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Mina sighs and says, for what he’s pretty sure is the fifteenth time, “I just think it’s so romantic.”
Sero doesn’t even look up from his video game when he says, “He’s not gonna bite.”
“But it’s just so romantic!”
Katsuki gets up and leaves, ignoring Sero shouting his name and Mina calling him a spoilsport.
People have been acting kind of weird around him lately. And by kind of weird, he means they’ve been… nice. Not just nice; people Katsuki has never seen in his life are fucking smiling at him. It’s really fucking annoying. At first he thought it was something to do with the war, and maybe people were just being weird because of that. But it’s been four months, now, and they’re fully entrenched in second year, and everything is almost back to normal, if you don’t count the mandatory counselling or the night terrors. And besides, no one else seems to be getting the same strange looks that he is.
It’s actually kind of surprising how well things fell back into place. At first Katsuki had thought it was kind of bullshit, going back to school and falling back into those patterns. They’d lost so many people. Katsuki had literally fucking died. And he was supposed to care about math?
Returning to that sense of normalcy had been surprisingly good, though. Having a schedule, having responsibilities that weren’t life or death. It gave them all something to do. And even though it had been kind of a tough transition at first, eventually things started going almost back to normal.
Except.
Except suddenly people are being… nice. Like smiling at him in the halls. Or waving at him as he’s walking back to the dorms. Or asking him to spar. Like, what the hell? Izuku said it was because he was a war hero or what the fuck ever, but so is half the goddamn school. He hasn’t seen people giving Jirou sappy smiles or asking Shoji if he needed help carrying his books (Katsuki had just glared at the first year who’d asked until he ran away. Izuku said he was being mean, but Katsuki was just trying to ensure no one was brave or stupid enough to ask again. Plus, he’s pretty offended by the implication that he can’t carry his own goddamn books).
So that’s where he’s at. Everything is the same, except it isn’t. He wants things to go back to the way they were before, when he didn’t see decay every time he closed his eyes— but since he’s pretty sure that isn’t going to happen, he’d at least like people to stop being so goddamn friendly.
It isn’t until they’re nearing Christmas that Katsuki finds out just what exactly is going on— and after that, he vows to listen to Mina the next time she’s trying to passive-aggressively tell him something.
At first he tries to ignore the gaggle of first year girls that are following him, but they’re all too… giggly. He’s on his way to meet Izuku for lunch, and he doesn’t really want an entourage, so eventually he turns around and snaps.
“What.”
This somehow makes the girls giggle more, which was the opposite of his intention. Was he losing his touch? One of them— she’s tall and has a horn growing out of her forehead, and Katsuki would bet his left foot that she’s gonna choose some dumbass hero name like unicorn— steps up, and the others all look at her like she’s the leader.
“Are you going to meet Deku for lunch?” She asks. Katsuki gawks at her.
“Hah?” How was it any of their business if he was meeting Deku? And why would they care?
He’s decided to just ignore them and is about to stomp away when unicorn girl sighs and says in a dreamy voice, “It’s just so romantic!”
And that— that’s what Mina had said. Against all better judgement, Katsuki turns back to the girl. “What?”
“You and Deku!” She crows gleefully. Katsuki’s brain momentarily short circuits at the combination of Deku and romantic.
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“You know!” She says, even though he clearly fucking doesn’t. “How you’ve known each other your whole lives, and you rekindled your friendship at UA, and then you fought in the war together and you even sacrificed yourself for him!” She sighs again. “I hope one day I find a love like yours.”
And Katsuki, in his infinite wisdom, says, “A love like who’s?”
“Like you and Deku!” She says, clapping her hands. “The devotion you two have for each other—”
Pieces start falling into place. Mina’s comments, the really annoying grins Kirishima kept giving him, the way people kept fucking looking and talking to him, the smiles and weird reactions he and Izuku get whenever they’re hanging out together. Because apparently—
“Wait. You think Deku and I are dating?”
The girl blinks, caught off guard. “I… yes?”
