Chapter Text
The weekend before the Yuuei Sports Festival Midoriya Hisashi returns home to Japan, determined not to miss his son and eventual son-in-law participate in the event. This leads to a fire being lit beneath Midoriya Izuku who before hand didn’t particularly care about placing well in the event. The arrival of his father sent Izuku into a mad spiral of planning and finishing up several projects he’d set on the backburner to have them ready for use on the day of the sports festival along with hours long video calls between him and his fellow 1-H classmates to strategize and delegate certain projects after he’d effectively charmed his way through getting his class to go along with his impulsive yet sound plan for victory. Katsuki had been promptly kicked out of the Midoriya house for the weekend and channeled all his sulking into working out and preparing himself for the event.
Hard work, determination, and a just a touch of evil genius sees that Team 1-H (secretly called Team Izuku by the rest of the students of 1-H) have a plan that’ll carry them far in the Yuuei Sports Festival. The glimpse Maijima manages to catch of his class before they file out of the classroom as a tight knit unit with Izuku in the center, all of them hauling a bag of some type holding the support gear they’re allowed to take with them, makes him grin in anticipation and a zing of pride to shoot through him. If he looked closer he would have seen the wild glint shining in bright emerald eyes and the way Mei seemed to eat up that energy as her gestures become more energetic while she speaks. Or the way even the other students are affected, sleep-slumped shoulders rising and faces brightening with grins of determination as they follow the boy they all acknowledge as their unofficial leader. But as it is, Maijima is still under the spell of Izuku’s genius brain dressed in an adorably freckled face and sweet smile and happily waves his class off with a wish of good luck before he has to make his way to the teacher’s booth.
Effortlessly charming as always, Izuku turns with a big answering grin for their sensei and with a spark of Sakamoto’s quirk lighting up a shining glow of gold around Izuku for a second successfully pulls Maijima further under his thumb.
In the room housing 1-H and the other support classes Izuku pulls his classmates together again as they begin equipping themselves with the gear they made while Izuku once again goes over their plan, confident in his research that the first challenge will be a race of some type where their ranks will have an effect on the second stage and making sure everyone understands where they’re aiming to place. After confirmation from everyone they spend the next few minutes getting used to moving with their gear, Izuku finishing some minor calibrations to his wrist guards when he hears a loud knocking at the room’s door. Blinking in short lived curiosity he walks to open the door and is unsurprised to see Katsuki but the inclusion of the Todoroki boy does make him tilt his head. Questioningly he looks to Katsuki and the scowl fixed on his face tells Izuku that the tagalong was not planned so with an amused spark in his green eyes he gives a comforting smile to Katsuki before he turns to address the other boy.
“Todoroki-san, what has you following Kacchan all the way down here?”
Caught off guard at being addressed first Todoroki’s eyes widen in panic and his mouth opens and closes like he’s desperately searching for words. Behind Izuku Nakahara and Sakamoto do their best to disguise their eavesdropping as tying each other’s shoes while Mei does not hide her listening at all, staring amusedly at the way Todoroki squirms under Izuku’s gaze.
“I wanted you-Ah!! No!!” Katsuki growls threateningly and Izuku sets an absent-minded hand on his wrist, “I-I mean uh I wanted to come and um tell you that I’ll be watching you, I’m always watching you.” Izuku’s eyes narrow while Mei cackles in the background, Nakahara and Sakamoto both collapse into each other at the words, and Izuku’s hand on Katsuki’s wrist tightens as he turns with a snarl to face Todoroki. Todoroki just cringes and gets that odd half blush on his face as he takes a step back and holds his hands up in front of himself.
“That came out wrong!! I’m not obsessed with you.” Izuku’s hold on Katsuki’s wrist drops as he takes a suspicious and wary step back into the room at the same time Katsuki steps between Todoroki and Izuku. Memories of an odd, dust mask-wearing man that followed Izuku’s martial arts competitions religiously and to an uncomfortable degree surface and makes Izuku shift into a defensive stance with his hand hovering over a pair of heavy looking escrima rods that has Todoroki making a strangled sound and swiftly turning on his heel and speed walking away. Both hands viscously pulling at his bi-coloured hair as whimpers and frantic curses made at a “Tou-nii” fade the further away he gets.
Still tense Katsuki turns to look over Izuku, seeing the steady stance makes him relax and with a grumble he reaches out to pull him close. Izuku willingly lets himself get manhandled and fussed over by Katsuki as rough, calloused hands gently pull his bangs up from his eyes, the motions long practiced as a clip is slipped into his hair. No way for Izuku to know what charm it is today but not really minding what it could be when Katsuki is still soothing his startled nerves with quick strokes though his unruly curls as he tries to tame them as best as he can.
