From The Sidelines.

The Hideaway.

Midoriya Izuku sits in the passenger seat of Kaito Sen's car as it takes the turn onto Hina Ave., looking partially out the window as his left elbow rests on the window sill. His index fingers fidget with the skin of his bottom lip, and a song he was too familiar with was playing on the radio.

I Can't Make You Love Me, sung by the beautiful voice of Bonnie Raitt, attacked his ears.

He remembered the happiness that filled his chest the night this song played, as Katsuki slow danced with him under the light sprinkler mist. For a good week afterwards, he remembered that he would replay that song while he walks, while he studies, while he does just about anything, thinking over the lyrics and having it bring him back to that very night all over again.

Back when things were not as complicated.

Back when he wasn't as wrecked over the uncertain future he'll face with Katsuki, when he wasn't plagued by his own misery, back when the decisions he made for himself didn't fuck him up nearly as bad. And god , that was the worst part, Izuku thinks.

The fact that he did this to himself, making the same mistakes over and over. Being naive enough, 18 and desperate for a love he's wanted for so long, to continuously give in to Katsuki, to have false hope, to keep hurting himself. And then to have these realizations, just to repeat the same mistakes.

Even now, Izuku was sitting in the car of Kaito Sen, looking almost pathetically desperate for a distraction, whether it was how he's been behaving today or his need to just get his mind off of Katsuki. He knew that if he were with himself, no matter what he'd be doing, his thoughts would trail back to one person and one person only.

There's a slight twinge of embarrassment at just how desperate he likely seemed right now, brewing in his gut, but the greater feeling of despair outweighed any of that.

"Can we change the song?" Izuku's voice broke through the silence that took a hold over the car.

Kaito, grey eyes and cunning voice, looks over while driving, with a slightly raised brow, before turning the dial, "...sure."

Izuku looks down at his lap then, "Thank you."

And it's quiet for a while. The channel had switched to modern pop, and there's a slight feeling of vertigo as he's reeled back into the realization that he hasn't actually listened to modern songs in a long time. He doesn't recognize what were hits anymore on the radio.

After a moment, Kaito Sen decides to break the silence, leaning back into his seat as he drives, "So that was funny, huh," He lets out a chuckle, "I've never seen Cap look like that." In reference to Katsuki.

Izuku, already a bit on edge, spoke with seriousness in his voice, "Kaito, with all due respect," He turned to the brunette with pain in his large green eyes, "Please be quiet."

Kaito looked away as if a bit embarrassed, "I'm sorry."

But the words had already poisoned itself in Izuku's mind, and he knew what Kaito was referring to. It was that last look. That very final sequence of looks that Katsuki had on his expression as Izuku tells him:

'Don't overstep your boundaries ,' Izuku had said, looking up at the boy he loved to no end with pain in his tone.

Izuku remembered just about every detail of Katsuki's expression in that twenty second time frame between him delivering that line and him turning around to head to Kaito's car. There were three.

The first? The look on his face darkened with anger at how harsh Izuku's words were. Izuku reeled inside. Katsuki had no right being angry, when it would be the most hypocritical thing he has done, on top of every other hypocritical, just outright confusing, thing he has done. He had no right to be angry when Katsuki lost his shit whenever anyone even dares to come near him, but sees no problem when he does the same. He had no right to be angry when the words that Izuku threw at him were the exact ones that Katsuki had said first.