Roses and Receipts [Valentine's Day 2020]

This is a gift for Leirza as part of my Discord exchange event, Saysi's Sweetheart Swap. They asked for Katsuki doing something super sappy for Izuku! Hopefully they'll like it!

~

Izuku was a little surprised when he found the pile of papers sitting on the kitchen counter – Katsuki was usually so quick to throw out his receipts and trash, it was completely unlike him to just leave a stack of them lying around.

He picked them up to sift through, to see if there was something important in there, maybe a warranty or a coupon? But no, it all seemed useless, just stubs from their movie date the night prior and a receipt from the restaurant where they ate dinner. Izuku didn't even bother getting receipts when he was alone, but Katsuki always made a big show of bringing them home to check the list of items and the total price to ensure they were charged correctly.

"Kacchan, is there something wrong with these?" he called, watching a bare chest and a head of messy spikes poke out into the hall to look. "You didn't throw them away."

Red eyes widened, quickly ducking back into the bathroom to spit out his toothpaste before he returned to snatch the papers from Izuku's hand.

"Relax!" Izuku insisted, holding his hands up in surrender. "You could have just said you needed them! What's the problem? Did we get overcharged at the cinema or something?"

"It's fine," Katsuki grumbled, tucking them into the pocket of his sweatpants. "Don't worry about it."

"What's going on, Kacchan?" Izuku asked, following him back to the bathroom. "Talk to me, you're making me nervous."

"I told you, it's fine. It's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm damn sure," Katsuki growled, reaching for a face cloth and holding it under the tap. "Just forget it."

"But I'm worried about you!"

"Stop."

"You know it's not that simple, Kacchan. You can't just say stop like I can flip a switch and not care about you!"

Katsuki rubbed at his face with the cloth, falling silent for a minute, but Izuku just waited patiently for him to get his thoughts together.

"Tomorrow," he mumbled finally. "They're, um..."

It hit Izuku all at once, a wide smile splitting his freckled cheeks, and when Katsuki set the face cloth aside he was flushed bright red.

"Is my Valentine's gift on that receipt?" he grinned. "Kacchan, you're so cute!"

"Shut up."

"Can I see it?"

"Fuck off."

"Come on, just a little peek! I wanna see my present!"

"Like hell, nerd."

Katsuki scrubbed at his face with his hands, lathering up the face wash he was so picky about, and Izuku sneaked up behind him to give him a hug.

"You're so cute," he teased, squeezing a little tighter when Katsuki tried to pull away indignantly. "And handsome, very handsome."

"It's too early for your shit, piss off."

"But I'm comfy here," Izuku whined, resting his cheek between Katsuki's shoulder blades, savouring the warm, smooth skin against his cheek. "You feel so good to hug, Kacchan."

"I'm breaking up with you."

"If you keep saying that I might believe you."

Katsuki let one hand fall to where Izuku held tight around his waist, giving his hands an apologetic little squeeze, and Izuku smiled again as he nuzzled the side of Katsuki's neck.

"Are you really dumping me?"

"Of course not, idiot. I would never."

"I love you."

"I love you too, nerd. Can I finish up here, now?"

"Mm... Nah. I'm gonna stay here."

"At least pass me the moisturiser."

Izuku conceded one arm, holding extra tight with the other as he reached for a little white bottle.

"Mm... Your shoulders feel dry too," Izuku smiled to himself, planting a kiss on Katsuki's jaw. "Gimme."

"This is the face one, nerd. And no they're not."

"Pretty sure they are," Izuku snickered, snatching the bottle all the same and spreading some on his hands. "It's okay, I'll take care of it."

He stepped back a little, laying his hands on Katsuki's shoulders, and Katsuki huffed a little sigh as Izuku rubbed slowly at the tight muscles. Despite his best efforts, he soon softened into the touch, letting Izuku massage his arms and back

"I didn't mean to freak you out," Katsuki said quietly, as he rinsed out his face cloth and tossed it in the laundry basket. "It's meant to be a surprise is all."

"I hate surprises."

"You love surprises, asshole, you just want me to tell you now so you don't have to wait."

"Yeah, because I hate waiting for surprises!"

"That's not the same thing," Katsuki snorted, turning around to plant a kiss on his cheek. "You can have it tomorrow."

"Kacchaaaaan."

"Nope."

