Chapter Text
From: Shitty Hair
Ok, so
From: Shitty Hair
I wanted to ask you a question
From: Shitty Hair
I don’t really know if the answer you’ll give me will actually answer it
From: Shitty Hair
So please try your best because I’ve been dying to know the answer and I am literally receiving death threats from our friends over this
From: Shitty Hair
Can I go ahead?
From: Best Friend
Just spit it
From: Shitty Hair
All right
From: Shitty Hair
Here I go
From: Shitty Hair
Are you and Midoriya
From: Shitty Hair
Um
From: Shitty Hair
Dating?
From: Best Friend
My answer to you is:
From: Best Friend
None of your business
From: Shitty Hair
Bakugou COME ON
From: Shitty Hair
Did you not read the part where I say I’m receiving DEATH THREATS
From: Shitty Hair
All our friends can sense I know something about this
From: Shitty Hair
Because you told me about the f-word and you told me you guys kissed???
From: Shitty Hair
And then you arrived at the welcome party together but everyone knew that you guys had made up during your time at the hospital, since Midoriya was the only one who could visit you and all that
From: Shitty Hair
So no one thought too much about you two arriving and leaving together
From: Shitty Hair
But I have no idea if you’re ok with me sharing what you told me with them, so I didn’t tell them anything
From: Shitty Hair
And I’m not even sure if there’s SOMETHING to tell, because you won’t speak to me about what happened
From: Shitty Hair
Do you not want to do this over text? Is that the reason? Because I can totally stop by at any given time and we can have this talk in person
From: Shitty Hair
Is that ok?
From: Best Friend
You can’t come over
From: Shitty Hair
Why not?
From: Best Friend
Deku’s fast asleep in my arms and I don’t want you to wake him up
From: Shitty Hair
Dude are you SHITTING ME
From: Shitty Hair
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS BAKUGOU I’M BEING SERIOUS
From: Shitty Hair
So you guys ARE dating?
From: Best Friend
What does it matter to you?
From: Shitty Hair
Well, what does it matter to YOU? Why do you keep acting so mysterious about it?
From: Best Friend
Look, Shitty Hair
From: Best Friend
This is all very new to me
From: Best Friend
We kissed and we’re hanging out and we’re sharing a bed and we talked about our feelings
From: Best Friend
But I don’t know how to do this
From: Best Friend
I’ve never even thought about romance before
From: Best Friend
But what I do know is that kissing someone and telling them about your feelings isn’t enough to claim you’re dating them
From: Shitty Hair
What do you mean? Of course it’s enough, people start dating with less than that!
From: Best Friend
No, it’s not
From: Best Friend
Not to me
From: Best Friend
If I’m going to do this, then I’m going to be the best of the best. Deku will never want or need anyone else ever again, because I’ll be the best boyfriend in this motherfucking world.
From: Best Friend
And for that, I need to do the proper ritual.
From: Best Friend
Making out in the middle of a wrecked building while one of us was dying doesn’t exactly count as a first date
From: Best Friend
Neither does Frenching each other at Recovery Girl’s medbay
From: Best Friend
So I’ll start with that. As soon as I’m well enough
From: Best Friend
THEN, and only then, you’ll be able to say we’re dating
From: Best Friend
I don’t give a shit what anyone will think about it, and I couldn’t care less about what you’ll tell them
From: Best Friend
But this is how this is gonna go.
From: Best Friend
Plus, I don’t know if Deku wants everyone to know just yet. We haven’t talked about it.
From: Shitty Hair
What do you
From: Shitty Hair
What do you mean you made out on the wreckage
From: Shitty Hair
YOU AND MIDORIYA MADE OUT WHILE YOU WERE DYING???????????
From: Best Friend
It totally slipped my mind you didn’t know about this. But yeah
From: Best Friend
Ask Pikachu about it
From: Shitty Hair
KAMINARI KNOWS??????
From: Shitty Hair
YOU TOLD HIM BUT NOT ME?????
From: Best Friend
Deku told me he saw it
From: Best Friend
Not my fault
From: Best Friend
Bye
From: Shitty Hair
OH NO YOU DON’T
From: Shitty Hair
COME RIGHT BACK HERE MISTER
From: Shitty Hair
HOW COME KAMINARI KNEW AND I DIDN’T?
From: Shitty Hair
HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEE
From: Shitty Hair
I THOUGHT WE WERE BEST BROS
From: Best Friend
You sound gayer than I am
From: Shitty Hair
THIS IS SO UNFAIR
From: Best Friend
Are you gonna get touchy-feely about it?
From: Shitty Hair
You’re damn right I will
From: Best Friend
How is it my fault he saw it and you didn’t?!
From: Best Friend
He doesn’t know we kissed after that. You do. So there you go, you’re even now
From: Best Friend
When did this shit turn into a friendship match anyway
From: Shitty Hair
When you let him see it instead of me
From: Best Friend
I didn’t LET him see shit, he saw it by accident
From: Best Friend
And if you’re by any means implying that at some point I’ll have to let you watch me and Deku French kiss each other I have terrible news for you
From: Shitty Hair
So Kaminari gets to see it but I don’t?
From: Best Friend
STOP TALKING LIKE A PERVERT
From: Shitty Hair
STOP NOT TELLING ME ABOUT STUFF
From: Best Friend
Bye Kirishima
From: Shitty Hair
Bye Bakugou
From: Best Friend
Oh, so you’re gonna act like this?
From: Shitty Hair
I just thought you trusted me better
From: Best Friend
Of course I trust you, dipshit
From: Best Friend
You’re the only person I told about the f-word and about the kiss
From: Best Friend
You knew about the f-word before even Deku did, even though you’re dumb and assumed I was talking about fucking
From: Best Friend
Kaminari happened to walk into us kissing. I told you about the kiss voluntarily
From: Best Friend
So stop throwing a tantrum and let me go take a nap
From: Shitty Hair
You can go take your nap, I’m not stopping you
From: Best Friend
You’re mad at me, so no
Shitty Hair is typing…
Shitty Hair is typing…
From: Shitty Hair
… Since when do you care about that?
From: Best Friend
I’ve had two grave head injuries in a short time span and I literally almost died after a building fell on me
From: Best Friend
And yeah, maybe it’s the after effect of the head injury talking, but I don’t know what else I have to say to make you understand that you’re important to me
From: Best Friend
I clearly suck at this type of thing, given the number of arguments I’ve had with Deku in the past because I cared too much and he mistook it for despise
From: Best Friend
And I’m not even counting the times he was the one who cared about me and I was the one who mistook it for despise
From: Best Friend
And I do think you’re being a big baby over this
From: Best Friend
Let’s be real, I told you way more than I would have done if this conversation had happened at any point of the past year
From: Best Friend
So just take what you can get and be done with it
From: Shitty Hair
Bakubro…
From: Shitty Hair
I’m crying manly tears right now
From: Shitty Hair
You’ve grown so much
From: Best Friend
You’re ridiculous, Shitty Hair
From: Shitty Hair
I mean it
From: Shitty Hair
And I know exactly what I’m going to do
From: Shitty Hair
I’m going to give you a hand on the Midoriya thing
From: Best Friend
What thing?
From: Shitty Hair
The first date thing
From: Best Friend
And what sort of experience do you have in that field again?
From: Shitty Hair
None, which is why I’m calling in Mina, Kami and Sero to help
From: Best Friend
Oh, of course
From: Best Friend
Because they definitely know more than you do about this area
From: Shitty Hair
Stop being grumpy and listen to me
From: Shitty Hair
You and Midoriya are going to have the best first date of the history of first dates
From: Shitty Hair
That’s a promise
From: Shitty Hair
So
From: Shitty Hair
Kami already knows, but is it ok if I tell the others?
From: Shitty Hair
They’ve been dying to know what’s going on and the way you two behaved at the welcoming party just made everyone more curious
From: Shitty Hair
I won’t say you two are dating, I’ll just say you dig each other and you kissed
From: Shitty Hair
If that’s ok with you, of course
From: Shitty Hair
But they kinda need to know if they’re going to help with the first date
Katsuki lowered his phone and looked at Deku, who had his head resting against Katsuki’s chest.
“Oi, Deku”, Katsuki called softly. The sleeping boy stirred and nestled closer to Katsuki. “You awake?”
“Hmm”, Deku hummed low, enveloping Katsuki’s thin waist with his arm and holding him close.
“Shitty Hair wants to know if it’s ok to tell people we kissed”, Katsuki said in a low voice, not wanting to disturb him.
“We kissed”, he felt Deku smile against his chest, still half-asleep.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, we did. Do you want to keep it a secret or…?”
Deku frowned. He lifted his head to look at Katsuki, eyes half-lidded from sleepiness.
“Don’t our friends know we’re together?”, he questioned.
Katsuki shrugged.
“Well, we didn’t make anything official. The only ones who know we made out are Dunce Face and Shitty Hair”.
“Oh”, Izuku blinked. “Well, I don’t mind”.
“Are you sure?”, Katsuki raised an eyebrow.
Izuku smiled again, burying his face on Katsuki’s chest again and nestling closer to him.
“Of course I’m sure”, he mumbled, sleepy. “Kissing Kacchan is something to boast about, not to keep a secret”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes again, but there was an affectionate smile on his lips.
“Go back to sleep, nerd”.
“Hmm”.
From: Best Friend
Look, we don’t give a shit what you tell them
From: Best Friend
I just don’t want anyone harassing us or making a scene over this. Make sure everyone knows this
From: Best Friend
I’ll blow up anyone who makes me or Deku uncomfortable
From: Best Friend
And as for the first date, I don’t need nor want your help
From: Best Friend
I have to do this on my own
From: Shitty Hair
But Bakugou
From: Best Friend
It has to come from me
From: Best Friend
After everything that happened, it has to be me. Not someone else’s stolen idea. Me. Alone.
From: Shitty Hair
But dude
From: Shitty Hair
We both know you’ll probably come up with some shit that is NOT romantic
From: Shitty Hair
Like idk. A sparring session. Or watching a gore-y movie
From: Shitty Hair
Those are manly, but not first date material
From: Best Friend
Who says first dates can’t be manly?
From: Shitty Hair
Bakugouuuuuu
From: Shitty Hair
I’m just trying to help
From: Best Friend
I know you are
From: Best Friend
Don’t break a sweat over it.
From: Best Friend
I’ll figure it out myself.
From: Shitty Hair
So what do I do?
From: Shitty Hair
I want to help
From: Shitty Hair
I really do, and this is not me wanting to be a part of your relationship, it’s just
From: Shitty Hair
After everything that happened since that villain attacked you two
From: Shitty Hair
After everything you’ve faced, everything you’ve lost, everything you went through
From: Shitty Hair
I just want you to be happy, man
From: Shitty Hair
Midoriya too, of course
From: Shitty Hair
The two of you, together
From: Best Friend
I know you do
From: Best Friend
But this is something I have to do alone
From: Best Friend
Like you said, you’re not a part of my relationship
From: Best Friend
But you’re still my best friend
From: Best Friend
So just do whatever the fuck best friends do. Be supportive etc.
From: Shitty Hair
I’m gonna cry actual tears here buddy
From: Best Friend
Shut up
From: Best Friend
I’m actually gonna take a nap now, so bye
From: Shitty Hair
Ok
From: Shitty Hair
Sleep tight
From: Shitty Hair
And Bakugou?
From: Best Friend
What?
From: Shitty Hair
I’m really happy to see how much you’ve grown
Best Friend is typing…
Best Friend is typing…
Best Friend is typing…
From: Best Friend
Yeah. Me too.
Izuku woke up from a pleasant dream that slipped away from his memory as soon as he blinked his eyes open.
The first thing he saw was Kacchan sitting on his rolling chair by the study desk, facing his laptop. He was distracted – there was one hand supporting his head as he read the screen – and he didn’t notice Izuku was awake, too focused on whatever he was doing on his computer. He was wearing his reading glasses, which sent butterflies to Izuku’s stomach and a soft, fond smile to his lips. He just stared at the boy for a few moments, taking in the way he kept touching and squeezing his lower lip while he worked, probably not even realizing what he was doing.
“Can you pinpoint the moment you fell in love with me?”, Izuku asked with a sleepy voice, still coming away from that pleasant haze of being unconscious, and Katsuki jolted on his seat, taken by surprise by his voice. He immediately slammed his laptop shut, as if he was seeing something prohibited, but Izuku didn’t really pay it any attention. Instead, he focused on the pink tone Kacchan’s cheeks were becoming, continuing to smile as the boy turned to him. He looked dazzling.
“I didn’t know you were awake”, Katsuki said with a defensive tone, taking his reading glasses off now that he no longer needed them and placing them on the desk.
Izuku shook his head.
“I just woke up”, he said, and then he yawned. Now that Kacchan knew he was awake, he took the opportunity to stretch on the bed like a cat, groaning as he did so. He settled back down once he was done and sighed dreamily, lying on his stomach and hugging one pillow to his chest. “But tell me – can you?”
“Can I what?”, Katsuki frowned, clearly not following.
“The moment you fell in love with me”, Izuku clarified. “Can you pinpoint when it was?”
Katsuki blinked at him for a few moments. Sensing his confusion, Izuku continued.
“I can. I mean, I remember it clearly. It was back when I was still a ghost. You were helping me out with the notes from our class. Then you took your reading glasses and you put them on so you could read Kirishima-kun’s notes better”, he said. “That was the moment I realized I had it really bad for you”.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes, squinting at Izuku with disbelief in his eyes.
“Really?”, he asked with a scoff. “That was the moment?”
“Hey, don’t criticize it”, Izuku sat up on the bed, still hugging the pillow, and crossing his legs beneath himself. “It was a simple moment. Don’t people say there’s love in simplicity?”
“I’ve never heard that”, Katsuki pointed out. “Bet you’re just making that up”.
“Am not!”
“Are too”.
“Am not. And even if I was, I still like that moment. It wasn’t something big, with a playing orchestra and a cinematic reveal or anything. It was just – routine. Daily life”, he shrugged. “I mean, I knew I loved you before, but it wasn’t love love. It was just… love. And now it’s looove”.
Katsuki’s squint became even more intense. He looked like he’d just seen someone barfing.
“You’re not making any sense”, he accused.
Izuku sighed, shoulders sagging.
“It makes sense in my head”.
“I bet you say that a lot”.
“Kacchan”.
Katsuki huffed a small breath through his nose.
“I don’t think you’re going to like my answer”, he settled for saying.
“Why not?”, Izuku frowned, interested.
“It’s not cute and it’s definitely not romantic”, Katsuki pointed out. “It’ll probably disappoint you”.
Izuku giggled.
“As if you could ever disappoint me”.
Katsuki gave him a look. It was serious and full of meaning; the hint of phantom pain written in his eyes. Izuku let some of his humor slip away from his expression as he realized that Kacchan was taking this talk more seriously than he was.
“It’s not like I never disappointed you before”, Katsuki pointed out, grim.
Izuku’s smile faltered, but he didn’t look away. He reached out a hand to Katsuki and took it in his own, putting a special effort into clinging to his post-nap good humor.
“Look… We’ve talked about this”, he said, with a calm and encouraging tone. “It’s water under the bridge. After everything that happened…”, he shrugged, smiling again. “There’s no point in either of us getting upset over stuff we can no longer change. We’ve both atoned, ok?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Yeah. We’ve both died, that’s what we did”.
Izuku sighed, pursing his lips together to form a thin line.
“That, too. But we’re ok, now. And you can tell me, whatever it is”, he squeezed Katsuki’s hand encouragingly. “I promise I won’t be let down. And it won’t change the result, either. You’ll still love me after you tell me, right?”
Katsuki sighed.
“Yeah”.
“So, there”, Izuku smiled softly. “That’s the only thing that matters”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes again. He took a deep breath, huffed the air out through his nose, and said:
“Fine. It was during a session with Doc Matsuo”.
Izuku’s eyebrows raised in surprise, but he didn’t say anything. Neither did Katsuki.
Silence.
“So… Do you want to tell me more about it or…?”
Katsuki sighed, throwing his head back.
“She was probably in pain from watching my oblivious ass struggle with my obvious feelings. So she started telling me about shit from Ancient Greece and the seven types of loves. She kept rubbing that shit on my nose to see if I’d catch the hint, and then I did. I finally realized what my feelings were all about. And here we are”, he shrugged.
Izuku could tell he was trying to put up a tough façade, but he now knew better enough to read the insecurity in Katsuki’s eyes.
“That’s lovely, Kacchan”, he smiled widely, dimples appearing on his cheeks. “That’s – That’s really nice”.
“Oh, fuck off with that”, Katsuki removed his hand from Deku’s grip, aggravated. “You know that’s a shitty way to figure out your feelings. A therapist, spelling it out to you like you have a brain injury”.
“No, it’s not! And you did have a brain injury, in case that helps”.
“I’m not saying your way was better”, Katsuki pointed out, defensive – too defensive. “I mean, really? Staring at my face did the trick for you? I knew I was amazing, but I didn’t think that just sitting here and existing would be enough for someone to fall in love”.
It was Izuku’s time to roll his eyes.
“You’re deflecting”, he accused.
Katsuki turned back to his studying desk.
“There’s nothing to deflect”, he said, not looking at Izuku. “I just told you how it went, and that was it”.
Izuku nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving Katsuki’s face.
“I liked it”, he admitted. “I don’t mind that you needed some help to figure it out, if that’s what’s bothering you”.
Katsuki eyed him from the corners of his eyes. He seemed hesitant.
“You really don’t?”, he raised an inquiring eyebrow.
Izuku shook his head, still smiling.
“Nope. Not one bit”.
Katsuki huffed. Then, he averted his eyes back to his closed laptop.
“Well, it’s almost dinner time”, Izuku commented, trying to diffuse the tension. He flopped back on the bed, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. “What do you wanna eat?”
Katsuki shrugged.
“Whatever, I don’t really have a preference”, he said. “I need to take my meds in a bit and Recovery Girl said I shouldn’t take them on an empty stomach, so anything will do the trick”.
Izuku immediately sat back up at the mention of his medication, staring at Katsuki with something akin to alarm.
“Oh, let’s go eat, then”, he said promptly, as if Katsuki’s diet had suddenly become the number one priority in his life.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and stood up from his chair, walking towards Izuku and placing two hands on his shoulders. He slowly pushed the boy back until he was lying on the bed again, and then he climbed the mattress too, placing himself with one hand and one knee on either of Deku’s sides until he was on all fours above the boy.
Izuku studied his face with curious eyes, watching him and waiting for him to make a move. Katsuki, on the other hand, just stayed there for a while, looking deeply into Izuku’s green orbs and taking in the sight of him.
An eternity of silence passed. It wasn’t awkward or pregnant for once, it was just silence. A moment of peace and quiet in their increasingly troublesome lives.
“I’m glad we figured our shit out”, Katsuki finally said after a few moments.
Izuku smiled and nodded.
“I’m glad, too”, he said. “Though I don’t know if it’s good for either of us to be so calm and… peaceful”.
Katsuki snorted out a laugh.
“Because of the side effects of my quirk?”, he raised an eyebrow.
Izuku nodded.
“I have it too, now. So who knows when I’ll start sweating nitroglycerin and make myself pass out because of a lowered heart beat”.
Katsuki made a face and removed himself from the top of Deku, sitting beside him instead. Since Deku was still lying down, he could only see the back of Katsuki’s head in that position. And it seemed like that was just what Katsuki wanted – to turn his back on Izuku, so that he couldn’t see his face. Izuku frowned and propped himself up with one elbow, blinking.
“Did… Did I say something wrong?”
Katsuki shrugged and shook his head.
“It’s not a big deal”.
Izuku worried at his lower lip, noticing the way Katsuki seemed to be avoiding his eyes.
“It is if you won’t look at me”.
Katsuki sighed and turned his head to stare at Izuku through the corners of his eyes. With a sigh and a pained groan – his injury was still healing, after all –, he lied down beside Deku on the bed. They were both lying side by side now, horizontal in relation to the vertical bed, which meant their knees bent over the edge of the mattress and their calves dangled off the edge too. They were lying on their backs, and they turned their heads to face each other directly in the eye.
“I’ve always seen my quirk as something unique”, Katsuki admitted, tone soberer and quieter than usual. “I mean, it’s the perfect mix of my parents’ quirks. No one else in the world has anything like it”.
Izuku rarely saw this side of Katsuki – the analytical, introspective side that contrasted so harshly against his booming voice and explosive personality. To him, it felt as if he was experiencing something exclusive – a side of Kacchan that had its defensive walls and its tough façade lowered down just for him. It felt like he had finally earned Kacchan’s trust, just as much as Kacchan had earned his.
Izuku nodded to indicate he could continue.
Katsuki turned his head so that he would be staring at the ceiling, breaking eye contact.
“But now… You have it too”.
Izuku stared at him for a while before nodding.
“I see”, he said. “I’m – I’m sorry”.
Katsuki huffed out a breath, shaking his head.
“The hell are you even apologizing for?”, he asked, staring straight ahead.
Izuku frowned in confusion, his mouth opening and closing a few times before he figured out what he wanted to say.
“I… I thought you were upset”.
Katsuki clicked his tongue.
“Tch. I’m not mad at you, if that’s what you’re thinking”, he clarified, which sent a wave of relief through Izuku. “I’m just… I don’t know. I’m not really comfortable with the idea, but I’m not angry at you. I only took One For All to save your life, and I’d rather have you steal my quirk than to have you die on me”, he said, sober. “But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make me feel… weird. Like an itch I can’t scratch”.
Izuku turned to stare at the ceiling too, pensive. It took him a while to respond.
“I wouldn’t say I stole your quirk”, he said. “I just… have a backup copy of it. And I won’t ever use it, if you don’t want me to”.
Katsuki was silent for a moment.
Then, he turned his head back towards Izuku, looking at him. Izuku did the same and they locked eyes. No one spoke for what felt like an eternity.
“It’s ok if it’s you”, Katsuki said eventually.
Izuku smiled.
“We could make a deal”, he proposed. “Since you said you won’t ever use One For All, I can do the same and promise you I won’t ever use your quirk. That’s one less trouble for me, actually”.
Katsuki frowned. Izuku shrugged playfully and continued:
“This way, I won’t have to constantly stress myself out to make up for the nitroglycerin poisoning”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, leave the stress part for me”, he scoffed.
Izuku grabbed his hand, sobriety hitting him and making him sharply aware of his own existence.
“You won’t have to do this alone”, he promised.
Katsuki smirked teasingly.
“Knew I could count on you to stress me out”.
Izuku rolled his eyes.
“I’m not talking about that”.
“I know. Learn to take a joke”.
“Kacchan”.
Katsuki turned on the bed so that he was closer to Deku, passing one arm above the boy’s stomach and nestling his head on the crook of Deku’s neck. The proximity they had seemed to develop in such a little timespan was comfortable, and even if the old Katsuki wouldn’t have ever seen himself cuddling with Deku in his near future, he was also reminded of the dawn of their ghost times together, when hugging and cuddling didn’t seem all that alarming anymore.
Maybe it didn’t have to be. Maybe he could indulge in this. What did he have to lose?
He had already lost.
Once, in the alley.
Deku’s eyes were dead.
Twice, in the sewers.
“Y-You can feel it?”
“I can’t. Not anymore”.
Thrice, in the medbay.
“You’re saying he doesn’t remember his time as a shitty ghost?”
“What’s on your mind?”, Izuku asked gently, hugging Kacchan and holding him close to his chest with one hand.
Katsuki shrugged, grim. He did have a lot of time to think about everything that had happened, from day one, now that he was recovering from his injury. His proximity to near-death and Deku’s similar experience were haunting and not particularly easy to digest, and he often found himself stuck in a blue mood when he thought about it. When he thought about what they had overcome, and how much things had changed between them. They were at a comfortable little spot now, but what about their future?
They both wanted to become pros. Getting injured and even losing their lives was nothing other than occupational hazard. And the main reason Katsuki pushed Deku away was because Deku was a dumb little hedgehog who kept toughing up his spines even though he started out with no quirk and no means to follow his dream. And yet, he still acted like he wasn’t a hedgehog. He acted like he was a tiger. And that was bound to send him to an early grave.
In a subconscious level, Katsuki had always known he wouldn’t be able to live through Izuku’s death.
He knew so from his own past experience.
But they were together, now. And they were happy, cuddling, holding each other and being there for each other. But what would happen when the time came for them to fight evil again? When another villain arose? What would happen when Deku went on a mission Katsuki couldn’t follow? What would happen when Deku, his Deku, his love, got injured?
Ok, enough of that far-future thinking. He didn’t have to go that far. What would happen when he hurt Deku again? Because that was all he seemed to do, right? From day one. He had felt Deku’s pain when they were tied together as a boy and a ghost, and he had gone out of his way to stop feeling that bad. And yeah, it seemed like their empathic bond had remained, which sent Katsuki on the edge. He sometimes would lie awake, waiting for the mirror of Deku’s pain to appear and show him how much of a fuckup he was. Because he couldn’t go too long without hurting Deku as a collateral damage, right?
The thought was uncharacteristically self-deprecating for him, but he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking that this, being with Deku and being happy together, was just a short-term thing that wouldn’t last for long. It wouldn’t survive him, his moods, his temper, his angry tantrums, even if he was better now. Everything he touched turned to stone.
“I don’t know”, he said, melancholic. “Just thinking about how things have changed”.
Izuku hummed.
“In what sense?”
Katsuki shrugged again. He didn’t want to address the issue, but at the time he was desperate to put down some of the weight that was sitting on his chest.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be… this. This close with someone. With anyone. With you, of all people”, he admitted.
That seemed to be the wrong choice of words.
“Oh”, Deku said simply, sounding a bit taken aback.
Katsuki closed his eyes.
“I didn’t think you’d ever want this”, he clarified, hating how the honesty made his stomach churn.
He still found it difficult to talk to Deku about some subjects, to be so open and honest with him about his feelings – feelings that he, himself, had a hard time figuring out. It was a work in progress, as the rest of their relationship, but the self-deprecation in his tone still made him feel ashamed and vulnerable.
He hated feeling vulnerable. It was one of the feelings he despised the most, the one he had always ran away from all his life.
In fact, there is no true love without some level of vulnerability. But trust makes up for that.
He was starting to think Doctor Matsuo was some sort of telepath.
Izuku, however, chuckled.
“Are you serious?”, he asked with humor.
Katsuki grunted.
“Shuddup”, he said, humiliated.
“Kacchan, you’re everything I’ve always wanted”, Izuku said. “Ever since we were kids”.
Katsuki scoffed.
“Did you have a crush on me back then? That’s embarrassing”, he forced himself to joke, to provoke – mocking Deku was easier than acknowledging his feelings.
Izuku rolled his eyes.
“I wouldn’t say I had a crush. But I wanted you. As a friend. And now, I want you as more. What I’m saying is that the possibility of not loving you never even crossed my mind”.
Katsuki’s jaw tightened. He didn’t feel deserving of Deku’s blind adoration.
(How long until he ran out of that?)
“Not even when I told you to…?”, he trailed off.
“Told me to what?”, Izuku encouraged, still holding Katsuki close to his chest.
Katsuki sighed.
“You know. The rooftop thing”.
Silence.
“No”, Izuku said, sounding sincere. “I was upset, and I got angry because, if I really did do something, you’d be guilty of suicide ideation and it would ruin your career before it even started. But I didn’t stop wanting you”.
Katsuki laughed without humor, his tone dry and bitter. See? That was what he’d been on about. Deku clearly didn’t know what was best for himself. Katsuki had told him to kill himself, and yet he still loved him. He still put Katsuki’s necessities – his dream of becoming a pro – in front of his literal fucking life.
Katsuki was destined to have a dangerous career. Injury and death were just occupational hazards of his profession. And to know that Deku was so self-sacrificial that he wouldn’t hesitate to jump in front of Katsuki to save his life again – to know that he was so willing to lay down his own life for Katsuki’s sake – only made him feel scared.
Because he couldn’t afford to lose Deku again. Not again.
