Work Text:
Izuku isn’t a lot of things, but he’s nothing if not stubborn as hell in all the wrong ways.
It all kicks off when Izuku, selflessly, volunteers for a TA position for one of his favorite professor’s classes. Yagi Toshinori is his biggest role model, and he’d kill to learn directly under him. See, Izuku wants to be a professor himself someday. Great benefits, he gets to join a union (which he has no idea what that means, but he’s excited anyway, because it means he gets to be a part of something), and he gets breaks liberally. And what’s better than learning straight from the best?
Being a Teacher’s Assistant isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially in college, where professors don’t have to deal with day-to-day burdens like grades and papers. Nobody wants more boring work on top of their already busy workload. But Izuku doesn’t mind the extra work; he’s kind of a textbook workaholic. He likes to keep his brain moving. It helps him stray away from overthinking, though he shamefully does a lot of that anyway.
Izuku squeals in delight when he finds out he got the position. “Todoroki-kun, you know what that means, don’t you? I get to grade Professor Yagi’s work!”
“No, you get to grade work from college students running on two hours of sleep and countless cans of Red Bull,” corrects Shouto, his two-tone-haired friend, as they both squeeze in one restaurant booth seat to see Izuku’s laptop screen. “Professor Yagi probably won’t give those assignments another glance.”
Izuku flicks a fry at Shouto’s face and he masterfully catches it with his mouth. “Whatever, the point is, I’ll be learning from my favorite professor!”
“I’ll be there too.”
“You will?”
Shouto nods, fry still poking out from his lips. He tilts his head back and lets the fry fall down his throat. “I need liberal arts credits anyway.”
So the first day of class rolls around and Izuku, a fresh-faced TA, meets the students he’ll be grading papers for. Most of them are from his grade, and most of them are only there to pass a liberal arts course with an easy A. Izuku might be the most willing to be here, which is a little depressing, but he doesn’t think too much about it.
At first, nothing really catches Izuku’s eye outside of Professor Yagi and his teachings. He’s getting old, so sometimes he forgets his train of thought in the middle of a lecture, and he’ll have to start over his train of thought all the way from the beginning. It’s been a pain on Izuku’s notes, but he’ll graciously sacrifice pages in his notebook for repetitive teachings. He doesn’t mind.
But the further the class goes on, the more Izuku begins to pick up on patterns, like how some students write their essays and how other students pay attention in class. He’s a master at figuring out who sleeps during lessons, who doesn’t take notes, who doesn’t give a damn about quizzes and who’s only there for anything outside of the actual class topic.
Speaking of which, Izuku’s pretty sure he’s spotted a big case of that last one. The roster reveals that his name is Bakugou Katsuki, a third year student like Izuku, who sits in the leftmost row of the classroom at the back. He aces all of his assignments but doesn’t participate in class discussion, and whenever Izuku is looking over at him, he’s looking back. It’s weird. Izuku’s only the TA, not the actual professor. He doesn’t do any genuine teaching; Katsuki’s attention should certainly be elsewhere.
Izuku also noticed that he pays an absurd amount of attention to Shouto, Izuku’s best friend. Sometimes, he even catches Katsuki glaring. And when Shouto miraculously looks back, the blond goes a little red in the face. Almost like he’s blushing.
Huh. Interesting. Izuku takes a mental note of it, but decides he won’t overthink for now.
📖
Yep, Izuku’s eyes definitely are not deceiving him. It keeps happening, Katsuki’s strange staring and his flushed face whenever he’s caught by Izuku’s best friend.
“Todoroki-kun,” Izuku whispers after one of the classes as he motions his hand over. Shouto silently meets him behind his little desk at the right wall of the room. He leans close, disinterested. “I think you have a secret admirer.” He nods his head ever so slightly towards Katsuki’s direction.
“What?” Shouto asks, nose scrunching up.
“I said, a secret admirer.”
“I heard you. No, I don’t.”
“I think you do.”
“I don’t.”
Izuku groans before stealing a glance at Katsuki, who’s just leaving the door. Katsuki catches his eye and immediately shifts his gaze to Shouto. It didn’t even take him a whole second for his attention to divert. And right on cue, Katsuki’s face turns an indescribable type of contorted. It’s kind of like embarrassment and crushing all in one, to Izuku’s very determined brain. It makes sense to him, at least.
Katsuki opens his mouth, like he’s about to say something, before clenching it shut. He doesn’t stay for long and leaves soon thereafter. “See?” Izuku hushes. “He’s been looking at you all throughout class. He’s constipated with love. He likes you.”
“He doesn’t like me,” Shouto deadpans. “I swear on it, he doesn’t.”
“You don’t know that. You haven’t even asked him.”
