Chapter Text
mini scene 1
Hero and teacher schedules were pretty stacked and with Izuku doing both things and the couple wanting to spend all of their limited free time together, it meant they hadn’t seen most of their friends in a while.
A few of them they still saw weekly but some of the others they only really saw at group hangouts, which were at least once or twice a month but usually a last minute and less organised thing so they were a tad different from an actual class reunion and they were rarely all accounted for.
Having missed the last three group hangouts, Izuku had insisted on making it to the upcoming one they had just been notified of and that was taking place in three days.
Katsuki wasn’t exactly against it but he was a bit wary at breaking the bubble they’d been in for almost two months already.
They had talked immediately on the first day about the friends, family and media situation and were on par with each other about wanting a week or two for themselves for the peace of it but not caring to hide it any longer than that because they were both confident in their relationship - and mutual obsession - and hiding everything seemed like a pain.
Therefore a lot of their friends already knew about them from the grapevine and Katsuki was genuinely fine with that, what was bothering him a little was that their friends always made a big deal about everything and he was still kind of self-conscious at moments.
He had assumed Izuku would be too, the first few times they ran into someone, but turns out he was completely fine.
There were a lot of things that he could be shy and awkward about but that wasn’t one of them. He would blush and maybe stutter a bit depending on the comment but he was mostly fine and kind of a social butterfly actually.
It had taken a while for Katsuki to realise that Izuku’s easiness at the whole thing was because Izuku had been in relationships before, as in… plural; meanwhile Katsuki had literally zero prior experience with being a part of a couple in public (or with romance in general).
It was weird because he loved talking about Izuku even when he wasn’t there and he probably used the word boyfriend a bit too much, he was so happy with letting everyone know, but he was still a tiny bit self-conscious because sometimes it felt like he didn’t fully know or understand what were the social rules for acting as a couple while out and about.
Luckily Izuku apparently did know. For all of his ramblings about the guy thing, he actually didn’t seem to have any issues adjusting whatsoever.
Maybe he had realised dating was still just dating, regardless of gender, or maybe he’d just overestimated some things, either way, Katsuki felt grateful because he needed at least one of them to know what they were doing. It had already saved the blond on a few occasions too.
But there was still something else bothering him and he initially couldn’t place his finger on it until he saw the final confirmation of who (sans possible last minute villain attacks) was coming.
Uraraka had been on some mission abroad for a while and had landed back in Japan the day before, it was fairly normal to have some time off after a long mission abroad so she had immediately agreed to the next hangout but it meant that Katsuki and Izuku were going to see her again for the first time after starting to date and… Katsuki had some mixed feelings about it.
He had nothing against Uraraka but he still had a jealous nature he was trying to work on during therapy and he also mostly just felt uncomfortable knowing there was some history between her and his boyfriend but not knowing exactly what, yet also knowing that she was still apparently rooting for the two of them and had helped Izuku figure out some things so Katsuki also felt bad for the way he was feeling regarding her.
It also didn’t help that he kept thinking about how the last time some of his friends had seen Izuku, Uraraka was all over him and now Katsuki would be.
Honestly, the whole situation was giving him a headache.
Him and Izuku had promised to try really hard to communicate properly with each other given their track record so…
“When you said that you and Pink Cheeks had chemistry… that means you fucked, right?”
“What?” Izuku shrieked, almost dropping the plate he was about to place on the table.
(Maybe Katsuki should’ve picked a different time to ask but oh well, the words had already been spoken.)
“Oh, so more than once. Okay, that actually explains some things,” he thought back to how comfortable Uraraka had been in Izuku’s personal space the last time he had seen the two together.
Izuku groaned, “I do not wanna talk about this.”
“I’m not judging you, I’m asking you.”
“I don’t think you’re judging me but I hate where this is going?” he winced.
“Look, I’m not-” he fixated his gaze on the broth he was stirring, “I think it might be a bit awkward when we see her again with everyone else and I thought that if I knew more clearly what had happened between the two of you, I’d feel at least a bit more prepared.”
