Work Text:
Izuku and Katsuki spent a lot of time together in the privacy of their dorm rooms during their second year. Not for any nefarious reasons, but rather to get away from the hustle and bustle of the normal dorm life. People shouting across halls, the common room usually having a group or two in their own loud conversations, all things of the sort. It was nice for the new couple to have some space to themselves.
While Katsuki considers Izuku to be his first boyfriend, he prides himself on being honest. And he’s sure Izuku would appreciate the honesty when, while sitting together against the backboard of Katsuki’s bed frame, Izuku asks the question:
“Kacchan, have you ever liked anyone else?” Katsuki could practically smell the potential jealousy emanating from Izuku. But who was he to suddenly become a liar after years of having a perfect record?
Keeping his gaze firmly on the very blank wall straight ahead, he answers. “...Yeah. Well, kinda.” Katsuki purposefully left out a large part of the story, hoping that maybe Izuku wouldn’t prod. He already knew that wouldn’t be the case. Izuku’s head immediately snaps to Katsuki, eyes widened, and for a split second, he looked a bit hurt. Just as soon as the emotion had appeared, it was replaced by curiosity.
“Kinda? What does ‘kinda’ mean? Who was it? When? Do I know them? Were they a boy or a girl? How long did you like them for? Did they know you liked them-”
“Too many questions. One at a time or else I won’t answer any,” an empty threat. Katsuki could never refuse Izuku.
“Fine, fine, sorry. I just really didn’t expect that. First, um…” A beat. Izuku chewed his lip in thought, “what do you mean by you ‘kinda’ liked them?”
“Uh…” Here comes the complicated part. Katsuki wasn’t exactly sure how to put this without sounding any alarms in Izuku’s mind. Still avoiding looking directly at Izuku, he says, “I didn’t really know them.”
A puzzled look covers Izuku’s face for a moment, before he seems to understand. “Ohh, like a celebrity crush! That’s not that weird, Kacchan, everyone has those-”
“No,” Katsuki interrupts, “not a celebrity.” He refuses to detail any further than that.
“Oh. A hero then?” Katsuki’s expression sours, realizing Izuku probably won’t get it without it being spelled out to him. “Is it someone we’ve met? Is that why you don’t wanna say? Oh- don’t say it was All M-”
“No!” Katsuki practically shouts, finally turning to look at Izuku. “God, no, it wasn’t All Might, fuck- Why would it be All Might? That’s weird!” At that, Izuku becomes a bit shifty. Katsuki then raises an eyebrow, silently asking a question he wouldn’t dare say out loud. It’s then Izuku’s turn to avoid his gaze.
“Izuku!”
“What- I was like, 13! It wasn’t even-”
“You see him every day!”
“It’s not like I still look at him like that!” Izuku’s face burned a cherry red, obviously embarrassed by the whole exchange.
“...Are you sure?” Katsuki asks. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Izuku, he just wanted to make sure. He could never be too sure.
“Of course, Kacchan! Ew, he’s like a dad to me now- Hey! This isn’t about me!” Izuku turned back to Katsuki and remembered the beginning of the conversation, much to Katsuki’s dismay. “Who was it then?”
“Err… not a hero,” Katsuki eloquently supplied.
“That wasn’t my question.” Katsuki knew that.
“Ugh, ok,” he looked away again, “I don’t really know.”
Izuku looked comically perplexed by this. “What? What does that even mean?”
“It means I don’t know! What’s so hard to understand?!”
“Uh, maybe the part where you didn’t know who you ‘kinda’ liked?” A fair point, Katsuki acknowledged. “How did you like someone you didn’t know?”
“Well, I did know them,” which Katsuki realized was a contradicting statement to what he just said, “but I didn’t know who they were.” Katsuki looked back at Izuku, making eye contact. More confusion painted Izuku’s face, then a sudden expression of understanding.
“So you didn’t know what they looked like.”
“Right.”
“Or their name.”
“Yup.”
“But you talked a lot, right?”
“Mhm.”
“Kacchan,” Izuku began, “you had an online relationship, didn’t you?”
