Surprise? [Kacchan Bday 2023]

Katsuki wasn’t sure why they even still had a landline phone in their house, considering they only ever got spam calls on it, but for some stupid reason Izuku was insistent that they keep it. He cursed his husband’s name every time the damn thing rang, but still he diligently hauled himself up off the couch to answer it, knowing the one time he didn’t pick up would no doubt be the one time Izuku was calling it because there was an emergency and he’d forgotten Katsuki’s cellphone number, or something equally stupid.

“Hello?” he asked, making no effort to hide the annoyance in his voice.

“Hello! Is this Mr. Bakugou?”

“Yeah, speaking.”

“This is Kurumi from Atari Bakery, I’m just calling to let you know that we’ve received your final payment and to confirm your order is underway!”

“Oh,” Katsuki said dumbly. “Thank you, that’s uh, that’s great.”

“It’ll be ready to pick up at eight o’clock tomorrow like we discussed, if that still suits you?”

“Yeah, that should be fine. Um, would you mind emailing me too? For my records?”

“We’ve done it just now!” she assured him. “Please let us know if you don’t receive it.”

“Okay, great. I haven’t checked recently, it’s probably already there. I’ll give you a call if not.”

“Perfect! Have a great night!”

“You too.”

He hung up, taking a moment to just stare at the phone on its little holder. First the thing made him get up off the couch on his day off, now it wanted him to keep secrets? God damn it.

By the time Izuku arrived home, he’d already settled back into his comfortable spot, keeping his mouth decidedly closed no matter how much his brain hated keeping anything from his husband-slash-best-friend.

“How was your day?” Izuku asked, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. “Get lots of rest?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, reaching up to squeeze Izuku’s hand briefly in greeting. “Yours?”

“Pretty tame!” Izuku grinned. “Only a couple of minor fights, no big deal!”

“I’m glad.”

He flopped down on the other end of the sofa, tucking himself between Katsuki’s feet, and Katsuki couldn’t help but crack a smile as their legs twined together on the cushions.

“I’ve got your schedule for the next few days,” Izuku told him, digging his phone from his pocket to pull it up. “Nothing major, just a couple of meetings and stuff, wanted to give you a chance to mentally prepare for them.”

“I thought having my husband as my boss would get me out of meetings.”

“I try!” Izuku laughed. “You know I limit them as much as I can get away with.”

“Sure you do. Alright, gimme, let me see it.”

He handed over his phone, and Katsuki zoomed in on the photo to read it, grimacing when he saw the little blue block on the twentieth. Twelve o’clock: lunch meeting at Aiyou Izakaya. At least Izuku had picked his favourite lunch spot, he supposed. The meeting came with no information on who with or what about, like Izuku’s extensive calendar notes usually featured, but Katsuki didn’t bother to ask – there was no need to force him to lie, after all.

“I set it up at your favourite place!” Izuku said proudly, catching the look that passed over Katsuki’s face. “I know it sucks to work on your birthday, especially in boring meetings, so I hoped that might at least make up for it a little.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“You’re welcome!”

A notification popped up at the top of Izuku’s screen, and Katsuki grimaced when he saw the little cake emoji as the name of the chat, familiar names showing in the preview of the message. After a moment of hesitation, he swiped it away like it had never existed, handing the phone back with a little nod.

“Alright, I’ll bring a decent shirt to work or something. You can iron me one, as punishment for setting up meetings.”

“Deal!” Izuku laughed. “I’ll have to do one for me, too, anyway.”

Izuku’s eyes widened when he glanced at his phone again, pausing with his thumb hovering over the screen, before he glanced up at Katsuki awkwardly. Katsuki did his best to give nothing away, and Izuku tapped the screen with his thumb, glancing over a short message before he put his phone back in his pocket.

“And then just a chill evening for the two of us, after?” Katsuki prompted.

“Of course! We can head home as soon as the meeting is over, maybe we’ll even get out early! And your parents are gonna come up and visit on the weekend, so we can do a celebration with them, have a nice dinner out or something.”

