Work Text:
Katsuki thought naps were for weaklings. They were a sign one wasn’t in complete control of their body. A signal someone wasn’t taking care of themselves. Katsuki felt if one was going to be the best hero imaginable, they weren’t wasting their time taking fucking naps. They screwed up your whole sleep cycle anyhow. Katsuki’s sleeping habits yielded optimal rest and recovery and he wasn’t about to mess that up. He bet that All Might never took naps when he was a Pro. He probably didn’t even take them now that he was retired.
So when Katsuki got back from the gym, showered, and then walked into the dorm living area he was disgusted with what he saw. Several members of his class were on the rug and couches of the living area and they were all taking a nap .
This had become pretty typical behavior for them on Sunday afternoons. What a waste of time . They had only one day off a week and this was how they were going to spend it?
Katsuki sneered as he walked into the dining room and set his backpack on top of one of the tables. He got out his binders and decided he would study since he had two quizzes and a test that week. He immediately dove into his Hero Studies binder, going over the new laws for Pro-Heroes that had recently been passed and that they would be quizzed on the following morning.
“Do you mind if I study with you, Bakugou-san?”
Katsuki looked up into Momo’s smiling face. He shrugged and returned back to his notes. “Call me Katsuki for fuck’s sake. It’s third year, we see each other daily, and we fought a whole shitty war together. Why ya gotta be so damn formal?” Katsuki knew he had told her this already a few times during third year.
“My apologies, I will try my best to remember,... Katsuki.”
He glanced at her and she was still smiling. He rolled his eyes and focused back on his notes. Katsuki preferred to study alone, but one benefit of studying with either Momo or Tenya was they took decent notes so more often than not he picked up additional information he had missed in his own note-taking. He also didn’t mind sharing his notes, too, especially to those that actually studied responsibly and didn’t cram all night before a test.
The two studied mainly in silence, every now and then either Katsuki or Momo asking the other a question or making a comment about course instruction.
And then someone in the living room started to snore.
Katsuki closed his eyes, his face wincing tightly, almost painfully with his tense irritation. He took a deep breath and counted to ten. He would try his best to ignore it.
And then, they just got louder.
Katsuki began to bounce his leg up and down on the ball of his foot.
And then another snorer came in, their timing completely off with the prime snorer who had started it.
Katsuki shook his head slowly as he stared at his notes, the constant, goddamn noises from the living area distracting him and making him lose his place on the sheet of paper under him.
And then one of the snorers suddenly made a hacking, grating, inhuman sound and Katsuki shot up from the table fast as lightning and immediately bounded over to the living room.
He glared as he searched over the nap piles and then narrowed down which person all the noise was coming from. The couch nearest him housed a pile of three bodies and on top was Denki, his mouth wide open, an ear-piercing, guttural noise emitting from the huge hole in his face. Of course it was Denki-fucking-Kaminari. It was ALWAYS Denki bothering the shit out of him.
He felt like a volcano about to explode, every inch of his skin flushed with the irritated heat of anger and as he opened his mouth to bellow at his annoying dormmate, Katsuki suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. It gave him a pleasing, yet firm squeeze right at the sorest part of his trapezius. He shut his mouth, almost an involuntary reflex, and suddenly felt a lot less agitated. Although he did feel a bit like a scruffed cat which he didn’t like.
He turned toward the person the hand belonged to and he was about to tell them to mind their own fucking business until he saw who it was. Momo stood next to him, her hand still firmly placed on Katsuki's shoulder, a neutral look on her face. So instead of yelling at her, he bit his lip but he still felt like Momo had him by the scruff like a misbehaving kitten. He shrugged and shimmied his shoulder enough times that she dropped her hand.
“They are very loud,” Momo said, her brows a bit furrowed like she was a bit perplexed they could make such a ridiculous amount of noise. “Why don’t we go up to my room to study?”
Katsuki opened his mouth, the need to be contrary loading salty words on his lips, but he couldn’t think of any objections. He ended up blurting out a deflated, “Fine,” instead. They both went back to the table, loaded up their backpacks, and headed up to the fifth floor.
Katsuki had never been in Momo’s room. He had heard rumors about how her bed took up most of the space and he thought it was just ridiculous hyperbole from his classmates. As he passed the threshold into her room, however, he immediately stopped after taking a step. Because there was no where else to go.