“I don’t know, Deku”, he admitted. “I don’t feel like that’s really healthy”.
Izuku froze, staring down at Katsuki.
“W-What?”
Katsuki sighed, tense. Ok, so they were going to have to talk about this.
“I was a dick to you”, he said. “I mistreated you. And I know we’ve talked about this and you said you forgave me for a lot of shit, but this? This is you telling me you forgave me long before I even realized I was sorry. Do you have no self-preservation at all? Why did you continue to love me when all I did was kick you when you were already down? Why do you still love me?”
Izuku was silent for a moment. Katsuki was breathing hard, but at the same time he couldn’t bring himself to break the hug they were sharing – just in case it was the last one they ever shared.
“Are you still the same person you were back in middle school?”, Izuku asked with simplicity.
Katsuki sagged against his hold.
He wasn’t. He definitely wasn’t.
“No”.
Izuku nodded.
“Neither am I. We both grew. Together, and individually. You’re not the same boy who told me to kill myself. I’m not the same boy who cowered beneath you. We’re both better than that, now”.
“But I’m talking about back then”, Katsuki insisted. “You said you loved me, but all I did was shove you around. I didn’t deserve your love back then. And I’m not so sure… if I already do”.
A pause.
“I’ve seen your worst”, Izuku said with a sad smile. “And I’ve seen your best. And I choose both. That’s what makes you, you. I don’t love you because of your mistakes. I love you despite them”, he shrugged as if it was all very simple.
Katsuki bit his inner cheeks. Could it? Be simple? Deku was willing to die for him, and Katsuki knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop it – even if he pushed Deku away, even if he tried to hide his feelings, Deku would find a way to get into trouble. No matter what he did.
But could he really blame Deku? Hadn’t Katsuki sacrificed a lot for his sake as well? Wasn’t he, himself, willing to die if that would mean that Deku would get to live?
There was nothing healthy about that. But that couldn’t be changed, either – they had both seen each other die, and they were both scarred by that experience. Their souls were bound together – there was no walking away from it now. Separating wouldn’t mean the other’s life would be safer – it would mean they would have no one to watch their backs. They were stronger together. They were weaker apart. With or without a soulbond, they completed each other; it was as simple as the law of complementary colors.
Still… Katsuki felt like Deku’s universal forgiveness of him hadn’t been hard-earned. He wished they could find a middle ground between Deku forgiving his every action and Deku not speaking to him for half a year. Were the both of them up for that challenge of compromise?
“It’s rotten work”, Katsuki pointed out, giving Deku one last chance to hop off the messy boat that was Katsuki’s love for him.
“Not to me”, Izuku argued without missing a beat. “Not if it’s you”.
Katsuki lifted his head from where it was supported on Deku’s shoulder, finally staring him in the eye. Izuku stared back at him with nothing other than adoration in his eyes.
Katsuki closed his eyes. He didn’t feel deserving of that just yet, but it felt good. It was good, recovering, and growing, and being with Deku. Hugging him, cuddling him, caressing him. He felt like an addict who couldn’t get enough of it. He needed more. He wanted more.
He tenderly tilted his face closer to Deku’s, not breaking their hug. Deku aided him by crossing the other half of the distance that separated them. Their lips brushed, and Katsuki could feel Deku’s breath against his upper lip. The kiss was soft and simple, but it was meaningful. More than anything, it was a glimmer of hope in Katsuki’s blue horizon, turning it into green and red.
From: Best Friend
Ok
From: Best Friend
I figured it out
From: Best Friend
But I’m going to need your help
From: Shitty Hair
Didn’t you say you wouldn’t need help?
From: Best Friend
Shut up
From: Best Friend
I said I wouldn’t need your help to plan it, I didn’t say anything about executing the plan
From: Best Friend
Who did you tell?
From: Shitty Hair
Just the guys, but since Mina is included in that group, I’d say everyone sort of knows it by now
From: Best Friend
Good
From: Best Friend
By the way, what was Icy Hot’s reaction?
From: Shitty Hair
Uh, I have no idea, I haven’t spoken to him yet
From: Shitty Hair
Why do you ask?
From: Best Friend
No reason
From: Best Friend
Just wanted to see his face when he found out
From: Best Friend
What about Round Face?
From: Shitty Hair
What about her?
From: Best Friend
What was her reaction idiot
From: Shitty Hair
I don’t know man, I didn’t tell her, Mina did
From: Shitty Hair
Ask her, she should know
From: Shitty Hair
But what do you need my help with?? I’m curious
From: Best Friend
Well, now you’re gonna have to wait while I talk to Mina
From: Shitty Hair
NOOOO
From: Bakubro
So, you know.
From: Raccoon Eyes
Know what, darling?
From: Bakubro
Stop joking around. I know Kirishima told you.
From: Raccoon Eyes
Told me what, dearest?
From: Bakubro
Cut this shit out.
From: Raccoon Eyes
What shit, beloved?
From: Bakubro
You suck.
From: Raccoon Eyes
Oh, I’M the one who sucks?
From: Raccoon Eyes
I’ve been texting you nonstop ever since I stepped out of that museum and you didn’t reply to me ONCE. Not ONCE. I texted you every day asking for an update after you kicked everyone except for Midoriya out of your little hospital room. No reply. And you didn’t even have the balls to tell me you were with Midoriya firsthand? You asked for someone else to do it for you?
From: Bakubro
I get it, you’re pissed.
From: Raccoon Eyes
No, I WAS pissed
From: Raccoon Eyes
Now, I’m just in the mood to demand compensation, since you’re obviously contacting me to ask for something
From: Bakubro
Fine, name your price
From: Raccoon Eyes
One photo of the two of you kissing
From: Bakubro
Bye
From: Raccoon Eyes
Ok, cuddling
From: Bakubro
I said bye
From: Raccoon Eyes
Fine, hugging! Final offer
From: Bakubro
Not happening
From: Bakubro
But I do have a better offer
From: Raccoon Eyes
I’m all ears
From: Bakubro
I’ll ask you two questions and if you answer them, I’ll let you help on my official first date with Deku
From: Bakubro
But you HAVE to keep the whole thing a secret or else I’m never speaking to you again
From: Raccoon Eyes
Ohhh, interesting
From: Raccoon Eyes
What are the questions?
From: Bakubro
I want to know how Round Face reacted when you (obviously) told her about me and Deku
From: Raccoon Eyes
Oh
From: Raccoon Eyes
Yeah, I can’t do that
From: Raccoon Eyes
Girl-to-girl confidentiality is unbreakable, sorry
From: Raccoon Eyes
Bras before bros
From: Bakubro
Fine, then. What about Icy Hot?
From: Raccoon Eyes
I didn’t tell him, Kaminari did
From: Bakubro
For FUCKS sake
From: Bakubro
Hold on
From: Shitty Hair
Duuuuuuude come back
From: Shitty Hair
Tell me what you need
From: Shitty Hair
I’m dying to know
Read at 21:13
From: Bakugou
So, everyone knows about it.
From: Dunce Face
Hello to you too after LITERALLY 27 IGNORED TEXTS
From: Dunce Face
I hate you I hope you know that
From: Dunce Face
I was DYING OF WORRY OK
From: Bakugou
Stop throwing a tantrum I was busy and recovering
From: Dunce Face
YEAH AND THAT DIDN’T STOP YOU FROM TEXTING MIDORIYA HUH
From: Bakugou
Oh my god shut the hell up
From: Dunce Face
YOU SHUT UP
From: Dunce Face
YOU WERE TEXTING KIRI TOO I KNOW IT
From: Dunce Face
Why am I the secondary friend :cc
From: Bakugou
You’re not secondary, stop making this about you
From: Bakugou
And ok, sorry for not texting you back, that was a dick move
From: Bakugou
Now can you tell me how Icy Hot reacted when he learned about me and Deku kissing
From: Dunce Face
First of all you have no idea how HARD it was to keep that from everyone
From: Dunce Face
When Kiri told people I was so RELIEVED
From: Dunce Face
But I don’t know what you want to know, Todoroki didn’t really do anything?
From: Dunce Face
He just said “oh” and that was it
From: Bakugou
Pff. Pathetic
From: Bakugou
I should have known it
From: Dunce Face
But why do you ask?
From: Dunce Face
Oooooo I see
From: Dunce Face
You wanted to check if he was jelly, right?
From: Bakugou
I don’t speak Stupid, you’re gonna have to be clearer
From: Dunce Face
Jelly means jealous
From: Dunce Face
That’s what you wanted to know, right??
From: Bakugou
…
From: Bakugou
Maybe
From: Dunce Face
Ahhhh Kacchan
From: Dunce Face
That’s so cute!!
From: Bakugou
Who knew you’d be smart enough to realize that
From: Dunce Face
Oi, don’t talk like that
From: Dunce Face
I don’t know if he was jelly but I can try to find out 👀
From: Dunce Face
Do you want me to?
From: Bakugou
If your plan consists of walking up to him and asking him if he was jealous to his face, then no
From: Bakugou
If your plan is to find out discreetly about it, then yes
From: Dunce Face
I KNEW IT
From: Dunce Face
I’m on it Kacchan
From: Dunce Face
I’ll let you know when I find out 👀
From: Shitty Hair
Bakugou come baaaaaaack
From: Best Friend
Fine
From: Best Friend
I’m gonna tell you what I need now
From: Best Friend
But you HAVE to be discreet otherwise you’ll ruin everything and I’ll never forgive you
From: Shitty Hair
You got it, bro
From: Best Friend
Ok. First thing: talk to Mina and find out if Round Face was jealous of me and Deku or not.
From: Shitty Hair
Uh, WHAT?
From: Best Friend
Pikachu is checking to see if Icy Hot was jealous too
From: Best Friend
This isn’t just about my ego, if that’s what you’re thinking
From: Best Friend
I just want to make sure no one will try to sabotage the plan because they want my future boyfriend for themselves
From: Shitty Hair
Why would anyone try to sabotage you, you’re our friend
From: Shitty Hair
But fine, go on
From: Best Friend
Ok, read it carefully because I won’t repeat myself.
From: Best Friend
I need to know the answer about Icy Hot and Round Face first
From: Best Friend
Then:
Best Friend is typing…
Best Friend is typing…
Best Friend is typing…
“Have you told your mom?”
“Have I tol’ he’ wha’?”, Izuku asked with a full mouth, chewing his dinner.
They were sitting together at UA’s food court – it was late and they had missed dinner time, so they were the only ones there now. They had the whole saloon to themselves, and it felt a bit weird, sitting there without the background noise of different conversations and the rushed students walking by with lunch trays. Lucky for them, there had been some leftovers they could eat, and it took the kitchen lady one single look at Katsuki’s cane to promise them she would heat the leftovers up so they could eat (even though that was kind of against the rules).
But yeah. Katsuki was wearing a cane now. Recovery Girl had insisted it would be temporary, and Katsuki sure hoped the old lady was right. He did feel a bit humiliated at the beginning, but now he was getting used to it. He knew for a fact that walking with a cane neutralized the pain on his torso considerably and, even though it made him look like an old bastard, at least that allowed him to walk around without other people’s help. He’d rather wear a cane than fall on his face in front of everyone because his knees buckled under the strain caused by his injury.
“About us, you dweeb”, Katsuki rolled his eyes, poking at his dinner with his hashi. “About, you know. The kiss and all that”.
“Oh”, Izuku blinked. He seemed surprised at the thought – and surprised at the fact that it hadn’t occurred to him yet. “No, I haven’t told her… I – I should probably do that…”, he said pensively, his eyes gaining that distant look on them that indicated Deku was about to start muttering his thoughts to himself.
Katsuki decided he could be a little bit of a dick, even if they were together now.
“Have you told All Might?”, he teased, raising one eyebrow.
Izuku’s eyes widened mid-ramble and he blushed.
“N-No! I haven’t either… Oh my god… How could I forget about that…”, he started muttering again. “I should… But how can I… I don’t know how he’ll…”
“Relax”, Katsuki rolled his eyes. “He kept a lot of secrets from the both of us. It’s only fair you keep some secrets from him in return”.
Izuku blinked at Katsuki.
“Did you… tell your parents?”, he asked, sounding nervous. Katsuki shrugged and huffed through his nose.
“They don’t care about this sort of shit”, he said, grabbing a bite of his lukewarm dinner.
Izuku frowned.
“How do you know?”
“They never asked me about it”, he said simply, chewing a mouthful of food. “They pro’lly know my career as a pro doesn’ leave much space for romance, so they’ll be happy with whatever they can get”.
Izuku gave him a look. He nudged Katsuki’s leg lightly with his foot beneath the table.
“Is that what I am to them?”, he raised a curious eyebrow. “The second-best option to having you die old and alone?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“You know what I meant”, he said. “They probably thought I was going to dedicate myself to my career and never start a family. We both know I ain’t exactly the romantic type”, Katsuki gestured at himself. “So I don’t know. I guess they’ll be happy it’s you. At least you’re not a total stranger”.
Izuku smiled softly at him, watching him with tender eyes.
“Really?”, he asked.
Katsuki shrugged, focused on his dinner.
“Really”, he said simply, biting down another mouthful. “Can’t say the same about your old woman, though”.
Izuku looked away.
“I… talked to her about this. Before UA and One For All”, Izuku said. “I mean, starting a family and girls and boys and all that. I…”, he bit his lower lip. “I never thought too much about it, either. I mean, I had a whole different life before UA. I only got One For All on the day of the admission exam. Before that, all I was… All I was, was a stupid little quirkless boy with no muscles and no plans. I wanted to become a hero so badly, I didn’t look at anything past that. Not even… romance”.
Katsuki watched him, and then he nodded.
“Don’t you go thinking that just because we kissed you’re gonna get rid of me as your rival”, Katsuki said pointedly, continuing to eat. “I’m still gonna beat your ass and become number one”, he said, giving Deku a look just to check if he was listening.
Deku smiled and tilted his chin up defiantly.
“I can tell you the same”, he said with determination. “We can both train together and push each other to our limits”.
“Yeah, we’d know something about pushing each other and limits”, Katsuki snorted, earning a tiny laugh from Izuku.
“But are your parents ok with…”, Izuku tried. “Uh, you know. The fact that I’m a boy, and all that?”
Katsuki shrugged again, unbothered.
“Like I said, I don’t think they give a crap. And if they do, that’s their problem. It’s not like they can tell me what to do and who to date”.
Izuku nodded nervously, lowering his gaze. Something about his pensive stance made Katsuki narrow his eyes.
“Why, you think your mom will care I’m not a girl?”, Katsuki frowned. He knew how precious Inko was to Deku, and how her opinion mattered to him.
“No, no!”, Izuku said, eyes widening and shaking his head vehemently. “Like I said, I talked to her about this. I made it clear that I didn’t like only girls, so I’m guessing she understood the message… And she’s always supported me. I think… I think she’d be happy I’m dating someone”.
“Oh, so that’s what I am?”, Katsuki raised a teasing eyebrow, mimicking Deku’s speech from before. “Just ‘someone’?”
Izuku rolled his eyes.
“Idiot”.
“Shitface”.
“Hey!”
“What? You started it”.
Izuku rolled his eyes again. They fell in comfortable silence, and continued to eat.
It took a while for one of them to speak up again.
“So what are you doing tomorrow?”, Katsuki asked conversationally.
Izuku frowned, thinking.
“Uh… What day is tomorrow again?”
“Saturday”, Katsuki provided.
“Oh”, Izuku nodded. “I don’t think I have anything to do. Maybe study a bit after class, and train with All Might. Other than that, I’m free”.
Katsuki nodded. He continued to eat with one hand, but grabbed his phone with the other.
From: Best Friend
So?
From: Shitty Hair
As far as I recall my quirk doesn’t involve super speed
From: Best Friend
For fuck’s sake Kirishima
“Is everything ok?”, Izuku asked with a hint of a frown when he noticed Katsuki was scowling at his phone. “You’ve been typing in your phone a lot”.
“Yeah”, Katsuki said, locking the phone screen and setting it back in his pocket. “Just Kirishima being an asshole”.
“Oh”, Izuku said, taking a sip of his drink. “Well, I’m sure he’s just worried about you”.
“Nothing to be worried about”, Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I’m getting better. But anyway”, he shrugged, going back to eating.
“Did you…”, Izuku said, a bit awkward. Katsuki looked at him. “… You know. Tell him?”
Katsuki raised his eyebrows.
“About the kiss?”
Izuku nodded.
“Yeah”, Katsuki huffed. “He knows. Well – Everyone knows, probably”.
Izuku stared at him.
“W-What?”
Katsuki stared back at Izuku, confused.
“Uh, I told him it was ok to tell people”, Katsuki said, his stomach twitching. “Don’t you remember I asked you about it?”
Izuku blinked blankly, lowering his head for a moment. He thought for a bit before responding.
“I guess I thought I had dreamed that interaction”, he admitted.
Katsuki lowered his hashi, staring at Izuku with a worried look. Before he could say anything, the nerd added:
“I mean, I’m not ashamed or anything, and I had… I had spoken to Kaminari-kun about it. Because, you know, he saw it and everything. And he and I made an agreement to keep it a secret for a while, because well. I didn’t know how you’d feel about the kiss, or if you’d want anyone to know. And I’m”, he smiled, “I’m really happy you felt comfortable with everyone learning about it”.
Katsuki smiled back at him tentatively, taking a sip of his own drink.
“Of course I’m fucking comfortable”, he said after he swallowed. “I don’t give a crap what these extras will think about me, or about us”, he added, even though he was dying to learn about Icy Hot’s and Round Face’s reactions. He supposed that, in a way, he had always seen them as rivals when it came to Deku’s attention, and now that they were together, he knew that there must be some hard feelings involved.
Katsuki’s phone vibrated, so he fished it out of his pocket again.
From: Dunce Face
Ok, so Todoroki is surprisingly… cool about this
From: Dunce Face
Haha get it?
From: Dunce Face
But I do think he’ll want to speak to you about it, if I understood him correctly
From: Bakugou
Speak to me? About what?
From: Dunce Face
I don’t know but I would guess that this is something about protecting Midoriya as a friend
From: Dunce Face
I don’t know… He’s always so stoic that it’s hard to read his feelings
From: Dunce Face
So I really don’t know. Good luck?
Katsuki huffed.
From: Bakugou
I won’t need luck.
From: Best Friend
Any news?
From: Shitty Hair
Duuuuude you gotta be more patient with me
Katsuki huffed another breath and put his phone away.
“I hadn’t really thought about all this until you mentioned it…”, Izuku said pensively when he saw that Katsuki’s attention was no longer on his phone. “But I think I really need to tell my mom”.
Katsuki stared at him.
“I think you should wait a bit”, he suggested.
Izuku frowned.
“Wait?”
“Yeah”, Katsuki shrugged. “This is all too… sudden? The museum shit is still all over the news. Maybe give her some time to digest the fact that you just survived a terrorist attack before you dump the gay bomb on her”.
Izuku chuckled. He tried to cover his mouth from view as he did, which Katsuki found surprisingly endearing.
“Is that what we are, huh?”, he raised his eyebrows.
“What? Gay?”, Katsuki frowned. “I don’t know. I didn’t have one big gay awakening out of nowhere, I just… Happened to realize I really liked having you around”.
Izuku tilted his head a bit to the side, like he did when he was confused.
“Seriously?”, he blinked, narrowing his eyes a little as if he didn’t quite believe Katsuki.
“Yeah”, Katsuki shrugged. “Why?”
Izuku blushed. He averted his eyes from Katsuki’s face, staring at anything but him.
“I don’t… I don’t think I ever thought too much about it”, Izuku said. “Like I said, I was too busy dreaming about being a hero, even though I was quirkless. But… After I got into UA, and I met Uraraka-san, and Hatsume-san…”
It was Katsuki’s time to narrow his eyes. Something about what Deku was saying sent a hint of possessiveness through his chest, but he tried to keep the jealousy at bay.
“And, I mean, before them, and before Asui-san, and Mina-san, and Kyouka-san, and all the girls from our class… I had never ever spoken to a girl. And, other than you, I had never really had a friend like Iida-kun or Todoroki-kun. So UA was the first place, and the first time in my life, when I actually started to… figure out who I really was. Who I wanted to be”.
Katsuki continued to watch him.
“And who are you?”
Izuku tilted his chin up.
“I’m Midoriya Izuku”, he said. “I don’t think I’m gay, but I’m definitely not straight. And I don’t think it really matters who I had a crush on, or who I thought I had a crush on, because the first person I loved, the person who I’ve always loved, is sitting right in front of me”.
Katsuki felt a victorious grin spread on his face.
“Damn right”, he said, cocky.
Izuku chuckled again.
“You’re supposed to say you love me back, you know”.
“Do I need to keep repeating it?”, Katsuki raised an eyebrow.
Izuku hesitated.
“Not if you don’t want to”, he shrugged, barely managing to hide his disappointment. “But I do like to hear it”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“You’re a stupid nerd, but a stupid nerd that I love”, he said.
Izuku smiled widely.
Katsuki’s phone vibrated again.
From: Shitty Hair
Ok so if I got everything right, Uraraka is ok but she wants to talk to Midoriya about it
From: Shitty Hair
Apparently, she, Iida and Todoroki have been texting him like crazy but he never responded
Katsuki looked up at Izuku.
“Oi, nerd. Where’s your phone?”, he asked.
Izuku frowned. He shifted on his seat to reach for his pocket, but, after palming the right one, and then the left one, he looked up at Katsuki with a frown.
“I don’t have it on me”, he announced. “It must have stayed back at your room”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Your stupid friends are trying to talk to you”, he relayed the message. “But you’re not answering them”.
“Oh”, Izuku blinked, blushing. “Oh, ok. When we get back, I can stop by your room and grab it”.
Katsuki frowned.
“So you won’t be staying?”, he asked.
Izuku blushed harder.
“W-Well, I assumed that if they want to talk to me, it would be in – in p-person”, he justified. “I’m also assuming they’ll want to talk about – uh, well. Us. They must have, uh. Heard about the kiss, and all that”.
Katsuki nodded.
“So that will probably take a while”, Izuku added.
Katsuki sighed and shrugged.
“Fine. Suit yourself”.
Izuku frowned.
“Will you be…?”
“What?”
“… Upset?”, Izuku questioned.
Katsuki shook his head.
“No. I think you should talk to your friends. And take the chance to create some fucking boundaries while you’re at it”, he added with a pointed look.
Izuku scratched the back of his head.
“I don’t think I’ll have to”, he pointed out. “I mean, they’re not as teasing as Kirishima-kun and Kaminari-kun and Sero-kun”.
Katsuki huffed.
“Yeah, guess you’re right. But both Icy Hot and Round Face have the hots for you, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to trash-talk me. I don’t know about Four Eyes, but I’ll keep an eye on him”.
Izuku’s eyes widened and his face became as red as a tomato.
“W-W-What? K-Kacchan, what are you talking about?!”, he exclaimed.
Katsuki simply rolled his eyes.
“Oh, come on. Don’t act like you didn’t know it”, he reprimanded.
Izuku put down his hashi and took a very long sip of his drink, trying to calm himself down.
“T-They d-don’t – they couldn’t – I don’t – what are you – I mean, I don’t – I wouldn’t – I –“
“Stop stuttering”, Katsuki sighed at him.
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you!”, Izuku tried to defend himself.
“You don’t have to tell me anything. What you should do is start thinking about what you’ll tell them”.
Izuku rubbed a hand on his mortified face, looking anguished.
“I mean – how do you even know that? Did they tell you anything? Did they – Did they –“
“They didn’t tell me anything”, Katsuki said with a grumpy face. “But I do have eyes, as opposed to you, apparently. Their crush on you was pretty obvious”.
Izuku frowned, offended.
“No, it wasn’t!”
“Yes, it was”, he eyerolled again.
“Stop!”, Izuku asked. “Really, just… stop. I really don’t think they like me that way”.
“Well, I wouldn’t risk it”, Katsuki scoffed. “The only thing I like more than competition is when I defeat my competition”.
Izuku narrowed his eyes at him, his face going back to a normal expression.
“Oh”, he said simply, to which Katsuki frowned.
“What?”, he asked, sounding bothered.
Izuku huffed out a little amused breath, as if he had just realized something. He leaned back against his seat’s rest and crossed his arms above his chest.
“I see”, he commented simply, full of himself.
Katsuki twisted his nose, annoyed by all the mystery.
“See what?”
“This isn’t about them, is it?”, Izuku raised his eyebrows. “This is about you”.
Katsuki stared at him.
“You’re gonna elaborate, or…?”
Izuku smiled, seeming pleased with himself.
“You’re only seeing them as competition because you’re jealous of me”.
Katsuki’s face turned into a scowl.
“I see them as competition because that’s what they are”, he retorted.
Izuku smiled.
“Kacchan”, he said patiently. “There’s nothing wrong with being jealous!”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“There’s also nothing wrong with you telling your extra friends that I’m the only one allowed anywhere near that trashmouth of yours, unless they want to meet an early demise”.
Izuku chuckled at this, dimples appearing on his cheeks. He seemed entertained.
“You get cute when you’re jealous”, he commented, which made Katsuki sigh.
“I’m not cute”, he defended himself. “I’m deadly”.
“All right, deadly man”, Izuku said. “Are you done with dinner?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Yeah. We can try to show up on time tomorrow and eat some actually fresh food instead of this microwaved crap”.
“Don’t talk like that”, Izuku reprimanded, standing up from his seat and grabbing both of their trays. “That lady was really nice to us, letting us eat past curfew”.
Katsuki sighed, but didn’t say anything. Izuku discarded the trays, then he returned to Katsuki’s side.
“So, I’ll go back with you to grab my phone, then I’ll go talk to my friends”, Izuku said. “Is that ok?”
“You don’t need my permission”, Katsuki said with a huff, standing up after denying Izuku’s help and leaning his weight on the cane.
“I wasn’t asking for your permission”, Izuku pointed out. “I just wanted to know if you’ll be upset if I tell them what happened between us. Especially since you’re jealous of most of my friend group”.
“Well, it’s like you said”, Katsuki shrugged. “Kissing me is something to boast about, not to keep a secret”.
Izuku blushed, and tilted his face to try and hide it.
“I do think I’ll tell my mom”, he said pensively, in a more serious tone.
Katsuki sighed.
“Suit yourself”, he said simply. “If you think she should know, then tell her. I’m sure she’ll support you no matter what you say to her”.
Izuku smiled softly.
“Yeah…”, he said hesitantly, as if he wasn’t so sure of himself when it came to this conversation.
He didn’t seem very worried, but he wasn’t completely comfortable either. Katsuki didn’t know whether he should push him into talking or leaving the subject altogether, which was why he found himself saying:
“Will you stop by after you’re done?”, he asked, putting a special effort on not sounding too clingy.
Izuku looked at him.
“Oh. I thought you’d be asleep?”
“So what? Just sneak in and sleep with me”, Katsuki shrugged easily.
Izuku blinked.
“But you keep your door locked”, he pointed out.
Katsuki sighed.
“If you don’t want to, just spit it out. Stop making up excuses”, he reprimanded.
“Kacchan”, Izuku groaned. “Of course I want to”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. Better if you stay in your room, now that I think about it. I don’t want your hyperactive ass waking me up”.
Izuku raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, so you’re kicking me out?”, he asked, teasing evident in his tone.
“Yeah”.
“That’s mean, Kacchan”.
“Thought you were used to it”, Katsuki teased back.
“Well, just because I’m used to it doesn’t mean you should do it”.
“As I always say to you: don’t tell me what to do”.
Izuku rolled his eyes.
“Classic Kacchan”.
They walked the rest of the way in silence and arrived quickly at Katsuki’s bedroom, even though the explosive boy had to walk a bit more slowly because of his recovering injury and his cane. They stopped by the door to his room, and Izuku turned to him with shining eyes.
“If you really want me to come sleep with you, I will”, he said, taking Katsuki’s free hand into his own.
Katsuki rolled his eyes, placing a tender kiss on Izuku’s forehead.
