Hizashi tipped back his mug, downing his fifth cup of coffee for the day. He was in no mood to lecture, choosing to give his class some exercise problems to work on that would be due tomorrow instead. His students had noticed his stark change in personality in contrast to his usually up-beat attitude that sometimes left them dizzy and overwhelmed.
The class sat quietly at their desks scribbling in their notebooks. Hizashi appreciated the considerate action, deciding that he would redact his scheduled pop quiz that he had originally planned for tomorrow.
Half way through his last lesson, Hizashi received a text from Nemuri.
[2:36] I'm taking Shou-chan back to your place so don't worry about picking him up. We've all had a long day. I'll see you later at your apartment.
Hizashi texted back a quick thanks, pocketing his phone to continue grading some papers.
He absently thought of Shouta's state, wondering how much longer the effects would last. During his late-night hero work with the police force, he had learned that the power was luckily not permanent, but aside from that, the duration of the effects remained unclear. Tracking down the person with the age regression quirk proved to be a hassle, the villain's reputation being as underground as Shouta's own hero work.
After the events of today, however, Hizashi promised himself that once Shouta reverted back to his 20-year-old self he would sit down with him and have a much needed conversation about their relationship. The near-death experience of his best friend made him realize that if anything had happened to him that would prevent Hizashi from ever speaking to him again, he'd live with too many regrets for the rest of his life.
The voice hero sighed, pushing the thoughts aside. Shouta was still a four-year-old. He'd revisit these thoughts once the effects of the quirk wore off. Right now he needed to make sure that Shouta was well cared for and as far away from danger as he could possibly be.
Once the school bell rang to signify the end of the day, Hizashi made his way to the teacher's lounge to grab one more cup of coffee before heading home. He had reasoned that he desperately needed the extra caffeine to continue searching for the person with the age regression quirk tonight. His body would hate him for this later, he bitterly thought, taking another sip from his mug as he climbed into his car.
Hizashi made a quick stop at a restaurant a few blocks away from his apartment to pick up some curry rice dishes for dinner. Carrying the take-out boxes in a plastic bag, he lazily unlocked his front door, muttering a short "I'm home" as he stepped inside.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HIZASHI!"
Hizashi screamed as poppers resounded against the walls of the small apartment, dropping the bag he had been holding effectively spilling the curry onto the floor of the front entrance.
"Um, what the hell, Hizashi," Nemuri flatly said, staring at the voice hero who had held up his fists in a stance that vaguely reminded her of a video game.
"I thought you said he'd like the surprise, Nemuri," Shouta worriedly said, dropping the party popper he had been holding to run to hug Hizashi's leg in comfort.
"Wh-what's going on?" Hizashi asked in confusion, standing in the doorway as he noted the party decorations in his apartment.
"Don't tell me you forgot your own birthday," Nemuri sighed, rubbing her temple. "I thought I made the surprise too obvious when I told you I'd pick up Shouta and head to your place first, but as always, you prove to me that you're a huge forgetful idiot."
"My birthday," Hizashi dazedly murmured, trying to remember what the date was.
"It's your birthday, Hizashi," Shouta reminded, tilting his head up to pout at the man who had folded his arms and closed his eyes in concentration. "You told me a week ago. I made you a present and everything."
Hizashi's eyes immediately lit up, remembering the promise they had made at the hospital the night Shouta had been hit by the age regression quirk.
"Unless that was a lie, too," Shouta added dejectedly, stuffing his hands into his oversized sweatshirt in disappointment. "Just like how you didn't like the surprise."
Hizashi sputtered, flailing his arms in the air as he met Nemuri's intense glare of contempt.
"N-n-n-no! That's right! My birthday! Yes, my birthday! Of course it's my birthday! I was just pretending that I forgot!" Hizashi rambled, loudly laughing with his hands on his hips in fake triumph. "Yes, that's what I was doing! I didn't forget! I was just turning the tables on you guys and it looks like it worked!"