“Sounds good.”

─────

“Ready to go?” Izuku prompted, leaning against Katsuki’s office doorway.

“Do I have to?”

Izuku just laughed, marching himself across the room to look Katsuki over, wrapping his arms around Katsuki’s neck to kiss him fondly.

“You look great,” he said, painfully sincerely. “I have such a handsome husband.”

“You really like that word, don’t you?”

“It’ll never get old,” Izuku grinned. “Love you, Husband.”

“Love you too, nerd.”

When Izuku freed him from his grasp, Katsuki stuffed his phone in his pocket, pausing a second to look at Izuku properly. His curls had been tamed a little, into some semblance of not-a-mess, and he was all dressed up in a button-up shirt, tucked into neatly ironed black trousers. Honestly, Katsuki was a little flattered that Izuku had gone to so much effort just for him.

He couldn’t help but notice, though, that the nerd’s shirt was a deep shade of blue, with dark red lining the seams.

“I swear to God, nerd, if you made my birthday party All Might-themed I’m gonna walk out.”

Izuku laughed brightly, unphased, and just shook his head as he linked his arm through Katsuki’s to lead him out the door.

“I wouldn’t do that to you, Kacchan,” Izuku assured him. “Maybe for like, your fortieth, when you start having a mid-life crisis and want to revisit your childhood nostalgia, but not now, and never unless I think you’d actually want it!”

“Good boy.”

The office was incredibly empty as they left, the occupants clearly relegated to the party – or to the patrols of those who wanted to attend the party, for the unlucky few – so no one interrupted them as they walked out into the street, still arm in arm like a sappy teenage couple.

“So which bit was it?” Izuku asked with a chuckle. “The meeting?”

“The bakery phoned to confirm your cake order.”

“Oh no!! They didn’t even check they were talking to the right person first?!”

“They asked if I was ‘Mr. Bakugou’.”

“Oh. Damn it. I didn’t think about that.”

“You should have given them your cellphone number like a normal person.”

“I didn’t think about it!” Izuku whined. “I don’t want everyone and their mother to know my personal number.”

“So you’d rather they have our home one where they could potentially figure out where we live?”

“No one would do that!”

“You underestimate your stalkers.”

Izuku huffed quietly, but he didn’t let go of Katsuki’s arm, so Katsuki knew he wasn’t nearly as annoyed as he pretended to be.

When they reached the door to the izakaya, Izuku paused, and Katsuki glanced over knowingly.

“Thanks for being a good sport,” he said finally. “I know you’re not big on surprises.”

“It wasn’t exactly a surprise,” Katsuki pointed out, chuckling to himself. “You did good, nerd.”

“I hope you have a good time. Whenever you’ve had enough, let me know and I’ll make an excuse for us to leave.”

“Thanks,” Katsuki smiled, kissing him on the head fondly. “Let’s go see this cake you special-ordered for me.”

The moment they stepped inside, a chorus of excited voices broke out, calling ‘happy birthday’ and cheering while Katsuki did his best to act surprised. Izuku saw right through it, was honestly a little surprised that anyone believed it, but all their friends seemed convinced that Katsuki had been completely unaware, and that was the important thing. Izuku stepped aside while they all took turns clapping him on the back or hugging him, depending how brave each of them was feeling, and Izuku watched with glee when Aizawa stepped forward to shake his hand, seeing ruby eyes widen in genuine shock.

“What are you doing here?” Katsuki asked dumbly. “I mean, it’s good to see you, just-”

“I thought it had been too long,” Aizawa smiled slightly. “This seemed like as good a reason as any. Happy birthday, Bakugou.”

One by one people stepped forward, a whole collection of friends and old classmates and a few teachers, most of whom Katsuki genuinely had no clue were in town. At least they’d managed to surprise him with one part of the party.

