Twenty-Four Hours - Part 4

13:00

The year Katsuki turned thirteen, Izuku knew he wouldn’t have accepted a birthday gift. Things had changed since they entered middle school, Katsuki had changed, and he was more concerned with not associating himself with Izuku than he was with getting presents.

When the teacher suggested a class lunch to celebrate, to help them all get to know their new classmates and bond with each other over a birthday celebration.

Katsuki had thought it was stupid, but the rest of the class had been so eager, and he had supposed it would be a good way to be more popular – not for the sake of friends, obviously, but because it would get him better positions in class and that would look better on his application to UA in a few years. Always had to think ahead, after all.

When Izuku had shown up with a massive pot of extra-spicy ramen, everyone had laughed at him. After all, who brought ramen to a school lunch? Shared lunches were supposed to be a chance for junk food and sweet things, for stuff they could put on a tiny paper plate and carry around the room as they socialised, not for something that needed bowls and chopsticks.

Despite being one of the first to jump on an opportunity to make fun of Izuku, in that moment he was the one who stayed quiet. He was the one who sat back as Izuku laughed sheepishly and shrugged it off, setting the pot on the table all the same and retreating to a corner to avoid everyone.

When everything was set out, the ramen was the first thing Katsuki went for. He dished himself up a big bowl of soft noodles and hot soup, mouth watering when he smelled all the spices. By the end of the lunch period, despite only a few people partaking, the pot was bled dry and Katsuki’s stomach was stuffed.

“Hey, Kacchan, I know it’s a little late but I'm gonna take you out for lunch!”

“Sounds good. Ramen?”

“Yeah! How did you know?”

─────

14:00

With their tense relationship in middle school, Izuku had quickly began to wonder if there was something more going on to motivate Katsuki’s change in attitude. After all, Izuku had always been the same person, so why had Katsuki suddenly decided he no longer wanted to be friends?

One conclusion that ranked high on his list of possibilities was pressure. Katsuki had always put a lot of pressure on himself – he had to be the best at everything, had to get a hundred percent on every assignment and test, had to pick up every new skill or hobby with the ease of someone who had done it a thousand times. People weren’t allowed to see him struggle. He’d even started doing his homework in public, for a while, so his own parents wouldn’t know how long it was taking him, if he felt like he should have done it quicker.

Izuku thought he might have been the only one who really noticed that, understood it. Their teachers and classmates only saw the cocky, egotistical boy who got straight-As in all his classes, they rolled their eyes at his attitude and begrudgingly gave him the marks he deserved, assuming it all came to him naturally.

Izuku knew better. Izuku knew how the transition from picture books to chapter books had tripped him up at first, not used to having so many words all on one page – it was distracting, Katsuki confessed, when they were much younger. He was used to a sentence or two on each page, the walls of text made him want to skim ahead constantly, not taking in any of the other information on the way for fear of taking too long to get to the end. It had taken him a long time to break that habit, to make himself slow down and process all the words, and while Izuku suspected his parents had noticed the bump in the road, he was pretty sure no one else had. Izuku also knew how he spent every evening holed up in his bedroom with his set of dumbbells and the elastic bands his parents had gotten him for stretching – everyone else thought he went to bed super early, but Izuku knew he was always sitting in the dimly-lit room, only a single lamp switched on for fear of someone noticing he was still up. And Izuku knew how he spent hours poring over textbooks and expansive class notes, making sure he was perfect before he could be called on in class and risk making a mistake. He was always a chapter ahead in every subject, pre-prepared for the day the concepts were introduced, so he could act as if he’d picked it up instantaneously. No one else looked deep enough to see the cracks in Katsuki’s walls, no one but Izuku.

So when he started acting weird, Izuku had come to the logical conclusion: Stress. Middle school was a step up, a little quicker to go through different topics and a little more complex in what they faced. The textbooks were much thicker and less colourful, the teacher’s guidance much more necessary, and Katsuki wasn’t coping well with that change.

