Chapter Text
Katsuki tensed up.
Had he heard it right? Surely not, there was no way…
Dreams?
It had barely been audible, but Izuku had definitely said ‘“dreams”’ just now. There was no doubt everyone else had heard it as well, because silence greeted the room. Even those that had wandered off to the couches to chat a while ago, stilled.
“You’re afraid of your dreams?” Tsuyu asked after a moment.
“Yeah,” Izuku said quietly, his head dipping slightly forward to hide part of his face behind his bangs.
“D-deku–” Katsuki breathed just as the room burst into laughter, drowning Katsuki’s voice out with it.
It wasn’t often that Katsuki was taken back, but for once he had no words. He looked around the room, appalled at the action’s of the others and while most laughed others smiled mockingly, taking Izuku’s words for a joke.
“Midoriya, come on,” Sero stated, placing his arm against the armchair and leaned forward, “you have gone up against dozens of Villains, some of those being the most dangerous, seen the deepest darkest parts of the hero society, and you're what? Scared of a bit of sleep?”
Katsuki frowned from where he sat, having a perfect view of Izuku’s side profile, and the boy looked close to tears. His eyes that were hidden from the rest of the room were wide and dewy, yet the rest of his face remained neutral.
Eyes were the windows to the soul for a reason because they couldn’t lie like biting your tongue could. They showed whether someone was genuine or not.
Izuku had allowed himself a moment of weakness with people he trusted, and they had shut it down for a mere joke over something as serious as a question: what scares you the most?
Katsuki knew the moment that the class quit studying to chat, and the questions started, that it would go down hill very quickly. It wasn't that it was a bad idea, but something as simple as asking questions could go south very quickly, and it had.
Katsuki was about to get up and start cursing at them to get back to studying… he had to do something… anything to get the attention of Izuku, but it was at that moment when he stood that he saw the shift in Izuku’s face, more precisely in his eyes. They changed. Fading in colour and hardening over.
When Izuku raised his head to face the room, he laughed along with them.
A damn sheep.
His bright smile was present on his face, eyes crinkled at the corners. So very believable, but Katsuki knew better. 16 years he had known this boy, there was no facial expression that Izuku could hide behind that he wouldn’t be able to differentiate between, and this laugh was fake. So very fake.
“For a second, I thought maybe we had taken it too far,” Kirishima exhaled.
You fucking did! Katsuki snapped, but his mouth remained clenched.
Kirishima clasped Izuku on the back, “thank goodness bro, we hadn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Denki apologised, wiping the corners of his eyes, “for laughing, I mean. It was just so… so specific and odd all at the same time.”
Sero nodded along.
“You were joking right… right, Midoriya?” Momo asked from where she sat on the lounge, when Izuku hadn't made a sound of acknowledgement to anyone's comments.
Izuku nodded, “Of course. I’m probably more scared of Katsuki scolding me.”
The class burst into another set of laughs.
“Aren’t we all!” Mina cheered, raising her mug into the air.
Katsuki scoffed, finding his seat once more, a damn cover up it was. It might have been true once upon a time that Izuku had been scared of him, but Izuku and him were better, so much better than what they once were.
When Izuku looked across the room and their eyes met, Katsuki saw the scared little child Izuku once was in the reflection, but Izuku was looking away just as quickly, the mask back up in seconds.
“Fabulous! Shall we move on?” Aoyama asked, his voice annoyingly cheery and just like that the class was moving on like Izuku’s words were nothing, simply filler words into their stupid brains.
“What’s everyone’s biggest pet peeve?” Jirou piped up, walking back over from the couches to join the game once more.
The responses came almost immediately, but Katsuki drowned them out, his eyes following Izuku as the other raised to his feet before excusing himself.
Uraraka waved her hand in dismissal before returning full throttle into the game with an answer.
Izuku bowed and silently disappeared around the corner, without anyone caring to follow his quick exit or to notice how his shoulders were curling in as he walked away.
~
Knocking once, Katsuki waited 3 seconds in total before turning around and walking back the way he came. There had been no answer, so he wasn’t going to stick around.
