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Katsuki has no idea how it ended the way it did. He would, on the hours to come, go back and forth the fight over a thousand times. He would, on the months to come, wake up in the dead of night with a scow on his face because his subconscious was still trying to understand just how the fuck he let it happen. He would, on the years to come, mumble under his breath about how he could never accept it.
But here it is, clear as day: Bakugou Katsuki, a.k.a one of the stellar students from UA hero course pinned to the ground by Midoryia fucking Izuku, the quirkless nerd from the support course.
And he’s looking at Katsuki like he doesn’t know how this happened either. And then he has the audacity to smile – not even a smile, a fucking full blast grin that outshines the fucking sun, making his huge and sparkly green eyes even bigger and brighter and his round and cute face all the more rounder and cutter and Katsuki wants to kill him. Actually, honest to God kill him.
As soon as the idiot lets him go of this vice grip he has on him, and it’s a fucking strong one at that – both his arms, both his legs and his chest. That’s why he so fucking close and personal and Bakugou considers for a flick second biting the motherfucker, but then Midnight’s voice comes with utter and most unprofessional glee: “AND HE LOSES! BAKUGOU LOSES AND MIDORYIA IS THE WINNER OF THE TOURNAMENT, EVERYONE!”
The crown goes absolutely wild, cheers and screams and music, and then the smiley nerd on top of him seems to wake up, jumping to his feet with just a normal stellar smile on his face instead of the previous supernova. He stands a hand to Katsuki.
“Sorry, Bakugou-kun. Are you ok?” the concern in his voice is real as all hell, and Katsuki is just about done.
“Of fucking course I’m okay, you fucking idiot! What, you think I can’t take a blast to the face?! Is my fucking quirk!” his screams are even louder than the cheers, somehow, and still the green nerd smiles at him.
“I know! Is so awesome, Bakugou-kun! Though I’m still not sure how you go around with all the static in the ears, is so worth it!” Izuku looks absolutely maniac with how much he’s excited, and a part of Bakugou’s blow out brain registers the whole affair as being cute, for some fucked up reason he’s not dealing with now.
“Hah?! The fuck you mean, static?” And then it hits him, much like all the blasts Midoryia has literally blow on his face for the past twenty minutes. “Oiy, you absolute moron. Are you not using protection earplugs?!”
The way Izuku’s face drops in a Eureka! kind of expression makes Katsuki actually punch him in the gut, even though the suit Midoryia’s wearing takes all the damage away. The thing is a fucking cheat sheet if Katsuki ever saw one, but is admissible since Izuku deseing and built it himself.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?! Do you want to go deaf?” And then Bakugou is furious all over again, because he just lost to a mimic of his own quirk being used by someone who wasn’t even listening straight during the fight.
“I-I didn’t know! Hatsume was the one to design your head piece, remember? But it makes total sense, of course you’d need some protection since your near explosions all the time, and it’s such a simple solution! I was so caught up on the aspects of the explosions that I didn’t even consider the sound impact! Wow, Bakugou-kun, you’re amazing, really, having to deal with everything and…”
Izuku’s mumbling is cut short by Midnight and President Mic coming up to them to inform that they need to evade the arena so that Cementus can make the podium, and they are separated before the medal ceremony begins. Class 1A knows better than to try and cheer him up, but Kirishima still gives him a pat on the back.
“That was a hell of a fight, Bakubro! Anyone else woud’ve been done in less than a minute!”
He’s not wrong, Katsuki knows. Midoryia had design a suit that mimic a lot of quirks. He had thrown something at Katsuki that had looked like Sero’s tape, he had flown around like Uraraka on low gravity, he had changed his course midair with the easiness of a fucking bird, and he had Katsuki’s explosions on his gloves, albeit a minor version of his own capacity. It just had been too much for Bakugou to keep up, and every time he thought he had understood Izuku’s strategy, the nerd changed it, like he had multiple plans at hand. Add that to the fact he had been smiling all the time, looking so cheerful and happy, and the fact that Katsuki’s heat seemed to focused on that to actually do its fucking job right, and boom.
Second place. Lost. To him.
