Title: auspicious days

A/N: For the Sunrise zine! It's always interesting looking up traditions in other cultures, especially around marriage. I feel like Eijiro would like to uphold old traditions while Katsuki is very "fuck it, let's just go to the civil court and get it done with" (how is not as important as the fact that it happens).

Summary: If Katsuki had his way, he and Eijiro would be married now instead of working their way through a binder full of wedding events. Maybe it wasn't too late to just take a civil ceremony.

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"This is stupid," Katsuki said bluntly.

If his fiancé heard him, he didn't show it. Eijiro hummed cheerfully as he sat down at the kitchen table across from Katsuki, their knees bumping and elbows touching. In his hands was a steaming cup of tea (not coffee—Katsuki refused to deal with a hyperactive squirrel) and a protein shake. His recent cooking kick had just died down, leaving their fridge once again empty and unstocked.

The humming grew louder. A pop song. It was far too early for a pop song. At least Eijiro wasn't outright singing it. Katsuki wasn't sure if his coffee was strong enough to handle it.

"This is stupid," Katsuki repeated, louder. When Eijiro still said nothing, he lightly kicked his feet. "Hey!"

Eijiro laughed as he cleared the table, shoving aside crumpled flyers and torn napkins. He didn't even wince at the foot on his shin, the idiot's skin so thick that insults and attacks just rolled off him. "It'll be fun!"

That wasn't a denial. Katsuki scowled, bumping their knees once more in protest. "It's pointless and stupid."

Rolling his eyes, Eijiro shrugged off the complaints and disdain with a practiced ease. Now that the table was clear, he sat back in his seat with a satisfied sigh. "Just humour me, ok? I want to try. Our parents did it."

Katsuki snorted. "Another reason not to do it."

If his father had inserted this inane idea in his fiancé's head…

"It's not even that much work," Eijiro added, his smile not dropping a notch. It was something both infuriating and endearing, how positive he could be regardless of the situation. Right now, though, it was just annoying. "We don't have to go to a shrine or anything!"

"You think that's the problem?" Katsuki's frown deepened. Perhaps it had been a mistake to let Eijiro take charge of the wedding. He kept tossing in frivolous old rituals, things that Katsuki could care less about. If they had done it his way, they'd have just run to the court already and signed the papers. They'd already be on their honeymoon by now, in a hotel room with absolutely no interruptions.

Maybe it wasn't too late to do that now.

Eijiro squinted at Katsuki, as though sensing his thoughts. "It'll be quick, trust me."

"That's not the issue," Katsuki retorted, rapping his fingers on the table impatiently. "If you wanted quick, you'd have just listened to me."

"That's not quick, that's just doing nothing. Look!" Unmoved, Eijiro pulled out his phone and quickly typed. Turning the screen to Katsuki, he showed a simple calendar. . It was tacky and hideous, like it had come from the 90s. Brightly coloured font, black and white grids, and pictures of random weddings lined the sides. "There's a website that checks what dates are auspicious."

"It's a bunch of money-stealing bullshit!" Katsuki snapped, rolling his eyes. His grip tightened on his coffee mug. At the rate things were going, he'd have to buy a new one. Again. "None of it's—"

"Real, I know, I know." Eijiro finished his sentence for him. "But I like it."

Katsuki glared at the TV across the room. He knew he should have stopped Eijiro from watching his horoscope every morning. Letting the small things slide had invited a big trouble.

"Please? It'll be easy!" Eijiro reached across the table, covering Katsuki's hand with his. He cocked his head softly and pleaded, "Just do it for me."

Easy. Nothing had ever been easy when it came to Eijiro. It hadn't been easy meeting him, falling for him, or even proposing to him. Why did Katsuki think that marriage would be any different? At least it was just rokuyo, instead of a more obscure, hard-to-do, annoying ritual.

"It's outdated," Katsuki grumbled. He didn't move his hand.

Eijiro squeezed gently and smiled. "Kinda. No one really does it. They're missing out."

