There's a Villain OC
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"You okay, Deku?"
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The world shifts out of focus as Katsuki falls to the ground, and for the briefest time, everything is dark. When he comes to, Izuku's crouched over him, so close he can feel his rushed breath on his face.
"What the…"
"Hey - You might have a concussion!" He's so insistent, so mother-fucking concerned it makes Katsuki sick.
"Stop -" He's only distracted by his finger tracking test for a second. "Stop fucking saving me, you idiot!" That gets him to back off.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened, I -"
Katsuki knows what happened. He didn't see it coming. How many years has he been doing this now? And how many times had they fought? Katsuki is better than this, right?
He can hear his mother's shrill voice in his head, "What's the point of trying at all if you don't win? Don't make a fool of yourself, Katsuki."
Fury boils up inside him, and he stands, shooting daggers at Izuku as his arms reach out to help. When he gains his height once more, Izuku bows his head slightly, looking as if Katsuki's about to lay into him.
A burning sensation not unlike shame floods Katsuki's chest, mixing with hot greedy rage and poisoning his insides. He looks up at Izuku, his eyes holding that familiar fear he's riled in him so many times. His stomach twists, and he doubles over to hurl.
"Shit! I'll get him to the nurse's station."
Katsuki's never been so glad to see Kirishima in his life. He helps Katsuki get off the field, only stopping once to let him throw up into the bushes.
/
"Well, what do we have here?" Recovery Girl shuffles over to where Katsuki sits on the edge of a cot. The little old woman is already asking probing questions about how he's feeling and where it hurts, and Katsuki answers with as few words as possible. He's a bit dizzy, maybe a slight headache but nothing to worry about.
"Deku kicked him in the head. He might have a concussion," Kirishima chimes in. Katsuki neglects his gaze. He can only imagine what he's thinking.
"You should be just fine," Recovery Girl says after giving Katsuki a kiss on the head and a pat on his clenched fist. "Try not to get hurt like that much more, will you? Can't be good for a growing young man."
"Uh-huh," he says through gritted teeth, his attention on the diagram of the cardiovascular system tacked on the wall to his left. She leaves a cup of water and a protein bar for him before giving him the parting advice of "don't fall asleep until nighttime, now!"
Katsuki digs into the peanut butter chocolate biscuit, thankful to have something to focus on. After a minute, he can feel Kirishima's thoughtful gaze and confronts him.
"Well?"
"Hm?" Kirishima's face is blank.
"Whatever you have to say, will you just say it?"
"I - What are you talking about? I wasn't gonna say anything!"
"Bullshit."
"Bro! What's the matter with you?"
"What's the matter with me?" He tosses the protein bar wrapper in the trash and stands, matching Kirishima's height. "You're the one that's been giving a hard time about -" his name inexplicably gets stuck in his throat - "Deku all fucking day. And I'm sure you've crafted yet another idiotic idea because you can't seem to wrap your dumbass brain around the fact that I have feelings for -" He stops, swallowing back that familiar feeling of hot dread. "That I don't have feelings for… Deku."
He steps back, his head a rush of adrenaline, his breath getting caught in his throat over and over. But this is nothing new. He sits down again and forces himself to take deep breaths, which are shaky at first, but more controlled after a minute.
He finally looks to Kirishima, who's been waiting to take his cue from him. "Sorry," he mumbles, almost inaudibly.
Kirishima takes a breath, nodding slightly. "Come on, let's get back."
"Actually," he leans back, taking another deep breath. "'Had enough of this for today. I'll see you later."
Kirishima leaves, and Katsuki's left with himself, the cup of water, and a thought in the back of his mind that he can't possibly push away for much longer, but he'll be damned if he doesn't try.
It was nothing - a fluke, an unexpected random occurrence at best. Katsuki's at the top of the class, and nothing can change that. Not even the bearer of One for All. But, Christ, was it humiliating.
He just has to avoid Izuku at all costs, and hopefully, that will prevent any more of these circumstances. It won't be easy, though, as he seems to be everywhere - around every corner, always answering questions in class, somehow in every room Katsuki needs to enter moments before he does, as if magically teleported there specifically to get in his way.
It doesn't help that every time he sees him, he feels that familiar pit in his stomach that only seems to grow in his absence, and the rogue thought gnaws at the edges of his mind.
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The next day is mostly uneventful. Practice is boring. Katsuki gets coupled up with some kid from Class B whose quirk is "weld," which is probably the stupidest thing Katsuki's ever seen. They face off against Hagakure and Tsunotori, and he wins easily. Not with any help from the side character, mind you, but because that's just what Katsuki does.
