A Chance Encounter (Chapter 3)

Izuku watched eagerly as Katsuki took his first bite, waiting in anticipation for his reaction to come. It made Katsuki feel weirdly awkward, like he’d suddenly become self-conscious about his chewing, and it took every ounce of willpower that he possessed to not yell at the nerd or punch him for it.

He gave a faint nod as he swallowed, and thankfully Izuku seemed to deem that an acceptable answer, grinning as he picked up his own container and got stuck in.

Katsuki hated to admit it, but the nerd was right – he was actually a pretty decent cook. The beef was tender and juicy, perfectly cooked, and the spice in the curry sauce was just right, not to mention all the fresh vegetables he’d thrown in for the nutritional benefits. He wished he could find something to criticise, just to feel more like himself, but even the rice was perfectly soft and flavourful, not the cheap white stuff that had no nutrients and turned into mush when it mixed with the curry.

“So do you wanna talk about the sexuality thing?” Izuku prompted.

Katsuki almost choked on his food, clapping a hand over his mouth to keep it from coming out and quickly swallowing before the coughing started. Izuku gave him an apologetic look, reaching over to thump him on the back just in case, and Katsuki flailed for his water bottle to wash it down.

“Sorry,” Izuku smiled softly, when Katsuki was back to breathing steadily. “Was that too sudden?”

“No shit,” Katsuki huffed, leaning back in his seat and letting his eyes fall closed. “At least wait until I’m not eating, you bastard.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Ugh.” Katsuki pouted, folding his arms. “Like what?”

“Huh?”

“What do you want to talk about?”

Izuku smiled again, his fear and apologies gone in an instant, and Katsuki cracked an eye open to peek at him. There was something so comfortable about him, so peaceful – he must have had this conversation a thousand times, compared to Katsuki, who hadn’t even said the word out loud until the night prior.

“You said you’ve known since we graduated?”

“Pretty much,” Izuku agreed. “It was only a few weeks after, it explained a lot about the way I think and everything.”

“Mm,” Katsuki sighed, eyes darting away again. “I’m still kinda learning, I guess.”

“It takes time,” Izuku agreed. “Especially if you’ve been telling yourself you were one thing for a long time, and now you have to kind of readjust to another thing. You thought you were Pan, right?”

“Yeah, it was the closest I’d gotten. Since um, I didn’t care, you know? About gender and stuff, either was fine.”

“Do you know about romantic labels, yet?”

Katsuki didn’t answer. For all his progress over the years, he still struggled to admit when he didn’t know or didn’t understand something. Izuku knew him inside and out, though – he didn’t bother waiting for a confirmation.

“I guess not, okay. It kind of helped me adjust, I think. I’m Ace because I don’t feel sexual attraction, I’ve never had like… The desire to be with someone in that way, you know? But I still like people, I like dating and stuff, I think it would be nice to have a partner I could cuddle with and go out with and everything, it’s just tough when everyone else wants more sex than I can deliver on. I’ve dated Ace people of course, met a few through forums and things, but it’s hard to find someone that’s both, you know? Someone whose company I enjoy, and is Ace.”

“That’s a thing?” Katsuki mumbled, cheeks a little warm. “I guess I… Hadn’t gotten that far.”

“Yeah! I had a lot of trouble letting go of the bisexual label after I’d worn it for so long, but biromantic and asexual was a lot more comfortable than just dropping it entirely.”

Katsuki nodded, staring at his hands as he contemplated. The nerd was right, changing labels and admitting he’d been wrong about himself for so long was… Weird. Uncomfortable, somehow. As much as he liked the new one, it was still hard to get rid of the old.

“Panromantic asexual,” Katsuki mumbled, catching a glimpse of Izuku’s grin out the corner of his eye. “Yeah, I think… I could get used to that.”

“You can always give me a call if you want to chat. I know it’s a weird time, you’re still a little Baby Ace.”

“Shut up.”

Katsuki knew all too well that there was no bite in the words, only confirmed by the way Izuku laughed at him happily, well-accustomed to Katsuki’s snappy remarks. After a minute, though, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, sliding it across the little fold-down tables so it rested in front of Izuku.

“Gimme your number or whatever,” he mumbled. “I only have your social media shit, and god knows neither of us use those.”

“I don’t know where anyone finds the time,” Izuku agreed. “I barely find a moment for messages, let alone the rest of it.”

“Yeah.”

He typed it in obediently, double-checking it was all correct before he sent himself a message. Katsuki glanced over when Izuku held his own phone up, rolling his eyes when he saw “Kacchan” lighting up the screen.

“Never gonna grow out of that, huh?”

“Never,” Izuku agreed, tucking his phone back into his pocket. “You’re stuck with me, Kacchan.”

