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Every time Izuku successfully lifted something, he surprised himself.
He’d spent most of his life barely being able to lift a sack of flour, so of course he wasn’t quite used to his newfound strength. But during his time at UA, he’d slowly grown accustomed to his muscle gain, and was made keenly aware of his limits. He knew how much he could lift without breaking a sweat, he knew how much weight he needed in order to push himself, and he knew the exact rate at which he was progressing.
So why was it, then, that he very suddenly was able to lift 100 pounds more than last week?
Izuku glared at the weights as if they’d lied to him somehow.
Maybe I didn’t realize how quickly I've improved…? He thought hesitantly, but he knew it was ridiculous. He had meticulously written down his every move after every workout. There was no explanation for this.
So he didn't tell anyone about it.
It’s not like he bragged about his workout routine to anyone, anyway. and it wasn’t like it was a bad thing, so just like everything else in his life, there was no reason to make it anyone else’s problem!
Unfortunately there was a flaw in that plan. His name was Bakugou Katsuki.
“HEY DEKU!” The flaw in his plan shouted as he barged into Izuku’s room.
“Yes, Kacchan?” He asked without looking up from his desk. After their fight at ground beta, their relationship had gradually mended itself, to the point where he could hesitantly call Kacchan his best friend again, and vice versa. They’d gone from weekly sparring that contained far more emotion-sharing—and was probably much better labelled as fighting—than Aizawa-sensei liked, to routinely spending the evenings in each other’s rooms. It made him lightheaded with joy whenever he thought about it. However, tonight was not one of those nights. “I thought you were helping Kaminari-kun and Ashido-chan with their law and ethics?”
Kacchan huffed and closed the door behind him, then made himself at home on Izuku’s bed. “I never agreed to that shit. Besides, I need to talk to you.”
Uh oh. Izuku closed his notebook and finally turned to look at the blonde, “Um, about what?” He squeaked. Kacchan rolled his eyes.
“You’re not in fuckin' trouble, calm down nerd.”
The greenette slumped in his chair, pouting, “Well when you barge into my room and say ‘we need to talk’ people get anxious, okay? That’s not my fault!”
“I didn’t say it was, and that’s not the point!”
Izuku raised an unimpressed eyebrow, “Yeah? What was the point?”
Kacchan stared at him with an unreadable expression for several moments, long enough to make him vaguely uncomfortable, before, “Since when have you been able to lift more?”
“Oh,” Izuku said reflexively, surprised, and then bit his lip. “I mean, uh, what’re you talking about…?”
“Don’t even try it, nerd,” Kacchan growled.
“How do you even know about that?!” Izuku scowled, “I always do my workouts alone!”
When he said this, it almost looked like Kacchan… blushed? But he was turning away before he could get a proper look. “That doesn’t matter. I wasn't gonna say anything, but then we had our law and ethics test, and it was… way too easy.”
“I mean, I thought it was kind of easy, yeah, but what does that have to do with me being stronger?”
“I don't know, you’re the nerd! I'm saying I've noticed some weird shit going on. All my idiots have been less idiotic than normal, same with yours-”
“I think that’s called getting used to them, Kacchan.”
“They’ve gotten better grades even though I know they’ve studied less,” Kacchan growled pointedly. Izuku started to squirm in his seat.
“Maybe they’ve just finally adjusted to the dorms?”
“And last week, we didn’t catch the stupid flu that went around that literally everyone else at the school got?”
“That’s just how it works Kacchan, not everyone gets sick every flu season, and besides, as hero students we’re on a stricter diet and workout routine so we have better immune systems-“
“All of class B got it, as well as half of our class, shithead.”
“I mean, still, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything-“
“The only people who didn’t get sick were you, me, your friends, Aizawa-sensei, and All Might,” Kacchan leaned forward holding his hands up like he was going to strangle the other boy. “The guy missing a couple organs? With the shittiest immune system at the school? You don’t think that’s fuckin’ weird?”
“I mean of course it is!” Izuku gave in, throwing his hands up. “Of course that’s weird, but how could all of that possibly be related?!”
“You!” Kacchan yelled back. Izuku reeled.
