
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/7327057.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      僕のヒーローアカデミア_|_Boku_no_Hero_Academia_|_My_Hero_Academia
  Relationship:
      Bakugou_Katsuki/Midoriya_Izuku
  Character:
      Bakugou_Katsuki, Midoriya_Izuku, Midoriya_Inko, Bakugou_Katsuki's_Mother,
      Kirishima_Eijirou, Kaminari_Denki
  Additional Tags:
      Dubious_Consent, Lust_Quirk, Third_Year_Students, Izuku_tries_to_help_and
      gets_fucked_up, Katsuki_tries_to_help_and_fucks_up, Inko_just_wants_to
      take_care_of_her_son, somewhat_unrequited_love, Swearing, Angst, Rape/
      Non-con_Elements, as_in_discussion_of_rape, Anal_Sex, No_longer_a_PWP,
      totally_has_a_plot_now, Angst_and_Fluff_and_Smut, Original_Character(s),
      Time_skip/_Epilogue_included, Shinsou_is_definitely_the_best
  Series:
      Part 1 of in_the_sunlight;_ever_changing
  Collections:
      Boku_no_Hero_Academia_|_My_Hero_Academia
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-06-28 Completed: 2016-07-09 Chapters: 8/8 Words: 43298
****** coherency ******
by Ramabear_(RyMagnatar)
Summary
     It's impulsive. It's wrong. It's going to haunt Katsuki's dreams for
     weeks, months, years. It's going to hang like a guillotine blade
     above his neck, one fraying thread away from cutting him off from the
     future he'd envisioned living his whole life.
     But Izuku was desperate, hurting, and there was no one else to save
     him. Nothing else that could have been done. So Katsuki gives what
     help he can, the only way he can, for as long as he can stand to.
     He'll hold onto this moment tightly, knowing that it will break apart
     in the end.
     The things between them aren't meant to last.
Notes
     This stupid fic was GOING TO BE A ONESHOT. but due to VERY POPULAR
     OUTCRY. it became a two. and then a three. and now i've got a full
     fledged plot with a sort of resolution in mind and we're up to 8
     chapters. Eight! EIGHT. I know you're happy about it, even if it
     breaks your hearts. thank you for enjoying this road with me it has
     been incredible. your comments are fantastic. I love all of you.
***** strong as steel cables *****
On an otherwise completely normal afternoon, three strange things happened in
quick succession. The first was this: a teen aged girl, clutching tight to her
bag at her chest, her face red from crying, running around the corner and down
the street, past Katsuki. She stumbled for a moment but caught herself and kept
running. She was there and gone again too quickly for Katsuki to even call out
to her. It was almost like she was using a quirk to speed up her run.
The second was this: a man running past, headed across Katsuki’s path, with
blood on his shirt an his hand over part of his face. He staggered into a
fence, looking obviously like he needed help. Katsuki took two steps towards
the guy but when the man saw him do it, he shouted “Stay the fuck away!” and
bolted. Katsuki stared after him for a while but then shrugged and ignored it.
The third and final strangest thing was this: soft, panting noises from a
shadowed, narrow, disused path between two high fences. There was trash on the
ground and boxes and bins piled up. Katsuki stopped at the entrance.  He’d
passed this alley plenty of times. Occasionally, when he heard sounds like
this, it was some animal in pain.
Never had it ever been Izuku, sitting on his ass against the wall, tucked
between two large, broken crates, with his tie between his teeth and his hand
down his own pants.
Katsuki stared for a moment, so utterly bewildered that he couldn’t even begin
to otherwise react. What the fuck should he do, anyway? Did it really matter if
Izuku liked to fucking jack off in a deserted alley?
The tearful girl’s face and the man’s scared expression flashed in Katsuki’s
mind. They had both come from this area, maybe had even seen Izuku like this.
What kind of shit was he up to now? Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Katsuki
stalked up to the useless idiot and kicked him in the shin. “Oi, you fucking
pervert. What the hell did you do to those two? Does it-”
His tongue stopped working when Izuku looked up at him.
There wasn’t any shame in his face, or embarrassment. Hell, there wasn’t any
sanity.  Izuku’s pupils were wide; his eyes were glassy. His teeth dug into the
cloth of his tie, but Katsuki could see blood on his lip where he had bitten it
first. His hands kept moving, restless and unseen, under his pants and hidden
between his legs. Izuku’s eyes focused on him for as long as he spoke, but when
Katsuki stopped talking, they slid away and closed again.
Katsuki glanced over his shoulder. Of course there was no one there.
He dropped his bag on the ground. Crouching beside Izuku, he waved his hand in
front of his classmate’s face. “Hey, Deku, are you fucking in there right now?”
Izuku’s eyes followed the movement of his hand. He didn’t get a verbal
response.
Annoyed, Katsuki gripped the tie and pulled it from Izuku’s mouth. Immediately,
Izuku let out a pathetic whimpering sound. Katsuki tried to bring him out of
this weird haze by slapping his cheek, once, twice and then again for a third
time. Izuku blinked a lot at that third one. Some rationality seemed to seep
back into him and he whispered, “Kacchan?”
“What the fuck is going on, Deku? Are you some sort of pervert or did something
happen to you?”
Katsuki drew his hand back, and though he folded his arms over his chest, he
reserved the right to hit Izuku again. His cheek had been warm, fever hot.
Izuku’s skin was visibly damp with sweat. All Katsuki could think about was the
warning message his mother had seen on television the other night. About some
perverted with a lust quirk, preying on young women alone.
“Kacchan,” Izuku closed his eyes. He smiled, though Katsuki couldn’t imagine
there was any good reason to that. He said the nickname again, soft, barely
audible, the flush rising on his cheeks.
Again, Katsuki looked over his shoulders. Again, there was no one there.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were out in the open, though. Nor could
he just  leave  Izuku there. There was something so obviously wrong with him.
He was in no condition to defend himself, let alone get home. “Useless,”
Katsuki muttered, “You’re just fucking useless all the time, Deku.”
“K-Kacchan’s here,” Izuku mumbled. His head rolled back on his shoulders,
exposing his neck and collarbone from where his uniform had been pulled open.
“Kacchan’s watching.” His knees spread slightly; his legs trembled.
As Katsuki watched, Izuku’s hands worked faster. His legs spread open further.
His teeth dug into his lip and blood dripped down his chin.
Something inside of Katsuki snapped. He lurched forwards and the first thing he
did was grip Izuku’s jaw in one hand, “Stop biting yourself you little shit or
I’ll blow your damn jaw off.” His other hand came to rest on Izuku’s thigh,
doing nothing but hold him.
Izuku arched underneath his hands. One of his hands came up, shaking so badly
that Katsuki almost missed the smear of precum on it. He bat the hand away with
an annoyed sound, “Hands off.”
“Kacchan, it hurts,” Izuku whimpered as he obediently pulled his hands away.
“It hurts so much. Please… please…” There were tears in his eyes, and though
they weren’t clear, they weren’t quite so glazed as before.
“Fine.” Katsuki grumbled. “But if you tell anyone, I’ll kill you.”
“Hurts,” Izuku moaned. “Stop the hurt.”
Gritting his teeth, Katsuki reached his hand down into Izuku’s pants. He
immediately found the other teen’s hard cock. It throbbed against his palm,
sticky with precum and bigger than Katsuki imagined it to be- if he were ever
to admit he had thought about it in the first place. He palmed Izuku’s cock and
rubbed it with quick, almost rough strokes. Izuku sobbed as he did so, rolling
his hips and dragging his fingers uselessly against the wooden crate on either
side. Katsuki had only meant for Izuku to keep his hands to himself, but
watching the way Izuku struggled so hard to obey him brought a smug smile to
his face.
“How’s this?” Katsuki asked as he pressed the tip of his thumb to Izuku’s
dripping slit. “Fuck, Deku, I didn’t know anyone could leak this much without
having come at all.”
“Have-” Izuku heaved out. “Have already.”
“What?” Katsuki’s hand hesitated.
“Came. Twice. Hurts. Hurts so much. Kacchan- Please-” Izuku’s fingers dug into
the wood hard enough to splinter it. “Please make it stop.”
“Shit,” Katsuki hissed. He scrambled forward and pulled down Izuku’s pants.
What he found inside was a mess of cum on cloth and skin surrounding an
obviously painful erection. “What the fuck happened?”
“Quirk?” Izuku questioned. “I wanted- Tried to- Save the girl- Please. Kacchan.
Kacchan! Ah!” As Katsuki watched, Izuku arched up, his body tensing hard enough
to lift him slightly off the concrete. He came in several quick thrusts into
Kacchan’s hand. Katsuki blinked at the sight of the thick cum and the continued
hardness of Izuku’s cock.
“What the hell,” Katsuki said, more to himself than to Izuku. Again that glossy
look was back and he was panting hard. His fingers let go of the crate as his
arms sagged to the ground. Had Izuku just come the first time Katsuki saw him?
He wore the same expression now, somewhere between blissful and aching with
pain.
Looking at his cock, Katsuki wondered if there was anyway to get it to go down
or if suffering the embarrassment of going to a doctor was the only way.
He briefly thought of Izuku on the train, sitting, definitely, but no, no,
there wouldn’t be any room at this time of day. He’d have to stand, with
Katsuki. Katsuki would have to hold him up and the best way to hide his
erection would have them facing each other. Izuku was so feverishly warm,
Katsuki would feel that right up against his own body…
No. No. Going to the doctor was right out.
“Maybe you just need to come a few more times,” Katsuki said, reasoning through
his decision. There wasn’t any fucking way he was going to survive with Izuku
on the train though, god, how badly he wanted to shove him up against the doors
and fuck him, deep and hard, even if they were on a fucking packed train, with
Izuku’s face pressed against the glass, begging Katsuki’s name like-
“Kacchan, Kacchan, Kacchan please,” Izuku begged, “You said. You said..
Please..”
He held his legs open. For the last time, Katsuki checked over his shoulder.
This time, he shoved his bag out of sight of the entrance of the alley. There
was still no one there.
He’d fuck Izuku on a train later. Now it was going to be an alley. “Yeah,” he
said, “I’ve got you, Deku.”
Izuku came twice more as Katsuki fingered his ass to get him prepared. Each
time was just as hard and thick as the firsts one he’d seen. Katsuki had no
idea what that meant about the quirk but he used the cum as lubricant and hoped
it would be enough. He didn’t really want to hurt Izuku, after all. That was
why he spent so much time stretching his ass out.
That, and because the first time he came while Katsuki stroked his cock too.
The second time he came just from Katsuki’s fingers. Both times, he had reached
for Katsuki, desperately moaning out his name like they were lovers.
Katsuki tried not to think about what that thought meant. Luckily, Izuku was
plenty distracting.
“Fuck, I think that’s enough? Do you think that’s enough?” Katsuki asked, even
though Izuku hadn’t been able to say anything other than his name for the last
ten minutes. “Yeah, probably. Shit. Fuck. God. I love this, though,” he spoke
without thinking about it. He had to do a lot of this without thinking about
it. Thinking was way too hard. Staring at how his fingers just slid right into
Izuku with hardly any resistance was better. “Say, Izuku,” he asked, “Are you
ready for me to fuck you? Like, fuck, I’m so ready. Fuck. I want to fuck you so
much. Way too much. Like. All the time way too much.
Katsuki hoped that Izuku wouldn’t remember any of this. He really didn’t have
any filter on his mouth anymore. Especially not when Izuku’s mouth hung open,
panting, as inviting as his stretched asshole. He stared at Izuku’s face as he
pulled down his own pants at last, freeing his hard cock. Katsuki wanted to
fuck that mouth, too. Wanted to rub his cock against those lips, come on his
cheeks, look down and see those green eyes between his legs-
Izuku was warm, so warm, and so slick, when Katsuki slid into him. His legs
immediately hooked around Katsuki, dragging him in down to the base. Katsuki
groaned and reached forward to brace himself on the wall. “Fuck, fuck, Izuku,
god. You’re so tight still. How are you so fucking tight?”
Izuku whimpered in reply.
“C’mon,” Katsuki said into his ear, “You can hold me back now. Hold onto me
because I’m going to fuck his shitty quirk right out of you.” Even if he didn’t
want to. Even if he was terrified what would happen afterwards. Maybe he would
really have to kill Izuku when this was done. Maybe  he  should be the one to
die.
Izuku’s arms are as strong as steel cables when they wind around Katsuki. He
clings to the blond with every limb and even clenching down with his ass.
Katsuki didn’t care. He pushed and pulled until Izuku was on his back and he
could slam into him relentlessly. When Izuku’s moaning became loud enough that
Katsuki was afraid they’d be overheard, he covered his mouth with a kiss.
Izuku’s mouth was just as burning hot as the rest of his sweat slicked body.
Katsuki took full advantage of his open mouth and kissed him as deep as he
fucked and just as hard. He wanted everything from Izuku, every breath, every
sound, every clenching muscle, every scrabbling finger.
“I’d fuck you every day if I could,” Katsuki said against his lips, his words
drowned out by Izuku’s moaning. “Bend you over the desk at school and make you
come right there. Pin you against a wall in the bathroom and rub up against you
until you were begging for it. Let me fuck you more, Izuku, let me fuck you all
the time. Come over to my house and I’ll fuck you all night until you can’t
think about anything but me. I want to fuck you so much, so much, fuck, Izuku,
I love you.”
He felt Izuku cum against him, felt it in the tense of his body, so tight he
could barely thrust through it. He felt it also against his own skin, his shirt
bunched up in their movements. It was hot and splattered against him and tipped
him right over the edge.
Katsuki muffled his shout with Izuku’s shoulder. He pressed down and in,
rocking while he was in as deeply as he could be, as deeply connected to Izuku
as he had ever been, and he came. The force of it winded him, or perhaps that
was Izuku’s crushing embrace on his ribs. Either way, Katsuki noticed something
almost immediately after he came back down off his initial high.
Izuku’s cock was no longer hard where it was pressed between them.
Slowly, Katsuki pulled back, panting and gasping for breath. Everything felt
colder the moment he lifted his body off of Izuku’s.
Everything felt much harsher the moment after he pulled his cock out. Katsuki
knelt on the ground between Izuku’s legs, face in his hands, staring into the
darkness created by them. He could hear Izuku breathing, hear his own breaths.
“Fuck,” he whispered, “What the fuck was that.”
The image of Izuku- not the one in front of him- but the one in his brain, the
one on the train or the one kneeling between his legs- was still in his head.
Fainter, less urgent, but still there. Katsuki shivered, wondering if that they
would come back and he’d have to- have to-
“Fuck. I fucked up. Fuck. Shit. Shit.” Katsuki curled up tighter. “Shit.
Shit.”
“K-Kacchan?”
Katsuki froze. Tentative fingers touched the back of his hand. Izuku’s skin
wasn’t overheated, anymore.
“There was uh…” Izuku said, speaking slowly as though his mouth were dry, his
throat sore. “I saw a man harassing a girl in the alleyway and… after I helped
her get away, I guess the guy realized that I was going to be able to beat him
in a fight and uh… used his quirk on me. He said… He said it was a lust quirk.
That um, uh, I wouldn’t… It wouldn’t… I wouldn’t calm down until I … until
someone else… Until my skin came in contact with someone else’s uh, semen.”
Katsuki still couldn’t move. He could have just jacked off onto Izuku’s hand,
if he had known. He didn’t have to- Shouldn’t have-
Katsuki was aware he had impulse control issues. He knew that he didn’t think
things through. He also knew that if he had been given the choice of Izuku’s
hand or his ass, he’d make the same choice again a second time. Now that he had
admitted it, had said it out loud, Katsuki couldn’t deny the fact that his cock
jumped at the thought of Izuku on his knees begging for it. Begging fo  him.
Said cock twitched at those thoughts and Katsuki groaned.
“Kacchan?” Izuku’s voice was so soft.
Katsuki looked up, slowly, lowering his hands.
Izuku was a wreck.
Katsuki hadn’t marked him up with his mouth, thank fuck, but Izuku’s clothes
were all pulled open and splattered with come. His shirt was missing a few
buttons and his tie was covered in slobber. He still bled from his lips, which
were otherwise swollen from their kissing. The worst of it was from the hips
down, though, where he was dripping with semen like a shitty hentai video.
Katsuki took far too long tearing his eyes off of Izuku’s exposed ass and how
it dripped. Dripped with  his  come.
Izuku quickly shut his legs. Katsuki jerked his gaze away.
No,  Katsuki thought,  the worst is his expression.  Izuku looked at him with
part embarrassment and part concern. He reached out to Katsuki, as if  he  were
the one who needed comfort.
“Sorry,” he said briskly. “I didn’t- There was nothing-” That was a lie. There
was something he could have done.
Katsuki closed his eyes. He will never be able to ride the train at the same
time as Izuku ever fucking again.
“Sorry,” he said again. He shoved his shirt down and hurriedly pulled up his
pants. Had he ever apologized to Izuku? Ever?
But he had to. About this. He had just- just-
“Kacchan, wait,” Izuku’s grip is still firm as ever as he takes Katsuki by the
arm and tugs him back down when he tried to stand.
“Shitty fucking Deku,” Katsuki snapped, “Don’t you understand what the fuck
just happened? You were under the influence of a fucking lust quirk and I
fucked you! I  raped  you!” He shoved at Izuku’s arm, but he wouldn’t let go.
Wouldn’t let fucking go! Didn’t shitty fucking Izuku understand what kind of
danger he was in? “Get off of me! Just get the fuck off of me!”
“Kacchan-”
“Let  go!”  Katsuki brought his other hand down, palm glowing, sparking, but
Izuku caught his wrist. Katsuki struggled avidly. “If you don’t let me go it
could fucking happen again!” There was a pleading to his tone, but Katsuki
couldn’t help it. He had to get the fuck  away.  Izuku looked like he’d been
fucked a dozen times but Katsuki knew it was only the once, only him, and god,
fuck, he wanted so badly to do it again- this time with Izuku coherent the
whole time- this time with him talking and laughing and enjoying it, wanting
it-
“I don’t think I can walk home,” Izuku said, looking up at him with earnest
eyes. “My legs are shaking so much even though I’m just sitting here and I
still feel… weird… I mean… Please, Kacchan, can you help me home?”
The smoke of his quirk smoldered out. Katsuki felt himself wilt for a moment,
just a brief moment, before he resisted again. That moment made Izuku relax his
grip, though, so he was able to yank free and step back. Breathing heavily,
Katsuki snapped, “Fine. I- Fine. Fuck it. I’ll do that. Just. Fuck. Get fucking
dressed first.” He turned away, rubbing his face with his hand.
“Okay,” Izuku said quietly. Katsuki didn’t watch as he cleaned up as best as he
could and pulled his clothes back on. He resolutely stared at his book bag
until Izuku tugged on his arm again.
He still looked like a mess, and he swayed on his feet like a drunk, but at
least Izuku was no longer exposed. Katsuki grunted, scooped up his bag, Izuku’s
bag and took the other teen by the arm. “C’mon, hurry up. We’re seriously late
in getting home now.” He led him away, out of the alley and back onto the
street.
Neither one of them talked the whole way home, though it turned out that Izuku
really did need help walking. He kept stumbling, not quite lifting his feet off
the ground, like he was walking around asleep. Katsuki half dragged, half
carried him by the end of it.
They reached Izuku’s house first and Katsuki held him up as Izuku unlocked the
door and nudged it open. He managed to get inside on his own, as Katsuki
resolutely refused to go past the entrance. “Can you handle it from here?” He
asked, already taking a step away. He had to go home and get control of
himself. Which really meant Katsuki wanted to shower and go the hell to sleep
so he could stop thinking about the way Izuku had felt, both during the sex and
the way they had walked so close together.
“Yeah, um, I think so,” Izuku said, leaning against the wall. “Um. Kacchan?”
“What the fuck is it now?”
“Thanks-”
“Don’t.” Katsuki snarled, reaching for the door. He would slam it in his own
face if Izuku was too fucking dumb to. “Don’t you fucking thank me for that.”
“But Kacchan!”
“No.” Katsuki said. “Goodbye!”
“But I feel the same way!” Izuku said, seconds before Katsuki shut the door. He
stared at it for a long minute, still holding the handle, while his brain tried
to compute Izuku’s dumb exclamation.
Finally, he shoved open the door again. “What the fuck are you talking about,
you stupid fucking-” Katsuki stopped. Izuku was still against the wall, but now
he sat on the floor; his arms wrapped around his head and with his face hidden.
“Deku,” Katsuki said, “What are you doing there? Go get fucking cleaned up.
You’re still fucking filthy, aren’t you?”
“Too tired,” Izuku said, “I’m gonna just sit here for a minute.”
Katsuki bit his lip. He needed to go. Needed to get the fuck out of there.
“Fine. Fuck you. I’m going home.”
Izuku limply waved a hand at him, but said nothing.
Katsuki stood there, staring.
Slowly, Izuku lifted his head. He did look exhausted. “Go home. You’ve done
enough, haven’t you?”
Jerking back, Katsuki snapped, “Fuck you. See if I ever help your sorry ass
again.”
“Oh please,” Izuku muttered, “It’s only this sorry because you were thinking
with your dick.” He began to push himself back up to his feet.
“I did everything I fucking could to-”
“Make it painless, yeah, I know. I was there too.” Izuku frowned at him. “I was
mostly coherent, you know. The quirk just made it seem like I wasn’t.”
“What?”
“Damn it, Kacchan, what the hell do you want me to say?” Izuku asked. “You get
mad when I thank you. You try to run away when I want you here. So I push you
back and that makes you stay and argue? If I get mad, you’ll get mad. If I
forgive you, you’ll just be mad anyway. I don’t have the energy to fight you. I
just want to bathe and go to sleep and at this point I’ll be lucky if I don’t
fall asleep in the bath and drown.” He ran his hand down his face, turning away
and muttering to himself.
“Just stop talking,” Katsuki said, “Whenever you say fucking anything it makes
everything ten times worse than it is.” He entered and shut the door behind
himself. “You’re not going to talk. I’m going to help you clean up. And then
we’re both going to go our separate ways and pretend none of this shit
happened.”
Izuku snorted.
Katsuki shoved at his shoulder. “I mean it. You start talking shit and I’m
gone.”
Izuku narrowed his eyes at Katsuki but nodded.
The trip to the bathroom was quick. Katsuki bit his tongue as he started the
water filling up. Izuku stripped down in his bedroom, thankfully, but when he
walked naked into the bathroom, Katsuki’s eyes immediately went to the crust of
white that had dried on his skin and groin. He had removed his jacket, tie and
had rolled up his sleeves, but it still felt incredibly odd to be dressed while
Izuku was naked.
He averted his eyes as Izuku got into the water. It looked like he melted as
soon as he sat in it, his shoulders sagging and his head resting against the
edge. Izuku let out a soft moan, eyes closing. Katsuki rolled his eyes. It was
just a bath of hot water. He didn’t need to act up his relief.
Katsuki sat on a stool nearby, half turned away and far enough that he couldn’t
see past Izuku’s shoulders in the water. He wanted to see more, absolutely
wanted to keep staring and then move past that onto touching, but didn’t dare
let himself. Sitting on his hands instead, Katsuki stared at the wall. Was he
supposed to help Izuku wash himself? If so, his shirt was definitely going to
get wet. Should he just sit there and make sure Izuku didn’t drown? Why was he
even fucking there in the first place?
“... I feel the same way.”
“I was mostly coherent….”
“...Izuku, I love you.”
“Shit.” He whispered. “What the fuck.” Katsuki kept feeling bewildered, and,
worse than that, like he had purposely fucked himself over. As if some version
of himself had gone back in time and shoved at him to get him to fuck up this
masterfully. Hell, he’d barely realized his own fucked up feelings for Izuku a
few weeks ago and that had caused all sorts of stumbling and tongue twisted
shouting. He’d been trying to avoid Izuku, that was why he was walking home
after him, and then … this.
And Izuku knew.
“I was kidding,” he said abruptly, still not looking at Izuku. “I didn’t mean
any of that shit I said to you.” Katsuki pulled at his shirt collar nervously.
“It was just… that’s the kind of shit you say when you’re doing something like
that.”
Izuku didn’t reply. He glanced over to see Izuku looking down and away. He
wasn’t saying anything and though Katsuki had told him not to, or else he would
leave, he wished Izuku would. He wanted to leave. He couldn’t stay there. If he
stayed there…
“Are you hungry?” Katsuki asked. He could make something. He could leave the
fucking bathroom, at least, even if he had somehow gotten himself into tending
Izuku like he was a little kid and not a seventeen year old asshole.
Izuku nodded. Katsuki nearly jumped to his feet. “Don’t fall asleep and drown,”
he commanded, “I can’t fucking save you from that kind of stupidity, asshole.”
Then he hurried out of the bathroom before he could even see Izuku’s response.


 
The kitchen was, strangely, just as Katsuki remembered it from being a kid. He
still had to rummage around to find everything, but there were the same
pictures on the fridge and the same hand towels hanging up. “What am I doing,”
he muttered to himself as he searched through the fridge for something easy to
make. “What the  fuck  am I doing.”
The simplest thing was definitely some miso soup. Katsuki didn’t care for it
all that much, but it was easy and that’s what he needed right now.
It was almost done when Katsuki heard the front door open. He froze, slowly set
down the bowl he’d picked up and stepped back from the stove. “Izuku?” Called
 Inko from the door. “Honey?” Softer, he heard her say, “Two pairs of shoes,
did he bring someone home? Oh gosh, I can smell soup… He must be hungry if he’s
cooking already!”
Katsuki frantically looked around but there was nowhere to hide and nothing he
could do. He stood his ground, staring at the doorway.
Inko stopped and stared at him when she reached the kitchen. “...Katsuki?” She
whispered, “Why are you… What happened to…” Then her surprise hardened and she
made a tight fist. “Explain why you are here, Katsuki. Where’s Izuku? What did
you do to him now?”
Katsuki flinched hard. He looked down and away. “There was a thing after
school. Someone with a quirk and Deku-”
“Don’t,” She said, her voice low and hard. “Don’t call him that. I don’t care
if he thinks it’s okay or if the meaning has changed. I know why you called him
that. Don’t you call my little boy that hateful name.”
So caught off guard by her tone, her actual anger, Katsuki’s fragile grip on
his own emotions snaps. He sneers at her, saying, “It fit him then and it fits
him even better now. He’s fucking  useless  without help. I don’t care if he
suddenly developed that quirk or if it was fucking given to him. What matters
is that he was Deku,  is  Deku, and will  never  not be a worthless Deku.”
“Get out,” Inko said, eyes filling with tears, despite her glare. “Get out of
my house.”
Katsuki grits his teeth. He reaches to turn off the stove with an angry jerk of
his hand. “Fine. Fucking fine. I do all this shit to help your fucking kid and-
” He turned back just in time for Inko to slap him across the face.
He gaped at her, hand reaching up to touch his cheek.
Inko shook her finger at him. She was flushed in her anger, and with the tears
she looked so much like Izuku that Katsuki couldn’t catch his breath. “You beat
my son black and blue for ten years, Bakugou Katsuki. Don’t think that I never
saw his bruises, his cuts, his burn marks. I bandaged up my son for ten years
while the person he admired as much as All Might continued to hurt him, day
after day.”
She stepped back, brushing her tears away with the back of her hand, “You’re
half the reason I wanted to pull him out of Yuuei, you know. I knew that you’d
only hurt him more if you kept going to school with him. And I was right.  I
was right.  You still hurt him. You still don’t care about him.”
Inko let out a terrible little sob that ripped at Katsuki’s heart, as she
finished with the words, “And he still admires you. I don’t understand. I don’t
understand how he can forgive you after all you’ve done to him…”
“I was mostly coherent….”
“...Izuku, I love you.”
“... I feel the same way.”
Katsuki can’t speak, can’t think, as he stumbles past Inko and out of the
kitchen. He barely stops long enough to grab his bag and his shoes before he’s
outside.
He’s putting on his shoes as he’s rushing away from the Midoriya household. His
breath hurts like each one is going to burst his lungs. His cheek barely stings
in comparison to the way his heart hurts in his chest.
It takes him another half hour to get home because he has to stop walking and
crouch down with his head between his knees to get his breath and stop himself
from crying. When he finally gets home, his mother’s abrasiveness helps keep
him calm, though it’s hard to respond appropriately.
He knows she sees right through him when she waves him off the dishes and,
later, when he’s in his room alone, she comes along with a little container of
ice cream and ruffles his hair. It makes him feel like he’s eight again but
he’d rather be eight than seventeen, if only for today.
 
