"Why don't you ever have clothes on?"

Not that Katsuki is particularly bothered by Shouto's lack of pants and shirt, but he's never much understood why Shouto preferred to be more...

Natural.

That's a good way to put it.

Shouto kicks the refrigerator door closed with his heel, eating grapes right out of the bag as if he couldn't be bothered with washing them first. He gives an exaggerated moan at the taste of them, licking his lips before making eye contact with Katsuki.

"I like to be free. Clothes are constricting. If I don't have to wear those fuckers, I'm not. What, you tired of looking at my fine ass after all these years?"

Katsuki rolls his eyes, albeit with a smile.

"What ass? Flat as a 90s phone book back there---ow!"

He's not nearly quick enough to dodge the graceful kick that lands to his side from where he's sitting at the kitchen bar, pen in hand and textbooks sprawled across the counter. He's grateful that Kirishima has the connections that he has or he'd have had to pay out of the ass for new ones.

He'd never tell him to his face, but that shark-faced fuck is starting to grow on him.

"Rude ass bitch."

"But I love you."

"What's love got to do with anything? You could at least lie and say I have a fat ass."

"That's Shitty Hair's job. I am not going to lie to protect your soft ass ego. Your ass is flat, sis."

Shouto rolls his eyes, climbing up into the bar stool next to Katsuki to look over his shoulder.

"You working on Number Theory?"

"Mhm."

"...Kats, there's nothing on that page."

"Yeah. My brain short circuited after about thirty minutes of trying to read the chapter. I've been staring at the same page for an hour."

Not that Katsuki is particularly bad at math. He just fucking hates it. They always go out of their way to make the wording and explanations complicated in these textbooks so that students have to fucking decode and read the shit ten times over just to understand it when they could just say it outright. We get it, you're smart people who write books. But the point of an education is to learn, not to make learning as difficult as you possibly can.

College is such a scam.

But he neeeeeds this degree!

Mostly to rub in his parents' faces, but you get the point.

The book slides from beneath his arms, granite counters taking the place of a thousand jumbled letters and numbers in his view. For what feels like the first time in an hour, Katsuki blinks and rubs his dry, tired eyes.

"Take a break, honey. You can't magically absorb knowledge just by staring at it."

"I know."

"And cramming doesn't work. You know that."

A sigh. "I know."

"So you're gonna take a break, right? No more studying for tonight?"

"Fine."

"Good. Why don't you go see a movie or something?"

Katsuki raises a brow at his friend as he hops down from the stool. "Why do I have to leave to watch a movie when I could just watch Netflix right here?"

A knock at the door shortly after answers his question. There's only one person that could possibly be.

Katsuki cringes.

"You seriously couldn't warn me ahead of time that you and Shitty Hair were gonna get gross tonight?" 

Shouto grins sheepishly at him. "I'm sorry, baby, but you were so into studying and I know how important your grades are to you so I didn't want to interrupt you."

"So you just thought it would be cool for you to do your loud, animalistic fucking while I sit here in the kitchen."

"I mean, I'm totally open to a threesome, Kats."

"I am not fucking your stupid boyfriend."

"Rude, he isn't my boyfriend."

"Beside the point!"

There's another knock, a little more urgent this time and Katsuki knows that Shouto must have promised him something inexplicably disgusting. Shouto tables the conversation to pad over to the door and swing it open. Not five seconds later, a shock of red glomps him, holding him up as he bends him impossibly backwards to smother his face and neck in kisses that make Shouto giggle. Katsuki turns away with a grimace when the kisses become much more obscene---from soft pecks to suckling hickies into alabaster skin. Shouto gasps out a moan, slapping Kirishima against his beefy arm to get him to stop.

"St---stop it---hey, we got eyes in the room, here."

"Katsuki's a big boy; he can handle a little kissin', right?"

"Uh, no. I can't. Fucking get a room, gross ass." Katsuki intervenes. Kirishima smirks up at him, though he does release Shouto and cease his PDAs.

"I did---this one."

"Well get a fucking nother one."

"You could always come lemme fuck you like I just offered." Shouto says, half joking and half suggesting like he does in that slick-ass way of his. He and Katsuki did mess around quite a bit in high school but that simmered down close to nothing by the time Inasa and Shindou came into their lives.

