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Heroes don’t have time for anything. Heroes don’t have time to go shopping for new clothes or to go to the movies. Heroes don’t have time to eat out with friends, or even to have friends. Heroes don’t have time to play video games or to go to the park to enjoy a nice afternoon. Heroes don’t have time anything. And even more, heroes don’t have time for stupid birthday parties that their annoying significant other is insisting on throwing.
“You’re being unreasonable.”, said significant other says, annoyed, mismatched eyes following Katsuki as he moves around the kitchen preparing breakfast.
“Shouto.”, Katsuki breathes slowly, because 6 in the morning is too early to start yelling, even for him. “I don’t want a birthday party.”
“Katsuki…”, Shouto sighs in that specific way that is both annoyed and fond. “Birthdays are important, therefore it should be celebrated.”
“I am celebrating my birthday, Shouto. I’m gonna eat my favorite cereal, kiss my unfairly beautiful fiancé and go blow villains up for the rest of the day.”, Katsuki says, placing his bowl full of cereal and Shouto’s plate of eggs and bacon on the table. “That’s a perfect way of celebrating my birthday.”
“That’s just like any other of your days!”
“What can I say? I live the perfect life.”, Katsuki smirks, sitting down on the chair and grabbing a spoonful of cereal, shoving it inside his own mouth while staring at the other pro hero.
Shouto huffs annoyed and Katsuki can’t help but appreciate the fact that early in the morning, when they are alone in their apartment, Shouto is completely stripped off from his cold and inexpressive facade and he gets to see the other pouting and doing other cute faces. Not that Katsuki will ever admit that he thinks Shouto is cute, not even after all those years together; he has his pride after all.
The whole birthday discourse isn’t new to Katsuki, nor is his bad reaction at this. Katsuki doesn’t understand why he should celebrate being one year closer to death, it’s morbid and he really doesn’t see the necessity of it. Normally Shouto would give up after a couple of times and leave him alone, but for some reason this year the ice-and-fire hero keeps insisting on the party. Something about thirty being an important age.
Katsuki doesn’t care and tells it again to his fiancé once they are saying goodbye at the door before heading to work. Shouto only sighs tiredly and nods in agreement.
-
It’s past noon when they meet on the streets, both answering to a call about a building catching on fire near downtown. There are people inside the building and Katsuki was close enough to be requested even though rescues aren’t really his thing. It takes them fifteen minutes to bring everyone to safety, with Shouto freezing almost the entire building to contain the flames.
They are walking over the building one last time when Shouto approaches Katsuki, his voice calm. “Have you thought better about the party?”
“What party?”, Katsuki frowns confused.
“Your birthday party. Tonight.”, Shouto says, almost softly.
“There won’t be a party!”, Katsuki exclaims, stopping walking to turn around and look at his fiancé. “No party, Shouto.”
“But it’ll be small, I promise!”, Shouto tries to argue, but Katsuki laughs at him.
“You don’t know what small means, Shouto. We all remember our third year Christmas party.”, Katsuki says, resuming on walking.
“You’ll never let that one die, will you?”, Shouto rolls his eyes, following the other.
“I can’t let Mic dressed as Santa Claus die, Shouto. Or the 3 meters tall Christmas tree. Or the real and very alive reindeers.” Katsuki starts to list, making Shouto visibly cringe at the memory.
“Why am I still with you?”, Shouto asks with a grimace.
“Because I’m gorgeous and give a really good blowjob.”, Katsuki winks at him from over his shoulder.
“That’s true…”, Shouto nods lightly.
“GUYS! DON’T SAY THINGS LIKE THESE! THERE ARE BABIES HERE!”, Eijirou yells from the other room.
“WHAT BABY, SHITTY HAIR? THE BUILDING IS EMPTY!”, Katsuki yells back.
“ME!”, Eijirou answers and they can hear Izuku and Kyouka mirroring his answer from somewhere on the floor.
“OH, GO FUCK YOURSELVES! ALL OF YOU!”, Katsuki barks out without any heat and they can hear the others laughing.
“Can you at least think about the party?”, Shouto asks again and Katsuki groans annoyed.
“Just forget about the party, Shouto, for fuck’s sake.”, he begs and Shouto sighs lightly, nodding and walking away.
Although Shouto doesn’t demonstrate, Katsuki knows him well enough to know when the other is disappointed and sad.
-
Me: [17:42] You can throw your stupid-ass party, just stop walking around like a kicked puppy
Me: [17:44] But I swear to god, Shouto, if you fill our house with people, I’m moving back to my parents’.
-
If someone asks Katsuki if he got the longer route to get to his apartment, he’ll explode the idiot’s face. But he did. He took the longer route and walked purposely slower than normal so he would avoid the party as much as he could.
The hall leading to his apartment door is weirdly quiet when he steps into it and Katsuki almost turns around and run, not wanting to deal with people jumping on him yelling ‘surprise’ as soon as he steps inside his house. But Katsuki isn’t one of running away, even if he’s dreading the party ever since he messaged Shouto about it.
