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ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʟᴍ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴏʀᴍ ` - ᴠᴀʟᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ & ᴍɪɴᴄᴄɪɴᴏ

Katsuki didn't know how to act. Not really. Shoto's mother was so different from his own in so many ways that he didn't know how to just... behave like a normal, adult-respecting person. Maybe saying as little as possible would help. He sat down stiffly.

"Well," he sucked in a breath, pointing a thumb to his own chest. He was about to blab about how he was going to be the number one hero again, but he stopped himself, as he considered the fact she was here... because of Endeavor. "We go to school together. We're going to work together soon, too."

"You don't..." Katsuki mulled over what to say next, pursing his lips. "You don't have to worry about him." It was a silent promise that he'd protect Shoto, even if he may not necessarily need the protection. Everyone needed support. Everyone had their moments when they faltered. Katsuki was no different. Shoto, too.
 
Shoto was in the process of reaching for Katsuki's hand to calm him down when he said that last thing, and he faltered for a moment. Across from him, his mother's brown eyes went a little misty, and she nodded slightly in understanding.



"Thank you," she said, full of meaning. "I think you and I are going to get along quite well, Katsuki."



Shoto finally took his hand, twining their fingers together. "I switched to the sidekick course," he said. "Katsuki's going to be at the top, he's a very capable hero."



She smiled again. "You must be very excited."



Finally. Someone who didn't argue. He nodded, and shared her smile, and she settled back. "Well, you met at school, I'm assuming? So it's been a few months now. How did this start?"



"He..." Shoto glanced at Katsuki for a moment, then said, "asked me to dinner. The rest is kind of history."
 
It took everything in him not to go off about himself, and how amazing he was. How he was going to blow all the competition out of the water and leave Endeavor in the dust of his success. It was nearly impossible, and yet, Katsuki chewed on his lower lip and resisted the urge.

"As... friends," he corrected Shoto. "I didn't really get it. Liking boys. I just knew I wanted to get to know the idi-" he stopped himself and cleared his throat. "Get... to know Shoto." He rubbed the nape of his neck. Fuck, why was it even more embarrassing to admit all this to his mom? "But it feels right."

"I don't... think anything really felt right for me, besides wanting to be a hero."
 
Shoto was smiling, half biting the inside of his cheek to keep his amusement in check as Katsuki kept his mouth from running wild. He squeezed his hand, and his mother listened closely to each word.



"This must have been very confusing for you," she said gently. "I'm glad you decided to try and understand your feelings." Her gaze darted to her son. "I don't think I've ever seen him so content."



Shoto opened his mouth, but stopped when his mother leaned in to cup his scarred cheek. "I'm proud of you," she said softly. "You're becoming your own man."



He didn't say anything. He couldn't. His mouth had gone dry. She smiled like she understood and said, "Would you boys like to play Shogi?"



He looks to his boyfriend and completely blank faced says, "Beat her. I never can and she's insufferable about it."



"I have no idea what you're talking about," she says innocently as she fetches the board from a shelf.
 
Katsuki couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so stiff, and then he remembered that this had happened when he'd been interning for Best Jeanist way back when he'd been forced to don that awful hairdo. He glanced at Shoto when the offer of Shogi came up. Now that was something he could get into.

Katsuki was nothing if not competitive, and his skills on the battlefield were often useful for other things, like strategy games. "I don't know, Shoto," he grinned, a little bit of himself finally slipping through. "I don't wanna beat your mom the first time I meet her..."

Who was he kidding? He had no intention of losing to her, either. So he was determined to play like he was in the Shogi championships.
 
Shoto grinned back, a rare mischievous glint in his eyes as he settled into his chair while he watched his mother set up the game.

She plays brutal, and actually resembles her son a bit when he fights. The one time Shoto reaches out to help her with a move, Katsuki having played her into a tight spot, she gently slaps his hand away without even looking.

He holds both of his up in surrender and shoots his boyfriend an amused look. He likes this better than the stiff talking. This feels like them getting along.
 
Katsuki narrowed his eyes and got into the game much more than he thought he would, his mind running a mile a minute and his foot tapping impatiently as if to think. "Damn it," he muttered as she played him into a tight spot, but by a rather strategic move on his part, he was able to turn the tide against her for that one moment.

But he could tell that she was getting the upper hand quickly, since Katsuki had always been better at brute-forcing his way through things anyway. He couldn't exactly flip the table and blow everything up, could he?
 
Shoto was watching them both play closely, almost eye level with the board he was so into it, and he was certain Katsuki was going to win at some point, looking smug about the way his mother's eyes narrowed and she stared at the board. She would have to sacrifice a move, and then Katsuki could win.

