Not Alone Anymore

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/47403883.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: M/M
Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero
Academia (Anime & Manga)
Relationship: Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima
Eijirou/Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi |
Present Mic, Kaminari Denki/Todoroki Shouto
Character: Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead,
Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Bakugou Mitsuki, Bakugou Masaru,
Tsukauchi Naomasa, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Todoroki Shouto,
Kirishima Eijirou, Kaminari Denki, Sero Hanta, Yagi Toshinori | All
Might, Kayama Nemuri | Midnight, Nezu, Shinsou Hitoshi, Monoma
Neito, Kan Sekijirou | Vlad King
Additional Tags: Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku are Siblings, Dead Midoriya Inko,
Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Abusive Bakugou Mitsuki, Abused Midoriya
Izuku, Abused Bakugou Katsuki, Younger Sibling Midoriya Izuku,
Midoriya Izuku Does Not Go to U.A. High School, Because He Is 4,
Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead and Yamada
Hizashi | Present Mic Adopt Bakugou Katsuki, Aizawa Shouta |
Eraserhead and Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic Adopt Midoriya Izuku,
Soft Bakugou Katsuki, Protective Bakugou Katsuki, Alternate Universe -
Canon Divergence, i take canon out back and shoot it, Quirkless
People with Extra Toe Joints Wear Custom Sneakers | Red Shoe
Theory (My Hero Academia), Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou
Katsuki Needs a Hug, Deaf Bakugou Katsuki, Deaf Yamada Hizashi |
Present Mic, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Fluff and Angst, Mineta
Minoru Doesn't Exist, Hurt/Comfort, Trans Shinsou Hitoshi, Kayama
Nemuri | Midnight is a Bad Teacher, Protective Aizawa Shouta |
Eraserhead, Protective Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Internalized
Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Ableist Language, Autistic Iida
Tenya, Kaminari Denki Has ADHD, Dyslexic Kaminari Denki, Ashido
Mina Has ADHD, Slow Burn, Transphobia
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-05-24 Updated: 2023-07-15 Words: 91,588 Chapters:
15/?

Not Alone Anymore

by Thx4thestories

Summary

Bakugo Katsuki is the class hothead who refuses to work with others. He doesn't have
many friends and most of class A avoids him like the plague. That starts to change the night
Aizawa gets a call for help from his explosive student.
 Chapter 1
Chapter Notes

Not me starting another fic like I don't have two others I don't update regularly
enough. I'm just in a silly goofy mood I guess

TW: this chapter contains descriptions of child abuse and neglect and a homophobic
slur

Over the years Shouta had never once regretted giving his students his personal number in case of
emergencies. He always waited until the second week of school when he could be sure the
remaining students had at least a little potential and, hopefully, the brains needed to know that
prank calling their expulsion happy homeroom teacher was a dumb idea.

Anything from the roof of a building or a bottle of pills looking a little too inviting to being scared
on a walk home alone late at night, he wanted his students to know that he would be there for them
in their times of need. Yes, he was a harsh teacher trying to whip them into shape for an
unforgiving and dangerous career, but they were still just kids who needed someone to be their safe
place. So far, in all his years of teaching he’d never gotten a call or text from a student that wasn’t
some form of an emergency.

Shouta was reminding himself of that fact repeatedly in the seconds it took to roll over at one in the
morning to grab his phone as it rang. He knew it wasn’t Hizashi, who was snoring loudly right next
to him and unable to hear the phone without his hearing aids, or any of his police or hero contacts.
They all had special ringtones so he would know who it was without having to check caller ID. So
the generic tone could only be his students, no one else would have his number.

One look at the screen showed it wasn’t a number he had saved, so it wasn’t a student that had ever
needed to call him before. He answered with a tired sounding, “Aizawa speaking.”

Two quiet breaths clearly heard over the speaker of the phone before the reply came, “Sensei, I
need you to come get me.”

Just realizing who it was on the other end would have had Shouta shooting out of bed in a second
anyway. Bakugo having just been returned to his parents from his kidnapping ordeal yesterday and
needing to call him would have been alarming enough. But the tone of voice he used was one
Shouta had never expected to hear from the loud, angry boy. He sounded like he was pleading with
his teacher.

Shouta wasn’t about to ignore a cry for help from the last person he would have expected to ever
give one. “Tell me where you are and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

After getting a location and making sure Bakugo didn’t need him to stay on the line, he hung up.
Hizashi was sitting up in bed, having been woken up by Shouta’s frantic scramble out of bed and
was watching his husband hurriedly throw on clothes. When he saw Shouta looking he raised his
hands to sign, what’s going on Shou ?

Signing back, he explained he needed to go retrieve a student and that Hizashi shouldn’t worry. He
managed to talk the man out of coming with him by explaining exactly which student needed him,
they both knew Bakugo would not take well to an uninvited party in this situation. Hurried
reassurances that he would keep his husband updated soothed some of the worry on the blonde’s
face as Shouta rushed out of their apartment.

Several broken traffic laws later and he was parking illegally outside a small park, barely shutting
off the car before throwing himself out and running in the direction Bakugo had told him to go. It
didn’t take long for him to find his student sitting on a bench at the back of the park that rested
right up against the fence, giving the teen the perfect view to see any approaching people. There
was a large lump of cloth next to him that in the dark looked to be a jacket and at least two blankets
and next to his feet rested a small backpack and an overstuffed duffle bag. The picture being
painted didn’t look too promising.

He stopped several feet away, just close enough to be heard without raising his voice, not wanting
to crowd his student. “So you needed a ride somewhere kid?”

Bakugo eyed him with a critical look, “You said we could call you if we needed help.” Shouta
nodded, “I’m loud and aggressive, but you spoke up for me at that press conference. So you don’t
think I would lie for no reason right?”

At that he shakes his head no, silently encouraging his student to keep going. “Well then,
underground heroes work with the cops all the time, right? So I need you to get me to a cop that
can’t be bought off and doesn’t tolerate quirk discrimination. Do you know anyone like that?”

Shouta nods again, about to open his mouth to ask about the quirk discrimination, something that
wouldn’t usually be a concern for someone with a quirk like Bakugo’s when the boy reaches over
to the pile of cloth next to him. His mouth snaps closed when the boy, more gently than he’s ever
seen him do anything, scoops up the pile and the blanket falls down to reveal that what Shouta had
thought was a second, fuzzy blanket peeking out from under the other was in fact a head of hair.

A head of hair attached to a sleeping child. A sleeping child being cradled by his most volatile
student who looks to have run away from home in an abandoned park at one in the morning.
Because this situation wasn’t already surreal or alarming enough.

Knowing by the look in his eyes that Bakugo wouldn’t be elaborating any further until they were
sitting in front of the cop he’d requested, Shouta silently let him scoop up the bags at his feet
before leading him to his car. His student chose to slip into the backseat so he could settle in next
to the belongings and keep his hold on the child who Shouta still hadn’t gotten a decent look at.

The drive was quiet, the only sounds were small noises from the bundle in Bakugo’s arms and the
passing traffic. He parked in a familiar spot and turned to look at his passengers, “Tsukauchi is an
excellent detective with a lie detector quirk. He knows what it’s like to have people lash out
because of his quirk and he doesn’t tolerate any discrimination. He worked on your kidnapping
case as well so you might recognize him. I trust him with my life.”

Bakugo pondered this for a moment before giving a short nod and opening his door to slide out of
the car. Shouta noticed he took the bags with him but chose to ignore it. Whatever it took to make
the kid feel safe was fine by him.

Luckily Tsukauchi didn’t know the meaning of sleep and had stayed overnight to get through the
paperwork the kidnapping case had piled on him. So it only took a few short minutes of quiet
conversation with the night desk officer before the detective was rushing out of his office and
ushering them into a cozy victim interview room.
Bakugo sat down on the couch, plopping the bags down in the empty space next to him in a clear
sign that the adults were meant to take the chairs across from the two kids. Tsukauchi offered a
reassuring smile before going through his usual opening spiel, “Hello Bakugo, my name is
Tsukauchi Naomasa and my quirk is lie detector, meaning any time you speak out loud I will know
if you are telling the truth or not. Do you consent to me using my quirk through the course of this
conversation and do you consent to the conversation being recorded?”

The boy let out a soft yes and the detective set down a recorder before flipping open a small
notepad, “Okay, can you tell me what brought you and your friend here tonight, Bakugo?”

Shouta watched the hand not cradling the kid in his lap softly run through wild green curls a few
times before Bakugo looked up at the detective. “His name is Izuku Midoriya, my little brother.
My parents took him in after his mom died a year ago, his dad had fucked off as soon as Auntie
Inko found out she was pregnant. It was fine, my parents had always adored the kid and he was my
little brother from the second he was born so it just made sense.”

Red eyes slipped away from Tsukauchi’s face to rest on the face buried in his chest. “The old hag,
my mother, she doesn’t like things she thinks are weak. I thought she would be fine with Izuku
because she’d always loved him. She told me constantly she wished she had a son like him instead
of a weak bitch like me.”

Shouta didn’t like any of this, especially Bakugo referring to himself as weak like it was fact, but
he couldn’t interrupt Bakugo now or he would risk the kid closing off and shutting down. “But
then last month they took Izuku to the doctor since his quirk hadn’t come in and that’s when we
found out he’s quirkless. I thought we’d be fine after that first day. I was already the one taking
him to daycare and picking him up since it’s right by UA so I just had to make sure he was never
alone in the house with them until I turned eighteen and could get custody of him.”

The pit that had been forming in his stomach grew even wider knowing exactly what had caused
his student to take his brother and run. “Then UA sent out emails about dorms and I knew I
couldn’t leave him there. But I couldn’t just trust the cops that showed up if I called wouldn’t take
a bribe or look the other way since Izuku’s quirkless.”

Switching the hand that held the still sleeping boy, Bakugo shuffled the small backpack closer to
himself so he could unzip it and take out a thick file folder. He placed it on the table between them
and flipped it open. A picture of a small green haired boy standing against a plain, white wall was
placed in front of them. The two men took in the picture of a child staring at the camera with tear
filled eyes as blood ran down his face from a gash above his left eye. There was a red mark, already
starting to bruise, around his wrist and his arm was clearly dislocated at the shoulder.

Bakugo slid the picture to the side to reveal another picture taken a few days later as the bruise on
his wrist was fully formed in the shape of a hand and the cut above his eye was scabbed over.
“This is what happened the day she found out he was quirkless.”

He slid that picture aside to reveal a picture of himself that had bile creeping up Shouta’s throat.
Bakugo had explained away the split lip when Shouta had asked as an after school training mishap
and he’d believed it since he’d previously heard the boy talk about sparring classes he took outside
of school. But in the picture, Bakugo had removed his shirt so the marks Shouta hadn’t been able to
see were on display.

Several large bruises littered his torso with some pretty deep looking cuts between them. There
were a few marks that were clearly older, mostly healed bruises and cuts laying under the fresh
damage. The most concerning was the clearly fresh marks around the student’s neck. Bakugo let
them take in the sight for a minute before speaking again, “This is what happened when I stepped
in. She’d pulled Izuku’s arm out of its socket just dragging him into the house then she threw him
by the wrist and he cut his head on the table.”

“That’s the only time she’s ever been violent with him, but after that I made sure we stayed in his
room or mine as soon as we got home from school so she never had the chance to hurt him.” The
teen began pulling more documents and pictures from the folder to spread across the table, talking
as he removed each item.

“This is a copy of my medical records that show frequent injuries with questionable at best
explanations. Pictures I’ve taken over the years of the injuries she’s given me. Screenshots of texts
where she threatens physical harm or withholding food. Screenshots of texts from my father that
prove he knows what she does. This should all be enough to get us removed from their care right?”

Shouta wanted nothing more than to never have to see that desperate look in Bakugo’s eyes again.
He wasn’t the only one, Tsukauchi leaned forward with determination written all over his face.
“This is enough to ensure you never have to see either of them again. Not only have you provided
physical documentation, but I can testify that everything you’ve said here today was true. We will
have to get a statement from Izuku as well but that can wait until he wakes up.”

Bakugo nodded. He watched the detective gather up all the documents in silence. As Tsukauchi
closed the folder, the teen asked, “Is there any way to make sure Izuku and I end up at the same
place? We don’t have any family to watch us until I can get emancipated and get custody of him
and I know what foster homes will be like for a quirkless kid.”

Not even giving Tsukauchi a chance to speak, Shouta made the quickest decision he’d ever made in
his life. “That won’t be necessary, Bakugo. You and Izuku will come stay with my husband and
me.”

Bakugo glared at him, his usual defensive nature making itself known. “I don’t need you to feel
sorry for us and we will only stay until I can get custody.”

Tsukauchi sighed, “Bakugo, do you know how hard it will be to get custody of a child as an
emancipated minor?”

Rage filled red eyes turned to the detective who did a good job at holding back a flinch. “As soon
as custody is removed from my parents I’ll be able to file for emancipation and there’s no way they
won’t grant it to a hero in training. All I need after that is a place to stay and enough money to
ensure I can care for him. Getting an apartment won’t be hard and I’ve been modeling for my
parents’ company since I was in diapers.”

The blonde scoffed, “My father is a cowardly piece of shit, but he always made sure I was paid for
my work so I have enough in an account with just my name on it to get a place to live and keep the
two of us extremely comfortable for at least ten years after I graduate high school.”

The detective asked what both adults were thinking, “Who will take care of him during the months
you’ll be living in the dorms? I heard they were making them mandatory.”

“I’ll be transferring to a school that doesn’t require students to stay in dorms and getting a nanny
who can take care of things if there’s an emergency during school hours.”

Shouta was the one to sigh this time. “That’s a clearly well thought out plan, kid. If that’s the route
you really want to go then you can stay with my husband and me until you’re ready to move out.
But that whole legal process could take months or even years and would be a distraction from your
studies.”
He held up a hand to cut his student off before he could object, “I’m not saying Izuku wouldn’t be
worth it or that you would fail at becoming a hero. I’m just saying that you could stay with us and
stay enrolled at UA. Izuku could stay with us in the teacher dorms which are set up more like
apartments and will allow spouses and children that don’t teach at or attend school there to stay
with their family. He’d be just a short walk away any time you wanted to see each other and he
could stay in your dorm room as often as you want as long as it doesn’t impact your school work.”

The argument was clearly working, he could see the hesitance slowly leaving Bakugo’s face. So he
pushed on, “If you want to take custody of him after you graduate that can absolutely happen, but
you are only fifteen. Let yourself have these last few years to be as normal of a high schooler as
you can be. Let Izuku have two adults and a big brother to take care of him and protect him. I fully
believe you could make it the two of you against the world and win, but I’m telling you that you
could have more people in your corner. Let us be in your corner.”

Bakugo chewed his lip, contemplating everything his teacher had said. Finally, he looked down at
his brother and sighed, most of the stiffness in his shoulders leaving him. “Fine, but shouldn’t you
have asked Mic Sensei before offering to take in two brats?”

Shouta huffed in amusement, “Exactly how did you know the husband I was referring to was
Present Mic?”

That earned him an eye roll, “Please, the two of you both look at the other like the sun shines
directly out of their ass. It’s disgusting and if you were married to anyone else I’d tell you to get a
divorce.”

It was his turn to roll his eyes fondly. “I promise you Hizashi will be more than thrilled to take in
two kids. He’s always wanted kids and he’ll be thrilled to have someone who appreciates English
literature in the house.”

His student leaned forward, careful of the kid in his lap. “Oh yeah? Call him then.’

Shouta felt the corners of his mouth lifting at the obvious challenge in Bakugo’s voice as he pulled
out his phone to call his husband. With the call on speaker they both heard the worried voice of the
loud hero as he answered with a shaky hello?

“Hey Zashi, you’re on speaker and I’m here with Bakugo, his little brother who is asleep, and
detective Tsukauchi. Bakugo and his brother Izuku need some guardians at least until Bakugo
graduates and he doesn’t think you’ll be fine with my offer to take them both in.”

He was smart enough to switch the call off speaker right after he finished talking. They all heard
Hizashi’s scream of excitement anyway. Once they weren’t in danger of being deafened over the
phone, he put the call back on speaker so they could all listen to the blonde’s ramblings about how
excited he was and the list of things they would need to do.

Shouta caught sight of Bakugo rolling his eyes at his English teacher’s enthusiasm but he could tell
it was more fond than annoyed. Eventually, he was able to get Hizashi to stop rambling by telling
him to get off the phone and come meet their new kids. (Thankfully the man was too excited to
realize he already knew one of the kids)

Tsukauchi gathered the evidence Bakugo had laid out and stood, “I’ll go get started on the
paperwork. I’ll have Sansa bring in the papers you need to fill out for emergency guardianship,
Eraser. Once that’s filled out I just need Midoriya’s statement and you’ll all be free to leave. Let
me know if he wakes up before everything is done, otherwise we will, unfortunately, have to wake
him.”
Bakugo nodded and watched Tsukauchi’s every move as he left until the door was closed behind
him. Then crimson eyes were examining Shouta again. There were several minutes of tense silence
before Bakugo looked like he was about to say something only to be interrupted by Sansa stopping
by to drop off the fostering forms.

Leaning back against the chair and keeping his posture as non-threatening as possible, Shouta
began filling out the forms. He was several lines down when he figured the kid wasn’t going to talk
again so, without looking up, he said, “The teachers have already moved into their on campus
apartments so we will be returning to UA tonight. I’ll send Nezu an email about the situation so we
have official approval, but I assure you it won’t be an issue. Then, once they have your parents in
custody, we can get your things you didn’t manage to grab from your house and you can start
setting up your dorm room.”

He made it several more lines down on the form before he got a quiet response, “This is pretty
much all we have. She broke and burned all of Izuku’s toys after he was diagnosed. I grabbed most
of our clothes and the rest I can replace.”

Shouta hummed, “There’s nothing you want to go back for just for sentimental reasons?”

The second page was mostly filled out by the time Bakugo spoke again, “There’s a picture in the
living room. I packed our bags this morning and hid them under my window since I had to climb
down holding Izuku. Their bedroom is between my room and the stairs and the old man is a light
sleeper. I couldn’t grab the picture without tipping them off but the kid should have it. It’s the two
of us with his mom right after she gave birth.”

“We’ll get it as soon as they’re in custody then.” Shouta left no room for argument.

Just as he was finishing up the last of the paperwork, Hizashi bounced into the room. He was
clearly trying to contain himself, aware that any situation that was bad enough that Bakugo had to
ask for help wasn’t an appropriate time to be as boisterous as he normally would. That didn’t stop
him from grinning so wide it made Shouta’s face hurt as he quickly shut the door and took a seat
next to his husband.

Hizashi’s grin softened to a compassionate smile, “Hey listener, I’m sorry for whatever’s gone on
that made it necessary but I am excited the two of you will be staying with us.”

Huffing, Bakugo rolled his eyes. “I can tell. You look like you’re about to shit your pants from
excitement. I’ll wake the kid up now so you can meet him before he gives his statement and then
we can get the fuck outta here.”

With that, the teenager reached into the blanket and pulled out a tiny hand. The two adults watched
as their most volatile student gently tugged on small fingers as he said, “Hey nerd, it’s time to wake
up.”

The blanket shifted a bit as the kid started to wake. Then a sleepy, absolutely adorable voice
asked, “Kacchan? Did we make it? Did I do good?”

Now, Shouta prides himself on being observant. So, unlike most of class 1A, he knows that
Bakugo isn’t as uncaring and mean as he acts. The hero has noticed him quieting down even if just
a bit when a classmate with a headache winces at the volume. He’s watched the blonde
aggressively shove his own notes at one of his very few friends a few days before a test. Once he’d
even witnessed the kid slip prepackaged food into Uraraka’s desk when the rest of the class left the
room.
Most of this year’s class was still under the impression that Bakugo Katsuki was rude, loud, and an
asshole. They hadn’t bothered yet to look beyond the wall the kid clearly puts up to keep people at
a distance. Bakugo didn’t have many friends in the class and the few he did have weren’t as close
to him as they were to each other.

But Shouta knew there was a caring side to Bakugo. Knowing that did not at all prepare him for
the fond, soft way he replied to Izuku, “Yeah nerd, you did great. Stayed quiet and brave like you
promised and now I’ve got a surprise for you.”

That perked the kid up. More awake now, he lifted his head from Bakugo’s chest to look up at him.
“A surprise, Kacchan?”

A quiet chuckle and Bakugo smiled, not the manic grin he got during training, but an actual smile.
“How would you like to meet some heroes?” Izuku started nodding frantically, curls bouncing
wildly. “Then turn around.”

Fast as lightning, Izuku whipped his head around and Shouta was presented with the most adorable
kid he’d ever seen. Wide emerald eyes and freckled cheeks on a chubby, angelic face that was lit
up in glee.

For a second, Shouta worried the kid wouldn’t believe they were heroes. Hizashi was in his
pajamas with his hair in a messy bun, looking nothing like Present Mic. Eraserhead wasn’t anyone
a kid should know. But then the boy was wiggling out of his brother’s grip and shrieking, “Present
Mic! Eraserhead! Kacchan, it’s Present Mic and Eraserhead!”

Shouta glanced up at his student to see the most fond look he’d ever seen on any teenager directed
at the wiggling ball of excitement the four year old had turned into. “I know, nerd. They’re my
teachers, remember?”

Izuku didn’t bother responding. He simply ran up to Shouta, stopping directly in front of him to
look up with the most admiration that had ever been directed at him by someone not his husband.
“You’re my most favorite hero, Eraserhead. Cause Kacchan says you don’t have a quirk that helps
you fight so you’re the closest thing to a quirkless hero. Kacchan says I’m gonna be the world’s
first quirkless hero!”

Shouta would have to be an idiot to not notice the firmness in Bakugo’s voice when he piped in,
“That’s right, Izu, and you’ll be a great hero quirk or not. Right, Eraserhead?”

There was no need for the glare he was sure his student was giving him, but he could appreciate
the protectiveness. “That’s right kid. When you get a bit bigger I could even teach you some tricks
for underground heroics if your brother says it’s okay.”

Like a flash, Izuku was back in front of Bakugo with his little hands clasped together. “Oh please
Kacchan. Please let Eraserhead teach me?”

Bakugo ruffled the kid’s hair. “Of course he’s going to teach you. We’re going to be staying with
both of them from now on.”

The noise that came out of Izuku at that was almost concerning. Shouta hadn’t been aware humans
could make that noise, even with quirks. “We’re gonna live with Present Mic and Eraserhead ?”

When the blonde nodded, the kid shot back across the room. Bouncing with excitement in front of
Hizashi this time. “Present Mic, you’re really gonna let us live with you and Eraserhead? We get to
live with two of the best heroes ever?”
Hizashi flashed a blinding smile back at him, “That’s right kiddo, we’re all going to stay in our
brand new apartment at UA.”

The noise Izuku was making after that honestly concerned Shouta. His little face was turning red
and he sounded like an asthmatic cat being strangled. In an instant, Bakugo was kneeling behind
his brother.

He rubbed a hand on Izuku’s back, using the other to gently turn his head so they were looking at
each other. “Hey Izu, you have to breathe. I know you’re excited, but take a deep breath in for me.”
Izuku sucked in a shaky breath, “Good now let it out. Okay, give me one more.”

Bakugo managed to talk Izuku back to his normal breathing pattern before leaning back to give him
space. “We do get to live at UA since they want all the students to live there and you can’t live
with my parents anymore. Now you remember how I said you would have to tell some people
about the scary things you saw at home?” Izuku nodded, face somber now. “You think you can do
that now if we get the detective in here?”

Squaring his little shoulders, Izuku stuck his chin out. “Of course I can, because I’m brave like All
Might and Kacchan!”

Shouta thought Hizashi might actually crush his arm with the death grip he was using on it to stop
himself from squealing about how cute that was. He used his other hand to shoot a text to
Tsukauchi. “Okay, I’ve let him know we’re ready for him.”

Bakugo nodded in thanks and then Izuku was racing back over to Hizashi to tell him how much he
loved his radio show and his silly banana hair. Yeah, Shouta wasn’t going to let him live that one
down any time soon.

When Tsukauchi knocked on the door to let them know he was coming in, Bakugo didn’t have to
open his mouth for Izuku to return to him on the couch. Shouta felt his heart break knowing how
unsafe the poor kid had to have felt at home for a knock at the door to make him go running back
to the safety of his brother’s lap.

Taking the chair next to Hizashi, Tsukauchi smiled at the four year old. “Hello Midoriya, my name
is Tsukauchi Naomasa. I need to ask you some questions that might be hard for you to answer. If
you need me to stop so you can take a break or if there’s something too scary to answer, just let me
know okay? Do you want it to be just us or can Eraserhead and Present Mic stay?”

Izuku nodded, voicing that he was okay with everyone staying, Bakugo agreed and the detective
set his recorder down on the table. He went over getting permission for recording and using his
quirk during the interview. Shouta had to bite back a chuckle when Izuku excitedly declared,
“That’s such a cool quirk !”

The rest of the room was quiet as Izuku proceeded to rapid fire ask questions about how it worked.
Shouta smiled, not just a hero fan but a little quirk nerd. He already had two things on his mental
list of ways to win over his new son. Now he just needed to work on the list for Bakugo.

His smile died a little when Izuku shrank into himself and cut off his own questions. “I’m sorry. I
know I’m annoying.”

Bakugo leaned down to whisper something to his brother that got a shaky smile from the kid.
Tsukauchi rubbed at his neck, “You’re not annoying at all, Midoriya. I just didn’t manage to catch
all your questions. Tell you what, I’ll write them down when I listen to the recording later and send
my answers to Eraserhead for you. How does that sound?”
Shouta was starting to get emotional whiplash from the kid. As soon as the detective asked that,
Izuku was back to beaming at him.

Unfortunately, they were there for a reason so Tsukauchi had to bring the mood back down. “So
Midoriya, can you tell me what it was like living with the Bakugos?”

Izuku was playing with his fingers nervously, “It was okay at first. I just didn’t like it when Auntie
shouted or was mean to Kacchan.”

Tsukauchi waited until it was clear the boy was done speaking to ask, “And just for clarification,
Kacchan is Bakugo Katsuki and Auntie is Bakugo Mitsuki correct?”

Izuku nodded, “And there’s also Uncle Masaru.”

“Thank you, Midoriya, I just want to make sure I know who everyone is.” He smiled comfortingly
at the boy, “So when you said that your Auntie is mean to Katsuki, what does she do that’s mean?”

The boy swung his feet back and forth as he thought, kicking his little feet against Bakugo’s shins
lightly. Bakugo was running his fingers through Izuku’s green curls to comfort him. “She always
calls him mean things like weak or worthless or stupid and Kacchan isn’t any of those things!
Auntie also said a bunch of mean words that Kacchan said I can’t repeat.”

Tsukauchi looked up at Bakugo and the teen huffed. “It was mostly just her cussing at me and
calling me a faggot.”

That got a sympathetic wince from the three adults. “So Midoriya, was it just mean words or did
you ever see or hear your Auntie or Uncle being physically mean too?”

Izuku tugged at Bakugo’s hand that had been resting on his stomach to keep him steady in his lap
until the teen held it up so he could trace the lines on his palm. Watching his finger on Bakugo’s
palm the kid answered, “Auntie hits Kacchan a lot. Every day. Sometimes it’s just a slap on the
back of his head but then sometimes she also slaps his face.”

Hizashi grabbed Shouta’s hand, needing the comfort probably just as much as his husband at
hearing the awful things that had happened to their student.

“When she’s more mad, Auntie punches Kacchan in the tummy and kicks his legs. She grabs his
arms too hard a lot so he has bruises all over.” Izuku’s voice was watery, clearly so close to crying,
but he kept going, “Auntie throws stuff at Kacchan. She breaks a lot of dishes like that. Sometimes
Kacchan has to sleep outside because Auntie says he’s been too bad to be allowed in the house.”

Tears were dripping down onto Bakugo’s hand before Izuku could reach up to wipe at his eyes.
“Once, Auntie was mad about Kacchan doing the dishes too slow so she…she pushed his face in
the dishwater and held it there. He couldn’t breathe and I was so scared… ”

Izuku broke off into hiccuping sobs. Shouta felt his own eyes watering. Bakugo hugged his brother
close, “It’s okay now Izu, that’s enough for that question. Right?”

Bakugo turned hard eyes on Tsukauchi who was already nodding in agreement, but before he could
open his mouth to reply Izuku protested, “But I didn’t even tell them about the closet.”

Hizashi’s hand had a death grip on Shouta’s as Tsukauchi asked, “The closet?”

Bakugo spoke up before his brother had to, “It’s a storage closet under the stairs. She would lock
me in there overnight or for the weekend sometimes if she felt like I had done something to
embarrass her.”

Izuku sniffled, looking up at the adults with anger in his eyes. “She made him wear a mask and tied
his hands up so he couldn’t even get out!”

At the questioning look the detective had on his face, Bakugo clarified, “It was a muzzle. She
muzzled me and tied my hands, palms together, so I couldn’t use my quirk.”

Shouta was having flashbacks to the footage he’d watched in horror of his student at the sports
festival, he’d already left by then or he would have stormed the stage injuries be damned. Hizashi
made a strangled choking noise next to him. Shouta thought he’d need to leave the room, but his
husband just leaned against his arm.

Tsukauchi worked to keep his own rage out of his voice, “Okay, thank you both for that
information. Now Midoriya, where was your uncle when all this was happening? Did he not know
how mean your auntie was being?”

Izuku shook his head, “Uncle knows. He would watch Auntie be mean then he would tell Kacchan
to try not to make Auntie so mad.”

Masaru was now only one spot below his wife on Shouta’s shit list.

“Thank you, Midoriya. I just need a little more information. Did your Auntie ever get mean either
with words or physically with you?” They all knew the answer, but they had to get the kid to say it
now if they wanted to keep the kid from having to take the stand at a trial.

Izuku grabbed the blanket he’d been wrapped up in while asleep and tugged it up into his lap.
Bakugo immediately started tucking the edges in around the boy so he would feel more secure and
Shouta wanted nothing more than to scoop both boys up and never let anyone hurt them again.

Finally he looked up and told the story of being told by the doctor he would never get a quirk.
How Mitsuki hadn’t said a word until they got back home where she grabbed his arm to haul him
out of the car and into the house.

“She started calling me all these names and she made my shoulder pop and it hurt. Then she
pushed me and I hit my head. Kacchan came running in and he pushed her away when she tried to
grab me again. That’s when Auntie started hitting Kacchan real hard.”

His little lip was wobbling again, “I didn’t think she would ever stop hitting Kacchan but she did
and Kacchan took me upstairs. He took pictures of my hurts and fixed me up. After that we spent
all our home time in our rooms together so Auntie couldn’t be mean to me. If she started looking
for me, Kacchan would go make her be mean to him on purpose so she would leave me alone.”

Tsukauchi smiled softly, “Thank you so much for telling me all of that, Midoriya. You’ve been
very brave.” He clicked off the recorder and placed it in his pocket before removing something
else, “So brave that I have something for you so you can remember how brave you are.”

Shouta knew what it was, he’d seen them often enough when kids had to give interviews with the
man. It was just a cheap laminated card with All Might and the words you’re a hero! printed on it.
The only thing really special about the cards were that the detective had them all signed by the
hero himself, perks of being a friend to All Might.

You would have thought he’d just handed Izuku a check for a million dollars with the way his face
lit up. There were still tear tracks on his cheeks and his eyes were rimmed red, but the boy smiled
wider than he had since waking up. “Look Kacchan, it’s All Might!”
Bakugo ruffled his brother’s hair, “I see, Izu. You deserve it for being such a brave kid tonight. Do
you want to say anything to the detective?”

Izuku whipped his head around to let out a high pitched thank you followed by about ten more
before Tsukauchi managed to laugh it off. He let them know they were free to go. Shouta handed
over the guardianship paperwork and Bakugo scooped up his brother and their bags.

Hizashi had taken a cab, so they all piled into one car to head back to UA. When he glanced back
in the rear view mirror and saw a drowsy Izuku clutching the All Might card while Bakugo played
with his hair, Shouta thought again that he would never regret giving out his personal number to
students.

He’d just gotten two sons out of it after all.

 Chapter 2

There hadn’t been time after finding out about the dorms for Katsuki to plan any further than
getting him and Izuku the fuck out of that house. He’d packed their shit and snuck it downstairs to
hide under his window then gone back upstairs to keep Izuku entertained until bedtime. When the
kid questioned him about the bags, Katsuki had made it out to be a secret game they were playing.

His brother was smart, but he was also four. Katsuki wasn’t taking chances by telling him until the
last possible minute what was going on. Every night somewhere between eleven thirty and
midnight Izuku wakes him up because he needs to use the bathroom. Izuku is potty trained and can
use the toilet by himself during the day. Katsuki suspects it’s nightmares that wake the kid up and
he’s just too scared of the dark or being alone to go by himself.

Katsuki doesn’t mind. Izuku is his favorite person on the planet and he’ll do whatever it fucking
takes to make sure the kid has a better childhood than he did. So when small hands pat his cheek
right before midnight, he helped his brother to the bathroom then took him to Katsuki’s room
instead of his own.

Izuku knows better than to talk in the hallway where they could wake up his parents so he waits
until the door is closed behind them to whisper, “What’s going on, Kacchan?”

He picked up a blanket he’d snagged from the small stash under Izuku’s bed, hidden in the hopes
that Mitsuki wouldn’t find and destroy another source of comfort for the kid, then he crouched
down to look his brother in the eye. “Izuku, if it was just you, Auntie, and Uncle living here would
you be happy?”

Izuku shook his head, “No Kacchan, it would be bad and scary without you.”

Trying for a comforting smile, Katsuki rubbed his head. “Exactly. My school wants me to live at
school instead of here, but I don’t want you to stay somewhere bad or scary. So we’re leaving and
we aren’t coming back, but you need to be quiet so my parents don’t find out before we’re gone.”

Small eyebrows furrow in thought, “But Kacchan, how are we going to leave without waking them
up? Uncle wakes up all the time.”

That was where he’d known it would get tricky. Convincing Izuku to let himself be strapped to
Katsuki’s chest with a blanket so he could climb out the window took longer than he’d thought.
Katsuki wasn’t a huge fan of manipulation as a parenting tactic, but if telling the kid that he’d be as
brave as All Might got them out quickly, that’s what he’d fucking do.

On the way to the park he’d explained what would happen next to Izuku. The boy had always
asked a million questions about everything which honestly helped him figure out what ideas he had
about this whole situation wouldn’t work.

The plan Katsuki had never voiced to anyone was always to take custody of Izuku as soon as he
turned eighteen. The longer he stayed with her, the more likely Mitsuki would start to think he was
as weak as Katsuki. Then Izuku was diagnosed as quirkless and he had to move his plans up a bit.

That was fine, he’d thought, he’d just have to get emancipated and get custody before he was
eighteen. The trick was going to be figuring out how to do that while living with his parents and
keeping Izuku safe.

Of course that’s when UA decided the students needed to live in dorms and all his plans went from
I have some time to figure it out to wing it and hope it doesn’t bite you in the ass. Thankfully,
Katsuki had already started gathering evidence against his parents for the emancipation plan.

Honestly, he’d been doing it for years after Mitsuki threw him down the stairs when he was eleven
and he’d been mad enough to want her thrown in jail. Most days, he never actually thought he
would do anything with the pictures he took or the texts he saved. But it felt like he was finally
getting one over on her. Finally winning. So he kept doing it.

Thank fuck he had because that and the medical records he’d had emailed to him were definitely
enough to get them out of his parents’ custody. But Izuku brought up the thought that had sent
Katsuki to the park to think rather than straight to the police station. What if they think she’s right
about me because I’m quirkless?

He couldn’t risk getting a bigoted cop but he didn’t know any cops so how was he supposed to find
one that wasn’t shit? Of course, it was his brilliant little brother that sleepily said I wish All Might
was here, he wouldn’t think I was useless and he would help us.

That sentence had the light bulb in his head turning on. Yeah, he didn’t have All Might’s number
but he did have the personal number of a hero who would definitely know at least one good cop. So
he tucked Izuku under the blanket after the boy fell asleep talking about All Might knocking down
their house so they didn’t have to go back and pulled out his phone.

Katsuki was aware Aizawa was a good teacher and a good hero. He’d listened to Eyebags rant to
Sparky about how great Eraserhead was too many times to not know he was a great underground
hero. Plus he’d looked into underground heroics when Izuku was diagnosed and found every bit of
information he could about his own teacher just to make his brother stop crying about not being
able to become a hero.

So yes, he was aware that the man was good at his jobs. That didn’t make Katsuki any less
surprised when his teacher stuck around after getting him to the cop. He brushed it off as an
obligation he felt as Katsuki’s teacher.

That theory went right out the fucking window when his hobo ass teacher offered to take in
Katsuki and Izuku. Obviously he protested, but the man made some good fucking points about
school and it wasn’t like Katsuki wanted to leave UA. So he agreed.

So yeah, he hadn’t had a lot of time for planning, but Katsuki didn’t think he could have ever
conceived a plan that ended up with him and his brother sleeping in the guest room of an apartment
belonging to two of his teachers.

Mic Sensei had shown them to the room and decided everyone needed to get some sleep. He’d
offered them a spare futon, but Izuku insisted on sleeping in the bed with Katsuki. He didn’t really
mind, he wanted to keep the little nerd as close as possible to him right then.

They might have been at their teacher’s apartment and they may have spent a lot of the night going
through some shit, but Katsuki was very serious about his training routine. So when they’d gone to
bed that night he’d changed his alarm to allow them both more sleep. It was eight in the morning
when his alarm woke them and Izuku happily got dressed in his workout clothes alongside his
older brother.

He took Izuku outside and led him through their stretches, making sure the boy used proper form.
Then they set off on their morning run. Katsuki wasn’t a monster, he didn’t try to get his brother to
keep up with his normal pace or leave him behind. Instead, he slowed down to stay even with him
and they ran side by side until Izuku was too tired to run anymore.
Then Katsuki, like every morning, settled the kid on his back and took off at his normal pace.
Izuku chattered at him about whatever crossed his mind every time they did this, but that morning
the chatter was all about UA.

It made him smile, knowing the kid could get so excited after such a big change and a dramatic
night. He wasn’t surprised about the awe Izuku had about everything that morning, he’d been
obsessed with UA since he’d found out All Might went there and even more so after Katsuki
enrolled.

Even though he kept their run close to the teachers dorm so he wouldn’t get turned around with all
the new buildings, Izuku found plenty to be excited about. Pointing out the different dorm
buildings and the teacher’s parking lot. Shouting in glee when he caught sight of one of the many
gyms on campus. Telling him they could have picnics under a group of trees by a pond.

By the time he was setting the green haired boy down outside the teacher’s building for their cool
down stretches, Izuku was the picture of an overly excited kid. Katsuki didn’t mind, he never
minded things that usually bother him when it came to Izuku.

It wasn’t until he was standing outside the door to the apartment that Katsuki realized it was an
automatically locking door and he didn’t have a key. Hoping the silence on the other side of the
door didn’t mean both his teachers were still asleep, he pushed the doorbell and waited.

He didn’t have to wait long before the door was yanked open and a frantic looking Aizawa was
staring at them. Tensing up, because he hadn’t seen that look on the man’s face other than when
their class was in the middle of a villain attack, Katsuki asked, “What’s wrong?”

Aizawa opened his mouth but didn’t get the chance to reply before Present Mic was shouldering
him out of the way and anxiously examining both boys. “Where were you two? We woke up and
you weren’t here and there wasn’t a note but all your stuff was still here and…”

There was a huff and the blonde was cut off by Aizawa dragging him back into the apartment by
the collar of his shirt, “They’re clearly fine Hizashi, so let them come in before questioning them.”

In the seconds it took for them to all sit down at the dining table, Izuku crawling into his lap and
folding his hands like a tiny business man at an important meeting, Katsuki realized they had just
been worried about them. Someone had been worried about Katsuki when he wasn’t even there. It
was weird.

As soon as they were all settled, Present Mic asked, more calmly this time, “So where were you
boys?”

Katsuki shrugged, “We went for our morning run. Didn’t think to leave a note since we do it every
morning.” He lowered his face to hide his expression, “Didn’t mean to worry you or whatever.”

Aizawa sighed, “Okay well now we know if we wake up and you aren’t here you’re likely on a run
so there’s no need to leave a note next time. Just in the future if you’re going somewhere we aren’t
aware of and we aren’t available for you to tell us, send a text or leave a note.”

Mic nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, we don’t want to smother or restrict you boys. We just need to
know where you are so we know you’re both safe. Shouta can send my contact information to you
so you have it in the future, Bakugo.”

It took a minute for Katsuki to tamp down his instinctual anger. He didn’t like being controlled or
having someone keeping track of him, it had never gone well for him in the past. But even he
could admit it was normal for a person’s guardians to want to know where they are and Katsuki
had just been kidnapped then run away from home so not knowing where he was probably freaked
them out more.

He gave them a nod, “I can do that. What other rules should we know about?”

If either man were surprised by his lack of argument, they didn’t show it. Aizawa was the one to
answer, “Other than letting us know where you are, it’s just the basics. Don’t use illegal
substances, don’t draw on the walls, don’t hit the cats. Try to clean up after yourselves if you can.
Do your best in school. Just basically try to be a decent human.”

Izuku was almost vibrating in his lap, “You have cats?”

Present Mic smiled, “Yup, we have two. Dumpster and Bean. You can meet them later, I put them
in our room last night so we could all get settled. Are either of you allergic?”

Katsuki shook his head and decided to let them know since it was apparently sharing time, “We
don’t have any allergies.”

“That’s good to know!” Mic was far too happy for Katsuki first thing in the morning. “Now that
we have that out of the way, we did get confirmation that Mitsuki and Masaru were taken into
custody first thing this morning and the officers should be done in the house by eleven. So after
you get cleaned up and we all have breakfast we’ll go over and get anything you boys want to
keep. Then we are all going shopping!”

Cocking an eyebrow, Katsuki let his disdain leak into his voice, “Shopping?”

Aizawa sighs while Mic claps his hands together, “Yes, shopping. Shouta told me you didn’t have
a lot aside from what you brought with you so you’ll both need more clothes, new shoes,
decorations for your rooms. Bakugo, you’ll need twice the amount of decorations since you’ll have
a room here and in the dorms. We can also pick up any movies, books, or toys you guys want and
then we can all get ice cream.”

Izuku perked up, looking up at Katsuki with wide, hopeful eyes. “Can we Kacchan? Please can we
go shopping for toys and ice cream?”

With a roll of his eyes, he agreed. Izuku deserved more toys and shit, so he would put up with the
torture that was shopping with his teachers.

After showering and changing they had some actually decent pancakes made, surprisingly, by
Aizawa. Katsuki had always figured a man that crawled around in a monstrosity like his sleeping
bag would be shit at cooking. Whatever, it wasn’t like Katsuki could talk, people always acted like
the world had ended when they found out he could cook.

When Izuku asked if Aizawa could please hand me the syrup Mr Eraserhead, their new guardians
insisted they call them Aizawa and Yamada. Well Yamada actually said they could call them
Shouta and Hizashi, but Katsuki wasn’t about to do anything to chance slipping up and calling one
of his teachers by their first name during class.

The car ride to his parent’s house made it obvious that his brother would love living with the two
heroes. Yamada and Izuku both loved to talk nonstop about the most random shit. He even
managed to get Aizawa to talk about things other than training more than Katsuki ever thought
possible.

Walking up to their old house, Izuku kept a death grip on his hand. Katsuki opened up the door and
was hit with the underwhelming view of their house looking exactly as it always had. It’s not like
he expected some huge change, maybe an overturned chair or broken vase from Mitsuki being
dragged out. But for it to look exactly the same felt wrong.

Pushing that feeling aside, Katsuki led his brother over to the wall where he took down the picture
of Inko and the two of them at the hospital. Since that was the only thing he wanted he asked Izuku
if there was anything he wanted to grab before they left for good.

Izuku gasped, his tiny hand coming up to cover his mouth. “Your surprise! I forgot your surprise.”

Katsuki cocked his head to the side, “My surprise?”

Nodding, Izuku dragged him by the hand up the stairs to his room. Since they’d gotten permission
to come inside instead of waiting in the car, his teachers apparently took this as an invitation to
follow them. Katsuki didn’t miss their eyes landing on the closet under the stairs. The door was
wide open, likely from the police getting evidence of their story. On the door were two empty
hooks where the muzzle and ropes used to hang, probably lying in an evidence bag somewhere.

The only incriminating thing left about the closet was the obvious locks on the outside of the door
and the marks clearly visible on the inside of the door and closet walls. There were several blast
marks from before Mitsuki had learned to tie his hands together so he couldn’t use his quirk to get
out. But most of the marks were scratches.

At varying heights there were scratches all the way up to the middle of the door. Once she’d
started tying him up, Katsuki had often become desperate enough to try to claw his way out.

He averted his eyes and pretended he didn’t know they’d noticed it.

When they made it to Izuku’s old room, the four year old ran over to his dresser to pull out a
drawer. Katsuki had to admit he was impressed when he saw his brother reach under the drawer to
pull out something he’d taped to the bottom.

Spinning around, Izuku shoved the paper at him. “I made you a card, Kacchan.”

There was no keeping in his laughter when he saw what the little brat had written on the front of
the poorly folded paper. In shaky letters, he’d written out sorry you got kidnapped with a little sad
face under it.

When he opened it, Katsuki doubled over in laughter. Inside the card were the words don’t get
taken again and underneath were several pictures illustrating the rules he’d drilled into Izuku’s
head in case they were ever separated in public.

Candy, what looked like a car, an empty dog leash, stick figures talking to each other, and a pair of
eyes all with lines crossing them out. Don’t take candy from strangers, don’t get in a stranger’s
car, don’t go anywhere with a stranger even if they say their puppy is missing, don’t talk to any
strangers, don’t even look at any strangers.

At the very bottom was what was clearly supposed to be All Might and what might be a police
badge with a little checkmark next to them. Only ask for help from a cop or a hero.

Izuku might be the world’s sweetest kid, but he was also a little shit.

When he finished laughing, he ruffled those ridiculous curls, “Thanks Izu, I’ll be sure to hang it up
in my room at the dorms so I can remember how to not get kidnapped anymore.”
Izuku beamed up at him, “I thought you would like it, Kacchan! Now if you follow all the rules no
one can say it was your fault if you get kidnapped again.”

Katsuki didn’t miss the gasp from the doorway. He could see Yamada holding a hand over his
mouth out of the corner of his eye. Deciding to ignore that he stood up, “Okay, was there anything
else you wanted to keep?”

It should have made him sad that Izuku shook his head because there wasn’t anything else in the
house that belonged to either of them, Katsuki had fit all their shit into two bags. Instead, he was
just relieved to get the fuck out of there.

That relief turned to aggravation the second Yamada led them into the mall. Katsuki hated crowded
places like that. He couldn’t hear shit with all the noise, people didn’t watch where they were
going so he was constantly getting bumped into, and the prices were always jacked way up.

None of that mattered to Izuku who was bouncing along beside him, hand firmly held in Katsuki’s.
He’d never been to the mall before. Mitsuki was a fan of having shit delivered and Katsuki stuck to
smaller stores when he took the kid out. Which meant he was constantly tugging on Katsuki’s hand
to catch his attention to point at interesting things. At least the kid remembered he wouldn’t be able
to hear him with all the noise and his shitty ears. That almost made up for the fact that the
interesting things Izuku pointed out ranged from the water fountain to the escalators, even a weird
looking trash can.

Jesus, he needed to get this kid out more.

Eventually they made it to a store Yamada deemed worth a look and thankfully, it had the music on
low so Katsuki could actually hope to hear if any of them tried to speak to him. Yamada told them
to go crazy and get whatever clothes they wanted.

Clearly the man didn’t have experience shopping with a four year old. Katsuki, on the other hand,
made sure to lead Izuku to the racks that had practical clothes in fabrics that wouldn’t irritate a
kid’s sensitive skin so he might actually wear them.

Then he would let him pick out ten of each kind of item aside from coats. No one needs ten coats.
He also made sure to get bigger clothes so he could grow into them. Occasionally, he let it slide
when Izuku thought he had succeeded in sneaking an extra shirt or pair of pants into the cart. He
hadn’t been allowed to keep much after he was diagnosed and he frankly didn’t have a lot even
before. He’d spoil the kid a little, fucking sue him.

The frown on Yamada’s face when they moved to the teen section and he noticed Katsuki was
picking out far less clothes was ignored. Right up until the man picked up the most horrific, neon
green shirt with the fucking washing machine hero on it and said, “If you don’t get more than that
I’ll have to get you more myself, Bakugo.”

Fine, if the man wanted him to have a ridiculously big wardrobe Katsuki would do it just to keep
that fucking eyesore from seeing the outside of the store. So, grumbling the whole way, he grabbed
more jeans and workout clothes than he’d originally gotten before they moved on to the shirt
section. Aizawa just lazily trailed along behind them like this was some uninteresting nature walk.