“Um…” Katsuki said as he eyed the very small space of floor that framed the two sides of the bed that weren’t pushed up against the walls.
Momo climbed up on her bed and slung her backpack off her shoulder and onto the top of her bed. “I normally study on my bed due to lack of space. I hope you don’t mind.”
Katsuki made a noise of neutrality and joined Momo on top of her larger-than-a-King-sized bed. They resumed their study session and Katsuki found it easy to concentrate in the serene quiet.
Everything about Momo’s room seemed to relax him he realized after a few minutes passed. The lighting coming from a few lamps along with the mid-day sun’s bright rays spilling in from the glass patio door filled the space with an excellent source of light. Momo’s bed clothes and the canopy attached to the four posts above their heads were all in grey tones which was relaxing. Momo had splashes of color from photos on a fabric board above her desk and a couple of framed prints on the walls.
He found his gaze searching for himself among Momo’s photos and when he saw he was in a few group photos, he quickly looked away and back to his binder trying to will away breaking out into a blush.
They studied for what felt like half-an-hour and Katsuki felt a slight headache coming on. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, then brought a hand to the back of his neck and rubbed his tense muscles.
“You seem tense. I can make us some tea,” Momo said.
He opened his eyes and took her in. She was sitting cross-legged next to him, her posture giving her an air of grace and formality. Momo smiled at him, but there was a slight worry etched upon her face, around her eyes. She was always taking care of everyone in their class. She was so much of what made Class 3A and Alliance Heights a ‘home’ to him. He twisted his mouth at the thought. She wasn’t ‘home’ to him personally of course . That was fucking ridiculous. Momo was 'home' to everyone Katsuki thought to himself.
“I’m fine.” He suddenly felt a bit nervous. It hit him that not only was this the first time he had been in Momo’s room, it was also the first time they had been alone together. Even when they studied together it was always in the dorm common area so people were always around them. They had studied alone in the library, but other students always were milling around. And other school or dorm-related stuff they did together, even if it was the two of them, it was always with the backdrop of being on campus, in class, or with their classmates.
Katsuki couldn’t help but feel relaxed in Momo’s gentle, accommodating presence, but also very tense for some reason at the same time. On edge which was strange. He turned his head toward her to say something and tweaked his neck in the process.
He winced with pain and grabbed the back of his neck with an almost shaking hand. “Fuck!” He closed his eyes feeling like an idiot, pulling a muscle and being such a baby about it.
“Katsuki…” Momo said, her tone laced with concern.
He sucked in a breath as his neck muscles spasmed and his headache pulsed and worsened. A few seconds later he felt himself being pulled backward by his shoulders. He was now lying on his back and as he looked up, he saw Momo’s face upside down, looking down at him.
“What the f-”
“Try to relax,” Momo said, her voice calm even though Katsuki felt his whole body go even more rigid.
His head was in Momo’s lap and a deep panic washed over him. Try to relax . Like he was going to be able to do that in this position. Suddenly he felt Momo’s fingers kneading along the back, center part of his neck and he couldn’t help but groan.
The sensation was pleasant, but achy at the same time.
“That’s it. Just relax.”
Was he relaxing? Could he even do that in this situation? He wasn’t Eijirou who had no issues with physical contact and close proximity. Eijirou was one of the parts of the Denki nap pile downstairs, probably the second fucker snoring. Katsuki liked his personal space bubble empty and didn’t like anyone touching him.
Mortification still seemed to thrum through his whole body, but whatever Momo was doing was making his whole body start to go slack almost like he didn’t have a choice. His eyes darted around, at Momo’s face, at the light gray canopy above them. A pleasant smell hit his nose and he wondered was it Momo? Her perfume? Her shampoo? Lotion? Her laundry detergent? Maybe a candle in the room-
“Katsuki.” She stopped massaging the back of his neck.
“Yeah?” he whispered and swallowed and licked his lips. He focused on her upside-down face.
“Close your eyes and quit thinking so much. Shut your mind off as much as you can.”
Her voice was calming. She wasn’t reprimanding him or telling him what to do. Well okay, she was telling him what to do in a way, but it didn’t count because he didn’t reflexively tell her ‘ don’t tell me what to fucking do’ like he would have anyone else.
