Work Text:
Katsuki always wanted to be the better man. He wanted to be the best man. He would be the greatest at everything.
He wanted to be the only one from his middle school to attend U.A. It made sense. He was special. He was better than everybody else, and they knew it. So when Deku announced he wanted to apply, it had been laughable, until he actually got in. Katsuki was no longer the only kid from his middle school that would study at Japan’s top hero academia institution. He was no longer special in that regard.
That was the first thing Deku took.
There had been that time, early in the year when their classmates had voted on who they would like to best represent them. It wasn’t a position Katsuki particularly wanted, but it would’ve been nice to at least have been nominated. People who became class reps were supposed to be leaders. They would be looked up to by their peers. At Katsuki’s old school he had been the one everyone admired and praised because of his quirk and his strength. He’d always been a natural leader. He expected the same treatment in high school.
So when it became clear Deku was the favorite to represent them, it irked and confused him. It didn’t matter if the green-haired loser ended up giving the position to that extra with the glasses. It didn’t change the fact that to some degree their classmates respected Deku, which in Katsuki’s mind, meant they must not respect him.
That was the second thing he took.
Day by day, week by week, as the semesters progressed Deku took and he took. Despite not even placing in the Sports Festival, the nerd was able to land an internship where he fought and helped defeat an actual fucking villain. Meanwhile Katsuki was stuck with Best Jeanist, where he was forced to model ridiculous slicked hair and denim slacks that rode up in the crotch.
Deku easily got his provisional license, while Katsuki failed. Then Deku took something even more important away from him. All Might.
They’d both admired him growing up, perhaps for different reasons, but it was the one thing in which Katsuki could admit they were truly equal. But somehow, despite working his ass off his entire life, despite honing his quirk and pushing himself to his limits, it still wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough because Deku swooped in and stole it from him. The quirkless wannabe, who didn’t have a chance in hell of becoming a hero, was suddenly being served Katsuki’s dream on a silver platter. He didn’t earn shit.
As they grew older, Katsuki became more accepting of the way things would be. If anything that just motivated him to work even harder. At a certain point who gave a fuck about how that nerd got his quirk? Katsuki would show them all that he was the better, no, the best man. He would show them that he’d be Number One.
Until Deku took that as well.
At the age of twenty, Katsuki claimed the Number Two spot, while Deku had been sitting pretty at Number One for the past five months. If he had been fifteen, Katsuki would have lost his damn mind, but at twenty he was older, wiser, and admittedly, he and Deku had teamed up enough times for his hatred of him to fizzle.
That didn’t mean he was happy for the nerd. Not even close.
At the age of twenty-one, someone new joined his agency, an old classmate. Uraraka. She and Katsuki had never been particularly close, but in their final year of high school they had struck up more than one semi-decent conversation. Round Face was still as pudgy as ever with those cheeks of hers, but a couple of years as a pro had made her even tougher, more formidable, and truly a force to be reckoned with.
She was also a goddamn spitfire when she wanted to be, and Katsuki soon learned their banter in the office made paperwork slightly more tolerable.
She’d do little things for him. Fill up his coffee when his was nearly drained. Sharpen his pencils when they became dull. She’d listen to him rant and fucking complain, and she nodded when he was being reasonable and wasn’t afraid to speak up when he wasn’t. She laughed at his jokes, on the rare occasions he made them. She was also straight with him, as he was with her.
Even though they rarely worked in the field together, Katsuki found himself actually looking forward to going into the office, something he previously detested. When Uraraka took the occasional day off to do extra field work, he would slouch over his desk, mopey and irritated.
On his twenty-second birthday, Katsuki had to go to some fucking awful, outdoor, work gala. Something focused on sewing unity into the fabric of the hero network or some shit. He thought he was gonna blow his brains out three hours in, but then some wise ass with a death wish flicked him in the back of the head and shoved an hors d'oeuvre into his mouth.
Uraraka grinned cheekily at him, and after he had finished yelling at her, they’d gotten to talking. They eventually wandered away from the event to skip stones across a lake. Katsuki was the better skipper, of course.
It was that night when he first wondered if it would be weird or stupid to do this with her again. Not skip stones, but... this.
He didn’t get to find out.
A few weeks later the media broke the story; Uravity and Deku had finally bit the bullet and gotten together. Katsuki supposed it made sense. She talked about that nerd all the time, and they always hung onto each other in that way that made his jaw clench. When she confided in him about how excited she was to be in her first, real relationship, Katsuki nodded and grunted and switched the topic.