It was when Yamada tried to lead them to the shoe section that Katsuki had to put his foot down.
He sent Izuku over to a display of Hawks themed backpacks with Aizawa, who could thankfully
take a hint.

Then he tugged Yamada far enough away that they wouldn’t be heard but close enough for him to
keep an eye on Izuku. “I’ll order more shoes online and show you the fucking order conformation
if it will make you happy, but Izuku already has two pairs of new shoes and he’ll only get sad if he
has to walk around the shoe section.”

It was obvious Yamada didn’t know why this was an issue. “Bakugo, he should have more than
two pairs of shoes. He needs shoes for exercise, shoes for rain, shoes for snow, shoes for formal
wear, and extra everyday shoes in colors that aren’t bright red so they don’t clash with everything
in his closet.”

Rolling his eyes, Katsuki took a breath to calm himself. “Those are the only shoes in the only color
they make for quirkless people. I figured if I got him a bunch of extras at one time he would get
upset at the reminder that they don’t make more than one option for him just because he doesn't
have a quirk. So he has the pair he wears every day and an extra for when they wear out.”

The amount of emotions that crossed over his English teacher’s face as he spoke mirrored how
he’d felt when he had taken Izuku to get new shoes after an internet search explained the extra toe
joint was why he’d always complained about his shoes hurting no matter how big they bought
them.

At least he knew the two weren’t lying when they said they didn’t care about Izuku’s
quirklessness. Yamada took several deep breaths before responding, “I’m so mad I could scream
the whole mall down but thank you for telling me before I made the little listener sad.”

Katsuki nodded and they silently walked back to their companions. Aizawa seemed to be hiding
how little he cared very well as Izuku debated if he wanted the backpack with Hawks face on it or
the one colored like his coat with little wings sticking out from the sides.

When they reached the two, Katsuki told him to get the one with wings. Shit would get torn off
and need replacing far too quickly, but Izuku would fucking love running around knowing the
wings were flapping behind him. Besides, fuck if he wanted to look at Hawks face every damn
day.

Aizawa seemed to agree if the tension leaving his jaw was anything to go by.

The next issue came at the register when Katsuki pulled out his card only for Yamada to have
already handed his to the cashier. Frowning at the man, Katsuki protested, “I have the money to
pay for our shit.”

Yamada gave him that fake ass grin that hid the smugness he felt from people who weren’t Katsuki
who could see that shit a mile away. Growing up with parents who faked being a perfect family for
the public then locked their kid in a closet for a weekend would give you that ability.

“There’s no need for you to pay, Bakugo.” Aizawa spoke up before his husband could rile Katsuki
up further, “We have the money and we wanted to use it on you two.”

He glared back at the hobo, “If I had known you idiots were paying for it I wouldn’t have let the
kid get so much extra shit.”

The smugness took over Yamada’s entire face then. “Well then I’m glad we didn’t tell you. We
honestly didn’t think you’d think we expected you to pay for it all so we didn’t mention it. But I’m
happy you weren’t holding yourselves back from things you wanted just because we were paying.”

Sneering at them, Katsuki tightened his hand on his wallet. “We don’t need you to pay for our
shit!”
Aizawa frowned for a moment before his face smoothed out. “Bakugo, it isn’t about if you need us
to pay for your things. It’s that we are your guardians now so we want to pay for your things. We
want you to use your money on the fun stuff like going to movies and getting eighteen different
phone cases for whatever reason.”

Nodding, Yamada added, “Please Bakugo, let us handle the necessities and you focus on the other
things. It’s not pity or a bribe or anything. It’s just what parents and guardians are supposed to do.”

He could have argued more, even if he realized they were right, but then little fingers wrapped
around the hand not holding his wallet. Katsuki looked down and was met with bright green eyes
staring up at him questioningly. Izuku would always take Katsuki’s side in an argument so he was
silently asking if this was something he should also be mad about.

It made him realize that Izuku needed to learn to let other people take care of him. Katsuki had
never gotten that and he didn’t want his little brother to turn out as fucked up as he was.

Stuffing his wallet back into his pocket, Katsuki turned away. “Fine, spend your money on clothes
we don’t even need. I don’t care.”

The cashier was extremely obvious about being happy to see them leave.

They dropped their bags off in the car before Yamada forced them all into the homegoods store.
Knowing they would likely argue this all counted as necessities, Katsuki was tempted to not get
himself anything out of spite. Then he decided if they wanted to waste their money on him he was
going to go Plus Fucking Ultra.

Katsuki stuffed every soft blanket and comfy throw pillow he could get his hands on into the cart.
He didn’t limit the shit Izuku was grabbing so they were now the proud owners of five different All
Might blankets. Ha.

He picked up a cork board to put Izuku’s artwork on and several nightlights so there were some for
both his rooms, Izuku’s room, and the bathrooms. Several posters and poster frames because he’s
not a fucking animal as well as some picture frames so he could print off pictures of him and Izuku
were added to the cart.

Actual bedding aside from the throw blankets they’d already grabbed and towels for the dorms in
case he hated whatever shit UA decided to supply. He even grabbed some wall shelves in case
there weren’t bookshelves included in the dorm rooms.

At one point, Aizawa brought them a separate cart and took the first one to check out so he could
take what they’d already gotten to the car. When he got back, he found them in the toy section
where Izuku was going wild.

Even when Katsuki started to feel like he should cut the kid off in spite of his mission to waste all
their money, it seemed like Yamada couldn’t say no to the boy. Hell it seemed like he didn’t want
to say no to any of it.

Every time Izuku ran up to them with a new toy clutched in his hands and asked if he could please
please get this too Katsuki would look at Yamada who would immediately and eagerly say yes and
add it to the basket then watch the kid bounce off to look over the shelves some more.

With every toy added to the cart Izuku became visibly more and more confident in his asking. By
the tenth toy he’d stopped whispering, at fifteen his shoulders weren’t slumped like he thought
he’d be told no, by the time Katsuki lost count Izuku seemed like every other kid begging their
parents for more toys in the store.

Maybe the visible difference was the reason Yamada didn’t seem to care that Izuku was filling
almost an entire cart with toys. But Aizawa hadn’t been there to see the first few stuttered, shy
attempts at asking for toys and he didn’t seem to have a problem either.

If it were him it was directed at, Katsuki would assume it was pity motivating them. But since it
was Izuku, he figured it was probably less about feeling sorry for what he hadn’t had and more
about giving him what he should have had all along. Making up for something wasn’t the same as
pity, Katsuki told himself.

Besides he wasn’t exactly stopping the kid either.

Finally Izuku had all the toys he wanted and Katsuki lifted him up to settle him into the seat in the
cart because he was busy playing with an action figure and was likely to not keep up if left to walk.
Just as he was turning the cart around to take them out of the toy section some bitch said, loudly
enough it was obvious she wanted them to hear, “That has to be the world’s most spoiled child.”

Katsuki’s head whipped around to glare at the woman who was talking to her friend. The two of
them looked like the definition of bitchy soccer moms and their kids had been running around
screaming like they were being murdered the entire time they were there.

“At least my brother isn’t currently eating slime.” He felt nothing but joy as he watched the woman
rush over to her brat and start shrieking while trying to scoop the slime out of his mouth.

Luckily, Izuku had been too distracted by his toy to hear the exchange. So he just had to deal with
the smirks from Aizawa and Yamada as he led them over to the toiletries section.

Once he had shampoo, toothpaste, and all that shit for the two of them, they checked out and went
to stuff it all into the car. Yamada admitted they wouldn’t have room for much else so Katsuki
blessedly only had to suffer through the entertainment store before they were done.

Several movies and far too many books later, they went to the food court to have their ice cream.
Thankfully, Izuku kept them busy with his mindless chatter so Katsuki didn’t have to pretend he
could hear them over the roar of the food court. It was also helped by the fact that he generally
hated small talk. Sometimes being an asshole paid off.

When they were done Katsuki announced he was taking Izuku to the bathroom to clean the ice
cream off his face while Yamada dragged Aizawa over to look at a keychain stall. The trip was so
close to over he could taste it and then, because the world hated him, he opened the bathroom door
to leave and was faced with fucking Half N Half of all people.

With the bathroom a little bit away from the food court and down a small hallway, it was easy for
Katsuki to hear when the bastard said, “Hello Bakugo, I see you’ve kidnapped a child.”

His dead eyes were fixed on Izuku who was on Katsuki’s hip, all the walking was too much for the
kid. Izuku hid his face in Katsuki’s neck when faced with a stranger staring at him so intensely.
“That’s me IcyHot, kidnapper extraordinaire. If you’ll kindly get the fuck outta my way, I’ll just be
leaving with my latest victim.”

Apparently the idiot still hadn’t learned sarcasm because he looked horrified. Well as horrified as
someone who never moved their face could look, “Bakugo, you aren’t actually kidnapping a child
are you?”

“No you fucking dumbass.” He pushed the other teen out of the way so he could storm past. He
felt those empty eyes watching him as he turned the corner, but a few moments of waiting showed
he wasn’t followed.

He sent Aizawa a text and hauled ass out of the mall before IcyHot could stumble across him
again. His teachers met them at the car as requested and seemed to understand when he grunted
that he’d run into IcyHot.

They waited until they were in the car and on the way back to UA before Aizawa turned to look at
Katsuki, “You don’t have to tell anyone anything you don’t want to. But you need to prepare
yourself for your classmates asking questions. Just know we talked about it last night and Hizashi
and I don’t have a problem with you telling them we took you in if that’s what you want.”

Katsuki shrugged, “I didn’t want to explain anything to fucking Half N Half in a mall bathroom.
I’m just going to tell the extras all at once when they move into the dorms that Izuku lives on
campus because none of their fucking business and now I’ll also tell them the two of you are our
guardians because none of their fucking business.”

He flashed his chaotic grin at the man, “Besides, telling them the two of you are married will be
enough to keep them off my ass about anything else for a while.”

When he realized Katsuki was right, the light in Aizawa’s eyes died just a little bit. So maybe the
shopping trip hadn’t been so bad after all.
 Chapter 3

After returning to the apartment and bringing all their shit inside, Katsuki tucked Izuku into bed for
a nap. The trip had tired him out so he was out the second he was in bed. The blonde wandered
back into the living room where they’d put down all the bags so he could start sorting their shit.

The teacher’s apartments all had three rooms and Yamada had insisted that neither of them would
be bringing home anything confidential enough that they needed an office at home so both boys
would have their own rooms. He also needed to sort out what he would keep in the dorms and what
would stay in the apartment.

Not being a fucking idiot, Katsuki knew Aizawa wanted to talk about shit as soon as the man sat
on the floor across from him and started pulling things out of bags. The issue with Aizawa trying to
ease into a conversation like this was that Katsuki had already been fucking patient all day. He
hadn’t lost his shit over Yamada almost upsetting Izuku about the shoes or not being able to
fucking hear unless they went into a store or even when IcyHot stuck his nose in Katsuki’s fucking
business.

He’d been a goddamned saint all day and he didn’t have any patience left for anyone who wasn’t
his brother. So he could be forgiven for snapping at his teacher. “Just say whatever the fuck it is
you have to say hobo.”

Aizawa continued pulling shit out of bags but didn’t press his luck any further with the silence,
“Always the observant one, Bakugo. You’re right, I have some things I’d like to go over with you.
Before I start I want to make it clear that everything I’m suggesting here is not to separate you and
Izuku or take him or the ability to make decisions about him away from you. It is all to make life
as easy for all four of us as possible while you and Izuku are under our care.”

Katsuki studied him for a moment. Not finding anything indicating he wasn’t being sincere he
grunted for Aizawa to continue. “Tsukauchi sent over some paperwork that’s typical for what
you’d find in a foster kid’s file. I noticed you are listed as the primary emergency contact on all his
forms. I’d like myself and Hizashi to be the first two contacts and you to be third.”

He had to clench his fists to keep from interrupting Aizawa. “I understand why you needed to be
first with your parents, but I hope you can trust us enough to know we would never harm either of
you. I want us to be the first point of contact simply because most of the time that Izuku will be
away from you, you’ll be in class or training and Hizashi and I will be easier to reach. We would
inform you of whatever the issue we were contacted about was as soon as possible. Neither of us
want to keep you in the dark about things that involve your brother.”

As much as he hated it, he knew the man was right. So he had to choke down the anger. “Fine. It’s
not like I’d be able to do much without his actual fucking guardians present in an emergency
anyway. What else?”

Aizawa dragged the next bag over to himself before continuing. “The next two things are just
suggestions. While I think agreeing would be best, I’m not in the habit of taking away choices just
because I can.”

He paused and waited for Katsuki to nod in acknowledgement. “I think we should ease into Izuku
staying here and you staying in the dorms. Coming from a situation like yours followed by all this
change can be traumatic enough without also being immediately separated from the one person he
feels absolutely safe with. But it isn’t a good idea for you to just always stay in the same place as
him.”

Katsuki waved a hand, “Yeah yeah, codependency issues. I’ve read a fucking psychology book.
I’m guessing you have a plan?”

If Aizawa thought he missed that stupid fucking smile before he hid it, he was an idiot. “Yes, I
think it would be best if we started with the two of you spending some nights in the dorm and
some nights here. Then once Izuku was more comfortable with Hizashi and me, he could stay here
with you in the dorms one night a week. If that went well after a few weeks we could up it to two
nights a week and so on.”

“That isn’t the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard. And it’s okay for Izuku to stay in the dorms right?”

Aizawa rolled his eyes at Katsuki’s attitude. “I let Nezu in on the situation and he has okayed it.
Tomorrow all the homeroom teachers will be going to each of their student’s houses and speaking
with their guardians about the dorms. I’ll be using that time to inform them that there will be a
child staying with one of the other students, I’ll leave out your name so you can be the one to tell
them if you want. It will be made clear that while the students aren’t expected to take care of
Izuku, they will be expected to treat him kindly or face consequences.”

Clearly he’d put a lot of thought into this in the short time he’d had to plan. Katsuki grunted, “Okay
and yeah I’ll tell them all before they meet the nerd. I need to give them the rules about how to
handle living with Izuku.”

That had his teacher studying him for a minute. “I’d like it if you wrote those rules down for me so
Hizashi and I can both be prepared as well.”

It was Katsuki’s turn to roll his eyes. “You just want to make sure I’m not telling them ridiculous
shit but fine. What was the other suggestion you mentioned?”

Aizawa paused before sighing. “I’d like it if you would consider therapy for both you and Izuku
after things have settled a bit. I was already going to suggest this for you before the whole custody
thing. Everything you’ve been through at UA was enough to have lasting negative effects without
even taking into account your home life.”

There were several minutes of silence as Katsuki ground his teeth together in frustration. Just the
mention of needing therapy made him want to blow up. It had his mother’s voice screaming weak
in his head. Which was probably a good indication that he did need therapy.

He clenched his fists, “Fine. We will try therapy, but if either of us hates it we won’t go back.”

Aizawa nodded. “Trying is all I can really ask of you. That’s everything I wanted to cover. Is there
anything we should know that would make it easier to take care of the two of you? Even if it seems
trivial we want to know if there is anything we should or shouldn’t do, topics to avoid, things to
expect.”

This man really wanted Katsuki to have an aneurysm, asking how to take care of Katsuki. But, he
couldn’t start a fight if he didn’t want to wake Izuku and there were some things that would be
good for the kid if they knew.

“Don’t mention his mom, Inko, unless he brings her up. Don’t bring up him being quirkless unless
it's absolutely necessary and if it does come up make sure to tell him it doesn’t make him weak or
useless.”

Remembering the things Mitsuki had shouted at Izuku had fire burning in his veins. Taking a deep
breath, Katsuki tried to stay calm to keep going. “Izuku cries at everything. If he’s happy or sad or
sees a cute animal, there will likely be tears. Don’t freak out just let him cry unless it looks like
he’s working himself up too much and you need to help him breathe so he doesn’t pass out.”

Glancing up, Katsuki saw that his teacher was honest to fucking God taking notes on his phone.
“Every night just before midnight he’ll wake me up to go to the bathroom. He’ll probably do it to
one of you if he’s comfortable enough by the time he’s here without me. He doesn’t need help, just
too scared to go alone at night. You just have to stand with your back turned while he does his
business then walk him back to bed.”

That made him think of something Mitsuki hadn’t allowed, because her home had to be perfect,
that his teachers probably wouldn’t mind, “I got him a step stool at the mall so he can reach the
sink but unless you want him dragging it all over the house you should get some kid friendly light
switches. They have strings on the bottom so he could pull them to turn the lights on and off
without help.”

“Even if he is annoying the fuck out of you, I expect you to ask him to tell you more if he cuts
himself off mid-ramble. He needs the confidence after that bitch told him he was annoying.”
Katsuki was pleased when Aizawa said he would. “His favorite food is katsudon, he doesn’t like
being touched unless he is asked first and you had better listen and not ask again if he says no.”

Aizawa nodded, “Of course, autonomy is important.” When the silence dragged on and it became
clear Katsuki was finished, the hero raised an eyebrow, “Is there anything to know about you?
Even just favorite foods, give me something.”

Rolling his eyes, Katsuki huffed. “I like anything spicy. If I’m cooking I like to cook alone. I don’t
like being touched.”

Accepting that was all he was getting, Aizawa put away his phone and went back to unpacking. By
the time Izuku woke up from his nap, everything was sorted and Katsuki had already set up Izuku’s
bed and brought the rest of his things into his room.

He set his brother to work organizing his toys and picking out clothes, toys, and shit that would
stay in Katsuki’s dorm room. While Izuku did that he directed Katsuki on where to put his wall
decorations and Yamada set to putting up the clothes that would stay in the apartment.

Aizawa was carrying the things Katsuki wanted in his dorm room over so they could set it up once
they were done in the apartment. He finished that before Izuku was done sorting his mountain of
toys so he got Katsuki’s permission to make the bed in his apartment room and start hanging
Katsuki’s clothes.

Hanging up his own decorations took just long enough for Izuku to pick out the things he wanted in
the dorms so they bagged them up and set off. Aizawa had warned them that some of the other
teachers had been hanging out in the common area of the teacher’s building. He’d figured it was
fine since they’d all been made aware of the situation by Nezu and Izuku would need to get used to
seeing them around anyway.

As expected, Izuku was excited about meeting Snipe and Ectoplasm. It was when he realized the
woman in casual clothes was midnight that things went to shit.

She had crouched down to introduce herself and Izuku crossed his arms, “I don’t like you.”

Taking it in stride, Midnight gave him a small smile, “Can I ask why not sweety?”
Huffing at her, Izuku sounded as pissed as Katsuki had ever heard him. “Because you were mean
to Kacchan!”

When Katsuki butted in to say it was fine, Midnight realized who Kacchan was. She had the nerve
to look fucking confused. “But I’ve never hurt Bakugo, I can assure you I wouldn’t do that.”

Izuku stomped his foot and balled his little hands into fists at his sides. “Yes you did! You used
your quirk and made his pressure low.” Katsuki threw out that he meant blood pressure but didn’t
interfere otherwise, it was nice to see the kid standing up to someone even if he didn’t need to.
“Yeah blood pressure, and he almost died. Then you put a muzzle and chains on him just like
Auntie did. The cops should take you away too!”

That seemed to leave everyone in the room speechless aside from Katsuki. “Okay Izu, you made
your point. Let’s go to the dorm now.”

The anger melted off the kids face, replaced with a bright smile. “Coming Kacchan.”

They left Midnight slack jawed in the common area, the other teachers weren’t much better. Once
they were outside, Katsuki glared at their guardians, daring them to reprimand Izuku for that.

Yamada grinned at him. “I’ve been trying to convince her she messed up since Shouta and I found
out about what happened at the sports festival. Hopefully Izuku saying it wakes her up.”

Katsuki stopped walking to stare in confusion at the man. “What do you mean found out? You
were there.”

Aizawa stepped around Yamada. “I was planning to bring this up later, once everything settled
more. I was still on some heavy painkillers from the USJ so as soon as the commentating was done,
Hizashi took me home. I was tired and in pain and we left before the awards ceremony.”

The heavy sigh his homeroom teacher let out told Katsuki how sincere he was, “I should have
checked in with you after I found out and that is my mistake that I will always regret. I never
should have waited to make it right, but I will be speaking with Nezu about this. It shouldn’t have
been allowed to happen and you didn’t deserve to be treated that way.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “It’s fucking whatever. I’m not a little bitch.”

Thankfully they left him alone for the rest of the walk to the dorms. He had never blamed Aizawa
for what happened. If anything, he was confused. Of course he knew it shouldn’t have happened.
Adults should never use chains and muzzles on minors, especially on national television. The
messages he’d gotten online following that had forced Katsuki to delete even his private social
media accounts. People were fucking sick.

What confused him was that Aizawa was the first person ever to tell him he didn’t deserve that
treatment. His classmates made a few joking comments about it right after, Mitsuki told him he
embarrassed the family, Masaru said he should have just accepted it quietly, and strangers
everywhere called him a villain waiting to happen.

Katsuki didn’t know how to process being told he was right to be mad about it. For Aizawa to tell
him they had all been wrong when he had spent so long stuffing it down because no one thought
that but Katsuki. He didn’t know how to handle that.

Yamada and Aizawa stuck around to help put away their clothes and hang decorations. Well,
Aizawa stuck around. As soon as Katsuki told Yamada that the empty picture frames were for
pictures of Izuku he hadn’t printed out yet, the blonde had him send them to his phone and rushed
off to use the UA professional grade printers.

While they worked, Izuku peppered them with questions. He wanted to know about the students
that would be living there, who would be making their meals, was he allowed to use the TV in the
common room, what were the chances the building was haunted. Basically any question he could
possibly think of.

They were close to finished when Yamada came back with a stack of photos, smiling sheepishly at
him, “I printed off three of each picture. One for each of your rooms and one for a scrapbook or
maybe to hang around the apartment. But only if that’s okay with you! Otherwise I’ll just give
them all to you and you can have them for backups or something.”

For a smart man, he really did act like an idiot sometimes. Katsuki rolled his eyes, “You can
scrapbook with them or whatever the fuck you want.”

That earned him a squeal that didn’t further fuck up his hearing only because Aizawa canceled his
quirk. Then they sorted out the pictures and put them in their frames. Katsuki ended up hanging the
ones that went on the wall himself, neither of those morons could hang a picture straight for shit. A
few sat on his desk or bookshelf, high up enough Izuku wouldn’t knock them off while playing.

Because Katsuki is an amazing planner, he’d gotten storage bins at the mall. They worked
perfectly to store Izuku’s toys when he wasn’t using them and his out of season clothes under the
bed. There was even enough room left to store the spare futon for Izuku to sleep on if he didn’t
want to share the bed with Katsuki.

When they were done it looked like an actual fucking teenagers room instead of the bare ass guest
room looking shit he’d lived in at his parent’s house.

Their guardians gave them a tour of the dorms ending in the common room where Aizawa showed
him the room assignment chart. Katsuki eyed it critically, “Are these rooms soundproof? Because
it would be stupid for the guy with super hearing to be on the same floor where a four year old will
be living if they aren’t.”

Aizawa picked up the eraser and marker to switch names around. “There, now you can bother
Kirishima and Sero if you’re being too loud instead of Shoji.”

Katsuki considered it and decided that was the best it would probably get. Shitty Hair cared too
fucking much about upsetting people to tell Izuku to quiet down if he got loud and Tape Arms only
ever seemed to complain about having to do work. He shrugged, and the hero knew that was all
the thanks he’d be getting.

The little group went back to the apartment, none of them missed the fact that there weren't any
teachers in the common area when they passed through. Aizawa decided to start dinner while
Yamada brought out the cats to meet them.

When he caught sight of the two cats tucked in Yamada’s arms, Izuku actually looked like he was
going to vibrate out of his skin. He clamped his little hands over his mouth to keep from making
enough noise to scare the cats and his eyes went wide when Yamada put the smaller one, who was
apparently Bean, in his lap.

The two blondes watched Izuku slowly lower a timid hand to brush against the cat’s fur. When it
booped its small head up into his hand, Izuku looked seconds away from passing out. Yamada
smiled at him before holding the other cat out so they could see it, “This is Dumpster, he hates
everyone except Bean so I don’t recommend trying to pet him.”
He must have caught the concerned look Katsuki shot at Izuku because Yamada hurried to add,
“Dumpster won’t attack or bite unless you try to pick him up so as long as he’s left alone he won’t
bother anyone. The only reason he let me bring him out here is because I had Bean…and he was
sleeping.”

Izuku stared at Dumpster with sad eyes, “I wanted to pet him though. He looks like he needs pets.”

Katsuki looked at the cat. It was a mean looking fucker. Large with puffy fur that added to his size.
There was a chunk of his left ear missing and a patch on his back leg where fur wasn’t growing
because of a nasty looking scar. None of it was helped by the fact that he had the most pissy
looking face Katsuki had ever seen on an animal. He looked seconds away from killing an entire
family just for fun.

With a huff, Katsuki wiped the sweat off his hands, reached out and took the cat from Yamada.
Quickly, he settled the bastard down on his lap with one hand lightly on top of his head. For a few
seconds Dumpster was tense, then he relaxed every muscle in his body and started to purr.

Katsuki looked over at Izuku, “Okay try gently petting his back.”

Eyes wide with awe, the kid reached over to trail his hand down Dumpster’s back. The grumpy
looking bastard just kept purring so Izuku kept petting him lightly until Bean swatted at his hand to
get his attention back.

Since Izuku was done, Katsuki started stroking the cat himself. He happened to glance up at
Yamada who was watching the entire thing with wide eyes and his phone held up to take pictures.

Katsuki scowled at him for taking pictures of him, but since he would be able to get pictures of
Izuku petting cats from him, he let it go. Yamada stopped testing his luck and put the phone away,
“I can’t believe this is happening. Dumpster never lets anyone put him in their lap.”

Aizawa came around the corner from the kitchen, “Dumpster did what?”

Yamada just gestured to Katsuki with disbelief on his face. Seeing a matching, but more subdued,
look on Aizawa’s face, he shrugged. “My quirk makes my body temperature high enough that cats
love me.”

Izuku piped up happily, “All animals love Kacchan. He took me to the petting zoo and the goats
kept climbing all over him. Then a bird got stuck in the fence and it wouldn’t let me get it out but it
let Kacchan right away.”

Aizawa cocked an eyebrow. Katsuki ignored him.

Izuku, the little shit, wasn’t done. “Ohh and we went to the butterfly house and they all landed on
him! They do it out in the wild too. Kacchan’s like a princess.”

Ignoring the snickers from Yamada, Katsuki frowned at Izuku. “If you weren’t holding a cat I’d
push you off this couch, Nerd.”

Izuku stuck his tongue out at Katsuki. So Katsuki stuck his tongue out right back. Yamada made a
choking noise and he looked up to see the man had his phone back out. Katsuki narrowed his eyes
at him and he slipped it in his pocket with a smile, “Okay who wants to watch TV until dinner?”

The rest of the night was nothing special. They ate dinner, Katsuki bathed Izuku and dressed him
in his pajamas, then they watched TV with his teachers until it was time for Izuku to go to bed. He
got the kid settled and to sleep after a story and assurances that he could climb into bed with
Katsuki if he needed to.

Katsuki grabbed a book and returned to the living room to read until he went to bed himself. The
three of them sat around for a while before Yamada asked, “So the daycare Izuku goes to, have
they been okay about him being quirkless? Because we can find another if we need to.”

He shook his head, “There’s a worker there that’s quirkless. I asked her if she was ever mistreated
working there and she said everyone was fine. She keeps an eye on him and has my number so she
can let me know if there are any problems.”

Yamada nodded. “Good. Because I would shout down the entire building if they were mistreating
that sweet boy. He’s such a good kid.”

Ignoring the property destruction, because who was he to judge, Katsuki agreed. “Yeah he’s a lot
like his mom. Auntie Inko was the sweetest person you’d ever meet. She would look at that crusty
hand fucker and worry about if he was eating enough.”

A startled laugh was the response he got from the other blonde. Aizawa hummed, “I don’t know, I
think there’s a bit of you in there too even if you aren’t related by blood. The way he laid into
Nemuri? That was very Bakugo Katsuki.”

He snorted. “You wouldn’t think that if you had met Auntie. She was the same. All sweet smiles
until you fucked up then she had a backbone of fucking steel. When I was seven, a grown ass man
yelled at me for bumping into him and she laid into him so hard. At one point she told him he’d
brought shame on his entire family.”

Aizawa was the one to respond, “She sounds like an amazing person.”

Yamada smiled wide, “She really does, would you be okay with telling us more about her?”

Usually Katsuki wasn’t a sharer. Especially about his family. But these two were taking care of her
son and Katsuki knew she would have liked both of them. She would have lectured the shit out of
Aizawa about his hair while stuffing food into him then traded gossip with Yamada like two
grandmas. So he figured he could talk about her to them, just this once.

So he closed his book and told them all about Midoriya Inko. He talked about the chili flavored
cookies she made just for him and how she was the only one who ever told Mitsuki she shouldn’t
say the things she did about him. Katsuki talked about trips to the park and the zoo and how she
was the one to take him to those kinds of places instead of his parents.

He told them all about the amazing woman who treated him like her own son. The woman that had
told him he could be a hero even before he got his quirk. She’d been the one to buy him his first
piece of hero merch and she was the one to blame for his childhood obsession with All Might.

Then he told them about her telling him she was going to have a baby. She told him right after that
she still loved him like a son and that her baby would be his sibling not a replacement for him. She
had made good on the promise too. Katsuki was there when Izuku was born, he was the first
person aside from Inko and the doctors to hold him.

He was the first person she showed the video of Izuku’s first steps to. Izuku’s first word had been a
mangled version of Kats, the nickname they’d tried to get him to say before he came up with
Kacchan. She still took Katsuki out, they just had another person with them now. He got to show
Izuku his favorite things at the museum and he got to be the one to feed him his first bite of ice
cream.
They had sleepovers even though Katsuki was twelve when Izuku was one. It was mainly just
Katsuki taking care of Izuku while Auntie got a bit of a break, but he never minded. That little
fucker was his brother and he loved him more than anything from the moment he was born.

Yes, there were times Katsuki had resented having the attention that used to be all for him stolen.
But then Izuku would make a cute noise or chew on Katsuki’s fingers and the older boy would
grumble about him being a brat but then Katsuki still scooped him up to play and his resentment
was forgotten.

By the time Katsuki was ready to go to bed, he had talked to them about Inko more than he’d
talked to anyone other than Izuku about any one thing before. He even agreed to let them come the
next time he and Izuku went to visit her grave.

Then, being who he was, Katsuki got up to go to bed and turned to say, “Don’t think this means
I’m going to be all fucking sappy with you two all the time now. You’re helping take care of her
son so you got one free pass to hear about her and you just used it.”

The knowing look on both their faces was fucking irritating.

The next day they went for their morning run and could actually get back in since Aizawa had
slipped him the key the night before. He made breakfast for everyone and was treated to the sight
of his homeroom teacher at the dining table in blue cat pajamas.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow, “I could make millions off Sparky and Raccoon Eyes if I took a picture
of you dressed like that.”

Aizawa just glared at him from behind his coffee mug while Izuku launched into talking about
what he would do if he had millions. It involved a castle painted in All Might’s colors, because
what other colors would you paint a castle?

When their guardians had to leave to speak with student’s parents about the dorms, they made them
both promise not to leave UA. Katsuki got them to stop worrying about leaving them alone by
telling them he was taking Izuku on a tour of the campus which would take all day.

The four of them left the apartment at the same time, which is what caused an issue. Because
Aizawa had somehow failed to mention that All Might was accompanying him on the visits and
that they had planned to meet in the common area.

So an unsuspecting Katsuki was faced with the newly revealed form of All Might whose career he
had basically ended but he couldn’t even ignore the man and rush out of there because next to him
was an over the moon Izuku.

All Might had just enough time to shout out, “Ah, it’s young Bakugo!” before there was a
squealing, bouncing four year old rushing across the room at him.

Being a professional, the number one hero knelt down to smile wide at Izuku, “And you must be
young Midoriya. It’s a pleasure to have you staying here at UA.”

Katsuki sped over just in case he needed to help Izuku remember how to breathe. Izuku was
already turning red as he shouted, “You know my name? Kacchan, All Might knows my name!”

He placed a hand on his brother’s back to help him calm down. “That’s really cool, Izu. Do you
want to politely ask All Might if he would take a picture with you?”

Turning huge puppy eyes on the hero, Izuku clasped his hands. “Will you please take a picture with
me please, All Might?”

All Might smiled his thousand watt smile, though Katsuki had caught the bewildered look the man
gave him at seeing Bakugo Katsuki tell a child to ask politely, and agreed to the picture. Of course
Izuku didn’t want just a picture with All Might. He wanted a picture with Katsuki and All Might,
because you’re the two best heroes Kacchan.

How could he say no to that? He couldn’t, and that’s how Katsuki ended up with a picture of him
next to All Might with Izuku sitting on his shoulders. He even smiled a little, because it was for his
brother.

Thankfully, that was all they had time for since Aizawa needed to leave. It took Katsuki reminding
him that he lived in the same building as All Might and would likely see him again to get Izuku to
stop sniffling as they walked toward the school.

The tour of the school was enough to put a smile back on the kids face. He asked seven million
questions Katsuki had no idea how to answer about every room and building they saw. Why a four
year old wanted to know if the gyms had separate temperature and humidity controls in case
someone’s quirk needed a specific environment was beyond him.

While they were in one of the training gyms, Izuku begged Katsuki to let him watch him blow up a
few training dummies. Figuring the rat knew everything that was going on in this place, he decided
if he hadn’t wanted the dummies blown up he wouldn’t have given them access to the gym. He
wasn’t dumb, he knew these buildings should all be locked with no one else on campus.

Izuku was ecstatic after Katsuki was done giving him a show. He spent the entire walk to the next
training ground telling Katsuki about every move he had made like it wasn’t Katsuki who had
made them. There were exaggerated punches and sound effects too.

Katsuki had planned to take all day, so he’d thought ahead enough to bring a bag with some bentos.
He settled Izuku down under some trees and reminded him to take a bite of his food after every
ramble about something Katsuki had shown him.

Sometimes Katsuki looked at his brother and wondered if he had ever had that much joy inside
him. Maybe when he was really young, too young to remember, before he understood what the
things his mother said to him meant and before his father turned away at the sound of her hand
hitting his face. He didn’t remember it though.

In all of his memories Katsuki was exactly who he was now. An angry piece of shit that’s only
ever allowed two people to truly know him. One was dead and the other was a child. Clearly if
he’d ever been anything like Izuku it was already snuffed out of him.

Maybe the therapy he’d agreed to would help him not blow a fuse at everything that annoyed him.
His temper was one of the things he hated most about himself because of how much like Mitsuki it
made him. So he would try to get control of that, but he didn’t think he would ever be even half as
happy about anything as Izuku was about everything.

Except for Izuku. Izuku made him happy even when the brat was throwing a tantrum and ruining
his shit he loved the little bastard. So he would try to make sure Izuku’s joy was never snuffed out
like Katsuki’s had been. He hadn’t spent enough time with Mitsuki and Masaru to be ruined yet.
Shaking off those thoughts, he cleaned up their little picnic and led Izuku to the next thing for him
to be amazed by simply because it was part of UA.

It was starting to darken outside by the time they headed back to the apartment. Izuku had been
riding on his shoulders for hours now, too tired to walk but too excited to stop the tour. Entering
the common area, they found several general studies and support teachers lounging around. At the
stares they gave him and Izuku he snapped take a fucking picture it’ll last longer before stomping
to the elevator.

Izuku giggled above his head. The brat loved hearing him cuss at people.

Yamada had already returned and he informed them that Aizawa was on his way back with pizza
for dinner. It only took one question from the voice hero for Izuku to start regaling him with stories
about their day.

Trusting the man to not kill his brother in the next ten minutes, Katsuki went to the kitchen to wash
the bentos. He could barely hear the sound of Izuku’s loud ass voice over the water. It pissed him
off that he had to keep an eye on the entrance to the kitchen because he wouldn’t be able to hear
someone coming with the water on.

It paid off, though. When Yamada entered the kitchen, Katsuki saw him from the corner of his eye
and managed to shut off the water before he started talking. “You don’t have to do that, Bakugo.
We can just put those in the dishwasher.”

Katsuki shrugged, “Dishwashers are for people too lazy to do any work for themselves.”

A look he couldn’t quite decipher crossed over Yamada’s face before his easy smile came back. “If
you want to wash dishes, I’m not going to stop you. I just came in to grab some plates and cups for
the food. We’re eating in the living room and having a movie night!”

Izuku came in holding a stuffed Mirko doll. “A movie night, Kacchan. And we don’t even have to
use your phone!”

Katsuki smiled at him, “It’s gonna be cool, I bet. Why don’t you take these paper towels in the
living room so we have them if we need them.” Izuku, always happy to be helpful, took them and
ran off. Katsuki looked back at Yamada, “If eating anywhere but the table is going to be a regular
thing you might want to consider buying a few of those thick plastic plates and bowls in case he
drops them.”

The man’s eyes lit up, “You’re right. We definitely weren’t prepared for taking in a four year old
and there are so many things I never even considered would be necessary. How about you text me
a list of things like that and the light switches you told Shouta about so we can get this place set up
better for him.”

He grunted at him and Yamada took it as the end of the conversation. Once he’d taken the dishes
and left, Katsuki finished up the washing and set them out to dry. Then he joined Izuku on the
couch, the boy leaning against his brother as soon as the blonde was seated. Dumpster jumped up
to take over his lap and Izuku held out a hand once he was settled to see if he could pet him again.

Dumpster eyed him for a moment before tucking his head between his paws so Katsuki nodded at
Izuku to let him know it was probably okay. At some point, while Yamada was yapping about
what movies to watch, Bean appeared and climbed up Katsuki’s arm to rest on his shoulders. Then
he was wearing a cat as a scarf. Which Izuku found funny according to the quiet giggles muffled by
the Mirko doll he was holding up to his face.
Katsuki made a face at him that earned him more giggles. He was about to tell the nerd to shut up
when lights started flashing from the corner of the room. Katsuki tensed up, “What the fuck is
that?”

Yamada jumped up from where he’d been seated on the floor in front of the movies. “That’s just
the doorbell. The lights are for when I don’t have my hearing aids in.”

That didn’t help him relax any because he could feel Izuku’s eyes on his face. Pretending he didn’t
know what the kid was thinking, he watched Yamada open the door for Aizawa whose hands were
too full to get the key out and open the door.

Aizawa greeted them, set the pizza down on the table followed by the drinks, and went off to wash
his hands. Izuku stared at the side of Katsuki’s face the entire time. He was still staring when the
two heroes were seated and handing out pizza.

Yamada noticed the staring and asked, “Is something wrong, Izuku?”

Katsuki clenched his jaw as those green eyes left his face to look at him. “Are you deaf, Yamada?”

His teeth were going to crack if Katsuki clenched his jaw any more. Maybe that’s why Yamada
sounded cautious when he answered, “Yes I am, I can’t believe we forgot to mention it. There’s
just been so much going on it slipped our minds. I can hear fine with my aids in but if I’m not
wearing them you’ll have to tap my arm or wave at me to get my attention. I promise if you say
something and I don’t respond I’m not ignoring you, I just didn’t hear it.”

Izuku’s eyes returned to his face, his brows drawn in confusion. “But I thought being deaf made
you weak and stupid.”

Katsuki noticed the small flinch from his teacher and stepped in before he got pissed at the kid.
“That’s just what Mistuki said about deaf people, Izu. Just because she said it doesn’t mean it’s
true.”

Izuku smiled at him, “You’re right, Kacchan! So does that mean you’re gonna get hearing aids so
you can hear me too?”

Katsuki lifted his hands off Dumpster, they were sweating too much with the eyes of both of his
teachers on him. He let off a few small pops to burn off the excess nitroglycerin. That was a
mistake apparently because Aizawa’s eyes flashed and Katsuki’s quirk disappeared. “There’s no
need to get angry, Bakugo, we just want to…”

He cut him off, “I’m not angry. I just...fuck.”

Standing and rushing to the bathroom displaced the cats who let their displeasure be known.
Thankfully, the store they’d gone to had the kind of soap that would get the nitroglycerin off.
There was still too much, he was sweating too much and Izuku was right there. He could hurt him
if he let it touch him.

His hands were bright red by the time he was done scrubbing at them. He just couldn’t stop until he
was sure there wasn’t any left. Every time he thought it was gone, Katsuki would hear Mitsuki
shouting at him about poisoning that kid at daycare. Her voice echoed in his head about what a
monster he was, that he couldn’t even touch people without making them sick. He could still feel
the sting of the industrial cleaner and rough sponge she’d washed his hands with every day until he
was seven.

Once he was sure there wasn’t any nitroglycerin left and he’d calmed his breathing and heart down
enough to stop sweating so much, he went back to the living room. Aizawa was looking extremely
out of his comfort zone while Yamada tried to console a sobbing Izuku.

Katsuki sat down next to his brother, Izuku caught sight of his hands and cried louder. He’d been
lectured enough about not grabbing Katsuki’s hands without letting him wipe them off first. So he
knew why the blonde had left so quickly. Izuku had watched him scrub his hands until they bled
before, he hated when Katsuki had to wash them like that.

Knowing what Izuku needed, he opened his arms and the kid immediately climbed into his lap and
buried his face in Katsuki’s chest. “Sorry Kacchan, I didn’t mean to, I promise.”

Rubbing at his back, Katsuki kissed the top of his head. “I know, Izu. I got too worked up, it’s not
your fault. It’s just hard for me to talk about because she made me hide it for so long.”

Yamada had settled back down in the chair and softly said, “Bakugo, we’ll get you set up for a
hearing test as soon as possible. If you do need aids we can get them and you can choose if you
want to wear them or not. You can choose if you tell anyone else about it. It’s all up to you, but
please let us at least take you to the audiologist.”

Katsuki nodded at him, “Okay. Izu, are you ready to eat some pizza and watch movies or do you
need some time?”

The sobs had stopped and he was down to sniffling and hiccuping when he looked up at the
blonde. “Can I sit in your lap while we eat?”

“Course you can, Nerd.”

It didn’t take long for Izuku to be happily munching on his pizza with his eyes fixed on the kids
movie playing. Katsuki pretended he didn’t notice Aizawa glancing at him every so often while
they watched.

Katsuki was sappy for Izuku and Izuku only. If the hobo wanted Katsuki to open up about his
feelings or some shit after that, he’d be waiting until he was dead.
 Chapter 4
Chapter Notes

I want to thank everyone who leaves nice comments on this story. I read them all and I
love them, I'm just not good at knowing how to respond to compliments.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Hizashi had always been an optimistic man, but he wasn’t an idiot. Sure, he played up the
airheadedness as part of his hero persona, but it was all part of the act he put on as Present Mic. In
truth he was exceptionally smart. His critical thinking skills had gotten him noticed by Nezu during
his time as a UA student, he studied things like psychology and ethics for fun, and he knew how to
manage his time so well that he had three successful careers, a husband, and a vibrant social life.
He was a smart man, not an opinion, just a fact.

So he knew there was something off about Bakugo Katsuki from the first week of classes. No one
had that temper with both an inferiority and superiority complex without some kind of trauma.

A peek at his student file had led Hizashi to believe it was a combination of having a flashy quirk,
probably praised for that and only that growing up, and being the victim of the sludge villain
attack. Being told your entire life you’d be an amazing hero only because of your quirk only to end
up a hostage on the evening news wouldn’t do a middle schooler’s psyche any favors.

With that settled, he decided to give the kid some time before stepping in and getting him to Hound
Dog, the attack was recent so maybe parts of his attitude were too.

That was not the case as he realized some time before the sports festival, this kid had something
deeper going on. His anger and defensiveness were too deep seated to be a new development.
There was something Hizashi was missing from the picture.

It had itched at the back of his brain, what made Bakugo Katsuki tic? But his husband was still
very injured from the USJ and he let it go to focus on Shouta.

Then Bakugo did relax a bit. Yes he still had a temper and he still refused to call people by their
names, but he and Kirishima were almost something like friends and he seemed to sometimes kind
of tolerate the other three that were usually seen hanging out with them.

Hizashi started to think whatever the issue was, it was already being worked on, even if it was
being worked on extremely slowly. But he decided to keep an eye on Bakugo just in case.
Somewhere along the way, Bakugo had become one of his favorite students without Hizashi
realizing. It fascinated Hizashi to watch the boy and try to figure out where he drew his lines in the
sand.

A perfectly normal comment was seen as a challenge while an outright threat was laughed off. He
let people pick at him until he was steaming mad but never seriously hurt anyone when he set off
his explosions. Compliments were either brushed off as fact or met with hostility.

He was on time for classes, just disrespectful enough to be funny but not so much that he needed
detention often, and he was smart as a whip. Bakugo tried his hardest at everything he cared about.
He was going to be the best hero so he trained harder than anyone. He was going to be the top of
the class, so he studied and did extra credit. Then he yelled at anyone who slacked off, because it
wasn’t a competition if you were competing against people who aren’t trying.

Now, all that doesn’t mean he only viewed the kid as a source of entertainment or a fun
psychological mystery. Bakugo was a complex person, but a person nonetheless. He could see that
Bakugo was caring in his own way and he had a presence that just couldn’t be ignored even when
he was completely silent.

Hizashi just wished his classmates could see the good kid hiding under the surface like he could.
But, aside from Kirishima, they all seemed to either tolerate his behavior or actively dislike the
boy. Clearly Bakugo was a Shouta who just needed a Hizashi and an Oboro.

So he’d been studying Bakugo from a distance long enough to have some idea how to navigate
living with him. But Hizashi was learning that there were a lot more issues hidden behind the wall
the kid had put up than he’d ever thought.

Those issues were justified though. The sight of that closet in the Bakugo residence alone was
enough to have Hizashi’s gut churning with guilt for not investigating more. Some of the scratches
on the walls were so tiny and it broke his heart thinking about how small Bakugo had to have been
when those were made. He must have been so scared and Hizashi wanted nothing more than to go
back in time, bust down that door, wrap the kid up in his arms and never let him go.

That wasn’t exactly possible, so instead he decided to focus on giving the boys the best life he
possibly could from the moment they took them in. There was about a week between taking in the
boys and when the students would be moving into the dorms and Hizashi was determined to spend
that time with his new sons. He’d canceled his patrols and got someone to fill in at the station so he
could be home until classes started again.

The morning after they found out Bakugo might be deaf he’d called in a favor with his audiologist
who had an open spot that afternoon because of a cancellation. Bakugo grumbled about the entire
thing, Izuku asked a million questions, and Hizashi tried to walk the thin line Bakugo had drawn
between being supportive and pitying him.

When the audiologist told them Bakugo had extensive hearing loss, the kid didn’t even look
surprised. Hizashi remembered how he’d turned off the water while washing dishes before talking
with him, then he thought about their trip to the mall where Bakugo had refused to acknowledge
anything they said to him unless they were in one of the shops where it would be more quiet.

At one point, Hizashi had turned to make sure they hadn’t lost them in the crowd and saw Izuku
silently pointing things out to his brother. At the time he had assumed Izuku was trying to keep a
clearly irritated Bakugo from losing his cool, but now he realized the kid had just known the teen
wouldn’t be able to hear him over the crowd.

It made his heart ache when they were told it had been gradual loss of hearing. If that bitch,
Mitsuki, had just taken him to a doctor they could have gotten him protection for his ears against
his quirk. It wouldn’t have ever gotten as bad as it did.

To make it so much worse, it wasn’t even a money thing. Hizashi could have been understanding
if the issue was that they didn’t have the money for something like that, quirk specific gear like
that was so much more expensive than regular hearing aids. But she chose to ignore something she
could have prevented from getting worse just because she thought it made her son weak.

Hizashi hoped he never needed to be in a room with that woman because he might just end up in
Tartarus.

In an effort to not scream until the building collapsed, he focused on making sure they got all the
information that would be needed about Bakugo’s levels of hearing loss to have a support specialist
make battle friendly ear protection that would also function as a comm during team exercises.
When he mentioned getting it made by support, Bakugo tensed up. Hizashi was quick to clarify he
was going to go through a support agency he used for his own ear pieces and Bakugo’s name
wouldn’t appear anywhere on the order.

They ordered a plain, skin colored pair of everyday aids that would also protect his ears from
further damage from smaller blasts. Izuku had tried to convince his brother that he should get them
in black and orange, but he refused. Hizashi called later to put in a second order for them, he’d hold
on to them just in case.

After the appointment Hizashi took the boys to a ramen shop that was known for their incredibly
spicy dishes. Bakugo eyed him suspiciously, trying to decide if this was some form of pity. Before
he could come to a decision to blow up about it, Hizashi pointed out the extreme spice challenge.