But then, inexplicably, she smirks, and with a few quick moves she captures Katsuki's tiles and swipes his king. "Shogi."

"Again," he says.

"Shoto-" his mother starts, but she sees the excited look on his face and smiles before she resets the board. He leans over and presses a kiss to Katsuki's cheek.

"You can do it babe. Destroy her. For me."
 
Katsuki's rage bubbled within, but it was a competitive kind of rage that festered into a fiery determination to win. He spread his legs and slapped his hands on his knees, his red eyes glowering with a rekindled spirit. "I was just going easy on you the first time," he huffed. "Let's play again."

This time, he felt he knew the way she played, so his moves were more confident this time around, almost as if to be on the aggressive this time.

Maybe a lot of that boosted confidence and improved tactic had a lot to do with the kiss of moral support he'd gotten from his boyfriend. No way he could lose now if Shoto was watching him.
 
The room was almost deadly silent as the two played, Shoto watching them closely, tiles banging. After a moment his eyes slightly widened, and his mother hesitated before making a move.



The set up was right there. If Katsuki made the right choice, he could take her king and win. But if he missed, her next move was lined up perfectly to take his. They'd both played so well it was right there.



Her confidence is fake as she leans back and motions for Katsuki to go, but her poker face is rather good.
 
Katsuki took that opening with a victorious grin, taking her king and declaring "Shogi" so loud that a nurse passing by would have warned them to keep it down. Katsuki felt vindicated, like he'd won an entire fight because his adrenaline was still surging.

"That was... that was pretty good," he said. "Almost got me." He turned to Shoto, and pressed a kiss to that scarred side of his face closest to him.
 
Shoto was grinning, and it only grew as Katsuki kissed his cheek. His mother looked torn between being polite and a sore loser, and eventually settled on, "you got lucky."

"You got beat," Shoto says, all in good nature. "I feel so vindicated."

After she cleared the game away they spent some time just talking about school and catching up since his last visit. She asked Katsuki plenty of questions, and more than once Shoto squeezed his hand, hoping to remind him to be himself.

"Oh, before I run out of time," he said, grabbing the present he had brought her and handing it over. "It's just more paints. I know you enjoy it."

"Thank you," she said with a warm smile. "Both of you. I feel very loved this Christmas."

Shoto hesitated for a moment, glancing at the art of him around the room. "You can paint the scar," he said. "It's okay. Don't feel guilty about it. Besides," with a glance to his boyfriend he smirked. "It's kind of badass."
 
Katsuki genuinely had a good time with Shoto's mother, and it was odd because he'd never really interacted with another adult in this way. He'd been nervous at first but after a while that anxiety ebbed, until it was time to go.

He only noticed the paintings around when Shoto pointed them out, and had it not been for that split hair, Katsuki wouldn't have recognized his boyfriend without the scar.

He grinned toothily. "Yeah, he looks badass. Wouldn't be Shoto without it." He meant it, and didn't say so to make her feel bad about it or anything.

"Anyway, um..." he thought of what to say next, never having been in this position before to make it any easier. "I'll take care of Shoto." Katsuki nodded. "Merry Christmas."
 
"Merry Christmas," she said, with a smile back, and when Shoto hugged her she said just loud enough for both of them to hear, "Take care of him too, Shoto. I like him quite a lot."

"I will," he said softly, and with one more squeeze he finally let her go and waved on his way out of the room. He felt light as he walked, hand and hand with Katsuki, back into the snow. It wasn't falling anymore, the sun had gone down. "Thank you for coming with me," he said. "I had a really good time."
 
Katsuki hadn't even realized how dark it had gotten until he stepped outside with Shoto. He turned to his boyfriend, a small smile on his features. "You don't need to thank me, weirdo. Of course I was gonna see your mom sooner or later. We kind of have a future together."

He mumbled the last part, and cupped his boyfriend's cheek to kiss him, right there with the snow falling gently overhead. It was the first time he'd really kissed him so tenderly like this, around Christmas time, that was.

"Merry Christmas," he said to him.
 
Shoto kissed him back, lifting onto his toes and throwing his arms around Katsuki's neck to drag him closer. "We do kinda have a future together, huh?" He asked, expression bright. He kissed him again and nuzzled his face into his neck. "Merry Christmas," he mumbled.

Wheb he pulled away, he stayed close, starting the trek to the train starting again. He tilted his head up into the light snowfall. "I'm happy," he said, wonder in his voice. "I'm so happy."
 
