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Shouto never really cared for celebrating his birthday. It had come and gone in the past, most times without any acknowledgement from his father, who forced him to continue training even as he entered a new year of his life.
Things changed when he came to UA, though.
He gained more friends than he had had in his life, and they all cared for him in their own way. Sometimes it was hard to accept all of the gifts, hugs, and kind words, as Shouto wasn’t really used to hearing them at all. He would get flustered and feel out of place when all the attention was on him, so he usually tried to avoid it as best as he could.
His birthday was a day that he couldn’t exactly escape, unfortunately.
He wasn’t stupid, he knew this was coming. The class had, for the last three years without fail, always thrown him a party in celebration. They did usually take into consideration his discomfort in social situations, so it was mostly just Izuku’s friends that tended to gather, others just sending him their gifts and well wishes through the green-haired boy, which he was grateful for.
Currently, he sat in his room, pondering if he should try to at least look presentable. He had the date circled on his calendar. January 11th. It stared at him in waiting. There were still two days left until the fateful date, but anxiety ran through his blood as he thought of his previous birthdays.
“Shouto! Happy tenth birthday!” Fuyumi whispered in his ear and handed him a mini strawberry cupcake from the convenience store, a candle burning in the center.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more, I know father wouldn’t be happy if he saw, so I made sure he was in his office.” He took the cupcake from her hands in silent gratitude, admiring the dancing colors of red, orange, and yellow in the flame. His fire was more harmful and dangerous than this, and he didn’t mind the small candle.
Stomps could be heard throughout the house, and the siblings flinched in waiting. Shouto quickly blew out the candle, but the scent of smoke lingered in the room as the door flung open.
“What is this!?” Endeavor snatched the cupcake out of his hand. “I have you on a strict diet, Shouto. This will not do.” He was dragged by the hand into the kitchen, where he was forced to watch as his father pushed his foot on the lever of the trashcan, throwing it forcefully into the bin.
He teared up as he was taken to the training room, and commanded to push his fire to the limits, as he was the perfect masterpiece after all. He was made to carry out his father’s wishes, even if it cost him his happiness.
He never tried to celebrate his birthday again after that.
He was brought back to reality by a few knocks on his dorm room door, trudging over and opening it to see Katsuki.
They had gotten much closer since the remedial classes, slowly becoming a part of each other’s daily routines. Katsuki had softened up during that time, too, and after his apology to Izuku he had asked Shouto for guidance on how to mend their friendship. They had to have a heartfelt conversation about his hatred for Izuku- Katsuki explaining that it was never really hate at all.
He had realized that Katsuki felt as if he was the one falling behind, and despite having one of the strongest quirks in their class in addition to his top marks, Izuku seemed to be light years ahead of him, not to mention his untouchable bond with All Might. Even still there are times where the half-and-half boy has to remind him that the journey to greatness comes with faults, and owning up to your mistakes doesn’t make you weak, but rather strong and selfless.
Yes, he may have heard that from a movie, but it worked well enough.
They never strayed too far apart again after Katsuki apologized to Izuku. Whether it be holding study groups with their combined friend groups before exams, eating lunch with each other, or teaming up during training exercises, there were barely days where they didn’t interact. On rare occasions where they lay awake with insomnia, just a simple text had them both drifting down to the common room, making tea and sitting in a comfortable silence on the couch.
They walked to class together most mornings, despite complaints from Katsuki on how slow Shouto trudges to the room, claiming that he has a serious aversion to mornings (which he does), and during study periods, Katsuki would often sit with him in the grass as he rested his eyes.
Shouto wanted to learn to cook after tasting Katsuki’s utterly delicious dinners, despite being genuinely terrible at it. The blonde taught him as much as he could, but Shouto noticed he was never allowed to do any of the actual cooking, rather being ordered to cut the vegetables or gather the ingredients most of the time. Figures, because the one time Katsuki allowed him to use the stove he over-boiled the water and burned it to a crust all over the stovetop. A banishment to the common room shortly followed.
When he finally found something he was better at, baking, he decided that he was going to bake something for Katsuki to ask him out. Spending so much time together and healing from the war with someone who understood exactly what he was going through inside and out made Shouto realize that Katsuki means much more to him than just a friend, and that realization was slightly shocking to him. He had never had romantic feelings for anyone before, and thought at first that Katsuki was adjacent to the title of best friend like Izuku, but on one of their sleepless nights last winter, the pair had been curled up by the fire reminiscing on their first year when Kastuki passively said,
“Y’know, when Utsushimi did her whole glamour shtick, I kinda thought you could have been a model for my dad’s shitty designs. Maybe the only time I’d do him a favor is introducing him to you.”
Shouto’s throat had gone dry, mouth agape and eyes twinkling like something straight out of one of Katsuki’s shoujo novels- and within the next 3 seconds he had made up his mind that he definitely wanted to kiss him. The rest is kind of history.
In the present moment, Shouto sighed in relief and motioned for his boyfriend to come in. The other boy seemed to sense his sullen mood, cautiously approaching him.
Katsuki sat next to him on one of his many cushions on his tatami mat, holding something behind his back.
“Excuse me, you in there, idiot?” The blonde nudged him with his elbow, handing him an envelope, slightly stained and sealed in a rosy pink wax with a heart on it. Shouto raised a brow, as Katsuki wasn’t generally the cheesy romantic type.
The blonde spluttered. “Just fuckin’ open it.” And stormed out of his dorm room dramatically.
He opened up the envelope carefully, to preserve the wax as best he could. He unfolded the letter.
Shouto.
I know you don’t like big flashy gifts and shit, and you hate birthdays because of your shitty old man, so I wanted to get you something that you’ll actually like hopefully. Of course you fuckin’ will, ‘cause I ain’t returning it.
I love you.
-K
They had said I love you to each other before, but every time Katsuki uttered it, it felt more meaningful and raw since it was mostly Shouto who tended to say it.
He was hit with the realization that Katsuki knows him, and all of his struggles and flaws and yet, he still takes the time to love him, and hold him together during times like these where the past continues to hold him back, reminding him of the person he used to be not so long ago.
Digging through the envelope once more, he pulls out something else.
In a small black baggie, there was a slim velvet ring box. He opened it to find a silver band, the letters K+S engraved into the inside of the ring. A soft smile spread across his face as he slipped the ring onto his finger.
A promise , the box read.
—
The hands over his eyes were shaking in excitement as he was led to the kitchen in the dorms.
“Almost there, Shouto!”
Izuku had informed him that there was a surprise for him. He glanced at the circled date, today’s date, on his calendar as he was led out of his room by the green-haired boy, hands covering his eyes.
“Surprise!” He opened his eyes to see a few of his friends, Iida, Ochako, and Yayorozu, gathered around a simple one tiered, crumb-coated strawberry cake. He fiddled with the ring on the fourth finger of his left hand as he listened to his friends sing him Happy Birthday.
He blew out the candles, making a wish:
I want to keep celebrating my birthday like this.
He looked up, his friends cheering around him. As they leaned in to give him a group hug, he noticed Katsuki standing in the doorway to the common room, smiling at him.
I hope you'll keep your promise, Shouto mouthed with a smile , flashing his ring to the blonde where no one else could see.
Katsuki rolled his eyes, mouthing back at him,
Obviously.