"Katsumi-san."
Bakugou Katsumi turned her head to look at her classmate, begrudgingly pulling her attention away from the one-hundred-and-eighty-pound bar she was bench pressing and toward her class president. She didn't feel particularly bad about letting her annoyance show; Ponytail was probably just here nag at her, anyways. They rarely interacted at all, and most of the time, she was just trying to scold Katsumi about her behavior.
"What?" Katsumi grunted, before turning her focus back towards the bar as she resumed her reps. She'd probably get a scolding for her disrespect, but she had a workout to finish. She wasn't just going to take a break to chat in the middle of it. That would ruin the point of working out in the first place. If Miss Class President wanted to talk, she could talk while Katsumi lifted her damn weights.
"You shouldn't be lifting weights that heavy without a spotter, you know," Yaoyorozu Momo scolded her with a sigh. "It's not safe. You could get seriously hurt."
Katsumi scoffed, not bothering to respond, instead continuing to stubbornly complete her reps, breathing in tandem with the raising and lowering of the bar. Yaoyorozu could say what she came here to say, or she could leave. Katsumi didn't care either way.
The silence persisted between them for a few moments before Momo eventually caved and moved behind her, positioning herself to spot Katsumi while she finished up her set.
"Hoh?" Katsumi smirked, pausing her reps and looking Momo in the eye with a smirk. "Looking to get a workout in, Ponytail?"
"…I've been slacking, lately," Yaoyorozu admitted, embarrassed. "I need to train harder. I don't think I'm as strong as I could be."
"Yeah, birdbrain fuckin' rocked you in the ring."
Momo's shoulders dropped, and she adopted that stupid, self-pitying woe-is-me look that Katsumi hated. Yaoyorozu was a damn recommendation student. She was better than that.
"Oi. Ponytail. Knock it off. You're gonna be a hero, aren't you?" Katsumi paused to take a deep breath, lowering the bar and readjusting her grip for her last couple of reps. "You plan to sit there feeling sorry about yourself when you're supposed on the streets taking down villains? If that's your plan, then you should quit now. If not, suck it up and get better. Your self-pity bullshit pisses me off."
Katsumi set the barbell back on the rack, finished with her set. She sat up and turned to look at Momo, whose eyes already looked a little brighter, probably feeling all happy or inspired or some other mushy shit that she didn't care to think about. But she did look like she was finally done feeling sorry for herself, so at least Katsumi didn't have to deal with that anymore.
She jerked her head towards the barbell that she just set down. "You want a turn?"
"I haven't done my stretches yet," Yaoyorozu admitted. Katsumi groaned in exasperation, but it couldn't be helped. A workout not done properly wasn't worth doing, anyway.
"Fine. Do 'em fast, I don't wanna be here all day."
She ended up joining Momo in stretching, if only to keep her muscles active. They were both silent through their warm-up, though likely for different reasons. Once they had completed their stretches, Katsumi moved back to the barbell and removed a couple of the plates, deciding that it would be better for Momo to start at one hundred pounds and work her way up from there if she found that amount of weight too easy.
Yaoyorozu assumed proper position, lying on her back, keeping her shoulders straight and her arms up, and Katsumi helped steady the barbell until Momo had a good grip on the steel beam. She gave Katsumi a nod, took a deep breath and Katsumi let go, letting Momo slowly lower the barbell down to her chest and begin her reps.
Katsumi counted off each repetition for Momo so that she would only have to focus on her form and her breathing. She was performing excellently, Katsumi noted, though she expected that Ponytail would never be satisfied with mediocre form from herself. She seemed like a real perfectionist, which was probably why she had looked so depressed since the sports festival ended. Rich girl probably had some nice tutors that always praised her, but once a real battle started, she had frozen up and found out she wasn't actually as good as she thought she was.
Katsumi snorted to herself lightly. That was probably why Momo was asking for her help, of all people.
"That's thirty," she told Yaoyorozu. "Take a breather."
Momo sighed, dropping the bar back onto the rack with a loud clack. She took a minute to roll her shoulders and catch her breath, keeping her muscles loose, before sitting up and moving to the dumbbells alongside Katsumi. Both of them picked up decently sized weights, Katsumi's being one step heavier, and they each set one knee on their respective workout bench before bending down and beginning to work out their triceps and back muscles.
