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It was a late evening like many others inside the dormitory building; after dinner the boys went to the common bath to wash themselves, soon filling the large room with their lively chattering. Apparently their new favorite topic was founding out that Eraserhead liked to feed stray cats; everyone had got surprised by the discovery, as it was to be expected.
“I still can’t believe Aizawa-sensei has a tender side to him!” said Kaminari.
“I wonder if he has a fetish for girls with cat ears, too,” commented Mineta, only to receive annoyed, disgusted looks by everyone. No one bothered to reply to his statement, though, finding it better to ignore him.
“Don’t you think his hero costume makes him look like a giant cat? Everything falls into place now☆”
“If you come to think of it, Aizawa-sensei’s lifestyle is quite similar to a cat’s too; he takes naps often but when he has to get into action he does it quickly and efficiently. He’s also a very independent person, especially when it comes to affective relationships with his colleagues...considering all the informations that I’ve collected in my analysis notebooks I think he-”
Midoriya’s passionate speculations were interrupted by Kirishima and Kaminari’s shouting; the two boys had started running around the room, engaging in a fierce towel-whip battle, occasionally involving other classmates in the process.
Iida stood up from his bath stool to tell them off, gesticulating animatedly: “Stop it, both of you! Running in here could be dangerous, since the floor is wet!”
“Aah, c’mon! Let them be, Iida! We’ve all had a long day, it’s ok to relax from time to time!” replied Sero, starting to wash his hair.
Iida sighed, sitting down again: maybe he could turn a blind eye to that, just for one day.
“Do you need me to wash your back, Todoroki?”, he offered to the boy next to him.
“That would be great, thanks,” he agreed, smiling just slightly. If there was something he’d learned about recently, it was that taking care of each other between friends was rather enjoyable. It was all very new to him, but he was well-disposed to leave his awkwardness behind. He looked at Izuku, repeating Iida’s offer to the freckled boy: “Midoriya, is it ok it I do that for you?”
Deku turned to smile brightly at him: “Sure, Todoroki-kun! It’s really nice of you!”
Katsuki peeked at them, pretending to be occupied with washing his arm; he’d been scrubbing the same spot for a bit too much time for it to be credible, though.
“Like this it’s like a back-washing chain, ah...”, Midoriya said, looking around, feeling guilty to be the only one of the three with free hands:“Aoyama-kun, do you want to-”
Before Yuga could even say a word, Bakugou abruptly stood to his feet, grabbing his plastic stool and stomping across the room to roughly place it in front of Izuku, gracelessly dropping to sit down on it, earning an high pitched yelp from him.
Aoyama stifled a chuckle, not wanting to upset his prickly classmate; instead he winked at Midoriya and said: “Non, mon ami! I already have a bath brush so you don’t have to worry about it ☆”
As to prove his point, he picked out a glittery brush from his beauty case, proudly wielding it. Deku, after somehow recovering himself from the previous fright, smiled at him, resolving to apologize properly later.
“Hey, Bakugou, Midoriya didn’t agree on this.”
“That’s right, Bakuguo-kun! It was absolutely rude of you,” agreed Iida.
“Does this look like it’s your fucking business? Because it’s not, you fuckers!” yelled Bakugou in response, his eyes glinting with fury. Shouto looked at him from behind Izuku, moving his hand away from his friend’s back, getting ready to fight back. The chattering from before had stopped, tension becoming palpable in the room.
Izuku gesticulated frantically, trying to cool the atmosphere down: “That’s ok, Todoroki-kun, Iida-kun. I’m fine, I don’t mind.”
The two friends looked at him, still not fully convinced, as he carefully rested a hand on Katsuki’s back, massaging his shoulder blade for a bit. “Though you should have just asked, Kacchan,” he added.
“Shuddup,” he replied as Izuku took a bit of shower gel and started washing his back.
The tension eventually eased down and the other boys returned to their previous occupations. The dispute seemed to have been solved.
Bakugou made a low, soft sound of appreciation; Izuku’s hands felt clumsy and slightly rough on him but he imperceptibly leaned into the touch, feeling oddly triumphant for a second. But as time passed he realized he still didn’t feel satisfied. There was some kind of discomfort creeping in his stomach: some kind of irrational fear of something he couldn’t get was haunting his mind. He was sitting there, unable to do anything about it, powerless, helpless. Whatever that was, it pissed him off.
Eventually Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida got up, dried themselves and, before going to dress up in the changing room, the freckled boy stopped to say: “I’m going, see you tomorrow, Kacchan.”
“Yeah, whatever,” grunted Katsuki, getting up to dry himself, feeling somehow more angry than ever.
“Woah, dude, that’s some scary face!” commented Kirishima.
