When the address was first sent to him, horrible punctuation and all, Katsuki had to swallow the bile rising in his throat. He hurried to confirm his suspicions online. Triple-checked all the mapping applications he had in some pathetic hope that he was mistaken but of course, he was never all pointed towards the culprit in a mocking sequence.
A small town off to the side of Shizuoka Prefecture, there was nothing much to boast about. Low-middle class was the best way to describe it. With its high criminal activity rate and schools filled with mostly drop-outs who amounted to nothing, it was impressive that this was the hometown that birthed the number five hero. More unheard of is how a kid with such an amazing quirk didn't break headlines the second itmanifested.
Or perhaps Izuku wasn't lying about being quirk less at one point. Slamming his laptop closed, Katsuki leaned back in his chair to count cracks on the ceiling. Maybe the town has changed since then, taken out that stick that everyone collectively had up their ass. He could only sneer and sarcastically wish.
But as he boarded the subway from downtown to uptown, the hearty families of four with kids that screamed every five minutes got off one by one. Rich coats of real animal fur made way for ragged sweaters worn for god only knows how many times that week, the hustle of the city changing to the quiet suffering of people barely making ends meet. Katsuki stuck out like a sore thumb in a dark shirt that he only washed yesterday and necklace with a skull on it that shitty-hair had given to him as a birthday gift.
Luckily, no one tried to mug him. Good. He didn't need to punch any assholes in the face though, considering Izuku's insistence on getting the best dress, the best ring, and the best venue, he had no flying fuck of an idea why the hopeless romantic would want his honeymoon to be in such a dump. Preparing himself to rattle on these exact sentiments to the nerd, Katsuki stomped off the correct station while ignoring the traitorous excitement in his heart at the prospect of seeing him again. Because fuck. The day Katsuki let something as stupid as a crush stop him from telling someone exactly how much of a moron they were would be the day Ashido's skin turned silver.
Sure enough, Izuku was waiting for him on the other side of the gate in a cap that covered his hair and shades hiding his very green eyes. It was some attempt to keep his identity secret, Katsuki would give him that, but his efforts were like trying to cover a bad wallpaper with posters. It was still bad wallpaper. The blond was angry to admitthat he'd recognize the nerd's damn fidgeting- annoying but endearing- from across the room. Honestly, the doctor wasn't even wearing a disguise yet he was the one to spot Izuku first. He wasn't sure who to call the loser in this voice in the back of his head whispered that it was Katsuki Bakugou himself.
Cutting off that train of thought nicely, Katsuki marched right up to the ex-symbol of hope and landed a well-aimed smack that had the other's hat falling to the floor.
Izuku fumbled, quick to recover by whirling around to grab onto Katsuki's wrist in retaliation. However, hard eyes softened immediately on noticing who it was. "K-Kacchan! You-" he let out a breath, shoulders relaxing, "you came."
'Of course I did' was what Katsuki wanted to say. But the thought fizzled out as soon as it was born, he didn't have the privilege to stake that claim anymore. So instead, he grunted noncommittedly. Making a show out of eyeing an uncleaned soda stain on the subway floor, he deadpanned. "Let's get this over with. You're not off to a good start, Midoriya."
Green curls went flying as his companion collected his hat from the ground. The hero's relief at seeing him from a moment ago was short-lived, quickly transforming into a somber expression. "I have a reason for choosing this place, Kacchan. You'll see."
And with that, Katsuki was swept up in a storm of nostalgia. Fences made of brick and rusting iron greeted them upon stepping out into the neighborhood. The concrete by their shoes remained unrepaired, the familiar graffiti from those older kids next door still littered the sidewalks in obscene doodles. A newspaper boy rode past them with an exhausted puff. Mothers with way too many children or dogs following behind travelled the opposite direction. It was unsettling, but still smelled reminiscent of childhood.
When they finally stopped, Izuku hadn't said a single word. Similar to the state that the blond was in, he was busy taking in the sights with a wistful smile on his lips. Katsuki swallowed. So goddamn distracted, he hadn't noticed that Izuku still held that gentle grip on the blond's wrist from his little prank earlier the entire walk, until it fell away. Almost instantly, something shitty in Katsuki's chest missed the warmth. Something shitty that deserved to be chucked into the stratosphere.
