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When Katsuki turned the lock, Eijirou was already waiting for him. Well, not quite so. Eijirou was actually bustling in the kitchen, prepping for dinner, but Katsuki knew his husband well enough to know when he was borrowing a task as an excuse; he saw Kirishima make one too many protein shakes at the exact same time Katsuki happened to be doing yoga in the living room.
“Katsuki!” Eijirou exclaimed, wiping his hands and hurrying over. He was wearing one of his “sun’s out, guns out” aprons and the bouncing material wasn’t doing him any favours in hiding glorious sun-kissed skin.
Usually, Katsuki would admonish him for risking one of his “precious nipples” to sizzling oil but at the moment, he’d love nothing more than the heat of Eijirou’s body, unencumbered by any unnecessary fabric.
Eijirou opened his arms and Katsuki fell into them greedily. This… this wasn’t weakness, he reminded himself. This was allowing himself to be taken care of by the one he loved. Eijirou’s arms enveloped him and Katsuki knew he had chosen correctly. He buried his face into the crook of Eijirou’s neck and breathed deeply. It came out shaky.
“I’m sorry, baby.” Eijirou’s hand rubbed his back in a slow circle and Katsuki couldn’t help it. He broke down at those three words.
A “bad day” didn’t even cover how shitty his shift had been. Eijirou must’ve known already—either from the news coverage or one of his friends who had been on-site. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that Eijirou knew and was here.
He easily caught Katsuki’s weight when he sagged into his embrace, gently prying Katsuki’s gear from his frame until support items and other devices littered the entryway. Katsuki couldn’t even bring himself to care about the inevitability of one of them tripping on the scattered pieces of equipment.
He clung closely when Eijirou lifted him into his arms and only grumbled a little when Eijirou tried to carry him princess-style. Eijirou chuckled as he acquiesced to Katsuki’s insistence on wrapping his limbs around him like a koala.
Eijirou brought him over to their bed and while he had to coax Katsuki to release him from his octopus-like clutch, he never stopped reassuring Katsuki with his touches. A sweep of his hand down his spine, a kiss placed in his hair, another on his cheek.
“Lemme take care of you, m’kay?”
Tears coated the back of Katsuki’s throat. Eijirou’s voice. Soft. Comforting. A gift he didn’t deserve, not after the dismissal he received today.
Eijirou seemed to know what he was thinking about and he pressed his lips to Katsuki’s crinkled brow, smoothing the stress lines there. He waited though. He waited until Katsuki nodded his assent and then he left one more tender smile for Katsuki to memorize before he padded towards the ensuite bathroom.
Katsuki watched him go until he could no longer see him around the corner. He let out a gusty sigh and threw his arm over his face, shielding his eyes from the light and everything that made his head hurt. He… was probably dehydrated, having inhaled too much smoke and dust from the day’s rescue mission. He would have to get himself a cup of water after Eijirou finished patching up the hasty stitches on his calf though; if he went anywhere now, it would surely send Eijirou into a tizzy.
He didn’t know how long Eijirou had been gone—it couldn’t have been more than mere minutes for the other to fetch the first-aid kit—but he was groggy when Eijirou found him half-asleep, squeezing a hand around his arm to wake him.
“I know, I know,” Eijirou soothed when he whined at being guided to turn onto his front. “We can take a nap soon after this, okay?”
Katsuki grumbled at him. Fine. He could pull up his big boy pants for a few minutes.
Eijirou chuckled at his reluctance and gave him a kiss on the top of his head for his troubles. “Thank you,” he murmured.
Katsuki let Eijirou tend to his wound—a cut, really—and would’ve fallen back asleep if the antiseptic-soaked cotton pad hadn’t drawn a hiss out of him.
“Almost, almost,” Eijirou reassured him. Katsuki made the next hiss even louder. Eijirou laughed.
By the time Eijirou was snipping the bandage and applying gauze tape to keep it secure, Katsuki was all bristled up like a defensive cat. He shot Eijirou a weak glare over his shoulder when his husband dared to pat him on the head, yet he eagerly accepted Eijirou’s touch when he began pulling Katsuki’s clothes over his head.
Eijirou made sure that Katsuki didn’t have to lift a hand as he changed his clothes. He asked to take out Katsuki’s hearing aids and properly plugged them in to charge on the nightstand before gently pushing Katsuki further into the bed. The relief on his husband’s face was palpable at having one of his senses at peace and Eijirou’s heart settled, glad that Katsuki was no longer feeling so overstimulated.
He climbed into bed himself, guiding Katsuki’s head onto the plush pillow he had fluffed up earlier and propped himself on his elbows. Katsuki’s eyes had already closed, but his breathing indicated that he was still wavering between the realms of dream and reality.
