Chapter Text
Going into their third year at UA after the war, it was known to everyone that Katsuki and Izuku had started to go on walks together every evening.
It wasn’t an ‘every evening’ scenario at first.
Initially, it was suggested that Katsuki get some fresh air and engage in some light cardio to strengthen his heart. A walk was a perfect way to achieve both of those goals. Izuku was already attached at the hip to Katsuki ever since the war ended, and they were never not together if they could help it. They often came out of one another’s rooms together, ate together, and were the first at each other’s side when there was an emergency.
He had joined Katsuki twice a week, and they would go for only about half an hour or less.
Then it turned into four times a week, about forty-five minutes at a time.
Then every week day, just under an hour.
And now, every day for at least an hour or more.
Aizawa made sure to send a quiet drone after them every time. He had gotten the hang of predicting when they would head out, but as for when they would return… that was a little harder. Their longest walk was about three hours – an hour and a half either way. But as long as he could keep an eye on them from the drone, he was fine. And they really only did nothing but walk and gesture to each other as though they were talking the whole time. Izuku a little more animated than Katsuki. Katsuki turning to Izuku more often and keeping his eyes on him.
Aizawa had to wonder just what on Earth they were talking about and how they seemed to never run out of topics.
In his mind though, he was fine with not knowing.
He was just content to see that they were lifting each other up at this incredibly difficult time. Katsuki’s arm was still in a sling and Aizawa kept an eye on his portable heart monitor. Izuku still suffered from frequent panic attacks. Being together didn’t prevent their respective episodes completely, but it made them more tolerable.
While on their walk for that evening, Katsuki and Izuku mirrored each other’s steps.
They were just in comfortable loungewear and sneakers and had headed out after bathing together with the boys. They would come back for dinner with the others later, so they didn’t want to venture too far tonight.
The sakura petals were falling, changing into a prettier hue with imminent setting of the sun in the distance. The wide road to UA was open for them, and it almost felt like they were just walking into the horizon. It was peaceful and calm, and the wind was cool on their skin, easy on their scars. The silence was comfortable, permeated only by the synchronised steps of their shoes, the rustling of the trees, the very distant chattering of students near the dorms at UA.
“Hey, Kacchan,” Izuku piped up softly into the silence. His hands held behind his back as he walked.
“Mmm?” Katsuki hummed in response, inviting the sound of Izuku’s voice into his space like a familiar step into his home.
What question is it gonna be this time? Katsuki asked himself. It was fun to guess, because Izuku had gotten into the habit of asking random questions about random periods of time in their lives. Katsuki not-so-secretly enjoyed it. Enjoyed the time spent together catching up with Izuku and nurturing their friendship that they now have all the time in the world to explore.
“What’d you think when you found out I got a quirk?”
Katsuki almost stopped walking.
Of all the questions he had expected, he thought Izuku would have chosen something a little more recent. But then again, they had covered a lot over the past few weeks. Of course Izuku went a little further back in time.
“What?” he huffed amusedly, a little intrigued.
“I mean,” Izuku chuckled softly, “it must’ve been quite a shock, right?”
“Where’s this coming from?” Katsuki prodded, curiously.
“Just… thinking.”
Izuku hadn’t looked at Katsuki since he started talking. It was like he was gathering his thoughts together, a little distracted and lost in the memories he was bringing up. Izuku was always the type to have his head in the clouds, but if he was a bright and colourful balloon, then Katsuki was his string, tethering him to the ground even as fragile as he now was.
“You and thinking is a dangerous combination, nerd.”
“Hey!” Izuku bumped Katsuki’s shoulder gently. “Shut up Kacchan,” he said without heat. “Just humour me.”
Katsuki hummed as he heeded Izuku’s request and really thought back to the first time he discovered that Izuku had a quirk. Or rather, the first time he realised that Izuku might have a quirk – and may have possibly had it the whole time and hid it from him throughout middle school. It was during the aptitude tests, if he was remembering correctly. The first time Izuku broke a finger and the record for throwing a ball.
“I hated it,” he concluded, simply.
“Wow,” Izuku said drily, nodding his head slowly. “Mean.”
“Izuku,” Katsuki retorted, incredulous. “I’m always fucking mean.”
“That’s extra mean,” Izuku pouted.
“I thought you kept your quirk a secret from me for years. I was about to lose my mind, thinkin’ you were fucking with me for all that time.”
Izuku turned to Katsuki then, facing him a little as they walked. “Why would I fuck with you, Kacchan?”
“Oi,” Katsuki turned a little to face Izuku, pinch in his brow. “Language.”
Izuku had always found it incredibly funny that Katsuki always called him out when he swore, as if Katsuki didn’t have the biggest sailor’s tongue known to man. He would frequently retort with things like ‘you kiss your mother with that mouth?’
But Izuku liked to believe that it was because Katsuki wanted to preserve his way of speaking for some reason. Keep it balanced between them. Katsuki was sentimental like that, in his own roundabout sort of way.
“I couldn’t keep a secret from you even if I tried.”
Katsuki snorted.
Honest to God snorted.
“Don’t I know that.”
Izuku raised a brow, sensing something in Katsuki’s tone that sounded weighted. Like he already clocked that before Izuku even revealed it for himself.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Uh, hello?” Katsuki shrugged, sarcasm turned up to ten. “One For All? Remember that? Remember when you couldn’t help but run to me and tell me someone gave you your quirk before I got the hell out of school that day?”
“Oh,” Izuku brought a hand up to his chin and scratched with his index finger, smiling sheepishly. “Right.”