"Come onnnnn."

"Not happening."

Izuku pouted, but when Katsuki planted another little kiss on him it quickly faltered, a giggle sneaking its way out when soft lips touched the tip of his nose.

"Stop being so cute," he whined, thumping a fist on Katsuki's chest. "It's not fair."

"You first."

"I'm not!"

"Shut up, loser," Katsuki snorted, messing up his curls. "You know you're fuckin' adorable."

"But I like hearing you say it," Izuku teased. "Are you sure I can't have it now?"

"It's not ready yet."

"Ready?" Izuku asked, watching Katsuki cringe in return. "What do you mean?"

"Ugh."

"Pleeaaase?" he whined, throwing his arms around Katsuki's neck. "What if I get hurt at work tomorrow and never get to see it?"

"Don't you dare."

"But what if?"

Katsuki huffed, and Izuku immediately knew he'd won.

"Alright, you impatient nerd-ass," he conceded. "Come on, then."

Izuku followed gleefully, watching Katsuki open a desk drawer, move a pile of papers to retrieve a folder, and finally retrieve another book from inside the folder. He really knew how to hide things from Izuku – not by finding a creative place, Izuku would figure that out in a heartbeat. But bury it in dull-looking paperwork? One hundred percent success rate.

"Here, I uh- I made this. For you."

"You're so sweet, Kacchan! You made me something?"

"Yeah, idiot. Happy Valentine's Day or whatever. You can look if you want, or wait 'til tomorrow like a big boy."

Izuku was already flipping the cover open before Katsuki even finished his sentence, grinning even wider when Katsuki rolled his eyes.

"This is from the day we met!" Izuku gasped, finding an old photo on the first page, carefully stuck in with a pretty red and green frame around it – he suspected it was intended for a Christmas page, but it matched their big, bright eyes in the photo perfectly. "I didn't know you had this!"

"My mother did," Katsuki shrugged, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I thought it was... cute."

"It is!"

It took another page turn for Izuku to understand, his jaw dropping when he found a crumpled little note stuck in, faded pencil scrawling out four sloppy characters, a happy little kitty face underneath.

"The day we met," Izuku read, from lines of neat ink on the page below. "When I asked Izuku how to spell his name."

"It says Deku, dumbass," Katsuki teased, looking away to hide his blush. "Yeah, I never threw it away, I guess."

"Did you make me a scrapbook, Kacchan?"

Katsuki shrugged, and Izuku sat down beside him, settling the heavy book in his lap.

"Can we look through it together?"

"Yeah," Katsuki nodded. "It was how I planned to spend our night tomorrow, after you got home from work. I guess we can spend our day off doing it instead."

Izuku shuffled up to the head of the bed, leaning against the pillows, and Katsuki joined him without protest or begging, even leaning into his side to look with him.

"It's so pretty, Kacchan," Izuku smiled, looking through pages of kindergarten and early school photos, complete with stickers and frames to match each one, and the same neat handwriting annotating dates and settings in various places. "You must have spent so long on this."

"I guess."

When he reached a photo of the two of them in a cinema, leaning in together with a bucket of popcorn between them, the tears began to form. It was their first movie, and Izuku had felt tiny in his seat. He had sat right up against one armrest, Katsuki at the other side, and they had giggled and fawned and whispered together the entire way through. It was a hero movie, of course, and they had both been captivated by it.

"The movie that began our careers," Izuku read quietly, tears squeezing their way out the corners of his eyes. "The day we decided to be the best Duo in the world. Kacchan you remember that?"

"Of course I do, idiot," Katsuki grumbled, wiping tears away with his thumb. "It was the most important thing in the world for like three years, and it is again now."

"I love you."

"I know you do, nerd. Are you done looking?"

"No! Never!"

He flipped to the next page again, smiling at smaller photos pasted into a cute little collage, going through their school years – class photos and sports days mostly, plus a few festivals and school productions they'd had to suffer through together.

"I regretted it the whole time I did these pages," Katsuki admitted, touching the awkward middle school photos. "I felt like such an asshole, such an idiot, for not having more. For not having better ones."

"It's okay, Kacchan, we made it."

"But we could have had so long if I wasn't such a dick."

"We still have so long," Izuku grinned, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "Yeah, you were a jerk, but you apologised and you worked hard to be better, and you became the best boyfriend in the whole wide world."

