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There was a time, when Kirishima was younger, when he looked forward to going to school and playing with friends and coloring all day. But things changed. School became less color-y, and his friends found new friends.
It wasn’t too bad, until seventh grade winter break. Normally, he would’ve been content sitting at home and playing games, but he’d gotten word that there was a winter party planned. One that he wasn’t invited to. It kinda hurt. But there was no way he’d cry, not in front of everyone. That wasn’t manly at all.
But crying alone? That was a different story.
Kirishima had his laptop to entertain him, but entertainment couldn’t get rid of the pit of loneliness in his chest. He found himself searching up how to make friends. There were plenty of chat rooms, but he’d been warned against online friends. Then he found an interesting demon-summoning ritual.
No one had ever warned him against that, so it must be okay.
Kirishima followed the instructions carefully. He had a bit of trouble with candles, as he wasn’t supposed to use matches since the Incident, so he used electronic candles. Hopefully that worked. Then he wrote a little note and held it tight.
He sat in the middle of all the candles and closed his eyes. “Hey, uh, devil-man,” he said out loud. “I, um… My name’s Eijirou. I was thinking maybe I could, like, have a friend or something?” He stopped talking. This was stupid. No way this was going to work. He probably looked like an idiot or-
“Are you gonna sit there forever?” a voice asked.
Kirishima’s eyes shot open, and he fell backwards, knocking over a (thankfully electronic) candle and tossing the note aside. “Holy crap!” he cried, looking at the boy who’d appeared.
The blond boy scoffed. “Holy crap,” he mocked. “You’re Eijirou?”
Kirishima nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. Who are you?”
“My name’s Katsuki Bakugou,” the boy said proudly. “You summoned me.”
“You’re a demon?” Kirishima asked, and Bakugou nodded. “But you’re so young, like me.”
“Well, you said you wanted a friend,” Bakugou said. “You didn’t expect an adult demon, did you? That’s ped… pedo.... uh… pedometer.”
“I guess you’re right,” Kirishima said, running a hand through his hair. “So you’re gonna be my friend?”
Bakugou nodded. “For the price of your soul,” he said.
Kirishima frowned. “I don’t know if I have one of those.”
“You do,” Bakugou said.
“Where is it?”
Bakugou blinked. “It’s… never mind. Just say yes.”
“Okay, sure. Yes,” Kirishima said.
“Holy shit, that was easy,” Bakugou said.
“So are you a kid like me?” Kirishima asked.
“I’m a kid demon. We’re called imps,” the blond responded.
“You look human to me.”
“Yeah?” Bakugou stretched, extending a pair of red wings. “How about now?”
“Those are cool!” Kirishima gasped.
“They’re my wings,” Bakugou said. “So, now that we’re friends, what should we do?”
Kirishima thought about it. “Can I call you bro?” he asked.
“Can you call me what?” Bakugou was taken aback.
“Bro. Since we’re friends. I want to call you bro. Bakubro.”
“Only if I can call you Shitty Hair,” Bakugou said sarcastically.
Kirishima beamed. “It’s a deal!”
“Wait, what?”
“Yeah! Just call me Ei or something in front of my mom. So, Bakubro, what do you wanna do?”
Bakugou frowned. “I literally asked you that already.”
“Oh. Maybe we can play a game then? Like Yahtzee or something?”
Before Bakugou could answer, the door opened. “Eijirou?” Kirishima’s mother asked. “Who is this?”
Kirishima was startled and didn’t know how to reply. Bakugou’s wings were still out!
“I’m Katsuki Bakugou. I’m Ei’s friend,” Bakugou said. “It’s cool to meet you.”
“You made a friend?” Kirishima’s mom looked at her son. “I’m so happy for you! Will you stay for dinner?”
“Yes,” Bakugou said.
“I’ll make mac and cheese,” she said, closing the door.
“Didn’t she see your wings?” Kirishima asked, confused.