He remembered the feeling very well. He was bandaged all over and still aching, his arm in a cast. He had been chatting normally with everyone else until they mentioned that Katsuki had left in haste and was probably going home. Izuku had known that second, that it was because he felt overwhelmed due to Izuku’s sudden manifestation and usage of a quirk. he knew that he needed to get to him. He didn’t know what he was going to say or do or how he was going to say or do it, but as always with Katsuki, his body was moving before his mind was able to catch up.
Katsuki was all of Izuku’s irrationality and at the same time, the most rational thing to him in his life.
“You might as well have held up a banner that said, ‘I Inherited A Quirk From All Might’ right in front of my fucking face.”
“I tried to keep it a secret!”
“Well, you did a shitty job of that. I could see right through you.”
Izuku bristled. “That’s ‘cause you’re just— you! It worked on everyone else. You’re just… different.”
Indeed, there were many times that Izuku thought he had slipped up and revealed something he shouldn’t have to the others. They ended up never saying anything or connecting the dots, nor did they pry into the little things he revealed in his habits. Perhaps it was because they weren’t childhood friends of over ten years with him. He supposed that this made him a little careless in general with using his quirk freely and talking about it, thinking it would just fly over everyone’s head.
Nothing flew over Katsuki’s head. It caught on the tips of his spiky hair and got impaled there, sinking right into his brain and staying for hours, days, weeks, months, even years on end.
Izuku had discovered this the other day when they had talked about the river and he realised that Katsuki had spent years of his life thinking about not taking his hand. Years of his life regretting something that was just a regular Tuesday to him.
“You’re damn lucky they’re all idiots,” Katsuki added.
“Oh man,” Izuku shuddered, remembering something else. “I still remember when you called me out about it. You were all like,” Izuku held his hair up and furrowed his brows while dropping his voice a few notes. “Come outside. We need to have a talk about your quirk. Argh.”
Katsuki stopped walking, doubling over himself a little to wheeze in immediate laughter. He wheezed so deeply that his chest ached a little bit and then his brow pinched and his free hand came over his heart.
He sucked in a breath, and then breathed a choked, “ow.”
“Kacchan!!” Izuku stopped dead in his tracks as well and came around to Katsuki’s front, dropping into a squat to take a look at his face and scan quickly and efficiently to check if he was having an episode. “Are you alright?”
Katsuki opened an eye, a few small tears apparent from the hilarity of what Izuku did. He was smiling widely, stretching his tender scar on his cheek a little bit and pulling at the taut skin. A light flush dusted his cheeks.
He was still laughing, just sort of… on mute. Breathy, and full of gasps for air.
“Yeah,” he rasped, as Izuku placed his hand on his forearms to make sure he could stand upright again. “M’fine, ‘Zu,” he wiped a tear from his eye.
“Is it your heart?” Izuku searched his eyes frantically.
“You just— the—” he started wheezing again, careful to control himself but finding it extremely hard upon remembering the impression Izuku did. “The—” he almost doubled over again. “I do not fucking talk or look like that, ‘Zu, what the fuck,” he shut his eyes to laugh a bit more as they kept walking.
Izuku found Katsuki’s laughter a little contagious, and he was chuckling softly along with him as he kept walking close by with his eyes trained on the other intently.
“I made you laugh?” Izuku read every single feature on Katsuki’s face. The creases where his smile lines lay, and the tears caught in his long eyelashes, and the very faint pink on his high cheekbones.
“And what the fuck is ‘argh’,” Katsuki ignored him, fixing on the moment still. He tried to imitate the sound, failing miserably to capture Izuku’s energy.
“Kacchan,” Izuku felt like he was balancing between feeling enamoured that Katsuki was smiling, and being concerned that his heart was in danger of giving out. “If jokes like that cause you to feel chest pain, maybe I should tone it down.”
Of course, he didn’t want to have to tone it down, because now that he knew he had this power over Katsuki, he wanted to take advantage of it again and again. But the last thing he wanted to be was responsible if anything bad were to happen. And that broke his own heart.
“Izuku,” Katsuki calmed himself enough to speak in an even tone to Izuku, enough to address something he needed to as soon as possible. “I got a bad heart now but I can still laugh, and walk, and… feel things. Y’know that, right?”
“Of— of course I do, Kacchan!”
“Don’t stop yourself from making me laugh. Yeah? Shitty thing aches all the time but we— we’re learning new shit about each other every day. And I don’t— I don’t wanna miss this. This version of you that can crack jokes that are actually funny.”
“Hey,” Izuku chided again, even as his heart felt full. “I can be funny. I had to be when I went to Sir Nighteye’s’ agency in order to earn my place there.”
Katsuki’s brow pinched as he considered that for a moment, trying to get the facts straight.
“You had to— become a fucking clown to earn your place with… All Might’s old sidekick?”
“A—” Izuku let out a breath, “you really do have a way with words sometimes, Kacchan. He wanted to create a world full of smiles and hope, so he told me to make him laugh, And I uh…” Izuku trailed off, his lip twitching at the corner.
“What’d you do, nerd?” Katsuki asked, brimming with curiosity.
“It’s… so stupid,” Izuku shook his head. “Wait… let me get into it,” he stopped walking and Katsuki stopped in turn to face him and watch with amusement. That Izuku needed prep time made Katsuki anticipate what else Izuku had in store that could have possibly gotten him access to that agency.
After hiding his face for a few seconds, his head popped up again.
