In Your Shadow [Chapter 31]

“Take your time, Mister Deku,” the young woman said softly. “I’m going to step out, feel free to rest for as long as you like."

[Chapter 30]

“Take your time, Mister Deku,” the young woman said softly. “I’m going to step out, feel free to rest for as long as you like.”

“Thank you,” he answered, without lifting his head. “I appreciate your hard work.”

She closed the door quietly behind her, and Izuku took a moment to just lie there in the dark, focusing on his breathing. Every muscle in his body had ached when he woke up – not that he was surprised by that, these days – and while it had taken him a lot of effort and pain to physically get there, the office spa had been a lifesaver. He knew he needed to get back to the office, to check the thousand emails he was sure had piled up in his absence, and to put out any fires that had arisen while so many heroes were away, but for those few minutes, as he lay on the table, he just let himself breathe.

His phone began to ring, and he dragged himself up with a sigh, sitting on the edge of the table. He reached for it, bracing himself for the worst, but when his mother’s number popped up, he filled with equal parts of dread and elation. He hadn’t talked to her in far too long, so he was excited to finally catch up, but he was also terrified something might have gone wrong, and facing that idea was his worst nightmare. His mother was all he had left, and it killed him knowing that one day, sooner than either of them would like, one of them was going to have to live on without the other.

“Hey Mom,” he said, as brightly as he could.

“Izuku! Happy birthday!”

Izuku froze for a second, then managed a chuckle, ducking his head slightly.

“Thanks,” he said fondly. “I hadn’t realised.”

“Well, you’ve been busy,” she pointed out. “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get hold of you today, but I had to try!”

“I’m back safe,” he assured her. “I managed to get caught up on sleep yesterday, too. How about you? How are you doing?”

“Really well! I went to lunch with some friends yesterday, we haven’t all been able to get together in a while. Mitsuki was there too, she says I have to tell you to send her son home!” Inko laughed, and Izuku smiled along with her. “She says he hasn’t been home in weeks, and she’s lucky to get a text back from him once in a while.”

“He’s free to leave whenever he wants,” Izuku assured her, chuckling to himself. “I couldn’t get rid of him even if I tried, he never wants to go.”

“Yeah, she said that would be the case,” Inko agreed. “He seems like a very determined young man, even if he’s a little rough around the edges.”

“Not as rough as people seem to think,” Izuku said, finally climbing up off the table and reaching for his clothes. “He’s gonna be a great hero one day, I’m sure of it.”

“I’m sure she’ll be very happy to hear that!”

“I’ll tell Katsuki to call her once in a while.”

“Thank you,” Inko laughed. “Do you have any birthday plans?”

“Just checking on everything around the office, putting out any fires that started while I was gone.”

“Are you expecting many?”

“There are always a couple,” he laughed. “Hopefully nothing too major, Mirio was here to hold down the fort.”

“I’m glad! Say hello to him for me, it’s been a while.”

“I will.”

“I’d better let you go and get started, I just wanted to catch you while it was still early!”

“You don’t have to, it’s okay.”

“I know, but you have important business to attend to. Will you have some free time this week, do you think? You could come around for dinner?”

“I’d love to, I can definitely make some time. I’ll let you know tonight which days I can do, once I’ve done my fire fighting.”

“Perfect. Take care Izuku, have a great day, I love you!”

“I love you too, Mom. Thanks for calling.”

When he hung up, he did it with a smile on his face, feeling a little more prepared to face the day.

Beyond the door, a few of his staff were milling around, preparing for their own days. He always wondered what it would be like, to have a job like theirs – spending an eight hour shift in one room, doing the same few tasks over and over, just for different people. Part of him thought it sounded peaceful, knowing exactly what your day would bring and not having to deal with the stress and drama of reacting to emergencies at a moment’s notice, but most of him just couldn’t imagine it. He just couldn’t imagine doing anything other than be a hero, even though for years everyone had told him he couldn’t; there had never been any other option in his mind.

