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"I'm glad we're friends again!" Izuku says, grinning from ear to ear at Katsuki. He never thought he would be able to call him his friend without risking getting himself blasted away.
He's so happy he's going to use every chance he has to call Katsuki his friend.
"Tch!" It's the blond's response, but Izuku can see now that he's not actually irritated at the moment. Katsuki apologized a couple of weeks ago, Izuku told him he had forgiven him a while ago and now they're both trying to spend as much time together as possible like they did when they were kids.
There are things that haven't changed about Katsuki; he still gets angry whenever Izuku hurts himself but now he either takes the green haired boy to recovery girl or patches him up himself.
He does everything with a scowl on his face and mumbles aggressively about Izuku being an idiot for ending up like that, but he's very gentle when he's cleaning the wounds.
It always makes Izuku grin fondly at him. One day he can't stop himself and touches Katsuki right cheek as he looks into his eyes.
For a moment, Katsuki stares back, too surprised to scowl, before his cheeks turn slightly pink.
"You're such a good friend," Izuku beams, so lost in his own happiness he doesn't notice the way Katsuki grimaces after hearing the last word.
"Shut up, Izuku."
***
"My friend Kacchan and I will be there in a minute!" Izuku says happily before ending the call as Katsuki narrows his eyes at him.
"Whom were you talking to?"
"Todoroki."
"Half and Half already knows we're friends! Why do you have to remind him every FIVE SECONDS?"
Izuku tries not to panic, he knew it'd be difficult to keep doing that without Katsuki noticing something, but he's not going to tell him the truth; he'll probably get mad.
"Sorry, I didn't notice I was saying that word, Kacchan!"
The blond huffs, clearly irritated.
"You don't call Half and Half your friend," Katsuki comments, it's clear that something's bothering him, but Izuku has no idea what.
But he can't tell him; he'll probably think it's ridiculous if he finds out Izuku missed so much their friendship he can't help but tell everyone they're friends now.
"It's different... We... My relationship with him is different."
"I see," Katsuki mumbles; Izuku has never seen him so serious or quiet before.
***
It happens again; Katsuki risks his own life to save Izuku while they were fighting a villain outside UA, fortunately, nothing happens to him.
Since they were helping Endeavor they have an interview about the incident; the girl asking questions seems really interested about Katsuki and Izuku's relationship.
"You two seem inseparable!" She giggles, taking out her phone. "The Twitter community talks a lot about you two very often."
Izuku has no idea what she's talking about, he's not often in Twitter, although Katsuki crosses his arms over his chest and blushes as he turns his head away.
"So, are you two–"
"Yes, we're best friends now!" Izuku beams. The girl seems disappointed for some reason; she looks over his shoulder where Katsuki is. The boy is grimacing like he just ate something disgusting.
The girl stops asking them questions and turns towards Endeavor and Todoroki.
***
He's walking towards Katsuki's dorm when he hears his loud voice coming from inside; he's talking to Kirishima.
"I HATE IT!" Izuku stops, surprised to hear so much emotion in Katsuki's voice. It sounds almost like he's in pain. He's about to knock and ask if he's alright when the blond speaks again: "I HATE WHEN HE CALLS ME HIS FRIEND! I HATE THE WORD! WHY DOES HE HAVE TO TELL EVERYONE WE'RE FRIENDS?"
"You should talk to him, Bakubro," Kirishima says. "It's not manly to hide your feelings like that!"
"No," Katsuki finally stops yelling, but Izuku hears him all the same. "I don't–I've been an asshole to him. I can't... be selfish again. This is clearly what he wants..."
So it's pity then, Izuku realizes. Katsuki doesn't want to be his friend after all. He'd like to walk in and tell him he doesn't need to pretend to like him, he doesn't have to spend time with him. The apology was more than enough.
But Izuku can't walk in. He's hurt; the ache in his heart is too painful at the moment.
He walks away instead, back to his room, a few tears escape from his eyes before he falls asleep.
***
"Are you ready for me to kick your ass, nerd?" Katsuki smirks, standing in front of the couch Izuku is sitting on. He seems to be purposely ignoring Todoroki and Uraraka next to him.
