Ooooh thank you!!! I am, and I hope you are too. From this post – send me a fandom and a pairing if you have a preference! ❤

I’m gonna go Tododeku and BNHA with this one cos I’ve got an idea, but I don’t mind doing it again if you wanted Haikyuu!! or TAZ or a different ship!

Heads up: reference to self harm and depression in this one. Nothing graphic.

Right, “Sleeve(s)”, oh MAN.

Ok. 

So first, lets set the scene. Vintage record store, Shouto works there. Deku works in the cafe next door. No quirks au. Shouto is essentially the most punk to ever punk in this au cos I can do that: tattoos, piercings, and one hell of an undercut. Deku is hopelessly in love. Shouto has also moved away from home: he doesn’t make much money but he’s happy and more free than he’s ever been. He works with Jirou, Mina and Kaminari. He’s friends with Momo – well on her way to becoming a lawyer. She occasionally drops by, though he suspects that’s partly an excuse to skip studying in order to visit her girlfriend.

Prologue happens when Deku and Shouto meet for the first time, of course. Shouto takes the new job – Jirou put in a good word for him with the owner Hizashi (is there background erasermic in this? You bet your ass there is.) And goes to grab coffee. Izuku kind of falls all over himself and Shouto thinks it’s pretty much the best. The record store sells books too: loving curated by Hizashi’s husband, Shouta. Izuku starts dropping by, normally chilling with the books. Shouto starts recommending him music, and Izuku starts listening. Meanwhile, Izuku recommends Shouto books: science fiction and philosophy and turn of the century stuff – anything and everything. It’s their version of love letters.

Of course, one day a blushing Deku (loudly encouraged by his own co-workers, which include Uraraka and Kirishima) writes his number on the sleeve of Shouto’s coffee cup. Shouto keeps that little piece of cardboard for years. In the fic, they start dating.

But that’s not the end! See here’s the other thing. Both of them wear long sleeves: they both have scars. Shouto’s are from his father, mostly, and he hides that from his new friends. Only Momo knows much about his tragic backstory and he’s kind of ok with it staying that way – right up till his trust issues start rearing their head around Izuku.

And then there’s Izuku: cheerful, determined, kind, and refusing to wear t-shirts in summer. Shouto isn’t naive, never had that luxury, but he doesn’t want to push Izuku to share something he isn’t willing to share. Eventually, Shouto confides in Izuku about his father and everything that happened with his father. (Did I mention that Fuyumi and Shouto’s brothers visit every couple days to tease their baby sibling and enjoy the fact he’s safe and happy at last? They do). The conversation happens not long after Izuku meets Fuyumi.

After that, Izuku shares his own secrets: a long battle with bullying, self harm, anxiety and depression that left him a legacy of scars. He doesn’t hurt himself any more, but he’s not super comfortable with people knowing that much about him. Shouto takes it in, and every time they’re close and alone he takes the chance to push up Izuku’s sleeve and kiss the scars on his wrists.

When Shouto finally proposes, five years later, he does so by slipping the ring into a record sleeve. When Izuku slips out the vinyl to stick onto Shouto’s battered record player in their tiny flat, it falls onto the floor and he laughs. Shouto isn’t entirely sure how to handle this development, and then Izuku slips a little velvet box out of his pocket and explains that he’d been trying to figure out how to put it in the damn coffee cup.

Then he says yes.

One year later, they start wearing short sleeves.