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Imagine a Beauty and the Beast kind of scenario where Katsuki is forced to remain by Deku's side because of a curse.
Katsuki has everything he could ever want in the castle, but that is not the point. He hates it there. Hates that he can't leave, hates that he has to spend time with Deku. It's a beautiful place, but a prison is a prison no matter how comfortable it is.
In the beginning, Katsuki had thought he was supposed to sleep with Deku, and didn't that almost prompt him to walk out—consequences of the curse be damned—because there was no fucking way he was going to be intimate with that beast of a nerd.
"No! God, Kacchan, no! That's... that's not required," Deku had said, frantically waving his hand. "Company! It means time in my company. That's all."
Katsuki looked at him with deep suspicion. Deku tried to smile reassuringly, despite the red that still painted his cheeks.
"I'm not gonna kiss you either," he said flatly. "If you need turning into something else, you better go find someone else right now. Cause that ain't gonna be me."
Deku gave a nervous kind of laugh. "Ah, that is part of why we are here."
"I'm NOT fucking kissing—"
"You don't have to," Deku interrupted. "The requirements of the curse will be satisfied so long as we spend enough time together each day."
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. "What's the end goal?"
"For you to love me," Deku said simply.
Katsuki snorted. "That's not gonna happen."
"That's okay, Kacchan. We have time."
Deku had smiled, like he knew something, and that had been that.
____________________
Katsuki has no real sense of the passage of time in the castle. The weather is always beautiful, the flowers always in bloom.
It isn't a hard life. The grounds are vast, and there are many rooms in the castle, each one giving him something to do. If not for the fact that he doesn’t want to be there, Katsuki would have admitted that time in the castle is... pretty okay. Enjoyable even.
He occupies himself during the day, and each night—there is Deku. They would come together just as the sun is setting.
“Hello, Kacchan! How was your day? You look amazing in dusklight.”
While Katsuki knows that he is and does look amazing in any light, and he certainly doesn’t need anyone telling him that, hearing Deku say it is kinda nice. He never returns the compliment, never even acknowledges it, even if, sometimes, he thinks Deku looks nice too.
They would eat a meal together prepared by mysterious unseen hands, then spend an hour or so, or more, in each other's company: talking, taking a stroll in the gardens where there’s life-sized chess pieces to play with, or perhaps some quiet time in the castle’s truly impressive library.
Each night, as the evening draws to a close, Deku would ask him: "Do you love me yet, Kacchan?"
And Katsuki would always reply: "Fuck, no."
Deku would smile and say, "That's okay. We have time."
It seemed to Katsuki that, some days, time was all they had in that castle.
____________________
He doesn't know why he was saddled with the curse that is Deku. It was something that happened when he was still very young. Somehow, for something he can’t remember anymore, he had found himself promised to Deku—his life and his fate tied to him, without him knowing or consenting.
Him and Deku together, walking the same path. That was their fate.
Well, FUCK FATE.
It's not even that Katsuki disliked Deku. Granted, Deku used to be pathetic and annoying, but he's not at all bad company these days. He's one of the few who could keep up with Katsuki— both physically and mentally.
And it's a source of never-ending amusement for Katsuki, how someone as powerful as Deku could be such a dork. He knows a great many things about the heroes of the land and spends an inordinate amount of the time they’re together talking about them, in tones amazed and admiring. Like heroes were somehow still out of his reach. But Katsuki knows, for a fact, that Deku holds in him enough power to ruin them all.
Katsuki can’t quite decide if Deku is weak for not using, never realizing his full strength—case in point: not forcing Katsuki to love him when he could—or if that itself is the mark of how strong he truly is. There is no need to push hard, when you can pull with ease.
"What the hell do you do all day anyway?" Katsuki asks one night, after uncountable such nights together.
Deku had been late earlier; the sun had already set and night covered the grounds before he made his appearance, rushing, babbling apologies. Katsuki had scowled to hide the relief he hadn't expected, overcoming the disappointment he had not known he would feel.
"Oh, just things." Deku quirks a smile, the shy dimple on his left cheek making an appearance. "Mostly I stay out of your way."
"The fuck?"
