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Izuku peeked around the corner leading to the stairwell. No one. He shuffled forward and slipped up the steps, quiet as a mouse, fluffy hair bouncing. He gave a tiny smile unconsciously at his feet, secretly excited, despite this being a more or less regular occurrence, now. It didn’t matter how many times he snuck up the stairs, apparently; his heart raced and stomach fluttered every time with excitement.
Izuku reached the top of the stairwell and faced the green metal door labeled ROOF EXIT, giddy. He pushed it open quietly, sticking his head out to see if—
His heart skipped a beat.
Kacchan was sitting with his back to him, as expected, cross legged facing the skyline with his lunch in his lap. Izuku willed himself to calm down. They did this at least twice a week, but the sight of Kacchan waiting for him on the roof made his heart race in giddiness every time.
Izuku stepped out and closed the door behind him as quietly as he could, but Kacchan was ever alert as the future No. 1 hero, so he straightened and turned around at the quiet fump of the heavy door sliding shut.
“Hey, nerd,” Kacchan said.
Izuku’s heart stuttered at the calm look on Kacchan’s face as he seemed to take him in, eyes raking up and down and up again along his figure as Izuku walked toward him. Like he was content, trying to absorb the sight of him, which made a bit of sense, given they had to pretend they weren’t dating during the rest of the school day in sight of everyone. Kacchan always did this, spent their lunch breaks together with his eyes on him like warm magnets, barely looking away as if to savour every second he didn’t have to pretend not to want to.
Izuku sat down next to him shyly, pulling his own lunch out of his bag. Once it was out, Kacchan finally opened his own, undoing the neat little tie of the cloth around his bento.
He kept it closed and set it neatly aside, turning to face Izuku, still cross legged. Izuku followed suit.
This was his favourite part.
Katsuki’s gaze passed over his face, looking exasperatedly fond.
“How was class?” Kacchan asked. Right before lunch was the only period they didn’t have together, History.
Izuku picked at his pants. “It was fine. I almost fell asleep because we’re on the Edo period.” Again. For like the fortieth time since their first year in school.
“Any extras pick on you?”
Izuku shook his head. “No, Kacchan,” he chanted obediently. One time, he’d hesitated, and Katsuki’s face had so immediately clouded with rage and protectiveness that Izuku’s heart had skipped several beats. And again when Katsuki met him after school with bloodied knuckles and a bruised cheek. “Got ‘em good,” he’d said with a devilish smirk, and Izuku had melted a little even while stretching up to fuss over the purpling skin. So Izuku made sure to answer quickly, even if Katsuki got mad if he found out he ever lied. He could handle some shoving more than Kacchan could handle another risk of a mark on his perfect record. “Let me worry about that,” Kacchan always said.
But Izuku couldn’t help it. Not when it involved him.
Kacchan nudged his foot with his shoe, the side sliding on the concrete of the rooftop. “Hey. Where’d you go,” he said casually, bringing Izuku back to Earth.
Izuku reached out to play with Kacchan’s pants leg, now. “Just thinking,” he hummed.“You haven’t gotten in any fights for me recently.”
Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “You want me to?”
Izuku shook his head wildly, curls bouncing. Kacchan’s eyes tracked the movement. “No! I’m glad,” he clarified. “Kacchan should be careful. He…”
Having heard this spiel at least 50x before, Katsuki hummed, letting Izuku’s rambling fade into the background. He leaned forward, gaze fixed on Izuku’s mouth. Izuku trailed off, automatically leaning to meet Kacchan in the middle.
They shared soft kisses slowly for half of lunch break on the rooftop of their middle school, away from prying eyes and judgmental teachers. Cross-legged and leaned toward each other, gentle and cautious, still young and learning. What to do and when, what the other liked. No deeper than brushing and sucking lips, at least there on the rooftop, innocent and affectionate.
Izuku was melting, despite this being tradition multiple times a week. Soon Kacchan would force them to break apart and actually eat their food, inevitably trading a bit of everything of his for a bit of everything of Izuku’s.
How fitting, Izuku often thought.
They probably painted quite the picture, sitting leaning into each other, backlit but the morning sun, a pale blond head connecting with a fluffy green one. Both scrawny, although Katsuki took great enjoyment in closing a hand over Izuku’s wrist sometimes, cawing about how tiny he was. Izuku wasn’t that small, he was taller than most of the girls in their class, but he was shorter than all of the guys, and lithe too. Bony. Katsuki loved it, for some reason. When Izuku poked the biceps Katsuki worked hard to cultivate and pouted, wishing he were bigger, Katsuki would grab that hand to kiss his fingers and then wrap him up an a huge hug, enveloping him completely, reminding Izuku that he…. definitely liked being smaller than Kacchan.
Too soon, current Katsuki separated their mouths, kissing Izuku’s cheek a final time before pulling away. Izuku chased after his lips unconsciously, making Katsuki chuckle and hold him back with a palm to the forehead.
“Eat your lunch, dumbass,” he said, finally digging into his own. Izuku shuffled to face the roof ledge and the view, his knees up and legs bent in a slanted table in front of him as he poked at what his mom had sent him. Ooh, homemade onigiri.
Warmth pressed along his side and Izuku looked up to see Kacchan much closer than he had been three seconds ago, having scooted over casually to face the same way as Izuku with their sides touching from shoulder to hip. He wasn’t even looking at Izuku, busy with his food.
Izuku hid his smile in a mouthful of rice and tuna, giddy. This wasn’t uncommon, either, but they’d only been dating for a couple of months, so everything Kacchan did that proved he wanted to be with Izuku affected him like it was the very first time.