“Thank you,” he said softly, as he headed toward the elevators. “I appreciate your hard work.”

“Not at all, Mister Deku! Thank you for keeping us all safe!”

He smiled at them, but didn’t answer. He never knew what to say to those words. Thanking them for the thanks just seemed silly, but you’re welcome felt too weird, and no problem was just a flat-out lie. If he had the option to not respond, whether by leaving or changing the subject or laughing it off, he would always take those options first.

“Deku! Welcome back!”

“Stagger, hey,” Izuku answered, smiling a little more genuinely as he stepped into the elevator. “It’s good to be back. How did things go, here? I haven’t had a chance to catch up with anyone yet.”

“It was all good. A few incidents, of course, we were never gonna get a quiet time, but nothing major, we handled it all. Everyone really stepped up to help out – we had a couple of people off sick, so everybody was pulling extra-long shifts to keep everything under control. I suspect you’ll get a few leave requests, this week.”

“I’ll make sure to do something to say thanks to everyone.”

“Oh, actually, there’s one thing you should probably do pretty soon. Dynamight got himself hurt on a patrol – he’s okay, don’t panic – and he was freaking out thinking you would be mad at him about it. You wanna have a word with him or something?”

“Why would I be mad? Did he do something silly?”

“No, he was awesome. Do you know how damn quick that kid is? But there was a big clean up job, and he started panicking, saying he needed to stay and clean it up. There’s footage floating around of the incident, but we managed to intercept and make sure that part wasn’t on it, for his sake.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Izuku promised, as the elevator dinged and came to a stop. “Thanks for telling me.”

“Always happy to help! Give me a yell if you need anything, alright?”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Stagger stepped out, heading toward one of the studios, and Izuku continued up once more, to the familiar little office that was basically his second home. He’d lived in the agency building ever since he bought it, but he felt like he spent more time in his office than his actual apartment. Far too many times he’d had Mirio burst through his office door in the middle of the night, fuming because Izuku hadn’t been home yet – he really shouldn’t have put Mirio’s apartment between his and the elevator.

His office was full of the morning sun when he stepped inside, all warm and cosy and exactly what he needed. He sank into his chair, grateful for the comfortable seat Mirio had forced him to pick out despite the cost, and as his computer began to boot up, he closed his eyes for a minute. Only a minute, because if he’d left them closed any longer, he was pretty sure he’d have fallen asleep again.

His screen lit up with hundreds of notifications the moment everything loaded, starting out with a bunch of emails overloading his inbox, and quickly moving on to the instant messages from their work platform. They had over a dozen different group chats within it: an all-hands chat for everyone in the agency, of course, but also one for all the admin staff who didn’t go on patrols, another for just the patrol leaders to communicate about leader-stuff, one specifically for notifying people about upcoming patrols that needed cover, another for listing upcoming trainings and events, plus all the days of the week and a few specific patrol times had their own individual groups, too. Honestly it was madness, at least from Izuku’s side, but everyone had assured them that from their ends, it was a lot more manageable. He supposed that made sense, since most of them were only in their own shifts and the couple of general ones – although he was pretty sure half of them had ‘secret’ groups as well, to plot things with their friends and send weird memes. He was pretty sure he’d heard the ‘ords whispering about their private group chat, and he’d certainly glimpsed a decent amount of weird shit popping up on Nao’s phone that never showed up on his end.

Not that there was any shortage of weird meme nonsense in the patrol leader chat, either. He wanted to say that was Nao’s fault too, but honestly, they were all just as bad as each other. The sidekicks all thought the leaders were so staunch and serious, when behind the scenes, Izuku was constantly snickering over his phone at messages that even half of the leaders didn’t understand.

“Back in office,” he typed into the all-hands chat. “Thank you all for holding down the fort without me and the others.”

He hit send, then paused, staring at the little words on the screen. The team had done so much, worked so hard, and all he could do was give a generic thanks, without even an emoji or something?

