This wip has been sitting in my docs for far too long!! We're in for a wild ride tdbk fam
CW: TDBK (possibly eventually bktd), smoking weed, quirkless au!

___

The week after Katsuki Bakugou graduates from high school, he gets new neighbors.

They're absolutely fucking insane.

For starters, there's like, six kids (there's actually four, but only Bakugou's counting). The oldest one definitely sells drugs, or at least he looks like it. The other brother and sister look pretty normal, with hair so blonde it looks white.

He has heard the middle brother screaming so loudly at their father that he was worried once, but that isn't too far off from what he thinks is normal for a parent and a child.

Their dad-- and it's just their dad, the mom is nowhere to be found-- is a hulk of a man. Katsuki thinks he might be the tallest man he's ever seen, like some kind of basketball player but with seven times the muscle.

He looks like a bodybuilder, an angry, angry bodybuilder who yells at his kids at all hours of the day.

The youngest one is who quirks Katsuki's interest the most. They look to be about the same age. He has a crazy scar on the left side of his face, but that's not his most

defining physical characteristic. The kid has hair that's half red and half white, split right down the middle, like he's some kind of hipster asshole or something. They've only lived there for two weeks, but already Katsuki has seen him doing things like sitting on their back

porch while wearing a black turtleneck, reading a book and smoking a cigarette.

Yeah, Katsuki kind of fucking hates him on principle.

Still, he can't help but watch the guy whenever he's around. He's interesting, a case study, if you will. Katsuki's been extremely bored since school ended, as his two best friends moved to America to study abroad. He chose a school a few hours away himself, having received a

full scholarship. There was a perk to being number one in your class, and that was free shit. Katsuki wasn't going to complain, but he sure was bored. Watching this guy was just a way to pass the time. He was not stalking him. It was perfectly normal.

“Can you stop fucking stalking the new neighbors already?” His mother hissed, whacking him gently on the back of the head as he peers out of the kitchen window at the house next door.

Katsuki crouches down immediately. The window was open. What if someone heard?

“I ain't stalking no one!”

“Sure as hell looks like it!” She looks almost amused, leaning against the kitchen counter. “If you want to ask the little one out just do it already. Don't be a coward!”

“I-I-” he stutters. That is not what he's been doing.

Sure, the youngest son is cute and Bakugou is both gay and single as fuck, but he is obviously pretentious and Katsuki just doesn't have the energy to sit around and talk about Franz Kafka all day or whatever the fuck the kid reads. “I don't want to ask him out!”

“Sure,”

she snorts. “Find a new hobby then! I'm starting to get a little worried about this one.”

“Shut up, old hag!” And then he stomps away, cheeks flushing bright red and feeling a bit like a kicked puppy.

Later that night as he's lying in bed, he hears the telltale signs of the kid sneaking out of his bedroom window. He does it about four times a week, sneaking out and then walking down the street to go do God knows what.

This time, however, he starts speaking as soon as he hits the ground, greeting someone else with a simple, “Hey.”

He hasn't heard the kid's voice outside of him yelling at his father. Now, it has a smooth tone to it. It's low, husky. Katsuki, curious out of his mind now, rolls

over onto his stomach so he can peak out of the corner of window that's over his bed.

There's a plain-looking boy with brown hair standing next to him. The boy says, “Hey yourself,” and then just like that, with no other preamble, they're kissing.

Katsuki gawks, for one, the kid has been here for less than a month and he's already got a boyfriend (or at least someone to kiss). Katsuki's lived here his entire life and has only managed to have a couple sloppy makeouts with friends of friends.

Secondly, there's the issue that the two guys are just making out right there and infuriatingly, the kid nextdoor looks drop dead gorgeous with his eyes closed and his head tilted up, mouth moving against the other boy's.

His eyelashes are so long and dark. His cheeks are rosy, and the wet sounds of their kissing waft into Katsuki's room like a warm summer breeze.

Then the guy grabs the kid by the ass, pulling him close and eliciting a light moan from his neighbor.

Fuck, he sounds good.

The guy does something Katsuki can't see and then he moans again. Katsuki feels himself twitch inside his underwear, and suddenly, he feels dirty and wrong and very much like his snooping is not innocent anymore.

He slowly shuts the window so that the noise doesn't alert them, and then lies back down to sleep.