Shouto rolls his eyes. “Neither have you. Look, I know you find this stuff interesting, but I’ll spare you the trouble. He doesn’t like me. He really doesn’t. He’s only staring at me because--”
“ Shhh, ” Izuku interrupts abruptly, pressing his pointer finger against Shouto’s lips. His best friend only glares in response. “No need to be humble, Todoroki-kun. Everyone knows you’re attractive. Bakugou-kun thinks the same way, clearly. ”
“He looks like he’s seconds away from burying me alive deep in a rural forest. I don’t see how that’s even slightly romantic.”
“Hey, people are different,” says Izuku with a shrug and a smile. He goes to collect his notes and papers, shoving them unceremoniously in his bag. All the while, he talks like his mouth’s running a marathon. “Maybe he’s the type to be embarrassed about his feelings for someone. Doesn’t he seem that way? He’s got that closed-off type of persona, the kind of guy that would only open up and feel soft, genuine emotions towards someone he trusts. Otherwise, he lashes out. But that doesn’t make his feelings any less valid, right? He’s probably trying to find the right way to approach you. He probably wants to know you better. I mean, why else would he be looking at you so intensely? Ooh, he might be intimidated by your--”
“Okay, I’m gonna go,” says Shouto bluntly as he juts his thumb towards the door. “I have a class after this.”
“Oh, okay,” says Izuku pleasantly, though the gears in his head are already moving. “See you later?”
“Yeah. And do yourself a favor: don’t go all detective-mode on this guy. He really doesn’t like me.”
“Fine. Okay.”
“Good.” He leaves.
📖
Izuku lied. He’s going to go all detective-mode on Katsuki.
“Bakugou-kun, why did you decide to take this class?” Izuku asks innocently after the lesson ends, catching Katsuki right before he makes his escape.
“Hah?” Katsuki grunts with his signature glare. He has very red eyes, Izuku notices. He hasn’t really paid any mind before, since Katsuki sits pretty far away from him. All Izuku got before was his blond hair and his height. He’s quite tall. Probably not as tall as Shouto, though. He’s also quite pretty, but probably not as conventionally pretty as Shouto. He’s got more of a rugged, untamed handsomeness to his features. They’d be the prettiest couple on campus if they ever got together, that’s for sure.
“Just, well, you know,” Izuku continues, fumbling a bit over his words for a second because he just realized, mentally, that he was kind of checking out the guy who’s into his best friends and that might be crossing a universal friendship law or something, he’s not sure, “you don’t raise your hand to answer questions or participate in discussion. Are you here for the class itself? Or the professor? Or perhaps someone else? ”
He really puts an emphasis on “someone else”, hoping that Katsuki gets his drift that he’s talking about Shouto, the guy that he’s been checking out since the start of the semester. He’s not even subtle; his stolen glances and his heated face only got more obvious through time.
Katsuki does get it. “Yeah. You got me, cop. I’m not here for this boring ass class.”
Izuku’s eye twitches. “This class isn’t boring. Just so you’re aware, I’m having the time of my life.”
“That’s ‘cause you’re a fucking nerd.”
“ Hey! ”
Okay, Izuku’s slightly worried that Shouto’s not-so-secret admirer is a full-on jerk with a heart of coal. But he’s not a quitter; “being phased” doesn’t run in his blood. And he knows Shouto’s got nerves of steel, so he’d be able to handle a difficult boyfriend. Not exactly from thick skin, but because his best friend is kind of clueless. Case in point, he still doesn’t think Katsuki likes him, when it’s so obvious that the blond’s been obsessed with Shouto since day one.
“So what if I’m here for someone else? ” Katsuki mutters under his breath, leaning closer now, so Izuku can see the specific dips in his expression. He sort of smells like candied lemons and makes sure to emphasize “someone else” too. Great. They’re on the same page.
“Who’re you here for?” asks Izuku, looking deep into Katsuki’s pretty red eyes or whatever.
“Like I’d tell you when you’ve got control over my damn grades.”
Katsuki leans back, side-eyes Shouto, who just so happens to be standing next to Izuku’s desk, before stalking out.
“He’s totally into you,” Izuku declares.
“I want to bury myself alive in a rural forest, now that I think about it,” grouses Shouto in return. Izuku doesn’t know if he means it humorously or frustratedly. Why would he be frustrated? He’s got an attractive guy his age interested in him.
📖
“Todoroki-kun, are you against the thought of dating Bakugou-kun?” asks Izuku one day while they’re studying in Shouto’s one-person dorm.
“I couldn’t care less about him,” Shouto replies truthfully, lying on his back with his open textbook splattered right on top of his face. They’re supposed to be studying for a physics class they both share. There’s a test coming up. “He doesn’t bother me nor interest me.”
Right. Could be worse. Throughout all this, Shouto has remained calmly neutral regarding Katsuki’s feelings. He constantly rejects the notion that Katsuki likes him, even though he clearly does, but doesn’t seem grossed out by the thought. He doesn’t really express anything outside of flat-out denial.