"Uhm, Bakugou-san," Yaoyorozu began, speaking between deep, even breaths as she pulled her dumbbell from the floor to her shoulder, then extended her arm out horizontally before slowly lowering the weight back to the floor, flushing with exertion the whole time. "What areas do you think I could, um, improve in, concerning real combat?"
Katsumi glanced over to her, ignoring the burning feeling in her muscles from her own workout. She was sweating profusely, further exacerbated by her quirk, though she wasn't overexerting herself by any means. She may have been running hot, but she kept her breathing even and under control, despite the fact that she was using heavier weights than usual.
Anger was a powerful motivator.
"You're slow," she told Yaoyorozu after thinking it over for a bit. "Your quirk takes too long to use, and you spend way too much time just standing there and thinking, so you're extra slow. Birdbrain literally beat you just by not giving you time to strategize. You gotta practice making your shit faster, and you gotta take less time thinking."
Setting the dumbbell down, Momo looked over at her and nodded understandingly, still panting a bit. "I understand. I'm too used to having the opportunity to plan ahead, I suppose. I only ever sparred with private tutors before UA, to be honest."
Katsumi snorted. "Yeah, I could tell."
"Hey!" Momo protested as Katsumi started working her other arm. "It's not my fault that my parents hired tutors for me!"
"Nah, it's not, but they probably babied you in spars. I bet they were all chickenshit-scared of what your parents would do to them if they actually hurt you," Katsumi responded.
Momo paused at that. She looked deep in thought, probably too focused on whatever was in her head to ask her anything else for a bit, so Katsumi used the period of silence to focus on finishing her set, paying extra attention to her form. Poor technique made for wasted time, and she especially couldn't afford to half-ass her arm workouts, considering the backlash of using her quirk. That kind of negligence got heroes killed in the field.
Ponytail was still deep in her own head by the time Katsumi finished her set, for some reason. She could really see why Class Pres. ended up losing to Birdbrain if she always took this long to think shit over. If she didn't kick her ass into gear, she'd be wasting both of their time.
"Oi," Katsumi called out, letting loose a small explosion in her palm to get Yaoyorozu's attention. Momo's eyes darted over to Katsumi, snapped out of whatever the hell was going on in her head. She looked faintly embarrassed at having been caught being so inattentive. "Think while you're working out, Ponytail. You'll end up fucking yourself over if you keep stopping like that."
"Right, sorry," Yaoyorozu murmured, picking up the weight with her other hand and working on her next set. Once Bakugou decided that Momo would continue to be diligent in her workout, she moved to the pulleys and began her final couple sets of the day.
The rest of her workout was mostly silent and uneventful. She completed her pulley sets without incident, enjoying the burning feeling of exertion in her muscles, and Momo continued to work out diligently nearby. Once Katsumi was finished, she snagged a couple of water bottles out of the nearby mini-fridge and set one down next to Momo, then took a long swig from the other as she watched Yaoyorozu complete her sets.
Yaoyorozu eventually completed her set, deposited her weights onto the floor unceremoniously, then reached over and grabbed the water bottle that Bakugou had set down for her. Cracking it open, Momo took a long, greedy pull from her bottle, downing half of it in a single swig.
"Thanks," she told Katsumi, taking deep breaths as she wiped the sweat from her brow. Katsumi grunted halfheartedly, not really sure what else to say. They both sat there in silence for a couple minutes as Momo continued to catch her breath, clearly unused to the heavier weight sets that she had forced herself to use.
Now that Katsumi thought about it, she had never really given Ponytail the time of day, but she was honestly pretty diligent about her studies, and clearly was committed to improving herself. Yaoyorozu was trying her hardest to become a better hero, and Katsumi could respect that. As long as she got past that dumb fucking woe-is-me pity party she always fell back into, she would probably make a pretty good hero.
"Congratulations on winning the sports festival, by the way," Yaoyorozu mentioned offhandedly.
And just like that, her good mood had evaporated.