The distraction worked, Bakugo ended up ordering a huge bowl of “the world's spiciest ramen” and
when he finished it without taking a drink their entire order was free. He also got a shirt with the
shop’s logo because he beat the previous record for fastest time. It was adorable that he asked for a
shirt in Izuku’s size and the kid put it on over the shirt he was already wearing right away. Izuku
claimed that next time he’d get a spicy bowl instead of the mild stuff he’d gotten this time, Bakugo
said they could compete to see who could eat the spiciest bowl. Hizashi would not be allowing that
competition, Izuku would have no taste buds left.

After that, most of their time was spent in the apartment. Hizashi would hang out in the living
room, going over paperwork he couldn’t get out of even when he wasn’t going on patrols or
watching TV. In the afternoons the boys would join him, Izuku sat at the other end of the coffee
table coloring. Shouta was either napping or doing his own paperwork. Bakugo was usually found
in the seat closest to wherever his little brother was, reading a book.

At first they were educational books, things like quirk theory or laws and ethics. Then Bakugo had
grunted out a question about if he could have things delivered to the apartment two days into this
routine. Hizashi gave him the address he’d need to use and the next day an e-reader arrived. Izuku
whispered to Hizashi that his brother didn’t want anyone to know he liked reading romance novels
so he’d always wanted an e-reader so no one could tell what he was reading.

He told Shouta that night in bed and was rewarded with a fond smile. Shouta wouldn’t admit it, but
he’d always had a soft spot for Bakugo too.

Being able to occasionally exist in silence seemed to be the fastest way to endear himself to
Bakugo. Hizashi stopped getting glares every time he opened his mouth after the boy realized that
the man could be quiet at times. The kid was less irritated when Hizashi did start chatting and
rambling energetically as long as there were quiet periods throughout the day. He just needed to
recharge the social batteries, that was fine. Hizashi had been dealing with Shouta long enough to
know when to give someone a break.

It also helped that they had told the boys, and then stuck to their word, that they would never enter
either of their rooms without permission unless there was a life or death emergency. In the
mornings when Shouta was still sleeping after a late night patrol, Bakugo would keep Izuku
entertained in his room playing with all his toys. They were still trying to make the boy
comfortable bringing the toys out into the rest of the apartment. So far it was just the coloring
books and his favorite Mirko stuffie that ever left the room.
If they needed either of the boys for whatever reason, both men would knock even if the door was
open and wait to be invited inside, otherwise they’d talk to them from the doorway without making
a big deal about it. The only person that had been allowed in Bakugo’s room so far was Izuku.
Well, Dumpster was also allowed inside but that was mostly because the mean old cat had decided
that Bakugo was the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Dumpster followed the blonde around everywhere. If he was seated for more than a minute
without Izuku in his lap, Dumpster would appear and claim the space as his own. When the teen
walked through a room, seconds later there was that worn out looking cat, following behind him
like a baby duck. He would rub against Bakugo’s legs and beg for food every time he was cooking.
That cat had never begged Shouta or Hizashi for a thing and he certainly never rubbed against
them.

It didn’t even seem to fully be about the heat Bakugo gave off naturally. Dumpster had started
sleeping in his bed and one morning Izuku had run in to wake his brother up while Hizashi was
walking down the hall. Dumpster was laying at the foot of the bed, not even touching the boy just
enjoying his presence. Occasionally he would sit near Bakugo instead of in his lap and side-eye
everyone that got close to his favorite human.

Maybe Izuku was onto something with the whole Bakugo being a princess thing.

Bakugo had accepted this development about as well as could be expected from him. He pushed
Dumpster away with his foot when he was begging while Bakugo cooked. He grumbled dumbass
cat when Dumpster climbed into his lap, then immediately started petting him. When he came out
of the bathroom to find the cat sitting directly in front of the door waiting for him, the teen would
have a stare down with Dumpster for at least a full minute before making a tch noise and stepping
over him.

Bean also liked to bask in the blonde’s warmth, but that was an every so often thing. Her real
favorite was Izuku. Shouta had spent about a second pouting that he’d been replaced before the
sight of bean sitting on the back of the couch and swatting at Izuku’s curls melted his heart.
Obviously, he wouldn’t admit that, but Hizashi knew.

If Bean wasn’t trying to harass Dumpster into playing with her, she was cuddled up to Izuku. It
didn’t seem to matter how many times the smaller cat chose to curl up against his leg while he sat
on the couch, Izuku’s eyes filled with wonder every time. He was more gentle petting her than
Hizashi had ever seen a kid be with any animal.

That gentleness was one of the many things he’d noticed during their time together that made
Hizashi want to coo at him and also burn a building down with Mitsuki and Masaru inside.
Because he asked one day if the kid wanted to pick Bean up and carry her to his room when she
was being stubborn about getting up to join him. And that little boy said no, because what if I hurt
her or make her scared cause she don’t want to be picked up?

Look, Hizashi was aware that Izuku was a sweetheart and even if he’d had the most perfect life
possible he would still not want to hurt an animal. But being too terrified to pick up a cat wasn’t
just part of his personality. He had been taught what it felt like to be hurt and scared by people
bigger than him and it made Hizashi’s blood boil.

There were so many things he saw the boys doing that made him want to tear out his hair and sob.
If Hizashi or Shouta were within arms reach of his brother, Izuku was watching them. There was
always at least a little fear in his eyes in those moments. There was more non-perishable food
missing than could have been eaten and he knew if he looked he’d find it in their rooms. Bakugo
was known for stomping around the school, but in the apartment he was so quiet. He never
slammed anything, he never asked questions unless Izuku needed something and everything was
set down so gently it didn’t make a sound.

Hizashi had to constantly distract himself from the feelings he’d get when he thought back on all of
Bakugo’s behavior that had bothered him as just his teacher. Now that he knew the truth, figuring
out a likely reason for each trauma response he’d seen had him seconds away from murder every
time. Angry and aggressive because that was all he’d been taught at home. Violent as a way to
express the self-loathing she had drilled into his head. Defensive because he wasn’t used to people
actually complementing or caring about him.

Somehow, even his desire to be physically affectionate with his sons ended with Hizashi itching to
punch Bakugo’s egg and sperm donors in the face. Izuku would do something adorable and he
wanted to hug him, he would look up at the hero to ask a question and Hizashi wanted to ruffle his
hair. Bakugo would make his angry pout face when Izuku got sassy with him and Hizashi wanted
to pinch his cheek teasingly. He wanted to pat the teen’s shoulder or nudge his ribs after telling
him a terrible joke.

But he couldn’t do any of that because the boys had been hurt by people who were supposed to
love them. They hadn’t known Izuku long enough to think he’d be comfortable with hugs and he
didn’t want to ask for a hug and make the boy feel obligated. He didn’t even want to think about
how long it would take for Bakugo to be okay with even a pat on the shoulder, if ever.

Hizashi had already made an appointment with his own therapist for the first day after school
started again so he didn’t have to interrupt his days with the boys beforehand. But he really needed
to talk these feelings out with a professional before he turned villain on Mitsuki and Masaru.

He was so extremely thankful Bakugo had agreed to try therapy. While Hizashi knew a lot about
psychology, he wouldn’t be able to help the boys through their trauma without an expert and they
both deserved to have someone to confide in that wasn’t also responsible for parenting them.

Luckily, they had found separate therapists for each boy that worked out of the same office. They
managed to get them in for the same time at the end of the first week back in school. Shouta and
Hizashi had cleared their schedules for that evening so they could both go with the boys. They
were planning a relaxing night of take out and movies afterwards, if Bakugo didn’t absolutely hate
therapy and shut down after.

Hopefully, it would work out for him. That boy deserved so much more than he’d been given and
Hizashi would give anything to see him heal. He wanted to see a Bakugo that didn’t shut down any
time he got too vulnerable, one who could let people get close to him instead of pushing everyone
away. Maybe there would even be a day when Bakugo didn’t feel the need to be constantly aware
of his surroundings outside of hero work.

Maybe, by the time he graduated he would let himself and Izuku continue to be cared for by them.
It was insane to Hizashi how much he already loved these two kids after so little time with them in
his house. It felt like the second he’d entered that room in the police station someone had torn his
heart out of his chest, split it in two and turned the pieces into those little humans.

Even if they didn’t end up fostering them for the rest of Bakugo’s time at UA or if he took custody
of Izuku after graduating like he planned, Hizashi would love those two for the rest of his life. And
he would spend the rest of that life trying to make them feel as loved and protected as they always
should have been.

He just needed to figure out how to do that without scaring them off.
 The couple must have been doing something right, though. Because the boys hadn’t even started
therapy yet and they’d already gotten some trust from Bakugo. It happened the day before the class
was moving into the dorms. Izuku didn’t want to go on an evening run with him, too preoccupied
with drawing a new hero he’d seen on the hero news, but everyone knew Bakugo wouldn’t slack
on his training if he could avoid it.

That didn’t mean they weren’t surprised when he shot both men a glare and basically growled at
them that Izuku better be in the exact same fucking condition when I get back. Then he left for his
run. He trusted Shouta and Hizashi alone with Izuku for more than a few minutes for the first time.
He trusted them not to hurt his little brother, who was clearly the most important person in his life,
while he wasn’t just in the next room over. It made Hizashi want to jump with joy. Even Shouta
had a bit of pep in his step when he got up to refill Izuku’s juice.

When he returned from his run over an hour later, Bakugo eyed Izuku critically and asked, “You
okay, Izu?”

Izuku looked up from his drawing to flash that adorable smile at his brother, “Yeah Kacchan,
Yamada put a picture of that new hero on his phone so I didn’t have to try to remember what colors
her suit were!”

That got a satisfied grunt from the boy before he started toward the bathroom. Hizashi couldn’t
help asking, “Did you have a nice run, Bakugo?”

His foster son paused for a moment then, without turning around and looking at them, told him,
“You two can just fucking call me Katsuki when we aren’t in class. Don’t be fucking weird about
it.”

He waited patiently until he heard the bath running before throwing himself against Shouta and
quietly squealing, “We get to call him Katsuki!”

Shouta, his loving husband, kissed his cheek, ran his fingers through Hizashi’s hair and said, “Get
off me, you’re wrinkling my papers.”

Izuku giggled at them.

Chapter End Notes

A bit of a shorter chapter to get us through the time left until they move into the
dorms. Next chapter 1A meets Izuku!
 Chapter 5
Chapter Notes

TW: This chapter has insults toward deaf people including the r-slur

The day his classmates moved into the dorms started with boney knees digging into his ribs as
Izuku climbed on him to squish his cheeks between cold hands and yell, “Kacchan, wake up
Kacchan. I get to meet your classmates today!”

The brat had been asking Yamada and Aizawa everything he could think of about class A all week
when he realized the little Katsuki knew about them he’d already told to him. Now he couldn’t
wait to meet them all. It had been a bitch trying to get the kid to sleep the night before he was so
excited.

Shoving at the little hands still messing with his cheeks, Katsuki grumbled, “Izu, waking me up an
hour early isn’t going to make them get here any faster.”

Izuku leaned down so his nose was an inch away from Katsuki’s, “But what if it does, Kacchan?”

Knowing it was a losing battle, he agreed to get up. Izuku was still cheering about his victory when
Katsuki was done getting dressed. The cheering woke up an exhausted looking Aizawa, but instead
of saying anything about it the man just shuffled into the kitchen to drown himself in a pot of
coffee.

Because he knew his brother so well, Katsuki had already planned some things to keep him busy
until everyone was supposed to show. Otherwise it would be hours of trying to keep an impatient
child from having a tantrum because his classmates didn’t show up earlier than scheduled.

After their run, Katsuki had him pack up the notebook and coloring books he’d been using recently
to take to the dorm. Then it was letting him help make breakfast. When he decided to make
pancakes he’d known the syrup would get everywhere since Izuku would be too excited to eat
properly. Which meant he had to change his shirt.

Katsuki picked out the Put Your Hands Up Radio shirt knowing exactly what would happen. The
second he walked out of his room Yamada was cooing and begging for pictures. That took a good
chunk of time since the man demanded several of Izuku solo and even more of the two of them
together.

When Izuku finally got impatient enough to say no more pictures, the four of them walked over to
the 1A dorm. They had an hour until everyone was scheduled to arrive so after he made sure Izuku
remembered he had to wait inside while he and Aizawa talked to the class, he convinced the kid to
draw a picture for Shitty Hair. As soon as he said that would get Shitty Hair to be his friend, Izuku
was scrambling to draw the perfect picture.

Kirishima was the one Izuku was most excited to meet. The redhead was the only classmate he
didn’t have to beg relentlessly to get Katsuki to talk about. He was also the only one Katsuki would
admit, only to himself, was his friend. Izuku definitely knew though, he was smart enough to have
picked up on the lack of anger in Katsuki’s voice when he called Shitty Hair annoying.
He was putting the finishing touches on the drawing when Katsuki and Aizawa went outside to
wait. The first to show up was Glasses who immediately came over to yap at Katsuki about being
happy for his safety and commending his punctuality or some shit.

Thank fuck Ponytail showed up and distracted him before he murdered the dude. Slowly more and
more of his classmates joined the group. When Shitty Hair arrived, Katsuki had to fend off all the
fucking side hugs and arms around his shoulder that the idiot loved to throw at him. He didn’t
explode him though, because he could be civil occasionally.

When everyone was finally there, Aizawa got their attention, “I’m glad to see you all made it here
on time. Obviously, this is where you’ll be living for the remainder of your first year. You were
already sent the list of rules for living in the dorms so I expect good behavior.”

“Now, you are all aware that a student in your class will be having their younger brother staying
here as well. This is because of a personal matter that none of you are to ask or speculate about. If
it comes to my attention that you either asked one of them about it or were gossiping amongst
yourselves about it, you will receive a week of detention at least. There are a few rules for living
with the kid in question that Bakugo will now go over.”

In the seconds it took Katsuki to walk up and stand next to their teacher, the whispers turned into
loud comments and shouting about how shocking it was that he was the one with a sibling staying
there. Aizawa had to flash his red eyes at them to shut them all up.

Katsuki glared out at them, “My brother, Izuku, is staying in the dorms with me until he’s
comfortable enough with our foster parents to move into their apartment. He will still be here
regularly after that to visit. Here are the rules. He’s quirkless and if any of you have a fucking
problem with that you keep it to yourselves. If he so much as overhears one of you talking shit
about quirkless people, Tartarus won’t be a harsh enough punishment for what I’ll do to you.”

He let that sink in before moving on, “Next, don’t touch him without asking and getting his
permission first. No means no and I will break fingers if his isn’t respected. Don’t yell at him and
don’t have loud arguments in front of him. Take that shit somewhere he isn’t. None of you have the
authority to reprimand or punish him. If he does something you think he shouldn't, you bring it up
with me or Aizawa and we will handle that shit. I don’t want to hear any of you so much as tell him
he should say please. It’s not your fucking job. Lastly, he rambles. If he rambles to you about
something and you don’t want to hear it do not tell him he’s being annoying. Make up an excuse to
leave and apologize for cutting him off. Now come in, he’s fucking dying to meet you assholes.”

Turning on his heel, Katsuki stomped into the dorm. There was a second of stillness and silence
before all the fucking extras were shouting and rushing to catch up. He threw open the door and
stepped to the side to take off his shoes. Of course, Izuku ran over instead of waiting on the couch
like he was supposed to.

In less than a second there was a screech of Kacchan and the sound of tiny feet running. Then the
girls were squealing and Katsuki turned just in time to see Round Cheeks run forward shrieking
he’s so cute and reach out to hug his brother. He tried to get there first but he was still a few steps
away when she latched her arms around him and Izuku screamed and started slapping at her head.

Cheeks reared back, holding the side of her head and Katsuki snatched up a crying Izuku. He
calmed down as soon as Katsuki settled him on his hip, but buried his face into Katsuki’s
shoulder.

Turning his most deadly look on the girl he calmly asked, “What. The. Fuck. Is wrong with you?”
Still rubbing at her head like a four year old had done so much damage, Cheeks glared back.
“What do you mean what’s wrong with me? He’s the one that started hitting me when I was just
trying to hug him!”

He took a deep breath to keep from screaming at her since it would only make the kid panic, “I
literally just got done telling you not to touch him without asking. Did you think there wasn’t a
fucking reason for that?”

Looking pissed, she crossed her arms, “It doesn’t matter if there’s a reason, he shouldn’t just start
hitting people.”

Katsuki had a lot of respect for Cheeks as a hero in training, but right then he was so close to
murdering her. “He is four! He can’t be expected to react perfectly to things that trigger him. And
you should know it is never okay to touch someone else’s kid without permission.”

When guilt showed on her face, Katsuki was ready to drop it. Then she glared again and said, “I
should have known any sibling of yours would be violent.”

Before he could do something to get kicked out of the hero course, Aizawa spoke up from the back
of the group, “Uraraka, that is enough. You messed up. Move on.”

She grumbled but didn’t say anything else. Izuku was still tucked into his shoulder but no longer
sniffling so Katsuki rubbed his back and asked, “Hey Nerd, you wanna give Shitty Hair the picture
you made him?”

That cheered him right the fuck up. Izuku wiggled in his grasp, “Yes, yes I wanna show him! Let
me down.”

He chuckled and set the kid down. He was immediately running into the common area with
Katsuki trailing along behind him. There were sounds of the class following, too curious to leave
even after the drama.

Izuku snatched the drawing off the table, turned, and bolted over to Shitty Hair. Bouncing in place,
he held it up. “I made this for you, Kirishima. It’s you and Kacchan at the sports festival.”

There were a few snorts and whispers of kacchan but Katsuki ignored it to watch Shitty Hair beam
at Izuku and crouch down. “It’s so good! You said it was for me to take right?” When Izuku
nodded, he gently took it from him and smiled even wider, “You could be a professional artist little
dude! This is going to be the first thing I hang on my wall.”

The kid flashed his blinding smile and Katsuki could see his classmates melting. “Really? I’m so
happy you like it! Your room is right next to me and Kacchan so you should come over and watch
movies with us.”

Shitty Hair had actual fucking tears in his eyes. “I would love to watch movies with my two
favorite bros!”

Having delivered his present and obtained a friend, Izuku turned and made grabby arms at Katsuki.
Once he was held against his hip once again, Izuku smiled at the rest of class A, “It’s nice to meet
all of Kacchan’s classmates!”

The room filled with awwws and shouts of it’s nice to meet you too then they decided to go around
and introduce themselves to the boy. Katsuki was glad this looked like it was wrapping up once
Glasses announced, “It has been a pleasure to meet you, Izuku, but I must insist we all head to our
rooms to unpack.”
They were so close to finally leaving him alone with his brother when Raccoon Eyes asked, “Wait,
why is Mic Sensei here?”

Sighing and giving up on the idea of peace, Katsuki said, “Because he and Aizawa are our foster
parents.”

The screaming that followed had Izuku covering his ears and Katsuki moved further away from the
group so he wouldn’t panic. Excited screaming sounded a lot like angry screaming when it was
nineteen different people doing it at the same time.

Moving away seemed to make most of them remember the rule about yelling so it quieted down
before Katsuki had to kill them. Sparky was the first to speak an actual sentence instead of
incoherent screaming. “So Mic and Aizawa are married? That’s so crazy. That’s like if me and
Shinso got married.”

Eyebags looked just as done with life as always as he sighed, “You wish.”

Raccoon Eyes shoved Sparky aside, “We can talk about Kami’s tragic love life later. I need to
know so much, Mic Sensei. Like, when did you get together? How long have you been married?
Why are you…no wait we aren’t allowed to ask about Blasty’s situation. Are we allowed to ask
how long you’ve been fostering them? I’ll drop it if not but I just really want to know if Blasty has
been hiding that you two are his dads and he’s only telling us now because of the dorms.”

Katsuki snapped, “They aren’t our fucking dads. They are our guardians and it’s been like a week
so calm the hell down.”

She apologized and looked actually chastised which was probably why Yamada decided to answer
her other questions. “Shouta and I started dating in our third year of UA and we’ve been married
for seven years now.”

Half N Half was the next idiot to speak up, “Bakugo, did you kidnap this child before getting
fostered by our teachers or are they in on it?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “I didn’t kidnap him you dumbass.”

Always ready to piss Katsuki off, Tape Arms grinned. “I don’t know Bakugo, he doesn’t look
anything like you.”

Getting on board Invisabitch piped up, “Yeah, and don’t most siblings have similar quirks?
Quirkless is pretty different from explosions.”

Izuku’s arms tensed around him and Katsuki wasn’t going to let it slide. “First of all, shut the fuck
up, anyone can have a quirkless kid it’s basic fucking biology. Second, he was adopted by my
parents so no we aren’t related by blood but this little shit has been my brother since he was born
and anyone who says otherwise can meet me outside for an ass beating.”

There was a beat of silence and then Raccoon Eyes was squealing, “Oh my God look at Blasty
being all protective of his baby brother! It’s so cute.”

His jaw clenched, “I’m not fucking cute, Pinky.”

Being the shit head he is, Izuku patted Katsuki’s cheek, “You are very cute, Kacchan.”

The room filled with giggles and Sparky yelled, “Yeah Kacchan, listen to Izuku.”
Snapping his eyes over to that idiot, he snarled. “Don’t ever call me that.”

Sparky stepped back with wide eyes and raised hands, “Bro sorry. You didn’t seem to have a
problem when Izuku called you that so I figured it was okay.”

“Did I change your goddamned diapers? No? Then you don’t get to call me Kacchan.” There were
several people heckling Sparky after that.

Aizawa decided to step in and save him, “Alright hellspawn, you all need to unpack. Lunch is
being brought over in two hours.”

Everyone dispersed and Katsuki sat down with Izuku on his lap, “So you still excited to be living
with the extras, Izu?”

Nodding, Izuku picked up the Mirko stuffie he’d left on the couch to play with its ears. “Yeah, I
get to live with future heroes and some of them were nice.”

He hummed, “Sorry I didn’t stop Cheeks before she touched you.”

Izuku bopped him on the nose with the doll, “It’s okay cause Kacchan told her she was in trouble.
Kacchan always saves me.”

Katsuki felt a pang in his chest remembering the last time he hadn’t been fast enough to save him
before he was hurt. He held Izuku a little closer, “I’ll always save you, Izu.”

Yamada clapped his hands together, “Okay I’m glad that went reasonably well. I have to head over
to my homeroom’s dorm before they’re scheduled to arrive, so I’ll see you guys later.”

Katsuki wasn’t sure what made him do it. Maybe it was how nice they’d been to Izuku. Maybe it
was him trying to prove Mitsuki wasn’t right about him always chasing people away. Whatever it
was, Katsuki called out, “Hey, I got pissy about them calling you our dads earlier. If I…I mean if it
made you feel…” Fuck, why was it so hard for him to act like a decent fucking person?

Yamada smiled gently at him, “Katsuki, it didn’t upset us. You were telling the truth about your
situation and even if we wanted you to call us your dads, you’ve only been with us a week. It’s a
new arrangement and we’re all getting to know each other still. It would be far too soon for us to
expect you to think of us as anything other than your new guardians.”

Then that fucker winked at him, “That being said, if you did ever want to call us something like
that, I’m much more of a Pops than a Dad.”

Aizawa plopped down on a chair, “Hizashi, go bother your class instead of harassing Katsuki.”

The blonde left, grumbling under his breath about never getting to have any fun.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Izuku happily playing with his favorite doll while Katsuki
tried not to think about anything too hard. Aizawa leaned his head back against the chair and closed
his eyes. It was the most peace he’d ever had while in the same building as his classmates.

When Izuku announced he needed the bathroom, Katsuki stood up. Before they walked out,
Aizawa said, “If either of you need anything at all you can text or call me or Hizashi at any time.
Night or day. Just because we aren’t in the same building doesn’t mean we aren’t here for you.”

Katsuki huffed. “Don’t go getting sappy on me now, hobo.”

The hero smirked, “Brat.”

He took Izuku up to their room so he could use the attached bathroom. The communal bathrooms
on the first floor had stall doors with handles that were too high for him to reach and Katsuki
wanted to hang out in their room instead of the common room anyway.

Shitty Hair’s door was open so Katsuki could hear the crappy music he was listening to. He told
Izuku to go use the bathroom while he talked to Shitty Hair, he had a step stool in there so the kid
could use the sink no problem.

The room looked like exactly what Katsuki would expect from the redhead. For fucks sake he had
already hung up a punching bag and everything. Katsuki knocked on the door frame and waited to
be invited in because he wasn’t an animal.

Shitty Hair smiled, “Hey man, come on in! What’s up? Did you need something? Where’s Izuku?
Oh God did something happen, is he okay?”

Katsuki snorted, “Calm down Shitty Hair, he’s just in the bathroom. Jesus, you just met the kid and
you’re already this concerned about him?”

The redhead rubbed at his neck. “Yeah, I guess. He’s just so sweet and I know you wouldn’t let
your brother run around unsupervised on our first day in the dorms.”

“You think I’m gonna let him be unsupervised in a building full of these idiots ever, dumbass?”

Once he stopped laughing at that, Shitty Hair asked, “Was there actually something you needed
though, bro?”

He nodded, “I just wanted to warn you since we share a wall that sometimes Izuku has nightmares
and there might be screaming or crying.”

“Bro that’s no problem at all. I’d never get mad about someone waking me up after a nightmare
but especially not Izuku!” He flashed those dumbass caring eyes at him before looking down at his
feet, “Actually since he’s not here right now I want to ask something. I swear I’m not trying to find
out anything about why you’re being fostered. I just want to know if you’re safe now. Nothing
else. Just, are you guys safe?”

Katsuki felt a rare smile for someone other than Izuku tugging at the corners of his lips when he
realized there wasn’t any pity in his eyes, only concern and determination. This idiot was probably
planning to fight someone if he said they weren’t.

“We’re safe.”

That sharp toothed smile was back, “Good, I’m glad. I also want you to know that you’re basically
my best friend and if you ever want to talk about it, I’ll listen. But if you never bring it up I won’t
ever ask, promise.”

Pushing down the urge to snap about not needing to talk about it, Katsuki settled for snark. “If I’m
your best friend you need higher fucking standards, Shitty Hair.”

He got a soft punch to the arm, “Hey, that’s no way to talk about my best bro! Besides, I know you
think of me as a friend too. How else would Izuku know my name was Kirishima if you weren’t
saying it when you talked about me?”

Katsuki shoved him, “He asked Yamada and Aizawa about everyone you dipshit.”
Shitty Hair grinned like he’d just won, “But you don’t deny talking about me to Izuku?”

And because life hated him, that’s when the monster in question barged into the room, “Kacchan
talks about you all the time Kirishima! He says you’re good for practice cause your quirk’s so
good and you’re the least annoying extra in the class.”

The dummy put a hand over his heart, “Aww Bakubro, you think I’m the least annoying.”

Katsuki flipped him off and turned to his brother with narrowed eyes, “Didn’t I teach you to knock
before coming into someone’s room?”

Izuku giggled, “But the door was open, Kacchan!”

Shitty Hair laughed, “Yeah it’s okay dude. Izuku’s always welcome in my room. Hey Izuku, I
noticed it was kinda hard for you to say my whole name so if you want you can just call me Kiri.”

Emerald eyes widened, “Does that mean we’re friends since I can call you a nickname?”

The teen nodded and Izuku cheered, throwing his hands up excitedly and smacking Shitty Hair,
who had crouched down to talk to the kid, right in the face when he did.

Katsuki laughed at the dumb look of surprise on the redhead’s face. Izuku apologized and was
waved off by the idiot

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Katsuki watched as Izuku proceeded to ask a thousand questions
about everything in the boy’s room, each one answered with a smile like he didn’t have anything
better to do than entertain someone else’s little brother.

He would never understand why such a decent person would want to be friends with a piece of shit
like him, but Katsuki had always been selfish so he was going to keep Kirishima around until he
realized how much better he deserved.

Eventually he had to drag Izuku out of there so the other boy could work on unpacking more. It
took a promise to eat lunch together for Izuku to leave. Lunch wasn’t too far away by then so
Katsuki let Izuku tell him how cool Kirishima was while they stacked legos until it was time to go
down for food.

Shitty Hair was leaving his room at the same time and Izuku ran over to him so he could tell him
about the spaceship he built with the legos. It looked like a deformed cube, but Katsuki wasn’t
going to say that shit out loud. Making sure he’d wiped his hand off while pulling it out of his
pocket, Katuski pushed the button to call the elevator. He couldn’t leave his sweat on shit other
people use.

He didn’t have to worry about pushing the other button because once they were inside the elevator,
Izuku demanded to be the one to push it. There were a few other students already eating and some
more grabbing a plate from the kitchen where the food Lunch Rush had provided was set out.

Katsuki lifted Izuku up into the chair with his booster seat attached, “I’ll be right back with your
food, Nerd.”

Izuku hummed happily as Katsuki ruffled his hair before turning to make their plates. Someone,
probably Aizawa who was now sleeping on the couch, had set out Izuku’s kid safe dishes and
training chopsticks. He grabbed the plate and a regular one for himself, then joined the line to get
food. Kirishima was in front of him and immediately turned to start gushing about how excited he
was to live in the dorms and how glad he was that they were neighbors.
Katsuki let him talk uninterrupted through the entire line. When he set down the plates to fill up
Izuku’s cup, Shitty Hair offered to take Izuku’s plate to him so Katsuki would have a free hand. It
wasn’t like carrying a plate twenty feet was a huge favor so he let him do it. He could barely hear
Izuku’s excited demands for Kirishima to sit right next to him over the other people that had
filtered into the kitchen.

He realized his mistake of letting Shitty Hair beat him to the table too late. Katsuki couldn’t just
demand he get up and sit on Izuku’s other side without explaining that sitting in the empty chair
would put Izuku on the side of Katsuki’s worst ear. Their classmates were being too loud for him
to expect to hear much on that side. Usually Izuku would remember things like that, but he was a
currently overstimulated child excited about his new friend so Katsuki couldn’t be mad about it.

He set the plastic kid’s cup full of juice in front of Izuku and sat down in his chair. Katsuki was a
little relieved that Shitty Hair didn’t seem to mind only talking to a four year old during lunch. It
kept him from trying to respond to Izuku’s chatter that he couldn’t hear. It also kept the other
extras from being able to talk to Izuku so he didn’t have to worry about one of them saying
something that would upset him when Katsuki couldn’t hear it.

Katsuki did have to reach over and tap Izuku’s chopsticks with his own several times to remind the
kid he needed to eat in between talking. Every time he did it, Shitty Hair would smirk at him like
he’d caught Katsuki doing something embarrassing. Katsuki just rolled his eyes.

When lunch was done Katsuki left Izuku sitting with Shitty Hair while he quickly washed their
plates and set them in the rack to dry. He got several looks for not just sticking them in the
dishwasher, but Katsuki hadn’t ever cared what those extras thought about him and he wasn’t
about to start now.

They passed through the common room and Katsuki noticed Izuku eyeing Aizawa but didn’t think
too much about it. It was when the kid grabbed his throw blanket and a stuffie off the bed and
marched back out the door that Katsuki realized something was up.

He decided to see where this went and just followed along behind his brother as he took the
elevator back to the common room and approached the couch. Setting the stuffie down, Izuku held
the blanket out as wide as his little arms could go and tossed it up in an effort to get as much of it as
possible on the sleeping man.

Katsuki knew the man was never actually asleep when he pretended to be, he just liked keeping an
ear on things while making sure no one approached him. That didn’t mean this wasn’t a perfect
opportunity to fuck with him.

Lifting Izuku up, he held the boy high enough that he could drag the edges of the blanket into
position until Aizawa was covered by it. Once he was set back down, Izuku picked up his stuffie
and settled it against Aizawa’s chest, its head the only thing visible from under the blanket after
Izuku tucked it in.

It was too perfect for Katsuki to not step back and take a picture of Aizawa covered in an All Might
blanket and cuddling a Fat Gum stuffie. Immediately sending it to Yamada was just a bonus. If
Katsuki had to suffer having embarrassing pictures of himself taken, so did Aizawa.

Ushering Izuku into the elevator before Aizawa could murder them left them standing with Sparky
and Tape Arms. Sparky leaned over, “Dude I will give you any amount of money for you to send
me that picture.”

Katsuki scoffed, “If you wanted a picture you should have taken one, Sparkplug.”
He got an affronted noise in response, “I can’t take pictures of him like that! He’s legally required
to not murder you as your foster parent, I have no such safety.”

Katsuki stared at him for a moment, “He’s your teacher dipshit. Teachers can’t kill their students.”

Sparky sighed dramatically, “If any of them did it would be Aizawa. I wouldn’t want him to foster
me, I’d be terrified.”

Izuku frowned up at him, “Aizawa is really nice though. Maybe you should try giving him a cat.
Every time I put Bean in his lap he smiles at me.”

Sparky nodded back at him, “That’s probably it little dude. That’s the secret to winning his
affection and you’ve just saved my life.”

He was still laughing at his own nonsense when the doors opened to his floor. Izuku watched him
go then turned to Katsuki, “Kacchan, that boy is weird.”

Tape Arms laughed, “You got that right, kid.”

Izuku turned to look at him, “Can you…um make tape that’s not as sticky?”

Katsuki patted his head, “Control, you want to know if he can control how adhesive his tape is.”

The kid nodded happily, “Yeah, can you control the sticky?”

Grinning, Tape Arms pulled some tape out of his elbow and handed it to Izuku, “Yup, see how it’s
really sticky on one end and almost not sticky at all on the other?”

Izuku touched each end of the tape with his fingers. His eyes sparkled, “That’s so cool! I didn’t
think you could do it on the same piece.”

Tape Arms turned red and rubbed at his neck. “It’s not a big deal really.”

Katsuki scowled at him, “Shut up asshole, if the nerd says it’s cool it’s cool. Don’t fucking argue
with him.”

The moron laughed, “How do you manage to be so aggressive even when doing something sweet
like defending your brother?”

Shoving a finger in his face, Katsuki narrowed his eyes. “Don’t call me sweet dickhead.”

He held his hands up placatingly right as the elevator opened on their floor, “Fine, you’re the
saltiest person in the dorms and I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

Katsuki shoved past him, ignoring his chuckling. Of course the fucker was still in the hall to
witness Katsuki sigh and hand his key card to Izuku because I wanna scan it Kacchan. He very
graciously pretended not to hear the bastard snickering at him.

It only took three stories and the noise machine to get Izuku down for his nap, which was less than
he was expecting after all the excitement of the day. Probably a blessing he’d woken up so early.
While the kid snoozed away Katsuki tried to get lost in the book he was reading, but he couldn’t
focus on it.

The next day would be the last day of their break before classes started again. Of course that would
be the day his hearing aids would be ready to pick up. They had to go to the audiologist’s office to
get them so he could make sure they fit and Katsuki knew how to connect them to his phone and
charge them and shit. He was dreading it.

It’s not like he’d never wanted hearing aids. He vividly remembers coming home after the school
did a hearing test in elementary school and showing Mitsuki the note saying he needed to see a
specialist to prevent further hearing loss due to his quirk. Katsuki had already started to notice his
classmate’s voices sounding unclear and if the class was loud he couldn’t understand the teacher.

So he was excited when the school nurse told him there were little devices that would make his
hearing come back. He wanted to come home and not feel exhausted from trying so hard to hear all
day when the other kids didn’t seem to have a problem hearing. Katsuki thought Mitsuki would
take him to get them because not being able to hear made him weak so if he had the aids he
wouldn’t be so weak anymore.

He could remember exactly how it felt when she struck the side of his head after reading the note.
He hadn’t been expecting it, usually he could see it coming and brace for it but he hadn’t even
done anything wrong that time. He thought she’d be happy so he didn’t think he needed to be
watching her hands. The confusion made him miss her reaching out to shove him. As soon as he
was on the ground she was kicking him and screaming.

Mitsuki ended up breaking one of his ribs that day but it was the things she screamed at him that
made him learn to hide the hearing loss. She said only a weak bitch needed help with something as
easy as hearing. He was a waste of space that would never be a hero if he couldn’t figure out a way
to use his quirk that didn’t deafen him. No one wanted to be saved by a useless, retarded freak.

Katsuki knew now that none of it was true. Not only were there deaf heroes, he’d had a deaf
classmate in middle school that was smarter than anyone he’d ever met. No one who wasn’t always
a giant asshole ever cared that she was deaf. Some days Katsuki would sit and stare at her bright
pink hearing aids and burn with jealousy.

He’d known for years that the things Mitsuki called him were mostly lies. That didn’t mean the
thought of his class at UA finding out he was deaf didn’t make him want to puke. They would look
at him with pity . They would treat him differently. They would know that he wasn’t better than
them, that he was weak .

That’s why he’d chosen the pair of hearing aids he did. They matched his skin tone perfectly and
were so small someone would have to be staring directly into his ear from less than a foot away to
notice them. Katsuki would wear them in class so he didn’t have to lip read and miss whatever the
teachers said when facing the board. He’d wear them in the dorms so he’d be able to have a
fucking conversation at the table when the extras were being loud. Katsuki would wear them but
nobody needed to fucking know about them.

Izuku waking up from his nap was what finally got Katsuki out of his head. After a trip to the
bathroom they decided to go outside to play for a while. One of the best things about living at UA
was that he didn’t have to worry that if he took his eyes off the kid for a second when he was
playing in the yard he’d run into the road and get hit by a car.

They were walking through the common room when Izuku spotted Octopus and Bird Head talking
off to the side of the room. Katsuki watched as the brat wandered over and stared up at Octopus in
wonder. The guy looked down at Izuku and his absolute heathen of a brother asked, “Are you taller
than the refrigerator?”

Octopus looked uncomfortable as he stammered some nonsense. Bird Head was chuckling and said
something about an agent of chaos.
Katsuki sighed, “Izuku, that was a rude question.”

The kid shuffled his feet nervously, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. You’re just very tall…and
you look like you give good hugs. Because you have so many arms.”

If he wasn’t responsible for making sure Izuku didn’t turn out to be a rude asshole, Katsuki would
have been wheezing and laughing right then. But he was so he scooped the little shit up. “Izuku, do
you remember what I said about commenting on a heteromorph’s appearance?”

His little nose scrunched up in thought, then his eyes lit up and he nodded. “You shouldn’t do it
because even if you meant to be nice you might make them unc…uncom.”

Katsuki helped him out, “Uncomfortable.”

Nodding again, Izuku said, “Yeah that.” Then his head whipped toward Octopus, “I’m sorry if I
made you uncomfortable! I didn’t mean to.”

Octopus shifted, still looking unsure about how to interact with the kid. “You didn’t, you just took
me by surprise is all. Especially since Bakugo calls me Octopus instead of my name.”

Izuku smiled wide, “Kacchan says there’s no hope for him but I have to learn not to be rude. Well,
he actually uses big boy words that I’m not allowed to use or I don’t get dessert.”

Bird Head nodded, “Bakugo does have an affinity for…big boy words.”

Katsuki scowled at him, “I also have an affinity for putting my foot up your ass.”

Izuku giggled and tugged on his ear, “Come on Kacchan, I want to play with the ball.”

Bird Boy wouldn’t let him make a clean getaway. “Would you be amenable to me joining the two
of you? Dark Shadow quite loves to play ball with children.”

That had Izuku wiggling excitedly, “Can I meet Dark Shadow? Can they play with us, Kacchan?
Can they please?”

He let out a long suffering sigh, “Come on then.”

What followed was the weirdest game of ball Katsuki had ever experienced. Dark Shadow loved
Izuku, following him closely as he ran around kicking the ball between the four of them, Octopus
had decided to join them as well. Any time the ball went past someone, Dark Shadow flew out to
scoop it up and roll it toward Izuku.

Seeing someone as ridiculously strong as Octopus gently tap a ball to a four year old who was
running around like he was in the Olympics was surreal. But it only truly got weird when more of
the class finished unpacking and came out to join them.

Tape Arms used his quirk to grab the ball right before people could kick it and roll it toward Izuku.
Sparky was diving for it like his shitty grades depended on this children’s game. Glasses yelled
about unsportsmanlike conduct every time someone stole the ball. Kirishima acted as a shield for
Izuku if someone kicked the ball too hard. It would fly up off the ground and he would harden and
let it bounce off his legs or chest and Izuku cheered every time.

Katsuki announced Izuku was done when his face was bright red and dripping sweat. A few people
decided they were done too, but Sparky begged to borrow the ball and keep playing. Katsuki
allowed it since they were staying outside anyway, he just wasn’t letting Izuku pass out from
exhaustion.

He toweled off his face and neck before using the special hand cleanser made to clean the
nitroglycerin off his hands if he couldn’t wash them. It looked like a normal bottle of hand sanitizer
so people usually assumed he had a germ thing when he used it before opening doors or touching
someone. It didn’t make sense because if it were a germ thing he’d do it after touching shit, but if
it kept people from asking about it he didn’t give a shit.

When he was finally okay to touch shit without getting his sweat everywhere, Katsuki set Izuku up
with some sidewalk chalk by the stairs so he could draw while watching the extras play. Some
begging and puppy eyes got him to join his brother with the chalk.

Katsuki drew a castle and Izuku made the dragon blob that was trying to kidnap the king because
why would he want a princess when the king is in charge, don’t be silly Kacchan. He added a moat
and Izuku put in the alligators. Katsuki drew some knights and his brother gave them the world’s
ugliest horses.

By the time the ball game ended, they had an entire village surrounding the castle and Shitty Hair
whistled when he came to look. “I knew Izuku was an artist, but I had no idea you could draw like
that, Bakugo.”

Katsuki started packing up the chalk since it was almost dinner time, “Of course I can draw,
dumbass.”

He stood up to go inside when Izuku tugged on his pants, “Kacchan, can I pick one of the flowers
please?”

Looking at the flowers lining the front of the dorm, he frowned, “You know even if you only pick
one a day, eventually there won’t be any left.”

Izuku was twiddling his fingers, “I know, but I just want one this one time and then I won’t pick
any more. Promise.”

Thinking about it he figured unless the kid was planning on eating it there wasn’t any harm,
“Okay, one. But if you put it in your mouth you’re eating double vegetables at dinner.”

Izuku made a face but nodded and went to pick out a flower. There was an obnoxious laugh behind
him before Sparky announced, “Oh my God, Blasty’s such a mom!”

Katsuki flipped him off.

Tape Arms imitated Katsuki’s voice, “If you don’t brush your teeth you don’t get a story at
bedtime.”

He wanted to punch the fucker, but that was an actual thing he’d said to his brother before.

Sparky was wheezing with laughter now, “Do you read him bedtime stories Blasty?”

He whipped around to snarl at him, “What kind of jackass doesn’t read a kid a fucking bedtime
story?”

Izuku, flower in hand, skipped up to inform them, “Kacchan tells me stories every night and before
my nap. Now that we’re allowed to have books he doesn’t even have to make them up!”

That sobered everyone up real fucking quick. Katsuki took a steadying breath before looking at his
brother. He was a child, he didn’t know what wasn’t normal shit to say.

So Katsuki just frowned at him, “You saying I’m not good at making up stories you brat?”

Izuku shook his head, “No! Kacchan tells the best stories. Like that one about the monster that
steals people’s feet and the hero defeats him but then he has to figure out who all the feet belong to
so he can give them back.”

Thankfully, everyone had decided to keep their mouths shut about what Izuku had said and just
listened to him talk about some of the stories Katsuki had made up for him as they went inside. It
hadn’t really occurred to him how much Izuku had been missing out on and how many things had
been kept from him even before they found out he was quirkless. After the first time Mitsuki
caught him reading to Izuku from a kid’s book, she’d torn it up because Katsuki shouldn’t be
“trying to make Izuku weak by coddling him like Masaru did for you”. They stuck to made up
stories after that.

Izuku had just finished telling them about another story when Cheeks walked out of the elevator.
Just about the entire class was in the common area and got to watch Izuku march up to her and
present the little flower he’d picked. “I’m sorry I hit you when you scared me.”

Cheeks sank down to her knees so they were at eye level before taking the flower. “It’s okay. I
shouldn’t have tried to hug you like that. I got excited and forgot Bakugo had told us you didn’t
like it so it was my fault. Then I got defensive which isn’t very heroic of me.”

Izuku cocked his head, “What’s defensive?”

Katsuki was answering before Cheeks could open her mouth, he had to do this so often it was
second nature now. “It’s when someone knows they’re wrong but don’t want to admit it.”

Someone snorted off to the side and Katsuki knew they were thinking it was ironic that he was the
one defining that specific word. They could fuck off, he knows what he’s like.

Izuku smiled at Cheeks, “But now you aren’t defensive and good heroes always admit when
they’re wrong so now you are being heroic!”

Cheeks was actually fucking crying now. Gross.

IcyHot decided to ruin the moment, “My father must have missed that heroics class. Endeavor
would die before admitting he was wrong.”

Izuku waved his hand dismissively, “I said good heroes. Endeavor is a…Kacchan can you say the
big boy words for me?”

Katsuki sighed, “He’s a goddamn asshole.”

Izuku smiled, “That’s what he is, I’m not allowed to say it though.”

IcyHot stared at the kid for a minute. “I understand why Bakugo kidnapped you now.”

Before he could beat that bastard’s ass, Aizawa opened the door holding a concerningly large stack
of pizzas. “Dinner is here hellspawn, you will wait until I am away from the table to move toward
the pizza. Katsuki you are running extra laps in heroics on Monday, you know exactly what you
did.”

Katsuki snorted, that picture was already his phone background. “Worth it.”
Aizawa set the pizzas down and as soon as he stepped out of the dining area, the class swarmed it.
Katsuki picked up Izuku so he wouldn’t get stepped on and waited for them to clear out a bit
before sitting him in his booster seat and moving to get them both food. Some god somewhere
must not completely hate him because the extras were more subdued than they were at lunch so he
could actually kind of hear.

Izuku waved at Shitty Hair, “Kiri, will you sit by me again?” The redhead agreed and moved to sit
but Izuku stopped him, “I forgot at lunch but that’s where Kacchan sits. You can have the other
side.”

Kirishima didn’t even give him a funny look, just moved to the other side. It was Earphones that
loudly asked, “Why does Bakugo need that side?”

Izuku crossed his arms, “Why do you have uneven bangs? It’s just the way things are.”

“Don’t be a little shit, Nerd.” Katsuki put his food in front of the little monster and sat down.

“Personally, I think Izuku is my new favorite Bakugo.” Eyebags announced to the room before
stuffing an obscene amount of pizza in his mouth.

Katsuki didn’t look up from where he was putting the vegetables Izuku had picked off back on his
pizza, “Sucks for you that he’s a Midoriya and not a Bakugo then, huh?”

Eyebags snorted and didn’t bother to swallow his food before speaking again. “You’re telling me
the kid with green hair and eyes is named Midoriya? I’m starting to believe Todoroki’s kidnapping
story because this is just the laziest cover story.”

“Don’t talk with your fucking mouth full, asshat.” Katsuki threw a napkin at him.

Sparky slapped his hand on the table, “See, Bakugo is totally a mom and we just never noticed
because he hides it behind all the swearing and threatening your life.”

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, “I wouldn’t have to threaten your life if you didn’t suck at everything
and I wouldn’t have to mom you if you could take care of your fucking self.”

Raccoon Eyes patted Sparky’s head, “That’s Blasty’s way of saying he cares about us.”

He scowled, “I care about not letting you all drag me down with you.”

“Sure, sure.” She smiled around the pizza she was stuffing in her mouth.

The rest of dinner Katsuki ignored the idiots. His focus was on making sure Izuku didn’t pick off
the vegetables and drop them on the floor when he wasn’t looking. Kirishima kept telling the kid
how manly eating your vegetables is, Izuku was unconvinced.

They were so close to escaping up to their room for the night when the girls announced a room
contest. Izuku would not take no for an answer when he asked if they could join. It sounds so fun
Kacchan and you know we have the best room. The things he does for this monster.

He let Izuku ride on his shoulders as they went from room to room. Most of the rooms didn’t
surprise him based on what he knew about the extras. Izuku was particularly fond of the animal
guy’s room because he got to pet a rabbit.

When they got to their own room Katsuki had to grit his teeth to keep from snapping. He didn’t
want people in his room. He hated having anyone that wasn’t Izuku in his room. But Izuku wanted
to show off all his things to his new friends so he allowed it.

He threw open the door and everyone seemed shocked. The first thing they noticed was the toys.
Tape Arms whistled, “That’s a lot of toys man.”

Izuku was bouncing in place with a huge grin, “Yeah when Yamada wouldn’t let Kacchan pay for
our clothes and toys and stuff, he got mad and let me get all the toys I wanted and Yamada didn’t
say no because he was sad I didn’t have any toys.”

Katsuki sighed, this kid would not shut his fucking mouth. Thankfully Kirishima pointed at a
picture that was on the wall before the awkward silence dragged on. “Is this you and baby Izuku?”