Fuck the both of them.

"And I told you I'm not gonna join you and your stupid boyfriend in some nasty sexscapade."

"Ou, boyfriend?" Kirishima inquires. Shouto rolls his eyes.

"Sorry, big daddy, but no dice. I'm not letting another man tie me down and fucking rule me again. You all suck."

That kills a little of Kirishima's fire. Good.

Call Katsuki a bitter bitch, but it makes him feel just a little warmer inside to watch Shouto destroy him in every way possible.

Cause, you know. Solidarity.

Katsuki slides off of his stool and hikes his backpack over his shoulder.

"Whatever. I'm gonna go down to the café and finish my homework---"

"But you said you'd take a break!"

"---while you two do unspeakable things to each other. Don't look at me like that, you fuck."

Shouto folds his arms across his chest in a pout.

"You're doing this to spite me."

"Fuckin' right I am, toots. See ya later."

And with that, Katsuki slams the door behind him on his way out.

#

An entire hour later, Katsuki is still unable to focus. He's decided he'd work on math later---work on something a little less likely to give him a headache but the words on the pages in all of his books just seem to run together with no rhyme or reason. He should've just listened to Shouto and went to catch a movie or something. With a sigh, he slams his head against the table.

"Ouch. Rough day?"

The hair on the back of Katsuki's neck stands on end. He doesn't lift his head from the table.

"Why. Why are you here?"

"If you're asking how I manage to almost always be in the same places you are, I'm not sure. But if you're asking what I'm doing here in particular, I'm working."

Katsuki drags his head up to look directly into Izuku's eyes. Has he been sitting at the table ahead of him this entire time?

"What could you possibly be working on in some no name diner when you could be at your own home---which is literally on the other side of town?"

"You ask a lot of questions for someone who doesn't want to talk to me."

Fucker.

Katsuki slams his textbook closed and invited himself to Izuku's table just to be spiteful.

Or maybe because he's a bit of an opportunist. Could be both.

"Yeah well, maybe I changed my mind."

This time, Izuku gives him the side eye.

"Why?"

"I have questions."

"...about your parents, right?"

Smart cookie, Deku.

"Yeah. Yeah, my parents."

Izuku pauses in tapping at his laptop to make full on eye contact with the teen before him.

"You do understand that we could have had this conversation weeks ago."

"I couldn't trust you weeks ago."

"What changed?"

My circumstances? Katsuki thinks to himself although he just shrugs.

"You gonna turn me down now, Deku?"

"I should, you insufferable brat."

"Then do it."

A split pause and Izuku narrows his eyes at him, slamming his laptop closed.

"I don't actually want to."

"Why?"

"Because I---you know what? It doesn't matter. I don't have time for this right now so I'm gonna---"

"If you just leave, it's technically turning me down."

"Well, Katsuki, I'm not your informant. I tried to make things right with you and you threw several tantrums but now you want to talk because you think I'm useful to you."

"Within good reason! Would you have done any different in my situation?"

"Fuck---no, okay? You weren't wrong to be weary and I'll admit I was dishonest but I didn't want to hurt you, Katsuki."

"I know."

"You---wait, what?"

"I know. Your friend talks about how much of a wuss you are all the time."

Izuku's face scrunches in confusion.

"My fri---are you talking about Kirishima?"

"Yep."

"And---you've kept contact with him this entire time?"

"He's the reason I'm even here, actually. He and Sho are still bumpin' uglies, you know."

Izuku looks like he's about to have an aneurysm.

An angry one.

"No. No, I didn't."

"Because he promised not to tell you in exchange for he and Sho to be together."

"Why is any of this important, Katsuki?"

"It's not. I'm just sayin'."

Katsuki can't interpret the expression on Izuku's face, just that he looks like he might be constipated.

"Alright, fine. Fine. Ask me your stupid questions and I'll answer them but you have to answer mine---all truthfully."

A dangerous game in Katsuki's position.

He could be wrong about Deku.

Deku could actually be stalking him for his parents.

But on the off chance that he's not...

"Alright, fine. Ask."