Archive of Our Own

Kacchan and Izu graduated two years ago and are now living together as they try to make a name for themselves as heroes.

The flat they share in Tokyo is tiny with two bedrooms that can be mistaken for broom closets and a tiny bathroom. The only place they have a bit of space is the kitchen, which is also the living room, where they have space to work out and dance, something they still do.

After they had started the tradition in their first year at UA, they kept on dancing throughout their school years to cope with all that was thrown their way.

With the closeness that came with sharing this precious childhood memory, their friendship strengthened. Anyone that hadn’t seen them since their first semester at UA, wouldn't recognize them now.

Both had needed that change in their dynamic and right now they’re nearing the place in their lives where they always wanted to be. Upcoming heroes by each other’s side.

“IZU!” Kacchan’s voice rings loudly through the halls. “Where the fuck did you leave my body wash?”

“I don’t use your body wash, Kacchan,” Izu yells back from where he’s jumping to get into his costume. “Why would I have touched it? You’re always loosing your stuff.”

“I’m not!” Kacchan’s indignation is evident in his voice. “You’re always loosing my stuff. And yours. Just check your room, okay? Patrol was grueling and I stink. And I’m already under the shower.”

Izu topples over, but manages to pull up the rest of his costume as he sighs and calls back: “I will, but don’t expect me to find it, before I have to go.”

“Just GO!”

“Okay, okay,” Izu mutters grumpily, going through his room, which has less All Might merch than it used to have, though a few collector’s items are still proudly on display, along with Dynamight merch. The Deku merch he forcibly owns is in a box in the corner, because he loves it but is also highly embarrassed about it.

He indeed does not find Kacchan’s body wash in his room, but locates it in the kitchen, knocking loudly on the bathroom door as he yells: “Kacchan, open up! I found it.”

“Told you,” Kacchan’s smug voice comes back.

“I found it in the kitchen,” Izu informs him, not wanting Kacchan to think he stole it when he knows the other left it in a weird place, which he always does.

“What?” Kacchan says as he opens the door, steam wafting out as he holds out his wet hand for the body wash. “Oh, wait, yeah,” he adds, “I wanted to look up what’s in this.”

“Why?” Izu asks him confused as the door closes.

“Was curious.” He just knows Kacchan is shrugging. Then the other calls out loudly: “You’re gonna be late for patrol, Izu. Don’t forget to pick up groceries on your way back. And we have that gala this weekend!”

“Thank you, Kacchan,” Izu shouts as he hurries out of the door, jumping at 10% to get to work on time.

Yeah, they’re no longer two teens, who just fell apart, trying to find friendship again over late night tea and nostalgia.

After a long patrol, Izu gets groceries still in costume, pausing to take a few pictures with excited kids at the store, before going past the dry cleaner to pick up Kacchan’s suit for the gala, as well as his own outfit, glad the other reminded him.

It’s the first Hero Gala they’ll attend as heroes, not students. Though they’re both still sidekicks, waiting to be able to start their own agency, they now get to go as official heroes, not as third years tag-alongs with their teachers or forced to miss it to patrol. It’s going to be great.

Last time they went, Izu was too anxious to do anything but stand in the corner, Kacchan next to him just because he didn’t want to socialize, but this year they have a plan. Izu does well with a plan and Kacchan needs one to be motivated enough in these situations.

They’re looking at it like a business opportunity, something Izu found he thrives in. There will be government officials and other rich, influential people, so they’re trying to make their own agency a reality by impressing them. As well as the press that will be there.

Having a name is everything in their world.

And they really want their own agency, because while they also love doing hero work as sidekicks, it just isn’t the same. They want to be able to give themselves off for special occasions, participate in higher stake missions and take on their own apprentices, remembering all they learned from heroes before them.

So, the gala will be important and Izu is happy they’re going and that he’ll get to see all his UA friends again, since they’re all so busy now.

He arrives home in a good mood. His patrol had been great, he got the groceries and remembered his errand and now he’ll get to shower and fall onto the couch as Kacchan cooks.

“Hi, Kacchan!” he greets as he throws the door open.

“Oi,” Kacchan yells back, he is now resting on the couch, ice pack on his face. He looks back when Izu appears in the door. “Did you get groceries?”

“Yeah.” Izu puts the bag down. “You okay? What happened there?”

“‘m fine,” Kacchan says sitting up and removing the ice pack to reveal a black eye. “Some twerp threw me off balance in the air and I hit a store sign. It’s nothing.”

“And you checked it wasn’t a concussion?” Izu asks as he got closer to inspect the eye, Kacchan letting him hold his chin as he tilts his head to look at the eye. It doesn’t seem like it’s more than a surface wound and Kacchan’s pupil is completely normal, his eyes still alert. It’ll fade before the weekend.

“Yeah, the nurse at the agency looked at it before she let me come home,” Kacchan confirms. “I’m keeping an eye on it now. Just a bit of a headache.”

“Hopefully nothing too bad,” Izu replies. “I got stuff for curry and you can make it better than me.”

With that Kacchan perks up. “Curry?” he asks, excited, it still remains to be his favorite food and the written recipe of his auntie and Izu’s mom is proudly displayed on the fridge.

“Had a feeling you’d want that,” Izu laughs at his friend’s reaction. He doesn’t think he’ll ever tire of seeing Kacchan excited and happy about stuff. It’s much better than the grumpy teen he was at UA. Thank god for therapy.

“Well, I’m glad for your feelings,” Kacchan smiles, getting up to head to the kitchen cheerily, making Izu smile without even realizing as his heart twists.

“I’m gonna go shower,” he calls out after Kacchan, who is already pulling vegetables out of the bags.

“Thank fuck, you stink,” Kacchan smirks and Izu snivels: “Like you never stink, Mr. Drop On The Couch Without Showering After Patrol. And I can still throw your suit out the window, dick.”

“And then you’ll have no one to go with,” Kacchan, rightfully, doesn’t take the threat seriously and continues prepping their meal. “Just fucking shower, nerd.”

“You’re still a meanie,” Izu tells him.

“Never claimed I wasn’t, Izu,” Kacchan grins over his shoulder, before turning back.

Izu mimes his words with a mocking air, as he turns to take a shower, glad to strip out of his grimy uniform and tossing it in the laundry. He hangs up the two outfits, before grabbing a pair of sweats and a sweater off the pile in the hall where they both throw stuff that could still be worn.

The shower is heavenly. He always forgets how much he loves taking a shower until he’s under the spray, the soreness and leftover dirt from patrol washing off him.

By the time he floats out the bathroom along with the steam, he’s in a soft big sweater he’s sure was Kacchan’s, but has long since become more his and All Might sweatpants he got from the man himself upon graduation.

He plops down on the couch and watches Kacchan’s brow furrow in concentration as he juggles multiple pots. After a moment, he whines: “I’m hungry. Are you done yet?”

“Stop complaining,” Kacchan tells him. “I can give you raw vegetables if you’re so fucking hungry. Or you can cook yourself.”

“But you cook much better,” Izu pouts as he hang off the couch.

“And don’t you forget it,” Kacchan says. “I’m better.”

“We’re going to be a No. 1 hero duo, Kacchan,” Izu reminds him, but he doesn’t really care. It’s now just a joke between them and he’s in a good mood anyway. He feels warm and comfy and Kacchan is right there. They’re probably going to eat on the couch and watch the dance competition that is going on right now.

Soon enough delicious smells are wafting through the apartment and Kacchan plops down next to him on the couch with two bowls, handing one to Izu as he grabs the remote.

They both followed nutrition courses at UA and curry is a good filling option, something Kacchan was delighted to learn. Izu is sure they would have figured it out without those courses, but they would not be eating as well right now without them, nor without living in the dorms. They were only twenty after all and on their own for the first time.

The TV turns on and Kacchan puts it on the right channel, the announcer already naming the couples.

“Oeh, auntie and uncle’s students,” Izu points them out. “That dress is lovely.”

“Yeah,” Kacchan agrees. “The hag made it herself.”

“Really?” Izu says. “We should call her sometime. Tell her about it. I hope they win, that would be fun.”

“Of course they’ll win,” Kacchan states. “Mom and dad trained them, if they don’t then they shouldn’t be competing, because they didn’t do enough outside their training.”

“You can’t expect that of them, Kacchan,” Izu points out.

“We did,” Kacchan shoots back. “Even when I was being a dick and later we even made time for it at UA, between our hero courses and villain threats and whatnot. They have no excuses.”

“I mean, yeah, but I wouldn't call what we do making time, exactly,” Izu smiles. “And not everyone is as dedicated as you.”

“Or you,” Kacchan is quick to say. It has always been fascinating to Izu how he’ll say stuff like that, just because he believes in it, without caring for giving others praise at all. Kacchan is thoroughly honest, whether he has something good or bad to say. “And at that level, they should be fucking dedicated,” he adds.

“That’s true,” Izu agrees. “But they’re probably going to try their best and we’re going to cheer them on. Good luck!” he yells to the TV.

“You’re an idiot,” Kacchan rolls his eyes.

“But you love me anyway,” Izu sticks out his tongue and Kacchan pushes him over with a: “Tragically,” which makes Izu snicker, before they’re both distracted by the announcer telling them it is starting.

They watch as all six do a short routine to the same song, all having the floor alone. The Japanese team is fourth and they anxiously watch the other couples get good scores.

When the scores for the third team place them first, Kacchan bristles: “Why did get so many points for footwork? Did you see that spin? She made an extra step to keep balance. Tsk. Of course they gave her a long dress that hides her feet in the dips, sneaky bastards.”

Izu has to agree, he spotted it too, but it also amuses him how fired up his friend can still get over dancing, even if they haven’t competed in years. So, he snaps a picture of Kacchan’s frown and posts it on twitter with the caption: Kacchan doesn’t agree with the TV

“I mean, you agree, right, Izu?” Kacchan turns to him in time to see him put his phone away and the indignation makes place for annoyance as he asks: “What did you do?”

“Nothing, just posted a picture of you looking grumpy,” Izu says.

“You love your phone too much,” Kacchan tells him. “Not everyone need to know all you do.”

“They don’t know all, I do,” Izu replies. “It’s just good to keep people engaged, you should be on social media more. Our manager loves the outreach I do for you.”

“Whatever,” Kacchan rolls his eyes, but quickly checks the notification anyway, rolling his eyes once more, before the announcer tells them the Japanese couple is preforming.

The two of them want to be supportive, but every minor mistake makes them wince, mistakes the average viewer wouldn't notice. The couple is good, very good, and they get first place in that round, but some habits die hard.