Katsuki leaves them behind without a look back.
His first instinct is to go to Izuku about this, but for some reason the thought of bringing this up to him makes his chest feel weirdly tight. So instead he goes off in search of his other dumbass friends.
He finds them all eating lunch in the cafeteria; he shoots Izuku a text that something came up and he couldn’t meet for lunch. For some reason, the sad face Izuku sends back makes his chest feel tight again.
Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, Ashido, and Jirou are all laughing when Katsuki throws himself down beside them and says, “Why the fuck do people think I’m dating Deku?”
This time last year it would probably be hard to get an answer, with no one (except possibly Kirishima) willing to be the one to poke Katsuki’s anger. Now they all burst into laughter, and Mina says, “Have you seen you and Deku?”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, you did almost die for him.”
“I’m a hero, that’s what I’m supposed to fucking do.” But even as he says this he knows that it’s not quite accurate, that what he felt that day— that sense of life or death, the deep feeling of crisis— had more to do with Izuku than with being a hero. His friends know that, too, or at least Kirishima and Mina do, because they both shoot him disbelieving looks.
“You guys have a whole story, y’know?” Kaminari says, even as he continues to shovel food into his mouth. “Like, childhood friends turned enemies turned rivals turned reluctant partners turned… whatever the hell you are now.”
“We aren’t anything!” Katsuki says, but then he amends, “We’re friends!”
“Friends, mhm,” Sero says, in a very irritating tone. “Hey, will you help me study tonight?”
“Fuck off,” he replies automatically, but Sero grins and Katsuki realizes he walked right into a trap.
“Why not? We’re friends, right? You help Midoriya study.”
“What about training,” Kaminari asks. “What’s it called, Catch-a-Kacchan? Can we do that?”
“Or,” Mina adds, in a self-satisfied tone, but Katsuki has heard enough and cuts her off.
“It doesn’t matter if it looks like we’re dating. Whether those things are true—”
“I mean, they’re literally objectively true—”
“Doesn’t matter, because the point is we’re not dating.”
“Are you like. Completely sure about that?” Kirishima asks.
“Fuck off!” He stands up from the table and gives his asshole friends a glare that only works on them 50% of the time now. “We’re not dating!”
And then Mina says something that completely flips shit upside down for Katsuki. Mina looks at him and says, “Do you want to be?”
Katsuki’s brain kind of flatlines for a moment before Mina’s smug expression snaps him out of it.
“We’re not dating,” he repeats, which is definitively not an answer. “And I’m going to make sure everyone knows it.”
He starts with Izuku; he’s eating lunch with Icyhot and a couple others since Katsuki had cancelled their plans, but he looks up with a wide grin when he notices him. Katsuki is momentarily blinded by it.
“Come with me,” he finally manages to say. “Gotta talk to you.”
Izuku follows him without a second thought, without even asking what it’s about. He feels eyes on them as they leave, and he’s pretty sure he hears a wolf whistle. He makes a note to find out who it was so he can kill them later.
They use a classroom that’s empty for lunch, some first year math class; Izuku is idly studying the equation on the board when Katsuki cuts to the chase and says, “Do you know everyone thinks we’re dating?”
He’s not sure what he’s expecting, but it isn’t for Izuku to laugh sheepishly and say, “Oh. Um. Yeah, I did.”
Katsuki gawps at him. “What the fuck, Deku? Why didn’t you say something?”
“I did! I corrected everyone who said something, but no one believed me when I said it wasn’t true.”
“But why didn’t you tell me!”
“I!” Izuku starts off sounding indignant before returning to sheepish. “I’m sorry. I should have. I just— I thought you’d be mad or disgusted or—”
“Why the fuck would I be disgusted?” Katsuki asks, offended.
“Well, um— ‘cause it’s me? And people think we’re… together?”
“Izuku,” he says seriously. He’s not sure why, but it’s suddenly very important that Izuku knows the thought of dating him isn’t remotely disgusting to Katsuki. “I don’t care that people think I’m dating you. I’m pissed because people are spreading rumours about us that aren’t fucking true.”
