Deku's Extraordinary Playlist - Chapter 1

Certain scenes of this fic (you'll understand soon) come with songs to match. It can of course be read without, but for best effect, click the spotify link when you reach it and play the song in the background as you read ^^ Unfortunately Spotify will probably autoplay more songs after it ends, so be ready to stop/pause it when the song ends! If you know a better way of doing this please let me know. And please tell me if any of the links don't work etc!!

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Over the years, the former Class 1-A students had spent many a night at karaoke bars, downing far too many drinks and singing terribly at the top of their lungs. It was always a good time, a space where no one passed judgment on song choices, singing abilities (or lack thereof), or the rather high amount of alcohol their friends imbibed. It was a place to laugh with friends and drown their sorrows, to get away from work for a little bit, and it had quickly become a regular event that Izuku couldn’t have appreciated more – couldn’t have gotten so high in the hero charts without, in all likelihood.

The only person he’d never heard sing, in all that time, was Katsuki. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised by that, Katsuki wasn’t exactly the type to let loose and make a fool of himself, he had too much pride to let anyone see him at anything less than a hundred percent. Honestly, the fact that he even showed up to the events was staggering, Izuku had never even considered questioning why he didn’t get more involved in them.

For some reason, that was the thought that crossed Izuku’s mind when he went tumbling through the air, crashing through a wall and into a thankfully evacuated office building. Not because of some weird regret that he hadn’t heard it before he died, not because he was sad he might never have one of those nights again, no… Because for some insane reason that Izuku couldn’t begin to piece together in his mind, with the way it throbbed and ached from the impact, Katsuki began to sing.

With a villain at his back threatening to level the city, Katsuki sang.

The song was familiar, but Izuku couldn’t place it – he’d never been the best with music in the first place, let alone with his ears ringing after smashing through a building.

Seriously. What the hell was Katsuki thinking?!

His hand reached toward Izuku, his face softer than Izuku had ever seen it before, but it wasn’t out of fear or concern for Izuku’s well-being, wasn’t even to help him up – it was too far away to be practical for anything like that. It was like one of those moments when a singer on stage was so overcome by emotion that they started moving, gesturing, like they couldn’t keep it contained in their body. Almost like they were dancing along to their song, only it was more subtle, less scripted. On a stage, Izuku never questioned it – that was just what singers did, right? – but on a battlefield?

Apparently Katsuki was going insane.

Or Izuku was?

He had to stop to consider that thought, as Katsuki got closer, his words echoing through a strangely quiet street - really strange, considering there was a villain fight going on. Honestly, Izuku was never going to get past that.

So yeah, he had to be going insane. He’d been knocked out in the impact, and this was some kind of weird coma dream. Or he was hallucinating from the concussion. Did concussions cause hallucinations? That seemed like something he should have learned long before it became relevant, especially considering exactly how many concussions he’d had in his lifetime.

And Katsuki was still singing. Some low, slow, sappy lyrics about “coming together” and “until the end of time”, as if he were a man with a guitar serenading his soon-to-be-wife.

Wait.

Was Katsuki proposing? Was this his idea of romance? A set-up with a fake villain so he’d have the chance to confess his undying love through a song about hitting each other or being hit for each other or something like that? He was sure Katsuki would be on his ass later for not paying more attention to the words, but-

No, he wasn’t going to say it again.

Actually, fuck it, yes he was.

They were in the middle of a fight with a villain and Izuku just got thrown through a wall.

Was Katsuki really that clueless? He’d set up some kind of fake fight complete with real wall throw just for a proposal?

No, Katsuki was smarter than that.

...Wasn’t he?

There was also the fact that they weren’t dating but somehow that was secondary in Izuku’s mind – it was pretty typical of Katsuki to jump straight from zero to a thousand, but it wasn’t like Katsuki to have someone throw Izuku through a wall.

Well, unless it was him doing the throwing, but-

No, he had to stop over-analysing this. It wasn’t the time! The villain was going to-

Dance?

A few metres beyond Katsuki, the villain and his two hostages had their arms linked together, slowly swaying back and forth to the music. He was pretty sure he even heard the villain, in his shredded, bloody outfit, harmonise with Katsuki at one point.

So it was fake.

Then why the god-damn wall?!

He’d seen flashmobs before - mostly online rather than in person, of course - so he was more than familiar with the concept of getting a group together to surprise someone with a song and dance routine, but everything about the situation just screamed not the time to Izuku. He was fairly certain that Katsuki would agree with him, that he took his job seriously enough that something like this wouldn’t even be on his radar, and yet… Here they were.