Still, as a minor revenge, Kacchan keeps one eye on Izu as they watch the last two couples and manages to take a picture of him when it is announced that the last couple takes their first place from them.

He also thinks it absurd, however, and says: “They’re going to have to kick their asses in the next round or the old hag will kick theirs.”

“I can’t believe it,” Izu frowns. “They were good, sure, but they had less grace and that spin at the end was horrid.”

“The jury are fucking assholes,” Kacchan agrees, but he’s distracted by posting the picture of Izu with a caption that reads: He isn’t pleased either, don’t let him fool you

Izu’s phone bleeps, because he has the notification of his friends on and he mindlessly checks it only for him to pout when he sees it.

“Kacchaaaan,” he whines.

“Revenge, bitch.” Kacchan gives him a middle finger, before grabbing his now empty bowl to put away while the commercials play.

Izu ambles after him to help with the dishes real quick while they discuss how the competition will go. They’re both of course rooting for Japan, but they can agree Italy has a lot of potential too.

As the couples get onto the floor, they settle back onto the couch with Izu quickly checking his phone again. As always the comments underneath are filled with people, who have all sorts of things to say. He ignores the negative and prying ones, but tells one inquirer that they’re watching the WDSF, because Kacchan’s parents have a competing couple.

They would have watched regardless, but he’s never above giving friends and family a shout out and without Kacchan’s parents neither of them would be watching.

On TV the couples all dance on the ballroom floor and the two have to hold their breath from time to time as collisions seem imminent, but all goes well and soon it moves on to another round of solo dances.

It is at that moment, when a couple from Canada is dancing that a commentator points out a difficult spin, causing Kacchan to immediately say: “Can’t be that difficult.”

“I don’t know, Kacchan, that footwork was impressive,” Izu replies.

“We could do it,” Kacchan presses and gets up as Izu makes an uncertain sound. He holds out his hand and says: “Don’t believe me?”

“No,” Izu takes the hand.

“If I’m right, you’re doing the laundry and I’m getting a point on the board.” Kacchan gets a competitive glint in his eyes that Izu quickly mirrors, they’ve always been to eager to win for their own good. “Fucking deal,” he grins as he’s pulled to his feet.

So with the competition still playing in the background, they’re trying to do the spin. The first time they fall, but Kacchan insists they try again. They only stumble then and after four times, they got it down.

Kacchan fist pumps, as he plops down and says: “My costume’s needs to be washed too. And I now have a two point lead, fucker.”

“Ahw, your costume is a bitch to clean,” Izu complains as he flops down as well, landing partly on top of Kacchan as the points are counted. “And I’ll get you back soon.”

So far Japan is still in the lead.

They’re mostly asleep by the time it ends, the day catching up with them. They manage to see their team win, which puts them in a good mood and they send a quick text to the Bakugo’s congratulating them with the win and telling them to pass their congrats along.

Izu makes a quick post about it, mostly because he’s been asked who he’s rooting for, before putting his phone away as the two of them stumble through their nightly routines and saying goodbyes before falling into their own beds.

The following morning they have a joint patrol that last the entire day. They usually work full days and this is par of the course, yesterday was the one day of the week where they work less. It’s a boring patrol overall, which is good. Just a small mugging and a lost little girl, so soon they re racing home.

It’s all pretty routine, something that lasts all the way to the weekend when they have to get ready for the big Hero Gala.

Izu, naturally, is a ball of nerves. He doesn’t know if the outfit he picked is okay and if he’ll make a fool out of himself. God, what if he forgets something important? Or what if he doesn’t realize something is expected of him?

“Stop worrying, idiot,” Kacchan comes to his rescue. “You’re going to be fine. You never mess these things up and I’ll be there to save your dumb ass in case you do.”

“And the outfit is not dumb?” he asks anyway. “I should have gone with a suit, goddammit.”

He came out publicly as bi last year and has been more fluid with things ever since, so he wanted to be visibly queer for all the other youth out there, but now he’s uncertain about it. The outfit consists of lilac pants that could be mistaken for a skirt if he stood normally along with a sheer, mesh long sleeved black shirt and an equally lilac corset top.

It looks good on him, but it might be a bit much. So, he inspects himself in the mirror uncertainly if he shouldn’t just dig through his closet and hope his graduation suit isn’t absolutely crumpled.

“You look great, nerd,” Kacchan says with an eyeroll. He himself is in a sensible grey three piece suit and white dress shirt, though he has forgone the suit jacket. Subtly, he has added lilac cuff links too, which makes Izu smile.

“Yeah?” Izu checks again as he does another spin.

“Yes, Izu,” Kacchan doesn’t mind confirming it once more, he knows how his friend can get. “Just relax. I won’t let you go out looking like a fool, especially if you’re walking in next to me. We’re impressing people tonight, remember?”

And Izu does and that calms him completely. He smiles: “Thanks, Kacchan! You ready to go?”

“Yeah, just need to get this tie straight,” he says as he fumbles with it.

“Sadly we both struggle with getting things straight,” Izu jokes earning him an eyeroll from Kacchan, though he doesn’t mind joking behind closed doors.

With everything from Middle School, he’s never felt comfortable coming out as gay publicly and though he’s been working through it with his therapist, Izu lets him be about it. He doesn’t care if Kacchan will ever come out and won’t push, it’s none of his business and he’ll support his friend no matter what. And making gay jokes between them is just as fun anyway.

Still, in the end Kacchan ditches the tie, opening the few top buttons instead and they’re out the door. Iida is picking them up from where he and Uraraka were traveling from the North. And because he was the only one with a car, but Izu ignores that, it’s hard to miss a car when you can easily run everywhere.

The car Iida drives is a blue and absolute dad car, with room for many people, which is fitting with the amount of friends he often drives around, but also something they 100% made fun of him for, so when it comes down the street, Izu commented: “The dad mobile is here,” making Kacchan snort.

Iida rolls down the window and waves happily as he greets them while Uraraka throws open the door cheerily: “You guys look amazing! Get in here.”

“Hi, Urachan!” Izu greets her with a hug, before saying, “Your dress is beautiful.” And it is, the long mint green fabric wraps around her elegantly and her hair is braided extravagantly with flowers in it.

“Ahw, thanks, charmer,” she smiles as she kisses his cheeks. “You look great too.”

“Really?” he asks bashfully as Kacchan gets in and comments: “He’s insecure about the outfit, which is stupid.”

“Why would you?” Uraraka asks. “You look amazing, Mido. Don’t worry!”

“Yeah, Midoriya, your outfit is perfectly fine,” Iida tells him as he pulls onto the street. He is wearing a dark blue suit that matches his hair and is done up perfectly.

“You two are too sweet, thank you!” Izu says. “You look great too.”

“Are you all done with your circle jerk?” Kacchan asks. “We all look good, now just shut up. How is it in your cities?”

“Good,” Uraraka replies. “It’s been very calm this month, though Iida was on some task force.”

“Yeah,” Iida nods. “We rolled up an underground fighting ring.”

And so they chatter on until they get to the venue, catching up and reminiscing as much as they can on the short ride, knowing they’re all too busy to do so otherwise.

When they get there’s a valet waiting to take Iida’s car to the parking lot for him while they make their way to the carpet. At the carpet a swarm of media is awaiting them. The Hero Gala is one of the biggest events after the Hero Billboard Chart JP, so they were expecting them.

Since Iida was part of an operation not so long ago, he gets swept up by reporters about that, while the rest of them are left to the other minded sharks. It begins with one reporter asking Uraraka who made her dress and soon they’re all answering questions about their clothes.

It’s mostly peaceful until one reporter asks: “Deku, why did you decide not to go with a more traditional suit?”

“Oh, uhm.” He has gotten better at this, but it’ll never fail to make his heart beat anxiously. “I- I wanted to be a bit non-conforming, because it can feel isolating to grown up without anyone breaking the mold you’re expected to fit in. I wanted to be the person those like me can look to and know it’s okay to not be what everyone thinks you should be.”

“And you don’t think the mesh is slightly explicit?” the reporter asks.

“With how many times I’ve been on the cover of tabloids with my costume ripped up, it’s nothing anyone hasn’t seen before,” he laughs awkwardly, working through the surprise at the question, he hadn’t even considered that. “And it’s just my arms and shoulders that you can see through it.”

“So, you don’t care that a lot of young children look up to and will take over this dress sense and expose their bodies?” the reporter inquires, it’s now becoming obvious the man never had good intentions, but Izu isn’t sure that if he walks away, it won’t be twisted more.

Helplessly he looks up at another camera, hoping someone will jump in with a different question, but it’s obvious they’re all eager to watch him make a fool of himself. Kacchan is further back, talking about life-work balance and Izu now wishes he’d stuck with him or with Uraraka, who is talking about her diet further along.

He takes a breath and answers: “I do care a lot about the younger people that look up to me. I looked up to a lot of heroes when I was younger, still do. And that brought me great comfort, but not on every front, I’m being the hero I needed as a kid. That won’t be for everyone, but I don’t think I’m harming anyone with this outfit.”

“You think kids need this?” the reporter pushes, now just fishing for Izu to admit he’s doing something terrible, while he isn’t.

“I think you misunderstood my answer and this feels like questions asked in bad faith. So thank you for talking to me, but I’m moving on now,” he says.

“Why aren’t you willing to answer the question?” the reporter asks. “Are you hiding something?”

“No, I just don’t appreciate you insinuating things and trying to trip me up when I try to answer your questions,” Izu tries to politely explain, inside wanting to rage at the reporter. He’s already unsure about the outfit and this isn’t helping. He’s doing this for other queer kids and they don’t need to listen to this bullshit.

He attempts to walk away before the reporter can talk again, but he calls after him: “You’re giving heroes a bad name.”

At that point Kacchan has reached him, he hadn’t even seen him get out of his own interview. When he gets there, he hears the comment and frowns, before loudly demanding: “What the hell are you talking about, huh!”

“It’s nothing, Kacchan. Let it go,” Izu says softly, not wanting Kacchan to throw a scene.

Kacchan glares at the reporter and it still works on anyone that’s not Kacchan’s friend. So, the man cowers until Kacchan huffs and spits: “Deku has done more for the hero community and everyone living in Japan than you can in ten lifetimes. And he’s just starting.”

Izu blushes. “Kacchaaan,” he whines.

“Whatever, nerd,” he rolls his eyes. “Let’s just go. I heard shitty hair’s ugly laugh.”

“I like Kirishima’s laugh,” Izu counters, but gladly lets himself get lead away from the reporter while Kacchan argues with him about something as dumb as the laughs of their friends.

They get stopped by another reporter before they can reach Kirishima, who’s there with Mina and Kaminari. However, this reporter is much nicer, starting with: “You two are quite the sensation already. Often teaming up despite not officially being a duo. Anything like that in your future?”