Even looking at him hurts, so Izuku glances at his own hands instead.
"I'll train with Todoroki today."
"WHAT THE HELL, IZUKU? WE ALWAYS TRAIN TOGETHER!"
"Not today," he mumbles, trying not to cry. "I'm going to train with Todoroki. We don't have to do everything together all the time. It's alright, Kac–Bakugo."
Some of their classmates are in the common room as well, Izuku knows they're listening to their conversation even though they pretend not to.
"Don't ever call me that again," Katsuki snaps; he is not yelling anymore, but there's an edge in his voice that makes it even worse. "And at least have the courage to look at me... Izuku."
He doesn't want to because he feels vulnerable, he'll crumble if he does that. But he does it anyway; Katsuki looks like Izuku just punched him in the face.
"Calm down, Bakugo–"
"STOP GETTING IN THE MIDDLE, HALF AND HALF!" Katsuki growls. "YOU HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING, HUH? WE WERE FINE UNTIL YOU–"
"This is not his fault, Kacchan! I know you don't really want to be my friend!"
When he hears Uraraka telling everyone to leave them alone, Izuku feels a wave of affection towards her.
"WHAT?"
"Come on, Todoroki-kun! We have to leave them alone!"
"Will you be fine, Midoriya? Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"
"FUCK OFF, HALF AND HALF!" Katsuki bares his teeth at him. "THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!"
"I'll be fine, Todoroki. Thanks for worrying about me."
The boy with mismatched eyes nods and (albeit reluctantly) lets Uraraka grab his arm to yank him away from the room.
"I know you don't want to be my friend," Izuku repeats, even though it hurts him to say it. "You don't have to. I have forgiven you a while ago. The apology was more than enough. You don't need to try to make it up to me by pretending to be my friend."
"What the hell are you taking about?" Katsuki stares back with irritation and confusion written all over his face.
"I heard your conversation with Kirishima," Izuku mumbles, cheeks turning slightly pink. "I know you hate when I call you my friend."
Something like pain falls like a shadow over Katsuki's features for a moment.
"So you heard that, but didn't stick around to find out why I hate that word, huh?"
"I wasn't going to stay there! You sounded upset, besides... I just wanted to ask you something about our math assignment! I didn't mean to eavesdrop!"
"And the conclusion you came up with was that I was pretending to be your friend? That somehow I didn't really want to spend time with you?" Katsuki looks irritated, but when he takes Izuku's face in his hands, there's nothing but fondness in his red eyes. "Since when I do ANYTHING I don't want to? I thought you knew me well, nerd."
"But you said you hated when I called you friend!" Izuku protests, feeling suddenly ridiculous and very much confused.
"I do hate that word," Katsuki admits, his eyes glimmer with determination before he adds. "Because I want more."
Before Izuku can think what he means, the blond leans forward and kisses him possessively. It's a very good kiss; Izuku had no idea how much he needed that until Katsuki started kissing him.
However, it doesn't last long.
"I'm sorry, Izuku... I didn't–"
"Come back here, Kacchan," the green haired boy cuts him off, pulling him by the neck to press their lips together again.
They end up tangled on the couch; Izuku's lips are pink and a little bit swollen from all the kissing but he doesn't care.
"If you ever call me your friend after this, I swear I'll blast your face off, nerd," Katsuki warns, prompting Izuku to burst into laughter. The blond decides to shut him up with another kiss.
***
"So... I was telling Kacchan the other day–"
He gets interrupted by a growl coming from his lap; Izuku is kinda used to it at this point. Katsuki has his head over the other boy's lap and sometimes he gets angry when Izuku forgets to keep running his fingers through his hair.
However, Katsuki's growl wasn't because of that.
Watching Todoroki rolling his eyes and Uraraka trying to hide a chuckle, Izuku feels his cheeks turning slightly pink as he sighs.
"They already know..."
This time, Katsuki snarls as he glares at him.
"Fine! I was telling my boyfriend Kacchan the other day about this new All Might limited figures I found on this online store the other day..."
He tries not to find endearing when he notices Katsuki's satisfied grin, but fails miserably.