By the time he snapped out of it, Izuku had already discarded his cap and glasses on a nearby bench in exchange for taking a seat by the low-hanging swings. They were at a park, empty and hidden behind the much nicer one closer to the river, but still standing strong. There were no cues but Katsuki picked up that the other wanted him to join him. Steeling himself for what was to come, Katsuki dropped into the swing next to the hero, scowling at the slide.
Minutes passed with the two just sitting there. It would've been nice if Katsuki was alone but no, the presence of the man beside him left a burning sensation across that side of his resolved to focus on something else. A bird was nesting its children, the chicks attempting to fly for the first time when Izuku broke the ice. "I want to show you something."
Before Katsuki could gift that comment with a remark, he snapped his mouth shut when he saw what Izuku was doing. A scarred right arm gently helped its injured twin out of the sling, careful not to strain the muscles. With a weak grip and assistance, the rotting chains of the swing were held by shaking fingers, one set from nerves and the other from injury. Red shoes took a step back on the sand beneath them before finally, Izuku lifted off from the ground in a fumbling forty-degree swing.
It was a pathetic little motion. He didn't even fly straight, knees almost knocking into the blond and body swaying in an awkward arc before Izuku stopped himself with an exasperated sigh. Soles dug into the sand, he sent Katsuki an embarrassed smile.
Okay, what the fuck was that? "What the fuck was that?"
Unfazed by narrowed red gaze, Izuku shrugged. "I haven't been able to go on a swing for seven years. I'm a little rusty."
He couldn't help making a jab. "Yeah, no shit."
And Katsuki swears that insult shouldn't have made the nerd fucking beam at him like he was the answer to world hunger. He swears that his intention wasn't for Izuku to hit him with that cursed laugh that now sounded so much sweeter than it did a month ago. Some entity out there had mercy though, for the laugh didn't last very long. It died out just the same as Katsuki's empathy for heroes did so long ago. Good, keep your shitty laugh that jingles away from him.
But alas, being the victim of green eyes looking at him so intently wasn't any better. "When I first got injured six years ago, I came home to be with my mom for a little bit. It was the stress. I hated myself so much for leading Atsuko on again, for becoming the symbol of hope when I had no idea what that meant, that I overworked myself."
Not knowing where this was going, Katsuki unfurled his own hand from his lap to grip at the chains. His palms needed something cool to stave off the sudden heat in his cheeks. Izuku continued. "For the next few days, I just… existed. I went around, visiting places Atsuko and Igrew up in to try and rekindle my love for her and my passion for being a hero that I had as a kid. It sounds dumb. But when I sat at this very swing and couldn't even play on it anymore because of my elbow, I broke down and cried."
"That's not dumb." Katsuki found himself saying before he could stop. Every patient he's had felt that way at one point. "You lost a part- several parts of yourself, Deku. You weren't bitching because you scrapped your knee or some shit."
"Right," his companion nodded, sight not leaving the outline of the man beside him. "But I didn't know that back then. Crying never was a weakness, Kacchan. It took me way too long to realize that, realize that this-" Here, Izuku made a show of performing a perfect swing this time, although it was significantly shorter than his previous one, barely an inch off the sand. "-didn't define me as a hero or a person. It never was only about what I can do, but also what I hoped to achieve. What I wanted to do, and what being the symbol of hope meant to me."
And hearing this, Katsuki couldn't stop the warmth that spread in his heart if he held it at gunpoint. It was impossible. He knew that this feeling was different from the usual palpitations his chest went into whenever Izuku crossed his mind; different from the side effects of being in love. A weightlessness that he couldn't define.