What pissed him most of it all? The fact that he wasn’t all that mad. Sure, he was angry for losing, and he was frustrated for not being able to even pinpoint where he had gone wrong, but at the same time… he was buzzing with excitement. He wanted a do over, now. He wanted to talk with the nerd, understand what he was thinking, how in the hell he had put together such an amazing suit, and he wanted Izuku to stop calling him Bakugou. That actually pissed him off more than anything else, because what the fuck?!
But he kept it all inside, as usual, and waited. Waited until the medal ceremony, mildly amused at how red Izuku got when All Might put the gold medal on his neck. Waited for the speeches about sport spirit, waited for the public to scarce away, and then he was on a mission.
He ignored his friends callings to go enjoy the food trucks and plays, settled on his quest to find the idiot nerd. When he finally did, though, it was not where he had expected, since Izuku was talking with Aizawa and the principal rat, and he had an absolutely star struck expression on his still smeared face, his curls wild and a little cut still bleeding on his eyebrow.
Without shame, Katsuki leans on the corner of the corridor they are in and eavesdrops the end of the conversation.
“…so enjoy the rest of the festival, and we can talk more on Monday, alright?” Nezu is saying, waving his rat palm at Midoryia.
“See you Monday, kid.” Aizawa almost sounds amused. The hell?
Katsuki waits for them to go away and turns the corner, finding Izuku on the spot with the same face.
“What just happen?” his question takes the nerd out of his stupor, and Izuku fidgets.
“Ka- Bakugou-kun! Nothing happened!”
“Aham”, Katsuki comes close, looking at the gold medal on Izuku’s neck with only mild annoyance. “So you always corned by the principal and my teacher?”
“N-no, of course not! They just… wanted to talk about my performance!” He smiles then, seeming unable to stop himself from fumbling happily. “They said that maybe, you know, I could… transfer for the hero course. If I wanted.”
Katsuki is taken back, feeling his own heart speeding up again. Izuku on the hero course always seemed a lost cause, a childhood dream, never possible.
“Really?” he asks almost whispering, as if afraid to make this reality shatter by acknowledging it.
“Yeah”, and without missing a bit, those big green eyes start fulling, and Izuku tries to stop the tears from poring, biting his lips, but is of no use. “Ma-maybe I can be a hero too, right, Ba-Bakugou-kun?”
“Stop calling me that, fuck.” Katsuki lunches forward, grabbing Izuku’s shoulders. “Deku, holy shit!”
“I know!”
“Fucking finally!”
“I know!” Izuku crumples then, smashing his head against Katsuki’s shoulder, hiccups making his whole body bob, but Bakugou only catchs him and laughs, hugging the smaller boy tight. That’s when he hears, at last “Kacchan…”
“There it is” the blond buffs, finding his fingers coursing through Izuku’s curls. “The fuck was all the Bakugou-kun shit, anyway?”
“I just… well, I didn’t know if you’d want other people to know we’re… close?” Izuku says like a question, pulling away slightly to look back at Katsuki with doubt in his pretty eyes, tears still pouring.
Bakugou tsks his lips, reaching for Izuku’s face to wipe the fat tears away, cupping those absurdly fluffy cheeks with his warm hands. “Stop being an idiot. Who cares if the extras know about us?”
“I…” Izuku blushes then, his hands resting timidly on Katsuki’s waist. “I though you wouldn’t want your friends knowing we’re… dating?”
“Why are you sounding doubtful about that?!”
“I’m not! Just… we never really said anything and…”
“You think I just go around spending my fucking time with just anyone? Or, fuck that, kissing anyone?!” Katsuki knows his blushing too, but he can afford to be embarrassed by that now, when his so-thought boyfriend doesn’t even know they’re boyfriends!
Granted, is new and they haven’t said the word “boyfriend” to each other, but is common fucking sense! It’s been over two months where Katsuki daily visits the support course developing sector, where Izuku works wherever he’s not in class, just to be with the fucking beautiful nerd, and hear his nonstop mumbling, and see him work on such cool projects that his brilliant mind just pops out. They had started kissing two weeks ago, when Izuku was looking particularly cute one day with grease smeared on his forehead and that frantic look he always got when one of his inventions was making good progress, so Katsuki had simply pulled him in mid-sentence and smacked their lips together.