If he jerks off thinking about sliding his fingers through red and white hair, well that's just his business.

The next day, Katsuki completely ignores the house next door. He knows he's being a little obvious, even choosing to sit in a different chair at the dining table so that he can't see out of the window. His mother, who would normally notice such a drastic change in his behavior,

says nothing. He wonders if maybe she heard the boys kissing outside last night too, if maybe they went all the way. He wonders if the other boy backed the kid up against the wall of his house, pulled his pants down and slid himself inside.

He wonders if instead it was the neighbor kid doing the fucking.

Katsuki's brain stops working for five whole minutes. He growls at himself in frustration, and then stomps off to his bedroom to read a manga.

The day passes slower than molasses dripping off of a spoon.

It's barely noon and Katsuki is so bored that he considers taking a nap. He hates naps. They're for lazy fucks, and he's not a lazy fuck.

He pulls out his phone instead, sending a text to the group chat of his high school friends and asking what everyone was doing today.

Kirishima and Deku, his best friends, both cheekily reply that they're in America before quickly figuring out that they are three hours apart

timewise. Kirishima went to the east coast of the country, while Deku went to the west. Katsuki asks them both how they're doing. They both reply something along the lines of “I miss the food at home”, which Katsuki thinks is fair.

The rest of the group chat fares no better for Katsuki as almost every one of them is working spare for Mina who's on a date with whatever guy of the week she's trying to romance now. He sighs, flopping back onto his bed and letting his phone slip from his hands onto the floor

He needs to get out of the house and far, far away from the kid with the dumb hair next door.

His mom asks him if he wants to go grocery shopping with her a few hours later and gives him a shocked look when he jumps, literally jumps, at the chance to do so.

The trip out of the house clears his head a bit, even though he and his mom spent most of it bickering. Katsuki finds himself feeling calmer the rest of the day, even volunteering to help make dinner.

Around 8:30, boredom rears its ugly head inside him once more and he sulks his way off to bed. He lies in his bed under the covers unable to sleep and restless for about an hour.

Then, he hears the sound of the kid sneaking out once more.

Instead of the normal quiet thumping of his feet hitting the grass outside however, he hears a loud bang and a slew of curses so colorful it makes his own vocabulary seem plain. He peers out the window, unable to help his peaked curiosity.

The kid is lying flat on his back,

wincing. It's obvious that he fucking fell out of his damn window, so Katsuki does what any good neighbor would. He opens his screen, pokes his head out and asks, “Dude are you okay?”

The kid whips his head around, looking for the source of the voice he had heard. When he spots Katsuki leaning out of his window, he raises his brows and sits up slowly. “Yeah. I'm good… I think.” He gives himself a minute when he's all the way upright. “I think I twisted

my ankle.”

Katsuki is silent for a moment, watching the kid struggle to stand. Then, he says, “Do you, uh, need ice?”

The kid thinks about it, nodding consideringly. “Have you ever smoked weed?”

“Uh, what?” Katsuki replies, because that was not an answer to his question.

The kid hops a little on his good foot until he's facing Katsuki's window. “I asked if you smoked weed.”

“Um. Yeah.” It's not a lie, just an exaggeration. He's smoked twice. Once when he was sixteen at a park with Kirishima and once at a house party last year when his friend

Kaminari had brought a couple joints for everyone to share.

“Well,” the kid shuffles awkwardly on his feet. “Come smoke, then.”

Katsuki's eyes widen at the sudden and random invitation to hang out. “I, uh, yeah, okay. I'll be right down.”

He's not sure why he says yes. In fact, there's a tiny part of his brain that's SCREAMING at him to go back to bed and do what his mother would want him to do. He tells it to shut the fuck up, puts on his shoes and grabs his keys and wallet from where he keeps them on his

dresser.

The Bakugou household is an early to bed early to rise type of family, so it's no surprise when he finds all the lights turned off and everyone asleep, his father's light snoring carrying out into the hallway.

Katsuki is such a good kid that they'd never expect him to sneak out anyway. Sure, he's an asshole and used to be a bit of a bully, but a rule breaker is something that he is not. Even if he did get caught he could probably fabricate a lie about one of his friends

needing him and get away with it.

He shuts his front door quietly and heads into the side yard where he finds the neighbor kid leaning against the side of his house, taking drags from a cigarette.

