The elevator opens to your floor and that stiff feeling starts to come back with every anxious step toward your apartment. You don't know if you should be cursing out your past self for leaving your dirty laundry on the floor or for inviting Katsuki in unplanned. But you have no time to dwell on that so you stop Katsuki a few feet away from your front door.

"I was rushing out this morning so sorry if it's a bit of a mess." You chuckle to make light of the situation but you can still feel a cold sweat start to break out as you prepare yourself to open your door--your life--to Katsuki, barely hearing his response. You feel like everything is happening too slowly but before you know it, the lights are on and everything is...

"It's clean." You whisper under your breath, admittedly surprised which Katsuki notes. "Jeez, you must be a slob if you're this surprised." Your face quickly morphs into an expression of shock and he can tell you're about to go into a long rant of trying to explain how you're actually the cleanest person you know when he shuts you up.

"I'm kidding, ya goof. You gonna show me where I can put my shoes?" The momentary shock passes through you quick and you snap yourself back into it. "Yes! Let me get you some slippers too."

Moving to the kitchen after setting your belongings down, you speed run through the list of groceries you had picked up earlier that week to cook. Katsuki makes himself at home on a stool at your--albeit small--kitchen island.

You hum quietly, indecisive of what to make when Katsuki speaks up. "Were you planning on making dinner tonight?" He smirks when you sheepishly avoid his gaze. "Honestly, after a shift like that at the café, I'd normally just order takeout and call it a day." And so what? You deserve to be lazy every once in a while.

"That's fine. I'm probably a better cook than you anyways" Katsuki goads. You raise an eyebrow. "Oh really?" You don't sound impressed but you're certainly intrigued by what he proposes next. "Yeah, really. Sit your ass down and get ready to eat the best fucking meal of your life." Yes, sir.

Sitting your ass down, you nod in permission for him to rummage through your kitchen, silently taking educated guesses based on what he pulled out onto the counter. "Steak?" Katsuki starts prepping the food and it's not long until he's--almost professionally--cooking the steak on the stove. "You better have some good fucking wine to go with this."

Now that you can do. You smile and run over to your cabinet, pulling carefully selecting from one of the many bottles gifted to you as a wedding planner. In the midst of the kitchen chaos, Katsuki asks about your day, asking for every little detail from the time you woke up to what you thought the reasons were on why a few customers were acting more rude than usual.

"I really do think it's because the holiday season is over. Too many people go crazy over special holiday limited stuff for no reason. I don't know why I have to waste my time explaining to full-grown adults what 'holiday limited' means."

Katsuki huffs in amusement in the light of your rant, serving the steaming plates of food before taking a seat on the stool next to you. The conversation continues between the two of you, going back and forth about your day, his day, and all the days the two of you lived without the presence of the other, all while taking sips of wine in-between.

(And you know where this is going.)

You've moved to the kotatsu set up in your living room, basking in the heat with your legs slowly tangling between Katsuki's in a drunken, half-assed game of footsie (or is it legsie?) as the two of you find a position to sit in comfortably. "Didn't think you'd be such a light weight." You giggle, knowing you're not much more of a heavy drinker than he was.

"'m not," Katsuki slurs. "People don't finish three fuckin' bottles by themselves." You hum in response. "I thought it was five." Under the kotatsu, you feel something nudge against your leg and you both laugh softly in drunken stupor.

When your laughter starts to slowly die out, your mind sobers to speak. "Can I ask you something?" Katsuki motions for you to continue. "Why do you do what you do? Why a shoe repairman?" It was purely curiosity, but you can hear a change in the tone of his voice when he speaks.

"Because I believe it's my personal legend."

"Your 'personal legend'?" He nods. "You never read The fucking Alchemist?" You shake your head and he continues. "It's a short book but I've read it twice in my life. The first time I was just too fucking dumb to understand what the hell it was talking about, but then I read it for a second time, and shit actually started to make sense.

"'Personal legend' is just the books' words for destiny. I guess I discovered that when I was workin' with Kirishima. Kirishima's a fucking idiot, and I love him, but I didn't love my job there.

"And that's when I read The Alchemist for the second time in my life. I fuckin' near hated that job and I discovered what I didn't like, so I started tryin' to figure out what I did like. And I like being the best at shit, and it could be anything.

"It didn't have to be a shoe repairman, it could have been a firefighter, or a librarian, or a fuckin' superhero if this world allowed it, it doesn't matter what it is. If I'm the fuckin' best at it, there's nothin' to hate."

A part of you is amazed to hear Katsuki speak so seriously and passionately about something and you can't help that your lips are slight agape in awe. "And that's why you're a shoe repairman." Katsuki smiles softly, something you never thought you'd see before. I'll remember this moment forever.

"And thank fuck I did." Your faces are closer than you remembered them to be, the both of you resting your heads in the fold of your arms on top of the kotatsu. The warm lights of your living room seem to glow softer and turn hazy around you as you and Katsuki fall into a deep silence. He captures your gaze and doesn't look away, and you begin to think that there's something uniquely beautiful about his eyes that you can't quite put your finger on.

"Why?" You whisper. Katsuki smiles again and you wish he would smile like that forever. "Because I wouldn't have met you." His hand comes up to cradle your head from the back, pulling you towards him across the short corner of the table until his lips press against your forehead softly.