Why the fuck was he even here?
Confusion ate him up as he walked away from the door. Why did he care so much? And why did it matter so little to him that he was at Izuku damn Midoriya’s door in an attempt to check up on him!
Caring sucks!
Katsuki mentally kicked his brain for giving him the emotions to care while at the same time using his two feet to subconsciously walk him up here. He had blanked out and hadn’t even realised until his fist was up and ready, coming in for the knock.
In his retreat, he had finally reached the elevator and pressed the button to go up just as he heard the creaking of a door. Instead of turning around like he should have, he watched the steel doors open in front of him.
“K-kacchan?” a confused murmur came from behind him.
However, Katsuki didn’t turn around hoping the damn Nerd thought it to be his imagination and go back into his room but –
“Wait, Kacchan,” Izuku called after him, rushing over to where he was.
Fuck!
“What do you want, damn Nerd!!” Katsuki glowered.
Izuku smiled knowingly, and it pissed Katsuki off.
“Last time I remembered this isn’t your floor Kacchan,” he said and stepped into the elevator, “did you get lost-” Katsuki opened his mouth to tell Deku to fuck off but, “-or did you come up here to check on me?” Izuku continued leaning back against one side of the metal box.
Maybe, Katsuki thought but instead growled, “Fuck no!”
Izuku grinned and this time it was real, “want to come up to the roof with me?” he asked.
Katsuki blinked once, then twice before dipping his chin in answer, unsure to the request of such an unusual thing, but there was no way he was going to leave Izuku alone now that he had plans to head to the roof.
“Super! Come on then,” Izuku said, grabbing and pulling Katsuki in with him, pressing the top floor mid-way before Katsuki could even register.
Katsuki was quick to yank his arm out from Izuku’s grip, “fuck off, I can do it myself.”
“I know you can,” Izuku replied with a light roll of his tongue.
“Damn right, I can!”
~
The wind pushed up against Katsuki’s back the closer he got to the roof's edge. Izuku was a little further ahead, and Katsuki kept his hand at the ready, subconsciously ready to grab the other if the wind pushed too hard and tipped him over.
But Izuku was no longer the quirkless and helpless little boy he once was. He didn’t need Katsuki to fly in and save him. He in fact could catch himself, get safely to the ground with the aid of his quirk and his two very capable feet, but ever so occasionally Katsuki thought that maybe Izuku wouldn’t try to save himself.
It wasn’t that he thought, in the present time, that Izuku would jump, but after everything Katsuki had done in the past… said, he couldn’t help himself but to imagine a storm of possibilities and what if’s.
Izuku edged off the side of the building until he was seated, his feet dangling over the ledge.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” Izuku asked, referring to the setting sun in front of them, and it’s bright orange and yellow tones that stretched across the sky in big painted strokes.
Katsuki said nothing for a few minutes, taking the moment to dwell on the fact that he and Izuku were together willingly outside the usual classes and training sessions they had together. The one thing Katsuki had come to like about their new-found friendship (a friendship he would never admit existed) was that they never screwed around the bush, both knowing how unidentified emotions could get you killed on the field.
He had many questions and no answers, but instead of asking any of them, Katsuki got straight to the point, “what do you need?”
Izuku looked over his shoulder at him, his face for once unreadable, “Sit with me, will you Kacchan?”
Katsuki found himself walking over without a fight or a curse and when he sat down half a metre’s distance from Izuku, he finally spoke up, “so this is where you come every afternoon. To watch… the sunset?”
Katsuki might have been looking at the view in front of him, but he knew that Izuku had nodded.
“It seems to be the only thing that can calm me down before I sleep,” Izuku said, and Katsuki chose that moment to peek over at the other.
From out of the corner of his eye, Katsuki watched as the wind cascaded through Izuku’s curls, sending them into a frenzy. He was sure his own hair was no better.
The setting sun set a golden tone to wash over Izuku’s skin, making it glow, but now that he was in the present with Izuku and actually looking with a purpose did he notice how sunken Izuku’s eyes had become and the building darkness under them.