"I'll keep trying."

"I love you."

"Yeah, you keep saying that. I love you too."

When they reached the high school years, the pages began to expand. Instead of ten years condensed into three or four pages, now there were thick sections of paper for every year. Their 1-A class photo was first, with all their amazing and heroic friends, but what followed were much more candid pictures – little snapshots of their daily lives in the dorms, hanging out with groups of their friends, even a few of the two of them alone together, just hanging out on the couch or eating breakfast. Even Izuku could see the way his eyes shone in those photos, how they sparkled like the fanciest of glittering emeralds.

Surprisingly, the crumbled receipts didn't dawn on Izuku until he came across an old, faded movie ticket, from one of the first times they had hung out together away from school. It was the break between their first and second years, if he remembered correctly – the ticket came from the cinema near their home, while they were visiting family in their time off. An All Might documentary had come out and Izuku had shown up at Katsuki's door with the same shining eyes, holding up two tickets in a silent question.

Underneath the ticket was Katsuki's neat handwriting again, and Izuku leaned in a little to read the tiny letters.

"Idiot cried at 00:02:47, 00:10:08, 00:38:17, 01:05:12... Kacchan! You seriously recorded every time I cried?!"

Katsuki shrugged, cheeks flaming red again, and for a moment Izuku could only stare at him.

"Hold on," he said softly, setting the book aside and returning to the desk in the corner where the book had been hidden only ten minutes ago. "I need... Aha!"

He returned bearing a sparkly pink gel pen, and Katsuki scowled at it, more confusion than actual irritation.

"Why the hell do you own that?"

"Kacchan bought us popcorn," he wrote carefully, beneath Katsuki's own notes. "When he asked if I wanted some, I expected two small buckets, but instead he got a big one and we shared. The popcorn tasted much better together."

"You're such a dork," Katsuki snorted, smiling all the same when Izuku drew sparkly pink hearts in one corner of the page. "God I love you so fucking much."

"Kacchan is amazing!"

The pages continued into their second year, into the day they finally became an official couple and everything that followed. More movie tickets, restaurant receipts, photos from award ceremonies with their arms around each other's shoulders and waists. They'd gotten comfortable so quickly, Izuku remembered it vividly. Everyone had expected awkwardness, with their history – their friends had expected a nightmare from Katsuki – but they'd fallen into step so easily, sharing sweet touches and a comfort that could only come from knowing each other as long as they had.

"Deku wanted the gummy worms," Izuku read from beside a convenience store receipt – Katsuki really had been dedicated to his task. "They were sold out so he got these instead."

"I just wanted to remember it all," Katsuki grumbled, when Izuku's excited mumbling began. "I didn't want to lose all those dumb little moments when you finally realised I wasn't good enough for you."

"Kacchan is the best," Izuku assured him, without even a hint of hesitation. "You're more than good enough, you show me every day. You're perfect."

"Sappy nerd."

"Says the man who made me a scrapbook with receipts in it."

"Shut up."

He reached for his pink pen again, the colour so bright and cheerful that it made him smile every time, and once again he added his own little note underneath.

"Kacchan insisted on paying," he spoke slowly as he wrote, narrating the words to Katsuki. "Even though it wasn't much, and he hates when I eat candy, he still refused to let me buy them myself."

"It was a date."

"I paid for stuff on dates sometimes! You made it really hard. I'm glad we share a bank account now, it makes it much easier."

The next was a photo from Kirishima's birthday party in the dorms – Izuku remembered how Katsuki had asked to go shopping together, so they could pick out gifts for the guy. It had been such a fun day, sifting through stupid objects that Kirishima might find funny or cool. They'd ended up buying him a joint gift that he'd loved, and gotten a lot of teasing for giving "couple gifts" so early in the relationship, but Izuku had also found a pair of socks that he couldn't resist. They were designed to look like the wearer had bright red crocs on, and Izuku had laughed so hard over them in the store that Katsuki thought the nerd might pass out.

"When Shitty-Hair was opening these, Deku laughed so hard he snorted," Izuku read out. "Kacchan that's mean!"

"You did. It was stupid and adorable and I hated how adorable it was."

"It makes me sound so gross!"

"It doesn't. You have a cute snort."

"Shut up," Izuku whined. "For that I'm drawing extra hearts."

