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After so many years together, it was easy to fall into a routine. And after so many years together, it was easy to tell when something was wrong.
Even if Shouta wasn’t the best—and never had been the best—at dealing with his own emotions, he had a knack for picking up on the emotions of others. Working three jobs between the two of them obviously meant stress and busyness, but after years and years of doing this, Shouta could easily pick up on when Hizashi was significantly more stressed than usual.
Now was one of those times.
Hizashi was late by more than an hour. Being late wasn’t usually a big deal—it happened. Life happened—but with everything else going on right now, Shouta was more than a little worried when he came home to find that Hizashi wasn’t already there. It was odd, since Shouta was usually the last to get home, given that he usually had to deal with hero-work related bureaucracy, including dropping off paperwork or dealing with whatever police precinct happened to be contracting him at the time, so coming home to a Hizashi-less house was very noticeable.
He didn’t think anything happened, but he sent off a text just to be sure.
Aizawa Shouta: Got held up at school?
It seemed like the most likely explanation. Part of the issue lately had been the fact that Shouta wasn’t the only one with a naïve, first-time teacher under his supervision. Hizashi happened to have a new English teacher on board who had the responsibility of teaching the business department, a teacher who’d been giving Hizashi more trouble than All Might gave Shouta, which was a feat in itself.
Shouta held his phone in his hand, frowning as he glanced around the house. There was no indication that Hizashi had been home at all, especially with the cat currently meowing at his feet. With a sigh, Shouta turned on the lights in their house and headed into the kitchen, shushing the cats as the three of them bounded out of their hiding places at the promise of food. He fed them silently, not cooing or teasing them like he usually did and as soon as they were happily eating away, Shouta just picked up his phone again and began pacing the kitchen tile, waiting for a response.
It came within a few minutes—a short enough time that told Shouta that there wasn’t an emergency, though it didn’t lay all his nerves to rest.
Yamada Hizashi: Yeah, sorry, Shouta.
As per usual, Shouta’s phone immediately buzzed in his hands again. Sometimes he wondered why Hizashi couldn’t just fit everything he had to say into one text, but at least it told him that Hizashi wasn’t stressed enough that he was being short with him.
Yamada Hizashi: Just dealing with the new teacher again.
Yamada Hizashi: Can you believe he lost his lesson plans!!!!!
Yamada Hizashi: All of them!!!!!
Yamada Hizashi: He spilled coffee on his computer. This is TERRIBLE.
Shouta stared at his phone, at the slew of texts Hizashi had sent him. That—he couldn’t even imagine what he’d do to a teacher in the heroics department if they’d done that. Shouta didn’t even have a short temper, but he did have an inability to deal with incompetence, and that was something he definitely considered incompetent since everyone at the school knew to back up their documents. It was a wonder Hizashi was keeping it together at all.
After a small pause, Shouta’s fingers hovering over the keyboard on the screen of his phone, he exhaled slowly and typed out exactly what he knew Hizashi needed.
Aizawa Shouta: Come home.
He hardly had to wait for a response.
Yamada Hizashi: Okay.
Yamada Hizashi: I’ll finish the incident report and head back.
Despite everything else, Shouta found it in himself to smile at that. Clearly, Hizashi knew what he needed, too, and he knew he needed to come home. He just needed Shouta to tell him.
Aizawa Shouta: Good.
He left it at that. He had other things to do now. An entire list of them, actually. He gave the cats another glance, watching the three of them still excitedly eating, and then turned away, starting to dig through the drawers in their kitchen until he found the one he was looking for, sorting through the paper menus until he came across the delivery menu of Hizashi’s favorite place.
It happened to be a Thai place that Shouta wasn’t particularly fond of, and it was on the spicier side, something Shouta also didn’t like. They didn’t eat there often or order it much, but Shouta was more than willing to sacrifice his picky eating habits if it meant making Hizashi a little more happy when he came home. It was easy enough to remember exactly what Hizashi liked and Shouta picked something that sounded less spicy and more bland for himself and placed the order.
He wouldn’t have a lot of time. The next few steps were easy—throwing blankets and comfortable clothes in the dryer, running a hot bath, turning on music. Shouta was doing anything he could think of. It wasn’t like he didn’t have his own stressors and it wasn’t like this year hadn’t been hard on him but somehow, taking care of Hizashi felt better, like it calmed Shouta as well. There was something about coming home and going through a routine of doing things for his husband that helped lay his own mind at rest.
Food arrived before Hizashi did, though it didn’t beat him by much. Shouta paid the delivery driver, set the bag of warm food down on the table, shooing a trio of curious, nosy cats away from it, and almost right after, Shouta heard the telltale sounds of Hizashi’s car pulling up to the house.