“I’ll be fine. Take your time talking to your shitty, noisy friends and we’ll see each other on Sunday”.
Izuku frowned.
“On Sunday? Not tomorrow?”
Katsuki shrugged.
“I have shit to do tomorrow”.
Izuku narrowed his eyes at him, suspicious.
“What shit?”
“You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Kacchan”.
Katsuki sighed.
“It’s not a big deal. I have physical therapy. My scheduled weekly appointment with Recovery Girl. Lots of study to do”.
Izuku continued to frown, pouting a little and starting to resemble a bit a spoiled child.
“Oh… Ok…”, he said, clearly disappointed.
Katsuki rolled his eyes, using his free hand to pull Izuku close to himself. The boy nestled his head on the crook of his neck.
“You’ll survive one single day without my magnificent presence”.
Izuku rolled his eyes, but didn’t pull away from the hug.
“Can I come sleep with you tomorrow, then?”, he inquired.
Katsuki thought for a moment.
“Yeah, sure”, he shrugged.
He felt Izuku smile against his shoulder. The boy finally stepped back from the hug, but he continued to hold Katsuki’s hand into his own.
“Don’t forget to take your medicine”, he advised.
Katsuki sighed.
“Even if I wanted to, I have around five different people reminding me of it”.
Izuku nodded.
“Good”.
“Ok”.
They stared at each other in silence. A few moments passed.
“All right”, Izuku said finally, letting go of Katsuki’s hand and taking a step back. “I’ll go see if the guys are at the common room”.
“Deku”, Katsuki called as he started to walk away.
“Huh?”
Katsuki raised one eyebrow.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Izuku frowned, then he walked back to Katsuki. He closed his eyes and leaned in for a kiss. Katsuki rolled his eyes and kissed him back, eagerly, momentarily forgetting that any of their friends could walk by at any given minute and find them in the middle of the act.
When Izuku pulled back and smiled at him, ready to take off again, Katsuki grabbed the front of his shirt to keep him in place.
“Your phone, idiot”, he said, letting go of Izuku and turning to unlock the door.
“Oh, right, that”, Izuku chuckled, clearly embarrassed. “I had totally forgotten about that”.
“I know you did”, Katsuki scoffed, entering his room. He limped towards his bed and searched for the device amidst all his pillows, finding it buried beneath the ones Deku had been clinging to. He turned on his heels, his cane tapping loudly on the floor, before he handed the phone to Deku. “Here. Try not to lose it again”.
Deku smiled, taking the phone and looking at the screen.
His face fell.
“Uh oh”, he said. “127 new texts and 8 missed calls”.
Katsuki gave him an amused look.
“You’re friends with some clingy fucking bastards”, he scoffed.
Deku stared up at him with a grimace.
“I really should go”, he said, backing off towards the door and turning on his heels in a mid-jog. “Don’t forget to take your meds!”, he shouted after himself, disappearing through the corridor.
Katsuki rolled his eyes affectionately. Since Deku had left the door wide open, he was forced to march his way back to it in order to close it.
He considered leaving the door unlocked in the scarce hope that Deku would come back after he was done chatting with his annoying friends and lie down on the bed with him. But then, he remembered his plan. He remembered his agreement with Kirishima.
He locked the door and walked back to the bed, sitting down. He swallowed down his medication and lied back in the clothes he was wearing, feeling tired. He didn’t want to admit it to anyone – not even to Deku –, but he was still getting tired more often from doing simple tasks. Recovery Girl had said that this would happen for a while, until he was 100% better, but it didn’t make Katsuki feel less like a weakling because of it.
He sighed and closed his eyes. Sleep ended up claiming him in a matter of minutes.
“Absolutely not”.
Katsuki sighed and gave Aizawa sensei a look.
“I’m not asking for much –“
“Yes, you are”, he interrupted.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes.
“No, I’m not”, he pointed out. “I’m cleared out of the hospital –“
“Barely”.
“— and I’m recovering well –“
“Let’s keep it that way”.
“And it won’t take more than half an hour!”, he half-shouted, annoyed by the constant interruption.
“The answer is still no”, Aizawa sensei said stoically, giving his student an impassive look.
Katsuki sighed out a heavy breath and took a step back, hating that he had to bring the cane along to the teachers’ room. It was obvious that the cane’s presence wasn’t helping out his case, but he had assumed that using it would be better than ending up collapsing because he lacked its support.
“Come on”, he said, his tone very close to begging – which made him feel ashamed of himself. “You can ask someone to accompany me like you did when Deku was a ghost –“
“That was an unusual situation”, Aizawa pointed out.
“Well, it’s not like the current situation is any usual!”, Katsuki gestured at his cane.
Aizawa sensei continued to stare at him without any resemblance of interest.
“Bakugou. You were the target of two different villain attacks. You were gravely injured and almost died. I don’t need to remind you of all the reasons why I can’t let you out of the school for no good reason”.
“It is a good reason”, he tried, but deep down he knew the battle was lost.
“My answer is no”, Aizawa said firmly. “And you can stay there and whine all you want for as long as you want, and the answer will still be no. So why don’t you go do something more useful with your time while you’re still cleared out of school duty?”
Katsuki bit his inner cheeks and lowered his head, angry. There were a lot of angry retorts he wanted to give his teacher, and all of them included brand-new swear words.
However, the man was right. No matter what Katsuki said, he wouldn’t be allowed to go out of UA unless his parents came and picked him up as if he was a preschooler. That would be his fate until he was 100% recovered from his injury.
“You know what? Fine”, he scoffed, using his spare hand to reach for his ears and remove his hearing aids. Aizawa sensei raised an amused eyebrow.
“Is that your petty attempt to show you literally won’t listen to me?”, Aizawa signed at him with his hands.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes.
“I didn’t know you knew sign language”, he signed back.
Aizawa sighed and gave him a tired look.
“I’m a hero and a teacher. Of course I know sign language”.
Katsuki huffed a partially amused breath.
Still upset by his teacher’s denial, he turned on his heels and marched out of the room without another word, his cane tapping loudly on the floor. He could only hear the phantom echo of the tap-tap-tap without his aids on, but Katsuki fucking hated that noise, so he started to walk faster in order to reach his room at once and throw the damned thing at its farthest corner.
He miraculously managed to get back to his room without being stopped by anyone, but that was probably because his friends were attending to class. Plus, even if someone did call him at some point along the way, he wouldn’t have been able to hear it and respond without his aids on.
Katsuki had a medical leave, since he was still recovering and attending physical therapy, which was at the same time as his early morning classes. He had insisted that he could – and should – attend whichever classes didn’t collide with his therapy schedule, but Recovery Girl had been firm: he didn’t have to stay at the medbay all the time anymore, but that didn’t clear him out to do whatever he wanted. Mostly, he needed to take the free time to rest and recover, and his teachers – Aizawa sensei included – would understand his absence.
He entered his room with tiredness and decided that, as much as he hated the cane, throwing it across the room would cause more trouble than it was worth. He’d have to bend down and pick it up when he had to go out again, and the movement would cause him unnecessary pain. Because of this, he placed the cane near the bed and flopped down on it, lying back and taking in the pleasant feeling of resting.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment, trying to think of what to do. Not being able to leave UA was a big hindrance on not one, but four steps of his first-date-with-Deku plans. Which meant he would have to find a way around the shitty obstacles if he really wanted to do this.
First, the easy fix. He texted Kirishima. The boy was in class, but he could read the messages later.
From: Best Friend
So, remember my carefully crafted plan of taking Deku back to the same place you guys threw me that shitty birthday party and surprising him with a romantic picnic for a first date?
From: Best Friend
You know, the symbolic plan which was meant to represent the end of the hostility between us and the growth and acceptance we both went through despite all our fights and arguments. The one where you’d all trick him into going there and then he’d get all teary-eyed when he saw me waiting for him, sitting on the grass under the sakura trees with his favorite snacks?
From: Best Friend
Turns out Aizawa sensei took a huge dump on it and buried it on the ground. AKA: it’s not happening.
From: Best Friend
Apparently I can’t leave UA until I’m 100% better. So we’re going to have to adapt.
From: Best Friend
Come here after class so we can discuss my new idea.
Ok, first step: solved. Now there were only three more steps to figure out. Two of them were dreadful, but he decided to start out with the second hardest one.
After putting his hearing aids back on, he dialed the number on his phone and hit the call button. It rang once, twice, three times, before his mom picked up.
“Hey, brat”, she greeted, sounding more lively than usual. As if she was happy to talk to him, or something like that.
“Hey”, Katsuki greeted back. Then, straight to the point: “I need a favor”.
There was a pause.
“Oh?”, Mitsuki said, surprised. “You don’t usually ask for favors”.
Katsuki grinded his teeth, irritated. The reason why he didn’t usually ask for favors was because he hated when people shoved it on his face, like she was doing right now.
“Don’t make me regret this, old hag”, he said with a warning.
His mom just laughed in response.
“All right, all right, I keep forgetting how proud you are. Just spit it out, kiddo”.
Katsuki took a deep breath.
“I need you to go to the mall and buy something for me. I’ll give you the name of the store and the name of the clerk I talked to – he’s keeping the item I want in stock for me. I can give you the money when you bring it to me here at UA today. I’d go and buy it myself, but the fucking teachers won’t let me out of school grounds until I’m fully recovered”.
“Ok”, his mom said, compliant. “What do you need me to buy?”
Katsuki closed his eyes. He was tempted to tell his mom to just grab the item with the clerk and trust it to be the right one without checking it before she paid for it, but he didn’t want to risk the possibility she would buy the wrong thing and ruin his plans.
He didn’t want his mom to know about it either, but he figured she would have to know at some point. It was inevitable.
He took a deep breath.
“It’s a limited edition of ‘All Might: your soulmate valentine’ pair of necklaces”, he said, shame and embarrassment burning in his stomach.
There was a pause.
“A… what?”, Mitsuki said, and it was obvious that she was trying not to laugh. Katsuki felt angry, even though he had predicted this sort of reaction.
“Just buy the damn thing and bring it over to me!”, he snapped through gritted teeth. “And don’t you dare speak one word of this to anyone”.
“Who would I even tell? One of your two friends?”, Mitsuki said, humor in her voice. Katsuki huffed.
“Shut up. I’m never asking you for a favor ever again”.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby, Katsuki”, she reprimanded. “But are you going to tell me who this valentine necklace is for or do I have to guess?”
“It’s none of your business”, Katsuki said out of instinct, before he could think better about it.
“Is it for Kirishima?”
That felt like a slap to his face.
“What?”
“Oh, come on. You’ve never, ever looked at a girl twice in your short life, but you did introduce Kirishima to us. I thought this was your way to be subtle about it. Well… I mean, I had thought that until you asked me to buy your valentine a gift, which is as subtle as that big gay elephant in the room”.
“It’s not fucking Kirishima, old hag”, Katsuki said, not knowing why the hell his mom had thought that in the first place. “What – You thought that just because I introduced him to you, I was dating him?!”, he asked, almost offended.
“You’re the one who’s all mysterious about this shit, don’t blame me for making a wrong guess!”, she retorted. “If it’s not Kirishima, then who it is?”
Katsuki’s nostrils flared with anger.
“I’d tell you to make a guess, but if you honestly think I’d date Kirishima, it’s obvious you’ll never guess it right”.
“Do you want the damn necklace or not?”, she threatened.
Katsuki sighed. He wanted to tell his mom to go fuck herself, but it wasn’t like he had a plethora of people available to go to the mall for him. In for a penny, in for a pound.
“It’s Deku”, he said shortly, his face very serious. She’d have to know at some point. She’d have to know.
Silence.
More silence.
“Are you still there?”, Katsuki frowned.
“Midoriya?”, she exclaimed so loudly that Katsuki hoped she was at home – if she was yelling about his relationship in the middle of the street or at work, Katsuki would kill her.
“Yes, that’s him, now can you go buy the godforsaken necklace or what”, he spat.
“But – wait a minute – I get that he saved your life and all, but… You hated him. Didn’t you? I’m not remembering it wrong, am I?”, she asked, clearly confused.
“Yeah, I used to hate him, and now I don’t hate him anymore, what is it to you?”, he said, feeling like a child throwing a tantrum. In his defense, his mom’s excited reaction wasn’t doing his already sour mood any favors, so he wasn’t really to blame here.
“How do you go from hating someone to giving them an All Might whatever-whatever valentine necklace?”, she inquired. Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“You get soulbound to them and find out that your mixed feelings of hatred and anger were actually misplaced concern and vulnerability”, Katsuki said. “I’m going to call the store and tell them that you’re going to get the necklace in my place. It’s limited edition, so for fuck’s sake, don’t get sidetracked or they might sell it to someone else”.
“I won’t”, Mitsuki provided. “When is your date with Midoriya?”
“What date?”, Katsuki asked, annoyed at his mom for making assumptions – even though the assumption was right.
“Well, if you’re going to gift him with the valentine necklace, you have to do it on a date”, she provided. “I know you’re even less romantic than I am, but even I know that”.
Katsuki huffed.
“The date will happen soon. I need the damn necklace first”.
“See! I knew there was a date!”, she celebrated. “Why do you have to be so mysterious about everything? Tell your old woman about your love life!”
“I literally would rather die. And I can say that, because I’ve been there”, he scoffed.
There was an awkward pause.
“Don’t joke about that”, Mitsuki reprimanded, sounding suddenly sober. “What a way to kill such a nice conversation”.
“I’m glad you were having such a great time learning about my thing with Deku, but I need my damn necklace. Will you bring it to me?”
Mitsuki sighed.
“Fine, brat. I’ll bring your damn necklace”.
“Good”.
“Today?”
“Well, yeah”.
“Is the date tomorrow?”
“Mom”, he growled.
“Fine, fine, I’ll stop asking about it. But if it wasn’t for the necklace thing, when were you going to tell me about him?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know. Eventually”.
“Eventually?”
“Yeah”.
“Well, I guess that I’ll bring you your damn necklace eventually, too”.
“Oh, fuck off”, Katsuki huffed. “It’s not like you ever cared for this sort of thing”.
“Well, I never cared because you never cared”, Mitsuki pointed out. “Now that my baby is growing up, I want to know everything!”
Katsuki sighed.
“I should have asked dad instead”, he complained, half-hearted.
“Oh, come on. You know that if you had asked your dad, you’d never hear the end of it”.
“Well, at least he’d go to the damn mall faster!”
“All right, all right! Jeez, you’re way too demanding for someone who’s asking a favor”.
Katsuki took a deep calming breath, irritated. There she was, throwing it at his face again.
But he really needed the damn necklace. The sooner the better. And she was right: if he had asked his dad, he’d get tears and sobbing in response. Katsuki couldn’t really stand that, so his mom was his best option right now. He didn’t really trust anyone else in his close circle to do it properly.
“Fine. Sorry”, he said in spite of himself, angry and reluctant. These feel like Doc Matsuo’s words instead of my own.
Are they my own?
A pause.
“I see therapy’s doing wonders for your manners”, Mitsuki teased.
Katsuki sighed.
“Bye, mom”.
“Oh, come on, kiddo! I thought you could take a teasing!”, she joked. “Fine, I’ll stop mocking around. I’ll go to the store get your damn necklace”.
“Fine”.
“Good. Need anything else?”, she offered.
“No”, Katsuki said shortly.
“And how are you?”, she asked, sounding genuinely interested.
“I’m fine”, Katsuki said. “Getting better each day”.
“You’re not skipping your appointments with that tiny old woman, are you?”, he could basically see the suspicious squint his mother must have given her phone as she said that.
Katsuki sighed again.
“No, mom”, he said vehemently. “I’m going to the damn appointments”.
“Good”, Mitsuki said. “I’m just asking because I know what you’re like. You think people will look down on you if you need help, even though you were literally impaled –“
“You know what, I’m hanging up”, Katsuki interrupted her. His patience was bigger now that he went to therapy, but even that had a limit. “Bye”.
“Katsuki –“
He didn’t hear the end of it. With a tap on his screen, he ended the call.
Ok. Two more calls to go. If the walk to Aizawa sensei’s office and back to the dorm hadn’t made him tired, talking to his mom had. He was already dying for a nap, and it was almost time to take his medicine.
Still, before he allowed himself to finally get some rest, he called the All Might official store at the mall and explained that he wouldn’t be able to go fetch the necklace himself, but that his mother Mitsuki would go in his place. The clerk was nice and told him he would safekeep the necklace for him even though it was the last one at that store and several people had come looking for it. Katsuki was feeling very grateful for that, until the guy decided to tell him that he hoped “your lucky girl likes it!”
“Actually, it’s for a lucky boy”, Katsuki corrected the man. “But thanks”.
He hung up before the man could reply.
Which left him with the final call to make. If he really wanted to have this first date with Deku, and if he really wanted it to go right, there was one last person he needed to contact.
Well, see: he didn’t need to contact this person. It wasn’t mandatory. But Katsuki hadn’t been raised by animals, he knew the basic steps of courtship. He knew that, if he wanted to do things right, he needed to follow certain steps.
So he searched for the contact name on his phone and hit dial.
The reply was almost immediate.
“Hello?”
“Hey”, he said, feeling a bit nervous – which was so unlike his usual strong façade that it made him feel nauseous. Was he a person who got nervous with this sort of dating-life now?
“Katsuki-kun”, Inko said, seeming surprised. “How nice of you to call”.
“I wanted – uh, needed – to talk to you”, he said, tense.
“Of course, dear”, Inko replied. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah”, he swallowed dry. “I’m – still recovering from what happened at the museum. Which is why I’m calling in the first place. I’d rather go down to your house and have this talk in person, but the school won’t let me leave until I’m fully recovered”.
“Oh, I see”, Inko said, comprehensive. “And how is recovery going?”
“It’s going well”, he said. “Just not well enough for me to leave just yet. I was wondering… Would you be able to come to the school so we could talk?”
There was a pause. Inko seemed pensive.
“You sound very serious”, she commented. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing urgent”, Katsuki tried to ease her. “And it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s just – something important. About Deku. Something I wanted to talk to you about”.
“About Izuku?”, she asked, concerned. Katsuki could picture the frown on her face. “What is it?”
He sighed, trying to muster what was left of his patience.
“Like I said, nothing urgent”, he said. “And you don’t have to worry about him, he’s fine. It’s – It’s more about me than it is about him”.
There was another pause.
“I don’t think I understand, dear. Why can’t you tell me over the phone?”
Katsuki closed his eyes, counting to ten in his head and taking a series of deep breaths.
“Look”, he said as patiently as he currently could. “Just come over. We can talk then , ok?”
“O-Ok”, Inko said, clearly worried. “I’ll go to the school as soon as I can”.
“Can you make it today?”, he proposed.
“T-Today?”, Inko said, hesitant. “Oh, dear… I hadn’t… I don’t have anything ready… I…”
“Good”, Katsuki said, as if she had just answered his question. “I have to go now”.
“A-All right”, Inko agreed, still sounding tense. “I’ll try to go over today. Bye, Katsuki-kun”.
“Oh, one more thing”, Katsuki remembered. “Don’t tell Deku I called you and asked you to come here”.
A pause.
“Why not?”
Katsuki bit his inner cheeks.
“It has to do with a surprise”, he said. “I don’t want to spoil it”.
“Oh”, Inko said, sounding a bit relieved. “Ok, I’ll be discreet”.
“Thanks”.
“You’re welcome, dear. But I have to say – I am really curious about all this”.
Katsuki snorted.
“Don’t worry about it”, he said, even though he was worried.
He hung up and put the phone down on the bed, beside him. He went back to staring at his ceiling.
He could feel himself starting to get sleepier, and the silence in the dorms – which was something unusual and therefore meant to be enjoyed – was only helping his brain to relax. Before he knew better, his eyes had slipped closed and his mind was wandering idly, thinking about how his day had been and how he planned for the morrow to be.
Until someone knocked on his door.
Annoyance immediately sparked through him, but he was able to keep the feeling at bay. Maybe it was an effect of all those shitty meds he was taking, along with the sleepiness. Either way, he turned slowly on the bed and sat up carefully, trying his best not to move too abruptly lest he aggravate his healing injury.
“I didn’t think you’d get here so fast, Shitty H–“, he started to say as he limped to the door, only to open it and reveal a stoic Todoroki.
He was cut off by his own surprise, staring at the Half’n’Half bastard with shocked eyes that soon enough became narrowed and suspicious.
“You”, he said accusingly.
Todoroki wasn’t affected by his clearly sour mood.
“Bakugou”, he said simply. And then, straight to the point: “I wanted to speak to you”.
Katsuki huffed through his nose.
“Yeah, I bet you did. It’s about Deku, isn’t it?”
Todoroki nodded solemnly, not even surprised by the fact that Katsuki had guessed it right so easily. Katsuki crossed his arms above his chest.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?”, he provoked.
Todoroki simply stared at him with a neutral face.
“I should. But I figured that our conversation might turn into a shouting match, in which case I’d rather have it happen while our friends are not within the hearing range. I don’t want to call their attention. So I skipped class to come talk to you”.
Katsuki huffed again, unimpressed.
“Well, if it’s about Deku, I’m sure there’ll be some shouting involved”.
Todoroki raised an eyebrow at him.
Katsuki stepped out of his room and closed the door behind him. Icy Hot was right – there was no one around to hear them, which meant it wouldn’t be necessary for them to have this talk inside his room. He didn’t want the bastard to go in again – once had been enough already.
“So you know about me and him”, Katsuki started, taking charge of the conversation.
“Yes”, a straight answer.
“And you want to fight over him?”
That finally sent some emotion to Todoroki’s stoic face. The emotion was raw confusion.
“I’m… sorry, what?”, he asked, frowning.
Katsuki scoffed.
“Don’t try to play me. I know you want him”, he accused. “And you can’t have him”.
Todoroki continued to frown and blink at Katsuki, as if he hadn’t predicted the course this conversation was taking.
“What are you talking about?”, he questioned.
Katsuki took a furious step closer to him, and hated the way his torso twisted in pain and discomfort. He tried to hide the pain behind a growl.
“Listen here, fuckface”, he said through a snarl. “I’m not gonna say that Deku is mine because he’s not a thing that someone can own. But he’s with me. So that’s as close to being mine as he can get. Which means that you and Round Face are gonna back the fuck off and keep those grabby hands of yours away from my fucking man, do you hear me?”
Todoroki continued to stare at him with the upmost confusion.
“I…”, he stuttered, which was an uncommon sight for him. “You think I want to date Midoriya?”, he asked, with an emotion that was close to mortification.
Katsuki’s snarl grew in size.
“In your dreams”, he said, aggressive. “Like I said, he’s with me”.
Todoroki opened and closed his mouth before sighing heavily, scratching the back of his neck in surprise and confusion. He stared at the floor for a few moments before he met Katsuki’s eyes again.
“You know, this is not what I had in mind when I came here to talk to you”, he admitted. “I know Midoriya told us about the two of you, which was why I came over in the first place. I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t hurt him”.
Katsuki felt his chest twist at that. He wanted to be mad at Todoroki for making such an assumption, but who was he kidding? He had worried about that possibility himself. It was natural for Icy Hot to think he’d hurt Deku if they got to close, because Katsuki had never done anything but.
But he could change. And he would show them. Every single one of them.
“I know I was a piece of shit to him in the past”, he admitted, overtaken by a sudden sense of honesty. “And I hurt him in more ways than you’d know. If you think you know shit about the two of us and how we grew up, you’re mistaken”, he added, feeling clingy to that warm sense of intimacy in his relationship with Deku. “But I won’t do it again. If he chose to be with me, then I’ll make sure I’m the best option available for him. I’ll stomp down any competition I find in my way, and that includes you if it comes to it”, he added.
Todoroki nodded.
“You don’t have to worry about me as competition”, he said easily, and Katsuki felt honesty in his voice. “I like Midoriya, but only as a friend”.
Katsuki huffed.
“Yeah, right”.
“I mean it”.
“Look, you don’t have to lie to me. Just stop giving Deku those thirsty looks you give him and keep your icy-hot hands away from him and we’ll be cool”.
Todoroki would have blushed if he was any other person.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, he said stoically. “But as I said, Midoriya is a good friend and I value his friendship. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. But you seem very… passionate about him. And I know that you no longer do things the way you used to do, with everything that happened”.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. He didn’t really like the idea that people were perceiving him as someone who had changed, but he didn’t really know how to counter that, either. Because what could he say? The person he had been a year before wasn’t the same person he was today. Now, he had more patience, more scars, and he spent his free time thinking of ways he could give Deku the perfect first date. If his persona from one year before had witnessed him today, he didn’t know what he would have fucking said, but he was pretty sure a series of curses would be involved.
“Like I said, I won’t hurt him”, he repeated for good measure. “So if that’s all, you can fuck off back to class and I can go take my meds”.
Todoroki continued to stare at him.
“Not hurting him is not enough”, he pointed out. “It’s a basic requirement. What I do want to know is if you’ll make him happy”.
That made Katsuki’s blood boil a little more.
“What is it to you?”, he questioned, leaning his head closer to Todoroki, who took a deep breath.
“I’m his friend”, he repeated. “And I’m worried about his happiness. We all are”.
Katsuki’s nostrils flared.
“You all underestimate me so much”, he accused. “You, Round Face, Four Eyes and Frog Girl can all go fuck yourselves if you think I won’t do anything and everything in my power to be the best damn boyfriend this world has ever seen”.
Todoroki raised his eyebrows, unimpressed.
“So is that what you are?”, he questioned. “Boyfriends?”
Katsuki huffed, but didn’t say anything. We’re not boyfriends just yet. Not until we have a proper date.
Todoroki nodded when he remained silent, as if he had been expecting that.
“He told us about the kiss, but everything else seemed… uncertain”, he commented. “Which was another reason for me to come here”.
“Since when did you become the spokesperson to Deku’s feelings?”, Katsuki inquired. “If he’s got a problem with our relationship, he can come to me himself”.
“He doesn’t know I’m here”, Todoroki pointed out. “He didn’t ask me to speak for him. I’m only doing this because I care about his wellbeing, and I care about yours too, even if you deny to see it”.
Katsuki squinted.
“All I’m saying is that I’m not one hundred percent sure that you and Midoriya are better when you’re with each other. That’s not a criticism on your personality or his, is just the way I see you. You seem to bring each other to the edge, which is not something good in a long-term relationship. I speak from experience. The last thing I’d want for either of you is to see you fall apart because you burned too bright at the beginning. But if you can assure that you won’t hurt his feelings, I’ll be on my way”.
“What about him hurting my feelings, huh?”, Katsuki provoked. “Since you said you care about the two of us?”
Todoroki sighed.
“That was implied”.
“No, it wasn’t”, Katsuki scorned. “And that’s fine. I don’t need anyone out there worrying about me, especially not you”.
Todoroki sighed again.
“Bakugou”, he said calmly, stoically. “I do worry about you. In fact, I’d find your loss hard to overcome”.
Katsuki blinked at Todoroki, confused.
“You don’t have to be my friend if you don’t want to”, he continued. “And whatever rivalry you might think we have over Midoriya, I can assure you it’s not true. Like I said, he’s a friend. A dear one, but only that. So maybe we could be friends too, if you’re willing to. I feel like I failed you back at the Training Camp, and I want to make up for that if I can, in the future. If you let me”.
Katsuki studied his face. He seemed serious, and that little emotional speech had more sentiment than anything Katsuki had heard come out of his mouth in years. Still, he felt the need to poke at Todoroki’s wound, just to see how far he’d go.
“Me, friends with you?”, he scoffed. “As if”.
Todoroki seemed disappointed, but not surprised.
“Well, that’s your choice”, he said simply. “As long as you don’t make Midoriya unhappy, I’ll have no beef with you”.
He turned on his heels and started to walk down the corridor. Katsuki watched him go, trying to decide how he felt about being dismissed like that so easily, so stoically.
“Oi, Icy Hot”, he called after Todoroki just as he was about to turn the corner. The boy stopped walking and turned to look at Katsuki.
There was a moment of hesitance.