“I’d like to arrange something on the weekend to say a proper thanks,” he added. “If you have any requests or ideas, feel free to let me know!”

Spark Plug is typing…

“Not you, Nao.”

A little sad face popped up as a reaction on his message, quickly followed by a lot of laughing faces from the others, and a whole confusing flood of things on the initial message: faces, dancers, flags, hearts, and for some reason, a raccoon? He didn’t dare to ask.

He quickly started getting private messages come in, ranging from the simple and doable ‘dinner and drinks’ options, to the more outlandish ‘theme park trip’ and ‘massive bonuses for everyone’ ones. He wished he could offer everyone a big bonus, but he was already paying them as much as he could afford to without the agency going bankrupt. It wasn’t like he was taking a huge income, either; even what he got from the government for being ranked number one just went straight back into his agency.

“Knock knock!” Mirio called, as he opened the door without the real thing. “Happy birthday!”

“Happy birthday,” Izuku echoed, smiling faintly. “Sorry, I was gonna come find you soon.”

“You’re easier to find than me! I brought coffee!”

Izuku decided not to complain about the lack of knocking.

“It’s good to have you back, boss,” Mirio said, handing over a steaming mug. “You have a good little nap yesterday?”

“Shut up,” Izuku retorted, smiling all the same. “I don’t think I even ate, I crashed so hard.”

“Good thing you had a solid meal the night before, then.”

Izuku’s mind drifted back to the little crew that had walked in on their debrief, planting massive trays of food between them and demanding they eat it.

“Yeah,” he said fondly. “Good thing.”

“Everyone else took the day off, too. Some of them are back today, but not all of them,” Mirio told him, getting comfy in the other chair. “I thought you’d be pleased to hear it.”

“Good, they deserve it. I meant it when I told them to take as long as they wanted.”

“I know. And I took the liberty of scanning and emailing you a copy of every patrol report that came in while you were gone,” Mirio informed him. “So you don’t have to go looking for them, today.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“Summarised version: Everyone is fine, no one died or got arrested, and we definitely didn’t throw any secret parties without you.”

“Sounds like it was a good time.”

“Turns out with the Leads gone, everyone actually behaves themselves pretty well.”

“What, you think they act out for attention or something?”

“No, I think the Leads are the troublemakers.”

“You’re not wrong there,” Izuku chuckled. “What happened with Katsuki?”

“You heard already, huh?” Mirio asked, smiling fondly. “He’s doing fine, Kotoo-sensei approved him to patrol again. He’s even been involved in another incident since then and came through that okay too.”

“All I heard was he got injured, Stagger didn’t give me any other details.”

“There’s a video in your inbox, but long story short, he caught a runaway truck with his back.”

Izuku hissed at the thought. He still sometimes hurt himself doing that kind of thing – poor Katsuki, without an augmentation quirk to help out, and lacking Izuku’s years of experience, must have been suffering.

“I’ll go see him this afternoon,” Izuku promised. “Make sure he’s doing alright, physically and emotionally.”

“He’ll appreciate that.”

“How are you doing, anyway?” Izuku asked. “You were sick as hell, not that long ago.”

“I’m good! I wasn’t that sick, I told you.”

Izuku’s computer dinged with another new message, and he glanced over to dismiss it, only pausing when he saw David’s name pop up on the screen.

New gauntlets are ready to go, let me know when it’s a good time to bring him in.

“The agency never sleeps,” Mirio chuckled knowingly. “We should book something in tomorrow, chat about some of the feedback surveys. I have a few ideas to float by you.”

“That sounds great, I can’t wait to hear them! And we’re still on for drinks tonight?”

“Absolutely, been looking forward to it for weeks. I’d better head off, I promised to give Windrider a hand in the gym, but I wanted to drop by before we both got busy.”

“I appreciate it,” Izuku assured him. “I hope you have a great day.”

“You too! Don’t overwork yourself right away, okay?”

“I’ll do my best, just for you.”

He watched Mirio go, giving him a last wave at the door, then turned back to his computer, smiling to himself softly.

