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“You know,” Izuku says, “I used to have the worst crush on you.”
Katsuki doesn’t even tense. His hands are still braced on the wall, trying to find the best place to activate his quirk- which Izuku told him was useless at least two hours ago, but they’re running out of air and he’s honestly too tired to have that argument with his partner again. He continues to run his palms over the concrete, over and over, searching for a weakness in its construction.
But the silence is loaded.
Izuku runs his hands over his knees, wiping the sweat away for the nth time. Is it getting hotter down here, or is he just panicking? He checks his phone again. Still no service. 5% battery. 3:47 AM.
He tucks his phone into his back pocket again and inhales deeply through his nose.
“Or maybe I just had a crush on your quirk.”
Katsuki laughs. It’s not the mean, sneering laugh of childhood. It’s something friendlier, albeit still as harsh. Each step into their future- each wall that both of them let down- these tiny things -laughs, soft gazes, a solid arm thrown over his shoulder- they become more abundant. Izuku treasures each and every one, even now, buried beneath the earth, facing certain death.
Katsuki’s phone is at 9% and declining. Soon they’ll be plunged into darkness.
Izuku wraps his arms around his legs and rests his chin on his knees. He’s not really a fan of the dark.
His friend leaves the wall, gently picking through the debris until he’s by Izuku’s side. He kicks lightly at Izuku’s leg until he scoots over.
They both sit there, shoulder to shoulder and listen.
The silence has never been louder.
“You know-” Katsuki says- mutters really, “I think everyone in 1-A had a crush on you.”
The underground, collapsed bunker they’re trapped in goes from hot to scorching as Izuku’s face heats up. “N-no they didn’t, shut up.”
An amused snort. “I take it back, the entire campus had a crush on you.”
Izuku doesn’t have the energy to shove him so he just scowls. “I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
“No I don’t,” Izuku agrees easily. If he was enough of a dumbass to crush on Katsuki through middle and high school- with all the shit the guy put him through- then he’s definitely enough of a dumbass to harbor feelings for Katsuki while he’s teasing him mercilessly.
“So what happened,” Katsuki says, after another moment of silence.
Izuku hums questioningly.
“To brutally murder your dumbass fucking crush,” he clarifies, looking almost embarrassed. Which is endearing, if Izuku’s being honest.
And he’s always honest about Katsuki.
“I grew up,” Izuku says, honestly. “We all grew up, I think. Suddenly I stopped seeing you as some...unattainable thing to chase and-”
And I fell in love with you instead, he doesn’t say.
He just shrugs, letting his sentence end there.
Katsuki’s head thunks back against the wall and his eyes shut. “You found your own dreams. Good.”
Izuku smiles. “What about you?”
Now there’s tension in those broad shoulders, but for what reason, Izuku can’t fathom why.
“What about me?” Katsuki’s voice is rough.
“I mean, as long as we’re confessing embarrassing crushes-”
“Shut up.”
“No, really, I want to know who you fancied in-”
“I said shut up-”
“Was it Kirishima? You can admit it was Kirishima, we all had crushes on Kiri-”
“Oh for fucks sake, it was you, you half witted dweeb,” Katsuki bites out, pressing his palms to his eyes.
The light is dim, but Izuku thinks he’s- he’s blushing - which would be absolutely hilarious under any circumstance, except this one because Katsuki just said- he just-
“What.”
Katsuki lets out a heavy breath and drops his hands. “Don’t make a big deal over it.”
“You had- you had a crush on me?” Izuku’s voice sounds too loud. His heart is doing something funny and it hurts and he distantly wonders if he’s having a heart attack or something.
A disbelieving glance. “Why do you think I was so obsessed with you?” His voice is flat.
Izuku’s brain is broken- it must be broken. Somewhere between the villains grabbing him off the street- and off the clock, might he add, he’s still annoyed about that- and dumping him in this lame excuse for a Saw trap that was slowly killing them via carbon dioxide exposure- he must have been knocked upside the head. Or one of the villains had a quirk that was making him hallucinate things, because there was no actual way Bakugou Katsuki was saying he had a crush on Izuku in high school.
“Because we were rivals!” Izuku’s voice cracks embarrassingly in a way it hasn’t since childhood. “We were chasing after the same dream!”
“And that’s exactly why I never told you,” Katsuku points a finger at him. “You think this is about quirks and dreams and chasing All Might, when the whole time it was about-”
“It wasn’t?!”
“ Oh my god, Izuku -”
And suddenly Izuku is replaying a thousand moments between take a swan dive and I’m sorry and making connections he hadn’t known were even there and oh my god Izuku is a fucking idiot isn’t he.
