3. Stars and Stripes
I'll twist my body into shapes
Squares, stars, and stripes
You and I
We're a couple of fireworks
Falling from the sky
You and I
We're beautiful for a moment
And then we die
You and I
We're a couple of fireworks
Falling from the sky - '4th July' By Elliot Moss
He doesn't even know he ended up on this continent. For most people, if the great and powerful Deku invites you on a so-called 'mission' you don't baulk at the idea, unless you're Katuski Bakugou and you have a talent for clocking people's impulses and harnessing the will to resist them just as quickly. But Izuku had pleaded, nay bargained, reminding him that America's Hero had given their life to help defeat Shigaraki and that in of itself mean't that Japan, or a least, it's resident Heros owed it in themselves to attend on their national holiday, especially when 'Japan's New Symbol of Peace' had been cordially invited to attend such an event.
And so two 'Kacchans', and a well researched presentation into 'The Great Wonders of The United States of America' later - which just equated to Bakugou's resolve wearing thin of just one freckled smile too short - meant that he had been on a jet - he had insisted that if that's how he'd travelled back to save them all, then they could damn well bring one to escort them over the ocean one more time - towards the famed country that the late Star and Stripe, and indeed All Might had made their names.
The fireworks strike above their heads, streaking the night in powdered shades of red, blue and gold. And for the first time, Katsuki doesn't want to disparage them. Doesn't comment on Japan being better, or his explosions being able to soar so much higher than the tiny rockets dared to manage. After a day of Press and cordial bullshit, as he had put it, Deku had sensed that Bakugou had reached the very edge of his limit, and took the moment as the sun started to settle into candy floss colours to drag him to the highest point above the city of San Fransisco, somewhere expansive and quiet. It had been a gesture filled with sentiment not lost on Katsuki Bakugou, as he now sits, quietly watching the spectacle light up above their heads.
But before he can even blink another thought, a hand clasps his chin lightly, turning his focus down to his shoulder, where two large orbs of black, edged in green and somehow darker in the firelight look up at him expectantly. He blinks, all red and pink and awkward and confused, as freckles and dimples and a pixie shaped nose draw closer to him, blurring with every millimetre as moist lips capture his own. His eyelids flutter shut, a reactive gesture to the tingle of electricity that dances on his face. Out of shock and confusion and a little tinge of fear he wipes his hands on his pants for good measure, before his brain is able to fully process the hands in his still spiky hair and the ghost of a tongue that isn't his lapping ever so gently along the underside of his top lip. His head juts back then, watching as Midoriya does the same, and suddenly he's redder and shyer than he's ever been in his life and it is entirely infuriating.
"DEKU…people are…down there, you know!" He says, ignoring the hammering in his chest. "You're a Hero. What if someone's watching?"
"Nobody cares here…" He counters, his eyes convincing and honest in a way that confuses and intrigues Katsuki.
"How do you know that?" He asks, his gaze narrowing.
"America is…more relaxed about certain things." He insinuates.
Katsuki frowns, and wonders what exactly Izuku is getting at. But the fact that he has no idea about any of this, let alone the situation he's suddenly in is one level too far out at sea. He doesn't question the context, stuck between being eighteen and shocked.
"Wait a second. Ignoring that this is the reason you wanted me to come here in the first place... Shouldn't you have invited…I dunno - he does know. He wants to say 'Round Face' but abates the impulse - Uraraka?"
He immediately regrets the question, the words feeling alien now that they've left him. But if he's honest with himself he's felt rather alien since he died and then came back to life. He's growing and changing and into what he's not entirely sure anymore.
He watches Deku blink, blushing pink all the way past his green hero uniform, as he scratches the back of his neck in a moment of dismay, recoiling slightly.
"Well…I…uh…" He reasons, and Katsuki watches as a plethora of emotions and thoughts scour the surface level of the hero's face. "I guess that's a fair question." He reasons. "Given that we haven't spoken a great deal lately..."
"What's going on, Deku?" He breathes heavily, frowning. He's given up on constantly calling him Izuku. He couldn't say the name without it feeling too intimate and exposing in a way that ground his gears more than he would like. But the world knows him as the hero 'Deku' now, so it was now just an 'origin' cross that he choose to bear solo.
