For the "mini" fic prompts, can I request #19? :DDD
‘things you said when we were the happiest we ever were’
YA
okay so this is like, one of the SAPPIEST things i’ve written I think! it’s also 3.7k words!
—
“I like you,” Kirishima said.
Katsuki stared at him. The redhead seemed to squirm under his gaze, lower lip bitten between his stupid-sharp teeth, eyes flicking away from Katsuki’s face to somewhere on the ground. When Kirishima had begged and pouted until Katsuki had agreed to take them both hiking, this was not the conversation Katsuki had been expecting to have once they reached the top.
That didn’t mean it was something unwelcome.
Kirishima drew in a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and met Katsuki’s eyes again. “I like you, Bakugou. Um. A lot. So I was wondering if maybe I could ask you out on a date?”
Contrary to popular belief, Katsuki was actually quite familiar with his feelings. It didn’t mean that he always agreed with them. In this case, however, Katsuki embraced the warm and golden glowing bubble that cast its light through his entire being like a miniature sun. Happiness wasn’t enough of a word to describe it.
Katsuki didn’t let his voice waver when he replied to his best friend. “Ask, then.”
“Oh, uh,” Kirishima swallowed with an audible gulp. “Would you want to go on a date with me?”
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
—
“Hey Katsuki, what’s your plan after Yuuei?”
Katsuki frowned slightly and paused his braiding of Eijirou’s hair. “Plan? For what?”
“Oh, like,” Eijirou waved one of his hands around, leaning back into Katsuki’s chest. “You gonna sidekick first? Or go pro straight from the get-go.”
“Pro, obviously,” Katsuki said. “Gonna open an agency an’ everything. I’ve got the reputation to pull it off already.”
“Yeah, I guess you do,” Eijirou said, dropping his head backwards onto Katsuki’s shoulder. Katsuki peered at his face and Eijirou grinned at him. There was something not a hundred-percent genuine in that grin and Katsuki almost frowned. “So are you looking for an agency building?”
“Haven’t had all that much time for it,” Katsuki said, watching Eijirou for signs of reaction to anything he was saying . “Googled some shit but I’d want to go and see wherever these places are. Can’t exactly go property hunting in the middle of term.”
Eijirou turned his head and kissed the first part of Katsuki’s skin that he reached, just under his jaw. “How about apartments?”
“Gonna have to be near the agency, so I gotta look for that first,” Katsuki said. “If I want somewhere with decent villain traffic it’ll probably be in one of the more expensive areas with a high population density. The government agency fund doesn’t cover personal accomodations, so I’ll probably have to set up a hammock in my office for a couple of months until the Heroics feedback kicks in and I start earning something decent.”
“Hm,” Eijirou said, kissing Katsuki’s neck again. As much as Katsuki wanted to indulge in that, he had a feeling that something was on his boyfriend’s mind.
“What is it?” he asked, prodding Eijirou’s cheek.
“Oh, well, um,” Eijirou pulled a slightly shifty face. “I was just- I mean. I don’t have as much of an ironclad plan at the moment…”
“So, what?” Katsuki tilted his head. “You’re lookin’ for advice?”
Eijirou’s face skewed a little more. “Not exactly. Uh. I just. Um. Would you ever, uh, consider maybe having two hammocks in your office?”
Oh.
Katsuki stared at his boyfriend and felt overwhelmed all of a sudden. Holy shit.
“Fuck, I love you.”
Now they were both staring. Katsuki could feel his cheeks heating up but damn, it was the truth, and he’d had to say it.
“What?” Eijirou said, the first of them to break out of the stupor. “You- What?”
“I love you, Kirishima Eijirou,” Katsuki said. The words tasted right on his tongue.
Eijirou sat up, twisting to face Katsuki and reach for his face. “You- You- Holy-”
“I love you,” Katsuki repeated, pushing his face forward so that their foreheads met. Now that he’d said the words, he couldn’t stop. “I love you! I fucking love you, Eijirou.”
Eijirou kissed him, hard and sweet. This kiss didn’t last all that long with Eijirou pulling back to pant through his grin. “I love you too.”
A sensation not unlike one of Kaminari’s shocks zipped up Katsuki’s spine. His stomach churned, but in a good way, like all of his insides were dancing. Katsuki felt elated, giddy even, and he wrapped his arms around Eijirou’s waist to bring him closer.
