Chapter Text
The incident started like how most of UA’s incidents start, with Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo.
Class 1A had just finished a rather intense training exercise that had ended with half the class injured and the other half extremely tired and worn out, surprisingly Izuku was apart of the latter. His control over his quirk has recently been improved, much to Recovery girl’s relief, and the drawbacks are far less severe than what they used to be
Plus Izuku has grown a pretty high tolerance to pain so even if he did get injured he could’ve and likely would’ve just hid it until Aizawa figured him out and dragged him kicking and screaming to the nurse.
The class- well those who weren’t currently off in the infirmary- were scattered around 1A’s homeroom, waiting for their teacher to come back from whatever it was he was doing to give them instructions on what to do. They were all too scared to ask what he was doing so they were left completely unknown on how long the scruffy man would be gone for.
The majority of the class were bundled in groups chatting animatedly while silently, or loudly in Denki Kaminari’s case, trying to recover from their exhaustion from their harsh teachers training.
The atmosphere in the room was just as shining as it always was, massive windows allowed glistening sunlight to delicately paint students face a gentle orange and the general soft and pleasing air of the school made it difficult for the hero’s in training to be in too bad a mood. Difficult but not impossible.
There were only two students in the homeroom who weren’t currently involved in some form of socialising, instead opting to sit in their own seats in the top left corner of the room
Katsuki Bakugo, self explanatory, the boy was in one of his moods and Kirishima wasn’t here to force him to socialise so everyone left him to his own devices.
And Izuku Midoriya who was currently in a state of muttering and jotting down the things he learned from training, normally he could wait until later but today something particularly different happened during a fight of his and he was desperate to write it down before he forgot and his classmates were well used to the boys antics and while they didn’t quite understand it they were all too afraid to interrupt the quirk analyst,
Well, actually, *almost* all his classmates were to scared to interrupt …..
“Deku.”
That was met with silence.
“Deku.”
There was not even a slight indication that he was heard.
“DEKU”
“AH!” Izuku’s head snapped up in shock, grassy eyes wide, shoulders scrunched and tense, a sign he was immediately on the defence.
If it were anyone else Katsuki would’ve assumed he had been purposely ignoring him and would’ve murdered them before he gave himself the chance to repeat the persons name, let alone repeating it three whole times but Izuku wasn’t anyone else and he was genuinely just that unaware of his surroundings, Katsuki would know considering this has happened many times before.
“Oh… please don’t do that kacchan”
“Then YOU shut up, I sit infront of you and have to listen to you and your creepy ass thoughts, it’s really annoying”
“Oh, Sorry kacchan!” A sheepish smile was shown before Izuku ducked his head down again, hiding the smile from the blondes view and continuing his freakishly fast writing but with a lack of the muttering.
Across the room, a group of students had been watching the short interaction between their strongest two classmates
“Wow, who would’ve thought it was that easy to get him to stop?”
Immediately after those words left the guys mouth a familiar muttering filled the air again, a definite jinx.
“Nevermind I spoke too soon, sometimes I don’t know my own power, my witchy jinxy power!”
“Well I think his muttering is cute!” Ochaco Uraraka exclaimed, ever the bubbly optimist, her hopeful and positive attitude was always refreshing honesty “plus they can actually be pretty insightful, Izuku’s really smart when it comes to analysis, one time he let me see his analysis of me and it was really accurate and helpful!”
“I doubt Bakugo sees it the same way as you Ochaco..” the froggy classmate murmurs, quiet enough to rival Koda but apparently not quiet enough for The Bakugo Katsuki
“Don’t tell me how to think you amphibian!” An annoyed screech came from the opposite side of the room by the blonde in question, “AND YOU” he continued with a twist in posture to fully face Izuku and point towards him with a glare “Just stop talking period.”
“You know I can’t actually control it..”
“Don’t care. Just stop”
A disappointed sigh and then a
“Okay, Bakugo”
…….
*“HAH??”*
“What?” Clear confusion written on both their faces but definitely for different reasons
“Oh! Uhm… I’m sorry for the muttering?”
“What??”
