Chapter Text
The moment that Izuku heard the loud honking, he knew that Katsuki was here to pick him up. The man can never just text him like a normal person, he’s always gotta make some sort of big scene. Izuku rolls his eyes but it’s accompanied with a fond smile on his face. He slings his bag over his shoulder and rushes outside of his house because Katsuki’s honking is incessant and Izuku knows he won’t stop until Izuku is actually inside the vehicle.
Izuku opens the door, sliding into the passenger side seat, “Took ya long enough,” Katsuki finally lets up from the horn.
“I was literally, like, not even 20 seconds,” Izuku shakes his head while tosses his bag down on the floorboard and puts his seatbelt on, “you’re just impatient and don’t know how to properly inform someone that you’re here.”
“You seemed pretty properly informed to me,” Katsuki retorts smugly, shifting the car into drive and pulling onto the street, “You came out, didn’t you? No pun intended.”
“Haha, very funny,” Izuku leans back into his seat but can’t help the small chuckle that does actually escape him, “are you ready for this?”
“Hell yeah,” Katsuki smirks, turning on his left hand turn signal.
They start their new job at a new fire station today; They’ve always worked together, ever since they were kids pretending to put out fires. They went to the academy together, they went through their probationary period at the same station, they even got transferred to the same station post-probationary period, then both transferred out of that station to a different station together, and, so, when a different station offered Izuku a job after quitting from his previous station (there were a lot of reasons as to why he did that but mainly, he couldn’t really trust anyone he worked with other than Katsuki), he made sure they had a spot available for Katsuki.
He’s glad that Katsuki’s so excited because Izuku is absolutely a bundle of nerves. A new station means new people, now he loves people. Really, he does. He loves making friends and he’s always looking for the best in any individual person; however, his experience at his last station wasn’t the greatest. His crew didn’t trust him - it got even worse when he came out as bisexual - and, therefore, he couldn’t find it in himself to trust them either.
Just Katsuki.
Speaking of Katsuki, Izuku is brought out of his thoughts by a flick to the temple, “Get outta your damn head, nerd,” He brings his hand back to his side of the car, “it’s gonna be fine. I’ve heard really good things about the 176.”
“Yeah, well, people heard good things about our old station too,” Izuku voices, crossing his arms, “not everything you hear is right.”
“Weren’t Kaminari and Uraraka assigned to the 176 for their probationary?” Katsuki asks, “You got along with them, right?”
Izuku nods, Uraraka and Kaminari were in their class at the academy but they got split up for their probationary periods, they still keep in contact every now and again and Izuku knows that they both stayed even after.
“It’ll be fine, Nerd,” Katsuki pulls into the parking at the station before smirking, “besides, worst comes to worst, you’ve got me. I don’t think you need anything else.”
“Oh whatever, Kacchan,” Izuku unbuckles his seatbelt and grabs his bag from the floorboard, “let’s just get this over with, yeah?”
Katsuki grabs Izuku’s wrist, stopping him from getting out of the car and forcing him to turn around to make eye contact with Katsuki, “It’ll be just fine, okay? I swear. I’ve met the captain and he’s damn good. Plus, we’ve both worked with Uraraka and Kaminari, it’s going to be okay.”
Izuku smiles at his best friend and is reminded why exactly that’s his best friend, “Yeah. Thanks.”
“Now, let’s fuckin’ go do this thing,” Katsuki cheers, unbucking his own seatbelt and practically jumping out of the car. Izuku gets out, shutting the door behind him and watches as Katsuki opens the back seat to grab his bag.
Then, before he even knows it, they’re both walking inside and nearly run into Uraraka, like, actually physically nearly run into her, but they all stop before that happens and Uraraka greets them, a little bit surprised but with a grin on her face anyway, “Oh hi! I totally forgot you were both starting here today.”
“Well, I’m glad we ran into you,” Izuku chuckles, sticking close to Katsuki, “it’s nice to see a familiar face.”
Uraraka motions for them to follow her, “C’mon, I’ll take you to the locker room to put your bags down, then I’ll take you up to the kitchen, that’s where pretty much everyone’s at right now.”
They follow her through the station and are brought into the locker room, where they see two empty spots already with their names on it. Izuku thanks whatever higher power’s out there that their lockers are right next to each other. They both deposit their bags into their respective spots and turn around to follow Uraraka back through the station, up some stairs, and into the social activities.
“Hey! Uraraka!” Kaminari calls from his spot at the table before his eyes find Izuku and Katsuki as well, “Oh my god,” He hops out of his seat with wide eyes, “it so slipped my mind that you were both starting here today,” He gets up behind Izuku and Katsuki, wrapping an arm around the both of them, “it’s good to have you guys here.”
Their new captain watches them carefully. They’re about to introduce themselves after someone they’ve never bet before asks them to but the alarm goes off right as they’re about to follow through with their introductions to the crew, the ones they haven’t met just yet at least, and people are rushing out. The captain looks at them and wow, that’s a strong gaze, Izuku is a little intimidated to say the least, “Midoriya, Bakugou, stay here for this call, get settled in,” then he turns to look at someone else; a man that’s likely the same age as Izuku and Katsuki themselves, he’s pretty well built, looks fucking exhausted, and his hair is purple, which is an… interesting color choice, not that Izuku can judge since his is green, “Hitoshi, stay here, show them around.”
“Alright,” The guy responds, nodding. Izuku sort of wonders if the guy ever smiles but, hey, he’s only known the guy for, like, three minutes, he can’t judge yet, right?
With that, the captain is rushing out and before they know it, the three of them are alone up here.
“Well, uh,” The man is the first one to speak, “I’m Shinsou Hitoshi, my dad told me we were getting a couple new guys but he didn’t tell me anything about you.”
