Work Text:
Katsuki knows something’s up the moment he steps into his bedchamber.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hi.” His husband glances up just briefly to offer his reply then back down.
“Good day?’
“Mm.”
Shouto is sitting on his side of their bed, knees bent under the sheets to balance his book. The evening light trickles in through the window, painting him in reds and golds. Half his head looks like it’s caught in divine flames.
Swapping his indoor boots for his comfortable slippers, Katsuki walks closer. He narrows his eyes. Normally, this would be a perfectly unremarkable sight to walk into at the end of the day. But Katsuki’s known Shouto long enough to pinpoint the things that confirm there’s something off.
Shouto’s ramrod straight back, as if he’s on alert rather than simply minding his posture. The movement of his eyes across the page is abnormal, like he’s reading the same section over and over, unfocused. There’s a flush to his skin, especially his cheeks, that has nothing to do with the warmth of the sunlight.
“What’s wrong?” Katsuki asks directly, dropping to sit across from him still clad in his daily formal attire. Shouto jolts, looking up sharply with barely concealed alarm.
He knew it.
“Nothing’,” Shouto lies, forcing his usual impassive expression. “I’m just reading.”
“Reading, huh?”
“Yes.”
Katsuki twists and pulls up a leg to face him better. He doesn’t miss the suppressed flinch.
“What book?”
Shouto blinks. “What?”
Katsuki waves at Shouto’s lap, exasperated. “What’re you reading today?”
“It’s, um. It’s about…”
Katsuki rolls his eyes, reaching a hand out for the book. But this time Shouto reacts more extremely, pulling back almost violently and tipping himself off the bed. He crumples gracelessly onto the floor.
Any other day, Katsuki would’ve fallen on the ground too, laughing his head off. Since they were kids, Prince Shouto has always been the picture of poise and elegance. He’s even unfairly charming with a rat’s nest for hair, morning breath, and crusted eyes. But whatever has occurred has seemed to have turned his husband into the goddamn court jester.
It’s amusing to behold but it also has Katsuki tensing at all the possibilities running through his mind. He scowls, leaning forward to look over the edge.
“Either you tell me what’s going on and who I need to execute or I go and find out for myself.”
Shouto sighs, slowly pushing himself back up onto the bed with one arm, then the next. “Don’t be dramatic. No one needs to be executed.” He’s hunched over awkwardly, aggressively shaking out his quilt before sliding beneath it again. He does his best to avoid Katsuki’s eyes for as long as he can. But eventually relents, looking up.
Katsuki sucks in a soft breath. His pupils…
“Are you—”
“First,” Shouto cuts him off, “I need you to make two promises.”
Katsuki scoffs. Shouto doesn’t back off. “Fucking—fine. What are they?”
Shouto nods. “One, you’re not going to execute anyone over this.”
“What even is ‘this’?”
“Promise.”
Katsuki bristles. “I’m king. I make the damn calls here as I see fit, in case you forgot.”
But his stubborn asshole of a husband isn’t fazed. His mismatched eyes flash dangerously. “Not in here, you don’t. Promise me.”
Gritting his teeth Katsuki says, “Fine. Fine, I promise. What’s the other one?”
Shouto’s serious demeanor melts a bit, giving way to something unfamiliar. Is he…embarrassed?
“I need you to promise me you won’t laugh.”
Katsuki’s eyebrows disappear up into his hairline.
“Again, I’m gonna need some context first, Princess.”
“No. Promise me.”
Katsuki throws his hands up. “For fuck’s sake, sure. I promise. Would you like me to drag a priest in here to make the vows official?”
“No need. But I appreciate the sentiment.”
This bastard. “Alright, spill. What happened?”
Shouto’s eyes flit around and he opens his mouth. No sound comes out. He exhales long through his nose. He tries again and Katsuki nods slowly in encouragement. But still, nothing.
What the hell happened that has him acting so bizarrely? It’s frustrating not knowing. And in a way, it hurts that Shouto is so hesitant to tell him of all people. Reining in these selfish thoughts, Katsuki decides to shift his tone and approach.