It was the picture of them with Inko, he’d put it in his room at the dorm until Izuku started
spending most nights in the apartment, then it would go in Izuku’s room.

Izuku smiled, “That’s me and Mommy and Kacchan! Kacchan was the first person to hold me after
Mommy cause he’s my big brother.”

All of the girls and several of the boys let out an awww at that. Kirishima flashed his pointy ass
teeth in a dumb, sappy grin, “You weren’t kidding about him being your brother since he was born
bro!”

“ Tch, obviously.”

After that it was a tour of all the pictures in the room and the tour guide was Izuku.

“This is me and Kacchan at the aquarium.”

Cheeks squealed about the shark fin headband Izuku had refused to take off until bed that night.

“This is me feeding Kacchan at my birthday.”

Everyone got a huge fucking kick out of seeing a one year old Izuku smashing fist fulls of cake
against a twelve year old Katsuki’s cheek.

“That’s me and Kacchan having a sleepover.”

Ponytail cooed about how adorable a two year old Izuku was asleep on Katsuki’s chest

“This is Kacchan chasing a goose that tried to bite me at the park.”

Tape Arms laughed way too hard about the picture of Izuku at two smiling up at the camera from a
picnic blanket while Katsuki chased off that dumb ass bird.

“That’s Kacchan and me playing with Aizawa and Yamada’s cats! I made him hang it up after
Yamada gave it to me.”

It was the picture of the two of them meeting the cats. Izuku and Katsuki sticking their tongues out
at each other with a cat in each of their laps. Katsuki would have hung it up even if Izuku didn’t
insist on it.

If anyone noticed there weren’t any pictures of them in the year Izuku lived with Mitsuki and
Masaru, they kept their mouths shut.

After showing them each picture and drawing on the wall, Izuku proudly showed off his collection
of throw blankets. Each one had a different hero on it. He made them all feel each one so they
could see how soft they were.

It was not a surprise when Katsuki and Izuku won the best room competition.
 Chapter 6
Chapter Notes

Please note, I am not deaf or hard of hearing. The parts of this story about getting
hearing aids is based on the experiences of my friends who are deaf or hard of hearing.
If something is horribly incorrect, I'm in no way trying to be offensive or disrespectful
and if you let me know in the comment section I will make changes.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

At some point in the night Izuku had crawled into bed with him so Katsuki woke up with a
mouthful of green curls and the brat’s drool soaking his shirt. Shutting off his alarm and moving
Izuku off him was enough to wake the kid up and have him bouncing around excitedly while they
got ready for their run.

It wasn’t unexpected that some of his classmates would already be up. What was unexpected was
that the first person they saw that morning was Eyebags. He was sitting on the couch watching a
documentary and scrolling on his phone when they exited the elevator.

“You going to try to sleep sometime today or are you trying to make those eye bags Gucci?”
Katsuki asked with a raised eyebrow.

Eyebags flipped him off, “What makes you think I didn’t wake up before you and come down just
to see your scrunched up face first thing in the morning?”

Katsuki snorted, “I’ve never met someone that just screams insomniac more than you do
fuckface.”

“Fair. What about you, kid wake you up early or are you just a masochist?” Eyebags hadn’t even
looked up from his phone since they’d first walked in.

“Morning run. Same time every day.”

“Ugh, morning people.”

When they came close to the sitting area, Izuku took a detour so he could stand in front of Eyebags
and stare at him. Eyebags seemed content to ignore him in favor of staring at his phone. Katsuki
stopped nearby, watching this play out.

Izuku continued to stare until Eyebags sighed and lowered his phone. “Can I help you with
something small human?”

Izuku patted his knee, “If you can’t sleep you can borrow my Mirko doll. She helps me sleep cause
I know she could kick away any monsters.”

“That’s very nice of you to offer but I’m okay. I’ll get my own Mirko doll if I really need to.”
Izuku nodded and Eyebags looked at Katsuki, “How did you get a little brother that’s so nice?”

“Paid extra for that feature.” Eyebags snorted at Katsuki’s monotone response before going back to
his phone.
They made their way outside and were almost finished with their warm up stretches when Glasses
came out. He looked them over, both dressed in exercise gear and stretching, and came to the
obvious conclusion.

“Are the two of you going for a run?” Wow, this dumbass was somehow one of the smartest in the
class. Round of applause everybody.

Katsuki scoffed, “No, we’re about to sing some opera.”

Glasses frowned at him, “Bakugo, it is admirable that you are so dedicated to your training.
However, it doesn’t make sense for you to go for a run with your brother as he can not hope to keep
up at a pace that would be beneficial for your workout regimen.”

Standing from the spot on the ground where he’d been doing the last of his stretching, Katsuki
walked up to Glasses until they were only a few feet apart. “Glasses, I want you to look me in the
eye so you know how serious I am about what I’m going to say.” He made intense eye contact with
the class representative for a solid ten count before he spoke again, “Get. Bent.”

He left Glasses sputtering about bad language or politeness or some shit as he took off with Izuku
at their regular pace. Izuku almost couldn’t keep up at first because of all the giggling he was
doing.

They were just about to stop for Izuku to climb onto his back anyway when they heard Kirishima
calling out to them. Stopping and turning they saw the redhead waving at them energetically.
Immediately Izuku was waving back and calling out to his friend to join them.

Shitty Hair stopped in front of them, not even out of breath. “Hey bros, didn’t know you also go for
a run this early. We should start running together every day!”

Izuku smiled and bounced on his heels, “We should, it would be so much fun! But you have to
keep up.”

Kirishima grinned and assured them that he could. Katsuki huffed, “You better not be late
tomorrow then. We won’t wait on you.”

“No problem man.” He was almost shouting now from all his excitement. Shitty Hair really needed
to calm down, Katsuki could not deal with two overactive children this early in the morning.

He toweled himself off a bit before crouching down to let Izuku on his back. Kirishima watched
with wide eyes, “Woah, you run with Izuku on your back? That’s so manly!”

Katsuki grunted in response and they took off to finish their run. Izuku and Shitty Hair were happy
to have someone to yap at during the run, Katsuki was just happy they were content to not try to
force him into the conversation. When they got back to the dorms more people were up and about.
Round Cheeks immediately started cooing over how adorable it was that Izuku went on runs with
his big brother. Katsuki flipped her off and went to make breakfast for him and the kid.

After they ate, he took Izuku upstairs to get cleaned up and dressed for the day. His appointment
with the audiologist wasn’t too far off so he occupied his brother with cartoons on the little TV
Yamada had insisted on getting for his dorm.

He probably would have considered the morning a success if it hadn’t been for the scene them
trying to leave caused. The two exited the elevator to find the entire class spread out in the
common area with board games in the middle of the little groups they had made.
“Bakugo, we were just about to come get you! We decided to have a class bonding day seeing as
no one has anything to do and it’s the last day before classes start back.” Ponytail called out once
she saw him.

“Unlike you fuckers I have shit to do today.” Katsuki scoffed.

Sparky was blatantly stuffing uno cards up his sleeve while he asked, “What do you have to do
today, Blasty? It’s not like we have any assignments or…wait we didn’t have any assignments did
we?”

Clearly panicking, Sparky made an over exaggerated motion with his hands that caused the cards in
his sleeve to fly out and hit Tape Arms in the face. Tape Arms smacked the back of his head, “Not
like you would have done it if there was. But there wasn’t so where are you going, Bakugo?”

“None of your fucking business is where.” Katsuki growled at the idiots as he walked toward the
door.

“Just ignore him guys, it’s obvious Bakugo just doesn’t want to spend time with us.” Invisabitch
just had to put her two cents in. He didn’t care about her dumbass opinion so he was content to
ignore her.

“Is not being here an option? Because I could be napping right now.” Eyebags grumbled from next
to Sparky.

Glasses stepped in front of Katsuki with a frown on his face, “Bakugo, I must insist you join in on
the class bonding activities. It will strengthen our class-wide relationships which will only improve
our work in training exercises.”

Katsuki stepped around him, shoulder checking him on the way. “You aren’t in charge of me and I
already said I have shit to do today.”

Glasses grabbed his shoulder and Katsuki had to ball his hands into fists to not punch him.
“Bakugo, there are no school sanctioned activities today and we aren’t allowed off campus so there
is nothing stopping you from participating.”

Shoving the hand off his shoulder, Katsuki spun around to glare at the annoying class
representative. “There’s also nothing making me participate because, if you haven’t noticed, this
isn’t mandatory. Now fuck off.”

“It might not be mandatory, but we should be trying to get to know everyone better now that we’re
all living together.” Frog Face was also a part of the conversation now, great.

Glitter Boy piped up, “Oui, where are you going that is so important , Bakugo?”

“Guys, let’s just let him go. He won’t have any fun if he doesn’t want to be here.” Kirishima
walked over to stand in the space between Katsuki and the rest of the class.

Invisabitch scoffed, “Bakugo is clearly just being an asshole so why would we want him here
anyway.” He was done listening to this bullshit. Katsuki turned and made it almost to the entryway
before she decided to yell at him, “Try not to get yourself kidnapped again while you’re out.”

Rage washed over him and Katsuki turned to scream at her, several voices were already calling her
out, but Izuku was loudest as he stomped over to her. “It wasn’t Kacchan’s fault they took him!”

Invisabitch hadn’t figured out she was on thin fucking ice yet, “Kid, I hate to be the one to tell you
this but your kacchan acts more like a villain than a hero.”

Izuku’s face turned an alarming shade of red as he shouted, “Kacchan isn’t a villain, Kacchan saves
people and helps people. You’re the villain!”

Before anyone could say anything else a voice from the entryway interrupted them, “Does
someone want to explain to me what’s going on here?”

All eyes in the room turned to find Yamada examining the class with an expression darker than
most of them had ever seen on the man. Izuku ran toward him and pointed his little finger at
Invisabitch, “She said Kacchan is a villain and it’s his fault he was kidnapped and it’s not his
fault!”

Yamada turned his eyes to the girl in question and raised an eyebrow. She stammered, “It wasn’t…
I just meant…”

Kirishima crossed his arms, “Dude, we all heard you. Don’t try to deny it.”

Invisabitch stomped her foot like a child, “Well he is the one who…”

IcyHot spoke up for the first time since they entered the room to cut her off, “Bakugo was already
leaving when you escalated the situation for no reason.”

“What do you mean escalated? What was the situation before that?” Yamada looked at Katsuki for
an answer.

He scoffed, “They were being pissy because I was leaving instead of joining them playing fucking
games.”

Glasses stepped forward, swinging his hands around wildly. “We simply wanted our classmate to
participate in a group bonding day but Bakugo claimed he had a prior engagement. We called him
out on his lie, because there are no scheduled events on campus and we are not permitted off
campus. So we were just pointing out the fact that he did indeed have the day free to join us.”

“Well Listener, you’re wrong on a couple of points there. First, students are allowed off campus if
they have prior approval from a teacher which Bakugo does. Second, Bakugo was not lying
because he isn’t free today. I’m actually here to pick him up for an appointment.” Yamada was
smiling, but Bakugo knew fake expressions and that smile promised pain to any who argued.

Glasses apparently didn’t get the memo. “Bakugo did not inform us that he had an approved, off
campus appointment to get to, otherwise we would not have held him up.”

Yamada kept his smile on and his voice bright, “I was unaware that your classmates were required
to give everyone a schedule of how they spend their free time, Iida.” The class representative
looked at his feet, Yamada turned to address the room, “None of you are entitled to information
about what your classmates are doing outside of class just because you live together now.

Look at this as a lesson on respecting boundaries and privacy. This situation wouldn’t have gotten
out of hand if you had respected Bakugo’s privacy by not asking where he needed to be or his
boundaries when he told you he was busy in the first place.”

Yamada dropped his smile, “And Hagakure, you have two days of detention and one mandatory
session with Hound Dog. Calling your classmates villains or blaming them for trauma they endured
is not acceptable behavior.”
“Well what about the kid? He called me a villain too.” Wow Invisabitch just didn’t know when to
quit apparently. Katsuki was thinking he might actually murder her.

Yamada gave her an incredulous look, “He’s four. You had just said horrible things about his
brother and he’s four. I think we both know you should know better than a four year old about
what is and isn’t okay to say to someone.”

That finally got her to shut up long enough for Yamada to usher Katsuki and Izuku out the door.
They made it to the car where Aizawa was waiting for them before Yamada said anything else. As
soon as the doors were shut, he turned in his seat to look at the boys, “Katsuki, I know you like
fighting your own battles, but if she says anything like that again I need you to tell me or Shouta.
That was not okay. If she acts like that frequently, she should be moved out of the hero course.”

Aizawa started the car with a frown, “Who did what exactly?”

Yamada whipped around to face his husband, “Hagakure called Katsuki a villain and blamed him
for getting kidnapped. To Izuku, she said it to Izuku in front of the entire class. That’s not even
mentioning the fact that your class was stopping Katsuki from leaving and calling him a liar when
he told them he couldn’t join their game day because he had somewhere to be!”

Aizawa hummed, “Who exactly was it that said all that?”

When Yamada informed him that he didn’t have all the names, Izuku was happy to provide. “It
was Iida and Hagakure that called him a liar and a villain but Aoyama and Asui were also trying to
make him stay. Oh and Sero and Kaminari asked where he was going but when Kacchan said it
wasn’t their business they stopped asking and Kiri tried to get everyone to leave him alone.”

The teacher nodded, keeping his eyes on traffic. “Well it sounds like some people need a little extra
training.”

Katsuki was still pissed after what had happened at the dorm and this was not helping him keep his
cool. All the anger made his palms sweatier so he popped off some small explosions to get rid of
the excess before shouting, “I don’t need you giving those losers extra training just because they
can’t keep out of my fucking business.”

Aizawa looked at him in the rear view mirror for a second before his eyes were back on the road,
“Katsuki, please don’t use your quirk in the car. And it’s not just because of you. Your classmates
need to learn the difference between friendly questions and being insensitively nosy.”

Turning to flash him a smile, Yamada agreed, “Exactly, it’s not that we think you need us to do
this, it's that they need to learn from this situation so that they don’t mess up even bigger next time.
Look at it this way, if we don’t correct them for questioning you so much about leaving for an
appointment next time they might harass a classmate going to a funeral for a loved one who isn’t
ready to talk about it yet.”

Katsuki slumped back in his seat, “Fucking whatever.”

The rest of the ride was filled with less annoying conversation and soon they were sitting in the
office with the audiologist, Atsuo, showing Katsuki how to work his hearing aids. Aizawa had
waited in the lobby, not wanting to overwhelm Katsuki. When Yamada had tried to stay with his
husband Katsuki had grabbed his sleeve and hissed. I will not be the only motherfucker in that
room wearing hearing aids.

So that was how he found himself with his little brother, English teacher/guardian, and a man he’d
only met once before when he properly heard for the first time in years. As soon as he had the aids
in his ears Izuku asked, “Can you hear better, Kacchan?”

Katsuki stared at his brother with wide eyes. He’d known that one of the first signs of hearing loss
is having trouble hearing children. He had been well aware that it was harder for him to hear Izuku
than people his own age. He hadn’t realized that he had no idea what Izuku sounded like. All these
years Katsuki had been straining to hear his brother, relying on reading his lips for the sounds he
couldn’t hear so even when he could hear what he said he wasn’t processing what the boy sounded
like.

Izuku’s voice was adorable. Yes it was a little mechanical sounding because it was being
processed through a device, but he’d done enough reading to expect that. It didn’t stop him from
hearing how cute and squeaky his brother sounded.

“Kacchan, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He didn’t even realize he was until Izuku pointed
it out. Katsuki wiped his eyes and reached out to scoop the kid into his arms. Izuku wrapped his
little arms around him to pat his back, “It’s okay Kacchan.”

Katsuki chuckled and immediately froze. “Is…is that my voice? I sound so…”

Atsuo nodded, “Yes, that is one of the biggest adjustments for most people. I encourage you to
practice speaking out loud while wearing them several times a day while you’re working up to
having them in all day.”

Wrinkling his nose, he stared at Atsuo. “Like to myself?”

Atsuo laughed, “It’s better, and feels less weird, to do it with someone. Just one on one or in a
small group engage in a conversation. Have them let you know if you’re being too loud or quiet. A
lot of people have issues with volume when they get their first pair of aids because they sound so
much louder to themselves so the reassurance that you aren’t as loud as you think can be very
helpful and keep you from giving up on aids altogether.”

Yeah, he wouldn’t be telling those fuckers at the dorms anything so it looked like Katsuki would
be wearing them during his alone time with Izuku.

“I recommend using several different people for practice so you can hear how your voice compares
to different people who likely speak at different volumes naturally.” Well fuck you too Atsuo.
Looked like Katsuki would be hanging out with Aizawa and Yamada more often than planned.

Yamada smiled, likely knowing what Katsuki was thinking. “You two are free to come over to the
apartment any time. I figure you don’t want to tell your classmates yet, if at all, so come on over
and we’ll give you so much conversation practice you’ll hate our voices.”

“I’d rather be deaf.” Katsuki deadpanned. Being who he was, Yamada just laughed at that.

At Atsuo’s recommendation, he removed the aids before leaving the office. Apparently, going out
into crowds before adjusting to quiet sounds was a horrible idea. That didn’t bother Katsuki, he
didn’t have any desire to listen to a bunch of extras on a sidewalk.

It was almost lunch, so they took Izuku to the park to feed the ducks and get lunch at a food stall.
Watching Izuku hopping in place any time a duck so much as looked at him put a smile on all their
faces. Katsuki and Yamada were both recording Izuku losing his shit over getting to feed the baby
ducks. His little hand pressed to his mouth while he squealed they’re just little babies was the
cutest shit Katsuki had ever fucking seen, so he didn’t care if he looked like a first time mom bent
over to record from the best angle.

They couldn’t pry the kid away from the duck pond until his stomach started growling and even
then it took some arguing. They ate at a picnic table far enough away from the pond that Izuku
couldn’t see the ducks and beg to go back after they were done. It was close to his nap time and
Katsuki did not want to deal with trying to get a tired, cranky Izuku away from ducks.

It made sense for the two of them to go to the apartment with their guardians when they got back to
UA. Both because Izuku needed to get comfortable there and because Katsuki could use his nap
time to practice with his aids. He was not expecting the conversation they would have during his
practice.

Aizawa and Yamada were on the couch while Katsuki took the armchair. After a few minutes of
talking about school starting back, Aizawa sighed. “Okay, the plan is still for you to take custody
of Izuku after graduation. We know that.”

“But that’s still two and a half years away.” Yamada seemed cautious, Katsuki narrowed his eyes,
“So I told my moms about the arrangement and they would like to meet the two of you if and when
you want that. We haven’t fostered before and I’m an only child so you and Izuku might be the
closest thing they’ll ever get to grandchildren.”

Aizawa jumped in before Katsuki could interrupt, “You wouldn't have to call them your
grandparents if you do decide to meet them and you don’t even have to make a decision right now.
We just want you to be aware that this is an option available to you.”

Katsuki examined both men closely, “Are they loud and blonde like Yamada?”

Seeming to pick up exactly what the problem might be, having seen pictures of Mitsuki in the
police report Tsukauchi sent over, Yamada shook his head quickly, “No. I’m adopted and my
moms are nothing like me. They both have dark hair and they’re quiet, sweet people.”

Aizawa grunted, “The biggest trait they have in common with Hizashi is how happy they all are.
But at least Eiko and Kade are quiet about it.”

Yamada patted Aizawa’s knee, “You know you love me, volume and all.”

Aizawa rolled his eyes and Yamada responded by kissing his cheek. Katsuki glared at them,
“Could you two not fuck on the couch, I’m right here.”

Both men laughed at that, well Aizawa kind of laughed, it was more of a huff. Katsuki was
counting it as a laugh. He decided to bring them back on topic.

“So these moms of yours, would they do typical grandparent shit. Like bake cookies and buy us
shit we don’t need and let us eat too much sugar?” Katsuki crossed his arms and leaned back into
the chair.

“Well, my Ma loves to bake but Mom can’t be trusted in the kitchen. They would both spoil you
boys rotten unless that would make you uncomfortable. We could warn them ahead of time to not
do anything you don’t want them to and they would understand.” Yamada always looked so
fucking sincere, Katsuki had no Idea how he did it.

“Izuku’s never had grandparents before. Auntie’s parents died before I was born and my parents
both never introduced me to theirs before all those fuckers kicked the bucket too.” Katsuki sighed,
“The kid could use some grandparents but they had better follow the rules, especially the touching.
I see one pinched cheek and I’m blowing up their house.”
Aizawa nodded. “That’s fair. They would both agree to that. They always ask permission to hug
me and never cared when I said no in all the years I’ve known them.”

“Fine, we can meet them eventually. After Izuku gets more comfortable with the two of you. I
don’t want him meeting these grandparents and then losing them because you two fuck up our
living situation or some shit.” Katsuki sneered.

Yamada had a dopey smile on his face, “That’s an understandable concern, Katsuki. You just let us
know when you feel like it’s time for the two of you to meet them.”

Their conversation turned to more mundane topics until Izuku wandered out of his room, All Might
stuffie in one arm and thumb in his mouth. It was a habit Katsuki hadn’t wanted to try to break
while they lived with Mitsuki, any source of comfort the kid could get was welcomed in his
opinion. He hadn’t done it yet in front of Aizawa and Yamada.

Katsuki tensed up when he noticed it, but neither man said anything about it. They simply asked if
he’d had a nice nap and then offered him a container of strawberries to take with them to the dorms
when Katsuki announced they were going back.

The entire class was still in the common area when they got there, having moved from board
games to video games. They were having a Mario Kart tournament it looked like. Kirishima
noticed them first.

“Hey bros, you’re back from your appointment just in time to play some Mario Kart!” Jesus was
that idiot alway smiling?

Izuku ran over to Shitty Hair yelling Kiri, we went to the park after Kacchan’s appointment and I
got to feed the ducks and there were babies and… Katsuki decided to trust the redhead to watch
Izuku around the rest of them long enough to put the strawberries up for later and grab Izuku a
drink.

So of course he came back into the common area to find Izuku sitting in Kirishima’s lap and
poking at his teeth. Katsuki stood in front of the boy with a raised eyebrow and Izuku turned with a
giant smile, “Look Kacchan, Kiri has shark teeth!”

Now that Izuku’s finger wasn’t in his mouth Kirishima spoke up, “Bro I promise he asked if he
could sit in my lap and when he asked to touch my teeth I made sure to tell him how sharp they are
and that he could very gently touch them. I’m sorry if that’s not cool.”

Shrugging, Katsuki handed his brother the water he’d brought him. “It’s fine. The kid’s always
poking shit and if he asked you I don’t care if he sits in your lap. Saves me from getting kicked in
the shins.”

Shitty hair smiled at that, “Yeah kids are always doing things they probably shouldn’t.”

Izuku pulled the glass away from his face to inform him, “Kiri bit a rock once!”

Katsuki snorted and Shitty Hair rubbed at the back of his neck, “I was five when I did that okay. “

Sparky looked over from the other side of the couch, “Well did you at least break the rock?”

Kirishima laughed, “Yeah and I swallowed a piece of it too. My moms were freaking out.”

The room filled with idle chatter and Katsuki was about to sit on the floor near Shitty Hair when
there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find IcyHot standing there. “Can I speak with
you privately for a moment, Bakugo?”

He eyed the other teen for a moment before glancing at Kirishima who nodded to indicate he
would watch Izuku. Then he turned and waved IcyHot on before following him into the stairwell.
“Make this quick, Halfie.”

Half N Half studied him, “Yesterday at dinner Izuku was telling Kirishima that he wants to be a
quirkless hero. He said that you and Aizawa were going to train him.”

Katsuki stiffened, “What the fuck about it, asshole?”

The look in the other boy’s eyes when he started talking again reminded Katsuki too much of
himself. “I just wanted to warn you that training a kid when they’re Izuku’s age isn’t a good idea.”

“I’m gonna stop you right there IcyHot…Todoroki.” Halfie’s eyes widened at the use of his name
but Katsuki ignored it, “I don’t know your whole story, but I’ve seen enough clips of Endeavor
talking to or about you to imagine some of it. Add in this conversation and I’ve got a pretty good
picture. So I’m just going to say this now instead of listening to you try to figure out how to have a
conversation about this.

I’m going to train Izuku when he’s old enough. Right now he goes on runs with me to make sure he
stays healthy. That will be it until he’s at least eight when he’ll start to learn basic self defense.
Aizawa said he’d show Izuku his combat style and give him tips for working underground which
will be well after he learns to actually fight. And all that is assuming he even still wants to be a
hero then, he’s four he could decide he wants to be a ballerina tomorrow.”

IcyHot nodded slowly, “That’s good. I didn’t think you would purposely endanger your brother. I
lost a brother because my father trained him too hard too early and I didn’t want you to experience
anything like that.”

Katsuki heaved a sigh. “If I touch your shoulder right now are you gonna lose your shit Halfie?”
He waited for IcyHot to shake his head before putting his hand gently on the boy’s shoulder,
“Look, I suck at emotional bullshit. But I appreciate you caring about my brother enough to
confront me about this. So I’m going to fucking try with the emotional bullshit. I’m sorry about
your brother, that sucks and you shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”

He paused before taking a breath in, “About your sperm donor, he still giving you problems?”

Half N Half shook his head, “My father has no need to give me so much training now that I’m in
UA.”

Katsuki studied him for a moment, “Okay well if that changes let me know. I don’t give a fuck if
he’s number one now and I know how to cut a brake line.”

For the first time in his life, he saw IcyHot actually fucking smile. It looked weird, like the kid
hadn’t ever used those muscles before, but who was Katsuki to judge about that. Just as he was
about to step away, because he had reached his limit on physical contact and being nice to people
other than Izuku, the door to the stairwell opened and Sparky was shrieking at them.

“Oh my God are you two making out in here?” There was so much shrieking and shouting coming
from the common area Katsuki considered just snatching Izuku and going back to the apartment.

He couldn’t get a word out before that fucking Half N Half bastard looked Sparky straight in the
eye and said, “Yes, I’m pregnant with Bakugo’s child. I just gave him the news and we’re running
away together.”
 Sparky looked like he’d ascended to another dimension and left his body behind. Katsuki was
laughing. Full on, hands on his stomach, can’t breathe laughing. “Oh my fuck IcyHot! I didn’t
know you could make jokes.”

Todoroki shrugged, but there was a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Finally, Katsuki
caught his breath and pushed past a still in shock Sparky to go back to the common area. He took
the spot Sparky had vacated next to Tape Arms and as soon as he was sitting, Izuku got off Shitty
Hair to climb up into Katsuki’s lap.

Everyone was still staring between him and IcyHot, who had walked back into the room behind
him and taken up his spot in the window seat again.

Izuku looked up at his brother, “Kacchan, what’s making out?”

Katsuki refused to feel bad about the bruise Tape Arms was going to have on his arm. If he didn’t
want to get punched he shouldn’t have laughed.

Chapter End Notes

Shouto "Trauma Dump" Todoroki is trauma bonding with our baby boy! <3
 Chapter 7
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Going on a morning run with Shitty Hair wasn’t terrible, Katsuki decided. He didn’t mind running
at Izuku’s pace before the kid got tired and he, like Izuku, never seemed to run out of inane things
to chat about. Normally people like that drove Katsuki fucking insane and while his brother never
had, he never thought there would be a second person that didn’t.

When they first met, he had thought Kirishima was the most annoying motherfucker on the planet.
Now he was wondering how this idiot had managed to grow on him enough that he would
willingly tolerate him for prolonged periods of his free time. Maybe it was how much he seemed to
like Izuku. Katsuki had seen so many people pretend to give a shit when a kid was talking, but
Shitty Hair just genuinely actually wanted to hear Izuku talk about the different colors of
butterflies.

The freak probably liked all kids. Probably thought they were all magical, wonderful bundles of
joy or some shit. Most kids made Katsuki’s skin crawl or his eye twitch. They’re annoying and
dirty and loud . But Kirishima seemed like the kind of person who would spend hours playing with
kids he’d never met and had no relation to and have actual fun. Weirdo.

Whatever. The point was that Katsuki had decided to let Kirishima continue running with them in
the mornings and Izuku seemed happy about it. Izuku giving him those ridiculous puppy eyes was
also the only reason Katsuki made enough breakfast for three instead of two when they got back
from their run. Shitty Hair spent all of breakfast going on and on about how amazing Katsuki’s
cooking was. Which, obviously, he was an excellent cook. He’s excellent at everything.

Thankfully, Izuku didn’t decide that the outfit he’d picked out the night before for his first day
back at daycare was no longer good enough. By the time they were cleaned up and dressed, there
were more extras downstairs looking drowsy as shit over their sad breakfasts. Katsuki led Izuku
into the kitchen to grab the bentos he’d made for their lunches to find Eyebags leaning against the
counter looking like a zombie and drinking coffee straight out of the carafe.

“Eyebags, are you a goddamn animal? Other people use that you fucker.” Katsuki stomped past
him to the fridge.

The insomniac finished chugging the entire pot of coffee before he responded, “I’m going to wash
it and make a fresh pot for anyone who wants it.” He made his way past Katsuki over to the sink
and grinned at his brother, “Hey Izuku, I like your backpack.”

The kid beamed at him, “Thanks Shinso! It’s a Hawks backpack. Yamada and Aizawa bought it for
me and now I get to take it to daycare with me. Everyone is going to be so jealous.”

Eyebags snickered, “Maybe Bakugo should get a Hawks backpack too so you can match.”

Katsuki did not jab an elbow into his ribs on purpose and no one could prove otherwise. “Shut up
fuck face. Here Izu, put this in your bag.”

Izuku carefully tucked his lunch into his backpack while Katsuki did the same. The brat waved
happily at every single person they passed on the way out the door. Thank fuck no one stopped
them after the shit show that happened the last time.
Yamada met them at the gate to escort them to the daycare and Izuku started talking about all the
things he would do today with his friends the minute the hero was in sight. Yamada fell into step
next to Katsuki as Izuku ran ahead of them, staying close enough to keep chatting. They watched
the boy jump over every crack in the sidewalk the entire two blocks to his daycare. Katsuki led
Yamada into the building and showed him how to check a kid in and out before turning to Izuku,
“You remember that Yamada is picking you up today right?”

“Yes, and I’m only allowed to leave with Yamada or Aizawa but Aizawa will only be picking me
up if there’s an emergency and Yamada can’t make it.” Izuku smiled like he’d won a prize after
reciting the words Katsuki had been drilling into his head since yesterday.

Katsuki ruffled his hair, “Then you’re all set. Have a good day.”

“M’kay bye Kacchan, love you!” Izuku called over his shoulder as he took off into the playroom
where his friends were waiting.

Directing Yamada back over to the desk, he introduced their guardian to the caretaker that handled
check ins and outs. “Hinako, this is Yamada who’ll be picking up and dropping off Izuku from
now on. You have the copies of his ID and his husband Aizawa’s right?”

The short woman smiled at the two of them, “I do and I made sure the other caretakers all knew
about the change in Izuku’s file. Everything is all set for Mr Yamada or Mr Aizawa to drop off or
pick up Izuku. It’s a pleasure to meet you Yamada.”

Bowing, the tall blonde replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well Hinako. Katsuki has said
wonderful things about this place and Izuku definitely seems to love it.”

Hinako nodded, “Yes we try to make it as enjoyable for the kids as we do safe and educational.
I’m glad we have lived up to Bakugo’s high standards for his brother’s care. Would you mind
terribly if I spoke with Bakugo alone for just a moment before you leave, Yamada?”

The blonde assured her that he didn’t mind and Hinako took Katsuki into the little office they do
parent interviews in. She had a serious look on her face the moment the door closed behind them,
“Bakugo, we received a copy of the no contact order for Mitsuki and Masaru along with the
guardianship paperwork so you don’t need to worry about that. I just wanted to tell you how sorry
we all are that we didn’t notice any of the signs with Izuku that something was wrong. We would
have stepped in if we had even suspected the two of you weren’t safe at home.”

Katsuki shrugged, “None of my teachers ever noticed either and they’re heroes so don’t act like it
was all on you.”

Hinako sighed, “I can try but you two boys are just so sweet I can’t help beating myself up for not
knowing you needed help.”

Normally Katsuki would be pissed about anyone saying he needed help, but Hinako was Izuku’s
favorite caretaker at the daycare and she was also the quirkless caretaker that helped him keep an
eye out for any discrimination so he just snorted. “Tell anyone else I’m sweet and see how fast they
laugh you outta town.”

Hinako patted his arm, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone and ruin that reputation of yours. Now
before you go, these new guardians of yours, they’re good people? They treating the two of you
okay?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “Yeah we’re fine now, don’t go trying to beat Yamada with a bat or
something.”

She laughed and sent him off with a smile. Yamada was waiting right by the front door, hands
tucked in his pockets. He tuned out most of Yamada’s chatter on the walk back to UA, the man
never bothered to ask what they’d talked about in the office. They made it back in time for Katsuki
to still be ten minutes early for class, parting at the hallway that led to the teacher’s lounge.

Shitty Hair was also already there, smiling wide when he noticed Katsuki walk in. He looked like
he was going to say something to the blonde but Pinky stepped in front of him with her hands on
her hips before he got the chance.

“Blasty, how could you make breakfast for Kirishima and not us too! We didn’t even know you
could cook, you’ve been holding out on us.” He smacked the finger she shoved in his face out of
the way and moved around her to get to his seat.

“I don’t see how it’s my responsibility to feed you assholes and of course I can cook any idiot can
fucking cook.” Katsuki propped his feet up on his desk and ignored the glare he got from Glasses.

Pikachu slammed his hands down on Katsuki’s desk, “You have to cook for us because Kirishima
says it was the best food he’s ever had. I need to experience this magical food!”

Lifting one foot to dig the heel of his shoe into Sparky’s hand until he removed them from his desk,
Katsuki scoffed, “I don’t have to do shit.”

Tape Arms threw an arm around Pikachu and grinned at Katsuki, “Dude, I’ll pay actual money for
some of this amazing food we’ve been hearing about all morning.”

Pinky nodded, “Yeah or we could babysit Izuku for you sometime!”

“I wouldn’t trust you idiots with my shoes and you think I’d let you watch my brother?” Katsuki
sneered at them.

The three idiots made affronted noises, all yelling over one another in protest.

Kirishima had turned around in his chair to face Katsuki with a sheepish smile, “Sorry bro, if I
knew they were gonna act like this I wouldn’t have bragged so much. They just asked why I
wasn’t having breakfast with them and then they thought the food you made would be terrible. I
wasn’t lying when I said it was some of the best food I’ve ever had so I wasn’t gonna let them
slander you like that.”

Katsuki huffed, “I don’t really give a shit if these idiots think I can’t cook but I’m fucking…glad
you liked it or whatever.”

He got a blinding smile in response. Before the three morons could start harassing him some more,
Aizawa came in and started homeroom. With their one shared brain cell he figured they’d forget
about it by lunch. The announcement that they were going to be preparing for the provisional
license exam would also help distract them.

They sat through their morning classes and Katsuki noticed he wasn’t the only one having trouble
paying attention to the lessons. At lunch training and the provisional license exam was all they
talked about. What they thought the exam would be like, who they thought would pass, and what
kind of moves they were thinking of trying out as ultimates.

Katsuki was excited, he had so many ideas for his ultimate moves. That excitement lasted all day,
right up until they were standing in a line in the gym with their teachers in front of them. Aizawa
had just wrapped up his explanation and assigned them sections of the gym. Everyone was about to
disperse when Midnight stepped forward.

“Before everyone runs off, there’s something I need to say.” Everyone snapped to attention, even
the other teachers looked curious as to what this could be about, “Bakugo, when your brother
called me out I started thinking about what happened at the sports festival. I realize we were wrong
to restrain you the way we did. There was nothing okay about how we handled that situation and
for that I’m truly sorry.”

Katsuki’s jaw ached from how hard he had started clenching it the moment she addressed him. By
the time she was done speaking, he was surprised he hadn’t cracked a tooth. Rage boiled inside
him and he just couldn’t keep it inside.

“That was the most bullshit apology to ever exist.” Midnight opened her mouth to object but closed
it at the furious glare he sent her, “First, you should never apologize to someone publicly because
that’s just a shitty, manipulative way to pressure them to accept it. Jokes on you I’ve never been
pressured into doing something in my fucking life.

Second, you’re telling me the only thing you think you did wrong was restrain me? What about
when you literally killed me? Where’s my apology for that shit? Next, it seriously took a goddamn
four year old to make you see how fucked up that was? You didn’t feel it was even a little off
when you were chaining up a minor that had just been resuscitated ? You didn’t stop to think
maybe you’d fucked up when people in the crowd were yelling about me being a wild fucking
animal or a villain?”

Katsuki was advancing on the shell shocked woman now with heavy footsteps, “It didn’t occur to
you when videos went up online and people said some of the most vile, disgusting shit I’ve ever
seen in my fucking life in the comment section. While I was sitting in your class worried out of my
fucking mind that whoever had leaked my phone number online would post my address next and
get my brother hurt, you still thought nothing of what you’d done.

When I was fucking kidnapped because they thought I’d make a great villain because of what you
did to me it didn’t fucking cross your goddamn mind that maybe you were in the wrong. No it was
a four year old pointing out that other people get thrown in jail for that shit that made you realize
you’d messed up. A fucking four year old has a better sense of right and wrong than you do and
you thought that was a great thing to put in an apology?”

Katsuki was standing directly in front of a very pale Midnight, screaming at top volume now. “And
it isn’t fucking me you should apologize to anyway. I can handle it, I’m used to it. But you need to
apologize to every fucking person who watched the sports festival and saw motherfucking heroes
telling the world that it’s okay to muzzle minors if you can’t get them to act the way you want.
How many kids do you think were sitting at home with muzzle scars on their faces thinking that
maybe they deserved it after all because if the heroes do it then it must be okay? How many
students at this school do you think were panicking because if you were willing to muzzle a hero
course student with a heroic quirk on live television what would you be willing to do to kids with
no flashy quirk from any other course? Apologize to them or go fuck yourself.”

Midnight was visibly shaking and he could see tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, but he
didn’t care. He’d had to spend three hours calming down a crying Izuku a week after his diagnosis
because if they tie someone amazing like you up what are they gonna do to a quirkless kid,
Kacchan so he had no fucks to give about how that woman felt.

He moved to leave but Aizawa put a hand out to block his path. Katsuki was sure he was going to
be in detention for the rest of his time at UA but then his teacher opened his mouth to say,
“Bakugo, what do you mean she killed you? Why did you need to be resuscitated?”

Katsuki could hear barely restrained anger in the man’s voice and something about realizing that
maybe someone was mad on his behalf about this made him need to look away.

“ Tch, the nitroglycerin in my body gives me dangerously low blood pressure. My body creates
excessive amounts of adrenaline constantly to keep me from dying. But giving someone a fast
acting sedative drops their blood pressure too rapidly for the adrenaline to keep up. So when
Midnight used her quirk on me at the festival it stopped my heart.”

When he finally looked back up at his teacher, Aizawa looked like he might puke. Then anger lit
up in his eyes and he turned to look at Midnight, “You killed one of my students and didn’t report
that to me? When I asked you what happened you conveniently forgot to mention that Bakugo had
died before you chained him up!”

Midnight had tears running down her face now, “I’m sorry, you were already so mad so I didn’t
think telling you would make it any better and he was fine after so I didn’t think it really mattered.”

Fury twisted Aizawa’s face for a moment before he composed himself, “You didn’t think it
mattered that you had killed a student. Okay, and Cementoss where exactly were you when my
student was dead?”

Cementoss hesitated before speaking. “I…was there.”

“And you never brought it up with me or Nezu because?”

The man looked guilty as he stared at the floor, “I also didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.”

Aizawa took a deep breath before asking, “Can either of you tell me why neither of you thought it
was a big deal that one of our students literally died?”

The two were silent. Even Katsuki with his shitty ears could hear his classmates shifting
uncomfortably behind him, his teachers were so quiet.

Having had enough, Katsuki rolled his eyes and answered the question for them, “It’s because it
was me. Any other fucker and they would have been weeping and postponed the medal ceremony
but because they don’t like my attitude or my personality they get to do whatever the fuck they
want to me then tell themselves I deserved it.” He turned to look Midnight directly in the eye when
he said, “Turns out Izuku was right to compare the two of you. But there are more similarities than
just the muzzle.”

The woman looked like she was going to pass out being compared to Bakugo Mitsuki for the
second time in less than a week.

Aizawa took several deep breaths to calm himself before he addressed the two teachers in question,
“Both of you leave. I don’t want you around my students when I’m not there to supervise. I’ll be
speaking to Nezu later but until he finds a solution you won’t be involved in their heroics lessons
and I’ll be sitting in on both of your classes.”

He received no argument from the two heroes. As soon as they were gone, Aizawa turned back to
the class, “I apologize for letting that interfere with your training. If anyone needs to take a moment
to calm down you may do so. Otherwise get to your assigned areas so we can get started.”

As Katsuki moved toward his area, he couldn’t help notice that several of his classmates had red
eyes and tears on their faces. Were these idiots really crying over him? None of them had seemed
to give a shit after the festival, they even made jokes about it in class the next day. He scoffed to
himself, they probably just got weepy because now they knew they’d tried to pick on a kid who’d
almost died.

He managed to make it to his area of the gym without anyone bothering him. Before he could start,
Aizawa approached him, “Katsuki, I’m not going to ask why you didn’t tell any of us that your
phone number was leaked. I just want to know if that’s still an issue for you because we can get
you a new number today if need be.”

Katsuki waved a hand dismissively, “I changed it every time it was leaked and eventually the
creeps from the internet moved on to someone else.”

That didn’t seem to reassure the man much, “How many times was your number leaked?”

“Four.”

Seeing his homeroom teacher looking ready to strangle someone not in their class was an unusual
experience for him. “Okay. Yeah, okay just let me know if it happens again. If you were anyone
else, I’d ask if you wanted to sit out the rest of the day, but I think I know you well enough to know
how that would go over,” the disgusted look on his face made Aizawa’s lips turn up a bit at the
corners, “Yeah that’s what I thought. Just take breaks if you need them, kid.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes as the man walked off but didn’t find any anger building at the insinuation
that he needed breaks.

The rest of the day passed by pretty quickly for him. His ultimate moves were coming along much
quicker than his classmates and Katsuki didn’t bother to hide his grin about it when he looked
around during water breaks.

Since Yamada wasn’t needed for their training and his last class of the day ended before heroics,
he was able to pick Izuku up early. Which meant the little shit was waiting outside the locker room
to throw himself at Katsuki the second he walked out. He settled the kid on his hip and let Izuku
play with his still damp from the shower hair as he walked with Yamada to the apartment.

He wanted to spend as much time as possible there so Izuku could get used to it and their two
guardians and he could practice with his hearing aids. He might not want people to know about
them, but Katsuki wanted to be able to use them in crowds as fast as possible. He was tired of not
being able to hear Izuku during meals at the dorms.

Izuku chased Bean around the apartment while Katsuki sat at the table working on homework with
Dumpster in his lap and chatted with Yamada, who sat across from him with his own paperwork.
Once his brother was happily distracted by waving a cat toy around for Bean, Yamada set down his
pen to look up at Katsuki.

“Shouta told me about what happened during heroics today. He’s in a meeting with Nezu right
now as both your teacher and your guardian to discuss what needs to happen now.”

Katsuki scrutinized him, “Shouldn’t you also be there if my guardians need to be present?”

Yamada chuckled and rubbed at his neck, “Well I was invited. The thing is that, contrary to what
everyone assumes, I’m actually the more uh…aggressive partner in our relationship when it comes
to conflicts. I’m also more protective of what I care about and I care deeply about both you boys.
So I decided it would be in my best interest to not attend the meeting unless I wanted to spend the
night in jail.”
Katsuki ignored the feeling he got when Yamada said he cared. He pushed that feeling deep down
into the box where his hope had lived since he was a kid and he feigned nonchalance, “Any idiot
who watched you two interact for more than three minutes should know you’re the one more likely
to put someone in the ICU. You are unhinged as shit and you aren’t stupid so you’d probably get
away with it too.”

Blinking rapidly, Yamada gaped at him for a moment before his face split in a wide grin. “Bakugo
Katsuki thinks I’m smart. I can die happy now.”

“Oi don’t make me poison the dinner I’m making tonight.” Katsuki kept his eyes on his homework
because he wanted to focus on math, not because his cheeks were warm. Don’t be fucking stupid.

Yamada laughed and went back to his paperwork. The topic changed to his ultimate move and the
provisional exam until it was time for Katsuki to start dinner. He had to chase Yamada out of the
kitchen twice because the man just couldn’t stop trying to help him cook. He did not need someone
getting under his feet while he was handling sharp knives and hot oil.

The food was close to ready when Aizawa returned, looking worn out like a man returning from
war. He walked into the kitchen with Yamada on his heels. Katsuki glanced up at him before
turning back to the pan he was watching. “So?”

Yamada nudged his husband, “Izuku’s playing in his room so you don’t have to sugar coat it.”

Aizawa sighed, “Apparently the medical incident was never reported to Nezu or he would have
investigated the entire thing like we had previously requested.”

“How is it possible it wasn’t reported to Nezu?” Yamada looked enraged.

Aizawa reached out and wrapped his arms around his husband to try to keep him calm, “When the
match was finished Recovery Girl was told by Midnight that Todoroki needed more immediate
medical attention so she took him into the private medical room first. They weren’t aware
Katsuki’s heart had stopped until the nurse Recovery Girl had sent to start assessing him while he
waited for his turn was performing CPR. The nurse successfully resuscitated Katsuki before
Recovery Girl saw him and never noted any of this down on the reports the medical staff turned in
after the festival.”

By then Aizawa was running his fingers through Yamada’s hair and Katsuki suspected it was just
as much to calm him down as it was for the blonde. “Nezu has already found out who the nurse
was and he is barred from ever participating in an event with UA and his current employers have
been notified of his negligence. UA will be calling a press conference tomorrow to make their
official apology to both Katsuki and everyone negatively impacted by the sight of heroes chaining
and muzzling a child.”

The hero was clenching his teeth now, his next words full of barely restrained anger, “Apparently,
the entire time we were filing complaints about the restraints after the festival, none of the board
members or Nezu stopped to consider that it could be damaging for people who’d gone through the
same treatment to see it inflicted by heroes.”

Yamada rubbed a soothing hand on Aizawa’s arm, “The board is full of self obsessed idiots, we
know this. I still want to slash all their tires, but we do know they’re idiots. What about Cementoss
and Midnight?”

Watching as Katsuki began spooning the food into serving dishes, Aizawa replied, “They’ll both
make apologies during the press conference and will give written apologies to me to deliver to
Katsuki. Cementoss is on probation for the next two years, one complaint and he’ll be fired.
Midnight has chosen to retire from teaching and surrender her teaching license as she was directly
responsible for Katsuki’s…death.”

He turned to grab a large envelope he’d set on the counter when he entered the room, “The board
gave me this for you, Katsuki. It contains a contract and a check for a very substantial amount. If
you accept the check you have to sign the contract stating you won’t pursue legal action against
UA now or in the future because of the events at the sports festival. You could still go after the
individuals responsible, but not UA. I don’t think I need to tell you what kind of trouble you’d be in
if you deposited the check without signing the contract.”

Katsuki snorted, carrying dishes past the two men to the dining table, “I’m not fucking stupid, I
know what would happen. Just give me the contract, I’ll sign it right now.”

Aizawa set down the serving dish he’d brought to the table and turned to Katsuki, “It is wholly
your decision but you have to be absolutely sure you’ll never change your mind about suing UA.
Because once you sign this you’d never win a lawsuit against them.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “You think I’d ever win one in the fucking first place? I’m the goddamn
beast of 1A no one is taking my side in a lawsuit against the number one hero school in Japan.”

Black eyes met red as they stared each other down. Katsuki refused to look away first, he wouldn’t
back down on this. Finally, Aizawa sighed, “Like I said, it’s your decision. I would like to ask that
you at least wait until after the press conference. You never know, people might surprise you with
their reaction.”

That got a disbelieving laugh out of him as Katsuki grabbed the last of the dishes. “I stopped
believing people would surprise me years ago and so far no one has. But sure, I’ll wait until after
the press conference just so I can say I told you so when I sign it.”

It was Aizawa’s turn to roll his eyes. Katsuki ignored him as he went to collect Izuku for dinner.
The kid told them all about everything he and his friends had done at daycare that day in between
bites of his food. The entire meal had a much lighter atmosphere than the pre-dinner conversation
would have indicated with Izuku chatting the entire time. Katsuki watched his brother with his
baby fat cheeks stuffed full of food light up with joy when Yamada told him how cool his art
project sounded. He couldn’t sue UA, it could jeopardize Izuku being allowed to stay on campus.
The brat was happier here than he’d been since Inko had died, Katsuki wouldn’t take that away
from him.

