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“Has anyone noticed that Bakugou doesn’t eat anything green?”
Izuku’s head snapped up from his textbooks at the mention of Katsuki, studying momentarily forgotten. He distantly heard Uraraka snort or choke or something, but left it up to Todoroki to help her; a discussion about Kacchan was about to happen. Izuku’s fingers tightened around his pencil.
“Look,” Kaminari continued as he walked over and plopped down on the couch, shoving himself in between Kirishima and Ashido. He ignored Kirishima’s protests as the jostling caused Ashido to take the lead in Mario Kart. “He gave me these, but they’re only the green ones.” Kaminari shook out a handful of chocolate candies from a half-empty bag, holding them out for everyone to see. Indeed, instead of the usual rainbow of colors, only a pile of green ones rested in his palm.
Kirishima dropped his controller as Ashido reveled in her victory. Glancing at the sweets in Kaminari’s hands, he said, “That’s a bit weird, man. But free candy is free candy!” He reached for the bag, but Kaminari pulled it protectively to his chest.
“Yeah, I can’t believe Bakugou gifted them to me!”
Izuku vibrated in his seat. He couldn’t hold back any longer. This was one Kacchan mystery he was determined to solve.
“Actually, Kaminari, yes.” Ignoring Uraraka and Todoroki’s protests—their study group could wait, this was about Kacchan—Izuku pushed his textbooks off the table and pulled out a stack of notebooks labeled Kacchan 1 through 15.
“Where did those come from?” Todoroki whispered.
“I don’t even question it anymore,” Uraraka sighed.
“I’ve been keeping track of Kacchan’s eating habits since we were kids,” Izuku said, flipping through the notebooks and skimming through detailed lists and charts. “I think his avoidance of green foods started when we were around five or so. Obviously, I couldn’t track everything he ate at home, so I couldn’t be sure, but it was around that time that his bento stopped including lettuce and broccoli and such.”
Buried as he was in his notes, Izuku didn’t see the wary glances shared between the group. Of course they loved Izuku as he was, obsessive tendencies and all, but it was still a bit frightening to see it in action.
“Living together in the dorms has made it so much easier to track Kacchan’s eating habits and diet!” Izuku continued. “The pattern is very clear. He does eat a very well-balanced diet, as expected of a hero-in-training. But there is a surprising lack of green. No peppers, no cabbage, no spinach.” Izuku scratched his head, brow furrowing as he scanned his most recent Kacchan food diary entry. “He’s never been a particularly picky eater, and he would definitely never let that get in the way of getting his fruits and vegetables…
“Where it really doesn’t make any sense is when it comes to candies, like those.” Izuku gestured to the bag in Kaminari’s hand. Kaminari froze, another handful of the all-green candies halfway to his mouth. “Gummies might make sense; maybe he doesn’t like the lime or green apple flavoring. But things like chocolate candies all taste the same. The colored coating doesn’t have a flavor, so why would he purposely avoid eating only the green ones?”
Izuku finally paused, taking a deep breath. He looked up from his notes to see everyone’s wide eyes on him. He raised a brow. “I can’t be the only one who’s noticed this.”
Uraraka opened and closed her mouth a few times, seeming to decide that saying nothing at all was for the best. She closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose, and finally muttered something that Izuku couldn’t hear. Todoroki just stared at Izuku, eyes slightly narrowed as if finally piecing something together.
After a moment of silence, Ashido nudged Kirishima.
“Oh—oh, yeah, he never orders melon soda when we study at family restaurants,” Kirishima said. Izuku smiled gratefully, pretending to jot that tidbit down as if it were new information. (He definitely wasn’t ever present at Katsuki and Kirishima’s study sessions.)
Kaminari shrugged, dumping the remaining chocolates into his mouth directly from the bag. “I just noticed ’cause it’s like super weird to pick around certain colors, right?”
“Maybe he’s allergic to green dye?” Ashido suggested. “Aren’t food dye allergies a thing?”
Izuku hummed. “As far as I know, Kacchan’s not allergic to anything. He always checks off ‘No allergies’ when filling out medical forms. And it wouldn’t explain his avoidance to naturally green foods, like broccoli.”
