"Right?! And then their defense just went flying like whooosh and I was like ahhhh!" Ochako squealed and made a 'mind blown' gesture with her hands, half eaten food left forgotten as she rambled excitedly about the match.
Bakugou smirked, "Yeah, that's why Karasuno's gonna go to Nationals. Those Nekoma shits suck ass."
"Speaking of their defense, doesn't he sound like Kacchan?" Izuku spoke up.
"Haaah? He sounds nothing like me-"
"YES! I knew he sounded familiar! And their setter is definitely Iida's long lost twin! Voice wise that is-"
"He most certainly is not, my tone is much calmer than that delinquent's." Iida huffed.
"I wouldn't say that four eyes." Bakugou grunted, remembering how the other had yelled at him the first time they met.
Uraraka giggled and agreed, "Yeah, you're not exactly the calmest Iida."
"How dare you! I'll have you know that I took seven years of etiquette classes and my teacher has always told me I have quite an eloquent way of speaking! In fact, she was so enamored with my dialect that she made me recite Shakespeare to her grandson! The child was absolutely thrilled-"
Izuku smiled and rested his cheek against his hand, thoughts drifting as Kacchan and Uraraka poked fun at Iida's rant. The green haired boy felt extremely...light, at the moment.
The first few minutes of his unexpected reunion with his friends were excruciatingly awkward, but after they cleared up what happened (or some of what happened, Izuku could tell they still had questions) the two decided to ignore the little incident and invited Izuku and Katsuki to eat with them at the food court. The freckled teen was a bit reluctant, thinking Kacchan wouldn't get along very well with them but, surprisingly…
Emerald eyes glistened at the sight.
Uraraka was talking with her mouth full, saying something that caused Iida to look scandalized and Katsuki to snort in amusement. The blonde then replied with a comment of his own that had Ochako choking in laughter and Tenya rushing to her side to perform the (completely unnecessary) Heimlich maneuver; the brunette only laughed harder.
It was a strange scene, the three vastly different personalities gathered together at a rinky dink ice hockey cafe.
But it made Izuku happy.
Katsuki shook his empty soda cup before setting it down on the table, "I gotta take a piss. Where's the fucking bathroom?"
"Over there." Uraraka answered, "Make sure to grab toilet paper from that closet you and Deku were in, the janitor didn't bother to restock the girls' bathroom so the boys' bathroom is probably the same."
The teen nodded, "Thanks for the tip." and left.
As soon as Bakugou was gone, brown eyes immediately zeroed in on Midoriya.
Uh oh.
"Dekuuuu! You finally got the courage to ask him out!? Or did he ask you out?! How long have you been dating? Must've been awhile since you two were making out in the-"
Yup. Uraraka and Iida knew about his crush. Since the first week of school actually. Another reason why he had been worried about Kacchan hanging out with them.
"F-for the last time we didn't do anything like that-!" He interrupted, shaking his head vehemently from side to side, beet red from the accusation, "We're not even dating, please keep your voice down Uraraka..."
Even Iida had the audacity to look confused by this.
Ochako blinked twice, "Huh? You're not? But he brought you as his plus one and paid for your meal. That seems pretty date-y to me."
Izuku sighed heavily and ran a hand through his curls, exhausted since he honestly wasn't too sure himself. There were many hints that his feelings were reciprocated but at the same time…
"If that was the case, wouldn't you and Iida be on a date too then?"
A suspicious pink covered Tenya's cheeks.
"Nah." Ochako waved her hand dismissively, "Iida accidentally bought two tickets instead of one and as you both know, I loooove ice hockey so Iida decided to be a good friend and gave me the extra ticket! Isn't that right?" Uraraka nudged his arm, earning a mechanical nod from the boy besides her.
"It's not like one of us has been harboring secret feelings for the other since we were four years old." She says pointedly.