“Well,” Izu answers for them, being more the face of the two, due to Kacchan’s allergy about being nice and friendly most of the time. “We’re saving every penny to start our own agency the moment we can and we’re considering becoming a duo when that happens. Since we work well together, but also apart, which makes teaming up fun and smart, while not being necessary. We’ve gotten the hang of when and where we work best together as sidekicks and we’re very grateful for the experience, but both of us are ready for the next step.”

“Wow, that’s certainly ambitious. Both of you are very young still,” the reporter says. “Sure you’re ready for that?”

Kacchan shoots her a glare and answers: “We’re plenty ready. We helped with the take down of AFO before we were out of high school. If we’re not ready, no one is.”

“What Dynamight is saying, is that we have a lot of experience and we feel ready,” Izu says. “Neither of us would make a rash decision on this part. We know how that can turn out and no one wants us to take an unnecessary risk.”

“Well, that is good to hear,” she smiles. “Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.”

“Of course,” Izu smiles back as he bows, before Kacchan yells: “Shitty hair!” because Kirishima seems also done talking with his reporter.

He’s already walking towards the other and Izu hears an equally loud: “BRO!” being shouted back as he smiles fondly. He turns to the reporter and says: “I have to make sure their greeting doesn’t accidentally cause minor destruction. Thank you for the time, have a nice evening.”

Then he makes his way over to the reunion taking place, everyone lighting up when he gets there as well. He can’t help the grin as he waves. The class of UA will never be broken up with all they went through together and he’s already braced for Mina jumping in his arms while Kirishima jumps on his back.

“Hi, you both,” he says. “Where’s Kaminari, I thought I saw him with you?”

Mina gets out of his arms and says: “He saw Jirou and Sero in the hall and took off, the idiot. But how have you been?”

“I’m good, I’m good,” Izu tells her. “You?”

“I’m always great, Mido, you know that,” she winks.

He now gets to appreciate her outfit. The black sleek dress with combat boots and fishnets is amazing on her and he’s quick to compliment her: “You look great. I love the dress!”

“And you look amazing too,” she says. “The lilac goes so well with your hair.”

“Yeah, bro,” Kirishima smacks him on his back as Kacchan comments: “What do you even know about fashion, you hard head.”

“I’ll have you know that my costume was voted best in the Women’s Beauty and Fashion magazine top twenty,” Kirishima sniffed.

“The one you made in High School that shows off all your abs in their full magnificent glory?” Izu raises a brow. “Gosh, I wonder why.”

They all laugh as Kirishima blushes and splutters through an explanation that is totally reasonable, he promises, just- hey, just listen to him!

As they walk on, Izu frowns: “I haven’t seen Todoroki yet. He said he’d be here. Did I miss the news or something? Nothing happened to him, did it?”

“No, Endeavor just put him on patrol tonight instead of this other sidekick that was supposed to be on duty, because she broke her leg,” Mina answers.

“Oh, how terrible,” Izu says. “I hope she’s okay. And sad that Todoroki couldn’t be here.”

“Tsk, Icy-hot will manage,” Kacchan shrugs.

“So mean, Kacchan,” Izu elbows him. “I know you’re secretly friends with him, you bought soba and served it cold without commenting last time he visited.”

“Shut up,” Kacchan grouches as everyone jeers about him having feelings and being a softie, which the others they meet up with hear and join in with, before asking what it’s even about.

The large group makes their way inside, chattering and generally having a good time. It’s going to be a good night, Izu feels. He’s getting to catch up with friends and they’re going to have a bit of fun while also impressing the important non-heroes in attendance.

Inside they say hi to old teachers and other acquaintances, making the rounds past important people while eating hors d’oeuvres.

In hindsight, it starts with one of the people they want to impress telling Kacchan with obvious flirtation that she does business best on the dance floor. Izu sees the look in Kacchan’s eyes and while he knows Kacchan doesn’t like it when women flirt with him, or anyone really, this is a good opportunity and Kacchan can suck it up for an evening. So, he smiles and answers for him: “Dynamight, won’t step on your toes, I hope.”

“Of course, I won’t,” there’s a competitive edge to Kacchan’s voice, which was exactly the point and Izu smiles as the two head off the the dance floor.

After a moment Uraraka appears at his side with a smile and asks: “Wanna escape to the dance floor for a bit? Promise I’ve gotten better at dancing since the dance classes.”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Izu sighs. All the taking has taken a toll on him and just dancing for a bit sounds lovely. So, he takes her hand and says: “Let’s see how this goes, I’m a terrible lead.”

That makes her laugh and indeed they struggle for a moment, before Izu remembers auntie’s stern voice from the days she was still trying to find a girl partner for him. When that came back, they glide over the floor, Izu making sure they don’t hit anyone.

It isn’t the most refined dancing with Uraraka having only basic training and Izu dancing a more unfamiliar part, but they’re definitely not the worst out there. So, they just have fun and gossip while they spin.

He sees Kacchan drop the lady off at the edge of the floor, smile falling the moment she turns away. Before he can start to look, Izu pulls Uraraka along in a faster spin that makes her dress flare out and sees as Kacchan spots the two of them.

When the second song ends, he lets Uraraka go, who is swept away by a slightly tipsy Mina and Izu just shakes his head as he watches them go, retreating to where Kacchan is.

“How did it go?” he asks.

“Well, she did not know you’re not supposed to grope your partner,” Kacchan grouses and Izu winces and apologizes. “Not your fault, Izu,” Kacchan sighs. “She at least seems interested in giving us money, so that’s something. God, I can’t wait for us to just have the money, so I can tell people like her to fuck off.”

“We’re almost there, Kacchan,” Izu tries to comfort him.

“Yeah, luckily,” Kacchan smiles, that cheered him up at least.

They take a moment to breathe and look out over the crowd, snorting as the watch how Kaminari tries to lead Jirou, who is suffering Kaminari’s horrible dancing, Iida and Momo are dancing very respectably, while Mina and Uraraka more look like two kids trying to spin the other the fastest, nearly hitting the other dancers.

Izu also spots Midnight, who is dancing with Present Mic and honestly Izu thought the other would be better at dancing since his quirk relied on sound and he presents himself as DJ, but Midnight seems to be doing most of the work. Aizawa never showed up, but Izu hadn’t expected him to.

Earlier he chatted with All Might and the man is still at the side in his wheelchair, now talking amiably to Nezu. He looks happy and Izu is glad for his old mentor.

“Wanna dance?” He’s startled out of his reverie by Kacchan’s voice.

“You sure?” he asks. Kacchan never really talked much about what his parents do and when it came up in interviews he avoided it. Izu knows it’s nothing big, just a bit leftover from Middle School that he has been working through, along with a slew of other bullshit he was fed back then.

“We’re not really gonna do much complicated stuff,” Kacchan shrugs, trying to be too nonchalant for it to be completely nonchalant.

“We never keep things simple,” Izu laughs, subtly asking again if Kacchan is sure.

“It’s fine, Izu,” Kacchan huffs fondly. “I talked about it in therapy, happy? I’m sick of holding on to all that crap and it’s not even like that anyway. We never get this much space or time to dance and I want this evening to be a little bit fun. I’m tired of talking to people.”

“Okay, lead the way,” Izu smiles, now comfortable that Kacchan isn’t pushing himself and glad the other is making process. He knows they’ll be dancing as friends, but he also knows how easily people misinterpret it.

When they get to the floor, classic waltz music is playing and they start out slow and easy. Their footwork is slightly neater and smoother than most, with added steps and spins that are unnecessary, but nothing that stands out. They get a few looks, but no one comments, except for the idiots, as Kacchan lovingly calls their friends, who are all cheering at happily, having slightly too much to drink.

Then the music changes. It’s no longer truly waltz music, since it’s now 4/4 time, instead of 3/4 time, but it still has 28 bars. It’s music for a slow foxtrot, even if everyone keeps dancing a waltz. Still, Kacchan quirks a brow and asks: “Up for some foxtrot?”

“Always,” Izu replies, before they set off, their steps now different from those around them, though they never hit anyone.

Not many notice the slight change, since it’s subtle to an untrained eye. But they’re not longer rising and falling in their frame, since the foxtrot is a slow and flat dance. They twist their frame differently as well.

As they dance Izu says: “God, remember our first competition where we danced a foxtrot?”

“You mean the one where the hag thought we could do it fast and we slipped and you lost finally the tooth you were too afraid to pull out?” Kacchan asks with a grin.

Izu matches it. “Yeah, that one. We were so tiny back then. My mom send me the recording she made that day, we should watch it back. Maybe ask auntie to send us records of our other competitions if they’re not in the cloud, that’ll be fun.”

“We should totally do that,” Kacchan agrees. “But you know where we were truly little?”

“No?”

“When we danced a Cuban bolero and the hag kept trying to explain it was about a couple falling in love, but we didn’t even know how to play that, so we made it about superheroes,” Kacchan answers. “Remember that? We danced a fucking bolero while pretending to be All Might and Sir Nighteye.”

The memory comes back and Izu snorts. “Oh my god, I had forgotten about that. All Might can never know, or I’ll die of embarrassment.”

“I think I’d just perish on the spot if he ever heard,” Kacchan laughs.

“Didn’t we wear All Might inspired outfit too?” Izu reminisces, as he is lead into a kick spin, which is honestly where it truly starts to go wrong. They’ve gotten into their own little bubble and are swept up in the dancing. When they’re at home and have just woken up from a nightmare, they dance too, whispering about fun memories or about dreams of the future as they try to one up the other, which can only be done by working together. And it’s that place they’ve reached on the ballroom floor, while they’re forgetting where they are.

So, without realizing Kacchan drops Izu into a split, the fabric thankfully forgiving, as he playfully groans: “Oh fuck, I had forgotten about that. We looked like idiots.”

He picks Izu up again and they dance on, but those who hadn’t caught onto the fact they were doing something slightly different, now had and their eyes were on them.

Sadly, competitions and life as heroes has ensured neither of them notice the eyes much, so they keep on talking about all sorts of nonsense, both surprised they still have that much to talk about after all the conversations they’ve already had.

So, as the music switches back to waltz, so do they. Doing the waltz would make them fit in again, but then Kacchan spins Izu into an old routine and Izu can’t help but get swept up into the lift that speaks so much to Kacchan’s strength with how much of a brick house of muscle Izu is.

Neither of them see Mina talk to Midnight, before Midnight talks with Present Mic, who in turn takes her to the man playing the music. After a short conversation the man nods, before starting to look some things up, then after a few moments, the music changes from a waltz to a tango and most couples left on the dance floor drop out.

