Chapter Text
The tension in the common room was thick and heavy, so dense and stifling that it smothered any attempts at a neutral conversation. But boy did Kaminari try.
“H-hey, what did you guys think about Present Mic’s lecture today? Crazy right? English is so weird!” Kaminari forced out a nervous laugh as he glanced desperately around at his tired classmates’ faces, his arms outstretched in a gesture for them to join him. Some of them cracked a smile, let out a titter, then they all fell quiet again.
It just wasn’t working. Not with those two glaring daggers at each other from across the room, across the heads of their uncomfortable classmates who just wanted to sit and relax after a long day of lectures and hero training.
It’s been weeks, perhaps even a few months, of relative peace between the two biggest rivals in their classroom. At first, it was a little weird seeing them engage in casual small talk without one (more specifically, a certain prickly blonde-haired male) throwing a fit of anger over the slightest of comments. Then it became even stranger when the duo was spotted hanging out together a few times outside of class. For a few hours, even. All by themselves. Doing normal things that regular people do. But the class wrote it off as “well, it’s about time they became good friends again.”
Oh, how they took those times of serenity and happiness for granted.
Uraraka let out a frustrated sigh, fed up with the suffocating atmosphere. “Deku, what’s wrong?”
Izuku blinked and stared at the couch. Curious faces of his classmates stared back. “Huh? What do you mean, Uraraka?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s something going on between you and Bakugou, isn’t there?”
Izuku’s blood ran cold. He quickly glanced at Katsuki, who was biting his lower lip in a scowl. “W-what?” Izuku scratched the back of his head, letting out a strained chuckle. “There’s nothing going on between me and Kacchan! That’s just silly!”
“Deku, please,” Uraraka said, rolling her eyes. “Are you two having a fight? Do you need to talk it out? We’re all here to listen if you need to just... talk it out. Or something. Anything but... this.” She gestured with her arms to signify she was talking about their surroundings. The rest of her class nodded and murmured in agreement, glancing anxiously between Izuku and Katsuki.
Izuku stared at Katsuki, and Katsuki stared back. They were the only ones standing, rigid, with every part of their visible muscles tense. But neither moved an inch as they stared each other down in their mutual, unspoken game of “who can stare the longest without blinking”. It wasn’t until Iida was going to interject that Izuku spoke up, “Okay then. If Kacchan is okay with talking about it here, then fine. I have a complaint alright.”
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. “Hah?! What does a shitty nerd like you have to complain about?”
“Oh, a lot, Kacchan,” Izuku sighed, his voice just above a frustrated growl. “But the only thing I really want to address here is how selfish and uncaring you are! I mean, you ate the last bite of the limited edition All Might cake!”
“You’re hung up about that?” Katsuki said, then howled with laughter. “It’s not my fucking fault you were taking your sweet time chewing!”
“I was saving that piece!” Izuku slammed his hands down on the back of the couch. Jirou and Yaoyorozu flinched and glanced warily behind them at the angry freckled male, then looked at each other with a worried expression.
“Yeah, well,” Katsuki said, crossing his arms and raising his chin to complete his smug expression, “maybe if you stopped burying your face in your stupid phone, you would’ve been able to eat it in time.”
Izuku hissed, “You have a problem with me using my phone?”
“Only that you take too long trying to get that ‘perfect shot’ of some food that you’re just going to down anyway.”
Izuku huffed. “Too long? Too long, Kacchan?” He reached into his pocket and whipped out his smartphone, his fingers rapidly sliding across the glass surface without even peeking in its direction. “Then explain to me why, after only 30 seconds of us getting the cake, you did this?!” Izuku turned his phone around for all to see the guilty proof.
There, on his cellphone screen, was a picture of the alleged slice of All Might dessert; brilliant hues of red, yellow, and blue frosting curved delicately and expertly around and atop the moist, fluffy vanilla cake, which was separated into two parts by sweet white buttercream. Cute, edible decor in the shape of All Might’s signature hairstyle sat delicately on top, completing the whole design. It seemed like the perfect picture to post on Instagram, except for one tiny problem: Katsuki’s blurry hand swooping in for the kill.
