#angsty pining

i was gonna get more then one done today, but life happened lol

anyway. this one was hard for a number of reasons. i haven't seen WHM yet, so all the information i have is based off the trailer but muted (i watched it in class), a couple rody gifs, that one picture of bakugou looking hot, and the wikipedia summary of the movie.

i tried my best.

i also don't like the romantic jealousy trope. like at all. i like jealousy as an angst factor during the pining stage, or as a possessive kind of thing, but i've never liked it as a catalyst for confessing or as anything seriously relationship-affecting. i don't like those things where someone gets jealous and then gets all mad and loses it. so i changed this one up a bit to something i liked writing better. it still follows the prompt of course, the trope is just switched up :)

despite that, i hope you still enjoy!!

----------

Katsuki hates planes. Not because he’s fucking weak, but because they’re cramped and he’s claustrophobic. Damn PTSD. Katsuki takes absolutely no pleasure in being crammed against the wall of the plane with Todoroki next to him and Deku next to Todoroki. Sure, it’s nice to get the window seat, but not when Todoroki is basically breathing down his neck and Deku seems to be off in space somewhere. Katsuki frowns, trying to pay attention to the song playing in his headphones. But he can feel Todoroki looking at nothing over his shoulder, obviously wanting to talk to Katsuki.

Katsuki pulls off his headphones and glares. “What.”

“Some fight, wasn’t it?” Todoroki asks, “you did well, Bakugou.”

“I don’t need your fucking pity,” Katsuki snarls, despite knowing that Todoriki isn’t pitying him. He’s just too tired to talk about this fight right now. Especially with how spacey and off Deku’s been since they got on the plane. Deku hasn’t said much since he said goodbye to Rody before leaving for Japan, and Katsuki doesn’t really know how to feel about that.

Rody Soul is a perfectly nice guy, and Katsuki thinks that jealousy in general is one of the stupidest human emotions in existence. But he’s been jealous of everything that touches Deku since the day he realized that’s the emotion he was feeling, not intense hatred. And now Katsuki has better things to worry about than the regret constantly nagging at him, like becoming the number one hero. Or dealing with fucking Todoroki.

“It’s not pity,” Todoroki responds, “you seem upset. I’m trying to help you, but I’m not doing it right. Should I challenge you to a fight? That usually works for you-”

“We’re on a goddamn plane, you idiot,” Katsuki rolls his eyes, and then clicks off his seatbelt (yes, he wears it even when the seatbelt sign is off) and roughly pushes past Todoroki, shoving Deku with his leg. “Move, Deku. I gotta piss.”

“Oh,” Deku snaps out of his daze, “sorry, Kacchan.” Deku moves his legs, and Katsuki walks to the back of the plane, shutting himself in the tiny ass bathroom. Now he feels even worse, the stuffy feeling too similar to slime. But he does have to piss, so does as fast as he can before covering his ears as he flushes (plane toilets flush really fucking loud). Katsuki washes his hands and pushes open the door as quickly as he can, practically inhaling the slightly less stuffy air of the hallway, and almost hitting Deku in the face.

“Shit!” Katsuki stops the door from slamming into Deku, “the hell are you doing here, Deku? There’s another bathroom down the hall, dumbass.”

“I just wanted to check on you,” Deku shrugs, “you’ve been kind of...off this whole plane ride. Since we got to the airport, actually. Are you okay, Kacchan?”

“Am I okay?” Katsuki snorts, “you’re the one who’s been spacey as fuck. That fight must’ve taken a shit ton outta you, huh? And leaving that fucker with the bird.”

“The what-” Deku furrows his brow, “oh, Rody? Yeah, I’ll miss him a lot. But hopefully the next time we get a break from school I can go visit him-”

“I didn’t ask, Deku,” Katsuki mutters, starting to walk away.

“You literally did-” Deku protests, “seriously, Kacchan. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Deku,” Katsuki snarls, “stop asking and go back to whining over your one hundredth best friend, who’s probably gonna visit you first, since everyone loves you-”

“Kacchan,” Deku crosses his arms, eyes narrowing, “you're being an ass. What is your problem?”

Katsuki blinks, always taken aback when Deku stands up to him, but not upset like he might have been when he was younger and stupid. Now, Katsuki appreciates that Deku’s willing to put Katsuki in his place. So Katsuki breathes, in and out, then sighs. “Nothin,’ Deku. Shouldn’t have fuckin yelled like that. It’s uh, it’s a good thing you’ve got friends. And...it’s a good thing I ain’t one of ‘em.”

Deku’s gaze turns understanding. “Kacchan, you know that you’re my friend, too, right? We’ve fixed our relationship enough that we are-”

“I used to be your best friend, though,” Katsuki spits childishly, regreting it immediately.

Deku’s face contorts into something like pity. “Oh, Kacchan…”

“Not that I fucking care or anything!” Katsuki yells, taking a few steps back. But Deku grabs his wrist before he can go anywhere, keeping Katsuki in place. He’s silent for a bit, biting his lip as if pondering something.

“You’re right, Kacchan,” Deku finally says, hand loose around Katsuki’s wrist, giving him the option to leave. He doesn’t. “You’re not my best friend.”

Katsuki’s heart drops. He hates himself for it.

“You’re more, Kacchan,” Deku finishes, and Katsuki’s eyes widen, “you’ve always been more. To be honest, Kacchan, I...I like you. Like, like like you.”

Katsuki snorts before he can stop himself, simply from the juvenile confession. Deku’s looking at him with something like hope in his eyes, as well as anxiety manifesting itself in Deku’s now bone-crushing grip on his wrist. Katsuki just stands, processing Deku’s statement. Deku...likes him. Even after all the bullying. Even after meeting a million better people for him. Even after Katsuki basically admitted to being jealous over a perfectly decent guy.

Maybe, Katsuki admits to himself, he’s been jealous this whole time not only because he wants to be Deku’s best friend, but because he also wants to be just Deku’s.

“Huh,” Katsuki says out loud, “I think I fuckin’ like you too.”

“You’re one of those girls from the island, right?”

Toni leans in, wants to kiss her, wants to override any thoughts of any island before they can pull her under. But the girl whose name she has forgotten since they left the party an hour ago, holds her off. “Your face was all over the news three years ago.”

Maybe, if she were just a little less desperate, she could stop herself from doing this. Chasing any hint of a southern accent, any blonde who knows she’s pretty and has known it her whole damn privileged life.

The girl stares at her. She’s an inch or so taller. Light-colored eyes that could be green as long as long Toni doesn’t really pay attention.

“I’m not,” Toni says. “That story was a hoax.”

She is three years in the future and there is no island, no ocean, no starvation. No sharks and trauma and experiment. No Shelby Goodkind, who put more than twenty-two hundred miles between them, dead to Toni, like everything else that happened there.