Work Text:
"Why did you kiss me then?"
"It was a mistake." "
"A mistake?"
"Yeh, a mistake."
Izuku had asked Katsuki to meet him behind the dorms after classes got out. It was chilly outside and Izuku was wearing one of Katsuki's sweaters, that the explosive boy had given him a few days prior.
"A mistake? Kacchan, a mistake is exiting the wrong bus station, it's ordering lemonade instead of ice tea, a mistake is forgetting about the assigment you have due the next day. Kissing me after i confessed to you is not a mistake, it wasn't something you did "just because", it was with a reason. If kissing me after i confessed was out of pity, then i don't want it. You don't kiss someone you apparently don't love and call it a mistake, own up to your fucking actions Kacchan!"
"What the hell do you want me to say Deku?"
Katsuki couldn't say he had ever felt with Kirishima, the way he was feeling inside when seeing Izuku with his sweater.
"I wanna know why would you ever kiss me if you like him better! I wanna know why would you play with my heart, if you don't return my feelings! After every freaking stuff we have been through, you know better than to fake it with me. Why would you ever make me think i had a chance to be with you, if you were already with him?"
"It was-"
"A mistake, Kacchan?"
"..."
"Yeh..." Izuku had tears streaming down his face, a melancholic smile on his face looking down at the ground. "Kacchan, do you wanna know what else was a mistake?" He looks up at the eyes of the boy he has loved for years, engraving into mind every detail before turning his back on Katsuki for the last time. "Following you all these years, waiting for a chance, a tiny chance that you might look at me the same way i look at you every day. Hoping that i'd one day have a place in your heart as big as you have in mine."
Katsuki looks at the back of his childhood friend knowing they'd never be the same again. The sting in his eyes gets worse until the first tear falls, and all he can do is try to hold it in. He has no right in being hurt, when he has hurt Izuku so much more. He can't tell Izuku how much he loves him, for Katsuki is already taken.
Cause Katsuki got scared of how much he was feeling for his friend after they kissed, so he turned to Kirishima and kissed him in front of the whole class a week after Izuku confessed.
"My mistake Kacchan, was having you treat me as bad as you did, and still love you."
Izuku looks back, sun setting behind his green hair giving him an ethereal glow, a beautiful image of goodbye for Katsuki, for it is the last time he'll have Izuku's gaze on him beside hero assignments.
"And your mistake Kacchan, is lying to yourself about what you feel for me."
And right before Izuku leaves, he whispers, "Who knew, Katsuki Bakugou, a coward?"
And for years following, Izuku's back was all Katsuki had directed at him.