Chapter Text
After a long day for grading tests, reviewing essays, and dealing with errant students still roaming the halls, Izuku couldn't wait to get home to his cozy apartment and crash for the weekend. Being a teacher at UA was no doubt rewarding, but some weeks tested his endurance like no other. The sun had just begun its descent, and he had just finished packing his briefcase and was contemplating what takeout he was going to order for dinner when he had bumped into a familar face.
"Oh, Aizawa-sensei! I was just about to head out too. Long day, huh?"
"I've told you repeatedly that I'm your colleague and you're no longer my student, yet you still manage to be a problem child. Your students on the other hand… they've outdone you by miles. How you pratically live at this school but have no idea of their howabouts is beyond me," the retired underground hero drawled.
"Err, Aizawa-san…" he said, testing the name on his tongue but shaking his head, decidedly against it. "Wait, what about my class? Have they snuck onto on of the training grounds? Gone on a secret vigilante mission? Out past curfew?"
"No property damage, unauthorized missions, not even sneaking out — they are much better than you in that regard. However, they have picked one of your worst UA habits to pick up — your neverending mouth. Perhaps it's for the better, befause it seems to me they've just vocalized what all of Japan has had on their minds since you redebuted," Aizawa only chuckled, reveling at his former student's confusion.
Izuku was smart, smart enough to know that there was something he wasn't in on.
"What are you talking about, sensei?" he asked cautiously, already dreading the answer.
Aizawa's grin was almost feral as he pulled out his phone and tapped a few times before showing Izuku the screen. "See for yourself."
The link Aizawa had sent Izuku opened to a WeTube link, titled and thumbnailed in an classic WeTube clickbait style. Trust his class to somehow use his teachings against him, as it was something they had been learning in his newly established social media class. In big, boldened letters, the video title read "EXPOSING THE DYNADEKU SITUATION (UA DRAMA REVEALED)". The thumbnail wasn't any better, being an awfully edited photo of him and Pro-Hero Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight next to big gaudy text reading phrases in a similar vein to the title. He could only be slightly mad at it, with it being such a faithful recreation of WeTube videos of the time.
For months, he had been trying to convince his class there was nothing going on between him and Kacchan, his childhood friend-turned-bully-turned-class rival-turned-rekindled friendship-turned-reason for the Deku pro-hero debut, but clearly they weren't convinced. It didn't help that Izuku, within it all, had been harboring a Big Fat Crush on him for years.
"Hello, my name is Sarashina Kiomi, and I am the president of the UA Hero Course Class 1A. Before I get too ahead of myself, I want to reiterate that my class and I never wanted to go public on this situation in lieu of our teacher's privacy, but recent circumstances have left us no choice but to issue a formal statement. We have tolerated far too long with such blasphemous behavior from Pro Heroes we are meant to look up to, so we jointly decided we had to take action."
Off-screen, he heard a loud, boisterous voice, no doubt Kota, yell "cut!" and the video quickly cut out, not without another clip following immediately after, in a much less formal tone.
"And before anyone in the comments bashes us for "revealing UA secrets" or whatnot, know that we modeled this video exposé after what we learned from Deku-sensei's "Social Media for Pro Heroes 101" class. So if for whatever reason we get cancelled for this, know that we learned all this from a man whose credentials for teaching such a class are his All Might Tumblr fanpages from middle school and high school. Anyways, without further ado, here is Hero Class 1A's statement on what we have infamously dubbed "The Dynadeku Situation." We hope this informs the public and hopefully, gets the damn message into our teacher and his "not-boyfriend's" heads."
Izuku succintly paused the video to let out an ungodly scream before settling down and pressing "play" once again.
"Recently, my class and I have noticed an uptick in unexpected visits from a certain Pro-Hero, Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. Normally, we would be more than thrilled for an impromptu practical lesson from a highly-ranked pro, but his visits as of late have been less focussed on teaching and more so on the teacher."
The video cut to an interview-style segment, transitioning to one of the most notorious "problem children" in his class.
"Hi, I'm Izumi Kota, and I'm a member of Class 1A. You want my input on the situation? Well, we were having some boring lesson on Quirk History– wait, what do you mean I can't call it boring? Well, it was boring, until Dynamight flew in through an open window I swear hasn't been open once this school year until I saw Sensei fiddling at it during lunch. I thought, "Yes, a practical class! Which training grounds are we going to this time?" but I was sorely mistaken when instead of quirk history or practical class or anything of value to a hero student, we all got front row seats to the 8th season reboot of the Bakudeku show. It was gross and awful."
"Could you describe to me how it was gross and awful? Feel free to share in as much detail as you possibly can."
"Oh, I can give you details. That event is ingrained in my brain as one of the longest classes of my whole life. At any given moment Deku-sensei and Dynamight would be flirting, and as much as sensei says they're just "friendly bickering", he is a liar. No one's faces need to be six inches away from each other about to kiss if they're platonic. I think at one point sensei tried, and I emphasize tried, to keep teaching, but I can assure you nothing was taught and no one ended up learning anything because we were all so distracted by Dynamight perching his adult man chin on Deku's shoulder the whole time. By the time the bell rang for our next class we basically sprinting out to be let free, but I know for a fact Dynamight stayed and kept talking to Deku. I could have sworn he only left once the bell rang for lunch to end."