As expected, Kacchan dropped some of this stir fry meat and vegetables into Izuku’s bento without a second thought, stealing some of Izuku’s bok choy.
(It was never a fair trade. Izuku used to protest, looking at the portion Kacchan would take compared to what he shoved at him, but Kacchan had waved his chopsticks threateningly and cited Izuku’s low weight, to his embarrassment, and proceeded to launch into a lecture on proper macro proportions for weight and muscle gain. Izuku picked up like half of it, distracted by Kacchan’s hands moving around, but he got the gist. Essentially, trust his all-knowing boyfriend’s dietary knowledge, and shut up and accept his food. So Izuku does.)
Katsuki swallowed a mouthful of carrot. “How’s your mini-thesis going.”
Izuku flustered. “Kacchan, for the last time, it’s not—”
Kacchan waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah.”
Izuku mock-glared at him, but moved on, always excited to talk about his project. “Really good! I checked out the site you sent me, it’s been so helpful! And I think my mom has a friend who I can talk to, too, and…”
Katsuki nodded along, eating and listening attentively. Even if he mostly asked because he knows how much Izuku loved talking about his current self-conducted research on quirks and their relationship with the user’s personality, he was also genuinely interested in his findings. Especially since Izuku had been over the moon with excitement when Katsuki had suggested he be a control of sorts, since he was quirkless, which led to more introspectionand self-study than Izuku had ever executed before. On top of the in-depth quirk analysis that he practically vibrated while conducting, glowing with fascination. Katsuki had read over his paper so far — his boyfriend was a huge fucking nerd, but he was smart as shit.
“….and so I think I can cross-reference that, too. Isn’t that so cool,” Izuku was chattering happily in between bites.
Katsuki grunted in affirmation. “My dad said their photographer has a quirk you might wanna check out. I asked what it was but he wouldn’t tell me. Think it’s another goddamn ploy to get me to come to the fuckin’ studio with you.”
Izuku’s stomach fluttered again at the implication Kacchan not only talked to his parents about them, but also about Izuku and his activities. Which he knew already, since every dinner their families had together involved a lot of knowing teasing from Mitsuki-san and not a lot of help from Masaru-san, who was apparently secretly nearly as mischievous as his wife when it came to humour.
But the reminder always made his heart race with affection and a blush rise to his cheeks, and Izuku was so overcome with bright, sudden, overwhelming fondness that he leaned over and pecked Katsuki on the cheek. Kacchan froze mid-fashion-rant, red overtaking his face furiously.
He turned to Izuku with a severe look and shoved his lunch to the side, grabbing his cheeks and mashing their mouths together almost angrily. “Too damn cute,” Katsuki growled, retreating after a minute. Izuku blinked a couple of times, dazed.
Eventually his brain came back online and he realized he was smiling dopily at Kacchan, head tilted up, while his boyfriend looked down at him with a straight face and amused, happy eyes. Katsuki checked his watch.
“We got five minutes, nerd,” he said, setting his now empty lunch box aside, shuffling to face Izuku again. Izuku did the same, crossing his legs, pulse pumping with anticipation.
“We should go over our biology flash cards,” Kacchan said seriously.
Izuku slumped. “Kacchaaaan,” he whined, tugging
at Katsuki’s pant leg.
“Hmm? Did you want to do something else?” He said, completely straight faced. His mouth twitched minutely when Izuku gave him his best puppy eyes.
Unfortunately, Katsuki had had 11 years to get used to them. “I’m not hearing any suggestions, freckles.”
Izuku tugged at Katsuki’s garukan, trying to bring him closer even as Katsuki didn’t budge. “Kacchan…please?” he said, looking up through his lashes. Katsuki’s straight face shuttered a little.
There were only four minutes left before lunch ended, and if Izuku didn’t get to kiss Kacchan for the rest of them before they had to separate for the school day, he would probably die.
Curse his boyfriend for getting off on teasing him like this. Izuku whined again and Katsuki finally broke, grasping Izuku’s wrists on his shirt with both hands and leaning in obligingly. “Alright, alright. Needy nerd.” He said, even as he pressed forward to kiss Izuku like he was water and Katsuki had been parched for a week. Like they were the only to people in the world, in their black uniforms on the roof of the middle school.
They made out until the bell rang and they finally separated, both too cautious about being caught to push it.
“Come over for dinner,” Katsuki said as they packed their lunches back in their bags. “The hag wants to hear about your day from you, apparently. She told me to tell you that specifically.”
Izuku giggled. Mitsuki-san always complained loudly how her son hogged Izuku all to himself and barely gave her and her husband any time with their veritable second son. Hence the frequent invites to dinner.
“I’ll be there,” Izuku promised, and gasped as his chin was tilted up by a big hand for a goodbye kiss from his already frowning boyfriend. Izuku was beginning to suspect the secret part of their secret relationship was half the cause for Katsuki’s quick temper during the school day. If only because it meant Katsuki couldn’t be as physically affectionate as he was at their homes or in private.
Kacchan pulled away with a scowl, holding Izuku’s hand. “Bye, nerd.”
Izuku got on his tiptoes to peck his cheek again in consolation. “Bye, Kacchan.”
Kacchan traced a mindless X on the back of his hand before letting go. They staggered their exit from the roof, and Izuku went first every time, for some reason. Kacchan wouldn’t tell him why. But he waved and slipped in the door, heartbeat slowing disappointedly with Kacchan out of sight. But it was okay. Izuku smiled to himself.
He couldn’t wait to show Kacchan’s parents the hero gear specs he’d come up with for his boyfriend. He hoped they liked it, with all their design knowledge. And Kacchan’s birthday was coming up…
Izuku grinned. Perfect.