Work Text:
The first sensations his consciousness registers when he starts awakening is something cool making thin trails on his cheek and temple, tinkling on his forehead and something wet and warm on his neck; all pleasant sensations that make a groan escape his lips.
His sluggishly opens his eyes half way but even that is enough to get the picture of what is happening.
“Happy Birthday Katsuki.” Todoroki rises his hand from Katsuki’s shoulder so that their eyes meet, his cold fingers caressing his cheek. He looks content and calm, cheeks slightly flushed as he does that absolutely cute thing where he nuzzles his other cheek like a cat, the feeling of the scar and his lean skin beneath interchanging.
Katsuki’s voice is hoarse from the sleep and maybe it’s because of that combined with the calm and quiet of their bedroom that he chooses not to speak but instead loosely wrap his arms around him and pull him to a chaste kiss, minding the morning breath.
Todoroki doesn’t seem to mind as he tries to deepen the kiss with his tongue but he doesn’t get the chance as the alarm startles them both to ruin the momentum.
“Fuuuck.” he groans and takes off one hand to palm the nightstand, finding the alarm and activating his quirk enough so that he breaks it but not make a mess.
“Damn piece of shit.”
“I hope you don’t make it a habit.” Todoroki tells him, eyes filled with mirth.
“Maybe you should take up the task on waking me up so I won’t have to.” he smirks lazily.
Todoroki chuckles and Katsuki’s heart soars in his chest. Maybe waking up like this is making him really fucking sappy but if he’s able to see Todoroki’s eyes glistering like that in the morning light and from the positive emotions he’s feeling, he wants to wake up like this every single fucking day.
It’s moments like this when the small box hidden deep and camouflaged in his underwear drawer feels all the more right. Even if it was an absolute pain in the ass to purchase it in secret and hide it for the last month or so.
Today feels like the right day, not only because it’s his birthday. It certainly helped in order for both of them to have the day off and indulge themselves for the whole day without any worries.
Now there is only them, and the mere, forgotten sounds out the city bristling with life outside.
“Go freshen up.” Todoroki pulls away from them and leaves Katsuki to his own devices.
After a couple of seconds of motionlessness to make sure that the footsteps get farther, he checks the box if it’s still there; a paranoiac habit he fucking despises that creates an anxious pit on his stomach, full with doubt.
Slapping his hands on his cheeks because it’s his birthday day off and he will fucking enjoy it with his boyfriend and hopefully future husband from tomorrow and he’ll fall down on one knee and ask on the right moment.
For now he washes off the excessive amounts of sweat and brushes his teeth and face, looking more like his usual self. He puts on a simple red sleeveless shirt and some loose basketball shorts and exits the room; following the sweet smell of breakfast that creeps and fill the bedroom.
Todoroki’s already set the counter to be filled with delicious looking food, surely more extravagant than their normal times.
“Good morning.” Todoroki teases, setting the last plate down on the counter of their kitchen.
Katsuki takes the seat next to him and inspects the food more closely, “Didn’t burn anything this time, huh?”
The other rolls his eyes as he starts eating, “I haven’t burnt anything in weeks.” Todoroki gives him a side-eye, “My cooking teacher has been quite rigorous about that.”
“Maybe he knew how your quirk was not the only way of setting things on fire.” he chuckles and tastes the food.
To his abstained pride, the food is delicious; a now common occurrence since Todoroki passed his conditions and standards to be in the kitchen without any hazards.
“It’s passable.”
He makes sure to show his true appreciation by scooting closer to the other and wrapping a hand around his waist. He nips the shell of his ear, something he knows eggs the other on, and tightens his grip on his waist, sticking their bodies together. The quip of Todoroki’s lips is evident of his true feelings even if he doesn’t pay him that much attention.
But chaos dooms him as his phone rings obnoxiously and non-stop even if he tries to ignore it.
“Katsuki,” Todoroki starts and it’s the voice of a beginning lecture and a cue for him to leave. Nevertheless, he tries to ignore that too.
He turns off the kitchen and carefully turns Todoroki around, making one last ditch effort to distract him by kissing him slowly and deeply.
