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“I, uh…” Katsuki rubbed at the back of his neck before staring up at the roof beneath the awning of the edge of the apartment building, eyes shut and just focusing. In the background, he could hear the reporters sprinting in the opposite direction. For a few moments, he exhaled and watched the way that the steam twisted in the air before dissipating. “If you want, you can come and hang around in my dorm. I can order delivery for pizza or something and we can watch and movie or video games or… or something.”
“Wait, really?” When Katsuki looked to Deku, he was grinning. “You want to hang out? Even after that?”
“What the hell do you think? Fucking nerd.” Katsuki shrugged his shoulders. “I know it sounds lame, but--”
“That sounds really fun.” Deku pushed his damp hair from his eyes before turning a stupid sunshiney smile on Katsuki. Between the way that the evening light was hitting his skin and the slight shine that came to his face from the fresh rain, Katsuki had the sudden realization that he wanted to kiss that stupid smile, to know what it felt like against his own mouth.
He only realized he’d been staring too long when he looked up to see Deku flushing, arms wrapped a little tighter around his chest.
“I’ll, uh, I’ll call ahead, then. If you want, you can borrow something of mine so you’re not sitting in soaked clothes, alright?”
“Yeah. Alright.”
Katsuki texted the Bakusquad and said if they were in his dorm by the time he got there, he’d kick all of their asses. He did his best to bite back a groan at the cheerful way they promised to vacate as long as they got “full details ;)”.
On the longer side of an hour, Katsuki and Deku were both nestled into the former’s dorm, wet clothes thrown over the heater as they dried. Katsuki had changed into his gym clothes and he’d given Deku the cleanest hoodie and sweatpants that he could fine. It was weird to see that they didn’t dwarf him the way that they might have once before. Deku really had changed.
They’d set up a spot on the bed, both of their backs against the wall while they faced the small television that Katsuki’s parents had given him. After a brief bit of arguing over what was the better game and shifting all over the place to find a comfortable spot and then shifting again when the pizza came and they had to get it, they finally found a comfortable place to lounge. Deku started up a new file on one of Katsuki’s old games and it was just… nice as the pair of them sat there, cutting jokes and laughing as Deku worked his way through.
“I don’t understand why you like this game,” Deku complained, handing Katsuki the controller when he died in the same spot for the fifth time.
“Eh. It was a game I played as a kid and it’s just a part of me now, I guess.” Katsuki smirked at Deku as he blew past the enemy guards that had made a mockery of Deku not moments beforehand. The boy threw a piece of paper at him. “It’s okay. We can’t all be good at everything.”
“Apparently.” Deku laughed and took another slice of pizza.
Katsuki’s reign was short-lived as a forgotten enemy wasted him and he was left staring at a Game Over screen. When Deku held his hand out, Katsuki shrugged and handed it over to him.
Then Katsuki looked on in silence for a few more minutes as Deku put his new knowledge to use and glided on perfect past that checkpoint that Katsuki had cleared before, mowing down enemy legion after enemy legion.
“Sorry tonight was such a shit show. I wasn’t expecting reporters to find us.” He also wasn’t expecting it to start pouring and for neither of them to like anything on the menu and it to just be… strange.
And for his part, Deku smiled, shrugging it off. “It wasn’t bad. Honestly though? I prefer this. I’m not a big fan of fancy restaurants anyway.”
A part of him wanted to record Deku saying that just to send it to the Bakusquad. Maybe later.
“Yeah, but I was kind of hoping that our first date wasn’t going to end up… well, I wasn’t planning on this.” Katsuki looked back to the television, but Deku’s character wasn’t moving on the screen anymore. It wasn’t until the character was respawned and killed for a second time, however, that he looked over to see Deku gaping at him like a fish.
“What?”
“You…” Deku swallowed thickly. “You just called this a date.”
“Yeah. What the hell else did you think this was, moron?”
“I… I didn’t realize that…” Deku’s entire face turned as red as the hoodie he borrowed. “We went on a date?”
The way that Deku jerked when Katsuki went for his hand on the walk back and how he started babbling when the waitress wished them a good date and the general lack of understanding of the whole night--suddenly, the entire night made sense.
“Did you not know?!”
“No! How was I supposed to know?!”
“I asked you out!”
“You asked me if I wanted to go to dinner!”
“Exactly!”
“That’s not asking someone out on a date! You have to be specific with that kind of stuff!”
“Then what the hell was this?!”
“I… I don’t know!”
Katsuki laid back on the bed with a growl of frustration, his hands sizzling and popping as his face burned red. Great. He spent the entire night with a guy who didn’t even know it was a date. Deku probably didn’t even like him and was going to tell the entire fucking school about it. Great. Just… Just fucking.
“You… You like me?”
Deku was messing with the sleeves of the hoodie, staring at Katsuki’s elbow.
“No fucking shit.” And goddammit Katsuki wasn’t ready for how big that the idiot smiled. It caught him off-guard, this funny, squirming sensation building in his stomach.
“Yeah? Like… Like-like?”
“Yes, like like-like, you fucking idiot.”
Deku bit at his lip, nodding. Finally, he met Katsuki’s gaze and grinned.
“Well, I like you, too.” Katsuki cocked an eyebrow. “Like-like.”
“You’re serious. You’re not... “ Katsuki sat up, clearing his throat. “Really?”
Deku nodded so goddamn enthusiastically, that stupid little smile was almost unfair.
Asshole. Fucking really cute asshole.
The canned music of the video game continued in the background as Katsuki tried to put himself back together. When he did look up, Deku was still grinning at him.
“What?”
“I just… I never… You like me.”
Katsuki hated the way that he laughed, rolling his eyes. “No shit. Apparently, everyone thought it was obvious.”
“I didn’t.”
“Good. Good…” Katsuki picked up the controller, turning the game back on. “If I find out that you’re lying to me, though, I’ll kick your ass.”
Deku shrugged and turned back to the game as well, scooting just a tad closer to Katsuki.
“I figured as much.”
“So, as long as you know that.”
They settled back into a comfortable silence for a few minutes as Katsuki advanced the game to the next level before handing the controller back to Deku.
“So… are we dating then?” asked Deku.
“Can we actually date if we’ve never been on a first date.”
“Oh, this was definitely a first date,” Deku informed him, shifting forward onto the bed as he slipped into a more serious position after he was immediately killed off. “We should address that first and foremost. Unless you’d like to redo a date where we both know it’s a first date and then we can both be on equal footing and no one’s surprised that--”
“Deku. You’re mumbling.”
“Right.”
“No, we can call this a first date.” Katsuki picked up another slice of pizza.
“So does that mean we’re dating?” The very tips of Deku’s ears turned pink beneath that mess of hair and Katsuki was glad that Deku couldn’t see the way he smiled.
“Gotta ask me on a second date first.”
“Oh. Okay.” A pause. “Hey, Kacchan?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to go on another date with me?”
Katsuki snorted. “Yeah. Sure thing, nerd.”