Chapter Text
It’s the first really good day Izuku has had in a while. It’d been a couple of months since the big Shigaraki takedown and the media attention had finally died down. It had gotten really old really quickly and, loathe as he was to admit it, the fact that Kacchan had somehow gotten more attention than him got under his skin.
It’s not that he wasn’t happy for his friend. He was, truly. But he couldn’t help but harbor a tiny amount of resentment. It was his crowning achievement and Kacchan had overshadowed him by… apologizing. It wasn’t fair.
But whatever, it was all behind them. All of the injuries were healed, memorials for the fallen had come and gone, and reporters no longer camped out in front of the school in hopes of catching one of them unawares.
But today is going to be a good day. They’d finally gotten permission to leave campus and he’d planned to spend the entire day shopping with Ochaco. He didn’t need anything but when she’d asked him to go with her, he’d jumped at the opportunity. He hasn’t gotten to spend any time with her, just the two of them, in what feels like ages.
“I think I’m going to ask Bakugo out.”
“That’s cool,” he responds before the words register.
And then they really hit him. I’m going to ask Bakugo out.
“Oh thank goodness. I was worried you would tell me it was a bad idea. I know things have been better between you two since the whole apology thing and we’ve been talking a lot more the last couple months and I think I actually really like him,” she rambles.
He tries not to let it put too much of a damper on his day. He doesn’t get to spend enough time with her, just the two of them, and he doesn’t want this to ruin that. He’s determined to make it stay the amazing day it was supposed to be.
Besides, there’s no way Kacchan would say yes, right?
******
“He said yes!” Ochaco squeals at lunch a few days later. Izuku turns to look at her, along with Iida, Shoto and Tsu.
“Oh, you actually asked Bakugo out? That’s good,” Tsu says casually. “Do you know where you’re going to go?”
She pales. “Oh no, I didn’t even think about that. I worked up the nerve after class yesterday and when he said ‘sure’, I kind of ran away so he wouldn’t get a chance to change his mind. Maybe I should text him and ask?”
“That might be a good idea kero.”
Izuku wants to congratulate her. Wants to give her advice on where to go. After all, she’s his best friend. But all he finds himself capable of doing is sitting and blankly staring, trying to process the fact that Ochaco and Kacchan are going on a date.
He hadn’t realized that he’d started muttering until he noticed that everyone was staring at him.
“Are you alright Izuku?” Shoto asks. He feels his face heat up from the combination of the attention and the fact that he’s still not used to Shoto calling him Izuku despite it having been months since he’d started doing so.
“Yeah I’m fine.” They’re still staring at him, though he’s not sure what they’d asked. Crap. “You should probably suggest a place to go though because I don’t think Kacchan will come up with one,” he says, hoping that’s a reasonable response to whatever he’d been asked.
Ochaco groans and they stop looking at him, which he takes to mean he’d given an adequate enough answer. “I wish you’d said that like two minutes ago before I sent him a text. I can’t very well double-text him.” She sighs. “Well, I’ll just come up with somewhere while I wait for him to text me back.”
Izuku tunes out the conversation about date ideas. This shouldn’t be getting under his skin the way it is. It’s not like she owes him anything. They’re just friends.
But what if they were more than that? It’s not a thought that Izuku had had before. Honestly, he hadn’t really ever thought of her that way. Sure, he knew she was pretty cute, but it wasn’t like he’d had a crush on her.
Unless… maybe he did and it took knowing that Kacchan was interested in her for him to realize it. That wasn’t good.
Well, he doubts the two of them will last very long. Things will probably fizzle out and fade after a date or two and when they do, once she’s over Kacchan, Izuku can ask her out and figure out what these confusing emotions he’s feeling are all about.
He’s so busy reassuring himself that he doesn’t notice Kacchan approaching their table until he’s already standing beside it, glaring at them.
“Hi Bakugo,” Ochaco says sweetly, smiling at him. It makes Izuku’s stomach turn.
“Round Face. You’re ridiculous.”
She tilts her head, curiosity clearly painted on her face. “How so?”
He huffs. “I’m sitting two tables over. If you got a question for me, just come over and fucking ask next time.”
“Oh. I’ll keep that in mind. I just didn’t want to bother you.”
“It’s not fucking bothering, fucking whatever, never mind.” He takes a breath. “You like stars and shit, right?” Ochaco nods. “There’s a planetarium half an hour away. They’re having an event on Friday, starts at 8. Meet me at the front gate at 7. You better not be fucking late.”
He walks away before she gets a chance to respond but based on the soft smile that replaces her surprised expression, it’s not like she would have turned down his offer.
******
They do not “fizzle out and fade” as Izuku had hoped. If anything, they do the exact opposite. Ochaco couldn’t stop gushing about the homemade mochi he’d given her before their “most amazingly perfect first date ever” (Ochaco’s exact words).
The two of them quickly become a couple, the unofficial power couple of UA. The go on regular dates and Izuku has to put on a happy face as she gushes to him about how well they go, about how sweet Kacchan can be, even if it’s buried in a rough exterior. Kacchan joins their group for lunch, as well as Kaminari and the occasional appearance by a girl from the management course named Ena. Kacchan is a bit kinder and softer around the edges around Ochaco, and Izuku wants more than anything to be happy to see the way she lights up whenever he’s around her.