“So you’re telling me that, if Bakugou-kun did like you and did want to date you, you wouldn’t say no?”
“ If he really did like me and if he really wanted to date me, I wouldn’t not not say no.”
Izuku does the factoring in his head. It comes out as “I wouldn’t say no”. Perfect, that’s all he needed to hear! And as Shouto’s certified best friend, Izuku is going to get him a boyfriend, with spikes and rage and all that jazz, because that’s exactly what he deserves.
The next class, there’s a letter at Katsuki’s standard lecture seat. It’s folded neatly onto itself, packaged into a tiny square. Izuku watches intently from his small TA desk as Katsuki picks it up, unfolds it, reads it in half a heartbeat before casting the nastiest glare at Shouto’s direction.
Huh. Izuku could’ve sworn he wrote that note well. He’s a lit major, after all. Writing is sort of his forte.
When class ends and Shouto meets Izuku at his TA desk like usual, Katsuki stomps up, throws the little folded-up letter square at Shouto’s head, and goes, “not fucking funny, half-and-half. You think you’re a comedian or some shit? Bite me. ”
“I’m sure you’d like that,” Izuku whispers, but thank God or Buddha or whoever that Katsuki doesn’t hear that. Or maybe he’s too pissed to process Izuku as a whole. Either works. Either is a perfectly good reason.
“I don’t think you’d taste very good,” Shouto responds earnestly.
“ Fuck you, ” Katsuki responds just as earnestly before storming off.
“What was that about?” murmurs Shouto as he, himself, unwraps the letter. He skims it before sighing. “Midoriya, you wrote him a letter? Under my name? ”
“I thought it would be cute,” says Izuku with a well-meaning shrug. “They do it all the time in shoujo mangas.”
“Yeah, except we’re not in a shoujo manga, we’re in college, and that guy doesn’t like me. ”
“Or so you claim!”
Shouto wipes his face with his hand, practically peeling the skin under his eyes and near his cheekbones. “Midoriya. For your own sake, just drop it. You don’t have to do all this to get Bakugou to like me. Like shit, you gave him a nickname. You called him Kacchan in this love note.”
Izuku shrugs again. "I thought it would be cute."
“Do I look like someone who would call Bakugou a cutesy nickname like Kacchan? Obviously he’d think I’m teasing him.”
“Hm. Maybe I should try a different approach.”
“Maybe you should stop trying,” Shouto offers, but Izuku pointedly ignores that suggestion.
📖
Katsuki arrives to a bouquet of roses on his desk the next time class meets. He has the patience to pick it up and read the attached tag, which included a poem that Izuku wrote. Roses are red, violets are blue, I know you think I’m cute, and I think you’re cute too. - Todoroki Shouto. It’s not the best thing he’s written, but he was sort of on a time crunch. He still had homework to grade and all.
(He also got permission from Shouto to call Katsuki cute. Well, more like Izuku weaseled it out of his best friend through incessant badgering, but nobody said romance had to be easy.)
However, the patience wears thin when Shouto walks in and is knocked square in the face by the same bouquet of roses. Katsuki slung it across the entire lecture room. He’s got a good arm. Izuku’s not sure how he feels about himself, knowing that he finds that small tidbit of information mildly attractive.
Suffice to say, the class is a bit more tense than usual. Izuku can practically sense the murderous intent radiating off of Katsuki as he glares holes into the back of Shouto’s skull with the force of a million supernovas.
And like clockwork, after class, Katsuki approaches Shouto and proceeds to flip him off.
“Sorry?” Shouto says, but it definitely sounds more like a question than a real apology. The roses are still dutifully in Shouto’s right hand; he thought it’d be a shame to throw it all away.
“Don’t play dumb. I’m onto you and your two-timing bullshit.”
“Two-timing?”
“And I’m not falling for you like this guy did.” Katsuki jabs his pointer finger towards Izuku. “You’re gonna have to try a lot harder than this to get me to even remotely like you.”
He leaves. Izuku brings his fist to his chin. “So I have to try harder. ”
“ No, ” Shouto says affirmatively. “Please don’t.”
“He said that if I try harder, he could feel more comfortable expressing his undying love for you. ‘Like you’ is Kacchan-code for ‘falling head over heels for you’.”
Shouto exhales long and hard. He shoves the bouquet into Izuku’s chest and doesn’t move back until Izuku takes the roses for himself. “That is not even close to what he said, and no, that’s not what he means by liking me.”
“Which means,” Izuku bulldozes on, “if I just find the right method, I can get him to confess to you properly, without all of this weird tip-toeing like you guys are pining high schoolers. Like, c’mon, we don’t have all the time in the world here.”
“Midoriya, do you know what ‘quitting early’ means?”
“Nope,” says Izuku with a bright smile, so bright it could put the sun to shame, “but thanks for asking!”
