A Comfortable Existence - #3 [The Pants]

[Part 2]

Katsuki scowled as he sat up, rubbing at a bleary eye with the heel of his hand. When his career as a hero was brought to a tragic end by some stupid injury he couldn’t fully recover from, he was gonna have to go into politics; someone needed to make it illegal for him to be dragged from his bed when it was so comfy and cosy.

Admitedly it was his own damn bladder that had decided to betray him; the resulting court case would probably have him suffering the consequences, if he tried to enforce the law. Maybe he needed to think about it when his head was a little clearer; like, when it wasn’t ass o’clock in the morning with his bladder screaming at him to drag his damn butt out of bed.

He’d lived on a futon his first couple of years out of high school, since he no longer had the dorm-issued bed and a futon was a hell of a lot cheaper than the alternative. He’d upgraded to a mattress eventually, but he hadn’t bought an actual bed frame until he’d moved into his own place. Every time he got up, he was so damn grateful to finally have one – something about climbing up and down from the floor at the end of a long day, or the start of an early morning, made his muscles ache in all the wrong ways. So when he turned and set his feet down on the ground, to stand up rather than clamber up, it took a hint of the sting out of the shitty situation.

The hint was immediately replaced, and then some, when he reached for his door handle and remembered his company. See, the only thing better than the comfort of a soft mattress covered in warm blankets set on a decent bed frame, was the fact that he could sleep in it naked. Seriously, he didn’t understand how people could choose to wear clothes to bed. He’d had to sleep in a tank top and boxers, or something of the sort, when he was living with other people, lest they barge into his room for some stupid reason and catch him with his dick out; living alone, he’d finally been able to go back to sleeping as God and nature intended: comfortably.

The problem was, that he couldn’t exactly walk to the bathroom bare-ass naked when Izuku was in the next room. Especially when Izuku was a notorious night owl who was probably still awake arguing with some idiot in the comment section of a stupid hero theory video. If Izuku walked out of his room and saw Katsuki walking around nude, he wasn’t sure they’d ever be able to look each other in the eye ever again. They’d only just fixed their relationship a couple of years prior, he wasn’t ready to make it weird again any time soon. Not that it wasn’t still a little weird, even if it was good, too.

Groaning quietly, he leaned over, fishing around in the dark for the pair of pants he’d discarded the night before. Normally he undressed a lot earlier in the night and wandered around naked for a bit – so he liked being nude, sue him – but with Izuku around, his pants had thankfully been shed close enough to the door that he could pull them back on pretty readily. Small victories.

Despite his grumbles about it, he covered up his junk and padded out into the hall, trudging his way down to the toilet. Next time he got a new apartment, he was gonna find one with a damn ensuite, just to avoid that stupid situation.

The guest bedroom was quiet as he walked past, with no light shining out under the door to indicate Izuku might still be up. Apparently the nerd had finally become a little more responsible, had started getting in a few hours of sleep before his shifts. Katsuki was weirdly proud of him.

For doing the bare basics, but still.

More importantly, though, if Izuku was asleep, would Katsuki have been safe to not put pants on? What were the chances that Izuku would happen to wake up at the same time he did? Well, unless Katsuki made noise, he supposed. The flush of the toilet, especially, could have broken him out of Dreamland and back into Katsuki’s-dick-is-out-ville. It was definitely safer to just wear the damn pants, but ugh, pants sucked.

He didn’t hear a peep as he relieved himself, glared at the offended garment as he hitched his pants back up, washed his hands, or headed back to his room. He definitely could have made it a stealth mission, but tragically, he could only know that in hindsight. The whole damn situation was stupid.

He closed the bedroom door quietly behind himself, then finally shed his pants again, breathing a sigh of relief at the freedom. He fell onto the mattress, the springs creaking quietly under his weight but accepting him all the same, still warm with Katsuki’s residual body heat from before he was cruelly dragged away.

“Sorry,” he whispered, as he pulled up his thick blanket and rolled over, getting himself tangled in it just a little bit, enough to feel safe and comfy within its fluffy confines. “I won’t leave you again.”

In the dark, silent room, his bed accepted his apology, gently lulling him back to sleep.

———

Izuku smiled softly when he found Katsuki sprawled under the air conditioner, quietly closing the front door to make sure it wouldn’t wake him, if he’d fallen asleep there. His head turned slightly, though, when he heard Izuku’s footsteps, and Izuku offered him a little wave, rather than disturb his comfort and peace.

“How were the shit-heads?”

“My students?” Izuku asked knowingly. “They were great, they’re so much fun to work with.”

“Gross.”

“Yes, Kacchan, I know,” Izuku humoured him. “Kids suck, I’m aware.”

“Damn right.”

Katsuki slung an arm over his eyes, but Izuku didn’t bother to say anything about it; he’d learned that Katsuki just seemed to be comfortable in that position, that he wasn’t actually trying to block anything out. He just liked his little comfy spot, on his soft couch with his cold air blowing, his baggy tank top hiked up around his chest to let his bare abs reap the benefits of the cool air. It really was nice to see him relaxed, once in a while; he was so used to the stern, staunch Katsuki who was all glares and sharp words, there was something oddly sweet about the comfort he radiated in his home.

