Work Text:
Shouto takes a step back and tilts his head to the side, observing. Something doesn’t seem right.
“I think we chose the wrong color.”
He hears a scoff come from beside him.
“The color is fine,” Katsuki says. He's stood a few feet away, paint roller in hand, coating the walls vigorously. Shouto himself is equipped with a standard paint brush, and the small stripe on the wall he’s done pales in comparison to the area Katsuki has already covered with his roller in the few short minutes since they started painting.
“No, Katsuki. It's too light. I wanted it to be darker.”
Maybe Shouto is being too picky. Maybe the color of the walls shouldn't matter so much. But this is his and Katsuki's first house, the place they were turning into their home. Shouto wanted it to be perfect. He needed it to be perfect.
“Look, it’s gonna dry darker, alright? It’s gonna look just like the swatch you took two hours to choose after it's done drying.”
Katsuki looks over and eyes Shouto's paint stripe. He looks unimpressed. Then he rolls his eyes and returns his attention to the wall in front of him, his arm steadily moving up and down. It doesn’t pass Shouto by that Katsuki’s biceps look extremely good when he moves like that. “And pick up a roller, would you? It'll take you hours to finish one wall with that puny brush of yours.”
Shouto pouted and he looked back at the wall in front of him, comparing the amount he'd painted to what Katsuki had already accomplished. Yeah, there was no argument there. Katsuki was right.
"Fine."
Shouto turned and picked up one of the rollers they'd purchased from the hardware store earlier that day from the pile of supplies haphazardly placed on the floor. He dipped it into the tray filled with paint, without even bothering to roll it in the tray as intended. He stood back up, turned around, and started rolling over the area he’d already covered with his little brush.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed Katsuki slowly stop what he was doing.
"Shouto, what the fuck?"
Shouto suppresses his smirk and maintains his deadpan expression.
"What? Isn't this how you are supposed to do it? Am I not rolling adequately?"
"No, you're supposed to roll it and get the whole thing coated in paint, idiot. Give it here." Katsuki throws his own roller down onto the plastic tarp they have covering their floors, and then he snatches Shouto's roller from his hand, mumbling under his breath something about Shouto purposefully making things more difficult for him. He brings the roller over to the paint tray and rolls the paint on properly.
"Here, asshole." He shoves the paint roller back into Shouto's hand, and bends down to pick up his back up off of the floor.
"Thank you, Katsuki."
He gets nothing more than a 'hmpf' in response, Katsuki is already refocused on the job.
Shouto smiles to himself and looks back to the wall ahead of him, and starts painting again - getting it right this time.
Within a few hours, they've successfully given their living room its first coat of paint and have moved on to the master bedroom. Katsuki finishes the area he was working on, and then drops his roller.
"I'm fucking starving," he says. "I'm goin' to get us lunch, alright?"
"Alright." Shouto doesn't look away from the wall in front of him. He does, however, lean back and purse his lips expectantly, his chin tilted ever so slightly towards Katsuki. It’s a cute gesture, one that Katsuki can never deny, and Shouto knows it.
Katsuki plays like he doesn’t see it, makes Shouto wait. He really is hungry though, so he rolls his eyes playfully and walks closer to drop a kiss on Shouto's lips. Satisfied, Shouto turns so he's facing the wall head on again, and Katsuki leaves the room.
Katsuki isn't gone for long. When he gets back and walks to their bedroom to let Shouto know he's home, Shouto is sat on the floor with his little paintbrush, doing detail work around the trim.
Something else in the room catches his attention, though. On one of the walls they hadn't finished yet, Katsuki sees that Shouto had written a message with the paint.
Shouto ♡ Katsuki
"Fuckin' sap." Katsuki teases him, but Shouto can tell the small upturn at the corner of his lips means he's pleased.
Shouto smiles to himself, and puts his paintbrush down so he can stand up and walk past Katsuki to the kitchen, where he assumed Katsuki left their food. On his way, he kisses Katsuki's cheek. With his back turned, he doesn't notice Katsuki take his phone out and snap a photo of the message.
After having lunch, they resume painting. They're standing fairly close to each other, and Shouto hears Katsuki chuckle.
“What's funny?” Shouto asks.
“You've got paint on your face.” Katsuki answered. The corner of his mouth is turned up in an amused smirk.
It's not surprising. No matter how careful they tried being, they both ended up covered in paint.
"Oh, you think that's funny?" Shouto asks, a teasing lilt to his voice.
"Yeah."
"I'll show you something funny."
Shouto lightly touches his hand to his brush to cover it with paint, and then he reaches over to smear his fingers across Katsuki's face.
"Hey- What the fuck?!" Katsuki turns to look at him, his eyebrows raised and his eyes widened in astonishment.
Shouto can't help but laugh, his chin tilted down as if he's being bashful.
"You fucker - oh, it's on." Katsuki's suddenly on him, then, and before Shouto knows it, they've fallen to the ground. Katsuki is on top of Shouto and he's trying to get his hands to Shouto's face, who has his arms up and is blocking Katsuki's attempts to the best of his abilities.
But Katsuki is persistent. When he can't get to Shouto's face, he changes his tactics, and suddenly Shouto is being tickled.
"No, no, Katsuki - stop!" Shouto's laughing against his will, Katsuki's fingers against his side forcing the laugh out of him. His head is thrown back against the floor and he's trying to push Katsuki's hands away.
Since he now has the opportunity, Katsuki strikes. While Shouto is caught off guard, his hands shoot up and he presses them to either side of Shouto's face, then drags them down his neck, painting trailing the whole way.
Shouto should be surprised, but he isn’t. It’s a classic Katsuki move. But Shouto doesn’t let it deter him. He flips them over, switches his and Katsuki's positions so he's the one straddling Katsuki's lap. Then he does the one thing he knows will earn himself an instant win.
He leans down and presses his mouth to Katsuki's, hands on either side of Katsuki's neck. Katsuki seems to admit his defeat by wasting no time in returning the kiss, his own arms wrapping around Shouto's neck to keep him there.
Their task of painting is quickly forgotten as their kiss makes it way to the top of their list of priorities. They lay like that for an unknown amount of time, relishing in the way their lips slide against each other and the feeling of their bodies pressed together.
Their lives had been fairly stressful lately, with their jobs as heroes along with the house hunting and finally, buying the house they chose. They hadn't had much time like this lately, to just be together and focus on nothing else but each other. The painting could wait. For now - this was what was important.
The back of Shouto's shirt is covered in paint now from Katsuki running his paint covered hands down it, but Shouto couldn't care less. He loses it soon, anyway. Katsuki grabs it by the hem and lifts it up, and Shouto gets the hint. He breaks the kiss for enough time to pull the shirt over his head, and then his mouth is on Katsuki's again, with a new heat added to it. They waste time rolling around on the floor wrapped up in each other. For the moment, nothing else mattered.
Eventually, they do get the painting done. They move in the furniture, bickering over what goes where.. They fill the place with little things to make it less empty. A few knickknacks here and there, framed photos along the wall and on the table by the door. All mementos of their time together, making their house more like a home. Like their home.
Katsuki is standing in the living room, straightening a picture frame on the wall, and Shouto comes up behind him. He wraps his arms around Katsuki's waist and leans his chin on Katsuki's shoulder. He smiles and turns his head slightly so he can whisper in Katsuki's ear.
"Welcome home."