“That’s… why your mad right? Because I didn’t apologise.. I am sorry, it’s a bad habit of mine”
“No I- what? I- No- Yeah.. yeah sure that’s what I was mad about”
Never in his life had he ever spluttered or stuttered or stumbled over his words, he had never done any s words, those were Deku’s thing, not his.
“Okay” a awkward pause and then a quiet “good” with a hesitant smile attached
“Good..” parroted the bewildered blonde who slowly turned back in his chair to face forwards again, his thoughts were rapidly being throw at him all at once, reminiscent to being hit by a bus but instead of a bus it was by insecure and questioning thoughts, Katsuki thinks he would prefer a bus
Currently the loudest of his thoughts being
*“… huh is this what the nerds thoughts are always like?”*
And
*“……….WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK”*
______________________________________
“Did… did Midoriya just call Bakugo… Bakugo?” Came from across the room, unbeknownst to the stunned blonde hero and the unbothered green hero
“More importantly why did Bakugo insult Tsu with such elegance”
“Elegance??”
“What?? The word amphibian is really elegant”
“Oh Denki…” a pitiful sigh came from Yaoyorozu
“What??” A squawk came from the denki in question
“Can we please ignore Denki’s misunderstanding of the word elegance and instead focus on what just happened??”
“Is it really that big a deal?”
“Have you ever heard Midoriya call Bakugo, Bakugo before?”
“….. touché my friend, touché”
“I’m kinda scared right now”
“When are you not scared Mineta?”
“…..Please stop touchéing everyone.”
“That… that is not-“
“Momo there is really no point trying to correct them”
“Yeah plus if Midoriya’s use of Bakugo’s name isn’t proof enough that the world is ending I don’t know what is, and who needs grammar while the world is ending?”
“Touché”
“STOP IT.”
__________________________________________
What happened in the classroom was shocking (to everyone except Izuku apparently) but the people who were there quickly moved on from it, it was just a one time thing right? An accidental slip up from being around too many people calling the boy a different name from him that confused him? Something that will never happen again right? Wrong.
It happened again, just two days after the event occurred,
class 1A were cooking dinner together in the dormitory, a tradition that the wild wild pussy cats had inspired Iida to introduce
He found it wise to teach his classmates how to cook and to also have time to increase bonds between friends and stop any chances of his particularly negligent classmates dying from malnutrition.
Every Monday and Friday they would cook and then eat together, the tradition had been a pretty peaceful one so far
Until….
“Hey Bakugo, could you pass me a cutting knife?”
A jolt, a jump then a “Wha-what did you just say to me?”
“Uh- uhm you are the closest person to the knifes here
butimsorryitwassillyofmetoaskyourclearlybusyandiinteruptedohgodi-“
“Shut up.” The blonde forced out between gritted teeth, truthfully what happened in the class bothered him, he wasn’t sure why (that’s a lie) but it did, the only reason he hadn’t gone insane was the reassurance that it was a one time thing that would never happen again
But it did. It did happen again and right now he didn’t know what to do…
and Oh right, deku asked him for a cutting knife, Katsuki glanced at deku to see a panicked expression and an abandoned head of lettuce sitting behind him
He quietly and slowly, two very out of character things for him, grabbed a knife and passed it to the panicked boy
“Oh wow, thank you Ka-Bakugo!” A bright, if slightly hesitant, smile that would normally please anyone it was directed to instead felt like a twist in the dagger that was his family name
He stiffly turned away, trying but failing to continue what he had previously been doing, cutting carrots.
______________________
He was swiftly kicked out of the kitchen by four eyes after according to his classmates “torturing the carrots” and “scaring the shit out of everyone else” which honestly fair, he could admit he was being pretty harsh on the ‘innocent’ carrots
But it wasn’t his fault, it was Deku’s.
Why was- why was Deku doing this?
His entire life the green haired boy had called him “kacchan” it was a constant, something that was expected to just happen, something that was just a way of life,
The sky was blue.
All might was the best.
Izuku Midoriya called him Kacchan.
Except he didn’t. He didn’t call him kacchan anymore and why the fuck didn’t he?
