Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[Official Records from the office of  REDACTED , November 15]

“State your name for the recording.”

“Fuck off.”

[Audio cut out]

“State your name for the recording.”

“Bakugo Katsuki.”

“Bakugo, can you describe your relationship with Midoriya Izuku?”

A long pause.

“Classmates.”

“And how long have you known your classmate?”

“Since we were four.”

[Audio cut out]

“How long have you known about Midoriya’s quirk?”

“Since he got it? What kind of question is that?”

[Audio cut out]

“When, exactly, did Midoriya’s quirk develop?”

“When he was fourteen.”

“You don’t find that strange?”

“It’s none of my business.”

“And this new quirk, when did that develop?”

“It’s not a new quirk. He had a quirk awakening.”

“And when did this occur?”

“Last week.”

A beat.

“Where is Midoriya Izuku?”

“I don’t know.”

“You were patrolling with him less than an hour ago, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Where did he go after patrol ended?”

“I don’t know. I’m not his keeper.”

“You will inform us if he tries to contact you in any way.”

A long pause.

“Can I go, now?”

A long pause.

Recording ended.

Chapter Text

“Help me! PLEASE!” A panicked scream from a woman echoes through the alleyway where Izuku, Kacchan, and Todoroki are currently taking their dinner break. Kacchan lets out a sigh over the food he’ll have to abandon and stands up, not waiting for the other two to follow behind him as he blasts towards the source of the sound.

“Let’s go, Midoriya.” Todoroki follows behind, already on Kacchan's heels.

Izuku stands and leaps up to the nearest rooftop, green lightning sparking around him. He hears yet another scream from the woman and takes off, hopping along roofs and quickly catching up to his classmates.

It’s been a quiet patrol so far, as most are in Endeavor’s precinct. The hero has started allowing his three work study students to patrol without him, so long as they stick together. This was not taken well initially by Todoroki and Kacchan, but Izuku likes to think they’ve developed a bond over the many evenings fighting crime together. This particular evening, a chilly Friday in November, has only featured an attempted carjacking, which Izuku could have handled even without his quirk. Kacchan has been particularly antsy for some “real action,” as he likes to call it, and Izuku can tell Todoroki felt the same, though he’d never admit it. So, motivated by the premise of a good fight, as well as the burning desire to help a person in trouble, the trio race to the scene. Kacchan using his explosions to propel him through the air, Todoroki gliding on ice through the street that he melts behind him with his fire, and Izuku leaping from rooftop to rooftop through the city, surged by One for All. 

Izuku lands at the source of the screaming a split second before the others do.

Ha, take that Kacchan.

He finds himself on a large, flat rooftop of what appears to be an apartment complex. There’s a large square cutout in the center of the area, which was likely a pool in the warmer months. Lounge chairs and side tables are scattered, knocked around by gusts of wind at one point or another. Izuku briefly considers the safety hazard of leaving furniture at such a high altitude during bad weather, but his attention is quickly pulled back into the conflict at hand: across the pool from the three heroes in training stand a middle-aged woman in a pantsuit surrounded by four masked figures. 

There is a large, muscular man closest to the woman. He seems to have some kind of strength quirk that increases his build to that of superhuman proportions. Quite similar to Muscular, Izuku notes, but not as powerful. He should be easily manageable by any one of the hero students. Next in size is a heteromorph resembling a bear. Intimidating, but seemingly young. The villain actually seems halfway between a cub and a bear, and appears to be hanging back behind the other man. Almost as though he’s looking to the other villain as a shield, or a protector. Interesting. The last two are much smaller in stature, but that does not make them any less dangerous. One is a woman with vibrant red hair and sharp, razor like blades in place of where her hands should be. That explains the cuts on their victim. The last is a middle aged man, hunched over and leaning against the building entrance to the rooftop. He does not have any visible quirk, and appears to just be resting. Could be a problem, but not an immediate threat.

The most concerning part of this scene lies in the victim: she’s flustered and disheveled, sure, but she has no life-threatening injuries and has a death grip clutch on her purse. So, these villains don’t want to kill her, and don’t want any valuables from her either. They appear to be simply… toying with her. Scaring her just to scare her. Their efforts are clearly successful, she is pale as a ghost, even after she spots Izuku land near them.

“Help me, please!” She reiterates, quieter now that she can see the heroes who’ve come to save her. Kacchan takes the instruction, and blasts across the pool towards the muscular villain.

Of course he takes the biggest one.

With Kacchan throwing the first punch — or explosion, in this case — the fight commences. Todoroki runs off to assist him, and handle the bear mutant, with a burst of heat from his fire.

Those two work well together when he leans into his left side. Although Izuku knows Todoroki still prefers his ice, it can be a detriment to the explosive hero if he gets too cold. So, the pair utilize each other’s heat resistance to swiftly take down their enemies.

With two of the villains taken care of, and one seemingly staying out of the conflict, Izuku directs his focus on the woman with blades for hands. She charges at him and starts slashing frantically, clearly more passion than skill. Izuku dodges these attacks as he looks for an opening. Each of her hits throw her too far forward and completely off balance. But Izuku does not want to risk getting close if he can avoid it. It would get the job done of course, but those blades look sharp. And he’s doing his best to stop ending up in the hospital wing these days. His gaze falls onto the empty pool. It seems pretty deep, a good seven or eight feet, and the woman he’s battling is barely over five. Izuku starts directing his dodges left, throwing in an occasional hit at 5% to keep her interest in him. 

Slowly but surely, Izuku directs the woman towards the edge of the pool. Izuku stands directly behind the opening, with his heels on the edge. The woman placed right in front of him, too focused to notice her surroundings. He spares a glance to see how his partners are fairing. 

Todoroki has trapped the heteromorph in an ice mass, only his head and neck free. He’s now assisting Kacchan with the stronger man. They seem to have cornered him on the edge of the roof, and Kacchan uses this moment to blast himself above and behind the man, letting off a strong explosion that shoves him into Todoroki’s waiting ice trap. 

Content that the other villains are handled, Izuku refocuses back to his fight. 

“I’ve got you now,” She snarls at him confidently. The woman lunges forward again, and at the last second, Izuku pushes off with One for All backwards into the air. His opponent, as expected, loses her balance and falls into the empty pool. Izuku lands on the other side and quickly races to lift the ladder out, trapping her in the cavern.

He’s about to congratulate himself, and his classmates, on a job well done when he gets smacked in the face with a lawn chair.

The other man! He almost forgot, mentally slapping himself for the overlook, that there was a fourth villain on the rooftop. This must be his quirk, some kind of short-range telekinesis. Izuku had skidded back a few feet from the impact of the flying furniture, and not wishing to repeat the experience, gears up for another attack.

He distantly hears a cackle from Kacchan, likely at his misfortunes. He can’t retaliate though, because the man sends another projectile — a table this time — hurtling towards Izuku. He ducks out of the way easily now that he’s expecting it, and is about to approach the remaining villain when he hears a clunk and a scream from behind him.

When Izuku moved out of the way from the flying table, he cleared a direct path to the victim, who was pushed off the edge of the rooftop by the impact. 

Izuku races to the edge, gazing down and analyzing the situation as fast as possible. Kacchan and Todoroki are way too far to do anything, and she’s too close to the ground for Izuku to jump down and catch her in time. In a panic, Izuku shoots out a strand of blackwhip that wraps around the woman’s waist, and slows her descent to the ground. 

The saved victim shoots a watery, grateful smile and wave up to Izuku before running off in the direction of the police sirens that just arrived on the scene. Relieved, Izuku turns back around to see Todoroki icing the woman in the pit and Kacchan putting cuffs from the police onto the other villains so he can melt the ice holding them in place. 

What he doesn’t see is the fourth villain. The skinny man with the telekinesis quirk is nowhere to be found, even with a brief scan of the immediate area. Shoot. Izuku was so flustered at the knee-jerk reaction to use Blackwhip that he didn’t recover fast enough to take him down. He really needs to train with it more, and soon.

Disappointed at his sloppy behavior, Izuku lets Todoroki and Kacchan handle talking to the police. As work study students under the top hero, all they have to do is drop Endeavor’s name and they gain quite a bit of respect from officers who would otherwise get annoyed quickly at young, new heroes on the scene. So it is unsurprising that they wrap up quickly, even with Kacchan’s attitude. 

The officers take the villains away in quirk cancelling handcuffs as Todoroki walks away, seemingly taking a phone call. Kacchan approaches Izuku, interrupting his moping session.

“Are you sure about — ”

“Not yet.” Izuku interrupts him, knowing what he’s going to say and not wanting to discuss it just yet. Especially not with Todoroki only a few paces away from them. 

Luckily, he does not have to stall for long, as the half-and-half hero hangs up the phone and approaches the pair.

“That was Endeavor,” he explains. “He wants me home for ‘family dinner’ tonight.” Disinterest and disgust seep through his tone. “He said we can put off our reports until tomorrow, and that you two are welcome to take yourselves back to UA.”

“Ha, have fun with that.” Kacchan starts walking off in the general direction of their school.

“Oh, I won’t.” He calls after him, turning back to face Izuku.

“Good job today, Todoroki!” Izuku exclaims, proud of his friend even through his disappointment in himself. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” The two have a movie night planned with Uraraka and Iida. The group has been introducing Todoroki to all their favorite children’s movies that he missed out on due to his — let’s say, unconventional — childhood. These weekly movie nights have become sacred among the friend group, and missing one would be a crime of villainous proportions.

“Goodbye, Midoriya. I will see you tomorrow.”

Izuku jogs to catch up with Kacchan, who pointedly did not wait for him.

“Can I speak now, nerd?” He jabs, apparently still irritated for being cut off earlier. No matter that there were people around.

Izuku sighs, resigning himself for the lecture. “Go ahead.”

“Didn’t All Might tell you not to use that shit out in public? Seriously, nerd, what were you thinking?”

The pair had another private meeting with All Might immediately following Izuku’s unlocking of Blackwhip last week. After discussing it at great lengths, his mentor came to a conclusion about how to handle the situation. Izuku was welcome to use and train the new ability at UA, as many of the students and teachers have already seen the quirk, thanks to Monoma. He should avoid using it outside of UA at all costs, however. His quirk is pretty highly publicized, especially after the Sports Festival, and there is already chatter in the deeper corners of the internet about it being so similar to their Symbol of Peace’s. Blackwhip looks so different from the parts of OFA that Izuku usually uses, and broadcasting it to the public is just asking for trouble. Izuku agreed with his mentor’s opinion wholeheartedly. As did Kacchan, for once. However, with classes and working for Endeavor three days a week, this means Izuku hasn’t had a chance to get comfortable with his new ability. Using it in public, and when he doesn’t have the best control, is a risk. Izuku knows that. But that woman was falling, and there was nothing else he could do. He didn’t have much of a choice. 

“I was thinking of saving that woman from falling five stories, Kacchan!” He retaliates, despite the fact that he agrees with the scrutiny he’s facing. “It’s not like I wanted to use it.”

“And the fourth villain?” He raises an eyebrow. “I thought you had him! I wouldn’t have gone down to talk to the police if I thought you were going to let him get away.”

A fresh wave of guilt crashes over Izuku, and he knows it’s showing on his face.

“I’m sorry, okay? I was so worried about getting the victim to safety, and then about using Blackwhip like that in public, and then he just disappeared out of thin air. But I just —” He trails off, feeling any desire to defend himself leave. “I messed up, I know.”

At that, Kacchan takes a good, long look at him. Izuku has no idea what the other is thinking when he looks at him like that. Though, this is nothing new. Izuku has had no idea what Kacchan has been thinking for months now, ever since he found out about One for All. His previous bully is certainly still harassing him, but these days it’s almost — encouragement. He refuses to let the other boy slack off, and that means checking in to see if Izuku has gotten enough sleep, had enough to eat, was struggling in their classes. Kacchan phrases these check-ins in such a way that seems demeaning, but Izuku has known the boy far too long for that. He can see the underlying concern in Kacchan’s probing. He just can’t figure out why. He sees him as a true rival now, that much is clear. So it makes sense that Kacchan wants him at his best when they spar — he can’t stand the idea of someone not giving their all in a fight. But this seems to go beyond competition. To what end, though? Or, it’s nothing more than Kacchan’s elitism, and Izuku is just overthinking things, as usual. 

A jab to his side brings Izuku out of his thoughts.

“So, what are you gonna do if people start asking questions?”

Izuku can barely handle a fake press interview in class, let alone an interrogation about his mysterious quirk that magically appeared when he was fifteen.

“Well, I’ll probably tell them that it’s an unlocked quirk from a power I got last year that’s been passed down through generations of great heroes. The most recent one, of course, being All—“

“Oh, fuck off.” Kacchan interrupts him, snorting out a laugh. Awkward as the sound was, Izuku feels a sense of pride at getting the other to laugh. “Seriously, Deku. You need a plan, or else they’re gonna eat you alive.”

There was a time when Kacchan would have relished in the day he gets eaten alive. In fact, the old Kacchan would have sold him out in a heartbeat, if only it wouldn’t get All Might in trouble. Through every phase of their relationship: friends, rivals, that awful situation in middle school, they always had one thing in common. Their admiration for the Symbol of Peace.

“You sound worried about me, Kacchan.” Izuku teases, never quite learning how to leave well enough alone, especially when it comes to his childhood best friend. Izuku is shocked to see a gentle blush creep up the other’s face, painting his neck and the tops of his ears pink.

“As if,” He scoffs and looks away at the sidewalk ahead of them. “Worried about losing my sparring partner, maybe.”

“Sure, Kacchan.”

The rest of their walk back to UA continues uneventfully, the pair discussing mundane topics to keep occupied as the sun sets for the evening. This, too, is a change. Izuku can’t remember a time he thought he’d be able to make content small talk with Kacchan without any explosions to the face. But here they are.

They enter the dorms to the sound of a brash alarm, and the smell of smoke. Kacchan interrupts their current conversation — a debate on which Wild, Wild Pussycat could have the best solo career — to run off in the direction of the kitchen with a fuckin idiots muttered under his breath.

Izuku follows behind, knowing he likely can’t do much to salvage the situation, but curious all the same.

The kitchen features an interesting looking scene: Sero is sticking himself to the ceiling with his tape, dangling upside down with a fire extinguisher in hand, trying to get a better angle on a large skillet. Said large skillet is being manned by Kaminari, so of course it has bursted into flames. Kaminari is alternating between getting closer to wave the fire with an oven mitt and jumping back when he gets stung by the flames. Meanwhile, Dark Shadow is throwing full glasses of water at the pair, with no particular aim, as Tokoyami sits on the couch with headphones on, blissfully unaware of the chaos happening behind him. Also on the couch are Yamomo, Ashido, and Uraraka, who are giggling at the boys’ antics.

“Hi, Deku!” Uraraka calls through giggles, offering her friend a wave.

Izuku greets her back, jogging over to the living room to sit with the girls, and completely avoiding the disaster in the kitchen. He kneels facing the back of the couch next to Tokoyami, so he has a great view of Kacchan ripping the fire extinguisher out of Sero’s inexperienced hands. With better aim and a firm squeeze of the nozzle, the blonde successfully puts out the flames. He shoves the extinguisher into Kaminari’s chest, forcing the boy to hold it as he grumbles around the kitchen, opening every window. 

After a few moments of the smoke wafting outside, the alarm finally stops blaring. 

“That was going off for fifteen minutes, you know.” Ashido says pointedly at Izuku, then raises her voice so the group in the kitchen can hear her. “Thanks, Blasty!”

Kacchan turns away from her, only supplying a middle finger in response. This brings another fit of giggles to the couch’s inhabitants — save for Tokoyami, who’s apparently very invested in his phone. A quick glance shows he’s watching some sort of news story. The chilling headline reads, Government Officials Being Target By New Villain Group: The Kakusei . Izuku has a fleeting thought that Tokoyami has the right idea, staying on top of current events like that.

Back in the kitchen, Kacchan thrusts a towel into Dark Shadow’s arms, insisting he clean up the spilt water. Then, he focuses his attention back to the two who started this mess, now both firmly on the ground.

“Do I even want to ask?” Annoyance seeps through his tone.

“ We ,” Kaminari gestures to Sero, not wanting to face an explosive wrath on his own. “Were making ramen!” He ends with a smile, like that perfectly explains the situation. 

Kacchan, for his part, looks comically offended at this. “So what was the fucking SKILLET FOR?”

Aiming for a redirect, Sero poses a question. “So, will you make us dinner? We really shouldn’t try again.”

Now horrified, Kacchan starts shooing the pair out of the kitchen. “No, you absolutely should not try again. You will NEVER. TRY. AGAIN. Fucking morons.”

“Does this mean you’re making us food?” Kaminari questions, hopping over the side of the couch to land on the other side of Tokoyami. 

“Ooh, I’ll take dinner!” Ashido jumps on the opportunity for a free meal, ignoring the increasing redness of Kacchan’s face.

“Oh, well if you’re offering, Bakugo. I’d also be very grateful.” Yamomo feigns innocence. That girl can be a true menace when she wants to. Izuku thinks it’s probably Ashido’s influence, but admires it all the same.

Kacchan returns to the kitchen with a grumble about ungrateful assholes, all of you , which is as good as an agreement to cook for everyone, as far as Izuku is concerned. He follows the boy into the kitchen, propping himself up on a counter. 

“You don’t want to go change?” Kacchan questions, and that’s fair. His hero costume is a bit annoying to lounge around in. But Izuku is enjoying the easy camaraderie of the common spaces right now, and doesn’t want to leave. Besides, if Kacchan is stuck in his costume until he finishes dinner, it is only fair that Izuku accompany him in discomfort. 

“No, it’s fine. I’ll keep you company. We didn’t get to finish our conversation from earlier.” Kacchan shrugs at this, and gets started on rinsing the foam from the fire extinguisher off of their good skillet. 

“Anyway,” Izuku begins, gearing up for a ramble session. “Ragdoll is absolutely the best at — ”

“MIDORIYA! WHERE ARE YOU?”

A loud scream interrupts his sentence, and Izuku hops down from the counter as Kacchan whips around to face the entrance to the room that All Might comes barreling through. He rushes Izuku the second he lays his eyes on him. He puts his hands on each of his shoulders, looking intensely at the boy. His expression is fearful, with a hint of… Izuku would say remorse, if he didn’t know any better. Which he doesn’t.

“My boy, I am so sorry,” Izuku has no idea what his mentor could possibly be apologizing for. “You need to go now .”

“Hah?!” The sound of confusion comes from his right, from Kacchan. Izuku shares the sentiment though, and opens his mouth to ask a question when the older man interrupts him again. 

“They know. They know and they’re coming for you. Right now. So you need to go!” He drags Izuku out of the kitchen by his shoulders as a loud pounding on the door echoes through the room. A brief moment of silence occurs, as wide eyes meet. 

Izuku’s classmates on the couch, confused and concerned, looking between him and the retired hero, trying to connect the puzzle that they barely have half the pieces for. All Might, panicked and anxious, ready to shove Izuku out the door himself in a moment’s notice. And Kacchan, looking pissed and agitated, as expected. But also, scared. He’s scared, and he’s looking to Izuku for answers, and Izuku just doesn’t have them. 

Who knows? And what exactly do they know? Izuku can assume this is regarding One for All, but there are a lot of people that would be bad to find out this secret. There is also a difference between knowing Izuku has it, and knowing where it came from. Is All Might even safe? Izuku has way too many questions, and not enough time to even process them all. 

At once, the moment is over, as the sounds of a door breaking down hit his ears. Trusting his mentor, and taking one last look at his friends, Izuku latches two ropes of Blackwhip onto either side of an opened window, and launches himself out of it, into the night and out of sight of the mass of people bursting through the doors of his home.

Chapter Text

“Midoriya was not here.” All Might turns around to face his students. “You haven’t seen him since class. Got it?”

This confusing demand receives no response from any of the room’s inhabitants. Footsteps get louder as what sounds to be a large group of people approach the common room. Katsuki lets his palms warm up, ready for a fight. 

“Got it?!” All Might quips, sharper than Katsuki has ever heard him direct towards his students. “Nod if you understand.” At that, a wave of nods runs through the room.

A group of eight rush into the room. Katsuki is expecting to see villains, but he’s met instead with… business men? And soldiers? There are four men in military uniforms, each carrying at least two guns on their bodies and in their hands. The other four are official-looking men in black suits. 

Shit. They’re government.

Katsuki sends a fleeting thought to Deku, hoping he’s far away from this place already. When All Might came in, ominous as hell, he knew immediately that the hero was referring to One for All. But he had said that they know. Katsuki was expecting villains. A group of villains coming to torture Deku into giving them his quirk. That would be something Katsuki knows how to handle. He’s more than ready to throw down at a moment's notice against people threatening his… against people threatening Deku. But this? They’re a threat, obviously, but he can’t punch his way out of the law. If the government has found out about OFA, well, he doesn’t even know what that will mean for Deku. Or All Might, for that matter. Speaking of All Might, the retired hero has transformed into his muscle form to greet the intruders. Katsuki knows this is an intimidation technique, but it’s not very effective. Smoke starts billowing out from the man not five seconds after he transformed.

“Hello! I am here! What can I do for you?” Smart thinking, to remind them that they’re dealing with the Symbol of Peace right off the bat. One of the men in suits approaches All Might, seemingly unimpressed at his old mantra. Unfortunate, because it is right at this time that his muscle form breaks, returning him to little-old-man form. 

“Where is Midoriya Izuku?” He speaks directly to All Might, but Katsuki sees all his classmates flinch. He really hopes they were able to follow what their teacher was getting at earlier. If they know Deku was just here, they’ll be able to find him a lot easier. 

“And just who are you, sir?” All Might responds, acting as a barrier between the two groups.

“I am Abe Takehiko,” The man flashes a badge. “from the Hero Public Safety Commission. Where is Midoriya Izuku?”

All Might takes a half-step back. Minuscule, but Katsuki notices. Shit. He’s scared. This isn’t good.

“You can go talk to Principal Nezu if you need to contact a student. It’s not appropriate for you to come in here unannounced and —“

“We are under direct orders from HPSC to find Midoriya Izuku under any circumstances. We will go wherever we need to in order to complete this.” With that, the group spreads out, looking around the dorm. Two soldiers grab Yaoyorozu and Uraraka, demanding they show him to Deku’s dorm. They look nervous, but Katsuki isn’t worried. Those two are tough as shit, and they care about Deku. They’ll handle themselves, and won’t reveal anything too helpful.

“Bakugo Katsuki.” He’s pulled from his thoughts to the man who was just talking with All Might, now approaching him.

“What?” He snarks, making it incredibly clear how he feels about their intrusion.

“You were on patrol with Midoriya earlier today.” Katsuki stares blankly at the man. He has information on them, that’s expected. Katsuki wonders just how much the HPSC already knows about the intricacies of Deku’s quirk. 

“Hello?!” The man barks.

“You didn’t ask me a question.” If they’re going to come in here and make all these demands, Katsuki sure as hell isn’t going to make it easy for them.

“Alright, let’s go. We’ll need to speak with you privately.”

Yeah, not gonna happen. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Besides, I’m a minor. You can’t interrogate me.” Ha, take that Suit.

“I can’t interrogate you without a parent present.” He looks back, smugly. “Would you like me to call your mother? I believe she’s at the grocery store right now, I’d hate to interrupt.”

Shit, okay, this is gonna happen. Katsuki says nothing, having no interest in bringing his parents into this mess. He follows the man, agitated at being bested so quickly. 

The pair walk in silence out of the dorm building, and Suit brings him into an empty classroom. Katsuki is not happy about being alone, but he supposes that is the point of an interrogation. 

Suit pulls out a device. “I’ll be recording our conversations for HPSC records.” He clicks a red button and sets it down on the teacher’s desk. He sits at the desk and gestures to a smaller desk in the front row. Katsuki already doesn’t like this. He sits, though, and looks up expectantly at Suit.

“State your name for the recording.”

“Fuck off.”

Suit sighs, leaning forward and pointing a glare at him. “Listen brat, I don’t have time for your games. You will cooperate, or I’ll charge you with obstructing a federal investigation. It’s your choice.”

“State your name for the recording.”

“Bakugo Katsuki.”

“Bakugo, can you describe your relationship with Midoriya Izuku?”

Oh, ho, ho, isn’t that the question of the hour? Katsuki thinks briefly back to skipping rocks, outstretched hands, directed explosions, screaming matches, swan dives, spars, and Kacchan’s so amazing . Suit wants to understand their relationship. Well, he should get in line. So does Katsuki.

Realistically, it’s best to give them the least amount of information as possible, while still being honest.

“Classmates.”

“And how long have you known your classmate?” Shit . Katsuki would really like to explode that smug smirk off that asshole’s face.

“Since we were four.” He begrudgingly admits. This really isn’t going well. Katsuki does his best to squash his feelings of inferiority in order to focus on the task at hand. What’s more important here is keeping Deku from getting into any more trouble, not preserving his ego. See, Mom? I have too grown up. Take that.

“Quite a long time to be classmates with someone.” If looks could kill, Katsuki would have a much harder time calling himself a hero. “Right, not a question. How long have you known about Midoriya’s quirk?”

“Since he got it? What kind of question is that.”

“So you’re aware that it’s stolen.”

“HAH?!”

Stolen? Is that really what they think? It’s relieving that they’re so far off the truth, but this doesn’t mean anything good for Deku. They might try to arrest him. Do they even have the authority to do that? Katsuki has way too many questions swirling around in his head. The most pressing one being, is Deku okay? He can’t run from the government forever. Katsuki needs a plan, and fast. He needs to find out exactly what they want with him so he can clear his name and bring him home. 

Katsuki answers a few more questions from Suit. He seemed to ease up when he saw the genuine shock on Katsuki’s face as he inquired about the stolen quirk. Granted, the shock was because of how far off the claim was, not because he had revealed some secret to Katsuki. But he certainly does not need to know that. After the remaining questions are answered, Katsuki is released to go back to the dorms. 

Suit has another agent follow him back to his dormitory to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere else tonight, like straight to Deku’s side. So, Katsuki isn’t able to talk to anyone about what’s going on, and finds he can’t really think straight until he slams his bedroom door in Suit Jr.’s face.

Now alone, Katsuki allows his mind to wander.

