Chapter Text
“Hello, Hello, and welcome to Talk Might on 128.1 U.A. Plus Ultra Radio. We are, as always, the best talk show on this bull [bleep] of a University radio station, and you are lucky we are gracing you with our presence.”
“Kacchan! How many times do we have to tell you about swearing live!”
“Can’t you at least wait till we hit the five-minute mark?”
“Hell no.”
“Anyways, welcome back, everyone! I’m Izuku Midoryia-”
“I’m Katsuki Bakugo.”
“ -and today we are joined by special guest Shouto Todoroki!”
-silence-
“You gotta talk Icyhot, they can't see you nodding.”
“Oh, uh, Hi.”
“...why did we invite this guy again?”
“Take it easy, Kacchan. Okay, moving on! As everyone is probably wanting us to get on with it, let’s start U.A. Confessions. For new listeners or old listeners who need a reminder U.A Confessions is where you can share your deepest, darkest, and juiciest secrets and me-”
“-and me, [bleep]hole.”
“-will judge you or give you advice. Go to r/U.A.Confessions to submit your confessions.”
“Alright, mother [bleep]ers, let’s get into this [bleep]. Today’s theme is uhhh…”
Izuku looked up at his cohost, who uncharacteristically broke his rhythm.
Katsuki was peering down at the script he had in hands, and visibly took a deep breath before attempting to read his lines once again, “Today’s theme is…l-love.” His voice sounded strained.
In all the time they have done this show, or in all the years Izuku has known him, Katsuki had never stumbled or paused.
If you didn’t know him, the scowl on Katsuki’s face would have looked unchanged. But to Izuku, who had known him since diapers, Katsuki looked a bit nervous.
Love. He was sweating over the word ‘Love’.
Weird.
Izuku decided to take over for his cohost's sake, eyeing him with both concern and intrigue.
“Wow, Love? I’m surprised we haven’t done this theme before! This is U.A Confessions. You’d think it would be a no-brainer,” Izuku laughed, trying to get Katsuki back on task.
“Yeah…”
Yeah?
That was it?
Izuku was now even more concerned.
Where was the usual ‘That’s because dating is for pussies, shitty nerd’. Katsuki’s lack of bullshit bravado was not only starting to tick Izuku off, but was making him deeply worried for his oldest friend's health.
He glanced over at Shouto, who was passively staring in space as if he wasn’t in a shitty college radio station with a mic in his face. Izuku tried to catch the eye of his eccentric-haired friend, but Shouto seemed more interested in the cheap soundproofing on the other side of the wall.
Okay. He is obviously on his own with this one. What the fuck is even happening right now?
“Moving on! So, the first confession is from user AnonyomsBoom666. It’s titled ‘I am in love with my childhood friend, whom I’ve known my whole life’. Woof, long title, but it gets the point across”, Izuku finishes with a smile.
He thinks he will like this confession; it seems sweet.
He looks up once more, still smiling, to his cohost, who is, coincidentally, his childhood friend, and freezes.
If he thought that Katsuki looked nervous before, nothing compares to the way he looks now. Izuku doesn’t think he has ever seen Katsuki look so nervous in all the years he’s known him.
Katsuki was staring down at his lap, slowly grasping and ungrasping his hand on the arm of the chair. The blonde had always been a sweaty man, but Izuku could actively see sweat beads roll off his forehead onto his gray sweatpants, despite the fact that the A.C. was blasting so hard in the recording room that Izuku and Shouto had to wear sweatshirts.
The lack of eye contact and participation was making Izuku uneasy.
What was wrong with his friend?
Shouto was, of course, oblivious and looked over to Izuku to finish the story, so Izuku did what he did best to fill the dead air.
He rambled.
“Um.. alright, let’s read it. ‘Hey, guys, I have this friend that I have known since diapers. Our moms were best friends in high school and ended up moving to the same neighborhood when they got married. They even got pregnant in the same year, so my friend and I don’t remember a time when we weren’t in each other's lives. We were inseparable until Middle School. It was my fault. I was a little [bleep] with a bunch of insecurities, and I pushed him away. We reunited in high school, and now we are in the same university, U.A. I won’t bore you with too many details, but one day we were hanging out and it just…clicked. I was in love with him. He is everything to me. My problem is how to go on with our friendship when all I want to do is kiss him. I’m still making up for all my mistakes, and I don't want to throw another wrench at him when we have such a stable relationship. How do I keep my friendship and my growing affection for him separate?’ Okay, God, that’s very sweet”, Izuku tries to catch his breath after talking for such a long time.
He looks over at his cohosts and finds two very different reactions.
Shouto had his eyebrows gracefully furrowed, looking quietly puzzled.
And Katsuki… well. Katsuki was making another new expression for Izuku to add to his Katsuki Bakugo list.
Katsuki’s face was an interesting shade of pink that Izuku had never before seen on his pale features. His eyes were wide and manic, scanning the room in pure unbridled panic. The blonde's wild eyes finally landed on Izuku, somehow widening even more as he took in Izuku observing him. The next thing he did was the scariest thing Katsuki has ever done to Izuku.
He looked away.
Here is a fun fact about Katsuki Bakugo: if he makes eye contact with you, you have to be the one to look away first.
If you don’t, you will end up an unwilling participant in a one-sided staring contest with Katsuki Bakugo, who will rather make himself blind then to lose. Izuku learned the hard way that it’s best to just take the metaphorical “L”.
Izuku genuinely didn’t know what to do. He thought this was Katsuki and his thing. He loved doing this show with him, and he thought Katsuki did, too. But Katsuki was actively ignoring him on air.
This situation was just so… weird.
Shouto seemed to finally come to a conclusion from his quiet reverie.
“This sounds…Familiar,” he voices before pensively falling silent.
“Huuuhhh!” Katsuki cried while causing the mic to peak.
Oh, now, he speaks up.
“What the [ bleep] you mean, Icy Hot?” It had been a long time since Izuku had seen Katsuki that angry.
Todoroki ignored him, stroking his chin thoughtfully, “ It’s on the tip of my tongue. Why does it sound so familiar to me?”
“I [bleep]ing kill you, Icyhot [bleep]! Get over here and tell me that [bleep] to my face! How dare you try and-” Katsuki tried to lunge at the calm and confused Shouto before Izuku caught him and held him back.
“Uh,(hold still, Kacchan) That will be all today on Talk Might[ muffled clattering and yelling]. We are obviously going to cut tonight short,[more shuffling and a surprised yelp]. This has been your hosts, Izuku and Katsuki, and we wish a very good evening. [a loud thump and a shout] Bye!” Izuku shouts as he wrestles Katsuki to the floor and sits on him to stop him from attacking Shouto. Music starts playing and fills the studio as Katsuki finally stops struggling.
Ochako, their producer, pokes her head into the room.
She takes in Shouto standing on the chair calmly at a great distance, and Katsuki, pinned to the ground by Izuku, practically foaming at the mouth.
“So, I take it went well?” she deadpans.
Katsuki growls. Literally.
Like a wild animal.
Izuku needs a drink.