📖
Izuku does not give up. He was raised a hard worker, and values perseverance. He doesn’t half-ass anything, thank you very much, and especially when something like his loyalty to his bestest friend in the whole world is questioned. And yeah, maybe his stubbornness is more like matchmaking this far in the game, but Izuku likes the work. He’s a workaholic.
The class switches seats. It’s to aid in more chemistry between classmates. TA Izuku is in charge of the new seating chart, since he’d never dream of bothering Professor Yagi with something so arbitrary. It’s supposed to be entirely random, thrown into some generator online to ensure zero bias, but Izuku can’t help himself. The new seating chart is completely new with the exception of two people.
Katsuki and Shouto are crammed together, right next to each other, into one lecture pew. “Hi,” Izuku hears Shouto say nonchalantly enough, only to receive no verbal response. Katsuki stares at him silently, viciously, borderline venomously, until Shouto turns his head slowly to face the front.
Izuku keeps a good eye on them. For the most part, they don’t talk even when it’s partner work time. Izuku counts six different wooden pencils broken in the span of two weeks, all from Katsuki. Shouto remains blissfully unbothered. One time, when listening to Professor Yagi discuss the intricacies behind Shakespearean literature and influence, Katsuki writes something on a scrap of paper and slides it over to Shouto. After class, Izuku yanks the scrap out of Shouto’s slender fingers. Get out of my fucking college, it reads in Katsuki’s heavy, resolute handwriting.
“See?” Shouto hums. “He hates me.”
“I think we’ve already established Kacchan’s unconventional love language and how it’s being an asshole,” Izuku retorts with a know-it-all scoff.
“You’re calling him ‘Kacchan’ now?”
“Yeah-- I mean, it’s faster to say than ‘Bakugou-kun’.”
Izuku cranks it up to eleven. When Professor Yagi announces an important partner presentation that’s worth a fourth of the course’s final grade, Izuku forces the seat partners to pair up for a presentation. Shouto doesn’t care. Katsuki’s face is red like he ate a whole batch of chili peppers.
“Good luck on your partner assignment,” Izuku says with a voice coated in sugar and sainthood. He sends them an award-winning grin. He’s been told that it moves the hearts and souls of everyone he shows it to. Anyway, Shouto thanks him. Katsuki looks at Izuku for a moment longer than usual, and Izuku isn’t entirely confident in decoding his expression, before heaving a sigh and trudging behind Shouto’s long legs. (It’s true: Katsuki is shorter than Shouto by about an inch or two.)
The next day, Izuku demands updates. “You guys worked together, didn’t you? Did you guys go to your dorm?” He gasps dramatically. “ His dorm?”
“We went to the library,” Shouto responds blandly, “and we got kicked out in the first fifteen minutes.”
“Okay, so after that -- your dorm or his?”
“Neither. We gave up. We’re working separately.”
“ What? Todoroki-kun, it’s a partner presentation!”
Shouto rolls his eyes. “Try working on a partner presentation with a walking, talking time bomb. He’s always seconds away from detonation.”
The presentation day rolls around and their uncooperation clearly shows. There’s awkward pauses during the presentation when neither of them know when to speak next, and neither of them care about the other when he stumbles. They still pass, and Izuku doesn’t like giving bad grades so it wasn’t like he was going to fail them anyway, but their synergy is downright awful.
Katsuki is supposed to be a lovestruck fool for Shouto. What the hell is all this?
“What am I doing wrong? ” Izuku asks, pouting, as he kicks his legs mournfully underneath his restaurant table. Shouto sits before him, face stuffed with a burger, ketchup smudging on his face.
“Everything since you started this whole thing,” Shouto replies without stopping to think twice.
Izuku sadly nibbles on a chicken nugget. “I tried the love note, the roses, the partner project... What do I have to do to get him to finally tip? Beg on my knees? ‘Please Kacchan, just reach inside your heart and find the courage to confess to my best friend Todoroki-kun?’ What does he want? ”
“I’m telling you, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Bakugou would rather take me out with a sniper than take me out on a date.”
“That can’t be right. Why else is he so fixated on you during class?”
Shouto raises his eyebrows and places down his burger. He daintily wipes the ketchup off the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “You really wanna know?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I’m doing all the work here.”
“Bakugou thinks that we’re dating.”
Izuku stares in disbelief. Slowly, he puts down his own chicken nugget back into the little box where it came from. “He thinks who’s what? ”
“Dating. He thinks we’re an item, you and I. Can’t blame him; we’re always together.”
“That’s because we’re best friends! Best friends hang out with best friends!”
“You have to admit, we’re a lot closer than most best friends are. There was that time you took a cold shower because you didn’t have hot water but forgot you didn’t have a towel or anything to dry yourself off with, so you called me and I ran the entire way from my dorm building to yours with a towel in my hands, just to deliver it over so you wouldn’t catch a cold. Or the time you made me a bento box and wrote some sappy note inside like a girlfriend would. We both knew it was satire, but people around me didn’t when I opened it.”
