Chapter Text
Tenya always woke up early, per usual. He didn't even have a day shift, it was just instinct at this point. He really should sleep in, but his internal clock wouldn't allow it. It'd been a good few months since he'd finally gotten out into the actual world of heroes, and he'd managed to actually skip the sidekick phase by filing as a duo.. with Izuku of all people. It wasn't like they weren't friends, it was just a bit of an odd choice on his behalf. Their quirks weren't really all that related, and while they've fought together many times in the past, it wasn't like they were fantastic at working together at times. The greenette was just a bit too impulsive and chaotic at times as where Tenya was much more orderly and controlled. In the moment, it just felt right to ask him. Izuku had saved his life, and was one of his best friends all throughout his years at UA. As with all duos, they got on each other's nerves at times, but the choice surprisingly worked our rather well.
Tenya grumbled, scrubbing at his face a bit as he swung his legs out from beneath the covers. Living in an apartment was.. new. New and uncomfortable, but he'd gotten at least somewhat used to it.
Something he'd never get used to was the fact that Izuku was here with him. It was a smart choice, getting a shared apartment near their agency, but it was still odd. The two had separate rooms, but Tenya was constantly in a state of hyper awareness. Don't wake him up. Don't wake him up. It was like a mantra in his head as he gathered together a couple soaps and a towel so that he could go shower. He didn't like leaving his soaps in the shower, maybe he was afraid Izuku would mix them up and use his, maybe he was just weird. He slipped out of his room, trying to ignore his morning breath as he carefully creaked down the hall towards the restroom. If he was quick, he could shower before Izuku woke.
Well, that would've been the case if one of his soap bottles didn't clatter to the floor. He almost cursed at himself, but bit it back and picked up the bottle. Clumsy. He wasn't normally clumsy. Odd.
~
Izuku was startled awake by the sound of a loud clattering, when he finally came out of his sleepy daze and heard the water running he realized it must've just been Iida in the shower. He sat up in bed and stretched his back, raising his arms above his head as he gathered his thoughts. It had only been a couple of months since they became official pro heros, Izuku was on his way to achieving his dream of being the number one hero, and he was glad Iida was by his side as a teammate, an equal. It might've seemed like an odd choice to the both of them, even to the media, but through all their schooling together, they knew how to work as a team, even if it wasn't always perfect. He pressed his feet to the floor and stood, his curly hair a wild mess as it always was. He stumbled out into the kitchen, cleaning up a few things, remembering how much of a clean freak Iida could be sometimes, and he wanted to be respectful to his housemate. It felt nice, living with Iida, Izuku had never liked being alone all that much so it was somewhat of a comfort to have him around, even if he did irk izuku's nerves at times. It was never anything major, he could just be a bit nagging at times, more so when it came to Izuku’s tendency to rush headfirst into battle with no plan than anything else. Impulsive. That’s what he had called him. Since then he had learned to listen to Iida’s plans before acting, unless there was a time crunch.
~
Sometimes Tenya was almost too thorough with everything he did. And by everything, he meant everything. He's tried his best to get over that, but it seemed to have carried over into adulthood no matter his attempts. Even something as simple as a shower could take forever if he wasn't careful, but for both his, and Izuku's sake, he made sure to be quick. He allowed the water to heat up a bit, more towards the warmer side. It wasn't like he was going to scald off his skin, but he also wasn't about to feel like it was raining indoors. He undressed and stepped into the shower without too much fret, and let his shoulders relax as the spray made contact with his back. When did he get so tense? Sure, he was always overly nervous, but never tense. God, hero work was already taking its toll, huh? He made sure to clean up as necessary, not lingering in the shower for too long. He ran a hand along his face, grumbling a bit. He should shave, too. He could handle that later, though. He turned off the water before long, and stepped onto the bath mat he'd insisted on having. He didn’t want to have to pay for water damaged if he could help it.