After dinner Aizawa turned down their help washing dishes so Katsuki took out his hearing aids
and walked with Izuku back to the dorms. Izuku excitedly ran over to Kirishima to climb up into
his lap and ask a million questions about their classes. Katsuki shouted over to his brother that he
would be in the kitchen making their lunches for tomorrow and Shitty Hair smiled over at him in a
way that he knew meant the redhead would be watching out for the kid.

He washed out their bento boxes and set them to dry before prepping the vegetables and heating up
the oil. Normally Katsuki used leftovers from dinner for their bentos, but they’d had yakisoba for
dinner and Izuku hated noodles if they weren’t freshly prepared. Now that they weren’t living with
Mitsuki who would scream at him for “wasting food” by “coddling” Izuku, he could do what he
needed to to keep the kid from developing issues with food.

Izuku had a lot of rules when it came to food that most people would call picky eating. Katsuki had
looked into it and asked his brother enough questions to realize that he likely had sensory issues
and the rules he had about food were due to textures that he couldn’t stand. Obviously, if you only
ever ask a child who doesn’t have the language to explain food sensory issues, it’s going to sound
like a spoiled brat being picky.

Katsuki suspected that his brother had either ADHD or autism. He couldn’t figure out which was
more likely because the symptoms he’s seen in Izuku overlap between the two. Either way, he
hadn’t dared to bring it up with Mitsuki or Masaru because then Izuku would be “weak” and he
would never have given her a reason to turn on the kid. Soon he would bring it up with their
guardians, they didn’t seem to be the type that would ignore it or treat him badly and Izuku was old
enough to get diagnosed now.

So if Katsuki had to make two meals so Izuku could have a variety of food in his diet and not have
a meltdown about reheated or cold noodles, that’s what he would fucking do. He would let the kid
talk too loud when he was excited and refuse to wear certain materials and play the same game for
three hours if that’s what it took to keep him happy. Katsuki refused to let his favorite person feel
like shit because his brain works a little differently than people think it should.

When he was packing the food into the bentos, Katsuki started to hear raised voices from the
common area. Something about the voices made him want to check on Izuku and he was fucking
glad he did when he came around the corner to find his brother wailing and his classmates yelling
at each other.

He hadn’t been able to hear Izuku’s high pitched cries from the kitchen, but now the sound was
making his ears ring. Running to his brother, he pushed several people out of the way before Shitty
Hair stepped to the side so he could slide up next to Izuku. The kid was curled up, arms around his
knees and head tucked against his legs, sobbing and gasping for breath. Tears were soaking his
pants where he’d pressed his face into his legs.

Katsuki tried to get his attention, rubbing his back and whispering to him, but his classmates were
still yelling. So he turned away from Izuku and set of an explosion loud enough to silence everyone
in the room, “Right now I don’t care if one of you is actively dying, if you don’t shut the fuck up
so Izuku can calm down I will dismember you all very slowly and painfully.”

Turning back to Izuku now that the room was quiet, he told the kid he was safe and that the yelling
was over. He didn’t seem to hear him though. Katsuki positioned himself behind Izuku with his
brother between his bent legs, stomach pressed against his back. Setting his arms on his knees, he
held his hands out as far as they would go and started popping off little sparks. Just enough to
make some noise, little flashes of light, and a smoke smell.

Soon, Izuku lifted his head from his legs enough to watch the sparks with teary eyes. Katsuki could
still feel his body shaking against him as he cried. Now that the kid was looking, he made the
sparks a bit bigger, the noise wouldn’t be loud enough to be harmful to the kid’s ears but the sparks
were big enough to be a nice little show for Izuku.

Slowly his brother stopped shaking and his head raised up to rest against Katsuki’s chest as he
watched his little fireworks show as Izuku liked to call it. Ever since he was born, the kid had been
fascinated with Katsuki’s explosions and Katsuki had quickly turned them into a way to calm the
boy down once he started living with Mitsuki and Masaru.

Eventually there was a tap against his arm, Izuku letting him know he was okay to talk now and
Katsuki turned his quirk off. Shaking out his hands to cool them a little faster, he leaned over to
look at his red face, “Hey buddy, wanna tell me what got you so upset?”

Izuku tugged at the hem of his All Might shirt before pointing off to the side and saying, “They
were being mean.”
Katsuki’s eyes snapped over to Glasses, Glitter Boy, and Invisabitch. He glared at them for a
moment before turning his eyes back to his brother, “What did they do that was mean, Izu?”

His little lip started trembling and tears were quickly gathering in the corner of his eyes. Katsuki
didn’t think he’d get through explaining it without panicking again so he looked up at Kirishima.
The redhead had been standing protectively in front of Izuku before Katsuki had come in so he was
the most likely to be honest about what had set the boy off.

“We were playing Smash Bros and Izuku was sitting in my lap. I think they didn’t see him because
of the angle I was at. So they didn’t think it mattered that they were talking smack about you. We
didn’t even notice at first because they were being quiet but then Hagakure said your name pretty
loudly so I started paying attention.

I guess I was being too obvious because Denks paused the game and we all heard Aoyama say that
you uh…made a scene today because you wanted attention. Iida told him that he didn’t think it
was an appropriate time for you to air your grievances but he didn’t believe you were doing
anything but speaking the truth.”

Kirishima bit his lip clearly holding something back. Katsuki clenched his hands into fists, “Just
tell me. I need to know if I’m gonna help Izu.”

Shitty hair sent the most vicious look Katsuki had ever seen him make over to the group of three.
“Hagakure told Iida that you were being dramatic like always and that your parents probably gave
the two of you up because they didn’t want an attention seeking villain and a quirkless freak for
kids.”

When he heard the words quirkless freak Katsuki had to wrap his arms around his brother to keep
himself from launching across the room to commit a murder. Not because she didn’t deserve it, but
because Izuku didn’t need to witness that.

Kaminari stepped up next to Kirishima and Katsuki noted that his eyes were red as if he’d been
crying too. “Izuku had jumped out of Kirishima’s lap when she called you a villain and looked like
he was going to fight the three of them but when she said that about him, he just started crying.
Hagakure stood up, she took like, one step toward him and he dropped down and started begging
her not to hurt him. I got up to go get you.”

Kirishima nodded, “I got in front of Izuku thinking maybe it would make him feel safer and then
you came in.”

Izuku was whimpering again. Katsuki had the whole story now and he didn’t need to stick around
these assholes and upset his brother more. He scooped the kid up, “Thanks Kirishima, Kaminari.”

He ignored the slack jaws from his idiots at him using their names and carried Izuku to the
elevator. Holding his brother to his chest, Katsuki pulled out his phone and texted Aizawa a simple
Invisabitch called Izuku a quirkless freak, he had a panic attack, do something about her before I
do.

Maybe Aizawa wouldn’t appreciate the blunt demand, but Katsuki didn’t give a shit. If she was
still wandering around with no consequences he was going to explode her into the sun. He and
Izuku changed into their pajamas and he was about to cuddle up with the boy to talk about what
happened when there was a knock at the door.

Opening it revealed Kirishima with two mugs and a small smile. “I made you guys some hot cocoa,
my moms always make it for me when I have a bad day.”
 Katsuki took the mugs from him and Kirishima didn’t even need to be told to leave, he was already
turning to head to his own room before Katsuki even started to shut the door. He sat on the bed and
pulled Izuku into his lap before handing the boy the smaller mug.

“Kirishima made you some hot cocoa.” He let Izuku take a few sips before he started running his
fingers through his hair, “Izu, you aren’t a freak and being quirkless isn’t a bad thing. That bitch is
one of those ignorant people I told you about.”

Izuku was quiet, staring at his cocoa for a minute before responding, “But Kacchan if so many
people think I’m bad because I’m quirkless doesn’t that mean they’re right?”

“Never ever think that, Izuku. Even if I was the only person in the world who didn’t think that, it
wouldn’t make them right. But I’m not the only one. Kirishima, Eyebags, Sparky, Tape Arms, and
Raccoon Eyes all love you and so does most of the class. Yamada and Aizawa don’t think it
matters. So the people who think being quirkless is weird or makes you a freak are people who
don’t matter. And do we care what people who don’t matter think?”

Izuku shook his head, “No, because they’re just stupid extras!”

Katsuki chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of Izuku’s head. “That’s right kid, they’re just shitty
extras.”

And no shitty extra was going to make his brother feel bad about himself. Not while Katsuki was
still breathing.

Chapter End Notes

A drama free chapter? Never heard of her.

Fun fact, I based Izuku's hatred of leftover noodles on my own hatred for them.
Reheated noodles are the most disgusting thing in the world and no one will change
my mind about that.
 Chapter 8
Chapter Notes

I don't know if this actually needs a content warning but I'll put it just in case
CW: this chapter contains non-graphic bed wetting, if that grosses you out probably
skip this chapter.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Izuku woke up from a dream about Auntie to find his sheets wet. It made him want to cry, he was a
big boy and Kacchan was so proud of him for not wetting the bed anymore. Kacchan wouldn’t be
mad if Izuku woke him up to tell him that he had an accident, but Kacchan had a bad day and Izuku
just wanted him to sleep. Kacchan was the best big brother ever, he always takes such good care of
Izuku so Izuku wanted to take care of this so Kacchan didn’t have to.

He was a smart boy, Kacchan always tells him that, so he knew he could clean this up himself. It
was a little hard to pull the sheets off the futon, but he did it. Izuku grabbed a new pair of pajama
pants and underwear to take into the bathroom where he used some of the wet wipes Kacchan had
to clean himself off. Once he was clean and wearing dry clothes, Izuku put the dirty ones on top of
the sheets before picking up the corners so it was all one big bundle.

Izuku took his bundle to the door and set it down, then he went back to the bathroom to get his step
stool. It took him a little bit to figure out how far to set the stool away from the door so it wouldn’t
hit the stool when he opened it. When he finally got it open, Izuku carefully climbed down from
his step stool and moved to stand with his back against the door so it couldn’t close.

He dragged the bundle out to the other side of the doorway before moving the stool so that it was
keeping the door open since Kacchan keeps the door key too high up for him to reach and Izuku
would get in trouble if he locked himself out of the room.

Once he was sure he’d be able to get back into their room, Izuku grabbed his bundle and dragged it
to the elevator. He had to jump a little to push the button, but he got it on the first try. It just took a
second for him to get the bundle into the elevator and push the button for the first floor. On his
way down, Izuku tried not to think about his dream.

Dreaming about Auntie always made Izuku really scared and most of the time he climbed into bed
with Kacchan because his brother always scared the bad dreams away. But this time Auntie was
with that invisible girl and they were both being so mean that it made Izuku wet the bed. So instead
of getting in Kacchan’s bed Izuku had to wash his sheets so he wouldn’t give Kacchan more work
to do.

The elevator stopped on the first floor and Izuku dragged the bundle out. There weren’t any lights
on in the common area so it was more scary than the dimly lit hallway and elevator had been. But
Izuku could be brave, he could be brave like All Might and Kacchan.

He only made it a few steps toward the laundry room when someone started talking to him.

“Hey Izuku, what are you doing up?” Izuku made a squeaky kind of sound when he jumped but it
wasn’t because it was a scary person, he recognized the voice, he just didn’t think anyone was
there in the dark.

He looked over to the couches where the boy who’d talked was playing on his phone and waved at
his friend, “Hi Shinso, I’m doing laundry!”

Izuku knew it wasn’t a time that most people did laundry and Shinso probably knew that too. But
Izuku also knew that sometimes if he seems happy enough people let him do things he shouldn’t be
doing.

“Kind of late to be doing laundry.” So Shinso wasn’t one of the people who just let him do things.
Okay, Izuku liked Shinso and he knew the bigger boy wasn’t mean so he wasn’t scared that he
would make him hurt for being out of bed when he wasn’t supposed to. But he didn’t really want to
tell his friend that he had wet the bed because maybe then Shinso wouldn’t want to play with him
because only babies wet the bed.

“I spilled some juice on my sheets so I have to wash them before it stains.” Izuku felt bad about
being a liar, but he didn’t want Shinso to not play with him.

Shinso smiled a little. It was okay that it was a little smile because Aizawa also only did little
smiles but that doesn’t mean he’s only a little happy. Kacchan only did big smiles with Izuku but he
was happy some other times so not all smiles had to be big. Kacchan had explained that to him
when they started staying with Aizawa and Yamada and Izuku was worried that Aizawa didn’t like
him.

“Well the washing machine opens on the top and I think it might be hard for you to reach. Do you
want me to put your laundry in there for you?” Izuku bit his lip, if Shinso picked it up he might see
that it wasn’t juice and then he would know that Izuku was a liar and a baby, “I’ll be careful and
only grab the sides, you don’t have to worry about me getting juice on my clothes or anything.”

Izuku smiled at the boy, now he wouldn’t figure out that Izuku was a liar or a baby and stop being
his friend. “Okay. Thank you, Shinso.”

The older boy got off the couch and turned on some of the lights. It was a lot less scary now that
there was someone with him, but Izuku was still glad it wasn’t so dark. Shinso let him carry the
bundle into the laundry room, only taking it from Izuku to put it in the washer. Once the sheets and
pajamas were being washed, Shinso looked down at Izuku with a smile.

“You should go back to bed, I’m sure Bakugo wouldn’t mind you sleeping with him since you
don’t have sheets. I’ll put your laundry in the dryer when it’s done.” Izuku shook his head at his
friend’s suggestion.

“No, leaving my laundry down here would be irr…irresp…” Izuku’s eyebrows crinkled, he knew
the word. Kacchan had taught him the word. He even knew what it meant. Izuku liked learning big
words and knowing what they mean, but sometimes he forgets how to say them. Usually Kacchan
helps him remember, but Kacchan wasn’t there.

“Irresponsible?” Oh, Shinso was so nice helping Izuku remember his word.

“Yes, irresponsible. Because someone could take it or be mad that I left my laundry in the dryer
when they want to use it.” Izuku nodded, sure that Shinso would see that Izuku had to stay with his
laundry.

“Well, I could bring it up and leave it outside the door to your room when it’s done.” That made
Izuku frown, why would Shinso do all that just for him?
“No, I need to do the laundry so Kacchan doesn’t have more work. I don’t want to give you more
work too.”

“I don’t mind.” Shinso was still giving Izuku his little smile, but Izuku shook his head.

“My friend Ami said that her Mama left her Daddy because her Daddy made her Mama do all the
work and now they won’t talk and Ami never gets to see her Daddy. So you can’t let people do too
much for you or they’ll stop being your friends.” At the thought of Shinso not being Izuku’s friend,
his eyes started tearing up.

Shinso crouched down so he was the same height as Izuku. “Hey, hey there’s no need for crying.
There’s a difference between helping a friend out with something and what happened to your
friend’s parents. But if it makes you this upset, we can do it together okay?”

“Together?” Izuku rubbed at his eyes and sniffled, “You won’t stop being my friend if we do it
together?”

“Of course I won’t stop being your friend, I wouldn’t stop being friends with you even if you let
me do it all. But we’re doing it together because friends help each other out.” Izuku smiled at his
friend and nodded. Shinso stood up, “Okay Izuku, while that’s washing do you want to watch a
movie with me?”

Shinso wanted to watch a movie with him? He wanted to spend more time with Izuku when he
didn’t have to? Izuku had thought the older boy was just going to come back when the washer was
done then leave again once the laundry was in the dryer. He didn’t think he’d get to hang out with
his friend!

“Yeah! What movie are we gonna watch?” Izuku followed Shinso into the common area, talking
about the options for movies.

The two of them got comfy on the couch and the older boy started the new Hawks movie. Izuku
was excited, he hadn’t gotten to watch it yet, but Shinso was playing on his phone. Worried that
maybe his friend didn’t really want to watch the Hawks movie, he asked, “Shinso, are you sure this
is the movie you want to watch? If you wanna watch something else we can.”

“Why do you think I want to watch something else?” Shinso looked up from his phone at Izuku.

“Well, you’re playing on your phone so I thought maybe you were bored. I don’t want you to only
watch this movie because I want to see it.” Izuku tugged at the bottom of his shirt while he waited
for an answer. He hoped Shinso was only bored with the movie and not him.

“Oh no Izuku, I’m not bored. I was just texting Bakugo to let him know you’re with me in case he
wakes up and wonders where you went.” His friend was so smart, Izuku didn’t even think of that.

“That’s good, Kacchan gets worried if he doesn’t know where I am.” Izuku smiled at Shinso, “I
didn’t know you and Kacchan were such good friends.”

“What do you mean? I don’t think Bakugo would even consider me a friend.” Shinso squinted his
eyes at Izuku.

“Kacchan doesn’t let people have his phone number unless he really likes them. He says he can’t
trust just any extra with his number. So you gotta be friends!” Izuku kind of wanted to laugh at the
surprised look on Shinso’s face, but he didn’t want his friend to think he was making fun of him.

“Oh well…uh. Bakugo gave it to me when we were partners on a project last term so I don’t think
it’s because we’re really close or anything.” Shinso’s face was kind of pink and he was rubbing at
his neck a lot. Izuku wondered if maybe he was getting sick or something.

“I think Kacchan likes you. He told me all about your amazing quirk and how good you are at
fighting and how strong you are. Kacchan only talks like that about his friends even if he won’t
call them his friends.” Now Shinso was looking really red, Izuku was starting to get worried about
his friend.

“Let’s just watch the movie, okay?” Shinso sounded weird, but Izuku knew that sometimes when
people sound weird it’s better to not try to figure out why because it might make them
uncomfortable.

“Can I cuddle you Shinso? I like cuddles when I’m watching movies.” Izuku really wanted to
cuddle with his friend, but Kacchan always tells him that if he wants people to ask before touching
him he has to ask before touching other people.

“Uh sure, if you want.” Shinso looked kind of surprised, but he didn’t look like he was
uncomfortable. So Izuku lifted his friend’s arm and leaned against his side. Shinso rested his arm
on Izuku and smiled at him when Izuku pulled the blanket Shinso had given him over both their
laps.

It was really warm under Shinso’s arm and the fluffy blanket and the older boy had turned off the
lights so it was dark other than the TV. Izuku tried to stay awake, he really did, but it was so
comfortable and he was very tired. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep pressed against his
friend.

He woke up when he heard Kacchan’s alarm. Izuku sat up slowly and rubbed at his tired eyes.
When he felt a little more ready to be awake, he looked around and realized he was in Kacchan’s
bed instead of on the couch. It was very confusing since he didn’t remember coming back to the
room.

Kacchan was looking at him from across the room, he’d already gotten out of bed and grabbed
their workout clothes. “Hey Izu, Eyebags brought you and your laundry back up here last night.
You fell asleep on the couch.”

Izuku looked down at the All Might blanket he’d been sleeping under and started picking at the
fuzz on it, “I had a accident. M’sorry Kacchan.”

Kacchan put his hands on Izuku’s cheeks and squished them a bit until Izuku looked up at his
brother, “You don’t have to be sorry, squirt. Accidents happen and you even tried to clean it up.
You didn’t have to, I would have done it, but that was really nice of you.”

“But I lied to Shinso about it. I told him I spilled juice so he wouldn’t think I was a baby that still
wets the bed and now I’m a liar. I’m a bad boy.” Izuku’s eyes were all wet again, he couldn’t help
it. He cries all the time, even when he isn’t sad.

“Hey, hey telling a little fib like that doesn’t make you bad or a liar. Sometimes we tell fibs to keep
people from getting upset or to keep something private. Wanting to keep something to yourself,
even if it’s just because you’re embarrassed, is okay. As long as your fib doesn’t get you or anyone
else hurt, it’s okay to fib a little.” Kacchan was playing with his hair while he talked. Izuku liked
when Kacchan played with his hair, it felt nice.

“So would it be a fib if I said I didn’t have a cookie yet when I did so I could get another cookie?”
Izuku asked.
Kacchan raised his eyebrow, “That would not be an okay fib because eating too many cookies will
give you a stomach ache and means the fib would hurt you. “

“You just don’t want me to have cookies.” Izuku stuck out his bottom lip. Kacchan booped it with
his finger.

“Stop pouting, you can have a cookie with lunch today. I’ll pack it for you after breakfast.” Izuku
cheered and hugged his brother before putting on his running clothes.

Kiri met them outside and Izuku gave the red haired boy a big smile, “Thank you for the hot cocoa,
Kiri!”

“You’re welcome little bro, you feeling better this morning?” Kiri smiled back with his pointy teeth
all showing. Izuku really liked Kiri, he was always really nice but he didn’t talk to Izuku like he
was a baby like a lot of Kacchan’s classmates did. Kacchan said it was because Kiri didn’t mature
past four years old. Kiri had made a face at that, but it made all their other friends laugh.

“Yeah I’m great! Kacchan says I can take a cookie for lunch today.” Izuku bent over to do his next
stretch. Kiri laughed.

“Sounds sweet, I should have a cookie at lunch too. What’s your favorite kind of cookie?” That
was another reason Izuku liked Kiri, he asked a lot of questions about things Izuku liked. Other
than Kacchan, no one cared about what Izuku liked after his Mommy died.

Auntie and Uncle weren’t as mean to him as they were Kacchan, but he wasn’t allowed to ask for
foods he wanted for dinner or watch cartoons in the living room when they were home or ask them
to take him to the park. They didn’t care that those were some of his favorite things. They only
wanted to do their favorite things.

At daycare they would have him and his friends draw pictures of their favorite things but the
workers didn’t really care what their favorite things were. It was just something fun for them to
draw during art time. And his friends at daycare were nice, but Izuku always let other people talk
about what they wanted and sometimes that meant he didn’t get to talk about what he wanted to
talk about.

But Kiri asked Izuku all kinds of questions and he actually cared what the answer was. Izuku could
just tell he cared because Kiri’s face reminded him of Mommy’s. Not how it looked, but how they
looked at him. Like what he was saying when he talked was the most important thing in the world
at the moment. It made him happy that Kacchan had such a nice friend who listened to people.

Kacchan deserved nice friends. Izuku sometimes thinks that he was Kacchan’s only friend before
he came to UA. A lot of people think Kacchan is really mean and some people are only nice to him
because his quirk is so amazing and they want to be friends with someone who will obviously be a
great hero. But those people aren’t actually friends because they don’t care about you, just your
quirk. They’re extras.

Izuku didn’t mind being Kacchan’s only friend, but it seemed lonely to only have one friend. So he
was really happy that Kacchan had Kiri and Shinso now. He also had that silly Todoroki boy, but
Izuku was thinking maybe they weren’t super good friends yet. Maybe he should invite Todoroki
to play with them sometime so he and Kacchan can be better friends. He could invite Mina,
Kaminari, and Sero too, they all seemed nice and they didn’t think Kacchan was really mean.

Izuku couldn’t keep the smile off his face for the rest of the morning. He was going to make sure
Kacchan had as many nice friends as possible. Kacchan deserved it.
Chapter End Notes

Y'all my therapist informed me that even if you don't remember it, early childhood
trauma still affects you and your mental health. I just feel like maybe keep that to
yourself Cathy. I was happy believing my nightly horrific, vivid nightmares were just a
quirky part of my personality.
This is not at all related to the story, I just wanted to complain about it.
 Chapter 9

Katsuki had woken up to find several texts waiting for him that morning. The messages from
Eyebags cleared up the confusion as to why all of Izuku’s sheets and the pajamas he’d gone to bed
in the night before were neatly folded up on top of his futon and Izuku himself was tucked into
Katsuki’s side wearing a new set of pajamas. The other messages were from Aizawa and Yamada.
Aizawa told him it would be handled and to not kill his classmates. Yamada was asking how both
boys were doing.

He let Aizawa know he would wait until the next morning before committing any murders. His
teacher had one day to deal with those fuckers before Katsuki did. Yamada wasn’t settling for the
we’re fine text he sent first. It took several minutes of back and forth over text before Yamada was
satisfied that neither boy needed a mental health day and he agreed to pick Izuku up for daycare as
planned.

After watching Yamada walk Izuku toward the gate, Katsuki joined Kirishima on his walk to class.
IcyHot was also there, but Katsuki hadn’t planned on that happening. The hot and cold bastard was
just leaving at the same time they were and Kirishima was apparently a huge fucking fan of picking
up stray antisocial kids with mountains of trauma to befriend.

Halfie seemed content to walk beside them in silence until Kirishima finished talking about how
much Izuku reminded him of one of his younger siblings. Apparently he had five younger siblings
and two older. Katsuki now had immense respect for Kirishima’s moms. If he had to take care of
eight kids he’d be in a psych unit in under a week. It was when Kirishima stopped talking for more
than two seconds that IcyHot spoke up.

“Speaking of siblings, Sero told me about what happened last night with Izuku. Bakugo, if you
need a body incinerated I can manage that.” Halfie’s face was as blank as ever when Katsuki
whipped his head over to look at him.

“Uh Todobro, that’s very…nice of you to offer but I don’t think Bakugo needs a body incinerated.”
Kirishima managed to choke out through his wheezing laughs.

IcyHot shrugged, “He would cut a brake line for me so it’s the least I could do.”

“Half N Half, if you tell people about the brake line then they’ll know it wasn’t an accident.”
Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to get rid of the headache he could feel
coming on. Kirishima choked on his spit.

“Wait, are you actually planning to cut a brake line?” The redhead looked a little awed and a lot
worried.

“I’m planning nothing anyone could prove.” Katsuki stuffed his hands in his pockets and ignored
the stare he felt on the side of his face as they entered the school building.

When they arrived at the classroom, Eyebags was already in his seat with a large travel mug of
coffee in his hand. Katsuki opened his backpack, pulled out the extra bento he’d made while
making breakfast that morning, and set it down in front of the insomniac.

“That’s for pretending you believed that bullshit about spilling juice.” Shinso blinked at him
slowly, trying to process what was happening with his overly tired brain. Katsuki just turned on his
heel and took his seat.
Eyebags leaned forward from where he sat behind Katsuki once his brain caught up. “You’re
welcome but you didn’t have to make me a thank you gift.”

“It’s not a thank you gift and if you don’t want it I’ll just fucking take it back then.” Katsuki turned
in his seat to snatch back the bento since that fucker was gonna be a dick about it. Eyebags put his
arms around it and leaned over the bento protectively.

“No, it’s my food now. No take backs.” The little fuck even snapped his teeth at Katsuki’s hand
when he made a swipe for the bento. Like a feral fucking animal.

“Then shut up about it, Mindfuck.” Katsuki flicked his giant forehead before turning back around.
He ignored the dumbass grin Kirishima was giving him.

The class started filtering into the room and all too soon Katsuki was trying to tune out the rest of
the idiot squad Kirishima surrounded himself with. He didn’t mind them asking if Izuku was okay,
the brat deserved to have people care about him, but did they also have to act like Katsuki was a
weak little bitch? Katsuki was one are you sure you’re okay dude away from blowing up the entire
classroom when Aizawa finally walked in.

Their teacher stood at the front of the room and sighed heavily as he examined his class. “Last
night in the dorms there was an incident. I am incredibly disappointed by the behavior I saw when
I reviewed the security footage. Iida, you did, in your own way, try to stand up for Bakugo at the
beginning of the altercation. However, once things escalated in all that shouting you were clearly
heard attempting to defend your classmates for some of the things they had said. You will serve a
week of detention during lunch and after school as well as write me a five thousand word essay on
quirksism.

Aoyama, for blatantly slandering your classmate as well as making light of his trauma, you will
serve two weeks detention during lunch and after school. You will also be on trash duty in the
dorms during those two weeks and I want an essay on the lasting effects trauma has on a person’s
physical and mental health and an essay on the effects slander has on a person’s life. Both essays
will be at least five thousand words.

Hagakure, for your actions last night, you are expelled. You are to return to the dorms to start
packing your things, your parents will be here to pick you up tonight and your belongings will be
shipped to your home by the school.”

The girl in question stood up, slamming her hands down on her desk, “What? You can’t expel me
because of that brat, he isn’t a student so he shouldn’t even be in the dorms!”

Aizawa glared at her with red eyes, “Every person in this class was given one contract more than
every other class in the school before moving into the dorms. Every one of you signed said
contract or you wouldn’t have been allowed to move in. That contract stated that while you were
not required to take care of Izuku in any way, you would be held to the same standards of conduct
toward him as you are toward every student and faculty member of UA. You displayed blatant
quirksism, do you think we allow quirk discrimination at UA?

You also speculated about Bakugo’s situation which you were all forbidden to do. Last night was
the second time you have referred to another student as a villain for no reason. As it was the same
student as the first instance, this counts as harassment of said student. Each of these offenses alone
are enough for an expulsion so I will tell you one more time, you are expelled, get out of my
classroom.”

The entire class watched as the invisible girl grabbed her bag and stormed out of the room. Aizawa
waited until the door slammed shut behind her before turning back to the class and carrying on as if
it was just another day.

Katuski was extremely glad Aizawa had expelled that bitch, because she wouldn’t have lived long
after what she said about Izuku otherwise. The rest of the morning went by pretty quickly, though
everyone but Katsuki was confused about the substitute in Midnight’s class and Aizawa sitting in
the back of the room during Cementoss’s class. He was the only student that had been informed of
their punishment before the press conference that was scheduled for that evening.

He was sure that the idiot brigade were going to question him about it when the bell rang for lunch.
They would assume, correctly, that he would be in the know as the foster kid of two of their
teachers and as the reason for the punishments in the first place. Too bad for them though, because
he had someone else he needed to talk to and he made his way to her quickly before anyone could
cut him off as soon as they were dismissed for lunch.

“Ponytail, I need to talk to you for a minute.” The vice representative looked startled but not afraid
as she waved off IcyHot, who she usually sat with and who had paused to see if she wanted him to
wait.

“What can I do for you, Bakugo?” Jesus, she was always so fucking proper and polite. She was
basically Mitsuki’s wet dream for the ideal child.

“Would you be able to make shoes that had custom dimensions for a mutation?” Remembering the
argument she liked to give all the other extras when they asked about her making clothes, he
hurried to add, “Don’t give me shit about the economy because there isn’t a company that will
make these shoes so you aren’t hurting anything by making them.”

Ponytail tilted her head to the side a bit, confusion clear on her face, “There are several companies
in Japan alone that will make custom shoes for mutations of the feet.”

Sticking his hands in his pockets, Katsuki huffed, “Not for quirkless people. In Japan there is
exactly one company that makes shoes in the dimensions needed for someone with an extra pinky
toe joint and they only make them in one size and one style. Bright red so anyone who knows
about them can easily identify a quirkless person.”

Her eyes widened and she looked like she understood the implications of that so Katsuki decided to
drive the nail home, “Do you know how devastating it was for the kid when he found out they
made shoes that wouldn’t hurt his feet only to immediately find out that he would be wearing
nothing but bright red sneakers for the rest of his life? He cried for hours. He refused to wear his
shoes for three days. I tried to find a company that would create shoes custom, but all of them
claimed they no longer offered the service as soon as they had the dimensions, because no one but
quirkless people need those dimensions. I even looked into international companies…” A thought
struck him in that moment. Something he should have already realized but didn’t put the pieces
together until just then. But now wasn’t the time, he just needed to finish this quickly.

“The point is, there aren’t any other shoes available and I’ll pay you for them, obviously, I’m not
looking for a hand out. I just want to know if you can do it.”

Ponytail gave him that small but kind smile she usually saved for the less abrasive members of the
class, “Yes I can certainly do that. If you just send me the dimensions and styles you would like I’ll
happily create as many shoes for your brother as you would like.”

“Thanks, Ponytail.” Katsuki grunted at her as he turned and left the room. He didn’t stick around to
see if she had anything else to say, he had some people he needed to talk to right away.
Katsuki remembered that Ectoplasm was on lunch detention duty that day so he didn’t need to
worry about one of his guardians not being present in the teachers lounge. He banged his fist on the
door until it was opened by a pissy looking Power Loader. Shoving past him, Katsuki entered the
room and searched the faces all looking at him until he found the two he was looking for.

“You two, there somewhere we can talk privately?” He grunted at his foster parents, ignoring the
frustrated grumbling of the support teacher behind him.

Yamada and Aizawa both stood, ushering him into a private office at the back of the room. Once
the door was shut behind them, Aizawa slumped against the wall and gestured for him to have a
seat across from Yamada, “What do you need, Katsuki?”

Katsuki had his phone in his hands, toying with the edges of the case. “That villain at Kamino they
said he had the ability to take and give quirks right?”

His teachers exchanged a glance. Yamada nodded, “Yes, but he’s locked up in Tartarus so there’s
nothing to worry about from him right now.’

Sighing, he shook his head. “That’s not it. Okay, the dorms were created for the safety of the
students after all the villain attacks but any idiot can see that there was another reason. You all
think someone at UA is feeding information to the League of Assholes and you’re hoping to catch
them by confining us all in one space, right?”

Aizawa finally sat down in the chair next to Yamada before leaning forward with his elbows on his
knees, “Katsuki, you don’t need to worry about that. It’s something for the staff to look into. I
know after your kidnapping you probably…”

Katsuki cut him off, “That’s not what this is about! Look when Izuku was diagnosed and I realized
he needed shoes specifically for his feet I looked for other brands. Izuku was excited about his red
shoes until he figured out those were the only style and color he’d ever have again.”

Both men were giving him curious and slightly confused looks at the seemingly unrelated topic,
but Katsuki pressed on, “There are only a few countries that have a brand other than the ones he
wears and none of them ship internationally. I didn’t think about them again after that, I started
looking for companies that would let me order custom dimensions for shoes. So I didn’t realize it
until today. I asked Ponytail to make Izuku a pair of shoes and I was explaining to her why there
was no where else to get them when I remembered. There’s one french company that makes shoes
for the quirkless and this is what they look like. These are the exact shoes Glitter Boy wears.”

Katsuki unlocked his phone, already on a picture of the shoes displayed on the french website.
Then he thrust it toward his teachers, “Glitter Boy has a quirk but wears shoes specifically made
for quirkless people. There was a villain leading the League that could give and take quirks. There
are very few countries that treat the quirkless worse than Japan, but France is one of them. Glitter
Boy is french. The math isn’t exactly hard to do here.”

Aizawa had already taken Katsuki’s phone from his hands and was holding it between himself and
Yamada so they could both examine the photo. “Katsuki, thank you for bringing this information to
us. I’m going to forward this website to myself from your phone and we will look into this
immediately. I assume you know that you can’t tell anyone about this while we investigate?”

He rolled his eyes, “I’m not a fucking idiot, I’m aware you don’t go around telling everyone about
a suspected mole unless you want them to disappear.”

Yamada gave him a small smile, “And you’re sure you’ll be able to act like everything is normal
over the next few days while we look into Aoyama?”

Katsuki huffed and crossed his arms, “I managed to fool everyone in class into believing Mitsuki
wasn’t beating the shit out of me the entire first term, I think I can handle not interacting with that
loser at all unless I have to, just like always, for a few more days.”

Yamada and Aizawa both winced a little when he brought up Mitsuki, but neither commented on it.
Aizawa finished up with his phone and returned it. Katsuki was about to leave before he thought of
something else.

“I know we don’t know for sure yet. I know I don’t get a say in what happens if I’m right about
this. But if he is the traitor, I want you two to remember something and make sure everyone who
makes decisions about what happens to him knows it too.” Katsuki waited until both men had their
eyes locked on him before continuing, “I did research on their treatment all over the world when
Izuku was diagnosed. Quirkless people in France aren’t considered human at all. In Japan there’s
discrimination that makes me sick to think about, but I know there are ways I can ensure Izuku’s
safety. I would never allow him anywhere near France. If we were born and raised in France and
Izuku was quirkless I would have done anything to get us out of there. I’m not saying he shouldn’t
pay for whatever crimes he’s committed. I’m just saying that, of all people, I can understand why
he would have done it.”

Yamada slowly reached out a hand, giving Katsuki enough time to pull away, and when he didn’t,
placed it on Katsuki’s hand. “We will take all of that into account and, if you’re right about this,
we will make sure we advocate for fair treatment on his behalf.”

Katsuki nodded and stood to leave. He had his hand on the door handle when Aizawa called out to
him, “Katsuki, I’m proud of you. Anyone would have a hard time standing up for someone who
betrayed them, but you especially have every reason to feel no compassion toward the traitor. What
you just did showed real strength.”

“Whatever, hobo.” Katsuki grunted out as he left. If his eyes felt a little wet as he walked out of the
teachers lounge, that was his business.

Lunch wasn’t terrible, the idiots wanted to know where he’d been and what he’d wanted with
Ponytail. Katsuki managed to get them out of his business long enough to scarf down his food. The
walk back to class was not peaceful, however. Raccoon Eyes had decided he had a crush on
Ponytail and had been confessing his undying love for her. Katsuki was so close to throwing her
out a window by the time they got back to class.

He spent the rest of the day trying not to shove a pencil in his own eyes so he wouldn’t have to see
Pinky glancing from him to Ponytail and back again, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively and
making hearts with her hands. During heroics that day, he was on a team with Raccoon Eyes
against Ponytail’s team, it was hell.

When they were going over the strategy, he suggested he corner Ponytail. Pinky awed and made
kissy noises until he pushed her over. Katsuki was unfortunate enough to be next to Pinky when
Ponytail had to open up part of her suit to create something large. Katsuki wasn’t interested in
looking, wasn’t planning on looking. But he didn’t need the idiot slapping a hand over his eyes and
shouting, “No one wants to date a peeper, Blasty!”

He set a small explosion off on her side, not even enough to burn her suit, just big enough to push
her away from him. “You can’t cover my eyes in the middle of a fight, dumbass.”

She giggled like a lunatic before they both had to doge the cannonball being fired at them. Katsuki
blasted his way over the cannon and dodged the staff she created at the last second to try to take
him down. Ponytail managed to get some good hits on him before he got a hold of her to slap the
handcuffs on her wrists. Of course, Pinky couldn’t let that go.

“Blasty, who knew you were into such kinky stuff. Tone it down, you only confessed to her today.”
Raccoon Eyes was fanning her face like she was a woman in the 1800s embarrassed by his
behavior.

“I was asking her for a favor, not to fucking date me Raccoon Eyes.” Katsuki scoffed as he led
their prisoner toward the cell their team needed to fill to win.

“Bakugo, you can’t ask favors of a lady like Momo. She’s not that kind of girl!” Her hand covered
her mouth as she gasped dramatically.

“You fucking idiot, not sexual favors. She isn’t even my type.” He replied. Finally they were
coming up on the cell, Ponytail was the last member of her team they needed to capture to win.

“How could Momo not be your type! She’s literally the most perfect girl at school.” Pinky was
shouting now. Everyone on both teams were watching them with amused expressions as they
approached.

“I will actually murder you right here.” He snapped as he, gently, shoved Ponytail into the cell and
slammed the door. There was only a second before they were announced the winners over the
intercom and he was opening the door back up to start unlocking cuffs.

Ponytail smiled at Katsuki like she knew a secret, “It’s completely fine, Bakugo. You aren’t my
type either.”

He rolled his eyes and moved over to unlock the next person as Raccoon Eyes loudly complained
to everyone about him needing to just admit he has a crush. Katsuki was a goddamn saint for the
restraint he showed not blowing her to bits before heroics ended.

The pure relief he felt when she wasn’t anywhere near the locker room doors as he left for the
teachers apartments was what he assumed drugs felt like. Izuku and Yamada were already in the
apartment by the time he got there. Izuku waited patiently for Katsuki to put in his hearing aids
before launching into a story about his day.

Until Yamada finished making dinner, he listened to his brother, asking questions and making the
appropriate impressed sounds, while he did his homework. Aizawa wasn’t going to be home that
evening, heading from class to a meeting to the press conference to patrol. Katsuki did not envy his
schedule for the night.

Yamada had to leave for his radio show so he made something quick and easy for dinner. While
they ate, they told Izuku about that bitch getting expelled, she would be gone before they returned
to the dorms. He was happy that he wouldn’t have to be around her anymore, but being the
amazing kid he was, he was also sad that she wouldn’t get to become a hero.

Izuku asked Yamada for a goodbye hug before they left for the dorms and Katsuki could see the
blond trying to hold back his excited squeals. His listeners were in for a very loud show that night.
When they made it back to the dorms, Ponytail was waiting on the couch with a rather large box on
the floor next to her.

“Oh Bakugo, I have the items you requested.” She patted the top of the box.

Katsuki nodded, using a hand on the top of his brother’s head to steer him over. “Izu, Ponytail
made something for you. I gave her your size so it’ll fit.”

“You really made something just for me?” Izuku’s eyes were wide and sparkling like someone had
just offered him the secret to life.

“Yes, your brother asked me to create these with my quirk. I hope you like them.” She slid the box
to him and the kid immediately ripped the top of the box off.

His little jaw dropped as he stared at the box full of shoes. “These will fit my feet?” She nodded and
Izuku burst into tears, “Kacchan, I don’t have to wear the red shoes anymore!”

Katsuki smiled at him before looking up at Ponytail, “Yeah, because someone made an entire
store's worth of shoes. I asked for one pair, Ponytail.”

She sat there looking prim and poised and not at all regretful, “I decided to make more than one
pair. Izuku is a very nice boy and deserves to have options in footwear. I won’t be charging you for
any of them as I spoke with my family about looking into the market for quirkless shoes.”

He raised an eyebrow, “You want your family to make shoes for quirkless people? Do you own a
shoe company?”

“Well, no.” She shook her head and waved a hand dismissively, “But we have partnered with
fashion designers in the past to create specific clothing and shoes that we believed would make a
profit. Unfortunately, we will have to find a new company to partner with as the one we were using
was owned by some people who found themselves in legal trouble recently and the Yaoyorozu
family won’t be associated with those kinds of people.”

Katsuki had been to enough fancy parties with people like Ponytail to know what she was saying.
She knew about his parents. The panic had been creeping up his throat, ready to come out in a
violent display that would involve a lot of threats and explosions. But then she tacked that shit on
the end and he knew that was her way of saying she was going to keep her mouth shut. He gave her
an approving nod and decided to let it go for now. He could always just wreck her shit if she said
anything to anyone later.

Izuku squealed from his spot on the floor, surrounded by shoes, “Kacchan, look there are sandals! I
can wear sandals now.” Katsuki smiled and ruffled his hair before the kid turned to look at
Ponytail. “Thank you miss Yaoy…Yaoyo…”

She smiled back at him, “You may call me Momo if that’s easier for you, Izuku.”

“Thank you miss Momo, this is the best gift ever.” He was hugging a sandal to his chest like it was
a baby. Katsuki left him there to continue digging through his new shoe collection and took a seat
next to Eyebags on the smaller couch.

The other boy glanced at him before going back to the book he was reading and Katsuki pulled out
his phone to entertain himself until the press conference started. As it got closer, more and more of
the class filtered into the common area until everyone was present, taking up every available seat
and scattered on the floor if they arrived too late.

Sparky always insisted on having the subtitles on because of his Auditory Processing Disorder so
Katsuki didn’t have to worry about missing anything that was said. Right at the scheduled time, the
press conference went live and they got a good shot of Nezu with Cementoss and Midnight to his
left and Aizawa to his right.

Nezu managed to look solemn even with his tiny rat face as he started the conference. “We have
called you all here today to issue an official apology on behalf of UA to both Bakugo Katsuki and
the public at large. During the sports festival, Bakugo received improper treatment from a teacher
that led to his momentary death.”

He paused for that to sink in before continuing, “He was then resuscitated and was believed by two
members of our staff to be violent in his refusal to accept a medal he did not feel he had earned.
Those members of staff, teachers and heroes both, decided that it would not be in the best interest
of UA’s public appearance for the winner of our sports festival to not be present to accept his
award. This is when they decided to muzzle and restrain Bakugo Katsuki and physically force him
to attend the medal ceremony moments after he was legally dead. This plan was not run by me or
the board of UA, however I do believe that I am responsible in both that I have created an
environment where teachers would feel this is the appropriate action to take and that I have not
made this apology sooner.

So I would like to take this time to apologize to young Bakugo for his mistreatment and any
damage we caused to his mental, emotional, physical, and reputational health. It was in fact
Bakugo himself who pointed out to us that he was not the only person owed an apology. Young
Bakugo is such a shining example of what it means to be a hero because even after we hurt him and
after he was called horrible things as a result of our actions, he made it clear to us he was not the
only one affected.

So now I would like to offer an apology to every person who watched the sports festival. UA is the
top hero school in Japan, we are a school taught by heroes who should be examples of heroism. We
should have never done anything that would make it seem acceptable for adults, let alone heroes,
to restrain or muzzle a minor. No person deserves to have their bodily autonomy taken from them.
But even worse was that it was teachers and heroes who should be setting an example to look up to.
That day we failed not only Bakugo but everyone watching. We are truly sorry for our mistakes
and we will strive to do better in the future.”

It was then that Nezu stood up and bowed to the audience. He took his seat and Cementoss bowed
his head in shame before looking up at the reporters.

“I was one of the teachers who participated in restraining Bakugo. I would like to personally
apologize for the pain I caused my student and everyone watching the festival. I have gratefully
accepted the punishment of a two year probationary period that will allow me to continue teaching
at UA. I will use this time to become the hero and teacher I should have been that day. I will submit
to periodic reviews of my teaching and if I am found lacking, will not fight the suspension or
termination of my teaching license. Please allow me to make up for my failures.”

Cementoss stood and bowed deeply for several moments before returning to his seat.

Midnight clasped her hands together, “I was the teacher that directly caused the death of Bakugo
Katsuki.” She had to pause to clear her throat, “I caused the death of one of my students and instead
of being horrified by my actions, I harmed him further by restraining and muzzling him. Words
cannot express how much I regret my actions, but my biggest regret is that it took me so long to see
the trauma I had caused to both my student and the world at large.”

She unclasped her hands and set them in her lap, “Because of my actions there are people who may
think that it wasn’t wrong for them to be muzzled, because if heroes do it then their abusers should
too. That is wrong, no one should ever be restrained against their will but especially by their
teachers or guardians. I have chosen to retire from teaching. I have already turned in my teaching
license and will never again teach because I have proven that I am not worthy of the privilege that
is teaching.
I have also submitted myself for a HPSC review of my hero license. I felt that I failed as both a
teacher and as a hero that day. The HPSC will review my actions as a hero over the course of the
next year and determine if I should be allowed to continue to serve the public as a hero. I am sorry.
I am so sorry to Bakugo Katsuki and to everyone who witnessed my shameful behavior. I will
never be able to make up for what I have done, but I hope to one day be even half the hero that
Bakugo is.”

She stood and bowed to the silent audience, even through the screen they could see her tears
hitting the table in front of her. Midnight straightened and took her seat. Nezu announced they were
taking questions.

A reporter was selected, “Eraserhead, seeing as you didn’t make a statement, we can assume you
weren’t involved directly in this incident. As Bakugo’s homeroom teacher, where were you that
day? Why did you not step in?”

Aizawa, looking like a put together person for the second time in his life as far as Katsuki was
aware, responded, “At the time I was still recovering from the injuries I sustained at the attack on
the USJ. I left as soon as the commentating ended so I could go home to rest. I regretted it the
moment I found out what happened in my absence. I have already personally apologized to Bakugo
for failing in my duty as his teacher to protect him and for failing to get the parties involved to
accept responsibility for their actions before now. I will spend the rest of Bakugo’s time at UA
attempting to earn back his trust in my ability to teach and protect him.”

The next reporter was selected, “Nezu, why is this matter only coming up now? Why not after the
festival?”

Nezu sighed into the microphone, “Unfortunately, that is another failing on our part. We did not
recognize the harm our actions caused to either Bakugo or the public until recently. We started to
realize the repercussions of our actions when our student was kidnapped because of an incorrect
image of him portrayed by us. It wasn’t until an attempt was made to apologize to Bakugo that we
realized the severity of our mistakes. Bakugo himself had to point it out to us, which is yet another
thing for us to apologize for. A victim should not have to point out to their abuser exactly how they
were mistreated.”

Another reporter chimed in, “Isn’t it true that Bakugo Katsuki was violent and attempted to attack
teachers who were attempting to get him on the winners podium? Shouldn’t someone acting like
that be restrained?”

Aizawa looked like he was holding himself back from beating that reporter with his microphone as
he answered, “No. Bakugo was not attempting to attack anyone. Upon reviewing the footage of
what transpired backstage, it was obvious that he was reacting in a way that might seem violent
because he was experiencing panic and confusion after having been resuscitated. Bakugo should
have been given medical treatment and rest, not restrained.”

A different reporter was called on, “You’ve stated several times that Bakugo died and was
resuscitated, but we were never given a cause for his death?”

Nezu nodded, “Yes, that is private medical information that will not be given to the public. Not
only would it endanger our student if we gave out that information, it would be a breach of his
privacy for us to reveal it.”