Izuku eyes his blue haired friend and thinks, Maybe not since four…
"Well, regardless, Kacchan and I just became friends over the break. He might l-like me, or he might not...either way, I don't wanna push him." He says, their conversation from a few days ago popping into mind.
'You're my Deku and I'm Kacchan to no one else but you, got that nerd?'
As of right now, that was good enough for him.
Uraraka seemed to think otherwise though.
"But he's totally into you!" She exclaimed, "I saw the way he looks at you Deku, it's the fated love between men! You need to confess before he gets hit by a car and goes into a coma and you're left crying your heart out on his bedside, regretting what could've been!"
The two boys stared at her.
"Umm.."
"Perhaps you've been reading too much manga-"
"No I haven't Iida!...Ok maybe a little bit-but that's not the point! You need to shoot your shot before it's too late Deku!"
"'Shoot your shot'?" The glasses-wearing boy raised an incredulous eyebrow, "Where in the world did you learn this language? Have you been speaking to Camie-"
"It's not that easy Uraraka." Izuku groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation, "I can't just go up to him and say 'Hey Kacchan! I'm madly in love with you, please go out with me!' Not only is that creepy and out of nowhere, but we also share a room now. Can you imagine how awkward it would be if I get rejected-"
"Wait-wait, hold up. Love? Share a room?"
"...Oh, I didn't tell you."
"Deku!"
After he told Iida and Uraraka about recent developments, the pair nodded in understanding and quickly devised a plan against Izuku's will.
"Ok, your mom's coming back on January 1st right? That means the perfect time to tell him would be at Mina's party, oh my god-" Ochako gasped, "You should totally go in for a New Year's kiss!"
"W-wait, I still need to see him at school you know-"
"Until then, try testing the waters by flirting. Here, I have a book on the topic." Iida whips a thick book out of his bag and drops it on the table with a thud. "Would you like to borrow it?"
Ochako looks him up and down, "Why were you carrying that around with you?"
"...Knowledge is power."
And that's how Izuku ended up hiding '101 ways to make a heart go doki doki!' in his textbook that night, pretending to study in Kacchan's room. His childhood friend was actually studying at his desk, table light shining brightly on his furiously moving hand as he scribbled down notes; Izuku couldn't help but grin stupidly at the sight.
Kacchan always calls me a nerd but he's the one studying so seriously over break.
No one would've guessed that the spikey haired blonde with anger issues was the real nerd amongst the two of them-and they couldn't be blamed for it either, Katsuki fitted the image of your typical delinquent after all.
What would Kacchan look like as a stereotypical nerd? Izuku wondered.
He briefly imagined the other donning a buttoned up shirt with glasses and chuckled under his breath; this garnered the attention of the delinquent looking nerd.
"What's so funny?" Bakugou turned back.
Izuku jolted in surprise as they made eye contact and fumbled with the book(s) as they slipped from his hold.
"Ah, n-nothing!" He stuttered, gripping the sides of the pages tightly.
Katsuki raised an eyebrow, "You were laughing though. And staring at me."
"E-e-eh!? N-no I wasn't! W-why would I-"
"I can see you from the mirror Deku."
Green eyes shifted to the side and found a deer in headlights reflection staring back.
"...Oh."
"Dumbass." The blonde snorted, closing his textbook. He walked over to sit besides Izuku, who curled up slightly to better hide the books from his view.
"So what's up? Why were you staring at me and laughing? Think I look funny or something?" He teased.
Izuku missed the humor in his tone and panickedly replied back, "N-no I don't! I just thought of something Iida said! And I was staring at you because-because-" He couldn't think of any excuse and looked down at the book on his knees to avoid the questioning red eyes. He blinked when he noticed a certain line written in there.
'If the object of your affection catches you looking at them, say this...'
Oh thank god, this is just what I needed! Izuku thought gratefully; he hastily read off the sentence that followed:
"I think there's something wrong with my eyes because I can't take them off of you!"
…
…
...
God is dead.
Cue the JoJo music cuz this is a To be Continued….