===============================================================================
 
Izuku wakes to tepid water and his mother’s frantic shaking. He assures her
he’s fine, proves it by showing he has no injuries anywhere, and eats the
dinner she made. There’s a container of miso soup she tells him not to even
think about touching. When he, casually he thinks, brings up Katsuki (who he
definitely remembers being there), his mother says he left when she got there.
He tries not to show disappointment at that- or uneasiness, because he really,
really  needed to talk to Katsuki about the whole thing. But Inko sees right
through him. She served his favorite dinner, after all, and afterwards watches
a movie with him even though he really should be studying.
Inko fusses over him, asking again if he’s all right before he goes to bed. He
hugs her tightly, tells her he’s more than all right, and goes to lie down.
The ceiling above his bed is as familiar to Izuku as the sight of his kitchen
or the All Might posters on the wall. He stares at it again, for far too long
that night, as he thinks of what it meant. What all of it meant. What Katsuki
said, did and then afterwards, that he kept helping, kept coming back. Only to
vanish as soon as Izuku could rely on someone else.
He goes to sleep wondering what Katsuki would have made him to eat and if it
would have been good.
***** flexible as whipcord *****
Chapter Summary
     It's like a train wreck. You just can't look away, even as you wince
     in sympathy.
Chapter Notes
     awesomely, chapter 96 introduced us to katsuki's parents. not as
     awesomely, they didn't get any fukkin names. when/if we get names, i
     might come back and fix these ones, but for now i've called in the
     talents of the most amazing beta in the world, katten to provide me
     with them.
     anyway, here's that continuation you all asked for. yes. there will
     be a third chapter. no. it probably wont come out today. i'm trying
     to finish another chapter for another fic. i rlly didnt intend to
     even write this beast. but, like Force of Nature, here it is,
     demanding to be written. Enjoy.
“Mooom?” Izuku called from the kitchen, “Can I eat this or not?” He pulled the
plastic container from the fridge and peered into it. It was the miso soup from
the night before and he was hungry. He needed a snack before he started his
homework and the soup was the perfect amount.
“What is it, honey?” Inko called back from the laundry room. “Is it that rice
and pork from yesterday?”
“Nah,” he said, “It’s the soup.” He set it on the counter and popped it open.
It smelled good. Inko hadn’t wanted him to eat it yesterday so he thought it
had gone bad, but it was still in the fridge this morning. “I’ll just heat it
up okay?”
“No!” Inko shouted. Izuku jumped. His mother was suddenly in the kitchen,
rushing towards him. She held his uniform jacket and tie over her arm and a
surprisingly angry expression on her face. “Don’t you dare eat that, Izuku.”
She took the lid from him and snapped it shut. “This is not for you.”
“Mom,” Izuku said, smiling placatingly, “It’s fine. I was just looking for
something quick. If you have plans for this soup then I’ll have something
else.”
“I don’t have any sort of plans for it,” Inko huffed as she picked it up. To
his surprise, she didn’t go to put it in the fridge but rummaged under the sink
for a plastic bag.
“Are you sure?” He asked as she bagged it up, “Because it looks like you do.”
“Izuku,” Inko said, putting a hand on her hip, “No one in this house is going
to eat this soup.”
“Oh. Did you make that for Tanaka-san next door?” He asked, moving around her
to resume his searching of the fridge. “I thought he’d finally gotten over his
flu.”
“I  did not  make this,” Inko said with a sniff. Izuku looked up to see her
folding up the Yuuei jacket and tie and place them in the bag along with the
container. He looked up from that to her face. She was frowning intensely, an
unusual expression on his mother’s face. However, he was her son and knew her
well. That was the way she looked when she thought about Katsuki. Coupling that
with what she’d just said and the fact that she wouldn’t be putting his jacket
and tie in a bag with food as carelessly as that…
“Mom?” He asked, “Did Kacchan make that soup?” He closed the fridge door. “Is
that his jacket and tie?” Inko looked away from him; her quick movements belied
her embarrassment as she finished packing all three things into the bag and
tying it shut. “Mom, you said he left after you got here yesterday…”
“And he did,” she nodded, “I didn’t lie to you. He left after I got here.”
“Without his jacket?” Izuku said. “Where did you find it? Wait. In the
bathroom, right?” He suddenly flushed, remembering that she’d been the one to
wake him up. All that had mattered at the time was calming her down, as she’d
been crying already when he woke. He hadn’t thought about the fact that he’d
come home and immediately stripped down. His clothes had been the last thing on
his mind. “Mom-”
Stubbornly, Inko turned away from him. There was a faint trembling to her
shoulders. “He’s done so much to you, Izuku,” she whispered, “And now he’s… I
can’t forgive this. I won’t. I’m going to take this to his mother and have a
word with her. I should have spoken to her ages ago. I don’t care how much you
admire him, son, there comes a point where you have to stop forgiving someone.”
“Mom, wait,” Izuku said. He rushed around her, stopping her from leaving the
kitchen by putting his hands up. “Wait, you have to listen to me. I can explain
everything.”
“I’ve heard it all before, Izuku.” Inko said firmly, despite the shining of
tears in her eyes. “When you were eight and it was scratched knees and palms,
it was okay because Katsuki still played with you, he was just a little rough.
When you were ten and getting black eyes it wasn’t a problem because Katsuki
didn’t know his own strength so he pushed too hard. When you were thirteen and
he started telling you to kill yourself,” she took a deep breath to even out
the slight tremble her voice started to give, “you claimed he didn’t really
mean it, didn’t really want you to die. Now that he’s, he’s… Izuku, I don’t
care how much you admire him or think there’s any good in him. There’s no way
that  that  happened unless he forced you into it. Not with the way I found
your clothes.”
“Mom-”
“No!” She shouted. “I have to sew on three buttons and get blood out of your
Yuuei shirt. Again! I don’t want to keep sewing buttons and getting rid of
bloodstains and bandaging you up, Izuku! Being a hero is dangerous enough. You
don’t need that- that  bastard boy  forcing you to- to-!” Inko choked on the
words. She was shaking now, the bag rattling in her hands. Tears streamed down
her cheeks. “Baby, how can you forgive him for this too? Can’t you see what a
monster he is to you?”
“Mom,” Izuku gently took the bag out of her hands and set it aside. He pulled
her into a tight hug. Inko clung to him, sobbing into his shoulder. “It’s
okay…”
“No it’s not!” She cried. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly.
“You can protect yourself against every villain in the world but you still let
that boy hurt you over and over. I’ve been a terrible mother all these years,
letting this bullying continue to happen. I should have tried harder to protect
you instead of letting you try and protect me from how awful he’s become.”
“Listen to me for a second, please,” Izuku said, pulling back enough to look
her in the face. He was taller than her now, though if that was partially
because of One For All or because of his genetics, Izuku would never be quite
sure. “Yesterday I got hit with a quirk that I couldn’t recover from alone.
Kacchan helped me-”
“Izuku-”
“No.” He frowned at her,  “Listen.  You remember the news report about the man
with a lust quirk? Well he’s real, okay? I stopped him from hurting someone but
he caught me off guard. Kacchan helped me get over that.” He could feel his
cheeks heating up. It was embarrassing enough to say all this but it was even
worse that he had to look her in the eye as he did. He knew she wouldn’t take
him seriously otherwise, though, so he pushed on. There would be plenty of time
to freak out  later.  This was too important to misunderstand. “He really did
what he did to  help  me. Then he walked me home and helped me get cleaned up.
He offered to make food, which I’m assuming is the miso soup there. I don’t
know what happened between you two, but Kacchan did nothing to me yesterday
except help me.”
“No,” she whispered. “No. I don’t believe it. I refuse to believe it. It’s all
those years of his tormenting you, Izuku. You don’t see him the way that he is.
You still look up to him like you did when you were little. He still thinks of
you as worthless and nothing compared to him. You can’t build a relationship on
that kind of foundation!”
“It isn’t a relationship,” Izuku said. The words hurt coming out but they were
true. It didn’t seem to matter to Katsuki that Izuku returned his feelings. He
might be able to overcome the years of bullying and competition between them,
but it was clear the blond dragged that history around with him still. Izuku
simply didn’t have the time or energy to dwell on that. He wouldn’t have gotten
as far as he had if he’d given in to those hateful words. “He helped me once.
He… Mom, even he thought it was wrong. You should have seen the way he looked
after. I’ve never seen anyone hate themselves so much.”
Inko pulled out of his embrace, shaking her head. “I don’t want to hear that.”
“It’s the truth,” Izuku insisted. “He did it to help me and afterwards just… He
almost fell apart with guilt.”
“That boy has never regretted treating you like garbage in his whole life,”
Inko countered.
“He has so,” Izuku said.
“Is that something he’s said to you or just something you believe about him?”
Inko asked. “You can’t just interpret his behavior however you want, Izuku.
There comes a point where you have to see the reality. Katsuki hates you. He’s
hated you ever since you were diagnosed as quirkless. It’s only gotten worse
now that you have a quirk because he hates you for being better than him. And
you are better than him. You’re kinder and smarter and more heroic and
honorable than he ever has been or ever will be.” She gestured to all of
Izuku’s body, “You were chosen by All Might, Izuku. Chosen by All Might himself
to be his successor! Katsuki is better suited to villainy than heroics!”
Izuku shook his head sharply. His hands tightened to fists at his sides. It was
one thing to argue against people who didn’t know Katsuki at all, who called
him a villain because of his attitude and his quirk and his vicious, vulgar
tongue. It was another for his mother to do it. How many things had he told her
about Katsuki over the years? How could she not see how desperately Katsuki
wanted to be a hero? He and Izuku were the same in that. Half the time Izuku
wished they could both be the top hero- they both wanted it, both deserved it,
both could earn it. He would be more than happy to share that position with
Katsuki if he could.
“He’s not a villain. He’ll never be a villain. He’s a hero, Mom. He’s  my
hero.” He thumped his palm to his chest. “When no one else is there to save me,
Kacchan is there. You don’t know how many times he’s saved me against villains
or in school events.”
“But I know how many scars you carry because of him!” She cried, fresh tears on
he cheeks. “All the ones you got from your quirk will never amount to the same
number! You got used to using your quirk, Izuku, but you never got used to
Katsuki’s violence! He’s been scarring you since you were children. There’s
nothing in him but hatred for you!”
“That’s not true!” Izuku said. Why couldn’t she see? Why couldn’t she
understand? “Kacchan loves me, Mom. He said so. He  loves  me!”
Inko’s shock wipes away the anger from her face; she blanches white as though
suddenly gripped with terror. “...what?” she whispered, “What did you say?”
Izuku swallows the knot in his throat. It feels like his stomach has dropped
along with the temperature of the room. His mother stares at him as if she’s
never seen him before in her life. “H-he loves me,” he said quietly. “And I- I
feel the same way. About him.”
She makes a strange strangled noise; her hands rise to cover her mouth,
pressing tight over each other. Izuku fidgets in place and then reaches out to
her with one hand. “Mom?”
“No,” she said, her voice muffled. “No. No.”
Izuku is paralyzed by conflicting emotions. While it feels like a weight has
lifted with his admission, like the words have slid from an unbearable burden
to a foundation of his existence, his mother’s display of abject fear keeps him
from really feeling the pleasure of admitting that truth. He loves Katsuki.
Katsuki has said he loves Izuku.
His mother is obviously horrified by this.
She stumbles over to him. Her hands flutter as she pats his cheeks, feeling his
temperature on his cheek, his forehead. “Is it the result of a quirk?” She
asked, “I’ve heard of things like this, a cupid quirk that makes you
temporarily infatuated with someone. Usually the first person you see- Is that
what happened to you yesterday?”
“Mom, no. I’ve been feeling this way for a long time.” To tell the truth, Izuku
couldn’t quite place the point where his admiration and desire for friendship
with Katsuki had become something else, something more. Had it been the end of
their first year of Yuuei? The second sport festival when their match against
each other had been like an intense but viciously enjoyable sparring match
instead of a pseudo-fight-to-the-death? Had it been those times he’d caught
sight of Katsuki napping in the study period of class, chin in his palm, at
peace in one of those rare moments of silence? Had it been when Katsuki’s
shoulder checks were accompanied with a smirk and a taunt, not a sneer and an
insult?
When they had gone from bully and victim to rivals and almost-comrades-in-arms,
had that been when Izuku’s need for Katsuki’s attention spiraled into something
intimate and serious?
Inko sobbed afresh, clinging to his shirt front. “Baby, honey, Izu-kun, no. No.
Anyone but him. He’ll only hurt you and be cruel to you. If he said he loved
you, I’m sure he doesn’t really mean it. Please, listen to me.  Please.  That
boy will never be good for you.”
“I love him,” Izuku insisted. “I think I’ve loved him for… for all my life
maybe. But I couldn’t see it until now. He didn’t make it easy to see until
now.”
She searched his face with her eyes. Whatever she found in his serious
expression made her shake her head again. She pulled back, covering her face
with her hands. Izuku tried to comfort her by rubbing her shoulder, by stepping
close, but she didn’t react. “Mom, it’s okay.” He whispered, trying to calm her
down. “I promise. It’ll be okay.”
“No it won’t,” she said. “This is worse than you running off to be a hero. You
can at least avoid trouble that way. If you go after Katsuki, you’ll only get
burned and broken. He’s going to hurt you, Izuku. He’ll hurt you so badly if
you let yourself love him.”
Izuku looked at her sadly, biting his lip to keep from speaking. Honestly, him
loving Katsuki probably wasn’t the problem. Nor would Katsuki loving him- Izuku
had been on the receiving end of that already. He’d been nearly out of his
mind, wouldn’t have been able to fight against Katsuki whether or not he’d
decided to make the experience yesterday pleasant for Izuku, but that hadn’t
mattered. Katsuki had been gentle, in his own way. Patient when he didn’t need
to be. Thorough in his preparation so Izuku was hurt as little as possible.
The thought of that, of Katsuki’s passionate words, his firm grip, and the
devouring look in his eyes, made Izuku’s heart race. No. The trouble between
them wouldn’t be if he loved Katsuki and Katsuki loved him. The trouble would
be if he loved Katsuki and Katsuki denied loving him.
The trouble would be from outside, from people like his mother, or his friends,
who would object to Katsuki loving Izuku, object to them being together. People
who would put pressure on them, forcing their expectations on Katsuki when he’d
always balked against doing exactly as he was instructed.
Katsuki had always struck out on his own path, his own way. Izuku, at first,
had always followed. Now that he could walk beside Katsuki, now that he really
wanted to, no one would expect their lives to run parallel to each other. No
one but Izuku, anyway.
Taking a deep breath, Izuku let it out slowly. He needed to talk to Katsuki. He
turned to the bag and opened it up. Taking out the container of soup, he said,
“I’ll eat this later. I have an errand to go run.”
“Errand?” Inko said, voice wobbling. Her eyes were already red-rimmed and
swollen from her crying as she looked up from her hands to him. She saw what he
was holding and stpped forward. Izuku cradled the bag tightly against his
chest.
“I’m going to take this to Kacchan and I’m going to talk to him.”
“Izuku, no, please.”
“Whether or not something comes out of how I feel for him,” he said, “I need to
talk to him. I can’t just let what happened yesterday go unchecked. This is the
best time, Mom, because it’s the weekend and we can figure it out before school
on Monday.” He tucked the bag under his arm as he carried the container of soup
over to the fridge. He put it back in, smiling faintly. He’d wondered if
Katsuki had made him anything. He was excited to eat it. Hopefully it wouldn’t
be the only meal Katsuki would ever make him.
“Don’t worry Mom, everything will be fine. I’ll be back home soon.” He gave his
mom a quick one-armed hug as he passed her by. Inko said nothing, but her tears
were easing off. He heard her sit down in a chair at the table as he left the
kitchen. It ached to see her cry like that but at the same time his chest felt
light. Eagerly, he put on his shoes and double checked that he had his phone
with him. It wasn’t far from Katsuki’s place, but anything could happen when he
got there.
 
===============================================================================
 
“You know, this is super unlike you,” Eijirou said as he walked at Katsuki’s
side. He had his hands tucked behind his head and he grinned like an idiot.
“Not that I’m complaining, dude, but it’s weird.”
“Yeah,” Denki added from Eijirou’s other side. “I don’t think I’ve seen you
outside of class except for training activities and school trips in months,
Katsuki.”
Katsuki shrugged an irritated shoulder at them both. He had his hands jammed in
his pockets and a scowl on his lips. “It sure sounds like you’re fucking
complaining, dumbass.”
“I swear I’m not! It’s cool to hang with a bro on the weekend, you know? My
parents keep saying once I’m a grown ass adult I won’t get to do this kind of
shit so I better enjoy it while it lasts.” Eijirou said. “Which is really going
to suck, you know? What if growing up isn’t all the sweet freedom we think it
is?”
“Not this again,” Denki whined, “Eiji, being an adult is the best. They can
live where they want, eat what they want when they want to eat it, can buy
anything without restrictions,” he held up a finger with each listed activity,
“Just imagine it! Living with a girlfriend, eating pizza and ice cream for
dinner and buying the new gaming console without having to ask your parents for
cash. You can even stay up all night and play!”
“Man, I really doubt a girlfriend is going to tolerate your ass melding with
the couch as you play videogames twenty four seven,” Eijirou laughed,
shouldering Denki teasingly. “Besides, you’ll have to work as a hero, right?
You’ll have to get proper sleep and keep a decent training regimen if you want
to be top form.” He grinned to Katsuki, clearly attempting to keep him as a
participant in the conversation. “Hey, we could do a bachelor pad set up after
high school. That’d certainly keep costs down and make chores easier.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes but didn’t speak. He didn’t exactly regret coming out
with Eijirou and Denki, but couldn’t quite get his head out of the mess it had
landed in yesterday.
“Ugh,” Denki groaned. “You are the most boring teenager in the world. Living
with you would be like living with my dad. Where did you even come up with that
idea.” He ran his hand absently over a railing as they walked up some steps
together. Katsuki blinked against the sunlight outside of the train station but
kept pace with the other two.
“What? No way! It’d be great!” Eijirou insisted, “I overheard the girls talking
about it in class the other day. Some of them are thinking about it too, since
none of them are dating anyone seriously. I think it was Uraraka who said that
she really wanted to spend a few years without school and working before she
even started seeing anyone like that. She said a new heroine just doesn’t have
time for any old boyfriend these days.”
“You’re kidding me,” Denki said, “She really said that? I thought all girls
could think about were boys and romance.”
Eijirou elbowed him in the side, “Some girls think about other girls too, you
know. I think Jirou is like that.”
“Oh right,” Denki said, “She totally is. I think she’s seeing another girl from
Class B. The one who can grow and shrink? Kota or something?”
“Kodai,” Eijirou corrected. “And really? I didn’t know that.”
“Can we fucking talk about something else?” Katsuki snapped suddenly. His
shoulders were hunched and his expression twisted up in displeasure. His hands
were fists in his pockets. Every word they spoke about their classmates dating
only made green eyes flash before his eyes.
“You’re not even contributing to the conversation,” Denki said.
“Dude,” Eijirou asked, “Does it really bother you? I mean, they’re two girls
dating. So what? It’s not any different than a boy and a girl.”
“Fuck you,” Katsuki snarled. “It’s not about that at all. I couldn’t give a
shit if Jacks wants to fuck a boy or a girl or both at once. I just don’t want
to hear about any fucker’s love life. The whole bullshit makes me sick.” He got
three steps before he realized the other two had stopped. Turning, he narrowed
his eyes at them, “What?”
Eijirou and Denki exchanged a look. Denki shook his head slightly and Eijirou
sighed, “Fine. I’ll bite. Do you want to explain why it makes you sick or is
this just going to be another one of those things you can’t stand without any
reason? Like, is it relationships in general or gossiping about them? What is
it, man? What changed? You weren’t twitchy about this shit like, two weeks ago
when we were talking about that weird shipping chart that went around class.”
“Does it matter?” Katsuki said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I mean, we’ll stop talking about it, that’s not a problem. But I’m just
worried about you. Your list of shit we don’t talk about usually has to do with
Midoriya.” Eijirou said, flapping his hand as he spoke. “Which I don’t care
about. It’s not like you have much to say about him that’s really all that
different from first year.”
Katsuki blinked. Was that true? Did he really have some sort of Midoriya taboo
with his own friends? He glanced to Denki, who shrugged and added, “We get it,
you hate Midoriya. I’m just glad you don’t rant about him, or fuck I don’t
know, get after him like you used to. You’ve totally mellowed out these last
few years.” He grinned and gave a thumbs up, “But I know that’s totally because
of Eiji and I.”
“Hell yeah,” Eijirou grinned. “Even a hardass like you has no choice but to
mellow out a little with two laidback guys like us as friends!”
Suddenly Katsuki wondered,  would they still want to be my friends if they knew
what I did to Deku yesterday?  He bit the inside of his cheek, abruptly turning
away. The  whole point  of leaving the house was to stop thinking about Izuku
and his body and his eyes and his words and his- Katsuki cursed under his
breath and rubbed his hand hard over his eyes. “Fuck. Fuck it. What am I even
doing?”
“Katsuki,” Eijirou asked, stepping up to his side. He nudged his shoulder with
a fist, “You are cool, right man? There’s nothing going down with you right
now, is there?” His expression was earnest concern. Katsuki recognized it
easily. Izuku had looked at him like that yesterday after he had-
“Fine,” he lied, “I’m fine.” He shoved Eijirou back. “C’mon, shouldn’t we
hurry? Isn’t that shitty game you want to get super fucking popular or
something? It could be sold out by the time we get there if we stand around
like a bunch of dumbasses.”
“Shit!” Denki shouted, rushing forward, “You’re right! Come on. We gotta
hurry!”
Eijirou rolled his eyes but trotted to catch up. He picked up the conversation
again with Denki, but this time they talked about they game they were out
buying. Katsuki lingered behind for a moment, feeling uneasy and doing his best
to shove past that feeling. Determined to act as normal as he could, he caught
up to his friends and fell into step beside Eijirou. The whole way to the
store, neither one of them talked about anyone’s relationships and Katsuki was,
privately, extremely grateful.
The less he could think about Izuku, the better off he would be.
 
