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There was an ache in your heart you didn’t know could exist. It was tucked away in the tight corner of your chest, and it hurt. It was a longing, like a piece of you had gone missing. There was a magnetic pull trying its hardest to bring back that missing piece.
Four months.
Four months since his arms were your castle. Four months since you fell asleep to the sound of his heart slowing down for the night underneath that warm muscle you appreciated so much. It has been so long since he’s been on his mission…
Now you understood what the lyrics in those love songs on the radio meant. It was beautiful and magical and tragic all at once. You loved and hated it at the same time, and you didn’t know what to do.
You sigh heavily as you pull his designated pillow into yourself. You had just finished spraying it with his cologne. If you close your eyes, you could imagine it being him, although it would never be the same.
Suddenly you feel tears stinging the corners of your eyes. Great. Now you’re crying again. The pillow just isn’t doing the trick this time, not that you were really expecting it to. It was just a substitute, a pathetic substitute for him until he returned.
“P-Please…” the whimper comes out as a sniffle. “C-Come back to me…”
“Oh puppy,” a light voice calls from the bedroom doorway. “I’m right here.”
You almost give yourself vertigo from how quickly you launch your body forward. “Izu!”
Yes, it’s him! His green curls are longer now. There is a nasty cut on his bottom lip. A bruise has formed on his right cheek. But his eyes are glistening like crushed stars in the moonlight that’s managed to wiggle through the crooks of the blinds in your window.
You can’t take it anymore. You jump to your knees and crawl as fast as you can to the ledge of the bed. You crawl so fast you can’t catch yourself before you go tumbling over the edge.
Of course, there is your Izuku, your sweet, sweet Izu, with his arms stretched out to catch you despite how absolutely worn out he looks.
“Careful now,” he releases a breathy laugh as he pulls you into his chest, sitting down on the floor with you sitting on his lap. “There, that’s better.”
Your senses fill with the smell of sweat, dirt, and the inside of a taxi.
You cling onto him while taking another long inhale, breathing every inch of him as you nuzzle your face into the crook of his neck. “I-I missed you s-so much…”
A tiny tear plopped onto the soft fabric of Izuku’s hero costume. “I missed you too, puppy,” he whispers softly, stroking your spine and holding you close.
You used to hate him calling you ‘puppy.’ You felt like it was patronizing the first time he used the name for you. But then…
“But you ARE like a puppy!” Izuku had giggled after you had thrown a pillow at him. “You get very excited when you see me. You love eating food. You love it when I scratch your back, rub your tummy, and when I play with your ears. And let’s not forget how much you love to sit in my lap and snuggle.”
It was hard to argue with his reasoning.
Despite how much if had frustrated you in the beginning, it was your favorite name to hear from him now.
“I’m sorry I’m crying…” You sniffle, leaning back to wipe the start of fresh tears from your eyes. “I-I’m just so happy you’re back…”
Izuku gives you his brightest smile and cups your cheek with his hand. “Don’t be sorry for crying.” A blush brushed across his face. “T-To be honest, I cried when we were apart…”
You can’t help but smile at his confession. “You did?”
Izuku nods bashfully as he readjusts himself so you fit better on his lap. “Kacchan poked fun when it first started, but then he eased up…He knows how much I care about you…and how being apart from you is one of the hardest things for me…”
“Mmm,” you tuck your head under his chin and curl your legs around his. “He gets the same when he’s away from Kirishima. He just doesn’t show it.”
Izuku chuckles at that as he continues to stroke your back. “You’re not wrong…” He holds you a little tighter. “I’m sorry I was away for so long…The followers for All for One are—”
“You don’t need to apologize, Izu,” you pull back to look at him, bringing your hand up to cup the side of his bruised cheek. “I’m just so happy you’re safe.” You lean to in a press a gentle kiss on his chapped lips.
He kisses you back, and soon you both register how touch-starved you have been from each other, the kiss deepening deeper and deeper.
When your skin feels too warm under your pajamas, you tug yourself away and roll onto your back on the floor.
You look up to see Izuku’s surprised face. His lips are plump and red from your nibbling, and his hair is even messier now. You giggle as you stand up.
“I think you need a nice bath.”
You don’t leave room for protest and walk straight to the bathroom. The hot water quickly fills the tiny space with steam, spirals of it curling into your bedroom where your Izu is leaned back against the bottom of your bed.
“I’m so tired,” Izuku’s voice is hoarse, trying to make sure his voice reaches your ears.
“I know,” you pour more than a sufficient amount of bubble bath soap into the tub before waving him over. The suds are tiny and sparkle like diamonds. “But you’ll feel better after a bath. So come on,” you continue to wave.
“Mmmnng,” his groan doesn’t go unnoticed. Of course he’s tired. He looks like he has been through hell, which makes sense. His mission had involved the upsurge of All for One’s faithful disciples. Despite the villain being defeated and long gone, his message still resonated with people. It took your Izuku away from you, more frequently now that it seemed like there were more and more people gathering. Izuku wouldn’t share all of the details with you unless you asked. And although you were curious about what new information he found, right now he needed rest and to be taken care of.
