Archive of Our Own

i.

For their third and final summer as students of UA, Aizawa-sensei insisted that Izuku and his classmates avoid internships and work of any kind. He told them to do their homework, but outside of that, he just wanted them to get some rest. And after the shit show that was their first year and half of their second year, Izuku completely understands. He’s grateful, too. He and his classmates have been through a lot, so Izuku thinks they’ve earned some time to relax.

They were all permitted to leave campus if they wanted to, but Izuku and many of his classmates still feel safer at the school than anywhere else. He doesn’t know if he’d be able to really relax if he went home to his mom.

His mom had actually insisted that Izuku stay on campus over break, so his decision had been easy, but he was happy to see that many of the other students in his class felt the same way.

“Uh, hey Midoriya?”

He blinks his eyes open, surprised. He knows he’s been outside laying in the shade of his favorite tree all morning, but he’s still surprised that the sun is high enough in the sky to indicate it’s around noon. “Kaminari-kun!” Izuku gives the other boy a smile, patting the grass at his side, and Kaminari sinks to the ground with a shy smile. Out of the bag over his shoulder, he pulls a water bottle and holds it out.

“You’ve been out here for a while, so I thought you might be thirsty.”

Izuku takes it gratefully, pleased to find that it’s ice-cold. “Thank you! So, what’s up? You seem a little nervous. Is somebody picking on you again? Just tell me, Kaminari-kun, and I’ll put an end to it.”

It always bothered him when one of their classmates called the blond an idiot or acted like he was stupid. The guy is far from it! Just because he learns differently than the others doesn’t mean he isn’t smart. One of the worst had been Jirou, and the only reason Izuku never said anything to her was because Kaminari asked him not to, but one day when his group of friends was making him the butt of every joke, Izuku just snapped .

“Midoriya…” Kaminari shakes his head, a small smile on his face. “You’re way too nice. Nobody was picking on me, but I did come out here to ask for some advice, if that’s okay.”

He pushes himself up, bumping their shoulders. “Of course!”

In all honesty, Kaminari is one of Izuku’s favorite classmates. They might not spend loads of time together, but Kaminari’s jokes are actually pretty funny, and the guy is full of random facts and tidbits. They trade info on really obscure topics whenever they get the chance. Plus, Izuku knows it’s silly, but while the other guys in their class have only grown taller and more muscular, Izuku hasn’t actually grown much, and neither has Kaminari. If it wasn’t for Mineta, Izuku would be the shortest guy in class. Even Tokoyami has passed him up.

But what kind of advice does he need? He has fantastic control over his quirk, and even though Izuku has a list of applications it could be used for, he doubts that’s what Kaminari wants to talk about. Could it be about his fighting style? but usually if Kaminari wants advice in that area, he talks to Katsuki. Maybe it’s about their homework? He could-

“Midoriya, you’re muttering again.”

He blinks. “I’m so sorry!” Izuku shakes himself, turning to look right at Kaminari and folding his legs like a pretzel. “How can I help you, Kaminari-kun?”

HIs friend takes a deep breath and lets it out before meeting his eyes. “Listen, I know this might sound silly, but I don’t know who else to talk to. Mina likes to gossip with Hagakure, and Bakugou will probably just yell at me because he has the emotional maturity of a teacup.”

“What about Kirishima?” Izuku asks. “You know I don’t mind helping at all, and anything you tell me in confidence will be kept that way, but you and Kirishima are close. He won’t yell at you like Kacchan will—and that’s only because feelings and emotions make him uncomfortable—, but Kirishima definitely isn’t going to gossip like Mina, either.”

Kaminari makes a face. “I know. And normally, I would talk to him! It’s just- Well, the thing is, I need advice about Kirishima.”

Izuku waits. Kaminari looks a little uncomfortable, but he also looks like he has more to say, so Izuku waits, sipping from the water Kaminari brought him and wondering what Kirishima could have done to upset his friend. Kirishima is usually the one patching up any issues with his friends; he’s like the glue of their group. (Uraraka calls them the Bakusquad, but Izuku personally thinks that’s tacky. Besides, Katsuki might be friends with them, but he gets along with them as well as he gets along with everyone else in the class. Which isn’t exactly great but still better than he did during their first year.)

“It’s just… Okay, Midoriya, do you remember when we were first years and I had a crush on Jirou?”

He actually doesn’t. But even though Izuku doesn’t dislike Jirou, he’s not too fond of her, either. Not after the first time he watched her make fun of Kaminari after he fried his brain. It might be funny to others, but Izuku still worries that the constant overuse of his quirk will cause lasting damage to his brain. He doesn’t want to see his friend in such a bad way if he can help it.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.”

Kaminari shrugs. “That’s okay, because after you yelled at everyone for making fun of me, I realized that I didn’t really like her as much as I thought I did. Anyway, the thing is, it’s kind of like that, but it’s more , Midoriya. Kirishima is this super nice dude and even when he’s feeling down on himself, he still tries to make everyone around him feel great and strong and I just-” He sighs. “I really like him.”

Oh.

Izuku giggles. “You’re telling me about your crush, Kaminari-kun. Doesn’t that kind of make us best friends?”

Kaminari’s cheeks turn pink, but he smiles at Izuku. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s funny, because I always mean to spend more time with you, but I feel like our lives are so demanding, and when life isn’t, our friends are, you know?”

“I know what you mean.” Izuku hums. “So, if you’re looking for advice, is it because you want to tell him how you feel?”

Kaminari fidgets. “I mean- yeah? I think? But… I don’t know, I wish I knew how Kirishima felt about me—if he likes me back, you know? Because if he doesn’t, and I tell him… it’s going to make things weird.” He turns to Izuku more fully, pressing their knees together. “Kirishima is like the glue that holds the rest of us together. He drags Bakugou to things when everyone wants to hang out, and he supports us all when we need it. But if I make him uncomfortable by telling him that I really, really like him, I could ruin the dynamic of the whole group.”

Izuku sets his water aside and reaches for Kaminari’s hands to stop him from picking at his fingers. Already, a few of them are bleeding. “Hey, I don’t think that would happen, Kaminari-kun. Even if Kirishima doesn’t like you the same way, he’s really nice just like you said. Plus, he values your friendship a great deal. And if for some reason everyone started treating you like you ruined something, then maybe you should get better friends.” He tries to send his friend reassuring feelings, squeezing his hands once before pulling away. Kaminari doesn’t fidget anymore, though.

“I can’t imagine spending every day without them, though.”

“Chances are,” Izuku offers, leaning forward, “they feel the same way about you! Kaminari-kun, your friends would miss you a lot if they didn’t get to talk and laugh with you anymore.”

A long moment passes before Kaminari jolts forward, pulling Izuku into a hug. “Dude… you’re literally the coolest guy ever.”

He can’t help but get a little choked up at the praise, burying his burning cheeks against Kaminari’s t-shirt. “So, if you want to find out whether or not Kirishima likes you, the fastest way would be to ask him directly. But I’m assuming that’s not an option?”

“Nope.”

Izuku didn’t think it would be that easy.

-

“What if I, like, kissed you in the common room one day? To see if he got jealous?”

Izuku chokes on his ramen.

Three minutes and several apologies later, Izuku’s windpipe is cleared again and he’s shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Kaminari-kun, but then everyone will just think we like each other. And if he does like you, he probably won’t tell you at all if he thinks you have a boyfriend already.”

Kaminari sighs. “Even if we tell them it’s platonic kissing?”

He pinches the bridge of his nose, poking Kaminari in the ribs with his free hand. “Look, if you want to platonically kiss me, I’m fine with that. But don’t use me to make Kirishima jealous, okay?” He gives Kaminari a smile. “We can think of something else.”

The blond rubs the back of his neck. “I’ve never actually kissed anyone anyway, so even if I want to kiss you platonically, I don’t know how.”

It’s probably way too late at night to be having this conversation. Usually, Izuku would at least be in his room by two o’clock in the morning, and most of the time, he would be sleeping. But he promised Aizawa-sensei and his mom both that this summer, he would take it easy—that means that he’s not allowed to train for more than a couple hours a day, and if he breaks any bones, he’s not allowed to train for the rest of the summer .

“Do you want to platonically kiss me because you’re hoping to learn?” Izuku asks drily.

They’re in the kitchen in the middle of the night eating because they fell asleep doing homework on the floor in Izuku’s room and missed dinner. When they woke up, Izuku thought maybe it was just early evening, but he’d been very wrong. It was well past midnight when he’d found his phone and unlocked it.

Kaminari pouts at him. “It’s not that, Midoriya! You’re just really cute.”

Izuku chokes on his ramen again.

-

“Hey, Kirishima-kun?”

The redhead lights up with a smile when Izuku sits down beside him in the otherwise empty common room. It’s fairly early in the morning, so most of their classmates are still in bed. The ones who aren’t are likely already out and about for the day or still in their rooms for quality alone time, but Izuku knows that Kirishima is a social butterfly. “What’s up, Midobro?”

He giggles. Even though Kirishima has been using the nickname since they were first years, it still makes him happy to know that he has a nickname other than ‘Deku’. Uraraka and Katsuki are the only ones in their class that use it; to everyone else, it’s only his hero name.

“I’m doing a survey,” he says. The only reason it isn’t a lie is because Izuku decided to actually do a survey on his classmates. So that it wouldn’t be suspicious. “And I was wondering if I could ask you a couple questions.”

Kirishima shifts. To Izuku, he looks surprised. Like he can’t believe anybody is interested in him for any reason. Izuku wants to hug the guy. “I mean, of course you can! But, uh, why me?”

Izuku beams. “Because you’re so cool! Listen, I’m not asking everybody these questions, but I’ve already asked Denki and I’m planning on asking Sero, Yaoyorozu, and Uraraka. And you, if it’s okay!”

“It’s totally okay, I- Wait, did you say Denki?”

It was Izuku’s idea, actually. With Denki’s permission of course, he thought a good way to inspire curiosity would be if they were calling each other by their first names. Denki was enthusiastic enough that he doesn’t feel disrespectful in calling him by his first name, and honestly, Izuku’s more comfortable with it than he is with anyone else. Except Katsuki.

In fact, he still has a hard time calling Asui by her first name. He doesn’t want to disregard her request, and he does consider her a friend, but he just doesn’t feel comfortable with it.

Though Izuku has shared some traumatizing moments with many of his classmates, he hasn’t really shared secrets with any of them the way he has with Denki lately. Denki has become his closest friend.

“Yeah! He’s kind of my best friend, so it doesn’t feel weird to call him by his first name.” He shrugs at Kirishima, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have a lot of nice friends, but Denki and I’ve been getting closer lately and our friendship is different than the one I have with everyone else. It’s like, you know, how you and Kacchan are! Like, you wouldn’t want to date him, right?”

“Bakugou? No way.” Kirishima shakes his head. “Um… Wait, does Kaminari not feel close to me? We’re good friends, right?”

