Chapter Text
1. kitten
Hitoshi’s smile is there and gone. Just a wry curl of lips, fingertips soft as he traces the shell of your ear, and then further down, hooking his pinky in the thin little collar around your neck. He tugs, leaning down, pupils blowing wide as you press your chest against his knee, chin lifting towards him.
“Kitten,” he rasps, and he sounds wanting, but he’s focused, intent on his part, even if his hand is trembling. “What sound does a kitten make?”
2. whipped cream
“It makes a mess.”
“It’s tasty, Hitoshi.”
“A tasty mess, then,” he amends, eyebrow arched, but he stays where he is, eyes following the trail of sweet cream you’re tracing down his chest. “Just to be clear,” he says, hissing when you sit back, the hard length of him pressing firmly between your legs. “You’ll be using your mouth to clean up this tasty mess?”
“Would you prefer the shower?”
He rolls his hips, nearly displacing you, and you have to catch yourself, hand smearing your careful design. He smirks. “I’d rather you get to work.”
3. purple haze
You love this, waking up beside him in the sunshine, the way it softens the weary hours from his face. The amethyst of his eyes, sleepily unfocused as his eyelids lift, sensing your stare.
“We’ve talked about this,” he rasps, blinking, slower than a butterfly fanning its wings in the heat. “’S creepy,” he mutters, smiling into his pillow when you elbow him, gently, in the ribcage.
“We talked about how it’s creepy when you do it before coming to bed,” you shoot back, wrinkling your nose. “Doing it here, in bed, in the morning? Lazy day vibes.”
He hums, reeling you into his arms, messy purple hair obscuring your vision. “Then more being lazy, less talking.” Hitoshi sighs, and between one breath and the next, he’s asleep again, and you’re left to breathe in his warmth, lips pressed to his mussed hairline.
4. between the lines
Shinsou feels like his feelings should be obvious, like he’s wearing a neon sign that lights up whenever you walk in the room. I’m in love with you flickers in brilliant red across your cheekbones.
He knows that it doesn’t work that way though. If he ever wants his feelings acknowledged he’ll have to do more than hope you read between the lines. It’s just that he has no idea how to start.
5. shell casings (monster x monster hunter au)
You’re quicker than this, you tell yourself, trying to slam the shell in the chamber without taking the skin off your fingers. You’re quicker than this, what is wrong with you?
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Shinsou calls out, voice even, steady, even while you’re preparing to load him full of blessed iron, soaked in st.john’s wort. It’ll hurt him, it might kill him- (might. might. you’ve been wrong far too many times about Shinsou Hitoshi, and you’re not sure you’ll live to regret it-)
“I’m not cruel,” he says, right in your ear, and you don’t scream, you don’t, but the shotgun blast covers all noise. All you can hear is a piercing whine, and you have empty hands, and his eyes are like lilacs, and there are cornflowers, swaying in the breeze-
6. vampire au
“This isn’t a joke,” he murmurs, lips soft against your throat, fingers curled carefully around the nape of your neck.
“Hitoshi,” you say, unashamed to admit you’re a little exasperated with the way the conversation is going. “There’s no such thing as-”
He laughs, and his teeth graze your skin, quick and sharp. It stings, like a paper-cut, and then his tongue flicks out to soothe it.
“Fortunately for me, saying ‘there’s no such thing as vampires’ does not make us drop dead. And it doesn’t make it any less true.” Even when he’s talking about such outlandish things, his voice makes you weak, makes your eyelids flutter closed… Makes you ignore the warm, wet sensation dripping over your collarbone. “I’ve simply grown tired of hiding it from you,” he confesses, and pulls away.
When you open your eyes, his mouth is smeared with red.
7. tumbling after (hanahaki disease au)
Shinsou has worked for too hard and too long to get where he is, to be a hero, to reach his dream. It… It’s come to include you, but seeing as his feelings are unrequited, seeing as he can’t give voice to them-
He can’t give up his life. He knows you wouldn’t want that, so he’s made an appointment for surgery, a week from Saturday.
Now all he has to do is avoid you until then.
