Timeloop Trouble

Chapter 26 - Autographs and Cat Cafes

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"Uh..."

When Shinsou had asked to meet up after school, Izuku hadn't expected them to end up in a cat cafe down the block. But here he was, having an orange cat on his lap while Shinsou tried to gain the attention of a cute black cat with little white socks on. Absolutely adorable.

"So, uh, about your support item," Izuku started, tentatively petting the cat, not knowing what to do with his hands otherwise. "I was thinking something along the lines of an amplifier combined with an alternator, so you can increase your sound range in multiple ways."

"An alternator? Like, different voices?" Shinsou asked. "I didn't know you'd be able to do something like that."

"It's complicated, for both the engineer and the user," Izuku explained. "But once you learn to work with it, you could basically recreate anyone's voice with it. That way, you can make people think they're responding to someone else, tricking them into your brainwash even if they already know they can't answer you."

"That's-"

"Oh, and I have another idea to make the design sturdier so everything stays in place!" Izuku continued. "The mechanism is going to be elaborate and needs high precision so if things move out of place due to a blow or a fall or any external pressure at all it would be a pain in the ass. But then again you'd still need flexibility since it's gonna be on your face and otherwise your jaw is seriously gonna hurt after a while, so I was thinking about lining it with a softer material shaped to-"

"Midoriya," Shinsou interrupted, making Izuku shut up. He'd been muttering, hadn't he? And that after he promised himself not to go full on nerd mode on Shinsou! "That all sounds amazing, but uh, could you slow down for me?"

"Of course, sorry," Izuku said, a little embarrassed. "I tend to get carried away when talking about things like this. Uh, I have a visual aid, too! But I don't know whether it's a good idea to put it out with, uh, these guys around."

He motioned to the cat on his lap, which hadn't moved since they sat down. Apparently that was quite impressive, since that cat didn't seem to like anyone. And so their conversation drifted away from the actual topic. They ended up talking about all kinds of stuff, and Izuku had to make sure to keep his childhood stories and memories restricted to this timeline while doing so. All in all, it was a nice afternoon with good company, tasty snacks and fluffy cats. They didn't actually talk about the support item all that much, but Izuku was sure Shinsou would be happy with what he cooked up either way, he knew him better than he realized, after all.

Kacchan, on the other hand...

"Oi, you dating that purple fucker or what?"

Izuku choked on his own spit.

"What?!"

This was not how he expected his morning to turn out. He and Kacchan always traveled from and to school together, so he expected to be interrogated about why he had to cancel on him, not for Kacchan to straight up ask him about his love life. He seemed deadly serious about it, too.

"You think I'm dating Shinsou-kun?!"

"Well? Are you?" Katsuki scoffed.

"Wha- No!" Izuku exclaimed, hoping he wasn't furiously blushing. Izuku had never thought about Shinsou that way, and he was really happy for him and Denki, too! But they weren't together yet, were they? And Izuku supposed he was rather close with Shinsou, closer than he was supposed to be at this point in time. Still, that didn't have to mean anything! Besides, his one and only real serious relationship had been with- Yep, Izuku's face was definitely heating up.

"So that wasn't a date yesterday?"

"No, it wasn't- Wait, how do you know I hung out with Shinsou yesterday?" Izuku asked.

"Guess I just know, don't I?" Katsuki told him. Ah, that was fair... "But seriously, why the hell did the two of you go to a damn cat cafe if it wasn't a date?"

"Shinsou asked me to design a support item for him since they're considering him for the hero course," Izuku sighed. "Don't tell anyone I told you, it's not official yet so I don't-"

"And you had to do that in a cat cafe, of all places?" Katsuki asked, still pissed about it for some reason.

"Why does it matter? Why do you care so much about how I spend my-" Izuku complained, realizing mid sentence that Kacchan was jealous. He was jealous! Oh my- Of course! How could Izuku forget?! Kacchan developed feelings for him way before Izuku ever picked up on them, so why would this timeline be any different? They didn't even have their rough patch in middle school this time around, so maybe... Maybe Kacchan had developed his feelings even sooner this time around..? "Are you... Are you jealous, Kacchan?"

"Tch, the hell? No."

"You're jealous!" Izuku laughed, watching the edges of his ears turn pink. "You're blushing!"

"I'm not blushing! Shut the fuck up!"

"You're blushing~!" Izuku continued to tease, poking Kacchan's side. He dodged the explosion that was thrown his way, still smiling when he ended up in front of the blonde. "There's no need to be jealous, Kacchan.You'll always be my favorite."

Izuku wasn't planning on starting anything with Kacchan in this timeline, not this soon anyway. He didn't want to risk getting too involved, didn't want to risk influencing things. He was supposed to be standing at the sidelines this time, even if he'd been meddling more than he should've lately... And he hadn't faced any bad consequences yet, so maybe... He quickly grabbed onto Kacchan's jacket, pulling himself onto his lips. A quick peck was all it was, really, but it was more than enough to convey what needed to be said.

"So, uh, no need to worry, okay?" Izuku said, voicing it more like a question than anything else. He didn't want to force Kacchan into this if he wasn't ready for it. Turns out he didn't have to worry about moving too fast, because Katsuki seemingly mindlessly slipped his hand inside of his. His clammy hands told Izuku he was nervous about it, though.

"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled, playing it off cool. "Come on or we're gonna miss our train."