However, his refined boyfriend remains gallant and pulls away, “Go answer the phone while I set up the table.”
“It’s the personal one, so fuck it. If it’s important, they’ll leave a damn message.” he leans back again but his lips only meet a cheek and he finds his grip loosening without his volition.
“Fucking fine. Answering calls on my fucking birthday...” he mumbles to himself on the way to his bedroom.
This irritation grows even more when he sees the called ID, “What?” he growls out.
“Happy birthday son!” His father is undeterred from his tone, as always, and he can picture the grin on his face.
He rolls his eyes but his irritation might have calmed a little, “Thanks.”
After talking a minute or so with his dad, telling him about the whole shit ton of extended family that he barely remembers that wished him birthday via them, the phone is passed on his mom.
“Happy birthday brat.” she laughs, “I’m glad I spent the whole fucking day all those years ago in pain and giving birth to you.”
Katsuki rolls his eyes, “Not going to apologize for being the best thing in your entire life.”
“Well, you are, so better keep making me proud.” he can hear the fondness on her voice.
“Yeah, I will.” he tells her.
“Good, you’re still coming next weekend?”
“Yeah.”
“Great! And I better fucking see a ring on that boy’s finger by then.”
Katsuki will refuse to the grave that his face’s turned such a shade of red and even though he’s alone, he still covers this face and looks around, just in case.
They hang up and he checks the rest of his notifications, mostly messages from his former classmates and friends. He has to text Ashido in all caps to stop sending him emojis and gifs that keep making his phone ping all the time and focus on her fucking work instead.
Todoroki calls for him and he finds a table full of delicious looking food.
But former experience makes him wary and it’s only until he’s tasted everything to give his much important praise, despite being highly aware that Todoroki’s actually become more than decent cook over time.
He gets to enjoy only a few minutes of peace and quiet before his phone fucking rings once more. Except that makes him more anxious as it’s his work phone and that never ends up in his favor.
Apparently, Todoroki’s realized it too as he lowers his eyes to focus on his food, silent and subtly pouting. If they weren’t dating for so many years, then he’d assume that he’s unaffected.
With a sigh he picks it up, “Yeah...”
And it goes as expected; they tell him that they need him to the office due to them being understaffed in one of their areas, with many others spread out in various missions and patrols elsewhere.
Fuck his luck, honestly.
“Yeah, I’ll be there.” he sighs in the end, more resigned than angry.
He runs a hand in his hair and takes a deep breath, “Shouto,” he says when he’s close to Todoroki, “I’m really fucking sorry.”
“It’s fine Katsuki, it’s not like it’s the first time for either of us.” the other argues. They face one another and Shouto’s hands are on his shoulders, noses touching and Katsuki is having a hard time keeping his hands to himself, unconsciously putting them on his hips. Once again, he leans for a kiss that is finally being reciprocated and deepened so much that he has to push Todoroki on the kitchen counter for balance.
When they pull apart, both of their breathing is heavy, but before he can do it again, tips of fingers halt him to the spot.
“Go change while I’m packing something for your way. I’ll also make that reservation to the restaurant you like for tonight, so take formal attire with you.”
Katsuki groans, “You gave me a pretty fucking good birthday celebration last night, repeating that would be fucking awesome.”
He was planning on proposing here and in a simple way, expressing his feelings and showing the ring and maybe have newly engaged sex or cuddling, whichever the mood brought. All without fucking anything up.
However, there’s been a change of plans, but he’s good at adapting so he’ll make it work. He has so many hours in the office to figure it out, after all.
Todoroki’s cheeks flush but he stays unyielding, even when Katsuki nips his fingers, “You do the same on my birthday, so it’s only fair to want to take you out too for an important day.” he takes away his hand and trails it down to his chest to gently push him, “Now go before you’re late.”
With one last lingering kiss, Katsuki makes way to the bedroom to partly change to his hero costume and carefully store his gadgets, including his precious grenade gauntlets on his bag.
