Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’re sure it’s this one?”

Katsuki eyes the vent in the ceiling with some distrust. The sounds of the party are muffled from inside the women’s bathroom he’s standing in, and when Denki’s voice filters through he can finally hear him a lot more clearly.

“I’m sure,” Denki says over the intercom. “You’d better get up there right now, though. I can see a group of girls making their way over to where you are right now. They should be through the door in ten, eight- wait I forgot nine. Where was- okay it’s eight now...”

Katsuki grumbles a little, but clambers on top of the toilet anyway. He works quickly on opening up the bolts on the vent with the device in his hand, not hesitating in the slightest when he hears the sound of the bathroom door opening. Once one side gives way, he hauls himself up into the vent quickly and swings it back into place. 

“Ugh.” Katsuki immediately crawls away from the grail as quietly as he can. “Dunce Face, where am I going next?”

There’s a slight pause. “Okay. Turn around, take a left, a right, and another right. Then keep going straight. You won’t be able to miss the office – it looks pretty identical to our renderings of it.”

“Copy,” Katsuki grunts out, and attempts to crawl inside the confined space as quietly as he can. He fucking hates missions like this, but this mission is important enough for him to grit his teeth through it. Instead of dwelling on the grime that’s now coating his very expensive suit, he mentally plans out his next steps as he makes the turns Denki directed him to. 

Get into Nagant’s office, but check for booby traps first. Find the archive of company names affiliated with the League, it should be on Nagant’s computer. Denki will walk you through it. Sneak out through the window, get the hell out of here. It’s not complicated, so he isn’t worried about—

He stops moving. After a couple of seconds, Denki says, “What happened?”

“I hear someone,” he whispers.

“Huh? But you’re not above—”

“Not below me. There’s someone inside the vent.” 

There’s a brief pause, before Denki lets out a low whistle. “Oh. Do you think it’s—”

Katsuki doesn’t answer, just shuffles forward with more vigour. He can already feel the anger rising up in him, and he has to reel it in lest he punch a hole right through the metal. There’s only one person on this goddamn Earth who would do the exact same thing Katsuki is doing.

At the last right turn, the cold press of a gun to his head doesn’t come as a surprise. In fact, he anticipated it to the point of pressing his hand right over the head, before sending a fierce glare at the person attached to the other end of it.

Even in the semi darkness, those wide green eyes seem to light up the entire environment.

“Kacchan?!” 

Katsuki can hear Denki burst into laughter on the other end, so he lowers the volume of the transmission by thumbing at the controls on his wrist bracelet. Once Denki’s donkey laugh is muted enough, he thrusts a hand out to grab at this dickhead’s shirt.

“What the FUCK,” he hisses out, “are you doing here, stupid Deku?!”

In this cramped space, the both of them are uncomfortably wedged together on their sides. That doesn’t stop Katsuki from leaning up as far as he can to strangle the fuck out of this goddamn stupid leech—

“Kacchan, wait!” Izuku whispers frantically, hands coming up to grab Katsuki’s wrists. “You can’t kill me just yet! I didn’t know you were gonna be here, I swear!”

“That’s what you said the last four fucking times you went and sabotaged my missions!” Katsuki growls, his hands still making grabby motions in Izuku’s iron grip. “My missions! How is it that you always end up barging into my fucking jobs and not anybody else’s from Yuuei Agency?! Fucking weirdo, following me around ever since you left Yuuei to do whatever the fuck vigilante justice—” 

“Seriously, Kacchan, wait.”

They both stop pushing against each other when voices drift into the vent from the grail just a few metres away from them. Spy instincts kicking in, the two of them lean their ears down to the metal and listen carefully. 

The voices below are too muffled to comprehend, but there’s the sound of keys locking a door and then footsteps walking away. Once the coast is presumably clear, and since neither of them were advised otherwise, Katsuki shoulders past Izuku with renewed determination.

“Wait, let me go first!” Izuku says, and before Katsuki can snipe at him, the bastard is climbing over Katsuki and wiggling his way forward.

“OI!” Katsuki sputters out, just as Izuku’s ass slips over his head and crushes his mouth against the metal. Once Izuku has finally crossed over, Katsuki grabs at his ankle and yanks it backward. “WHAT THE FUCK, DEKU?” If he didn’t have to be so quiet he would’ve fucking blasted this tiny twerp into orbit. Who does he even think he is?!

Izuku looks over his shoulder at him, and upon seeing the murderous look on his face, he seems to pale a little. “I’m sorry, Kacchan! I just need to check if Miss Nagant’s office is booby trapped first. And before you say it, I know that you were going to do that too. It’s just that I invented the perfect gadget for this scenario! I call it Smoke Screen. Basically, it’s a capsule that releases invisible smoke which can disturb the sensors and disable them. It took me a while to make, because the initial smell was so repugnant. But now I managed to make it mostly scentless, except for a hint of frangipani, which is my mom’s—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Katsuki releases Izuku’s foot from his grip. He crawls on top of him, feeling smug when Izuku mutters out a pained, ‘Oof’ as Katsuki’s weight flattens him from above. “Spare me the Ted Talk, Inspector fucking Gadget. I can do this shit without your amateur ass getting in the way.”

“I alweddy d’opped the pill thwew the vent,” Izuku manages to garble from under Katsuki’s chest. “Give’t a few seconds.”

Katsuki ignores him, attempting to squat over his head as he unscrews the bolts on the vent again. 

Once all of the bolts have been unscrewed and he pushes it to the other side of the vent, Katsuki pushes himself upright, his knees hunched in on either side of Izuku’s hips. “Get outta the way, fuckhead. I’m going in and then you’re backing the hell out of here, got that?”

“Oh! Use this!”

Katsuki looks down to see Izuku swinging what looks like an abnormally long rope over the side of the vent. How Izuku was even able to manoeuvre his arm around to get a hold of that is beyond him. “It’s a little sticky ‘cause it’s still a prototype, but it should hold your weight just fine!”

It’s only because of their cramped situation and Katsuki’s urgent need to get out of Izuku’s space that he snatches the black rope out of Izuku’s hand. “If this shit breaks on me, I’m gonna break your fuckin’ back next.”

“Oh,” Izuku squeaks, ducking his head down so that his face is obscured. “That’s– um. I mean. Like, I wouldn’t be oppo–”

“What?”

“Nothing! Ow ow ow, watch the head, Kacchan! You’re stepping on my hair—”    

Katsuki hoists himself around Izuku and lowers himself down the rope. It’s not necessarily sticky, but the texture is weirdly slippery. “This shit feels like tapioca, Deku. What the hell is this?” He plops down on the ground and looks up at him.

Izuku peeks out from the edge above, a grin on his face despite the unimpressed look Katsuki’s giving him. “I call it Black Whip! It’s able to curl in on itself after you use it, so you can make a quick escape if need be. Basically, it’s a really strong piece of–”

The rope snaps. They watch as it flutters to the ground and lands gracefully by Katsuki’s feet. 

After a beat of silence, Izuku says, “Catch me—?”

“Nope,” Katsuki says gleefully. “You can starve up there and die.” 

“So mean…”

Ignoring him, Katsuki turns on his heel and scans the room for a bit. There’s not much in here, save for a large chair with a coat hanging on it, a desk, a closet of some kind, and a couple of shelves on the wall with manilla folders stacked messily on top of each other. It all looks exactly like he expected, and he might’ve considered this a lucky day if Izuku’s presence wasn’t the biggest fucking omen on his life. 

Just as he’s made his way to the desk, Izuku whispers, “Okay, well I’m coming down anyway!”

Katsuki doesn’t remember where he learned how to teleport, but before he can even register his own movements he’s thrusting his arms out to catch Izuku in his arms. When he lands, Katsuki grunts with the effort of not letting them both topple to the floor. 

That is, until Izuku blinks innocently from where Katsuki is carrying him bridal style, and smiles up at him knowingly. “Thanks, Kacchan! I knew you would catch me!” 

Katsuki drops him unforgivingly. The fucker knew he wasn’t going to let him fall and let Izuku jeopardise his mission, and that pisses him off beyond comprehension. “Once we’re out of here,” he threatens, looming over Izuku with a menacing snarl, “I’m going to shove this data so far up your ass that you’re gonna be speakin’ in binary for the rest of your fucking life.”

Katsuki doesn’t give him a chance to answer when he spins back around and stomps back to the desk. There’s a single laptop sitting innocuously on it, and Katsuki tunes back in to Denki.

“Fuck Face, you sure this shit won’t explode on me when I open it?”

“Were you really not listening to a single thing I was saying just before?” Denki whines back. “Actually, since Midoriya is here, I don’t know what else I was expecting…”

Katsuki tenses at this. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Nothing, nothing. Anyway, I’ve already sent a code to your bracelet. All you need to do is download it - it only takes a couple of seconds - and place your wrist over the-”

Katsuki doesn’t hear the rest of it because Izuku is opening the laptop and plopping himself down in the chair as if this room doesn’t belong to one of the biggest underground criminals. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” Katsuki hisses, slapping Izuku’s hands away. “This isn’t a game—”

“Kacchan, it’s okay,” Izuku says calmly, logging in quickly as if he’s done it a million times before. The rope is tied around Izuku’s waist now, and Katsuki finally notices the absolute gaudy ugliness of Izuku’s too-big brown suit jacket and black striped pants. “I’m friends with Lady Nagant! I already guessed her password and stuff. It’s kind of a shame, actually, because me and Hitoshi recently developed a really good password bypass and it would’ve been awesome to test it—”

“Whaddaya mean you’re friends with—” Katsuki cuts himself off. “Dunce Head, did you hear that?”

“Yep,” Denki says casually, the sound of him typing at something in the background, “Apparently, in his relatively short career of being a Yuuei Academy dropout and a spy vigilante, Midobro briefly collaborated with the infamous Lady Nagant for a job! Pretty badass.”

Didn’t ask for your goddamn opinion, Katsuki thinks, teeth grinding harshly as he watches Izuku access random files, his scarred fingers moving across the keyboard at the speed of light.

“If you’re so chummy with her, why the hell’re you sneakin’ around then?” Katsuki grumbles, squatting a little to see what exactly Izuku is doing.

“We sort of weren’t meant to become allies,” he explains with a frown, keeping his eyes trained to the screen. “After we did a job together, she made me swear to not contact her in any way again. For my own safety.”

Katsuki scoffs, the urge to laugh suddenly overwhelming. “Your own safety,” he repeats, incredulous. “Like you ever gave a shit about that.” The fact that Izuku is here at all is proof enough of that, and they both know it.

Izuku pauses momentarily, turning to look at him with wide eyes. “Kacchan…” he starts, tone bordering on hurt, “I—”

“Shut up.” When Izuku flinches slightly, Katsuki scowls and looks away. He hates that expression. “It’s not— I can just hear someone coming this way, asshole. Hurry up.”

“Oh, crap, okay.” Izuku scrambles to download the data, and Katsuki grabs his wrist just as he hears keys click into place at the door. They’re stumbling into the closet and shutting the door behind them just as they hear two people walk inside.

Somehow, it’s even more cramped in the closet than it was in the goddamn vent. Katsuki has his chest pressed tightly against Izuku’s back, with one hand wrapped around his torso and the other hand clasped around Izuku’s mouth out of pure instinct. 

“We seriously came back ‘cause you were cold?” a gruff voice says from inside the room. Katsuki catalogues it, recognising it as belonging to a man named Kai Chisaki.

“I get cold easily, asshat, you knew this,” another person says, female, and Katsuki can feel the way Izuku squirms at the sound. This must be Nagant. “Where did I leave my coat—?”

Her voice cuts off, and Katsuki can almost see her eyeing the half-closed laptop. 

“Miss?” Chisaki questions.

After a beat, she says, “Oh, it’s right here.” There’s the sound of a chair being scraped against the floor. “Okay, let’s not keep the big man waiting. Out, now.”

After the sound of a couple of footsteps and a door clicking shut, Katsuki removes a hand from Izuku’s mouth but otherwise doesn’t move. They both stand in silence, waiting, just in case they’d be walking into a trap once the closet door opened.

It must’ve been at least ten minutes later that Katsuki speaks, except it’s not what either of them would’ve expected. “...Hitoshi.”

Izuku’s confusion is almost audible. “Huh?”

Katsuki regrets even opening his mouth, but it’s not like he can back out now. “Since when were you two on a first name basis?”

Izuku twists around in the tiny space, and Katsuki begins to realise just how close together they really are. He rips his arms from where they were placed around his waist as if he’s been burned, his heart rate picking up (from anger) in the way it always seems to do around Izuku (because he hates him so much). 

“Me and Hitoshi? Hmmm. He asked me to call me by his first name about a month ago, I think.” He pauses. “Why?”

“I didn’t ask for your life story,” he snaps quickly. “Anyway- that was fucking Chisaki and Nagant, wasn’t it? She knew—”

“—that we were here, I know.” Izuku sighs. “The two of us actually developed a bit of a code. When she starts every sentence with the same letter, it’s because she wants to meet me somewhere in private.” Katsuki’s eyes have begun to adjust to the dim lighting, and his eyes latch onto the small smile on Izuku’s face from a sliver of light peeking in. “She’s gonna lecture me, for sure.”

He doesn’t look away from Izuku’s mouth when he says, “If she’s any good, she’d rip you into fucking shreds for being such an idiot.”

Izuku laughs at this, his face moving back into the shadows. “She probably will.” Katsuki goes still when Izuku takes his hand and presses something gently into his palm. It’s light, and cool like metal. It has the weight and feel of a USB, or something like it, and— Katsuki can already see where this is going.

“Take care of this, okay? Hitoshi’s inventions have a super fast download speed, so it should all be on there. You don’t have to tell Aizawa sensei— I mean, Aizawa-san— that I barged into one of your missions once again, by the way! If any of my other missions align with yours, I’m sure I’ll end up learning the same information anyway. For now, I’m going to go find—”

Katsuki catches his wrist just as Izuku opens the door. “Are you crazy? This whole place is swarming with criminals. If you knew what’s best for you, you’d forget about getting lectured by some no-name villain and just leave.”

Izuku is halfway out the closet door now. Katsuki’s words have fallen painfully flat in between them, and Katsuki can’t help but tighten his grip. 

“I’ll be safe about it,” Izuku promises quietly. He pries himself away from Katsuki’s grasp and slips out, leaving him alone in the darkness. 

The sharp edge of the device in his hand cuts bitingly into his skin.

Over the earpiece, Denki whistles lowly. ‘Again, huh? That’s just bad luck, Bakuboob.'

“Fuck off,” is all Katsuki says before switching off his earpiece and shoving it down his pocket. He needs to get back to Yuuei Agency and pound the living hell out of his Izuku punching bags. Which- it’s not what it sounds like, okay? He exercises better when Izuku’s stupid, ugly face is plastered all over his training equipment. Why does everybody think that’s weird? It’s not weird.

Katsuki realises he’s been mumbling as he ducks into the underground stairway leading into H.Q., and mutters out a soft, “Fuck.” He can’t keep picking up stupid habits from Izuku, of all people. Stupid Deku, who can’t do anything except make promises he can’t keep, and doesn’t have the basic fucking decency to- to let someone know that he’s—

He scowls at the thought, curling his fists painfully. It hadn’t always been like this. There had been a point where they were something close to friends, back when Izuku was still working at Yuuei Agency and they were each other’s first preference for partnered missions. 

Well, maybe not friends exactly... but their rivalry was certainly more sustainable than how it used to be when they’d first started training as spies together at the Academy. It was probably the best it had ever been, even when they were little brats and Katsuki wasn’t self aware enough to keep Izuku as far away from him as he could. 

Whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t matter because Katsuki doesn’t care anymore, and this distance between them is good. Except for the times when Izuku manages to jump him out of nowhere to make his life just that much more difficult.

Katsuki enters a small alleyway and makes his way into a nearly inconspicuous dollar store, not even acknowledging the knowing glance of the shop owner as he makes his way downstairs from the back door. 

He’s instantly greeted by cool, blue lighting and the sounds of people quietly murmuring in the main discussion room. This place was smaller than the ones they’ve inhabited before, and only really had a small kitchenette, a discussion area which often also turned into a general lounge area, a mini-gym, the weapons room, and a couple of sleeping dorms downstairs.

The whispering dies down when Katsuki lands on the last step, and he turns to glare at everyone who’s huddled around the discussion table. 

Kyouka, Denki, Eijirou, and Tsuyu are all staring at him. Katsuki knows what they’re going to say before anyone else, but Eijirou beats him to it anyway: “Dude, he got you again?” He grins stupidly from his seat on the beanbag. “This is the 5th time now! We just marked it.”

“Midoriya is really good,” Tsuyu comments. “I have no idea how he still manages to keep up with Bakugou when he’s all alone like that.”

“Technically,” Denki adds, “he still has Toshinori as his boss. And he works with Shinsou too.”

Kyouka shrugs, a small smile on her face. “Still, he’s practically left to his own devices, working in a vigilante agency like that. Honestly kudos to him for managing to piss off Bakugou so much without even having the proper equipment to— Woah, is this guy actually steaming from the ears?” 

God, he misses the days where his glares could make each and every one of these idiots cower before him. “Stop fucking talking about him.” 

Eijirou just grins widely and stands up. “Aw, c’mon man don’t be like that. You need to learn how to stop letting him get to you every time, and just forget about him!”

Despite himself, Katsuki can’t help but bristle at this. Forget about Deku? Deku? Deku is in every one of Katsuki’s memories: even as a ghost, even as an afterthought. He lingers everywhere. Katsuki would sooner be lobotomised than forget about Izuku “Shitty Deku” Midoriya. 

(As if he would ever want to. But that’s a different story). 

He stalks past all of them without looking their way, snatches up a box of darts from the table which they’ve surrounded, and makes his way to the other side of the room where a large dart board hangs on the wall.

“Poor dartboard,” Eijirou laments.

“Rest in peace king,” Denki agrees.

“Deku is such a fucking—” Katsuki snatches up a dart and swings it violently at the board, “dumbass stupid nerd—”  The dart sticks cleanly in the innermost triple ring, the sound reverberating loudly. “Thinks he can just barge into my business, like he always does, thinking that he’s fucking better than me because— what?” There’s a flurry of movement as he slams dart after dart at the board. “Because he’s not backed by a government agency? Just because he gets shit done by making his own shit? And then he has the audacity to—” Swing. “—throw himself into every bit of danger he can get himself into—” Thwack. “—because he doesn’t have a single preservation bone in his body. Where the fuck does he get off on that?” With a grand flourish, he swings an arm back and aggressively thrusts the last dart into the outer ring.

Chest heaving and darts expended, Katsuki lowers his shoulders from where they’d been raised by his ears. 

“Dude,” Denki says after a prolonged silence, and Katsuki looks toward him. “You literally just made a portrait of Midoriya.” 

Katsuki looks back to the dartboard, where the darts were arranged in a way that looked like Izuku grinning with his eyes closed, identical right down to the outline of his messy hair.

Katsuki, however, tilts his head at it. “The hell're you talking about, Dunce Face? Need to get your eyes checked?”

“We have a visitor,” a voice calls coolly from behind them.

Everyone composes themselves at the sound of their boss. Katsuki turns toward the sound to see Aizawa standing at the foot of the stairwell with none other than Izuku in tow. 

In a split second, his instincts kick in as he gives Izuku a quick once-over for injuries. Apart from the addition of a nerdy fanny pack hanging on Izuku’s waist, he looks exactly the way he left him. Katsuki is almost surprised that the shithead isn’t covered in bruises from run-ins with random criminals in the short time he left him alone. 

“What the hell is he doing here?” Katsuki growls at the same time the rest of the group coos in delight at seeing their beloved former colleague again. Denki even goes so far as to wrap Izuku up in a sudden hug.

“Yagi wants to collaborate for an upcoming mission,” Aizawa answers, despite the fact that Katsuki’s question was rhetorical and he would like nothing more than to kick Izuku back out into the streets. “In exchange for using our resources and tech, the All Might agency will share highly important information with us. Midoriya here says he met with the Nagant we’ve been tailing. Judging from that statement, however, is it safe to conclude that your mission was interrupted again, Bakugou?”

“What’re you lookin’ at me for?! Deku’s the one who can’t stay the hell out of my way!” Katsuki angrily whips out the tiny USB from his pocket and flings it across the discussion table, the device nearly skidding over the edge if it wasn’t for Kyouka’s quick reflexes. “Not that it matters anyway. I got the info.” Aizawa doesn’t need to know that this was just handed over to him by that dumbass over there. 

“Oh, yes, about that—” Izuku steps forward, politely getting Kyouka to hand the USB to him, and casually plugs it into the side of the table as if he fucking works here all the time.

A hologram blinks into existence above the table, and a list of names sit next to each other in neat columns and tables before them.

The group immediately buckles down and gathers around the hologram. Aizawa settles for simply leaning against the stairwell and gestures for their guest to speak. Izuku breathes in deeply, and Katsuki physically cringes because he can already anticipate the upcoming onslaught of words.

“Um, as you all know, I left Yuuei after a mission went… awry… and I had to go underground so that my pursuers wouldn’t find any of you guys. Under All Might’s instructions, I went undercover in one of the League’s outposts in Indonesia, and uhh,” he pauses, fiddling with a loose thread in his pants. “That’s sorta how I’m friends— uh, acquaintances? with Lady Nagant. She was one of the League’s strongest footsoldiers over there before she broke away, but I trust her. She’s not like the others! She actually has a very keen sense of justice, which I admire! She even makes me rice cakes now and then, which is really sweet. Not sure why she took such a liking to me though, especially since I once nearly set off a trap mine next to her tent-”

“Can you get on with it already?” Katsuki barks suddenly, startling everyone in the room except for Aizawa and Izuku . “What did she tell you?”

Izuku brings a hand up to his lips and rubs at it worryingly. “I know it doesn’t sound very pressing, but it feels like bad news to me. Basically, we've been getting a lot of suspicious activity offshore. What's more, the waters have been unnaturally choppy lately and a lot of ship operators have been temporarily waiting it out, except for a few overseas shipments and some border security patrol officers. But uhh…”

Izuku reaches into the hideous red, yellow and blue fanny pack secured around his waist to pull out a pink envelope. “There’s this one Japanese cruise ship sailing to a ‘romantic getaway island’ which is allowed to dock for some reason? Lady Nagant gave this to me now- I think it’s an ad for the hotel on that island. The hotel is called ‘The Pink Rose’ which is apparently on this list here.”

“A romantic what?” Katsuki walks over to Izuku and snatches the paper out of his hands. Izuku looks momentarily startled by this, but occupies himself by typing in the name of the hotel into the holographic keyboard on the table.

It’s a pretty standard looking advertisement, if you ignored the pale pink paper and gaudy looking font. Couples can sign up for a three-day weekend stay at a love hotel that’s situated on a goddamn island which, apparently, isn’t large enough to even house a town. How rich do you have to be for your business to be the only building on a whole ass island?

There don’t seem to be any contact details except for a phone number, which has Katsuki raising an eyebrow. “Where the hell is this? I’ve never heard of this island before.”

Izuku thumbs his lips again, not looking away from the details of ‘The Pink Rose’ blinking down at them from the hologram. “It’s apparently 2500 kilometres from here. It should take about ten hours to get there, I think. The next departure is tomorrow evening.”

“Wait,” Kyouka pipes up, “Are you saying that the Pink Rose is affiliated with the League? Is that why this is suspicious?”

Izuku nods at this. “Yeah. I mean, it depends on the fact that the information on this drive is true. I trust Nagant, but even if I didn’t, I think I still have reason to suspect something is happening on that island. I’ve been tracking Tomura, who’s apparently made some appearances amongst some sea pirate gangs.”

“Probably acquirin' materials for the journey there,” Katsuki cuts in, eyebrows furrowing.

“I agree,” Izuku says, and Katsuki doesn’t get the chance to throttle him for pretending like they’re on the same side because Izuku continues, “I also think there’s something on that island that they’re trying to disguise. I would have checked the cruise and the island with Hitoshi, but he recently injured himself so he’s, uh, kind of out of the question.”

Katsuki pauses at this, and then rolls his eyes. “You must be desperate if you were considering going with that creepy fucker.”

Izuku matches Katsuki with a disapproving look of his own. “Seriously, what’s wrong with Hitoshi?”

“What’s wro—? He fucking dropped out of the Academy before you did! As if he’s gonna be of any use to you.”

“What? I’ll have you know that he’s a very capable spy and I trust him with my life!”

“Like that means anything!” Katsuki throws both arms in the air, ignoring the twinge in his chest. “You’d trust your life with anybody on this fucking planet before yourself! You don't give a fuck what happens to you!”

There’s a heavy silence, and Katsuki's co-workers all shuffle awkwardly from where they're standing. Katsuki resolutely stares Izuku down, daring him to challenge it. 

He doesn’t, just lets his eyes droop downward. “Why do you even care, anyway?” Izuku grumbles quietly. He looks back up at Katsuki from the corner of his eye, and the gaze keeps him rooted to the spot.

Izuku is deceptive in his own way. He appears soft and round around the edges, but his eyes are sharp and calculating. They see right through Katsuki and slice him open with every gaze. When Izuku looks at him, he bleeds. 

Katsuki clenches his fists by his sides. He’s tired of having his heart spilled out and dissected in the open like this, for Deku everyone to see. I don’t care, is what Katsuki wants to say. But with the way Izuku is looking at him now, he knows he can’t. Instead, he just crumples a corner of the flyer in his fist and looks away.

Aizawa sighs, finally stepping in. “Bakugou. I’m assigning you to go investigate the island. If what Midoriya says is correct, this is suspicious enough to warrant a short initial investigation.” In his periphery, Katsuki can see the way Izuku deflates at hearing this. “I’ll get agent Kaminari to map out the general area where he can, but we’ll initially be relying on you to tell us what’s around.”

Katsuki, still reeling from all sorts of irritating emotions, can only manage to nod. “Fine with me. I’ll go find a character profile for a chef or something.”

Aizawa raises a hand, stopping Katsuki from retreating to his cabin. “You’re not going as a staff member. The next batch departs too soon and we don’t have enough time to replicate the proper documents and uniform so that we could slip you in unnoticed by other workers. The safer option is to go as a guest.”

“HAH?” Katsuki whips his head at the rest of the idiots sitting down before him. “Like hell I’m sucking face with any of these numbnuts!” He makes sudden eye contact with Izuku, and jerks his eyes away just as quickly. 

“I can go instead,” Izuku offers immediately, looking around at everyone else sitting next to him. “I’m good at slipping in unnoticed. Um, if you any of you guys are available—”

“No need for that, Midoriya. You’re going with Bakugou, and you’re going to pose as a couple together,” Aizawa says, and fuck he should’ve seen that coming. “You’re both just the best fit for this mission.”

“Old man…” Katsuki snarls warningly, at the same time Izuku stands up in a panic and squeaks, “Sir, I really don’t think that’s a good idea!”

“I don’t remember asking either of you for your opinion,” Aizawa says. “I’ll pull up some of our general civilian profiles for both of you to study. I expect you to get along with each other and handle this like professionals, otherwise I’ll have you both suspended for a month.”

Izuku, expectedly, stands his ground. “With all due respect sir, I’m not a member of Yuuei anymore. I could just as easily get in without involving anyone here.”

“Midoriya,” Aizawa sighs, surprisingly patient, “you can either waste time planning how to get in and miss the departure, or you can go with Bakugou and get some study in beforehand. It’s your choice. Besides, I may not be your supervisor anymore, but I’m sure Yagi will be understanding. We are collaborating on this mission, after all.”

Izuku hesitates when he looks at Katsuki, no doubt attempting to see if he’s on board with this. Katsuki doesn’t look back at him. There’s no changing Aizawa’s mind now, especially considering Katsuki’s violent disapproval which only makes the man pettier. 

"It's only for three days," Aizawa reasons when Katsuki doesn't budge.

Instead of arguing any further though, Katsuki just exhales slowly, meets Izuku’s gaze, jerks his head to the left, and grits out, “Follow me.”

He doesn’t wait for a reply as he walks down the hallway leading to the room at the very end and pettily kicks the door open. He turns the light on just before Deku and Aizawa walk in, and he can’t help but instinctively look to Izuku to catch his reaction to their impressive collection. 

He was expecting Izuku to freak out and go on those annoying rants about how cool their gear is (which would then lead to Katsuki smugly pointing out why their equipment was so much better than whatever amateur shit Deku was- whatever, that wasn’t the point). 

Instead, Izuku just looks uncomfortable.

“I haven’t gone undercover in a while,” he says quietly.

“Are you fucking serious?” Katsuki looks at Aizawa and gestures wildly at Izuku. “You seriously still think this is a good idea?”

Aizawa strides by both of them purposefully, heading for a small metal cabinet on the other end of the large room. “Actually, this is probably going to be one of my best ideas yet.” He digs into a drawer and fishes out what looks like two necklaces with round lockets dangling at the ends of it.

He turns around with a bored stare and gestures for them to come closer. “Commander Nezu created these two prototypes, which will only be officially recognised once they’ve been used on a real mission. You two, as you may have already guessed by now, will be my guinea pigs.”

“We don’t know what the island is like, and some signals may be blocked from leaving or entering, or even being transmitted from within the realm of the island,” Aizawa explains. He holds up the two necklaces in front of them, the bronze objects glinting dimly in the blue light. “In order to keep you both safe, these devices will be connected with one another at all times. It does not require a satellite or any other such wireless connection. Their connection is better explained as a magnetic pull. The lockets contain a compass which will enable you to find each other if one of you is to get lost. Right now, they need to be warmed up to each other’s presence, so I suggest you wear them and be in each other’s vicinity for the next thirty minutes.”

He suddenly chucks the lockets at them, and they both catch it one-handed. Once it enters the heat of their palms, a red light begins blinking in the centre of the heart, having been apparently activated. “Hatsume has dubbed them as a ‘Lover’s Compass.’ Frankly, I don’t care what you call them, but if you break even one of these I will have you both suspended for a month.” He sighs tiredly. “I’m going to sleep now, but I expect to see you both up and early in this room tomorrow morning.” Aizawa walks between the two of them, hands shoved into his pockets. “Midoriya, you can take the room opposite Kaminari’s.”

“Um, sir, I don’t have a change of—” Izuku starts, but the man has already left and shut the door behind him. The silence becomes suddenly deafening. 

Izuku coughs awkwardly as he turns back around, fiddling with the necklace he’s now worn around his neck. The red light continues to blink from between his scarred fingers. “Would you, uh, like to give me a tour?” 

Katsuki looks at him distastefully, pocketing the locket. “Fuck is there to show you? There are spy suits in the glass cabinets over there, a buncha weapons over there, and cool-as-fuck gadgets over there. You got eyes, don’t you?” Before Izuku can say anything, he continues, “Besides, that Pink Haired Gadget Freak will be providing us with the weaponry tomorrow so we ain’t gotta do shit now. We gotta get profiles first.” 

Again, he motions for Izuku to follow him toward a computer sitting at a desk. As Katsuki logs in, he feels the irritating presence of Izuku hovering behind him. “Oi!” he snaps, roughly thrusting his hand into Izuku’s face and shoving him away. “This is top secret shit! Look away, you nosy fuck!”

Izuku, surprisingly, snorts out a laugh. “I wasn’t peeking, Kacchan. But okay.” And like a child, he covers his eyes with his hands, even though Katsuki can still see him smiling.

Katsuki glowers and turns back around, covering the keyboard with one hand as he types:

User: expl0sionmurd3r

Password: DekuIsUglyIHateDeku15.07.

Once he’s in, he doesn’t take long to find two civilian profiles with sufficient documentation and prints them out without another word.  

“I need to sleep too,” he says, chucking a stapled stack of papers at Izuku’s head. “Wake your ass up early tomorrow so we can study this together.”

Izuku frowns, probably because he was smacked in the face without warning. “You still sleep this early?”

“Yeah, ‘cause I have a proper fucking schedule, unlike your lazy ass! Now, piss off.” As Katsuki stalks away, Izuku reaches out to grab his wrist. Katsuki halts, glaring down at the hand. 

Izuku retracts his hand immediately, almost apologetically, but stands his ground otherwise. “You heard Aizawa, Kacchan. We need to let the devices get used to the two of us, so we need to be with each other for a little longer. You’ll just have to bear it for now.”

Katsuki takes the device out of his pocket. “So take my one and have them kiss each other all night. I’m going to bed.” 

“I know how these kinds of devices work,” Izuku says, frowning. “It has to be on you to activate. It isn’t just about the lockets recognising each other, it’s about the users too.”

As he says this, they both seem to tense at the implication of what Izuku has said. Katsuki’s heart does that thing again, where it begins to pick up and then slow down and pick back up again — like it’s confused about which direction to take. Still, he watches Izuku’s expression carefully, trying to pick out a hidden meaning.

Izuku blushes as time seems to stretch between them and he finally breaks eye contact. “I— I mean— Not necessarily, like, us personally. I— I just meant that it only works for those people who the devices recognise, you know?” 

“I heard you the first time, Izuku.” Katsuki looks down at the device in his hand, turning it over in his palm to watch the red light. 

Reluctantly, he puts the chain around his neck. “Whatever. I might as well show you to the dorms.”

He leads the two of them out the door and past another set of pristine white hallways. They silently take an elevator down, and are greeted with more silence as the doors open.

“Is nobody else going to sleep yet?” Izuku asks as they step out. The sound seems to echo in the empty space.

“They’re preparing for their missions,” Katsuki says, leading them towards the men’s dormitories. “But they’ll be down soon.”

Katsuki pushes open the door opposite Denki’s room, flicking the light on to survey it. Every room looks about the same. A single black bed, a closet, a dresser, a long workbench on one side. This room hasn’t been used in a while, but it won’t need more than a couple minutes of dusting before it’s good enough to sleep in. 

To kill time, he pulls out two dusters from the closet and throws one at Izuku. “Get to work.”

They work in silence for the next five minutes, until Izuku eventually says, “I think I like the older Yuuei headquarters better. It was more spacious.”

Katsuki grits his teeth and keeps dusting. “I like this place a whole lot better.”

Izuku sighs knowingly. “Because—”

“Because you’re not in it,” Katsuki finishes, not wanting to turn around but being unable to sneak a glance at Izuku’s face. The guy looks dejected at first, but then a small smile begins to grow on his face, which Katsuki instantly doesn’t like.

“But now you’re stuck with me, huh?” Izuku’s grin peeks out from behind his lip, tone teasing. “Who would’ve thought we’d get paired on a mission like this? You even walked me back to my room! Kacchan is already practising his romance skills!” He pauses to pretend to think about something. “All that’s missing now is a goodnight kiss…”

What the fuck? Katsuki stalks over toward him and throws his fist against the wall, right next to Izuku’s head. His eyes widen, but he otherwise doesn’t startle. “We. Are. Not. Dating. Don’t get any funny ideas just because we’re forced to do this stupid mission together, you fucking weirdo.”