He reaches out, catching and squeezing one of Kirishima’s hands. “He does! You are! He told me he confides in you a lot, so I know you guys are close! And anyway, I mean, Denki and I are close in a different way? Like, the other day we went to the mall and he didn’t make fun of me when I tried on a skirt! And I helped him pick out new earrings!” He leans close, like he’s about to tell Kirishima a secret. Which he technically is, even if it’s one that they planned on telling to Kirishima. “Also, we’re learning how to kiss together because neither of us really knows how? It’s actually kind of nice!” He sighs, giving Kirishima another smile and sinking further into the sofa. “It’s totally platonic, though! I know he likes somebody, and I might have a teensy crush on somebody…” He waves a hand through the air, taking a mental note of the pink flush to Kirishima’s cheeks. “Well, I guess I just told you all of our secrets, huh?” Izuku blinks at him. “Hey, maybe that means you’re one of my best friends, too!”

Kirishima reaches out, gripping Izuku’s shoulders. “Dude, hold on, you and Denki are kissing? Each other? No fair!” He turns a shade pinker. “I- I mean, well. I don’t know how either, but like, what made you decide to kiss each other?”

“Well…” He hadn’t really anticipated this question. “So, Denki was worried about his crush. And I’ve only been kissed once before this, by Hatsume, from support? It was really weird but only because I’m gay. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really like it, either. Kissing Denki is nice, though. Basically, one night we were talking about how he could find out if his crush likes him, and he brought up kissing me.” He might as well tell Kirishima the gist of the story, right? Maybe then the redhead will understand. He goes on to explain the parts of their conversation that won’t make Denki’s crush on Kirishima obvious, and then when he’s finished, he gives his friend a smile. “Does that make sense?”

Nodding, he slides his hands off of Izuku’s shoulders, leaning back on the couch. “I’m sorry for taking us this far off topic by asking about the use of Kaminari’s first name. You wanted to ask me questions, right? So ask away.”

Izuku beams. “It’s kind of funny, because the first question was going to be if you’ve ever kissed anybody! But you just told me you haven’t, so the next question is, are you saving your first kiss for somebody special?”

Kirishima blinks a few times. “Uh… Midobro, what kind of survey is this?”

“Well, I’m forcing myself to take a break from hero stuff, and since my love life is pretty nonexistent, I was hoping to live vicariously through my classmates. Denki’s love life is a work-in-progress, Hagakure and Mina are open books, and the rest are either very private or I’m not very close to.” Izuku reaches for the notebook he’d brought with him and opens it to the page he’d planned out two nights ago with Denki.

At the top of the page, Kirishima’s name is written, and then Izuku’s questions are written in a list, each with a few spaces beneath for Kirishima’s responses. “See?” He shows it to the redhead, who hums.

“Now, if you don’t want to answer any of these, that’s okay, too. It’s just for fun.”

After a moment, Kirishima reaches out and boops Izuku on the nose. “I’m not trying to save my first kiss or anything, it just hasn’t happened yet.”

He chuckles, scrunching his nose and writing Kirishima’s answers down. “Okay, and do you have any crushes? I won’t ask you who, since that’s super private.”

“I, uh… Yes? Just one.” Kirishima hums again. “Hey, Midoriya?”

He looks up from his notebook. “You can call me Izuku, if you want to.” Kirishima fidgets. “What is it? Do you want me to stop asking questions?”

He shakes his head, waving a hand. “No, I’m- It’s actually kind of nice to talk about. Mina’s a bit of a gossip. Um, but I was wondering… That platonic kissing thing… Is it helping Kaminari learn at all?”

Izuku’s curiosity builds and he has to stop himself from leaning closer or begging for answers. “Yeah! You know what they always tell us, practice makes perfect! I mean, I don’t think either of us is perfect or anything, but we’re a lot better at it than we were in the beginning! Why do you ask?”

Now, Kirishima has trouble looking at him. “Would you- I...” He pauses, taking a deep breath. “Izuku, would you mind teaching me too?”

Oh my gosh! “Kirishima-kun…?”

He bows his head a little more. “You’re nice, you know? You aren’t going to make fun of me for not knowing what I’m doing, and I thought- I mean, I know I’m not Kaminari, but we’re friends, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have- have told me to call you Izuku…”

At this moment, Izuku realizes that Kirishima’s self-esteem is even lower than he thought. The redhead is often so boisterous that it’s easy to forget how hard he is on himself.

“Wh- Hey, of course we’re friends!” He drops his notebook, scooching closer to Kirishima and catching one of his hands. “If you want to kiss me, I’m fine with that, okay? It’s platonic, right? You have a crush on someone else.”

Kirishima nods.

“Then yeah, I can help you learn!” He certainly wasn’t expecting the conversation to go this way, or for Kirishima to be so upset over it. “Hey, can you look at me?”

When Kirishima looks up, his face is bright red and he looks like he’s both upset and nervous. “I thought you were going to say no…”

Izuku frowns, leaning into his friend’s side. “Kiri-”

“Eijirou.”

“Eijirou,” he corrects, and it’s easier than he expected. Izuku maybe isn’t as surprised as he thought he would be. He has an easier time connecting with these boys because unlike Todoroki and Iida, they aren’t intense . Todoroki is so intense that it’s almost anxiety inducing, and while he does like talking to the boy, he finds it’s easier to spend more time with people who don’t make him feel like he has to be a caretaker. Around Denki, Izuku can just be himself.

He thinks maybe it’s going to be the same with Eijirou.

“First of all,” he says softly, “we’re going to work on your self-esteem, okay? I’ve noticed my own has improved the more time I spend with friends that aren’t emotionally draining. Mostly Denki, because I like my other friends, but I’ve kind of been avoiding them…” He shakes his head, trying to get back on track. “Eijirou, you’re strong, and you’re smart, and you’re capable. If you ever feel like you aren’t good enough, can you do me a favor and tell somebody about it? Me, or Denki, or Kacchan?”

He nods. “Thanks, Izuku.”

“Secondly, you’re very handsome! And I’m not the only one who thinks so!” He gives his friend a smile, and Eijirou pulls him into a hug, so Izuku lightly knocks their heads together. “Kissing doesn’t have to be some big deal, okay? Platonic kissing is like… it’s like hugging, but more intimate! Most people think it’s weird, I suppose, but for me, it makes me feel a little surge of confidence. And it’s like a safety net, too! Comfort, safety, confidence. I don’t get butterflies in my tummy, and I don’t feel like I need to blush and hide whenever I see Denki.”

“I do…” Eijirou says, muffled against Izuku’s shoulder.

He squeaks. “Wait, Eijirou!” Izuku pulls away a little, trying not to smile. “Do you have a crush on him?” He’s pretty sure the grin on his face is impossible to hide.

Eijirou rubs his own red cheeks, trying not to meet Izuku’s eyes. “Don’t… Don’t tell him, okay?”

He can’t help but squirm, wanting to bonk them both on the head for being so silly. They totally like each other! It’s too bad he promised Denki he wouldn’t tell Eijirou about his crush… Really too bad… “It’s too bad that I promised I wouldn’t tell anybody who Denki’s crush is, because, you know, I think you’d consider it very good news .”

He waits, half in Eijirou’s lap from their hug, until the redhead slowly looks up at him with wide eyes. “It’s not me,” he says in a voice that sounds partially convinced. Izuku nods, crossing his arms, and a little pleased smile makes its way onto his friend’s face. “It’s me?” he whispers, covering and uncovering his own mouth.

Izuku beams, climbing off the redhead’s lap. “I’m just going to go into the kitchen for a drink, leaving my notebook alone with Eijirou… I certainly hope he doesn’t get the urge to read Denki’s survey answers while I’m gone.” He peeks around the wall after he makes it to the kitchen to see Eijirou snatch the notebook off the seat beside him and flip the page backward.

He feels himself smile.

-

“So, Kiri asked you to teach him how to kiss?”

Izuku hums, chopping the vegetables needed for the soup he’s making and trying not to meet Denki’s gaze.

“That’s freaking adorable! Have you kissed him yet? What’s it like?”

Kissing Eijirou is vastly different from kissing Denki. Denki is slow and soft, usually just a gentle press of lips or a light brush of tongues. Meanwhile, Eijirou is enthusiastic and quick. His kisses often leave Izuku surprised, even when he’s expecting them. He’s not bad by any means, though—his lips are soft and he doesn’t leave a bunch of spit in Izuku’s mouth, and even though his teeth are extremely sharp, he hasn’t once hurt Izuku with them.

Izuku thinks that Eijirou’s self-esteem is rising, too, and wonders if the kissing has anything to do with it.

“You should kiss him yourself and find out,” Izuku says instead of actually answering Denki’s questions. “Or at least ask him to call you Denki. I think he was a little hurt, to be honest.”

The blond doesn’t say anything to that, so Izuku looks up at him, curious, and his friend is much closer than he was expecting. He gives Izuku a cheeky smile and leans across the counter to peck him on the lips. “I’m really lucky to have a friend like you.”

“The fuck kind of sappy shit is this?”

Izuku squeaks, feeling his face flush as he turns to see Katsuki standing in the doorway. “Hey, Kacchan…”

Katsuki crosses his arms, obviously waiting for an explanation, and Denki throws his hands up, running out of the room while shouting, “Don’t kill me, we’re just friends!”

Izuku feels like he’s been left to the wolves. “Are you hungry?”

“Why the hell were you and Sparky kissing?” Katsuki plops down on a stool on the other side of the island where Izuku is chopping vegetables, scowling at Izuku.

“Because it’s fun, Kacchan.”

“Are you dating or some shit?”

He shakes his head, looking his friend in the eyes because Katsuki will accuse him of lying if he doesn’t. “No, Denki has a crush on somebody else. It’s just platonic kissing, you know? Between friends.”

After a moment, the intensity of Katsuki’s gaze lowers and he sighs, pulling out his phone. “What are you making?”

Izuku will later learn that when Denki fled the kitchen, he bumped into Eijirou near the elevators and the redhead asked him out right then and there.

ii.

“Midoriya, you’re friends with Mirio, right?”

It takes him a moment to find the source of the quiet voice, but when Izuku finally spots the boy who addressed him, he can’t help but feel surprised. Amajiki-senpai doesn’t really go out of his way to talk to anyone but his friends, so it must be important if it’s overriding his anxiety enough for him to actually reach out to Izuku. They’ve never really spoken to each other.

“Of course! I think of Toogata-senpai as a good friend.” He tries to keep his enthusiasm down, because he knows Amajiki-senpai has a hard time around people.

He wasn’t really expecting to bump into anyone today, if he’s being honest with himself. When Izuku decided to leave campus for the afternoon, it was mainly for some peace of mind. A lot of his classmates have been extremely invested in his every action ever since one of them spotted Eijirou kissing him while he was making breakfast—because Denki and Eijirou are keeping their relationship private right now, everyone just thinks Eijirou is trying to date Izuku, and no amount of protest has been able to assuage their opinions on the matter.

He doesn’t mind, really, except that they’re all wrong , and what if Kacchan thinks that Izuku likes one of his friends? He may not want Katsuki to know how he feels, but Izuku also sincerely doesn’t want his friend to think he likes somebody else, either.