Izu and Kacchan have been working on a tango in their recent sleepless nights. Izu had told Uraraka about it when she asked if he’d slept well, joking that at least he got a good tango out of the restlessness. Something she had just shared with Mina when the girl commented on seeing them dance again, which set the whole thing in motion.

When the music starts Izu gets excited eyes and anything Kacchan wanted to say about stopping flees his mind. They’re just dancing anyway, he thinks, and Izu is so excited about this routine, now we can finally do it without having to watch out for our furniture or shorten it for our walls. And with that his last awareness fades.

He lets Izu spin within the ring of his arms, before dipping him deeply, splaying him over his knee as he feels his face contorting into a fond smile, he usually doesn’t wear outside the house. Izu is spun on one leg, before the dance begins in earnest.

The tango is known to be a flirty dance, with knees and ankles brushing along one another and a steady connection at the hips.

They’ve made a choreography with many turns followed by a staccato movement, wherein they briefly freeze before moving on to the next steps and twist. But they’ve got some showpieces in there as well.

First it’s Izu, who drops down, one leg extended behind him the other bend with one hand still on Kacchan’s chest; then Kacchan lifts Izu off the floor with one leg straight out, the other still down, the only points of support Kacchan’s arm under Izu’s leg and Izu’s hand on his back; and ending with another dramatic dip.

Both are a still breathless at the end of that tango, but they’re also exhilarated and delighted that their choreography indeed works in a big hall.

Then they both realize it works in a big hall.

Kacchan quickly hauls Izu to his feet and both look up like deer in headlights at the crowd surrounding them. Nearly all have stopped to watch them and it’s all sinking in during that moment of quiet.

Then their friends begin to cheer, whooping loudly, which is followed by polite applause. Shyly Izu does a bow because he doesn’t know what else to do, before pulling Kacchan off the dance floor towards their friends. He softly says: “Sorry, I got carried away there.”

Kacchan is quiet for a moment and Izu is terrified the other will explode and be mad at the closest person, which is currently him. Then he sees that Kacchan isn’t mad, just looking more uncertain than Izu has seen since that first night they ran into each other in the dorm’s kitchen. Izu tries to smile as reassuringly as he can as he says: “It’s going to be totally fine. It’s just dancing, you grew up with that. They can’t very well have a comment about that.”

That seems to ease some of the tension in Kacchan’s shoulders and he even allows himself a smug smirk when their friends gather around them to babble about how cool it was.

Having their positive chatter around them really helps in calming both their nerves as they mostly avoid everyone else in the ballroom. They’ve already talked to everyone they wanted to talk to and the few members of the press that are in attendance are easy to avoid. Neither of them truly feels like talking about it.

Instead they eat some more as they stick with their friends posing for a stupid selfie, which Izu throws on twitter and insta, before they say goodbye and go home.

When they get home, Izu decides to check in again. He makes them both some tea while they change into sleepwear and hands Kacchan his cup as he asks: “Did you have a bit of fun tonight? I know these aren’t your thing.”

He left it ambiguous on purpose and they both know it. This way Kacchan can decide whether he wants to get into it or not.

“Yeah,” he answers. “Seeing everyone was fun, though I am going to find out who that one reporter was that was harassing you and I am going to kick his ass.”

“Kacchan, no,” Izu says. “He was just being a bit of a jerk about me apparently dressing explicit and if I ‘thought of the children.’ Classic homophobe, but nothing new.”

“And you have to deal with that shit while I- while I got to talk about fucking work-life balance or whatever they’ve come up with at events,” Kacchan frowns. “It feels unfair.”

“I knew what I was getting into when I came out,” Izu shrugs. “You made the same consideration and decided it wasn’t worth it. And that’s fine. They can pry whatever they want, but they’re only hearing what we want to be shared. This one guy was a dick, so what. I’ve got a lot of nice people too. You don’t have to think of anything, but what you feel comfortable with.”

“I don’t know, Izu,” Kacchan sighs as he flops down.

Izu hums questioningly, not willing to push, but curious nonetheless.

“Sometimes it seems easier to just be honest and not have to deal with the flirty reporters or the endless talk show hosts, who try to look into every interaction with women that I have,” Kacchan says. “But then tonight happens and it seems terrifying and I wouldn't know how to deal with all those questions like you do. Because I can get angry on your behalf, but I don’t know if I can get angry for me or if I’ll fold like I did in Middle School. I don’t want that, you know.”

“You’ll just get different flirty reporters,” Izu points out. “But I get it. Though, I don’t think you’ll do the same again and I’ll be with you this time. You won’t turn against me again.”

“Nah, I won’t,” Kacchan nods, mostly to himself, then he smiles: “You’re stuck with me this time, asshole. And it’s gonna be fine anyway, like you said, it’s just some dancing.”

“Exactly,” Izu smiles and that seems to be the end of the conversation. They lie on the couch in silence for a few moments, before getting up and heading to bed. An evening like this is always tiring and they have patrol tomorrow.

Both of them sleep soundly, unaware of the twitter storm that’s currently taking place.

The following morning Izu wakes up to a thousand notifications and a dozen missed calls. The slow blinks of sleep, soon make place for panic as he scrolls through his phone.

Urachan:

They always blow things out of proportion

Its gonna be fine

If you need to talk call me <3

Iida:

Don’t read the articles, some are being horrid

I can try to get them taken down

Kirishima:

im so sorry bro

you were just having fun

we all were

i can take the vid down

but i think its a bit late

pls tell bakubro not to blow me up

Izu has no clue what all that is about, but none of the messages are helping. There are more like it, also one from All Might, to not worry since these things happen to every hero. Their manager is calling him like crazy as well.

He decides to find out first what’s happening and opens twitter. His eye immediately falls on the number one trending tag: #DynaDeku

Of course he’s familiar with the tag, but he’s never paid it much mind and it was always relatively small, but that seems to be over.

When he clicks on it, the number one post is indeed a video from Kirishima, which has first the group at the sidelines in view, before Mina loudly demands that he flip the camera. Kirishima complies just in time for the music to change and Izu can see himself and Kacchan shift slightly as they start the new dance. The tango.

“I haven’t seem them dance like that since first year,” he hears Uraraka comment in the background. “In dancing class, remember?”

“Oh yeah, they danced Latin back then, right?” Mina replies. “At least, I think that’s what Midnight put on anyway. That was beautiful.”

“I’m just impressed by how flexible Midoriya is. Ouch,” Kaminari comments as Izu drops down.

From next to Kaminari, Jirou snorts: “Not everyone is flexible just because you’re as bendy as a wooden plank, Denki.”

“Oi, I take offense to that,” Kaminari answers. “I saw Bakugo drop him in a split earlier, that’s not natural.”

There is mostly silence afterwards until Kacchan lifts him and Kirishima says: “It’s insane how much Bakubro can lift, with all the muscle Mido is heavy.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t even move him that one time I tried,” Mina complains. “What does he even eat?”

The comments of the video are filled with him and Kacchan getting tagged along with thousands of question about where they learned that, what their relationship is, if they’re getting married. Not to mention all the thirst comments or the hateful ones as well as a lot of speculation about Kacchan’s sexuality and a bit about Izu’s gender.

Kirishima’s video itself isn’t even tagged with DynaDeku, but the comments have placed it there anyway.

There are all sorts of screenshots from the video beneath it with captions ranging from get yourself a man who looks at you like Dynamight looks at Deku #DynaDeku to I don’t who I’m more jealous of: Dynamight holding Deku or Deku being held by Dynamight, gotta get into that #DynaDeku sandwich

After a bit of scrolling he discovers one of the media outlets there also videotaped the whole thing and released it on their website as well as twitter. They had been there to make a highlight reel, Izu remembers and it appears they’ve picked them as a highlight.

That video ends with the both of them quickly getting out of the end position and looking around a bit startled.

It isn’t hard to find a post with a screenshot of that and the caption: Look at those eyes and tell me that’s not an ‘I fucked up’ look, bois be hiding something and that something is the gay lmao #DynaDeku

There are some nice messages too, of course. People are telling others that just because Izu is bi they shouldn’t just push him into a relationship with everyone, along with PSA’s that it’s rude and invasive to make demands about comments of someone’s sexuality or gender, as well as calls to let people be friends and have fun.

However, they’re mostly drowned out, especially when Izu finds tabloids both of the rude reporter from yesterday, who wrote a whole slew of venom, now not just directed at Izu, but at Kacchan as well.

And there is of course a magazine with as cover picture the two of them, a close up of their first dip with Kacchan smiling softly and him grinning back. In big letters the headline reads: SCANDAL REVEALED AT GALA: HEROES DEKU AND DYNAMIGHT ENTANGLED ON THE DANCE FLOOR AS LOVERS!?! More on page 5

It’s at that point that Izu decides to put his phone down. He knows Kacchan will be in the kitchen making breakfast, like he always does. Only checking his phone after a shower and breakfast. He can’t find out like Izu did.

He scrambles out of bed and into the kitchen where Kacchan looks up in confusion. He quirks a brow and asks: “What happened to you? Fought your sheets and lost?”

Izu says nothing, unsure how to even start to break this Kacchan, wondering how the other will react. God, they have so much planned together and, yes, this will probably blow over, but it’ll impact them and Izu isn’t sure how.

“Izu? What’s wrong?” The playfulness has left his features and he now just looks concerned at Izu’s silence.

“It might have not just been a dance and fine,” Izu squeaks. “DynaDeku is the number one trending tag and all the tabloids are full of it. Kacchan, I’m so sorry.”

Kacchan is frozen for a moment and it feels to Izu that the whole work is standing still with him, holding its breath as it waits for Kacchan’s reaction.

He takes a deep breath, then another one, before he starts counting to ten and then backwards, before counting forwards again. Izu wants to comfort him, but knows better than to interrupt Kacchan when he’s calming himself down. And indeed after a few moments, Kacchan takes one final breath as he rubs his face, then says: “We need to make some sort of statement. Snuff this out before it gets anywhere.”

“Good idea,” Izu nods, not sure why his heart feels sad, it’s probably this whole situation, he decides. “So, what sort of statement?”

“I don’t know,” Kacchan snaps, before taking another deep breath. “Call our manager.”

“Oh, yeah, yes, smart, smart,” Izu mutters, fumbling for his phone. He’s a bit off balance about the whole thing and unsure where Kacchan is standing. He doesn’t miss Kacchan’s rage directed at him and is glad therapy is helping, but if Kacchan raged, Izu would’ve gotten a look into what he’s thinking instead of this brick wall.

“Hi, Tanaka,” he greets sheepishly as he waits for their manager to respond.

