moving up

Chapter 9

It's getting late one night when Tenya decides that it's about time for him to head to sleep. He has to open the store in the morning, so he needs to get his rest, but it is just as he's thinking this that his phone rings, displaying a familiar name on the caller ID.

"Hello?" he asks, trying to keep his voice level. For all he knows, it's a work call, not a personal one, and he'll only look like an idiot for assuming the latter.

"You at home, Glasses?" Katsuki asks.

"Of course, it's late, so I-"

"I'm coming over, I'm leaving the store right now," he replies, and hangs up before Tenya has a chance to react.

"He didn't even ask if I was alone," he says to himself with a sigh, though he supposes that much must have been obvious. Katsuki must have just finished closing up for the night, and Tenya wonders what he wants to see him about. Of course, he knows he should have said no, both as an attempt to end things and because he has to get up early, but they haven't seen each other as much outside of work lately, and he couldn't resist taking the opportunity.

It isn't long before he hears Katsuki's car pull in, and he opens the door before the other man has the chance to knock. He's not necessarily paranoid that anyone will see them; it's not like his neighbors work with him, or like they care if he entertains guests late at night. Either way, he's there to greet Katsuki and him in, but the other man doesn't say anything until the door is shut behind him, and even then, all he says is, "It's late, so let's get to it."

His utter lack of affection is always so off-putting, and yet Tenya still goes along with it, no hesitation.

~X~

He doesn't know what's bothering Katsuki, but he knows that something has to be. Usually, it's impossible to read the other man, but tonight, it is at least easy to tell that he isn't acting like himself, and that is enough to make Tenya wonder if something has happening. They don't have the sort of relationship where he feels like he can ask, but there is a different sort of distance, like his mind is somewhere else, and Tenya supposes that he is just being used a distraction, regardless of how well said distraction is working.

They stay up late, far later than Tenya would have ever allowed himself the night before he had to open the store, but he doesn't want to try to kick Katsuki out. A large part of him knows that he should , but he doesn't want to, even if he feels vaguely nauseous as he tries to guess at what it is that Katsuki is using him to take his mind off of. He has at least one solid guess, and he really doesn't want to think about that anymore.

But he can't stop remembering that Izuku was on the closing schedule for tonight as well, that they must have just ended a shift together, and if that isn't what's got Katsuki acting so distracted, then he doesn't know what is.

He tries to remind himself that he isn't that good at reading people, and that it could be anything. It doesn't have to be something to do with Izuku, just because he's jealous now. For all he knows, he's wrong about everything, but, no matter how he tries to be rational, that thought stays with him for the rest of the night.

"You don't care if I stay, right?" Katsuki mutters, making no move to get up once all is said and done.

"That's fine," Tenya replies, if only because it is rather late, and he doesn't want something to happen to the other man if he leaves at this hour. He's learned by now that the few times that Katsuki stays over don't mean a thing. "I do need to sleep, though, I-"

"I know, I know, you've gotta work in the morning," he says. "Kinda surprised you even let me in, but that was your choice, I guess."

As if he had a choice, he thinks, but then, he did. He knows that he had a choice, and he knows that he keeps making the wrong choice, and it's likely that he's never going to make the right choice, until Katsuki eventually gets tired of him, or moves on to someone else.

Tenya doesn't get much sleep that night, but he at least manages to refrain from asking any questions about Izuku.

~X~

A few days later, he is looking over the break schedule that is kept by the register when Ochako says, "Hey, Tenya, can I ask you something?"

"Of couse," he says, without looking up. "Anything you need."

"It's kind of about work, but also kind of personal," she says. "Okay, so, I know how the rules are, but what really happens when coworkers date?"

For one brief, irrational moment, he thinks that she knows about him and Katsuki, but that can't be the case. She wouldn't have phrased things that way if that were the case, and she said that it was personal, so she must be referring to something else. Still, he's silent for too long as he overthinks this, and Ochako says, "Alright, so I guess it isn't good."

"Are you asking on your own behalf?" he finally manages.

She looks down at her register, and mumbles, "Yeah, kinda. I mean, I don't really know where it's going, but I just wanted to know what would happen. I mean, everyone knows about Denki and Kyoka, but nothing ever happened to them, so...I don't know."

Tenya has to assume that she's talking about Izuku, and that must mean that something's happened between the two of them. And if that's the case, then it's possible that Katsuki knows about this new development, and, if that's the case, then Tenya assumes that that's the reason Katsuki came to see him the other night.

"Well, I'm probably not the right person to ask," he finally replies. He'd like to give her a talk about appropriate workplace relationships, but he's hardly one to talk, and there is still the petty part of him that hopes for her and Izuku to get together. Even having seen Katsuki when he was distracted by that, Tenya still wants Izuku out of the way, just so that things could go back to the way they were.

Even though he's never been happy with the way things were.

"Promise not to tell on me?" she asks. "I know it was a weird question, but I'm not saying anything is going to happen! I just wanted to get your input, I guess?"

"I won't tell anyone," he says. Really, he has no right to judge her, or try to get her in trouble, when he's far more guilty than she is.

"Thanks!" She gives him a relieve smile. "You're cooler than people give you credit for, you know? Not as much of a stick in the mud as they say!"

He forces a laugh that he hopes doesn't sound too forced, wondering, not for the first time, what he's going to do about himself.