Work Text:
“Izuku! It’s Hug Day today, and that means if you don’t hug me you’ll have to go to jail! It’s the law!”
Izuku gasped.
“No way! I’ll hug you, Kacchan, I don’t wanna go to jail!”
Abandoning his drawing, Izuku ran towards Kacchan and wrapped his tiny arms around him.
Izuku opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling of his dorm room.
“Well that was a nostalgic dream…” he muttered to himself as he turned to look at his alarm clock. August 9th, 6:27.
Of course, it had been Kacchan who had first grown weary of the tradition, shoving Izuku away and telling him to stop acting like a baby. Who even cared about a stupid day like that?
Who indeed, Izuku sighed, squeezing his pillow tightly as he drifted off to sleep for just a little more.
It turned out that quite a few people cared. The arcane knowledge of the day for exchanging embraces had not been limited to his and Kacchan’s childhood circles, and it had even reached the unlikeliest ears. When Izuku went to brush his teeth in the communal bathroom, he was encountered by Todoroki immediately spreading his arms when he spotted Izuku.
“M-doriyah!” he exclaimed, voice muffled by the toothbrush in his mouth, excited to share in a ritual he had learned mere minutes earlier.
It was a really fun day. Izuku hugged Uraraka, Iida, Aoyama, Tsuyu-chan and a lot of other classmates. It felt good to initiate that contact without any real reason, just sharing the joy of appreciating one another.
“Get off me, you lunatics!”
Kaminari and Sero trying to get a combined sneak attack on Kacchan elicited a predictable reaction. Izuku watched the scene with a lopsided half-smile, trying not to feel jealous of the ease in which they slid into Kacchan’s space.
But when red eyes suddenly locked with his in what looked like a challenge, Izuku turned away.
He kept his distance all day, feeling Kacchan’s eyes drill into him several times but making sure not to respond beyond a quick nod or smile across the room before turning his attention elsewhere. His imagination tortured him with all kinds of scenarios – how easy it would be to just wrap an arm around Kacchan when passing him in the hallway, or just press his hands and forehead against that broad back when Kacchan was washing his dishes. But he mustn't be greedy, mustn't butcher what they have painstakingly built since coming to UA for the sake of a moment’s fancy.
All of his careful self-restraint was wasted in the end, because in the evening there was an insistent knock on his room, and Kacchan was waiting on the other side.
“...Kacchan? How come you’re here?”
Kacchan stood with his hands shoved deep inside his pockets. For some reason, he was looking at Izuku like he was expecting something.
“...Well?” he huffed, shrugging his arms awkwardly as his hands remained inside the pockets.
“...Well what?” Izuku asked dumbly, genuinely lost as to what Kacchan could mean.
Kacchan clicked his tongue.
“What, so Grape Juice is all good but you’re too good for me now?” As soon as he had said it, he groaned and hissed to himself like he had been struck with something.
Izuku’s mind was running on overdrive. Kacchan couldn’t possibly mean...but what else could it be? After all, Izuku had hugged Mineta, too, all the while he had felt invisible daggers digging into his shoulder.
“I...didn’t think you’d want me to,” he said quietly. Kacchan’s eyes snapped back at him, and they stared at each other wordlessly for a moment. Izuku frowned when he saw Kacchan was trembling just a little bit.
Forgetting that he was supposed to keep his distance, he reached a hand out.
“Are you oka-”
Before he knew it, he was enveloped in the tightest hug he had ever received in his life. Kacchan was squeezing so tightly it kind of hurt, but Izuku wouldn’t have pointed it out for the world. Instead, he wiggled his arms just enough to be able to wrap them around the other, clinging to the back of his shirt until his fingers were cramping from the effort. He was crying, knowing from tension in Kacchan’s jaw and the shallow breaths in Izuku’s ear that he wasn’t the only one.
Their hold on each other relaxed a bit with time, but they still didn’t let go completely, worried about how to continue living their lives like normal in a world where this had just happened.
Izuku sniffed and laughed nervously to himself.
“This is pretty bad, Kacchan. I’m not sure I can wait until next year now.”
“...There’s lotsa interest to pay,” Kacchan’s voice was a bit hoarse, but the rumble it made in his chest was felt all the way in Izuku’s fingers caressing his back.
If he could help it, here was a payment plan he wouldn’t mind being saddled with for the rest of his life.