Deku had always kept calling him kacchan after all these years, he had even kept calling him kacchan while katsuki was beating the shit out of him and telling him his entire life was worthless.
He would’ve never admitted it, but during middle school Katsuki was actually quite happy Deku still called him Kacchan, not because he liked it or anything, but just because Katsuki knew anything else would sound wrong.
() Katsuki was too personal and then he would’ve had to admit Deku meant something to him and that the two close enough for Deku to be allowed use his first name, which wasn’t true.
() Bakugo was too impersonal, not only had they had known each other since they came out of the womb but their parents were best friends who hung out a lot, therefore Deku was close to his family so hearing him use his family name in reference to just him was extremely weird.
And middle school Katsuki was glad, glad that he never had to choose which name Deku should use because Deku made the choice for him.
*Kacchan*
It fit, it represents how they knew each other as children and it doesn’t give away what exactly their relationship was, just that they had one
Also…. *It was kinda cute.*
…..WHAT.
NO.
NO WAY DID HE JUST THINK THAT.
NO. NOTHING ABOUT DEKU WAS CUTE. ESPECIALLY NOT A STUPID FUCKING NICKNAME HE CAME UP WITH WHEN THEY WERE KIDS.
He quickly made the decision to get out of his head before he thought something he would **really** regret.
________________________________
Ochaco Uraraka was worried.
Worried about the situation currently going on with Izuku and Bakugo, more specifically she was worried about the “Bakugo incident’s” (as Mina Ashido has dubbed them) that have occurred recently.
It was evident to the entire class (except Izuku) the affect it was having on Bakugo.
Don’t get her wrong, she didn’t really like Bakugo, he was rude and loud and she once heard him say something about “the poor just need to work harder” which kinda cut any chance she had of befriending/ tolerating the guy
Quite honestly she liked his relationship with Izuku even less than she liked the guy himself, he was mean to Izuku and constantly hurt him, both physically and mentally (while the physical thing was technically just training, it was pretty clear Bakugo was harder on Izuku than he was everyone else, I mean their very first training exercise ever Bakugo tried to kill Izuku!! And Ochaco was forced to watch it happen, Izuku may have been able to forgive and forget, but Ochaco couldn’t )
Frankly she thinks Izuku deserves better, she thinks he deserves a better childhood friend and if she had it her way he would.
But he doesn’t.
And she has to push aside her natural protectiveness of her sweet friend in order to help him
because while she doesn’t like Bakugo and doesn’t care for his relationship with Izuku, Izuku does.
Izuku does like Bakugo (somehow) and tries very hard to keep their friendship afloat
So, Ochaco will put aside her hatred for Bakugo in favour of helping Izuku, because it’s obvious that while the leafy haired genius may be book smart, he is definitely not people smart.
The boy has no idea that his new found name for Bakugo is causing a rift in their relationship (like Ochaco said, she doesn’t really care for their relationship, but Izuku does and she knows he’d be horrified and saddened with himself if he learned he was actively damaging the friendship he worked so hard for)
So Ochaco came to the decision that the best way to help Izuku was to just be straight up and tell him about Bakugo’s feelings (yuck)
“Hey Izuku!” Ochaco gave one of those reassuring smiles she knows always works to comfort and cheer others up
“Ochaco!” An equally bright smile was returned to her and it warmed her heart
* “All the more reason to be doing this!”* -She thought, with even more determination than she had before
“I have something I wanted to ask you about Deku…” she started.
“Oh? Sure! Ask me anything, well not anything anything because I probably don’t knoweverythingandthere’sactually-“
“Izuku… rambling”
“Right, sorry” An chuckle escaped him and a grin escaped her, before she schooled her expression once more, back to neutral
“Izuku… I’ve been curious, why are you not calling Bakugo ‘kacchan’ anymore?”
“O-oh you noticed huh?” His face looked embarrassed, like he was caught doing something he shouldn’t have been, face going slightly flush
Paired with his green hair and dark seed-like freckles he kinda looks like a strawberry….