“M-me?” He repeated.
“It’s only your friends, Deku,” Kacchan explained, softer now, running a hand through his hair. “Your friend group has had… whatever effects for a little while now. And now that we’re hanging out more, you’re hanging out with my idiots more, and the same thing is happening to them.” Kacchan leaned back on the bed. “I don't know what it means. That's why I came to ask you.”
And in the midst of that entire crisis, Izuku smiled fondly. He was so proud of how much progress Kacchan had made, he couldn’t help it! Coming to someone for help? Admitting when he didn’t know something? Admitting that Izuku might know more than him?
“So, dumbass,” Kacchan muttered, snapping izuku out of his head. “You got any ideas?”
“I…” Izuku stared at the floor, and then was silent.
Midoriya Izuku was born quirkless.
Not everyone knew that, in fact most didn’t, but he knew that. Kacchan knew that. All Might knew that. Detective Tsukauchi and Principle Nedzu and Gran Torino knew that.
So why was he sitting here, with Recovery Girl, who also knew that, being told he wasn’t?
“I.. I don’t understand,” Izuku muttered, staring at the x-ray in front of him. He’d gotten so many of them, here in this very office, that he’d started carrying around Recovery Girl’s favorite chocolate as compensation for her time. And he knew exactly what the bones of his foot looked like. He’d studied the x-ray that damned him for hours as a child, staring at it in the hopes that it would magically change reality. He knew that his big toe was crooked from when he broke it at three years old, that his heel was shaped a little funny but not funny enough to be a problem, and he knew that he had an extra pinky toe joint declaring him quirkless.
Or he thought he did.
“Well whatever doctor you went to was clearly an idiot, or maybe lazy,” Recovery Girl huffed, “I would tell you to sue for malpractice, but he disappeared several years ago. Either way, while there are cases of quirkless people lacking the diagnostic toe joint, it is much more likely that you have a latent quirk that we never noticed.”
And with that earth shattering revelation, she shooed him out of her office.
He had a quirk? Well of course he had a quirk, he had One for All, and he also had Blackwhip and would soon have many others. But… more likely than not, he was never quirkless to begin with. How could he have never known? It could be something with effects so subtle that no one had noticed. or something with such specific requirements that he’d never used it before, similar to his excuse with One for All. Or it could be both, he supposed, but-
“Oi, nerd, fuck you mumbling about now?” Izuku jolted to a stop, finding himself in the hallway next to the room he and All Might, and now Kacchan, used to talk privately.
“Oh, perfect! Kacchan, I need to talk to you!” He declared, boldly grabbing his friend’s hand and dragging him into the meeting room. Not even a year ago, this would’ve gotten his arm blasted off, but now Kacchan simply growled and yanked his arm back, before following him.
He barely spared a thought towards being happy at this fact, before he was brought back to his original problem. “You know, last time I said that you got all pouty.”
Right, Izuku winced apologetically. “Sorry kacchan, but that reminds me…” of that talk a few days ago. Izuku murmured to himself, The weights? The flu? The test? He quickly closed the door behind them, before making short order of pacing around the room. “So- how do I say this, you know- well basically I-“
Kacchan growled again. “Deku. Get your shit together before you fuckin’ speak.”
“Right, sorry Kacchan,” He apologized. He stopped next to the door, staring at it like the words would be carved into the grain of the wood, before running a hand through his hair. “So you know how quirkless people have an extra pinky toe joint, right?”
“Yeah, that’s how the doctor diagnosed you, what of it?” Kacchan huffed, crossing his ridiculously muscular arms across his ridiculously muscular chest- not the time!
“And you know how Recovery Girl takes an x-ray of broken bones before healing them so they don’t heal wrong?” This time Kacchan merely growled impatiently, so he kept going. “And how I broke my foot because I was demonstrating a kick to Iida-kun for his advice which is why I was in the infirmary to begin with, because I didn't realize that I was using so much force and I wasn't wearing my boots because we’d already finished up for the day and were heading back to the dorms-“
“Yeah I fuckin’ know! What the fuck is your point here?!” Kacchan snapped. He shouted, but his palms stayed quiet, which was the real indicator that meant he wasn’t actually mad. That thought brought with it the memories of their childhood, but he shook them away.