“May I sit with you?”

Hence, he snuck off of campus while everyone was at lunch to come to a cafe he likes instead. “Sure you can!” Izuku offers the shy hero a smile when he sinks into the chair on the other side of the table. “Is everything okay with Toogata-senpai?”

Amajiki nods, fiddling with the mug in his hands. He must not be on duty, because he’s dressed in casual clothes. Izuku wonders if all of his clothes are the same colors as his hero costume, though. “Mirio is doing very well.” He shifts. “Midoriya, you know how you really admire the loud one? Bakugou?”

Despite the way his cheeks are heating up, Izuku nods. Nobody has ever said anything, so Izuku thought his feelings weren’t obvious. And maybe they aren’t, maybe Amajiki is just the kind of person who notices things, but it’s still embarrassing to be called out.

“That’s how I feel about Mirio,” he says softly, avoiding Izuku’s eyes and twirling his mug in circles on the table. “And I-” He sighs. “I want to tell him. But I don’t know how. I tried once, but I don’t think he knew what I meant… He just said that he admires me, too.”

Izuku leans his chin on his hand. “But it’s more than just admiration, because you love Toogata-senpai.” He hums, head filling with romantic ideals, until Amajki folds in on himself.

“Should I tell him?” he whispers.

“You definitely should!” Izuku closes his notebook and studies Amajiki’s face. “I know how hard it can be, but I think you’re actually very brave, senpai. Toogata really likes being around you and spending time with you; he told me so once when I asked him about you and Hado-senpai.”

Izuku’s guess is that Toogata doesn’t know how to pick up on subtleties. Even if Amajiki spends days and hours complimenting him—which he won’t because he’s too shy to wax poetic for that amount of time—, Toogata might think he’s just being a good friend.

“I think you’re going to have to be really blunt, Amajiki-senpai. It sounds really scary, but I don’t know if Toogata-senpai will grasp your meaning unless you spell it out for him.”

Amajiki hangs his head. “I was afraid of that.”

Izuku hums. “Well, what if I talk to him? I won’t say anything you don’t want me to say, but if I can get a clearer picture of his thoughts on the matter, maybe it will help?”

By the time he has to pack up and return to school for dinner, Izuku has a semi-solid plan of action. He’s going to facetime Toogata-senpai and ask him how things are going, and maybe do a little prying into his personal life, and then he’s going to top it all off with an I saw Amajiki-senpai the other day and we talked about you!

-

“How is summer vacation treating you, Deku-kun? Have you done anything fun? Are you spending time with Eri-chan?”

Izuku beams at Toogata, glad that when he texted to ask about a video chat, the other was enthusiastic for it. “It’s been great! Aizawa-sensei doesn’t want us doing anything stressful, so we’re mostly all just relaxing and doing homework. Some of us took Eri-chan on a picnic yesterday and to the playground; she had a lot of fun! It was really nice to see.”

Toogata chuckles, shifting his phone. “That’s good to hear.”

“And how is being a hero? Is it everything you thought it would be? And how about your friends, are you still getting to hang out with Hado and Amajiki? Have you made any new hero friends? How’s Bubble Girl doing? Have you-”

“Whoa, Deku-kun! Slow down so I can respond!” He smiles to let Izuku know he’s not actually upset and starts answering his questions as well as he can, pausing on the one about his friends. “Actually, Nejire took a job a little farther away than we expected, so we don’t really get to see her very often, but Tamaki and I are always hanging out with each other. It’s been that way since elementary school.”

Izuku nods, rolling over on his bed and giving Toogata another smile. “Actually, I saw Amajiki-senpai the other day! I left campus for a while to get away from everyone for a bit and we saw each other at a cafe, so we kind of sat together and talked for a little bit.”

The blond looks surprised, tilting his head. “Really, that’s great! Actually, thanks for spending some time with him. Tamaki has a hard time making friends and he doesn’t always feel comfortable going places with me because people always stop us to talk.”

“You don’t have to thank me! I like making friends, and I always thought Amajiki-senpai was cool. I think he’s pretty brave, too!” Izuku hums. “You know, he mostly talked about you! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he sounded like a proud boyfriend!”

“W-what?”

“But I do know better, because when I asked, he said the two of you aren’t dating or anything like that. I don’t know, senpai, it just seems kind of obvious to me that you two would be a good couple.”

He shakes himself, looking back at his senpai. Toogata is staring at him through their screens, face beet red as he flounders for something to say. Izuku feels mildly accomplished. Anybody with eyes can see that he doesn’t look the least bit perturbed at what Izuku is saying—he’s just surprised.

“Deku-kun, are you-” A pause. “Do you think Tamaki… likes me?”

With a sigh, he rolls over again, chewing his lip. “Well… it would be rude of me to tell you that he does if he had in fact told me something along those lines in confidence.”

Toogata mouths the words to himself, like Izuku has placed a particularly hard puzzle in front of him. “Wait, so you’re saying that you can’t tell me even if he does?”

He hums. “Senpai, I’m saying that it would be really rude of me to tell you his secret when I know he wants to tell you himself.”

The blond blinks at him, cheeks blossoming red again after having faded in his confusion. “He wants to tell me?”

“Apparently, last time he tried to tell you, you misinterpreted his meaning.” He studies the nails on his free hand, wondering if he has enough money saved up for a manicure. Denki would probably go with him if he asked nicely enough. “But I didn’t tell you anything. Because that would be rude of me. I just want my friends to be happy.”

“Wh- Should I tell him? I mean- Hold on-” He takes a deep breath. “Would Tamaki say yes if I asked him out? On a date? A real date?”

Izuku giggles. “Ah, senpai, maybe you should ask him in on a date. If you took him out to a restaurant or something like that, he would probably be too embarrassed to enjoy himself.”

“Is that a yes, Deku-kun?”

“Yes!”

Three days later, Izuku gets a text from Amajiki thanking him for meddling even though he’d simply asked for advice, because Toogata apparently made him dinner and they stayed in to watch movies and when he confessed his feelings at the end of the night, the blond actually expressed genuine surprise and joy about it despite having already confessed to Amajiki.

iii.

“Is it true that Kirishima and Kaminari are dating?”

Izuku blinks his eyes open, peering up at Sero, who’s leaning against the back of the couch where Izuku has been napping for… some amount of time. “Uh… yes?” He rubs his eyes, still tired.

“Huh. Cool.” Sero doesn’t leave. Izuku squints at him, a little miffed that his nap was interrupted, but curious because his friend seems to be putting a lot of thought into something.

“Is there something wrong, Sero-kun?”

He seems to snap back into himself, giving Izuku a flimsy smile. “Ah, I don’t want to bother you over it. Don’t worry about it.” He stands up straight, stepping back, and Izuku reaches for his arm before he can stop himself.

“If you want to talk about it, I’m a good listener.”

And that’s how Izuku finds himself in Sero’s bedroom, curled up against his side while the boy confesses his feelings for another one of Izuku’s friends. Sero is sincerely upset, struggling with his feelings for a number of reasons that Izuku only has the vaguest grasp over. But the biggest problem, he explains, is that he told Todoroki how he felt and the other boy just walked away.

“I get it if he doesn’t feel the same way,” Sero says quietly. “I’m not exactly a model, you know? I smile too big and my hair lays flat no matter what I do. And I have tape dispensers for elbows. I get it.” He breathes out a harsh breath and drops his head backward against the wall, skull thumping painfully against the plaster. “But I didn’t think he’d just- just ignore me like that. I thought we were friends.”

Izuku shifts their positions, shimmying closer and pulling Sero down until Izuku can wrap his arms around the boy’s broad shoulders, resting his chin on top of the brunet’s head. His breath puffs against Izuku’s collarbone as his trembling slows, words getting lost between the movement and the comfort.

“You should be nicer to yourself, Sero-kun. Your smile is contagious, your hair is healthy and shiny, and your quirk is really cool. You’re a handsome boy with a great personality, and anybody who can’t see that will have to deal with me.” He rubs one of his hands against the taller boy’s back. “I don’t know why Todoroki-kun walked away from you. It was rude and unnecessary, and when I see him I’m going to call him out on his bullshit.” He hums. “However, he probably didn’t mean it to be. He’s kind of emotionally stunted.”

Sero gives a wet laugh, leaning into Izuku a little more. “You’re a good friend, Midoriya.”

He can’t help the smile that finds its way onto his face—after years of being lonely, Izuku has a bunch of friends. So he’s trying his best to be good to all of them. “Hey, what made you ask about Eijirou and Denki, anyway?”

“Well… Shinsou caught them making out in the locker room after group training the other day and asked me about it. I told him I wasn’t really surprised since both of them have been super affectionate with you too, lately, but that didn’t seem to appease him.” A moment passes. “Midoriya… would it be okay if I took a nap right now?”

He buries his smile in Sero’s hair. “Only if I can finish my nap, too!”

-

Izuku puts Shinsou on the backburner. His friend’s curiosity about Denki and Eijirou is telling without anymore information, but Izuku wants to get answers out of Todoroki before he does anymore meddling in Denki and Eijirou’s relationship.

So he hunts his friend down when he knows Todoroki will be training, finding the boy exhausted on one of the training grounds all by himself. Todoroki’s surroundings are destroyed, his expression grim, and Izuku imagines that he’s about to get himself beat up.

“Todoroki-kun, how come you rejected Sero so harshly?”

His head whips around so fast that Izuku’s own neck hurts just watching it, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it because Todoroki growls . “So you’re in on it, too, Midoriya? What kind of joke is this, huh?”

A pillar of ice shoots at Izuku and he leaps into the air to avoid it. Perhaps it’s time for a rematch after their fight during their first sports festival. Todoroki is a tough opponent, so Izuku gets a workout while he wears his friend down. But every time he gets the upper hand, it just pisses the boy off more and he gets just a little rougher, a little meaner. Izuku thinks something a little more serious is going on here and decides to stop playing.

What’s a few broken bones, anyway? Aizawa-sensei isn’t going to expel him, he just won’t be allowed to train for the rest of the summer.

It’s fine.

“Shit, Midoriya! Why are you so persistent? ” Nobody had come along, which means that while their fight was rough, it didn’t cause enough destruction of property for any teachers or classmates to come running. But it also means Todoroki has to carry Izuku all the way to the infirmary.

“You attacked me,” he slurs, resting his chin on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s not my fault you rejected Sero-kun when he tried to tell you he liked you.”

His friend doesn’t say anything until after Recovery Girl heals him and scolds them both, reminding Izuku that she’s going to tell Aizawa and that he absolutely will not be permitted to train for the rest of their vacation.

“Hanta doesn’t like me.”

Izuku blinks his eyes open, staring at the ceiling until it comes into focus. Todoroki sits next to Izuku’s infirmary bed looking even more stoic than usual. “Todoroki-kun, I can promise you that he actually does, and you’re just an idiot.” He coughs. “He came to me really upset, saying that he gets it if you don’t feel the same way, but that he doesn’t understand how you could just ignore him, since he thought you were friends.”

A moment passes, and then another. “Why do you always break yourself to get your point across?”