Katsuki stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replies

on an exhale, smoke curling out of his mouth and around his face. From here Katsuki can see the slightly warped skin of the kid's scar. He can also see that he has two different colored eyes, one blue and one gray. For a moment, that realization renders him speechless.

“You got a name?” Katsuki asks him when he remembers how to talk again. He can hear himself being kind of blunt, but he's so full of nervous energy at this point that he can't help but throw some guards up.

The kid's head tilts curiously, and he pushes himself off of the wall. He sticks his hand out, letting the cigarette dangle from his lips. “Shouto Todoroki. And you are?”

Todoroki. The name rattles around inside his head. He decides it's fitting. Katsuki takes his hand

shaking it firmly and praying that it doesn't feel too sweaty. “Katsuki Bakugou.”

“Bakugou, well, it's nice to meet you.” He jerks his head towards the street. “Shall we go?”

Katsuki shrugs, “Sure.” And it comes out so steady that he's a little proud about it.

(TBC later)

They walk down the block in the middle of the street and after a few steps, Todoroki’s uneven gait evens out once more as he walks off his sprain. They’re quiet, until Todoroki breaks the silence and asks. “So you live here huh?”

“What a stupid fucking question,” Katsuki wants to say. But he doesn't, instead saying, “Yeah. For my whole life.”

“It seems okay.” Todoroki kicks a rock and they both watch it skip across the road. “Kinda boring.”

“That basically sums it the fuck up. It's fine if you know

people, but besides that there ain't shit going on.”

“Oh yeah? Guess I'll have to get to know some people then.”

Todoroki has a smirk on his face that looks like he plans to be up to no good. It's that that makes Katsuki say, “Well, now you know me, and I'm the most important

guy in town.”

“Is that so?” Todoroki's raised an eyebrow.

“Mhm. Everyone else will just disappoint you.”

Todoroki looks almost impressed at Katsuki's banter and a lot intrigued. “Is *that* so?”

“Yup.”

“I'm sure glad we met then.” It sounds a little sarcastic but it's full of challenge, and that's something Katsuki can never say no to.

Todoroki makes a left at the next street, obviously heading for the local playground. It's left unchained at night, and unless

they're being loud, nobody will care that they're in there. They walk in silence across the grass and Katsuki is surprised to find that it's a comfortable one. Their feet hit sand as they get closer to the swing set. Katsuki guesses that's Todoroki's destination. He guesses

correctly.

Todoroki slides himself into the seat of a swing and motions for Katsuki to get into the one next to him. He does and then looks over at Todoroki with an expectant look.

“Eager, aren't we?” Todoroki asks. Katsuki's starting to get the read on him, and it's turning

out that he seems like a real sarcastic little shit. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't into it.

“Yeah, yeah. Are we smoking or not?”

“We sure are.” Then Todoroki pulls a small white joint from his pocket along with a lighter. He holds them up with a little smirk on his

face, as if to say ‘You ready?’

He lights it and takes a hit or two, holding the smoke in for a minute before exhaling. The nasty smell of skunk fills Katsuki's nostrils. He then immediately descends into a coughing fit while he hands the joint to Katsuki,

which does nothing to calm his anxieties. Katsuki takes a hit anyway, breathing in and letting the smoke sit and burn in his lungs for a moment before letting it go.

He almost immediately feels the telltale buzzing around his eyes that comes with being high.

He manages a faint, “Whoa.”

“I know right?” Todoroki takes the joint back from him, inhaling again. “My brother sells this shit. It's really good.” Katsuki chuckles quietly at the confirmation of his suspicions of the oldest Todoroki child

Todoroki hands the joint back to him and asks, “You have any siblings?”

“Nah.” He takes another hit. It's smoother this time.

“You like it that way?”

Katsuki shrugs. He'd never been asked a question like that before. “I guess? I was never really alone. If you go down that street right there.” He points, and Todoroki's eyes follow his hand. “And make a left at the next street there's an apartment complex.

My best friend lived there. His mom and my mom were best friends, so we kind of got shoved together from day one.”

“That's cool,” Todoroki replies on an exhale.

Katsuki takes the joint back from him and lets it sit in his fingers for a moment. He laughs, a little huff

leaving his lips. “Yeah, I guess. I'm sure Deku didn't enjoy the ruthless bullying I gave him for about ten years, but we're much better off now.” He doesn't know why he's telling Todoroki this so fast, or at all.

