When Shouto first woke the next morning, it was to the sound of a shrill beeping noise that reverberated in his highly sensitive ears.
His eyes shot open and he was met with a bright room that looked nothing like the one he'd been forced to get used to over the past two weeks by his boyfriend. He sat bolt upright looking around frantically for something he recognised. Then his gaze landed on a small black device sitting on a chest of drawers opposite his bed and memories from the day before came rushing back to him. He felt himself relax slightly as he noted that the device also seemed to be the source of the horrendous noise that dragged him from his sleep in a state of panic.
Still, he decided he should try to make it stop doing that. He didn't want the loud noise to wake the people who had been kind enough to let him stay. Also, it could be a signal that something was wrong with Izuku's phone. He should probably at least attempt to fix it before giving it back.
However, when Shouto tried to move, he felt something weighing down his feet. He gasped and whipped around to see what it was, his heart rate picking up at the prospect of being unable to move. When he saw that it was just Izuku's small, strange looking dog lying at his feet, he breathed a small sigh of relief.
Shouto had made sure to leave the bedroom door slightly ajar, still not entirely comfortable with the thought of being shut in. It must have entered the room without his knowledge some time in the night and settled down at the foot of his bed. However, the animal didn't seem to take too kindly to being dislodged from its resting place by Shouto's quick movements.
It tensed up, staring at the lump Shouto's feet made in the blankets for a few seconds, before darting forwards and digging its claws into his ankles sharply through the layers of material. Shouto cried out in alarm, reeling backwards so quickly that he unbalanced himself and fell over the edge of the bed, landing on the floor with a thump and hissing a little as a dull pain shot through his hip when he landed on it. The creature bolted from it's position on the bed, past Shouto and out through the bedroom door.
"Ah! I forgot about the alarm!" he heard a slightly muffled voice call out from a room down the hall.
Shouto struggled to right himself as hurried footsteps echoed down the hall. A few quiet knocks sounded at his door and a head of green hair appeared from behind it, slowly revealing Izuku's face.
"That's my alarm, I forgot to turn it off." He said sheepishly as he reached for the device on top of the chest of drawers, quickly silencing it. "Sorry, it's so loud. I find it hard to sleep sometimes. So I can't wake up in the morning without it. Ochako and Tenya are used to it, but I realise it must have been a bit of a shock for you."
"Oh," Shouto responded blankly, a little embarrassed that he'd been so spooked by just a wake up call.
Izuku took in his appearance and raised an eyebrow. "Are you… ok?" he asked cautiously.
"Yes, I'm fine," Shouto responded. "Why?"
"Well it's just… I heard a loud crash and you and the blankets are on the floor so you must have fallen out of bed when my alarm woke you up. I was wondering if you got hurt. There's a first aid kit in the cupboard above the toaster in the kitchen if you need it."
"I'm fine," Shouto reiterated. Luckily, it hadn't been that bad a fall, as far as he could tell nothing was hurting. Besides, he had no clue what a first aid kit or a toaster were anyway so he didn't want to make Izuku suspicious.
Shouto stood, untangling his feet and picking up the sheets to put them back on the bed and rearrange them.
"Ok. Good." Izuku replied, standing awkwardly behind him with the phone still in his hand. "Um…" He called out and Shouto turned to look at him. "I kind of need this back today," he admitted. "I have a work phone, but I need this one too just in case one of my friends or family members needs me while I'm gone."
Shouto wanted to ask where he was going, but he didn't want to be too nosey. He knew humans didn't react well to that sometimes.
"I tried to give it back yesterday," Shouto said instead.
"I know," Izuku responded, "but it didn't seem like you actually wanted to then. It felt like you were only returning it because you thought that was what I wanted. You seemed unsure about it and I want you to feel safe here so I didn't want to take it from you if you felt like it was something that guaranteed your safety."
Shouto blinked. Izuku's observation skills were almost scary in how spot on they were. He had been told that he was hard to read a few times before. It was strange because his mother and siblings had always seemed to have no problem deciphering how he was feeling at any given moment.