"Please stop talking," Nemuri quietly huffed, shielding her face with her hand. "You look like a chicken that just laid its first egg."
Hizashi hurriedly scooped up Shouta into his arms, giving him a quick hug when the four-year-old didn't seem convinced.
"Liar," Shouta muttered, pulling on Hizashi's cheek in retaliation. "You forgot."
"Okay, ouch! I'm sorry!" Hizashi cried, rubbing his sore cheek after Shouta released it with a huff. "It's just with all my work lately, remembering my birthday was the last thing on my mind."
Hizashi felt a twinge of regret when Shouta deflated at his words, sinking into his arms and pouting his lower lip in guilt.
"Thank you for remembering for me though," Hizashi quickly added, giving the child a quick peck on the cheek. "I may have forgotten that it was today, but I definitely remember wanting to celebrate it with my favorite little listener."
Shouta brightened from the compliment, smiling awkwardly at the unexpected praise.
"Hey, don't forget about your favorite hero, mister," Nemuri teased, playfully flicking the voice hero in the forehead.
"You're kidding, you managed to get All Might to my party?!" Hizashi cheekily said, receiving a stronger hit to the head.
"So that's the thanks I get for preparing your stupid party," Nemuri jeered, easily taking Hizashi into a choke hold.
"Okay, okay! I give up! I'm sorry!" Hizashi squeaked, holding the four-year-old even tighter when they all tumbled to the floor together. He couldn't help but feel a tinge of warmth in his chest when he heard Shouta giggle against his leather jacket.
"If it wasn't your birthday, I'd make you clean up that mess you made, too," Nemuri huffed, walking over to the kitchen to grab some paper towels and a wet cloth to clean up the curry Hizashi had spilled. Shouta wiggled out of Hizashi's arms to follow Nemuri, holding up his hands next to her to indicate that he wanted to help. Once Nemuri handed him the roll of paper towels, he scampered back over to the entrance way and carefully tore off a large sheet to pick up any stray potatoes that had escaped from the plastic bag.
"We're lucky we have such a good little helper," Nemuri chuckled, kneeling beside the four-year-old to help him wipe up the mess.
"Yeah, we really are," Hizashi agreed with a smile, sitting cross-legged on the floor as he watched the two clean up the curry. His smile grew wider when he saw Shouta wipe his face with his sleeve, accidentally swiping some curry onto his nose and cheek.
After cleaning up the mess and changing Shouta into a cleaner shirt, Hizashi was led to the kitchen table where an arrangement of food was laid out for him. There was a mixture of Japanese food and American food strewn across the table. It felt strange having a platter of sashimi next to a plate of macaroni and cheese decorated with buffalo wings.
Granted, this was something Hizashi had bugged Shouta to do for him ever since high school. He loved the idea of mixing Japanese and American culture and he was grateful for the gesture but felt slightly overwhelmed with the strange assortment of food.
As Hizashi began to fill his plate up, Shouta perked up, running out of the room before returning with a pink conical birthday hat decorated with ugly green polka dots.
"Nemuri said you wanted to wear one for your birthday so we stopped by a store on the way home to buy you one," Shouta said, holding it up earnestly as Hizashi narrowed his eyes at his coworker who returned the glare with a cheeky grin.
"Oh, you shouldn't have, Shouta," Hizashi said with a forceful chuckle, mouthing to Nemuri that he would get her back for this. After seeing Shouta's eyes light up from wearing the hat, Hizashi decided that he could try to tolerate his new hideous accessory.
The three of them spent an hour talking, even though it was mainly Nemuri telling embarrassing stories about Hizashi. Four-year-old Shouta listened intently to how Hizashi had once tried to woo a girl by singing an American song while poorly break dancing in the cafeteria, or about the time he had wanted his pet goldfish to get some fresh air, so he took it to the public pool in a baggie.