“Oh, uh,” Izuku starts, chuckling awkwardly.
Katsuki beats him to introducing them, though, “I’m Bakugou Katsuki and that’s,” He nods his head over Izuku, “Midoriya Izuku.”
Izuku feels like he’s being a little judged by the way this Shinsou guy stares at him for a while before just muttering a quick, “You look familiar.”
“Oh,” Izuku rubs sheepishly at the side of his neck. He never likes to assume when people recognize him that it’s from that but, well, it’s kinda the only thing that comes to mind when people recognize him. He doesn’t really ever actually meet people so it’s not often that someone knows him because they’ve met him, it’s always because of that damn video.
It happened a few years ago, back when he and Katsuki first switched stations after completely their probationary period; Izuku wasn’t on shift during this, though. He was taking some mandatory leave due to an injury in his ankle (he was fine, by the way, there was no reason he needed to miss work) and, honestly, he was just taking a walk around his neighborhood because he was sick of being cooped up in his house all day. Sure, Katsuki came to visit him when he was off work and tried to damn near force fead him because, ”there’s no way your skinny ass is eating enough, if you wanna get back to work quicker you’ve gotta stay fucking healthy so eat this food right now. I made it so obviously it’s fuckin’ good.”
It wasn’t really enough for Izuku though, he went from seeing him damn near all the time because they were always on the same shift - then they’d almost always hang out with each other afterward - to only seeing him every now and again for a few hours at a time because Katsuki actually had responsibilities (a lot of which he gave up in order to be there for Izuku during this time), while Izuku was just stuck at home with nothing to do but take care of his cat and look forward to the moment when his best friend gets off of work.
Anyway, none of this is the point. The point is that he was sick and tired of being alone in his house so he decided to get some fresh air; He wanted to take a walk around his neighborhood, maybe stop by the corner store and indulge himself with an unhealthy snack. As he was doing this, though, he suddenly started to spot smoke from a few blocks away billowing up into the air. He’s not sure what came over him but he started sprinting over toward the fire. He cut through wherever he could, trying to make it there as quickly as possible.
Once he got there, he found a lot of people all just standing there watching, staring at the house burning down. He could immediately spot the residents of the house, however, due to the tears streaming down their face.
He knew he didn’t have any of his gear and he knew it was foolish to try and get involved but when he overheard one of the young girls asking if her dad was coming out, he leaped into action. He had to. There were no firefighters here just yet except for him. He couldn’t just stand by and do nothing, what kind of a person would he be then? He pushed his way through the crowd and toward the family. In the moment, he didn’t even realize he was being filmed at all but looking back on it, it was so obvious. There were a whole bunch of people with their phones out, taking a video of him.
He looked toward what he assumed to be the mom of the two little girls, “I’m an off duty firefighter, I hear that there’s still someone inside?”
“My husband,” The woman was clearly holding back her tears, prioritizing comforting her daughters rather than feeling her emotions, “He was-” She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath to stabalize herself, “he told me to grab our daughters and get out but I guess I thought he was behind us and…” She trailed off for a moment before she can finish her sentence, “he wans’t.”
Izuku wanted to comfort her but right then he had a bigger thing to prioritize, “How long has he been in there?”
“A long time,” The woman told him, “we’ve been out here for a long time.”
“Shit,” Izuku mumbled under his breath, afraid that all he’d be finding if he went in there was a dead man. Still, he’s gotta try, right? He can’t just do nothing, that’s not who he is. He took a deep breath, “Okay, do you know which room he might be in?”
“Our bedroom,” The woman answered confidently, “it’s upstairs all the way down the hall.”
That was all Izuku needed to nod and plunge into action. He took a deep breath before rushing into the house with his shirt over his mouth and nose. He held his breath for as long as he possibly could, running up the stairs and down the hall. The smoke was thick and there were hot flames bursting along the walls of the hallway; Izuku was sweating like hell.
He tried to open the door to the bedroom but he was unable to, it was jammed or something and he couldn’t work it out. He could hear sirens in the distance, the firefighters were getting close so at least he knows he’ll be making it out of this alive.
Probably.
He decided to try to shoulder it open but after trying three times, realized that that was a dumb fucking decision and kicked the door down instead, which did actually work. He was starting to lose his air, he needed to take another breath even if it was full of smoke. He remembers that he hoped that his shirt would filter enough that he wouldn’t have any problems from this. Then, he took a deep breath and made his way into the room. This breath was a lot more difficult to hold, being full of smoke. Still, he held it for as long as possible; rushing toward the unconscious man on the floor. He quickly checked for a pulse and when he picked one up he swore he would’ve sighed in relief if he wasn’t so keen on limiting his smoke inhalation.
He picked the man up, tossing him over his shoulder because that was the only way he’d really be able to carry him while also keeping the shirt situated over his face. He rushed all the way back down the stairs and out the door; It was just in time for the firefighters to arrive and it was just his luck that it was his own fire station. He didn’t even process the crowd giving him a round of applause, honestly. The only reason he knows that it happened was because he’s seen videos of it after the fact.
His own fire station during A shift, which, yep, you guessed it, was his shift. His and Katsuki’s shift to be more exact. The firetruck was busy parking when Izuku burst through the front door, rushing out and dropping the man down in the grass. He also remembers that he really wished he had had his gear during that whole ordeal. He still didn’t notice any of the cameras at this point, he was too laser focused on the man in front of him and the woman - his wife - lunging toward them, asking if he was alive.
Izuku checked his pulse again and it was still there so he tried a sternal rub, which, thankfully, worked. The man woke up frightened and a little angry but also coughing. Izuku explained to him what was happening and he started calming down a bit but his coughing didn’t. That’s when the firefighters started rushing forward, most of them taking up a plan to start getting rid of the fire, and Izuku had never been so nervous to see Katsuki’s face before in his life.
