Work Text:
Bakugou Katsuki was not a yearner.
What reason would he have to yearn for anything when he was destined to be and have the absolute best?
Sure, he didn't quite understand why he would have to settle down someday and have a wife and kids, but that's what everybody said a good, perfect life would look like in the future so he supposes that's what he'll have.
Nor did he really understand why the extras in middle school kept bemoaning how many love letters he would have to incinerate each morning, saying how they wish any of the girls would pay attention to them. All of them were just trying to secure a spot beside the future Number One Hero, it didn't matter how nice or attractive they were- they were all just stones for him to step on in his path to Yuuei's hero course.
Sure, people talked about dating and romance and eugh sexual stuff but none of that stuff mattered to him. What mattered to him was his future- he didn't have anything important here to really care about.
Even with Deku interfering with the Sludge Villain.
Even with Deku growing muscles and a spine as graduation came closer.
Even with Deku daring to show up for Yuuei's entrance exam.
Even with Deku showing up in class 1-A.
(One night, when Katsuki's heart was racing faster and harder as he mused over Deku, Deku, Deku, he had decided that he could stay up a bit longer- for good reason though: to find some answers.
With warm cheeks, he roughly wiped his hands on his sweatpants before grabbing the shoujo manga he kept hidden under his bed. He was going into this with an analytical mind, after all. This was just comparative research, is all.
Descriptions of sweaty hands, increased heart rate, and flushed cheeks did match his symptoms whenever he was around Deku, but they didn't talk about the heavy feeling in his chest or the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach whenever he thought hard about how he treated him all this time.
It must be something other than butterflies in his stomach, Katsuki had decided as he stored the comics back in their rightful place, something other than romance that he felt for Deku. He both felt relieved and.. frustrated. If this wasn't romance, then what was? Was it something he even could experience?)
That wasn't important though. What was important was his hero training, was‐
Sensei getting slammed into the concrete, the Pro Hero that protected them all by risking his life and quirk, ending up like a stupid mummy to heal while they all got off scot-free–
Todoroki refusing to give his all in the Sports Festival even after using his quirk against Deku- yet another person looking down on him–
League of Villains kidnapping him because they thought he was villain material. Being trapped in that dank, disgusting bar as they basically begged and bartered for him to join their "cause"–
...
Kirishima reaching a hand out to him in the growing rubble of Kamino, as if to say that he was a person worth saving, worth being a hero, hell worth being a friend and maybe a lo—
Oh.
That's what it was.
His hands constantly clammy whenever rocky, rough ones were within an arm's reach.
His heart thumping loud in his chest whenever sharp teeth bared into the shape of a smile at him.
His face heating up whenever an arm wrapped around his shoulder, a toned chest pressing against his back while a boisterous voice chattered into his ear.
This was- maybe just fucking maybe- this might be love.
(He'll have to check with his manga.)