Izuku never found it easy to let go. To trust. To give himself over. Maybe it had stemmed from who he was deep inside. From the years spent running away from who he was and his future self all at once.
See, before Izuku… There was a little boy. A naïve and desperate boy. Desperate to fit in. To belong. A child whose eyes widened with wonder at nature’s beauty and the processes that lay underneath. A child with a heart too big for his body. A fire that was lit underneath by boyish chases, red haunts, and snapping teases. Izuku never felt othered. This was his natural place after all, standing side by side with a boy of equal stature, his best friend, Kacchan. Izuku enjoyed his youth without labels and was glad to assume the position of right-hand man to a fiery blond.
Then, things changed. It was at the ripe age of thirteen when Izuku stopped being able to escape his fate. It was the first time the dam broke and blood-red water rushed through a marred canyon, cracks littering the walls from the years of carefree play. Short green curls were forced to grow out. A body was outlined with divots and the press of tight clothing. His friends also grew… but not in the same way he did. Suddenly, his height seemed punitive compared to his playmates.
After that, the feminine stuck to him like bees to honey. The fate of Her seemed to define his day to day interactions. Boys who he roughhoused with as a kid refused to even make eye contact with him, or worse, their cheeks dusted with a light pink. Girls felt like predators to him and their gazes either made him hot under the collar or a stuttering mess. There existed no middle ground.
However, the thing that hurt most throughout the confusion, the ogling eyes, and the general hell of secondary school, was the loss of his best friend. Kacchan had been a constant to Izuku and it only felt like a punch to the gut when slowly, but surely, even the boy walked out of his life. The mornings of standing outside the boy’s gate, pressing the broken doorbell, and searching in the window for a familiar head of hair no longer existed. Instead, Izuku’s gaze met with closed curtains and was matched with companionless trudges from and to school. In the school hallways, his gaze only ever landed on the blond’s back, a stubborn wall that refused to turn and see him. It was as if something had changed in a matter of weeks. The boy’s attitude implied indifference and disgust where there once stood devotion and masked adoration.
Months of this behavior went on when, on one of his various walks back from school, Izuku had stopped in front of the Bakugou household. He had no idea why he kept trying to catch a glimpse of his friend. That false hope had only ever hurt him, after all. However, instead of seeing closed curtains and an unyielding gate, Izuku saw a sign headed in big red letters that read, “FOR SALE”.
At the sight of those words, something inside him began to chip away.
It only took a couple of days before another sign was stuck in front with a glaring, “SOLD”.
If the sound of a heart breaking could be captured, to Izuku, it would be like the sound of the gate slamming closed one last time. The sound of Izuku’s breath catching, as red eyes made contact with green for the first time in weeks, then the last. It would be the sound of the moving truck as it peeled away from his street. Then, silence.
It wasn’t like Izuku to give up easily but once the doorbell of the house had started to work, he called it quits. He didn’t want to bother the new family with his pathetic attempts at looking for something that was no longer there. Reality had grabbed the boy’s face and made him look at what remained. The only friend he had ever known was truly gone.
It was in this solitude that he ultimately returned home, and responded with a mere mhm when asked if he was OK by his mother, Inko.
It took two years of living life as a shell of his former self when it clicked for Izuku. He was sitting at the bottom of his shower, littered in scars (some self-inflicted, some not), when he dared to take the scissors pressed to his side and hold them up to his head.
With a wet and gleeful smile, Izuku cut away.
Needless to say, the memory of his fifteen year-old self stumbling out of the bathroom, soaking wet, with hair haphazardly cropped close to his scalp filled his now twenty-two year-old self with secondhand embarrassment (and a large pang of sadness).
Especially the part where he sobbed out, “I’m a man,” to his shaken mother who eyed his naked form with worry and sadness. Especially that part.
Later, as she dried him off and ushered him into plain clothes, she only looked at him with understanding and a small smile.
A promise.
Despite their constantly struggling financial state, Inko sought only to help her son. Therapy, hormone treatment, and surgery seemed like necessary investments for her child’s wellbeing.
Izuku was so, so, lucky.
He always told his mother so and made sure to end off their weekly calls with his signature, “Love you!”
So, Izuku couldn’t be happier.
He was three years post-top surgery and healing up nicely. Plus, he was actually reaching his physique goal thanks to the increase in his testosterone dosage.
He had just recently graduated top of his class from university. Izuku wasn’t one to brag, but he closed the year off with a kick-ass thesis and received impressive commendations from his professors. The efforts he put in successfully landed him a job as a lab tech at Yuuei Research. Needless to say, the man was proud.
Still, there was an itch under his skin he couldn’t quite scratch. Maybe it was the current stagnancy in his life… he was in that weird transition period between student and working professional.
Or, maybe, there was something horribly wrong with him and he was suffering from a mystery illness. Panic quelled within him and he quickly stamped it down with a deep inhale.
Izuku bit his lip, thoughts roaring, as he ultimately resolved to get drunk. It was a Saturday night after all and being alone usually lended to him thinking too much.
A bottle of wine later and the green-haired man was on his weekly routine of hook-up hunting.
Izuku’s relationship with sex was complicated to say the least. His first sexual encounter ended with no climax, frustrated tears, and a man who was still confused about Izuku’s pronouns and anatomy. Needless to say, Izuku had never opened himself up like that again. In fact, nowadays he would only engage with people who wanted to receive and didn’t care if he kept his underwear on. He had found that the market for people who didn’t want to put in the work and just give in was large.
He swiped through the familiar interface of the dating app and noticed dozens of messages from active users, all of them consisting of horny ‘u top?’s, ‘Looking 4 head’, and a large variation of winky faces. Usually, at least one would satiate him for the weekend but none were calling out to him.
He sighed as he kept swiping and oh.
His blurry sight grew the slightest bit sharp (as much as he could manage in his drunken stupor), as his thumb halted on a profile.
“KB. He/Him. 22. f*ck around and find out.”
Those were the only details provided along with five photos. The cover photo is what stole his attention, however.
