The first night Eijirou performs, he doesn't notice him. He blames it on his pre-performer jitters, because there's no fucking way he ever would've missed that hot-as-hell man in the back of the club. Except he does.

The second night Eijirou performs, he's less nervous than before and so, during his set, he lets his scarlet eyes roam the crowd. There's a sighting of nondescript blonde hair in the mob of high class, nightclub goers, but Eijirou doesn't think too much about it. He really wishes he did.

The third night Eijirou performs, he sees the blonde head in the crowd again. His eyes drift around the crowd, but they always come back to the blonde head. As soon as he finishes his set, he bows quickly and dashes off stage, only to be enveloped by the overwhelming presence of Ashido Mina.

"Holy shit Kiri!" she hisses, yanking at his arm. "You won't believe it!"

"I know!" He can hardly catch his breath, still riding on the exhilarating thrill of singing. "I think that was my best performance yet!"

Mina rolls her eyes at him. "Yes, yes, you did perfect as always, Kiri. But—"

He cuts her off with a brilliant beam. "Thanks Mina! I'm so thirsty—"

She shoves a hand over his mouth, her amber eyes glaring. "Shut up for five seconds Kiri! I'm trying to tell you that there's an extremely hot guy out there and he's been eyeing you the past three times you came here!"

Eijirou blinks. And then he blinks again. Mina's words process in his head and he yelps. "What?! Who?!"

Mina smirks and removes her hands from his mouth. "Some blonde dude. Pale blonde, not dirty blonde and his hair's in spikes, kinda like yours…"

Something in Eijirou freezes at the thought of the stranger. Nondescript blonde hair.

"Pale blonde?" he says slowly. "A pale blonde haired guy?"

Mina nods emphatically, eyes gleaming. "C'mere."

She tugs his arm again and he lets her drag him out the door and into the crowd. They get lost in the room within minutes, but luckily, Mina's grip on his arm is iron and she doesn't let go as she drags him through the crowds. She stops short, behind a group of girls, and flicks her head towards the blonde haired male.

"There," she says with a wide smile, but Eijirou barely hears her.

Nondescript, pale blonde hair, his stupid, unobservant ass.

This guy was absolutely fine.

He's tall, maybe around the same height as Eijirou, and his skin pale and luminescent under the brightly colored lights. His hair is ash blonde and stands in spikes, so similar to his own style. He's dressed in a collared black button up with black pants.

Eijirou's heartbeat triples because holy shit, he's never seen anyone so good looking before.

"What are you waiting for?" Mina's voice is barely heard over the blaring music and she shoves him roughly in the general direction of the guy. "Go talk to him!"

"Mina, wait—!"

But she's already gone, leaving him with two choices: to scour the impossibly thick crowd for his traitorous best friend, or to go and try to converse with the guy.

Eijirou begins to make his way towards the blonde male, but to his utter disappointment, he's gone from his previous spot.

Fuck. He had one shot. And blew it.

Eijirou decides on option C: the bar. He pushes his way through the smothering crowd and plops himself down at the bar. He waves the bartender down and opens his mouth to speak, but a smooth, rich voice cuts him off.

"Two tequila sunrises. Put it on my tab."

His heart falters altogether. There's no way he got that lucky. No way.

He gazes up at the guy and he desperately tries to not let his jaw drop.

It's him.

No fucking way.

The blond turns to look at Eijirou, leaning against the counter. His hands are shoved into his pockets and holy fuck, his eyes are stunning.

Where Eijirou's eyes are bright vermillion and round, his are dark crimson and slanted like a snake's. They're beautiful, liquifying Eijirou on the stool where he sat.

Damn, could he get any more attractive?

"Your singing was good," the stranger says, and holy fuck, if Eijirou could orgasm to the sound of someone's voice, he definitely would. His voice is deep and husky and shit, he got at least a hundred times more attractive than he already was.

"Thanks! I saw you in the crowd earlier! I'm glad you enjoyed it!" his voice escapes his mouth in a high squeak and he curses himself for not having more control over himself.

It's just a hot guy, no biggie.

Except for the fact that he's an extremely hot guy who Eijirou really, really wants to kiss. A lot.

The guy raises an eyebrow as the bartender swings around with their drinks. He takes a sip of the tequila and slides the other cup to Eijirou.

"You look like the kind of guy who likes sweet drinks," he says, shifting on his feet. "How right am I?"