And that made him break out in a sickeningly hot, full-body flush. Before he could blast out of Momo’s room to run away from whatever feelings these were which he definitely wasn’t going to try and figure out, Momo moved her hands to his hair. Fingertips began to massage his scalp and Katsuki melted on the spot.
He closed his eyes, let go of the breath he was holding, and finally felt his body practically collapse on the spot. He sank into the plush comforter, stretching his legs out straight, moving into a relaxing position.
Momo moved her hands back under his neck and kneaded with a firm, yet gentle touch. She seemed to know what she was doing. He was going to ask her how she learned to give massages because the way she seemed to be hitting accu-pressure points and how his body just gave under her touch had him curious.
But he knew Momo read about everything she could get her hands on. Something as practical as giving massages to overly tense Pro-heroes who trained their bodies mercilessly for optimum performance would be something she would want to learn about. Especially since she liked to take care of people. Katsuki started having those tender thoughts again but this time he didn’t blush.
He then realized he needed to quit being so weird. He and Momo were friends. Katsuki needed to interact with her like he always did.
“So you went through all this trouble,” Katsuki started to say and he noticed the volume of his voice was lower than it normally was and the cadence was slower. “Getting me to your room, getting me on my back…” He was so relaxed yet still managed to smirk as he continued to speak. “Just so you could touch my hair.”
He heard Momo scoff out a laugh. He wanted to open his eyes because he knew she was smiling and he wanted to see her. But he was so relaxed and didn’t want to move a muscle unless it was absolutely necessary. The smirking was almost too much, his cheeks feeling like they were working too hard at the moment.
“Well…maybe that was a part of it,” she said, sounding a bit embarrassed.
Katsuki grinned, completely indulging in the expression.
Momo sighed with a bit of annoyance at his unabashed reaction, but she kept massaging, now moving back to his scalp. Katsuki hummed as his body let go of all the tension. Tension from training his body until he could barely lift a thing afterward, the pressure of being a Pro-hero-in-training, stress from school, the strain of just being himself because he was always so intense, he couldn’t help it, it was who he was.
He let it all go.
Katsuki’s eyes fluttered open and he realized it was because the light shining on his face had woke him up. He gazed out the patio door, not minding the warmth that spread on his face from the golden rays of sunshine. The space around him was bathed in orange hues from the late afternoon autumn sun. He basked in it, not wanting to move from the spot, his whole being content.
His body had never felt so relaxed, his muscles not contracting immediately on waking like they often did, ready to spring him into action. Katsuki never stopped moving, but for once, in this moment, he just wanted ‘to be.’
And then he heard it. A light snore, more like a heavy breath but still technically a snore, sounded right next to his ear. Katsuki turned his head away from the sunshine toward the noise and his face was a hand’s breadth from Momo’s face.
She was curled next to him, her delicate face resting on his shoulder. He lifted his head slightly and saw and of course felt her hand splayed on his chest. Her knee resting on his thigh. He had fallen asleep on his back and seemed to become the base layer of a napping pile.
Napping…
Katsuki internally grumbled to himself. He had fallen prey to the Sunday napping disease apparently. “So fucking weak..” he whispered under his breath.
Momo gave out a sigh so sweet that Katsuki felt a twinge in his chest. He glanced at her hoping he had not woken her up. She readjusted her cheek on his shoulder, gave a long, content exhale and moved the hand resting on his chest to where her arm now draped over his chest.
At that moment something stirred inside Katsuki. It was like something had been found amongst the autumn leaves, a precious treasure that had always been there, he just needed to uncover it.
Katsuki had never felt this before. This physical closeness made him feel good. Not constricted or making him want to climb out of his own skin.
And then he did something that somehow came naturally to him even though he had never done it before. He lifted his arm and draped it over Momo’s arm, his hand loosely wrapped around her forearm. Momo’s skin was soft and warm. She didn’t move and her breathing stayed a steady cadence.
He closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
Katsuki woke from a nap the second time that day. The sunshine bursting through the glass of the patio door had shifted some since he had fallen back asleep. The light in the room was more dim, the tones a richer orange.
He glanced to his side where Momo had been lying before. She wasn't there.
