A/N: As of 1/3/2023, this story has been revised and completed! I did these revisions to reflect my growth as an author. There are about 20k words of new content throughout, while still being the same story that my readers fell in love with.

And if you like the original, do not fear! For nostalgia's sake, there's a link in my bio that will take you to a Google Drive file that has the original story posted in its entirety, split into the original 15 chapters for easy reading. Maybe it'll be fun to compare and contrast!

Cover was created by the wonderful @/lexandraws on twitter!

I hope you enjoy, new readers and old readers alike! Be sure to let me know what you think!

☆

The first incident happened the Sunday Class 1-A moved into their new dormitory.

It had been a busy day of getting settled in and saying goodbye to family, and after their barbecue dinner, most everyone stayed up far too late chatting in the common room. The atmosphere was stuffy in the beginning, still tense from the whole Bakugou getting kidnapped ordeal. But Asui's tearful apology had been a much-needed sigh of relief, and finally, they could loosen up and turn their attention to more pressing matters. There were house rules to make, pet peeves to air out, not to mention a super exciting dorm room competition to wrap up!

By the time Yaoyorozu pointed out the time, it was almost midnight. With Iida's final reminder of the next morning's training, everyone said their goodnights and trickled away to the seclusion of their rooms.

That had been earlier. Currently, it was something like two in the morning, and Eijirou had been stuck for several hours just staring at his ceiling. His eyes had long adjusted to the dim moonlight creeping in through the window, but the unfamiliar shapes and shadows of his new room still made his brain buzz. Just one more thing keeping him up.

He was a heavy sleeper, sure, but being a heavy sleeper didn't mean shit if he couldn't actually fall asleep in the first place. And ever since... well. Ever since the training camp, sleep hadn't come the easiest.

Yawning, Eijirou curled in on himself, kicking at his blankets and scooting about, hoping to find a more comfortable position. Nothing felt right, though. It was awfully hot. He could open the window, but the late-August air wasn't gonna be much better, ohhh man, he should've brought his fan, and jeez, the mattress sure was softer than the one back home, too soft, how the hell was he supposed to sleep like this—?

Eijirou groaned, because now his brain was cranking out thought after thought and it needed to stop.

With a sigh, he flopped over onto his back and slung an arm over his eyes. Breathing exercises, those would help, right? He breathed eight counts in, then eight counts out. Again. Then again, letting his mind clear, drift away, maybe even dream of something nice, anything, please, god—

There was a loud bang, followed by a yelp.

Eijirou bolted upright, gasping. In an instant, his arms braced in front of him, quirk activated and ready to defend. His heartbeat thundered in his ears and his eyes darted this way and that around his room, urgently searching for the source of the sound, because what the hell was that?

None of the unfamiliar shapes moved. None of the shadows grabbed at him.

Just an overreaction. He was fine. He wasn't in danger, of course he wasn't, so calm down.

He took a few deep breaths, easing the nausea in his stomach and the wild beating of his heart. When his chest finally stopped heaving, he deactivated his quirk and lowered his hands to his lap, studying them for a moment, stunned. Seemed as though being the target of villain attack after villain attack had accumulated into some pretty unfortunate reflexes.

He let out a shaky breath, rubbing his eyes and running his fingers roughly through his hair before plopping back onto the bed. While his pulse slowed, the gears in his head still spun away, processing what the hell had just happened.

He turned to face the wall across his room, behind his desk. The sound had come from that direction. And just on the other side of that wall was Bakugou's room. Weird. Bakugou had gone to bed hours before everyone else. What was he doing up?

...Wait. That yelp was Bakugou?

Eijirou let out a snort. He couldn't stop it, Bakugou was just so damn manly, so self-assured, and spirited, and that yelp had been... none of those things. It'd been unexpected. Comical. What in the world could make someone like Bakugou yelp like that?

Eijirou's eyebrows furrowed. The corners of his mouth fell into a frown.

It couldn't be anything good, that was for sure.

He sighed.

Well, whatever it was, they were a bunch of loud, boisterous kids sleeping in the same building. There were bound to be some noise disturbances here and there. Eijirou just happened to be neighbors with the most explosive of the bunch. That was fine. If anything, the part of Eijirou that still felt the need to protect Bakugou found their room assignments to be a relief.

