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"Are you sure you'll be okay while I'm gone?" The blonde asked, standing in the front hallway of his and Shouto's shared apartment.
"Yes Kats, I'll be fine. You're just picking up cold medicine, right?"
"Yeah and a few other things. I'm just worried about you slipping while I'm gone, especially since you're sick."
"Don't worry about me, It'll be fine. It's only, like, 45 minutes."
Shouto tugged his light pink throw blanket back over his shoulder with a sniffle, then reached up and pulled Katsuki into a hug. In return, the blonde placed a soft kiss on top of the smaller male's head. They stayed that way for a bit longer, then pulled away.
"Okay, I'll be back soon. If anything happens, call me."
"Nothing is gonna happen-"
"Shouto. If anything happens. Call. Me. Promise?" He asked, resting his hands on Shouto's shoulders.
Shouto nodded.
"Shouto."
"Okay!" Shouto huffed, "I promise."
"Thank you. Okay bye, I love you." Katsuki said as he opened the apartment door and stepped into the hallway.
"I love you too."
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Everything was going well. It had been 15 minutes since Katsuki left. Shouto decided to watch TV to pass the time.
He flipped through channels, skipping any cartoons he came across as to avoid slipping into littlespace. As much as he wanted to with how sick he felt and the headache forming somewhere deep in his skull, he had to stay big until Katsuki got home. He had to.
Shouto eventually settled on some random news station. It was boring enough that he knew he wouldn't slip.
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Shouto wasn't sure how much time had passed He was only half paying attention to the TV, and mainly focused on tying to ignore his headache that was only getting worse.
Suddenly, his phone pinged with a message from Katsuki.
"Long line at the store. I might be late, sorry baby."
Shouto smiled slightly and typed out a quick reply saying it was fine. He hit send and was about to switch over to YouTube on his phone when something on the TV caught his attention.
"Pro Hero Endeavour, do you have a moment for a quick interview?" The news reporter said. On screen was none other than Endeavour, dressed is a casual outfit.
"Not at the moment" He said, "I'm currently on my way to see my son."
'What?' Shouto thought. Once glance at the screen showed an apartment building in the background.
Not just any apartment building.
Shouto's apartment building.
Panic flooded through Shouto's body as he rushed to shut off the TV. The apartment was silent aside from Shouto's own staggered breathing and the soft jingle of a cat collar as Shouto's cat, Moon, came running over. The small black cat jumped up onto the couch and started pushing and rubbing her head against his arm. Shouto noticed and started petting her, trying to calm himself down.
Unfortunately, it wasn't long before 3 heavy knocks hit the apartment door.
"Shouto?" His father's deep voice called out.
Fear ran through him once again and he immediately dropped down to the mental age of 3. Panicking, he started to cry. Salty tears streamed down his cheeks as he shook violently. Moon seemed to notice this. She hopped off the couch and started meowing up at Shouto. Once he looked at her, she meowed again and began walking away. Shouto slid off the couch and followed her. The small cat knew what she was doing, as she had been trained for this.
She let him follow her into the dining room and under the table. Moon had been trained to recognise when Shouto was little and felt unsafe, and to lead him to somewhere he would feel safer. Right now, that was under the table apparently.
Shouto crawled under the table and sat there, trying to muffle his heavy sobs as his father continued to knock on the door.
"Shouto? Are you home? I want to speak with you."
Shouto was frozen until he remembered what Katsuki told him before he left.
'If anything happens, call me.'
Shouto grabbed his phone and struggled to input his passcode due to his violently shaking hands. Thankfully, Face ID recognised him, and the phone unlocked autiomatically.
He shakily swiped around on the phone until he found Katsuki's contact and hit call.
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Katsuki was just leaving the store when his phone began ringing. The second he answered and brought the phone to his ear, he could hear Shouto's choked sobs.
The blonde recongised the cries right way. Shouto only ever cried like that when he was little and in distress.
"Shou, baby? What's wrong?" He asked, worried. After a moment, Shouto tried to speak.
"P-p'ease come h-home... 'm s-scared-" Shouto barely managed to stutter out before breaking into sobs again.
"Is somebody there, Shou?"
"y-yeah... out-outside. m'scared."
"I know, baby. Listen. Stay where you are. I'm almost home okay? I'll be there in 5 minutes."
Then Katsuki heard a voice in the background on Shouto's end.
"SHOUTO! OPEN THE DOOR. I CAN HEAR YOU."
Shouto let out a shriek, then there was a crash sound followed by 3 beeps.
'Call Ended'
Katsuki started running. With how fast he was moving, he made it home in just 3 minutes.
