Work Text:
Katsuki heard a knock on his door and grumbled as he got up. If it was another extra, he would have to blast them down the hall until they finally got the hint. He wouldn’t study with them, no matter how much they begged.
When he opened the door, however, his anger was washed away in an instant.
“Hi, Kacchan!” Izuku smiled up at him, and Katsuki felt stupid for getting so worked up over nothing. “Can I come in? You said I could do my homework here before the movie, right?”
Katsuki nodded. They were planning on watching a new hero movie that just came out, having already exhausted all the All Might movies on their previous dates. “Yeah, come in, nerd.”
Izuku placed his bag next to Katsukis's desk and looked around. He always did that; glanced around in interest, no matter the fact that they had spent a lot of time in his room since they started dating two months ago. He always looked at the room like he had found a treasure trove. Maybe he felt special for being one of the only people to see his room.
“Well, c’mon, hurry and do your work so we can do fun shit.”
Izuku nodded with a bright smile, almost blinding Katsuki, before he sat down and took out his notebooks and things that he needed for his math work.
Earlier that day, Katsuki had invited Izuku to come over after school to do his work. Well, it was more of a demand, but that didn’t bother Izuku since they had talked about it before; how it always took too long to finish their homework before seeing each other. The work either took forever or they would get too preoccupied with other things and have to wait until the night to see each other—and Izuku wouldn’t start his work until late anyway. By then, they barely could spend any time together. Even if they weren’t doing much, they liked to be in each other's company.
Katsuki watched as Izuku laid everything out neatly on the desk in front of him.
“Are you gonna sit with me?” Izuku asked, his eyes pleading and wide and impossible to say no to.
And of course, Katsuki wanted to. He might have been too prideful—or bashful, if he was being honest with himself—to initiate that by himself, but if Izuku asked, then it wasn’t so bad. That was better than sitting miles away on his bed like he was planning on doing if he hadn’t gotten an invite.
And it was possible that Katsuki had thought about this before and made sure there was an extra chair in his dorm room.
He pulled the extra seat next to his desk chair that Izuku was currently sitting on. Izuku smiled and leaned over to Katsuki, brushing their shoulders for a moment before starting up his work.
He worked slowly at first, Izuku still warming up to Katsuki’s adamant gaze on his head. He asked for help on one of the math problems, and Katsuki used that opportunity to slyly wrap his arm around Izuku’s shoulders as he leaned closer to get a better look at the paper.
“I still don’t understand how you already finished all your work!” Izuku praised his boyfriend, a knowing smile gracing his lips when Katsuki looked back smugly at him.
“I did some of it in class. And some people actually do their work right after school instead of procrastinating forever.”
Izuku looked away playfully. “It’s only been an hour since class ended. I’m doing it now, aren’t I?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I guess so,” he smirked, “but now you're just sitting here talking to me.”
Izuku pouted for a moment. “I thought I came over so we could hang out!”
“Yeah, well we can’t spend as much time together if we have to stop later so you can go finish your work. Just do it now, nerd. It won’t take much longer.”
Izuku sighed. “I know, I know.”
Then their conversation quieted and they both sat in comfortable silence, Katsuki’s arm still wrapped around Izuku firmly.
They were like that for a while, Izuku speeding through his work so he could be done and spend time with his boyfriend. That was all he really wanted to do right then. It distracted him so much that he couldn’t fully focus on his work until quite a while later and after a long time of convincing himself.
When he finally became immersed, it was easy to tell. He mumbled to himself about his answers, worked out the problems aloud, and explained them to himself.
Katsuki quickly grew annoyed, but he bit his tongue; if he wanted to spend any time at all with Izuku later, he would just have to let him work with no distractions.
He just scrolled on his phone to try and forget it.
Then, a few minutes later, Izuku turned to him with the brightest smile Katsuki had ever seen.
“I finally finished my math work, now I just have to do my English worksheet and then we can do stuff together,” Izuku said happily.
But Katsuki’s annoyance at his mumbling was bubbling over now, even though Izuku wasn’t mumbling at all anymore. It was that stupid smile that teetered Katsuki over the edge, made him so angry that he just wanted to grab Izuku and—he didn’t know—shake him?
Katsuki resisted the urge to grab Izuku by the shoulders and do just that by groaning in acknowledgment of the other boy’s words and getting up to sit with his arms crossed on his bed.
Izuku was thoroughly confused, but just kept working, hoping Kacchan’s anger would dissipate on its own like usual. He wondered what had gotten him so wound up—they had just been sitting in silence for a while, after all—but he opted to worry about that after finishing his work. It would be best to give his full attention to his angry boyfriend. He bounced his leg, trying to keep his mind from wandering to Kacchan.
Izuku finished soon after and packed his stuff into his bag. He spun in his chair to look at his boyfriend who was angrily glaring at the floor, no longer on his phone.
Izuku went to sit beside him on the bed and smiled back as Kacchan’s glare moved upwards to focus on him. “I’m done,” Izuku said, trying to brighten the mood.
“Whatever,” Katsuki brushed off, turning his head in the other direction.
“Do you wanna watch the movie now?” Izuku asked, curious about Kacchan’s complete change of demeanor. He was determined to get to the bottom of this.