"Right on the mark," Eijirou admits and takes a swig of his drink. "Since you appreciated my music and bought me a drink, do I get to know your name?"

His lips twitch upwards into a smirk and god, why was everything about this guy hot?

"Name's Bakugou Katsuki," he says in that ridiculously deep and alluring voice. "What's your actual name, Red, because I'm very sure you don't go by 'Red Riot' in public."

He grins at the sound of his stage name at Bakugou's lips.

"Kirishima Eijirou. Nice to meet you."

Bakugou ignores his greeting and continues, "When's your next performance, Red?"

Eijirou blinks and looks upward, thinking. "I think next Saturday? Probably. Why?"

Bakugou shoots him a wry grin and downs the rest of his tequila. "So I can see you perform, obviously."

Shit. A hot guy wants to see Eijirou again.

"O-Oh! Then…uh…" Eijirou digs his phone out of his pocket, thankful that he didn't leave it back in the performer's rooms. "You should give me your number that way you know for sure that I'm performing on Saturday!"

Bakugou smirks at him and Eijirou feels a flush of red spread across his cheeks.

"Smooth move, Red," he teases and takes the phone to input his number.

He gives it back once he finishes and runs a hand through his already tousled blonde hair.

What Eijirou wouldn't give to tousle his hair for him.

"See you whenever, Red. Text me and I'll come." Bakugou's eyes are blazing crimson and they burn holes into Eijirou's eyes and heart.

"O-Okay!"

And then he's gone, disappearing into the crowd.

Eijirou sits in silence, stunned. The noise of the club is just white noise and the only thing he can hear is the roaring of blood in his ears, the rapid thrumming of his pulse.

"He wants to see me again," he says out loud, to no one in particular. "He wants to see me again."

He just wants to hear him perform again, he reminds himself. Just a performance.

But he can't help but hope for otherwise.

—

Bakugou appears at his next three performances over the course of a month. When Eijirou finishes his set, he comes down from the stage and Bakugou is always waiting for him by the bar with a tequila sunrise, all smirk and glittering crimson eyes, leaning against the countertop like a supermodel.

He has the looks to be straight from a modeling magazine, Eijirou thinks as he dazedly makes his way to the ash blonde.

His performance that night is exhilarating; he's never felt more into his music and all the while, his eyes are on Bakugou as he sings.

He just can't seem to pull away from the magnetic force that was Bakugou Katsuki. Not that he really wants to, anyways.

"Hey Bakugou," he greets, collapsing onto a stool. Without invitation, he grabs the cup and drinks it, grateful for the coolness of the alcohol.

There's a low chuckle from besides him. "You know you're supposed to drink water after singing that much, right? Alcohol doesn't do shit to your dehydration."

Eijirou looks Bakugou in the eye. "So? You gonna stop me?" he dares.

There's something akin to electricity in the air, buzzing around them like bees to honey. It sings of excitement and adrenaline and there's that feeling, that feeling of the calm before the storm.

Something was going to happen tonight. Eijirou could feel it in his bones.

"Tch. Fucking Hair-For-Brains," Bakugou grumbles as he calls the bartender over. "A cup of water for this dumbass singer," he says sharply. "And make it quick before he decides to faint out of dehydration."

The water arrives a few moments later and Bakugou snatches the tequila away, eliciting a whine from the redhead, and pushes the cup of water in front of him.

"Drink up, Red," he says.

"That was rude," Eijirou complains, sipping the water.

It's cold and refreshing, cooling his burning throat, and as much as he doesn't want to admit it out loud, he's grateful for the ash blonde next to him.

"You told me to stop you," is all he says, with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "You were good today," he adds, as if an afterthought.

"Thanks bro!" Eijirou beams at him and finishes the water. "I think that was my best performance yet. I really felt it today!"

"And you couldn't keep your eyes off of me, huh, Red?"

Eijirou meets Bakugou's gaze, feeling stunned, and there's a wolfish grin playing at the corner of his lips.

"Admit it. I saw you. You were staring at me throughout your whole set." Bakugou sits down next to Eijirou, his ruby-like eyes glittering with mirth.

"I—uh…"

Eijirou's at a loss for words. He's scrambling, looking for a way out, any way out.

"Hey Kiri! What're up to?" a bubbly voice approaches and he heaves a sigh of relief. Thank the whole heavens for Ashido Mina.

"Oh, hey Mina!" he turns his attention to her with a smile. "This is Bakugou!"