“Apparently I don’t actually have the extra toe joint and I probably have a quirk other than One for All.”
“…No.”
Izuku blinked. “Kacchan, you can’t just say ‘no’, Recovery Girl showed me the x-ray she took-“
“No!” Kacchan repeated. “You’re telling me you had a quirk but it was just so fuckin useless that nobody noticed and you were basically quirkless anyway?” He uncrossed his arms and stalked over to Izuku. He was proud of the fact that this didn’t scare him anymore, that their friendship had healed so much in such a short amount of time. Although, that brought with it a different problem, which showed in his reddening cheeks.
“Well, that or it had very specific activation requirements that I’ve never done or met.”
“What kind of wild ass activation requirement could it have been, hah?!” Kacchan shouted. “Snap your fingers and click your heels three fuckin' times? That’s fuckin’ ridiculous!”
“I mean to be fair I've never done that before,” Izuku said, “But there are plenty of quirk requirements out there, it could be something to do with wilderness since I’ve never really been anywhere other than a city, or possibly something like resistance to poison or diseases, I never did get sick as a child very often, there are also quirks relating to intimacy and sex-“
“OK, that’s enough!” Kacchan cut him off, rubbing his eyes. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think the boy was blushing. Sexual quirks weren’t exactly rare, even just peripheral ones like Midnight-sensei’s, and he’d obviously never done anything like that so he wouldn’t know, although Kacchan is very close right now- “You think it’s related to all the,” He gestured loosely at Izuku, “Weird shit?”
“It’s possible,” he conceded. “But I don't know how we could know for sure, all of those things were so diverse I can hardly imagine that they all come from the same place-“
“Okay, okay,” Kacchan pinched the bridge of his nose. “How about this. Whenever Aizawa-sensei erases your quirk, what does it feel like?”
“Oh,” Izuku halted his previous train of thought, quickly switching over to this new track. “Well when I’m using One for All I obviously feel weaker and my head is a bit quieter, probably because the vestiges can’t interact with me anymore, but that doesn’t help us. I tried loads of different requirements when I was first diagnosed so unless it’s, well, then it’s probably not something I have to activate. If it’s passive then what’s more important is what it feels like when he’s using it for intimidation. Usually I'm more focused on whatever sensei is trying to say, and I always feel anxious because I hate being singled out by teachers, but besides that? Well…” He trailed off to think, which was a little hard when Kacchan was so close to him, but he made do.
“It does make me feel weaker, and I'd always attributed that to the anxiety, but I'm not really nervous with Aizawa-sensei anymore. I trust him. And sometimes when he asks me questions it’s hard for me to answer which, again, I thought was anxiety. But now that I think about it, I always know the answer right before or after, and it’s never a problem unless he uses his quirk. Plus, I've always had a hard time reading him when he does it, not that he’s particular easy to read in general but I've kind of gotten the hang of it now-“
“Right,” Kacchan cut him off, sensing that he was—mostly—done, “So strength, memory, and, what? Being able to read people?”
“Emotional intelligence, I guess,” Izuku agreed. “But those are all so different, I can’t imagine it’s just a simple boost, there must be some element to it that decides…” He rifled through his memory of their admittedly short time at UA, all the way back to the beginning. “You know, I didn’t actually used to feel weaker, with my quirk erased. I don’t think that started happening until… maybe after the licensing exam…? And that’s actually also around the time I was suddenly able to lift more. But what happened then that could affect this? Besides just getting my license because I doubt government records could be tied to quirks like that, although that might be something someone has looked into-“
“I might have an idea,” Kacchan said suddenly. He was glaring at the window like it had done something to him, and… was he blushing? “But we should tell sensei about this.”
