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“No,” Katuski scoffs, shaking his head. He doesn’t understand how these people can be so damn eager to replace Eijirou, it just feels fucking wrong. He gets that they want to go on stage again and he can even understand their sentiment that Eijirou wouldn’t want them to split up the band but why do they have to replace him?
“C’mon, Katsuki,” Mina falls down onto the couch next to him and wraps an arm around him but he shrugs her off immediately, “We need a guitarist, you need a cowriter, you need a backup vocalist-”
“You can do that one,” Katsuki points out, “I can write all our songs myself, I don’t need a cowriter, and, fuck, I’ll be our guitarist, I can learn that shit.”
Mina shrugs, “First of all, just because I can, that doesn’t mean I like to. I like to focus on my keyboard and singing has never really been my thing. Second of all, writing every single song by yourself sounds terribly time consuming and difficult. Finally, we definitely need someone with real experience on the guitar and not just your dumbass trying it out for two seconds before getting pissed off.”
“Oh fuck you,” Katsuki spouts out, getting off of the couch, “you’re an asshole. We’re not replacing Eijirou, I don’t care. We aren’t doing it.”
“Well,” Denki clears his throat, “Mina’s made some pretty good points and we, uh, kinda already have some interviews scheduled?” He strings together that last bit of the sentence really quickly, Katsuki can barely make it out but he does and he’s angry.
Hanta, their manager (he wanted to be a part of the band their friend group started but didn’t want to actually do any of the music stuff; Kyouka also helps with some management stuff but she’s not as involved as Hanta since she has a full time job at a music store), chimes in, “They’re later this afternoon but they’re nice people, Katsuki. I know all of them personally, I think you should just give them a chance.”
And, well, screw that. Eijirou died. His boyfriend - okay, technically ex-boyfriend, they had broken up months before Eijirou died but Katsuki’s never really been able to get over him - died. It’s only been a couple of months. A couple of months and they already want to keep going. It just feels wrong, it feels real fucking wrong.
“Look,” Mina speaks softly, “this isn’t us replacing Eijirou, Katsuki. It’s keeping his memory alive, no? How do you think he would feel if he knew we stopped the band after he died.”
“Fuck you,” Katsuki ignores the sting behind his eye threatening to overflow with tears; He knows Mina is right, he’s thought about it himself but he can’t bring himself to actually acknowledge that.
“We aren’t replacing him,” Mina steps forward, placing a hand on his arm but he jerks it away. Mina, for the first time in her entire life, takes the hint and doesn’t touch him again, “we could never replace him.”
Katsuki refuses to look at Mina or Denki because he just knows that he’ll start crying and he does not want to deal with crying right now on top of everything else, “Fuck,” He grumbles, a tear spilling out anyway. So, he looks up at Mina, then to Denki, then back to Mina, then over to Hanta, then back to Mina and he just shrugs, “Fine, do whatever you want; can’t say I’ll approve of them though.”
He feels a random chill run up his spine but he ignores it, it probably doesn’t really mean anything. He starts to walk away but is stopped by Mina’s voice, though he doesn’t even turn around as he listens to her say, “We’re going through some interviews today at 4:00, please be there.”
“Whatever,” Katsuki rolls his eyes and continues to walk off. He’ll fuckin’ be there because he’s the best damn friend and bandmate or whatever but he’s not going to like it.
For now, though, he is going to home to just decompress from the day and try and get away from this weird presence he’s been feeling. He has half the mind to think that it’s Eijirou, since it only started showing up after he died, but then again that’s just completely stupid and he knows that, logically, it’s just his mind playing tricks on him and that is it.
The moment he gets home he just flops down onto his couch, not even having it in him to make it to his bedroom. He shuts his eyes and just takes a deep breath. It doesn’t take him long to fall asleep after that, moving into the land of dreams, which he’d really rather not be in because he always sees Eijirou. He’s always there talking to him and it feels so fucking real that when he wakes up it feels like he’s going through all the phases of grief again.
He wakes up from his nap not too long after that, making sure he has enough time to have a small snack and get ready before having to meet up with his band mates plus Hanta for these damn interviews. He tries to ignore the fact that he dreamed of Eijirou again but, well, it’s really easier said than done, it plagues his mind and he’s unable to think of anything but that until he gets to the interviews.
Then, his mind is filled with the fact that he hates every single one of these applicants and there is no way that he’s letting them in the band; his band mates plus Hanta agree with himm too until it comes to this one specific guy.