Izuku gives his friend a deadpan look. “Because everything else is too subtle for my tastes.”

Todoroki laughs wetly, ducking his head. And then he sighs. “I’m sorry for breaking your bones. How do I fix it?”

“Recovery Girl took care of that, Todoroki.”

He rolls his eyes, cracking a smile at Izuku’s joke. “I meant the- How do I apologize? I didn’t… I just thought somebody put him up to it or something. Uraraka knows that I-” He sighs, expression falling. “She knows that I like him. I thought maybe she told Ashido, trying to find something out, and that Ashido thought it would be funny to play a prank on me.”

Izuku sighs, shifting on the bed in an effort to get more comfortable. He’s going to fall asleep soon, he knows it. “You go to Sero-kun’s room and you knock on his door. You tell him you’re sorry for walking away and that you’re emotionally obtuse. And you tell that boy that yes, you do like him. And you tell him the things you like about him. Okay?”

“Right now?”

Izuku nods. “Yep. Right now.” He pauses. “Actually, you should probably shower and change clothes first.”

-

“Nerd, wake up.” Izuku blinks his eyes open again almost an hour later to find Katsuki and Aizawa standing over him, both of them glaring.

His body still hurts, but he isn’t surprised. He probably pushed it way too far while dueling with Todoroki, but the only time his friend seems to grasp things is when he hurts somebody else.

Recovery Girl wasn’t able to heal everything , since Izuku was already worn out after his fight, so he has to suffer through getting his wounds re-wrapped before he’s allowed to go back to the dorms, Aizawa and Katsuki dogging his every step as they scold him for his recklessness.

Izuku knows it’s just because they care.

“Bakugou,” Aizawa-sensei says when the dorm is standing tall in front of them, “do me a favor and don’t let him out of your sight. For… the rest of forever, if at all possible. He only ever listens to you.”

“I’ll tie him down if I have to,” Katsuki answers shortly, grabbing the back of Izuku’s shirt when he tries to inch away. “No more training, Deku. I’ll kick your ass.”

Aizawa walks away with a sigh and Izuku sags. He’s tired. “Kacchan?”

He grunts; when Izuku looks up at him, he’s already looking down at Izuku, waiting for him to say something. And he doesn’t intend to say it—he really doesn’t , thank you—, but the look on Katsuki’s face when Izuku opens his mouth is entirely worth the likelihood that the blond will murder him when he recovers.

Because Izuku says, “Carry me.”

Katsuki gapes at him, unblinking. His hands don’t spark. He doesn’t let go of Izuku’s shirt.

And then-

“Fine, you damn nerd.” Katsuki moves, and the next thing Izuku knows, he’s resting against Katsuki’s back, his arms dangling limply over the blond’s shoulders while his friend holds him up by the knees. A piggy-back ride. What is the world coming to?

They enter Heights Alliance and Izuku feels the exhaustion seeping back in. With Katsuki, he’s safe. With Katsuki, Izuku can let himself relax just a little more. He catches glimpses of his friends and classmates as Katsuki carries him past the various couches and coffee tables to the kitchen where Eijirou and Denki are leaning against the island, hunched over one of their phones and laughing.

“Losers.” Izuku feels Katsuki’s voice rumble against his ear, pressing his cheek against the blond’s neck. Katsuki’s skin has always been softer than expected. His hair too. There are a lot of things about him that are softer than expected.

The boys look up, faces shocked and then concerned.

“Can one of you grab water and something for him to eat before he passes out? I’m gonna take him to his room.”

Does he really look that bad off? Katsuki isn’t even saying anything mean, to Izuku or his friends. Even though it’s all for show, Kacchan still likes to call them names and threaten their lives. He’s actually getting more creative with it, these days.

Izuku sighs.

“Is there anything special you want, Izuku?” Denki asks, leaning over the counter to peer at him.

The only thing he manages to get out of his mouth is, “Kacchan’s warm.”

Eventually, Izuku winds up in his bed. Katsuki sits in Izuku’s desk chair and forces him to eat, forces him to drink a bunch of water, and forces him to promise that he won’t do anything stupid. And then, Katsuki growls and crosses the room, sitting at the foot of Izuku’s bed. He grumpily informs Izuku that he doesn’t trust him to stay in bed and rest.

Izuku would be offended, but he had actually been thinking of sneaking out of his room—only to check on Sero, of course, but he would in fact be breaking his promise to Katsuki so he doesn’t even protest. At least it means the explosive blond that his life has always been so entwined with will stick around for a little while longer.

-

A little while longer turns out to be all night. Izuku somehow convinces Katsuki to lay down beside him instead of sitting up at the foot of the bed like some sort of vigil, and though Izuku thinks Katsuki does so reluctantly, he still doesn’t hesitate to drop his palm over Izuku’s heart, like he’s worried that it’s going to stop beating or something. Actually, he’s probably just worried that Izuku will try to slip away anyway.

This is how Izuku wakes: Katsuki’s chest pressing against his back, soft puffs of air on the back of his neck, one of the blond’s arms thrown over Izuku’s waist while their legs are completely tangled together. He wants to wake up like this every day, but he’s also not stupid enough to hope that Katsuki could ever want to spend that much time around him.

A fist pounds on his door. “Midoriya, are you in there?”

Izuku peeks an eye open to glance at his clock. Eight o’clock in the morning. He sighs. “Come in!”

Katsuki groans, untangling their limbs and rolling over while also pulling one of Izuku’s pillows over his head. “It’s too damn early for this shit, Deku,” he complains, but the door swings open and Izuku pushes himself up, squinting at Sero as he stumbles into the room and quickly shuts the door.

“Okay,” he begins, and then pauses. “Bakugou?”

“Fuck off,” Kacchan answers, voice muffled as he smothers himself. Izuku giggles.

His body still aches but he ignores it in favor of giving Sero his full attention. “What is it?”

His friend sinks into Izuku’s desk chair, rolling it across the floor to fuss over the bandages covering half of Izuku’s limbs. “So, Todoroki showed up at my door after dinner, which he missed, by the way. His hair was dripping water into the collar of his shirt and he stared at me for a long time before bending at a ninety degree angle and apologizing.” Sero stops his assessment of Izuku’s injuries to look him in the eye. “And he said that you hunted him down while he was training and broke your bones fighting with him, and then you called him an idiot.”

Izuku blinks. “That sounds about right, yeah.”

Katsuki kicks him.

“And then,” Sero continues, looking back down at Izuku’s injuries while taking his hands and squeezing them. “Then he told me he was sorry for leaving. That he’s emotionally obtuse. And that he likes me.” He shakes his head. “He likes me.” A moment passes. “And he proceeded to list all of the things he likes about me. In detail.” Sero’s face is red. “Mido, what did you say to him?”

“Well, he asked me how to fix it and I told him.” Izuku rubs his eyes, rearranging his thoughts in order to properly explain the events. “I went to find Todoroki when I knew he’d be training because I kind of wanted to hit him a few times for being a jerk to you. Apparently he thought that your confession was some kind of prank cooked up by Uraraka and Ashido, and when I confronted him, he thought I was in on it too. We got a little carried away and he didn’t chill out until I already shattered my arm and fractured my ankle, so-”

“Shit, Mido -”

Katsuki seemingly abandons his attempt at going back to sleep, sitting up and flicking Izuku in the ear. “This twerp is no longer permitted to do any training whatsoever for the remainder of the summer,” he says, “according to Aizawa, Recovery Girl, and me . So if you see him run , if you see him throw a punch, if you see him lift anything remotely heavy , you tell me. Got it?”

When Sero nods, Katsuki flops backward on Izuku’s bed and pulls the pillow back over his head.

“Anyway,” Izuku continues, “he asked me how to make it right and I gave him a step by step plan because otherwise he would have just stewed over it.”

“Icy-hot is a fucking mess,” Katsuki mumbles. “Now go away and let me sleep.”

Sero huffs, getting up from Izuku’s chair and rolling it back across the room before returning and leaning down to give Izuku a hug, pressing his lips against the side of Izuku’s head. “Thank you for everything, Midoriya. Get some more rest, okay?”

Izuku and Katsuki sleep for another three hours.

iv.

“Uraraka?” Izuku blinks, attempting to understand the sight in front of him. Uraraka is sitting on the kitchen floor with a suspicious looking paper bag in her hands; she’s sobbing hard, fat tears rolling down her cheeks while she sips from whatever bottle she’s hiding in the bag. In between the pitiful noises escaping her mouth, she wipes her nose with the sleeve of her robe.

He tries not to think about that as he slinks further into the kitchen, sinking onto the floor beside her to wait. If she wants to talk about it, she will. If she doesn’t, Izuku will do his best to support her. They aren’t quite as close as they were in their first year, but Izuku still loves his first friends immensely and if there’s anything he can do to help, he’s going to try his damnedest.

“Iida-” She sucks in a shaky breath that comes out in one great rush while she cries. “Iida-kun doesn’t- doesn’t like me.”

Iida? How could Uraraka think Iida doesn’t like her? They’re always spending time with each other! If she isn’t with Asui or Ashido, she’s with Iida. Izuku has a hard time hanging out with them sometimes because he feels like a third wheel.

“He- he-” She gulps, tipping the bottle against her mouth for another sip and completely ignoring the way the glass clinks against her teeth. Izuku cringes for her. “He told Tsu that there will absolutely be no new girlfriends in his immediate future and that- that-” A harsh sigh. “That absolutely nothing would change his mind.”

Izuku rubs his cheek with a hum, thoughts swirling in a circle. He had been planning on pestering Shinsou, but it looks like Uraraka needs some attention right now. And to stop drinking Satou’s stash of sake .

He reaches out and snags the bottle from her grip, ignoring her protests while he puts the cork back in the bottle. Once he gets it back under the sink, Izuku crouches down, pulling Uraraka off the floor and throwing her over his shoulder—if they’re going to talk about this, they’re going to talk about it after she sobers up. Or at least takes a shower.

He’s been in her room enough times to know where she keeps all of her comfort items—her favorite pair of sweatpants resides in the bottom drawer of her dresser, a box of crackers is buried in her sock drawer for emergencies, and Uraraka’s ibuprofen is in the little drawer on her nightstand. He shoves her into the bathroom with a bundle of clean clothes and sets out the rest of her things while she’s in the shower; she grumbles at him the entire time, not even bothering to shut the door all the way.

When she returns, Izuku wraps a blanket around her shoulders and makes her sit on her bed before he kneels behind her with a comb in his hands.

“Uraraka,” Izuku says, before being rudely interrupted by a scoff.

“Izuku,” she mutters, “we’ve known each other since year one. We’ve been through hell and back. Stop worrying so much and just use my name. I know you’re gay, I’m not trying to get you to like me anymore. Relax a little bit.”

He counts backward from ten and starts again. “Ochako.” For maybe the first time, her name doesn’t feel foreign to him. Maybe his friends are onto something. Maybe Izuku is too stiff. “I’m pretty sure you and Iida-kun are already dating and that he misunderstood Tsu-chan’s question.” Combing her hair is actually kind of fun. “It’s nothing to get drunk over.”