For a second, Izuku doesn’t say anything. Just looks at him with wide eyes. Then, almost whispered, “I was kidding, Kacchan, but um, have you— have you ever kissed someone before, Kacchan?”

Katsuki falters, and would have stumbled back if Izuku’s wide, hypnotising eyes didn’t have him locked in place. “Obviously,” he says eventually, but he knows he’s taken too long to answer. “I was Dunce Head's fiance for a mission once.”

“Oh.” Izuku’s eyes drop downward, and seem to darken just a little.

“What about you?” Katsuki blurts out before he can stop himself. “How many people have you been kissing, shitty Deku?”

“Um, not very many… I could probably count them on one hand, honestly.”

I’m going to hack all of your ugly fingers off, he thinks instantly, but wisely does not voice out loud. 

They continue staring at each other, until Katsuki’s mouth opens at the same time Izuku opens his: “We should practise.”

It’s odd seeing his words being mouthed back at him, and even Izuku blushes wildly at their synchronisation. “Practise for the mission,” Izuku clarifies hurriedly, as if there was a need to practise for anything else. 

“Stop stealing my ideas, you damn copycat,” Katsuki barks, even as his face starts to heat up in tandem.

“I said it first!” Izuku says, childishly. Then, before Katsuki can counter that, Izuku closes his eyes tightly and leans forward quickly on his tippy toes. 

Katsuki slaps a hand over Izuku’s mouth immediately, and his eyes fly open. “Oi! The hell do you think you’re doing? I’m going in first, bastard!” 

To stop him from making a move, Katsuki presses one hand firmly on Izuku’s neck and moves his hand from the wall to smooth over Izuku’s cheek. 

Katsuki goes still, unsure of how to proceed anymore. In Katsuki’s mind, there’s a white line dotting its trajectory from Katsuki’s mouth to Izuku’s. It’s something he’s perhaps subconsciously mapped out in his head before: the angle, the movement downward, the timing, the force of it. He only needs to lean forward just a little bit more, and the pull will drag him in like a bowstring snapping back into place. 

Their teeth clack. The feeling is jarring, and Izuku whispers out a little, “Whoops.”

“Shut up,” Katsuki says instantly, tightening his grip on Izuku’s face. He closes his eyes and presses forward, allowing the gravity in between them to pull his lips to the corner of Izuku’s mouth. Izuku seems to make a move to speak, no doubt a comment about Katsuki missing the mark about to arise, but Katsuki moves in to press their mouths together and the words seem to dry up. 

It’s hesitant, at first, just a soft exploration of lips against lips. Izuku’s lips are chapped, but his face is warm. Both of Katsuki’s hands reach up to cradle Izuku’s face as he tilts his chin up. Izuku’s shoulders hit the wall with a soft thump, and he wraps his hands around Katsuki’s wrists as if to anchor himself.

It’s barely even started, but Katsuki can feel how different this is. Before, the kisses with Denki had been clinical - as if they had been professionally designed to look real. But this is… It was as if every point of skin contact was flint striking steel, the sparks kept contained underneath Katsuki’s palms.

For a few moments, the only sound in the room is the quiet, barely audible smacking of lips. It’s only when he begins to feel lightheaded does Katsuki break away to breathe. His eyes are half shut as he pulls away, their lips grazing with the proximity. 

Katsuki’s eyes flick up to meet Izuku’s, whose cheeks are flushed deep pink. 

“I’m sure we can do better than that,” Izuku whispers, voice scratchy. 

“Yeah, no shit. You suck at this,” Katsuki replies, equally raspy, eyes already falling back down to Izuku’s lips. He feels unable to tear his hands away from Izuku’s face, so he just adjusts his grip and dives back in. 

This time, Izuku’s hands lace tentatively behind Katsuki’s neck as he pulls him down. Everything becomes slow, as if time and space had boiled and then melted down into this one moment. Izuku’s hands move almost cautiously as they trace themselves down Katsuki’s neck and rest on his chest. The movement prompts Katsuki to pull back slightly, drop his hands down to Izuku’s hips, and quickly dive into Izuku’s lips again as he tugs him forward by the waist.

Izuku gasps as their hips collide, and it makes Katsuki dizzy. He chases the sound, desperate to hear it again without even really knowing why.

Katsuki almost loses count of how many times they paused and resumed altogether, and it becomes almost uncomfortable when the heat against his chest becomes suddenly hot—

Izuku pulls back abruptly, and Katsuki is left momentarily dazed at the intake of fresh air in his lungs. Katsuki looks down to find their lockets stuck to each other like magnets, a green light emanating from between them. He brings up a hand to touch the conjoined entity, unflinching against its heat. 

“Sugoi…” Izuku mumbles, wiping away a trail of saliva from the corner of his mouth as he watches the lockets.  

The green light disappears and the lockets disengage. 

“Guess that means time’s up,” Izuku says, his voice weirdly quiet, opening up his locket to reveal a small compass. The needle is pointing towards Katsuki, and, when Katsuki opens up his, it is pointing towards Izuku. 

“What a dumb ass contraption,” he grumbles, removing it from around his neck to stuff into his pocket. He can barely even hear himself over his heartbeat pumping in his ears.

The necklace weighs heavily in Katsuki’s pocket. He doesn’t like the way they were stuck to each other. He especially doesn’t like the way he hadn’t even noticed that thirty minutes had passed. 

“You’re, uh,” Izuku says, awkwardly taking his necklace off as well, “a surprisingly good kisser.”

“Hah?! What the hell were you expecti—”

Izuku, for some reason, actually begins to smile at this. “I’m just saying you’re really good, Kacchan!” He pauses, messing around with the locket by opening and closing it again. “I think we can actually make this mission work. Don’t you?”

The back of Katsuki's neck feels hot. “Whatever,” he mutters, shouldering past Izuku as he makes his way for the exit. “Get up at 6am or I’m kicking this door down and then using it to beat your ass awake.”

Just as he’s stepped outside, he pauses with one hand on the doorknob as he faces away from the room. He turns the doorknob clockwise, and then anticlockwise. “You need to invest in some fucking chapstick, by the way.” 

He slams the door shut with that, and stomps back to his own room. His hands are tingling; the phantom feeling of warm skin on his palms makes his fingers twitch, and no amount of clenching and unclenching his fists seems to make it go away.

In his own room, Katsuki thumbs the locket in his hands, scowling deeply at it. He doesn’t fucking need this. He doesn’t need a compass to find Deku. He doesn’t need any damn hi-tech equipment for that, and he never has. Deku is as attached to him as his shadow, his reflection, the dust that settles on his skin. 

Fuck. Katsuki squeezes his eyes shut and presses that damned necklace to his forehead. This is really bad.

In Katsuki’s world, all roads lead to fucking Deku. 

Chapter Text

“...Wow.”

Izuku gazes in awe at the large cruise ship before them, one hand slackening on the duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Katsuki follows his gaze as they both step onto the wooden boardwalk and into the queue leading to the docked ship.

It’s smaller than he’d expected. Even in the dark of night, Katsuki can tell that while it’s very tall, there are only about six levels, which is unusual for a cruise ship. He notes the lifeboats strapped to the sides, and then eyes the noisy waters below them. Honestly, it looks a little like a death trap.

“You’re too easily impressed,” Katsuki says, rolling his eyes. “What you should be doing is praying to whoever deity hears you first that we don’t get shipwrecked tonight.”

“I’m a confident swimmer!” Izuku says cheerily, but the joke falls flat when Katsuki parries his smile with a scowl. 

Izuku, undeterred, smooths out this wrinkles of his gaudy orange shirt. They're both dressed in similarly obnoxious Hawaiian shirts and boring khakis and sandals. Despite the fact that they're virtually wearing the same thing, though, Izuku somehow manages to make an already dorky outfit even nerdier. “Haha, are you scared Kac—” Izuku cuts himself off with a soft curse, “u-um, dear?”

The couples lined up in front of them move up the line, but Katsuki stops Izuku from moving forward by grabbing his bicep. “You need to get better at this, sweetheart.” Katsuki looks around them and notes that they’re relatively alone now, save for the far-away figures of some other guests walking toward them. 

He bends down to hiss emphatically, “When there are other people around us, this stupid gimmick needs to appear seamless, you got that? I don’t care that you haven’t been undercover in a while. No slip-ups, or else I’m feeding you to the fucking sharks. And when there’s no one around to see us, we are not hugging or kissing or doing whatever the fuck else love dovey shit. Are we clear on that?”

“Crystal,” Izuku says, still smiling. “But, uh, you do realise that you already broke that rule last night.”

“HAH?! That doesn’t count! It was a warm-up, stupid Deku! Besides, you fucking made me do it so it's your fault!” With Deku’s imploring eyes, and soft, inviting lips, and that annoying smile of his, he'd made it so easy. There's no way this guy didn't know what he was doing when he came on to him last night.

“What?” Izuku sputters. “My fault? That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Woah!” comes a stranger’s voice from behind. “Do I sense trouble in paradise?”

They both turn around at the voice, and are greeted by a smiling couple. One of them has short brown hair cut into a bob, her cheeks lit up with a pink blush. The other girl, presumably the one who spoke given the mischievous gleam in her eyes, has startling pink hair that’s almost as unruly as Deku’s. 

Katsuki, ignoring every bit of spy training that instructed him to please, for the love of god, impersonate nondescript and non-threatening characters, says, “Mind your own damn business, Pink Head.”

Izuku steps forward instead, letting out a nervous laugh. “Sorry about him. Yacchan’s a little cranky since he skipped dinner!”

YACCHAN?!

At this, the bob cut girl nods her head in understanding. “Ahh, I understand that feeling! That reminds me — apparently the chefs on the island are world renowned. I can’t wait to eat their specialities!! I’m salivating just thinking about it.”

Pinky smiles at this, throwing one arm over her girlfriend’s shoulder and leaning in close to her face. “You know I love a girl who can eat,” she says coyly. 

Her girlfriend blushes, but one hand comes up to trail down Pinky’s neck and chest anyway. “Oh, what a coincidence! So do I...”

“Gross,” Katsuki says, grimacing. Izuku looks away immediately, fingers twitching awkwardly by his sides. 

The girls pull away at Katsuki’s verbal disgust, though they don’t leave each other’s arms. “Don’t be so prude,” Pinky says, sticking her tongue out playfully. “This is supposed to be a romantic getaway for all of us! If y’all are arguing, you just need to bone or something.”

“Bone…?” Izuku squeaks. 

Katsuki’s neck is heating up and he bites down on his tongue hard, not wanting to cause a scene and fuck up the mission before it’s even started. He looks to Izuku, hoping he’ll say something more useful, but the nerd just looks like he’s forgotten how to function like a normal human being. 

“Okay, well, we’re gonna take some pics together before we hop on board!” Round Cheeks says eventually. “It was nice meeting you!”

As they walk off, Katsuki and Izuku stand awkwardly next to each other. More couples are crossing the boardwalk now, and it takes everything inside of him to not gag at the way these people are just… so openly being all touchy-feely with each other. Izuku physically startles when the guy in front of them smacks their partner’s ass without shame. 

“What the fuck,” Katsuki whispers, the weight of their future responsibilities as a couple suddenly dawning on him. 

“I thought you were supposed to be the oh-so-experienced one,” Izuku snaps quietly, his lips barely moving as he fiddles with the necklace over his neck. 

“I am, idiot!” Katsuki hisses back. “I just— fucking hate undercover missions! And I wasn't surrounded by horny fucks when I did this with Dunce Head.”

Izuku sighs, one hand coming up to scrub over his cheek. “I really wonder what was going through Yagi's head when he approved this." 

“Ugh. Let's just get this over with,” Katsuki says, gathering up his luggage again. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

Katsuki can let his mind work on autopilot for now as he scans the crowd. He takes note of what the guests are wearing, of the things they’re saying, of the way the freakishly giant staff member posted by the entrance scans their tickets and gives it back to them with a booming, “Thanks for coming guys!!”

Usually, he would’ve been able to tell if something was off intuitively by a tingling on the back of his neck — the unmistakable feeling of eyes on him. But now, he feels nothing. (That doesn’t mean that he can let his guard down, though). 

They both step off the boarding staircase and enter a room that appears to be a front office. Izuku surveys the room with curious eyes, looking from the linoleum planks underneath their feet to the stormy ocean raging on beyond the large windows on either side of them. A desk is situated on the left side of the room, where a blonde woman is swinging room keys on her fingers and throwing them casually at the guests lining up in front of her. He hums thoughtfully, turning towards Katsuki. “It’s going to be a long night.”

Despite the fact that they haven’t worked together in years, Katsuki can understand the hidden meaning all the same. Just because things seem fine right now, does not mean we can let our guards down. 

Katsuki barely suppresses the urge to roll his eyes. I know that, stupid. D’you think I’m stupid? Out loud, he says, “Yeah. I hope we can explore the place first.” 

Izuku huffs, indignant. Really? he’s saying, Do you seriously still think I’m looking down on you?! Why do you keep thinking that? “Yes, me too! Let’s go put our stuff away, and then we can look around.”

“Yes. That’s a good idea, sweetheart,” Katsuki forces out through gritted teeth. I’ll stop thinking it once you stop underestimating me, you overgrown cock hair!

Izuku smiles casually, but Katsuki can see the strain in it. Overgrown WHAT?

“You two!” says a loud voice from behind them. The mammoth-man who scanned their tickets steps off the entrance ladder and into the room, closing the door behind him. He looms over them with a grin, his broad arms crossed tightly over his chest. “I know a couple of love-cruise first timers when I see 'em! My name is Inasa Yoarashi! Would you like any assistance?”

Izuku, unfortunately, is the first to react, his hand flying out to shake Inasa's extended one.

“Oh, yes, this is our first time doing something like this!” Izuku chirps amicably. “Yacchan and I have never done anything, uh, very romantic together, so we thought we’d give this a try! Sorry if we seem a bit lost. I take it that we're supposed to get our keys from the desk over there—?”

“I’m glad you have chosen our services for your love needs!” the man, Inasa, booms again. “The cruise and the love hotel are both very popular for couples wanting to spice up their love life. Our customer satisfaction has always been overwhelmingly positive!” He leans down to whisper conspiratorially, even though this man wouldn't know the definition of an 'inside voice' if it knocked him clean on his ass, “If you know what I mean.” 

Katsuki barely manages to hide his disgust while Izuku fights valiantly to keep the rising blush off his face. “Oh. Yep, yes, of course. Because of the—”

“WILD SEX!! YES!” Inasa shouts, throwing his head back to laugh. A couple of guests jump at his voice, heads swivelling towards them. 

The giant then walks toward the other end of the room, turning around dramatically with his hands on his hips. “Now that I’ve gotten everyone’s attention, I am going to make an important announcement from the Love Canal Cruiseline! Normally, at this point in time, guests would be able to wander the decks and then retire to bed. However, due to these storms, the only level that is operational at the moment is the arcade deck on level four. Once you have obtained your room keys, our escorts will take your bags to your room and you are free to roam the ship until it’s lights out, which will be announced over the speakers!”

Instantaneously, a flash of white-hot lightning illuminates the room. Inasa’s wide grin doesn’t waver even after the following crack of thunder. 

“Are…” a guest pipes up, “are you sure this is a safe time to travel?”

“This ship can withstand anything! Don’t you worry!”

Inasa excuses himself to speak to another couple, and Katsuki and Izuku warily place themselves in the back of the queue for the concierge desk. “He seems nice,” Katsuki says, which really means: That guy is a fucking psycho. 

“Yeah! He’s so lively!” Izuku replies, bumping his shoulder against Katsuki as more people line up behind them. I know, right!! You know, he might be really strange, but I’m not getting any bad vibes from him. What about you?

Katsuki catches his eye, and shakes his head ‘no.’

“Your names?” the blonde woman asks once they reach the front of the queue, eyes not straying from her desktop. Popping a bubblegum in her mouth, she looks like every stereotype of an airhead. 

“I’m Yamaguchi Koichi,” Katsuki says, swallowing down the distaste of the fake name. “It should be paired with—”

“Nishida Izagi?” the woman finishes, looking towards Izuku. “That’s like, a really cool name.”

“Oh! Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it,” she says, swivelling around in her chair to scoot towards one of the small lockers on the wall behind her. When she unlocks it to retrieve keys from inside and turns back around, she continues, “No, seriously. Don’t mention it. I say that, like, every four times for like, good customer service or whatever. If you’re gonna leave a review, make sure to mention how Camie was super sweet. Here are your keys, your room number should be on it. Luckily for you guys, the mattress was recently replaced so it’s super comfy and stuff. You need anything else?”

Wait— shit. Why did Katsuki forget that they were going to have to sleep on the same damn bed? Just the thought of it makes Katsuki shudder. “We need two beds,” he blurts out, immediately biting his tongue when he sees Izuku turn to him quickly in his peripheral vision.

The woman, Camie, raises an eyebrow. “You want… two beds? On a love cruise?”

Izuku, sensing the damage, laughs nervously. “Yacchan, uh, can’t sleep on a bed.”

“Huh?" Camie tilts her head. "Why?”

Izuku glances quickly at him, looking frantic. “He, um,” Izuku swallows tightly. “He gets… scoliosis.”

Now it’s Katsuki’s turn to look at him in horror. Izuku avoids his gaze, choosing instead to look hopefully at the woman. 

She looks skeptical, giving Katsuki a once-over with her eyes. “I mean, we don’t exactly have, like, a bunch of spare beds on a cruise, but there should be a futon in the closet?

“Thanks,” Katsuki manages to mutter, barely resisting the urge to throttle Izuku right in front of everyone. 

An employee enters the room in a rush, bowing down to Katsuki and Izuku with a polite, “Allow me to take your bags!”

Katsuki eyes him with suspicion. He doesn’t want anybody touching his shit, especially when he has no reason to trust anybody in this entire death-trap. “We got it,” he says instead, rolling his eyes and pulling his luggage forward. He grabs the keys off the desk and turns to Izuku. “Let’s go, sweetheart.”

He keeps an iron grip on Izuku’s wrist as he makes his way upstairs and to level three, which is designated as the guest cabin quarters. Katsuki curses at his luggage as he drags them up the stairs, the key in between his knuckles biting into his skin as he manhandles his carry on with more aggression than what is probably required.

Once they’re in front of their room, Katsuki shoves the key into the lock and attempts to open the door as calmly as he can. As soon as their feet and luggage have crossed the threshold, however, he shuts the door and whirls on Izuku. 

“SCOLIOSIS?” he whisper-yells. 

“Kacchan, I hate to say this, but you were the one who was messing up!” Izuku whisper-yells back, angrily taking his shoes off. “I was just fixing up your mistakes!”

“Like hell you were!” Katsuki growls, taking his shoes off as well and hauling his luggage into the tiny room. He shoves his bags into a corner and opens the closet, looking around for the spare futon. “Ain’t possible to fix a mistake which doesn’t fucking exist.”

Izuku sets down his bag next to the bed and doesn’t look at him. “Can we not do this? We shouldn't be arguing on this mission.”

“What's wrong with arguing? Maybe we’re the kind of couple who fights a lot, Deku. Maybe we booked this dumb vacation in a sad, pathetic attempt to resolve our failing relationship. That’s normal. It ain’t gonna be suspicious if—”

“It’ll draw attention to us!” Izuku hisses, and for the first time in a long time, he genuinely looks pissed off. “Why can’t you just accept the situation we’re in right now! I don't understand why it's so hard for you to— You've done this before, haven't you? Are you really so— I mean, what the hell, Kacchan, can you really not even stand being in the same bed with—” Izuku cuts himself off, clearly agitated that the words aren't coming out properly.

Katsuki doesn’t fire back primarily because the sight of Deku’s hands shaking as he unzips his bag is extremely uncomfortable. Izuku’s hair is covering his eyes, but Katsuki can tell that there’s something actually fucking upsetting him, something probably more meaningful than just: “I’m mad at you for not liking my scoliosis diversion.”

So, gritting his teeth, he concedes. “So, what? You think I can’t take this seriously?”

“That's not really what I was trying to say, but sure.”

“Just watch me, nerd." Katsuki stalks over to jab an index finger into Izuku's sternum. "I’ll be the best fucking boyfriend you’ve ever seen.”

Izuku looks up at him with tired eyes and just stares at him for a second, before grabbing a jacket from his duffel bag and pulling it on. “It’s fine, Kacchan. I believe you,” he says with a sigh. “Let’s go look around now, maybe talk to some people, see what’s happening. Do you think you’ll be able to stay awake for long? It’s pretty late right now.”

“I’m not ninety years old, you dickhead,” Katsuki snaps, but he’s relaxing all the same now that Deku seems to be moving on. 

They’re pulling their shoes back on at the doorway when Katsuki turns to him and raises an eyebrow. “Also — Yacchan? You're using my last name for that kiddy ass name?”

Izuku's previous frustrations seem to melt as his face flares up in red. “S-Sorry, it just kind of... slipped out. It’s difficult to call you anything else, okay? And if we're going to be a couple, we have to believable. Couples don't call each other by their first names unless they're mad at each other, you know? And you have no right to complain! You keep saying sweetheart like it’s the most poisonous word to exist.” 

“Hah? Well, what the fuck else am I supposed to call you?”

“I don’t know! What are some romantic nicknames you can say without looking like you're holding back your own vomit?”

“My old man likes to say ‘babe’ sometimes,” Katsuki suggests, thinking out loud as he remembers what his dad calls out to his mom sometimes. Just thinking about them calling each other those gross ass nicknames makes him grimace.  

"Um," Izuku squeaks, "Maybe- maybe we can do without the nicknames, actually." When Katsuki looks down to where Izuku is sitting on the floor, the poor man is beetroot red and attempting to hide it by pretending to tie his shoelaces. The sight of it spikes Katsuki’s adrenalin for some reason, and he’s squatting down to grin into Izuku’s face. 

“Holy shit,” he says, laughing a little. “You actually like that. What the hell? Corny ass nerd.”

Izuku throws his hood over his head and tightens the drawstrings. “Shut up,” he says, slightly muffled. 

Katsuki is having none of it, and moves down to loosen the drawstrings and pull down his hood. He takes Izuku’s chin in his hand and drags his face toward his own, the same shit-eating grin on his face. “Aw, what’s the matter, babe? You getting hot and bothered over a pet name?”

“Kacchan,” Izuku whispers, throwing Katsuki's hands off his face immediately and shutting his eyes tight. “Stop embarrassing me.”

“What’s wrong, my love?” Katsuki continues, unrelenting as he squats closer. “You don’t like it?”

Izuku turns to face him as if he was just challenged to do something, and even though the blush has receded slightly, the sparkle in his eyes seems much brighter than before. He barely moves a muscle in his face before he says, softly, “…I like it.”

When Katsuki blinks, it feels like he’s taken a snapshot of the moment. Of Izuku staring at him in the dim light, their faces mere inches from each other, of the way Izuku looks at him with a steady gaze, like he’s waiting for Katsuki to say something. 

He doesn’t. 

Katsuki swallows down his beating heart and gets to his feet. The distance makes it easier to breathe, and Katsuki is reminded of how he worked so hard to keep that distance there in the first place. 

The locket hanging comfortably over his chest feels warm against the skin. 

According to Kaminari, there are six decks on this particular ship – making it the smallest vehicle in the Love Canal Cruiseline business. Given that this ship is used mainly for night shift travels, it makes sense. There wouldn’t exactly be any time for guests to use any of the facilities onboard, so the size was reasonably cut down. 

Even so, the entire deck above the front office, which is situated at the very bottom, is reserved as a gym, with multiple tennis courts and running tracks as well as the usual gym equipment. The floor above the gym is the spa and relaxation deck, which Katsuki would not have been using even if he had the opportunity to. The dormitory sits at level 3, and above that is a gaming deck. The level at the very top, according to the blueprints, is simply a sundeck designed for lounging in the sun and swimming in their giant pools. 

As they take the stairs to the gym floor, Katsuki realises that it’s been a while since he’s investigated a location without Kaminari’s annoying voice in his ear. Because of the nature of their mission and the uncertainty of transmissions to and from the island, contact with HQ is limited to online interactions rather than live-time assistance. 

The gym and the spa levels are empty – probably because there’s nothing to do in either since the gym equipment is closed off and the spa pools have been covered over and barricaded. Most of the foot traffic seems to be contained to the arcade deck, which is where Katsuki and Izuku are headed to now after they’ve scoped out the other levels only to find nothing of note.

As they begin to descend the steps from the sundeck to level four, Izuku keeps close to Katsuki by wrapping his arm around his elbow. Another couple ascends the steps, both of them too busy smiling at each other to notice the way Katsuki nearly flinches at the contact. 

Once they reach the final step and walk onto the gaming deck, Izuku’s hand drops from Katsuki’s elbow down to his palm. He looks at him expectantly, as if to ask, Is this okay?  

In response, Katsuki tightens his grip. Their fingers tangle together almost accidentally, but Katsuki resists the urge to jerk away. He didn’t want to admit it, but Deku was right about what he’d said in their cabin. For the mission’s sake, he needs to not only bear Izuku’s presence, but to pretend like he cherishes it.

Katsuki has never been very good at acting, but he is good at improving upon his own weaknesses. And if the nerd thinks he's lacking here, then he's damn well going to prove him wrong.

This room is wide and spacious, with multiple lounging areas, televisions, and arcade-style machines. Ornate chandeliers hanging from the ceiling give the room a warm, golden light, and it reflects against the wine glasses and bottles lined up inside of the bar on their left. On either side of them, the ocean rages on behind the giant windows.

This room is definitely where most of the guests seem to have migrated to. The place is filled with chatter, mainly couples talking amongst themselves or in groups with the other guests. Occasionally, there is a mixed burst of laughter and groans from people playing on the arcades or on the game consoles connected to the TVs.

To their right, two couples are sitting at attention on a long couch, enraptured by something on their TV. Two women are seated on beanbags in front of the couch, mashing at the controllers in their hands. A woman with pink hair, sitting behind one of the girls currently screaming “FUCK YEAH!” at her screen, grins when she notices the two of them step inside.

“Hi again!!” she says, waving wildly at them. Katsuki realises with displeasure that it’s the girl from before, the one from the boardwalk. “Come sit with us! Ochako’s absolutely destroying this game right now.”

Katsuki exchanges a look with Izuku, hoping to communicate just how badly he hates this mission already, but he just squeezes his hand and turns back to smile at the woman. “Sure thing! I’m Nishida Izagi and this is my boyfriend, Yamaguchi Koichi. I don’t think I caught either of your names before..?”

As they settle next to the woman who introduces herself as Ashido Mina, and her girlfriend as Uraraka Ochako, Katsuki looks around the room. They’ve divided their work like this before, where one of them is focused on one task and the other is set on another (all while they look and appear as if they’re not doing anything extraordinary to an outsider’s eye). 

As Izuku chats up the couple, Katsuki activates the little lens inside of his eye to scan the room for infrared lights in search of spy cameras or if any suspicious items are being carried on someone’s person tonight. Once again, he seems to come up empty.

The game on-screen flashes red as the player on the other end of the couch dies for the last time. The green-haired woman stands up and bows to the brown-haired girl, Uraraka, who’s sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of them.

“You played excellently, Uraraka-san,” the defeated player says with a dip of her head, her long hair falling over her shoulders.

“You were a valuable opponent, Shiozaki-san!” Uraraka says with a smile. “Who wants to play against me next?”

“I’ll go,” Izuku says immediately. Uraraka hands him Shiozaki’s controller, and Katsuki can tell from the look on his face that he’s been raring to go ever since they sat down. 

Katsuki was excited to play too, in all honesty. It’s a first-person shooter style game split into two screens, where the objective is to get as many kills in before the timer runs out. Katsuki would fucking crush any and all competitors, and there’s no doubt about it.

“Hah? Not even gonna ask me if I wanna go first?” Katsuki butts in, snatching the controller out of his grasp.

Izuku snatches it back just as quickly with an unimpressed look. “You never let me use the console at home,” he whines, the lie slipping out so easily that Katsuki can almost see an alternate version of themselves cohabitating and squabbling over their shared console. 

“Yeah, ‘cause you keep destroying the equipment with your freak-ass strength!” Katsuki recovers quickly. “Lemme play first, dammit!”

“You can be so insufferable sometimes,” Izuku sighs, and it sounds so fond that Katsuki actually pauses for a second. He doesn’t know if it’s Izuku or Izagi speaking, but there’s a part of him that hopes it’s Izuku’s voice. That’s probably just wistful thinking, though. 

Wait. Wistful thinking? “HATEFUL THINKING,” Katsuki corrects himself out loud, forcefully thrusting the controller into Izuku’s hands again. "I'm going after you crush Bob Cut girl."

Izuku cocks his head to the side, confused. “Hateful thinking…?”

“Must be his daily mantra,” Uraraka says easily, shooting a dirty look over at Katsuki. “Anyways, are you ready to go? I’ll let you go down with honour!”

“Can it, Round-Face,” Katsuki snaps without really meaning to. “He’s gonna wipe the floor with you. And after I take your place, I can pound him into the dirt and show you extras how it’s done.”

“Aww Yacchan, is that a promise?” Izuku says, looking over his shoulder with a flirtatious smile which he should not know how to do because isn’t this guy supposed to be a virgin nerd?! Katsuki has to tear his eyes away when Izuku winks at him, because— what the fuck?

“Don’t push it,” he says lowly, and he wonders if Izuku knows that he’s talking to Izuku and not whoever the fuck just possessed him just now.

Izuku seems to undertand because he just shrugs and turns back around. “Can you quickly walk me through the instructions first?”

As Uraraka tells him how to use the controllers, Katsuki slaps his knees and stands up. “I’m gonna get us some drinks. You want anything?”

“Get my usual, please!”

Katsuki tsks and turns toward the bar, hands tucked into his pockets. When he settles on a bar stool and flags down a bartender, he turns his head to the right.

A woman is sitting on a stool a little away from him, one hand tracing patterns on the countertop with her fingers and the other hand slowly twirling blood-red wine in its glass. Her frizzy blonde hair obscures her face from this angle, but Katsuki's instincts are standing at attention anyway. He'd noticed her as he surveyed the room before, and he realises that she hasn't moved from her position since. 

As if feeling his gaze, she turns to him. The first thing Katsuki notes is the catlike shape of her eyes, sharp and wild. She cocks her head, and smiles slowly. There’s an aura to her that Katsuki can’t place exactly. It’s like she walks in shadows, not quite belonging to the rooms she occupies, like her presence is reserved for being tucked away into corners.

Watchful eyes. Prickles on your skin, on the back of your neck.

“Your partner got you to buy them drinks too, huh?” Katsuki says, attempting to be casual. “Guess we’re both suckers.”

The woman smiles a little wider. “I don’t have a partner. I just work here.” She pauses. “Where are they? Your partner?”

Katsuki jerks a thumb over his shoulder, gesturing vaguely to the group clamouring over each other as Izuku steals another kill from Uraraka. 

The woman follows the motion, and Katsuki watches as her expression lights up freakishly fast. He files the information away for later. 

“He’s so cute!” she gushes. “In a plain kind of way.” 

Katsuki, for some reason, scowls at this. The guy’s got green hair and green eyes and freckles and some badass scars. Not to mention, a smile that can either brighten up a room or bring a crime lord to his knees. How the hell is that plain? 

“He is.” There’s a pause. “You, uh, you work for the cruise, you said? D'you like it?”

The woman nods ecstatically, and Katsuki knows he’s asked the right question as he sees something spark in her eyes. It’s a childlike glee that seems to transform her into an excited schoolgirl. “Yes, of course! I love love! I want to be surrounded by love, engulfed by it. If it wasn’t for our need to eat and drink, I could probably feed on everybody’s love! Do you feel that way, too?”

Katsuki barely gets a few seconds to think about what the fuck to say to that. “Nah. I get enough of my fill from just him.” Katsuki looks over his shoulder as he says this, watching as Izuku destroys Uraraka for the third time in a row. He cracks a smile and turns around again, momentarily taken aback by the way the woman’s hands are clasped together and held next to her cheek. 

“That’s so romantic!” she squeals delightedly. “What a moving answer!!”

The bartender appears in front of Katsuki, sliding two glasses towards him. Katsuki takes a sip of his diluted shochu and says, “You can call me Yamagu—”

When he turns back around, the lady is gone. God damn it, he didn’t even get her name. That should’ve been the first thing to ask her. His hand rubs at the necklace hidden underneath his ugly vacation shirt, unsettled by the conversation he just had. 

Eventually, he drags himself back to the group, handing a glass to Izuku who’s just defeated Uraraka for the fifth time in a row. He wants to get out of here soon, mostly to consult Izuku and also partly because it’s getting late and he hates going to bed later than he should. 

Katsuki throws an arm over the back of the couch, and Izuku settles himself comfortably next to him, resting his head on his shoulder with an ease that makes Katsuki raise an eyebrow.

“I told you he’d crush you,” Katsuki says, effecting pride into his voice which wasn’t difficult to fake. He looks down at Izuku, whose face is flushed with a healthy, victorious glow. No doubt, it’s probably been a while since he’s properly competed with anybody, so of course he would get his kicks from here. 

Uraraka turns her body around to face them, setting her controller down as she tucks her chin over Ashido’s thigh. Ashido smooths her hair down soothingly, but Uraraka has her eyes trained on Izuku. 

“Mina,” she says, not looking away, “if I wasn’t in love with you, I think I might’ve tried to get a bite out of this guy.”

Ashido turns to look at Izuku too, who freezes awkwardly at the attention. “Ohh, yep, I see it,” she says, nodding once. “He definitely seems like just your type. The simple baby face, the muscles, that awkward, boyish smile.”

“Right?” Uraraka agrees, now turning to fully address Izuku. “Like, you were so nice about how badly I did in this game, too. Cute and respectful?! I bet you're a real heartbreaker, huh?”

“U-Um.” Izuku shields part of his face with one hand, a light pink beginning to creep into his cheeks. Both of the girls coo at Izuku’s reaction, which only serves to turn him pinker. “Well, not really… I’ve been told that I’m kind of plain-looking, actually. And you didn't play badly at all, Uraraka-san.”

Katsuki whips his head down to stare at him, feeling genuinely confused. Was Izuku actually able to overhear his conversation with the blonde woman? Is that where he got that idea from? Or have people genuinely told him that he was plain-looking before? 

“That’s bullshit.” Katsuki removes his arm from over the back of the couch and returns it back to his side. Izuku turns to look at him, and Katsuki unflinchingly holds his gaze. “You’re beautiful. How the fuck can you not know that?”

Izuku gapes at him, his eyes searching for something in Katsuki’s face that’ll give him away. Well, he can look all he fucking wants. Katsuki isn’t lying. It’s just an objective truth, okay? It’s not like he’s— complimenting him, or something.