After school lets out, he has to go downtown to renew his hero license. It's a beautiful winter day. He tilts his head back to the bright white sky, breathing in the refreshing breeze as he walks down the street.
It's then that he sees Okazaki Akio. The last he knew, Okazaki had gone into hiding, scared off along with the rest of his lackeys a while back.
He spots him talking emphatically to some pedestrians outside of a drugstore. He waves his arms about and gestures to an old lady passing by, enticing her to come closer.
Katsuki squints, not recognizing him at first. For such a young guy, he's had a good amount of experience, participating in low-level crimes with different criminal organizations under various pseudonyms, and he looks like he's been in the business for much longer. But that same black cap and trenchcoat - it's unmistakable. Katsuki crosses the street, dodging between traffic.
"Okazaki. What are you doing here?"
He whirls around and clasps his hands together, and the small crowd he'd accumulated disperses. "It's the Grandmaster now, didn't you hear?"
Ugh. Of course he has some dumb new name. "I'll ask you again."
"Wait, I recognize you! You go to U.A., don't you?" He walks around Katsuki, looking him up and down, but he doesn't get far before Katsuki throws his fist out to block his path.
"What are you doing here, Okazaki?"
"You know that one kid, Deku, right? He still around?"
Katsuki doesn't respond. This guy is really starting to get on his nerves. If he has to get another citation for unlawful hero activity, so be it.
"Hm. He has a real… fascinating quirk, doesn't he?" Okazaki's lip curls into an unsettling smile, and a chill goes down Katsuki's spine. He speaks before he thinks.
"Stay away from him."
"So he is around? Maybe I should pay him a visit."
Katsuki growls, but when he tries to grab the guy, his hand slices through his image, slurring the colors together as it fades away.
Okazaki reappears to his right.
"Just how many quirks does he have now?" He asks, rubbing his chin in a show of curiosity.
Suddenly, a gecko-looking man with orange scaly skin slithers up beside him. "Ready to go, boss?"
"Yeah, yeah, dragon boy. Let's get out of here."
"It's The Dragon!"
Before Katsuki can get closer, they disappear in a puff of smoke.
"What, you think I'm gonna work with those nerds? I thought I was getting the case, no strings attached!" Katsuki did everything right. He didn't cause an altercation but instead reported the run-in to Aizawa. And how is he repaid? With dead weight and walking
He didn't want to involve Izuku in this. He wanted to handle it himself. But that wasn't an option, apparently, and he couldn't very well tell Aizawa why, but it wouldn't be the first time Izuku's been targeted because of his abilities.
And if he told Izuku, he would want to be on the case even more and wouldn't stop until he figured out exactly what's going on. Katsuki always hated that part of him, the part that jumps to sacrifice anything for next to nothing.
Katsuki could simply opt out of the case, but then he wouldn't be able to protect Izuku. Or perhaps he's overreacting? Okazaki probably just recognized him from one of the sports festivals or the news and more than likely knows nothing about One for All.
Then again, it's better safe than sorry, and Katsuki won't stand to make any more mistakes.
"I don't have time to argue with you. Get out of my office."
Katsuki tries to hold his own against Aizawa's determinedly tired gaze, but there's nothing he can say, so he leaves.
"Wait!"
Izuku follows behind him, down the hallway, and around the corner, and Katsuki's sure he won't leave him alone until he says what he needs to say, so he wills himself to turn around, a sudden wall for Izuku to run into, and he's hit with the vanilla-coconut scent of his shampoo.
"What?" He demands, trying to muscle past the queasiness in his stomach.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning?" He looks up at him with his big puppy-dog eyes, his lip almost pouted. Katsuki has got to get out of here.
"Fine."
/
He goes through the evening on autopilot, only half-there when he and his friends weight-train until dinner, silently going through the motions while keeping any and all thoughts at bay. They stop trying to get his attention, getting the hint after he softly responds with "whatever" for the fifth time.
Afterward, Katsuki decides to go straight to bed, as is his practice. But when he goes to brush his teeth, he's out of toothpaste, and he has to go next door to ask if Kirishima has any.
"Nope, must've left it with Mina."
Katsuki scoffs and turns on his heel to head downstairs.
He peeks his head inside the washrooms to see Izuku brushing his teeth, his mouth all foamy in the corners. He's wearing an old pair of sweatpants and his favorite hoodie - Katsuki recognizes it because he sees him wear it way too often.