Katsuki sat up and his eyes fell on Momo. She was in the midst of walking out her dorm door. Her backpack was on and she looked like she was very mindfully heading to some destination. Until his gaze fell on her now wide, apologetic onyx eyes.
“I…” she started and then began to look even more guilty.
Katsuki glared at her, his features igniting with new vigor from his restful nap. “You lull me into taking a goddamn nap with some sort of massage sorcery and then you have the fucking audacity to abandon me?”
Momo looked completely distraught now which caused Katsuki to grin. He didn't like seeing that expression on her face; he needed her to know he was joking.
Relief relaxed her features some but she still looked mortified. “I am sorry! I have a meeting with Aizawa-sensei and I didn't want to wake you. You looked so peaceful.”
A wave of heat crept up his neck and he knew his cheeks had to be dark pink with a blush but he didn't care if she saw it. Before he could reply he suddenly remembered something important.
“Shit!” He slipped off Momo’s bed, grabbed his things, and threw them in his backpack. He didn't know what time it was but he now worried he missed his meeting with All Might.
Momo and Katsuki quickly walked to the Faculty Dorm. Together.
Neither of them had missed their 6:00 appointments, but Katsuki would be showing up barely on time which he absolutely hated. But for whatever reason he wasn’t seething with anger about the situation like he normally would have.
He was in a good mood. Correction. Great mood.
He smiled to himself as they briskly walked. The sun was low and it was starting to get cool. Dried leaves crunched beneath their feet.
“Why are you smiling? What’s so funny?” Momo asked.
Katsuki was pleased she knew he was thinking about something funny just from the expression on his face. He felt that warm stirring in his chest and he was starting to have a pretty good idea what it was now.
He looked over at her with a lopsided grin. “You snore.”
Momo gasped and then brought her hand to her mouth, her expression serious. It was like he had told her something grave like Mei had blown up the support lab. Katsuki chuckled.
She then lowered her hand and lifted her chin, a haughty expression on her face as she broke eye contact. Momo would always do that when he took his teasing too far.
“It was cute.” He watched her as they walked and was thrilled to see her face go scarlet.
“That is highly unlikely.” She evaded eye contact.
“You callin’ me a liar?”
It took her a while to look at him and answer. “You are notoriously honest, so no. I have to question your definition of ‘cute,’ however.” Her face was neutral.
They were almost to the faculty dorm and Katsuki knew if he didn’t say something, a door would close.
Katsuki stared at the sidewalk in front of him as he tamped down his pride and fought back the need to hide his vulnerability. He still struggled with it, he hoped one day it wouldn’t be a constant fight with himself. He spoke before the struggle erupted into agitation.
“Thank you for helping me relax and for fixin’ my stupid neck.” He kept his eyes glued to the sidewalk that was rushing under his feet as they bounded toward the faculty dorm. Remnants of dried leaves, yellow and brown and orange littered the sidewalk. Katsuki hated the disorder Fall seemed to throw the world into. Everything dying off, the light changing, the weather tended to be less predictable than the other seasons so he constantly was hot from overdressing for the cold and half the time the weather stayed mild.
But he knew Momo loved the Fall. She had said before it was her favorite of the seasons.
"Of course. That’s what friends are for.” Her voice rang with such warmth and sincerity.
Katsuki looked at her and their eyes met. She looked expectant. That was all the extra prodding he needed.
“Maybe we could study again. Just the two of us. In your room or mine. Later this week.” Katsuki heard his stilted fragmented sentences as he spoke and he wanted to wring his own neck.
Momo’s face lit up and Katsuki’s heart raced. “I would love that,” Momo said, her voice ringing with enthusiasm.
Katsuki wanted to hollar with joy but he reminded himself Momo was a lady and he would also look like an idiot. He opened the door to the faculty dorm for her and she walked in, Katsuki following her.
As they made their way through the common area Katsuki heard the very loud rattle of a snore.
“Oh my,” Momo said in a whisper as Katsuki caught up with her.
On the faculty living area couch sat Aizawa-sensei and All Might. Both ‘sitting’ on the couch, reclining deep into the plush cushions, their shoulders mashed together. And both were deeply napping.
“You gotta be shitting me,” Katsuki said under his breath.
“Since they both are preoccupied, why don’t we peruse the kitchen?” Momo whispered.
Katsuki nodded, glad for anytime, for any minute they could spend together.