Izuku’s face turns an alarming shade of red and he glances back at the girls sitting next to them. “You’re… just trying to embarrass me again,” he says, laughing a little. “Can we change the subject please? This is really awkward.”

Ashido pinches one of Izuku's cheeks with a grin. "You two are so cute. It's like, making me want to fall in love all over again. Anyways, did you want to play Mr. Yacchan?”

Finally. A cue to leave. As much as Katsuki would love to absolutely demolish his partner, he’s also sensitive to the time right now. “Maybe later.” Then, as he stands up, “And you're not allowed to call me that.”

"Eh?" Izuku says, looking genuinely disappointed as he stands up and grabs onto Katsuki's hand (and seriously, why does he keep doing that?), "I wanted to play with you!"

"We can play all we want in our room, shithead."

“Goodnight, y’all,” Ashido says with a smirk. “Have fun!~”

Ugh. Being around horny idiots is literally his worst fucking nightmare. Katsuki drags Izuku away without so much as a ‘goodbye.’

They’re sitting cross-legged next to each other in bed with Katsuki’s laptop open in front of them. What looks like a social media group chat on the screen is actually an encrypted website designed specially for spies to communicate with their headquarters. The messages self-destruct three minutes after it’s sent, so the two of them need to quickly mentally catalogue everything Denki and Shinsou say to them in the group chat. 

Izuku, balancing a bowl of peanuts in his lap, mumbles around his food as he types into the chat, “My hunch is that this cruise company has nothing to do with my suspicions of the Pink Rose. Everything seems too normal, and not ‘too normal’ in the sense that it becomes suspicious, y’know?”

Katsuki drums his hands on his knees. “S’what I was thinkin’ as well. Only thing is, if there’s something on this island, then why is the cruise allowed to stop there at all? D'you think the two are related to each other?”

“Well, I don't think I have enough info to conclude on that, but you'd think they'd be in kahoots, right?" Izuku swallows and then frowns. "The strange woman you spoke to... did she say where exactly she worked?”

"Fuck." Katsuki sits up higher from where he's slumped against the headboard. "I assumed she was an employee of the cruiseline, so I didn't ask for specifics."

Izuku turns to him with a small, reassuraing smile. "That's okay. So far, I don't think a hunch is enough to oblige us into keeping an eye on her anyway. I’ll still be on the lookout, though."

Katsuki hums, going back to watching Izuku type up everything they've seen so far into the discussion page. "You've been keeping an eye on one half of the League's operations, yeah? Whaddaya think of the woman? She sound familiar to you at all?"

Izuku thinks about it for a second, before shaking his head 'no.' "Unfortunately, she's not ringing a bell. I never ran into many women when I was in hiding, to be honest, so your guess is as good as mine. If she's as mysterious as you say, then she probably managed to slip under both of our radars if she really is with the League or their associates."

"We can go looking for her now," Katsuki suggests. "She's still onboard, and who knows where she might go after."

"I don't know about that, Kacchan. Investigating individuals in such a closed space, especially if she's in her own staff quarters which we shouldn't have access to, could make us suspicious. And we don't have enough to go off of to assume that she's a threat. She could've just been any-"

“A-ah! God, right there, Mina. You’re so goo-ood, fuck.”

Izuku startles so badly he nearly shoots off the bed entirely. Katsuki, on the other hand, glares in disbelief at the offending wall between them and the weird girls next door, because of course they'd be rooming next to them. “Oi! Keep it down, you dickheads!”

Instead of a response, there’s just the sound of a loud smack. “Ohh, my naughty baby is being so loud. Does my baby girl need to be punished?”

“Kacchan, you’re fuelling them!” Izuku whispers, voice full of despair.

Before he can say anything else, a banging sound on their left has them turning the other way. The sound happens again, and again, and again, followed by the sounds of a creaking mattress and a drawn out feminine moan, “S-Shouto, you feel so good.”

“This can’t be fucking happening,” Katsuki hisses. It feels like his entire face is on fire, and the urge to throw a hood over his head and pull tightly at the drawstrings like how Izuku had done earlier is incredibly strong. From Izuku’s strawberry cheeks, it’s safe to say that the nerd isn’t faring any better either.

“Inasa-san wasn’t joking, huh,” Izuku says, laughing awkwardly as he closes Katsuki's laptop. For a brief moment, there’s only the sound of moans and creaking mattresses. If Katsuki could have his way, he would’ve banged on the door of each and every guest and told them that if they didn’t shut up he would throw them out at sea.

“Please tell me you have some hi-tech spy ear-plugs or some shit.”

Izuku’s face falls, and that’s all the answer Katsuki needs.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake–”

“Kacchan," Izuku blurts out, "let's let everyone know that we’re having sex too,”

Katsuki’s brain buffers, unsure if he’d heard that right. “What?"

Izuku, brave, stupid Izuku, barrels on. “We need to be like everybody else! We need to blend in, okay? No one should be able to single us out for any reason.”

“If you think I’m gonna be fuckin’ moanin’ for you, you’re out of your goddamn mind, Deku.”

“What?” Izuku looks actually puzzled at this, though he does seem to get impossibly redder. “I-I didn’t even suggest that at all? I was just gonna—” Without even consulting him, Izuku opens up Katsuki’s laptop again and quickly opens a search engine. 

He casts a nervous look toward Katsuki. He then looks back to the screen, before gingerly typing in ‘porn .’

Katsuki can’t help but bark out a laugh. “What kind of dweeb just types porn in a search engine? Are you twelve years old?”

“It’s not that weird,” Izuku defends. “Look! There’s even an autofill suggestion over here from nichepornrequests.com: ‘Blond twunk gets freaky with cute green-haired–’ ”

The laptop is slammed shut.

“Kacchan, what’d you do that for?” 

Katsuki quickly pulls the device into his lap and moves so that he can turn the screen away from Izuku. “Shuddup, idiot,” he snaps, ears flaming. “My laptop, my rules.”

He doesn’t like Izuku’s idea, but reluctantly agrees that he might have a point. He opens up the first legitimate website he can find and clicks on a relevant-looking video. Then, he raises the volume. For a brief moment, the two of them listen to the sound of soft pornographic moans together. Deku seems to be frozen with awkwardness, and Katsuki doesn’t know where to fucking look. 

He glances over at Izuku, who glances back, and before Katsuki can look away, the nerd snorts out a laugh. The sound is unexpected, but weirdly infectious. 

Katsuki jabs him in the side, but not enough to be painful. “Oi, who the hell laughs during sex?”

“Maybe you’re really bad at it,” Izuku whispers back, wiping furiously at the small pools of tears that are gathering in the corners of his eyes. “Kacchan, I can’t believe this. This is just so ridiculous.”

“It was your idea, stupid. Now stop making me look bad and start moaning like you mean it.”

The corners of Izuku’s lips curl upward. “Oh, you mean like this?” Izuku closes his eyes and abandons his inside voice. “Oh, Yacchan! I can't believe you’re going to actually make me cum this time!—“

One of Katsuki’s hands flies out to shove Deku’s head into the mattress. “WHAT THE HELL? Fuck you!”

Izuku turns his head to the side to say, “I’m trying but you’re— AHH, stop!”

Katsuki doesn’t even need to think before he’s kicking Deku off the bed. At the satisfying sound of his body hitting the floor, Katsuki pops his head over the side to say something smug. Before he can, though, Izuku is grabbing him by the collar and hauling him over the edge as well. 

Katsuki hits his neatly-assembled futon hard, but turns around instantly to throw hands at the nerd. Izuku moves to scramble away but Katsuki manages to grab his shoulders, even though they’re both sideways, to slam it against the side of the bed. Coincidentally, the hard thump is accompanied by a loud moan from his laptop, which has Katsuki immediately jerking his hands away. 

“Ugh, what the hell—“

“Aw, did I hurt you, Yacchan?” Izuku says gleefully and loudly, quickly getting to his feet when Katsuki sits up with his pillow raised over his head. 

“Stop acting like you got the upper hand over me, you little shit!” Katsuki gets to his feet as Izuku darts away. There isn’t much room to move around in here, so Izuku jumps on to the bed, crawling up to the headboard and raising his arms to defend himself from Katsuki’s attacks. 

The moans emitting from his laptop don’t deter him anymore. In fact, he uses them to his advantage as he times his pillow whacks to Izuku’s face with every pornographic ‘Ah!’ uttered by the actor on screen. 

“Yeah, I’d bet you like that, fuckin’ weirdo,” Katsuki says mid-swing. He’s beginning to recognise now that the strain in his cheeks is just his own lips stretching into a grin. 

“WOW!" Izuku says loudly again, and he's definitely not taking this seriously if that goofy grin is any indication, "I'm gonna cum! I'm gonna cum everywhere! Watch out for your face, Yacchan!"

And Katsuki can't help it— he laughs. It takes everything in him to try and rein it in, because he's pretty sure you're not supposed to laugh during sex. He throws his pillow the floor and just lets the relentless porn audio continue on. He can barely hear it over the rush of blood pumping in his ears, anyway. Izuku is lying underneath him, breathing heavier than he should be after their relatively short scuffle, and Katsuki doesn't know what else to do but stare. Completely unbidden, he remembers that he knows what Izuku's lips feel like. 

He wonders if Izuku bought chapstick. All Katsuki would need to do is lean down and find out for himself.

Eventually, there's a fast crescendo of skin slapping skin and after the actors groan in satisfaction, the video ends. Katsuki hasn't even spared it a second glance.

They don't move from their position for a few seconds. But then Izuku smiles again, sitting up quickly so that they're suddenly eye-to-eye. 

“That was amazing! Good job today, Yacchan!” Izuku says loudly, his voice almost bordering on sarcastic. Then, more quietly, he whispers, “I think we fooled them! Don’t you think?”

“After the goofy performance you gave, yeah, sure,” he huffs, crawling backwards just to get away. “Let’s just freshen up and sleep already. I’m tired of seeing your face all day.”

“Hehe, Kacchan is so agreeable at night.”

“Do you want to die?”

It’s dark. Katsuki adjusts the blanket over his shoulder and attempts to fall back asleep from whatever sound decided to wake him up all of a sudden. 

He doesn’t know how late it is in the night right now. From where he’s laying on his dusty futon (don’t these people wash their shit before giving it to guests?) all he can hear is the muffled sounds of the ocean, the low hum of the air conditioner, and the soft whimpering from above him. 

Oh. It’s just Deku. 

He tries to ignore it for a bit, hoping he’ll quiet down soon. 

“I don’t… wanna…” 

Okay, he should’ve expected that Izuku wouldn’t know how to shut up even in his sleep. Sighing, Katsuki sits up. His sleep is already disturbed now anyway. He steadies himself on one arm as the ship jostles a bit, his futon sliding just an inch. Sleeping on the floor in a ship apparently manned by idiots is not fun. 

He scrubs a hand over his face, resting an elbow on his knee, and just waits. 

“I don’t…” Izuku continues, his voice breathy and small, “wanna die…”

Katsuki’s head snaps up at this. Is Deku having a nightmare? He crawls up to his knees to watch Izuku, even if he can’t see much in this darkness. The long, rectangular window above them only allows for a limited amount of moonlight to filter through.  

“You can’t kill me,” Izuku says after a while. The man is lying on his stomach, his arms sprawled in awkward positions around him. The blanket has been shoved down to his calves, most of it bunched around his feet. “I know… jujitsu.”

“Idiot,” Katsuki breathes out, relaxing just a bit. 

Izuku is silent for a while, his breathing steady. Katsuki is about to turn around and try to go back to sleep until he hears, “Kacchan…”

Katsuki’s movements halt again. After a few seconds, he says, tentatively, “Deku?”

“Kacchan.”

It’s just his name. It’s just a word. But to Katsuki, it feels like an instruction— one that compels him to move, to shuffle forward on to the bed, to brush the hair from Izuku’s sweaty forehead as he sits delicately next to him. 

Izuku is still sleeping. The realisation that Izuku was saying his name in his sleep is not lost on him. “Deku, what’s wrong? Are you awake?” 

There’s no response. Why does this guy take fucking ages to say anythin— “I’ll get Kacchan…” Izuku grumbles finally, “to eat you…”

“Oh, you fucking dickhead,” Katsuki hisses. This stupid idiot had him— is worried the right word? Fuck. His face flares up unexpectedly, and he yanks his hand back. What the hell just happened? Did he just get put into a trance? Fuck. He needs to get back before this dumb bastard decides to wake up. 

“Kacchan?!” Izuku says, and now those dumb green eyes are open and staring at him, because of course he would choose now to wake up, and Katsuki is beginning to realise how creepy it must look right now, for him to be staring over him as he sleeps, and—

“You were having a nightmare,” Katsuki says quickly, and he recognises how defensive his tone comes across. “Wasting my fucking time. I’m going back to sleep.”

Izuku catches his wrist just as he begins to move away, which Katsuki yanks out of immediately. He ignores the way Izuku’s fingers are quaking. “Kacchan, wait.” 

He waits. 

“Can you stay?”

Katsuki pauses, takes a deep breath in, and he stays. 

Flopping down on the bed, he laughs drily, “…Do you even know jujitsu?”

Izuku throws his pillow over his face and groans. “Ugh, did I really say that? I can't even remember what the dream was about…” After a pause, he peeks out from underneath the pillow. “I only know a little bit. Picked it up from here and there. Not enough to be good at it, though.”

Katsuki doesn’t know what to say to that. He knows that whatever Izuku learnt was from wherever he’d run away to. He wonders if that’s where the nightmares came from. 

“Can I ask you something?” Izuku says quietly, turning to face him fully. “Do you… hate me? Like, actually hate me?”

Katsuki grinds his teeth together, glaring holes into the ceiling above. “You didn’t even wait for me to answer.”

“You can be honest,” Izuku says, and his voice is so uncharacteristically small that it makes his skin prickle.

Katsuki is silent for a moment. “I do,” he says eventually. “I do hate you.”

Izuku sighs. “I know a partial truth when I see one, but I’ll accept it.”

“I wasn’t asking for your fucking permission."

Even in the darkness, he can feel Izuku’s eyes on him. He doesn’t need to look at him to see him — he just knows that Izuku’s hands are tucked under his pillow and his eyes are tracking every minute expression on Katsuki’s face.

God, he really does hate him.

“Remember when we posed as yakuza lackeys in our first year of being posted?” Izuku muses suddenly. “There was a floral entryway into the leader’s garden, and it smelled like lavender. You even had that fake tattoo of a red dragon on your neck. Nobody ever suspected a thing, either. Actually, I think that trip was one of many memories I have where we worked really well together. What a way to spend the summer, huh?”

“It was spring,” Katsuki says in lieu of a proper response. He remembers that mission well, given it was one of his first real ones while they were still training in the Academy. It wasn’t his first time partnering with Deku – they did that plenty of times before, given their professional compatibility – but it was one of the first times he’d felt like they could take on the world together.

“Ah, you’re right. Kacchan’s memory is perfect, as always. Hey, do you remember when we were kids and I'd get nightmares after we'd watch the horror movies your mom didn't want us to watch? You would hold my hand as we fell asleep and tell me that you'd fight the monsters away for me—”

“You left me.” Izuku falls silent at this, almost like he’d been expecting it. Katsuki forces himself to breathe steadily, keeping his eyes trained on the ceiling above and focusing on the sounds of the choppy ocean so that he can retain some sanity. “You just up and left Yuuei Academy without so much as a warning. Like a coward.”

“I was caught, Kacchan, you know that,” Izuku tries to explain, but he sounds defeated by his own words. “They almost found out who I was working for, and I couldn’t risk anyone going after you guys. So I had to go undercover and lay low for a little bit to get them off my back.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re so much better than the rest of us,” Katsuki hisses, “and we couldn’t possibly fend for ourselves, or god forbid, help you out. What kind of fucked up delusions do you have in your head, Deku? Do you think the world revolves around you? Do you have any idea what your magical disappearance did to— to the people who cared about you? Did you even care?”

“Kacchan!” Izuku reaches a hand out, but seems to think better of it and retracts it. “Of course I cared! I never meant to hurt— I just wanted to keep you safe!”

Katsuki ignores the singular pronoun and the way it makes his chest ache. “Don’t give me that shit. I thought you’d—” Katsuki pauses, then turns his head to the side to look at Deku head-on in the darkness. “I thought you’d died, you idiot.” He watches as Izuku’s eyes widen, but barrels on. “You’re lucky Yagi was able to find you and could report back to us on your status. Not that it would’ve mattered anyway, ‘cause even after you came back outta nowhere you didn’t even come back to Yuuei. You’re fucking addicted to carrying everything on your own, and I’m sick and tired of you pretending that it’s for the greater good or whatever else bullshit you’re feeding yourself.”

Izuku fiddles with the necklace over his neck. “I did try to talk to you after I came back,” he says, but it’s a weak defence and they both know it. “You wanted nothing to do with me.”

And Katsuki, in his state of carefully suppressed rage, does what he does best and aims right where he knows it’ll hurt. “Yeah, well, maybe I decided that I just don’t want you dragging me back anymore.”

He expects the silence that follows this, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Sighing, he continues, “Deku… what happened to you? When you went undercover?”

“It’s…” Izuku sniffs, and Katsuki realises that he’s crying, and he hates him, hates that he can still hear Deku’s uncontrollable laughter from just a few hours ago, hates that Katsuki is the reason he’s crying again, hates this entire situation, wishes they could both just fall asleep so they can end whatever is happening now, “I don’t know how to explain it. I was really lonely for so long, and I lost myself for a bit. I almost forgot what my real name was. I… I never want to do that again. I'm sorry, I don't know how else to explain it.” Izuku pauses. “But it’s okay now. Being undercover again, I mean. It’s okay if I’m with you.”

Katsuki doesn’t say anything. Even when he can hear Izuku sniffling, even when Izuku struggles to find the words for what happened to him, Katsuki remains silent. He stares up at the ceiling, seeing only darkness despite the fact that his eyes had long since adjusted to the night. After a prolonged silence, Izuku shuffles a little on the bed, bumping their shoulders together. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers again, soft enough that Katsuki would have missed it if he wasn’t already attuned to Deku’s every motion. He can’t bring himself to move, not trusting what he would do if  he did. There’s a twitching under his skin, a sort of gravitational pull that yearns to pull Deku close, the stifling heat be damned. He’s almost grateful for the summer sweat as an excuse to have their skin moulded into one another. 

(Maybe that way Deku would never leave him again).  

Katsuki finally finds it in himself to breathe again, slow and long. “It’s… whatever. I get it. You’re a fucking idiot but— I get it. You don’t need to cry about it, stupid. Just... don't pull that crap ever again.”

Izuku exhales a small, “Yeah, yeah, I know,” and moves to sleep on his side, facing away from him. Before he can turn all the way though, Katsuki moves instinctively, his hand shooting out to grab onto Deku’s. He doesn’t know why he did it, but he knows he’s succeeded once Izuku moves to lie on his back.

“Thanks,” Izuku mumbles.

“Didn’t do shit.”

There's a silence for so long that Katsuki thinks he's fallen asleep. But then, Izuku sidles closer. "Hey Kacchan?"

"Hm?"

"I'm glad you don't hate me."

When Katsuki doesn't respond to this, Izuku gives Katsuki’s hand a quick, appreciative squeeze. After a few minutes, it becomes clear from Izuku’s breathing that he’s fallen asleep for real now. Katsuki, on the other hand, lies wide awake even after the heat between their palms becomes almost unbearable.

I wish I could hate you, Deku, he thinks. I really do. 

Chapter Text

The first thing he feels upon waking is unbearably hot. He can’t blame the air conditioner for not working, because it is, and he’s not even underneath a blanket, so that means that the only cause of this warmth has to be—

Oh. It’s just Deku.

He only vaguely registers the fact that they’re all tangled up in each other. Deku’s using his right arm as a pillow, while his left arm is trapped under Izuku’s armpit. Deku has both of his arms wrapped around Katsuki’s torso, and he’s drooling all over Katsuki’s pecs with his wide, open mouth.

With the sticky summer heat, he almost doesn’t distinguish the wetness of the saliva with his own general sweatiness. Instead, in this groggy state, all he feels is Izuku breathing steadily in his arms, and when he inhales it’s to a distinct Izuku-like scent. It feels… familiar. Safe.

“Good mornin’ Kaccha-an,” Izuku mumbles when Katsuki tries to regain feeling in his right hand.

Katsuki decides to leave his hand be, instead snuggling back into Izuku’s hair subconsciously. “Mmm. G’mornin, nerd.”

There’s a brief, blissful silence. The waves make for a comforting background sound, the sloshing of the water melting into static noise. Sunlight pours in calmly, sweeping against the wooden floorboards.

RRING – I AM WAKING UP! – RRING – I AM WAKING UP NOW!

Katsuki’s eyes fly open, just in time to watch Deku’s eyes fly open, and they both stare at each other for a moment as all sleep dissolves from their eyes.

Katsuki is the first one to spring backwards, but Izuku is the first one to scream. He propels himself as far away from Katsuki as he can, nearly falling right over the edge of the bed in his haste to turn his alarm off.

“KACCHAN?!” he yells, turning around to cover himself up with the blanket as if he’s naked underneath it.

“WHAT THE– YOU GOT YOUR NERD SALIVA ALL OVER ME!” Katsuki yells, looking disgusted at the trail of wetness down his tank top. He uses the edge of his top to scrub in vain at the saliva that is quickly drying up on the fabric.

“Why are you still here?! On the bed?!”

“WHY WERE YOU HUGGING ME?” Katsuki brings his voice down to a whisper once he remembers where he is, but the glare is as murderous as it can be and his scrubbing gets all the more aggressive.

“You were hugging me too!”

“We weren’t fucking hugging!” Katsuki yells contradictorily. He jumps off his side of the bed, ignoring the way his ears have started to burn as he squats down to roll up the barely-used futon from last night. “Get your eyes checked! Fuck off and die! Your arms are like fucking super-glue!”

He can’t remember the last time they’d slept on a bed together. It was probably when they were still kids, since they were most definitely not friends in middle school, and he hadn’t seen Deku again until they’d bumped into each other at Yuuei’s Spy Academy Orientation. Their dorms used to be opposite each other at the Academy, but neither had dared to even set foot in the other’s, let alone be alone together in one room.

Whatever. It was a one-time thing that definitely will not happen again. Katsuki would rather throw himself out of the porthole window than wake up next to Izuku with their arms wrapped around each other like that again.

“You could’ve easily thrown me off,” Izuku counters as Katsuki wrestles the futon back into the tiny closet. Looks like the nerd is feeling extra mouthy today.

Katsuki takes their luggage out of the closet before turning around. “Save it for the judge, Sleeping Beaut—” Katsuki is immediately cut off by seeing Izuku unexpectedly close to him, peering up at him with expectant eyes. For a beat, Katsuki just stares at him. When did he sneak up on him like that? Why the hell is he standing so close? Why is he shirtless?!

“Er.. Earth to Kacchan?”

“Sleeping UGLY!” Katsuki fires back belatedly, ripping his eyes away from the golden locket pressed into Izuku’s chest. “Put on some clothes, you impatient shit!”

“But it’s so—” Izuku falters as Katsuki pulls his drool-infested tank top over his head in one go, “...hot.”

Katsuki shoves his top at Izuku’s face, and the nerd stumbles back from the temporary blindness. Then, just to top it off, he yanks Izuku’s duffle bag from the closet and hurls it at Izuku’s face again, this time with enough force to make him stumble backwards and fall on his ass.

“Ow, ow, ow! Why’d you have to throw it at my face, Kacchan?!”

“Why were you born with a face that makes me want to throw shit at it? Hurry up and get dressed, already!”

It’s approximately 7am when the island first comes into view.

They had both seated themselves at one of the bench tables that’s sidled up next to the wall-length window. The room in which their breakfast is served is in a type of open cafeteria, currently filled with the quiet murmuring of sleepy guests who are both hungry and tired from their, er, nightly activities.

Unfortunately, they’re not sitting here alone. Another couple sits opposite them, listening intently at some bullshit story Izuku is concocting. Their breakfast — pancakes lathered in syrups which Katsuki had to choke down without complaint — sits half-eaten in front of them.

“So what happened after that?” the woman with long, silky black hair asks from opposite them.

The woman, who had introduced herself as Yaoyorozu, leans forward with her hands tucked under her chin, onyx eyes sparkling. Her fiancé next to her also leans forward, clearly invested in Izuku's story with the way his monochromatic eyes are gleaming.

Katsuki takes another bite of his pancakes as he once again glares at the guy’s, Todoroki’s, ridiculous hair job. Half white and half red? Who fucking allowed that to happen?

“Well!” Izuku begins cheerfully. There’s a smidge of butter by the corner of his lips but Katsuki has given up trying to wipe it away. “I wasn’t expecting my Yama-bear to become a regular customer at my work after he embarrassed himself so much, but he ended up coming every other day just to see me! I thought it was odd at first, you know? I mean who goes bowling every other evening, especially after he told me he’d “get a strike for the cutie at the counter” and then totally gutter balled? I felt so bad for him, I just gave him a free drink!”

Katsuki discretely kicks his foot under the table. That last bit was definitely not in their practised ‘getting together’ origin story, where Izuku worked at a bowling alley and Katsuki was the regular who very successfully impressed him with his skills. Izuku was clearly getting a kick out of going off-script to make him look like a pathetic loser.

Izuku doesn’t react physically, but quickly changes tactics to appease him. “But my Yama baby—” Katsuki tries not to gag, again, “definitely wooed me off my feet later. The awkward courting was really endearing. We’re 6 years strong now, isn’t that right honey-boo?”

“Sure is…” He grimaces internally, refusing to use any synonym of honey. “...baby.” He ignores the way Izuku seems to beam at this.

“That’s very sweet,” the half and half freak says. “You two seem very comfortable with each other. It’s like with me and Momo, who is my favourite person on this Earth. Is this Yamabear your favourite too?”

“Oi,” Katsuki says through gritted teeth, suddenly riled up for no reason at all. “You aren’t allowed to use that name.”

Izuku chuckles, sounding a tad nervous. “Ah… yes. My previous partners could never compare to him. None of them have ever satisfied me, you know?” Katsuki raises an eyebrow at this, since this tidbit of information was definitely not in their briefing. “But Yacchan… is so different.” He's quiet for a second, fidgeting with the fingers in his lap. “I love him more than I can say.”

God, how he hates Izuku for saying that. Katsuki tightens his grip on his fork, steeling himself against the sudden icy drop in his stomach at hearing those words.

“Oh.” Todoroki tilts his head, looking down at Katsuki’s hand. “I didn’t know you were a magician.”

At this, Katsuki looks down to find his fork bent completely in half. Shit. “Ta-da,” he says, deadpan, ignoring the way Izuku’s eyes are looking worriedly at him. “You want me to pull a rabbit out of your ass next?”

Todoroki stands up and turns around abruptly. Yaoyorozu blushes intensely, gesturing at her fiancé to sit down. “He was just being sarcastic, babe!”

“Ohhh.” Todoroki sits down again. “Well, that’s disappointing.”

“Ah, would you look at that!” Izuku cuts in, ripping his confused eyes away from the bent fork to look outside the window. “We’re here.”

The sun has long since risen already, but the dark clouds overhead have cast the world in a deep blue. The waves are still choppy, but seem relatively calmer than the night before.

The island, though, looks to be ninenty-nine percent jungle and one percent actual development for the resort property, which isn’t the best sign. Sure, they brought trekking gear, but how long would they be able to look around without having to return to the resort at some point?

Izuku seems to have the same thought, since he turns to Katsuki with a grimace.

Katsuki sighs. It’s going to be a long three days.

The guests huddle together on the beach as their luggage gets carried away by a group of uniformed ushers, and a woman in a skintight costume and a masquerade mask stands on top of a flat rock to get their attention.

“Welcome, honoured guests, to the Pink Rose!” the woman shouts over the wind. She gestures excitedly at the giant resort behind her, but the sight of the three colourful pink buildings is overshadowed by the dark clouds setting in again. “My name is Kayama, and I’ll be your go-to guide for the weekend! Please allow our staff to have your luggage sorted. Let’s get out of the storm so we can give you the rundown on today’s available activities.”

The resort itself isn’t exactly visually spectacular in any aspect apart from its rose hue, but it makes up for it in size. There are three buildings in total, erected next to each other so as to form a U-shape. Their designs are a bit like a re-imagining of a European castle, if this reimagining was done by some knock-off children’s amusement park.

As they make their way across the beach and towards what looks to be the main building in the middle, Katsuki notes the swimming pools, tennis courts, rock climbing stands and other outdoor games he can’t instantly recognise decorating the front of the building.

These activities seem to stretch out across the coast. Behind the building itself, though, looks to be nothing but a dense forest. The trees stand tall and silent, the condensed darkness exuding an almost ominous aura.

Once the group makes it into the cool, air-conditioned lobby of the Pink Rose, Kayama claps her hands to get everybody’s attention.

“On your first day, we know that you might all be a little worn out! However, we have plenty of activities still operating should you wish to pop in and participate. Please be aware that the wilderness is absolutely off limits! My superiors tell me that there are artificial boundaries that have cordoned off the dangerous parts of the jungle, so you won’t be able to access them anyway. The list of activities that are allowed, but which haven’t been suspended due to bad weather…” she gestures to the centre of the room, where a large electronic board is erected, “…are up on the board over there.”

The group immediately moves to scan the scheduled activities for the day. Izuku steps forward to get a closer look, as Katsuki reads it over his head. They need to choose their activities wisely, since they have a limited number of days here and only so much ground to cover.

His eyes fall on one activity set to start in half an hour. Izuku turns around to look at him, and he knows he’s thinking the same thing.

“The Love Boat River Cruise,” Katsuki says with heavy reluctance. “Fuck.”

A river is promising, because if they were to venture into the jungle on their own, then they have an efficient way of navigating their way through the island and back to the hotel. That's the main reason they're waiting for the Love Boat River Cruise.

That, and it can get them closest to the forbidden wilderness. They could be restricted to indoor activities later, so they couldn't pass up the opportunity to get as close as they could to the aforementioned artificial boundary.

Izuku is gripping the crappy Pink Rose island map in his hands, tracing the line of the river with his finger and thinking out loud as they wait on the riverbank for their captain, a blond man named Mirio, to get their boat ready.

There are quite a few couples waiting along with them. Katsuki doesn’t pay them any mind, instead focusing on the more detailed map texted to them by Shinsou.

He’s since lost reception, but he’d downloaded the attachment to his phone as soon as his bar had bumped up to a one. He'd expected the phone service to be shit here, but he didn't expect it to be this bad.

The map Izuku grabbed from the lobby blocks out most of the island, choosing instead to emphasise the resort’s activities, so it’s pretty useless to them. Shinsou’s map, though, isn’t as useless as he’d thought it would be. There’s a red circle somewhere beyond the route of the Love Boat River Cruise, which suggests a level of unexplained activity concerning enough to investigate.

“Alright folks!” the blond captain says from the shore. “She’s all ready to welcome you!”

The boat is dark brown and expensive-looking, designed to look like a two-storey gondola with double the width span. Many of the guests opt to climb the ladder and seat themselves on the upper level, but when Katsuki and Izuku climb on board they make their way to the very back of the lower level and seat themselves down in one of the pews on the right. They have a mission to do, after all.

Once all guests have boarded, Mirio assumes his position at the helm, where the steering port is. “This is quite the relaxing ride, my friends, so please sit back and enjoy a romantic afternoon with your loved one.”

Katsuki looks at Izuku, pointing a finger inside his mouth and pretending to gag. Izuku laughs at this, and nudges his shoulder against his playfully. The corners of Katsuki’s lips twitch upward. He likes the sound of Izuku’s laugh. It’s nerdy, boyish, a little charming even. He needs to get him to laugh more often.

“There should be a tunnel coming up about ten minutes into the ride,” Izuku says after a while, still looking at the cheesy resort map in his hands, and Katsuki realises with a start that he’s been staring at Izuku the whole time. Instead of replying, he just scowls and looks away.

Katsuki’s fingers drum against his knee as he observes how the rest of the passengers are holding hands and looking out over the side of the boat in peaceful silence. It looks nice, what these people have. Sure, he called them all horny fuckers who don’t know how to keep their shit in their pants before, but from this perspective he can kind of see why people would want to do this kind of stuff with someone.

Someone special.

He turns to look at Izuku again. His eyes drop down to the hand on the bench, where his own hand is placed dangerously close to. Boyfriends hold hands, right? They need to keep up appearances, after all. Sure, there’s nobody looking at them, and they wouldn’t even be able to see where their hands are placed if they turned around to stare, but, you know, just in case—

“Get ready,” Izuku says quietly, folding up the map and stuffing it into the small travel fanny pack slung over his hips.

Katsuki looks away, ignoring the sudden eruption of guilt in his stomach.

Swallow it down, he tells himself, even if he doesn’t want to admit just what exactly it is he wants to keep repressed.

Having already committed Shinsou’s map to memory, Katsuki knows that once they steer this boat to the next right, they should be getting as close as they can possibly get to the boundary.

Once they get through that tunnel, they need to sneakily jump ship and make their way past the boundary on foot. It should be simple enough, except there’s a bit of a problem once they actually enter the tunnel.

It’s dark, which is what they wanted, but it's just not dark enough. The tunnel is clearly man-made, created from mud and clay, and it isn’t long enough to obscure them in darkness for a prolonged period.

“Shit,” Katsuki curses. It’s going to be a problem to climb off board without anyone noticing.

“I got this,” Izuku says from beside him. He reaches into his fanny pack and pulls out a black device, no bigger than a pebble. He discreetly chucks the device over to the other end, where it lands quietly into the water. Instantly, the sound of a bird chirping happily echoes around them. Perched on a rough, makeshift sill on the side of the tunnel, a magnificently coloured bird scratches at their body with their shiny beak, and makes that cooing sound again.

The passengers all gasp in unison, flocking to the other end of the boat to take a picture or watch it up close.

“I’ve never seen that species ‘round here, before!” Mirio says from the steering wheel, his smile wide and genuine.

Izuku turns to look at him with a grin, but Katsuki just rolls his eyes, refusing to give away the fact that Izuku’s gadgets are impressive as always. They shouldn’t be wasting time right now anyway.

Once everyone is fully distracted, they both ease themselves off the back of the boat gently. Katsuki prays that the clamour of everyone else’s excitement is enough to mask the sound of their feet splashing into the shallow water.

They crouch in the semi-darkness for a while, up until the boat is out of the tunnel and out of sight, before standing back up to full height again. The bird is still in the same position as before.

“How’d you get it to stay in one spot?” Katsuki asks, scrubbing at his sweaty face with the river water.