He absolutely knew the man would be angry with him for putting his life in danger like this, so recklessly, but what was he supposed to do? Nothing? That’s not who he was. That’s not who he is. That’s not who he’ll ever be. Still, when he saw Katsuki’s face storming toward him, with two of the paremedics, he wanted to run away and hide.
“Izuku,” Katsuki immediately flicked Izuku’s head, “what the fuck?”
Izuku remembered as he rubbed sheepishly at the side of his neck and just slowly got up, backing away from the guy as the paramedics took over so they’d have space to work. They started to look over him and put him on oxygen. The man definitely suffered a lot of smoke inhalation nd-
Katsuki cut Izuku away from that trail of thought really fast, dragging him toward the ambulance and opening the back up so that he could force Izuku onto some oxygen (Izuku wouldn’ve argued that he was fine and didn’t need anything but he also knew that Katuski wouldn’t take that for an answer so he accepted the oxygen), “You’re a fuckin’ idiot, you know that?”
Izuku pulled the oxygen mask down and scoffs, glaring at him, “What else was I supposed to do, Katsuki? Let him die?”
“No, wait for the firefighters to get here so you don’t die, damnit.”
“I am a firefighter, Katsuki,” Izuku crossed his arms, bringing the oxygen mask back up to take a deep breath, “and I didn’t die. Despite what you might think, I do actually know what i’m doing,” He felt diminishes, like just because of one stupid injury (which wasn’t even a big deal, honestly) he was no longer a firefighter. His job is basically his entire identity, he’s wanted to help people since he was a young child, it’s been his dream since he could remember and the idea that just because of one simple injury that put him out of commission for barely any time at all is enough to get Katsuki to basically imply that he’s not a firefighter? All of his hard work, all of his training, all of his determination, it all felt useless in that moment.
He knew Katsuki didn’t mean anything rude by it and he knew that he was taking it out of proportion but he couldn’t help it. It was like being a person with a phobia. They know logically there’s no real threat to them in a specific situation but they get worked up anyway because they’re irrationally afraid of something. That’s kind of what Izuku felt like. It felt like he was irrationally afraid of being replaced or looked down upon or something and he knew that’s not what Katuski meant by it at all.
“Shit,” Katsuki shook his head, clearly looing a bit guilty because the man can read his body language like no other and clearly realized Izuku was hurt by it so he quickly clarified, “That’s not what I fuckin’ meant, dude, I just meant to wait for the people who are actually geared up for this kinda thing. This kinda rescue. You had no gear, you’re recovering from an injury, you had nothing with you and nobody to watch your back; you could’ve gotten stuck in there and fuckin’ killed yourself, Izuku.”
Izuku just looked away, pulling the mask back down and gulping a bit, he was a bit nervous with what he said but he knew he could speak his mind with Katuski; The man may seem disappointed in him at times and definitely got very angry during others but he knew it was safe to speak his mind with Kastsuki, unlike how he knew that it definitely would not be the greatest thing to do with any of his other crew, “I know you guys have been overwhelmed lately and I saw an opprotunity to help, so I took it. That guy wouldn’t have lasted long in there with that all of smoke, Katsuki. I got him out and I got myself out so I won’t apologize for what I did. That’s not gonna happen, not now and not ever.”
Katsuki’s face looks conflicted and he rolls his eyes softly, “I don’t expect you to, I just wish you weren’t so damn reckless.”
“I played it safe,” Izuku assured him, not wanting to get into an argument with his best friend right now, he wouldn’t be able to handle Katsuki being mad at him right then on top of everything, “I didn’t get hurt, I’m just a bit lightheaded from holding my breath. That’s all.”
“Fine,” Katsuki let up from the arguing and also took a step away, “you’ll get it checked out if you start feeling worse, though, right?”
“If I don’t, I know you’d drag me there yourself so, yeah, I kinda have to,” Izuku chuckled a bit but even wtith the joke, he was pretty serious. That’s a very Katuski thing to do.
Anyway, Izuku ended up getting into a little bit of trouble with his captain for his behavior and, honestly? That was really where things at this station started to take a big turn for the worse. You’d think that saving a man from a burning building without any proper firefighter gear would earn you some respect points but, apparently, it did the exact opposite. Everybody seemed to lose respect for him
Everybody but Katsuki.
Anyway, the fact of the matter is that that’s where a lot of people recognize Izuku from. One of the many videos that were taken went, like, kind of crazy viral all around the internet and Izuku got a crazy amount of followers from it so, now, he has much smaller and very private social media accounts that only close friends and family know. He doesn’t often look at or post on the ones with millions of followers; it scares him a little bit, if he’s being honest. Sometimes he’ll post about fire safety tips and whatnot but all in all, he doesn’t like touching those accounts with a ten foot pole.
“You’ve probably seen the video,” Izuku briefly explains to Shinsou that there’s a video of him making a rescue from a house while he was off duty.
Shinsou shakes his head, though, “No, that’s not it,” He crosses his arms and just kinda stares, squinting, at Izuku for a moment before some sort of realization dawns in his widening eyes, “we worked together last year.”
“We did?” Izuku asks confused, normally he remembers everyone he works with; He likes to remember faces and names, call it a sign of respect or a product of his anxiety, either way it’s something he likes to do. Yet, he doesn’t ever remember working with Shinsou.
Shinsou seems to sense Iuzku’s confusion and clarifies, “We didn’t work directly with each other, we were just at the same fire. The huge one on 8th street last March, both of our stations were called there and I remember thinking you were actually really impressive, oddly enough. I hadn’t expected it out of you.”