Before he could dwell on it further, Izuku laughed, shaky and wet-sounding. "And it took getting the ability to sit here and swing again to realize that." His tone sounded increasingly full as he went on, mouth running without any control."It took you giving all of that back to me, you knocking me around, to accept it. Kacchan, I-…"
Izuku cut himself off then, voice dying in his mouth before he clamped it shut and shook his head. It wasn't time for that yet. Instead, he slipped his arm back in the sling, getting to his feet with a tiny stretch that had the blond checking on the mother bird whose chicks were beginning to take flight.
"Onto the next stop, right?" Katsuki's head snapped back. Izuku was leaning down in front of him, discarded hat and glasses in his the sun, he helda scarred right hand out to him. The rays of light were blinding him from some spot just above his curly green head. And like- what the shit, the sun was definitely out to get Katsuki. With the other's perfect smile and flushed freckled face, it lit his silhouette up in an ethereal glow.
Cheeks steaming at the sight, the angry doctor stood up without the assistance, ignoring the hand in favor of marching ahead. His heels kicked up sand in the process. Mind in disarray, still befuddled over why Deku called him out here in the first place, he pushed all those feelings back. This unrequited bullshit needed to stop. This entire talk about dreams and happiness needed to stop. He didn't need Izuku's hand to help him up from crushed goals and a broken heart. "Yeah, whatever."
The walk to their second destination wasn't quite as intimate as the first one. Unlike before, Katsuki checked that both his palms were jammed in his pockets and far the fuck away from whatever feely touch Izuku had up his sleeve next. Gaze trained on anywhere but his companion, he halted in his steps when they crossed over a bridge and passed through a field of daffodils. Children not even tall enough to reach Katsuki's waist treaded surprisingly solemnly across the bank, paying their respects to a multitude of sticks stuck crookedly into the mud.
Really, Katsuki wouldn't have kept walking even if he wanted to. Making a sharp turn at the familiar sight, he made an uncharacteristic dash in search of one particular stick surrounded by painted rocks. Izuku noticed his lack of presence right away, running after him in confusion. "Kacchan, what's wrong?"
The blond didn't answer, only let the memories flow through him with vice intensity. Memories of his four-year-old hands covered in paint and attempting to write on the smooth gravel pumped his adrenaline up further. Memories of bringing the limp furry body to the side of the road with his parents to say farewell for the last time had his head turning sporadically. Finally, between overgrown bushes and hidden beneath one single daffodil sprouting out from between the rocks, lay what he was looking for.
Izuku, for all that training with his quirk, managed to hold back from using it in his pursuit of the blond. Katsuki offhandedly noted the sound of footsteps coming up from behind him before fading out, a sharp intake of breath sounding when the hero read the messy words written on the rocks. They were almost illegible, years of rain washing away the ink, but the scrawl spelling out the name of Katsuki's first puppy was still clear as day. "Oh."
The blond snorted, brushing up closer to gently touch the flower with a bit of wonder. "Told you his name was Lord Murder the Second, what did you expect?"
But Izuku's mind was stuck on something else. "You used to live here too?"
"I moved away when I was four." The blond shrugged, preoccupied by rearranging the grave into a more organized state. Seeing the leaves, the familiar dirt that was mixed with fur hit some chord in his head.
That seemed to be enough of an answer for now, as Izuku made himself a spot next to him to bow at the grave in respect. "How old were they?"
"Four years, same as me."
The number setting off alarms, green eyes shot back to him in bewilderment. "I thought dogs had a life span of around ten to thirteen years?"
"They do." Katsuki stated with a dry voice. The stab of past turmoil made him feel too tired to keep this bit of information secret. The reality of everything, of where he belonged in society, sunk into him like a blade."It was after the doctor discovered I had two toe joints. Lord Murder was killed shortly after that by one of the neighbors. We couldn't prove anything. My folks feared for our lives and packed up our bags the next day." After deeming the rocks acceptable, he stood up from his position near the bank to send Izuku a pointed look. "You want my input? This town is shit. It's the worst place you could have a honeymoon in."
A pause fell over them, one that felt heavy, before Izuku sprung to his feet as well. He shook his head. "That's not true, Kacchan."