Izuku exhaled, quietly setting the plate down on the table, and walked up to Katsuki, standing next to him but with his back pressed to the counter by the stove, “What do you wanna know? And, for the record, I think you’re overthinking this but… if it’ll put your mind at ease, then…”
He gestured randomly with his hands before crossing his arms, “Go ahead and ask.”
Katsuki spared him a quick gentle glance, before refocusing on the task at hand, “Thank you.”
“It’s okay.”
He still sometimes struggled being vulnerable so even though he was the one that brought up the topic in the first place… he felt somewhat embarrassed and put on the spot by Izuku’s vicinity and fixed gaze, so he couldn’t help the faint blush that he knew was spreading across his cheeks and he hoped Izuku thought it was just from the heat from the pot.
“Did you…” he trailed off.
“Uh…” Izuku cleared his throat and awkwardly shifted on the spot, “yeah… uh- we did. A few times. Before… well, one time it was before we figured out that we’re better off as friends and that’s actually one of the things that led to that realisation but the others… were actually after we’d decided to remain just friends.”
Katsuki frowned, confused, “What…”
Izuku groaned, “It’s hard to explain and I can’t exactly tell you everything either ‘cause I want to respect her privacy but… have you- so, there’s- it’s kinda, like-”
“Izuku.”
“Right. I’ll just put it plainly, um- though it’s… kinda crass?”
“Alright?”
Izuku mumbled something incomprehensible and Katsuki turned to look at him again, his confusion having only grown.
“What?”
Izuku threw his head back and sighed, then brought it back down and hid his face in between his hands and loudly repeated what he had been trying to say before, “We were fuckbuddies, okay?”
Katsuki’s stirring movement came to a halt, the broth forgotten.
Face still hidden, Izuku asked, “You know what that means, right?”
The question jolted him and he furrowed his brows further. “Of course I know what that means! I may not have dated anyone before you but I’m not fucking sixty,” he scoffed.
“Right…” he finally lowered his hands and timidly looked at his boyfriend, “that’s all, really. We uh- we decided we were better off as friends but we were also single and did get along well and it’d been a while since we’d been with someone else so… one plus one, you know?”
Katsuki shook his head and went back to stirring the broth while looking at the tiles in front of him, “Was not expecting… that but uh- alright.”
“So…”
“Follow up question, what is it that made you realise you didn’t wanna date her?”
“Well, it was mutual on that front but from my end… I think I hyped it up? In my head. Early high school me would’ve exploded or something,” he lightly chuckled, “but I’m not early high school me and yeah, even by second year but especially third year, I wouldn’t have… enjoyed it as much?”
He continued, “I felt kinda bad admitting this back then but there were even periods where… I didn’t even enjoy talking with her all that much. We’ve talked about it now and the problem was that it was mutual. After the war I wanted for my relationships to stay the same but she… couldn’t act the same way towards me and that hurt me and at moments made me even angry.”
Katsuki hummed in acknowledgement.
“I get it now, again, we’ve spoken about it, but it… majorly fucking sucked back then.”
Katsuki did remember some of those instants.
“She had her reasons and all, I’m not blaming her, but my therapist says I have a tendency to downplay things that happened to me or that hurt me-”
“Yeah… I know.”
“Right, “Izuku snorted. “Anyway, so, I’m just saying… it sucked. Even if there’s no one to blame. Sometimes things just… suck.”
The green-haired man shook his head, “My point is… I’m a different person now? But I hadn’t caught that yet when it came to Uraraka, even though I understood it about other aspects of my life, so I assumed things would go smoothly and that it’d be like achieving my early high school crush dream and all that.”
“I get that,” he nodded.
“Yeah and uh… reality came knocking in. Again, we get along, I’m not saying we’re not friends, hell, we’re even better friends now after clearing things up but… it was just… wrong and weird. She expected me to be something else and I wanted her to be… someone else.”
Izuku messed with his already messy curls, “With you, we disagree a lot but… it makes sense, it works. It’s disagreement but it’s also not.”
“Yeah…” Katsuki smiled, knowing exactly what Izuku was trying to say.
“With her… even the things we agreed on felt like some type of disagreement? As if we were never… ever, on the same page. It was strange and uncomfortable. She also… it feels like we were never challenging each other? And this makes me sound like an asshole but it was really fucking boring after a while.”