Hizashi sputtered at every embarrassing tale, cheeks reddening even though Shouta had already known all of these things as an adult. After all, Shouta had been there patting his back after his rejection and had even bought Hizashi a new goldfish when he had accidentally lost it at the pool.
After stuffing themselves with food and what seemed like a never-ending spew of embarrassing stories, Nemuri and Shouta finally dragged Hizashi to the living room. Mochi was sitting quietly on the couch in a small cat bed. Shouta had undoubtedly tucked a blanket around the cat to ensure its comfort.
As he took a seat on the couch, the two ran back into the kitchen. With them out of the room, Hizashi secretly pulled off the ugly birthday hat, hoping that no one would notice it missing. When Mochi stared at him with unblinking blue eyes, Hizashi held a finger to his lips, silently asking the cat to keep his secret. It gave him a soft meow before closing its eyes and lying its head down onto the edge of its bed.
Hizashi heard a match being lit followed by the faint smell of wax. A minute later, the two came back out with a vanilla cake decorated with the simple words "Happy Birthday Hizashi" written in green icing.
As Nemuri placed the cake on the table in front of him, the two began to sing for Hizashi's birthday. Hizashi felt his cheeks grow warm as Shouta sang with his hands held in front of his shirt, stumbling over his words a few times during the simple song.
"You're up, Hizashi," Nemuri said after the song ended. "Close your eyes, make a wish, and blow out that candle."
Closing his eyes, he made a show of thinking of a wish, folding his arms and humming in concentration. After a while, he nodded his head, opened his eyes, and blew out the candle. He jumped in his seat as Nemuri released another party popper, his eyebrow twitching when he was met with another cheeky grin. Mochi had also stuck its head up momentarily, squinting its eyes at Nemuri in disapproval.
"Before we cut the cake, we have to give the guest of honor his presents," Nemuri sang, ruffling Shouta's hair as he straightened his back at the mention of the gifts. He ran into his room and came out carrying a gift in green wrapping paper with an envelope slipped under the decorative bow.
"Shouta put in a lot of work to make all this so the only acceptable comment is 'I love it'," she winked as Hizashi felt his chest grow tight.
"Nemuri helped, too," Shouta added, crawling onto the sofa to kneel by Hizashi's side, carefully as to not disturb Mochi who had closed its eyes again in an attempt to sleep.
"Thank you. I can tell that I'm going to love it already," Hizashi smiled, gently taking out the card and placing it on the table for later.
He gingerly unwrapped the gift, finding a brown album decorated with the words "Happy 21st Birthday" on the cover. Flipping through the contents, he found that there were not only photos that had been taken in the past week, but also quite a few of him when he had been in high school with Shouta. There were photos of them competing in the sports festival and a few where they had prepared for the school cultural festival. There was even a photo of Shouta sleeping at his desk and the entire class posing next to him for a group shot.
"They were a little hard to find, but I called in a few favors from your old classmates and managed to get a hold of them," Nemuri whispered into his ear when Hizashi lingered on the photos of them in UA.
At the end of the album, there were two photos: one of them being him feeding four-year-old Shouta from a bentou at school and another with them the same age, peacefully sleeping while leaning against the other's shoulder. The words "May there be many more happy times shared between us for the upcoming years" was printed in fancy font underneath the photos.
Hizashi had to remind himself to breathe as he smiled at the face of the man he had been pining after, who was shown leaning heavily against his shoulder in the photo, the lower half of his body still covered in his trademark yellow sleeping bag.
"Nemuri wouldn't tell me, but who's the one with black hair who always looks tired next to you?" Shouta asked, flipping to another page and pointing to a photo where he was a teenager, looking mildly disgusted with Hizashi braiding his hair. "He's in a lot of the pictures and you look really happy in them, too. He must be really important."
Hizashi felt his chest grow tight, taking a shaky breath as he met Shouta's honest eyes.
