Hero Analysis No. ??

This is a partially rewritten edition of a twitter thread I wrote a while back. Please excuse any typos, I was proofreading it on not much sleep.

─────

When Katsuki started middle school, there were only two things he wanted to do.

Number one: he had to prove he was the best. Top of the class academically, best quirk in the class, guaranteed to become a top hero while his classmates fell to the wayside.

Number two: he had to be cool. As it turned out, the first step toward that was removing the little All Might mascot from his backpack. Heroes were cool, sure, but nerds who were obsessed with them? Not cool at all.

Izuku's face had fallen when he saw the bare backpack slung over his shoulder, devoid of all the little trinkets he'd collected over the years.

“Kacchan, did your strap break?!” he'd asked, overwhelmed with fear and concern for the toy. “I have one in the packaging still, mint condition! I could open it for you if you want!”

“Idiot, heroes aren't cool anymore,” he snorted, starting off ahead and letting Izuku hurry to catch up. “I'm not a kid.”

Izuku had seemed dumbfounded by that information, trying and failing to piece it together in his head. Heroes were the coolest, Katsuki had always thought so! Everyone thought so! So what had changed so suddenly?

He learned quickly, when the teasing started. His freckled cheeks burned red when people laughed at his collection of pins and badges, even his limited edition keychain! Katsuki was right after all, heroes weren't cool anymore, for some reason.

“I'm gonna be way better than any of those lame current heroes,” Katsuki boasted loudly. “They're all losers compared to King Explosion Murder!”

One afternoon he returned to class after lunch only to find his backpack defaced, stupid faces drawn on his badges and patches. He knew it wasn't Katsuki – even if he didn't like heroes anymore, his Kacchan would still never do that to the type of merch he'd once treasured. He might be a jerk sometimes, but he wasn't cruel.

The next day, Izuku had a brand new backpack. Bright yellow, devoid of patches and pins, plain as can be. Katsuki was almost a little saddened by it, by the way Izuku gave up so easily rather than fight back or stand up for himself. Talked a big game about becoming the best hero in the world, then backed down the moment someone gave him shit? Typical quirkless loser.

When the newest All Might movie came out, Katsuki was mortified. Izuku walked right up to him in front of his friends, beaming with enthusiasm, loudly bleating:

“We're gonna go see it, right?!”

Their classmates had sniggered at him, and Katsuki blushed bright red, glaring down at the idiot.

“Are you stupid?!” he demanded. “Why would I go to a shitty kids' movie with you?”

Izuku, to his credit, backed off in a hurry. When did All Might become uncool? When did Katsuki stop liking him? None of it made sense, it didn't add up.

His confusion was only compounded when he showed up on opening weekend and found Katsuki waiting in the line, glaring at him with a silent warning.

“Don't you dare tell anyone, nerd.”

The cycle continued all the way through to their first year of high school, even when suddenly heroes were cool again and Izuku wasn't a loser for geeking out over them – sometimes he went a little over the top with his enthusiasm, he knew that, but no one ever questioned it, no one ever laughed at him or called him names or told him “that shit is for babies”. Izuku had finally found his home.

Katsuki, on the other hand, was lost. He'd gotten so used to hiding it away, locking it down where no one could see his enthusiasm. It was a hard habit to break, even with everyone around him giving him confused and even concerned looks for his rants.

Even so, Katsuki found himself softening a little on the inside. Every time he went home, he carefully selected one of his rarer pieces of merch from the shelves hidden away in his old bedroom, carrying it back to his dorm to position just right on his desk. Every time a documentary came out, he was the first to buy a copy, slotting it neatly into position beside the rest. And every time a new movie was released, he was there in line, shooting a slightly less menacing scowl in Izuku's direction.

It wasn't until the end of their second year, though, that he first spoke the words aloud. There was a new movie coming out, All Might the star as usual, but this time the story was based on USJ and the battle in Kamino. All Might had assured him that it portrayed him gracefully, despite the kidnapping – he wasn't a damsel in distress, he was a future hero who had stepped up at USJ, and who had fought back valiantly when others might have conceded to their captors.

It was all the school could talk about for months and Katsuki was at war with himself on the inside: on one hand, how fucking cool was it to be in an All Might movie?! But on the other, it was so damn hard to shake off his reputation, to shake off the stigma beaten into him as an impressionable young teen.

When All Might held up the stack of premiere tickets after class, watching the students go nuts around him, all Katsuki could do was turn away stubbornly, keeping a careful scowl on his lips as they all fawned over the shiny pieces of paper in his massive hand.

“Does everyone want to come?” All Might asked.

A surprising number of eyes went to Katsuki as he shoved his hands deep in his pockets, and Eijirou smiled at him faintly.

“Bakugou isn't a fan of hero movies,” he explained. “Surely this is different, though, right? You don't even want to see yourself in one?”

There was only one thing Katsuki hated more than looking like a loser, and that was other people speaking for him.

“Fuck off,” he glowered. “I've seen more hero movies this week than you've seen in your lifetime, shitty hair.”

Snatching two tickets from All Might's hand, he turned, holding one out toward the group.

“We're going together, right, ner- Deku? Like we always do.”

“Of course, Kacchan!” Izuku beamed, accepting the slip without even a moment of hesitation. “Like always!”

