Feral | Tenya Iida

Chapter 19

Third person pov

Tenya is a tense and uptight person in general. Getting into the swing of a relationship-- especially his first relationship-- was in no way easy. Countless articles on what to do, what to say, and how to act flooded his search history. A guide on how to cuddle, one on how to properly kiss, and another on what how to deter sexual urges so he could avoid total mortification. Tenya had relied on written words to guide him through anything and everything. Reading was his favorite way to learned. It was one of the only ways he could. It's why he was so articulate in his note-taking, and it's why he spent so much time browsing the internet for the highest rated articles. 

The realization shouldn't have come as a surprise. It hit him as he was walking down the street, his hand in Kit's, Kit ranting rather vulgarly about a 'shitbrick dunderhead who didn't know anything about fashion' to both him and Izuku. It was all so natural. Tenya's chiding just comes to a dead halt entirely out of nowhere. Kit almost falls flat on his face. Izuku has become oddly graceful over their time working out together and just knowing each other in general, and spins on his heel so smoothly it makes both of them vaguely jealous for just a flash.

"I don't need articles." Tenya looked down at their hands like god had just sent his word straight from above and painted it across their laced fingers. He'd sort of realized it before, but not really. He knew to some extent that articles wouldn't solve anything, but it just sort of body-slammed right into him at this exact moment for no discernable reason. He got that he doesn't have to be so uptight and tense, and that things hadn't changed, and Kit was still the same Kit he knew and loved. He'd reached that conclusion weeks ago. But this-- he didn't need articles to know how to give affection. A guide. He was doing just fine, walking down the street, holding hands so easily without fretting over the many writings he'd saved up.

"Repeat that again?" Kit raised an eyebrow. Izuku just blinked at them.

"I think he's having an epiphany." Izuku deduced. "He has been reading a lot of articles on how to properly show affection."

"Wait- the fuck? I thought you gave those up." Kit gave Tenya an accusing glare, but the taller teenager was too preoccupied to even notice. Kit sighed heavily to himself. What was he going to do with this lug? Whatever. Progress was progress. How Iida had come to this striking conclusion in the midst of their walk to the train station was beyond Kit. And while Kit was ranting about the self-entitled dick bags that seemed to populate their school, no less. Honestly, the brunette hadn't a clue about his boyfriend's readings on general affection. 

"I thought you know. He has an entire notebook on it." Izuku shrugged. He'd gotten a lot more comfortable around them, especially in wake of the whole magazine managing thing. They were planning on releasing another at the end of this week. The publishing team was ecstatic at the news. Not only was it a brilliant idea, but it meant more money for them. There was no way they were going to pass that up, which made sense. Kit didn't care. As long as they did the shit they were told to do and they did it well, he could bring himself to tolerate them. A lot of them were great people who supported the ideas they were putting out, which was an added bonus.

"Just one? I'm impressed." Kit genuinely was, and that was the sad part. Tenya flushed, blinking from his momentary buffering session and squeezing Kit's hand out of habit for comfort. Kit just snorted at him. "You back with us?"

"A-Ah, yes. I apologize." Tenya choked out. He really wasn't good at this whole relationship thing, was he? For Kit, things just seemed to come so naturally, it made him feel a bit unsure of himself. He loved the way his boyfriend was so relaxed all the time. In a lot of ways, it was reassuring to have someone who seemed to know what they were doing, or least had some confidence in their actions. Tenya had, prior to now, wished he could organically summon such actions without having to think of them first, without realizing that's exactly what he was doing. His ways of giving affection first were just different than Kit's, that was all.