Izuku waited outside for Katsuki on the first day, to take the train with him to UA. He was fairly vibrating with excitement.
Bakugou sighed, but smiled at Deku's excitement. "You be careful not to fall through the floor if you vibrate too much…" he snorted but moved to walk with his friend to the station.
"Isn't it exciting, though?! We're going to UA! It's official! It's our first day! We're wearing the uniforms, Kacchan! This is actually happening!" He was basically bouncing, racing ahead of Bakugou and turning back to look at him with a huge closed-eyed grin.
He had to laugh. "Yeah, Yeah...it's still school though. You crazy fan boy…" his smile was not leaving him though. "Yes, it is actually happening."
He whooped, hopping and turning to race to the turnstile and swipe his card, bouncing on the other side as he waited for Katsuki to catch up, still grinning like a madman.
"You have gone temporarily insane." Her moved to swipe his card and stepped over with him. "Do I need to keep a hand on you?"
That made him flush lightly, but he looked away. He didn't want to make Kacchan feel weird, especially with his admission the other day. "Does Kacchan...think that would help?"
"Maybe…" he moved to set an arm around Deku's shoulder and tugged him close. "Better, Deku?"
Oh. Yes, that helped his vibrating. Also, it made his breath catch and his chest tighten. He looked up at Katsuki, eyes wide and smile still curving his lips, but it was a little stiff with nervousness, now. "Y-yeah...K-Kacchan is...like a steady rock…"
He gently rolled his eyes but smiled still. "All I was good for until recently." He snorted but pulled the slighter boy along toward their train...
For a moment, he could pretend that they were more than friends...that the warm arm around his shoulders was his...more than friend. He couldn't even bring himself to think the word, though, despite their banter about wife and husband...Although Izuku was 100% sure that Kazuki hadn't gotten the hint that he, in fact, was the top Hero that Izuku wanted as his husband…
He sighed softly to himself. "I hope our teacher is chill but normal… I don't need more surprises." He reached up to ruffle Deku's hair.
Izuku's heart flip-flopped, and he smiled up at the blond. "It'll be interesting to see who we get...I wonder if it will be All Might! I heard he's a teacher there this year!"
He snorted but smiled."I doubt that , he'll spread himself around I'm sure…"
"Yeah...Kacchan's probably right," he said, unable to stop smiling. Katsuki's arm was still around him. This was the best day, ever.
He snorted in mild annoyance. "If not him, then who would you prefer, Mr hero knowledge."
"Maybe...Present Mic? Or Vlad King! I know he teaches at UA!"
He hummed at that, unsure but not arguing as they piled into the train. "We'll see, did you get your class assignment? "
"Mm! Class 1-A. Kacchan's in the same class, right?" Oh, gods above, please let Katsuki be in the same class. The thought that he might not be didn't even occur to him until that moment, and a cold pit formed in his stomach.
He nodded, "Stuck in the same class again…" he smiled to take the sting out of it. "You are devastated...obviously…"
He successfully retained the relieved sigh, and gave Katsuki a closed-eyed smile. "What would I do without Kacchan?"
"Maybe bug other people for test answers for once?" He smirked as he finally let his charge go. "Maybe talk to some other people?" He joked. "You seriously could have been more popular, you damn nerd."
He flushed, looking away. "It looks tiring being popular, though…"
"I hope you actually learn to network… seriously." He shook his head and sighed heavily. "You are going to be terrible at selling yourself…"
He flushed a bit, looking down as he joked quietly, "Well, I just have to find a Husband that's good at that kind of stuff, right?" ...like Katsuki.
He snorted at that, "That isn't a husband, that is a publicist!" That earned the damn nerd another noogie.
"Ah! But...can't I just be at the same agency?" he protested with a soft laugh.
He snorted at that. "You need to be more self reliant, Deku. Seriously, What am I going to do with you?" The announcement for there stop came up...
What was Katsuki going to do with him? Marry him, hopefully….in a dream world. Izuku flushed again, looking away. "I...I'll try, Kacchan…"
"Good, about time for that, too" He moved to start the walk with his best friend up towards their new school. "Seriously… why does every school have to be on some damn hill…"
He chuckled, hiding his smile behind a curled hand. Some people thought Kacchan was grumpy, but Izuku saw it as cute...He pouted when things were inconvenient for him, and to the rest of the world I came off as anger….but Izuku knew better.
"Think of it as part of our daily workout!" he chirped, and quickened his pace, giving Katsuki a little something to compete against...it would take his mind off whatever underlying issue was making him pouty.
He rolled his eyes but moved to try and keep up with that idiot's seemingly boundless energy. "What are you looking forward to most?"
"Being in the same class as Kacchan!" he chirped, smiling brightly back at his surely friend.
"Not being surrounded by Pro Heroes as your teachers doing it for you?" He kicked off the ground to kick a rock off the road way. " I think you're just trying to make me feel more important than I am Deku."
Kaktsuki would have to stop, as Izuku slammed his hand against the wall in front of him, cutting off his path...and suddenly very close, glared up at him with that serious face from a few weeks ago.