“R-right,” Izuku says, although he does look relieved. “I’ll start telling people.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Katsuki says darkly. “I’ll handle it.”
‘Handling it’ involves pinning some poor first year against the wall and raising one of his palms threateningly. “Deku and I aren’t fucking dating,” he snaps. “Spread the goddamn word, and the next time someone makes the mistake I won’t be as fucking gentle.”
The first year gives him a fearful look, and Katsuki thinks to himself, mission accomplished.
Except mission not fucking accomplished.
Well, no, that’s not technically true. It did work out exactly how Katsuki had hoped. The message gets passed through the school, and people stop bothering him about it. He should be happy.
The problem is that Izuku is fucking bombarded with attention. It’s impossible to get him alone— someone is always hanging off of him, or a group is following him around, giggling incessantly. It doesn’t take Katsuki long enough to figure out what happened. He’s not an idiot; Izuku is the rising symbol of peace, hero of war, and (Katsuki can admit to himself, although it makes him feel a little weird) he’s pretty damn attractive.
And Katsuki had just let the entire fucking school know that he was single.
He’s fucking miserable. And even angrier. He should have just left it alone. Now people keep giving Izuku gifts or asking him to eat lunch with them or giving him these really fucking loaded looks, like they’re undressing him with their eyes, and Katsuki is getting very, very close to full out murder.
He finally snaps; he’s heading to meet Izuku for lunch and sees him leaning against the wall. He has a strange, vaguely uncomfortable look on his face, and there’s a third year leaning on the wall, too, looming over him and looking at him like he’s something to eat. Katsuki sees fucking red.
“Aw, c’mon. You’re turning down everyone. Gimme a chance,” the pushy third year is saying. Izuku’s expression is darkening from vaguely uncomfortable to outright pissed, and even though Katsuki’s instinct is to march up to this slimy sleazeball and blow him the fuck up, he recognizes the look on Izuku’s face and he knows he’s more than capable of taking care of himself. Instead he hangs back and watches the scene play out in front of him.
“I’m turning everyone down because I’m not interested,” Izuku says. “Sorry.” He doesn’t sound sorry, though.
The guy reaches out and pushes Izuku’s hair back off of his forehead, which is the last fucking straw for Katsuki, thank you very much. Whether Izuku can take care of himself is a moot point, because Katsuki is going to kill this fucking dude.
Before he gets a chance, though, Izuku’s arm snaps out quickly and he wraps his fingers around the guy’s wrist. Katsuki can tell that his grip is tight from the way the guy grimaces and tries to step back, but Izuku holds on tightly.
“You shouldn’t touch people without permission,” he says, perfectly polite. “It’s not very hero-like.”
The guy scowls and yanks at his wrist, but Katsuki knows from experience how strong Izuku is. “You don’t have to be such a fucking bitch about it,” he whines. “Learn to take a compliment.”
Katsuki moves, stalking towards them. Izuku is shorter than the guy, but Katsuki isn’t; he straightens up to his full height and glares down at the guy, and he knows from experience that the nasty scar on the side of his face only makes him look scarier. “You fucking deaf or something? He said he’s not interested.”
Izuku releases the guy’s wrist and gives Katsuki a warm smile. “Hi, Kacchan!”
The guy steps back, rubbing his wrist and glaring at the two of them. “Whatever,” he says sulkily. “You can have him. I wasn’t even that interested, anyway.”
“You’re a fucking moron, then,” Katsuki says before he can think better of it. Izuku shoots him a questioning look, but Katsuki doesn’t make eye contact. “Doesn’t matter, though. He’s not fucking interested. Fuck off.”
The guy gives them one last disparaging look before he spins on his heel and stomps off, leaving the two of them there by themselves. Katsuki still isn’t looking at Izuku, although he can feel the weight of his gaze on him. He’s still really fucking angry at that extra. First he hits on Izuku, then he says he wasn’t even interested? Why the fuck not?