Despite his weak protests, they both knew Katsuki didn't mind the pretty pink hearts Izuku drew in all the extra spaces, along with his own little notes and commentary. It had quickly gone from the sweetest gift Izuku had ever received, into a book of their shared experiences, far more alive and together than Katsuki had managed to make it on his own – he was man enough to admit that.

The next page was the straw that finally broke the camel's back, Izuku's tears pouring down his face so hard that he had to push the book away to keep from ruining it. In the middle was a single dried flower petal, surrounded by two photos – one of a little cart on the side of a street, the other of Izuku's back as he showed off his gift to his friends back at the dorms.

"Deku pointed out how pretty the red roses were like the cheesy fuck he is, so I bought him one. He kissed me. I should buy more flowers."

Katsuki pulled him in gently, bringing the sobbing face to his shoulder, and Izuku whined as he clung on tightly.

"Is this why you buy me roses?" he sniffled, when he'd gained a little composure. "Because I kissed you?"

"It was our first kiss," Katsuki reminded him, as if Izuku could ever have forgotten. "It seemed like a tradition I should keep going."

"I know it was a cute tradition but I didn't know it was because I kissed you."

Katsuki shrugged, making Izuku's head bounce with him, and finally the watery green eyes peeked up at him.

"You're such a sap."

"Like you can talk," Katsuki snorted. "You done now?"

"Stop asking that!" Izuku whined. "I wanna look at all of it!"

"Okay, okay. But I'm adding a page listing every page you cried over."

"Meanie."

Still snuggled together, Izuku brought the book back into their laps to continue, flipping through hundreds of cute photos from dates and dances, fights and festivals. His favourite was the podium shot from their third year, the pair of them smiling at each other from the first and second positions while Kirishima and Todoroki sighed at them from their joint third.

When school ended, the pages moved from photos toward papers – more receipts, tickets, notes and letters, even a copy of the letter they'd gotten approving their joint agency opening. There were still photos scattered in amongst them, but as they read through the collections Izuku began to realise – Katsuki had documented every date. Not just milestones or special events, but even the most mundane of dinners at the ramen store in the station.

"Can I give you your gift too?" Izuku asked softly, when they reached the end of the filled-in pages. "Yours was so amazing, I don't want to wait until tomorrow."

"Fine."

Izuku carefully closed up the book, with Katsuki's slightly-crumpled collection of mementos from their date the night prior slipped carefully under the cover to add later. He set it on his nightstand where he could keep it close, to pick up and look again and cry some more at any moment, but then he got down on the floor to feel around under the bed.

"Aha!" he grinned triumphantly, watching Katsuki raise an eyebrow at him. "Found it!"

Katsuki sat up to look, and Izuku rose to his knees, smiling wobbly as he offered up a little black box.

"Will you marry me?"

For a moment, Katsuki just stared. Izuku fumbled open the velvet box, showing off a wide, dark band, two twinkling diamonds inlaid like twin stars in the night sky.

"Are you serious?" he asked, weirdly numb when Izuku offered it to him. "You want to marry me?"

"Of course I do, Kacchan! D-Do you want to m-marry me?"

"Yeah, nerd- Izuku. I- I do."

He held out his hand, cheeks burning bright pink, and Izuku beamed as he pulled it from the box with shaking hands. He slid it carefully onto Katsuki's finger, pleased to find that it fit him perfectly, and for a moment Katsuki just stared at it.

"Get your ass up here," he said finally, lips break into a wide smile the likes of which Izuku had never seen. "Give me a fucking kiss."

Crying all over again, Izuku crawled up next to him, his hand resting on Katsuki's cheek as their lips came together. It could have been the first they'd ever shared, for all the coordination and grace they had about it, both still trembling with excitement and disbelief.

"So you were gonna make Valentine's Day our anniversary?" Katsuki accused, ruining it with the smile that refused to go away. "You're the worst."

"Good thing you caved, then," Izuku giggled. "Now it's the thirteenth instead."

"Yeah," Katsuki chuckled, pressing kisses to Izuku's nose and cheeks before he returned to soft lips. "Good thing I'm a damn pushover for you."

"I love you, Kacchan."

"I love you too, nerd."

"Forever?"

"Yeah," Katsuki smiled, waving the perfect ring in his face. "You're stuck with me."