Twenty-Four Hours [Happy Birthday Kacchan!] - Part 1

1:00

Izuku crawled into bed right as the clock ticked over to one a.m., and Katsuki yawned as he opened his arms, waiting for his boyfriend to snuggle in and get cozy. When it didn’t come, he cracked an eye open to look, staring at the bright, beaming smile in confusion.

“Coming to bed?” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “What, nerd?”

“Happy birthday, Kacchan!” he whispered, falling into his arms with a strange crinkling sound. “Twenty-four! So grown up!”

“Shut up,” Katsuki snorted, nuzzling into his hair lightly. “Thanks.”

“Open your first present,” Izuku insisted, shoving a little package at him, making that same little crinkling noise that Katsuki finally realised was wrapping paper. “Come on, Kacchan!”

“Now?” he chuckled, shifting a little to get comfortable. “Alright, alright.”

The package was small and floppy, wrapped messily in plain paper, but tied with a little string bow to make up for it. Katsuki carefully slid it off, setting it on the bedside table, then unfastened the tape to get in. Izuku watched eagerly the entire time, grinning, and Katsuki cracked a smile of his own when he found three pairs of fluffy black-and-orange striped socks inside. He leaned in again, pressing a brief kiss to Izuku’s lips and g, etting a faint blush in return; no matter how many times they’d kissed over the years, Izuku still blushed every time, and Katsuki found it oddly addictive.

“Thanks, babe,” he whispered, pressing their foreheads together lightly. “They’ll keep my feet nice and toasty.”

“Yeah! And I won’t have to put up with your cold toes under my shirt,” Izuku grinned back, wrapping an arm around Katsuki fondly. “You know, for your first birthday, my Mom gave you socks too. Your Mom mentioned it last time I saw her, she made a bunch of cute little knitted baby socks because you kept kicking yours off and losing them.”

“Oh yeah? So we’ve come full circle, have we?”

“Mm-hm! I like the thought of baby Kacchan throwing his socks away, it’s very you.”

“Shut up,” Katsuki smirked, giving the socks a last quick squeeze then setting them aside. “Thank you, I’m gonna wear them to the workshop later. We should get some sleep now, though.”

“We should,” Izuku agreed, getting comfortable in Katsuki’s arms. “Goodnight, Kacchan.”

“G’night babe.”

─────

2:00

Katsuki woke to a faint buzzing, groaning as he stuck his head up to see the clock on Izuku’s bedside table. It was exactly one a.m., and Izuku was gently pulling out of his grip, leaning over to rummage around beside the bed.

“What’re you doing?” he mumbled. “Everything okay?”

His only answer was another paper package shoved in his face, and Katsuki huffed a little laugh as he accepted, unwrapping it carefully just like he’d done with the first. Inside he found a fluffy little teddy bear, a little bigger than his hand, dressed in a red, blue and yellow hoodie with little antlers sticking off the top. He couldn’t help but grin at it, leaning over to kiss Izuku’s cheek as he held it close.

“He’s cute,” he said softly. “Thank you.”

“Bet you can’t guess what I gave you for your second birthday,” he teased.

“Was it a cute little teddy bear?”

“Wow, you’re good.”

Katsuki cupped it in his hand, pressing it to his cheek to feel the soft fur, and Izuku watched fondly as he nuzzled the bear. Despite his bravado, Katsuki was a sucker for things that were soft and fluffy, and Izuku suspected for things that were cute too. Katsuki would never admit to that one, other than telling Izuku every day that he was cute, but Izuku had seen him get all misty-eyed over tiny kittens and his friends’ toddlers enough times to figure it out.

“I’m sleeping with Brutus tonight,” Katsuki murmured, getting cuddled in with his bear. “G’night nerd.”

“We can share,” Izuku laughed, wrapping his arms around them both and pulling them in close. “I don’t mind cuddling both of you.”

“Fine, acceptable.”

“Goodnight Kacchan.”

“Yeah, goodnight again.”

─────

3:00

Katsuki had been an avid reader from day one, always needing stories to fall asleep to as a baby – Mitsuki had told Izuku all about it, despite Katsuki blushing and complaining as she did, and about how he’d spent all day every day tugging at her clothes with a book in his hands. The moment he woke up, it was story time to coax him out of bed. To brush his teeth, eat breakfast, get dressed – story time required. The moment Dad got home from work, story time. Bath and bed? Only if stories were involved. To Izuku, it said a lot about Katsuki – bright, creative, studious, obsessive. To Katsuki, it was an embarrassing tale that annoying parents told to his boyfriend.