Izuku hits his fist against the table weakly. Seriously? All this work didn’t amount to a single thing because of a simple misconception? “So you’re telling me that Kacchan won’t confess to you because he thinks we’re a thing? And he’s so angry because he wishes he were your boyfriend? That’s why?”
“No,” says Shouto, “I’m saying--”
“I’ll talk to him,” Izuku decides firmly. “I’ll clear it up. And then after that, there’s definitely no way he’ll hold back.”
📖
Next time class meets, Izuku calls Katsuki to his desk before the lesson starts. “What?” the blond snaps with about as much courtesy as you’d expect from a mean chihuahua.
“Todoroki-kun and I aren’t dating,” Izuku says, skipping all the dancing and the ums and ahs. “He’s single.”
Katsuki squints. “So?”
“You thought we were dating, right?”
“Everyone did,” says Katsuki with an unflattering grumble under his breath. “You guys are way too fuckin’ touchy to be platonic.”
“ That’s-- that’s because we’ve been best friends since our first year of high school! We know everything about each other because we’ve been stuck like glue for years! And men are allowed to be overly friendly with each other and not be in a romantic relationship! Toxic masculinity taught us otherwise but meaningful friendships come in all kinds--”
Katsuki holds up a hand and Izuku, surprising even to himself, stops talking. “So you’re single, too?” Katsuki asks without all the dancing and the ums and ahs himself.
Izuku shifts his eyes for a moment before looking back onto Katsuki. He looks less irritated than before. He almost looks anxious, in a very lowkey way. “What does Todoroki-kun being single have anything to do with my relationship status?”
“Because if you were to date anyone in this goddamn college, it’d be him.”
“I--” Izuku starts, before halting. Well. That’s not wrong, per say. Izuku did have the tiniest, meaningless-est crush on Shouto back when they first met. Shouto is very handsome, and Izuku’s certainly not the only person to think that. Katsuki thinks that as well.
The difference between the two of them is that Izuku harbors no feelings any longer, and Katsuki is using every droplet of willpower to not get in Shouto’s pants. Izuku is very set on this conclusion.
“Well, I just thought I’d let you know so you could finally go for that someone else you attend this class for,” Izuku cooes with a smug smile, crossing his arms. “Maybe you should go for it.”
Katsuki blushes -- this time it’s really obvious, because Izuku’s so close -- as he clears his throat and adjusts the bag strap on his shoulder. “Maybe I will,” he responds coarsely before making his way to his seat. Izuku can tell by the way Katsuki’s ears redden that he’s definitely got a suffocating crush.
It’s a good thing nothing’s stopping him anymore!
📖
A miracle must’ve occurred, because Katsuki stops being absolutely insufferable towards Shouto.
They exchange greetings now. Shouto always says something easy like “hi” or “hello” or “good morning”, and Katsuki either grunts or, if he’s feeling particularly nice, says something in return. Katsuki doesn’t stare intensely anymore. Shouto doesn’t receive cryptically threatening messages anymore.
Every time Shouto goes up to Izuku’s desk after class, Katsuki doesn’t say some pseudo-villainous shit when he passes by like he used to. Instead, Katsuki seemed to have found a new hobby in starting random, unrelated small-talk with Izuku.
“What’s your favorite ice cream flavor, nerd?” Katsuki asks, slamming his hands on Izuku’s desk and leaning close. He’s practically caging Izuku in, forcing him to lean back a little so their noses don’t touch.
Izuku takes this as secret code for “what’s Todoroki’s favorite ice cream flavor, but I’m asking you because you’re the bridge in my quest to stealing his heart, so give me his favorite flavor and make this easy for the both of us”, so he pockets his own favorite for now. “Strawberry,” Izuku lies sweetly. It’d normally be cookies and cream.
“No it’s not,” Shouto starts, but Katsuki straight up hisses at him to get him to shut up.
Next class, before anyone is even in the classroom yet, Izuku finds a container of strawberry ice cream in a plastic bag on his TA desk. It’s a rather large tub, and it’s still cold to the touch. Izuku grins to himself and an odd case of butterflies erupts in his stomach, but he manages to squash all those wretched bugs with common sense. All this ice cream is for Shouto, not for him. Katsuki asked for Shouto’s favorite flavor through asking Izuku, because obviously they’d speak through some filtered speech when Shouto’s around.
Katsuki walks in a couple minutes later. He must’ve staged his entrance so that he put the ice cream on the desk earlier, left, only to return later in the guise of arriving for the first time. Izuku sends him a thumbs-up and a sunny smile. Katsuki flushes; he must be thinking about how happy Shouto will be when Izuku delivers the gift.