And it was a perfect All Might impression down to the shadows and the face shape, and the taut muscles that he used whenever he was in strong form.
Katsuki tipped his head back and laughed out loud, but when his chest decided to play up again, he looked back at Izuku and toned it down again. He brought his hand to his chest to settle down, but he kept smiling. Izuku’s face returned to normal and he hunched with his hands on his knees to hide in embarrassment.
Katsuki took his hand off his heart just in time for Izuku to look back up at him, and then he nodded along so they could keep walking and talking.
“That’s fuckin’ hilarious,” Katsuki still felt the lingering amusement in his veins causing his mouth to stay fixed in a smile. “So, did he take that?”
“Nope.”
“Oh,” Katsuki pressed his lips together. “Welp.”
“He made me fight him for a stamp instead. But anyways, back to what I was saying before,” he drove the conversation back by a few minutes, “I was literally about to shit myself when you called me out to talk about my quirk, Kacchan.”
Katsuki refocused on what Izuku was referring to, remembering how he had initially laughed at Izuku’s impression of him.
“And I did not say it the way you showed it, you damn nerd,” Katsuki narrowed his eyes at the other. “I do not say, ‘argh’.”
“Okay, maybe you don’t say that. But you might as well have,” Izuku splayed his palms out, bargaining with Katsuki. Katsuki shook his head and smiled in exasperation. “I thought you were about to murder me in cold blood, Kacchan.”
“You sound so deadass about it, too. Izuku, we were sixteen. Why the fuck would I do that?”
“Do you really have to ask?” Izuku retorted, sarcastically. “You whispered for me to meet you alone, then dragged me out to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and didn’t say anything till after we got to Ground Beta, and then started off super ominously. I felt like I was about to die, Kacchan. My life flashed before my eyes. And then you came out guns blazing! Literally!!”
Katsuki blinked as he recalled the information Izuku was relaying. And in hindsight, when putting it all together, it did sound pretty damning.
“Y’re dramatic. But you got a point there,” he nodded.
“I’m actually glad though,” Izuku turned back to the front, like he did when he was reminiscing while talking, getting into something sentimental. “Because a lot changed for us after that night. I felt like we could understand each other better, and I could train with One For All without having to keep it from you. It became so much easier once I had you on board, too. Though you were pretty harsh.”
“I was harsh for a reason, dipshit,” Katsuki bumped Izuku gently with his cast arm.
“I know that,” Izuku hiked up his shoulder as Katsuki bumped it. He was still getting used to casual physical contact with him, and every time Katsuki initiated, it sent a bit of a shiver up his spine. Izuku was a physical touch type of person, and Katsuki was more of an acts of service type.
They found each other leaning into each of those respective love languages in the dynamic they were now in. Izuku helping Katsuki where his heart and his arm failed him, and carrying his bag for him when they got to school. Katsuki hugging Izuku every time he had a nightmare and needed to hear his heartbeat just to remember that he was alive.
But Izuku wasn’t really raring to point it out, or say it out loud. He didn’t need to. He could just let it be.
“Besides, how did you train before I stepped in? Like, before even UA? You weren’t exactly at square one at the entrance exam, that’s for sure. You were probably square… five or some shit.”
“Square five is mean, Kacchan, I worked very hard before the entrance exam to prepare thank you very much.”
“Hard work, huh? The hell did you do? Who even— did All Might personally train you or something?”
“Yes and no! He was still an active pro hero at the time… he couldn’t always come see me. Mostly I just kind of researched the right workouts and diet and started doing them…” Izuku answered, feeling a little sheepish again. He knew Katsuki was nowhere near the same as his middle school self, but if he had been, then he would have probably exploded his hair into an afro again and blasted off while shouting profanities into the atmosphere.
“’N what did you do?”
Suddenly Izuku felt a little confused. Because if Katsuki was as observant as he always was, then shouldn’t he have noticed?
“You mean you didn’t see me using hand weights under the table in class when we were in middle school after the sludge villain incident?”
Katsuki’s mouth very slowly formed an ‘O’ as his eyes widened ever so slightly.
“So that’s what you were doing,” he said, mostly to himself, a little distracted while thinking back to what felt like a very long time ago.
“What did you think I was doing, Kacchan?” Izuku asked, incredulously.
“I thought you were…” Katsuki gestured with his hand, face contorting as he tried to find the words. “I dunno, constipated or some shit.”
It was Izuku’s turn to burst into uproarious laughter and stop walking as his head tipped back and he lost his balance. He veered off course and stepped over himself to brace his hand on a tree and grip tightly onto the bark as he laughed with his whole chest. Every time the image of his own face and Katsuki’s potential face of disgusted concern flashed in his mind, every few seconds, the laughter would be refreshed.
Katsuki found Izuku’s laugh to be contagious too. He formed a fist with his hand and brought it to his mouth to barely stifle a soft chuckle.
So he could make Izuku laugh as well. Good to know, he filed away this information.
“Oh, my God,” Izuku caught his breath in the deepest gasps followed by a few short chuckles. It was a very airy laugh, like bells in the wind. Boyish in a different way to Katsuki’s – though Katsuki couldn’t tolerate his normal gremlin-like laugh as much now with his heart weaker.
“That’s so funny, I can’t believe you thought I was constipated whenever I was training with the weights under my desk. Did my face really look that weird?”
“Yeah, nerd, it did. Thought you were holding in a massive shit the whole time so I chose a different bathroom from you until you stopped fuckin’ making those faces.”
