Chasing Tinkerbelle (BakuDeku)

39 - The Truth And Brothers' Interrogation

"I'm not going to keep apologizing," Katsuki said, pulling to a stop in front of a large colonial house.

"I don't want you to," Izuku said distractedly as he continued to stare out the window, not really seeing anything as he kept running the conversation he'd had with Shindo through his head.

Shindo was wrong. At least, he wanted to believe that his best friend was wrong, but maybe...

"If you don't want me to keep apologizing, then what's wrong?" Katsuki asked, reaching over and taking his hand into his. "What's wrong, Tinkerbelle?"

"Besides the fact that you beat the shit out of my best friend?" he asked with a small sigh as he shifted his attention down to their hands.

"Besides that," Katsuki said, waving it off like it was no big deal and making his lips twitch.

"Do you think... " he started to ask, only to shake his head and look back out the window. "Forget it."

"No," Katsuki said softly as he gently gripped his chin to turn his head, so that he was looking at him, "I'm not going to forget about it when there's something bothering you, sweetheart."

Izuku looked up into Katsuki's warm crimson eyes and sighed. "Do you think that I have a habit of treating guys like they're my brothers?"

"Yes," Katsuki said with absolutely no hesitation as he gave him a reassuring smile and his hand a small reassuring squeeze.

"I don't do it on purpose," he mumbled, wondering why he'd never realized this before.

"I know that, Tink," Katsuki said soothingly.

He shook his head. "I can't believe I never saw it before. I always thought... "

"That it was the other way around," Katsuki said in understanding as he gave his small hand a light squeeze and gently tugged him up on his knees so that he could pull Izuku onto his lap.

"Yeah," he mumbled as he laid his head against Katsuki's chest and sighed pathetically.

"You give off a brotherly vibe," Katsuki said, nodding slightly, "that much is true, but you play it off. You use it to push away men, but I don't think you're doing it on purpose."

"Then why am I doing it?" he found himself asking as he took Katsuki's hand into his and began tracing circles on his palm.

"Because you have absolutely no idea how to tell a guy that you're not interested in him. So instead, you friend zone him by acting like you're his baby brother," Katsuki said, pressing a kiss against his forehead.

Izuku shook his head. "There were a lot of guys that I really liked, Kacchan, a lot of them that I could have really fallen for and-"

"And they're your best friends now, aren't they?" Katsuki asked, guessing correctly.

"Yes."

"They weren't for you, Tinkerbelle, and on some level, you knew it."

"What about Monoma?" he asked softly.

"What about that prick?" Katsuki asked coldly.

"Shindo said that I treated him like a brother, an unwanted brother, but I still encouraged him. He was a jerk, selfish and I... I didn't love him, but I was still prepared to spend the rest of my life with him," he said, feeling his cheeks burn with mortification at the realization that he'd been willing to marry someone that he didn't like, never mind, love.

He was pathetic.

"You were settling, sweetheart. That's all. Don't try to make more out of it than that. You met some nice guys, but you couldn't force yourself to want more from them and then you found an asshole who didn't care how you saw him. You'd been driving men away for so long that you were willing to settle even for an asshole."