The next day didn't start as expected, because Aizawa, Present Mic, and Recovery Girl strolled into the dorm at five in the morning, knocking on every door with the announcement of: SURPRISE WINTER TRAINING.
With only thirty minutes warning to get ready and pack, Izuku paused, holding the flat, hand-sized, wrapped box. He didn't let himself consider too long. Turning to unearth his winter jacket, Izuku crammed the box in his back pocket and finished up in his room.
Puzzling over Kacchan's words last night, Izuku shut his door behind him and took the stairwell down. What had he meant, that Izuku already knew? Izuku knew a lot of things, but how their relationship functioned and what Kacchan felt about it was not on that list.
Kacchan...
Cared. Of that much, Izuku was confident. Kacchan never did a thing he didn't want to do, nor did he pursue something in which he held no interest.
What Kacchan felt and thought about Izuku aside from desire and, dare he say friendship, Izuku didn't know. But if there was one thing that Izuku had, it was tenacity and stubborn concentration. He would keep pushing. Nothing could dissuade him of that.
"-did your tree go?" Izuku caught Aizawa saying as he entered the room with a giant camping bag on his back. Freezing at the outskirts of the majority of students, Izuku scanned the room for Kacchan and found him nowhere to be seen.
"Oh," Iida said, his voice stiff, his smile robotic with half of his face twitching in a fib. "We just – it's rather u-uncouth to keep a Christmas tree up after Christmas... Isn't it?"
Aizawa's face remained deadpan.
"Sure, kid. What's that, though?"
He looked up slowly.
The entire class hushed their intermingling conversations and begrudgingly dragged their attention to the hole in the ceiling, its crackling drywall and paint still drifting dust down from time to time.
"That's –" Iida said, his face going white as he began to short circuit from dishonesty. "Th-that's – that's –"
"Don't hurt yourself," Aizawa said blandly, already walking away. "I really don't care as long as no one's dead. Even then, it's not at the top of my list. Everyone, get your shit on the bus, take a piss, and find a seat. It's a couple hour drive."
Izuku approached Iida with a pat on the back and an encouraging smile.
"You handled that well."
Iida mechanically looked down at Izuku. Sweat beaded is brow.
"That was terrifying."
"Sorry," Izuku said apologetically, his small frown pursing his lips. "It's my fault for getting into it with Kacchan."
"You're not the one who blasted off. No one is blaming you."
Uncomfortable with that, Izuku shrugged his backpack around, his hands gripping the straps, worrying them with the tightening of fingers. He looked down.
"No, they should. Him and I have some things to work out. We both play our part in riling each other up."
"Midoriya," Iida said, his expression relaxing, his pallor returning to normal as he rested a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "If there's one thing I have seen time and again, it's that the only one who can touch or hear Bakugou's feelings, is you."
"Hands off, Glasses," Kacchan said, barging right between them, swiping Iida's touch away with a wave of his arm. In the same motion, he wrapped his fingers around Izuku's wrist and hauled him away.