And then:
“Thanks”, he said honestly. Even if he was jealous, he was glad to know that Deku had worried friends watching his back.
“For what?”, Todoroki asked, sincere.
Katsuki sighed.
“For worrying about Deku. And the shit you said about my loss. You don’t have to make shit up to me for the Training Camp, so get that out of your double-colored head”.
Todoroki stared at him blankly.
“I’ll see you around”, he said simply. And then he disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Katsuki was in the middle of a very pleasant nap when someone knocked on his door. With an irritated growl, he removed his face from the crook of his arm and rubbed the sleepiness away from his eyes.
“Uuuuughhhhh”, he sighed gutturally. “I’m comin’”, he shouted at whoever it was at his door. He slowly sat up on the bed and hissed at the way his injury protested. He took a hand to it and pressed down, blinking his eyes several times as they adjusted to the dim lighting of the room.
Great. He had slept the afternoon away.
He got up and turned the lights on before limping to the door, opening it to reveal Kirishima and… his mom? Right behind him?
“Hey, look who I found downstairs!”, Kirishima cheered, as if he had arrived to a fucking party or something. He pointed his thumb at Mitsuki to show her to Katsuki. She had a grumpy face on.
“Great, my two worst nightmares combined”, he said as a teasing, stepping aside so they could enter the room.
“Don’t be like that, bro!”, Kirishima strolled in easily, since he was familiar with the room, and he tapped Katsuki on the shoulder before approaching his bed and sitting down on the edge of it.
His mom, on the other hand, had never been to Katsuki’s UA dorm room, so she strolled in slowly, looking around and taking the room in. Katsuki closed the door behind her to prevent his nosy friends from trying to take a peek of his room or his conversation.
“Hey, brat”, she said simply, offering him a little plastic bag. “Here’s your valentine necklace”.
“Valentine necklace?!”, Kirishima exclaimed, eyes popping wide. He stared at Katsuki as the boy opened the plastic bag to reveal the limited-edition soulmate necklace he had required, as well as some bright-colored wrapping paper.
“I didn’t ask for wrapping paper”, he pointed out, to which his mom promptly replied:
“You didn’t have to. I wouldn’t let you give the boy a gift without wrapping it in some fancy papers. For fuck’s sake, Katsuki, have some class”, she reprimanded.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Can I see it?”, Kirishima asked, propping himself on his seat. He seemed extremely curious, so Katsuki tossed the bag at him as if it was garbage. Kirishima grabbed it in the air and immediately shoved his face inside it, eager to see what it was about.
“I’ll give you the money, then you can go”, Katsuki told his mom, limping over to his study desk and grabbing his wallet. “I don’t even know how they let you inside the boy’s dorm in the first place”.
“I have my ways”, she said mysteriously, but Kirishima said at the same time:
“She can yell louder than you. I don’t know how you didn’t hear it from here”.
Katsuki huffed.
“I was sleeping”.
“What, at this time?!”, Mitsuki exclaimed, sounding shocked and offended by that very idea. Whatever thin patience Katsuki had left in his body wasn’t enough for him to keep his cool.
“I’m still recovering, you old hag!”, he exploded, angry. “Recovery Girl said I need to rest if I want to get better, so I’m just following medical orders! I’m not slacking around!”, he added for good measure.
“No one said you were slacking around!”, Mitsuki shouted back, defensive. “Why do you always put words in my damn mouth in order to play the victim?”
“I’m no one’s victim!”, Katsuki shouted, the yen bills starting to fume in his hand.
“You tell that to the villain who dropped a building on you!”
“Fuck off!”
“You fuck off!”
“Guys!”, Kirishima said, getting up from the bed and placing himself between the two of them before they could go for each other’s throat. “You need to stop this! Here”, he took the money from Katsuki’s fisted hand with only a bit of difficulty, pulling it free from his grip before turning to Mitsuki. “See, there you go”, he said calmly, placing the money in her hand. “There’s your money. Everything’s settled now, right?”
Mitsuki straightened her clothes and huffed with indignance, but she did grab her purse and shoved her money inside in silence. Then, to Katsuki’s and Kirishima’s surprise, she didn’t turn to leave – and instead she sat at the edge of Katsuki’s bed, crossing her legs and resting her hands atop her knee. When Katsuki stared at her with evident confusion on his face, she shrugged.
“Kirishima told me you two were going to plan your date with Midoriya”, she said, as if that explained anything.
“So?”, Katsuki shrugged back at her.
“So I’m going to take part at this!”, she said a bit too aggressively to someone who was offering help. “It’s my son’s first date, and we both know that you suck at this kind of thing. I’ll stay and help”.
That sent another snarl to Katsuki’s face.
“You have no way of knowing whether I suck at this or not”, he pointed out. “I’ve never dated anyone!”
Mitsuki nodded promptly.
“Exactly. That’s why you need help”.
Katsuki scoffed.
“What, you think that you’re gonna shout at me and suddenly I’ll become all romantic?”, he asked. “Wake the fuck up. If Deku’s gonna take me, he’s gonna take me for what I am. With or without pretty flowers and tuxedos and whatever the hell else you expect me to pull off”.
Kirishima sat down beside Mitsuki slowly, apprehension in his face.
“Uh, I don’t know, man”, he said. “Maybe your mom has some good tips for you, since she knows you best and all that. Hearing her out wouldn’t hurt”.
“He was being nice to you. It wouldn’t hurt to be nice back”.
“Yes, it would”.
“No, Kacchan, it wouldn’t! Why don’t you just try it?”
Katsuki sighed. Stupid Deku with his stupid advice.
“Fine. But if any of you mock me or try to give me shit for what I’m about to say, I’ll kick you out, understand?”, he threatened.
“Just spit out your plan and let’s find a way to make it better”, Mitsuki crossed her arms above her chest. Kirishima gave him two thumbs up and a broad smile, to which Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Fine”, he gave in. He pulled his rolling chair from his study desk and placed it directly in front of his best friend and his mom, sitting down on it. The relief of taking his weight from his throbbing injury was almost immediate. “My plan was to take shitty Deku to the same place where these assholes threw me a surprise birthday party earlier this year. But Aizawa sensei told me I can’t leave the school grounds until I’m one hundred percent better, so that’s a no-go”.
Mitsuki nodded.
“I knew I was right to trust this school”, she said. “They’re very responsible”.
Katsuki gave her a look.
“Yeah, apart from the time I got literally kidnapped by the League of Villains and the whole other month they spent lying to me and Deku about his body’s real state, which resulted in me taking the matter into my own hands and losing my hearing in the process”, he said, purposefully leaving the part where he hurt Deku’s soul out of the information. That still bothered him a lot and hit a bit too close to home for him to use it as leverage just yet.
“Yeah, apart from that”, Mitsuki nodded simply.
Katsuki hated when she acted like that, but he decided to be the better man and just focus on his patient side. The one that was taking meds, deep breaths, and calming stances. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
“Anyway”, he said emphatically. “Since I can’t leave the school, I’ll have to have the date here. Deku’s already talked to his friends about this shit and everyone knows already, but I won’t be able to call myself his boyfriend until we do the proper ritual. So I want to do that already, I can’t wait until I’m better enough to go out. I was thinking about it, and I think I decided a place. But I’m going to need help to bring a couple of chairs and a table out, as well as the food I’m going to cook. Which is where you come in”, he pointed at Kirishima. “I would carry all that shit there myself, but I can’t just yet because of my healing injury. I don’t want to make it worse by carrying weight and end up with even more off-days and hospital stays”, he justified, feeling just a little bit ashamed for being forced to ask for help.
“Of course I’ll help, bro!”, Kirishima exclaimed happily, sounding excited.
“I don’t know if we’re going to find a small dinner table here at UA, so we might have to buy one. And since I can’t leave – you’ll have to buy it”, he pointed at Kirishima again.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I was at the mall, I could have bought you one”, Mitsuki protested. Katsuki rolled his eyes in response.
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know your nosy ass would stay here to help with the plan”, he pointed out.
“Show your mother some respect, brat”, Mitsuki reprimanded, but it was half-hearted. “What’s this special place you’re taking Midoriya to anyway?”
Katsuki bit his inner cheeks and lowered his head.
“Ground Beta”, he muttered.
Kirishima’s eyebrows arched up high to demonstrate his surprise, whereas Mitsuki continued to stare at her son with a blank face. Upon both of their silences, she turned her head to give Kirishima a confused look, which she then directed to Katsuki.
“Am I supposed to know where that is?”, she inquired.
“Ground Beta is the place where they both fought each other a loooong time ago”, Kirishima explained. “It’s also where their relationship started to get better”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“It didn’t start to get better then”, he said, thinking back to all of those ghost-Deku days and the long path they had trailed on ever since.
“It kind of did. You guys were nicer to each other during house arrest”.
“Shut the hell up, Shitty Hair”, Katsuki huffed.
“Oh, so it’s a symbolic place!”, Mitsuki said, excited. “It used to be a place where you fought, and now it will be a place where you make out!”
“I’m not making out with him there!”, Katsuki protested, angry and embarrassed. He was very new to all this dating stuff, he didn’t know how to react to other people’s teasing, especially not to his mom’s.
“Oh, you don’t have to be so embarrassed!”, Mitsuki provoked. “If I know anything about Midoriya, he’ll appreciate the gesture. Honestly, I think he’ll appreciate anything you do for him. You two were so close to each other when you were little…”
Katsuki rolled his eyes again.
“Enough with the sentimental talk”, he cut her off. “Let’s talk facts. I need a small dinner table. It can be plastic, plastic is cheaper. I’ll cover it with a nice tablecloth so he can’t see it’s plastic. Ok, maybe I’ll buy a wooden one. Then all I’ll need is some candles, and I’ll handle the food. So we’ll eat and I’ll propose to him”.
Mitsuki burst into laughter.
Kirishima looked embarrassed whereas Katsuki looked furious, but neither of the boys said anything as she continued to laugh, slapping one hand at her knee and bending over with her arms wrapped about her belly. The laughing fit continued for a few more moments before she wiped her teary eyes and went back to sitting in a normal position. Katsuki narrowed his eyes at her.
“Are you done?”, he asked dryly.
Mitsuki nodded, sniffing, and a smile continued to tinge her lips as she came down from her fit.
“Sorry”, she said, which was a good start. “I’m not mocking you or anything, but – proposing?”, she said, as if the phrasing was ridiculous. “You’re getting married to him at the tender age of 17?”
Katsuki gave her an angry look.
“I meant I’m going to ask him to be my boyfriend”, he clarified.
Mitsuki looked like she was holding back another laughing fit, but this time she managed to control it better. Maybe it had to do with the serious, upset look on Katsuki’s face.
“Ok, so you need a small table, a tablecloth and some candles, right?”, she asked him.
Katsuki nodded silently, still a bit angry at her.
“And what are you going to cook him again?”, she continued.
“Katsudon”, Katsuki said. “It’s his favorite dish”.
Mitsuki smiled at him, and now the gesture was less mocking and more warm. She stood up from his bed and took a step closer to her son, placing a hand on his shoulder. This seemed to be her own special way of silently apologizing for having laughed at him.
“I shouldn’t have underestimated you”, she admitted. “You seem to have your shit together. That’s a good plan”.
Katsuki’s grumpy expression softened a little at this, and he didn’t resist when his mom pulled him into a hug. He didn’t hug her back, but he didn’t push her away either.
His mom finally let go of him, leaning back but keeping her hands on his shoulders. She gave him a look that was almost affectionate, cupping his face into her hand.
“Midoriya is lucky to have you”, she said tenderly. It seemed like she had realized that her humorous reaction had offended Katsuki. “Sorry for yelling at you”.
Katsuki huffed, not used to hearing his old woman say things like “sorry”.
“Have you been going to therapy?”, he jested, thinking back to her comment from their call from earlier.
She rolled her eyes.
“No”, she said. “But I nearly lost you. It makes me think back to all those times I could have been nicer to you, but wasn’t”.
Katsuki made a face at her.
“Being cheesy doesn’t suit you”, he accused.
“It doesn’t suit you either”, his mother was quick to shoot back. “And yet, here you are, planning your date with your future boyfriend”.
He sighed and stood up from his rolling chair. His mother placed a supportive hand beneath his elbow, and then she grabbed his arm to capture his attention. He looked at her.
“I think he’s good to you”, she said. “So be good to him, too”.
That reminded him of Todoroki’s words from earlier. For some reason, it angered him. The emotion must have shown on his face, because before he could say anything, his mom continued:
“I’m not saying you’re not going to be good to him”, she pointed out. “I’m just saying that – I’m like you”, she shrugged. “I’m angry and impulsive and explosive. Your teacher says it has to do with our quirk, and you inherited it from me. This is how we’ve always been”, she said. “But you don’t have to be a foul-mouthed brat all the time. The fact that you came up with all this just to make Midoriya happy is proof of that. Proof that you can be better than me”.
Katsuki gave her a crooked smile and an eye roll.
“I mean it”, she insisted. “When I was going out with your dad, I wasn’t the romantic one. In fact, I was so aggressive that I didn’t even leave any room for him to try and be romantic. So – I just wanted to say – I’m proud of you. I really am”, she smiled, squeezing his arm.
He wanted to reply with something along the lines of didn’t I tell you to stop being cheesy?, but the teasing felt wrong in his tongue. His mom was getting better at her treatment towards him – ever since he woke up at the hospital after the museum incident, she had been gentler and kinder to him. She still screamed and got into arguments with him sometimes – the shouting match they had had just a few minutes before was enough proof of that. But Katsuki didn’t mind that. He had never minded that, even though some of his mother’s harsh words stuck with him like a ghost at the back of his mind – especially the ones about him being weak.
He liked this new version of his mother. The one that caressed him and supported him, rather than just complaining about him all the time. He could handle a little screaming and a little bit of harsh truths every now and then – after all, he was tough. But seeing her demonstrate her care for him through gestures and words also felt good in a way he couldn’t really describe. Maybe he had been spoiled by Inko, who was always so delicate towards him, so considerate, even when she wanted to be harsh.
Inko.
Fuck, he’d almost forgotten about her. He shrugged away from his mom’s hold of his arm and limped to his study desk, where his phone was resting. He grabbed it and looked at the screen. There were no new texts or missed calls, thankfully, which indicated that she hadn’t arrived at the school.
From: Katsuki Bakugou
Where are you?
“When’s your date with him anyway? You’re going to tell me or what?”, Mitsuki asked behind him. Katsuki turned to face her.
“Tomorrow”, he said. His mother’s eyebrows shot up.
“So you need that table for tomorrow?”, she asked, and her tone didn’t sound exactly optimistic. “You should have told me this when you called me, brat”.
“Leave it to Kirishima”, Katsuki said. “He can take Mina to the store and buy it with her”.
“Uh, I –“, Kirishima tried to say, but Mitsuki was fast to cut him off.
“I’ll buy you the damn table. Just make sure to have this date at night, so I have enough time to buy it and bring it here to you”, Mitsuki growled at the same time Katsuki’s phone vibrated in his hand.
From: Deku’s Mom
I’m on my way. Katsuki-kun. I will arrive soon…
“Oi. Don’t ignore me when I talk to you”, Mitsuki tapped his shoulder with force, meaning to call his attention. Katsuki sighed and stared up at her. “Who are you even talking to?”
“None of your business”, Katsuki said, blocking the phone and putting it away. “If you insist you’re going to get the damn table instead of Kirishima, then get to it. I have other shit to do”.
Kirishima grimaced, whereas Mitsuki simply raised one eyebrow at her son.
“Keep talking to me like that and I’ll make sure I personally ruin your date”, she threatened.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“I’m just handling some shit I need to solve before the date”, he explained vaguely.
“What shit? Do you need anything else?”, Mitsuki asked, genuinely interested.
“No”, Katsuki shook his head.
He sat down on the edge of the bed beside Kirishima, trying to pretend he had done it out of his own free will rather than for the pain that was starting to burn on his torso. He had ended up sleeping through his alarm that indicated when he should take his meds, which was probably why his injury was acting up like that. He wouldn’t be able to keep this conversation up for much longer like this.
“Oi, Shitty Hair”, Katsuki called, making his friend turn to stare at him. “See my mom out of the building for me. I don’t want to have to go downstairs right now, I’m busy with other shit”, he made up.
Mitsuki squinted at him.
“Fine. No need to kick me out”, she said adjusting her purse on her shoulder and getting close to her son. “I’ll bring your ungrateful ass your damn table for the date. Take your meds and behave, Katsuki”, she instructed, ruffling his hair. “Come on, Kirishima”, she called the boy, who obediently got up and followed her to the door.
“Be right back, bro”, Kirishima told him above his shoulder.
“No need to come back here”, Katsuki said simply. “But keep an eye on your phone”.
Kirishima frowned.
“What? Why?”
“Because I’ll text you, dipshit”, Katsuki sighed.
Mitsuki opened the door of the bedroom and turned on her heels to stare at Katsuki through narrowed eyes.
“Why text him? What do you have to say to him that you can’t say in front of me?”, she questioned.
Katsuki groaned loudly and let himself fall back on his bed, his legs dangling off the edge.
“Not everything is about you, old hag”, he sighed.
“Ok, sorry for being a worried mom who doesn’t want her son to plan a shitty date”, Mitsuki complained. “You know what, I wash my hands. I’ll get you your stupid table and that’s all you’re getting from me”.
“Good. Now, bye”, Katsuki said simply, not looking at her or at Kirishima.
The moment he heard the door close, Katsuki lifted his head from the mattress and stared at it to make sure they were gone. Then, he sat up on the bed again – slowly, minding his injury – and grabbed his meds from the study desk. He had kept from taking them in front of his mom and Kirishima because he hadn’t wanted them to question him about skipping his meds, and because he didn’t really like the idea of reinforcing their image of him as a recovering invalid. He didn’t need anyone’s sympathy or pity, even if he was pretty much in pain.
The meds would take a while to kick in. Katsuki usually took them in the middle of the afternoon because that was a time in which he wasn’t in so much pain yet. But since he had slept through his alarm, the pain had enough time to grow and grow until he could barely remain on his feet. And the medicine, in its slow course, would take a while to have an effect on his body.
Gritting his teeth without realizing, he checked his phone again. No new messages from Inko, but according to her last text, she would be there soon. Katsuki couldn’t really meet her on the boy’s dorm, since that would be a likely place for Deku to show up and walk into their conversation, which was why he found himself typing:
From: Katsuki Bakugou
Meet me at Recovery Girl’s medbay
He didn’t wait for a reply before he opened his chat with Kirishima.
From: Best Friend
I need a favor from you
From: Best Friend
Other than plotting the table thing with my mom
The reply was almost immediate.
From: Shitty Hair
I am keeping an eye on my phone as I was thoroughly instructed
From: Best Friend
Good
From: Best Friend
I need you to distract Deku for me
From: Best Friend
Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near Recovery Girl’s medbay
From: Shitty Hair
What? Why?
From: Shitty Hair
Is everything all right?
From: Shitty Hair
Are you going to the medbay?
From: Best Friend
Yes but before your stupid ass gets worried, I’m ok
From: Best Friend
I’m meeting his mom there, which is why I don’t want him to show up
From: Best Friend
So keep him from going there ok? By any means necessary
From: Shitty Hair
You’ve got it bro
From: Shitty Hair
But why are you meeting his mom there? Why is his mom even at UA at this time?
From: Shitty Hair
Oh
From: Shitty Hair
Ooooooooh
From: Shitty Hair
You’re going to ask her for her blessing?????????
From: Shitty Hair
That’s it, isn’t it????????
From: Shitty Hair
I may be kind of dumb but I totally nail Bakugou-stuff
From: Shitty Hair
I’m right, aren’t I? You’re asking for her blessing??
From: Shitty Hair
Bakugou are you there
From: Shitty Hair
I can see you’re seeing my messages you’re just opting not to reply to them
From: Shitty Hair
Bakugouuuuu
From: Shitty Hair
Bakugouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
From: Best Friend
Just shut the fuck up and keep Deku in the dorm building.
Katsuki set down his phone and stared at the cane that were propped on his desk. The thought of walking up to Inko using shitty canes was disturbing, but he knew he had to do it. He could almost picture it in his mind: if he didn’t have a first date with Deku, he wouldn’t be able to call themselves boyfriends. If he didn’t call Deku his boyfriend, the nerd would get all upset and teary-eyed and he would certainly think that Katsuki didn’t really like him or that he was ashamed of him. Deku wouldn’t bring this up and would suffer on his own. Then they would have a stupid argument over stupid shit and Deku would throw it on his face or question him about it.
No, delaying their first date was the route to disaster. And Katsuki’s rush to settle this matter had nothing to do with his own desire to be able to officialize his thing with Deku. Nope. Not at all.
From: Shitty Hair
Fine, I’ll keep him away from there. But I want a full report on that talk you’re having with Mrs. Midoriya later, ok?
From: Shitty Hair
I’ve never been more curious in my life man I’m not joking
With a sigh, Katsuki grabbed his cane. He was still in pain, but he was counting on the medicine to have an effect before Inko arrived. In the clothes he was wearing, he marched out of his room, taking the elevator to prevent from any of their friends meeting him in the stairs. Actually, as much as he hated to admit it, he wouldn’t be able to go down all the way through the stairs, not in the state he was in.
Recovery was a bitch, but he wished it would be a faster bitch.
He was sitting at the waiting area when Inko arrived, breathless.
“Katsuki-kun”, she exclaimed as soon as she saw him. “What’s the matter?”
Katsuki left his cane aside and pushed himself to his feet with a barely audible groan, limping towards Inko. She looked pale and frantic, as if she was expecting some terrible news, and Katsuki felt a little bad for putting the woman through so much distress. Maybe he should have gone straight to the point through the phone.
But he knew he couldn’t have done that. The talk he wanted to have needed to happen face to face.
“Everything’s ok”, he said, subconsciously taking one hand to his injury and pressing down on it. “You don’t need to worry so much”.
Inko followed his hand down to his torso, and then her eyes focused on the cane behind him, which was propped against one of the waiting chairs. She took a trembling hand to her mouth, and Katsuki realized that this was the first time Inko was seeing him after the museum incident.
“Oh, dear…”, she whispered, sounding heartbroken. “You’re… You’re sure you shouldn’t be in bed?”
That offended him.
“I’m fine”, he said angrily, emphatically. Inko continued to eye him with big worried green eyes, but Katsuki simply sighed at the sight. “I really am”, he added for good measure. “I’m recovering well, and I won’t need that shit anymore soon”, he nodded at the cane.
Inko took her purse away from her shoulder and placed it on one of the chairs, taking a step closer to him.
“Why did you need me to come over?”, she asked, sounding anguished. “I knew it must be something serious, if you couldn’t talk about it over the phone, and I’ve been dying of curiosity… I’m sorry for being so straightforward”, she bowed, but Katsuki simply shook his head.
“You don’t need to be so worried”, Katsuki said simply. “Let’s sit down”, he added, pretending the courtesy was more for her sake than his own. She seemed distraught enough to need to sit down.
Inko nodded obediently and took a seat beside her purse. Katsuki took the seat next to her, doing his best not to groan as he lowered himself down.
“When you asked me to meet you at the medical bay, I feared the worst”, she admitted, hand trembling on her lap. “Can you… Can you please tell me what’s going on?”
Katsuki sighed, trying to organize his thoughts.
“I asked you to meet me here because I didn’t want to risk Deku overhearing us”, he said, trying to ease her. The statement sent a frown to Inko’s brow.
“Why can’t he overhear us?”, she asked, blinking her big green eyes at Katsuki. The sight still disturbed him, even after all that time.
“Because the conversation I want to have with you is private. I… I’ll tell him about it, later. But first, I need us to talk in private. This is the quietest place in this hellhole of a school”, he said.
Inko nodded attentively, though she still looked worried, waiting for him to continue.
Katsuki averted his eyes downwards, biting at his lower lip. He didn’t want to admit to himself that he was nervous, but there was no better word to describe his sentiment at that moment. He felt ridiculous and pathetic. Inko was such a tiny woman, with a meaningless quirk. He shouldn’t be afraid of her. He shouldn’t be afraid of anyone.
But this? This was about Deku. Which meant that all of Katsuki’s laws and rules, which applied to everything else, didn’t apply to Deku. His mom was included in that equation.
“Has he talked to you?”, Katsuki started, not looking at her. The tension in the waiting room was nearly tangible.
“T-Talked to me?”, Inko questioned.
“About what happened when he went after me”, Katsuki said. “In the debris, and then here at the medbay”.
Silence. He lifted his eyes to look at her, but now she was the one avoiding his gaze. Her cheeks were pink.
“D-Do you m-mean… Has he talked to me about… the… the… Kiss?”, she stuttered hesitantly.
Katsuki swallowed dry. Chin up, be brave.
“Yes”, he said, serious. Inko looked at him, and then she looked away again. She nodded silently, her hands gripping the hem of her skirt and twisting the material in her nervousness.
“Yes, he d-did”, she said firmly, as if she was gathering up her strength to do so. “And I told him that I support him no matter what – whether he likes boys or girls or whoever he has feelings for, I’ll support him, as long as he is happy. That’s – That’s all I want. For my son to be happy”.
Katsuki nodded, serious.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about”, he said. “Deku’s happiness”.
That seemed to take her by surprise. She raised her head to stare at him, frowning.
“What do you mean?”, she inquired.
Katsuki took a deep breath.
“I know I did shit in the past”, he said, feeling raw and exposed. “I know I hurt him. On purpose. And I know you already said you forgave me for all that shit”, he pointed out. “But forgiving me for that shit I did doesn’t mean you endorse… this”, he gestured at himself, hoping she would understand. “And I don’t think you should make decisions for Deku, just as much as I won’t let my parents make decisions for me. We’re both months away from becoming legal adults. But still, I know how important you are to Deku, and how much he loves you. I know it would break his heart if he had to choose between me and you. And I don’t want to put him in that position. I don’t want to force him to make a choice. So what I’m trying to say is –“
“You’re asking for my blessing”, Inko filled in the blank.
Katsuki stared at her. He swallowed dry, then he nodded.
Inko nodded back. She offered him a quick smile, but her lower lip was trembling and she looked like she wanted to cry.
“You know, when Izuku told me about the kiss, I was so confused”, she admitted. “Not about his sexuality or anything like that, but because… I mean, I should have seen this coming”, she smiled again, shrugging.
For some reason, that annoyed Katsuki. His relationship with Deku wasn’t obvious; no one would have been able to see it coming.
“He’s always loved you so much”, Inko continued before Katsuki could voice his complaint. Her words made him keep from interrupting, however. “He’s always – admired you, and talked about you, and praised you so much. I should have known it would be you, when the time came. In my heart, he’s still my little boy, but deep down I knew this day would arrive. You know, the day he would want to date people and have a relationship and even marry someday. Every mother has to prepare herself for that, right? But my Izuku has always been so alone, you know… I feared that, when the day came, he would be lost. He wouldn’t have a clue of what to do, the poor thing. But then… he’s always known his way around you”, she smiled, meeting his eyes.
Katsuki stared at her in silence. Waiting for a response.
Inko lowered her head, her smile becoming sad.
“I know what you did to him in the past. And like you said yourself, I already forgave you for that”, she said. Then, she met his eyes, sustaining his gaze. “And I think that, out of anyone, you’re the best person to be with him. Because I know from experience how much you’ve grown to care about him, and how strong you are to protect him. When a mother gives birth, she dreads the day her son will become a hero, because being a hero means he’ll always put other people’s lives above his own. But with you by his side, I know there will always be someone watching his back”.
Katsuki wanted to say so you think I’m a fucking bodyguard or something, but he knew where Inko was coming from. And she was right – they both wanted to be heroes, and they both wanted to achieve number one. Even if Katsuki had always considered himself a lone wolf, he knew that if they worked together, they would be able to become the best of the best, because they would always have someone striving to the top to watch their backs.
“You have my permission, and my blessing”, Inko said, reaching out to grab one of Katsuki’s hands. She squeezed it and offered him a teary-eyed smile. “As long as you make my Izuku happy, and protect him in the ways I can’t, you’ll always have my blessing”.
