Work Text:
It happened when they were walking out of class.
“-and then she stole my pencil and broke it! What the hell is her problem?” Katsuki huffed, grabbing Izuku’s shoulder and leading them into the next hallway.
“Oh my gosh! Why would she do that, Kacchan?” Izuku asked between laughs. He was laughing. Laughing at Katsuki’s problems. Even worse, he couldn’t find it in him to be the least bit upset by this. That laugh was beautiful.
God, Katsuki was such a loser. He needed to pull himself together, this was Izuku Midoriya he was talking about. He was a nerd and a stalker, there was nothing beautiful about that.
Still, ever since he came back to UA, their relationship… changed, to say the least. Katsuki swore he wasn’t going to get all soft after his apology, but it was hard when Izuku was right there . All he wanted to do was be around him, and that concerned him quite a lot.
So, yeah, he tried to make it so their relationship didn’t change after all that had happened, but ultimately he couldn’t stop them from hanging out a lot more and even becoming… friends…
“Hell if I know,” Katsuki grumbled. “She’s insane, I’m telling you. Stay away from her-”
It happened so quickly that he thought he may have imagined it. And judging by the look on Izuku’s face, Katsuki wouldn’t have thought that he was the one who did it, but-
“Oh my god oh my god oh my god, I’m so sorry Kacchan! I have no idea what just happened, that wasn’t- I didn’t- I don’t even-” Izuku began rambling. He looked horrified.
Katsuki brought a hand up to his cheek. He had just been slapped. Izuku had just slapped him. …What the hell?
“Izuku… do you have a death wish?”
“No! Kacchan, that wasn’t me I swear! Please, I don’t even know-” He stopped speaking all at once, and really Katsuki should have seen it coming this time-
Wham !
The blond stumbled back from the force that time. He was well aware of the strength Izuku possessed — and that was barely a fraction of it — but he wasn’t expecting it to be used on him .
Katsuki’s nose was bleeding now, and Izuku no longer looked apologetic. He didn’t look remorseful at all, actually. That little shit.
The air between them turned cold in a second.
“If you wanted to fight, you could have just asked, you know,” Katsuki spoke carefully, standing up straighter. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew Izuku better than anyone and something was wrong. And he had half the mind to not let it show that he was aware.
“Sorry, I’ve just been wanting to do this for a while. I guess it was just never the right time. You’ve been so nice to me lately, after all!” Izuku replied cheerfully. Too cheerfully. He was never that excited these days.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. “Have I? Sorry, next time I’ll just start hitting you unprovoked too.”
The hallway they were in had long cleared out by this point, so if they ended up actually fighting, nobody would know. They’d be late to class, though, and he wasn’t quite in the mood to get a detention for getting caught skipping today, so he needed to figure out just what the hell was going on.
“Unprovoked?” Izuku tilted his head innocently. “I feel like that was pretty justified. I mean, you’ve done much worse to me in the past, haven’t you?”
Katsuki’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. That’s what this was about. “Is now really the time to be bringing that up? We have to get to class, or are you not aware we’re in school?”
Izuku glared at him evenly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Rolling his eyes, Katsuki just turned and began to walk away. Normally, he would fight Izuku in a heartbeat. He loved testing the limits of One For All and critiquing the green-haired boy’s fighting style. But this? He wasn’t gonna do this. Not when he was nearly one hundred percent sure that whoever was in front of him, wasn’t Izuku.
Plus, the blood from his nose was beginning to drip onto the floor and he’d really like to clean his face up.
He was able to get a few steps away before he heard faint whispering behind him. And when he glanced back, Izuku was right there.
The punch came before he could even process what was going on, and suddenly he was crashing into the lockers at the end of the hallway. It didn’t end there either. Izuku was back on top of him in a second, and he didn’t let up for a moment. His speed was unreal, and Katsuki had to wonder just where it came from. One For All was fast but not speed of light fast. He couldn’t marvel for long though, as he was literally being punched into the ground.
Extending a hand out, Katsuki set off an explosion to hopefully stun Izuku for long enough that he could get out from under him. It worked, and he was able to get a few feet away. He was breathing heavily now, trying to buy enough time to get his vision to stop being so blurry. He knew Izuku was strong, obviously, but it was times like these that he became painfully aware of the gap between them.
—
Izuku was going to go insane if he had to watch this any longer.
He was in the One For All realm with the other users watching his body hurt Kacchan. His body. The body he was forcefully booted out of with no explanation.
He had wondered before if something like that could happen; if one of the past users of their shared quirk could take control. Well, turns out he was correct. Kudo had stolen the reins from him and now he was stuck watching the aftermath. He’d tried asking the vestiges if they knew what was going on but they only gave him vague one-word answers that explained nothing.
His attention was brought back to real life as Kacchan began fighting back. He had a decent chance of winning in his state considering his strength. And it looked like Kudo was only using his own quirk, raising the chances. He was still terribly injured though, and Izuku wasn’t sure of what exactly Gearshift could do as he hadn’t been given access to it yet.
They continued to fight for a few minutes with no real progress being made. Kacchan was getting a few hits on Kudo, but it wasn’t enough to really stop him.
There was a bit of a standstill going on. They both momentarily stopped attacking, and Izuku could hear Kudo saying something, but he couldn’t make out what it was.
He was really starting to hate the one for all realm.
The air began to shift suddenly, and in the blink of an eye, Izuku was back in his body.
He collapsed to the floor as he wasn’t prepared to use his legs again yet. Kacchan stared at him as he caught his breath, and the moment he was sure he was okay, Izuku sprang to his feet and closed the gap between them, embracing his friend like he wouldn’t be able to ever again.
Endless apologies and broken explanations fell from his mouth as he struggled to put into words just how bad he felt.
“Shut up, Izuku,” Kacchan murmured into his hair as he hugged him back. “I know it wasn’t you, I’m fine.”
Even as he said that though, Izuku could feel him shaking with the effort it took to keep standing, so he led them to a bench a few feet away.
-
“He was testing you?” Izuku asked incredulously. After they had gotten settled, Kacchan had begun to explain what Kudo said to him.
“Mhm, said I reminded him of himself or something, and that he didn’t think I was ‘worthy’ whatever that means.” Izuku opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off. “If you apologize one more time I’m going to beat your ass.”
This made Izuku smile a little. “Yeah, good luck trying to fight me in that state.”
“Oh really, I could beat you right now. Come on, fight me, Izuku. You won’t.”
They continued to talk lightheartedly until the bell rang signaling class was over.
Izuku stood up in a panic. “I completely forgot we’re at school!”
“Shit, Mr. Aizawa’s gonna kill us.”