Along with that, he sneaks the black velvet box with the ring, a beautiful silver band-like ring with intricate and engraved designs, in one of the multiple pockets away from all the explosives; it’d taken a whole fucking lot of time to find among all the stores he visited in secret and disguised to get it blown up.
Once it’s secure, he rummages through his part of the wardrobe to pick a suit, one fancy judging from the heaviness of the situation.
After pondering, he picks a fitting gray one with matching pants and a black shirt with a silver tie. It’s one of Todoroki’s favorite suits and he knows for a fact that his boyfriend eye fucks him every time he’s worn it. His face has become effortlessly readable to him after all those years but if that wasn’t the case, the way he insists on keeping it on and not taking his hands off of him those nights are pretty strong indications.
Once out, packed and ready, Shouto’s already at the doorway with a bag containing some of the leftover food.
“Be safe.” he says with one last peck. Then he closes the door to Katsuki’s face.
That half and half bastard better be grateful that Katsuki loves him or else he’d break down the door and punch him in his beautiful and colorful face.
**
His coworkers at the site know better than to surprise him or engage with him for now when seeing his sour mood, but they still wish him happy birthday.
During one of his rounds, he passes by an electronic store, at the front of which there are multiple TVs open in multiple channels to follow the news, and some of them, much to his embarrassment and disdain are covering stories about him. He was pretty famous, with all the shit that has happened in his life as a student and now as a rapidly rising professional hero, but also because of his realationship with Shouto, who because of his family has an extra advantage in popularity. Articles about them separately and together have happened in the past, but apart from a couple press interviews in the years, there wasn’t much.
Not since three years ago, when they revealed their relationship by walking outside holding hands and having a lot more PDA than they allowed themselves when they started dating a little after UA and the two years they’d been keeping it a secret.
It was big news, to say the least and Katsuki only partly understood why it’d kept going for long after and in the intensity it went, both negative and positive, and a migraine always starts up when he remembers it.
The articles in the tv today say the most public knowledge, his history in the UA along with the kidnapping and the sports festivals, listing the heroes he’s worked with and of course taking overly long talking about his relationship with Todoroki. And despite having heard shit like that before, he still bristles and boils underneath his skin when they spoke of how superficial they thought of their relationship, how many thought of them as an impossibility or a miracle or a fucking surprise they are still together. Katsuki remembers well many journalists coming to him and speaking of a possible affair between Deku and Todoroki, to start a fire more often than not.
Needless to say, the articles also cover well his threats and less than kind words to the press and a whole shit ton that came with.
He’d very much like to see those same fucker’s faces when they see Todoroki wearing his engagement ring.
Just before the migraine starts once more, Katsuki passes the store by, fist clenched and to distract himself, he decides to check more of his personal messages.
Firstly he checks Todoroki’s, stating the name of one of his recent favorite restaurants and the hour the fucker demands him to be there, dressed in a suit and not reeking of sweat and dust. He responds with a meek ‘fuck off’ to pretend to argue.
The rest of them are from his classmates; Iida’s rigid as fuck message, Deku and Angel Face’s overly friendly, a warm and simple happy birthday for Tsuyu, which is the first one he replies to.
Of course, his closer friends’ group have started a whole fucking group chat, full with gifs and pictures and reminiscing embarrassing stuff from their many years together.
Katsuki tries to delete himself from the chat, but the fuckers pull him back in to torture him more; a damn perfect metaphor for their life.
It’s when they start laughing about his high school pining for Todoroki and his attempt to teach them a couple of recipes, so the ‘don’t die of weakness and uselessness’ that he mutes the chat.
He makes sure to answer to the message that fucker Shinsou has send him, full of fucking sarcasm like the huge piece of shit he is, a fitting response in kind and promise to kick his fucking ass in whatever video games they play in their next hangout.
**
Continuing the day’s traditions of fucking Katsuki’s day up, he finishes work at 8 and a half in the afternoon, the exact time he must be at the restaurant to meet Todoroki.
Cursing all the way, he texts the other that he’ll be late at least another half hour if he hurries it up.