His father was a different story. He'd never actually cared what Shouto wanted or felt, so he hadn't paid enough attention to be able to tell. Now that he looked back on things he realised his ex hadn't really cared either. Every moment had been carefully orchestrated by him so that he could get what he wanted. He would often tell Shouto how he should feel about something, stating that humans liked or disliked certain things to get the response he wanted out of him. Shouto wasn't even sure if any of the information he'd been given was accurate or just a part of the trick now. Ultimately, his ex's strategy hadn't worked out as well for him as he had expected it to, but the point was, the man had often described him as an unsolvable puzzle, but had actually just never cared enough to try and discover his genuine emotions.
Izuku was the complete opposite so far. He was really attentive and had made sure to adjust his approach depending on the way Shouto reacted to certain things. He had offered to listen to Shouto's problems, but only if he wanted to. He had checked in to see if he was ok with things every step of the way. He had given him space to decide what he wanted to do or what he felt about things. He hadn't tried to force him to do anything he didn't want to.
Shouto wasn't quite sure how to process what it felt like when someone was actually listening and paying attention to him. It was strange, but also felt kind of nice. It reminded him of how his mother and siblings used to treat him. It could all change if he let himself get too comfortable, but for now it was nice to feel like someone understood even just a little of what he was feeling.
"It's ok," Shouto reassured him.
"Good," Izuku smiled. "I'll, uh, leave you to get dressed now."
He slipped out of the room and Shouto let out a sigh as he realised that he still hadn't been given his clothes back. Not seeing any other options, he decided to rummage through the wardrobe against the far wall for something that looked like it would fit him.
Whoever this 'Kacchan' person was, they sure liked to wear a lot of black.
When he'd found a suitable outfit, one that looked much like the black sweatpants and t-shirt he'd worn the day before, he put it on begrudgingly. Merpeople were typically sensitive to colour, it helped them distinguish what kind of animal or mer they were dealing with before they got too close. They couldn't change the colour pallets they were born with, but they could make their scales appear brighter or duller.
Bright scales usually meant 'I'm trouble stay away'. Unless it was mating season in which it meant the opposite, but Shouto had preferred to stay far out of the loop when it came to those sorts of things. He was still very young and he had way too much drama in his life already. In any case, merpeople who had to resort to using this trick to warn off predators usually didn't actually have that many skills in combat and were mostly just skittish and aggressive.
The merpeople who were actually dangerous were the ones that had less vibrant scales. They were confident enough in their abilities to protect themselves and cause damage that they didn't need to use any tactics to warn off potential attackers. Also, in dark or murky waters, it was harder to see them coming, whereas bright scales would basically make someone a sitting duck.
When Shouto was a kid, he sometimes made his scales bright because he thought the colours were pretty. His father had quickly reprimanded him for it and demonstrated the dangers of it in a way that had left Shouto with a huge bruise up his side for weeks.
His father had never said it out loud, but Shouto had always had the feeling that he looked down on the white part of Shouto's colouring and seen it as an imperfection or weakness as it was difficult to make it duller.
So, generally in merfolk society, those who gave themselves brightly coloured scales were lower down on the social ladder and those who had darker, richer colours were higher up. It was why Shouto was so unnerved by Izuku's hair colour at first. The current reigning mer family all had dark green colouring. It was also why, with a reputation that most merfolk feared and deep, rich burgundy coloured scales, his father had quickly gained a high ranking position within the royal entourage as a tactician and advisor.
Then, there were a few merfolk who could turn their scales an inky black colour. That colour was the sign of a sea witch, a highly dangerous type of mer with strange abilities, that was not to be trusted at any costs. Sea witches were generally shunned by mer society. There had been countless tales of regular merfolk who made deals with sea witches only to never be heard from again.
In their true forms, sea witches had octopus-like tentacles that were midnight black in colour, but usually with a different coloured accent. However, they could also switch forms and disguise themselves as regular merfolk, using their secondary colour as the colour of their tail.
There was usually a high penalty for a sea witch who was discovered to be impersonating merfolk. Most faced a life of imprisonment or banishment, but some were sentenced to death. It seemed unfair to Shouto to fear them and punish them so harshly just for existing, but it was the way things had always been and voicing his opinion on the subject had always resulted in new scars and bruises so he'd learned to shut up about it.
