SO! AN ABSOLUTELY LATE UPDATE! Sorry for not doing so since I had responsibilities to attend to, I lacked motivation, inspiration, and ideas. Well anyway, I got this one out. Apologies for the long wait.

PS - This is the second to the last chapter.

The school year went by rather fast, and by now it's just a few days until December hits. It's Yuuei's holiday break, and the country is completely coated in white snow around this time of the holidays, and it makes a great excuse for staying indoors. All of the students are in their dorms, doing whatever things they could while inside the warm building.

But most notably, it has been a number of months since Izuku and Katsuki outed their feelings about each other, and none of the two have spoken about it ever since, the confessions in the back of their minds. It didn't change anything in their relationship, however; they're still the pair of best childhood friends Class 1-A knows; Izuku and Katsuki would do things together most of the time, like sparring sessions or homework helps in the case of Izuku if he needs them.

For the usually volatile blonde, there are only two people that are able to make him show his gentle side, and they are Eijirou and Izuku. Eijirou was able to get along with Katsuki thanks to his patience and literally hard skin that can withstand the blonde's explosions, then he has his hard head, which doesn't affect the redhead with the blonde's normally piercing words. And there's Izuku because of their.. history. But it's all good now, he's mending what he'd messed up back then, and they're best friends.

And speaking of the volatile blonde, he's in Eijirou's room, tutoring the redhead on his English supplementary. It infuriates him that the redhead has a hard time understanding certain things, but he deals with it because he believes Eijirou is worth putting up with; he's shown his worth to the blonde.

Said redhead is lying on his bed, scratching his head out of confusion while staring at his English workpaper.

"This is hard."

He whines at the blonde who's sitting adjacent to him, legs crossed on the bed. He groans, and points at something on the paper.

"Is everything about you thick? Just associate these symbols with a certain sound, like Kanji! Hell! This is easier than fucking Kanji!"

Bakugou growls while repeatedly jabbing at the paper, staring with furrowed eyebrows at Kirishima. Then the redhead grabs his hand and directs it away from his workpaper.

"Dude, keep doing that and I won't have a workpaper to work on!"

Eijirou chuckles while leading the blonde's hand away. Once done with doing that, he looks at Katsuki with a smile, then he looks at his workpaper, pointing at an assortment of English letters.

"So.. like this? A for.. apple? Oh! B for Bakugou!"

The redhead grins at his discovery, and he's soon swatted on his forehead by the blonde.

"How about A for asshat? But yeah, that's right. You're doing good."

Katsuki nods accordingly, pleased with the progress. In response, Eijirou grins and says a triumphant "yes!", clenching his fists victoriously. They proceed with the following letters for a few more minutes, with the blonde correcting Eijirou for mistakes or with approving grunts for correct associations. Then they reach M.

"M for.. Midoriya! Oh! Speaking of Midoriya, how're you two doing? He's your other best friend apart from me, right?"

Did Midoriya confess?

Eijirou perks up and tears his attention from the workpaper in favor of Katsuki. The blonde sighs.

"We're doing fine. Nothing's happening between us, shitty hair. Now back to your English."

Oh.

Eijirou turns back to the workpaper with a pout, but only ten seconds in he looks back at Katsuki, slightly annoying the blonde.

"Midoriya likes you, you know? As in 'like-like'."

The statement took Katsuki by surprise because he wasn't expecting Eijirou to know that; He already knew that the curly haired boy liked him. He quirked an eyebrow at the redhead.

"Kirishima-"

"I don't hate him for that! Well.. sure, I still sorta like you, but it's not a reason for me to hate him. I'm not like that."

The redhead responded by flailing his arms in front of him in defense, thinking that his statement put Katsuki on edge or something. The blonde eases up at the mention of Eijirou liking him; he still remembers his confession, and he was just so confused and tongue-tied for words.

You're just a friend to me. A good friend.

So he goes to pat the redhead on his shoulders.

"Hey, chill out. I was just gonna ask how you knew that. But it's good that you don't hate him. The little squirt's under my protection."

