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Shouto has discovered, in his very wise, old age - according to his daughters, at least. He’s only twenty-eight, but in their eyes, he’s ancient history - that when you’ve been married for as long as he and Izuku have, it can be difficult to find new and exciting things to do.
Granted, they’ve only been married for about six years, but in that time, they’ve already been to all of the restaurants in their area. It was an interesting experience, sometimes leading to an amazing find, like the little corner ramen shack run by an elderly man named Mr. Yamada. His curry ramen was simply to die for, and nine times out of ten, he and Izuku are choosing to spend their weekly date nights dining at his place.
Sometimes, though, they find a place that leads to them spending the evening curled up on the couch, clutching their churning stomachs while their daughters play “doctor” and put bandaids on their cheeks and arms and give them lotsa kisses so they heal quickly.
Those places are forever blacklisted.
They’ve also visited all of the local hiking spots. Their instagrams are filled with their adventurous hikes, from Izuku standing triumphantly on top of a giant rock, to Shouto pouting and covered in thorns, their daughters seen giggling in the background. After awhile, the beauty begins to blur, becoming boring as they’ve already seen it a dozen times before.
Same with the local art, science, and history museums. They were fascinating at first, the whole family oohing and aahing over the different pieces or informational exhibits, but even that became boring as well.
Which is what he and Izuku were trying to avoid with all of these different outings and date nights - for their relationship to not be stagnant and dull, to always keep that spark alive, even amongst their busy careers and the task of raising a family. They didn’t ever want to become complacent and forget how much they enjoy spending time together.
Hence, the determination to try and find new and exciting date ideas.
Some were successes, like the couples cooking class they took with Tenya and Ochako. He and Izuku can now safely feed their daughters without poisoning them, and they got to learn a new skill with their friends! Other endeavors were absolute failures though, like paintballing with Mashirao and Tooru, the stealthy couple absolutely destroying them and leaving them too bruised and battered to even take care of themselves, let alone their small children at home.
Paintballing will only be revisited once their youngest is more self-sufficient, they decided later that evening, laying in a puddle of groans and their oldest gently petting their hair, telling them in a lipsy voice that they should’ve been more careful.
Usually, it’s Izuku who tries and research new date ideas - Shouto’s idea of a good time tends to gravitate towards staying in bed and watching TV, or going to a bar to watch their friends get drunk and then post embarrassing photos of them on his Instagram - so, when he spots Izuku awake bright and early on a Saturday morning, laying on his belly with his phone clutched between his hands, muttering to himself while their daughters drape themselves over his legs, giggling as they make their dolls smooch, he smiles, greeting them all with kisses, before making his way towards the kitchen to get started on breakfast.
Izuku remained on his phone throughout breakfast, occasionally humming in agreement to himself, or rapidly shaking his head no, muttering about how that’d never work. Shouto is well aware of his husband’s tendency to get completely wrapped up in whatever he’s researching and just leaves him be, corralling the girls into helping him clean up and then heading outside for a mid-morning walk.
When they return, it’s to Izuku with his eyes alight, holding out his phone as he rushes to Shouto’s side, exclaiming, “I’ve got a great idea for our next date night!”
Shouto grabbed the phone and read through the article, pausing about halfway through to glance down at Izuku’s eager face. It was kind of a weird idea, but maybe that’s a good thing. Their last few dates have just been them going out to eat and then taking a romantic stroll afterwards. Which he loves, of course, because anytime spent with Izuku and getting to hold his hand and kiss him under the twinkling stars is perfect, but it’s good to mix things up every now and then.
He finishes the article and tells Izuku it sounds fun, much to his husbands delight.
They spend that next Tuesday getting the supplies, and then on Wednesday evening, Ochako picks up the girls for a very special, no boys allowed, sleepover. As soon as they’re gone, Izuku is grabbing two glasses from the shelf and opening up their first bottle of saki, pouring them each a generous amount. “Cheers!” he chirps, clinking his glass against Shouto’s, before they each take a lengthy sip.
They’re tipsy by the end of the first bottle and completely hammered by the second. Izuku wobbles as he grabs the hat they set aside earlier, filled to the brim with little strips of paper, and gestures for Shouto to pick first. He plucks a slip from the top and snorts, pocketing his choice and watching as Izuku makes his.
Izuku makes a big show of digging around the hat, his tongue poking between his wet lips and brows furrowed. “Hurry up, ‘Zu,” Shouto slurs, leaning forward to poke Izuku in the side. When he makes contact, Izuku lets out a wild giggle and tries to shimmy away, nearly dropping the hat in the process.
“Don’t rush me, this is a very importan’ decision!” Izuku retorts, glaring up at Shouto with his lips pursed. Finally, he picks a slip and immediately bursts out laughing, this time actually dropping the hat and sending the little slips of paper scattering around the kitchen. “Oops!” he says in between laughs, shaking his head to himself. “We’ll uh, we’ll clean it later. C’mon!”