Seriously, Deku needed to shut up. He had no business spewing that nonsense when he had an amazing quirk from birth. Katsuki met him halfway, glaring daggers at the hero like he was a disgrace to this earth. "Do you know how many bastards around these parts kept trying to convince my old hag of a mom to sleep with them and leave us?!" He spat. Those with quirks didn't form families with those lacking quirks. No one wanted to risk obsolete children. "I was right there in the same room and couldn't do a single fucking thing!"
The familiar tinge of tears coated Izuku's eyes at hearing this, but he didn't back down. "That- That doesn't mean this town is awful! You still grew up in it, Kacchan. It helped to make you who you are today. Don't you have any good memories too?"
"No, I fucking don't." Katsuki said without any hesitation. The abruptness of such a response had the other reeling back the slightest bit. This entire thing was pointless. He should've just spoke up what he meant from the beginning, but he knew the nerd wouldn't accept an answer as extreme as 'your town is crap' without good justification. Well, a dead puppy, a ruined childhood, and a mother mentally scarred was a good justification. With that bitter thought, Katsuki made to walk back to the subway. "I already told you what I think about your honeymoon so I don't owe you squat. I'm going home-"
"WAIT!"
No one could blame the blond for nearly jumping a foot in the air at the feeling of those very same scarred arms which he fantasized wrapping around his middle suddenly hugging him from behind, effectively stopping him in his tracks.
Katsuki saw red.
Swinging back around, he aimed a punch right at Izuku's nose. But the hero side-stepped in time, his uninjured hand leaving their spot around the blond to catch his fist in a firm grip. Katsuki seethed, felt dizzy when the other disobeyed his physical therapy regime to pull him close again with his bandaged that infatuation settling into his cheeks in exchange for anger, anger at this entire situation when he felt the spark of green lightning keeping his body in place.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, DEKU!"
"I'm sorry!" Izuku yelled back, but didn't let go. "I-I wanted to show you more, but please let me take you to one last spot?! Hey-" At the sting of Katsuki slapping him away with his other palm, he flinched yet his hold remained steady. Those tears from before truly fell this time, an ugly stream staining his freckles and the slice of rejection soaking his soul. "Kacchan."
Shit.
If someone had Katsuki tied to a chair and threatened to torture him within an inch of his life unless he could explain what in Izuku's voice suddenly had him stopping, stop resisting, he'd be bloodied beyond recognition. Against the screeching in his mind, the blond sagged. He'd let this happen, ride out this last little walk with his crush if it would make Izuku happy for some unfathomable reason.
At seeing the other comply, some switch was flipped in that green head which sent Izuku flying back a good three meters away from him with flushed ears. "Oh my god, I just grabbed onto you all of a sudden! I'm so sorry-" But recoiled at the sudden searing pain coating his arm as soon as One for All was turned off. Izuku was on his knees in a second, biting his lip in agony.
"Deku!" Katsuki crossed the few steps bridging between them to remove the limb from where it was tucked between the man's chest and legs. Practiced fingers pressed into whatever nerves he could locate past the white expanse, urging the other to cease twitching. "Stop straining it, you idiot! Relax!"
A few breaths later, Izuku managed to work past the ache to follow the blond's instructions and slowly withdraw his quirk. The pain spiked a brief moment before hazing over into a dull numbness. He let out a breath, allowing the doctor to slowly work his muscles back into the sling with an enraged glare.
"You are such a brainless half-wit fuck, you piece of impulsive shit!" To ensure the hero wouldn't slip out again, he flattened the sling to its full length reaching above the point of Izuku's elbow and halfway covering his bicep. "I can't believe you graduated with this much disregard for your own goddamn health then have the balls to sit here lecturing me about myself-"
His aggravation fizzled away when the hero suddenly fell forward. Izuku's face landed in the juncture between Katsuki's neck and shoulder in a single motion, sending the recipient into shock. The hero breathed in once, taking in the scent of spice, before speaking again. "Thanks for staying, Kacchan."
With the softness of green tickling his chin, Katsuki thanked all high heavens that he had more control over his reflex that simply pushed Izuku away gently this time instead of decking him in the nose. Cheeks red, Katsuki will have you know that he prided himself in never stuttering in his life up until that point. Fuck love for turning him into a pathetic teenager. "J-just hurry up and sh-show me the last place, nerd!I doubt it'll change my opinion but give it a damn shot."
