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When you’re in a class like UA High School’s class 3-A, been through the things they’ve been through, it’s hard not to be close. And that’s exactly what class 3-A was. Close since their first year of high school, where, as mere teenagers, they fought side-by-side in a war and took down the universe’s most powerful villains. Class 3-A were heroes, celebrities, idols of their country and internationally.
But something the news outlets seemed to forget was that they were also teenagers. Teenagers who were intent on not letting their childhoods be taken away from them before it was too late. And that meant doing what they were doing now: sleepover in the common area of the dorms, fluffy pajamas and silly games all-included.
“And then he left!” Hagakure lamented loudly from where her floating pale purple pajama set gave the impression of one draped dramatically over her beanbag cushion, coerced from the teacher’s longue with the help of Present Mic.
“He just left?” Mina repeated incredulously, continuing to braid Kirishima’s hair as he sat wedged between her knees. “That asshole!” There were similar sentiments from around the room.
“It hardly counts as a first kiss if he runs away after,” Momo said.
Ochako nodded vigorously from her seat cuddled next to Tsuyu and Mina. “I say it doesn’t count! First kisses should mean something!”
“Who fucking cares,” Katsuki grumbled from his own beanbag, scooched a little further away from the rest of the group but hardly as far as he would’ve been two years ago. Well, further away from everyone except Izuku, who had easily taken up residence on a piled-up blanket right by him, practically sitting in between Katsuki’s splayed out legs. Ever since the two had defeated All for One in a shadowed battle even their classmates and teachers didn’t know the whole story of, they’d been significantly closer than anyone who met them in early first year would’ve ever imagined. Guess war does that to people.
“Aw, c’mon, Kacchan!” Kaminari said, leaning down from the couch to poke Katsuki’s shoulder and receiving an aggressive slap to his hand. “Don’t be such a downer!”
“Of course Bakugou hates romance,” Sero said, waving his hand in the air. He lowered his voice to growly impression of Katsuki’s. “I don’t need some shitty extra if I’m gonna be the best! Gah!”
“Shut the fuck up, Soy Sauce,” Katsuki snapped, flipping his friend off as the class laughed.
Izuku giggled from his seat near Katsuki and patted the other boy’s leg. “Pretty sure you said that exact thing back when Auntie asked.”
“No I didn’t!” Katsuki denied, lightly whacking the back of Izuku’s head.
“You did!” Izuku pressed on, “I remember it because…” he trailed off, seemingly realizing something at the same time Katsuki did, both young men getting the weird looks they got whenever thinking about their rocky past. “Never mind,” Izuku said, smiling again, “I was just saying Sero was right.”
“I bet Bakugou’s just pissy about romance because he hasn’t even had his first kiss yet,” Ochako said, smirking. There was more laughter from the class and Katsuki fixed her with a glare that could melt mountains, one she met with a smug smile.
“Fuck off,” Katsuki growled at the same time Izuku said, “That’s not true.”
Katsuki blinked a few times, seeming surprised. “What?”
“Wait, how does Mido know about your first kiss but you don’t?” Kirishima asked, raising a brow.
“Yeah, what the fuck?” Katsuki said, looking just as confused.
Izuku rolled his eyes, cheeks flushed red, and let himself fall back so he was laying against Katsuki’s chest, between his legs and smiling up at him. “Oh, come on, Kacchan!” he said, reaching up to squish wide-eyed Katsuki’s pink cheeks between his scarred hands. “Don’t say you’ve forgotten us!”
“Wha-us?” Katsuki spluttered against the rest of the classes excited questioning of Izuku’s statement.
“Are you saying I meant nothing to you?” Izuku pouted up at him as Katsuki became increasingly flustered. “You swore on All Might!”
“What the fuck…” Katsuki’s sentence trailed off as his eyes widened in realization. “Oh my fucking God, Deku! That?”
“’That’?” Izuku repeated with mock drama on par with a k-drama star, shaking Katsuki’s head back and forth between his hands. “’That’ is our engagement you are talking about!”
“Your what?” Ochako asked, eyes wide and sparkling. The rest of their classmates had similar shocked and excited reactions.
Katsuki scowled, face red across to his ears, and shoved Izuku’s hands off his face. “We were five fucking years old, it was not an engagement!”