So what better gift, Izuku thought, than something to help with that stress?

He’d found a perfect stress ball online, had taken two trains to get to the right store to buy one, and had gleefully returned home with his spoils. A squishy, spongy, black ball that would fit just right in Katsuki’s hand, with a stretchy cord sticking out the top that he could pull on or wrap around his fingers to fidget. Some people might have said it was a little on the nose to buy him a bomb to lower his stress, but Katsuki was proud of his quirk, and Izuku knew he’d be more than happy to have a few more trinkets that fitted his explosion motif.

Sure enough, he’d seen Katsuki carrying it around every day – from the moment he found it slipped into his shoe locker, to the day the chipped and battered ball finally fell apart, it had been by his side to squeeze on.

Izuku had never found another one quite as good, to replace it. He’d have loved to get a nice green grenade, but it seemed like no one made those, and even the bombs had apparently been retired – probably considered too violent or something, Izuku assumed.

What he had found, a decade later, was something that might have been even better.

Katsuki laughed surprisingly loud when he saw the contents of the package, making a few heads turn and look as they got set up for the next workshop, and Izuku couldn’t help but grin back. Katsuki tore into the box, pulling the toy out immediately, and with a gleeful look on his face he squeezed, hard, on the new toy.

Another burst of laughter came out when two little balloon-looking parts came out of the hands as he squeezed, one red and the other pale blue. The head was massive in comparison, the body less than half the size of the big, squishy, ball head, and it fit perfectly in Katsuki’s grip to squeeze with a vengeance.

The look on the scarred face was shocked, a perfect fit considering how surprised Shouto would have been at the ferocity Katsuki attacked his toy with, and despite all the people around them, Katsuki leaned over to give Izuku a quick kiss as he continued to torment the poor toy.

“Amazing,” he said quietly.

“I know you are but what am I?”

“A nerd.”

─────

15:00

Fifteen was a year Izuku oddly regretted. Even though they’d barely been talking, even though Katsuki had been in his threatening phase of don’t go to UA, Izuku still wished he’d done something more.

All he’d given Katsuki that year was a couple of bags of snacks that he slipped into the shoe lockers early one morning, before anyone else had arrived. Some spicy potato chips Katsuki had a particular affinity for, and a bag of dark chocolate-coated macadamia nuts. He knew Katsuki would have enjoyed them, but it just seemed like so little.

So at three o’clock, Izuku made sure to go much bigger. A hamper arrived at the office right on time, put straight into Katsuki’s arms, and Izuku watched happily as he opened it to explore. Inside were all of Katsuki’s favourite snacks and sweets, he’d made sure of it, and the dark wicker hamper would be perfect to reuse for picnics when the weather warmed up a little more.

“Holy shit, Deku,” Katsuki marvelled, as he dug through what Izuku happened to know was a perfect two-dozen bags and boxes. “This is awesome, I’m gonna get so fat.”

“You could never,” Izuku laughed. “I’ve seen your workout schedule.”

“Aren’t you meant to say some sappy shit about ‘I’d still love you even if you got fat’?”

“But you know that’s true, you’d still be the hottest piece of ass I’ve ever met no matter what you weighed!”

“Much better.”

“And you call me a dork.”

“You are.”

Izuku slung an arm around him fondly, leaning into his side, and Katsuki ruffled his hair lightly before he set to work opening a package. Even though they’d just eaten way too much ramen, and in just a few hours they’d be going out to eat and drink with their friends, Katsuki still insisted on tearing open a package of curry-flavoured calbee puffs, the nightmare Izuku couldn’t stand to put in his mouth, despite his love of all things crunchy, but Katsuki inexplicably adored.

“Holy shit you got me the chocolate potato chips too,” Katsuki marvelled, pulling out the box. “So fat.”

“If getting fat makes you happy, then I’ll support you,” Izuku laughed. “But I’m pretty sure you’re just gonna get sick. Maybe save the chips for after birthday dinner?”