“I’m not going to lie,” she starts, not even taking the time to greet him, “this is bad. If you don’t make a comment they’ll assume they’re right, but we have to think carefully about what sort of comment you’re going to make. Anything you say can be misconstrued.”

“Uhm, we can say something about how we appreciate the support, but that it was just childhood memories, since we competed together?” Izu asks more than he suggests.

“Yes, childhood is good, no one wants to mix children and whatever the tabloids are spewing, so we can keep it out of the more mainstream networks,” Tanaka says. “Do you have videos? Something fun to post underneath it? People love children, just distract them with the cute baby heroes dancing, Midoriya. And make sure Bakugo comments on it too.”

It always makes Izu a bit uncomfortable how Tanaka looks at these situations, but that’s why they need her, because neither of them can do that.

“Okay, thank you, Tanaka!” he chirps shrilly. “I will!”

“Good, I can proofread it if you want, but I also trust you,” Tanaka replies. “So, just get it up as quick as you can. If you’re fast you can be before the morning news and talk shows.”

“I’ll try,” Izu nods, before Tanaka hangs up. He looks at Kacchan, who is aggressively stirring their breakfast and tries to joke: “Well, at least those video’s will come in handy now.”

Kacchan doesn’t react for a moment, then gruffly says: “The old hag will still have some of our videos in the cloud, or we can call her if nothing’s good.”

“I’ll check,” Izu quickly says, before going to the laptop.

He decides that Latin is always a bit sensual and the opposite of what they hope to achieve, so he looks for their names in the Ballroom file and finds a video of when they were eight, the first time they won the under 11s competition.

The video starts with both of them in full tail suits, hair gelled back, while Izu is looking very nervous and Kacchan is smirking. Auntie is squatting down next to Izu and talking: “You two are going to do amazing out there, just breathe and look at Katsuki, Izuku. Alright. You’re going to win this, see he has faith, just trust your partner, Izuku.”

“Yeah, Izu,” baby Kacchan loudly says. “We’re gonna be the best! I’m always the best, so we’re going to win.”

“Kacchan, so amazing!” baby Izu has seemingly forgotten his fears temporarily, which is exactly on time for the buzzers to sound and Kacchan to grab his hand and drag him onto the dance floor.

The two of the are easy to follow in the mass, which is smaller at the finals. And since they’re both the only boys couple and younger than everyone, you can spot them even if they disappear to the other side of the floor.

Whenever they’re close, you can see their concentrated little faces, Izu’s cheeks puffing up as he focuses while Kacchan keeps on grinning, even if there’s a little furrow between his brow. Both of them have perfect posture, which looks adorable as they try to keep their backs straight, Izu’s arms slightly shorter than Kacchan’s.

Neither of them are strong enough for lifts yet, so the waltz is entirely footwork and posture. Izu remembers how terrified he was.

He’s softly smiling when the music ends in the video and all the couples start to bow. Izu and Kacchan are near his own mother, who is filming, and bow in her direction, little Kacchan throwing her a clumsy wink before they move onto the next corner to bow there as the video stops.

It’s perfect, Izu thinks and runs it by Kacchan, who agrees, though he’s still not saying much. Izu can’t blame him, but he misses his usual Kacchan anyway.

So, he focuses on writing a good caption. In the end the post reads:

Thank you for all the lovely comments about our dancing! We’ve been dancing since before we could walk and it’s something that has kept our friendship together. I get that you’re all just having fun with #DynaDeku, but it’s weird to certain types of comments about something I associate with childhood and it’s also uncomfortable when people comment on a relationship that isn’t there. Thank you for understanding, hopefully this adorable never released footage of kid Kacchan and me makes up for it <3

He gets a text from his manager telling him it’s a good post and reminding him that Kacchan should comment as well.

Izu grabs Kacchan’s phone and tries to do his best Kacchan imitation as he quotes his own post and types: Stop being fucking creepers. And I’ll blast you if you call me adorable again, Deku!

Of course he mutters when he types and Kacchan catches on to what he is doing on his phone and snorts. The first normal reaction he’s gotten that morning. Izu’s head whips up and he smiles, glad that Kacchan seems more relaxed.

Teasingly, he asks: “Was that a close enough response from the Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight?”

“Oh shove off,” Kacchan smirks.

“I still can’t believe you just shortened that name,” Izu says. “Do you think anyone remembers that outside class A?”

“No, Aizawa never let me use it, which I’m sad to say, I’m grateful for now, the bastard,” Kacchan replies.

“I thought it was a cool name, Kacchan,” Izu tells him.

“And I know you’re a bad lair, Izu, but thanks for the attempt,” Kacchan rolls his eyes. “But you only thought it was cool when we were ten.”

“So it wasn’t a lie,” Izu argues.

“Just eat your goddamned breakfast, nerd,” Kacchan shoots back, ruffling his hair roughly, before ignoring him to eat his own breakfast. It’s quiet for a moment, then Kacchan softly speaks up: “What are they saying?”

Izu suddenly realizes how little Kacchan knows and all he’s heard is bad. They have to go on patrol in a minute and Kacchan probably thinks he’s walking into something terrible. So, Izu attempts to reassure him: “Most of it is jokes and lighthearted comments. We actually got a lot of support for our supposed ‘romantic entanglement,’ which was sweet. You always have the gross comments and a few assholes, but it’s been mostly just invasive. I can check what they’re saying now.”

“I mean, if you want, I don’t care.” Kacchan obviously cares. “And all comments are fucking invasive.”

Izu checks his phone again. They’re still trending, but his own post is now at the top, with millions of reactions, despite the short time it has been up.

He quickly scrolls through it and reads a few comments: “Ahw, they’re so cute, tiny babies. I don’t think they’re listening to your threat, Kacchan.”

“You made that threat, nerd.”

“And you agreed it was a solid threat,” Izu points out, slightly distracted by a weird comment that makes hives want to break out. He quickly blocks the person then reads another comment: “Wow, Dynamight is so talented and hot, every time he does something he gets more perfect, like sweep me off my feet with those muscles good sir. Uhm, excuse you, @Dynamightsnumber1fan, not only am I contending you for that title, I am also right there.”

Kacchan snorts: “I am just the best, Izu.”

“Blah, blah,” Izu grins as he finds another comment. “Hah, this person doesn’t agree, here: Deku is so precious look at that little face. Lovely and talented, I wanna scream. So, suck on that, Kacchan.”

“We’re not making this a competition,” Kacchan warns him.

“Of course not, because you’d be losing and you can’t have that,” Izu shoots back immediately, glad his friend is back to himself again. With the fears he voiced yesterday, he wants to avoid Kacchan being pushed in any direction, especially if the media is pulling on him. Fucking sharks.

“I’m not loosing, asshole,” Kacchan yells. “We agreed, no media for on the scoreboard. We promised grey lady.”

“Really? You’re pulling the manager in on this one?” Izu asks, not minding at all. “Okay, nevermind, she’s scary, I concede. No media.”

He remembers clearly how she yelled because they were fucking with each other on social media for a challenge they themselves had created. It was then decided that they wouldn't put anything for media on it, to prevent any dumbassery that could seriously impact their career for the sake of competitions.

Izu goes back to scrolling, reading some nice understanding comments and comments of their friends about their dancing, as well as some professional dancers who had commented on the post as well. “Haha, Kacchan, Dancing with the Stars made a comment about inviting us and people are rioting in the comments about us being unfair competition.”

“Like I would ever compete in Dancing with the Stars,” Kacchan huffs. “I would wipe the floor with all those extra’s. And I don’t need a fucking coach.”

“I think you would compete if I competed,” Izu says. “That would be interesting, if we competed on a different team.”

Kacchan pulls a thoughtful face, then shakes his head: “Nah, I’d get too annoyed if anyone else was my partner.”

“True,” Izu nods, before putting away the dishes and changing into his uniform. No matter what’s happening online, they still have a job to do and they will just have do deal with nosy people until they’ve found something new to speculate about. Izu has never before wished some famous couple would break up or something.

Indeed their patrol is slightly different than usual, with the both of them getting stopped on the streets a bit more often. People still take pictures with them, but they also ask about the dancing and the headlines.

Izu watches Kacchan’s eye twitch each time, he even storms off a few times, while grouching that he isn’t dealing with nosy people, who can’t even be right about what they’re nosing into. But he hasn’t exploded much and Izu has managed to talk their way out of it every time so far.

When lunch rolls around they eat it on the roof of a building to avoid being interrupted and Izu sees a tweet from someone they’ve talked to with a picture of the two of them and the caption: These two are true heroes, saved me from a mugging and even talked to me about the whole #DynaDeku thing :D Y’all need to lay off, bc theyre just people too who are trying to do their jobs: protect people

Yeah, this whole thing would blow over just fine and he and Kacchan could go back to what they always did, mucking about and having fun while doing what they love together.

The rest of their patrol is fairly average, with a chase through the town leading them back to their agency, where they can clock out after they handed the perpetrator over to the police. While walking inside Izu argues: “I totally had him first, Kacchan.”

“No you didn’t, nerd,” Kacchan shoots back. “I had already grappled him before you came over to meddle. I’m not giving you the point for this, I had him first.”

“Pff-” Izu is about to debate further, but Kacchan gets out of the top half of his costume and the tweet from @Dynamightsnumber1 flashes in front of his eyes and he can’t help but pause to look at his friend, who is indeed incredibly muscled and hot. Fuck, Izu knew this already, he’d dealt with his crush in UA and left it there. Right?

Kacchan noticed his quiet and when he didn’t react, he softly asks: “Izu?”

“What?” Izu blinks then blushes, realizing what he’d been doing and shakes his head. He plasters on a smile and says: “Sorry, I was just thinking of this tweet I saw.”

“Not a bad one right?” Kacchan’s face contorts to a familiar scowl. “Because I’ll find them and fight them. Don’t test me.”

“No, no, not at all,” Izu reassures him, then scrambles to say something other than: ‘it was about your muscles.’ Instead, he luckily manages: “It was from that girl we saved with the mugging. She posted the picture and was really sweet about people needing to leave us alone. I liked it, so I can find it if you wanna see.”

“Tsk, no thanks,” Kacchan huffs, but the scowl lessens and he goes back to changing, Izu doing the same.

As he changes he looks pointedly into his locker, ignoring the presence next to him as he has a mild breakdown. He’s over that crush, isn’t he? Sure, in hindsight he’d realized that childhood adoration had been more than just that, but that was just kid stuff. Whatever he’d felt for Kacchan is gone… and yet-

No, it’s gone. He doesn’t like Kacchan like that, they’re just friends. It’s this whole thing just getting to him, all those tweets haunting his subconscious. It’s nothing. He already knew his friend is attractive, but most of his friends are. He lives with that without being attracted to them. It’s fine and normal.