The next reporter asked, “Is it true that Bakugo has his child living on campus with him? Does
allowing a teen parent in the hero course really meet UA standards?”
Nezu glared at that reporter, “Bakugo has fathered no children and as for teen parents, there are no
rules against one joining any of our courses. We believe that we should be fostering our student's
futures, not punishing them for their pasts.”

The press conference was ended and the channel switched over to the regular hero news network
programming before someone turned it off.

“Dude who blabbed about Izuku?” Sparky was the first to speak.

Katsuki rolled his neck, trying to get the tension out. “Probably not any of you idiots. They thought
he was my kid and unless you were giving out incorrect information on purpose, none of you
would have made that mistake.”

Tail Boy nodded, “It was probably someone from another class who saw Bakugo with Izuku and
came to their own conclusion. I mean he goes running with him and walks around campus with him
all the time, plenty of people could have seen them.”

Kirishima glared around the room, “Well it better not have been anyone here, because it would be
very unmanly to spread rumors like that and I won’t let any of you trash my bro like that.”

Izuku waved his arms, a shoe held in each hand, “Yeah no trash!”

Tape Arms grinned, “Yeah, no trash or Izuku will beat you up with his shoes.”

Sparky picked up one of the shoes and started a sword fight with it between him and Izuku.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, he was surrounded by idiots.

 Chapter 10
Chapter Notes

Happy Pride month. Have some gay ass shit.

TW: this chapter contains the f-slur (Bakugo thinking it about himself not someone
saying it) and a character implies sexual favors are being traded during an argument.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The morning after the press conference was perfectly normal. He went on a run with Izuku and
Kirishima, made breakfast, cleaned up, got dressed and watched Yamada walk Izuku off toward
the gate before joining Kirishima on the walk to class. The only thing off were the stares and
whispers from other students as they walked by. But that was to be expected the day after a
person’s school had a whole ass press conference about them, so he ignored it.

Okay, maybe he glared back and flipped them off, same fucking thing.

While they waited for class to start, Katsuki listened to Kirishima yammer on about a new workout
he’d seen online that he wanted to try. Right up until Sparky walked in and Katsuki waved him
over. The energetic blonde skipped over with a wide grin on his face.

“What can I do for you this morning, Sir Blastalicious?” He ducked to avoid the slap Katsuki
aimed at him for that dumbass name.

“You have loads of mental disorders right? Like ADHD and dyslexia and all that shit.” He watched
the other boy’s face scrunch up, trying to figure out if he was about to be mocked or not.

Kirishima put a hand on Katsuki’s arm, “Bro, I don’t think that came out the way you meant it to.”

Rolling his eyes, Katsuki scoffed, “I just wanna know if Aizawa and Yamada were cool with your
IEP and your disorders. Like they never gave you shit about it right?”

“Oh dude I get it.” Pikachu snapped his fingers, “this is about Izuku probably having ADHD or
Autism right?” He waited for Katsuki to nod before going on, “They’ve both been super great
about it. Aizawa even pulled me aside the first week of school to make sure I was supported at
home since so many people’s parents don’t really realize how big a deal ADHD actually is. Mic
Sensei gives me specially made worksheets and study guides that are printed in fonts that help with
dyslexia. You’ve got nothing to worry about if you want them to get Izuku a diagnosis.”

Katsuki nodded, “Good, didn’t want to have to murder my new guardians only two weeks in.” He
grabbed Sparky’s sleeve before the boy could walk off, “Pikachu, if anyone gives you shit about
your disorders they’re a waste of fucking space and I’ll blow them up.”

“Be still my heart, Blasty loves me!” Sparky grabbed the hand Katsuki had used to tug his sleeve
and pressed it over his heart with both of his own hands laid over Katsuki’s, swooning like a
maiden in some cheesy ass drama.

“You’ve got two seconds to let go of my hand before I end your life.” Why Aizawa thought he
needed therapy, Katsuki would never know. He was clearly the picture of mental stability since he
didn’t blow a hole through the idiot before he finally dropped his hand and ran to his own desk.

He felt eyes on his back. Katsuki felt deep down that he would only be more irritated if he turned
around. He just knew it was a terrible idea. But, like a fucking idiot, he turned around to snap at
whoever decided to stare at him. When he turned around to see IcyHot glaring at him with steam
rising from his left side, he regretted turning immediately. This was only going to cause him more
issues.

Their eyes met and Halfie’s narrowed. There was still time before class so he decided to settle that
shit right then. A few of their classmates protested when Katsuki dragged the idiot out of the room
by the collar of his blazer. He ignored them, pulling the still steaming boy along behind him until
they made it to the nearby science lab that would be empty first thing in the morning.

Katsuki wrenched open the door, threw the idiot inside, and slammed the door behind himself.
“Okay IcyHot, you are going to explain why you looked like you were about to burn down the
school while staring at me or I’ll pry off your kneecaps and make you eat them.”

Half N Half glanced down at his knees and looked back up at Katsuki before sighing, “I don’t
know. I have never felt the way I did before.”

Dear lord, he was going to have to talk about fucking emotions with this bastard wasn’t he?
Gritting his teeth, Katsuki forced out a question, “What did it feel like and what made you feel it?”

IcyHot frowned, his brows knitting together just a bit in thought. “I heard Denki say you love him
and saw you touching his chest and he was touching your hand and it made me feel angry. But not
angry like when I see Endeavor, it felt like I wanted to punch you or throw up or cry. Maybe all
three? It’s confusing.”

Katsuki rubbed his forehead, any minute he’d get the world’s biggest headache. “So you saw
Sparky, who you’re on first name basis with now apparently…”

IcyHot interrupted him, “Denki said we were bros and bros call each other by their first names.”

Closing his eyes and sighing, Katsuki asked, “When exactly did you two become bros?”

“We were partners for that ethics project last term. We were unable to finish it during school hours
so I visited Denki’s home. Once it was done, he taught me memes and introduced me to his
goldfish.” Halfie got a far away look in his eyes, most people would call it dreamy, Katsuki called
it disgusting, “His name is Clarence. I wonder if Denki brought him to the dorms.”

They weren’t going to get anywhere if he let Half N Half continue so he smacked the side of his
head lightly, “So what you’re saying is you saw your bro forcing me to touch him and you wanted
to punch me but not him .”

He nodded slowly, “Yes, that’s right. Which is weird because we are such good friends and I’ve
never wanted to punch you before.”

“We aren’t fucking friends, Halfie.” Katsuki crossed his arms.

IcyHot tilted his head to the side, “We have both offered to get rid of people for each other, we
have bonded over similar traumas, and now you have brought me to a secluded area just to check
on my emotional well being. What else would we be besides friends?”

Katsuki set off several small explosions, he was pissed about this idiot’s entire existence which
meant he was sweating excessively. “I don’t have time to tell you exactly where to shove your
friendship. What I’m getting from the few things you’ve said that weren’t absolute nonsense is that
you were jealous.”

Somehow the idiot looked even more confused, “Why would I be jealous about two of my best
friends touching and joking? Do I need more casual touches? Is this what being touch starved is?”
Maybe Katsuki should just kill both of these idiots so he didn’t have to deal with any of this.

“No you moron, you’re jealous because you clearly have feelings for Pikachu.” Those empty eyes
stared back at him blankly so he elaborated, “Romantic feelings. You want Sparky to hold your
hand and talk about how much you love him but not be joking.”

Halfie frowned again, staring down at his shoes like they would somehow have the answers, “I
have never had romantic feelings before. Are you sure that’s what’s wrong with me?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “There’s a shit load of things wrong with you, but in this case yes, it’s
romance. If you don’t believe me just think about what it would be like to kiss Sparky and go on
dates with him or whatever. If it makes you feel different than thinking the same things about
anyone else then it’s not platonic.”

Clearly, the other boy was following his advice since he immediately burst into flames on his left
side. Katsuki jumped back, his sleeve singed. Just as quickly, the flames went out and a dazed
looking Half N Half was staring wide eyed at him, “I have romantic feelings for Denki.”

“My condolences, now let's get to class before I have an aneurysm.” Katsuki grunted before exiting
the room.

IcyHot followed him, tugging his collar back into place from where Katsuki had messed it up
before reaching up to straighten out his hair. Katsuki turned his head right as they exited to throw
an insult about his appearance at him when he caught Shinso’s eye. The insomniac was looking
from Katsuki to Todoroki and back again with a weird look on his face and a coffee clutched in his
hand.

Katsuki realized what it looked like, him and Half N Half coming out of an unused classroom,
disheveled, right before class. He froze for a second, nausea creeping up his throat and panic
shooting through him, before he slammed his usual scowl back into place. It didn’t matter if people
thought he was gay. Mitsuki was gone and there was nothing wrong with him.

He just needed to keep telling himself that until the urge to pass out went away.

It took several small explosions to get the sweat off his palms as he stalked back to the classroom
with the other two following him. Maybe Eyebags would think they’d been fighting since everyone
assumed he popped off only when he was angry. Katsuki hated that the thought of someone
assuming he was an angry bitch starting fights left and right instead of a horny gay made him calm
down some.

He fucking knew there was nothing wrong with being gay. Katsuki couldn’t give less of a shit who
wanted to fuck who or didn’t want to fuck anyone or whatever other categories they fell in. He
didn’t get sick at the thought of Todoroki kissing Sparky. He didn’t get pissy about seeing two
random girls holding hands on a date. Fuck, Katsuki would tell people he was gay if they asked.
But it still made him want to run and hide thinking about other people knowing he was gay.
Mitsuki really fucked him up and it pissed him off.

Thankfully, everyone kept their mouths shut about him kidnapping IcyHot when he stomped back
into the room. They only started to ask questions when the idiot himself came into the room and
Half N Half didn’t get the chance to answer any of them before Aizawa showed up and ordered
them to shut up.

Kirishima did turn around at one point during homeroom to whisper, “Why does Todoroki look
like you set him on fire right before you gave him the best news he’s ever heard?”

Katsuki didn’t give him any answer other than flicking his forehead. He managed to avoid any
more questions about it until lunch. It was raining so Eyebags wasn’t off wherever he usually
haunted the school from during lunch. Instead he was seated next to Pikachu, who Eyebags still
claimed wasn’t his friend, slowly stuffing food into his mouth as Sparky stared, unblinking, at
Katsuki.

He was trying his hardest to ignore the staring. He knew engaging would only make it worse,
maybe he could scarf down his food and escape before Pikachu decided it was time to stop staring
and start talking. Even going so far as to ask Kirishima about one of his sisters to avoid giving
Pikachu the chance. It didn’t work for long, the redhead paused after finishing his story and Sparky
leaned forward to make his move.

“So Blastifer, Blasty Boy, Blast McBlasterson. Shinso here tells me that after you dragged Shouto
out of the room for seemingly no reason, you took him to an abandoned classroom and were seen
leaving looking very rumpled. Care to explain yourself?” Pikachu propped his elbow on the table
and his chin in his hand as he continued to stare down the other blonde.

The temptation to reply with not fucking really was incredibly strong. But Katsuki had an
opportunity here. Yeah, he could ignore this whole situation, but for some reason he just fucking
knew that would end with him having even more talks about shitty feelings. So he was going to do
Half N Half a favor this one damn time.

"Well he is pregnant with my child. Had to get the brat in there somehow." Katsuki should get
every acting award in existence for not throwing up at the thought of being intimate with IcyHot.

Tape Arms choked on his water, snorting it out his nose and onto Pinky who was sitting across
from him, frozen in shock. Kirishima was as red as his hair and staring at Katsuki looking both
shocked and tense. Eyebags looked just as sick as Katsuki felt about the thought of him and Half N
Half together. But Katsuki was watching the electric blonde. His reaction is what he needed here.
The night Halfie made the original joke he hadn't been paying enough attention to the idiot to see if
there was any jealousy in his expression.

Sparky’s jaw tensed, his teeth likely grinding together behind the obviously fake smile he’d
slapped on his face. He was clearly trying to look happy, in on the joke, but the angry set of his
eyes gave him away to anyone who was watching for it.

“Wow Bakugo, you must be quick on the draw if that’s all the time it takes. You weren’t in there
very long.” Even the most oblivious idiot could have picked up on the forced playfulness Sparky
put into his words. Thank fuck he didn’t need to keep this going. He could report to IcyHot that his
big gay crush had a big gay crush on him and never think about any of this again.

“I needed to speak to him privately. He got worked up about something that had nothing to do with
me or my body and set himself on fire. My smacking some sense into his empty ass head messed
up his hair.” Katsuki watched the tension slowly start fading from Sparky’s posture as he spoke,
“Yeah he looked rumpled, because he can’t control himself when he’s emotional. No way in fuck
am I doing anything sexual that in any way involves fucking Half N Half.”

That should have been the end of it. Sparky looked less like he was planning Katsuki’s untimely
death and everyone else at the table had almost gone back to normal. Then Pikachu narrowed his
eyes at him.

“What exactly made him so worked up and emotional then?” If looks could kill, Katsuki would be
cold in the ground. He’d managed to eat enough, he decided. This would only make him more
insane if he stayed. So Katsuki closed his bento, stood up, and moved to leave. But he did throw
Sparky a bone in the form of a parting comment.

“IcyHot wants to know if you brought Clarence to the dorms.” Katsuki caught the bewildered
expression on Pikachu’s face right before he turned away and left the cafeteria.

For the second day in a row, Katsuki found himself pounding on the staff room door until a
disgruntled teacher opened it. Ectoplasm moved to let him in, letting Aizawa and Yamada know
that he was there. He made his way over to the sitting area his guardians were occupying, stopping
next to the couch they were on and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Did you need to speak to us in private again, Katsuki?” Yamada gave him a small smile.

“No. Just need to know if the therapist you found for Izuku has experience with kids with ADHD
or Autism. He needs to be screened.” He watched their faces as he spoke, finding no traces of
annoyance or anger about the situation. If he’d brought this up to Mitsuki she’d have thrown him
out on the street for the night for suggesting there was something wrong with Izuku.

Aizawa nodded, “Yes, this group of therapists are all qualified and experienced with diagnosing
and treating minors with those and plenty of other mental disorders. I’ll send his therapist an email
letting her know he’ll need screening at some point when he’s more comfortable with them.”

Katsuki nodded his head in acknowledgement and was about to leave when Yamada leaned
forward with a teasing grin, “So Katsuki, I heard through the grapevine that you were seen leaving
an unused classroom with a very blushy Todoroki this morning.”

Fuck, he could feel himself producing too much sweat before the man even finished speaking.
Knowing that enough people had heard about it that it made it back to Yamada was stressing him
out. His gut was churning, wondering how many people were in the school right now thinking he
was a faggot. Katsuki needed to get out of there.

Popping off several times to burn off the sweat, Katsuki glared at his teacher, “If one more person
accuses me of making out with that bastard I’m going to commit actual fucking murder.”
He stormed out of the room, ignoring Yamada’s apology and slamming the door on the way out.
Hopefully they’d all just think he was being angry little Bakugo about it, getting pissy because
people were talking about him or whatever. He didn’t need them to know he was trying to shove
down the panic and ignore the voice of Mitsuki screaming in his head.

Taking the long way back to class gave him enough time to calm down a bit. It also gave the rest of
the class enough time that most of them were already back in the room chatting by the time he
arrived. Katsuki was making his way to his seat, prepared for the idiot squad to hassle him some
more when the world’s most obnoxious voice spoke up from the doorway behind him.

“Well well well if it isn’t the shining example of a hero Bakugo.” Katsuki’s shoulders tensed the
second Copycat’s voice registered in his brain, “Tell me, how did the Beast of 1A convince UA to
hold an entire press conference all about himself and how wonderful he is?’

Breathing in deeply and releasing the breath as slowly as possible, Katsuki tried to reign in his
temper. He wasn’t Mitsuki. He could ignore the things that pissed him off instead of being violent.
Slowly, he made his way to his desk even as Ponytail came to his defense.

“Monoma, classes will start soon. I think it’s best if you return to your own.” She might be miss
prim and proper, but he was liking her more and more these days.

Cheeks slapped her desk loudly, “Yeah Monoma, beat it. No one wants to hear about what you
think of Bakugo.”

He didn’t even need to be looking at the bitchy blonde to know he was sneering at the girl, “Oh so
you’re defending that animal now? He gets on UA’s good side, gets a few mentions at a press
conference and suddenly you’re all buddy buddy? Of course, 1A will do anything for a little time
in the spotlight.”

Shinso stood from his seat, throwing a glare at the other boy, “Do you actually fucking think
Bakugo or anyone wants the kind of spotlight that comes from having a press conference where
people have to apologize for their treatment of you? What’s wrong in your twisted little head that
you think all of us sit around thinking we’re better than your class because of our fucking trauma?”

Kirishima stood up as well, his chair screeching against the floor, “Exactly! Bakugo didn’t ask to
be treated like garbage and instead of only thinking of himself, he stood up for everyone else who’s
been treated like that. He’s the manliest person at UA and we aren’t going to sit here while you talk
trash about him or our class.”

“Wow Bakugo, you actually got some people on your side,” Monoma sounded like he’d come
closer to the spot Katsuki had frozen in while he was trying to tamp down his anger, “How did you
manage that? Did you find the people with the weakest and most villainous quirks and promise
them some of your fame? Or maybe you’re trading favors for friends and that’s how you wound up
with a kid.”

As soon as the little shit had mentioned his friend's quirks, Katsuki had seen red. He spun on his
heel and was already stomping across the few feet between him and that little fucker. His fist
connected with the asshole’s jaw right as he finished his sentence about favors. The force he’d
added with a well timed explosion resulted in a satisfying crunching noise under his fist right
before the extra hit the ground.

He looked up at Katsuki with a clearly broken jaw, eyes full of pain and terror as the blonde
seethed. Katsuki took several breaths to keep himself from jumping on the bitch and beating the
rest of his face in as his classmates shouted behind him. Leaning down, he looked the 1B loser
right in the eyes as he spoke through gritted teeth.

“If you ever talk shit about my friend’s quirks or imply that they would sell themselves again, no
one will ever find your body because I’ll have blown it into so many tiny pieces that fucking ants
couldn’t find them. Now get the fuck out of my classroom you rat looking cunt before I break a
few more bones.” Katsuki’s hands were smoking, clenched at his sides as he watched the blonde
scramble to his feet and flee the room.

Knowing exactly what would happen the second that bitch got his jaw fixed by Recovery Girl,
Katsuki stormed out of the room as well. But he turned toward the teacher’s lounge instead of the
infirmary. He met Aizawa and Yamada on the way there, a few other teachers in the hall behind
them all making their way back to classes. His guardians stopped as soon as they saw him standing
in the middle of the hall with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face. He didn’t even let
them ask what was going on.

“I broke Copycat’s jaw. Little fuck had it coming, but I know he’ll snitch the minute he can run his
mouth again so I’m here for my fucking punishment or whatever.” Katsuki watched as Aizawa
sighed and Yamada carefully hid his emotions.

The voice hero patted his husband’s shoulder, “Well I can find someone to cover your classes
while you and Vlad take Katsuki to Nezu to get this figured out.” He calmly walked over to
Katsuki and gave him a small smile, “I’m proud you came to tell us even if I’m disappointed you
did what you did.”

That was going to be a huge consolation when he was on house arrest, he was sure.

In no time at all he was sitting in Nezu’s office with Aizawa next to him and Vlad King giving him
major side eye from his chair where he sat next to Copycat. He’d gotten his jaw mostly fixed, the
break was healed, but he had a huge bruise and one less tooth that gave Katsuki immense
satisfaction. The little rodent was studying the four of them with folded paws after listening to each
teen explain what had happened from their side and reviewing the security camera footage.

“Now I’ve gotten both boy’s points of view and we’ve all seen the impartial footage of events. It
was obvious that Bakugo was attempting to ignore the disparaging remarks being made by
Monoma. It was also clear that Monoma only made the trip to class A specifically to incite
conflict. Yes, Bakugo did use violence against another student, but I think we need to take the
entire situation and previous events into account.” Nezu took a sip of tea from a very expensive
cup, Katsuki would know, he’d once seen the exact same set up for auction at a charity benefit
Mitsuki and Masaru dragged him to sold for several million.

“The remarks made by young Monoma were completely unheroic and one of them constitutes
sexual harassment of multiple students. Implying another student gives or receives sexual favors is
frankly abhorrent,” Nezu kept his beady eyes trained on Copycat who had the decency to look
ashamed, “He also tried to further rumors about Bakugo having a child and made quirksist
remarks.

When you take into account the fact that Monoma has repeatedly attempted to provoke class A in a
similar manner and that he regularly uses traumatic events as his reasoning for the bullying, it’s
clear that this is an issue we have not properly dealt with.”

Copycat straightened his spine from his previous slumped over position, “I’m not a bully! Unlike
Bakugo, I don’t attack people constantly for no reason. I don’t use my fists to solve my problems
and I don’t run around screaming at every little offense.”

Katsuki crossed his arms, glaring at the other blonde, “You verbally attack my class constantly. I
don’t usually physically attack people outside of training. And I’d like to see your bitch ass not
scream at people with four times the normal amount of adrenaline produced during stressful
situations pumping through your body every fucking second of every fucking day.”

Aizawa turned to his student with furrowed brows, “Bakugo, I knew your body produced excess
adrenaline to keep your blood pressure steady, but is it really four times the stress amount?
Constantly?”

“Are we really going to believe that this beast just can’t help being angry all the time?” Copycat
raised his voice mockingly.

“I can’t help it you dumbass. What I can do is control my anger and not use it as an excuse to beat
the motherfucking shit out of everyone who pisses me off.” Katsuki snapped at Copycat before
turning back to his homeroom teacher, “Mitsuki wouldn’t let me go to anger management because
she could control the temper the adrenaline gave her without it. Now I’m in therapy so hopefully I
won’t have to break this fucker’s jaw again before someone finally sticks him in therapy.”

The other blonde snickered, “Oh the great Bakugo Katsuki is in therapy? I’m sure everyone will
love to hear that you pay someone to tell you how great you are.”

Before he could respond and escalate the situation, Nezu cleared his throat.

“Monoma, Bakugo has already hit on one part of the punishment I’ve decided on for you. Because
you have continued the same pattern of behavior with no personal growth despite multiple
reprimands, you will be attending weekly therapy with a counselor approved by UA. You will also
take an after school course on deescalation tactics and you will be prohibited from attending the
provisional license exam until the course is finished and your therapist has signed off on it.”

The rat ignored Monoma and Vlad’s sputtered protests at the last part of his punishment and
turned to Katsuki.

“Bakugo, on the other hand, has made remarkable improvement from the beginning of the year
considering all the progress was made at his own behest without any counseling. There have been
fewer injuries inflicted because of excessive force during training and he has begun to work on
teams without abandoning his teammates or assuming he should be in charge. Bakugo does not
seek fights outside of training and has been attempting to ignore people trying to provoke him.

Because of this improvement, and the fact that Monoma instigated this conflict, I believe a suitable
punishment is to have you attend an anger management course on top of your therapy and write an
essay, to be turned in to me, on why violence should always be the last resort.”

Katsuki didn’t protest, it was a lighter punishment than he’d been expecting. Vlad tried to argue it,
but was shut down quickly by Nezu. Eventually, everyone accepted that he wouldn’t be changing
his mind and they were dismissed. Aizawa waited until they were alone in the hall to speak to him.

“Katsuki, you know that the adrenaline doesn’t excuse Mitsuki’s behavior right? You would never
do what she did to another person.” The amount of compassion in the man’s eyes made Katsuki
want to squirm. Why did these people keep caring so much about him?

“Obviously I fucking know that. She only produces half the amount I do anyway because her quirk
requires significantly less nitroglycerin.” The blonde rolled his eyes and turned away from that
ridiculous expression Aizawa was making at him. He stomped down the hallway with his teacher
following slowly behind him.

He managed to avoid any additional drama for the rest of the day. Unless he was counting the time
right before heroics when the idiot brigade pounced on him screaming you called us your friends.
Katsuki had shoved the losers off him and informed them that he wasn’t talking about them, only
Kirishima and Shinso and those two had better not get used to that shit.

That night he tucked Izuku into bed and made his way to Half N Half’s room. When the moron
opened the door to find Katsuki standing there, he stared blankly at him for several minutes before
moving aside and gesturing him in without a word. Freak.

“Okay you bastard, this is the only time I’m ever doing something like this so you better make the
most of it. Sparky interrogated me at lunch about us in that classroom, he thought we were making
out or some shit.” Katsuki couldn’t help the gagging noise he made at the thought, IcyHot didn’t
look pleased about the thought either, “He was pissy about it until I told him what a dumbass he
was being. He very obviously wants to suck face with you so go fucking confess to him and spare
me any more of this nonsense.”
Katsuki waited for the other boy to praise him and run off to confess his undying love or whatever.
That wasn’t what happened. Instead, the little shit just looked down at his hands in his lap and
asked, “How does one confess? I saw a few confessions on the dramas my sister enjoys, but I doubt
those would be a good reference.”

“How am I supposed to know?” Katsuki threw his hands up in the air, “I’ve kissed exactly one
person and we weren’t in a relationship, there was no confessing, there was no cutesy shit.”

That admission was a mistake apparently, because Halfie leaned forward excitedly. “You’ve kissed
someone before? What is that like? How exactly do you kiss someone? How do you know when
it’s appropriate to kiss someone?”

“No.” He pushed the moron away with a hand on his face, “I will not be doing this. Come with
me.”

Katsuki pushed himself off the floor and stalked out the door, he knew IcyHot was following him
because he’d knocked into the door frame loudly in his hurry. He followed along silently down
two flights of stairs before starting to question what was going on. Katsuki ignored the quiet where
are we going, why are we on this floor, Bakugo why are you going to Denki’s room and threw open
the door to Sparky’s dorm room where the idiot brigade was playing video games.

The four of them turned to see Katsuki standing in the door with a panicked looking IcyHot
tugging at his sleeve and trying to whisper something Katsuki couldn’t hear. Likely something
about not doing this. He wouldn’t have listened even if he could hear it.

“Oi Pikachu, Half N Half here wants to date you. You clearly want to date him. He has questions
about kissing. You two can go figure that shit out far the fuck away from me. No one bother me
about their goddamn feelings again.” Katsuki spun around, grabbed IcyHot’s shirt, and threw the
dazed boy into the room as he left.

There was muffled shouting behind him, but he didn’t stop to make sense of it. Katsuki did see the
other three members of the idiot brigade exiting Sparky’s room quickly with big ass smiles on their
faces as he entered the stairwell, so those two were hopefully taking his advice.

Of course, Kirishima couldn’t let it go quietly. He quickly caught up to the explosive boy and
playfully punched his shoulder as they walked up the stairs to their floor.

“Bro, you’re going so soft for us. First you call us your friends and now you’re setting up two of
your friends. I didn’t even know you noticed things like that. I thought you weren’t interested in
anything to do with romance!” Katsuki huffed at the nonsense this idiot came up with.

“I am not soft. I was annoyed and the only reason I noticed those two is because they’re as subtle as
a fist to the face.” He wanted to slam open the door to their floor, but he also didn’t want to wake
Izuku, so he opened it like a normal person for once.

“So is romance something you’re interested in for yourself? I mean, you don’t have to answer that
if you don’t want to. I’m just curious since I never thought you’d care about other people’s
romances let alone want one for yourself.” Kirishima stopped in front of Katsuki’s door, but didn’t
block it so the blonde had an escape if he wanted it.

“What makes you think I wouldn’t want romance? You think I’m too much of an asshole? You
think I just want to be alone for the rest of my fucking life? Or is it that you think no one would
want someone like me?” Katsuki narrowed his eyes but made an effort to keep any hurt out of his
voice. Kirishima looked panicked.
 “That’s not it at all! You’re just so dedicated to becoming a great hero and taking care of Izuku that
I guess I just thought you’d put a relationship so far down the list of things to do you wouldn’t get
around to it until well after high school at least.” Studying the redhead’s face showed Katsuki no
hint of a lie.

“Whatever,” He rolled his eyes but made sure to lighten his expression so Kirishima would know
he wasn’t mad at him, “I don’t spend my time sitting around daydreaming about the perfect date or
wondering if I’ll get valentines chocolates because I have better shit to do. But if there was
someone I was interested in and they wanted to date me, I’d be just as amazing at being a
boyfriend as I am at being a hero.”

“Hell yeah you would, man.” Kirishima held out a fist for a bump, Katsuki glared back at him but
the idiot refused to cave so eventually he had to huff and tap his fist against Kirishima’s.

They parted ways and Katsuki settled in with a book until bedtime. He found himself getting
distracted by thoughts of the conversation they’d had. Why was his first thought always that people
were looking down on him? Logically he knew the only person who’d truly always looked down
on him was Mitsuki. But every time someone made a comment about his interests or personality,
Katsuki got defensive and accusatory. It was one of those things he was well aware of but unable to
change. Always something said or thought in the moment that he’d be mad with himself for later.

When he finally went to bed Katsuki had to make an effort to push those thoughts from his mind so
he could sleep. Hopefully the therapist he was going to see could help him get his shit together.

Chapter End Notes

I was going to do a slow burn for Denki and Shouto's romance but I figured Bakugo's
romance being a slow burn was enough slow burning so boom got it in one chapter.

Todoroki is officially off the list of potential suitors for our blasty boy! Who will get
that coveted slash relationship tag with him in the end??????
 Chapter 11
Chapter Notes

I decided to put y'all out of y'alls misery. It's gonna be KiriShinBaku because I love a
throuple. Still burning it slow though.

TW: This chapter contains content about menstruation, transphobia, and homophobia.
There is also an implication of someone creeping on other dudes in the showers, but no
one actually does and it isn't an accusation, just a poorly thought out joke.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

After the shit show with that 1B extra the day before, Katsuki decided he would not make himself
a target by sitting in the cafeteria at lunch. Instead, he followed Eyebags as he skulked out of the
classroom after most of their classmates had left. No one else knew where the insomniac spent the
lunches that he didn't join the idiot brigade so Katsuki figured some light stalking was worth it if
he didn't have to put up with that 1B bitch being in the same room as him.

Honestly, Eyebags needed to brush up on the situational awareness lessons Aizawa loved to cram
down their throats. Katsuki wasn't trying very hard to avoid detection, standing barely behind the
last corner to watch until his target turned the next one and not trying to muffle his steps beyond
not just stomping like he was prone to do. The kid hadn't even glanced over his shoulder once.
Either he was shit at knowing he was being tailed or he just didn't give a fuck that he had a stalker.

Whatever the case, Katsuki managed to follow him all the way to a door that led to a small section
of the roof that the blonde had never known was there. Some students ate on the roof sure, but they
all went to the main section of the roof. UA was a weirdly shaped building, because they were Plus
Ultra extra, so there were multiple separate roofs and students were only supposed to have access to
one that was monitored during lunch.

So it was weird that Eyebags had not only found but also had access to this area. But Katsuki
wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth or some less stupid saying. Seriously, if they had
looked the gift horse in the mouth, the Greeks wouldn’t have fucking won but sure let’s turn not
checking the horse given to you by your enemies into a saying. Makes so much sense.

Anyway, he pushed open the door Shinso had disappeared through and ignored the look the purple
haired boy gave him as he sat down across from him. The roof they were on was barely wide
enough for them to sit across from each other and stretch their legs straight out, they could do it but
their feet would touch. It was longer than it was wide, but not by a lot and it was fenced in with a
great view of the wooded area of campus.

Turning his eyes from the view to the other student, Katsuki opened his bento. “Did you really not
notice me following your dumb ass? Aizawa will burn your capture scarf.”

Eyebags grunted around his mouthful of rice before he finished chewing, “I was listening to music
and usually creepy axe murderers aren’t a thing you need to look out for at a hero school.”

“You actually think there isn’t one single creepy motherfucker following people around at this
school? Even if it’s just the damn rat, we’re always being watched.” Katsuki waved his chopsticks
around before putting the food he’d been holding in them in his mouth.

“Were you talking conspiracy theories in that classroom with Todoroki yesterday? Because you’re
sounding a lot like he did when he accused me of being Aizawa’s secret love child.” Eyebags was
smirking at him.

“I think it’s fucking obvious that I was listening to that stupid fuck realize he’s in love with
Sparky.” Katsuki scowled at the snickering boy across from him, “And it’s not a conspiracy, the
little rodent sees everything that happens. There are cameras in every room with views from every
angle and if you don’t believe that I don’t know how you managed to pass the entrance exam,
because you’re obviously dumb as a rock.”

“Look at you, Bakugo the matchmaker,” Eyebags fake swooned with both hands over his heart,
“Please find me love Mr Matchmaker. I don’t wanna die an old spinster like Great Aunt Bertie.”
The falsetto voice and fake southern belle accent he used broke Katsuki, he snorted so hard he
choked on his food and had to pound on his chest to stop coughing. The smug fucker just watched
him almost choke to death with a grin.

When he could finally breathe again, Katsuki glared back at him, “How do you expect me to find
you love if you let me die choking on some sauteed vegetables?”

The asshole just smirked at him and shoved some food in his stupid fucking mouth. He rolled his
eyes and went back to his own food. A few minutes of silence passed before Katsuki decided to
add, “If you decide to pull a Half N Half and get pissy with me because I’m breathing the same air
as your shitty crush I won’t help you. I’m done helping people with their shitty feelings. I’ll just
punch you in your fucking throat.”

“Sounds fair,” Eyebags nodded, “I’ll just stuff all my feelings into a box and set it on fire.”

“If you bury the ashes you’ll have my exact method of coping with shit and I’m doing so fucking
great.” He watched the insomniac try and fail to fight back a laugh at that.

“Oh yeah, you’re the picture of great mental health. Honestly, they should study you in psychology
courses around the world.” Sarcasm dripped from every word out of Eyebags’ mouth. They both
chuckled before lapsing into a comfortable silence. The rest of lunch was peaceful, barely anything
said between them. It was a nice change from the loud ass people he usually dealt with while he
ate.

Once they finished eating, both students packed up their bentos before exiting the roof to head back
to the classroom. They had to go down a set of stairs that were so narrow they had to go single file.
Which was why Katsuki noticed the stain on the back of Eyebags’ pants. He wasn’t the kind of
asshole that was going to let someone walk around like that.

“Oi Eyebags,” He waited until the other boy turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow,
“Bathroom.”

“Uh, okay? I don’t know why you needed to tell me that. You don’t need my permission to go to
the bathroom.” Katsuki rolled his eyes at the confused expression on his face.

“No you need to go in the bathroom you dumb shit,” He grabbed Shinso by the sleeve and hauled
him into the nearby boy’s bathroom. Thankfully, the other boy didn’t protest or fight him,
probably too busy trying to figure out what was going on. Once they were safely in the restroom,
he started checking the doors to the stalls to make sure they were alone before asking, “You got
any spare pants?”
“Bakugo, I’m going to need you to explain what’s going on because this is getting kind of weird.”
He turned to look at the other teen once he was satisfied they were alone and ignored the sting of
hurt at the worried and vaguely frightened look on Eyebags’ face.

“Excuse me for having some tact. I didn’t think you wanted me to tell you that you’d bled through
your pants in the middle of the fucking hall.” It took the purple haired boy only a second to lose all
color in his face and start trying to contort his body to see the seat of his pants. “Now do you have
an extra pair of pants you want me to go get for you or do I need to grab mine?”

It didn’t appear that he’d heard a word Katsuki said, because he gave no response other than a
strangled fuck before he dashed into one of the stalls and locked the door behind himself. There
was an audible thump that Katsuki could tell was Shinso sinking to the floor. Katsuki sighed, he
needed to remember that this wasn’t how anyone would want this kind of thing to be found out.
Eyebags should have been able to come out when and if he wanted to.

He pressed his ear to the other side of the closed stall door, straining to hear if the other boy was
making any noises that would indicate how upset he was. Not hearing any hyperventilating, he
decided it was probably safe to try to talk to him.

“Eyebags, fuck …Shinso, I’m not some asshole whose gonna get weird about this or tell anyone
else. Hell after we get you sorted we can pretend I don’t know shit and I’ll never even think about
it again.” There was no noise he could pick up, Katsuki had never hated not having his hearing
aids in as much as he did in that moment, “Okay, you stay here and I’m going to go get some stuff
for you to clean yourself up. Just don’t…be losing your shit in there, alright?”

When he didn’t get an answer, Katsuki sighed and left the bathroom quickly. Thankfully, it was on
a pretty unused side of the building. The classes in this area were all for electives that very few
students ever signed up for. So he didn’t need to worry too much about someone else coming in
and spooking Shinso.

Once he was far enough away from the bathroom door that Shinso wouldn’t hear him, he took off
at a run. In no time at all he was digging his spare uniform out of his gym locker, extremely glad
he always kept a fresh one in there in case his got too sweaty. It would be a little short on the other
boy, but Katsuki figured he’d rather flash his ankles at people than walk around with blood on his
ass.

The next part was the actual obstacle, getting some hygiene products. UA is ridiculous in that they
offer free pads and tampons in all the girls bathrooms but none of the boys bathrooms. Katsuki
would be having some words with someone about that very fucking soon. But first he had to get
Shinso the shit he would need. So he made his way to the nearest girls bathroom and knocked
loudly on the door before cracking it open.

“Anyone in here?” He shouted through the small opening. The door swung open all the way and
Ponytail was staring at him with a baffled look on her face.

“Bakugo, I’m sure you are aware that this is the ladies room and as you identify as a man, you
aren’t allowed in here.” How did she make a polite statement seem like she was condemning a
pervert she’d caught red handed? He needed to learn from her, she had skills.

“Ponytail, I’m not trying to creep on anyone. I need a pad and a tampon or if they have more than
one size, one of each because I don’t know what size I need. But I need at least one of each and I
wasn’t going to go in unless it was empty.” Katsuki tried to talk as fast as possible while still being
coherent, the longer he was gone the more time Shinso had to lose his shit.
She blinked several times, processing what he’d just said. “Oh. I see, well I can grab those for you.
Just a moment.”

The door closed in his face and he backed away so he wasn’t blocking it if anyone else came
along. Katsuki wasn’t stupid, he knew Ponytail likely thought that either he was trans or that he
was doing something weird with the products. He was honestly hoping for the trans thing, he’d
rather people assume that than think he was some kind of gross weirdo.

Finally she opened the door and handed him several products. He stuffed them in his backpack next
to the pants and nodded his thanks at her before leaving. Once he was out of her sight, Katsuki took
off running again. He didn’t have too much time before lunch would be over and if Shinso was
going to freak out about this, he needed as much time as possible to calm him down.

He entered the bathroom and checked the doors on every stall but the one Shinso had tucked
himself into, they were all unlocked and empty. So he knocked on Shinso’s stall lightly, “Hey
Shinso, I’ve got the stuff you need but you have to open the door.”

There wasn’t a response for several moments. Katsuki pushed on the door a little to make sure it
was locked, it was, then he knocked again. When he got no answer he lowered himself to the
ground and leaned his back against the sink counter across from the stall. Thinking for a moment,
he figured that maybe the other boy was sure that Katsuki would judge or mistreat him the second
he opened the door. Maybe he just needed to trade a secret for a secret so he would know that
wasn’t the case.

“When I was twelve Mitsuki, my mother, caught me kissing a boy that lived down the street. She
dragged me home and beat the holy hell outta me. Broke my arm in three places, fractured a rib,
and knocked out one of my teeth. Wouldn’t let me go to the hospital for two days after as
punishment for embarrassing her by being a faggot. I’m not trying to compare trauma or sayin that
it’s the same because I know the kind of hate I get is different from the kind you get. I’m just
saying I can understand at least a bit how you feel.”

He leaned his head back against the cabinet to look up at the ceiling, “Yesterday Yamada asked me
about going into that empty room with IcyHot, he’d assumed we were making out like everyone
else had. I fucking lost it. Yelled and stormed out, that’s part of why I was too pissed to let that 1B
fuckhead go unscathed. I don’t care if people know I’m gay. I’ll tell people, fuck I’ll kiss a dude in
front of a homophobe to make a point if the dude consents.

That doesn’t stop me from panicking every time someone brings up me liking guys. Yamada had
heard a rumor about something only our class should have known about and instead of laughing it
off, I wanted to set myself on fire thinking about how everyone was walking around thinking I’m
gay. Because no matter how much I don’t care if they know, there’s always that voice in my head
that sounds just like that bitch Mitsuki screaming that I’m a freak and an embarrassment to her.”

Katsuki was trying to come up with more to say when the stall door opened. Shinso was still
sitting, knees tucked against his chest, next to the toilet. His eyes were rimmed with red, so he’d
either cried while Katsuki was gone or it was too high pitched for him to hear without his aids. The
other boy eyed him for a minute before opening his mouth.

“Mitsuki sounds like a cunt.”

He couldn’t hold back the wet sounding laugh he let out. Why did it sound wet? Fuck, once he
thought about it, he realized his eyes were probably rimmed with red too. Whatever, Shinso
probably wouldn’t call him weak when they were both crying on the bathroom floor.
“She fucking is, but she’s a cunt in jail now so fuck her.” Katsuki shrugged.

“Yeah fuck her,” Shinso chuckled before going quiet and looking down at the floor by his feet,
“My parents kicked me out when I came out to them. I live with my uncle now and he’s great, but
why do parents suck ass so much?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Katsuki grabbed the stack of things he’d gathered that was sitting
next to him and leaned forward to set it in the doorway of the stall before leaning back against the
cabinet again. “The pants are mine so they’ll be short but I like my clothes baggy so they should fit
everywhere else. Didn’t know what you use or if you had any with you so I just got a variety. Just a
heads up, they’re from the girls bathroom. Ponytail got them for me but she thinks I needed them
for myself so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Shinso took a shaky breath before grabbing the pile and dragging it closer. He closed the door and
Katsuki was about to leave to give him some privacy when he started speaking through the door,
“So you’ll let someone think you get periods but don’t want people thinking you’re gay? How does
that make sense?”

Katsuki huffed, “Beats the fuck outta me. Probably because no one ever used that to insult me for
years or because it isn’t true so I don’t gotta freak out or some shit. My brain’s too fucked up to
make sense.”

That earned him a laugh, “Yeah dude, same. Thanks for telling me your shit and getting all this for
me. I know you hate doing shit for us extras.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “Don’t be stupid, it’s a terrible look on you. I called you the opposite of an
extra just fucking yesterday and I don’t do shit I don’t want to do. So don’t go thinking I felt sorry
for you or did it because I felt obligated or whatever.”

“ The opposite of an extra, are you allergic to the word friend?” The teasing tone in his voice made
Katsuki relax a bit, if he was back to his snarky self then Katsuki probably wouldn’t have to deal
with feelings much longer.

“I’m not allergic to beating your ass which is what I’ll do if you don’t shut the fuck up.” Katsuki
snarked back at him, no heat in his words.

Shinso snorted, “Okay Blasty.”

He rolled his eyes at the sarcasm and stood up to clean up any evidence of tears on his face while
the other boy cleaned himself up. The silence only lasted a few seconds before quiet cursing from
the stall had him turning around.

"Why you trying to fill up the swear jar in there, Eyebags?"

Shinso’s answer was quiet enough Katsuki almost missed it, "I can't leave campus unless I put the
reason why on the request slip and I doubt Aizawa will accept 'ask no questions and I'll tell no lies'
as a valid reason."

"You don't have any of the shit in your dorm?" He wasn't asking to be an asshole, he just thought
that would be something you tried to stock up on.

"Nope, I'm on testosterone and this had stopped happening. I know it can randomly come back, but
it's one of those things you know can happen but you don't actually expect it to happen to you." He
sounded so defeated and exasperated all at the same time.
Katsuki sighed, "Okay tell me what brand and size and shit you want and I'll get it for you."

"I know they're fostering you, but do you really think they'll let you go get me tampons without
explaining shit?" Shinso asked.

"No but I'll text Yamada to pick it up on his way to get Izuku from daycare and I'll tell him to not
ask questions. He'll mind his business or I'll make him mind it." Katsuki was already typing out the
message, just waiting for the product information.

Shinso sighed loudly before rattling off what he needed. Katsuki added it in before sending the
message and reported back to Shinso that Yamada replied with a thumbs up and no questions were
asked.

The stall door opened and Shinso stepped out, his bag over one shoulder as he stepped up to wash
his hands. Katsuki's pants fit him pretty well considering their difference in height. Other than the
visible ankles it was almost impossible to tell they weren’t Shinso’s regular uniform pants.

“So we’re both fucked up queer boys huh? Do we start a club now, hold hands, sing and make
friendship bracelets?” The tiny smirk on the insomniac caught Katsuki’s eye and, for some reason,
he found himself thinking about holding Shinso’s hand. The sweat gathering on his palms was
definitely a result of the stress he’d feel holding someone’s hand and trying to not poison them. It
had absolutely no connection to whatever the fuck was happening in his chest.

“If we start that club we’d have to invite Half N Half, you realize that right?” He asked, wiping his
palms off on his pants.

Shinso groaned, “You’re right, he just reeks of trauma. Plus we’d have to invite Monoma because
there’s no way that kid is one hundred percent straight and I’d rather chew off my own feet than
spend time with him on purpose.”

“Yep, I thought I had issues then I met that bitch and realized I’m practically an angel.” Katsuki
chuckled as they exited the bathroom. He glanced around to make sure they were alone before
saying, “I meant it when I said we could pretend none of this happened and I’ll never mention this
until you want to come out on your terms.”

The purple haired boy patted Katsuki’s shoulder, raising his hand up to do so slowly so that
Katsuki could avoid it if he wanted. “Nope, we’re besties who share secrets now and there’s
nothing you can do about it.”

“Fuck.” The maniacal laugh he got in return echoed in the hall as they walked back to class.

They had art history right after lunch that day and the substitute gave them a study hour. Katsuki
was finished with all his work and had even worked ahead in some classes. So he decided to work
on something else. Luckily, the teacher filling in until they found Midnight's replacement didn’t
give a shit that he was on his phone the entire class.

He spent his time furiously tapping away at the screen of his phone, getting out rough ideas before
polishing them up, working out the kinks, and arranging it so that it flowed smoothly. By the time
he was done, Katsuki had probably the most professional project proposal ever written by a fifteen
year old. Finally, he attached it to an email he’d already drafted for the essay he needed to turn in,
that he’d written the night before because he’s not a slacker, and sent it off. Now he just had to
wait and see if Nezu was as logical as he led everyone to believe.

Heroics practical lessons were always Katsuki’s favorite. Sure he saw the value of learning the
things that don’t require running around participating in mock battles or pretend rescues, but
nothing could beat the feeling he got from doing actual hero work, even fake hero work. It didn’t
hurt that All Might was their heroics teacher, of course it was awkward now that Katsuki was
responsible for ending his career, but avoiding him during class was easier than doing it in the
teachers dorms.

So usually Katsuki was in a good mood during heroics, especially after his team won their
simulation. But that afternoon soured quickly after their win. They were watching the next round
of students attempting to rescue dummies from a disaster zone when he saw Tape Arms grab
Katsuki’s towel from where he’d thrown it on the bench next to him. He turned and snatched it out
of the boy’s hand as fast as he could.

“What the fuck are you doing? That’s my towel.” He scowled at the boy, eyeing his hands to see if
they were visibly wet from the sweat he’d wiped off on the towel. The sick feeling in his stomach
lessened when he saw dry hands. With how quickly he’d grabbed it, Sero would be fine.

“Woah dude, grabbed the wrong one, sorry.” Tape Arms raised his hands in surrender, there was a
teasing grin on his face so Katsuki knew the other student wasn’t pissed about being snapped at.

“Well pay more attention idiot, don’t touch my fucking towel.” Katsuki draped the towel in
question over his shoulder, unwilling to set it down and risk a repeat.

“You think I want to use your stinky towel, Blasty?” Tape Arms asked with a smirk, “Hard pass.”

“You sayin’ I smell asshole?” Katsuki sparked off, partly to get rid of the sweat this situation had
produced and partly because his anger was rising at the insinuation.

It wasn’t the tape hero that took issue with the blonde’s anger though. Instead, Glasses came out of
nowhere to wave his arms around, “Bakugo, it is unbecoming of a UA student to react so harshly to
a simple mistake. Furthermore, it is just a towel. While I’m positive Sero didn’t even realize he’d
grabbed the wrong one, this is an overreaction to having a towel of all things taken.”

The more that sanctimonious prick swung his arms around in Katsuki’s personal space, the more
sweat he felt gathering on his hands. His eyes automatically started tracking the movement, ready
at any moment to doge if they came too close. Unfortunately, Glasses didn’t miss the action.

“Another thing I’ve been meaning to bring up with you, Bakugo, is that you stare very rudely at my
arms when I speak. Everyone in the class is aware that I am autistic and this is one of my stims. It
is very rude and frankly unprofessional for you to make such a big deal out of it.” Glasses was
frowning so hard Katsuki was surprised he didn’t automatically develop frown lines.