Katsuki thinks about the parts of the conversation he’d overheard, the extra complaining that Deku turned everyone down, and Deku saying that he turned everyone down because he wasn’t interested. Katsuki had felt some weird sort of… relief, when he’d heard that, but even now he can see the people passing by in the halls and the hungry way they look at Izuku. How long until someone came along who he was interested in? Surely there was someone in this school who would get his attention, and with how often people were making their moves on him… surely, eventually, someone will ask, and Izuku will feel inclined to say yes…
“Izuku,” he says, although he doesn’t know what he’s going to be saying until the words leave his mouth. “This is getting fucking stupid. Fake date me again.”
He finally turns to look at Izuku, who is staring at him with an unreadable expression. After a moment he sighs and says, “No.”
Katsuki is not dissuaded. “Okay,” he says, rallying quickly. “Then date me for real.”
Izuku can’t stop the surprise from flicking across his face, along with something that is unbearably sad. Katsuki wants to know what he did to make Izuku that sad so that he can never fucking do it again.
“Kacchan, that’s not funny.”
“Who’s joking? I’m being serious.” Deadly fucking serious— Katsuki doesn’t think he’s ever been this serious in his entire fucking life. The answer has been in front of him this entire goddamn time, and he’d been too stupid to see it. He wants to date Deku. He really, really wants to date Deku.
Izuku’s eyebrows draw together. “Kacchan—”
“If you tell me no I’ll leave it alone,” he says, shoving his hands in his pockets and pretending like he totally doesn’t care if that’s the case. “I’m not like that damn extra.”
“I…” Izuku chews his lip. It’s very distracting. “It’s not… I don’t want to say no,” he admits, and Katsuki’s heart does something out of control and probably medically dangerous. “I just… if you just want people to leave you alone—”
“I don’t,” Katsuki says, frighteningly genuine in a way he’s not used to, but a way Izuku deserves. “That’s not it. I— I wanna do it for real. If— uh, you do. I didn’t… I didn’t know before. I do now.” He shrugs. “Wanted to kill that damn moron for talking to you. And all the other shitty extras that keep hanging off you, too.”
Izuku gives him a smile that makes Katsuki feel weirdly warm. He leans back against the wall, more casual and comfortable now. “If we do this, are you gonna be this jealous the whole time?”
Katsuki mirrors the position of that idiot guy, an arm on the wall as he looms over Izuku. This time, though, Izuku leans back and looks up at him with a look in his eyes that Katsuki is probably going to have fantasies about. He reaches out his scarred hand and grabs the front of Katsuki’s uniform, who grins down at him and leans in closer.
“You’re gonna have to find that out on your own, nerd,” he says. Izuku laughs and pulls Katsuki even closer.
“Okay,” he says. “Okay, I’ll date you for real.”
Katsuki is still grinning. It’s kind of making his face hurt, actually. He reaches out and pushes Izuku’s hair off his forehead; he hopes that bastard extra is watching somewhere and sees the way Izuku lets Katsuki touch him in a way no one else is allowed to.
“Good,” Katsuki says. “I’m gonna date the hell out of you, shitty Deku. I’m gonna be the best damn boyfriend you’ve ever seen.”
Izuku laughs again, and then he moves forward, standing up on his tiptoes to press a kiss to Katsuki’s cheek. This immediately gives him the upper hand; Katsuki stands frozen and stares at Izuku with wide eyes, the spot where his lips had touched him burning. “I’m sure you will, Kacchan,” he says. “We’ll talk more tonight, okay?”
He heads off, back towards class. Katsuki stands frozen to the ground until the bell rings for the second time, and then he has to run to class and slink into his seat under Aizawa’s impatient gaze. He turns around so many times in class to look at Izuku that Aizawa threatens him with extra work if he doesn’t stop. Each time, Izuku just gives him this really self-satisfied look, until class finally ends, and Izuku carefully takes his hand before they go off to talk.
The next time someone asks Izuku out, Katsuki kisses him right on the mouth in front of everyone. No one asks him anymore after that.