“Yeah,” Katsuki cuts in now, taking a step forward, almost like he’s being defensive? In an oddly offensive way; Izuku shrugs it off as his personality though, he’s used to the man’s hot head, “he is really fuckin’ impressive and he always has been. It's your own fuckin’ fault you didn’t realize until-”
“Woah man,” Shinsou holds his hands up in a defensive, “I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just trying to figure out where I remembered Midoriya from. That’s all.”
“Yeah, Kacchan,” Izuku places a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder and he takes a step back so he’s back in line with Izuku. He’s already calmind down as Izuku says, “it’s okay.”
Shinsou eyes the two of them for a moment, then clears his throat and moves on, “Well, I better show you guys around, yeah?”
“Sounds good!” Izuku grins, immediately springing into action the moment Shinsou starts to move. He removes his hand from his best friend’s shoulder and gets lead around the station.
Shinsou shows them around pretty quickly, there isn’t very much to see, after all. They see the kitchen, the living room area, storage rooms, and the bunk room, as well as the locker room (which they’d already been in previously) and bathroom.
They’re wrapping up the tour and heading back up the stairs to the living room in silence when Izuku strikes up a conversation, “So, I hope you aren’t upset that you were left behind to give us a tour, I know you probably wanted to get out there and work.”
Shinsou just shrugs, flopping down on one of the couches and stretching his arms out across the back of it, “Eh, it’s not a big deal. My dad knew I wouldn’t mind so-”
“The captain’s your dad?” Katsuki scoffs into the question, getting settled onto the other couch as far away from Shinsou as possible, “Isn’t it fuckin’ weird having your dad be your boss?”
Izuku sits down next to Katsuki, not leaving much space between the two of them but that’s typical for them, they’re used to being close so neither of them move. Shinsou shrugs again, “I mean, I’ve been here since my probationary so I’m used to it, I guess. He’s a good captain, gets things done, and teaches his crew well, which is all you can really ask for in a captain.”
“Gosh,” Izuku chuckles, leaning back on the couch, “I don’t think I’d be able to work with my dad, you two must be close.”
“We are,” Shinsou confirms, then he changes the subject, “how long have you guys been working together?”
“Oh!” Izuku grins at this question, moving right back to sitting on the edge of his seat so he can eagerly answer, “We joined the academy together, went through our probationary together, and we’ve worked at the same stations since we’ve started! Katsuki and I have been friends since we were babies so we’ve kinda always stuck around each other, we both knew that we wanted to be firefighters since we were really little and we decided we’d get there together and so we-”
“Okay nerd,” Katsuki cuts off his ramblings and kicks him lightly, “there’s no need to tell the guy our entire life story,” Then he looks over to Shinsou, “we’ve worked together for nine years through three different stations.”
“Four including this one,” Izuku adds in at the end, nodding and finally leaning back again and getting comfortable on the couch, he feels Katsuki’s arm wrap around him naturally, as if it belonged there. If anyone asks, Katsuki would probably use the excuse that his arm slipped and he didn’t even notice it was around Izuku but Izuku knows that it’s there because he wants it to be. Izuku really enjoys the feel of Katsuki’s hand on his shoulder, his thumb rubbing soothingly along the skin under the collar of his shirt.
It’s such a mindless thing that they do and it doesn’t really mean anything to them but from the way that Shinsou stares at them with confusion written all over his face before asking, “and you guys are, uh, just friends?” maybe it’s supposed to mean something?
Izuku answers quickly for this one, though, wanting to keep it clear that this means nothing. It won’t ever means anything, even if he might want it to, it won’t, “Yep! He’s my best friend.”
They’re just friends, they’ve always been just friends, they’ll always be just friends. This is so totally normal friend behavior. Because they’re friends. Just friends.
He has a grin on his face when he says, “Like I said, we’ve been friends since we were babies so…” He trails off into a shrug, “Yeah.”
Everyone starts coming back before their conversation continues any further. The three of them get up to greet those who are coming back and finally they’re being introduced about 15 minutes later, after helping the crew get the trucks all sorted and the few who needed it took quick showers, “Alright,” Aizawa announces, “gather around, everyone, come on!”
Everyone huddles together and Aizawa immediately brings all of the attention to Izuku and Katsuki, “These are the new members of station 176. For the love of my sanity, treat them with respect and don’t cause me more problems then necessary because problems mean paperwork and I hate paperwork. Alright,” He starts to walk off, his eyes obviously tired, “mingle or something.”
Everyone is looking at them expectantly, as if they want something from them. Katsuki realizes it before Izuku and shouts, “Okay what are you fuckers looking at?”
“Oh,” Izuku looks around to all the faces, “I think maybe they want an introduction, Kacchan.”
“Oh,” Katsuki nods up in the vague direction of the group of the most people, “my name’s Bakugou Katsuki,” He nods his head toward Izuku, “he’s my partner in the field so I’ll be working with him the most.”
“And I’m Midoriya Izuku,” Izuku says with a (hopefully) welcoming grin on his face, he wants to make sure that he’s not being weird or too much or overly friends or underlie friends and he needs to be sure that his smile isn’t weird and his voice isn’t weird and he wants to make sure he’s not mumbling too much like he did with Shinsou earlier because he knows that’s one fo his problems and oh jeez. He’s doing it right now.
He only stops because of the way that Katsuki nudges his side with his elbow, “Quit thinking so much, we’ll be fine. Let’s go change, yeah?”
Izuku nods and they head back to the locker rooms to change out of their civilian clothing and into their work clothes. It doesn’t take them long - this is something you learn to get really quick at with this job.
Once they make their way back up to the living room area, it’s a lot more populated and they’re called over my Uraraka and Kaminari who are sitting next to each other. They both head over, Katsuki has his usual scowl on his face when he says he doesn’t really feel like talking to him but Izuku grabs his hand and encourages him to follow along; Tells him that they’ve gotta socialize (even though the mere idea is making Izuku’s stomach and chest do all kinds of flips).