Katsuki snorted but refrained from commenting.
“Again, she was feeling all of this too on top of her own separate stuff. It wasn’t a good match for either of us. And I guess it’s true what they say, opposites do attract,” he smiled.
“Sap,” he teased.
“We tried to make it work for a bit, we both felt pressured to, almost as if we owed it to our younger selves but also to our friends that were mostly rooting for us, but… it never actually worked. At least on the romance front,” he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, looking sideways.
“So… there you have it. Not much else to say, really. You satisfied?”
He finally turned off the stove and stepped back from the pot, turning to face Izuku and framing his face with both hands, “Yeah, I am.”
And he surprisingly meant it.
“Thank you,” he leaned forward and chastely kissed his boyfriend.
Izuku instantly hummed and pressed forward, placing his own hands on Katsuki’s waist.
(Izuku, Katsuki had found out, had a bit of a fixation with Katsuki’s waist and the blond was all too pleased about it.)
They slowly separated and Katsuki rubbed with his right thumb Izuku’s temple, “I’m sorry, I’m-”
“Don’t.” He immediately stopped him. “It’s okay.”
Still rubbing gentle circles on Izuku’s skin, “I love you.”
“I love you,” he pressed forward for another gentle kiss.
mini scene 2
In the end, Uraraka hadn’t been able to make it after all but Katsuki wasn’t dreading seeing her anymore, that was an improvement.
The rest of their friends had also reacted fairly okay to seeing the new couple in person so, really, Katsuki had had nothing to worry about (though he still felt awkward at moments).
Izuku was definitely going to hit him up later with a smug: I told you so.
(Or maybe he wouldn’t, unlike him, Izuku was actually a nice person.)
Still, Katsuki was happy with the outcome.
And he wasn’t the only one.
“Yooo, I’m so glad you guys came out here today ‘cause I swear I told Sero a million times that you were dating now and I showed him those gossip articles with those pap pics of you and like fucking tiktoks and everyone else told him but he still wouldn’t fucking believe it and we had a fucking bet but he wouldn’t pay up because he didn’t believe it!”
Shinsou joined the conversation, something he did rarely in big group settings, and lazily said, “Have you considered maybe that’s why he didn’t believe you? ‘Cause he didn’t wanna pay up?”
Eijirou jolted upright, “Dude! I hadn’t even thought of that! Now that you say it tho-”
“Seriously?”
“Speak of the devil,” Katsuki joked as Sero came back to their table with two huge pints of beer.
“Now my integrity’s being questioned, great,” he sat down, slightly spilling the drinks, “God forbid a guy asks for proof.”
“No-no, I think Shinsou here,” Eijirou threw an arm around the man, “was onto something.”
Sero scoffed and slid one of the drinks to the redhead, “Whatever. It made sense to doubt it.”
“What,” Katsuki scowled.
Sero wriggled a finger in front of Katsuki’s face, “Nope, you don’t get to get like that with me. I’ve had to hear you complain about Midoribro’s supposed heterosexuality for… forever now. I had my reasons to doubt this.”
“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes.
“But now the truth has been proven and I win!”
Katsuki looked at Sero but jerked his head towards Eijirou,“How much you owe him, anyway?”
Sero groaned, “Ugh, I made that bet when I was drunk. It shouldn’t even count. I mean, what kind of hero would take advantage of their frie-”
“Boooo!” the redhead clasped his hands around his mouth, squishing Shinsou who tried to slither out from the hold, before dropping one to do a thumbs down.
“Dude, I’m not Denki. Bro-out with him and let me breathe,” complained Shinsou.
“Right, sorry, man,” the broader man let him go. “Hey, actually, where did Denki and Midobro go? They’re taking a while.”
Most of their friends had left already but the three of them plus the wandering two had decided to stay some more and they’d gotten hungry after a while, so Izuku and Denki had volunteered to go get some food but Eijirou was right about it taking longer than expected.
Sero leaned towards Katsuki and cheered, “Oooooh-”
“What… are you doing.”
