The first roll of thunder reverberates somewhere in the distance, sending vibrations all throughout Heights Alliance. The windows rumble with the powerful noise and Shouto notices how some of his classmates flinch with it, others adjusting the volume of their headphones to drown out the storm brewing. Rather than react to the pouring rain and flashes of lightning themselves, Shouto stares at the entrance to the dorms, watching it intently as his body tenses slightly.
He'd warned Izuku that it was supposed to rain that afternoon, that it was already a miracle they'd managed to get to the dorms without getting soaked, but still, he insisted on leaving to train with All Might. No matter how much Shouto tried to convince him to tell his mentor that they could train another day, Izuku kept saying he couldn't afford to slack off just because the weather wasn't as nice as he had hoped it would be.
"Besides, a little bit of rain won't kill me, Shouto. Relax, it'll be fine, I bet it'll just be a drizzle."
Some drizzle. Shouto frowns, unable to focus on his notes any longer. Closing his notebook, he places it gently on the table, a cold feeling settling in his stomach when another roar of thunder echoes through the room, the ground trembling slightly beneath his feet. The rain drums loudly against the glass panes, heavy and unforgiving. Even though summer is supposed to be right around the corner, he can almost feel the icy chill on his own skin, imagining Izuku underneath it all with nothing but a thin t-shirt on his back and some shorts that barely reach the top of his knees.
Just as he's getting up from his seat, ready to go find his boyfriend and drag him back, throw him over his shoulder if he has to, the door slams open and the sound of wet shoes squeaking on the tiled floor rings in his ears. Shouto might have been embarrassed to admit that he knew that sound belonged to a pair of worn red trainers, but at that point all he could think of was getting to Izuku.
He doesn't have time to even get past the common room's threshold before he sees Izuku walking in, a sheepish grin plastered on his too pale face as he hugs himself. Shouto can't help the deep scowl as he takes in the other's state. He is soaked to the skin, even his wild locks sticking tightly to his head, his teeth chattering almost as violently as he's shaking. His already thin clothes are glued to him like a second skin, utterly drenched and doing nothing at all to keep him warm, quite the contrary, honestly.
Without thinking, Shouto pulls his hoodie off over his head – a silly thing with cat ears that Izuku bought for him some time the last month – and shoves it onto him before he has even the chance to say "Hey, Shou-"
"Don't 'Hey' me. What did I tell you?"
"That it was going to rain?"
Shouto gives him a deadpan stare. "That was rhetorical."
"I know, I like seeing the look on your face."
Izuku grins at him and he simply pulls the cat-eared hood down and tugs, earning himself a giggle from the other that warms his chest in a way that never fails to pull the corners of his mouth up. Which may or may not be one of the reasons Shouto covered Izuku's face in the first place.
When his laughter gets cut off by a loud sneeze and the series of sniffles that follow, Shouto's smile dissolves and he takes him by the elbow, tugging him along as he makes a bee-line for the elevators. Izuku pulls the hood up, eying Shouto with a lopsided smirk before shaking himself free. Shouto is about to protest when Izuku wraps his arms around his left one, snuggling into his shoulder and dampening his undershirt with his wet hair. Letting out a heavy sigh, Shouto raises the temperature of his left side just a little, leaning into Izuku during the short lift to the first floor. He continues to walk once the elevator doors slide open with a 'ding', Izuku glued to his side and following obediently, enjoying the gentle warmth radiating off of him.
Once in Izuku's room, Shouto tries to peel himself off of his boyfriend, only to have him cling tighter, whining lowly into his arm.
"Don't let go… you're so warm, Shouto…"
"I'm hardly doing anything at all... You're freezing, Izuku. You need to get off those wet clothes and take a warm shower."
Izuku pouts at him, looking much too adorable for someone who's closer to a wet cat than a human at this point. Ruffling his hair, Shouto rolls his eyes with mock exasperation, looking away in a futile effort to hide the soft blush he feels coming. Reluctantly, Izuku finally backs away from him, getting some clean clothes that Shouto immediately gets off his hands, not wanting those to get wet as well, while his boyfriend takes a towel and his shower caddy with a snort.
"Are you actually coming with me?" Izuku asks when Shouto follows him to the communal showers, mirth heavy in his tone.
"For some reason I don't trust you to get there without hurting yourself first." As if on cue, Izuku slips, his wet socks making for a really good pair of skates as he skids and loses his balance while climbing one of the steps. Shouto holds him close to his body with one arm before he has any actual chance of falling. "Case in point."
The blush that crawls over Izuku's cheeks is absolutely mesmerising, despite it being a common occurrence. Shouto never gets tired of looking at those freckles in a background of pink, as if a particularly surreal sunset has been painted on his boyfriend's face, in which he can somehow see the stars among the rosy hues of the daylit sky. Izuku looks away, sputtering as he gathers himself.
"I can take care of myself."
Shouto's eyes fix on the hand Izuku has firmly placed against the wall for added support, a teasing smile ghosting past his lips. "Clearly."
A small laugh crawls out of Shouto's throat when Izuku's towel hits his face and he hears the splish-splash of his socks on the tiled floors as he stomps towards the showers. A little yelp sounds from him just as Shouto removes the obstruction to his field of vision, catching him almost slipping again.
"This proves nothing!" The accusing finger Izuku points in Shouto's general direction does nothing to stop his tiny chuckles.
He's adorable.