Deku laughs outright. "I don't want to impose too much. You spending time with me in the evenings is enough. It's already more than I ever dreamed."
"So I’m alone all day, and you’re alone all day because you don't want to impose? What kind of stupid logic is that?"
"Your company is always wanted, Kacchan. If you can stand to be with me, I would gladly have you by my side."
"Listen here, nerd, if anyone's gonna be by anyone's side, it would be YOU by MY side. Not that other way around. And I’ll tell you when I find your ass annoying, don't you worry about that." Katsuki pauses. "So what are we gonna do tomorrow?"
Deku laughs and laughs but they spend the next day, and the days after that, together.
____________________
"So, do you love me yet, Kacchan?"
"Fuck, no."
"That's okay. We have time."
And truly, life with Deku isn't so bad at all.
____________________
Katsuki always answers the same way, but the way Deku asks his question has changed over time. He had been serious at first, solemn, braced to hear Katsuki's rejection, but resolute.
Somewhere along the way, something light had seeped into Deku's questions.
"Do you love me yet, Kacchan," he'd ask, behind a spoonful of dessert, green eyes teasing, lips curved in a smile.
"Fuck, no."
And Deku would laugh. "It's okay, we have time."
Eventually, Katsuki comes to understand that Deku's words really mean 'I love you enough anyway."
____________________
Until one night, Deku doesn't ask his question.
His smiles are quieter than usual, his eyes never leaving Katsuki's face. Katsuki can feel himself being etched carefully in Deku's mind—his every word, his every action—as if Deku hasn't already written down everything there is to know about him.
The meal has long since been consumed, and they have stayed up far longer than they usually do. Deku makes no move to turn in, and Katsuki is inexplicably reluctant to do so.
His whole body is primed, adrenaline and anxiety thrumming through him. Waiting.
And just as the dawn breaks, so does Katsuki.
"Just ask your damned question already, Deku!" he spits out. But it comes out less the snarl he intended and closer to a whine.
Deku starts at his outburst, opens his mouth, but neither question nor assurance comes out. He steps closer, takes Katsuki's face in his crooked, scarred hands, wipes something wet down running down Katsuki's cheeks and presses their foreheads together.
“Every day you were with me was a gift. It was never a curse. There is no one else I would rather have walked this road with.”
“So ask your damned question!”
"I am sorry, Kacchan. There is no more time."
____________________
Half the city is burning. There are people screaming around them, in fear and in pain, in time with the piercing sirens of ambulances and fire trucks.
They've fought so many battles together, taken down so many villains, but Katsuki knows this one is different. He knows it for the chill in his gut, the tight vice in his chest, where none was before.
"There's no more time, Kacchan," Deku repeats. "I have to go." He looks down Katsuki's immobile body, and his freckled face tightens with something too visceral for a feeble word like 'worry'.
Katsuki knows he's injured, but he can't say how badly because he can't feel anything except for the cold, as shock wraps his body in its numbing embrace. And in any case, all his attention is on soot-covered-already-exhausted Deku, who plans to go and face that monster alone.
Without Katsuki by his side.
"Deku, I swear to god if you don't beat the shit out of that—If you don't come back—If you don't..." Katsuki stops, his throat closing against his words.
He hears a desperate sound and realizes it's him. Deku's smoothing his hair.
"Shhh. I'll win, Kacchan, I promise."
He feels Deku’s hand slowly leave his face, the movement lingering, reluctant. Deku tries to stand up but is stopped by Katsuki's grip on his suit. "Kacchan? I have to go."
Katsuki swallows. If this is their last time—. "Ask me your question, you shitty nerd!"
Deku's eyes widen, and he huffs a sound between a laugh and a sob. He faces Katsuki squarely.
"Do you love me yet, Kacchan?"
"You know I do," he whispers. A snarl and a gasp and a truth all rolled in one.
"I do know. But it's really good to hear you say it." Deku presses their foreheads together, presses their lips far too fast for a proper kiss. "Don't worry. I just need to kick this guy's ass first."
Deku smiles, brighter than should have been appropriate considering the situation, filling Katsuki with hope.
"Yeah, okay. We have time."
"We have time."