“The two of them are taking a while, huh?” He smirked then switched to a singing tone, “Kaminari and Midoriya, sitting on a stool, k-i-s-s-i-”
Katsuki pulled on a chunk of Sero’s long hair and the man instantly stopped singing in order to whine.
“Ah- ouch, ugh, okay, okay, I’m sorry, please don’t ruin my beautiful hair,” he begged.
“Make that joke again and I set it on fire.”
“Oof- careful Sero, ‘Roki isn’t even here today,” said Eijirou.
“Eh, it was time you got a haircut.”
Katsuki dropped the lock of hair and wiped his hand on Sero’s shoulder.
“Okay, first of all, you don’t get to talk, Aizawa Sensei wannabe. You get a haircut and second of all?” He turned to Katsuki, “My hair’s clean, you didn’t need to wipe your hand on me.”
“Disagree.”
“Ass, whatever, I hope Midoriya dumps you,” as soon as he finished the sentence he ducked from the incoming arm and Katsuki was in a good enough mood to let him.
“Wow, so you’ve really given up on life, huh? But Kats, maybe don’t kill him before he’s paid his debt to me, okay? Especially not today, now that he finally believes me.”
“Alright, I’ll do it after,” he played along.
“I remain of the opinion that holding a dear friend to a bet made durin-”
“Don’t tell me you guys are still talking about that stupid bet, isn’t it finally settled?” Denki came up from behind them, bringing nachos with him while Izuku, walking alongside him, brought some wings.
“Maybe you should just accept your fate and pay him,” shrugged Izuku after having arrived at the table and having deposited the wings.
“I’ll pay, you assholes. But you’re all fake friends and I’m deleting your phone numbers,” he pouted.
“Sure, dude,” Denki snorted and placed the nachos on the table, next to the wings.
“What took you guys so long?” Eijirou rapidly went for the wings.
“Oh, yeah, they had some type of issue in the back of the kitchen or something? What was it,” he turned to Izuku, “someone bumped into the kitchen’s electrical panel?”
“Yeah, one of the chef’s has a quirk similar to Yaoyorozu’s and apparently something startled him and he accidentally created and launched something heavy against one of the walls, hitting the panel.”
“Anyway,” Denki leisurely waved his hand, “it wasn’t broken broken but something something, cables something something, my point is, I offered to fiddle with some stuff and give it a spark and now it kinda works again! Or at least it should hold up until they can call an electrician.”
Katsuki snorted and Denki zeroed in on him, pulling an arm around him, “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up but I’ll let you know, Kacchan, that my small acts of service towards the populace are what make me such a trusted hero.”
“Yeah, whatever, just go be a trusted hero over there,” he pointed at one of the empty stools around their table, “you reek. See how useful you are in a few years when you can barely run for more than five minutes from mistreated lungs.”
“Oh, yeah? You don’t like my smoker’s breath?”
“No, shit, dunce face.”
“I second that,” joined Eijirou.
“At least it’s not a vape,” commented Izuku. “Those are much worst for you.”
Denki pressed closer to him, “Does this bother you, Mr Tough Guy?”
Here we go again, Katsuki thought. They did that dance every time.
Denki was to Katsuki what Rody was to Izuku; meaning: every time those two pure extroverts were near their target, they’d get all jokingly handsy but Izuku was a lot nicer about it than Katsuki was, always ending up shoving Denki to the ground but he still never learned the lesson.
“Ugh, you’re disgusting, get away from me,” he shoved Denki’s face away but the idiot pushed forward and tried to semi-sit on Katsuki’s lap.
“Why can you never be nice to your dear friend?” Denki teased, still trying to semi-sit on Katsuki’s lap.
“Get off, loser,” Katsuki was right about to shove him to the floor when suddenly Denki was being pulled back and shoved into the furthest stool available.
“Nope, no. Don’t do that.”
Katsuki blinked and looked up to find Izuku with one hand casually in his pocket and the other still holding onto Denki’s shirt.
“Absolutely don’t ever try to sit on my boyfriend’s lap again,” Izuku stated calmly and matter of factly, dropping his hold on the shirt and lightly patting the area. “Sorry about the shove, though,” he pulled up the closest empty stool, moved it next to Katsuki’s and sat down.
