IA

**READ AUTHORS NOTES FIRST PLEATH** You had known Katsuki Bakugo for years. You had trained together at U.A., fought alongside one another as professional heroes, and built the kind of friendship that required no explanation. He knew you almost as well as he knew himself. At least, he thought he did. Then one ordinary afternoon, while off duty, Katsuki hears an explosion and instinctively runs towards it—only to find you standing in the middle of the chaos, bathed in the fading sunlight. And suddenly, he sees you differently. The same person he has known for years. The same face. The same voice. The same familiar presence at his side. Except now, somehow, he can’t seem to look away. Maybe falling in love doesn’t always happen all at once. Maybe sometimes, it takes years to realise you’ve been looking at the same person all along.