“A-already… dating?”

“You eat lunch together every day,” Izuku says.

“Yeah, but-”

“Alone.”

She’s quiet for a few minutes. “I don’t remember being asked out or confessed to. We link arms but we’ve never held hands. I know for a fact we have never kissed.”

He can’t believe he has to explain this to her…, but maybe Izuku knows his friends better than he thought he had. Maybe his friends don’t quite see the things he sees.

“Has it occurred to you that Iida-kun is trying to follow your lead? Do you think he has the first idea how to be in a relationship? Up until last year, I don’t think the thought ever crossed his mind.” He finds a tangle and works through it with his fingers so that the comb doesn’t cause unnecessary pain. “Stop moping. Tomorrow when you’re walking somewhere with Iida, take his hand. Don’t say anything. Plan a date with him. Don’t treat it like you’re waiting for him to fall in love with you, because he already has. The two of you have literally been courting.” He hums. “I stopped going places with the two of you because I was literally third-wheeling it every time.”

Ochako makes a choked-off sound. “Deku, what ? Is that why you never hang out with us anymore? You’re our friend , we want to spend time with you!” She spins around, the comb catching in her hair and flinging out of his hand, but his friend doesn’t seem to care because she wraps her hands around his wrists, looking up at him pleadingly.

Izuku sighs, pulling her into a hug. “I’m sorry. But it was getting pretty old being a third-wheel, Ochako. So I’ll hang out with you guys after you realize that you’ve been dating for half a year and stop dancing around each other like you have no idea what you’re doing.”

When Izuku walks into the lunch room between Eijirou and Denki the next day, he catches a glimpse of Ochako and Iida at a table for two, leaning close to each other as they talk quietly. From where he’s standing, he can see the way their hands are intertwined between them.

Idiots.

v.

Two days later, Izuku walks past all of his friends in the cafeteria and plops down across from Shinsou at the two-seater table he’d likely chosen for personal space, waiting to be acknowledged.

“How many times do I have to tell you people that I’m- Oh, Midoriya. I thought you were Monoma again.” Shinsou has bags under his eyes, but much like Aizawa’s, they happen to be a permanent fixture on his face. “What’s up?”

“Sero said you were asking about Denki and Eijirou,” he tells the boy bluntly, taking a sick sort of pleasure out of the way his cheeks turn pink. Izuku sips his soda and glances across the cafeteria where the two aforementioned boys are seated at a table and arm-wrestling. Probably to see who gets the pudding cup Izuku had slipped into Denki’s lunchbox this morning before his friend went training with everyone else.

Shinsou looks, too, and when they return their attention to each other, Izuku offers him a smile. “They’re dating,” he explains, fidgeting with the bandaid on his thumb. “They really like each other, you know?”

He makes a quiet sound. “I know.” Shinsou leans his chin into his palm, gazing at Izuku. “So what’s this I hear about them kissing you all the time, huh?”

Izuku’s cheeks burn. “It’s just a thing between friends is all,” he mutters, shoulders hunching. “It started with Denki, and then Eijirou got curious, although I was kind of surprised they didn’t stop kissing me after they started dating.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Not that I really mind.”

“You just kiss all your friends?”

“No way!” He buries a laugh in his hand, shaking his head. “The circumstances have to be right.”

After a minute where violet eyes gaze into him, Shinsou sighs, glancing away. “At first, I was jealous,” he murmurs. If Izuku wasn’t sitting so close, he wouldn’t be able to make out the boy’s words over the din of the cafeteria. “After I saw them in the locker room, my stomach was in knots and I couldn’t figure out why. I was hardly able to even ask Sero about it.” Their eyes meet again and Izuku’s teeth clamp shut when he sees the look of longing in Shinso’s face. “And then I realized that I wasn’t jealous of one or the other.”

Izuku sucks in a breath. “You like them both,” he whispers, a giddy feeling fluttering through his stomach. “Hitoshi, you like them both, right?”

The boy blinks, cheeks flushing pink again. “Hitoshi?”

It sinks in after a moment and Izuku feels his face heat, hunching over the table again. “Ah, I’m- I’m sorry!”

“It’s- Hey, calm down! It’s okay, I was just surprised…” He reaches out and pulls Izuku’s hands away from his mouth, trying to calm him down. “You can use my name if you want to.”

Normally, it wouldn’t feel like such a big deal, not to the people in Izuku’s class. They’ve all been through so much together that most of them use each other’s first names when interacting with each other these days. Izuku is one of the only ones who has been trying to keep things respectful… And he knows it’s probably because he’s afraid, probably because it’s hard to share himself with so many people. But they’ve seen him at his worst, so maybe it’s time to give up on keeping himself somewhat distant from them.

He obviously feels close enough to Hitoshi to say his name without even thinking about it. It’s almost as easy as it was to utter Denki’s name that first time.

“Hitoshi…,” it comes out a little more hesitant this time, but the boy nods and Izuku relaxes. “Then you should call me Izuku.”

-

Izuku bursts into Eijirou’s bedroom at a quarter past two in the afternoon, grinning at the two boys who knock their heads together out of shock. Denki and Eijirou are laying on the floor with Eijirou’s laptop in front of them, likely playing a movie. Izuku shuts the door and throws himself onto Eijirou’s bed with a happy sigh.

“Izuku, not that we aren’t happy to see you, but what the hell?”

He chuckles, burying his face in the comforter instead of looking at them. “I know something you don’t know~!”

“Izu,” Denki says, “you know lots of things we don’t know.”

The next thing he knows, one of them has grabbed him by the ankle and he’s being tugged off of the bed to land on the floor where Eijirou wrestles him into the narrow space between them. Izuku feels no shame about cuddling into them, resting his chin on his arms.

“But this thing that you don’t know is very interesting, and I really want to tell you about it, but that wouldn’t be very nice of me.” He squirms, glancing from one half of the couple to the other.

“Well,” Eijirou says slowly, “you wouldn’t have to tell us everything , right?” Izuku peeks at him to see a mischievous look on the redhead’s face, and when their eyes meet, the boy winks at him. He winks . “Come on, Izuku, you can tell us as long as you don’t name any names, can’t you?”

Izuku huffs, trying not to smile at them. After all, while he’s excited at the prospect of  his friends being even happier , there’s a fairly high probability that this will end badly. With his thoughts sobered, Izuku sits up, scooting back to give them each room to do the same. Once they’re all sitting in a triangle, he offers a smile that feels a little forced.

“Okay, I know I came in here all excited but the adrenaline is wearing off and I’m kind of nervous now.” His palms feel clammy and he drags them over the fabric of his sweatpants absentmindedly. “Promise you’ll hear me out?”

Denki reaches out and pats Izuku’s knee. “Always, dude.” They both glance at Eijirou, who’s already nodding.

“Right.” He pulls in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “So, there’s this person… A friend… And this friend has a crush.”

The redhead on his left leans down, squinting at Izuku. “You’ve been playing matchmaker for a lot of people, Izu. What’s so different about this one?” He runs his hand over Izuku’s curls, the action soothing him slightly. That’s right, Eijirou and Denki are two really good guys who take pretty much everything in stride.

“This person,” he murmurs, “has a crush on the two of you.”

There’s a beat of silence that seems to last forever, even though Izuku can hear the analog clock on Eijirou’s wall ticking—he counts five seconds before Denki hums, effectively breaking the silence with a hand on his chin as he voices a question.

“I’m just making sure, Izuku, but this person isn’t you?”

He splutters, hands flapping even though he tries to stop them. “No! I mean- Look, you guys know I adore you and everything but we all know who I’m pining over.” He pouts when Eijirou chuckles.

“Look, I just wanted to make sure,” Denki says, catching Izuku’s still-flapping hands and holding them still. “So, you have a friend that… likes us? Somebody who knows we’re dating?”

“ Please , Denki, you guys are about as subtle as my admiration for All Might!” Izuku smiles at him, shrugging his shoulders. “Basically, yes, this person might have caught you guys making out in the locker room and asked one of our friends about your relationship. And that friend might have approached me to ask since he didn’t know, which led me to talking to the first friend who confirmed that he does like you both.” He shakes his head, cheeks feeling hot. Why is he getting embarrassed? It’s not like he’s the one who has a crush on the two of them—they’ve literally had their tongues in his mouth (once, they somehow managed to kiss him at the same time, tongues sliding against Izuku’s until he was a giggling and blushing disaster of a human; it was a surreal experience, honestly). And if he did want to date them, he probably, maybe would have already said so, since he pretty much tells them everything else.

Both of his friends inch closer, tugging Izuku in between them again and wrapping him in a hug.

“You guys know I just want you to be happy, right?” he mumbles, and Eijirou coos, rubbing his cheek against the top of Izuku’s head.

Denki pinches one of his cheeks. “We know. And thank you for telling us. It’s…”

He hums before Denki can think of what he wants to say. “You don’t have to say anything about it right now. You two are amazing together, but you haven’t been dating for very long, so take the time to talk about it. I just wanted you to know that you have a secret admirer.”

-

“Tell me again why I’m here with you.”

Izuku pouts, twisting his fingers together while he waits for his appointment. Hitoshi is sitting beside him in the lobby, looking dead to the world while also sipping from an iced coffee like his life depends on it.

“Because,” Izuku says, “when I knocked on your door this morning and asked you to come with me, you said ‘okay, let me grab my wallet’ and followed me off campus.” He gives the boy a smile when Hitoshi side-eyes him.

“Alright, then why are you here, Izuku.”

He blinks. “ Oh! I’m getting my tongue pierced!” He shifts nervously, glancing at the clock. “And I’m kind of scared.” His nail polish is chipping, but he doesn’t want to spend money on another manicure. Maybe he can get one of the girls to paint them for him? Every time Izuku tries to do it himself, he just makes a mess. The last time he tried, he spilled black nail polish all over his All Might bedspread and had to buy a new one—and he couldn’t find any All Might comforters for a reasonable price. (Don’t tell Katsuki, but Izuku did actually find a Dynamight bedspread; yes he bought it. He has no regrets.) So the comforter on his bed is just red, no hero designs on it whatsoever. (The Dynamight one is hidden away in his closet and he only breaks it out when he’s especially mopey.)

“Hold on a minute—you’ve shattered your arms and legs how many times , but you’re too afraid to get a piercing by yourself?” Hitoshi stares at him for a while, but Izuku can only shrug. Breaking his bones from the force of his quirk is different . In the heat of battle, all he can think about is doing his part, either by winning to save or saving to win.

But getting his tongue pierced? He made the appointment on impulse one day after overhearing a conversation between Katsuki and Denki. Apparently, it’s supposed to make a lot of things feel really good, and while Izuku doesn’t have any plans to try them out right now, the thought hasn’t been able to leave his head.

And then Hitoshi murmurs, so soft that Izuku nearly misses it, “Do you want me to hold your hand?”

“Yes, please,” Izuku squeaks just as somebody steps into the lobby from out of a curtained doorway.

