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It annoyed the absolute shit out of Katsuki.
Ever since the incident, he couldn’t get that damn nerd out of his head! The little shit was constantly crying and trudging around in his thoughts, plaguing Katsuki all day, everyday , for the past….what, week?
And for some even stupider reason, Katsuki felt fucking guilty for something. He had no idea what for, but an annoying weight was constantly pressing down on his chest, making it somewhat hard to breathe.
Especially when he was around.
———— Before the morning bell 7:59 - 1 week after the incident-
“Hey Kacchan!” a high pitched, very pubescent voice chirps from behind Katsuki. Deku is currently standing a few lockers down from Katsuki, his stupid yellow bag strapped loosely onto his back. A frail hand waves back and forth, his sweet smile aimed towards Katsuki and the two boys beside him (Whose backs were all turned to the greenete)
Katsuki’s breath momentarily catches in his chest, before he shakes it off and whips his head back to yell at the annoying Deku. Right as he opens his mouth, another voice talk’s over him.
To his left, Tall-ass sneers at Deku, “How about you go a-“
Feeling insulted, Katsuki bows up on the taller boy, “How about you, shut the fuck up and let me talk, Tall-ass!” he hollers, stepping forward and raising himself to the tips of his toes, now at eye level with the other boy.
“S-sorry Bakugou, I-I-I” Tall-ass stammers nervously, taking a step back from the fiery blond.
With a scoff, Katsuki returns to his normal standing position, “That’s what I thought,” he huffs, and shoves his hands into his pockets, grumbling as he trudged away from his two buddies and a very confused Deku.
———Math class, 2:28 -1 week after the incident-
Katsuki’s mouth is pulled in a frown as he sits slouched in his desk, hands in his pockets and staring grumpily at the green chalkboard as the teacher scribbles some shit on the board that he probably needed to know about.
He taps his foot, trying to get his mind off of what had happened earlier that day. No matter how hard he tried, Katsuki can't stop thinking about that Deku’s dumb smile from before, everything the teacher was saying went in one ear and right out the other.
It contently blew his mind how happy that nerd always was, how can someone without a quirk be happy in life? Ever? Katsuki’s spent countless nights just thinking ‘How the hell does he do it?’ and by that he means, ‘How is Deku fucking happy when practically everything in his life actually sucks?’
Katsuki knows for sure that if didn’t have his amazing quirk, he would have already jumped off a building by now…. which, is exactly what he had told Deku to do, huh? Brows furrowed, Katsuki turns his gaze from the chalkboard, down to his wooden desk. Was that why he’s been feeling so shitty lately? Pch, no, shitty Deku doesn’t….he isn’t….Katsuki suddenly gets the urge to turn back and look at Deku, he just wants to know he’s there. Just uh, seeing he isn’t skipping class like the irresponsible Deku he is.
With his hands gripping either side of his desk, Katsuki twists his back to face the boy sitting diagonally behind him. Deku’s leaning forward in his desk, freckled cheeks slightly puffed out in concentration as he listens intently to the teacher's lecture, looking down to take notes in a seemingly new notebook every other second. Katsuki wants to know so badly what it is about that stupid face that makes Katsuki think about it so damn much. He watches the way Deku’s eyebrows slowly knot together as he tapped his pencil on one of his cheeks, deep in thought.
Katsuki’s entire upper half is facing Deku, eyes shamelessly glaring holes into the greenete’s freckly forehead, not even thinking about being caught looking.
And that’s exactly what happens to Katsuki, only a few seconds into studding Deku’s features. Two wide green eyes meet Katsuki’s own, causing him to snap out of his little trance and his face to heat up. He doesn’t know why, but his hands become clammy with sweat, creating small little crackles and pops to sound off. Deku jumps at the sound
“Bakugou, please refrain from using your quirk in the classroom,” the teachers boring, monotone voice stated, dull grey eyes looking into Katsuki’s own.
Katsuki turns around and wipes his hands on his pants, ridding them of the explosive sweat.
“Yes, sir.”
——— After school 4:02 - 1 week after the incident-
Katsuki doesn’t go straight home after school, instead, he walks to a nearby convenience store to buy a few drinks to take home. Just a few bug juices. He doesn’t care what anyone says, bug juice is the fucking bomb.
Walking out of the store with a small bag of bug juice, Katsuki glances at a nearby street sign. He groans when he reads that he’s on a street a good ways away from his normal route home. The street was familiar though, this was the route he and Deku used to take back to their houses when they were kids. This was the route that conventionally led to the park and the middle school. Katsuki stopped using it when he entered middle school though.
With a shrug, Katsuki turns left, deciding to rely on his memory to get him back home through this route instead of having to walk a fuck ways to get back to his own route.
Katsuki walks for a few minutes, reminiscing about his childhood whenever he came upon a particular bench where he and his friends would stop and eat, dumb stuff like that. His mind subconsciously wanders back to Deku, how he used to be and how he is now. He rarely thinks about past Deku, but now that he’s doing so, Katsuki finally realizes how much the boy has changed.
Deku was really, really happy as a kid. While he’ll admit, Deku was still seemingly always happy when people were around, but it wasn’t a rare occurance that when Deku thought no one was looking, his eyes would droop and he’d yawn, smile dropping from his expression. But Katsuki saw, he saw it every day, and as soon as someone gained Deku’s attention back, he returned to that that sappy smiley kid like everyone knew him to be.