"Yeah, he is," Hizashi agreed softly, pulling Shouta into his lap. "We were classmates in high school."
"Do you still see him?" Shouta pressed, tilting his head backwards to stare up at the voice hero in question. "If it's not too late, maybe we can invite him to your birthday party."
Hizashi felt a lump in his throat as he rested his chin on Shouta's mop of black hair. He could see Nemuri nervously fidgeting from the corner of his eye.
"Maybe next year," Hizashi said, sighing quietly. "He's not really… himself right now."
"Oh," Shouta murmured in response, sadly reaching out to touch one of the photos of himself in the album. "Sorry, I won't ask anymore questions about him."
"It's alright, Shouta. I get to celebrate my birthday with you and Nemuri, which already makes me super happy!" Hizashi hastily said, quickly changing his tone into a more cheerful one. "I'm having a lot of fun and this present is the best thing anyone has ever given me!"
"I told you he would love it, Shou-chan!" Nemuri chimed, taking Hizashi's lead to steer the conversation elsewhere. "Looks like all that hard-work paid off!"
Shouta smiled, blushing slightly when Hizashi affectionately ruffled his hair.
"Wait, you have to see the card, too!" Shouta added, pointing to the red envelope on the table next to the wrapping paper.
"Shou-chan worked on that one all by himself. Well, I helped him write a few words, but the rest was all his idea," Nemuri said as Hizashi gently pried the envelope open to slide out the card.
Flower patterns made from construction paper decorated the cover. The words "Happy Birthday, Hizashi" were messily written in bold letters. He took a shaky breath when he read the inside of the card.
I love my new family. Thank you for being my hero. -Shouta
There was a crayon drawing of him holding Shouta's hand. Mochi had also been included, matching Shouta's size as it stood next to him on all fours. Nemuri was drawn with a peace sign, a large happy face printed on the figure.
Hizashi felt tears forming in his eyes. He hastily took off his glasses and wiped them away with the sleeve of his jacket.
"Do you not like it?" Shouta asked, eyebrows furrowing in worry when he saw Hizashi bite back a sob.
"No, Shouta. It's perfect," Hizashi choked, pulling the young erasure hero into a tight embrace. He couldn't stop the shaky breaths that followed, a few stray tears rolling down his cheeks. He felt Nemuri take a seat next to them, pulling them both into another hug.
"Happy birthday, Hizashi," she whispered, brushing her nose against his blond hair.
After taking a few moments to compose himself, Hizashi scrubbed his eyes one last time and flashed his brightest smile.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to dampen the mood, but the gifts were so perfect that I felt extremely moved!" Hizashi yelled, dawning his announcer persona once more. "Come on, let's cut that cake. My birthday wouldn't be complete without us digging into it."
After eating the cake, the three played a board game until the sun set. Nemuri decided to call it a night when Shouta began to yawn, leaning a little more heavily on Hizashi as he tried to protest in vain. As Nemuri and Hizashi boxed up any leftover food, Shouta carefully lifted Mochi into his arms, slowly bringing the cat into his bedroom to tuck it into his covers in preparation for bedtime.
Once Nemuri took her leave, Hizashi and Shouta went through their bathroom routine. After Hizashi had taken a quick shower, he stepped out to find Shouta waiting for him outside the door, greeting him with a small smile as he hugged his cat plush.
The two made their way to Shouta's bedroom. Mochi was already fast asleep so Shouta took extra care slipping into bed. As Hizashi tucked the four-year-old in, he reached out and grabbed Hizashi's collar before he could pull away.
"Can you sleep in here tonight?" Shouta shyly asked, sitting up in bed with wide pleading eyes.
Hizashi paused before gently smiling at the child.
"It's like you read my mind," Hizashi chuckled. "To be honest, I don't really want to leave you alone right now after what happened last night."
"Sorry," Shouta sheepishly muttered as he scooted closer to Mochi to make room for Hizashi.