“What’s that makes you so grumpy all of sudden? Did you want Midoriya to keep washing your back?” teased him Kaminari.
“Just shut up, all of you! Why would I give a shit that Deku has left, ah?! He sucked at washing my back anyway,” he shouted, turning to look at them angrily and then aggressively threw his towel in the laundry bin. The other boys shook their heads, deciding it better to leave him be.
“By the way, have you guys heard? Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida are having a sleepover in Todoroki’s room tonight to watch some old All Might recordings together. I heard them talking about it with Uraraka,” said Sero, “wouldn’t it be cool to do something like that too?”
“That sounds great, Sero! It’s going to be funny!” approved Kirishima, “Hey, Bakugou, you com-”
But before he could finish the sentence, Katsuki had gathered his things and stomped out of the bath, leaving his classmates exchanging troubled looks.
“What’s with him?”
Izuku opened his eyes, a soft ‘ouch’ slipping out of his lips. He yawned, gently pushing Todoroki’s foot to the side to prevent him from kicking his face again, as a small smile curved his lips. It was a bit funny how the half cold, half hot boy would end up sleeping upside-down at some point of the night. He remembered it happened during the summer camp, too. The boy turned to check on Iida, sleeping completely straight and rigid, looking a little like a tin soldier, and, after being sure he was the only one awake, returned to lay on his back, folding his arm under his head.
Somehow, in the darkness of Todoroki’s room, he found himself thinking about Katsuki. He started recalling their nights together, reflecting on how much different they were from what he was experiencing at the moment and eventually concluded that sleeping with Katsuki had something more to it. Sleeping with his friends was nice and funny but that was all there was to it: he had no further feelings about that, it was simple and reassuring. During the nights spent with the blond boy, on the contrary, he was always flooded by lots and lots of different, contrasting emotions. It was something even he couldn’t completely grasp yet, how Bakugou made him feel excited about spending time together and, at the same time, irrationally anxious and afraid. He scratched his belly, sighing; trying to figure out things at 2 a.m. wasn’t the best idea, maybe. He turned to rest on his side, hugging his All Might printed pillow.
Suddenly, he heard Iida grumbling in his sleep: “Mineta, come back!.. Kirishima, stop using... Kaminari as power socket...”
The freckled boy stifled a laugh against the pillow, suddenly feeling his mood lightened.
I suppose Iida-kun is an assiduous class rep even while dreaming…
The day after Izuku found himself dealing with a cantankerous Katsuki: the blond boy avoided him whenever he could and snapped at him every time he tried to approach him. Midoriya felt like he was going crazy: what had happened to make Bakugou that angry at him? Things were going well between them not more than a day ago and yet there they were, back at the beginning. If morning lessons turned out to be bearable despite Katsuki’s bad attitude, the evening training was absolutely hellish. What was worst was that Bakugou didn’t only target Midoriya but picked fights with Iida and Todoroki as well. Not to mention that he’d started mistreating Aoyama out of the blue. The whole situation felt unbearable: by the time Midoriya got back to his own room late in the evening he felt frustrated, confused, stressed and quite anguished. As much as the thought made him uncomfortable, he knew Bakugou and him would have to talk about whatever the issue was and that they’d have to do it when they were alone. And so, after a good thirty minutes of pondering, Izuku found himself knocking at Katsuki’s door at 11:30 p.m. , wondering why his life was always such a mess. Katsuki opened the door but, as soon as he saw Midoriya was the one waiting behind it, quickly tried to close it back; Izuku, however, firmly held the door in place. “We have to talk,” he said, a serious look on his face.
“Fine,” allowed the red eyed boy, an annoyed inclination in his voice. Not the made up one he used when trying to look cool around him; he was genuinely angry, his whole body seeming to perspire a rage ready to explode.
He let Midoriya in without even looking at him, stopping to wait for him to talk with his arms folded: “Well? I’m listening,” he said coldly.
“You have to tell me what’s wrong, Kacchan. I-I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do. What happened?”
“You even have the nerves to ask, you fucking bastard?” yelled Katsuki, already losing his temper.
When Midoriya gave him a questioning look, his big eyes wide and confused, he felt blood boiling his veins; he walked closer, threatening, livid, and grabbed Izuku’s wrists, slamming him against the wall.
“How can you fucking feel so guiltless when you go and replace me on the first occasion? You telling me that as long as you have someone to fucking cling to in your sleep everyone is fine? I thought you valued things more seriously but I was wrong!” he screamed on his face.
Izuku wasn’t going to let him treat him like that any further; he freed himself from his grip and pushed him away, retorting: “I can’t believe you’re saying that! It’s not like I yell at you when you spend time with Kirishima-kun and the others!”
“It’s not the same fucking thing! I don’t share a bed with them, you bastard!”, he roared, fuming.