When they’re changed, he distracts himself by restarting the argument about who had the guy first and why he deserves the points on their ever-ongoing score board. Kacchan is currently still in the lead with two points and Izu can’t have him besting him.

That evening Kacchan makes katsudon. Izu tries to remember if he did anything to get his favorite meal or if it’s just coincidence. Kacchan sees him looking and sighs: “For dealing with the media stuff when I shut down on you. Now stuff it, nerd, I’m not giving you more, you already got the stupid point.”

Izu smiles and hugs the other as he squeals: “Kacchan’s so sweet.”

“I’m not sweet, dick,” Kacchan grumbles, but doesn’t push him off immediately, and Izu knows he doesn’t mean it.

As they eat, Izu turns on the TV on a stupid talk show they like, since it’s bullshit but at least respectable. However, when he gets to the channel, it’s their faces from the ball between the two hosts. Izu is about to zap away when Kacchan stops him. “I wanna hear.”

“You sure?” Izu asks, but Kacchan just holds his hand tighter, so he doesn’t click and listens.

“Well, these two certainly have never had so much spotlight since their UA days,” Mori, one of the hosts smiles to the other. “From apparent dating scandal to a talent reveal that shocked even their biggest fans.”

“I certainly didn’t see it coming,” Suzuki, the other host, nods. “Dynamight with all his brashness and explosions so graceful and charming.”

“I’m plenty charming,” Kacchan frowns.

“Of course, Kacchan,” Izu rolls his eyes, trying not to think about Kacchan’s smile, wondering where the fuck that came from.

On the TV a clip from the Hero Gala as well as from the one Izu uploaded plays. Mori smiles: “Well isn’t that absolutely adorable.”

“Don’t let Dynamight hear you say that,” Suzuki interjects playfully.

“Indeed,” Mori jumps on the obviously scripted bridge. “Both pro heroes Dynamight and Deku asked fans on twitter not to speculate about their relationship, after fans of the duo, who think they’re romantically together, had gone wild under the hashtag DynaDeku.”

“Yes, they have dispelled these rumors,” Suzuki replies. “Both in their own distinctive ways.”

“You can say that again,” Mori laughs as the two tweets appear side by side. Deku’s message to his fans with many thanks and Kacchan’s short, vulgar one. “Their personalities truly shine through in these two tweets.”

“Tsk, you wrote both of those,” Kacchan snorts. “They don’t even know you.”

“I mean, hero Deku would never say such things…” Izu trails off purposely and Kacchan finishes: “But that never stopped Izu.”

“Exactly,” Izu grins as they focus back on the program.

Suzuki nods: “Yeah, and Deku truly granted us a gift with the video he uploaded with it. Apparently the two heroes have been dancing since they were very young, which you can see here.”

A different part plays again and Izu can’t help but watch Kacchan get a fond smile on his face as he watches them on screen. Yeah, they need to hold a video-night soon.

“Honestly so sweet,” Mori says again. “And the whole internet has switched in letting go of the love to focus on the cuteness that is this video. Let’s go through a few tweets.”

Both heroes on the couch tense, even if they know these hosts. Positive albeit fake. Then the first tweet appears and Suzuki reads: “User @Dekuthesweetie says: I’m gonna explode baby #DynaDeku dancing sjdhkjshd, which is the mentality of most.”

“Indeed,” Mori agrees. “As user @Pinkymarymepls pointed out: Now their investment in dancing competition makes more sense #DynaDeku. And indeed we’ve been able to uncover that Dynamight’s parents own a dance studio, Bakugo Dancing, with the two older Bakugo’s being previous reigning champions of dance.”

“Reveals are just everywhere,” Suzuki says.

Kacchan grabs his phone and Izu watches as he pulls up the twitter page his parents have for their dance school. As expected the follower count has gone up significantly and the post that is pinned to the top is a picture from when they competed in the under 14s for the first time back when they were nine.

In the picture they’re both wearing their best, Kacchan a full tail suit and Izu in flashy clothes with furls, so that he could twirl like he had a dress on, even if he’s wearing pants. Around their necks are bronze metals, but also a few gold and Kacchan is pouting even if Izu smiles, one of his front teeth missing.

Above it the tweet reads: Third place in the under 14s even at nine, what a champions! Katsuki is a bit grumpy about not winning, but Izuku is keeping the spirits up. They have won all the under 10s and under 11s, so a good day for this pair, despite the lost tooth!

“Of course the old hag is using a scandal to promote herself,” Kacchan rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t seem to mind anymore.

“At least our distraction method worked,” Izu shrugs. “Though I am not looking forwards to our next interview, we’re so gonna have to dance.”

“Oh fuck,” Kacchan groans, sliding down. “I already got a long ass text from the old hag about our technique, which is so fucking rude.”

“What did she say?” Izu frowns, thinking the whole thing over. Sure, there had been some less than stellar moments, but nothing big sprung out. Though… he and Kacchan could still see things when the pros danced and they hadn’t done a competition in years.

“All sorts of things,” Kacchan gestures dismissively. “I didn’t cup, you didn’t look up at one point, the spin was slightly sloppy, I should watch my expressions, blah blah blah.”

He watches Kacchan fondly, unable to help himself as he thought: Kacchan’s sweet when he’s grumpy. And cute.

To distract himself from that thought, he focuses back on the TV, where Mori is about to betray him as she says: “Still, there is still a lot of discussion about this. We aren’t ones to go off rumors, but a lot of people are speculating about Dynamight’s sexuality. It’s already known that Deku is bisexual and now, when many are looking closer at his relationship with Dynamight, a lot of people wonder if there is more than dancing and heroics that brings these two together.”

“Again, both have denied this claim,” Suzuki lessens the betrayal, but not much. “However, even without being in a relation together, many are putting question marks behind Dynamight’s straightness, pointing out that is has never been confirmed by the hero himself.”

Izu fumbles quickly to turn off the TV, but Kacchan has already seen and is frozen again, looking slightly fearful.

Cautiously, Izu puts a hand on his shoulder and says: “It’s like they said, just gossip.”

“You and I both know how gossip can grow,” Kacchan snaps, before burying his head in his hands and saying: “FUCK! What the fuck am I doing now? They’re not going to let it go and I don’t know if I can fucking do this much longer. They’ll never fucking believe me. And I’m not doing those fake dating things, I’m not.”

“We’re gonna get through this, Kacchan,” Izu is also uncertain what to say, because there is nothing more he can do.

“Easy for you to say,” Kacchan snarls, before he realizes he has pushed Izu off, who is looking at him with hurt eyes, because while he knows Kacchan is having a difficult time with this, his own coming out hadn’t been the easiest either and Kacchan of all people knows that. Kacchan’s eyes grow wide and he says: “I’m sorry, Izu. Fuck, I don’t- That- You don’t deserve that.”

Izu smiles again, always so forgiving. “It’s okay, Kacchan. Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you now or are you going to growl some more?”

Kacchan has the decency to look mildly ashamed.

It is quiet for a moment, then Kacchan starts and Izu can see he has to force himself to talk: “I froze this morning. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t and let you deal with it. And I just- What am I going to do when a reporter comes up to me, huh?”

Izu begins to think it over, but Kacchan is already answering: “If I storm off they’ll see it as me hiding something, If I become angry they’ll say I’m over compensating, If I carefully explain that I’m straight, which I’m not, they’ll say I’m acting out of character and lying and they’d even be fucking right too. But most likely I’ll shut down again and I don’t even wanna think what they’re going to do with that.”

“And if you come out, it’s only more fuel to the flames,” Izu nods. After a moment he smiles and says: “Well, then I’ll just have to make sure I’m with you the entire time, won’t I.”

Kacchan gives him a strange look that quickly turns soft, before the other punches his arm lightly and comments: “I don’t know why I thought I could live without you, nerd.”

Izu ignores thinking about how that comment makes him feel and instead jokes: “You never were the smart one between us,” which causes Kacchan to jump him and they fall to the floor while wrestling. Izu closing the lead Kacchan had.

The next few days they indeed patrol together, fleeing mostly from nosy reporters if they can by claiming they have work to do. Izu keeps an eye on twitter, but after confirming that no he is a man, he just likes looking pretty, nearly adding that everyone can suck his dick, most people seem to leave them alone. However, the DynaDeku tag is much larger than it used to be.

Still, that’s easy to ignore, he’s been ignoring many types of tweets for many years already, they both have. They can get used to this new normal.

If only reporters would as well.

“Is it true that you’re hiding a love affair,” one reporter asks after a clean up. It has already been a week since the Hero Gala, but it seems that isn’t stopping them and Izu mentally rolls his eyes while plastering on a smile, seeing Kacchan’s eyebrow twitch out of the corner of his eye.

“We’re not hiding a love affair,” Izu explains gently. “We simply danced, a lot of dancing happened that evening and right now I’d rather answer questions about this attack, since that is more relevant than whether or not me and Dynamight are sleeping together.”

Luckily another reporter asks them about the quirk and property damage and they can ensure everyone that it was nothing out of the ordinary and it has been dealt with.

Sadly, the reporter from earlier isn’t willing to let go. Izu faintly recognizes her, since she works for a magazine known for reporting gossip, instead of actualities. So, he cringes when he hears her ask Kacchan: “Want to comment on speculation about your sexuality? The people are curious and want to know.”

He whips around to check in on Kacchan, who stills for a moment before glancing back at Izu, who tries to look reassuringly back in turn. After that glance, Kacchan blows up at the reporter: “Why the fuck are hung up on that, huh! Maybe just keep to yourself, you fucking nosy bastard!”

It was the most in character reaction Kacchan could have given and now it is up to Izu to make sure it doesn’t get twisted.

So, he makes his way over to the startled reporter and puts on his nicest smile and his most tired voice as he says: “Dynamight is a very private person and neither of us appreciate all the prying and general uncomfortable questions, so I am going to ask you to leave this scene and not talk to us again until you have some questions to ask about what we do. Because our job is saving people and no one is more passionate than Dynamight, he didn’t ask for the spotlight that comes with it. He just wants to do his job, let him”

“The people are just curious, I also have a job to do,” the reporter protests.

“The people don’t need to know anything,” Izu tells her, smile falling. “You should be ashamed that instead of asking about the well being of the people in danger here today, you’re asking off false rumors and stoking the pot.”

“Why are you defending Dynamight so much?” the reporter asks. “Is there a reason? A relation perhaps?”