He’ll be in tonight, I’ll shoot him a text.

───

Izuku yawned as he stepped into the engineering department, running a hand through his messy hair. He knew he should probably get it cut, but it just kept slipping his mind, always put aside in favour of something much more important, and forgotten again until it started to bug him. He even had staff on site for that kind of thing, and still he managed to not find the time. Two figures turned around when they heard his footsteps coming, and he managed to force a smile onto his face, offering them a little wave as he approached.

“Right on time,” David said with a grin. “You catch up on some sleep yet?”

“A little,” Izuku answered, cracking a smile. “I spent most of the day yesterday just crashed in bed, only got up for food and toilet. You?”

“I’m all good,” David assured him. “I wasn’t nearly as busy as you.”

“And you?” Izuku asked, turning to look at Katsuki. “How are you doing?”

“Oh, uh, fine. Thanks? It’s uh, good to have you back.”

Izuku’s smile became a little more genuine, at Katsuki’s wide-eyed stumbling. He was getting better at the respect thing, but he still got so lost at times, trying to figure out the right thing to say. It was kind of sweet, watching him flail like he’d never said the words thank you in his life.

“Let me see.”

Katsuki blinked at him, and Izuku reached out, gripping the hem of Katsuki’s singlet. He paused, giving Katsuki a chance to react if he needed to, but Katsuki just stared at him, understanding dawning on his face.

“You heard,” he mumbled, as Izuku lifted the shirt a little to see his bruising. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Izuku said firmly. He hadn’t planned on having the discussion quite so early, or in front of other people, but he wasn’t going to just let the self-doubt slide, either. “It looks bad, does it hurt a lot?”

“No. Um, not anymore. Kotoo and Recovery Girl were really helpful.”

“I’m glad. Alright, let’s see these gauntlets, I’m excited to finally see out how they turned out!”

David picked up the storage crate obediently, opening it up, and Izuku leaned in a little closer to look. Inside he saw a pair of dark, sleek gauntlets, all black and dark silver, and he grinned to himself before he even thought to look for Katsuki’s reaction.

“They’re gorgeous,” Izuku praised. “You’ve outdone yourself once again.”

He picked one up, and David gave him a knowing smile, glancing toward their company.

“Sorry,” Izuku laughed, handing it over to Katsuki. “They’re yours, after all.”

“They look cool,” Katsuki admitted, as he accepted it to take a closer look. “Oh. A lot lighter than my old ones.”

“Just as durable, I assure you. Hopefully they’ll be a little less cumbersome to carry around, though.”

“Yeah, that’ll be cool.”

“The wider ends have a latch on them so you can slide them in and fold them down for transport or storage, and your grenade canisters lock into these slots here if you push and twist, as an alternative method of filling them. The inside of the barrel has a network of tiny tubes that will help draw sweat into the chamber, and of course you retain the same pin system from your old ones, to let that stored sweat back out. Your new gloves have a strong mesh on the palms to help you use your explosions through them without causing damage to the material, for when you don’t want to use all the fuel at once, but they’re in contact with the tube system, so it’ll also help keep your hands fueled up from the storage tank. So if you get cold, for instance, it’ll keep you going.”

“That sounds… awesome,” Katsuki said, clearly a little taken aback by it all. “Um, you said you can teach me how to maintain them and everything, right?”

“Absolutely. I suggest you try them out a few times and see how they feel, then come back here in maybe a week, so we can take a look, maybe do some tinkering, and go through all the maintenance end of things.”

“I can take them on patrols and stuff to test them out?”

“Go for it. Nothing will go wrong with them, there’s no way they can just explode in your face or something – we did plenty of testing for that – it’s more about whether they feel comfortable and work the way you want them to, at this point.”

Izuku glanced down at Katsuki again, at the gym gear hiding the dark bruises underneath. At the best of times, Izuku was pretty decent with his aim, pretty good at avoiding hitting an injured spot on his opponent, but Katsuki was... unpredictable.

