Peer-Reviewed Study [Slightly NSFW]

Izuku’s hands twitched in his lap, curled around a tiny remote that looked ridiculous beneath his thick, scarred fingers, but Katsuki did his best to not complain about the irritating motions. He’d promised, after all, to keep his mouth shut until the end – and when Izuku asked that of him, he knew it was something important. Denki? Nah, screw that, Katsuki was a free man. But Izuku? The ball of sunshine who never said a bad word about everyone and had never in his life asked for even the smallest favour? Well, Katsuki figured he owed him that much.

“Okay, so, um,” Izuku stuttered, clicking the button on his remote and letting a bright-red slide fill the screen. “Welcome to my presentation, and thank you all for coming. I spent a long time trying to decide how to do this, because you’re all my best friends! And I kept thinking I should tell this person first, or that person first, but then someone else might be offended, or upset, so in the end, I decided to do it all together! So uh, here’s my slideshow for you, thank you for coming. Oh, I already said that.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but Ochako and Tsuyu smiled supportively, and Tenya and Shouto both watched solemnly and attentively, so Katsuki didn’t bother to speak.

“So, um, what is this about?” he asked awkwardly, clicking the button again and reading the title that popped up aloud. “Why are we here?”

It took everything in Katsuki’s power to not groan when a little bullet-pointed list flew in. If he’d known it was going to be such a long ride, he’d have brought a snack or something.

“To talk about me!” Izuku read, refusing to look at his friends’ faces. “I know I talk a lot, about heroes or school or math or- you get the point. I talk a lot, but I don’t really talk about myself you know? You guys have said it before, that I don’t really share things, and I guess that’s partly because when I was a kid no one really cared, but- Oh, sorry, this is turning into more of a therapy discussion I think. So anyway, you guys have asked me to talk about me before, so today I’m here to talk about me!”

Katsuki frowned, raising his hand slightly, and Izuku shot him a nervous smile.

“I know, Kacchan, you know lots of stuff about me, but not everyone does!”

“I know everything about you,” he huffed. “I was the one you prattled on to when we were kids, remember?”

“I remember!” Izuku assured him. “But um, there are some things you might not know, too, so bear with me, okay?”

“Whatever, nerd.”

As if to prove Katsuki’s point, Izuku looked up at his slideshow again, reading off the next bullet point.

“To clear the air!” he continued. “Sometimes people ask me questions, and I don’t really have a good answer for them, so I’m hoping this will help clear up some confusion!”

Katsuki wasn’t confused about anything, but sure, whatever.

“And finally, to make me feel strong! Sometimes it’s nice to just... be open about things, to not feel like I have to hide stuff! I want my friends to share in what has been kind of a secret until now, so I don’t have to keep things quiet anymore!”

Fuck, was the nerd drunk or something? He wasn’t seriously going to tell all his random friends about his quirk, right? All Might was gonna be pissed. Was Katsuki supposed to stop him? Was it some kind of test?

The next slide flicked over, the background neon-orange this time, and Katsuki had to squint a little to look at it. Was that how his hero costume made people feel? Fuck, he was gonna have to redesign.

“The challenges!” Izuku read off. “This is something that we’ve never really talked about before, so I don’t know how you guys are gonna react or respond, which is making me kinda nervous right now. There’s a lot of fear – fear of being rejected, or losing the people I care about, or you guys thinking I’m not worthy anymore. There’s a whole culture of discrimination built into our society that most people never even think twice about, and it can be hard to overcome that, so I really hope that you’ll stick with me after all this!”

“De- Izuku,” Katsuki grumbled. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I’m sure!” Izuku smiled awkwardly. “Because my next slide...”

He flicked over to a bright yellow one, with white words that Katsuki couldn’t even read. He really needed to give the nerd a lesson on slideshows.

“The benefits!” he said, apparently the invisible title on the screen. “Empowerment! I want to feel empowered to be who I am and not hide myself from anyone! I want to strengthen the relationships I have, with the people I trust to stick with me, at least I hope, and to rid myself of the dumb stress of hiding this part of me and thinking so carefully about everything I say!”

God damn it, this nerd was gonna kill him. Katsuki pulled his phone from his pocket, pulling up All Might’s number. He’d stolen it from Izuku’s contacts a long time ago, had never actually used it, but he was suddenly grateful he had – it was probably time to call him and put a stop to Izuku’s madness.

A green slide this time, and Katsuki grimaced. Had he not even chosen a colour scheme for the presentation? Surely he could have at least gone with the dumb All Might colours he loved so much, or something, to tie it all together.

“So who am I?” Izuku read. “Who is Midoriya Izuku, or Deku, or Nerdass?”

