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Katsuki grunted, opening his eyes, getting conscious of the faint moans coming from the body laying next to his. He turned on his side to look at Izuku; the freckled boy was mumbling in his sleep, his face frowning in desperation, looking as if he was in pain. His still slightly chubby face made him look a lot more childish than usual when he was sleeping. Bakugou almost felt like poking his cheeks but quickly brushed the idea away.
No touchy shit, why would I even want to do that?
“...hand. Take my hand...Kacchan. No, no, no...” he was soughing, writhing under the All Might blanket.
A nightmare?
Discomfort crawled into Katsuki’s guts, suddenly making him feel vulnerable and cold and small; he didn’t like that at all.
He moved his hand under the covers to find Izuku’s trembling, cold fingers. As soon as Katsuki touched his hand, Deku tightened the grip around him, using so much force it almost hurt. It was almost funny for Bakugou, feeling such a strong hand holding him while he was still looking at his baby-faced owner. That bit of chubby, rubicund face strongly contrasted with the rough, scarred hand he was feeling. The tangible proof that Deku had changed and fought and struggled and coughed blood was being held in his hand. He liked it like this; Bakugou wouldn’t have changed it for the smooth, soft hand that belonged to the Deku from two years ago.
In the meantime Izuku had stopped talking, even if he would occasionally emit a small, whiny sound; at least his expression was a bit less pained and his lips weren’t twitching anymore. Katsuki’s uneasiness started toning down, too.
“Kacchan...” the freckled boy whispered, still holding the other’s hand, even if not as tight as before.
The blond boy laid there in silence, the room full of the sound of Izuku’s irregular breathing. He distractedly caressed Deku’s hand, not feeling able to fall asleep again. It felt unfair, being left alone with his thoughts.
He rubbed his thumb on Izuku’s palm, massaging it as he looked up at the ceiling, wondering what kind of demon had possessed him to get him into this situation. After the first time they’d slept together, they did it a second time, then a third and, before he’d realized it, spending the night between saturday and sunday in the other’s bed had become some kind of ritual. It wasn’t like it felt particularly pleasant: sharing a single bed was rather uncomfortable, especially since Izuku was kind of a restless sleeper, ending up often intruding his personal space by dropping an arm over him or head-butting his back. Even so, spending time like that eventually paid off: their coordination during training had slightly improved and so had their relationship. It was like they were developing some kind of new complicity and it felt satisfying to them, knowing it was there even if others couldn’t notice it.
A nasal groan diverted him from his thoughts, making him turn to look at Izuku again. He usually groaned like that when he was waking up.
“Deku,” he called in the dark.
Midoriya shifted slightly under the blanket, suddenly becoming aware of Bakugou’s hand over his own.
He turned to look at Katsuki: “Uhm, sorry Kacchan...did I wake you up?”he asked, his voice faint.
“You sure did. Before you were moaning nonsense...were you having a nightmare or something?”
Izuku briefly hesitated; it was something he’d never told anyone before and had carried as his own personal burden till then; however he and Katsuki had promised to talk things out together and, even if it felt difficult, he forced himself to answer: “It was about you and the League of Villains...I know it happened months ago but sometimes I still dream about it...I guess I’m still not completely over it.”
Bakugou’s body tensed a bit. The simple mention of the past event brought painful emotive wounds back. He strongly hoped Midoriya wouldn’t notice his distressed face in the dark.
“I’ve been having those too. Nightmares about that,” he said, his voice coming out slightly trembling.
Izuku squeezed his hand lightly for a brief moment in what seemed to be a clumsy attempt at comforting him discreetly. Or maybe he was comforting himself, too.
“Every single shitty dream is fake. It’s not real.”
“But it felt real, Kacchan. It just hurt so much. Even after you held my hand, it was scary. In the dream I kept fearing you were going to disappear no matter how hard I held you.”
