Work Text:
message #1, 3:15 pm
I’m recording this as I’m watching you walk to the airport gate, which is not creepy, shut the fuck up. Has anyone ever pointed out to you that you’re slightly pigeon-toed, by the way? You should fix that.
Or don’t. Sorry. I don’t give a fuck how you walk, I just…say things.
When you land safe you better text me immediately, asshole. Matter of fact, do it now while you’re listening to this, because I know you forgot already.
I hope you’re happy, Icy Hot. This is going to be the worst three months of my life. Did you know that? Is that why you took this stupid internship? I bet you wanted to torture me, you sadistic piece of shit.
Well, it’s working. I miss you already.
message #6, 8:32 am
Is California as abysmally hot as everyone says it is? Not that it matters to you, I guess, since you’re a walking air conditioner. The damn nerd says he read somewhere that it’s going to sink away into the ocean one day.
That would be funny.
Deku has just told me he does not think this is funny. Deku has no sense of humor.
I can’t believe you left me here with him.
Is the summer over yet?
message #13, 7:20 pm
Your god-awful cooking skills are rubbing off on me. How dare you. I was making an omelette. All the vegetables perfectly chopped because obviously. Added a bit of milk to the eggs to make it fluffier like the pros do. Everything was fine, but I stepped out of the kitchen for one second to mess around with the TV and I come back and half the kitchen is on fire .
It’s an omelette. I don’t even know how the fuck you fuck one of those up, and I never have before, so I am blaming you.
The fucking fire alarm went off, so the whole building had to evacuate. I am escaping these firefighters. I am going to buy a drink, and maybe some ice cream, and I’m going to try not to miss you.
message #14, 1:06 am
Hey, Shouto.
If you could like, travel back in time. Wait a damn minute. I can sense you laughing at me right now, but don’t. Yes I am drunk. No it does not matter. Listen. You asshole.
If you could travel back in time, and talk to your younger self just for a few minutes, would you? What would you say?
I think I would do it. I’d tell myself not to be such a prick.
I’d tell myself that there’s someone out there who’s not going to put up with his shit, who’s going to make him pay attention to things besides just himself for once. And I’d tell him when he meets that guy, to not push him away.
You don’t have to tell me what you would say, actually. I think I know.
message #16, 11:24 am
If you listened to my last message, no the fuck you did not. I have a headache and I regret everything.
message #22, 5:00 pm
Shitty Hair made me go shopping with him in Shibuya today. I only agreed to it because he said he’d buy me lunch. And he did. And it was at a decent udon place, so I can’t be mad about it.
I bought you something. You’ll have to wait until you get back to see what it is, but I think it’ll make you laugh.
I fucking miss your laugh.
Have you bought me a souvenir yet? I hope it’s something shiny and expensive, fitting for a future number one hero, you know?
I wish I could’ve gone with you; then I could have picked it out myself.
Is it still a souvenir in that case?
God, I don’t know.
message #27, 12:23 am
I dedicate this song to the love of my life, Todoroki Shouto:
The entirety of “Hot ‘N Cold” by Katy Perry, played on YouTube, McDonald’s ad included
message #38, 3:21 am
I know I should be asleep, but I can’t sleep and think of you at the same time.
Well I guess I could, since dreaming is a thing. But this is so not the point.
Do you remember the first time I kissed you, at that culture festival? To tell you the truth, I don’t, entirely. I remember the moment before. When I was looking at your annoyingly perfect mouth and thinking about kissing you, wondering how it would feel and how you’d react. And then I remember the moment afterwards, when you just stared at me, and I thought, Oh fuck, you’ve really done it now, Katsuki, but then you--you smiled, and holy shit, Shouto. I was dying. Dead. I hate that I love what you do to me.
Goddddd. The shit you make me say.
Hurry back already.
message #42, 6:02 pm
My calendar’s all marked in black and holy fuck it’s really here. And by it I mean you. You’ll be back tomorrow and I technically have work right now but it’s all I can think about. Me, rolling up in my impeccably sweet ride.
Here’s how it happens, okay? Are you listening? I roll down my window. Slowly, with class. You catch your frumpy, travel-exhausted reflection in the surface of my also impeccably sweet sunglasses, and you think, Wow, Katsuki looks so good, I am so lucky to have him, I should get in this car and kiss him right now, airport traffic be damned.
I agree with you, Icy Hot. I am so very kissable. Airport traffic be damned.
-----
Todoroki looks different when Bakugou sees him again. His hair is longer, the bright red half of it more copper and gold, sun-stained. His skin, too, has been sipping from sunlight, and now it’s a beautiful golden brown hue, faintly dusted with freckles.
Bakugou watches his boyfriend walk up to where his car is parked against the curb. He thinks, as he does often when he sees Todoroki, Damn.
He rolls down the window, slowly, with class. Todoroki smiles, leaning over the car, one arm resting on its top.
Bakugou asks, “What are you thinking right now?”
He has to think about it for a brief moment. “Wow. Katsuki looks so good, I am so lucky to have him…something about kissing you and airport traffic?”
“You didn’t even remember half of it!”
“California heat has fried my brain,” Todoroki says, and he tilts his head down at the same time Bakugou tilts his up, their lips meeting in the middle.
It’s not enough; it never is, and this time is worse because then Todoroki vanishes to walk around and throw his suitcase in the trunk. It’s too much time. Too much time for Bakugou to sit and savor the taste of him, to think of how badly he missed him, and all the things they can do now that he’s back.
“So?” Todoroki said as he slid into the passenger seat, amidst impatient honks from the other cars crowding the pick-up lane. “How’d I do? Is it how you imagined?”
“You forgot half the script, as I said,” Bakugou reminded him, “so no. But it’s better.”