Shouta stopped, listening closely, hearing footsteps and then the noise of Hizashi’s keys in the door, the front door swinging open a moment later.
“Welcome home,” Shouta greeted, looking Hizashi over as he stood in the doorway.
It’d been a gradual thing, happening over the last week or so, but Hizashi looked exhausted. Most other people probably wouldn’t notice much, but Shouta did. It was little things—the way the collar of Hizashi’s jacket wasn’t the usual pristine upturned leather that it always was, the way his hair laid just a little flatter than normal, the small bags under his eyes, how his expression just barely drooped. His sunglasses had slipped further down on his nose than Hizashi usually liked and as he stood in the doorway, looking at Shouta, he made no move to fix them.
“Hey, babe,” Still, though, Hizashi’s mouth twitched upwards into a small, almost shaky smile. It wasn’t the loud, bright one he usually flashed at school, but a more private one reserved for Shouta. “Sorry about being late. That teacher—”
“Go get in the bath and you can tell me all about it while I wash your hair.”
Shouta honestly felt a bit guilty about cutting Hizashi off, but he wanted Hizashi to relax and if he wanted to vent to Shouta, then he could do it while Shouta did things for him. Hizashi didn’t protest, either, the smile on his face only growing as he stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. Shouta watched him closely, Hizashi looking up at him as he stooped to take off his boots.
“You ran me a bath?”
Shouta raised an eyebrow at him, waving off the gesture, “You’re feeling stressed out. Sitting in a hot bath is stress-relieving, isn’t it?”
Hizashi actually laughed. It was quiet and breathy, but it eased Shouta further and he found himself smiling, too, at the sound of it. Hizashi took off his boots, going to unzip his jacket, unlatching the speaker from his neck, voice a little softer than before, “Always so logical…”
Still, there was no protest, and Hizashi made his way to him, following Shouta into the bathroom. The room was warm from the heat of the bath, Shouta having shut the door to keep it in. There was a thick layer of bubble soap in the bath, Shouta frowning at it as Hizashi started taking the rest of his clothes off.
“I think I put too much soap in,” He stared at it, a little concerned at the sheer amount of bubbles sitting in the bathtub. Hizashi only gave him another laugh.
“You can never put in too much bubble bath.”
“I’m sure you can,” Shouta shot back, glancing over at Hizashi to find that he was fully undressed. Silently, Shouta helped him to the tub, having Hizashi lean on him as he stepped in, a grin curling onto his own face as he heard a satisfied, contented sigh from Hizashi as he touched the water with his foot. Shouta glanced at him again, “Warm enough?”
“Perfect,” Hizashi told him, sitting down in the water, body disappearing into a sea of bubbles. Shouta had to stifle a laugh at how ridiculous he looked, with bubbles all the way up to his collarbones. Hizashi seemed perfectly happy like that, though, all the tenseness from the way he’d looked when he’d opened the door completely gone from his body. Instead, Hizashi was grinning, and his absolute happiness at sitting in a tub of bubbles was starting to rub off on Shouta.
“What were to saying about that other teacher…?” Shouta prompted, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub, feeling around for the bucket they kept in here explicitly for this purpose. Usually, Hizashi would take a shower to get the gel and hairspray out of his hair, but sometimes, Shouta liked to wash his hair for him. Taking care of Hizashi in ways like this—it relaxed him and it made him happy. He quickly found the bucket, dragging it between his legs for whenever Hizashi was ready for him to wash his hair.
“Oh, right! Ugh, he spilled a bunch of coffee onto his computer, right on the keyboard! Can you believe that, Shouta? And he didn’t back anything up! Months of work—lost!” Hizashi quickly fell into the way he got when he was telling stories, talking fast and making motions with his hands, occasionally sending small patches of bubbles flying into the air. “You have no idea how hard it was to just… stay professional! I wanted to yell at him so badly, Shouta! But I didn’t. I wrote an incident report on him and… well, then you texted me, so I told him I’d deal with him later. Kinda nice to take a breather from it, you know?”
Following his words, Hizashi let out a long breath, frowning.
“You should fire him.”
“Shouta!” Hizashi scolded, and Shouta just offered him an apologetic half-smile. He’d been joking, at least partially. Hizashi took it, though, “You can’t just expel everyone you don’t like!”
“Sure, I can.”
“No, no you can’t!” Again, Hizashi laughed, clearly knowing that Shouta had been teasing him. He yawned, Shouta watching him closely, and leaning back in the bathtub. “Ah, the water’s so warm. It’s nice, Shouta. Thank you.”
