Chapter Text
Get out of your fucking head, Katsuki. We’re friends. He’s married.
Katsuki never thought he’d find himself in this position. It wasn’t like Izuku and Cheeks were newlyweds or anything; it happened maybe a year or two after high school, and while the nation seemed thrilled, Katsuki was anything but. He’d tried lying to himself for years, told himself it was a phase in middle school, but as high school came and went, and as his relationship with Izuku improved, he just couldn’t fight it anymore. He didn’t like women. For a while, he wasn’t sure he felt those feelings about anyone, but his mind kept coming back to the confusing feelings he’d had about Izuku when he was just starting to hit puberty. Maybe he was just picky?
If that was really the case, he was screwed. Not only had Izuku never given him any indication over the years that he might be remotely interested… he was also one of few from his graduating class who wasn’t invited to the wedding. Message received.
Still, they kept in touch, stayed friends, and as Izuku dipped back into hero work, they drifted closer again. Maybe it was only because Katsuki had funded his support gear so heavily. Maybe Katsuki reminded the nerd of the good parts of his childhood, now that Auntie was gone and they’d already worked through the bad parts of his childhood. In technical terms, he was Izuku’s longest running friend, after all.
“Kacchan… Kacchan?”
“Fuck, what?”
“You were staring into space,” Izuku said, giving Katsuki a concerned look. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” he muttered, stepping close to the stove again to focus on the pork cutlets he had frying. Izuku’s kitchen, Cheeks’ frying pan, bought with her hard earned money. Izuku had insisted they could make curry and Katsuki could borrow ideas from Inko’s old cookbook, which had the recipe for the spicy curry he’d loved so much as a child, but Katsuki had other ideas. It had been his idea to cook Izuku dinner in the first place, and maybe Izuku had insisted on hosting, but he wasn’t going to be selfish about their dinner.
“You really didn’t have to make me katsudon, you know,” the nerd murmured, smiling in that way that made Katsuki’s chest feel funny.
“Shut up, I know I didn’t. The pork’s in the pan, quit trying to make me change my mind.”
“Well, I can still thank you. It’s been a little weird, cooking more often now that Ochako’s working evenings.”
“Deku, I don’t trust you to make anything beyond omurice, and I feel like even that’s pushing it. I’m not letting you go without real fuckin’ food. Maybe teachers don’t need rationed protein, but you’re not a teacher anymore.”
“Hey, I make sure I get enough protein,” he protested with a pout. “And I never stopped exercising, just changed my routine when… you know.”
Katsuki glanced over at Izuku. He wanted nothing more than to squeeze his cheeks and will away the little frown that was growing. He hated the way his eyes grew dark when he talked about the day he’d lost One for All.
“The offer still stands, you know. Whenever you get tired of being a sidekick.”
“I know, Kacchan,” he chuckled, and when he smiled, the light was back in his eyes. Good. “I appreciate it. I’m just not ready, and I haven’t really decided what I want to specialize in. I kind of want to keep working with kids, and you don’t really do that at your agency.”
“No real reason we couldn’t. Don’t give me that shit. You’re making excuses.”
Izuku chewed his lip and watched the switch on the rice cooker flick back up when the timer went off. Something was rattling around in his head, but Katsuki had learned a long time ago that it was easier to let Izuku take his time in figuring out how he wanted to word things and when he was ready to actually talk.
“Yeah, I guess I am,” he laughed softly. “I told you, I’ll think about it.”
It was how the conversation had always ended in the past. Katsuki didn’t push, not any more than he usually did. Izuku would talk eventually.
The pork came out a little crispier than Katsuki had intended. Probably from zoning out and thinking way too hard in the middle of Izuku’s kitchen. He wasn’t entirely happy with it, but Izuku seemed thrilled just to be eating Katsuki’s cooking. He hadn’t had any real reason to cook for Izuku since high school, when they lived in the dorms and Katsuki would occasionally cook for the class.
He wasn’t entirely sure how it happened… hell, he wasn’t entirely sure it was even a good idea. But somehow, Izuku convinced him to stay for a movie, an old All Might documentary they’d both seen at least a dozen times. He should really just be getting home. Letting Izuku slowly invade his personal space in a dim living room on a cozy couch was not one of his smartest moves. It wasn’t until Izuku actually laid his head on his shoulder that Katsuki really took note of it, though. Come to think of it, Izuku was a lot closer than he’d originally realized, sidled up right beside him and beginning to rest more of his weight into him. When had that happened?
“Oi, nerd…”
“Hmm?”
Katsuki coughed a little to clear his throat. “You’re getting awfully comfortable.”
With how low the light coming in from the kitchen was, Katsuki wasn’t fully convinced that the blush on Izuku’s cheeks was real.
“I mean… do you have a problem with that?”
There was a long, loaded silence. That really was the question, wasn’t it?
“I probably should have a problem with it,” he muttered, glaring at the television in hopes that it might hide the color rising to his own cheeks.
“Kacchan…”
All at once, Izuku was moving close, way too close. His nose brushed Katsuki’s ear.
“Have you ever heard of a lavender marriage?”