Katsuki bit his inner cheeks and nodded.
“I’ll ask him to be my boyfriend tomorrow”, he said, stern. He always got a bit awkward by Inko’s demonstrations of affection, which were always so open, so raw. “I wanted to talk to you about it, first, before I actually talked to him about it”.
Inko squeezed his hand again one more time before she let go, settling back.
“I’m curious”, she admitted. “What would you have done if I said no?”
Katsuki thought about it. The possibility had occurred to him, and as it was his usual, he didn’t particularly enjoy to be bossed around by anyone. If Deku’s mom had been against their relationship, there was nothing he could do about it. But would he let it stop him from being with Deku? Would he put Deku in a position where he’d have to choose between his mother and his boyfriend?
He truly didn’t know. He knew that choice would make Deku unhappy, and that was the last thing he wanted. But he also knew that not being with him would also make Deku unhappy. It was a catch-22.
“I think I’d try to convince you”, Katsuki admitted, feeling surprisingly calm. “Because I know for a fact that I love Deku. And I think I’ve loved him for a while now, even if it took me a while to understand it. And to act on it”.
Inko nodded, giving him a warm, affectionate look.
“You’re a good boy, Katsuki-kun”, she said. “You’ve always been a good boy, even if you strayed for a while. All I ask of you is to make my Izuku happy – if you do that, there is no reason for me to be against your relationship”.
Katsuki nodded. He didn’t know how to handle the wave of relief and fear that were coursing through him. Relief, because he wouldn’t have to put Deku through an impossible dilemma; fear because now there was nothing standing in the way of him and his proposal.
“Sorry for scaring you with my call”, Katsuki said, because that felt like it needed to be said. “I didn’t mean to stress you out; I just didn’t think that this was a subject to be talked over the phone”.
Inko nodded her head.
“I understand where you were coming from. I’ll admit your call scared me, and your text about meeting at the medical bay must have given me new grey hairs. It didn’t even cross my mind that you wanted to talk about the kiss, silly old me”, she smiled, shaking her head. “But I can see you are a very responsible and respectable boy, if you went through all that trouble just to ask for my consent”.
Katsuki nodded.
“I would have asked Deku’s dad too, but I know he hasn’t been around”.
Inko’s face fell. She looked away, uncomfortable, and Katsuki suddenly realized he had approached a sensitive subject without really meaning to.
“He… He cares about Izuku a lot, so I’m sure he would support you two”, she smiled awkwardly, and Katsuki grimaced in his mind. “What matters is – is Izuku’s happiness”, she twisted the hem of her skirt.
Katsuki stared at her.
“Well, thanks for coming here”, he said, pushing himself to his feet. “Sorry again for scaring you”.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, all is fine”, Inko said, standing up as well and grabbing her purse. “I’m glad I got the chance to talk to you and to see how you are doing. When Izuku told me about what happened to you, that horrid injury… How are you doing, by the way?”
“Recovery sucks”, Katsuki admitted. “But I’m taking my meds and going to my appointments. I’ll heal”, he shrugged.
Inko nodded. She looked at the cane again, and then back at Katsuki. The question she didn’t want to phrase lingered in the air, and Katsuki sighed.
“That’s just for support”, he clarified. “Until I’m 100% better. I’ll get rid of it in no time”.
Inko nodded at him with a gentle smile, and then she reached out to tap his arm lightly. She looked like she wanted to cup Katsuki’s face into her hand, just like his mother had done earlier, but felt too embarrassed to do so.
“I’m sorry for what happened to you”, Inko said. “And I’m glad you’re recovering”.
The touch to his arm was so light and gentle, so endearing. Katsuki hated how much Inko had spoiled him. He had never felt the need for anyone to touch him and caress him and be gentle to him, but now that he knew what it was like, because Inko had shown him, he kept craving for those type of touches and getting frustrated when he got none.
“Thanks”, he said simply, pulling away from the touch before it became too overwhelming. Inko blinked, still smiling, and took a step back.
“I’ll be on my way, then”, she said.
“I’ll walk you out”, Katsuki said, grabbing his stupid cane and hating it with a vengeance. He ignored its stupid tap-tap-tap on the floor as they walked to the door and turned to Inko. “Also, I wanted to ask you not to tell Deku anything about tomorrow. It’s going to be a surprise”.
Inko looked at him with interest and curiosity.
“Oh?”, she said. “All right. I won’t tell him anything”.
“Ok”, Katsuki said. They reached the exit door. It was night already, and nearly curfew time. He stopped walking and turned to Inko. “Are you going to take the train?”
“Yes”, she said. “But you don’t have to worry about it, there’s plenty of people who take the train at this hour. I won’t be alone”, she reassured him.
“Ok”, he said reluctantly. She must have sensed the hesitation on his tone – the unspoken question he wanted to ask.
“I’ll text you when I get home”, she promised.
Katsuki hated that he was filled with relief by that.
“Fine”, he said begrudgingly.
“Bye, Katsuki-kun”, she said, walking at a different direction than him.
“Bye”, he said back, heading back towards the dorm. He should probably grab himself something to eat before he went to bed, but he was feeling very tired – despite the afternoon-long nap he had taken – and his healing injury was still throbbing – despite the meds he had taken.
From: Best Friend
She’s gone. You can let Deku go now
From: Shitty Hair
Oh, we’re hanging out at the common room. You should stop buy when you get back! Satou baked a strawberry cake
From: Best Friend
Hard pass. I’m tired as fuck
From: Best Friend
I’m going straight to my room. See you tomorrow
From: Best Friend
Let me know about the table for my date with Deku when you have it
From: Shitty Hair
Ok :-(
From: Shitty Hair
We’ll miss you
Katsuki ignored his sentimental friend and headed back to his room, using the same strategy from before and taking the elevator to avoid his friends. Once he was back in his room, he opened his chat with Deku.
From: Kacchan
Shitty Hair told me you guys are hanging out at the common room
From: Deku
Yeah! Everyone’s here, Satou baked a strawberry cake and some delicious desserts
From: Deku
I saved you a slice, if you want to come down ^_^
From: Kacchan
No thanks. Not up to it
From: Kacchan
How was your day?
From: Deku
Pretty ok, not much happened. I went to class, I studied with Iida-kun and Uraraka-san, then we watched some TV and now we’re hanging out with the guys at the common room
From: Deku
What about you?
From: Kacchan
Not much either. I sorted out some shit, slept a bit.
From: Kacchan
Think I’ll be going to sleep now. Night
From: Deku
Oh? It’s pretty early, even for you
From: Deku
Is everything all right?
From: Kacchan
Yeah, don’t worry about me. Save me a slice of the strawberry cake for tomorrow
Katsuki waited for it, but Deku’s reply never arrived. Eventually, he grew tired of waiting and decided the nerd was probably busy talking to his friends, and he didn’t want to be the annoying boyfriend who got in the way of his partner’s fun times.
He changed into more comfortable clothes for him to sleep and put the bag with the necklace away inside his wardrobe. Then, he carefully lied down on the bed, allowing his body to relax, even if it was hard because of the pain in his torso.
It had been worse before his talk to Inko, but now it seemed the medication was finally making an effect. Katsuki closed his eyes and sighed against his pillows, ready to allow unconsciousness to take him over and send him into oblivion. He removed his hearing aids and placed them on the study desk, unlike he had done before his afternoon nap. He was so caught up by the relief that lying down brought him that he didn’t even notice – or hear – someone else was there, in the room with him, until he felt the bed shift beside him.
“Shh”, Deku soothed him when he jolted into an alert stance. “It’s just me”, he said, settling down on the bed.
“Idiot”, Katsuki muttered, melting back against his pillows with a renovated pain in his torso. “I could have blown you up”.
Deku smiled at this, placing himself against Katsuki’s back and dropping a kiss on the back of his neck.
“I got worried about you”, he said, very close to Katsuki’s less-bad ear so that he could hear him without the aids. “So I decided to come over”.
Katsuki was still pretty tired, so he simply nestled himself into a fetal position and allowed Deku to cuddle him from the behind. Deku’s hand found his spiky hair and he started to caress it with his fingers, which Katsuki found very pleasant and relaxing.
“No need to worry about me”, Katsuki said out of habit. “I’m fine”.
“You’re always saying you’re fine”, Deku pointed out, dropping another gentle kiss on the back of Katsuki’s neck. The gesture sent goosebumps to his skin.
“That’s because I’m always fine”, he pointed out.
Deku sighed, but he didn’t say anything. He continued to caress Katsuki’s hair, and soon enough he started to feel sleepy again, sleepy and tired…
“Love you, Kacchan”, Izuku said, slipping one hand to Katsuki’s chest so that he could feel his heart beating. He spoke too low, though, and thus Katsuki didn’t hear him.
“Love you, Deku”, Katsuki muttered anyway, out of his own volition, before sleep claimed him.
For a change, no nightmares ridded his brain that night. His sleep was heavy and deep, and the only reason he woke up was because his morning alarm started to beep, indicating it was time for him to take his meds.
“Hnngh”, Deku groaned from beside him, his face buried in his pillows. Katsuki turned the alarm off and Deku nestled himself on the bed, still half-asleep.
He sat up slowly on the bed so that he could reach for his pills on his study desk. He swallowed them dry and immediately lied back down, turning on his side to look at Deku. He was back to sleeping already, his eyes closed and his face slack in a peaceful expression. Katsuki just took in the sight of him for a few moments, noticing how his chest moved slowly with each breath he took and how comfortable he seemed to be in his bed. As if he belonged there.
He did belong there now.
“Hmm…”, Deku moaned softly in his sleep. Unconsciously, he moved closer to Katsuki, probably sensing his absence from their previously cuddling position, even though he was asleep.
Then, Deku’s hand brushed against Katsuki’s groin as he tried to get closer.
Katsuki’s eyes widened as he realized that: 1, Deku had just subconsciously palmed his groin area, and 2, which was the most mortifying bit of it all: he was already erect, even before Deku’s touch.
Katsuki jumped from the bed as if he had been burned, which sent a new wave of pain through his injury and woke Deku up. The boy blinked up at Katsuki with confusion and worry at his sudden movement, and, before he could catch a glimpse of Katsuki’s erection, the explosive boy turned and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind himself.
“Kacchan?!”, Izuku called, obviously concerned. To Katsuki, his voice sounded muffled and distant – he didn’t have the chance to grab his hearing aids before he ran into the bathroom.
Looking through the gap under the door, Katsuki saw Deku’s shadow approach the bathroom. They were no longer connected by an invisible bond that forced them to be together at all moments, but this little scene of Katsuki hiding in shame inside his bathroom while Izuku waited for him outside was a bit too nostalgic.
“I’m fine”, Katsuki called from inside the bathroom. “Go back to sleep”.
“What happened?”, Izuku insisted with a loud voice, worried. “Did you have a bad dream?”
Katsuki stared down at his erection. Even though he had been startled by Deku’s touch, it was still pretty much… well, erect.
“I said I’m fine, Deku, just leave me alone”, Katsuki said, trying his best not to sound too impatient. “I’m going to take a shower”.
Deku hesitated outside the door.
“Ok…”, he said eventually, begrudgingly.
Katsuki sighed in relief as he saw Deku’s shadow on the floor move away from the door, and he sagged against the wall, only now processing the pain of having moved too fast. He lifted up his shirt to stare at his bandaged wound on the mirror, and he was happy to see there was no blood marring the white gauze. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cool wall tiles, just breathing through the pain and discomfort for a moment.
His erection started to die down after a few moments of sitting and breathing, now that there were no hands there to stimulate it. Katsuki tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened, since this was all very new to him.
It wasn’t like he never had an erection before. Hell, he had managed to have one back at the hospital, during recovery, where nurses and doctors could walk in and see it under broad daylight. No, this wasn’t his first time around this sort of thing. The difference was that, before, he never felt particularly aroused by anything. No classmates or movie stars entered his fantasies, because he didn’t fantasize. Sometimes he’d wake up with a boner after a dream he couldn’t quite remember, and then the erection would die down and go away on its own. Katsuki never had to do anything about it. He never did anything about it.
Sometimes, he’d get nocturnal emissions, yeah. Those were annoying and kind of embarrassing, but he never told anyone about it or let anyone see it – he always made sure to wash his own clothes, and his messy underwear was no exception to this rule. He could never quite remember his dreams when this happened, but he was sure that, if they were really that important or relevant to his daily life, he wouldn’t have forgotten about them in the first place.
There had been one embarrassing time when his dad tried to have “the talk” with him. He started to explain how the male body worked and what its desires were, but Katsuki had cut him off right away. He had learned enough anatomy at school, thank you very much, and if he had any doubts, he could look up the answers on his own. He didn’t want his dad of all people, with his weird metaphors and his hesitant explanations, to give him a lesson on how his own body worked.
The real problem here – the real reason why he never bothered masturbating or doing something about his erections before they softened down on their own – was his own quirk. His quirk wasn’t only to sweat a nitroglycerin-like substance, or only to cause explosions. It was both. He literally caused explosions with his hands. And his sweat, just like nitroglycerin, was a highly unstable substance that was easily inflammable. He wasn’t about to risk exploding his own dick because he caused too much friction on it just to get off for a few moments. He knew better than to try that, and he could live his life pretty well without jacking off like most teenagers his age. He had always made a point to not be like everyone else, so he wasn’t humble enough to admit that he did take pride in not masturbating. It wasn’t a necessity for him, and he never thought twice about it.
Not until Deku. The fucker seemed to be his exception for everything, huh?
This was the second time that Deku had given him a boner. And the reason why Katsuki had been so startled to the point of running away and hiding in the bathroom was – the touch, the light stroke, the second-long palm that Deku had accidentally and totally-not-on-purpose given him in his sleep, had felt good. Not good like having your back scratched or having the back of your neck kissed. Good as in a sensation Katsuki had never felt before.
And now that he was thinking about how good it had felt, his goddamn boner was back.
Katsuki took a deep breath and swallowed dry, trying to think of what to do. He couldn’t tell if he was aroused or not, but if he went back out with a boner there was no way Deku wouldn’t notice it and want to talk about it, because the nerd was a nosy little shit who had no idea how to keep out of other people’s businesses. So Katsuki needed to find a way to handle this, because he definitely wasn’t ready to talk about masturbation and boners with Deku just yet. Realizing he loved the idiot was already a bit too much on his plate so far, and sex? Sex was definitely not on his scope. Not now, not anytime soon.
Fuck, he had never even though twice about sex. He never took interest in it. And he didn’t know he could be interested in it until Deku came along. But how should they do it? They were both boys, right, so there was no way…?
No, no. Of course there was a way. There had to be. But he would have to do a shit ton of research before he even though about the possibility of having sex with Deku. He wasn’t about to stroll into this like a fucking amateur and risk embarrassing himself and his reputation by doing something wrong. Just like he was determined to be the best boyfriend in the fucking world, the same applied to sex, and he wasn’t ready for it just yet. He needed more time, to think, to prepare, and to have this conversation with his boyfriend.
Future boyfriend. He hadn’t asked him that yet.
God, Katsuki had almost ruined a perfectly planned first-date night because of his dick. What an idiot.
All right. He needed to bring his boner down without jerking off. He got back to his feet, supporting himself with a hand against the wall and the other pressing down on his throbbing injury. He removed the bandages and the gauze that were covering the stitches and discarded them on the sink, taking a look at the injury’s reflection on the mirror.
It still looked pretty bad, and it would definitely leave a scar – on his abdomen and on his back. The sight of it made Katsuki shiver, and his boner went from a hard-rock erection to a half-hard one at the memory of pain and near-death. He decided that the cold shower he would take would help soften his member, but there was no reason why he couldn’t help his own brain out and think about shit that definitely didn’t arouse him.
So as he stepped into the shower and turned on the cold water, he started to think thoughts that didn’t turn him on at all. Grandmas. Someone puking. Breasts. A dog dry-humping someone’s leg. Icy Hot. Icy Hot thirsting after Deku.
And then there was Deku, entering his mind again. Katsuki closed his eyes as water ran down his back and his limbs. Deku moaning softly as they cuddled. Deku’s parted lips. Deku’s warm tongue, caressing his bottom lip as they kissed. Deku sitting on his lap as they sparred. Deku kissing the back of his neck and sending goosebumps to his skin.
Fuck. Fuck, his erection was coming back. Grandmas. He needed to think about grandmas, goddamn it! Naked grandmas. His parents kissing. Inko. Round Face. Shitty Hair burping the alphabet. Two cats screaming their asses off in the middle of the night. That gross ear scene from NBC’s Hannibal. Blood! Blood and pus and all sort of gross humanly discharges. Principal Nezu wearing nothing but a bowtie. A compound fracture. Anything!
His erection started to go down again, and it seemed that this time it was for good. Katsuki put all of his energy on not thinking about Deku at all, his eyes squeezed shut from concentration.
God, he felt pathetic. How could he lose control of his own body like this? He was supposed to be better than a horny teen that got hard just because a hand brushed him. For fuck’s sake!
After washing himself properly and still going through the mantra of grandmas, blood, burps, Principal Nezu, myiasis, abscesses, Katsuki stepped out of his shower and dried himself. He hadn’t brought clean clothes with him inside, so he would have to step out wearing a towel… Which was definitely risky, in case his lower half decided to start acting up again. He’d have to make a quick exit and an equally quick comeback.
Taking a deep breath, he wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the bathroom door. He usually wouldn’t mind stepping out naked – he’d been naked around the boys from his class before –, but he wasn’t really ready for Deku to see him with a boner – not until he had control of the situation and the slightest clue of what he was doing. So he rushed to the wardrobe to grab himself clean clothes and ignored the way Deku stared at him from where he was sitting cross-legged on the bed.
“Kacchan?”, he called, still sounding worried, but Katsuki made sure to keep his back turned to him and to shoot out a quick:
“I’m fine. Just naked. Be right back”.
Then, he rushed back into the bathroom and closed the door again.
He changed into the first clothes he had managed to grab, and then he stared at himself in the mirror. He knew Deku would want to know what had happened, and if Katsuki had to be honest, he knew the boy was in the right. If Deku had pulled this sort of scene at him, he would demand to know the cause, too. But like he had come to conclude, he wasn’t ready to have the sex talk just yet. He didn’t want to lie to Deku either, because he was no fucking liar, but he’d have to come up with something to tell him until he was ready to admit that Deku had made him hard with just a touch.
He walked back out of the bathroom, in no rush this time. Deku eyed him with expectation from the bed, and accompanied him with his eyes as he walked back towards him. Katsuki sat down on the bed, his back turned to Deku.
Katsuki put his hearing aids on and then proceeded to lie down slowly, careful not to disrupt his injury any further, and turn towards Deku. He gave the sitting boy a stern look.
“It’s too early for us to be awake”, he said simply, pulling Deku by the arm into a lying position beside him.
Deku raised an eyebrow at him.
“I thought you were the one who liked to wake up before the sun rises”, he nestled beside him.
“Not on Sundays, and not during recovery. I only wake up early when I want to work out, but I can’t really do that now, can I?”, Katsuki debated.
Deku gave him a look.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?”
Katsuki sighed.
“I needed to take a shit”, he lied. “Are you going to make me a bathroom schedule or something? Do I need your permission to take a piss too?”
The room was dark, but Katsuki could see the way Deku blushed at this.
“I’m… sorry”, the boy said. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I was just…”, he bit his lower lip. “I thought it had something to do with your injury”.
Katsuki reached out and took Deku’s hand into his. The gesture, which had taken him years to overcome, was now as simple and familiar as home.
“You don’t need to worry so much”, Katsuki said, intertwining his fingers with Deku’s. “I’m here. I’m fine. I’m getting better each day”.
Deku shifted on the bed so that he was face-to-face with Katsuki. They continued to hold hands.
“I know”, Deku smiled, but it fell from his lips quickly. “I don’t mean to pressure you or anything”, he admitted. “I just… I don’t want to lose you”.
Katsuki nodded.
“You’re not losing me when I go to the bathroom. And before you complain I killed the mood, I’m gonna say that I don’t want to lose you either”.
Deku snorted a little laugh through his nose.
“Sorry for worrying too much”, he said.
“I get where you’re coming from”, Katsuki reassured him. “I worry about you too, nerd”.
Deku sighed.
“How are we going to have a hero career like this?”
Katsuki frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Deku shrugged.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to work properly without you by my side. I’ll just worry about you 24/7”.
Katsuki scowled at him, self-deprecating.
“What great trust you have in my self-defense abilities”.
Deku closed his eyes and shook his head. He leaned forwards and placed a kiss on the tip of Katsuki’s nose.
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about”, he said gently.
“What are you talking about, then?”, Katsuki raised an eyebrow.
“You’re great at combat, and at quirk use, and at self-defense. I don’t doubt that. And I know that, when you face an enemy, you’re hellbent to win. And you always win. But, sometimes… like at training camp, and back at the museum. Sometimes, you get hurt when you win. And I don’t think I can go back to sitting at hospital wait rooms waiting for permission to see you’re still alive. It eats me inside”.
Katsuki continued to watch him. When Deku stopped talking, he let go of his hand and cupped his face in his hand gently instead.
“If you’re asking me to lose”, he said, “I have to let you know I can’t do that”.
Deku sighed.
“I’m not asking you to lose”.
“What are you asking me, then?”, Katsuki insisted.
Deku gazed at him with sincere eyes.
“Be with me”, he said.
“I am with you”, Katsuki responded.
“No. Be with me, forever. Be my boyfriend”.
Katsuki stared blankly at Deku.
His face started to scrunch up in an angry scowl.
“Son of a bitch”, Katsuki barked.
His reaction, as expected, hit Deku with a wave of surprise.
“W-What?”, he asked, confused by the angry reaction.
“Why did you have to go and ask me before I asked you?”, Katsuki demanded, furious. He removed his hand from Deku’s face and the boy sat up on the bed, frowning.
“What? You were going to ask me?”, he asked, startled.
“Of fucking course, idiot”, Katsuki said, angry. “I had a whole first date planned out to ask you, but now you fucking ruined it!”
Deku smiled and giggled at Katsuki, but noticing how genuinely angry he seemed to be, he backed off.
“We can still have a first date, Kacchan”, Deku offered, smiling compassionately. “We can even pretend I didn’t ask you to be my boyfriend. Ok?”
“What’s the use of pretending, Deku, you bastard?”, Katsuki scoffed. “We both know who asked first. We’ll both know that for the rest of our lives!”
“So you’re saying yes?”, Deku asked hopefully. Katsuki glared at him.
“What?”
“You want to be with me for the rest of our lives?”, Deku asked. There was sincerity and fear in his tone.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and pulled Deku closer to himself, a bit too aggressively. Deku collapsed on his side and Katsuki cuddled him from the behind, trying his best to keep his groin-area as far away as possible from Deku’s backside in case his lower half started acting up again.
“Of course I want to be with you, idiot”, Katsuki said. “Didn’t I say it already? How many times do I have to repeat myself?”
Deku laughed nervously; Katsuki felt it more than heard it, from the way his hand was splayed against Deku’s chest.
“In my defense, I did ask you about it right now and your answer was to call me a son of a bitch”, Deku pointed out. Katsuki rolled his eyes again, even if Deku couldn’t see it.
“Because I wanted to have asked you first. But you went and got ahead of me”.
Deku twisted his head back a bit so that he could look at Katsuki’s face.
“Not everything has to be a competition between us, you know”.
“It’s not a fucking competition”, Katsuki complied. “But I still wanted to be ahead of you”, he admitted, grumpy.
“Kacchan”, Deku giggled. “There’s no ‘ahead’ in a relationship. If we’re going to do this, we have to do it together”.
Katsuki sighed. He pulled Deku closer to himself and buried his nose on his shoulder.
“Shut up and let’s go back to sleep”, he said. The meds he had taken were starting to make him sleepy again. “Then we can have our first date, and then you can call yourself my boyfriend”.
Izuku giggled again, but Katsuki felt him nodding at him.
“All right, Kacchan”, he agreed. “Whatever you say”.
“Damn right”.
When Katsuki woke up, Deku was gone. There was a little folded paper sitting on the top of Katsuki’s laptop, so when he got up from his recovery morning nap, he found it and opened it.
Went training with All Might. Want to have lunch together? Text me when you wake up ^_^
Love,
Izuku
Katsuki rolled his eyes and set the note down. He grabbed his phone.
From: Kacchan
Yes to lunch. Text me when you’re done with All Might.
He then opened his chat with Kirishima.
From: Best Friend
So, we kind of have a problem
From: Shitty Hair
Uh oh
From: Shitty Hair
Did Midoriya find out about your top-secret plan of asking him to become his boyfriend?
From: Best Friend
…
From: Best Friend
Now how the fuck did you know about that?
From: Shitty Hair
Lucky guess
From: Best Friend
As fucking if
From: Best Friend
Tell me the truth
From: Shitty Hair
Fine. In my defense, it was Midoriya’s fault
From: Shitty Hair
He spilled the secret to his friends, which also happened to be my friends, since I am friends with everyone
From: Shitty Hair
And now everyone kind of knows
From: Shitty Hair
I haven’t told him anything about him, though
From: Shitty Hair
Despite his insistence
From: Shitty Hair
So at least part of this is still a surprise
From: Shitty Hair
But I kind of want to know how he learned about it
From: Shitty Hair
I didn’t think you would have told him or anything, so I’m really curious
From: Best Friend
The fucker had the audacity to ask me to be his boyfriend before I asked him
From: Best Friend
I couldn’t exactly say no to his face just because I wanted to be the first one to ask
From: Best Friend
So I told him about the plan
From: Best Friend
But I didn’t tell him about the whole thing either. He just knows it’s gonna happen
From: Shitty Hair
Oh, good
From: Shitty Hair
Then it’s still up, right?
From: Shitty Hair
Because I gave your mom my number and she’s been texting me pictures of different tables all morning
From: Shitty Hair
I told her she should get whichever one she liked best but. She continued to text them to me
From: Shitty Hair
I also told her I could go over and pick it up with her, but she insisted on bringing it here herself
From: Shitty Hair
She’s pretty invested in all this
From: Best Friend
She’s an idiot.
From: Shitty Hair
Well, she’s not the only one who’s excited about this
From: Shitty Hair
Now that everyone knows about the big date, they’re excited to see how it goes
From: Shitty Hair
It’s become this sort of big Class 1-A event everyone wants to be a part of
From: Shitty Hair
Well, nearly 3-A
From: Shitty Hair
But I still like to call us 1-A. Who’s gonna stop me?
From: Best Friend
Fuck off. This is no event
From: Best Friend
This is between me and Deku
From: Best Friend
If anyone tries to pull paparazzi on us I’m blowing their asses off
From: Best Friend
Bye
From: Shitty Hair
Message duly noted
From: Bakugou
I need a favor
From: Ears
No need to tell me. Let me guess
From: Ears
You need me to make a playlist for you and Midoriya’s not-so-secret first date
From: Bakugou
Fuck you.
From: Bakugou
But yeah.
From: Ears
Say no more
From: Ears
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Rv2OnP5ug9SEe9s7pKkbd?si=FJekmbGGSeSDivRKW32xqA
From: Bakugou
How the FUCK did you have that ready?
From: Ears
My bonus quirk is being the god of playlists. I thought we’d talked about this
From: Bakugou
Fuck’s sake.
From: Ears
Is this “thank you” in Bakugou language?
From: Bakugou
Yeah
From: Ears
You’re welcome
Seen
From: Bakugou
Now wait a fucking second
From: Bakugou
Why is there only one song on this playlist and why is it George Michael’s Careless Whisper?
From: Bakugou
Are you shitting me
From: Ears
To be fair, yes
From: Ears
But I was hoping you’d only open the playlist on the date
From: Ears
Having you open it beforehand kind of ruined my joke
From: Bakugou
Your joke sucks and you’re useless
From: Bakugou
Bye
From: Ears
Aaahh come on don’t be upset
From: Ears
Do you want me to make you a proper playlist? Because I can totally do that. I can even add Spiritbox since you liked it so much
From: Ears
I can add the three parts of The Mara Effect
From: Ears
And every other song they’ve ever recorded
From: Ears
How about that?