“You sure your back is okay?” Izuku asked, when Katsuki caught him staring.

“Yes. It looks way worse than it is.”

Izuku sighed, running a hand through his hair again, already regretting the words that were about to leave his mouth.

“Come spar with me, then.”

Katsuki’s entire face lit up, happier than Izuku thought he’d seen anyone before, let alone just over the offer to spar together. They’d done it before, after all, and sure, he knew Katsuki had enjoyed it a lot, but it was still just sparring.

“I owe you a round, after all,” Izuku said, smiling to himself. “I think I owe you a couple, technically.”

“Can we really?”

“Well I don’t recommend setting the new gauntlets off in a confined space,” Izuku chuckled. “But you can test the weight of them and the sweat gathering, if you want.”

“Yes please!”

Katsuki was so excited that he apparently didn’t even notice himself saying please. Maybe Izuku had trained him decently after all, or maybe the rude, stubborn thing was all just an act to look cool or something. Either way, it made him smile.

“Come on, then, we’d better let David get back to work,” Izuku said fondly. “Anything to say?”

“Thank you, they look great,” Katsuki said knowingly, accepting the second gauntlet. “I’ll see you in a week.”

“Looking forward to it.”

As they headed out the door, Katsuki was quietly buzzing with his glee, and Izuku couldn’t help but watch him, observing the way he held his new gauntlets so protectively, the way he smiled to himself so sweetly. He really was a cute little thing when he was happy, it was nice to see him that way for once instead of just being anxiety-ridden and annoyed all the time. Hopefully, now that he was seeing Yutaka regularly, people would get to see that side of him a little more often.

“I just need to grab my jumpsuit,” Izuku said, detouring toward wardrobe. “You need gear too?”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess I should use the new suit and try it all out together.”

“Sounds good. I haven’t seen much of it yet, how’s it doing so far?”

“It’s really hard to put on.”

“Hm?” Izuku hummed, waving to a staff member who was already hurrying away to fetch their things. “Did you use the button?”

“Even in relaxed mode,” Katsuki clarified. “I have to wiggle into it to get it on, it’s fine once it’s in place though. If I’m damp from a shower or anything it just clings to me when I try to get dressed.”

“Mine has a lining in another fabric to help with that, we could look at getting you the same.”

The lady came back with a rack of their costume gear, and Izuku smiled at her gratefully.

“See?” he offered, handing Katsuki his freshly-washed jumpsuit. “It felt a bit weird at first, but it’s great for wicking sweat away too. I’m not sure if yours is modified to direct your sweat, though.”

“I think the arms are, but not the rest.”

“They could probably add a layer, then, to make it easier on you,” Izuku suggested. “Or you could look at adding a zip, but some people don’t like that.”

“I’m not big on zips.”

“Then yeah, the lining would be the way to go. They’re a lot smoother, so everything slides on a bit easier. They might not be able to do the arms, though. I’ll send some notes to the techs for you.”

“Oh. Um, thank you.”

Izuku accepted his jumpsuit back, then took Katsuki’s clothes along with it, leaving him free to carry his gauntlets rather than fumble with everything at once. Katsuki grumbled about it a little, but didn’t bother to actually argue – it wasn’t like he’d ever win that debate, after all. He carried it all the way into the gym changing rooms, letting Katsuki put his gauntlets down before he handed it over, then turning to change into his own stuff. Red eyes drilled into him as he stripped his shirt off, and Izuku gave him an awkward smile, watching him turn a little pink and quickly look away.

“I know they’re bad,” Izuku said, glancing at his scar-ridden arms. “I still catch myself off-guard occasionally, when I look in the mirror.”

“They’re fine,” Katsuki objected, changing his pants over hurriedly – if Izuku had known he was the shy type, he’d have moved to the other side of the room. “You’re a hero, of course you have scars.”

“You still look pretty clean of them.”

“I’m still a student,” Katsuki grumbled. “I know I’ve had to deal with a bunch of sh- um, nonsense. But I’m still not… you know. You.”