Ochaco tried hard not to giggle about her newfound strawberry revelation and instead responded with a quick “Yeah… pretty hard not to”
“shit o-ok I’ll tell you why…… as long as you workout with me sometime this week, I have a new idea for your quirk and I really really want to test it out-”
“Done. Deal.” Ochaco would’ve done that anyway, but no matter how many times she assures him, he still somehow has it in his head that she dislikes hanging out with him and needs something in return in order to do it
*probably Bakugo’s fault* she thinks sourly.
“Okay..” Izuku let out a sigh that Ochaco couldn’t decipher before continuing talking “recently I’ve been… curious, about why Kacch- Bakugo seems to hate me more than he hates everyone else”
“Izuku…”
“I always assumed that it was just because he disliked me as a person, so I thought the smartest thing to do was to distant myself, he seems extremely unhappy to be around me… a-and I don’t really need all this unnecessary drama so I thought it’d be better that I have no Bakugo than a constantly pissed off and upset one”
The way Izuku casually says *“I always assumed he just disliked me as a person” *sends a pang to her heart but she try’s to ignore it for Izuku’s sake and instead just keep listening, they really should talk about his self deprecating thoughts though…. ‘*Later*’ she reminds herself.
“But he still found me, or was forced to be around me, I mean we are in the same class and live together so ignoring him is practically impossible, so I decided to try the next best thing, limiting our interactions,
I realised that basically all our interactions were fights so I decided my next goal would be how to make our fights end, I came to my senses though when All might paired us together for an exercise and realised it would be impossible for me to get our fights to fully end so instead I decided to try and make our fights end quicker instead of them ending all together
I determined that the best and fastest way for our fight to end was to just give Bakugo nothing to fight about, just agree with everything he says until he gives up and moves on, and it had kinda been working! Just not as good as I would’ve liked
I tried lots of things partly just as tests, I kinda treated it like an experiment actually… so far some things had been affective just not as affective as I would’ve
hoped… but then I started thinking, what do I have with Bakugo that others don’t, what makes me so much more fightable?
There’s our history, ofcourse and then there’s also-“
“You calling him kacchan….. *Oh*, so you tested out calling him Bakugo… oh”
“Yeah… he seemed to go really quiet when I called him Bakugo and then he even just turned away from me and what should’ve been the start of a fight,
so that’s when I realised…. he hates me because of the nickname! And only wants to fight me because of it, it’s why he’s always extra angry and wanting to cause unnecessary fights so when I don’t use it we only fight the necessary amount”
*’Oh Izuku, you sweet oblivious boy….’*
…So he has been working on this “experiment” for awhile now and has been wanting to try and limit his and Bakugo’s fights, he saw Bakugo’s reaction to Izuku using his family name and mistook it as him being.. what’s even the word? Content? Non-angry? Whatever.
Alright…. should I tell him? Yeah probably.
“Izuku.. uhm”
“Yeah Ochaco? I swear if your about to say you couldn’t hear a word I said I’m going to kill myself-“
“No! And would you please, for the millionth time, stop joking about that.”
“Sorry ‘Chako”
“Yeah you better be. Anyways like I was saying… I uh.. I think you’ve misread the situation..”
“Ehhhhh? That is honestly an insult to my craft ‘Raka, you don’t see me correcting you about.. gravity n’ stuff”
“How many nicknames do you even have??*No- no get back on track Ochaco*… I don’t think your nicknames are what angers Bakugo”
“Seriously? No offence but logically you don’t really make any sense..” It was like she said earlier, Izuku was a genius with logic, but a complete idiot with people.
“Alright listen… I wouldn’t say Bakugo stops being mad.. I’d more so say he starts…. sulking”
“SULKING??” A few heads turned towards us because of the shriek (Via Izuku) and disturbingly loud cackle (Ochaco, duh) that accompanied it, which caused Izuku to lower his head down in shame muttering a quiet “sorry…”
Izuku didn’t continue talking until he was reassured that the heads had turned away again “Sulking?? Kac- Bakugo does not sulk.”