“Midoriya Izuku!” The guy bows quickly, “It’s really nice to meet all of you!” He sits down in the seat meant for him.
They go through the typical first question of, “How much experience do you have?”
“Oh,” He chuckles a bit, “well my mom taught me how to play the guitar when I was really little so I’ve been doing that for, gosh,” He seems to think about it for a while, “maybe 20 years? I didn’t really get into writing songs until high school though, so only about 10 years of singing and songwriting.”
“Wow, that’s more than Katsuki,” Mina smirks, eyeing him and Denki just snorts out laughter.
Katsuki rolls his eyes and shoots her a glare, “Shut up, you’ve been writing for how long? And I’m a better lyricist than you. Sometimes experience doesn’t mean shit,” He turns to look at this Midoriya guy with his stupid green eyes and his dumb freckles and his senseless hair and ugh; it takes everything in him not to groan angrily on the spot, “do you have any examples of your work?”
“Oh! Of course I do!” The stupid asshole is prepared; Katsuki hates it. Midoriya pulls out his phone and presses a few things, “I have an album and a couple songs I released before that,” He hands over the phone, “feel free to give any of them a listen, I’m proud of them all!” He grins.
Katsuki takes the phone and looks down at the album, taking it in and trying not to think too much about the fact that both Mina and Denki are breathing down his neck to look at the phone. He spot the artist name, “Midoriya Deku?”
“Izuku,” The man corrects.
“Yeah, but you can read it as Deku,” Katsuki points out.
He takes a deep breath and just nods, “Yeah, okay.”
“Let’s listen to a song,” Mina reaches over and clicks on the first track, “stop being an asshole, Katsuki.”
“No can do, it’s in my blood,” Katsuki retorts but everybody is staying quiet now to listen to the song. There’s some very nice production in the background before Deku’s vocals come in and, damnit, he’s good.
“This one is completely self written,” Deku points out as the song is coming to an end, the production dying out, “I have a co-writer, my friend Ochako, on a few of the songs on that album but I wrote that one myself.”
“I hate it,” Katsuki concludes. Lying. The guy is a great lyricist, there were some genius lines in there and he plays on his words very well but something about the guy just irks Katsuki; maybe it’s simply the fact that he’s good enough to take Eijirou’s spot and he just- he doesn’t feel right replacing Eijirou. Yeah, Mina has assured him that Eijirou isn’t being replaced, his spot is just being filled or whatever but it sure feels like they’re replacing him.
Deku barely even has time to have a reaction to Katsuki’s words before Mina immediately starts to fangirl and scream about how much she likes the song and asks Deku to give her some tips on writing while saying that she’d really like to write a song with him. Denki agrees, also super excited and showering Deku in compliments.
Katsuki just sits back, crossing his arms. He hates this guy; does he really think he can just come in here with one song and win over both his bandmates. The three of them get to talking, even Hanta joins in at one point and all of them are getting along and being friendly with each other while Katsuki is just forced to sit in his spot stewing in his hatred.
After Deku leaves, Mina and Denki both declare that Deku should be a bigger artist because of how amazing his music is and hten they decide that he should get the empty spot on their band. Katsuki disagrees immediately but even Hanta chimes in that Deku would be a perfect fit.
“No,” Katsuki refuses to let him join, he doesn’t like the guy, he’s just weird, “He’s not joining. I still don’t even understand why we need a new member.”
Mina rolls her eyes, “You already agreed we’d search for somebody and you’ve hated every single person that we’ve spoken to today but Midoriya is actually good, he’d fit in perfectly.”
“He doesn’t fit our aesthetic, he’s completely different.”
Hanta shrugs, “I’ve been looking into his performances and I gotta say he fits our aesthetic pretty damn well,” He turns his phone toward Katuski and there’s fucking Deku on stage with a presence that completely fits the vibe of their band.
Katsuki hates it and, apparently, has pretty much no say in him joining the band because Denki chimes in with a, “Well, all three of us like him and think he should join so…”
“He’s joining!” Mina concludes, grinning, “You’ll get used to him, I’m sure.”
Katsuki does not, in fact, get used to him. Whenever the band meets for practices, Katsuki is always snapping at him, trying to get him to do better or fix something. When they’re writing music together, Katsuki always criticizes anything he tries to include, he disagrees with his lines and anything production wise. He’s always calling him names and yelling at him and overall it’s because he’s fucking angry.
He doesn’t get how his band mates actually like the guy, he’s obnoxious. He’s almost too nice, he brushes off all of Katsuki’s insults, he’s always asking and looking for ways to “improve” himself in the band, and overall he just does too much. It’s not okay. It’s weird, it’s really fucking weird and Katuski doesn’t like it.
