Work Text:
Katsuki’s feet crunched over the inch of snow covering the school grounds as he made his way back to the dorms from the gym, having spent his Saturday morning as he always did, with a workout. As he got closer to the dorms, he saw that a lot of people were outside enjoying the first snow of the winter. A few of the girls were making a snowman, though it was kinda small since there wasn't much snow. Someone had tried making snow angels, but they’d just turned muddy, so now a group of boys were running around throwing snowballs at each other.
“Bakugou! There you are! Join in!” Kirishima called out when he saw him, but Katsuki just rolled his eyes.
“I’m not wasting my time with your stupid games,” he yelled back, and before Kirishima could respond, he got double whapped by two snowballs from Kaminari and Sero, and instantly got back in the game. Katsuki chuckled, watching them play, but soon enough the cold was enough to have him shuffling inside: he’d dressed for a short walk to and from the gym, not staying outside for long.
When he got inside the dorms, he was momentarily surprised to see how empty the common room was. There was no one there, so most of the lights were off, the only glow coming from the kitchen where he heard some noises of activity. Of course, it made sense considering three quarters of the class was outside, but it still felt eerie to see. Katsuki let his shoulders shiver just once, and then made for the elevator.
He was about to push the button, when he heard a yelp from the kitchen, followed by a series of increasingly panicked oh no’s, until finally the person was calling out for help.
“Um! Help! Is anyone there?”
It was Izuku, because of fucking course it was.
Katsuki huffed and rolled his eyes, but turned and started walking towards the kitchen.
“What the hell kinda mess did you get yourself into?” he said as he entered, but instead of answering, Izuku just turned around and showed him. It seemed he’d been trying to get out a nice of plastic wrap to wrap up some… what was that on the counter, cookie dough? Well anyways, the plastic wrap had folded and stuck to itself, and instead of carefully peeling it away from itself or abandoning the ruined piece and starting over like a normal person, Izuku had somehow pulled enough off the ream to wrap around his arms several times, which were now stuck in the middle of the sticky mess of crumpled plastic wrap.
“Fucking hell Deku, how usless can you be?” Katsuki said, but then Izuku made a sad little pouting face that sent a pang of both regret and... something else Katsuki wasn’t too interested in thinking about, his cheeks flushing momentarily at the thought of it.
“Kidding, fuck,” he whispered, and walked over to help. “How did you even do this?” he asked, trying to pull the sticky shreds off of Izuku’s arms.
“I don’t know, I’m sorry,” Izuku said. It was then that Katsuki realized it was sticking to the nerd’s overly-fuzzy sweater and not just itself. Sighing, he gave up on pulling it away with his hands and started rooting through the kitchen drawers for a pair of scissors.
“This should do the trick,” he said, and cut away the strands to free Izuku’s arms.
“Thanks Kacchan, I got it from here,” Izuku said once he regained use of his hands, and went to stand over the trashcan while he peeled it away.
Crisis averted, Katsuki gravitated back towards the counter where the lump of cookie dough Izuku was trying to wrap up lay atop a wooden cutting board, lightly dusted with flour. It was a rich brown color, and he could smell ginger when he got close.
“You’re making gingerbread cookies?” he asked.
“O-oh, um, yeah!” Izuku nodded, getting the last of the plastic wrap into the trash before he turned around to explain. “I just… thought it would be nice and, you know, seasonal, I guess? Everyone was so excited because of the snow, so it just felt like the right thing to do, to get into the holiday spirit.”
“Mm,” Katsuki hummed noncommittally, unsure he bought that roundabout explanation – Izuku didn’t just cook things for no reason, hell, he hardly cooked at all – but didn’t feel the need to press the issue.
“You need to wrap the dough to chill it in the fridge?” Katsuki asked, reaching for the roll of plastic wrap.
“Yeah! Though I guess maybe I should use something el–” Izuku started, then cut himself off when Katsuki unfurled a perfect sheet of the plastic wrap, cleanly cut it off, and laid it on the counter. Without a word, he dumped the dough onto it and wrapped it tightly into a neat disk.
“I… thank you,” Izuku said, dumbfounded, as Katsuki handed it to him.
“Whatever. Didn’t want you to strangle yourself or something,” he muttered.
“I would have figured it out eventually!” Izuku argued, but he was still laughing as he tossed the dough in the fridge. Once the door was closed, though, neither seemed to know what else to say or do, and so stood silently across from one another for an awkwardly long minute.