Bakugou shook his head. “Only you can see them, since you summoned me,” he said. “That your mom?”
Kirishima nodded.
“What’s mac and cheese?”
“What? Dude, you can’t be serious. You don’t know mac and cheese?”
Bakugou looked offended. “It’s not my fault. I don’t eat human food often.”
“It’s like a cheesy pasta,” Kirishima said. “Do you know what cheese and pasta are?”
“Of course I do!” Bakugou lied.
“Okay, well, it’s that.” Kirishima grinned. “I like it, I think you will too. Now, do you wanna play Yahtzee while Mom makes dinner?”
“Sure,” Bakugou said.
Kirishima handed him the instructions. “Here you go.”
“I know how to play Yahtzee, I’m not a fuckin’ moron,” Bakugou huffed.
“Sorry,” Kirishima said. “I assumed since you didn’t know mac and cheese, you didn’t know Yahtzee, either.”
“Well, don’t fuckin’ assume,” Bakugou huffed. “Gimme the dice, I’m going first.”
“Okay,” Kirishima said.
They played, and Bakugou won. “Loser cleans up,” the blond said.
“That’s fair,” Kirishima nodded. He finished putting the game away. “Let’s go check on Mom and dinner,” he said. “We can be spies.”
Bakugou perked up. “Spies?” he asked.
“Yeah! We’ll pretend we’re on a mission. A mission to steal the mac and cheese!”
Bakugou perked up even more. “Steal?” he asked.
“Yeah!” Kirishima stood up. “We’ll wear all black and be super quiet, like ninjas.”
“That sounds like fun,” Bakugou said. He snapped, and both he and Kirishima had changed clothes. “There!”
“That’s so cool,” Kirishima said. “Okay, let’s go! Wait, we need code names. I’ll be Red Riot.”
“I’ll be King Explosion Murder,” Bakugou said.
“That’s a little long.”
“We can go with Ground Zero instead, if you want.”
Kirishima nodded. “That’s better,” he said. “Okay. Let’s go.” He opened the door quietly. “Be careful on the fourth step, it creaks,” he whispered.
“Got it.” Bakugou put his wings away and followed Kirishima down the stairs.
Kirishima saw his mom in the kitchen and put a finger to his lips. “This way,” he said.
“We should crawl on the ground so it’s harder to see us,” Bakugou whispered back.
“Good idea.” Kirishima dropped to the floor and started crawling to the kitchen. “Wait here for my signal.”
“Okay.”
Kirishima crawled over to hide behind the kitchen island. He paused, then waved Bakugou over. Bakugou crawled over next to him.
“What now?” Bakugou asked. “How will we steal the mac and cheese?”
“We’ll wait for Mom to put the bowls on the table, then we’ll take them back upstairs,” Kirishima told him. “Just wait.” They watched as Kirishima’s mom put out the bowls. “Now,” Kirishima said, and the two of them jumped out and grabbed them.
“Go!” Bakugou whispered. They ran upstairs giggling and shushing each other, slamming Kirishima’s bedroom door behind them.
“Mission success!” Kirishima cheered. “This is mac and cheese, Bakubro. Taste it!”
“Alright!” Bakugou shoveled some into his mouth. “Oh, this is pretty good!”
“I told you!”
Kirishima’s door opened, and the boys shoved the food bowls behind their back. “Hey, kiddos,” Kirishima’s mom said. “I’m sorry, but it looks like there will be no mac and cheese tonight. I think some sneaky thieves came in and stole it while I wasn’t looking.”
Kirishima burst out laughing. “Oh no!” he said.
Bakugou looked at her seriously. “Well, that’s a shame,” he said. “Damn thieves. They were probably too sneaky to catch.”
Kirishima’s mom smiled. “Yep! They sure were.”
“They probably looked really good, too,” Bakugou added.
“I’m sure they did,” Kirishima’s mom laughed. “I guess you boys will have to have ice cream instead. Come down when you’re ready for dessert, okay?”