Eijirou lets out a surprised noise at Katsuki's statement.

"Pfft. Like Midoriya needs protecting. He can handle himself alright.. just gotta avoid breaking bones is all."

Then Katsuki's question registers in the redhead's mind. He raises his pointer finger and grins a little on realizing.

"Oh! He told me back in the ramen house. Remember that? It was just a few days after I confessed to you."

Eijirou chirped, but then his grin drooped a little at the mention of his failed confession. Katsuki noticed, and just responded with a nod and a pat to his shoulder, which lifted the other's spirits up a bit.

I know..

But Eijirou didn't understand the whole protection thing, given that Izuku is rather strong with a powerful quirk. So he went to ask.

"Is the protection a middle-school thing? You did say he was.. bullied. But how? He has like, a powerful quirk!"

Katsuki just groaned at Eijirou's statement.

"There's a lot of things you don't know, Kirishima.."

And on hearing that, Eijirou shut his lips and sat crossed-legged beside the blonde, eager to listen. Katsuki raised his fingers, and retracted his pinkie.

"First of all.. he was born quirkless. How he got his quirk, I can't fucking tell you, got that?"

Eijirou nods, understanding. Then Katsuki retracts his ring finger.

"Second, yeah, he was bullied.."

Eijirou's eyes widen a little and gasps quietly at that.

"By who? Or.. just in general?"

Katsuki nods.

"Yeah, he was bullied in general. But most of it was.. by me.."

The blonde's posture starts to arch, and he brings up a hand to his face, somewhat covering it. His voice seemed to have started to break as well due to his emotions coming up.

"That little shit said he would surpass me! Or even be by my fucking side as another pro-hero! He's quirkless, Kirishima! His stupid, unrealistic view on his life pissed me off.. I thought beating him up would send him back to reality.. and it got so fucking bad that I.. made him jump off the school roof and he.."

And here Katsuki starts tearing up angrily, soft sobs mixed with angry grunts; angry at himself.

"I crossed a line.. what kind of fucked up asshole would do that, Kirishima? A villain, that's who.."

Katsuki cries, punching the mattress below him for measure. Then Eijirou comes up to the blonde and starts patting his back, trying to soothe him.

"Hey, Bakugou. Calm down, now. That's the past.. Midoriya survived-"

And on an angry impulse, Katsuki grabs Eijirou by his shirt collar and shoves him against the wall.

"He died, Kirishima! It's just through sheer fucking luck that some special doctor was making rounds and revived him!"

Katsuki's angry intensity slowly waned as he spoke, until he's reduced to crying on Eijirou's shoulder. The redhead, still being supportive, pats him on the back again and hugs him with one arm.

"Well.. that's good.. and I guess that since you're best friends.. you're making it up to him, fixing things. Villains don't fix things, Bakugou. Besides, you not going with The League just proves you're not."

Eventually, Katsuki's sobs stop and he separates himself from Eijirou, and he wipes at his tears with his wrist. He frowns at the redhead.

"All this shit you say, Kirishima."

"Just trying to help a bro out!"

Kirishima holds his hands up in defense, still smiling at Katsuki, who scoffs and waves him off. The blonde goes back to their homeworks, and beckons Eijirou forth to finish them. He doesn't move.

"Maybe you should go see Midoriya? Hang out with him?"

Eijirou shrugs. Katsuki was about to protest, but he shoots it down since he could see a benefit in visiting Izuku. So he just crosses his arms.

"And your pitiful homework?"

"Aizawa said it's due next week so.. I got time!"

Eijirou replies, and starts grabbing his papers in front of Katsuki to organize and put away already. Katsuki grunts and stands up from the bed.

"Fine. I'll help you again tomorrow."

The blonde walks towards the door, but before he could get out, Eijirou stops in front of him and holds out his fist in front, grinning.

"See you tomorrow?"

Katsuki eyes Eijirou's held out fist, and a little grin forms on his mouth, and he reciprocates the fist bump and heads out. Eijirou grinned even more, and starts waving the blonde farewell.

"Thanks Bakubro! Have fun with Midoriya!"

