Chasing Tinkerbelle (BakuDeku)

17 - Thank You Gift

"You look like shit."

"Thanks," Katsuki said, sitting down on the bed as he lazily rubbed his hair dry with a towel.

"Did you get any sleep after we left?" Eijiro asked from the doorway, looking over the pink streak left behind on Katsuki's shoulder. "That should be gone within a few days."

"You mean after you and that old man ran off like the cowards that you are, but only after you ate everything within sight?" he asked, tossing the towel in his brother's face.

"Yes," Eijiro said with an unconcerned shrug as he walked over to the closet. "Were you able to sleep?" he asked, throwing him an assessing glance before he turned his attention to Katsuki's limited wardrobe.

"Yeah," he said, not mentioning that he couldn't remember ever sleeping so well before.

Before his career had been fucked up by a sniper, he'd managed to spend the night holding someone a few times.

Although he'd enjoyed the feeling of falling asleep with a warm body pressed up against him, it had never felt as good as it had last night with Tinkerbelle lying in his arms.

Holding Izuku had been...

Unbelievable.

Waking up to find the boy gone had left him reeling.

He'd never expected to feel that way, especially not about someone he barely knew, but the moment that he'd woken up to find himself alone, he'd felt...

Lost.

He'd felt like a part of him was missing, which was fucking ridiculous.

He didn't know this boy, had never spent any real time with him, not to mention the fact that he'd spent the last two months tormenting Izuku in the usual Bakugo fashion.

So why he was feeling like a part of him was missing was beyond him. Maybe he should just agree to go out with one of the women that Eijiro had left in the living room and was trying to spring on him to clear his head.

Maybe a night away from his apartment with a beautiful somebody that wasn't expecting anything more than a good meal and a good time was just what he needed.

He looked down at the pillow that he'd shared with Tinkerbelle and nodded.

Maybe it was time to move on and let go of the past and he couldn't do that by hiding in his apartment, mooning over a boy that hated his guts.

*****

"Who says thank you with meatloaf?" Izuku mumbled with disgust as he looked down at the plate overflowing with meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, homemade honey butter and a thick slice of chocolate cake with fudge frosting on a smaller plate in his other hand.

"Someone too broke to buy a decent thank you gift, that's who," he answered his own question with a shake of his head.

Deciding to get this over with, he opened his door and walked out into the hall, wishing that he could be anywhere else, doing anything else, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Katsuki had taken care of him not once, but twice and he had yet to thank him properly.

As embarrassed as he was about the whole situation, and damn was he embarrassed, he couldn't pretend that it never happened. His parents hadn't raised him that way.

He shifted the smaller plate onto his other arm, raised his hand to knock and nearly dropped both plates when the door suddenly opened and a vaguely familiar, handsome man with a beautiful brunette by his side stepped out into the hallway.

"How are you feeling?" the man asked with a warm smile and real concern in his expression as he quickly looked him over, his gaze pausing on the light pink streaks marking his arms and face.

"I'm fine," Izuku answered, forcing a smile as he wracked his brain trying to figure out who this man was.

"Good," the man said, nodding approvingly as he stepped out into the hall with the pretty woman and made room for-

"Tinkerbelle?" Katsuki said, stepping into the hall with a beautiful blonde by his side, somehow making this moment more painful than the moment he had to step in front of the church and announce to a group of strangers that they'd showed up for nothing.

"Umm, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to thank you for everything and, so umm, I made you dinner, but I can see that you're going out so I'll just put this back in the fridge," he rambled on, somehow managing to stop himself at the end before he made a complete ass out of himself.

With a tight smile, he turned around to-

"You made me dinner?" Katsuki asked, sounding surprised.

Nodding, he turned around to answer him when he suddenly found his arms empty.

"What did he make?" the vaguely familiar man asked, stepping closer to Katsuki, seeming to forget the beautiful brunette by his side to peer down at the dishes in Katsuki's hands.

"It's nothing special," he said, watching as Katsuki tore back the aluminum foil. "It's just a meatloaf dinner."

"Oh-"

"-Gosh," vaguely familiar man said, finishing for Katsuki as both men stared down at the plate of food, licking their lips and looking as though they were in heaven.

Izuku looked down at the plate and sighed. He'd forgot the biscuits.

"Look, I didn't mean to interrupt your night. I just wanted to say thank you for everything that you did for me. Let me just run back into my apartment and get the biscuits and I'll leave you to enjoy your evening."

When nobody spoke, he took it as his cue to make his escape back into his apartment.

He rushed into his kitchen, grabbed the basket of biscuits, turned around and nearly tripped over his own two feet when he spotted Katsuki sitting at his kitchen table, digging into his food and groaning in rapture.

"This is so good," Katsuki said around a large bite of meatloaf.

A little more than stunned, Izuku opened his mouth to ask him if he wanted a biscuit when the banging started.

"You selfish bastard!" vaguely familiar man yelled as the pounding on the door continued.

"Just ignore him," Katsuki said, reaching for a biscuit. "He'll eventually go away."

"Alright then," Izuku said, because really, what else was there to say?