The sound of the front door swinging open had Katsuki nearly jumping out of his skin, off to the complete opposite side of the couch. To his surprise, Izuku didn’t jump with him, only glanced toward the entrance.
“Deku, I’m home!”
Katsuki had grown to really hate that Cheeks picked up Izuku’s nickname so quickly. He got over the fact that the nerd picked it as his hero name, but it sounded completely different coming from her.
His wife. Who he was very much married to. The pit in Katsuki’s stomach opened back up.
“I should get going,” Katsuki muttered before Izuku even had a chance to respond to Uraraka. He moved to stand, but Izuku reached out quickly and grabbed his wrist, definitely flushed pink this time.
“Hey, Chako, can you come sit for a minute?”
Oh, absolutely the fuck not. This was a trap. He didn’t know what Izuku had been getting at earlier, but it didn’t matter. He was not about to confront his feelings with Izuku and his wife.
“Deku, I gotta go,” Katsuki growled, glaring down at him. Izuku’s eyes turned stubborn, and he couldn’t quite place where or when he’d seen that look before, but it definitely had him hesitating.
“Everything okay, Deku?” Uraraka hummed, smiling at Katsuki when she realized he was still here. “Oh, hey Bakugou. I wasn’t sure if you’d still be here. How did dinner go?”
“Chako, did you ever talk to Kirishima about… um, us?”
Shitty hair? What does he have to do with anything?
“Uh… no, not yet. Why?”
Uraraka blinked in confusion at the look of panic on Izuku’s face, and it took her a long moment to realize what he was getting at.
“Oh. Ohhhh. Yeah, ah, I definitely forgot. Crap, I’m so sorry. Um, should I…?”
“One of you needs to tell me what the fuck is happening,” Katsuki snapped, shooting each of them a sharp look. Izuku let go of his wrist and sighed.
“I was trying to tell you, Kacchan. It wasn’t… supposed to go like this, but it’s fine. I asked you, have you ever heard of a lavender marriage?”
“No?” he huffed, scowling at Izuku now. Was he taunting him? Were they trying to bring him into the relationship or something? There was no fucking way he was going anywhere near Cheeks’—
“Bakugou, relax,” Uraraka sighed, stepping slightly closer but giving him plenty of personal space when his scowl snapped up to her. “It isn't what you think. I can tell you're thinking we're gonna say it's something weird or gross. Just… sit back down?”
Katsuki didn't have a lot of interactions with Uraraka anymore, not since she'd married Izuku. He held a lot of respect for her when they were in high school, but after their wedding, after he hadn't been invited, he'd assumed they didn't have anything left to say. Even in public, she hadn't gone out of her way to say more than ten words to him in the last two years. So, when she spoke pointedly to him and leveled him with a steady gaze, he actually relaxed a hair.
“It better not be something weird,” Katsuki muttered, sitting back down. He stuck to the edge of his seat, like he really didn't intend on staying long. Beside him, Izuku ran a hand over his face, fighting down a fierce blush.
“It isn't,” Izuku sighed, muffled behind his hand. “Ever heard of a marriage of convenience?”
That rang more of a bell. Beyond that, the term itself made a lot more sense. He frowned at Izuku, still not quite getting it.
“What are you getting at?”
“When we first graduated, Deku and I were both getting a lot of attention we didn't really want,” Uraraka murmured, sitting in the armchair off to the side. “I had a lot of guys coming after me, and I don't make it public, but… I don't really enjoy that kind of attention. Aside from that, I knew my family would disapprove of any girl I brought home, and it would break my heart if my father decided to disown me over it.”
She gave Izuku a pointed look. He had pulled his hand back to watch her explain, but when she gave him that look, he whined and withdrew on himself.
“I know my mom would've loved me no matter what, but… at the time, I was a teacher, and schools don't prefer their teachers to be openly gay. I was worried that if it got out, I could lose my job. I didn't want anyone snooping into my love life and finding something they didn't like. So…”
“So… you got married?” the blond asked, one eyebrow cocked at Izuku.
“Well, yeah,” he replied. “Guys didn't bother Ochako after that, and UA never questioned me on anything. We've always agreed that we're platonic and date how we want.”
Katsuki fell silent while he processed, and it was a long enough silence that Izuku started to squirm a little in his seat. After a bit, he pulled a face, brows furrowed.
“The fuck does Shitty hair have anything to do with all that?”
That actually got a laugh out of Uraraka. “Someone thought he could nudge things in a direction more… favorable for him.”
“Shut up,” Izuku whined, face in his hands. “This is what I get for trying to be any kind of subtle.”
The pieces were there, but they weren't falling into place for Katsuki. He glanced between the pair, his frown only deepening.
“One of you is gonna have to spell this shit out. I'm good at a lot of things, but relationships aren't one of those things, so if you're trying to get at anything beyond us being friends because I funded your gear almost by myself—”
“Kacchan, that's not why we're friends,” Izuku protested immediately. His expression was hard to read… disappointed, somehow hurt, but something else, too. “I like you. Maybe we've been through a lot, but you're probably the only person who really gets me. You remind me to eat when I get too wrapped up in what I'm doing and forget. You know I'm too stubborn to put myself over a friend who needs help, and you push me to take care of myself. You're strong, incredibly smart, talented as a hero… Kacchan, you're the hero we both wanted to be when we grew up. I feel like I fell behind in my teaching years and I'm still reaching for that dream. You make me want to be the best version of myself that I can be… and I hope I make you want to be the best version of yourself, too.”
