Chapter 9

"What the hell was that, Icy-Hot?!" Bakugou screamed as he threw Shoto forward into his room, making him tumble against the bed.

Shoto slowly stood up and brushed himself off, "Did I out you? I'm so sorry, I'm not any better than Mineta if I did that… I had to think of a lie on the spot." he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Bakugou sighed in response, "No, you didn't out me. Hell, my Old Hag knew I was gay before I even had a clue. You just caught me off guard, is all."

Shoto only nodded in acknowledgment.

He just hopes he didn't make Bakugou aware of his crush.

…

Katsuki was still insanely flustered from what Icy-Hot said. 'I wish it were true.' he thought to himself. But he knew after how he'd been treating him that it would never be true.

He watched as Icy-Hot sat on the bed, "We should probably call each other some kind of pet name while you're staying here." Katsuki said.

"How come?" Icy-Hot asked, tilting his head to the side like a puppy.

Katsuki did his best to not physically display how adorable he thought that was, "To sell your lie that we're a couple, obviously."

"Should I call you Kacchan? Like Midoriya does?" He asked.

"Anything but that."

"Then what about Katz?" Icy-Hot tilted his head again.

"No." Katsuki replied immediately. Why can't Icy-Hot pick a nickname that somebody he actually LIKES uses?

"But you said-"

"NO." He interrupted.

Icy-Hot frowned, "Katsu-kun?"

"You know what? Just call me Katsuki, your other nicknames suck ass." Katsuki sighed.

"Okay. What's my nickname?"

Katsuki only needed a second to think about it, "Sho."

"Sho?" Icy- no, Sho, raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Katsuki nodded.

"Ochako calls me that." Sho smiled slightly, which made Katsuki's heart flutter like a monarch butterfly was trapped inside.

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes before Sho spoke again, "You know, this scenario reminds me of a book I read called 'My Fake Boyfriend'."

"That book sounds stupid." Katsuki replied gruffly.

"It's not. It's about this boy that keeps being pestered by his parents to get a romantic partner, but since he doesn't want one, he just asks the classmate he thinks would fit his parents' ideals to pretend to be his boyfriend. The boy is from an upper-middle-class family and has good grades. He invites him to a family dinner to show off so that his parents stop nagging him. In return, he also goes to the other boy's house to trick his parents too. But the second dinner backfires when he gets kicked out by his father because of it and ends up having to stay at his fake boyfriend's house. And then they slowly fall in love. The end." Sho explained rather poorly, as Katsuki started to get confused about which boy was which.

"Again, that book sounds stupid."

Sho frowned slightly at his response and stopped talking.

"Anyway, I'll go grab the guest futon and some blankets for you." Katsuki said before walking away.

Why did he have to insult a book that his crush seemed so passionate about? Yeah, it did sound stupid, but he didn't need to say that. And even though he thinks it's stupid, that doesn't mean other people think it's stupid.

All of this thinking about his actions started to make Katsuki's head hurt, so he stopped thinking about it.

He quickly grabbed the futon and the blankets from the towel closet and headed back to his room.

When he got there, he found Sho fast asleep on his bed. Katsuki sighed and placed one of the blankets he'd grabbed over Sho.

He sat next to him and placed a small kiss on his forehead, "You've had such a long week and it's all my fault," he whispered.

Even if he was wasn't awake to hear him, Katsuki knew he needed to say this.

"I love you, and… I'm sorry."

…

Shoto tried not to open his eyes at what Katsuki said. Truthfully, he'd woken up when Katsuki sat down. Shoto was a very light sleeper due to his childhood of abuse and so called 'training'.

Katsuki loved him? Why? Shoto was dense and impulsive, he cried like a child when everything he was raised for toppled in on him with one little change. He wasn't really the loving type, but then again, neither was Katsuki.

Shoto would have to figure this out during his stay.