Then he keeps having these fucking dreams of Eijirou and getting these feelings of his presence being around him, he gets chills and it makes him absolutely lose his mind. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing at this point anymore.
Eventually, Deku starts to give Katsuki the same energy back to him and that’s when Katsuki feels it. Something. He doesn’t know what because he promptly shoves it in a box and throws it into the deep pits of his mind to never be seen ever again.
“You can’t put a line like that in a chorus, that’s fucking dumb,” Katsuki scoffs, tossing the pencil down on the paper, “you really think that’s catchy? No. Fuck that. I can’t beleive they let you in this damn band, oh my god.”
Deku scoffs and rolls his eyes, sitting up quickly from his seat and slamming his hands down on the table, “Y’know what, if you’re so fucking good at writing why don’t you succesfully release your own record and get a hundred thousand sales? Hm? Oh wait, you have to rely on your damn band because you have too much fo a shitty personality to make it on your own, huh?” He glares at Katsuki, “Look I don’t know why you hate me so fucking much but I sure hope you know that the feeling is mutual, Bakugou.”
Katsuki snorts out a laughter, “Good! You’re finally not acting like you’re fucking perfect, thanks for revealing your true colors.”
Deku seems to be actually shaking through frustration but just shakes his head, holding his hands up and backing off, “Y'know what? You can write this stupid song by yourself, I’m going home. Fuck you, Bakugou.”
Then he’s off, starting to walk out; Mina and Denki are almost completely speechless from the other side of the room and Hanta is completely speechless. Denki is the first one to talk, “Woah, Midoriya, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Mina comes in next, “we know Katsuki can be an asshole, we’re sorry about him. Are you okay? I’ve never seen you snap like tha-”
Deku flashes them a smile and it’s like he wasn’t even ever angry in the first place; it’s kind of terrifying to see how quickly he switches up, “Oh, I’m alright don’t worry! I’ll be here for practice tomorrow, I should just get home for the night. Thank you guys so much for the practice,” He bows and then he’s off.
Mina is immediately after Katsuki, hitting him with a rolled up piece of paper and calling him an asshole, telling him to get it together because Deku is really nice or whatever and he shouldn’t be acting like a dick but he tells her to shut up because it is what it is and he’s not going to change the way he acts because of some nerd’s feelings. He goes home shortly after that only to be visited by Eijirou in yet another dream.
It’s starting to get almost annoying the way Eijirou is always showing up in his dreams; he’s trying so hard to heal from his death but constantly seeing him isn’t helping at all, it’s just making him miss him more.
After the first day Deku yelled at Katsuki, it happened a lot more; it happened daily, even. There was constant arguing between the two of them, screaming and insulting each other but then when it came to Denki and Mina and Hanta and Kyouka, Deku was just like an entirely different person. He was back to his usual kind self, the person he tried to be with Katsuki at the beginning.
Despite all of their hatred for each other, they do manage to get quite a number of good songs written and produced; their vocals mesh surprisingly well and they sound good, as much as Katsuki hates to admit it.
It’s not until they’re alone working on writing a song together that they really get to talking. Mina was all worried to leave them but Katsuki promised not to absolutely murder Deku; it took a few more of those promises before Mina, Denki, and Hanta actually left.
They work on their own lyrics silently for a little while, it’s not very comfortable and Katsuki kinda wishes he was at home right now to work on this but he’s not so he just endures the awkward silence and tries to think of a word that rhymes with summer. Deku breaks the silence, though; he clears his throat and looks up at Katsuki, “Look, I don't know why you hate me so fucking much but can’t we just work together?”
“That’s what we’re doing,” Katsuki answers shortly, writing down ‘slumber’ as a possible word to use to rhyme with summer, “working. Together. Right now.”
Deku rolls his eyes, “You’re obnoxious.”
“So are you.”
“Why do you hate me so much? What did I do to you?”
“Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because you’ve been an asshole to me the entire time I’ve been here,” Deku responds easily before turning the question back around to it’s intended recipient, “now why do you hate me? Just tell me.”
Katsuki throws his notebook and pencil down onto the table and looks up at Deku, “You seriously don’t know?”
Deku rolls his eyes, “Would I be asking the question if I did? The fuck,” He mumbles the last bit under his breath shaking his head.