“How um… how long does it need to chill for?” Katsuki eventually asked.
“Uh, twenty to thirty minutes?” Izuku answered, confused.
“Cool,” Katsuki nodded, a lump forming in his throat as he debated whether or not to say what he wanted to say next. He forced it down, though, and managed to get the words out: “Could I, um… I mean do you want help baking them? I’m… free.”
“Oh? Oh! Um…” Izuku looked around, surprised, and then stuttered out a muddled answer. “Well I was going to – but I suppose – I mean, if you want to – I guess I could just – um, I mean… yeah! Yes. That would be… nice,” he finished with a sheepish smile, and Katsuki chuckled and shook his head.
“Sutpid nerd. I’ll be back when the dough’s done chilling. I have to change,” he said.
“Okay! See you then! I’ll be here, um… cleaning up,” Izuku waved him off.
Katsuki escaped to the elevator, pounding the button five more times than necessary, his heart pounding away just as hard in his chest. What the hell was that? he thought as soon as the doors closed behind him. First of all, he wasn’t free, he was supposed to be studying, and second of all why was Izuku being so fucking weird? Also, why did he even want to bake cookies with the nerd anyways?
Was this a date?
The doors opened in front of himself, and as soon as he got off the elevator he shook his head to rid himself of the pestering thoughts. No, this wasn’t a fucking date, and it didn’t matter if he didn’t technically have time for it, he’d already said he would do it so now he was going to. It wouldn’t even take that long; he could leave as soon as they were out of the oven and get back to studying. He was just… making sure Izuku didn’t kill himself in the process. Yeah, that was why. The dumb nerd just needing some supervising.
He got changed out of his sweaty workout gear, quickly washing his face since he didn’t really have time for a shower, and put on a pair of comfy sweats and a long sleeve tee. It hadn’t quite been twenty minutes though, so he paced around in his room for a while, not wanting to seem eager by showing up early but too antsy to actually sit down and do any work. As soon as the time was up, he rushed back downstairs, then slowed his pace, took a deep breath, and sauntered casually into the kitchen with a bored Iook plastered purposely to his face.
“Kacchan! You’re back!” Izuku said when he saw him, smiling wide.
“‘Course I am, I said I’d come,” Katsuki rolled his eyes, then looked down at the table where Izuku had laid out everything they needed to roll out the cookies and cut them into shapes.
“We’re making gingerbread men?” Katsuki asked, holding up the cookie cutter Izuku had selected.
“Um, yeah! I had this idea that maybe I could decorate them to look like all of our classmates, and then everyone could eat their cookie!” Izuku explained.
“So… self-cannibalism?” Katsuki joked.
“Wha– no! Of course not! I just… aw, man, is it really that bad?” Izuku looked like he was about to cry, and Katsuki dropped the cookie cutter, internally panicking.
“No! Shit, Deku, I was just kidding,” he said.
“Ah, o-oh, sorry,” Izuku stuttered, quickly wiping at his eyes. “I, um… well anyways! Let’s get started!” He went to the fridge and got out the dough, unwrapping the now solid block and dusting it with flour. Katsuki watched with his brows pulled together, wondering again why Izuku was acting so nervous. It was the same as before, but he couldn’t seem to identify what could possibly be stressing him out so much. It was just cookies.
“Hey, it’s starting to stick,” Katsuki said, deciding to just shut up and be useful instead of pestering Izuku with unnecessary questions. “You should use more flour and pick it up and turn it every few rolls, otherwise you won’t be able to get the cookies up off the board when you cut them out.”
“Oh. Thanks Kacchan!” Izuku smiled, doing as he was told with minimal mishaps. He got the dough rolled out into a semi-even sheet, and then started cutting out the shapes.
“Did you prep a pan?” Katsuki asked.
“Uh, no, sorry, I forgot!” Izuku answered. “Could you…?”
“Ugh, yeah, fine,” Katsuki rolled his eyes, but went and got out a pan, sprayed and lined it with no complaint. Izuku laid out the shapes he cut, and thankfully the nerd did have enough foresight to preheat the oven, so Katsuki slid the pan in and set a timer.
“Should we wait for those to be done before I re-roll the scraps, or get another pan?” Izuku asked.
“Hm?” Katsuki turned to look at him, then remembered he was technically there to provide cooking advice. “You should probably put the scraps back in the fridge before re-rolling them, actually,” he answered. “They’re warm now, so they’ll be too sticky. Just wait until these ones are done, and then you can re-use the pan.”