“Yes it was!” Izuku said, sitting up and twisting around to face Katsuki. “You gave me a grass ring!”
“That’s adorable!” Mina squealed, clasping her hands by her face and cooing.
“Fuck off!” Katsuki snapped defensively, shoving Izuku back with a hand on his face as the other boy laughed.
“That’s your future husband, man!” Kaminari said, grinning, “Don’t shove him away!”
“He is not my future husband and he can go die for all I care,” Katsuki growled.
Izuku fake-pouted and draped himself dramatically over Katsuki’s chest, bringing the back of his hand to his forehead and resting his head on Katsuki’s shoulder in a way that would’ve gotten almost anyone else blasted to a million pieces. “So mean, Kacchan!” he bemoaned, “I thought you lo” – Izuku’s eyes suddenly went wide as he drew out the vowel – “ooooo-iiiked me.”
The group went dead silent as Katsuki stared at Izuku, who looked like Amajiki-senpai whenever he had to do anything – mortified and silently panicking, frozen where he lay. After a moment, Katsuki huffed and averted his eyes, for once looking calm or even a little embarrassed. “It’s not a fucking secret,” he mumbled under his breath, but everyone around him heard it, including Izuku, who’s eyes went wide with glittering happiness as he beamed.
“I thought you loved me!” he declared, possibly too loud but too happy for volume control, grabbing Katsuki’s chin with two fingers and grinning at him.
“Ack, stop it!” Katsuki said, trying to yank his head away. Izuku giggled and let go of his chin, only to flip over to his stomach and flop down on Katsuki, hugging him tightly as the other boy scowled with red ears. “I hate you,” Katsuki grumbled.
“No you don’t!” Izuku said, slightly muffled with his cheek pressed against Katsuki’s loose black tank top. “You love me!”
“The line between love and hate is very fucking blurry,” Katsuki said, flicking Izuku’s forehead.
“WHAT.” Ochako suddenly yelled, breaking the stunned silence of their classmates.
“You love him?” Mina said, sounding almost strangled.
“He is my friend,” Katsuki said flatly, like everyone around him were idiots for being surprised by this new information.
“For how long?” Jirou said with wide eyes.
“How long have we…been friends?” Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow. He was still attached to Katsuki like a barnacle, and Katsuki was making no moves to get him off.
“How long have you been in love?” Kaminari clarified, looking absolutely delighted.
“HAH?” Katsuki yelled as Izuku yelped, “What?”, both jolting up as Izuku scrambled back. Their faces were red.
“I said I love him, not that I’m fucking in love with him!” Katsuki yelled.
“What’s the difference?” Sero said, smirking.
“The difference is that we are just friends,” Katsuki snapped, face burning. Izuku was simply staring at the ground in shock, face red as a strawberry with his freckles as the seeds.
“I’m your friend, and you never say you love me!” Kirishima pointed out.
“Remind me of that next time we’re fucking dying together, and I’ll see how I feel,” Katsuki spat, whipping the nearest pillow at Kirishima’s face.
Every smiling face in the room fell as they stared at the two boys on the floor. It was one of those things, the class had found, that maybe just came with being a hero, or came with living through a war. You’d forget for a moment, about all that had happened to you, the terror you felt and wounds you still bear. You’d forget, until you remembered, and it all came crashing back.
And at this moment, every student was recalling the day they’d watched their classmates, their friends, the two young boys that inspired all of them, stand side by side with fists raised in triumph when the dust cleared, holding each other up. Unable to stand without the other.
Katsuki held his shaking arm high in the air, feeling blood drip down, not sure if it was his or Izuku’s. Probably both.
Izuku.
The boy he felt so much about, cared so much for. The boy who had followed him since they were young until the day he didn’t anymore. The boy Katsuki had nearly lost over and over again. The boy with viridian eyes and forest hair and a heart too big for his own good. The boy Katsuki knew he would die to protect, and almost had now for a second time.
The boy who just defeated the most evil entity in existence with Katsuki by his side. They did that.
His knees buckled, unable to hold himself up anymore, and he and Izuku collapsed to the dirt next to each other, breathing heavily. He turned his head to the side, cheek pressed against the rubble, to find Izuku doing the same. Instinctively, Katsuki reached out a hand to hold his face, smearing blood across his freckled cheek. He was crying.