“Hey guys!” Uraraka’s grin is just as friendly as it was earlier, “I hope you guys are settling in well, I know starting at a new station is probably a lot to handle.”
Katsuki shrugs, sitting down in an empty spot on the couch and pulling Izuku along with him; the couches ar ea lot fuller now than they were when everyone was out so the both of them are sitting even closer than previously, “We’re used to it,” He grumbles, “hopefully this is the last one though.”
“I hope that Shinsou wasn’t, like, too moody and unfriendly,” Kaminari chimes in, “he likes to be all ‘I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to work, I don’t need friends’ but he’s really a-
“Hey,” Shinsou interrupts, kicking him, by the looks of it with a lot of force, but Kaminari has no reaction, “I’m right here. Besides, I haven’t been that moody since fuckin’ high school, you just like to be dramatic.”
“It’s not dramatic if it’s true, ‘Toshi.”
Shinsou rolls his eyes, “Well it’s not true so it is dramatic. Besides, I was very nice to Midoriya and Bakugou.”
Uraraka and Kaminari both look over at Izuku and Katsuki to gauge their reactions to that.
The two of them just shrug in sync, “He showed us around and we talked,” Izuku confirms, “he wasn’t mean. If anything, Katsuki was a bit rude to him when-”
“Okay, shut the fuck up,” Katsuki interrupts him in his usual fashion of kicking his leg.
Izuku just glares at him and kicks him back, to which Katsuki flicks his forehead and Izuku sticks out his tongue like a little kid.
“Real mature, Izu,” Katsuki’s clearly holding back a laugh.
Izuku rolls his eyes and sneers, “Shut up. I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
“Ugh,” Izuku crosses his arms and looks back to his coworkers who are just watching them, which is when he explains his own behavior with a simple statement of, “he’s extremely annoying.”
“No I’m not.”
“Yes you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, Kacchan,” Izuku turns to face him, “you are.”
Katsuki’s just about to reply but Shinsou beats him to it, “Alright, I think you two could probably argue for hours if we let you so how about we stop it now?”
“Agreed,” Uraraka grins, trying to ease the tension (not that there’s any real tension between Izuku and Katsuki, the two messa round like this all the time, it’s kinda their thing; He doesn’t think that his new coworkers have really picked up on this fact yet, though), “y’know what we should do, though?”
“What?” Kaminari si the one who asks but everyone is wondering it.
“We should-”
Uraraka gets interrupted by a voice calling through; The captain, Aizawa, calls, “Midoriya, Bakugou, can I see you both?”
They look at each other for a moment and Kaminari chuckles, “Damn first day here and you guus are already causing trouble?”
Izuku knows that Kaminari probably iddn’t actually mean that but, fuck, it doesn’t help the way his anxiety spikes up, leaving his stomach all in knots and his chest tightening a bit. He takes a deep breath to ease himself, he can’t have a panic attack on his first day on the job. He just can’t.
“What did we do?” Izuku asks to Katsuki, confused. They’ve been here for barely any time at all, they haven’t had a chance to screw up yet. Have they? He doesnt’ think they have. He doesn’t think he’s done anything bad and, well, Katsuki’s been with him the whole time. Though, at his last station, the captain would find a way to get onto Izuku for anything and everything, it didn’t even matter if he was actually doing anything wrong.
What a boss.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Katsuki whispers assuringly, apparently sensing Izuku’s immediate anxiety and grabbing at Izuku’s wrist and pulling him gently up from the couch, not even caring about the eyes on him, “it’ll be okay, I’m sure it’s nothing.”
They walk over to where Captain Aizawa was standing near the dining table and follow as he leads the both of them to his office, Katsuki’s hand is still around Izuku’s wrist even when they’re inside the office and the captain is on the other side of his desk, his fingers are loose and he lets go when Aizawa starts to speak. That doesn’t stop them from standing so close together that their arms are brushing, though.
It brings Izuku comfort to have the physical assurance of Katuski being right by his side, especially considering the fact that it’s so often in the field that he has to just trust Katsuki being there; he can’t always have the physical assurance. The light touches on the arm or back or kick in the leg. He can’t always have that so it brings him immense comfort whne he does get it.
“Alright, I know you guys have probably filled out these forms already at your old station but they do need to be filled out again starting here, so, if you guys could just quickly fill these out?” Aizawa grabs a few papers before tapping them vertically on the desk to straighten them out, “Also, I’d have appreciated a warning beforehand about this, it’s not something you guys need to hide around here.”
Izuku squints his eyes, trying to get a good look at what the papers are. What is Aizawa talking about? They’ve both been completely honest about everything that’s happened at previous stations and whatnot, plus they filled out all the necessary paperwork before today. There shouldn’t be any other forms to fill out. Right?
Katsuki looks just as confused but he actually manages to ask the question, “What forms? We haven’t been hiding shit.”
“Well, not very well, at least,” Aizawa nods, seemingly agreeing with him, “but you two don’t have to pretend not to be in a relationship here. In fact, it’s crucial that-”
“Woah,” Izuku chuckles a bit awkwardly, “relationship?”
“Yes,” Aizawa confirms, “these are just the forms you need to fill out for HR and-”
“Captain,” Katsuki cuts in now, “Izuku and I are just friends.”
Aizawa’s eyes widen just barely and just for a second before he regains his composure, “Wait, you aren’t?”
“No… Why did you think we were?” Izuku asks, looking between Aizawa and Katsuki. The assumption makes Izuku’s mind run wild. What have they done to make their captain think they’re in a relationship? Has Izuku been that obvious about his stupid little crush? They’ve been here for like an hour, if even that, and for the majority of that their captain wasn’t even here, they were on that call. So Izuku is just incredibly confused at the prospect of Aizawa thinking they’re in a relationship through watching them interact for, like, 10 minutes.