It goes immediately to Deku, of course. He hopes the boy is safe, at least for now. Katsuki noticed a chill in the air when he was patrolling earlier, and now feels awful at the thought of the boy being stuck outside all night. He’s smart enough not to go back to his mother’s house, and he knows he can’t return to the dorms. Katsuki knows, logically, that he can handle himself for one night, but he can’t help but worry. The nerd has a hard time taking care of himself, sometimes. He stays up late anytime there’s an exam to help Kaminari and Hagakure study. So then the next morning he sleeps in, and forgoes breakfast to make it to class on time. And he doesn’t even consider how stupid it is! So, Katsuki has taken it upon himself to make sure the nerd is sleeping and eating enough in the days leading up to the exam. He knows it’s a lost cause on the day of — Deku is an immovable object when it comes to helping someone in need. He does his best, though, to make sure the other boy realizes that he’s also allowed to be someone in need .

Katsuki is not an idiot, contrary to popular belief. He knows how strange it is for him to have such strong protective feelings over someone he hardly considers a friend. He doesn’t consider him a friend, to be honest. He’s a peer, a rival, a hero partner that he respects immensely, but not a friend. He helps Deku take care of himself because he wants him to be at his best. Because when Deku is at his best, he’s pushing Katsuki to be at his best. And the fact that he happily spends hours talking to the other, listening to his mumbles and debating meaningless topics? Well, Katsuki chalks that up to retributions. He was a dick to Deku when they were kids, and an empty apology doesn’t feel right, he feels the need to do more than that. A good hero should know how to fix his mistakes, not just admit to them. Right?

Katsuki checks the time on his phone. 7:58 . He should be getting ready to go to bed, but Katsuki knows he won’t be able to sleep until he gets some answers. He gets up off his bed and presses an ear to the door. Not hearing any signs of soldiers, assholes, or Suits, he throws on a pair of slippers and creaks the door open. Moving carefully through the dormitory, Katsuki confirms that the intruders from earlier have left the premises. He contemplates his next move for a moment, before making up his mind and setting off to the teachers’ offices, praying the old man is still around campus.

He arrives outside All Might’s office, relieved that the light is on. He’s about to knock when he hears a voice from the other side, and he pauses to listen in to what is being said. 

“Honestly, it’s for the best that you don’t know where the kid is. Less of a chance of you giving him up on accident.”  The voice sounds familiar, but Katsuki can’t quite identify who’s speaking. It’s a man, older, and someone who’s close enough to say something like that to All Might.

“I would never give him up!” Katsuki knows that voice, All Might nearly shouts back at the other man. “I need to find him. This is all my fault, anyway. If something happens to young Midoriya…”

Katsuki, not wanting to hear the end of that thought and with enough curiosity to risk getting in trouble, lifts his hand to knock gently on the office door.

A moment of rustling, and then the door opens to reveal his idol, along with a gruff looking man. 

“Ah, young Bakugo,” All Might moves back and gestures to let him in. “You’ve met Detective Tsukauchi, right?”

Oh, right. The cop.

“Not a cop, kid. Detective.” Tsukauchi corrects. He didn’t realize he said that out loud. Weird, that’s a Deku behavior if he’s ever seen one. Must be the stress of the day getting to him.

Katsuki looks up questioningly at All Might, trying to transfer him a question without actually speaking. All Might, ever the airhead, just gives him a small smile. He’ll have to be subtle then.

“He safe?” Katsuki gestures to the detective, hoping the hero gets his secret question: Can I talk freely here?

“Oh,” All Might catches on. “Yes. Tsukauchi knows about One for All, and about young Midoriya having it.”

“Good.” So they can make some progress on this. Having someone on the investigative side of things could be useful, if he can become an inside man. “So what do we know?” Katsuki addresses the detective now, sizing him up.

“From what I’ve gathered, which isn’t much, mind you,” Tsukauchi is off to a terrible start with that. “Agents at the HPSC have been keeping an eye on Midoriya for quite some time now. He has a powerful quirk that he developed at the age of fifteen. That’s out of the ordinary. Apparently, earlier today he was spotted on patrol under Endeavor using an entirely different quirk. The HPSC thinks he has two quirks now. And since he developed the first so late in life, they’re convinced he has a way to transfer quirks, and that both are stolen from other people.”

Katsuki swears. That explains the questioning he got earlier. They probably think he’s in on it, as someone who’s known Deku for his entire life. Transferring quirks, and stealing them? That sounds an awful lot like —

“Do they think he’s working with All for One?” All Might took the words right out of his mouth. They both focus intense stares at the detective, desperate to hear this answer.

“No. They verified All for One’s location immediately. He’s still in Tartarus, and the HPSC is way too cocky to believe that a kid could somehow get them on their heels in the same way All for One did. No, he should be clear on that end. But that doesn’t mean he’s not in trouble. If they find him… it won’t be pretty. I’m not going to sugar coat it: he’ll be forced to confess where he got the quirks from. By any means necessary.”

“We have to find him first.” Katsuki is speaking directly to All Might now, knowing the retired hero must agree with his sentiment. “We have to help him. We have to figure this out.” Hearing the desperation creep up in his voice, Katsuki stops speaking. He feels a large hand rest comfortingly on his shoulder, and fights the urge to lean into it.

“We will handle as much as we can, young Bakugo. For now, get some rest. Try to trust me, and trust young Midoriya. There is nothing you need to do tonight.” He starts guiding him out of the office. Katsuki hates this, but he can tell he’s not going to get anything else out of the two men tonight. 

With a quick goodbye, he heads back to the dorms for the second time tonight, with much on his mind.

The cop said that they really solidified their theory after seeing Deku use another quirk. He must be referring to Blackwhip, when he caught the woman falling off the roof earlier today. Katsuki saw that woman too. He was across the roof when he saw the man with the telekinesis quirk start attacking Deku. He let himself get distracted, laughing when he got a good hit in with a piece of lawn furniture. But he saw the woman start to move. She wasn’t anywhere near Deku until she heard the police sirens approach. She started running across the rooftop to get closer to sound. Deku couldn’t have known that she’d pass behind him at the exact moment that he’d dodge the second attack. As much shit as he gave the other boy for it, Deku’s quick thinking saved her life. He was fast enough to save her, even without knowing what was going to happen. 

Katsuki on the other hand, saw her start running. He should have been able to predict what was going to happen. Maybe if he was smarter during that fight, maybe if he was faster, he could have been the one to catch her fall. And then Deku wouldn’t have had to use Blackwhip at all, and he wouldn’t be in this mess.

Distracted by his own self-pity, Katsuki barely noticed his own arrival back at the dorms. Desperate to not be alone with his thoughts, for at least a little while longer, Katsuki heads next door to his bedroom, and knocks on Kirishima’s door.

Kirishima wasn’t in the common room earlier. The boy likes to work out right before dinner — something about protein intake and the optimal time to burn fat and blah blah blah (Katsuki tends to tune him out at this point in the conversation). So, it is entirely possible the boy has no idea what’s happened tonight. Katsuki doubts that though. His classmates love to gossip, and this is the craziest thing to happen in… well, not that long, he supposes. They seem to be magnets for trouble.

The door opens and, as expected, Kirishima is joined by Ashido, Sero, and Kaminari. He can see concern radiating from all of their faces, a far cry from the usual grins. 

“Hey, come on in.” Kirishima closes the door behind Katsuki as he takes a seat on the floor next to Sero. “They were just filling me in on the situation with Mido. Is he alright? Do you know anything?”

“Yeah,” Kaminari adds. “It was really weird with All Might. Midoriya just took off and then suddenly the Symbol of Peace is asking me to lie to the government?”

“You did though, right?” Katsuki cuts in, sharply. If this moron messed everything up…

“Yeah, of course I did. I have no idea what’s going on, but I trust All Might.”

Katsuki feels relief seep through his face. He should have known he can trust Kaminari. His friends may be idiots, but they’re fiercely protective of their own. And a force to be reckoned with if one of their own is threatened. Not that Katsuki would ever tell them that. Gotta keep them humble, after all.

Ashido gives him a long, contemplative look. It’s shocking that she’s been quite thus far. Apparently that is about to change. “You know something, don’t you?”

Katsuki thinks for a moment of how much he can share with his friends. He can’t reveal One for All, obviously. But should he tell them what Tsukauchi found out? The thought of the detective reminded Katsuki of his warning to All Might: It’s for the best that you don’t know where the kid is. Less of a chance of you giving him up on accident .

He thinks of Tsukauchi’s warning, basically telling him that the HPSC isn’t above torture. He looks at his friend’s curious faces, and decides that he doesn’t want them to have to bear this burden.

“Yes, I know something.” Like they’re on a switch, everyone leans in. “But these guys that are looking for Deku are bad news. The less you all know, the better. And the safer Deku will be.”

This seems to resonate with the group, as none of them push him further on the matter. Sero gives him a knowing look, though, before speaking. “Sorry, Bakugo. This has to be pretty lonely for you, huh?”

Yeah, it is. He almost catches himself saying, before he remembers himself, and scoffs.

“It’s fine, Tapeface. Nothing I can’t handle.”

The conversation dulls after this, and eventually, one by one, his friends bid their goodnights and head to their own dorms. Katsuki is the last one to leave, and Kirishima stops him on his way out with a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey.” He starts with a sympathetic look on his face that almost borders pity. “I know you can’t really tell me anything, but I’m still here. If there’s something you need.”

Katsuki fights his knee-jerk reaction to roll his eyes. This is just Kirishima. His best friend. Which is a title he’s only admitted in the depths of his mind, and only recently. He lets his face soften, seeing the kind offer for what it is.

“Thanks.” Katsuki responds, turning and walking out the door. He heads back to his own dorm, preparing himself for a restless night ahead.

The next morning, after doing the shittiest paperwork job of his life, Katsuki leaves the Endeavor agency and heads to his parent’s house. Todoroki was notably absent today, and so Katsuki makes a mental note to find him at the dorms tonight, and catch him up on the situation. Hell, he may even be able to help if he can get his father to look for Deku. But at the very least, he knows he and the nerd are tight, and it would be wrong to keep him completely in the dark about something like this. 

For now, though, Katsuki takes the first bus headed for Mustafu, looking forward to visiting home. He goes home pretty much every other Saturday. He’d never admit it to anyone, especially not his parents, but he misses them quite a bit in the dorms. Most people at UA, even his friends a bit, tend to treat him like he’s untouchable. Of course, part of him wants this reputation, but it gets a bit frustrating sometimes, with everyone acting like he can’t have any form of emotion outside of anger, good or bad. His mother, for all the ways they are similar, has always had the ability to see right through him. Likely because she does the same thing, she can tell when Katsuki is using his anger as a shield for something else. This can get frustrating at times — he’s a teenager after all, he does want to keep some things to himself — but that’s where his dad comes in. With his playful demeanor, he finds a way to distract Katsuki out of some of his worst funks. So yeah, he visits his parents. Under the guise of stealing their food, of course.

He passes through the familiar streets of his childhood, pointedly ignoring anything that would remind him of a certain nerd, when a flash of green catches his eye. He’s walking past a playground, pretty much the only one in Mustafu. He and Deku used to go all the time as children. It sits empty now, too cold for any parent to want to take their child outside for too long. Strange, he could have sworn he saw a ball of green in the blending grays of the surrounding forest. Could it be…?

Katsuki takes off in a run towards his parent’s house.

He slams the front door open, shouting a greeting to his terrified father as he books it to the kitchen. Working efficiently and mindlessly, Katsuki pulls out all the ingredients needed for a basic curry, knowing the recipe like the back of his hand. 

He’s turning the stovetop burner on when a hand on his wrists stops his movements.

“What are you doing, brat?”

He doesn’t have much of an explanation for this, outside of the truth. So, he goes with the asshole answer.

“Cooking?”

She turns him to face her, and looks at his face for a moment. Shit, everything he said about liking his mom’s ability to see through him? Yeah, he takes that back. He knows she can see the panic that he’s barely containing.

“What’s going on, Katsuki? Tell me the truth.”

And oh, how he wants to. But he can’t forget the fear he felt when that guy from the Commission threatened her. And the warning from Tsukauchi. He knows he can’t lie to her, though. And to be completely honest, he doesn’t want to. 

“Do you mind not asking me that?” He notices his father has entered the room as well, and is listening to the conversation. “There’s something going on. At school. I might be acting a little weird these next few days, but I can’t tell you any more than that. I’m sorry.”

“Are you safe, son?” His dad asks, approaching the pair with a soft smile. Katsuki tries not to think of Inko Midoriya — only a few blocks away, who currently has no idea of the danger her son is in right now.

He nods.

“Well, that’s all that matters then.” His mom finishes. “Now, do you want some help with this?” She offers, gesturing to the mess of the kitchen.

Yeah, he loves his parents.

A quick twenty minutes later, Katsuki has a bag packed of Tupperware containers of curry, bottles of water, and some cash. He bids his parents a goodbye (and gives them each tight hugs) and sets off back to the park.

Wow, this is pathetic. He thinks as he sets the bag down in the middle of the playground. I don’t even know if it’s him.

After waiting forty minutes in the cold, staring at the packed bag, Katsuki accepts that maybe he is a bit pathetic, and maybe he’s going a bit insane, and maybe he should head back now. 

With one last fleeting look behind him, Katsuki sets back for UA, wondering where in the world Deku might be.

Chapter Text

Catapulting himself over the walls enclosing UA, Izuku lands on the thick branch of a nearby tree, and takes a moment to sit and catch his breath.

Someone just broke into UA. Someone broke into UA to find him. All Might said they know . Whoever broke into UA knows about One for All, and they’re coming for Izuku. Crappppppp, this is so bad . Izuku is screwed. Royally, utterly, completely screwed.

He has no idea who’s looking for him, or how much they know. If they know about OFA, then they probably know where he got it from. All Might could be in danger, too! He didn’t leave with Izuku, so he can only assume the man knows he’s safe for now, but how long will that last? Should he go back for his mentor? No, no. All Might said to leave. And no matter what’s going on, Izuku trusts All Might. Besides, he may not have his quirk anymore, but he knows his teacher can handle himself. 

He spares a thought for everyone else that was in the room. They must be so confused. He has no idea who broke down that door, but whoever it is, he hopes his classmates are able to handle the threat. 

And then there’s Kacchan. He’s probably most in danger, as much as Izuku hates to admit it. He knows about Izuku’s quirk, he knows about All Might, and he has the same information that Izuku does regarding what’s actually going on right now: absolutely nothing. He knows that Kacchan would protect this secret with his life, but that’s exactly what he’s afraid of. This is his quirk, so the risk should be his to take. He really hopes that, if it comes down to it, Kacchan does what he needs to do to keep himself out of trouble — even if that means giving Izuku up. He nearly lets out a pitying laugh at himself for this. Kacchan has never, not once, backed down from trouble.

With that harrowing thought, Izuku decides he’s rested for long enough. He should probably move further from the UA barrier, especially if he’s being tracked. Oh, that reminds him! Izuku reaches into his hero suit’s pocket and pulls out his phone. He removes the battery and puts both back into his pocket. Now content that he can’t be immediately followed, he starts running off, powered by One for All and covered by the darkness of the night.

He can’t help himself, he ends up back in Mustafu. All the confusion and uncertainty of the night made Izuku desperate for some familiarity. And he has another motivation for being here: his mother. He has no idea if she knows anything about the situation. She thinks he just developed his quirk later in life, so she should be safe, but he can never be too sure. He’d feel much better if he could see her for himself.

He reaches his apartment complex and uses his quirk to leap up to the windowsill outside his kitchen on the third floor. He peaks carefully into the room and breathes a sigh of relief when he sees his mother, sitting on their couch folding laundry, completely unharmed. He is once again struck by how grateful he is that she is in the dark about his quirk. She would be terrified right now if she knew he was on the run from something unknown to him. He’s already put her through enough: the sports festival, the USJ attack, the Shie Hassaikai fight. Izuku really doesn’t want to scare her anymore. As he watches her complete mundane tasks, Izuku considers his next move. It may not be the best decision, but he wants to stay in Mustafu. Sure, this will be one of the first places he’s looked for, but he knows this area better than anyone. And this way, he can continue to keep an eye on his mom.

Just as he’s about to leave his watch post for the night, his mom takes a phone call. There is no sound coming through the window, so he watches in silence as she puts her hand over her mouth and starts tearing up. She nods defiantly at whatever she’s being told, and quickly hangs up.

She had stood up to initially take the call, but now Izuku’s mother collapses back onto the couch, throwing her head into her hands. He sees her shoulders shake, and has to fight the strongest urge to go in there and comfort her. He knows it would only put her in danger to go in now, but he’s always hated watching his mother cry. And knowing it’s likely because of him, but having no idea what she was just told, or by who, is killing Izuku. 

He continues to watch in agony until she picks herself up and retires to her bedroom for the night.

Izuku takes this as his cue to leave, and solemnly makes his way over to a nearby wooded area. It’s November, but there are still some residual leaves on trees. This along with some shrubbery should provide him with a good enough cover. 

Izuku settles himself up against a tree and closes his eyes, trying to ignore the growing chill in his bones and the emotions in his chest.

The next morning brings a bright sunrise, too many people, and, to Izuku’s devastation, the first snow of the season. 

He has to travel deeper into the woods in order to stay out of sight. Despite getting a horrible night’s sleep, Izuku quickly finds himself restless, with nothing to do and no way to improve his situation. So, he starts doing some basic workouts: push ups, squats, pull ups on random tree branches. This is partially to stay warm, and partially to stay sharp. Izuku may have no idea what’s coming, but can be in top shape when it does. Eventually, even this grows boring, and Izuku starts running, basically in large circles, in an attempt to unravel the knot in his stomach that won’t go away. On his fifth lap, he dares to go a bit closer to the edge of the woods. As he’s passing by the entrance to a nearby playground, he hears footsteps. 

Crap!

Izuku plunges himself into a bush to get out of sight, and holds his breath. After a few moments, he relaxes. It was probably an animal, or a random person going about their day. Lesson learned on going to the edge of the woods, though. Izuku travels back in deeper once again, and tries to find other ways to occupy his mind. In addition to the anxiety coursing through his veins for himself, his mother, his mentor, and his friends, Izuku is trying to ignore his own shivering, his stomach growling, and the weight of his own eyelids. This is turning out to be a very trying day. He can’t help but feel a crushing weight at the thought that this is his life for the foreseeable future. He doesn’t know when he can go home, if he can go home, and this scares the boy immensely. It’s only been a day, but Izuku knows he won’t be able to keep this up long term.

Once the sun starts to set again, he allows his emotions to get the best of him, and sets off to check on his mother. As he passes by the playground, Izuku notices a large duffle bag sitting in the middle of the park. That wasn’t there before. More than that, the bag is a limited edition from All Might’s outdoor merch package. Only five hundred of those were sold worldwide. The only person he knows who got one is…

Izuku grabs the bag.

Mentally saying a quick apology to his mother, Izuku rushes back into the woods and rips open the duffle. Oh, it is Kacchan’s! The bag has a large Tupperware full of curry, along with several gallons of water — why did he have these? — and a wad of cash. 

Izuku grabs one of the plastic spoons — Kacchan really thought this through — and digs in. He knows he should ration this, not knowing where he’ll get another meal from, but he’s too hungry to really care. He hasn’t eaten since… breakfast yesterday? He didn’t get the chance to have dinner after patrol, and he had skipped lunch in favor of helping Hagakure with a math worksheet that was due the next period. Luckily, he did eat breakfast that morning — Kacchan made omelets and offered him one. Wow. So Izuku has Kacchan to thank for everything he’s eaten in the past two days.

Full and content, Izuku stashes the bag and sets off with the cash. He finds a convenience store closer to the city and goes in. Anywhere in Mustafu is too much of a risk, someone could recognize him. But in a more crowded area this late at night, Izuku is hoping he can get away with a quick stop in. 

Izuku grabs a few basic essentials: a toothbrush, toothpaste, some granola bars. He doesn’t need to waste the money on water, Kacchan stocked him up for at least a few days there. Izuku lingers on a thin looking decorative blanket. He really shouldn’t waste the money, and the store doesn’t have anything better, but… He’s so cold. Even now, being inside a heated building for a few minutes, the chill is settled deep into his bones. 

Izuku makes a note to ask Hatsume to improve the insulation in his hero costume as he grabs the blanket and heads to the cash register.

The cashier didn’t bother sparing him a second glance, so Izuku thinks he’s in the clear. That is, until he steps outside and hears an ear splitting scream come from a few blocks away.

He sighs, stashing his belongings and racing off to help.

The source of the sound is a dark alley between large buildings. Izuku approaches the scene to see a large, built man screaming, seemingly in pain. Izuku sees no injuries on the man, so it must be some quirk’s influence on him. Also concerning is two teenagers huddling around him, once with a gun pointed at the man’s head and another very close in his space. The one with the gun is a boy with unruly blonde hair. The other is a girl with a matching hair color, though hers is much longer. They can’t be over fifteen years old, but yet they are inflicting so much pain and terror into the much stronger man. Though, Izuku considers, he isn’t over fifteen either, and he can inflict quite a bit of damage on large foes. 

“Hey!” He calls out, trying to stop the teens from doing whatever it is they’re doing to cause that man so much pain. At once, the boy turns his gun from where it was pointed at the man’s head, now it is trained on Izuku. He puts his hands up instinctively, trying to settle the upset boy. The screaming stops as well, thankfully. 

“It’s okay, I don’t want to hurt you.” He takes slow steps forward. “Just put the gun down, and let him go. And then we can talk.” The him in question apparently just realized that he’s no longer in immediate danger, and shoves the girl harshly to the ground and takes off.

The boy spares a glance and a huff at the man and drops his aim to go check on his companion. Izuku uses this time to get closer, knowing he’ll be fast enough to stop the boy from trying to aim at him again in this close of range.

“Are you okay?” The gunman asks of the girl, a desperate edge to his tone. She stands up quickly, ignoring his outstretched hand and brushing off. 

“I’m fine, Its.”

Now that all is well between the two, they direct their attention back to Izuku. His first observation is how strikingly similar the two look. Same hair, sure, but same face, too. And build and stance and bright blue eyes. Huh, must be siblings or something.

“Alright man,” The boy starts, menacingly approaching Izuku. His arm holding the gun is still down, though, so Izuku allows it for now. “Are we gonna do this the easy way, or —”

“Itsuki, stop!” The girl, likely his sister, grabs his arm to stop his movements, staring at Izuku with wide eyes. “It’s him, can’t you tell? The boss said not to hurt him!”

“Yeah, well, the boss also said he isn’t sure about him yet, so…” The boy, Itsuki, starts to raise the gun. Izuku prepares for a fight, confused about their discussion.

“Ugh, let’s just go.” The girl quips back, sounding annoyed. 

Izuku speaks up now. “Uh, I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but I can’t just let you go.”

At that, the girl sighs, looking a bit remorseful. 

“Fine, okay. Let’s talk.” She puts a hand up towards the boy, in what looks to be a silent stand down, I got this . “Allow me to introduce myself.” She approaches slowly, with her hands up. 

The girl falls forward suddenly, and on instinct, he reaches out to catch her. Izuku doesn’t trust her, but he’s sure he can handle whatever she throws his —

Agony.

If this is what the other man was feeling, Izuku completely understands the screams. With a sharp gasp, Izuku crumples to the ground. It feels like his entire body is on fire, with white hot pain coursing through each limb. He’s broken many bones in the past, but this… this is torture. 

Just as soon as it comes on, the pain disappears. Taking just half a second to recover, Izuku pops his head up to see an empty alleyway. 

What was that?

Confused and disappointed, Izuku trudges back to Mustafa. He reflects as he walks. Those two teenagers, they kept talking about their boss. And they said he didn’t want Izuku harmed? They’re probably with the group that stormed the school on Friday. But they didn’t hurt him — at least, not in a way that caused lasting damage, he’ll get to that quirk later, and they didn’t try to take him anywhere. It doesn’t make any sense. What are two teenagers doing harassing a man in an alley and dodging Izuku on someone else’s orders? The last part of what the boy said is the most chilling, the boss said he isn’t sure about him yet . Izuku has so many questions. Sure about what, exactly? When will he be? And what will that mean for Izuku when he is? 

If it’s more of the pain he experienced earlier, Izuku needs to be ready for a fight. He felt it once the girl and he made contact, so he assumes that’s how the quirk is activated. With that degree of pain, Izuku wonders if she has a limit on how often she can activate her quirk. She had done the same thing to the man before Izuku arrived, so it’s definitely more than once. Can she control the degree of pain she inflicts? 

Izuku continues to wonder about the mysterious teenagers as he gets back to the tree he’s been using as a bed. He settles in for the night, enjoying some water — thanks, Kacchan – and trying to relax enough to sleep. However, Izuku can’t shake the prickling feeling in the back of his neck that comes with being watched, or in danger. The fact that those people knew him but let him go is leaving a very uneasy feeling in the boy’s stomach. He wraps the thin blanket around himself, trying to trap in some warmth and comfort, and resigns himself to yet another sleepless night.

“Deku?!”

His eyes shoot open. Oh, no. Izuku leaps up as quietly as possible, ready to run, when he hears his hero name again.

“Deku? Damnit nerd, are you here or not?”

Kacchan!

Izuku breaks into a sprint towards the only familiar voice he’s heard in days. As he comes into the other boy’s view, their eyes meet, and Izuku can see visible relief on the boy. His shoulders drop and he raises his arms a bit, before shooting them back down to his sides. 

“There you are.” He greets, surprisingly soft. 

“Kacchan! Oh my God, hi!” Izuku exclaims, stopping his sprint directly in front of the other. First thing’s first, “Is everyone okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah, everybody’s fine.” Kacchan reassures. “It’s nice to know it was you, and I wasn’t feeding some rando.”

He laughs, relieved to hear the familiar sarcasm once again. “Come on, we should get out of sight.” Izuku leads Kacchan into the woods, back to his tree, and they sit down across from each other on the blanket he lays out.

“Okay. What’s going on?”

He listens with rapt attention as Kacchan explains his interrogation with the HPSC and his meeting with Tsukauchi and All Might afterwards. Izuku is shocked to hear that they’re accusing him of stealing quirks. He supposes it makes some sense, but he was given his quirk, he didn’t take it.

“You can’t come back yet.” Kacchan finishes his story. “And you can’t see anyone else. Anyone that talks to you puts you and them in danger. No one knows where you are but me, not even All Might.”

This is exactly what Izuku was afraid of. He doesn’t want Kacchan getting hurt, especially not for protecting his secret.

“I don’t want you putting yourself at risk for me, Kacchan!”

Kacchan leans back at that, like he’s surprised to hear the words. He shows the emotion for only a split second, though, before putting a smirk back on his face.

“Shut up, nerd. I’ll do what I want.”

Izuku can’t help the warmth that spreads through his body at the blatant protectiveness in those words. He smiles at the other boy, knowing they both read between the lines on that one.