They traded words and kisses and smiles and words again, over and over and over.
It occurred to Katsuki that he hadn’t actually answered Eijirou’s question, so he pulled away slightly - and only slightly, with their noses still brushing and Eijirou’s breath hot against his mouth.
“You do know we can share a hammock, right, dumbass?” Katsuki asked.
Eijirou very being seemed to brighten at the question, and he responded with his own. “Does that mean that you do wanna live together after Yuuei?”
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
—
Katsuki wasn’t normally one for nerves in intense situations, but this was something entirely different. It wasn’t like some fight against a villain where Katsuki could explode and explode and put his feelings into action. It wasn’t remaining calm while his partner was injured, letting everything condense into a laser-focus until Eijirou was safe.
No. This were the fluttery, flurry-of-emotions type nerves that Katsuki didn’t know how to deflect into productivity. The kind of nerves that part of him enjoyed, the nerves he had felt just before leaning into his first kiss as he tangled his fingerss into red hair, the nerves that had shuddered through him in waves when he had knelt on one knee in front of Eijirou with a ring in one hand.
“Yo, how’re you hold- Ooh, not so hot,” Kyouka said, poking her head around the door. She glanced around the room and at Katsuki, who was sitting on one of the haphazardly scattered chairs. “They left you alone in here? Fools.”
“The fuck do you mean ‘they’, Headphones? You’re on my side, too,” Katsuki grumbled.
“Oh it’s Headphones right now, huh? Man you’re sweating buckets,” Kyouka said, putting her hands on her hips.
Katsuki glared at her. “No fucking kidding.”
“Hey now, it’s just Eijirou,” Kyouka said. “Think about that dumb grin he’s gonna be wearing. Just for you.”
God, Eijirou’s fucking smiles. Eijirou was easy with them, flashing a grin here, showing off a smirk there, but not that easy. Some of Eijirou’s smiles were rarer than others, and Katsuki adored drawing them out of him. Like the way Eijirou smiled when he woke up, so soft and sleepy and content. No one else got to see that.
“I love him so fucking much,” Katsuki said, groaning and burying his face in his hands. “That’s not the- Ugh. We shoulda just eloped.”
“Says Mr ‘If These Napkins Aren’t The Right Colour I’m Gonna Commit A Crime’.”
“Shuddup,” Katsuki said. “Someone who doesn’t think leopard print or pitch black tablecloths are an acceptable wedding aesthetic had to be in charge of decor.”
“So that ruled out all of your friends,” Kyouka said, grabbing a nearby chair and sitting down. “Because we’re all either from the same dimension that Hawaiian Shirt designs are stolen from, or goths.”
“Exactly,” Katsuki said. “Useless, the lot of you.”
“Denki threw a bangin’ bachelor party, though, right?” Kyouka asked.
“I guess,” Katsuki said. Pikachu had taken them all to a theme-park with enough express passes to skip the queue for any of the rides. It had been fun. He had made out with Eijirou on the ferris wheel like they were teenagers again, and no one had asked for his autograph.
“There, see? You’re smiling again, Blasty,” Kyouka said. Oh, well, the distraction had helped. “Think about how powerful you’ll feel when you can say ‘my husband’.”
“So fucking powerful.”
“Precisely! It’s a good feeling,” Kyouka grinned. “Remember when Denki kept dropping ‘my wife’ into nearly every conversation?”
“Too well,” Katsuki said, shaking his head.
“Well that’s gonna be you and Eijirou, soon. You’ll be rubbing it in everyone’s faces,” Kyouka said. Fuck, that sounded good. “Alright, final check. You got your suit on properly?”
Katsuki looked down at himself. “Pretty sure.”
“Tie, shoes, any weird decorative things?”
“All there,” Katsuki said. He was wearing Red Riot themed cufflinks, and he knew Eijirou had a matching pair with his own brand.
“Makeup and hair?” Kyouka asked, tilting her head.
“Jeez, it ain’t like this is a broadcast production,” Katsuki muttered. “But yeah. It’s all sorted. If you can’t see it then Mina did her job right.”
Kyouka studied him for a few minutes. “Vows?”