From: Bakugou
Forget about it, the playlist idea is cheesy anyway
From: Bakugou
Bye
From: Brat
Since you’re so insistent on being involved in this, I need you to bring something else. Call me when you can.
From: Best Friend
Forgot to tell you one thing
From: Best Friend
Let me know when you have the table ready. I don’t think there’ll be anyone at Ground Beta today, so I want to settle things up already. Don’t wanna risk anything going wrong
From: Best Friend
Also since my mom’s coming over to bring the damn table and some other stuff I’ll ask her; I need you to do me another favor
From: Best Friend
This date isn’t going to suck ass just because Deku found out about it
From: Best Friend
So I’m going even more plus ultra, since you bastards want to be involved so much
From: Best Friend
Hear me out
Best Friend is typing…
Best Friend is typing…
Best Friend is typing…
“So, when’s our first date?”, Izuku asked curiously.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and took a bite of his food before he replied.
“You’ll know when you have to know”, he said simply, not looking at Izuku.
Izuku pouted.
“Don’t be mean”, he reprimanded, half-hearted.
Katsuki huffed through his nose.
“How is planning out a fucking awesome first date being mean?”, he inquired.
Izuku took a bite of his own food before replying.
“I’m really curious”, he admitted. “I mean, I didn’t have… When I asked you to be my boyfriend, I didn’t have any big plans in mind. I just wanted to let you know how I felt. But now, seeing the effort you’re putting into this… I feel kind of bad”.
Katsuki frowned. “Bad” was the opposite of the reaction he’d been aiming for.
“Why?”, he questioned, concerned.
Izuku shrugged.
“I didn’t plan anything big, like you did. I just said what was in my mind”.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“So much for saying this wasn’t a competition”.
Izuku tapped his leg with his foot beneath the table, in what was meant to be a light reprimanding kick.
“It isn’t a competition. I just wish I had planned something nice for you, too”.
“You don’t have to plan shit”, Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I got it all ready”.
That seemed to upset Izuku further.
“See! That’s what I’m talking about”, he pouted, playing with his food instead of eating.
“Shut up and eat your damn food”, Katsuki reprimanded. “If you want to plan something so badly, save your plans for my birthday. The last one sucked ass, so I’m hoping next year’s will be better”.
A melancholic expression took over Izuku’s face.
“I…”, he hesitated. “I’m sorry”.
Katsuki raised a silent eyebrow at him, continuing to eat. Izuku bit his lower lip.
“I mean, I’m not sorry for being upset at you for calling me the Q-word. But, given everything that happened and all our arguments since… I’m sorry I gave you such a terrible birthday”.
Katsuki sighed.
“Water under the bridge”, Katsuki said simply. “We both fucked up on that day”.
Izuku gave him a tiny smile that seemed sadder than anything.
“Yeah, I guess”, he said, pensively.
With one final bite, Katsuki finished his lunch, whereas Deku had only eaten half of his own. He glared at the boy’s bowl, and then at his melancholic face.
“Stop looking so sad”, he reprimanded, dropping his hashi and crossing his arms above his chest. “What do I have to do to wipe that look from your face?”
Izuku smiled a bit more sincerely this time, but he didn’t meet Katsuki’s eyes. He continued to play with his food.
“Just being with you is enough”, he said softly.
Katsuki rolled his eyes again, sighing.
“Cheesy as fuck”.
“Hey”, Izuku narrowed his eyes at Katsuki, half-offended.
“Don’t try to deny it”, Katsuki said. “You’re one cheesy little fucker”.
“And you still want to date me”, Izuku accused.
“Yeah. I must be crazy or some shit”.
“Crazy about me, that’s more like it”.
“You bet”.
“I do”.
Katsuki smiled a crooked smirk at Izuku.
“Eat faster. I don’t want to stay here much longer”.
Izuku frowned.
“Why not?”
“The last thing I want is to risk running into my shitty nosy friends. Or worse, your shitty nosy friends. They’re about to arrive to have lunch any minute now, and I’d rather be left in peace”.
Izuku nodded. He stopped playing with his food and started to eat again.
“Wha’ are you goin’ to do today?”, he asked as he chewed. Katsuki thought for a while.
“Studying”, he lied. “I’m a little behind on the lessons. By the way, do you have those notes you said you were going to lend me?”
“I do”, Izuku nodded, eating. “I can give them to you later”.
“Good”, Katsuki nodded back. “I can’t wait to go back to classes, though”.
“I miss you”, Izuku admitted. “It feels wrong, to be at class and have no one sit in front of me”.
“Yeah”, Katsuki huffed. “At least when you were a ghost you could still go to classes with me, even if you couldn’t take any notes. Why do I keep pulling the shortest straw in this shitty game?”
“You’ll be back soon enough”, Izuku smiled at him encouragingly. “Meanwhile, I can keep taking notes for you. I can even study with you, if you’re up for it”.
“You? Teaching me?”, Katsuki gave Izuku a teasing look. “As if”.
Izuku rolled his eyes.
“It wouldn’t be a big deal, you know”.
“I know”.
“Then why are you being difficult?”
“Because I like to see your face when I tease you”, Katsuki smirked. “It’s cute”.
Izuku blushed, lowering his head.
“K-Kacchan…”, he said, embarrassed.
Katsuki snorted out a humorous laugh.
“We can study together later”, he said. “But not today”.
Izuku narrowed his eyes at him.
“Why not?”
“Rack your brains”.
Izuku’s eyes shone.
“Is the date today?”, he asked, full of hope.
“I don’t know. Is it?”, Katsuki teased.
“Kacchan”, Izuku said pointedly.
“I’m not telling you shit. Figure it out yourself, since you’re Smart-san”.
Izuku sighed.
“You’re so mean to me”.
“I’ve been meaner”.
Izuku rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I suppose”.
“Oi”.
“What? You said it first”.
“Fuck you”.
“You wish”.
Katsuki’s brain halted.
“What?”
“W-What?”, Izuku asked nervously, his face becoming as red as a tomato. It was obvious he hadn’t meant to say what he had just said. Katsuki figured he must be blushing too, because his face felt really hot out of a sudden.
“The hell did you just say?”, Katsuki asked, startled and surprised – enough so that he couldn’t quite keep the words from his mouth. He hadn’t expected Deku to be that bold, so that meant he must have heard him wrong. Right? There was no way Deku had just said that he wanted to fuck him, right?
R-Right?
“IjustrememberedIhavesomethingtodosoIgottagoseeyoulaterbye”, Izuku said fast, getting up from his seat and half-jogging to the exit of the cafeteria. It was only after he disappeared through the door that Katsuki realized the boy had left his half-eaten lunch behind.
“What a fucking idiot”, Katsuki mumbled to himself. He sat there, on his own, for a few more moments.
Only now that Deku was gone did he realize there were several other people at the cafeteria, spread through different tables. Now that Katsuki had no one to talk to, the low humming of their conversations started to seep into his perception. Katsuki hadn’t noticed their presence, not while he was with Deku. When he was with Deku, it seemed like the whole world halted, and only the two of them were the protagonists of their own stories. No one else mattered. Nothing else mattered. They were always the only people in the room for Katsuki’s heart. It had always been like this, even if before Katsuki’s sentiment had been negative.
He tried not to put much thought into what Deku had just said to him, but it was hard not to. Katsuki vaguely wondered if Deku had fantasized about him, too; if he felt as aroused by Katsuki as Katsuki seemed to feel by him. Did he touch himself? And if he did, did he think about Katsuki? How often? Was it good?
Katsuki didn’t know how it felt, since he had always feared trying and maiming himself on accident, but Deku didn’t have a potentially explosive hand. He could touch himself whenever he wanted, as many times as he wanted.
Fuck. Ok. He was in the middle of the damn cafeteria. He shouldn’t be thinking about Deku touching himself, not there. The mortification he’d feel at his school mates seeing him with a boner in the middle of lunch would be hard to live down.
With a tired sigh, he got up from his seat. His injury didn’t protest much at the movement, which was a good sign. Recovery was slow, but it was happening, and Katsuki couldn’t wait to go back to his normal training routine and his daily life. He couldn’t wait to get rid of that stupid cane.
He grabbed it and used it to support part of his weight, just to prevent putting too much strain on his healing injury. With one hand, he grabbed his and Deku’s trays and discarded them at the appropriate place, before going back to his bedroom at the dorm as quickly as his injury and his cane allowed him to.
When Katsuki arrived at his bedroom, he discarded the cane and sat down on the edge of his bed. He wouldn’t be staying there for too long.
From: Best Friend
Everything ready on your end?
From: Shitty Hair
You got it, bro
From: Best Friend
Good. I’ll start preparations
From: Shitty Hair
I’ll text you about our progress. Everyone’s ready
Katsuki put his phone down and took a deep breath. Then, leaving his cane behind, he got out of his bedroom and headed down to the dorm’s kitchen.
Izuku exited his bathroom with a flushed face and trembling legs. He still couldn’t believe he had committed that Freudian Slip with Kacchan, of all people. The memory was mortifying and embarrassing. He grabbed his phone and checked to see if there were any new messages, but there were none. Which he found kind of weird.
He had been almost sure that Kacchan would have texted him with some sort of profanity, demanding to know what had happened for him to leave the cafeteria in such a rush. Ever since Kacchan had been cleared out of Recovery Girl’s medbay, they always walked back to the dorm together, so Izuku’s quick departure must have weirded Kacchan out.
Still, he tried not to think too much about Kacchan’s silence. Maybe Izuku had embarrassed him into quietude, which was definitely a first. The thought of Kacchan blushing and shying at the mention of sex was endearing to Izuku…
He was really looking forward to their date, though. He still felt a bit guilty for having told Kacchan he wanted them to be together in the way he did. He should have thought about a plan to make a big gesture out of it, like Kacchan was doing. Instead, he decided to declare himself as they laid in bed doing nothing. Izuku should have known better than that.
But in a way, he felt so happy inside. Because Kacchan – his Kacchan, the boy who Izuku had admired his whole life despite everything, the boy who he had loved for so long –, was going through the effort of doing a big meaningful gesture for him. They had gone through so much; they had overcome so many difficulties – in their own relationship and in life in general – that going on an actual date with Kacchan sounded like words coming out of a dream. He had to be dreaming, right? There was no way this was really happening.
And above all, he had no idea what to do or how to behave. He had never been in a date before. He had seen it in movies, but movies weren’t a proper comparison standard for him, were them? This was about Izuku and Kacchan. This was about them, together, on a date. So, should he just act normally, like he always did? Should they tease and provoke each other? Or should they be serious, and cheesy, and romantic? God, Izuku had no idea.
Maybe he should ask his mom about it. She knew more about this romance thing than he did. He could ask one of his friends, but he wasn’t so sure if any of them had gone on a date before. Would they know about dating protocol more than his mom? Uraraka and Iida seemed more focused on school than on romance, and as far as Izuku knew, Todoroki hadn’t never had the chance to have proper friends, let alone girlfriends or boyfriends. So yeah, his mom was a better option.
He knew he could trust her. That was why he told her about the kiss. Of course he’d been afraid of her reaction, which was why he decided to be a bit of a coward and tell her over the phone. But when she started showering him with praises and excited remarks about his happiness, Izuku decided that maybe he could be more honest with her than he had first thought. Maybe… Maybe she deserved to know all the secrets in his life.
But he couldn’t tell her about One For All without endangering her, right? Because that was the fate of everyone who knew about the quirk. They became possible targets. Telling Kacchan had already been a risk, even if Izuku trusted him with his life… And he now knew that Kacchan trusted him with his life, too.
They were bound together, even before the villain’s quirk hit Izuku – they were bound together from their childhood, and from Izuku’s secret, and from Izuku’s quirk. It was now not only his but Kacchan’s too, just as much as Kacchan’s quirk was his as well. Not to mention the fact that they could still feel what each other felt, now that Izuku’s soul, quirk and memories were back with him 100%. They had created a bond between them that could not be severed, a bond of friendship, of partnership, of love, and of death. Even if they fell apart, they would still be connected for the rest of their lives.
That knowledge was reassuring, in a way. It made Izuku’s chest warm.
He was pulled away from his thoughts by his phone vibrating in his hand, and only then did Izuku realize he had spent a long time staring at nothing, letting his mind wander. Blinking as he stepped away from his haze, he stared at the phone.
From: Uraraka Ochako
Hi, Deku-kun! What are you doing?
From: Deku-kun
Nothing at the moment, Uraraka-san. Why?
Uraraka Ochako is typing…
Uraraka Ochako is typing…
Uraraka Ochako is typing…
From: Uraraka Ochako
Can you meet me and Iida-kun at the common room?
Izuku thought for a moment. He was still trembling a bit from his visit to the bathroom, but he no longer had a boner and his high was over now. He had meant to take his study notes to Kacchan, but he wasn’t so sure he could look him in the eye just yet. Maybe he should step away for a while, let him forget about the embarrassing lunch conversation. He wasn’t even sure when their date would happen… Kacchan had hinted him it might happen today, but maybe he had been misleading Izuku.
From: Deku-kun
Sure, I’ll be right down
Izuku put his phone into his pocket and went to meet his friends.
“I’m telling you, the answer is 24”.
“I’m pretty sure it’s not, dude. It’s 22”.
“You’re both wrong. I got 32”.
“32? Get outta here! You’re clearly in the wrong, Mina”.
“No, I’m not! You can ask Yaoyorozu!”
“I don’t think this is the most appropriate time to say the answer I got was 79?”
“79?!”, Mina burst into laughter. “Oh my god, that’s so ridiculous!”
“Oi, watch it!”, Kaminari protested.
“We should totally ask Yaoyorozu”, Mina insisted. “What do you think, Midoriya?”
Izuku hesitated, eyes darting between his friends.
“Ah, I… I’m sure her answer will be right”, he settled for saying.
“That settles it!”, Mina declared, fishing up her phone. “I’m texting her to come down here”.
“What was your answer, Midoriya?”
“Uh, I don’t… remember?”, Izuku admitted with a half-smile. “I was kind of wondering why we’re out here, though”, he admitted, looking around the garden area they were seated at.
“Fresh air, dude!”, Kaminari explained, passing one arm around Izuku’s shoulders and pulling him into a half hug. He shook Izuku before letting go of him.
Izuku lowered his head for one moment before raising it again. He was sitting with Kaminari, Sero, Mina, Uraraka, Iida, and Tsuyu. They had gone through the effort of strolling around UA’s campus as they chatted, and Izuku thought they were just hanging out and being buddies. But now, as they reached the third hour of staying out the dorms without actually leaving the school, Izuku started to grow suspicious.
Whenever his friends wanted to hang out, they did so at the dorms’ common room. Why had they chosen this grassy ambient this time? They were almost reaching winter, and the air was starting to become chilly.
“Is this about Kacchan’s secret date?”, he eventually failed to contain himself and asked Kaminari, who immediately looked like he had been slapped in the face.
Mina overheard them, and before Kaminari could say whatever he was about to dumbfoundedly say, she jumped at him with two hands on his shoulders and smiled widely at Izuku.
“Now, now, Midoriya-chan, wherever did you hear about that?”, she asked with a nervous smile that was trying to be confident. Knowing that she was nervous was enough to confirm Izuku’s suspicions.
“He told me about it already”, Izuku pointed out. Now, all the friends in the group had stopped talking and focused their attention on him. “I mean, he said he was taking me out on our first date. He didn’t say when or where it would happen, but now I have a guess”.
Mina’s eyes shone brightly at this.
“So you don’t know, huh?”, she asked with a smile.
Izuku frowned.
“Uh, I think it’s today, since you kept me from the dorms for hours”, he said.
“Oi, oi, oi!”, Kaminari protested. “We were just hanging out with you as a friend. Don’t shrug our companionship off like that!”
“Ok, little Sherlock Holmes”, Mina said. “Even if you know it will happen and when it’s going to happen, that doesn’t mean there’s no surprise left! It only means it’s up to us to keep what’s left of the secrecy of Bakugou’s plan!”
Izuku smiled awkwardly at her. He could tell her intentions were noble, even if he was a little jealous that she knew the whole plan and he didn’t.
“Ok…?”, he shrugged.
“Operation First Date can finally start, then!”, Mina announced, getting to her feet and adjusting her askew clothes. “You stay here. Uraraka and I will be right back!”
“Wait, what?”, Izuku frowned, but it was too late. Mina grabbed Uraraka’s hand and the girls started to run away, Izuku couldn’t tell where to. He tried to follow them with his gaze, but Kaminari was quick to wrap his arm around Izuku’s neck and pull his face back to Sero, Tsuyu and Iida’s little circle on the grass.
“Midoriya, my man, I have to say”, Kaminari started. “I’m so relieved you and Bakugou decided to go public about all this. If I had to keep that kiss a secret for any longer…”
“Kiss? What kiss?”, Sero asked with interest. Izuku felt heat rise up to his face.
“Ok, so listen to this”, Kaminari started, letting go of Izuku’s neck and pointing both his hands at Sero. He seemed excited, but then he looked pensive. He turned to Izuku again. “Uh, it’s ok if I share this, right? Now that everyone knows you and Blasty are an item?”
Izuku shrunk a little on himself. It was true that he had a lot of good friends now, but he had grown up friendless. He wasn’t used to talking about such intimate things, and his relationship with Kacchan was definitely intimate. Well, for starters, he wasn’t used to having a relationship, period. He didn’t really know how to act about all this, and while he wasn’t ashamed, he wasn’t completely in his comfort zone, either.
“I don’t know…”, he said hesitantly, his face as red as a tomato. Kaminari, clueless about Izuku’s discomfort, gave him his own version of puppy eyes, which only made Izuku feel even more out of his depth. “O-Ok, I guess…”, he mumbled, gazing down and not meeting anyone’s eyes.
Kaminari beamed up at this, even more excited now.
“Ok, so hear me out ‘cause this is good!”, he began, electric with anticipation. “There we were, right, me, Aizawa sensei, Uraraka, and the paramedics. We were dodging holes in the ground and climbing our way up the wreckage, and we needed to be super careful, you know, in case we ended up dislodging anything and causing the whole structure to collapse even further. Aizawa sensei and the paramedics were in the front, Uraraka and I were in the back. By the time we finished climbing we reached some solid structure we could walk on. But still, it was like, walking on eggshells or something, we still needed to be super careful because if we did dislodge something, we’d end up falling and getting trapped and that wouldn’t really help anyone. So we keep walking slowly even though time was sensitive and I end up seeing the hole where Bakugou and Midoriya were trapped. So I call everyone, right, but since I’m the closest I go ahead and climb down the hole, and when I get there – dude. Dude. When I get there, I see, with my own two eyes, Bakugou French kissing the hell out of Midoriya. Dude! I’m not joking! I’m not joking!”
“We know, kero”, Tsuyu said, her index finger resting on her chin. She seemed interested in the story.
“I mean, can you imagine? Ok, ok, I know everyone knows they’re together now, but dude? Imagine being the first person to see it? Imagine you’re friends with the two of them, and you know, right, you know they haven’t spoken to each other in what, half a year? And then you walk into a rescue mission after you nearly die on a terrorist attack and then you see this? Knowingly-rivals Midoriya and Bakugou, the two dudes who hated each other and kept fighting all the time, and they’re kissing??? What the hell was I supposed to think??? And ok, I didn’t even have the time to think about anything because Bakugou was literally impaled, so we had to help with the evacuation and then all that traumatizing stuff happened, but later, after everything, when I stopped to finally think about everything that had happened, I realized that? I saw two of my friends kissing? And like, the moment seemed to be super intimate and special to them, so I obviously couldn’t tell anyone. And then Midoriya comes up to me and asks me to keep it a secret. And sure, I might be stupid but I’m not evil, so I keep it to myself. Imagine! Imagine this, you know Bakugou, he’s your friend, and knowing Bakugou and being his friend, you know he’s not the type to go around French kissing people even though he’s super gorgeous, but then you go and you see him French kissing someone with your own two eyes, and it’s not just anyone, it’s his former-childhood-friend former-rival! Do you know how crazy that was?”
“I would say it’s indeed surprising”, Iida provided seriously, arms crossed above his chest. “But Midoriya-kun doesn’t seem too comfortable with the story”.
Izuku’s eyes widened in embarrassment and he shrunk harder on himself, blushing even more intensely. He hugged himself and buried his face in his arms, looking away, embarrassed.
“I-It’s ok, guys”, he said. “I… I don’t really… mind…”
“Oh, come on!”, Kaminari said, tapping his back. “You don’t need to be so embarrassed. Oh, look, the girls are back!”
“Don’t let him look, don’t let him look!”, Izuku heard Mina’s voice saying from the distance, and just as he was about to turn his head and look at them, Kaminari shoved his hand in front of his eyes.
“Huh?!”, Izuku said in surprise, hearing Mina’s and Uraraka’s footsteps approaching. Kaminari pressed his hand harder against his face, so Izuku just sat there without a clue of what was happening.
“Iida, you have a mission”, Mina announced, now closer to them. “Since you’re the class representative and you’re the most responsible of us all, I bestow you with the solemn duty of taking Midoriya to the man’s common bathroom and helping him change into these clothes”.
Izuku shifted his head in the hope of sneaking a peek on the clothes he was meant to wear, but Kaminari’s hand was relentless. What clothes were they? Where had the two girls even taken them from?
“Deku-kun, close your eyes”, Uraraka said softly from behind Izuku, which surprised him. He hadn’t seen her approach, and he hadn’t expected her to be so close.
“Huh? Why?”, he asked, confused.
“Just do it”, Uraraka instructed, and there was something off about her voice. It sounded more serious than usual, but also gentler.
“Ok”, Izuku said, doing as he was told.
He felt Kaminari remove his hand from his face and resisted the urge of opening his eyes and taking a peek at the girls. Instead, he kept his eyes closed and felt something – some sort of fabric – being placed in front of his eyes. Uraraka was tying a makeshift blindfold behind his head, holding it securely into place in front of his eyes.
He opened them, and saw nothing.
“There”, Uraraka said triumphantly. “He’s all set!”
“Uraraka-san! What is the need behind this?”, Iida questioned, voicing one of Izuku’s own concerns.
“Bakugou wants to keep at least one surprise, since Izuku learned about the date when he shouldn’t know anything about it”, Mina explained. “He asked me to take care of it, so that’s what I’m doing!”
“Why do my own clothes have to be a secret?”, Izuku asked.
“Shhh, don’t argue with my plan!”, Mina said, poking his shoulder. “Now you go with Iida and change into these”, she handed the clothes to Izuku. “And don’t take a peek or else you’ll answer to me!”, she added in a warning tone.
“Let’s go, Midoriya-kun”, Iida said, touching Izuku’s elbow. “I’ll guide you!”
“Wait, we’re coming too!”, Sero shouted after them as they began walking.
Soon, Izuku felt two presences beside him, and someone – he assumed it was Kaminari – intertwined one of his arms with Izuku’s own. Iida continued to nudge his elbow as if to direct him to the right path, and Izuku had to say – the makeshift blindfold Uraraka had put on him was working. He couldn’t see anything, and if it wasn’t for his friends, he’d be completely lost.
“Ah, man, I’m so excited about all this”, Kaminari cheered, nudging Izuku’s arm.
“You seem more excited than Midoriya”, Sero commented.
For some reason, that bothered Izuku. He frowned, but his friends couldn’t see it from beneath the cloth covering his eyes.
“What do you mean? I’m excited”, he protested.
There was a pause.
“Uh, sorry man”, Sero said. “It’s just, you seem pretty nervous”.
“Yeah”, Kaminari agreed. “You’re shaking like a leaf”.
Izuku felt cornered.
“Iida-kun?”, he asked for support.
“I have to say that you do seem to be trembling, Midoriya-kun”, Iida provided with sincerity.
Izuku worried at his lower lip.
“It’s just…”, he started saying as they walked, relying completely on his friends’ guidance. Like this, blindfolded and depending on his trust on them, it felt easier to admit to his fears. It wasn’t so hard to be honest when he couldn’t look them in the eyes and see their reactions. “I never went on a date before”, he admitted, embarrassed.
There was silence.
“Me neither”, Iida admitted solemnly.
“Same”, Sero said easily.
“Ditto”, Kaminari provided, sounding the most embarrassed of the four.
Izuku swallowed dry.
“I – I just… I don’t know how to act. Or what to do. I’m… I’m worried I might screw things up”.
“Dude, don’t think like that”, Kaminari provided. “You’ll ace it, just trust me”.
“Yeah, Midoriya”, Sero backed him up. “Dating isn’t a school subject. You can’t take notes and ask questions and have all the right answers memorized so you don’t screw up. I know you’re used to having your notebooks around, but that’s just not how it works. All you gotta do is act as you normally would around Bakugou”.
“I agree”, Iida said. “Not that I have any experience on the matter, but Sero-kun’s suggestion seems to be very reasonable”.
“Yes, I know, and I mean no offense with what I’m about to say, but you guys just admitted you never went on a date before”, Izuku said. “So… How do you know this will work?”
There was a pause.
“Look, man”, Sero said. “I don’t know how dates are supposed to work, but I know Bakugou and I know you”.
“Yes”, Izuku nodded, defensive, “And if you know us, you also know we fight all the time”, he pointed out.
“Ah, come on… Not all the time”, Kaminari tried to say. “I mean, it happens a lot. But it’s not all the time”.
“Dude, we know Bakugou”, Sero pointed out. “And we know for a fact that he’s never dated anyone, either. If he’s willing to date you, I’m pretty sure he’ll go out of his way to make sure you have a perfect time together”.
“Yeah, dude”, Kaminari agreed. “I mean, you know him longer than we do. You know that he doesn’t half-ass anything. I’m sure he’s planning the perfect date right now, so just chillax and everything will be fine”.
“That’s the problem”, Izuku pointed out, desperate to be understood. “He’s always aiming for the top. He’s always perfect at everything. What about me? What if I screw up, what if I say the wrong thing and end up getting in an argument with him? What if I ruing the perfect date he planned?”
“Oops, hold on, there’s a step ahead of you”, Kaminari warned. Izuku lifted his foot blindly, searching for the step, and then he continued walking, guided by his friends. “There we are. We’re at the bathroom”.
“I’ll comment on your self-deprecative remarks in a moment”, Sero promised. “But first, you have to strip”.
“W-What?”, Izuku asked nervously, feeling heat rise to his face.
“Come on”, Kaminari said. “We’ve all seen each other naked before. And it’s not like you’re going full nude, you’ll still keep your underwear”.
“S-Still”, Izuku stuttered. “It feels weird to get naked while I can’t see anything and you guys can”.
“Take your shoes off”, Sero instructed. Izuku lowered himself hesitantly, until he was touching his shoestrings. He undid them and kicked the shoes off, feeling the cold floor of the common bathroom seep into his socked feet. “Good, now your shorts”.
Izuku hesitated.
“S-Sero-kun…”
“I can guarantee your modesty will be preserved, Midoriya-kun!”, Iida provided.
“Ok, fine, jeez, no one’s looking at you”, Sero promised. “We all have our backs turned. Go on”.
Izuku continued to hesitate, but he lowered the zipper of his shorts with shaking hands and let them fall to his ankles, then, he kicked them off.
“O-Ok”, Izuku announced.
Something was pushed into his hands, and he held the fabric, trying to recognize what piece of clothing it was just by touch.
“These are your new pants. Put them on”, Sero said.
Izuku swallowed dry and tried to feel for the leg holes of the pants. He also felt for the zipper so that he could tell which side was the front. With only a bit of stumbling, he put the pants on, closing them and buttoning them up.
“All right”, he announced.
“Good. Now shirt”, Kaminari instructed. Izuku felt a bit more comfortable about taking his shirt off than about taking his shorts off, so he easily removed the clothing and let it drop to the floor. “Here”, Kaminari handed him his new shirt right away. “Put it on”.