===============================================================================
 
“Oh, I’m sorry Izuku,” Tetsuma said as he met Izuku at the door of the Bakugou
residence. “Katsuki isn’t in right now, actually.”
“Who’s at the door, hon?” Called Haruka from deeper in the house.
Tetsuma turned and said, “It’s Izuku!”
There were footsteps and suddenly the door opened further to reveal Katsuki’s
mother. She propped one fist on her hip and looked Izuku over. “Hey kid. I
haven’t seen you around lately. What’s up?”
“Um,” Izuku nervously fumbled out the bag. “I just came to return this to
Kacchan, and um, talk to him. But since he’s not here. I’ll just… go then.” He
held out the bag, bowing slightly. Haruka took it and opened it. Her brows rose
when she did.
“I was wondering where he lost this yesterday,” she said as she tucked the bag
into the crook of her arm. “Why don’t you come in and regale us with the story,
Izuku? Katsuki didn’t say a damn word about it. Just sulked all through dinner
like a brat. You two didn’t get in a fight, did you?”
“U-uh, no,” Izuku mumbled. “He actually… Really saved me. Um. There was this
whole situation with-”
“Bup-bup-bup,” Haruka cut him off with a waving hand. “I said come  in  and
tell us the story.” Tetsuma was already backing off, smiling as Haruka gestured
for Izuku to enter. Izuku swallowed nervously and stepped in.
“Pardon the intrusion,” he said automatically as he shucked off his shoes.
“Do you want anything to drink? To eat? We have some snacks-”
“No thank you,” Izuku replied, his fingers hooked together behind himself. He
couldn’t help but look around in interest. A lot had changed since the last
time he’d been in Katsuki’s house. They had gotten new furniture that looked
really nice and there were paintings on the wall of the mountains. There was
the one he remembered from when he was little, with a golden sunrise over a
white capped mountain and a crystal blue-green lake. He smiled faintly at it,
oddly relaxed by the small spot of familiarity he’d found.
Taking an offered seat on the couch, Izuku tucked his hands between his knees.
“It really has been a long time since you were here,” Haruka said. “Honestly, I
thought for sure that Katsuki would bring you around sooner than this. I’m
surprised you came here on your own!” She laughed brightly and pat the bag that
she’d put beside her on the couch. “Although I suppose if you were just here to
drop this off, you probably didn’t expect to get invited in, did you?”
 Her husband had wandered off, though not far. He sat in a chair near the
corner of the room where there was a lamp giving off good light. Tetsuma
balanced a folded up newspaper on his knee as he worked on the crossword in
silence.
“Well I only meant to stop by for a second,” Izuku admitted. “I didn’t think
Kacchan would really want to see me, um, even though I was kind of hoping to
talk to him.”
“He’ll be back later this afternoon, so you’ll have to swing by again if you
want to catch him today.” Haruka said with a little shrug, “He met up with a
couple of friends to go to the game store.”
“Oh,” Izuku said, glancing down at his hands. He rubbed absently at the scar on
his right hand, trying not to feel so anxious. Haruka had the same kind of
intensity about her as Katsuki did, except, of course, she had a more temperate
side to her. Was she what Katsuki would grow into? Loud and brash but openly
affectionate too? He hadn’t missed the kind way she spoke to her husband, the
smile she’d given him as they’d passed on their way back into the house. It was
more than he ever saw his own mother and father do.
“So…” Haruka led the conversation with obvious curiosity, “What did happen
yesterday? It must have been a pretty big deal between you two for Katsuki to
lose his jacket  and  tie.” She gave a quick, smug little smile.
Izuku flushed and cleared his throat, “Well, uh. I got in a bit of a bind when
I came across this guy harassing a girl yesterday. He, ah, turned a quirk on me
that um…” Izuku swallowed and, despite the rising flush on his cheeks, he
churned out a semi-plausible story. At least he hoped it was. “It kind of made
me, uh, have this reaction that wouldn’t go away on its own. It stopped me from
being able to chase him down. In fact I couldn’t really, um, walk or go
anywhere on my own.
“But then Kacchan showed up. You see he was walking the same way home and he
found me and… Well you see the thing that had to be done was I had to be uh…”
Oh god was he really going to say this in front of Katsuki’s mother? Was he
really doing this? Katsuki was going to flat out murder him, Izuku was sure. “I
had to be kissed.” Izuku laughed nervously, “And he, he did that and the quirk
stopped. I mean there were some side effects like I couldn’t walk very well and
I was exhausted afterwards but um. He helped me home and made me some soup and
uh. L-left in a hurry when my mom showed up and um…” His words drifted off as
he looked up at Haruka.
She grinned at him, broad as anything. “So he finally fucking got around to
telling you how he felt, did he? It’s about time! He’s been hung up on you for
years! Though I think he kept trying to deny it all through middle school and
whatever.” She turned around on the couch, calling to her husband, “Did you
hear, honey? Our boy’s finally getting over his shitty emotional deficiency!”
Izuku stared at her. He really hadn’t… expected that reaction at all. What did
she mean  years?  Was that true? Had it really been that long? Could they have
been friends before? Could they have been… Izuku’s head swam with the
implications of her words. Haruka had known about Katsuki’s feelings all this
time. It was somehow obvious to her where it hadn’t been obvious to his own
mom. Of course, she had seen his admiration of Katsuki, not that that was
difficult to see considering how he’d talked about it. What as the difference?
Was it behavior? Was it actions? Was it just a different perspective? Was
Haruka aware of how badly Katsuki had treated him over the years, the way Inko
was? Clearly she didn’t have a negative reaction to the possibilty of them
being together-
“Izuku,” Haruka’s voice cut through his thoughts and his mumbling like a
firecracker on a quiet night. “Why don’t I give you Katsuki’s number? It sounds
like you two might have gotten the first step down, but if he kissed you
because of a quirk, he’s probably feeling pretty shitty about it. He’s a lot
like his dad that way, he hates getting something handed to him easily when
he’s been working hard at earning it!” She held out her hand to Izuku, smiling
broadly still.
He handed over his phone, stunned at her happiness. It was such a different
reaction from his mother’s that he wondered what Inko would say if she knew.
Did she and Haruka talk much anymore? He didn’t seem to hear them chat on the
phone all that often. Was that because of the bullying too? Had he and
Katsuki’s difficult childhood damaged the relationship of their mothers?
Haruka added Katsuki’s number to his cell and tossed it back to him. “I put it
under Kacchan for you. It’s so cute how you still call him that, or so I think.
I know it drives him wild, though!” She laughed again, shaking her head.
“Um. Thank you,” Izuku said, blinking down at his phone. He had Katsuki’s
number. Did he… Should he really message him? The conversation they needed to
have certainly wasn’t made for text and a phone call probably wasn’t wise
either.
But would Katsuki agree to meet him in person? He’d been so…
Izuku shook his head, dismissing the troubling thoughts. “I need to go home. I
have homework and stuff to work on. Thank you for the number, and for your
hospitality.”
Haruka nodded. “Any time! You’re always welcome here, especially if you’re
Katsuki’s boyfriend! He might be a bit more tolerable with you around!”
Izuku flushed and got to his feet. He gave a little bow and hurried out, heart
pounding in his chest. He needed to talk to Katsuki quickly, before he got
home, preferably, before Katsuki really talked with anyone else about the
whole… thing. And, of course, because he had to know whose mother was right:
Inko and her belief that they would only destroy each other, or Haruka and her
confidence that they were such a good match they were already together.
Honestly, for how much he loved Katsuki, Izuku wasn’t sure his mother was
wrong.
They had only hurt each other for years. It might not be possible to recover
from that, despite how he felt. He would rather love Katsuki from afar, from a
safe distance, if that’s what it took to keep Katsuki whole and brilliantly
burning. If they got together and that was Katsuki’s downfall… Izuku was sure
he wouldn’t be able to live with himself were he single handedly responsible
for the destruction of not only  one  of his childhood heroes but  both  of
them within five years of each other.
***** brittle as ice *****
Chapter Notes
     guess what fic isn't satisfied with being three chapters. yeah.
     also text messages are weird in text like this when im not using
     like, an IM script or whatever so i tried bullet points to see how
     that looked???? i just want it to be clear what's in the same message
     and what isn't. ayy enjoy~
Katsuki doesn’t come home until the sun’s about to set.
He, Eijirou and Denki have to part at the station, where they met that morning.
While they wait, the other two are practically bouncing with excitement over
their new games. Denki was so excited he ended up getting a headset with a
better microphone than the one he had at home, or so he claimed. Honestly,
Katsuki kind of wished he’d bought the game too. It sounded fun to play and
when Eijirou had suggested it, so that they could compete together online, he’d
almost done it.
But there wouldn’t be much time or freedom to play any video games if someone
found out what he did to Izuku. Katsuki wasn’t stupid. Consent after the fact
didn’t really erase that Izuku hadn’t been able to consent  during  the act.
Their teachers had been explicitly clear that quirks like those were the same
thing as someone being intoxicated or unconscious; they weren’t coherent enough
to give consent while under the influence of a quirk like that. The person
responsible for their actions would be the one who hadn’t been hit by the
quirk.
Walking up to his front door, with his thoughts weighing on him now that he was
alone, Katsuki wanted to laugh bitterly. If only he’d been walking  with  Izuku
at the time. In that case, maybe neither one of them would have been hit with
that quirk, or, who knows, maybe both of them would have.
For a moment he stood, staring at his own door, as his brain spiraled into what
it would have been like in that alley had  that  happened instead. Despite the
pain of it, Izuku had looked utterly and delightfully wrecked by that quirk.
Obviously, Katsuki hadn’t been able to keep his hands off of him while he was,
essentially, sober. If they’d both been under the influence of the quirk, it
would have been… Incredible. Probably. Indescribable, maybe?
Shaking his head, he walked into his house, “I’m fucking home!” What would have
happened if it had been  him  hit with the quirk and Izuku who had found him?
Katsuki shivered at the prospect. Sure, he would have absolutely hated being at
the mercy of a quirk, but Izuku… Izuku would have taken care of him.  Fuck,
Katsuki thought,  he’d probably have figured out that fucking wasn’t necessary.
Fuck. Why didn’t I bother asking more questions? Why did I just assume that
shit? Was it all because I just wanted to fuck him that badly?
Katsuki thumped his head against the wall as he took his shoes off. It had been
barely a day since the event and, in spite of knowing the fact their first time
had been rape, Katsuki really wanted nothing more than to have Izuku again. It
was the same thought as before, the wonder of what it would be like if Izuku
wasn’t under the influence of a quirk… What it would  really  be like to fuck
Izuku. Not just fuck his body but all of him. To have him close and in bed with
Katsuki. The things he would say or do-
“Oi! You shitty brat, listen to me when I’m fucking talking to you!”
“Shut your fucking face, old hag,” Katsuki snapped back automatically. He
stomped past her into the house. Was dinner ready? Fuck he was starving. “What
the hell are we eating tonight?”
Haruka beamed at him. “Your favorite,” she said as she whisked past  him  and
into the kitchen. “Tonight we’re celebrating! So you better clean yourself up,
you’re a mess from wandering around all day! I thought you said you were going
to be out for a couple of hours with your friends, that’s it!”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. True, Denki and Eijirou had planned to only be out
long enough to get the game and yes, true, they had left and Katsuki had
pretended to go home when really he just wandered around the city forever, but
that didn’t mean he had to fucking tell his mom. He was seventeen. There was
plenty of shit in his life she didn’t need to know about.
Like Izuku,  he thought.  If she ever finds out…
“Yeah, well it went fucking long,” he said. “And what the fuck are we
celebrating?”
Haruka clapped her hands together and smiled at him.  “Someone’s  little
boyfriend came over to return his forgotten clothing this morning.”
Katsuki looked at her blankly.
Haruka clicked her tongue at him, “Don’t give me that look! I know all about
it. Izuku came over  himself  this morning and explained everything. You don’t
have to pretend that you’re hiding your boyfriend from us, Katsuki. I’ve known
the whole time how you feel about him.”
“He… what?” The world had opened up beneath Katsuki’s feet. His mother  knew?
And  this  was her reaction? Did… did no one hold him accountable except for
Inko? What the  hell?
“I had wondered where your clothes ended up yesterday, but it makes sense that
you’d rush and forget them if you were embarrassed to be caught by Inko! She
can be pretty stern with you, can’t she? She’s a damn good mom that way, always
looking out for her boy! Looks like she’ll have to finally let Izuku grow up a
little bit, though. You’ve been chasing after him for so long it was really
only a matter of time!” Haruka said, busying herself with setting the table.
Katsuki stood, numb and immobile, watching her move with her usual busy
efficiency.
“He told you?” Katsuki barely found the air to breathe. Everything was
spinning. Izuku had come here. Izuku had told his mother. Izuku had-
“What is with this fucking reaction?” Haruka said, frowning at him. “So you had
to kiss Izuku to save him from a quirk! It might not be an ideal first kiss,
but you were able to tell him how you felt and find out how he fucking felt
about you, didn’t you? It worked out all right.”
“...kiss?”
“Katsuki,” she walked over towards him, “Have you got sunstroke from being out
all day? Fucking listen to me when I’m talking to you! Izuku told us how you
saved him from being stuck with a compelled-kissing quirk. You finally got to
be his fucking hero, brat, and this is how you react?” She smacked his shoulder
but even that didn’t quite jar him out of his daze.
“His hero…?”
“Oh your fucking hopeless!” She threw up her hands. “Go get cleaned up and
clear your fucking head! Shoo! Shoo! Your father and I have got to finish
making dinner!”
Stumbling, Katsuki turned and went automatically to his room. What the hell had
happened while he’d been gone? What the fuck had Izuku done? Why had he come
here? Why had he told Katsuki’s parents anything at all? Was he  trying  to get
Katsuki in trouble? Had he changed his mind on forgiving him?
Katsuki shut the door behind himself and leaned against it, eyes closed. He
stood there for a minute or two before he heard a faint buzzing noise. Eyes
popping open, Katsuki crossed over to his bed, where his phone lay half tucked
under his pillow. He dropped down onto the mattress and flipped it open.
There were over a dozen messages waiting to be read; each one was from an
unknown number.
    * Hello, Kacchan? It’s Izuku. I mean this number is my number and I know
      it’s weird to message you out of the blue like this but I came over and
      your mom gave me your phone number so I thought I should at least try to
      contact you because we need to talk. We really need to talk.
And then an hour later.
    * Please don’t be mad that I came over. I had to return your clothes. I
      thought you’d be home. I didn’t really know what to say to your mom so I
      just… I told her some of the truth.
    * I didn’t tell her about the sex!! I promise! I know you didn’t want
      anyone to know and I’m okay with that. I mean… We should probably figure
      things out before we try that again, right?
Katsuki stopped reading and closed his eyes. He lay back on his bed, his arm
over his eyes and tried to understand how Izuku’s mind worked. It was a twisted
fucking place, despite all the sunshine smiles and stupid fucking good attitude
that fucker had.
After a few minutes his curiosity got the better of him and he continued to
wade through Izuku’s texts.
    * My mom knows, though. She found my clothes. Your clothes too. She was
      upset about the buttons and doesn’t believe me that I ripped them off! It
      was me though. You didn’t really touch my shirt at all.
A half hour break and then:
    * Also, that miso soup was really good.
Katsuki had to stop again and roll over this time so he could groan into his
pillow. Shit. Fuck. Why had he even bothered with that soup! He shouldn’t have
done that. Shouldn’t have been there. Shouldn’t have followed Izuku into that
alley.  But if it hadn’t been me, who, then? Who would have found him? Who
would have… who would have brought him out of that?
There were two hours between the miso soup message and the next one.
    * I’m sorry. I must be bothering you because you’re not replying but I
      really, really need to talk to you. I managed to get my clothes washed.
      Mom fixed the buttons. Everything looks fine. Honestly, only my lip looks
      a little bitten but I’m fine. I’m not hurt. So please, Kacchan, please
      answer me.
    * Are you mad at me?
    * Please don’t be mad at me. I didn’t mean to get into that kind of
      situation.
    * Are you still mad at yourself?
    * You don’t need to be angry. You did what you had to do.
    * Kacchan?
    * Katsuki?
    * Please respond.
And then, the two that had come only minutes before.
    * I don’t know what to do, Kacchan, please help. Please. I need to talk to
      you. I want to talk to you.
    * I really want to see you. Will you please meet up with me?
Katsuki groans again, thumps his fist on the headboard of his bed but does,
eventually, reply. He gets the feeling that if he doesn’t talk to Izuku, things
will only spiral completely out of control.
We’re having dinner,  he texts back.  Meet me in the park in 45.
He tosses his phone across the room after that, ignoring the buzzing that comes
back only seconds after his text, and buries his head under his pillow. He’s
fucked. He’s so fucked. Izuku’s fucked too. They’re both completely fucked.
 
===============================================================================
 
The sun hasn’t completely set by the time Katsuki shows up to the park. Izuku
waits for him on a bench, watching birds flutter from tree to tree as the sky
turns from red-gold to purple. It’s peaceful. Calming. The first peace he’s
found all day since the argument with his mother in the kitchen.
When he hears footsteps, he looks up to see Katsuki walking towards him, hands
shoved deep into his pockets and wearing a hoodie. He stops when their eyes
meet and his mouth twists into a scowl. After a moment of silence, Katsuki
finishes walking over and sits down on the other end of the bench, as far from
Izuku as possible.
“So,” he said, “You wanted this. Talk.”
Izuku rubs at the scar on his hand, looking down at the concrete ground. “I
don’t… I don’t really know where to start but um. I want you to know I’m not
angry at you. I don’t… I don’t hate what you did. I don’t hate you for doing
it.”
“That’s because you’re the stupidest fucker in the goddamn universe,” Katsuki
interrupts. “Didn’t we both have that shitty sex ed with quirks class or did
you fucking skip out that day? You know as well as I do that what I did-”
“Was necessary!” Izuku cuts him off, his voice rising sharply. He takes a
breath to try and regain his composure but it’s so difficult to. He twists
around to glare at Katsuki, who won’t meet his gaze. “If you hadn’t been there,
who knows what could have happened to me!”
“Would you forgive someone else the same way you forgave me?” Katsuki asked.
“Or is it because of me that you’re so forgiving?”
Izuku blinks. He doesn’t have a ready answer for that. He hadn’t ever really
questioned why he forgave Katsuki. He just did it. He had to. He wouldn’t be
able to live if he both hated and admired him. He refused to split his emotions
like that.
“Your mom said she doesn’t fucking understand how you can forgive me all the
time. Honestly, I’m wondering the same damn thing. After everything I’ve done
to you before and now… now this. How can you even stand to fucking look at me,
to want to talk to me? You should hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” Izuku immediately counters. “I don’t. You’re incredible.
You’re strong and smart and the way you shine in battle- I could never hate
you, no matter what you did.”
“Don’t you see the fucking problem with that you fucking idiot?” Katsuki snaps,
finally turning to look at him. “You’re just like a fucking dog! It doesn’t
matter if I kick you or feed you treats, either way you’ll come crawling back
for my affection! It doesn’t make any goddamn sense. We were friends as little
kid, little fucking kids! We were friends for fucking two years! And somehow
that’s enough for you to not hate me? To forgive me?
“I remember the shit I did to you, Deku. It’s only going to get worse if you
stay near me.”
Izuku closes his eyes. His mother’s fear fills him and he’s trying hard, so
hard, to shake it off. He has to be brave, have courage, find his strength. He
has to work with this, maneuver around it, figure it out. He won’t give up,
can’t give up. To continue to fight is to be a hero. To smile in the face of
adversity is to be a hero.
Gathering himself, he opens his eyes and smiles. “I don’t want to just stay
near  you, Kacchan. I want to be  with  you. I want to be at your side. Not
just by accident. Not just because we get paired together for school things. I
want to be a pro hero with you. I want to be your friend. I want to be… I want
to be  with  you.”
Katsuki stared at him. “You’re not an idiot. You’re fucking insane,” he
whispered, his voice full of disbelief. “You’ve lost your fucking mind. Are you
sure that fucking quirk didn’t just make you… act that way?”
“I’ve been feeling like this for a while.” Izuku said, determined to explain
himself and find the middle ground between his mother’s worry and Katsuki’s
mother’s confidence. He doesn’t think either one of them has the right view on
their relationship, what it is, what it could be. Only he and Katsuki could see
it and right now he needed Katsuki to see it too. “I’m not sure how long I’ve
wanted something more but… I’ve wanted to be at your side as a hero forever. I
always knew you’d be a great hero. I wanted to be one not just because I
admired All Might, but because of you. I thought if we were shoulder to
shoulder, if we were together, there would be nothing that could stop us.”
Katsuki doesn’t stay stunned for very long. Izuku expects that. The space
between them vanishes as Katsuki lunges for him, grips the front of his shirt
and shakes him hard enough to rattle his teeth. “You pay attention to
everything but you don’t fucking see what’s right in front of you, do you?  I
raped you.  You can’t deny that. I can’t deny that. It happened. It shouldn’t
have happened-”
“Do you regret it?” Izuku asked. It was hard to breathe, the way Katsuki’s
fists pushed against his chest. The back of the bench was hard against his
shoulders, but he didn’t care. Katsuki knelt with an knee on either side of
Izuku’s leg, not quite straddling, not quite in his lap, but close. So close.
“Do you regret having sex with me?”
“It  wasn’t  sex,” Katsuki snarls.
“I gave consent-”
“You were under the influence of a quirk-”
“I told you, I was coherent under it-”
“I don’t believe you for a damn second-”
“I couldn’t communicate properly but I wanted you-”
“You couldn’t choose anything. You were-”
“You don’t get to say whether I could or couldn’t decide anything!”
“I know what you looked like, Deku! I know what I saw! You were fucking
helpless and I took advantage of you. I raped you and I’d do it again if I saw
you like that a second time and that scares me! Don’t you fucking understand
what that means? I can’t control myself when it comes to you!”
They both stop, panting, after those words are left ringing in the air. Izuku
softens towards Katsuki. He reaches up and puts his hands over Katsuki’s.
Immediately, the other boy tries to pull away but their strength is about equal
now and he can’t manage it. They struggle, grunting, for a minute before
Katsuki gives up.
Instead of retreating, he leans into Izuku’s space. “I fucking hate you. I hate
how you make me feel. I hate that I can’t keep calm around you. I hate the way
you look. I hate that I want you. I hate you. I’ve never hated anyone more in
my whole fucking life the way I hate you. Nothing will ever change that.”
“I love you,” Izuku whispers back. “And I can be patient.”
“I will kill you,” Katsuki grits out. “Legitimately. I will fucking end you.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Izuku counters, “But maybe you could wait
fifty to sixty years?”
Katsuki kisses him and it’s nothing like the time before. He’s hardly gentle
and it’s mostly teeth. He bites Izuku’s already wounded lip, still torn from
the day before. It starts bleeding almost immediately. He’s rough with his
tongue too, shoving it past Izuku’s lips and nearly choking him with the force.
When they pull back, Katsuki tries, again, to wrench his hands from Izuku’s
grip but he refuses to let go. He even has to use a touch of his quirk to keep
a grip and that makes Katsuki stop fighting against him.
Izuku’s blood is bright on Katsuki’s lips. It looks nothing like lipstick, but
makes Izuku think of that anyway.
“Do you think you’re the only one who feels that way?” Izuku whispered, “You
think that you don’t drive me crazy too?”
“It’s not the same,” Katsuki hissed. “You didn’t- That- Fuck-” He closes his
eyes, obviously trying to gather himself. Izuku, who has watched Katsuki his
whole life, knows a moment of weakness when he sees it.
He closes the distance and gives Katsuki a softer kiss than the one before.
Against his lips, he whispers, “Of course it’s not the same.  We’re  not the
same. But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand you, Kacchan. That doesn’t mean
I don’t love you.”
“You’re such an idiot,” Katsuki whispered back. “What the fuck am I supposed to
do with you?”
Izuku kisses him lightly, again, and said, “Start with that.”
“Stupid fucking Deku,” Katsuki grunted. But he kissed Izuku again, kissed him
while eager and desperate and trembling. Izuku slowly released one hand so he
could reach for Katsuki’s body.
He swallowed back a groan when Katsuki stopped kneeling over him and sat on his
thighs, knees straddling his hips. Katsuki was a warm, heavy weight on top of
him, familiar to Izuku but in the way that a half remembered dream was familiar
the second time you had it. He wrapped his arms around Katsuki, trying to stop
him from shaking.
For his part, Katsuki buried one hand in Izuku’s hair, tangling his fingers in
it, gripping it almost painfully hard. Once the other is free, he clings to
Izuku’s shoulders, keeping him from pulling back even the slightest bit.
It’s as if all seventeen years of pent up conflict and emotions come boiling
over at once. The kisses switch from passionate and fierce to almost gentle
with how they linger. Izuku’s mind becomes delightfully fuzzy, filled with
nothing but the thought of how Katsuki feels and tastes and sounds.
Despite how energetically Katsuki kisses him, Izuku finds moments where his
hesitation trumps the overflowing need to kiss. His hands don’t wander and
neither does his mouth, although, from the half movements of his head down
toward Izuku’s neck, it’s clear he wants to. Izuku tries to invite him silently
by tipping his chin back, but that doesn’t work.
He ends up cupping Katsuki’s cheeks, stopping their kissing so he can speak.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “I want this. I really, really want this. You can
kiss me all over. You can touch me as much as you want. I love you, Kacchan.”
“Don’t fucking say what you don’t fucking mean,” Katsuki grumbled and shut him
up with a kiss. Izuku rolled his eyes. He slid his hands away from Katsuki’s
face, down his back and sides and to his hips.
Between one kiss and the next, Izuku asks, “How about you? Can I touch you
too?”
Katsuki buries his face against Izuku’s neck, shoulders hunched as if he could
merge his silhouette into Izuku’s and hide away. Izuku waits, quietly, catching
his breath. He won’t push if Katsuki can’t handle it. Neither one of them needs
to go farther than they’re ready for.
“Please,” Katsuki’s voice is a breath against his skin. “You can.”
Izuku hugs him tightly. His heart is going to explode right out of his chest.
He tries to calm it down, but it doesn’t get any slower at all. He shiver when
he feels Katsuki leaving kisses along his throat, soft ones, so unlike the
tight way he holds onto Izuku that it the disparity between the sensations
makes Izuku’s skin prickle with goosebumps.
In response, he slides his hands down again and settles them on Katsuki’s hips.
He bites his lip, winces at the pain of it but doesn’t let go. Slowly,
deliberately, Izuku ground Katsuki down against him. Katsuki’s breath hitched
and, suddenly, his head jerked back. “What are you doing?”
Izuku flushed at that narrow eyed glare. “I want you, Kacchan. I want this. I’m
not under the influence of anything. So it’s okay, right?”
Katsuki yanks his hair and sneers, “You fucking pervert Deku. We’re in public.
On a fucking park bench. No. This isn’t the fucking place for that.”
Apologetically, Izuku leaned in and kissed Katsuki’s chin. This got him another
yank of the head. “Okay, okay… Then should we stop for now?”
“For now?” Katsuki repeated. “You really fucking want to do this again?”
“Yeah,” Izuku grinned. His lip split and it hurt but he didn’t care. “I do. Is
that okay?”
Katsuki grunted. He, slowly, let go of Izuku. “If this,” he gestured between
them with one hand, “is going to happen, then people can’t know about
yesterday. At all. No one is going to see it like you do. You’re a fucking
exception, Deku. Do you understand?”
“I do.” Izuku replied. “I don’t mind keeping it a secret.” He couldn’t stop
smiling and couldn’t stop himself from kissing Katsuki’s cheek again. “I love
you,” he murmured.
“Fuck you,” Katsuki snapped. He climbed off of Izuku’s lap, escaping his arms.
Katsuki angrily adjusted his clothing. “I still fucking hate you the most,
Deku.”
“Yeah,” Izuku beamed, “Can I see you again tomorrow?”
“Fuck off,” Katsuki growled. But when Izuku waved at him, he gruffly lifted his
hand in response. He shoved it back into his pocket a soon as he had his back
turned. Izuku watched him go.
Leaning back against the bench, Izuku smiled up at the sky. It wouldn’t be
easy, not with Katsuki’s own complications on top of his mother’s worry- not to
mention how his classmates would react- but…
Closing his eyes, Izuku could clearly remember the weight of Katsuki’s body,
the way he’d hidden against Izuku in a moment of vulnerability, the  “Please”
 as soft as snowfall on his skin. His heartbeat was so strong Izuku could feel
it in his lips, in his fingertip, in his unfortunately neglected erection.
“Next time,” he muttered, “We’ll get closer next time.”
Soon, he wouldn’t be left watching Katsuki’s back.
Soon, they’d walk side by side.
 