It was a picture taken from a corner of a poster-decorated room. Izuku could barely make out what the content of the posters were but once it registered, his face lit up. Posters upon posters of the famous 90’s band All Might among other bands he didn’t recognize. Izuku had grown up listening to the 3-man group and was delighted to see this person was one of taste.
Faintly, the man’s posters reminded him of his own time as a child that was spent obsessing over the band’s music with a certain blond boy. Days spent sitting side by side on a tiny bed, imitating guitar riffs and singing horribly into an air-mic. His brain chalked the similarity up to chance and filed it away. All Might wasn’t an underground band by any means.
As he moved on from the walls of the room, Izuku noticed that the man was wearing a black tank. The shirt revealed arms absolutely covered in tattoos. The mystery of what was under that black tank (how far did the ink continue?) was only increased by the hairless cat perched like royalty on his lap. Not only was this man’s body to die for but he had a soft spot for animals. With another glance, he also noted two rows of piercings on the man’s collarbones. Faintly, he wondered if those had hurt. The thought made him shift uncomfortably in his seat, arousal coming from left field.
The worst part? Not a single photo included his face. The rest of the measly collection included some photos in the gym, a closeup of a tattoo sleeve, and food. Izuku desperately scrolled back and forth between the cleverly cropped photos. Still, no face.
This left the green-haired man deflated. Usually, the lack of face indicated one of two things: the other person is on the down-low or they were a fetishizer. The green-haired man had his fair share of both types when he started exploring his sexual side.
Personally, Izuku wasn’t fond of leading people on, or worse, being attacked because a stray hand went down his pants expecting one thing and being met with the opposite. Therefore, Izuku’s face was the main focus of his profile and his intentions were delineated clearly.
“Izuku. He/Him. 22. Trans Man. Hookups for rn. I can show you a good time :)”
It’s not as if Izuku was opposed to settling down and living a long, fruitful life with a partner, but to the green-haired man, those two aspects of his life didn’t merge. Something about that intimacy and vulnerability terrified him. It had been years since he had come out and was confident in all other aspects of his life but this was the one thing Izuku couldn’t quite sort through.
Debating the two options in his head, Izuku reasoned that the worst that could happen was he would get a free drink or meal out of the mystery man. Izuku didn’t owe anybody anything.
With a final nod to himself, he sent a message:
“Your tattoos and piercings are really attractive. Plus, the cat.”
“Wait, no, not the cat.”
“I mean I think it’s really sexy that you like animals.”
God, he was so dumb. It seems that whoever the hell this man was, was messing with Izuku’s brain. Dampening its functionality with his hotness.
Izuku burrowed his face in the couch cushion as he yelled into the fabric, wanting to be swallowed by the cheap suede.
Immediately, there was a response back. Izuku startled back up and steadied his vision to read:
“Thanks. I do them myself.”
“His name’s dickhe*d.”
He couldn’t help but let out an obnoxious laugh at that. Of course this faceless man, whose profile consisted of gym photos and food, named his hairless sphynx dickhe*d.
Izuku would’ve gone for something classier but, hey, who’s he to judge?
With a small smile, Izuku upped his ante:
“Wow! That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to get piercings. I’m pretty tame compared to you, haha.”
“Maybe you can help me?”
Izuku had no clue what he was doing. So, yeah, maybe he’s entertained the idea of getting piercings. Once. When he was eighteen and still reeling in the toxins of teen rebellion.
However, he was nothing if not the king of rash decisions. In fact, his entire life was one big overperformed rash decision. He was lucky his instincts hadn’t led him to skydiving or anything as risky but this was treading into that territory.
Oh well. No going back now.
A hauntingly long time passed before a notification graced Izuku’s phone.
“Bet. Come to my shop tomorrow and I’ll get you hooked up. We’ve got a promotion going on.”
KB is offline.
The absolute gall of man… to invite someone out to a tattoo shop for a date and immediately go offline. As if daring him not to show up.
Izuku was completely and utterly attracted to him.
Later that night, as he washed up and buried himself in bed, the itch abided, if only for a bit. He fell asleep with a ghost of a smile on his face and dreamed of red.
…
The morning after, Izuku awoke with a nasty bout of nausea beating his head and a slew of notifications from his best friend, Ochaco, asking where he was the previous night.
Wallowing in his boredom and having an early 20s crisis, that’s where.
Izuku groaned out at the pain in his head as he made his rounds. Ochaco had been with him since the start of undergrad and it felt nice to have people who cared that much about him. Izuku considered her his best friend and was always grateful for her loyalty. He texted Ochaco back because even though the two no longer lived together, she still acted as if she was responsible for Izuku. Such was the life of a man and his platonic wife.
He had some other good friends who he greeted every morning, purely out of habit. Izuku smiled as his ‘Good morning!’ text was responded to with a mixture of gifs and a snarky, ‘It’s afternoon,’ from one of his fellow lab partners. Shouto never failed to light up a room.
Izuku went around his apartment and tidied up the living room. He brewed coffee and popped some bread in the toaster when he noticed a stray notification.
KB.
“Forgot to send the addy. Here.”
“Promotion starts at 2. Don’t be late.”
Izuku hissed as he dropped the coffee pot, some of the scalding brew sploshing over his forearm.
f*ck!
He completely forgot he was supposed to meet the mystery man at his tattoo shop.
It was 1:15.
He chewed his lip, ran his arm under cold water, and debated going at all. He didn’t know this man. What if he tried to kidnap Izuku? Put drugs in the tattoo gun and inject poison into his skin? What then? Izuku’s grave would have to say, ‘Death by dick appointment.’
He shivered and just as he was about to block the account, he looked at KB’s profile again.
God.
That body.
Izuku was a weak man.
Besides…
How dangerous could a tattoo shop be?
…
Izuku walked for about fifteen minutes, immensely grateful that the shop wasn’t that far from where he was currently living. His forehead was slightly sticky with sweat just from the speed at which he walked. He took a deep breath as a gentle spring breeze cooled the heat on his skin.
