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Katsuki liked to think he’s fairly emotionally intelligent. Sure, he’s quick to temper, but he has a decent grasp on how the people around him are feeling; he likes to be be prepared for every scenario, and that includes emotional ones.
Which is why, when Kaminari screeches behind him in the locker room before after-school training on day, he is caught off-guard. Not at the scream — Kaminari made all sorts of noises, all day long — but at the raw shock and tentative horror on his face.
“What is that?” he cries, pointing a damning finger at Katsuki’s back. Katsuki contorted his torso, ignoring the sharp twinge as his scratches were aggravated at the movement, trying to look down at what he was gesturing at.
It was just his back. What the fuck was Pikachu on about.
“What the fuck are you on about, Pikachu?” he grouched. He had better things to do. Namely—
“Hello??” Kaminari gesticulated wildly, and now the other boys were peering at him too, similar shock dawning on their faces.
“Dude, you look… you look like you were mauled by a bear,” Sero ventured, too taken aback to even laugh.
Oh. Katsuki turned to Izuku, who was bright red and apparently trying to drown himself in his locker. Katsuki snorted and rummaged through his bag for his deodorant.
“Well, I told the nerd to file his nails, but he wanted to keep them long to paint with Mina or something…” Katsuki trailed off, the deafening silence of the full locker room registering.
He looked up. Every face in the room was bright red. Half the boys were openly gaping.
He frowned at them. What’s wrong with painted nails? Tokoyami had them since first year. He opened his mouth to shit on their idiocy, when—
the room erupted.
“WHAT?!”
“Dude. DUDE. What?? Congratulations! Not cool to out Midoriya like that in front of everyone though, man.”
“Bakugou! I must ask you refrain from speaking so casually on inappropriate matters on school grounds! That said, I’m happy for you both!”
Katsuki leaned back at the onslaught of cheers and teasing reprimands and congratulations. What? He looked at Izuku again, who thankfully seemed to share in his confusion.
“Um… guys?” Izuku butt in. “We didn’t… why does it sound like you all didn’t know we were together.”
Crickets. Kaminari looked like he was about to pass out.
Katsuki was going to kill all of them.
“Seriously? We don’t even hide it!” he yelled.
“What do you… oh……” Kirishima said, clearly replaying his memories with this newfound perspective.
“Yeah, oh, asshole.”
“We thought you were just like that!” Kirishima cried, and a surprising number of the other boys nodded along. Katsuki looked around. Actually, all of them were nodding in agreement.
“The fuck…”
Honestly, this made a lot of sense. He and Izuku had talked before about how everyone was weirdly accepting but silent about their relationship.
Like how when they went out on dates, sometimes one of their classmates would ask to join them. Izuku would stutter awkwardly, because he was a nerd, and the other would back off quickly with a knowing look. Less knowing than they thought, apparently.
Or how when they sat close on the couch during a movie, no one would say anything, but left a wide berth.
Or when they held hands, and everyone turned a blind eye.
Or the many times they tumbled out of storage closets, red and disheveled, and got yelled at by Iida for fighting (Katsuki had thought he had been kidding). He should have known the lack of teasing was too suspicious. To be honest, he and Izuku hadn’t wanted to press their luck.
If anyone visited one of their rooms, the other was there. And they were each other’s plus-ones to every event, for chrissake! He supposed the hand-holding and clinginess could be attributed to the. Well. General shared trauma from the war, but fucking hell. What about all the—
“Wait.” Kaminari looked like he wanted to die. “So those bruises. Those were all actually hickeys???”
Katsuki gave a wild grin, smirking at Izuku, who now was trying to become one with the floor.
What can he say. He liked to mark his claim.
Plus— “What did you morons think this was?” He demanded, stepping next to Izuku and pointing at the vaguely hand-shaped bruises on his hips and waist, peeking out from under his towel.
They both ignored the scandalized noises from the other students.
“Kacchan,” Izuku hissed, but unfortunately for him, Katsuki knew he was just as much of a freak as he was. Little shit didn’t actually mind.
Plus, it wasn’t like he ever changed without a towel on his lower half, so the rest of the class would never see the bruises and bite marks that trailed lower, lower….
Katsuki cut off that line of thought before the imagery made him do something he’d regret right in the middle of the locker room. Izuku smirked up at him secretly, seemingly reading his thoughts. But his smile faded as he turned back to the others.
”Is it… not obvious?” Izuku looked incredulous, and… a little hurt. Fuck. Katsuki had to fix this.
“No, no!” Kirishima said quickly, clearly wary of the murderous look in Katsuki’s eyes for making his boyfriend upset.
“You just. You both look at each other so longingly, like you’re lovesick! None of us thought you were already together, we thought you were getting there!”