Katsuki’s thoughts were interrupted when he hears a few quiet yells and the sound of something hitting another thing, hard from what he could tell. Katsuki turns his head, observing his surroundings. There was a pretty large tunnel-like passing through a little bit ahead of him. Katsuki jogs forward and the yells get louder, he’s beginning to be able to make out what was being said,
From the tunnel, Katsuki hears the echo of a familiar voice saying, ‘Grab it, short stuff!’ in a teasing manner, then the sound of laughter and splashes of water.
Curiosity taking over him, Katsuki peeks into the opening of the tunnel, looking onto the scene only about 15 feet ahead of him.
Tall-ass was leaning lazily against the back of the tunnel, holding something that resembled a notebook in his fingers, slowly stretching them further and further upwards. A familiar short boy with green hair was practically climbing the other to get the book out of his stretchy fingers. Beside them was Deku’s yellow bag, set up against the wall. Deku’s chest was pressed against the other’s broader one, and his left hand pushing down on the taller boy’s shoulder with his other reaching desperately to grab the notebook.
Something about they’re positron made Katsuki’s blood boil.
Deciding to intervene, Katsuki widely steps into the opening of the tunnel right at the edge of the small step down, causing both Tall-ass and Deku to look at him.
At first, Tall-ass looked confused, but then he smirked and his fingers grew even longer, “You wanna join, Bakugou? Here, catch!” the brunette boy tosses the notebook across the tunnel and Deku jumps up in attempt to catch it. Instead, the book lands safely in Bakugou’s hands, giving him the chance to really figure out what it was.
The clump of paper’s in his hands was only hanging on to each other by a thread, and the tips of the pages were…burnt. Turning it over, Bakugou reads the front.
‘Hero analysis for the future No. 13’
That… made Katsuki feel weird. Guilty almost, though he wouldn’t admit it, even to himself. Smoothing the charred paper over with his hand, Katsuki glances back up at Tall-ass, who still seemed to be giggling and Deku, who looked ready to cry.
“Get outa here, Tall-ass, don’t want you here for this shit,” Katsuki commands, looking straight into Deku’s teary eyes.
A loud laugh erupts from the tall boy as he jogs up to Bakugou, “Damn, you gonna beat ‘em up that bad?” he cackles. Behind him, Deku whimpers quietly. “Try not to leave no burn marks or nothin’, they’ll know it was you,” Tall-ass advises before giving Katsuki a little pat and jogging back out of the tunnel. Katsuki only grunts in response.
Once he was completely sure the boy was gone, Katsuki hops down the single step and advances towards Deku with the notebook in his hand. In a few steps, Katsuki’s only a yard away from the fidgeting boy.
Deku anxiously twiddles his thumbs, “K-Kacchan, just give it to me, p-please? You can hit me all you want, j-just don’t blow it up again, it’ll ruin it.” he begged, taking a cautious step back from Katsuki.
The pitiful look on Deku’s face made Katsuki feel like…sort of like he had to fix it, which was something he hadn’t EVER felt before. Expression unchanging, Katsuki extends his arm, holding the notebook out to Deku, “Take it,” he said seriously.
Deku eyes him, unbelieving, “F-for real?” he cocked an eyebrow, stepping forward again.
With a groan, Katsuki shook the notebook in his hands, “Yes for real, freckle fuck, now take it before I change my mind!” He threatens. Truthfully, Katsuki wouldn’t yank it back, something in his gut was telling him not to. Deku’s face brightens and he quickly snatches the notebook out of Katsuki’s hand and hugging it close to his chest. Fucking adorable.
Katsuki rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck, just out of habit. Deku seemed to take this as an ‘I’m getting ready to pound your face in’ signal, seeing as how his breath hitched and he subconsciously jumped back a little.
Yeah, that hurts Katsuki’s heart a little, but he chooses to ignore it. “I’m not gonna beat you up, nerd, I have a reputation to uphold!” Katsuki barks, slightly offended that Deku seemed to think every single thing Katsuki did was to hurt him.
Laughing nervously, Deku begins to make all kinds of weird, frantic hand gestures, “Y-Yeah! Of course! We-well, I’ll be on my way then!” he chuckles anxiously and begins walking to his backpack.
Katsuki watches in silence as he does so, shoving his hands in his pockets. Something wasn’t sitting right with him.
Before Deku can leave the tunnel, Katsuki calls out after him.
“Hey Deku,” he says calmly, walking up to the greenete. If you paid close attention, you’d notice how Katsuki’s fingers fiddle with the inside of his pockets, almost like he was nervous. Deku turns back to look at him, confused. Katsuki licks his lips, trying to find the right words, “I uh,” he stammers, “Shit, I don't…like what I said to you, last week, I mean…” Katsuki says, not looking Deku in the eye, but instead at the four big freckles on his right cheek.
Deku’s eyebrows shoot up, “The building thing?” he asks, disbelief laced in his tone. “Kacchan, don’t apologize if you don’t mean it,” Deku’s eyebrows knot together, and he looks offended.
“I’m not apologizing!” Katsuki yells, “It’s just…” his voice lowers, almost to a whisper, “Every day after I said that, it’s just-I just…,” Suddenly, he begins yelling, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I just…don’t like that I said that!” He concludes, doing a 180 spin on his heel and storming out of the tunnel.
Deku watches him angrily stomp out of the tunnel, a small blush on his face. A smile tugs at his lips.
“I forgive you, Kacchan.”