“Thanks, Kacchan.”

The other boy rolls his eyes at that, and looks away. He’s been doing that a lot lately, while they talk. He’s never been one to shy away from looking someone in the face, so Izuku wonders what brings it on. 

After another moment of analyzing the boy in front of him, a cold gust of wind passes through, making both boys shiver.

“Oh, here.” Kacchan drags a black duffle bag out from behind him. Izuku didn’t even notice he had that, too distracted by the excitement of seeing him. “Almost forgot. Trade me?” He asks, gesturing to the bag at Izuku’s back, the one that was left in the park. Izuku laughs at the reminder.

“Y’know, I knew it was you when I saw the bag. No one else has one of these.”

Kacchan looks proud at the admission. He really is a nerd, deep, deep down. Izuku loves to see those glimpses of the boy he used to be.

“It’s almost like I did that on purpose.” He quips back. “C’mon, open it. I don’t have all night, here.”

Izuku unzips the bag, and nearly shrieks at its contents. A winter jacket, gloves, a hat, a scarf, and a sleeping bag. On top of that, two thermoses. He could nearly cry at the sight. Kacchan brought him warmth .

Izuku bundles up immediately in what he eventually recognizes as Kacchan’s winter gear. He hopes the boy left enough for himself. After pulling the hat a bit too far down on his face, he looks up at the other boy with a thank you on his lips. He stops short though, when he sees an unguarded expression of wonder on Kacchan’s face. Izuku questions what would cause him to make that face. At once, he snaps out of it, and starts collecting the other duffle bag. 

“Wait — ” He halts his movements. “Can I ask you a favor?”

“Yeah, anything.”

Anything?

Izuku freezes at that word from Kacchan. He looks up to find the other boy already staring intensely at him. Izuku has never noticed how striking Kacchan’s eyes were. Such a deep, intense shade of red. He can’t help but feel pulled in. He leans forward slightly, as Kacchan clears his throat. Oh. Right.

Snapping back into reality, and feeling that tightening in his chest return about the reality of the situation, Izuku asks his favor.

“Will you check on my mom for me? I don’t know what she knows about the situation.”

Kacchan’s face softens at this. “The old man called her yesterday and told her vaguely what’s happening. But with the literal government on our asses, we really can’t risk any more phone calls.” Ah, so that was the call Izuku witnessed on the windowsill the other day. She was crying because her son’s mentor was telling her that he’s on the run… “Do you want me to go visit her soon?”

“Yes, please.” Izuku responds, grateful for the offer. “Will you tell her I’m alright? That you talked to me?”

Kacchan looks regretful at this, like he doesn’t want to respond. “Deku, remember what I said earlier? You’d be putting her in danger. If you really want me to tell her, I will, but —”

“No, no you’re right.” Izuku would never forgive himself if something happened to his mother. He feels awful that she’s so worried about him, but he’d rather she be worried and safe, than comforted and endangered. Still he feels tears well up in his eyes at the thought of her scared. He remembers, for a moment, who he’s with, and hopes Kacchan doesn’t give him a hard time about crying. 

Kacchan runs a hand through his hair and looks up at the sky, swearing quietly to himself. 

Instead of the ridiculing words Izuku is expecting, the other boy says nothing. He simply leans forward and places a hand on his arm, squeezing once, then letting go. 

Oh. He’s trying to comfort me.

“Listen, nerd.” He starts, quietly because of their proximity. “I have to go now. I can come back again on Tuesday, but it’ll be right after classes, so we can’t be here.” He gestures to the openness of the space around him. That’s fair, they may not be visible from the outside, but they certainly wouldn’t be able to speak very loudly. An idea comes to mind, but he’s not sure it’ll be well received.

“The river?”

Kacchan pauses for a moment, clearly contemplating. Izuku hates to suggest a place with such bad memories associated with it, but it’ll work perfectly for their requirements. And he knows they both know the way.

Apparently having made up his mind, Kacchan agrees, standing up to leave. Izuku says his goodbye, and Kacchan starts walking away. He pauses a few steps in, and turns back to face the boy again.

“Take care of yourself, Izuku.”

Izuku gives him a small smile in return.

It is not until a few minutes later, as Izuku is wrapped in a warm sleeping bag, that he processes the other’s words:

He said my name?!?!

Izuku is exhausted. The sleeping bag has been great, of course, but even that could not have saved him from the thunderstorm that went on for hours last night. He really wouldn’t have made it without Kacchan’s gear, so he shoots a mental thanks to the explosive boy. 

Now, to the present problem. Izuku is cold, soaking wet, and can barely keep his eyes open. The aggressive thunder prevented sleep for longer than a consecutive hour, and the wind speeds this morning are just plain cruel. If the hypothermia doesn’t get to him first, the next villain he faces will. He’s in no shape to run, hide, or fight. He needs a solution. 

Thankfully for Izuku, it’s a weekday. He popped by his apartment yesterday to find it empty: a sign that his mom is still going to work. As much as he’s sure his mother doesn’t want to go, she has no excuse to call off without revealing anything about Izuku. Which means the apartment is empty.

After stashing his belongings, Izuku makes a break for it through the town of Mustafu. He arrives at his apartment and slides the living room window open.

He does not trip and fall flat on his face climbing through the window, shut up.

Verifying that the apartment is indeed empty, Izuku proceeds to take the longest shower of his life. Ah, hot water. He’ll never take it for granted again. He then proceeds to ransack his own closet for a fresh set of clothing. The boy settles for athletic pants and a short sleeved shirt paired with a large black hoodie. 

Pulling the hoodie over his head, Izuku is met face to face with his biggest temptation yet: his bed. Nights on end of sleeping up against a tree makes him desperate to lay on the soft mattress, if only for a moment. Figuring he deserves a bit of self care after the weekend he’s had, Izuku allows himself to collapse onto his childhood bed.

He’s asleep before his head hits the pillow.

SLAM.

Izuku wakes to the sound of his front door closing. Huh? Did his mom come home early? Izuku checks the time on his alarm clock: 4:22 . He must have fallen asleep! And slept the entire day away, apparently. Oh God, that could have gone so much worse! His mom could have closed the door quieter, the HPSC could’ve looked for him here, he could have slept through his meeting with Kacchan — CRAP! HIS MEETING WITH KACCHAN!

Just as one panic pulls Izuku, another approaches in the form of his mother’s footsteps heading towards his bedroom. She can’t see him in here! Izuku leaps up, frantically grabs his belongings, and opens the window, making it outside just in time for his bedroom door to open. 

Curious, he watches her for a moment. She sits down politely on his bed, and promptly bursts into tears. 

Seeing her pain so up close, but yet just out of reach, is too much for the boy. All the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty catches up to him, and he cries right along with her, just a few feet away. 

He can’t waste time being upset, though. He’s already late to meet with Kacchan. Classes end at 3:30, and he likely went back to his dorm to change into more casual clothes first, then took the train to Mustafu. If Izuku’s predictions are correct, Kacchan has been waiting there for at least ten minutes. And it’ll take Izuku at least another ten to get there.

Crap, he hopes Kacchan is still waiting for him. Izuku really can’t afford to miss an opportunity for more food, or a sanity check in the form of banter with his friend turned enemy turned rival turned… something.

With one last mournful glance at his mom, Izuku sets off to meet Kacchan.

Chapter Text

Katsuki’s running — no, sprinting.

Full speed ahead, dodging stragglers still outside and divots in the sidewalk and parked cars.

He comes to a halt in front of an LED ticker, and breathes out a sigh of relief.

Next bus: North 12A

Arriving in: 2 minutes

He made it.

Katsuki spent much longer talking to Deku than he was expecting, he nearly missed the last bus back to UA. He hardly noticed the time passing, lost in conversation with the other boy. Getting onto the nearly-empty transit, Katsuki remembers how lit up with joy Deku seemed at the winter gear he brought him. The boy must have been so cold after spending days outside, Katsuki shivers at the thought. He feels so awful for the situation the other has found himself in, especially because Katsuki firmly believes he could have avoided it entirely. If only Katsuki had caught that woman. Deku wouldn’t have to spend another night out in the chilly November air. 

At least he has some proper gear now. Katsuki thinks back to the sight of the other boy bundled up in his jacket, scarf, and hat, only his bright green eyes and freckles showing. He can’t help the warmth in his stomach from that image. And the fact that it was his clothes Deku was clad in, Katsuki isn’t sure why, but the thought gives him a surge of protectiveness for the boy. Like he’d do anything to keep him safe, and warm.

It’s probably just the guilt talking, though. 

Katsuki reaches his stop, and steps off the bus a few blocks away from UA. He checks the time on his phone, and dreads the lack of sleep he’s going to get tonight. Especially because there’s another conversation he needs to have before he goes to bed. 

After scanning his ID and making his way over to the Class 1A dorms, Katsuki knocks on a door up on the fifth floor of the building. 

“Bakugo.”

“IcyHot,” He nods to the boy as Todoroki moves to the side to allow Katsuki entry into his bedroom. He looks around for somewhere to sit and, only finding mats, he opts to stand. This should be quick anyway. “You caught up?” He no longer needs to use the boy’s connection to his father to find Deku, but he should still check-in. The three of them do patrol together multiple times a week, after all.

“Yes. Yaoyorozu called a class meeting to inform everyone of Deku's absence. Then Hagakure took over and filled in the details.”

“Oh, okay. Good.” He trails off awkwardly, wanting to go to bed, if he doesn't need to explain anything. It is a bit concerning to hear about the class meeting, though. Katsuki wonders if word has spread to the entire school already. Probably, if Hagakure knows, the girl can’t keep her trap shut to save her life.

“Is he okay?” Todoroki questions him.

He opens his mouth to answer. Wait, why is he asking Katsuki that?

“How would I know?” He snarks back, trying to get the boy to back off.

“Kirishima said you went to visit your parents yesterday.”

Katsuki waits for the boy to continue. All he receives is a blank stare. Talking to IcyHot is like having a conversation with yourself sometimes, but the other self has a 104º fever.

“Yeah? And?”

“And today.”

“So? I like visiting my parents, is that so weird to you?” He questions, and watches as Todoroki gives him an unamused look. Oops. “Oh, my bad.”

The other boy huffs a sigh. “Anyway.” Oh, good, he’s in the clear. He is not in the mood to get into a fight about daddy issues right now. “Earlier today, I got pulled in for questioning. They asked about our patrol on Friday. And they were very threatening. I get the sense they’ll turn towards more drastic measures if they don’t find him soon.”

“Yeah, I know.” He throws a concerned thought to Deku at the reminder.

“So I understand that you can’t tell me anything. But.” He pauses, and looks Katsuki in the eyes. “He’s okay, right?”

At once, Katsuki feels his own crippling concern for the green-haired boy, and sees it reflected in Todoroki’s face. He tries to imagine for a moment if this was Kirishima, or one of the other morons, and someone was withholding information from him. Though, he’s not sure why Deku is different in his mind from any of his other friends. Anyway, he supposes he does feel a bit of sympathy for Half-And-Half. He lets his face soften, but only a fraction. 

“Yeah, he’s okay.”

He can see the relief in the other boy at his words, and is glad he was honest. He watches as Todoroki’s shoulders slump forward and he lets out a breath. Then, he looks back up.

“They said he was stealing quirks?”

“Yeah.” Katsuki fires up once again at the reminder.  “Fucking assholes don’t know shit. Deku would never do anything like that. And if they took five minutes to think with their brains instead of their fucking protocols they would realize that. He would literally never steal something as important to someone as a quirk. He knows what it’s like to be quirkless, he grew up quirkless. He wouldn’t do that to somebody. Nerd’s too good of a person.”

He comes back to himself after his rant — Where did that come from? — to see IcyHot’s eyebrows shot up above his bangs. He really doesn’t have an explanation, he’s not sure what just came over him, or why he feels so protective of Deku’s character. That same feeling from earlier is back — the one he felt while Deku was wrapped in his winter gear. Taking pity on him, apparently, Todoroki interrupts his spiral.

“Well, I should go to bed.” He walks to the door to open it for Katsuki. “Take care of yourself, Bakugo.”

Katsuki nods to the boy, and leaves to go to bed.

Katsuki gets off the same bus for the fifth time in a few short days, and makes his way over to the Midoriya household. He has a promise to uphold. And if he gets a glimpse of Deku during the trip, that’d just be a happy accident.

The school day passed by quickly. Katsuki didn’t receive any information from All Might and Tsukauchi, but he’s not worried. He’s seen Deku. He knows he’s okay. What was annoying was the constant pitying glances his friends kept sending him throughout the day. He really wishes they’d back off a bit. He can handle this alone, and even if he couldn’t, he has to. They can’t know what’s going on, don’t they realize that? Katsuki doesn’t understand the point of their pity.

He starts contemplating the conversation ahead of him as he stops at a takeout restaurant. If Inko is anything like Deku, which Katsuki knows she is, the woman likely hasn’t been feeding herself enough since finding out about the HPSC bullshit. He orders some katsudon and fried veggies, and takes the overflowing bag to a familiar apartment complex. With his hands full, Katsuki is forced to bang on the door by kicking it. 

After a few impatient kicks, the door opens to reveal a shocked looking Inko Midoriya. 

“Katsuki! What are you doing here?”

He turns to the side so he can see her around the bag.

“Brought you some food. Can I come in?” At this, Inko remembers herself, and moves out of the doorway so Katsuki can walk in. Knowing this place like the back of his hand, even after so many years, he leads himself to the kitchen and sets the bag down on the counter. 

“I know this is probably kind of weird,” He starts, turning to face the woman he grew up calling Auntie . “But I’m sure Deku wants you to be taken care of while all this is going on.” These words were carefully chosen to make sure he doesn’t give the impression that he’s talked to the nerd. Just as she’s about to answer him, a door slams shut down the hall. Katsuki whips his head around to see All Might walking out of the bathroom.

“All Might?” He questions on instinct.

“Ah, Young Bakugo.” A flash of surprise covers his face, but the retired hero recovers quickly. “I was just here to check in on Ink— Young Midoriya’s mother.”

Katsuki feels his eyebrows shoot up. All Might walks around Katsuki and to Inko’s side. He stands awfully close to the other woman. At this point, his eyebrows are trying to stretch to the top of his head.

“Oh, well.” Katsuki would really like to leave now. He has no idea why All Might is here — well, that’s not true, he doesn’t want to think about why All Might is here. But he gets the sense he’s not particularly welcome to spend a meal with the pair. “I was just making sure you’re okay. And you are. So…” He trails off, heading towards the door like a spooked deer. 

“Oh, that’s so kind of you.” Inko starts, stopping Katsuki’s escape. “I am so worried for my son. It’s just that it’s so cold outside, and he’s probably hungry, and scared, and alone—” She chokes out the last words as tears start welling in her eyes. Katsuki really wants to tell her about his visit, if only to stop the impending waterworks. They stop anyway, though, when All Might moves closer to Inko and rests a hand on her back. The pair look at each other for a long moment.

No fucking way.

Both adults direct their attention back to Katsuki, seemingly just remembering his presence. 

“Thank you for coming here, Katsuki.” Inko gives him that fond-mother look that he only sees on his own mother in special moments. “You really have grown up recently, haven’t you?”

He feels a blush creep up on his cheeks, and is about to disagree when his teacher speaks.

“He really has.” His mentor smiles warmly at him. There’s a tension in the look, though. One that says don’t you dare tell anyone about this, boy . Ha, joke’s on him. Katsuki will be telling Deku in detail as soon as he has the opportunity. 

Not liking the matching gazes of proud-parent, Katsuki quickly excuses himself. He wishes them a good dinner and heads out. 

Back at UA, Katsuki is stopped just after scanning his student ID to get back onto the school’s properties.

“Bakugo,” His homeroom teacher begins. “You’ve been leaving campus a lot recently.” That’s strange. Aizawa tends to give them a lot of freedom, so long as they follow the rules. And Katsuki has signed in and out every time he’s left. He looks up at his teacher to find a strange look on his face. Almost as though he doesn’t want to be having this conversation. It’s hard to really tell though, the old grump shows so little emotion outside of exhaustion and passive indifference. 

The questioning makes a bit more sense to Katsuki when he notices who Aizawa is with.

So we meet again, Suit.

“There a problem with that?” Katsuki snarks, extra defensive in the presence of this particular asshole. 

“We’ve been monitoring activity in and out of UA in an attempt to track down Midoriya. We’ve noticed you have left the premises every day since his disappearance.”

Oh, great. He speaks.

This asshole and his lack of questions. Katsuki is about to just stare at the man until he realizes his error, when he sees a flicker of desperation in his teacher’s eyes. He supposes the staff must be getting grilled much harder than any of the students are. He knows that deep down underneath all his sarcasm and eyebags, his teacher does care about the students in 1A. Especially Deku. He’ll take enough pity on the man to answer Suit, but not enough to not be a dick about it.

“I’ve been checking in on Mrs. Midoriya. Since, you know, you forced her son to run away.”

Does he see… pride… in Aizawa’s face? Nice.

“We didn’t force him to do anything.” Suit has to go and ruin the moment. “We just need to speak with him. And he would have known that if he didn’t run from the law.” The asshole gives a pointed smirk at Bakugo now. “Like a villain would.”

Oh, that motherfucker. Katsuki feels his palms start to heat up in rage, and he lets them. Any repercussions will be worth wiping that smug look of that asshole’s face.

“He’s not a fucking —” He stops short when he feels his quirk power down, and looks in betrayal to Aizawa, who’s hair is up in the air in a tell-tell sign of his intervention. He partially contemplated forgoing his quirk and just punching the guy, but he supposes that really won’t help Deku’s situation much. And if there’s one thing Katsuki is focused on, it’s helping Deku. He’s not quite sure why, but he knows it’s important. He feels it in his chest, and his stomach, and in the blush on his face, and — not the point.

“Fine, whatever.” He walks past the pair, shoulder checking the HPSC agent as he passes. “Out of my way, Suit.”

Five minutes. That’s fine. He can be five minutes late. That’s not a problem. It’d be a problem if he was ten minutes late.

Ok, so he’s ten minutes late. Again, fine. It’s not like we set an actual time, but Deku knows how long it takes to get from UA to Mustafu. Or, maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he’s not even late because he thinks we were supposed to meet later.

Maybe he lost his watch.

Maybe he didn’t lose his watch, but it got set to a different time zone. Or something. Does he even have a watch?

Maybe – Fuck. It’s been thirty minutes.

Deku, where the fuck are you?

After pacing, huffing, and nearly pulling his hair out, Katsuki finally spots a flash of green lightning, and cannot explain the relief that courses through his veins. Relieved, but still pissed.

“Oi! Deku, you fucking idiot! Where the hell were you—” He trails off, getting his first good look at the other boy’s face. It’s red and splotchy, with tears in his eyes. “Woah, hey.” He allows his voice to soften, as he approaches the other with outstretched arms. “What happened?”

Deku harshly rubs his face, clearing the tears but doing nothing for the redness in his eyes and cheeks. “I’m fine, Kacchan.” Strange, Deku isn’t one to get defensive. Or to be embarrassed about crying. Trying to placate the boy, Katsuki puts his hands up in innocence. 

“You’re not fine, Deku.” He says, kind but firm. “C’mon, sit down.” He guides the pair to the edge of the bridge, overlooking the shallow stream below. Their legs dangle and brush against each other every other swing. Katsuki tries to ignore it. “Talk to me.”

He turns to look the other boy in the eyes. Deku, for his part, refuses to do the same. Slumping down into himself, he explains. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He starts hiccuping through his words, a clear sign he’s about to start crying again. “It’s all just catching up to me, I guess. I hate making everyone so worried about me. My mom, All Might, everyone at school—” He trails off, now fully sobbing again. 

Katsuki can’t just sit by and watch this. Tentatively, he raises his right hand — the one closest to Deku — and places it gently on the back of the other boy’s neck. Regrettably, he feels the boy tense up slightly at the contact. He spares a quick thought of hatred at his younger self for being so cruel to this boy that even now, his instinct is to fear Katsuki. Slowly, he starts pulling, guiding the boy’s head to rest onto his shoulder, into the crook of his neck. A beat passes, and then at once Deku slumps all his weight into him and collapses into harder sobs. Katsuki takes the weight gratefully, rubbing his hand up and down the boy’s back, trying to bring him some comfort. He considers the tense-up from earlier, and decides he’s happy to know that even if Deku’s instinct is to fear Katsuki, his choice is to trust him. Trust him with his location, with his meals, with his mother, with his safety, and now with his comfort. Katsuki can’t help but feel honored at that.

“Everyone is worried because they care about you, nerd. That’s not a bad thing, and it’s not something you need to feel bad about.”

Deku nods against his shoulder in acknowledgement. After a few more minutes of comforting touches, his crying ceases. Katsuki takes the opportunity to try to cheer him up.

“I went to see your mom yesterday.” 

Deku’s head pops up at the words, and Katsuki immediately misses the weight.

“You did? What’d she say to you?”

Katsuki cracks a menacing smile. “Actually, we didn’t talk much. She had company.”

“Huh? Who?”

Katsuki wants to drag this out to mess with the boy, but one look at the genuine confusion on Deku’s face has him caving. His smile widens.

“All Might.”

“Oh, I guess that doesn’t surprise me too much.” Deku starts. “What’s that face for?”

“Oh, nothing,” He smirks, leaning back on his arm. “They just seemed a bit intimate, is all.”

Deku blushes at the implication, eyes widening in disbelief.

“Shut up, Kacchan.” He lets a laugh out at the end, and Katsuki is mesmerized. He’s just so — cute, for lack of a better word — when he laughs. He wants to make it happen again. 

“Hey, do you think he says I am here when he puts it i—“

“KACCHAN!” Deku interrupts, collapsing his face into his hands to hide both his bright red face and his uncontrollable giggles. Good, that’s what Katsuki wants to see. If the boy has to cry, it should really be out of laughter, and a little bit of embarrassment, not anything else.

All righted with the world once again, he moves on to the purpose of their meeting. 

“Alright, alright, back to business.” He drags a bag into view. “Here’s some more food for ya.” 

Deku snatches it up greedily, peering inside to scan his belongings.

“Is that enough? And how are the jackets and stuff working out? You’re not in your hero costume anymore. Where did you get the —”

“Kacchan, stop.” He giggles, throwing a playful shove to Katsuki’s shoulder to stop his mumblings. Katsuki isn’t one to mutter, so it was odd that he did. “I’m fine, seriously. Thanks to you, of course. I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me, Kacchan.”

He feels a bit embarrassed at the blatant acknowledgment of his work. “Whatever. Dumbass.” He’s congratulating himself on a good defection when he remembers his conversation yesterday with Aizawa and Suit. No need to worry the nerd about the details, but he should probably not leave during the day again for a while. “Hey, I can’t keep leaving during the day so our next meeting needs to be at night.”

“Okay. We should pick a different place, though.”

Katsuki contemplates for a moment, considering private places that aren’t too far for Deku to travel to.

“How about the bench behind Aldera? The one with all the trees around it.” 

Deku gives him a flat look, and says nothing. After a moment, Katsuki raises an eyebrow, prompting him to explain.

“You mean the bench you used to beat me up at?”

He lets out a snort. “Yeah, well I beat you up there because of how hidden it is.” Deku starts laughing at that. “Shut up, asshole.”

He feels so lucky that they’re able to laugh about that now. There was a time he thought he’d never deserve Deku’s forgiveness, and now he has it.

“Oh, how the times have changed.” Deku looks up at him with a soft smile still on his face, apparently thinking the same thing. 

“Yeah, they have, haven’t they?” He meets the other’s eyes. Katsuki gets lost for a moment in the soft green tones in front of him. Everything since last Friday has been so stressful and terrifying, but the one reprise has been this: getting to exist, if only for a moment, outside of all expectations and school and life. And getting to do it with Deku. 

Deku, who’s now been on the run for over four days. Fuck, and Katsuki’s looking for a silver lining? Guiltily, he breaks the eye contact and stands up. 

“Alright, so Thursday night? Midnight at Aldera?”

He notices disappointment on Deku’s face as he agrees, and bids the other boy a goodbye. 

Katsuki watches him go, too many emotions swirling through his mind and body to handle.

Katsuki wakes up Thursday morning to his phone buzzing. He grabs it with a grumble, and shakes himself awake when he sees a phone call from Kirishima. The boy lives next door to him, Katsuki can’t imagine a reason for calling him, especially at this early hour.

“What?” He picks up the phone with a growl.

“Hey, man. Were you asleep?”

“Yes, I was asleep, dumbass. It’s—” He pulls his phone away from his face to check the time. “Six in the goddamn morning, Shitty Hair. What do you want?”

“I just wanted to see if you saw the news yet. And check in, if you had. But I guess you haven’t, so uhh…”

At this, Katsuki pulls his phone back again and checks his notifications. He clicks on one that pulls up a news headline from ten minutes ago:

UA Student Izuku Midoriya Named a Wanted Villain By HPSC

Katsuki freezes.

He hangs up on Kirishima without a word of goodbye, and starts stoically getting ready. He doesn’t want to think, because thinking about it would lead Katsuki to take actions that he knows he probably can’t come back from. Better to talk to someone first. After haphazardly throwing his school uniform on, he slams his door and makes his way to the elevator, not sparing a glance to Kirishima, who opened his door when he heard the ruckus. 

Katsuki walks through the halls with an air of sharpness, not wanting to be interrupted in his walk to All Might’s office. Despite classes not starting for a few hours, there are plenty of students roaming the halls, grabbing breakfast or meeting with teachers or whatever else. He’s not interrupted, but he can hear plenty of conversations between students of other classes. Whispers of really? He’s a villain? and Did you hear Midoriya from 1A is a criminal now? and it’s always the nice ones you have to worry about . 

He can barely contain his rage. 

How dare these people say anything about Deku? They don’t know Deku. They don’t know how good he is, how kind he is, how his eyes light up when he pulls off a difficult move, how his face softens when he sees a kid on patrol, how he’d do anything for his classmates, how he has the most interesting opinions on heroics, how he’s so forgiving that he became Katsuki’s friend even after the hell he put him through. They don’t know any of that. And they have the nerve to call him a villain. 

He’s the biggest hero Katsuki has ever met. 

That thought shocks Katsuki out of his mind, but he realizes it’s true. All Might was always some unattainable celebrity in Katsuki’s mind. Some goal to achieve that never really felt grounded, some powerful being. But Deku is different. Even before he got One for All, the boy was brave. He’ll never forget that day with the Sludge Villain, when Deku accomplished what every other pro was too chickenshit to do. He’s not sure exactly when he started thinking so highly of the other boy, but he won’t stand by and listen to idiots speak so poorly about someone so… amazing.