It already takes a lot of time to wash off the sweat and the dust clinging to his sking and hair, but he makes it. The suit took less time, as he left the top buttons on the shirt open and his tie is hanging untied around his neck. He makes sure to secure the ring carefully in his pocket and leaves the office in hurry and without a word of farewell.
As it’s friday night, there is considerable amount of traffic, even more than the already nightmarish of any other day, so he fixes his appearance by buttoning up and loosely tying his tie in the review mirror. Once that’s done, the practices his proposal, enough so he doesn’t stumble on his words like a fucking moron. He’s been thinking of the things he wants to say to Todoroki, short but meaningful.
He’s taking deep, steady breaths and focuses on the road, not even bothering to pick a fight with people that don’t know how to even change lanes, for fuck’s sake. No matter how much he wants to let out some steam of anxiety, he’s fucking late; so he’s flooring it and settles with giving everyone the middle finger.
As he nears his destination, he sees familiar ice, raised like uncontrollable mountains, sharp and imposing, and near that, another large burst of fire raises just as tall.
It catches him off guard and pissed off with the fates before worry of Todoroki’s state settles in uncomfortably on his stomach, that makes him hurry to the site, gut twisting.
He runs towards the source of the elements and finds out that he needn’t be worried at all.
There he is, in front of a destroyed building, wearing a half burned suit, which coincidentally used to be Katsuki’s favorite, speaking to the police officers around him. There is a pinched look on his face and his jaw is clenched, looking more furious than Katsuki has ever seen him in a while.
Looking around, there is ice and fire still lingering. Inside huge chunks of the former are what seems to be the villains he was told about, frozen to the point where all they can do is barely breathe.
Raising an eyebrow, he inspects further and sucks a breath through his teeth to control his own anger.
Thankfully there were no fatalities or serious injuries, so he was perfectly fine to share the same fury as his boyfriend as one of his all time favorite restaurants has been destroyed beyond repair.
The owner is near, heard before seen, lamenting for the pride he’s told them so many times about, how he had had to work himself to the bone to make it a success. Katsuki laments for it too; it’s such a fucking waste to lose such a magnificent space, always with the right atmosphere and out of this world food.
He approaches Todoroki, who’s done with the police and is too staring at the destroyed facility.
“Hey,” he calls, taking off his jacket to put it around his boyfriend.
Todorok looks at him; he’s not angry but resigned. Katsuki would be too if it were him, to be honest.
The crowd starts getting larger and bolder as now the villains have been defeated. He doesn’t want Todoroki to be left like that, possibly vulnerable for all to see. So, he puts an arm around his waist and stands beside him, covering his bare side.
“Have you been checked by a doctor?” a shake of the head, “Go and then we’re heading home.” a placid nod.
He watches like a hawk as the other is getting a check up and runs his hand through his hair and his face.
Today has just been a fucking clusterfuck of misfortune and it’s wearing him out. From Todoroki’s expressions, it’s having the same effect to him too.
The ride home is silent, both of them drowned in their own thoughts. Todoroki’s looking out the window, wrapping himself on Katsuki’s suit jacket.
Entering their apartment feels like a safe haven for them, serving the exact purpose they aimed when they bought it two years ago.
He guides his still distraught boyfriend to sit on the couch and hold his hands with his own, squeezing firmly to assure the other that he’s still there, like always.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Yes,” his tone isn’t lifeless, but back to intense and frustrated, “I’m unharmed.”
“I know that, stupid.” he pats his hand once, “I wouldn’t let you come home if you were injured.” that gets the tiniest pull of lips from Todoroki.
He waits, hands still intertwined, in the silence. He enforces the same method Todoroki uses when the positions are reversed. In spite of their vast difference on their personalities, both of them need time for themselves to handle their feeling until they’re ready to share, no matter whether they channel them to outside factors or close themselves off.
“It’s just...” Todoroki starts. “I just wanted to celebrate your birthday properly this time. Last year we were both packed with work. And you make sure to celebrate my birthday.”
“It’s not over yet.” Katsuki argues, drawing enchanting heterochromatic eyes to him, “Sure, maybe most of the day is gone, but we still can make it work dammit.” the words are addressed to both of Todoroki and himself as his stubborn bone kicks in.
