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If there was one person Izuku Midoriya knew like the back of his hand, it was Kacchan. No doubt about it. (Well, All Might too, but that was a whole different matter.)
Anyway! The point was that Izuku knew his rival, former bully, and childhood friend well enough to know when something was wrong with him. Though, to be fair, he didn’t always pick up on Kacchan’s hints—like invitations to train together or those little gestures of friendship that Izuku never seemed to notice—but that was what Kirishima was for, always ready to translate whatever Izuku failed to pick up on.
But, once again, the point was that Katsuki Bakugou—aka Kacchan—had been acting weird for DAYS. He was doing things like waking up fifteen minutes earlier or later than usual (which was odd because the blond followed a very strict sleep schedule). He was also agreeing to watch movies on Saturday nights with the rest of the class until late hours of the night and joining group outings more frequently. Things Kacchan would have never, ever done years ago, not even if someone paid him.
And although all of those things were completely abnormal coming from Kacchan, Izuku had to admit that, when taken individually, they weren’t exactly bad. In fact, they made quite a bit of sense. After all, they were now in their third and final year at U.A., and maybe his childhood friend simply wanted to make the most of the time they had left and spend more time with everyone before they all threw themselves into the professional hero world, which left very little free time.
That's why Izuku had decided to pretend he hadn't noticed anything. There was nothing wrong with Kacchan wanting to spend time with his friends, after all. So there was no point in continuing to pay attention to those little details.
And, following that same logic, that morning, when he walked into the classroom, he greeted his friends with his usual energy. “Good morning, Todoroki. Hi, Iida. How are you, Uraraka?” He chatted with them for a couple of minutes until he remembered that he needed to get ahead on his math homework. So he said goodbye with a smile and headed toward his seat, tossing out an automatic, “Good morning, Kacchan,” expecting, as always, a grunt, a sideways glance, or, most commonly, no response at all.
So imagine his absolute surprise when, instead, he heard:
“Good morning, Izuku.”
The shock was such that Izuku tripped over his own feet and had to grab the edge of his desk to keep from falling. Several of his classmates turned to look at him.
“Deku! What happened? Are you okay?” Uraraka asked worriedly.
“Yeah, you look really distracted,” Sero pointed out.
“Not at all, guys! I’m fine,” Izuku replied with a nervous laugh. “I just... tripped over something, that’s all. Heh, heh, heh.”
His smile didn’t convince them, but they didn’t press the matter since Aizawa would be coming in any minute to give them the day’s instructions.
Izuku took his seat and took a deep breath, trying to process what had just happened.
Never, never, but never had Kacchan given him a proper “good morning.” Maybe a grunt, an “uh-huh,” or a bored nod of the head. But “Good morning, Izuku,” with his first name and everything? Never! Not even after they had made up. So... why was he doing it now?
Wait…
What if that... wasn't Kacchan?
What if he was a villain in disguise!?
But he didn’t seem like one...
Oh, how Izuku missed the Danger Sense from One For All... If he still had it, he would have known right away.
“Hey, Izuku,” called the reason for his earlier stumble from the desk in front of him.
Izuku tensed and looked at him carefully, trying to hide his suspicion. If this guy was a villain in disguise, he had to proceed carefully so he wouldn’t alert the enemy.
“Yes?” he asked cautiously, scrutinizing every feature of his face.
Everything was symmetrical. He even had the scar.
He really did look like Kacchan.
“Are you sure...? Uh...” Kacchan scratched the back of his neck, a nervous gesture that was rarely seen from him. “Are you sure you’re okay? About what happened earlier... You tripped and... yeah.”
Izuku stared at him, even more confused than before. He knew Kacchan cared about him, but that concern almost always manifested itself through actions, not words. This was... weird. And new. But above all, weird.
“Izuku?”
Oops. Without realizing it, he had been staring at him, and that wasn’t very polite. Kacchan acting weird wasn’t a reason for him to be rude.
“Uh, yeah. I... it was nothing. I just got distracted, that’s all. I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt or anything.”
“Oh. Good.”
“Good?”
“Good,” Kacchan repeated, turning back around in his seat with a hint of irritation and discomfort that Izuku felt too, because they didn’t usually have conversations this... mundane.
They usually talked about more serious things, or Kacchan would simply toss assignments at him or be brusque with him as usual—more out of reflex than anything else. So doing something as ordinary as asking each other if they were okay felt... weird.
Well, Izuku did ask him, or at least he used to, but he always got some vague response in return. Never a question like, “What about you? Are you okay?” Now that he thought about it, that was kind of curious, but not exactly unusual for them.