With a shake of his head, Shouto follows after him, finding his soaked clothes in an untidy pile on a corner of the locker room, something he's grown accustomed to seeing. For all the tidy notes he has on heroes, Izuku really has a hard time organising the rest of his life, if the state of his room is any indication. Scattered clothes, misplaced papers and an absolutely atrocious mess on his desk are just a few of the signs Shouto ticked off as 'human disaster' requirements. To be fair he wasn't that far off from being one himself. Well, really, he is one too, but maybe that's just one of the many reasons they work well together. They can be disasters together, two negatives cancel each other out to make a positive, right? That's how it works…
Shouto hangs the towel over the rail of Izuku's cubicle, sitting down to wait for him to be done while he scrolls through his phone.
"Shouto…" Looking up from the silly little mobile game Izuku had downloaded onto his phone to play with, Shouto is met with bright green eyes and a raised eyebrow. "You're kind of still holding my underwear. I think I may need that."
With a low hum, Shouto gets up from his seat, handing Izuku his clothes as he gets closer. The other cranes his neck a little, Shouto having gotten even more of a height advantage on him the past in their time together even if Izuku did get a little taller himself.
Izuku blinks at him when Shouto brings his left hand to his damp hair. It's still wet really, little droplets rolling onto his neck and down his naked chest and back. The temperature of his fingers rises steadily, from warm to hot but not enough to burn, slowly drying Izuku's wild locks as he runs his hand through them. Shouto likes the way his boyfriend's eyelids flutter closed and leans into his touch, comfortable with the way it feels, with their proximity even though they should have probably been embarrassed by Izuku's state of undress. And yet, they've found this comfort between them, where the warmth they share feels natural, where Shouto is no longer self-conscious asking for affection and oftentimes doesn't need to do so to begin with.
"You don't really have to do that… It'll dry on its own…" Izuku whispers softly, making no move to pull away regardless.
The small smile that dances on Shouto's lips feels right, and he wouldn't have tried to stop it if he thought he could. "I know, I wanted to. Don't want you catching a cold right at the beginning of summer."
A drawn-out hum is the only answer he gets in reply as Izuku wraps his arms around Shouto's waist, the clothes held against his back, and lets his face fall to his shoulder, nuzzling his neck on the left side. Shouto keeps carding his heated fingers through Izuku's hair, drawing out the moisture with each gentle stroke and brushing out the knots in the process.
"Feels nice."
"Good…" A gentle kiss to the top of those forest green curls punctuates the breathed word before he pulls away. "Get dressed."
"Only if I get more of that afterwards." Izuku pauses, then smirks and pokes Shouto's side. "Unless you'd prefer me not to get dressed."
With another exaggerated roll of his eyes, Shouto shoves him, moving towards the exist with a promise that he'll be waiting outside and grabbing Izuku's discarded clothes on the way. He dries them off a little while he waits, not wanting to add more puddles to the halls than he'd already made on their walk there.
Slowly, they make their way back to Izuku's room side-by-side, finding Iida waiting outside with Shouto's forgotten notebook. With a quick thank you to the dutiful class president, they duck into the dorm, waving their friend goodbye.
Izuku is the first to drop face-first onto the bed, huffing with the exhaustion from the training finally catching up to him. The bed sinks under Shouto's weight when he sits beside him, running his fingers through Izuku's locks, making good on his unspoken promise – Izuku did ask for it, and Shouto's nothing if not a pleaser –, earning himself a delighted little noise. His chest flutters at the sound, prompting him to do it again and then another time, relishing in the wonderful sighs.
"You like doing that or something?"
Lifting his head to look up into Shouto's eyes, Izuku finally speaks, his own twinkling with satisfaction and something Shouto can only ever peg as admiration. Every single time, a light flush crawls its way up to his cheeks and Shouto averts his gaze in a poor attempt to mask it.
"Or something…"
"Can we cuddle? I want to cuddle."
Rather than actually answering him, Shouto climbs further onto the bed, lying down on his side and next to Izuku who doesn't waste a single second to crawl into his arms, their legs tangling in each other's as they find a comfortable position to settle in. They stare into each other's eyes for the longest time, their breaths mingling as they face each other and draw closer, and closer. Izuku is the one to close the distance entirely, always the one to jump that extra distance. Perhaps that is just the nature of their relationship, Shouto constantly holding back while the other just takes his hand and pulls him along with him.
The kiss they share is nothing special, really, just a short and chaste thing, but soft and oh so gentle. It sends a tiny shiver down Shouto's spine, no matter how fleeting the feeling of Izuku's lips on his may be, always electrifying, filling his veins with an energy he never knew he could feel before and couldn't get enough of now. He always feels a tad disappointed whenever they pull apart and this time is no exception, but it's worth it to be able to see the shaky smile on his boyfriend's face as he lays his head on his right arm, the soft blush dusted over his cheeks. The minutes tick by as they just enjoy each other's warmth, Shouto still gently playing with Izuku's hair while the other simply lets his eyes drift closed and his breaths steady.
He falls asleep rather quickly, as he usually does on days like these, and Shouto never really has the heart to wake him up. There's no discernible reason for him to do it anyway, not when he looks this peaceful, chest rising and falling steadily, with an unfaltering rhythm that plays to the beat of his heart. Izuku's fingers will sometimes twitch, curl around the fabric of his shirt for little more than a second before relaxing once again, and Shouto winds his arms tighter around him, pulling him closer, feeling his gentle heat seep into the cold in his veins.
Izuku has always been warm, Shouto thinks, not just his body but everything about him. The way he speaks, the way he smiles, the way he cares… All of him is warmth and Shouto's quirk may reach scorching temperatures but none of it compares to how warm Izuku is. He still finds himself wondering what he's done to deserve to be enveloped in such a gentle embrace, to feel this comfortable with someone else's presence. That question remains to be answered and it hangs in the dark corners of his subconscious as he feels his own eyelids getting heavier.
Fleetingly, he reasons there's nothing wrong with letting them close for just a little while, letting the blanket of sleep drape over him.
