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Since the war, Izuku started to be more aware of when he’s dreaming. And this time it’s easier because he sees himself, sitting on the backseat of Kacchan’s Porsche.
“To hell with it! Why do I have to give Deku a ride?!”
Izuku blinks at Dream Kacchan’s tone, then smiles. Kacchan’s so silly.
“Aaah! Thank you so much!”
Dreaming-Izuku feels as if he’s watching from the upper corner of the car. He can see everyone so clearly. His dream self is squished in the fluffy backseats of the car like an engagement ring in a velvet box.
“But you suggested it.” Kirishima-kun points out. “You were so proud of your new car!”
Izuku giggles.
“Just because you said ‘if you don't drive for us, I'll scratch the hood with my hardening’!”
“And does the great Dynamight get rattled by any threat?”
Izuku’s cheeks hurt from smiling so big. Kacchan says something and Izuku doesn’t want to take his eyes off of him. He’s just so handsome driving with just one hand on the steering wheel. He kind of really wants to bite his bicep…
“Kacchan received a ton of sidekick applications, but it ended with all of them crying and giving up.”
“We don't talk about that.”
Kacchan’s embarrassed fake anger makes him smile bigger.
“It’s because a lot of people were impressed by his fight against All For One.” Kirishima pipes in. “They signed to be his sidekick with high expectations.”
“But his bad manners destroyed all those expectations right from the interview.” Finishes dream Izuku.
And right on cue:
“I'm kicking you both out!”
Izuku joins in the laughter from his dream self and Kirishima. It’s always fun to tease Kacchan with him. They’re the closest people to the great Dinamight so no one else gets to humble him like they do.
“If someone said that they wanted to surpass me, I would've accepted them right away.”
Izuku nods. It’s pretty simple. But no one so far has really lived up to that. They’re too afraid of the great Dinamight. Which, Izuku kind of gets, he’d never thought himself capable of surpassing All Might, after all. It’s just that Kacchan has always been just Kacchan to him.
“You'll keep teaching?”
Oh. So, this dream is about when he was still a teacher. Cute.
Dream Izuku says, “Yeah.”
Izuku blinks. What?
“Several other schools invited me to give lectures and seminars... so I have the opportunity to share my experiences with the younger ones almost every day.”
Izuku frowns.
“The armor made me very happy... but my feelings haven't changed. I think I'd enjoy being a teacher happy even if I still had One For All.”
Hold on. Yes. He did love teaching, but.
WHAT??
“Mhmm… I see…” Kacchan looks so sad and Izuku’s heart breaks.
He whips his head to stare at his dream self, willing him to fix it.
“He turned down your offer, Bakugou!”
“Huh?”
“He just invited you to work at his agency, Midoriya!”
“What?!” Dream Izuku squeaks, then, “Sorry, but that won't happen.”
That’s it. This is not him. It can’t be. Why would he say no to working with Kacchan? WHY is he dreaming of this? He wants to wake up, but then, Kacchan’s voice reaches him, and he focuses back on him.
“Maybe I'm not the best person to tell you this, but I think it's about time for you to start thinking more highly of yourself. Because otherwise, you won't even notice the most obvious things.”
Izuku squints at Kacchan and somehow, he knows that he’s referring to himself. But that makes no sense. If there’s one thing Izuku’s always noticed was Kacchan!
He watches his dream self’s expression turn into annoyance. “I… Like you're one to talk.”
Alright. Maybe his dream self has a bit of a point there. But Kacchan’s been so good after the war. So attentive and observant that it still amazes Izuku, even after years of being at the other end of it.
“Treating everyone like they’re special just means that no one is really special to you.”
Izuku’s just not following anymore.
He knows from Kacchan’s tone that, again, he’s talking about himself. But again, it makes no sense.
If there’s one person Izuku has always paid extra attention to, it’s Kacchan. It has always been Kacchan.
He gasps, turning back to his dream self. Did he do something to make Kacchan feel like he’s not special anymore?
He can’t believe it– in what WORLD–
The scene in the car melts into a class reunion like the many he’s been at this past decade.
His dream self sits between Kacchan and Shoto, while Kirishima sits in front of them. Shoto tells them about his bowl-making classes and Izuku hums along. When he’ll wake up, he hopes he’ll remember to tell him to book him in too, for the next one. Last time was so nice and fun. Izuku had gone home with a black and green bowl that Kacchan had taken to use almost every day since. He wants to make a matching one in black and orange for himself.
A surprised shout steals their attention away and he registers Mina talking excitedly about two of their friends in class B dating. He loses interest and naturally his eyes drift back to Kacchan, who’s industriously chewing on a mouthful of meat while muttering about someone being lame losers.
Izuku almost smiles at him before he sees his dream-self stare at Uraraka’s laughing face. He stares at himself stare at her. What the–
BEEP!
The alarm seems to sound right inside his skull. The sound so loud and familiar it makes him wince even in the dream.
The scene melts again in quick succession. They change into their hero costumes, go after the villain, apprehend him somehow and all is well, and the night is over.
Kacchan and dream-Izuku are back in their civilian clothes and saying goodbye.
Izuku whips his head between the two of them. He sees himself smile and wave goodbye as he walks away and then turns to Kacchan.
Kacchan is watching him go.
The expression on his face wretches at Izuku’s heart. “Why are you not going after me?” He cries, tears burning down his face. “Why are you letting me go?”