“I, uh, suppose I just assumed you were,” Aizawa clears his throat, setting the papers down, “Well, my apologies. It was very unprofessional for me to assume.”
Katsuki’s being awfully quiet, which throws Izuku off. Normally, he’s the one shouting and demanding answers but now he’s just standing there, silent. Izuku rubs at the back of his neck sheepishly, “Yeah, uh, we’re just friends, Captain. There’s uh, there’s no relationship here.”
“Right, well, excuse me then. You guys are free to head out.”
Katsuki leaves fast, he gets out of there the moment Aizawa gives him permission. He doesn’t even wait to see if Izuku is leaving or not, he’s just gone. When Izuku does end up following him out, he sees Katsuki standing just outside the door, with his back facing the whole group.
Izuku places a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder, leaning in close, “Are you okay?”
Katsuki clears his throat and nods, taking a step away from Izuku, causing him to drop his hand. Katsuki faces Izuku and speaks, “Yep, I’m fuckin’ great.”
Izuku chuckles and smirks, “Well, I sure hope you are, you were just assumed to be my boyfriend, that’s a high honor, y’know.”
Katsuki nods, “Yeah, right,” It’s obviously meant to come off as sarcastic joking but Izuku can’t help but take into account the way Katsuki takes a deep breath and just overall seems like he really means it. Izuku finds it weird how he’s acting now and how he was acting in the office but he probably shouldn’t read too much into it. It’ll lead to too much thinking, he’s sure of it. Especially considering his own feelings on the matter? Well, he just can’t think about that right now.
Good thing he’s stopped from having to think about that because an alarm goes off just then and they’re faced with their job instead of a conversation. They don’t talk about any of it - “it” being the way Katsuki was acting - all day. They don’t really even speak to each other much at all but they don’t actually need to. They work together flawlessly without saying much other than simple two or three word phrases at most.
It’s near the end of their shift and Katsuki and Izuku have officially not spoken about what happened in Aizawa’s office, even when their coworkers asked them about it they set it aside and changed the subject. It’s mostly Katsuki who seems hesitant to bring it up, which makes no sense to Izuku but he won’t complain. He doesn’t really want to talk about it either, if he’s being completely honest.
The both of them are clocking out and getting changed when Kaminari approaches them in the locker rooms, “So, my husband and I have been-”
Shinsou hears from across the room, apparently, and interrupts him, “No, don’t do tha-”
“It’s fine,” Kaminari waves him off and then turns back to Izuku and Katsuki.
Before Kaminari can finish, though, Izuku interrupts him with a, “Wait, Kaminari, you’re married? To who?”
“Yeah?” Kaminari says it as a question, “I’m married to Hitoshi,” He jams his finger backward to his apparent husband, “I dunno why you sound so shocked, we’ve not been hiding it. Anyway, we’ve been wanting to hang out with more first responder couples because everyone here is excruciatingly single but since you two are together we were wondering if-”
“We aren’t together,” Katuski corrects him quickly. It sort of feels like Izuku’s heart’s been stabbed at the way Katsuki was so quick to let him know.
Izuku gulps and nods, “Yeah, Kaminari, we’re just friends.”
Shinsou takes a deep breath, approaching them, “I tried to warn you,” He whispers into Kaminari’s ear, “you don’t listen to me.”
“Well-” Kaminari stammers a bit, unsure of what to say, “I guess I just thought- I dunno, you both seem like you’re such a couple, even back in the academy I thought so, I’m kinda surprised you aren’t.”
Needless to say, the drive home is kind of awkward.
Katsuki and Izuku don’t really talk, Izuku wants to try to say something, to make a joke or start a conversation but he can just tell that Katsuki isn’t really in the mood and he doesn’t want to make things weird. They’re just friends. They’ve always just been friends. Katsuki probably feels weird about people thinking he’s in a relationship with Izuku of all people. He’s dorky and nerdy and not the most attractive guy ever.
Izuku is so not his type. All the guys that Katsuki has dated have been completely different from him, there’s no way he’d ever actually want Izuku. It’s just not something that will happen, even if Izuku wants it to so badly, he knows it won’t. So, Katsuki is probably just feeling a little bit awkward about it all, that’s it. They’ll probably be back to normal by tomorrow or whenever their next shift starts if they don’t end up talking tomorrow.
He really hopes they end up talking tomorrow. Izuku doesn’t like going a whole day without talking to Katsuki, it always feels like something is missing from his day in those cases and he can’t stand it.
They arrive at Izuku’s house and Katsuki parks on the side of the road. Izuku is reaching to the back seat to grab his bag and sets it on his lap so he can open the door before the moment that Katsuki finally says something, “Wait.”
Izuku’s confused but he does take his hand off of the door handle and looks at Katsuki, “Did I forget something?”
“No,” Katsuki takes a deep breath and the vulnerability on his face is not something that Izuku is used to. He tosses his bag down on the floorboard again so that he can turn a bit more toward Katsuki, “I just- Fuck, man, I’ve been kinda shitty to you all day after Aizawa fuckin’,” He trails off for just a moment before getting back on track, “said all that shit about us being a couple.”
Izuku immediately feels his heart drop to his stomach or jump to his throat or, hell, maybe both because it feels like there’s something in his throat stopping him from saying anything and the knots in his stomach make him feel nervous beyond all hell. All he can manage out is a small, “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not-”
Izuku interrupts him, “No, no, you don’t have to spare my feelings, I know it was probably weird to think about being in a relationship with me.”