Izuku chirped in the affirmative, eyes alight again in what his companion could only describe as idiocy. An idiocy that struck him as so endearing at that moment, but that's something the blond would never admit. That Izuku losing complete control and any inhibitions to leap at Katsuki made him both frustrated and fond of the hero's impulsive nature. That Izuku failing to back down from a challenge while still being so compassionate, did weird-ass things to his head. They were all little secrets piling on each other that Katsuki added to the jar that was his heart.
Given that this was Izuku's big last chance to convince Katsuki that this honeymoon wasn't complete garbage, he expected some grandiose parade of elephants on circus balls and clowns flipping on the trapeze. So when the hero stopped, smack dab in the middle of a street between an intersection that looked like the intersection to the right of it, which in turn also looked like the intersection to the right of that one, he was baffled. Unexpectedly, the hero's voice was strong and sure when he gestured to the wide expanse of nothing. "This is it."
Blinking wildly, Katsuki looked around for any catch that he was missing. The street was deserted, the two of them being the only souls occupying it. Perhaps someone died here once and the chalk markings were still around. Maybe there was some badass fight that went down on the street. Try as he might, he didn't spot anything up until when Izuku giggled.
"Kacchan, this is where All Might told me that I could be a hero."
Posture stiff, he tried to imagine the heroic form of All Might swooping between buildings, tried to imagine those words being spoken to him back when he was young and trying to become that very thing. "…Why?"
"Remember when I told you that I was quirk less? I asked him earlier that day if I could be a hero even without one; he said no." Izuku was quick to continue so Katsuki wouldn't blow up. "But then he saw how I jumped in to save Atsuko from the sludge monster, and said that my complete devotion to saving lives was what he was looking for in a successor. He…" Izuku paused, took a deep inhale, knowing that he couldn't back down. "He gave me his quirk, Kacchan. The quirk that every symbol has had since the beginning of quirks."
Katsuki froze. "You…" He swallowed. Shock, surprise, anger, jealousy all permeated and blinded his vision as his analytical mind made the connections all at once. The severity of this secret being out and ruining generations of what could be the future of the world nearly knocked him off his feet. "You better be messing with me right now! I swear, Deku…!Do you have any self-preservation? I could blab to fuck-knows-who right now and you'd be done as a hero! SHIT, deku- what the fuck-"
"That's why I'm telling you," Izuku cut him off calmly. "Kacchan, not even my mom or Atsuko or Shouto or Ochaco know. You're the only one I've ever revealed this to because you have to know no matter what. Because then I can tell you everything about how I feel about you honestly."
Katsuki shut his mouth at that, teeth clanging together painfully. If Izuku noticed his stiff posture, he didn't comment on it, only threw more at him like the moron he was- thanks a lot for that by the way, Deku.
"I'm upholding nine generations of humanity's hope in my palm. I mean, who would trust someone quirk less with that kind of responsibility? All Might saw something in me, and that something was my one-track mind on saving as many people as I could." The story, although sweet, quickly took a turn for the worse. His brow began furrowing accordingly by the next stream of words."I thought everything else about me was worthless, so I hung onto it and magnified it. I pushed myself to the limit to rescue everyone. And, well-" Izuku gestured to his arm, smile turning sad. "I couldn't make it even then, couldn't make it past the fifth spot, overworked myself until my limb stopped listening, and had to start lying about my injury."
"I think… some part of me didn't want my arm to get better." This admittance seemed so out of line, but wouldn't be the first time Katsuki has heard it from someone."If it recovered fully, it meant I couldn't use it as an excuse anymore for not being at the top like All Might was. You said that most cases of this injury heal on their own with therapy, right? Mine didn't."