Katsuki arrives to All Might’s office, surprised to see the door ajar. Hearing multiple voices coming from inside, he peeks his head in to see his teacher sitting at his desk with three HPSC agents speaking to him, facing away from the door. All Might catches his eye, and immediately gives him a subtle head shake. Shit, he needs to leave. 

Now panicked, Katsuki heads to class and sits down in his assigned seat, feeling the emptiness of the desk behind him. Usually, he’d be annoyed at Deku’s chipper greeting and animated energy. He wishes he could be annoyed with the boy’s unrelenting presence in his life again, rather than being reduced to fifteen minute secret meetings every other day. Today is a Deku-Day (as he’s been calling them in his head), so he should be excited, but Katsuki can’t help the dread filling his stomach at the interaction he just had with All Might. Not to mention the fact that Deku is officially a wanted criminal and in way deeper trouble now than he was before, and all the people in the school are speaking so horribly of him, and still no one knows the entire situation but him — even All Might left in the dark about their meetings. 

Katsuki is so distracted by his thoughts and the unrelenting bouncing of his leg that he hardly notices his homeroom teacher walk in the room. He does notice, however, the question he is asked when Mineta raises his hand.

“Mr. Aizawa, is Midoriya really a criminal?”

Katsuki sees red. 

Standing up and whipping around to the boy behind him, Katsuki finally releases all the stress he’s been holding since this morning — since last Friday, really.

“No he’s not a fucking criminal! You absolute fucking moron! It’s Deku, dumbass! You KNOW him, you all know him! He’s been nice to you since he met you, despite the fact that you’re a perverted piece of shit. So stop acting like —”

“Bakugo.”

He’s stopped, once again, by Aizawa. This time, the teacher’s capture weapon. The scarf is wrapped around his face and torso, pulling him roughly around and to the front of the room. He didn’t even realize that he had been walking towards Mineta. More than that, Aizawa’s hair is falling down, meaning he was just using his quirk. Katsuki also didn’t notice activating his quirk, but he can smell the residual nitroglycerin in the air, so he must have. 

“I understand the situation is stressful,” His teacher begins, releasing him physically but pinning him in place with a threatening look. “But you will not speak that way to your classmate. Even when he’s being disrespectful.” At the end, he leans over to glare at Mineta as well. 

Katsuki doesn’t see his reaction though, because he’s still glaring daggers into his homeroom teacher. Aizawa meets his gaze and raises his eyebrows, daring him to continue. After a few moments of a staring contest, he speaks again.

“If it happens again, I’m suspending you.”

“Tsh, whatever.” Katsuki sits roughly back down in his seat, not making eye contact with any of his friends around the room who are trying to catch his gaze. He resumes spacing out and fidgeting. This continues for the next few hours, Katsuki hardly noticing a thing that was said in any of his classes.

At lunch, the boy decides to sit alone, far away from his usual table. He can’t handle the questioning he knows he’ll get from his friends. His friends, however, don’t take that hint. He’s approached by Sero and Kaminari not two minutes into lunch.

“Heyyy, Kacchan.” Kaminari starts as the two walk up to his table, speaking in a soft sing-songy tone that immediately pisses him off.

“Wanted to check in,” Sero continues for him. “You went kinda crazy this morning.”

Katsuki shoots a glare at him so sharp that it causes Sero to back up a half step and put his hands up in defense.

“Not saying it wasn’t deserved. We just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

This pisses Katsuki off immensely. “Obviously I’m not fucking okay.” He snaps, quiet but sharp. “But I don’t want to fucking talk about it, I can’t fucking talk about it. And if you two can’t figure out that you should leave me the fuck alone right now, then you’re even dumber than I realized.”

He feels a pang of guilt as the two walk away with hurt looks on their faces.

Shit, why can’t I do anything right? 

At the end of the school day, Katsuki trudges immediately home to his bedroom. He’d usually hit the gym with his friends, but he’s sure they don’t want to see him right now. The problem with this is, he has a lot of energy. Both from being so tense all day and from not expelling his usual amount. He restlessly tries to keep himself occupied by doing push ups and sit ups in his room, but it doesn’t nearly have the same effect as getting to let loose in a spar.

After an hour or so of pitying himself, he hears a knock on the door. A quick glance at the time tells him it’s probably his friends. Not yet wanting to face the consequences of his actions in the form of dual puppy dog eyes, he shouts through the door. 

“Go away!”

“No.” He only hears Kirishima respond. Shit, it’s really bad if they sent him. The redhead does a great I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed routine. 

“Seriously, asshole. Go. Away.”

“Not until you talk to me.”

Knowing his friend can be just as much of a stubborn prick as he can be, especially when he’s motivated, Katsuki resolves himself to the conversation and opens the door. 

“I literally cannot talk to you. What do you all not get about that.” It’s a question, technically, but he doesn’t frame it as one. He’s exhausted from telling them this over and over again.

“Well,” Kirishima starts with an unimpressed look on his face, leading back against Katsuki’s dresser and crossing his arms. “You could certainly try harder than this.”

Katsuki, for the second time today, finds himself immediately fired up over someone’s words. Though, this one is much less destructive than this morning’s.

“Actually, I can’t! I can’t try harder than this, because I’m the only one that knows what’s really going on and yet there’s nothing I can even do about it because these government assholes think he’s a fucking villain and now so does everyone else and All Might keeps icing me out and I feel like I’m losing my goddamn MIND over here and I can’t even fucking tell you why!” 

Katsuki clams up after this outburst, a bit embarrassed. 

Kirishima waits a moment, then cracks a small smile.

“Do you feel better now?”

Katsuki has to turn away to hide the smirk fighting its way onto his face. He can’t help it, the idiot’s positivity is contagious. He can’t give him that kind of validation, though.

“No, I don’t.”

Kirishima lets out an exhale of quiet laughter. “Whatever you say, man.” He says as he walks towards the door, nudging Katsuki with his shoulder as he passes. 

“Wait.” Katsuki turns around to see his friend doing the same.

“Hm?”

“Sparkplug and Tapeface,” He starts, not really knowing how to approach this but knowing he needs to. “They’re not dumb.” He pauses a moment, then continues. “Can you tell them I said that?”

Kirishima breaks into a huge grin. “I’ll tell them you said sorry.” He teases, ever one to poke the bear. Yes, Katsuki is the bear.

“I never said that!” He calls after his friend, despite the fact that the door is closed already, so he probably can’t hear him. Oh well, the sentiment got across regardless.

As much as his conversation with Kirishima helped, Katsuki’s day was still just outright horrible. He feels this again as he stands by a bench packed full with memories. He’s a few minutes early to meeting Deku, and he’s using the time to reflect on the last time he was here.

God, he was so stupid back then. He really thought he could be the number one hero by putting everyone else around him down, so that he was the one on top. Even if that worked, it would have been a horrible way to live. If today’s conversation with Kirishima showed him anything, it’s that having friends does a lot of good for him. He hates to admit it, but talking to the boy, even though he couldn’t tell him everything, really did help. He’s starting to understand all that shit Deku spouts about being in touch with your feelings and trusting the people that care about you and whatever other hippie bullshit he believes in. 

Speaking of Deku, Katsuki hears footsteps approach his location, and soon sees a head of unruly green hair.

“Hey, Kacchan!” He seems decently spirited today. Hopefully that means not much has happened since they last spoke.

“Hey, Deku.” He drops the bag on his arm and picks up the empty one Deku had brought to get refilled. “Here’s your stuff.”

Instead of digging in like he usually does, Deku just stares at Katsuki, eyes narrowing.

“Are you okay, Kacchan?” Shit, is he really that transparent to everyone?

“I assume you haven’t seen the news recently?”

“No? Why?”

“Apparently, you’re a wanted villain.”

Deku’s eyes widen like saucers as he stares at Katsuki in disbelief. Saying it again out loud brings back all the emotions of the day back onto his shoulders. Shit.

Don’t cry Don’t cry Don’t cry Don’t cry Don’t cry Don’t cry Don’t cry Don’t cry

Deku takes a step forward to close the distance between them, and puts a hand on his forearm and squeezes. “Kacchan?”

And, he’s crying. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”

Only one tear escapes before he’s pulling back from the hold and wiping it away. This is so not what Deku needs right now.

“Fuck, sorry, Deku. This isn’t your problem. You’re literally sleeping outside in November because you’re on the run from government assholes.” He continues to self pity until Deku, once again, closes the distance he keeps putting between them.

“Kacchan, it’s okay. Just because I’m struggling doesn’t mean you can’t be.” Oh, this boy. This boy is so, so good. Here he is, standing at a place where Katsuki has hurt him time and time again, and he’s comforting him. Telling him that it’s okay to struggle. And in this place, that holds so much weight between them, Katsuki almost believes him. “I want to be here for you, just as much as you’re here for me.”

What did I ever do to deserve him as a friend?

He feels another tear fall from his eyes, but before he can wipe it, he feels a scarred thumb do it for him. The hand does not leave his face after, instead cupping his jaw gently. Deku continues to speak comforting things to the other, but Katsuki is far too distracted by the soft yet grumbly tone of his voice, and the warmth coming through his palm. Eventually, he does tune back in, when it sounds like Deku is wrapping up his speech. He catches the tail end, and is glad he does.

“—I promise, Kacchan, we’re going to be okay.”

Feeling a surge of bravery, Katsuki looks up to meet the other boy’s eyes. The intensity in his gaze causes Deku to gasp quietly. The stare is broken surprisingly fast, when he notices Deku’s gaze shift down to his lips, before quickly coming back up. Before he can think it through, Katsuki leans forward. Not breaking eye contact, their noses nearly touching, he —

HONK

Katsuki leaps apart from the other boy as a car horn snaps him out of his trance. Trying to hide his face, which he’s sure is doing awful, embarrassing things right now, Katsuki quickly grabs his empty duffel bag. He bids Izuku a quick goodnight, promising to meet him in the park in two days time, and runs off.

He travels on foot back to UA with only one thought on his mind:

What am I doing?

Chapter Text

Izuku touched his fingers gently to his lips, and let out a high pitched sound of utter joy.

Oh. My. God. Did we almost kiss? We almost kissed! I almost kissed Kacchan! I would have kissed Kacchan. If not for that damn car horn. Ugh. And then Kacchan left. Wait, why did he leave? Wait. Was I overstepping? Shit. He was literally just crying. And then I tried to kiss him. Ugh that was so stupid! Why did I do that? I need to talk to him. I need to fix things. He ran away from me, so clearly he’s mad at me because I overstepped when I tried to kiss him. Wait. No. He’s the one that leaned in. Did Kacchan want to kiss me?

Wait.

Did I want Kacchan to kiss me?

Do I want Kacchan to kiss me?

Oh. My. God. I want Kacchan to kiss me! Does this mean I like Kacchan? OH MY GOD. I like Kacchan!

Does Kacchan like me?

…

No, probably not. If he did, he wouldn’t have ran away.

Izuku begins his trek back to the woods, lost in thought. He’s using the opportunity to reflect on everything that just happened with Kacchan: from his initial closed off demeanor, to breaking down in front of Izuku, and finally, to their almost kiss. 

Kacchan was so upset earlier. Izuku can’t imagine it’s all because of him, and his situation. He’s never seen the boy cry like that before. He nearly did — that one night at Ground Beta, but those were tears of frustration and rage, hidden by his violent actions. 

These tears were sadder. And Kacchan was more open with them, with him. As much as he hates to see the other boy cry — and oh , did that sight make Izuku want to fight God — he’s honored at the blatant trust he showed him tonight.

Izuku thinks for a moment about how much closer he and Kacchan have become this past week. The boy is regularly risking his own safety to bring him supplies, and a bit of comfort. As much as he hates the risk, part of Izuku is selfishly enjoying this special treatment. Especially now that he’s identified those butterflies in his stomach. Who could blame him? Getting spoiled and taken care of by the boy he likes, of course he’s enjoying it. And today, Kacchan gave him the best gift yet: he let Izuku return the favor. There’s not much he can give, given his current state, but still Kacchan cracked himself open for Izuku, allowing the other boy to give him comfort and support. 

Even if Kacchan never returns his feelings, as long as Izuku keeps getting to be a source of comfort for him, he thinks he’ll be alright. 

It’s even more than that though. The information about his mom, the catch-ups about All Might, the laughs. Kacchan spends no more than twenty minutes with Izuku every other day, yet he skyrockets his spirits. And he really needs that, these days. The nights are getting colder, and Izuku isn’t getting any better at sleeping outside. Having to stay constantly hidden and constantly vigilant is really taking a toll on him. He feels himself getting weaker and less alert as the days go by. Even now, walking back to his temporary home, he feels himself swaying a bit, his eyes blurry with exhaustion. 

Eventually, he makes it back. He’s unloading the supplies from his duffel bag when he suddenly remembers the rest of the conversation he had with Kacchan. Yikes, he must really be out of it if he forgot that he was a wanted criminal.

Izuku contemplates his next move. He probably shouldn’t stay here. It was a stupid choice to begin with, staying in the town he grew up in, and it’s even more of one now. He’s seen his mother several times now. He knows Kacchan will take care of her, and so will All Might (he’s very pointedly not thinking about their dynamic). He doesn’t have to stay here anymore. He can go somewhere more secluded, far away from anyone who might recognize him.

He won’t tell Kacchan where he moves to, either, so he can protect the boy as much as possible. Honestly, these visits are getting risky. He’s not sure how he’s going to get food without them, but it may be best for their next meeting to be their last. Izuku mourns the thought, knowing how much he relishes in the boy’s company. But he has to protect Kacchan — and himself. 

Plan created, he collects some money he has left from Kacchan’s first drop off and sets off to the convenience store he first visited, remembering its 24/7 sign out front. He’ll stock up as much as he can on nonperishables, and move immediately. Safer to do so at night. Then, he’ll make one trip back to Mustafu on Saturday to see Kacchan, knowing how much he’d panic if Izuku didn’t show. He’ll tell the boy his plan, and that will be that. Until the situation is resolved of course. Izuku does his best to think only about the immediate future, because he has no idea how he’s getting out of this. And that terrifies him. Even with All Might on his side, things are looking bleak. 

Besides, he apparently has bigger things to worry about. 

He deactivated One for All a few blocks from the store to avoid drawing attention to himself. So he approaches the building on foot. Immediately, something seems off. Most of the lights are off, but the door is wide open. Creeping past the windows, Izuku pokes his head in to analyze the situation. A man, who he recognizes as the cashier from the other night, is bound and the wrists and ankles by a bungee cord. He’s laying down on his stomach, duct tape covering his mouth, in the aisle closest to the door. 

A quick scan shows him to be awake, and mostly unharmed. 

Deeper into the building is a dark figure in all black and a mask covering their face. They’re standing at the cash register, trying to pry it open with a screwdriver. 

Between that, the rope, and the duct tape, it seems like the robber grabbed a utility kit from the store, and simply used those resources to do the job. Seems like an amateur, to be honest. But Izuku is not an idiot, he knows things are not usually as they seem. And besides, he knows he’s off his game right now.

Taking a stealth approach, he squeezes through the door without shaking the bell on the handle, and drops immediately to the floor. He pauses a moment and when he continues to hear the clanking of the cash register, he crawls over to the cashier. 

The man’s eyes widen in fear, and he quickly puts up his hands in what he hopes is a comforting gesture, and then moves one to put a finger in front of his lips. I won’t hurt you, but you need to be quiet .

The man seems to get the sentiment. He stays silent as Izuku powers up briefly to rip the cords from around the man’s limbs. He sits up and faces Izuku. 

“Thank you, oh thank you so much!” He whispers, sounding close to tears.

“Of course, you’re safe now.” Izuku gives his best All Might smile at the man. 

Apparently, his impression is in poor taste. Because the man’s eyes widen to double their size before, and he lets out a gasp. It is only now that Izuku realizes the clanking stopped. 

He whips around to face the villain, a tall but slender man. He still has a mask on, so Izuku can’t get any read on his other features, or his quirk.

He reaches subtly behind him for the bungee cord. It’s strange to be doing this without all the hero protocols. He’s not announcing his presence or intentions, he’s not giving the man an opportunity to stand down, and he’s certainly not stalling for police. No, this moment is all instinct, and it’s all Izuku.

At once, he lunges forward, trying to capture the man’s arms in the rope. The man flails away, grabs the first thing on the shelf behind him — a toilet plunger — and swings. 

Izuku catches the wooden handle racing towards his head, and uses the man’s grip to pull him closer. He doesn’t really want to harm this man right now, just a restraint would do the job. But he needs to get him under control. So, he aims one powered up punch to the man’s stomach, hoping it’ll be enough to sedate him into complying. 

Izuku makes contact, and goes flying across the store. Landing roughly into an aisle — paper towels, luckily — he stands back up, watching as the villain turns his attention to the cashier.

Oh, no you don’t!

He takes one leap, and in a second is between the two. 

“Get out of here, now!” He shouts to the man behind him, and relaxes a bit when he hears the door jingle. Now alone with the villain, he takes a moment to size up his opponent. 

He had been thrown back by the punch, being pulled by the force of his arm thrusting backwards. He didn’t feel any pain in his stomach, so it’s not a reflection quirk. It might be —

Izuku, ever the experimenter, powers up and throws another punch, this time at the man’s side. 

Yes! He’s thrown in the exact opposite direction of where the punch hit. Unfortunately, this was straight through the window of the store, and out into the street. The man’s skin acts as some kind of springboard, or trampoline. When he makes contact, he bounces back.

Satisfied with his discoveries, he turns back towards the villain, who follows him out into the street.

“So you’ve figured me out, huh?” He taunts. “Look, man, we don’t have to do this. Just let me take my shit and go.”

Does he really think Izuku is just going to let him go? Even in civilian clothes, he’s a hero. “No chance.” He snarks right back.

Izuku needs a strategy, and fast. One, because the criminal is approaching him again, and two, because he’s out in the open here. He’ll get caught if he doesn’t wrap this up before people wake up from the noise. Or before the cashier calls the police.

Izuku backs up slowly, letting the man close in on him. He finds himself in a narrow alleyway. For the best, probably. He can hide his face better here, with only about four feet of distance between concrete walls. Hmmm. 

Ah. Uh, huh. Izuku has a plan. But man, is it going to hurt. 

As soon as the villain gets deep enough into the crevice, he strikes. He hits the man and the exact angle to throw himself directly across from the criminal, so they’re facing each other with less than a foot between them, concrete walls behind them both. Then, Izuku strikes. 

Just the right amount of power from his arm, then his leg, then other arm, then other leg. Over and over again, he lands a hit and gets thrown back. But he doesn’t go far. The concrete behind him takes the impact, and leaves him close enough to strike again immediately. Izuku is using just the right amount of force to wear down on the criminal’s quirk without breaking the concrete behind him — or his bones. He can’t exactly go visit Recovery Girl right now.

He sees the moment in the man’s eyes that he realizes his plan, and more importantly, that he realizes it’s going to work. He doesn’t give him the time to recover, though.

Izuku continues his attack as the man puts his arms up to shield himself instinctively, despite the fact that Izuku hasn’t landed a real hit yet. This must mean the man’s endurance is running out.

Just as expected, the villain panics right before his quirk is set to give out, not wanting to feel the full force of Izuku’s strength. In his panic, he throws a last ditch punch at Izuku, and he’s got him. Moving at the speed of lighting, thanks to his actual green lightning, Izuku grabs the rope that he shoved into his pocket and wraps it tightly around the man’s wrist. Luckily, the bungee is stretchy enough to wrap around his other arm, even if it is ripped in half from earlier. 

Now mostly restrained and pleading for mercy, Izuku hauls the villain up into a fireman’s carry, and walks back to the destroyed convenience store. He sets him down in the middle of the destroyed building, and uses various supplies to ensure he can’t get out of the hold. 

Sirens start to sound in the distance, so Izuku leaves the man behind, grabbing a pack of cup noodles on his way out.

He gets three blocks. 

With the adrenaline wearing off, Izuku is now acutely aware of his limbs, and the way they throb in agony. Being repeatedly thrown into concrete with the strength of One for All is damaging, even for him. As he does his best to put as much distance between himself and the police as possible, Izuku also becomes aware of the exhaustion he’s been feeling for days now. He was running on empty, even before the villain attack.

He can hear Kacchan’s voice in his head, berating him for taking on so much when he has so little to give. But Izuku is a hero, even when the world thinks he’s a villain. He can’t lose himself out here, not when so many people are counting on him. What would his mother think, what would All Might think, if he saw a crime happening and did nothing to stop it? Izuku does not want to know. 

He slumps down against a wall, leaning his head back and staring up at the sky. He’s just so tired. As the stars in the sky start to blur, he admires the spiky yellow diffractions, and thinks vaguely of Kacchan’s hair.

The first thing he feels is a dull throb in the back of his head. He winces a bit, and hears shuffling around him. The lights that have been bullying his eyelids start to dim, and at once he feels a relief. Izuku wonders briefly if he has a concussion, before turning his attention elsewhere.

He can feel tight pressures on his wrists and ankles, holding him to something cold. Gaining more and more awareness as time goes on, he realizes he’s tied down to a metal chair. Huh. Why would he be —?

Shit.

In a flash he remembers everything that’s happened the past week: the HPSC attack at UA, the fights in the streets, the hiding, the running, Kacchan . Panicked now, his eyes shoot open.

He takes in his surroundings as quickly as possible. The room is very dimly lit, with the overhead lights being turned off. It looks like some abandoned office room. There is a large desk behind him that Izuku can see out of the corner of his eyes, but otherwise the room is completely bare. It is a small room, with a wooden door not six feet in front of where he sits. 

Izuku sends a test surge out to One for All, and discovers with a shock that he can still access it. Of course he knows he’s not wearing quirk suppressing cuffs, but surely the HPSC knows he can break out of this in an instant. 

Maybe that’s what they want? 

Whatever, he’s not playing mind games with these people, he’s getting out of here as soon as possible. He powers up his quirk again, and immediately hears a —

“HEY!”

A figure emerges from the corner of the room, initially too dark for Izuku to notice. It’s a girl; She was staying in the shadows, out of sight, but she was next to the light switches. She must’ve been the one to dim the lights for him.

She’s pretty tall, with a slim build. She’s dressed in all black, in clothing fit for fighting, with sturdy combat boots and form fitting thermal gear. The most striking feature was her bright blonde hair. Unruly and untamed, the yellow curls create a mane around her face. And on that face sits two brilliant blue eyes, widened into curiosity. And surprisingly, a soft smile. Despite having just yelled at Izuku, she’s approaching in a delicate manner, with her hands up and a nonthreatening expression.

He’s seen this girl before. She looks so familiar, but Izuku cannot figure out why. He feels pretty solidified in the fact that he has a concussion now. Otherwise he would certainly remember someone with such notable features. 

He takes another scan as she approaches and speaks.

“Hey,” She starts, quieter now. “Don’t do that. I’m not going to hurt you again, I promise.”

Hurt him, again? 

A flash of memory zings through his mind. Of awful, excruciating pain in a back alley. Of two figures, a girl and a boy, disappearing immediately after giving him the worst agony he’s ever felt in his life. 

Izuku gasps, frantically scooting his chair back to get as far from the girl as possible. It hits the desk behind him with a thud, trapping him. Izuku is about to activate his quirk when another voice joins them from the other corner of the room.

“Nozo, back off.” A sharp male voice snaps. A boy comes forward, and this time Izuku recognizes him instantly. These are the pair of villains he fought a few days back, who were torturing that man. 

The boy looks incredibly similar to his sister. Same height and build, same bright blue eyes, same unruly hair. It’s shorter than his sister’s, giving it almost a spiky look to it. Kind of like Kacchan’s. He’s dressed about the same as well, with one major difference: his legs and waist are covered with weapon holsters. Izuku can see two handguns and several blades, and he’s sure there’s even more hidden on the boy. 

He has an intense expression on his face, but it looks forced. Like he’s trying to scare Izuku. This is completely unlike the smile on his sister that seems completely at home on her features.

The girl, Nozo , starts backing up at his request.

“I swear, I won’t!” She waves her hands around in a jazz hands gesture. “See? I’m wearing gloves.” Izuku takes notice of the black cotton gloves that cover her palm and the bottoms of her fingers, leaving her fingertips exposed. It’s not the comforting reminder she thinks it is. “You look really tired. Is that why you were sleeping on the side of the road? You —“

The boy, apparently noticing his stress, sends her away. “Nozomi.” He speaks firmly, interrupting her curious questioning. 

She looks annoyed at this. “Ugh, you never let me have any funnnnn.” Izuku sees her brother raise his eyebrows at her, trying to convey some message. He jerks his head to the door. “Fine, I’ll go get Kenji.”

She walks out the door, slamming it behind her before Izuku can contemplate the pros and cons of yelling for help. This isn’t the HPSC, he’s figured out that much. But who is it? He hasn’t forgotten the sibling’s conversation in that alleyway either. 

The boss said not to hurt him!

Yeah, well, the boss also said he isn’t sure about him yet, so…

He’s about to find out who the boss is, Izuku supposes. Probably this Kenji guy, from how they spoke about him. He knows he could still get out of the restraints, but he has no idea what kind of firepower they have outside this room. If it’s more of the kind of firepower in this room, Izuku isn’t sure he wants to take that on. He’s still suffering from exhaustion, and now a concussion. Not to mention, he’s curious. He wants to learn more about these two, now that they’ve claimed they won’t hurt him again. 

Now that they’re left alone in the room, the boy can’t seem to take his eyes off of Izuku, glaring from a few feet away. He’s standing straight up, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Still pulling off that expression of anger and intimidation.

Strangely, Izuku feels a bit more relaxed, alone with this boy. The only words he’s spoken have been harsh, and he hasn’t once cracked a smile like his sister has. And yet, he feels safe. At least, safer. He decides to use this opportunity to get to know his captors. 

“Your sister.” He begins, noticing the boy looking surprised. Whether that’s because of his observation about their relationship, or just because he even spoke at all, Izuku isn’t sure. “Her quirk is activated by contact with her entire hand?”

An awkward pause, and then a bored sounding, “Uh, huh.”

“So she wears gloves to make the people around her feel safer? That’s really nice! Or is it because she activates her quirk anytime she makes contact, so she has to protect people with the gloves. Hey, can I ask —” He asks anyway, not waiting for a response from the grumpy blonde. “Can she control the degree of pain she makes people feel? Or can she concentrate it to certain parts of the body? It’s really —”

“Oh great,” The boy interrupts, shooting an upwards look. “Another fucking nerd.”

