Work Text:
SLAM!
Shouta’s eyes flew open as the loud noise that could only be his front door rang through his apartment. He was sure he had set an alarm to be awake when he needed to be. A quick glance at his phone with bleary eyes showed that it was almost 2 in the morning. That couldn’t be right, it was too early for Hizashi to be back from patrol, and his workaholic husband hardly ever ended his shift early if he could help it. A dull heavy thump followed, like something dropping to the floor.
Before Shouta could even roll out of bed to greet him properly, the tall shape of his husband, nothing but a dark blob in the dark hallway, darted past the bedroom doorway and straight into the bathroom. The door quickly shut, thankfully more gently than he had been with the front door.
Concern flooded Shouta’s chest. Hizashi always came home from work and made a beeline for their bed, where he would normally flop down for a few minutes to decompress.
Shouta rolled out of bed and made his way to the door, at first just quietly standing near it. The only sound he could hear was the rain coming down in sheets outside the window, a dull roar outside their unsettlingly quiet home. He knocked softly.
“Hey, Zashi.” No answer, just a shuffling of fabric sounded from the bathroom. “You okay?” He leaned against the doorframe, watching the light that crept out from under the door waver as Hizashi moved around. Eventually, the sound of movement ceased, and Shouta heard a wet sniff from behind the door. His heart sank. Please let that just be a cold, please don’t be Hizashi crying.
“Y-yea, it’s-“ Hizashi’s voice was strained and wet, cut off by a small sob. “It’s nothing!” The Voice Hero’s signature smooth tone sounded staticky and crackled like an old subwoofer, something that Shouta had only witnessed in times of great stress for his husband.
That’s it.
“I’m coming in.” Shouta reached for the doorknob, finding it thankfully unlocked. As he slowly swung the door open, a frantic rustling of clothing was once again heard. Once Shouta’s eyes adjusted to the bright lights, he was greeted with a scene that did absolutely nothing to soothe his worry.
Hizashi was sitting on top of the closed toilet, still dressed in his hero costume, except his directional speaker was gone, presumably the source of the thump when he entered the apartment. That, and leather jacket was draped over his head like a sad hat. His face was red and splotchy, eyes slightly swollen and nose running. At the very least he didn’t appear to be badly injured, but something was clearly very wrong.
“Oh, Zashi..” Shouta stepped forward, reaching a hand up to lay on his husband’s shoulder. “What happened? You’re scaring me..You’re not hurt, are you?” He snatched a hand towel from next to the sink and offered it to his husband, gesturing to his tear-tracked face. Hizashi shook his head.
“No, I’m fine.. It’s just..” He sighed, scrubbed his face with the towel until it was red, until Shouta brought a hand up to stop him. A laugh escaped him, wet and pathetic. “It’s stupid.” Shouta watched as one of Hizashi’s gloved hands came to rest over Shouta’s and the other he rested on top of the jacket covering most of his head. “It’s ugly.” He sounded small, and Shouta hated it.
“Hey, hey.. You’re not ugly, not to me, not ever. Tell me what’s wrong and we’ll fix it, okay?” A sharp and pitchy feedback whine filled the air, and Shouta had to stop himself from wincing as his head throbbed, knowing that Hizashi would only panic more if he believed he’s hurt Shouta in his distress.
He slowly reached for the jacket on Hizashi’s head, forming ideas about what could be underneath. Had he hit his head? On closer inspection, he could see a trickle of blood on the side of Hizashi’s head, but nothing to indicate a serious cut. A horrible thought entered his head when he remembered a villain a while back who had managed to douse Hizashi in gasoline, and almost succeeded in setting him ablaze with a weak sparking quirk before Shouta had erased it just in time. Had something similar happened, and no one was there to stop Hizashi from getting hurt? They were both capable heroes, but no one’c invincible.
The leather slipped off Hizashi’s head with a quiet fwip, flopping on to the floor and revealing his miserable husband to the stark lights of the bathroom. He hadn’t thought it was possible, but Hizashi’s face crumpled even more. His body pitched forward and his Shouta’s chest with a thump, his shoulders curling up to his ears.
“Shou.. It just.. I-..” The voice hero floundered for words, and Shouta quickly brought a comforting hand up to bury his fingers in Hizashi’s golden hair.
..Or, well. What was left of it.
