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After an excruciating three weeks without seeing his boyfriend, enduring his father’s constant pestering on his summer internship at the Endeavor agency, Shouto is more than ready to go back to school, back to the routine that he has grown so used to at the dorms. Honestly, he doesn’t understand his classmates when they complain that summer vacation is ending, but then again, his experience with summer vacation is probably very different from a lot of theirs. At least Izuku understands. Even if they haven’t really met—since he took this time to do some training of his own under Gran Torino and Shouto was all caught up with being under his father’s thumb—, they still managed to talk over the phone here and there, and it was nice hearing that his boyfriend was just as eager to get back as he still is.
Shouto just wants things to go back to normal. Is that really so much to ask? He certainly didn’t think so, but apparently the universe has some different opinions.
Because when he hears his boyfriend’s voice calling from the other side of his bedroom door, Shouto can’t jump up from his bed fast enough, running toward it in a flash, ready to just pull Izuku into his arms and bury his face in his fluffy curls. What happens instead, is that he walks straight into a brick wall.
Well, figuratively speaking. Izuku had been pretty well-built since the first day he met him—how he hides all that muscle under his clothes will forever be a mystery to him—, but Shouto remembers still having at least five centimetres on him when they last met. As of right now, Shouto finds himself blinking at Izuku’s chin as he backs away a little after bumping right into his chest.
Now that can’t be right.
“You’re… taller than me…”
Shouto has to actually look up a little to see the sheepish look settle on Izuku’s still adorable face. That really can’t be right.
“Ah, yeah… Growth spurt, I guess.”
“In three weeks?” Shouto takes a step closer, narrowing his eyes and mentally measuring, lifting his hand from the top of his own head to the top of Izuku’s. “How did you—that’s got to be like fifteen—how did—is that even possible?”
All the answer Shouto gets in return is a small shrug of Izuku’s shoulders while he moves to rub at the back of his neck. Now that he really looks at it, his shirt looks the tiniest bit tighter too. He narrows his eyes even further, poking at one of Izuku’s cheeks just to make sure he’s actually there, if walking into him before wasn’t enough proof. Which clearly, it isn’t.
“Shouto-kun, are you okay?”
“I—well—yeah, it’s just—”
Has he suddenly lost all of his ability to speak in complete sentences? Maybe something happened, he hit his head, this is all some big hallucination, or it’s a fever dream. Shouto moves to poke Izuku one more time, but his boyfriend stops him, holding onto his wrist and tilting his head at him cutely.
“How are you taller than me? A-and not just taller, you’re taller. That’s—”
“Shouto-kun, it’s not that big of a deal.” Clicking his mouth shut, Shouto huffs out a breath. He’s right, it isn’t. “It doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“No.” He blurts out, perhaps a little too quickly. That sounded a little defensive, even he can tell. “It doesn’t bother me that you’re taller, I just…” Not really knowing what to say, Shouto simply trails off.
What is it? Does he have a complex about his height that he didn’t know about? No, Shouto really doesn’t care about appearances, being taller, or shorter, or whatever else, doesn’t matter to him. And Izuku is Izuku, he loves him more than anything, he hasn’t changed at all, he just grew a dozen or so centimetres, it’s not a big deal. Yet there’s a frown tugging at the corners of his lips, and every time he says anything at all it sounds just a bit whiny, and he really doesn’t like that.
Izuku’s expression softens and he reaches for Shouto’s hands, tugging him closer as he pushes into the room, wrapping his arms around him to hold him close. Shouto’s face slots right into the crook of Izuku’s neck of its own accord and his frown deepens just a little, body tensing when his brain fills with one petty thought and that thought alone. Instinctively, he jerks away, eyes a little wide as he stares up at Izuku’s own, noticing the hint of hurt shining in them. That look of a kicked puppy makes Shouto flinch and he bites on the inside of his cheek, feeling guilty.
“I can’t…” He starts, the rest of his sentence getting caught in his throat as his gaze falls down to his feet. Biting on the inside of his cheek, Shouto mumbles what he wants to say.
“What was that?” Izuku squeezes his arms, and Shouto says it just a little louder but also a whole lot faster. “Shouto-kun…”
Letting out a miserable groan, Shouto lifts his gaze up to the ceiling, puffing out his cheeks a little. “I can’t nuzzle your curls and smell your shampoo… And I really wanted to do that first thing when I saw you.”
A little chuckle sounds from his boyfriend and Shouto feels his cheeks growing impossibly warm. It’s so stupid, definitely not a reason to be upset when he is seeing Izuku for the first time in weeks, and yet, he just can’t help it. Breathing Izuku in as he melts into Shouto’s arms is one of the things he loves doing the most, and when all he wanted was to return to normal, to those little gestures that had become their normal, seeing Izuku stand almost a head taller than him all of a sudden…
Out of nowhere, Shouto feels his feet leave the floor, a little yelp escaping his lips as he holds onto Izuku on instinct, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s shoulders and his legs around his waist.
“I-Izuku—”
“Well, if that was the issue, then it’s an easy fix, isn’t it?” A gasp creeps out of Shouto’s lips when Izuku noses his neck, squeezing his midsection as he walks toward his futon.
When Izuku kneels down, effectively placing him on his lap, and with his face still buried in his neck, Shouto realises that he is once again at the perfect height to get exactly what he was craving. He nuzzles Izuku’s hair and breathes him in, his lids fluttering closed as a sense of finally being home settles deep in his chest, warm and fuzzy. The initial shock from Izuku’s height dissolves into the joy that courses through his veins, and it all seems so silly.
Perhaps the exhaustion from his internship had taken a bigger toll on him than he thought, but being back in Izuku’s arms, strange new height difference or not, it makes it all go away.
“Better?” Izuku whispers into his skin, the smile obvious in his voice.
“Much. Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Shouto would really disagree with that, but he settles for simply enjoying the embrace for as long as it lasts.