===============================================================================
 
There’s an unusual warmth and peace that surrounds Katsuki as he walks home in
the twilight. He doesn’t do anything fucking stupid like whistle or hum, but he
feels.. Happy. Really happy. Like the bubbling in his gut has gone from the
gurgling of a swamp to the soft suds of a bath. Oh, he still hated Izuku. Hated
how green his eyes had been. Hated how soft his lips were, even bitten and torn
up. Hated the smell of his skin, the warmth of his pulse. Hated how good his
hands had felt on his back, on his hips. Hated the way that Izuku was so
forgiving, so willing to just put the whole alley incident behind himself.
Hated the way Izuku could so freely say he loved Katsuki when Katsuki still
couldn’t handle saying them out loud to himself.
He was smiling when he got home. The door was unlocked and he stepped in,
calling, “I’m back!”
The long silence before he got a reply should have been his first warning.
However, it was the odd pair of shoes, unrecognized ones, that tipped Katsuki
off that something was wrong. When his father greeted him, unusually grim,
Katsuki’s stomach dropped.
When he looked past his father and saw teary green eyes in a familiar face,
Katsuki’s blood ran cold.
“Come on, son,” Tetsuma said, putting his hand on Katsuki’s shoulder. It felt
as heavy as iron. Katsuki’s knees almost buckled under it, but he managed to
stay upright, staring at his father. “We have something we need to talk to you
about.”
The door swung shut behind him, effectively cutting Katsuki off from the
pleasant dream that had been his time with Izuku. The click of the lock,
turning under his father’s hand, was only the first of many nails in his
coffin-
Or, if he were to be really accurate, the first bar of his cell.
***** fragile as glass *****
Chapter Summary
     Volatile; you can't bottle this up and think it'll stay where it
     should.
Chapter Notes
     this one is a bit shorter, but it ends at the right place. next
     chapter we'll be at school! haha!
     thank all of you for joining me on this wild ride, you're all very
     delightful and i've been overwhelmed by all the comments. this has
     been the best mid-week-weekend i've had in a long time. i've been
     missing my bff while they're away on vacation and this angst fic has
     helped me. thank u, my delights. my readers. please. enjoy this with
     me some more.
Izuku was out of breath when he raced up the walkway and all but threw himself
at the front door to the Bakugou residence. It was dark out; the sun had set
fully by the time he’d finally dragged himself home only to find it empty of
his mother. He pounded on Katsuki’s front door with one fist, the other tightly
holding the note Inko had left behind.
There was a click of lock and then the door swung open, revealing Tetsuma.
“Please,” Izuku cried, tears already in his eyes, “Is my mom here still? I need
to talk to her before she-”
“What the hell is wrong with you!?”  came a shrieking voice from inside, let
out now because of the open door.  “I never raised you to be like this you
little fucking brat!”
Tetsuma gave him a slightly abashed smile. “Ah. Sorry. Yes. She’s here right
now. But you can’t come in.”
“What?” Izuku said, trying to look past the man. “Is that…” It sounded like
Haruka, not Inko. Izuku couldn’t hear Katsuki shouting back, which he should
have been, he usually would be. Why wasn’t he? What was going on? “Please, I
need to come in-”
“I’m sorry, Izuku,” Tetsuma said, shaking his head. “I can’t let you in.”
There was the sound of a slap, like a palm striking skin, and Izuku flinched
reflexively. He’d seen the discipline that Haruka prescribed to. Inko had never
been like that herself, so the first time he’d seen it as a child had been
incredibly alarming. Katsuki, on the other hand, had only ever responded with
shouting and cursing. Izuku still couldn’t hear his friend. If they were
friends. If he could claim that.
Which only meant Katsuki wasn’t defending himself against his mother.  
Izuku clenched his jaw. “I don’t need you to  let  me do anything.” His quirk
activated without thought as he stepped in, palms against the man’s chest.
Tetsuma’s eyes widened as Izuku neatly pushed him backwards, socked feet
sliding on the floor. His mother’s note fluttered from his grip, unnoticed.
“Now wait one second!” Tetsuma exclaimed, “You can’t just-”
“Kacchan!” Izuku shouted. Once there was enough space for him to slip by, he
ducked under Tetsuma’s arm and raced forwards. His heart hammered in his chest;
his limbs buzzed with the faint warmth of his quirk being activated. It was
barely a percentage, just enough to give him the strength to have the upper
hand, but it was still active.
“Izuku!” Inko cried as he entered her sight. She sat on the couch; her eyes
were red rimmed, though no longer shining with tears.
Haruka stood in the center of the room, in front of Katsuki, who had his head
bowed, his hands between his knees and his shoulders hunched where he sat on
the couch. Though it felt like a knife to the ribs, Izuku chose to stand
between Katsuki and Haruka, ignoring the cry of his mother. “Stop.” He said,
“Stop talking to him that way. Katsuki didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Izuku,” Haruka snapped, “You will get out of the way. This is a conversation
that apparently is a long time coming.”
“Then  talk  to him,” Izuku demanded. “Don’t just yell at him like your doing!
He won’t hear that!”
“I think I know my son better than you,” she said. Half turning her head, she
continued, “Inko, can you get Izuku out of here? I appreciate you coming to
talk to me about Katsuki’s behavior. I would have done something before if I
knew how bad it had gotten.”
“We’re working through it on our own,” Izuku said. “We don’t need you or my mom
to interfere with us.”
“Oh you’re such a  child,”  Haruka said with a sigh. She rubbed her forehead,
closing her eyes for a moment. “This isn’t something you can leave to be dealt
with between the two of you!”
“Yes it  is!”  Izuku clenched his teeth, trying not to lose his temper at her
condescension. If it was just Katsuki and him, they could figure out their way
through this relationship, or at least what Izuku hoped would become a
relationship. It was the involvement of others, especially their mothers, that
promised to tip them over the edge into an unsalvageable wreckage. “It started
between us. It will stay between us. You’re only going to make things worse for
us!”
Haruka stared at him for a moment, huffing for breath. She dropped her hand
from her forehead, wiping her mouth and grimacing. “I can’t believe I thought
what was going on between you two was normal in any way.” She said, “Katsuki’s
temper has run in our family for generations, so I thought it was that, but
Inko says that he put you in a cast when you were eleven, Izuku. That you have
burns and scars from years of bullying. Not teasing,  bullying.”  She looked
past him to Katsuki, “You told Izuku to  kill himself,  Katsuki. That isn’t
okay. That’s not teasing. That isn’t something I will allow to continue.”
“Well it doesn’t happen any more so you don’t need to worry about it.” Izuku
said, shifting slightly to further defend Katsuki from his mother’s gaze.
“Izuku,” Inko tried. “Please, honey. This bullying has to stop… B-before it
gets out of hand  again.”  She clutched her hands together, brows lifted in
distress. “Helping you or not, what Katuki did to you wrong. You can’t allow
that to happen ever again.”
“Kacchan doesn’t bully me anymore,” Izuku said. He looked away from his mother.
If he watched her long enough, he’d start crying himself. “It’s different now.
We’re different now. I- I love him. It doesn’t matter what he does-”
“Listen to yourself,” Haruka interjected. “You have no idea what you’re saying.
You’re just a fucking kid.” Abruptly, she shook her head, “Fuck it. I’m not
here to try and change your mind. You’ve always been too stubborn for that. But
someone has to teach Katsuki that his violence went too far when it left you
scarred up like that. He’s nearly an adult. He needs to be accountable for his
actions.”
“It’s in the past,” Izuku said. “And he isn’t like that anymore. Why should it
matter?”
“According to Inko,” Haruka said, “He hasn’t exactly mended his ways. Are you
sure that what you told me about yesterday’s quirk mishap is the truth or is
there something that you’ve left out, Izuku?” She folded her arms across her
chest, staring him down.
Izuku’s eyes slid to his mother, despite his worry to keep his calm if he
looked at her. Wait. What had she said to Haruka? Had she said everything?
Izuku knew that the clothes had been washed- he had done it himself- and with
the buttons reattached there was no proof of anything. Nothing but Inko’s words
against Izuku’s own. And he thought he’d convinced her that the quirk had
compelled them to act. There hadn’t been much choice and Katsuki had done
everything he could to make it painless and even pleasant.
“He won’t tell you,” Katsuki said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. “I
made him promise not to tell… Fuck. I’m such a piece of shit.”
Katsuki’s tone ran like lightning up Izuku’s spine. He twisted around and
dropped to his knees. “Kacchan.” He reached for the other teen’s face. Behind
him, his mother made a choked off sound. Katsuki looked at him for a moment,
his expression resigned. He pulled at Izuku’s wrists, but, of course, Izuku
resisted.
“I told you that you were the fucking exception,” Katsuki said, “No one else
will see it the way you did.” He took a breath, to keep speaking, and Izuku
covered his mouth with both hands.
“We’re starting over, Kacchan,” Izuku said earnestly. “Yesterday didn’t happen.
I’m not going to let you say anything -ow- not even if you bite me! I don’t
care what anyone else thinks happened. I was the -ouch- one hit with the quirk.
I as the so-called victim! I get to choose to call it sex or not.  I  say that
it was!”
Katsuki kneed him in the gut. Izuku winced but retaliated by putting his knee
on Katsuki’s foot. The struggling started in earnest then until they were flat
out wrestling on the couch.
“Stop this! Stop it, Izuku!” Inko cried.
“What the hell?” Haruka said, “Did you say you two had sex?”
Izuku gave up his grip on Katsuki’s mouth to hold back an arm. They were evenly
matched, as Izuku tried not to use his quirk against Katsuki directly. When the
exclamation of their mother’s caught him off guard, his attention slipped and
Izuku ended up falling from the couch. Katsuki went after him, straddling him,
one hand gripping the front of his shirt. “That’s what I was fucking going to
tell you, idiot!” He shook Izuku, thumping his head on the floor a few times,
“Your mom came over to talk to mine about the fucking bullying. Not about
yesterday! Apparently you fucking convinced her that it was fucking  fine.
Except not fucking well enough, so she still came to tell my mom to keep  me
the fuck away from you!
“Because guess who the  fuck  can’t keep himself away from me!?” Katsuki ended,
fist drawn back in a punch.
“Get off of him,” Inko said, rushing from her seat. “Stop hurting him!”
Izuku twisted enough to get a hand free. He caught Katsuki’s wrist before the
punch landed. “You make it really difficult to have a decent conversation,
Kacchan!” Izuku shouted at him. “You don’t listen to me and you shout and you
kick and punch and fight!”
“That’s what you’re fucking going to get if you stick around,” Katsuki sneered,
“You saw the fucking worst of me yesterday after what I did to you-”
“If that’s your worst then I want you to give it to me every day,” Izuku said
without thinking. His head boiled over with anger. Inko’s protection came years
too late. Haruka’s discipline was too much for the situation now. Katsuki’s
regret and self-hatred was poison in his mouth. It was too much and not enough
and all he wanted was to move past this. They could be so much more if they
did.
Katsuki stared at him, eyes wide, cheeks red. Izuku continued shouting, “I’m
the one who got fucked. I’m the one who got hit by the quirk. If I say it was
sex then it was just sex! It wasn’t rape or anything else! I  refuse  to let
anyone tell me how I should feel about it!”
The silence that followed his words was deafening. Katsuki’s face drained of
all color and his head jerked up to look at his parents. “Mom-”
“I knew it,”  Inko said, low and vicious. Her voice was so heavy that Izuku
almost didn’t recognize it. “I  knew  you forced him into that.”
Haruka grabbed Katsuki by the hair on the top of his head, “Get off of that boy
right now! What have you  done!?”
“Let go of him!” Izuku said, following the movement and sitting up. “Didn’t you
just hear me?” Why didn’t anyone believe him? Not his mother. Not Katsuki. Not
Haruka.
Why had he even  said  that? What was he  thinking?
He wasn’t. That was the problem. He wasn’t thinking.
Katsuki allowed his mother to pull him back. That was the only way that Izuku
could explain why he followed her yanking hand. Katsuki let go of Izuku,
hissing between his teeth.
Inko intercepted Izuku’s second grab for Katsuki after the first one was
knocked away by Katsuki’s errant kick. She held him tightly around the
shoulders, her far more fragile body trembling. “It’s okay, Izuku,” she
whispered. “You’ll be okay. You don’t have to lie for him anymore.”
“Mom, I’m not covering for him,” Izuku said back, “It really wasn’t like that.”
“Stop fucking lying, shitty Deku,” Katsuki said. “You were under the influence
of a quirk. I wasn’t. I  fucked  you. It was  rape.  Why can’t you get that
through your thick fucking skull!”
“Katsuki,” Haruka was pale, “What happened?”
“Don’t say that,” Izuku said. “Stop saying that. You didn’t do that, Kacchan!”
“Go away, Deku,” Katsuki shouted at him. “Go the fuck away and leave me the
fuck alone! There’s no fucking way things could ever work out between us. I
fucking hate you!”
“Kacchan-”
“Leave! Fucking leave!”
Tetsuma stepped between the two of them, blocking Izuku’s sight of Katsuki.
“Haruka, can you and Katsuki go to his room, please? It’s clear these boys need
some distance from each other so everyone can calm down.”
“Come on,” Haruka commanded. Izuku strained against his mother’s arms as
Katsuki got up with Haruka holding his arm tightly and leading him away. Inko
squeezed him tighter, sobbing into Izuku’s hair. He twisted around, following
them with his eyes but Katsuki didn’t look back at him.
Tetsuma knelt down in front of Izuku, his face lined with worry. “Inko, Izuku-”
“We’re going to go home now,” Inko said, voice trembling but clear. Izuku felt
numb as she hugged him close. How was he supposed to fix this?
“I understand,” Tetsuma said, “I merely wanted to know what your actions would
be after this.”
“I’m going to call the police,” Inko declared. Her fingers tightened on Izuku.
“Katsuki understands that what he did was wrong. He has to take responsibility
for what he did to Izuku.”
What was he going to do? They were right back at square one. Katsuki blaming
himself- hating himself- calling it rape again. Izuku at a distance, unable to
really explain anything to anyone. His mother panicking, and now Haruka and
Tetsuma too.
If only he hadn’t stopped to save that girl… But no. He didn’t regret that. He
had saved her from going through what he was going through now, except worse,
so much worse. Because he had had Katsuki save him.
“Izuku,” Inko whispered, “We’re going home now, okay? It’s time to get up.” She
looked earnestly at him. Tetsuma had stepped back. Izuku blinked, had he missed
their conversation? He got to his feet, looking back to Katsuki’s room. There
were voices coming out from behind the door but he couldn’t determine what they
were. “Izuku, come on.”
He let Inko lead him away to the front door. Twisting around, he looked to
Tetsuma, who stood with one arm across his chest and his hand pressed over his
mouth.
“Tell him it’ll be okay,” Izuku said, “It’ll be okay. I promise-”
“Izuku,”  Inko insisted. “No more.”
Tetsuma looked away, saying nothing. Izuku bit his lip, hanging his head.
He would find a way to fix this. He would. He loved Katsuki and Katsuki loved
him. Making a fist with his scarred hand, Izuku promised himself that he would
fix it.
 
===============================================================================
 
Katsuki spent a sleepless night flat on his bed, one arm covering his eyes, the
curled tight as a fist on his chest. His mother’s words jangled in his brain,
loud and sharp like shards of glass from a broken window. His father’s words
seeped in his muscles like tar, weighing him down into a depth he hadn’t felt
before in his life.
Inko had told him she was going to call the cops.
The cops meant an investigation. An investigation meant a record.
He already had a horrible personality, Katsuki knew that. He was difficult to
work with.
If he had a record, it would make it even harder to get into a good hero
agency.
If that record was more than an investigation, if it was probation, if it was
jail time…
Katsuki might as well kiss his chance at being a hero away.
Inko was going to call the cops and Katsuki was never going to be a fucking
hero.
All because he couldn’t say no to Izuku.
All because he fucking loved Izuku.
 
===============================================================================
 
“Izuku, please,” Inko said through the door. “Please let me in.”
Izuku sat with his back to his bedroom door. He hadn’t slept a wink. All
Saturday night he had stayed up with the light on, pouring over information on
the internet and his different notebooks, looking for anything that could help
from laws to precedence to psychological discussion.
It was Sunday now, he knew that in a distant sort of way. Sunday and late, if
he bothered to check the time or the sun or anything. It didn’t matter. He was
probably hungry, couldn’t remember the last thing he’d eaten, but that didn’t
matter either.
He was going to fix this and, maybe, just maybe, he had an idea for it. One
that would really work, too.
“Izuku… Are you okay? Please, just answer me!”
“Fine Mom,” he called through the door, answering with only a quarter of his
attention, at best. “Kind of busy!”
“You wouldn’t come out when the police were here, sweetie, please… I just want
to see you!”
“I’m fine, Mom, honest!” Izuku said, adding a  “just believe me for once, would
you?”  under his breath.
There was a soft thump on the other side of the door, like she was resting her
head against it. “Izuku, your mother is so worried about you… Please…”
Izuku closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath and held it. He thought of
Katsuki, his soft kisses, his angry ones, the sliver of vulnerability when he
gave Izuku permission to touch him. He let out his breath, long and slow.
Putting aside his laptop, he knelt up. He turned around and opened the door.
His mother was on the other side. Inko’s eyes were shadowed and she looked
pale, haggard. She reached up and cupped his face in her hands, “Izuku, honey-”
Izuku gathered her up in a tight hug. He felt her chest hitch with her breath.
“I’m okay, Mom, I promise I’m okay?” He smoothed her hair back, “I promise. I’m
going to find a way to fix this so we’re all happy. You and I. Me and Kacchan.
Kacchan’s parents. Everyone’s going to be better soon. I won’t stop until I fix
this.”
Inko clutched him, her arms moving to go around his neck. “Oh Izuku,” she
cried, “That’s what has me so worried about you… You don’t need to do this!”
Izuku clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to keep arguing with her but he didn’t
want to lie, either. Lying had got them here. Arguing had gotten them here.
“Mom,” he said quietly, “I’m a hero. Katsuki is in trouble and I’m part of the
reason for it. I’m going to fix this. You have to let me.”
“Why, Izuku, why do you do so much for him? He’s never done anything for you!”
“That’s not true.” Izuku disputed, “Kacchan was… He always gave me something to
reach for. He was always better, always stronger. I was always following in his
footsteps on my way to be a hero. Without Kacchan, I wouldn’t have had any
reason to keep fighting to be a hero when I was called quirkless. He pushed me
down and I had to fight against him to stay up. It made me stronger.”
Inko looked at him, mouth hanging open. Izuku flushed. He’d never explained
that to her before. Katsuki’s bullying had been hell, yes, but he had turned it
into something in order to survive. He knew Katsuki hadn’t meant to make him
stronger, but it had had happened anyway.
Pulling away, Izuku smiled at her, “Would you mind making me something to eat?
I can take a little break from my research. But I’ve got to get back to it
soon, okay?”
Inko wiped her eyes, looking at him with worry and weariness. “Will you please
talk to the police? They said they would come back and get your statement about
Friday.”
“I don’t want to talk to them. I want to eat and get back to my work. Please,
can we not talk about that? Just for a little while longer?”
Inko closed her eyes but nodded. “Okay,” she said softly, “What would you like
to eat?”
“Anything is fine,” he said. “I’m going to shower first.” He gave her another
quick hug before she got shakily to her feet. Izuku watched her walk away, his
smile dropping from his expression.
He turned back to his laptop and frowned at the article there. It wasn’t much
more useful than the previous ones he’d found and read but… He had hope. And
some time still.
“I’m going to find you,” he muttered, scrolling to the bottom at the blurry
picture attached to the article. “You’re the key to this, I know it.”
Grimly smiling, Izuku got up and headed into the bathroom.
***** I'm not in the world you're in *****
Chapter Notes
     my god. all the comments i ... i will reply to some of them
     eventually they are just vERY overwhelming and gosh i j u s t
     Thank all of you, seriously. i know it's been a Hell of A Wait since
     the last four chapters, sob, but thats how thursday-saturday usually
     is for me.
     I hope you don'd mind we're going to have a rather OC-heavy chapter
     next time. Almost all the OCs belong to Kattenprinsen, my co-author
     on Distinction and my beloved beta, to whom you should shower with
     thanks and love as well because half of my writing is because of them
     or for them. This one's for you, bby.
Daybreak came too early. With it, came the demands of life; waking, dressing,
eating, travelling to school.
Izuku trudged up the sidewalk, his bag hanging from his shoulder and his
attention focused on putting one foot in front of the other. At the end of it
all, he’d managed to snag a few hours of sleep early in the morning after a
sleepless Saturday and tense, research filled Sunday. Weariness clung to his
mind, hand in hand with a grogginess that demanded him to close his eyes and
catch a few nods of sleep. Did it matter that he was walking? No, of course
not. At least, not to his exhausted brain.
Yawning so wide his jaw cracked, Izuku rubbed at his eyes with one hand. He
lifted his head, keeping an eye on the path ahead so he didn’t run into the
back of anyone.
What ended up catching his eye was two familiar students in matching uniforms
standing opposite two men in white shirts, coats and ties.  Suits,  his eyes
picked up immediately. They dropped down to the shoes,  comfortable.  Then went
back up to their heads,  utilitarian cuts.
Izuku’s stomach dropped. His exhaustion was suddenly gone, burned up by the
spike of adrenaline. He picked up his pace, first a jog and then a run until he
was there. He arrived just in time to hear Ochako say, “...always been like
that, though! Oh! Hi Izuku!”
“Hey,” he said to her, “Hi Tenya,” he added for his taller friend. Tenya gave
him a greeting in reply but Izuku couldn’t linger on that. He turned to face
the cops- detectives it looked like- with a frown set on his face. “Can I help
you?”
“You must be Midoriya Izuku,” said the taller man, “I’m detective Morino and
this is my partner, detective Yamanaka.” He gestured to the blond beside him.
“We were hoping to speak to you about-”
“I have a statement prepared,” Izuku said. He’d discussed with a few people
online about how to handle this situation. After avoiding the cops all Sunday,
he expected them to show up at school. He hadn’t expected to find them talking
to Ochako and Tenya, though.  I should have,  he thought, lifting his chin
slightly.  Why wouldn’t they question my friends- they know Kacchan too, after
all.
“All right,” Yamanaka said, “If you want to come with us-”
“No thank you. I need to go to class.” The last thing he wanted was to make
even more of a scene by going anywhere with these detectives. It was bad enough
that a few students were passing by, walking slowly so they could catch every
word spoked.
The detectives exchanged a look and then Morino took out a notepad, “What is
your statement?”
“I gave consent during and after the act. I do not want to press charges. No
one else knows anything or was involved so please do not harass them for
information.” Izuku declared, speaking clearly, firmly. “Please just leave.”
“Izuku!” Ochako exclaimed behind him.
Tenya cleared his throat, “Izuku, these men are only doing their job-”
“If they were doing their job,” Izuku snapped, without turning around to look
at his friend, “They would be going after the asshole who used his quirk on me,
not the one who helped me get out of it.” The silence behind him was enough to
tell him that his terse reaction had shocked both of his friends.
“We’re doing everything we can to find the culprit,” Morino said with what
Izuku assumed was an attempt at a calming smile. He didn’t soften under the
expression, though. “If you’re quite certain about your statement-”
“I am,” Izuku interjected.
“-then we have the answer to what we wanted to know. Thank you.” They shared
another indecipherable look before stepping back. “If we have any more
questions, we’ll be sure to contact you.” Izuku watched them go with relief.
When he saw them get into his car, he let out a grateful sigh and turned
around.
Immediately, Ochako stepped in front of him. “Izuku, what was that about!? Why
were those detectives talking to us about Bakugou? What happened between you
two? Did he hurt you or something?”
“You really should have been more cooperative with the police,” Iida said with
an adjustment to his glasses. “As heroes we have to work with them in many
cases, not just to turn over villains. Cultivating a negative relationship will
only be detrimental to future effectiveness in our careers.”
“Nothing happened between Kacchan and I,” Izuku said to Ochako, trying to
pacify her with a smile. “I promise, everything is fine between us. And I know,
Tenya, I do. But they had the wrong idea about some things and I didn’t want
that to continue.”
“If nothing happened,” Ochako said, putting her hands on her hips, “Then what
did they have the wrong idea about?”
“Nothing!” Izuku claimed. “Look, it’s going to be class any minute now and I
really need to talk to someone before then. I’ll see you two in the classroom,
okay?” He flashed them a bright smile before bounding past. The general
education classrooms were farther in than the heroics ones, so he needed to be
quick if he was going to reach Hitoshi in time to have more than a thirty
second conversation.



 
He left Ochako and Tenya behind, where they shared a look before Ochako
narrowed her eyes, spun to face the school and began a march for their class.
“Well,” she said, “If Izuku doesn’t want to talk,  Bakugou  is going to.” Tenya
followed close at her heels, frowning in concern.
 
===============================================================================
 
Katsuki sat with his chin in his palm, his eyes barely open and his ear full of
Eijirou’s and Denki’s chattering. They had spent the weekend playing their game
and it was all they could talk about. It was about as distracting as the trip
on Saturday had been; that is to say he would listen along for a while before
his brain distracted him with something.
This time, it distracted him with the sudden arrival of another student.
Uraraka slammed both her hands down on his desk, jerking Katsuki into full, and
now angry consciousness. He pulled his lip back to sneer obscenities at her
when she spoke first, cutting him off with her demand.
“What did you do to Izuku that was so bad the  police  came to question him
about it at school?” Both of her hand were still on his desk, and she leaned
in, clearly angry. Looming behind her was Iida, arms folded across his broad
chest and a scowl on his otherwise stupid face.
Katsuki’s brain short circuited. For a second he stared at her, numb and mute,
before his fear rose in his throat like a stone he couldn’t swallow. Angry at
being afraid, angry that he might have shown that fear, Katsuki stood up from
his seat, one palm smoking as he snarled out a reply. “I didn’t fucking do
anything to Deku. I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Oh yes you did,” she countered, not backing off in the least. Honestly, and
people thought  she  was the weak link of Izuku and his idiot squad? Her stupid
still-round face was such a misnomer. “You did something to Izuku that made him
act weird this morning! He chased off a couple of policemen, demanding they
stop asking us questions when all they wanted to know was what  your
‘relationship’ with Izuku was like!” She put up her hands, forming air-quotes
around the word relationship like even the very idea of something between them
was a lie.
Katsuki gripped the edge of his desk to keep from punching her. The desire for
violence was strong, especially since he’d barely slept all weekend, had barely
done anything at all but wait in his room or talk to people. He wanted to punch
lots of things and if Uraraka was offering herself up as a sacrifice to his
anger, then that would do just fucking fine for him.
Except it wouldn’t, not exactly, because Uraraka was Izuku’s best friend.
Uraraka cared for Izuku. Uraraka didn’t believe there was anything even
remotely possible between him and Izuku.
Not that there could be, of course, not after what had happened in his house.
Their parents knew, now, and would keep them separated. It was only a matter of
time before the school was contacted and there was an attempt made to shuffle
either him or Izuku down to the other class.
“Nothing. Fucking. Happened.” He said, just hopeful enough that Izuku would
back him up when asked.
“Izuku indicated to the police that whatever  did  happen required consent on
his part and implied that his actions were the result of a quirk, which
suggests that it was not anything to do with your quirk or his quirk. Neither
your quirk nor his requires consent for  activation, use or follow up.” Iida
said, stepping up to box Katsuki in from the other side. He looked intensely
serious, his expression firm as he stared Katsuki down. Really, Katsuki missed
the annoying but ultimately useless way he’d shout and boss and reprimand like
a fucking high strung school teacher. A cool headed, analytical Iida was more
of a problem now than ever before.
Katsuki grit his teeth. “If anything like that  did  happen, which I’m not
fucking saying that it did, you dumb shits, but  if  it did… do you really
think it’s any of your fucking business what happens after school between Deku
and I?”
“I  knew  it,” Uraraka said with the same intense fervor as Inko had, only two
days before. Katsuki felt his tongue fuse to the roof of his mouth, seeing
Inko’s fierce expression -sans the tears- overlaid Uraraka’s in his mind. She
continued where he couldn’t speak, “You did something to Izuku. What did you
do? Why do you keep bullying him? We’re third years, Bakugou! We’re going to
graduate and be heroes soon! Can’t you start acting like an adult even just a
little bit?”
“You don’t know anything, you stupid bitch,” Katsuki’s rage was so hot he could
feel it burning under his skin. These were words he’d wanted to shout at Inko,
at his mother, at everyone involved, even Izuku and his stupid bright hope.
“None of you know or understand a fucking thing about me or fucking Deku. So
just keep your damn nose out of our fucking business or else I’ll blast it the
hell off your damn face.”
Uraraka didn’t back down.  She’s spent too much time with Izuku,  Katsuki
thought as she glared at  him, one hand in front of her with her fingers
spread. It was a gesture she often did before getting ready to fight. She’d
honed her reflexes to be able to strike with her hand as fast as a snake
because getting that first touch often meant victory for her. Izuku was good
for confidence and strategy building. He was damn smart and too helpful.
Katsuki could barely stand it when he went crazy over some new display of a
quirk because Izuku would light up like the shitty little ball of sunlight he
was and shine for anyone to see.
Part of Katsuki wanted to take Izuku and shove him in a goddamn tower like in a
fucking fairy tale, but he didn’t. That would make Izuku upset and lonely and…
Katsuki had already taken his chance at friends away from him once. He wasn’t
going to take away his actual friends now.
“Bring it on,” Uraraka said, her tone low as she delivered the challenge. “It’s
not gonna be like the last time, Bakugou. If it’s to protect Izuku, there’s no
way in hell you’re ever going to defeat me.”
“Woah, woah, woah,” Eijirou said, sliding up on Katsuki’s side, “Everyone needs
to chill the fuck out.” He put his hands up placatingly, but not touching
either one of them. “Why don’t we just ask Midoriya if anything happened?”
“He’s just going to lie about it again,” Uraraka said, “He claims everything is
fine, but if that were true he wouldn’t look the way he does!”
How does he look?  Katsuki wanted to know immediately.  Did this weekend
destroy his fucking future like it did mine? It’s only a matter of time until
it comes out… why am I even fighting it still?
He tightened his hands into fists as Eijirou asked what he couldn’t bring
himself to.
“It’s like finals week all over again,” Uraraka said, looking at the redhead
but not lowering her hand. Her eyes kept flicking to Katsuki as if she expected
him to burst into action at the slightest provocation. Of course he  could,
and maybe he even would have if he didn’t have the edge of exhaustion pulling
at him again.
The excitement wasn’t enough to keep him awake, not after all the stress from
the weekend. Fuck, he just wanted to curl up and sleep for twenty years, and by
then all of this would be ancient history for all of them…
“Class,” their teacher said interrupting Uraraka’s explanation of Izuku’s
morning appearance. As they stepped into the room, Izuku ducked in behind them.
He saw them clustered together, though quickly dispersing, and gave a little
smile and a wave. Uraraka waved back, Eijirou gave a little grin and Iida
nodded.
But Izuku’s eyes were on Katsuki. He knew they were because he could feel them
like he always did. Izuku was smiling at him as though everything were-
No, wait. That wasn’t a usual smile, was it? There was a bit of pink on his
cheeks as he took his seat, ducking his head for a moment as he passed Katsuki
to whisper, “Don’t worry, everything’s fine! Just like I said.”
Katsuki couldn’t help but hiss back, “So you said before you blurted it out in
front of our fucking parents too.”
“That was an accident,” Izuku said as he took his seat next to Katsuki. Their
teacher was starting class, but he still continued in a soft tone, “I can’t
think straight when you’re on top of me like that, Kacchan.”
Smoke rose from Katsuki’s clenched fist. He wished, really wished, that his
ears didn’t burn with a blush the way he felt they were doing. “I am going to
murder  you.”
Izuku, with his stupid, beautiful face, only smiled at him in reply.
 