“God, I can’t believe you,” he tells her, scowling yet calmly, albeit with barely restrained anger, he answers, “This is me getting angry, so I’m giving you a chance to walk away right now and for your own sake, take it.”

Izu knows he can be intimidating if he wants to be, but he has never seen it in himself. However, the reporter definitely thinks so, because she quickly backs off and Izu smiles again, turning to the rest of the press as he says: “We’ve wrapped up here, direct more questions about this incident to the police or the agency.”

Most just nod, dumbfounded, but Izu doesn’t stick around, bounding away into the direction he’d seen Kacchan leave in.

Later he would check twitter and find a tweet saying #DynaDeku find yurself a protective man like deku, but also supportive tweets for Kacchan, which were a bit louder. People will always have fun, he supposes, if the general message is at least out there, he supposes.

But now, he just lands next to Kacchan on a rooftop and sits quietly next to him. He looks out over the city, a city he has come to know well over the last two years.

The wind is cold so high up, but he’s used to it. Strange how one can get used to standing on top of buildings, looking down, keeping an eye on the city to see if everyone is safe, if everyone is still okay.

He and Kacchan often sit on top of buildings and just talk or joke. It’s a place where they can just be, far from prying eyes and big lenses, while still doing what they love. Both love their jobs and they knew paparazzi would be involved, but both would love to do what they do without the whole monkey dance surrounding it.

So, they sit on the roofs. Sometimes quiet, just looking in the peaceful moments, allowing them to think without having to worry the world will fall apart without them noticing.

The roof is a good place and Izu is content to sit and let Kacchan start talking.

“Did I leave you for many sharks?” Kacchan finally breaks the peaceful silence after a few moments. He doesn’t look at Izu, just stares ahead, but he doesn’t look distressed or angry, which is good.

“Nah, I scared her a bit and then got out of there,” Izu smiles.

“Poor woman,” Kacchan gives a soft half smirk.

“How are you doing?” Izu asks, they always have the best talks on roofs, so far away from the world that it almost felt like didn’t matter, while also being a part of it.

“I don’t know,” Kacchan admits after a second. “I just froze for a moment when she asked me, exactly like I didn’t want. I fucking hate this, you know?”

“Hmh?” Izu made a soft humming noise, indicating that he was listening without pushing he other to say something.

“Yeah, because it’s none of their fucking business who I like and all that shit,” Kacchan explains, waving his hands in frustration. “And it’s only a thing, because it’s not what everyone fucking assumes, otherwise I wouldn't even have this shitty problem. Because I don’t care, I fucking don’t, honestly. The only reason I care, is because all those fucking vultures will make a big deal out of it and I’ll have to deal with that shit. I went to therapy for this shit, I’m fine, it’s those assholes who are the problem, who make me want to hide just so I don’t have to go through all that bullshit again!”

Izu thinks that over, Kacchan has never been anything but brutally honest and the only reason he was secretive to his friends about his sexuality in the past was because of Middle School and all he’d been told there.

Kacchan hadn’t cared when Izu came out, hadn’t changed any behavior surrounding their interactions, just moved on. Just like he’d done when they found out Aizawa and Present Mic were together, when they discovered Midnight was bi, when Uraraka and Tsu came out as lesbians, Mina as pan, Todoroki as gay and so on and so forth.

Looking back, it is almost funny how queer the UA class is where the both of them ended up. And how much both of them had needed it to gain more confidence in themselves.

Once Kacchan had come out and made them all swear to never tell (a promise easily made, because outing someone is the opposite of cool or hero behavior), he mellowed out, stopped compensating with anger for anything he thought could be perceived as gay.

Then slowly Kacchan stopped caring, starting commenting along with the others on hot heroes or celebrities, voicing opinions during sleep overs filled with stupid games.

Izu delighted in seeing his friend grow into himself.

And now there he is: A hero, on his way to the top, comfortable with himself, but stuck putting up a facade he’d dropped long ago, just so he could keep prying questions and comments from his youth that had made him such a mean and angry person away.

A plethora of emotions wells up in Izu and all he can do is hug Kacchan and whisper: “I could go beat up everyone who’s a dick about it, save us all some trouble.”

“Thanks, Izu,” Kacchan huffs. “But Kirishima already offered to do something particularly stupid, so I wouldn't have all the attention on me. I’d rather have that he messes up, or I’m still stuck with you and the media following you, dumbass.”

“Tactical decision, Kacchan,” Izu hums, not letting go yet, but shifting so that he can watch the skyline again. It’s cold, but Kacchan is warm and he’s content.

“I am a tactical genius,” Kacchan agrees.

“Of course,” Izu says, lulling him into a false sense of security. “I totally agree that the best tactical decision you could have made three weeks ago was running headfirst into the fight with that water user, who renders you quirk useless for the most part. It was tactically sound how you went down in a flood.”

“Oh shove off,” Kacchan elbows him and he lets go, trying not to feel sad at the loss of contact, while also wondering why he even feels that.

“I mean it,” he grins. “I still have the gif of you going under saved, wanna see it again?”

“No, I don’t and you better stop, because I have the video of you crying last birthday over how much you love cake,” Kacchan threatens and Izu makes a very tactical retreat: “I have forgotten what we were even talking about, but, hey, look! A city to patrol!”

“Idiot,” Kacchan rolls his eyes, but both of them get up to go back to work again.

The rest of patrol goes seamlessly, but that night Izu can’t help but think over what Kacchan has said, how everyone is the problem with being nosy and judgmental.

He, himself, of course has noticed the invasiveness that people grant themselves around him just because he’s a hero, but he always saw it as the small minority, who always asks questions. But is everything he sees as harmless fun so harmless? Or is he just missing what Kacchan sees in all the jokes and comments that come their way every single day.

And him being himself, meant that he goes into a bit of a spiral late that night, scrolling through his own comments and the Deku tag as well as the DynaDeku tag, all choices he should not have made, but now already had.

The reporter is a dick, but lets focus on hubby Dynamight swooping in to save the day *heart eyes* #DynaDeku

If Dynamight dipped me and gently smiled at me like that, I think I would combust, idk how Deku does it, must be used to it winkwink #DynaDeku

#Deku is so buff, but so graceful too, I’m in love, pls marry me

The fact that their coach is telling #Deku to look at #Dynamight to stop the nerves is killing me, I might have to start believing in #DynaDeku

Look at #Dynamight just fucking picking #Deku up like my man’s buff, stronk, sexy and I’m gonna die, with indeed a gif of the lift attached

Ok, so not only did they grow up together (inside jokes and cute nicknames we knew), but they DANCED together, like little babies in the ballroom?? I am deceased, literal soulmates #DynaDeku

#Deku don’t be afraid to claim your man, he’s not only hot as fuck but looks at u like you hung the moon and stars, own that shit #DynaDeku , this post has a collection of pictures from interviews and other appearances with Kacchan looking at him.

The romanticism of dancing with your partner, the whole world disappearing to just the two of you as you seamlessly preform a complicated dance routine like you’re a period drama endgame couple #DynaDeku

If #DynaDeku aren’t in love then love doesn’t exist, look at them dancing, absolutely absorbed in one another and tell me they aren’t soulmates, you literally can’t

We all know #Deku is cute whtevr, but can we talk abt #Dynamight, swooping in like some knight on the red carpet and then literally swooping Deku off his feet, I don’t believe in the ship, but I do want that to happen to me, bc whoo that’s HOT

#Dynamight s little peptalk for #Deku is so fucking cute, like he has always believed in them as a team, they’ve always been side by side and moving in sync, im gonna cry they’re so perfect together #DynaDeku

He’s a few hours into scrolling down, when he decides this is not how he should be spending his night and that he has a job that’s important and that he shouldn’t get distracted by tweets and speculation… but it’s just hard.

They’re all harmless, positive comments, but they’re all making assumptions, all throwing it out there like they know them and know what’s going on with them. The last one truly illustrates how one can know so little, but assume so much. It’s a bit creepy.

Is that what Kacchan sees, he wonders, not fun joke-y comments, but a familiarity and a sense of having the right to know things about them everywhere?

Objectification, they have learned to live with. Izu stopped caring after the third time his full upper body was on a magazine when he’d just been beaten to a pulp, stopped caring after the tenth question about his workout routine followed by a wink-y comment no one should make to someone fresh out of high school, stopped caring after the so manieth thirst tweet he was tagged in.

But this is different.

This is, well, if he has to give it a name, he would call it emotional objectification. Thousands of people that are projecting what they think he should feel onto him and pulling out evidence like they knew anything beyond what was taken from them and what they had willingly shared.

So many people had so many opinions about them and the longer Izu thought about it, the more anxious he became.

All they’ve done so far has been as friends, they would have done that regardless of feelings. Izu isn’t sure if that will change, he’s never really looked for someone, never truly liked anyone, so he wouldn't know, but them now? That was friends.

Just friends, he danced with Uraraka that night, had fun with all the others, did those things with them as well as Kacchan, but everybody had decided to fixate on them, just because they had a choreography?

Maybe if he and Uraraka had been photographed together everyone would be focusing on that or maybe on Kacchan and that investor lady? People’s attention is only pulled to that which is in the spotlight and their perception so colored by the headlines, the comments, the reactions and the hashtags.

They will probably be friends for the rest of their lives, will every interaction now be colored by strangers even if millions of friends do the same every day without comment?

Sure, dancing always is an intimate act, but it’s not inherently romantic. He knows some dancer couples that married, like the Bakugo’s, but also tons that haven’t, who have spouses outside of dance, who are great friends with their dance partner but never interested beyond that. He knows the joys of jumping and dancing wildly with friends at parties and the little moments between him and his mom in the kitchen.

He and Kacchan work well together, this whole life they share, which no one has been privy to, is intimate, but is that romantic? Izu never inspected all his feelings so closely, because it always stressed him out, but now he feels like he has to know, has to figure it all out so that he can know how he relates to all these tweets.

When his door is suddenly thrown open, he jumps.

Then he notices is Kacchan standing in his doorway, pajamas rumbled and eyes tired. His shoulders are both tensed and slumped, telling Izu the other must have just woken up from a nightmare. He checks the clock quickly and sees it’s 2 AM, fuck, he should have gone to bed earlier.

Not important now, however. He shakes his head and asks: “Wanna talk about it?” as he gets out of bed and pads to the kitchen, Kacchan silently on his trail as he goes through the familiar motions of making them tea.

Kacchan shrugs: “Just the usual. Everyone dying, me stuck and captured, unable to help. Nothing much to talk about. Only need to get out of my head for a moment. What were you doing still awake? You should’ve come to me if you had a nightmare, Izu.”

“I- I hadn’t gone to sleep yet, forgot the time,” Izu cringes.