It was 1:56.
Izuku eyed the establishment in front of him. If it weren’t for the name on the front door, the green-haired man would’ve never thought to stop here. The front was completely nondescript, with semi-opaque windows, and a door that matched. The only signage visible was the ‘BlackStar’ that decorated the front of the door.
Thankfully, Izuku still had some common sense, and he pulled out his phone. He shot Ochaco a quick text with his location and detailed it with a “Just in case.”
This was common for them two. It acted as a safeguard when Izuku was out meeting new people. Ochaco was only more than glad to act as Izuku’s guy-in-the-chair. Or, well, girl.
If Izuku ever found himself in a sticky situation, all he had to do was shoot the girl an SOS text, and she would immediately call. Most times she pretended to be his little sister. Other times, his mother. One time just for the hell of it, she had whipped out an impressive script that starred her as a local politician. With the call, Izuku would “excuse himself” and get the hell out of there. That was the deal.
With a calming breath, Izuku opened the door and stepped inside.
The first thing he noticed was that the place was larger than his current apartment.
The second thing he noticed was that the shop was beautiful.
The best way to describe the composition of the shop was an amalgamation of the goth aesthetic, the seductive lure of a sex dungeon, and the elegance of the Victorian romantic era. The entire space emitted a smell of wood and was lit with warm bulbs. Everywhere he looked, there was something of thematic detail to note. Picture frames on the wall held portraits of past customers after a completed project.
There was a front desk and two enormous red-black Victorian-style chairs along with a longer couch opposite where he stood. In front of the chairs there was a dark oak wood table littered with a magazine full of drawings and piercing examples. A lounge area.
In the back, there was a partition separating the work room from the common area. He noted the stark hospital light shining through the gap in the partition and winced. He supposed this guy actually needed to see in order to do his job.
As Izuku continued to ogle, he didn’t even hear the footsteps coming up behind him until a heavy palm cupped his shoulder.
A frightened yell escaped Izuku’s mouth before he could help it. He turned around to look at whoever grabbed him and he raised his arms in defense. Despite the obscene amounts of red gathered in the shop, Izuku still flinched when red eyes stared back at green.
sh*t.
This wasn’t real. It was a dream, Izuku deduced. There was no other explanation for why his childhood best friend currently stood in front of him.
In a nondescript tattoo shop in the middle of Tokyo.
Covered in familiar tattoos and those mouth-watering collarbone piercings.
With an exhale, the blond haired man whispered and wildly smiled.
“It is you.”
Izuku felt the blood rush to his face as he realized the reality of the situation. The mystery man wasn’t a mystery. The faceless Adonis he had called sexy five ways to Sunday was in fact Kacchan.
“Kacc- Ka-... What the hell are you doing here?!” Izuku’s blush deepened at the Pavlovian-mistake. At the first sight of the man, his brain could do nothing but associate the blond with the embarrassing childhood nickname.
“This is my shop,” the blond chuckled out, finding the freckled-man’s slip-up amusing.
Izuku’s mind worked backwards, forward, and side-to-side as it wrapped itself around who stood before him.
Even after nearly a decade, the blond looked virtually the same. The only thing that changed was his physical appearance. That intensity, however… The fire in those red eyes remained the same.
Before he could help himself, Izuku’s eyes roamed over the other man. He counted about fifteen piercings on his face and ears alone, excluding the collarbones. His brain made a tiny little ding! noise as he cataloged all the pierced spots.
Cheeks, eyebrows, nose, lips, ding, ding, ding…
Izuku sucked in a breath at the way his heart sped up.
He could never fully relax under the attention of the snappy youth. So, it was no surprise that even after years of separation, the taller man held the same effect on Izuku.
It was the reason he grew so fond of Kacchan.
Still, as he stood in the same space as the blond, another feeling came to the forefront.
Anger.
Shame. Then, disgust. The whole damn arsenal of emotions. The sensations came in bouts. Embarrassment snapped its nasty jaws at him. Here stood Izuku, expecting to have had sex with this mystery man, only for it to be Kacc- Katsuki.
With a shaky breath, Izuku spoke, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting this… you… I wouldn’t have… God.”
Izuku ran a hand over his rapidly heating face, rubbing in annoyance. This was too much for the green-haired man. He never considered the possibility of running into somebody from his past. He especially never considered the possibility of that certain somebody being Katsuki. If he had, he would’ve explored literally any coping mechanism with his therapist.
Now that he thought of it, he supposed the online persona did bear some resemblance to his former childhood best friend.
God, the display name had literally been KB.
How dumb was he? No, really, he had to know.
With a small nod and no other plan, Izuku turned and started to head out the shop.
“Sorry for bothering you. I know I’m the last person you probably wanted to see. I’ll just head out now,” Izuku rambled. Suddenly, that hand, god, that hand, stopped him in his tracks.
A couple of seconds passed by with the two just staring at each other. Absently, Izuku thought that the sight of himself in the shop must be a sight. Green curls paired with a beige pullover sweater and navy shorts. He stood out like a sore thumb. The comparison brought him back to when he was thirteen years old and feeling like an outsider in his own body. His alien state was made worse by the abandonment from his best friend.
He schooled his face into a neutral expression to mask the pain that the childhood memory brought.
Then, the blond cleared his throat and croaked out, “Don’t go.”
Izuku’s eyebrow twitched.
“f*ckin-… Please.”
That familiar itch that had pulsated just near the surface of his skin seemed to crawl out and make itself more present. A blush settled low on the back of Izuku’s neck and his hand instinctively went to scratch at the skin back there.
Izuku softly said, “Alright.”
Then, without a word, the green-haired man followed the blond to the work room in the back. He was hit with a wave of nostalgia as he stared at the back of the other man.
Izuku snorted at the situation. He always ended up trailing after the taller man. It was his constant state of being as a child and he found that even after almost a decade, the habit remained ingrained in his head.
It was where his brain felt the safest, he surmised.