“Is it because you're scared of falling asleep?” Katsuki asked.
“So you were paying attention?” Izuku murmured under his breath.
Katsuki ignored him in favour of asking a further question, “something to do with the dark?” he wondered, but not in a teasing manner, never in that manner when Izuku was showing signs of how serious this actually was… whatever this may be.
It was Izuku’s eyes that caught Katsuki’s when he turned to face him, Izuku now staring into him. His green eyes turning into emeralds now that the sun was shinning through them from the side, it was quite… memorising.
“I’m not afraid of sleeping or the dark,” Izuku told Katsuki, his voice wavering on his words, proving Katsuki’s examination of how real this actually was, “It’s what comes after you're asleep.”
Katsuki leaned his head back, choosing to look at the forever changing sky above him instead of watching how much rawness passed across Izuku’s face because frankly enough doing that was easier.
“Comes after sleep?” he wondered.
“My mind has the scary capability of being dark and demented,” Izuku told him.
“Have you told anyone about this?”
Izuku was silent for a while, and Katsuki did not push him on the matter, waiting until Izuku was ready to speak. Y-you saw everyone down there,” Izuku began, his voice reverberating off the wind. “Do you really think people are going to care?”
Katsuki went to open his mouth, but Izuku cut him off early, “and don’t you dare say it was because of the game that they didn’t take it seriously,” he glared.
Katsuki almost rolled his eyes but instead asked, “why are you telling me?”
The question seemed to take Izuku back, “Honestly, I don’t know.”
It was later, when the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and nightfall had wrapped tightly around the boys, that Katsuki realised that Izuku was shaking beside him.
Katsuki tsked, “wear a damn jumper if you're cold.”
Izuku huffed, “I don’t have a jumper on me, Kacc-”
Before Izuku could even finish, Katsuki had already stripped off his hoodie and was letting it fall into the other's lap.
“Kacchan I can’t take-”
“Deku!”
Izuku flinched back.
Katsuki blinked before turning away, “just take it,” he said quietly, “it’s ugly anyway-”
A lie.
“-I was just going to throw it away after a few uses.”
Also, a lie.
“Really?!” Izuku suddenly gushed.
Katsuki jumped at the heightened noise, his hearing aids ringing loudly as he turned sharply to the right, only to come face to face with Izuku, their noses inches apart.
So close… TOO CLOSE!!
Katsuki yelped, startling backwards, screaming as he fell a metre to the ground, landing in a heap on the concrete of the roof.
“What the hell!” he yelled up at Izuku, eyes ablaze. He couldn’t believe he had yelped… he had fucking yelped in front of Izuku, but nothing seemed to register in the Nerd’s mind other than the fact that Katsuki had offered him his hoodie.
“Can I really have it?” Izuku asked once more, his eyes wide and filling with stars. The face of pure admiration as he edged closer to Katsuki.
“Why the fuck you so eager for?” Katsuki asked, pushing up on his elbows, urging himself to act cool like nothing had happened, just like he had planned to be sprawled out on the ground, his feet up in the air.
“It’s your Ground Zero merchandise, is it not?”
“It’s only a trial run-”
“I don’t care!” Izuku said, finally pulling backwards.
Katsuki could finally breathe.
“I want to be able to say when were hero’s that I got my hands on Ground Zero’s first ever merchandise,” Katsuki gave Izuku a look, the Nerd simply smiled goofy, hugged the hoodie to his chest no longer appearing to be cold, “even if it is just a trial run and plus it’s so freaking cool.”
Katsuki’s face heated up, and he turned away, “whatever!”
Izuku laughed as he pushed up onto his feet, yanking the hoodie on over his head before spinning in a circle, trying to get a good look at the design while on him.
Katsuki wanted to bash his head into the ground because why the fuck was his mind screaming cute? Because it fucking wasn’t.
“It’s so freaking cool!”
Katsuki hated it so much… this feeling. He stood up and turned to walk off.
“I’ve been eyeing it for weeks now.”
Katsuki stilled, fist clenching, “goodnight Nerd!”
Izuku laughed behind him, “Goodnight Kacchan.”