"Never do that again, silly," Hizashi murmured in response, carefully crawling under the covers and pulling Shouta close to his chest. With Shouta being so small, the bed felt snug, enveloping them perfectly with a bit of room to spare.
"G'night, 'zashi," Shouta whispered, his eyes already drooping.
"Good night, Shouta," Hizashi returned, focusing on the warmth he felt from Shouta's small body. A minute hadn't even passed before he felt that the boy had fallen asleep in his arms. His gaze slowly shifted to Mochi, its back against the wall curled up next to Shouta's head.
"I guess I owe you for once," Hizashi muttered at the sleeping cat before nuzzling further into the pillow. "Remind me later to buy you those expensive treats for taking care of Shouta."
Letting out a short huff, Hizashi closed his eyes, falling asleep before reaching the count of ten.
Hizashi groaned as he felt light hitting his face. He faintly recalled Shouta buying black-out curtains for his room, one of the few expenses the man had been willing to splurge on to sleep in complete darkness.
"What's the point of having them if he never closes them," Hizashi quietly complained to himself, bringing up his hand to scrub his eyes.
He felt something shift in his arms. Hizashi paused, noting that someone's leg was hooked around him. There was no way a small four-year-old Shouta had legs long enough to reach his own. He nervously opened his eyes and found the twenty-year-old erasure hero sleeping next to him, his face barely even two inches away from his own.
The man had thrown an arm around Hizashi at some point in the night, pressing himself close to the voice hero. Hizashi felt a wave of relief wash over him. The age regression quirk had finally worn off, he thankfully thought. But there was another pressing matter at hand.
Shouta was completely and utterly naked in bed with him.
The voice hero felt his face grow red, the blush reaching his ears when Shouta rubbed his short scruff against Hizashi's neck, mumbling incoherently in his sleep. The clothes Shouta had worn must have torn off after he returned to his normal size. Hizashi must have really been tired to have slept through that.
With Shouta clinging to him so tightly and his mind whirling from embarrassment, Hizashi did the most reasonable thing he could think of.
He screamed and rolled off the bed, falling flat on his ass, effectively waking up the erasure hero. Mochi lazily picked up its head, glaring at him for making a ruckus in the morning.
"What the hell, Hizashi?" Shouta mumbled, his words slurred from just waking up. He sat up in bed, the blanket rolling off his shoulders and pooling at his legs. He lazily glanced at his naked body, his eyes slowly trailing to meet Hizashi who was sputtering on his bedroom floor. Shouta's eyes slowly widened, a light red dusting his cheeks as he suddenly felt more awake.
"What the hell, Hizashi?!" he hissed more vehemently, quickly wrapping himself in his blanket to cocoon himself from his roommate.
"Sh-Shouta, it's not what you think!" Hizashi said, waving his arms around in the air.
"What am I even supposed to be thinking right now?!" Shouta seethed, completely confused as his eyes landed on multiple cat posters decorating his bedroom walls that he was sure he never bought.
When Mochi softly meowed at him in greeting, Shouta lowered his blanket and gaped at the splint adorning the cat's leg.
"What did you do to Mochi?!" Shouta harshly mumbled, taking the cat into his arms as it energetically rubbed itself all over him. Suddenly remembering that he was completely naked, Shouta hastily pulled the covers back over himself. Mochi stuck its head out of the blanket, bumping itself against Shouta's chin with a content purr.
"Wait, you don't remember?" Hizashi breathed, blinking in astonishment at Shouta's red face.
"I… I'm not sure," Shouta admitted, rubbing his eye with the palm of his hand. "Everything is a little hazy, like it was some kind of long dream."
Hizashi sat up a little straighter, immediately remembering the promise he had made to himself yesterday regarding his relationship with his best friend.
"Shouta, I have something important I need to tell you," he earnestly said, his heart beating hard against his chest.
"Can you at least wait for me to put on some pants before you tell me?" Shouta said, wrapping the blanket a little tighter against his body as Hizashi felt his face turn three shades of red.