“I thought you were just avoiding me, Kacchan. That’s insane,” Izuku pushed off the tree and they were walking again – mutually wondering how much they could stand to walk before the next laughing fit that left either of them debilitated enough. And it was a very good feeling to laugh so much that you need a moment to lose it. Even better to laugh because of stories you never thought you’d hear from a friend you never thought you’d make.
“Surely it wasn’t just the hand weights,” Katsuki kept the conversation going.
“Of course not. You remember that beach in our neighbourhood? Uhm, Takoba something—”
“Takoba Municipal Beach Park?”
“Yeah!” Izuku snapped his fingers.
“The one that used to be a literal dump ‘til the council decided to do something about it?”
“Well…” Izuku paused for a second. “It wasn’t actually the council. It was me. That was my training.”
Katsuki paused in turn, processing that for a moment. “You mean… All Might had you clean up that beach? That beach? For training?”
“Yeah…” Izuku chuckled, understanding how insane this was coming across.
“Your scrawny ass?”
“Excuse me,” Izuku sassed, crossing his arms. “I was plenty strong, and I still am!! And it wasn’t at once, it was over a few months!”
“I know you’re fucking strong, ‘Zu, but it still trips me the hell up! You got the weirdest sleeper build I’ve ever seen. You know the kind of shit they dumped there? Fridges, tyres, whole ass wardrobes? Heavy ass shit.”
“Okay, first of all, of course I know – I cleared everything away. Second of all, how do you know exactly what they dumped?”
“’Cause the hag was one of them. Made me clear my shit out of some stuff to take it to the beach. Lost my favourite damn cabinet to her stupid spring cleaning. Said I was growing out of it.”
Izuku laughed. “No wonder one of those things looked familiar.”
“How the fuck did you manage to clear everything up? What, did the old man tie the shit to you with a rope and make you haul it away?”
Izuku blinked, lips turning down in surprise at the accuracy. “Actually, yeah. That’s exactly what he did. He tied the ropes around me and then around the big things and I just kinda… dragged them away. I started with some tyres and then moved to fridges and stuff. He even sat on top of them.”
Katsuki almost shuddered thinking about how much that would have weighed.
“Every day after school? That why you started leaving in a hurry?”
“Yeah. Most days.”
“Damn. Thought you fuckin’ hated my ass or something.”
“Kacchan,” Izuku said flatly. “You bullied me.”
“Sue me, ‘Zu. Most days after school is crazy, how did you not fuckin’ burn out?”
“Honestly,” Izuku sucked in a breath, almost feeling like he could relive the moment physically and mentally, “I have no idea. I just wanted to adapt to the quirk so bad and not let All Might down. And I kinda wanted to prove everyone wrong.”
“Well you did a real good fuckin’ job of that,” he said, which he thought came off as sarcastic but was dripping with nothing but genuine praise, “though I still find it hard to believe the old man sat on top of all the shit. Like, what? Was he in his weak form?”
“Full muscle form,” Izuku said, sadly.
Katsuki huffed.
“Pics or it didn’t happen.”
Izuku turned to Katsuki then, brows drawn in determination and a little fire lighting in his heart, because he loved to have the upper hand on him.
“Bet,” he whipped out his phone from his pocket as he kept walking, smile pulling at his lips and fingers flying to enter his passcode, go straight to his gallery, and sort his photos by date.
Katsuki chuckled. “Ain’t no way you—”
“No, Kacchan you clearly don’t believe me, so I’ve got the pics. Believe me, even I don’t believe it sometimes, so I have to— ah!” he perked up. “Found it,” his lip curling up into a fully satisfied smirk.
He clicked on a photo and shoved the phone into Katsuki’s face, but it was too close so Katsuki narrowed his eyes and grabbed the phone with his hand. Izuku’s hand fell away so his phone was now held by Katsuki close to his face as he examined the picture in detail. They had both stopped walking, and Izuku waited eagerly for Katsuki’s reaction. He was not disappointed when Katsuki blinked rapidly and started grinning.
“God, you look like a pipsqueak.”
“I was pretty small,” Izuku agreed. “You’re not really one to talk, though.”
“How much did that shit weigh? All Might is as big as the fridge.”
“Honestly I never asked,” Izuku chuckled a little nervously, cheeks warm as he thought back to how insane he had been before he even turned fifteen. In hindsight it all really hit differently. “I just kind of… did it. I do know that All Might weighed at least 560 pounds though, so… more than that I guess,” he tilted his head.
Katsuki handed him his phone back and Izuku pocketed it, still looking away and smiling a little awkwardly. They turned around and began walking back toward the dorms so they didn’t stray too far, lost in conversation.
“You’d think he was training you for the apocalypse or some shit.”
“Knowing what we know now, that’s probably a good thing. I actually still use his advice from back then sometimes… he was always like,” Izuku cleared his throat and got into another impression, this time of All Might which he was more confident in compared to Katsuki, “clench your buttcheeks and go for it.”
Katsuki snorted. “Clench your— y’know what, that actually tracks for him. He would say some ridiculous shit like that.”
“And it wasn’t just the war that was like… apocalyptic. The stockpiled power was like a whole apocalypse inside my body. It would have taken years for me to comfortably use 100% without breaking a bone. You know how often I did a year ago.”
Izuku had chuckled softly at that, but Katsuki did sense the slightest bit of melancholy in his voice. It would have taken years. If he still had One For All. Katsuki didn’t doubt that Izuku had prepared for the eventuality of losing this quirk, as everything borrowed eventually had to be returned at the end of the day. And he really was satisfied with having saved everyone, and getting to live the experience.
