A Comfortable Existence - #1 [The Aircon]

Katsuki sighed contentedly as he flopped onto the sofa, relishing the cool air that fell straight onto him from the air conditioner above. While he was forced to rely on sweat to do his job properly, his quirk also made his body run way too hot for his liking, and his greatest joy in his newfound independence was the ability to keep his entire apartment at whatever the hell temperature he wanted to.

His childhood had been full of his parents complaining about power bills and energy use, of them shutting off the aircon the moment they got home from work, complaining about it being too cold and asking what he was thinking, when Katsuki had just gotten it the way he liked it.

His teenage years had been a little better, with an aircon unit in his dorm room that he could use as he saw fit, but all their shared facilities had been sweltering, especially in summer when he was apparently the only one who didn’t enjoy the insane humidity their building quickly filled up with. He’d quickly given up on using the library or gyms when it wasn’t entirely necessary, instead retreating to his bedroom as quickly as possible to make the most of it.

After graduation, he’d caved to the nagging of a couple of his classmates and agreed to share an apartment while they got themselves established as pro heroes, but that had meant being constantly outvoted on shit like when to turn the aircon on and off, and that had somehow ended up worse than the sweaty dorms and nagging parents had been. He’d only stayed because it was so damn cheap, and his only real alternatives were the Jeanist company dorms – god no – or moving back to his parents’ place with an insane commute time – also no.

But finally, fina-fucking-lly, his agency had reached a state where he no longer had to invest so much money into getting it off the ground or keeping it running, all his pet projects had been fully funded, and he’d managed to invest in some fucking privacy.

Life was good.

Every time his friends visited, of course, it resulted in a thousand jokes about how he was determined to manifest some kind of ice quirk to contest what made Shouto special, or about how he’d never be able to get a girlfriend since she’d freeze to death in the night – not that he wanted one of those; share his newfound personal space with someone who would be watching and judging him all the time? No thank you. He liked being able to not shave for a day if he felt lazy, or wear shitty hole-filled clothing without anyone complaining about it, or hell, forgo a shower or two when he was tired and just wanted to sleep instead. Having a girlfriend – or any kind of partner, for that matter – demanded too much time, too much effort, too much sharing. He knew his friends would laugh at him if he said that last one out loud, but it mattered. Fuck sharing. It was his home, and he deserved to do whatever he wanted in it!

When he saw the old group chat blow up, though, with Izuku’s name at the helm, he knew he was going to have to sacrifice his freedom for a little while. He hated himself for knowing it, hated himself for not being able to just sit back and hope someone else took care of it; because noooo, his damn brain had to tell him to be a good person, a good friend. Stupid fucking brain.

Come stay with me

He sent the message privately, of course. He was hardly gonna insert himself into that mess of a group chat unless it was somehow a life or death situation where he was forced to contact as many assholes as he could all in one go, or something. All their old classmates were sending torrents of messages, asking if he was okay, what they could to do help, and so on and so forth, but Katsuki didn’t bother to ask.

Could I really?

Izuku’s desperation was pretty clear just from that response, to be entirely honest. If he’d had a more viable option, or even any kind of half-decent alternatives, he would have been talking up a storm about ‘you don’t need to do that’ and ‘I couldn’t possibly’ and all that typical polite shit. The fact that he’d caved so easily was answer enough.

I’ll be there in like ten minutes

With a much less content sigh, he stood up, grabbing his keys from the table in the entryway. He wished Izuku had sent the message even ten minutes earlier, instead of letting him get home and comfortable first, but no, his life had to just give him things and snatch them away again at every possible opportunity, damn it.

He slid into his car, blasting the aircon to at least give him that small comfort, and prayed to some god who probably didn’t exist that he’d make it there and back again without hitting traffic. It was probably late enough in the evening to be safe, but you never knew, with cities. Sometimes the world just seemed to want to fuck him over.

