Work Text:
It’s taken a while for it to arrive in the mail. Everything was torn to shit after Jaku so it was on the the to-do list somewhere after rebuilding a quarter of the country but before returning overdue library books... priorities, you know? After all, they were pretty much official, anyways. After everything they’ve been through and proven who could possibly doubt them? They sure as shit weren’t going to doubt each other.
When Katsuki takes it out of its packaging it rests heavy in his hands and makes the most satisfying ping! when he flicks it. He runs his fingers over the grooves engraving his name and feels how it is more than just a piece of metal. It’s his history and future, his hopes and dreams laser etched into titanium— a symbol and a promise.
He knows what he needs to do.
He slides it into his pocket, maintaining a vice grip even as it digs into the meat of his palm, and starts walking. He’s never been one to back down from a challenge so before he can even realize it, he has stomped his way over to the nerd's door and finds himself banging because he’s never learned how to politely knock. Figures.
It's only when he hears Deku’s muffled, “Oh my gosh, I coming! Relax!” that what he’s about to do catches up to him and he considers (just this once, off the record) running in the opposite direction because it feels like his heart is jackhammering in his throat and that shit can’t be healthy.
Before Katsuki can blast himself out of the building, Deku opens his door with his dopey fucking grin, nattering a mile a minute about god knows what. Katsuki can’t focus on that right right now. He’s too busy staring at the freckles—thrown in sharp relief because of the light flush in Deku’s cheeks and the way the lights in his room bounce off his mech arm making him shimmer and glisten like he is life itself and FUCK! GET A GRIP, BAKUGO.
Katsuki takes a deep breath and that moment of forced zen reminds Deku that it was actually Katsuki who tried to break down his door—that it is Katsuki who wants something from him.
“Ummm, Kacchan?” Izuku scratches the back of his head.
“Shut Up!” Katsuki shouts.
Izuku tilts his head and pouts which means Katsuki really needs to get this out before the nerd over thinks himself into a knot.
He steps aside so Katsuki can walk into his room. Katsuki pauses in the middle, takes another deep inhale like the air can shore him up for this. He’s not sure why he’s so nervous. Everyone basically knows….what with the way Deku literally screams it from the rooftops…still. After today it will be official, permanent, no take-backsies. There’s something about that which gives him pause but he pushes through because he knows deep down to his core that this is right and true.
As Katsuki paces back and forth in Deku’s narrow room, Deku shuffles from foot to foot but doesn't push, gives Katsuki space to spit it out — he’s come a long way too.
“Sit down!” Katsuki barks because Deku’s nervous behavior just makes him feel more antsy.
Deku only rolls his eyes. Katsuki has got no bite these days, at least not when it comes to him. Still, even sitting on his bed, his leg bounces up and down, his fingers repeatedly clutch his comforter, he worries his lips —they look so soft, and are a bitten deep pink and just wet and CHRIST Katsuki needs to focus but not on that so he drops down to his knees right in front of Deku.
He wants to do this right — for everything that came before, for how far they have traveled together —how far they will go together, but the thing is now slipping around his palm because he’s so damn sweaty and so he gives up and thrusts it at Deku like the nuclear bomb it is.
“Here!”
Deku gasps. “Kacchan, it came!”
Deku holds the card in his hand. He runs his hands over it. Taps it with his mech arm—gets that satisfying ping! He grins down at Katsuki who can tell when Deku finally, really looks at it. His eyes widen—just a fraction. He won’t stop looking at it and back at Katsuki. He looks like a fucking bobblehead doll. Katsuki wants to laugh, wants to put him in his pocket and keep that awed look with him, on him like a good luck charm.
“Ka-Kacchan?!” Deku chokes out.
Katsuki grins, feeling like himself again.
“That’s my hero name, Deku. Don’t wear it out.”