Shouto felt slightly uncomfortable wearing a colour so commonly associated with them, but this seemed to be his only option.
He often wondered if there was such a thing as a land witch, but he had never felt it appropriate to ask in case it was a topic people avoided talking about as it was in mer society. It was not like he could ask anyone now anyway because a strange question like that was exactly the kind of thing that would expose his real identity.
Once he was dressed, he stopped by the bathroom to deposit the clothes he'd worn the day before into the basket Izuku had pointed out before making his way downstairs.
Izuku was sitting at the small table in the kitchen that they had sat around the night before to eat dinner. In his hand and on the plate in front of him was what looked to be a stiff form of bread with some kind of sauce spread over the top. He smiled as Shouto walked in.
"I wasn't sure what you would want for breakfast so I thought I'd let you make it yourself," Izuku explained. "The breakfast stuff is out over there. There isn't a lot here at the moment because we need to go shopping, but you can have toast or cereal." He gestured towards the back of the room where two boxes sat on the counter.
Shouto walked over and picked up the boxes, studying them carefully. One had a more serious looking cover, the picture showed a rather unappetising looking pile of plain brown flakes and in small text it read 'wheat bran cereal'. "Ok, so these are cereal," Shouto muttered to himself.
In complete contrast, the other cereal box was brightly coloured and eye-catching with bold lettering and a cheerful looking cartoon on the front. The photo on the front depicted what looked like a bunch of miniature cookies in a bowl.
Shouto hesitated, not knowing what to do. His ex had always just grabbed some fruit from the fridge along with a plastic pot containing some kind of thick liquid substance and just started eating it. He didn't know what to do with these cereals and if he asked or tried to wing it, he could end up looking suspicious.
Maybe the toast would be easier to figure out. The bread thing that Izuku had been eating didn't look anything like either of the pictures on the cereal boxes so through a process of elimination, he felt like he could safely assume that it was toast. That looked easy enough to make. It only seemed to be two ingredients.
Izuku spoke up again and Shouto jumped, feeling a little like a fish caught in a net.
"The cereals are technically Tenya and Ochako's, but Tenya's at work and Ochako will probably be asleep for at least another hour since it's a Saturday. So I won't tell if you don't," Izuku said, smiling conspiratorially. "Also, there's orange juice in the fridge, but feel free to make yourself a hot drink if you'd prefer that."
A hot drink, Shouto could do that. His ex had shown him how to make tea and coffee when he'd been curious after visiting a cafe once. He wasn't the best at it, but he at least knew how to do it the way a human would.
He went to switch the kettle on and breathed a sigh of relief as Izuku turned his attention back to his phone.
Using this small window of opportunity, Shouto moved towards the strange appliance that he assumed was the toaster Izuku had mentioned earlier when talking about a first aid kit. A toaster must have had something to do with toast, right?
If Shouto remembered correctly, Izuku had said that there was a first aid kit in the cupboard above it. He very carefully inched open the cupboard door, shutting it again lightly as soon as he caught a glimpse of a red box with white text reading 'FIRST AID'.
So he had confirmed that this was the toaster. Now how did it work?
He inspected the machine, but was unable to find any bread in it. It had four thin, rectangular holes at the top so he thought maybe the bread would come out of those, but there didn't seem to be any. There were some small buttons and dials on the side of the device so he thought maybe he had to press something to make the bread come out, but nothing seemed to work. Maybe he should just try his luck with the cereal.
The kettle finished boiling, marking the end of the time limit Shouto had given himself to figure something out. He let out a frustrated sigh and moved to grab a tea bag from the glass container next to the kettle. Before he could properly grasp one, there was a deafening slam that caused him to flinch and let go of it. He whirled around to look at Izuku with wide eyes, but Izuku seemed undisturbed by the loud noise.
"That'll be Kacchan," he said casually, raising his cup to his mouth to take a sip and setting it back down gently.
"Where the fuck is everyone?!" A voice boomed and Shouto jumped.