Izuku immediately opened his mouth to protest, but a hand covered his face. “I know what you’re gonna say. I know you don’t trust teachers, and that’s my fuckin’ fault-“ Wait, what? “But you admitted to trusting the fuckin’ hobo, and I’ve been telling you that, as our teacher, he really should know everything there is to know about your quirk so he can help you better. But the fact of the matter is that he’s damn smart, and I bet he already knows something’s up because of Blackwhip. Plus, he’s the best shot we have at figuring this out.” He sighed, and then finally took his hand off Izuku with a gentle finger swiping across his face to remove any nitroglycerin, allowing him to answer.
Not that he really could, considering Kacchan just casually took responsibility for something he did wrong? And was so gentle with Izuku? So heartachingly careful? Was this a dream? An alternate reality? He’d have to think about this more-
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Izuku said, instead of the myriad versions of I'm so proud and thank you and I love you that he was thinking.
“I fuckin’ know I am, I’m always fuckin’ right, shitty nerd,” Kacchan said with a smirk. Yeah, that’s more like him. “Now come on, he should still be in his office.” And then he grabbed Izuku in a manner similar to what the greenette had done not ten minutes prior, and started dragging him towards the teacher’s lounge.
“Ah! Wait, kacchan, shouldn’t we at least tell All Might first?” Izuku asked as he stumbled after his friend.
“That old man can fuckin’ deal with it,” Kacchan responded, not letting go even a little. “You’re entitled to your own support system considering he’s got like four fuckin' people on his side. And even though I get it, it’s frankly unbelievable that he even wanted to keep it from Aizawa-sensei in the first place-“
“I’m sorry, what did who want you to keep from me?”
“Oh, Aizawa-sensei!”
“Sensei, we need to talk,” Kacchan replied, not even stopping as they passed Aizawa-sensei in the hallway, “Privately.”
“Kacchan, you can’t just barge in like that! What if he has a meeting, or an appointment, or-“ Aizawa-sensei just sighed and fell into step with them.
“I have time, problem children. I should’ve known today went too smoothly. You only visited the nurse once.” Before Izuku could even try to defend himself, they’d reached their teacher’s office, and Aizawa-sensei was shuffling papers to the side of his desk. “What is it?”
“Kacchan, look-“
“Deku was given his quirk by All Might, who was given it by his predecessor, et cetera, and we thought the nerd was quirkless before then, but turns out he wasn’t and it’s just some shit that’s subtle or weird and you’re the best way to figure out what it is.”
Aizawa-sensei looked at Kacchan with a deadpan stare for several moments, before turning to look at Izuku, who sheepishly nodded. The teacher sighed.
“I’m gonna need way more coffee for this.”
“Ok. Hand-me-down quirk. You’re getting others. You have an unknown quirk that may or may not have been active this entire time and nobody realized. And you need me to help figure it out.”
Izuku fiddled with his teacup, which he hadn’t even begun to drink from, before nodding. “Uhm, yeah, basically.”
Running a hand down his face, Aizawa-sensei continued, “I am going to lock that skeleton in a room full of scorpions, and I need to have a long talk with the rat. But whatever,” He sighed, and then his eyes burned red. “Try to remember the questions from last week’s heroics test.”
Oh! The one about communication on the field, he thought it was pretty easy, it was mostly common sense, but it did remind him to brush up on his JSL. He always remembered test questions, it was helpful when he knew he got something wrong so he could figure out the answer before the tests came back, more time efficient that way, and sensei definitely knew that about him- what were the questions?
“I don’t… oh. Uhm, there was… something about sign language…?” He mumbled, squinting at his tea in frustration. And then suddenly, like wind blowing away a fog, he remembered. “Questions one through five were about when and when not to use verbal communication, and questions six through ten were about the different kinds of nonverbal communication, and then questions-“
“Alright, that’s proof enough,” Kacchan interrupted. Izuku looked up to find Aizawa-sensei’s eyes back to normal, and he was writing something down. On a spare sheet of paper
“Sorry,” Izuku said, before another memory hit him. “Uhm, what was the idea you had, Kacchan?”
His friend shifted in the chair next to him, looking away. “Right. Well… I realized that when he erases your quirk, I also feel the effects.” Aizawa-sensei raised an eyebrow, and marked something else down on his sheet of paper.
“What effects, exactly, Bakugou?” He asked.
