Chapter Text
“...and with that, open your eyes whenever you’re ready. Thank you for listening, make sure to like and subsc-”
Katsuki ripped the headphones out of his ears and tossed his phone onto the carpet he sat on. Sounds he’d purposefully drowned out returned to assault his ears: the mumbling bass of music from a few rooms over; the steady drone from his laptop, sleeping, instead of turned off; and some jackasses giggling about whatever the fuck they’re doing in the hall. Steadying himself with a deep breath, he slowly pulled off the weighted blanket that officially brought him out of his safe cocoon.
He picked up his phone again from where it laid, with the YouTube video still pulled up on the screen. It read, “Sink into Subspace with Yori ~☆♡☆~ - [SFW] [Female] [Rainforest Sounds],” which was a stupid fucking title, but it was the only series that worked for him.
Katsuki had tried, really, to like those subspace videos that got millions of views by the dom dudes with deep voices that people his age are supposed to like, but he could never get past the first minute with how it felt like the guy’s voice was drilling into his brain. Even worse was when they tried that roleplay shit, how anyone could stomach that he would never understand, but the subspace genre was saturated with it, and finding decent shit so he could function like a human was harder than it should’ve been.
Sure, he could be put under by a dom, like every other sub in his class, but he just didn’t want to. He didn’t know why, but occasionally when he felt himself starting to slip around the so-called “Bakusquad,” he just needed to hide. In his room, preferably. His last resort was digging his nails into his arm until he woke up. He wasn’t scared to go under around them, obviously, he wasn’t scared of jack shit. He just liked to be alone. That was it.
There was also the fact that no one except his parents, Auntie Inko, and Deku knew he’s a sub, but that’s beside the point. Katsuki didn’t lie about it- no one asked. He just let them assume whatever.
6:34 p.m., his phone read. There was still enough time to go get dinner before the unofficial official 2-A dinner began. Katsuki hated eating around others, especially in such a large group. He could handle just his small circle, in fact, he often had to cook for them. If they were going to be his friends, he wasn’t going to let them eat garbage. They needed to be at the top of their game. He wouldn’t allow anything less.
Katsuki finished his homework already, because he wasn’t a slacker, so after laying his uniform out for tomorrow he left his room for downstairs.
Sure enough, Shoji was entering the elevator. He knew not to wait for Katsuki, because he always used the stairs, but he did eye Katsuki for a bit longer than usual, until the elevator doors shut. Could he tell what Katsuki just did? He glanced down at his clothes, where they could’ve been rumpled weirdly. Maybe his hair was out of place, or something. Shoji’s quirk might’ve let him hear, or maybe even smell something incriminating. He’s a dom, right? What if he could, like, smell the submission on Katsuki?
No, he did not rush back into his room to check himself over in the mirror. Even if he did do that, which he certainly didn’t, there was nothing off to find. It wouldn’t be wrong to guess he imagined it, so he clung to that.
Shaking the thoughts away, Katsuki emerged from the staircase on the ground floor. Unfortunately, the common area wasn’t as empty as he had hoped. Shoji and Tokoyami were in the kitchen, banging some pots around, probably trying to make mac ‘n cheese again. The dumbasses that followed him around lazed around on the couches. One couch, actually. They were all laying on each other.
Katsuki knew they were waiting on him to cook for them, so he strode over towards them and plopped himself on the couch adjacent to theirs. He hoped they wouldn’t drag them into their pile again.
“He can’t expect us to memorize that whole section on quirk use law in a week , can he?” Mina moaned. Kaminari’s face was stuffed into her stomach but still gave his best nod. “And we have that essay for Midnight-sensei, not to mention our usual pile of homework. They need to lay off a little bit!”
“I mean, this is the second day in a row Kami’s gone into subspace, so that means something, right?” Kirishima replied, patting Kaminari’s legs for emphasis.
A weird whine escaped the sub, probably him trying to voice his agreement. He reached up to where Mina was gesturing wildly and placed her hand back onto the nape of his neck to curl into his hair.
“You guys knew this was coming. You should’ve started memorizing that shit weeks ago, ‘stead of waiting ‘til he reminded you.” Katsuki sighed and crossed his arms, kicking his legs up onto the coffee table. “You never prepare, that’s why you’re at the bottom of the class.”
“ Bakubro, ” Kirishima whined, “you don’t gotta be so harsh about it!”
“Look, you’re stressing Kami out, dude,” Sero piped up, gesturing at Kaminari clutching Mina’s shirt.
“Hey now, you don’t gotta worry about class right now, dude. You’re doing great just where you are….” The sub’s shoulders visibly relaxed, but he never let up on clinging to Mina. He did peek up at Kirishima, who was speaking to him, and the flush on his face was plain to see. He looked so content, with his friends praising and cooing at him, that a small pang in Katsuki’s chest made itself known.
As a sub, Kaminari went into subspace around people he trusted. It used to be his parents or siblings when he was younger, but most teenagers started to consider that “childish” around middle school and stuck to only around their friends or significant other as they aged. It was a bit strange for him to go under in a public space such as the common room, but the 2-A dorms were a bit of a special case, given everything the students had been through.
Katsuki, on the other hand, only went under alone, on the few occasions he did.
He glanced at the kitchen, only to see that it was still occupied by the two from before. They weren’t making something too complicated, so what was taking so long? It should’ve been his turn by now. Katsuki released his hold on the hem of his shirt, smoothing it down from where he wrinkled it up.
Sero seemed to have noticed, because he paused the discussion of some TV show to say to Katsuki, “C’mere, dude, it’s obvious you wanna care for Kami, here.”
“Like hell.”
“Please? It’d make him happy,” Mina sang, grinning at Katsuki.
“Look, even Sero loves caring for Kami, and he’s a null! You can’t keep suppressing your instincts like this, man.”
His instincts
weren’t
to care for a vulnerable, dopey idiot. How they hadn’t figured that out yet, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to listen to them bitch at him any longer. He vaulted himself over the back of the couch- not without muttering a “fuck off” for good measure- and made his way to the kitchen, ignoring the complaints from the asshats behind him.