Maybe it's the weed, maybe it's the thrill of sneaking out, maybe it's the warm night air, maybe it's the way the streetlights reflect differently in each one of Todoroki's eyes. He takes a hit, a bigger one than he did before.

Todoroki snorts. “Well, things change I guess.”

Then, there's quiet. They pass the joint back and forth and the loudest sound around them is the creak of Katsuki's swing that he can't seem to keep still. “What about you? He finally asks.

“Huh?”

“What about you? Do you like your siblings?”

Todoroki laughs then, and it's a bitter thing. He makes grabby hands for the joint and Katsuki gives it back. “My family is fucked up. Majorly, royally fucked up.” He goes to take a hit, and then another. Katsuki doesn't mention it.

“My siblings have gotten me through, especially my oldest brother. We, uh, have a lot in common.” He hands the joint back to Katsuki again.

Katsuki takes it, takes another hit and realizes that he's so high he feels flat out dizzy. He can't help smiling, so when he says,

“It's good to have people,” he looks down at the ground so that Todoroki doesn't think he's weird.

“Yup.” Todoroki moves his swing sideways so it bangs into Katsuki's. “Bakugou, you're stoned as fuck.”

“Maybe.” And that reduces them to a fit of giggles. Todoroki takes one last hit before stubbing the joint out and throwing it into the bushes that line the area with the swings.

“Let's walk back,” he tells Katsuki. So they do.

They bump shoulders the entire walk home, like sharing tiny bits of themselves along with the joint helped break the ice and get them closer. It did, Katsuki thinks. Todoroki tells Katsuki about his pet turtle and Katsuki recounts the lizard he had when he was younger.

They laugh too much and too loudly for the time of night, but they're both too high to care. The air around them feels like it's parting just to make space for the two of them to walk comfortably next to each other.

“So where are you from?”

“Originally, just outside of Tokyo, but a bit of everywhere.” He looks at Katsuki and says, “We move around a lot,” with a little shrug. “Most recently we lived in Osaka. We had to move because my brother came to live with us.”

It's the kind of explanation that leaves a hell of a lot out, but it feels practiced and natural for him to say. Katsuki can't say shit about putting up walls in front of people, so he doesn't pry any further, just asks, “What was Tokyo like? I've never gotten to go.

My mom's afraid of the big city or something.”

Todoroki huffs a little laugh. “Big.” The way he says it makes Katsuki start laughing so hard he has to double over. His laughter carries on to Todoroki and then the two of them are just paused somewhere on the sidewalk, cackling

like a pair of crazed hyenas. It's the most fun Katsuki has had in months, maybe. Todoroki has to drag him by the arm to get him to start walking again. His hands feel warm and soft on Katsuki's skin. He doesn't mind.

This is good. He wants to say so, and surprisingly Todoroki beats him to it. “I had a lot of fun tonight, Bakugou. Let's do this again.” He's stopped walking and it takes Katsuki a moment to realize they're out front of their houses.

“Yeah, I'd like that.” He finds that means it. He's unsure if he's ever been so comfortable around someone the first time they've hung out like he was tonight, and it isn't just the weed talking.

Todoroki smiles a little, then nods before turning on his heel and walking back

to his house. Katsuki does the same.

He sneaks his way inside with no problem, stopping his kitchen to grab the bag of chips off of the fridge. He flops down onto his bed, taking a moment to enjoy the buzzing high sensation in all of his body.

Then he gets really, really fucking hungry. He knew this would happen, so he cracks open the bag of chips and turns his tv on to something he can zone out to.

When he wakes up the next morning, his hand is still in the bag of chips.

Thoughts of gray and blue eyes swim in his head.

(tbc)

he next day he feels lighter, albeit a little bit lazier from the leftover effects of the weed. He's also busier since his friend Sero invited him over to play some video games. Sero is a happy go lucky guy, and Katsuki can't help that some of it rubs off onto him whenever

they're together. They play a racing game, elbowing each other in real life when their cars bump off of each other in the game.

“Why are your elbows so sharp, man?” Katsuki hisses, rubbing the side of his arm where Sero had just got him.

Sero shrugs, smiles, and then starts

the game while he's sure Katsuki's not looking, the dirty rotten cheat.

Sero drives him home after a while. He was one of the only ones in their friend group with a car, and it's a little weird being in the passenger seat of it alone.