He struggles not to smirk, watching the nerd build up the defence in his head. Confidence and age, rather than his jibing and nagging, has finally quashed Midoriya's need to say all of his thoughts out loud, and so now Katsuki watches the sight with mirth.
"Well….?" He presses despite his small enjoyment of the sight in front of him.
All resolve seems to fold within Midoriya.
"I guess I got it wrong." He says, his delicate features bending with tension.
"Got what wrong, Nerd? You're not making any sense!" He chides, his hands flapping out at the sides before they slap against each of his thighs with a huff.
He chides himself internally for the brazen insult, watching the fire flash as a reply in the young man's eyes. But he is unable to catch himself from igniting at the sheer sight of it.
"I thought that w-we…" Deku stammers.
"That we?" He presses.
"That you…felt something. That we were…" He gestures between them.
"What did I feel, huh?" He counters harshly, combative at once.
Part of it is devilish intent wrapped up in defiance as he stares at the kid, heart beating fast and nitroglycerin edged intent waiting eagerly at his fingertips. But for a moment he forgets that Deku doesn't know the change within him, the understanding that he is finding within his reactions and his mood. There's a firm lid on it now, and a limit where his emotions disconnect from his quirk. Of course, blow up a loved one and all could be lost, but at least now he can lose his rag and not blow a fuse right off the bat.
"Kacchan…I…"
The name hits him like a ton of bricks. It always has and it always will, reining him in like a goddamn dead weight.
"Izuku…" He sighs, planting his name in the dirt of the cliff that surrounds them. "If you don't talk to me, then we can't have a conversation." He reasons.
He watches as Deku blinks several times, frame after frame of lash blinking a different emotion. Neither were expecting him to be so reasonable.
"Why do I have to be the one to start this conversation, huh?" He throws at him then.
Midoriya least of all, it appears...
"Because you kissed me!" He gestures. "You…the new symbol of peace? My childhood friend? A guy who I've seen blush over more girls than Casa-fuckin-nova, kisses me and then expects me to pick up the slack when I question the fact?" He accuses, eyes flashing with more than just fireworks.
Deku softens in an instant then, the string of words slicing all the tension out of the air as he funnels a tense breath.
He knows he's right. He's allowed to question the status quo. He's relieved that Izuku seems to understand this fact. It only adds to their steadily growing common ground.
He watches freckled skin slowly relax, emerald eyes twinkling against the rainbow light that now shimmers above their heads. He witnesses a shy look of wonder clouding Deku's softened gaze.
"Kaachan…I…just…wanted to kiss you." He says, shrugging in defeat. "I think perhaps," He pauses then, looking out at the sheer drop, at the mixture of lights and merriment of the city below them. "I've always wondered what it was like to kiss you…maybe I should have...ask first?"
"You're damn right you should have fucking asked first!" He barks back, his back arching with that feral intent.
Bakugou feels like an asshole then. He is the dynamo that leads their connection astray, always. Even when he's aware of it. Even when they are both watching him lead them that way he can't seem to pull it back before the drop. He is their runaway train. And history says that maybe he's always been like that. Maybe he'll always be like that. But he's growing, and that's what matters.
He sighs then, closing his eyes as he sucks in a whole lot of air and a little courage with it.
"Izuku…" He frowns, a broken kind of truth edging his gruff tone. "I don't think I know how to live in this world, being who I am." He breathes, his voice barely audibly.
Deku blinks then, confused, concentrating on his face yet hearing every word.
When red irises meet green ones Katsuki feels himself crumble beneath the gaze directed at him.
"There was a bigger reason…that I knew you were better than me. Back then," He infers.
He doesn't wait for the words, seeing the question hang in his wide eyed gaze.