Izuku spots him in the mirror at first, and his face lights up. Katsuki almost has to remind himself to breathe.
"Hi!" He turns to greet him, beaming from ear to ear despite the toothbrush lodged in his mouth. He leans over to spit. "What's up?"
It takes a second for Katsuki to remember why he's here. "Toothpaste?"
Izuku nods, grabbing a tube off of the counter with his other hand and waving it at him.
"It's my lucky day," Katsuki croaks out as he walks over. Luckily, Izuku doesn't seem to notice.
He turns on the tap to wet his toothbrush, and then, to his own horror, he holds it out to Izuku. There's a flash of confusion on Izuku's face before Katsuki snaps his hand back and grabs the tube himself, squeezing out a nice big glob onto his toothbrush, then ignoring Izuku's outstretched hand and setting it on the counter.
Izuku giggles, sticking his toothbrush in his mouth again. Katsuki can't look at him, but in the mirror is his beet-red face, mocking him, so he focuses on the ceiling.
"Hey." Izuku talks with a full mouth again, but Katsuki can understand what he's saying. "You looked cool out there today."
"Fuck yeah, I did," He spits. "You were watching me?"
"'Course."
The simple word makes Katsuki's heart constrict, and he has to stop the corners of his mouth from spreading into a grin.
When Izuku finishes brushing his teeth, he spends a moment looking at himself in the mirror. He practices his smile - the smile, his hero smile - just like Katsuki's seen a thousand times before. When he was younger, he was all talk, you know, about being the next greatest hero. And now… he almost fits the part.
Izuku catches him looking. "What?"
"What?"
"I don't know, I -"
"I was thinking about the other day."
"Oh?"
Katsuki shifts his weight between his feet a few times, trying to find the right words, looking at Izuku in the mirror. "It just freaked me out that someone could use… me… against… someone." His voice is low.
"Heh, yeah…" He nods. "Don't worry. I won't fall for it."
Right, because real heroes aren't so brainless as to take their attention off the goal for even a second. They don't let themselves get distracted by stupid bullshit like Katsuki had.
When he looks up again, Izuku's looking at him with a familiar unreadable expression. Katsuki raises his eyebrows in question, and Izuku shakes it off in a half-shrug, turning back to the mirror again. God, can't he ever just say what's on his mind? The whole thing makes Katsuki itch between the shoulder blades.
The moment's gone in an instant as Izuku whips out his All-Might impression, contorting his face into a huge goofy grin. Katsuki can't help but laugh, and Izuku laughs, too.
Katsuki is rinsing his mouth when he realizes that Izuku's taken a couple of steps toward him. His heart beats in his ears as he turns to face him, meeting his gaze - always so bright, open, honest, and green.
He takes another step, coming close, too close, and Katsuki - he's unbearably sober this time. His breath is shallow, his hands crave something he can't put words to, and his sides ache.
"For you," Izuku mumbles, offering the tube of toothpaste between them.
Katsuki brings his hand to Izuku's, his fingertips brushing against his, scattering electricity over his forearm like a spiderweb. He doesn't dare meet Izuku's eyes as he gently takes the toothpaste from him, his heart a lump in his throat.
"I have extras back in my room," Izuku says. He takes a quick breath in and spins around, then heads toward the exit. "G'night, Kacchan."
Katsuki looks down at the toothpaste for a very long moment. When he finally turns to the mirror, he sees his gaping mouth accompanied by his cheeks stained red, and he fights the urge to rip the sink right off the wall.
He replays the events in his mind; Izuku's smile, his laugh, his eyes, so close, close enough he could have - could have what?
"Fuck." Katsuki swears at himself in the mirror. "Fuck!"
"You okay, Bakubro?" Kaminari peaks his head in with a grin on his face. It instantly falls when he sees Katsuki's scowl.
"Get out!"
"Yup!"
Katsuki didn't mean to snap at dunce face, but, if he's honest, he thought Izuku had come back, and for a brief moment, his heart soared.
It all hits him like a tidal wave, and he's hanging on by the edges of the sink, trying to steady his breathing. He expects to puke right then and there, but he doesn't.
Why, out of everyone, is it Deku? Because of course it is, because of course, it is.
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I really loved writing this chapter... Now we get into the real meat of it and I'm absolutely Stoked !
Also I polished the first chapters here and I'm gonna make sure I take the time to really go through my words before posting them...
Anyway hope y'all liked it! I'll update in a week or two! Have a nice week!