Uraraka narrowed her eyes at Izuku. “Ah, right, of course. We all know how Bakugou fills out his medical forms.”
Izuku narrowed his eyes back at her. That felt like a comment on his totally normal relationship with Katsuki, but he took the high road and ignored it.
“Why don’t we just ask him?” Todoroki said. “He’s coming back now.”
Everyone followed Todoroki’s gaze to the dorm entrance. Izuku’s heart rate sped up and he felt his face heat as he stared at Katsuki, fresh from a run. Katsuki’s black tank clung to his damp chest. His muscles bunched as he reached up to push his sweaty hair off of his flushed forehead. Izuku swallowed and looked away, only to catch Uraraka smirking at him. When she caught his eye, her grin grew wider, eyebrows raising. Izuku felt himself flush deeper and instead looked down at his notebooks. He subconsciously added to his Kacchan hydration chart as he listened to Katsuki enter the kitchen and fill a glass with water.
“Hey, Bakugou,” Todoroki called out. “We were just discussing, why don’t you eat anything green?”
Izuku flinched. As much as he wanted an answer, he had a very strong feeling that a direct approach, especially from Todoroki, wouldn’t work.
Sure enough, Katsuki sputtered, choking on the water he had been drinking. Izuku looked up as Katsuki slammed the glass down on the counter, coughing. Though concerned for Katsuki’s ability to breathe, curiosity caused Izuku to grip his pencil tighter, slowly turning to a blank page in his notebook. Was there any chance Kacchan would answer?
“Shut up, Half-and-Half,” Katsuki growled. Izuku sighed. He shouldn’t have expected anything better. Katsuki snatched the glass up and stomped towards the stairs.
Todoroki stared after him. “He seems embarrassed.”
“Or afraid?” Kaminari chimed in, crumpling the empty candy bag.
“What if something traumatic happened to him involving something green?” Todoroki mused, fingers brushing over his own scar. Izuku reached out and patted his knee.
“Oh, man,” Kirishima said. “We should probably try to help him get past his fear then, right?”
“Oh!” Ashido exclaimed. “Isn’t exposure therapy a good way to overcome fears? What if we threw like a party with only green foods?”
“Like salad and stuff?” Kaminari’s nose wrinkled.
“No, we could have like only the green gummies and candies,” Mina explained. “Oh, we could see if Sato could make a green cake!”
“We should also still have green vegetables, that’s probably what Bakugou would want to eat if he could,” Todoroki mused.
“Green cookies, green cupcakes, green ice cream…” Mina continued.
“And we would all be there for Bakugou as he faces his fears head on! How manly!” Kirishima crossed his arms and nodded in approval.
Izuku stayed silent as the conversation devolved into listing all the green sweets they could include at the party. It was a horrible idea, in his opinion. Based on what had just happened, this was clearly a sensitive topic for Katsuki. Despite all the growing he had done over the past year, throwing him into the middle of a confrontation might not be the best way to go.
(And also, Izuku wasn’t sure that they had the best understanding of exposure therapy. It was starting to sound like they just wanted an excuse to throw a party with tons of food.)
“Are you going to stop this?” Uraraka muttered, clearly in agreement with Izuku’s unvoiced thoughts.
He should.
But.
But Izuku was also horribly curious. This was a mystery he had been trying to solve for over a decade. Why were green foods such a sensitive topic for Katsuki?
He sniffed, pulling out his textbooks and pushing down his silly conscience. “It sounds like they just want to throw a themed party, and if Kacchan happens to be there, I can’t stop that.”
Uraraka heaved a sigh as she threw herself back in her chair. “Fine. But you know it’s not going to end well.”
⟢⟢⟢
Since he was a bratty kid, Katsuki had avoided eating anything green. No one, not even his parents, knew the reason. He had thrown enough (literally explosive) fits, refusing to eat the green vegetables on his dinner plate, that eventually his parents had stopped questioning him and instead just figured out how to balance his diet with other foods.
When he was younger, looking at anything green made him unreasonably angry. The color was a reminder of feelings he didn’t want to face. So he avoided it, even during meals. He didn’t need to feel irrationally inferior while eating broccoli.