“Oi. Shou.”
His softer voice paired with the more affectionate of his various nicknames gains him Shouto’s attention again.
“I promise, okay? I won’t laugh and I won’t kill anyone. Just talk to me. It’s freaking me out seeing you this way. We’ve been friends for twenty years. I’ve been your husband for four of those. Sure, it was a political decision but that doesn’t mean I’m not here for you. I still meant the vows. I’m still your person. So just…trust me, yeah?”
Katsuki watches in real time as Shouto’s apprehension begins to thaw. His bottom lip is drawn between his teeth but there’s an eagerness to be forthright that Katsuki reads in his eyes.
Shouto nods. Katsuki nods back.
“I received some pastries today,” Shouto starts cautiously. “From that one vendor in the market that I like. You know the one.”
Katsuki hums. “I do. You’re practically half her weekly earnings.”
Shouto huffs, smiling. That alone calms Katsuki some.
“Yes, well. Upon eating one, it dawned on me that it may not actually be from her. I mean, it was packaged in the same brown parchment that she uses. It had her unique braided string tying it closed. So I didn’t question it as much as I should have when I found it waiting outside the solar room.”
Katsuki’s mind rushes to piece together all the information. He feels panic rising in his chest.
“Did someone poison you?” he asks too loudly.
Shouto’s eyes widen and he shakes his head. “No! No, no poison. Just…”
Frustration is beginning to eclipse Katsuki’s patience with his husband once more.
“Just what, Shouto?”
“I think it’s an aphrodisiac." Shouto blurts out the words in rapid succession. His cheeks turn even redder. Katsuki’s eyes widen.
“Huh?”
Shouto clicks his tongue, now the vexed one. “I think the pastries contained some kind of a love potion. Well, lust potion, more like. It was clearly sent by someone who desires me and wants me to desire them back. There’s a distinct…feeling. It's not—it’s not the first time it's happened to me so I was able to recognize its effects quickly.”
Katsuki is filled with a flood of emotions. Rage, first and foremost, attempting to cloud his rational thought. But his protective tendencies and need to attend to the person who matters most to him overpowers it. Justice can wait.
Taking a deep breath, Katsuki asks, “How many of these pastries did you eat before you realized?”
Shouto purses his lips. “Six.”
“Six?!”
“They’re rather dainty!”
A laugh threatens to burst out of him but Katsuki feigns a cough instead when Shouto glares.
“Okay, fine, fine,” Katsuki acquiesces and clears his throat. “So what’s the plan?”
Shouto looks at him, confused. “Plan?”
Gesturing, Katsuki says, “Your plan to deal with the effects or, ideally, put an end to them. What are the symptoms of these things?”
Shouto’s expression turns sheepish and he looks away. His voice is low when he replies, “I was simply going to wait it out. If I’m correct it should wear off by the morning. End of the week at most. It’s how I’ve dealt with them before.”
Katsuki balks. What utter horseshit.
“What. Are. The symptoms.”
His husband’s jaw tightens with the stubbornness that only rivals Katsuki’s own. He’s always so reluctant to seek help, to accept it when offered. It’s not like Katsuki is any better but their years of friendship strengthened by their marriage has allowed them both to improve on that shared weakness.
So Katsuki waits. Waits for Shouto to finish fighting that internal battle before accepting Katsuki’s proffered hand.
“Don’t forget your second promise to me,” Shouto says at last, flipping his thick quilt off his lap.
Revealing heavily tented silk sleep pants.
Katsuki slaps a hand over his mouth.
Shouto is off the bed in an instant, grabbing his robe off the hook, marching for the door. Katsuki rushes to him without a second thought.
“Shouto, wait, wait. I’m not laughing, I swear.” Shouto shakes his hand off his own. “I just didn’t expect it. Well, I did, but seeing it was—Don’t leave. Shouto. Shouto.”
Shouto whips around to face him, flushed and angry, eyes glossy. There are icy, seething words Katsuki knows he wants to spew but is holding them back behind his gritted teeth. Katsuki is honestly impressed by the restraint given the circumstance.