Maybe his friends had put him up to it, as some kind of… Confession.

It kept coming back to romance, in Izuku’s mind. He supposed that was mostly due to the lyrics he was barely registering, the few words he caught standing out as way too romantic for Katsuki in general, so maybe it was his friends setting it up? Maybe Katsuki really did like him, and his friends had planned out this whole elaborate… Thing. Katsuki had just been dragged along for the ride, swept up in his perfectionist sense of doing it right and being impressive. That sounded a little more plausible.

Other than it still boiling down to Katsuki having a crush on Izuku. That bit he just couldn’t reconcile in his mind, it made no sense. Even less sense than the fact that they’d probably caused millions of dollars in property damage during the potentially-fake fight in the lead up. Katsuki wasn’t that uncaring, right?

Maybe the city block was scheduled for demolition?

God, he was really grasping at straws.

As quickly as it came, the song was over, a guttural scream making him wince as it exploded through his head.

“Deku!”

He blinked twice, hard, prying his head up from the rubble to see the fight raging once more, Katsuki dodging a swinging blade as he shot desperate glances over his shoulder, searching for any sign of movement as he fought for his life – both of their lives.

“I’m okay!”

Izuku’s yell was a lot quieter than he’d planned, but Katsuki seemed to hear it all the same. He stopped looking back, paid more attention to the explosions he was finally throwing again, covering Izuku’s slow, pained ass as he wiggled his way out of the mess he’d made.

So, coma dream it was. Of course it hadn’t been real, how stupid would that have been? He was knocked out when he hit the building, had a stupid dream, and woke up to Katsuki shrieking at him a few minutes later. Made perfect sense!

Well, other than why they hadn’t moved in those few minutes he was out, but maybe that was just a weird perception thing – dreams didn’t last the same amount of time you were asleep for, right? So he must have had the whole weird dream in the few seconds it took for Katsuki to react, it all had a perfectly logical explanation, and Izuku was particularly fond of those.

Come to think of it, Katsuki’s scream wasn’t exactly something he heard every day, either. They’d seen each other in danger a thousand times, had panicked and made poor decisions in the moment almost as many. Katsuki had always been the quiet one, though. The one who grunted or gasped but quickly turned his attention back to the problem at hand. Izuku had always envied that about him, the way he kept a level head in stressful situations where Izuku would have been screaming give him back or don’t touch him. That was them though, and they worked. He’d never imagined having such a good working relationship with another hero. Even growing up, when he silently hoped that Katsuki might come around and work with him, he’d never dreamed that they’d be able to understand each other so perfectly, be able to communicate so flawlessly without ever saying a word.

Honestly, that might have been the reason their friendship had gone so up and down over the years. They were so good at reading each other; they practically read each other’s mind at times, if their friends were to be believed – but when it came time to actually use their words, like adults, to actually talk to each other, they just… Had no idea how. Battlefield thoughts were one thing, but misunderstandings? Concerns? Regrets? Apologies? Those were a whole different ballgame, and it was one that neither of them was very good at.

They’d improved though, Izuku thought. At least, he hoped they had. They were more inclined toward actual conversation these days, despite Katsuki’s penchant for speaking in as few words as possible. He would never use ten words if one could do the same job, even if he sometimes came across as rude for it.

So for him to scream Izuku’s name like that was… New, to say the least. Katsuki reacted to him getting hit, sure, but he’d never seemed so frantic before. Maybe he really did care about Izuku getting thrown through a wall (even if he had spent the first few minutes singing instead of checking on him). Katsuki really did care, in his own slightly-weird way. Izuku knew that, deep down. Sometimes, though, even if it was because of a potentially major injury, it was nice to hear him be concerned.

Was that mean? That was probably mean.

A burst of cold ran through Izuku’s body, and he looked up to see a shimmering ice wall tower before him, blocking his view of Katsuki’s fight. For a moment he was upset by that – he wanted to see, wanted to help – but then a familiar figure went sailing over the top, more ice erupting from his feet, and Izuku knew he was in good hands. Katsuki could have finished it off on his own, probably, after the damage he and Izuku had dealt together. Having Shouto there with him was more than enough to get it done, even if he had another random flash mob moment in the street – Shouto would snap him out of that in a hurry, he had no tolerance for that kind of weird nonsense.

Footsteps grew louder, rushing toward him, then a voice rang out from somewhere to his left.

“Deku-kun!”

Izuku cracked a smile, turning his head slightly to see Ochako climbing into the wrecked building, her arms quickly wrapping around him and sapping all the weight from his body.

“Deku-kun, are you okay?”