A sigh. Katsuki dropped his head in shame, “...Yea. Before you say anything I know that kind of thing is dangerous, but to be fair I was 14 and stupid, and it kinda just happened out of nowhere-”
“Hold on!” Izuku interrupted, “I wasn’t gonna say anything before- well, I actually was gonna say everything you just said, but not that! I mean- uh… I wasn’t gonna tell you this, ‘cause it didn’t really seem all that important but, uh. I did too.”
“...Huh?” That was all Katsuki could manage through his surprise. He knew Izuku was what some would call “chronically online” in middle school, but he hadn’t expected that from him. Because of how awkward Izuku used to be, Katsuki couldn’t imagine him at that age in any kind of relationship.
“Yeah, it was uh. Kinda weird. I think that was when I realized I liked both boys and girls… in that way.”
“What, so you were talking to some random guy?” Katsuki questioned, assuming the worst. It was probably some creepy, middle-aged weirdo baiting children-
“No, no, I already knew I liked boys! I was 14 when this all happened, and I knew I had the- uh… thing for All Might when I was younger. Oh, and I also liked you before that, too. This was me finding out that I liked girls.”
“Pause,” Katsuki started, “You liked me before that? Like, when I was a dick?” This was starting to alarm him a bit.
“Oh- yes! I forgot I never mentioned that. Yeah, I think I started liking you before you had your quirk. I’m not actually sure when it started,” a pause, “I guess it was always kinda there.”
While Katsuki was flattered, he still had questions. “Ok, so if you liked me that whole time, why were you talking to some girl online?” He belatedly realized his tone had come off as a bit jealous.
“Err… it was kinda because I was trying to get over you…” Izuku said, looking away.
“Oh,” Katsuki said, shamefully. Couldn’t argue with that.
“Yeah… but that’s the past! Not the point,” Izuku said, clearly trying to steer the conversation away from the current route, “Who were you talking to?”
“A guy,” Katsuki admitted transparently. “He said he was my age, but looking back, his vocabulary was way too wide for a 14-year-old.”
Izuku laughed at that. “Really? What makes you say that?”
“Glad you asked,” Katsuki added with a smile. While he was definitely over the mystery guy by now, he looked back on their conversations fondly. “His favorite thing to call me was ‘capricious’. Had to look that one up myself.”
“...Capricious, like… having sudden mood swings?” Izuku asked, a sudden suspicion in his voice.
“Good job, you’re smarter than 14-year-old me. Want a cookie?”
“No, no, I just used to use that word a lot online…” Izuku gazed off, seemingly deep in thought. “But I’m sure that’s a coincidence! I was talking to a girl, and you’re obviously not one,” Izuku reasoned.
“Right.” Katsuki had purposefully left out another bit of information. He was sure it wasn’t important.
“Right.” Izuku couldn’t help wondering how something so specific could be a coincidence, though. “Uh, what else did he say? Y’know, like, vocabulary-wise?”
Katsuki began to worry. “Um… he’d say he was feeling ‘loquacious’ whenever he wanted to talk. And he would say he’d ‘acquiesce’ with people on the forum where we met-”
“Kacchan,” Izuku interjected, tone even and flat, “what forum did you meet on?”
“Well, it doesn’t exist anymore ‘cause of all the discourse, but it was some All Might discussion page on Reddit-”
“r/allmightdebates?” he supplied, and Katsuki knew. He knew.
“...Yeah, why?”
“Tell me what your username was.” Shit , was all Katsuki could think at that moment. The bed suddenly felt very small, and Katsuki had the urge to scoot away.
“Ok-”
“No way.”
“Listen-”
“You were-”
“Hold on!-”
“No! You pretended to be a girl?!”
Katsuki had been caught red-handed. Never in a million years did he think this could happen. He had been online-dating Izuku at the age of 14, at the peak of his bullying charade towards that exact boy. And he had no idea.
“It was a lot easier to get awards on my post if people thought I was a girl! I got more credit for my opinions!”
“Kacchan, you led me on!”
“No– okay, well not on purpose , I figured if you were some pervy old fart on reddit then you deserved it-”
“I told you I was 14!”
“Well you obviously can’t believe everything people say on the internet.”
“...Fair point. But still! You pretended to be a girl for- for what, Reddit gold?!”