“Okay, Midoriya, it’s your turn!” The woman who runs the shop gives him a gentle smile and waves him back. “Your friend can come, too.”

Despite his nerves, Izuku thinks he takes it like a champ. He doesn’t accidentally use One For All, he doesn’t break any equipment, and he doesn’t break Hitoshi’s hand (he does, however, leave red marks from his grip). The piercer gives him detailed instructions to follow in order to take care of his tongue while it heals and then sends him on his way with a smile (and some ice for Hitoshi’s hand).

“I’m really sorry.”

The taller boy sighs, throwing his ice-pack into a nearby garbage can and throwing an arm over Izuku’s shoulders. “I told you it’s fine, Izuku. Besides, I think the tongue piercing suits you pretty well. Who knew?” He gives Izuku a smile and tugs him down the sidewalk in the general direction of the train station. They make small-talk while they walk, just having a good time.

Eventually, though, as Hitoshi follows him onto campus and they bypass the dorms, his friend slows a little bit. “Where are we going?”

“Uh…” Izuku shuffles his feet. “I was going to ask Recovery Girl to heal my piercing.”

The boy snorts a laugh, but he follows Izuku anyway, throwing an arm back around his shoulders with a sigh. “Look, I know you said you wouldn’t tell them, but I just wanted to make sure you haven’t… said anything about me. I know you’ve been meddling in the relationships of a lot of people lately.”

Izuku fidgets, glancing up at Hitoshi shyly. “Well, I- I didn’t name any names…” He sighs. “But I told them that somebody likes them. Please don’t be mad, I just wanted them to consider it!”

Hitoshi groans. “Has anyone ever told you it’s ridiculously hard to stay mad at you?”

By the time they make it back to the dorms, Izuku’s tongue is healed (and so is Hitoshi’s hand), so he’s honestly pretty excited to surprise his friends with his new (and only) piercing.

It’s tested out the minute the two of them enter their own building and Denki bounds up to them, planting a kiss right on Izuku’s mouth—it turns into a french kiss because apparently Denki doesn’t get enough of those from his boyfriend, and that’s when he gasps into Izuku’s mouth, pulling away to stare at him in shock. “Izuku! When? ”

He tries not to focus too much on the blush on Hitoshi’s face while he struggles through his own surprise to formulate an answer. “Uh, I- Earlier today?”

“It’s a good thing you got that healed,” Hitoshi says awkwardly, “since the piercer told you not to kiss anyone for a few weeks.” He shuffles his feet and Denki turns to beam at their friend.

“Wow, you went with him? I wondered where you guys were this morning!” The blond grabs each of them by the wrist, dragging them further into the dorm, past the entrance and into the living area where he shoves Izuku onto the sofa and, coincidentally, Eijirou’s lap. “Ei, you should totally kiss him!”

Izuku knows his face must be beet red, but this doesn’t seem to bother Eijirou, who simply cups Izuku’s jaw and pulls him into a kiss—he, too, gasps into Izuku’s mouth the minute their tongues slide against each other, but instead of pulling away like Denki, Eijirou deepens the kiss for a moment, humming into Izuku’s mouth.

“Okay,” he mutters after pulling away, “I wasn’t expecting that. Wow?”

Denki nods. “Right?”

Everyone else in the common area is staring at them all like they’re nuts, and Izuku’s too embarrassed to do anything but bury his face in his hands. He slides sideways off of Eijirou’s lap, sinking onto the seat beside the redhead. As he settles, his shoulder bumps somebody else’s, but Izuku doesn’t have the heart to look and see who it is.

“The hell was that all about, Sparky?”

Oh god , Kacchan is right beside him? Izuku squeaks, he knows he does, trying to hide his burning face even more. Sure, he’s used to kissing his friends, and their classmates are used to seeing it, but he really wasn’t expecting to be bombarded as soon as he got back to school. What the heck ?

“Izu got his tongue pierced!” Denki announces joyously, plopping onto Eijirou’s lap and ruffling Izuku’s hair. “It certainly affects how kissing feels!” He’s unabashed in his affection and has been since they started getting closer, so Izuku can’t help but peek up at his friends and give them a smile, even as their classmates are spurred into action by his words, all of them leaning toward Izuku with questions written all over their faces.

Before they can ask any of them, though, Izuku jumps up, feeling awkward. “On that note, I’m~ gonna go, uh, do something! Yeah! I have, uh, math homework! Bye!” He flees before they can catch him.

His peace and quiet doesn’t last long, though, when two people make themselves known outside his bedroom. But Izuku lets Eijirou and Denki in without making a fuss, because he adores his friends and isn’t really upset about them kissing him or making a big deal out of the piercing—he’s really just embarrassed that he was the center of attention because of it.

“So, Izu,” Denki says, falling dramatically onto Izuku’s bed with a sigh.

Eijirou wraps his arms around Izuku after closing the door, apologizing softly for coming on strong earlier. Izuku waves off the concern with a smile and shuffles the two of them over to the bed where Denki has already made room for them to drop onto the mattress beside him. “What’s up?”

“We thought about what you said,” Eijirou explains after a moment and a shared look with Denki, “and we think we’re interested.”

Denki nods, pinching Izuku’s cheek. “We know you promised not to tell us who it is, but…” He eyes Izuku for a moment. “Is there anything you can tell us?”

He hums, fidgeting with a band-aid on Eijirou’s arm while he thinks. “Every Sunday he goes jogging around the perimeter of the dorms, and every Wednesday he calls his mom to give her a life update. He likes drinking iced coffee, even in the winter.” Izuku glances at the blond, wondering if Denki is picking up on the hints he’s dropping, only to find the boy staring at him with wide eyes.

“No way, are you serious?”

Eijirou makes a questioning noise, playing with Izuku’s hair.

“I think he’s talking about Shinso,” Denki whispers, like Izuku isn’t laying right there with them. Or maybe like he’s afraid of being wrong. Izuku pokes him in the side, squirming until he can look Denki in the face.

He catches a glimpse of Eijirou’s face as he rolls and doesn’t miss the way the redhead’s cheeks turn pink. Maybe there’s actually a chance that this can work out, and Izuku isn’t just wishful thinking for the sake of his friend. After all, Izuku thought maybe they were open to the idea of having another partner based solely on the fact that they’re both so open with kissing and manhandling Izuku. Even if it is just a thing between friends, the two of them do share Izuku between them…

He’s kind of like a spare boyfriend.

The thought makes him sigh. “You guys, if you’re really sure, I think you should talk to him.” He blinks when Denki leans over him.

“Is it Shinso?” he asks quietly, and Izuku nods.

“You should see the way he looks at you.”

Before either of them can respond, a knock sounds at Izuku’s door and he gets up to answer it—he’s not expecting to see Hitoshi standing on the other side, but he’s also not disappointed. “Hitoshi! I’m sorry for running away earlier, I didn’t even thank you for going with me this morning!”

Hitoshi waves him off, oblivious to the other boys lying across Izuku’s bed because he can’t see them from the angle of Izuku’s door. “We didn’t really get to finish our conversation earlier, so I wanted you to know I’m not really mad that you told them or anything, it’s just…”

Izuku rocks on his heels. “It’s just what?”

The taller boy looks uncomfortable, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorjamb. “It’s just that they don’t really have any reason to like me back, so I wish it hadn’t really come up.”

He can’t help but gape at the boy, dumbfounded. “Hitoshi, that’s not true! There are lots of reasons to like you! You’re super smart, and your sarcasm is honestly really funny! You’re tall and you’re hot, and I don’t know what cologne you use but it smells really good! Plus, you’re working super hard to be a hero just like everyone else, and I think that’s really cool!” He shakes his head at the boy, clutching at his sleeve. “You’re an amazing friend, Hitoshi, don’t you know that? Anybody would be lucky to date you!”

The next thing he knows, the boy has tugged him into his arms, patting Izuku’s head gently. “Okay, okay. You really think the best of everybody, don’t you, Izuku?”

“My friends are just really cool,” Izuku replies, voice muffled against Hitoshi’s chest.

“You know,” Eijirou says as he tugs Izuku’s door open further. Izuku peeks out of Hitoshi’s arms to see both of his other friends in the doorway. “We couldn’t have said all of that better ourselves.”

Hitoshi is tense in Izuku’s arms but the truth is, Izuku knows that Eijirou and Denki wouldn’t have revealed themselves if they weren’t interested in Hitoshi. It means that they at least want to talk to him about it and see where it goes. So he squirms out of Hitoshi’s arms gently, giving the other boys room to reach out to him. Denki catches one of his hands while Eijirou wraps an arm around Hitoshi’s shoulders, and both of them ruffle Izuku’s hair as they leave his room.

“Izuku,” Denki says as they pull Hitoshi away, “you are a treasure and we’re going to find a way to set you up with the man of your dreams as soon as we sort this out, okay? Okay.”

He doesn’t think that’s going to be possible, but Izuku can’t help but smile at Denki anyway. Other than Izuku, Eijirou and Denki are Katsuki’s closest friends, so maybe they know something he doesn’t. Maybe he has a chance.

vi.

Izuku’s hiding in his room with a summer cold when Eijirou barges in and pulls him out of bed. He practically carries Izuku down the stairs without explaining a thing and shoves him into the cupboard under the kitchen sink. And it’s only then that he tells Izuku that he has something planned and he just needs Izuku to stay silent and not come out. “Can you do that? Please?”

Izuku pouts at his friend, trying to make himself comfortable in the cramped space. “Can I at least have some water?”

Five minutes pass before he hears Eijirou greet somebody—that somebody happens to be Katsuki, who is likely making himself something for dinner before everyone else tries to convince him to cook for everyone. In all honesty, the cupboard beneath the sink isn’t that uncomfortable, and before he knows it, he catches himself dozing to the sounds of his friends talking and Katsuki prepping whatever food he decided to make.

Sometimes when he finds Izuku in the kitchen, he teases him, but Izuku is pretty sure Katsuki just likes to cook, because Izuku knows he isn’t actually bad at it. Katsuki always eats when Izuku offers to share with him.

He gets lost in his thoughts for a while, but eventually—surprisingly—Katsuki brings up Izuku’s friendship with Eijirou and Denki, sounding curious and annoyed. Izuku figures he’s just annoyed that he has to fish for answers.

“You guys are always kissing him in front of everyone and it literally never matters who’s around.”

Eijirou hums. Izuku wishes he could see his friends’ faces. “The guy’s adorable. If he says it’s okay, I don’t really see a reason to stop just because other people don’t understand what’s going on.”

Izuku rubs his warm cheeks and makes a mental note to give his friend a hug. Eijirou and Denki have done wonders for Izuku’s confidence; he thinks that’s part of the reason neither of them have stopped kissing him since they got together. Even Hitoshi is being more affectionate with Izuku. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think they were all trying to date him, too.

But he knows that they aren’t, and he knows that they know where his heart really lies, so as long as they all understand each other, he doesn’t see the problem, either.

“So it isn’t because you idiots are trying to date him or something? Come on, you can tell me. I won’t get mad.”

A laugh. “Kats, you’re not as subtle as you think you are.”

