Chasing Tinkerbelle (BakuDeku)

2 - Tinkerbelle

Tenya chuckled as he leaned back in his chair and Izuku did his best not to cringe when the chair creaked in protest, again.

"I like you, Izuku. You're never late with the rent. You keep your apartment clean and you don't cause trouble, but I can't let you out of your lease."

"Why?" he asked, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Because if you move out, my wife will just move another one of my asshole cousins in here," Tenya said with a heavy sigh.

"Well, they couldn't be any worse than Katsuki. So-"

"Believe me, they are," the man said, cutting him off as he sat up, causing the chair to creak ominously with the movement. "What if I reduced your rent by a hundred bucks a month?"

"To stay?" Izuku asked, tempted to say yes and give in.

He didn't have much money in the bank and even though he actually did make a decent salary, he didn't have much money at the end of the month once the bills were paid.

Three million yen in debt had been his ex-fiancé's parting gift for him, one that he couldn't seem to return, and he desperately wanted to return that lovely gift.

He'd been foolish when he'd agreed to open a credit card account in his name for the man, and even more foolish for giving him access to his bank account- which he'd drained, legally, according to the police department- mere hours before he broke the news publicly to Izuku that he couldn't force himself to marry him.

"Two hundred?" Tenya offered, sounding a little desperate.

"Wouldn't it be cheaper to just to let me out of my lease?" he asked, struggling with the urge to say yes and make things a little less financially tight for a while even if it meant putting up with Katsuki Bakugo for ten more months.

"Three hundred bucks," Tenya said, not asked- he noted.

"Three hundred?" Izuku repeated, sure that he'd misheard him.

"Deal," Tenya said with a firm nod as he stood up and headed for the door, leaving him sitting there struggling to figure out what just happened.

"Wait, what deal?" he asked, scrambling to get out of the chair and rush to the door and block it before he could make his escape, but sadly, his short legs just couldn't manage it.

Tenya had the door open and was halfway down the hallway before he managed to catch up with him, well, get within ten feet of him anyway.

"Wait!" he said, hoping that Tenya would stop long enough so that he could figure out what just happened.

With a sheepish smile, Tenya did, but Izuku's relief was short lived as his landlord walked towards him and then kept walking.

Before Izuku could ask him what he was doing, Tenya was pounding on Katsuki's door.

Seconds later, and unfortunately, before he could make it back to his apartment, Katsuki, wearing only jeans and looking fresh out of the shower with damp hair, a towel over his shoulder and his large muscles glistening beneath the hallway light, opened the door.

Having a really bad feeling about what was coming, Izuku took a step back, hoping to get to his apartment before-

"Ow!" Katsuki said, rubbing the top of his head. "What the hell was that for?" he demanded.

His glare shifted away from his cousin and landed on him just as he'd reached his door and was about to sneak inside his apartment, where he planned on hiding until it was time to go to work in sixteen hours.

"Stop being an asshole," Tenya said with a satisfied grunt before he turned around and headed for the exit, only to pause and throw over his shoulder, "You still coming to dinner?"

Katsuki's eyes never left Izuku as he answered, "Yeah, what time?"

"Six," Tenya said, continuing towards the door and leaving Izuku to deal with his asshole cousin. "Bring dessert!"

Katsuki didn't respond and Tenya didn't wait for him to as he opened the door and stepped outside, leaving Izuku in a rather awkward position.

"Tattled on me again?" Katsuki asked in that deep voice that made Izuku's toes tingle.

It also reminded him of just how much he hated the guy.

Because of Katsuki, he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night.

Now he was tired, cranky, admittedly bitchy, and had to work on re-writing a proposal for the library renovation that had taken him a month, in fourteen hours and without pay.

All because the Town Council didn't feel that the first proposal properly conveyed the importance of the library and its staff, meaning that he had to figure out a way to bring the budget for library renovations down by ten grand or start looking for a new job when they were forced to close the library.

"For your information," Izuku bit out, taking a step towards Katsuki and pretending that the man didn't have more than a foot on him as he glared up at him, "I was asking to get out of my lease. Not that it's any of your business."

For some reason, that seemed to amuse Katsuki, because his scowl was instantly replaced by that smug grin of his that Izuku's palm was itching to slap off his face.

"Trying to run away from your feelings for me, Tink?" Katsuki asked, bringing Izuku's rage to a whole new level.

"Did... " he started to say, only to force himself to take a deep breath before he did something that would involve that defense attorney that he'd already decided he couldn't afford.

"Did you just call me 'Tink'?" he asked with barely suppressed rage.

Oblivious to how close he was to certain death, Katsuki merely shrugged as he grabbed the towel from over his shoulder and dried his face and chest. "Yeah."

"That's not my name," he bit out, his eyes narrowing on that towel as he thought of a whole new way to get rid of the bastard.

"Well," Katsuki said, pausing to rub the towel against the back of his head, "You're green, you're small. It really should be."

"It's not, and I am not sma- you're just huge! Everyone looks small to you!" he snapped, knowing that if he called him Tink one more time that he would-

"Of course I am, and as much as I'd love to stand here and chat with you, Tinkerbelle, I have somewhere to be," Katsuki said with a wink as he shut the door, leaving Izuku standing there, seething with rage and making him wonder how he was going to get through the next ten months without killing Katsuki.