Flirting With Disaster [Chapter 1]

I started this fic for Sassi a long time ago but only just got around to finishing it, oops!

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“Keep up, Deku!” Katsuki huffed, snatching Izuku’s hand to drag him along. “We’re friends, nerd. Isn’t that what you’ve always insisted?”

“Of course, Kacchan! We’re best friends!”

“And you said you’d go on dates and shit with me, so boyfriends now, too. You can walk beside me, and you can hold my damn hand, alright? What’s your mom making for dinner? Mine is on a shitty salad kick again, so I’m coming over. I give it three days before she gives up.”

“O-Okay, Kacchan!” Izuku stuttered, hurrying his pace, so he wouldn’t trip over his feet the way he did his words. “I’m sure Mom would love to have you! It’s always nice to have you around, after all.”

“Damn right it is, nerd!”

Katsuki smirked at him, and Izuku felt his own lips twitch into a little smile – he never could resist that self-assured, usually teasing look that Katsuki gave him. Having his Kacchan come over to hang out sounded like a perfect way to spend his night; they could eat good food, do their homework together, hang out and just talk to each other, and maybe sneak off to spend some time alone in his bedroom, lying on his duvet together, side by side, sharing shy kisses, Izuku’s hand roaming up the back of Katsuki’s shirt, feeling his warm skin, those toned muscles just beginning to really develop, slowly shifting around to his—

“Oi, nerd!”

Izuku jolted out of his daydreams, immediately shrinking under Katsuki’s pissed off gaze.

“Leave me alone, you damn stalker,” Katsuki snapped. “Stop following me!”

“I-I wasn’t, Kacchan!” Izuku insisted, holding his hands up placatingly – and maybe to protect his face a little if Katsuki tried to explode him. “I’m not following you, I swear, we just live the same direction!”

“Then stay further back!” Katsuki insisted, eyebrows sinking lower over the ruby eyes that made Izuku’s chest ache. “I can hear all your shitty mumbling from here, and I can feel your stupid eyes on me, cut it out.”

“Sorry,” he squeaked. “I’ll, um, try to stay far enough away.”

“You better.”

Katsuki stalked off ahead, and Izuku remained still, waiting obediently for Katsuki to get further away. He tried his best not to stare, though he knew he was probably failing – his sneaky glances to see how far ahead Katsuki had gotten quickly began to linger, watching the way Katsuki moved.

He’d gotten taller in the past year, had gotten a brand-new uniform at the beginning of the school year to accommodate it, and while it had been worn in a little over the past few months, softened and faded slightly from frequent washing, it was still missing all the familiar marks Izuku had come to know. The tattered hems on his pants, where they dragged against the ground because he refused to ever pull his pants up properly; the scorch marks on the sleeves, from intimidating people with his Quirk; the short extra seam on the back of his shirt, where he’d gotten it caught on a bush and had to get his mother to stitch it up. Little scars, marring the fabric, that Izuku had known like they were his own, had mapped out like stars in the night sky, so comforting and familiar and there.

Until they weren’t.

When Katsuki seemed a sufficient distance down the road, Izuku started to walk again, keeping his gaze on Katsuki’s shoes. He hoped maybe Katsuki wouldn’t feel it, there. Izuku’s gaze would only dig into the leather, instead of burning holes in the back of his head.

They remained that way, carefully apart, until they reached the corner Izuku both loved and hated, depending on the time of day you asked him. In the morning, it was the corner where they met, where their paths crossed to head to school. But in the evenings, it was where they diverged, where Katsuki got further and further away from him. Katsuki never looked back, after they passed that point, but Izuku always waited. He stood on that corner until Katsuki turned the next one, into his own street, where he’d only have to make it past a few more houses to get home safely. He waited until Katsuki turned that corner, and then a little longer, long enough for Katsuki to get in his front door without any screams – or, more likely, explosions – happening in the meantime. Only then, when he knew Katsuki was safe, did he continue on his own path, heading back to the apartment block where his mother would be waiting for him.

Izuku didn’t have someone to watch him walk home, but he did have a mother who loved him more than anything else in the world, who would start looking for him if he took much longer than expected. He didn’t mind if something happened to him while he was alone, but it was important that nothing happened to Katsuki. To his Kacchan.

He’d never forgive himself if something happened to Kacchan and he didn’t even try to be his hero.