“What?” Katsuki’s eyebrows furrow tightly together and he shakes his head, “No, Izuku- That’s not-”
“I get it,” Izuku laughs it off, falling into a ramble, “I’m weird and I mumble a lot about uninteresting things because I’m such a nerd and a dork and I’m not entertaining and I’m not funny and you just see me as a friend, which is completely okay because I know that-”
“For fuck’s sake,” Katsuki breathes out and scoffs, he shakes his head and runs his fingers through the side of his hair, “can you just shut up and let me tell you I’m in love with you?”
“Yeah I’m sorry you-” Izuku stops in his tracks when it actually fully hits him what Katsuki said, “wait, what?”
“I’ve been thinking about all this shit today how all these damn people assumed that we were a couple, hell, I could tell even fuckin’ Eyebags was thinking it-”
Izuku can’t help but interrupt him because he knows about Katsuki’s love for stupid nicknames but who is that supposed to be, “Eyebags?”
“Shinsou,” Katsuki clarifies, rolling his eyes into resuming what he was saying, “I could tell when he asked about us being just friends at the start of our shift. I just- Fuck, Izuku, I’ve known about my feelings for a while and I kept them to myself because I didn’t think you felt that way about me but all these people just assuming that we’re together? It made me think that maybe this shit isn’t as one sided as I thought so correct me if I’m wrong and I’ll leave this damn thing alone but-”
“I’m scared,” Izuku finally admits, his voice coming out quickly as he interrupts his best friend, unable to look him in the eyes so he looks anywhere but, “I love our friendship and I don’t want that to change because we made a bad decision and I-” He gulps thickly, it takes a lot more effort than it should and now he’s staring down into his lap speaking quickly, “I’ve always had feelings for you, Katsuki. I’ve always thought I was incredibly obvious about it and that you knew and you were taking pity on me by still being friends with me, just trying not to make me feel bad even though I know you’re really not the kind of person to do something you don’t want to do just to spare someone else’s feelings, you’re really impressive that way, I think, in my opinion, but like I just never considered the fact that you might actually like me back or that you couldn’t tell that I love you or-”
Finally, Katsuki speaks to stop Izuku from his endless rambling, “You love me?”
Izuku practically melts at the soft way Katsuki says that, it’s not often he gets to see this side of him but, god, he loves it, “Yes, Kacchan, obviously.”
He can practically see the moment that Katsuki’s heart skips a beat. Or, maybe, that’s just his own heart. Either way he doesn’t really know where they go from here. He’s scared. Hell, he’s fucking terrified. How is he supposed to properly explain all of these feelings he has for his best friend to his best friend’s face? It feels impossible.
Just saying the things he’s already said feels like too much, it feels overwhelming. It’s as if any second his heart is going to explode and he’s just going to be left here, unable to move.
He’s harbored feelings for this man since… Damn, he doesn’t even know, that’s how long it’s been. He doesn’t want this to ruin things between him and Katsuki, he doesn’t want this dumb urge to kiss the smirks off of his face or whisper intimately into his ear or kiss his forehead or cuddle late at night or any of those stupid, silly urges to ruin his friendship with Katsuki. It is by far the most important thing to him and he cannot explain how much Katsuki means to him.
He doesn’t want things to change.
Well, he doesn’t want things to change for the worse. He really doesn’t want things to change for the worse, he doesn’t think he can handle that to be completely honest.
“But I’m scared,” Izuku voices, he tries his best to ignore the way the tears spring up into the corners of his eyes and his nose gets that super funky feeling, the one that shows up right before you’re about to start crying, “I’m scared of losing, Kacchan,” he feels so small. His voice feels small and he feels like everything is growing larger around him.
“Fuckin’ dumbass,” Katsuki scoffs and, honestly, it might not be the right thing to say to anyone else, insulting them, but it helps Izuku feel bigger. He knows Katsuki. He knows that that’s Katsuki and, to be completely frank, it was getting kind of weird to see him all vulnerable and the normalcy of the insult brings Izuku a little more confidence; that’s Katsuki. His best friend. Katsuki continues on, “You’re not gonna fucking lose me, Izuku. Not if I have anything to say about it. For fucks sake,” He mumbles that last bit.
And it really does make Izuku feel better. His heart is still pounding in his chest and his stomach is still pretty much a huge knot but his throat feels clearer and the tears coming aren’t ones of fear anymore but, instead, happiness and his mind isn’t running completely wild. Maybe still like a tiny bit but it’s not the huge mess it was earlier and okay yeah maybe he’s still freaking out a little bit because of the fact that Katsuki actually.. feels the same way about him?
It’s an absolutely insane concept to him, to be completely honest. He always thought that Katsuki was way out of his league; that he’d never like him back, nevertheless love him too; that he’d never be the one to actually confess.
“Izuku,” Katsuki reaches over the middle console to grab his hand, which sort of reminds him that they’re still in the car.
“We should go inside,” Izuku claims, “my roommates aren’t here right now, we can talk inside.”
“Okay,” Katsuki nods, agreeing. They both get out of the car and Izuku makes sure to grab his bag from the floorboard. They walk up to the porch in a comfortable silence and Izuku reaches for the keys in his pocket to unlock the door.
Once they’re inside, Izuku places his bag down by the door and the both of them take their shoes off, walking further into the house. Katsuki knows the place just as well as Izuku does and Izuku’s the one who lives here. It’s just that Katsuki is always over whether it’s for their Saturday night movie nights or their Wednesday night gaming marathons or just random hangouts which end up happening nearly every other day of the week. They spend almost all of their time together, honestly. Thinking back on it, it’s no wonder Katsuki likes him back. They never really get sick of each other, from spending all their work days together to then hanging out pretty much constantly after work? Yeah, it’s no wonder.
It is a wonder, however, that Katsuki never caught on to the fact that Izuku’s been hopelessly in love with him for all of this time. Maybe Katsuki is just oblivious because Izuku sure as hell isn’t good at hiding it.