“Well, I wasn’t gonna buy it myself!”
“Why didn’t you just tell me you were a guy? I told you I liked boys in our chats!” Izuku asked. A reasonable question.
“...I wasn’t exactly thrilled to like boys, myself,” Katsuki admitted. “I thought it would make me look weak, or whatever. Stupid shit like that. Doesn’t really matter anymore, obviously.”
Izuku gave Katsuki a sad look, clearly having gotten over most of his anger at being led on. “Okay, okay, let me get this straight,” Izuku began. “So I was talking to someone who I thought was a girl, which made me realize I wasn’t gay, in order to get over you . But it was you, and my bisexual awakening wasn’t even a real girl. Because it was you. A boy.”
“I guess.”
“And you were going to school and bullying me,” Katsuki winced a bit at that, but couldn’t really argue with it, “and then going home and flirting with me as a girl on an All Might forum on Reddit.”
“...Yeah. This is insane.”
“You’re telling me! My sexuality is built on a lie!”
“To be fair, you really did think I was a girl-”
“Oh, put a sock in it, Kacchan, that’s not the point.” There was a heavy silence for a moment, only disturbed by the ceiling fan’s whirring. “Did you really like me? Or, the person you were talking to online, I guess.”
“Yeah, as much as I could without knowing you. I used to go back and read the conversations we had every now and then until the page was removed. I didn’t still like you- err, them I guess, I just liked remembering how much I enjoyed talking to them. I was kinda always a massive asshole in my real life, and I was letting my guard down with them, in a way.” It was then that Katsuki heard a sniffle from beside him. He turned to look at Izuku, whose eyes were watering.
“What- Hey!-”
“No, no, not bad tears! It’s just- that was really sweet!” Izuku interrupted. “I really liked talking to you, back then, too. It was an escape for me as well, since my life was… not too great. I liked having you there to talk with because it made me feel less lonely. Our conversations were always familiar to me, like how you and I were as kids. I guess I was pretty stupid for thinking it would help me get over you, haha…” Izuku laughed half-heartedly. His voice was all wobbly and wet, which had always made Katsuki soften a bit. He wouldn’t be caught dead admitting that, though.
“Kinda symbolic how we contradicted ourselves our whole lives, huh?” It sounded sappy when Katsuki said it, but he couldn’t be bothered to care much at the moment. Izuku had that effect on him.
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it,” Katsuki started. “In real life, I was the one isolating you. I was the one pretending I hated you because I felt weak. I also felt weak because I knew I was gay. You were trying to get over me and find a friend, and then you ended up with me online anyway. And I ended up being the one to befriend you, fall for you, and allow myself to like a boy. All at the same point in time, and neither of us had any idea until we actually started dating.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that is symbolic. Huh.”
A silence fell over them for a couple minutes. Neither were uncomfortable, they were simply basking in each other’s presence.
Sitting on Katsuki’s bed on a random Sunday afternoon, Katsuki and Izuku recognized the fact that, for their whole lives, their stories have been closely intertwined. They always found a way back to each other, somehow. They could not be who they are today without the other person there with them.
“Hey.” Katsuki stared at the wall ahead of him once more.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
Izuku turned his head, met with Katsuki’s profile. He was close enough to see the finer details of Katsuki’s face – the smooth, flawless expanse of skin covering his cheek, the sharp angle of his jawline, recently-shaven stubble barely visible as fine, blonde hairs. Katsuki then turned to look back at him, making eye contact. The beautiful, deep crimson of his irises drew Izuku in. Literally, Izuku leaned forward, unintentionally shortening the distance between them. It was then that Katsuki’s gaze shifted lower, falling on Izuku’s lips. Izuku’s hand raised of its own accord, settling gently on Katsuki’s cheek. Soft , is what Izuku thought when he touched it, starkly contrasting his own calloused hands.
Before either could think about it too much, their lips met firmly somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t perfect, since neither had ever kissed anyone before. Their noses pressed too hard into each other’s cheeks, they leaned towards each other at an uncomfortable angle, but it was perfect . Neither would have it any other way.
It’s over just as soon as it began, and they’re back to gazing into each other’s eyes once more.
“I love you, too.”