Izuku does deliver the ice cream to his best friend. Once they’ve left the academic building and they’re off to Shouto’s dorm to hang out, Izuku pulls the ice cream out from the plastic bag. He hands it to Shouto. “Kacchan bought this for you!”
“I thought he bought it for you,” Shouto responds with a cocked eyebrow.
“No way, he only asked me because he knew it’d be embarrassing to ask you directly. But surprise, you got ice cream from your not-so-secret admirer!”
Shouto looks at him quizzically, but doesn’t argue. “Tell him thanks, then.” He pauses. “From you. ”
Izuku, sensing the shift in emphasis, grins and gives Shouto his best attempt at a wink. “Okay! I’ll tell him I appreciated the gift that he gave me. ”
“Yup,” says Shouto as a smile finally reaches his lips.
Izuku does tell this to Katsuki when they see each other next. “No problem,” Katsuki responds, voice strangely thick, like the words are caught in his throat. His ears are still piping red like tiny stop lights. Something about seeing Katsuki flail around his feelings like a fish out of water is weirdly adorable. “Hey, what’s your favorite flower?”
“Daisies!” It’s actually sunflowers, but Shouto’s always loved daisies. Come the next class day, there’s a daisy flower crown sitting pretty on Izuku’s TA desk. It’s beautiful; it’s not only daisies, but wildgrass and buds weaved in as well. “Thanks, Kacchan! I love it!” Izuku tells Katsuki when he strolls in, knowing full-well that Shouto will love it. He knows Shouto very well. Katsuki scrunches his face at the ‘Kacchan’ nickname, but doesn’t go to correct him. So it seems that Izuku knows Katsuki very well, too.
Soon, it’s routine that Katsuki asks Izuku something regarding “his” interests, and Izuku replies with Shouto’s preferences instead. “Oi nerd, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or white chocolate?”
“Hmm... white chocolate?” Izuku can’t stand white chocolate. He’s a dark chocolate ambassador like his life depends on it. At least Shouto can enjoy the fancy white chocolate packaging Izuku received early the next class.
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Cold soba!” Izuku loves katsudon more than any other food in the world, but Shouto wouldn’t really care for homemade katsudon, he’s sure.
“Hey nerd, if someone were to take you out on a date, where the fuck would you wanna go?”
“The movies, I think?” Izuku’s more of a fan of the over-the-top. He likes candlelit dinners and sentimental, cheesy anniversary stuff. He loves getting swept off his feet, even though he’s never been wooed in his life. He hopes it’ll happen eventually; he’s quite the romantic. See: the shit he’s been doing for the past semester.
Izuku even helps Katsuki go on a practice date. Katsuki asks to go to a movie with him on the upcoming Saturday. Izuku gladly accepts, skillfully placing a wall between his two distinct decision-making sections. One of them is his unwavering desire to pair Katsuki up with Shouto and, thus, help Katsuki with his inevitably-triumphant mission in being the most impressive, suave boyfriend to ever confess. The other one is his own selfish feelings -- he’s never been given presents and slathered in attention by anyone the way Katsuki has for the last several weeks. Outside of Shouto, that is. He knows it’s all for a greater cause and that Izuku’s nothing more than the messenger, but he’s only human, it’s only natural for him to want something like this for himself in the future.
The practice date goes well. Katsuki goes through all the standard motions, like buying a huge bucket of popcorn for both of them to share and sneaking an arm around Izuku’s shoulders when they’re seated in the theater. Izuku thinks it’s a little silly, since Shouto is definitely taller than him and he’s read enough shoujo manga to know that the taller person always wraps their arm around the shorter one, but he’ll let it slide. He was probably just adapting to the circumstances. Izuku is, tragically, the shortest out of the three.
If Izuku were to give the practice date a grade, he’d give it a B+. Everything was right where it should’ve been, except for the fact that Izuku is not Shouto. They’re a bit too different. If Katsuki takes Shouto out and does exactly what he did with Izuku, he might mess up in several aspects. But because Izuku is pitifully nice, he doesn’t bring it up.
Katsuki walks Izuku back to his dorm. “Thanks Kacchan,” Izuku says, beaming. “I had fun,” which was not a lie at all. Despite the superficiality, Izuku had as much fun as he would on an actual date. Maybe he does like the simplicity of movie dates after all.
“Yeah,” Katsuki responds. His hand lingers on Izuku’s forearm. His fingers are calloused and warm, even during the chilly weather outside.
“Goodnight,” chirps Izuku, voice jumping a little for no particular reason or anything.
“Goodnight,” responds Katsuki. His hand finally leaves Izuku’s arm and he suddenly feels very cold. But before Katsuki leaves, Izuku feels something soft brush against his cheek. A split second passes before Izuku realizes that he’s being kissed, very lightly, and very shortly. And Izuku doesn’t even have the time to actually react to it, because by the time he’s fully processed what just happened, the blond from his class is gone into the night.