“You’re muttering,” Katsuki stated as he slapped a hand on the leather chair in the middle of the tiny work room, motioning for Izuku to sit in it. The blond took a seat on his own rolling chair and busied himself with prepping the side table.
Ah.
He didn’t even notice.
Izuku hadn’t done that in a while.
He cleared his throat as he sat down in the chair that Katsuki lined with medical paper.
They lapsed into an uneasy silence as the blond continued to clean his tools. Izuku picked at the skin of his fingers and before he could stop himself, he muttered out, “Why’d you leave?”
The blond sucked in a breath.
Izuku’s eyes widened as he realized he said that aloud. “sh*t, sorry. I didn’t come here to dig up old dirt. That’s so unprofessional, sh*t. Sorry. Please forget I said that,” he mindlessly babbled with a rapidly-reddening face. Before he could continue, a hand grabbed his.
The action effectively shut Izuku up. He gulped as he stared at the strong fingers wrapped around Izuku’s smaller hand. Despite their rough appearance with the skin callused in certain spots, the digits still held onto him delicately.
Finally, Katsuki spoke.
“I didn’t want to. I came home one day and my mom said she got a job in Tokyo.”
The blond man gently released Izuku’s arm and the freckled man cradled it as if it were precious. “She told me she’d let me finish the school year and then she was putting the place up for sale. I was f*cking pissed. The old lady was tearing me away from everything I knew. From… from you,” the blond hesitated on the last confession. “I know that doesn’t excuse how sh*tty I was those last weeks but I thought… I thought…”
Izuku’s brow furrowed and he encouraged the other man.
“Thought what?”
Katsuki turned back to his tools, sanitizing them for what seemed to be the third time before sighing out.
“I thought that if I put some distance between us, it would make it hurt less.”
Silence.
“It didn’t work. I acted like a coward who only cared about himself.”
Izuku stared at Katsuki, desperate for those eyes to lock onto him. When they did, Izuku’s ears flushed and his throat ran dry.
“f*ck. I guess, ultimately, what I’m trying to say is…” he paused. “I’m sorry. For everything.”
The green-haired man looked at the other man, really looked, and noted a clenched jaw, evidence of the other’s stress and discomfort. Despite that, Izuku saw a sincerity in those red eyes that he had never seen before. He was suddenly hit so hard by a thought and a breath shuddered out of him.
It seemed that Izuku wasn’t the only one that grew up.
“So, you weren’t ignoring me because of, um, w-what I was?…”
At the question, Katsuki’s eyes flew open in surprise and quickly settled before responding. “Tsk, we were all going through our own sh*t. That doesn’t make you any different. You were always my best friend.” The blond’s eyes darted as he confessed. “Besides, you look happier now. I couldn’t stand how depressed you were when we started secondary school.”
A frown deepened in Izuku’s face and he carefully watched the blond.
“I regret not being there for you. I wish I could go back and do it over again,” the blond whispered with an edge of sadness.
Warmth bloomed deep in the freckled-man’s gut, aided by the sincerity with which the blond spoke to him. “You can’t change the past,” he finally spoke. “But, thank you, for apologizing. Really.”
Izuku stared deep into the other’s eyes, trying to communicate wordlessly. The green-haired man truly couldn’t blame the other. They were kids and there were so many factors influencing the fiery blond. He could only look to the future and march on.
“Well,” Izuku started, “Since it seems that fate brought us together again, let’s do this.”
Izuku extended a shaky hand. Then, with a confident smile, introduced himself for the first time.
“Izuku.”
Katsuki’s eyes widened and a laugh startled its way out of him. Izuku’s heart skipped at the sight of a silver ball poised perfectly on the end of the blond’s tongue.
Ding!
A familiar and ferocious smile overtook the man’s features. The blond took Izuku’s hand in his, holding it for a beat too long, and with a huff, he acquiesced.
“Katsuki. Now, what the f*ck are you getting done?”
…
sh*t. He had completely forgotten he came here to get pierced, too wrapped up in happy endings and blah blah Katsuki blah.
Izuku bit his lip and worried the skin between his teeth (another bad habit he developed because of his anxiety).
The green-haired man didn’t know how long he sat there, stewed in his own thoughts and unbridled energy, when a gloved hand snapped its fingers right in front of his face.
“Oi.”
Green looked up to meet red.
“You don’t have a f*cking clue, do you?”
Izuku’s face erupted in a hot blush and nonsensical words tumbled out of his mouth. Meanwhile, Katsuki showed only signs of amusem*nt as he stared at the green-haired man.
“Man, you really came here just to get laid, didn’t you?”
Katsuki leaned in, a devilish smile on the man’s face as Izuku felt himself floundering for an answer.
“Well, I won’t deny or confirm anything but obviously that was before I knew it was y-you! I’m sorry, alright, stop making fun of me!”
Izuku cursed at himself as he stuttered (despite his best efforts not to). No one but him needed to know about his intentions in coming here today. This was Katsuki who sat in front of him and, even though that information did nothing to quell his rising heart rate, Izuku was stronger than his base impulses.
The freckled man found that no amount of time could change how much he craved the taller man’s presence. Izuku refused to let his selfish thoughts drive the blond away now that he had him again.
As the green-haired man huffed in his seat, he stared back at Katsuki. He saw the blond’s gaze search his face for… something. He supposed he should have felt seen through, like a patient laid out on the operating table, but found that the pointed gaze felt soft. Warm, even. The sensation of being looked at so deeply sent a shiver down his spine and as Izuku cleared his throat to shake out the awkwardness, Katsuki spoke.
“What happened to finding my tattoos and piercings sexy? I know you find this one interesting.”
Then, as if to exercise a point, the blond stuck his tongue out and flicked the silver ball against his front teeth.
Izuku flinched at the sound, seemingly ten times louder in this vacuum that currently existed between the two. A tiny jolt that he had thought was completely maskable by a small cough but the blond’s eyes lit up as if catching this reaction in microscopic detail.
Of course, he did.
Katsuki was good at clocking Izuku’s tells, great even. He was even better at seeing through him. As kids, and now, as adults. Nothing changed because why would (should) it?