“Hey, I’m sorry. Really,” Katsuki says in a much calmer voice. He sets his hand on Shouto’s shoulders, preventing him from trying to leave again.
“It’s fucked up,” he continues when he feels Shouto’s body relax minutely with his touch. He tries to think on the bits of information he’s read on such things, as well as common sense. “Probably comes with heightened emotions too, yeah? All the shit you can’t control. Fucking nightmare.” Katsuki lightly runs his hands down Shouto’s arms and back up. “And you feel too warm.”
Shouto shivers slightly, his eyelashes flutter. For some reason, that has Katsuki blushing a bit too. He clears his throat.
“Your ice magic not helping?”
Shouto shakes his head.
Katsuki glances down, keeping his face neutral except for a quirked brow. “Did you try and, you know…” his lewd gesture has Shouto rolling his eyes. But his lips twitch.
“You think that wasn’t the first thing I tried to do?” Shouto asks. “Of course I’ve tried pleasuring myself. Multiple times..”
Katsuki can’t help his smirk. “Hot.”
Shouto snorts, shaking his head. Katsuki grins, feeling the tension between them ease up some more.
Sighing, Shouto then says, “Like I said, I just have to wait it out. Potions like these are specific. I’d require another person’s…assistance. And seeing that I rarely have the inclination to seek out that kind of company even on a good day, this is the safest option.”
Katsuki’s slightly offended by that statement. He can’t do anything about the past times Shouto’s had the misfortune of experiencing this but this time he’s here. Right here. The feeling overshadows any awkwardness that he might’ve otherwise felt saying the words that come to him next.
“Or you can just ask me to suck your cock.”
Shouto stills, eyes growing bigger. He blinks.
“Katsuki,” he says slowly, “we’re friends.”
“Shouto,” Katsuki mimics the tone. “We're also husbands.”
Shouto only furrows his eyebrows like Katsuki is speaking a different language. It’s starting to annoy him.
“Yes, of course. But we aren’t lovers. That’s not why we married.”
Katsuki’s hackles are rising; he’s not sure why he’s the one getting all defensive now. “You saying you don’t love me, Halfie?”
Shouto exhales. “You know I do. But we’re not…like that. Are we?”
Now it seems that Shouto is questioning his entire belief system, analyzing all this time that they’ve known each other. But he’s not wrong. Romance and sex isn’t part of their repertoire. Their marriage is built on a long-standing friendship and political diplomacy.
They took lovers as they desired when the need called for it—Katsuki more frequently than Shouto, yet still not that often. They never hid it from each other, for there was no need to. Because they’d established a mutual understanding when they had decided on the union.
But that doesn’t mean their relationship is required to be static for the rest of their days. Change was okay. Change could be wonderful. Katsuki would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it in passing before.
Taking a half step closer to his husband, emboldened by Shouto’s soft intake of breath and reluctance to break eye contact, Katsuki says, “We could be. If you want. Or it could just be for tonight, just for this. Just so I can help you. Said you trust me, didn’t you?”
Shouto looks both dazed and hyperfocused all at once, clinging to Katsuki’s words. He licks his lips. “I do. I trust you more than anyone.”
Katsuki flashes a canine, letting his hands slide up to the sides of Shouto’s neck, thumbs caressing the sharp curve of his impressive jawline.
“Good. Go sit on the edge of the bed for me.”
Shouto wastes no time, heeding his instruction immediately. Katsuki follows at his heel, taking a moment to fill his lungs with an anchoring breath before the giddiness does him in.
Now more intrigued and, dare Katsuki say excited, Shouto’s eyes follow him intently as he approaches. Knees part for him as if on instinct, and Katsuki steps between them. Keeping their gazes locked, he unfastened his fur-lines velvet mantle, the clip coming apart at his throat. It falls to the floor with a hushed sound. He lifts the crown off his head next, casually flinging it aside onto the mattress. It lands on Shouto’s pillow.