Shouto is pretty positive they won’t be cleaning it later, but follows Izuku nonetheless, laying a steadying hand on his husband’s lower back as they make their way to their home office. The normally tidy space has been transformed into a makeshift art studio, with garbage bags lining the floor and their easels and paint stations already set up, on opposite sides of the room.
“Let’s starttttt~” Izuku sings, picking the easel closest to the radio and turning it on. A popular dance song begins playing and Izuku sways to the beat, his hands stretched above his head and making little wavey motions. “Dance, Sho!” he commands, but Shouto shakes his head, moving to his own easel and grabbing his paints.
“I wanna get started on my paintin’,” he tells Izuku, who stops dancing with a sigh, mumbling, you’re no fun as he grabs his own paints as well.
Shouto dabs some yellow, black, white, and peach onto his palette. He tries to see which paints Izuku is grabbing, but can’t from this angle - guess that’s part of the surprise, though.
It’s a good thing they set all this up while sober.
Sober Izuku and Shouto are way smarter, after all.
Shouto starts with a peach base, drawing the outline of Kaminari’s head and shoulders. He thinks his ears might be a little too big, but shrugs it off, and begins working on filling the inside. As he paints, he listens to Izuku singing along to the radio, or chatting about whatever topic pops up in his mind. Sometimes, he responds back, but sometimes, it’s nice to just listen to Izuku speak passionately, without worrying he’s boring people or going on for too long.
In his mind, Izuku is never boring or too rambly. He loves listening to Izuku speak, about all the different things he’s passionate about - whether it’s work-related, something funny their daughters did, or just a weird thing he read about in a magazine.
Izuku is the most amazing and interesting person on the planet, as far as he’s concerned.
He feels his eyes begin to water and rubs at them with the backs of his hands, chuckling softly to himself. It’s been a long, crazy ride, going from competitive high school rivals to best friends who’ll do anything for each other. Then, in their third year, they became boyfriends, after an insightful conversation with Momo, where she told him the reason his heart always felt like it was gonna burst out of his chest around Midoriya was because he was in love with him.
He confessed, and Izuku immediately teared up and launched himself into his arms, clinging to him as he spoke through a wobbly-voice that - “I never thought you’d feel the same way…”
They had a variety of ups and downs over the next ten years, spanning from leaving Hawks’ agency to start their own, getting married and adopting their girls, to losing All Might and then nearly each other, after a vicious villain attack that almost wiped out an entire city. They fought, and they yelled, but they also loved, and laughed, going through each victory and turmoil together.
He peeks over the edge of his easel and smiles at the bit of red paint smudged on Izuku’s already flushed cheeks, his eyes half-lidded and brush sweeping across the canvas. He’s so cute, and Shouto is as in love with him at sixteen as he is at twenty-eight.
Izuku seems to sense his staring and pauses his erratic brush strokes, meeting his gaze with a lopsided smile. “How’zit lookin’, babe?”
He hums. “It’s not terrible?” he says, even though it is. His portrait looks nothing like Kaminari - the ears are too big, his costume looks more grey than black, and he’s pretty sure the lightening streak running through Kaminari’s hair is on the wrong side of his head.
“I’m sure it’s greaaaat,” Izuku sings, and continues to paint, his tongue poking out in concentration.
At the last brush stroke, they grab their canvases off their easels and meet in the middle of the room. “You go first!” Izuku encourages, practically vibrating in his excitement.
Shouto sighs and flips his canvas around.
Izuku immediately chokes, his face scrunched up in amusement as he coughs to clear his throat. “Oh wow, um,” he tilts his head to the left, then to the right, his face steadily becoming redder as he holds back his giggles. “It’s, amazin’, Shou. Oh my god,” a giggle escapes, and then another, before he’s doubling over, laughing hysterically and nearly dropping his canvas. “I love ya’ so much.”
“Love ya’ too, ya’ dick,” Shouto smiles, reaching forward and giving Izuku an affectionate karate chop on the head. “When you’re done bein’ rude, lemme see your’s.”
“Kay, kay, just,” Izuku sniffles and straightens back out, slowly exhaling. “Okay, here,” he flips his canvas around and it’s...it’s him. And it’s not bad, of course, because Izuku, unlike him, actually has artistic ability.
It’s a standing portrait of him, wearing a dress very similar to Elsa’s from Frozen. His hair is bleeding pink in the middle, his ears are kinda lopsided, and for some reason, he has breasts?
“What do ya’ think?” Izuku asks, smiling up at him expectantly, his brows raised and eyes bright with amusement. “It’s a masterpiece, rightttt?”
“It’s perfect,” he nods, carefully leaning forward to place a kiss on Izuku’s forehead.