Sero must think so too. He says, “You miss 'em?”

“Nah,” Katsuki lies. The knowing grin he gets in return is sharper than any jab he had gotten before.

He can't lie. Since telling Todoroki about Deku he's thought about the nerd a lot. Deku has been a part of his life since the

beginning of it, and to not have him here-- either annoying him or calling him or even being there for him when Katsuki just wanted to talk or chill with someone he didn't have to try very hard with

(this particular part of their friendship is new, a recent result of both growing older and Katsuki taking his foot out of his ass and apologizing again and again for how he had treated Deku for years) is weird. He knows he misses him. So when a text from Deku pops up out of

the blue, asking, 'Do you have time to Skype???!’ Katsuki sends back an affirmative, turns on his laptop, and waits.

The call comes in about twenty seconds after he comes online, which doesn't surprise him at all.

“Kacchan!” Deku gives him the biggest, cheesiest grin in the

world.

“Hey, nerd.” Katsuki sees his one corner of mouth lift up in a grin in the section of the screen that shows himself.

“You look tired! Did you stay up late last night?” Deku asks, but he doesn't give Katsuki a chance to answer, instead immediately launching into a

monologue about time zone differences and jet lag. It goes on for about five minutes, and Katsuki hates that he pays rapt attention the entire time. “That's why I'm calling you now,” Deku finishes. “My brain just won't turn off and let me adjust to the time difference tonight.”

“Seems pretty fucking on to me.” Katsuki grumbles, but there's no edge to it.

“Oh, I'm sorry! I've talked non-stop, haven't I?

“You sure did.” And there's no heat behind that either. Katsuki wonders when he got so soft. He's suddenly overcome with the urge to shove

someone into a locker, maybe himself.

Deku starts giggling. “You have to stop me! Anyway, Kacchan, how are things back there?”

Katsuki shrugs. It's only been a few weeks, but he really hasn't had anything going on. “We have new neighbors.”

“Oh? Another old man?”

“A family of batshit crazy drug dealers and users,” he answers truthfully.

Deku, for once, is speechless. Katsuki loves it.

“I smoked weed with the youngest kid after hearing him swapping spit with another kid outside my window. We snuck out and went

to the playground and got high.”

Deku blinks at him. Katsuki's almost sorry the story ends there. He doesn't know if he's ever seen Deku lost for words before. It's not a lie, but the way he's told the story definitely makes him sound much cooler than he is.

“You...did...what?”

“You fucking heard me,” Katsuki says, smug. Deku doesn't need to know that he got stoned after one hit. He likes how cool he sounds. He's sticking with it.

Then, because the universe wants to call him a liar, a notification pops up saying that

Kirishima is now online.

“Eijiro!” Deku wails, and before Katsuki can reply, he's added their other best friend to the call. Kirishima is much, much cooler than Deku or Katsuki could ever be. Katsuki can feel himself deflate a little.

Then, he sees Kirishima's smile. It's a bright thing, full of sharp teeth and sunshine. His red hair that he normally keeps sticking straight up is tied back with a band around his head. He's so excited to see the both of them, basically bouncing in his chair as he greets them

both. “Izuku! Bakugou!”

They say hi back, and for a moment Katsuki just listens to them chat. The two of them go back and forth in some rapid fire exchange about their first few weeks in America. Katsuki happily listens. This is something he's used to, and he hasn't realized

how empty his life has been without it.

Then Deku says, “Kacchan was just telling me how he got a new neighbor and the two of them smoked weed late at night.”

“He did what?” He's almost offended at how shocked Kirishima looks.

“You heard him.”

“Bakugou, man, we've been gone for two weeks. What the hell happened?”

“I got a new neighbor?” Katsuki says by way of explanation. “He smokes pot and I joined him.” They gawk at him in return. “I don't fucking see why you assholes are so fucking shocked.”

“Because Kacchan,

one time we were hanging out with Tokoyami and he lit a cigarette and you yelled at him until he put it out.”

Kirishima nods. “Not to mention the fact that you've only smoked, what? Once before?”

“Shut up, assholes. I'm cool. I can do whatever the fuck I want!”

They both give him an unsure look. Katsuki growls in return, and if they weren't in a different country he'd slam his laptop on them both. Instead he says, “You guys don't know Goddamn anything.” He tries instantly to change the subject, asking, “Deku, how's the idiot family

that was dumb enough to take you in?”