Katsuki made a displeased grunt. What was that nonsense now? And why did listening to it make him feel things he’d rather not think about? Why wasn’t he able to let go of the other’s hand even if he knew he should have? Maybe he was just too tired to think straight. It had to be that.
“Bullshit. I ain’t going nowhere. I’ll stay here to kick your sorry nerd ass as long as I need to before we get to the top. Stop thinking about shitty dreams. Those are never going to come true, not as long as I’m breathing. Don’t you dare thinking about such ridiculous things being possible, you got that? ”
Izuku nodded, feeling his heart pounding in his chest and it almost seemed like it was singing with joy. Somehow Katsuki’s words, so apparently rough and uncaring, always managed to infuse new energy into his body and soul, making him feel immensely more powerful and confident. It was like fire was being ignited inside him; Bakugou was apparently capable of generating explosions other than those his quirk allowed him to. Izuku found himself thinking that warm feeling may as well be radiating from Katsuki’s hand to his.
“Thank you, Kacchan,” he said, addressing him a sincere smile. “I should have talked to you about this sooner.”
“Tch. You better change this shitty habit of yours. You may be a retarded dumbass but you should have fucking learned your lesson by now.”
“I have! We’re talking things out together right now, aren’t we?”
“Whatever, Deku. Now lets go the fuck back to sleep.”
And that being said Katsuki laid his head back down on the pillow, trying to adjust himself in a more comfortable position.
Izuku, however, didn’t seem to be getting ready to sleep again. Bakugou silently counted to three in his head before speaking:“What now?”
“Uhm...”
“Well?”
“The hand.”
“What about it?”
“You’re...ah- you’re still holding it,” he finally explained.
“I don’t want to do everything all over again if you start having another one of those shitty dreams. Just hold onto it and shut up.”
Had Bakugou just willingly given him permission to hold his hand for the rest of the night? If someone had told him this was going to happen he wouldn’t have believed them, even if it was All Might himself saying it.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, idiot. Shut up and sleep.”
“Goodnight, Kacchan, sleep well,” he said fondly, ignoring the mean response.
“’night, fucker.”
The Monday morning Aizawa brought the class to the training grounds to keep practicing with their quirks and focus on experimenting the different compatibility between them.
When working in teams or with other heroes from different agencies it was extremely important to know how your quirk could be helpful or interfere with another hero’s quirk. That kind of knowledge prevented damage and allowed heroes to collaborate more efficiently.
Obviously, Izuku completely immersed himself in the task of elaborating new team strategies, ending up getting carried away with it; before the first twenty minutes he had already came up with a surplus of ideas and had pushed everyone to try them out.
“...of course Dark Shadow gets weakened by light so quirks like Aoyama kun’s laser, Todoroki-kun’s fire, Kaminari-kun’s electricity and Kacchan’s explosions would make it difficult for them to act at the same time…but on the other hand Todoroki-kun could build an ice barricade to temporary shield him from direct light...ah, but what if the light reflects on ice and makes it shiny? Would that be enough to backfire on him? But in the end if we just-”
“Deku-kun, you’re talking too fast again! I lost track of your speech!”
“That’s right, Midoriya, you just confused everyone!”
“Aah, sorry, Uraraka, Mineta-kun!”
Bakugou looked at the scene from afar, faking disinterest.
“Midoriya is surely having fun with this, isn’t he?” commented Kirishima from his side .
“And what about it? Do I look like I give a damn?”
“You were looking at him so I thought...you know, that maybe you wanted to join him, bro.”
“Aah? Say that again and I’m going to kill you, shitty hair!”, he yelled, tiny explosions in his hand.
Kirishima, however, didn’t seem to take him seriously: “Hey, Midoriya, I think your quirk and Bakugou’s need some compatibility training too!”
Kaminari seemed to lack self preservation instincts as well: “Yeah, Midoriya!! During last training we...erm...saw some weaknesses you two should work on!”