Sometime while Izuku was speaking, the world around him had faded away. Katsuki forgot Uraraka was even in the room. He didn't realize she'd left until the front door clicked shut in the silence that hung in the air after Izuku's… confession? Was that what that was?
Wait. Shitty hair. They'd gone out drinking recently… and it was hazy, but in a drunken slump, he might've admitted his feelings to Eijirou…. He'd seen an article about “Japan's favorite hero couple” earlier in the day, and it was the straw that broke his back. He hadn't told anyone about his feelings before then.
“I fucking told Shitty hair he couldn't—fucking hell, he wasn't supposed to tell anyone,” Katsuki growled, rubbing at his forehead. “So what, you thought if Cheeks told him you guys weren't a real couple, he'd tell me? Wait, you wanted him to tell me because you…”
“I've felt that way about you for a long time, Kacchan,” Izuku murmured, turning in his seat a bit to face Katsuki. He looked terribly flustered, but he was keeping his head on straight as best he could. “It was why I couldn't walk away when we were in middle school. I knew there wasn't probably any way you felt that way, but I still couldn't bring myself to… you know.”
“You're a fucking idiot.”
“Ehh?”
Katsuki reached out and snatched Izuku's wrist, using the motion to slide their hands together.
“You could've just fucking told me outright. I'm not good at this dancing around shit. You do make me feel that way. You kind of always have. Even when you pissed me off, it was because I wanted to be better. I didn't know what to do with my feelings, so I shoved ‘em down and tried to push you away. I didn't want to be like that, and I really didn't want to be… not straight, I guess. So seeing you made me wish I could be someone better. You remember how hard I cried after you lost One for All?”
The question seemed to snap Izuku out of a momentary fog. He nodded, a little too thick in processing to speak.
“It was because I felt like I lost it, too. You said I'm the hero we wanted to be when we grew up? You already were the hero I wanted to be, dumbass. It was like watching All Might fall all over again. I was so grateful to be alive, fuckin’ proud of myself for leveling up my quirk, and the one person I wanted to beat suddenly wasn't in the race anymore.”
His cheeks felt wet. Izuku brought a hand up slowly and wiped away a tear Katsuki hadn't given his body permission to make. It was like the floodgates had opened; now that he knew Izuku saw him as more than a friend, it was all spilling out of him, years of emotions overflowing too fast for him to handle. When he inhaled, his chest shook. He gripped Izuku's hand like his life depended on it.
“Kacchan… I'm sorry you had to see me like that,” Izuku murmured softly, cupping his cheek. “But thank you for telling me. It makes sense now that you'd give up money you could've used back then on your own agency to help me… well, not get my quirk back, but become a hero again. What's important is that I'm back in the race now, right? Maybe I can't level up my quirk, but the support techs are always surprising me with new ways to improve my gear, and I've been really pleasantly surprised with how well they can take my ideas for adjustments and run with them. We're both still here.”
Katsuki swiped away his tears with his free hand, turning a little so he could face Izuku.
“Yeah. I guess we are, huh.”
Izuku smiled, though it was more nervous than anything.
“Kacchan… can I kiss you?”
“Oh my fucking god,” Katsuki groaned, rolling his eyes. He grabbed Izuku by his collar and pulled him in for a kiss, and as soon as their lips connected, they both relaxed. He couldn't say how long they stayed like that, locked in a terribly unpracticed kiss, but when he finally pulled away for air, Izuku's breaths were quick, cheeks rosy and eyes a little hazy. Katsuki laughed and smirked a little.
“Shit, you look dizzy from one kiss, and I'm not even a good kisser.”
“Shut up,” Izuku whined, hiding his face in Katsuki's shoulder. Katsuki laughed and pulled him in further, the whole way into his lap.
“Hey, you're the one who had to go and make shit weird. You should've told me a long time ago you and Cheeks had an arrangement. I get why you wouldn't have wanted me at the wedding, but it isn't like I'm gonna go tell the world about it.”
“For real, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone about it, okay?” Izuku mumbled, face still hidden in his shoulder. “There's a lot on the line. I don't want to mess things up for her and her girlfriend, and I really don't want anyone thinking we're having an affair when it isn't like that.”
“Oh, so you don't want to have an affair with me? Damn, guess I should just go home, then.”
“Oh my god, you're insufferable.”
“Yep, and you're stuck with me now,” Katsuki laughed, nipping at Izuku's cheek. “But you have to be upfront and honest with me next time. I don't exactly have experience to fall back on.”
“I mean, neither do I… not really.”
“Then we'll figure it out together. It isn't like we haven't been flying by the seat of our pants through the platonic parts of our relationship.”
Izuku pulled back and smiled up at Katsuki, rubbing at his eyes a little. “So, next time you come over, do you want to make that curry after all?”
“As long as you let me make some sweet for you,” he hummed, smiling right back at Izuku.