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There are many things Eijirou doesn’t understand.
How adults relied on children to be the heroes in the end no matter how strong they were.
How someone was classed as a villain because their quirk didn’t fit society’s backwards idea of “the good guy”.
After all, the only thing that made sense was his feelings for Katsuki.
He was in love with his best friend. It took a while for him to figure it out and it was overly complicated but when he finally realised it, it was like he saw the whole world clearly for the first time.
The butterflies that danced in his stomach made sense.
His cheeks getting so hot it hurt made sense.
The fact losing him hurt so much made sense.
So telling Katsuki eventually made sense too. Whether it was right then or in their third year or when they started a hero agency together.
He planned to confess to him.
There were a lot of opportunities, the time they went to the cat cafe, the time they walked around the hero museum with exclusive tickets thanks to Katsuki’s dad… But he never got around to it.
He would make excuses. That he wasn’t manly enough yet. That it wasn’t the right time… When in reality he just couldn’t bring himself to tell him.
Not even now when he sat across from him at lunch debating whether to steal a dumpling from him or not. He could just leave his poor crush alone to eat his food but he did love the annoyed yet cute look Katsuki would get whenever he stole food. Then there was the fact that Katsuki would complain it was just because he didn’t eat enough of his own shitty food so he made him lunch the next day. Naturally, he claimed it was so Eijirou would have a chance at beating him. (Even though that wasn’t entirely the case.)
Eijirou eventually decided on taking it and straight away put it in his mouth. Katsuki of course ‘exploded’ at him making Eijirou laugh.
Eijirou had no idea what his laugh did.
His whole face lit up like the sun and Katsuki couldn’t help but stare every time. He couldn’t help it. The way Eijirou’s eyes crinkled, the loud laughter that spilt from his lips and the way his nose slightly scrunched up. Not to mention his cute slightly flushed cheeks.
It was Katsuki’s favourite look on him. The look of pure joy and he never wanted to take that away, even if it meant hiding his feelings for the boy forever. He could bury things quite easily, he had tons of practice with it.
However moments like these were when Katsuki could feel the words on the tip of his tongue and they would repeat like a mantra in his head. It pissed him off. He wanted to wait for the right moment… Although he had many right moments. He had taken Eijirou on so many meant-to-be romantic dates that just turned into excuses like he didn’t want to go by himself because he’d look lame or that it was either Eijirou or his parents… But it was never that…
Although his brain didn’t make it easy to not confess. In fact, it made it sound like he said it every time but he was sure he didn’t.
Except he did. It wasn’t loud. It was just a mumble but Eijirou had grown accustomed to his grumbling and was well-tuned to it… Now Eijirou was as red as his hair.
“You like me?”
Katsuki froze at those words and looked at Eijirou. The boy before him had flushed cheeks and a goofy smile on his lips which Katsuki could only assume meant that Eijirou liked him too? However, his head was running so fast it was like a mix of jumbled yelling that didn’t make sense so therefore this assumption could be wrong…
Yet his mouth once again word vomited and “Yes!” slipped out. Eijirou smiled so brightly that Katsuki thought he’d go blind. It really was like looking directly at the sun. He accidentally grumbled something about needing sunglasses which only made Eijirou laugh as he said those all-so-important words. The words he’d been trying to get out for months but could never…
“I like you too.”
Relief fell over Katsuki and a rare smile played onto his lips. His cheeks felt slightly hot but he wouldn’t give his brain the satisfaction of knowing it won.
“You better.”
Eijirou’s cheeks hurt already from smiling so much but it was hard not to. After all his crush liked him back. They would probably start dating… (To which Katsuki replied what the fuck did he think all those outings were.) Life seemed so good right now.
So good in fact they didn’t notice someone glaring at them across the hall… Until he broke out into a sad smile as they entwined fingers across the table and his old best friend visibly blushed so bright he could see it from his table. His heart ached slightly but… As long as Kacchan was happy that’s all that mattered…