===============================================================================
 
At lunch, Izuku could no longer duck Ochako’s questions or Tenya’s concern.
Even Shouto had started to pester him, though he did it with pointed looks that
passed between him and Katsuki and frowns that were more serious than his usual
expression. He got his food with his friends, laughing nervously as Ochako
frowned at him. “We’re worried, Izuku,” she said when they sat together at the
table. “Things have been quiet for a while but that was the police this
morning!”
“We just want assurance that you are all right,” Tenya said.
“I am!” Izuku insisted.
“Then why do you look like you went on a study bender this weekend?” Shouto
asked, “We don’t have any tests this week at all. It’s mostly a physical
training week. You need to be rested to work well.”
“I’ll sleep tonight, promise,” Izuku smiled, not answering the question.
“That’s  not  the point and you know it,” Ochako said firmly. “It’s the
phrasing you used with the cops. That’s what bothers me. I want to know why you
said that specifically to them.”
“I didn’t hear what he said,” Shouto asked, “Could you repeat it exactly?”
Ochako bit her lip, obviously trying to remember.
“Guys, really, there’s no need for all of this,” Izuku tried again. When had
his friends become so determined? It made him feel amazing that they cared so
much about him and were so worried they kept pushing but… If he didn’t get them
to stop he might just burst with the information. He had, after all, had  sex.
As far as he knew, he was the first of their group to have done so.
He just had to figure his way out of the resulting mess so he could get to do
it again.
“He said he gave consent during and after the fact,” Iida said, remembering the
words with remarkable ease. He tapped the side of his milk carton as he spoke,
“And that he didn’t want to press charges against Bakugou.”
“Guys, I’m right here,” Izuku said, “You don’t need to discuss like I’m not…”
“If you want to participate in this conversation,” Ochako said, “Then just tell
us what happened so we can stop worrying about it.”
They stared at him expectantly. Izuku swallowed.
“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said from behind them. The other three froze in
surprise before turning, but by then Izuku had already spun around to grin at
their guest.
“Hitoshi!” He beamed. “Hey! What’s up?”
Hitoshi gave him a little nod and held up his phone, “I posted that link to
your article, Izuku. One of my followers thinks they can help you out with
your, ah, search. Do you … Can we talk privately?”
“Sure,” Izuku got up.
“Izuku!” Ochako exclaimed after him.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, “this will only take a minute!” He waved her
off, following Hitoshi to the windows, where they could speak alone. The noise
of the cafeteria was enough that Izuku was confident their whispering wouldn’t
be overheard by any auditory enhancement quirks. “You said you have a follower
who can help?”
“Yeah,” Hitoshi said, looking at his phone. He was scrolling or tapping on it
while he spoke, “I read your article and it reminded me of one I’d seen a few
weeks ago. So I posted it and then went to look for the one I remembered. It
turns out it was from one of my mutuals- Pocky is their name. They occasionally
post stuff like this from another blog, a local news one based out of a small
community organization. They cover different areas of the city, and your home
neighborhood is in that area.
“Here, look,” He turned his phone around and showed it to Izuku. It was a well
designed site and Izuku recognized it from his research the night before.
“Oh,” he said, “I think I might have read that article you mentioned. I was on
this site yesterday because they have a lot of information on some of the less
flashy villain attacks.”
Hitoshi gave him a worried frown, brows pressed together, “About that… Izuku,
are you really okay?”
Izuku blinked and then nodded. He felt himself grinning and didn’t bother to
stop it. “It wasn’t exactly how I wanted ...that to go but… It was with
Kacchan. And that was what mattered the most.”
Hitoshi stared at him in silence for a moment; his concerned expression didn’t
change. After that passed, he sighed and shook his head, “Sometimes I think I
understand you and then you say stuff like that. I’ll never see what you do in
Bakugou, but as long as you’re happy and he isn’t hurting you, I’ll support
you.” He gave a small smile, glancing away as he added in a mutter, “We’re
friends, after all.”
“Thank you,” Izuku said with complete sincerity. It wasn’t going to be this
easy with the rest of his friends and he knew that, but, well, Hitoshi was a
bit different that way. “So you think Pocky can help me?”
“Pocky says they can. They messaged me shortly after I posted that, wanting to
know a bit more about it. Turns out they went through the link to your own blog
and read through the relevant stuff and they think they can help.” Hitoshi
said, tapping his phone screen again. “I’ve been chatting with them for the
last little while. I wanted to know if you want me to message your contact
information to them.”
“Please do. The faster I can get this done, the better off everything will be.”
Hitoshi gave him that Concerned Look again. This time, he leaned in when he
lowered his voice, obviously wary of being overheard. “Izuku, this isn’t… This
is the kind of thing that gets you kicked out of hero school. This is
vigilantism.”
“I know,” Izuku said.
Hitoshi stared him in the eyes as he said, “Is it worth it? Is  he  worth it?”
Izuku grinned.
“He is.”
 
===============================================================================
 
“Heeey, earth to Katsuki” Eijirou said, waving his hand in front of Katsuki’s
face. It was the hand waving that caught his attention. Katsuki blinked and
turned to look at him.
“What the fuck is it?” Katsuki snapped. He jabbed his food angrily, taking
another bite.
“I don’t want to be like Uraraka this morning,” Eijirou began, “But you’ve been
staring at Midoriya like… all day. And you’re glaring bullets at that kid he’s
talking to right now… Is… Did something happen this weekend?”
“You were acting weird Saturday too,” Denki chimed in, completely
unnecessarily. Katsuki glared at him but he was an idiot and therefore
impervious to that look. They were also sort of friends so that made him even
more resistant. Katsuki was more than a little pissed off that these two
managed to be the friends he’d made in his stupid class. “Hanging out with us
and getting all jumpy about girl-gossip.”
Eijirou nodded, “We just want to make sure that you two are cool. You and
Miroriya, I mean. I know how you’re into him and-”
“What?” Katsuki cut him off with a shout.
“I-uh- I mean, look, it’s not super obvious to everyone, but I’ve been your
best friend for three years, Katsuki!” Eijirou said, laughing nervously, “At
some point you recognize the signs, you know? You hate it when we talk about
him, but you stare at him constantly and sometimes when you  do  talk about him
it’s always with this weird expression like-”
“Hey,” Denki said thoughtfully, “Maybe he didn’t know he liked Midoriya?”
Katsuki slammed his hand on the table so hard all three of their lunch trays
jumped and the kids down the table, who had been staring, flinched back. “Shut
the fuck up,” he demanded between clenched teeth. “Shut your fucking mouths.”
Eijirou elbowed Denki in the side when he opened his mouth to say something.
Grinning, Eijirou went back to eating, but the glint in his eye told Katsuki
that he might as well have said he  did  have feelings for Izuku.
Katsuki glanced back to the window to check on Izuku’s conversation with the
brainwashing kid only to see they had both vanished from the spot. Immediately,
his gaze went to Izuku’ table, where his three shitty friends were eating, but
they were just talking amongst themselves without Izuku there.
Frowning, he went back to his own food.  Probably went to the bathroom or some
shit,  Katsuki thought. Immediately, his mind suggested that he hadn’t gone
alone.  After all, he’d been standing awfully close to brainwashing fucker and
had been smiling that stupid, idiot smile while they whispered and-
Katsuki stood abruptly. “I’ll be back.” He stalked out of the cafeteria, headed
towards the bathroom. Eijirou called out something affirming behind him but he
ignored it.
It was weird, walking down the hall to the bathroom. He felt almost as if his
heart was leaping in his chest, unable to calm down. Surely he wouldn’t find
anything. Surely it was a misunderstanding. Hell, Izuku might have just gone to
that kid’s table, not out somewhere with him. Had Katsuki even looked? No. He
hadn’t. This was all going to be some misunderstand-
The cafeteria was on the ground floor, not far from the entrance to the school.
There were windows along the hallway that Katsuki walked, headed towards the
nearest bathroom. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw some movement
flashing. Was someone out in the yard? Maybe the paparazzi was attempting to
get over the gates again. They were closed during the school day to prevent
just anyone from entering or exiting.
Katsuki stood at the window, staring as he saw a dark head of hair attached to
a surprisingly quick body dashing across the yard. Was that…? But he’d only
looked away for a few minutes, surely. Not long enough to- but Izuku was so
quick these days-
The student with dark hair leaped over the wall, one hand catching the top of
it so they could land on their feet on the other side. They jumped with ease,
not unsurprising for some heroes, and definitely something he’d seen Izuku do
before. But that couldn’t have been him. It was the middle of a school day. His
bag was still in the classroom. His lunch was on his table.
He wouldn’t just leave school like that. There wasn’t anything in the whole
world as important to Izuku as hero school. Nothing and no one.
Katsuki turned away, slowly, and began to walk back to the cafeteria. He had a
feeling he wouldn’t find Izuku in the restroom. Other than that… Katsuki didn’t
know how he was feeling at all.
And it’s only Monday,  he lamented, rubbing at his face.  This week is going to
be hell.
***** selling daylight for gasoline *****
Chapter Notes
     And here is the OC heavy chapter. Kagaya and Pocky are OCs of my
     beta, Kattenprinsen. Gomiko is my own.
     If you get around to reading my other longer bnha fics, you'll be
     seeing more of these three. Please enjoy~
Izuku slowed his steps to a stop as he approached the small cafe. It was an
unassuming storefront with a light blue awning over some outdoor seating. There
were a few people outside, chatting and enjoying their lunch together. Izuku
felt conspicuous as he walked past them. He’d taken off his uniform jacket and
his tie, but while the latter fit nicely into a pocket, the former he had
draped over an arm.
Maybe leaving during the middle of lunch wasn’t such a good idea,  he thought
as he pulled open the door to the  Cat’s Cradle Cafe.  But it was too late,
now. He was there and, well, his contact would be there too.  Besides,  he
consoled himself,  it’s not like it’s a shady back alley deal. We’ll be in
public, in the open, during the middle of the day! Nothing could go wrong.
Deliberately, Izuku did not think about the few times that, during the middle
of the day, things had definitely gone very wrong. He wasn’t fifteen anymore.
He was more aware of the people around him. Someone like Shimura wouldn’t sneak
up on him again.
“Welcome!” Greeted a hostess, “Is it just you today?”
“Ah,” Izuku smiled, “I’m actually here to meet someone? Uh, their name is
Pocky-chan?”
“Oh!” said the woman, clapping her hands together. “Of course. You must be
Izuku. Please come this way.” She turned and lead him further into the cafe.
They passed several tables with couples at them and another server carrying a
tray of dessert drinks and cakes. Izuku regretted leaving his lunch behind,
mostly uneaten, at the sight of one of the strawberry shortcakes. They passed
through most of the dining area on the way to a back room.
Izuku’s heart jumped to a higher tempo as the woman opened the door and bowed,
gesturing for him to enter. He did so, trying not to look as nervous as he
felt.
The private room held a round table with several chairs in it. In one there was
a teenaged girl wearing a pink sweater and plucking at the edges of a
handkerchief folded in front of her on the table. She looked slightly familiar,
but he couldn’t quite place her in his memory. Next to her sat someone with
pink hair swept over one eye and robotic headphones on their ears- similar to
Kaminari’s in his hero outfit. They had a laptop in front of them; their hands
lightly resting on the keyboard.
At the other side of the table sat a tall, broad shouldered man with dark blue
hair; cropped short on the sides, longer and spiked at the top like a mohawk.
He had his back to Izuku, but turned around in his chair to look at him when
the door opened. The man wore casual clothing, like the rest of them, but the
thing that caught Izuku’s eye was the bright blue and red All Might wristband
on his left arm.
The man rose to his feet, “Midoriya Izuku, I presume?” He held out his hand to
shake.
Izuku nodded and shut the door behind himself. He stepped in to shake the man’s
hand. “And you are?” He hadn’t envisioned Pocky to be so… big.
“My name is Gomiko,” the man said with a friendly smile. “With me is Pocky,” he
gestured to the one with pink hair, who waved shyly back, “And Ami,” the girl
in pink flushed and smiled. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”
“Of course,” Izuku said. Gomiko gestured to a chair and he sat down in it
gratefully, feeling a little less nervous now. To Pocky, he said, “You
mentioned that with my help you could catch this guy?”
Pocky flicked a pink eyed glance to Gomiko. He took his seat again, smiling.
“We’ve been after this man for a while now. Although we haven’t had much luck
in catching him, we’ve been able to determine some of his patterns of
behavior.”
Pocky lifted their fingers as they counted off, “He attacks on the weekends. He
preys on victims who do not know him and who are alone. He usually attacks in
the late afternoon to early evening, despite frequenting high traffic area. His
quirk can influence as well as control someone’s attraction level, but it's his
natural charisma that gets him close enough to use it in the first place.”
Ami twisted the handkerchief even more in her hands. “He didn’t seem like such
a threatening guy…”
Izuku blinked in surprise. Looking at Ami more closely, he was able to
recognize her. “You’re that girl from Friday,” he said, “The one that I saved.”
Ami ducked her head. Her hair fell in her face slightly, “Yes. I w-wanted to
thank you for that. I, um, Didn’t realize that he’d caught you instead?” She
glanced towards Pocky, who looked to Gomiko, who answered the silent chain of
questions.
“Ami reached out online on a forum searching for missing connections, which is
how Pocky found her,” Gomiko explained, “When they found out about your
article, Pocky told Ami we could contact you and asked if she wanted to. She’s
also read your article and agrees with what you said about what happened. She
also confirmed the sketch you made of the man to be an accurate one.”
Izuku nodded. Honestly, he hadn’t thought anything of the girl he’d rescued at
the time. He’d been grateful she got away and had hoped she’d not gotten hurt
or influenced but then  he’d  been attacked by that quirk and… Yeah. There
hadn’t been much time to think about the girl who’d gotten away when he’d had
to deal with Katsuki and everyone else all weekend.
Smiling at Ami, he said, “I’m glad you got away. He didn’t, um, hurt you or
anything, right?”
She shook her head, “No. I mean. I think he started to, but it wasn’t as bad as
you described in your article.”
Izuku flushed. He hadn’t gone into complete detail about what had happened but,
well, he’d said enough to explain that there had been sex involved. It was
partially embarrassing, partially exciting knowing that other people knew.
Sure, Hitoshi knew it as well, but they were friends; a different sort of
friends than he was with Ochako or Tenya or Shouto. Hitoshi was a bit odd
himself and so he accepted Izuku’s idosycrocies with only a little
exasperation.
Which, considering the way his other friends had all but interrogated him about
the police and Katsuki that morning, was refreshing. He could only imagine how
badly the others would take it when he told them he was in love with Katsuki.
Especially since he was still getting those verbal threats from the blond.
The door opened abruptly and in walked a young woman with hair the color of
blue and pink cotton candy, a bag slung over a shoulder, and a large orange cat
in her arms. She grinned as she took in the sight at the table and proudly sat
down beside Gomiko. “Found ‘im,” she said, holding up the cat. He dangled from
her hands, giving them a slow, completely unphased look. “It’s Shoulder Cat.”
Gomiko scratched Shoulder Cat under the chin in greeting. Purring, he closed
green eyes and seemed to relax even more, drooping so much that the new member
of their group nearly lost her grip. “Hell,” she muttered, “What a goop.”
Clearing his throat, Gomiko said, “Izuku, Ami, this is Kagaya.”
“And Shoulder Cat,” Kagaya added, lowering the cat to the table and stroking
its belly. Shoulder Cat lay passively, purring with its eyes closed.
“And Mason, the shoulder cat,” Gomiko amended. “Kagaya, did you get what I
asked for?”
“Of course,” she replied, “We’re all set and ready on my end.”
He nodded to her and then turned back to Izuku. Though there was a cat being
played with on the table and he still had a faint smile on his face, it was
clear he was serious from the intense look in his eyes. “Izuku, in your article
you expressed a desire to help catch this man. We are aware that the police
have been searching for him, however, they’ve been doing so without any success
for several weeks. In the meantime, he has continued to prey upon young women
in multiple areas of the city. What I would like to know his how serious you
are about finding him and bringing him to justice.”
Izuku sat up straight, “He can’t be allowed to keep hurting people like this. I
did a lot of research myself. I can’t know for sure how many people he’s hurt,
but even if it was just one person he needs to be stopped. I know that Pro
Heroes tend to go after crime while it’s happening- that’s what they’re really
good at and it’s how they get noticed by the media.” He glanced to Ami for a
second, catching her eye. She was a little wide eyed as she stared back at him,
but was smiling encouragingly.
Making a fist, Izuku continued, “But being a Hero isn’t just about being seen
when helping people.” He remembered All Might, standing on the beach before
him, grinning, and knew that he would have approved of what Izuku said next,
“Being a Hero is a service to the people. You’re here to protect them whether
or not you get seen by the media. You have to help people wherever and whenever
you can. I’m not going to let this man get away now that I know about him. He
needs to be brought to justice and I’m willing to do what I can to help.”
Kagaya gave a smirk to Gomiko, her golden eyes flashing. Gomiko nodded to Izuku
and sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “Good. I was
hoping you would say that.” He, too, smiled. “We’re going to need your help to
do this.”
Izuku glanced to Ami. “Are you helping too?”
She nodded sharply; her fingers tightly wrapped around her handkerchief. “What
he almost did to me was scary enough… I can’t imagine what it must be like for
the girls he actually… And you,” she looked up at Izuku, and though her
knuckles were white, her gaze was steady. “If you can still face him after what
he made you go through… I can do it too. I can help.”
Kagaya’s smirk broadened into a full grin. Gomiko nodded to Ami. “We’ll need
your help as well. This guy is probably wary after what happened Friday. He
almost got caught, but he also didn’t get what he was looking for. If you two
can follow my lead, we’ll be able to stop him, together.”
“I can,” Ami said immediately.
“Me too,” Izuku said. It would be a little different, following someone else’s
lead. In classes it was often left up to the students to figure out what to do.
Not only that but most action plans had to be developed in the moment.
Flexibility in the face of unknown situations was incredibly important to
developing heroes, or so his teachers always told him. A rigid plan could be
easily broken and if you couldn’t bounce back from that, it was likely you’d
fail to save someone or catch the villain.
Gomiko gestured to Pocky, who turned their laptop around, but kept one hand
close to the side. Izuku blinked as he realized that Pocky’s hand glowed with
the sharp lines of a circuit board. The lines faded from blue to green and back
again; the mark only appeared on the hand that touched the side of the laptop,
clearly indicating the use of a quirk since the other arm was bare of any
lights or lines. Windows on the screen organized themselves into a neat little
stack as he watched, although no one touched the keyboard. Izuku’s fingers
itched for his notebook but it was back in his classroom. He’d just have to
remember what he saw to write down later.
(Of  course  these people would have new and interesting quirks. Why hadn’t he
thought of that at all yet? Izuku burned with curiosity. He couldn’t see
anything particularly different about them, besides Pocky’s electronic ears and
the possible connection there. What kind of quirk did Ami have? What was Kagaya
able to do? What about Gomiko? They were so confident they could catch this man
with the lust quirk and stop him- Did they do this kind of thing often? Is that
what Hitoshi meant by vigilantism? Did he know what they did? Did he know they
were vigilantes? Would he know about their quirks?)
He grew more confident that this was the sort of thing Gomiko and his
companions did often as the man went through their plan. He had prepared
responsibilities for everyone in the group. It was clear that he understood the
best way to use everyone’s quirk, and that he knew what their quirks were, too.
Izuku was a little flattered when Gomiko praised him for his skill- making a
reference between the first and third year sport festivals and how he hadn’t
injured himself at all in the most recent one as compared to the first.
So caught up in the planning, that Izuku didn’t think to ask  how  Gomiko knew
all of these things until the end, when Kagaya put her bag on the table.
Shoulder Cat had meandered over to Gomiko halfway through the discussion to
climb his way up to the man’s shoulder and drape across it like a large, fuzzy
orange scarf. Gomiko didn’t even bat an eye, as though this sort of thing were
completely normal.
Kagaya pulled out a plastic covered case from the bag and slid it over to
Gomiko. He flipped it open to show four small earbuds inside. Izuku blinked,
surprised to see the looked much like the ones used at Yuuei. Ami leaned
forward, obviously curious. Had she never seen such things before? It was
likely, actually, if she didn’t go to a hero highschool.
Izuku held out his hand and took the communication device from Gomiko. “You’re
really well prepared for this,” Izuku said as he turned it over in his fingers.
Except for the light shifting from blue to green, much like the lights on
Pocky’s arm, it looked identical to the ones from Yuuei. “I honestly didn’t
expect to be doing this so soon. I didn’t think I’d have any help, either.”
“Like I said,” Gomiko reached up to put his comm in his own ear. “We’ve been
searching for this guy for a long time. We’ve had some decent information on
him but we haven’t been able to make a move yet.”
“Why not?” Izuku asked, “You know so much. If you had turned it over to the
police, surely they would have been able to catch this guy.”
“And give them the chance to let him get away on some fuck up?” Kagaya said
with a roll of her eyes. “No way, Mint-chan. If we’re bringing him in it’s with
undeniable proof that he’s a criminal.”
“But we’re just going to catch him and give him to the police with the evidence
you gathered, right?” Izuku continued, “I mean, what else can we do but that?
Ami and I can identify him as the lust quirk user who attacked us, but…” his
voice faded off as Kagaya started to cackle. She prodded Gomiko’s arm; poking
him with the index finger of both hands repeatedly.
“Tell him!” She grinned, “Tell him, Gominii!”
Gomiko batted her hands away like a cat batting at someone petting them.
“You’re a smart kid, Izuku. And you’re one training to be a hero too so you
understand the kind of relationships that heroes typically have with police…
and the law.”
Izuku tensed up slightly. He glanced from Gomiko to Ami and Pocky. Pocky didn’t
look surprised, or even like they were paying attention with their laptop
turned back around and their fingers working over that keyboard. Ami was
blinking, obviously a little curious but not worried. “I do,” he said to
Gomiko. “Heroes are hired or start agencies to do hero work, capturing villains
using their quirks to cause damage and commit crimes.”
“And those who work outside of agencies… Well they’re people like us.” Gomiko
gestured to himself, Kagaya and Pocky. The serious expression he wore was
strangely contrasted with the cat draped over his shoulder and arm, the orange
tail flicking back and forth alongside his neck. “We do what Pro Heroes do. We
catch the ones that fall through the cracks. But since we often can’t catch the
villains or vigilantes in the act, we have to gather extra evidence. We can’t
rely on public knowledge or media coverage or a large amount of witnesses. We
have to provide undeniable proof.”
“Which we can,” Kagaya said confidently.
“How?” Ami asked. “Will you get him to confess?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Gomiko said. “Yes.”
Uneasily, Izuku frowned. He recalled Hitoshi’s words from earlier. He had known
then that going after the man with the lust quirk wouldn’t be within the law.
It was vigilantism, just as he’d been told. And he was still willing to do it-
Katsuki was worth it and Izuku had figured he’d have enough time to devise a
way to not get caught in the act- but… This wasn’t exactly what he’d expected.
Would Ami be safe? Would the others get caught? He didn’t want all of them to
be brought down by this. It wouldn’t be good if  he  got caught either but at
least he’d faced that possibility yesterday when he started this.
Gomiko’s hand was firm and heavy on Izuku’s shoulder, startling him out of his
mumbling thoughts. He blinked, looking up into the man’s face. “Izuku, you’re a
good kid,” he said, “And you’re going to be an incredible hero some day.”
“You already are a hero,” Ami murmured, making Izuku blush and glance to her.
“Focus on your part of the plan and don’t worry too much about what happens
afterwards,” Gomiko said, dragging Izuku’s attention back. He gave a friendly
squeeze to his shoulder. “We’ve been doing this for several years now. We know
what we’re doing. Trust me. I won’t let any one of you get arrested. Hell, none
of us are even going to get near the police station when all is said and done.”
Izuku nodded. Gomiko’s plan was a solid one. It kind of reminded him of some of
Katsuki’s battle plans- it was clear they both had a good head for strategy.
Although he might not be super interested in meeting someone like Gomiko…
Except… I don’t really know how Kacchan feels about vigilantes, do I? Should I
ask? I probably should. Especially since I’m going through with this.
And he was going through with it too. He put the communication device in his
ear. There was a faint beeping noise and then Pocky’s voice was in his ear.
“Give a thumbs up if you can hear this correctly.”
Izuku did so. Pocky returned the gesture from across the table, nodding
slightly. To Gomiko, they said, “Everyone’s connected.”
Gomiko nodded. There was a faint buzzing sound and he reached into the pocket
of his jacket to pull out a phone. With an eyebrow arched in surprise, he said,
“Kagaya, hand out the rest of the gear. I need to take this.” He removed his
comm before getting up. Gomiko answered the phone as he stepped out the room,
but all Izuku heard was a, “What’s up, Hound?”
Then the door shut behind him and Kagaya, grinning, was digging out more things
from her bag. “We can’t have you two running around in school uniforms during
this, so Gominii had me pick out a few things for you to wear!” The first
things Izuku saw were the masks, four of them, all different types of clown
faces. After that came clothing to change into, which, considering all he had
with him was his Yuuei uniform, was a good idea.
They really do have this all prepared,  he thought as he took the clothes from
Kagaya. Then he saw what she’d brought him put his face in his hand.  Yeah.
Prepared but crazy. What is this?
“The bathrooms are out the door and to the right,” Kagaya said with a grin. “Go
ahead and change there, Mint-chan!”
“It’s Izuku,” he said as he gathered up the change of clothes and went for the
door.
“Mhm, hurry up, Mint-chan!” Kagaya reiterated.
Sighing, Izuku rolled his eyes and headed out of the room.
 