"In here, Kacchan!" Izuku called. He then turned to address Shouto who very clearly did not want the owner of the loud, harsh voice coming any closer to them. "Don't let him scare you. He has a bit of a prickly personality, but he wouldn't hurt anyone."
A few seconds later, an angry looking human rounded the corner, glaring at Izuku from the doorway. The man was dressed in an outfit similar to the borrowed one Shouto was wearing, except his trousers sat low on his hips and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He had spiky blonde hair and his eyes were a brown that almost seemed kind of red in colour. Shouto was beginning to wonder if all of Izuku's friends had unusually coloured features for human beings.
The man stalked into the kitchen, brushing past Shouto and setting about making himself a drink with the water Shouto had just boiled.
"Can you believe those fucking incompetent moving people broke all my goddam plates?" the man complained.
Shouto stood frozen. He didn't understand what was happening. Humans always introduced themselves when they met new people didn't they? Why was this one immediately initiating a conversation with someone else as if Shouto wasn't there?
"I told you that you should have just let us help you," Izuku said in response, his voice exasperated.
If Izuku was going along with it then maybe this was just how the irritable blonde human normally behaved. Shouto decided to count his blessings that he hadn't been made the center of attention. Instead of trying to draw their attention in any way, Shouto returned to the task of making himself some green tea as soon as the man moved away from the kettle with a hot cup of coffee in hand.
"And let you, Round Face and Uptight Sonic the Hedgehog touch my shit? Yeah, no fucking thanks. If I let you do it I'd probably end up with even more broken stuff to replace and a new pet guinea pig I didn't ask for or something," the man scoffed.
"I'm not that bad!" Izuku protested, "I would at least make sure you guys were ready for a pet first and follow the proper adoption procedures."
"Whatever, I'm stealing some breakfast," the other man announced, setting his drink down and opening one of the cupboards to grab a bowl.
Izuku rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Go ahead," he answered.
Shouto tried to subtly watch this Kacchan person's actions so that he could copy them later to get his own breakfast. He felt a little silly when he saw how easy cereal turned out to be. All the guy did was pour the contents of one of the boxes into his bowl and then add some milk to the mixture. That seemed way more simple than trying to operate that strange toast making contraption.
The man reached over to open the drawer next to Shouto and grabbed a spoon before closing it again. He was about to put the spoon in his bowl, when he finally seemed to catch sight of Shouto and froze.
"Are those my clothes?" he questioned. His voice was quiet and his tone was even for the first time since he'd stormed in, but this quiet seemed more like a calm before a storm than a gentle one. In Shouto's surprise, he forgot to respond and the man turned to glare at Izuku.
"Izuku, who is this extra and what the fuck are they doing wearing my fucking clothes?" He snapped, jabbing his thumb in Shouto's direction.
"You used my real name. I'm in trouble," Izuku responded cheekily.
"I really don't have time for this today," the blonde sighed, abruptly putting his bowl down on the counter, uncaring that some of the milk spilled out over the side. "I just came here to steal some food because I refuse to eat from paper plates and bowls, which are all Eijirou has because and I quote 'it's quicker to just throw them away when you gotta be on that grind twenty four seven'. Then I was gonna pick up some more of my shit before I have to go to my shitty job and deal with a bunch of talentless fools for the rest of the damn day because some irresponsible moron decided to get wrecked last night and call in sick with a hangover. I don't have time to deal with some asshole I've never seen before standing in your kitchen wearing my clothes!"
"Sorry to hear that things are stressful at the moment." Izuku attempted to console him. "This is, Shouto. He's actually st-"
"Yeah, yeah, I don't care what his name is," the man interrupted, folding his arms over his chest with a scowl. "Why is he wearing my clothes? I don't remember giving you permission to go around handing out my old things to some random one night stand."
Shouto had no idea what that meant, but whatever it was, it definitely got a big reaction out of Izuku. He shot out of his seat, his eyes wide and his face starting to turn an interesting shade of pink.
"I-it's not like that! He's not a one night stand!" Izuku argued, his body language frantic and defensive. "When have I ever - Where would I - Who would even - It's just not like that, ok?"
