Year old Bkg birthday Drabble I never posted? Hell yeah!!!!!!
It's mid-April, around the beginning of their second year at UA, when Bakugou realizes somethings up with Izuku.
After knowing the guy for years on end, it’s hard to pretend not to notice the signs. His hands twitch and fumble with nervous excitement as he packs up after class and he bounces both of his knees during dinner in a way that reads as cute to Bakugou's heart but annoying to the rest of his body being forcibly shaken alongside the seat.
He’s anticipating something. Something happening soon. But what is it? For that, he has no answers.
Throughout the week, Izuku is smiley, chatting with both his regular nerd-friends and Katsuki even more enthusiastically than usual. It's a tad unnerving. Izuku feels abundantly alive, but his behavior bares no answers for the why behind it all.
So Bakugou goes to bed Friday night the same as he has the rest of the week. Curious but unworried, now resigned to asking him in the morning as bluntly as possible.
—
When he wakes, it's not to his usual 9am alarm. It's not to the other typical perpetrators either, like his dumbass classmates being noisy downstairs, or deciding to vacuum their rooms at fuck-o’clock, and its not even at the fault of his thrice a week scream-inducing nightmares.
When he wakes, it’s 8:26am, and Deku is knocking at his door in that certain way he always done, a soft bumbum-bubu-bum echoing through the room.
He can hear snippets of humming and the squeak of his dumb red shoes against the hallway's hardwood floor, ever recognizable and painfully Izuku. Katsuki barely bothers to shuck on a tank top before opening the door, still wearing the ratty old gym shorts he's had since middle school.
At the squeak of hinges, Izuku perks up, dark green curls swaying with the motion of his head.
“Kacchan!” he calls. It's said with such clear joy and affection it causes the edges of his mouth to curl embarrassingly fast.
“Izuku.” he answers, voice soft and scratchy from the early wake-up call. He may go to bed before the rest of the class, but Bakugou has never been a morning person. He’s still half-asleep and covered in the sweat he furiously washes off every morning.
Normally he wouldn’t allow anyone to see him so out of order, but he supposes there are exceptions to everything.
Izuku begins to ramble, bouncing on his heels rhythmically, “I know it’s early for you- but I wanted to make us breakfast! And I figured you'd want to take a shower and get dressed before eating downstairs and I know Kacchan takes 10 minutes each to shower, dry off, and get dressed, so I tried to time everything perfectly so that it's still nice and quiet in the common room by the time we eat.”
It's no surprise to him that Deku has memorized his morning routine, and Katsuki has always been rather pleased with himself for cutting down everything so perfectly.
Bakugou simply nods, grumbles out something vaguely affirming-sounding, and shuts the door. He’ll wake up in the shower, and by the time they’re downstairs he’ll feel enough like a person to dignify Izuku with a proper conversation. Probably.
Efficient as always, he cleans himself up and heads to the common room, overhearing Izuku muttering to himself while he awkwardly meanders around the kitchen.
“Are you sure you know what you're doing?”
“WAH-cchan!” Izuku startles, “You’ve been jumpscaring me everyday since we finished those stealth lessons.”
Bakugou snorts, “It’s ‘cos you're too reliant on danger sense. You need to learn to pay more attention to your surroundings. I'm being helpful, really.”
“All you’re being is a pain in the ass, Kacchan. You’re lucky todays special, else I would’ve tackled you halfway across the room by now.”
Katsukis nose wrinkles in confusion. “Special?”
Izuku whips around to face him, mouth opening and closing in shock. Bakugou thinks it makes him look like a hungry koi fish.
“Kacchan, it’s your birthday!”
“Oh, yeah. Forgot.”
Deku splutters, face flushing in his bafflement.
“I know you don’t usually make a big fuss about your birthday, but this is an extra special one! I haven’t been able to celebrate with you since.. well,” before the bullying began goes unsaid, but Bakugou hums in understanding.
Deku turns back around, attending to the pans scattered across the stovetop, refusing to accidentally burn their meal through his own inattentiveness like he's done in the past.