Izuku did as he was told. He could feel it was a dress shirt with buttons, so he started to button it up on his own, even though he was blind. Kaminari – the person closest to him – clicked his tongue and batted Izuku’s hands away from the buttons with dismissal.
“Here, let me”, Kaminari said, starting to fasten the buttons himself. Izuku supposed that would have a better outcome, since Kaminari could see whereas he could not.
“I’ll put your tie on”, Sero said from behind Izuku, passing something – which he assumed was the tie – around Izuku’s neck and starting to fiddle with it.
“I don’t have any task”, Iida pointed out, wanting to be useful.
“You can watch the door and make sure no one comes in”, Kaminari said.
“Uh, why, though?”, Sero pointed out. “What happens if someone comes in?”
Kaminari stopped buttoning Izuku’s shirt up, pensive.
“You’re right”, Kaminari said, going back to the buttons. “Uh, I don’t know then. You can scold Midoriya for thinking he’s going to screw up his date”.
“That’s a nice task”, Iida recognized. Then, straight to business: “Midoriya-kun. You shouldn’t think so low of yourself”, he scolded.
“Iida-kun…”, Izuku said, but it was half-hearted.
“Though I agree that you and Bakugou-kun go toe to toe very often, I must also recognize that you know each other very well. Well enough to know each other’s preferences and each other’s pet peeves”.
Izuku worried at his lower lip.
“Just do your best to not rile Bakugou-kun up, and there’s no way the date can go south”.
Izuku let out a shaky breath.
“O… k?”
“Look, dude, we get that you’re nervous”, Sero said in addition, finishing to tie Izuku’s tie up. “But like Iida said, you’ve known Bakugou since you were kids. You know what annoys him, and you know your way around him. I know you do. If he’s going through the trouble of planning this date, it’s because he really likes you. As long as you like him back, everything will be fine. So just do your best and be yourself. That’s enough”.
“Yeah. Being yourself is enough”, Kaminari mirrored. He finished buttoning Izuku’s shirt up and tapped his shoulder to indicate he was done. “There. You’re looking like a hundred bucks”.
Izuku continued to bite at his lower lip. He was grateful for his friends’ advice, but he still couldn’t help but to feel nervous.
The worst part was that he knew there was no reason to feel this way. This was Kacchan. Like they had said, Izuku had known him all his life. He would even dare to say that he knew Kacchan better than anyone. Now that he had his memories back from his time as a ghost, he would also dare to say that he knew exactly how to act around him.
And yet, fear gnawed at his stomach. Fear that he would say the wrong thing with the nicest of intentions, and start yet another meaningless fight. Fear that he would offend Kacchan after he went through all the trouble of making such a special date for them. Fear that he would ruin things to the point of setting their relationship back to its beginning stage, back to when they were rivals and nothing else, nothing more.
If Izuku had to be honest, he was afraid of losing Kacchan again. It always seemed to be like this, between the two of them: they’d take one step forward, two steps back. This date was the step forward. Which meant the two steps back were approaching in the horizon.
But did it have to be like this? Hadn’t they broken the cycle of shame? Hadn’t they grown, after what happened at the museum, and after all of Izuku’s visits back at Recovery Girl’s medical bay? After all the nearly-scripted conversations they had shared, after everything Izuku said, after they kissed and kissed and kissed again? After they slept side by side, cuddling each other? After he was allowed to see a side of Kacchan that no one else in the world had seen before? After Kacchan admitted that he loved him?
Izuku felt blessed. He was blessed. And maybe he should have a more optimistic approach to all this. He was basing his fear on previous experiences without taking it into consideration that he hadn’t taken only one step forward with Kacchan, he had taken several. Twenty steps forward and one step back was still nineteen steps forward.
And besides that, they had made a promise to each other: that they would try to trust each other more, and be more honest with each other. By being consumed by fear, Izuku was backing down on his promise. And he was a man of his word.
He wouldn’t back down.
He stayed silent as his friends guided him out of the bathroom. His sense of direction was a bit haywire, so he couldn’t tell if they were going back to their little circle on the grass or if they were going another way entirely. He heard some familiar voices approach them as they walked, and soon enough he could recognize Mina, Uraraka and Tsuyu. Back to the circle, then.
“There he is! What a sight!”, Mina cheered.
“Y-You look sugoi, Deku-kun!”, Uraraka said, seeming nervous.
“Those are nice clothes, Midoriya-chan”, Tsuyu added.
“We did a fine work, ‘aight, fellas?”, Kaminari took pride, leaning his elbow on Izuku’s shoulder.
“You took longer than we did”, Mina pointed out.
“What? No, we didn’t!”, Kaminari protested.
“Yes, you did!”, Mina echoed.
“You already had makeup on, all you had to do was strip and dress into those fancy dresses! Try helping a guy who can’t see dress himself without looking at him because he’s too embarrassed about being naked”, Kaminari pointed out.
“I have to agree with Kaminari-kun on this”, Iida admitted.
“Uh, guys?”, Izuku asked, still unable to see anything. “What are you even arguing about?”
“You’re not the only one who gets to dress up fancy for your first date”, Kaminari said.
Izuku frowned.
“What do you mean?”, he asked.
“Dude, this is bigger than the festival. This is bigger than anything we’ve seen!”, Sero cheered excitedly.
“Ok, ok, so, we’re Bakugou’s buddies, right”, Kaminari said. “We get to make fun of him and talk shit about him. You won’t get offended, right, Midoriya?”
Izuku frowned.
“Uh, I don’t think I know what you mean”, he admitted.
“I’m talking about teasing”, Kaminari explained, making kissing noises to the air. “Provoking him for becoming a romantic guy out of nowhere, that sort of thing”.
“I already told him it’s a bad idea, Midoriya”, Mina tried to say. “But he keeps insisting on it”.
“You’re the one who said you’re going to take pictures!”, Sero defended Kaminari.
“Uh…”, Izuku mumbled. “Do you mean you guys are going to watch the date?”
Silence.
“… Guys?”, Izuku’s frown deepened. He was literally in the dark.
“I agree with Midoriya-kun”, Iida pointed out. “Are you two intending on watching their date?”
“No”, Sero lied, at the same time Kaminari blurted out: “Uh, yeah, it’s not like you can stop us”.
“Ooh, jeez”, Izuku stuttered nervously, lowering his burning face in embarrassment.
“I must speak against this behavior!”, Iida reprimanded, sounding serious. “A date is supposed to be a private, intimate moment between a couple!”
“Dude, I’m sorry, but you’re not talking us out of this”, Kaminari argued, unaffected by Iida’s scolding tone. “Sero, Mina and I went through a lot of shit, it’s only fair we get to see our friends be cheesy and romantic for a change”.
“Yeah”, Sero agreed. “Plus, we all have a role to play”.
“A role?”, Iida questioned.
“And we’re not going to reveal anything because Bakugou went out of his way to preserve what was left of the secrecy of the plan”, Sero added.
“Yeah”, Kaminari agreed. “This is some Bakusquad sensitive, exclusive material”.
Izuku blinked, even though he couldn’t see anything.
“I’m so confused”, he admitted, helpless.
On one hand, he was really all happy and giggly inside because of all the efforts Kacchan seemed to be going through to surprise him, despite the way Izuku had found out about his plans for their first date. On another, he was pretty nervous about all this. He had no idea what was in store for him, and all this secrecy added to the possibility that things would be grand enough for Izuku to ruin everything.
“As you should be, you little zygote”, Kaminari ruffled his hair in a way that was similar to when Kacchan did it. “God, you grew up so fast”.
“Can you believe how far they came”, Sero joined him, sounding dramatic. “Wow, this has been such a journey”.
“We’re all the same age”, Izuku pointed out. “How am I a zygote?”
“That sounds a lot like All Might”, Iida commented. “But as Midoriya-kun’s friend, I must insist that you do not get in the way of his first date with Bakugou-kun”.
“We’re not getting in the way, class rep”, Mina said playfully. “We’re more like. Getting in the way”.
“How does that even work?”, Izuku frowned.
“Shh”, Kaminari shushed him. “You’ll know when it’s time to know”.
“Where are we even going?”, Izuku asked, but Kaminari shushed him again.
“You’re getting no answer out of us, Midoriya”, Mina announced. “So just stand there and wait for us to guide you. Think of this as a trust exercise!”
Izuku bit his lower lip.
“Uraraka-san? Iida-kun?”
“Yes, Deku-kun?”, Uraraka appeared beside him.
“Uh, you’re not telling me what’s going on either, are you?”, he asked hopelessly.
There was a pause.
“We’re not involved in the plan”, Uraraka provided. “Bakugou-kun made sure just his closest friends knew about it. We’re just here for support”.
“S-Support?”
“Yes”, Iida provided. “Your support”.
“You must be nervous, right? Deku-kun?”, Uraraka asked.
Izuku swallowed dry. Again, it felt easier to be honest with his eyes closed. He nodded.
“I figured”, Uraraka grabbed his hand. “I just… I just want you to know I’m happy for you”, she said, and Izuku figured her voice sounded a bit sad, out of a sudden. She squeezed his hand. “I hope Bakugou-kun is good to you”.
“He is”, Izuku said without hesitation. That fact was true in his heart. “He… Does his best”.
There was a small pause.
“Then ganbatte, Deku-kun!”, Uraraka forced herself to say before letting go of his hand.
“We’re here for you, Midoriya-kun!”, Iida announced, placing one hand on his shoulder. “I know you must be nervous, but you can rest assured everything will turn out fine”.
Izuku swallowed dry again.
“I’m nervous, but I know I shouldn’t be”, he admitted. “I mean… This is Kacchan. I know him. He knows me. I just…”, he shook his head.
“None of that self-deprecative talk, eh, Midoriya?”, Sero said with a warning, and his voice sounded distant, as if he had walked away from the group. Izuku, of course, hadn’t seen this, since his eyes were still blindfolded.
“A-All right, Sero-kun”, Izuku said loudly in order to be heard from afar. “A-All right”, he repeated to himself in a lower voice.
And then, someone appeared behind Izuku’s blind form, saying in a stoic voice:
“Bakugou must really like you”.
“T-Todoroki-kun!”, Izuku recognized with a jolt of surprise. He turned on his heels so that he could face his friend, even if he couldn’t quite see him. “I – I was wondering where you were”.
“I was trying to decide whether or not I’d take part on this”, Todoroki provided easily. He didn’t sound as sad as Uraraka or as tense and stern as Iida, but there was something off about his voice, something different that Izuku couldn’t quite identify. “I ended up reaching the conclusion that you’re my friend and I’d like to help”.
Izuku smiled softly at him.
“Thanks, Todoroki-kun”, he said sincerely. “I’m – I’m glad you’re here to support me”.
“Midoriya-kun!”, Mina shouted from the distance. “Come with us!”
“It’s time to go”, Uraraka said, and then she intertwined her arm with Izuku’s. Someone did the same to his other arm, and from the coldness, Izuku figured it must be Todoroki.
“Is it now?”, Izuku asked nervously, allowing his friends to guide him. “The date?”
“Just relax”, Uraraka told him gently, nudging at him gently.
They continued to walk, and Izuku didn’t know what to say to fill the silence. He usually spoke a lot when he was nervous, but this time – this time, he was rendered quiet and introspective. He had already voiced his worries and insecurities to Kacchan’s closest friends, and he knew that his own friends wouldn’t be so happy to witness his self-deprecation. There was no reason to be nervous. There was no reason to believe he would ruin things. It would be fine. This will be fine.
After a few minutes of walking, Todoroki and Uraraka started to slow down their pace, so Izuku did the same. Then, they untangled their arms from Izuku’s, which left him standing alone blindly in the middle of god knows where.
Everything was quiet. There were birds chirping in the distance somewhere, and the weather was getting chillier by the second.
“Guys?”, Izuku asked.
There was no response.
“Uh, are you guys still here? Can I take the blindfold off?”
No answer. Just birds and chilly wind.
Izuku sighed.
“All right, I’m taking it off”, Izuku announced – probably to no one –, reaching with his hands to the back of his head. “I hope this doesn’t spoil the…”
He looked around, finding he was completely alone.
“… surprise”.
He was still inside UA. The place, the street, seemed familiar, but it went unnoticed by Izuku, whose attention was on the floor. There was something there in the middle of the road, and it looked suspiciously like a photograph.
Izuku bent down and picked it up. It was glued to the floor with duct tape so that the wind didn’t send it flying away, but Izuku managed to retrieve it easily.
It was a photo of him and Kacchan as kids, playing together in their neighborhood’s playground. They were so tiny that they couldn’t have been older than two or three years old. Izuku didn’t think his mom had a photo of them so young, so this must be Mitsuki’s.
He turned the photo around and saw a neat handwriting on the back. It said: Katsuki’s new friend Izuku.
Izuku felt his eyes burn.
He stood up and looked ahead of him. There seemed to be a series of photos scattered on the floor one after the other, up until the street’s corner.
They were leading his way. Leading his way to Kacchan.
He looked around again for safe measure, trying to spot his friends, but they were gone. He was all alone, and it was up to him to find his way now.
He walked up to the next picture and bent down to pick it up. In this one, they were a little bit older, and Izuku quite frankly didn’t remember the day it was taken. Kacchan was holding him up in the air, seeming to struggle to adjust Izuku’s tiny weight in his grasp but keeping a victorious face all the same. Izuku, on the other hand, had his arms spread out triumphantly, as if wanting to put Kacchan’s deed on display. They were both smiling widely, and Izuku found himself smiling at the photo too.
He continued walking and took the next picture. It was taken at Kacchan’s 4th birthday. There were other children there with them, but Izuku was the closest one to the birthday boy – he was standing right behind him. He seemed terrified of the cake because of the number of candles there, and he was crying hysterically with his hands on his face, whereas Katsuki was pointing at the cake with an excited expression.
Izuku continued walking, and the next photo he found was still about the birthday. This time, Izuku had stopped crying, but he was staring at the cake with a somber look. Katsuki was trying to cut the cake without any adult supervision, and Mitsuki was slapping his hand away from it with a knife in her free hand.
The next photo showed Katsuki celebrating with his arms up while Masaru held him high, Mitsuki caught mid-eyeroll. Behind them, Izuku had a fat piece of cake in hands, and his mouth was open wide while he tried to fit the whole thing inside at once. Izuku couldn’t help but to laugh at the series of pictures, and his heart felt so warm and full that it seemed to be about to burst. His face scrunched up in a half-smile, half-sob.
The next picture was no longer about the party. It showed Katsuki and Izuku sleeping peacefully together on the same bed. Izuku was lying on a fetal position with his thumb in his mouth whereas Kacchan was spread on the bed, one of his legs resting atop Izuku’s torso. There was a blanket with an All Might pattern hanging from the edge of the bed, and two All Might dolls at the bottom of the bed, near the two boys. The caption behind the photo said “Sleepover!”
The picture after that showed them at the neighborhood’s playground again. Izuku was kneeling on the floor and Katsuki was atop him in a messy piggyback ride. They both had little makeshift red capes swinging behind their backs. The caption of the picture said “Playing heroes together”, and Izuku found more tears beginning to pool on his eyes.
He turned on the street’s corner, and then he recognized where he was. He should have recognized Ground Beta right away, even if he had been blindfolded along the whole way, but his attention had been on the pictures. They were all in his hand, nestled carefully above his chest. And there, from the corner of the street, he could see Kacchan and Kirishima, waiting by a small table for two in the middle of the road.
Izuku stared at them from the distance, and they stopped talking to each other, noticing his presence. They stared right back at him, waiting for him to make a move. Izuku lowered his head to stare down at himself, only now seeing what clothes he was wearing. It was a dark-green dress shirt and a pair of fancy black pants. They seemed to be brand-new. Izuku had no idea where they were from. Had Kacchan gotten them for him?
He started walking slowly towards Kacchan and Kirishima, because it didn’t seem appropriate to run to them (like he wanted to). He didn’t walk slowly, though. His steps were hurried and his heart was beating hard and fast inside his chest. He was smiling, and, the more he approached the pair of friends, the more rushed his steps became. At the end of it, he found himself jogging to them, and once he reached Kacchan, he dove straight in for a hug, pulling him close and burying his face on the crook of his neck.
“Idiot”, Izuku said, voice muffled by Kacchan’s clothes. He had a deep-red dress shirt on, a black waistcoat, and he was wearing a tie. Kacchan, wearing a tie.
“How am I the idiot if you’re the one who’s crying?”, Katsuki questioned, holding Izuku in his arms.
Izuku pulled back from the hug so that he could give Kacchan a narrow-eyed look.
“You knew exactly what you were doing when you put out those photos”, he accused, sniffing and rubbing his wet cheeks with the back of his hands. “You – You know how I get”.
Katsuki smirked, seeming pleased with himself.
“If you think that’s all, you’d better take a seat. Let me”, he said, walking around the table and pulling a chair for Izuku.
“So we’re going to stay here in the middle of Ground Beta?”, Izuku asked. He walked to the opposite side of the table and pulled out a chair for Katsuki as well.
They just stared at each other.
“Uh”, Kirishima said awkwardly. Taking a better look at him now – so far, Izuku only had eyes for Kacchan –, he could see that the boy was dressed pretty much like… a waiter? “Let me get the chairs for the both of you”, he announced, going to Katsuki’s side first.
Katsuki clicked his tongue with disdain but accepted his friend’s offer, having Kirishima pull the chair for him and sitting down. It was better than waiting for Deku to make a move. Once he was settled, Kirishima walked up to Izuku and did the same for him.
“Well, I figured Ground Beta is symbolic as fuck to us”, Katsuki answered Izuku’s question.
Izuku placed the photos on the table, which was covered by a fancy looking tablecloth.
“You must have gone through a lot of trouble to bring a table out here”, Izuku commented, a smile on his lips. He was doing his best to put his admiration on display, lest he offend Kacchan on accident. “How did you even…?”
“Tch. You don’t need to focus on those type of details”, he said simply. “Just tell Shitty Hair what you want to eat already”.
Izuku blinked in shock.
“W-What?”
“All right, here’s the menu! Monsieur”, Kirishima provided, offering Izuku a folded sheet of paper. Izuku opened it, only to reveal the word “katsudon” written in all caps and covering the entirety of the paper.
Izuku smiled, looking up at Kirishima.
“I’ll have the katsudon, please”, he said humorously. “And I’m pretty sure Kacchan will have the same”.
“Don’t speak for me”, Katsuki reprimanded. “But yeah. I’ll have the katsudon”.
“All right”, Kirishima said, taking the sheet of paper back from Izuku and placing it beneath his armpit. “Two katsudons, coming right up!”
He turned on his heels and walked away, leaving the two of them alone together.
Izuku immediately turned to look at Katsuki, a fond smile on his lips. Before he could even begin to say anything, Katsuki spat:
“Before you complain about Ground Beta not being exactly the most romantic place on Earth, I’ll let you know Aizawa sensei prohibited me from leaving school grounds”, he said, grumpy. “Otherwise, this shitty date would be much better”.
Izuku smiled tenderly at him.
“Kacchan”, he said. “This is perfect”.
Katsuki huffed, rolling his eyes.
“I know I said Ground Beta is symbolic to us, and it is”, he continued. “But it’s still a shitty place to have a first date. Which is why I came up with the idea of using the pictures. I asked my mom to bring them over, along with this”, he knocked at the table.
“Where did your mom find the table?”, Izuku asked curiously.
“At a table store or some shit, I don’t know what table stores are called”, Katsuki said dismissively.
There was a pause.
“You bought this?”, Izuku asked, shocked. “Kacchan, you shouldn’t have! This must have been expensive – it’s – it’s solid wood –“, he bent down on his seat to look at the table from beneath the tablecloth.
“Shut up”, Katsuki said simply, leaning back against his seat and kicking Izuku’s leg from under the table. “Don’t tell me what I can or can’t buy. I wanted a proper table for our proper first date, so I went and I got it. That’s not the only thing I spent my money on”.
Izuku’s eyes widened at this and he sat up straight at the table again.
“W-What?”
“Two katsudons arriving!”, Kirishima reappeared, holding two fuming bowls of food.
“That… was fast”, Izuku commented, genuinely surprised.
“Thank Todoroki for that”, Kirishima said simply, not looking at Izuku as he placed the bowl in front of Katsuki. “The food was ready, all he had to do was give it a little warm up”.
“Oh”, Izuku blinked. He looked around trying to see Todoroki – or any of his friends, really – nearby, but he found no one. “And where is Todoroki-kun?”, he asked, looking at Kirishima.
“Oi, nerd”, Katsuki called, sounding offended and almost jealous. “Keep your eyes on me, you dweeb”.
“Sorry, s-sorry”, Izuku smiled. “It’s just – uh, I heard Mina-san talking to Sero-kun and Kaminari-kun, and they said they were going to… um…”, he hesitated, leaning a bit forwards on his seat so that Kacchan could hear his lowered voice. “They said they were going to watch the date”, he said, voice barely above a whisper.
Katsuki scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“It’s not what you think”, he began.
“What? So you knew?”, Izuku asked, surprised.
“They’re not going to watch like a bunch of stalking paparazzi, they’ll be our waiters”, Katsuki explained, gesturing at Kirishima. “I knew there’d be no way in hell I’d manage to keep them away from us during our date, so I let them help with this shit. At least they can’t take creepy photos of us while they’re busy serving us like the proper extras they are”.
“Oi!”, Kirishima complained.
“Shut up and do your job”, Katsuki said, but Izuku could recognize there was humor beneath his rough tone. “And you”, he turned back to Izuku. “Start eating before your food gets cold. You won’t get to warm it up again, I’m not letting Icy Hot anywhere near you tonight”.
Izuku stared at the bowl of katsudon in front of him. It looked delicious. He grabbed his hashi and took a bite of the food, his eyes widening as he chewed.
“Kacchan, sugoi”, he said, voice muffled. “You put less pepper than last time!”
Katsuki rolled his eyes again.
“Well, yeah, I can take constructive criticism, even if I don’t fucking like it or agree with it. Plus, I knew the photos would bring enough tears to your eyes, so I didn’t need my spices to add on that”.
Izuku narrowed his eyes at him with fake offense, but he continued to eat. Katsuki grabbed his own hashi to get started with his dinner as well, but then he noticed Kirishima was still beside him, waiting with the empty tray shoved beneath his arm.
Katsuki cleared his throat suggestively.
Kirishima looked at him.
“What?”, he asked, clueless.
Katsuki tilted his head to the side.
“Can I help you?”, he asked sarcastically.
“Huh?”, Kirishima frowned.
“The fuck are you still doing here?”, Katsuki asked more bluntly, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh”, Kirishima came to his senses, straightening himself up. “Right. I’ll – I’ll be on my way. It’s just, so weird, you know? Seeing how much the two of you grew. Seeing you hang out so well after everything”.
“We’re not hanging out”, Katsuki pointed out. “We’re having – or rather, trying to have a date. Which is composed by one, me, and two, Deku. You and our friends or any third party are not included”.
Kirishima nodded solemnly.
“Right. You’re right. Sorry, bro. Enjoy your date!”, he said, walking away with a pleased smile. Katsuki watched him go and shook his head in disapproval.
“That shit makes me angry”, he admitted.
Izuku frowned. He knew how pissed off Kacchan could get with small things, but Kirishima always seemed to know his way around the boy better than others. Izuku wouldn’t have expected Kacchan to be mad at such a small gesture from Kirishima, of all people.
“I think he meant well”, he tried to defend their friend. “I think they all mean well. They’re just – happy for us. You know?”
Katsuki huffed, his eyes downcast.
“If they’re so happy, why do they keep acting like I’m going to hurt you as soon as I’m left alone with you?”
Izuku lowered his hashi, staring at Katsuki.
“I don’t think that’s it, Kacchan”, he said sincerely. “I mean, I don’t think they think you’re going to hurt me. It’s just… our whole development, or at least the best part of it, happened while I was a ghost. They didn’t get to see that, only you did. You were the only one who could interact with me, after all. And then, after I woke up from the coma, there weren’t many instances in which we interacted in front of them, and even when we did, it was different because… well. I didn’t have my memories. And then, we stopped talking. And we stopped talking for half a year. From their side, all this – everything we’re both feeling – must have seemed pretty sudden”.
Katsuki did a nose scrunch.
“Yeah, whatever”, he said, a bit grumpily. “I just don’t want these assholes thinking I’d hurt or mistreat my own damn boyfriend”.
If Izuku had real bunny ears, they would have shot right up at this.
“Huh?”, he squealed.
Katsuki finally raised his eyes to meet his gaze.
“What?”, he asked mid-bite.
“B-Boyfriends?”, Izuku asked, a smile appearing on his lips. “We get to use that word now?”
Katsuki narrowed his eyes at him.
“Well, since we’re finally having a proper first date and all, I’d say so”, he said. “Unless you don’t wanna label it, which I find improbable”.
Izuku continued to smile, but he gave Katsuki a look.
“You know how much I like labels”, he said playfully.
Katsuki raised his eyebrows in agreement.
“Tell me about it”, he mumbled, continuing to eat.
“But you’re ok with it?”, Izuku asked a bit more seriously.
Katsuki stared at him again.
“If I wasn’t serious, I would have said anything”, he said simply. “There’s no point in telling you to use a word if that word makes me uncomfortable”.
It was Izuku’s turn to lower his head. He held his hashi in a tighter grip.
“I’m…”, he swallowed dry. “I’m very honored, Kacchan”.
Katsuki raised an eyebrow at him.
“For what? Being my boyfriend?”, he asked, half-serious, half-jesting.
Izuku nodded his head solemnly. He seemed very serious.
“And for having you as my boyfriend”, Izuku said. Then, he smiled hesitantly. “It makes me really happy”.
Katsuki nodded.
“I know”, he said, playing with his food for a moment. “It makes me happy, too”.
Izuku’s smile became wide.
“Really?”
Katsuki squinted.
“What, is it that hard to believe?”, he asked defensively.
Izuku rolled his eyes, but there was affection in the gesture.
“No”, he said. “Not anymore”.
Katsuki nodded. He seemed pensive, even as he went back to eating his own food silently. Izuku did the same and then there was a comfortable quietude between them; the only sounds in the street were made by crickets and faraway birds. The sun was about to set in the horizon, which meant the sky was tinted a mixture of purple, pink and orange.
“Penny for your thoughts?”, Izuku asked shyly after a while, when they were both half-done with their bowls of food.
Katsuki shrugged, distant and cold, and Izuku’s stomach did a backflip at the reaction. Everything was going so well! But why did Kacchan seem so upset?
“Did I… do something wrong?”, Izuku frowned, genuinely concerned.
Katsuki’s head shot up at this, and he sent Izuku a confused look.
“What? No”, he said. “Why the fuck would you think that?”
“I don’t know!”, Izuku exclaimed, defensive. “We were laughing and joking around, but then you went really quiet and –“, he hesitated. Then, he sighed. “I just want us to have a nice time together”, he concluded.
Katsuki worried at his lower lip.
“It’s just…”, he said. “I want you to have a nice time”.
“I am having a nice time”, Izuku smiled encouragingly at him.
“But I don’t know how to do this”, Katsuki admitted – which was rare for him. “I don’t know if Ground Beta was a shitty idea, I don’t know if you’re just smiling to make me feel better. I mean, I can’t tell. Because back then – even when I treated you like shit – you were always smiling at me when you saw me the next day. No matter what I did to push you away, you always came back with your stupid smile and your sugois and your admiration. And I don’t want you to keep doing that. I want to know when I hurt you, so I can learn and put a stop to it”.
Izuku stared at Katsuki with disbelief.
“Kacchan”, he said, patiently. “You went out of your way, even if you’re still recovering, just to give me a first date with you. You spent your money and your time on planning everything. You cooked for me, and you called me your boyfriend. There is no way in the world I could be unhappy right now”.
Katsuki shook his head, not meeting Izuku’s eyes.
“You have low standards”, he accused.
“And you have an inferiority complex”, Izuku accused right back.
Katsuki raised his head, glaring at Izuku.