“No one expects you to be me, even when you graduate,” Izuku assured him. “You get to go out into the big wide world and just be Kacchan.”

Katsuki blushed, almost tripping over his own boots, and Izuku laughed brightly.

“Ready to go?” he asked, when Katsuki had fumbled his shirt on – he really did do a lot of wriggling to get there. “Show me what you’ve been learning from all my sidekicks.”

“Absolutely.”

A couple of the sparring rooms were already occupied, but they managed to find a quiet one further down – Izuku had requested so many of them for a reason, after all. The building had taken him over a year to fully plan out, but he was thankful every day that he’d taken the time to get it right.

The last time they’d sparred, Katsuki had taken a while to warm up; the air con kept the building pleasantly cool, but for someone who needed sweat to work at full power, it must have been a curse. This time, when Izuku called start, Katsuki launched at him immediately. He knew that game, trying to catch someone off guard before they had a chance to really prepare – it had practically come out of Izuku’s play book. He raised his right arm, ready to dive in with the same right hook he always favoured, but Izuku’s number-one-hero plaque hadn’t come out of a gachapon machine. He stepped into the swing, blocking it with his forearm, the other hand reaching for Katsuki’s throat. Katsuki ducked just in time, though, Izuku’s hand skimming against his spiky hair instead, the first explosion already coming into play as he aimed for Izuku’s legs. Izuku dove over him, rolling back to his feet, whipping around just in time to block Katsuki’s next attack and aim a kick at his legs. He felt it connect, quickly pulling his power back to keep from hurting him, feeling the leg give way – but Katsuki recovered quickly, to his credit, spinning around and finding his balance again to stay close, to stay on Izuku with his strikes.

“What colour is the ceiling?” he asked.

“What? Stop trying to distract me!”

“You should be able to observe your surroundings while you fight.”

“It’s fu- It’s white, like all the rest of them!”

“Wrong,” Izuku said, chuckling when he saw Katsuki’s eyes dart up. “Told you.”

“Green,” Katsuki amended, huffing as he was forced into a defensive position. “Are they all different just so you can do this?”

“Nope, these rooms are slightly older than the ones you usually use.”

“Do you memorise all this sh- this stuff so you can ask?”

“No, I look for something distinctive then ask.”

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, like he didn’t quite believe it, and Izuku grinned when he spoke again.

“Fine,” Katsuki said. “How many cameras are in the room?”

“Three. One above the door, one in the light fixture, and your phone that you tried to sneakily set up without me noticing so that you could film this.”

“Was that a guess?”

Izuku just looked at him, and Katsuki turned a little pink.

“Fine,” he conceded, raising both arms to block – Izuku slowed off a little to give him some room. “Then… How?”

“How?”

“How do you… you know. Observe.”

Izuku paused. It wasn’t often that Katsuki actually asked for advice directly.

“Pick your moments, mostly,” he said. “Always be glancing around whenever you can, so you can see if anything in the environment is changing, or other people are approaching. Not enough to get distracted or miss something, of course, just very brief moments.”

“Okay.”

“And if you can, change the angle of the fight. You don’t want anyone to sneak up behind you, so if you change your angle when you can, you can get a view of all sides.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Ready to give it a shot?”

Katsuki nodded, and this time Izuku made the first move. He slid in with a kick, watching Katsuki dodge it instinctively, a little pleased to see that Katsuki went to the sensible side, keeping out of reach of his hands. Izuku pivoted on his supporting foot though, trying to catch him with a heel on his way through, making Katsuki curse as he barely managed to avoid it. It was always endearing to watch Katsuki struggle to keep his language in check, the moments when he slipped up were a little entertaining, even though he knew he shouldn’t encourage it.

“How many lights?”

Katsuki didn’t answer right away, and Izuku saw the moment his eyes darted up, admittedly with pretty decent timing – the kid was learning. He took one more glance, to confirm, then answered confidently.