The entire block was covered in smoke when Katsuki arrived, half the roads blocked off by police barricades, flashing lights everywhere from the fire engines that were still sitting in the streets. The fire seemed to be out, but half the block had been reduced to rubble, and Katsuki could see the remnants of Izuku’s building even from a few streets away. He cringed when he saw it, imagining how shit he’d feel if it was his apartment that had just vanished into thin air, taking most of his belongings with it, and resolved to not take his minor annoyances out on Izuku any time soon. Getting off the couch to go pick him up was maybe the smallest problem he could possibly have, compared to what Izuku was going through.

Katsuki rolled down his window as he approached the streets, leaning out to flash his hero licence at a police officer just to get his attention, more than any actual verification.

“Is everything under control?” he asked. “Do you need any back-up?”

“We’re good, thank you, Dynamight,” the officer answered – Katsuki knew that already, of course, but it scored him brownie points to ask anyway. “It was an environmental problem, not a villain, thankfully, and has been dealt with now.”

“I’m meant to meet with Deku further ahead,” he continued, with the polite shit out of the way. “Can I drive in or should I park up somewhere nearby? Can you direct me to somewhere?”

“Go on through,” the officer agreed. “Take it slow, there’s some road damage up ahead, but you should be able to get by.”

“Thanks.”

The officer moved a plastic barrier aside to give him passage, and Katsuki kept his speed to the slowest of crawls as he passed through, eyes darting from side to side as he tried to check out all the damage. It was significant, Izuku hadn’t even come close to doing it justice with his explanation – admittedly he’d been more focussed on the I’m okay part of it all, when he’d messaged the group, but hell, it was... pretty awful. Multiple buildings razed to the ground, embers still glowing, air still filled with smoke – he’d clearly been trying to downplay that part.

“Izuku,” he called out the window, when he spotted the familiar green curls in the crowd.

“Kacchan!” Izuku called back, waving happily as he hurried toward the car – though Katsuki noticed the smile was significantly more forced than usual. “Thanks for coming!”

“Hop in.”

Izuku didn’t wait to be told twice, hurrying over to slide into the passenger seat. He was still wearing a dark suit from work, with his laptop bag slung over his shoulder and his arms wrapped around a familiar metal case, but otherwise, his hands were empty. No change of clothes, no toothbrush, no nothing.

“It’s safe,” Izuku said first, a little weakly, as he held up the costume case pointedly. “It was at work with me.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki said quietly. He didn’t really know what else he could say. It was nice, sure, but everything else was just... gone? “Do you... want to stop at the mall, or something?”

Izuku paused, and Katsuki glanced over at him, trying his best to read the facial expressions he seemed to have grown so out of practice at understanding.

“I can lend you some clothes,” he offered next. “If you want to just... sleep, or something.”

“Is it okay?” Izuku asked weakly. “I think I just...”

“Yeah,” Katsuki said, when Izuku didn’t finish his sentence. “I’m sure we can find something that’ll fit you.”

“Thank you.”

He turned the car around carefully, heading back toward the officer who had allowed him passage, and this time he didn’t even have to stop the car, just waved at him gratefully as he moved the barrier again to let them go. If he’d known Izuku had so little he probably would have just told him to walk over, but he’d somehow expected a couple more bags or something to load in. Apparently he’d overestimated Izuku’s surviving belongings.

“You can take a bath when we get back, if you want,” Katsuki offered. Izuku had always been a bath-guy, had always liked to soak in a hot tub for hours given half a chance. “Have you eaten?”

Izuku’s stomach growled in response, and Katsuki snorted, ignoring the blush that quickly took over Izuku’s face. It wasn’t the day for teasing.

“Me neither,” he said, without waiting for the words. “I’ve got a couple of meal prep containers in the fridge, you can grab one if you want.”

“Thanks, Kacchan. I promise I’ll do my best to not get in your way or anything. I’ll go out tomorrow and get my own clothes and food and stuff.”

“It’s okay,” Katsuki assured him. “Are you getting an insurance payout, at least?”

“Yeah, but it’ll probably take a while,” Izuku sighed. “I’ll start looking for a new place over the weekend, so I can get out of your hair. Hopefully I can find something with low moving-in costs, but I might be able to get my mother to help or something, if not.”

Katsuki considered offering help of his own, but he knew Izuku would never accept it; offering would just make them both feel awkward, like Katsuki was trying to hurry him out the door.