The blond slowly dragged his tongue back in his mouth and sealed the delicious torture with lips shaped in a smirk. Izuku's heart nearly stopped at the blatant flirting going on. Was Katsuki aware of what he was doing? Was he doing it on purpose?
Just as the tension was about to snap, Katsuki sat back in his chair and spoke with an air of complete and utter cool.
“Alright, alright, you know I can’t help it. You always did have the best reactions. I won’t bring it up again.”
Izuku touched his warm face and could only think,
Please bring it up again.
“Now, I say we pop your piercing virginity with the lobes. Nice, simple, and won’t f*ck up the clean guy look you’ve got going on,” Katsuki continued, unaware of the green-haired man’s mental strife.
“You’ll feel some sharp pain for three seconds tops. Breathe in and out when I tell you to. Try not to think too hard.”
Instead of closing his eyes to shield himself from the sight of the needle, Izuku chose to look at the blond man. The other’s eyebrows were furrowed as he drew a point on each ear with near-perfect accuracy.
“Deep breath in and out.”
Without hesitation, Izuku complied and a sharp pain in his right ear left his eyes watering. The green-haired man took in a shaky breath as he let out a tiny, “ow”, watery eyes fixed off in the distance.
Izuku’s eyes followed the blond as he moved to the other side. With rapt attention, the green-haired man waited patiently for the magic words.
“In.”
He breathed in.
“Out.”
And out.
Again, the sharp pain left his eyes watery but just as promised, it lasted maybe three seconds.
Katsuki leaned back to admire his work and hummed out a sound of approval. He brought a hand down on Izuku’s thigh in a casual clap as he lightly grunted out, “Good job.”
Izuku, jumpy as ever, reacted with his whole body and regretted it when the movement jostled his head.
Izuku groaned out, “God damn, my head hurts.”
Katsuki chuckled as he took the gloves off and picked his phone out of his pocket.
“First timers usually get stress headaches. I thought I mentioned that,” Katsuki provided. He had a mischievous look in his eye as he took a picture of Izuku’s pained face.
The green-haired man was about to start a long protest because Katsuki most certainly did not mention that and why was that phone in his face right now oh my-
“It’s for the record. Client book. sh*t like that.”
Izuku did not know what “sh*t like that” was and even as his eyes narrowed the slightest bit, both in defiance and in disbelief, the shorter man decided to let it slide.
Just this time.
…
Izuku stood near the front of the store as Katsuki finished cleaning up. The blond went around shutting off lights and wiping down surfaces as Izuku got lost in his thoughts.
The two had been here for nearly two hours. After the green-haired man’s ears were pierced, Katsuki insisted he stay for a bit, if only to monitor the shorter man’s headache and fresh piercings.
“I’m not having you pass out on the walk back because your head hurt too much. You’d f*ck up my work.”
Despite the brash language, Izuku couldn’t help but smile at how much time the two had spent together. It didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what the green-haired man felt he had missed out on in his childhood, but it’d have to do.
This was now and that was then.
Finally, Katsuki approached the front of the store and his presence broke Izuku’s concentration.
Quickly, the green-haired pulled his wallet out and started, “How much do I owe you?”
Instead of listing any number, Katsuki’s eyes widened just the slightest bit before they settled back into their usual place. Izuku’s head co*cked just the slightest as his brain caught onto the hesitation.
He wondered what that was about.
“Keep your money. Promotion, remember?”
Oh, right. Promotion. How could Izuku forget?
“Oh! Right then… um, well. Thank you, then,” the green-haired man started as the two stepped outside. “Sorry about the original, um, reason, I may or may not have come here for.”
The two stepped outside as the blond responded, “Pft- Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have been so slimy… but I had to make sure it was you.”
Izuku’s weight shifted between his feet as he watched Katsuki lock up. He didn’t know how to go about this but damn it, he’d have to try.
“I’m really happy I got to see you, and um, I hope I’m not on the wrong wavelength by asking if you’d maybe like to, uh, see each other again. You can totally say no! I just thought it’d be a shame if after all these years we met once by coincidence and then never again, I mean, c’mon you were my best friendbut it’s totally up to you-”
A phone was shoved into his hands before he had the chance to drown in his words. The screen was open to a blank contact and Izuku blinked in confusion.
It took an embarrassing five seconds of staring at the phone in his hands before, oh, the blond was asking Izuku to add his contact information.
Frantically, the green-haired man added his name and number before handing the blond’s phone back to him. He watched Katsuki’s thumbs fly over the screen and then his own phone buzzed in his pocket.
“Just texted. Now, you have my number. Don’t lose it.”
The shorter man could only stare at the other as he was hit by a wave of… something. Like some sort of yearning. Izuku stared at Katsuki, reacquainting himself with those features for what seemed like an uncomfortably long time, before the blond broke the silence.
“Well, I’m this way,” Katsuki pointed to the opposite of where Izuku was headed. The shorter man tried not to let the disappointment show on his face.
“Ah. I’m that way,” Izuku added. With a small wave from the other, Izuku turned heel and walked home.
Except this time, both men knew it wasn’t a final goodbye.
More of a see you soon.
…
After that, the two fell into an easy rhythm. Katsuki would invite Izuku over to the shop every couple of weeks on account of there being a promotion. Most of the time, the two would just talk. Less often, Katsuki would actually do his job and grace Izuku’s body with a new piercing. Now, he was the proud owner of two lobe piercings, a helix, two daiths, and an eyebrow piercing that, unfortunately, got rejected.
It wasn’t until the Sunday visits became more frequent that Izuku grew worried. He resolutely decided to bring it up the next time Katsuki had him over.
Lo and behold, Izuku didn’t have to wait long to be sitting on the fancy Victorian couch and sipping on a random mixer. It was the last one he had bought from the market on his way here and he was definitely buzzed. The taller man was sprawled next to him on the couch and their knees were touching. He was holding a can of beer, lazily sipping from the mouth when he remembered it existed. His brows were furrowed as he focused on the sketchbook in his lap. Izuku didn’t know what he was drawing, just that he’d been at it since the green-haired man came over. He had also, maybe, been entirely too focused on the point of contact between the two for the past thirty minutes.
