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A rustling noise outside of the bedroom nudged Izuku awake. He blinked until the bright red lights on the alarm clock sharpened into numbers - 3:25 a.m. A couple more hours and it would be ringing for Izuku to wake up for his morning workout. He flopped over and buried himself deeper in the blankets. He had gone to bed before Shouto, who had made lots of promises to join him soon he just had to finish up a few things first. But as Izuku tugged the blankets around him to shut out the sounds echoing through the room, he could feel that the other side of the bed was empty.
But the noise continued mounting, amplified in the quiet apartment until suddenly it crescendoed into a muffled explosion.
The absence of sound was like sweetness to Izuku’s tired mind. But the stillness was almost more concerning now. Reluctantly, Izuku dragged himself out of bed.
As soon as he opened the door to the hallway, a thick wall of heat punctuated by a sharp acrid smell hit him. The lights were still on in the kitchen so Izuku shuffled that direction, his nose stinging.
Squinting in the light, he saw Shouto standing over the stove with custard splattered across his face. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair mussed. It was a portrait of total defeat.
“Shouto, honey, what’re you doing?” Izuku asked, his voice thick with lingering sleep and a barely suppressed laugh.
“Making creme brulee,” he replied, his tone even, like that was a perfectly normal late-night activity. But a current of annoyance laced through his voice. Unlike Izuku, Shouto did not function without a full night of sleep.
Izuku still wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or scream at how ridiculous this was. “At 3 a.m.?” He picked up a dishtowel off the counter and wiped the confection off of Shouto’s face.
Shouto stayed still as Izuku worked. “I can’t sleep.”
“You know we have to be at your mother’s place early tomorrow for her birthday...”
“I know.” Shouto sighed and his body seemed to fold in on itself, his head drooping between his shoulders.
Izuku noticed Shouto’s hands were gripping the edge of the counter so tightly they were trembling. He slid his hands gently over Shouto’s, rubbing each finger and gently lifting them until he was holding both hands in his own. “What’s wrong?” Izuku asked.
Shouto slumped into him and they both slid down onto the floor, sitting with their backs against the cabinets. The tension seeped out Shouto and he pressed himself into Izuku, resting his head against his boyfriend’s shoulder. Izuku had learned over time that the best thing to do was to just be patient, to stay quiet but present, and Shouto would begin talking when he was ready. Instead of saying anything, Izuku reached up and ran his scarred fingers through Shouto’s hair.
“I just… I wanted to make something for her.” Shouto said, breaking the silence. His lips brushed against Izuku’s collar.
In a soft voice, Izuku replied, “We bought her that nice weekend retreat package in Hokkaido, remember?” Shouto stayed quiet. After a bit, Izuku tried again, “Does she like creme brulee?”
“I’m… not sure.” Shouto straightened up and ran his hands through his hair. He looked at his left hand, laying on Izuku’s thigh. “I guess... I wanted to use this quirk to make her happy for once instead of miserable. I can’t overwrite any old memories but… I can make new ones.”
Izuku felt tears flood his eyes, his heart singing at how sweet this man was. How unfailingly kind. But he took a deep breath and turned to Shouto with bright eyes, “Well, alright then.” He held his hands out and pulled Shouto up off the floor with him. “I’m already up with you so let’s figure out how to do this.”
The last batch was still sitting on top of the stove, custard exploded all over the kitchen. What was still in the ramekins looked charred to dust. Izuku helped Shouto clean up the mess and then they pulled together the ingredients to start again from step one - eggs, cream, vanilla extract, and sugar. “Was that your first try?” Izuku asked.
“Third,” Shouto answered. “And a half.”
Izuku didn’t ask what went wrong with those.
“You know,” Shouto mused, pouring the cream into a saucepan to boil. “I’ve wondered before what my powers would be like if I hadn’t rejected my fire side for so long, to spite my father. I’m making progress but how much further along would I be at this point with my control?” He said, with a note of longing in his voice. A silent elegy for the lost time.
Izuku had wondered the same thing every now and then, observing his already ridiculously talented boyfriend. He could tell that question grated on Shouto sometimes when he wasn’t able to exert the exacting control of his fire the way he wanted to.
“Well clearly,” Izuku said, “if this is how you’re using it, then if you had been training your fire quirk earlier, you would’ve become a world-famous chef by now. And you probably never would have come to UA and met or dated me.”
A quiet chuckle escaped from Shouto, the sound blooming in the air between them. Even after several years of dating, the sound still made Izuku’s heart soar.
Izuku pressed on, craving more, “I don’t know, even now if this ends up working, I’m worried you might leave the whole hero business and open a bakery with Satou-kun.”
Izuku could tell Shouto must be almost delirious with exhaustion if he was laughing this hard at a throwaway joke but it was infectious. They both doubled over, food splatters on their shirts and hands, gasping for breath in their kitchen. It was that slippery time of night few people saw, both too late and too early.
Shouto choked out as he was putting the tray into the oven to bake, “I’d battle with dough rather than villains.”
Izuku held his left hand out in front of him, pretending to shoot flames out, “Your new Ultimate Move: Flambe!”
Shouto caught Izuku’s hand as it stretched out and licked some custard off his finger. Izuku quieted down quickly, a dark blush creeping up his neck.
“H-hey, cut that out. We don’t have time to get di-distracted now.” Izuku shoved Shouto away playfully. Shouto wasn’t too discouraged. He draped himself over Izuku, who had moved on to soak the dirty dishes in the sink.