Deku's face lights up, his mouth opens, and Katsuki knows he's back in the clear.

For a moment, when 9:30 rolls around and he hears the soft thudding of Todoroki's feet on the grass, Katsuki's pulse jumps expectantly as he wonders if Todoroki wants to smoke with him again. But it passes quickly, as the next sound he hears is the rumble of the brown-haired

kid's voice from the other night. Katsuki rolls over and peeks out of the window, just like he had before. Todoroki doesn't even greet him this time, just starts kissing him, his hands pulling at the guy's clothes to get him close. They stop kissing, mouths parting just enough

so that Todoroki can lean down and sink his teeth into the guy's neck. The hiss that leaves his mouth seems like it's well deserved. Katsuki watches as the guy backs Todoroki up into the side of his house, shoving a thigh between his. Todoroki moans, throwing his head back so

that it cracks against the wall. It looks like it hurt, but Todoroki doesn't seem to care, his eyes closed in pleasure and his hips rolling, grinding himself down onto the guy's leg.

Katsuki finds that he is very, very hard. He manages to shut the window anyway.

This time when he jerks off, a name hangs on the edge of his lips when he come. He knows then exactly what, or more like who, he fucking wants.

(tbc)

He needs to get a job, a hobby, a something to keep his mind from wandering nextdoor.

“Wanna come shopping with me?” Mina texts him Midway through the day.

Katsuki looks up to the sky for guidance, and bored out of his mind, replies that he does.

He thinks he loses his mind completely around hour two, because he starts running his fingers nervously over the soft fabric of a row of red dresses on hangers and asks, “Mina, if there was a guy you, I don't know,

thought was hot but you saw him making out with this other guy but he never said he had a boyfriend or anything, granted, it was never brought up in conversation really but still. Would you make a move on him?”

Mina blinks at him. She puts the dress she was holding back on the rack. The look in her deep brown eyes is full of fire. She grabs his hand so he can't escape and demands, “Spill.”

Katsuki growls at her with the strength of a Chihuahua.

She gives him an unimpressed look. “I'll buy you a coffee, come on.” She takes him by the hand, and he goes without another fight.

Katsuki orders a black coffee, since there has to be some part of this excursion where he manages to keep his dignity. He sips it and burns his

tongue.

“Tell me everything.” Mina looks at him over the top of her sweet mocha drink. It's more intimidating than it should be.

“Uh, I got a new neighbor,” he starts, because that seems like the correct place to start. “Technically, it's an entire family. There's five of

them. So, I got five new neighbors.”

She groans, “Ugh. Get on with it, you sound like Izuku.”

“I do not!” He just about bellows before remembering his whereabouts and lowering his voice once more. “Don't ever say that shit to me again.”

She makes a motion with her hand signaling for him to hurry up.

“Ugh!” He growls. “Fine! Fuck! I got a new neighbor and he's fucking cute. Looks like a damn hipster asshole but it works for him. He kisses this guy outside our damn house like a slut but then we hung out and it

was cool as fuck and I thought that I wanted to kiss him too, you know? So what the fuck am I supposed to do about that shit, huh?”

Mina gives him the same look she'd give a little baby kitten. He scowls. “Next time you guys hang out, just ask him if he's with the guy he makes

out with! If he didn't mention it, I'd say that chances are good the guy is just a random hook up buddy and you're in the clear.”

Katsuki shrugs and kind of nods. That's simple enough.

“Now,” Mina plants her hands on the table expectantly. “Tell me about the weed.”

“What? How the fuck did you know about that?”

“Oh! I talked to Eijiro earlier this morning. He told me everything.” She takes a victory sip of her coffee.

“I'm gonna kill that fucking piss ant.”

9:30 comes and so does the soft landing of Todoroki's feet. Katsuki almost gets up to shut his window right then, since he doesn't know if he can handle another night of listening to Todoroki moaning outside of his window.

He rolls over and puts his pillow over his head, groaning inwardly.

Then he hears a soft plink. He ignores it the first time, but when it happens again, plink plink, he rolls over and looks out the window to see what's causing the noise.

What he finds is Todoroki, standing there with a hand full of pebbles and a tiny smile on his face. Katsuki decides that 'pretty’ is a good word to describe him.