Truth to be told, Katsuki has a huge soft spot for his fiancé, and the constant texts asking about why Shouto was sad added to Eijirou’s huge lecture about how Katsuki should be more considerate to Shouto’s feelings successfully guilt tripped Katsuki into accepting the stupid birthday party. And now he’s here, quietly opening his front door and getting ready to deal with his friends.
Except that there’s no one inside the apartment when he walks in. No one jumps on him yelling on his ears. No one throws confetti at him or tackle him on the ground. There’s also no obnoxiously loud music playing or the smell of cheap alcohol. No ugly decorations made of papier-mache.
No. Everything is into place, quiet and calm how Katsuki likes it. There’s a cake on the table with “Happy Birthday Katsuki” written in white chocolate on a small chocolate plate and some of Katsuki’s favorite sweets on a plate. The only decorations are red and orange origami flowers spread around the table, the flowers he remembers seeing Shouto learning on Youtube on the week before.
“I told it would be a small party.”, Shouto says softly from the kitchen door, startling Katsuki out of his thoughts.
“Does it mean that it’ll be only you and me?”, Katsuki asks, sitting down to take off his boots.
“Contrary to what you think, I do hear what you say and I know how much of an old grumpy and antisocial cat you are…”, Shouto says, walking into the kitchen just to come back right after with two glasses of red wine. “So I thought you would like it more if it was only us.”
“You should have told me.”, Katsuki says, now feeling bad for being so against it in the beginning. He grabs the glass Shouto offers him.
“The it wouldn’t be a surprise.”, Shouto chuckles, touching his glass lightly against Katsuki’s. “Happy birthday.”, he says with a small smile before taking a sip of the dry wine.
“Thank you.”, Katsuki gives him a genuine smile, taking a sip of the wine before closing the distance between them and kissing Shouto’s lips slowly.
Shouto likes slow kisses. The ones that make the time stop and their pulse to slow down. The ones in which Katsuki will hold him close in the same way someone would hold a rare porcelain tea set. The ones that slowly but surely take their breaths away. And Katsuki gives them to him, every single kiss.
“You should go change into more comfortable clothes…”, Shouto whispers against Katsuki’s lips, not even bothering in opening his eyes just yet.
“That’s actually a good idea.”, Katsuki nods, not making any move to step away from Shouto’s warmth, but kissing him again instead.
Eventually Katsuki goes changing into his pajamas while Shouto reheats the dinner. Spicy noodles made with the koregusu sauce they bought the last time they went to Okinawa together on the last summer.
They eat together at the table, knees touching under the table as if they were teenagers hiding their relationship from the eyes of the others, Katsuki bumping their knees once or twice while they talked about nothing in particular. It’s only when they are eating the sweets that Katsuki finally address the thing that has been catching his attention ever since he entered the apartment.
He grabs one of the origamis, a light pink sakura flower. “I never read you as someone into origamis…”
“Oh…”, Shouto looks at the paper flower made with so much care and Katsuki swears he can see a dust of pink on his fiancé’s cheeks. “I used to make tsurus for my mother when I was younger… But I thought flowers matched you better.”
“Should I be offended by that?”, Katsuki asks, but there’s no actual bite on his words.
“Well, there are some flowers that are deadly but beautiful… I think it matches you well.”, Shouto says and Katsuki huffs a small laugh.
“What will we gonna do now?”, Katsuki asks, reaching out over the table to hold Shouto’s hand, slowly intertwining their fingers.
“I thought that, since it’s your birthday, we could watch those weird old movies you like so much.”, Shouto says with a tiny smirk.
“They are classic, Shouto!”, Katsuki exclaims, making the other laugh more openly.
“They are in black and white, Katsuki.”
“Still classic.”, Katsuki grumbles with something that resembles a pout.
They finally get up from the the table, grabbing their used dishes and putting it in the sink, a mutual agreement of letting the cleaning for the next morning.
While Katsuki chooses the movie they will see from his vast DVD collection, Shouto walks to their bedroom to gather their pillows and blankets, pretty much building a nest on the couch. The couch was, honestly, the most expensive item they bought when they moved together three years ago. But since they spend more time on the couch than anywhere else in the house, their bed included, the purchase was completely justified. It’s unnecessarily big and extremely comfortable, perfect for cuddling after rough days of work or sleeping in when they have a day off.
It doesn’t take long to them to cuddle on the recently built nest of soft and warm blankets, their wine glasses on the armrest coasters, Katsuki making good use of their small height difference to tuck his head against Shouto’s neck. They hold hands while watching the movie, thumbs caressing calloused palms and soft skins on the back of each other’s hands. They exchange kisses dewy with wine, sweet nothings being whispered under the sound of As Time Goes By.
Katsuki is the first one to fall asleep, his breath coming out in small puffs against Shouto’s neck, warm and calm. Shouto watches him sleep for a bit before drifting into a calm sleep too, half-empty glasses of wine forgotten on the armrests of the couch and the birthday cake still waiting for them surrounded by paper flowers on the table.
Heroes doesn’t have time for anything. Not for going shopping for new clothes or watching a movie. Not to eat out with friends, and sometimes not even for friends in general. They don’t time to play video games or to go to the park to enjoy a nice afternoon. Heroes don’t have time for anything, except for their annoying significant other. For them, a hero will always make some time.