Shouto’s throat bobs, the only indication of any nerves on his part. His face slowly tips lower as he follows Katsuki down. The chill of the stone seeps up through the rug as it meets Katsuki’s knees, but it’s the least of his concerns.
Katsuki settles his hands on Shouto’s thighs, then runs them up to the waistband of his sleep pants. He slips his fingers past, beginning to tug.
“Wait!” Shouto blurts out. Katsuki freezes.
“What happened, d’you want me to sto—”
“Kiss me first. Please.” Shouto’s eyes shine with an unfamiliar emotion. “I think I’d hate it if you tasted my–my dick before you’ve tasted my mouth.”
Katsuki pushes his tongue into his cheek, amused yet so very fond.
“How sweet. Who would have thought my husband was such a romantic?”
“Shut up.”
Katsuki does just that as Shouto grabs his face between his pretty hands, pulling him in and joining their lips. It’s new, yet so easy to sink into. Because despite the novelty, Shouto has been a constant in his life for nearly as long as he could speak proper sentences. There’s history between them that sweetens this beyond what Katsuki could have ever imagined.
They part with a soft pop. Katsuki studies Shouto’s face while Shouto’s eyes remain on his mouth. They share another kiss, lingering, before Shouto lets him go slowly.
“Okay,” he says to Katsuki, voice low, “You may proceed.”
If Katsuki wasn’t so keen on devouring his husband, he might have countered the command with something scathingly sarcastic.
Silk pants are quickly guided down past Shouto’s thighs and off while Katsuki peppers light kisses down his neck and shoulder. He urges to discard Shouto’s tunic as well, stripping him completely bare. He’s beautiful. But that’s not an unknown fact.
This isn’t the first time Katsuki's seen him in the nude. They’ve spent hours in the baths, relaxing and talking. Patched each other up of the most unfortunately placed wounds after spars. But those moments were never charged with this kind of energy. And in those moments, Katsuki never saw his husband aroused.
Shouto’s hard cock is fairly…impressive. It’s already leaking, a mere few inches from Katsuki’s mouth. He takes the base in one hand, stroking once, then leans closer. He hears Shouto suck in a breath and looks up through his lashes.
Shouto looks so gone already. The gracious prince now debauched and aching to be taken apart. It’s enough for Katsuki to fully harden too, restrained by his rough trousers. But he ignores it for now. Deliberately teasing, he closes the gap slowly, licking a small stripe to the tip.
The long, unfettered moan that it draws from Shouto’s mouth surprises them both. Fueled by the noise, Katsuki wraps his lips around the head fully and sucks lightly, heady from the salty tang of him.
“Gods, Katsuki, more, please.”
Fuck.
Taking him further, Katsuki fills his mouth with the hard warmth of him. He hollows his cheeks, hearing the stutter in Shouto’s groan. When he pulls up, he lets his hand follow too, the slide easier with his spittle. Shouto’s head tips back in pleasure, one hand falling behind him to brace while the other finds its way into Katsuki’s hair.
“You like that, sweetheart?” Katsuki asks when he comes up for air. He takes Shouto’s cock back in his mouth before he can get a response, more than satisfied with the garbled sound he receives instead.
He starts a rhythm to which Shouto supplies a melody, his moans deep and quite loud. A small, irrationally jealous part of Katsuki despises that others have gotten to experience this with his husband before he has, But the feeling evaporates when he hears his name spoken like a prayer. Thoughts are but a foggy haze when Shouto’s deft hand coaxes him down deeper, making his throat spasm in delight.
With each movement, Shouto’s nails scratch deliciously at his scalp. Katsuki relishes every sound he elicits, every whispered word of praise, every filthy murmured curse. Shouto bucks his hips up and Katsuki slips his fingers under his balls, squeezing and prodding firmly at the sensitive spot near his entrance. The rough tug on the roots of his hair is instant.
“Katsuki, Katsuki, I’m, fuck, I—yes, gods—”
Katsuki feels Shouto cum spill down the back of his throat and he holds still, letting him finish before swallowing him down. Shouto curls over him, boneless, kissing the crown of Katsuki’s head tenderly with shaky lips.