“Becuase you’re a damn replacement, Deku,” Katsuki snarls, “You’re a replacement and you replaced a good fucking man who died. Nobody deserves his spot and you got it and-” He bites at his cheek, trying to keep himself from crying; every single time Eijirou’s name gets brought up, it just brings him to wanting to cry and htat’s another thing he really fucking hates; then suddenly he’s turning from angry to just almost numb, spouting out his words, “and I hate that you’re actually good at this,” He mumbles, “I hate that you fit and I hate that you’re so damn nice and I hate that you know how to do this and I hate that we’re writing good songs and making good music when I used to do that with him. I hate that Mina and Denki have inside jokes with you in the same way that they did with him. I hate that you and Hanta get along so well. I hate that sometimes I actually find you funny and I hate that it feels like I shouldn’t fucking hate you.”
Deku doesn’t say anything for a moment after that, instead he just stares before setting down his own notebook and pen slowly, “Careful, Bakugou, you’re spilling a whole lot of secrets.”
“Yeah, well you asked, asshole,” Katsuki rolls his eyes, pikcing up his pencil again and playing with it between his fingers.
Deku nods, “I sure did but you didn’t have to tell me,” He smiles, “I don’t think you hate me at all.”
“I do,” Katsuki assures him of that, “I actually kind of despise you.”
“Aww,” Deku pretends to pout, seemingly holding back some laughter, “am I your enemy? Just because I took an empty spot on a band?”
“You are not my enemy,” Katsuki snarls but, well, he feels that chill, that chill that makes him zone in on the presence of what feels like Eijirou, like his ghost is there and following him around. So, Katsuki rethinks his statement and thinking about it, maybe he is. The definition of “enemy” is a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something” and, well, Katsuki si definitely both opposed and hostile toward Deku.
But Deku is hostile right back so whatever.
“You wanna know what I think?” Deku asks, those big innocent eyes staring over at him, “I think you’re grieving and I think it’s okay for you to grieve but it’s not okay for you to take it out on me.”
“Fuck you, Deku.”
“I’m being serious! Grieve all you want, get sad and angry and fucking hate the world for takign this man too soon but don’t hate me just because I’m an easy target,” Deku stands up, gathering his things, “It’s hurtful and I’ve been dealing with it, I’ve been dishing it back, and I have been just as much of an asshole, which I’ve realized is a bad thing to do especially considering I didn’t know the full situation but, god, Bakugou. Get it together. You’re a grown man. Figure your shit out on your own or get some therapy or something but for the love of god stop insulting my work, which I know is good, because you’re in a bad mental space,” He finishes picking up all his things, “I’m going home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Katsuki is then left there to just think about his words and, as per usual, he hates how right they are. He wants to throw himself off of a cliff or something because he cannot think about all of this. Yeah, he’s been an asshole but he’s always been an asshole, right?
Maybe not to the extent of asshole-ery that Deku has been subjected to but he’s not just being an asshole because of Eijirou, right? He just doesn’t like Deku and that’s that.
Right.
Well, he’s got a lot to think about on his drive home, that’s for damn sure. He wishes he could shut his mind off, he doesn’t want to think about all the totally valid points that Deku made. He doesn’t want to think about Deku or his perfectly dumb smile and his dumb hair and his dumb eyes and his dumb freckles and his dumb personality and his dumb self. He just doesn’t want to think about that guy but he’s all that’s on his mind. His words play over and over and over and over again in his brain.
That box that Katsuki threw into the deep depths of his mind all of those months ago is somehow climbing it’s way back to the surface and Katsuki is trying his best to jam it back down but it’s stubborn, just like Katsuki, threatening to open itself up and spill everywhere.
He goes to bed that night without dinner, he just wants to sleep and get his mind off fo everything. It doesn’t help, though, that he dreams of Eijirou. Again. The man is almost completely colorless besides his bright red hair, sitting down on the floor.
“Hi, Katsuki,” Eijirou grins but it falters pretty quickly, “I need to talk to you.”
“You always need to talk to me,” Katsuki rolls his eyes and sits down on the floor in front of Eijirou but it’s a dream floor so it’s weird and Katsuki has learned not to question the fact that it’s not a real floor, “what is it baout this time?”
“Midoriya Izuku.”
Katuski’s eyes widen, “What the fuck do you know about him?”
“Nothing really,” Eijirou shrugs, “but I know you aren’t very nice to him.”
“I’m not very nice to you either. Or to Mina. Or to Denki. Or to fucking Hanta. Or to-”
“You’re extra not nice to him and that’s not very manly, Katsuki,” Eijirou crosses his arm, "I think you really like him, Katsuki, I think maybe you could actually love him.”