“Fuck off Glasses, not everything is about you.” Katsuki snarled at him as he pushed past the class
representative to head to the locker rooms. He slammed his shit around in anger as he got
undressed and showered. What the fuck made that asshole think Katsuki gave a fuck about his
stims?

Yeah he watched his hands, but Katsuki never gave a fuck when Sparky played with Tail Boy’s tail
fur or clicked his tongue while they studied. He didn’t say shit when Pinky tapped her foot
excessively or spent an entire class ripping a sheet of paper into tiny little pieces for no reason
other than she needed something to do with her hands. When IcyHot rocked in his chair hard
enough for even Katsuki to hear the squeaks it made, did he make a scene? No.

He wasn’t some ableist asshole. Fuck, he always had rubber pencil grips in his desk because
Sparky never had any but when it storms there’s too much electricity in the air and his hands shook
too much to hold his pencil without them. Katsuki was the one to slip the name of an app for
people who frequently go nonverbal around people who don’t know sign to Animal Boy.

As soon as he’d found out Pikachu had ADHD and dyslexia he’d gotten rid of the nickname
Dunceface. Because it could be taken to mean he thought the other boy was stupid instead of what
it actually meant, that Sparky had a habit of making dumbass faces just to get a laugh out of
people. He wasn’t going to be one of those jackasses that made someone with mental disorders feel
like they were dumb just because their brain works a bit differently.

Did any of that matter to Glasses? Nope. Because of course Bakugo Katsuki was just some piece of
shit who went out of his way to make people feel as terrible as possible. If anyone else had been
tracking his hands, Glasses would have given them the benefit of the doubt.

He scrubbed at his skin until he calmed down enough to get dressed and return to the viewing area.
The last group was almost finished so people were probably expecting him not to come back.
Which is why they felt safe having a loud ass conversation about him. He opened the door and
stepped into the room, planning to quietly watch Kirishima attempt to carry more dummies than he
possibly could. Instead, he was greeted by Cheeks talking to Earphones about him.

“Bakugo’s just such an ass for no reason! Why does it matter that Sero accidentally grabbed the
wrong towel? It doesn’t. Then Iida points out something that bothers him and Bakugo just yells
and storms off.” Cheeks crossed her arms while Earphones rolled her eyes.

“There’s also the fact that he ignores people half the time they try talking to him. The other night I
asked him to hand me the salt at dinner and he wouldn’t even look at me. He even ignores his
actual friends.” That pissed him off, he’d never heard her ask for shit and just because she had
super hearing doesn’t mean no one in the world had hearing issues. It’s not like he just chose to not
hear things.

Glitter boy giggled, “I don’t know how Bakugo ever managed to make friends. Poor Kirishima
takes so much abuse from him and still calls the brute his best friend. It’s sad really.”

That made him freeze when he’d been so close to exploding just a second before. He wasn’t
abusing Kirishima was he? Yes he shoved and pushed the other boy when he invaded his personal
space or made a ridiculous comment. Sure he smacked the back of his head or punched his arm
sometimes, but those were light, friendly things! That was just how some people bonded and
showed affection. Wasn’t it?

Suddenly, he was rethinking every interaction he’d ever had with Kirishima and wondering why
the redhead bothered to befriend him. Katsuki was clearly more like Mitsuki than he’d ever
thought. Why would someone like Kirishima want to be around such a monster? Katsuki leaned
against the wall, his body shaking as his thoughts raced. Before he could start panic sweating,
Pinky’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“What is wrong with you people? Bakugo doesn’t abuse Kiri and he isn’t an ass or a brute. Yes,
Blasty has rough edges, but he’s a sweetheart under all that growling and yelling. Plus he never
says anything that truly hurts on purpose.” She was staring down the small group that had been
discussing him with her hands on her hips.

Pikachu came up behind her with a frown, “Yeah! He stopped calling me dunceface as soon as he
realized it hurt my feelings and gives me pencil grips when my hands shake and he lectures us all
on our study and eating habits. Bakugo cares about us, he just shows it differently than you want
him to.”
Tape Arms wrapped one arm around Pikachu’s shoulders with a scowl on his usually calm face,
“Blasty has his issues like everyone, but I’m the one he freaked out at about the towel and I don’t
give a shit. So he has a thing about people touching his stuff, I just gotta not touch his stuff. No big
deal.” He shrugged, “And it’s pretty unheroic of you to be standing around talking like this about
your classmate who was literally just kidnapped. Cut the guy some slack. If I had been kidnapped
and then dumped into foster care for whatever reason I’d probably be touchy about some things
too.”

Raccoon Eyes nodded aggressively, “Plus just watch Blasty Boy with Izuku and tell me he’s an
ass. He’s so soft for that baby it’s disgustingly sweet. Seriously, I've got five new cavities just
thinking about it.”

The weight that had been pressing on his lungs lessened with every word they said in his defense.
Surely if he was actually abusive to any of them they wouldn’t be standing up for him like that?
Either way, he didn’t want to listen to any more of this when he could be watching Kirishima crush
rescue training.

“Oi Raccoon Eyes, you’ve got five new cavities because you eat too much fucking sugar. I saw
you shoving those skittles in your mouth during class today.” Every head in the room snapped in
his direction as soon as he started speaking. Several people paled and All Might, who’d been
blissfully unaware of the loud ass conversation somehow, was looking between them with
confusion.

The girl in question rolled her eyes and pouted at him, “Blasty how else do you expect me to have
the energy to do math if I don’t have my afternoon candy?”

“If you got enough sleep and ate properly your energy levels would stay consistent and you
wouldn’t need a boost from shitty snacks every day.” He crossed his arms and kept his face stern
the same way he did when Izuku didn’t want to eat his vegetables.

“Okay Mom, I’ll go to bed on time and eat my spinach.” She stuck her tongue out at him. He
responded by flipping her off.

Before the conversation could go anywhere else, the exercise ended and the last team was making
their way back to the viewing room to go over their performance. They were dismissed soon after
and Katsuki bypassed the locker rooms since he’d already cleaned up. So he didn’t have to watch
them awkwardly try to not stare at him after he’d caught them talking shit.

Katsuki got to go straight to the apartment where he was jumped on by a very excited Izuku. It had
been hero day at daycare so they all got to draw pictures of their favorite heroes and show the class
while they told everyone why they picked that hero. Izuku’s classmates were apparently extremely
impressed that his big brother was already about to take his provisional license exam and now
Izuku was the most popular kid at daycare.

He slipped in his hearing aids so he could listen to his brother tell him all about the different
activities they did during hero day. Mostly they played dress up with hero costumes and watched
hero movies, but Izuku acted like it was the most fun he’d ever had so Katsuki made sure to react
with the appropriate enthusiasm.

Aizawa was making dinner before Izuku was done regaling them with stories from his day.
Yamada took the opportunity presented when Izuku was distracted with trying to assist with
preparing the food to hand Katsuki a bag.

“Here’s what you asked for, Listener. No questions, I promise. Just let me know if you need more
or I got the wrong ones or whatever.” He smiled softly at the teenager as Katsuki took the bag from
him, “Also, I don’t know if this is for you or someone else, but either way, I’m glad you knew you
could ask me to do this for you.”

Katsuki huffed and moved to stuff the bag into his backpack, “You’d be a pretty shitty foster
parent and hero if you refused something so small.”

Yamada just grinned at him like he was in on a secret.

He managed to ignore the hero’s nonsense well into dinner. Then Aizawa decided to give him a
resigned look during a quiet moment.

“Katsuki, do you want to tell me why Nezu wanted me to inform you that your proposal was
approved and would be implemented by the end of classes tomorrow?” He sounded ready to crawl
into a cave and sleep for a decade. Katsuki smirked back at him.

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see when it’s implemented, won’t you?” He stuffed more food
into his mouth with a smug expression.

“If you and Nezu are planning to take over the world, I want a raise and another free period for
naps. Take ethics away from the support kids, they don’t need it. Support kids don’t have morals.”
Aizawa grumbled that last sentence to himself but they all laughed at him just the same.

“You just don’t want to teach Brugmansia.” Katsuki snorted.

Yamada looked at him in confusion, “Brugmansia?”

He waved his chopsticks, “You know, Zoomy Eyes, Explosion Girl. Used Glasses as free
advertisement at the sports festival.”

“Mei Hatsume,” Aizawa nodded, “but why Brugmansia?”

Yamada still looked confused, “What even is Brugmansia?”

Katsuki sighed, “It’s also called angel’s trumpets. It’s a flower.”

Yamada’s eyes widened and he cooed, clasping his hands in front of his chest, “Awwww you
named her after a flower called angel’s trumpets. That’s so sweet! Is it because you think she looks
like an angel? Do you look at her and think she’s pretty like flowers? Do you have a crush?”

Katsuki stared back at him with an incredulous expression, “Brugmansia is a pink hallucinogenic
flower that either gives you a horrible time or kills you.”

Yamada looked vaguely horrified, but that wasn’t what Katsuki cared about. Because for the first
time since he’d met the man, Aizawa was full on laughing. His stoic, monotone teacher/foster
parent was shaking the table with laughter. Katsuki could die happy, he’d achieved the impossible.

When they made it back to the dorms, Katsuki texted Eyebags to have him come up to his room.
Izuku was occupied with a puzzle while he handed the requested products over to the insomniac.

“Thanks bestie.” The asshole smirked at him. Before he could make a snarky reply, the door
opened behind them.

“Hey Bakug…oh sorry I didn’t realize you had company.” Kirishima gave them a sheepish smile
as he rubbed at the back of his neck. Katsuki opened his mouth to berate him for not knocking, but
Shinso was quicker.

“Nah, I was about to leave anyway.” The purple haired teen made to move toward the door but the
redhead shook his head frantically.

“I don’t want to chase you off! You can come too actually! I was just going to invite Bakugo and
Izuku to play some Mario Kart in my room. Seriously, you should join, it’s always fun with more
people.” He flashed his blinding, sharp toothed smile at Eyebags and Katsuki watched him fold
like a cheap chair.

“Yeah okay, I just need to stop by my room real quick then I’ll be back.” That had Kirishima
moving out of his way with an excited hurry back bro so Shinso could scurry out of the room.

Izuku was dancing around by Katuski’s feet, shouting about how excited he was to play Mario
Kart. His words were slurring a bit though, so Katsuki crouched down in front of him with
narrowed eyes.

“Izu, what’s in your mouth?” He hoped the kid would give in easily, for once. Only to be
disappointed when he shook his head, green curls bouncing wildly. Katsuki sighed heavily, “Izuku
Midoriya, you spit it out right now or we won’t go play in Shitty Hair’s room.”

That had the boy opening his mouth real quick. He stuck out his little tongue so his brother could
pick the puzzle piece up off it. He’d specifically gotten one with larger pieces so Izuku wouldn’t be
able to swallow them, but the texture was just right for chewing apparently because this was the
third time he’d had to fish a piece out of his mouth.

“Kiddo you know you aren’t supposed to chew on your toys.” He wiped the spit off on his pants
before tossing the piece back with the others. Izuku looked down, kicking his feet against the
floor.

“Sorry Kacchan, it just makes my mouth feel good.” Katsuki patted his head, not wanting the kid
to feel too bad. He knew it was likely a stim and he’d tried chewy necklaces, but they hadn’t found
one with a texture that Izuku liked yet.

“It’s okay bud. I’ll order some more of those necklaces for you to try out okay? But until then, no
chewing on things that you could choke on. Chew on your sleeves or hoodie strings.” Izuku nodded
happily at that compromise and they both turned to head over to Kirishima’s room. Katsuki had
forgotten the other boy was still standing just outside his room watching them.

He had a big, dopey smile on his face. Izuku ran past him but Kirishima kept looking at Katsuki
with that dumbass look.

“What?” He snapped at his friend, the expression and the staring was making him squirmy and he
didn’t like it.

Kirishima just shook his head, “Nothing man, it’s just cute watching you act like that with Izuku.”

Katsuki felt his face heat up and he quickly shoved past the other boy with a scoff. “I’m not
fucking cute, Shitty Hair.”

The only response was a quiet hum that didn’t sound like agreement.

It didn't take long for Eyebags to turn up and soon the four of them were elbowing each other and
grabbing for controllers in the hopes of messing up their opponents. They silently agreed to let
Izuku win a few rounds and the kid had a fucking blast. He bounced with excitement any time he
didn’t end up in last place, so when he won it was like he’d just gotten the gold at the olympics.

Thankfully, the excitement tired the kid out quickly so it only took one story before he was out like
a light. Katsuki wasn’t ready for sleep yet, so he decided to rejoin his two classmates in
Kirishima’s room. When he pushed the door open he was greeted with the sight of Kirishima
braiding Shinso’s hair.

“What exactly happened while I was gone that game night turned into salon time?” He smirked
when both boys jumped, having not been aware of his presence.

Kirishima recovered quickly, “Oh Shinso here kept messing with his bangs because his hair’s
getting long. Apparently he didn’t get to get it cut before we moved into the dorms. So I offered to
pull it back for him, but the best way to keep hair out of your face is a braid obviously!”

“Obviously.” Katsuki repeated with a grin, watching Shinso flush as he stared down at his lap.
“Good thing for you I know how to cut hair.”

Both of them looked up at Katsuki with shocked expressions. Eyebags asked, “You know how to
cut hair? For real?”

Rolling his eyes, he pushed off the door frame he’d been leaning on, “No for fake. Yes, I know
how to cut hair. I used to make the stylists teach me any time I got bored at a photoshoot and the
photographer didn’t need me.”

Kirishima raised an eyebrow, “Photoshoot?”

He waved his hand dismissively, “Mitsuki and Masaru, my birth parents, are fashion designers.
They had me modeling for them before I could walk.”

Shinso made a choking noise, “You’re a model. You are telling us you’re a real life, been in
magazines model.”

“Yes, that's what modeling means. Congratulations on connecting those dots.” Katuski sat down
next to the shocked boy, pinching some of his hair between his fingers, “I could cut this for you
easy. We only had the best stylists and they weren’t about to piss off the designer’s kid so they
taught me everything. Which is good for you, Shitty Hair, since I know how to dye roots when you
need that since I doubt you’ll be able to do that all on your own.”

Kirishima sputtered, “I-I don’t dye my hair!”

It was Katsuki’s turn to raise an eyebrow, “You do realize we’ve been in the same communal
shower at the same time before right? I know for a fact that isn’t your natural hair color.”

The name Red Riot had never been truer than at that moment when Kirishima turned a violent
shade of red, brighter than his hair. “Bro, you peeked in the shower? That’s not manly! Why…why
would you do that?”

That had the blonde rolling his eyes, “Calm down Shitty Hair, I caught a glimpse one time as I was
leaving the shower and you were entering. I’m not a perv.”

The red was not lessening and Katsuki was starting to think the other boy was about to pass out, “I
think I’m going to take a page out of Shinso’s book and start waiting to shower until I get back to
the dorms. Private stalls are looking real good right now.”

Katsuki glanced at Shinso, who was almost as red as Kirishima and not making eye contact with
 him. He let out a frustrated noise, “I’m not some fucking creep!” He looked between the two boys
as he talked, “If you’re that uncomfortable in a shower with me, I’ll just not use the communal
showers anymore. Fuck.”

He stopped looking at his friends, feeling slightly sick at the thought of the two of them thinking
he was a pervert who purposely ogled other people in the shower. He had just wanted to tease
them, playful banter that would make them want to keep spending time with him. He needed to
seem fun, not like a creep.

Kirishima set a hand on his arm lightly, “Bro you don’t make me uncomfortable. I was trying to
joke around. I know you aren’t like that.”

The tension in his shoulders eased, then he glanced over at Shinso and realized why the boy was
bright red. Fuck, this whole talk wasn’t something he should have started the same fucking day he
found out he was trans.

“Hey, I wouldn’t peek on anyone in the shower, communal or private. No one in our class would so
you don’t need to worry.” He lightly bumped his shoulder with the still flushed boy’s. Shinso
finally looked up at him.

“That’s not what I was thinking, I know none of you would do that. I was just thinking about
something else, sorry. Didn’t mean to make you think I was uncomfortable.” Shinso was telling
the truth, it was written all over his face. But that didn’t explain why he’d been unable to look
Katsuki in the eye during that talk. If it wasn’t the fact that he was trans, Katsuki had no idea what
could have made him act like that. But he wasn’t going to push him on it like a dick.

“Well whatever. I can cut and dye hair if either of you losers ever needs my services.” Katsuki
huffed.

Kirishima bumped his fists together in his hero pose, “Hell yeah, spa night!”

Katsuki and Shinso shared an exasperated look but both agreed they could have a spa night
between the three of them sometime. They went back to playing games until Katsuki was ready to
turn in for the night. He fell asleep that night with a goofy fucking smile on his face.

Chapter End Notes

Shinso was totally trying not to picture those two in the shower and that's why he
couldn't look at them.

I am aware the gift horse thing doesn't actually come from the trojan horse, it's just
always the first thing I think of when I hear that saying. Also you should still look a
gift horse in the mouth, dental health is very important even in horses and so is
knowing the age of the horse you're caring for. Like if someone gifts you a horse that's
close to death don't you wanna know that?
 Chapter 12
Chapter Notes

A good section of this chapter was written through talk to text while I was making the
six hour drive to visit my parents which means I spent a lot of time editing because oh
my god either my microphone is fucked up or I have a much worse southern accent
than I ever thought. Fingers crossed I got all the mistakes.

TW: This chapter has several uses of the t-slur

It was finally the last day of their first week back. Which was wild because it felt like years had
passed since he’d been spending his days trying to distract Mitsuki away from his brother during
her rages. Izuku was excited to spend time with their guardians over the weekend. Katsuki wasn’t
excited per se, but he had decided to test out his hearing aids around people other than Yamada and
Aizawa. He’d gotten mostly used to wearing them so he figured it was time to ease into wearing
them in more crowded places. First he just had to get through the school day and then therapy.

Katsuki was sitting with his feet up on his desk waiting for class to start and arguing with
Kirishima and Shinso about the best character in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Obviously, it was Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong, but he would also accept Izumi Curtis.
Shinso claimed it was Riza hawkeye which would be okay if the two actual best characters didn’t
exist. She’s a badass and Mustang would never have gotten anywhere without her. Kirishima said
it was a tie between Greed (which was almost acceptable) and Major Armstrong (which was
obviously only because he was manly ). Katsuki was about to lose his shit.

“You’re telling me you honestly think that Greed is better than the woman who killed a General in
front of a shit load of her men and pushed him into wet concrete and everyone there was so loyal to
her no one said shit about it, they just made sure the concrete was level. Are you insane?” The
blonde was so close to shaking the redhead until his brain cells started working properly.

“Bro, Greed literally sacrificed himself to defeat his own kind and his fight with Wrath? The most
manly fight!” Kirishima was turned around in his seat to face Katsuki, slapping his hands on the
desk next to the blonde’s feet to emphasize his point. Shinso had sat himself down in Mina’s seat
since it was next to Katsuki instead of behind him and she was standing next to Sparky’s desk
bothering him about something.

“No but Hawkeye cool as a cucumber pulling a gun out of her grocery bag when Barry the Chopper
tried to attack her? Or when she pulled a gun on Envy as Mustang and was all ‘I lied’ right before
she rocked Envy’s shit? Nothing is better than that.” Shinso was speaking in the least monotone
voice Katsuki had ever heard out of him.

“But what about everything Izumi Curtis has ever done? Literally kicking everyone’s ass with like
half her internal organs missing.” Katsuki watched both boys consider that argument with a smirk
on his face. No one but Olivier Armstrong could beat out Izumi Curtis, and it was very close in his
opinion.

Kirishima nodded, “Okay, that’s fair. She is pretty amazing.”

Tape Arms decided to butt in before Katsuki could revel in his victory, “Did anyone else notice
that all of Bakugo’s favorite characters are women? Remember when we talked about Fairy Tail?
He talked so much about Erza Scarlet you’d think he was married to her.”

“Who gives a fuck about gender?” Katsuki scowled, “A badass is a badass. Only an idiot picks a
favorite based on gender. My favorite is whoever could take me in a fight.”

“A true feminist icon everyone.” Shinso chuckled.

“That’s so manly.” Kirishima grinned at him like a lunatic.

He rolled his eyes, removing his feet from the desk when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He'd
figured out the time Aizawa usually comes in and had an alarm set to vibrate so he knew when to
sit as proper as he ever did to avoid pissing off the hobo. His friends noticed him straightening up
and hurried to their seats as well. Not even a full minute later Aizawa was pushing open the door
and starting homeroom.

Just as he finished updating them on school news the intercom crackled to life and Nezu’s voice
filled the room.

“Good morning students and staff, I just have a quick announcement before I let you continue on
with your day. Firstly, it has been brought to my attention that UA currently only supplies free
menstruation products in the girls bathrooms and not the boys. These products will be placed into
all bathrooms on campus from now on as people of every gender use them. Next, every student
will be receiving an email this morning from UA administration with a link.

The link will take you to a form that every student will be able to use to request needed hygiene
items anonymously. The person who proposed this system pointed out that it is unfair of us to force
a student to come out as transgender to their teacher if they need certain products immediately.
Furthermore, trans males that are out and cisgendered females may not be comfortable approaching
their teacher in person to request these items and may need them well before their families would
be able to send them.”

There was a quiet murmur in the room from people, mostly the girls, talking about how good the
idea was. Nezu’s voice easily drowned them out as he continued, “The form will require you to
specify what brand and style of product is needed as well as what dorm you live in. Once the
requested items have been obtained, they will be placed in the supply closet of the laundry room in
whichever dorm was listed on the request form, a notification will be sent to the device that
submitted the form and the requester can pick up their items at their convenience.

There is no need to worry about paying for these items, we here at UA are aware that menstruation
is not something you choose to do and it can be expensive, and sometimes, impossible to pay for
the items needed. We are a school that cares about the well being of our students and I believe that
none of you should have to worry about where you will get the funds to pay for things like this. In
that spirit, we will also provide these products for free to students who don’t wish to remain
anonymous, simply let your homeroom teacher know what to add to the list for your dorm
shopping trip.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank the person who devised and proposed this entire
system, Bakugo Katsuki of class 1A. Thank you, young Bakugo, for embodying the spirit of being
a hero and continuing to think of others. Thank you all for your time and have a great day.”

The intercom clicked off and the room was dead silent for exactly one second before Shinso
chuckled behind him, “You actually are a feminist icon, huh Bakugo?”
Katsuki was about to make a snarky reply when he was tackled from the side by Pinky, who had
launched herself at him.

“Oh my god Blasty, I’m getting free tampons because of you!” She was sitting on his legs because
she’d managed to knock him out of his seat, “I know you’re in love with Momo, but forget her and
marry me instead. Anyone who gets me free tampons is husband material.”

He shoved her off his lap, “Get a higher bar before you get married, Pinky. That shit is how you
end up with a deadbeat spouse.”

She threw her head back and cackled while he slid back into his chair. Sparky leaned over Raccoon
Eyes’ empty seat with a wide grin, “I didn’t know you were in love with Momo, Bakugo. A man of
taste I see.”

“I’m not in love with Ponytail for fucks sake.” Katsuki huffed, straightening out the shit on his
desk that Pinky had knocked around. The annoying pink menace finally peeled herself off the floor
and threw an arm around his shoulders.

“Come on Blasty, you can admit you like Momo.” She gasped, removing the arm from his
shoulders right before he could shove it off and putting her hands on her cheeks excitedly, “Oh my
gosh did you propose the tampon thing for her? To prove your love? That’s so cute.”

“I will actually fucking murder you.” He snarled at her as she skipped back to her seat, “I proposed
it because only offering free shit in the girls bathrooms is transphobic and people shouldn’t have to
steal the entire supply from the bathroom if they don’t want to ask a teacher for shit or don’t have
the fucking money.”

He heard Kirishima’s declaration that he was the manliest and several girls agreeing with him. But
there was one voice that he focused on. Tail Boy had said it loudly enough that Aizawa, watching
the chaos from the front with a tired expression, clearly heard it and Katsuki with his shit ass ears
heard it so he clearly didn’t care who heard it.

“What the fuck did you just say, Tail Bitch?” Katsuki screamed, standing from his seat but not
making a move toward the asshole.

The moron decided to accept the challenge and raised his voice to repeat his shitty statement, “I
said you should have kept the idea to yourself so I wouldn’t have to look at such gross things every
time I want to use the bathroom.”

Katsuki heard the angry shouts from almost every person in the room, but he’d always been great
at being the loudest person in any situation, “No one is leaving the used shit out for you to see so
there’s nothing fucking gross about pads and shit. You only think it’s gross because you’re a sexist
asshole who only wants to think about vaginas when you’re sexualizing them for your own
pleasure. So shut the fuck up before I blast your mouth off your ugly ass face.”

The blonde jackass was silent, mouth hanging open in shock. The rest of the room was full of noise
though. People were clapping, several idiots were laughing and whistling and several more were
shouting various versions of tell him Bakugo! Katsuki just continued to stare down the jerk until
Aizawa called out for everyone to shut up. Once they were paying attention, the man sent a glare
of his own to the dumbass extra in front of him.

“Ojiro you will be serving three days of after school detention starting Monday and on Monday I
expect you to hand in a three thousand word essay on the sexism that surrounds menstruation and
the period product industry. Now the rest of homeroom will be a silent study time.”
The teacher crawled into his sleeping bag and everyone at least pretended to be working on
something until class ended. Well before lunch rolled around Katsuki had decided he would be
nowhere near the cafeteria during lunch, between every class he’d been hassled by the girls
thanking him for free pads and tampons. They deserved them, but he didn’t need to fucking hear
about it all the time. He didn’t even want to think about how many people would be bothering him
during lunch if he showed up in the cafeteria.

Before he could make an escape with Shinso, Kirishima blocked both of them with a nervous
expression, “Hey Bakubro, I forgot to ask where you went for lunch yesterday. I figured you
wouldn’t want to eat with everyone again today but I really wanna eat with my best bro so I was
hoping I could tag along today?”

Katsuki turned and raised an eyebrow at Shinso who threw his head back and sighed heavily,
“Fine, but that’s it. I’m not going to share my spot with anyone other than you two.”

When Katsuki turned back to Kirishima, the redhead was giving them his blinding smile. The three
of them made their way to the secluded roof spot where the three of them settled in side by side so
they could take in the view through the safety fence.

“Shinbro, this is the coolest lunch hideaway ever. Thank you for letting me come!” Kirishima said
happily as he opened his bento.

“You can thank me by never calling me Shinbro again.” The insomniac in question deadpanned.
Katsuki snorted but Kirishima was pouting.

“Oh come on, it’s a manly name for a manly guy. Bakubro doesn’t have issues with his manly
name.” Was there some class out there teaching kicked puppy expressions, because Kirishima had
clearly mastered it just like Izuku when he wasn’t getting his way.

“I personally heard him complain about it several times when you first started calling him that,”
Shinso scoffed, “also he doesn’t have the ability to make you throw yourself off this roof so think
about that.”

“That is so not manly, bro.” Kirishima shook his head in mock disappointment.

Katsuki had a thought in that moment that he couldn’t let go of. So he turned to the shark toothed
idiot to ask, “Do all of your million siblings also call everything manly or are you just extra fucking
weird?”

Shinso laughed loudly into his lunch while Kirishima made a noise of offense, “Dude that is so
rude. First of all I only have a thousand siblings and you know that. Secondly calling things manly
isn’t weird, it's manly. Don’t be mean just because you aren’t as manly as I am.”

Katsuki shoved him in retaliation right as Shinso got control of himself. The purple haired boy
glanced over at the blonde, “What even made you ask that in the first place?”

Shrugging, Katsuki replied, “He said it and I just thought of a house full of shark toothed, dark
haired kids running around screaming about everything being manly and I had to ask so I could
send condolence flowers to their poor mothers if they did.”

Now both of his friends were laughing, Kirishima was trying to protest, but couldn’t get the words
out through his laughter. When he could speak again he said, “I could just picture Mama’s face if
you sent her an edible arrangement with a card that said sorry your kids are so obnoxious.”

“Oh please, you know there’d be at least five curse words in there too.” Shinso deepened his voice
to sound more like Katsuki, “ Sorry your dumbass kids are so fucking obnoxious. We’d have to
send a second gift to apologize for the shit Bakugo wrote on the card.”

That had all three of them chuckling even Katsuki, though he also smacked the back of Shinso’s
head lightly while he laughed.

The amazing plan to avoid everyone wasn’t as well thought out as he’d thought because when they
were on their way back to class, there was a small group of third years waiting for him one hallway
over from their classroom. It was obvious they were waiting for him since none of the third year
classrooms were anywhere near the first year hallway and as soon as Katsuki and his friends turned
the corner the group pushed themselves off the wall they’d been leaning on to block the hallway.

Considering they were all boys, Katsuki figured either there were a lot more trans students at UA
than he’d ever thought or these guys had a fucking problem with him. Because of how Katsuki's
life works, of course it was the second option.

That was made extremely clear to him when the tallest of the third years stalked forward to get
right in Katsuki’s face and snarl, “So you’re the freak who likes trannies so much. What makes
you think you get to just let trannies in our bathrooms?”

Trying to keep his cool, Katsuki was taking deep breaths before he committed a murder and got his
name added to a villain list. Then another one of the third years stepped forward to sneer, “I bet
this bitch is a tranny. You got a pussy under those pants, tranny?”

Fuck deep breaths. Katsuki launched himself forward to bury his fist into the tall one’s stomach
before landing a kick right between the second one’s legs. Both boys were doubled over in pain as
the blonde loomed over them with smoking fists, barely containing the explosions he so wanted to
blast them with.

“I’m going to give you all one chance to get the fuck out of here because if I have to look at your
disgusting, transphobic faces for one more minute, I’m going to make you a smear on the wall.”
He watched with narrowed eyes as the last two from the group came at him to avenge their friends.
Just as he was about to rush forward to meet them, a streak of red flew past him.

Kirishima slammed a fully hardened fist into one guy’s face at the same time he took a hold of the
other one’s arm. Before the one hit the ground, he had the other pressed face first into the wall
with his arm twisted behind his back. The redhead leaned forward to speak directly into the guy’s
ear.

“It’s super unmanly to corner a bunch of first years and shoot off hateful nonsense. How could
people like you even get into a hero school?” He pulled the boy’s arm further back until he let out a
yell and Katsuki decided he needed to be the voice of reason for once in his life.

He stepped over the one he’d nailed in the balls who was still curled in the fetal position on the
floor like a whiny bitch to put a hand on Kirishima’s shoulder. “Hey, let’s maybe not rip off these
losers’ arms. Aizawa will probably give you at least a week's detention for that.”

Kirishima let go of the guy who immediately fell to the floor. His friend turned around, looking
almost as close to murder as Katsuki felt on a regular basis. It was honestly a little terrifying.
Before the blonde could say anything else, the tall bitch he’d gut punched got up off the floor to
make a grab for him.

“Figures a villain like you would be a tranny loving bitch.” The guy made it exactly one step
before Shinso, who’d been watching the chaos up to that point in the hopes it would end before he
had to step in, grabbed a fist full of his hair and used it to slam the guy’s head against the wall.

“And it figures and idiot like you would decide it was a good idea to attack three hero course
students when you’re from the fucking business course.” Shinso’s usual monotone voice had been
replaced with one laced in anger. He kept his hold on the guy’s hair, keeping him pressed to the
wall right up until a capture weapon wrapped around him and pulled him away from the scene.
Katsuki and Kirishima were treated to the same and none of them were surprised to be faced with a
pissed Aizawa.

“Quickly and in as few words as possible, explain why I shouldn’t just expel everyone in this
hallway and save myself the headache.” The teacher looked ready to follow through on the threat.

Katsuki stared into the glowing red eyes that erased his quirk and gritted his teeth to keep the
cussing to a minimum, “These third years waited here for me so they could use transphobic
language and ask me about my genitalia. I threw the first punch but I gave them an opportunity to
leave after that that they didn’t take.”

Aizawa looked over the four upperclassmen with disgust for a moment before turning his eyes
back to his own students, “You three will have two days detention for fighting, get back to class
without any further incidents or I will expel you. The rest of you will be coming with me to Nezu’s
office to discuss a suitable punishment.”

As soon as they were released from the capture weapon, the three first years left as quickly as
possible, knowing that sticking around would only incur Aizawa’s wrath. The rest of the class was
already back in the room by the time they got there. Glasses stood up as soon as they entered.

“Bakugo, there were some upperclassmen looking for you earlier.”

Katsuki grabbed a tissue from the box on the teacher’s desk and handed it to Kirishima to wipe the
blood off his knuckles, “Yeah, they found me.”

For once, Glasses managed to read the room and decided to keep his mouth shut about it.

The only saving grace for the rest of the day was that that 1B jackass had steered clear of their
class since his visit to 1A and there weren’t any rumors being passed around about Katsuki
needing a therapist so he figured the ass realized he couldn’t talk shit about it when he was being
forced to attend therapy too. All too soon Katsuki found himself sitting across from Dr Mori for the
first time.

His therapist was a short man with black hair and pink eyes. He had explained that his eyes were a
mutation caused by his quirk that let him see someone's current emotional state as an aura around
that person. Other than the eyes, he was the definition of plain. A face you'd never notice in a
crowd and would forget immediately after talking to him, a body that was slim enough it was clear
he tried to stay fit but lacking muscle definition that comes with a regular training schedule, and the
most boring outfit Katsuki had ever seen in his life.

Why anyone would ever choose to wear an entire outfit made up of only navy blue, he would never
know. Navy button up with a navy cardigan and navy slacks. Seriously, even the socks he'd seen
peeking out of his navy loafers as he welcomed Katsuki were navy. If this man's underwear was
any color other than navy Katsuki would eat his own shoes.
Terrible fashion sense aside, Dr Mori wasn't a total loser. He'd told Katsuki as soon as he came in
that they would just be getting to know each other for the first few sessions until they knew it
would be a good fit. Dr Mori had laughed when Katsuki said it sounded like he just wanted to milk
as much money from him as possible before he quit therapy. He told Katsuki to just call him Mori.
Then the man had asked Katsuki if he would be more comfortable with him taking notes during
their sessions if he could see what the doctor was writing.

Mori showed him the tablet he used to take notes that connected to a screen behind the man so his
patients that chose to could see what he was noting down in real time. When the blonde asked if he
watered down the notes to spare feelings Mori had assured him that he wouldn't. Katsuki would be
able to see exactly what the man thought was wrong with him and Mori even said he wouldn't have
any issue with the teen arguing about something he'd written down as long as they talked it out
instead of him just getting angry about it.

Apparently, this would help him feel in control or some shit. Abused kids usually needed to feel in
control as much as possible, Mori had explained, it's not a bad thing as long as they learn how to
manage the control issues while they work through the trauma that caused them. Katsuki didn't
know about control issues, he just wanted to know if this fucker thought he was beyond saving. So
he'd agreed, he wanted to see the notes, and Mori didn't seem surprised by that. The lack of
surprise pissed Katsuki off. Did he just seem like a control freak? It was bullshit.

But all in all, it wasn't a bad session. They ended up talking mostly about his classes, training, and
Izuku. If Mori was faking his interest in the teenager’s rant about his little brother, Katsuki
couldn’t tell. The man asked follow up questions to his follow up questions about the kid and what
it was like taking care of him. He wasn’t an idiot, Katsuki could tell his therapist was trying to
figure out how taking care of his little brother affected his mental health. Usually he’d hate
someone trying to manipulate him like that instead of just asking what they wanted to know, but
he’d take any excuse to talk about how amazing his brother is.

Finally the session ended and he was greeted in the lobby by an excited Izuku wrapping himself
around Katsuki’s leg. The kid refused to let go, giggling like a maniac as his older brother limped
out to the car with him attached. Aizawa and Yamada also found it hilarious if the chuckles coming
from behind him were anything to go by.

As a treat for their first therapy sessions their guardians decided to take them to McDonalds for
dinner. Izuku was overjoyed, he’d never been allowed fast food living with Mitsuki and Masaru
and he’d always wanted to try a happy meal. Katsuki was glad he was excited, watching the boy
bounce in his seat as he tried a chicken nugget and munched on his fries made it worth it to force
down the disgusting, grease covered food. Katsuki had always been strict about his own diet and
even the salads offered in that cesspool of fat didn’t meet his standards. He would put up with it for
the joy on Izuku’s freckled face as he ate his first bite of an oreo mcflurry.

The All Might toy that came in his meal was Izuku’s new favorite thing. He played with it the
entire drive back to campus and had to show it off to every teacher in the communal area of the
teachers dorms. It was especially adorable to see All Might himself blushing as Izuku showed him
the toy version of himself. Then he ran off to show it to Bean the second they were inside the
apartment. He followed the small cat around as it walked through the apartment and rambled about
his amazing new toy.

Izuku fell asleep clutching the toy that night so Katsuki decided not to complain about the horrible
heartburn the McDonalds had given him, even after he joined the adults in the living room. They
were watching some crime drama Yamada loved and Katsuki had every intention of reading his
book until he was ready for bed. Aizawa decided to ruin the peace for him.
“So Katsuki, Hizashi told me about the products you had him pick up and it reminded me that we
need to ask you some questions. I’m not trying to figure out if they were for you, I don’t need to
know. We just need to know how educated you were about these kinds of things living with
Mitsuki and Masaru. We also need to let you know that if you need any kind of birth control, you
can get that from Recovery Girl and she won’t tell us anything.”

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose, “Are you trying to have the sex talk with me right now?”

Yamada gave him a guilty grin, “We have no idea what you were taught by them and we know the
internet exists, but you might not have learned everything about safe sex and consent and all that.”

Aizawa nodded solemnly, “And gay sex is very different from straight sex and I doubt they were
trying to educate you about that.”

Rolling his head back to groan at the ceiling, Katsuki took a breath to avoid losing his shit, “I don’t
need the sex talk. I know all of that, give me a quiz if you don’t believe me, but I refuse to have the
actual fucking sex talk with my teachers and guardians. I’ll actually jump from the roof if you try
it.”

Yamada started cackling and Aizawa looked a little relieved, clearly he didn’t want this talk just as
much as Katsuki. The brunette patted Katsuki’s arm, “I’m going to send you a quiz just because I
want to make sure your sexual education is thorough but we can thankfully skip the talk as long as
you pass it. I just want to make sure we don’t end up with any more kids in this apartment.”

Katsuki shot him a dead eyed stare, “I am extremely unlikely to ever produce a biological child.
You should be more worried about me getting chlamydia or something.”

Aizawa set his face into his hands and groaned. Katsuki chuckled and got up to go to his room with
a smirk on his face. Any day that he got to torment his homeroom teacher/foster parent was a good
day in his book.
 Chapter 13
Chapter Notes

There's a POV change during this chapter but its obvious when it happens. Promise I'm
not going to change POVs mid paragraph and leave y'all wondering wtf is going on.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Since Aizawa was sleeping in after a late night patrol and Yamada was on a daytime patrol that
day, Katsuki took Izuku back to the dorm once they finished their morning run. Kirishima had met
up with them as had become their routine so he left Izuku to chat with the redhead while he
prepared the three of them a healthy breakfast. Then he had to cajole the kid into eating said
healthy breakfast one bite at a time because Izuku was just not having it with the vegetables that
morning.

Finally, he’d managed to get enough nutrients into the brat to let him stop eating. They went
upstairs to wash up and change, Katsuki put in his hearing aids so he could test them in the dorms
for the first time and the two of them headed back to the common area to hang out with Kirishima.
By the time they walked into the room, Tape Arms and Raccoon Eyes were seated at the dining
table with Froggy and Cheeks, all looking barely awake and eating the most crap looking
breakfasts he’d ever seen.

Ignoring the instant oatmeal and cereal without milk disaster happening in the dining area, Katsuki
took a seat next to Kirishima on the couch. Izuku, after getting permission, climbed up into
Kirishima’s lap to snuggle with his friend while they watched the hero documentary the kid had
begged for them to pick when debating what to watch.

It was weird being able to hear what his friend actually sounded like for the first time. He had just
barely kept his face neutral when the redhead had greeted them as they entered the room.
Kirishima’s voice was so much warmer than he’d ever been able to hear. Katsuki found himself
thankful for Izuku’s inability to quietly watch anything because he got to hear the other teen’s
happy, lilting voice every time he answered one of the kid’s questions.

Was it weird to enjoy the sound of a friend’s voice so much? Katsuki wasn’t sure, he didn’t exactly
have friends before UA. He had followers, extras that did whatever he wanted and followed his
every command in order to ride his coattails. That didn’t exactly teach him normal friendship
standards. The only other person whose voice he cared about so far was Izuku’s and that made
sense, he was his brother. Deciding it didn’t matter, it’s not like he’d ever tell anyone how much he
liked Kirishima’s voice, he tried to pay attention to the documentary.

By the time the documentary ended, more of their classmates had joined them and Katsuki was
really testing out his hearing aids. The idiot brigade were all present by then, of course they started
a loud ass argument about what they would be watching next. Cheeks and Pinky were fighting for
some action movie that was number, like, eighteen in a never ending series while Sparky, Tape
Arms, Kirishima and Froggy were gunning for some new thriller. Glasses had come in and was
attempting to rein in the over-excited teenagers.

While they were all shouting over one another, Katsuki had taken the remote and was flipping
through the movie selection. Izuku had crawled over into the blonde’s lap and was chewing on the
ears of his Mirko stuffie while he examined the movies. Every time Katsuki would pause on one,
the kid would shake his head, apparently the brat was feeling picky about his movie selection that
day. After what felt like the seven hundredth movie, Izuku finally patted the back of Katsuki’s
hand that was holding the remote before pointing his little finger at the TV and nodding excitedly.

The other teenagers were so wrapped up in their argument, it took almost the entire title sequence
for them to realize a movie had already been picked. They finally clued into what was going on, all
locking eyes on the remote still resting in Katsuki’s hand, but then they noticed the excited
expression and starry eyes on Izuku and decided they could watch the animated All Might movie.
Katsuki smirked, no one could ever deny his adorable brother anything and if that kept him from
having to watch either of the shit movies they’d been arguing about, that was just a bonus.

The movie wrapped up right before lunch, so Katsuki fed the little vegetable hating monster and
dragged him upstairs for his afternoon nap. Only the promise of going back downstairs as soon as
his nap was over and joining the video game tournament they had started as they left got the kid to
agree to sleep. Katsuki took the opportunity to take his hearing aids out and rest his ears for a bit,
he would put them in as soon as nap time ended, and settled in to finish up some school work.

Izuku was still sleepy when he woke up from his nap, which meant he was more clingy and whiny
than normal. Eventually he would wake up all the way and be almost annoyingly energetic like
usual, but until then Katsuki was carrying his brother with his freckled face tucked into his
shoulder and pretending he didn’t notice the little shit chewing on his shirt. Yeah, he’d changed the
kid’s diapers and been covered in his puke on several occasions, but wearing a shirt covered in little
kid drool was never not going to be gross, no matter how many other gross things the kid did.

When they arrived back in the common area almost the entire class was strewn about the room. As
soon as he heard Shinso’s voice, and damn why did so many of Katsuki’s friends have such
amazing voices, Izuku wiggled out of the blonde’s arms and raced over to beg his way into
Shinso’s lap. Of course the purple haired boy said yes, and Izuku had a new victim to cling to and
probably chew on. Katsuki claimed the empty seat between Kirishima and Shinso and took the
offered controller so he could take a turn at Smash Bros.

It took a while for Katsuki to notice the noise, he was focused on winning then he was laughing at
Shinso’s face when he realized how wet the string of his hoodie had gotten with Izuku chewing on
it. It didn’t help that the noise itself was quiet and almost everyone was being loud as hell. The
first time he actually heard it, Katsuki was convinced it was part of the game they were playing.
Then he heard it again after they switched games so he thought maybe it was something on
someone’s phone. But the next time he heard it he was walking into the room with a juice box for
Izuku and he could clearly see that no one was on their phone when the noise was made.

Every time he heard it after that, Katsuki glanced around to see if anyone else was hearing it. For a
while he considered it being his hearing aids, but they only made noise if the battery was low and
it wasn’t high pitched or he might not hear it. None of the sources of the noise that he considered
fit and it was driving him insane. It was well into the afternoon, closing in on evening, when
Katsuki couldn’t take it anymore.

“What the fuck is that goddamn noise?” He shouted right after hearing it yet again. Everyone
paused to look at him like he was crazy. Kirishima put a hand on his forearm.

“What noise bro?” The redhead looked slightly concerned about him and Katsuki was about to
snap at him for it when he heard it again. Katsuki pointed up in the air with a smug look on his
face.

“That fucking noise! I’ve been hearing it all afternoon. What the hell is it?” He didn’t bother
keeping the frustration out of his voice, he’d been listening to that fucking noise for too long.

Froggy looked pissed, “Bakugo, making fun of Tokoyami’s chirping is extremely rude.”

“Yeah,” Cheeks crossed her arms, “everyone knows he chirps and he does it all the time so
pretending you don’t know what it is to poke fun at him is really mean.”

Octopus had three arms wrapped around an upset looking Bird Boy and was glaring at the blonde
over his mask, “What happened to not making a heteromorph uncomfortable, or do you draw the
line at appearance?”

Katsuki was staring at Bird Boy while they all shouted at him, not registering anything they said
past the noise being chirping. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly as he furrowed his brows.
Finally when his brain caught up with the thoughts racing through his head, Katsuki spoke without
even realizing it, “That’s what birds sound like?”

He barely noticed the shocked silence that fell over the room after his question in his scramble to
get up and out the front door. Not stopping to put on his shoes, he threw open the door and stepped
out into the sun. There was a tree off to the side of the dorms that Animal Boy liked to hang out
under because some birds had made a home in it. That was where he headed, ears on alert for any
noises aside from the people who’d followed him out of the dorm.

The sound of birds singing reached his ears and his knees felt weak all of a sudden. Blinking back
the tears that were trying to gather in his eyes, he tilted his face up toward the tree so he could
watch the birds hopping around on the branches while he listened to the noises he hadn’t been able
to hear since he was a child.

“I forgot what birds sound like.” Katsuki whispered in awe with wide eyes. It wasn’t what he’d felt
hearing Izuku’s actual voice for the first time, but it was more intense somehow. Maybe because
he’d been able to somewhat hear his brother the entire time or maybe because he’d never fully
heard Izuku while he had been able to clearly hear birds at one point. Whatever it was, it had
wonder and amazement building up in his chest for the amount of time it took him to remember
why he had forgotten the sound in the first place. Then rage replaced wonder and he felt the urge to
blow up everything within arms reach. He spun around and found a worried Kirishima standing
next to an equally worried looking Shinso. There were other class members behind them, but
Katsuki only looked at them.

“Watch Izuku for me. Can you do that?” Katsuki struggled to keep his raw anger out of his voice
as his nails dug into his palms. Kirishima reached out, only to drop his arm before making contact.

“Of course we can, man. But what’s going on? Are you okay?” There were too many emotions in
the shark toothed boy’s eyes for Katsuki to look at them while he was so angry.

“I’m fine, just watch Izuku.” He knew he’d have to make it up to his friend for snapping at him
just then, but in the moment he couldn’t contain his fury any more than he already was. Shinso put
a hand on Kirishima’s arm and shook his head before looking back at Katsuki.

“We’ll take care of him for as long as you need.” The insomniac assured him and Katsuki nodded
before looking at Izuku who was standing between the two boys.

“Behave for Kirishima and Shinso. I’ll be back later.” Izuku nodded and waved at his brother as
the blonde turned and stormed away from the dorms. He managed to keep from blowing anything
up until he reached gym delta, wiping his sweaty palms off on his pants several times on the way.
The second he was inside the gym, Katsuki unbottled his rage.
Explosion after explosion had the training dummies shattering and debris flying around the room
that quickly filled with smoke. The gym was empty, he’d checked before he started, so he didn’t
have to hold back his screams or his punches as he tore through every piece of training equipment
available to him in an attempt to rid himself of the all consuming anger pulsing through his veins.
Gym delta was his favorite gym near the dorms because the destroyed training dummies were
automatically replaced by a fabricator under the gym and brought out by those ridiculous flying
robots the school was so fond of. So he never had to pause his rampage. Time stopped existing, the
only things he was aware of was his blinding rage and where his next target was.

Hizashi had several expectations for the first day off after the start of the new term. He expected to
wake up to his lovely husband collapsing next to him after his patrol that ended bright and early in
the morning. He expected a kiss from the brunette before the man rolled over to pass out and
Hizashi pulled himself out of bed to get ready to leave for his patrol. Running into Katsuki and
Izuku as they left for their morning run was expected as was everything that happened while he
was on patrol that morning into the afternoon. He took down some low level villains, stopped some
petty crimes, and signed autographs as he walked around the city.

