Chapter Text
If there was one undisputable fact about the hero-in-training, Deku, it was that he loved the support course.
Pretty much everyone knew it—the teachers, the students, even the groundskeepers. They’d see Deku regularly rushing to the support wing after classes, during lunch and whenever he could sneak away from training for a bit. Although Deku tried to be sneaky, he was far too earnest to lie about where he was going, so whenever someone inevitably ended up asking why he wasn’t spending time with his friends, they’d get the true answer.
But no one knew the true reason why, although most assumed they did. Deku had a bright, upbeat and curious personality, so most reasoned he was just interested in being the best hero possible via having the best support equipment possible. And while it was true he had some of the best support equipment in the entire school, the real reason was because of one blonde-haired engineer that had captivated his attention since he first saw him.
“Kacchan!” Deku said, bursting into Bakugou’s workshop like an over-excited ray of sunshine, absolutely refusing to be ignored even by the support course’s most infamous hot-head.
Bakugou, somehow managing to deflect most of the sunshine’s obnoxious beams, only grunted, barely glancing at the boy who, unphased, sat down on a rogue spinny-stool.
“Guess what happened to me!” he nearly shouted, taking out a crumbled mess of papers. “I got a ninety-six on my test! That’s two points more than last time!”
Bakugou grunted out, as he hammered in a particularly disobedient nail, a frankly unimpressed, “Wow.”
“I know!” Deku said, still smiling. “I think I’m really starting to improve, which is amazing considering math is my worst subject! Which—I mean you already know of course because I keep on talking about it but still In the first year I was getting eighty-nine’s and stuff! All Might even said they might move me to the advanced classes!”
Bakugou wiped his forehead with his glove, promptly ignoring the green-haired boy to focus on his work. He leaned over to start fixing a control panel on the side of an electric-powered shield that was supposed to deflect (or so he had heard) certain types of quirks. Deku used this time to admire the boy's back muscles, which had only gotten more defined and more handsome as the months went on. He watched a glistening bead of sweat roll down his neck and smirked. Kacchan was so beautiful and determined when working! And it was part of why he was never offended by being ignored by Kacchan while he was working, because Kacchan treated everyone that way, even his best friends Kirishima, Sero, Mina, Denki and Jirou. He was always lazer-focused on whatever he was working on at the time, always giving it one hundred percent of his attention, and was definitely the reason Kacchan was one of the best—if not the best in the support course.
Besides, Deku got to do something no one else did—call Kacchan a cute nickname! Deku was still confused on why he could, or why Kacchan nearly blew up Denki whenever he tried to call him that to tease him, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth! Maybe he’d just taken one look at Deku and thought “he’s not going to stop” and moved on? Which wasn’t true, by the way! If Kacchan truly hated the nickname, Deku would have stopped! (Even though he’d be super sad about it!) Although he liked to tease Kacchan, he never wanted to make one of his best friends uncomfortable.
Deku didn’t say anything for a while after that, content to just watch him diligently work, entranced with how Kacchan’s hands moved across the machinery like second nature. His fingers were surprisingly smooth and thin, almost delicate-looking (although Deku knew what those fingers were capable of in a fight). They were perfect for getting in between the small wires and tiny machinery. Like his body had been specifically molded, carefully crafted to do just this. From the golden rays coming down from the skylight, reflecting off his golden hair, he looked almost ethereal.
“What are you thinking about?” Bakugou said suddenly, and Deku—with horror—realized that Kacchan had been looking directly at him! Deku flushed with embarrassment, looking away. Did Kacchan know what he was thinking about—? Kacchan was, despite his anti-social attitude, scarily perceptive sometimes. If he had had a dopey smile on his face—or god forbid something worse—Deku would simply end himself on the spot. Goodbye hero career! Goodbye to all his friends and family! Bury him with his All Might collection!
“I—stuff! I’m just thinking about, um—nothing!” he stammered.
Wow, he thought. Smooth, Deku. Real smooth.
Bakugou raised one cocky eyebrow in a way that was so effortlessly cool Deku wanted to snort the (admittedly extremely sexy) image like crack.
“Really? It didn’t look like you were thinking about nothing.”
Holy shit I want to die. Deku regretted ever walking into this workshop because now he was sweating like a sinner in a church and he knew for a fact he was not nearly as pretty as Kacchan while doing it and if there was one thing Deku did not want to do in front of his crush was look like a sad wet dog and smell like one too! Fuck, he needed to breathe!
“Well, I!” He managed to get out. “I was thinking about—” I need to get him off my trail! Quick, QUICK!! What’s something boys talk about at this age oh my god um— “GIRLS!”
Bakugou looked at him with an expression that could only be described as haughty disapproval, the kind of look you only got from believing wholeheartedly that you were above everyone else (and in Deku’s mind, he absolutely was, because who on this planet could deserve someone as perfect as Kacchan?). “Seriously? You got that worked up over thinking about girls?”