"Oh, right," Hizashi mumbled, clumsily pushing himself to his feet. "I'm gonna… I'll just… I'll go make some coffee."
Hizashi stumbled out of the room, closing the door behind him. Leaning heavily on the door with his back, Hizashi groaned into his hands, willing the redness in his face to fade. So he saw Shouta naked in bed, something he may have fantasized about every so often. He really needed to get his mind out of the gutter and stop acting like a lovestruck fourteen-year-old boy holding hands with his lover for the first time.
Taking a deep breath, he made his way to the bathroom to freshen up. He brushed his teeth and washed his face with cold water. Tying his hair into a messy bun, he stepped out to the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker. He poured two cups, one for himself and another for his roommate. He placed them on the kitchen table, sighing as he took a seat.
Hizashi pulled out his phone and texted Nemuri the situation, informing his friend that the effects of the quirk had worn off. He immediately received a text not even a minute later with a thumbs-up emoji followed by a winking emoji. Hizashi never understood how Nemuri was so intuitive about these things, reddening as he locked his phone after seeing another message with multiple hearts and of a kissing emoji.
He heard Shouta fiddling in the bathroom, stepping out once he was finished to retreat to his room when he heard Mochi crying in the bedroom.
"What's up with you today? You're so clingy," Shouta muttered as he walked out into the kitchen with the cat practically hugging his arm. He was wearing a loose black tank top and a pair of pink sweatpants that he had never bothered returning to his roommate.
"I made you a cup," Hizashi nervously said, gesturing for Shouta to take a seat. "Black with no cream and sugar. Disgusting, just the way you like it."
"Thanks," Shouta sarcastically replied, finally managing to get Mochi to release his arm as he placed him into the cat bed that was on the living room couch.
"How are you feeling?" Hizashi began as Shouta took a seat at the table, sniffing his black coffee.
"Tired," he replied, taking a sip form his cup.
"Of course you are," Hizashi sighed, leaning his chin on the palm of his hand as he studied his best friend. "Do you not remember anything that happened in the past week?"
"A little bit more than before I woke up," Shouta shrugged. "It's getting a little clearer. I might be able to remember the important parts if you give me a bit more time."
"So what exactly do you remember then?" Hizashi asked, stirring his coffee with a spoon.
Shouta paused, staring at a spot on the kitchen table as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to recollect his thoughts.
"I'm not sure. It's all jumbled together."
"It wasn't exactly the best week of my life," Hizashi weakly laughed. "You were a cute kid though, running around with that little cat backpack I bought for you."
Shouta's eyes slowly widened in horror as something seemed to click in his head.
"H-hey, it wasn't that bad!" Hizashi hastily added. "But that's not the important thing! Do you really not remember the villain who attacked you?"
"A little," Shouta said, holding his mug in a slightly tighter grip. "I remember the deserted dumping grounds of my old apartment complex. It's a little fuzzy, but yeah, I think I remember him attacking me."
"I remember fighting back and feeling scared," he continued, his voice lowering. "Mochi was there, too. And you and Nemuri."
Hizashi nodded, stiffening as he remembered how much he was shaking yesterday when he barely made it to Shouta's rescue.
"I know you did a lot for me in the past week and even though I'm still trying to remember it all, I know it must have been hard for you," Shouta muttered. "Thank you, Hizashi, for helping me through that."
Hizashi smiled at the rare gratitude. He took a deep breath and met Shouta's grey eyes.
"I did a lot of thinking after yesterday," Hizashi said. "About how close of a call it was for you, how I might not have been able to find you in time; things like that."
"Hizashi…"
"I was terrified. There's no other way of putting it. It made me realize how afraid I was of losing you," Hizashi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I know our line of hero work is dangerous, but I never really thought about how easy it could be to have either of us being killed on duty."