Katsuki opens up the screen and sticks his head out. “Wanna hang out?”

Katsuki shrugs like he couldn't care less

and says, “Sure.”

Todoroki smokes a cigarette on the walk to the playground this time. He offers a drag to Katsuki who declines.

“You're a good one, smoking will kill you.” And then he takes another drag.

Todoroki fills the silence, telling Katsuki all about the new strain of weed he has tonight. Katsuki learns that it's called blue raspberry, that no, it doesn't actually taste like blue raspberries, and that it's supposed to make you have a great body high, whatever that means.

He also learns that Todoroki's oldest brother is named Touya.

“Don't call him that though,” Todoroki warns. “He goes by Dabi now.” Katsuki nods, wondering if this means Todoroki expects the two of them to interact any time soon.

Katsuki realizes then, as he looks at Shouto across from him, that he has no idea what making a new friend is like. He had met Deku when they were infants, and every other friend since then he had met in school. He met Kirishima in English

class their first year of high school. He sat behind Katsuki and forgot his pencil every week. Somehow, this lead to them becoming best friends. After Kirishima, everyone else had just kind of been shoved into his direction. He doesn't know what to make of any of this, so he

just asks, “Dabi?”

Todoroki says, “Don't ask,” and gives a long suffering sigh.

They arrive at the swing set and take the same swings as they had before. Todoroki lights the blunt and takes a hit before handing it to Katsuki. He makes a pleased hum as he exhales.

The weed must be fulfilling its promises.

Katsuki takes it and inhales. It tastes the same to him but he's not going to say a damn word.

“So you said your best friend lived around the corner?” Todoroki asks him.

“Yeah. I mean, right now he's studying abroad in America

but normally he lives there.”

Todoroki exhales a smoke ring, his lips forming a perfect O shape. Katsuki can't help but watch. “That's definitely not around the corner.” He hands Katsuki the joint again and looks a little proud of his dumbass joke. “You miss him?”

Right now, it feels different than when Sero had asked him. Katsuki had wanted to lie, to hide even though Sero had known the answer. There's just something about Todoroki that makes him want to say what he's really thinking.

Fuck, it's probably just the weed. “Yeah. I do miss that nerd. My other best friend's over there too. I'm happy for them, but yeah, I miss them.” He takes his hit and starts to feel the pleasant thrum of the drug inside of him.

“Fair enough.” Todoroki reaches for the joint back and Katsuki takes another hit before he hands it over, grinning cheekily at Todoroki. His eyebrows raise, but he doesn't comment on it. “I've moved around so much that I don't really have many friends.

I have my friend Momo. She and I have stayed in touch for years even though I haven't lived near her in forever. And then there's Inasa.” He doesn't elaborate any further, just stops his sentence right there.

Katsuki wonders if that's the brown-haired boy that comes to kiss Todoroki at night. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he takes Mina's advice, asking, “Is that your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?” Todoroki lets out a laugh, a real laugh at that. His nose scrunches up when he does

and Katsuki's brain supplies him with the word 'cute’. “Nah, I don't have a boyfriend. I just have some good friends.” He laughs at himself like a real dumb cute idiot.

He inhales, and on the exhale he says, “It's just fun to kiss someone, you know?” The smoke leaves his mouth in tiny puffs when he says it, and Katsuki's really not at fault for the way that his eyes find their way to his pink lips.

It takes him a moment, but me manages a, “Yeah, I can imagine.” It wasn't the right thing to say, and when he looks back up at Todoroki's face it's full of pity, like he's expecting Katsuki to say he's never been kissed or rattle off some tragic breakup story.

It makes fury flash within him for a hot moment. “No!” He says, way too strongly. He presses it down. “No, not like that.” He takes a hit, keeping silent the entire time. “I just… my friends are all working or moved away and I,” he gives a nervous laugh.

I was at the top of my class, so I was always too focused on school to work. It got me a free tuition, but before I knew it summer was here and I didn't have a job. I also didn't have friends.” He admits the last part slowly, mentally kicking himself the entire time.

He's starting to hate this honesty thing. “So, no, I just can't relate to having someone to kiss.” When he finishes talking he's starting to feel rather grumpy.

“Well.” Katsuki braves a look up at Todoroki and he finds his eyes shining with something mischievous, with something

so dangerous that Katsuki could get addicted to easier than any drug. “Would you like to?”

