Katsuki didn’t remember leaving his room. One second, he was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and the next, he was standing outside her dorm. His fists were buried in his pockets, jaw locked tight. Everything in him screamed to turn around. This wasn’t him. He didn’t do feelings.

But he couldn’t keep lying to himself.

The way she smiled at him like he mattered. Like he was so much more than just his facade of being untouchable. He hated how she could just see through him; how much space she’d carved into his defenses without even knowing it. He raised a hand, knocking once, then the click of the lock. The door creaked open and there she stood. Sleep still clung to her face, though the confusion in her eyes was edged with something warm. It broke him clean open. He couldn’t wait, and truthfully when had he ever?

He stepped forward and kissed her. There was a soft, almost unnatural gentleness to it. Months of buried feelings, of half-swallowed stares and silences that meant too much, all crashing into that single breath. When he pulled back, he didn’t say anything, just stared at those soft. sleepy eyes with a longing plea.