Chasing Tinkerbelle (BakuDeku)

31 - A Real Date

"You don't need to do this," Katsuki said, handing Izuku the pot he'd asked for.

"It's fine," Izuku said as he took the pot from him with a smile.

No, it wasn't.

It wasn't even close to being fine, but thanks to his asshole cousins, brothers and uncles, he'd discovered the extent of the damage those bastards had done over the years.

Every restaurant they'd tried to go to had either turned them away, run screaming for the fire exits or had a mental breakdown when he came walking through the door.

When he'd tried to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation by calling ahead, it had ended with some hysterical manager sobbing as they threw around the words police, restraining order and 'Please, God, no!'

After coming to the conclusion that his asshole relatives had gotten the family banned from every restaurant within a ten-mile radius of the movie theatre, he'd given up and headed to the movies.

He'd planned on ordering a few ten-pound hot dogs, and fifteen-pound bags of popcorn from the concession stand to hold them over until later, but his little Tinkerbelle had taken one look at the prices and professed up and down that he wasn't hungry.

When he'd told Izuku not to worry about it, the boy had offered to make him dinner instead.

He'd tried talking him out of it, but the stubborn small man had simply shook his head, grabbed his hand and yanked him towards the exit, leaving him with no choice but to accept the fact that he'd failed in his first attempt to woo the boy.

Now, as he stood in Izuku's kitchen, watching him throw together a quick dinner, he decided that he was going to have to reevaluate his tactical plan.

Originally, he'd planned on wooing Izuku with casual dates, a romantic meal here and there and his natural charm, but so far, none of that was working for him.

Well, at least, the romantic meal portion of his plan wasn't working. The next time he took Izuku out- and there would be a next time- he was going to have to do a little research in advance.

He'd show up at the boy's door with roses, chocolates and take him out to the most romantic restaurant that he could find.

For now, he'd have to work with what he had, which admittedly wasn't a hell of a lot, but he'd make it work.

"Do you need any help?" he asked, running several possibilities through his head.

"No," Tinkerbelle said with a shy little smile that had him rethinking his plans to take this slowly.

But, he had a plan and he was going to stick with it even if it killed him.

"How long before it's done?" he asked offhandedly.

"About an hour," Izuku said, shooting him another small smile over his shoulder as he filled a large pot with water.

Perfect.

"I'll be back in time," he promised with a satisfied sigh as he walked out of his apartment, quickly making plans to salvage this date.

*****

"I'm an idiot," Izuku muttered, watching the steam rise off the homemade macaroni and cheese casserole that he'd cooked for Katsuki, who had apparently ditched him at the first opportunity.

He'd been ditched before, but wow did this hurt.

It was foolish, but he'd actually been enjoying himself.

This was the first date that he'd ever had where he could honestly have said that he'd had fun. His usual first dates consisted of drinks, coffee- which he isn't fond of drinking- food and maybe a movie.