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"Deku... sometimes... I wonder how we would've ended up if I wasn't such a sack of shit..."
"What do you mean, Kacchan?"
It was night time, the full moon in the sky and stars twinkling around them. The wind was cold, but they could hardly feel it. The balcony was empty save for the two of them. Katsuki took another sip of his drink.
"What if I... had just let myself love you?" Katsuki whispered, "What if I had let myself be weak for once in my goddamn life?"
It was quiet for a moment, Izuku letting himself think as he stared at the stars. He often wondered the same thing. not in the same words, of course, but he was always curious. What if things had been different?
"I don't think we would be... 'us'..." Izuku finally spoke, soft enough to be carried away by the wind. Katsuki looked at him in surprise, eyes wide and brows furrowed.
"What the hell does that even mean?"
"I dunno. I guess that being torn apart and then stitched together made us stronger? Maybe?"
"... Not strong enough."
Izukus chest ached at the remark, gripping the tie around his neck tightly. goddamn it, Katsuki. so open with his words. so open with his thoughts. Why couldn't he have been like that sooner?
"If i had just taken your hand... just let you help me... if I could have just accepted who I was... damn it. damn it, Izuku! Why couldn't I have just gotten my shit together?! Look at us now! Look at you! Look at..."
His speech trailed off as he stared at the ring on Izuku's finger. The ring that they were all there to celebrate. Katsuki had always imagined putting that ring on his finger. but now it wasn't him. His own hand was bare and Izukus was crowned in topaz. Fuck.
He looked up to see Izuku crying, hands rushing to wipe his eyes frantically. Oh, how his sobs hurt Katsuki. In an act of selfishness, he took the man into his arms, burying fingers in green locks and pressing a kiss to his forehead.
"Oh, Kacchan. Why couldn't you have spoken sooner? Why are you too late?"
Katsuki feels his own eyes well up with tears as he buries his face in Izuku's neck, as if hiding. He wanted to be closer. He wanted to press their bodies together with no clothes in between. He wanted the intimacy of his dreams. but Izuku was right. He was too late.
"I always am."
Another sob wracks Izuku's body, shaking them both slightly. What a miserable wedding night. a miserable wedding with a miserable groom. How tragic. How tragic it was for the groom's broken heart to belong to someone other than the bride.
"In another life, Izuku, will we be together?" Katsuki asks softly, breathily. Izuku looks up then, nothing but love and regret in his eyes.
For a brief moment it is just them and no one else. Izuku is not married. Katsuki is not single. they're just Kacchan and Deku. Like when they were kids on the playground. Like when they were okay.
"Yes. Yes, Kacchan. We will be. I promise."
There, in the midst of his wedding party, Izuku kisses Katsuki. Others see. Others gasp. Others scream. But Izuku is only aware of one thing, of Katsuki. Of the way his lips are parting to let the kiss deepen. The warmth invading his very soul. This was what was meant to be.
"I promise."