What the shit did he actually believe me? Deku thought, absolutely flabbergasted. Deku was aware he was a horrible liar, but somehow Deku had managed to fool someone he never thought he could—his own best friend! For once his anxious awkwardness had paid off! And since Bakugou would never ever ask him anything more because Bakugou did not care one bit about romance and had made that super clear, he’d never ask anything more about the topic and Deku was officially saved, hooray!
“So what kind of girls do you like?” Bakugou asked, completely steamrolling over his entire plan.
“Um—what?” he said aloud, caught so off guard he nearly choked. Bakugou had never asked a question like that! Even when the boys were alone in large groups, he had never once mentioned anything about girls! Only huffed and said something about how he was too good for romance while Deku nodded alongside him, also never saying anything because although he knew he was bisexual and had known for a long time, he was far too enamoured with the absolute dreamboat next to him to look at any girls in his grade romantically.
“You heard me,” Bakugou said, now looking back to his work. “Or are you too much of a blushing virgin for that?”
“Blushing—what! K-Kacchan—” He couldn’t even speak right; he was so flustered! “Uhm, maybe!” No, he realized, somehow turning even redder. I’m actually not and literally all my closest friends know this because I frequently talk about how I want to lick the grease off your abs and while the general class has never heard me talk that way Uraraka frequently tells me she wants to wash her eyes with bleach but goddamnit I can’t stop!
“Tch,” Bakugou said, his lips twitching up into a smirk that was somehow cute and drop-dead gorgeous at the same time and made Deku feel like a twisty noodle being tossed into the deep end of a hot tub (yes that made sense in his head just roll with it). “Don’t worry about it nerd, there are definitely girls in this grade foaming after you. Gotta admit, it’s kind of cute how pink you get.”
Deku barely realized what he said because the only thing he could latch onto was THAT KACCHAN HAD CALLED HIM CUTE OH MY LORD HE WAS DECEASED ALREADY!!! Izuku buried his head and his hands and nearly squealed like a child, he was so happy! He did not care one single bit of he was only teasing he was going to hold onto the memory for the rest of his life like a golden treasure! He was so happy that it took him a solid minute to rewire his brain and when he did—wait? Girls—after him? What? That didn’t make sense at all? Deku was aware how plain he was, and despite saving the world, he still tended to fade into a crowd. Was Kacchan just trying to make him feel better? Did Kacchan think he had so little charisma that he was trying to help him in his own way? Well—Deku knew he wasn’t very charismatic, but—was Kacchan pitying him?
His mind started to swim and he shook his head, suddenly feeling a bit nauseous. “I’m sorry, Kacchan, I just realized I had some homework to do!” he said, sliding off the stool and stumbling his way past some loose parts, nearly running towards the door.
“Huh?” Kacchan said. “Didn’t you already get all your homework done?”
How does he know that!? Did I accidentally tell him that while rambling?! “I—I just realized I forgot some! Extra math work and all that, haha! Bye, again! It was really nice catching up but I need to go see Uraraka—BYE!” He slammed the door with a clang and then full-throttle sprinted down the hallway, absolutely uncaring if anyone saw All Might’s prodigy and the boy dubbed “the Symbol of Hope” by the media acting like an embarrassed middle schooler.
He needed to go find Uraraka!
+
“Uraraka!” he panted, slamming his hands onto the table. In front of him, several of his classmates were seated around with their materials out, probably studying for the upcoming test which Deku regretted being already prepared for because fuck he should’ve known Bakugou was far to clever to fall for the homework excuse! Several jerked back, and Deku flinched, suddenly realizing how loud he had been. “Sorry, sorry! I just—” lowering his voice dramatically, he leaned towards her startled face, “I need to talk to you! Urgently! It’s an emergency!”
“Yeah, I got that,” Uraraka said, standing up. “C’mon, let’s go to my room.”
He heard a wolf whistle from behind him for some reason, but he ignored it, quickly catching up with his friend. He followed her to the girl's side and up the stairs, and while normally a girl and a boy wouldn’t be allowed alone on one side, the teachers knew him well enough to know he’d never break the unspoken rule that went along with the expectation (...although they didn’t know exactly why. Deku just let them believe he was far too shy to ever want to do anything inappropriate on school grounds).
“Thanks, Uraraka,” he murmured as he sunk onto the pink bean-bag in her room, taking a small bottle of water she’d handed him. “You’re a life saver!”
“You look like a mess,” she said bluntly, and Midoriya smiled slightly.
“Yeah, I bet I do,” he said softly.
“Does it have to do with a certain blonde-haired demon?” she asked knowingly.
Midoriya felt heat rush to his face for the second time that day. “...Yeah. You got me.” Before she could say anything else, he flung his hands up dramatically. “It’s just—darn it! I went to his workshop again, and, and he looked just so great that I was staring at him but then he SAW ME looking at him and he asked me what I was thinking about, so I basically played leap-frog with grammar while trying to explain before just shouting ‘GIRLS!’ And—and then he asked ME what types of girls I was into which was SO WEIRD because Kacchan doesn’t give a flip about love but now suddenly he IS and then he told me that there were girls who were quote un-quote, ‘foaming at the mouth’ for me and that my blushing was CUTE and now I think he is pitying me because there is no way any of that is true oh my gosh Uraraka what do I do?!” He took a huge breath, collapsing forward onto her. The girl wrapped her arms around Midoriya, attempting to soothe him.