This stops Izuku’s ramblings in his tracks. It’s not the same, nowhere near the same, but after the night he’s had, he can’t help but feel a bit choked up at the name. It’s like he’s with Ka—

“Izuku Midoriya.” The door opens again.

A new man walks through the door, followed by the blonde girl from before. He’s much older than the siblings, maybe in his thirties or forties. And he’s strong. Really strong. Wearing a tight black tank top, Izuku can clearly see his broad shoulders and impressive build. His attire is more similar to the boy’s with weapon holders overtop of black cargo pants. Slung on his shoulder is a long rifle that Izuku can tell just from a glance he knows how to use.  He has a military-like haircut, with buzzed black hair. And on his face is a deep scowl, and threatening dark eyes. Izuku’s eyes can’t help but be drawn to the long, jagged scar that spans from just below his ear to the corner of his mouth. It’s faded, but nasty still.

“You know me?” He questions, and the man nods. Izuku contemplates for a moment how to best handle this situation. Someone like this won’t respond well to panic. He needs to pull himself together, and maybe give some of that intimidation back to him.

“So then you know I can break out of these in a second.” Shrugging his arms to refer to the ropes that have him held down. 

His eyes widen, and Izuku sees a degree of respect in his gaze. Good, he played that well. “I do.”

“We do?!” The betrayed voice comes from the blonde boy, who’s watching the interaction like it’s a terrifying ping pong match. 

The large man ignores him, and turns to look at the girl from before, who has been silent this far. He jerks his head towards Izuku, and she rushes forward. He tenses for a moment, before seeing her gloves securely on her hands. His patience is rewarded, and she quickly unties his limbs and allows him to stand. 

Feeling much more secure now, Izuku stands tall and faces the man before him with a look of confidence that he mostly feels. 

“My name is Ishigami Kenji. I am the founder and leader of the Kakusei.”

Izuku has heard that name before. He scans his memories as quickly as possible before he lands on the right moment. The day he ran away from UA, he was sitting on the couch with Tokoyami. His classmate was watching a news story about a new villain group.

“You’re the ones attacking government officials!” He realizes with a start, powering up one for all. Ishigami does not look surprised by this turn of events, but the blonde boy does. In an instant, the younger man has a handgun pointed at Izuku’s head.

“Drop the gun, Kiryuu.” Ishigami demands, and the boy, Kiryuu, immediately obeys. He turns back to Izuku now.

“So, you’ve heard of us.” He concludes with a disappointed sigh. “Midoriya, we aren’t the villains you think we are. Give me an opportunity to explain.”

He thinks about how cruel the siblings were in the handling of that man in the alley. But then he remembers the kindness that the girl has shown him since being here. They haven’t hurt him, yet, but Izuku has a hard time believing Ishigami when he says they’re not villains. In the end, his curiosity gets the better of him, and Izuku nods for him to continue.

Ishigami walks around the room to sit in the desk chair behind Izuku. He gestures to the other chair across the desk, but Izuku opts to stand, having spent enough time in that metal trap today. Ishigami waves his hand in a manner that says suit yourself , and begins to speak.

“Seven years ago, I worked for the HPSC. I was on a task force called the Kosai. We were responsible for keeping villains under control after they’ve been caught by heroes. I’d take them off the scene and get them into prisons. We made sure they were treated as humanely as possible during this process while still making sure we could keep them detained.” 

He takes a brief pause, and Izuku finds himself unfairly surprised about his words. This mean-looking man had a very kind job: making sure people know that villains are humans too. Admittedly, Izuku had never considered what came after for the villains, especially super powerful ones. 

“After a while, I started being sent away before the job was done. I’d load the villains up into the van, and then I was dismissed by my supervisor. This got me suspicious, so one day I logged into a prison database and looked up one of the villains we had sent there the week before. There was no record of him. This activity got me caught, though. That night, my partner, who I had worked with for years, broke into my apartment and tried to kill me. I barely got away with my life.”

So, that explains the scar. Izuku feels his eyes widen, and he sits back down in the metal chair, leaning forward in clear interest. 

The blonde boy takes this moment to interrupt. 

“Ishigami. Are you sure about him?”

The man looks briefly annoyed at being questioned. He shoots a serious glare at the boy, and puts his hand out in a wordless demand to stop talking. 

“Anyway, I moved underground after that, and started investigating. I discovered a secret group working within the HPSC. They call themselves the Hidora. Their goal is to find the most powerful quirks and cultivate them into an army. They aren’t just looking at criminals, though. For years they’ve been doing human experimentation, stealing resources from right under the government’s noses, and fucking good people over.

“When I find one of these people, I make them an offer. An offer to join the Kakusei, to help us take the Hidora down. Most of them accept.”

He finishes his story, and Izuku takes a moment to process it all.

“I can’t believe this has been going on the entire time.” Maybe he shouldn’t, but Izuku believes Ishigami. “Do you think the Hidora are after me?”

“Absolutely.” Ishigami answers without hesitation. “We weren’t sure to begin with, but after the headlines yesterday. We’re absolutely certain. They want a reason to take you in, and now they have one.” A beat passes, and then he continues. “We’ve been watching you for a while, young man. And I think we could help each other. You need somewhere to stay, and we could use a heavy hitter like you.” He looks Izuku straight in the eyes, and makes his offer.

“So, what do you say? Are you with us?”

He doesn’t like how they do things, he knows that already. But if they’re right about the Hidora, Izuku has to do something. He thinks of his friends and family. Of how much danger they’re in if Ishigami’s story checks out. He needs to keep them safe, and it’s seeming like this place might be his best bet at doing that. He stands, and gives his answer.

“I’m in.”

The older man looks pleased with this. He doesn’t quite smile, but Izuku can see the contentment in his eyes. He turns to the other inhabitants of the room, that Izuku, quite frankly, forgot were there in his attention to the story.

“Nozomi, Itsuki. Show our new member around.” They bow their heads in tandem, and lead him out of the room.

As they walk, Izuku notices that they aren’t in an office building, but a school. Abandoned for years, clearly. As they walk, the girl, as he now knows as Nozomi, points out various classrooms to him, explaining their purpose.

“And this is the training room. We teach new members how to defend themselves. And of course, blow off some steam when needed.” She smirks knowingly at Izuku, giving him a friendly jab in the side. 

Itsuki rolls his eyes at this, and walks ahead of the pair. “You got this?” He questions his sister. When she agrees, he struts off into the gymnasium without looking back.

They walk a few more paces, when Izuku pauses, hunching forward into himself in pain. 

“Woah, are you alright?” Nozomi stops with him, bending down to look at his face with a slight frown.

“Yeah, sorry.” He stands back up. “Hit my head yesterday.”

“Oh!” The pitch of her voice is so high, it causes Izuku to wince again. “That’s just your damaged axons, likely from an impact of your brain tissue into your occipital bone, which usually leads to impaired brain functions and pain, like you’re experiencing now.”

Izuku blinks at her. Once. Twice. Three times. 

He feels like he just watched a documentary. In a foreign language. Or, like he just talked to Hatsume.

“Anywayyy,” She continues in a sing-song voice, looping her arm around his and guiding him forward once again. “We’re currently sixty three members strong, sixty four counting you. There aren’t many rooms left open in this place, so you’ll probably end up next door to Its, which is two doors down from me.”

This is both a comfort to Izuku, and a worry. “I get the sense your brother doesn’t like me very much.”

“Don’t take it personally,” she sighs. “Itsuki doesn’t like anyone very much.”

He thinks of the time he shoved her to the ground, and Itsuki’s panic until he was able to check on her. “Except you.”

“Yeah, well. We learned early on that the only people we could really trust were each other.” She stops to face Izuku. “Well, he did. He tells me all the time that I got way too trusting once we ended up here.”

“How did you?” Izuku questions, before realizing that might be a bit personal. “End up here, I mean.”

Nozomi’s face flashes to something darker for a moment, before settling on sadness. “The Hidora got wind of my quirk when I was eight years old. I still have no idea how. They came to my house in the middle of the night to take me away. We had no idea what was going on, just that we were under attack. It was just me, my mom, and Itsuki then, it was after my dad left us.” She pauses, steadies herself, and continues. Izuku wants to tell her that she doesn’t have to explain, but she’s speaking again before he gets the chance.

“My mother sacrificed herself so we could get away. And we did. Its took me and ran. We didn’t know where to go, who to trust, what to do. We were terrified. It was a miracle we stayed alive and out of sight for as long as we did. It was three months before it got better.”

Izuku thinks about how much he’s been struggling just in the past week, and admires the strength of Nozomi and Itsuki. To do it alone, at eight years old? It's no wonder they’re so protective of each other.

She starts walking again, and Izuku follows.

“Ishigami found us, and took us in. He gave us food and a roof over our heads, and even better: an opportunity for revenge.”

It’s the most serious Izuku has heard her, as she pushes open a set of double doors to a cafeteria area. There are long tables scattered throughout the room. It’s early in the morning now, so there are groups of people around, eating breakfast and socializing. Izuku rushes to take it all in.

“It’s been a long time coming, though. When Ishigami brought us here, we were members three and four. Not that we contributed much when we were eight. We mostly stayed out of the way as much as we could, raising ourselves and training ourselves. For this.” She gestures to the larger group of people ahead of them.

Izuku thinks for a moment about how sad that must have been for her, how lonely. It must show on his face, because before he knows it he’s receiving another elbow to the side, this one sharper than the last.

“Hey, don’t get all pitying on me now. Soon, more members joined, and then we had plenty of people watching over us. They say it takes a village, yknow?”

 She smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Izuku can tell that Nozomi is trying to convince herself , rather than him, that she’s had a fine childhood. Izuku doesn’t believe her, and he thinks she probably doesn’t believe herself either.

Not that this is a conversation to have now, though. He thinks of a redirect. 

“You said you were members three and four?” He waits for her nod of confirmation. “Obviously Ishigami was the first. What about number two?”

She gestures subtly across the room, and Izuku follows her gaze to a man sitting alone at a long table. “Him. He’s —”

She starts speaking, but Izuku immediately tunes her out. Because that’s the man! The man who got away, on his last patrol with Todoroki and Kacchan. The one with the levitation quirk. 

“Can I talk to him?” He interrupts Nozomi’s explanations. 

“You can ,” she starts. “But I wouldn’t advise it. He’s always a bit sad around this time of year.”

Izuku had basically tuned her out after he heard her approval, and walks briskly towards the table. When he arrives, he realizes he doesn’t quite know how to breach conversation. He wishes he could have received an introduction, and sends a mental apology to Nozomi for being rude. He can’t help it sometimes, fixating on a goal when it falls in his lap like this.

“Excuse me, sir?” He figures he should play it safe and be as polite as possible. The man turns to face him, giving Izuku his full attention at once. He looks the same as he did last week, just in casual clothes now. He wears a large sweater overtop khakis, and reading glasses that show his age much better than his combat clothing did. “I’m not sure if you remember me. But, I’m —”

“Izuku Midoriya. We met on a rooftop last week.” He has a gentle voice. Soothing, like he knows he’s speaking to an exhausted kid. 

“Yeah.” He pauses for a moment, then blurts out. “You hit me with a lawn chair.”

“That I did,” He doesn’t seem offended at the bluntness. In fact, he gestures for Izuku to sit down next to him. “You’re our newest recruit, I presume?”

“I guess so.”

“My name is Kanashi. Kanashi Fukami.” He bows his head, and Izuku does the same.

“I’d introduce myself, but it seems like everyone here already knows me.” He’s probing a bit for more information here. Nozomi told him quite a lot, but he’d like to get more perspectives. 

“Indeed we do. But still, it’s nice to meet you formally, Izuku. Welcome to the Kakusei.” 

Izuku gives him a gentle smile at the welcome. He notices that Kanashi doesn’t smile back at him. Nozomi mentioned he was a sad man, so he supposes that makes sense. Still, seeing sadness in such a warm person is upsetting, even if Izuku hardly knows him. Still, he has a goal of this conversation, and gets himself back on track.

“Can I ask you something?”

Kanashi nods.

“Ishigami said you guys are working to take down the Hidora. It seems like a pretty noble cause, so why were you hurting that woman?” Izuku cannot seem to wrap his head around the unnecessary violence displayed by these people claiming not to be villains. 

“That woman is a Hidora member responsible for countless of unnecessary deaths.” He explains. “We got the information we needed out of her, but a lot of people here don’t see that as enough. They want justice.”

“That’s not justice!” Izuku exclaims, angry at the man’s poor excuse. He steadies himself, then explains. “I have no idea what they’ve been through, or how they ended up here, but I do know that there’s a difference between justice and revenge. And hurting the people that hurt you won’t undo the past.”

Kanashi studies him for a moment as Izuku calms back down. There is no emotion showing on the other man’s face, so he has no idea how his outburst will be taken.

“Wise.” He says, simply, nodding at the boy. “And just how do you manage that mentality, when you’ve seen all the awful things that happen in this world?”

Part of this feels like a test, but in truth, Izuku can see a genuine curiosity in his eyes. Like the man is looking for guidance. He shrugs.

“Save who you can save, no matter what they’ve done.”

At this, the man goes quiet, seemingly lost in thought with a solemn look on his face.

Izuku takes this moment to think of Kacchan. If he wanted revenge for the way the boy treated him in their past, they’d never be where they are now. And he’s so, so grateful for where they are now. Even if the boy doesn’t return his feelings, he’s just happy to be in his presence, standing by his side. 

He wishes he was by his side now, and remembers that they have another meeting scheduled. It’s morning now, so it must be Friday. He has until tomorrow at midnight to figure a way out of here, if he needs to. With a start, he realizes that it’s been a week since everything started. Strange. It feels like it’s been a year.

“Am I able to leave here?” He questions Kanashi, jostling him out of thought.

He stares at him for a moment. The man seems to do that a lot. Izuku wonders what he’s looking for.

“Yes. You can. You’ll have to use our secure routes outside, and of course, tell no one of the location, but you are welcome to leave. People come and go as they please. Some even have day jobs.”

Izuku feels relieved that after a week of rule breaking, he can at least stop sneaking around here. It must show on his face, because Kanashi speaks again.

“Seeing someone important?” He questions, with what sounds like genuine interest.

Izuku blushes thinking of his last meeting with his someone important . “Yeah, yeah I am.”

At this, Kanashi cracks a small, fond smile. Finally seeming a bit less down. “You’re quite young aren’t you? Can’t be much older than the twins, in any case.” Ah, he must be referring to Nozomi and Itsuki. “Sixteen?”

“Fifteen.” He corrects. 

He nods. “I heard you’ve been on the run for quite some time now. That’s a lot to take on for someone so young.”

Izuku doesn’t answer for a minute, a bit uncomfortable with the kindness. Especially now he knows how much harder Nozomi and Itsuki had it before him. Still, he appreciates the acknowledgement of his efforts. 

He nods to Kanashi, giving him a watery look.

“Homesick?”

Izuku studies the older man, and feels a sort of protective warmth radiating from him. They’ve barely met, and Izuku has literally fought him, but yet he feels like he can trust him. These people, for all their violence, seem so good inside. It’s an anomaly, for sure. 

Kanashi offers him a small, sad smile, and Izuku gives one right back.

“Yeah, I am.”

Chapter Text

Katsuki wakes up Friday morning feeling surprisingly at peace. His conversation with Deku last night did wonders for the anxiety that’s been bubbling in his stomach since this whole mess began. The other boy was just so comforting. It made Katsuki feel content in a way he rarely experiences. Though, he feels anything but content about how the night ended. He’s not entirely sure what happened there, or what came over him in that moment. 

He and Deku are friends. He’s finally at a place in his life where he can accept that as a fact. There’s no reason to try to change that title so soon after them both being on the same page about it. And besides, even if Katsuki did like Deku in that kind of way, which of course he doesn’t, he hardly deserves the boy. After everything he put Deku through, he knows he’s lucky for the rivalry, mutual respect, and friendship he has from him now. He doesn’t need anything more, doesn’t want anything more. And if he did, and he somehow found a way to deserve Deku, Katsuki is certain those feelings would never be returned.

Deku probably doesn’t even like men. He had that crush on Uraraka when they first met, after all. Katsuki feels a bit ill at the memory of that. At this thought, he finally decides to get out of bed and start getting ready for class, while continuing to contemplate his friend’s sexuality.

Not that it matters. Because Katsuki doesn’t like him. He concludes this as he throws a shirt over his head.

But damn, it did feel good to have Deku’s undivided attention and care directed towards him last night. Katsuki doesn’t get that often, without it feeling suffocating. He doesn’t show his emotions very often. At least, his non-anger related emotions. So when he does, he often finds himself being mocked, even if accidentally. He can’t count the number of oh wow, there’s really a person under there type of comments he’s received over the years. So eventually, he learned to only show people what they want to see. This has made it much harder for him to change into a better, more open person, though. Which is precisely what he’s been trying to do recently. Despite assholes trying to ruin it for him.

The only true exceptions he’s ever found to this unfair treatment are his parents, Kirishima, and Deku. But Kirishima hasn’t known Katsuki all that long, and his parents are still his parents, at the end of the day. He only shares personal shit with them when he really needs to. So all in all, not many people see the vulnerable side of Katsuki that he hides with his anger. Except Deku. Last night, he made him feel so safe to show that other side of him. It was such a relief, Katsuki is grateful he didn’t ruin it with his lapse of judgement there at the end.

Yes, that’s all it was. A lapse of judgement caused by feeling safe and understood.

Deku is a great friend, he’d never want to lose that. 

Katsuki congratulates himself on a job well done of processing his emotions as he exits his dorm room, dressed and ready for the day ahead. Classes go by normally, for once. Katsuki takes diligent notes, bitches at his friends, and smokes everybody in training. Just as it should be. Of course, if everyone ignores the missing green ball of enthusiasm.

Now feeling a bit better himself, Katsuki is able to see the hole left behind in Deku’s absence. His nerdy friends really keep to themselves, always huddling and whispering with sad expressions on their faces. The rest of the class, even those that aren’t that close with the nerd, are less loud and annoying than usual. It’s like a blanket of sadness is slowly suffocating Class 1A. It’s fucking depressing.

His group is still walking on eggshells, especially around Katsuki. They at least know that something deeper is going on. He supposes Todoroki does as well, given the conversation they had over the weekend. Katsuki wonders briefly if he’s shared anything with Uraraka, Four Eyes, and the Frog Girl. He really shouldn’t. The less people that know he’s talking to Deku, the better. Katsuki’s glad none of his friends have asked him directly, because he’s not sure how well he could have lied to them, being as emotionally fatigued as he has been.

Katsuki approaches the lunch table with said group of friends, and finds them already deep in conversation.

“I’m just saying,” Sero says to Kaminari with a shit eating grin on his face. “You could charge them half of their old bill, and power up their house for the entire month!”

“So I’d just have to sit there all day?!” Kaminari responds incredulously.

Katsuki slides in next to Kirishima, who gives him a knowing smirk and a friendly nudge with his shoulder. Across from them sit the idiots, apparently considering the schematics of selling Kaminari’s quirk. That’s illegal, by the way. Not that Katsuki has any interest in telling them that. He’d rather see how far they’ll take it. On the side of the table is Mina, scrolling on her phone as she picks at a rice bowl that’s sandwiched between Kirishima and Kaminari’s lunch trays. 

He half listens to the ridiculous conversation continue on, occasionally giving his two cents (which is always encouraging Kaminari to do something even dumber), until a gasp from Ashido grabs all the boys’ attention.

“What is it, Meens?” Kirishima questions her, always the first to show concern for the girl. She pops her head up with wide eyes that settle directly onto Katsuki. Okay, that’s odd. Now he’s interested.

After a moment of silence he raises his eyebrows, prompting her to speak. The girl simply looks back down again at her phone, then back up to Katsuki. He doesn’t have the patience for this.

“What?!” He spits out. 

Wordlessly, she turns her phone around, handing it to Katsuki. It’s some news article. The headline reads UA Student Izuku Midoriya, Villain Name Deku, Joins The Kakusei Villain Group .

“ Villain name ?” Katsuki quotes in disbelief. “Are you fucking kidding me? He’s not a fucking villain, and he’s not in a damn villain group.”

At this, Sero steals the phone from his hand to see for himself, Kaminari craning over his shoulder to look with him. They scroll for a moment, and then flip the phone once again back to Katsuki's view.

“I don’t know man, look at the picture.”

It’s Deku, alright. Even from far away that much is clear. He’s standing in a dark alley in civilian clothes, talking to a blonde boy and girl. The caption names them as the Kiryuu twins, known members of the Kakusei. Below the image is a brief description of the group.

Like Deku would ever, in a million years, join a group of villains that are torturing government officials. Even with the HPSC on his ass, he would never . He says as much to his friends, who take turns giving him sheepish looks.

“Yeah, man. He wouldn’t.” Kirishima gives him a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

After a few excruciating hours of class, where once again there’s chatter everywhere about Deku being a villain now, Katsuki heads to All Might’s office. He trusts Deku, he does , but it can’t hurt to check in with their mentor. He’s sure All Might will agree with him, and he can settle the lingering anxiety he feels about this. 

“It really seems like he joined them.”

“The fuck?!” 

It’s not All Might who said the words, but Tsukauchi, who is also present in the teacher’s office. Katsuki aims a glare at the retired pro, daring him to agree with the detective.

“Young Bakugo,” He begins with that gentle tone he always does when he’s trying to calm him down. Fuck that, he doesn’t want to be calm. “Tsukauchi has heard some members of the HPSC speaking on the matter. You know his quirk, yes?” Katsuki nods, remembering that the man can detect lies in people’s speech. Satisfied with a nonverbal response, All Might continues. “They weren’t lying. This isn’t some ploy to lure him out of hiding. They truly believe that Young Midoriya has joined this group.”

“Not to mention,” Tsukauchi pipes up from where he stands across the office from the pair. “They found some stuff in a park in his hometown. It seems like it could have been Midoriya’s, but it’s been abandoned. More evidence that he found someplace better to stay.”

Fuck, can they tie the duffle bags back to Katsuki? No, he shouldn’t bother worrying about that. Not when Deku’s in much deeper shit. 

“And you?” He questions his teacher, meeting his eyes. “Do you really think Deku joined them?”

All Might sighs, and Katsuki just now notices the deep, dark circles under his eyes. The man always looks like a skeleton, but it’s even worse now. Though he feels guilty about it immediately, Katsuki can’t help but feel comforted in the thought that he’s not the only one losing sleep over this. The man answers his question with sadness. “I do not know, my boy. I really do not know.”

Fuck that.

Katsuki scans the perimeter for people watching the area. It seems all clear, though it’s hard to tell at night. So he scans it again, better safe than sorry. He checks the time, still twenty minutes until Deku is set to show up. He scans again. Ten minutes. One more time can’t hurt. Five minutes.

Okay, yeah. He’s just pacing. 

Katsuki has spent his Saturday filled to the brim with nervous energy, and nowhere to expel it. All Might wasn’t on campus, so he couldn’t talk to him. Honestly though, with the conversation they had last night, Katsuki isn’t sure he wants to. It felt like the man was just giving up on Deku. Which is completely fucking ridiculous. But yeah, so his teacher hasn’t been an option for him. His friends— well, he’s been enough of a dick to them recently. He’s sure they won’t want him around. He supposed he could have gone to see his parents, but now that everything about Deku is publicized, he’d be forced to face their questions.

So, he spent the day alternating between a punching bag and an open space in the gym to let out as many explosions as his body allowed. This is why, when night came, he showed up two hours early to his meeting spot with Deku.

He also needed the extra time to scope it out, since Tsukauchi told him the HPSC assholes found it.

He’s still pacing, feeling all of his pent up emotion, when he hears the telltale rustling of Deku approaching him. The second the other boy appears in his view, he forgoes the greeting and gets straight to what’s been plaguing his mind for nearly two days now.

“Is it true?” He demands, arms crossed in a defensive stance. At his demeanor, the smile that was on Deku’s face starts to fade in a wide-eyed look of confusion.

“Is what true?”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “You joined a fucking villain group?!” He’s trying to be wary of his volume, but he’s running out of patience here.

Deku looks sheepish, putting his hands out in a placating gesture. “ Technically , yes but —”

“Are you. Fucking. Kidding Me.” Katsuki’s tone is stone cold and serious. How absolutely dare he . “I defended you, asshole! To everyone!” He’s shouting now, pulling his hair with both hands. “God, am I really that stupid?!” 

He saw the looks on his friends’ faces at lunch yesterday. They didn’t believe him. But Katsuki pushed on. Knowing in his heart that Deku would never do such an awful thing. And yet, here they are.

“Woah, woah, Kacchan.” He tries to calm the other down, stepping forward. “Let me explain —”

No, he’s heard enough.

“No.” He snarls, causing Deku to hesitate in his approach. “You let me explain. Let me explain how fucking hard it’s been without you. Everyone’s sad all the fucking time and worried about you! All Might is being so goddamn secretive, and so am I! Because I have to be. The rest of UA is convinced you’re a villain and I feel like I’m fighting alone here because no one knows everything except for me! Except, apparently I don’t know everything.” He pauses to shoot a look of betrayal to the other.

“I don’t know everything.” Katsuki repeats. “Because you’ve gone and joined a fucking villain group like a real fucking villain and you didn’t even fucking tell me! And I should be so pissed at you, I am so pissed at you. But I still can’t help but feel so fucking guilty that I couldn’t do more, that I can’t fix this. If I would have just caught that fucking woman last week, you wouldn’t have had to use Blackwhip,” He takes a step towards Deku. “And they wouldn’t have found anything out,” Another step. “And none of this would have,” They’re face to face now, but that doesn’t stop Katsuki from yelling. “FUCKING HAPPENED!”

He has just a brief moment to see the emotions on the other boy’s face, but for the life of him, Katsuki can’t identify a single one. 

“Who’s there?” Fuck. Oh, fuck. Katsuki was really loud. God, why was he so loud? That was so stupid of him. Deku can’t be seen. By anyone.

At the sound of the voice, both boys whipped around to face the source. They’re still obscured by the night, and the trees, but not for long. They turn back instantaneously to face each other. 

“You have to go.” Katsuki whispers harshly, shoving him in the direction opposite the voice. “Go, Deku, go now!”

He follows without question, using Blackwhip on the trees to propel himself into the air and far away from Katsuki. 

Thinking he may kill the man that interrupted, Katsuki shouts back to him to avoid a confrontation. “Just blowing off some steam, man. Leave me alone, asshole.”

It seems to work, as the footsteps that were slowly approaching them stop and retreat. 