“Okay, Mom!” Kirishima grinned. As the door shut, he looked at Bakugou. “You think I look good?”
“The hell are you talking about?” Bakugou asked, eating more mac and cheese.
“You said the thieves looked good.”
“I was referring to myself, shithead,” Bakugou replied.
“No, you said thieves. Plural. Both of us.”
Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Just because I like boys doesn’t mean I like you.”
Kirishima paused. “You like boys?” he asked.
“Yeah. Is that a fuckin’ problem?”
“Not at all! I don’t know what I like yet.” Kirishima ate a spoonful of the mac and cheese himself.
“Hm,” Bakugou hummed in response.
They ate in relative silence before agreeing it was time for dessert. “You do know what ice cream is, right?” Kirishima teased.
“So what if I don’t?” Bakugou asked, following him down the stairs.
“Mom! We’re ready for ice cream!” Kirishima called.
“Wonderful!” Kirishima’s mom came out of the living room. “Bakugou, honey, are you allergic to anything?”
Bakugou shook his head. “Nope.”
“Alright. Would you like chocolate or mint ice cream?”
Bakugou looked at Kirishima, confused.
“Can we have both, Mom?” Kirishima asked. “You know, since those pesky thieves stole our dinner?”
“Sure,” she replied. “One scoop of each for both of you. Here you are.” She scooped the ice cream into bowls and handed them to the boys.
Bakugou took a bite, and his eyes widened. “It’s cold,” he said.
“Yes,” Kirishima laughed. “It’s ice cream, not fire cream.”
“Is fire cream a thing?” Bakugou asked curiously.
“I don’t think so.”
Kirishima’s mom smiled. “Is Bakugou sleeping over? Should I call his parents?”
“Oh, you don’t need to call my mom,” Bakugou said. “She’s a demon.”
“She’s not very nice?” Kirishima’s mom asked.
Bakugou nodded. “That, too.”
“Well, Bakugou, you’re welcome at our house anytime. We’d love to have you over.”
“Yeah!” Kirishima said. “You can come over anytime!”
“I will,” Bakugou nodded. “This ice cream is pretty good.”
“We got it from Target,” Kirishima said proudly.
“Where did you two meet?” Kirishima’s mom asked.
“We met… uh…” Kirishima hesitated. “I don’t know.”
His mother frowned. “You don’t know where you met?”
Bakugou jumped in. “He means, we’ve been going to the same school, so we knew each other, but we never really talked. We started talking in the cafeteria.”
“Yeah,” Kirishima nodded enthusiastically.
Kirishima’s mom smiled. “Oh, I see. That’s good!” The phone rang. “Oh, let me get that. You boys have fun.” She went to answer it.
Back upstairs, Kirishima and Bakugou finished their ice cream. “When do we change into pajamas?” Kirishima asked.
“I dunno,” Bakugou responded. “You’re the host.”
Kirishima nodded. “Right. Um… maybe now?”
“Sure,” Bakugou nodded back. He snapped, and they had changed into pajamas. Kirishima’s were red, and Bakugou’s were orange. “Now what?”
“Now we should get to know each other,” Kirishima said. “What do you wanna be when you grow up? I want to be a police officer. One of the good ones, who actually care about people.”
Bakugou nodded. “I want to be the number one demon,” he said proudly.
“That’s cool!” Kirishima smiled. “I’ll be friends with the number one demon!”
“You sure will,” Bakugou nodded.
The two of them continued talking until Kirishima’s mother came in and told them to go to bed. Bakugou, being a demon, didn’t actually sleep. He waited for Kirishima to fall asleep before crawling over to the discarded letter that had summoned him. He scanned it with his eyes and smiled. He’d always secretly wanted a friend, too.
Bakugou looked over at the sleeping form of Kirishima. Yeah, they were gonna be friends for a while. After all, Bakugou had Kirishima’s soul - and Kirishima had Bakugou’s heart.