"Don't even bring that shit up," Katsumi growled out, making Momo blink in surprise at her tone.
"Oh, um, okay. I'm sorry. Was it a bad win or something?" she asked.
"Yeah, I got fuckin' robbed in the finals."
"Robbed?" Momo echoed disbelievingly. "You won, didn't you? How did you get robbed? Did you win by technicality?"
Clearly, she was too busy moping to
"No, I blasted Half-and-Half's ass out of the ring," Katsumi admitted, her eyes narrowed.
"Then why are you angry about it?" she followed up. "Was Todoroki-san underhanded?"
"No, he was an arrogant asshole! I shouldn't have even won the fuckin' fight, but he was too arrogant to bother using his damn fire! He would've fuckin' beat me if he had!" Katsumi exploded angrily. "I was robbed out of a real goddamn match since he decided to take it easy on me! I don't even deserve the gold, he just lost because he was just a cocky bitch!"
Momo sat there, stunned.
"…Please watch your language, Katsumi-san."
"Fuck you."
She sighed.
Katsumi chugged down the rest of her water, crumpled up the bottle once it was empty and tossed it into the nearest trash can unceremoniously. She turned, walking over towards the open floor and began her cooldown stretches, finished with her workout.
"Are you planning on going home after this, Bakugou-san?" Yaoyorozu asked hesitantly, still a little offput by Katsumi's rant about Todoroki.
"Hm?" Katsumi glanced up at her. It took her a second to process what Ponytail had asked. "Yeah. I got shit to do."
"Oh. Um, are you free Friday, then? I've been looking for a sparring partner, and I was wondering if you would be willing to help me practice," Yaoyorozu requested, looking a little uncertain, now that Katsumi was paying attention.
Does she really think I'm gonna turn down a chance to fight?
"Yeah, sure. Four o'clock, Training Ground Gamma. Don't be late," she agreed, standing tall as she finished her stretches. Walking towards the door, she scooped up her gym bag and strolled out of the gym, not bothering to say goodbye beyond a single, lazy wave.
Rounding the corner just beyond the door, Katsumi began to pick up her pace a bit. She didn't exactly know when the next train was leaving, but she was eager to get home. After having to deal with the massive letdown that was the sports festival just yesterday, as well as the humiliation of having to be chained to the fucking podium just so she wouldn't start a fight with that cocky asswipe Todoroki, she had built up a lot of stress, and since she still had homework to finish, she didn't have time to actually fight anyone.
Luckily, she'd be getting the next best thing tonight.
Near the end of the hall, a few of her female classmates were filling up their empty metal water bottles at the water fountain while they chatted animatedly with each other. Katsumi recognized Raccoon-Eyes just from the sound of her voice, but once she actually bothered to look closely, she saw that Round-Face, Ears and Frog were all there, each taking turns filling their personalized little bottles.
They know that there are water bottles inside the gym, right?
Katsumi dismissed that train of thought outright. If her classmates wanted to use their sparkly water bottles that they spent too much money on, it wasn't her place to care.
"Oh! Hi, Bakugou-chan!" Ashido Mina greeted excitedly as she approached the small group. Katsumi waved back silently and halfheartedly, not particularly paying attention to the girls, impatient to get home. She quickly stepped past the group, not particularly mindful of her classmates as she passed them by. She couldn't really say she was friends with the group, though Mina always made it a point to try and drag her along whenever the girls were together, which she always found odd.
Then again, Raccoon-Eyes did seem single-mindedly determined to be friends with everyone.
Whatever. It doesn't matter, anyway.
She turned a corner at the end of the hall, heading for the exit, but the faint echo of Ashido's voice that emanated from the hallway stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Hey, do you think Bakugou has a boyfriend?"
Katsumi froze. A cold shiver of dread crawled up her back like a large, twisting spider. Before she could stop herself, she was already sneaking back over to the hallway intersection, stopping just around the corner, trying to eavesdrop on her classmates' conversation as best she could without getting caught. If Raccoon-Eyes knew something, then that was going to be a serious problem for her. If she was going to leak something, Katsumi would have to stop the spread before it got too far.