“The fuck?”
To Izuku, everything seemed clearer now. His own fear, and Kacchan’s, were very similar in nature.
“I’m just saying”, Izuku shrugged. “Everything is perfect, and yet there you are, beating yourself up over a problem that doesn’t even exist. Why does there always have to be a problem?”, he asked gently, smiling.
Katsuki continued to glare at him, but Izuku saw acceptance in his eyes.
Izuku put down his hashi and reached out across the table. Katsuki hesitated before doing the same and grabbing Izuku’s hand.
“Everything is perfect”, Izuku said vehemently, smiling. “And I’m not saying this because I have low standards, I’m not lying to make you feel better. I’m saying this because it’s true. I’m saying this because I love you, which means that whichever gesture you make me, however small, is going to get me to cloud nine. You make me happy”.
“I also hurt you”, Katsuki shot back. “A lot of times. Even when I was just trying to protect you, I hurt you. And I don’t want to do that again. The worst part is – I don’t even know when I do it”.
Izuku nodded comprehensively.
“I’ll tell you”, he promised. “If you ever hurt me again, I’ll let you know. We could go back to that thing where I say when you’re being an asshole, it was pretty useful back when I was a ghost”.
Katsuki huffed through his nose, humorous. He smirked.
“Yeah”, he nodded. “That shit worked, even when I pretended it didn’t”.
Izuku nodded back with a smile and let go of his hand.
“If anyone should feel bad, that’s me”, he pointed out. “You went through all the trouble of making us a nice first date, and I didn’t even plan anything. I mean, you said we were going to have the date, so I assumed you had everything planned and I didn’t want to make up other plans that would end up getting in the way of your plans, but still… I feel like a useless boyfriend”, he admitted with a shrug.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Leave the chivalry to me”, he said. “I don’t want to be pampered by you”.
Izuku raised his eyebrows.
“What? Why not?”, he asked, shocked.
“Because I want to do the pampering”, Katsuki said as if it was obvious. “You know I don’t really like affection, but that won’t stop me from being affectionate with you. I told you I want to be the best at this shit”.
Izuku gave Katsuki a curious look.
“You do like affection, though”, he accused, a bit bravely. “You may not realize you do, but you do”.
Katsuki sighed.
“Deku –“
“You like it when I cuddle you”, Izuku continued. “Otherwise, you’d have blown me up when I tried”.
Katsuki gave him a look.
“And you like it when I play with your hair”, Izuku added for good measure.
“Fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want you to go around pampering me and doing big gestures for me. I just want us to be together”.
“But Kacchan”, Izuku smiled. “We are together. And maybe I want to do big gestures for you, just as much as you want to do them for me. Have you considered this?”, he raised his eyebrows, but there was humor in the gesture.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. Them, he squeezed them shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, pensive.
“I ignored your feelings again, didn’t I?”, he asked, half-ashamed.
“You did”, Izuku nodded. “But you don’t have to worry about it. I’m not upset or anything”, he reassured. “Actually, I have to say I’m really happy with what you did. The dinner, and Ground Beta, and the food. Really, I’m so grateful”, he smiled. “I’ll have to come up with a big gesture for you too, to make up for this”.
“You don’t have to make up for shit”, Katsuki said. “I’m the one who’s redeeming here”.
Izuku’s smile faltered a bit, and Katsuki noticed it.
“What?”, he frowned upon Izuku’s reaction, concerned.
“Nothing”, Izuku said out of habit. But then, he realized he needed to be honest – that was the rule they had agreed upon. So taking a deep breath, he added: “It’s just, from the way you said it, it sounded like you’re only on a date with me to… make up for the past”.
Katsuki watched him with attention.
“I am making up for the past”, he said. “But that’s not the reason I’m dating you. I’m dating you because… you know. Because of the l-word”.
Izuku gave him a sad smile.
“Can’t even say it, huh?”, he teased half-heartedly.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“I love you. There, said it”, he said grumpily. “But even if I love you now, I did a lot of shit to you in the past. So yeah, I’d say I have a long way of redemption ahead of myself. And that doesn’t change what I feel”.
“Kacchan”, Izuku said patiently. “You don’t have to redeem for anything. I already told you I forgive you”.
“Yeah, you gave me that forgiveness out of the fucking kindness of your heart or some shit. I didn’t earn it”.
“Kacchan –“
“I didn’t earn it, Deku”, Katsuki cut him off. “Not yet, not for everything”.
Izuku bit his lower lip. He was trying not to take Kacchan’s words to heart so far, but that task was becoming harder and harder. He didn’t want this to turn into an argument, but he couldn’t refrain from speaking his mind, either.
“I don’t want our relationship to be your martyrdom”, he said, serious. “I don’t want it to be your path of redemption. I want you to be with me because I make you happy, not because I remind you of your past mistakes”.
Katsuki reached out and grabbed Izuku’s hand. He seemed angry, as usual, but also desperate to be understood.
“You make me happy”, Katsuki said emphatically. “What we have isn’t my martyrdom. It’s my reminder that I can be better. I should be better. And you make me better. And I should always aim to the top, in everything I do. This included. So I’m going to be the best damn boyfriend this world has ever seen”.
Izuku looked up at the purple sky, which was becoming darker by the minute. Then, he lowered his gaze again.
“It doesn’t have to be a competition”, he said seriously, doing the best he could to sound gentle. “I don’t want it to be a competition. Can – Can we please not compete, at least with our relationship? I mean, we’re still rivals in the hero field, and that’s… fine – we push each other to our limits and we do our best. But I don’t want to be your rival in the love field. I want to do this with you, together. I know I said I wanted to make up for the effort you went through with this date, but, to be honest, I don’t want to have to plan ways to surprise you more than you surprise me, or, or, to have to figure out how to impress you in turn for you impressing me. What I said about me not having planned anything for our date, since I knew you would do it – this is what I meant. I want you to be my partner, not my rival”.
Katsuki sighed. He shook his head.
“I’m doing everything all wrong again”, he said. Now that Izuku thought about it, Kacchan seemed helpless. Like he desperately wanted Izuku to read his thoughts and his feelings, but failed to express what was on his mind. “I’m trying to prove a point to you, but you don’t understand what I’m saying. Why is this so fucking difficult? I’m not fucking good at this shit, I – I – Look, I’ll – I’ll just show you”, he decided, shoving his hand into his pocket.
He retrieved a small package – it was some sort of small object wrapped in a fancy wrapping paper – and placed it on the table. He slid it over to Izuku.
“I bought this for you. What I want – what I need, what I’m aiming for – is… just to make you happy. I suck at saying it, and I suck at showing it, but – there. That’s for you. I was going to wait until dessert, but… you need to know. Now”.
Izuku eyed Kacchan with a frown, then he grabbed the little package. It was light. Izuku undid the wrapping paper and stared at the object on his hand.
It was an All Might: your soulmate valentine limited edition pair of necklaces.
Izuku’s eyes immediately widened so hard that they seemed about to pop off his sockets. He stared at Katsuki as if he had seen a ghost.
“YOU BOUGHT US THE ALL MIGHT: YOUR SOULMATE VALENTINE LIMITED EDITION PAIR OF NECKLACES?!”, he squealed in an octave above his regular tone, so loud that they must have heard him all the way back to the dorms. Katsuki would have usually felt aggravated by the loud display, but this time, he felt smug about it. He smirked and leaned back against his seat.
“Looks like I did”, Katsuki said, very pleased with himself. He gave Izuku a smug look. “Am I the best or what?”
“KACCHAN THIS IS SO SUGOI OH MY GOD I’M SHAKING SO HARD I CAN’T EVEN OPEN IT –“, Izuku continued to say in a very loud voice, and Katsuki could see he was actually struggling with opening the little plastic bag that contained the necklaces.
With a sigh, Katsuki stood up from his seat and walked around the table, grabbing the bag from Izuku’s hand and using his teeth to rip the plastic open. He spat out the piece of plastic in his mouth and shook the bag so that the pair of necklaces would fall on his hand.
“Are you going to put it on me? Are you going to wear it too? You’re not embarrassed by it?!”, Izuku asked frantically. Katsuki positioned himself behind Izuku and slowly put the necklace around his neck, closing it in place. “Kacchan, say something”, Izuku pleaded.
“Yeah, I’m putting it on you. Yeah, I’m gonna wear it. No, I’m not embarrassed”, he said straightforwardly.
Once he was done putting the necklace on Izuku, he went back to his seat and sat down again, wrapping his own neck with his half of the necklace. When put together, the two necklaces composed a heart, and each of the valentines were meant to wear one half of the heart to indicate they were soulmates. One half of All Might’s smiling face was etched on each half of the hearts, and it became complete when the soulmate put their halves together. This was the sort of niche All Might merchandise that got fabricated and only die-hard fans got a hold of – which was precisely Izuku’s (and Katsuki’s, not that he would ever admit it) case.
“I can’t believe this! I always wanted this so much, this was my biggest teenage dream, Kacchan, thank you, oh, thank you!”, Izuku celebrated, his emotions all over the place. Katsuki knew how happy he was based only on the warm, bubbly feeling that was spreading through his own limbs in response to the remains of their bond.
“I don’t want to be the best out of my own personal interests”, Katsuki said, still looking at Izuku with that smug smirk on his face. “I want to be the best because that’s what you deserve. I don’t want you to want anyone else”.
Izuku was blushing from excitement and now that the necklace was on, he kept one hand on his half of the heart at all times, as if he was afraid it would disappear. Katsuki’s words only seemed to make him fluster further, and he opened and closed his mouth without saying anything as he tried to process what he had just heard and elaborate a response.
“I – Kacchan, I don’t – I won’t – I – I –“, he stuttered. Then, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, before breathing out and meeting his boyfriend’s – his boyfriend’s – gaze again. “I never wanted anyone else. And I won’t ever want anyone else. I’m trying really, really hard not to be cheesy about this, but – you’re the only person for me”.
Katsuki became a little bit more serious at this statement, even if the ghost of a smile still permeated his lips.
“And you’re the only person for me”, Katsuki said. “That’s what I was trying to tell you all along. I know we still have a lot of shit to figure out, and we have a lot of shit to talk about. I’m still trying to make sense of everything I feel, and we still need to understand how this bond between us actually works. But what I do know is that I want to make you happy. Not because I’ll get happy too in return, since we’re still bound together. That used to be my mentality, but it isn’t anymore. Because now, I care about you. And I suck at putting it into words, so – just bear with me. Ok?”
Izuku was looking at Katsuki as if he was made of the rarest pieces of diamonds on Earth.
“Kacchan”, he said simply. “You cooked me an amazing dinner. You brought us to a symbolic place on our first proper date. You gave me an All Might: your soulmate valentine limited edition pair of necklaces”, he shook his head, smiling. “You’re all my dreams come true. You’re the only one I’ll ever want. And I know you want to hear it, so I’ll say it: you’re the best boyfriend on Earth”.
“Fuck yeah”, Katsuki smirked, slamming his fist on the table so hard the bowls of katsudon rattled.
“Easy!”, Izuku smiled, holding his bowl as if to prevent it from spilling its contents all over the fancy tablecloth.
“This is only the beginning”, Katsuki said, pointing a menacing finger at Izuku. “You won’t be able to imagine the things I’ll do to you. I really want to be the best of the best, so get ready for some serious as shit pampering, Deku”, he said in a competitive voice.
“Kacchan”, Izuku laughed. “I don’t want to be pampered, either”.
“I’ll let you pamper me if you let me pamper you”, Katsuki offered.
Izuku looked interested at this. He considered Katsuki’s offer for a moment.
“Deal”, he nodded solemnly. “I know I said I didn’t want to be your rival in love –“
“Whatever the hell that means”, Katsuki pointed out.
Izuku paused and then sighed.
“I mean I don’t want to keep competing with you when it comes to us doing nice things for each other”, he explained. “I don’t want you to do something just because that will make me do something in return. I want you to do things for me because you want to, because you feel good. The same goes for me. I want to make nice things for you out of the satisfaction of seeing you happy”.
Katsuki gave him a look.
“But I don’t want anything in return”, Katsuki said, confused. “Ok, I get it. You want to have the title of world’s best boyfriend too, is that it?”
Izuku blushed. He lowered his gaze.
“… M… Maybe…”
Katsuki scoffed.
“Fine, Deku. We don’t have to be love rivals or anything. When I say I want to be the world’s best boyfriend, it’s because I’ll always be aiming to the top when it comes to you. I don’t mean I’m better than you at our relationship or any of that shit”.
Izuku worried at his lower lip, embarrassed.
“Fine…”, he said half-heartedly.
Katsuki thought for a moment.
“What about this”, he proposed. “We can be the world’s best couple. How does that sound?”
Izuku looked up at him, a wide grin appearing on his lips.
“That’s good!”, he agreed.
Katsuki nodded.
“Then it’s settled. We’re the world’s best couple. No one will ever be able to match us. Icy Hot and Round Face will piss their pants trying to top us, and they’ll never succeed”, he smirked evilly.
“K-Kacchan!”, Izuku blushed, embarrassed. “You shouldn’t say stuff like that!”
“Don’t tell me what to do”, Katsuki said. “Now finish your Katsudon. I promised Mina she’d get to bring us our dessert, and I’m bet she’s dying to come here already”.
Izuku raised a suggestive eyebrow at Katsuki.
“Oh, so you care about what your friends want now, huh?”, he teased without really thinking about it. It came naturally to his lips. It only occurred to him that Kacchan might misinterpret the joke when the words were already out of his mouth.
Katsuki glared at him. Izuku froze, apprehensive, and ready to justify himself.
“Getting bold just because you get to kiss me now, huh, Deku?”, Katsuki said instead of scolding him. As if he had understood the joke. As if they were back on the same page, after so many disagreements. Izuku smiled widely. Just the fact that Kacchan hadn’t misread his intentions for once made him stupid-happy. Stupid enough to say:
“I could die happy if that means I get to kiss you forever”.
Katsuki did a nose scrunch and pulled a face at his boyfriend.
“God, you’re cheesy as fuck”, he teased.
“Hey!”
“You called for it”.
“… Yeah, I kind of did”.
They strolled, hands intertwined, as the sun set in the horizon front of them. There was a cool breeze in the air, making their hair blow lightly against their foreheads with the wind. Katsuki hadn’t brought his cane along as if not to ruin the visuals of the date, so they were moving slowly. It wasn’t like they were in a rush, anyway, and the walk was pleasant.
He wasn’t in as much pain as he had been a few days before. He could even walk with an erect posture without feeling his healing wound pulling at the stitches. This was definitely better.
“I like the color of the sky when the sun goes down”, Izuku commented, caressing the hand he was holding with his thumb.
“I know”, Katsuki replied simply. “I don’t really care about it, but I like that you do”.
Izuku smiled, lowering his head.
“I feel so blessed to be with you” he admitted after a few moments.
Katsuki huffed out an amused breath.
“Part of me wants to call you cheesy, and the other part wants to ask you to say it again”, he found it in himself to say.
Izuku chuckled.
“I really am blessed”, he repeated for Katsuki’s sake, bumping against his side lightly as they walked.
Katsuki hummed low in his throat.
“I’m blessed, too”, he admitted.
They continued to stroll for a few more moments in silence. They were still at Ground Beta. Their friends had been assigned the task of retrieving the table and everything else that needed to be removed from the site, in order to relieve the recovering Katsuki from that job. That left the new couple time to wander, and time to enjoy each other’s company.
“There’s something else I want to give you”, Katsuki spoke up after a few moments, as they were about to leave the street.
They stopped walking. Izuku turned to face Katsuki, who was reaching behind himself. He removed something from behind his back – he must have crammed whatever this was into the back of his pants, like Izuku himself did sometimes. Izuku noticed it was a pair of small notebooks.
He recognized one of them. His eyes widened.
“Before you say anything”, Katsuki interrupted him before he could even get started. “Don’t get angry at your mom for giving me this”, he handed the first notebook for Izuku.
Izuku stared at it and swallowed dry before he reached out and took it into his hands. He opened it and flipped through the pages with his thumb. Just one look at it was enough to tell him what it was. In the cover, it was written: Bakugou Katsuki.
“I’m not… angry”, Izuku admitted. He stared up at Katsuki, meeting his eyes. “Just confused”.
“You don’t have to be”, Katsuki said. “This is for you”.
He handed Izuku the second notebook. He grabbed it and turned it to read the cover.
Midoriya Izuku.
“W-What…?”, Izuku said.
He opened the notebook. His heart was beating fast inside his chest and his mind was rushed with a hundred thoughts, but from the look of it – from what he could gather –, the notebook consisted of a series of analysis about… him. His signature movements, his hero behavior, his weaknesses and his strengths. Little details about himself that he had never come to realize. All gathered up in Kacchan’s neat handwriting, with even some illustrations to accompany it.
“Your mom gave me the notebook you wrote about me a while ago”, Katsuki explained. “Now that I think about it, I think she was trying to comfort me. Or maybe show me the way you saw me. I don’t really know”.
Izuku lowered his head, biting at his lower lip. He wanted to feel embarrassed, but he knew he couldn’t really be angry at his mom. The notebook was personal, yes, but… he and Kacchan were together, now. They had nothing to hide from each other, right?
“I read it. Especially in those six months we spent apart, I’d keep going back to it. Whenever I… missed you. Too much. I’d grab it and I’d read random pages. Because your sentiment was so clear in those pages. What you feel – or felt – for me. The way you used to do. It was all there. Etched in this stupid notebook. When I went through it, I could pretend you still admired me. I could pretend you still…”, he trailed off.
There was a moment of silence.
“I never stopped admiring you”, Izuku pointed out, frowning. “Or… loving you”.
Katsuki sighed, but he nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“I know that. But still, I… I missed you”, he admitted, glaring at the floor. “So I wrote you this”.
“Kacchan…”, Izuku said, taking a step closer to him.
“It’s nowhere near as extensive as your analysis on me”, Katsuki admitted, sounding angry at himself. “I mean, you had years to do it. I had months. So take that into consideration before you start thinking you did better than me”, he advised out of habit.
Izuku gave him a small smile.
“I don’t think that”, he pointed out.
“Tch”, Katsuki clicked his tongue in response.
“I think it’s amazing you did something like this”, Izuku admitted. “I’m very grateful and very honored. And I can’t wait to read all of it”.
Katsuki stared up at the sky. Then, he lowered his gaze again and met Izuku’s eyes.
“Do you believe me when I tell you I love you?”, he asked, sounding uncharacteristically vulnerable.
Izuku wanted to react with a laugh, but he could sense how serious Kacchan was being about the question. He thought for a moment.
“Yes”, he admitted, smiling. “It was hard at first, but…”, he took one hand to his new necklace, smiling. “Now I don’t find it as hard. Because you… you’re better at showing it, Kacchan”.
“I’m still learning”, Katsuki argued.
“And you’re doing great at it”, Izuku smiled, squeezing his hand.
Katsuki managed a small smile that seemed a little self-deprecating. Izuku grabbed his other hand and pulled him closer, brushing the tips of their noses together.
“I can feel what you feel, remember?”, Izuku asked, nudging Katsuki.
“And doesn’t that make you afraid?”
“Afraid? Of what?”, Izuku frowned.
“That it’s your love contaminating me. Or my love contaminating you. That only one of us loves the other, and that the other one only mirrors it and thinks that they’re in love”.
Izuku frowned.
“You’ve been thinking that?”
Katsuki hesitated for a moment. Then, he nodded. Honest. I need to be honest.
“And that… that makes me fucking scared”, Katsuki concluded.
Izuku raised his eyebrows.
“Why?”
Katsuki bit his lower lip.
“I don’t want to love you on my own”.
“And what if I’m the one who loves you on my own? I’ve been doing it for quite some time, now, so it makes more sense to be me contaminating you than you contaminating me”, Izuku said, with no ill intentions. Katsuki flinched at the words, but acknowledged the truth behind them.
“Tch. I know what I’m feeling”, he argued, defensive.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes”.
Izuku nodded.
“I’m pretty sure I know what I’m feeling too. You’re not the only own who got better at reading your own emotions, you know”.
Katsuki lowered his head. Izuku continued holding his hand, but nudged closer to him.
“I miss you when you’re gone. And when you’re with me, the day seems brighter. The colors seem more vivid. Life seems merrier. To me, it’s been like that since day one. Ever since we were these little babies who had just gotten to know each other”, he reached to his back pocket and retrieved the photo of the two of them as toddlers.
Katsuki stared at it.
“I know it wasn’t always like this to you”, Izuku concluded. “You didn’t get butterflies in your stomach when you saw me, like it happened to me when I saw you. But I don’t care about that. I don’t care about the past. It’s over. That’s over. We need to stop looking at that so much. What matters to me now, what I care about now – is us. Together. Do you love me now?”
Katsuki closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against Izuku’s.
“I love you”.
“And do you want to be with me?”
“I do”.
No hesitation.
Izuku smiled tenderly.
“Me too, Kacchan. So please, don’t blame yourself for what is over. Don’t think you need to atone”.
“I do need to atone”.
“Not to me, you don’t”, Izuku said. “I’ve already forgiven you for everything. And I hope you have forgiven me too, for whatever way I might have wronged you. For all those times I hurt you”.
Katsuki took the pictures from Izuku’s hand, staring at them.
“I’m not nostalgic or anything”, he said. “But I’m glad my mom kept these”.
“I’m glad too”, Izuku smiled. “Can I make a copy later?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“You can keep them”, he handed them back to Izuku. “I bet your mom will love to have them on her album”.
“But Kacchan”, Izuku frowned. “They’re yours”.
“They’re ours”, Katsuki corrected him. “I’m not the only one in those pictures. We can keep them, together. We can own a lot of shit together. Your All Might collection is all half-owned by me, now”.
Izuku’s face became very serious and he visibly tensed up.
Katsuki smirked.
“I’m joking”, he said.
Izuku sighed in relief and his posture visibly relaxed. He even managed to smile awkwardly.
“What about the pictures Mina-san took of us?”, he asked.
Katsuki gave him a confused look.
“Uh, she managed to take photos of us”, Izuku clarified. “When you weren’t looking. It was after she brought us dessert. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to kill the mood by having you go after her”.
Katsuki frowned at Izuku, then he huffed indignantly through his nose.
“I should have known she would have pulled some shit like that”, he said, glaring at the side.
“I’m actually… glad she did?”, Izuku smiled tentatively. “I didn’t want to, uh… make you uncomfortable or anything. But I wanted to keep our first date in my memory forever. And I’m glad someone took the pictures of us. I would have done it myself, but I…”, he trailed off, embarrassed.
“You what?”, Katsuki frowned.
“I didn’t know if you’d want that”, Izuku shrugged. “I know you don’t really like photos”.
Katsuki studied his face.
“Do you like photos?”, he asked.
Izuku worried at his lower lip.
“Kacchan…”
“It’s a pretty simple question”, Katsuki urged.
Izuku sighed.
“I do”, he admitted. “I never had any friends growing up, so now that I do… I like to keep record”.
Katsuki nodded.
“Then let’s do it”.
Izuku’s eyes widened and his cheeks became pink.
“W-What?”, he asked, nervous.
“Let’s take a fucking picture”, Katsuki clarified. “I’m not gonna have a low-quality, distant pic taken by Raccoon Eyes as the only memento from our first date. If it’s important to you, I’ll do it. C’mon”, he said, picking his phone from his pocket and opening the frontal camera.
“Kacchan!”, Izuku exclaimed, taken aback. “But you don’t like it!”
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“I don’t mind it. I wouldn’t go around taking pics of myself doing basic stuff, because I’m not an idiot like Mina. But our first date is an important moment, and you want to keep it on record. So let’s do it”.
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable”, Izuku pointed out again, hesitant. Katsuki sighed.
“You’re not making me uncomfortable, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this”, he said. Then, he grabbed Izuku by the waist and pulled him closer. “Smile”.
Izuku put on a nervous smile at the same second Katsuki snapped the picture of their faces glued together. The sun was still setting behind them, and the purple sky contrasted against their hairs.
Katsuki inspected the photo with a nose scrunch, looking up at Izuku.
“That’s not your regular smile”, he accused.
“W-What?”, Izuku frowned.
“When you smile for real, your dimples pop up”, he said, poking at Izuku’s cheek with his index finger.
“I… Guess I’m not really good at posing for photos”, Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “I always end up ugly when I do”.
Katsuki scowled at him.
“Just think about something funny and smile your regular smile”, he instructed, putting the phone up again in order to snap the photo.
“Kacchan!”, Izuku protested. “I don’t know how to do that!”
“You’re the one who wanted to take the photo, now you say you don’t know how to do it?”, Katsuki argued.
“I didn’t think you would want to take the photo, now I’m out of my depth! Let’s just – take it another day. It has to be natural”, he suggested.
“No natural moment will keep being natural once someone pulls out their phone to take a picture of it”, Katsuki pointed out. “Come on. Just smile your Deku smile”.
“Kachaaaan”, Izuku protested.
“Do it!”, Katsuki poked at his ribs. “Don’t make me tickle you. I remember you were ticklish as a brat”.
“Kacchan! Don’t tickle me!”, Izuku pleaded.
“Then smile, goddamn it!”, Katsuki said, poking at Izuku’s rib again. Izuku doubled on himself, giggling maniacally. “See? There you go!”, Katsuki celebrated.
“Kacchan – stop, I – I’m gonna –“, he laughed, and then laughed louder as Katsuki tickled his side again. “Nooo, stop! I’m gonna have a laughing fit –“
“That’s the goal”, Katsuki snorted, raising the phone again to take the picture. Izuku smiled nervously at the camera again, but Katsuki used his free hand to tickle his side, which made Izuku laugh loudly again and throw his head back desperately.
Katsuki snapped the picture and let go of Deku’s side. The outcome wasn’t great, but it was a nice capture of the little moment they had shared. In the picture, Izuku was smiling widely with his head thrown back, two dimples on each side of his freckled cheeks. Katsuki, on the other hand, was staring at Izuku rather than the camera, a playful, defiant smirk on his lips. Behind them, the sky was a mixture of purple and dark blue, a few stars shining in the distance.
“I – I can’t believe you remembered – I was ticklish –“, Izuku panted beside him, tears in his eyes. He hadn’t seen the photo yet, and before he could, Katsuki put the phone away in his pocket and crossed his arms above his chest.
“Of course I remember”, Katsuki said. “When we both were brats, I’d always tickle you whenever I lost an argument, just to pretend I hadn’t lost”.
Izuku narrowed his eyes playfully at him.
“Oh, so that was why you did it?”, he said with an accusing tone.
“Wow, Deku, your brain is so quick”, Katsuki teased. “Only took you 13 years to figure that out”.
“Hey!”, Izuku protested, tapping Katsuki’s arm. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“My goal is always to win, no matter the consequences”, Katsuki tilted his chin up. “Even if that means having you piss yourself from laughing too hard”.
“Oh, like that time you pissed the bed during our sleepover and tried to blame it on me?”, Izuku raised his eyebrows teasingly at him. Katsuki opened his mouth in an ‘o’ shape, offended.
“Oi, what did you just say?”, he asked, but Deku started to take several steps back, away from him.
“I bet you can’t catch me and make me say it to your face!”, he said, and then he started running away.
“Oi, you bastard! I’m still recovering, I shouldn’t be running!”, Katsuki shouted back at him, going after him with rushed steps that quickly became a jog, despite his worry about his injury.
“’My goal is to win, no matter the consequences’, huh?”, Izuku turned on his heels to shout at him, and then he started running away again.
“Matte yo, Deku!”, Katsuki yelled playfully.
Katsuki caught up to Izuku, who had slowed his pace for his boyfriend’s sake. He took Izuku’s hand and held it into his own firmly. Izuku was still laughing, and happiness was emanating from him so hard that Katsuki found himself smiling as well, until he was laughing too. They started walking more slowly in order to prevent Katsuki from putting more strain on his injury, and bumped against each other playfully as they strolled down the street.
Together, they walked side by side as equals, holding hands as they strolled into the blue horizon.
THE END