===============================================================================
 
As an older, more experienced class, Katsuki understood that their teachers
expected them all to be able to pair off and spar with each other without any
real complications. There were dozens of circles across the field where class A
met in their gym clothes in the too-bright afternoon light. The pairs were
chosen by random draw, as usual, and half of the class reached into a covered
box to pick out their opponent. Katsuki didn’t care who picked him out. He was
on edge and ready to throw down.
Fortunate for whoever his opponent was doomed to be, they weren’t allowed to
use quirks. It was ridiculous, or at least he thought so, considering there
would be so few times out in the field that they would be quirkless. Abilities
like Eraserhead’s weren’t that fucking common, but here they were, drilling in
hand to hand yet again.
Katsuki grit his teeth in annoyance. He had gotten better over the last few
years, as conditioning his body to fight with basic strength had increased his
ability to fight with his quirk but there were more than a few classmates whose
quirks relied more on tactics and opportunity than out and out fighting.
Of course, when Todoroki drew his name, Katsuki grinned in relief. With Half-
face as his opponent, he’d at least get a decent workout. He desperately needed
one.
Half the class, Katsuki included, had been wound up tightly ever since lunch
had ended and Izuku hadn’t returned from wherever he’d gone. Because of
classes, no one had been able to go find the brainwashing general education kid
to question. Their teachers had asked if anyone had seen where Izuku had gone,
but of course no one had.
(Katsuki remembered the dark figure leaping the wall, frozen for a moment
against the blue sky beyond, one hand on the top of the wall, but bit his
tongue and didn’t speak.)
Todoroki was his usual frigid self as they walked off to their designated
circle (number eleven). He turned to face Katsuki in the circle. Silently, they
waited for the announcement to start once the rest of the pairs were
determined. Todoroki didn’t once look away from Katsuki, just gave him that
stoic, blank expression as if Katsuki had never seen him twisted up with
emotion.
They’d gone to school together for almost three full years. Because of their
training, because of all the shit in their first year, their whole class had
seen more of each other than was typical. Katsuki had seen Todoroki on some of
his shittiest days, but the same could be said for Todoroki.
Except for this last weekend. No one saw that shit show except for fucking
Deku. And is he here right now? No.
The buzzer sounded and all around them matches started, classmates yelling and
talking as they burst into furtive action. Todoroki simply slid into a fighting
stance, eyes narrowing, as he gestured for Katsuki to approach him.
Grinning, Katsuki obliged him.
There were plenty of things that Katsuki fucking hated about Todoroki. One was
that he’d neglected his perfectly useful second good quirk for fucking years
when there were poor fucks out there that weren’t even born with  one.  Another
was that his dad had been the biggest piece of shit to All Might while the top
hero had been alive; hell, Katsuki bet there were villains who fucking liked
All Might more than Endeavor had.
He also hated the way Todoroki liked to hold himself above others, as though
that could cover up the fact that he was just as much of a shitty nerd as Izuku
and his friends. Not to mention Todoroki’s fucking  face  bothered him too. He
so embodied an icy statue whenever he faced Katsuki that what he wanted most
was to deliver an exploding palm slap.
Instead, he had to drive his fist into Todoroki’s kidney- or at least attempt
to. The bastard twisted out of the way, catching only a glancing blow from
Katsuki’s knuckle.
It didn’t once cross Katsuki’s mind to pull a punch or a kick or any ferocity
at all while dealing with Todoroki. If he couldn’t handle a few heavy hits, he
didn’t deserve to be pitted against Katsuki in the first place.
At one point they grappled, palm to palm, both straining against the grip of
the other, staring each other in the face. Todoroki was flushed with exertion,
and the red of his cheeks looked odd against the red and white of his hair. To
Katsuki’s surprise, he broke their silence with a single question, “What did
you do to Izuku?”
For half a second, Izuku’s face was in front of his eyes. Not the one from that
morning, or even the one from the park the other night. No, he saw that
flushed, glassy eyed Izuku, with his mouth hanging open. Katsuki’s abdomen
tightened at the memory. What had he done to Izuku?
Not enough,  he thought.  Not nearly enough, for all the fucking trouble I got
into because of him.
Katsuki bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to break through the thin skin.
He tasted blood in his mouth. “What the fuck are you talking about, fuckface?”
They had promised not to talk about it, hadn’t they? And so far he was fairly
confident that Izuku had only let it slip to Katsuki’s parents, but not to the
idiot’s stupid friends.
“A lunchtime he spoke to his friend and then left the cafeteria. Shinsou went
back to his table. You followed Izuku out of the room. What the hell did you do
to him? Did you put him in the infirmary again?” Todoroki pressed harder,
making Katsuki slide back a step. He twisted to the side, dislodging their
hands, and backed up a few more steps, circling around.
“I didn’t see him.” Katsuki said, “I went to the fucking bathroom. Unlike you,
fucker, my life doesn’t revolve around Deku.”
Todoroki obviously didn’t believe him. “Did you go to finish what you started
before? Ochako said you did something to Izuku. Something that the police had
to come and ask about.” He turned as Katsuki circled around him, never giving
access to his back.
Katsuki didn’t mind the standoff, though. He needed to spare some attention to
his words and his emotions. If he exploded in the wrong way about this, he’d be
the one that let the truth out. “There wasn’t anything to finish  from before.”
True. He’d finished it at the time. It wouldn’t have even become anything if
not for Izuku’s fucking mother. “So no. I just went to take a goddamn piss,
Halfie.”
“Police do not casually come to question people about someone else’s
relationship,” Todoroki said. “There’s no reason for them to ask anything of
Ochako or Tenya about how you and Izuku interact if not for the fact that you
did something  to him.” His strange, heterochromatic eyes flashed as he lashed
out not just with his words but with his body. He came forward to kick Katsuki,
snapping out the words, “You don’t  have  a relationship of any sort with
Izuku. And yet  that’s  what they came to ask about.”
Katsuki blocked the kick with one arm, catching Todoroki’s leg with his hand
and grinning at him, “Have a lot of experience with police coming over to ask
about questionable relationships, Scarface?”
Todoroki’s eyes widened for a second before he acted. Instead of pulling back,
he moved in, dislodging his leg from Katsuki’s grip that way. He followed up
the movement with a fist this time. Katsuki smirked at him, ducking out of the
way. “You’re so fucking slow. Have you still got ice in your blood?” Katsuki
taunted.
“I am going to find out what the hell you did to Izuku,” Todoroki swore. “And
I’m going to make sure you fucking pay for it.”
Katsuki grinned. He tossed his head, feeling confident, feeling like he was
leading Todoroki into making an emotion-driven mistake in their fight. “Make me
pay?” he said, “Pay for  what?  For all  you  know, Deku was fucking asking for
it.”
There as a small wisp of mist that escaped Todoroki’s mouth, a telltale sign
his ice was about to manifest. Katsuki’s grin grew only broader. It was only a
matter of time before their quirkless match turned south. For once it wouldn’t
be him who started it, and that was what mattered.  “Asking for it?”  Todoroki
hissed, his expression twisting into one of disgust. “And just what did he
fucking  ask for?”
Katsuki smirked and said nothing. He had to bite his tongue to do it, but if
that’s what it took, that’s what he did. He gestured wide with his hands, palm
up and gave an exaggerated shrug. What  did  Izuku ask for? Well that was quite
the fucking mystery, wasn’t it?
There was ice on Todoroki’s fist the next time he swung for Katsuki, but that
only made the blond grin.  Bring it on,  he thought.
Fighting with quirks was a much better use for his time than their bare fisted
scuffling from before. Katsuki let out a curse as his palm hit ice, explosion
bursting against his skin, against the ice, upon impact.
They had only half a minute at best before their teacher would come over and
stop them. Without Aizawa-sensei, their quirks could no longer be stopped from
a distance, so they had to be verbally restrained instead.
Todoroki followed up ice with fire, but as usual, the flames weren’t nearly as
controlled as his ice. His whole left arm lit up with the use of his quirk
while Katsuki hopped back and to the side with his own propulsion. Ice formed a
barrier at Todoroki’s back just as Katsuki landed on one foot and brought up a
hand to burst against his spine. Still, the force of it sent Todoroki forward
to land heavily on his knees.
Rolling, Half-and-Half got back up to his feet, a fierce determination in his
eyes. Katsuki snarled at him and went in for another hit. It wouldn’t be long
before-
He came to a screeching halt, hand upraised, explosion crackling out like a
sparkler in his palm, smoke rising from his skin, as their sensei got in his
way. Katsuki panted for breath, breathing heavier than he’d realized.
Todoroki’s ice was breaking away from his arm as he melted it with his fire.
There was nothing but hatred in his eyes.  I’m going to find out your secret,
those eyes said.  And I will ruin you with it.
Katsuki almost wanted to tell him it didn’t matter. He was already ruined. It
was only just a matter of time.
At least  he could have the satisfaction that they would never fucking know
what happened between him and Izuku. If he was forced out of Yuuei because of
this, Katsuki wasn’t going to tell a single soul  why.
It was bad enough that he knew the reason.
(All of this was because he loved Izuku.)
***** in the light of the rising sun *****
“Isn’t this exciting?” Ami’s voice came through clearly over the comms as
though she stood right at Izuku’s elbow, whispering in his ear. “I’ve never
done anything like this before. Is this what hero work is like?”
“A little bit,” Gomiko replied, faintly amused. Izuku couldn’t see either one
of them as he waited alone at the corner of a building, his hands in his
pockets, face tilted down and the hood of his jacket hanging over his head to
obscure his face. “There’s a lot less standing and waiting with real hero
work.”
Izuku blinked. “You did hero work, Gomiko? But I thought that…”
“I was always a vigilante? No. I went to a hero school too. I even got into a
decent enough agency. But that was years ago, now.” Gomiko said.
“What happened?” Izuku asked before he could stop himself.
Kagaya laughed over the comms. “ Wolf-sama  happened.”
The name meant nothing, which of course caused Izuku to ask, “Who is Wolf-sama?
If you don’t mind me asking?”
“An old friend,” Gomiko said. “We went to school together, but he dropped out
early. There were… ideological differences between what we were being taught
and what he was seeing happen in the world around us. We lost touch for a
while, but I found him again a few  years later.”
“Oh.” Izuku murmured. There was sadness in Gomiko’s words, but also this odd
feeling of respect. For some reason, the way he spoke about this Wolf-sama made
Izuku think about All Might. Izuku closed his eyes for a moment as he was swept
up in his sudden grief, again, at the loss of his mentor.
If All Might knew what I as doing, would he approve? I’m doing this to save
Kacchan and to prevent this from happening to anyone else like with Ami. This
is… This is heroic. Isn’t it? These people need help.
“I have a confirmation on our target,” Pocky’s voice was a little more
mechanical sounding than the others. Izuku wasn’t sure if that meant if the
audio just tuned itself that way or if it meant they were talking through the
electronics without actually using their voice at all. “Everyone move into
position.”
“Okay,” He whispered back. There was a current of excitement that ran through
him as he pushed off the wall and headed down the street. “I’m on the move
now.”
“Oh my god,” Ami said softly, “Oh my god. Okay. I’m going.”
“You’re doing fine,” Gomiko comforted, “Just keep walking.”
Izuku’s heart began to race as he walked quickly down the street. He reached
into the pocket of his hoodie to pull out the mask. It  was  different than the
regular work of a hero. For one, he was in the large hoodie, bright red with a
vibrant gold-trimmed blue M on the back of it instead of his tighter fitting
Deku costume. For another, the person they were after wasn’t in the middle of
committing a crime- he was on his way out to a late lunch.
Izuku entered the alley shortcut he was supposed to take, tugging his hood back
so he could slip on his mask. When it was in place, he covered his head again
and began to trot. His limbs buzzed with the lowest level of his quirk useage;
it was enough to give him higher than average speed and to add a bit more bulk
to his otherwise thin frame.
Out on the other end of the alley, he could hear Ami’s voice over the comm,
tremulous but clear as she spoke to someone not in the loop of communication.
“You got this, Ami-chan,” he murmured when he heard her take a shaky breath.
There was a bit more conversation, this time on the part of the man,  the  man,
that she was talking to. After a few seconds, Kagaya chirped over the comm.
“Hook, line and sinker.”
It was at that time that Izuku rounded the last corner of the buildings between
him and Ami. He’d only been a street or two away, far enough to not be
suspicious, close enough to get there in time. He followed Ami and the man down
the street, feeling far more nervous about this than he’d felt when he’d first
come across the bastard.
That was another difference. In heroic work, you had to move fast to prevent
further casualties or damage. As a vigilante, the action was drawn out over a
long length of time, grating against his nerves. Even if he knew that four to
one they absolutely had the upper hand on this man, it wasn’t that which made
him nervous. They also had to do this in broad daylight, without being caught,
without being noticed.
Without any proper heroes even seeing them.
Ami, ahead of him, turned a corner with the man. Izuku picked up his pace until
he was nearly running. He reached the entrance of the alley way just in time to
see Kagaya drop down from the building above between Ami and the lust quirk
man. She wore a laughing clown mask to cover her face.
“Well, well, well!” she said, “What do we have here?”
“What? Who are you?” the man stepped back. Izuku moved quietly forward. The
alley was narrow, but mostly clear of debris. He was the only thing that
blocked this exit. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for a little  vengeance.”  Kagaya snarled. She lunged forward, moving
with surprising speed and skill. The man stumbled backwards, nearly tripping
over his own feet as he yelped in surprise. He turned to flee but stopped short
when he saw Izuku standing there, hands in his hoodie, mask over his face,
silent and staring.
“Help!” he shouted, “Someone!” He turned towards Ami, “You, girl! Get hel-” his
voice cut off a she saw that Ami, too, had put on a clown mask. Hers was a
crying mask.” The weird part, for Izuku anyway, was that she wore a blue hoodie
with a gold-edged red M on it; the opposite style of his own hoodie. Again, he
wondered if All Might would approve of this. Again, he just wasn’t sure.
“How loud can you scream?” Kagaya taunted as she advanced on the man. This
time, when he stumbled, he fell onto his backside. Still, he scrambled to get
away. “Can you scream loud enough for a Pro Hero to come rescue you?”
When he came within a few feet of Izuku, the young man stepped forward and put
his foot up. The man’s backwards escape stopped as he ran into the bottom of
Izuku’s shoe. He twisted, looking up, “What do you want from me? Money? The use
of my quirk? Do you want me to turn someone for you?”
Izuku grit his teeth and drew his foot back. He kicked the man, sending him
skidding back towards Kagaya. She laughed, bright and sharp. “Oh is that what
you do with it?” she said, “You sell out the use of your quirk to other
perverts and rapists?”
“Please-” he said, pleading, “Don’t- Don’t hurt me. It’s not my fault I was
born with this ability! What else can I do with it? I was- I was doomed to
perversion!”
Anger filled Izuku’s blood with fire. “Your quirk doesn’t define you,” He said,
stepping forward. “How you use it  does.  Don’t blame something completely
under your control for how you mismanage it!” He kicked him again, huffing for
breath under his mask. It had taken him ages to overcome twitching at being
called quirkless and sometimes he still had nightmares about suddenly losing
his power, mid-fight even, and causing people harm because of it.
“Kids,” Gomiko’s voice came over the comm. “You have two minutes before the
patrol comes back through here. There was a skirmish a block over and it’s
bringing in the heat. Stop fucking with him and bring him in, Kags.”
“It’s Mint-chan who is kicking him,” Kagaya complained as she bent down and
tapped the man on the forehead. “But I hear you, Niisan.” She wriggled her
fingers in the air above the man for a second before positioning them like a
marionettist. “Upsidaisy, mister.” As she worked her hands, the man rose
jerkily to his feet.
“Mint-chan,” she said, “If you would be so kind as to mask up our friend here?”
Izuku nodded, circling around to the man’s front. He pulled out a second mask
from his pocket and placed it over the man’s face. His expression was slack,
but his eyes were enormous with fear. That was hidden under a clown mask,
however, one that was a sickly pink color and garishly colored to look like it
was weeping and smiling at the same time. He stepped back and look to Ami. She
had her hands clasped in front of herself, but with her mask on it was
impossible to tell her expression.
Gomiko’s voice came over the comm again, “Anybody need a lift?”
“Come on,” Kagaya said to the man, “Let’s go take a little ride!” She gleefully
marched the man out of the alley, moving her hands as though strings connected
his body to her hands. Ami quickly came over and Izuku followed her out of the
alley.
“That was so simple,” he whispered in disbelief. “I… Woah.”
“Oh don’t say that,” Kagaya laughed, “That’s just inviting trouble!”
“Says the girl who spreads chaos like breadcrumbs for birds.” Gomiko said as
they exited the alleyway in a quick little line. He had a car waiting for them,
the engine running and doors unlocked. Ami ducked ahead to open the door for
Kagaya, who ushered in her captive with one hand. He banged his head on the
door frame and she gave a mocking apology.
Ami turned her head to Izuku once Kagaya was inside, “After you.”
Izuku slid into the back seat. Ami shut the door on him and climbed into the
front passenger beside Gomiko. No sooner had the doors shut than a shadow
passed overhead. Gomiko, leaned forward to look up to the sky. “Just in time,”
he said, “that was Eagle Eye. She would’ve noticed something was up with the
masks for sure.”
“Eagle Eye?” He craned his head to look up, but he only saw the trailing image
of her golden-brown feathers as she crossed the sky above them. “I haven’t been
able to see her in action.”
“That’s because she’s both quick in her attacks and stays within her patrol.”
Gomiko explained this as he pulled away from the curb. “She’s a major deterrent
for crime in her area because most villain behavior kicks up quite a fuss
around it and she can spot that from a mile away.”
“I read she also has low level x-ray vision,” Izuku said as he sat back in his
seat. Beside him, Kagaya was half turned to their captive. She was fiddling
with his limbs, humming quietly when she did that. “Or heat sensitivity, though
I’m not sure which. The information isn’t very clear and she hasn’t explained
it for the public yet.”
“It’s neither,” Gomiko said, “She’s true to her hero name. It’s the motion that
catches her eye.”
“Really? Does that mean it’s her eyes that carry her quirk? I wonder if she’s
got any other physical adaptations to go along with it. She usually moves too
quick to be caught by camera alone and she never sticks around to talk to media
or anything.” Izuku said, chattering on about the heroine. It helped put him at
ease and Gomiko didn’t seem to mind the discussion while he drove.
“She’s one of the few daytime heroes that acts like an underground hero,”
Gomiko said. He turned the steering wheel, directing the car through the flow
of traffic and out of the city. “When she’s not in motion on her patrol, she
can be seen at the top of a building, but only the highest ones so it’s still
hard to get a good shot of her. When she was first starting out, she’d pose
like some of the other heroes after a fight but that stopped within the first
few years of her activity.”
“Huh?” Izuku’s fingers itched for a notebook, again. Why had he left his
notebook behind at school? He was learning so much and wanted to keep track of
everything. He couldn’t wait until he was able to talk to Tokoyami about Eagle
Eye! His classmate had a lot of respect for a fellow bird-type quirk user,
especially since she had to do her work without a companion like his. “I didn’t
know that. When did she become active? Why did she stop posing?”
“She was a year ahead of me in school,” Gomiko said. “But she didn’t enter an
agency until after I had. There was rumor she took the year abroad to perfect
her skill, but when she came back on the scene she was more than ready to work
as a heroine.”
Kagaya nudged Izuku with her knee, since her hands were busy. “I remember when
she started avoiding the media. It was a big deal. Niisan and Wolf were talking
about it for weeks!”
“What happened to her?” Izuku stuffed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie
to hide the fists he made. He hadn’t heard any of this before. He thought she’d
just been like Eraserhead, avoiding the media because it could get pretty
tedious.
“She stopped to answer a few questions one time and got mobbed by some fans.”
Gomiko said quietly. Ami, listening in, gave a little gasp. “They didn’t hurt
her but they ripped up part of her costume and one cut off one of her braids.
She lashed out, of course, and the whole thing was caught on film, but this was
almost ten years ago now. It hit media for half a day before some gas main
exploded or train derailed. However, the next time she was seen, she’d cut her
hair down to an inch and avoided touching the ground near the media line.”
Izuku blinked behind his mask. “That… Woah. I didn’t even know people did that
sort of thing.”
“Being a hero isn’t just a big responsibility, kid,” Gomiko said as he pulled
up a lone stretch of road and under a tin roof. “It’s dangerous too, and not
just because of villains or other heroes interfering. Most civilians have some
kind of quirk too and they use it without much thought in their day to day
lives. Cram enough fans into a single space and they stop thinking so much as
an individual as they do like a mob entity.” He stopped the car and parked it.
Turning around in his seat, Gomiko’s grinning mask as eerie in combination with
his words. “Pro Heroes are lost every year because of that mob mentality.
People think they deserve things from the pros that they don’t or hold grudges
against the whole of them when it was the action of one or two that maligned
them. Put a few dark tempered people in a crowd and put that crowd around a
tired hero and it’s a recipe for things getting out of hand.”
“Niisan,” Kagaya said, “Enough of the lecture, please! I want to get this guy
off my hands!” She nudged the man’s leg with her knee. “He’s struggling awfully
fierce!”
“Sorry, sorry.” Gomiko apologize. “It’ a bad habit I picked up from Wolf.”
They all got out of the car, Ami lingering behind a little bit as Gomiko went
to unlock the door and Kagaya made their captive walk in front of her in a
silly way. She tugged Izuku’s sleeve and whispered, “Do you think all that’s
true? About Eagle Eye? And her fans? I’ve never heard that either.”
Izuku shrugged. “I don’t know… but if there’s video of it, it’ll be online
somewhere. I’m definitely going to check later.” It would make good research
and be an informative post if he did find it to be true. He was in his third
year at Yuuei and that kind of thing hadn’t been mentioned at all. In fact, if
his teachers had ever said anything about the dangers of media it was to not
get caught in a scandal they couldn’t recover from and to make sure that they
got enough attention so their brand and name became recognizable.
The building they entered was well lit but sparsely furnished. Kagaya took the
man into a back room, closing the door behind herself. Gomiko stood in the
hallway, hand held out, “Your comms, kids?” He had one in his palm already,
probably Kagaya’s. Izuku handed his over; so did Ami. “You can take off your
mask too. We won’t need them again.”
He didn’t wear his anymore either. Izuku took his off and handed it over as
well. “How are we going to get the proof from the man? Are you going to
interrogate him?”
“Not exactly.” Gomiko said. “This is a part that I don’t think either of you
need to-”
“I want to see.” Izuku said. “He might be a criminal and a villain and have
hurt people but I want to make sure he isn’t hurt badly either.” He flushed in
shame and said, “I already kicked him around a little and I-”
Silently, Gomiko handed back his mask. “Take this. I don’t want the man making
the connection between you as his victim and you as his captor. Ami, do you-”
“There’s a bus stop near here, right? I saw it on the way in.” She fidgeted a
little, looking askance at Izuku. “It’s enough for me that he was caught. And
that you’re here to make sure he gets taken in right, Izuku-kun. I don’t need
to… I don’t really want to stay. My parents are probably worried.”
Nodding, he gestured to a room off to his left. “Your clothes are in there. You
can change and leave. Do you want to walk alone or would you like someone to go
with you?”
“Um, I don’t want to be an inconvenience but… After all this, I’d prefer
company.”
“Ami, it’s fine.” Gomiko said with a smile. “I’ll have Hound meet you out
front. Izuku, if you’re ready, just get your mask on and go in after Kagaya.”
Ami nodded, smiling, and hurried off to the side room, shutting the door behind
herself.
Izuku nodded, slipping on the mask. He walked down the hallway while Gomiko
went to the bottom of some stairs and called up, “Oi! Hound! I need  you for a
quick errand!” There was a voice that called back but Izuku ignored that in
favor of adjusting his mask one last time and entering the far room Kagaya had
gone into. He steeled himself against what he might see, worried because of the
way Kagaya had laughed in delight over his kicking the villain.
He found her crouched at the man’s side. The villain himself was strapped to a
chair with cuffs over his wrists and ankles, upper arms and thighs, across his
chest and holding his head back with one over his forehead. His mouth was
muffled with cloth, and he struggled, shouting through it as Izuku stepped
carefully inside.
“Don’t bother~” Kagaya said cheerfully, “He’s not here to rescue you~ He’s here
to make sure you tell us every little thing about your quirk and how you’ve
misused it.”
“How are you going to make him talk with that covering his mouth?” Izuku asked,
gesturing to the cloth gag.
“Oh, we have ways,” Kagaya said, waving a hand flippantly at Izuku. She
tightened the strap around the man’s ankle until he grunted and then popped up
to her feet. “Let’s check to make sure you can’t escape, okay?” She cracked her
knuckles and then held up her hands above their captive. His whole body began
to thrash and shake, struggling to escape in vain.
Izuku winced and took a step forward to stop her. “Is that really necessary?”
With one more tug on the man’s body, Kagaya let him go limp. “Mint-chan… If you
can’t stomach a little bit of bodily strain, what are you going to do when we
start the torture?”
The man’s muffled moan became a scream as she put her arm around his shoulder
and leaned against him. Izuku tensed. “Torture?”
The door swung open. In walked Gomiko, ducking his head slightly to make it in.
He took in the sight with one sweep of his head, his face obscured by his mask
again, and sighed. “Please get off of him. I don’t want you touching him more
than necessary until we understand how his quirk really works.” Kagaya huffed
but slipped away.
Izuku turned to Gomiko. “She said you were going to torture him for
information?”
Gomiko looked like he wanted to rub his face with his hand. He sighed, again,
and said, “No. We’re not going to torture him.”
“Don’t say that,” Kagaya said, walking over to jump up onto an empty table
along the wall and sit on its edge. She tucked one knee over the other,
swinging her legs back and forth. “I think we should, after what he did to the
Rising Sun. That’s not really forgivable, is it? What if Hound found out? What
if Wolf-sama found out? I bet he’d break himself the hell out of prison to get
revenge on this bastard.”
“No means no,” Gomiko insisted. He walked up to the chair that the man was
strapped into and turned it around. Izuku noticed for the first time that it
was, oddly, a lot like a dentist’s chair. There as a footrest and a headrest
and it swiveled on a metal stand. “My quirk will be painful enough. There’s no
reason to add any bodily harm to that.”
“You’re no  fun,  Niisan.” Kagaya’s pout was audible. “I think he should bleed
a little for all that he’s done! Think of all the satisfaction that all his
victims would get, knowing he couldn’t fuck anyone ever again?”
“Bloodthirsty little brat,” Gomiko chuckled, shaking his head. “I already said
no.”
“Wolf-sama would do it,” She grumbled, but nodded. “Fine. Fine. Are you ready?
Mint-chan, do you want a seat?” She pat the spot on the table next to herself.
“I... Yeah…” Izuku felt a little queasy but he walked over and hopped up onto
the table.
Kagaya put her arm around his shoulder and held up her hand, “Now watch this.
It’s really very simple how we interrogate criminals. I do  this,”  she flexed
a finger. Izuku saw the man’s eyes open wide and stay that way. Even as seconds
ticked past, they didn’t blink. “And Niisan does  that.”
‘That’  was Gomiko standing behind the man’s chair and putting his hands on his
head. His thumbs were behind the ear, his fingers fanned out along either side
of the face. He tilted the man’s head up slightly and said, “Lock him in
position, please.”
“Niisan is very polite today,” Kagaya murmured, curling another finger. Izuku
saw the man’s neck flex and stay immobile. “Usually, he’s does a lot more
talking or he brings Hound in to intimidate. Hound has a pretty fucked up face,
you know?”
“Uh. No, I don’t really.” Izuku was desperately trying not to regret being
there. He was attempting to blot out that feeling by absorbing all the
information about their quirks that he could. He guessed hers was puppeteering,
but that was obvious after a little observation. What he couldn’t guess was
Gomiko’s.
Kagaya laughed. “ Sure  you don’t,” she said disbelievingly.
“Quiet,” Gomiko ordered. His eyes were closed behind his mask, making it
somehow more terrifying. When hey were quiet for at least ten seconds, he took
in a deep breath and let it out. At the same time, a strange light began to
shine in the captured man’s wide open eyes. Izuku gaped behind his mask as the
light spread out from his eyes like twin highbeams on a car. Once they hit the
far wall, something even more incredible happened.
Images began to play on the wall. At first there was no sound and then a soft
whispering began. It was Gomiko, or at least it originated from him. Voices
that were not his own spilled out of him like a record being played. Izuku
watched and listened in absolute awe of his quirk.