“Whatever, Deku.”

─────

“What do you mean none?” Katsuki scowled, as the woman at the counter shook her head apologetically. “Not even the expensive seats? Or standing room?”

“I’m sorry Sir, there’s been an accident on the line, none of them are running. Some of the local trains are going, but they’re on reduced capacity, you might not get all the way to Sendai tonight. You could check with the overnight bus, but they’ve had a long queue today with all the cancellations too.”

“Ugh,” Katsuki ran a hand through the back of his hair, contemplating. “When are they gonna be back up and running?”

“There’s emergency repair work happening overnight, we hope they’ll be running again late morning.”

“Can I reserve a spot now?” he asked, flashing his hero license at her across the counter. “I need to get home for work.”

She paused for a moment, and Katsuki could practically see the gears whirring in her brain, her fingers twitching at her paperwork.

“One of the expensive seats,” he added. “The ones that never fill up.”

“I can arrange that,” she agreed finally. “I’ll give you a reservation form, you’ll need to give us a contact method, so we can let you know what time.”

“Sure.”

She pulled a sheet of paper from the drawer, printed with the same reservation information he’d filled out online a few times, and watched as he quickly scrawled out all his details. He knew even without her saying it that she was doing him a favour she probably shouldn’t have been doing, but he also knew people were inclined to do that for highly ranked heroes. He tried not to call them in too often, in case he took a hit from karma or whatever, but on the rare occasions he deigned to use his license, he knew it would most likely work in his favour.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, sliding the page back to her, the box for “departure time” left conveniently blank. “I really appreciate it.”

“My pleasure,” she assured him, smiling softly. “Thank you for everything you do.”

“Happy to help.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out the sliding doors, letting the next person in the long line take their turn and try their luck. To his surprise, Izuku was still waiting when he got back, leaning against a wall and scrolling on his phone.

“What did they say?” he asked, eyes darting toward the giant “cancellation” lighting up the information board. “Any luck?”

“Shit out of it,” he sighed. “Meant to be running again late morning.”

“Oh no! I guess you could try the local trains, but they’ll be so crowded you might not even get home, it would suck if you got stranded in some random town with no hotels or anything. Maybe the overnight bus? But I guess that’s probably booked up by now too, and you’d have a rough day at work after that trip and not sleeping properly. You’d have to take the day off, but if you’re taking the day off anyway, you could just stay here and go back tomorrow on a comfortable train ride. Do you want to stay at my place?”

It took Katsuki a minute to realise the mumbling had ended with a question, blinking at him a few times as he tried to parse all the mutters.

“My place,” Izuku repeated knowingly. “You can stay over and go back in the morning.”

“You don’t have to, I can just get a hotel or something.”

“No, I insist! I actually got a two-bedroom place just so I’d have room for friends to stay over when they’re in town! Hotels are so expensive, come make yourself at home!”

“In the middle of Tokyo?” Katsuki snorted. “You rich fuck.”

“It’s small,” Izuku laughed. “But it’s only a fifteen minute walk from here, and the move-in fees were insane but the monthly rent isn’t too bad. I mean, more than yours I’m sure, but for Tokyo it’s not bad.”

“Fine, let’s see it.”

“Okay!”

Izuku lit up in that familiar way Katsuki had seen all his life, and for a brief moment he caught himself smiling back. It had been a long time since he’d hung out with the nerd, he’d actually… Kind of missed it.

Izuku chattered the whole way to his apartment, pointing out restaurants he liked and landmarks where he’d beaten up various villains. He even waved and called out greetingsto a few people they passed – not just kids who looked up to them as heroes, but doormen and security guards outside of various businesses and hotels. Trust the nerd to get to know everyone he passed in the area – Katsuki didn’t even know the name of the security guard at his own apartment building.

Sure enough, after fifteen minutes of it, they reached a tall building painted white and grey, stepping into a pleasant little lobby and heading for the elevators. Izuku scanned a keycard, hitting the button for the eleventh floor, and they stood in silence as it carried them up through the building.

“There’s only a few apartments on each floor,” Izuku explained, when the doors slid open on a short hallway. “We’ve got two two-bedroom places and a one-bedroom on this floor, so it’s nice and quiet. There’s a young couple in this one here, an older couple and their teenage son in the middle, and I’m down the far end.”

He followed Izuku down the quiet corridor, watching as Izuku unlocked the door and stepped aside, waving Katsuki in first. He didn’t bother to argue, just walked in and pulled off his shoes, setting them neatly out of the way and waiting for Izuku to join him.

“The toilet is down the end there,” he began, without waiting for Katsuki to ask. “Bathroom on the right, and everything else is through the left. Go on in.”