From his point of view, it looked like a tiger being constricted by a snake.
“Hey, Katsuki?”
The blond grunted as he penciled in two black, beady eyes.
“How come there’s nobody ever here?”
Katsuki’s pencil halted.
Izuku cupped his bottle, “I thought a special promotion would bring customers, but there hasn’t been a single person here since the first time I came over.”
Slowly, the blond continued to shade in his sketch, choosing to ignore the shorter man. Izuku’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as he saw a blush settle on the blond’s ears.
Why is he ignoring the question?! Unless…
Izuku’s eyes widened as he gasped, “Oh my god! There’s no promotion, is there?!”
Katsuki threw his sketchbook on the table with a dramatic sigh. The man took two big gulps of his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“f*ckin-, of course, there’s no promotion! I lied about that sh*t. Shop’s not even open on Sundays.”
Not even-
“What do you mean not open on Sundays?!”
Izuku was bewildered. The blond leaned in.
“I mean… the store’s not open on Sundays.”
Izuku was baffled. Yup. That was the perfect word for what he was feeling right now. Weeks… no, months, at this point, had gone by, and he had zero clue the blond was just hanging out with him.
On his day off.
In his tattoo shop.
Katsuki put his finished beer on the table and leaned back in his chair. His legs spread the slightest bit to accommodate the shift in weight.
“Yeah. Didn’t know how else to make you spend time with me without seeming like a total loser,” the blond muttered.
Oh.
Katsuki was filled with surprises. The corner of Izuku’s mouth twitched up in a smile as he took a sip of his drink.
“Well, maybe next time, you’d want to spend time with me in a place that isn’t where you work? Maybe… a restaurant? For dinner?”
Izuku blamed the newfound confidence on the alcohol, which, now that he really looked at the can… how much alcohol was in this thing?!
Katsuki drummed his fingers on his leg, trying and failing to hide the smile behind his palm.
“Hm. Only if I pick the place.”
Izuku smiled wider and responded, “Deal.”
The two sat there staring at each other for a couple of minutes. Izuku was the first to break out of the trance as his eyes trailed to the forgotten sketchbook on the table.
“What were you drawing?”
The questioned man’s eyes followed Izuku’s and grabbed the object of interest.
“It’s us,” Katsuki responded.
The green-haired man’s brows furrowed in confusion. He knew he was buzzed but he didn’t think he was that buzzed because in his opinion, that looked nothing like the pair.
The blond noticed the confusion and supplied an explanation.
“I started working on it the last time you came over. From the surface, it just looks like one is going to win over the other, but look closer.”
Izuku leaned in.
“Neither is hurting the other. They’re acting as each other’s protectors.”
Now that he had a closer look, Izuku saw what the blond was describing.
The snake, in its threatening curl, was using its long tongue to seal up stray wounds on the tiger’s face. The tiger, in turn, served as a shield for the serpent’s exposed body.
A symbiotic relationship.
Wow.
“This is us?” Izuku whispered.
The blond only grunted, “I, uh, planned on it being my next tattoo.”
Izuku was scared that if he spoke now, his soul would be bared for the other man to see. It didn’t matter, either way. The blond always had a way to read Izuku for filth.
Still. It counted for something… Katsuki being so open with him.
Gingerly, Izuku moved the sketchbook back to the table. He brought his fingertips to the blond’s arm, hesitant at first but then firmly pressing down. Slowly, he explored the ink lining the skin there. He traced over swirls of black decorating the crook of his elbow. Swept over black bands wrapped around the blond’s muscle, over stippled foliage, and countless other designs Izuku was sure he would ask about in the future.
The future.
Izuku’s movement stopped as he shakily whispered,
“What are we doing here?”
The blond grabbed his hand and interlaced their fingers together.
“Whatever you want. Just ask and it’s yours,” Katsuki whispered back.
Izuku felt like a dam, water leaking from various cracks.
“Kiss me.”
The dam started to bow under its own pressure. Katsuki’s eyes flickered to Izuku’s lips before staring into his eyes with a certain softness.
“You’re missing something,” the blond lightly encouraged. His other hand came up to Izuku’s face and tucked away a loose curl. The green-haired man’s mind seemed to pulsate in need.
“Please.”
The dam broke and water rushed through as Katsuki pressed forward to connect the two. A small mmh left Izuku’s mouth as his brain struggled to keep up with his body. The feel of the blond’s mouth on his was like heaven. The softness of his lips coupled with the unique texture of the lip piercing left him leaning forward into Katsuki’s space.
The blond’s hand snuck its way fully into Izuku’s curls and with a careful tug, Izuku’s mouth dropped open in surprise and pleasure.
“Ah!”
Katsuki took this as his opportunity to slide his tongue in and yes, there it was. The offending creature that had plagued Izuku’s nights the moment he saw it.
Izuku’s tongue lolled out lazily as Katsuki sucked at the muscle. The feeling of the silver ball massaging the inside of his mouth and over his tongue was indescribable. The slight taste of metal had him feeling out of control and desperate for something raw.
Izuku pushed his tongue against Katsuki’s and enjoyed the struggle for power. The green-haired man could sit here forever and lick up the entire inside of the blond’s mouth (and let him do the same), if he could.
Slowly, Katsuki released the hand he had been holding and leaned back. Their lips were slick with spit and Izuku’s entire body felt like molten lava. The green-haired man shifted in his seat in order to alleviate the heat between his legs. Absentmindedly, his hand went up to the spot where the blond had tugged and noted the tousled hair.
“Sorry about that. I try not to be too rough,” Katsuki supplied as he saw the shorter man touching the back of his head.
“It’s all good. I, um, I liked it,” Izuku whispered.
Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched as his hand went back to grab Izuku’s hand. This time, those calloused fingers traveled to the skin on his forearm and lightly massaged at the scars there. The tell-tale markers, now only thin, white lines were unnoticeable to the average person, but of course, the blond caught it.
However, instead of feeling exposed, Izuku fell deeper into the comfort that being around Katsuki was providing. He could only stare as the other traced his wrist with the utmost care. Izuku found he felt safe.
“What else do you like?”
Izuku’s breath hitched as the blond looked at him.
What did he like? He feels like he should have a substantial answer but found that he had only ever thought about what other people liked. He never thought too hard about what he liked, instead focusing all his attention on his partners. On their pleasure. Their interests.
Izuku was self-sacrificial that way.
Start simple, he thought. No better place than the present.
“I like when you touch me,” he dumbly stated.
Damn it. So much for sexy.
Katsuki, however, wasn’t phased. The hand on his wrist traveled up the ways of his arm and Katsuki’s fingers dug into the muscle of his bicep.
“Yeah? You like it when I touch you here?”
The hand trailed up to Izuku’s throat and loosely wrapped around the column but his fingers didn’t squeeze. They just sat atop the skin with the blond’s pointer finger tapping as if to make a point.
This was only a taste.
“Or here?”
Izuku gulped as he realized he wanted the blond’s fingers to squeeze.
Before the green-haired could encourage the blond in his slightly-not-sober-state, the hand left.
“Do you trust me?”
Katsuki’s hands were now on Izuku’s knees. Unmoving but heavy on the skin there.
The green-haired man bit his lip as he sucked in a breath. The question had left him light-headed, shouts of yes and of course running through his brain.
He chose to respond with, “Too much.”
The hands on Izuku’s knees squeezed and he felt the cropped nails dig into the skin there.
“f*ck,” Katsuki intelligently replied.
Izuku could only watch, completely enraptured by the way the blond’s defined arms were highlighted by the tattoos. His breath came out in short, hot exhales as he thought about all that strength hidden underneath. He thought about the gentleness that betrayed the rough exterior. The way his insides lit up at the first drop of attention from the other man.
Izuku thought about a world where he let himself be held, taken care of, and worshiped. A world where he was selfish. He realized with great arousal that he wanted that.
He wanted all of it.
Both men stared at each other with want in their eyes, neither brave enough to make the next move. Scared to make a mistake.
Instead, they kissed. Hot, wet, and bordering on painful as they bit at each other’s mouths. The kiss broke as Katsuki dragged his wet tongue down Izuku’s unmarked neck. The sensation was driving the man insane as he panted out and broke the silence with a desperate moan.
“Please, please, please, take it off. So hot…” Izuku motioned to his shirt, the material sticky with sweat. Since when did the place get so warm?
“Yeah, yeah. I got you,” Katsuki rushed out, his perfect exterior starting to crack as he fumbled with the buttons.
Izuku threw his arms around the other’s neck and connected their lips as his shirt came undone. Without noticing, the green-haired man was moved down the couch until he was laying on his back with Katsuki hovering over him. The two slowly came apart and Izuku bit at the other’s lip, watching as it pulled.
Katsuki’s arms caged his head as he looked down at the green-haired man. For a second, fear flickered through his body as he realized how exposed he was. Katsuki propped himself on the arm of the couch while his other hand rested on the green-haired man’s stomach.
“You’re f*cking beautiful.”
Then, he planted a small kiss on the end of one of Izuku’s scars.
“O-oh…”
Izuku’s body lit up and any sense of fear or apprehension washed away immediately. He turned his head away and tried to bury his face into the couch in embarrassment. Katsuki was just looking at him so intensely.
A short moment passed before the green-haired man felt lips next to his ear.
“Has no one told you that before?”
A soft nip at the lobe and a small yelp from Izuku.
“Told you how beautiful you are? All of you?”
Then, Katsuki grabbed his face and turned it to him, as if saying, answer me.
He could barely calm his racing heart to say, “Not really.”
The blond’s eyes narrowed in response.
“You deserve better,” The blond grunted out with eyes washed over in distant anger.
Izuku didn’t know how much more of this he could handle. His heart was rearing to burst out of his chest and his underwear was sticky, rubbing uncomfortably against him.
Boldly, he rasped out, “Show me what I deserve.”
The blond’s face flushed red and his jaw dropped as he sucked in a shaky breath.
Before Izuku could allow himself to back peddle, he grabbed the blond’s hand and slowly dragged it down his chest. He settled it right above his denim-shorts and looked back at Katsuki, communicating wordlessly.
Please make me feel good.
The blond only stared into his eyes as he single handedly opened the button of the man’s shorts with a pop. A question lingered in his eyes and he verbalized it.
“Is this okay?”
Yesyesyesyesf*ck. Just go under, you’re right there… Is what he wanted to say.
Instead, what came out was, “Nobody’s ever made me cum before.”
Izuku mentally slapped himself. He squeezed his eyes closed and dramatically sighed. The alcohol had to have been wearing off because there’s no other reason he would say something so ridiculous.
Katsuki hadn’t found it ridiculous, however. In fact, the man’s face was adorned with a devilish smile.
“Is that a challenge?”
Izuku’s eyes opened and he looked right into fiery red. He found himself smiling back.
“I guess so.”
Katsuki hummed as his fingers teased the fabric of his shorts and dared to go under. The green-haired man truly had no clue what he was waiting for. He was going to drown in his pre-cum if the blond kept playing around with him. He was about to say all this when the blond’s slipped under the material.
Even though it was above his underwear, the contact felt like salvation.
“sh*t. God, I, finally,” Izuku sighed happily and pulled the blond’s head towards him. The two kissed as Katsuki began his ministrations.
The blond wasn’t gentle by any means. In fact, the word he would use to describe him was deliberate.Deliberate in the way he fisted Izuku’s hair and forced him to bare his neck. Deliberate in the way he used his fingernail to lightly tease atop the clothed bundle of nerves. Deliberate in the way he pushed his heel against his entire heat, the pressure making him arch and chase that pulse. His hands flew down to grab at the blond’s forearm, steadying himself against the weight and frantically rubbing himself.