“Well, that’s easy!” Izuku says, bounding forward to collect the device still floating in the water. Once he picks it up, the bird disappears, and it’s just the sound of the rushing river again. “The projector has its own invisible anchor, which activates once the illusion is projected. It uses artificial intelligence, so the image itself, and where its positioned, usually occur based on an extremely quick analysis of the surroundings, though in this case I think it got the species of bird wrong, so I guess I need to keep working on–”

“Shouldn’t have asked,” Katsuki sighs, already splashing his way toward the mouth of the tunnel. “C’mon, we gotta get back before anyone notices we’re gone.”

Once they’ve stepped onto the grassy shore, they take a moment to download Shinsou’s map into their visual scanners. When Katsuki blinks three times in a row, the red pulsing dot blinks into existence in the far distance. And then, they’re off.

Izuku follows close behind as Katsuki trudges up the river bank, and together they make their way into the dense forest. At this time of year, the insects are alive and well, but their incessant buzzing doesn’t even come close to Izuku’s own bout of excitement.

“I hope we can locate this place today!” he says excitedly. He doesn’t even spare a glance to his surroundings as he dodges and skips over the uneven earth with ease. “We’re actually closer to it than I’d expected. Hitoshi said that this point was showing elevated levels of seismic activity, right? Surely if something was strong enough to cause a reaction on that scale, we’d be able to have seen it by now. It must be some kind of giant structure. Maybe it even resides underground! What do you think, Kacchan?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Katsuki grits out. “We just need to stick our nose around and see what we find. Ain’t that the job?”

“I know that,” Izuku huffs, following Katsuki up a steep, muddy incline. Katsuki watches him from the top, hands on his hips as he watches Izuku slip momentarily. He immediately reaches down to grab onto Izuku’s hand when he flails a bit, and ignores Izuku’s mumbled ‘Thanks’ once he’s back on flat ground with Katsuki.

Izuku stands awkwardly next to him for a moment, unmoving. His head is bent down, his sweaty locks curling in over his face and obscuring his face.

Katsuki scowls. “Okay sweetcheeks, you can fucking let go of me now.”

“Bad feeling,” Izuku mumbles. He looks up finally, but his eyes are trained ahead of them. He blinks rapidly, and then brings his other hand up to rub at his temples. “Shit. This kind of headache– I haven’t felt that in a while.”

“Hah? What are you talking about?” Katsuki looks around them then, trying to see what Izuku is seeing. From what he can tell, there doesn’t seem to be anything noteworthy around them. It’s just an endless stretch of trees and bush and dirt.

Izuku tightens his grip on Katsuki’s hand and leads him forward slowly, making sure to keep his footsteps light on the forest floor. “There’s an illusion somewhere,” he says, “so watch your step. It’s meant to trick the eye, but I trained myself to be able to see through it. But this illusion is– it’s on a much larger scale. Something like this would require a huge amount of power to run smoothly.”

Katsuki allows himself to trail behind silently, mostly because he’s on high alert, but also because he knows he doesn’t exactly know what Izuku is talking about. Quietly, he signals Izuku to stop walking for a second. Once those green eyes are on him, Katsuki makes a quick gesture with his hands.

Is this a safe time to talk?

Izuku opens his mouth briefly, before stopping to consider, almost as if he hadn’t thought about it before. Because of course he hadn’t. The idiot had just gone off on a rambling tangent, giving away just about every secret. Even though Katsuki doesn’t know much about Izuku’s inventions, since most of them seemed to have been created when the guy was AWOL, he can bet that if that tech had fallen into the wrong hands then it could easily be used for surveillance purposes.

After a moment, Izuku closes his fist and then opens up four fingers standing tightly together – the sign of ‘standby’. He presses the side of one temple with his thumb, no doubt activating the scanners in his contact lens.

He shakes his head after a second. “It should be okay,” he whispers. “But we can keep it down, if you’d prefer.”

“Not parading our presence around ain’t a matter of preference,” Katsuki says quietly, rolling his eyes.

Izuku gives him a brief, apologetic look, but he seems jumpy, his eyes darting around everywhere in an attempt to find any semblance of incongruent scenery. Finally, he seems to latch on to something, pointing emphatically to their right. “D’you see that? Watch the trunks of those two trees over there.”

Katsuki turns to look, eyes squinting. He’s about to snap at Izuku for seeing shit, but then something subtle shifts in his vision. The landscape has wobbled for a second – like a laminated piece of paper that’s been shaken very gently.

“What the hell…” Katsuki takes a step forward. “I’ve never seen something like that before.”

Izuku grips at his face with one hand, mumbling into his palm. “This kind of error looks like something that would happen with one of my illusion prototypes, but I had those all disposed of before coming back to Japan… I’ve never used any of my new and improved versions very often, and they’re kept under an extremely tight lock and key anyway... Oh god, this can’t be happening. How did someone–?”

“Deku.”

“–get a hold of my own invention? Unless they got it from the inside? But Hitoshi would never do that. Besides, these problems happened mainly with the prototypes, so this tech has to be sourced from there.”

“Oi. Deku.”

“But if it’s not him, then… I find it hard to believe that someone could have created something so similar without at least some knowledge of my work—”

“IZUKU,” Katsuki finally snaps, ripping his hand away from Izuku’s sweaty grip to slap both of his hands over Izuku’s cheeks. “You’re freaking yourself out! Fucking— breathe. Okay? C’mon, take a breath.”

He only nods frantically, wide eyes latched onto Katsuki’s face. He takes an exaggerated breath in, and then holds it.

“Breathing requires exhaling, you moron,” Katsuki sighs, bonking Izuku gently on the head. “I’m not teaching you how to get oxygen in your lungs.”

He takes a step back to give Izuku some space, but Izuku quickly moves to grab his elbow. “Sorry. Sorry, I’m okay. I’m fine! I’m okay. Let’s just— go get a closer look.”

And obviously Izuku isn’t fine, and he’s only saying it to get Katsuki to stop fussing over him, but he’s also mindful of the time they’ve wasted looking around so he opts to not prod him. At least, not right now.

They creep forward cautiously. At one point, Izuku throws a hand out to stop them from walking any further. To Katsuki’s eye, nothing seems to be obscuring their vision. The path ahead is relatively clear and normal-looking.

“What do you feel right now, Kacchan?”

He raises an eyebrow at this. “Am I supposed to be feeling something? ‘Cause right now, I think it’s hot as shit and I’d like to go back to the resort soon. You gonna tell me how this shit works anytime soon?”

Izuku strokes his chin thoughtfully, which is hilarious in itself since he isn’t doing it unironically. “Interesting. Okay, well, this illusion is sending out signals. I know it because I can feel a headache coming on and my eyes are straining to see something that’s not there. This is just a theory, but I think that to an untrained brain, the signal being emitted here is one that forces you to turn around and go back to the resort. I’m just barely resisting the urge to leave. This is probably the boundary Kayama-san was talking about before. I know that I would code the signals to work like that, if I was in that position. You’re probably not affected by it because of your training! ”

“Hmm.” Katsuki frowns. “How do we get past it?”

“I’m not too sure…” Izuku steps forward cautiously, one hand stretched out in front of him. “It feels like a fence, or a wall of some sort. We won’t be able to climb it or go around it so easily, especially without knowing where it ends.”

He takes another step forward, and then another. On the next step, he seems to touch something, and the entire scene in front of him ripples like water.

“Holy shit.” Katsuki moves forward too, placing himself right next to Izuku. He reaches a hand out, eyes widening when it comes in contact with a cool surface. It felt like pressing his hand against glass, or a window, which was covered with a thin film of water. When he draws his hand back to stare at it, the feeling of wetness disappears and there doesn’t seem to be a droplet on his skin. He turns to Izuku with his eyebrows raised high on his face. “You made shit like this?”

Izuku shrugs, but he can’t fight off a small, proud smile. “Eh. It’s not as difficult as you might think.”

Katsuki stares at him. The illusion before them isn’t just some tiny bird singing a song anymore. It’s a whole ass illusory wall, stretching from just about every way possible, totally obscuring whatever is behind it, sending goddamn signals to people to get them to think a certain way. This is leagues ahead of what he’d assumed Izuku was capable of.

Katsuki blinks three times, watching the red dot emerge again, closer than he’d expected. Whatever activity is causing that warning, it’s behind this wall.

“If you can create something like this, then you sure as hell can make something to bypass it.” He gives the wall another slap, mesmerised with the way the world ripples before his eyes. Izuku wasn’t lying when he said that looking at it is migraine-inducing.

“It would be easier if I had the proper space and equipment to make a disabling device,” Izuku says with a sigh. “But I think I can make do in our suite with the tools I brought along with me. I won’t be able to disable the illusion itself, but I think I can at least get us to pass through it undetected.”

Katsuki nods in reply, and then hesitates. While Izuku works on that, what the hell is he supposed to do? Bring the nerd tea and massage his shoulders? He’s never felt so useless before, and a momentary flare of panic rises up in him at the thought that he might end up being the one who was dead weight to this mission.

Before he can dwell on it, the distant snap of tree branches and chatter has him standing at full attention. Izuku whirls around in the direction of the sound, before whispering, “Shit. We can’t be seen near this thing. Follow me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Katsuki snaps as he follows Izuku back down the path they’d come from. He has half a mind to attempt to cover their tracks on the way back, but with the way Izuku is darting away, he can’t exactly be thorough about it.

From the sound of it, there’s a group of people headed their way. He can’t tell if their company is friendly or hostile, but either way, he only sees one way of excusing their runaway behaviour.

He catches up to Deku soon enough, quickly yanking the back of his collar and spinning him around. Izuku wobbles on his feet for a bit, shooting a hand out to stabilise himself on the wide tree next to him.

“I’m gonna kiss you,” Katsuki says, and it isn’t phrased like a question.

Izuku looks up at him, redness ballooning up into his cheeks. “Okay,” he replies, a little too quickly.

Katsuki nods once, and shakes his hands a little by his sides in preparation. Ugh. Just do what you did last time.

It takes the steadily rising voices which are calling their names to spur him into action. Before he can overthink it, he takes Izuku’s face in his hands and kisses him.

Izuku makes a weird sound as Katsuki drags him flush against his chest. Katsuki’s back slams against the tree as Izuku, the quick learner that he is, responds in earnest.

“Good thinking, Kacchan,” Izuku whispers against his lips. “I really like this plan.”

“Put those lips to better use, idiot,” Katsuki says. “They gotta look swollen.”

Izuku is on him again before he can even properly finish the sentence. He’s instantly reminded of their kiss from two nights ago, but where that was slow and quiet, this felt sloppy and rough. The feeling of Izuku in his arms is the same, though, and so are the sounds he’s making, and so is the feeling of not being able to think clearly about— anything.

Without pulling away from him, Katsuki tugs at the hem of Izuku’s shirt. “Lemme give you a hickey,” he says roughly. His hands skim the blazing hot skin of Izuku’s back, and Izuku seems to shiver at the touch.

“I can…” Izuku pants. Sheesh, how is this guy so out of breath from running just a couple of metres? “I can hear them getting closer, Kacchan. Let me give you a hickey— I can do it faster!”

“I beg your fucking pardon?” Katsuki scoffs, already pulling down the edge of Izuku’s collar. “This isn’t a competition. Now stop squirming—”

“Oh god,” Izuku gasps when Katsuki bites his neck. “Are you trying to maul me? Let me– ow, ow, Kacchan why are your teeth so freaking sharp?!”

Katsuki rips his lips away from Izuku’s neck to frown at him. “Hah? How the hell’re you gonna give a hickey under 20 seconds without using your teeth, idiot?”

“I’m telling you, I could do it faster and without—”

“Guys, I think they’re over there!”

“Shit. Where are they?” The direction from where the voices came from is dense with trees, and he can’t gauge their distance with enough accuracy. “We should pretend to have not heard them so they can at least see what we were up to.”

“Already on it,” Izuku says, his scarred fingers working expertly on Katsuki’s belt—

Wait.

“Deku, what the FUCK–” he hisses, hands coming up to stop Izuku from whatever the hell he thinks he’s doing. If he thought he was hot before, his face is outright burning now. “Did that headache of yours fucking scramble your brains?!”

“You trust me too, don’t you?” Izuku says innocently. Katsuki doesn’t remember how to speak when Izuku drops down to his knees, but when Izuku looks up at him patiently, he manages to nod. “Okay. It’s showtime, then!”

Without wasting another second, Izuku yanks Katsuki’s pants down so that he’s face to face with Katsuki’s fucking clothed cock.

“Put your hand in my hair,” Izuku says quietly. “And moan loudly! They need to believe that we couldn’t hear them!”

Katsuki can’t even move. He’s still staring at Izuku, frozen at this sudden change of events.

“Kacchan, come on,” he says urgently, swiftly turning around to see if anyone was in sight yet. Just as he does this, a foot emerges from a narrow gap in the trees and someone steps out a couple of metres in front of them.

Izuku turns back around at lightning speed, and closes his eyes tightly. “Here goes nothing,” he whispers, and then he sucks in an exaggerated breath like a swimmer before shoving his entire face into Katsuki’s crotch.

“What the FUCK–” Katsuki jolts back into action immediately, one hand slamming against the trunk beside his head. He makes very awkward eye contact with the stranger who’s just found them out, who immediately blushes.

“I found them!” she yells, turning around to give them some privacy. Almost instantly, the group from their boat ride step into view, just in time to watch Katsuki scramble to get his clothes back in order.

Mirio makes his way forward as some of the guests wolf whistle, stopping to lean over his knees and catch his breath.

“Oh thank god, we finally found you!” he gasps in relief. “I thought I told y’all to stay onboard at all times! You’re not allowed out here, it’s too dangerous beyond the resort boundaries! You could’ve landed me in some serious hot water, you know?”

“We’re so sorry to cause you trouble!” Izuku shouts as soon as he’s relatively put together, bowing deeply in apology.

“Don’t fucking listen to him,” Katsuki growls as he fastens his belt with quick fingers. He turns to glare at Izuku, but the effect doesn’t quite land with the way he’s so pink in the face. “My boyfriend seems to have a kink for getting into trouble.”

The rest of the day passes relatively smoothly, as they both decided to lay low for a while by cooling off in one of the pools in the afternoon and taking a stroll around the Pink Rose buildings, before retiring to their room in the evening.

Katsuki is currently on his way up to their room with two bowls of dinner in his hand, grumbling under his breath the entire way. While Izuku works on whatever he’s creating right now, Katsuki’s role seems to have been assigned to househusband.

Balancing his bowl on his hand carefully, Katsuki unlocks their door with the key card on the bracelet strapped to his wrist – provided to them by the hotel. He quickly shuts the door behind him, before angrily stepping out of his shoes and stomping over to Izuku’s ‘work station’ on the floor.

The nerd is currently sitting cross legged on the ground with all sorts of materials and notebooks scattered messily around him. His goggles are pushed over his forehead to keep the bangs out of his face, and he sticks his tongue out as he carefully attempts to tighten a screw into a wristwatch in his hand.

Izuku’s plan was to effectively make their presence invisible in front of those illusion walls, and he thinks he can do this by installing a bypasser into their watches.

“We’ll be able to walk right through it, totally undetected,” Izuku had said with a grin. “Now go make me a sandwich, Kacchan, since I’m working so hard and you’re not doing anything at all.”

Okay, maybe he hadn’t said that last part, but he was probably thinking it.

Katsuki drops Izuku’s bowl of food next to him, before plopping himself on the bed. “Eat first,” he says, realising with a grimace that he really does sound like a nag.

Izuku obediently complies, probably because he knows what Katsuki will do if he doesn’t.

They eat together in silence for a while, before Katsuki asks, “You almost done?”

Izuku nods, his cheeks stuffed full like a chipmunk. After swallowing tightly (ugh doesn’t this guy know how to chew his food properly?) he says, “Yeah. I’m practically finished, but it’s just… I tried to make the bypass as general as it can be, but I’m not sure how effective it is. They could be using an entirely different version.”

“...You think someone got a hold of your intellectual property?” he asks, his tone serious. “That’s why they’re using tech so similar to yours?”

Izuku plays around with the food in his bowl, his shoulders slumping. “I think I might have messed up when I was in hiding. Someone must have found something without me noticing, and made my inventions their own. Who knows what else they might’ve used it for…”

When he doesn’t move to take another bite, Katsuki sighs. He drops down to sit next to Izuku on the floor, who turns his head away from him.

“If you want to take responsibility for your mistakes then you gotta fix it,” he says, staring into his bowl. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up. That firewall back there? It was fucking impressive. There’s no way you’re not gonna be able to make something just as good to counter your own prototype, alright? So stop pouting about it.”

Izuku turns to face him again and smiles tiredly. “I don’t pout,” he says, and Katsuki can at least agree that he’s right about that. “And thanks.”

“You say that too much,” Katsuki deflects instantly. “I’m gonna shower now. You’d better be done by the time I’m back.”

With that, Katsuki gets up to find his towel and slip-ons. The communal showers are on the other end of the dining area where he’d come from, so the walk should be good for surveying the block.

Unfortunately, the trip is boringly mundane. There’s hardly anybody else in the humid shower room with him, except for a couple of guys he’d noticed on their cruise ship. So without further ado, Katsuki washes up and climbs back up the stairs to their room.

Upon re-entering, he sees that Deku has cleaned up the floor relatively well (read: most of his junk is shoved to a corner). That’s not what stops him in his tracks, though. It’s the sight of Izuku standing in the middle of the room with his back to him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Katsuki asks, rolling his eyes as he stalks forward and looks over Izuku’s shoulder to see what he’s looking at.

Oh. Katsuki freezes when he sees what’s in Izuku’s hand. Oh fuck.

Izuku swallows, looking back at Katsuki. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—” He shakes his head. “You used to keep spare restraining bolts in your wallet, and I needed some, so I just thought— I’m sorry. I didn’t realise that uh, this is your personal wallet.”

Katsuki is deathly silent. Because that’s not Yamaguchi’s wallet, that’s Bakugou Katsuki’s. It must have been a mix-up — Kirishima had helped him pack yesterday morning and he’s certain that the bag-of-rocks-for-a-brain forgot to replace his real wallet with his fake one.

“Fuckin’ Shitty Hair,” Katsuki growls.

“You…” Izuku swallows, “you keep a photo of us in your wallet?”

The polaroid in question was taken by Jirou during their days at the Academy. There was a party at Kaminari’s one night, and the recruits were all either black out drunk or tipsy. (Katsuki was the designated driver for most of the band of idiots, so he’d abstained that night).

Katsuki was sitting on the floor, leaning his head back on a wall and resting an elbow on his knee as he kept his eyes on the person talking next to him. Izuku’s mannerisms were animated even in a still image. He had a healthy flush that darkened his freckles, the drink in his glass flying out and spilling somewhere out of the frame as he gushed about some nerdy shit.

Jirou had slid the polaroid under his door the day after, and Katsuki never brought it up with her afterwards.

This picture was kept inside the plastic pocket of his wallet, and Katsuki had scribbled out Izuku’s face with a black marker. Grabbing on to this fact, Katsuki attempts to salvage the situation with, “I don’t see your nerd face anywhere. Little narcissistic of you to assume—”

Izuku’s thumb swipes at the plastic, and the black ink comes off easily. “You didn’t even use a permanent marker?”

“Fuck you! Maybe I couldn’t find any! What’s it to you?!”

Polaroid-Izuku’s drunk face comes into crystal clear view, and Izuku sucks in a breath. “I remember this day…” He pulls the picture from the pocket and tilts it from side to side so that the dim light catches its shine. “This is in pristine condition. Have you been… maintaining it?”

“You’re gonna smudge it, asshole,” Katsuki hisses as he snatches the wallet and picture back.

Izuku turns around to face him, and Katsuki is only beginning to realise how close they’re standing to each other. “I had a picture too,” he whispers, quiet. “When I was— you know, in hiding. Of us. It really helped.”

Despite his face burning, Katsuki scoffs. “Quit talking about me like I’m some wife you left behind when you went to war.”

Izuku tugs at the hem of his shirt, eyes never leaving him for a second. Katsuki doesn’t know how to look away, so he continues frowning down at him. He’s so close. Those damn freckles are swimming in his vision. They’re close enough to touch, if Katsuki was brave enough to raise his hand and trap them under his thumb.

It's strange, really, how so much of their communication is nonverbal. Izuku looks like he wants to say something, his eyes brimming with questions that Katsuki isn’t ready to answer. Not today, not ever.

“We got a big day tomorrow,” he says finally, and his face turns away like a full stop.

Katsuki’s just wrapping up their daily report to H.Q when Izuku steps out of the bathroom dressed in his pyjamas. He freezes when he sees Katsuki sitting under the blankets of the bed, and stammers out, “A-Aren’t you using the futon, Kacchan?”

Katsuki doesn’t look up from his laptop. “They don’t have any. Called the help desk and they said the futon manufacturer is ordering a recall on all their products sold before 2018.”

“Oh.” Izuku slides under the blanket to sit next to him. “Okay.”

Katsuki closes the laptop. “Yep.”

The following silence is awkward as hell. Katsuki doesn’t know where to fucking look. Opposite their bed is a wall-length mirror, and looking at the way they’re so awkwardly sitting next to each other is torture.

When they’d first entered the room, Katsuki had almost thrown up. Red rose petals decorated the bedding, the floor, the desk drawers, the fucking bathroom sink. The lighting system had only two settings: off, and a seductive dim yellow. At one point, Izuku was browsing through the bedside drawers, before squeaking right after opening one and slamming it closed. From the way Izuku could barely meet his eyes after, Katsuki really didn’t even need to ask.

What’s worse though, is the fact that the walls weren’t as soundproof as the resort had claimed them to be. Izuku jolts lightly at the sound of something slamming the wall opposite them. He swallows audibly, before vaguely gesturing at Katsuki’s laptop.

“Did you wanna… you know?”

Katsuki scoffs, moving to place the laptop into the backpack leaning against his side of the bed. “No way I’m doing that again. We’re just gonna sleep tonight.”

“O-Okay. Goodnight then,” Izuku claps twice and the lights turn off. Moonlight fills the dark vacuum almost instantly, pouring in from the large, french-door windows.

After they both shuffle around in bed and turn to keep their backs to each other, Katsuki trains his eyes on the treetops swaying in the night, willing himself to drown out the sounds of sex from their annoying ass neighbours.

He’s almost scared to close his eyes. Every muffled moan produces the image of Izuku on his knees for him, with those big, green eyes staring up at him. God damn it. What kind of idiot even does that? In public, too?

He doesn’t register the fact that he’s been biting the soft edge of his pillow until he feels Izuku shift uncomfortably on his side of the bed, letting out a soft whimper. Katsuki’s teeth let go of the pillow as he strains his ears to catch the sound again, but is only met with silence. That is, until there’s the unmistakable feeling of the mattress dipping and springing back into place just as quickly.

Izuku makes a frustrated sound, before finally shuffling out from under the blanket and walking softly away to the bathroom.

Katsuki scoffs, knowing exactly what the nerd is up to.

The thought of it actually makes him kind of angry. Izuku, jacking off like a pathetic loser by himself in their shared bathroom, probably thinking about nurses with giant tits or whatever the fuck else gets him off.

He doesn’t want Izuku to leave the room. He doesn’t want to sit here in silence the whole time that Izuku strokes his cock in the bathroom. He doesn’t want to lie in this darkness and have that gross ass image imprinted behind his eyelids. He doesn’t want to do any of that, but he’s also not expecting himself to say:

“I’ll help you.”

Izuku pauses mid-sneak to look back at Katsuki, probably wondering if he’d just imagined it. Fuck it to hell. Just because Katsuki hadn’t meant to say it, that doesn’t mean he’s going to back down now, so he turns the bedside lamp on. The room glows golden again, and he sits up straight to give Izuku a dead-serious look.

“What?” Izuku says, looking befuddled. “Erm, help me with what, exactly?”

Katsuki nods to Izuku’s crotch area. “Your hard-on. What else, nerd? You think I can’t feel your pervy ass trying to hump the bed?”

Izuku turns an alarming shade of red, quickly using one hand to hide the obvious bulge in his pants and the other to cover his face. “I wasn’t humping anything, why do you have to make it sound like that?! It’s just– the sounds, you know? And the– atmosphere? Of this place? I was just going to, um, relieve it myself, so you don’t need to do that. In fact, you really shouldn’t even be offering? This is so embarrassing, Kacchan, what the hell.”

Katsuki crosses his arms and waits. “Are you done?”

Izuku doesn’t move either of his hands away from where they’re placed. “Yes, I am. Okay. Bye.” He darts away, the sound of the bathroom door being shut quickly following.

Alone in their room, Katsuki clenches his hands into the fabric of the blanket and thunks the back of his skull on the headboard. Obviously, Izuku was totally in his rights to reject the offer. That doesn’t make this whole situation any less embarrassing, though. Why did he even ask?

He’s about to put the light off again, before the door opens not even a few seconds later and Izuku runs back out.

Clenching his fists and squeezing his eyes tight, Izuku practically yells, “OKAY, I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO TOUCH MY DICK!!”

After an awkward five seconds, a muffled ‘Whoop whoop!’ comes from their neighbouring wall, which only makes Izuku cover his face again.

Katsuki swallows past the lump in his throat. “You changed your mind quick.”

“I know! It’s just, you know, you offered, and…” Trailing off, Izuku moves his hands back down but can’t seem to look him in the eye. “You offered,” he says again, and it sounds more final.

“I know I did.” There’s a brief silence. “Hey. Look. Just because I offered doesn’t mean– you said, your previous partners couldn’t satisfy you the way you wanted, right? Obviously, I’m not going to be like the rest of them. You can owe me back for something later, but if you don’t want to do anything now, then–”

“I want to,” Izuku says, and the conviction of it makes something inside of him glow.

Gaining a bit of confidence back, Katsuki sits up straighter on the bed and kicks the blankets down to his feet. Patting the space in between his legs, he says, “Get over here, then.”

Izuku takes in a breath, and then crawls over awkwardly towards him. Wordlessly, like he’s done it before, he turns around and settles himself in between his legs, his back leaning against Katsuki’s chest.

Katsuki needs a moment to get his head to stop swimming. Not just from the proximity, but from the smell of Izuku’s hair, and the sensation of his body pressed to his.

He’s about to get Izuku to hurry this along, but Izuku speaks first.

“Are you 100% sure about this?” he whispers.

“Obviously.” Katsuki huffs, resting his chin on Izuku’s shoulder. “Now fucking take your pants off.”

“Real seductive, Kacchan.” Before he can even react, Izuku’s hands are moving to his waistline and he’s pulling his shorts and boxers down in one go, not even bothering to kick it off his ankles.

It’s when Deku’s dick is sitting half-hard before his eyes that Katsuki realises something. Katsuki has barely ever jerked off in his life. Actually, holy crap, he’s barely even thought about masturbating.

Porn didn't really do it for him. He'd tried it in the past, curiosity getting the better of him since every guy he knew just wouldn't shut up about it.

Instead of getting turned on though, he’d found himself scoffing at most of it, sometimes yelling at the actors on screen to try harder.

He could really only get himself off with a very specific set of qualifications, and when he couldn’t find those qualifications online, then he’d just had to imagine it. The specifics of which don’t matter, so don’t ask.

All things considered, he really should be considered the worst candidate for the position of jerking Izuku off satisfactorily. That doesn’t mean he can’t still be the best at it, though.

“Um…” Izuku’s nervousness is on full display the longer Katsuki just stares at his dick and says nothing.

He raises his hand to Izuku’s lips and promptly shoves a few fingers inside his mouth. “Get my fist wet, nerd.”

Izuku complies freakishly quickly, his embarrassment apparently diminishing once Katsuki has spoken. The feeling of Izuku’s tongue sucking on and wetting his hand gives him a sudden bout of energy, and his other hand shoots out to grip Izuku’s bare waist from underneath his shirt to stabilise himself from the sudden dizziness.

Izuku makes a sound at this, but it’s effectively muffled by the fist. God, he really should’ve shoved his fist down Izuku’s throat so much earlier. But like, you know, in a non-sexual way. Obviously. Like, in a fight, or something. Whatever, he'll figure out the logistics of that later.

He removes his hand after a while, surprising himself with the absolute lack of disgust he feels when Izuku’s saliva lathers his hand. Just this morning he’d been recoiling from the very substance, but seeing it now makes him— well.

“Not bad,” he says. “It’s not nearly enough compared to this morning but it’ll do.”

“Har har. You’re exaggerating, Ka— oh!”

Katsuki’s reached forward to give Izuku’s dick an experimental tug upwards. Izuku seems to have gone quiet for now, so Katsuki continues the motion again.

“Ha,” he grins after a gentle stroke downward, “my dick’s bigger than yours.”

To his surprise, the dick spasms in his hand at this, pre-cum dribbling from the tip. Katsuki pauses, before pure glee spreads in his chest. “Why’s your Deku Jr. freaking out on me? You actually getting off on that?”

“Are you serious?” Izuku huffs. “You can’t just— say things like that and not expect a reaction. If you’re just going to tease me the whole time, then—“

“I’m joking, Deku. Relax.” Katsuki continues his slow pace, hoping Izuku would loosen up. He really didn’t mean to upset him, so he changes tactics. “Seriously. Your body is stiff as fuck right now. It’s like I’m jerking off a cardboard cut-out.”

“Your dirty talk sucks,” Izuku says, but he leans back in an attempt to relax anyway.

“Like hell it does,” he grunts. “If I’m so bad at it, then why’s your dick still hard?”

Deku Jr. jerks again, just as Katsuki knew it would, and another load of pre-cum dribbles out from the tip. He quickly uses the sticky substance to lubricate his dick some more, while Izuku actually shudders from head to toe.

“It’s— different,” Izuku says, his voice both strained and loose, “when it’s you.”

Katsuki meets his eyes in the mirror in front of them, and watches Izuku close them instantly out of embarrassment. Katsuki doesn’t look away though, choosing instead to observe Izuku: sitting in between his legs, their thighs touching, his dick fully out and weeping all over his sleep shirt, his shorts still wrapped around his ankles, the red flush rising up to darken the freckles spread across his chest and neck.

He doesn’t know why those words seem to have affected him so much, but the mood has definitely shifted now. The air moves like molasses, and Katsuki feels himself growing serious, focused.

He doesn’t look away from the mirror.

Izuku says nothing for a while, just breathes heavily as he steadily begins to melt against Katsuki’s chest. All Katsuki can do is watch himself stroke Izuku, and god, it is so fucking unbearably difficult to look away from Izuku’s flushed face every time his fingers brush over his tip.

“Deku,” he begins, his voice hoarser than he’d expected, “open your eyes.”

You need to see this too, he thinks desperately. Don’t you want to see what I’m doing to you? 

“Don’t wannaaaa-AAAAA, Kacchan ohmygod,” Izuku’s eyes are flying open as Katsuki begins to pump him faster. Their eyes meet in the mirror again, and Izuku looks like he desperately does not want to watch the way he’s so affected by Katsuki’s hand.

Well, that’s too bad.

Katsuki’s chin digs into the soft meat of Izuku’s shoulder, eyes blazing at their reflection.

“It feels good?” he asks, rough.

Izuku visibly seems to soften at this.

“So good,” Izuku replies, and for some goddamn reason, the way he says that makes Katsuki squeeze Izuku’s dick involuntarily. Izuku’s breath stutters a bit, and—

“Fuck. Sorry. You surprised me.”

“No. that was—” Izuku smiles dazedly at Katsuki in the mirror and squeezes his knee. His head lolls backward, contented sigh leaving his lips, and it makes Katsuki’s pulse jump. He wants to dig his teeth into his neck. “That was also good. Can you go a bit faster? And squeeze just a little bit harder? Like— oh, yeah, just like that, like that Kacchan!”

Katsuki picks up the pattern which Izuku seems to like the most pretty quickly. Alternating between slow, fast, and then slow again, it’s not long before Izuku’s starting to really squirm. 

When he goes fast, it gets Izuku loud and noisy. It makes his body writhe, his eyes flashing open but steadfastly avoiding the mirror. Katsuki wants so badly to hold his chin in place and make him watch, but he’s got his other hand digging crescents into the flesh of Izuku’s hip and he also kind of doesn’t want to let go of him, actually.

Katsuki likes it best, though, when he tugs on Izuku hard but languidly. It makes Izuku’s eyes flutter closed, the corners of them beading with golden-lit teardrops. It makes him shudder in his lap, his body melting so sweetly into him, like he yearns to be close to him, like he actually wants them to be pressed up against each other like real lovers. 

It means that Katsuki’s eyes can take their fill in the mirror. He won’t be able to have this for very much longer.

“Oh god,” Izuku moans, and Katsuki almost grunts out his own pleasure at that delicious sound. “Okay, Kacchan, it’s coming. Ah– I can't believe it’s happening so quickly.”

God, what?! This fucking moron!

“Ugh, stop fucking phrasing your orgasm like you’re about to give birth!” 

Even as he says this, Katsuki knows that doesn’t have the brainpower to roll his eyes or scoff or do anything except use every bit of his focus in trying to make Izuku cum as soon as possible. He must be pretty pent up himself if the sounds and sights of Izuku coming undone is so unbelievably erotic to him, but as he watches Izuku gasp he’s suddenly very grateful that the people around here had enough foresight to put a giant mirror in here.

He begins to work on his (extremely interested) dick’s very own autopilot — one hand jerking him off quickly, the other wrapping around his torso as his lips move to occupy the skin on Izuku’s temple. He barely registers his own movements. Something more primal has taken control of his brain and it’s calling all the shots now.

Fuck. He’s beautiful like this. Katsuki can’t tear his eyes away from the mirror.

“Ah.” Izuku gasps abruptly. One of his hands flies out to place itself over Katsuki’s hand, and the other reaches back to grip Katsuki’s hair and tug roughly at his scalp. “Kacchan! I’m close, I’m gonna b-BLOWW—!”

Izuku seems to have lost all inhibitions by now, working Katsuki’s hand expertly over his cock as he grinds down against Katsuki’s lap. 

The sensation of his hair being pulled makes Katsuki groan, and he dips his head down to bite down (finally!) at the juncture between Izuku’s neck and shoulder.

“Then— why don’t you— fucking—cum already,” Katsuki spits out into the salty skin, bending himself over Izuku’s back as he works his hand faster. “Goddammit, Deku.”

That seems to do it for him. When Izuku throws his head back against Katsuki’s shoulder, his orgasm spills directly into their interlaced hands and he cries out right into Katsuki’s ear. The force of Izuku’s orgasm must be real fucking strong, because it somehow makes Katsuki’s vision go completely white as his own breath stutters in his throat.

It’s only when he comes down from the high does he realise that he just… he just came in his fucking pants.

“That was… really good,” Izuku huffs as they both get their breath back, his body slumping into him. “Er, thanks for the, um, friendly help...?”