Deku yelled back: “Am I not a free person? That’s ridiculous! I really don’t get you, Kacchan!”
“Oh, so you don’t get me. Fine! Then get the fuck out of my fucking room and go sleeping in someone’s fucking bed or stay alone and cry yourself to sleep! I don’t care!” he yelled, stomping to go and open the door.
Izuku looked at him, hurt, incredulous and furious: “Fine!”
“Fine!” screamed back Bakougou, even louder than before.
And with that Izuku stomped out of the room; Katsuki slammed the door behind his back immediately after he’d paced in the hallway.
Kirishima had just came out of his room, alerted by their loud arguing, and was looking at him with concern: “Hey, Midoriya, is everything all right? What happened?”
“Sorry, Kirishima-kun, I don’t feel like talking about it,” briefly said Izuku, turning him his back and walking away, his whole body trembling with rage. He’d never felt that angry towards someone he cared of. Not in a long time. Kirishima looked at him in disbelief: it wasn’t like him at all, walking away like that.
I hope everything is going to be fine.
The following days, however, showed things weren’t going to be settled easily: the two boys refused to talk to each other, limiting their interactions to what was strictly necessary. The tensed atmosphere made everyone uneasy and worried: seeing their friends like that had lowered everyone’s mood, resulting in poor results during physical training.
Eventually, after seeing no progress was being made, Aoyama, Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki decided to take Midoriya aside in order to have him explain what was going on.
The freckled boy, however, not only didn’t say what had happened, but literally burst into tears, sighing pathetically while his friends hugged him, trying to provide some comfort. Seeing Izuku had bottled up so much distress over something he wouldn’t talk about made them even more worried, especially since they all suspected Bakugou was the main reason behind it.
Katsuki looked up from his textbook as he heard someone approaching him. It was Uraraka.
“What do you want, round face?”
“Come out for a walk with me, I have to talk to you,” she said in a way that didn’t allow objections.
“What if I say I don’t want to?” he replied defiantly.
“I’ll stand here and talk about it anyway here in the common room. Your choice.”
Katsuki huffed, annoyingly closing the book and standing up to leave with the girl. The other students looked at them curiously as they got away together.
“Did the shitty nerd send you because he was too much of a coward to show his pathetic face to me?” he asked as soon as they got out of the building.
“Deku-kun doesn’t know, I came of my own accord,”she said and her face was serious and determined.
“Well, make it quick. I have no time for this shit. I’m not going to treat you more nicely than I would have treated half ‘n half bastard or that shitty four eyes just because you’re a girl.”
Uraraka ignored his last comment, focused on her goal: “It’s obvious by now that something happened between the two of you. Something that gave Deku-kun so much distress that he burst out crying when we tried to address the issue,” she started speaking, stopping to look at Bakugou to see what effect her words had on him. If anything, it looked like he was at least paying attention.
“I may not know anything about what’s going on between you, since Deku-kun refuses to tell us what happened, but one thing I’m certain of: he cares so much about you he would risk his life for you without thinking about it twice. He would do that and you know that because he already did it,” she continued.
Bakugou didn’t say a word but Ochako noticed his face slightly twitching in reaction to her words.
“What I’m going to say is: if you don’t return his feelings, then stop deceiving him and say it out loud. But if by chance you care about him too, then man up and fix things with him, Bakugou”.
For the first time since they’d got out of the dorm, Bakugou spoke: “You know nothing about us, round face,” he said harshly.
“I don’t. But Deku-kun is my friend. I can’t just watch him suffer and do nothing. So what about you? Are you going to turn your back to him or are you going to do the right thing?”
“It’s not all as easy as you think it is!” he retorted.
They both stopped walking, looking at each other in silence for some time, before Uraraka eventually made a disappointed expression.
“You know, you were one of the people I looked up to the most, together with Deku-kun. Because you never gave up, no matter how desperate the situation was. But I guess I was wrong,” she said coldly before turning away from him and leaving the boy alone in the schoolyard. Those words had stung and hurt like a thousands stabs in his chest: he felt like screaming and crying because he knew it was the truth. Uraraka was right.
Deku was sitting on his bed, training with dumbbells and feeling quite miserable. He felt exhausted and that was understandable since he’d cried his soul out not more than fifteen minutes ago. The room felt silent and dull; the sudden knocking sound felt almost surreal to him. His heart started racing fast, a hope he didn’t want to properly elaborate on growing inside him as he got up to answer the door. He took a deep breath and turned the handle: Katsuki was there, looking just as miserable and broken as him.
The blond boy looked at Izuku, examining his face, and noticed his eyes were red and swollen and tired.
He’s been crying.
“Let me in, Deku,” he said, his voice feeling almost like a plea.