“I told the rest of the class not to crowd you with congratulations, but they’ll probably end up swarming anyway once they’re all awake. Luckily for you, we won’t be here by then.” Izuku says, a self-satisfied smirk painted on his lips, just barely visible from the angle he stands at.
“Oh yeah? What plans you got in that big brain of yours, Deku?”
Izuku shuffles around, turning off the stove and bringing plates down from the cupboard, “Hiking, mainly. There's this restaurant all the way up near the peak, and according to my sources the food is fantastic. Plus, the owner has this amazing long-distance teleportation quirk- it's how she gets all the ingredients up there!”
Bakugou taps his foot and toys with a stray spike of hair, “Y’gonna quiz her on the details?”
“Kacchan- of course not! That would be rude,” he pauses “unless she offers to share, but I doubt it.”
“If ya just asked, she’d probably spill her whole life story. Not many citizens would deny a request from the Hero Deku.”
Izuku sets the plates- now filled with sticky rice, chinese sausage, and steamed egg- down, “I’m pretty sure that's an abuse of power, Kacchan.” he admonishes. Katsuki waves his hand flippantly in response, pulling up a chair.
“It better be a damn good restaurant, oversharing owner or not.”
—
It is a damn good restaurant, and the view from up top is incredible. The hike would have been arduous and, frankly, more exhausting than fun had they been regular hikers. Katsuki and Izuku are not regular hikers, and they’re able to chat and poke fun at one another all along the way up without an inch of exhaustion.
Katsuki manages to weasel information about the owners quirk from their server, and it satiates Izuku's curiosity enough for him to stop squirming in excitement-anxiety-interest. They leave a hefty tip as compensation for their obnoxiously loud bickering– and the scorch marks Katsuki accidentally burned into the table during the loud bickering.
Katsuki is preparing for the hike down when he feels a sudden and familiar pressure around his waist. He barely has the time to turn around before he's thrown up into the air by blackwhip. Instinctively, he rights himself, and spots Izuku similarly airborne from float.
“Raceyoutothebottomkacchan!” he shouts, already shooting off like a rocket from the power of OFA.
Katsuki tsks. “Warn a guy before you launch him off a cliff next time, asshole!”
The rush of adrenaline, the burning drive of competition, the harsh wind stinging his eyes as he blasts his way down- Katsuki can think of no better way to end a day than this. With his competitive spark ignited, he pulls ahead of Izuku by a few feet.
“Catch me if you can, Deku!”
Izuku smiles, all teeth, and chases after him. Katsuki can taste his determination, electric and ever consuming.
Then, they crash into each other at the bottom.
—
After the fiasco on the mountain, the wonder duo agree to take a shower as soon as they return. They reek of sweat, dirt, and teenage boyhood. Gross.
Katsuki is finishing off towel-drying his hair when he’s dragged downstairs by a giggling Kirishima. He’s greeted by the sight and sounds of class 2-A, all squeezed into the living room. Most wish him a simple happy birthday before leaving to attend to their own matters. The bakusquad linger, hanging off him and showering him with praise and mocking alike.
He expected his classmates to make a huge racket and throw up a billion cheesy decorations, but it seems they actually listened to Izuku's advice and kept the whole event relaxed and restrained.
The lights are dimmed and the remaining crowd- Izuku, Mina, Eijirou, Denki, Jirou, Sero, and Uraraka- shuffle into an awkwardly oblong circle around him. They light colorful trick candles that aggressively drip wax onto the cakes frosting and, briefly, everything is warm and beautiful.
Then they start singing. Katsuki wishes he left his hearing aids upstairs.
Moment thoroughly ruined, cake platters are cut and distributed quickly afterwards. There's pleasant chatter; granted it's mostly compliments about the cake and inquiries about its origins directed towards Mina. Bakugou listens, but does not participate. He’s comfortable and surrounded by people he (mostly) enjoys. It’s almost criminally easy to drift off, the exhaustion from the day sealing his fate.
It's probably the best birthday he's had in a long time, but there’s no fucking way hes telling them that.