“Stupid!” Kacchan chops him on the head, but it’s much softer than it could have been. “You should go to bed earlier. We talked about having a routine. Rest is important.”

“I know,” Izu sighs. “Just couldn’t let something go.”

Kacchan sends him a curious look, before asking: “What?”

Izu is silent for a moment. They’re sitting on the couch together, tea in hand, outside world as silent as a city gets and completely dark. The motions they went through to get here are familiar, domestic, completely unseen by the outside world. Is that romantic? Making tea, soothing their bad dreams, asking if they’re okay? Without the eyes, without words put in his mouth, does it feel like everyone thinks it feels?

It’s more intimate than the dancing, it’s not a show, quite the opposite actually. It’s just them. And they learned how to make tea from his mother, he was comforted by her after bad dreams first and she always made time to listen when he wasn’t okay.

Is it not romantic, just because it’s not romantic or because there aren’t thousands of people telling him that it is supposed to be romantic. But then, what even is romance? Is it real?

God, this whole thing is just fucking confusing.

He hasn’t even noticed how quiet he’s been, staring into his tea as the steam warms his face, his side warmed by Kacchan’s, until the other softly asks: “Izu?”

“Wha?” he blinks, world coming back into focus. He looks at Kacchan, who is looking at him with concern, not saying anything, but already looking for words. How can he even begin to explain all that he’s thinking about? He can’t. Not yet. So, he says: “Dance with me?”

The suggestion startles Kacchan for a moment, but both have had nights where they would rather forget than talk, so he doesn’t comment and just takes a final sip of tea, before pulling Izu from the couch as he asks: “What are you in the mood for?”

“Can we just do a simple waltz?” Izu asks. “I’m not in the mood for anything complicated.”

It isn’t likely to stay uncomplicated, it never is with them, but Kacchan nods anyway and starts them in a simple spin as he hums softly, reaching for his phone until there’s music softly playing as they glide over the carpet.

Kacchan’s arm is secure around him, hands warm on his back and in his own hand. He leads smoothly and Izu lets himself get carried away as he thinks.

He knows he has had a crush on Kacchan when he was little, but did it ever leave? Or is it coming back? And if it is, is it just because now is the time or because everyone planted the idea in his head with their headlines and questions? He tries to recall, but can’t seem to remember. Has he not noticed it coming or has it always been there and did he only just notice?

Just a few days ago, Kacchan questioned how he thought he could live without Izu and he shares the sentiment. Kacchan is his everything, always has been.

Maybe he has never truly looked for a partner, not because no one was fitting and he was busy with hero work, maybe it had always been because he couldn’t fit anyone in his life next to his Kacchan, next to his partner.

So, perhaps the crush never went away and it’s highlighted in his mind now? Maybe he never realized and the romance is in choosing each other, not because it’s the easiest, but because you can’t imagine ever making another choice.

But Izu has chosen Kacchan since he was a baby and he doesn’t think baby Izu knew much of what he was doing, or the world for that matter. He still knows next to nothing about love, so he can’t blame baby him for not realizing if he acted on it, but choosing someone can happen in many contexts. It doesn’t have to be romantic.

Todoroki chose to rekindle a relationship with his family without their father. Chose his relation to them, despite the memories attached to that relation. He can hardly call that romance.

And Kacchan hasn’t always chosen him.

Every time he thinks he has an answer, he thinks of a reason why it doesn’t have to be romantic. He’s probably over-analyzing it, but he can’t help it. His brain has latched onto this and he probably won’t find rest until he has some sort of answer. It’s just how he is.

Maybe if he focuses on Kacchan, he’ll figure it out?

Kacchan.

How can he describe Kacchan? Or them?

He’s an idiot who doesn’t remember taking his body wash to the kitchen of all places to check the ingredients, he reminds Izu of his errands, he makes them food and makes him laugh. He’s there as backup, as nurse. He’s in every memory, good or bad.

When Izu looks at Kacchan, he can only feel an overwhelming fondness for the other. As well as just content that they’re both here as they had always dreamed.

He might be attractive, but he’s also a shoulder to cry on, arms to disappear in. He’s steady feet working in sync to his. He’s a competitive smirk and a taunt, as well as a lecture to sleep better and hand leading him away from a nosy reporter.

Izu doesn’t know if that fondness is love or if it’s just years of Kacchan and Izu together against whatever life threw at them.

The steps they’re taking have become more complicated and while Izu is following well, he’s distracted and for a moment, he stumbles.

Before he can do more than fumble slightly, two arms are already steadying him close to a chest, ensuring he can’t fall.

Between his stumble and the catch can’t have been more than a split second, but Kacchan caught him like he’d already predicted it was going to happen. Like he just knew.

Izu finds there is a comfort in being known, in being understood so deeply by another that no outside observation could ever come close to guessing. It wasn’t about the intimacy of being held to Kacchan’s chest, about the closeness, about attractiveness. It’s about knowing someone is there to catch you, before you even know you’re falling.

In the end, maybe that’s how Izu can describe them best: knowledgeable.

No tweets can implant years of knowledge, years of choosing to follow the other, maybe it doesn’t matter, because there is no one else, maybe all that will change is choosing to do something out of romance, because everything has always been out of love.

Softly Kacchan asks: “Are you okay?”

And Izu is. He smiles and hugs Kacchan tight as he says: “Everything’s a bit confusing, would it be weird if I said we’re married?”

“What?” Kacchan doesn’t follow and Izu tries to explain.

“I- I can’t imagine what I’d do without you. I don’t think I could live without you. I’ve been choosing you my entire life and those stupid tweets made me feel like everyone knew us, me better than I did, but no one does, because I can’t even begin to describe us, so how the fuck can they know,” Izu rants. “We’re domestic, things we do are intimate, I do the things I do for you out of love, but I never thought about the fact that I was keeping romance out of my life, because it would never be what I have with you, but I want to do the things I do for you to be out of romance and love, not because others decided, but because I want to. I don’t want all we did as friends to suddenly be romantic, because strangers told me it was, I want to do it on purpose, from now. Am I making sense?”

“A bit,” Kacchan isn’t letting go and Izu has never been more comforted by it. “Can you explain a bit more what even lead you to this?”

So, Izu tells him about diving into all the tweets, doubting everything they did, how strangers seem to know them, or at least act like they did. He tells him about the thoughts he’s had these past days and how he started to think he was only having them because of the tweets, how he wanted to figure out how he felt, so he’d know, but how he didn’t have a good frame of what romance entailed.

He tells Kacchan about all he could think off and about the fact that all can be non-romantic. He explains how he came to the conclusion that no tweets can influence him, not when it comes to Kacchan, because he knows Kacchan too well for those tweets to understand them and color their interactions. And how those thoughts had been there before them anyway.

Knowledgeable, he tells Kacchan, is us. And all of them don’t know us and can’t decide what our interactions are like. I did that out of friendship and I want to do them out of romance, but I want to do it intentionally, not because someone else said it was after the fact.

“I want to love you on purpose, Kacchan, does that make sense?” Izu asks. “I want to chose it, not have it be decided for me. We’re practically married, but we’re not, because neither of us decided on it. You can’t do these things accidentally. And I’ve realized that and now I wanna do it on purpose.”

After that whole explanation Kacchan is quiet, working through all Izu said,

For a moment Izu thinks he messed up everything and that Kacchan doesn’t think and feel the same as he does. Then Kacchan smirks and says: “If that’s your proposal, you’re going to have to do better, but it’s not bad as a love confession.”

Despite his rants and many thoughts, the tease doesn’t feel out of place and he grins at Kacchan, who says: “And I like the idea of doing it on purpose, no extra is telling me what to do. I’m keeping you, because I want to.”

“Yeah, I could have danced with anyone and felt the same, but next time we dance it’s special, because I’m dancing with you with extra love and because it’s romantic,” Izu says excitedly. In their line of work, they’re constantly followed and managers and agencies make choices for them, it’s nice to do something without them knowing, fully on purpose yet under their noses.

Kacchan quirks a brow and puts his hands back in dance position, which Izu eagerly slots into.

The dance is messy, with Kacchan definitely holding instead of cupping, backs not perfectly arched, but bodies molded together. They throw in moves from all styles as they sing softly and laugh, both bright eyed filled with love.

It’s Izu’s favorite dance they’ve done yet and at the end Kacchan leans in close and asks: “Can I kiss you very purposefully?”

“Of course,” Izu tells him happily as they slot together, kissing softly despite it being a crescendo in their life that has been a long time coming.

They’d already had the aggression between them, the clawing passion that came with rivalry and the urgency that came with desperately finding each other after battles.

Here in their home, they’re safe and soft. They’re movie nights, making fun of talk shows, late night dancing, cups of tea, carefully wrapping wounds and now softly kissing as they pour in as much love as they can.

“I love you, Kacchan,” Izu whispers when they break apart. “I’ll always choose you.”

“Fuck, Izu, I love you too, so much,” Kacchan replies. “And I’m never going to let you, I’m holding onto you.”

And that’s Kacchan’s love. He nearly let go of them, nearly had to live without Izu and only the fact that Izu chose to stay kept them from falling apart. Kacchan is now holding on, choosing Izu back, choosing Izu’s love.

In that moment, Izu is happy. There are a million more choices to come, a billion days wherein he’ll chose Kacchan again and again, but for now he’s just in that moment, with Kacchan holding onto him, swaying softly to the music.

Tomorrow they’ll have to deal with the media again. The media that thinks they know them and now has a truth that came to be despite them, or maybe to spite them. But for now, they make another cup of tea and drink that on the couch, this time Izu leaning against Kacchan, purposefully filling up his space and taking his warmth.

They curl into bed and sleep soundly, entangled in each other as they did when they were kids, but different in how Kacchan kisses Izu’s forehead and Izu buries his hand in Kacchan’s hair.

Nothing they ever did was romantic, but just because some things can be non-romantic, means you can also make them romantic and Izu is planning to make every interaction he has with Kacchan romantic. From the simple good mornings to whispered reassurances, he’ll pour love into it all, because he wants to and no one can tell him he can’t.

When they wake up that morning, news has broken that a singer has been caught cheating and all the gossip has moved on, leaving them in sweet oblivion.

It’s true that the whole incident has irrevocably changed them and their dynamic, but the media also never knew what they were talking about and never had the dedication to stick with something or someone until they knew them.

There will be questions in the future, when another interaction has now been rightfully recognized and at some point they might even get answers, but no one ever gets a say, except the two of them and the two of them say:

“I chose you, please, dance with me, love me, stay here because you want to, choose me back” and the other will reply: “Of course, there’s no one else I would rather know so well and love so deeply.”