“No,” Katsuki deadpanned, and when Izuku glanced at him with a questioning look, Katsuki averted his gaze again (which was odd since Izuku was always the one averting his gaze, too shy to look).
“Kacchan, what’s wrong?” Katsuki could see Izuku’s desperation in his eyes, and he felt his resolve crack. He had promised himself that he would be more honest with Izuku ever since his apology, but even he didn’t understand what he was feeling. That smile should have made him happy, and he had no clue why he would react this way.
Still, he thought it was best to be as honest as possible, so he spoke his mind, ignoring the thoughts that screamed at him to stop. He began to grumble out his explanation. “It’s just your stupid fuckin’ mumbling was pissin’ me off, ‘nd your fucking stupid smile.” Katsuki had to cut himself off, as he was making himself even angrier just thinking about it.
“It’s making you mad?” Izuku asked, still not sure what was going on. Ever since they had gotten together, Katsuki made sure to kick his habits of yelling and getting mad at Izuku. They still bickered, but he never blew up like he used to. “Is anything else making you mad?”
“Yeah. Your stupid fucking freckles and your annoying eyes. And your hair. And your stupid fucking bouncing leg when you're trying to focus on your work. It pisses me off, so stop it!”
“Stop?!” Izuku said, appalled. “How am I supposed to stop those things? I can’t change how I look.” Izuku didn’t understand; that was basically every feature about him. But Katsuki loved him, so why was he saying these things that couldn’t be true? Weren’t these the reasons Katsuki was supposed to love him? “What am I supposed to do about it?” Izuku furrowed his brow, increasingly determined to figure out what was going on. There had to be more to it that he wasn’t understanding.
“I dunno. I wanna shake you. Or bite you or something,” Katsuki said, blankly staring, still unsure himself.
“Bite-!?”
“Or I wanna squeeze your freckled cheeks—” Katsuki looked at a loss for how to express what he felt, grasping for words. “Fucking. I don’t know. I want to squeeze you so tight that you can’t breathe. In my arms. But so tight that you suffocate and die—”
Izuku burst into laughter, unable to contain himself, making Katsuki stop in his tracks. “Kacchan, that’s why you’re mad? Because you think I’m cute?”
“No!” Katsuki faltered.
Izuku was used to baseless insults by Kacchan and it didn’t faze him one bit. But especially not now that he figured out the reason for them. Izuku stifled his laughter. “Have you always felt like this,” he asked, amused.
“Yeah. I’ve always been aggressive with you, you know that.”
“Do you not know what cuteness aggression is? Is this why you were fighting with me so much right before we got together?”
Katsuki’s face fell for a second before he hardened his expression so that it was unreadable.
“Kacchan, don't you know when you find someone cute it can make you feel more aggressive with them? That’s what this sounds like,” Izuku explained.
Katsuki opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He had heard of that before. He just never really put two and two together…
Katsuki fumbled with his words for a moment. There was no way he would ever admit to Izuku that he felt this way. Was that really it? His brain struggled to keep up with the newfound information.
“I've always wanted to fight you!” Katsuki defended. “But yeah, I guess it’s been worse lately. But I said I would be the best boyfriend ever, didn’t I?! I’m not gonna do that anymore.”
Was Katsuki an awful boyfriend for feeling this way? He was supposed to show Izuku that things had changed, and he wasn’t going to hurt him anymore. Was he just betraying his trust? Was he reverting to the way he was before?
Before panic could fully set in, Izuku was there to grab his hand and pull him out of his thoughts. He guessed his expression showed more than he realized, and Izuku noticed immediately how he was feeling.
“Don’t feel bad Kacchan, it’s totally normal to feel this way. Besides, it really shows that you’ve changed, doesn’t it?” Izuku smiled, hoping to cheer up his mopey boyfriend. “That you’re not only resisting the urge to fight me but that it’s for such a romantic reason.”
Katsuki blushed and turned away, wondering how Izuku was such a good boyfriend to always be able to make him feel better. “I guess, but that doesn’t solve my problem.”
“Then why don’t we settle for cuddling?” Izuku asked, hoping that would be enough to settle the feelings inside of Kacchan that were making him so aggressive.
Katsuki hesitated before agreeing since it was still a little awkward between them, and cuddling felt a bit unnatural. “Yeah, fine, if you want.”
Izuku cuddled up into Katsuki, who leaned backward into his pillows, and they pulled the covers over top of them to get comfortable. Izuku was just glad he finished his work and could spend the rest of the afternoon and night with his amazing boyfriend who he loved, and who apparently loved him back more than he realized.
They sat for a while, and Izuku wondered what they could do while remaining in each other's arms. Katsuki’s computer was on his desk, and they could watch the movie now, but—
“This is just making it worse!” Katsuki shouted, only a few minutes later, startling Izuku and snapping him out of his thoughts.
Izuku chuckled again. “I love you Ka—“
“STOP!” Katsuki blushed, covering his face with his arms. Maybe Izuku also understood what his boyfriend was feeling at that moment, seeing how cute Kacchan could be, too.
“Don't you love me, too?” Izuku asked, waiting for his boyfriend's reaction. He sat smugly for a moment before Katsuki un-hid his face.
“Yeah, I love you too, nerd.” He grumbled, fighting back the urge to kiss his stupid face as hard as possible. So hard that he would die from the affection. That was all Katsuki wanted.