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"I've always admired him." Izuku says with the softest voice, as if he were afraid of spilling all the secrets of the world. He sat atop one of Tokyo’s highest buildings and stared ahead at the expanse of the city, coated in a blanket of dark blue, and he smiled at the beauty of it all. “I could never really comprehend how amazing someone could be at such a young age. He was truly my everything.”
“Kacchan and I…We never had the smoothest relationship. There were times where I thought he was insufferable, times I outright hated his guts; there were even times where I thought I would be glad if I never saw him again after graduating from middle school—because for all my bravado, I never thought I’d actually get into UA.”
Izuku let out a bout of huffed laughter before settling into a nostalgic sigh. “But for all his faults, I know I have mine too, and I…I’m embarrassed to say it, but I always knew his faults were just a small part of who he was. Bakugou Katsuki was destined for greatness, that’s a fact that I’ve always known and always hoped for, because a part of me believed that if he could do it, then maybe I could too…Even though we were on totally different playing fields.”
Izuku paused briefly; he closed his eyes and took in the natural sounds of the city. It was quiet, as it was early morning, but Tokyo is a city that hardly ever sleeps.
“It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I loved him. I mean, I always knew I loved him, but I didn’t know that I loved him, you know? Platonic love and romantic love are two very different beasts, as similar as they can be. I could accept the fact that I admired him and wanted to be like him to a certain extent, that I wanted to be close to him in order to cling onto the friendship that we used to have, to be friends. All of that was simple and easy to understand,” Izuku spoke awkwardly, like he was embarrassed.
“But…coming to terms with the fact that I didn’t just want to be like Kacchan, I wanted to be with him. I didn’t want to constantly be near him as a friend, I wanted to be more than that. That I was getting sad and jealous because he had relationships with people that he never had with me. Then there was the fact that no one else could ever compare to him and that wasn’t normal because I shouldn’t be comparing romantic interests with my friend. It–Yeah…it was very obvious. I did nothing to make it less obvious, but Kacchan said that that’s just who I am.”
Izuku rubbed at the back of his neck, tears springing to his eyes at the thought of it.
“I miss him. A lot. I don’t think there will ever be moments where I won’t. Kacchan and I have always been together, and to not be…” Izuku didn’t finish his sentence, he couldn’t, and he tried to keep his sniffling to a minimum.
It was inevitable, though, when he broke out into tiny sobs. Izuku whimpered and rubbed at his eyes to wipe away the tears, partially heartbroken, but mostly embarrassed. He suddenly felt very silly sitting up here, all alone, crying to himself while staring out at the now light blue city before him through teary eyes.
“I never thought I’d get this bad, you know? It’s been a whole year, you’d think I’d get used to being alone by now, but—It really doesn’t get easier, not when you love someone so much.”
It takes Izuku a while to calm himself down, and by the time he’s able to look at the cityscape, the sun is already rising.
“The fuck are you doing all the way up here, nerd?”
Izuku gasped and whipped his head around, coming face to face with none other than Katsuki himself, who was currently squatting with his mask pulled up and eyes extremely tired. “Kacchan?!”
“Chicken Wing and Birdbrain let me know you were two seconds away from traumatizing some poor, drunk 9-to-5 sap on their way home with your brain splatter, so I had to forgo finally getting some fucking sleep to drag your sorry ass back home,”
Despite the fact that Izuku had just managed to stop himself from crying, he burst into full sobs and launched himself at Katsuki, who–despite his complaining and exhausted frustration–held out his arms and wrapped them tightly around Izuku’s frame while burying his face into wily green curls.
“Fuck, I missed you,” Katsuki broke, hugging Izuku so tightly, it was almost as if he was trying to fuse their bodies together.
“I missed you too, Kacchan. Please never go abroad again, and please never do any zero-contact, stealth missions again.”
“I think I should end the call…” Shoto, who had been speaking with Izuku the entire time, said with a small chuckle.
He was ignored, though, because Izuku and Katsuki were too busy sharing frantic kisses in the soft glow of the morning sun.