The clip faded to black, and before Izuku could regain his bearings, yet another person flashed on screen, seemingly ready to testify again.
"Please state your name, and relationship to Bakudeku."
"Hello! My name is Eri, and when I was six, Pro Heroes Deku and Mirio saved me from the League of Villains! But that's besides the point. After I was rescued I spent a lot of time around the infamous Class 1A. When I was younger, I always thought Deku-san was the nicest person in the world. He still is! But I also learned he can be very dense. Like, very dense."
"Dan you elaborate on that, Eri?"
"Well, I'm in the General Studies course now, but I still visit Deku-san sometimes during lunch. One time I came to his classroom and Dynamight was there — again — and they were eating lunch together. Deku-san had made Dynamight a bento box! With little octopus-shaped sausages and everything! And Dynamight was just sitting there eating it like it was normal, and then he fed Deku-san a piece of tamagoyaki with his chopsticks, and he just— just let him! When I asked if they were dating, Deku-san laughed so hard he choked on his rice and said "No, Kacchan and I are just close friends!" but Dynamight looked like he wanted to explode something. Probably Deku-san's brain for being so oblivious."
Izuku felt his face burning. He did certainly did not remember that incident the same way.
The video cut again to show what appeared to be security camera footage from the UA hallways, timestamped and everything. His students had clearly put in investigative work.
"This footage," Kiomi's voice narrated over the video, "shows Dynamight entering UA's main building at 6:47 PM on a Thursday evening, three hours after classes ended. The same evening, Deku-sensei's classroom lights remained on until 9:23 PM. We called in to make sure, but Dynamight's agency confirmed he had no scheduled patrol that evening. When questioned, Deku-sensei claimed they were "just going over some collaboration strategies for an upcoming mission." Pardon my lapse in formality but yeah, right."
The footage showed Dynamight walking through the halls with clear purpose, a bag of what looked like takeout in hand.
"For four hours," Kota's voice chimed in. "Strategies. Sure."
Another student appeared on screen — one Izuku failed to recognize because he had buried his face in his hands, opting to go through the next section audio-only.
"I just want to say that we're not trying to invade sensei's privacy or anything. We genuinely care about him! But watching him pine after Dynamight while insisting they're "just friends" is painful. Like, sensei, we've seen the way you look at him. We've seen the way he looks at you. The only people who don't see it are you two."
"Can you give us an example?"
"Oh, easily. During the sports festival last month, Dynamight showed up in the stands, allegedly to "scout potential sidekicks" but he only watched our class's matches. Every time one of us won, he'd look over at sensei with this smug expression like "See? I taught them that" even though he absolutely did not. And sensei would get all flustered and proud and they'd do this weird telepathic communication thing with their eyes. It was like watching a married couple at their kid's soccer game."
Izuku wanted to sink into the floor. Or possibly through it. Maybe all the way to the earth's core.
The video compiled more "evidence" — photos from the UA faculty social media accounts showing Bakugou mysteriously present at multiple school events, screenshots of hero gossip forums discussing their frequent team-ups, and even a particularly damning clip from a press conference where a reporter asked Dynamight about his "close working relationship with Deku" and he'd responded with "none of your damn business" while turning bright red.
Finally, Kiomi reappeared on screen, hands folded seriously.
"In conclusion, Class 1A would like to make a formal request to Pro-Hero Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight: please, for the love of All Might, just ask our teacher out already. We have a betting pool on when it'll happen, and some of us are really toeing the line on that definitive date. If I could so selfishly ask, maybe by the end of the day of this video being posted?"
This came with a respectful amount of cheers in the background, and at this Izuku felt his face flush more than what he believed was biologically possible. He was very quickly taken out of that spiral at the video's closing statement.
"Most importantly, Deku-sensei deserves happiness, and despite your terrible hero name and worse attitude, you clearly make him happy."
The video ended with a montage of Izuku smiling whenever Bakugou was around, set to unnecessarily dramatic music, before cutting to black with text reading: "OPERATION: GET DEKU-SENSEI A BOYFRIEND. STATUS: IN PROGRESS."
Izuku stared at his computer screen, mouth agape.
His phone buzzed. A text from Dynamight, Bakugou Katsuki, himself.
kacchan: just watched your brats' youtube video
Izuku's heart stopped, then started again at triple speed.
kacchan: and yeah i know you're probably short-circuiting right now. take your time. but deku
kacchan: i've been trying to ask you out for three months you absolute nerd
Izuku looked up at Aizawa, who was watching him with barely concealed amusement.
"I hate you," Izuku said.
"You're welcome," Aizawa replied. "Now go call your boyfriend before your students make a sequel."