Thread by @DarklingM

Aizawa Shouta does not like Yamada Hizashi.

He's everything Shouta isn't, and not in that 'opposites attract' way--he's too talkative, too energetic, too loud even outside his quirk. And *with* his quirk? God, the last thing he needed to be is *louder*.

But he's trying to.

Because as much as he tries not to, he ends up hearing gossip sometimes, and this was all over the school--Yamada came out as bisexual. Shouta has known he's gay for years, even if nobody else knows.

This makes them the only two out queer boys at UA.

There might be others, but Shouta doesn't know who, and he's not good enough with people to try to figure it out.

So if he wants a boyfriend? Yamada looks like his only option.

So he tries to look at him in a new light, as a potential boyfriend.

In some ways, it's not hard. He's attractive enough, in some ways. Most hero students at least have nice bodies, so he's got that going for him. He's not the most muscular, more on the lean side, but Shouta can see that being attractive.

But his face? It's...well, it's not good. His eyes are weird, one eyelid drooping sometimes, and his eyebrows are tiny and constantly knit together, making him look like a nervous greyhound. His mouth is comically wide and he's always opening it wider. He looks like a frog.

Maybe he just doesn't have to look at his face too much. People close their eyes when they kiss, right?

Thankfully, he doesn't think he's shallow enough that Yamada's lackluster looks are going to be a huge problem.

It's mostly his personality.

But he's been watching all his classmates pair up in various ways and figure out dating and romance. It's what you do in high school, what you learn, just like they're all learning to be heroes. He doesn't want to graduate behind in life.

So Yamada it is.

It's not hard to get closer to him. For some reason or another, Yamada has been trying to be his friend since the first day of school. Maybe just because they sit next to each other, and his need to talk is so great that he can't wait for a more suitable conversation partner.

So all Shouta has to do is start responding to his constant advances. This makes Yamada *overjoyed* which would be great if it didn't come with yet another volume increase, but he endures that.

So now they talk. Yamada invites him to eat lunch with his friends, and he accepts.

And then one day Yamada leans on his desk like he's started doing and starts talking as usual, and Shouta makes an effort to pay attention despite how inane the boy's chatter always is, which ends up being a good thing this time.

Because Yamada invites him to the arcade.

He actually seems a little nervous about it, which gives Shouta pause. He smiles awkwardly when Shouta looks up at him, his brows even more scrunched than usual.

"Like a date?" Shouta asks, and then smirks at the incandescent blush on Yamada's face.

"No!!" he squawks, almost hurting Shouta's ears. "No--I mean, just because I'm--I don't--"

"Oh," Shouta says. He puts his head back down. "No, then."

He can't see, but he can tell that Yamada is gaping at him. Like everything else, he does that loudly.

"Wait, what? No if it's *not* a date? Did I hear you right?"

Shouta sighs, moving his head just enough to nod. He'd like to get a short nap in before class starts.

He can hear Yamada fidgeting, drumming his fingers on the table. "Like, you *want* to go on a date with me?"

Shouta sighs again, giving up on sleep for now. "Yeah," he confirms.

He picks his head up in time to see a brilliant smile break out over Yamada's face, and hey, he doesn't look too awful when he smiles like that.

"Okay!" he chirps. "I'll see you after class, then!"

Their first date isn't too bad, actually. Yamada talks a lot, and Shouta expects to go home wanting an aspirin and a nap, but he gets used to it surprisingly quickly.

And he gets a kiss on the cheek when he drops Yamada off at his front door.

It doesn't really feel like much, but he's pretty sure he's had relatives kiss him on the cheek before, so it's not exactly a new experience. Not new territory like he's supposed to be exploring. But that's okay, because the next day, Yamada asks him out again.

This time he gets to pick the place, and they end up at a cat cafe. That's fun, of course--he gets to pet cats.

He comes to the interesting revelation with a tabby on his lap that Yamada isn't as ugly as he thought at first. His weird eyes are a pretty green, and big.

His mouth would look grotesque on anyone else's face, but it kind of fits his. It makes his smiles look brighter. His face might be strange but it's expressive, easy to read, and it lights up when Shouta talks to him. That's hard to hate.

That's part of the experience of having a boyfriend--at some point, Shouta comes to the realization that Yamada might *like* him. As a person, anyway. That's novel.

They keep going on dates, anyway, and Shouta gets what he wants. He has his first kiss on their fifth date.

It's--surprisingly nice. Well, he knew it was supposed to be nice, but part of what he didn't understand before was why. The physical act is nothing special, but the sensation of Yamada's lips on his makes him feel a surprising array of emotions.

He thinks of dumping Yamada after that. But--two things stop him. One, he wouldn't mind doing that again, even if he learned what he set out to learn.

Two, if he ever turns down an invitation, Yamada's face falls, and he pouts like a kicked puppy. He doesn't want to see that.

The realization that he actually cares about Yamada's feelings is another startling one.

But that was the point, wasn't it? He isn't just supposed to be learning about the physical side of things. Romance is a lot more than that. He's supposed to be learning about love.

He thinks, on their seventh date, that he might actually like Yamada.

He's not ugly at all anymore. He doesn't even look weird--different from other people, sure, but in a cute way. Like the difference between a Siamese and a Persian.

They become officially boyfriends after that, and Shouta finally gives in to Yamada's demands that he call him by his first name.

Being Hizashi's boyfriend comes with a surprising amount of anxiety. He started this relationship as practice, out of curiosity.

What if that's all he is to Hizashi? Just the only boy available for him to date? The last man on earth, as it were. Shouta grew past that, but he doesn't know if Hizashi has.

Now he doesn't want this to stop. It's not just practice anymore.

So one day, he asks. They're on another after school date, him and Hizashi sitting on a park bench holding hands. He looks over at Hizashi, and at a lull in his talking (he's past used to it now. It's a soothing, pleasant sound) and asks, "Do you like me?"

At first, Hizashi laughs like he'd told a joke, but when Shouta frowns, he stops. "Wait, are you serious? We've been dating for like six months now."

"So?" Shouta demands.

"Uh, *yeah*?" But Shouta just keeps frowning, and Hizashi sobers, looking him in the eyes.

He grabs both of his hands, holding them in his lap. "Aizawa Shouta," he says gravely, "I really, really like you. You are one of my favorite people on this planet and I'm super happy to be dating you." Then his face breaks into a goofy grin. "There, how's that?"

"Really?" is all Shouta can think to ask, head still spinning.

"Yeah, really. Do you...do you not like me?" Hizashi chews on his lip, looking uncertain, and Shouta gets that tight feeling he gets in his chest when Hizashi is unhappy.

"I like you a lot too," Shouta says honestly.

Hizashi smiles, and the band around his heart eases. "Come here," he says, catching Shouta's chin, and Shouta leans in for a kiss.

They've kissed so many times at this point, but this one is different.

Hizashi *likes* him. Like *that*.

Being liked, being wanted--it's a new experience. Maybe the most important one to have--after the feelings he's slowly developing for Hizashi.

It makes butterflies explode behind his sternum, this kiss.

In the end, he learns everything he wanted to. Kissing ended up being largely unimportant, as fun at is it.

More important, he learns what it's like to love and be loved, even if it takes them a little longer to use the words.

Shouta finds that it's good. (end)