“Woah what the fuck? That came out of nowhere, I barely know the guy.”
“You’re attracted to him,” Eijirou mentions and all of a sudden there’s a box in his hands that he’s opening and pulling things out of, “you like his laugh, you think his eyes are pretty. You think his hair is stupid and you wanna be the one to fix it,” He reads each thing off of a little note from the box, “you think that he’s already replaced me in the band and you don’t want him to replace me in your life.”
“He won’t.”
“No, he won’t,” Eijioru agrees, “but he can be an addition to your life. You just need to just accept Midoriya. Accepting him doesn't mean you're replacing me in your mind or your or your work. I'm still me and Midoriya is Midoriya. You don't have to be so rude to him just because he took my spot in the band. Apologize to him. Let him in. Love him if you can but just start by liking him.”
“What if-”
“No,” Eijirou shakes his head, “don’t think about what ifs or dumb things like that. We were broken up when I died, Katsuki. I know you loved me even after that but we weren’t right for each other and I always knew you’d end up finding someone. I thought I’d be alive to see it and be able to encourage you so it’s kinda sad that I’m not but this is how I can. This is the only way I can, in your dreams. Just let him in, okay?”
Then Katsuki wakes up, it’s almost like he jolts awake in the way he has to take a deep breath the moment he wakes. He pounds his fists against his head because why is Eijioru fucking haunting his dreams? This isn’t okay. He can already feel his presence around constantly, he already sees him in his dreams way too much but lately it’s been nightly and after this one? He’s pretty sure he’s going fucking crazy. He’s sure of it.
It just felt so real. That felt like his realest one yet, it felt like Eijioru was right there and- Okay, shit, he needs to go to one of his friends for this. He’s gotta.
He calls up Mina, who answers on the first ring, “Hey, what’s up?”
“Okay so, fuck, I’m gonna sound like an insane person but I just had a dream about Eijirou and it felt so real like he was right there with me. I genuinely don’t know what to do, Mina. I think I'm being haunted by him,” Katuski admits, knowing it sounds absolutely insane but trying his best to just get it out there because he’s going insane keeping it all to himself, “I’ve been feeling his presence everywhere and sometimes he’s in my dreams.”
“What the fuck?” Mina laughs, “Are you okay? Do we need to get you in some kind of program or hospital or something?”
“No,” Katsuki rolls his eyes, “it’s just, he’s haunting me. He’s a ghost and he’s been following me around and now he’s starting to completely take over me dreams.”
“Okay,” Mina says slowly, “Well what does he say exactly?”
“Usually we just talk about life but this time he said that I need to stop being so fuckin' rude to Deku but in my defense, that guy is just as rude to me.”
“Well he's nice to everybody else, he's only rude to you because you're rude to him, Katuski. I thought that was obviou."
“Well,” Katuski sighs, “Shit.”
Mina giggles, “Aw, character growth, you’re realizing you suck and you should probably go apologize to Midoriya, huh?
“Yeah,” Katsuki mutters, hanging up on Mina’s obnoxious self.
It takes him a couple of weeks to actually work up the courage to apologzie to Deku, though. And in those couple of weeks, the two are just as rude to each other, throwing insults back and forth, yelling at each other, cursing each other out, and all of that fun stuff. Mina sometimes likes to just glare at him nowadays, in an attempt to get Katsuki to apologize; then there’s the fact that Eijirou has been in his dreams every single night since that night just telling Katsuki to apologize so, for fuck’s sake, he does it one night.
It’s when they’re alone again, working on some music that Katsuki finally works up the courage to blurt out, “I’m fuckin’...” He trails off, why is it so difficult to actually say the words? He just forces them out of himself, though, “sorry, or whatever. For being an asshole.”
Deku looks up from his work with a smile on his face, “Watch out, Bakugou, I think you just apologized to me.”
“Yeah well what if I did?”
Deku laughs, putting his work down, “Then I’d ask what brought this? And why you’d think I’d even forgive you with they way you’ve been actin toward me.
Katsuki goes quiet, he’s going to sound absolutely insane if he tells Deku why he’s apologizing. Sure, he could lie and say that mina told him to but what if he figures out that katsuki was lying by asking Mina or something?
“Well?” Deku asks.
Katsuki takes a deep breath, “Fuckin Eijirou told me to apologize and I guess I don’t expect you to forgive my shitty behaviour.”
“Isn’t-” Deku’s eyebrows furrow together, he seems very confused, “Isn’t he dead?”