"Yeah.."

Katsuki nods and says quietly at Eijirou before shutting his door, and heads towards Izuku's dorm which is a few floors below.

Katsuki knocks three times on Izuku's door, then he remains standing there, thinking about how to spend his time with the curly haired boy.

Yeah, some time with the idiot should be good.

"Oh! Coming! Just a sec!"

Izuku's voice rang through the door, followed by the thudding of footsteps that got closer and closer as the boy got closer to the door. Izuku fumbled around with the doorknob before being able to open it widely, seeing Katsuki. The curly haired boy smiles.

"Kacchan! What brings you here? Uh, don't you have a study session with Kirishima?"

"He pestered me to go see you, so I'm here. Gonna let me in or what?"

Izuku's just dressed in his light green t-shirt that says "T-shirt" in Katakana, and some black sweatpants. He steps aside, still smiling, to let Katsuki step inside his All-Might laden room. Once the blonde is inside, Izuku closes the door gently, and Katsuki sits on the curly haired boy's bed, with said boy sitting beside him.

"Well, Kacchan.. what do you plan on doing?"

Izuku asks the blonde, who responds by looking at him with a gentle gaze, yet his brows are furrowed.

"Got any new games?"

And Izuku lights up, eyes widening at Katsuki before he goes to his gaming console and grabs a few game cases on top of it. Once he has them, he goes back to Katsuki and lays out the cases in front of him; arcade games and a shooter that Kaminari let him borrow.

"I have these. Wanna try them out?"

Katsuki grunts, and nods with a smirk. He taps at the shooter game's box.

"I'm so gonna beat you."

Hours later into the night, and well into the final game Izuku brought out, Katsuki has beat Izuku in every single game they've played. Whether they're competing against kills of each other or competing in regards to the best score of each level, Katsuki aces them all.

However, for this certain level in one of their one-on-one matches, they're at a tie for their score, and only have a few seconds remaining. Whoever kills each other first, will win for this level.

"I will beat you this time, Kacchan!"

"No fucking way! You'll be the one to die, Deku!"

The way Katsuki spoke seemed to trigger some memories of him and Izuku. He spaces out in shock, those moments appearing right before his eyes as a flashback.

If you want a quirk so damn badly, just throw yourself off the fucking roof and hope you get one in the next life...!

DIE!

"Wait! No!"

Katsuki screams as a vision of Izuku jumping off the roof of their elementary school building comes to his vision, followed by bursts of the scene afterwards; Izuku, head burst and bloodied, and notably dead.

Meanwhile in the real world, Izuku is able to one-shot Katsuki while the blond spaced-out, and the round ends, with Izuku as the victor. The curly haired boy jumps in glee at his victory, winning by one kill over Katsuki, who had killed him many times prior; Izuku's avatar teabags Katsuki's for added hilarity.

"Yes! I beat Kacchan at least this one time!"

Yet Katsuki is still stuck in his vision, amplifying his state of panic. He's currently seeing plenty of dead Izukus and what-if scenarios if he was never revived. They all disturbed him.

"Deku!"

On hearing Katsuki's shout, Izuku realizes it's not about the game anymore. Surprised, he drops his controller and goes up front of Katsuki, who looked pained.

"Kacchan?"

He starts shaking Katsuki from his shoulder, and after a little bit of doing that, to his surprise, tears start to roll down the blonde's cheek. Slowly, Katsuki snaps out of his vision, and slowly turns his head to look at the well and alive freckled boy. Izuku starts to worry.

"Kacchan? What's wrong?"

Katsuki's eyebrows deepen as more tears went down from his eyes.

"You're supposed to be dead.."

On hearing that, Izuku turns to his impulses. He goes to latch onto Katsuki, wrapping his arms around him and patting his back gently. Izuku rests his head on the blonde's shoulder, sighing softly. The blonde responds by hugging him back tightly, and they stay like that for a little while, with only Katsuki's ragged sobs being the ambience.

"I'm not dead, Kacchan. I'm alive."