“The weakness that you feel, just a little,” He scowled, as if even the prospect of something weakening him was offensive to him. Which, Izuku supposed it was. “My memory was shittier, and…” He trailed off here, grinding his teeth. “I felt more pissed off. Like I was impatient to get 'outta here, even though just before, and now, I… I’m always pissed off, but I'm less annoyed about it than when you were erasing his quirk,” He finished, before slouching back into his chair. That amount of emotional honesty was pretty unusual for him, so Izuku smiled.
“Interesting,” Aizawa-sensei mused. “And you said you didn’t used to feel physically weak when I used erasure on you, correct?” Izuku nodded. “Which means something changed between then and now, around the time of the licensing exam. It would be ideal if we could see how this affects others around you such as your friends, but for the time being, Bakugou seemed to have an idea on what this change was.” Sensei raised an eyebrow at Kacchan’s slouch, but didn’t say anything about it. At his words, Kacchan definitely turned red, which had Izuku away on several different trains of thought, only a few of which were about how pretty he was.
“Well, after the exam was our fight at Ground Beta,” Kacchan began reluctantly. “And before I say this, I'd like to point out that I always felt that physical weakness, keep that in mind you shithead,” He directed the last part at Izuku, who sputtered.
“Wha-!”
“I realized that you’re hot now.”
Silence.
And then, “Wait, so a feeling of physical attraction giving the subject of attraction physical strength? And it goes both ways,” He absolutely could not hold back his blush at the thought, or at his next point, “Our fight did clear a lot of things up for both of us, but especially for kacchan, so I guess we both saw each other in a new light, although I’ve known kacchan is hot since middle school-“
“Wait, what?”
Aizawa-sensei cut him off with a long, deep, put-upon sigh, dropping his head into his hands. Izuku blushed, having forgotten where he was, and resolutely did not look at Kacchan.
“Problem child, if you have a sex quirk I will never forgive you,” Aizawa-sensei said.
“NO!” Izuku shouted, waving his arms back and forth, “I mean- technically- because that only explains the physical weakness part, not the memory or the emotional awareness parts, which makes me think of that Greek concept where they had multiple words for different kinds of, well… love…?” He came to a stop here. This was not how he was expecting to confess his feelings, but they were in too deep now. There was only forward now, and he’d never been the kind to look back. “I mean I've always loved Kacchan, he’s amazing, but if this is also related to all those other weird things? Kacchan mentioned a recent change, so if it’s related to love? Before now it was probably mostly what I think they called pragma or enduring love, whereas our relationship now involves more actual affection and teasing, so it seems like when I love someone it gives them some passive effect depending on what kind of love it is, and I receive the same benefit?” He devolved into mumbling, missing the look that Aizawa-sensei sent towards Kacchan. “Or maybe only if they love me back? Because Kacchan and I felt different effects. I don't remember all of the types, I just remember that there was, uhm, lust” He coughed, rushing past the word before continuing, “And then love for your family, which I remember being somewhat confused by because I can’t imagine that the love a mother feels for her son is the same kind of love that a brother feels for his sister, but something to look into later, and love for your self, although if that last one has any bearing on my- my!- quirk, then I have to wonder what its effects are, since by definition I wouldn’t be receiving it from anyone, maybe the quirk needs a base level of self love in order to function? Which might explain why we never noticed before-“
“Okay,” Aizawa-sensei pushed himself up from his desk. “That’s a conversation that you should have with Hound Dog, not me, and this,” He punctuated his words with a sharp glare between the two students, “Is a conversation you two need to have in private. I am going to go grade papers, and you two are going to talk about whatever teenage hormone romance shenanigans you have going on, and if I hear explosions I'm putting you on house arrest,” And then he swept out of the room, with a mutter that sounded suspiciously like “damn problem children”, before the door closed behind him.
The two of them sat in tense silence for several seconds after that, staring at whatever poor object they chose at that particular moment.
“So, this wasn’t how I imagined this going,” Kacchan said first.
“Yeah, me neither,” Izuku agreed, and then they were silent again. Whether Kacchan meant their talk with Aizawa-sense, or the, well, confession, he wasn’t sure. It could’ve been both. Unfortunately, the silence left a lot of room for his thoughts to run amok.