Katsuki vaguely remembered studying the nocebo effect back in graduate school. While the placebo effect could trick you into getting better, the nocebo effect could trick others into thinking they were dying. It was a torture method from Mongolia, where prisoners would be strapped in a room and forced to wear a blindfold with nothing but the sound of water dripping out of a faucet to accompany them. They were made to believe that the dripping was coming from a stab to the artery in their neck, when in reality they were inflicted with nothing but a small scratch. The prisoner that this was experimented on died within six minutes, killed by nothing but thepsychological belief that he was dying.
If Izuku truly didn't believe his arm would heal or truly didn't want it to heal, it's possible that it simply wouldn't. Heroes probably learned the concept of nocebo effect back in school as well. It was a trick that the ex-symbol had subconsciously used without meaning to. Izuku seemed to have realized it himself, a sense of guilt clouding his eyes.
"I didn't thirst to be number one like everyone else did. I mean, why did I need to be? I didn't think it was necessary back then as long as other, better heroes were out there and I could maintain the public's sense of hope. As long as I was just doing what I can."A stray cat passed from a ledge adjacent to them but otherwise, the streets remained quiet for the confessions. "So it was like that for a while. I never admitted to myself that punching a guy in the face who deserved it felt good, because the public expected me to always be the one who showed sympathy to the guy who was raping his daughter or a villain who tortured their own family for money. That's what being a hero was like to me."
"But," Izuku cut off his somber tone for a harder one, so grounded that it had Katsuki's full attention. Green eyes filled with resolve had that familiar warmth in his stomach from the park that he couldn't identify firing off again. It was a dangerous sensation that consumed him. "I want to win now. After meeting you, I realized it was okay to want to face off with really strong enemies and defeat them by the skin of my teeth. I want to kick Shouto-kun out of his spot, I won't let Ochaco catch up, I will tackle the big three head-on."
"It- It never was only about what I can do but also what I want to achieve. Not what the symbol of hope should do, or All Might's definition of it, but what it means to me." Izuku repeated those lines. Just when that feeling that was suffocating Katsuki's very being hit its peak, the hero turned to him, his entire being lit with a determined air. "You saved me. Not just as a doctor but as a person, my image of victory is you. You're my hero, Kacchan."
And Katsuki, overwhelmed by everything, by the weight of All Might's secret to that unidentifiable emotion at seeing Izuku so driven, by the rage that made him give up being a hero to having someone look at him with such genuine care for a quirk less loser, cried. Big fat fucking tears leaked from his eyelids faster than the blond could comprehend their existence or stop them. He wiped his eyes furiously with his dark sleeve but found no relief, only release.
Oh, so that's what that damned feeling was. It was happiness.
Izuku is by his side in a second, that stupid arm wrapped around him once again. This time, Katsuki doesn't push him away. Somewhere far in his head, he registers the other's scarred fingers running through his blond hair comfortingly. "Kacchan, are you mad at me?"
"Freaking HELL!" He screeches through a choked sob, feeling Izuku's warmth spread to him. "I'm happy for you, you goddamn shitty Deku!" But devolves into more bawls, not understanding where any of this was coming from, and not being able to do anything but bury his ruined face inside the taller man's collar to hide it.
Contrary to what Katsuki saw as a gross display, the other smiled softly. Fondness radiating off him in waves, Izuku only tightened his hold. "See, Kacchan? Saving people- saving me- is something that you can want and be happy about too, not just being number one. You can do both as a doctor. I'll do both as a hero."
Shaking uncontrollably, the sheer mass of all these realizations hitting him at once, Katsuki could only nod. Nod and complain. "This isn't me, Deku." He hiccupped between growls. "I'm supposed to be a heartless doctor who abandons everything to win-" Another bought of choking on his own snot, he breathed it all back in with a curse. "-and you're doing all this shit to fuck up my life!"
But the hero remained unfazed, only stood still to allow the blond to cry himself out on the collar of his shirt. Allowed their chests to press together, feeling both of their heartbeats reacting to one another in timed rhythms. Protects Katsuki from the rest of the world as he knows that the man who stole his heart is evolving into a different person. It feels like hours pass with the two of them next to each other like this yet Izuku wouldn't trade it for anything.
