Chapter Text
Izuku was lazily resting his head in his hand, elbow firmly planted on his open notebook, smearing the edges of the undried ink. His other hand was idly turning the pen, sometimes clicking the end as if to snap him out of his wake, but not even his own attempts at shifting his attention could tear his eyes away from the screen in front of him. The tv in the common room was showing the news. An incident had occurred at the edge of the city, and a group of heroes had gone to evacuate civilians and take down the villains. Though the incident was by no means a minor one, there was nothing about that stood out particularly. Unless you asked Izuku. On the front lines was the hero, though still a student, Ground Zero. With so many heroes at the scene, the camera only focused on Zero from time to time, which irked Izuku slightly. He was reassured only by the knowledge that with so many people at the scene, someone had probably filmed all of Zero’s actions.. Izuku would find them all later.
The incident was resolved without too much damage to the area and zero civilian casualties. In fact, the worst injuries were dealt to the heroes themselves, and even they weren’t all that hurt. It had been a success from all perspectives. However, even as the news turned to something else entirely, Izuku was still lost in his own little world, eyes staring into nothing. His classmates around him, who had been following the news as well, had turned their gazes from the screen to Izuku. Some of them sighing in exasperation, some simply looking at him in concern.
Izuku’s crush on his childhood friend was perhaps the worst kept secret of all time and the class could only keep their silence for so long, before everything would eventually spill over. It turned out, that time was now.
“Why don’t you just ask him out?” Kaminari said off-handedly, “I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?”
“That he’s rejected and thus has ruined their friendship forever?” Todoroki replied as a matter-of-fact. Someone threw a pillow after him in retort.
“That won’t happen! Don’t say that,” Yaoyorozu scolded, to the agreement of others.
“He asked what the worst scenario was. I simply answered,” came the defense after which a silence fell. It was almost a talent how Izuku both managed to listen to the entire conversation and still not absorb a single word that was said.
When the silence became too much for the rest of the class, someone poked him repeatedly in the arm until he finally snapped out of his daze.
“Hm?” Izuku blinked rapidly, coming out of his own head, and turned to face Uraraka, finding her big brown eyes staring at him intensely.
“Why don’t you?” She asked, and Izuku blinked again, confused by the question.
“Why don’t I, what?” He asked sheepishly, and she sighed.
“Ask him out,” came the clarification, yet Izuku was still slow to understand.
“Ask who out?” He crooked his head to the side, still not following the conversation.
“Ba-ku-go,” she enunciated exaggeratedly, poking at his forehead with each syllable.
Izuku rubbed at his slightly sore forehead before the words registered. A faint blush crept upon his cheeks, and he resisted the urge to hide behind the sleeves of his shirt. He couldn’t just ask Kacchan out? What were the chances of his feelings being reciprocated? Zero. Absolutely Zero. There was no way.
“Impossible,” he simply stated, the blush not going away no matter how much he fought it. What was Uraraka thinking suggesting such a thing? And in front of the entire class as well? Izuku would very much like to disappear.
“Nothing’s impossible!” Someone cheered, and some voices shouted their agreement.
“Don’t worry, Deku!” Uraraka said cheerfully, “We’ll help you win him over!”
For some reason, Izuku didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. The class was already scheming.
♥♥♥
“This is ridiculous,” Izuku said, apprehensive of just about everything that was about to unfold.
“What are you talking about? This is perfect. There is no way this won’t work,” Ashido said enthusiastically, but it simply made Izuku that much more doubtful.
Izuku had imagined many times what confessing to Kacchan would be like. He had imagined all the different things he could say, all the places he could say it in, all the ways Kacchan could react. But he had never imagined… this. Going out with Kacchan. Heck yeah. It sounded awesome. This though… this was by no means worthy of a heck yeah.
Izuku was currently standing in the middle of one of the training gyms, clad in his boring school gym clothes, with a stack of notes that looked like the draft for a drama series - and a bad one at that. This wouldn’t work. Izuku wasn’t even sure he wanted this to work.
