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You don’t just get better after a couple of hangouts and dates with your boyfriend, Katsuki knows that. He’s not someone who’s delusional - at least that’s what he would use to describe others - and thinks doing something positive will magically make his problems go away. Believe him, he’s tried to believe that and all that did was make him more upset and take it out on everyone more than usual.
That’s why when he finds himself going through his and Eijirou’s texts while smiling and giggling to himself with some bit of hope that he’s going to get better, he immediately stops and groans into his pillow.
Everytime the two boys hangout, Eijirou texts Katsuki after to check on him and make sure he had fun or if there’s anything that needs to be changed that the redhead can do for him and if that doesn’t make the blonde’s heart skip three beats - and maybe it’s the heart problems, who the hell cares - then nothing will.
Katsuki knows it’s not bad to not be defensive or rude all the time but one, sometimes he can’t help being either of those things and two, he kind of has to be defensive all the time. He can agree that being rude is exhausting whether you’re the aggressor or the victim but being defensive is what he needs to survive.
Think of it as something you’re attached to. You love that object and use it or see it every single day. The minute you lose it or don’t see it anymore, you start to panic and well, that’s how Katsuki feels about being himself. Don’t confuse Katsuki wanting to be himself with how he presents himself in general because no it’s not the same thing.
Everyone knows how he acts in general, there’s no need to give you a run down. The thing is though, he’s calmer when he’s by himself or with people he likes. Obviously there’s going to have to be an insult or two thrown in but if you spied on the blonde when he’s in either scenario, you’d think he’s a decoy.
In fact, there’s a few things even his friends don’t know about him because they can’t get to know him on a deeper level. For example, yes his favorite color is orange and dark green but he also likes the color teal. He can’t tell you exactly why - he’s aware it’s a bit ugly - but ever since he was a kid he’s liked it.
Another example could be that he expands his music taste and isn’t always listening to something heavy and loud. Sure he listens to instrumentals or relaxing music when he studies but that's what other people are shown. If you’re Eijirou or Mina then you’d know he likes to mix things up a bit and might go with pop one day and indie another.
The list could go on and on and Katsuki would love to think about other things he likes but unfortunately that makes him get too deep into his feelings and who is he to get beat up over this?
He just hopes these last two school years go by quickly and he doesn’t have to hide himself anymore.
🦈💥🦈💥
This school year has NOT gone by quickly by the way!
In fact, it’s only been a month since second year started but to Katsuki it feels like it’s been centuries and he’s just ready to bolt the second class ends.
Since there’s ten minutes left and everyone finished the assignment early, everyone ended up getting their own free time which left Katsuki to sit with his friends and scroll on his phone.
“Woah bro, I didn’t know you were interested in piercings like that!”
Katsuki rolls his eyes at Denki resting his head on his shoulder but doesn’t try to shrug him off this time.
“Some look cool ‘s all.”
“You think you’d get any? I know you already got your lobes but-”
“I have other piercings too?”
.
..
…
“You guys didn’t know?”
That earns him a collective shout of “NO” which causes him to let out a small but warning explosion.
“SINCE WHEN?!”
“Since I was thirteen!”
“THIRTEEN?!”
Before he can even answer, Hanta’s hands immediately go on his face and check everywhere for where a hole may be and gasps dramatically each time he finds one - each hole being on his nostril, bottom lip and both eyebrows.
“You guys never noticed when you came in my room?”
“You don’t even let us look at anything, let alone breathe in there!”
Oh.. right..
Katsuki huffs and goes in his back to get his jewelry that he keeps in case something comes out and he can’t find it.
He uses his phone camera to put in the nose stud, then his septum, then his eyebrow bars and finally his snakebites. When he looks at the four dumbasses - Eijirou’s in the bathroom missing everything of course - they all gasp and start cooing all over him.
By the time he’s able to breathe, the bell finally rings and he leaves the room and building - but if anyone saw the extra speed he put in his steps no one dared to ask.
🦈💥🦈💥
“Are you gonna focus or not? Cause remember I don’t exactly HAVE to help you on the homework and it’s not like you understand any of it!”
Eijirou pouts and flicks Katsuki’s forehead while also managing to dodge his fist.
“I’m sorry, I really am! Just your piercings..”
“You hate them? I can take them out-”
“NO! I love them! It’s just like.. seeing a new person?”
Katsuki raises his eyebrow and squints.
“I look the same but with silver in my face..”
“Okay but you look hot!”
“Shut the fuck up and finish please.”
A good four minutes pass before Eijirou’s speaking again.
“How’d you convince your parents to let you get them? I know your dad’s kinda easygoing but your mom seems like the kind of parent to flip at facial piercings.”
The blonde shrugs and closes his notebook.
“Well for my nostril they both agreed that it would be something small and that the piercing itself looks nice so a couple months after my birthday I got it. My septum they were kinda hesitant because they weren’t sure how it’d look and plus Izuku’s mom was worried I’d look like a bull, whatever the hell that meant..”
Eijirou holds in a laugh and nods to let him know he can continue. Everyone could compare Katsuki to a bull but his boyfriend didn’t need to know that.
“Anyway, they agreed and didn’t hate it but said that would be my last piercing for a while. With my eyebrows, I had a cousin do them for me. At first it was only my right eyebrow and of course my parents were irritated I didn’t ask but hey, what were they gonna do, yank it out? Anyway I only have both done because we thought the first one was getting infected but turns out the healing process was just extremely slow. Now I’m lucky and have two.”
Eijirou lets out a soft “ohh” before smiling and nodding.
“Guess your cousin did your snakebites too, huh?”
Katsuki pretends to look around and Eijirou’s eyebrows furrow.
“Kats..”
“Would you look at that ceiling? It’s just so.. ceiling like!”
“Katsuki.”
“And my walls babe, jeez the dorms are great!”
He takes a quick glance at Eijirou and whines into his hands when he sees the confused and concerned stare.
“..my parents don’t know I have them.”
“WHAT?!”
“OKAY LISTEN! I don’t even think Hanta was sober when he did them so maybe that’s why he never brought them again but then again I wasn’t either-”
“Baby!”
“I’m sorry! Shit!”
Katsuki knows he has a bit of the same problem as Izuku in a sense of overexplaining when he’s put on the spot or to shift the attention off of himself whenever it’s unwanted.
“Fuck okay. Hanta did them for me because he said it was the anniversary of our friendship or whatever and since he already has matching everything with Denki and Shoto, he wanted something with me. Said I’ve encouraged him a lot or whatever this year.”
Katsuki will never admit it but he likes hearing how he’s impacted his friends. It makes him feel better and even though he knows his ways won’t change that quickly, he feels lucky enough to have people so close to him that aren’t just his boyfriend and Izuku.
“So you let him pierce you?”
“Again, we both weren’t sober!”
“Dude your parents are gonna flip!”
“Not if they don’t know!”
The two boys stare at each other before Katsuki’s leaping onto Eijirou to keep him from reaching either one’s phone.
They wrestle for a bit before they both get tired and go limp on the floor.
Katsuki sighs and wraps his arm around Eijirou’s waist before letting the redhead lean down and kiss him.
“I love you, Kat.”
“Yeah okay.”
“You asshole, say it back!”
“Whatever, I love you too!”
“And I love your lip piercings-”
“KATSUKI BAKUGOU!”
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..
…
Katsuki immediately reaches over and hangs up on his mom before turning back to Eijirou who’s shocked because he doesn’t even remember hitting the call button.
“You have three seconds.”
“Yeah I figured.. don’t tackle me this time?”
“One second.”
“Fuck sorry!”