered, voice scarcely daring to break the silence of the room around you.
"Yeah?"
"I feel safe when I'm with you."
Your breath caught in your throat as you grew flustered at his words. "Really?" you asked.
"Well, yeah." Eijirou wrapped his arms around you again, pulling you back into his chest. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of your hair, pausing to inhale the faint smell of your shampoo.
"But you're the one holding me," you chuckled, gripping the front of his shirt loosely with your fingers.
"Yeah, and I love it. I feel safe." He began to move a hand in circles over your back, the soothing motion causing you to relax even more into his touch. "Besides, it's the manly thing to do."
You giggled again, faint and drowsy. "You are manly. The manliest boyfriend I could ask for. But you don't need to be manly all the time with me. You know I'd hold you at any time you needed it, right?"
He rested his chin on the top of your head. "Mm, but it's my turn tonight."
You rubbed at his back with your own hand. "Happy birthday, Eiji," you whispered into his ear. I love you."
"I love you too," he murmured back. "Thanks for being my Pebble. That's the best gift I could have asked for."
You smiled and hummed, the patterns you had been tracing onto his back growing ever lighter.
He chuckled to himself. "My sleepy Pebble." He planted one last kiss at the top of your forehead. "Good night."
"Goodbth nigh," you responded, not bothering to fix the exhausted yet contented slur in your voice.
He hugged you tight and let his eyes drift closed. His birthday had hardly even started yet, but it was already turning out to be his best one yet.