To Love, To Lose, To Leave

Chapter Fourteen

Thursday (Class 3-A)

Katsuki is early to class. Not a surprise at all, really. Even before they moved to the dorms, he's been always one of the first ones to make it to class.

That's one thing the war didn't change, at least. Katsuki's time management always has been and always will be effective as hell.

Nobody else was in the classroom except for Glasses and Ponytail—Iida sat quietly at his seat, attention wholly and solely focused on the notes in front of him. Momo sat at Aizawa's desk, a stack of papers beside her. She'd grab one, seemingly skimming through it, before marking something on the page with her pen, before setting it aside and taking another paper from the stack.

Vice president duty shit, probably, Katsuki muses to himself. Sensei's always fucking hated doing paperwork—

The door of the class opens.

Katsuki hates the way he stiffens at the sight of green hair and freckles.

Izuku.

Katsuki's heart clenches, bordering on pure fucking pain at that thought.

Fucking hell. When did it happen, that he stopped thinking about him as Deku and started thinking of him as Izuku, the name sounding soft even in the silence of his thoughts.

As Deku made his way to his seat behind Katsuki, his eyes remained religiously glued to the floor, not even once glancing up at Katsuki.

It's like I don't even fucking exist to him anymore.

At the sudden burn pressing at the back of his eyes, Katsuki bites down on his tongue. No. He will not fucking cry about this. He's already been a sobbing baby for days. That's more than fucking enough.

Izuku didn't want him anymore, and there was nothing Katsuki could do about it.

I wasn't fucking enough, in the end.

Katsuki shakes his head. Dammit, no, he wasn't supposed to keep thinking about this, he—

The door of the class opens, and Katsuki's never been more alert than he is right now, looking at Jirou.

Her messenger bag is slung over her shoulder, phone in her hand as she twirls her prosthetic Earjack around her finger. She glances up, and Katsuki is already getting up.

The ringing in his ears turns sharp and loud as she shakes her head, holding up her phone.

I'll text, she mouths out.

Katsuki hesitates for a moment before sitting back down, eyes solely fixed on her until she made her way to her seat, placed her bag on her desk, and sat down.

Katsuki quickly pulls his phone out of his pocket, setting it down on his desk in front of him. The screen briefly flickers open and—

Ah.

Katsuki's lockscreen is a photo of him and...

Izuku.

Deku.

It was their six month anniversary, when he took the photo—the two of them had just finished spending the day at the amusement park, riding the subway back to UA after it had gone dark out. Deku had basically fallen asleep the second they sat down on the train, head leaned back again the window and mouth open, a line of drool falling down to his chin.

Unbeknownst to the shitnerd, Katsuki had taken a selfie, a wicked grin on his face as his free hand poked at one of Deku's freckles on his cheek.

"Ugly," he'd murmured after taking the photo, carefully wiping away the drool from Deku's face and shifting his head to rest on his shoulder for the rest of the ride home.