Katsuki runs a hand through his sweat-damp hair- blond ends sticking up in the back. He looks exasperated, but also begrudgingly amused.
“So that’s all we were ever going to be,” Izuku says softly, after a moment. “Just- ships that pass in the night.”
Katsuki’s shoulder is warm. It always is. Izuku closes his eyes. He’s tired. He hopes that isn’t because of the lack of air.
He lets his head tip and cheek press against Katsuki in a way he hasn’t since- since-
“Hmm.” The noise might pass for an agreement.
“What would you have done if I had told you?”
A shrug, light so it doesn’t dislodge Izuku. “Eh, probably punched you or something.”
This makes Izuku laugh. Mostly because it’s true. “You really were a jerk,” he says, fond. “What if I told you now?”
“Told me what now?” Katsuki asks quickly.
Izuku smiles. “What if I told you now I had a crush on you?”
“I would tell you, you’re too old to have crushes.”
“Hmmm.” Izuku picks his head up off his shoulder. “What if I told you I was in love with you?”
This seems to catch Katsuki’s breath. The man shuts his eyes. “I think I would still punch you.”
Izuku has never backed down from anything, whether it be illegally hijacking a hero operation in high school to save his classmate or confessing to his friend of two decades that he’s in love with him.
“Hey, Kacchan,” he says. “I’m in love with you.”
The flashlight goes out- plunging them into darkness. Phone battery must be dead, Izuku figures absentmindedly. He lets his head drop back against the wall- instead of on Katsuki’s shoulder this time- and counts the breaths between them.
“You’re lucky I’m trying to conserve air,” Katsuki finally says, strangled, “otherwise I’d kick the shit outta you right now.”
“Just like old times.”
“Damn straight.”
Izuku refrains from turning that into a joke, mainly because he thinks Katsuki would actually hit him. “I don’t think you would have beat me up,” he says, instead.
“What?”
“If I had told you,” Izuku clarifies. “I mean, maybe in middle school-”
“Wait, you had a crush on me in middle school -”
“-but definitely not at UA. Actually,” Izuku goes on, daringly, “I think if I had told you, maybe- I think you would have like-”
He waves a hand in the air, even though Katsuki can’t see it. Which doesn’t matter in the slightest, because he accidentally smacks Katsuki in the face and the guy yelps, grabbing Izuki’s wrist.
“-I think you would have actually chilled out.”
A pause.
“Is that a fucking pun.”
“Do I look like Kirishima?”
“Thank god no ,” Katsuki barks out. “Are you just telling me this because you think we’re gonna die?”
Busted.
“No.”
“Fuck you, nerd.” Katsuki’s solid body is suddenly gone. There’s a noise to Izuku’s left- a yelp like Katsuki tripping on something. “We’re getting out of here.”
Izuku stands up, one hand on the wall. “Where did this newfound determination come from?”
“Well-” a huff in the darkness. “ Apparently my stupid roommate slash coworker is in love with me .”
“Honestly, I thought that would be an incentive to die.”
“ Shut up .”
“You don’t have to be happy about it-”
“Izuku-”
“Or return my feelings or whatever-”
He cuts off as suddenly a pair of rough hands grab at his shoulders. Izuku distantly wonders how Katsuki found him in the dark, but then has to drop that train of thought because a pair of lips are brushing against his own insistently.
It’s easy to get lost in. Being deprived of sight has sharpened the rest of Izuku’s senses, and right now all of them are zeroed in on the hand the slides up the side of his neck, gently cupping it, the cracked pair of lips expertly parting his own, and the scent of anticipation in the air.
Or maybe that’s just nitrogen dripping off Katsuki’s hands.
Izuku laughs when Katsuki pulls away. “What?”
“You’re an idiot,” his best friend says. “Now help me find a way out of here.” A pause. “That was your incentive, by the way. If we don’t get out here alive, you don’t get any more kisses.”
Oh shit , Izuku thinks.
“Oh shit,” he says out loud. “I guess I better save the day or whatever.”
“Or whatever.”
“Hush you, it’s not every day my brain gets melted via Kacchan kisses.”
“I’m considering the punching thing again.”
Izuku grins. He slides his hand into Katsuki’s, suddenly brave in the small dark place. He’s not going to say he likes being down here, but if they hadn’t been kidnapped and shoved into this stupid bunker, perhaps Izuku would have never built up the nerve to tell Katsuki.
Perhaps they would have always been ships just passing in the night.
Katsuki’s hand tightens around Izuku’s fingers. It feels like a promise.