“So you… think I'm hot…?” He asked disbelievingly.
This got a reaction, fortunately, although it was, “I don’t fuckin’ think, I know, have you seen yourself in the fuckin’ mirror Deku?”
Izuku squeaked. “Uhm-“
“Don’t start with the self deprecating bullshit, I don’t wanna fuckin’ hear it. And besides, I know it’s mutual.”
“It’s uh… a little more than mutual,” Izuku mumbled, drawing his knees up to chest so he could hide his face in them. Kacchan huffed beside him.
“Yeah, well…” This is it, He thought miserably, This is where he swears at me and tells me to never come near him again and- “Me too, or whatever.” What.
“You… You too…?” Izuku breathed.
“I fuckin’ love you too, okay? In multiple ways probably, but I didn’t think I deserved to tell you because you deserve way better than me, and Eijirou can shove it up his ass if he cares so much, and-“
“You love me?” Izuku breathed again. He glanced at Kacchan, to see his face flushed bright red, and he was scowling up a storm, but his hands- well. they weren’t silent. They popped and sparkled, but not sharp in the threatening way he’d always done in middle school, or low in the the bored way he did during class to burn off sweat. No, this was constant, but unpredictable, like he was sweating too much to properly control in small bursts, but was still trying anyway.
Like he was nervous. And like he didn’t want to hurt anyone.
“I’m not gonna fuckin’ say it again, nerd,” Kacchan growled, but his palms kept taking over him. “But… yeah. I'm… I'm sorry.”
That drew Izuku’s attention away from his hands. “Sorry? What are you sorry for?”
“For… you know. Feeling like this,” Kacchan muttered petulantly. A sharp crackle from his hands. “I don’t deserve to, I know. Which is why I never told you, wasn’t planning on telling you-“
“Kacchan loves me and he was never gonna tell me?!” Izuku shouted, shifting in his chair to look directly at his friend. The blond glared at the floor, but Izuku knew he could see him. “I do deserve better, and to me, better is you! No one is better than Kacchan!”
“You can’t mean that,” He protested. “I was horrible to you!”
“Yeah, was! Not anymore!” Izuku replied, like it was obvious. To him, it was. “You’ve grown so much in the past few months, but even before that I wanted you, and it probably wasn’t healthy before but I had so much faith in you, and now you’ve grown into someone who can love me back…” The other teen was now glaring at him, but his palms had finally quieted down.
“You fuckin’ want…” He stared in disbelief. Izuku stared right back, willing Kacchan to understand. “You want me.”
“As a classmate, as a hero partner, as a rival, as a- a boyfriend, if you want,” Izuku confirmed. “I love you in all the ways there are to love someone.“
“You’ve always been a fuckin’ sap,” Kacchan muttered. “You love everything.”
“Yeah,” Izuku agreed, “And my everything is you.”
“…So between Aizawa-sensei and my mom, I imagine the only difference might be that mom has known me longer, because Aizawa-sensei is kind of like a dad to all of us anyway.”
"Don't let him hear you say that,” Katsuki muttered from his place on the bed. He stared at the ceiling as if it would give him answers to the sea of questions in his head.
“So I guess that would fall under pragma. All Might is similar for me, but there are probably remnants of me being all fanboy towards him-“
“Probably?” Katsuki scoffed. He rolled onto his side to stare at Deku’s back, watching him scribble furiously in a new notebook about his apparently not new quirk.
“Which makes it seem like pragma is associated with better memory. What about you being angry, what do you think that was about?”
“It wasn’t about the anger, it was about my patience,” Katsuki corrected, “Talking to sensei was always gonna make me mad, but I fuckin’ dealt with it. But without… without you, it was harder to ignore. Like I was less determined to get through it.”
He could hear Izuku blushing. “Okay, so kind of a mental strength, in contrast to physical strength?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.”