Maybe I'm just overthinking things again, Izuku told himself.
And, assuming the conversation wasn’t going to go any further, he reached into his backpack for his math notebook and textbook to make the most of the few minutes he had left. The good thing was that he could always go to the library with his friends to study later.
Two minutes after that brief Kacchancial crisis (?), Izuku was focused on a particular math problem that was... well, giving him some problems, when he noticed Kacchan had turned around in his seat again and was looking at his notebook with some interest.
Izuku had to suppress a shiver at an... unwelcome memory.
“Hey, nerd,” Kacchan called, and Izuku felt relieved to hear the familiar nickname. At least that was something he knew. “Are you almost done with Friday’s assignment?”
“Uh, not really,” Izuku answered, confused by the sudden change of subject. “I mean, I’m not behind or anything because I’ve already done most of the exercises, but I’m a little stuck on a few of them, like number five. I just feel like I’m not getting the right answer no matter what I try.”
“That one? But it wasn’t that complicated. Are you sure you did the steps right?”
Are you sure you didn’t hit your head before coming to class? Izuku wanted to ask, but he bit his tongue and answered instead, "Yeah. I even used the formula and everything.”
“Alright... Lemme see that.”
And without waiting for an answer, he took Izuku’s notebook.
Izuku felt the urge to snatch it back. His mind screamed, Take it before it’s too late!, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and relax.
Kacchan had changed a lot. There was no reason for him to be nervous. He was just worrying too much, as usual.
But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself of that, his stomach twisted the moment he watched Kacchan lean over the notebook and start looking through it carefully, his eyes moving over every one of Izuku’s notes. Izuku gripped the fabric of his pants between his fingers, trying to contain the absurd tension that had suddenly taken hold of him.
He knew. It was ridiculous. Kacchan wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just looking at his homework.
And yet...
Something inside him insisted otherwise. That, at any moment, Kacchan would start making fun of him and tear his notebook apart while Izuku could do nothing but stand there and watch, because once again he didn’t have a Quirk and was vulnerable, and—
Enough.
Kacchan wasn't like that anymore.
Izuku shook his head, trying to chase away the thoughts that had been becoming more and more frequent ever since he lost OFA. They made no sense. He wasn’t going to let them take over his mind again.
And yet...
He still found himself shyly watching the boy in front of him, and his heart sped up again when Kacchan turned another page of the notebook. But instead of dismissing what was written there as irrelevant and blowing it up, he just let out a simple "Hmm." He picked up the pencil Izuku had left on his desk and underlined several steps before placing the notebook back where it had been.
And he did it ALL with such care that it was almost scary. Somehow, seeing Kacchan handle his notebook so gently didn’t calm Izuku down at all. If anything, it only made him more nervous.
“The problem is that you’re doing this step backward,” Kacchan explained, pointing to a spot in his notebook with a neutral expression. “And here, you added instead of subtracting.”
Izuku took the notebook with trembling hands, feeling equal parts relieved and guilty. His heart was still pounding, but he took a deep breath and went over the problem again, along with the steps he had followed to solve it. Then everything started to make more sense.
“Oh. You’re right,” he said, and began correcting everything.
And now that his attention had shifted, he relaxed a little more after the scare. But he also felt bad for having interpreted the whole thing as a warning sign, because maybe Kacchan had simply wanted to talk about the math assignment and Izuku had been making things unnecessarily difficult.
So he ventured to ask if Kacchan had finished everything yet. To his surprise, Kacchan admitted that he hadn’t, then pulled out his own math notebook and showed Izuku what he had done and what he still had left to finish. And when Izuku offered a few suggestions on how he could solve some of the problems, Kacchan didn’t get annoyed. He simply followed his advice.
Strangely enough, the two of them continued comparing answers and helping each other with whatever they were stuck on until Aizawa arrived to start that day’s class.
However, Izuku could barely pay attention to his teacher. He had far too many questions running through his head.
Why would Kacchan talk to me about math?
Why hadn’t he yelled or cursed even once?
All of this was strange and new, and there had to be an explanation for it, but no matter how much Izuku thought about it, he couldn’t find one. And he had far too much to do that day to waste time dwelling on it.
So he decided to forget about it and focus on school.
Besides, maybe he was just exaggerating everything, right? Maybe, for once, Kacchan had woken up in a really good mood and felt like talking to someone. Maybe Izuku was just really tired because he had stayed up late reading hero articles (which happened pretty often). Maybe he had simply been spending too much time with Todoroki, and some of his tendency toward conspiracy theories was starting to rub off on him.
Maybe... and just maybe... he was being a little paranoid.
Yeah. That definitely had to be it.