Katsuki gave the two boys a furious look; what the hell were they thinking?
Deku immediately run towards them; if they had advice for him and Katsuki he was more than happy to let them help! Bakugou made an annoyed grunt.
Of course the nerd is going to listen to them. Right.
It was a matter of minutes before Midoriya started listening to Kirishima and Kaminari’s tips (which they were coming up with on the spot).
“Ah, you should probably try sparring to learn ...”
“..to learn how to work together, yeah, that’s right!” finished the sentence the red haired boy.
“Oh, so you’re suggesting we team up and spar against someone! That’s actually a good idea, Kaminari-kun, Kirishima-kun!” enthusiastically agreed Izuku. “Could you two help us? That would be great, right Kacchan?”
Bakugou smirked. His two classmates had been trying to piss him off enough for him to actually want to teach them a lesson. “If they want me to kick their sorry ass, then I’m more than ready to do that,” he said cockily. Kaminari gulped, suddenly feeling he had teased Bakugou a bit too much. Kirishima, instead, seemed to be hyped about the sparring: “Sure, Midoriya, we’ll do that, right Kaminari?”.
The poor boy freezed in place, desperately looking around for help from his classmates, knowing this wasn’t going to end good for him. He had absolutely no intention to fight against Midoriya and Bakugou at the same time; it honestly felt unfair. Luckily Todoroki seemed to take pity on him and approached the four boys. “If that’s ok I’d like to do that. Can I take your place, Kaminari?” he said plainly.
Denki looked at him in awe: “Of course, not problem at all! Maybe I’ll...I’ll have my turn on this another time eheh”, he said before quickly running towards the spot where the rest of the class was gathered, fearing Katsuki was going to object.
Jiro shook her head: “Did you and Kirishima really have to tease Bakugou?”
“We didn’t mean for it to get to this!”
“You’re lucky we got Todoroki-chan to switch with you, kero.”
“Thank you, girls! I owe you one!”
“Then help us out with training! Momo and I wanted to try something with your quirk,” said Jiro.
“Is it really ok to leave them like that?” asked Uraraka, still looking at the four boys who had already started their sparring.
“Aizawa-sensei is keeping an eye on us, right? He’ll erase their quirks if they get too carried away, don’t worry!”
The training session eventually proceeded without problems; Bakugou, cursing aside, kind of controlled himself enough to be a bit less violent than usual. Even if Deku and him still had some cooperation problems, it was still better than their first team up against All Might during the first year exams. The two boys eventually came up with some pretty good jointed actions that gave Kirishima and Todoroki some trouble and, when the lesson was finished and they got back to the locking rooms, Izuku was enthusiastically listing the progresses they’d made, already planning their next training to focus on improving weaknesses that have emerged. Kirishima winked at Kaminari, giving him a thumb up: the operation ‘help Bakubro and Midoriya becoming bros’ was going great! They’d have to thank Todoroki for unknowingly taking part in it, later. It was nice to see even Katsuki and Izuku could work together in a kind of decent way and everyone’s morale had risen significantly because of that.
Bakugou obviously yelled at everyone who teasingly complimented his team up skills.
“You think I can’t get shit done? Of course I can, you losers! How about I kick every single one of your sorry asses? Deku, you better get the best out of you tomorrow or I’m going to fucking kill you!”
Izuku smiled, overflowing with motivation: “Of course, we’re going to give our best, Kacchan!”
After training Izuku was called by All Might to have some talk eye to eye; it had been some time since they last got to discuss things together and Toshinori felt guilty about that. He’d been rather busy lately and then he kind of felt like he was missing something. Something about the recent events of that morning, to be more specific.
“Midoriya, my boy! Take a seat!”
The freckled boy gladly did as he was told, sitting on the small couch inside All Might’s office. He had missed that.