He seems to grimace at his own words immediately, but Katsuki is too out of it to properly comprehend him.

“...Did you just preface your orgasm with ‘I’m gonna blow’?” Katsuki finds himself asking dumbly, eyes transfixed by the cum coating his hand, his breath coming out in short pants. He can’t remember if he’d imagined Deku saying that, but the sheer unsexiness and the Izuku-ness of that dorky line makes him come crashing back down to reality.

He jerked off Izuku. He just jerked off Izuku and he creamed himself listening to it.

“Heh... oops. I can’t really control how I– ack, where are you going?!”

But Katsuki is already slamming the bathroom door shut, swiping at the toilet paper, and very aggressively beginning to clean himself up. What the hell? His face burns as he flushes the evidence down the toilet.

What’s wrong with him?! Did he scramble his brains today?! Was he possessed by the same horny demon that’s been terrorising everyone else in this whole goddamn place?!

When he stalks back into the room (underwear-less under his pants because there’s no way he’s letting Izuku know what happened) he turns the light off and goes to bed without another word, not even replying when Izuku mutters a “Well goodnight to you, too,” and goes to wash up himself.

In the morning, as the two of them get dressed for the day, they keep their backs to each other and don’t say a word. Neither of them mention the fact that Izuku would’ve been able to solve his problem a lot faster if he’d just done it himself.

Chapter Text

Breakfast is served on a large veranda outdoors. A series of tall, wooden archways fence off the dining area, allowing for the warm summer breeze to flow inside. The sounds of the kitchen are muffled by the excited chatter of well-rested guests and the loud chirping of exotic birds from the forest surrounding them.

It’s loud and bustling pretty much everywhere, except for the two plushed high chairs tucked into one corner of the patio. The table in front of them is currently occupied with their plates, and a couple of ‘sex and health’ magazines (courtesy of the hotel) spread across the surface.

Katsuki and Izuku eat their food in relative silence. Izuku sips on his coffee, while Katsuki busies himself with shoving a spicy omelette down his throat. The awkwardness is temporarily offset by how unfairly good the food at this hotel is. Katsuki, not usually one to get second helpings for himself, makes a mental note to personally wrangle the recipe out of whoever runs this kitchen.

Neither of them have made eye contact with each other all morning, which Katsuki thinks is fucking stupid. Whatever happened last night clearly happened between friends. Ain’t that what Deku said too? It was nothing more than a friendly jerk off session?

As he thinks this, his eyes slip sideways to the left. Izuku’s pale yellow, floral button up flaps gently in the wind. It’s untucked, the top two buttons undone. Sunglasses are perched inside the bush of his hair, resting just above his forehead. He watches the way Izuku’s scarred hands grip an orange mug of coffee, and an image supplies itself to him without permission: that same hand placed on top of his as he pumped Izuku’s cock with mindless focus, eyes meeting in that damn mirror in front of them—

Izuku turns to meet his gaze for the first time all morning. For an unnerving second, Katsuki can’t seem to read him at all.

“Babe,” Katsuki says emotionlessly.

“Yes, honey?” Izuku says lightly, fingers tapping anxiously over his mug.

“Last night. Was, uh.” His tongue seems to trip over himself, and it’s getting more difficult by the second to remember what he was trying to tell him with the way Izuku is staring so expectantly at him. “Fucking.” Fucking what? It was fucking seared into his fucking brain, is what he really wants to say. He’s pretty sure the memory of Izuku’s moans replaced his alarm clock today.

Heh. Call that an alarm cock.

Fucking hell, the sight of Izuku’s dick messed up his brain. 

It’s downright embarrassing, and this whole situation is embarrassing, because what the hell? Katsuki was the one who’d offered to help him in the first place! How is he supposed to dig himself out of that?!

There’s a brief silence, until Izuku sets his mug down with a soft clink. “Last night was… fucking?”

“Ugh.” Katsuki turns back to his food with a frustrated clack of his teeth. “Forget it.”

“Hey.” Izuku looks around them, before leaning in and placing his hand gently on Katsuki’s shoulder. “It’s okay. Really. I, uh, liked it. Thanks for… helping me out.”

Right. Katsuki shoves another bite into his mouth to cover up the burn in his cheeks. “Whatever. Can we just not act like we have the plague around each other? S’fucking annoying.”

“I’d like that,” Izuku says, looking relieved. “Nothing has to change between us.”

As he says this, the shitnerd takes the opportunity to sidle his chair closer to him so that they’re shoulder to shoulder. He places his right hand on top of where Katsuki’s hand lies flat on the table. Wordlessly, Katsuki turns his palm up, and their fingers interlace again. When Izuku rests his head on his shoulder, Katsuki goes very still. 

As far as he’s concerned, Izuku doesn’t understand what the hell he’s saying.

Because things are changing between them, and they’re changing faster than Katsuki would like. There’s something in between them that is growing with every glance and every touch. It’s evolving – like a monster who has had more than a fair share of his fill and got too greedy, who is now thrashing around wildly, waiting for the chance to eat Katsuki alive. 

He doesn’t say anything, though. Their fingers tighten together and he just wills himself to remember where they are and what their job is. Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? A goddamn job.

“We need to go back to that place,” Izuku says eventually, once the waiters have come around to collect breakfast plates and the guests set off to participate in the activities they signed up for that day. “Time to put those bypasses to use!”

Katsuki rolls his eyes, but takes the segue as an excuse to break away from Izuku’s hold by standing up. “Let’s fucking get to it, then. I’m sick of not doin’ anything around here.”

He sets off down the veranda steps, making his way past the manicured garden lawn, and follows the dirt trail leading into the forest. Izuku follows hot on his heels, mouth already open to talk his ear off about one thing or another. 

“Oh no you don’t,” the tall, blue-haired girl with the name tag reading Nejire Hado says, a hand thrust out in front of her to prevent them walking any closer. “We had very specific instructions to tighten up security around the wilderness because some couples just couldn’t help going on a sexy rendezvous yesterday.”

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Katsuki groans, the two of them hardly having even breached the river before they were stopped by a group of uniformed staff members.

“It’s not a joke!” one of the other patrollers (‘Mirio Togata’ as per his name badge) says, his dark beady eyes contrasting bizarrely against his perfect blond hair. “We could get in serious trouble if something bad were to happen to you! It’s really not safe out there.”

Their dark haired friend just nods nervously at this, his face every shade of awkward.

Izuku steps forward, arms held before him placatingly, and Katsuki has to resist a scoff. Izuku should know by now that his ‘Innocent Bystander’ gesture only works about 50% of the time. 

“Ah, I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” he says gently. “I just left some stuff behind the last time I was there and I need to retrieve it quickly. I know where the spot is so I’ll be fine!”

“Answer is still no,” the girl, Nejire, says with a regrettable pout. “Unless someone could escort you…?” She looks at her friends apprehensively as Izuku looks back at Katsuki with a wicked gleam in his eye.

He can see Izuku’s plan without having to ask for it: they follow the group into the woods, knock all three of them out, and then go about their business. It’s totally and completely expected from someone as deranged as Izuku.

“No,” Katsuki says out loud, looking at Izuku, whose lips have converted into a small frown.

We are NOT risking another scandal, he glares at Izuku. We’ll just find another way around, idiot.

Izuku smiles tightly, which his way of saying, You’re so wrong for this, but FINE. We’ll do it your way even though it’s not going to work!

Idiot. As if it’s gonna be that hard to sneak into a whole ass jungle without getting caught.

So it turns out, it’s not as easy as it seems.

The patrol trio seem to pop up everywhere they turn, sometimes from emerging directly below them.

Katsuki actually jumped when he nearly stepped on the face of that weird blond man whose face was emerging from the dirt below them.

“Persistent, aren’t we?” the blond man says with a wide grin.

“Did you fucking bury yourself in the dirt?” Katsuki yells as Izuku groans again.

“I am dedicated,” the blond guy says, which isn’t really an answer to the question. “That’s why I’m always employee of the month!” 

“Ugh,” Izuku huffs, taking Katsuki’s hand and pretending to be put out by the interventions, which honestly wasn’t a hard thing to do, “Come on, Yamabear. Let’s just go make out somewhere else.”

“You’re right, babe,” Katsuki says through gritted teeth, “this ain’t worth the effort.”

Once the two of them have been escorted back to the hotel grounds, they turn the corner around the main building so that they’re out of eyesight by the unstoppable trio guarding the wilderness.

Izuku leans against the wall by the front entrance, eyes fixed irritably at the ocean beyond them. Katsuki already knows what he’s going to say before he says it. “I told you we should have—“

“How was I supposed to know those freaks got a sixth fucking sense!” Katsuki whisper-yells. “We’re fucking—“ he whisper-yells quieter, "trained spies! They’re just three twenty-somethings working on a love island! How are we not able to sneak into open territory without punching our way through it?”

“We need a Plan B,” Izuku says firmly, beginning to break into one of his signature paces that Katsuki just despises. “It’s not like we’ve never experienced setbacks in our line of work before. I think the best way to get through is to wait it out! Either in the evening time, where the darkness works to our advantage. Or maybe, if we want to go sooner, we can wait for one of them to change shifts. It’ll open up a small window, but we’d be able to—“

“No way,” Katsuki interrupts instantly. “I ain’t waiting that long. I say we tire them out. We got plenty of stamina already. If we weren’t posing as civilians, I would’a knocked their damn teeth out by now.”

Izuku makes a frustrated sound, and literally closes his eyes as if trying to process the plan. “You can’t be serious. Is this how you get through every job of yours?”

Katsuki bares his teeth at this, leaning down so that his face is inches away from Izuku’s. “What, you think waiting around is gonna be any better? We might as well waste time by taking a damn shovel and building an underground tunnel to get there.”

There’s a change in Izuku’s eyes then, the frustration from before hardening into something like anger. It shouldn’t thrill Katsuki in the way that it does, but god does he revel in that expression. Izuku’s glare fixed on him honestly makes him preen.

"Honey," he spits out, and Katsuki feels his spine straighten at the tone, “if you say another word I might actually consider taking that shovel so I can bury your—“ Izuku’s eyes quickly dart behind Katsuki’s shoulder and his voice pitches dramatically higher, “HEY, GIRLS! FANCY SEEING YOU AROUND HERE!”

Katsuki reluctantly tears his eyes away to look over his shoulder, grunting a noise of acknowledgement upon seeing Round Face and Pinky again. The pair of them are in swim attire, Pinky’s arm slung around her girlfriend’s bare shoulders.

They’re both also staring at them with raised eyebrows. Honestly, the two of them must look like a sight. There’s twigs in their hair, their clothes and shoes decorated with splotches of mud.

“Why is it,” the brown haired girl, Uraraka, starts, “that everytime we happen to see you guys, you’re arguing about something?”

There’s a beat of silence before Izuku makes a "Pssshh"  sound. “Whaaat? Not true! Yacchan and I don’t— I mean we don’t really argue, it’s just that we both have very strong personalities, so—“

“It’s our foreplay, you nosy nobodies,” Katsuki interjects. He pulls Deku toward him by his waist so that their sides are flush together, the urge coming to him easily whenever there are eyes on them. Must be a product of his spy training. “What do you lesbos want?”

And just like that, crisis averted. Their eyes meet briefly, and Izuku looks almost grateful. Seriously, how did this guy get anything done on his own? This is why Katsuki needs to be around to help his sorry ass out, because without him, he’s—

What? Where was he going with that? Izuku doesn’t need him. If Izuku’s dumb ass can’t survive without him then good riddance, honestly. Survival of the fucking fittest.

It’s not like he needed me before.

“We saw you guys dawdling out here and just wanted to say hi!” Pinky says defensively, interrupting his line of thought. “Geez, you always an asshole in the morning, big guy?”

“Bite me,” Katsuki says, even as Izuku pinches him on the waist. Izuku has now switched into the sweet, charming personality he adopted on the cruise ship. His eyes have widened to let the sparkles out, lips stretched into a warm, genuine looking smile.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” he says with a laugh, and the sudden good-humoured demeanour is honestly a little unnerving, “Believe it or not, my heart is in the shape of an asshole.”

There’s a long silence as the girls just stare at him. Even Katsuki looks down at him questioningly.

“Riiigghht…” Uraraka starts.

“You should probably get that checked,” Ashido says breathlessly, and they both burst into a fit of giggles.

“Wah– wait!” Izuku splutters, and now that’s the Deku he knows, “I didn’t mean it literally! I just meant– you know! That Yacchan is my soulmate, and sure he’s an assole sometimes, but he’s my asshole. Is he difficult sometimes? Sure! But I’ve always liked a challenge. And Yacchan has challenged me everyday. It’s one of the reasons why I…” Izuku looks up at him and takes a shaky breath in. “Why I love him. You know? So don’t assume stuff about him.”

There he goes again, dropping that word on him like a goddamn fucking bomb. His stomach turns unpleasantly, the saliva on his tongue suddenly bitter.

Aware of their audience, Katsuki swallows his frustration and leans down to kiss him. A petty part of him initially hopes that the bitterness bleeds into Izuku’s mouth, but when Izuku opens his mouth easily to let him in, a fuzziness blankets his mind and he forgets the thought almost instantly. He pulls away shortly after, a thumb swiping the saliva off Izuku’s bottom lip.

“Awww,” Uraraka coos. “Is this what we look like to other people, baby?”

“Uhh,” Izuku moves his dazed expression away from Katsuki’s impassive stare to look back at them. “Sorry?”

“The way you’re both so disgustingly in love!” Ashido explains, squeezing her arms around her girlfriend until she bursts into giggles. “It’s so obvious in the way you look at each other. Ah man, I love romantic getaways. Wasn’t this a great idea, ‘Chako?”

Katsuki can’t help but glance at Izuku, who’s watching him with a similar expression of confusion. Despite himself, he feels a brief spike of panic at Ashido’s implication.

If these strangers can know, then Deku definitely knows. He knows what Katsuki can scarcely admit to himself. He knows, he knows, surely he must know by now—

It’s getting so much harder to remember that this is fake. Everything about this feels too real— the weight of Izuku against his side, the lingering taste of his lips, the ease that comes with taking his hand. Izuku must be one hell of an actor.

“Haha, yep, that’s us!” Izuku says belatedly, snuggling into his side. “We’re just. So in love. With each other. Totally mutual. Anyway, uh, what have you guys been up to today?”

Uraraka groans at this, her girlfriend patting her back sympathetically. “It’s been crazy. I saw my freaking ex today! Can you believe the chances of that? She’s literally inside the dining hall.” She looks behind her and at the back entrance to the dining hall they’d come out of. She does a double take at that very moment, glaring at someone through the window. “Wait, ugh. D’you see that blonde girl chatting to the bartender over there? That’s her.”

Katsuki follows her gaze, only for his hand to tighten over Izuku’s hip when he recognises her as the girl from the cruise ship.

“What did you say her name was again?” Izuku asks, voice light and neutral, acknowledging Katsuki’s squeeze by placing his hand on top of Katsuki’s.

“Toga,” Ashido sighs. “Toga Himiko. She’s like, freaking insane. I’m pretty sure she got involved in some government shit and got arrested.”

Katsuki recognises that name, albeit vaguely. But even vague recognition, in his line of work, is a huge fucking deal.

“What the hell is she doing here then?” Katsuki says, conversationally. “Has she already finished her time?”

Uraraka frowns, crossing her arms over her frilly pink bikini bra. “No... she must’ve gotten bailed out or something. Ugh! I don’t want to talk about her anymore. She literally ghosted the hell out of me and broke my heart! AND she’s coming to the party tonight? With friends?! I mean, the audacity of that. I didn’t even know she had any friends.”

“Aw, babe,” Ashido cups her chin and kisses her loudly on her round cheek. “Let’s talk about something else, then. Like tonight’s party!”

Katsuki keeps his eyes on the windows to the dining hall, watching Toga stir her drink with a straw as she rests her head on the counter. Would it be wise to walk up to her and strike up a conversation again? Ugh, but Katsuki hated doing that. That’s something Izuku was more accustomed to. He has a way of making other people feel at ease and allowing them to open up, and that just doesn’t come as naturally to Katsuki.

“Yamaguchi?”

Katsuki slides his eyes back down to Ashido, who’s crossing her arms and staring at him. “Hah?”

“I said," she stresses, “what are you wearing to the party tonight?”

The conversation, picked up by his subconscious, begins to process in his head. Dinner party tonight. 6pm to past midnight. Formal dress code. Free drinks.

But also, most importantly, not compulsory.

“My birthday suit,” he replies, rolling his eyes. Izuku elbows him hard in the side, and he forces out, “’Cause it’s... my birthday.”

“It’s not his birthday,” Izuku sighs. “Truth is, we didn’t even realise there was a party tonight. Guess we just forgot to check the events for the day! But you can bet we’ll be there.”

Katsuki sends a “what the fuck?” look at his faux partner, who is already looking at him as if he’d been expecting it. What is Izuku thinking? They had better shit to do than prance around in a dress all evening. 

“It’d be interesting,” Izuku says to the girls, eyes still trained on Katsuki, “to meet the friends you said this Toga person is bringing along with her.”

Damn it.

They’re going to a dinner party.

“It’s a shame I couldn’t test out my bypasses today,” Izuku says as he hops one-legged while putting his pants on. Seriously, how does this guy manage to make everything look dorky? “I really wanted to put my tech stuff to use, especially since I don’t always have uses for them in my usual line of work.”

Katsuki stands by the edge of their hotel bed, buttoning up his burgundy dress shirt as he agrees with Izuku’s sentiment: “Yeah. I’d rather be kicking ass than attending yet another useless party.”

Izuku sprays on a bit of deodorant, expression thoughtful when he says, “You know. We could always split up? I can go to the boundary, and you can stay here to watch out for–”

“We’re not splitting up,” Katsuki says instantly, irritated that he even has to spell it out. Normally, he’d be quite overjoyed to be rid of Izuku’s presence even if only for a few hours. But now? Well, it’s different now. Even if he can’t properly explain why. 

Something could happen to either one of them, and how would they know? Izuku could get trapped there, in some unknown location, with no reinforcements and no connection to the outside world. And what if Katsuki’s bypass doesn’t work? Then what? Izuku would fall through the cracks again, abandoning Katsuki again, leaving him behind again–

When Izuku opens his mouth to retaliate, Katsuki continues angrily, "Non-negotiable, Deku. We can still go back tonight, but we’re doing it together or not at all. We can go to the stupid party, hang around for a few hours, and then dip. Security would have gotten complacent by then, anyway, since most of the guests are attending and it’ll be dark soon.”

“Right,” Izuku says. “We go in, locate the other agents, and find out what they’re up to without directly engaging with them. Sounds like a plan.”

They continue dressing in silence after that. Katsuki looks to the side, snorting quietly when he sees Izuku struggling to wear a tie over his white dress shirt. Katsuki, fastening his belt over his sleek black dress pants, watches Izuku try to discretely tie his tie in the wall mirror in their hotel room. Katsuki snorts again when Izuku messes up and undoes the knot for the umpteenth time. 

He’s silhouetted by the sunlight streaming in from the French windows, his back facing him as he no doubt attempts to disguise what he’s doing to Katsuki. When was the last time Izuku even wore a tie? Even when he’d interrupted Katsuki’s mission at Lady Nagant’s gala all those days ago, Katsuki had noticed that he hadn’t been wearing one.

He’d looked horrid then, but now, for once, he actually looks decent. The bottle green vest and dress pants suit him well, paired smartly with a tight-fitting white shirt. He’s managed to tame his hair a little, so that the curls look deliberately curly instead of absolutely wild. Katsuki’s makeup shines lightly across his cheekbones, the light eyeliner making those green eyes pop.

Patches of sunlight draw shapes into the nape of his neck, and not for the first time that day, Katsuki finds it difficult to look away. God damn it. Something changed last night– like he’d had a taste and now it wouldn’t leave his tongue. His eyes wander down his back, observing the tight muscles behind the fabric of his shirt. They travel further down to his ass, and then they fucking linger there. The memory comes to him again, unbidden, unwanted: Izuku’s eyes meeting his in the reflection, his flushed face, fully naked and in his lap and grinding down against him–

Izuku’s chin tilts up, and they lock eyes in the mirror. He looks at him for a second, before sighing. “I know, Kacchan. I still can’t tie a tie. Ha ha, stupid Deku–” Katsuki scowls at Izuku’s poor imitation of him, “You have my permission to laugh about it.”

Katsuki scowls a bit more, the memory of last night fading away as he rolls his eyes and moves forward, turning Izuku around by his shoulder and taking the cloth in his hands. “Of all the fucking things your nerd ass could be embarrassed about, it’s this? Weirdo.”

Izuku watches as Katsuki corrects his tie again, his smooth hands moving swiftly around Izuku’s neck. “I… don’t like asking for help.” 

“I’m well aware of that.”

After a few seconds, Izuku asks: “Hey Kacchan… did you go on many partnered missions after I left?”

Katsuki glances up briefly, frowning slightly, before looking back down to finish the final knot. “Not often,” he replies, stepping away and raising an eyebrow at the way Izuku looks pleased at the answer. “What’s it to you?”

Izuku shrugs, observing the tie in his hands. He turns to the mirror, looking at the pair of them as they stand next to each other. Katsuki follows his gaze, watching the way Izuku sizes the both of them up in their reflection. This time, he doesn’t need Izuku to speak to know that he’s thinking: I miss it. I miss when we used to do stuff like this.

When Izuku opens his mouth, he almost expects him to actually say it out loud. Instead, all that comes out is, “You look good.”

Katsuki scoffs instantly, looking down at his buttoned-up burgundy dress shirt and black pants. It’s just about plain enough to blend in, but not plain enough to look styleless. 

He turns back around to Izuku and ruffles his hair violently. "You look like a mess,” he says, snickering when Izuku sputters out in disbelief. “You look in a mirror lately, Sleeping Ugly?”

“Kacchan, wha— this took me half an hour!”

The banquet room is spacious and well lit. The chatter of the guests is steady, not too quiet and not too loud, creating a perfect ambience for the golden-pink sunset filtering in through the glass wall that leads into the backyard garden. Above it all, though, is the sound of an upbeat love song playing from the speakers.

Golden light from the overhead chandelier gleams against the wooden floorboards of the dance floor. There are very few guests still in their seats— most of them alcohol tipsy and twirling with their partners across the spacious, sparkling floor.

They’re both leaning side by side against a wall near the back of the room, perpendicular to the doors to the backyard garden whose doors are slid all the way open to let in the summer breeze. From here, they have a good view of the front doors, the guests seated amongst the tables, the couples twirling across the dancefloor, and the staff manning the bar on the opposite end of the room.

It’s been about 45 minutes and nothing has happened yet. Katsuki has never been a patient person, but he’s been trained to look casual and unbothered, so that’s what he does. Izuku downs another skewer of teriyaki chicken and capsicum, flicking the toothpick into a bin not too far away. 

Katsuki watches as one couple laughs loudly on the dancefloor, their bodies flush against one another. The taller one leans down with a wide grin, and they smile into each other’s mouths as they spin in a circle.

His traitorous heart stutters in his chest when he glances down at Izuku, who seems to be watching the same couple with a faraway expression. Something flutters in his gut then, something like desperation, something like urgency.

Because in 24 hours—

Katsuki’s hand extracts itself from his pants pocket and lies cautiously by his thigh. It twitches to the side, grazing against Izuku’s knuckles. Izuku freezes, glancing toward Katsuki, but he doesn’t dare look back. Their palms kiss, fingers interlacing, and suddenly it feels like fresh, crisp air is being filtered into his lungs.

—I won’t be able to do this.

They’re both silent, and then they speak at the same time:

“Um, do you want to dance?”

“Dance with me.”

Izuku blinks and Katsuki’s ears heat up, but he’s turning away and tugging Izuku along before Izuku can analyse his expression any longer. Izuku steps in front of him easily, and they soon lose themselves in the crowd. Katsuki keeps his hands on Izuku’s waist, while Izuku’s keeps his on Katsuki’s shoulders, and they move into step.

It doesn’t take long for them to realise the state that everyone else is in. Drunk on wine and romance, the couples around them aren’t bothering moving with formalities anymore. The couple on their right can’t stop giggling as they step on each other’s toes. The ones behind Izuku are moaning into each other’s mouths, crotches rubbing up against each other. The couple on Katsuki’s left are standing completely still, sobbing as they swap countless “I love you”s.

Izuku has clearly also read the room as well. Slowly, Izuku stands up on his toes. They move in a gentle sway when Izuku presses his lips against Katsuki’s neck. His lips are soft, his breath ticklish, and Katsuki has to suppress a shiver. A warm tongue laps lightly against his skin.

“Your heartbeat is really fast right now,” Izuku murmurs against the skin, directly over his pulse, sounding like he’s speaking to himself.

“And you're really fucking touchy,'' Katsuki grits out, forcing himself to slow down his heartbeat. He’s supposed to be trained in lie-detection tests for god’s sake. 

“Sorry,” Izuku says, but it doesn’t sound like he really means it. He tiptoes to peer over Katsuki’s shoulder, eyes searching around the room, before falling back to his heels. “I guess we’re just like everyone else around here."

Katsuki doesn't say anything to that, knowing that Izuku meant he was just playing along to blend in better with the crowd. So, to do his part in the performance, he tucks both hands into the back pockets of Izuku's ass.

Izuku presses his ear to Katsuki’s chest, not looking at him when he whispers, “Kacchan is quite the dedicated actor.”

A sudden warmth flares up in his face and hands. Why the hell is Izuku saying all of this? Why is he looking up at him like that, with those chandelier lights reflected in those eyes, imploring him to open his mouth and spill his entire self, thorns and all, right into Izuku’s parted mouth?

He knows.

The thought is fleeting. It’s spoken darkly in the back of his mind, with all the tone of a big red warning.

He knows your secret. He wants you to say it.

Well, Katsuki can’t say it. He can barely even think it to himself. If this is Izuku’s way of getting back at him, at trying to humiliate him, then he’s in for a long ride because Katsuki isn’t admitting shit.

“Kacchan?”

Katsuki is about to tell him to fuck off when a flash of blue and black dips above the wave of the crowd.

Agent Dabi. And from the looks of the group of people he’s currently surrounded by, with all of his friends in tow. 

He’d recognise that ugly fuck anywhere. 

Their group is moving towards a free table, the lot of them plopping themselves down as if there weren’t already the belongings of other guests dropped onto the chairs.

“I need a bit of a lie down, babe,” he says, falling right back into business.

Izuku, thankfully, catches on quickly. “Yacchan always did get tired so quickly. Ever since the accident… which hurt his back and gave him scoliosis.”

Katsuki shoots a quick glare at him before he steps away from the crowd and toward a table some way away from where the group has sat down. Katsuki sits down with his left side facing them, staying close enough to watch them. Izuku sits with his back to the group, but is closer within earshot.

They stick out like a sore thumb, that group. Dabi slouches against his chair, dressed in a street-style hoodie and sweatpants. Toga sits next to him, perched on the lap of a tall man with dark eye bags. The two of them are apparently the only ones dressed in formal attire. Toga is wearing a blood-red dress and short, stocky red heels. The man underneath her wears a matching red tie and suit jacket. Katsuki has a feeling the matching attire was forced on him. 

The other man on the opposite end of Dabi looks bored, his dark curly hair framing his cheeks, as he rolls three blue-green marbles in one hand.

“Why are we here?” he questions, voice airy and elegant. He drops two marbles in his palm and examines one of them close to his eyes. “Tomura’s gonna wonder where we ran off to.”

Toga huffs at this, throwing her arms around the neck of the blond man beneath her. “Stop your worrying, Atsu! That boy never wants to have any fun. Can’t we just celebrate for one night? I’m so bored being holed up in that boring place when all these lovely couples are having fun over here! Isn’t that right, Jin?”

The man (Jin?) scratches his scruffy beard. “Sure is!” he agrees easily.

“This place is tacky as fuck,” Dabi says, stuffing his hands in his sweater pockets and knocking his head back against the chair. 

“You’re right,” Jin agrees again, sounding almost like a different person altogether. Then, his eyes slide toward them, and Katsuki turns to Izuku. 

“Say aahh,” Katsuki says, forcing a smile as he grabs a skewer with meat on it off the plate in front of them and force feeds it to Izuku.

Izuku, blessed with the benefit of not having his expression be seen by the group, frowns as he opens his mouth. Katsuki looks back at the group to see none of them looking their way, but man that was close. 

From the other side, the enemy agents grab a couple of drinks from a tray being passed around, and they clink their glasses together.

“To the end of society!” Toga laughs.

“To the end of society,” the men echo in return, their levels of enthusiasm varied. 

Katsuki and Izuku exchange a long, meaningful look of: ‘What the fuck?’

They don’t move from their seats for a long time, staying planted to eavesdrop some more, but the conversation seems to have dropped off into drunken, meaningless rants. At one point, the group sings a parodied version of the national anthem. 

Katsuki recognises that kind of reckless abandon, that smug and carefree energy. It’s never a good thing to find in an opponent.

At one point, eventually, Dabi stumbles to his feet with a wide grin. “‘M headin’ out for a smoke,” he slurs. “Laterrr.”

“Wait!” Toga hiccups, getting to her feet as well. “Lemme join you. Les go to the rooftop, ‘kay?”

Once the two of them exit the room, Katsuki and Izuku wait for a couple of beats. Jin is knocked out on the table and snoozing, while the other guy (Atsu?) has his feet slung over the table with a book in his hands. Moving quickly, Katsuki stands up and walks out of the hall, Izuku following close behind.

Once they step outside, they begin their journey to the rooftop. They know where it is, since they’ve surveyed the building beforehand. Right now, they just need to trail behind as stealthily as they can. 

Well, it started off stealthy, before Izuku had to go and be a Deku about it. 

They’re crossing the corner of a hallway, where the carpeted floor ends and wooden floorboards take its place. Izuku slips minutely over the surface, muttering a quiet ‘oops’ before righting himself. Katsuki doesn’t even have time to roll his eyes before Izuku is suddenly slipping again, arms flailing outward as he seemingly begins to run in the same spot. And Katsuki? He just… stares in disbelief.

Because here’s the thing. Katsuki has never wanted to have sex with anyone.

All his life, he’s never really had any reason to want to. Being razor-focused on his life, his career, his ambitions, he was certainly not thinking about anything else that would distract him from that. And there was certainly nobody who had ever caught his eye in any way that mattered. If anyone had to match up to him, they had to be at his level to keep up. That was a dealbreaker.

But now? Now.

He watches, straight-faced, as Izuku struggles to get his balance back. He yelps quietly, arms flailing maniacally as he attempts to stop himself from falling. Katsuki glances at the 'Keep Caution: Wet Surface’ sign propped up on the side, wordlessly watching Deku perform what is perhaps the longest fall in all of history, and he thinks:

Him. I want to have sex with him.

“Kacchan!” Izuku pleads, voice coming out in a helpless hiss. “Kacchan— I’m gonna fall— oh god—” He’s bug-eyed and wobbly on his feet, like a newborn lamb, and the only reason why Katsuki hasn’t popped a boner yet is because of his enormous self-control.

After discretely punching himself in the crotch, Katsuki stalks forward and steadies Izuku by grabbing the back of Izuku’s collar. He gets right into his nerdy ass face when he spits out, “How you’ve managed to survive this fucking long is honestly beyond me.”

“I… okay. That’s fair,” Izuku sighs, blissfully oblivious to Katsuki’s trainwreck of a thought process just moments before.

They eventually reach the staircase that leads up to the rooftop, but the door is propped wide open and they’d expose themselves if they were to sneak a peek upstairs. That was fine though, because they’ve both been trained to amplify the sounds around them in their eavesdrop training. They squat down in the shadows of the deserted hallway to listen.

“—a fucking waste of time, is what it is,” someone grumbles unhappily, the voice recognisable as Dabi’s. “Shiggy’s got no idea what he’s doing.”

“Sucks for you, maybe, but I love it here.” It’s a woman’s voice– Toga. “So many beautiful people,“ she says dreamily, “so much romance, so much desire in the air! I’m really in heaven!”

“Good for you,” Dabi says flatly. “I’m just here ‘cause I’m bored, alright? Got better shit to do than be the watch dog for some egotistical psycho.”

Toga hums. A lighter clicks in the sudden quiet, and then she speaks again: “I don’t wanna go back so soon… How long do we have before the fun is over?”

“It’s not even close to being ready yet, but it should be somewhat workable by tomorrow. The only way it'll get anywhere near full power is if we can find something to boost it.”

“Why do we even need to use full power?” she whines. “Can’t we just use what we have already? I thought this island was supposed to be sitting on powerful minerals and stuff. Isn’t that enough?”

“The hell’re you asking me for? The more power we use, the worse this fuckin' weather gets. I got no idea what Shiggy's thinking, I’m just here to get paid.” After a beat of silence, Dabi asks, “Where is that stuck up prince anyway?”

“Last I saw him he was passed out at base. He seemed real tired after drawing up his last Super Weapon Master Plan.”

Dabi clicks his tongue. “Tomura and his fuckin’ Master Plans,” he mutters drily. “Whatever. If we’re staying here for that long then we might as well be a nuisance. I’m going back inside.”

“Yay!!” Toga claps her hands. “Let’s wash the night away with alcohol!”

Katsuki and Izuku are already slinking away as the conversation begins to die. Izuku ducks into an open hotel room, shutting the door as soon as footsteps sound out in the hallway. They’re silent for a few seconds, and then Izuku breaks the silence.

“Wait here.”

Instinctively, Katsuki lunges as if to catch his wrist, but his hand phases through as Izuku rushes out the door and towards the bottom of the staircase. “Where are you going?”

Izuku doesn’t answer, just scoops up something on the ground and sprints back to the room to close the door and crouch down next to him.

“I heard something fall down.” He holds the device in between them, something resembling a walkie-talkie, but just a lot thinner and a lot smaller, his face brightening with excitement. “A long distance military-grade radio receiver! We’ll be able to call Aizawa with this, I think. I can connect it to both of our earpieces.”

“They’ll notice it’s missing,” Katsuki says, but he relents anyway. “You got a way to contact HQ without alerting those guys of our presence?”

“Mm-hmm,” Izuku says, lips pursing and shoulders hunching as he shifts into Engineer Mode. “I’ve dealt with way more encrypted devices than this one, I can assure you.” Katsuki grumbles internally, knowing Izuku’s ignoring him now in favour of focusing on something else, but he stays silent as Izuku takes the device apart in his hands.

After a while, still not looking at him, Izuku whispers, “They’re building a weapon. Why else would they be talking about precious minerals?”

“No shit,” Katsuki sighs. “The island's resources are probably needed to fuel it. And their target is Tokyo city.”

“Is that why they’re on an island far away?” Izuku pauses in his motions and rubs at his lips. “But how can they target a city from all the way over here?”