 
When Gomiko took his first break, Izuku was  bursting  with questions. It had
been little more than an hour and had seen an incredible array of images played
out like a movie on the wall. Gomiko, chuckling, steered Izuku out of the back
room with a hand to the middle of his back. “Let’s have some dinner and I’ll
tell you all about my quirk, okay?”
Izuku enthusiastically agreed, allowing Gomiko to guide him away without a
single thought spared to the fact that he left Kagaya alone in the room with
the man they’d caught together.
 
===============================================================================
 
Katsuki woke in the middle of the night to his phone jangling with a call.
Groaning, he rolled over, picked it up, nearly explodo-killed it in his
annoyance, and swiped his thumb across to answer it. “The fuck is this an’ what
the fuck do you  want?”
“Kacchan,” Izuku’s breathless voice hit him like a bucket of ice water. Katsuki
sat up immediately, eyes wide open. “Kacchan,” Izuku repeated, “I did it. I
fixed  everything.”
“Where the fuck have you been?” Katsuki hissed, “Where did you go? Do you know
you skipped out on half a fucking day’s worth of class? Your mom came over to
fucking check to see if I’d kidnapped you or some shit!”
“Sorry, I’m so sorry,” Izuku said, but Katsuki could hear the grin in his
voice. “But I can explain everything. Will you come meet me in half an hour?
Please?”
Katsuki sat there, rubbing his eyes with one hand, listening to that pleading
voice on the line and hating himself. He was sore- the sparring match hadn’t
been the only time Todoroki had gotten in his way that day. After school they’d
had a rematch- this time swearing to not use quirks and keeping that promise.
Todoroki had had it in for his fucking kidneys, but Katsuki had blackened his
other, unscarred eye so he matched as ugly on both fucking sides.
“Where?” He finally said. It  was  nearly midnight. He probably could sneak out
of the house and get back in time before his parents woke in the morning. And
what was another sleepless night? He’d just sleep through their morning classes
anyway. It wasn’t like they didn’t just cover the same material in his books.
“Uh-” Izuku pulled away from the phone, there was a weird, muffled conversation
that Katsuki couldn’t understand. Was Izuku with someone? What the fuck was
going on? Then Izuku came back and said, “The station? I’m about to get on the
last bus back home.”
“Where the hell have you been all fucking day?”
“I’ll explain  everything , Kacchan. I promise. You just have to show up. Okay?
Oh. And bring some headphones! I’ll see you soon. I’ve got to get on. Love you,
Kacchan, bye!”
And then he hung up.
Katsuki stared at his phone, feeling a blush steadily rise on his face.  What
the fuck?
He dropped his phone onto his bed and lay back, hands covering his face. “What
the hell are you  doing,  Deku?”


 
Twenty five minutes later, Katsuki’s freezing his ass off at the bus station.
There’s one single flickering light twenty feet away and he’s shivering, trying
not to let his teeth chatter and considering going home.
Except five more minutes go by and he doesn’t go.
And then five more minutes pass. He still doesn’t leave.
The bus comes rolling up to the stop, brakes hissing as it goes still. The door
opens and out pops Izuku, wearing a red hoodie that was way too big for him and
already looking around. Katsuki side steps a little more into the light and is
rewarded by Izuku grinning at him like the rising sun as he rushes over.
“Kacchan, you’re here,” Izuku cried and then, unexpectedly, threw his arms
around Katsuki and hugged him tightly. “I’m so glad.” The bus doors close and
it trundles away down the street, leaving them alone again.
Katsuki reached up to shove him off, but the moment his hand came in contact
with Izuku’s chest, he felt his heart beating a hundred miles a minute. He
relaxed slightly, refusing to hug back, as he grit out, “Get the fuck off of
me. Don’t you know any better, you fucking idiot? It’s not fucking safe!”
“Yes it is,” Izuku said, drawing back, still radiantly smiling. “I’m safe with
you, Kacchan. You’d never force me into anything.”
“That isn’t fucking true and you fucking know it-” Katsuki starts his rant but
it stutters to a stop as Izuku ducks his head in and kisses his cheek. Kisses.
His. Cheek. Katsuki gapes at him and then, this time, shoves him back roughly.
Izuku laughs, as though he expected that. “I wasn’t the only one under the
influence of a quirk on Friday,” he said. He reaches into the pocket of his
hoodie and pulls out a phone, “Did you bring the headphones? I want you to see
this video.” His eyes were bright, but eerie in the harsh fluorescent light of
the station. “It’s proof, Kacchan. Proof that on Friday, you really didn’t have
control of yourself.”
Katsuki clenches his hands tightly until he’s sure they won’t shake when he
reaches out. He digs out his headphones and plugs them in. Izuku taps the
screen a few times as he put the headphones in. He blushes when Izuku put his
head close to watch the screen with him.
At the far right edge of the screen, Katsuki can see the profile of a man’s
face. His eyes are wide open and his head strapped down while a hand holds the
side of is face. At the left there is a wall with a projection. Izuku’s started
the video somewhere in the middle and when he presses play, someone’s speaking
off screen.
“...how it works. It’s got, like, levels of strength, you know?” The scene on
the wall is a first person perspective shot of someone sitting at a table with
two other people. “The first wave just makes her really interested. Like all
wet and hot, you know?” There was laughter. The people on the screen visibly
laughed, moving in their seats, drinking from their cups.
A hand appears on screen, holding up two fingers, “The second will make her
need  to fuck. Like, desperate as  hell  for your cock, you know? She’ll strip
you down herself and ride you if you don’t let her at it! But man, if you cover
up just right, you can keep her that way for quite a while!”
One of the people opened their mouth to speak. The recorded voice shifted to,
“Woah, that’s some crazy shit, man. Does it really work every time?”
“Of course,” the first voice said again. “I wouldn’t be fucking selling it if
it didn’t!” The hand waved, “Anyway, the kicker is the third strength. That one
makes her so eager she can’t do anything but spread her legs for you. Not only
that, but it’s got like, this area of influence.”
“No way. No fucking way.” The third voice said. The corresponding man shook his
head, “I don’t believe it.”
“Hell yeah it fucking works. She gets desperate and anyone around her becomes a
second level strength and tries to fuck the hell out of her.” More laughter and
then, the screen pauses. The hand moves off of the head on the far right of the
screen and someone coughs and a shoulder and part of a torso blocks the view of
the man in the chair.
Izuku pauses the video again before it can keep playing. Katsuki blinks and
drags his gaze up from the phone. He pulls out an earphone and goes, “What the
hell is this?”
“I met someone with a quirk that could take memories and project them, like a
movie on the wall.” Izuku explained, “He and his sister, and this girl and I
caught this man,” he pointed to the one in the chair. “The man with the lust
quirk that influenced me  and  you.”
“What?”
“See, what you said to me in the park got me thinking, Kacchan,” Izuku said,
speaking quickly as if he hadn’t just admitted to being a vigilante. “You said
you couldn’t control yourself around me, right? But that’s not true. You can.
You have been. You stopped bullying me and you’ve been, well, a little nicer.
And then in the park, you stopped me. Remember? I wanted to keep going, but
you  stopped  me.”
“Deku-”
“And again, like you said at your house. It’s always me who won’t leave you
alone. You could walk away, you have! You’re trying, anyway. Trying to leave me
behind and stop talking to me and avoid me.” Izuku was in full swing now, but
at least he wasn’t fucking mumbling. “You can control yourself! So I got to
thinking, what would make it so you can’t? Why would you not be able to? Well,
maybe you were under the influence of a quirk too.”
“You-”
“That’s why I helped Gomiko. That’s why I left school. That’s why I did this.
Because you’re right. You can control yourself. And here’s proof that you were
as much a victim as I was!” Izuku grinned at him proudly. He panted slightly,
having taken maybe two breaths in that whole monologue.
Katsuki stared at him. Slowly, his gaze went back down to the phone in his
hand. Then it went back to Izuku’s face. His first instinct was to tell Izuku
he was  wrong.  So  fucking  wrong.
And he was going to have to prove it, wasn’t he?
Katsuki grabbed the front of Izuku’s stupid hoodie- and where the fuck had he
gotten that anyway?- and shook him. “You’re a fucking idiot, Deku. I can’t
believe how fucking stupid you are. You skipped class. You fucking ditched
school. To what make up some fucking proof about-”
“I didn’t make it up,” Izuku said, grabbing him in return with one hand. “I
found the truth. They can’t blame you for what you did any more than I can be
blamed. Please, Kacchan, believe me. I did this for  you.”
Katsuki stared at him.
Izuku whispered, “I did this for you, Kacchan. Because I love you.”
(All of this was because he loved Izuku.)
Katsuki closed his eyes.
He could feel Izuku’s breath on his cheek as the other teen leaned in and
kissed him again, as warm and as light as the heat of the sun. “Kacchan,” Izuku
whispered, “The police have the bad guy and all the proof. No one will come ask
any questions anymore. He doesn’t know I was there, the guy, he doesn’t know my
name. I don’t know his either. It’s over. We can move past this.”
“Deku,” Katsuki said, opening his eyes slowly. Izuku stood so close. His eyes
were shining. His mouth so near. “I told you,” he whispered, leaning in, “I
can’t control myself around you. Why don’t you ever fucking listen?”
Kissing him was so good. Katsuki had thought so the first time they’d done it,
even though he’d been half mad with fucking and Izuku had barely been coherent.
He had thought so in the park, too. It had been so good then that he’d had to
make himself leave and escape or else he’d be too hard to walk straight.
“It’s fine,” Izuku said against his mouth, “Because I want you too, Kacchan.
Please.”
Katsuki grabbed a fistful of Izuku’s hair and dragged him closer still. Izuku
kissed him like he was ravenous and Katsuki was the first thing he’d been able
to get his hands on in weeks. Still kissing, Katsuki stumbled backwards because
the other direction was the street. His back hit a fence and Katsuki turned,
pushing Izuku up against it.
“You drive me fucking insane,” He growled against Izuku’s lips before biting
them. There was a clattering sound of the phone hitting the ground, the
momentum of it pulled the other earbud free of Katsuki’s ear.
“Kacchan,” Izuku said, wrapping his arms around Katsuki’s shoulders. Katsuki
kept one hand buried in Izuku’s hair while the other slid down his side and
gripped his ass. Izuku gave a wordless cry, arching his hips up against
Katsuki.
“I’m going to fuck you up,” Katsuki said, dragging his hand up over his ass to
the waistband of his pants. “Every fucking day for the rest of your  miserable
little life, I’m going to  fuck you up,  shitty fucking Deku.”
“Please!” Izuku cried, spreading his legs for Katsuki. The blonde immediately
ground his hips against Izuku’s, shoving him back against the wall behind him
with enough force to make Izuku grunt. “Kacchan-”
“Please,”  Katsuki mocked, the hand down Izuku’s pants circled around to the
front, scratching over skin the whole way.  “Kacchan.  Can’t you fucking say
anything else, shithead?” He looked up from where he was working his hand down
into Izuku’s underwear when he heard a soft laugh. “What?”
Izuku, lips swollen, cheeks flushed red, grinned at him, “I want your cock,
Kacchan.”
Katsuki stared at him, rendered speechless.
Izuku slid his hands down Katsuki’s front, while he couldn’t talk, and pulled
open the front of his pants. “Is this okay?” He asked, his face tilted down,
looking up through his lashes. “Kacchan?”
“We don’t have any lube,” was what he said first, still a little stunned. After
a moment he wanted to kick himself because Izuku slipped out of his grasp,
sinking to the ground and Katsuki knew in that moment he had lost all control
of what was going on.
“I know,” Izuku said from where he knelt. “Next time, I’ll be more prepared.”
“Deku,” Katsuki hissed as his cock was pulled free of his boxers. “Are  you
sure about this?”
“I told you,” Izuku said, looking up at him. He as in shadow, now, with Katsuki
above him there was no light that reached his eyes but Katsuki didn’t need it
to know what he looked like. “I love you, Kacchan. I want to do this kind of
stuff with you every day.”
Katsuki leaned one arm on the wall, bracing himself as Izuku’s calloused,
scarred hands stroked his cock to full hardness. His other sank into those
curls that looked black in these shadows. He let out a thoughtless groan when
Izuku’s mouth joined his hands. His fingers scratched the wall as his hips
rocked forward. “Deku, fuck, oh my god.”
Izuku with a cock in his mouth was, surprisingly, not as quiet as Katsuki had
imagined. It wasn’t as if he was trying to talk at the same time, though. He
just was  noisy;  licking and slurping like he thought Katsuki had some sort of
auditory kink or something. He didn’t stop panting, sucking in sharp breaths
whenever he pulled back even a little bit.
And then Izuku sucked the tip, rubbing it along the inside of his cheek, and
Katsuki thrust forward, unable to stop himself. Izuku pulled back, coughing,
and said, “Let’s try that again? Maybe like this?”
“What?” Katsuki asked. His head was swimming. Izuku’s mouth was just as hot as
he had imagined, if only he could see-
Izuku, holding onto Katsuki’s hips, turned him until it was his back to the
wall. Shuffling around on his knees, Izuku went immediately back to sucking.
Katsuki had both hands in his hair, now, resting all of his weight on the wall
as Izuku’s bobbing head made him weak in the knees.
When he felt that soft skin against his cockhead again, Katsuki again thrust.
Only this time, Izuku held him back with one hand on his hip and his forearm
braced against the other thigh. Katsuki growled in annoyance and decided to
push Izuku’s head down if he couldn’t rock up to meet it.
Again, he was resisted. Izuku was immovable. He knelt with Katsuki’s cock
resting just inside of his head and one hand stroking while he sucked. Katsuki
glared down at him and saw the faint glow of Izuku’s quirk under his skin. His
neck and the hand holding Katsuki down had that light but the rest of him
didn’t.
“You  fucker,”  he hissed, “Are you using your quirk against me?”
Izuku pulled back. Katsuki’s cock popped out. A line of cum connected the tip
to Izuku’s lips and he rolled his hips forwards again. “I can’t go that deep
yet, Kacchan, or I’ll gag.” He licked his lips. Katsuki watched the cum drip
down to his chin, utterly fascinated. “But I’ll practice and get better until I
can, okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, “Okay.”
Katsuki’s breath caught in his throat as Izuku went back down on him. His toes
curled in his shoes as he fought off his climax. He didn’t want this to end.
Couldn’t let it end so soon. But the momentary reprieve, the cold air that had
been all he’d felt, and then the sudden wet warmth was making that goal
impossible.
“Fuck,” he said, “Fuck. Deku-  Izuku-”
Izuku hummed around his cock; his tongue pressing flat against a vein on the
underside and Katsuki came. He closed his eyes as he did it, biting his lip so
hard it started to bleed a little bit. He felt Izuku’s hand on the shaft,
pumping with his fist as Katsuki finished.
For a minute, he leaned back, panting hard in recovery. He absently heard Izuku
muttering something and felt something on his deflating cock that felt
suspiciously like a kiss before the warmth that was Izuku drew back from him.
Blinking his eyes open, Katsuki looked down to see Izuku wiping come from his
cheek. He licked it from his fingers and made a face, “Wow. That’s really
bitter.”
Without Izuku’s hands to hold him up, Katsuki sank down to the ground. He sat
there, panting for breath, as Izuku used the sleeve of his hoodie to clean up
his face. When he’d regained some composure, Katsuki cleared his throat.
Izuku smiled at him. He inched closer on his knees until he was able to loop
his arms around Katsuki’s waist and tuck his slightly sticky face against his
neck. Katsuki put a hand on his back, gripping the cloth, but couldn’t figure
out if he wanted to pull Izuku closer or pull him off. He settled for neither
and just held on tightly with his heart hammering in his chest.
“Wait,” he said after another long, silent minute where the cold air seeped
closer and closer to them. “What about you- aren’t you still?”
“Oh,” Izuku muttered. He hugged Katsuki tighter, “No. I um. After you came… I
also…”
“What, in your  pants?”
Izuku mumbled incoherently, nodding his head.
Katsuki stared up at the night sky above them. Only the brightest of stars were
visible from where they were, but even those few were enough for Katsuki to
count to calm himself down. When his heart stopped beating so hard it hurt,
when his cheeks were no longer so hot with a blush, he said, “You really are a
pervert.”
Izuku squeaked and huddled against him.
Katsuki finally made his decision. He pulled Izuku tighter against himself,
putting his other arm around him as he did.
***** us, together (and epilogue) *****
Chapter Notes
     I want to thank everyone for going on this crazy fucked up ride with
     me. Its been up. its been down. it went places i didn't expect and to
     other ones i am super, super pleased with. yes. there will be a
     sequel. its already about half planned through. but it wont come out
     for a while. as i have other shit to finish ayyy. thank you all for
     sticking through this and leaving your amazing comments. there has
     been SO MUCH response for this fic i literally did not know how to
     handle it and spent a lot of time just rereading things and
     squealing.
     I love all of you. I hope you had a good time with this and I hope to
     see you again in other fics of mine, my delightful readers <3
     Now. On to the glorious ending <3
See the end of the chapter for more notes
“Mom, please,” Izuku whispered to his mother. She stood at the door with him,
hands twisted together in front of her and tears running down her cheeks. He
took her hands in his but this only made her cry harder. She wrapped her
fingers around the scar on his right hand.
“I just don’t want you to get hurt anymore, Izuku,” she cried. “You get hurt so
much, from the quirk and the training and being a hero… I so afraid that
Katsuki will just hurt you too…”
Izuku let go of her hands to pull her into a tight hug. Inko pressed her face
against his shoulder, crying softly. Her loud sobs had been spent the night
before, when he returned home cold, in strange clothes and with his secrets
kept even closer to his chest than usual. He’d already let his mother find out
about one thing that could have kept him or Katsuki from being heroes… If she
knew about the vigilantism…
Izuku sighed heavily and closed his eyes. “Kacchan is different now, mom. He
hasn’t bullied me since first year and remember all of last year when he barely
talked to me at all? Besides, you’ve met his mom. She’s just as loud as he is
but she treats her husband so well.”
“Izuku,” Inko cries, “Please. Promise me you’ll be careful.” She pulls back,
cradling his face in her hands. “Please…. Promise me you won’t do anything
unnecessarily dangerous. I’m so… I’m so worried. All the time… I just..” her
words drifted off, succumbing to the soft sobbing of her tears.
Pressing one hand to the back of her head, Izuku guided her head back to his
shoulder. He could hold her a few more minutes before he had to go meet
Katsuki, so he did.
He hoped the police would process that man soon. He wanted the news to come out
so she could know the truth too. He wished he could show her the video like he
had Katsuki- but he couldn’t. Katsuki could keep it a secret,  would  keep it a
secret. He would understand how it could ruin Izuku’s chances of being a hero
and wouldn’t want that. Inko… She seemed to never stop looking for something
that could get him out of hero school.
She cared, she cared  so much,  but it hurt too.
Izuku just wanted her to  trust  him. He could protect himself- he could
protect others- he was going to be a Pro Hero in only a few months.
He kept quiet, though, just held her and let her cry until he finally pulled
away and said goodbye. Her tears, her grief, was heavy on his shoulders, but as
he walked out to his meeting spot with Katsuki, the weight lifted until he was
filled with sunlight and warmth.
This was it. This was the first day of the rest of their lives  together.
Izuku’s hands tightened to fists. No more would they chase each other, follow
each other. Now they would walk side by side. Hand in hand. Shoulder to
shoulder.
Now, they were together. No matter what.
 
