Chapter Text
Katsuki cannot do this anymore. He is about to fucking explode and when he does, it’s gonna be messy.
Kirishima Eijirou, his dumbfuck alpha of a best friend- and Katsuki’s grown enough, in the last three years, to admit that Ei’s his best friend- Kirishima ‘Shitty Hair’ Eijirou is courting him.
Kinda. Maybe.
Because, well. Kirishima brings him gifts. Snacks and water bottles and that one All Might key chain that Katsuki sneered at disdainfully -he’s outgrown his childish fascination for the retired Pro- and then hid away in a box in the back of his closet because his inner Omega won’t let him throw it away.
And Kirishima takes him on dates. Movies and sparring and that one time their pack was supposed to go to an amusement park only the others cancelled so it was just the two of them.
(The plushy Shitty Hair won for him that day is also hidden in his closet)
And Kirishima scents like there’s no tomorrow. Right now he’s pacing Katsuki’s room restlessly, spreading his fucking smell around, stopping every few minutes to reach out for something only to jerk his hand back, encouraged by the harsh snaps of Katsuki’s jaw. Because Katsuki knows Ei’s shit at being an Alpha but his heat is closing in and he’s stressed and tired and so damn confused and even a fucking moron like Kirishima should know that when an Omega lets you into their nest, you don’t touch their shit, fuck, Shitty Hair, hands off.
But also Kirishima’s never even breathed a word about this. Courting and mates and anything other than best friends- they never spoke about that. And talking is like, Shitty Hair’s whole thing. So.
Maybe this is more of that friendship shit. Katsuki knows he’s a shitty friend to have, and he thought he was getting better at it, but maybe this is just proof of how much further he has to grow.
Maybe this is how it’s supposed to go.
So Katsuki says nothing. And he feels like he’s on top of things, too, like he’s handling it, until they go down for dinner later that evening and their scents are mingled, smoke and cinnamon and rain and earth, and Mina asks with a giggle when they’re gonna stop dancing around each other and get together already and Eijirou steps away with his stupid giant smile and a hand in his stupid red hair and tells them it’s not like that, Mina, we’re bros!
And oh.
What?
Katsuki stops mid-stomp for a minute before snapping out of it and resuming his course to the fridge because he needs to cook for his pack of idiots or they’ll all give themselves food poisoning. And he acts the way he always does, snappy and grumbling, only this time he’s paying very close attention to what’s going on behind him, because Mina and Hanta and Denki are crowding around a very red-faced Eijirou and asking him to elaborate, and Katsuki also would like him to elaborate, thank you very much.
And Kirishima stumbles his way through a half-assed explanation- he and Kats aren’t like that, just bros, really Mina stop looking at me like that, I swear it’s not like that.
And then he says it’s just a pack thing and Katsuki almost burns dinner. Because Kirishima’s the only Alpha of their shitty pack, and he’s the only unmated Omega, and maybe that is all there is to it? Kirishima’s instincts pushing him to claim and protect with that shitty half-assed mockery of a courting?
And he’s fine with it, he is, except he really isn’t. So he finishes cooking, dumps the food into plates, and leaves the kitchen as is.
His pack will clean up. Their unspoken I’ll cook, you dumbasses clean up agreement has been going strong ever since first year.
Katsuki locks himself in his room and thinks. He has a few points to consider.
First, his idiot packmates will be coming after him soon, and he better have an excuse ready.
Second, Shitty Hair isn’t courting him, and that thought kinda hurts, for reasons he’s unwilling to go into.
Third, and most importantly- Kirishima’s fucking raging pheromones all over the place are pushing him into a pseudo heat. And now Shitty Hair’s not even going to be there to help him through it. So it’s gonna hurt like a bitch.
His Omega is twisting, unsettled at the sudden aloneness. Pre-heat is an Omega’s most vulnerable time, and every instinct in Katsuki’s body is begging him to seek his pack’s comfort and protection. Except being with them fucking hurts right now for some fucking dumbass reason, and also Katsuki’s old pride is waking up, and he’s determined to grit his teeth and ride this out on his own, painful or not.
So he gets ready.
He clenches his jaw and swallows his pride and goes around his pack asking for scented clothes. He stockpiles water bottles and simple snacks because he won’t have that much of an appetite anyway but without a mate to watch over him he’s likely to forget to eat and fuck if he’s gonna let stupid fucking pheromones derail his detailed nutrition plan anymore than they absolutely have to. He gathers pillows and blankets and soft, soft clothes and takes his nest apart only to rebuild it with meticulous care. No sense in making this any harder on himself than it’s already going to be.
And now Saturday evening and he’s on the brink of his pseudo heat and really the only thing left to do is go talk to Kirishima- which he’s been avoiding at all costs for the last two days.
With a sigh he gets up and walks to his door, opening it with a huff only to freeze in his tracks: the dumbfuck Alpha – not mine, he reminds the tightness in his chest, not my Alpha – is standing right there, sheepish smile high on red cheeks. And Katsuki was totally gonna be stoic and let him talk, except-
“Why’d you say that?” he grunts quietly.
“Huh?”
“About not courting me. Why d’you say that?”
“Uh, because- I- I’m not? I think? I don’t- I don’t understand.”
“Fuck’s sake, Ei.”
Katsuki’s exhausted, suddenly. He has no energy left to talk about this.
“Gimme your shirt.”
“Huh?”
And, okay. He was exhausted a minute ago but now he’s frustrated and hurt, and his Omega won’t stop whining softly and calling him a bad Omega because his mate’s rejected him twice now, and he know that’s just the heat talking, instincts and biology and not his rational mind, but fuck it’s just too much. So he pops.
“Your shirt, you goddamn moronic shitty Alpha! Your shirt. For my nest. Because you’ve been scenting all over the goddamn place and your stupid fucking pheromones sent me in a pseudo heat, which means the shitty suppressants won’t do shit, and now you’re not even courting me, which means I have to do this on my goddamned own, so I’m telling you the least you could do is give me a fucking shirt.”
Kirishima splutters and Katsuki fixes him with a hard glare until he turns around wordlessly and slips into his room. He comes back a minute later and dumps a pile of fabric into Katsuki’s expectant hands. Then Shitty Hair opens his big dumb mouth to say something but Katsuki’s still panting with his outburst and sudden shame is creeping across his burning cheeks and he doesn’t want to be here anymore so he rushes to his room and slams the door and ignores Shitty Hair’s pleading calls and the pheromones creeping their way in under his door.