But he didn't need to worry anymore. Bakugou had probably fallen out of bed or tripped over his weights on the way to take a piss or something. That had to be it, Eijirou reassured himself with a nod and an amused little hum. As long as whatever the hell that was didn't happen again, he wouldn't complain.

It took several more minutes, his veins still burning with adrenalin, but finally, he fell asleep.

☆

The next day was just as hectic, with their summer break training back in full swing — an intense regime of testing quirk limits and brainstorming super moves in Gym Gamma to make up for the days they'd missed at the camp. When they were finally dismissed from training late in the evening, they still didn't rest. The novelty of living together hadn't worn off yet, so most of the class stayed up late in the common room again, chatting about this and that, or setting up gaming consoles, or working on that huge English review packet Present Mic had assigned for them to finish before the end of summer break.

The whole day left Eijirou drained and exhausted and just a little bit daunted. They still had two more weeks of this before regular classes picked back up again. UA really wasn't gonna let them catch a break!

At least sleep overcame him as soon as his head hit the pillow that night. Before long, visions of heroic rescues and daring escapades danced in his head, when—

Boom.

A jolt awake, a long groan. "What the hell?" Eijirou grumbled as he reached out blindly for his phone. He winced at the bright screen. 2:13. Huffing, he tossed the phone back onto his nightstand and wrapped his blanket snuggly around him.

It was Bakugou again, no doubt about it. But what was he doing? Was that his quirk? Why the hell would he be activating his quirk? At two in the morning?

Eijirou worried his lip.

Something was wrong.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope, Eijirou smothered his head with a pillow, blocking out the thought. Between Bakugou's kidnapping and Bakugou's rescue, Eijirou had done his fair share of worrying about the guy. Keeping it up would just be overkill at this point. Bakugou was safe and sound, just one door down, in one of the most secure facilities in the entire Chuubu region. The guy was probably just training! Or trying out a super move! Or otherwise being an insufferable little shit—!

—Okay, hold up, that wasn't fair of him. Sure, Bakugou was an asshole sometimes, but not that big of an asshole. And they were friends, right? He sure hoped so, what with the USJ and the cavalry battle and the summer camp and Kamino. What sort of friend would he be if he didn't give his pals the benefit of the doubt?

That day had been a weird one for Bakugou, though. Eijirou couldn't blame him too much, what with certain recent events and all. But damn, Bakugou had been downright cranky that day. Insufferably aggressive and reckless during training, shrugging off Kaminari's constant nagging, secluding himself in his room as soon as they returned to the dorms, not even joining the class for dinner...

Okay, maybe something really was wrong.

Great, his brain definitely wasn't gonna shut up now. Eijirou turned to his side, curling up and staring at the wall that separated his room and Bakugou's as if it would give him answers. It didn't.

He sighed. He wasn't gonna get any sleep until he got to the bottom of this, was he?

Generally, Eijirou didn't think of himself as a total idiot, but the thought did occur as he slipped out of bed and padded quietly to the corridor. A confrontation at two in the morning was probably not the smartest idea, but nothing was stopping him, either. No prying eyes, no obstacles in his way. Even so, he hesitated for a moment, fist hovering above Bakugou's door. What the hell was he doing?

With a breath, he gave it a soft tap.

"Hey, Bakugou?" he called, then immediately winced.

For a few seconds, time was frozen, and oh dear, he'd just made a bad mistake, hadn't he? He was tired, Bakugou was probably tired, they had training bright and early in the morning, yet here Eijirou was, knocking on Mr. Anger-Management-Issue's door in the middle of the night as if he needed to borrow a cup of sugar. Any other time, Eijirou could handle Bakugou perfectly well — he was kind of great at it, actually — but it was far too late for Bakugou's bullshit right now. The last thing Class 1-A needed was a tired, pissed-off human bomb causing a scene at two in the morning.

For a second, Eijirou considered, unrelatedly, where in the dorm would make the most effective bomb shelter — the stairwell, probably — followed by a few more seconds of his inner voice chastising him for being so unmanly. What was he, a coward? But his thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Very heavy, very angry footsteps, ohhh dear. He straightened his posture and braced himself for impact.

The door creaked open a few centimeters, revealing a pair of deep, red eyes. They stared at him blankly.

"The hell do you want?" came a bite-y mumble.

Eijirou blinked. That hadn't been so bad.

"I heard something coming from your room and wanted to make sure you're okay?"