“Oh, shit, yeah, he is your boyfriend now,” Denki readjusted himself for balance.
Shinsou sighed and Eijirou facepalmed, while Sero almost fell from his own stool from laughing too hard.
“Welp, my bad. Forgot. Guess this means you’re not interested in a fun threesome with moi?” He placed a hand on his chest and sent Izuku puppy eyes.
“I think we’re good,” Izuku replied in lighthearted amusement.
“I’d rather d-” Katsuki remembered he wasn’t allowed to make dying jokes around his friends, especially Izuku, (something about it being a bit too jarring given that he had in fact died before) and instead switched to, “I’d rather kill you, actually.”
“Sounds hot but I don’t think your boyfriend would be into that.”
“You suck,” he deadpanned and they all laughed and then the conversation moved on but Katsuki was still stuck on the sight of a jealous, yet also calm and still friendly but somehow also stern, Izuku, pulling Denki out of the way for getting in Katsuki’s personal space.
His brain was replaying the scene on loop and his eyes kept stopping on the veins in Izuku’s arms and hands.
After a while he decided he couldn’t take it anymore and he declared they were going home and pulled Izuku with him.
(He’d never been more thankful for the adjustments he’d done to the backseats of his car.)
mini scene 3
“I’m just saying there’s bound to be some villain attacks happening somewhere in Japan right now.”
“Yeah, outside of our working range. Meaning, there’s other heroes in charge of those areas and they can take care of any possible attacks or disasters. And even if we wanted to deal with them ourselves, there’d be no way to arrive in time to stop anything because we’re too far out. Just accept that it’s a quiet night and we don’t have to rush anywhere.”
Izuku raised an eyebrow at Katsuki, “You do remember that’s a good thing, right? That it’s quiet and calm right now.”
“Tt- of course.”
“Great! Then stop hiding and stop stalling and let’s go.”
He groaned, “This is gonna be a nightmare.”
“Thanks,” Izuku dryly replied.
“You know I don’t mean because of you or for you but for me and because of her.”
“Kacchan,” Izuku sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “we’ve postponed this almost ten fucking times. We can’t keep postponing it.”
“That’s what I’m saying! Let’s just… altogether cancel it,” he suggested.
“No. You know we can’t do that. Just suck it up, it won’t be that bad.”
“Yeah… for youuu,” Katsuki poked him on the forehead.
Izuku crossed his arms, “Your parents love you. Why are you being like this?”
“That’s the problem! They’re way too fucking involved in everything I do and she’s gonna rub it in my face that we’re together now after she talked to me and-”
“But we are together because she talked to you!”
“Exactly! So she’s gonna be horrible about it.”
Izuku looked at him sternly, “I love you but I might punch you.”
“Well, jokes on you ‘cause that’s just gonna make me horny.”
“Kacchan-”
“Okay, fine, sorry. I mean, that was the truth but okay, fine, I get it, we can’t get out of this. Time to face the music.”
“Thank you. Oh and you do know they one-hundred percent know we’re outside, right?”
Katsuki sighed, “Yeah, I know.”
“Good. Here we go,” Izuku led them to the door and he rang the doorbell.
In less than a minute, the door was already being swung open and they were being welcomed by Katsuki’s father.
“Hi! How was the drive? It’s so good to have you kids here tonight with all of us.”
“The drive was fine! And we’re glad to be here,” Izuku beamed and Masaru went to hug him as Katsuki rolled his eyes.
“Come on in!”
Once they were inside and the door had been closed, coats shed, Katsuki hugged him too, “Hey, old man.”
“Aww, kiddo, you look so much better.”
Izuku raised an eyebrow in question and Katsuki flushed, “What the hell is that supposed to mean!”
Masaru looked back and forth between the two of them and then seemed to have a realisation, “Oh, uh- nothing!”
The brown-haired man awkwardly chuckled, “Nothing, just, haven’t seen you in a while. Here, let me hang your coats.”
At least his dad had apparently understood that Katsuki hadn’t exactly told Izuku the extent of his… situation prior to clearing things up. He had mentioned being down and needing to take some time off but he hadn’t given any details. It wasn’t simply embarrassing, he also just didn’t want Izuku to feel bad.