But Izuku was allowed to feel upset about it. He had more of a right than anyone. He wouldn’t show it fully, but Katsuki would be ready the day that he did. And it would come, because no dam was indestructible. As Shouto had said, even the strongest heroes needed to cry sometimes, and Katsuki would be a shoulder when Izuku needed it. He’d be a sponge when the dam finally broke, absorbing all of his tears and taking on some of the weight off his shoulders.
He locked back into the conversation, keeping the relaxed tone afloat. Keeping it casual.
“’Course I know how often you broke those bones, nerd,” Katsuki agreed. “It’s all I thought about.”
“All you—” Izuku short-circuited a little bit, “what do you mean all you thought about, Kacchan?”
“Freaked me the fuck out! The way your arms just— ugh,” Katsuki cringed just thinking about the reddening and the purpling flesh within seconds of Izuku overusing his quirk. “You were like a damn rag doll, flinging yourself around like you didn’t feel any pain at all. I might have been an asshole but you got me worried off my fucking ass every other day, you know that?”
Izuku huffed a soft laugh at hearing Katsuki admit that he was worried about him. “Well it helped that I had a high pain tolerance. I had no choice but to overuse it sometimes! I just know Recovery Girl hated to see me coming. Aizawa sensei, too. I literally thought he would expel me on so many occasions before I figured out he was all talk.”
“I kinda hoped he would, back then,” Katsuki said, point blank.
“Mean, Kacchan!”
“If you got expelled then you wouldn’t be pulling crazy shit!”
“I could just,” Izuku gestured to somewhere in the distance, “go to Shiketsu and pull crazy shit there. You want me to do that outside of your field of view?” Izuku sassed.
Katsuki looked a little horrified. “Idiot,” he reached over, turning his whole body to use his left hand to flick Izuku on the forehead. Izuku yelped.
“I don’t want you pulling crazy shit, period! Driving me fucking insane— do you know how many times I talked with All Might about that while you were training with the others?”
“You…” Izuku looked startled, “talked with All Might during those times?”
“Yeah. The One For All shit put me on edge. What almost sent me over was the old man not being able to give me straight answers. Gotta figure every damn thing out myself,” he grumbled like he was still having to figure everything out.
“So you guys… weren’t just sitting there in silence? I—” a giggle escaped his lips at the hilarity of his thoughts, “I thought you two were like statues whenever I glanced over. You just sat there together without moving an inch.”
Katsuki wheezed lightly again. “’Cause that shit wasn’t light conversation. Wasn’t like, ‘oh, why the fuck are UA’s water bottles sponsored by Gang Orca?’, it was more like, ‘all the users died young and you’re one of ‘em’. I just…” Katsuki took a breath, “didn’t like One For All. Yeah, it was yours and his quirk, but the shit was cursed. No matter what anyone said, I thought the power was too much. Know why I lost a shit tonne of sleep back then? Was ‘cause I took the notes home and poured over ‘em trying to find loopholes.”
“You…” Izuku’s breath caught in his throat, “studied One For All for me?”
He looked at Katsuki in awe, and with a heavy sense of wonder. He thought, at the time, that Katsuki was just roped into late movie nights with Mina and the others. He didn’t even question the missing notebooks because he memorised everything within a week of All Might presenting them and didn’t need the physical copies.
Katsuki clicked his tongue, trying not to make it sound like a big deal.
“Who else is gonna watch out for your ass? I know you ain't.”
Izuku’s bottom lip wobbled but he tried to suppress the immediate tears. His heart swelled in his chest and he felt warm in his face from the sweetness of Katsuki’s words underneath the flat delivery.
“Awwww, Kacchan,” he cooed, coming quickly around to Katsuki’s other side before he could notice and slipping his arm through Katsuki’s left. “You do care,” he looked up at the blonde grinned from ear to ear.
Katsuki turned his head away to roll his eyes and groan, though he did nothing to shove Izuku off. He could have, as he still retained his feistiness even with debilitating injuries, but he kept that arm still for Izuku to cling onto.
“’Couse I do, nerd,” he griped. “Always did. Every user must’ve had someone to pick their loose screws off the floor. You got me. All Might had… probably David.”
Izuku sucked in a breath, like he just made a realisation, and he continued talking without letting go of Katsuki’s arm, quite comfortable attached to him.
“Y’know something, Kacchan?” he almost whispered.
“Hmm?” Katsuki turned to him.
“Please don’t tell him I told you this,” Izuku smiled something cautious as he looked at the blonde, making sure he was listening, “but I always thought there was something…” his brow pinched, "weird about them."
“'Bout All Might and David? Weird how?” Katsuki raised a brow, curious.
“Like,” Izuku looked forward. Then, he breathed out an embarrassed laugh. “Oh my God, I don’t even know how to explain it any other way. Like…” he leaned closer to Katsuki’s ear and cupped his other hand – even though they were quite literally alone out here.
Then, he whispered, “…old man yaoi weird.”
Katsuki lost it.
He burst out in laughter immediately, his whole body reacting so quickly and dramatically that Izuku startled and let go of his arm to stand to the side and watch. He chuckled to himself watching Katsuki double over and cackle loudly, and then proceed to cough and hack with a hand at his mouth.
“Kacchan—” Izuku found himself unable to complete the sentence without screwing his eyes shut and laughing a little himself. He matched Katsuki’s volume the longer and louder Katsuki got, paired with the moments of coughing and wheezing.