The plan (was it even a plan?) was for Kacchan and Izuku to be alone together in the gym and spar. To Kacchan, it would seem like a normal evening, since training together was a weekly, if not sometimes a daily, occurrence. However, mysteriously, all the lights would go out and, entirely by coincidence, all the curtains would be drawn, making it completely dark in the gym. Izuku would then, accidentally, stumble into Kacchan, dramatically falling on top of him and would then, for inexplicable reasons, not make an effort to move away. Rather, if Kacchan tried to create distance, he would just further cling to him. He’d then say a number of ridiculous lines about how Kacchan made him feel safe in the darkness, and other equally embarrassing things, which Deku felt like he couldn’t possibly say out loud without actually vomiting rainbows. The only reason Izuku was currently standing in the gym, watching the class nail blackout curtains to every window in the entire gym, was because he was bad at saying no when they all seemed so excited.
He sighed in defeat. Surely, this wouldn’t play out like his friends had planned.
Before Izuku could think further about it, everyone but him had left the gym and somehow Kacchan had appeared.
“Yo,” Kacchan greeted nonchalantly and made his way towards Izuku. For a moment, Kacchan simply stared at him, before flicking his finger onto Izuku’s forehead. “You’re spacing out, nerd.”
Izuku blinked, coming back to reality. Upon realizing what was happening, he looked down in his hands, relieved to find that he no longer held that ridiculous script, and then looked back up at Kacchan, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Sorry,” Izuku said out of habit, and put on his best smile, “Let’s start.” Kacchan luckily decided not to question Izuku’s strange behaviour and simply went along with him.
The actual training part was fun. Sparring with Kacchan, easily allowed for Izuku to forget about everything, and his, at first, strained smile, quickly turned into a genuine one. As it did, Izuku noticed a slight change in Kacchan’s behaviour as well. He couldn’t say for sure, but it seemed like his moves became more refined and he hit just a little harder. Izuku couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it certainly made everything all the more exciting.
Izuku’s heart sank the moment the lights went out, but before he could of what to do, Kacchan crashed into him. Well. He had just been charging at Izuku, so he probably should have expected that, yet the impact still knocked all air out of his lungs. They stumbled to the ground, a tangle of limbs. Izuku let out a slight hiss at the pain of the impact. He luckily hadn’t hit his head, but his shoulder had certainly taken the brunt of the fall, and with Kacchan’s weight added to his own, there was definitely some pain.
“The hell?” Izuku heard Kacchan grumble, and only after a moment did he realize - Kacchan wasn’t moving away. Huh?
“Did you hit your head?” Kacchan asked. He didn’t sound concerned, but the fact that he asked at all was concern enough.
“No,” Izuku answered, “Just my shoulder. Doesn’t seem like it’s dislocated or anything.” Izuku knew all too well what dislocation, sprains and broken bones felt like. This wasn’t it. At most, he’d wake up the next morning with some slight bruising. Regardless of that, Kacchan was still on top of him. Why was he still on top of him?
Out of the darkness, Izuku could suddenly feel Kacchans hand grazing his cheek, slowly moving its way down to his shoulder. When Kacchan pressed on the edge of where the bruise was surely forming, Izuku winced slightly. Kacchan lifted the pressure, but didn’t take his hand away. Instead he found Izuku’s other shoulder, and lifted him up into a sitting position. And suddenly, Izuku was grateful for the darkness, because Kacchan still hadn’t moved away, which meant that he was practically sitting in Izuku’s lap. He could feel the blush creep from his chest and all the way to the tip of his ears.
“We should probably call it a day,” Kacchan said, his deep voice slightly lower than normal. It was probably due to their proximity, but Izuku was about to explode. That was probably the sexiest noise he’d heard in his entire life.
“Yeah… Probably,” Izuku answered intelligibly, all the cells in his brain working on making his voice sound steady and normal, and not focus on the fact that Kacchan still wasn’t moving. Holy shit, what was happening?
After what felt like a million years, Kacchan moved to stand, and though Izuku felt a wave of relief wash over him, he began to miss the proximity as soon as he could no longer feel the heat of Kacchan’s body. When Kacchan realized that Izuku wasn’t about to follow suit, he reached down, taking his time to find Izuku’s hands and pulled him to his feet.
“I thought you said you only hurt your shoulder,” he commented, a hint of snarkiness in his tone.
“I did,” Izuku retorted, and Kacchan let out a short, mocking sort of chuckle.
“Then you shouldn’t have needed me to pick you up. Use your feet, idiot.”
Despite what he said, Kacchan did not let go of his hand, as they moved out of the gym. Once outside, where the moonlight illuminated their path back to the dorms, Kacchan no longer felt the need to guide Izuku by the hand anymore. Izuku was slightly disappointed.
