Running on Empty

Clouds of flour and tickle monsters

"So Hizashi, I've been meaning to ask."

The voice hero hummed in acknowledgement.

"You mentioned that you used to snore really badly, how come you don't anymore?"

"Oh," Hizashi answered from behind him, surprised, "well there was this one villain fight - it was pretty rough and my nose got broken. So we had to go to get it fixed, but Recovery Girl was out of town so we went to a normal hospital, and I guess they set it a little different. I don't really know, but Sho never let Shuuzenji near it again after that, just in case."

Hitoshi hummed, satisfied with the answer, and turned back to his task — 'beat the mixture' was the only instruction Hizashi had given him before the hero turned to the other side of the kitchen, and although he was giving it his all, Hitoshi didn't really feel like he was winning.

Primarily because there was flour all over the surface, and his apron, and his face... and very little left in the bowl.

Hitoshi huffed, confused, and reached for the bag of flour, only to lock eyes with Shouta as he walked through the door.

The Erasure hero promptly burst into laughter at the state that Hitoshi was in, gaining Hizashi's attention who seemed to find it equally hilarious.

"How did you even manage that?!" He cried and Hitoshi pouted indignantly.

"I only did what you said!"

For some reason, the two heroes didn't seem to find him particularly intimidating with a huge splotch of flour over his nose, and they just started laughing harder, trying desperately to get a good photo despite how much they were both shaking.

Hitoshi contemplated the potential consequences of his next action for approximately 3 seconds, before he stuck his hands in the bag of flour and simultaneously threw a handful of the ingredient at each hero.

The shock caused both of them to stop laughing, and 'Zashi's mouth gaped open in shock whilst Shouta gave a feral grin.

"You're gonna regret that kid," he said advancing towards the now retreating Hitoshi.

His hand reached for the flour and Hitoshi bolted... only to run straight into something solid and tall.

"Uh oh," Hizashi sang, "what have we here?"

Hitoshi paled, entirely unnoticeably due to the quantity of flour covering his face, but he paled nonetheless as Hizashi grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around to face Shouta, who was now, right in front of him.

He looked Hitoshi in the eyes as he raised the bag and... dumped the entire half a bag of flour on his head, making sure to splash some on his already coated front as well.

Hitoshi gasped in outrage, as both heroes started to cackle. He used Shouta being distracted to catch him off guard and he launched himself at the pro, wrapping his arms around him tightly and rubbing his face onto his shoulder to get as much of the flour out of his hair and onto Sho as he possibly could.

Shouta's response was to almost immediately spin him around and push him right back into Hizashi's chest, where he repeated his actions, making sure that both heroes were sufficiently covered in flour.

Hizashi harrumphed and put his hands on his hips, squinting down at Hitoshi who just smiled innocently back.

The smile slid right off his face when Hizashi looked at Shouta over his head, nothing good ever came for Hitoshi after their secret communications.

He was right to be concerned, because a second later both heroes pounced, tickling him so ferociously that Hitoshi almost choked on the massive cloud of flour surrounding them as he desperately sucked in air, writhing around on the floor trying to push all their hands off of him and failing spectacularly.

"Mercy!" He gasped. "Have mercy please! I am but a child!"

"You're a rascal." Hizashi corrected, not letting up for a minute.

"A menace." Shouta added.

"A scallywag." Hizashi decided, and Shouta paused his attack as he and Hitoshi stared blankly at Hizashi.

"A what?"

"Huh?"

"A monkey," he kept going, "a mischief maker, a rapscallion!"

"What are you even saying?" Shouta laughed exasperatedly at his husband. "What language even is this?"

Hizashi just pouted and rolled onto his back with a puff of flour. "Whatever, it's not my fault you're uncultured swine."

"Uncultured swine?" Hitoshi echoed, giggling. "You're so dramatic."

"I was being smart."

"That makes a change."

"Sho! How could you?!"