"Don't lie to me, Deku!" The other man snarled. "If someone didn't sleep with him, then why is he currently getting his germs all over my stuff instead of wearing his own damn clothes?" he argued stubbornly, his tone razor sharp.
Shouto was taken aback, this person was so standoffish. He'd never witnessed a human behaving like this before. So far no one else had made a big deal about him wearing other people's clothes so he had assumed that they were only worn out of necessity and humans didn't care that much about them, but it appeared he'd been wrong about that.
Shouto figured that there was only one way to make peace with the human.
"I can stop wearing your clothes if it's a problem," he offered, peeling the shirt off and reaching for the waist of the sweatpants.
"NO!" the other men yelled in unison.
Shouto glanced up to see them both staring at him with wide eyes. Izuku was reaching out as if he could stop Shouto from the other side of the kitchen and the blonde man had the same expression that Tenya had worn the night before when he noticed one of the dogs trying to knock a full glass of water off a table.
"What?" Shouto questioned, not understanding their reactions.
"Oh my god!" Isuku exclaimed, quickly covering his face with his hands as his face went from light pink to bright red.
"Don't just strip in the middle of the kitchen in broad daylight you pervert!" the blonde man scowled. "I don't even know your name! I don't want to see all of that!" he gestured to Shouto's body. "Deku might enjoy seeing your abs, but I have a boyfriend and enough taste not to drool over a stranger who looks like they lost a fight against a couple of boxes of hair dye!"
Isuku made a sound similar to a squawk and hunched over slightly as if putting his head down would make any difference when he was already blocking his vision. He was mumbling something unintelligible, although Shouto was sure he caught the phrase 'saw his nipples' in there somewhere. An awkward silence came over the room for a few seconds. All that could be heard was the ticking of a clock in the distance.
Shouto shivered slightly, noting that he was actually feeling kind of chilly now that his skin was exposed. He was starting to really miss being unaffected by cold temperatures. Humans should really be better equipped to withstand them considering how miserable the weather on land seemed to be most of the time.
"Just put the stupid shirt back on, idiot!" the blonde man eventually snapped.
"Ok," Shouto replied, utterly confused.
He thought the man didn't want him to wear the clothes, but now he was telling him to put them back on. Humans were so difficult for Shouto to figure out. He slid the shirt back on anyway, both for warmth and in an effort to resolve the conflict once again since his first gesture of peace seemed to have failed.
"You can look, Deku. He's not half naked anymore," the blonde man grumbled. Izuku slowly lowered his hands, his face still a little red.
Shouto recalled that the human said something about not knowing his name. He supposed he should at least try to salvage some part of this introduction, knowing how important those were to most humans. It was probably very rude of him to leave it this long, but the other human had made no move to introduce himself to Shouto yet either. Something told him that this particular human held little regard for manners, but at this point he decided it wouldn't hurt to try.
"I'm Shouto," he stated, holding his hand out for the other man to shake. "You're Kacchan, right?" he inquired.
The blonde glared at the offered limb as if it was deeply and personally offending him.
"Not to you, I'm not," he growled.
"Ah! Sorry! That's my fault!" Izuku piped up, jumping between them and holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "I always call you Kacchan so he probably thought it was your real name."
Izuku turned to speak to Shouto. "His name is Katsuki, but Kacchan is a nickname from when we were kids that just kind of stuck," he explained. "I started calling him Kacchan because I couldn't pronounce his name when we were younger and he started calling me Deku because he saw my name on my school books and couldn't read it properly, but now it just feels normal for us to use those names. He doesn't like it when other people call him Kacchan, but I don't mind if other people call me Deku. Ochako does it a lot."
"You two must be really close if you have special names for each other," Shouto mused.
"We didn't used to be, but I like to think we got there eventually," Izuku replied with a fond smile.
Katsuki huffed, but clearly wasn't as irritated as he tried to appear. "So do I get an explanation now or are you just gonna just stand there and tell this weirdo our entire life story?" He asked.