“They gotta be doing it remotely.” Katsuki watches as Izuku puts the device back together with those dextrous fingers of his, eyes lingering over the scars tracing Izuku’s skin. Once Izuku’s done whatever he needed to do, he places the device in between them.

“Okay, it should be connected to your earpiece now. I’m going to try and contact Hitoshi first before attempting with Aizawa, just because I’m more familiar with that method of contact.” 

Katsuki hums, and doesn’t look at Izuku when he says, “You guys close?”

“Me and Hitoshi?” Izuku smacks a hand over the receiver, as if to activate the radio frequency he’s looking for. “Yeah, we’re pretty close.”

Katsuki fights the urge to clear his throat, and jumps right in: “He your boyfriend or something?”

Izuku turns to look at him. Katsuki’s expecting him to deny the allegation instantly and furiously, but instead Izuku just blushes slightly and scratches the back of his neck. 

His stomach drops. 

“Err…” Izuku laughs awkwardly. “No, we’re not dating.”

Phew. Katsuki’s stomach goes back to normal. 

“But, uh, he did confess to me once, so I can see why you’d think that.”

Okayyy, his stomach is kind of confused now. 

“You reject him?” 

“Yeah.” Izuku adds with a thoughtful lilt, “I still thought about it though. If I could return his feelings, I mean. But… I just couldn’t. And it wouldn’t have been fair to him if I tried to give it a shot.”

“Why not?” 

“Because…” Izuku scratches his cheek, a blush overtaking his face as he refuses to make eye contact, “because there’s someone–”

“Izuku?” a voice crackles into their ears. “How’d you get the transmission to work?”

“Hi Hitoshi!” Izuku exclaims, instantly forgetting about whatever he was going to say, which makes Katsuki bristle, “How are you? How are things without me? Are you managing okay?”

There’s a brief pause before Shinsou chuckles. “I should be the one asking you that. I’ve had more free time since you’ve been gone so I’ve been learning whatever I can to help you out.”

“Ohh,” Izuku coos, and Katsuki pretends to gag, “thanks so much for that! It’s always great to know you have my back!”

A corner of Katsuki’s eye twitches, and he activates his mic. “Can we quit it for the fucking theatrics, already?” he snaps, earning a look from Izuku, “We need to talk to Aizawa.”

“Oops. Guess I forgot about you,” Hitoshi drawls smugly, and Katsuki wants nothing more than to reach through this ancient looking device to strangle the bastard. “You don’t sound as rabid as you used to be. You gone soft for Izuku too, huh?”

Katsuki’s face burns, quickly glancing at Izuku’s face to find him in a similar state of confusion. “The f-fuck?” he stutters. “I ain’t soft for him! Ain’t nothing soft about me! I’m hard! I’m hard for Deku!”

There’s a long silence.

Izuku covers his face in his hands, making a high pitched sound that makes Katsuki realise what he just said. “I didn’t mean it like that, you fucking weirdo!” he sputters loudly. “Pervert! Stop doing that thing with your face!”

Shinsou chuckles on the other end. “You’re both hopeless. But fine, let me get Aizawa on the line now. He’s just next door.”

They exchange a look at this. Shinsou works with Izuku, which means that he’s not supposed to be liaising with other agencies. Especially not with Katsuki’s . As if to answer their unspoken question, Shinsou says, his voice a little distant, “Oh yeah, I’m hanging out at Eraserhead’s agency while Izuku’s away. Makes organising help for you guys a lot easier. And ah— Yeah, it’s them. No, I don’t know how they managed it. They want to talk to you though—“

“Debrief,” Aizawa’s voice comes in, and Katsuki finally feels relief, “ now .”

Without waiting for Katsuki to say anything, Izuku explains the day they had as well as the conversation they’d just heard. “Ka— Bakugou and I think they’re planning something in Tokyo city but from a really remote distance. Permission to extend our—?”

“No,” Aizawa snaps immediately, and Katsuki can imagine him pinching the bridge of his nose. “This needs a more experienced team to go in. You two are already volatile enough when you’re together, and sending you on an easy investigation mission was risky enough. But taking down an imminent terrorist attack? Just you two? That’s a completely different story.”

Katsuki grits his teeth, snatching the device out of Deku’s hand. “The fuck are you saying? You think we can’t handle this on our own?”

“That’s exactly what I think.” His mentor’s voice has gone ice cold now. “Don’t you dare overstep your boundaries, Bakugou. I don’t care how skilled you are, you will listen to my orders.”

“But—“ Izuku starts.

“You’re both entirely unprepared and very barely equipped,” Aizawa barrels on. “Your job of investigating is done. It was completed the second you heard that conversation. Do you understand? You’re boarding the departure ship with the rest of the guests tomorrow morning. And besides, I already have another mission scheduled for you Bakugou.”

“What the fuck? Sir—“ Katsuki interjects, but is immediately shot down again.

“You both better be on that ship tomorrow. Don’t try me.”

And with that, the call ends. The abrupt silence in between them grows instantly sour.

“Asshole,” Katsuki spits out, at the same time Izuku says, “That’s bullshit!”

“After all those years I spent building up my folio,” Katsuki starts, launching to his feet so he can mimic Izuku’s signature pacing and expel some of the anger inside him, “he still doesn’t trust me?” He pauses then, turning on his heel to face Deku. “It’s because of you , isn’t it?”

Izuku gapes at him, standing up just so he can get all up in Katsuki’s face. “You can’t be serious, Kacchan,” he scoffs. “You heard him, he said it’s because we’re not properly equipped and we haven’t had enough time to… to rebuild our, um, alliance again.”

Izuku pauses, suddenly hesitant. Katsuki doesn’t look away— he just glares back. He hates what Izuku’s implying. He hates that it feels like they keep taking steps back. He hates the way Izuku phrased that. 'Rebuilding an alliance.'

is that all that it is? An alliance? We were partners, Deku. Did you forget?

“If you had the same equipment and preparation when you got here but I was never in the picture,” Izuku continues, frowning in a way Katsuki hasn’t seen before, like he’s hurt and sad and angry all at once, “he’d say the same thing! You know that, don’t you?”

Katsuki’s hand shakes, but he just purses his lips and says nothing. Why are they even fighting right now? Aren’t they supposed to be on the same side? 

Of course this isn’t Izuku’s fault. Their relationship has always been tentative and weird. It’s no wonder their superiors wouldn’t be as receptive to them working together after their tense hiatus from each other.

When Izuku’s expression softens a little, Katsuki can take a breath with little less sting in his lungs. “Deku.” The words get stuck in his throat. “I didn’t—“ want to fight.

Izuku just nods understandingly and thumbs at his necklace thoughtfully. After a beat, he sighs. “This will be our last mission together, won’t it, Kacchan?”

“I guess so.”

“So,” Izuku lifts his eyes up at him, “we should make the most of it.” Katsuki stares at him with an unimpressed look, and Izuku continues, “I’m saying we should go back—”

“Fucking hell, Deku, I know." Katsuki sighs and tilts his head up at the ceiling, already resigning himself to the rebellious gleam in Izuku’s eyes. “Why do you never follow orders?”

They were right– it was much easier sneaking back into the forest at nighttime. 

Not that it made much of a difference though, since they were either lost, they had hallucinated yesterday’s events, or the invisible wall somehow stood up and walked away. Needless to say, they can’t find the fucking boundary. 

Katsuki sweeps his flashlight across the forest ground one more time. He recognises the particular silhouette and shape of a certain section of trees on his left, and he’s sure they were standing right here just the day before. But when they keep walking, there’s nothing there to stop them.

“This makes no sense,” Izuku says. He keeps running this way and that with his own flashlight darting frantically over the forest. “We were right here. Weren’t we? Maybe we’re lost.”

Katsuki doubted it, but he also couldn’t be 100% sure. After all, it was seriously dark in this place. Getting lost wouldn’t have been difficult at all. 

Okay. It’s fine. They can work through this. There’s got to be some kind of gadget they can use… 

“Oh.” A lightbulb goes off in Katsuki’s head, and he fishes what looks like a fountain pocket out of his shirt pocket. Izuku turns to him curiously as Katsuki sets the pen into the dirt and activates it from a button on its side. A multitude of light orange light beams shine from the tip, spreading across the area and scanning their surroundings.

“Is that a spatial awareness simulator?” Izuku asks excitedly, crouching down to observe the device with enraptured eyes. “I’ve never seen one in the flesh before!!”

Katsuki just sits back in the dirt and wipes the sweat from his brow. “Nah, this is one of the shit versions. It takes fuckin’ forever to gather data.”

Once the device is mostly satisfied with its reach, a hologram hovers above the pen tip, showcasing a very crude map of the surroundings it managed to scan around them. Katsuki and Izuku kneel to watch over it from above, and Izuku’s hand trails along a particular line. 

“The river from yesterday,” he says quietly, following it along. He stops in front of a blinking light. “That’s us, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Katsuki is glaring at the map, because what the fuck, they’re–

“We’re not lost?” Izuku huffs, falling back to his heels. “But then that means it’s just not here anymore!”

“Deku, look.” Katsuki squints at the map again. There’s something wrong with it. The terrain where the boundary was supposed to be is distorted and blurry, patches of it broken into black pixels. “Something is jamming the detection of other large-scale objects in the vicinity.”

Izuku considers this, biting at his bottom lip. “So something is out there. We just can’t reach it.”

Fuck. And to think they wanted to make some progress tonight.

At that exact moment, another flashlight joins the mix, this one brighter and more prominent, sweeping above their heads. A panicked voice yells out distantly, “W-Who’s there?”

“These motherfuckers need the raise of the century,” Katsuki mutters, dropping into a crawl. Izuku is already flat on his stomach, army-crawling away without another word. Katsuki, with nowhere else to go, follows behind him. They break past a line of trees for a second, and are met with a brilliance that is momentarily blinding. 

There’s a wide river just below them, the moonlight reflecting harshly on its surface. If they were to roll down the hill, they would easily fall right into it. When the voice gets closer, though, that seems to be exactly Izuku’s plan.

Quickly, he takes Katsuki’s hand and runs quietly toward the river. Before Katsuki can so much as protest, Izuku steps into the water and submerges himself entirely.

Katsuki fucking hates cold water, but this isn’t his first time doing something like this to stay hidden, so he just goes with it. 

The water is freezing, and the shock of it is initially mind-numbingly unbearable. Cold water submerges him from head to toe, and all he feels is the cold and the darkness. It gets bearable the longer the seconds tick by, as the two of them quite literally hold their breath in waiting. 

Then, after judging an appropriate amount of time later, Katsuki breaks through the surface and heaves in a gasp. Izuku follows suit not long after, and they both look around to make sure they really are alone. Katsuki catches the tail end of a swinging flashlight, before it disappears behind the trees.

Katsuki turns to look at the other side of the river bank, squinting at a sign that reads: “SHALLOW RIVER: NO DIVING”. Right next to that is another, bigger sign: “SERIOUSLY. WE CAN’T AFFORD ANOTHER LAWSUIT.”

“The coast is clear,” Izuku whispers, and Jesus, when did the guy get so close to him? They’re both standing comfortably, the water below their shoulders. “Like, literally.”

“Was this seriously your best idea?” Katsuki grumbles, swiping the wet hair out of his face. Eugh, he can feel his own socks and shoes soaking in the gross ass river water.

“As if you had any better ones!” Izuku looks like he wants to step out, but he pauses. “Actually, this feels kinda nice since it was so warm this evening…” 

Izuku shakes his hair like a dog, the water splattering against Katsuki’s face. He blocks most of it with his forearm, and is about to snap at him when he sees Izuku closing his eyes and inhaling deeply. Moonlight casts his face in strange shadows, and he looks almost otherworldly. When he opens his eyes again, it’s to look at the moon. 

Katsuki moves closer without volition. Izuku looks up as Katsuki does that, and suddenly they’re locked in yet another one of those weird stares they’ve been doing since this whole thing started. His knuckles come up to brush Izuku’s cheek, heart thumping loudly at the way Izuku seems to go very, very still.

The invisible trajectory he’d seen the first time he’d kissed Deku appears before him again, a perfect and very encouraging curved line. Katsuki moves without thinking, lips brushing over Izuku’s wet cheek, one hand bunching itself in the hem of Izuku’s shirt that floats freely over his waistband.

Izuku’s breath catches, but he remains otherwise silent. Scarcely knowing what he’s doing himself, Katsuki ventures down to Izuku’s jawline, before trailing his lips under and down his neck.

Izuku has always been such a difficult person to understand, but Katsuki thinks that he can understand this. This feeling of closeness, of their bodies lingering near one another. It feels right, somehow.

His eyes had closed at some point, and he opens them again as he pulls away slowly from Izuku’s face. Izuku has his head tucked forward, but he leans in even as Katsuki pulls away.

Their foreheads touch, noses skimming against each other. Water laps at their sides, a soft breakage in the deafening silence that’s descended over them. It’s almost difficult to breathe with their proximity. 

Even though their heads are above water, Katsuki feels as if he’s drowning.

Finally, Izuku breathes out shakily. “What was that for?” he asks, voice quiet but relatively loud in this desolate place.

Katsuki is silent for a while, tongue heavy in his own mouth. The words seem to have broken the spell that came over him just now, and the cold water reminds him of just where he is at the moment. “What was what for?” he says eventually, eyes screwing shut at his own idiocy.

“You kissed me,” Izuku says bluntly, the word ‘kissed’ ringing out between them, “Why?”

Shit. What the hell did Katsuki just do? Why did he do that? 

“‘Cause someone could still find us at any moment, stupid,” he replies, knowing that Izuku was well aware that nobody was anywhere near these grounds. “Can never be too careful.”

Izuku purses his lips. Finally, he brings a hand to the back of Katsuki’s neck and pulls their faces closer together. Their lips brush, and it’s an electric reaction that courses through his body. There’s some sort of wild energy racing inside him, his arms winding around Izuku’s waist and pulling him flush against him to feel that thrill again. 

There are no eyes here. No reasons to be this close together. And Izuku is pulling him closer.

“Did you want to give them a show?” Izuku finally murmurs. His lips part slightly, and Katsuki can’t help but mimic the movement. Their coordination is messy, lips just barely skimming against each other.

“I’m a dedicated actor,” Katsuki whispers, the words ghosting over those pretty pink lips, and then he just can’t take it anymore. His body moves naturally, not waiting for the consent of his brain when a hand grips the back of Izuku’s head and he tilts his head to the side so that he can just kiss Izuku fucking Midoriya.

Fuck, it’s such a headrush. It’s goosebumps breaking out all over his body. It’s the adrenalin of winning a fight, of looming over your opponent with a victorious grin and your forearm pressed against their neck. Katsuki can’t get enough– he kisses Izuku brutally, he kisses him with everything he’s got, and Izuku returns it with a broken moan.

“Kacchan,” he gasps, wet and desperate. He pulls away to catch a breath, face awash with a healthy flush and fattening lips. His pupils are absolutely fucking blacked out.

“What the fuck, Deku—“ he grunts, chest squeezing painfully as he grabs Izuku’s shirt and yanks him up for another bruising kiss.

Izuku is unexpectedly rough with it this time. He kisses so goddamn sloppily, constantly pressing against him and moving away, all while making these loud, desperate sounds whenever he gets the slightest chance to breathe. “Kacchan,” he gasps breathily, hands fisted over Katsuki’s shoulders, “You taste so good, Kacchan.”

How did the nerd manage to turn that kiddy ass nickname into something so erotic?

“Fuck,” Katsuki says again, pulling away. He only has a second to take in Izuku’s dazed, drunk-like face before he’s slamming Izuku against the side of the riverbank. He barely recognises himself as he pushes Izuku up against the dirt wall, hands digging into his hips as their mouths crash into each other again. “Do you… ever know when to shut up?”

“Can’t help it,” Izuku replies instantly, making a broken sound when Katsuki’s hands roam over his abs. “You drive me crazy.”

Fucking Deku.

He doesn’t think Izuku understands just how much he feels for him, how much he thinks about him, how frequently he feels Izuku’s phantom touch sliding across his palms and his neck and his face.

Katsuki doesn’t know how to tell him this. He doesn’t know if he could ever understand. 

His hands shake despite himself. What does Deku want from this? Does he realise just how far gone Katsuki even is? Does he even know what he’s getting himself into? Does he know that he could break his heart so easily, if he wanted to? 

“Deku.” The word is spoken into Izuku’s shoulder. There’s so much I want to tell you, is what he wants to say, but he doesn’t. He can’t even begin to imagine a combination of words articulate enough to explain what he feels for him.

They pant heavily against one another, cheeks nuzzled together like they can’t bring themselves to keep any distance between them. “Why did you kiss me?” Izuku whispers finally.

There’s a long, tense beat of silence. 

“As if you don’t already know the answer.” Katsuki didn’t mean to spit it out, but now he’s starting to feel slightly manic, like an animal who has realised it’s in a cage and is now desperately trying to escape. 

“As if I hadn’t already made it so—“ Katsuki thinks about to all the times he’s let his guard down: from lying next to him on a bed when his own bedroll laid open and barely used on the floor, from the way he smiled when Izuku blushed at the word babe, from the way he tucked his face into Izuku’s temple and stroked his whole fucking cock in his hand. God, he made it so— “—so fucking obvious.”

“Explain it to me,” Izuku says, persistent.

“I can’t. I fucking can’t. It’s just that you—“ He doesn’t know how to articulate it: the intense pain of not knowing if Izuku had died or not, if he was safe, if he was warm enough, if he had died before Katsuki had ever got the chance to tell him that he—

“—you’re always—“ Katsuki makes a frustrated sound. He slams their heads together so that Izuku can just absorb his thoughts via osmosis or some shit. “—You’re always slipping through my fucking fingers.”

Katsuki feels numb to the seconds that pass on by. Izuku breathes out sharply after a while, like he’d been holding his breath before. “Kacchan, look at me.” 

Katsuki pulls back to look at him.

“If Kacchan wants me to stay,” Izuku says, swallowing down tears. “Then I’ll stay. For as long as you need me.”

Forever, forever, forever.

“Can I—“ Katsuki swallows, unnerved by Izuku’s sparkling wet eyes and his own sudden vulnerability. “Damn it, nerd, let me kiss you.”

“Yes,” Izuku replies instantly, expression never changing, voice barely over a whisper. “Anything. You can do anything you like with me.”

Something like butterflies are exploding in his chest, but it feels violent, somehow. Something more akin to a forest fire. Izuku wraps his legs around Katsuki’s hips, using his buoyancy to lean over Katsuki’s face easily. Katsuki’s brain short circuits when Izuku’s tongue slides in, barely able to keep up with Izuku’s sudden eagerness. 

“Actually…” Izuku takes Katsuki’s face in both of his hands as he kisses him again, softly, slowly. “I want to dry up in our room.”

Heart beating loudly against his ribcage, Katsuki can see rather than hear the proposition laid out before him. Without another word, he grips Izuku’s elbow and hauls him out of the river.

He leads them to their room.

They’ve barely taken off their shoes and socks by the front door when Katsuki has Izuku up against the wall of the genkan, teeth sinking into his neck as Izuku fights to rip Katsuki’s shirt off.

There’s something unspoken between them that begs to not reveal itself tonight. It’s why Katsuki can barely bring himself to speak, in case it would break the spell that’s been cast over them. It's why, perhaps, neither of them have decided to turn the light on either.

Izuku finally tears Katsuki’s shirt in half, and it shouldn’t be so hot that he could rip mostly-wet fabric but it is, and he needs to grab Izuku’s chin just so he can pull him in for a deep kiss again. The summer heat might have done wonders in mostly drying them on the way back to the hotel, but it was still an impressive feat.

Without leaving that addictive mouth of his, Katsuki unbuckles Izuku’s belt smoothly, pushing his pants down to his ankles. Izuku steps out of it quickly, kicking it to the side before doing the same to Katsuki. He lets Izuku do it, pulling away to watch Izuku’s wide eyes as the pants give way, leaving him clad in nothing but his tie and his boxers.

“Eyes are up here, nerd,” he says smugly, tilting Izuku’s chin up with two fingers. Izuku’s eyes follow the trail from the bulge in Katsuki’s underwear, up to his pecs, before finally resting on his face. His pupils are dark, cheeks flushed, mouth parted.

Katsuki is absolutely fucking preening. Izuku looks like that because of him. Christ. How did he get so lucky?

He can’t help but grin as he unbuttons Izuku’s shirt slowly, throwing it into the sopping heap of clothing that’s collected by the doorway. He dips down to kiss Izuku’s shoulder, hands rising to feel up Izuku’s abs and chest, and Izuku makes a soft whining sound at the sensation. He moves to unclasp the necklace from Izuku's neck, but Izuku stops him.

"I want us to keep them on," he says, almost pleading. Then, gasping softly again: “Kacchan, keep going- please."

He doesn’t need to think when he flips Izuku around, wrapping his arms around his torso before slamming his crotch hard into Izuku’s ass. Izuku bangs flat into the wall, hands scrambling as Katsuki’s clothed cock rubs in between his cheeks.

“Oh, fuck." Izuku cries out, his cheek smushing into the wall when Katsuki rubs against him particularly roughly. “Oh god.”

“Fuck,” Katsuki hisses, his voice hoarse and unfamiliar to him. Hands slide up and down Izuku’s abs, fingers dipping below his underwear. He finds his lips pressed to the side of Izuku’s temple when he humps into his ass again. Honestly, he should be embarrassed by the way he can’t control his urges, like he’s some sex-hungry hormonal teenager, but he can’t bring himself to feel it with the way Izuku is very eagerly grinding back into him.

“Ah, ah,” Izuku pants, hands threading into Katsuki’s hair and attempting to bring it even closer, “Fuck me. I need you to fuu-ck, ahh. Need you to— please, please, oh god.”

Wait— fuck. Those words bring a sudden clarity to Katsuki’s mind, and he moves backward. Fuck me? Fuck me. Wait.

Izuku takes the short reprieve to turn back around and pull Katsuki down by his tie for another kiss, before Katsuki can properly process Izuku’s demand.

Katsuki falls into the kiss easily, not breaking from it even as Izuku stumbles away from the wall and pulls them to the foot of their bed.

Tossing Katsuki’s tie to the side, Izuku asks, “Are you clean?”

The question is initially lost on Katsuki, before it finally sets in.

Fuck.

Izuku wants to have sex.

Holy fuck.

Izuku, laid flat on his back with Katsuki half standing and half leaning over him, tilts his head when there’s no response. Then, his face turns steadily redder with embarrassment the longer Katsuki just gapes at him like a fish. “Oh. Um, it’s totally okay if you don’t want to! I can’t believe I didn’t even ask you before! I’m so sorry for—“

“I want to,” Katsuki replies instantly, surprising even himself, and Izuku seems to relax a little. “It’s just that—“ He swallows. “I’ve never…“ He pauses, frustrated, “…done… this. With anyone. Before.”

Izuku blinks. “Oh.” He brushes a hand down Katsuki’s jaw and neck. “But Kacchan is so handsome... I’m a little surprised.”

He holds Izuku’s hand against his face. “S’not like people didn’t try,” he says, recollecting the times people had flirted with him on missions. “I was never interested.”

“...Oh,” he says again. His cheeks darken, and the moonlight won’t allow Katsuki to see it but he knows that it’s just positively red now.

“You?” Katsuki asks curtly, subconsciously tracking the spread of the blush.

“A-ah, I’ve done it before. Only a couple of times, though. Mostly girls.”

Katsuki hums. He doesn’t really care about his body count, but he still can’t help but ask: “Shinsou?”

Izuku opens his mouth, before falling back into a smile. “What would you do if I said yes?”

“I’d kill you,” Katsuki says immediately.

“Eh? Me? What about Hitoshi?”

“Nah, it’s gotta be you. For having bad fucking taste.”

Izuku grins and crawls further back onto the bed, turning to open the bedside drawer and pull out a small bottle. Vaguely, Katsuki remembers the blush on Izuku’s face when they’d first surveyed the room and he’d opened the drawers. I guess now I know why.

He places the lube next to him, but pulls Katsuki down by his neck first. “You have nothing to worry about, Kacchan,” he whispers. “I’m all yours tonight.” 

Katsuki kisses him with dizzying force, and it feels familiar in a way that is years old and practised. Izuku moans into his mouth, and it wakes up his previously softened cock. He shoves Izuku’s underwear down quickly, acting purely on dick-to-brain directions.

Now that Izuku’s underwear is out of the way, Izuku pulls back. “Let me show you how I do it. Just… just watch.”

Katsuki leans back, watching intently as Izuku lathers up his own fingers in lube. Inhaling deeply, he protrudes himself with one finger. He watches as the finger moves in and out, stretching out his pink hole painstakingly slow. Izuku keeps his eyes open for it, though he seems to have difficulty looking up at Kacchan.

“It’s…” he starts again, clearing his throat, “it’s good to start slow. So, one finger first, then two, then three, and you can keep going if you like, but the point is that the, uh, ass-” Izuku blushes, eyes closing for a second, “-hole, the asshole, needs to be stretched enough. Usually, we’d need a bit more foreplay before I feel aroused enough, but I’m already so freaking turned on right now it’s crazy.”

A second finger joins the parade not soon enough, and Katsuki feels his face burn at the sight. Quickly, he’s whipping his cock out of his boxers and stroking it to relieve some of the pressure.

“Then you can ease your penis inside,” Izuku continues, despite the fact that Katsuki’s eyes have started to glaze over, “but slowly! Once you’re all the way in, I’ll need time to adjust because I need to get used to it. And when I’m ready, then you can go to town!”

Izuku is pink from the exertion and the pleasure, eyes half shut as he spreads himself open. Heart pounding, Katsuki is about to shove Izuku’s hands out of the way and put his own fingers into use, when Izuku pants, “Did you know... that I can moan the theme song to Spies in Disguise... depending on how many fingers I use? Figured it out...” he pants again, eyes opening fully to look at Katsuki, “...a few years back.”

Blood rushes into his crotch. “Freak,” he says. “Fucking nerd.”

“I guess I— oh. Uh, your peni— dick raised a lot higher.”

“You look–” Katsuki blurts, ignoring the fact that his cock hardened at the thought of Izuku moaning the tune to Spies in Disguise, “You look so–” He doesn’t know how to finish the thought. His blood is thrumming, every nerve and end in his body growing increasingly excited.

Izuku’s hands fly to his eyes and he groans, embarrassed. Then, peeking out from behind his fingers, he shouts, "WAAHH, Kacchan, what are you doing?! Stop jerking yourself off!”

“Huh?” Katsuki says dumbly, hand still stroking himself as he watches a third finger slip in.

“I’m serious, Kacchan, you’re gonna cum!! Stop it! You won’t last!”

Fuck this. Katsuki abandons his leaking cock and knocks Izuku’s fingers out of the way. Ignoring his squawk of protest, Katsuki shoves his fingers into the bottle and lubes them up generously, before sticking three in all at once. 

Izuku cries out at the intrusion, a slippery hand grappling onto Katsuki’s shoulder. “Oh! Oh god, what—” His words quickly slip into a moan when Katsuki’s fingers push in deeper and just stay there.

It’s hotter inside than Katsuki expected. He hasn’t looked away from the place where his fingers have disappeared. It’s mesmerising, really, the way he can push into this tight heat and it makes Izuku just squirm.

He takes it slowly, if only to keep Izuku comfortable. Even one finger had looked painful at the start, after all. There’s slight discomfort furrow in his eyebrows now, even if he does look mostly blissed out. Leaning up, Katsuki kisses him as a distraction. “Feels good?” he asks shakily against his lips. 

“S-So good.” Izuku swallows audibly, knocking his head against the pillow. “So good, Kacchan. Keep going.”

Katsuki’s hand twitches abruptly at the words. When a finger brushes against something soft and spongy, Izuku jolts, muffling the unmistakable sound of ‘KACCHAN!’ that came out of his mouth with his hands. 

His heart races at the muffled moan. He needs to hear that sound again. “You got a special button, Deku?” he says huskily. 

“The prostaaate…” Izuku whines underneath his hands, though it sounds more like a high pitched wheeze. “How did your fingers even— Haahh, fuck, Kacchan you have to— there.”

Katsuki grabs both of Izuku’s hands and pins them above his head. “Don’t you dare keep quiet,” he snaps. “If I’m gonna be the best sex you’ve ever had, then I damn well deserve to hear it.”

”Oh man, AAHH —“ Izuku moans loudly when Katsuki curls his finger upwards, and he repeats the motion again, picking up speed as the sounds tumble out of Izuku’s mouth in rapid succession. “Kaaachan, nngh, s-slow down, before you— before you make me—“

“Before what, Deku?” Katsuki is grinning now, feeling drunk with the effect he has on him now. Izuku’s breaking out into a healthy sweat, his cheeks glowing in the soft light.

“Before I cum!” Izuku shouts now, eyes squeezed shut. “I only want to cum when Kacchan puts his giant, huge cock inside me!”

Katsuki stops. Completely.

Izuku opens his eyes again, and the pupils have dilated into blackness. Knowing that Katsuki has his full attention, he scratches his neck awkwardly as he seems to gain more sensibility. “Err. I just. I have plenty of stamina and can recover pretty instantly after I finish. But I just want Kacchan to make me— because it’s my first time with you! And I want you to feel good as well…”

Oh shit. Oh fuck. He’s a little dizzy when he says, “I need to fuck you.”

Izuku shivers. “Put your fingers back inside me,” he whispers, “and say that again.”

And Katsuki hates doing anything he’s been asked to do, but he follows Izuku's instructions without protest. He slides his fingers back in easily, leaning his whole body over his to kiss him sloppily. “I need…  to fuck you,” he says again, and Izuku exhales shakily.

“Then do it.”

Katsuki jerks away from Izuku to grab blindly at the bedside drawer, but before he can even open it to take what he needs, he’s suddenly being flipped onto his back.

Izuku towers over him and straddles his hips, a condom wrapper already tucked between his teeth as he tears it open seamlessly. Katsuki can do nothing but stare in confusion as Izuku expertly opens it up and rolls it down Katsuki’s totally erect cock. “Your first mistake, Kacchan, was thinking you’re in control tonight.”

Katsuki knows his mouth is open, that he probably looks stupid as fuck, but he can’t help but be so goddamn into it. Just then, though, Izuku pauses, looking embarrassed when he says, “Oh. Wait. I suppose we should, uh, discuss boundaries. Is there anything you don’t want to do, or really want to do?”

Katsuki looks down at his erect cock, leaking and red and angry. He doesn’t even remember it ever rising to that height in his whole fucking life. “Just,” he starts, breathing heavily, “don’t fucking take your eyes off me. I mean it.”

Izuku stills, before he smiles like he’s just thought of an inside joke with himself. “Aha… I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” Izuku doesn’t waste anymore time when he rubs lube over Katsuki’s cock, the substance sliding easily over the condom. Katsuki has to bite down at his lip hard to not lose it right there.

“If that was everything, honey." Izuku teases, pressing Katsuki down by his chest, “Then just lie back and let your fiancé help you relax.” He raises himself on his hind legs, spreading them apart, and then feeds the tip of Katsuki’s cock into his ass.

Oh, it’s glorious. The image of it is everything. Izuku’s nakedness, his erect dick spread over his abs, his necklace glinting in the moonlight, the sweat lining his flushed face. And the word honey ringing in his ears like wind chimes.

“Fuck.” He can’t help the word from slipping out, not when Izuku is slowly easing himself down and the humidity fogs up his brain. Izuku’s thighs are shaking, and Katsuki’s hands clamour forward to grip them. The hard muscle clenches at his touch, and then Izuku slams down to the hilt. They both groan in unison.

“S-Sorry, didn’t mean to do that.” Izuku goes very still, mouth open as he takes in a deep shuddering breath. “Big,” he blabbers, a hand flying to his abdomen as if to feel Katsuki’s cock inside. “You’re big. Feels like I’m… being impaled by the Tokyo Tower… Did you know it’s around 300 metres long? I don’t know why I said that. Your cock is just… big, Kacchan. I need some time to...”

Katsuki, eyes squeezed shut, overwhelmed by the insanely hot tightness squeezing around his cock, and barely even processing what Izuku just said, rasps out, “What the fuck, Deku.”

“Oops, sorry.” Izuku shifts slightly from where he’s seated, and Katsuki feels the blood pulsing just that much more violently in his cock. “That’s probably… not very sexy. I’m not- particularly good at dirty talk.”

“Fuckhead.” Katsuki keeps his eyes sealed. “If you keep comparing my dick to the size of the Tokyo Tower I’m going to finish right here.”

Izuku is quiet for a moment, and Katsuki cracks an eye open to watch him consider something. “Is that so…” Seemingly making a choice, he continues, “Tell you what Kacchan,” he says with a huff, lips stretching into a smile. Izuku lifts himself up, hands flexed on Katsuki’s chest as he starts to lower himself down slowly. “First one to finish wins the race!”

If Katsuki was losing his mind before, he’s quite close to a mind break at this point. The speed is excruciatingly tantalising, but Katsuki isn’t one to be baited into something as stupid as that.

He leans up on his elbows, grabbing Izuku by the back of the neck and dragging his face close to his. “I may be a virgin, Deku." he starts, smug satisfaction settling in his chest at Izuku’s surprised expression, “but I still know the goddamn rules.”

“Rules?” Izuku parrots, blinking dumbly. “This isn’t a competitive spo— Kacchan!"

He screams when Katsuki thrusts sharply upward, the sound sending shudders down Katsuki’s spine. That’s the only sound he wants to come out of Izuku, the only thing he can be capable of saying.

Don’t take your eyes off me. Don’t think of anything else except for —

He thrusts in hard again, and Izuku scrambles to steady himself on Katsuki’s shoulders as he cries out again.

— me.

It’s easy to start rutting into him, then. The impulse just comes to him so naturally , and god is he glad his time at the gym enables him to manoeuvre his hips upward at this speed and angle. He gathers Izuku close into his lap, one arm wrapped around his back, and grins when Izuku keeps leaning down to kiss him but misses with every thrust.

“Wha the hell, Kacchan,” Izuku slurs, frustrated. “Yer cruel."

Katsuki is embarrassingly close at this point, but he has a point to prove and there’s no way he’s letting Izuku get the best of him, his relatively longer experience be damned.

So he slips out, reluctantly, even though every fibre of his being screams to get back inside. He has to violently grip his balls just to get his brain to readjust. 

Izuku’s face goes through a hurdle of expressions at the loss, his face contorting with desperation before quickly moving into concern. “Are you okay? Is- is something wrong?”

Katsuki smooths his hands under Izuku’s rough thighs, inhaling deeply and willing his dick to take a backseat for one freaking second. Izuku said he has a good stamina, and he wasn’t fucking lying because the guy doesn’t look to have even broken a sweat yet.

Of course Izuku would make him work for it.

