Chapter 22
Cw: #bkdk #ktdk #fluff; Rookie-Hero!Bk, QL-Support-Engineer!Dk
Katsuki doesn't know when it was that he fell in love with Izuku.
Whether it was something that had always been there and he never realized it, or if it just... appeared that day.
.
.
.
The nerd had invited him to his very first professional conference. The blond had barely made it in time because he got caught up in an altercation with a random shitty villain.
His best friend was there, in front of an audience of hundreds, wearing a blue suit, a proper red tie, and black polished shoes, walking confidently through the outdoor stage, making it his own as he showed everyone his new project and how it would impact not only heroes, but also civilians in the most positive way.
This was Izuku, talking to everyone about his future dreams.
Dreams that Katsuki wanted to be a part of.
Pride swelled in his chest at such sight.
'That's my nerd,' he thought.
His heart fluttered uncontrollably like it had never done before, and that confused him to no end. He felt an intense blush crawling up to his cheeks, and a sudden urge to be near the greenette hit him like the most unexpected hurricane.
The rookie hero asked himself many questions in that single minute.
How can it be?
Is this... Is this what others call 'love'?
But is that even possible?
To fall for someone that you've known for most of your life?
Has society lied to him?
Where is the 'strangers to lovers' thingy?
The 'I fell for my partner in the very first moment I saw them'?
None of it matched with the typical stereotypes people had made him believe all these years.
And yet...
Katsuki had never been sure of anything but this.
Izuku made him feel safe. Izuku felt like the home he wanted to go back to every day. Izuku...
His rambling thoughts stopped abruptly.
The blond will never forget the moment when those emerald eyes landed on him. An infinite sea of emotions danced inside them when they met with sparkling rubies: surprise, relief, and something akin to... affection?
Yes, in some sense, but...
It was deeper, more like...
"Kacchan!" Izuku uttered over the microphone, with his green gaze fixed on him.
And suddenly, he was completely exposed.
A thousand eyes trailed towards his direction.
Different kind of whispers reached his ears:
'Hey, isn't that Hero Dynamight?'
'Yes, he is! Don't you know that he and Deku are considered the next All Might and David Shield?'
'What is that brash young man doing here?'
'How dare he interrupt my favorite engineer's conference?'
'I think they are meant to be together.'
What?
The last one accelerated Katsuki's pulse.
Because… he also believed it.
And he wanted to kick himself in the guts for taking so many years to see it.
Izuku raised his hand, and that was enough for all the voices to be silenced.
Deku went down the stairs from the scenery, and just before he reached the public, all the people opened a path for him.
The talented engineer strolled over it as he kept talking, while the crowd around Katsuki also stepped back, giving him space for what was about to come.
If angels were real, then Izuku must be one, the blond's mind provided, especially with how the sunlight bathed him beautifully, bringing out the best of him.
"If everyone recalls, I initiated this conference by telling you about my only childhood friend. We grew up together for ten years..."
All the attendees gasped, while others squealed.
Katsuki's ears turned red. Is this real?
"...we fell apart once I moved with my parents to Europe..." Izuku continued.
And then his heart dropped.
That was a lie.
Well, not a complete one but...
Katsuki had pushed Izuku away many months before that, due to his quirklessness. And when he finally realized how much the greenette meant to him, it was too fucking late.
As a child, he cried, cried and cried through the whole day when his mom explained to him that the Midoriyas had left Japan, with no way to contact them whatsoever.
'It's all my fault,' he believed through the years to come until Izuku and him found each other again and the guy reassured him that many factors had played into Inko and Hisashi taking that decision.
Even if Katsuki had lost his ability to cry, a huge void had already settled on his chest forever.
The void of Midoriya Izuku's absence in his life.
'I'll never see him again', he had believed.
Until they met one fateful night, ten years later.
Under a starry sky, Katsuki felt an uncharacteristic sting in his carmine hues. Tears were already rolling down his face without explanation when he caught sight of long green curls, gorgeous jade eyes, freckled cheeks and a smile that could blind the whole city by itself.
zuku was hugging him before he realized it, and out of nowhere… the void disappeared.
And right now, five years after that encounter, even if they were surrounded by a large number of civilians, it was as if only Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki were there.
Izuku's rich fresh cologne invaded him, and fuck! Katsuki spaced out! What the hell was Deku saying?
"...he is my biggest inspiration and my symbol of victory," he finished.
'Bitch, if that isn't a freaking declaration of love tell me what it is?!', Katsuki heard a woman sob.
"Izuku… I think I love you," Dynamight expressed pathetically.
The stunned look on his now husband's face will always remain stuck in Katsuki's brain as one of those fond memories that live vividly in your head. The kind that you just have to close your eyes to go back to them.
"Please… please, say something…" Katsuki told him vulnerably.
There were no words from Deku.
Instead, the greenette dropped his microphone, launched himself towards him and captured his lips in their very first kiss.
The blond was surprised for a brief moment before he responded eagerly and placed his hand on Izuku's waist, bringing him up as the greenette locked his arms around his neck and hooked his legs over the hero's torso.
That experience marked a change in Dynamight's life. He was doomed because there was no way that he could live without Deku's kisses anymore.
Everyone around them hollered in happiness, for their favorite hero and engineer were on the brink of becoming an official couple.
"I love you, Kacchan," Izuku told him for the first time, and fuck if that wasn't a dream come true.
"Be my one and only, nerd," Katsuki gave him a dopey grin.
"Yes, Katsuki. Yes!" Izuku cried, cupping Kacchan's cheeks and kissing him softly once again.
Maybe they had fallen apart for a whole decade and thought that they had lost each other forever.
The thing is...
They underestimated the gravitational force both have between one another, and that's something that not even them can break apart.
Ever.