The other girls might keep quiet if she either begged or threatened them to, but Ashido Mina was not known for her ability to keep her mouth shut.
"Eh, I kinda doubt it, Ashido," Kyouka Jirou came to her defense, at least. "Bakugou-san doesn't really seem like…relationship material."
And just like that, Ears was suddenly on her shit list.
"Yeah, Mina-chan, she seems really focused on just trying to be the strongest. I don't know if she's really looking for a boyfriend right now," Uraraka chimed in, also sounding doubtful about Mina's theory.
"Well, maybe, but, like, what if, y'know?" Mina expounded upon her point superbly.
"No, I don't," Asui ribbitted bluntly.
Kyouka snorted in amusement. Katsumi had to stop herself from doing the same.
"Wow, thanks," Mina told her friends sarcastically. "But seriously, think about it. Bakugou's, like, always angry or whatever, but some days she comes into class looking a lot less mad! Like, she's almost completely calm, it's super cute! But then it's like the opposite at the end of school! Some days she looks really annoyed and impatient, and she just rushes out of school, like she's late for a date or something! Kinda like how she was just now! And usually, the days after she's impatient are the days she's super calm!"
Fear gripped at Katsumi's heart. Was she really that easy to read? If Raccoon-Eyes had realized that much about her in just a couple of months, then she might also have already unintentionally revealed even more information that she didn't want her classmates learning! Info that could ruin his social life!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, he's so fucking screwed if they find out about him. I can't let that happen again. If they find out who he is, his reputation will be ruined; it'll be middle and high school all over again. What the fuck am I supposed to do? Shit, shit, SHIT!
"Wow, Mina-chan, did you really spend that much time watching Bakugou-san?" Ochako asked, surprised.
"I bet she hasn't. I think she only noticed that Bakugou's calmer some mornings and impatient some afternoons, and she's just saying that she's noticed a correlation to fit her little theory," Jirou pointed out, a teasing note in her voice.
"You be quiet, traitor!" Mina exclaimed. Her friends all laughed at her.
Relief surged through Katsumi. She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She thanked God that Raccoon-Eyes didn't actually know anything, and she was just making up evidence for whatever she wanted to believe.
Unfortunately, it still meant she would have to be more vigilant than before, since Ashido would almost certainly be watching her now, just waiting for her to slip up and give something away. And given Ashido's propensity to gossip, it was entirely likely that rumors would start floating around even if she didn't reveal her relationship.
Fucking great. School's gonna be even more of a pain, now.
"What, are you gonna start stalking her now? Try and catch her making out with cute boys behind the school or something?" Jirou asked sarcastically.
"You know, that's not a bad idea…." Katsumi could hear Raccoon-Eyes' stupid shit-eating grin from around the corner. She repressed a sigh of frustration, if only so that Ears wouldn't catch her eavesdropping. If Ashido actually started stalking her, Katsumi would have a fucking aneurism.
She better fucking not.
"Oh my God, Mina, no. Your grades are bad enough as it is. You spend your free time stalking our classmates and you're gonna fail out of UA," Jirou admonished.
Mina sighed dramatically, like a child being told they had to do their chores before they could play with their friends. "Alright, fine, I won't stalk her."
Katsumi would bet money that she was still grinning.
"…Mina, I don't like the look on your face," Jirou deadpanned.
"How much do you think Tooru charges?"
Jirou laughed, despite herself. Ochako just sighed. Katsumi decided she'd heard enough, and quietly just turned away and headed for the exit. She'd end up missing the train if she stayed any longer, anyways, and she didn't need the old hag yelling at her for being late for dinner again.
"Why don't you just ask her, kero?" Frog asked, just barely audible from all the way down the hall. Her voice continued to soften as Katsumi walked further and further away, towards the exit.
"Well, that's no fun!" Raccoon-Eyes defended. Katsumi couldn't stop the scowl from forming. She had a distinct feeling that Ashido would really be pissing her off in the near future. She'd have to keep an eye on Invisible Girl as well, just in case Raccoon-Eyes decided to follow through with that particular plan.
Between preparing for the upcoming hero internships and keeping her nosy classmates off her back, Katsumi was going to be annoyingly busy.