“My head is a little fuzzy,” he admitted faintly, smiling to himself. “I’m okay.”

“I’ll get you to the medics right away, just stay with me.”

“Thanks, Ochako. You’re a good friend.”

She navigated him out into the street, toward a waiting ambulance, and Izuku’s smile stretched a little wider as he looked up at her terrified expression, fuzzy beneath a strange grey cloud.

“Ochako?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for not singing.”

His world turned dark.

When he woke again, it was to a pleasant, gentle sound beside him, his eyes cracking open on white curtains surrounding him and a soft pillow cradling his head. With a lot of effort, he managed to turn to look, smiling faintly when he found a scarred face looking back at him. It took him a moment to realise that it wasn’t a radio playing nearby, but the man beside him who sounded so warm and comforting, his eyes staring at Izuku’s bandaged hands as his lips moved softly.

“Shouto?” Izuku asked, smiling. “Is this the hospital?”

Shouto didn’t seem to hear the words, too busy singing to himself – although his eyes stayed locked on Izuku’s, which was… Strange, to say the least.

He didn’t know the song, but it seemed… Sweet, he supposed. All about staying by his side no matter what, which actually made a lot of sense considering how often he seemed to wake up in hospital beds with Shouto sitting beside him. He could always count on his friend to be there when he woke up, ready to bring him anything he might need as he healed. Katsuki had a more hands-off approach, putting in double shifts at work to make sure Izuku didn’t need to worry about his patrol areas going unprotected, or protected by… Less capable heroes. They were such different people, his best friends, but he loved and appreciated the way they each looked out for him in their own way.

Shouto’s eyes were so wide as they looked into his, so sincere and almost… Pained? He seemed so genuine about the words, about Izuku being the only one he cared about in that moment. If Izuku's fuzzy brain was doing the math correctly, that had to mean Shouto and Katsuki both got out unscathed, and that was certainly good news. Izuku breathed a sigh of relief, settling in to let Shouto have his fun, to wait patiently until he was done singing.

It wasn’t until he heard the words hold your hand that he startled, eyes widening and every muscle in his body tensing up as Shouto looked straight into his eyes and told him he would do anything just to hold his hand.

Izuku had never known Shouto even felt that kind of emotion. He’d always just figured the guy was some form of, or maybe many forms of, asexual or aromantic. He’d never expressed any interest in love or romance, not even a joke about it, so why was he suddenly singing a confession at Izuku’s bedside?

“Shouto, we should talk about this,” he said gently. “If you’re just… Joking, or if this is stuck in your head, or… Please tell me now, before I make a fool of myself or… Or accidentally ruin our friendship or something.”

Still Shouto didn’t react to his words in the slightest, staring straight at him unnervingly, and it took Izuku a long moment to remember what had happened before his hospital visit.

“Kacchan did this too, is this some kind of prank? I never expected you two to plan a prank together, I’m glad you’re such good friends! But really, it’s getting kind of- Shouto, please, say something that isn’t a song lyric?”

He watched, pained, as the curtains opened, but instead of a doctor or a friend coming to end Izuku’s misery, he found a whole chorus line waiting for him beyond the fabric. Three nurses, a doctor, even a patient in a wheelchair, and another with three limbs in casts, all humming along with Shouto’s tune as they slow danced with their partners. It was the single most unnerving thing Izuku had ever laid eyes on, including Katsuki singing on a battlefield with a villain as his back-up dancer.

That was it, he was clearly still in the coma, there was no other possible explanation for it.

He slowly shrank into his blankets as it continued, Shouto’s hand constantly tracing patterns around his on the sheets, as if there were some kind of barrier keeping them apart, preventing him from touching.

Come to think of it, he’d woken up with Ochako or his mother holding his hand in the past, but Shouto had never done that. He was less intimate than the others, sure, but it still seemed like one of those things that just kind of happened, in hospitals. Was Shouto so afraid of touching him? So uncomfortable with the concept? Maybe he was just scared of hurting Izuku further, considering how much of a beating his arms had taken over the years. That was probably more likely.

In fact, maybe that explained all of it. Well, the song part, not the singing itself. He just wanted Izuku to wake up and get better so they could-

Okay maybe it didn’t make that much sense.

“Shouto, thank you for being here,” he tried again, refusing to look at the dancers behind him, still twirling circles around the bed like they did it every day. “I really appreciate you always being here to keep me company, even if I’m passed out. It’s really sweet of you, you’re such a good friend.”

From the sound of it, friend wasn’t what Shouto cared about.

No, that was impossible. Shouto would never.

“Izuku?”