Katsuki's mouth falls open. He watches as Todoroki gets up from his swing and stands in front of his own, stilling it by holding the chains.

When he speaks again, Katsuki feels dizzy-- high in a way that might be the weed, but he really doesn't think so.

“Yeah.”

Time slows down, and suddenly it's just the two of them in the world. Todoroki's face gets closer to his, his hand moving to tilt Katsuki's jaw up. From this close, Todoroki's blue eye looks so bright that it's almost turquoise.

His breath is hot on Katsuki's face, just the hint of smoke in it. Katsuki blinks, and then they're kissing. It's just a simple press of lips on lips for a moment but then Todoroki's pulling away, eyes searching Katsuki's own, asking

‘Do you want this? Come and get it’ so Katsuki does, leaning up and placing a hand on the back of Todoroki's neck to keep him close as he kisses him again.

This time it's open-mouthed, without hesitation.

Their tongues meet each other instantly, dancing in-between their mouths as their lips move together in time. Behind Katsuki’s eyes a cascade of stars fall. It's not fireworks, but it's close.

They keep kissing like that, and kissing. Todoroki starts making these happy little noises Katsuki's just starting to wonder if the swing can take Todoroki's weight as well as his when they here a, “Hey! What are you kids doing!?”

They break apart instantly, and Todoroki's eyes are huge when grabs Katsuki's hand and says, “Run!”

Katsuki's on his feet in an instant and they take off, sprinting for their lives and possibly their criminal records. They bob and weave through streets and run like that-- hand

in hand-- all the way back home.

When they get there, Katsuki doubles over to catch his breath, hands on his knees. He's not out of shape per se, but he hasn't been working out like he usually does. He instantly makes a mental note to start doing so.

He's doing better than Todoroki, who's dissolved into a fit of coughing beside him.

“You gotta quit smoking,” Katsuki says.

“Shut up,” Todoroki manages between coughs. Katsuki laughs.

Todoroki stops coughing and rights himself. His unscarred cheek looks pink even in the dim street lights. “Come here, I'll make you shut up.” His arms must have a gravitational pull, because Katsuki goes, tilting his head and leaning in to kiss him again.

It's somehow even better than the last two kisses, and it makes Katsuki want to wrap his hands through Todoroki's stupid hair, so he does, sliding his fingers through the silky strands. Todoroki flicks his tongue against Katsuki's and sighs.

Todoroki puts his hands into Katsuki's back pockets and pulls him close, gripping at Katsuki's ass. It makes Katsuki growl. He wants to devour the man in front of him. Todoroki smiles against his mouth so hard that they have to stop kissing for a moment.

Katsuki grips the side of Todoroki's neck. He places his teeth right above where his thumb is-- not enough to bruise but just enough for Todoroki to feel. His laughing turns into a small gasp, and Katsuki feels a little feral with how turned on he is.

One of Todoroki's hands leaves his back pocket to cup his jaw and bring their lips crashing back together. It's a mess of limbs on limbs and lips on lips and things are getting pretty heated. Katsuki wonders if maybe he should drag Todoroki to the spot underneath his window,

see if he can coax some of those pretty moans out of him. Todoroki grips hard at his ass to bring their hips together, and makes a pleased and somehow cocky-sounding noise in the back of his throat when he feels just how much Katsuki's letting the kissing get to him.

“Katsuki!”

And that's his mother's voice.

Katsuki breaks them apart, leans on Todoroki's forehead and squeezes his eyes shut. Todoroki doesn't move, like maybe if he stays still he won't be noticed.

“I gotta go.”

“Yeah.”

“We should do this again sometime.”

Todoroki snorts. “We should.”

Then Katsuki takes the biggest risk of his life and places a chaste kiss on Todoroki's lips, right there in front of his mom after he's snuck out of his house to smoke pot.

When he's walking back to his house it dawns on him. Fear and dread mix

within him and his head is already sore from where his mother's smacking him. She's going to know he's high.

Katsuki tries to walk straight back into his room but is stopped (predictably) with a yell of his name. He turns around. “What?”

Unpredictably, his mother says, “I knew you would ask him out. That's my boy, a brave one.”

Katsuki tsks and then says, “Yeah.”

“Invite him over for dinner.”

Katsuki's already turning around and heading to his room when he says, “Nope.”

(tbc)