"Utsushimi-san," Izuku clapped his hands and thanked Camie with all his might, "We appreciate your service here. Please remember to be careful and keep them occupied as Kacchan and I leave."

The woman waved off his snot and tears with a bubblegum pop. She slipped it back into her mouth and continued to chew. "Yeet and skeet, you lovebirds."

Katsuki aggressively held his chin and tilted it forward. "Hold still, Deku," he growled as he fixed Izuku's mascara, giving his lashes more volume than necessary. "I swear if you move one more time," he threatened.

Izuku froze but not for the right reasons. His Adam's apple bobbed incessantly, and his eyes flickered throughout the room, anything for him to avoid Katsuki's gaze. The room felt smaller and hot as if the peak of summer arrived in that instantaneous moment. He desperately needed an out, somewhere to remove himself from this stuffy environment, but despite his instincts screaming to retreat and hide, he steadied his body.

"There," said his friend. "Blink a bit."

Izuku blinked, fluttering his eyelashes to test out the mascara. However, he was unnerved by the long stare Katsuki gave him, giving him the phantom feel of a jewel being appraised. Before he could ponder longer, the moment quickly passed as the blond turned away.

As Izuku and Katsuki ventured off, Kaminari and Kirishima fought their battles in the sea. They were left unscathed but panted heavily from the battle they just won. The couple watched the paralyzed assasin sink to the bottom of the ocean, who would have been a perfect feast for the creatures and critters that lived in the sea if the two didn't save him.

The plan was straightforward and simple: electrocute the enemy.

To protect the captain and other crew members, Izuku instructed Kaminari to provide them rubber cloaks, so that the cloaks would serve as insulators. When Kaminari spotted the enemy a mile away, he released a powerful electrical discharge to stop him, ending the game before it even started. Kaminari slumped to the deck floor with a groan. His mental capacity was slipping away. Kirishima rushed to his side like a brilliant angel and held him in his arms, giving him the immediate relief he needed.

"Heaven?" Kaminari slurred his words and nuzzled in his lover's firm pecs.

With a soft snort, Kirishima, completely flattered, whispered sweet praise and rubbed his arms. "You did good, babe."

Kaminari responded with a whine. A question was dying on his lips, but he grasped for the words because his linguistic ability was shot. He could not even babble with the effort. Bless Kirishima's intuitive soul because Kirishima understood and tightened his embrace.

"He's alive, Denki," he said as he watched reinforcements drag the assassin out of the water. "He's alive."

Before Kaminari clocked out, the last vestiges of his mind were filled with relief. Glad that he was not a murderer again, he rested.

"Almost there yet?" Katsuki grumbled.

"Maybe." Izuku's nose was practically sniffing the map at this rate. Under his breath, he recounted his steps and the routes they took since they painstakingly went through great lengths and strides to hide their tracks.

Five minutes later, Izuku was still unresponsive, and the possibility of being stranded in the middle of the woods was becoming reality, which was a reality Katsuki does not want to live.

"Give me that," Katsuki snatched the map from his grubby hands.

"Hey!"

"If we're lost," his husband threatened and shoved Izuku away from the map by placing his palm on his face, "I'm kicking your ass."

"For your information!" Izuku strained and waved frantically to steal the map back, "I'm a badass! And this badass will lead us straight to our destination!"

"Badass. Fat ass," Katsuki mocked as he made a sharp left, "I don't fucking care. I'm still kicking it because we're lost!"

Izuku gasped, scandalized. "I'm not fat!"

Then Izuku, who Katsuki knew was the crazier one between the two of them, launched himself on his back as revenge to reach for the map.

"You-! I never said you're fat!" Katsuki screamed and fought back his thieving, conniving paws.

He dropped the map and struggled to throw him off, jerking side-to side like an untamed horse trying to unsaddle its rider. Katsuki knew Izuku was not fat and could attest to that statement because those thighs overpowered him more times than one during their training sessions. Mindful of the map on the ground, they roughhoused for a while longer, and though Katsuki would not admit it, he liked this, occasionally riling Izuku up for no good reason. Usually he was the one getting bullied from his friends, but Izuku was the easiest target to gain a reaction. This doesn't mean that Izuku pulled punches because he knew how to jab back, often in the form of pranks or snarky one-liners. Luckily there was no paparazzi in sight because they would have had a field day if they saw Izuku literally climbing him to retrieve a shoddy map. An extra would have fainted from the indecent exposure because those people were the kind who freaked out over a flash of his collarbone and deemed the experience voyeuristic.