As he got older and relationships changed, the feelings towards the color morphed. His reasoning for avoiding green was different, but no less embarrassing.
Which was why when Katsuki walked into the common room a week after being confronted by Half-and-Half, he froze.
There was green everywhere. More specifically, green food was everywhere. Tables were laden with the most insane combinations of food Katsuki had seen. A skillfully decorated green cake was surrounded by asparagus, melon cubes, and cucumber slices. Jars of green candies—gummies, lollipops, coated chocolates—sat with bowls of grapes, edamame, and damned broccoli. Ice blocks (surely created by Todoroki) kept bottles of melon soda and bowls of green mint ice cream cool.
Katsuki felt his palms start to sweat, his heart rate rising. What in the actual—
“Bakubro!” Katsuki jumped as Kirishima slung an arm over his shoulders, pulling him further into the room where a small party consisting of Ashido, Kaminari, Sero, Uraraka, and Izuku awaited. Katsuki eyed Izuku sitting in the corner, a notebook clutched in his hands. He wouldn’t meet Katsuki’s eyes. Somehow, he was involved in this. Katsuki knew it.
“What is this?” Katsuki growled, eyes darting away from Izuku. But he couldn’t avoid the green all over the room.
Kirishima tightened his grip on Katsuki. “You know we love you, bro.”
“Yeah!” Kaminari exclaimed, a half-eaten green cupcake clutched in his hands. “And we just want to help you get stronger.”
“I don’t really know what’s going on,” Sero said, reaching out to clasp Katsuki’s shoulder, “but I’m here for you, man.”
“Get off me!” Katsuki shoved Kirishima and Sero away, rolling his shoulders to try to shake off the feelings growing inside of him. The green was pressing in all around. “What are you talking about?”
“Exposure therapy!” Ashido bounced over. “We’re gonna help you confront your fears and traumas around green food in a safe environment! Smart, right?”
What? Katsuki took a deep breath, trying to remember his anger management lessons with Hound Dog. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Izuku flip his notebook open, a pencil hovering over the pages. That nerd… Katsuki exhaled.
“It’s okay if you’re afraid.” Katsuki spun around. Todoroki had appeared silently behind him. He forced himself to hold back from punching Half-and-Half in the face. That is not how one treats their… friends, he reminded himself. “We just want to help you. It also took me a while to be comfortable around kettles again, but it’s possible.”
“Oh, Todoroki,” someone murmured. Sero, the closest to Todoroki, reached out and patted him on the shoulder.
Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I’m not afraid.”
“Then are you allergic?” Izuku finally spoke up. “If so, that’s something that should really be in your records. We should know what foods to avoid having around you—”
“I’m not allergic, nerd!”
“I can’t believe you’re that picky, but you should try to eat more of the rainbow!” Kirishima exclaimed. “You’re missing out on so many nutrients by avoiding broccoli and peppers and shit!”
“Though I do like it when you give me the candy you’re afraid to look at, bro,” Kaminari added.
“I said, I’m not afraid! I’m not picky! I’m not allergic!” Katsuki dragged his hands down his face. They weren’t going to let this go. In frustration, he burst out, “It’s too damn cute!”
Everyone froze as Katsuki delicately snatched a green gummy bear from a bowl. “Can’t you see? It’s freaking Deku! Its chubby cheeks. Its stupid smile. Its green… green-ness!”
Izuku dropped his pencil. Katsuki saw a blush building on the nerd’s face, certainly matching the one he felt on his own. But he had already started. Might as well finish.
Katsuki gestured to the green food around them. “Broccoli is the nerd’s curls, that’s how it started. But now I see him in everything green. And I can’t eat him—it.” He glared at everyone. “You can’t tell me I’m the only one who sees it.”
Silence. Kirishima, Sero, and Ashido stared wide-eyed at Katsuki. Kaminari was frozen, his open mouth showing off the half-chewed green cupcake inside, making Katsuki’s stomach churn for various reasons. Todoroki was determinedly staring at the gummy bear in Katsuki’s hand, as if trying to also see Izuku in it. Uraraka, who had been silently watching from the couch next to Izuku this whole time, was smirking at him, eyes shining like she just won the lottery.