“Hell yeah,” Katsuki said. “Everything’s ready. It’s just the fuckin’ waiting.”
“Good job you don’t have to do that any more,” Kyouka said, glancing at her watch. “It’s time to go, Katsuki!”
“Oh, shit,” Katsuki said, standing. “Shit, shit, shit. Fuck, okay, let’s go.”
Everything after that was blurred by adrenaline, until he was standing up near the altar at a very familiar pair of red eyes as Eijirou approached up the aisle. Katsuki couldn’t tear his eyes away - wouldn’t, in any case. The very world was glowing.
“Hi,” Eijirou whispered, once he was standing in front of Katsuki. God, he looked so fucking handsome. “Are you ready for this?”
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
—
“Whoa!” Eijirou said, laughing from where he was pinned to the wall next to the door in their apartment as Katsuki adorned his throat in kisses. “Uh, what’s the special occasion, Blasty?”
Katsuki shook his head. “Just kiss me back already.”
Eijirou planted a smacker on Katsuki’s cheek. Ugh, he hadn’t meant like that and Eijirou knew it, judging from the mischief in his husband’s eyes.
“Gonna make me guess, huh? Was it something that happened today?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. Fine, if Eijirou was gonna be like this… He leant in and began to work up a hickey on Eijirou’s collarbone.
“That’s a yes, huh? Augh, I’m gonna have to cover that u- Katsuki- Gonna have to cover that up! Was it something I did?”
Katsuki nibbled his way up Eijirou’s throat up to his ear.
“Hmm, was it the b- Oh.”
Eijirou grabbed his face and pushed him back. The redhead was staring as Katsuki with his big wide eyes and a kind of thunderstruck expression.
“Is- So you weren’t joking, earlier? With that baby?”
Katsuki grinned at him. “Nope.”
“Katsuki!” Eijirou cried - literally, there were tears forming in his eyes. “You- Soon? Really? You’re ready for kids?”
Katsuki took in Eijirou’s radiant, adoration-filled expression, pictured it directed at a couple of rowdy brats storming around the room with blankets tied onto them as capes. Damn, they’d probably have to move into an actual house - good thing they could afford it now with their ever-growing popularity.
Katsuki pictured reading storybooks together, being woken up in the middle of the night by a kid who’d just had a nightmare, sticking scribbled drawings up on the fridge they were going to have in their big fancy-ass kitchen.
Fuck yes, he was ready for kids. He wanted to be a father with Eijirou so badly that it burned, hotter and brighter than he wanted to be the number one hero.
Katsuki kissed Eijirou, as deeply as he could when his husband was bearing that big goofy grin of his.
“Oh my god,” Eijirou said, arms sweeping around Katsuki’s waist to lift him up and spin the pair of them across the room. “You wanna be a dad with me?!”
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
—
“She hasn’t had the best start to life,” the social worker said, looking at her paperwork with a troubled expression. Katsuki didn’t remember her name but Eijirou definitely knew it. “She doesn’t remember all that much - as she was very young - but her birthparents were villains and she was retrieved during a raid on their house. She was rather neglected.”
“Sounds a little like Eri,” Eijirou muttered, and Katsuki grabbed one of his hands to try and stop him from clenching his fists too hard.
“She’s been responding well to her foster family and making progress on all of her developmental targets,” the social worker continued. “But ideally we’d like to get her to a permanent family as soon as possible, so if you’re unsure about proceeding after you’ve met her, let us know as soon as you can so we can go back to looking for another match for her.”
Katsuki nodded. The idea of giving up on the kid rankled with him already, but the rational side of his brain reminded him that if they didn’t end up being compatible, it’d be better for everyone to say so.
“She has two older siblings placed with other families,” the social worker said. “And she currently had regular contact with them. Would you be willing to accomodate this?”
“Oh, yeah, sure!” Eijirou said. Katsuki nodded again.
They had been stood outside of this two-year-old’s foster home for far too long while the social worker briefed them. Fuck, he just- He wanted to see her already.
“Alright, let’s head in.”
The social worker knocked on the door. The woman who opened the door greeted them with a smile. She was small, but kind-looking, and reminded Katsuki a little of Auntie Inko.