And she was still late for dinner.
Katsumi flopped unceremoniously onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling as she enjoyed the feeling of the cool, crisp evening breeze on her skin, drifting in from her open window. She had, as predicted, gotten yelled at by her mother for being late for dinner. Not in the mood to hear her mother's bitching, she steadfastly ignored her, and thusly had been forced to do the dishes. It was far from the most difficult chore her mom could have given her, but it was still a pain, since they had had curry for dinner.
Homework was a breeze, luckily. It wasn't due until Friday, but she got it out of the way in a little over half an hour, having quickly written out a few paragraphs on the efficacy of different hostage scenario procedures. With all tonight's tasks completed and nothing else important for her to do, she pulled out her phone, carelessly undid her ponytail, laid back on her black bedsheets and scrolled through the latest bit of hero news.
Most of today's feed was actually about UA's sports festival; she barely saw any of the usual villain attacks or hero gossip that usually permeated her social media timeline. Most of the attention was on class 3-A, expectedly, but she herself featured prominently in a fair few of the posts, both in her matches against Round-Face and Half-and-Half. The audio had clearly captured her shouting at Peppermint for being so arrogant that he was only willing to use half of his quirk against her, and he had lost because of it, even if he still shouldn't have.
There were quite a few comments about her, as well. Some people were deriding her for being too brutal toward her opponents, saying that she wouldn't be a hero if she was that vicious towards her classmates. Other people took her side, saying she was justified, and some people were just there to simp over all the girls.
She supposed that was fair, but the attention was still kind of weird.
Nearly an hour later, the distinct sound of her window sliding closed startled her. She whipped her head around, dropping her phone as she sat up in bed, locking eyes with the tall, handsome, green-haired, freckled man with gorgeous, shining green eyes that she knew so well. Her lovely boyfriend's eyes were brimming with kindness as he smiled infectiously at her, causing a wide smile to begin to break out on her face, and almost make her conveniently forget the fact that he was late.
Even so, she still felt like her heart fluttered like a giddy schoolgirl every time she saw him. She didn't know if that feeling would ever go away.
She didn't know if she ever wanted it to.
"You're late, Izuku," Katsumi growled at him, but she knew that the effect was ruined because she couldn't keep the fucking smile off of her face whenever she saw him. He just grinned even more brightly, his white teeth standing in stark contrast with his dark jacket and pants. Even the shoes he wore were darker: they were a deep wine color with navy trim and laces, unlike the bold crimson high tops he would normally wear while out in public.
"Yeah, sorry about that," he told her sincerely. "Today's the anniversary of Obaa-san's death, so I spent most of the afternoon with Kaa-san. She only just went to bed." Izuku held his arms out, stepping closer to her, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his chest as he embraced her gently. They stayed like that for a few minutes as Izuku traced small circles on her back with his fingers while they silently enjoyed each other's company. However, Katsumi eventually grew tired of sitting in such an awkward position. She quickly unzipped his jacket, pulling it off of him and dropping it onto her floor in a single, fluid motion before she dragged him down onto her bed and snuggled firmly into him.
She always had enjoyed listening to his heartbeat. The constant reaffirmation that he was alive and well never failed to calm her down. Whenever she was with him, it felt like all the tension and anxiousness and frustration that she had built up was being slowly drained out of her, and she could finally just relax.
"Feeling any better?" Izuku asked her after a few minutes of silent cuddling. She begrudgingly opened her eyes, pulling her attention away from the soft but strong rhythm of his heartbeat to peer up at him, giving her boyfriend the most dead-eyed look that she could muster.
He laughed.
"'S not funny," she mumbled petulantly into his shirt, pouting to try and get him to comfort her more.
"Aw, I'm sorry," he responded sincerely as he hugged her a little tighter, exactly like she wanted. "I'm not trying to make fun of you, you're just too cute," Izuku smiled at her with that soft, gentle smile that always made her all warm and fuzzy on the inside, like she was wrapped in a giant blanket and sipping on hot chocolate.
He always made her feel this way. He wasn't even trying.
It wasn't fair.