And Izuku… Izuku was also staring at Katsuki with wide, wide green eyes, his face bright red under that green, green hair.
“Dude, look at Midoriya’s face!” Kaminari finally broke the silence. “Are you going to be scared of strawberries now too, Kacchan?”
Katsuki felt his own face flare. That was it, he couldn’t be there any longer. Izuku still wasn’t saying anything, and everyone else was still too quiet. They all knew, surely they all put it together.
Gently dropping the gummy bear back into the bowl, Katsuki turned and bolted up the stairs.
⟣⟣⟣
Katsuki had barely been in his room for more than a few minutes—just long enough to start considering the pros and cons of transferring to Shiketsu—when a tentative knock sounded on his door.
“Go away!” he shouted, pulling his comforter over his face and burrowing deeper into the darkness.
“Kacchan?” Izuku’s voice was soft but determined. Katsuki groaned. There was no way the nerd was going to leave.
Katsuki threw off his covers, pushed himself from the bed, and shuffled across the room, letting off a few small explosions to dry the sweat on his palms before opening the door. Izuku stood on the other side, twisting his fingers nervously together, but staring up at Katsuki with bright, determined eyes.
“If you’ve come to say you’re creeped out or whatever…” Katsuki didn’t know how to finish. He didn’t want to hear whatever the nerd was going to say. He gripped the door, tempted to slam it shut, pretend none of this had ever happened.
“No, no!” Izuku moved as if to reach out but held himself back. “No. I think it’s actually… cute? That you think of me that much? And it’s not a theory I had had at all!”
Katsuki froze. His heart started to pound for an entirely different reason as Izuku started to ramble about food charts and mysteries or something.
As Izuku continued to babble, Katsuki groaned, pressing his palms into his eyes. “That’s the problem,” he cut Izuku off. “I can’t stop thinking about you. Fighting, eating, everything freaking reminds me of you.” He dropped his hands, forcing himself to meet Izuku’s eyes. Two wide green eyes, just like two large, moist slices of cucumber, were staring at him, sparkling in anticipation.
“Me too, Kacchan! You’re always on my mind.” Katsuki’s heart thumped. “You know you’ve always been my hero, the one I look up to the most. I’ve always admired you, but it’s grown into so much more.” (There was no way Izuku’s eyes dropped to Katsuki’s lips. He had to have imagined that.) “I just never thought you could feel the same.”
Katsuki swallowed. “Well, I do nerd. So much that I can’t even eat broccoli, a goddamn superfood, because it reminds me of your stupid fluffy hair. When I was a kid, I’d get so angry looking at anything green. It brought up those stupid feelings of inferiority I had to you.” Izuku reached out, gently taking Katsuki’s hands in his, threading their fingers together and squeezing. Katsuki’s heart pounded. “But over the past year, it’s changed as my feelings towards you, for you have changed. I find green things—” He grimaced. “Cute. So cute, like you. I can’t stand the thought of eating something that reminds me of you.”
Izuku had turned pink at Katsuki’s admission, eyes darting away. Now he looked up, meeting Katsuki’s eyes. “You say you can’t stand the thought of eating something that reminds you of me. What about… just me?”
Katsuki swallowed, mouth going dry. “What?”
Izuku leaned in, softly pressing his lips against Katsuki’s. Katsuki’s eyelids fluttered shut, blocking out all sensation except for the feel of Izuku’s lips against his own. Damn, Izuku’s lips were soft. Were Katsuki’s too rough? Did he still have that stupid lip balm Ashido had given him?
It felt like it was only a moment before Izuku was pulling away. Katsuki found himself subconsciously leaning forward to chase Izuku's lips, desperate for more. Izuku giggled, and Katsuki opened his eyes, smiling softly, incredulous, as he met Izuku’s gaze.
Katsuki licked his lips, noting how Izuku’s eyes followed the movement, laughter falling silent and pupils blowing wide. “Well, I don’t think anything could taste better than that.”
Izuku grinned as he leaned in once more.