Katsuki pulls off and grins, grabbing Shouto’s chin and claiming a proper kiss. He’s pleasantly surprised when Shouto’s tongue eagerly licks into his mouth to taste himself.
“That was…wow,” Shouto breathes, tipping their foreheads together. His hand is on the back of Katsuki’s neck and he’s smiling. “You saved me, I think. You are…fuck. Shit, Katsuki.”
Katsuki chuckles, pecking the tip of his nose. “How uncouth of you, princess.”
“Says you.”
“Says me.”
“I learned from the best.”
“Sure you did. Was it you who cussed out his father’s war general as a teenager in front of the council for his supposed stupidity or was that me?”
Shouto laughs and kisses him again. His hands wander, urging Katsuki up and onto his lap. They kiss like that for a while, deep and languid, eager to know each other in this way.
“Will you fuck me?” Shouto asks in a whisper between breaths. “I’d like to help with this too.” His hand cups Katsuki’s painfully hard cock making him groan.
“Oh, I will, baby. I will. Just not tonight,” Katsuki says, despite his body fighting him on it. “Wanna make sure your system’s been purged of everything before I do that.”
Shouto pouts, but understands. Katsuki can see that the effects of the aphrodisiac are already draining away, but still. He wants to wait. He wants to take his time ruining his husband.
However, he still takes Shouto’s hand in his and slips it past his waistband. “I won’t say no to a little help like this, though.”
Shouto’s grin has Katsuki’s already hammering heart skipping a beat.
They tip over sideways. Between Shouto’s soft, warm hand stroking him steadily, and his greedy mouth mapping out the column of his neck, Katsuki comes hard. He pants, catching his breath, watching with heavy eyes as Shouto shamelessly licks his hand clean of Katsuki’s mess. Gods, he really did marry the perfect man.
The exhaustion from the day catches up to them as their bodies come down from the high of release. Instead of heading to the larger private baths per their usual routine, they settle for the stone bathtub in their ensuite bathing chamber. Neither of them are particularly small men, but they manage to fit into it together.
They soak in the hot water and fragrant oils until their fingers and toes prune. They talk and laugh about their days until Shouto nearly falls asleep mid sentence. They dry themselves off interjected with contagious yawns and sleepy kisses, still enamoured by this new element added to their lives together.
Their relationship had never felt incomplete, far from it. It has always been fulfilling, and neither had ever expressed any discontent.
Katsuki thinks of the late nights spent gossiping under the covers, laughing until they couldn’t breath. Of holding one another when the pre-dawn darkness brings about the worst of their nightmares. Of strolls through the gardens at sunrise and stealing bites of each other’s desserts after meals.
While sex and romance may have been absent, they had never lacked intimacy in these four years. Shouto is his best friend. He fucking loves Shouto. The realization has Katsuki’s heart swelling tenfold.
So rather than feeling like a hole in their lives has finally been patched and fixed, Katsuki feels like their marriage has simply elevated to a higher level. He sees the sentiment reflected in the way Shouto looks at him with fond familiarity and excitement.
They stumble back to bed, dressed minimally and comfortably. Katsuki holds out an arm and Shouto swoops in to settle on his chest, giving in to the tacit request with no qualms. Their chests rise and fall as one, and the tickle of Shouto’s breath against his skin feels like being welcomed home anew.
“I still wanna find the fucking culprit, even if this was a—favorable outcome,” Katsuki admits in the quiet of their room.
“Already done,” Shouto responds sleepily. “He’s in a holding cell awaiting trial. I was going to mention it tomorrow.”
“Ah. So, about that shitty promise of no executions…”
Eyes still closed, Shouto’s hand finds its way up to close over Katsuki’s mouth. “Unless you’d like to face your own trial for breaking an oath to me, I suggest you let me handle it. Goodnight, Katsuki.”
Katsuki smiles into his palm, irrevocably smitten.