“Anyway, let’s head in, right?”
They all started walking towards the dining room and Masaru turned to Izuku, “Your mom made a cake that looks absolutely delicious and I made some katsudon I hope you’ll like.”
“Oh, thank you so much!”
“Not even hiding the bribing, huh?”
Izuku nudged him playfully.
“Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had Izuku over, we figured we’d pull all the stops.”
Izuku chuckled, “Really unnecessary.”
“Honestly, I think Mitsuki’s afraid you’re gonna try to bolt out of here,” he joked.
“I don’t think I’m the one she needs to worry about,” he sent Katsuki a knowing look.
“Fair point,” Masaru agreed.
“So, how’s-”
“Young Midoriya and Young Bakugou are here!”
“All Might!”
Izuku knew All Might was going to be there and he saw him plenty at UA so the enthusiasm was unwarranted but it always made Katsuki smile to see Izuku’s bond with All Might, considering he hadn’t had a father growing up.
Maybe the dinner was going to be a good idea after all.
Maybe.
“So nice to see you Young Bakugou, it’s been a while!”
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“I wasn’t scolding you,” he smiled.
“I know. It’s nice to see you too.”
“We should do this more often,” beamed Masaru.
“Dad, the dinner hasn’t even started yet.”
“I know but this is already so nice! We should try to do this once a month!”
Izuku smiled, “Sure!”
“Mitsuki and Inko should be done with setting the table by now, let’s go,” Masaru continued to lead them to the dining room and Katsuki braced himself for the upcoming screaming match.
“Right! And can you believe that after all of that they still had the absolute nerve to act like they didn’t actua- oh, fucking finally! The food was gonna get cold if you took any longer. So lovely to see you, Izuku! How long did this brat make you wait outside for?”
Izuku awkwardly chuckled, “Ah- we were just running a bit late, sorry! It’s really nice to see you again, Auntie! And hi, Mom!”
Both women went to hug the green-haired man.
“Hi, sweetie! And Katsuki, it feels like I haven’t seen you in forever!”
He nodded, “I guess it has been a while, sorry about that.”
Inko waved her hand, “Oh, don’t worry about that. But if you ever wanna drop by, feel free! Any time!”
He awkwardly nodded again.
“Well, aren’t you gonna say hi to your mother?” Mitsuki stood in front of him with crossed arms.
“Hi.”
She gave him a noogie, although lighter than her usual ones, and he moved out of the way scoffing as she lectured him, “After everything I’ve done for you you’re still so ungrateful, why do you alway-”
“Alright! How about we all just sit down and eat?” tried to mediate Masaru.
Katsuki and his mom both rolled their eyes but she did relent and gave her son a quick hug, “You’re welcome, by the way.”
He ignored her comment as they all sat around the table and actually started eating.
The food, as always, when his dad was the one to cook, was superb and he made sure to finish all of his plates and even asked for a few seconds, something he rarely ever did with his strict diet.
Unlike Izuku, who ate like an animal always and everywhere. Ever since he had started bulking up before UA and then kept it up and even increased it a bit afterwards, he had started eating like there was no end to his stomach or like he had an eating based quirk like Tamaki, Fatgum or even Yaoyorozu.
Katsuki liked to poke fun at his eating habits but he actually loved cooking for Izuku and seeing how happy it made him. He felt a strange sense of accomplishment every time Izuku would messily scarf down everything Katsuki prepared for him.
Izuku seemed to especially like this new recipe Masaru was experimenting with and Katsuki made a mental note to himself to secretly ask for it later in order to surprise his boyfriend with it one day.
The homemade cake brought by Inko was also amazing and Katsuki couldn’t refrain himself from making a teasing remark at Izuku, “See, this is how desserts should come out. Nice and, more importantly, edible. Might wanna remember that or write it down somewhere before you get back in the kitchen to make another mess.”
“You’re gonna be so jealous the day I finally manage to bake something and I don’t let you have a single piece and that day’s coming soon,” he pointed his spoon at Katsuki who laughed back.
“Oh, soon, huh? Okay, we’ll see about that. ‘Cause you’ve been kinda saying that for months, actually? But okay, soon,” he smirked.