"Missing out on what?" Katsuki ground out. It was a serious question. What was there to miss out on? Rokuyo was just picking an auspicious date for an event. You didn't even need to go to a temple these days. Look at the lunar calendar, find out if Buddha liked a day or not, and wham. Just why were they letting someone else pick the date for their wedding? Throwing a dart at a calendar would work just as well.

"The fun." Eijiro grinned like the idiot he was. Whether it was lucky colours or lucky numbers, he ate up all of these mystic bullshit schemes. Even when they went out, Eijiro liked pointing out signs of good fortune.

This was a losing battle from the start. He might as well just accept it. With a huff, Katsuki rested his chin on his hand and gestured for his partner to continue. "Fine. Do it. It had better be the best fucking day."

"Knew you'd see it my way!" Eijiro bounced forward, pecking Katsuki on the lips before sitting back and reaching under the table. His red hair disappeared for a few minutes as he grappled with an invisible object. "Momo," he grunted, "said we'd need this."

That reassured him more than he expected. "Need what?"

"This." Eijiro inhaled sharply before sitting up quickly, a giant binder in his hands. He dropped it on the table with a loud thud. Sticky notes and colourful tabs stuck out from all ends and the thing looked like it weighed a ton. "Everything we've planned is in here."

Finally, something Katsuki could agree with. If Momo said they needed it, then they needed it. Katsuki couldn't be bothered with the planning and Eijiro couldn't organize to save his life. Their friend was the only reason Katsuki hadn't actually dragged Eijiro to an officiant.

There was something impressive about how neat Momo's writing was. Tiny, yes; cramped, yes; even the margins were filled with notes, but her writing was still neat and legible, despite the fact that Katsuki would need a magnifying lens to read it all. If Eijiro had any problems, he didn't show it, his finger sliding down calendars and day-to-day itineraries as he skimmed the pages.

"She wrote too much," Katsuki commented, still leaning on his hand, still watching. He took a sip of his coffee, the caffeine burning a path down his throat and jogging him awake.

"Just a little," Eijiro admitted, rubbing his neck awkwardly as he gave the binder an affectionate look. "I don't think we'll do even half of this."

Katsuki snorted. "A quarter is pushing it."

"It's not that bad!" Near the end now, he stopped flipping pages. "Alright, looks like the last thing we have planned's in June, so the wedding's after that."

Part of Katsuki wanted to ask why they were planning their wedding around side events, but he could tell he wouldn't like the answer. It was either sappy or crappy and he didn't want to deal with either.

Eijiro thumbed through his phone. "Alright, when's the first lucky Taian day…the sixth!" His smile dropped. "A Thursday."

Katsuki shrugged. "Then we get married on Thursday."

"We wanted it on the weekend in case someone can't take the day off." Eijiro shook his head sadly.

Katsuki tapped his fingers, not getting the problem. "So we don't invite them."

"We can't not invite Momo!" Eijiro's jaw dropped, his phone almost falling out of his grip in his shock. Well, at least that explained everything—that someone was Momo, everyone else was capable of skipping work except for her. "She's literally planning everything."

"Then tell her to start taking vacations!" Katsuki scowled, sitting back and crossing his arms. Their friend was a workaholic. If anything, they should be forcing her to play hooky. Maybe if they'd dragged her away from class once in school, this wouldn't be an issue now.

"Yeah, I can't remember the last time she took one—" Eijiro agreed before catching on. He shook his head quickly, making an X with his arms. "But that's not the point here! No weekdays!"

"Fine." Katsuki curled his lip. "Then what?"

"How about…" Eijiro checked the binder, scanning the dates. "The next Saturday isn't good, but the one after is free." His grin faded as he glanced at his phone. "And that's Butsumetsu. The worst day to do anything."

Katsuki idly rubbed his fingers, feeling his sweat build up, a spark building in his fingers. Maybe he should just destroy all calendars.

Eijiro chewed his lip, frowning as he read from his phone. "The day after's another Taian and a Sunday and—" He pouted and flopped over onto the table. "But Deku can't make it."

That made things easy. Katsuki snorted. "We don't need him."

"Yes, we do," Eijiro stared at him incredulously, "he's your best man!"

"We'll do a traditional wedding," Katsuki countered immediately.