It didn’t take long for them to get back to Katsuki’s place, for Katsuki to once again step through that door into the relief of his cool, quiet apartment. He knew Izuku was probably going to start shivering and whining, as soon as he found the energy for it, but he wasn’t yet ready to give up his aircon, he’d at least wait until Izuku was clearly uncomfortable.

“You haven’t showered yet,” Izuku said, as he took off his work shoes in the doorway and set them neatly in a corner, out of the way. “It’s your home, you should go first.”

Katsuki didn’t really want to shower, wanted to just lie on his comfy aircon couch, but he supposed he probably should, with someone else in the place. Ugh.

“Unless you’d prefer I did?” Izuku asked knowingly. “Just come kick me out when you’re ready?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki agreed, more relieved than he was willing to let on. “Find something clean in my closet. Towels are right by the bathroom door. Use my stuff.”

“Thank you.”

With a last little smile sent Katsuki’s way, he headed down the hallway, and Katsuki finally got to sink back into his comfy spot, with the cool air blowing straight down on his face. Just for a little bit longer, until he caved and decided to be nice, he was gonna enjoy the cool breeze.

———

“Welcome home!” Izuku called, as soon as he heard the door open. It felt like a long time since he’d said those words to someone, and it was kind of nice, in a way, to have it back.

“Yeah, I’m home,” Katsuki said, kicking off his heavy boots with a thud and a sigh. “You okay?”

“I’m okay,” Izuku confirmed, looking up and smiling softly when Katsuki appeared in the doorway.

He looked healthy, and thankfully undamaged by his patrols, but there was also a tiredness about him – he didn’t seem physically exhausted, but he’d clearly just... had enough. His expression shifted, though, when he saw Izuku sitting on the floor at the coffee table, feet kicked out under the table and laptop set up to grade some papers. His eyes widened a little, his eyebrows leaving their usual knitted spot, and Izuku wasn’t sure why. Was it that weird to sit on the floor? He’d done it all the time in his own place, he just liked having the freedom to sling his legs around wherever he wanted, or lie down and stare at the ceiling for a bit when he needed inspiration. Plus it made it easier to type, although he did have a bit of a soft spot for lying in bed with his head propped up on an awkward angle. He’d done it at school, too, in their shared living space; he’d often just hung out on the carpet leaning against his friends’ legs, so shouldn’t Katsuki have been used to it? Unless—

“Sorry, it was on the couch so I hoped you wouldn’t mind, do you want it back?” he asked, gesturing toward the soft blanket over his lap. He really hoped Katsuki would say no, though, because he was pretty sure it was the best blanket he’d ever touched. He was so damn cozy and Katsuki could pry that thing from his cold, dead hands if he wanted it back so badly.

“No,” Katsuki assured him, shaking his head as he flopped onto his couch, sinking into the soft cushions. “Use it.”

“Thanks, Kacchan,” he said, mentally pumping his fist in victory, a little relieved that Katsuki was no longer looking at him, to see how happy the words made him. “I went and bought some clothes today!”

He plucked at his new sweater as he said it, even though he knew Katsuki wouldn’t see it. The sweater was thick and soft and a shade of grey that he didn’t normally wear, but it had looked so comfy that he’d had to try it on, and he’d actually kind of liked how it looked on him; that wasn’t exactly something that happened to him often. Katsuki hadn’t immediately made fun of him for it when he’d walked in the door, so maybe it really was okay after all!

“I saw,” Katsuki said, slinging an arm over his eyes to block out some light. “Go okay?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get anything special. Want me to close the curtains?”

“I’m good.”

Katsuki seemed so strangely content, just lying in that spot with an arm over his face. He looked so soft and comfy, compared to the usual tension and annoyance he walked around with. It was kind of nice to see it, even if it made him feel a little like he was intruding. Which, well, he kind of was.

Izuku dithered for a moment, but when Katsuki didn’t speak again, he turned back to his laptop. There was nothing he could do about the intrusion in the next ten minutes, so he was just gonna have to hope Katsuki could put up with him for a little longer, while he figured things out.

Until then, his papers weren’t going to grade themselves.

[Part 2]