“Lemme see what else they said,” Izuku muttered, and he flipped through several pages of his notebook. “Aizawa-sensei said he ‘felt like he needed more coffee’, and All Might…” he trailed off, presumably bouncing theories around his giant head. He kept flipping between the quotes they had gotten from the few people who they could talk to about this, and the definitions he had written on page one of his notebook. Katsuki had helped with all of that initially, including pointing out all of the weird bullshit that happened to their class that might be due to this quirk. He'd been grilled about his feelings for Deku, who in return rambled about his own feelings, which was both mortifying for them both, and adorable. The nerd could get past any embarrassment in the world if it was about quirks. The thought made him smile softly at Izuku's back.
Izuku, who’d never stopped loving him.
That made him frown again. Beside the now familiar guilt he felt for what he’d done, he had a couple new problems.
“Hey, Deku,” He murmured, “Do you think…” He trailed off, not sure how to ask. Staring at the other boy’s back had given him no more answers than the ceiling had. Izuku closed his notebook and turned around, and the way the sun shone through the window onto his face made him glow. Kami, Katsuki loved him. How had he ever not?
“Do I think what?” Deku prompted.
“Well, first… I'm sorry.”
Izuku smiled fondly, and sadly, “Kacchan, you already said that.”
“I know, but,” He sighed, sitting to sit face to face with his friend? Best friend? Boyfriend- Deku. “This whole time, you had a quirk that affected you and the people who loved you.”
“Yeah, we’ve spent the last few hours analyzing it.”
“And we didn’t notice until now.”
Izuku frowned in confusion, trying to find the connection, before his eyes widened. “Oh, kacchan-“
“I know. I know you’ve forgiven me, even though you shouldn’t have. Because I made your life hell, a life where the only person who loved you was your mother. You should’ve had more than that. You should’ve had me.” Katsuki hung his head. “I'm never gonna say sorry enough.”
“…Alright,” Izuku murmured. He stood from the desk and sat back down next to Katsuki, wrapping an arm around him. “Thank you. And you know-“
“You forgive me,” Katsuki finished, “Yeah, I know.”
“You just need to forgive yourself.”
“That’ll take longer. I'm not a forgiving person.” Deku chuckled, and they leaned on each other. Katsuki basked in it, hoping that he’d leech some of the good from the boy he loved, so that maybe he could be a person worthy of it.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Deku said, “…What else?”
Katsuki hummed. “Do you think… I would've gotten here, without you?” Izuku blinked.
“What, like here at UA? of course you would’ve, you’re Kacchan,” The greenette stated plainly. The blond pulled away to look at Deku.
“Your quirk boosts people you love. You've always loved me, so… would I have been able to achieve any of this if you hadn’t? Can I actually say that I accomplished anything?”
“Of course you can!” Deku exclaimed, affronted. "It's not really a boost, is it? Not for you.” Katsuki furrowed his brow, confused, and Izuku giggled. “It’s more like… a law. Me loving you is like, like aizawa-sensei being tired. The sun rises in the east, Aizawa-sensei is tired, and I love Kacchan.” Izuku leaned forward so their foreheads met, staring deeply into Katsuki’s eyes. “All of that love started with you. You are what I love, so that bonus strength or whatever started with you. It’s yours. It belongs to you. You just got it from me.” Izuku smiled, and it was so warm. It was a wonder that nobody had ever realized what his quirk was; Izuku's love seeped from every pore, it shined in his eyes, and came out in every laugh. And right now, it was all directed at Katsuki. “You’re past the point where you think you have to do everything on your own. And besides, is it really that different from normal feelings? Aren't we all stronger because of the people we love? What's so different about people being more determined because of my love for them? About better remembering their past with me?”
Katsuki frowned, “I just…”
Izuku wiped his thumb across Katsuki's cheek, and he realized he was crying. Damn his father and his genes. Damn the midoriyas and their giant impact on his life.
“My love isn’t all that special.”
No matter what Izuku said, he knew he’d never be anything close to what he was if not for this brilliant boy. He knew Izuku was the backbone of everything he’d ever done, and would continue to be for the rest of their lives. He found he didn’t mind the thought. Kacchan leaned forward to leave a kiss on his love’s lips, trying his best to replicate the heady effect that Deku had on him, and said, “You’re wrong.”