Katsuki's arms slipped easily around his boyfriend's waist. It felt natural at this point, since he's always hugged him like this in the shower, or after some basketball match when he scored. Of course, even such a tender moment couldn't be complete without him grabbing his boyfriend's ass.

"We're not gonna miss the train anytime soon," he chuckled and pulled Shoto back against him, then flung him into the fresh layer of snow that had fallen off to the wayside. He laughed at how Shoto sunk in completely, leaving an imprint of where he'd just disappeared into the blanket of snow.
 
Shoto had relaxed so much into his boyfriend that he hadn't expected the swing. There was no saving him as he went down, soft snow catching him and then burying him in its depths. He laid there for a moment, blinking in surprise, before he lurched up suddenly and grabbed Katsuki's ankle.

He knew the other man would be expecting it so when he went to balance himself he grabbed his arm instead and yanked, sending him into his own body and the snow. "You jerk!" He says, but he's grinning, snow sticking in his hair.
 
Around Shoto, Katsuki's refined fight-or-flight response was so dull that he fell for the trick, getting dragged into the snow with him effortlessly. The two tumbled and flipped in the snow, until they were making a mess of snow angels in the fresh blanket and people were staring at them as they walked past.

"Shit, that's cold!" he huffed, sure that snow had somehow gotten into his jacket and even in his shirt. Katsuki grabbed a wad of snow, then, and shoved it in Shoto's face, though he had no idea if it'd do anything if the guy had a natural resistance to ice.
 
Shoto was laughing, loud and free, falling into snow beds like a child who had never done it before, dragging Katsuki with him. For all he seemed to care, they could be alone in the world, the passing stares from strangers not seeming to bother him in the least.

He laughed again when there was a snowball in his face, warm breath making it melt away, though stray snowflakes stuck to his cheeks, before he pounced, taking Katsuki down with him in another mound. He stayed over him for a moment, grinning, and blew ice flakes in his boyfriends face, switching from heat to ice effortlessly.
 
If he had to wrestle in snow forever just to hear that laugh, Katsuki would have done it all day. The snow was compact enough that it wasn't a slurry beneath his clothes or even getting past his winter jacket. He stayed pinned down when Shoto toppled over him, his hands rested on his boyfriend's hips. Shoto's face eclipsed the starry sky behind his head and it truly was a mesmerizing sight, enough to leave him stunned with a stupid little grin on his face.

Even when Shoto blew ice into his face, he snorted and tried rubbing them off. "If I get a cold, it's all your damn fault!" he said, despite knowing that it was he who had instigated this tumble in the snow in the first place.
 
Shoto snorted, and leaned down to kiss him again, just a quick one before he stood up and offered Katsuki a hand. He dusts snow off himself and shakes his scarf out.

"If you get sick I'll just take care of you," he says, and tugs his gloves off. Holding them between his teeth, he rubs his hands for a moment, then reaches up to cup his boyfriends cheeks. They're warm enough they might as well be heat packs, and he smiles at him. "You love me," he says, like it's a secret he didn't know already.
 
They were both covered in snow from head to toe, but Katsuki pretended he didn't mind as he begrudgingly took Shoto's hand to help himself up. He would have slapped away anyone else's, since anyone offering genuine help still made him think they were looking down on him, but strangely that wasn't the case with Shoto. Maybe it was because they'd already established Shoto had no problem letting Katsuki just... win things, or be number one. Maybe he just loved him.

His shoulders slouched and his gaze went a bit soft as Shoto cupped his cold cheeks with his warm hands. "I liked your mom," he said. "She's a lot like you."
 
He gets a bit of a faraway look in his eye for a moment, and doesn't move his hands even when he focuses again. "Yeah. I didn't visit her, for awhile. Almost ten years. It was after the Sports Festival, actually, that I went for the first time since it happened. My sister used to tell me all the time to go. That we were just alike. But I ..."

He swallows thickly. "I wasn't mad at her. I never blamed her. But I was afraid if she saw my face it would break her. She tried to fix it. As soon as she'd realized what she'd done. She put ice on my face immediately. Said she was sorry."

He shakes his head a little and lets his hands fall free. "I'm glad I went. She's a good mom. She's just ... broken."
 
"I see where you get it from," Katsuki snorted as he poked his boyfriend's forehead. He saw where Shoto got his aloofness, his competitive drive, or just how calm under pressure he was at times. He didn't see an ounce of Endeavor in Shoto so it made sense why Shoto was so adamant about being everything his dad didn't want him to be.

He nodded, not knowing how to offer any comfort past that, but Katsuki also didn't think Shoto expected that out of him. He patted his stomach as they walked to the train station again, puffing out a breath of air that condensed as frost in front of him. "Fuck, I'm starving."
 
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