Work Text:
“Yeah. This sucks.”
The trio sit together at a table, covered in crumbs and staring out onto the dance floor. It is dark, with only some disco lights shining on the dancers. Katsuki fiddles with his dress shirt, wanting to rip it off and burn it. Eijirou sways slightly to the slow music. Denki bites into a cupcake.
They thought this dance would be fun. Class 2-A and 2-B together in a dark ballroom with complete control over the music, food, and decorations? It would be a hilarious disaster.
“I’m super pissed Jirou wouldn’t let me play Africa by Toto,” Denki whines, face covered in crumbs. “You’d think good looks would get you somewhere. At least I made her laugh, though.”
“If she actually went through with that she wouldn’t get through the first ten seconds unless she wanted me to rip her face off,” Katsuki threatens, simply untying his tie and leaving it over his shoulders.
One of the girls had requested a series of romantic songs to slow dance to. Which was utter bullshit, since not everyone has a date to this damned thing. Katsuki, Eijirou, and Denki, for example, were humiliated by having to stay seated during these songs. Some people, like Aoyama, had no shame. He simply wrapped his arms around himself and spun around. Mina and a group of class 2-B girls were still twerking. Is it right to twerk to All of Me by John Legend? Is that even allowed?
Katsuki looks around the room. Half-and-Half is dancing with Yaoyorozu. Iida and Uraraka are tripping over each others’ feet. Mineta’s sitting alone in a corner.
The song ends, and a song Katsuki doesn’t recognize starts to play. Jirou approaches the trio, smiling at Denki, who has just shoved a whole cupcake in his mouth. She looks at him for a moment then sighs.
“You’re disgusting and a dumbass,” she deadpans, “but you’re cute and you make me laugh. Come on, let’s dance.”
Denki, face beaming, jumps up and takes her hand. He looks back at the other two and gives them a thumbs up.
Eijirou sighs, closing his eyes. “Man, I can’t believe they’re playing these songs. They should be playing Eye of the Tiger! Or something else manly!”
“Don’t act like you don’t wanna be out there dancing with someone, Shitty Hair, “ Katsuki says, clearly annoyed. As someone who actually doesn’t like this music, hearing his best friend fake talk shit really pisses him off.
“Well, you’re not wrong!” Eijirou chuckles. “But wouldn’t you want to dance with somebody?”
“Absolutely not.” Katsuki replies.
“Not even from a certain green-haired someone?”
The thought makes Katsuki blush. He looks across the dance floor and he finds curly green hair before his eyes shoot down to the ugly ass red shoes. On second thought, maybe he doesn’t want to dance.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Suit yourself, I’m gonna go ask Tetsutetsu if he wants to dance. We’ll engage in a battle of manly slow dancing!” Eijirou jumps up and speeds away into the crowd.
Which leaves Katsuki sitting alone at the table, fingers drumming along to the beat. And he thinks for a moment.
It wouldn’t be too bad, he supposes. Having the nerd in his arms, head resting on his shoulder, arms around his waist. It would be awkward as hell, seeing as the dumbass has this habit of tripping over his own goddamn feet. But it would be nice.
Katsuki tells himself not to get his hopes up. High hopes means more devastating disappointments. So he sits there, listening to the stupid music and wishing he was out there too.
After a while, the music all starts to blur together, irritating Katsuki’s ears to the point where he considers getting up and walking out the damn ballroom. So he stops staring into the crowd and starts to stand.
But another body standing in front of him stops him from taking a step.
“Oh! I’m sorry, Kacchan, I didn’t realize you were leaving.”
Of course it’s the damn nerd.
“Yeah,” he replies, shoving his hands into his pockets, “It’s pretty fucking boring when there’s gross ass songs playing and no one to dance with.”
“Ah,” is all Deku says to that. He looks down and starts to fidget with his fingers. “Well, actually, I was wondering if you wanted to dance with me?”
Katsuki’s heart skips a beat. He looks at the nerd surprisingly, face reddening, then he shrugs and scoffs.
“Don’t take pity on me for not slow dancing with anyone. I really couldn’t care less. Go dance with someone you like, like Uraraka or some shit.”
Deku looks up and frowns. “Well, I’m trying to, but he won’t exactly give me a straight answer.” His eyes are wide and his hands are clasped together. He extends his arm out and asks, “Will you dance with me? At least one song?”
Katsuki tries to keep his composure. No one should know how fast his heart is racing.
He lets his eyes travel down Deku’s figure. The guy’s outfit is a damn mess, a clash of terrible colours and a jacket that’s slightly too big on him, and to top it off, he has the damn shoes and the terribly tied tie. Katsuki raises his eyebrow.
“On one condition. Take off that ugly ass jacket and let me fix your tie. It’s bothering me.”
“At least I’m wearing a tie! I bet you can’t tie one properly either!”
“Do you wanna dance or not?”
“Hmph, fine.”
Katsuki struggles to untie the chaotic knot that makes up most of the dreaded tie, but after many pulls and tugs, he gets the job done. He tries to ignore how strangely intimate the moment is, with Deku staring at him like some sort of creep.
He takes the tie off of Deku’s shoulders and tries to straighten it, but the damn thing is so bent he fears it’s unrepairable. So he tries his best with what he’s got; a simple windsor knot that ends up looking surprisingly neat.
“Alright,” Katsuki says, fixing it up one last time before smoothly running his hands down Deku’s arms and stopping right at his fingers, “are we gonna go or what?”
Deku smiles widely, grasping Katsuki’s hands firmly and pulling him into the crowd. Katsuki can’t help but smile in return.
The two stop, and conveniently enough a new song starts. Katsuki’s sure the previous song was cut off, and he sees Jirou smirking at the two of them before running off to find Denki.
“Okay, so…”
Of fucking course he doesn’t know how to dance. The dumbass is simply looking in confusion and moving his hands around as though he didn’t know where to put them.
To be fair, Katsuki doesn’t know anything about dancing either, so he looks around the room and tries to copy what everyone else is doing. Trying to keep his breathing steady, he takes Deku’s hands and puts them on his shoulders. Katsuki then pulls Deku closer and sets his hands on Deku’s waist.
And they sway side to side. Katsuki’s sure they must be doing something wrong, since they’re barely moving, so he starts moving his feet side to side, and Deku follows.
If the point of dancing like this was to get people flustered as hell and get their hearts pumping so fast they might burst, then this-whatever it was-was definitely working. Deku won’t even keep his eyes off the ground, staring at his feet to, what, prevent falling?
It doesn’t work since he trips over his own goddamn feet and falls face first right into Katsuki’s chest.
Deku, the fucker, yelps and Katsuki can feel him shaking. Luckily enough, his ear is right over Katsuki’s heart, and can probably at this point hear the thump thump thump bam boom of his stupid ass heart.
Katsuki wants to push him away and blast the damn room to the ground, but his arms betray him and instead pull him a little closer. They’re practically hugging at this point, arms uncomfortably wrapped around each other, bodies pressed together and legs barely moving. Katsuki buries his head in Midoriya’s hair.
“Gahh, Kacchan, what are you doing?” Deku asks.
“Hhyourmf mmhairf if softff,” he mumbles. He doesn’t want to say he’s trying to stop himself from screaming. That would be embarrassing.
All Deku says in reply is, “Oh.”
So they stay, there, moving awkwardly side to side, arms around each other like they’re holding on for dear life. It makes Katsuki’s heart race and his body feel warm. It’s the weirdest fucking feeling he’s ever had in his life.
But, if he has to admit it (but he never will), it feels nice.