Katsuki kissed up and down his neck and urged the shorter man to slow down, “Not so hard, Izuku. I’m not going anywhere.”
The green-haired man short-circuited as he released the blond’s arm. Obediently, he slowed down and focused on the sensations. The feel of Katsuki’s rough fingers circling over him. The feel of a single finger teasing over his hole and oh, that’s a new sensation. The tease of the blond’s fingers being so close to slipping in, only halted by a thin layer of cotton, drove him wild.
Izuku bit his lip as he whimpered, “It feels good.”
The blond chuckled against his neck and the hot breath made him shiver in want.
“You like your dick and hole getting played with?”
All Izuku could think about was how damn affirming that felt, and realized, with a wet gasp, that yes, he did. The desperation in him multiplied and realized he wanted more. He trusted this man so much.
“You can take it off. The shorts, my underwear. Please. Off,” Izuku pleaded. He had been sitting in his own filth for close to an hour now and was desperate for the skin-to-skin contact.
As Katsuki slid the material off with Izuku’s help, the green-haired man realized nothing could’ve prepared him for the look on the blond’s face. Izuku lay naked on the couch now except for an unbuttoned shirt and was, quite frankly, a hot, horny mess.
Katsuki, however, looked worse than him. The tips of his ears were hot, his eyes were glazed over, and the tent in his jeans showed a dick of sizable interest. The blond’s hand went back to Izuku’s heat and he had to resist from bucking his hips up in response.
The underwear acted as a barrier and without it, the sensations were doubled, no, tripled. He was a mess of pre-cum and his entire puss* was shining with it. The blond spread the sticky substance over his dick and he rubbed at the tip of it.
Izuku bit his own tongue as he yelped at the sensation.
Katsuki was performing magic on him. That’s all he knew. There was nothing else to explain the effect the other had on him. He was combining pain with pleasure. Rubbing and pinching in places Izuku never thought would have an effect on him. The blond slapped, yes, slapped his heat and continued to vigorously rub in just the right spot, when Izuku knew he was f*cked.
“I’m going to cum,” Izuku gasped out with both astonishment and utter appreciation.
This seemed to encourage the blond. He shifted his position and put his hand on Izuku’s throat, “Yeah, you f*cking are.”
He didn’t stop there.
“Take it, Izu. You’re so good. Humping me like this, all needy,”
Izuku’s eyes shut tight as he chased after his climax, his dick moving with ease against the other’s hand.
He just needed a final push and he knew exactly what that was.
“C-Choke me, please,” he moaned out desperately.
The hand on his throat tightened and it’s like the world went into slow motion.
The lack of air had his eyes rolling into the back of his head. His mouth fell open, drool seeping out as his head lolled to the side. The sensation along with the movement on his puss* proved to be absolutely right.
His org*sm washed over him like a tsunami. Large and all-encompassing. His body was twitching as he forced himself to look Katsuki in the eyes.
The blond’s grip on his throat loosened as he took in a large gulp of air.
“Fuuuck,” Izuku drawled.
Izuku rode out his org*sm while the blond softly licked into his mouth. As Katsuki whispered out a dozen good job’s, Izuku realized how strangely natural this all felt. The affection, the dirtiness of it all.
It felt right.
Eventually, Izuku’s body stopped moving against the other’s hand and (because of course this can get more embarrassing), Katsuki licked his fingers up, choosing to clean them that way.
Oh sh*t. Wait.
Katsuki didn’t cum.
“Let me help you,” Izuku offered and went to unbuckle the other’s jeans when the blond stopped him.
“Um, no need,” Katsuki flushed.
Hm. Odd.
“What do you mean? I’m not gonna leave you like this…” Izuku’s brows furrowed and his brain started to swarm with a million excuses as to why the blond was refusing his help.
“Icameinmypants,” the blond muttered.
Izuku let out a huh?
No, really, he spoke too quietly and the freckled-man strained to hear him.
“I came in my pants,” the blond said with a tight jaw, as if this was the most humiliating thing he could admit to.
Izuku stared at him for what felt like an eon before he laughed.
Ah, yes. Katsuki came in his pants.
As one does.
Izuku proceeded to laugh even harder.
“f*ck, leave me alone. How could I not with you being the way you are?! Tsk, I swear,” Katsuki grumbled with a blush sitting high on his face.
Izuku could only smile and shake his head as he fished for his shorts and underwear. He pulled them on and plopped back down on the couch. He laid there for a couple seconds, tried to calm his heart, and focused on buttoning his shirt. Izuku smiled as his eyes lingered on the sketch of the tiger and snake.
After a bit, he hesitantly looked at the blond and his eyes looked for answers on the other’s face.
“So… what now?” The green-haired man demurely asked.
Katsuki, in response, looked at the time on his phone, which was sitting on the table.
4:03.
“Hm… how about dinner?” The blond supplied with a smirk.
Did Izuku hear him correctly? Dinner?
“Katsuki… I’m literally sticky. With sweat. And c-cum,” the freckled man spoke the last part quieter than the rest.
“Oh, hell no. I’m cooking. Now, come on. You can take a shower at my place.”
Izuku watched the blond perform his usual closing routine and a sense of tranquility washed over him. He loved the peace that being near Katsuki brought him. Without thinking, he started to help clean up. Trashing the empty cans and bottles, the two worked in silence. The domesticity wasn’t lost on either man and Katsuki voiced his gratitude with a small grunt.
As they stepped outside, Izuku appreciated the way the setting sun coated his body. Quietly, Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s hand and locked their fingers together. A small squeeze accompanied by a dry kiss on his knuckles made Izuku laugh.
What a romantic, he thought warmly.
As they walked to Katsuki’s apartment, the blond’s hand held in his, Izuku felt the itch in him fall dormant. It was replaced by something else. A mixture of past, present, and future all lined in green and red. An enigma of what was to be.
Distantly, Izuku knew that from now on nothing would be the same.
He smiled.
