A Communication Error - Part 2

[Part 1]

“Aren’t you cold, Uraraka?”

Katsuki knew better, he really did, but he still looked up on pure reflex, hearing the nerd’s voice. Uraraka was standing over him, spotting his bench press, dressed in the tiniest outfit Katsuki had ever seen – if she’d told him she’d forgotten to put her gym gear on and had walked out of the changing rooms in her underwear, he wouldn’t have been at all surprised. Her shorts were practically non-existent, barely more than the bikini bottoms he’d seen all the girls wearing in the summer, and her crop top was more crop than top, just a thin band around her chest with tiny straps to keep it from falling down, not that it mattered much considering she was spilling out the top anyway. It was a good thing she seemed to have zero interest in actually working out, that day, because Katsuki was dead certain that something would have popped out if she’d tried.

Katsuki had respected her, for the longest time, for actually caring about being a hero and working hard at it, but apparently the hormones running rampant in their classroom had made her forget about all that. What a disappointment.

“Nope, I’m fine!” she said brightly, smiling down at him on the bench. “It’s hot in here today!”

Katsuki was glad that Izuku wasn’t likely to need a spotter, because Uraraka was decidedly not doing her job when Izuku pushed the bar back up, too busy drooling over his biceps. Clearly Izuku had taken Katsuki’s words to heart, because he’d spent the whole session getting back on his arm game. Finally.

“All good, bro?” Kirishima asked, when he caught Katsuki staring. “Uraraka has really stepped up her flirting game, huh?”

Katsuki just raised an eyebrow, and Kirishima grinned, shaking his head fondly.

“I’m kidding, Bakugou. I know you don’t look at girls like that.”

“Whatever.”

Katsuki forced his mind back onto his workout, ignoring the incessant bad flirting that was going on across the room. He even pointedly ignored the way Todoroki stood shirtless in front of the mirror, dead still and silent, waiting for Izuku to look over before he flexed awkwardly. And when they were finally dismissed from the gym, he all but bolted, grabbing his stuff from the changing room and escaping before the madness could start up again. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have sworn there was some kind of weird quirk going on, making them all act even more idiotic than usual.

Wishful thinking, he supposed.

When he’d showered and changed in the privacy of his own dorm room, he braved the downstairs again, surprised to find it was relatively quiet, not the mess he’d been expecting. People were trickling back in the doors, just a few at a time, but Katsuki’s eyes darted up when he heard that familiar voice – it wasn’t even intentional, something about the voice just drew his attention every time, curious what nonsense the nerd was up to this time. In his defence, with the amount of stupid plans Izuku had enacted through their time at high school, it was probably some kind of self-preservation instinct at this point.

“We’re gonna have a little jam session,” Kaminari was telling him, slinging an arm around Izuku’s broad shoulders. “We’ve been working on some cool new stuff, you wanna hear?”

“Yeah,” Jirou agreed, nudging Izuku lightly. “Come up to my room, you can let us know what you think, I know you’ll be honest with us.”

Oh god, even Jirou was at it? And from the sound of it, his stupid classmates were teaming up now, who did they think Izuku was?! There was no way something like that was going to work on him, of all people.

“Sure!” Izuku said brightly. “I’m not sure how much I’ll have to offer, but I always love to listen! And I can always tell you which parts were the most exciting or the coolest to me!”

“Perfect!” Kaminari said, grinning. “I’ll bring the snacks, too, and we can hang out and make a fun night of it!”

“That sounds fun! I don’t hang out with you two enough!”

“Tell me about it, you gotta join us more often!”

Katsuki groaned quietly and wondered if he should warn the nerd or something, but he couldn’t bring himself to start that whole, stupid conversation. He’d probably be too oblivious to notice them making a move anyway, and Jirou at least had the good sense to not do anything too forward without Izuku’s permission, even if Kaminari was a dumbass who would probably sit himself in Izuku’s lap and grind on him. Honestly, even then Izuku might not realise what was going on.

“Hey, let me come too!” Sero insisted, shoving himself into the little cluster. “I wanna hang out with you all as well!”

He slung an arm around Izuku’s waist, sandwiching him between himself and Kaminari, and despite Izuku’s face flushing, he giggled at the attention. Katsuki felt his stomach churn when he saw it. Izuku hadn’t exactly gotten the most positive attention growing up, after all, so it was probably just the universe finally setting things straight. Katsuki couldn’t really begrudge him a bit of stupid flirting, if it made him feel seen and loved.

It wasn’t like Katsuki could give him that attention, after all.

[Part 3]