When the greetings began to wrap up, and the music started to play, Izuku sidled back up to Katsuki’s side, offering him a little card with a cartoon superhero on the front, clearly intended for someone young enough to be their kid. Inside was a short message from Katsuki’s parents, bidding him a happy birthday and a great party, and looking forward to spending time with him on the weekend, when they made the trip up. Izuku had hoped they might come along to the party, had even offered to go pick them up for it, but they’d assured him it was better if he took the night to spend with his friends, instead.

When Katsuki finally got a chance to look around, he found the entire izakaya decorated surprisingly tastefully with balloons and streamers, all black and gold, and nothing too over-the-top. It was actually a little impressive, considering Izuku was more of a more-is-more type of decorator, but Izuku just grinned sheepishly when Katsuki glanced over.

“Ashido did the decorating,” he explained. “She also helped with the-”

“Haaaaappy biiiiirthday toooo yoooouuu!”

“Cake,” Izuku finished with a laugh, watching their friends wheel it out from a back room, singing loudly and completely off-key.

“Happy biiiiirthday tooooooo yooooooouuuuuu!”

The crowd parted, and Izuku couldn’t stop grinning as they wheeled the cart right up to Katsuki, topped with the beautiful cake he’d picked up that morning. It was all decorated in black and gold, just like the building, since Ashido had thought that would be a little more classy and subtle rather than something garish and bright – All Might colours had been put in the latter category, Izuku was sad to note. The cake was two tiers, each iced in black with gold chocolate dripping down the edges, rimmed with caramel-covered popcorn and gold-wrapped chocolates, and topped with black macarons and a chocolate sign spelling out Happy Birthday Katsuki coated in shiny gold leaf. It was insanely fancy, and Izuku had been terrified carrying it to the car, incredibly glad he’d enlisted Kirishima’s help to protect it in the back seat while he drove it over at a snail’s pace.

“I’m glad the bakery didn’t ruin all the details,” Katsuki murmured in Izuku’s ear while the group finished their terrible song. “It looks great, I’m glad I could be surprised by this much.”

“I’m glad you like it!” Izuku whispered back. “Ashido did most of that too.”

“I’ll thank her later when no one else is around to hear it.”

With their song done, Katsuki cut the first slice of cake obediently, smiling fondly when everyone cheered in response. Despite his much more introverted tendencies, there was something about being in a room full of all your best friends, about them all taking time out of their days just to celebrate you, that he couldn’t help but be a little flattered by.

“I hope you’re not too mad at Midoriya,” Kirishima laughed, when the staff came to take over serving cake for everyone. “He was so distraught by the idea of keeping secrets from you, it took a lot of convincing. He did his best to make sure it’d be a fun afternoon for you though, and we made sure to start early enough that you can get home to bed at a decent hour.”

“I’m not mad,” Katsuki assured him, snorting at the thought of Izuku struggling so hard to not ruin the surprise the moment the idea was thrown into the ring. “You’re all on thin ice, but I know you meant well.”

Kirishima laughed, well aware that Katsuki wasn’t anywhere near as annoyed as he pretended to be – he was pretty sure all their friends knew him well enough to get that, honestly.

“Never again, though,” Katsuki warned him. “One surprise party is enough, don’t start doing this shit every year.”

“You have my word!”

Ashido offered him a plate, laden with fluffy cake and a couple of little macarons, and Katsuki paused for a moment as he reached to take it, glancing around at the distracted party-goers before he pulled her into a brief hug.

“Thanks for caring, or whatever,” he mumbled, when Ashido looked up at him with shining eyes. “I know you did most of the cool shit.”

Ashido laughed brightly, ignoring the cheeks that turned almost as pink as her own with the words, and just gave him one firm nod.

“Never again,” she promised knowingly. “Izuku already made us promise.”

Izuku laughed, and Katsuki dragged him in close, tucking him into his side and carefully balancing his plate to keep him held there while he ate. It was disgustingly sappy, if he did say so himself, but he supposed it was okay to be sappy once in a while.

“Love you, nerd.”

“Happy birthday, Kacchan.”