After he set the last bowl in the soapy water, Izuku spun around and caught Shouto in a deep kiss.
“Now who’s distracted?” Shouto smirked after Izuku finally pulled away.
Izuku buried his face in Shouto’s chest, murmuring a comeback.
The creme brulees were supposed to sit in the oven for 30 minutes to bake. Izuku and Shouto washed the other dishes while they were waiting.
When the timer dinged, Izuku pulled them out of the oven. Looking back at the recipe, he mumbled, “We’re supposed to chill them for an hour… but it’s already almost 5, by the time we do that, we’ll only have-“
He looked over and Shouto was holding one of the ramekins in his right hand, frost trellising up his fingers and rising up into steam around the hot dish.
“Oh my god,” Izuku whispered. “You really are going to leave me to open a restaurant.” Shouto shoved him with his free hand. Izuku laughed but continued, “No, really! Think of all the culinary applications of your quirk. There’s some real untapped potential here.” Izuku almost ran out of the room to grab his hero notebook to jot down a few ideas.
After Shouto finished chilling all of the cups, Izuku began sprinkling sugar over top. As he worked, he asked, “Okay, so how have you tried this so far?”
Souto summoned a small flame in his palm. “I tried holding my hand over it like this,” he said, summoning a flame in his palm and motioning to hold it over a cup. “But I couldn’t keep the fire small enough to maintain a consistent temperature and get an even crust. It always ended up going overboard…”
Izuku tugged on his lower lip, thinking. “So what you need is some way to raise the temperature of your flames while also focusing it down to a small area?” Shouto hummed in agreement. Izuku held Shouto’s left hand up, spreading out his fingers. “What about the way Kacchan focuses his AP Shot move on his palm? Would that work the same way for you?”
Shouto frowned, his face scrunching, “I’m not sure...”
Izuku frowned back at him, the early morning hour beginning to weigh on him, “And we’re awake at 4 am because you have a better idea?”
Shouto sighed, but he used his right hand to form a circle on his left palm and shot a blast of fire at one of the ramekins. It acted more like a flamethrower than a torch though. The flames were slightly more contained but still consumed the whole dish and after only a few seconds, the creme brulee was already burned black on top.
Back at square one, Izuku and Shouto tried a few different methods. They only had eight ramekins, so they had to be strategic with what they actually tried.
Four ramekins in, four ramekins ruined in slightly different ways, Izuku stepped back from the counter. “Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way.”
“What do you mean?” Shouto replied.
“We keep basing these moves on your palm. But what if we made the area smaller…” Shouto was still looking at him, questioning. Izuku looked at his own palm. “What if,” he said and folded down all of his fingers except his index. “What if you focused the fire just on one finger?”
“I haven’t really tried that before.” Shouto closed his hand and stretched out his one finger. A flame danced down along to his fingertip. The flame began to spread across the rest of his palm too though but Shouto covered it with his left hand, cooling it and containing the fire. He focused more on his fingertip and the flame burned brighter.
Carefully, he lowered his hand down to the dessert. The sugar began to melt into liquid gold and bubbles blistered on the surface, expanding and popping and hardening but never burning. Shouto moved his finger around the cup until the entire surface was glazed. He looked up at Izuku and his eyes shone with victory.
With a yelp of joy, Izuku grabbed Shouto up in a hug and swung him around the kitchen. Shouto tightened his legs around Izuku’s waist and buried his face in Izuku’s messy curls, laughter bubbling up. He pulled back and planted a few kisses on Izuku’s face.
“You are amazing!” Izuku managed to say in between kisses.
“With your help, as always,” Shouto replied.
Izuku looked back at the tray of creme brulees, mostly ruined except for the last one. “So, I guess we actually need to run out and grab the ingredients to make more…” He looked at the clock. It was already almost 6 a.m. There wasn’t any point in going to sleep now.
“Coffee on the way?” Shouto asked grabbing his keys and toeing off his slippers.
“Yes please,” Izuku replied, yawning as he grabbed his jacket without bothering to change out of his pajamas. Shouto held the front door open and Izuku leaned up to kiss him on the cheek as they walked out.
---
When they arrived at Shouto’s mother’s house a few hours later, Shouto and Izuku were both so exhausted that even just sitting down risked them falling asleep. Tired and smelling of coffee and burnt sugar, Shouto rang the doorbell. Natsuo opened the door and when he saw them said, “Boy, you both look like shit.” Shouto shot him a death glare for that and flicked an icicle at him.
After lunch, Shouto brought out the creme brulees, baked but not yet caramelized. He looked nervous, but Izuku flashed him a small smile. You’ll be okay . And the smile reflected on Shouto’s face.
“Oh, these look lovely, Shouto honey. I didn’t know you had learned how to bake,” Rei said.
“Hold on, Mom. They’re not done yet.” Shouto held his hand up and focused. He extended his left index finger and conjured a small flame on the tip. Fuyumi and Natsuo looked surprised. Shouto hadn’t told either of his siblings what he was planning. The flames flickered and reflected in his mother’s wide eyes. Shouto held the concentrated flames over each ramekin for a few minutes before moving to the next.
Shouto finished the last one and stepped back away from the platter. They were all crisped to a perfect golden brown, bubbles crystallized on the surface. Shouto looked ridiculously pleased with himself and Izuku barely bit back a cheer. But Shouto still looked a little sheepish as he turned to his mother, who has been silent this whole time. “Alright, I hope you enjoy.”
His mother took his left hand and pressed a kiss to it, “Oh honey, it’s wonderful . Thank you. I’m so happy.”