“Or we could skip birthday dinner and just eat chocolate chips.”

“Or we could not since all your friends put effort into this and took time off to be there for your special day?”

“Or you could stop guilting me into shit on my birthday.”

“You know that will never happen.”

“You’re so stubborn,” Katsuki sighed, surprisingly fondly. “No wonder I agreed to date you.”

“Agreed?” Izuku snorted. “Yeah, that’s how it went.”

“Oops would you look at that, time for the next conference,” Katsuki shrugged, picking up his hamper to haul it away. “Guess we can’t have this argument right now.”

“Who are you, me?”

“Learned from the best, nerd.”

“Was that a compliment?”

“Nah, I just wouldn’t date anyone who wasn’t the best.”

Katsuki stuffed another handful of curry puff sticks in his mouth as he walked, and with a little sigh Izuku took hold of one side of the hamper, freeing Katsuki up to carry with one hand and eat with the other.

“You’re so lucky I love you,” Izuku teased, watching him munch on way-too-many sticks at once. “This is such an attractive look on you.”

“Damn right it is,” Katsuki agreed, muffled through his mouthful. “Thanks, nerd.”

“You’re welcome, Kacchan.”

─────

16:00

“Four o’clock, are we starting high school now, then?”

“Yeah,” Izuku smiled awkwardly, handing him a small envelope. “We weren’t really talking, that year, though.”

“I remember, though. You gave me a gift card to buy books, slipped it into my shoe locker while no one was looking.”

“And you knew it was me, huh? You never said anything.”

“Sorry,” Katsuki grimaced. “No one else knew it was my birthday; we’d barely started school and I hadn’t made any friends yet. It couldn’t have been anyone else.”

“Yeah, true,” Izuku smiled faintly. “I’m glad you kept it, it would have been a waste if you didn’t. I just thought since we had that long commute at the time you’d want books to read on the way, but you’d be too tired and busy to go to the library much, so I thought I could at least let you book out a book or two for your birthday.”

“They did a back to school special, I got four books with that card,” Katsuki grinned, ruffling green curls. “Thank you, Deku. Even though I was an ass, you never stopped being nice to me. Never stopped being my friend.”

“Of course, Kacchan! I’m so glad it worked out!”

“But you already gave me books earlier,” Katsuki mused, slitting open the envelope finally. “Not that I can ever have too many books, but that’s not your style.”

“Well I gave you a gift card last time, so I got you a gift card again this time!”

Katsuki pulled out the little plastic card, eyes widening when he saw the logo on the front. They’d found the little cafe in their first days at the agency, while they were setting up the building and sending out job offers, too busy to make their own lunches. It was full of healthy options that all tasted amazing, but Katsuki was too stubborn to eat there outside of special occasions – they were too expensive, and when they were running a still near-new agency, he needed to save all the money he could.

“Now it doesn’t have to be a special occasion,” Izuku explained with a smile. “Next time you feel like buying lunch instead of making it, you can just do it, on me!”

“You’re a really damn thoughtful nerd, aren’t you?” Katsuki huffed, wrapping an arm around his waist to pull him into a hug. “Your account is meant to be for stuff for you, or like... If you want to leave me or something. But uh, please don’t... Do that. My point is, it’s not meant to be for gifts for me.”

“Why not? It’s my money and I can spend it on whatever I want! I wanna spend it on you!”

“Damn it, why are you so damn cute?”

“Because you loooooove me!”

“Yeah, I do,” Katsuki sighed, smiling fondly as he leaned his cheek on Izuku’s hair. “And you, for some stupid reason, love me too?”

“You know I do, you don’t need to ask,” Izuku snorted, twisting around to grab Katsuki’s face between his hands. “Are you doubting yourself again?”

“How could I ever, with you around?” Katsuki smiled, a little contorted by Izuku’s grip. “I never stop hearing it, after all. Especially today.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, nerd.”