“Stop worrying about me, dumbass,” he breathes out. “‘M fine. Fucking fantastic, actually.”

“Then why—“

He flips Izuku onto his back, before crawling over him on all fours. Izuku blinks again as Katsuki just stares him down.

Izuku swallows audibly. “You—“

"I'm going to win." he snaps instantly, grabbing a pillow from the side and shoving it under Izuku’s hips. He pushes his cock into Izuku’s ass with careful precision, keeping just the tip inside, before pulling out and pushing steadily back in. He doesn’t know how much slower he can take it, but he needs to make Izuku feel good. It’s the only thing that matters right now.

“Oohh,” Izuku gasps, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes at the slow intrusion, “Oh.” His hands wind tightly into Katsuki’s sweaty hair, gripping on tight. The locket on his chest burns as it magnetises with the one against Izuku's, and they both hiss at the sudden heat.

After some careful testing, Katsuki eases himself all the way in, his hands tight around Izuku’s hips, moving right up until his balls kiss the skin of Izuku’s ass. He stays there for a moment, breathing in short bursts from his mouth as he struggles to reorient himself.

“You’re fucking. Tight,” he states plainly. Is it possible for his dick to get trapped in here? Is Deku’s ass going to rip his dick off? Why does it feel so good?

“Sorry.” It takes a few seconds, but the muscles begin to relax just a tad. “I got too excited for a second.”

Wordlessly, Katsuki keeps their eyes locked as he lightly strokes Izuku’s dick in his hand, waiting for him to melt the way he did last night. Izuku’s breaths come out ragged, and his muscles loosen some more, and then Katsuki finds himself just sliding into the most delicious heat he’s ever felt.

He doesn’t even have the brain capacity to form words anymore. He just slumps over Izuku’s chest, tucking his face into the side of Izuku’s ear and groaning low. 

“Aa-aaa,” Izuku sounds broken, his voice wet. “Move, Kacchan. You need to move.”

Katsuki moves, out and then in, slowly. He does it again, and then again, each time with a special focus to make Izuku reach his end faster. The rhythm is janky, the timing is awkward, but Izuku gasps every time his cock rams itself back inside and that’s all the encouragement he needs.

Somehow, instinctively, he knows Izuku’s body, and it doesn’t take long before it feels like they click into place. Katsuki begins thrusting in earnest, and Izuku cries out as reaches a hand down to stroke himself. 

Immediately, Katsuki smacks it away. That would be too easy of a win, and Katsuki only wants Izuku to finish under a very specific set of circumstances.

“You keep doing that,” Izuku complains half-heartedly, at the same time Katsuki demands, “Hands.”

Izuku struggles to understand this, going so far as to sputter out a, "Huh?"

“Gimme your damn hands,” Katsuki repeats, embarrassment flooding his cheeks as he takes Izuku’s hands in his own. Once their hands are clasped together, he presses them down on either side of Izuku’s head and leans down to lick a line of rolling sweat across Izuku’s neck. The grip on his hands tightens, and it’s disgusting how quickly it anchors Katsuki back to the ground. He fucks into him quickly, and continues swiping his tongue over Izuku’s rapid pulse.

“Don’t go thinking you have the upper hand,” Izuku manages to say, ruining the moment. “I can still win if I just—“ Abruptly, Izuku moans. Loudly. “So good, Kacchan! You’re such a good boy~“

“Nice try,” Katsuki grunts out, ignoring the buffering in his brain. He gives a particularly harsh thrust then to shut him up, to make the only word on his lips Kacchan. He knows it’s possible.

But Izuku doesn’t seem to have given up yet. “You know,” he says quietly, though it rises confidently over the steady smacking of Katsuki’s hips. “I wish the mirror was on the ceiling, so I could watch you fuck me.”

Katsuki bites Izuku’s shoulder without meaning to, completely halting in his movements as the red alarm bells ring out inside his dick. He is seriously a hairs breadth away from blowing his load, and this fucking nerd seems to know it.

“Fuck you,” he says eventually.

“Yes Kacchan, I’m waiting for it.”

"Fuck you.” He breathes in slowly, rocks back in, and begins to think:

Boobs, women, Aizawa’s nose hair, that time Kaminari tried talking to a cute girl he liked and said “Yerp” when she asked for his name —

It doesn’t really help, not with the way Izuku is being genuinely loud with his pleasure, the moans punched out of him with every thrust. Not with the way his legs are wrapped around Katsuki’s hips. Not with the way he keeps saying—

“Kacchan, Kacchan, Kacchan, Kacch—“

Damn it. He’s going to lose. “Fucking hell, Deku,” he pleads, picking up the pace. “You- fuck- you feel so good.”

“H-Harder,” Izuku pleads in return. “Please. I need it. Please, Kacchan, please. Please, harder.”

Katsuki slams in harder, grunting with every thrust. He buries his dick deep inside, searching for that spot, the place that made Izuku tear up before, the place where Izuku will cry out his name– Each attempt is punctuated by the steady rise of Izuku's "Ah, ah, ah!"s.

“Come on, you shitty nerd. Wanna watch you. Wanna see it. Wanna—“ Katsuki slams in forcefully, and he feels it- the soft spongy end inside of Deku’s ass, and Izuku screams.

“Hhaaah!” Izuku gasps, incoherently, and then he falls apart completely. Cum splatters across his abs, catching on his chin, and his mouth opens in a barely audible whine. Katsuki can’t help but rut irregularly inside at the sound, and Izuku is quick to lock him in place with his legs. “Kacch -aan, god, don’t stop.”

Katsuki stares as tears fall out of Izuku’s eyes. Izuku’s eyes are half shut, pools of green watching lustfully as he fucks into him like some sort of desperate animal. They look so goddamn brilliant like this– the surface wet and sparkly. A trickle slides down the corner of one eye, and Katsuki moves instinctively. He dives in, sucking the tears right out of the corners with his lips, feeling drunk off the salt on his skin.

“Shit,” Izuku moans right into his ear, his tone steeped in mild surprise. His back arches, hips lifting off the bed, and suddenly Katsuki feels himself falling deeper into that addictive heat. He pulls his face away, if only to watch Izuku, to brush away the hair that’s started to fall into his beautiful green eyes. A bead of sweat rolls down Katsuki’s chin. Izuku thrusts his neck back, opens his mouth, and catches it on his tongue easily.

Izuku closes his eyes, hums happily, and Katsuki’s entire mouth becomes drier than the fucking Sahara Desert. He grips Izuku’s hands, smashes their foreheads together, and loses it instantly. He knows he makes a sound because he feels the vibration in his throat, but the force of his orgasm is strong enough to block everything out except for Izuku’s soft crooning, his scarred hands smoothing down his spine.

It feels like it just goes on forever. He continues thrusting in shallowly to ride out the bliss for a few seconds longer, and then he starts to regain consciousness. When his hearing clears and the cotton high euphoria subsides, Katsuki lifts his head from where he’d dropped it on Izuku’s shoulder.

Izuku looks fucked out and messy, the sweat and tears making him shine. If Katsuki hadn’t already come and was currently trying to get his brain back in order, he would’ve taken a picture.

Katsuki slips out, stifling a groan at the sensitivity of his softening cock (how did Izuku not make a single noise of complaint when Katsuki had kept going?) before tiredly peeling the condom off and chucking it into the trashcan by the bedside.

He falls back into Izuku’s arms, too exhausted to move to the side.

“…Wow,” Izuku says, voice full of breathless wonder.

“Hrrngh,” Katsuki agrees, his body turning to lead the longer he lies on top of him.

Izuku uses his superhuman strength to move him to the side, so that they can lie down facing each other. There’s only the sound of their breathing as they try to catch their breath again. 

Then Izuku pants out, “Soo… was I… the best sex you ever had?”

Katsuki grabs the pillow from under Izuku’s back and smacks him with it, even though his arms feel weaker than usual. “Virgin shame me one more time, you pretentious fuck.”

“Just teasing,” Izuku reassures, his voice quiet in the night. He grabs the pillow and tosses it aside so he can get closer to him. “I don’t know if it means anything to you… but you were definitely the best I’ve ever had.”

Katsuki snorts, tamping down the smile threatening to reveal itself and throwing an arm over Izuku’s waist. The dried cum sticks between them though, and Katsuki grimaces as he says, “I know I was.”

After a beat, Izuku snorts dorkily. “You know, when you came, you made a sound like—“ Izuku breaks into a weird sound that’s a mix of gargling and a low pitched moan.

Katsuki stares at him for a moment, dumbfounded with Izuku’s expectant grin, before shoving his hand into Izuku’s shit-eating face. "Fuck you, I did not make that sound! Who do you think you’re fooling? Dumbass! You're ugly!”

Izuku just rolls to the side with hearty laughter. “It’s true! Seriously, it was so funny!” He laughs again when he sees the look on Katsuki’s face, wrapping his arms around his torso and cuddling closer. “Nooo, Kacchan, don’t pout! I’m sorry, ha, I’m sorry for laughing. I’m just trying to humble you.”

“You creamed yourself when I called you a shitty nerd!” Katsuki snaps, shaking him off as he sits up to glare at him. “You’re not any better!”

“What?” Izuku’s laughter trails off as another blush takes over his face. “No I didn’t! It was- when you- when you said you wanted to watch me…”

Oh, that’s right. Katsuki’s ears are burning as the shit he said comes flooding back to him, but he’s not backing down now. “...Of course you’d be into that,” he grumbles, ears aflame. “Pervert.”

Izuku looks at him knowingly, resting his chin on his hand and smirking. “For the record, Kacchan, I could get turned on by anything you say.”

Instead of telling him that the feeling is so embarrassingly mutual, Katsuki practically flies out of the bed. “I’m gonna clean you up,” he states as he walks stark naked to the bathroom, ignoring the wobble in his thighs that is apparently the direct product of his first mind-blowing orgasm. “And I don’t wanna hear another word outta you.”

Apparently ignoring his instructions (what’s new?), Izuku’s "Kacchan is taking care of meee!” follows him all the way to the bathroom. 

After they both cleaned themselves up and pulled over a new bedsheet, Katsuki hugs Izuku to his chest underneath the blankets. Izuku’s ear is pressed to Katsuki’s sternum, no doubt listening to his erratic heartbeat and internally gloating over the effect he has on Katsuki’s cardiovascular system. Not that Katsuki can do anything about that, though.

He feels warm against him, warm and solid and real and permanent. They’re quiet, simply existing in this moment of peace together. Katsuki’s body is heavy with post-sex contentment and the onset of sleep but Izuku’s head keeps shifting, eyes glancing upward like he wants to say something but is afraid to break the silence.

Katsuki wouldn’t mind silence. He isn’t really in the mood to talk, especially now that his dick has burrowed obediently back into his pants. In fact, his heart is already growing unsteady at the vision of Izuku opening his mouth and saying, ‘Well Kacchan, this has been fun, but I’ve got to get back to…’

“Um,” the Real Izuku starts hesitantly, “Kacchan?”

“Don’t…” Katsuki doesn’t mean 'don’t talk.’ He doesn’t mean ‘don’t finish that sentence.’  What he means is… “Don’t leave.”

He can’t see Izuku’s face from where he’s tucked under Katsuki’s chin, but he can feel something snapping inside of Izuku when he lurches forward and holds onto him tightly. Katsuki grips back just as desperately, and suddenly they’re not hugging anymore so much as they’re clinging onto each other. “Never,” Izuku says firmly, with no hint of uncertainty in his voice. 

Katsuki falls asleep like that, with their limbs folded over one another and the voice in his head whispering, He’s here, he’s safe, he’s here…

When he opens his eyes next, he knows he couldn’t have been sleeping for long. The moon continues to watch cooly over him. Cooly…

Izuku isn’t there. Katsuki sits up blearily, shooting a hand to feel the spot that’s empty beside him. There isn’t any time to feel betrayal, though, not when the sheets are still warm.

Goosebumps prickle across the back of his neck, and he barely has time to turn around before he feels every muscle in his body go suddenly slack. The ceiling swims in his vision, he can barely gurgle out a sound of surprise before sharp, hazel eyes cut through the blur of colours assaulting him.

There’s a giggle, high and pleased. “Found youuu.” Something shines in his peripheral– a knife?

It glints once in the bright moonlight, and then everything goes dark.

Chapter Text

“I can’t… hold him down– he keeps struggling– Take his legs!”

“Why isn’t the drug working on either of them?!”

“It’s working on this fucker! But I… wasn’t expecting… OW, fuck… Would you take his legs already–”

Katsuki is submerged deep underwater. The sounds are muffled, the ground beneath his back swaying like the surface of an ocean. Far above him, he feels rather than sees the angry slitted eyes, the line of a jaw, and his own hand crashing past the surface to land a swift–

“He’s fucking socking me in the face!! Someone restrain his arms already!”

“How many times I gotta tell you Atsuhiro, he already broke through the last set of rope–”

Something warm drips onto his face. It slides down past his lips, the intermingling taste of iron and rainwater feeling vague and foreign to his own tongue.

Are his eyes open?

The rain pours down.

He distantly recognises his own legs kicking into the air, feels the puff of hot breath on his face, feels the struggle of a body on top of him, a forearm on his neck.

But he doesn’t feel it. How can he? Katsuki is surely lying on a cool sandy beach, and the ocean continues its steady, heartbeat rhythm somewhere far beyond him.

“Hey now, it’s no fun if they’re dead!”

“Yeah, we need ‘em alive for the weapon to–”

“I know that! If the drug ain’t strong enough for him then how else are we supposed to get ‘im unconscious?”

“Can we at least get this cutie to Boss Man first? Pretty please?”

“Fine. Fuck. Leave me out here alone with this–” Katsuki’s teeth bite into someone’s flesh, “SHIT, ouch– fucking freak bit me!”

“Yay!!! Help me carry the cutie, Jin! Isn’t his hair so strange?”

“Uh, I guess so–”

“KACCHAN!”

The ocean waves come to a resounding halt.

Deku?

“Shit. Something’s happening to Blondie–”

His mouth isn’t working. The jaw is stiff. It takes gargantuan effort just to crack open his eyes, and even then the sliver of light is not enough to understand what he’s seeing. There is red, indigo, the white slice of a crescent moon, the white of car headlights. But no green. Where is the green?

Deku?

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF KACCHAN! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME!”

Deku, are you safe? Are you okay? What is happening to you to make you scream like that? Where are you? Why can’t I see you?

He feels the crack this time. It’s a familiar sound, the sound of two bodies colliding. There’s a pained cry, some more warm liquid on his face, but he can see something even behind his closed eyes. A broken jaw, a bloodied face.

Not his, though. It’s not his. His arm moved. His hand is closed into a fist. It’s just made contact with something bony, and something slippery.

“KACCHAN–!”

“Get that LITTLE SHIT out of here before this guy–”

Red bleeds into his vision, limbs kicking into action. Deku is here. He feels it– he feels the burn on his chest, the pendant searing against his skin. Ah, the pendant. The locket. They’re on an island. Why? Is it their honeymoon? That feels right. He’s on his honeymoon with Izuku Midoriya and they’re on a love island.

“Just hit the back of his head and get on with it!”

A body falls to the ground, and Katsuki knows instinctively what has just happened.

They’re hurting Deku they’re hurting Deku they’re hurting Deku, Izuku, that’s MY Izuku, they’re all going to die they’re all going to

His fists are flying, blood pounds in his ears. He feels the skin on his own knuckles splitting, even if it still feels like he watches his body move from afar. 

Deku, I’m here, I know you’re there too, can’t you hear me? I’m here!

His assailant has got him by the hair, pulling and dragging him upwards, but his body continues thrashing. He sees green then, a mere flash, disappearing into the horizon. Footsteps fade away. His locket grows cold. And then his hands are tightening around something, and he hears a choke, a gargle, and his hands dig deeper, and he’s still underwater, and he’s going to fucking KILL–

The pressure releases from his hands. Twin shadows dart before him. There’s a whizzing sound: a bullet, he thinks. Another body drops, and this time Katsuki falls with it.

The rain stings his eyes when he blinks them open.

Above him, beyond the maelstrom whipping the treetops into a frenzy, the sky is clouded and dark, and fat droplets of warm water trickle over his face, blending into the cuts on his cheeks…

The cuts on his cheeks?

Katsuki tries to reach a hand out to touch his face, but finds himself immobilised. His hands are tied to his front. He blinks away more rain, neck arching uncomfortably as he feels something dry move inside his throat. The unpleasant tang of dirt on his tongue is indication enough of what he’s been swallowing.

Cutting through the noise of the downpour and the rustle of grass and twigs and the pounding in his ears, there’s a shuffle of feet.

“Yo, Kacchan, you awake yet?”

Kacchan. Funny how a single word could be so soothing… like a calming draft of wind… a cool, minty balm to his wounds…

Katsuki’s eyes adjust, the smile stretching his lips without needing to think about it when he registers a blurry face peering down at him. “Izuku…?”

“Wh– Are you smiling?! Dude, come check this out!”

The thousands of eyes blend together until there are just two of them, and neither of them are green. They’re golden. There’s golden hair too, topped with a black– a black streak?!

“Am I in hell?” Katsuki croaks out, his wounds suddenly beginning to sting again.

Above him, Denki gives him a wide grin. Another pair of eyes comes into frame, wide and red.

“Good to see you’ve still got a sense of humour after getting drugged up!” Denki laughs, casually shouldering the redhead next to him. They both look down at Katsuki, and Denki falters at his expression. “Oh, you weren’t joking. Ouch. And to think I was gonna give you this antidote and everything.”

“Woah, man, easy!” Eijirou lunges to stop Katsuki from sitting up too quickly, instead manoeuvring him to rest his back against the side of a car. Or is it a truck? He recognises that he’s shirtless, wearing only the sweatpants he climbed into bed with, and the locket around his neck (somehow, thankfully, it’s still there) is frigid against his skin.

When Katsuki turns his head to the side, he sees a front wheel and white headlights shining into a blackened forest. The rain is light now, but the mud below is as wet and slippery as ever.

Through his bleary eyes, Katsuki can see a shimmering veil in the distance… The boundary? It’s back?

But this is a different environment altogether. Katsuki’s never been to this part of the island before, he’s sure. But he’s just as sure that what he’s looking at right now is that damn invisible wall from before.

He turns back to Dumb and Dumber, the two of them decked out in their usual black spy gear, their sandy backpacks strewn out in front of him. They look like a pair of art museum thieves. There’s a first aid kit by Katsuki’s feet, a broken syringe, a clearly used gag, an unconscious body, a gun–

“They took Deku,” Katsuki slurs immediately. He moves again, positioning himself to stand up but faltering when his knees give way. Eijirou eases him back down to the ground again. “What the FUCK are you doing Hot Sauce? I need to go find ‘im!”

“Not in this condition, you can’t,” Eijirou sighs, turning to Denki for help.

“Eat this,” Denki says, but he’s already pushing some kind of leaf into Katsuki’s mouth, who would’ve bitten Denki’s fingers clean off if it wasn’t for his weakened state. “We found an antidote in one of the first aid kits in the Leagues' truck.” It takes effort to chew, but once Denki forces water down his throat, the substance is swallowed quickly.

It’s only a few minutes later when the fog in his mind starts to dissipate, and Katsuki blinks again, registering the faces of his friends with more lucidity now. He can feel his body again.

Denki unties the ropes on his wrists as Katsuki starts, “Wait– what the hell are you two doing here?”

“Pure luck, to be honest!” the blond says with a sheepish smile. “Aizawa had a feeling you guys weren’t going to listen to his instructions, so he sent us to come get you as a last minute precaution. We really had no idea that you guys were in serious hot water, though.”

Cicadas hum loudly all around them. “So if it wasn’t for the old man not trustin’ us to take the first ship back home, you guys wouldn’t have been here?”

“Yeah! Man, I never thought I’d see the day when you were so actually excited to see my face–”

“They took him,” Katsuki blurts again, and something like panic seems to be quickly descending on him. He hasn’t felt this out of control since— well, ever. “We had it under control, okay? We took precautions, we kept to the shadows- and they-” Katsuki lurches to his feet, the world swaying for only a few seconds before he rights himself again, “They took Deku away from me and we need to get him out and I need to get a fucking bullet through the head of whoever—”

“Woah, woah, Jesus, dude.” They both scramble to their feet as well, Eijirou now looking at him as if he can’t even recognise what he sees. “Rein it back a little!”

“Oh my god, how did we not notice this before?” Denki turns his flashlight down to Katsuki’s chest. “Were you mauled by a beast?”

“Are those hickeys?!” Eijirou’s jaw drops as he exchanges a look with Denki and then stares back at him. Katsuki brings his hand to his chest, heart squeezing painfully at the memory of Deku’s teeth on him from last night.

“Yeah, so what?” he grunts, keeping his hand over a certain love bite over his nipple. “Nerd likes to nibble.” It comes out fond enough that even Katsuki can hear it, but he’s done feeling ashamed about it. The only thing he cares about right now is seeing Deku’s face again, and knowing that he’s alright.

Denki seems stunned for a second, before a wicked grin takes a hold of his face. “That’s— freakin’ awesome! I knew this was gonna happen, I just knew it! With all that unresolved sexual tension it was only a matter of time!”

But Katsuki doesn’t have the time or the patience to interrogate that any further. “That’s not important right now, Mustard Head,” he says seriously. “I need both of you Condiment freaks to focus. Send a distress signal to H.Q right now– we’re gonna need backup ASAP, though I don’t expect them to actually fucking get here in time.”

As Eijirou starts the process of contacting base, Katsuki turns to Denki. “Tell me what happened.”

Denki drags a hand down his face as he sighs. “Okay, so, the two of us landed on the shore about an hour ago. We barely had time to hide when we noticed these guys just loading the two of you into the back of this truck and driving off into the forest.”

“A truck?” Katsuki questions. The antidote seems to be kicking in well, because when he leans down to pick up the gun he feels next to no pain. “I don’t remember that at all. Did you see their faces?”

“Well, yeah.” Denki scratches his cheek. “There was Toga, Twice and Compress. Compress is, uh, lying over there. We managed to get him down before you choked the life out of him.”

Katsuki stares at him for a long while, before he looks back at the body lying in front of the headlights. “Hah?”

Eijirou shoots Denki an awkward glance. “Well, they drugged the both of you. They probably wanted to get you both unconscious so they could transport you to wherever they’re going without any hassle. It must've been some kind of sleep drug, except it didn’t work on Midoriya at all, and even though it got you unconscious, you kept–”

“You kept fighting anyone trying to hold you down,” Denki finishes. “You kept Compress so occupied that Toga and Twice just left him to deal with you all on his own while they dragged Midoriya away. Honestly, it was pretty badass seeing you take someone down with your eyes fully closed, man. I know it’s probably ‘cause of our training at the Academy but to see it actually happen in real life…” 

Katsuki frowns. If it didn't work on Deku, how did they drag him away from their bed without him even noticing at all? Maybe Deku had gone to the bathroom at just the wrong time, and that was why Katsuki hadn't heard any sign of a struggle.

Eijirou nods. “When we first saw y’all getting carried off, I followed behind the car, and Denki made a quick detour to your hotel room to see if you guys were packing any more supplies we could use. We didn’t exactly come here ready to battle.”

“I collected a bunch of your stuff,” Denki continues, opening up his backpack to show the contents to Katsuki. “Anything useful in here?”

If he wasn’t already in love with a certain freckled nerd, Katsuki would have kissed this idiot right then and there.

“Fuck yeah, there’s something useful in here,” he says, grinning as he fishes out two metallic watches. “These are Deku’s prototypes– they should be able to get us past that walled off boundary. There’s only two of ‘em but I’m sure we can work something out, as long as one of us gets through.”

“And what if they don’t work?”

“They will,” Katsuki says firmly as he clasps the watch on to his wrist. “Deku made them.”

Denki is quiet, regarding Katsuki with a thoughtful expression. “Yeah. Right, of course."

Eijirou bumps his fists together and grins. “Let’s go get your boyfriend back, Bakubro.”

Under different circumstances, Katsuki would have smiled, maybe. But right now, he simply exhales sharply and looks toward the boundary. Katsuki opens up his compass, watching the needle point straight towards it just like he knew it would.

He makes his way forward, gun stashed into the waistband of his sweatpants and Deku’s watch strapped onto his wrist.

“Y’all remember how to use these?” Katsuki starts as brings his arm out in front of him, continuing before he can get an answer. “You gotta physically connect the device to whatever object’s obstructing you in order to disable it. So presumably the watch has to pass through–”

“Yeah, man, we know,” Eijirou says with a roll of his eyes. “We do actually listen to the mission updates you send back, you know.”

Katsuki grumbles a bit at the back-talking but lets it slide for now. He wasn’t entirely sure if this would work before, but things are different now. Now he knows full well that when his hand pushes past that glimmering veil... 

Eijirou gasps softly and the three of them exchange a look of surprise and awe. 

…It’ll disappear. 

From here, it looks like Katsuki’s arm merely ends at the wrist. The veil seems to glitch and break, the intrusion of Katsuki’s wrist spreading like cracks through the surface.

“It worked,” Katsuki whispers, the grin already stretching against his face. God, if only Deku was here to see it. “I’m going in first.”

“Wait! What if–” Eijirou squawks, but Katsuki is already stepping through it.

It feels like moving through mist, the coolness of the fake boundary leaving droplets of chilly liquid on his skin. The first thing he notices is that there isn’t really a difference between either side of the boundary. From what he can see, it seems to be the same old forest ground, stretching on endlessly into the night.

So the wall isn’t really a wall. It isn’t even real. Deku was right, of course. It was simply an illusion that forced someone to think there was a physical barrier there. He doesn’t know what Deku put in this bypass, but it probably did something to scramble whatever technology was in the veil enough to break the illusion.

Eijirou steps in soon after, joining Katsuki at his side. He turns back around, stretching his arm out into the veil and waiting for Denki to take his watch off of him since Deku only had the foresight to craft two. 

Soon after, Denki steps through as well, looking momentarily stunned. “Ookay… didn’t actually expect that to work, but here we are.”

But they don't have time to ruminate on Deku’s genius. At least, not right now.

They move quickly, slipping into the shadows of the night with light footsteps. Their eyes have been trained time and time again to withstand the darkness, so they move with minimal clumsiness.

Katsuki keeps his eyes trained on the compass at all times, and it isn’t long before they find themselves upon a beach. Docked at the shore are three ships– one of them clearly navy, the other two being smaller, shiny-looking speedboats. But most importantly, a tall structure stands smack in the centre of the beach.

The three of them remain hidden amongst the trees for a few minutes as they take in what’s in front of them. The building has rusted walls and an unkempt appearance. It almost looks like an abandoned lighthouse– except for the fact that it’s shaped like an elongated egg, and instead of a balcony at the tip there is some sort of horizontal beam aimed out towards the sea. 

At the bottom of the building, there also seem to be two globe-shaped structures on either side of the building. In between these two domes there is a clear entrance: simple sliding doors. 

There’s a brief silence as they regard the structure before them, before Denki taps his chin and hums thoughtfully. “Is it just me, or–”

“It looks like a penis,” Eijirou confirms.

“Yeah, yeah, so it’s phallic.” Katsuki rolls his eyes, ignoring the fact that he’d had the same thought. He turns to the Condiments. “Why is nobody guarding this place?”

“There weren’t that many people who took you guys away,” Eijirou says quietly. “My guess is that they don’t have enough people.”

Fuckin’ amateur city over here. “How many of them were there?”

“Well, to fetch you guys, it was just Toga, Twice and Compress… Dabi and Spinner weren't with them. They also kept mentioning some other guy as ‘Big Boss’, who I’m assuming is Shigaraki? Anyway, I guess Compress – or, uh, Atsuhiro – is out of commission right now since we bound him up back there. So it’s down to five.”

Katsuki scrubs a hand over his face. “Deku’s in there, so we need to get in no matter what. We can fucking handle anything that comes with that.”

“Well, how are we going to squeeze through the ass?”

When Katsuki and Eijirou turn to look at him in bemusement, Denki just blinks innocently back. “What? We’re gonna have to disable the Automated Security System at some point, right?”

“Pffft,” Eijirou snorts. “Squeeze through the A.S.S! Classic, bro.”

Denki grins cheekily. “Bet that’s what Bakugou was thinkin’ last night–”

“Do you both want to die?” Katsuki hisses. “There’s no need to disable shit because we’re going in guns blazing.”

“Are you sure?” Eijirou asks when he’s stopped giggling. “We disposed of Compress, sure, but they’re still expecting him to show up at their door with your unconscious body. We have the element of surprise!”

“No time for that,” Katsuki says. “Just get ready to kick some ass.”

They creep out of the forest, padding softly over the sandy beach, before stopping at the sliding door. The room beyond the doors is pretty nondescript. The curved walls are completely bare and white, the tiled floor dusty. The only thing in there is a steel elevator in the middle of the room.

There’s a facial scanner on the side of the entrance. Katsuki and Eijirou turn to Denki expectantly, but he just blinks.

“What, just ‘cause I’m the hacker guy, I’m supposed to know how to break into literally anything?”

“That’s your fucking job, so yeah.”

Denki scoffs and turns to the facial scanner. He considers it for a long moment, and then he just punches it. 

"In what world," Katsuki grits out, "did you think that was going to work-?"

A robotic voice interrupts him. "Punch Mode Access has activated."

Katsuki and Eijirou drop their jaws when the doors slide open, and no alarm bells sound out.

Denki puffs out his chest and is about to say something smug, probably, but Katsuki won’t have it. “You are the luckiest motherfucker alive, I swear to God.”

He shoulders past both of them and makes his way to the elevator in the centre of the room. It’s eerily quiet, their footsteps echoing in the strange space. There’s a faint sound of humming coming from either side of them, which Eijirou picks up on first.

“That sound is coming from the balls, I think.” Katsuki is a little too surprised that Eijirou managed to say that with a straight face. “Should we investigate that first?”

Katsuki hesitates. The locket on his chest is warm now, the warmest it’s been since they’d set off, and he knows Deku is up that elevator. He needs to get to him right now, and it’s a frantic, desperate, urge, but he pulls himself in to nod just once. It wouldn’t hurt to be just a little bit cautious, right? It’s what Deku would’ve done. 

Eijirou and Denki slip out at the permission. A few minutes later, they step back inside. 

“No way to get inside from the outside,” Denki pants. “But it sounds like machinery in there.”

“What if they’re both engines?” Eijirou blurts, hands resting on his hips. “And this building is actually just a rocket?”

“Well, that would explain why it’s shaped like a dick,” Denki snorts, as if sexual innuendos were the funniest thing to exist.

Katsuki jams the elevator button with unnecessary force. “It’s probably being used to power that weird beam we saw from the outside.”

The elevator whirs to life, screeches to a halt, and opens up creakily for them. Soft, cheery, lofi music plays in the background as they step inside and retrieve their guns, aiming it towards the doors in preparation for whatever might happen.

The elevator shudders to a halt, the doors open, and a voice calls out– “You took your sweet time, Atsu–” before dying abruptly.

The three of them step out, guns at the ready and faces set grimly. The lofi music cuts off as the doors close behind them. Above them, in place of a ceiling, a sandy tarp is held taut around the area, leaving only a circular space in the middle for the structure of the beam to pass through.

Katsuki recognises most of them from the party, even in this dark lighting, listing them off in his head quickly as they all gape in confusion at Katsuki’s presence.

Toga, who is snapping her mouth shut. She’s sitting with her hands in her lap by Spinner’s feet, head tilting in confusion.

Twice, who is snoring on Toga’s lap with a slice of pizza on his face.

Dabi on the left, sat on an office chair with his back to multiple TV screen monitors on the desk in front of him, a pizza slice drooping in his hand.

Spinner on the right, frozen in position as he holds a concerning looking syringe in his hand.

From the looks of it, they seemed to have been playing a game of cards. Katsuki glances again at the CCTV footage behind Dabi, realising belatedly that he and his crew were lucky that their stupid card game prevented them from noticing their arrival.

Tomura was crouched in the centre of the room, his hand hovering over a still body sitting upright in a desk chair. They’re both stationed just at the base of the beam structure they’d seen above ground. 

The unconscious body is bound up in black rope with their head lolled to the side, tongue out and drooling, and the sight of it claws at Katsuki’s insides–

“Deku,” he whispers.

“What the fuck?” Tomura just about shrieks, standing in front of Deku as if to hide him. “What happened to Atsuhiro?”

“Who the hell are those guys?” Dabi questions, getting up from his seat, eyes squinting at Denki and Eijirou.

Katsuki growls, ignoring everyone as he takes a step forward.

In the same second, Dabi, Toga, and Twice (still sleeping) pull a gun on him.

At the same time, Denki and Eijirou aim at Dabi and Toga. Katsuki remains focused on the blue-haired, dusty ass freak in front of him. From above, the tarp sheltering them from the drizzle of rain flaps loudly in the summer wind, the only thing to break up the silence of the stand-off.

“Let him go,” Katsuki says darkly, adjusting his arm to aim the gun directly at the crease between Tomura’s eyebrows, “before you find out how good my fucking aim is.”

There’s silence for a good few seconds, save for Twice’s snoring. Tomura’s face quivers, the expression flitting from confused to angry, and then, suddenly, to a small smile.

And then he laughs.

“HA!” the ashy motherfucker barks out. “Fuck, oh my god, that’s funny. Where’d you learn that? Have they started teaching punchy one-liners at the Academy in the time since I’ve left?”

Katsuki scowls, grip tightening on the gun. Dabi and Toga have not changed their stance or differed in expression. If it weren’t for the serious looks on their faces or the quietness of the moment, he would’ve taken the shot already. Izuku is right there. He should be at his side already. But if he looks down at him, then everything would be derailed.

He’s about to open his mouth, equipped with something offensive to distract Tomura, before something black and long darts out from Toga’s hand, and he finds his chest suddenly crushed between a sticky rope-like substance.

He’s caught off balance, tipping backwards and slamming into the floor. Similar thuds sound out behind him, meaning Eijirou and Denki have been bound up in similar fashion. 

“What the hell is this?” Eijirou asks, strained. “Feels like tapioca!”

The blood in Katsuki’s veins goes cold.

Deku. That’s Deku’s invention. They’ve captured them in that... what did he name it again? Black Whip? How did they get their hands on that?

“Boss Man,” Toga whines. Katsuki has to wiggle around to see that Toga is sitting on top of Denki’s back, who wheezes under her weight. Dabi is similarly sat on top of Eijirou, whose face is now unfortunately mashed into the concrete. “I thought Atsu was gonna take care of Blondie. I swear I don’t know who these other guys are. And now we're here wasting our prototype bondage ropes on these guys when you said we should use it sparingly!”

“It’s fine,” Tomura says with a wave of his hand. “Either way, we needed Blondie here for the machine to work so it doesn’t matter if they killed Compress back there. And they're not used for bondage, you tiny freak! How many times do I gotta tell you this?” 