“Four.”

“Good.”

Katsuki cracked a smile, and Izuku managed one of his own, as they continued exchanging blows. He really did respond to even the slightest amount of praise, huh?

“How many mats on the floor?”

“Trick question,” Katsuki answered immediately. “They aren’t actually mats.”

“Wasn’t meant to be, but fair. How many sections?”

“Twenty-five.”

“You sure?”

Katsuki paused again, glancing away when he got a chance, and cursing under his breath when Izuku took that moment to strike.

“Thirty,” he amended. “Didn’t realise they were rectangles.”

“It’s okay,” Izuku assured him. “I’m glad you’re trying to notice things pre-emptively.”

“I’ll get better.”

“I know you will.”

It wasn’t until they wrapped up that Izuku dared to broach the more important subject, as they walked back into the changing rooms. Katsuki peeled his shirt off with a lot more awkward wriggling, and Izuku stopped to glance at his bruising again, using all his willpower to not reach out and try to offer him some kind of comfort for it.

“Stagger was singing your praises,” Izuku told him. “I watched the video.”

“Did you have to?” Katsuki whined, before he could catch himself.

“You did a good job out there. I know you’ve been frustrated since, but you reacted insanely quickly and got there just as fast. Plus the strength it would have taken to hold that truck back is something not every hero has.”

“I made too much mess,” Katsuki grumbled. “I wasn’t strong enough to stop it properly, all the skidding and everything spilling was so bad.”

“No one could have stopped it quicker without an augmentation quirk, and with that, they would have been much slower than you were in getting there,” Izuku told him, chuckling. “Katsuki, you did a great job, okay? You did better than even a lot of heroes would have done in those circumstances, let alone students.”

Katsuki opened his mouth to argue, but Izuku didn’t give him the chance.

“You made me proud. Thank you.”

Katsuki’s mouth slammed shut just as quickly, his face burning, and he turned away to finish changing, rather than let Izuku see it.

“I had fun sparring with you again,” Izuku said, letting the subject go. “You’re getting better.”

“Your heroes have been really helpful,” Katsuki admitted. “I’m sure you know that.”

“I do, but it’s still nice to hear.”

“If you want to do it again,” Katsuki began tentatively. “Sparring, I mean. To blow off steam, or anything. I will, any time. Just call me, or text me, or come grab me, or… something. And I’ll do it. In a heartbeat.”

“I know you will,” Izuku said, grinning. “I’ll find time again soon.”

“Thank you.”

“As long as you keep behaving yourself.”

“I’ll try.”

“Good boy. Alright, I’m gonna go shower and everything, I have to head out in a little bit. Take care of yourself, alright? No more injuries.”

“I’ll try my best,” Katsuki assured him. “Um, thanks. Again.”

“My pleasure.”

───

Izuku stopped by his office floor on the way downstairs, hurrying to his door. He’d left his wallet in there earlier in the day, like an idiot, and now he was going to be late to meet Mirio and the others because of a silly detour. Not that any of them would mind, of course, especially when it was only gonna be two minutes, but he’d already taken longer in the shower than he’d planned, not to mention trying to arrange his overgrown hair into something that resembled decent.

He almost tripped when he reached for the handle, looking down to see a white container waiting for him, skimmed by his toes when he didn’t think to look at his feet as he moved; some number-one-hero he was. He squatted down to investigate, finding unfamiliar handwriting on it, inking out Happy Birthday on the styrofoam. Curiosity piqued, he peeled the tape off the edges, lifting the lid to find eight containers stacked neatly inside. Each one had a different home-cooked meal waiting inside, layered with ice packs to keep them cool, and finally it all clicked together in his head.

He really did have a cute intern.