♥♥♥
The class was up to something. Katsuki could feel it. There had been something in the air ever since he came back from his internship. He could feel people’s gaze on him more frequently than before, and more than once did he catch some of his classmates whispering to each other and then hastily shut up as soon as he came too close. There was something about the way his friends spoke to him, the way their eyes sometimes glistened, that was suspicious. Like they knew something he didn’t. Like they were planning something and he alone was out of the loop.
And Katsuki knew that they couldn’t have any ill intentions. There was no way, but he was still curious. And so, he had fully meant to investigate what could possibly be going on, only to figure it out not too long afterwards. Because, here were the facts.
Katsuki was in love with Deku and he knew that his feelings weren’t one sided (Deku was very bad at keeping his feelings a secret after all). It had taken him quite some time to come to terms with both of these facts, but once he had, he knew that it would only be a matter of time before things happened. And when Deku came up to him, asking him to spar that evening, and everyone around them seemed to come to a halt, following their conversation a little too closely, Katsuki suddenly knew. This was a set-up. The class was planning on getting the two of them together, and a bright idea popped into his head. Katsuki was quick to agree to the sparring session with one goal in mind: To mess up whatever plan they had made.
Katsuki went back to his room soon after his conversation with Deku. Now, Katsuki would like to clarify, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to get together with Deku. However, with the way Deku had asked him to spar - verbally in front of the whole class, instead of through text or privately like he usually did - made it quite clear that whatever was going down, was something the class had planned, not Deku. Katsuki didn’t want that. If Deku wanted him, he should work for it himself.
Seeing as not a single person had thought to get Katsuki in on this in one way or another, it meant that, unlike Deku’s crush on him, Katsuki’s feelings remained a mystery to the rest of the class. And that could be exploited. Surely, the class wouldn’t have Deku confess his feelings to him without first feeling out the waters. No one wanted to see Deku getting rejected. Not that Katsuki would. Should it come down to it, Katsuki would readily tell Deku that his feelings were mutual, but until that happened, well, Katsuki wasn’t obligated to share his feelings.
And so, Katsuki showed up at the gym at the agreed upon time, only to find Deku absolutely spacing out. Though it would seem that they were indeed alone, Deku would no doubt feel obligated to go through with whatever plan his friends had come up with, so Katsuki needed to stay alert for anything Deku did that was out of character.
As they began to spar, Deku seemed slightly strained in his movements, a sign that he was overthinking. However, a few snarky comments and a couple of flashy moves from Katsuki, slowly had Deku back on track, and for a short while, it seemed like they both simply enjoyed their sparring session. As luck would have it, just as Katsuki launched himself forward, the lights went out and he crashed straight into Deku.
Katsuki’s fall was cushioned by Deku, but he heard the hiss from Deku’s lips, the moment his body came into contact with the hard surface beneath them. Katsuki knew the lights going out must have been part of the plan - what was supposed to happen next, he couldn’t guess - but had none of those idiots thought about how dangerous it could be for them to suddenly lose their sense of sight?
“The hell?” Katsuki grumbled, confused as to how this could possibly have made sense in their heads. “Did you hit your head?” Katsuki inquired, making sure Deku hadn’t gotten too badly hurt. Luckily, his shoulder had been the one to make impact with the ground, but Deku had a bad habit of underplaying his injuries, so Katsuki still reached out to feel for himself. Once he had found Deku’s shoulder, he pressed down slightly, just to check that it wasn’t dislocated. He got another hiss for his efforts, but it would seem that Deku had been right about the state of his shoulder.
Beneath him, Deku was unusually stiff and rigged, and it took Katsuki a moment to register why. Katsuki was firmly planted in his lap, gently holding onto his shoulders, faces a mere breath apart. Katsuki blushed lightly, but didn’t bother to hide his shy smile at the predicament - it was dark afterall. Perhaps, it was this kind of situation the class had hoped for, and though Katsuki had vowed to mess up all their plans, he didn’t really have the heart to ruin the moment completely.
A part of him was tempted to use his quirk to make some light, just to see the adorable expression that was surely coloring Deku’s face at this very moment, but decided against it. The chances of him being able to resist kissing him were so low, it wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, he let himself enjoy the moment just for a little while more, before he moved to get up. Still spacing out, he helped Deku to his feet and guided him out of the gym. It was hard to let go of his hand, when he no longer had the excuse of the darkness to hold onto him.