“And you don’t call him Bakugo, but a lot of things changed”
“That’s two things” he says with a deadpan
“Shut up. Listen, I don’t know Bakugo as well as you but I can certainly tell that he does not enjoy your use of his family name, if you wanna be in denial about why that’s fine but I know for certain he doesnt like you using Bakugo”
“Actually… that kinda might make sense… not for the reason your thinking but maybe your right about him disliking me using the Bakugo family name, I mean I also call his dad Bakugo so I see how that can be pretty weird…”
“There you go!”
“Soo if he doesn’t like me using kacchan-“ he pointedly ignored the look Ochaco gave him for saying that, god Izuku can be stubborn sometimes “and he doesn’t like me using Bakugo then what CAN I call him??”
“… why don’t you just ask him?”
“Oh! Huh that actually makes sense”
“Don’t sound so shocked!!”
This was followed with around 17 seconds of utter silence before Ochaco forced herself to speak up
“…so?”
“So?”
“Go already idiot!!”
“OH!” The heads turned back again for round two after that one but he ignored them in favour of jumping up and bouncing really fast up and down, hair moving in a way that was pretty funny to any on-lookers
“Ok I’m gonna go ask him right now!-“ he exclaims still bouncing rapidly “Thank you, love you, bye bye” he gives her a fast kiss on the cheek before turning and half-sprinting half-hopping away, she giggles before calling out to him
“Izuku!” “Yeah?!” “… your bag?” “OH RIGHT!”
He ran back, grabbed his stuff, gave her cheek another kiss, this one with slightly more care before turning and running again
Ochaco had a blinding smile on her while she watched him leave for the second time in the last minute
Bakugo better treat Izuku right, or else *she cover him in feathers, stick a piece of string on his head like alfalfa from her and Izuku’s favourite pre-quirk era movie, float said string to the roof and tell kids he’s a piñata*
_________________________________
“KAC- shit uhm BAKUGO!!”
Katsuki body sends a jolt through him and then he lets out a noise, the type of noise you’d hear from someone who’s trying to talk while something is covering their mouth, that distinct “Mmhp” escapes his mouth likely as an attempt at stopping himself from saying something that will even more likely damage his ego
he had been trying to take his evening run in peace, hoping for a distraction from his dilemma with a certain childhood friend of his, but of course because the universe (and deku) hate him said childhood friend is currently screaming after him desperately trying to catch up to him
Too bad Katsuki wouldn’t make it easy on him. He sped up immediately, transforming his light jog into the sprint of a madman.
The sound he made when he heard Deku say his name was probably the most distressed sound he has and will ever make in his entire life because Katsuki Bakugo does not do distressed.
He does angry, all his life it’s been the only emotion he was truely capable of outwardly expressing (he’s ignoring that voice in his head that’s whispering about the multiple times he’s showed different emotions infront of deku because that would mean deku had that sort of affect on him and that was simply not at all true.)
Realistically he should be angry right now, he doesn’t know why he should be feeling any sort of feeling really but he does know that if he’s going to feel anything, anger is what he should feel and he should not be feeling this weird emotion (Dammit thats probably the most he’s ever said the word “feel/feelings” in his entire life, fuck Deku for bringing this out in him honestly)
He’s definitely angry don’t get him wrong, but he’s also feeling… sadness? Disappointed? He doesn’t know.
What he does know though is that he is currently extremely confused.
Confused because… why?
Why has Deku stopped calling him Kacchan?
Why does he care so much that Deku has stopped?
Why does he feel like hes being socked in the gut every time the nerd says his name?
Why does his heart feel like a big concrete wall just slammed into it?
Why? Why? Why? Why….
…he really should be moving on from his “inner turmoil” as the alien freak so *sweetly* put it last time he ignored her and instead he should focus on the nerd who’s currently advancing on him
He doesn’t think Deku can really catch him just by running, Katsuki’s got too much of a head start and-
**Ow**
Okay so he was right, Deku couldn’t catch up to him by just ruining, but he **could** however catch up to him by leaping like a diver and then body slamming Katsuki to the ground.
*Oh this fucker*, I miss the goddamn days Deku was built like a stick.
“WHAT THE FUCK??” Katsuki, rightfully, screamed. Thank allmight there was no one around to see this embarrassing display.
