These Things Take Forever (I especially am slow)

Away

Katsuki grumbled, muttering obscenities, as he shook the dust from his hair, sending tiny debris flying in all directions in the process.

"Have you heard from Shouto?" Deku walked into the locker room, his green hair almost grey with dust particles and the laugh lines around his eyes standing out in sharp contrast to the rest of his dirty face.

"Nothing fucking useful, he's been even more cagey than normal, must be something pretty deep," Katsuki sighed as he tugged off his gauntlets with unnecessary force.

"He'll be ok," Deku used the same smile he used when pulling out civilians from collapsed buildings; it put Katsuki's teeth on edge.

"He fucking better be, I'm not dealing with his damn cat for the rest of my life."

"Isn't that kind of what you signed up to? I mean I don't think it was mentioned directly, but there was definitely something about staying together, growing old together, living together..." Deku started ticking things off on his fingers.

"Shut up, shitty Deku, I married the Icyhot bastard, not his fucking cat!"

"You helped name her!"

"I was not going to live with a cat called Lady Soba Fuzzyface McCat."

"So, you went with Princess Deathwish?! You should have let someone else pick, I love you both, but neither of you are good at naming things. Shouto wanted to call his special incapacitation move his 'Ice Hug of Incapacitation'."

Katsuki was about to respond, torn between wanted to defend his husband and agree with Deku, when his phone let off a bright chirp, altering him to a new message.

Halfie: Nearly wrapped up here, just got to get your key chain. Love you.

"Tch," Katsuki muttered, shoving his phone into his pocket, but not before surreptitiously replying.

"Any news?"

"How the fuck could you tell it was him?"

Deku grinned as he headed into the showers, "your face gives it away."

He darted away before Katsuki could respond, turning on the water and ignoring the annoyed grunts that followed at his heals.

Usually, Katsuki would have chased after him, possibly screeching as he did so, but he didn't have the energy. It had been a weird day; they'd finally gotten the drop on one of the larger gangs operating in Tokyo only to get side-lined by some toddler with a demolition quirk. The resulting chaos had led to a difficult chase through the city, having to call in heroes from other agencies as they did so. Eventually, Kirishima was able to restrain the kid, who by that point was so upset he could barely speak, only to discover said kid had escaped from the gang they'd been after in the first place.

The whole business had left a sour taste in Katsuki's mouth, unable to shake the fearful look the kid had had in his eyes, even after they'd dropped him off with social services. Katsuki often fought some pretty despicable villains but that kind of behaviour was still, blessedly, rare.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You know, I was talking to Kaminari earlier and he said he's barely heard from Shinsou for a month," said Deku, clearly in some desperate attempt to get Katsuki to open up about his feelings or whatever as they walked home from the agency.

Katsuki merely grunted in reply, hoping Deku would recognise a lost cause when he heard one.

Unfortunately, this was Deku, the insufferable optimist who wouldn't know a lost cause if it Detroit Smashed him right in the face. "Must be something big, I know Shouto doesn't like to be away from you for too long."

"He does what he has to," Katsuki said, after a moment's pause.

"And he's good at it too," Deku nodded, before frowning a little, "but that doesn't mean you're not allowed to miss him."

"We are so not fucking doing this. It doesn't matter anyway; he'll be back annoying the shit out of me by tomorrow."

"That's great," Deku smiled his trademark superhero grin, all shiny teeth and eyes like some kind of unbearable advert for anti-depressants. "I'll have to get in touch, it's been ages since we hung out."

"You will fucking not; you will not text him for at least two days after he's back and you're swapping shifts with me tomorrow. He'll only set the apartment on fire if he starts having ideas about cooking when he gets back. That idiot will have learned how to bake a five-tier wedding cake before he learns how to cook any decent meal that doesn't involve a microwave."

"Of course, Kacchan, I'll swap with you," said Deku, as though it had been a politely worded request, "I wouldn't want to deprive you of your husband."

"Tch"

"You know, you two are really popular these days, especially since the wedding. It's kinda creepy sometimes, I've even noticed fans online buying stuff like coffee cups or chewing gum you or Shouto have used. I never really thought you'd get married, we did a poll in second year of least to most likely to get married and you came in last, excluding Mineta but I think that was more about the fact we couldn't really see anyone agreeing to marry him. Come to think of it we put Shouto in like seventeenth which is pretty far down and even then, we never thought the two of you would be together... Not that you don't work together! You totally do! I mean it's been six years since you got together and..."

And this stage in his life, Katsuki liked to consider he'd become the bigger man when, instead of yelling at Deku to shut up, he merely reached a hand up to his ears to turn down his hearing aids, spending the rest of the walk to the train station in blissful peace.