Izuku is trying to be a good friend. He supports Ochaco, giving her a friendly ear whenever she wants to talk about Kacchan, gush about how nice he is to her, how he cooks for her, talks about her in interviews. He even refrains from talking poorly about him when the two have the occasional fight regardless of how much he wants to suggest she end things every time it happens. And he’s gotten quite good at avoiding giving advice while still being supportive of their relationship.
That does not make it any easier. If anything, the longer he keeps it up, the harder it gets. And when she confesses that she’s falling in love with Kacchan, Izuku feels a not-so-little piece of his heart break.
******
It’s not intentional, Izuku avoiding Ochaco. It doesn’t even start right away. It takes several months for it happen, actually. But he’s confident he knows what triggered it.
“Hey, Ochaco. Sensei said yes for Disneyland next weekend.”
He’d said it so casually, like it wasn’t a big deal. But Izuku wasn’t the only one staring at him slack-jawed because he’d called her Ochaco. Despite the fact that they’d been dating for quite a while, no one had heard him use her given name. Hell, he’d never called anyone anything other than the obnoxious nicknames he handed out. And once the shock around that faded, it was replaced by holy shit, they’re going to Disneyland together for a weekend.
Izuku doesn’t know how to deal with it. He barely talks to her before she leaves for their weekend trip, only haphazardly responding to her questions about what she should bring and what souvenirs he wants.
And then suddenly, the two of them barely spend any time together. Whenever she asks to hang out, just the two of them, he always finds something else that he has to do. If Kacchan joins their group for anything, he makes himself scarce. He even starts eating lunch with All Might. He can’t help it. Being alone with her hurts and seeing them together hurts even more.
If she notices anything, she doesn’t call him out for it. He knows it’s not a practical way to keep up a friendship but he tells himself that once they graduate, once they leave UA, things will get better. High school relationships rarely last and even if they somehow do, it’ll be far easier to avoid being around both of them.
At the very least, after graduation, it’ll be easier for him to keep these feelings to himself. It might be better, healthier, for him to confront them, but that’s a conflict he’s not ready for. He’s not ready for the rejection, so he’ll just avoid it.
******
Things come to a head at graduation. Izuku’s one saving grace had been that Kacchan wasn’t much for PDA. Ochaco had complained about it once before, briefly, but she’d said it was important to respect his boundaries. The most he’d ever had to witness was Ochaco holding onto his arm when they went to the mall or other casual field trips.
So imagine Izuku’s surprise when he sees Kacchan lean down and kiss her cheek right before they take their seats for the graduation ceremony. It hits him like a punch to the gut. It’s so much worse than he could have imagined.
He plasters on a smile for the graduation pictures, ignores the feeling he gets seeing Ochaco and Kacchan sitting together, her head on his shoulder. It’s all a blur and he doesn’t think he can hold it in much longer.
He pulls Ochaco aside as the rest of their class heads to the graduation party. She waves them on, telling them that they’ll catch up in a minute.
Izuku can’t help but pace, trying to get out all of the nervous energy he’s feeling. He’s not really sure what his plan is, he doesn’t have a plan. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, all he knows is that something needs to change. He can’t keep going like this, can’t let them have graduated and start moving on past UA without at least giving things a shot.
“Hey Deku. Is something wrong? If not, we should probably get back out there.”
“I can’t do this anymore,” he blurts.
Her eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean?”
“You and Kacchan. It’s too much.” Shit. He shouldn’t have said anything. But now that he’s started, he doesn’t think he can stop. “I really like you, Ochaco. I have for a while. I never thought that you and Kacchan would
“What do you want me to say, Deku?”
He laughs softly. “That you want to be with me and not Kacchan.”
She frowns. “That’s not going to happen. Even if Katsuki and I did break up, you and I couldn’t happen.” Her expression softens and her voice lowers. “I love spending time with you, being around you, talking to you. At one point, I had a crush on you, but it’s way too late for that. I don’t see you that way. You’re my best friend, Deku.”
He feels the tears welling and curses his body’s inability to hold them back despite the years of practice he’s had. “I don’t want to be just friends.”
“Is this why you’ve been so distant? I thought you were just stressed and busy.” He nods. “I knew things were different but you just didn’t want to talk to me. You seemed fine with Iida and Todoroki and Tsu and everyone else so I thought I was just imagining it. I’m so sorry Deku.” She takes a deep breath and wipes her face. “Can we just pretend that this never happened? I can just forget everything you said and we can go back to normal. We can go back to the way things were before.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t be happy for you and Kacchan,” he says, surprising himself just as much as Ochaco.
She takes a step back, tears welling in her eyes. “So that’s three years of friendship. Just gone? Like that?”
Shit. Shit. Shit. This is not what he’d wanted to happen. He doesn’t want to lose her. But if he’s being honest with himself, there was truth to what he’d said. “I don’t know. Maybe. I just need some time.”
“You are unbelievable, Deku.”
She storms out, leaving Izuku standing there, feeling like an idiot. He’d gone and ruined the best thing in his life all because he’d bottled up his feelings rather than addressed it calmly. If he hadn’t been so worked up, they could have just talked through things, he’s sure of it.
He sends a message to Shoto telling him he’s feeling a bit under the weather and can’t make it to the party with the rest of the class, and heads home with his mom, ignoring the probing questions she sends his way.