“Oh, okay!” Izuku nodded, and looked surprisingly relieved as he folded the dough back up – a little clumsy with the plastic wrap, but not as bad as before – and got it back in the fridge.
“Um… I think I got it from here. You don’t have to wait around for me to be done,” Izuku said then, and Katsuki stared at him, confused.
“But I said I’d help.”
“I mean… you can stay if you want but I… I um… I kinda wanted this to be my thing…” Izuku said, but he was staring at his shoes and his cheeks were red and his thumbs were twiddling together, so Katsuki knew it was a lie.
“Fine, whatever. I’m supposed to be studying anyways,” Katuski said and turned to leave. If Izuku wanted to be weird about makingfucking cookies, then it wasn’t any of his goddamn busniess.
---
Izuku sighed miserably, alone in the kitchen waiting for the cookies to finish cooling. This whole thing was so stupid – what had he honestly been thinking? He’d got what he wanted, Katsuki went away so he could cut out the heart-shaped one without him seeing it, but what was the point of all that if he was mad at him now? What was the point of making these cookies for him, when he could have been making the cookies with him?
Still, he’d gone through all the effort of making them, he might as well finish the plan, right?
So he made the icing, decorated the cookies, and put all the ones for his classmates on a few big plates to leave in the common room for them. The ones for Katsuki, meanwhile, he bagged up separately, because even if he felt a little sick to his stomach about it now, he was still going to give them to him.
---
Katsuki studied in his room for a few hours, just like he’d planned to spend his Saturday, except now he was also using it as a means of keeping his mind off Izuku. He wasn’t exactly sure how much time had passed, when suddenly there was a knock on his door. Katsuki instantly put his book down and went to get it, heart jumping into his throat at the thought of it being Izuku, and when he swung open the door, sure enough, he was met with wide green eyes and blushing, freckled cheeks.
“U-um. Sorry about earlier. I just… well, here!” Izuku stammered, shoving a bag of cookies into Katsuki’s chest. He caught them, and Izuku waited for him to open it, nervously shifting back and forth in the hall. Katsuki untied the bow keeping the bag closed, and found three gingerbread cookies inside: two gingerbread men, one decorated to look like himself with yellow spikes for hair and an angry-looking face, the other meant to look like Izuku with green blobs for hair and three dots on each cheek. They were both dressed with shades of blue icing that were probably supposed to look like the UA uniform, but Izuku’s piping work was shaky at best, so they weren’t very detailed. The third cookie though was the weird part. It was a heart-shaped gingerbread, covered in a pale pink icing.
“What the–” Katsuki looked up, confused, but then Izuku made a startled yelping noise and backed away.
“Um, anyways! I hope you like them! Bye!” he said, and was racing down the hall.
“Oi! Get back here Deku!” Katsuki gave chase, and Izuku ran down the stairs two at a time trying to get away. Izuku was too caught up in the adrenaline to realize it was pointless to run, especially since he didn’t seem to be using his quirk, so Katsuki finally caught up to him when they got down to the first floor, back in the kitchen.
“Kacchan!” Izuku yelped, stopped by Katsuki’s hand grabbing the back of his shirt. “I have to clean up, still!”
“That can wait! You need to explain what the fuck this is!” Katsuki said.
“Isn’t it kind of self-explanatory?” Izuku asked, covering his face with his arms as his cheeks turned bright red.
“Hah? The hell it is! You can’t just… just…” Katsuki trailed off, looking back down at the cookies in his other hand. Okay, so maybe it was obvious. But Izuku couldn’t just throw that at him and then leave! He hadn’t even tried them yet.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he said, letting go of Izuku’s shirt, and thankfully the nerd stayed where he was, peeking out at Katsuki behind his hands. Katsuki reached into the bag and pulled out the cookie that was shaped like Izuku and broke the head off.
“Eep!” Izuku startled at the violent action.
“Told you it was fucking weird,” Katsuki rolled his eyes, but popped the piece into his mouth anyways. His eyes widened as he chewed, surprised by how good it was. The cookie had a really strong ginger flavor, not sweet at all, and the light touch of sugary icing was just the thing to cut the heat of the spices.
“What the hell?” he said. “Why is this so good?”
“O-oh, um… it’s a spicy gingerbread cookie. There’s a lot of ginger and actually a little cayenne pepper too. The recipe said it’s a good cookie for people who don’t like sweets, so…” Izuku trailed off, looking down at his feet.