"I know, I'm still just fuckin' pissed at Half-and-Half for not taking me seriously," she grumbled.
"Yeah, I saw the fight. It was a crazy match."
Katsumi lifted her head off of his chest, pinning him with a fierce glare.
"It was a fucking disappointment! He didn't even bother using half of his quirk!" she retorted heatedly.
"And?" Izuku asked her, his eyes not losing a single ounce of that stupid, dumb, gorgeous sincerity that almost always distracted her. She had to force herself to stay on track and not just start making out with him on the spot.
She usually didn't succeed at that.
"What do you mean, 'and?' He should've won! He's apparently just too good for the rest of us peasants, so he doesn't bother to actually respect any of us! Maybe if he took any of us seriously, he'd bother to actually try when he fights us!" she raved, before a knock on the door interrupted her. She flinched, sinking back down as the heat of embarrassment crept up her cheeks and the back of her neck.
"Shit," she whispered.
"Katsumi? Who the hell are you yelling at?" Her mother called from the other side of her door. She had entirely forgotten that her parents were still awake and that she needed to keep her voice down. Hopefully, she'd get yelled at again. If not, her mom would just bust in and find out that she'd been having her boyfriend regularly sneak into her room at night.
Neither possibility was particularly appealing, but one was far worse.
"I'm on the phone, Kaa-san, leave me alone!" she shouted back at the door, hoping that her mother would accept her bullshit at face value and not bother to confirm that she was.
"Well, keep it down! We're gonna get a noise complaint if you keep yelling like that!"
"Alright, fine!" Katsumi shouted back, then waited until she could no longer hear her mother's footsteps before turning back to her boyfriend and laying her head back on his chest, sighing.
"Sorry about that," she breathed out. Izuku just smiled at her again and began running his hand through her hair, lightly scratching at her scalp in that way that always felt really nice and soothing, and she almost involuntarily leaned further into his touch.
If they weren't alone, and Katsumi was feeling more self-conscious, she probably would have pulled away from his hand like it was on fire, but she always found it difficult not to let her guard down whenever she was around him.
"It's fine," he forgave her without a second thought, just like he always did. She couldn't remember a time where he hadn't forgiven her.
Even when he shouldn't.
"Whatever," she mumbled, more to herself than her boyfriend.
"So, did you actually want me to answer your explanation?" Izuku asked.
Oh, right, they were in the middle of another conversation.
"Yeah, what the hell? Why are you defending fuckin' Half-and-Half?"
Izuku shrugged. "Well, he actually did use a bit of his fire. I was rewatching the match, and his left side lit up a couple times, whenever you had the advantage. He always tamped it down as soon as it flared up, though. You probably couldn't see it through your explosions, it wasn't all that obvious."
"So, what, cocky bastard has a bit of heatstroke when the pressure's on and then still doesn't use it? What a fuckin' dick. I should've beat his ass even harder."
Her boyfriend sighed, sounding somewhat disappointed. Or exasperated. She couldn't really tell. "Is that really how you see him?"
Katsumi glared at him even harder. "Oh, what, am I seeing my own classmate incorrectly? The guy that I see every day in class? Are you suddenly an expert on my classmates? Why don't you tell me what I'm missing, then, oh wise one?" she asked sarcastically, her temper steadily rising alongside her pitch.
"Katsumi."
She stopped talking.
His eyes were cold, now. All that beautiful, sincere warmth was suddenly gone, and all that she could see in his expression was cold steel and disappointment.
Katsumi hated that look. She wanted his warmth back.
She sank back down onto his chest, chastised, but did not apologize. The silence carried between them for a long moment.
Finally, Izuku just sighed, his eyes softening. He returned to stroking her hair tenderly, and she snuggled closer to him, holding onto him even tighter than before. Midoriya looked like he was trying to find the words to properly explain whatever rambling thoughts were bouncing around in his head, assumedly about her and the peppermint bastard. "I know that you're mad at him, Kacchan, and I understand why. You're hurt that he doesn't take you seriously, because you think you're strong enough that he should be fighting you with everything he has. And you are. You proved that, even if he wasn't going all-out against you. You're strong enough that he has to really take you seriously if he doesn't want his ass kicked the next time you two fight. I'm proud of you, Katsumi, and you should be too." Izuku stroked her cheek with his thumb, cupping her chin in his large, warm hand, making her just absolutely fucking melt into his touch.