“Welcome!” She said, but the rest of the pleasantries flew over Katsuki’s head. Fuck, he was just too excited. They might be meeting their daughter today.
The foster carer led them into her house and into a kitchen. There. A little girl with a shock of bright, shaggy blue hair sat scribbling furiously as a piece of paper with a green crayon. Katsuki remembered from the paperwork that she was three. He didn’t know how big three-year-olds were supposed to be. Was she tall for her age? Short?
She looked up at them as they entered the room, and Katsuki felt his heart lurch. Her eyes were red. It could be something they all shared. Shit, was he about to start crying? Where the fuck was his composure, what the hell.
“Aoimi,” said the foster carer - that was the girl’s name. “We have some guests today.”
Aoimi narrowed her eyes and looked between the three new faces.
“Why?” she asked. Her foster-mother laughed.
“I thought it would be nice to have some company! Be nice to them, okay?”
“Maybe,” Aoimi said, going back to her colouring.
The foster-carer laughed again. “She has a bit of a personality on her!”
Katsuki met Eijirou’s eyes - his husband was beaming at him.
“Good,” Katsuki said, sitting down in the chair he was pointed to. “You wouldn’t wanna be boring, huh kid?”
Aoimi looked up at him again, as considering as a three-year-old could be. “Wanna see my quirk?”
The girl’s foster-mother looked like she was biting back a grimace. “Now, Aoimi-”
“Yes,” Katsuki said. He looked up at the foster-carer for a moment. “If your quirk’s not too messy to use indoors.”
“It is not,” Aoimi said, wiggling a little in her seat and sitting up straight. Her foster-mother sighed and nodded. Aoimi grinned, and Katsuki watched as the tiny girl’s teeth sharpened. Claws grew from her fingers, and blue fur began to sprout over her skin. A long, thin tail with a tuft of fur at the end of it began to wave around behind her, until the girl Katsuki was looking at was more of a cub.
“That’s pretty cool,” Eijirou said, leaning around Katsuki from his own seat to see Aoimi more clearly.
The girl nodded, teeth still bared. Katsuki thought that as she got older, her canines might even longer than they already were, like a saber-toothed cat. Aoimi detransformed slowly, fur receding and teeth shrinking back into shape. “What are your quirks?”
Katsuki held out one of his hands and let it spark a few times. “I can make explosions.”
“Whoa,” Aoimi’s eyes bugged out a bit. “That’s like Ground Zero!”
Katsuki grinned. “You could say that, yeah.”
The little girl studied him for a long moment. “You are Ground Zero.”
“Yep, my real name is Kirishima Katsuki,” Katsuki said. He pointed at Eijirou. “And the big lug over there is my husband, Kirishima Eijirou.”
“Red Riot,” Aoimi said. She seemed to be taking this quite well. “You’re here ‘cause you wanna adopt me, right? I think you should, it’d be cool to have hero dads.”
Huh.
“Aoimi,” her foster-mother said, sounding exasperated.
“I’m not stupid,” Aoimi said, jutting her chin out. “I can read.”
Holy fuck, it was like looking in a mirror, kinda. Katsuki found himself grinning even harder.
The meeting continued, with Eijirou asking more questions than Katsuki could have thought about this kind of stuff, and Aoimi herself making a pretty big impact on Katsuki. He’d known pretty much from the moment he’d met the girl’s eyes, really, but the more he talked to her, the more determined he was.
He nearly cried again when they were waving goodbye to Aoimi and her foster-mother. God, he was turning into such a fucking sap, wasn’t he?
The social worker reached her car and turned to address them.
“Well, you’ve met Aoimi now. Do you need some time to think about it, or would you like me to put that you’re happy to proceed with the adoption on my report?”
He could tell from the look in Eijirou’s eyes what their answer would be. Eijirou nodded at him.
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
—
“Katsuki! Katsuki come here!”
Katsuki bolted into the room at the sound of Eijirou’s voice. “What’s-”
“Look!” Eijirou pointed to the TV, where some sort of news was airing. “There, there, look! A pair of hero interns from Yuuei just debuted, Katsuki! Guess who it was!”
“Holy shit,” Katsuki squinted at the screen, at the bright blue blob he could just about make out talking to a couple of police officers in the background. “Aoimi?”