“So you made them… for me?” Katsuki asked.
“Well… yeah?” Izuku gestured to the bag containing a literal love-confession in cookie form.
“Oh, right,” Katuski nodded, then chewed his lip for a moment, thinking, before he remembered why he was annoyed. “Fucking hell, Deku! What kind of stupid plan was this anyways! You couldn’t just say it to my face!” he waved the bag of cookies around angrily.
“I’m sorry! I just wanted to do something special for you!” Izuku covered his face again, and Katsuki sighed, forcing himself to calm down.
“Fine, whatever,” he mumbled, and then took another bit of the cookie. “They are pretty fucking good.”
“R-really? I’m glad you like them Kacchan,” Izuku said, but he sounded kind of sad, and as Katsuki gulped the last of the cookie down, he realized he hadn’t really responded to Izuku’s confession. Still, he didn’t like the idea of just saying he liked him back when Izuku hadn’t had the guts to do himself yet, so he looked around, trying to figure out how he wanted to do it.
He spotted a bag of green icing on the counter, then, and got an idea.
“Oi, Deku,” he said, swiping the bag off the counter.
“Yeah?” he let his hands fall away from his face to look at Katsuki properly, and that’s when Katsuki struck. He lifted the bag and quickly squirted a bunch of the frosting onto Izuku’s lips, getting as much on as he could before Izuku yelped and jumped away.
“Kacchan! What was that for?!”
“Oops,” Katsuki shrugged, scooping up some of the excess dripping out of the bag with his thumb and sucking it into his mouth. Izuku’s face went bright red again, probably knowing where this was going, and Katsuki couldn’t help the wolfish grin that spread across his lips.
“Taste’s pretty good, though,” he said, his voice low and gravelly as he stalked forward, backing Izuku into the corner between the wall and the countertop. “Here, I’ll help you clean up.”
He lowered his head, going just slow enough that Izuku could still push him away if he didn’t want it, but Izuku’s eyes just fluttered shut and his icing-covered lips parted in anticipation, so Katsuki cupped a hand behind his neck and hungrily smashed his lips into his, licking up all the sweet icing as he kissed him, hard and passionate, trying to get his point across.
When they parted, sticky icing smeared all around both their mouths, Izuku was panting, his eyes half-lidded and hand clinging to the front of Katsuki’s shirt.
“Does this mean–?” he asked.
“Fucking, duh,” Katsuki huffed, keeping Izuku held close with a hand behind his back.
“I like you…” Izuku finally said it, laying his forehead on Katsuki’s shoulder. “Like, really, really like you.”
“I know,” Katsuki said, then laughed to himself before adding: “You could’ve just said it like that, instead of doing all this, though.”
“I know…” Izuku whined. “But I always overthink everything.”
“It’s okay,” Katsuki kissed the top of his head, voice coming out softer than he meant it to. “The cookies are really good. And I…” he sucked in a breath, trying to make sure his voice didn’t crack when he said it. “I like you too. Just as much.”
Izuku hummed happily, rubbing his face closer into the crook of Katsuki’s neck, which would have been cute if not for all the nasty spit and icing he knew was still coating Izuku’s lips.
“Oi!” he shouted, pushing him away. “Don’t get icing on my shirt!”
“Sorry!” Izuku yelped, but then raised a brow. “Hey wait a second. That was your fault, wasn’t it?”
“W-whatever! We’re both gross, let’s clean up,” Katsuki turned away, hiding his blush as he stalked over to the sink.
“Okay Kacchan,” Izuku chuckled, and followed him over.
---
“What the hell! Why are these cookies spicy!?” Kaminari’s voice from the common room alerted them that their classmates had found the plate of cookies.
“Wow, yeah! They’re actually kinda good though,” Kirishima laughed.
“Water, water! I need water!” Kaminari shouted.
“Awww, Kami can’t handle the heat?” Mina teased.
“Give me my water bottle!” Kaminari yelled, and then there was a chorus of laughter and banging and screaming that indicated a game of keep-away with poor Kaminari’s water bottle.
In the kitchen, Katsuki and Izuku listened to the clamor and then turned back to look at one another and smile, snickering to themselves quietly. Without a word, Katsuki extended his hand and Izuku took it, following him around the corner and up the back stairwell so they could be alone again. Their classmates didn’t need to know about them quite yet, not while it was still so new for them, too.