denki’s application of adorable and soft drags eyes into a roll, the tease of a smile smothered under a lukewarm glare. the media would love it so much that katsuki has already sworn all who know into secrecy. he doesn't take himself too seriously - especially in the media’s uninformed lime - light - but the last thing he needs is another unauthorized heart - throb cover for some teen magazine. twitter takes years off his life.
❛ sootball is into oddities, so you’ll be just fine, ❜ they have quiet similar tastes in things is what he thinks when he says it but it serves no one well to mention it. ❛ your sushi roll will have their paws full though, that’s for sure. ❜ sootball isn’t immune to the hyper activity of kittens but it is the oddness of the little one’s own actions that come into question. given shrimp tempurra’s own oddities, katsuki is inclined to believe it is just a feline thing.
his gaze flickers to another small stack which consists of mostly non-kitchen items on the counter. or maybe not.
he disassembles it and adds them to the box. ❛ given the number of ramen packages in here i’d suppose you’ll fight him for it. ❜
katsuki gives a quick once over for the drawers and anything else at risk of being left behind and considers the kitchen finished. block letters label the box kirby and he seals it off (tape ripped unevenly from the serrated edge of it’s holder, and breathlessly sworn at) before placing it in the stack of boxes that appear less likely to topple.
the flannel hanging off a door handle catches his attention again. there is a distinct urge snag it and see if the fabric softener has changed but that’s weird so he props himself against the wall and idly watches denki tear the tape of its reel with his teeth.
there is a warped version of his past self’s ideal future that pops up to the for front of his mind with the image. almost as if he’d seen it before, dreamed it maybe. it wasn’t a thing they’d talk about really — plans for after high school. they hadn’t lasted long enough. katsuki had thought of them though. had imagined the task of packing up everything at the end of year three and making the transition to their own apartment. had rationalized that it would hardly be a big deal, having already technically lived together throughout u.a.. he knows that’s wrong, though. it would have been. it is now even under all the different circumstances — or maybe because of them — but he still pretends to rationalize it the way he had then. they survived a year together after a terrible break up. it will easier - better - this time around. he’s no stranger to making himself scarce and busy to pass the time if need be.
it is to be busy. having something to focus on other than the burning sensation in the pit of his chest. with a hard blink katsuki smothers the memory, derails the train and grabs the shirt from the door handle. he’s being stupid. they’ll be fine. ❛ you want to do the clothes — ? or should i start the scavenger hunt… ❜ already he flicks his gaze back to the previously accounted for button - ups strewn haphazardly into their own hiding places.
for some reason , denki hangs onto the word , eyes pulling up from task to squint at the space ahead . he contemplates as if having noticed a small , invisible bug there ; an inkling of something in his mind begs to decline , and he’d already opened his mouth on the brink of ignoring it before suddenly remembering for why it is present to begin with .
discarded somewhere along the floor of his bedroom , in an unrecognizable heap , are a pair of jeans bakugou’s not seen in years --- jeans that either man has seen one another both in and out of , with diminishing fringe and faded color from continual wear . his bias for them would be undeniable if held up properly , and he’s positive there are a couple more like them somewhere .
keeping a share of your ex’s mini library could easily be overlooked as an accident , things you don’t think about at the time . but keeping clothing is always purposeful . denki’s teeth clamp down on the simple note of ‘ sure ’ .
❛ -------- no , no , it’s okay . i’ll get all that . ❜ he is surprisingly nonchalant in his reaction , standing straighter now to regard the offer with a quick , dismissive wave . he shocks even himself by how unbothered it sounds , even as when he turns to see what bakugou currently holds in his hands .
❛ it’s just a huge , stupid mess . you could rip up every board and still not find all the places i kick my socks off at . ❜ he taps a finger to his temple as if withholding secret knowledge , eyes purposely kept off the old flannel . ❛ and i didn’t exactly bring you here to punish you . ❜
which is meant as a joke , of course , but something about the wording feels a little too intentional . the half - suppressed laugh he gives doesn’t do much to dilute it . he moves on to seek another task for bakugou to busy himself with .
head swiveling around the small room , denki considers what all is left . he’d managed to take care of some smaller things in his own time over the week , but there was still the matter of moving furniture and carrying down the boxes , his least favorite part of the process --- and the precise reason he’d asked bakugou to come in the first place . for all the muscleheads in his life perfectly suitable for jobs like this , he’d never forgotten the way bakugou had always maneuvered himself with some semblance of efficiency , and how well that’d carried out in the event of turning a two - man job into a solitary one .
besides , that gave denki a little extra time to really tornado clean the place . granted , it’s a well - known fact that he’d never been anything but unabashed about his casual messes --- so long as there are no little critters running around , i’m cool with it --- but the idea of bakugou revisiting this particular aspect of his lifestyle has suddenly stricken his nerves . he hadn’t given much thought to how vastly they might still differ in even the littlest ways , because he hadn’t had to observe bakugou being an adult up close and personal before .
a couple of teenagers being near - neighbors for three years was one thing , back when the utmost refusal to make your bed was considered a coming - of - age personality trait . but he’s long since outgrown such an excuse , no longer young and cute in his laziness ; there was some reasoning behind this place staying a bachelor pad all these years .
there’s also no doubt that bakugou has miraculously found more than enough time in his busy schedule to keep his apartment spotless , and denki doesn’t like the idea that he may see him as childish now for opting out of such tasks so that he may routinely die on his little orange futon in peace . the last thing he needs is for bakugou to plainly see just how much of his shit he doesn’t have together , past what a track record of late rent and copious packets of instant ramen have already spelled out for him .
all the while he ping pongs these thoughts back and forth , denki’s eyes stay trained on the gaudy , fish - shaped ash tray left on the center of his coffee table , happy to have had the foresight to empty the butts out of the open mouth before bakugou’s arrival --- even if he’d recently discovered that bakugou himself had equally picked up the habit .
he blinks sluggishly , lost between thought and staring off into space . he then leans to removes the glass fish from the surface it’s set on , reaching for some of the loose newspaper bakugou had used to wrap his glassware . his chin juts to the table as he begins wrapping it . ❛ wanna jump on gettin’ some of that stuff to the truck , hoss ? better that than fishing up dirty laundry for an hour . i’ll finish up here , and then we can break for lunch . my treat . ❜
because that’s what you do to pay gratitude to a friend helping you move , and has little to nothing to do with getting a headstart on some overdue reparations .