“Sorry! Sorry!” He did not look the least bit sorry. “You were ignoring me, but we really gotta talk”
“You sound and act like a psychotic ex right now Deku”
“Oh Please Kacchan I have much better taste in people than you”
Katsuki was about to rebuttal the boys teasing (likely with cursing him out) until he realised-
*Wait*….
“Did you… just call me kacchan again?”
“Oh! Right! Yes! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about actually..”
He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, very different from the teasing confident Deku that slammed him to the floor from a few seconds ago
*Although* he supposes Izuku has always been good at flipping his emotions quick,
it was funny to see some people’s reactions to it and even funnier because Katsuki himself was immune to it, Deku could never shock him (or so he thought until that day in homeroom…)
Katsuki suddenly becomes re aware that his face is kissing the pavement and Deku is still straddling his back from when he body slammed him
“Deku…… get the fuck off.”
“Will you run away? Because I won’t get off if you don’t promise me you will not run away.”
With what can only be described as an exasperated sigh Katsuki says “ I swear on my old hag that I won’t run away.”
And true to his word Izuku slides off, opting to sit on the floor beside Katsuki’s head as Katsuki slowly sits up into a normal position
“That means practically nothing to me, but your backs really boney and not in a good
way so consider yourself lucky”
Katsuki forced a scoff out, trying to stifle the laughter he actually wanted to let out, sadly Deku noticed and started laughing himself
If Katsuki were in his right mind he would probably note how he and Deku were sitting on the dirty ass floor with their legs cross like a bunch of toddlers just giggling to themselves.
If anyone saw them in that moment they definitely wouldn’t have assumed the two were students who attended the most prestigious school in the entire country.
In any other situation he would rather kill himself than do what he was currently doing but honestly right now Katsuki couldn’t have cared less.
He can begrudgingly admit to himself that… *he missed this*
*He missed Deku* …. The two’s relationship had improved so much since middle school and he can’t say he’s displeased with it, Izuku himself changed to, he’s no longer terrified of Katsuki and is somewhat capable of sometimes sticking up for himself.
Speak of the devil, Izuku currently looked like he was fully embracing the sitting on the floor with his legs crossed thing- which meant Katsuki would be stuck alongside him on the floor for sometime in the unforeseen future- if anything he looked way more comfortable than he would on a normal chair, this doesn’t really surprise Katsuki, *Deku’s always been weird in a endearing kind of way*
…… *fuck*
“Sooo” the basil headed boy started
“Sooo.” The lemon haired boy mimicked
“…. I’m sorry”
“*Hah*?? What for deku??” He didn’t know Deku knew how was feeling, shit, shit shit.
He was hoping this would be one of those situations were Deku was oblivious to other peoples emotions, fuckkk.
“I know how weird it must’ve been for it to sound like I was calling for your dad instead to you, really I should’ve-“
Katsuki started tuning him out because huh… it **is** one of those situations were Deku was oblivious to other people’s emotions.
Wait what the fuck was he even on about? His dad? The fuck did his old man have to do with anything?
For a situation like this, it was definitely a good thing that Katsuki always spoke his mind.
“Deku… what the fuck are you talking about?”
“Eh? I’m talking about you disliking me calling you Bakugo”
“Right. So what does my old man have to do with this?”
“Uhm because you dislike me calling you Bakugo ‘cause I also call your dad Bakugo?”
This fucking idiot.
How has he survived living this long??
Katsuki may not know why he dislikes Deku calling him Bakugo (a lie) but he knows for a fact that his shitty old man is not the reason.
No question about it, his old man hadn’t even crossed his mind, something he is questioning though is how he replies
Should he….*confess* why he doesn’t like the name???
Fuck fuck *fuckkk*
Why are feelings so complicated?? **Ughhh**.
“Deku…. I *don’t*.. not-like you calling me Bakugo because of my shitty dad”
“Uhhh what?” Izuku looked dumbfounded, *god he’s so dumb*
……..
Maybe Katsuki’s just as dumb
“I don’t… *like* you calling me Bakugo because…. I likewhenyoucallmekachan”