Katsuki snorted at that, and Izuku shot him a grin in return, his eyes betraying how terrified he really was.

“Well, I’m your friend! At least, I hope I am. I’m your classmate. And I like to think I’m someone you can come to, when you need help, or need someone to talk to! I know I’m busy a lot, I train probably more than I should, and I like to visit my Mom a lot because I love her and I miss her a ton while we’re here at school, but! I hope you know I’d drop everything if you needed my help! Someone to talk to, or cry with, or hug! I’d be here in a heartbeat!”

“We know, Deku,” Ochako assured him, smiling softly. “You’re an amazing friend, and we all love you. Where is this going?”

“We’re almost there!” he assured her. “Only two more slides!”

Oh God. If Katsuki was gonna call All Might, he needed to do it now.

“The numbers!” Izuku continued, from a blue slide that was actually quite a nice colour, for once. “I have six slides in this presentation, just like there are six of us here! That doesn’t mean anything, but I thought it was neat! And statistically, about one and five people are... um, making slideshows. So statistically we’ve done pretty great here!”

Fuck, that really put it into perspective. He’d heard the numbers before, twenty percent of the world’s population being Quirkless, but he’d never really thought about it as one in every five people. Sure, most of them were older now, their generation specifically probably had a much lower rate of incidence, but it was still pretty damn high. Katsuki really had been an asshole kid.

Still, he wasn’t sure that was a good enough reason for Izuku to blabber about it to all his friends. It was too late now, though – he really hoped Izuku had cleared his whole stupid plan with All Might before he’d invited them all to his room for whatever the hell this was.

One final click, a purple slide, and Katsuki stared at the words, stunned into silence for the first time  in his life even as the rest of the group cheered and laughed and clapped for the nerd.

“I’m gay, bitches,” Izuku squeaked.

There it was, emblazoned on the screen, atop a terribly-edited photo of Izuku shooting rainbows out of his hands instead of dark energy whips. He was pretty sure Izuku had spent hours on that edit.

Ochako and Tsuyu hugged him tightly, praising him for his courage and assuring him they still loved him, while Tenyashook his hand firmly and told him he was proud to know him. Shouto hung back a little, less quick with the grabbing than most of his idiot friends, but still he wore a fond smile, like he’d just seen a puppy roll over on command for the first time.

“Kacchan?” Izuku asked quietly, when the ruckus died down a little. “Do you, uh... Have anything to say? Any questions?”

“No.”

The awful colour scheme made a lot more sense now, Katsuki supposed. The stupid rainbow colours, he was an idiot not to notice it earlier.

“Nothing at all?”

Ochako glared at him, Shouto too giving him a stern frown, but Katsuki just shook his head slowly.

“I- I- Um, I know it’s a sh-shock,” Izuku mumbled. “I know it might take some, uh, getting used to, but I really h-hope you might, um, be able to, to...”

“Deku,” Katsuki cut off his choked words, ignoring the tears quickly rising to those dumb green eyes, like emeralds being hidden deep in a damp cave. “You spent our whole fucking childhood telling me you were going to marry All Might.”

“W-What?”

“Of course you’re fucking gay, is this news to anyone? To you? I swear to God if you tell me this is a revelation in your life I’m gonna fucking punch you.”

“W-Wha?! That’s different, Kacchan! I was a kid who knew marriage meant love and I loved All Might because he was so cool and- Okay maybe I see your point.”

“You had his fucking shirtless posters on your bedroom wall for six years. He did one photoshoot for one calendar and you fucking wore that thing to holes. And don’t even get me started on how creased it was because I fucking know what water damage looks like and you either dropped that thing in the bathtub while you were naked with it, or you were-”

“Enough!” Izuku cut him off, face as red as his first stupid slide. “I didn’t do anything like that, Kacchan! I just thought it was cool! It only happened once, like you said, and I wanted the cool unique merch!”

“Keep telling yourself that, creep.”

Katsuki couldn’t help but notice the way Ochako and Tsuyu were stifling giggles in their hands, Tenya and Shouto just watching with wide eyes and twin expressions that clearly wished they’d left the room three minutes earlier.

“You knew all this time?” Izuku asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well fuckin’ excuse me for not telling a damn nerd what his own sexuality was.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Izuku huffed. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew?”

“Because it was obvious as hell! You’re the second gayest piece of shit I’ve ever met, I didn’t know it needed announcing.”

“Well excuse me for trying to enlighten my friends on- Wait, second? Kacchan! Who the hell is gayer than me, how dare they?!”

“Me, you fucking imbecile. There’s more than five of us in this damn room.”