With a sigh, Katsuki starts his trek back to UA, feeling far worse than he did this morning. He keeps having these, outbursts , of emotion. He has no idea why, or why they’re so frequent. It’s a stressful situation, sure, but he’s been in plenty of those. And the freak outs he had to Kirishima and Deku the last time they talked had actually helped . He walked away from those feeling great, if a bit embarrassed. 

But this one. This was his biggest yet, and he feels absolutely awful. 

Wanting to shut out the world, and everyone in it, Katsuki slams his bedroom door shut when he gets back. Regardless of the late hour. Apparently, though, he should have thought that through. Because the noise alerted a certain neighbor of his to his arrival. 

Kirishima opens the door to Katsuki’s bedroom, not even bothering to knock.

“Dude, where were you?” Katsuki quickly debates his lie. He’s in a winter jacket, so maybe he could say he’s coming back from the gym? No, the gym closes at midnight, and it’s nearly 1 AM right now. He considers just asking him to respect his privacy, Kirishima would probably do it. But honestly, Katsuki is way too fired up to want to handle this maturely.

“None of your fucking business.” He snarks back, not even turning around to face the boy. 

“Alright, jeez.” He can see Kirishima putting his hands up out of the corner of his eye. People keep doing that to him, like he’s some sort of flight risk, or like he’s out of control. “Just trying to help.”

Katsuki fumes at his pitying, sarcastic tone. “Well you’re not helping! None of you are fucking helping! You need to grow the fuck up and realize when you’re being completely fucking useless.”

He turns around fully to see a flash of hurt go across Kirishima’s face. It quickly transforms into anger. This is strange to see from the boy who always has such a positive attitude. 

“Fine, y’know what?” Kirishima throws his hands up in defeat, letting them fall dramatically. “I know you’re going through something, but that was just mean, man. I’ll accept an apology when you’re ready to calm the fuck down.” Kirishima turns on his heel and shuts the door behind him. With that, Katsuki is once again left alone.

Fine. Why shouldn’t he be? That’s how he feels anyway.

No one knows him, and clearly, he doesn’t know anybody either. First Deku, with his villain bullshit, and now Kirishima, acting all holier than thou like he can’t tell that Katsuki is just plain dying inside. Why can no one see that?

Exhausted, upset, pissed off, and frankly terrified of what the future is going to bring, Katsuki drags himself through his nightly routine and goes to bed. 

If only he could fall asleep.

For the next few hours, Katsuki rethinks his most recent conversations. Kirishima first, because that one’s an easier pill to swallow. He was a dick. He was stressed, and he snapped at the first person to show him any sort of kindness. The redhead has been so helpful to him these past few days, this is the last thing he deserved. Katsuki wants to make it right — of course he fucking does — but there’s not much of a way to do that until he can tell his friend what’s going on. It’s like he’s trapped in a situation that he just can’t handle on his own, but the situation strictly requires him to be on his own. It’s miserable. And lonely. And really pissing him off. 

Then there’s Deku. Now with some hindsight, Katsuki can admit he should have heard the boy out before screaming at him. But it’s not like he could have known they were going to get interrupted. He just can’t imagine a reason the boy would have for joining them. A villain group that specifically targets government officials. Is it because of the HPSC? He wants some kind of revenge on them? No, that’s not Deku. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t do any of that. And yet he did. He is. 

None of this makes any fucking sense. 

Katsuki did eventually fall asleep in the small hours of the night. He’s awoken by a blaring alarm far too soon, as he smacks around for his phone to shut the damn thing off. 

Despite the early hour and awful sleep, Katsuki is determined to have a better day today. He’ll start off by talking to Kirishima and getting the boy to forgive him for all his recent outbursts. Then he’ll find All Might and demand to be put in the loop. Together they can hunt Deku down and drag his ass back to the world of heroics. And then they’ll convince the HPSC of his innocence. Maybe not necessarily in that order.

It sounds like a lot, sure, but he’s Bakugo fucking Katsuki. He’s done moping around being upset, he has a goal to accomplish, and he’s going to get it done. No more whining and complaining. There’s a problem that needs to be solved, and clearly it isn’t solving itself. It’s time for Katsuki to remember who he is, step up, and fix this. 

He grabs his phone to shoot Kirishima a quick text about coming over when he’s stopped by a mass influx of notifications. He follows several news channels on social media, liking to stay on top of current events, and it seems like every one of them has made several posts over the past hour or so.

Curious, he opens one, and his blood turns to ice. 

No, that can’t be true.

Reporters lie all the time, the media can’t be trusted with everything .

He opens another, and sees nearly the same headline. 

Another, another, another, another.

The last article has a trending tag. He clicks the tag, and filters to the most recent posts about it. He finds a video and clicks into it.

The video, although far away and grainy as hell, shows several people in protective gear dragging a body out from a river. The body is cold and still, and a bit blue. And on the top of that body’s head sits a mop of green hair. The caption reads: Midoriya Izuku Murdered By Kakusei Group, Only Hours After Joining.

No.

That can’t be him. 

It must be wrong. 

He just saw him.

But the video.

The body.

The hair.

That’s Deku.

Deku is dead.

He’s dead.

He’s dead. 

Deku?

Deku???

Izuku.

Chapter Text

Izuku launches up into the air, fighting the strong urge to look back. Someone almost saw him, out in the woods with Kacchan. He needs to be more careful.

Not that it’s his fault, Kacchan was the one being loud.

Shoot, he really needs to explain himself. He can see where the other boy is coming from. If he found out that anyone from their class, especially Kacchan, had ties to villains he’d feel horribly betrayed. But the Kakusei aren’t the villains here, it’s the Hidora. He just wishes he could tell Kacchan that. He wishes the boy gave him a chance to explain himself before he just started yelling at him. It wasn’t even the yelling itself that’s really getting to Izuku here, it’s the fact that Kacchan wouldn’t even try to hear him out.

Honestly though, the boy seemed so upset, that his screaming probably wasn’t personal. Nor was his jump to conclusions. He’s dealing with a lot right now, and so is Izuku.

Ugh, they just need to freaking communicate .

They would have, if they didn’t get interrupted. Izuku was just about to explain, because it had seemed like Kacchan was wrapping up his one sided shouting match when he had said —

Wait, what did he say?

At the end, there?

If I would have just caught that fucking woman last week, you wouldn’t have had to use Blackwhip.

Was that …?

Was that the reason he got caught?

A mistake he made when he failed to protect someone?

When he did the one thing All Might had told him not to do?

Shit, does All Might know that Izuku used Blackwhip even though he told him not to and that’s why they’re in this entire mess?

Of course he knows, it’s probably the only reason why Kacchan knows. 

If Kacchan knows, Izuku’s surprised that it hasn’t come up until now. Usually, the competitive boy would love to point out a mistake from his rival. So there must be a reason for Kacchan to keep this to himself.

Oh, no. 

All Might must be angry with him. He’s upset, and disappointed in Izuku for not following his advice and getting himself nearly caught by the government. All Might must be terrified for the fate of One for All, and it’s all Izuku’s fault! And now, on top of all his mistakes, All Might must think he’s a villain!

His mentor, his teacher, the person who really made Izuku who he is today. And he must be so, so disappointed in him. Izuku bets he’s regretting his choice of successors right about now. They’ve gotten so much closer recently, with Izuku finally able to form a bond with the man after he stopped being so starstruck around him. They talk about more than just their shared quirk, the older man has given him advice on his personal life, and his dreams, and his goals. And in turn, Izuku has heard so many stories from his youth when the man wants to reminisce. He feels like he finally has a —

And now he’s gone and ruined it.

Izuku arrives back at the entrance to the compound fighting back tears.

All the secret passageways into the school building are through the sewers. There are certain manhole covers throughout the city that give a direct path, which was shown to Izuku earlier today. Somewhere in the back of his mind he vaguely remembered some old comic book from before the time of quirks, with a bunch of giant rats? No, one giant rat, he thinks. And he was a ninja? Whatever, not the point. So anyway, Izuku makes his way back to the school, hoping to just sneak off to his bedroom and be alone.

Of course, he has to open the door and walk immediately into somebody instead.

“Oh, sorry about that!” Kanashi exclaims, putting a hand on Izuku’s arm to steady them both. Unfortunately, this gives him a good angle of Izuku’s facial expression.

“Izuku,” He pauses until Izuku looks up at him. “Are you alright?”

A beat. And then at once, Izuku collapses into sobs. 

“Alright, alright, I got you.” He hears vaguely through the sound of his own crying. He feels so embarrassed, Kanashi barely knows him. Yet he follows him anyway, as the older man guides him gently to a classroom he hasn’t been to before. A blurry glance around shows it to be Kanashi’s bedroom. He’s guided to sit on a neatly made bed as the man pulls out his desk chair to sit across from him. He hands him a water bottle and a box of tissues, and allows him the space to collect himself.

As Izuku does just that, he takes in his surroundings. The room is pristinely clean, not a speck of dust on the surfaces or an object out of place. Though, there aren’t many objects to be out of place. There’s a desk with a lamp, a wardrobe, a bed, and a small bedside table. And that’s about it. Like Kanashi isn’t really living here, though Izuku knows he is. The only form of decoration is a framed photo on the bedside table. It shows a woman with long brown hair in a hospital bed, holding a small child with matching hair and matching smiles. 

He’s interrupted from his observations by a question from Kanashi.

“What’s troubling you, kiddo?”

The moniker nearly brings a fresh wave of tears to Izuku’s eyes. He answers through sobs, head down in shame.

“He’s gonna be so mad at me, he’s gonna be disappointed in me.”

Kanashi leans forward off the chair to squat down further in front of Izuku. He looks up, so that he can see the boy’s face. 

“Who is?”

Izuku sighs, trying to encompass his relationship with All Might while not giving anything away. “He’s — He’s my teacher, and my mentor. But more than that. He’s basically like a f—”

He trails off, knowing he doesn’t deserve that title from the retired hero after everything he’s done these past few days. Kanashi sits back down. 

“Father?” He finishes, passing a waste bin over from under his desk so Izuku can blow his nose. 

“Kind of.” Father-figure at least. No matter how much guilt he feels from using the title, even in his head. “I’m just scared that after everything that’s happened this week, after everything I did, that he won’t even want to see me again.”

Kanashi sighs at this, leaning back in his chair. He looks like he’s contemplating something for a moment. Izuku takes the time to reflect a bit. He’s not sure why he feels so open with this man that he really just met. There’s just a certain comfort about him, a protective air that allows Izuku to feel like he can just be a kid, not a hero. He gets that with his mother, and sometimes with All Might. Usually though, he feels more of a pressure to impress the man. Apparently given enough time to make up his mind, Kanashi sits forward again, and looks back at Izuku.

“Izuku, will you take some advice from an old man who might know a thing or two.”

Izuku nods, eager for anything that might make him feel better. “Please.”

“Alright, kiddo.” He takes a sip of water from an opened bottle on his desk. “Settle in, this is a bit of a long story.”

“Heyyy, Kanashi!”

“Good morning. How were all of your weekends?”

Kanashi receives a chorus of Good! s from the women behind the front desk. 

“How was yours?” Asks one, in that flirty tone they take with all the male nurses, not that there are many.

“Oh, y’know.” He responds absentmindedly while scanning in his employee badge. “Caught up on a television show, played with my cat. Riveting stuff.”

Kanashi walks away before he can receive any more comments. The hospital receptionists are fun, sure, but he has work to do. Kanashi Fukami lives a pretty boring life for a twenty six year old. He has no children, no real family, no wife, girlfriend, or any semblance of a love life. Just his cat, and his job. He’s content though, as he feels very passionately about these two things. 

Kanashi sets his belongings down in his locker, and starts preparing dixie cups of medication for his rounds. He works on the terminal floor of a cancer ward, helping people have comfortable ends to lives that were way too hard. Some may find his job depressing, and it can be, but Kanashi finds that it’s important to him to make sure that people are taken care of during their last days in this world. Some patients last a mere few days before they’re sent to hospice, some last a few years. But all need the kind of around-the-clock care that simply cannot be provided at home. So they have to live here. No matter how long Kanashi has to get to know a patient, he knows that if he can make them laugh or smile or have a good day, at least once, then what he’s doing is worth it.

Kanashi finishes up his rounds, and heads to his last room. He always skips this one so he can return to it and the end, and spend the most time with the patient inside. 

“Good morning, Haruka!” He walks in after a brief knock. He sets his tray down on the counter and brings the last cup on it over to the hospital bed. 

“Hi Kanashi.” The woman in the bed starts to sit up. On instinct, he goes to help her, before he remembers the woman’s insistence on independence. She whacks his hand away with a laugh, and sits the rest of the way up. “Do you have any drugs for me today?”

“Oh, yes.” He hands her the dixie cup of pills, and other of water. “Only the best drugs for you.”

Haruka is by far his favorite patient. She’s been here about two months now, and she’s probably the one patient he’s ever had that came in with a happier attitude than he has. Her first day here, he gave her a dixie cup of pills, and she exclaimed bottom’s up! before taking them all like a shot. Hence the daily drug jokes that are definitely not appropriate for the workplace. She’s one of their longer term patients, she probably has another three or four months left here. 

Talking to Haruka has fast become Kanashi’s favorite part of every shift. 

“Did you watch the season finale?” She asks him excitedly, after swallowing her medication. 

“I did!” He sits on the edge of the hospital bed to start their conversation. Also not hospital protocol. “The twist at the end was —”

He’s interrupted by the door opening. A stern looking woman barges in, phone in one hand up to her ear, and a young child in the other. Kanashi stands to get a better look. He’s never met her, but he can assume this is Haruka’s sister. He knows she’s been around since Haruka got admitted here, and this woman has the long, sleek brown hair that Haruka once had. They have the same eyes as well, but that is where the similarities end. Where Haruka is all soft edges and gentle smiles, this woman looks like a smile would actually hurt her. 

“I will be back on Thursday.” She says firmly into the phone. “Have the reports in to me by tonight, at the absolute latest.” At this demand, she hangs up the phone, and basically drops the child into Haruka’s lap. 

“I have to go, Haruka. I told you when I got here that I can’t stay forever.”

“I know that, but what am I supposed to do with Hima?” He really doesn’t like the way this woman is making Haruka sound. 

“Oh, I don’t know, call her father?” She snaps back at her sister.

Haruka’s eyes widen, like she would never consider the thought. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Can’t, or won’t.” Her eyes darken for a moment, and then soften slightly. Only slightly. “Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t have much of a choice here. I can take her tomorrow, but then I have to go home.” With that, she turns on the heel of her name brand shoe, and leaves. 

Kanashi allows a moment to pass before trying to comfort Haruka. “I’m so sorry.” He puts a hand gently over hers. 

“Oh it’s alright,” She says, but Kanashi can see the tears welling up in her eyes. “My sister is just —“ She gets cut off with a coughing fit. Knowing how long these can last for her, Kanashi bends down to lift the child off her lap, giving her some space. 

Himari is another great reason for Kanashi to be here. The one year old is just so dang cute, always wiggling around and laughing at everything. Kanashi is her favorite nurse by far, and he gloats about every drawing he gets from her. 

Haruka’s cough starts to settle, and he wordlessly passes her a cup of water. 

“Can I ask,” He waits for a nod. “Where’s home? For your sister.”

Haruka gives a sad smile. “France. She moved there straight out of college. Took the first job she was offered and never looked back. Until now I guess.”

Himari choses this moment to get a bit fussy, like she knows how negative the conversation has turned. He walks over to the bin in the corner of the room that holds a few toys for her. He picks up her favorite doll and places it in her eager grabby hands. 

“You know she can stay here, right?” Selfishly, he’d love to see the kid more often. But it would also take a large stress off of Haruka’s shoulders. “The nurses are very accommodating of situations like this.”

“I know that, but it’s a temporary solution.” She ducks her head down like she always does when she talks about her health. “Soon, I’ll be gone, and she’ll need somewhere to go. I was hoping my sister would offer to take her but apparently not. And my ex-husband is awful. He can’t be trusted with my little girl.”

Kanashi doesn’t respond to this. Instead lost in thought, holding a perfect little girl and wondering how on earth anyone could not want her. 

Days go by, which turn into weeks, and then eventually months of Kanashi seeing Haruka, and Himari, every shift, even coming in on some of his off days to visit. They discuss their favorite movies and books, their mutual love for the sound of the beach, the best way to bake a three layer cake. 

They throw Himari her second birthday party, there in the hospital. Kanashi brings in a cake, baked using Haruka’s methods after sheepishly admitting that she was indeed right. 

They even discuss death. Both cry through a conversation where Haruka expresses that she doesn’t fear death, not really, only the fact that it means she’ll have to leave her daughter alone in this world.

As time goes on, this fear becomes closer and closer to reality as Haruka’s health gets worse. She only has a few weeks left now. Himari is starting to pick up on it too. She doesn't really understand the gravity of the situation, but she’s sad because her mother is. 

On one of Kanashi’s days off of work, he wakes up before the sunrise, pulls on his best three piece suit (his only three piece suit), and goes out to run a few errands. Afterwards, he heads to work.

“Hey, Kana— woah! Why are you so dressed up?” The receptionist shoots heart-eyes at him, which he pointedly ignores. 

“I have a date.”

He walks with confidence into Haruka’s room, immediately grabbing Himari and throwing her into the air. She giggles as he sets her back down on her mother’s lap with a kiss to her head. 

Haruka joins in her laughter, and Kanashi relishes in the beautiful sound. 

“What are you doing?”

“Yeah, what are you doing?” Himari has learned many new words since he’s met her, but her favorite to say are whatever words her mother just said. 

“ We,” he emphasizes the word while grabbing a wheelchair and opening it up. “Are getting out of here.”

And so he wheels Haruka, with Himari on her lap, out of the hospital and down a few blocks to the shore. From there, he reveals a blanket and basket and sets up a nice picnic for the group. 

Clearly touched, Haruka’s entire demeanor lights up as they share soft foods, laughs, and the sounds of the ocean. 

Eventually, Himari gets bored of just sitting around, and starts to build in the sand. When this goes about as well as one can expect for a two year old, she starts throwing sand onto the blanket. Trying to prevent any mess from getting in their food, Kanashi runs off, allowing the girl to pelt him with sand now that he’s on the opposite side of her. 

“You’ll get your suit all messy!” Haruka warns with a bright smile.

“What’s life without a little mess?” He returns her gaze. They hold eye contact for a moment, and Kanashi lets himself feel the wave of emotions he’s been holding back all this time. Neither have been very forthcoming with the growing feelings between them, knowing it will come to an end very soon. But they feel it, they both do. Kanashi can tell in moments like these, when Haruka looks at him like he’s the very light in the universe. And of course, he’s never met another woman like her. And he knows he never will again. This is a large part of the reasoning behind his actions a few hours later, after Himari has tired herself out and fallen asleep squished between the two adults. 

“There’s a reason I brought you here today.” Kanashi begins, turning his head to face her. 

“What’s that?”

He smiles at her curiosity before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small velvet box. He sees the moment Haruka registers it because her eyes widen and she lets out a soft gasp. 

“Kan, what?” She questions, breathless and confused.

“Haruka, getting to know you has been the greatest gift of my life. We didn’t have much time together, but what we did have is worth a million lifetimes. I love you, and I always will. And I love Himari. I know how scared you are about leaving her. This way, our love story can have the happy ending it deserves, and you can know that your daughter will be safe.”

Through tears, she corrects. “ Our daughter.”

And through his own tears, he replies. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes.”

It’s an intimate wedding, just a priest, the two of them, Himari, and a few other nurses and doctors that have gotten to know the pair. They exchange vows and rings, and everyone smiles and cries.

Two days later, Haruka falls asleep, and doesn’t wake up again.

After all the time he gets off of work comes to a close, Kanashi realizes how severely underprepared he is for this. He loves Himari, and he’ll do anything to help her get through the loss of her mom, but he neglected to remember his other responsibilities. He still has to go to work. He picks up extra shifts to pay for a sitter, and takes online classes in IT to get a certification. He quits his day job, then, and works remotely nearly twelve hours a day. It’s grueling work. He barely sleeps, he struggles to eat, he’s still in mourning, and so is Himari. But all of it is worth it to see his little girl grow up. Things get a bit easier once she hits preschool age, so he’s able to dial back on his work hours and really appreciate his time with his kid.

On the weekends they go to the beach, the same one he took Haruka to all those years ago, and she tells him all about the kids in her class, and the lessons she’s learning in school, and how Mrs. Nakamura has a baby growing inside of her so she’ll be out of school for a while. 

On one such day, at the tail end of her third grade year, he’s watching Himari play at the shore from afar when he hears screams from down the beach. 

Kanashi did not know that half a mile from the beach was an HPSC facility. And he definitely did not know that the facility was completely overtaken by Hidora members. He did not know this at the time, but he definitely knows it now. He knows that on that day, they were doing quirk enhancing experiments on a man with laser eyes. At the time, though, he didn’t know that the man started shooting impenetrable beams, completely out of control from the drugs. He did not know any of this. What he does know is that people are screaming, and his daughter is too far from him.

“Himari! Come back here!” He calls out, beckoning the girl towards him. 

“Dad?!” She yells back, frozen in fear. Kanashi starts running towards her, with the full intention of grabbing his daughter and getting the hell out of there, when he sees a bright red beam pierce through her chest. In an instant, she drops. 

Kanashi sprints to his daughter and drops to his knees and there’s blood everywhere and she’s not waking up and she’s not waking up and she’s not waking up and he’s screaming and she’s not waking up and he’s crying and she’s not waking up and she’s not waking up and two men approach him from behind and she’s not waking up and they lift him by the arms and she’s not waking up and she’s not waking up and he’s pleading for them to help her and she’s not waking up and she’s not waking up and she’s not waking up and —

Everything goes black. 

And she never did wake up. 

When he comes to, Kanashi finds himself in a hospital bed of sorts. In an instant, the pit of dread returns to his body. He jumps up, desperate to find somebody to talk to. If he’s in a hospital, then maybe Himari is too. He runs to the door, and finds himself locked in. Panicking now, he bangs on the door and screams through the narrow window for help, for Himari. This goes on for a few minutes before the door bursts open. 

Two large men in jumpsuits grab him, ignoring his pleas for help. Before Kanashi can even take a moment to panic there is a long needle shoved into his neck and his body goes limp once again. 

He wakes again, after some amount of time has passed, but he has no idea how much. He tries to stretch his body, but finds his arms and legs immobile. Kanashi snaps his eyes open, whipping his head around to see ropes binding his limbs, and an old woman sitting at his bedside. 

“Hello Mr. Fukami.”

“Wha—” He makes an incoherent sound, using his voice for the first time in possibly days, and finding it dry and sore. 

“Do you know why you’re here?”

He clears his throat, and looks to the woman for answers. She’s in a lab coat, so some kind of doctor. Maybe one that treated Himari? “No? My daughter. Where’s my —”

“Hmm. Still experiencing hallucinations, I see.”

“What?” He’s not hallucinating! Unless he is, and maybe Himari is fine. Maybe that didn’t really happen. That’s fine, he’ll take being tied down in a dark room if it means his daughter is okay. 

“You’ve been checked into an involuntary psychiatric ward because it is believed that you are a danger to yourself and others. You assaulted several people on the beach last week, claiming you were missing your ‘child’?” She air quotes the final word, and Kanashi sees red. It all comes back to him now, the vividness of his memories, of losing his kid. It happened. He hates to admit it, but he knows from the depths of his heart and soul that she is real, and she is gone from this world.

“My daughter was murdered.” He says firmly, refusing to accept this woman’s lies. 

“Sir, you’ve never had a daughter.”

Years go by just like this. And eventually, Kanashi learns to play the game. He obeys, he speaks in group therapy, he does community service. And he lies, he says he doesn’t have a child. Didn’t have a child. Never had a child. 

And eventually, four years after he watched the person he loved most collapse and die, they let him free of hell. 

The first thing he does is track down the name of the man responsible. It takes time, and patience, and money, and many other things he’s really not proud of. But he does it. Toma Hazan, a higher up in the Hidora group, administered quirk enhancing drugs to a man, now deceased, and allowed him to send super powered lasers out from his eyes. One of those lasers killed Himari. His daughter .

Kanashi Fukami will stop at nothing to kill Toma Hazan.

“They erased my daughter.” Kanashi concludes through barely contained sobs. Izuku passes him a tissue, which he takes gratefully. “I would do anything to see her again. Anything.”

Izuku is struck once again by just how much everyone here has suffered. Just how much Kanashi has suffered. And he’s still suffering. He wants nothing more than to help him, help them get the justice they deserve for the things they lost.

“I am so, so sorry for your loss.” He offers, knowing it’s not nearly enough, but he doesn’t know what else to say.

Kanashi composes himself pretty quickly, and offers Izuku a sad smile. “My point of all this—” He pauses for a moment, and Izuku leans in, giving his full attention. “Is that I can promise you, kiddo, from another kind of father ,” Recalling how Izuku referred to All Might earlier.

“He wants to see you again. No matter what you did.”

Chapter Text

Bakugo Katsuki has felt a lot of emotions in his life. Anger, of course. Resentment, disgust, rage, jealousy, all in his younger years. As he matured, he started to be able to identify happiness, warmth, camaraderie, fear, devotion, protectiveness, fondness. Love. He’s well aware of the plethora of feelings he’s capable of experiencing, and he’s even getting better at expressing them.

But not once in Bakugo Katsuki’s life has he ever felt nothing .

Because Midoriya Izuku is dead.

And suddenly, he can’t feel a thing.

No tears, no rage, no panic, no remorse. Just plain nothing. And he can’t even find it in himself to feel scared about that. 

He should be. He should be scared, angry, upset, devastated , heartbroken, and everything else. Because his friend is dead. And this time, it is friend . Not friend for now or friend, but probably something more . Just friend. Izuku is, was , just a friend. Because he’s gone now. So that idea of something more that Katsuki was just starting to come around to is over now. Because it’s too late. And he should feel so much . It’s there, sure. Like a bottle of soda that’s been shaken up, but the cap stays firmly on. Katsuki is almost grateful for that cap, because quite frankly, he has shit to do.

He has to handle this, as much as it can even be handled anymore. He needs more information. He needs to know who did this. As he does anytime he needs to know something, he heads to All Might’s office. 

It’s early in the morning, but the teacher should be there. Hopefully he already knows, it would be unfortunate if Katsuki had to be the one to break the news to him.

Katsuki walks swiftly through the mostly empty campus of UA with his head held high, not stopping for anything. He reaches his teacher’s office and opens the door, not bothering to knock.