He flicked a pen at Katsuki. "We still can't leave him out!" Flicking through the phone once more, Eijiro perked up. "The twenty-ninth's good, and it's a Saturday." He sat up, double checking the binder. His eyes widened and he stared at Katsuki excitedly. "Everyone's free too!"

"Fucking finally," Katsuki muttered. "Book it."

"Oh, right! Good idea!" Eijiro hummed as he tapped a number on his phone, another inane pop song that Katsuki unfortunately knew all the lyrics to. "Hey! I wanted to—yeah, it's Kirishima, we talked before! Yeah, yeah, what's up?" When Katsuki glared, he smiled sheepishly and cleared his throat. "Actually, calling about booking—I know, we picked a date! July twenty-ninth! It's a—oh. Really?" His smile dropped. "No, not, it's cool, just gotta pick another. Yeah. Uh huh. Yep. Call you later!"

Katsuki didn't even have to ask. "All booked?"

"Yeah." Eijiro smirked triumphantly. "All because it's a Taian day. See? Other people do this too!"

He twitched. "And that's why it's booked."

"Well. Yeah." Eijiro rubbed his neck, an embarrassed flush reaching his ears. "But still—"

"And they rip us off on those days." Katsuki scowled, remembering his mother's complaints. "Doesn't it cost a goddamn arm and a leg more?"

"Well…yeah." Eijiro slouched, dispirited. He set down his phone and fiddled with his fingers as he contemplated. "I guess…we can just drop the whole thing."

Shit. Katsuki clicked his tongue. He'd gone too far. He always did, as the rest of his friends were more than happy to remind him, but it was easy to forget with Eijiro sometimes. His fiancé was especially good at bouncing back, deflecting sharp words like they were nothing, and sometimes he seemed almost invincible.

As stupid as he found horoscopes and lucky signs, Eijiro didn't. Eijiro didn't and that was all the reason Katsuki needed. Leaning forward, he glanced at the still open calendar. July 15th was free. His lips curled and he slammed the binder shut. "July fifteenth."

Eijiro blinked. He glanced at the binder, then at Katsuki, and cocked his head. "Huh?"

"The wedding. July fifteenth," Katsuki bit out, not letting his partner get in a word edgewise. "We'll have it then."

Flustered and confused, Eijiro reached for the binder. "Oh, uh, is that—"

"Everyone's free," Katsuki said, his hand firmly keeping the fat thing shut. There was no need to check anything else.

Still taken aback, Eijiro picked up his phone. "Oh, then—"

Katsuki reached forward and wrapped his other hand around Eijiro's, keeping him from unlocking his screen. "It's a Saturday. Everyone's free. We'll do it then." He glared at the phone. "Who cares if someone else thinks it's a good day or a bad day?"

Eijiro deflated slightly, his grip on the phone going limp.

Fuck. As usual, his mouth got in the way. Katsuki growled, running a hand raggedly through his hair. He had never been good at words. "You just want the day to be auspicious, right?"

"I guess," Eijiro agreed hesitantly, not entirely following.

"We met July fifteenth. Nothing more auspicious than that." Katsuki snorted derisively, his eyes meeting Eijiro's. "It's our day, we say if it's a fucking good one."

They stared at each other, his words hanging in the silence. Eijiro didn't reach for the binder, didn't reach for his phone, just sat there and stared. Then, maddeningly slowly, he nodded, his smile returning. His eyes crinkled as he reached up and cupped Katsuki's cheek. "It's our day, isn't it? Ours."

"You good now?" Katsuki asked, leaning into his touch. The table dug into his hips as he tilted closer.

"Yeah." Eijiro wrapped his arms around Katsuki's neck before kissing him. "More than good."

Another kiss, deeper this time. He should have bought a smaller table, there was no way he could get closer without getting around it. At least the table was cleared, they wouldn't even have to go to the couch or the bedroom.

Before he could move, Eijiro broke the kiss. Panting, he pressed his forehead to Katsuki's. He smiled slyly. "You remember the day we met?"

"Shut up," Katsuki growled.

"Or what?" Eijiro teased.

Katsuki didn't even bother going around the table before lunging. He already knew the best way to shut that damn mouth.