He couldn't remember a single time in all of high school where he moved as quickly as he was now, running up the stairs to their 5th floor apartment.
As he approached the door, he saw Endeavour aggressively banging on the door. Katsuki had lost all respect for the man years ago (not that he had much to begin with), so he had no problem doing what he did next.
"Move, dick head." The blonde grunted as he shoved the #1 'hero' out of his way.
As Katsuki reached into his pocket for his keys, he could hear Shouto's distressed wails from inside the apartment. The sound alone made his guts twist, and he didn't even want to think about the situation that went with the heartbreaking cries.
Katsuki could imagine Shouto probably hiding under something or in a closet maybe, whole body shaking as he cried and took in ragged, choked breaths.
"Shit..." He muttered. Finally, the door unlocked and he swung it open, stepping inside the apartment.
Enji was about to follow him in, but promptly had a door slammed in his face, followed by the soft click of the door being re-locked behind Katsuki.
"Shou?" The blonde called out, glancing around the apartment as he set the bag from the store down on the kitchen counter. He didn't get an answer.
"Shou? Where are you? It's okay baby it's just me, I promise."
The cries didnt stop and he didn't get an answer, but he heard a meow and the soft jingling of the bell on Moon's collar. Then, there was some shuffling followed by the barely there sound of small paws walking towards Katsuki.
"Hey... M-Moon, come back-" Shouto whispered from somewhere in the apartment, then started crying harder. Katsuki couldn't pinpoint the Little's location, but luckily Moon was coming to help.
Suddenly, she meowed and brushed against Katsuki's leg, immediately getting his attention. Once she knew she had it, the cat meowed once more and walked away, leaving the ash blonde to follow her.
She led him over to the dining room table, then sat down and started meowing again as she looked up at him.
Katsuki nodded and crouched down to look at Shouto. Once the little saw him, katsuki put his arms out. Shouto slowly crawled out from his spot, still crying. His face was red and covered in tears, and his nose was running. Seeing that her job was done, Moon got up and walked away with one last meow.
Katsuki stood up, then reached down and placed his hands under Shouto's arms, lifting him up. As soon as he did, the blonde could immediately feel the excessive heat coming off of his clearly overheating Little. It was unnaturally hot, even for Shouto.
"Oh, baby you're overheating. I got you some medicine, okay?"
Katsuki rested Shouto on his hip as he walked over to the kitchen counter. He first plucked a few tissues out of the nearby tissue box, then carefully wiped his littles face to rid it of the snot and tears.
"Blow your nose" He muttered to Shouto as he held the tissue up. Shouto did so, then laid his head on Katsuki's shoulder as the blonde chucked the tissues into the garbage bin underneath the kitchen sink. Katsuki then reached into the bag he set on the counter earlier, and pulled out a bottle of medicine and a plastic syringe.
just as Katsuki was about to open the bottle, the knocking on the door started up again.
"WHAT THE HELL! LET ME IN!"
At the sound of Endeavour's voice, Shouto started crying again. Katsuki quickly tried to calm him down. It almost worked, until he tried to sit Shouto down on the couch so he could deal with Endeavour. Shouto clung to his neck and sobbed refusing to let go. The blonde quickly gave up and carried Shouto to the door with him.
"What." Katsuki grunted as he opened the door a bit.
"Where is Shouto?"
"Right here."
Enji tried to look around the door obscuring his view to get a look at Shouto, but Katsuki moved the door again and stopped him.
"Let me speak to him, and put him down." Endeavour demanded.
Shouto immediately got scared that Katsuki was gonna let go of him and put him down. He started shaking and tears pooled in his eyes.
"No." The blonde huffed, tightening his grip on the Little in his arms.
"Quit treating my son like some sort of useless child. Such behaviour is disgraceful and will tarnish the family's reputation that I've carefully created-"
"HEY." Katsuki shouted. "First of all, you're fucking delusional. Second, Shouto isn't yours to control anymore. So get out of here before I call the fucking police."
Without giving Enji a chance to say anything, Katsuki slammed the door shut in his face.
"Are you okay, baby?" The blonde asked quietly. Shouto nodded shakily, then tried to speak.
"Too hot..." The Little whimpered, tugging at his sweaty clothes.
"Okay. Lets get you some medicine and then we'll get you in some fresh clothes. How does that sound?" Katsuki said as he walked back into the kitchen.
Katsuki grabbed the bottle and quickly opened it. He stuck the small syringe into the bottle and pulled out the proper amount of cold medicine. Once he was done, he held it up to Shouto's mouth.