“Old ma—”
Katsuki cracked himself up again.
“Kacchan, shut up!” Izuku said ironically, as they lost it together in the middle of this pathway.
“Izuku, you fucking— really?”
“You—” Izuku attempted between gasps for air, “you haven’t— heh, you haven’t seen them together, Kacchan!!” he laughed, “if you did you’d agree with me!”
“I didn’t say I disagreed, nerd,” Katsuki said in one breath as he patted his chest and tried to settle down again, but it was hard when Izuku was so effortlessly funny. When he said things like that so embarrassed, but he said them anyway. It was utterly ridiculous. “’S the way you said it that’s got me—” he wheezed, “pissing myself.”
“You think they, like actually dated?” Izuku and Katsuki started stumbling back into a walk again, facing each other and smiling while still high off the laughing breakdown they just shared.
“Wouldn’t be surprised to be honest,” Katsuki shook his head. “All Might was in America over the summer and went back for years. David was probably his summer fling or some shit – might have passed that down to you along with the quirk.”
“Pa— summer— what?” Izuku spluttered, not sure what to focus on out of everything Katsuki just said. “Passed down a what to me??”
“Summer fling, nerd, All Might had one and so did you! Don’t play dumb,” Katsuki teased, enjoying every time Izuku short-circuited.
“When did I have a summer fling, Kacchan?” Izuku asked with his whole body, incredulous. “And what even is that??”
“You and bird brain?” Katsuki shot back, scowling automatically. “In Otheon?”
Izuku tilted his head back, realisation apparent on his face. He let out an exasperated breath.
“His name is Rody, Kacchan!”
“Oh,” Katsuki put his hand up in surrender, faking remorse. “I’m sorry.”
“And he wasn’t a fling, that’s so— that’s—”
“Everyone thinks it,” Katsuki informed, scowl deepening, verging on a pout. “You don’t blame them with the way you hugged his ass at the airport,” he grumbled a little under his breath.
“Everyone thinks it??” Izuku raised his voice in complete disbelief. “And also,” he pointed an accusatory finger at the other, “why were you watching us hug in the first place?”
“Why were you hugging in front of me?” Katsuki retorted quickly.
“I was not— you were going up the escalator with Todoroki-kun?!”
“Face all up in his neck and hands all over his waist and everything. Scandalous. You’re a fucking animal.”
Izuku hit Katsuki lightly on his bicep, furrowing his brows at the dramatics of it all.
“I was not— and he wasn’t— we were fugitives Kacchan! On the run across the border! Remember that little detail?”
“Riiiiight,” Katsuki drawled, sarcastically. “A fugitive in a bucket hat and overalls with freckles and a baby face. So scary.” Katsuki shook his left hand, feigning panic. “Shiver me timbers.”
“I—” Izuku didn’t know how much more denial he had left in him, and how much more patience he had for Katsuki’s incessant teasing. “I can be scary!”
“Sure, Izuku.”
He fumed, balling his fists and straightening and tensing his arms all the way down to his fingertips. He could have sworn that he blew steam out from his nose like an enraged bull. At times like these, he felt like they were little kids again and he was trying to prove himself to the coolest boy he had ever known. Even at sixteen, he found that he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder when it came to Katsuki.
“You just don’t know ‘cause you’re usually unconscious when I’m at my scariest.”
“Why are you out here being scary when I’m fucking unconscious?”
“’Cause I—”
The words died in Izuku’s throat and his mouth snapped shut.
“Y’know what, never mind.”
He just realised that replying with candour would open up a huge can of worms and he didn’t know if he was ready for Katsuki to know the full extent. Though with the amount of opening up they were doing, he supposed he should have expected this would come up. This, being the overwhelming sense of possessiveness Izuku held. The intense, overwhelming feelings of wanting to let the world burn whenever Katsuki so much as got a papercut.
“No,” Katsuki smirked, sensing that he hit a little brick wall that he hadn’t knocked down yet. “I wanna know now.”
“No you don’t,” Izuku walked a little bit faster.
“Yes I do, Izuku. Spill it! Fucking tell me!” Katsuki caught up to him.
It didn’t really take a lot of convincing for Izuku to cave in. Again, he was the worst at keeping secrets from Katsuki. But he didn’t really expect to get right to the bottom of that can of worms today. He wasn’t ready for that.
“I just—” Izuku gestured with his hands, heat rising to his cheeks and ears, “I lose it whenever you’re hurt, Kacchan!” he simplified everything. “I can’t control myself at all. I didn’t even know I looked scary until I was told people shat themselves when I looked at them. I didn’t remember looking at anyone!”
Katsuki barked out a laugh. “Somehow I ain't surprised.”
“It’s not funny, Kacchan,” the heat just kept rising and rising. “It’s insane! I’m insane!!”
“Izuku,” Katsuki said, matter-of-factly. “If you’re crashing out for whatever reason I would hope you do whatever you can to wake me the fuck up so I can take a front row seat.”
“No. Way.” Izuku shut down Katsuki and his thought process off immediately with grand gestures using his whole arms. “Why would you even want that?” he cringed.
“Yes way!” Katsuki snapped back. “You have any idea how badly I wanted to see you go apeshit? Not in the bone breaking kinda way but just go off? You’re so polite, so goody-two-shoes all the time, but I know that everyone’s sweetheart Izuku has several screws loose in his head, even more than me.”
“It’s just…” Izuku shuddered, “embarrassing.”