He lets go of the hands and stands up, “You know what? I will make it fucking work.” he growls and squares his shoulder.
“All this fucking day I’ve been think of the right time, the right way because I wanted it to be perfect, like the unrealistic shit we watch in the fucking movies. When fucking honestly, all I really need is you, alone in our space of comfort, where we laugh and cry and cuddle in our sleep and fuck and watch terrible shit on TV and I get the fucking privilege to watch you and be with you when you wake up and when you sleep. When you made it your fucking life goal to learn how to cook and when I tasted that stupidly mediocre pasta you made for the first time.” the words seems to fall like a waterfall off of his tongue and he’s too immersed in just letting it out to stop.
“And I won’t let anyone or fucking anything ruin this and I’m too fucking pissed to let it go.” he rummages through his pocket to find the little velvet box.
When he finds it he exhales once more, sweat running on his temples.
“Todoroki Shouto, I really fucking love you and you’re probably one of the best things that’s happened in my life. I’ve probably been in love with you since high school and even then I couldn’t imagine how the future would see us.”
He gets in one knee in front of a dumbfounded Todoroki and his next words come out shaky.
“But now I can imagine us together for the rest of my fucking life, until I get old and gray or killed in action. As a selfish birthday wish, will you fucking marry me?” he asks.
There is a heavy silence that leans to awkward and he can’t find himself raising.
Then,
“Are you fucking serious?”
His eyes widen at the suddenness of his collar being pulled up coming face to face with a once again furious Todoroki.
“Are you kidding me?” he hisses and Katsuki can feel his heart sink, “Do you know how long I’ve been preparing everything for today? How arranged my day off to spend it all with you and rented the whole entire restaurant for tonight and made sure to have everything in perfection so I could propose ?” he says, “and then work called I was fine with it because it’s work and you love it and even though we didn’t have the whole day together like I wanted, at least we had the reservations. And then that heinous villain came and ruined everything!”
Huh, so that explains the uncharacteristically uncontrolled quirk, Katsuki thinks to himself. Then him brain processes the rest of the words and a boisterous laugh escapes him.
Fucking hell, they are both stupid.
“Fucking hell, we are both stupid.” he says out loud, his laughter now almost maniacal.
Todoroki lets him go and crosses his arms, trying desperately not to pout, but utterly failing.
Katsuki gets up with a wheeze and again they are face to face. He takes Todoroki’s hand and puts his ring on his ring finger.
“It’s custom made to be resistant to high temperatures.”
Todoroki lowers his eyes to examine the ring, cheeks flushed and eyes aflame.
“It’s stunning.”
“Of course it is.”
Todoroki snorts.
“Mine is better.”
From the pocket on the untouched part of his suit, he pulls his own little box. When he opens it, there is a ring similar to his as there is not one protruding stone as it’s lean, with more harsh carvings , full of angles and bold lines.
It’s on a silver chain which he clasps around Katsuki’s neck. Its weight feels pleasant, not restricting at all as it’s the perfect length.
“I figured that it’d be uncomfortable on your fingers because of your quirk so I-” Katsuki cuts him off with a heated kiss, which after the intial shock, he reciprocates.
Katsuki tries to push every bit of what he’s feeling into the intense kiss, closing the distance in their bodies, grabbing Todoroki by the ass and hoisting him up. His boyfriend- no, fiance- jumps and wraps his legs around Katsuki’s waist without breaking the kiss.
Both of their lips are swollen and red when they pull apart and Todoroki leans down to rest his forehead on Katsuki’s, one hand around his neck and the other playing with the ring.
“You haven’t said yes yet.” Katsuki teases.
Todoroki hums in mock pensiveness while he, “Then you must do your best to convince me.”
A smirk pulls his lips up, and walks them to the bedroom.
“I won’t hold back, half and half. So prepare yourself.”
Todoroki mirrors his smirk, eyelids lower seductively and traces his lips on Katsuki’s ears.
“I’m already prepared. Give it your all.”
Damn, he fucking loves this man.