“Well first of all, I think you are way overthinking this,” she said slowly. “And second of all, I don’t think he was pitying you. I think you are just way underselling yourself.” She leaned back, looking, in Midoriya’s biased opinion, far too relaxed for the emotional tsunami Izuku had just released on her. “To be honest, I’m not, like, super good with this kind of stuff, but me and Toga have been going strong for a while so I think I have some skin in the game. My best bet would to just be honest with him—I’m not saying you should confess right now!” She added quickly, seeing the panicked expression on Midoriya’s face. “Don’t get me wrong! You’re probably not ready for that. But me and Toga have got through so many hard times just by having clear communication. You and Bakugou have been through so much together, I’m sure he’d understand. And let’s be real here, Izuku-kun, do you really think he’s pitying you? Is Bakugou really the type to do that?”
Izuku swallowed, shaking his head. “No—no, Bakugou doesn’t pity anyone. I was being ridiculous.”
“Well I wouldn’t be so harsh on yourself,” Ochako said. “But yeah. I figured if he hated being pitied so much himself, he wouldn’t pity anyone else.”
Izuku nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yeah—yeah you’re right Ochako! I should just talk to him!” He pumped his hands up in the air. “Go beyond—with relationships! Plus ultra!”
Ochako giggled, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. “Pfft, nerd!”
“You’re the nerd!” Izuku insisted, grinning.
“At least I can hit!” she said, leaning closer, raising her fists.
“At least I can dodge!”
“Then prove it!” Deku saw the evil look in her eye for only a moment before a pillow was flying at his face. He squawked, barely dodging the projectile and landing into a pile of dirty laundry. He scrambled away as another nearly hit him in the stomach.
“Oh, you’re so on!” Izuku cried, grabbing a bright yellow throwpillow and lodging it like a frisbee at her. After that, it descended into what Izuku could only describe as chaos. They battled it out for pillow dominance which eventually led to hand to hand combat. Fortunately (or unfortunately, for Midoriya), Ochako had been dabbling in martial arts on the side and jabbed him right in the stomach. He doubled over, moaning in pain before rolling away so she couldn’t kick him while he was down. He was about to launch a counter attack when—there was a knock on the door, quick and sharp. Almost…angrily? If that was possible? The two turned towards the door, equally surprised.
“Huh, I wasn’t expecting visitors,” Ochako muttered while moving over towards the door. She shot him a quick smirk, her handle still on the door. “By the way, I won.”
“I call a rematch!” Izuku wheezed from the floor.
“After,” she said, opening the door, only to find—
“Kacchan?” Deku said, surprised. He sat up and winced, his stomach muscles still protesting. “What are you doing here?”
“Um, I was just here to see if you wanted to—er, nevermind.” He suddenly stepped back, looking ill.
“Huh? You look sick!” Deku said, coming forward to press a hand to Kacchan's forehead. “Are you okay? You feel warm! We should get you to Recovery Girl if you aren’t feeling well—I can tell Kirishima and your friends if you want. Or I don’t have to because I know you don’t like others knowing when you are sick—” He suddenly realized that he was definitely far too close for Kacchan’s comfort. He had always loved his personal space, and Deku was practically chest-to-chest. He flushed, stepping back.
“I’m fine, Deku,” he insisted, pushing away and Deku mentally scolded himself. He should try and give Kacchan more space in the future to avoid making him uncomfortable. “Stomach bug, I think.”
“Huh—but those don’t usually cause temperatures to rise, do they?” His gaze snapped back to Kacchan, mind moving at a million miles an hour as he tried to work out his friend's ailment. “Are you sure it’s just a stomach bug, because I don’t want you to miss our usual training!? Do you have a sore throat? Does your head hurt? Do you have muscle pains? Do you need soup—or some pain medicine? I have some tylenol, although you might not want it because it’s grape flavor and I know you hate grape-flavored things—I can go to the store and get the pills if you want though! I don’t mind at all and I can stop and get some—“
“Relax, nerd,” he said, slapping a hand over Izuku’s face. “I’m fine. I just… need a nap. See you later.” Izuku blushed furiously, already a flustered mess from the brief moment of skin contact—oh god, had Kacchan felt his lips?! And his hands were so soft and smooth, it was incredible! He needed to figure out what skin products he used immediately! AND HE SMELLED INCREDIBLE! Like caramel oh my god he was absolutely going to die! It was so intoxicating—
He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked behind to see Uraraka smiling ruefully at him. “You’re spiraling.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry,” he stammered before looking back to Kacchan's retreating figure, completely oblivious to what had just transpired.
“He’s just so cool!”