22 Izuku Reassures Kacchan

Izuku tracked Kacchan as he moved towards the school. He felt slightly puzzled. Why was Kacchan feeling angry so early in the day? What could possibly have happened on the way to school?

He chatted absentmindedly with his new friend and classmate, Uraraka Ochako, as he subconsciously focused on Kacchan's presence. You'd think it'd be extremely difficult focusing on a single Aura, considering the amount of people in the school now. On the contrary, it was extremely easy.

It was practically a subconscious reaction to focus on Kacchan's Aura. He didn't even need more than a fleeting thought to locate Kacchan now. It felt as natural as breathing. The only way he could liken it to was that his soul was resonating with Kacchan's. It might not make much sense to other people, but just felt right.

He smiled at Ochako, as he inwardly basked in the feeling of Kacchan's Aura. Whatever he was feeling, even if he was angry, he just couldn't help himself. Kacchan felt warm, like the sun. Whether or not he flew too close, causing him to crash and burn, Izuku couldn't keep himself away. He'd already been burned once from flying too close to the sun, but he couldn't help it. The pure allure that Kacchan presented to him would bypass whatever defences he mocked up without fail.

The weight of Kacchan's anger was almost calming. He was outside the door now. Izuku tried to stop himself from looking towards the door too eagerly. He kept his eyes on his new friend. It would be rude to look elsewhere when he was still amid conversation with her.

It took every ounce of his willpower not to look at the door when it slid open. The sudden flare of jealousy that appeared in Kacchan's Aura sent delicious shivers down his spine. There was a mix of jealousy and possessiveness swirling around his Aura.

The green-haired teen's heart started doing miniature seizures as he valiantly tried not to look. He struggled with himself for a moment. His stomach was doing little somersaults without his permission. Izuku gave in. His eyes snapped to Kacchan's red ones, trying to calm his loudly thumping heart.

If anything, it only sped up more. He could only pray no one in his class had any kind of super hearing Quirk. Even then, it felt like his heart was beating so loudly that people would be able to hear his heartbeat even with normal hearing. He wasn't sure he'd be able to look them in the eye if he knew they were able to hear how embarrassing his heart was being, even if only subconsciously.

His heart wouldn't calm down. His mind wouldn't calm down. He didn't know if he wanted it to, either. He still wasn't quite used to having part of Kacchan's attention again. He felt like he was navigating blind. He was taking tentative steps forward; not sure which direction was the correct path to take.

Izuku tried to suppress his shudder as a stronger feeling of jealousy ran over him. Why was he jealous anyway? It wasn't like Izuku hadn't had other friends before. Then again, perhaps Kacchan didn't know since he didn't pay any attention to him outside of the feelings of hate that were directed at him when he was in his line of sight.

Izuku flinched inwardly at his own thoughts. What was he doing, hurting himself? He shoved the depressing thought away. He managed to control the blush that threatened to cover his face as Kacchan's eyes roved over him with such intensity.

He watched as Kacchan's eyes left his form, only to land on Ochako's. He fought down his own irrational surge of jealousy when he realized that Kacchan was glaring at her. His gaze then quickly returned to meet his eyes. Kacchan's Aura had a bit of… Izuku felt the most inappropriate amount of glee when he realized that Kacchan's Aura gave off the feeling of pouting. He was behaving like a kid who had his favourite toy taken away, or a kid realizing he had to share his favourite toy to play nice.

"Ooh! Deku, who's that?" said Ochako.

Izuku opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by another voice.

"If you're here to socialize, then get out."

The voice was low and deep. Izuku followed the direction of the voice, his eyes sinking to the floor to look at the man.

The man was lying on the floor in a strange yellow sleeping bag of all things. He looked like a caterpillar. Izuku watched with interest as the person he assumed was their teacher inhaled some sort of nutritional drink.

Their supposed teacher looked tired. He looked somewhat unkempt with his messy black hair and bloodshot eyes. Izuku watched with growing interest as he realized that their teacher's Aura pulsed with anticipation, excitement and sadistic pleasure. It contrasted with his blank look which didn't betray his inner emotions. Izuku didn't know if it was a façade or if it was just his natural disposition, but his interest was piqued.

He introduced himself as their homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. "Now, put these gym clothes on and head out to the grounds," he said, pulling a blue shirt with a white UA design.

Izuku eyed them dubiously. How did Aizawa-sensei manage to fit all those clothes into his sleeping bag? Did he have some kind of Quirk to do with space?

As they changed, Izuku realized that Kacchan was still poking him with spikes of jealousy that was tinged with sulky feelings. He also glared at the rest of their male classmates when their gazes turned in their direction, radiating possessiveness.

Izuku suppressed a laugh. Silly Kacchan. There was no way they were looking at his body. If anything, they were probably looking over because they were curious about why Kacchan was glaring at them for no apparent reason.

Katsuki crossed his arms as he leaned on the locker, scowling. "Why did that extra call you Deku?!"

Izuku's traitorous heartbeat increased again, feeling giddy at Kacchan's green-eyed envy.

"Kacchan," he said patiently, "you can't go around calling my other friends extras. Also, she asked if I had any nicknames and I told her the one you gave me when we were younger."

Izuku was unprepared for the enormous amount of guilt that Kacchan practically shoved at him. They were strong. Much stronger than the minute amounts of guilt that Kacchan had on and off the past couple of days. This felt more like when he woke up on the hospital bed with Kacchan at his bedside.

It felt heavy.

"Kacchan? What's wrong?" he asked.

Izuku noticed the number of eyes staring at them increase at Kacchan's outburst.

He grabbed the blonde by the arm, dragging them out the door and into a dark corner where they could converse in peace.

Izuku turned to look at the other teen. Kacchan's intense bout of guilt hadn't decreased any, nor had it waned in intensity. He looked stricken.

"Izuku. You know I don't think that of you anymore, right?" Kacchan said desperately. "I haven't for awhile now. I was wrong before. Even if you really didn't have a Quirk, I shouldn't have said or implied anything like that. It was wrong of me, so please don't think you're useless anymore, okay? I –"

Izuku covered Kacchan's mouth with his own, trying to convey all his sincerity with the kiss. The surge of adoration that passed through him left him feeling floaty and happy.

"Thank you. You know, Ochako told me 'Deku' screams 'do your best', so I don't really mind if you call me that again, Kacchan."

Izuku leaned up to press a kiss to Kacchan's cheek, feeling at peace with himself. Intellectually, he already knew that Kacchan had regretted doing those things in the past, but no matter how much he had convinced himself, it hadn't quite sunk in. He hadn't realized that there was still a part of him that needed to hear it out loud before he could fully put it to rest.

Katsuki scowled, his Aura radiating conflicted feelings. The crushing guilt that lessened somewhat, still simmering in the background, but it wasn't threatening to overflow any time soon. The tinge of jealousy and possessiveness as well as unwillingness came back.

Izuku smiled at his friend. He'd tried as hard as he could to restrain himself from kissing Kacchan silly too much over the past couple of days. It was hard. Really hard. But they weren't a couple yet, so he had to work step by step. Hopefully he wasn't acting too entitled by sneaking a couple of kisses here and there, but he couldn't quell all his feelings.

The two of them left for the grounds outside the school, quickly joining back with the rest of the class as subtly as possible.