They were just about approaching UA Heights again, back to the dorms. They entered the school grounds and headed for the doors.
“It’s great,” Katsuki smiled contently, just thinking about the satisfaction of watching Izuku go off. “Think I’ll ask the shitheads to film next time you do,” he said conveniently, as they got closer to where everyone else was.
“Please don’t,” Izuku huffed, as he opened the door and let Katsuki walk in, entering after him and falling into step again.
“Oh, hey!” called Mina, coming down the stairs from the girl’s side of the dorms excitedly. "You guys are back from your walkies! Dinner’ll be ready soon," she informed casually as she headed toward the kitchen and probably kept talking, but neither of the boys could hear anything else.
They stopped in their tracks and eyed her, and their minds fixed onto completely different thoughts. Both had different expressions on their face, Katsuki’s hinging on a smile and Izuku’s hinging on pure horror.
They looked at each other without turning their heads, Katsuki’s lip quirking up into a smirk and Izuku’s pursed together as he gulped.
“Kacchan,” Izuku whispered, threateningly. “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh,” Katsuki’s whispered back. “I dare.”
“No you— don’t!!”
As Izuku finished that sentence, Katsuki suddenly surged forward and sped off running towards Mina – his arm and his heart be damned.
“Kacchan!!” Izuku yelled, scrambling to start after him.
Mina turned to them, raising a brow and smiling in curiosity at the commotion. She was very surprised and amused to see them rushing to get to her – Katsuki closing in and Izuku hot on his tail.
“Kacchan, no!!”
As he closed in just before Katsuki got to her, he wrapped his arms around him and held him back, but then Katsuki flinched hard and hissed.
“Ah!” he shouted out once, in pain, drawing his casted arm in.
Izuku took his hands off immediately, his heart immediately shooting through with the pain of flaring guilt.
“Oh fuck, Kacchan, I’m so—”
But then, Katsuki was grinning to himself, finally free from Izuku’s vice grip and free to complete his journey to Mina and place his hand on her shoulder.
Izuku was left speechless, in limbo from the whiplash of thinking he had hurt Katsuki’s bad arm and then seeing him perk up immediately and go to Mina. He couldn’t even process that he had been played, and Katsuki’s plan had worked wonders – taking advantage of Izuku’s guilt shamelessly. This also worked when he made jokes about his heart and his death.
“Mina,” Katsuki grinned wildly. “The next time Deku goes apeshit, you have got to film that shit for me. High def.”
Mina grinned in turn, absolutely enjoying the entertainment of watching Izuku and Katsuki squabble and bicker and fight like schoolyard boys – and over getting to her no less. But she was even more intrigued by what Katsuki had requested, and the image in her peripheral of Izuku curling into himself and losing his mind.
She giggled and looked between them. “Is that what you boys were rushing at me for?”
“No!”
“Yes!”
Came the respective answers of Izuku and Katsuki.
She shook her head and placed one hand on her hip and took out her phone from her track pant pocket with the other, unlocking it without needing to look, scrolling through to some folder.
“You are really cute sometimes. But I don’t think you really know me that well if you think I haven’t already been collecting videos of Midoriya losing it,” she placed the phone screen in front of Katsuki. “For a few months now, actually.”
Katsuki leaned closer to it and Izuku ran forward to bunch in next to him to stare at the screen in abject horror.
The folder was entitled, ‘bunny_wabbit_go_wild_1/11’.
As in, one folder out of eleven folders.
In the first folder was different videos of what looked to be one event, based on the same clothing and weather on and around Izuku.
Izuku didn’t get time to gather anymore details before Mina was pocketing her phone again. They both stared at her with those varying expressions, and they found that she wore her own very unique, calculated expression too. Something awakened in her.
“Send me the files,” Katsuki said.
“Delete,” Izuku said, simply. “Please delete. Mina, my life and dignity depends on this.”
She placed both hands on her hips now, a brow cocked as she took in their words.
“You should both know by now that Mina doesn’t do favours for free.”
At once, both of their faces dropped and they straightened up, sensing an impending condition coming along. The potential for danger in these conditions was high. They had heard the stories from Denki and some of the girls. They shivered to think about being in their position at Mina’s mercy, but here they were.
“This is perfect,” she said under her breath before elaborating. “I want you to fight for it. After dinner once you’ve gained your energy back, in front of everyone, you guys have to arm wrestle. The winner gets access to my phone for an hour to do whatever they want, and the other has to lock themselves in their room.”
“But—” Izuku started.
“Ah,” Mina’s head snapped to him, hand flying to her pocket. “It sounds like you want Bakugou to have full access to all the videos,” she smiled sinisterly. “Unfiltered.”
Izuku snapped his mouth shut.
He did not want Katsuki to have full unfiltered access to the videos.
It didn’t even cross his mind that some of the footage needed to be censored. It was that intense.
He suddenly felt like he wanted to win against the blonde even if he was impaired by his condition. Though when he looked to Katsuki from the corner of his eye, the expression on his face screamed that he was absolutely game for Mina’s proposal. His condition wouldn’t get in the way of attaining anything that would expose Izuku.
If Katsuki was going to accept her challenge then Izuku wouldn’t back down either. He wouldn’t back down and he wouldn’t lose.
He would show Katsuki. He would show her. Show them all.
“No, I don’t,” he answered firmly. Then he turned to Katsuki. “I’m gonna beat you, Kacchan,” he swore. “You’re dead,” a competitive smile pulled at his lips.