“We did it,” Izuku said, soft and almost unbelieving. Katsuki somehow knew that the success wasn’t what surprised him, it’s that he was alive to see it. Izuku had gone into this fight ready to die to save everyone.
Katsuki had gone in ready to die to save him.
“I love you.”
He didn’t quite know what overcame him to say it, but the words fit right in the new world they’d just been put into. All he really did was speak to something that created the foundation of his self. He loves Midoriya Izuku, whatever love even meant, and he had for a while now. Possibly since the day he met him.
Izuku stared back at him, teary eyes somehow bright again, against the dirt and blood and tracks of tears etched into his face. He wrapped a weak hand around Katsuki’s wrist, the wrist of the hand still resting on his cheek, because for once Katsuki was the one reaching out and for once Izuku was the one asking him to stay.
“I love you too.”
The dust was still settling around them, and every muscle in his body was aching or screaming in pain, and Katsuki thought that this was not going to be where he dies. Not where either of them die, because they’ve spent too long apart and too long denying things for it to all end just when it begins.
Izuku’s mother thanked the stars, Katsuki’s dad thanked the gods, Katsuki’s mom thanked the doctors, but Katsuki thanked his and Izuku’s own sheer force of will to keep going on side-by-side for keeping them alive.
A week later, they were both awake and sober enough to talk or think about anything other than ‘We’re alive’. They both sat cross legged on the same bed, staring at each other in the white light creeping through thin hospital curtains. There were too many things to say and hardly the words to say them.
Izuku settled with one, holding out his bandaged hand, the one not mummified in a cast. “Friends?”
The word felt too small, but anything bigger felt too much, too fast.
“Friends,” Katsuki agreed, taking his hand. Izuku grinned and yanked him forward into a hug, one that Katsuki reluctantly returned while chiding him about his healing injuries.
Back in the silent dorms, Izuku sat on the floor, staring down at his hands that had begun to shake. Tears blurred his vision, the oncoming signs the students had learned to look for in each other. Katsuki noticed first, because he was the one watching.
“Deku,” he said, pushing himself out of his seat to grab the other boy’s shaky, calloused hands, “stop thinking like that.” The rest of the class watched with bated breath, knowing Izuku and Katsuki were always the only ones able to get the other to calm.
“That’s…that’s not what I’m thinking about,” Izuku whispered, speaking back and forth through the thoughts they easily read on each other. Except now, it seemed. Suddenly, Izuku pulled his hands out of Katsuki’s grip and stood, tears in his eyes. “I-I need to go, sorry.”
He turned and started for the elevator, Katsuki quick on his heels. “Deku, where the fuck do you think you’re going?” he snapped, but Izuku only sped up, turning for the stairs instead. Katsuki cursed under his breath and followed Izuku through the door to the stairway, jogging up and grabbing him around the wrist before he could go any further.
“Kacch-”
“Don’t you fucking run away from me again.”
That made Izuku freeze, his arm going slack in Katsuki’s grip as tears streamed down his face.
“Just tell me what the hell is going on with you right now,” Katsuki said, unsure if he was pleading or demanding. He refused to look away as Izuku’s eyes filled with heavy emotion and overflowed with tears, moving his hand down from Izuku’s wrist to hold his hand instead. “We don’t do the secret shit, remember?”
That broke whatever inner dam that was holding Izuku silent. “I think I love you.”
Katsuki just frowned at him. “I know that, dummy.”
“No,” Izuku said, sniffling, “I mean I love you. I’m in love with you.”
The stairway was completely silent save for Izuku’s sniffles as Katsuki reeled from what felt like a punch to the gut.
“I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time,” Izuku continued, voice wavering and heavy in a way Katsuki had never heard before. “Which is kind of pathetic, right? I didn’t even realize until you said you weren’t. It’s hopeless, but I could never keep secrets from you, I guess.” He sighed deeply, a resigned sigh of someone giving up that Katsuki didn’t think fit him at all. “I’m sorry, Kacchan.”
That snapped Katsuki out of his trance.
“What the hell are you apologizing for?” he said, not giving Izuku any time to answer. “Are you stupid? Of course you are. You’re the dumbest, most beautiful person I have ever met,” – he took a step up closer to Izuku, leaning in with an almost threatening aura – “and if you don’t push me down these stairs in the next three seconds, I am going to kiss you.”
Izuku did not push him down the stairs.