Izuku pointed at the blurred corner that ruined his perfect shot. “You see this?” Izuku jabbed his phone for emphasis. “This is why I have a complaint, Kacchan!”
“You took too fucking long to get started! I was starvin’, how the hell do you expect me to wait for you to take some piddly-ass picture with the right lighting and right filter?”
“Starving?” Izuku scoffed. “We had just eaten a whole dinner less than an hour before we ordered this cake!”
“There’s always room for dessert, shitty Deku!”
They continued arguing, hurling insults and accusations at one another for every statement the other brought up. The rest of the class sat in the crossfire of the verbal war; some cowering in fear, others amused but not in the mood for this unsolicited drama.
“If you want another bite of that stupid cake, just go and buy it again yourself!” Katsuki roared.
“There is no ‘again,’ Kacchan! That was the last slice, don’t you remember?!” Izuku retorted.
The other students exchanged weary glances at each other. They could see their same expression reflected in each other’s faces. They knew this pain would never end at this rate. So, as if they came to a silent agreement, they nodded and began shuffling out of the common room and back to the safe havens of their rooms.
Within a solid minute, the entire common room had been swept clean of human bodies except for two heated males, still glowering at each other from opposite sides of the room.
They stared each other down, breathing heavily as they contemplated the next venomous thing they would say to the other. There was a brief pause in their attacks, that familiar, tense silence returning.
But then they broke out into laughter, collapsing onto the same couch.
“Seriously?” Katsuki sat up, ruffling Izuku’s hair. “Are you really still hung up about that All Might cake?”
Izuku was still chuckling as he pushed Katsuki’s hand off his head and draped it over his shoulder. “No—well, maybe a little,” Izuku said, leaning into Katsuki’s chest. “But that’s not what I’m really mad about, you know.”
Katsuki leaned back into Izuku’s warm body. “I know, I know,” Katsuki said, resting his head atop Izuku’s mess of green curls.
“You going to apologize for that yet, or am I going to have to continue being mad until the class decides to intervene again?”
Katsuki sighed. “Those guys are such idiots,” Katsuki said, shifting his posture so he could wrap both of his arms around Izuku.
“Well, if someone apologized to me properly, this wouldn’t have happened, now would it?” Izuku lazily wrapped his arms around Katsuki’s body as well, tracing lazy circles on Katsuki’s back. “So?”
Katsuki sighed again, this time loudly and almost sarcastically. “Fine, you win, Deku,” Katsuki mumbled. “I’m sorry for kicking you off the bed in the middle of the night. Happy now?”
Izuku giggled. “Yeah, just a bit,” Izuku nuzzled Katsuki’s neck.
“Geez, you’re such a drama queen,” Katsuki said, only to grunt as Izuku jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. “Don’t fucking do that, I’m only saying the truth as it is.”
“If you weren’t so stubborn, I wouldn’t have to act this way,” Izuku said, glancing up at Katsuki with a sly smile.
“Shut up, you like it,” Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s jaw none-too-gently and pulled it closer to his lips for a quick kiss.
“Just like how you like me being a drama queen?” Izuku laughed, giving Katsuki a peck on the lips.
Katsuki’s cheeks turned a shade redder, and so he huffed and buried his face into the crook of Izuku’s neck. “We can’t let those guys find out about us yet.” Because he wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with... all of that. And he knew Izuku wasn’t ready, either.
Izuku gently ran his fingers through Katsuki’s fluffy, blonde wisps of hair. “Then I guess we have to communicate better then, huh Kacchan?”
“Shut up, Deku.”
Izuku chuckled as they both held onto each other in a tight, warm and loving embrace. They stayed that way for some time late into the night, long after lights out, just cuddling, listening to the other’s heartbeat, and overall enjoying the other’s company in a mutual, comforting silence.