They decide to settle in in the living room, both of them sitting on opposite ends of the couch, which is actually unusual for them. Typically, they sit right next to each other, even with an entire couch available.
Okay yeah, no wonder half of his coworkers probably assume that they’re already in a relationship.
Starting up the conversation again is kind of difficult, it seems that neither of them really know what to say. It’s clear that they’re both nervous, which is just kind of mind boggling to Izuku because he doesn’t think he’s ever seen Katsuki nervous before.
It’s Katsuki who starts up their conversation again, “I don’t really know what to say that I haven’t already. I love you, I want to be with you, we’re practically already dating just without all the strings and shit, I guess. We spend damn near every waking moment together so,” He shrugs, seemingly sure that his point is getting across clearly, “I don’t know, dude, I suck with voicing my feelings. You’ve always been better at that than I have.”
“You’ve gotten a lot better,” Izuku whispers fondly and he can’t help the way he moves closer to Katsuki’s end of the couch until he’s right next to him and hugging him.
They don’t really hug.
Never full on like this.
Sure, they’re very touchy with each other and their touches tend to linger. A hand on the shoulder, their knees pressed together while sitting down, falling asleep on the other’s shoulder, a quick touch to avert attention elsewhere. It’s all very casual movements and hugging has never really been their thing as much as Izuku has hoped for it to be.
So, when Katsuki immediately returns Izuku’s hug, it makes his heart feel so full. He wraps his arms around Katsuki, burying his face in the crook of his neck and Katsuki’s arms hug above Izuku’s shoulders, one of his hands immediately going into Izuku’s curls, navigating them carefully as to be sure not to pull on one.
“I have been wanting to run my hands through your damn hair for far longer than I care to fuckin’ admit,” Katsuki half scoffs, half chuckles.
A giggle escapes Izuku and the knot in his stomach is suddenly gone because he feels completely at ease with Katsuki. Just like he always has.
Izuku moves his head a little so that he can look up at Katsuki without having to release the hug, “Well I hope that it’s as good as you imagined because it’s a mess right now and I desperately need a shower,” Then he smirks and half jokes, “and so do you to be completely honest. You kinda stink.”
“Oh, do I?” Katsuki chuckles and glares down at him playfully, “I don’t think you really care.”
Izuku hmphs and shrugs, “Maybe I don’t.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
The conversation kind of dies after that and now they’re both just sitting there staring into each other’s eyes for what feels like literal years but can’t be any longer than two minutes. The instant that Katsuki’s eyes flicker down to Izuku’s lips for just a split second, Izuku’s gaze falls down too.
“Katsuki,” Izuku gulps, whispering.
“Izuku.”
Izuku takes a deep breath, “kiss me?”
That’s all Katsuki needs to lean down and press a soft, lingering kiss to Izuku’s lips. It’s sort of everything Izuku dreamed of it to be and he’s dreamed a whole lot about it, he won’t lie. He’s dreamed a whole lot.
Katsuki’s hand comes up to cup Izuku’s neck, thumb brushing against his cheek, and Izuku feels chills throughout his whole body.
The kiss is everything to Izuku and more so he can’t help the fact that he’s already wanting more the second they break apart, “I love you.”
Izuku blurted it out, it’s like he wasn’t even in control of his own words and, like, he knows he said it already but after that? It just feels even better to get it off his chest, to say it out loud to Katsuki’s face, especially knowing he loves him too.
He adores Katsuki. It’s clearly been obvious to everyone except Katsuki himself but he’ll do everything in his power to make sure it’s the clearest for Katsuki from now on. He doesn’t want Katsuki to feel anything but adoration from him because that’s how he feels.
He loves Katsuki.
“I love you too,” And Katsuki loves him back, “so fucking much, Izuku, I don’t think you understand.”
It doesn’t take long after that before Katsuki is kissing Izuku one more time, not nearly as long as the previous one, just a simple thing but just as perfect.
Izuku can safely say that he will never get over kissing Bakugou Katsuki.
He falls easily back into Katsuki’s arms, feeling comfort at finally getting the chance to be held like this by the one person he truly can never get sick of.
They’re like that for quite some time before Katsuki’s chest rises in a deep breath and he whispers, gulping, “Can I tell you something?”
Izuku’s heart rate spikes, nervous. This can’t end already, it just started. Yet, his mind is feeding him the worst. Still, he nods and hums in approval.
“I’m fucking scared, too,” Katsuki admits with a shaky breath, his voice quiet and Izuku pulls back from him, it’s the furthest they’ve been since their hug started.
Izuku doesn’t move completely away though, he just moves in a way that his entire body is facing Katsuki’s and grabs onto his arms, a smile on his face, encouraging Katsuki to continue, “you are?”
“I’ve never been good at this feelings shit, I don’t wanna fuck things up with you, Izuku. I’m just-“ Katsuki bites at the inside of his cheek, “I’ve loved you for a long ass time and you’re so fucking amazing and I’m just…” He pauses, looking over Izuku’s face, “I’m scared, too.”
“We’ll be scared together, then,” Izuku smiles, kissing Katsuki on the cheek before leaning into his side and getting comfortable. The both of them are completely at ease with each other now, everything out in the open.
“You know we’re going to have to go back into work just to tell Captain Aizawa he was pretty much right and we do actually need that paperwork, right?” Izuku can’t help the way he laughs.
Their captain completely clocked them before they clocked themselves.
Katsuki laughs, resting his cheek onto the top of Izuku’s head, “maybe we keep it from him for a few days? Just so we can figure out how the fuck we’re gonna do this?”
“I was gonna say the same thing. I also don’t really want to tell our coworkers. Not for a while at least.”
“We’re on the same page.”