Katsuki returned Izuku’s sentiment with an easy smile of his own, and if that set Izuku’s nerve on fire, he wasn’t about to let it show in his face.
Katsuki took two slow steps toward Izuku, Mina’s eyes tracking him as he did. Izuku looked into those red eyes and tilted his chin up defiantly. He would not waver even with intimidation tactics. Even with the intensity of those red eyes.
He wouldn’t.
He thought he wouldn’t.
Until Katsuki spoke.
“Second time’s the charm, eh?”
The colour drained from Izuku’s face and his eyes widened instantly.
He wavered.
He wavered so hard.
Mina’s hands flew to cover her nose and mouth. She squeaked as she retracted a little into herself, caught off guard completely.
Izuku’s hands twitched and his jaw slackened as he just stared at Katsuki in a stupor.
And Katsuki, drinking in both of their expressions, tried his best to keep his composure and milk it out. He tried to hang on for as long as possible stifling his true amusement.
But he couldn’t help it.
He snorted quietly before bursting out in uproarious laughter.
He grabbed the counter of the kitchen island and leaned back against it as he hunched over and laughed with his whole chest. Gasping for air just to keep laughing and laughing all over again.
The silence only contributed to the hilarity. Izuku and Mina just watched him, somehow even more mortified by his joyous outburst. Here he was deriving pleasure at the expense of their abject distress, and he didn’t look or sound ashamed about it in the slightest. Damn asshole.
“Kacchan,” Izuku breathed, all of the oxygen leaving his lungs and the strength leaving his legs at once. He closed his eyes and fell to his knees, hands bracing on the floor as he caught his breath that he had been holding deep within his lungs.
He then sucked in his breath again and his head snapped up to the still cackling blonde above him, looking down on Izuku like he was a pitiful little creature.
“Kacchan you—” he screwed his eyes shut, still not quite over the shock, “please, you need to stop making jokes about your—” he couldn’t even finish the sentence.
He felt like he was the one with heart issues sometimes, when he was with Katsuki.
“Bakugou, you—” Mina stepped toward Katsuki to start hitting him lightly on his good shoulder over and over. “—are just—” another hit, “—the worst!!”
“Oh man,” Katsuki, wiped a tear from his eye. “You— you should’ve seen both your fucking faces. Fuck,” he got out a few more laughs from his system. “Shit’s priceless.”
As Izuku just kept groaning on the floor and regaining his bearings from the unbearable whiplash Katsuki had brought upon him, he tried to keep one thought alive in the back of his mind. He tried not to let this go no matter how much Kastuki toyed with him.
‘I will win the arm wrestle tonight, and delete the videos. He’ll never know.’
And Katsuki, still calming down from the high of stunning Mina and Izuku into silence, kept his own thought alive right at the forefront of his own mind. He already felt like he had very high chances of winning, now that he just brought the green-haired boy to his knees.
‘I will get access to her phone. And I will save every last one of those videos. No hiding from me now, Izuku.’
Kastuki was going to explore every inch of that overactive brain and catch up to every single thing that he missed over the years. He had spent a long, long time pushing Izuku away, but he wasn’t going to make the same mistakes or bask in the same ignorance as he did when he was a little punk. He wouldn’t leave a single stone unturned. Even if he had to wrestle Izuku for it the grass and dirt, he wanted to know everything about him. Good, bad, and ugly.
Izuku probably still had things he wanted to keep to himself, ranging from his true feelings about losing One For All, to the reality of his instincts towards Katsuki.
Katsuki would never judge him. He wouldn’t feel empty or disgusted, either. Izuku may not know that, but he didn’t need to know.
His secrets were safe with Katsuki.
They fit into Katsuki’s heart like missing puzzle pieces that were filling the gaps left by years of silence, rejection, and solitude.
Katsuki never knew just how incomplete he felt until he started to get to know Izuku again. He could get drunk on the intoxicating urge to find out everything that he missed out on. On the sound of Izuku’s laughter, and the smile on his face as they walked together every day. On the lilt in his voice as they talked, and talked, and talked until time got away from them.
This was fun, Katsuki found himself thinking.
This was so much fun.
Being Izuku’s best friend again was the most fun that Katsuki never knew he’d have.
He never knew that he’d be able to laugh like this. Smile like this. Have the social battery to get out and walk with someone, talking with them for hours on him every day, and come away feeling as fulfilled as he did. Perhaps because Izuku was never really just… someone to him. Nothing like anyone he had ever met before. He never knew. If he had stayed the way he used to be… he would have never known this feeling.
But he knew it now. He had it now – a second chance with Izuku.
He wasn’t going to waste it for anything.
And the best part about it?
This was only just the beginning.
He had only just begun catching up to Izuku.
And it might be a little too early, and too presumptuous to say… but he had a feeling he would be fine with continuing to do so until they reached a point where they could write the rest of their story together.
Live their lives out, side by side, where they didn’t have to fill each other in. They could just be there – taking front row seats to the best and the worst parts of themselves. Lifting each other up. Picking up each other’s pieces when they’re down. The first person each other saw in the morning. The last at night.
Oh, Katsuki thought. A smile playing on his lips, eyes softening in their weighted gaze.
He couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life together with Izuku.
And looking at that flushed, freckled face, half full of life, but wholly of love, he had an inkling that Izuku wanted the same thing. Wanted a future together with Katsuki.
‘Well, you got me, Izuku,’ he responded in advance in his mind, hoping he would have the courage to say it out loud one day.
‘You got me, if you want me, whenever you want me.’
‘I’m yours.’