"I think I loved you…even as kids. I felt it…in my bones, that you were… the purest person that I had ever met. You never lied. You never hurt…anyone…and you always did your best. And even when they said you had no quirk, and you told everyone that we knew that you would get one someday…I knew…that you never lied. And I watched myself change, for the worst, in a lot of ways, when people put me on a pedestal for my quirk, whilst you…you stayed the same…and yet…I knew…you would get your quirk. And then, not only would you be more powerful than me, but I would also still love you…and then you'd leave me…finding everything that you deserved in this world." He pauses, eyes seeking the ground, the dirt, the edges of his pants. Anything but the gaze of the young man opposite him. "I didn't understand the world back then. But you…you still haven't changed." He smiles. "You're still that pure little kid I knew. Maybe a little wiser. Stronger. But that little person…that I loved…he remained." He shrugged. "And that's why I don't know how to be myself. I was the strongest one for so long and now…shit…my walls are down and I have no idea what I'm doing anymore." He looks to him then, his smile unnaturally watery. "And I want to hang onto you so hard, but I know I can't. I gotta share you with the world. I would literally die for you over and again without question. And so…" He pauses, looking out on the view below them. "You kissing me….is just.. A risk. And your place in this world is just too damn important to gamble on that-"
-What the hell am I doing here in the golden dark?
Feeling like I'm someone else who looks the part
I built up barricades to block my heart
Cause I don't wanna fear you -
He doesn't register the tears that appear to have dried on his face in layers, now smothered and drying in layers of a green fabric hood that slide across his face with a quiet strength. His heart is still hammering in his ears, as he breathes in smoothing warmth and lavender with a faint hint of eucalyptus amidst soft green curls that bounce and tickle his growing scruff. He blinks the last of the moisture away as his scarlet eyes flick up towards a now cleared near-midnight sky, deep violets and indigo clouds dancing in front of a star filled sky, the wind gracing his knuckles as he grasps Izuku in a matching embrace.
"To the world, you are Katsuki Bakugo, The Number two Hero, Dynamight." He hears Izuku whisper. "And to me you are Kaachan…my best friend and the man who died for me." He sniffs. "And I love you." He whispers into his ear. "Just you."
He sighs, all tension falling out of him then.
After a moment, he feels two hands slide against either side of his face, as Izuku retreats slightly.
This time, he understands the look in his eyes.
He draws a quick breath, straightening his spine for what feels like the first time all night. The old him would point out that he has absolutely no pride left to stand on whatsoever. The new him focuses on the fact that the one person he wants in the entire world is the one watching him right now, and that is enough to calm him.
He looks at Izuku, seeing past the cute red nose and swollen features of empathy induced crying, to the young hero looking at him like they're just kids happily playing in the river.
He inhales, grabbing a pinch of Deku's skin tight uniform as hands cradle his own head, two soft lips sucking at his bottom lip. His eyes flutter closed once more, only this time his chest swells as if he's never taken a fresh breath before as his mouth opens and his head tilts in reaction to Deku's direction. His fingers leave Izuku's chest, both hands scraping gently around his sides, sliding against every muscle and indent before landing on the muscles that taper down his spine, pressing their seated bodies closer together.
Walls begin to fall in his mind like dusty concrete, those linked to physical restrictions and reactions and impulses and all at once it's as if a switch has been flicked inside him. He arches his back, straightening to his true height, taller than Midoriya as his hands slide up to the man's mess of unruly teal tinted curls. He feels Deku whimper slightly under his touch as Katsuki deepens the kiss then, his natural confidence peeling out in wave, in a way that it never has before as lips and teeth and tongue suck and dance and graze lightly under the wavering moonlight.
When Katsuki finally breaks their kiss, there is a reluctance from Izuku Midoriya that he witnesses and thinks he'll secretly cherish forever more.
"Thanks for bringing me, Nerd." He quips, with a cocky tilt of the eyebrow as his hands toy with the wisps of green curls. "Happy 4th," He mumbles.
"Happy Independence Day, Kacchan." Izuku smiles, before pulling their bodies into shapes that no doubt will leave them both completely breathless in the end.
I'm in love
With a waterfall
Born and deceased
On the fourth of July
We're rearranging all the chairs
To better suit the space
You and I
We're a couple of travellers who can't look past this place
So you and I
We twist our bodies into shapes
We twist our bodies into shapes - '4th July' By Elliot Moss