Smoothing back Katsuki’s hair, Eijirou smiled at the rare sight of his husband’s forehead. Little strokes of his fingers became light massages and he rubbed at Katsuki’s ears and temples. Practically purring under his ministrations, Katsuki’s sharp features softened under his thoroughness and eventually soft snores and thin whistles filled the bed.
It was easy to gather his partner into his arms and tuck him against his side, breaths puffing across his bare chest. Once Katsuki fully fell asleep, he didn’t wake easily and Eijirou took advantage of that to draw up the blankets around their shoulders and trace features of Katsuki’s body to his indulgence. He laid kisses on Katsuki’s slack expression and caressed his husband’s arms, taking note of the few spots that were imprinted with crease lines from Katsuki’s performance braces. He brushed a lock of hair out of Katsuki’s eyes.
The evening sun dipped beneath the horizon outside the window, lighting the room with sunset streaks and Eijirou took a few pictures of his husband where the glow fell beautifully across his hair and cheek. (Okay, he took way more than ‘a few’.) As the room gradually darker, however, Eijirou’s eyelids also grew heavier and soon, he emitted snores of his own, chest bobbing beneath his husband’s weight.
Ah, it looked like dinner would have to wait.
***
When Eijirou woke, it was pitch dark. He groaned and fumbled for his phone, wincing when the bright light showed him 10 PM. Shoot, he knew he had forgotten something—setting an alarm.
He had a crick in his neck and his arm was numb. But once he was aware of the other body in bed with him, those worries vanished.
During the nap, Katsuki had managed to sprawl himself completely on Eijirou’s frame and his nose was fully tucked into Eijirou’s nape, forcing the redhead to tilt his head to accommodate—that explained the neck ache. His arm also wasn’t so lucky as even though Katsuki had commandeered his husband’s torso for his own, one of his knees was on top of Eijirou’s elbow.
Eijirou giggled quietly. Ah, his husband. Ungraceful, as always; he loved that about him.
Carefully, Eijirou rolled them over so that he wasn’t crushed beneath Katsuki’s weight. He pried Katsuki’s fingers off of his waistband and held his palm up to his mouth, kissing each callused fingertip.
“Mnngh.”
Eijirou smiled at Katsuki’s groan. “Wakey wakey,” he spoke into Katsuki’s chest.
Katsuki couldn’t hear him, but the vibrations of Eijirou’s words and the following kisses afterwards were enough to rouse him.
“E-Eijirou…”
Eijirou grinned at the yawn that punctuated his husband’s voice next. He helped Katsuki wipe his eyes and lightly pinched his cheeks when the blond grumbled and tried to shake himself from Eijirou’s troublesome hands. When bleary red eyes finally met his, half-lidded and hazy from sleep, Eijirou blew a kiss at him. Blond brows furrowed. Eijirou laughed and leaned down to kiss him properly.
Their lips were slow, the natural movement of mouths sliding against each other rather than trying to elicit any sparks of desire or the blaze of competition. They simply breathed each other’s breath and reoriented themselves with each other’s bodies.
Eijirou grasped Katsuki’s jaw and tilted it into a deeper kiss.
Easy for him, Katsuki obliged and let Eijirou trace his tongue with his. His warm palm slid down Eijirou’s side and settled at his hip.
Eijirou took his other hand and laid it on his chest, letting Katsuki feel his heartbeat and every reverberation of the words he spoke.
“I love you,” he said clearly. Katsuki’s eyes traced his lips and his hand dropped from Eijirou’s chest.
I love you, Katsuki echoed in his sign.
Just the way it took three words to tear Katsuki’s walls down, Eijirou used three words as well to build Katsuki back up.
“I love you,” he spoke into Katsuki’s mouth. Jaw. Shoulder. Palm.
An “I love you” for his chest, heart, belly button.
More for his hips, knees, and toes.
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” Katsuki returned.
His lips had stretched into quiet laughs and brilliant grins with every kiss Eijirou granted to his skin. He shoved at Eijirou every time a ticklish area was caressed and gasped when a nip met something sensitive. He was hidden in the darkness of the night but Eijirou didn’t need to see to know his love was happy.
He scooped Katsuki back into his arms amidst the blond’s exclaims and settled back against the pillows, ready to prolong the cuddles into the night despite the gurgles of their stomachs.
“Katsuki,” he said. “I love you.”
Katsuki didn’t hear him. But he had felt Eijirou’s lips with his fingers and he knew every syllable, every rhythm, and ounce of love Eijirou repeatedly laid into his touch.
He didn’t need to hear to understand. And Eijirou didn’t need to speak to be understood.
But…
“Thank you,” would always be Katsuki’s piece of love to him.