"Kacchan…" he said, his voice low enough that Katsuki would really have to listen. "That's another thing that I never want to hear from you. Kacchan is...Kacchan has always been...important...and...I'll fight anyone who says otherwise, even if it's Kacchan himself!"
He raised an eyebrow and listened to Deku's tirade. "...You are really an idiot who thinks more of others than himself, you know that?"
He flushed, but he didn't pull back, his hand still flat against the wall as he stared seriously up at Katsuki. "Don't ever say that Kacchan isn't important...I'll fight you….and it's a fight I won't let myself lose…"
"Baka. I'll let you fight me when you can fight for yourself on things. You're no help to others if you don't stick up for yourself...What if the people around who depend on you can keep smiling because you are okay?" He moved to walk around Deku but stopped beside him.
At that, he pulled away from the wall, walking toward the gate again, looking down, wistfully.
"Then...I'll just keep smiling for them," he said softly, all that serious fire burned away to reveal the soft sad look he sometimes got...rarely, in Katsuki's presence...something his mother would recognize more readily than Katsuki would...but the blond boy had seen that achingly sweet sad look on Izuku's face a few times when Izuku had thought no one was watching.
He raised an eyebrow "Someone you looking forward to even more in our class?" He smiled faintly " Damn, Deku, you didn't tell me you had a crush on someone already...Someone you took the test with?"
He flushed darkly, looking away, that sad look completely gone as Katsuki embarrassed him. "I...haaa….well, to be honest...there is...someone that i… really like…" He glanced back toward Katsuki, half hoping that the angrier boy would realize it was him. But that would be too embarrassing, wouldn't it? Katsuki had been accepting of Izuku not liking girls, but...he wouldn't be so accepting of Izuku's feelings for him, the green-eyed boy was sure.
He nodded "Well, point him out to me sometime, Baka Deku….I won't begrudge you time with them you love struck dofus." He smiled as they moved to pass under the gate and towards the school proper… It...hurt a little bit inside to feel that Deku had someone he was interested in...but he couldn't expect anything less, right?
"M-Maybe someday? I'm scared that...he won't like me back…" Izuku admitted quietly, looking up at Katsuki with soft eyes, a sweet vulnerable look.
And then he cried out as his foot caught on...his other foot...and he flailed as he started to fall, face-first toward the flagstones.
He was about to respond to that...when Deku cried out….and suddenly He was catching his idiot childhood friend…"Seriously...How much bad luck do you need to get through in a day before Karma swings the other way, Aho."
He looked up at Katsuki...and that telltale shininess was glinting in his eyes...the unshed tears of a crybaby whose feelings were now hurt. He looked away, feeling guilty for liking the feeling of Katsuki's arms around him, and tried to pull back. "S-sorry...You'd think...that someone who got into UA...would be less clumsy…"
The brown-haired girl from Katsuki's test passed by, then, the natural rosiness of her cheeks a little pinker than he might remember as she hid her smile behind her hand, glancing at the entangled boys as she made her way into the school.
Katsuki siiiiighed and hefted the two of them up. "Nope, still Deku...but you're just not thinking of how you are moving….Honestly…"
He begrudgingly separated himself from the blond, straightening his uniform jacket. "Nobody's ever going to like a klutz like me," he sighed.
He snorted "Certainly not if you keep that damn attitude. No one is going to want to baby you through life, Nerd." He moved to knuckle Deku's cheeks. "You said you wanted to be the wife...not to be Mom'd through romance. Baka Deku"
He flushed slightly, his lips pursing as Katsuki smooshed his cheeks between his knuckles...and he waved Katsuki's hands away. "F-fine...fine….Then tell me...how do I make someone like me?"
"You should start by liking yourself first..or at least parts of yourself." Katsuki frowned down at him in annoyance. He then turned to walk inside.
"But...I do….like parts of myself…" he said softly, looking down as he tagged along beside Bakugou.
"Then act like it…You keep acting like you're going to shrink like someone is going to yell at you...Stop that, square your shoulders..and be heroic...Do you think All Might would act scared?"
He drew a breath for bravery, but it was more shaky than he wanted it to be…
"So...be more manly. Guys like that?"
He considered "Be more brave at least. You start using Ore, and I might start laughing though…." He smirked faintly...
He flushed darker, and squared his shoulders up, standing a little more upright...and walked with more confidence...although, really, he was mostly modeling his walk after Katsuki's own walk.
He took the lead, glancing back at Bakugou with a feigned air of assurance. "Like this?"
"Sure, just make sure to actually feel it" He chuckled…and whapped Deku's shoulders"And stop walking like me, you damn copy cat."
That took the wind out of his sails, and a faint blush returned to his cheeks. There was no way he was going to be able to be so manly. He dropped the act, looking down at the ground with a gentle smile that was more befitting of his face, reminding himself to treasure this time spent with Katsuki...because there would probably be less of it now that they were in high school. Now that they were at UA, and now that Katsuki had the coolest Quirk in the entire history of Quirks. He would be popular, and Izuku couldn't jealously hold tight to all his time…
"What are you smiling about like that?"" He got the door for them both and ushered him in "Lets go."
He didn't even have time to answer. He just looked up at Katsuki with that sweet sad smile...and then turned to step out of one chapter of his life...and into another.