When Katsuki had to balance on one leg after one particular hard jerk, Izuku finally gained the upper hand and rotated his hips, causing the blond to lose his balance. He pointed his palms toward the ground to break the fall, ready to activate his quirk to help himself upright because he had an extra passenger onboard. Falling the regular way would hurt Izuku. Even though he had good intentions, Katsuki eventually learned one lesson through this, and that was to never treat Izuku like glass ever again because the green-haired man hooked his legs around his trim waist and flipped their positions.

Katsuki found himself laying on the dirt, looking up at the clear, blue sky. "Ouch," he coughed out.

Izuku returned it with a grin. "I believe this is mines," he plucked the map right out of his hands.

"Oi, give it back."

"Finders keepers, losers weepers," Izuku stuck out his tongue and hopped off.

Minus the pushing and pranks, Katsuki and Izuku eventually found the main trail to their lodging, but there was still lots of time to burn before they arrived. Though this was easier than most of the hikes Katsuki would venture, the outfits they wore dragged them down, often snagging onto stray twigs and leaves. The makeup caked on their faces mixed with their sweat, and though Izuku was not an expert of beauty, he had an inkling that he would break out by the end of the day. Katsuki would probably sleep unscathed thanks to his flawless skin and his flawless quirk, Izuku thought enviously.

"First thing I'm gonna do when we get to the beach house is take a long shower," Izuku claimed, his hands itching to scratch at his irritable sides. "Aren't you itchy?" He whined, "How can you deal with this?"

"Practice," Katsuki grumbled. "Lots and lots of practice."

Izuku trudged on with sluggish steps. Though he told Katsuki he was fine, the sleep deprivation was beginning to catch up after the adrenaline rush. To be honest, the entire month felt like one long flight or fight response as the newlyweds dodged left and right through each attempt for their lives.

Hate was a persistent and enduring emotion, for it was one that wrung them dry. They heard the whispers, the way people hurled insults and branded them as disloyal traitors, but those words, intended to clout their resolve, had the opposite effect. These words fed them the resilience to intertwine their hands and encouraged them to embrace until their chests were flushed as if they couldn't bear to part because despite hate and its destructive power, love was always stronger, always better. Only love could help their people reach peace.

"They better have two bathrooms," Katsuki grumbled.

Fortunately, there were more than two bathrooms, but the sentiment went to moot when Izuku barged into his bathroom because he was an incompetent fool who doesn't know how to remove makeup correctly. Like damn, the man had mascara bleeding past his freckled cheeks and accidentally stained his sleeves in the process.

Their lodging was a run-off-the-mill beach house that belonged to a family friend, and nobody told the newlyweds that it was three stories high. Hell, they could have a whole story to themselves if they wished. Since they packed light, their day mainly consisted of gathering supplies and ingredients. With the kitchen and bathroom furnished, Izuku and Katsuki were unpacking their belongings to prepare for the next day.

The comfortable silence between them instantly got disrupted the moment Katsuki smashed a package against the wall. He looked flushed and bared his teeth like a wild beast ready to tear whatever bothered him into shreds.

"Fucking dweebs don't know personal space," he breathed out.

As if he hadn't potentially cracked the plaster of the wall, he resumed hanging up his clothes in the closet, but Izuku's eyes were drawn to the box. Once he realized the contents, his cheeks turned ruddy as well.

It was a box of condoms and sex toys.

Must have been a gift from Kaminari and Kirishima, he guessed. Well, at least there were no harmful intentions when they snuck the package into Katsuki's luggage. In a sense, it was pretty considerate of them to give them condoms and toys free of charge. After all, most couples were expected to christen their honeymoon with mind-blowing sex. It's just… Katsuki and Izuku were not like most couples. In fact, they were not a couple at all. They were just friends and were happy to be friends who married out of convenience.

The green-haired man gazed at him with a question lingering in his tongue but restricted himself. Their friendship was odd, born out of a loveless contract and a means to an end. Unlike the old days where they could duke out their differences in the training grounds, Izuku doesn't want to pry the answer out of Katsuki forcefully. These days he doesn't want to fight Katsuki, or rather, he doesn't want to fight anybody in general.

"Remember what I told you ever since we..." Katsuki grimaced, "We talked about sex?"

Izuku winced. "Yeah..." He trailed off.

