#I uh messed with vigilante lore a little bit mostly their early marriage and teacher timeline

[redrobin-detective]

together or not at all

I’ve been binging Erasermic stuff all day and my heart is FULL so I just opened up a post and started typing, never looking back.

XxX

Shouta and Hizashi were not type you’d think would date.

They were an odd couple throughout their time at Yuuei, still staggering from the wounds of going from a trio to a duo midway through their second year. Shouta was quiet, dour and took everything too seriously. Hizashi, meanwhile, was loud, silly, borderline wild with his frequent advertisements for his podcast during slow class events. 

There was no official announcement or anything, just one day, at the end of their second year they were spotted holding hands on the roof. It was grief that brought them together, everyone said when they were sure the couple wouldn’t hear. Once they graduated, they’d move onto to partners they were actually compatible with. Hizashi and Shouta paid the rumors no mind, holding each other close during stolen moments in the hallway, tender hand touches during patrols. On graduation day, while everyone else threw their caps into the wind, Shouta held up his cap in front of their faces and kissed his boyfriend as cherry blossoms blew into their hair. Their future together started now. 

They moved in together right away, scraping together what little cash they had to rent a small beaten down apartment. Shouta let Hizashi carry him over the threshold for the first time after it was theirs, only because it made his boyfriend stupidly happy. There wasn’t much of a demand these days for new grad heroes, not when All Might was there to protect all of Japan with power to spare. Hizashi got a gig as a sidekick for a low-ranked hero that paid more in experience than in actual money. Shouta worked at a cat cafe and local bookstore, unable to find work yet as an underground hero. Every night they came home, exhausted and collapsed together on their second hand mattress that didn’t even have a bed frame. They held each other close in lieu of heating and found it warm enough.

Hizashi’s powerful quirk and outgoing personality made him popular and soon he was employed by a more well known hero which gave him lots of exposure and an increased salary. When his first paycheck hit, he ran down to the shelter and got the black and grey cat Shouta had been wanting to adopt for ages. When his boyfriend came home from his shift at the cafe and found a kitten with a bow around his neck patrolling around the apartment, Shouta looked as if an angel had appeared before him. Needless to say, Hizashi was rewarded well for that particular present. 

Shouta’s contacts finally put him through the proper channels and he hit the streets as an independent agent. It paid less than his other two jobs had but Hizashi could see how much it meant to Shouta to be out there doing good, doing what he was made to do. However, he didn’t like how much damage Shouta took in those early days. He swears he spent all their extra money on first aid equipment; patching up scrapes and burns, icing bruises and stitching up deep cuts. So many nights he dreamed he would come home to an empty apartment, waiting in vain for Shouta to return. On those awful nights, he’d wake up in a sweat and see Shouta beside him, breathing deeply in sleep and promise himself it would never come to that.

Hizashi brought up marriage first, awkwardly and full of jitters the summer of their 21st year, 3 years since they’d become pro heroes and 6 since they’d first met. “Okay,” Shouta had shrugged, going back to playing with their cat, Oreo. Confused, elated and bit nauseous, Hizashi dropped the subject but started looking at ring options in secret. It was Shouta, however, who actually proposed.

His depression and a flare up of his chronic fatigue syndrome later that fall had him feeling worse than ever. The anniversary of Shirokumo’s death was just around the corner and crime was trending upwards all over Japan. He only saw Hizashi for a handful of hours over a week as they rushed from one disaster to another. One rare morning they awoke together, Shouta forgot to kiss him goodbye as he was summoned to help the police take down a particularly nasty villain. The fight was brutal, two heroes and six officers were critically injured and one hero died, slowly and painfully in Shouta’s arms. Underneath the blood, his hair was blond and all Shouta could think about afterwards was the carelessly missed kiss that morning.

He flung himself at Hizashi when he came to pick Shouta up, clutching his best friend and boyfriend’s face reverently with bloodstained hands. “Marry me, Hizashi,” he choked out in a rush. “And promise me you’ll never leave.” 

“Never Shouta never,” Hizashi had wept, crying the tears his other half wouldn’t, holding him close. “It’s together or not at all.” 

In the end, it was a simple affair, neither had anything to prove with a grand wedding. They purchased rings, rented out a small back room in a bar and stood before a judge and a few friends as witness as they exchanged their vows. Hizashi cried and Shouta never complained of dry eye that day. They celebrated at the bar, drinking and laughing until it was the wee hours of the morning. Shouta was completely inebriated, unable to walk or form sentences. Hizashi swept his groom off of his feet and, once more, carried him over the threshold of their place. He banged Shouta’s head on the door frame trying to get the two of them through the narrow entryway.