It was unfair how easily he was able to do this to her. Her defenses crumbled as soon as Izuku showed her a little bit of praise and affection. She hated how irresistible his fondness was; how overwhelming his love was.
Katsumi was completely, utterly addicted to this man.
It was too bad her pride would never let her admit it.
"Mmm," she apologized wordlessly. Izuku would know what it meant. They always understood each other more than anyone else, and he was incredibly perceptive regardless. "So, what do you see in Icy-Hot, then?" Katsumi asked him more sincerely.
Izuku hesitantly looked away, the words seemingly stuck in his throat, like it was difficult to tell her directly which she supposed she could understand that. That had been their dynamic for most of their lives.
He exhaled forcefully, swallowing his hesitation. "Listen. I see a guy with a burn scar on his face," he confessed, "And a refusal to use his fire, even if it cost him the tournament. I think it's not a coincidence."
She froze, re-analyzing every interaction she had ever had with Icy-Hot. She recontextualized it in a different light, looking for missed signs of buried traumas and deep-seated fears.
Fuck.
"You think he's scared of his fire?"
Izuku shrugged. "Maybe. I don't really know him, so I can't say for sure why he doesn't use it. But obviously, whatever happened to his face was pretty damaging, and I can't think of many reasons why someone would refuse to use their quirk outright."
"Mm."
Maybe she should talk to him sometime, see what was going on. He usually ate alone, from what she remembered. It probably wouldn't be too hard to talk to him, or at least to goad him into another fight. He might even tell her the truth if she got him heated enough.
That was for another time, though.
"Hey, Izuku. Sit up. I wanna take your shirt off."
Her boyfriend raised an eyebrow at her, wryly amused, but nonetheless sat up so that she could pull his shirt up and off of his body. She stripped him quickly before tossing the shirt onto her floor uncaringly, instead focusing her attention on the myriad scars that lined his arms and torso.
Sharp, clean cuts, piercing stabs, jagged tears and scrapes, and amorphous, warped burns had all left their mark on her boyfriend's body, each one a testament to his boundless tenacity. Katsumi gingerly, almost absentmindedly traced a few of the scars with her fingertip, making Izuku chuckle and shiver lightly at the touch. She hated that he bore them. All of them. So many of these wounds could have so easily been fatal. The thought that any one of these could have ended her boyfriend's life terrified her more than anything.
Scars like these didn't belong on the quirkless.
Katsumi pushed those thoughts aside, looking pulling her gaze back up to his bright, warm eyes, and gave him a saucy smile. She shifted her position atop him until she was completely straddling his waist, then took his hands and guided them to the hem of her shirt, encouraging him to pull her off own top, just as she did his. Izuku slipped her shirt over her head slowly, even as she wiggled a bit to try and get him to take it off of her even faster.
As soon as her shirt was off, she was upon him, kissing him heatedly; one of her hands already on the back of his neck to bring his lips closer as the other hand twisted behind her back awkwardly, reaching up to unclasp her black bra. It took her a few minutes to finally unhook it, since she was very distracted by her boyfriend's electrifying kisses—another thing he was unfairly good at. Once her bra slipped free, though, he pulled his lips from hers and began trailing feather-light kisses down her jawline and neck, hovering just around her collarbone and sternum, making her shiver in anticipation, before stopping right before it would begin to feel really good for her.
She couldn't quite suppress the whine of need that slipped out of her.
Katsumi growled a bit, glaring playfully down at her lover as he continued to tease her.
"Pants off, Izuku. I'm gonna be on top tonight," she declared imperiously, practically daring him to defy her.
Midoriya gave her a challenging grin. "Yeah? Just like every other time?" he teased, amusement dancing in his eyes.
She pouted. "This time, I will! Just watch! I'm gonna blow your damn mind, nerd!" she huffed playfully, and the remainder of their clothes were scattered across the room.
Neither of them got much sleep that night.