Katsuki fights against the rope around his chest to no avail. It’s Black Whip, but different. It’s stronger, for starters, and it squeezes the body like a python. It’s nothing like the harmless tool of assistance that Izuku had slung over the side of a vent all those days ago.

“How…?” Katsuki croaked out. There are so many things he wants to ask— how did you get a hold of this? How did you find us? What are you planning? What is going on?

“Hmm, I’m sure you have tons of questions,” Tomura says with faux concern, casually waltzing towards Izuku and bending down to grab him by the cheeks. He turns Izuku’s face to the side, his unconscious head drooping forward. “I’m mostly concerned with Greenie, but it seems my use for him is doubled in your presence, hence why I need you here in the first place.”

“What are you talking about…” Katsuki wheezes out.

Tomura smiles and turns to look at him again. “Your boyfriend’s quite the little genius, you know. Why do you think we tried to steal the tech he made for your sorry agency all those years ago? He’d make such a good addition to our team, if he wasn’t so boring.” Tomura taps Izuku’s face again. “Well, there’s nothing a little duress and coercion can’t fix.”

Izuku’s words from a few nights ago come back to him now. He’d gone on a mission all that time ago, he’d botched it, and he went undercover to cover his tracks and ensure the League couldn’t track either him or anyone from his agency down.

Deku’s initial mission… It was to find out what weapons the League had in their possession so he could report back to H.Q, right? He’d gone deep undercover to infiltrate the League and gain their trust, so they wouldn’t have known he was Midoriya Izuku. They wouldn’t have recognised him on this island.

But in order to do his job, he’d brought his own spy gadgets with him. And he’d almost been discovered… That was when he'd actually gone undercover, without so much as saying goodbye to anyone he ever cared about. In his rush to get things right, he must’ve left behind traces of himself in his work.

“To his credit,” Tomura continues, “I would’ve never guessed the new, quiet dude in our group was an undercover spy. He was good with weapons and we let him help out. But he got sloppy one day, and it was only when he up and vanished out of nowhere that we found some of his prototypes. Like the thing you’ve got around you now.”

Perhaps the only thing he had in common with this ashy bastard was becoming familiar with Deku’s ghost.

“This crappy rope,” Katsuki spits, “wasn’t supposed to be used like this.”

“Um, obviously.” Tomura snorts. “Greenie was too much of a happy go lucky weirdo. All of his inventions only worked if the user wielding it used it as a tool of simple assistance. I reversed the core purpose of your boyfriend’s inventions and made them better. So now instead of being simple tools, I can use them to control people!”

When Katsuki stares blankly, Tomura fishes out a little device from his pocket. “For example. When I click this button,” he says, “I can harness your emotions and use it like raw material.

“It was Toga’s idea at first, actually,” Tomura continues, clearly pleased with himself. “By getting a bunch of moony lovestruck couples to ingest these microchips—” He brandishes a tiny device from his pocket that looks more similar to a flake of aluminium than anything else, “—at their innocent breakfast buffets, I now have total control over a hundred or so people! You two included, of course. Why did you think the food tasted so good? We needed you to come back for seconds so that you’d all have these in you.”

What the fuck.

“The chip gets absorbed into your bloodstream, and is attracted to one’s amygdala. That’s where your emotions are stored. Once they latch onto and track your brainwaves, they transmit that energy to whatever device I’ve linked the chips to,” Tomura jabs a thumb behind him, at the giant laser, “and those brainwaves are my fuel, baby.”

Katsuki glances at the laser, breaths heaving, and glares back at Tomura. “You’re using emotions to fuel your fucking super-villain shit? Why would you even need that?”

“The Love Cannon is not 'super-villain' shit, you hater,” Tomura scoffs. “No other energy source can create emotions other than people’s emotions, you idiot.” Tomura moves to the laser and slides a compartment of its base to the side, revealing an interior of purple-gold… goo, or something. Like the inside of a lava lamp.

“Super-villain shit for real,” Denki mutters from behind, before Toga presses a foot to the back of his neck and shuts him up.

Tomura places his hand on the glass, the colours dancing across his pale face. “Lovestruck couples were the best bet— Toga was right. This device is powered on love, you see. A love we harvested right here on this island.”

“Love?” Eijirou questions, muffled. “But why do you need—”

“A love that I can manipulate and use in my father’s favour,” Tomura cuts in, and Eijirou goes ‘Ah… wait, what?’ “Once this is blasted towards all of Japan, I can convince the people to love my father unconditionally. So that they can elect him into power.” Then, more quietly, “So I can make him proud.”

“You’re controlling the emotions of innocent people,” Katsuki says slowly, “so that you can… make the country’s citizens like your dad? What the fuck kinda logic is that?”

Tomura frowns at him. “How rude—”

“You’re using your super villainy to follow democratic processes rather than just get the title by force?”

Tomura opens a mouth, a finger pointing his way as if to correct him, before he closes his mouth again. “Okay, well I’ve never thought of it like that before, but yeah. But if father wins the favour of the population, then he can reign uncontested for as long as he likes. So it’s actually quite intelligent.”

“You could’ve done that on the mainland,” Katsuki tries to reason. “You could’ve just fed those chips to everyone right then and there. Why station yourself on this weird ass island in the middle of nowhere?”

Tomura stalks closer to glower at Katsuki. “This is my island, and I bought it myself because I needed somewhere private for my operation. It is not easy to infiltrate Japan’s food supply with Toga’s microchips, and it also runs the risk of one of my crew members ingesting it. Also, this is one of the only islands with Flarium in the soil, a core element to powering the Love Cannon.”

Katsuki sends a confused look at Denki and Eijirou, who both shrug as much as they can within their restraint. “What the fuck is Flarium?”

“Rare chemical compound,” Dabi says with a roll of his eyes, getting off of Eijirou’s chest to go back to his seat by the monitors. “It's the fastest way to charge up the laser for the cannon. Flarium is like the light switch, and the Love Chemical is the current.”

“How is this kind of technology even possible?” Eijirou questions.

Dabi pauses, and then hums. “You got a point, Ugly. By all accounts, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t matter how it’s possible,” Katsuki interrupts angrily. “If you could harness the energy of the whole island, why the fuck did you target him? And me?”

“Last night our fuckin’ devices were glitching and shit,” Dabi scoffs. “Typical prototype shit. Shigaraki got me and the chick to go investigate one of the walls that bugged out and instead we just saw you two bozos setting off a spatial awareness device and looking sus as hell.”

Toga sighs wistfully, twirling a strand of her hair in her fingers. “I wanted to go after you guys but Boss Man told us to wait and find out who you both were first!”

“Oh yeah,” Dabi interrupts randomly, bringing up a video on his biggest screen of Deku on his knees in front of Katsuki’s crotch. “I tried doing a face scanner and found CCTV footage of this guy sucking you off outside of our walls. We brushed it off as two horny idiots, initially, but your presence last night cleared that up.”

God, there were cameras there?

…Why the hell is this creep bringing that video up right now, anyway?

“Dude.” Eijirou looks at him with raised eyebrows. “In the open? Really?”

“Shut up, he wasn’t actually sucking me off!” Katsuki yells, flushing hotly at the sudden attention.

“Why do you sound disappointed?” Denki mumbles.

“The fact that you two were suspicious and had spy gadgets on you was only one of the reasons we captured you, and it wasn’t even the biggest one!” Tomura continues. “We sent an insect drone into your hotel room, found Greenie’s inventions and I recognised them instantly from when we found his devices. So the fact that it was our old friend Greenie was the second reason.”

How did Katsuki not realise that they’d been watched? If they’d been found from last night, then that means the drone was sent…

When they were… occupied. In bed.

Ah.

“Thirdly, you both just happened to, by total coincidence, radiate the most intense brainwaves on the island. So experimenting on your combined powers will be super useful for us. While everyone else on the island powers the machine, you and Greenie over there will give us boosts and power surges in case anything goes wrong. It’s the only reason why neither of you dumbasses are dead yet or why we hauled your asses all the way here.”

It’s now that Izuku seems to stir, head tipping upward sluggishly, eyes cracking open, small and droopy.

“He’s awake!” Eijirou exclaims. 

Katsuki scoots forward immediately on his ass. But he’s too slow, obviously weighed down and too restricted, and Spinner stops him from getting any closer with a foot to his knees.

For a moment, they simply blink and stare at each other. Katsuki’s heart starts beating faster, singing along to the tune of He’s awake, he’s awake, he’s awake, and Tomura hums his approval.

“This is what I mean!” he laughs out. “All you have to do is look at each other, and look how haywire the Love Cannon is going!”

Katsuki only spares the machine a glance, noting the sudden churning of the liquids inside, but they dart back instantly to Deku when he utters a weak,

“Kaa..cha?”

“Deku,” Katsuki can hear the high pitched pleading in his own voice. “Are you hurt—?”

“‘Deku’ is fine, oh my god,” Tomura says. “Weird ass name… Anyway, the drug to get him unconscious didn’t work, for some reason, so one of my lackeys had to resort to physical force. As if it’s my fault.” He turns to Izuku. “Your body keeps rejecting our serums. The fuck is up with your immune system?”

Izuku does not answer, but his eyes go cold as stone when he turns to regard him.

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Tomura sing-songs. “I’ll admit it took us way too long to deconstruct your little gadgets, but we still managed to manipulate them into something we could work with. It was pretty clever of you to only make these operational when they’re tied to certain people, but don’t worry.” He bends at the knee in front of Deku’s face, patting his cheek condescendingly. “We figured out how to bypass that.”

Izuku stares at him, then at Katsuki, and then down to the floor. 

“You have no idea how to use my things,” Izuku spoke with unwavering certainty, bleeding from the scalp as he was. The room is silent apart from the flapping of the tarp above. His voice is steady in the silence, commanding everyone’s attention. 

“Just admit you messed up,” Tomura hisses, impatient. “Now, if you don’t mind, it’s time to use you and the rest of the island idiots to finally complete my mastermind mission.”

He turns towards Dabi and Toga. “Those two randoms are of no use to me, so go get rid of them. I need you both to strap Blondie down to begin the process of plugging his brainwaves to the Love Cannon. Spinner, wake Twice up and then fix up the binds on Greenie and start the process too. The guy keeps wiggling himself loose, somehow.”

Twice sputters around a snore, before jumping to his feet and looking wide awake. “Restrain the green dude! Got it—!”

He doesn’t even have time to finish the sentence before Izuku’s hands, both of them, are rising up from over the rope around him, and he headbutts Twice with full force. Twice stumbles back, dazed, but Izuku does it again, uncaring of his own bleeding forehead.

Twice goes down, and there is a split second silence after his body hits the floor. Then, Spinner launches himself forward.

But Izuku is fast. He’s on his legs, the chair still clinging to him from behind, trapped in the ropes. He bends and swings hard, and the back of the chair sends Spinner dropping like a stone. The ropes loosen upon impact, dangling uselessly at his side.

Katsuki feels the burst of movement from behind him — Dabi and Toga no doubt reaching for their guns. Izuku dodges behind Tomura, who’d been standing frozen at the abrupt change of pace.

“How the fuck did you—”

“It’s like a Chinese finger-trap,” Izuku says, not as an actual answer to Tomura, but as an explanation to his friends. “It won’t have a hold on you if you don’t let it. Like I said, these guys wouldn’t know how to use my things.” 

He’d manoeuvred the rope in his hands in such a way that he’d got it over Tomura’s throat, and he tightens it around him like a noose. Tomura chokes helplessly as Izuku uses him as a body shield, but it doesn’t stop Dabi from taking a step forward to get a better shot.

But Katsuki had understood. He forced himself to relax in the hold of the Black Whip. Magically, the rope loosened the more he willed it to, and it gave way even if just marginally.

He looks up at Izuku in awe. How had he known that would work? A leap of faith? Or was he so sure in his own abilities that he knew nobody would be able to corrupt his work without his direct input into it?

It doesn’t matter, because Katsuki was able to get his hands out of the rope. He then uses his limited, but improved, mobility to yank Dabi’s legs from under him. Katsuki is able to aim his elbow right for the space between Dabi’s eyebrows, knocking the consciousness right out of him in one swift movement. He looks behind him to see Toga similarly knocked out, Eijirou panting on top of her, still half bound.

To his right, Denki flops on the ground like a fish, still bound up in the rope.

“How,” he pants, “did you guys do that?”

Eijirou snorts and goes to help him out.

Katsuki almost laughs. He tries to sit up, and he's about to actually start laughing like some kind of maniac, but a mass of weight slams into him in an instant. 

His body recognises him before their skin even touches, and he welcomes Deku back into his arms, managing to keep himself upright for it. Izuku sits over his lap and sobs into his neck.

“Kacchan!” he practically wails. From over Deku’s shoulder, Katsuki can see Tomura lying unconscious on the ground.

It’s stunning, actually, how Izuku had made such quick work of them.

“You’re okay,” he manages to say around the cotton in his throat, the wonder in his voice unmistakable.

Izuku leans back to look at him. He’s teary-eyed and smiling so wide it cracks his face in half. He brings their foreheads together, gently, blood on sweaty skin, their noses brushing. 

“I would never leave you again, Kacchan,” Izuku says quickly, loudly, like he’d been panicking over it and was desperate to let Katsuki know. “You know that, right? Not again. I swear I would never—”

“I get it, Deku.” Katsuki just holds his face in his hands and breathes deeply.

“I would’ve never joined them, either!” Izuku pushes through. “They thought they completely corrupted the spirit of my inventions but they were so, so wrong. When I created them, I put in a condition that they can only be used by willing users for willing recipients. That’s why their weapons will never work!” 

He sniffles, grabbing at Katsuki’s locket and his own, grasping them in his hand so that they would magnetise together. “I made these, you know.”

Katsuki’s eyebrows knit together at this. “What? I thought this was Hatsume’s–”

“She improved upon some features, but I created them,” Izuku explains sheepishly. “The devices aren’t meant to be used as weapons against other people, but as tools to assist your allies.”

Katsuki is about to say more, maybe something to let Izuku know just how fucking proud he was of him, but Izuku seems content to keep rambling.

“Oh, I was so scared you wouldn’t find me.” Izuku bumps their heads once in frustration, much to Katsuki’s chagrin. The guy’s still bleeding, for fuck’s sake. “That you’d wake up and you’d think I left you behind or I’d betrayed you and you’d realise that it really was a mistake to let me in your life. I love you, Kacchan, okay? And I’ve just– I’ve made so many mistakes already. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if you’d thought that I, all of it, was all just one big mistake—”

“Nothing about you is a mistake,” Katsuki says emphatically, a hand curling aggressively into Izuku’s curls. “Nothing. I don’t keep pictures of you in my wallet by mistake. I didn’t fall into bed with you by mistake. I’ll always make my choices with you with my eyes wide fucking open. I should’ve said it sooner, Deku, but I love you more than I’ve loved anything else in my life.”

Izuku blinks, stunned. His tears have stopped spilling over his eyelids, but they continue to roll down his cheeks.

The obnoxious whistling and hollering from behind him is what snaps him back to reality. He’d forgotten about those two morons, and he tells himself the blush on his face is from irritation rather than embarrassment.

Izuku looks towards them, mouth still quivering. Katsuki wants to kiss that mouth more than anything, but Izuku seems to come to himself then.

"Thanks for the help, guys," Izuku says to them. "I'm really glad you're both here!" Izuku pauses, his eyes clearly burning onto the watch still strapped on Denki's wrist. 

Katsuki grins. "Your invention worked."

But Izuku isn't smiling. If anything, the green in his eyes seems to grow darker. 

Oh. Katsuki recognises this look. He squeezes one of Izuku's cheeks between his fingers, the fondness burning through him so intensely it renders him breathless for a second. 

"Hey now," he murmurs, quiet enough only for Izuku, "Jealousy ain't a good look on you."

(He's lying. Through his teeth.)

“'M not jealous.” Izuku shakes his head a little to orient himself, but the furious red in his cheeks is satisfying enough to make Katsuki smile wider. “Whatever! I'm glad they worked, but we should get back on track. The— the laser. Tomura thought he could use us as reinforcements in case the combined feelings of the island guests weren’t volatile enough. But we can manipulate it ourselves.” 

Izuku looks to Katsuki with wide, determined eyes. “It’s up to us to destroy that laser from the inside, because that should destroy the hold on everyone else on the island.”

“Midoriya! Question,” Denki interjects. “If the chip you digested actually worked on you, how come the injection to get you to fall asleep didn’t?”

 Well, I’m not entirely sure.” Izuku rubs at his lip. “My working theory is that I ate a lot of weird junk when I went undercover so I built up an otherwise strong immunity.”

Am I dating a raccoon? is Katsuki’s first thought, followed immediately by, Wait, are we dating?

Izuku turns to Denki. “Get Tomura’s mind controller device and destroy it, now. And then I need you to gather as much data as you can from this place, while everyone is still knocked out.”

Denki salutes and does as he’s told. “Aye, aye, boss.”

Izuku starts to unravel the rope around Katsuki, who’d almost forgotten it was there. As he works, he speaks again, this time clearly talking to Eijirou.

“You need to get back to the hotel. Start waking up people and getting them to evacuate. Is help on the way?”

“We made the call when we got here, so hopefully.” 

Izuku nods once. “We should be fine if the device is broken, but getting those chips out of those poor people’s system is a process we’ll need extra support for later. Chargebolt, you’ll go help him once you’ve gathered as much as you can for now.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Eijirou says, darting towards the kit of materials on Spinner’s workbench.

Izuku turns back to Katsuki then, and he pauses as the barest of smiles graces his lips. “Kacchan,” he starts. “You said you loved me.”

His heart skips across lakes. “And I meant it.”

“So prove it.” Izuku leans down, cupping a hand over Katsuki’s cheek. “And I’ll prove it to you.”

He swallows, looking over Izuku’s shoulder again. He eyes the machine behind them, and then… He just understands.

Katsuki takes Izuku by the back of his head and kisses him. There aren’t words for the relief he feels when he gets his lips on him— it’s all he can do to not break down into tears when Izuku keeps on cupping his face like that. So he kisses him hard and bruising and demanding, pouring everything he feels into that warm, pliant mouth.

I love you, I love you, I love you. I always have, I always will. I would die for you, one hundred times over. Every one of my choices and every illusion of my free will has bended to keep you at the end of it all.

It isn’t difficult to focus his thoughts and energy onto his love for Izuku. It always rests inside him, as much a part of him as the blood in his veins. He thinks of Izuku’s fucked up hands and the ghastly scar above his hipbone, and the way his chapped lips rub against his thumb when he’s muttering to himself, and of the way he lights up instantly at the slightest mention of competing with Katsuki for something. And then there were his perfect, weird eyes. And the way he dances like a complete goof, and the way his face contorts when he’s about to do something incredibly stupid, and the way his lips part open so wide and pretty when Katsuki pushes into him, and the way he used to stare so openly at Katsuki's face, completely unaware that he noticed it every single time.

There’s an explosion somewhere, he thinks. It’s all very distant. Izuku just slams him into the floor, lacing their hands together and placing them on either side of Katsuki’s head. It’s a mirror of what Katsuki had done to him last night, in bed.

He doesn’t break the kiss, but Katsuki does groan surprisingly loudly— both from the impact and also from Izuku’s eagerness.

Izuku pulls away, a long thread of saliva dangling in between them, and Katsuki gets to breathe again. He smiles down at him toothily, looking so pathetically giddy that Katsuki would have rolled his eyes if he wasn’t so flushed himself.

“Did you hear that, Kacchan?” Izuku whispers, not looking away, still grinning wildly.

“Like somethin’ blew up,” Katsuki answers back with a grin of his own.

Izuku is off of him and turning around just as he begins to sit up, the rope completely falling off of him now.

The machine is absolutely destroyed. The purple goo from before oozes down the side, the lights switched off, the glass lying scattered on the floor.

That… actually worked?

“Woah,” Denki whispers from where he’s standing by Dabi’s setup. “You did that with the power of love?” Then, muttering, “How did they not account for that…?”

“We did it!” Izuku laughs, getting to his feet and hauling Katsuki up just as easily. He crushes him against his chest and lifts him off the ground. “Kacchan, you must love me so much!” 

“Don’t pin all the credit on me, it was your sappy ass too!” Katsuki growled, irritated at being suffocated again just after he’d gotten out of that stupid black rope. “Put me down now you dork, we still gotta round these guys up!”

As if on cue, Tomura stirs back to life. He lifts his head up, a cold eye trained furiously at them, and then he stumbles to his feet.

“You haven’t won!” he yells out hysterically.

Tomura is surprisingly fast, and he’s already running away, pushing open a set of doors on the other end of the room. As the doors open, Katsuki notices the furious weather outside has abruptly stilled. If he has to guess, it’s got something to do with the way the weapon in front of them has died completely.

Denki whistles, pocketing a small device into his pants. “Y’all better go catch him. I’m gonna tie these guys up and then go help Red Riot.”

The sound of a speedboat revving has Izuku sprinting towards the door. “Good luck guys!” Izuku calls out from over his shoulder.

Katsuki swipes at his discarded bag from earlier and stuffs the black rope and his discarded gun in it. “Don’t fuck it up.” Not that he thinks Denki can actually fuck anything up– he just needs to save face a bit, after that embarrassing debacle.

By the time they both step out and climb down the steps, Tomura is already quickly disappearing into the ocean, his speedboat revving loudly around them even from all that distance.

“There’s a second boat!” Izuku exclaims. They rush past the sandy beach, and Katsuki moves to unmoor the boat waiting at the bay for them.

They get it up and running in no time. Izuku seems to have a knack for this whole tech side of things. Maybe he should replace Denki.

Yes, that way, Deku's voice could be in his ear as Katsuki sets out on another mission. Katsuki would do something very badass, and Izuku would gush about it over the headset, like, 'Kacchan, sugoi! You're so handsome and capable. I can't believe you did this when you're so hungover." And Katsuki would say, "This is no time to be talking about how big my dick is, over."  And then Izuku would laugh and-

Fuck, okay, he's distracting himself. 

They slide across the slippery deck and hop into the hollowed out area with the driver’s seat, steering wheel and dual monitors. Katsuki hops into the driver’s seat and Izuku stays close by his side with Katsuki’s bag tucked against his chest.

As their boat begins bouncing haphazardly against the churning waters, Izuku pulls himself lower to the floor to steady himself. It’s not meant for two people, but they make do.

They’re just about moving into sunrise, but it’s still not light enough to operate as safely as Katsuki would like.

The wind is cutting against Katsuki’s bare chest as they slam through the whitecaps in the water, but he barely feels it with all the adrenaline in him now. There’s no time to be thinking about potential capsizing — all that matters is getting to Tomura’s boat and restraining him before he does something stupid.

Tomura has noticed them on his tail by now, as is obvious from his attempts to zigzag across the water. Seeing that this only serves to make his vehicle more unsteady against the choppy waves, he resorts to whipping out a gun from some corner of his boat and shooting at them as his other hand steers.

Jesus, this guy is a bad shot.

“Kacchan, please tell me you have weapons in here somewhere,” Izuku ducks down just as another bullet whizzes somewhere on their left, hand rummaging around in the bag Denki had taken from their room.

“Denki’s the one who filled this up when he broke into our room!” he barks out. “I got no idea what’s in it.”

Izuku squawks. “Why are there, like, two grenades in here? Was this seriously the only thing he could find?”

Izuku’s breathless bemusement is mostly stolen by the air, but Katsuki still hears it over the din of everything else– the aggressive motor, the howling wind, the sound of Tomura cursing as they finally almost catch up to him. The alarm in his voice is more refreshing than any amount of ice cold seaspray.

In his momentary distraction, Izuku grabs the wheel from him and forces the boat in the opposite direction with a, “Watch where you’re going! He might have terrible aim, but there’s no way it can get worse when we’re this close to him!”

They’ve mostly caught up with Tomura’s boat now, his speed likely buffered by all those attempts at sabotaging them with his shitty one-handed aim. The man sneers at them from the other side, their paces now evenly matched.

“You’re not the only one,” Tomura yells over the noise, eyes trained on Izuku, “who’s an expert in disappearing acts!” He swerves hard, steering his boat away into the west.

“Fuck.” Katsuki swerves hard to follow him, but their boat is slow to change course so dramatically. Izuku puts a hand on his arm in warning.

“Where did he go?” Izuku swivels his head around. On all sides, there seems to just be an endless stretch of ocean with the exception of the island they just left behind. The morning fog obscures too much of their long distance vision. “Do you think he has a way to make himself invisible?”

“Nah, I see him,” Katsuki says. Izuku turns to him, questioning, so Katsuki points into the distance. “Masked by the fog. Nothin’ techy about it this time.”

Izuku is silent, eyes squinted, body leaning over Katsuki’s as he peers into the horizon. The silhouetted figure on the boat is distant and unmoving. “Why is he so still?” Then, a small gasp. “Did he just throw something?”

Katsuki sees the object sailing through the air before Izuku’s words even register. The dark object disappears into the fog above the ocean, and Izuku turns to him, frantic, his hands on Katsuki’s bare shoulders.

“Get in the water!”

Katsuki doesn’t listen. No, he’s suddenly overwhelmed with sudden, abrupt clarity. There’s something hurtling towards them, hidden by the fog and the dark clouds and the meagre daylight of the beginnings of sunrise. It really won’t take that long for it to reach them. It’s probably a weapon. It’s probably meant to kill them.

But Katsuki isn’t afraid of it. There’s no way, after all this time, that someone — or something — is going to get in between him and Izuku’s happy ever after.

The world moves in slow motion, as if it were extending an extra handful of seconds over to Katsuki, telling him, ‘Do what you need to do. Keep him safe.’

His signature green and gold grenade jumps once, twice, three times in his hand. And then he gets to his feet, swings his arm back, and shotputs it deep into the sky with a ragged, “DIIIEEE!!!!!!!”

Izuku’s face is bloodied and sweaty and dotted with grime. Blood drips from the cut in his forehead, leaving a trail down his eyebrow, just narrowly missing his eye as it curves lovingly against his cheek.

He looks beautiful like this, and it isn’t just because of the blood on his face. No– he’s especially beautiful because even as the world rages around them, he keeps his eyes trained on Katsuki anyway.

“Kacchan,” Izuku breathes, ripping his eyes away from the sky to gape at him. He steps forward, so quickly he trips right into Katsuki’s space.

“Deku.” Katsuki tugs him close. He takes Izuku’s hand, eyes never leaving his. An explosive sound booms from high above them, a fiery burst of red and orange flaring momentarily in the sky. Katsuki doesn’t even think about ducking.

The grenade pin is still in Katsuki’s hand. It slides down his pinky, and he catches it quickly between his index finger and thumb. As the debris of the colliding weapons start to crash into the water, the brightness of their supernova destruction mere fireworks in the sky, Katsuki takes Izuku’s hand, and slips the grenade pin onto his fourth finger.

“Marry me.”

Fire flickers in the reflective pools of Izuku’s teary eyes. His face is lit up temporarily in a burst of orange, bearing his beauty in all of its dorky glory.

“I…” Izuku glances down at his makeshift engagement ring, mouth parted as he lets out a sound in between a sob and a gasp. Then he looks up again, eyes crumpling with joy, before he flings himself into Katsuki’s arms. “Yes! Of course I’ll marry you! Mission accepted! Oh, this is the most perfect day of my life! Kacchan proposing on a mission! Kacchan shirtless and dirty and sweaty! Kacchan wearing my gadgets–!”

“Keep it in your fucking pants, nerd,” Katsuki huffs as he presses Izuku even more tightly against him. He might be squeezing a bit too hard, but if he’s pretty sure that if he didn’t have something to hold on to, there’s a good chance he’d just float up into the clouds.

He can feel the crusted blood in Izuku’s hair as he presses his cheek against it, can smell the iron and the sweat from his skin. From in between them, the lockets magnetise and heat up and lock in place, and Katsuki feels it, feels the way the lockets sigh in relief, like they were finally coming home.

From beyond them, Tomura is screaming. “C’mon, I worked so hard on that bomb!”

“We did this all out of order,” Izuku laughs into Katsuki’s shoulder.

“Stop ignoring me!!” comes a voice from far, far away.

“Stupid.” Katsuki presses his lips to the side of Izuku’s warm temple, the fire in his chest stoked further when Izuku leans into the touch the way a flower follows the sun. “We just skipped the line.”

Izuku is smiling so sloppily it looks like he’s about to cry again. He cradles Katsuki’s face in his rough, scarred hands, and pulls him down for a kiss that says more than he could possibly verbalise. Katsuki doesn’t hear the gurgling from the sides of their boat, as the debris is swallowed up by the ocean and sinks into its depths.

It’s a kiss different from all those before it. There is heat all around him, inside of him, coating him down to the last atom. It’s a kiss of promises, and of sleeping in the same bed and waking up together every day for the rest of their lives. As if on cue, the sun rises above the horizon, casting the world in light blue-grey.

Izuku is the first to pull away, which seems to be a pattern. Katsuki is always slow to part, lingering in the space between them, still inexperienced with the dizziness that overcomes him whenever Izuku touches him like that.

“Shall I finish him off?” Izuku says with a mischievous glint in his eye.

Katsuki smirks, settling back down in the driver’s seat with Izuku standing in between his legs. He puts his hands on Izuku’s thighs and wordlessly jerks his head toward the bag on the floor.

Izuku unspools the Black Whip from the bag and leans over the edge of the boat. “I got a new move,” he says excitedly to Katsuki, before turning to the horizon. He yanks the rope behind him, and then sends it flying across the ocean. “Newly Wed Lasso Smash!”

They watch as the figure in the distance gets bound in the rope, teeters over the boat, and flails into the ocean. As Izuku begins to reel him in like a fish, he smiles sheepishly at Katsuki again.

“Okay, that was a little cringey. I hope you’re still in love with me.” Izuku pauses then, eyes flitting down to Katsuki’s crotch. “O-Oh. Really?”

Tomura sputters as he slams gracelessly into the side of their boat, and Katsuki just asks, “Where do you want to honeymoon?”

SOME HOURS LATER 

H.Q is silent save for the hum of the air conditioner. Katsuki is brushing a cotton swab over Izuku’s forehead, ignoring the way his cute, chubby face scrunches slightly at the sting. They sit side by side on the couch, their hands are interlaced, their makeshift rings clinking softly every time either of them shifts even slightly.

Everybody is watching them. Only Denki and Eijirou, who were with them for that last day, do not share that same look of surprise as everyone else.

Aizawa clears his throat.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” he starts, “but just a few days ago, you were fighting tooth and nail to stay away from Midoriya.” He pauses, clearly puzzled when he says, “And now you’re… engaged.”

Toshinori sips on his herbal tea from the mini kitchen and smiles. “I think it is very romantic. I’m proud of both of you boys.”

“Thanks, dad,” Izuku says, returning a tired smile of his own.

On the helicopter ride back, both mentors had obviously noticed the change in their relationship. It’s only now, when they’ve been brought back to H.Q, that they seemed to realise there were rings on each other’s fingers.

Aizawa purses his lips and exhales sharply. “I guess I’d even assumed it would happen one day or another. But I… can’t in good conscience encourage intimate relationships in this line of work.”

“Won’t be a problem,” Katsuki says as he continues working. He grips Deku’s chin, turning his face from side to side to inspect for any further injuries. Deku makes a sound of protest, something like, Kacchan, these are very minor injuries, stop making a fuss, but Katsuki tuts, not having it.

“Oh?” Aizawa questions, leaning against the kitchen counter. “And why’s that?” Kyouka, Tsuyu, Denki, and Eijirou are watching the conversation as if it were a game of tennis.

Katsuki puts the cotton swab down, and says, “’Cause we’re quitting.”

The silence returns, but this time it doesn’t last long.

“What?!” Kyouka exclaims, at the same time Denki and Eijirou softly whisper, “Bro…”

Aizawa pinches the bridge of his nose. “…Yeah, okay. Should’ve seen that coming.”

Katsuki turns to Izuku, frowning. Izuku is staring back with the perfect face of surprise.

“I’m not keepin’ a job that keeps taking you away from me,” he says, as earnestly as he can. “Not every mission can be partnered, and I’d rather fucking kill myself than let you disappear on me again.”

Izuku blinks, and then a wide smile spreads like ink across his lips. “Oh…” he sighs, wiping away the dampness in his eyes before flinging himself into Katsuki’s arms. “I love clingy Kacchan!”

“You’re the one pasting yourself on me, damn hypocrite,” Katsuki barks, but he hesitates. “You… I mean, you want the same thing right?”

Izuku pulls away, nodding emphatically as if to dispel all of Katsuki’s doubts as quickly as possible. “Oh, yeah, absolutely. This spy stuff is overrated anyway.”

“Look,” Aizawa steps forward, no doubt attempting to inject some logic into the increasingly dramatic atmosphere of the room, “We’re sorry that you were both underprepared for such a disastrous mission, and it’s a wonder that you even managed to take down the League base with what limited supplies you had. But even though you got Tomura’s father’s minions out of the picture, we still need to de-bug all of those hotel guests. And we still need a cover story about what happened on that island before this gets to the media. And more importantly, we need to find out what exactly Tomura’s father wanted to do with—”

“I’m sure you guys’ll figure it out,” Katsuki says, slapping his knees as he stands up. “If you need help from the background, or somethin’, Deku’ll probably be able to lend a hand. But we’re out. Ain’t that, right, sweetheart?”

He grins sharply at Izuku, who followed his cue to stand. 

“That’s right, er, honey,” he affirms, blushing at Katsuki’s apparently sustained use of pet names. He turns to Aizawa and Toshinori, bowing down deeply. “Thank you both for everything you have taught us. We are sworn to secrecy, and we’ll stay safe. And we wish you all the very best! I’m sure Japan is in very capable hands!”

Toshinori smiles assuredly, Aizawa sighs defeatedly, and the rest of their colleagues seem like they don’t really know what to say.

With their hands swinging between them, they walk out the door and into the warm afternoon.

People chatter away at the day market across the road. A car honks in the distance. A group of children run past them, giggling. All of them unaware of how close they’d all been to becoming mind-controlled puppets just a few hours ago. 

In the middle of it all, Katsuki and Izuku stand plastered together, ever the external picture of a lovesick couple. It strikes Katsuki, in that moment, how they seem to finally have a shot at a normal life.

“Sooo,” Izuku says, “what are we going to do now?”

A breeze whistles past, ruffling Izuku’s hair. A stray band of sunlight passes over Izuku’s face, and suddenly it’s like he’s seeing Izuku with brand new eyes. Katsuki brushes a curl out of Izuku’s face with his free hand and lets his thumb rest over the freckles resting on his cheek. 

In response, a corner of his mouth tugs upward, he shrugs, and he says, “Let’s start with lunch.”