"Open" He said. Shouto did so and allowed Katsuki to put the medicine into his mouth. Unfortunately, the medicine didn't taste good, and Shouto whined, refusing to close his mouth. With a sigh, Katsuki gently coaxed Shouto into closing his mouth and swallowing the medicine (there may have also been a small bribery involving a sippy cup of stawberry milk).
However, some of the medicine still managed to escape Shouto's mouth, and it dripped down his chin. Not wanting to grab more tissues, Katsuki pulled his sweater sleeve over his hand and wiped away the small dribble of cold medicine.
Now that Shouto had taken the medicine, Katsuki began to prepare the sippy cup of strawberry milk that he had promised Shouto. He walked over and opened the cupboard labelled 'Sippy Cups'.
"Which one do you want, Shou?" Katsuki always liked to let Shouto choose. The Little looked up and thought for a moment, before pointing to a light pink one with little snowflakes on it.
Katsuki grabbed it and set it on the counter, then poured the strawberry milk into it. As soon as he was done, Shouto began making grabby hands towards it. Katsuki quickly picked it up and handed it to him, not wanting his Little to get upset again.
The next thing the blonde had to do was get Shouto out of the sweaty clothes he was currently wearing. Shouto quietly drank the strawberry milk as the two headed down the hall towards their shared bedroom.
Thankfully, Shouto didn't get upset when Katsuki set him down on the edge of the bed. The blonde hummed as he opened the closet door and began searching through it. Eventually, he picked out one of his own shirts, as well as a pair of shorts that belonged to Shouto.
Katsuki turned back to Shouto, clothes in hand, and began to undress him. Shouto whined and tried to resist when Katsuki took the now half full sippy cup out of Shouto's hand so he could dress him. Of course, Shouto didn't like that. The way he saw it, he was promised a full sippy cup of milk, so he should get to have the whole thing. Why was it being taken from him?
Shouto pouted and began to tear up as a few whimpers bubbled up in the back of his throat. the tears immediately began streaming down his red cheeks, and before long, he started loudly crying. Not wanting Shouto to make himself more sick, Katsuki was quick to try and de-escalate the situation.
"Hey hey hey, Shou- Shhh... No tears, baby. Please don't cry, you'll get more sick. Look- look at me Shou, I just need you to put the sippy cup down for a second so I can change you out of your icky clothes, okay? I promise you can have it back right after. I'll even give you a second sippy cup of strawberry milk!" The blonde frantically tried to calm down his distressed Little before he started screaming. He did not need his neighbors to think someone was being murdered.
Katsuki then reached over to the nightstand and grabbed one of Shouto's pacifiers to offer him in place of the sippy cup until he was done. Thankfully, Shouto's wails died down and he sniffled, allowing Katsuki to slip the pacifier into his mouth. The pink sippy cup was set on the nightstand, and Katsuki finally finished changing Shouto into clothes that weren't drenched in sweat.
"See, all done. Now you can have your sippy cup back." He said as he handed the milk to Shouto. Katsuki held his waiting hand under Shouto's chin, know the little would immediately spit out the pacifier, not caring where it landed now that he had his sippy cup back. Just as he suspected, Shouto allowed it to fall out of his mouth as he started chugging the milk.
By the time Katsuki had picked up the little and brought him to the living room, the cup was empty. He sat Shouto on the floor in front of the tv and turned on netflix.
"What do you want to watch, Shou?" The blonde asked, already knowing what the answer would be. Shouto watched as Katsuki scrolled through movies, and pointed at Howl's Moving Castle with a soft hum and a smile. Katsuki put it on for him, then looked down at Shouto, who was tugging on his pant leg.
"What?" Instead of giving a verbal response, Shouto waved the empty sippy cup at him.
"Words, baby."
"M-more" The Little stuttered, struggling to form words but still trying his best.
Katsuki smiled and took the sippy cup to the kitchen. He was quick to fill it with more strawberry milk, then give it back to Shouto. While he was gone, Moon had decided to join Shouto, and was now curled up in his lap, softly purring.
Katsuki had originally planned on cleaning up the apartment a bit while Shouto was watching the movie, but with the sight of Shouto and his cat in front of him, Katsuki changed his mind. He sat down on the floor next to Shouto and leaned back against the couch. Shouto immediately leaned over and slumped against Katsuki, then handed him the once again empty sippy cup. The Little sat there expectantly with his mouth open, so Katsuki popped the pacifier from before back into Shouto's mouth. he placed a soft kiss on top of Shouto's head, then turned to watch the movie with him.
The cleaning could wait. This was much more important.