Izuku went in for another bite as he mumbled, “You’re so mean.” Though it came out a bit funny due to the chewing.
Usually he would reply back with a cocky grin and a Yeah and you like it but… not in front of their parents, time and place, so he merely said, “Just honest” and shrugged.
During dinner the conversation, luckily, flowed easily and they all decided to stay a little longer afterwards but Masaru, who, along with Mitsuki, had forbidden any of the guests to help out, had gone to the kitchen with Katsuki to start cleaning everything up.
The others went to the living room and Katsuki hoped his mother wasn’t showing any embarrassing childhood photos, especially the baby ones (he may have grown into his looks but he was aware he had been a really ugly baby).
“So…”
“Ugh, don’t do this,” he threw his head back.
“Do what? Clean the counter?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Alright, alright. I get it. You want your privacy. No annoying meddling from dad.”
“Please stop.”
“But I just wanted to say, I’m- it’s nice seeing you so…”
Katsuki paused what he was doing.
“I’ve seen you being happy many times while you were growing up but it only started to look like genuine happiness a bit after everything with the war and it felt like Izuku was at the center of that.”
He knew what the older man was trying to say and he wasn’t wrong.
Some people argued that he never smiled before his second year at UA and Izuku always seemed puzzled at that, arguing that Katsuki smiled plenty of times, mainly when he would win at something… at anything, but Katsuki understood their point.
None of his smiles had actually been, in a sense, genuine until he’d faced and accepted all of his repressed feelings.
Yeah, he still had actually enjoyed the things that had made him smile back then (unless it was one of those smiles that was purely to uphold his facade) but comparing that happiness and those smiles to the ones after his reconciliation with Izuku? There was a whole sea in between them.
“But then… obstacles came your way and… you were still happy, much happier than I’ve ever known you, but you were clearly carrying this weight on your shoulders and never even talking about it, or at least not to us, but hopefully in therapy?”
He nodded but remained quiet.
“So, it’s nice to see that weight lifted off your shoulders. It’s nice to see you at your happiest and also at peace. I think this is the only time I’ve ever seen you at peace. I’m glad Izuku’s able to do that for you but I’m sorry that your mother and I weren’t able to as your parents.”
“Don’t,” he shook his head. “You know it’s complicated.”
He dropped the towel he was drying dishes with, leaving it on the counter his dad had just cleaned.
“You both tried to teach me, even before my quirk manifested but especially after that point, that I had to take things easily and enjoy them more and… be fucking nice to people.”
He spared a quick glance to the door, though there was no way to see the living room from there.
“But I was always good at everything I tried and you guys had me trying a lot of things too so it meant that I was good at way more stuff than the other kids and if I struggled at something, I’d just put in some effort and then I was good at that thing too and everyone else was always praising me constantly that by the time I started getting reprimanded for my behaviour… it didn’t matter anymore,” he shrugged.
“It mattered here, especially with Mom, but… it didn’t actually matter. I rarely ever saw consequences for my actions because even the adults who were scolding me, still praised me in other scenarios and they were never able to come up with any solution to make me face what I was turning into.”
He hadn’t expected the impromptu therapy session with his father but he found that the words came out smoothly and he felt that his dad really needed to hear them.
“Only ever having two people in your life holding up the mirror to you and saying, hey, stop it, this is messed up, you can be better than this, you should be better than this, is not enough when literally everyone else… doesn’t care as long as you keep being the best and showing those stats and results. At least you and Mom… tried.”
Masaru clicked his tongue, “Yeah, we did try. I guess sometimes that’s all we can do. And I don’t just mean parents. People. All of us. Sometimes trying is all we can do. Still, I’m sorry and I’m happy someone else succeeded with that… with you.”
“Yeah… I’m pretty happy about that too.”
He let a few seconds pass before adding, “For the record, it was a mix of people. It wasn’t simply Izuku, though obviously he played the major role, but my other friends and ex classmates and teachers and even other people I’d meet along the way, even some annoying kids, they all helped me to some degree or showed me different perspectives.”
“Then I’m glad you have so many good people on your side.”
“Yeah, me too,” he smiled, another true - genuine smile, not a rarity anymore.