“Yes! I just turned the news on and there she was!” Eijirou crowed. “She and her friend on the other internship with Gevaudan apprehended a purse-snatcher with a crocodile quirk. Here, I’ll rewind so you can see.”
“She’s okay, right?” Katsuki asked as Eijirou rolled the news footage back.
Eijirou nodded, bouncing up and down in his seat like he was an excitable teenager again as the takedown of the crocodile villain happened. Her fellow intern looked to have some sort of speed-boosting or strength-based quirk and he had flung Aoimi in her cat form at the villain. She’d been big enough to pin the villain to the ground until the other intern and Gevaudan showed up.
Katsuki found himself beaming. Damn, that was his daughter.
Once Gevaudan had taken over the arrest, Aoimi reverted back to human and grabbed her friend in a tight hug. A very tight hug. Katsuki’s eyes narrowed.
“Man, I wanna call her,” Eijirou said. “I’m gonna call her, got your phone on you?”
Katsuki handed it over, and Eijirou immediately went to Aoimi’s number.
She picked up after three rings. “Dad! Pa! I debuted!”
“We saw on the news, honey!” Eijirou said. “We’re so proud of you!”
“Aw, thank you! I- Yeah, it’s my dads. -I’m so glad you saw it!”
Katsuki leant in to the receiver. “No one can keep Hellcat down! You fuckin’ killed it out there, lioncub.”
“Augh, don’t call me that baby name,” Aoimi complained, though she didn’t sound too put out. “But thanks!”
“It’s my job to call you baby names, snugglekins.”
Katsuki could see Eijirou trying to smother his laughter.
“Pa, you’re so embarrassing.”
Katsuki cackled. “Oh yeah, that reminds me - bring your boyfriend over this weekend and we’ll celebrate the two of you taking down your first villain with a proper meal.”
“Wh- N- We’re not- Shut up, Pa!”
“My mistake,” Katsuki snickered, handing the phone back to Eijirou.
“Seconding the invite, though,” Eijirou said. “Debuts are something worth commemorating!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Aoimi said. She paused and said all the rest in a rush. “We’ll be there, love you both, bye.”
Katsuki put his phone back in his pocket and leaned over onto Eijirou. “She’s growing up, Ei.”
“And growing up well,” Eijirou said, curling his arm around Katsuki’s shoulders.
“Definitely doing better than me at that age,” Katsuki snorted.
Eijirou pressed a kiss to his temple. “I think the next generation of heroes is gonna be a good one, huh?”
Katsuki turned to kiss his husband on the lips. Well, with their daughter among them...
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
—
“Whew,” Eijirou said. “I’d forgotten how much a mountain can take out of you.”
“Baby.”
Eijirou laughed, still wheezing a little from the climb. “Man, I haven’t been a baby for a long-ass time now, Katsuki, and neither have you.”
“I dunno,” Katsuki said, reaching out to grab his husband’s hand. “Ya still got a baby-face.”
Eijirou rolled his eyes, and Katsuki took a moment to let himself stare at the other man. Yeah, they might both be a little decrepit now, but Eijirou still took his breath away. A lifetime of laughter lined Eijirou’s eyes. Laughter that they had shared, so no doubt Katsuki looked much the same.
Eijirou squeezed his hand, and together they looked out over the view. It hadn’t changed much over the years. Maybe the trees had grown a little. It was still the same landscape that had stretched out before them back when Eijirou had first asked Katsuki out.
“Hey, Katsuki,” Eijirou said. Katsuki turned his head to look back at the best part of the scene. “If someone gave you the chance to go back in time, right back to when we were kids… Would you say yes onther time? Would you do it all again?”
Katsuki stared at Eijirou. What kind of fucking question was that? Did Eijirou really think that Katsuki would want to choose any other life than the one they had carved out together? With all their friends, and their daughter and their grandchildren?
If Katsuki looked back over his memories, his mind was flooded with a golden wash of joy. He’d had a good life. The best life. He had shared it with Eijirou - and fuck, they weren’t even that old yet! There were decades still ahead of them.
Would you do it all again?
There was a twinkle in Eijirou’s eye, and Katsuki snorted. His husband already knew the answer. He’d probably always known the answer.
There was only one thing that Katsuki could say.
“Yes.”