Katsuki and Izuku considered this.
That… was fair. Katsuki often felt like Izuku lay just out of his reach, not because he was, but because he loved him so unbearably much, and still couldn’t quite believe he got to have him. It was part of why he made sure to remind them both constantly through touches or marks or otherwise. And yeah, he knew that his face whenever he looked at Izuku was probably sickening, but he couldn’t help it. Izuku was his. It was still unbelievable.
He supposed it made sense that he looked like he was hopelessly pining, because he was. It didn’t matter that they were already dating; Katsuki was still so, so weak for him. Their relationship status didn’t change the fact that he missed him even from a desk away in class, or from across the common room. And he supposes Izuku never changed the way he looked at him, either, still with stars in his eyes, wide smile taking his breath away, endlessly open for him for reasons Katsuki still struggled to believe.
Izuku turned to him now, and yeah, despite having been a couple for years, he still found it hard to breathe when Izuku looked at him like that. Like he was the only thing worth looking at.
So yes, not that surprising that the others didn’t know they were dating. It still took Katsuki’s breath away every time he thought about it.
“I guess it makes sense,” Izuku said, probably on Katsuki’s wavelength as usual, “You all met us when we were already dating, so you don’t know how we are otherwise.”
Oh. Uh. Yeah, that too.
Sero’s brain seemed to be leaking out his ears. “I’m sorry, what?”
Izuku smiled wistfully. “Yeah, Kacchan asked me out in seventh grade.”
They had been so different, back then. It probably hadn’t been healthy, honestly, but Katsuki had been obsessed with Izuku and he had known it was mutual. And Izuku didn’t really take his shit, taking a full day to agree to date him just to fuck with him, always rolling his eyes at his temper. Accepting his grudging apologies after. It had been nice, to be so secure in their relationship, to know underneath however they were at school they both had full trust in the knowledge they had each other. That Katsuki could make up for whatever shit he said at school to Izuku on the walk home afterwards.
To know Izuku wanted him regardless. Above and through it all.
They really had kept it a secret in middle school, unsure how their teachers and peers would react, and Katsuki honestly didn’t mind it. At the very least, it resulted in Izuku storing up all the things he wanted to say to him until the end of the day, and then rambling nonstop all the way home, barely taking a breath. Saving up all his words to share with Katsuki. Just for him.
And Katsuki made sure everyone else at school knew Deku was off-limits, even if they thought his possessiveness had to do with bullying. Katsuki didn’t care, as long as they respected his claim.
So none of the other bullies bothered Izuku, and Katsuki got to use their prior relationship as a cover for dragging Izuku into empty classrooms and leaving him a flustered mess. If the teachers were gonna be fucking dickheads and look away, he was going to take advantage of it.
So Katsuki and Izuku had started dating at Aldera, holding hands on the school roof or under the table at lunch or on the way home, doing homework and seeing movies together, Izuku berating Katsuki for his attitude and Katsuki berating Izuku for his.
There was definitely a power imbalance of some sort, especially to the untrained eye, but Izuku seemed happy with it. He more than made up for it via snark, anyway. And when he got his quirk, started at UA, the both of them couldn’t have been happier, outside of Katsuki’s brief interlude for his insecurities to step into the light again. They worked through it. They worked on themselves, and on each other. And ultimately, they made it to where they are today, standing half naked and a topic of delight in the 3-A lockers.
Most of the extras had shaken their heads and gone back to changing, although Kirishima was definitely texting Ashido, and Kaminari was dramatically draped on Sero wailing about when it would be his turn. Sero patted his back awkwardly. Todoroki, who had been quiet thus far, gave them a solemn and belated congratulations, staring long and hard at them both. Fucking weirdo.
“I knew,” the bastard said, because of course he did.
Izuku, now caught up in the assumption no one had known, choked.
“How?” he squeaked.
Todoroki squinted at them. “You two come in with hickeys or scratches every other day. You aren’t very subtle.”
“Fucking thank you!” Katsuki bellowed, but he wrapped an arm around his deathly embarassed boyfriend anyway, letting him hide in his shoulder, because he was the best significant other to walk to grace the earth. Todoroki had the gall to laugh at them before walking away, whispering to Sero on his way out. Kirishima’s phone rang loudly as Mina’s face appeared on the screen for what was sure to be a very loud, very insane voice call. Katsuki would not be staying for that.
“Let’s get out of here, nerd,” he growled in Izuku’s ear, enjoying the shiver that followed like clockwork. He snapped on his gauntlets and held burning eye contact with his boyfriend, who definitely whimpered quietly. They scurried out of the room, bumping into each other in their haste. Their classmates shook their heads, blushing, finally actually aware of their intentions.
They still had 20 minutes before their favourite gym room opened.