It was their first kiss ever, and it had been awkward as hell, but the way Izuku had blushed and then kissed him back with a gentle peck had made Katsuki’s heart go nuts. They’ve kissed each other every day since, and now this imbecile not only beats his ass with his own quirk in national television, but also says they’re not together?!
“Of course I don’t think that, Kacchan!” Izuku frowns his face, escaping from Katsuki’s hold just to take his hands on his now gloveless ones. He has scars and burn marks from working so hard in his projects, just like Katsuki has calluses and small marks on his ever slightly sweaty palms, but somehow their hands always entwined perfectly. “All I’m saying is that I’d understand if you didn’t want anyone knowing.”
“And why the fuck would I want that?” Katsuki asks trying to keep his anger at bay. He’s pretty good at not snapping with Izuku all the time, but sometimes he makes it very hard.
“Well, because… you’re you, Kacchan. You’re amazing, and strong, and handsome, and you’re gonna be an incredible hero someday, and I…”
“You’re the fucking same” Katsuki cuts him before hearing something he would definitely be mad about. “Didn’t you just kick my ass not half an hour ago? You did that, Izuku, with your suit, your skills. I don’t fucking care that you don’t have a quirk, you’re just as strong and capable of fighting as I am.”
Izuku looks shocked for a moment, before another one of those smiles appear – the one where his whole face is bright and beautiful and his freckles makes him look eatable. Fucking gorgeous.
“You really think so, Kacchan?”
“I wouldn’t fucking say it if I didn’t!” Katsuki turns his face, unable to bear such brightness for long without feeling his whole face explode. “And now that the bastards saw it, you’re gonna be a fucking awesome hero too. I wouldn’t date someone who can’t keep up, anyway.”
Izuku gasps, and then squeals an almost inhumane sound before capturing Katsuki’s face and slamming their mouths together. Katsuki barely returns before a loud scream interrupts them both.
Tuning his back, his worst nightmare appears before his eyes: Kaminari, Kirishima and Mina are all frozen in shock. Of course Mina was the one screaming, and she’s also the first to recover, jumping towards then.
“I knew it! I knew it! I told you guys he was spending way too much time ‘improving’ his costume!” She laughs loudly, coming to hug Katsuki and Izuku like they’ve won a price.
“Dude!” Kirishima is next, coming up with an Izuku-level supernova smile. “Why didn’t you say you were dating Midoryia! I’ve been rooting for you guys since day one!”
“I cannot believe you got the cutest and smartest costume designer, Bakugou! That’s cheating!” Kaminari exclaims.
“Die, all of you”, Katsuki takes Izuku out of Mina’s embrace, and scowls at Dunce Face, “And what the fuck you said about my boyfriend?!”
Izuku absolutely beams in Katsuki’s arms, albeit hiding his face in his neck to not show just how much red he is now. Mina and Kirishima mock him from being the “jealous” type, which fair, he is. Katsuki just bears it, keeping Izuku at his side when they all eventually leave to enjoy the rest of the festival, and just to make the nerd stop thinking stupid things, Katsuki grabs his hand when they walk. Izuku blushes even more, but doesn’t pull back, leaning ever so closely to Katsuki.
Class 1A loses their absolute shit when they find them hand holding, but the second someone even jokes about Katsuki going easy with Izuku during the tournament because they’re boyfriends, he shuts it down immediately.
At the end of the day, with Izuku’s hand in his, Katsuki forgets the annoyance of losing the tournament, too caught up in Izuku’s smile and mumbling and presence. He thinks, most uncharacteristically, that if he had to have lost to someone, he’s glad is Izuku. His hardworking, never giving up, always bright and brave and smart Izuku.
He’s definitely worth losing for.
-/-
“Izuku”, Katsuki jabs his boyfriend’s side until Izuku half opens his eyes.
“Kacchan? What’s wrong? What time…”
“How did you win? Seriously, did I give you that much of an opening?”
Dead silence. And then…
“It’s been eight years, Kacchan. Go sleep on the couch”
“But…”
“Couch!”