“You need to relax,” Shouta picked up the bucket between his legs, deciding that it was probably about time to wash Hizashi’s hair for him. Hizashi had his eyes mostly closed and Shouta brought it to the water, dipping the bucket under and filling it with water. “You’ve been working too hard. Between this and your radio show expanding and your mother’s health problems, you need to take some time for yourself. Sit up.”
Hizashi cast him a glance, and Shouta knew immediately what it meant. While Shouta was good at realizing others’ emotions and instructing them to take care of themselves mentally, he didn’t do the same for himself. He’d work himself to death if it meant getting more things done. But he hated seeing Hizashi doing the same thing, and that was one of the areas where they were similar. Hizashi needed this and it put Shouta at ease to help him, even if it was just small things.
Hizashi said nothing about it, though, sitting up. Shouta cupped a hand over his hairline, creating a barrier between his hair and his face so the hot water wouldn’t get in his eyes. With that, he carefully poured the bucket of water over Hizashi’s hair, watching it start to deflate as he did so. Hizashi hummed and Shouta took it as a sign that he was happy as he reached over and squeezed Hizashi’s special hair care shampoo into his hand.
There was a comfortable silence between them, broken only by the small amount of splashing Hizashi’s gentle movements created. Shouta massaged the shampoo into his hair, working it down and working all the product out of it. It took a couple more buckets of water, Shouta always careful to keep it out of Hizashi’s face and eyes, but eventually, Shouta had worked enough shampoo into it that Hizashi’s hair finally resembled something normal, draping down his back, long enough that the ends of it floated in the bubbly water. Shouta finished up quickly, conditioning it and washing it all out again before drawing back.
He let Hizashi wash up, the slow conversation starting up between them again, and Shouta got up and got the still-warm clothes out of the dryer, wrapping Hizashi in a towel and letting him dry off before getting dressed.
“I ordered food,” Shouta told him as Hizashi pulled on the sweatpants Shouta had provided for him, happily humming at the warmth of the material. “It’s that Thai place you like.”
Hizashi looked up at him, face half covered by the towel on his head, “I thought that place was too spicy for you?”
Shouta just shrugged, closing the distance between them, putting his hands on the towel on Hizashi’s head, rubbing it and shaking the last bits of dripping bathwater from it. He stepped back, letting Hizashi discard his towel on the ground and keeping his gaze on him as Hizashi ran a brush through his long hair, “It’s fine. Tonight’s your night. You must be hungry.”
Hizashi whistled, “My night, huh? If you’re being so nice tonight, will you braid my hair for me later?”
Shouta frowned again, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout, “I’m always nice to you. I can try, but no complaining if I accidentally knot your hair again.”
Hizashi gave him a long look, and then laughed, pausing in his brushing, “Practice makes perfect, Shouta!”
With that, Hizashi bounced out of the room, leaving Shouta back in the bathroom, unable to fight the gentle smile from his face. Even if he’d gotten roped into figuring out how to braid Hizashi’s hair and would have to eat spicy food that he didn’t like, the fact that Hizashi was returning to his normal self made it better.
Seeing him earlier, looking so utterly exhausted had pained him. And now, all Shouta could do was follow him, Hizashi already excitedly sorting through the bag of delivery food.
“Aw, you remembered my favorites!” Hizashi cooed, voice picking up back into its usual inclination, something that only furthered the relief Shouta was starting to feel.
“How could I not?” Shouta countered, trying and failing to come off as slightly annoyed. “You get the same thing every time we go there.”
Hizashi stopped, holding a take-out container in his hands and for a long moment, Hizashi just held Shouta’s gaze, his green eyes soft and, for what felt like the first time this week, relaxed. He leaned in, still holding the container of hot food, and pressed a kiss against Shouta’s lips, his soft skin brushing against his.
Despite knowing him for fifteen years, Shouta still felt his face heat up and he tried to pout, trying to pull his face into his usual frown, but it wouldn’t come, no matter how hard he tried.
“You’re blushing!” Hizashi was grinning from ear to ear now. “Wow, after over a decade of dating you, I can still make you blush. That’s pretty great, isn’t it?”
“I’m not blushing,” Shouta insisted, even as the heat in his face remained.
Hizashi just raised an eyebrow at him, and Shouta’s face burned even more.
He forced himself to glance away, “Sit down and eat your food.”
All he got in reply was a laugh and even with the teasing, Shouta found himself hanging onto the sound, just happy that he’d been able to make Hizashi return to his normal self and forget about everything stressing him, if only for tonight.