Izuku had even learned that for his third birthday, Inko had gifted Katsuki a collection of picture books. Many of them had been older or more obscure titles, things she’d picked up in second-hand stores or been sent from overseas when her husband was away for work, things he hadn’t already seen in the book store and demanded his parents buy for him since he had already read all of his own.

Really, it didn’t seem like any of them minded – as far as bribery and hobbies went, books  was a pretty good deal.

Katsuki had learned to read kanji before any of their peers, so that he could expand into new books. He’d even learned English long before they’d started learning it in school, to read the stories Hisashi had sent over.

As an adult, Katsuki didn’t quite get the time to read ten books a day anymore, but he did  always have a novel in his bag, to read on lunchbreaks or trains or when things were slow at work.

Izuku had taken a trip to the book store on his behalf, last time he got an afternoon off, and Katsuki recognised the shape of the package the moment Izuku woke him up with it. Even at three in the morning, Katsuki’s eyes lit up when he was faced with a stack of novels to choose from.

“I got that one you’ve been waiting for,” Izuku whispered, grinning. “It doesn’t officially come out until next week, but being a hero has some perks, right? And then I got a bunch of others that looked neat, that I don’t think you have on your shelf yet. I didn’t recognise the names or the covers, so here’s hoping!”

“You bought me books,” Katsuki whispered, almost reverent in tone as he dragged the package over to hug it. “You do love me.”

“You should go back to sleep,” Izuku laughed. “Sorry I keep waking you.”

“But I got books,” Katsuki insisted, carefully unwrapping the pile to take a peek. “How am I meant to sleep now?”

“You can read them all tomorrow.”

Katsuki pouted a little, but one by one he set them aside obediently, taking a moment to read the covers and run his hands over each one tenderly before stacking them on his bedside table.

“You’re my favourite,” Katsuki murmured, dragging Izuku in for a hug and a kiss. “You bought me books.”

“Of course I did,” Izuku laughed. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t buy you your favourite thing in the world?”

“You’re my favourite thing in the world.”

“Awww, you’re so cute when you’re sleepy,” Izuku teased, kissing him back. “Back to sleep with you, now! Sweet dreams baby.”

“Love you, Favourite.”

─────

4:00

At three years old, Inko had still been in charge of buying the presents. Izuku, as a babbling two year old, had done his best to give input into the decision, but ultimately he’d just been an over-excited toddler.

Already obsessed with reading, Katsuki had been a perfectionist and an academic from the very beginning. When Inko found the little practice whiteboard, complete with stencils for hiragana and even some simple kanji, plus magnetic frames to practice fitting the characters inside of, she’d known Katsuki would adore it.

For any other kid, a gift like that would have been a chore, but for Katsuki, it was freedom. The freedom to work beyond his years, to express himself in ways other kids hadn’t yet learned.

Katsuki still wrote things down a lot, even years later. He didn’t write long, poetic love letters or create his own novels, but he took notes about everything, where Izuku just relied on his phone. He had sticky notes about calls to make and reports to submit, notepads to send messages to people in other offices, even some thicker, formal looking pages for sending out notes to say thank you for your assistance or get well soon. Despite his usually brash attitude, as an agency co-owner he was one of the best.

After a lot of research, Izuku had managed to find him a custom set to work with, and he was gleeful as he handed it over at four a.m. on the dot. Sticky notes shaped like explosions, in shades of red and orange and yellow to help him differentiate topics or priorities; formal letterhead with their agency name and contact information printed in a pretty script, a subtle little grenade motif in the corners; and notepads, much more excitingly patterned with explosion patterns, grenades, or crosses like his costume shirt.

Despite being half-asleep, Katsuki still took the time to go through every single one, even the matching envelopes to go with his new papers and the little black and orange paperclips to bind things. With a big, sleepy smile he leaned over to kiss Izuku’s forehead, pinching his freckled cheek fondly.

“I’m gonna leave notes all over your office,” he said, surprisingly firm considering his fatigue. “Get ready for sticky explosions everywhere.”

“Is that a euphemism?”

“It is now.”

Izuku laughed, shaking his head fondly when Katsuki grinned, and helped him put everything away in the thick, protective box it had come in before setting it aside.

“Write me love notes,” Izuku requested, snuggling in again. “On explosions, if you want.”

“Deal.”