“Clumsy bastard,” Shouta hissed, clutching at his head. “Wait til my husband gets aholda you.” 

“You’re not gonna have to wait long,” Hizashi said, waggling his eyebrows as he kicked the door shut. Shouta regretted drinking so much the next morning when  his head and stomach protested. Hizashi danced in with some seltzer water in one hand and a bouquet of roses in the others. Luckily his drinking was his only regret from yesterday. 

They kept their marriage private, both for Shouta’s growing career as an underground hero and simply for their own privacy. It wasn’t a secret, just not advertised. They celebrated their one year anniversary in the hospital, Hizashi having fractured his spine after a building fell on him. Shouta spoon fed him little bits of preserved wedding cake when his husband was awake enough. They moved to a bigger place, somehow acquired two more cats when Hizashi wasn’t looking and spent a lot of weekends cuddled together on Nemuri’s couch misremembering bad stories from high school.

“Shouta,” Hizashi said one evening as he chopped up some leeks for their dinner. “Nemuri is going to start teaching at Yuuei soon.”

“As if she didn’t traumatize enough kids when she was a student,” Shouta said dully as he looked over police reports. “What of it?”

“I was thinking of applying too,” he said casually. “All Might taking personal leave means its more dangerous out there, I think it would be nice to train the next generation of heroes.” He glanced at his husband out of the corner of his eye.

“You can,” Shouta frowned, moving his papers in front of his face to avoid Hizashi’s puppy dog eyes. Also so he wouldn’t see the stitches over his right eye and the bruises around it. Being a hero was dangerous work, being a teacher? Less so. 

“Oh come on babe, you’d be great with kids,” Hizashi said, abandoning his cutting to drape himself over the counter. “You have this stern but steady authoritative manner but you’re soft enough that it’s not intimidating.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Shouta sighed. “Sign up if you want to, but you’re already busy with patrols and your radio show.”

“I thought it might be good practice,” Hizashi teased, tugging down Shouta’s papers away from his face. “For when we decide to have kids.”

“We are not having kids,” Shouta said with an eye roll.

“That’s what they always say,” Hizashi said in a little sing-song tone. Shouta ignored him, pulling the papers closer to his face. “Come on Shouta, you were just telling me the other day how sloppy the latest rookie heroes have been without All Might around to pick up the slack. We can help change things at Yuuei, Nedzu-sensei is principle now. I know you’ve been dying to change the parameters of the entrance exam.”

“Stupid, worthless, prejudiced exam,” Shouta mumbled under his breath and Hizashi grinned, dropping it into a casual smile when his husband lowered the papers to glare at him. “You just want me to cut down on my patrol hours.”

“Maybe a little,” Hizashi shrugged, leaning over to loving tap piano keys on his husband’s arm. “Or maybe I miss seeing you every day and working as teachers would give us some structure. I fell in love with you in those hallways, Shouta. Is it so bad I want that again?”

“Tell Nemuri to get me an application,” Shouta grumbled. “I can’t guarantee I’ll sign up or anything but I’ll look it over. One year, maybe even one semester and then I’m done.”

“Well if you do it, I’m doing it,” Hizashi beamed, leaning up to chin Shouta’s scratchy chin before pulling back and working on the meal again. “Together or not at all, remember?” 

“Hard to forget when you’re still here,” Shouta said but a small smile was tugging on his lips as they fell into a companionable silence, thinking about the past and what they had lost and all the things they stood to gain from the future. Shouta and Hizashi were not the couple you expected to see, much less to marry and stay together through thick and thin. Luckily though, outside perceptions and expectations did not determine the course of a relationship; some things stayed between best friends and partners and lovers. 

Shouta would find himself tangling his fingers on the chain with his wedding ring around his neck, watching his husband joke around with their students. Hizashi would grin up at him and mime him a quick kiss. Shouta would snort fondly but not break his gaze. Some loves could endure just about anything. 

#erasermic #idk how good this is i just opened up and started typing without stopping #also another fic title i stole from doctor who #im feeling the erasermic in this chilis tonight #I uh messed with vigilante lore a little bit mostly their early marriage and teacher timeline #they just strike me as messy early 20 somethings who got married young and recklessly but the love was strong enough to endure #they grew into and around ach other #ad;c/osvo;ia;/l fuCK i forgot to incorporate deaf hizashi which is like my favorite #shit its almost bedtime I dont want to rework it now #I'll do it uhhh Sunday #anyway I love them