8. don't fa- (punk/parkour au)
“You can’t be serious,” you choke out, staring with wide eyes over the lip of the building. You glance back at Shinsou, cursing those eyes and that cocky smile for leading you up here.
The ring in his lower lip glints as his smile widens and he pulls his hand out of his pocket, offering it to you. He looks like every bad-decision-fantasy come true, with the way his hood shadows his face. “I’ll teach you small things first,” he rasps, arching a brow when you hesitate to take his hand. “I brought you up here for a demonstration of what you could learn to do, not to jump straight into the danger of it.” He wiggles his fingers.
“Ready?”
9. bold
Hitoshi keeps odd hours, even for a hero. His quirk is more than useful, and his willingness to work with most anyone for the sake of helping others keeps him in high demand.
It’s… A little frustrating, feeling like you’ve just missed him all the time. He leaves you notes though.
Little things, like half recalled dreams scrawled across old receipts, or idle thoughts he had about a conversation from two days prior. A thanks and a crossed out heart, like he was embarrassed by the doodle, when you’d surprised him with a new hoodie, leaving it hooked on the door handle for him to find in the morning.
Today it’s a sticky note on the bathroom mirror, in lurid purple.
Be home early, it says, in his usual messy writing. Night in, or out?
I love you, is written in bold.
10. imagine
“Something wrong?” Hitoshi asks, not even lifting his eyes from the worn paperback in his hands. The spine is broken, pages dog eared- but the look in Hitoshi’s eyes is what really tells you he loves the tale. “I can feel you staring,” he adds, when you don’t immediately speak.
“I can’t imagine my life without you,” you say, half hoping that the breeze or the swaying shadows of the trees will carry away your words. It’s silly, being so self conscious, you’ve both confessed already, haven’t you?
Your heart beats unevenly when Hitoshi finally tears his attention away from the pages. The barest flourish of pink blooms along his cheekbones and surprise is writ all over his features.
“Come right out and say it, why don’t you?” He asks, swallowing before he forces his eyes back down to his book. His hand finds yours though, squeezing to share the words he can’t seem to voice.
11. shadow
Hitoshi can never seem to contain himself.
The sight of you, reclining on the bed in low light, shadows cast across your bare skin- He should clench his hands and move slowly. He should take measured steps across the room before he even puts a hand on you, should say something suave-
But he’s already pulling his shirt over his shoulders and trying not to stumble as his trousers start to slip down his hips.
“I take it you missed me?” You ask, smile growing when he does trip in his haste to reach you. “I thought I’d surprise you after such a l- Hito-” He just barely avoids cracking his forehead against yours, overeager to kiss you again, to have you back in his arms.
12. circus AU
There’s a moment, right before you fall, hands outstretched, where you’ve always worried that your partner will fail you. For a very long time, you were able to see it, your fingertips just barely brushing theirs, the suddenly discordant echoes of the circus music rising to a fever pitch as you dropped-
Hitoshi’s hands curl around your forearms, secure and strong, and that upside down smile of his washes those fears away. You’ve had other partners, had that fearsome thought a thousand times, but with Hitoshi?
The rush of air tickling over bare patches of your skin is next to nothing. You know you’ll make that landing, and later, in the darkened shadows of the tent, their applause will drown out the sounds Hitoshi makes as he kisses you.
13. mistake
“So,” he starts off with, rubbing a hand through his already messy hair. “This was obviously a mistake. I didn’t see a collar, and I swear I wasn’t trying to just- steal her, you know?” He glances at your face, and then his cheeks turn a little pink. “I asked around, but-”
“…I think we kind of cleared up that you weren’t trying to steal my cat already,” you tease, scratching gently behind her ears. She stays in your arms, lazy and purring. “But I do appreciate the fact that you were so worried, you weren’t going to leave her out on the street.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, bobbing his head once. “I, uh- I should be go-”
“Come inside? For tea or coffee or something. As thanks,” you add, noting the blush crawling up his throat. “Next time it can be a date.”
He splutters, but follows you inside anyway.
14. rain
“Charming,” you tease, brushing rainwater out of your eyes. “Were you trying to put on a show, or-” You laugh when he tosses his drenched coat your way, dodging it and letting it fall to the floor with a wet slap.