Finally he unlocked the office door, grabbing his phone from his pocket to warn Mirio he’d be a few more minutes, and fetching his wallet from the desk. With the door locked again behind him, he scooped up the styrofoam cooler, smiling to himself as he headed back up to his apartment. His fridge was admittedly a little bare, after so much time away – he'd intended to go shopping at some point and hadn't gotten there, not to mention he didn’t do a lot of cooking in the first place. When he slotted the containers inside, it looked so much more inviting. Maybe there really was something to the whole home-cooking thing, it certainly looked happier and more appealing than his shades of brown from the nearest convenience store.

When he hurried back downstairs, all the way to the lobby this time, he found a little cluster of people waiting for him, grinning and waving when they saw him arrive. He shot them a smile back, but one particular face was hanging around near the entrance, eyeing them all curiously.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, touching Katsuki’s shoulder lightly as he passed. “They look delicious.”

Katsuki turned bright red, and Izuku just grinned back at him, heading over to meet up with his friends.

“There he is!” Nao called, clapping him on the back as soon as he got close enough. “He’s alive!”

“Speak for yourself,” Izuku chuckled. “I’m surprised I’m even upright.”

“I’m surprised you are too,” Yutaka laughed. “You ready to head off?”

“I think so!”

“The others are gonna meet us there soon,” Hideaki explained. “Well, Hawks and Miruko are probably there already, knowing them. Hey! Mirio! Get your ass over here!”

Izuku glanced over, surprised to see Mirio standing beside Katsuki, grinning as he nudged at him playfully.

“I promise, the day you turn twenty, I’ll take you to a bar, too,” he was saying, softer than everyone else’s teasing and laughing. “I’ll even drag Deku along, just for you.”

Katsuki turned red again, and Mirio gave him one last teasing smile as they parted ways, Katsuki heading off to a patrol group, Mirio hurrying over to join their little cluster. Izuku had to hold back a chuckle, knowing he’d give himself away immediately if he gave in. He wondered if Katsuki would even care about him, still, in two years’ time. He’d be an established hero by then, along with all his friends and classmates, more occupied with trying to fight Izuku for the top spot than trying to go out for a drink with him.

If he did care, though, Izuku would be sure to make some time for him. Mirio wouldn’t need to drag him, it was the least Izuku could do, to take him out for a drink after a couple of years of the stress and pressure that came with being a hero, let alone trying to become number one. Izuku would have taken plenty of heroes out for a drink, if they’d wanted to – that was how he’d met Hawks and Miruko in the first place, after all. They’d wound up in the same bar, taking turns buying each other a round until they all became numb to the incident they’d just had to deal with.

Come to think of it, maybe he shouldn’t buy heroes any more drinks. Too many of them were getting reliant on it.

Sure enough, when they got to their usual bar, everyone was waiting for them; Hawks and Miruko of course, already a couple of drinks in, judging by the glasses on the table they’d claimed, but also Nejire and Tamaki, the only friends Izuku had seen Mirio hang out with outside the agency, and Kazuko and Kiyoshi just sitting down to join them. The two of them had been at the agency with him from the beginning, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to cope, the day either of them decided to leave – though he had to admit The Ephia Agency had a hell of a ring to it, and The Plasmatic Agency wasn’t too shabby either. More concerningly, they’d probably end up taking half of Izuku’s sidekicks with them, and he couldn’t face that thought yet. At least he knew Hideaki had no plans to ever leave – every time he even made a joke about a Solar Flare agency, it made Hideaki cringe beyond belief.

“Drink! Drink! Drink!” Hawks began, shoving two beer mugs across the table and making them slosh.

“Drink! Drink! Drink!” Miruko joined in, thumping her fist on the table.

Izuku glanced over at Mirio, watching him pick up a mug with a laugh, so he picked up his own, holding it out Mirio’s way. They clinked them together, then raised them to their lips, and Izuku downed his mug to cheers and laughter from his friends. Mirio was only halfway, when Izuku set his mug down, so he joined the clapping, watching with amusement as Mirio struggled to finish the last few sips. Everyone cheered when he finished, reaching over to clap him on the back, and then a tray of cocktails was arriving, all bright and colourful and far too numerous for their small group.

It was gonna be a good night.

[Chapter 32]