Izuku lifts his head off Katsuki's shoulder, and goes to look at the blonde's tear-wracked face.

"See?"

He smiles warmly at the blonde, and is surprised when Katsuki's hand lands on his head, and starts ruffling his fluffy hair gently.

Soft.. real..

Katsuki starts to frown as he ruffled the other boy's hair, who laughed quietly because of it.

"That must've been the shittiest thing I've done to you, huh?"

Izuku just frowns up at Katsuki, and ruffles back the blonde's hair, his frown turning into an amused smile.

"Your hair is soft, Kacchan."

This is nice..

Katsuki makes no attempt to swat his hand away, and just frowns at him.

"Don't change the subject, nerd. Answer me."

Izuku sighs, but continues ruffling Katsuki's hair.

"Well yeah.. what you did was really bad.. but I'm ready to forgive and forget if you are. But I don't think I can forget.. because that is what drove you into um.. this? I wouldn't be able to ruffle your hair if that never happened.. I guess, every cloud has a silver lining?"

Katsuki responds by intensifiying his ruffling of Izuku's hair. Izuku makes an amused noise in response, and falls into Katsuki lap. The blonde is half-amused, and continues to ruffle the other's hair. He stops after a little while, and Izuku makes himself comfortable on the blonde's lap.

"So you could say that you wanted to die just for this shit?"

Katsuki's wording made Izuku frown a little.

"I would've preferred it if we could've stayed friends from the very beginning.. when we were kids? That I didn't have to die just for us to be friends from your.. hatred of me."

Izuku thinks of the moment Katsuki fell into the river, the moment that changed how Katsuki viewed him forever. Still lying on the blonde's lap, he reaches out towards his face with the same hand that he tried to help him up with. He tries to elicit a little smile.

"I just wanted to help."

Katsuki just stares at the hand outstretched to him, thinking that Izuku is trying to provoke him again, but a little voice on the back of his head starts talking.

He's not trying to prove anything. He's your friend.

...

If he was trying to be better than you he wouldn't have jumped off that roof.

On impulse, Katsuki grabs the hand and slowly twines his fingers with Izuku's, and he presses their hands on his forehead, breathing slowly.

"Being labeled a villain.. what a fucking disgrace. Idiots.."

Izuku sits up from his position and goes to hug Katsuki with his free arm, humming pleasantly.

"No need to beat yourself up over it, Kacchan."

Katsuki grunts in response, and he releases their hands before lightly flicking Izuku on the forehead with a frown.

"Tch. How about I beat you up instead?"

On hearing that, Izuku grabs the box of a fighting game and shows it to Katsuki.

"You can try, Kacchan."

Katsuki grins and grabs the game box from him, and he goes to eject the console's current disk and inserts the fighting game's in it. He grabs his controller and Izuku's, and tosses the latter to the freckled boy.

"Oh I will definitely beat you this time."

The pair played games until past midnight, when they've tired each other out with Katsuki being the victor the majority of the time. After putting away what needed to be put away, Izuku goes to lie down on his bed while Katsuki stood over him, getting the last game box and putting it away before going back to his room.

"Kacchan? Aren't you tired?"

Izuku yawns after speaking, and he rolls around on his bed while still looking at the blonde. Katsuki smirks at the interesting sight.

"Yeah? What's it to you?"

Izuku taps his opposite bedside. The blonde raises an eyebrow.

"Sleep here?"

At the very mention of sleeping in the same bed with Izuku, Katsuki thinks of storming out immediately, but then the confession on the back of his mind pops up to the front of it.

Should be a good time to sort this shit out. It's the weekend anyway.

And Katsuki recedes to Izuku's offer, albeit a bit reluctantly. He slips into Izuku's All Might themed blanket while the other goes to turn off the lights. After that, Izuku goes into his own bed with Katsuki, feeling happy and lightheaded.

Sharing a bed with Kacchan..

"Night, nerd."

Katsuki says briefly, then ruffles Izuku's hair before turning his back on him. Izuku lets out a happy hum as he shuts his eyes.

"G'night, Kacchan."

As usual, reviews are appreciated.