That earned him a scowl. Bakugou set his jaw and looked to the side. "I'm fine."

"You sure, man? If something's wrong, I'm here—"

"—I said I'm fucking fine, alright?"

Small explosions like firecrackers danced around the fists balled up by his side. Bakugou jolted at the sound, just a bit, like he'd startled himself.

"Okaaay...?" Eijirou blinked again, unfazed. A few explosions here and there were nothing new. The averted eyes and the red-tipped ears, however, definitely were. What did Bakugou have to be embarrassed about?

"Are you gonna let me sleep?" Bakugou asked. "Or are you just gonna keep standing there like a goddamn idiot?"

"Oh. Right." Eijirou tore his eyes away and scratched the nape of his neck. He kicked at the floor a bit. "Sorry for bothering you?" he finished lamely.

Bakugou squinted. "Yeah."

"Anyway. Goodnight."

Bakugou tch-ed, mumbling a half-assed "G'night" before shutting the door firmly in Eijirou's face.

Well.

That hadn't gone as bad as he'd expected, Eijirou thought as he plopped back onto his bed and shimmied under the covers. He'd expected more explosions, for one. More cursing at the very least. But instead, Bakugou had kept both of those to a minimum, like he was trying to make as little of a scene as possible, which was... very much not Bakugou's style, and that just made Eijirou curious all over again.

Well, whatever the reason, hopefully it wouldn't become a habit or anything. Hopefully.

☆

... It wasn't that he was annoyed.

Okay, maybe he was a bit annoyed, but that was just the lack of sleep talking. Because a certain explosive punk thought it was a good idea to test the flammability of his sheets at two in the morning. Every single morning.

But really, Eijirou reminded himself a few nights later after waking up from the fifth round of explosions that week, he wasn't annoyed. He was concerned more than anything. Bakugou was his friend. His bro. And if something bothered his bro, it bothered him, too.

Eijirou sighed.

He was losing serious sleep over this whole ordeal.

Ignoring the red sirens blaring in his head, he slipped back into the hallway. When he found himself in front of Bakugou's door again, he raised his fist to knock. Then he lowered it. Raised it. Let it hover for a bit. Let it drop to his side.

With a frustrated groan, he teetered from one foot to the other, running his fingers through his hair and down his face.

He was too tired for this. His brain had been filled with fog all through training and his eyes hadn't stopped stinging for days and he was too freakin' tired for this, but he was already here. He'd already made it this far. No use hesitating now, dammit!

Clenching his jaw and steeling his nerves, finally, he knocked.

"Hey, Bakugou?"

This time, there was no wait, no beat of silence. Just an immediate growl, followed by a few quick footsteps and the door bursting open. Eijirou's eyes widened as Bakugou stomped into view, his brows scrunched over very red, very mean eyes. This time, he looked pissed.

"The fuck could you possibly want now?"

Eijirou let his face fall into a comfortable smirk. "Four nights. In a row. Should I be concerned?"

"No." Bakugou crossed his arms. "Leave. I'm trying to sleep."

"And failing, by the sound of it."

"You're one to talk, keeping me up!"

"Hey," Eijirou held his hands up in defense, "last I checked, I don't make explosions. That's all on you, buddy."

With a groan, Bakugou lolled his head back. "Fuck off," he spat.

"Fine! Fine!" Eijirou threw his hands up into the air. "Whatever! But the second this happens again, I'll be back."

"No the fuck you won't be."

Eijirou raised a brow. "Promise?"

"Whatever," Bakugou said. Then he yawned. He actually, honest-to-god yawned, rubbing his eyes and smacking his lips when it was over like he just couldn't help himself. When he was done, his arms crossed his chest again.

Okaaay. Whoever was possessing Bakugou's body needed to learn how to stay in character. Or, on a more serious note... something was definitely wrong.

Eijirou mirrored Bakugou and crossed his arms, too, then leaned his hip against the door frame. Maybe it'd make him look relaxed. Approachable.

"Sooo," he said. "Completely ignoring the fact that whatever the hell you're doing is keeping me up on a nightly basis..." his voice lowered. "You know you can come to me if something's bothering you, right? I'll listen, I swear."

Bakugou's face fell into a deadpan.

"Goodnight," he said.

Then, he slammed the door.

As the resulting gust of air washed over his face, Eijirou made up his mind. If this happened again, he needed a plan.