Their work relationship didn’t suffer from this new development. If anything they became closer. Katsuki guessed it helped because she was ignorant to his feelings on the subject.
Deku came to visit in the office sometimes, and he and Uraraka would blush and giggle and occasionally give each other a chaste kiss on the cheek. Their coworkers fawned over them, while Katsuki accidentally snapped a key right off of his keyboard.
He took pleasure when it became clear Deku wasn’t the perfect little hero everyone thought him to be. He was shit at balancing work and leisure, and sometimes Uraraka was left to suffer the consequences. Once, the nerd was supposed to pick her up at the office while Katsuki worked a late shift. She was dressed in this lavender dress and heels and she looked…
Katsuki cleared his throat and squinted at his desktop screen.
Anyway, she waited and waited and by the time Deku showed up the sun had set, and any decent place worth dressing up for had closed down for the night. Katsuki took some sick joy in believing such a situation could potentially throw their relationship on the rocks, but then he caught one glimpse of Uraraka’s moist eyes and trembling lip, and he just felt sick.
When they were twenty-three, Uraraka decided to take Katsuki out to lunch, her treat. It was rare for her to splurge on something like a meal, so he went along with it, snarky suspicion curling his mouth into a smirk. He sensed it was something like a promotion, and it was about damn time too. She was woefully underrated as a hero in his opinion. Uraraka positively bounced in her restaurant booth, nearly choking on her soba twice. As they waited for the check, her hand slid over his, and Katsuki’s traitorous heart started pounding.
“Bakugou,” she said, bringing her other hand to clutch his.
Her lips moved, and no words came out. He blinked, realizing moments later that she had spoken, but his brain had chosen not to process her words right away.
I’m getting married!
“That’s…”
His mind went blank. His eyes snapped down to her hands, still holding his, and he noticed for the first time the engagement band on her left ring finger. It was only her hopeful, doughy eyes that snapped him back to it.
“Good for you,” he decided.
It was good for her. Deku, admittedly, infuriatingly, was good for her. But Katsuki would have been better. He was the better man. He was the best. At least, he always thought he was.
Three months later Deku asked him to be his best man. To say Katsuki was shocked was an understatement. Why the hell would Deku want him as his best man? Why did he want him at his wedding at all?
“You’ve been with me through it all, Kacchan,” was his cheesy, sickening, touching response. “I want you here for this too.”
The wedding was simple, quaint, and of course their whole high school class was invited. Katsuki recieved way too many pats on the back for his liking. It was weird seeing everyone again after so long. When he listened to his former classmates prattle on about their lives, it was almost enough of a distraction to forget where he was and what he was about to witness.
He was standing by a special room for the groom’s side or some shit, when he felt an urgent tug on his sleeve. He turned to find the woman of the day herself.
“Bakugou!” Uraraka whispered, peeking over his shoulder, probably to make sure Deku wasn’t around to see her before the ceremony. “How do I look? I wanted to ask you because you’re the one person who always gives it to me straight!”
Uraraka, or maybe he should start calling her Ochako since her last name would soon be kaput, was pink cheeked and twinkling, with her hair a tiny, extravagant bun. Her dress was white-obviously, but he’s never been good with these kinds of details-and she looked so flushed and happy. She just looked really happy.
“Good,” he told her. He was no better with verbal speech either, apparently. “Really good.”
“Thanks,” she beamed, visibly relieved. Her smile suddenly faded. “Are...you okay?”
Katsuki blinked, realizing his eyes were wet. Weird.
“Dust,” he grunted.
Uraraka looked like she didn’t believe him, like she was going to call him out on his bullshit, but he hoped this time she wouldn’t.
“Bakugou…?” she asked quietly. She moved her gloved hand, almost like she was about to reach for his, when Raccoon Eyes called for her. The procession was starting soon.
She’d talk to him later, after the ceremony. He’d better save a dance for her, or she’ll spit in his coffee next Monday! He watched her go, tripping inelegantly over the train of that ridiculous gown.
It occurred to Katsuki in that moment, that maybe this was the one thing Deku hadn’t taken from him. He didn’t know why, but it took the train of an overpriced wedding dress disappearing around a corner for him to realize it. In the end, Deku always takes everything from him, but maybe this is just something he fucked up all on his own.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets. Well, he always said he wanted to be the best man.