“Shut up, I’m subtle!” Something drops heavily into the sink above Izuku’s head and he winces. Hopefully nothing is broken. They have to replace dishes every once in a while simply because they’re all teenagers and accidents happen, but Izuku thinks Katsuki would be upset if he actually reverted to breaking things when he’s uncomfortable.

“Oh yeah?” Eijirou laughs again. “Then describe Izuku in one word.”

Katsuki growls, and Izuku hears him cross the kitchen floor. “Mine,” he rumbles, shooting a mini arrow right through Izuku’s heart. His breath catches in his throat, mind running a mile a minute.

Is that true? Katsuki thinks of Izuku as his? His what ? Of course they’re friends and rivals, but for some reason, Izuku knows that’s not what he means, so the only explanation is that-

No way.

“Dude, I’m rooting for you and everything, but if you want Izuku to be yours, you’re going to have to tell the guy how you feel. Because he literally has no idea.”

Izuku didn’t before , but now, thanks to Ei, he has a pretty good idea of how Katsuki is feeling. He hopes. Maybe he’s wrong, but people don’t usually get so possessive over someone else unless their feelings are romantic—or they’re crazy, but Katsuki isn’t crazy at all.

“Don’t be a fucking idiot, Ei. I’m not going to ruin things just because of some shitty feelings. There’s no way he wants to hear about that shit from me. I’m literally the last person on this damn planet that deserves to stand next to him.” Katsuki slams something and Eijirou falls quiet for a few minutes, letting him stew.

Izuku wouldn’t know what to say, either, honestly. How can Katsuki still think so badly of himself? Izuku forgave him a long time ago, they’ve gotten so much closer. They can talk to each other now, and training is fun with Katsuki. Does the blond really have no idea how long Izuku has loved him?

He can’t see far enough beyond his guilt to understand Izuku’s feelings? Is that it?

“You know Izuku doesn’t think that, right? He wants to be at your side.”

Katsuki sighs. “Yeah. That’s why I can’t mess it up, Ei. So just drop it.”

By the time their explosive blond leaves the kitchen (with instructions to Eijirou that the leftover soup he made is for Izuku only, which is literally so sweet that Izuku wants to die), Izuku is dying to tell the blond how he feels, because if there’s even a chance that Katsuki feels the same, Izuku thinks he deserves to know. He’s been through too much shit; Izuku thinks he has earned a little happiness.

And Katsuki does too!

“Ei,” he mutters as the redhead helps him out of the cupboard, “I need a plan of action.”

“For starters,” Eijirou says, nudging Izuku toward a stool at the counter and fixing up a bowl of Katsuki’s soup for him, “there’s not a single plausible reason for you to hide all of your Dynamight merch, okay? Because I guarantee that when Kats sees you in it, he’s going to be flustered and pleased , alright?” The redhead ruffles Izuku’s hair and sits beside him. “ And , I think you should make a point to spend more time with him. The dude has no idea how much you care about him, and the only way to get it through his thick skull is for you to make it so obvious that he can’t bear to be away from you. You have to drive him crazy, Izu. Which will actually be pretty easy to do.” He gives Izuku a small smile. “Furthermore, you know Katsuki better than anybody else, right? And now that you know how he feels—you do, don’t you?”

Izuku nods, speechless, face burning hot.

“Good! Now that you better understand how he feels about you, I think you’ll have an even easier time understanding how he reacts to certain things, right?”

“So-” Izuku clears his throat before sipping the broth from his bowl. “So, you’re saying I should- I should woo Kacchan?”

Eijirou grins. “Exactly! And your first order of business is to bring your secret comforter to movie night tonight and sit right beside him so that there’s absolutely no chance he won’t notice it.”

-

Despite how awkward he feels about it, Izuku drags his comforter out of the shelf at the top of his closet and wraps it around himself before heading downstairs for movie night. He’s a few minutes later than everybody else, slipping into the room as the screen of the TV shows the movie menu and somebody asks if he’s still joining them.

“He’s coming,” Eijirou answers from his place between Denki and Hitoshi. “He told me he was going to shower when I texted him half an hour ago, so I’m sure he’s on his way.”

And like Eijirou said, Katsuki is sitting on one of the loveseats by himself, so Izuku makes his way over and plops down beside him, leaning against the blond’s shoulder. This is fairly normal for them, though, and Katsuki doesn’t question it at all. He wraps an arm around Izuku’s shoulders, eyes on the TV, and that’s that.

At least, until Jirou pauses the movie halfway through for a bathroom break and Hagakure turns on the lights so that nobody trips. Katsuki ruffles Izuku’s hair, turns to ask him a question, and then falters.

“Holy shit, nerd, where did you get that?”

Izuku blinks at him, watching as Katsuki’s ears turn pink, and then he offers the other boy a smile. “I found it on the internet, Kacchan!” He pulls it tighter around his shoulders, swaying in place. “Isn’t it neat? I had to replace the All Might one because I spilled nail polish on it, but I’ve been extra careful not to ruin this one since it’s Kacchan’s merch!”

A few of their classmates whisper and coo, but Izuku doesn’t care, because Katsuki is looking at him with so much fondness that Izuku feels his cheeks heating up, but he’s happy because this means Eijirou was right and Katsuki likes seeing Izuku in his merch.

Katsuki leaves the room for a moment without saying anything, visibly flustered, and Izuku shoots Eijirou a grin just before the blond reappears with two waters and presses one into Izuku’s hands. And then he drops back onto the sofa next to Izuku, draping his arm back over Izuku’s shoulders—but if he holds Izuku just a little tighter this time, Izuku is wise enough not to point it out. He just leans against the blond with a smile on his face and lets himself feel content.

-

The next time Izuku decides to be bold, he’s accompanying Katsuki and Todoroki to the gym—Izuku’s not allowed to train for the rest of the summer, but he still likes to watch his friends work, so he tells them he’ll meet them there and runs up to his room to change clothes.

Izuku is doing his best to trust Eijirou and take his advice, so he opens the bottom drawer of his dresser and tugs a short-sleeved hoodie free, exchanging it for the t-shirt he has on. He’d bought it during one of his trips to the mall with Denki; it’s a Dynamight hoodie with Katsuki’s costume design on it and his hero name in writing across the top of the back where the hood falls.

He pairs it with black shorts and his usual sneakers before grabbing his phone and jogging back out of his room, heading for the gym with a smile on his face that he doesn’t know how to get rid of.

Because even if Eijirou is wrong, Izuku still knows now that he can openly support his friend’s career without Katsuki getting mad at him for being ‘weird’.

His friends don’t immediately look at him when he walks into the gym where they’re both stretching, warming up for their spar, but they do call out greetings and Katsuki makes a point to remind Izuku that he’s absolutely not allowed to train.

Izuku grins to himself. “I know Kacchan, but I still like watching you!”

Katsuki grumbles, standing up from his stretch to enter a new position, but before he does, he spares a glance at Izuku and freezes. “Fucking- Izuku, where the hell are you getting this stuff?”

He makes sure to tilt his head, biting his lip in false confusion. “What stuff?”

“That- My merch, nerd! When did you- How long have you had that? Why haven’t I seen any of it before?”

He looks down at his shirt before shooting Katsuki a smile. “Oh! Well, I’ve had this for at least a month, I think? I always thought you’d be mad, but then Eijirou told me that you wouldn’t get mad at me for wearing it, so I figured I didn’t need to hide it from you anymore… Why? Are you mad? I can take it off, if you-”

“No, I- I’m not mad at you, I just- I was just surprised, is all. It’s- You can keep wearing it, of course you can.” He scratches his cheek, looking away from Izuku for a moment. “You didn’t need to worry in the first place.”

Izuku can feel his cheeks heating, but he only smiles wider, watching Katsuki shake himself and turn back to Izuku like he’s about to say something, only to clamp his mouth shut. Izuku wonders what he was about to say.

Before he can ask, Todoroki interrupts the exchange by calling out to Katsuki about their training and the mood turns normal again. Still, there’s no way he’s going to forget how this interaction went. Izuku’s good mood lasts well into the night.

-

The third time he decides to be bold is actually an accident. Izuku falls asleep in the common room during movie night and wakes up around three o’clock in the morning cuddling Katsuki’s hoodie. He remembers getting cold at some point before he fell asleep, but he doesn’t remember gaining possession of the hoodie in question—not that Izuku’s complaining of course.

And of course, Izuku doesn’t blame anybody for leaving him in the common room after the movie ended. He knows it’s not very easy to wake him up once he’s fallen asleep, so of course he doesn’t mind that he’s still on the sofa. It’s summer, it isn’t like he has to get up super early for class.

Besides, Izuku now has one of Katsuki’s hoodies. He’s definitely not giving it back until he absolutely has to. In fact, he carries it all the way up to his room, slipping it over his head once he’s changed into his pajamas for the night. Izuku crawls into bed surrounded by a scent he knows better than almost any other, and when he dreams, he dreams of summers long ago, before their differences drove a wedge between them.

When breakfast rolls around, Izuku makes his way to the first floor after rinsing his face and brushing his teeth, humming to himself while he heats some oatmeal in the microwave. He nearly forgets that he’s even wearing Katsuki’s hoodie until a couple sets of footsteps enter the room, followed by a muffled groan.

Izuku turns toward his friends with a smile. “Morning Kacchan! Morning Ei! How’d you guys sleep?”

The blond is gazing at Izuku, jaw hanging open, but Eijirou pushes past Katsuki and ruffles Izuku’s hair. “Good morning, Izuku. How did you sleep? Did you ever make it upstairs?”

He feels himself grin, turning away from Katsuki to check on his oatmeal. “I slept like a baby! And yes, I did eventually wake up on the couch and head to my room. How did you guys sleep?”

It isn’t until Eijirou is halfway through his response that Katsuki moves from his spot in the doorway, but when Izuku glances at him, he seems a little out of it. The blond really must not have expected Izuku to actually steal his hoodie and wear it.

Like that’s going to stop him.

“And Kacchan?” Izuku asks after Eijirou turns his attention back to the eggs he’s frying. “How did you sleep?”

He grunts. “Fine.”

A smile worms its way onto Izuku’s face and he carries his oatmeal over to the island, pulling out a stool to sit on while he eats. “Maybe Kacchan should’ve stayed with me, and then he would have slept like a baby, too!”

Eijirou guffaws, slapping his hand against the counter top. “He thought about it!” the redhead admits, tossing a grin in Izuku’s direction. “Debated it for a good fifteen minutes, actually, haha.” He completely ignores the glare that Katsuki sends him from around the pantry door as he continues to make himself breakfast, but Izuku doesn’t miss it and simply smiles.

“Kacchan, you could’ve slept with me if you wanted to!”

He hears a little growl from the pantry, and then Katsuki says, “Shitty Hair, you’re on thin fucking ice.”

Izuku knows him, though, knows that Katsuki’s just flustered. Izuku very clearly remembers the way he’d talked to Eijirou when he hadn’t known that Izuku was listening—he has no intentions of letting Izuku find out how he feels, let alone pursuing any kind of romantic relationship. Unfortunately for Katsuki, Izuku has no such reservations. As long as there’s a chance that Katsuki reciprocates, Izuku won’t give up hope that they can be together.