It appeared that whatever had happened on Present Mic’s patrol had left him with half his hair chopped off rather close to his head, with several strands looking frayed and damaged as if they had been ripped out, rather than cut. Shouta ran his fingers through the choppy locks, humming lowly as he made sure there were no injuries that needed immediate attention. He noticed that the cutting job got uncomfortably close to his skull on one side, which explains the small slice in the top of his ear which had long stopped bleeding. He held Hizashi a little tighter at the thought that someone got so close to his husband with a sharp weapon. Hizashi’s close combat skills were nothing to sneeze at, so whoever did this must have gotten the jump on him.
They stayed like that for a while, and Shouta was more than happy to sit here murmuring calming words until he could feel Hizashi slumping against him more and more, the tension draining out of his tired muscles.
“Now, why don’t you tell me how this happened, and we can work on fixing it.” Hizashi craned his neck up to look at Shouta.
“Fix it?! Baby, it’s not like you can will my hair to be less ugly right now.” A self pitying huff rocked his body. Shouta frowned.
“It’s not ugly, stop that. I’ve been dealing with your hair for years, I bet I can at least even it out a little.” He held Hizashi out at arm’s length, surveying the damage, seeing what he could do to mitigate it. It did seem like his hair could be salvaged.
Despite what people might assume about Shouta, he knew hair, and he had been the one to trim Hizashi’s for years. He didn’t see the need to give his own hair so much attention, but he knew how much his husband took pride in his rather luxurious blond hair. “You trust me, don’t you?” He spoke while twisting to open a drawer and picking up scissors and an electric trimmer. When he turned back Hizashi was blowing his nose into toilet paper, loudly and quite disgustingly.
“With my life, sugar. Don’t be silly..”
“Then turn and face the wall.” Hizashi shifted around, now sitting on the closed toilet with his arms resting on the back tank of it.
“Shou, you’re being so dominant, it’s getting me all hot and bothered!” Hizashi shot a wobbly grin over his shoulder, still stuck in his habit of joking during tense moments. Shouta felt his face heat slightly, but focused on the task at hand.
“Don’t even try that right now, you menace.” He held the scissors up, making the first of many small snips. “How about you tell me how this happened.” And what a mood damper that was. Hizashi went silent for a long while, but Shouta was nothing if not patient. The quiet shhp of the scissors was the only sound for a stretch of a few minutes, other than the spray of rain still coming down outside. Shouta was focused on salvaging as much hair as possible, while still making it look presentable. It was uncomfortable, hunched over like a gargoyle while his husband sat still on the toilet. He was almost done getting rid of the strands that looked like they had been ripped in half, curled and fraying in a way it almost never was. Hizashi exhaled, long and tired.
“..It was some sick punk.. Trying to assault a lady downtown. He was using some kinda homemade taser that could temporarily paralyze people, I don’t know..” A few more seconds passed, another tuft of hair hit the floor. “I had him wrapped up pretty quickly, the girl ran away. Let my guard down though, so stupid. I didn’t hear his friend come up behind me, the rain was too loud.” Shouta dropped one hand only his shoulder, squeezing it gently.
“He had a blinding quirk, of all things. Suddenly I couldn’t see, could barely hear.. He must’ve grabbed his buddy’s neat little taser, ‘cuz then I couldn’t move either..” His shoulders started jerking again, his breathing picking up.
Shouta put the scissors down and grabbed Hizashi’s chin, pulling his head to the side so they could lock eyes.
“Hey, if it’s too hard right now, you don’t have to tell me everything. But, you’re safe here, Zashi.” He pressed his lips to mumble against Hizashi’s slightly sweaty forehead. “I got you.” Hizashi sighed, some tension leaving his body, feeling Shouta’s warm breath puff against his head.
“No, I’m okay.. It’s just- I just.. I feel gross, Sho.. Once that guy had me paralyzed, I still couldn’t see or anything but.. He had his hands all over me and- and I just panicked.”
“Zashi…” Shouta’s face was pale with disgust, and for a moment Hizashi got entirely the wrong impression. A painfully tight laugh sounded out, too loud in the small room.
“I know! Disgusting, I know.. I was stupid, I’m sorry baby, I can, uh, sleep on the couch if you’re upset or somethi- Woah !” Hizashi was cut off by Shouta standing up straight and shoving his face into his torso. For a moment Hizashi panicked, it was dark once again, he couldn’t see- but the smell of coffee and sleep that clung to Shouta brought him back to the present.