Katsuki nodded, stepping through an open doorway to find a surprisingly big main room, far from the Tokyo-closet he’d expected. There was a small kitchen beside him, the living room straight ahead, sparsely furnished with a sofa, a low table, and a television hung on the wall.

“It’s not much,” Izuku said sheepishly, stepping by to show him the area. “Just somewhere to eat and relax and sleep, you know? The balcony is big, so that’s nice for laundry. Your room is through the sliding doors down here, if I need more space I can just open them up to make it a bigger living area, see? Isn’t that cool? And my room is through the door by you, it’s a little bigger and has closets so I went with that one, I’m kind of sad they weren’t the other way around though, I would have liked to just keep my room open with the rest when I’m home alone.”

“Why?”

“It just feels bigger that way, I think? And it seems kind of silly wasting space on doors when I’m home alone, it’s not like I need to keep anyone out.”

“I lived in a studio apartment for two years. Trust me, doors are great.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that a lot,” Izuku chuckled. “I shared a bigger place with three other sidekicks for my first year, I’m just glad to have a place to myself now. Not that you’re not welcome, of course! I love having friends stay! It’s just different when they’re people you barely know.”

“I get it,” Katsuki assured him. “Um, thanks for having me.”

“My pleasure! Come visit me any time you want!” Izuku grinned, snatching his hand to drag him beyond the doorway. “Make yourself at home! Oh, and come see my room! You’ll like this!”

Katsuki stuttered a little, unable to find the words to argue over the hand-grabbing, letting himself be dragged into the larger of the two bedrooms to look around.

It was much more what he expected from the nerd, compared to the bare living area. Bookshelves littered with merch and notebooks, mostly, and a big bed against one wall.

“See?” he beamed, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “I found these at a pride festival I went to, aren’t they cute?”

Katsuki finally understood when Izuku picked up the stripy decorative cushions that sat among his pillows, cracking a smile when Izuku held them up gleefully.

“Yeah,” he agreed finally. “That’s cool.”

As he looked around, he began to notice a little more – the grey steel bed frame, the white sheets and black blankets, the pops of purple in the art on his walls. It was subtle, for sure, something most people wouldn’t have even picked up on other than maybe being surprised by the lack of green, but it was also… Tasteful. Katsuki wasn’t sure he’d ever associated that word with Deku before.

“I know it’s kind of silly,” Izuku smiled awkwardly. “It makes me feel good, I guess. Like I belong somewhere, there’s a group of people just like me.”

“It’s not silly.”

“Thank you.”

“I uh, have a couple of Pan and Bi things. Nothing this big, just little keychains and stuff. But yeah, I have them. I haven’t really looked into Ace stuff yet, it’s still pretty new to me.”

Izuku stood up from his bed with a smile, opening a drawer in his night-stand and rummaging around a bit until he found what he wanted. Katsuki could only watch silently as Izuku reached for his hand again, and when he looked down, he saw a wide band of those same coloured stripes, Izuku tying it neatly around his wrist.

“Now you do,” he grinned, when Katsuki shook his hand slightly to watch the band move. “It’s not much, but now you’re officially part of the club.”

“Thank you,” Katsuki said quietly, surprising even himself with how sincerely it came out. “I, uh…”

“I know,” Izuku assured him. “You’re welcome. Now come on, come put your stuff down, and then you should call work and let them know what happened. And your parents, too. They’ll worry if you don’t tell them you got home.”

“Fine.”

“I’m gonna call work too, let them know I’ll be in late tomorrow.”

“Haah? You don’t need to babysit me.”

“I’m not babysitting! I’m spending time with my best friend!”

Katsuki resisted the urge to point out that his best friend hadn’t seen him in nearly three years, settling instead for rolling his eyes and conceding a nod – it wasn’t like he could stop the guy, Izuku was one of the few people who would do what he wanted regardless of what Katsuki said.

“Fine,” Katsuki huffed. “Do what you want.”

“I will!”

“I’d better go call work.”

“Yeah,” Izuku grinned, waving him toward the guest bedroom. “Get settled in. I’ll make coffee?”

“Sounds good.”

“See you soon!”

“I’m only gonna be in the next room, nerd.”

“I know,” Izuku laughed. “But I’m happy you’re here.”

He stepped into the spare room, setting his backpack down beside the door and dropping onto the bed. It was squishy, soft and comfortable, and Katsuki lay back for a moment with a sigh. He reached for his phone, unlocking the screen to find his boss’s number, smiling faintly when he saw the new contact in his list. He considered changing it to Shitty Nerd but decided to give him a pass, since he’d deigned to save himself under Deku rather than insist on his actual name.

With one last sigh, he sat up, selecting the right contact and hitting call.