Twenty minutes later, Izuku and Katsuki are alone in the kitchen. He’s bent over the sink washing his oatmeal bowl while Katsuki makes himself breakfast, and though it’s been very quiet since Eijirou left the room, it hasn’t been uncomfortable.

“Kacchan, are you actually mad at Eijirou?”

“No,” he grumbles, and doesn’t elaborate.

Izuku nods his head, humming. “That’s good, because he may have been teasing you, as friends do, but I wasn’t.” He dries his hands, turning to see Katsuki’s wide eyes on him again. He smiles. “I hope you don’t mind, but—” Izuku flaps his hands, the sleeves of Katsuki’s hoodie falling down over them. “—I’m gonna hold onto this for a little while.”

And then Izuku heads out of the kitchen, but only after throwing his arms around Katsuki’s waist for a quick hug. His face feels hot all the way up to his bedroom, but Izuku has absolutely no regrets.

-

“Izuku!” Denki skids into his bedroom, slamming the door shut as soon as he crosses the threshold. He’s grinning, a manic look in his eyes that can only mean he’s up to something. Izuku only hopes that if he decided to play a prank on Katsuki, he isn’t about to ask Izuku to be his alibi. The last time he tried that, Izuku couldn’t even lie to Katsuki—he outed Denki almost immediately.

Either way, this can’t possibly be good. He’ll be super surprised if it is.

“My dearest Izuku,” his friend starts again, sinking onto the edge of Izuku’s bed, “have I told you how much I adore you lately?”

“What did you do?”

Denki grins even wider. “See, that’s the thing! I didn’t do a single thing, my friend.” He blinks. “Well, I eavesdropped , but technically you’ve done the same thing, so you can’t really get mad at me for that.”

The blond has a point, so Izuku sighs, making himself comfortable in order to hear Denki out.

“I was walking past Ei’s room a few minutes ago, right? Planning on visiting my boyfriend for a few minutes before it’s time to head to dinner, you know? And lo and behold, guess who I heard in Ei’s room, asking about your tongue piercing?” Here, Denki leans forward, shifting onto his knees to get closer to Izuku. “Bakugou Katsuki wasn’t just asking about your tongue piercing, though. No, he was asking what it’s like to kiss you and your tongue piercing. A question I’m sure he reserved for Ei because he trusts my boyfriend not to come tell you about it even though you and I both know he might’ve anyway since he knows how you feel.” Denki crosses his arms, looking like the cat that caught the canary, and Izuku can’t help but laugh, tugging Denki closer and pressing their lips together.

“You’re the absolute best , Denki,” he says when he pulls away, shaking his head. “You deserve a reward. What do you want?”

Denki hops up off the bed triumphantly. “I want a piggy-back ride to dinner!”

Once he changes into campus appropriate attire, Izuku hefts Denki onto his back and the two of them head toward the elevators, because Izuku definitely isn’t going to try carrying Denki down the stairs like this. The best part about it, though, is that Katsuki and Eijirou are already in the elevator, and Katsuki starts blushing as soon as the two of them see each other.

“Babe, why are you using Izuku as a form of transportation?” Eijirou asks as the door closes and the four of them are tucked in the elevator together. Izuku smiles as Denki laughs.

“It’s my reward!” the blond announces, and the other two each make a questioning noise (Katsuki’s is more of a grunt, but Izuku understands what it means anyway).

“Denki brought me some good news,” Izuku chirps, and he’s not sure what comes over him, but he glances at Katsuki, tilting his head so that his curls fall out of his face. He gives the boy what he hopes is a flirty smile. “You know, Kacchan, if you’re that interested in how my tongue piercing feels, you could always kiss me yourself to find out.”

Katsuki’s jaw falls open just as the elevator chimes and the door slides open to let them out. Izuku, committed to his task of carrying Denki all the way to the cafeteria for dinner, doesn’t hesitate to step out and head for the main doors, leaving the other two behind.

“Okay, Izu,” Denki whispers when they make it outside. EIjirou and Katsuki haven’t caught up to them, so Izuku is pretty sure he really took them by surprise. “That was absolutely amazing . And honestly, kind of hot.”

“You’ve kissed me a hundred times, Denki, it couldn’t have been that hot,” Izuku mutters, rolling his eyes.

“Um, excuse me? Dude, you’ve never looked at any of us like that before. Believe me, that guy’s gonna be thinking about that little exchange for weeks .”

-

Izuku is just about to fall asleep that night when somebody knocks on his door—it’s so light that he wouldn’t have heard it if his fan was turned on. But he does hear it, so he rolls out of bed and opens door to find-

“Kacchan?”

Katsuki looks like he was about to walk away, but he steps closer to the threshold after Izuku opens the door. After a moment of awkward silence, Izuku reaches for Katsuki’s wrist and yanks him into the room, shutting the door behind him and plunging the room back into darkness. “It’s late, Kacchan,” he hears himself say, leading the blond to his bed and waiting for him to slip under the covers once their legs knock against the frame. He follows, patiently awaiting Katsuki’s response as he curls into a ball beside his favorite person. While he waits, he finds himself wondering if Katsuki even noticed that Izuku is once again wearing his hoodie.

“Did you mean what you said?”

Izuku hums. “About what?”

“You don’t mind if I sleep here?”

“I don’t mind at all, Kacchan.” To emphasize his point, Izuku shifts closer, finding one of Katsuki’s arms and hugging it to his chest. “You’re always welcome here, okay?”

There’s a pause, and even more softly, Katsuki says, “What about the other thing?”

It takes Izuku a moment, but he eventually does figure out what the blond is asking. But in Izuku’s defense, he was half asleep before the other boy knocked on his bedroom door. “Oh! Do you want to kiss me, Kacchan?”

He hears a sigh. “Yeah.”

“Right now?”

A beat. “Always.”

Izuku blinks. In the dark, he can barely make out Katsuki’s profile, so he can’t tell if the blond is blushing or not. But maybe that’s the point—things that seem scary to talk about in the daytime are easier to confess when you don’t have to look at the other person’s reaction. “You can kiss me whenever you want to, Katsuki.”

Katsuki rolls so that they’re face to face, but he doesn’t pull his arm out of Izuku’s grasp. “Like the others do?”

He shakes his head, smiling even though Katsuki probably can’t see it. “If you’re the one kissing me,” he murmurs, “it won’t be anything like kissing the others.”

“It won’t?”

“Of course not,” Izuku answers. He’s taking a leap of faith here, but in all honesty, Izuku has nothing to lose. He’s loved Katsuki for a very long time, and right now seems like the perfect time to tell the other boy how he feels. “For starters, I’m not in love with the others.”

He feels more than hears Katsuki’s quick intake of breath, the shakiness of it.

“Are you fucking with me right now, Izuku?” he whispers, his free hand finding Izuku’s shoulder, sliding up to wrap around the back of his neck. His hands are warm, but then, they always are. Katsuki is staring at him despite the darkness, and Izuku stares right back, not bothering to respond to such a stupid question. Katsuki should know by now that Izuku wouldn’t do that, not about something like this, and especially not to him.

Instead, Izuku shifts, tugging Katsuki closer until their noses bump and they’re breathing each other’s air. “I’m going to kiss you now,” Izuku tells him. “Unless you have any objections.”

Katsuki shakes his head.

Tipping forward a little more, Izuku kisses him, finally. The boy he loves is in Izuku’s bed, letting Izuku kiss him, and it’s new and exciting because it’s Katsuki; Katsuki, whose lips are soft and part easily the moment Izuku presses the tip of his tongue against them; Katsuki, who tastes like the same cinnamon toothpaste he’s used since they were chubby toddlers catching bugs every summer; Katsuki, who tugs Izuku closer the second he slips his tongue into the blond’s mouth. He kisses Katsuki deep and slow, losing himself in the feel of it, losing himself in the moment, until they’re both gasping for breath.

“Kacchan?”

He strokes his fingers across Izuku’s cheek, knocking their foreheads together as they both settle back into the quiet of the night, their breaths steadying as each moment passes. “I don’t deserve you,” is what he eventually says, as if it’s a confession.

But it isn’t the confession Izuku wants to hear. “Tell me something else.”

Pulling Izuku impossibly closer, Katsuki kisses him again, just a brush of lips. “I adore you.” Another kiss. “I want to stay by your side.” One more. “I love you.”

The smile that threatens to split his face in half is too hard to smother, so Izuku ducks his head, pressing his nose against Katsuki’s neck. “I was hoping you’d say that.” Considering everything he’s been doing trying to get a confession out of this guy, Izuku is pretty sure he deserves all the kisses, thank you very much.

“You and me—we’re together now, yeah?” Katsuki asks, fingers tangling in Izuku’s hair.

“Yes, Kacchan.”

Katsuki doesn’t say anything else for a long time—long enough that Izuku starts to wonder if maybe he fell asleep. But his fingers are still moving in Izuku’s hair, combing through his tangled curls, and eventually he does speak again.

“I wouldn’t let myself believe that you would- that you could…” He trails off, shaking his head, but Izuku doesn’t need him to finish the sentence to understand what he’s saying.

“I know,” he confesses, releasing Katsuki’s arm to clutch at his t-shirt instead. “It took some convincing for me to realize that I had a chance with you, but once I was convinced, I thought maybe I would have to find a way to convince you of the same before I could just tell you how I feel.”

“That was probably smart,” Katsuki mutters. There’s a pause. “So, who convinced you?”

“Eijirou.” Izuku hums. “Actually, he shoved me into the cupboard under the sink and made me eavesdrop on you, but, well, it worked.”

Katsuki sits up, bringing Izuku with him and manhandling him until he’s essentially sitting on the blond’s lap and they’re face to face. “Shitty Hair shoved you into the cupboard under the sink when you were sick ?” he practically growls. “I’m gonna kill him.”

Izuku is pitifully in love with this gremlin.

“Kacchan, it wasn’t so bad! I mean, I don’t think we’d be here right now if he hadn’t.” He tips forward until their lips are almost brushing. “Besides, Kacchan made me soup, and that made me feel a lot better.”

He can’t see Katsuki’s cheeks turn red, but he definitely feels the heat from the blond’s blush, so he slots their mouths together again, hands sliding up to cup his jaw. And Katsuki leans into the kiss, but when they part again, he says, “I’m still gonna kill Shitty Hair.”

Honestly, Izuku spent the majority of his summer playing matchmaker for his friends, but his favorite relationship is definitely his own with Katsuki. He has absolutely zero regrets, and he’s pretty sure he’s going to tell this story in his wedding vows—you know, when they eventually get around to getting married.

He smiles to himself as they lay back down, burrowing into Katuski’s arms. “Hey, Kacchan?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

His hands find their way into Izuku’s hair and ruffle his curls until they’re well and truly tangled, and then he presses his lips against Izuku’s forehead. “I love you too, nerd. Now go the fuck to sleep.”