A Touch Of Joy

Ch. 3 Letters

Katsuki's day started as it always does: with him longing to go back to sleep. It isn't as if he has anything to do this morning (or most mornings) but he's already skipped his alarm twice and the sun beaming through the window is going to make drifting into unconsciousness impossible.

Snatching his phone from the side table, he figures he can watch stupid videos or swipe through social media for a few hours, just to hold off on getting out of bed a bit longer. However, his sigh turns into a long groan as he quickly figures out that the damned thing's dead.

Of course.

As soon as he got home last night he made a peanut butter banana sandwich, chased it with a shot of whiskey, and immediately went to bed to mess around on his phone. He had stayed up until one in the morning and, even then, had to force himself to put it down and sleep. Just his luck that he forgot to plug it in.

Sitting up, he stretches his arms over his head. The popping in his shoulders and elbows feels good, but when he stands and balances on his toes, the pops in his ankles feel the best. He plugs in his phone, shrugs on a shirt from the clean laundry chair in the corner and leaves the room.

Katsuki's morning routine has been the same since living in the dorms at U.A.. Start a pot of coffee, perform various exercises with weights then run two miles (the trail around the school was traded for the treadmill in the spare room), shower, then eat. Truely, the only difference is not having to wait for school to begin. Now, he sits at the small round dining table, hair damp from the shower, with a mug of straight black coffee in one hand and half of a cream cheese bagel in the other.

Quiet surrounds him as he stares out the window down at the city below. It's 10:30 A.M. - having caught the time while he changed - so today's road traffic has yet to pick up and the pedestrians on the sidewalks are sparse. He could turn on the radio and catch the end of The Early Morning Crew - a talk show with two hosts that do giveaways and segments like "worst fail of the week" - or listen to the News. However, he likes the morning silence, specifically, he likes watching Octo Dog across the street without any distractions. Octo Dog - at least that's what he calls it - is the mascot for the new bento restaurant that opened last month. Apparently, they thought the best way to advertise their opening was to stick a poor part-timer in a cartoon octopus hot dog costume and have them hand out fliers and dance around. Yesterday they were twirling around a sign almost their height, today they are doing stationary tricks on a skateboard. As people walk past, Katsuki watches as they clap everytime Octo Dog lands a trick and some even briefly go in to check out the joint before exiting and getting on with their day again. At first, he hated Octo Dog. It was so annoying being distracted from The Early Morning Crew every five seconds, but as the days went on, it had become harder and harder to keep his eyes off of it. The damn thing is just too fucking amusing. Especially when a skateboard trick goes wrong.

Shoving in the last bite of his cream cheese bagel, Katsuki stands, throws away the napkin he used as a plate and starts refilling his coffee. It isn't as if he's still tired, working out as soon as he gets up helps, but he knows his body will want to shut down as soon as he sits in front of his laptop. He knows his eyes will pretend to be tired no matter how dim he makes the screen. The coffee will make him jittery, anxious to get something done instead of just sit there. The writing will be shitty and scattered but all his thoughts will be typed out and he'll be able to look back on it later in the day and work out the kinks.

The door intercom buzzes, the volume beyond the max of what it needed to be. He pours hot coffee on his hand as he startles, shouting a string of curses. Pasing to the sink, he flicks the nob and sticks his hand under the faucet. The cool water doesn't do much other than dull the sting. His thumb and index finger feel like they're being held dangerously close to a stove on high heat. The first time he used his quirk, his palm had burned enough to almost make him cry and every time he used it after that, the burning sensation turned into a tingling feeling. This feels just like that first time, only worse.