"I'll kill you if you treat me different because of… because of that," he said with a distasteful frown. He looked as if he had to wrench the admission out of his mouth. "So spit it out," he ripped off the band-aid. The blond glared daggers. "Do I look fragile to you, Deku?"

"No!" Never. Izuku only viewed him as the strongest man alive.

"Then don't act like I am," his voice cracked.

"I..." Izuku clutched the shirt in his hands tighter and withheld himself from apologizing. "I don't..." he started, though it sounded futile. "I think you're incredible, Kacchan," he changed course. "You're nothing less than amazing."

"Well, you have a shit way of showing it," Katsuki said pettily and hugged his knees close to his chest, frustrated that he cared this much about Izuku's opinion.

"It's just… I don't understand...," Izuku trodded carefully, "Why haven't you told your friends about..."

What does he call this? Sex repulsion? Asexuality?

Katsuki laid on the floor until he was spread out like a starfish and stared at the ceiling in contemplation, threading the words together until he was satisfied.

"About my sexuality?" He finished for Izuku.

"If that's what it is."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm still figuring this out," Katsuki admitted with a cautious touch, as if he tiptoed around the subject. "Maybe I never will," he shrugged. "And that's fine with me."

He thought he wasn't attracted to anybody, but these days, Izuku clouded his judgment. There was a ridiculous notion he played in his head, but the more he pondered over it, the more stupid it became because he couldn't be attracted to just one person, especially when he was surrounded with beautiful and handsome people like Mina and – he gagged – Half-and-Half.

"Back then," he said wistfully, "There was a guy who I thought was like me."

Big, buff, and strong. The perfect soldier, his superior would tell him with a brutish grin. Katsuki would scoff as a response because Masukyura probably felt kinship with the soldier due to their quirks, but besides that, that was where the comparison ended.

"He would always decline everyone's advances to hook him up with someone."

Katsuki rejected his friends' offer, too, but once in a blue moon, he would feign those desires and join the crowd, only to free the whore offered to him in the dead of night and pay for their silence. However, without fail, the soldier would explain he was never interested and returned to his sweets. The rest were appalled.

"Everyone would make jabs at him, about how he was too pure and innocent to understand the world of adults," Katsuki mocked bitterly, as if they said that to him. Indirectly, they did. "About how he'll end up sad and lonely without another body to warm his side."

Despite the harassment, the soldier continued to fight for his kingdom without a falter in his smile and ate his sweets. Day and night people would pester him as if he was a shiny toy to be tinkered with, dropping questions without consideration of his feelings, of Katsuki's feelings.

"Then… He died in battle."

Katsuki clenched his fists and felt a burning sensation in his eyes.

"Such a shame he died early without experiencing love," he would hear. "How pitiful he died as a virgin," they would mourn. Mourn for what? That he finally got rid of these assholes?

It wasn't their damn business to judge, he wanted to scream back, to shake their shoulders until the message got across.

Maybe, just maybe, Katsuki started to feel insecure about his ability to love because of these people, of this pressing need to find true love before he turned crusty and old. Maybe, just maybe, Katsuki doesn't want this to be his legacy, to be immortalized as a tragic man instead of a warrior who fought for his homeland.

"Worst of all," he gritted his teeth as he withheld the frustrations he kept within, "They were so caught up in what he did with his dick that they never knew his name." Katsuki felt the scalding shame rise in his throat. "I never knew his name."

After a few tense moments, Izuku released the breath he held inside and gingerly crawled to Katsuki's side.

"Kacchan..." he whispered sadly and wiped away a tear at the corner of his eye with the pad of his thumb.

Huh, he thought, when did that get there.

Then Katsuki remembered how Shitty Hair and Dunce Face dealt with the ordeal, but no words were exchanged. Only silence like everybody else because who would bat an eye over a nameless soldier who doesn't want to sleep with a whore? Even Katsuki perpetuated this attitude to save his own hide, always tolerating his friends' efforts to instill some spice into his love life.

He told Izuku this with steady breaths as the nerd coaxed him with kind caresses over his knuckles.

"If I told them," he said. "And if they don't say anything and ignore that part of me..." He would rather have his friends scorn his feelings than dismiss them.

People who thought Katsuki couldn't love could eat shit because his love was wider than the sea and greater than the tallest mountain.

"I don't think my heart could take it," he said, more honest than he had ever been with himself for a long, long time.