“Hizashi. Don’t you ever think that I’m upset with you because of something like this.” He clutched Hizashi’s head so tightly, Hizashi had to turn his face to the side slightly so he wasn’t suffocated by Shouta’s shirt. He could feel his eyes burning again. “I’m upset that this happened to you, that some piece of shit put his hands on you.. But I’m not mad at you, Zashi, never you..” Hizashi’s arms came up to wrap around Shouta’s torso, savoring the warmth of his solid body. Relief had him sagging into the embrace. He had been so scared, so worried that Shouta would be as upset with him as he is with himself.
“O-oh.. Well, I blew that creep away with a pretty savage yell.. But his friend had a knife, I couldn’t see it but I could hear it. He- he grabbed my hair, ah.. I guess he was planning to slit my throat or something, but I landed a pretty good hit on him.. Guess the knife got something after all, that’s why my-uh. Yeah. All this” He gestured to his hair, now looking more manageable to Shouta, just needing some final touches. “The blinding quirk wore off pretty quickly, and those losers were toast after that. No doubt sleeping at the station right now, and I decided to call it a night. I couldn’t- I just don’t have the energy right now..”
Hizashi thought back to the initial panic from getting felt up by that creep, then the shock of feeling his hair sliced off. He had managed to hold himself together until they were apprehended properly, but seeing his reflection in a puddle on the street had been the straw that broke the camel’s back, it seemed. He felt exhausted and violated, and desperately wanted to curl up in bed and pretend like tonight never happened.
While Hizashi was deep in thought, Shouta kept one grounding hand on his shoulder while he plugged in the electric trimmer with the other. The tinny whirr of the machine filled the air for a while as Shouta smoothed any still-ragged edges.
“..I’m sorry. I know you like playing with my hair and stuff.. Sorry you have to see me like this, hun. This is kinda humiliating..” Shouta turned off the trimmer and once again yanked Hizashi around to face him.
“Hey. How many times to I have to tell you, stop with that crap.” He draped a hand across Hizashi’s back, rubbing small circles. “I married you, not your hair. And it’s not some chore to take care of you, Zashi. Not if it’s you.” Hizashi closed his eyes against the soft words and a fat tear rolled down his cheek. “I’m not doing this because I have to, I’m doing this because I love you. Nothing’s gonna change that, especially not a haircut, especially not what happened tonight.” He dragged a thumb across Hizashi’s cheek, wiping away the wet trail.
“Now, why don’t you look in the mirror and tell me how I did.” Hizashi laughed wetly and stood up, shaking his legs off to dispel any numbness from sitting in that position. He dragged his feet as he approached the sink mirror, terrified that he’ll look like a plucked chicken. Finally he raised his eyes up to his reflection.
“Oh..” He ran his fingers through the locks, feeling the strangeness of having them slip out of his fingers far sooner than he’s used to. His new length was almost as short as he had it in Highschool, with the sides shaved rather close, but the top still being a decent length. With no product in his hair, it flopped down and reached his shoulders in soft tufts. He could picture it now, how he could style it in his usual swoop, just.. Not as big.
“Is it okay? I think one side might be longer than the other but I didn’t want to-“
“Its perfect, Shou, really. You don’t know how much I..” Their eyes met in the mirror, HIzashi’s bright green eyes still watery, and Shouta’s piercing black just as bloodshot as always. Hizashi smiled and turned to face his husband, wrapping his arms around the other’s shoulders. “Seriously, babe. I don’t know what I’d do without you.. I love you.” He could feel Shouta smiling against his cheek.
“Mmm.. I love you too, Zashi. Now get in some normal people clothes and let’s go to sleep.”
“..That sounds nice, hun.”
A few minutes later and they were both climbing into bed, silently shuffling blankets and pillows around to get comfortable. They laid on their sides, facing each other. The faint light from the moon shone in through the window and partially illuminated Shouta’s face. Hizashi could see the silent question in his eyes when he slung an arm over his waist.
“Is this okay..?” Hizashi closed his eyes for a moment, willing away the phantom feeling of too-large hands skimming over his torso.
“Yeah, this is good.” He whispered, shuffling closer to his husband to soak up his warmth. A low rumbling hum came from Shouta.
“..I think you should talk to someone, a professional. About what happened tonight. At least once.”
“Okay.”
The sound of the rain outside was now more of a quiet pittering than the heavy shower it had been before.
“Good night.”