Drying himself off was a quick endeavor, as was getting dressed in his usual almost-too-formal to-be-casual-clothes. He made sure to quickly comb his hair and brush his teeth before stepping out, taking both his towel, and his toiletries along with him. Before he could return back to his room, he heard the subtle sounds of somebody cleaning up the kitchen. He let out a soft sigh, and spoke up. "Good morning, Midoriya." Even after all these years, he couldn't bring himself to just call him Izuku. "I'm sorry if I woke you."
~
Izuku looked up from his place behind the counter that he was wiping down, "Good morning Iida" Still using last names, he had asked him to call him Izuku before but it seemed like it was just habit at his point to use last names only. "I tried to clean the kitchen for you, and don't worry, my alarm was about to go off anyways," Not completely untrue, izuku had only missed out on about 30 minutes of sleep and he was sure Iida knew that. The blue-haired man had a knack for memorizing little details Izuku himself hardly ever noticed, it was sort of impressive actually.
He gives Iida a friendly smile, before heading to his room to prepare for his turn in the shower, he grabbed a pair of jeans a t shirt, they both mainly worked night patrol, so their uniforms were kepts in their cases until then, unless there was an emergency, but things had been pretty quiet lately for the most part. Izuku grabbed his bag of of shampoo and body wash and made his way to the shower, turning the water on and letting it heat to an almost unreasonable temperature as he undressed. He stepped into the scalding water and let it relax his muscles that had been so sore lately, especially his legs. All that walking and standing around gave him terrible cramps and the heat of the shower really helped with that. He poured shampoo into his hair, washing it thoroughly before scrubbing his body down with soap, finally rinsing it all off. He stands under the water for a few more minutes before turning the water off and stepping out, wrapping himself in the towel, He wiped steam off the mirror and looked at himself, all these years and still could not for the life of him grow any facial hair. He sighed, drying himself off and dressing, placing his towel in the hamper and his bag back in his room, rejoining Iida in the kitchen after.
~
Tenya made sure to neatly keep all of his dirtied laundry in the hamper he had tucked in the corner of his bedroom. He did it once a week, and that seemed to be enough, no matter how much he wanted to compulsively run everything through the washer the second it got dirty. They didn't have access to that, though. It was always a couple loads per week, occasionally some towels and sheets, nothing more. It wasn't worth the hassle to wait too long or do too much laundry. He'd managed to get a little less formal with his casual wear, though there were still times when he sat around the apartment in a button-up and dress pants. He made do with a crew neck sweater and some jeans for the day, however. He kept the sleeves rolled up at his forearms, not wanting to overheat himself when he could easily prevent it. He tidied up a couple things in his room, and frowned at the slight stubble on his face. Facial hair wasn't necessarily a bad look on him, he just didn't think it was as pleasant as keeping himself clean-shaven. He eventually stepped out of his room, and glanced around. The apartment was relatively clean even by his standards, but the hardwood floors could use some sweeping sometime soon. He could deal with that later, however. Right now? A good breakfast was always in order when your day is spent out and about.
Tenya was.. not the most fantastic cook. He still tried, though! He made his way to the kitchen, pulling everything he'd need to make two balanced servings. Hopefully he wouldn't burn or overcook anything this time. No matter how easy it was to keep on top of some things, cooking just wasn't something he seemed to be able to easily handle. He had tried to learn through online videos and though he was usually fantastic at memorizing things, it didn’t seem to work as well in the kitchen.
~
Izuku rounded the corner to the kitchen, "Do you need any help?" He offered.