===============================================================================
 
Katsuki stopped when he reached the end of his street and turned to walk along
the main street. Izuku was waiting for him, rocking back and forth on his feet
as he stared up at the sky, his bag on his arm and a stupidly cute smile on his
face. Taking a moment to debate the merits of turning around and hopping a
neighbor’s fence to go around him versus facing that sunbright smile turning on
him, Katsuki watched Izuku. He stood there, patient, at ease,  happy,  as
though nothing life wrecking had happened to him in the last month, let alone
the last week.
It was that expression, the way Izuku looked when no one was paying attention
to him, that convinced Katsuki that maybe,  maybe,  Izuku really was fine.
Maybe everything really as okay. Maybe the consequences weren’t as horrific as
he’d thought. Maybe, together, they could not just survive this but become…
closer?
Izuku’s gaze dropped from the clouds above and he met Katsuki’s eyes and his
smile, somehow, grew even wider. He lifted up a hand, “Kacchan!”
Katsuki grumbled and began to walk again. Izuku bounced on his toes at his
approach. Once he was apparently close enough, Izuku bounded up to him for a
hug. Katsuki endured it for a few seconds before pushing him back. “Is this,”
he said, hand on Izuku’s chest to keep him back, frown on his lips, “going to
become a regular thing?”
“Is what?” Izuku asked, head to the side. He had dropped his hands from trying
to hold Katsuki but he wa still smiling. Katsuki was trying to remember when
Izuku had stopped twitching at his anger and shouting. Had it been last year
sometime? He’d done everything he could to ignore Izuku, then, even going so
far as to switch seats to the front of the fucking classroom. It hadn’t done
much to keep Izuku off his brain, but apparently it had done wonders in Izuku’s
own personal recovery.
“This,” he gestured with his other hand to Izuku and then the street. “This
waiting for me bullshit. How do you even know when I’m ready like this?”
“You’re never there during my commute,” Izuku said, “And you’re always early to
class so I figured you left earlier than I did in general, though I don’t know
why.”
Katsuki did. Izuku himself was the reason why. He was going to have to adjust
his schedule if-
“And since we’re boyfriends, I thought we should walk to school together in the
morning!”
Katsuki flinched. He yanked back his hand as if burned. “Boyfriends? What the
fuck are you talking about?”
“We’re dating, aren’t we?”
“What? No!” Katsuki retorted. “What the fuck gave you that idea?”
“But you came to the station late last night!” Izuku said.
“You asked me to.”
“A week ago you wouldn’t have even answered my phone call that late at night,
you wouldn’t have showed up at all!”
“Deku, you fucking idiot-”
“Plus I gave you a blowjob, Kacchan,” Izuku frowned. His stubborn face looked
the same as a kid’s when you refused to play along with their shitty
imagination game. It was completely inappropriate for a seventeen year old to
look so  damn cute.  Katsuki wanted to rub his face against the ground and
scuff it up a bit. Maybe scar him to make him look older, tougher, more like
someone Katsuki could look at and  not  think about kissing every damn little
freckle. “I wouldn’t do that with someone who wasn’t my boyfriend.”
“First of all, don’t fucking talk about that.” Katsuki said. “Second of all,
maybe you should fucking ask first before deciding thi shit. Third of all, stop
fucking looking like that.” He gave into the violent impulse, but tempered it a
little. Pinching Izuku’s cheeks, he tugged them, “You look like a little
fucking kid. I’m not going to be boyfriends with some shitty little brat.
Okay?”
“Okeh,” Izuku said, his cheeks stretched out. “But wiff me? Pwease?”
Katsuki let go of his face and shrugged. He walked past Izuku, shoving at him
(lightly) with his shoulder. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure like, everyone we
know will throw a fucking bitch fit about it and I just don’t have the fucking
time to deal with it.”
Izuku caught up quickly, walking at Katsuki’s side easily. “Not everyone.
Hitoshi already said he accepted us.”
“Who?”
“Hitoshi? Shinsou Hitoshi? Blue hair? Seventeen year old that looks like he
hasn’t had a decent sleep in fifty years? General education student?”
“Oh, brainwashing kid.”
“Umm, yeah I guess. But so he knows about Friday and-”
Katsuki stopped.  “What?”
“Well I wrote about it for my blog and-”
Katsuki rounded on him. “What the  fuck?”
Izuku nervously waved his hands between them. “I didn’t name you specifically
in it! I was doing a post about what had happened and calling out to others to
help me find the guy! I had Hitoshi share it with his friends, too, which is
how I met the ones yesterday who helped me with it and-” He kept going, mouth
running and running and running, but Katsuki couldn’t hear it. Slowly, he
closed his eyes, hearing only the beating of his heart, seeing the darkness of
his eyelids.
“Kacchan?”
“He knows and… accepts it?”
“Hitoshi understands what happened. He knows how quirks can manipulate people
into doing things they wouldn’t otherwise do. I mean, he does have a
brainwashing quirk.”
Katsuki takes in a deep breath, holds it, and then lets it go. It’s an anger
management technique that he learned and while it doesn’t really help it does
give them a little bit of silence to stand in. For once, Izuku is quiet.
Waiting.
Then, while Katsuki’s eyes are still closed, Izuku reaches for his hand and
takes it, gently. “Kacchan?”
“Now what?” he grunted.
“I love you, Kacchan.”
Katsuki’s eyes flashed open. His breath froze in his lungs. Izuku was looking
down at their hands, a flush on his cheeks and his teeth digging into his
bottom lip. He squeezes Katsuki’s hand tightly. “I really, really do. And I
know you love me too, you said so-”
Yeah, when I was high on lust quirk pheromones,  but Katsuki doesn’t say that
particular thought out loud. Whether or not the quirk made him say the words,
they’re still true. He still feels that way, but he’s not about to say it
again.
“So please… Can we be together? Can we be boyfriends? Can we walk to school and
hold hands and study together and sometimes have lunch and touch each other and
go on dates and-” Izuku looks up at him, too hopeful by half.
“Fine.” Katsuki said, huffing out his breath. “We can try it out, but-”
He never gets the next words out, completely forgets what they are entirely
because Izuku’s pressed their mouths together and oh. The heat is there, again,
and the pressure and-
Izuku draws back, slowly. Katsuki’s following him with his head before he jerks
back. He scowls at Izuku’s beaming expression and shoves past him again. It’s
not as easy to shove him around when they’re still holding hands; Izuku holding
fast as though losing Katsuki now is actually some sort of possibility. It
isn’t. He doesn’t have to worry that Katsuki will go now, will leave now, after
all of this. But Katsuki doesn’t mind the tight grip. He doesn’t mind the way
they walk side by side, either, instead of one ahead of the other.
He doesn’t even mind the way Izuku chatters about anything and everything for
minutes on end, as if they’re old hands at this kind of relationship.
Katsuki thought Izuku would be afraid of him forever, for all he’d done to him,
and that if they ever had  this  it would involve twitching and stuttering and
freaking out-
“Kacchan,” Izuku said, interrupting his thoughts. They’re almost to school now,
and he’s spoken off and on while Katsuki got lost in the feeling of their hands
and how it’s not  he and I  but  us, together.
“Mm?” Katsuki blinks and looks over at him. Izuku gives him a worried look.
“We’re about to have company.  Angry  company…” Izuku points ahead of them to
the school gates. He instantly picks out Iida and Uraraka headed towards them.
They both look  furious.
“Well, you did kind of fucking skip school yesterday after acting fucking weird
all morning,” Katsuki said. “You left your lunch and your books and didn’t tell
anyone shit.”
“I thought I said to Hitoshi…” Izuku flushes in embarrassment. Katsuki rolled
his eyes. Of course he did. And did anyone even ask Hitoshi?
Actually, Katsuki was pretty sure that he had been asked, which meant that the
possibility of him covering for Izuku, or even just lying about knowing what
went on skyrocketed.  Fucker,  Katsuki thought, glaring absently at the world,
I’m going to find out why the fuck he lied and let Izuku run off like that on
his own. Fuck. He could have gotten in so much trouble- if he shows up at all
on any of that film, if the police tie him to that guy’s capture at all- I’m
going to fucking blow his damn face off.
“Izuku!!” Uraraka cries, flinging herself at him. “Where have you been? What
happened to you? We were so worried! Everyone thought that Bakugou did
something to you because after you left the cafeteria he went after you but you
never came back and-”
“You came after me?” Izuku asked, interrupting her, looking over her shoulder
at Katsuki. “I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you say so?”
“Shut up,” Katsuki snapped. He tried to pull away but Izuku’s hand held fast.
“I just went to take a fucking piss, it wasn’t a big fucking deal!”
“You came looking for me!” Izuku grinned. Uraraka slid from around his neck,
staring at him and then at Katsuki and then down at their hands.
“Izuku? Why are you two- You two never come to school together. And you’re
holding hands! What is going on?”
“Kacchan and I are dating,” Izuku said simply. “I love him.” He stated it like
it was a fact of the universe. The sky is blue. The grass is green. The sun
rises in the east. Izuku loves Katsuki.
Katsuki blushed furiously, “Idiot,” he snarled. “I’m going to blow your fucking
face off.” Contrary to his words, though, he gripped Izuku’s hand tighter and
there wasn’t even a threat of heat or explosion. Izuku beamed.
Uraraka’s mouth hung open. She was utterly speechless, it seemed. Wordlessly,
she turned to Iida, who adjusted his glasses, cleared his throat and adjusted
his tie all within the same two seconds. “If you could explain some of your
erratic and unusual behavior over the last two days, it would be much
appreciated. You were far too apprehensive yesterday to fully explain what
occurred between you and Bakugou. We’re still incredibly concerned about the
fact that the police came, enquiring about your relationship situation.” He,
too, eyed their joined hands. Katsuki dug his fingers in tighter, even though
his instinct was to rip his hand away. Izuku holds back just as tightly.
“Was this what the policeman was talking about?” Uraraka gets her voice back.
She gestures wildly at their hands, “Did Bakugou blackmail you into this,
Izuku?”
Katsuki’s eye twitches. “Oi!” He snaps, taking a step forward, “You fucking
want to go, bitch? I didn’t fucking blackmail this fucking dickhead into
anything!”
“True,” Izuku chirps.
“And you two better think fucking twice about sticking your noses in my goddamn
business,” he snarled, lifting up his empty hand. “Before I go and fucking blow
them off!”
“Kacchan,” Izuku said disapprovingly. Katsuki ignored that.
Uraraka puts her hands on her hips, puffing up in an echo of Katsuki’s anger.
“Oh yeah? Have you even considered the fact that Izuku is  our  friend and that
we’re worried about him? You’re always nasty to him and we don’t want him
hurt!”
“Ochako,” Izuku sighed. She ignores him too.
“I’m only fucking nasty because he fucking begs for it!” Katsuki blurts out.
Suddenly all he can think about Izuku’s body pressed up against his own, the
feel of his skin under his fingers, and that messy, noisy warmth of the other
teen’s dick filled mouth. Katsuki snaps his mouth shut with an audible click.
Ochako stares at him, eyes narrowed, mouth slightly open like  What did you
just say?
Beside her, Iida suddenly turns bright red. “We should immediately head to
class!” He shouts, “We will be late if we linger here too much longer! Let us
go, Ochako! Right away!”
He grabs her by the shoulders, spins her around and marches her off. Ochako
shouts back at them, “This isn’t over! Do you hear me? I am not satisfied!”
Katuski drags his free hand down his face, groaning loudly. “What the  fuck  am
I doing.”
He feels a soft brush of something against his cheek and jerks back to see
Izuku pulling back, smiling just a little. He’s blushing, too, and nervously
waves his hand at Katsuki, “Don’t worry about it. She’ll figure out what you
meant and then be really embarrassed about it too. C’mon. We will be late to
class if we wait around any more.” He tugs on their joined hands. Katsuki
follows, gritting his teeth, grumbling, glaring and generally getting into a
grouchy mood.
Everyone keeps  staring  at them. And  pointing.  And  whispering.
Kirishima runs into them in the hallway outside of the classroom and stops. He
grins so broadly Katsuki’s face hurts for him. Which, of course, results in him
punching his asshole friend’s shoulder twice because the first time only makes
him laugh. The second time he’s got his quirk activated under his shirt like a
fucking weak ass bitch and Katsuki tells him so.
“Man, I want to be here for you and you want to put me in the infirmary? Rude!”
Kirishima laughs it off, shifting over to the side that Katsuki can’t reach
because Izuku’s in the way. Izuku’s talking to Asui, who is looking a little
curious at them, but is smiling.
“It’s just a fucking weakass punch,” Katsuki said, holding up his fist, “I can
try again with more strength if you need a fucking comparison.”
“You gotta spare me, dude!” Kirishima said, lifting up a hand, “You do not know
your own strength.”
Izuku drops into their conversation suddenly. “You really don’t, Kacchan. Last
night I had to use my quirk to hold you off!” He frowns slightly. Kirishima
blinks uncertainly, as if, for the first time, thinking that there might be
something a little  off  about their relationship.
Katsuki grits his teeth because Izuku is presenting it  all wrong.  “You’re the
one who needed to be held off! You tried to jump me  twice  on the way back
from the bus station! Twice, Deku! It was fucking midnight!”
“I was cold, Kacchan! I just wanted to be a little closer! You’re always so
warm…” Izuku pouts and Katsuki is going to grab him by the face and forcibly
make him turn away. His heart  cannot  handle how expressive Izuku’s stupid
face is. Suddenly, there are three distinct  Pop!  sounds that go off behind
them. Confetti falls down on Izuku and Katsuki as they blink at each other and
then turn.
Katsuki recognizes the asshole behind them in a second. “You!” He snarled at
the brainwashing kid, Shinsou Hitoshi, but his exclamation is drowned out by
Izuku’s own.
“Hitoshi!”
“Sup,” he said, tilting his head in greeting. There’s a small gathering of
other general education students around him. They’re all wearing party hats and
have confetti poppers in hand. A few have some of those paper noisemakers that
uncurl and toot when you blow into them. There’s an attempt at a song being
played by five or six of them while this asshole holds out a pink box in both
hands. “Here. This is for you.”
“Eh?” Izuku reaches out and takes it, finally untangling his hand from
Katsuki’s. “What’s this?”
“It’s a cake,” comes Shinsou’s reply, bland and dry. But the kid is smiling, no
smirking. He’s definitely smirking. Katsuki narrows his gaze at him.
“But it’s not my birthday,” Izuku said. He lifts it up curiously. “Why are you
all in party hats?”
“We’re celebrating your birthday!” Chimed in one of the other students.
“You’re only allowed to bring cake in on birthdays,” Shinsou said. “Our teacher
said we could bring you this birthday cake. Because it’s your birthday.” He
glances over his shoulder, motioning to someone to step forward. A slender girl
steps out and holds out a bright gold party hat. “We got you a hat too. Because
it’s your birthday.”
Izuku blinks and ducks his head so the girl can put the hat on him. “Um.
Thanks?”
Not even a second later, Shinsou asks, “Aren’t you going to open it? There’s a
personalized message on it. We all worked very hard to make sure that it said
exactly the right thing.” Now he’s smiling and Katsuki doesn’t trust it for a
second.
“Hey,” he said, reaching out, “Let me fucking open that.”
“Oh but, Hitoshi-”
“No. It’s fine.” Shinsou doesn’t stop smiling. Katsuki glares at him. “Please,
Bakugou. Open Izuku’s cake.”
Katsuki turns his glare to the pink box. He opens it carefully, pulling at the
tape that holds the flaps down. Looking Shinsou in the eyes, he flips the lid
back. Beside him, looking in the box, Izuku gasps loudly.  “Hitoshi!”
Shinsou  grins.
Katsuki looks down into the box. His eyes immediately go to bright red icing
block letters that read  Congrats on the SEX!  Briefly, his eyes catch the
delicately made gold and orange flowers clustered on top of green leaves,
before they divert off the words entirely to the side of the cake where someone
iced a very cartoonish dick. It has eyes. It’s winking and smiling.
I don’t know if I want to throw this in his face or drop it on the floor more,
Katsuki thought, staring at it.
The general students are grinning, laughing, giggling. Izuku is also laughing.
Katsuki feels Kirishima looking down over his shoulder and then hears a
clapping noise as he puts his hand over his mouth to stifle his own laughter.
Katsuki’s eye twitches. His teeth grit together. He wants to deny it, wants to
say what  really  happened, but can’t. Izuku doesn’t see it that way. And
Shinsou- Shinsou, who also knows, apparently doesn’t either. Katsuki has lost
his goddamn  mind.
He’s not aware his arms are shaking with his rage until a curl of smoke rises
from the box and Izuku yelps. “Kacchan! Don’t! You’re going to ruin the cake!”
“Good fucking riddance,” Katsuki growled. It’s so easy to call up his quirk.
He’s been on edge all day, all weekend, all fucking week and this cake is going
to explode in the  most  satisfying w-
“If you blow up my sex cake I will never,  ever  give you another blowjob in
your  life.”
Katsuki’s heart stops. His quirk shutters to a stop.
The silence around them is deafening.
His face burns like he’s been doused in gasoline and someone chucked a whole
matchbook of lit matches at him. He stares at Izuku, who is just as red, from
ear to ear, forehead to chin and it’s creeping down his neck. Izuku has his
hands in front of him, fisted tight, and looks stubbornly serious with his
frown and furrowed brows. Katsuki can’t believe this idiot has rendered him
speechless  twice  in as many days.
He wants to blow up the cake in spite of Izuku’s words- declare that he’s
confident he can get blown even if he destroys it, but Katsuki is hyper aware
of the fact that they’re in the hallway outside of class, that Kirishima is
gaping, Asui is watching, the general department is blowing their  fucking
noisemakers and the door to the classroom is wide open. Torn between blowing it
up to show he’s not ruled by Izuku’s declaration and handing it over because he
really doesn’t want to upset Izuku, Katsuki hear’s the audio of a shutter
click.
His head jerks around to Shinsou, who has his phone up. The shutter sound plays
again and Katsuki shoves the cake into Izuku’s arm. “I am going to wring your
fucking neck and throw your goddamn phone out the fucking window, you little
shit!” He lunged for Shinsou. The whole crowd of general students pulls him
back, shrieking, but not in fear. They’re giggling like mad, a chorus of “Run.
Scatter! Flee for your lives!” as they scramble away. There’s confetti on the
floor where they were and the tooting of the horns echo after them.
Katsuki chases them down to the stairwell but one of them has a quirk that
throws up a web he gets caught in near the top. Snarling, he blasts his way
through but they’re long gone by the time he gets free.
Unfortunately, class is just about to start too, as in the bell is ringing and
Katsuki has to run back down the hall and slide in the doorway.
Izuku’s inside already, the pink box on his desk, the shining hat on his head
and a huge grin. He’s surrounded by their classmates all in various stages of
exclaim and curiosity. He waves his hands as he talks, his voice completely
overwhelmed by the constant chatter of the people around him.
Katsuki, somehow, manages to get to his desk without anyone turning to bother
him.
No, wait.
Todoroki makes eye contact with him from a few desks away. Heterochromatic eyes
narrowed, he mouths the words,  I’m watching you.
Katsuki flips him off, grinning, and mouths back,  Enjoy the fucking show,
pervert.
Their teacher spends ten minutes getting the class to settle down, but it only
picks up again whenever there’s a single lull in the lesson. Izuku proudly has
the box sit on his desk, and when asked by their teachers he explains it’s a
birthday present cake and points to the gilded hat.
None of them look at it, most of them scold him for skipping the day before.
Katsuki can’t believe he just gets away with it but who is he kidding? Izuku
gets away with everything. Up to and including making Katsuki carry the damn
cake to lunch, where it gets cut up and served out to their entire class, most
of class B and the fucking hat wearing bunch from general studies too.
When Izuku sneaks a kiss after lunch, on their way back to class, it’s quick
and tastes like the sugar-sweet icing from that stupid cake.
Katsuki thinks it might just be the best damn icing he’s ever had in his
fucking life.
 
===============================================================================
 
 
 
                           Epilogue: Two Years Later
 
Katsuki was attempting to shut Izuku up because the damn idiot kept  giggling
and ruining his serious mood. Unfortunately, his method of shutting the green
eyed man up involved kissing him, repeatedly, and muttering “Shut the fuck up
or I’ll give you something to laugh about, asshole.”
“I can’t help it, Kacchan,” Izuku giggled, squirming under Katsuki’s hands. “It
alway tickles when you take me out of my suit!”
Katsuki huffed and pulled back. “Then do you want to get out of them yourself,
idiot?”
At first Izuku shakes his head and then, his mouth closes, his eyes widen and
he nods excitedly. Katsuki narrows his eyes at this and moved to the side.
“Fucking fine, do it yourself.” He turns around on the bed, facing their small
room, as Izuku slips off the sheets and scampers over to the closet.
Katsuki was kind of hoping for a strip tease but Izuku’s bursts of sexiness
tend to be, bizarrely, tied to his utter focus and study of their sexual
activities. That is to say, he’s sexiest when they’re halfway through fucking
and he has something he wants to try that he’s read about.
The first time that happened, Katsuki warily agreed. He’d heard all sorts of
stories from Eijirou about “trying something I read online” in the bedroom and
it usually ended up with someone falling on the floor or with a bloody nose and
black eye. With Izuku, however, it was completely different.
The second time he popped his head up from between Katsuki’s legs, with a
surprisingly serious gaze and the “I want to try something I…” words on his
lips, Katsuki told him to get the fuck on with it already. He hadn’t been
disappointed then, either.
The rest of the time, Izuku reminds Katsuki more of a kid than anything.
Outside of hero work, Izuku just hasn’t grown up. He still collects figurines,
wears the merchandise of his favorite heroes shamelessly on his days off and
gets way too goddamn excited when Katsuki makes him a bento in the morning.
It’s cute. Too cute.
Eijirou’s mentioned him and Ochako getting a pet dog, and Katsuki should too
because dogs are so cute. Katsuki hasn’t even considered it. He’s got enough
cute in the guy who has literally disappeared into the closet to change.  
Katsuki groaned and flopped back on the bed. He closes his eyes, rubbing them
with his palm. Of course, he wants to get a little impulsively handsy and Izuku
wants to turn it into a whole evening affair. Not that he would mind, it’s just
that he’s already half hard and Izuku doesn’t always communicate-
“Ka-cchan~”
Katsuki’s brain derailed and he pulled his arm away from his face so he could
push himself up onto his elbow. He’s still in his own uniform, though without
the gloves or shoulder pieces; just the sleeveless black and baggier bottoms,
but still damp with sweat from work and smelling like smoke.
Izuku’s wearing that giant fucking All Might hoodie- the same one from that at
the station night years ago now, but Katsuki remembers it clearly. It’s
featured a lot in their day to day life, as one of Izuku’s favorite things to
wear around their tiny apartment. It’s a little frayed around the cuffs, since
he’s worn it and washed it so often, but it looks clean now. Izuku crosses the
room with a little smile on his face and his hands swinging at his sides. He
looks so much younger in that, smiling that way, wearing that too big hoodie.
Katsuki stares at his face, lets his gaze travel downwards until he hits the
bottom of the hoodie where the hem hits Izuku’s thighs. His legs are pale and
well muscled, though they bare more scars that Katsuki’s own- or any legs he’s
ever seen.
Izuku climbs onto the bed, straddling Katsuki with those strong, naked legs.
“It’s clean and warm,” he said, holding out one sleeve towards Katsuki’s face.
“But it smells good. It smells like you, Kacchan.”
The fabric is soft against Katsuki’s cheek. He turns towards it and takes in a
breath. “Stupid,” he mutters, “it smells like  you.”
This makes Izuku smile, huge and beaming, like he’s trapped the sun under his
skin and is doling it out for Katsuki’s personal viewing. He descends on
Katsuki full of warm kisses and warmer touches. His fingers, strong and deft,
work Katsuki’s clothes free of his body. First his shirt, which stops them from
kissing for a second, and then his belt and pants.
In return, Katsuki slides his hands up Izuku’s thighs and under the hoodie,
only to discover there’s nothing on underneath it. Against his boyfriend’s
lips, he mutters, “Off with it.”
“No, Kacchan,” Izuku mumbles back, “I wanna wear it. It’s comfortable.”
“I thought you said it was clean,” Katsuki pulled away, frowning up at him.
“Don’t you want to keep it that way?”
Izuku shakes his head, cheeks flushed, lips shining from their heated, open
mouthed kisses.
Katsuki’s frown slides into a grin and he slid his fingers further up under the
hoodie. It’s soft on the inside, too, softer than Izuku’s skin which is rough
from scars and half healed scrapes that have scabbed over. His moving arms pull
up the hoodie, and Izuku, gloriously warm and sweet Izuku, flushes and pull the
cloth back down to cover his groin, as if there is anything there that Katsuki
hasn’t seen or touched or loved before.
“Stupid,” he says, biting Izuku’s lips, pulling at them and making Izuku squirm
above him. He’s still not quite resting on top of Katsuki, just kneeling up
above him even though he’s finished stripping the blonde minutes ago. “Stupid
and cute. Like a puppy with giant fucking paws they can’t even fucking walk
with.”
Izuku pulls back, lip making a small snap sound as eye cocks his head to the
side. “Did you just me a giant puppy?”
“Shut up,” Katsuki complained. “Why are you so far away? My cock is cold, Deku.
You’re the one who stole my clothes. Take some responsibility.”
Izuku wrinkles his nose and then settles down, his warm thighs covering
Katsuki’s hips and his ass brushing against Katsuki’s cock. The blonde
immediately moves his hands down to grab at that. Izuku’s backside isn’t as
round as some others- he barely has an ounce of spare fat on him at all, with
the way he keeps himself obsessively in top form- but it’s one of Katsuki’s
favorite places to grab.
“Anything fun tonight?” He asks as Izuku grinds down against him and his hips
arch up to meet him. He knows he should ask before he gets going or it’ll piss
them both off to switch gears abruptly.
“Mmm,” Izuku murmurs, running his fingertips down Katsuki’s cheek and neck,
trailing over the line of his collarbone. It’s such a surprisingly gentle
gesture that Katsuki blinks dumbly up at him. “Nothing special,” he said, “Just
love me.”
Katsuki feels his heart in his chest, heavy and pounding and he wonders if
Izuku can hear it there as well as he can probably feel it, with how close his
hand is. He pulls one hand free of its warm spot under the hoodie to tangle his
fingers in those dark green curls and pull Izuku down. “Fucking dumbass Deku,”
he said against Izuku’s lips, “I fucking always love you.”
Izuku smiles and Katsuki kisses him. He thinks if he ever were to kiss the sun,
it would have that same boundless energy trapped behind it the way Izuku does.
He knows that no one will ever get as close to this light that is Izuku and
that tightens Katsuki’s chest into all sorts of complicated, emotional knots.
He deals with those emotions the best way he knows how. Pulling Izuku down,
Katsuki rolls them over until he’s on top. “Did you grab the lube while you
were up?”
Izuku pulls it out of the hoodie pocket, which makes Katsuki call him perverted
again. Izuku counters with “you mean  prepared,  Kacchan.”
“ You’ll  really be prepared in a minute,” Katsuki said against his throat,
making Izuku give a little groan. He follows through with the not-quite-a-
threat, slicking up his fingers with lube and dribbling more of it over Izuku’s
entrance. He’s liberal with the stuff- They go through enough pain and
roughness in their work that he doesn’t need to add to it for Izuku.
That, and there’s the bonus of turning Izuku into a whimpering, drooling mess
with just his fingers and a few choice words if he takes his sweet ass time and
uses as much goddamn lube as he wants to.
Despite claiming he wants to be all bundled up in the hoodie, Izuku drags it
halfway up his chest with one shaking hand. His other is on Katsuki’s shoulder,
tightening intermittently as Katsuki works his fingers in and out of him, over
and over. Those strong legs spread wide for Katsuki, but he doesn’t take
advantage of that yet. Izuku isn’t ready yet.  He’s  not ready yet.
“Look at you,” Katsuki says, voice soft, a grin haphazard on his face, “You
look as though you haven’t even touched my cock in weeks, Deku.” He twists his
fingers around, spreading them to stretch his boyfriend’s ass a little more.
“You’re squeezing me so tightly… how am I ever going to fit my cock inside of
you?”
“K-kacchan, please,” Izuku pants out, eyes fluttering open and shut. His lashes
are long and dark, damp with those teary eyes he gets whenever he’s overwhelmed
with emotion himself. “D-don’t  tease.”
Katsuki glances down from his face, across that toned chest he’s barely even
touched this time around, to his his groin where his cock is flushed and
dripping and his ass clenches around three of Katsuki’s fingers. “Tease? You
want me to  tease?”
Izuku gasps as Katsuki curls his fingers deeper inside of him and, slowly,
drags them out, running them over his prostate. His hips thrust up against
nothing; his cock twitches.
“I could do this to you for hours,” Katsuki said quietly, knowing Izuku would
hear him anyway. The room is silent besides his words, Izuku’s panting, and the
sound of his fingers moving in and out. They got a good apartment with
soundproof walls. Some people get those because of their quirks.  They  got it
because Katsuki shouts to communicate and screams when Izuku’s buried deep
inside of him.
“Imagine that, Deku,” Katsuki said, “It’s almost enough to come to, isn’t it?
But not quite. Not quite enough touching. Not quite enough pressure.” He slid
his fingers in again, working to stretch, not tease, no matter what Izuku
claimed he was doing. Izuku was impatient in the bedroom and liable to get hurt
because of it.
(They argued about which was worse, impatience in a fight or in the bedroom.
They always switch sides when they shout it out, never meaning any of the
animosity that fills the air, but meaning all of the worry when one of them
acted too brashly against a villain and got injured.)
“How long would you last until you couldn’t speak anymore?” Katsuki asked,
leaning in so he could whisper right into Izuku’s ear. He loves being on top of
him, stretched over him, because he can feel Izuku’s shuddering chest against
his own and his hard cock bouncing between them. Izuku’s arms wrap around
Katsuki’s neck and he pleads with every breath he takes.
“Kacchan, I want you,” he pants out, “I love you. Kacchan,  please.”
Katsuki kisses the side of his neck, feels Izuku’s fluttering pulse beneath his
lips and finally gives in to what they’re both dying for.
It feels like coming home that first month they were on their own, with Izuku
there waiting for him with a bright smile and open arms. It feels like the full
embrace of the sun, warm and perfect and filling like it had been on the beach
when they went together on a morning run and saw it rise over the ocean. It
feels like the most right thing Katsuki has ever done, pushing into Izuku
slowly and surely, the way he’s done so many times before.
Izuku sobs with relief as he does it, rocking against him before Katsuki’s even
in all the way. His fingers are tangled in short blond hair and gripping the
edge of Katsuki’s shoulder blade as he adjusts himself over Izuku. Gripping the
sheets in one hand, using his arms to lock Izuku down beneath himself, Katsuki
pulls Izuku’s hips up and then rolls his hips in  hard.
That moment never lasts long- the one where he’s buried in as far as he can go
and they’re linked, immobile, panting against one another. There’s that
impatience of Izuku’s and they start rocking, thrusting, moving opposite and
then in tandem.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Katsuki groans, thrusting with each word. Cursing every time
he has to pull out to drive in again. “Fuck  yes.”
Izuku moans his name and hooks his legs around Katsuki, hard and strong. He
adds to the force of Katsuki’s thrust with them. Sweat drips from his back,
running down his sides. Katsuki’s hot, so hot, burning up with each motion as
Izuku’s hands wander and his body holds tight, clings tighter, squeezes him.
The bed rocks under the force of their combined weight moving. They’re both
strong- they’re Pro Heroes for fuck’s sake- and one of these days they’re going
to break the frame mid-fuck and just keep going because that’s what you do. It
thumps against the wall, making a picture hung up shake and rattle and Izuku
laugh breathlessly as Katsuki drives him harder into the mattress.
He forgets about trying to be gentle when he digs his fingers into Izuku’s hips
hard enough to bruise. Izuku groans and then muffles himself by sinking teeth
into Katsuki’s shoulder. They bruise and batter each other as they go on,
Katsuki’s grip leaving handprints and fingermarks as Izuku’s teeth leave ring
after ring across his shoulder and neck.
There’s a distant sound of something clattering to the ground -the picture
frame, Katsuki will discover later- but no shattering glass. They’ve been
knocking pictures down since they first got there- none of the ones on the
walls have glass in them anymore. Izuku laughs, bright as light itself, warm as
candleflame, and turns his head to Katsuki’s kissing and whispering, again, his
love.
Katsuki catches his lips in a breath-stealing kiss and whispers it back.
They send each other roiling over the edge, Katsuki’s pretty sure he come
first, but is self-satisfied in the thought that it’s the feeling of his cum
that makes Izuku shudder through his orgasm. The apartment falls still and
quiet. Izuku’s breath is against his throat. Katsuki’s is in his curly, sweaty
hair.
Slowly, rolling off and pulling away, Katsuki keeps one arm around Izuku so he
doesn’t, can’t, go very far. Izuku grins and snuggles up against his side, as
if there is no where else he’d rather be.
 
===============================================================================
 
Not twenty minutes later, Izuku is startled out of a pleasant, post-fuck sleep
by the strangest sensation. His body is pushing itself upright, but he’s also
aware, so aware, that he’s not moving his limbs himself. His voice collects in
the back of his throat, gathering as air moves in and out of his lungs, but his
mouth doesn’t open, his words die unspoken.
Like a puppet attached to invisible strings, Izuku slides from the bed and
staggers upright. His eyes are wide with fear; he’s broken out in a cold sweat.
He can’t even turn to look over his shoulder at the soft, sleepy, curious sound
Katsuki makes behind him. He can’t respond at all.
His hand lifts at the door and opens it. Izuku jerks forward, through it, and
through his apartment, bumping his shins against a table and his hip against
the couch. He wants to cry by the time he reaches the front door. His muscles
strain against the puppeteering. Who is doing this? What is going on? Where is
he going?
It’s not like he’s stopped feeling, either. He can feel the cool tile of the
floor right at the front door. He can feel the slick, slow drip of cum and lube
down his inner thigh. He can feel the air against the back of his neck, cold
where he’s sweaty. Again, his hand reaches up. Again, he opens the door.
A woman stands on the step. Her golden eyes are wild. Her cotton candy colored
hair, pink and blue, is tangled and pulled back roughly like there’s no order
to her. She’s wearing clothes that are wrinkled and oddly stained, with tiny
holes in the sleeves like they caught fire and she slapped it out. Her hands
are held out in front of her like a marionettist’s, but they’re shaking so
badly Izuku wouldn’t know that if he hadn’t seen it before.
Kagaya grins at him, wide and feral, “Hello Sunshine.” Her grin doesn’t touch
her eyes. They are sharp and glinting in the low light that comes in through
the windows of Izuku’s apartment behind him. “Remember me?”
Izuku suddenly has control of his head. He swallows, his throat dry, and
croaks, “Kagaya- You’re-”
“Good!” She said, tilting her head to the side. She looks thinner than he
remembers, though that was two years ago now. There are shadows under her eyes
and a sort of frantic air that completes her whole ensemble that could be
loosely titled as  Something Bad Has Happened.  “I’m glad. You see, you owe me
quite the favor, don’t you? And guess what?”
“Wh-”
“I’m calling it in.”
Chapter End Notes
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