The room fell silent, everyone staring at him with equally shocked expressions, Izuku’s jaw literally hanging open as he lost track of whatever words he’d been about to say.

“If you ain’t gonna use that mouth for something useful, close it.”

Izuku snapped it shut quickly, cheeks flushed bright pink, and Katsuki realised too late what he’d said – it was sure as hell not what he’d meant, but there was no way any of them would believe that now.

“Why don’t we give you two a minute to sort this out?” Ochako suggested, ushering the others toward the door. “You’ve known each other a long time, this must take a little getting used to that the rest of us don’t need as much time for. We’re proud of you, Deku, and we love you!”

With that the door clicked shut behind them, footsteps hurrying down the hallwaylike they might break into a sprint, and Katsuki could only fumble for words that didn’t want to come.

“You like boys?” Izuku asked finally.

“I like men,” Katsuki argued. “Tall, buff, sexy as fuck men. Not stupid gross boys.”

Izuku took a step closer, eyes shifting down a little to meet Katsuki’s gaze, and Katsuki cursed himself for putting that stupid word on the list.

“Tall, buff...” Izuku repeated slowly. “So... You like All Might too?”

“Fuck off!”

Katsuki shoved him, watching as he fell onto his bed in a fit of giggles, finally letting out all the stupid tension and fear he’d been trying so valiantly to keep hidden.

“I thought you were talking about your quirk.”

Izuku froze, staring for a moment, before his face began to burn again, and Katsuki couldn’t help but snort at him.

“Oh my God,” Izuku said softly. “Even the twenty percent.”

“Yeah, I fucking noticed.”

“Oh my God,” he repeated. “Are you telling me Quirkless people are all queer?”

“Next time you make a presentation, do some research on Venn Diagrams.”

“I knew you liked my presentation.”

“Fuck off, making a whole-ass slideshow to tell us something we already knew? Extra as hell.”

“Well yeah, Kacchan, I’m gay.”

“I fuckin’ know. Do I need to make my own presentation to get the point across that you weren’t subtle?”

“Kacchan is just too smart, I wasn’t that obvious!”

“What, you need a fuckin’ essay on how obvious you were? First, let’s revisit a warm spring day at the beginning of fifth grade. One Midoriya Izuku, commonly known as Nerdass, is sitting on the edge of a school swimming pool, watching the young student-teacher who has come along to get some experience in a school, his stupid doe-eyes locked on the swim shorts plastered to his legs, waiting for-”

“Okay!” Izuku cut him off quickly, clapping a hand over Katsuki’smouth. “Enough!”

Katsuki just smirked as he slammed the hand back into the mattress, looming over him.

“Second, let us turn our attention to a video from All Might’s fight against a villain known at the time as Unisada, who managed to slip past All Might’s wind blasts just long enough to grab a handful of All Might’s costume. Incidentally, this happened to be the last fight where All Might ever wore his Bronze Age suit, because of-”

“Kacchan!” Izuku squawked, squirming against the hands that pinned him to the mattress. “Stop! Someone might hear you!”

“And a certain Nerdass, as shown in Every Day Of His Fucking Life by the amazing Bakugou Katsuki, watched the same twenty seconds of that fight on repeat, every day, over and over, until his mother caught him and he got embarrassed and came up with the stupidest excuses about analysing his quirk-”

“Okay, okay! You made your point!”

Katsuki smirked, shifting his weight to rest a knee on Izuku’s thigh, halting his pathetic squirms.

“And finally,” he said softly. “There’s that stupid look he gets on his face every time he watches his hot as fuck childhood friend in battle, all full of wonder and awe which is understandable since he’s the best hero in the world and the strongest guy Nerdass has ever met, but-”

“All Might wasn’t my childhood friend.”

“I’m the best hero you cheeky fuck.”

Izuku grinned, but Katsuki didn’t even have time to take it in before it was being wiped away by his own lips meeting it, clumsy and chapped and nervous as fuck, but still there.

“You kissed me,” Katsuki said stupidly, when they broke apart after a long, silent minute.

“You kissed me, Kacchan.”

“I fuckin’ did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“I did-the-fuck not and if you don’t shut up I never will again.”

“You just admitted you did it before.”

“Shut up!”

Izuku just giggled, lifting his head to meet Katsuki’s lips again mid-complaint, silencing him with the most inexperienced, messy, awkward, perfect kiss that he’d ever had in his life.

Not that he’d had any others, but that was beside the point!

As every thought of argument left their heads like they’d never existed in the first place, Katsuki knew with complete certainty that it was the most perfect kiss he could ever have hoped for, that anyone in the world had ever experienced, and it was all his.

He didn’t need citations to prove that.