You smile big and bright, trying to match the way he smiles at you. It’s contagious, and he smiles back. The tiredness in his eyes goes deep into his pupils but it’ll be time for bed soon.
“Will you be joining me?” Izuku peels the costume off of himself and puts a foot in the water. “Oh gosh!” he flinches back. “You really made sure it was hot for me, huh?”
You giggle and nod. “It’ll help you feel better!” You stand up and tug at your own clothes. “I’ll help you clean up if you’d like…Would you like a bathing buddy?”
“Ha,” Izuku leans forward and presses a kiss to your forehead. “You’re so cute it hurts me.” He lowers himself into the tub, the sound of the water sloshing around the white walls of the tub while he answers your question. “But yes, I would love your help…”
You quickly disrobe and hope into the bath with him. The water is nice and warm, just like him and his love for you. You massage his shoulders and back. He leans back against you and releases a content sigh while you massage his scalp with his favorite shampoo.
His eyes are closed and lips slightly parted. He’ll be sound asleep soon. You hope the warmth from the bath is seeping into the tired aches in his bones. The man is strong, but he is still human. The world might see him as a god, but you know his flaws and his weaknesses. He doesn’t take care of himself the way he should. Always putting others before himself.
Somethings never change.
You sigh and kiss the nape of his soapy neck. A small moan leaves his sleepy lungs as he cranes his neck slightly, giving you more access to his freckles.
One day you will connect every one of those precious dots, forming a perfect constellation of how much you love him.
But right now you just continue to clean him. Every inch you can without moving him too much. Honestly this is mostly for him to sleep a little better tonight. You know how he is. Could he sleep in his own filth? Yes. Because he has before, and anything compared to what he did his second year at UA is nothing.
Regardless, he deserves rest and peace.
You’re not sure how much time has past now, but you can tell he has drifted off. The water is lukewarm, the heat fading away and leaving your hands and feet with little jagged patterns, like a map of all the adventures you both have gone through together before finding a nice resting place.
With a quiet grunt, you wiggle yourself from behind Izuku and grab one of your fluffy towels. It is soft and plush and it makes you feel so comfortable. A deep inhale and you recall you had sprits some of his cologne on here as well.
You really did miss him.
You always do.
You tighten the towel over yourself as you turn to face him, his neck leaned against the edge of the tub, chest rising and falling at a steady, slow pace.
He is precious.
And he is yours.
And now, he is back.
He isn’t as heavy when you activate your quirk. Super strength comes in handy, especially when it comes to lifting lovers out of a bath to dry him off and bring him to bed.
His skin is smooth against yours like old velvet. There are some rough patches from scars, and some new fresh scrapes, probably from skidding against concrete during his latest battle.
But at least he is safe now.
As you scoop him up, you press another gentle kiss to his damp hair. The strands tickle your nose in a beautiful way. It’s hard to hold back a giggle, but you’re managing, taking one step at a time to the bed while pulling back the sheets.
Arranging him appropriately so that he is comfortable takes some time. You bring a fresh pair of boxers and shimmy it over his legs and up his hips before grabbing a clean silk pajama set and throwing it over yourself. Typically, you’d wear one of his t-shirts, the ones that flood over you, but you want to look nice for him when he wakes up.
You curl into him and tuck an arm around his neck and shoulders, pulling him in and resting his head against your chest.
Out cold. He’s fast asleep.
Mumbles escape his lips, mumbles that hold the tales of the dreams running in that brilliantly creative and analytical brain of his.
Suddenly, your eye lids feel heavy. It’s has if tiny weighted blankets are being draped over them, layer by layer.
Maybe it’s the longingness fading away for his touch. You have him laying against you, a sense of security and love that is irreplaceable and simply impossible to replicate. Now that you have him back, you can rest.
Your own muscles unwind. The knots are still there from the stress of wondering how he’s doing when he’s away, but you try to push that aside, because right now he is back.
Oh how you have missed this.
It’s moments like these when you think to yourself about how you will marry him one day. You just can’t imagine a future without him. You’ll take the stressful nights and heartaches of waiting for him to come home. You’ll take the tears that come with looking at the news channels to see him being taken out of the rubble to a hospital for charging head forward because the man just doesn’t think before he leaps the moment he sees someone in trouble. Even after all this time.
You’ll take it all.
You want all of him.
And right now, you do. You have his breath, his lips, the warmth of his body, and his unconditional love.
These thoughts bring a gentle, tired smile to your face, warming your cheeks as you nuzzle yourself just a bit closer into him, if that is even possible.
His steady breathing is lulling you to sleep, and you wouldn’t want to fade away to any other lullaby.
You wouldn’t have it any other way.