Shouta's mouth was drawn into a thin line as his eyes softened. He patiently waited for Hizashi to continue.
"Shouta, I've only known you for a few years, but I want you to know that you're very important to me. Losing you would be more than I could handle," Hizashi said, picturing himself returning to an empty, cold apartment.
"You're important to me too, Hizashi," Shouta reassured, reddening slightly from his confession.
"That's why I want to tell you something that I've been thinking about since the second year of high school," Hizashi shakily breathed, averting his eyes to the coffee mug in his hands.
"Okay…" Shouta nervously said, his eyes meeting his roommate's when the blond finally tilted his head up to face him.
"I like you, Shouta," Hizashi said with a steady voice. "I was too afraid to say anything because I didn't know how you would react, but after yesterday I realized I really needed to tell you. It's okay if you don't return my feelings and I hope it doesn't make things awkward between us, but it's just something I really needed you to know."
Hizashi could feel his cheeks grow warm. His hands were shaking as he held his coffee mug.
"You like me," Shouta repeated in a whisper. His usually stoic face broke out into a soft smile as he scoffed. "Unbelievable."
"Hey, don't make fun of me," Hizashi muttered, fidgeting in his seat. "Let's see you try confessing to the person you've been pining after for years."
"Alright then," Shouta softly said. "I like you, too Hizashi."
Hizashi hoped that he hadn't cracked the handle on his mug when he squeaked in surprise.
"Y-you do?!" Hizashi stood up from his seat like an excited puppy. "You're not joking, right Shouta? This isn't a dream? Oh, who cares if it's a dream. No take-backs! You like me and that's final!"
"Calm down, Hizashi. You're not five," Shouta winced, covering his mouth with his hand as he blushed at his roommate. "Is it really that hard to believe?"
"Well you're not the easiest person to read, Shouta," Hizashi whined. "How was I supposed to know about this?!"
"Well how was I supposed to know that you were gay after seeing you get rejected from so many girls in high school?" Shouta retorted with a hint of jealousy.
"They probably all knew I was gay before I did," Hizashi muttered, deflating into his seat in defeat.
"Those girls always did seem to have a knack for figuring these things out," Shouta murmured in agreement.
"Even after I realized I liked you I didn't think you would return my feelings. That's why I tried to make myself like someone else during all that time. Big help that was," he muttered bitterly.
"Well I do like you, alright? I don't want you courting other people anymore," Shouta said with a small pout. "I hated watching you chase after them with that stupid face of yours grinning like an idiot."
Hizashi flinched, guiltily fiddling with a small hole in his shirt.
"And I hated myself even more because I wish that had been me you were chasing after," Shouta mumbled, his pale skin turning into a bright red as he turned his face to stare at anywhere but Hizashi.
Hizashi gaped at his best friend, his green eyes instantly lighting up once he processed the words.
"Shoutaaaaa~" Hizashi jeered, cheekily grinning at his flustered friend. "Don't worry. Now that I know how you feel, I'll put in twice the amount of effort to win your heart. How does that sound?"
"Horrible," Shouta said in a deadpan voice, his red face betraying how he really felt.
"I see that you're still as mean to me as ever," Hizashi playfully whined, walking over to his new boyfriend to give him a hug. He gave him a quick peck on the cheek, his smile growing wider as Shouta's face reddened to a darker shade.
"Don't expect me to change just because we're going out now," Shouta muttered, returning the kiss on Hizashi's forehead.
"I wouldn't want it any other way," Hizashi said, rubbing his cheek into the crook of Shouta's neck, secretly pleased with himself when he felt his boyfriend shiver from the gesture.
He felt Shouta gently push him away. Just as he was about to protest, Shouta leaned in to meet Hizashi's lips with his own. The voice hero contently followed the motion, languidly returning the kiss while feeling his heart flutter.
When Shouta finally pulled away, he couldn't help breaking out into a tooth grinning smile. The ups and downs of last week had definitely been worth it.