Izuku goes to bed and doesn’t fall asleep for a very long time.
📖
“Todoroki-kun, bad news,” Izuku says on a phone call at five in the morning. It’s early Monday morning and Izuku has been in the worst trance-like state for the past twenty hours. It’s like the minute Izuku woke up the day after the date, he’s been as functional as a discarded wad of gum. He hasn’t fallen asleep in twenty hours. He can’t. He tried about a million different methods and none of them have worked.
“I think something went wrong in my plan.”
Shouto is, somehow, awake at this hour, because he yawns and croaks, “what about your already-flawed plan stuck out to you as ‘wrong’?”
“So you know how I told you about Kacchan and I’s practice date that happened last Saturday? About a day ago? And how I asked you to wish me luck so I could gather more intel on him and be the perfect double agent for both of you so I could make your relationship as seamless and effortless as possible?”
“Yeah. Practice, ” Shouto snorts, like he finds something humorous about that.
“Well, um, you know,” Izuku stutters, “do you usually end a practice date with a kiss?”
Shouto gasps. This one feels genuine. Izuku imagines that his mouth is wide and hanging. “You guys kissed?”
Izuku’s cheeks burn like a stovetop. “No comment.”
“Oh my God.”
“If we’re on the record, he kissed me! ”
“Midoriya, we’re always on the record. Bakugou kissed you? Did you like it?”
“Does this ruin everything?” Izuku whimpers, cleverly dodging Shouto’s second question as he buries his face in a pillow. There must be something wrong with his face, because oh lord, it’s very hot. He fears his skin will melt right through the pillow fabric. “I shouldn’t have gone on that practice date with him. He’s so unpredictable! I didn’t think he’d be so committed, he’d kiss me! ”
“Did you like it?” Shouto repeats, because apparently he can’t fucking let that go.
Izuku bites on his bottom lip so hard he thinks he might tear it apart. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“You may have liked it. ”
“I’ve never been kissed before! I don’t know! I don’t have a reference or anything! And besides, it was only on the cheek. It probably didn’t even mean anything. I mean, he still likes you. I don’t wanna be a homewrecker.”
Shouto sighs so loudly, the call crackles. “Midoriya, how sleep deprived are you?”
“I haven’t slept in twenty hours.”
“Good. This time, don’t fucking interrupt me.” Izuku mentally decides that he doesn’t have the energy to interrupt his best friend anyway, so he makes an agreeing noise. “Bakugou doesn’t like me and I don’t like him. If he doesn’t confess to me, I’m not even gonna try getting with him because I don’t care enough about him to pursue him. I know Bakugou doesn’t fuck around with people he doesn’t like. You should know that, too.”
“But he likes--”
“He likes you, you fucking pineapple,” Shouto finally, finally reveals. “You fucking dumbass, you absolute dung beetle, he had the stupidest crush on you for years. He took this class for you. He’s a total STEM student, you think he gives two shits about literature? You think he’d take a class this fucking pretentious and boring because he likes it? ”
“I take offense to that,” Izuku whispers as his brain combusts inside his skull.
“He didn’t make a move any earlier because he thought we were dating and he’s not a homewrecker or whatever you said. That’s why he looked like he wanted to kill me for practically the entire first semester. He was jealous of me. He thought I was your lucky boyfriend. And I didn’t tell him you were single because I didn’t know if you liked him, and I wasn’t gonna put you on his radar if you didn’t like him. He’s kinda pushy. And he’s really annoying.”
“And I just made it even more complicated,” Izuku says as everything comes to a head. “Oh no. I made a horrible mess.”
“Yes you did,” says Shouto bluntly, “but you’ve never been the type to back down. I tried stopping you multiple times, remember?”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yeah.”
Izuku swallows, and is surprised to find that his pillow hasn’t disintegrated yet from the heat on his own face. “Does he think I like him back?”
“Yeah, probably,” grumbles Shouto. A rustling sound comes from his end, and Izuku faintly remembers that it’s five in the morning and his friend is likely trying to go back to sleep still. “You agreed to go on a date with him. And you call him Kacchan.”
“And this entire time, I gave him your preferences because I thought he was trying to ask you out through me. ”
“Midoriya, you’re really smart. I’ll give you that. But you’re just as dumb as you are smart. It’s agonizing sometimes.”
Izuku doesn’t respond. Instead, he flips back to face up position and stares at the ceiling. He replays the date in his head -- the popcorn, the touching, the romantic movie and the dark lighting, the close proximity between him and Katsuki, the soft breathing by his ear and his own heartbeat pounding like a drumbeat, the gentlest of kisses like it’s merely a prelude for something bigger, something grander, if only Izuku would just fucking give in already -- and comes to the conclusion that yeah, none of this was supposed to be platonic.
None of it was platonic from the start.
That someone else wasn’t Shouto. It was him.
“I have to tell him,” Izuku says, resolute.