Iida did his best, and Izuku was no great chef either, but Iida's cooking could use a few helping hands sometimes. The tradition had been whoever was up and showered first cooked breakfast, and at first Izuku had made a hard effort to be up before Iida, he wishes that engine boy would sleep in sometimes because it had really turned into Iida always cooking. He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel a bit guilty about it, but it couldn't be helped at this point. The least he could do was offer to help out. They were supposed to be teammates after all, Izuku didn’t want that to just be in the work field. He ran an idle hand through his hair, yawning a bit. Izuku took a moment to look over Iida, admiring how sharply dressed he was compared to himself. He hadn’t even bothered to tuck his shirt in and here Iida stood looking as if he were on his way to an interview. At least it was better than the day he came home to find him in a completely suit, on their day off no less. He remembered opening the door to see him like that and asking him where he was going, when Iida had told him that those where his “casual” clothes, Izuku insisted that they go shopping together. Then when Iida refused, Izuku had gone out and gotten him a couple of sweaters and more casual polo shirts, the one Iida had on now was a navy blue one he’d gotten him. He smiled a bit to himself as he recalled the memory before turning his attention back to the current situation.
“Iida?”
Tenya turned to him, quirking a brow. "I think I'll be alright, but thank you." He'd settled for something more western, simply because it was much quicker than the whole process of preparing rice. They really should get a rice steamer. While typical breakfasts could go without rice, he didn't really want to bother with figuring out some alternative. It wasn’t worth the anxiety he knew it would cause him if it wasn’t perfect. He found himself having a relatively easy time preparing things, and simpler meals would only be more difficult to make with somebody else in the small kitchen. He might've been awkward and choppy with some movements, but he did his damn best to make sure that it didn't take forever to get the meal done, and soon enough he was plating it. He placed the two plates down on the kitchen table, and pulled out two glasses, filling them both with orange juice before immediately beginning to clean up the slight mess. It was such a tedious and unnecessary task, it could’ve waited really, but he did so anyways. He placed the pans in the sink, turning the water on to soak the grease off of them.
"Iida, I know you want to clean everything right now, but you should really eat before the food gets cold, you know once you start you won't be able to stop for hours" He gave a slight laugh, digging into the breakfast he had made, "wow I'm impressed! This is a lot better than before! N-not that those were bad, you're just improving!" He gives a thumbs up, continuing to eat.
~
A slight frown twitched at the corners of Iida’s lips, but he sighed and placed the pan he was about to clean back down into the sink. "I.. suppose you're right." He gave an awkward, almost forced smile as he sat down, and began to eat his own breakfast. "Ah.. thank you by the way..." He murmured, not quite sure what to do with himself in that moment. Meals were always awkward when it was just the two of them, at least back at UA there was Ochaco to fill the silence. Here in their apartment, the time they spent eating was nearly always a standstill moment of silence, neither one quite sure what to say. Izuku cleared his throat after swallowing and tried to break the ice in the room, "I'm glad we teamed up, really, I know I've said that before, but it's true!" He said with a cheerful tone yet his words still sounding a bit odd as they came out. They should really get a radio or a tv or something to have a little background noise, times like this made him miss his time at UA, the constant chatter and conversation of everyone around them, not that he didn't like being around Iida, it was just too quiet sometimes, especially for Izuku’s taste. Tenya glanced up, shooting the other a small smile. "I'm glad as well. We might not be... the most typical team, but we do work well together." He was trying his best to not sound too robotic. He was getting better at that, at least. Sometimes he sounded more machine than human, and while it did get worse throughout their UA years, it was slowly beginning to fade again. It was really understandable, so much happened throughout those years, a lot of things had changed. They had changed. For better or for worse, it was hard to tell at times, but Tenya thought on the positive side, or at least tried to.
"You're doing great, Iida." Izuku patted the others shoulder as he finished his plate, taking it over to the sink and washing it immediately for the sake of Iida, Izuku really needed to do better about keeping the house cleaner, he made a mental note of simple chores he knew he could keep up with, it wasn’t fair to Iida to do all the housework, even though he might even prefer doing so. "Thank you for breakfast, again."
Iida nodded a small bit, appreciation evident in his eyes. "Of course." He spoke before focusing back in on finishing his meal. He'd always been a bit slow when it comes to eating, and it was a good couple minutes until he finished off as well. He stood up, and without hesitation washed his plate, along with the pans he'd used. He noticed that Izuku had washed his own plate, a subtle smile came to his face, It seemed as if Izuku was trying as well.