“So...I saw you and young Bakugou have finally made some progress! I am really happy to finally be able to say that. I was kind of worried about the two of you but there you are, doing your best to grow up together; I’m really proud of you,” said Yagi, smiling warmly. He was almost going to say Aizawa was proud of them, too, but eventually refrained from it; Eraserhead wouldn’t be happy to have someone else speak in his place.
“What I wanted to say is that you’re doing a good job, my boy. Keep that up.”
Izuku felt he could have started crying but eventually managed to hold back: “I’m...I’m happy, All Might. It was thank to you that Kacchan and I understood what was best for us. I’ll do my best to make us reach the top together!”
All Might gave Izuku a gentle pat on the shoulder: “I’m sure it’s going to be great. I can’t wait to see.”
That night Izuku tossed and turned under the blankets, unable to sleep. He couldn’t seem to find a way to feel comfortable and it didn’t need much time for him to realize the reason of his dissatisfaction: Kacchan was not there. He missed the weight next to him, the warmth radiating from that body and bumping into him while he was changing position. Somehow he found himself thinking about Katsuki’s scent and the feeling of his blond hair stinging his face. About the deep snorts he emitted in his sleep.
He couldn’t quite understand why but there he was, craving to get a poor sleep night together with Katsuki. The green haired boy huffed, tossing the blanket away; he put his slippers on and headed towards the door, carefully opening it, sticking his head out to make sure no one saw him getting out of his room. Seeing no one was there, he silently headed to the fourth floor.
Kacchan is going to murder me.
When he found himself in front of the door he felt his stomach twist with anxiety; what if Katsuki got mad? What if he drove him away? He took a deep breath, trying to recollect himself before knocking. He hoped Kirishima was sleeping and didn’t hear anything. It was a matter of seconds before the door slowly opened; Bakugou glared at him, looking both pissed and resigned to his destiny. He took his arm without saying a word and pulled him inside the room, closing the door.
“Well? Explain, shitty nerd,” he urged, standing with his arms crossed. Katsuki looked tired, his face a bit pale. He was shirtless and that made him stand out even more in the poorly illuminated room.
“I had troubles sleeping and...I-I thought it would help if you were there,” he explained. Now that he’d said that out loud it sounded more idiotic that he’d originally thought it would.
Bakugou felt his heart jump a bit inside his chest but mercilessly ignored it; instead he made an annoyed grunt, putting a shirt on before heading to his bed: “You know what? I’m actually too damn tired to listen to your shit. Do what you want, I don’t care. Just don’t drool on my shirt, you clingy asshole.”
Izuku climbed on the bed beside him, already feeling like a weight had just got away from his chest.
“It only happened once! And I’m not that clingy,” he said, adjusting himself comfortably in the newfound warmth of Katsuki’s bed. “Uhm...maybe only a bit,” he conceded, feeling sleepy, as he nuzzled a bit closer to Bakugou.
“If you snot or drool on my stuff I’m making you do my laundry for the rest of the month,” murmured the red eyed boy. Even if he said that he moved his arm to allow the other boy to scoot closer.
“Mhm, mhm,” nodded Izuku, “’d night Kacchan.”
“’night.”
Katsuki was not going to admit it any soon but he was having trouble sleeping too; it was scary to him, the idea that he was starting to need Deku’s presence. He didn’t want to think what all of that meant or implied. He brushed every thought away, closing his eyes and curving his head down to feel Midoriya’s curls tickling his chin. From the fresh, fruity scent coming from his hair it seemed like Izuku had taken a shower earlier. Katsuki disliked all the kinds of fruity and sweet smell; he found those disgusting. But somehow when it was mixed with Izuku’s natural scent, he didn’t mind it that much. It was ok.
They both fell asleep quickly, immersed in each other’s presence.
The morning after Izuku got called a ‘clingy, drooling nerd’ and somehow ended up taking care of Katsuki’s laundry.
The fact that Midoriya had been seen putting Bakugou’s clothes in the washing machine quickly became one of the most discussed 1A topics of the week.