“I hope I’m not bothering you too much,” Izuku blurted out, watching an eyebrow raise from beneath his arm. “I’ve been looking for a new place, but everything decent is way out of my budget, not to mention the insane moving costs – I think I’m gonna need the insurance payout to cover those, when it comes through. I really appreciate you having me here, sharing your space with me, and I hope I’m not getting in the way too much.”

“You’re fine,” Katsuki mumbled. “Prob’ly convenient.”

“So convenient,” Izuku agreed. “I can get so many patrol shifts in from here, it’s amazing. You picked such a good spot! But I swear, when you get sick of me, I can go stay at my mother’s for a bit and just put up with the commute until I find a place. Please just tell me outright when I’m starting to overstay my welcome, I don’t want things to get bad between us if I don’t realise quickly enough!”

“I’ll tell you,” Katsuki promised. “Barely even notice you, except for the fucking pants.”

“The pants?” Izuku asked, glancing down at his legs. He had developed a tendency, a few years ago, to start stripping off and forget to put his laundry somewhere sensible, but he thought he’d broken that habit. Had he started again without realising? “What pants, Kacchan?”

“My pants,” Katsuki said, offering exactly zero clarification.

“Did I... take your pants?” Izuku asked, frowning.

“Gotta wear them all the time,” Katsuki finally explained, making Izuku’s eyes widen. “Even when I just wanna fuckin’ pee in the night.”

A bright laugh burst out of Izuku, and Katsuki’s arm shifted, scarlet eyes surprisingly wide as he looked up at Izuku’s face.

“First of all,” Izuku began, “I never wake up in the night anyway. I mean, unless I’m still up, but it’s not like I’m gonna burst out of my room to bug you if you wake up to pee!”

“Mm.”

“Second,” he continued. “We’ve known each other how long? We spent years sharing changing rooms and bathrooms and onsen, it’s not like I’ve never seen you naked before.”

Katsuki glared at him this time, but Izuku didn’t give him a chance to interject.

“And thirdly, you do know I’m Ace, right? Dicks are just dicks, it’s not like I’m gonna see your dick hanging out and decide I suddenly need to grab it or something. How is it any different from seeing... I dunno, your arm? No, that might be too common, although you do have very muscular arms. Your nipples, maybe. They’re usually hidden by clothes, sure, but that doesn’t mean I give the slightest of shits when they’re not.”

“The slightest of shits,” Katsuki echoed, cracking a smile. “I’m not sure if I’m proud of you or ashamed.”

“You know what I mean!” Izuku insisted, laughing again all the same. “Be naked, Kacchan, I probably won’t even notice.”

“You saying I’m so unremarkable?” Katsuki teased.

“I promise, if I were gonna be sexually attracted to anyone, it’d be you,” Izuku humoured him. “But I’m not, and I won’t be, so who cares?”

“I guess I forget sometimes,” Katsuki admitted, retreating back under his arm. “It’s not like I’m fucking around either.”

“Do you... know what you are?” Izuku asked awkwardly, sitting down on the edge of the couch and wondering if Katsuki would care if he kicked his pants off. Stupid work suit. “Like, a label, or anything?”

“Who cares?” Katsuki shrugged. “Too busy for that shit.”

“Sure, but most people... I dunno, think about it? About the kind of person they might want to spend their life with, one day, or about a person they see who they’d like to have sex with, or something. But it’s not like I’m an expert, I dunno how Allo people work.”

“People just look at someone and want to fuck them without even a hello or some shit?” Katsuki asked, grimacing. “What the fuck.”

“So I’m told.” Izuku smiled faintly, and after a moment Katsuki finally turned his head, shedding his arm to meet Izuku’s eyes.

“Wait, is that what it means?” he asked. “I mean, I know you don’t like sex or whatever, but...”

“Sex is okay, it’s just kinda boring,” Izuku clarified. “But yeah, pretty much. Some people might develop sexual attraction once they get close to someone emotionally, but some of us just never experience it, and it doesn’t feel weird or anything because that’s just me, how I’ve always been.”

“Huh.”

“Do you... want to tell me something?”

“Like you didn’t guess years ago,” Katsuki snorted. “I guess I’m something of the sort too.”

“I suspected,” Izuku admitted. “But you’re you, you could have been a raging sex fiend this whole time and just hidden it well.”

“I don’t hide shit.”

“True,” Izuku agreed, chuckling. “Welcome to the team I guess?”

Dark fabric hit Izuku in the face, and when he reached to pull it off, he found Katsuki’s boxer shorts in his hands, unable to resist a laugh.

“I’m glad you’re comfy,” Izuku told him. “Okay if I go take a shower?”

“You don’t have to ask,” Katsuki reminded him.

“I know,” Izuku said, nodding slightly. “Thanks for having me, Kacchan.”

“Burn the pants while you’re gone.”