All Might is there. He’s standing up facing the window opposite of Katsuki. At the sound of the door opening, he turns around, giving Katsuki a good look of his face. He’s heard the news, there’s no doubt about that. The man’s eyes are bright red, and face filled with remorse. In his hand, he’s gripping his cell phone so tight it looks like it may snap in half. At the sight of Katsuki, the man lets out a soft gasp and speaks in a soft, cracked voice.

“Oh, my boy.”

Oh. 

There it is. 

Like an old friend, the feeling wraps itself around Katsuki, squeezing him tight and consuming his very being. 

He’s not feeling nothing anymore. No. Bakugo Katsuki is fucking angry .

“Don’t you dare.” 

He takes a step forward and shuts the door behind him. All Might looks surprised at his tone, and wow, does that just piss him off more.

This man, this “hero” is the reason for all of this happening. He makes Izuku take his quirk, not giving him any information on the secrets he’d be forced to keep, or the dangers he’d be in, or the risks he’d have to take. He basically threw Izuku into the deep end, alone, to unlock new quirks he didn’t even know existed and then forcing him to hide them. Izuku is so good. He’s such a hero at heart. And All Might took advantage of that. He saw a young, impressionable kid who looked up to him so much, and he turned him into his own personal soldier. He never saw the person inside. The person inside, who’s dead now . And he thinks he has the right to mourn?

“You fucking killed him.”

He’s not shouting, but the man can see how serious he is, how angry he is. He sees it in the way All Might flinches, eyes widening in concern.

“You did this.”

Katsuki walks around the desk to get closer to the retired hero, who seems paralyzed in shock.

“He wouldn’t have had this quirk.”

He takes a step closer.

“He wouldn’t have needed to hide it.”

Another step.

“He wouldn’t have been forced out of his home .”

Another step.

“He wouldn’t have been killed .”

Another step. He’s face to face with the man now.

“If it wasn’t for you!”

He shouts now, putting two hands on All Might’s chest and shoving him back.

All Might stumbles back with the force. He rights himself quickly, then sighs, getting closer to Katsuki again. He looks at Katsuki with pitying eyes and one tear lets out, dropping down his face. He looks resolved, then speaks. 

“It’s alright, my boy. Let it out.”

“Fuck you!” He’s screaming now, because how dare he — “Don’t tell me that! You asshole! You absolute piece of fucking —”

Katsuki trails off, heaving and sobbing while throwing his arms into the man’s chest over and over again in half-strength shoves of desperation. All Might just takes it, not once raising his arms to defend himself. 

Katsuki doesn’t activate his quirk, just hits the man with his fists like a toddler would. Because he’s not fifteen right now. He’s three, watching his favorite playmate cry after he scraped his knee on the ground.

Katsuki doesn’t stop to consider his own guilt, just keeps pushing it onto the man in front of him. Because he’s not fifteen right now. He’s eight, realizing for the first time that throwing a fit is the only way for a boy like him to get attention.

Katsuki doesn’t regret screaming at the man who inspired him to become the person he is today. Because he’s not fifteen right now. He’s thirteen, pretending that he’s too good for all the stupid bullshit of his childhood, all the way from his hero to his best friend.

But suddenly, once again, he is fifteen. And he feels the guilt of hurting this man, the fear of not knowing what’s coming next, the remorse of losing his best friend , and the heartbreak of realizing just too late, how he really feels about Izuku.

But he’s only fifteen, and that rage is still there.

“This is your fault.” He’s quiet again. Partially out of anger, partially out of fear that he’ll break down into sobs if he raises his voice any more. 

Katsuki walks out and slams the door behind him, not sparing a single glance back to his hero.

Katsuki’s walk back to the dorms is quick. There are students and teachers out and about now, and he can’t help but notice the whispers. Word is out about Izuku, and apparently that makes Katsuki a point of interest to people who know about their complicated relationship. Which is just about everyone at UA.

Barely holding his emotions in, Katsuki has no interest in being stopped for a question, or worse, condolences. So he practically runs back to his dorm building, past stares, murmurs, and tears. 

Katsuki has never felt a stronger need to hide before in his life. And it’s not because of a villain or a monster or even the consequences of his own actions; He wants to hide from the truth. Because the ugly truth of the matter is, Izuku is gone. He’s not coming back. And Katsuki just blamed his mentor for that fact. 

Shit. 

All Might isn’t faultless, that’s for sure, but someone killed Izuku. And it certainly wasn’t their teacher. He said a lot to his teacher just now. Some of it true, but most of it was motivated by the cave in his chest and the weight pressing down on his shoulders. He needs to get his head on straight. He can’t focus, he can’t parse out a single emotion he’s having, he needs —

He shouldn’t be alone right now. As much as he’d like to be. 

Katsuki comes to this conclusion as he bursts through the doors, nearly to safety. What Katsuki failed to consider is the rest of his class, who are surely awake by now, and have surely seen the news. 

“Bakugo.” The gentle call comes from Todoroki as he walks past the common room. The boy has red-rimmed eyes, and is sitting quite close to Sero, who looks equally as distraught. The room is pretty much filled up, with about half of 1A sitting curled up to each other on the couches. “Aizawa’s on his way to talk to us if you want to stay.” He gestures his hand to the empty space next to him on the couch. 

He’s tempted, but Katsuki just can’t. He doesn’t think he’d be able to get a single word out without breaking down into the mess that he feels inside. He’s considering company, but not this much. He can’t even process what he’s feeling, he doesn’t need to add ten other people’s emotions to the mix.

Besides, there’s only one person — living person, and isn’t that just devastating — that he wants to see right now. And he isn’t in the common room.

Katsuki shakes his head at the other boy, not trusting himself to talk. Before he can hear any protests, he walks away from his classmates and to the elevator. 

Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together.

He plays the mantra in his head as he gets in the elevator and ascends to his floor. Instead of unlocking his own room though, Katsuki knocks on the door next to his. 

He was pretty awful to his friend the last time they spoke, he knows that. He’ll apologize the second Kirishima opens the door. And then… he doesn’t know. Talk to the other boy, maybe. Get his friend to help him parse out the mess in his head. But no, that’s not right either. They weren’t best friends, but Kirishima is close with just about everybody in the class. The news about Izuku is going to hurt him, too. Granted, Katsuki is sure no one can hold a torch to the war of emotions raging inside of him right now, but he can’t just steamroll his friend’s grief. Especially not after treating him so horribly the last time they spoke. 

Katsuki is contemplating what to say when the door opens, revealing Kirishima, rumpled with sleep but still aware of the situation, if the tears in his eyes are anything to go by. His eyes soften instantly, and he reaches a hand out to rest on Katsuki’s arm. 

“Hey, man.” Kirishima starts gently. 

Suddenly, every half-cooked plan Katsuki came up with for what to say goes completely out the window, and he blurts out the only truth he’s sure of.

“I love him.”

Oh, God. He does, doesn’t he? He loves Izuku. He’s in love with Izuku, completely. From his fluffy green hair to his stupid beat-up red shoes. From his ramblings about hero analysis to the way his eyes scrunch up when he smiles. From the soft sound of his laugh to his dedication to become a hero. He loves every fucking part of the nerd. The nerd who’s gone . Gone from this life, and Katsuki will never get a chance to tell him just how much he means to him. Fuck.

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Katsuki feels his body give out from under him as sharp sobs cut through his throat. Sturdy as ever, Kirishima catches him, not letting the boy hit the ground. He wraps him into a tight hug, pulling Katsuki all the way into his bedroom and sparing a hand to shut the door behind him.

Distantly, Katsuki is grateful for the privacy. He’d probably feel mortified about this if he could spare a thought for anything but the greens in Izuku’s eyes. Instead, he’s crying harder than he can ever remember doing. It’s ugly, and violent, and frankly, a bit gross. But Kirishima just lets him bury his face in his neck and let everything out, strong arms wrapped around his back. 

He’s being so good about it. Yet another person that Katsuki doesn’t deserve in his life. He briefly remembers the apology he was intending to give the boy, and starts speaking through strained gasps.

“I’m sorry,” He starts, speaking into the boy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’ve been awful I just — ”

He lets another harsh sob out, before taking in a shaky breath to collect himself. Kirishima pulls back to look at Katsuki, and he meets his eyes to make his plea.

“I can’t do this alone. Please.”

He sees Kirishima’s eyes widen, as he guides Katsuki to sit on his bed and then proceeds to flop down right next to him.

“Of course, Bakugo.” He reassures, placing a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder and squeezing. “We’ll deal with everything else later.”

Katsuki lets out a sigh of relief. But it’s short lived compared to the crushing weight of emotions he’s experiencing. 

“So, you love him?”

To that, Katsuki leans over to rest his head on the redhead’s shoulder. “I do.”

Kirishima tilts his head so that it’s resting on Katsuki’s, and the two sit in silence. Both doing their best to process the events of the morning, and the pain coursing through their veins. It’s not helping, not really, but it’s togetherness. Katsuki can’t help but think that this is what friends are for, really. 

After some time passes, though neither boy could say how much, the silence in the room is broken by a phone buzzing on the bedside table. Kirishima reaches out to grab it without jostling Katsuki’s head and reads for a moment before speaking. 

“My moms want me to come home. Apparently the school just sent out a message that classes are cancelled today and we can spend the night at home if we want to.” He pauses, seeming hesitant to continue. “I think you should probably go home, too.”

Home? Katsuki picks his head up, turning to face his friend. Mustafu? The place where he grew up with Izuku? Where he bullied him? No, no. He can’t go there.

“Bakugo.” Kirishima starts, reacting to whatever Katsuki’s face was doing in response to his thoughts. “Katsuki. I’m here for you. I’m always here for you. But I don’t really know how to be right now. I can hardly process any of it myself. Talk to your parents, hopefully they’ll be able to help more than I could.”

He gives Katsuki a small, watery smile that he can’t even pretend to return. 

“Okay.”

The bus ride to Mustafu goes by quickly, luckily for Katsuki. He cried himself out earlier, in Kirishima’s room, but he’d still rather keep his time in public to a minimum. 

Mustafu brings reminders of Izuku. The bus station where he’d ignore Izuku in the mornings before UA, back before they moved into the dorms. The comic book store where they always found each other on the day of a big hero merchandise drop. The entrance to the woods, where they used to hike around until they found a certain bridge over a stream. Unable to help himself, Katsuki turns away from his route home to take the forest trail, following the ghost of his best friend. 

Katsuki gets to that damned bridge, and realizes with a start that this would be the location of his next meeting with Izuku, if the boy were still here. God, he wasted so much time. Being awful to the boy in middle school, and continuing when they started at UA. Even more recently, Katsuki really took his time with friendship. It’s like he thought the nerd would be around forever. Which, of course, he sort of did. There’s so much he would say to Izuku if he had just one more chance. And God, the last thing he did say to him. He yelled at him, screamed at him. For what? What could possibly matter so much that he would ever speak a rude word to the boy who’s become so precious to him. He misses him so, so much. It’s all he can think about in this moment. How he’ll never see him smile again. How he’ll never make him laugh again. How he’ll never again in his life hear someone call him Ka—

“Kacchan?”

Katsuki whips around at the sound of that voice and — 

This can’t be real.

“Izuku?”

“It’s me.” He smiles, stretching his arms out in a gesture to his entire body. “Not dead. Actually —”

Izuku is cut off by the force of Katsuki barreling at him, wrapping the boy in a hug so tight he lifts him off the ground a bit. Izuku is quick to recover, wrapping both arms around Katsuki’s shoulders and burying his face into the other’s neck. 

“Oh, wow, you really thought I was —“

“Yeah.” Katsuki cuts him off again, not wanting to hear that word spoken again.  

He’s here. Izuku is here. Alive and smiling and breathing and wrapped so perfectly in Katsuki’s arms. Like he belongs here. Which, he does now, because Katsuki is pretty sure he’s never letting him go. It’s been half a day, not even six hours since watching that fucked up video, and yet Katsuki feels like it’s been years since he’s seen Izuku. He thought he was never going to see him again, the boy he loves. Wow, if Katsuki thought those feelings were strong before, it’s increased tenfold now that he has the nerd in front of him again. Full of color and oxygen and life —

“You’re alive.” Katsuki’s voice is shaky, and he realizes that he’s been crying this entire time. 

“I’m alive.” He can hear the smile in Izuku’s voice, and he squeezes him even tighter, though he does lean down the inch needed to place Izuku’s feet firmly back on the ground.

“You’re okay.” It’s overkill, but Katsuki needs the reassurance. 

“I’m okay,” He replies with a breathless laugh. Izuku starts to pull back a bit, and Katsuki supposes he’ll allow it. He keeps his hands on the boy’s shoulders, though. “We’re okay.”

Now with a bit more personal space, Katsuki can feel the tears falling freely down his face. He must be an odd sight, grinning like a moron with bloodshot eyes. Not that he cares. Not when Izuku is looking up at him with so much awe and wonder it’s warming Katsuki up from the inside out. 

At once, Katsuki has to fight the urge to kiss the boy in front of him. To tell him how he feels. To have him. In every way Izuku will let him.

He opens his mouth, a confession on his lips, when a snap of a twig forces them apart. Neither noticed earlier, too wrapped up in each other, but they can hear it now: the distinct sound of footsteps approaching the pair. 

Katsuki turns back to Izuku, face full of regret. “Go.” He commands mournfully as the green haired boy nods and rushes off, only leaving behind a trace of green lightning. 

Why does this keep happening to them? Katsuki really held himself back last time, but he doesn’t want to now. He was just about to tell him . Katsuki marches forward to meet the source of the footsteps. 

He boils with rage when he sees the man who emerges from the tree line.

“What the fuck do you want?!” He screams, not hesitating to get right up in the man’s face.

“I’m keeping tabs on an ongoing investigation.” Suit responds boredly, stretching his neck to peer behind Katsuki, at the trees where Izuku just left from.

“‘Ongoing?’ You fucking killed him!” The words don’t hurt nearly as much now, but Katsuki does his best to play up his emotions. 

“We did not kill Midoriya Izuku. The Kakusei did.” Oh, right. Katsuki forgot about that for a moment. Honestly, whatever. He can be in a villain group, as long as he’s alive. 

Still, he wants this asshole off his back. Especially if he hopes to see Izuku again soon. Which he does. “You’ve done enough, don’t you think?”

Katsuki lets his palms heat up a bit, letting off a small crack as a threat. He definitely shouldn’t be threatening government officials, but he can’t really find it in himself to care at the moment. 

Satisfyingly, Suit takes a half-step back. He looks the same amount of pissed that he always does, but there’s a hint of fear there as well. Katsuki smirks, and speaks again, throwing as much smugness into his voice as he can manage. “Leave me the fuck alone.”

He marches off, heading to his parent’s house with a new pep in his step.

Happy, sure. But not stupid. Katsuki’s being followed, he knows this. Does that mean the HPSC knows Izuku is alive? He doesn’t believe that keeping tabs bullshit. Suit didn’t see Izuku, he definitely would have tried to stop him if he had. But still. Did the HPSC fake the body Katsuki saw in the video? No, that’s insane, even for these assholes. Maybe it was really Izuku in the video, but he wasn’t really dead? Katsuki shudders at the memory of the blue skin in that video, snapping him out of his spiral.

It doesn’t matter. Izuku’s alive, so he has something to do now. And apparently he needs to be extra careful about it.

After a fast walk away from Suit, Katsuki barges into his parent’s house and heads straight to the kitchen. He begins immediately rummaging through the refrigerator and pantry, pulling out various ingredients.

He pauses when he hears two sets of footsteps shuffle into the room. His mom and dad only found out about the situation with Izuku through the news, and haven’t really pressed him for more information on it. He’s grateful for that, because he’s well aware of the fact that they know he’s hiding something. He’s received his fair share of concerned but suspicious looks this week. Now, though, the pair just look at him with sadness in their eyes. His dad approaches first, wrapping Katsuki in a hug that he gladly accepts even without the mournful feelings his father thinks he’s going through. 

After a moment, his mom joins them as well. He knows he should keep this a secret from them, but Katsuki can’t help but feel awful about it. They think the kid that once called them aunt and uncle was murdered. Katsuki isn’t sure if it’s safe for him to even speak freely, with Suit and the entire HPSC apparently stalking him, but he still wants to find a way to tell them that Izuku is okay.

He contemplates for a moment, then pulls away from the hug.

“That secret language we made up as kids, do you remember it?”

“What?” His mother questions, confused by the seemingly random topic. 

Katsuki sighs. “Me and Izuku,” He starts, noticing the double eyebrow raise at the use of his friend’s real first name. “We made up a secret language so we could write notes to each other without anybody reading them. Inko found out and made him explain it to her, and then she told you guys. Do you remember it?” He’s banking on his parent’s remembering the dumb translation, and Inko remembering too.

Katsuki can see them both wrack their brains for a minute, before his mother nods, and his dad replies. “I think so, it was —”

“Wait!” Katsuki interrupts, pulling out a pad of paper and a marker. He puts a finger up to indicate a pause, and then writes out a message. Decoded, it reads: 

Izuku is alive. We’re all being watched. 

He slides the pad over and watches as his parents decipher it, eyes widened in shock. It’s not particularly descriptive, and probably raises more questions than answers, but it gets the point across. 

Katsuki raises his eyebrows knowingly at the pair before gesturing to the ingredients he got out earlier. “Just curious if you remembered. Can’t help but think of us as kids right now, y’know? Anyway, I’m going to make some katsudon to bring over to Inko.” He rips the top page with the note off the rest of the pad, and makes a big display of folding it up and placing it in the bottom of a Tupperware container. 

His parents are quick on the uptake — he got his intellect from somewhere, after all — and immediately get to work helping him cook. 

Katsuki leaves for the Midoriya household an hour later, container of katsudon in hand. He spends the short walk trying to ignore the knots in his stomach. It’s going to be so hard to see her like this, crippled by the loss of her only son. Not to mention, what he’s doing is a risk. He could be putting Inko in serious danger by telling her that Izuku’s alive. But he knows how worried the nerd has been about her, so he really should do his best to take care of her right now. Besides, Katsuki remembers how horribly it felt to think Izuku was gone. If he can stop someone else from experiencing that pain, he should.

He knocks on the front door of the apartment and tries to mentally prepare himself for the sight of a broken mother, when he’s instead met with the face of his mentor that he spent the morning shouting at. 

Katsuki freezes, mouth open and arms extended forward. To be fair, All Might has a similar expression of surprise. He’s overwhelmed with a surge of feelings: guilt, anger, resentment, and a strange urge to fall into a hug from the man and plead for his forgiveness. He acts on none of these, however, shoving the Tupperware into the man’s arms. Katsuki clears his throat, then faces All Might eye to eye.

“This is for Inko. And you. You both should eat.” He pauses, raising his eyebrows and emphasizing his next words. “ALL of it.”

The retired hero looks awfully confused at the strange demand, but Katsuki just turns around and leaves, unable to face him any longer. They didn’t make much food in the hopes that Inko could finish it tonight. So, with two people sharing, they should find the note after just one meal. Katsuki desperately hopes it works as intended, he doesn’t want All Might to feel the guilt he threw on him any longer than he has to. He’s not ready to apologize yet, though. Not when a part of him does still feel like his teacher isn’t entirely blameless in all of this. All Might adores Izuku, he knows that. Pretty much everyone knows that. Everyone except Izuku, of course. But All Might has some pretty self-destructive tendencies, Symbol of Peace and all that, and Izuku does as well. They’re similar in that sense. But the retired hero does nothing to try to prevent this behavior. If anything, he encourages it. And that encouragement leads to bullshit like this.

Katsuki arrives back to his dorm room and flops onto his bed with a sigh, still parsing out the mess of words known as his brain. He spares a thought for Izuku, wondering if this is how the nerd feels all the time. 

He glances at his alarm clock and sighs again. It’s only a little past 4 in the afternoon. Katsuki’s tired, but not that tired. As exhausted as his mind is, his body is full of restless energy. He hasn’t gotten a good workout in since Izuku ran away, and it’s starting to show. 

He really doesn’t want to run into anybody, though. He doesn’t have the capacity for probing questions and mournful looks. So the gym is off limits, as is anywhere else around campus. The dorm should be safe, though. By the sounds of it, most of 1A joined himself and Kirishima in going home for the day, likely to lean on their families. They’ll be back tomorrow though. Katsuki can’t tell them that Izuku is alive, but he can make the next few days a little bit easier. 

So, Katsuki channels all his pent up energy into cleaning up his bedroom, and then the common room. Moving now to the kitchen, he prepares a large bulk of food and portions it into nineteen neat containers for the class, labelling with sticky notes so each person gets their preferences met. Extra spice for Tokoyami, no spice for Uraraka, double rice for Kirishima, the list goes on. 

Cooking and cleaning done, the clock now reads 7:14 PM, and Katsuki decides that’s late enough. He does his nightly routine and slips into bed, feeling a good kind of tired. Like he worked hard and accomplished a lot. Which of course, he did. It’s not common that he discovers the death and then life of the person he's in love with all in the span of a few hours. 

At that thought, Katsuki is reminded of his brief yet sweet meeting with Izuku. He falls asleep with a soft smile on his face and the memory of his best friend wrapped up safely in his arms.

When he wakes, it’s to a gag being aggressively tied to the back of his head. 

He makes a sound of distress, seizing up in a panic and attempts to pull away from the touch. With even more panic, Katsuki discovers that he cannot, in fact, pull away. He squirms his arms to find metal handcuffs around both of his wrists, trapping them together behind his back. A quick attempt to heat his palms up shows them to be quirk suppressing cuffs. Fuck.

He’s lifted out of bed and thrown bodily over someone’s shoulder. Katsuki starts thrashing around, scared and desperate to get free. Who are these guys? And why the fuck do they have quirk suppressing cuffs?

The man carries him out of the room, ignoring his screams through the gag. Now in the dimly lit hallway, he can make out one other man dressed in black, in addition to the one that has him in a hold. Two guys. They’re big, but Katsuki can take them. If only he can get the fuck out of these cuffs. The group bursts through the balcony door, and at once are in the air. 

The man carrying him must have some sort of flying quirk. As soon as he realizes his position, Katsuki stops his thrashing, knowing he has no way to protect himself now if the man drops him.

They land harshly in a small clearing in the forest that surrounds UA. Katsuki is dropped on his feet and given some space, finally. He looks around to see about a dozen men surrounding him, all armed. Shit. What the fuck is happening right now?

His eyes widen as they land on one familiar face in the group: fucking Suit. The asshole cracks a grin at his fear, and Katuski resolves immediately to wipe all emotion from his face. He hardens his eyes as the man walks towards him, flaunting his handgun for Katsuki to see. 

“Listen here, you little fucking brat.” He’s heard the man angry before, but he hasn’t lost his composure in front of anyone at UA. Until now, apparently. Is the HPSC really out here kidnapping a hero student? There’s corruption in the government, sure, but this is really fucking extreme. “You’re going to tell us where Midoriya Izuku is. We know you saw him today.” He sighs, stepping closer to Katsuki, patience clearly waning. “And two days ago, and two days before that, and probably before that, too.”

Katsuki does his best to look intimidating, given his current situation, and shakes his head in a clear message: fuck no .

At this, Suit raises his gun and points it directly at Katsuki’s head, only a few feet away from the boy. “So you’ll die for him?” 

He cocks the gun, and Katsuki has to fight the urge to run. He’d never give Izuku up, even if he did know where the boy was. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t scared. He’s surrounded, they’re all armed, and he can’t even access his quirk. Katsuki has no defense here, and he knows it. 

In a last attempt to comfort himself, Katsuki squeezes his eyes shut and thinks of Izuku’s smile.

Chapter Text

Izuku wakes to an aggressive pounding on his bedroom door. He throws a hand over his eyes, trying to fight the incoming sound and light of the morning. He’s been settling in quite nicely at the Kakusei, all things considered. It hasn’t been very long, only a few days, but having a bed to sleep in and three meals per day has done wonders for Izuku’s physical health. Everyone he’s spoken to has been so kind, as well. They all have the same simmering need for revenge underneath the surface, but there’s a strong sense of community here. They really seem to take care of each other. 

He feels particularly taken care of by Kanashi, the man was such a comforting presence to him last night. Remembering last night brings a flood of emotions to Izuku. It was so hard hearing Kacchan freak out about Izuku joining the Kakusei. And he didn’t even get a chance to explain himself! Then, realizing that this whole mess is his fault, because he used Blackwhip against All Might’s orders. The hero must be so angry with him. He probably doesn’t even want to train him anymore, doesn’t want him as his successor anymore. But, no. Izuku thinks of Kanashi’s story last night. The things he went through… Izuku can’t even imagine. But the advice he gave him. He wants to see you again. No matter what you did.

Izuku wants to trust him, at least for now, and give himself a chance to get All Might’s forgiveness.

“Oh, God! He IS dead!” The shout from outside pulls Izuku back to the present. He realizes that he had let the knocking go on a bit too long without answering the door. He rolls reluctantly out of bed and pulls the door open. He’s immediately met with a mouthful of blonde hair, and an armful of girl. 

“Uhhh.” He intelligently responds, not sure how to react to a hug from a girl he hardly knows. Honestly, he can barely handle a hug from a girl he does know.

Just as fast as it starts, it ends. Nozomi pulls back abruptly and exclaims in his face. “You’re not dead!”

“Obviously not.” Itsuki stalks into the room after his sister, sounding irritated already. “Nozo, we knew this already.”

Izuku sees the girl roll her eyes at her brother, and decides to interrupt before they start arguing. “What’s going on?”

Itsuki leans against his door frame and answers him. “As of this morning, you’ve been pronounced dead.”

Izuku lets out a squawk of confusion as Nozomi steps over to slap her brother in the arm. “Dude! You couldn’t have been any more sensitive about it?!”

Itsuki takes his turn to roll his eyes, and steps forward to show Izuku something on his phone. Izuku peers at the screen to see a headline confirming his murder, along with a grainy photo of his UA student ID picture.

He promptly passes out.

When he comes to, apparently only a few minutes later, he’s on the floor, exactly where he landed. His eyes are forcibly opened by Nozomi who starts shining her phone flashlight at him. He swats her away and stands up, feeling a bit wobbly. It looks like Itsuki hasn’t moved, still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. They’re both already dressed for the day, and Izuku feels a bit embarrassed at his current state, both the borrowed pajamas and the fact that he just literally passed out in front of them. 

