Chapter Text
Katsuki Bakugo was not stalking Izuku Midoriya.
Well, that’s what he kept telling himself.
So maybe he hid around corners to listen in on Izuku’s conversations. And maybe he knew Izuku’s entire daily routine by heart. And maybe, just maybe, he put a GPS tracker in the nerd’s dumb red shoes. This did not mean that he was stalking him. Or that he was obsessed with him.
Which was exactly what Kirishima was accusing Katsuki of being right now.
The self-proclaimed Bakusquad was sitting at their usual lunch table. Katsuki had sat in his usual seat, which of course gave him a perfect line of sight to Izuku. He was currently in a rapt conversation with Round Cheeks and Four Eyes while Half and Half nodded along to what they were saying. The fact that they had Izuku’s full attention right now was majorly pissing Katsuki off. It must have been showing on his face because Kirishima just had to point it out. A certain spikey redhead's sudden outburst interrupted whatever idiotic topic the Bakusquad had been discussing.
“Wow, Bakugo. You stare at Midoriya like you’re trying to blow him up with your mind. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re obsessed.” Mina and Kaminari cover their mouths to stifle their laughter. Katsuki grits his teeth and stabs his lunch with his chopsticks.
He didn’t even want to respond. Was he obsessed with Izuku? He did watch him every second he could, and he thought about him nearly constantly every day. Did that make him obsessed? Whatever. He’d never admit any of that to these extras anyway.
“I’m not obsessed with that damn nerd. And I don’t stare at him!”
Mina gives him a skeptical look. “Ok, then what were you just doing?”
Katsuki glares at her and growls.
“Ok. Ok. Let’s not poke the bear,” Kaminari says placatingly. “We all know Kacchan doesn’t like talking about his feelings~”
The sound of Izuku’s nickname coming out of someone else’s mouth was his last straw. As Kaminari is cooing out the last word, Katsuki puts up his palm to the electric boy and sets off a small explosion. Kirishima jumps up and blocks Kaminari from the blast but it was mostly smoke anyway. Katsuki wasn’t trying to get expelled and be forced to be apart from Izuku.
As their corner of the lunch table cleared of smoke Katsuki looked across the room and met Izuku’s eyes. The green-haired boy looked slightly shocked at the commotion but there was a spark in those green eyes that sometimes Katsuki wondered if only he could see. The spark of a hero wanting to immediately jump into danger. The spark of someone seeking out the adrenaline rush of chaos. Katsuki smirked and held the eye contact between them. It was broken when Round Face put her hand on Izuku’s shoulder and he looked at her. Katsuki’s eye twitched and his jaw strained as he ground his teeth.
“Bakugo.” Katsuki looked over to the voice and saw the stern, unamused face of his homeroom teacher. “Care to explain yourself?”
“Tch. Dunceface got what he deserved for running his mouth.” Katsuki leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
Aizawa sighed tiredly. “Detention. After school.” He sluggishly turned around and sauntered off. Katsuki rolled his eyes. He was pissed that would cut into his plans for the night, but it could be worse.
He stole one last glance toward Izuku, who was still talking to the Round Bitch, and started packing up his lunch.
“Hey man, where are you going?” Kirishima asks with concern in his voice. “Denki didn’t mean to piss you off that bad, bro. He was just kidding around.”
Katsuki just stood and leveled Kirishima with a deadly look. “You extras think because you hang around me you can talk however you want to me. I won’t remind you again that you aren’t my friends.”
Katsuki walked out of the cafeteria without another word. As he passed Izuku’s table Half and Half looked up and caught his eye. Katsuki bared his teeth in a probably horrific parody of a smile. The fire and ice user stayed stoic as he passed but dipped close to Four Eyes to whisper something as soon as Katsuki looked away.
Katsuki knew three sets of eyes watched as the cafeteria doors behind him. They were probably upset by his words. They always wanted to insist that they were his friends. They wanted so badly for Katsuki to view them as equals and worthy of his time. But Katsuki only saw one person who was good enough to consider his friend.
What Katsuki didn’t know was that a fourth set of wide green eyes watched the doors swing closed.
********************
“Deku-kun! Did you hear what I said?”
Izuku whipped his head around to look at his friend. She was a bit wide-eyed so what she said must have been important. “I’m sorry Uraraka,” he said while nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “I was kinda spaced out.”
She smiles kindly. “It’s ok. I was just asking if Bakugo has always had a temper like that. You’ve known him since middle school, right?”
Izuku nods. “Well, yeah. Actually, I’ve known him since we were four.”
Todoroki swallows his bite of noodles and faces Izuku, his face blank as ever. “Was he always so hot-headed?”
Izuku thinks about it and shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess. I think his anger is more nuanced than it used to be.” He thinks back to being pushed down in the sand by Kacchan when they were just little kids. He thinks about how that evolved into the insults in middle school and eventually into their knockdown drag-out fights recently. “Kacchan thinks a lot about his actions now.”
Iida looks taken aback by Izuku’s words. “You’re telling us he was actually more careless before? That this is him thinking before acting?”
“Mmmm,” Izuku hums as he takes a bite of his lunch. “He’s really grown up so much. He’ll make a great pro one day.”
Uraraka gives him a funny look and quietly goes back to eating her food. Izuku can tell she wants to say something and it bugs him that she isn’t just saying it. Todoroki doesn’t seem to have the same hesitance when he speaks up.
“I don’t agree. I think his temper will cause more trouble than any good he can do as a hero.” His heterochromatic eyes were flat as ever as he spoke the words like facts.
Izuku felt a fire light inside himself. It stayed calm and tame until someone insulted Kacchan. Izuku laughed and maybe it came out a little crazied. “Todoroki, you just don’t know Kacchan well enough. His temper isn’t that bad. And he’s very dedicated to hero work.”
“Do you really believe that, Midoriya?” Iida tilts his head and it feels very condescending to Izuku. Like he was questioning his mental capabilities for supporting Kacchan. Izuku plastered a sweet smile on his face.
“Of course, Iida. Kacchan is so smart and capable! I plan on fighting him for the number one spot when we’re pros.”
Iida shares a look with Todoroki and begins to say something but is cut off by Uraraka.
“Guys, I don’t think we should argue about this.” Izuku looks over at her thankfully. At least one of his friends has his back. “Obviously Deku-kun sees Bakugo differently than we do.” Izuku’s smile fades.
“What do you mean by that, Uraraka?” Izuku tries to keep his face neutral as she looks over at him and shrugs.
“I just mean it’s pretty obvious you see something in him that the rest of us don’t.” She pauses and a blush starts forming on her cheeks. “Not like anything weird or anything.”
Izuku tilts his head, trying to figure out what she was implying by that. His eyes went wide when he realized that she was insinuating that Izuku liked Kacchan romantically. His cheeks went a dark red immediately and he started packing up his lunch.
“Wait, Deku, I didn’t mean it like that I promise.” She reached out for his sleeve as he stood.
“It’s ok,” Izuku said with a fake smile. “I just remembered I have to meet with All Might before lunch ends. I’ll see you guys later.” Uraraka frowns but doesn’t protest as he turns to leave.
There was still quite a bit of lunchtime left, so as he rushed out of the cafeteria doors he planned his route up to his usual hiding spot. As he came to the stairs that led to the roof he could have sworn he felt someone watching him. He looked over his shoulder down the empty hallway. He was alone, but it still felt like someone was hiding just out of sight. He shook his head and began his journey up to the roof.