"Right. Kacchan, Shouto is not a one night stand," Izuku clarified. "I met him at the beach yesterday and he needed a place to stay. We have a spare room here now that wouldn't be going to any use otherwise so I asked him if he wanted to stay here for a while."
Katsuki stared at Izuku as if he had just grown a bunch of extra limbs. Then, he exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose when he spoke as if the conversation alone was giving him a headache. "So you met this guy yesterday… and you decided to let him stay in my room and wear my clothes."
"It's technically just a guest room now," Izuku countered, "but yes, I guess that is what happened. It sounds a bit weird though when you put it that way." He tried to smile as Katsuki stared at him with narrowed eyes, scrutinising his expression, but it just ended up making him look guilty.
"Ok, that's it! We need to talk! Upstairs! Now!" Katsuki ordered, grabbing Izuku by the arm and dragging him towards the door.
Izuku let himself be pulled along, clearly not intimidated or even surprised by the blonde's behaviour. "Ochako is still sleeping," he warned casually.
"Alright, outside then," Katsuki responded through gritted teeth, changing directions. He pulled open a door that seemed to go from the kitchen to an outside space behind the house. As he did so, he sent Shouto one last glare and pointed a finger in his direction. "You, stay right there and keep your goddamn clothes on," he commanded before stepping outside with Izuku in tow and shutting the door forcefully behind them. There were a few seconds of piece before the shouting started.
"You're letting some guy you only met yesterday stay at your house?!" Came a muffled, but somehow still pretty loud shout from outside the kitchen window. "He could be a fucking criminal, Deku! And I can't believe your friends went along with this, especially Mall Cop, he's supposed to be the sensible one! Do you want to explain to me just what the hell you were thinking?! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call your mother right this second and tell her what a reckless fucking idiot her son is being!"
Shouto's curiosity got the better of him and he peered out of the window to see what was going on. As he looked out he saw the men standing not that far away. Katsuki was making big angry gestures, looking like some kind of feral creature and Izuku was staring at him with a concerned expression. He seemed to be trying his best to get the other man to calm down, but his efforts were going unnoticed.
"Kacchan! You're being too loud!" Izuku replied. "The neighbors-"
"I don't give a crap about the neighbors!" Katsuki declared. "Their nosy asses probably love having something to gossip about anyway."
"Ok, but I'm pretty sure Shouto can hear you too."
"Don't give a shit if he hears either."
"Boys!" A female voice suddenly joined the conversation from above and Shouto saw both men jump. Although Katsuki recovered a lot quicker and checked to make sure no one saw his moment of weakness. "You're forgetting about the very tired and irritable primary school teacher who has been working her butt off all week helping out with after school martial arts classes and will absolutely come down there and kick both of your asses if you don't stop shouting under her bedroom window at eight thirty am on a Saturday!"
Izuku winced. "Sorry!" He shouted back as both men looked up at what Shouto assumed was Ochako's bedroom window.
"Fine, I'll keep it down," Katsuki relented.
"You better," Ochako replied, her voice followed by the thud of a window closing.
Both Izuku and Katsuki dropped their gaze, freezing when they caught sight of Shouto watching from the kitchen window. Feeling guilty about being caught eavesdropping, Shouto waved awkwardly. Katsuki just gave him a half bewildered, half angry look, but Izuku returned the gesture with a laugh. This seemed to further irritate Katsuki, who made sharp gestures at Shouto, urging him to turn around and get away from the window.
Shouto sighed, his gaze landing upon the forgotten cereal bowl on the counter. If he had to wait for them to come back, he may as well finally have some breakfast, he decided. He whipped up his own bowl of cereal using the more colourful box, which he noticed was considerably lighter than the other one. As he stood leaning against the counter and spooned cereal into his mouth, he tried his best not to wonder how the conversation he could no longer hear outside was going.
By the time they came back inside, Shouto had finished the cereal and washed his bowl and spoon. He looked up to see Katsuki approaching him with a stern expression.
"I guess it's ok for you to stay in my old room and use my old clothes," he said reluctantly. Then, all of a sudden, he invaded Shouto's personal space, placing his index finger in the center of his chest. "But if you do anything to upset or hurt any of the way too trusting idiots living here, I will personally come and throw you back out on the street quicker than you can even breathe. You got that?"