A glance at the clock and Katsuki grumpily steps away from a now calm and distracted Izuku, the small sound of protest almost makes him forget about going back to join his class but a breath has his resolve strengthening and with a nod at Izuku Katsuki looks further into the room to search for Nakahara. He finds him still on the ground re-tying his shoes for the seventh time and his mouth settles into a small scowl but before he can open his mouth Nakahara stands and gives an understanding nod and small but sure thumbs up, “Not a hair on his pretty head, got it!”
Katsuki’s eyes narrow into a fierce glare.
“What did you call my nerd?”
Nakahara pales but is saved by Izuku lightly pushing at Katsuki’s chest.
“Kacchan the time! You’ll be late and you can’t be late you’re the one giving the opening speech!!”
“I’m what?”
Curiously Izuku looks up at Katsuki and tilts his head, eyebrows furrowed.
“The opening speech for the first years? Ne Kacchan, you got first place in the entrance exams remember?”
From further in the room Mei snarks while fiddling with her boots “The hero course entrance exams.” Izuku ignores her frustration on his behalf and continues. “First place always gives the opening speech as the first-year representative, didn’t they tell you?”
Katsuki bristles before he looks down at his feet.
“Bastard caterpillar didn’t tell me shit.”
Izuku just beams at Katsuki, “That’s okay! Kacchan will come up with something good I’m sure!”
Behind them Sakamoto snorts while smartly backing away. “Yeah, the bomb waiting to go off will give a fantastic and inspiring speech I’m sure.”
With a snarl Katsuki makes an aggressive claim about having the best speech the boy will ever hear as Izuku insistently pushes him backwards out the door and with a sound of enthusiastic agreement from Izuku Katsuki turns and stalks down the hall back to his class.
Izuku wears a deeply fond look on his face as he stares after Katsuki for a moment before it’s replaced by steely determination and a touch of crazed hunger as he turns back to look at his classmates. He catches everyone’s eyes before he nods in satisfaction at what he sees looking back at him, they all gravitate to surround him in a semi-circle as he grins bright and sharp. He puts a hand in and is immensely pleased when not a moment later Mei smacks her hand down on top of his and is quickly followed by the rest of their class, they do a short count and the collective cheer of 1-H they all shout warms him to his core as he feels comradery and acceptance he’s not experienced before in school. Up until Yuuei it’s always been him and Katsuki separate from everyone else and their idiotic prejudices they held against him for his quirklessness.
With wet eyes he grins at them and Mei swings a strong arm around his shoulders just as a bell chimes to signal the time for them to make their way out to the fields. With a squeeze Mei steers them to the front of the line that Nakahara is sorting 1-H into by class rank as the other support classes line themselves up as well, after a satisfied nod from Nakahara Izuku begins walking.
“Ready to play some games, ZuZu?” Mei asks with a skip in her step and excitement in her voice.
Izuku giggles lightly and as the feral spark returns to his eyes he answers, “I’m ready to win MeiMei.” Mei grins wide, eyes bright with barely contained glee as Izuku confidently leads the entire first year support course out to the field right as Present Mic announces them to the awaiting crowd.
Blinking away the blinding sunlight shining down on them, Izuku smiles for the politely clapping crowd and zeros in on the loud, overenthusiastic cheering and short bursts of fire he can see curling into the air marking the private booth containing both his parents and Katsuki’s. He waves happily at his father who is being kept from falling over the railing by his mother’s quirk and his “Auntie Mitsy” who is likewise being carefully watched by “Uncle ‘Saru” for any sudden overbalancing. Spotting Izuku looking in their direction they begin howling loudly and his exasperated mother lets her quirk go for a second to daintily wave back at Izuku sending him a playful wink as Hisashi franticly windmills his arms trying not to go over the railing, Masaru sends him cheesy thumbs up and a large smile in turn. Izuku laughs brightly at them and neatly guides support to their designated place on the field before turning and telling Mei that those are his parents and Katsuki’s. Mei turns and her eyes instinctually zoom in on them and after a moment of observation she turns back to Izuku with an approving grin.
After another few minutes spent waiting for the rest of the first years to settle into position Midnight walks up to the stage to open the sports festival and introduce Katsuki who gives a surprisingly well said speech about showing their potential and making their presence known for the world. He slipped in a few subtle backhanded compliments for everyone but overall no one could do more than grumble at his overconfident smirk as he ended his speech with a reminder that his name is Bakugou Katsuki and he’s student representative of the first years for a reason.
Izuku just claps happily as Katsuki turns to make his way off the stage, their eyes naturally find each other and they share a grin, both silently promising not to go easy on the other. Seeing Izuku’s eyes faintly wild and falling back to the practiced way of taking in everything and analyzing it in seconds causes a thrill to run through Katsuki as an increasingly familiar warm and heavy feeling pools low in his gut, a barely there dusting of pink rises in his cheeks that Izuku notices right away but files away for later examination. Attention turning back to Midnight who returns to the stage to reveal the first challenge.
With matching grins Izuku and Mei turn to look at each other then their classmates while Nakahara reads aloud the words on the board with a light chuckle.
“Obstacle course.”