“ Finally, ” Shouto mutters, exhausted.
📖
Izuku firmly concludes that he can’t tell Katsuki in class. He may have read a lot of shoujo mangas, but he’s not one for public declarations of love. No way. He’d melt and seep into the school floorboards before he’d drum up the courage for any of that. He may be a romantic, but even he has limits.
He instead waits until class is dismissed and Professor Yagi along with everyone else has left the room. Coincidentally, it’s the last day of class -- next semester, Izuku will be retired from his TA position. Finals were taken and Izuku doesn’t predict seeing most of the students in this course after today.
Shouto sends him two thumbs up on his way out. Body a live wire, Izuku waits in anticipation for Katsuki to approach the door, like he’s about to leave too. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t, because Izuku nabs his wrist and yanks him to his desk.
“The fuck-- ” Katsuki begins, but before he can say anything more, Izuku slaps his hands on Katsuki’s cheeks and squishes them together. He’s got fish lips now. Good. Now he and Izuku are on the same level so Izuku won’t die talking to a pretty boy about his gushy, gross feelings.
“Do you like me?” Izuku asks boldly. He disregards the fact that every particle of his skin is hellishly hot.
Katsuki’s mouth moves like he’s trying to say something, but no sound comes out. Eventually, his own hand reaches over and yanks, hard, at Izuku’s hoodie strings. Izuku yelps when the collar shrinks.
“Dumbass,” Katsuki hisses, “what do you think all this shit was? ”
“I thought you liked Todoroki-kun!”
Katsuki’s face pinches like he ate a lemon. “ Disgusting. I’d drink lethal poison before ever going on a date with him.”
“Great knowing that now, after everything I did for you!”
“For me? ” Recognition floods his expression and he automatically swats away Izuku’s hands. His face is back to normal; no more fish lips. “ You did all that stupid fucking shit?! The letter and the roses? Those were you? ”
Izuku gasps, offended. “ Stupid?! Excuse you, I put effort into those!”
“And the ice cream? The chocolate? Holy fuck, those--” Katsuki bites his tongue and takes a deep breath. He’s trying to center himself. Maybe Izuku should do the same. “Those aren’t your likes?”
“They’re Todoroki-kun’s,” says Izuku with an exasperated eye-roll. “Sorry. I thought you were trying to woo him so you used me as code.”
“So you gave them to him. ”
“I thought they were for him.”
“You’re an idiot. I fucking hate you,” declares Katsuki, but his face sure doesn’t show it. It’s fuming and red and really cute, now that Izuku thinks twice about it. He’s oddly adorable when he’s thrown off his game. And now that Shouto isn’t actually between him and Katsuki -- not like he was in the first place -- Izuku doesn’t feel nearly as bad about thinking that Katsuki is attractive.
“No you don’t,” Izuku hums with an adrenaline-pumped smile, “you like me.”
Katsuki, if you can believe it, goes even redder. He’s like a bomb ready to explode. “I’m not proud of it. You don’t even deserve to be called your real name. You’re Deku now, you mess of a man.”
Despite the direct defamation of his very identity, Izuku smiles wider. “No take-backs, by the way. You’re stuck with me now.”
“Do you like me? ” asks Katsuki as his fingers drum against his jeans. Izuku can practically feel the hope thrumming in his veins. He looks like he wants to touch Izuku but is holding back, like there’s any time for holding back after all this.
Izuku supposes he’ll have to take the leap this time. It’s only fair. “Possibly,” he says. He steps in, takes Katsuki’s hands in his own, and plants a kiss on Katsuki’s cheek. He decides that he likes kissing Katsuki, and that he wants Katsuki to kiss him again, too. “Take me out on another date and we’ll see.”
📖
Katsuki takes him out on another date. Izuku grades this one an A+ because this time, Katsuki asks him, specifically, where he wants to go. Izuku tells him what he, specifically, wants.
“You’re chipper,” Shouto notes the next time they see each other, seated across from each other in a familiar diner. “I’m literally right here and you won’t stop smiling at your phone.”
“Sorry,” Izuku says, still smiling like a doof, as Katsuki sends him a photo of a cute little puppy. It’s a progression in their relationship. Izuku isn’t really knowledgeable on how romance works, but sending cute photos of cute animals back and forth is a good thing, right? “I’m involved in more emotional pursuits than just you now.”
“I miss when I was your trophy wife.”
“Ha-ha.”
Shouto pouts, but soon smirks along. “Aren’t you glad you took a chance on him?”
Izuku grins so wide, he has to attempt covering his mouth with his phone. He hears his texts chime again. Katsuki sent him a small kitten learning to walk, taking a couple steps and then falling on its face. It’s positively adorable, and he even captions it this little fucker is you, you fucking dweeb .
“Hmm. He’s not so bad,” Izuku hums, ultimately unable to hide the joy in his voice.