Nozomi guides him to sit back down on his bed as she starts speaking. “I don’t understand, why did they say you’re dead? You’re not dead! I would know! You’re right here. I wonder where they got the body from it looks just like you it’s so uncanny the way it —”

“Do you want him to faint again?” Itsuki snaps, interrupting his sister’s ramblings. Izuku’s grateful, his head is hurting way too much to try to follow. This doesn’t make any sense. Feeling an oncoming panic, Izuku forces himself to get more information before he allows himself to freak out. 

“Body?” He questions, looking at Itsuki. Hopefully, he can explain in fewer words than his sister. Besides, his matter-of-fact tone and slight aggression is honestly pretty calming for Izuku. He’s not sure why that is.

“Yeah, they pulled a fake body from the river to make it look like you died.” The blonde boy continues before Izuku can even start to spiral on that. “I’m not going to show you because we’re trying to keep you awake here, but it was pretty realistic.”

“The news is saying we did it.” Nozomi chimes in.

“Why would they do that?” Izuku questions the pair.

“Honestly, it’s probably the Hidora.” Itsuki finally moves from his bored-looking position and walks deeper into the room. Nozomi had sat down next to Izuku at some point, so the blonde is now standing over both of them. “They have people everywhere, even within major news outlets. They hate us, obviously, and will do anything to make our lives harder. Including, framing us for murder.”

“Do you think that’s the only reason?”

Itsuki looks contemplative for a moment, and then angry at the question. Like he’s mad he doesn’t have the answer. “Talk to Ishigami if you have questions.”

Thoroughly shut down, Izuku takes a moment to process the information he just got. This is… absolutely insane. He has no idea what to do here. Everyone thinks he’s dead. He could probably use this as an advantage here, right? But how? He needs a strategy, and fast. Think, Izuku, think, What would Kacchan do in this situation? Oh. Kacchan! Kacchan thinks he’s dead! And his mom, and All Might, and Uraraka, and Todoroki, and everyone else! They all think he was murdered!

“Dude, stop it.” He’s interrupted by Itsuki snapping his fingers in front of his face. “You’re literally gonna pass out again.” 

Only then does Izuku realize he started hyperventilating a bit. He takes a moment to compose himself before explaining. 

“Sorry, sorry. I just —” He pauses with a quick sigh. “I need to go see someone. Right now.”

Izuku is met with two blank stares of disbelief. 

“Seriously?” Nozomi asks, which is fair. He thinks distantly that he probably should gather more information first, but he can’t wait. Not when Kacchan’s probably freaking out. He has to fix this. 

“Yes, seriously. I’m going.” He stands up and starts rushing around to get ready, not even sparing a thought to be embarrassed about getting dressed in front of two strangers. He’s only thinking of Kacchan, and how the boy must be feeling right now. He vaguely thinks of the fight they had last night, but quickly dismisses it in his mind. Kacchan will want to see him, even if he is mad at him.

Izuku is slipping on his shoes when Itsuki interrupts him.

“Wait.”

“Yeah?” He turns around, halfway out the door.

“We still don’t know what the Hidora’s angle is here. You’ll be in danger out there.”

Yeah, that much is obvious. He’s not sure what the boy is trying to tell him here, when Nozomi answers his mental question.

“What he’s saying is, be careful.”

Ah.

Izuku nods at them both, and sets off to find Kacchan.

Assuming Kacchan already knows, would he still be at UA? Probably not, he tends to want to move around when he’s dealing with something. He wouldn’t just sit idly in his dorm room, or in class, if he was upset. And Izuku would like to think this would upset him pretty badly. Sure, Kacchan was angry with him the last time they talked, and sure, he doesn’t return Izuku’s feelings but. He cares. They’re friends. They’ve gotten infinitely closer compared to how they used to be, especially this week. He couldn’t imagine how he would feel if the situation was reversed and he saw Kacchan’s body on the news. What would he even do? Oh, God. Izuku doesn’t even want to think about it. He’d probably —

Yeah.

Izuku changes his route to head to Mustafu. 

If this was him, he’d want to see his mom. Kacchan is definitely the same in that regard. The boy does his best to hide it, but he adores his parents. It’s why he goes home so often. 

He makes the careful trek to Mustafu and navigates to the Bakugo household. Peeking into windows brings disappointment for him: Kacchan isn’t here. It’s nearly 9 AM now. He supposed Kacchan could be at school, but he imagines they would allow his classmates the day off. He personally was allotted three days off of classes when Sir Nighteye died, after all.

So if he’s not at home and he’s probably not at UA… Izuku thinks about important places that Kacchan might go if he was feeling upset. If he’s thinking about Izuku, would he go somewhere that reminds him of them? They have a lot of bad memories around Mustafu. The only real good ones are from this week. Oh, of course. This week has been such a turning point in their relationship, whether he looks at it from a friendship perspective or something more. 

They’ve met up in the park, behind Aldera, and at the stream. Well, hopefully he’s not at their old middle school, because it’s much too open for Izuku to go there in the middle of the day. He’ll hit the stream first, since it’ll be the easiest to stay hidden at. If that doesn’t work out, maybe the park. After that… he doesn’t know. But he needs to find Kacchan, no matter what. He knows that much.

Without any more delay, he sets off for the wooden trail. The last time they were here, Izuku was so inconsolable. He had just cried outside of his bedroom window, watching his mom struggle with his disappearance. Shoot, hopefully Kacchan can pass the message of his safety to his mother. He hates knowing that she’s struggling. That’s a big reason why he was so upset that day. But Kacchan… he was so good to him, then. He just held Izuku, and let him cry.

Izuku continues his walk along the trail, remembering how nice it felt to be comforted by the boy. 

He’s only a few paces away from the bridge when he spots a familiar tuft of blonde hair. Izuku mentally congratulates himself on knowing Kacchan as well as he does, and calls out to the boy to get his attention.

“Kacchan!”

Kacchan whips around to face him, and Izuku is startled by how awful he looks. 

He’d usually never say that. Kacchan is beautiful all the time, truly. It’s just that right now he has puffy red eyes with deep dark circles under them. He looks a bit sunken in at the cheeks, like he hasn’t been eating enough recently. Wow, is this all because of Izuku? He’s almost in disbelief at the visual proof of how strongly Kacchan cares for him, and feels a flutter in his stomach at the realization. 

“Izuku?” He sounds so relieved. Izuku can’t help but smile at the sound of his voice. They just spoke yesterday, but there's a stark difference in tone now. Yesterday was screaming and betrayal, and today is just wonder and awe. And a distinct softness that he doesn’t see often on the blonde. Izuku thinks that he wants Kacchan to sound like this, and look at him like this, forever.

“It’s me.” Izuku responds, resisting the urge to give him a twirl. That probably wouldn’t be well received right about now. “Not dead, actually —”

The rest of his sentence is cut off by an arm full of Kacchan. Not that he’s complaining. Who needs words when he has Kacchan squeezing him so tight he feels his feet lift off the ground a bit? Izuku wastes no time wrapping his arms around the boy, trying to give him whatever he needs right now. 

Distantly, Izuku tries to remember the last time they’ve ever hugged. He can’t. It must have been a long time, then. When they were kids, maybe? Or maybe they’ve never hugged each other before. That’s a sad thought. In any case, he’s enjoying it now. The warmth shared between their bodies, the way Kacchan let out a small sigh of contentment once Izuku returned the embrace. He’s set back down on the ground, but not let go. Izuku is a bit surprised at the blatant display of affection. Kacchan must be really upset to show his emotions this clearly.

“Oh, wow. You really thought I was —”

“Yeah.” Kacchan cuts him off again. Oh, well. He’ll shut up and enjoy this for as long as it lasts. 

“You’re alive.” It’s not a question, but Izuku wants to answer him anyway.

“I’m alive.”

“You’re okay.” Kacchan says again. Izuku is getting a little bit concerned here, but he’s happy to give the boy all the reassurance he needs.

“I’m okay.” Izuku feels the need to look at Kacchan when he says this, to make it clear to him that everything that happened between them yesterday is in the past now. So he pulls back, looks Kacchan in his pretty red eyes, and speaks. “We’re okay.”

At that, Kacchan smiles, and Izuku drowns in it. He’s just so perfect like this. Kacchan is literally crying in relief at Izuku’s mere presence, looking so genuinely happy despite the tears on his cheeks. Izuku has the fleeting, ridiculous, thought that he wants to kiss them away. 

Right as he considers doing just that, the sound of a footstep echoes through the opening. Both boys jump at the sound, and Kacchan turns on his heel to face the sound. 

It’s definitely a person. Definitely coming towards them. Fuck!

Oh, wow. Izuku isn’t one to swear, even in his own mind. Must be Kacchan’s voice in his head.

“Go.” The boy turns around to tell him, though Izuku was already one step ahead of him, powering up One for All and making his escape. 

Back at the Kakusei, Izuku finds himself at a bit of a loose end. He eats dinner by himself then heads to the gymnasium to let off some of his growing nervous energy. He’s so tired of having his interactions with Kacchan get interrupted. He feels like they haven’t had a real conversation in forever, even though it’s only been a few days. He’s also worried about everyone else who still thinks he’s dead. Unless Kacchan has told them by now. If it’s even safe to do that. Probably not, with the Hidora still out there hunting him down. Shoot, he didn’t even get the chance to tell Kacchan about them! The boy, and anyone helping him, are fighting blind here! It’s so frustrating, he wants to help. He also wants to tell Kacchan how he feels, and ask him on a date, and be his boyfriend, and hold his hand, and give him a hug, and maybe a kiss if he’s lucky, and —

Live in this reality, not the fantasy one he created in his head where Kacchan actually returns his feelings. 

Now that Izuku is feeling healthier from his days out in the cold, going from fight to fight without much food or sleep, he’s ready to start fixing his situation. The problem is, he doesn’t know where to start. He’s not sure if he should try to meet with Ishigami again, or Kacchan, or someone else. 

He decides to confide in Kanashi about his turmoils, who tells him that it’s a great idea to get Ishigami’s advice on his next steps. Only, the man has been away from the compound for some sort of secretive business, and will not be back until tomorrow.

So, Izuku finds himself in the gym, beating the crap out of a punching bag without his quirk just to tire himself out. He ends up getting roped into a spar with a few veteran members of the Kakusei. It’s fun, and beneficial, and does actually manage to get his mind off of his situation for a few hours. They talk offhandedly about upcoming missions and reconnaissance, but Izuku is still quite out of the loop on their overall plan, having only been here a few days. Some of them share their personal stories with Izuku, and he feels a bit comforted to know that he’s not the only one that ended up here so spontaneously. A lot of them have lost loved ones at the Hidora’s hands, but still upended their entire lives to join this cause. Izuku feels very passionately about taking down the group, but he would also like to see his friends again soon. And his mom. And All Might. Yeah, he wants his life back.

After several hours of fighting, the group disperses slowly, bidding one another goodnights. Izuku checks the time, and realizes with a sigh that it’s past 11 PM. With his distractions gone, his mind returns immediately to Kacchan. The boy looked so exhausted, he really hopes he’s taking care of himself, especially now that he knows Izuku is alive. 

Izuku returns to his assault of a punching bag, thinking of better ways to occupy his mind, when a welcome distraction enters the gymnasium. 

“Oh, didn’t think anyone would be here this late.” Itsuki greets him with a nod while he wraps his hands up with athletic tape. “Spar?”

“Sure!” Izuku responds eagerly, grateful for the offer. “Quirks or no quirks?” The group earlier alternated between both, which Izuku found really interesting. As someone who grew up quirkless, he can definitely appreciate them wanting to be powerful regardless of their quirks. 

“Doesn’t make a difference to me.” Itsuki answers his question with the same bored tone he’s always sporting. 

“Hand to hand, then.” The pair walk over to a mat and prepare. “I never asked you, what’s your quirk? Is it similar to Nozomi’s? I’d imagine it would be, with you guys being twins. Is it the same one—?”

He’s interrupted by a punch he’s forced to dodge. Alright then, looks like they’re starting. After a few moments of jabs and dodges, once Izuku assumes his question is being ignored, Itsuki answers.

“It’s the opposite actually.” He pulls Izuku to the ground as they continue to tussle. “I can take away someone’s physical pain when I touch them.”

“That’s so cool!” Izuku gets the upper hand, pinning Itsuki face down on the mat with his arms behind him. The boy squirms a bit, testing the hold. But in terms of raw strength, Izuku has him beat, even without One for All. 

“I don’t know if cool is the right word for it. I can’t protect her with my quirk.” Protect Nozomi? The bubbly girl doesn’t need much protection, in Izuku’s opinion. And he says as much. 

“Seems like she can protect herself.” He says as he feels Itsuki tap out on his hand. Izuku releases the boy and climbs off his back. 

As Itsuki makes his way off the ground, he snaps. “Stay out of things you don’t understand, alright?!”

Izuku has never been known to do that.

“Look, Itsuki,” He takes a step towards the boy and offers him a gentle smile that does not seem to be well received. “I may have only known you guys a few days but… it does really seem like Nozomi can handle herself.” He thinks back to how sad the girl sounded when describing the horrors they went through as kids, and adds, “Maybe she doesn’t want a protector, maybe she just wants her brother.”

This sentiment seems to startle Itsuki a moment, only because he doesn’t immediately roll his eyes. Instead, the boy seems to actually think about Izuku’s words. Mulling it over, he opens his mouth, seemingly to respond, when the gym door opening grabs both boys’ attentions. 

“Shouldn’t you two be in bed?” Kanashi walks in with a gentle smile for Izuku, though his voice implies a command more than a question. Itsuki picked up on that as well, apparently, because the boy just bows his head and leaves the room with a yes, sir . No goodbye for Izuku, though. Darn, he really thought the boy was starting to like him. Oh, well. 

Izuku approaches the older man, hoping to plead his case to stay out longer. He needs to exhaust himself if he has any hopes of sleeping tonight. Especially with the anticipation of talking to Ishigami tomorrow. 

“I’m surprised you were able to get him to listen.”

Kanashi laughs a bit at that. “Itsuki doesn’t just hand out his respect to anyone, but I’ve known that boy for years now. Besides,” he crosses his arms casually and raises an eyebrow at Izuku. “When Ishigami isn’t around, I’m supposedly in charge.”

Izuku gives a hum of understanding and Kanashi continues. 

“What has you awake so late, hmm? A dead man can only have so many responsibilities.”

“Very funny.” Izuku deadpans, despite the fact that he did let out a snort of laughter at the joke. “There’s someone I really need to talk to, and we keep getting interrupted.”

“What do you need to say? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Izuku doesn’t necessarily want to share, but he needs it off his chest. And Kanashi has been so easy to talk to recently, his calm nature reminding Izuku vaguely of his tea meetings with All Might. He feels a pang in his chest at the thought. He really misses his mentor. 

“It’s —” He starts, not sure how to finish that sentence. “It’s complicated. We’re complicated. He hated me for a while, and we didn’t exactly get along. But then it started to get better. And then it got good, really good. And now with everything going on,” Izuku takes a breath to compose himself. He knows he’s not making much sense, but he hopes the other man can parse something coherent out of his mumbling. “He’s been the only thing that’s felt like home. And I want him to know that.”

Kansashi takes a moment to answer. “You love him?”

Izuku’s eyes shoot up from the patch of floor he’s been staring at. He feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment, but Kanashi doesn’t seem upset, or angry, or any other emotion he would be afraid of seeing on someone after revealing his feelings for another boy. 

He does, though. Love him, that is. He didn’t even realize it until it was spoken by someone else. Izuku would think it’d feel monumental to realize he’s in love with his childhood best friend turned bully turned rival turned friend again. It doesn’t feel like that, though. It feels like something slotting into place that was always meant to be there. Like this was just the natural progression of where his feelings for Kacchan were heading. The boy is so amazing, he’s talented and powerful and impressive. And now, on top of all of that, he’s kind , and generous and protective and caring. Izuku never stood a chance.

“Was it that obvious?” He finally answers the man. 

Kanashi gives him an amused smile and says, “I’m afraid so.”

Izuku huffs at that. If this man could tell, after knowing him for less than a week, does that mean anyone else knows? Oh, God, does Kacchan know?

“Izuku?” Kanashi interrupts his mental spiral before it even begins. “You should tell him how you feel.”

Izuku’s eyes widen at the thought. “Are you sure? What if he doesn’t take it well?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try. You only live twice after all.”

Izuku laughs a bit at the joke that’s, admittedly, getting old fast. He makes a point though. Kacchan thought he died . He could have died, in a million different ways this week. Izuku has no idea how he’s going to fix this mess he’s in. But he shouldn’t wait, who knows how long it’ll take before he’s back at UA? And besides, if it goes horribly, Izuku can always take up permanent residence with the Kakusei. The food isn’t that bad. Heh.

Decision made, Izuku gives a resolved nod, and gives his farewell to Kanashi. “Alright, I will. I’m gonna go find him. Thanks, Kanashi!” 

He runs out the gymnasium doors and pretends he doesn’t hear the older man shout back at him. 

“I didn’t mean right now!”

This is how, for the second time today, Izuku finds himself outside the Bakugo household. Actually, Izuku is pretty sure it’s past midnight now, so he’s feeling a bit less creepy about that. 

He goes straight to Kacchan’s bedroom window and finds the curtains drawn, so he starts knocking gently. After no response from the other side, Izuku picks up the volume of his knocks a bit. He stops after a moment and contemplates his next move when the curtains are pulled to show a very concerned looking Mitsuki Bakugo. Her eyes go wide at the sight of Izuku dangling in front of her son’s bedroom window via blackwhip attached to the roof.

She opens the window and all but drags the boy in by his jacket. 

“Were you followed?” Mitsuki hisses at him in the scariest whisper Izuku has ever heard.

“No?” He matches her volume just in case, raising his eyebrows to further show his confusion. 

“Is it safe to talk?” She questions as she looks left, then right, out the window. Seemingly satisfied with her scan, she pulls the curtains shut and turns back to Izuku.

“I… think so?” He has no idea what she knows about the situation, or why she’s so panicked. Or, he thinks glumly, where Kacchan is. 

Mitsuki scans him up and down with her arms crossed in that way that moms do that makes him feel like he’s in trouble. After a moment, her shoulders relax and she lets out a sigh. 

“It’s good to see you, kid.” She speaks at a normal volume while pulling Izuku into a hug. Izuku can’t help but melt into it. It’s not his mom, but a motherly hug is a motherly hug. And he could really use one. Or ten. They pull away a moment later.

“Auntie,” He starts, reverting back to the name he used as a child for the woman. “Is Kacchan here?”

“No, kiddo.” She responds, much to Izuku’s disappointment. “He went back to UA after dropping by to tell us that you were alive.”

“Oh, okay.” Wait, if they know, then, “Does my mom know that I’m okay?!”

“We made sure to get her a message.”

Izuku lets out a sigh of relief, eternally grateful for Kacchan. “Oh, good. Thank you. I really need to be careful about who sees me.” He spares a thought for the Hidora, and how dangerous they are. “Honestly, Auntie, we probably shouldn’t be talking right now.”

The woman crosses her arms at that, giving Izuku a piercing gaze. “You don’t think I can handle myself?”

“No, no, no, not what I meant!” He flusters, waving his arms out in front of him. “Of course you can! It’s just — we’re up against something a lot bigger than we realized.”

Izuku trails off, and Mitsuki takes a seat on Kacchan’s pristinely made bed. She gestures for Izuku to do the same. She asks him to explain, so of course he does. She’s a scary woman, after all.

He goes through the entire story, only leaving out the parts about One for All. He tells her about the visits with Kacchan, the fights he’s gotten into, the people he met at the Kakusei, and every detail he knows about the Hidora. He has to give her credit, she takes it well. His mom would have freaked out like fifty times by now. 

“So that’s why you’re here?” She questions once Izuku finishes his story. “To tell Katsuki all this?”

Izuku does his best to fight the blush creeping up his cheeks. That’s part of the reason, sure. But really, what he wants most of all is an uninterrupted hug from Kacchan. 

He’s too obvious, apparently, because Mitsuki narrows her eyes at Izuku and questions him. “You’re hiding something from me.”

“No,” He stands up, letting out a nervous laugh. “I’m not hiding anything!”

She gives him a fierce glare. It reminds him strikingly of Kacchan, though he’d never tell the boy that in favor of not getting an explosion to the face. 

“It’s nothing!” His voice went up so many octaves during that sentence, that Izuku doesn’t blame her for seeing right through it.

“Izuku —“ 

Oh, no. Scary mom voice. Need to say something!

“I’m in love with your son.”

Not that!

He slaps both hands in front of his mouth to stop it from saying anything else mortifying. 

A beat passes, then Mitsuki bursts into laughter, much to Izuku’s horror. He drops his hands, slowly, and questions the antics.

“You’re not mad?”

“Why the hell would I be mad?” She answers him with no hesitation, and looks Izuku in the eyes. “He could do a lot worse, you know.”

Izuku can’t help the smile that erupts onto his face at her approval. Now he’s even more excited to find Kacchan, and tell him, and hug him, and just be with him. For more than two minutes. 

“Guess I should get going to UA then.” He starts reopening the window. 

“Good luck with that, Romeo.”

Izuku squawks at that, turning around to see Mitsuki laughing at his expense, walking out of her son’s bedroom. “And close the window behind you, please, It’s cold outside.”

With that, he’s left alone for a moment. Izuku takes a second to compose himself after that mortifying ordeal before taking off to UA. 

Under the protection of the night, and with the motivation of seeing Kacchan, Izuku is able to make it in no time. Just as he’s about to fly above the walls surrounding campus, he hears a sound of distress coming from outside the barriers. Curious, he goes to investigate, and he’s faced with a horrifying sight. 

There’s at least a dozen people, armed, standing in a circle in a clearing. Izuku recognizes the symbol on some of their helmets as the Hidora logo. There’s one man in the middle with a handgun outstretched, pointed at —

At —

At Kacchan.

Absolutely not. No. Nope. He can not, he will not, get hurt because of Izuku. They will not hurt him. Izuku will not allow it. He’s startled by the numbness that goes through his body at the sight of a gun pointed at Kacchan’s head. He needs to be careful, he knows that in the back of his mind. But right now, all he can focus on is getting something, anything , in between Kacchan and that gun. 

Apparently, his own body is the best thing he could come up with. Because before he knows it, like his body is on autopilot, Izuku is launching himself towards the group, landing perfectly in the space between Kacchan and the armed man. He reaches one hand back to grip Kacchan by the shirt, making sure he stays firmly behind Izuku. He looks to the man that currently has the nozzle of a gun pressed against Izuku’s forehead. He should probably feel scared right now. He doesn’t, though. He’s angry.

“Hurt him, and I will kill every single one of you.” Izuku tilts his head and raises his eyebrows at the man. “Do you understand me?”

Behind him, Katsuki makes a panicked sound of disapproval. Right. Izuku hardly noticed earlier, but Katsuki is handcuffed and gagged. Another surge of white hot rage courses through him at that thought. He tightens his grip on Kacchan’s shirt in an attempt to settle him down. This is his fight, not Kacchan’s. He won’t let the boy he loves get caught in the crossfire.

“Alright, alright.” The Hidora member speaks. He has a placating tone, yet he hasn’t moved the gun an inch. “We don’t need anyone to get hurt.”

Funny, because he looked ready to fucking execute Kacchan a minute ago. 

“Here’s how this can go.” The man continues, drawing Izuku’s attention back to him. “You come with us, and we’ll let him go.”

That’s fine with Izuku, but he doesn’t trust these guys. And there’s a lot more of them than there are of him. He’s confident in his abilities, but Kacchan’s handcuffed and there’s only so much he can do against a bullet. 

“Uncuff him, and I will.” Another angry sound from Kacchan.

“Oh, well now I don’t quite trust you on that one.” Izuku hates how smug he sounds. How comfortable he is in this situation that has Izuku’s entire body and soul on edge. “Let’s help each other.”

Izuku raises his eyebrows at the man, feeling a sense of attitude he didn’t think he’d have with a literal gun to his head. He needs to fight the urge to tap his foot impatiently. Anything to get Kacchan to safety. And fast.

“How about this. We’ll walk you away from here. Once we get far enough, we’ll throw him the keys. Sound good?”

Izuku glances around to see about half of the men in the circle with long range guns pointed at the pair. That won’t do.

“Get your fucking guns off him first.”

The man, seemingly the one in charge, nods and the guns get dropped to the ground. The only one that remains now is the one pointed at Izuku. That’s fine. He can feel himself relax a bit just knowing that Kacchan is safe, at least for now. He doesn’t love this plan, but he’s sure he wouldn’t feel comfortable with anything this man suggests. 

He can’t see any immediate flaws in it, so he reluctantly agrees. “Okay, I’ll go.”

The man gets Izuku turned around in a strong grip, the gun now at his temple. The group starts walking away together, but the second Izuku takes a step backwards with them, Kacchan freaks. He tries to follow, eyes wide, thrashing and screaming at Izuku through the gag. 

Suddenly, the gun leaves his temple and focuses back on Kacchan. 

“Stop, Kacchan!” Izuku panics, and does the only thing he can think of to get Kacchan out of this. He can see the fear in his eyes, and wants nothing more than to wrap the boy in a hug. He can’t. But he’ll do his best to comfort him. “It’s okay, I promise it’s okay.” He smiles at him, unsure if Kacchan can even see it in the dark of the night. “Don’t follow me. It’s okay.”

He repeats similar assurances a few more times, and once Kacchan seems calm enough, Izuku turns his attention back to the man. “Put it down.” He growls at him.

After a moment, the nozzle is placed back on the side of Izuku’s head. He hears Kacchan let out a sharp gasp at the sight. “It’s okay.” He softens his voice as much as he can. Izuku thinks of his earlier plans of coming here to confess to the beautiful boy in front of him, and decides that if this is his last moment seeing him, he wants to go through with it.

“I love you, Kacchan.”

He can only see the boy’s eyes widen before he gets whipped around to start walking forward, much faster than before. They stop about thirty paces away. 

“The keys?” He reminds the group, sounding as cold and harsh as he can muster.

He sees one of the men dig into his pocket and grab a ring with a set of keys on it. He throws it, and Izuku turns around to see them land close enough to Kacchan. Good. Izuku finds that he doesn’t really care what happens to him next, as long as it means Kacchan gets away.

He’s placed roughly into handcuffs, briefly checking if they cancel his quirk. They do. He’s not surprised.

The man finally lets him out of the headlock he’s been in for the past few minutes, and gives a command to one of the others. 

“Alright, knock them both out.”

Izuku quickly turns back to Kacchan in fear as he hears two back-to-back whizzing sounds. He feels a violent pinch in his neck, and the last thing he sees is Kacchan crumpling to the ground before the world goes black.