lucyrne requested on tumblr: "you tell me to stop waiting for you to come back from a night out"
I got squishy cute feelings writing this. Very soft and sleepy. :)
He watches blearily as the clock ticks into the 3 am hour. He's been awake for a while, unable to fall back asleep from his cat nap from 11 to midnight. The room is still and quiet, the only sound the rustling he makes in the sheets of the bed, trying to get comfortable. He won't find a good spot though, because the void on the right side of the bed feels too vast and too cold.
Katsuki Bakugou would never admit that he finds it hard to sleep without her there now.
He's never leaned on anyone before, making his own path and forging ahead with the force of a freight train. That's part of the reason why this seed of worry that has buried itself into the lining of his stomach is so troublesome. His nightly insomnia is awful and he just knows it's her fault, that bitch.
The angelic hero Uravity always seems to get the night shift. They used to get duty around the same times and in the same district, the reason why they even got back in touch after high school. His UA days spent crushing on her (apparently mutual pining) came roaring back to life with not subtlety at all. He's never been good at subtlety, but apparently she was worse, blurting out an invitation to coffee after rounding up some villains in a remarkable show of teamwork for two people who hadn't sparred or working together in six years.
A few months into meeting up and working together, spending more and more time together, he asked her to officially get together, though it was more curse words than whispers of adoration. She just laughed him off and said yes. Two weeks later, they were caught by Tsuyu (and by extension, Eijirou) and the secret was out, at least among their friends and peers.
The clock continues ticking as he groans and buries his head into his pillow, rolling onto his stomach. In his head, he hears her speak his name softly and like most times, he flushes from face to chest, the secondhand embarrassment too much. She isn't even here dammit.
He reaches blindly for his phone, hoping to scroll through the internet until the source of his anxiety gets home. The screen is a bit too bright and he squints at the notification he missed. His phone was on silent, so the buzz that normally accompanies texts and snaps from Ochako never happened. He punches in his code and opens the app, waiting for her snap to load. The time stamp scrawled over her visor covered face is at 2:13 am. The text along the bottom is colored blue and bolded.
"You'd better not still be awake."
Katsuki pouts, because if she checks her phone again, she'll see he opened it and he was awake. Any chance he has to feign sleep when he hears her open the front door is gone. He takes a photo and starts typing back, but the bags under his eyes in the light of the phone and ambient city light pollution make him look old. He exits the app and flops over onto his back, the phone bouncing across the mattress.
The ceiling is a mottled and subdued blue. The edges of his vision blur again, the protein buildup in his eyes is itchy, but his arms are too heavy to rub at them. His breathing comes out in sighs and the rhythm is steady and long. Everything molds together, darker and darker, the edge of the blankets and his phone lose their solidity and it seems like only a single deep moment before something soft on his cheek makes his eyelashes flutter.
Painted in cool hues, Ochako backs away from him, a soft smile on her face as she tucks wet hair behind her ear. He must have conked out pretty hard, because she's managed to get home, inside their room, divest herself of her uniform and shower. The soft tee she's in looks too big- one of his. He's still a little fuzzy, but there's warmth from her skin that's under his hands as he pulls her down next to him. She goes willingly, pulling his phone from under herself and reaching over to place it on the bedside table.
The lingering heat from her shower and the smell of her body wash encompass him. He wants to ask about her patrol, if she kicked anyone's ass, if she saw that he was awake to read her snapchat message. But his mouth is glued shut with a tongue thick from sleeping with his mouth open and the heat of her arms around him, the smell of her where his face presses into her neck and shoulder is enough.
She came home.
He thinks he hears her voice murmur right before he falls into the first restful sleep of the night:
"You need to stop waiting for me to get back, Katsuki. You have to get up early this morning…"
He only catches his name in her voice and feels her grip tighten around his back and shoulders. Her lips ghost against his scalp and he is gone to the realm of wakefulness.
"…it is so nice, though… Having someone to come home to."