His head darted up, making him cringe a little with the sudden movement, only to find the curtains drawn once more, and Shouto looking at him with wide, innocent eyes, as if nothing had ever happened.

“You’re awake,” he said softly. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks for always being here,” Izuku choked out, his smile a little forced. “Do you uh, always sing to yourself while you’re with me?”

Shouto gave him a puzzled look, pointing at himself with one finger as if there was anyone else present that they could be referring to.

“I wasn’t singing,” Shouto informed him, so sincere that Izuku would have believed him in a heartbeat if he hadn’t seen and heard it with his own eyes and ears. “Are you hearing singing?”

“Not anymore, but when I woke up, you were…”

He trailed off when Shouto’s eyebrows dropped a little, shaking his head slightly.

“You just woke up, Izuku. Seconds ago. Your eyes opened and I said ‘Izuku?’ and then- Then we had this conversation. Did you dream about me?”

“Maybe I did,” Izuku grimaced, running a clumsy hand through his matted hair that seemed to still be full of dirt and blood. “I’m sorry, it’s been a weird day.”

“I understand,” Shouto said solemnly. “If there’s anything you need, you know I’m here for you. Are you thirsty? The nurse brought water by earlier.”

“Ah… Yeah, actually, water sounds good. Thank you.”

Shouto nodded again, pouring him a cup and holding it lightly between his hands.

“Would you like it hot or cold?”

“Cold, please,” Izuku laughed. “You always manage to cheer me up so quickly.”

Shouto cracked a little smile, chilling the cup in his hand before he passed it over, and Izuku sighed faintly when he’d swallowed – the cold water felt so good on his throat, what would he ever do without his friend?

“Can I ask you a strange question?”

“Of course,” Shouto nodded. “What’s on your mind?”

“Do you ever… Like people? You know, like… Romance and dating and stuff?”

“Of course.”

“Really? I’ve never heard you talk about it. Are you dating someone?”

“No,” Shouto smiled faintly, his expression surprisingly soft. “The person I like doesn’t like me back, it’s not worth dwelling on.”

Izuku’s chest tightened, his smile wobbling a little, but thankfully Shouto didn’t seem to notice.

“So you told them, then? And they said no? That’s sad, I wish you’d told me so I could help.”

“I haven’t told him. I know he isn’t interested, it’s not worth ruining our friendship over my unrequited feelings.”

“How do you know he’s not interested if you haven’t asked?”

“He’s in love with his best friend, it’s not a secret to anyone.”

“Oh,” Izuku breathed a short sigh of relief. “Well, I’m sorry. Maybe we can find you someone new, together. When I’m out of here. I’ll help you find the greatest guy in the world, and you’ll live happily ever after.”

Shouto chuckled, and Izuku could only stare at him, listening to the rare sound.

“Thank you, Izuku. That sounds nice.”

The moment was broken instantly by a door slamming open, bringing loud bickering along with it, and Shouto’s expression changed just as quickly. Looking much more impassive, he reached to pull the curtain open, rolling his eyes when the familiar faces looked their way.

“Keep it down, Bakugou,” he sighed. “He’s right here.”

Other than a sling on his left arm, Katsuki looked completely unscathed, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile at him when he rushed over to start fussing. He pinched at Izuku’s cheeks a little too hard, let cold air into the bed when he threw the sheets off to get a good look at all Izuku’s wounds, and got warnings from three different nurses about calming himself down before they called security, but still Izuku couldn’t help but laugh.

“Kacchan was amazing out there,” he gushed. “You looked so cool keeping those hostages safe. Thank you for getting them home when I couldn’t!”

“Shut up, nerd! You were unconscious. How the hell would you know if they even got home safely?”

“Because it’s Kacchan! Kacchan always wins!”

Katsuki huffed, his cheeks tinged faintly pink, and Izuku could do nothing but grin up at him, pleased to see him so lively and so himself despite his injury.

Shouto was in love with someone who wasn’t Izuku, despite his song, which meant Katsuki’s song had to be fake, too. Just the weird ramblings of an unconscious brain that probably needed to go on a date once in a while – he was so deprived of romance that he was imagining his best friends confessing to him! Maybe he’d tell them all about it later, when things calmed down and his mother was no longer sobbing behind the pair as she waited her turn. They’d probably get a good laugh out of it, even if they’d make fun of him, too. Maybe they could have another of those karaoke nights he’d been reminiscing about in what he thought might be his last moments. That would be the perfect place to laugh and tell them about his dumb brain.

That could wait, though. For now, he had a mother to comfort, and a lot of friends to contact and let them know he was safe. They had all the time in the world to laugh over his confusion.