Izuku moved to the side, his limbs feeling weak, allowing him to walk in without saying a word. After closing the door, Midoriya turned to see Katsuki standing in the middle of the room, looking at him intently. He couldn’t bear with it anymore; that piercing silence was too much for him to take: “Kacchan, the things that happened-”
“No, don’t say it. I know what you’re about to do and that won’t work. Don’t even fucking try saying you’re sorry,” interrupted him Katsuki, stepping closer and reaching out to him, wanting to guide him into sitting down on the bed. Izuku, however, drew back with a sharp, instinctive movement, having misinterpreted his intentions. Bakugou let his arms fall back on his sides, feeling cold needles piercing through his whole body. He should have expected that kind of reaction but he still wasn’t prepared for it.
“Sit down. Just listen and don’t say a word,” he said.
Izuku did as he’d been told, dropping his weight on the bed, eyes fixed on the floor.
“Now pay attention because I’m not going to say it twice,” he warned, taking a deep breath before speaking again, unable to look at Izuku as he did so: “I’m an utter piece of shit and I said horrible things to you. I blamed you for everything because it was easier than dealing with how some things made me feel. I don’t think you don’t value our time together enough and...and when I said I didn’t care it was just bullshit. I’m sorry, Deku.”
When he finally dared to rest his gaze on Izuku, Bakugou found the boy staring back at him, sparks seeming to shine in his green eyes: tears were starting too pool in there but he struggled not to let them fall: “It’s ok now, I forgive you, Kacchan. I guess I should apologize too: I overreacted. I felt attacked, angry and I didn’t try to properly discuss things with you. I lost my temper and that was...not what I was supposed to do,” he said, his voice overflowing with emotion; “But I care about you, too, Kacchan. You’re one of the most important persons to me. Please don’t doubt that ever again. No matter what happens, you’re always someone dear to me.”
And, with that, Izuku stopped holding back his tears, letting them flow down his cheeks, breaking into a gross, wet mess. Katsuki’s heart started thumping wildly in his chest: “God, I’m such an asshole. A fucking huge idiot,” he said, crossing the room to get close to Izuku. He stood in front of him, looking at his crying face: his cheeks and lips had turned brightly red, tears making his lashes wet and sticky. Like that, Deku looked ugly, graceless, pathetic. And, even so, he was smiling. It was a ridiculous sight but it made Bakugou feel warm things in his chest: he’d rather ignore the reason behind that.
“Hey, wanna fucking hug or something, whiny nerd?” he said, trying to sound cool. However is voice came out awfully tender.
The blond boy didn’t have to say it twice; Izuku quickly trapped Katsuki between his arms, pressing his own face tight against the other’s chest, practically tackling him down on the bed.
Bakugou complained about how gross the wetness of tears felt over his chest for awhile but hugged him back anyway. They laid on their side like that, both taking their sweet time to leave their past stressful days behind. Eventually, everything seemed to be fine again.
“I’ll have you do my laundry forever, snot-king.”
“I don’t mind that,” said Izuku nuzzling against his shirt. He had stopped crying and was now breathing evenly on Katsuki’s chest.
“About that, I didn’t know you had All Might boxers too,” he said teasingly.
“Shuddup, my underwear choices are not your business,” he answered, blushing a bit. “And you better keep your mouth shut about it if you value your life, you nerd. I’ll kick your sorry ass all way to the moon if you mention that again.”
“So even Kacchan can be shy, that’s pretty cute,” Midoriya said fondly, chuckling softly as he lifted his head to look at Bakugou.
Katsuki grumbled in embarrassment, turning on the other side to hide his blushing face from Izuku.
The freckled boy started panicking, fearing he’d angered him for good: “K-kacchan, I’m sorry, I’m not going to say that again! Please don’t get angry at me!” he said, sitting up to check on the blond boy.
Bakugou sighed, his embarrassment eased down, turning to look at Midoriya. “Yo, I’m not pissed, fucker. Stop being such a paranoid crybaby. How about you go to sleep and stop with this shit?”
“Mhm, ok. I’m exhausted,” he agreed, plopping his head back on the pillow. He hesitated for a bit before asking: “Are you staying, Kacchan?”
“I’m too fucking tired to go anywhere right now,” answered the blond boy, stretching to turn off the light and pull the blanket over them. It was the truth; apparently emotions tired him out more than any physical activity could.
“Good night, Kacchan. I’m glad we’ve cleared things out today.”
“Yeah, yeah, me too. ’night, Deku. Dream cheesy nerd shit and try not to drool on me too much.”
Izuku chuckled: “Not making promises here.”
“Whatever,” grunted Katsuki, hugging him closer to his chest, “then just let me sleep.”
Izuku made a pleased sound, snuggling against the familiar body.
They fell asleep not much later, both indulging in the other’s warmth.