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“ ‘Roki,”
Hanta pants from his spot on the couch, back to back with Denki. His back is sweaty as shit but the couch itself was too hot to lay on in the heat. “Shoto, please, do anything.”
Outside, it’s about 170 degrees, the sun blares through the windows as if attempting to melt everyone in the common room. The students had gathered there after the A/C had blown earlier that day, and the dorm rooms had become personal saunas.
“Should freeze us in?” He asks, Izuku could only imagine how hot he was—the left side of his face was so red that his scar was starting to blend in, and his shirt had been discarded and used as a makeshift sweat towel.
“I could cover the windows and doors with ice, maybe?”
Before they could all agree, Tenya chimes in, logically reminding them that if he froze them in, the ice would eventually melt in an hour tops, and they would have an entirely new problem on top of the heat.
Ochaco groans from her spot on the floor next to the couch he laid on.
“Izuku—” She stops to take a breath, as if the name had taken a lot of energy on its own. “Window.”
Izuku might’ve lost his hearing, vision, or taste.
He wasn’t sure.
He was certain something was gone though, because the turn to face the window was absolutely excruciating, and the strand of Blackwhip that came out of his arm was pitiful.
He fumbled with the latches on the window before sliding it open, a collective sigh from the whole class as the stuffy air inside starts to dissipate.
Somewhere, Tsuyu asks if anyone knew where they kept the miniature fans, her tongue lolling out her mouth as she talked.
The couch was soaked with sweat, both Izuku’s own and Katsuki’s, who, due to him not feeling like blowing up half the block this morning, had taken to sticking his head in the freezer.
Izuku strained to throw himself against the back of the couch, arms hanging off it as he motioned for Katsuki.
“Kacchan—” Oh. Yeah, Ochaco wasn’t kidding, he wasn’t even sure if the name even had left his mouth.
“Kacchan.” He tried again, a bit louder, barely catching Katsuki’s response of a gruff ‘What’ into the freezer.
“Popsicle.” God, this conversation was taking more focus than One for All had taken to master. “Please, we’re dying.”
Katsuki scans the freezer.
“None.” He answers dryly.
There's a flash of green, a sound of rustling, and in 2 seconds Izuku is at his side.
The heat is really slowing him down.
“What do you mean there’s none?!” Izuku shrieks, the rest of the class snap their necks in their direction, horror and shock —as well as betrayal— flooding their faces.
Izuku tries to push Katsuki out of the way but his head is still in the freezer and he is not giving that up anytime soon, so he just steps to the side and lets him raid the shelves himself.
“It’s empty!” He calls, as if that wasn’t what Katsuki had just said.
Katsuki swears he hears Denki give a cry of anguish somewhere behind him, and rolls his eyes when Mina breathes in a dramatic gasp and clings to Ochaco.
“It’s over.” Izuku says, joining him in the freezer. His forehead hits a bag of frozen peas and Katsuki turns his head over on his own carrots to face him.
“We’re dead.”
Another cry of anguish —Hanta, this time— and Katsuki realizes that he’s waaaaaay too close to Izuku when he catches himself recounting the freckles on his face.
It’s so easy for Katsuki now, to get distracted by Izuku just being near him. No matter what he does those fluffy curls always end up in his field of vision when they’re out on patrol, the sound of his laughter floating through the halls of UA, finding him no matter how far he is.
He stands straight, met with a whine as he tugs Izuku out the freezer by the back of his shirt —a light airy one that says “heatwave shirt” on it that makes him want to punch him into the stratosphere— and grabs the jug of pink lemonade from the fridge.
“Icyhot.” He calls, tossing it to him.
Shoto goes to catch it, but his arm works against him and he ends up smacking himself in the face with his right hand.
Katsuki snorts, leaning over the counter because the heat makes even standing hard. “Freeze that shit so we don’t die.”
“Please!” Izuku chimes after him, making up for Katsukis forgotten manners, and a plea for him to do it as quickly as possible.
Shoto nods, nudging the people who had been using him as a human cooler off him a bit, as Tsuyu and Iida return with the fans.
Izuku leans over next to him, one hand under his chin, the freezer door still wide open and blowing air onto them both, as they watch their classmates pass the jug in a blunt rotation, water-falling the slushed juice.
They always end up like this somehow, Izuku and him, just watching.
Izuku had always been a people watcher to begin with, though, over the last two and a half years Katsuki had realized why.
These are people he feels he wants to protect, not just because he's a hero. When he watches them it’s a reminder that they’re all alive and safe in the comfort of dorms together, even after everything that tried to take them away from each other.
When they fought that war a year and a half ago, it wasn’t only for the sake of Japan, they fought for each other. They protected, so they could go home together, and they won because they wanted to continue to win together.
They got strong together.
For each other.
Izuku hums, as if reading his mind and agreeing with him. Katsuki turns his head and realizes that he is — once again — too close to him.
Izuku’s soft smile pulls at his face, the heat’s made his freckles so prominent on his cheeks that Katsuki could map out constellations on them if he let him.
He probably would if he asked him nicely.
Everything about Izuku always shines, his eyes as he watches his classmates—specifically Katsuki—, his teeth when he smiles at someone—specifically Katsuki—, even just his demeanor when he was around someone from class—does he even have to say who?—seemed to be more at ease.
Katsuki as well, but only really one person did that to him.
He wanted to be by that one person forever, chasing after him, competing to be the best and only being their best when together.
For the rest of their lives.
“Izu—” Katsuki starts but he’s cut short mid sentence by dunce face.
“You guys want some?” Denki asks, tussling the jug out of Hanta’s hands.
Iida comes up to them and hands Izuku a fan, reminding him that quirk use in the dormitory is prohibited, he could tell it was him from the debris that was left over.
Izuku apologizes as Ochaco calls him and Shoji over to help her open up all the windows, his attention effectively set on the new task before Katsuki even gets it.
Katsuki takes a moment to collect himself.
Maybe he should’ve just blown up the dorm to begin with.