“Funny,” he volleys back, trying to wring out the hem of his white shirt. “You don’t look like a comedian.”
“Only on my days off,” you assure him, wrinkling your nose as you glance down at yourself. What you said was true though. He either works out religiously, or he’s a lesser known hero, with toning like that showing through his wet shirt. It’s a shame you feel like a mess and you’re both stuck in this outdoor bus stop. You look back at him, delight filling you when he looks quickly away.
Apparently he doesn’t think you look like that much of a mess. You can work with that.
15. soulmate AU - past lives
The first time you start talking about them, Hitoshi chokes on his coffee.
“Stop,” he insists, pupils blown with fear, hands tense, clutched tightly around his mug. You stop, feeling your eyebrows raise at the panicked look on his face.
“Hitoshi, is something-”
“You remember- you remember all of them?” He asks, breathless, his knuckles pale, they’re clenching so tightly.
“..I don’t know?” You offer, completely intending to bypass this strange little conversation in favor of getting back to your story, and yet… “Hitoshi. If, if something bad happened in one of them, one that I don’t remember - we’re different people. You realize that, don’t you? Parts of us will always be connected, and I want that, but it doesn’t mean-”
He doesn’t cut you off again, but you’re starting to think that you should have pushed for information, because the knowledge has been putting pressure on Hitoshi like a shaken champagne bottle.
And any day now, he’s going to pop.
16. sigh
“So?”
Shinsou doesn’t move. Doesn’t turn his head or frown, or even react for so long that you think he might not have heard you. He stays where he is, chin resting in the palm of his hand, violet eyes staring off into the distance-
And then he glances at you out of the corner of his eye.
“’So’, what?” He finally asks, voice rough from overuse. The last few times you’ve met up with him, it’s been much the same. He’s working non-stop these days, and it’s wearing him down, despite his love for it.
“I have ears, you realize. You keep sighing when you think I’m not paying attention.” You smile, drink halfway to your mouth, but pause when his eyes immediately drop, fingers pressing a little too hard into his cheek.
“Shinsou, are you-”
He straightens, scrubbing a hand through his already messy hair, licking nervously at his lips. “I’m not good at this,” he insists, and he looks like he wants to vanish into his jacket, or slump back into his seat so he can hunch his shoulders up around his ears.
“But I’ve been meaning to- I’ve been trying to-”
“How is everything?” The waiter asks, pausing at your table with a tray full of drinks balanced on his arm.
Shinsou sits back in his seat, looking like he’s swallowed a lemon, and you rather wish you could hit rewind on the last twenty seconds.
17. crooked
Hitoshi is heavy against your side, half his weight yours to bear as he watches the rag tag group of delinquents walk away. One of them tries to glance back at you both over his shoulder, scowling, but something about Hitoshi’s crooked grin makes the kid hunch his shoulders and continue on. You finally risk looking at Hitoshi’s face, but whatever had frightened them all away is gone from his expression. …Or maybe you just don’t see it. After all, feelings are often blinding, aren’t they?
“Was that too much?” Hitoshi rasps, glancing at you out of the corner of his eye. He could stand up straight now. He could take away his arm laying across your shoulders, or his hand, fingers playing idly with the sleeve of your shirt. Instead, he stays as he is, that crooked smile of his growing a little smaller, a little softer. “Or should I have flashed my hero ID for good measure?”
That startles you into scoffing.
“You reek of heroism, Hitoshi. The ID would have been overkill.” You lick your lips, missing when his eyes drop to watch.
18. keep
The ticking of the clock is fast filling the silence, growing louder than everything but the unsteady thrum of your heart. Hitoshi isn’t moving, he’s barely breathing, as if he’s afraid his next exhale will blow you away like dandelion fluff. It rattles out of him anyway, whispering over the crook of your neck.
“…you can keep going,” you say, tilting your head until you can brush a kiss into the wild locks of his hair. Hitoshi squeezes, fingers stroking, trying to soothe, but he stays where he is against your back, arms looped around you.
“Just savoring the moment,” he confesses, turning his nose so he can chase the scent of soap on your skin.