“Yeah, it was a dream,” Katsuki explains quickly, “A really realistic dream that I know is probably stupid as fuck but I’m not going to get into right now so do you accept my damn apology or not? For fuck’s sake,” He mumbles under his breath, “this is why I don’t apologize to people, fuckin’ bullshit and-”
Deku just shrugs, “Yeah, I guess I’ll accept your apology. On one condition.”
“Oh great,” Katsuki rolls his eyes, “What is it?”
“Don’t stop.”
“What?”
“I mean maybe don’t be as hostile but,” Deku speaks slowly, “Don’t completely stop.”
“Oh my god, Deku,” Katsuki’s eyes widen and a smirk falls onto his face; something else is being added into that box of his at this rate, “Are you into it?”
“No,” Deku denies immediately, “Absolutely not. No. I just…”
“You’re into it,” Katsuki laughs, “you’re a fucking masochist, aren't you, Deku?”
“Okay that’s just-” Deku tries all flustered now but Katsuki doesn’t let him get too far into the sentence.
Katsuki interrupts him, a playful glint in his eye; he hates how easily he’s speaking with Deku now that he’s actually apologized and figured a little bit of his shit out. Could they have been interacting like this the whole time? This, dare he say, flirting? “I think you like me, Deku.”
“Stop calling me Deku.”
“Then what should I call you?”
“Izuku?”
“Ooo Izuku? Not Midoriya?
He just shrugs.
“On one condition.”
The other man rolls his eyes, “Using my own words against me now?”
Katsuki’s smirk turns more obvious, “Maybe I am.”
“Well what’s this condition?”
“You’ve gotta call me Katsuki.”
“That’s it?”
“Mhm.”
“Hmmm,” Deku hums before something mischievous crosses over his face, “what about Kacchan?’’
Katuski’s face goes so bright red at that that he doesn’t even know how long it took him to speak, “Whatever,” He agrees, though.
“I have one more condition to me accepting the apology.”
Katsuki rolls his eyes, “Seriously? I thought we had something good going on here, De- Izuku.”
“We do, Kacchan,” Izuku smiles, standing up, “the request is simple and I guess you don’t have to do it if you really don’t want to but I hope that you will.”
“Well get on with it,” Katsuki’s impatient, okay? Why can’t Izuku just tell him his damn request and get it over with.
“Kiss me,” Izuku is confident with it and it makes Katsuki almost fall right then and there (and he’s sitting down).
If Katsuki was drinking something right now he’d either choke or spit it out - maybe both.
He’s hesitant; it’s not that he doesn’t want to, he’s pretty sure he’s wanted to kiss the stupid smile off of this guy since he first saw him but he just feels like it’d be a betrayal to Eijirou. That is until he sees a see through Eijirou in the hallway behind Izuku, he’s smiling and nodding.
He’s encouraging Katsuki.
Of course he is, fuck. The guy has always been too good for his own good.
That’s kinda all the encouragement Katsuki needs, though, because as quickly as he saw the nod he’s up from his chair and in front of Izuku, grabbing onto the side of his neck, using his thumb to bring up Izuku’s chin, making his lips more available to him. He shuts his eyes and kisses Izuku like his life depends on it; he knows that at the bottom of that box of his is a little note that Eijirou didn’t get to reading in his dream about this exact scene. Kissing Izuku in the way he’s kissing him is something Katsuki has thought about countlessly while yelling at him and insulting him, all things he didn’t even mean.
Izuku kisses back with just as much urgency; it takes everything in them to leave it at kissing but eventually they do break apart, panting and staring at each other. Katsuki takes half a second to look behind Izuku for Eijirou but all he sees his the man’s grinning face disappearing before he’s looking right back at Izuku.
Izuku giggles, “Yeah, okay, I think I can accept your apology now.”
“Yeah?”
“Mhm,” Izuku confirms, moving to sit back down in his seat and leaves Katsuki just standing there, recovering from the kiss, “Do you think we should write a song about this?”
It forces a jolt of laughter out of Katsuki and he finds the nearest pillow to throw at Izuku, “You’re a dumbass.”
Izuku catches the pillow, “C’mon! It’d be a good song!”
“I think it’d be a dumb song that everyone would make fun of.”
“It would be interesting!”
They carry on like that for the rest of the night and come to the conclusion to, yes, write a song about their story.
Katsuki doesn’t ever feel Eijirou’s presence after that and he doesn’t dream about him anymore, yet he thinks he’ll be just fine.
Yeah, he’ll be just fine.