Although Shouto knew Katsuki was accepting his presence in his own weird, abrasive way, he also understood that he was issuing a direct threat. Shouto had to smother the instincts screaming at him to strike, to get the other man out of his space by any means necessary, because that would definitely not go down well after the warning he'd just been issued.
"I promise I won't cause anyone any harm," he said as calmly as possible, "and I apologise if I overstepped some boundaries by wearing your clothes and addressing you incorrectly."
"Good," Katsuki replied. He moved away and Shouto breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't worry," Izuku said to Shouto. "I said you could borrow the clothes and the name thing was a simple mistake. Kacchan's just very protective of his friends and his possessions."
"Kind of like a merman," Shouto murmured, his thoughts going to merman turned human theories once again.
"What did you just call me?!" asked Katsuki.
"Nothing."
"Hmm," Katsuki hummed dis-trustingly.
Shouto could see a lot of similarities between Katsuki's personality and typical merman behaviour. In just a short amount of time, Shouto had seen that he was protective, impatient, snappy, defensive, logical and a little bit volatile. He also seemed to really hate the idea of other people touching his possessions. Although, Katsuki seemed to have a lot better self control, as the situation had not once seemed like it would devolve into actual physical violence despite his shouting. It seemed that under all the yelling, he didn't actually want people to get hurt, especially Izuku. Katsuki seemed particularly careful with him. Even when he had grabbed the boy by the arm earlier, his grip had not been strong enough to cause any kind of discomfort.
Shouto wondered if it was because they had been friends for so long or if there was something more to it.
Seeing the two childhood friends interact had been interesting. It was almost like Katsuki had the personality of a merman and Izuku - minus the actual tail, gills and other aquatic extras -had the appearance of one. If you put their individual traits together, the two of them would make one whole merman. Shouto laughed a little to himself at the thought.
"Are you sure you want Half and Half living in your house?" Katsuki suddenly questioned, drawing Shouto out of his musings. "He seems like a weirdo if you ask me. Talking and smiling to himself when there are other people in the room." He smirked at Izuku. "Oh wait, never mind, he'll be among his people here."
"Hey!" Izuku whacked Katsuki across the shoulder, but they were both still smiling, neither seemed to take it as an act of initiating violence the way Shouto's kind would have. "Well, I have to let him stay here now, you already gave him a nickname!" Izuku grinned. "That means he likes you," he whispered to Shouto, loud enough for Katsuki to hear.
"No it doesn't! I don't like anyone!"
"Not even Eijirou?" Izuku waggled his eyebrows at Katsuki teasingly and made a kissy face. Katsuki shoved him away, but he just laughed loudly.
"Fuck off, nerd," was Katsuki's eloquent response to the teasing. He heaved an exasperated sigh. "Well, this was a colossal waste of time and now I have to leave. Guess I'll just grab a convenience store sandwich on the way to work and come back another day to collect the rest of my shit."
"Oh! Hold on a sec!" Izuku said dashing out of the kitchen into the living room and returning a few seconds later with the handmade orange blanket in his arms. He seemed out of breath and Shouto wondered if he had sprinted so that Katsuki wouldn't have an opportunity to threaten him some more. "I thought you might want this," he panted, holding it out for Katsuki to take.
Katsuki snatched it up out of Izuku's hand, holding it close to his chest. "Of course I fucking do! It was at the top of my list," he said as if Izuku would be a fool to think otherwise. "I really have to go now, before my boneheaded coworkers somehow find a way to destroy the entire restaurant while I'm not there." He turned to make his exit.
"Tell Eijirou I said hi!" Izuku called.
Katsuki raised his middle finger in response as he left the room. "Pick up the damn phone and tell him yourself," he shouted. Shortly after, the slamming of the door signaled his departure.
"I think that went really well," Izuku smiled.
For some reason, Shouto couldn't help but agree. He felt like he'd just passed some kind of test and been accepted somehow. Although, only time would tell how well he'd manage to fit in.
He had a feeling the challenges were far from over yet.