Katsuki stuffed the ticket in his bag and stormed off, leaving fascinated and confused eyes staring after him, but Izuku could only smile.

─────

When the night of the movie rolled around, everyone in the class dressed up nicely. Katsuki was no exception, with his designer outfit obtained from his mother's company, perfectly tailored to fit his frame. He wasn't raised by two parents in the fashion industry for nothing, after all. Even Izuku had a nice new tailored suit, after Masaru saw his old one and quietly offered him a new outfit.

They walked to the cinema as a class, and Izuku scooped up two boxes of popcorn just inside the door, smiling as he pressed one into Katsuki's hands. Neither of them really spoke, but they walked side by side, and Katsuki couldn't help but notice that his damn parents had given them complimentary colours.

They were dead silent right through the screening, other than an occasional little gasp from Izuku or a huff from Katsuki, but the moment the doors opened – Wow.

A whole new Katsuki was born in that moment, delivering scene by scene analyses with Izuku, geeking out over the special effects, praising the cameos by actors from the older films – his friends couldn't even find a moment to cut in and tease him for it, they were too busy staring as the pair prattled on and on as if they were the only two people in the cinema – in the universe.

They were still talking when everyone got back to the dorms, occasionally waving at someone who said goodnight, but mostly just babbling about every stunt and every camera angle. Neither of them suggested the idea, but somehow they found themselves back in Izuku's room, casting their ties and jackets aside as Izuku powered up his laptop.

It had been a long time since guest writer BoomMight had made an appearance on Izuku's blog, but Izuku knew the fans would be excited to see him back. They were already drafting the post before the word processor had even loaded, Izuku's fingers working overtime to get it all down.

For the first time in years, Katsuki stayed up past midnight.

In fact, by the time they finished, it was past two and Katsuki was a little ashamed of himself. The excitement was finally wearing off, replaced by exhaustion, and wordlessly Izuku closed his laptop to let the comments pour in.

They collapsed together on Izuku's bed, just like they used to after every new movie or internet video when they were kids, and Izuku smiled to himself as he closed his eyes.

─────

Izuku woke up to a sleepy Katsuki at his side, grumbling quietly as he rubbed his eyes. With a smile he handed over a bottle of water, watching him guzzle it down, and hunted down a page on his phone.

“The next showing is in three hours,” Izuku informed him.

“Why are you talking, damn nerd? Book the tickets before they sell out.”

And so, by the time most of the world saw the movie, Part Two of their blog was already out, featuring a much more detailed analysis of various important moments and the bigger, flashier scenes. Plus an entirely separate analysis of this “Bakurou Masaki” character who was clearly the best addition to the franchise in years and had the coolest quirk in the world.

No one at school dared to mention the sudden change in Katsuki, with the All Might charm hanging from his backpack and the occasional little smiles, not to mention the much less awkward and reluctant contributions to Heroics Theory classes.

On rare occasions, one of his closest friends would throw a quiet jab at him about being a “hero nerd”, but no one else would ever say the words for fear of retribution.

“Yeah,” he admitted, shrugging, when the room was quiet and close to empty. “I guess I always was.”

Time went by, though, and by the time graduation rolled around, he didn't give a shit who knew.

“Yeah, I'm a fuckin big-ass nerd for hero shit and I'm beating your ass, maybe you should give it a try, loser.”

Graduation night was also the red carpet debut of All Might's next movie, heavily featuring one Wonder Duo. The limousine dropped them off at the Bakugou household after the screening, after signing dozens of autographs, to write up their blog through the exhaustion. It had been a long day, and by the time midnight rolled around, Katsuki grabbed Izuku by the elbow and dragged him to bed.

Izuku continued to babble in his ear, and despite himself he couldn't quite tell the nerd to shut up.

“Hey,” he interrupted, Izuku falling silent immediately. “I'm sorry I missed a couple, when we were younger.”

“It's okay!” Izuku assured him, smiling at Katsuki even though his eyes were firmly shut. “We can marathon them all next weekend!”

“It's a date, you damn nerd.”

─────

Three movies took them an entire weekend to get through, but that was mostly because they kept having to start over when they got distracted. Katsuki was apparently very good at distracting him, since he figured out that kissing was on the table.

Izuku didn't complain.

"The movies aren't going anywhere," Katsuki reminded him with a smirk, as he paused the video.

"Neither am I," Izuku pointed out with a smile. "I'm right here, Kacchan."

"I know, nerd, you always were."

"So were you, even when you pretended not to be."

There were years left to watch the movies - old ones long treasured or missed, new ones still to come, and eventually, ones that came with their own red carpets, their own names written in lights. There were years left for kisses, too, but Katsuki refused to waste a moment of them.

"We've wasted so much time already," he explained, when Izuku pushed him. "And it's all my fault."

"Not a single moment with you was a waste. Every one of those moments, good and bad, is what brought us here. I don't regret any of it."

When the first installment of the Wonder Duo franchise came out, Katsuki dropped to one knee in front of the entire hero world, watching Izuku blubber above him.

"I promise you'll never regret a moment of it," he said quietly.

"I could never," Izuku agreed.

Every moment was important, every moment brought them to that time and place - together. And every moment led to Katsuki slipping a ring onto Izuku's finger, kissing away his tears as a theater of their peers cheered and clapped.

Nerds have to stick together, after all.