Chapter 27: crushcrushcrush
Asta only knew how to deal with a crush in two ways. With Sister Lily, he asked her to marry him every day. With Yuno and Noelle, he kept his mouth shut and supported them the best he could. He loved them quietly. Loving Izuku quietly was what he intended to do. Asta knew that once Izuku's Kacchan died, Izuku would go to him. How could Izuku not? But it was increasingly difficult for Asta to contain his affection for Izuku. It was easier to hide his affection for Yuno and Noelle under the guise of friendship.
He was a grown man. He became the Wizard King. He fought devils and enemies and faced his own insecurities and yet, a smiling green-haired man made him fidget like he was a teenager again.
Asta knelt in his garden and pulled weeds, wondering what he should do. He'd break into pieces if he gave his heart to Izuku and then it got broken. Asta's heart had been broken before in different ways, but he didn't know how he'd take it if he lost his new friend on top of it.
"I wish I had Finral or Vanessa to talk to right about now," said Asta, sighing. They were the best at giving advice on relationships, though Vanessa would likely be the better choice. Finral always had the weirdest plans. The Black Bulls had been his family and they were always there for him. Well, at least Zora and Kirsch are here. And I'm sure that the other Wizard Kings would give him advice. Were any of them married?
He sighed again.
"Asta! The pot is boiling!" Izuku called.
Asta quickly pulled off his gardening gloves and rushed to the house. Izuku was staring at what used to be a pot of stew. He had thrown a bucket of water on it to stop a fire.
"The fire went out of control," said Izuku. "Luckily I noticed."
"Too much wood," said Asta, looking at his ruined pot. "Ahh, well, we'll just have to eat leftovers tonight. Grab a towel, let's throw this outside. I'll destroy it after dinner. Are you alright?"
"Ahh, I'm fine. I was trained to handle fires too," said Izuku. Together, they grabbed towels to pick up the ruined but still warm pot to throw it into a dirt patch to be dealt with later. "We'll need a new big pot."
"We need to fix the stove," said Asta, chuckling.
"Guess, we can go to the Nameless Town for supplies. Do you think someone can figure out what Goku did to the stove when he built it?" Izuku asked.
"I'm sure that there's someone mechanically-inclined somewhere," said Asta.
Izuku grinned. "Well, we can always try to fix it. I think we've both gotten very handy around the house."
"Or we'll make it worse," said Asta. "Come on, let's get dinner out of the fridge and help me fix it up." Asta slung his arm around Izuku's shoulder, relishing in the half-hug that Izuku leaned in towards.
"I suppose we can eat dinner whenever we want," said Izuku.
After dinner, Asta and Izuku destroyed the pot and made sure to put it in their waste bin properly. All the waste went to the disposal site by mysterious garbage men. It was another weird thing about this world that Asta and Izuku noted. From their new friend Shinichi, they learned that he also followed the garbage men and found nothing too.
Asta sat with Izuku on the back porch. "I have to finish weeding the garden tomorrow."
"I can go to town and get the things we need. Maybe I'll stop by to see Shinichi again," said Izuku, humming.
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," said Asta. "I'll be expecting you in several days. You'll be theorizing with Shinichi for hours. Maybe days."
Izuku laughed. "I promise I won't be too long."
Asta grinned. "We'll see."
"He's been gone for three days. It's fine," said Asta, waiting patiently for Izuku to return.
"A week. A week is fine." Asta said as he packed a bag to head to Nameless Town.
"We haven't seen Izuku or Shinichi in days," said Ichigo, frowning. "I'm sure that they're fine. They can't die again."
"But they could get lost in the never-ending void of nothingness," said Orihime, cheerfully.
"Orihime, please," said Ichigo, shaking his head. "Sorry, Asta, I'm sure they're fine."
"I'm gonna kill him." Asta said, pulling out weeds in his garden far harder than necessary. 13 days. "I'm really gonna kill him." This was as bad as the time when Yuno tried to run away from home when they were eleven.
Backpack heavy with new research and notes of new ideas and leads (and the supplies that they needed two weeks ago), Izuku grimaced as he stepped into the house, two weeks later than he planned. He called out, "I'm back."
"Glad you're not lost in some never-ending void, since you know, you can't die again," said Asta, unamused, from the kitchen. "Could you send me a message next time? How much trouble did you and Shinichi get into?"
Izuku entered the kitchen with a new pot and parts for the stove. "Not that much. But we figured out that the trash is dumped in a fire pit in hell."
Asta sighed. "I made lunch. And you went to hell?"
"We didn't go to hell, we just looked through the portal where the garbage men, which are Oni, by the way, tossed it," said Izuku, matter-of-factly. "Sorry I was gone so long."
"I know we're dead and you're grown, but seriously let me know when you are gonna run off," said Asta, gesturing wildly. "Just because you have an adorable baby face doesn't mean that you can just go and do whatever you want and give me heart-attacks because I'm worried that you and Shinichi got into trouble."
"Ichigo did mention you stopped by," said Izuku, grimacing. "I'm sorry." He knew that he screwed up. He did the same thing once to his friends, to Ochako, and to Kacchan and he regretted it. He still had that bad habit of trying to do everything on his own, when he didn't have to anymore. Izuku fought off a blush at Asta's compliment. He thinks I'm adorable? "So I got you a pot."
Asta glared at Izuku for another few seconds before he relented and smiled. "Fine, fine. You're lucky I love you."
Izuku said, "Here-Wait. What did you just say?"
"Um, nothing," said Asta, face getting very red, very quickly.
Izuku's own face felt warm. "Er, like do you mean platonically or like romantically?"
"The second one," Asta mumbled.
"Oh."