Mina scrutinizes the ash blonde and recognition flits across her face like a butterfly; however, she hides with a beamish smile and offers her hand.

"Hey Bakugou! I'm Mina, Kiri's best friend!" She's all smiles when she looks at Bakugou and he merely scowls and looks away.

"What's up? I thought you went dancing?" Eijirou queries, nodding towards the floor.

"Well, I was, but then I remembered I have dinner with Hagakure and the other girls from work tonight and you're kinda my ride home, so I went to find you!" Mina explains.

"Ah! Sorry about that! We'll go now then!" He finishes the tequila and thumps Bakugou on the back. "Sorry Bakugou, I gotta cut our night short. See you next week?"

"Yeah sure. Fucking whatever." Bakugou turns away from him and waves down the bartender without another word.

Mina and Eijirou head out the door, talking about nonsensical topics, and get into Eijirou's car. The minute the doors are locked, Mina wheels on him.

"So, what were you and Bakugou talking about earlier?" she demands.

Eijirou startles at the sudden three-hundred-sixty turn. "We…er…"

"Well?" Mina's amber eyes bore into his and he shrinks under her gaze.

"Well…we were talking about my performance and he kinda noticed that I was…staring at him the whole time?" Eijirou mumbles, feeling his blush color his cheeks.

Mina laughs, loud and sudden. "Honey, you were not subtle. Like, at all. I think your whole audience noticed."

He groans in response as he guns the engines. "What do I do? I can't tell him that I like him! He might not even be gay!"

Mina face palms against the dashboard. "Babe, he is, like, extremely gay. And is also one hundred and twenty percent into you. Anyone with eyes can see that."

He spares a glance at his best friend when he reaches a stoplight. "Really?" he asks, voice hopeful.

The bubble gum pink haired girl merely laughs and ruffles his artfully done spikes. "Really, Kiri. He likes you. So why miss that chance?"

Why miss that chance?

—

When Eijirou steps off the stage, he feels a little more nervous than usual. There's a palpable tension in the air, despite finishing his act and heading towards his regular meet up at the bar.

Sure enough, Bakugou is waiting for him and shit, he looks so, so good. Dressed in black jeans that accentuated his slender waist and a black bomber jacket, Eijirou doesn't think he can stop himself from staring.

"Hey there," he says with a smile.

Bakugou doesn't respond and Eijirou sits himself on a stool and breathes in and out, before he manages out, "You look really nice."

This time, Bakugou smirks at him, his usual arrogance back in place. "'Course I do. When do I not?"

"You always look good," Eijirou says honestly and Bakugou's mouth opens, as if to fire a retort, but abruptly shuts.

"Did you like my performance tonight?" he asks curiously, leaning on his elbows to gaze at the ash blonde.

Bakugou huffs and folds his arms, turning away from the redhead. Even under the dimmed lights of the club, Eijirou catches sight of a red flush dusting his pale cheeks and he can't help but smile.

"Yeah. It was fucking great, as usual, Red. And…"

Bakugou meets his eyes again, lips pressed into a firm line. "You were staring at me again."

Why miss that chance?

"What about it?" Eijirou leans closer, a playful smirk toying on his lips. "Is that such a problem, Bakugou?"

"Fucking—" The ash blonde averts his eyes again. "I didn't mind."

Take that chance, won't you?

"Good. If you didn't mind that, I hope you don't mind this."

"Wha—mphf!"

Eijirou crushes his lips on Bakugou's. The kiss is hot and searing and electrifying, all at once. It tastes of tequila sunrise and sweat and something sweet—vanilla, perhaps? Something flutters in Eijirou's gut and it's hot and fiery and fuck, he never wants to let go.

But alas, oxygen is a necessity for life, and Eijirou pulls away, gasping for breath. Bakugou's eyes are blown wide and his face is flushed even more so.

"Sorry. Sorry," he whispers. "I—you…I've liked you for the longest time and—"

"Kirishima."

The sound of Bakugou's gravelly voice cuts him off and he can't help but stop mid-ramble, and stare at the handsome ash blonde.

"Yeah Bakugou?"

His voice is hoarse when he whispers, "Kiss me again."

And Eijirou does. Lips hot and passionate, one kiss after another. Each kiss tasting of tequila sunrise and bitter alcohol, but each one whispers, take that chance. take that chance. take that chance.

sometimes i feel bad for migrating to ao3, but then i remember my works actually get read there and im just here on ff like,,,,hi i ship krbk sorry.