Sweetheart

Chapter 8

Katsuki couldn't help but crack a smile when he turned around, finding a breathless freckled face smiling back at him. He'd heard the door creak behind him and turned around with no real expectations, so to see the nerd before him made him...

Ugh, happy.

He'd been out of the country for the past six weeks, dealing with some international crisis, and Katsuki hadn't even had a chance to tell him the news yet. The nerd had been sitting on an eight hour flight when the rankings came out, and his phone had blown up with calls and messages when they announced number forty-six.

He'd finally broken fifty, and his friends couldn't have been more excited for him. He was only the third in the class to get there, after Deku (now number eight) and Shouto (now number thirty-three). He was the first one to do it without a big-name father (or adopted father, at least) though, and he refused to shut up about that fact.

"Kacchan!" the nerd bleated, the moment their eyes met. "I'm so proud!"

He was already bawling by the time he threw his arms around Katsuki's neck, almost spilling his drink in the process. Katsuki just smiled and set his glass down, hugging the nerd tight in his arms.

He'd missed the guy, even if he'd never say it out loud.

"You should have told me!" he sobbed, nuzzling at Kacchan's chest. "Why didn't you text me?!"

"I wanted to see your reaction when I told you, was gonna call you when you got home." He paused, frowning a little. "Why are you here, anyway? Weren't you flying back to Tokyo?"

"I did! But then I got Miruko's invitation so I jumped on the next flight, and then the first train, and then I ran here from the station. I'm so glad you haven't gone home yet, I didn't want to miss the party!"

The "party" was a small group of Katsuki's closest friends and colleagues. Miruko had called him to congratulate him, and had asked him to come to the office around eight. After a day preparing to gracefully accept that it was time for him to leave, to hopefully resign before he could be fired, he had put on his dark suit – Deku's favorite one – and had taken a deep breath as he walked in.

To his surprise, he'd found a group of his old high school friends and even teachers, fresh off planes and trains (at Miruko's expense, he learned – maybe she really did like him), waiting inside. They erupted in cheers when he stepped through the door, and for a moment he'd been stunned, before he finally cracked a smile.

"I missed you too," Katsuki mumbled, ignoring the little snickers from his friends around them. "I didn't think I'd hear from you 'til morning."

When Deku finally let him go, he reached for his wine glass, quickly hunting down a full one to hand to Deku. The nerd flashed him his brightest smile as he accepted, and finally they returned to the group to take their beating of teases and torments.

As the night wound to a close, and his friends demanded to see his new apartment, Katsuki locked eyes with Miruko across the room.

"Yeah, just uh... Hey, Deku, show them the way alright? I'll catch up."

"Sure, Kacchan!" he dug through his pocket, double-checking that the spare key was still in his possession. "Take your time, we'll go mess up your kitchen!"

"You wouldn't dare."

Deku tactfully ushered them away, and the room fell silent other than Katsuki's heavy shoes as he crossed the room.

"Thank you for taking me under your wing," he began knowingly. "I know it wasn't the easiest thing for you to do."

"I don't regret it, kid," she smirked. "You're alright, you know."