But Kacchan doesn’t hear him. He looks after dream-Izuku until he can’t see him anymore and then, turns away.
Izuku is inconsolable. He falls to his knees and wails, right there on the sidewalk. “Kacchan! Kacchan, come back!” But no one can see him, and no one comes.
But then, the dream changes again and he sees himself call out to Uraraka.
His brokenhearted hiccups accompany the small conversation they have while his chest throbs dully.
Izuku hears his dream-self say, “You were the one I wanted to talk the most to.” And he’s had enough.
HE DOESN’T WANNA BE HERE ANYMORE!!!
Let it end. Please, let it end— let it end letitendpleasepleaseplease—
“KACCHAN!”
“YEAH!” Kacchan shouts back, his heavy weight pressing on top of Izuku’s as he wakes up.
Izuku blinks up at him. Kacchan’s holding himself up above him, arms straight down on Izuku’s pillow, and squinting down at him by the golden light of his bedside lamp. His eyes aren’t even completely open when he frowns and demands, “Why are you crying?”
Izuku tackles him, wraps his arms tight around his neck and presses his shuddering sobs against his skin. “It wasn’t me— it wasn’t! But why did you let me go? Why did you give up on me?!”
“I’d never give up on you,” Kacchan growls, hand soothing down his back in quick, fretting swipes.
“You did!” Izuku muffles a wail in the crook of his neck, hiccups, then cries again. “But I deserved it. I was so stupid to you!”
Kacchan squeezes him tight; his neck and shoulder are drenched with Izuku’s tears, but his voice is soft, maybe even a little amused, “You were stupid to me?”
“Yeah!”
“It’s okay, baby.” Kacchan brushes his lips against his curls. “I like you even you’re stupid to me.”
Izuku pushes himself up and away, just enough to see his face and sniffles, “Sure?”
Soft and with pillow marks on his cheek, Kacchan promises, “So sure.” And kisses him, tears, snot and all, and that’s how Izuku knows this is his Kacchan that would never ever give up on him.
Kacchan coaxes him to lie on his side with soft kisses and more promises that he won’t ever stop chasing him, and Izuku— holding a fistful of Kacchan’s T-shirt— tells him about the terrible dream.
Kacchan’s brushes his cheeks with his thumbs, doggedly focused at wiping away Izuku’s never ending stream of tears. He smiles slightly, “That sounds more like a nightmare I should be having…” he swallows. “You going off on your own path, leaving me to figure out what the fuck to do with mine,” he frowns. “Well, if I didn’t think about it before, this is sure as fuck feeding the nightmare fodder.”
“No,” Izuku’s chest hurts from all the sobs. “The worst thing I could ever experience is hurting you in some way,” he shakes his head. “Nothing compares.”
“Oh, baby. C’mere,” he presses his lips at the corner of his eyes. His big palm spans the width of his waist and pulls him in to tangle and lock their legs together. “I’m okay with being hurt by you,” he whispers fiercely in the holy space between their mouths. “Because it only reminds me of how much I fucking love you.”
Izuku kisses him, angry and so in love his chest feels like an open wound. “I wish I could climb inside your heart and make sure it was always safe.”
He sobs it, but Kacchan swallows it and gives him back, “If you did, you’d see it’s full of just you.”
Izuku shakes his head, “I don’t ever want to hurt you.” Forehead pressed against his sternum, curling closer, closer.
“I know, baby.”
“But if I do,” he breathes through the hiccup. “Promise me you’ll tell me so I can fix it,” he turns his teary eyes up to meet Kacchan’s. “Please, let me fix it.”
Kacchan’s gaze is so tender it renders at Izuku’s chest. “I’ll give you as many chances as you want, Izuku.” his fingers comb his curls back. “You’re the only person I want to risk breaking my heart for.”
“No, no—” Izuku insists. “If you’re jealous, show me that you are,” Izuku pokes him with his index finger right in the middle of his chest. “If you think I didn’t pay enough attention to something you’ve said, you come and steal all my attention away. Never, ever, get out of my way. Promise me.”
Kacchan’s smile is barely there, and yet his happiness shines through like a beacon to Izuku’s tortured heart. “Easiest promise I’ll ever have to keep.”
Izuku sighs, smoothing down his bed head as he pulls him in for another kiss and twenty more.
Their hands never leave each other; Izuku’s, feeling the wide planes of his back as he tries to press them even closer. And Kacchan’s, a firm weight on his side, gripping possessive and reassuring.
He starts to fall asleep to the soothing knowledge that it would take an act of god to separate them. And even then, well.
Izuku never backed away from a fight as long as it was for Kacchan.
“I’d fight god for you, too,” Kacchan pats his back.
This is the truth. Simple and real. The dream can’t compare to the vibrations of Kacchan’s voice or his heartbeat under his cheek.
Izuku knows and finally breathes out.
Extra:
They have another class reunion that night, which Izuku attends after work in his and Kacchan’s joint agency.
Izuku asks Shoto to book him in for a bowl-making class and he makes eye contact with Uraraka-chan and she gives him a grin and a thumbs up, her other hand holding Toga’s, who’s out of prison after doing 8 years but stuck with community service (aka helping with her amazing quirk) in hospitals for the rest of her life. Which she doesn’t seem to mind by the glowy happiness that clings to her.
Izuku feels a pang for Tenko and hopes he’ll at least get a doover and a happier life in another life.
But oh, is he glad he lives in this reality and not the one in the dream.