Eventually, good things come to an end. Katsuki only being able to handle a certain quota of weakness in one year, shoved the other off with swollen eyes. His voice was still wet but just as sharp as ever. "If you tell anyone that I bawled like a fucking baby, then you'd better hope that precious half of the nerd collection you told me about sitting in your mom's house isn't in pieces before we leave."
"Sure, Kacchan." But Izuku isn't really listening. Now separated by the barest amount, he has room to bring up his right hand to cup the blond's cheek. A calloused thumb brushes into stray tears as he admires the way each strand of pale hair seemed to glow like strands of gold. Heart in his throat, he speaks again but isn't fully there. "Sorry for guilt-tripping you into coming."
Once again, Katsuki disobeys his brain telling him to push away. He snorts. "Sorry for ditching you at your surgery."
Neither of them notices how the other seems to be getting closer, too absorbed in the red and green of vulnerable pupils. Izuku whispers. "Sorry for almost driving us off a cliff."
"Sorry for crashing your dumbass wed-"
Katsuki doesn't get to finish his sentence, for Izuku's lips on his like a feather touching to earth.
The kiss doesn't register at first. Thoughts of how the fuck this was supposed to go are uprooted and shoved to the side in exchange for finally allowing himself to indulge in the feeling of Izuku's soft green curls between his fingertips. It wasn't a very Katsuki Bakugou-like kiss, tender rather than hateful or rough like one would expect from him. Innocent instead of possessive in every way, the slight sliding of lips making his heart sing instead of scream. But it's Deku, and everything about Deku challenged and changed him in unpredictable ways.
When they pull apart, Izuku's eyes are on fire. The hand holding him by the hip (when the hell did it get there) pulls Katsuki closer so their foreheads touch. That unruly hair tangling with his, freckled cheek flushed and eyes dreamy, Izuku speaks quietly. "Kacchan."
His mind is still reeling a bit. "What."
"I really, really like you. Go out with me?"
And, fuck. Katsuki needs to sit down somewhere. The weight of his not-so-unrequited feelings surge through his soul without any remorse. He's been through too many revelations and life-changing words for one day to think properly. He was high, high on Izuku and bullshit love and renewed goals towards being a doctor. And-
Katsuki, you can't do anything. You're quirk less.
Not even the punch of his father's words was working in bringing it down.
Not even the cold calculating gaze of all the heroes who looked at him and deemed his family as criminals could aim a gun properly to hit him.
Not even the corpse of his first dog, although persistent and gathering up a cannon to shoot him down, could manage to reach the altitude that Katsuki felt he was flying.
Not when Izuku was looking at him like that, like he was his entire world.
Speaking of Izuku, it was about damn time he answered the nerd. The full minute he stayed unmoving, the flighty drunk look in the other's eyes had slowly morphed into nervousness. Katsuki was an asshole so he laughed at Izuku's panic, heart afloat. He smirked, poking the hero's forehead away with his answer.
"What the fuck else would we do?"
Izuku, the poor lonely man who finally found love couldn't help it, he pounced at Katsuki the very second his confession was accepted. Aiming for another kiss, the hero whined when his mouth only met a quick palm aggressively pushing him away. "K-Kacchan…"
At seeing the other's eagerness, an embarrassing shade of red dominated the blond's face. He sneered, channeling as much irritation as he could into his screams. "Shut up, Deku! Just- just give me a minute, damn it!"
The ex-symbol does back off the slightest, curious eyes raking over Katsuki's flustered form in confusion. After an awkward moment of nothing, a realization sinks in. "Was that your first kiss?"
At the responding glare, Izuku can only figure out that he's correct.
"Wipe that grin off your face."
No, that's not a fair command. There's no way Izuku could follow it with any sincerity. "But Kacchan, I'm your first kiss." He sings, voice sweet. A first kiss on their first honeymoon. "I can't wait to be your first everything."
There it was, what little amount Katsuki managed to calm down was knocked away in a second and with no effort, his skin blushing bright red once again. Shitty Deku doing alien things to him. "You fucking pervert."
Izuku only laughs and, dodging cunningly past the other's fists, steals another kiss.