What had not been expected was for his phone to ring right as he was parking in the teacher
parking lot in the late afternoon and for the screen to show Katsuki’s caller ID when he checked it.
Katsuki texted, in minimal words with proper spelling and punctuation and only when he
absolutely needed to, but Katsuki texted he didn’t call. So the call was unexpected. What was even
more unexpected was the voice on the other end of the call when he answered the phone with a
worried Katsuki, is everything okay? Is something wrong with Izuku? What do you need?

“Uh Mic Sensei, it’s actually Kirishima. Bakugo left his phone here at the dorm.” Ice filled
Hizashi’s veins at that, why would Katsuki go anywhere without his phone? The boy was
responsible to the point it was excessive and he wouldn’t leave the one way he had to call for help
if Izuku needed it unless something was very wrong.

“Izuku’s okay, he’s here with us and he’s having a great time coloring with me and Shinso in my
room.” That was so much more worrying than the phone. Katsuki willingly leaving Izuku when he
didn’t have to put them firmly in the extremely wrong category. “But Bakugo took off after a uhh…
incident and we thought someone should check on him. Izuku kept insisting that we should leave
him alone but he finally decided that we could send someone but he’s insisting that it’s you that
checks on him.”

Hizashi took a deep, calming breath as he locked his car. “First tell me where I’m headed.”

“We think he went to gym delta, it’s the only gym near the dorms in the direction he went that has
the replicating dummies so it’s one of his favorites.” Kirishima was speaking a little too quickly to
be as calm as he was trying to sound. Hizashi took off in the direction of gym delta.

“Okay now put me on speaker so I can talk to everyone.” He waited for his student to tell him he
was on speaker with the three of them before speaking again, “Okay Kirishima and Shinso, can
you tell me what happened.”

Shinso’s voice rang through his phone's speaker, “We were in the common room and Bakugo
asked about a noise. When they realized he was talking about Tokoyami’s happy chirping, some
members of the class started in on him for being mean and all that. He said ‘that’s what birds
sound like’ but he sounded confused about it. Then he took off, ran outside, and we found him
standing under that tree that Koda likes to sit under because of all the birds that live in it. Bakugo
was just standing there for a while before he finally told us to watch Izuku. He was snappy but not
in a pissed at us way, more like he was pissed and trying not to take it out on us.”

That was the most Hizashi had ever heard the purple haired student speak at once, but he wasn’t
focused on that. Instead he focused on Kirishima adding in, “We brought Izuku to my room
because we figured people would be having a discussion about it and we didn’t want him to hear
that. Then we were trying to figure out who should go check on him and Izuku refused to let us
until he finally said you could.”

Nodding, even though they couldn’t see him, Hizashi moved on to his next question, “Izuku
sweetie, can you tell me why you didn’t want anyone to check on Katsuki.”

He was a bit surprised by the lack of negative emotion in the kid’s voice when he replied,
“Kacchan just needs angry time and he can’t have angry time unless he’s alone.” That wasn’t super
worrying at all.

“Okay Izuku, what exactly is angry time? Why does he have to be alone?” Izuku made a little
humming noise like he was thinking his words over before he answered the hero’s question.

“Kacchan says it’s cause he doesn’t want anyone around so he don’t have to worry about hurting
them. But it’s actually cause he don’t want me to see him mad.” Izuku’s voice turned sad,
“Kacchan thinks he’s too much like Auntie when he’s mad and he doesn’t want me to be scared of
him. But Kacchan isn’t like Auntie at all. Kacchan would never hurt me!” His little voice raised in
volume as he defended his brother. Hizashi could see the gym by then, he quickened his steps.

“I know he isn’t anything like Mitsuki, Izuku. Katsuki might have a temper, but he would never be
like her. Okay, I’m almost to the gym now so I’m going to hang up and I’ll call back if he’s not
here. Be good for Shinso and Kirishima, okay Izuku?” He got an excited affirmative from the boy
and Hizashi made sure to thank both teens before ending the call and slipping his phone into his
pocket.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out why Izuku had picked him to seek out Katsuki. As soon as they
mentioned his comment about what birds sound like, Hizashi realized the kid hadn’t worn his
hearing aids outside once since he’d gotten them. He also knew that since his hearing loss had
started so young and bird sounds were one of the first things most people stopped hearing, it was
completely understandable that he’d forgotten what they sounded like.

Which also made it completely understandable that he’d had no idea what the noise he could
suddenly hear was. No one had ever mentioned Tokoyami’s chirping in class, it wasn’t unusual for
people with avian mutations to make typical bird noises unconsciously so it wasn’t unexpected.
But Katsuki had never heard it, the frequency was too high for his ears to pick up, and when you
hear a noise you’ve not heard in years for the first time while you’re indoors of course your first
thought isn’t that it’s birds. Maybe if someone had told Katsuki Tokoyami chirped he could have
pieced it together without saying anything, but that was one of the few things Hizashi hadn’t
thought of while trying to help his son adapt to the world with hearing aids.

Of course, none of that explained why Katsuki was angry enough to abandon Izuku to the care of
his friends. Not that Hizashi thought they couldn’t be trusted to watch the boy, and he didn’t think
Katsuki felt that way either. He just knew they weren’t at the point in their healing process where
they wanted to be separated when they didn’t have to be. Making a comment that was taken out of
context and getting on some of his classmate’s bad side wasn’t enough to drive Katsuki to
sequestering himself in a gym. Hearing birds for the first time in years might be a little
overwhelming, especially for someone as…emotionally challenged as Katsuki, but it wasn’t anger
inducing.

So the loud hero had no idea what had actually driven his son to the gym to create the mass
destruction he was greeted with when he opened the doors. Bits and pieces of what once were
probably training dummies were now unidentifiable but were piled on almost every inch of the
floor as far as his eye could see. Smoke hung thick in the air both from the explosions Katsuki was
still letting off and from the still smoldering pieces of debris laying around. Scorch marks darkened
the floors, walls, and even the fifty foot ceiling.

Hizashi listened to Katsuki’s screams for several minutes. All deep, guttural yells of every curse
word in his repertoire and all followed by another explosion. Finally, Katsuki turned to blow up
another dummy and his crimson eyes landed on Hizashi standing by the doors with his hands in his
pockets and an open, calm expression on his face. His arms stopped mid-swing and no blast came.
Katsuki dropped his arms limply to his sides as he stared, unblinking, at his foster father for several
minutes.

The minute the kid’s legs started shaking and his face scrunched up in a way Hizashi had never
seen on him, the man strode forward to where Katsuki stood in the middle of his created chaos. As
soon as he was within reach, Katsuki surprised him yet again, and more than ever, by collapsing
against his chest.

Slowly, Hizashi brought his arms up to wrap around his son and placed his hands gently on his
back. The second they made contact, Katsuki started sobbing. Hizashi pushed away his shock at
seeing his son so vulnerable to focus on easing the descent to the ground they were making as
Katsuki’s body went limp against him. Soon, they were both kneeling on the floor and Hizashi was
gently swaying them side to side while Katsuki gripped his jacket and cried into his chest.

“I forgot what birds sound like.” Katsuki’s voice was watery and interrupted by sniffling, but he’d
finally calmed down enough to talk, “I heard birds for the first time since I was eight and it was so
amazing. But I should have been able to hear them the whole time. I could have been able to if she
had just let me go to a fucking doctor.”

His fists tightened against Hizashi’s jacket, “That bitch refused to let me get hearing aids or ear
protection and I was trying so hard to be what she wanted, to seem like a kid who could hear, that I
never noticed when I stopped hearing the birds. I spent all those years pretending there was
nothing wrong with my hearing because I had to be the perfect son and it was never enough . Why
wasn’t I enough?”

Hizashi closed his eyes, tears spilling out at the broken and tired voice his son used to ask the most
devastating question he’d ever heard. Knowing that Katsuki was likely to get embarrassed or
defensive if Hizashi tried to look at his face, the blonde instead tucked his chin on top of the teen’s
head and pulled him tighter against him.

“Katsuki, you are absolutely enough. You are so much more than enough that I can’t even
comprehend it sometimes.” He squeezed his boy a little tighter, “Mitsuki was a broken person who
tried to make herself feel better by breaking the people around her. But that isn’t your fault, there
was nothing you could have done or said that would have fixed her. Because that isn’t your job,
that’s her job and she refused to do it. She might have told you you weren’t enough, but she was
lying.

Because Bakugo Katsuki is a smart, loyal, determined kid who got his brother and himself out of
an abusive environment. He is a heroic, talented, brave teenager that does things like email the
principal about giving everyone free period products and demand an apology from one of the top
schools in the country on behalf of traumatized people everywhere. Bakugo Katsuki is an amazing
big brother, a fantastic chef, a diligent student, a great friend, and one of the best sons I could have
ever asked for and he is more than enough for me.”

The arms around Hizashi tightened as Katsuki’s shoulders shook with the force of his renewed
sobs. The kid was pressing his face so hard into his guardian’s chest it seemed like he was trying to
merge with Hizashi for a while there. He just let his boy get it all out. He moved one hand up
slowly, never breaking contact as he did so Katsuki always knew where it was and could stop him
if he wanted, until it reached his head where he started stroking Katsuki’s hair that wasn’t occupied
by his chin.

They spent a long time like that. Kneeling on the floor until their knees were numb, arms wrapped
around each other, Katsuki’s face pressed into Hizashi’s chest and Hizashi’s face pressed into
Katsuki’s hair. He made gentle noises that turned into tuneless humming as he rocked them side to
side and played with soft blonde hair.

Eventually, Katsuki pulled back and Hizashi dropped his arms to let him. The teenager’s face and
eyes were red and swollen, covered in tears and dirt. He glanced at him for a second before glaring
at the floor.

“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you in your sleep.” Hizashi smiled and told his son that he
wouldn’t dream of telling anyone. Katsuki cleared his throat, “But thanks or whatever.”

Hizashi gave him a bright smile in return. “Anytime you need me, kid, just let me know. So how
about we head to the apartment and clean up real quick before stopping by the dorms to collect our
little green bean?”

The teen huffed, “I don’t need to stop by the apartment. I’m going to towel off this sweat and clean
my face and no one will ever be able to tell I had a mental fucking breakdown.”

“Well there’s no shame in having a breakdown, but I get not wanting people to see what you look
like right after. Go clean up, I’ll grab you a drink from the vending machine and wait by the door
for you.” Hizashi reached out slowly and, when the kid made no move to pull away, ruffled
Katsuki’s hair. They stood up and he was about to turn away when Katsuki stopped him.

“Hold out your hands.” Hizashi did as instructed and watched as the blonde pulled out some kind of
hand sanitizer to squirt it on his waiting palms. Not knowing exactly what was going on didn’t stop
him from rubbing it into his hands like he would with any kind of lotion or sanitizer. Katsuki
pocketed the bottle and watched his hands until the liquid was absorbed, then he examined the rest
of Hizashi before nodding and turning to the locker rooms.

That wasn’t the first time he’d seen the boy acting weird about the hand sanitizer, but it was the
first time he’d ever seen him give it to someone else. Usually it was Katsuki using it before
touching things that struck him as odd, but in that instance it was the fact that he hadn’t touched
anything dirty since entering the gym aside from Katsuki and Hizashi was a pro hero, a little grime
and sweat never bothered him.

He decided to keep it in mind, watch for more clues. Because he wasn’t getting anywhere turning it
over in his head as he waited for Katsuki with the sports drink he’d gotten from the machines.
When the kid finally emerged Hizashi realized he was right, there was no trace of his earlier tears
left on his face. The boy must have seen the look on his face because he chuckled as he grabbed
the offered drink.

“It’s one of the perks of nitroglycerin, my skin is always blemish free, wrinkle resistant, and
swelling or redness goes away in minutes.” Katsuki cracked open the bottle and took a drink while
Hizashi made a fake affronted noise.

“So you just get to skip out on the awkward, acne covered teen stage we all had to go through?
Unfair my guy, unfair.” He kept his tone light and teasing and watched Katsuki from the corner of
his eye to ensure the kid realized he wasn’t serious. The eye roll and scoff he got was enough to
reassure him that he hadn’t accidentally offended his kid.

They made the journey back to the dorms, Hizashi had texted Katsuki’s phone to let Kirishima and
Shinso know they were on their way back so they were waiting with Izuku when the two of them
entered the building. Izuku was on his feet and running to his brother the second Katsuki stepped
into the room. There was a slight pause before Katsuki opened his arms and Izuku jumped into a
hug.

The blonde picked up his brother, settling the kid on his hip and tapping his finger on his little
nose. “Were you good for Shitty Hair and Eyebags?”

Izuku nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, I didn’t throw any tantrums and I didn’t chew on anything
but my shirt and fingers. I asked very politely for a snack and ate all the strawberries Shinso gave
me and I drew you a picture.”

The freckled angel held up a piece of paper he’d had clutched in his fist and gave it to the blonde.
Hizashi could see what looked like a lizard riding a dog but Izuku swore was the tree outside.
Katsuki and Hizashi both oohed and awed over it until Izuku was properly praised for his artistic
abilities and Katsuki folded it and tucked it in his pocket. He glanced around the room for a minute
before making his way over to Tokoyami and Shoji who were both reading in the window seat
across the room. Both looked up when Katsuki, still holding his brother, stopped next to them.

“I wasn’t trying to be a dick.” Every member of 1A was currently in the common room and every
one of them was watching the scene unfolding before them, “I haven’t been able to hear the
frequency that bird noises are at since I was eight so I’d never heard you chirp before. Today was
the first time I wore my hearing aids in the same room as you and I honestly had no idea what
chirping sounded like so I didn’t know what I was hearing. Now I know and I won’t comment on it
again.”

Hizashi watched as Tokoyami examined Katsuki with his normal shrewdness then he glanced
around to see the various amounts of surprise and shock the rest of the class seemed to be
experiencing. Whether it was from finding out Katsuki had hearing issues or hearing what equated
to an apology from the volatile blonde, he didn’t know. Finally Tokoyami broke the silence that
had fallen over the room.

“Then there is no issue between us. I was not aware you had not previously heard my avian sounds
and you were not aware I made them. It is easy for chaos to reign in the darkness when so much is
left unknown.” The boy nodded his head once before turning back to his book as if that was the
most normal response in the history of responses. Of course, with class 1A normal never really
meant anything.

Hizashi was ready to excuse both him and the boys so they could go back to the apartment and
spend the evening together with Shouta when Asui decided to speak up.

“Bakugo, why are you just now wearing hearing aids if you’ve had hearing problems since you
were a kid?” The frog quirked girl let out a small croak and Hizashi sighed, when were these kids
going to learn to mind their business? Before he could interrupt, Iida chimed in.

“That is an excellent question Tsu. Furthermore, why have you not told us previously that you
suffered from a hearing impairment?” The boy asked from his seat in one of the armchairs. Katsuki
glared at him.

“I didn’t realize I was required to give you all my entire medical history along with my life story.”
His red eyes cut to Asui before going back to Iida, “You shoulda told me earlier, it’s gonna take a
while. I’ve broken a fuck ton of bones.” The sarcasm was dripping off his every word and was
thick enough even Iida, notorious for missing sarcasm, picked up on it. Uraraka decided to defend
her friends.

“It could impact our training so we should have been informed, Bakugo.” The girl crossed her
arms and gave him a stern look and Hizashi had to stop himself from rolling his own eyes at the
dramatics that ran rampant in this class.

“In every team based exercise that requires stealth, we use hand signals to communicate. When we
split up, we wear comms that turn up loud enough I never missed a word anyone said. My being
deaf never fucking once impacted your goddamn training so get off your fucking high horse for
once. Shit, I’m so good at reading lips that there’s been an ass load of times I figured out the other
team’s plan before an exercise began. So maybe thank me instead of acting like a whiny little
bitch.” Katsuki sneered back at the girl. Now Hizashi decided he needed to step in, everyone had
said their piece and it would only escalate if it continued. He didn’t get the chance before Sero
managed to derail any argument that was brewing.

“Dude, does this mean every time we thought you were ignoring us trying to get your attention you
just didn’t hear us? Or like when we whisper jokes to you while we study and you don’t react, it’s
not because you don’t think we’re funny, it’s just shitty hearing?” The brunette cocked his head to
the side with a genuinely curious look on his face and Katsuki scoffed at him.

“You aren’t funny and I regularly ignore you because you won’t leave me the fuck alone
otherwise.” He sneered back at his friend.

Kaminari grinned at him, “Come on Blasty, we can all tell you just don’t want to admit you love
us. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure not to whisper if you don’t have your hearing aids in and we can
tap your shoulder if we need your attention.”

Ashido frowned at her energetic companion, “Kami, I don’t think you’re supposed to touch people
to get their attention.” Kaminari shook his head at her.

“In the deaf community it’s not rude to do it because it’s one of the easiest ways to get a deaf
person’s attention.” He turned to look at Katsuki, “But I know you have personal space issues so if
you want us to like wave or something else just tell us. We respect boundaries in this house.”

Todoroki, who was seated next to Kaminari with intertwined hands, nodded at Katsuki, “Yes
Bakugo, tell us any way we can make things easier for you. I will always attempt to accommodate
you in any way I can since you refuse to let me incinerate bodies for you.”

Katsuki sighed and looked up at the ceiling as if asking god for patience, “IcyHot, how many
times do I need to tell you, if you tell everyone about a crime you’re going to commit then you will
get caught when you commit the crime.”

Todoroki shrugged, “Denki says I have rich people privileges so I can get away with more than the
poors. Though I thought the poors was a rude phrase. Denki assures me that he is allowed to say it
because he is one of them.”

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose, “I should have just let you two keep being oblivious idiots
 forever.”

Hizashi watched his son interact with his classmates with a smile on his face. Katsuki had been
through so much, but he had some really good friends to look out for him now.

Chapter End Notes

Hizashi's starting to figure out Katsuki's sweat problems! He probably would have in
this chapter if he wasn't fresh out of a very surprising emotional situation with Katsuki.
 Chapter 14
Chapter Notes

This chapter took me a while to write because every time I started writing it I'd get a
great idea for a later chapter. I'm a forgetful motherfucker so I had to write the ideas
down immediately or I'd forget them but then my ADHD would kick in and it would
be three hours later and I'd still be writing a future chapter instead of the current one.
My meds need adjusting probably.

This one is all fluff! Enjoy!

Shouta wasn’t always the man he wanted to be. Sometimes he got too impatient with people and he
had never learned to be delicate in certain social situations. He didn’t get enough sleep and drank
too much coffee and sometimes he got snappy with his husband when he shouldn’t. Those were all
things Shouta recognized as flaws and wanted to work to improve. But since Hizashi had told him
about Katsuki’s breakdown in a hushed conversation while they laid in bed that same night, Shouta
had a new flaw that he didn’t really want to improve.

Murder. He wanted to break into the cell Bakugo Mitsuki was being kept in and actually murder
the woman. He didn’t want to stop playing the image he’d made in his head of him choking the life
out of her for everything she’d done to his son. It wasn’t a healthy thing to indulge in, Shouta didn’t
want to be the kind of man who fantasized about taking another person’s life. But every time he
decided to let go of the anger, he would remember Hizashi crying as he told Shouta about the first
time he held their son. It should have been happy tears and instead he was trying not to break
because the first time Katsuki had sought physical affection from one of them it was during a
breakdown he shouldn’t have ever needed to have.

So maybe he would indulge a little longer in his fantasy. Maybe it made him a terrible person. He
didn’t care, he wasn’t ever actually going to do it so it didn’t really matter in his opinion. It was
just something to keep from losing his shit about how helpless he felt about the entire situation.
Shouta had never truly felt helpless before he had kids.

Every time Shouta looked at Katsuki from the moment he’d offered to take the boys in he felt the
need to go back in time and wrap the little version of his son up in his arms and never let anything
hurt him. He wanted to wave his hands and magically fix all the hurt his birth parents had ever
done to him physically and mentally. But he couldn’t do that because not only was it impossible,
but then Katsuki wouldn’t be who he was, he wouldn’t be the son Shouta had never known he
needed. If there were some way he could take away all the pain and trauma without changing who
Katsuki was as a person he’d trade almost anything for it. Because he didn’t want to change the
boy, Katsuki was honestly the strongest person Shouta had ever met.

He’d grown up with a mother who hurt him and a father who reinforced the idea that it was the
kid’s fault then turned away and still he’d become an amazing person. He basically raised his little
brother for over a year, he saved the two of them from that house, he was always actively trying to
not become like Mitsuki or Masaru even before he’d gotten away from the abuse. Yes, he had
anger issues but now he was out of the environment that had helped create them and he had agreed
to keep attending therapy to try to work on those.
Katsuki was a kid who’d had every reason to turn bitter and hateful and instead he decided to
become a hero. There were many villains out there with less horrible stories than Katsuki’s and still
Shouta’s son had made his life goal to be the best hero. Sure, there were issues with the importance
he put on strength and rankings, but those were likely wrapped up in the issues the kid needed to
work on in therapy anyway. How could he expect a kid who’d been told he was worthless to not
become obsessed with perfection?

Shouta loved his son, flaws and all, which was why the events of the day before were still making
him so angry as he cooked breakfast. He had never realized how true it was when people said
having kids meant loving someone more than you’d ever thought you could. His sons had only
been his kids for just over two weeks and already he was ready to burn the world for either one of
them.

He’d once thought the only person he would ever care this deeply for would be Hizashi, but they’d
been parents for such a short time and he felt more love for those boys than he knew he was
capable of. At first, he’d thought maybe his easy attachment had something to do with having
already known and been through several traumatic events with Katsuki. Then he realized he was
just as soft for his green haired brat as the blonde one. So maybe he was just weak for his two kids,
sue him they’re amazing kids.

So he found himself making the breakfast Katsuki had seemed to like the most since moving in
with them. Of course it was insanely healthy. The teen didn’t seem to enjoy even being in the same
room as food that wasn’t packed with nutrients. The only thing he seemed to hate more than
unhealthy food was answering questions about himself, Shouta and Hizashi had both tried multiple
times to find out what foods he preferred. They still had no idea other than “healthy” and that was
only because of how sick he’d looked while trying to force himself to eat at McDonalds. They
could ask Izuku, the boy would probably know, but they wanted to get to know Katsuki when
Katsuki wanted to be known by them, if that ever happened.

The balanced breakfast that the blonde had seemed to enjoy so much when he’d made it previously
was the only way Shouta could come up with to show his affection to his son at the moment. There
was no telling how pissed he’d be if he knew Hizashi had told Shouta everything that had
happened. Hizashi wouldn’t have told him if it hadn’t been something that was clearly such a big
issue. They both needed to be aware of things like that to avoid accidentally doing or saying
anything that would trigger or worsen the trauma already inflicted on their kid.

Even if Katsuki didn’t care that he knew, he wasn’t the type to want a big show made of trying to
make him feel better. He would see it as pity. He also wasn’t the casual affection type, which
normally Shouta could say about himself as well but the boys were an exception. Shouta wanted to
give Katsuki and Izuku hugs and pats on the head and all those casual touches in contrast to his
normal rule of everyone had better stay at least ten feet away from me . But neither boy was ready
for that, and may never be, and Shouta wasn’t going to make his sons uncomfortable just because
he wanted to squish Katsuki’s cheeks every time he made his “I’m the boss of you” face at Izuku
when the kid didn’t want to eat his vegetables or take a nap.

Which left Shouta with trying to show how much he cared in the most subtle ways he could. Like
making a breakfast he knew Katsuki would enjoy and planning a family outing. When the boys
came back from their run, both seemed happy with the food and Hizashi gave him that smug grin
that told Shouta he knew exactly what the brunette was doing. Shouta ignored him and asked the
kids how the run had gone. Izuku almost choked in his haste to swallow his food so he could
answer.

“Kiri says I’m gettin’ faster! He said I could be a professional runner if I wanted.” Honestly, if it
would put that adorable excited look on Izuku’s face Shouta would tell him he could be a
professional villain if he wanted. Hizashi must have felt the same because he beamed at the kid.

“I bet you could, Izuku! You could probably get all the way to the Olympics and we would go to
all your events and I’d wear shirts with your face on them to every single one.” Hizashi told him
with just as much enthusiasm as the four year old at the table. Where did he get all the energy?

“They don’t make shirts with my face on ‘em, silly.” Izuku giggled at the man’s dramatic gasp.

“Well, I’ll just have to make my own then! I’ll even get Shou in one.” Hizashi threw an arm over
his shoulders and ignored the glare he got from his husband.

“I will not wear anything with anyone’s face on it.” Shouta grumbled, dead set on following
through with that statement right up until he caught sight of Izuku’s pout.

“It’s okay if you don’t wanna wear my face, Shouta. I understand.” He knew what the kid was
doing, the sadness in his voice was clearly faked. But, fuck that kid still looked crushed and it
squeezed at his heart. Plus he called him Shouta. Shouta. Not Aizawa.

“ Fine I’ll wear a shirt with your face. Only at the Olympics though.” His scowl and serious tone
did nothing to stop the boy from cheering and waving his chopsticks around like a madman. Then
it was Katsuki giving him a smug look that told him the teen was onto him and his softness for his
youngest son. There were too many perceptive blondes in his house.

God, if teenage Shouta who had thought Hizashi was obnoxious and probably playing a prank
trying to befriend him could see him now, married to the blonde in question with two kids who
could sass the shit out of him and make him weak with just a look, he’d have a coronary.
Remembering how terrible he used to be at feelings and people did give him hope for Katsuki’s
future. The teen already had more friends than Shouta had at his age. Shit, he had more friends
than Shouta had now. Hopefully Katsuki would end up at least as happy in life as Shouta.

For now, all he could do was try to give his kids as many good days as he could. Starting with the
day outdoors he’d planned. As soon as breakfast was finished he told the boys to get changed into
comfortable outdoor clothes while he grabbed the basket of things he’d prepared for the day.
Katsuki reappeared, grumbling to himself about hating surprises, with an eager Izuku wearing an
almost identical outfit to his big brother. Both had on red knee length shorts and black shirts,
Katsuki’s had a white skull while Izuku’s had All Might’s symbol, they even both had black socks
and sneakers. Hizashi was absolutely losing his shit about how adorable it was. He took about
eight hundred photos of the boys before Katsuki looked ready to snap and he backed off.

They led the boys outside where several faculty members were waiting for them. Katsuki looked
suspicious while Izuku was thrilled to see All Might again. It was All Might who stepped forward
to explain what was going on.

“Young Bakugo and Midoriya, the two of you have had quite the eventful first week back at
school and some of the staff here wanted to do something to make sure your first week didn’t end
on a bad note. So we all pitched in and got you these.” He stepped to the side, followed by the
other teachers, Ectoplasm, Lunch Rush, Thirteen, and even Vlad King had all been standing side by
side to hide the bikes they’d bought the boys. Well, bought was a strong word. After all the All
Might tricycle wouldn’t be released for sale for months. But when All Might himself asks for one
what are they going to say? No?

Izuku shrieked the entire time he was running over to his new bike, almost tripping twice in his
hurry to get to the thing. As soon as he was seated on his tricycle, Izuku was shouting.
“Kacchan look! I gotta All Might bike!” He had already put his little feet on the pedals and was
attempting to do doughnuts around Katsuki’s bike. Katsuki watched his brother’s wobbly driving
for a moment before replying.

“That’s awesome, Izu. You’ll be BMX racing in no time.” He smiled at the kid then turned to look
at his guardians, “What if I never learned how to ride a bike? You plannin’ on teaching me or do I
get a All Might tricycle too?”

Shouta couldn’t help snorting at the mental image of the explosive teenager riding an adult sized
version of Izuku’s tricycle. “I figured we could teach you if you didn’t, but we could always attach
some training wheels to it if you want.”

Katsuki flipped him off and turned back to his brother, “Izuku what do we do when people give us
gifts?”

“Say thank you!” Izuku cheered as he stopped his bike and hopped off to run up to All Might and
the other assembled teachers, “Thank you all a bunch! I love my bike and Kacchan loves his too
but he won’t say it.” Yagi crouched down to smile widely at Izuku.

“You are both very welcome, young Midoriya. There are many places all over campus where you
can ride your bikes, just remember you shouldn’t go alone and you should always listen to
whatever grown up is with you if they tell you not to do something.” The retired hero used his
sternest kid friendly voice, it reminded Shouta of all the stay in school commercials All Might had
been in over the years. He was so glad he wasn’t a spotlight hero.

Izuku went from hero to hero, thanking them for his and Katsuki’s bikes. Once they had all been
thanked, they returned to the dorm building and left the family to their day. Izuku and Katsuki had
no arguments when Shouta told them to hop on their bikes and follow along behind the couple to
their destination. The boys tried to stay close enough that they could hear Shouta, Hizashi and each
other, but they did have to stop several times and wait for them to catch up after Izuku got
distracted by an interesting plant or bug or rock.

It was a beautiful day, warm but not hot with a nice breeze and a clear sky. They all enjoyed the
walk/ride to the spot Shouta had found in the wooded section of the campus. Even Hizashi had a
good time and that man detested the outdoors, he was an inside husband according to what he said
every time Shouta tried to take him hiking over the years. It was even in his wedding vows that he
would never leave Shouta unless he tried to get Hizashi to go camping.

Once they got to the small clearing with a narrow creek running along one side that thankfully had
a dirt path leading to it that was smooth enough for Izuku to ride, the boys parked their bikes.
Shouta set down the basket he’d been carrying and Hizashi pulled off the backpack he’d been
forced to lug out there. While they were setting things up he sent the boys off to find some palm
sized rocks, Izuku was extremely excited about the bucket he’d given him to carry them in. It had
Edgeshot on it so of course he loved it.

By the time they returned, the couple had laid out the large blanket for their picnic lunch and a
plastic tarp. The blanket had the basket and a small speaker connected to Hizashi’s phone so he
could play a playlist he’d made specifically for their outing sitting on it. The tarp, which was far
enough away from the blanket they were almost sure it wouldn’t get dirty, was filled with art
supplies. In between the blanket and the tarp was a bubble machine that Shouta turned on as soon
as the boys brought over their bucket of rocks. The four of them set to work cleaning the rocks off
with wet wipes and lining them up on one side of the tarp. Once all the rocks were clean it was
time to paint.
Bubbles floated around while the little family painted rocks and sang along to the music filling the
air. It felt kind of ridiculous to Shouta to be painting rocks with little cat faces and cups of coffee as
bubbles flew around his face, but Izuku was a ball of excitement and even Katsuki seemed to be
having a good time as he decorated his rocks with tiny grenades so Shouta could deal with being a
little ridiculous.

He was a little surprised that Izuku and Hizashi weren’t the only ones using the glitter paint Shouta
had begrudgingly purchased. The glitter paint was the only way he’d gotten Hizashi to agree not to
bring actual glitter into their house. Yes, they would be using it outside, but glitter knows no
boundaries, it will always find a way to spread. Which was why he didn’t let Hizashi buy the art
supplies alone.

He was less surprised that the glitter paint was being used to make the explosions on one of
Katsuki’s rocks more realistic looking. The teen had decent artistic talent, but maybe he’d had a lot
of practice drawing explosions and grenades in particular. That seemed likely with Katsuki, Shouta
had seen the boy doodling them on his notes in class occasionally.

With a big sigh and a roll of his eyes, Shouta let Hizashi and Izuku glue googly eyes on the cats
he’d painted just like they did with the ladybug and dog Izuku had made. There was even one that
looked vaguely like Kirishima with a blob of red on one side and what were probably his pointy
teeth on the other. Which might make the one with purple on one side and several white lines on
the other Shinso with his capture weapon.

By the time they were done the four year old was covered in more paint than all of the rocks put
together, but he looked extra cute with paint splattered all over his face and clothes when he
handed a rock painted black with an orange X to his brother and said it’s a hero rock Kacchan.
While Shouta and Hizashi packed up all the art supplies, Izuku ran around the little field chasing
and popping bubbles. Katsuki watched the kid run around, just a blur of giggles, green curls, and
rainbow colored stains on freckled skin.

They used more of the wet wipes to clean their hands and Izuku’s face before they sat down for
lunch. Shouta wasn’t expecting Izuku to ask to sit in his lap during lunch, but he wasn’t going to
complain about the first time the kid wanted to initiate physical contact with him. Plus only a
monster with no soul could say no to the chubby cheeked angel when he was looking up at them
with wide eyes and asking can I please sit in your lap while we eat, Shouta?

Once everyone was happily munching on their onigiri, Shouta looked around at his family.

“I’m glad the two of you are having fun today, I wasn’t sure if either of you were particularly fond
of outdoor activities.” He could see Hizashi rolling his eyes about the outdoors from the corner of
his eye. Izuku tilted his head back to look up at Shouta with a wide grin, rice already stuck to his
cheek.

“We love the outdoors! Kacchan likes mountain climbing and hiking and I like to go to the park to
feed the ducks and find cool bugs.” His smile was blinding even as Katsuki reached over to wipe
the rice off his face. Hizashi made an outraged noise.

“Sho, how could you do this to me? You finally bring children into our home and they’re outdoor
children.” He put a hand over his forehead like he was about to faint, “I’ve been betrayed! You did
this on purpose so I would be outnumbered by outdoor people.”

Shouta snorted, “You figured out my master plan. We’re all going to go camping and leave you all
alone indoors with electricity and running water.”
Katsuki eyed Shouta with a disbelieving expression, “You’re into camping? I thought the sleeping
bag was just to freak people out. You seem like a city person not a nature person.”

“I am a city person but there are less people in nature.” Shouta shrugged.

“Don’t worry Katsuki, you were one hundred percent right about the sleeping bag.” Hizashi
grinned as he took a bite of his onigiri.

“He says like he wasn’t the one who bought it for me.” He grumbled just loud enough for
everyone to hear. Izuku giggled at his foster parents bickering before stuffing enough food into his
mouth that he looked like a chipmunk. Shouta watched the kid chew on his mouthful of food for a
moment before adding, “Maybe we can go mountain climbing or camping sometime when it’s
safer to leave campus. I haven’t been mountain climbing but I do like hiking.”

Katsuki swallowed his current bite of food, “Depending on the kinds of trails you hike, mountain
climbing isn’t that different if you pick the right places.”

“Kacchan puts me in a backpack when I go with him.” Izuku informed them after finally
swallowing his food. Hizashi laughed, the sound echoing off the trees around them.

“If Shou carried me in a backpack I might consider going hiking with him.” The blonde seemed
pretty pleased with himself about the idea.

“The closest you’ll ever get to hiking is going to the mall.” He flicked the side of his husband’s
head and had to bite back a grin at the squawking noise he made.

“Okay but if you do it properly you get just as much exercise at the mall as you do hiking.” Hizashi
stuck his tongue out at him, because Shouta married a child.

“You only think that because you’ve never been hiking. Meanwhile, I’ve been to the mall with you
when you’re shopping properly.” Shouta watched his husband’s cheeks start to turn red. One of
his favorite things in life was to get the blonde riled up just to see the blush on his face he always
got when he was frustrated. He’d been doing it ever since he discovered that trait back in their high
school days.

“Well at least at the mall I can get something other than a sunburn. Maybe if you love the outdoors
so much you should go find a husband that enjoys being outside.” Hizashi crossed his arms and
stuck his nose up. Huffy Hizashi was just as adorable as frustrated Hizashi.

“I quite like my indoor husband, thank you.” He winked at the blonde. God, teenage Shouta would
gag if he could see this shit. Hizashi was eating it up though, his blush was back but not from
frustration.

“Mmmm, my outdoor husband isn’t so bad himself. He lets me stay home and watch dramas while
he hikes and then he brings me cool rocks and pretty pictures. He might just be perfect for me.”
His grin was flirtatious and Shouta wouldn’t have looked away from it if it weren’t for Katsuki
audibly gagging.

“The two of you are fucking disgusting. Aren’t people your age supposed to hate their spouses?”
This kid really was too much like a teenage Shouta for his own good.

Hizashi made an affronted noise, “How old do you think we are?”

“Like fifty.” Katsuki shrugged, stuffing more food into his mouth like he hadn’t just made
Hizashi’s brain implode. The man was gaping at their oldest son, eyes wide and a choking noise
spilling out of his open mouth. Then he started slapping at Shouta’s arm and making a high pitched
sound somewhere between a squeak and a shriek. Izuku was howling with laughter at the hero’s
dramatics. Shouta could feel a headache starting.

“I hope you realize he’s going to try to convince you that he’s cool and young until you take that
back.” Katsuki smirked around his mouthful of food at Shouta, knowing damn well the brunette
would be the most annoyed by that. “When I sign custody of you over to him in divorce court
because he wouldn’t stop doing tiktok dances I want you to remember this moment.”

“Shouta!” Hizashi wailed as he collapsed against his husband’s side, “Just admit you want to leave
me because I’m so old. You want to trade me in for a younger, cuter version of me.”

“If there are any other versions of you out there, I don’t want to meet them. One is bad enough.”
He patted Hizashi’s head affectionately.

“Don’t leave me, I need someone to tell me I’m pretty.” He couldn’t help the sigh he let out at
Hizashi’s whiny statement but he still turned his head and leaned down to give him a kiss on the
forehead. Katsuki made another gagging noise.

“Seriously, if this is what healthy relationships look like I’m going to stay single for life.” The
teenager grumbled into his onigiri before taking his next bite. Hizashi sat up with a mischievous
grin plastered on his face. Shouta busied himself with opening another juice box for Izuku, he was
not paid enough to deal with this, he wasn’t even paid to deal with this.

“Oh you’re going to be single for life huh? Because a very reliable source tells me you have eyes
for a certain young lady with a creation quirk.” The blonde man wiggled his eyebrows in a way
that was supposed to be suggestive but honestly looked ridiculous. He loved that goofy weirdo so
much. Katsuki wasn’t as sold on him at that moment.

“It was fucking Pikachu wasn’t it?” He growled at his guardian, “Raccoon Eyes wouldn’t stop
running her fucking mouth and I know you and Sparky have those weird ‘AP English’ assignments
that are actually just gossip time. I’m gonna kill those fuck heads.”

Hizashi leaned over to pat Katsuki’s hand, slowly enough the boy could pull away if he wanted but
still managed to make it more condescending than reassuring. “It’s okay to admit you have
feelings, even romantic ones. Also, those assignments are not just gossip time. They are very
serious assignments designed to improve upon his very advanced skill with the English language.”

“They are all literally just theories about who is dating who at UA and among the pro heroes. I’ve
read them. Just because he writes them in English and you write down your opinions on his
theories in English does not make it an English assignment.” Katsuki glared at him, “And for the
last fucking time, I don’t have feelings for Ponytail. I asked her to make shoes for Izuku and respect
her strategizing abilities. That doesn’t mean I want to suck face with her.”

“Well there was another option on Kaminari’s latest assignment about who you could have
feelings for.” He paused for a second, “But you’re right they aren’t even real assignments so forget
about it.”

Shouta couldn’t help thinking that even someone who’d never met Katsuki would know that was
the exact opposite of the way to get him to forget about something. He was clearly right based on
the noise the kid made.

“It’s a dude isn’t it?” Katsuki narrowed his eyes, “It’s a dude and you don’t want to tell me after I
lost my shit about that rumor about me and IcyHot.”
Hizashi’s shoulders slumped a bit when he sighed, “Okay yes, but it’s just because we don’t
assume sexualities so he regularly includes one male and one female option for one person. There’s
no need to get upset about it and I’ll make sure Kaminari doesn’t include you in the assignments
anymore.”

Katsuki crossed his arms and sneered, “I don’t give a fuck if he puts me in or not and I’m not
upset. Because guess what, I am gay!” He threw his hands up in exasperation, “I’m just also
fucked in the head because Mitsuki is a homophobic asshole so I got pissy that time. Just tell me
who the dude Sparky thinks I’m in love with is so I can decide how delusional he is.”

Hizashi smiled softly at their son, “First of all, thank you for trusting us with that. I’m proud of you
for coming out to us.” He had to stifle a laugh at Katsuki grumbling yeah yeah just give me the
name under his breath, “Kaminari’s guess was Shinso which, at first I thought was odd because I
totally would have thought it was Kirishima, but I can kind of see it. You both have the whole
sarcastic, leave me alone attitude and you’re both very smart and very handsome young men.”

Katsuki squinted his eyes at Hizashi for a moment, “That. That shit right there is why you seem
like you’re fifty. Who the fuck says handsome young men. And what, I can’t be friendly with
someone for two fucking seconds or I’m in love with them?”

Hizashi was busy making more squawking noises about the age comment so Shouta decided to
throw his two cents in, “It’s not that you’re friendly with them, kid. It’s how friendly you are with
them. You put up with your friends, you actually seem to enjoy spending time with Kirishima and
Shinso. And I have it on good authority that the three of you were eating up on the roof all alone
during lunch.” That managed to snap Hizashi out of his offended noise making.

“Oh that’s so romantic! Shou, remember when we used to eat lunch alone on the roof in high
school? On those days Oboro and Tensei didn’t join us and we were all alone?” He pillowed his
chin on his hands and batted his eyes at Shouta.

“I remember having to check your braces for food every day.” He smirked at his loud blonde who
made an indignant sound in return.

“Shouta Aizawa, I just wanted to get your face as close to mine as possible even before we were
dating and you know that. Stop being mean to me in front of the children before they learn your
bad habits.” He swatted at Shouta’s shoulder and Izuku giggled.
“It’s too late Yamada, I’m gonna do all the bad habits.” Katsuki snorted at his brother and ruffled
his hair.

“That’s right Izu, pull ‘logical ruses’ on people for literally no reason, like cats more than people,
and be mean to Yamada all the time. Sounds like the perfect life.” Katsuki grinned at the gasp
Hizashi let out as he slapped his hand over his heart.

“They’ve all turned against me. I’m surrounded by meanies who don’t love me. I’ll have to fake
my death and move to a new country to escape this cruel fate.” Hizashi flopped over onto his side
across the blanket and Izuku was giggling almost hysterically at his over-dramatic foster father.
Katsuki just rolled his eyes and went back to eating his lunch.

Once everyone was full Izuku was set loose to run around the small field while they packed up
lunch and their art supplies. Katsuki was stacking the now dry rocks into the bucket and Hizashi
had just finished folding the blanket so neither of them saw it coming when disaster was about to
strike and Shouta had only just glanced up from putting the food containers in the basket so he
didn’t have time to warn them.
Izuku ran right up to Hizashi with a blinding, excited smile on his face and yelled look what I
found, Yamada before thrusting his little hand up toward the blonde who’d already started bending
down to see what the boy had to show him. In the palm of his hand was a beetle, bright orange so
cool enough to catch a kid's eye, and big enough that it took up a good portion of Izuku’s small
hand.

Hizashi screamed, thankfully turning his head away from the bug (and Izuku’s hand) to do so
because Shouta didn’t manage to erase his quirk quickly enough and he knocked over two trees
with his scream before he managed to get it erased. Izuku’s tiny face crumpled, tears welling up in
his wide eyes as he bent over to set the beetle down and shoo it off in the opposite direction. By the
time he was straightened up and the beetle was out of sight, the boy was fully crying.

“I’m sorry Yamada, I didn’t mean to scare you, promise! I just thought it was pretty like your hair
so I thought you’d like it.” Izuku’s words were only just barely distinguishable through his sobs.

Shouta and Katsuki had both set down their tasks and moved to console the boy, but Hizashi did
something Shouta had never seen him do. He shook off his disgust about bugs and, still looking a
bit pale and close to vomiting, crouched down to open his arms up for Izuku to throw himself into.
As soon as the four year old was wrapped up against his chest, Hizashi was rubbing his back and
shushing him.

“It’s okay Izuku, I’m not upset with you. You didn’t know how much I hate bugs. It was a nice
thing you were trying to do, I didn’t mean to make you sad by screaming like that. I’m sorry I upset
you.” He ran gentle fingers through green curls while Izuku sniffled against him until the kid
calmed down enough to pull back and look up at him.

“You don’t hate me now cause I scared you?” His bottom lip was wobbling and he looked one
unkind word away from shattering. Hizashi smiled brightly back at him.

“Kiddo I could never hate you, even if you’d done it on purpose. I would be a little mad at the
time, but I’d forgive you and not hate you.”

“You promise?”

“I swear on my hair products, kiddo.” Hizashi raised his hand in the classic ‘scouts honor’ hand
sign, Katsuki snorted.

“That’s how you know he’s serious, Izu. You know how much product he needs to make it look as
ridiculous as it does for his costume.”

Izuku giggled and Hizashi pulled out his normal dramatic offended noises before looking down at
the giggling angel still hugging him. “Can you believe how mean your brother is to me?”

“It means he likes you, Zashi.” Izuku patted Hizashi’s face consolingly. Hizashi was obviously
trying to choke back happy tears at hearing the kid call him Zashi, he’d been pretending to not be
jealous that Izuku had called him Shouta all day and now he was hearing the closest thing to his
first name the kid could say.

Katsuki made a tch noise and stomped back to the rocks he was putting away, grumbling under his
breath about that little brat always runnin’ his mouth. Shouta went back to packing away the food
containers with a soft smile on his face, his little family made him so stupid happy.

Once they were all packed up the boys climbed on their bikes and the four of them started the
journey back to the teacher’s dorms. This time, now that they knew where they were going, Izuku
and Katsuki were leading the way. The adults watched their sons “race” (it was very obvious
Katsuki was letting his little brother win) most of the way back as they walked behind them at a
leisurely pace.

Hizashi took their things back up to the apartment while Shouta grabbed the box they’d stored in
the common area and returned to the kids they’d left outside.

“We figured you two could enjoy some outside time with the rest of the class with these.” He
handed the box over to Katsuki who peeked inside and rolled his eyes like Shouta couldn’t see the
little grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Fine, the nerd and I’ll go hang out with those losers. Those freaks will probably be thrilled.”
Shouta very slowly reached a hand up, watching Katsuki watch his hand approach. He tensed a
little, but made no move to stop or protest so Shouta figured it was okay for him to lightly ruffle
the teenager’s hair. He pretended he didn’t notice Katsuki lightly leaning into the touch.

“Don’t let any of your classmates strangle themselves with the strings. Oh and don’t forget to lock
up your bikes when you get there.” Shouta pulled the bike locks out of the bottom of the box to
hand to Katsuki who took them with a small nod. He stuck his hands in his pockets and watched
Izuku trail along behind Katsuki on his tricycle while the older boy walked his bike to the dorms
since the large box was taking up the seat of the bike.

If he later pulled up the security footage from outside the class 1A dorms on his tablet so he and
Hizashi could watch the class dig through the box of cheap plastic kites and run around the lawn
like over-excited kids while they flew them, that was their business. No one could prove anything.
 Chapter 15
Chapter Notes

This chapter takes place almost a week after the last one. That should be clear right
away, but I'm putting it here just in case.

TW: use of the f-slur, minor violence, minor mentions of blood, made up quirk science
but for like one sentence, Monoma exists

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Katsuki had finally managed to have completely normal days for an entire half of a week. He made
it all the way to Thursday of their second week back with no drama, confrontations,
misunderstandings, or meltdowns. It was basically a goddamn miracle. He’d managed to shake off
all the extras trying to thank him for free tampons and shit and no one was asking him shit about
his hearing aids. Even when his custom ear protection and comms came in and were added to his
costume, no one bothered him.

Morning runs with Kirishima and Izuku, class, lunches with Kirishima and Shinso, training, dinner
with their guardians, and hangouts and study time with classmates in the dorms had become his
routine. It was a good routine when no one was disturbing it with their bullshit. Even his first anger
management session went well. He had thought they were getting another drama free day right up
until Aizawa came in for their ethics lesson with a teacher from the business course who had a free
period following him.

They were informed that the teacher was going to watch them while they all worked on the essays
that had been assigned in their last ethics lesson. Then Aizawa asked Aoyama to come with him
and Katsuki knew the drama free day was over. Of course, the minute they left whispers broke out
as everyone speculated about what Aoyama had done to get in trouble. Most of them were joking,
he got glitter in Aizawa’s sleeping bag or had purchased illegal cheese. A few were more serious,
people wondering if he’d broken a big enough rule for suspension or expulsion. Those questions
had some people looking at Katsuki, all remembering the last time Aoyama had been in trouble
was for his comments about the explosive blonde.

Kirishima actually turned around to give Katsuki a questioning look after he and Pinky finished
whispering loudly about the french kid.

“What do you think, Bakugo? I haven’t seen or heard him do anything recently that would get him
in enough trouble for Aizawa to take him out of class.” The redhead wasn’t asking in an accusing
manner like the people throwing glances from around the room at him probably would have. He
just honestly wanted Katsuki’s opinion, but he had kept the secret this long, he wasn’t about to run
his fucking mouth off about it now.

“I think if it’s any of our business we’ll find out when they fucking want us to.” He kept his tone
even, not snapping at his friend like he would have last term and Kirishima must have realized that
since he was rewarded with a grin.

“You’re right Bakubro, it isn’t manly to gossip about our classmates!” Then the smiley idiot turned
back around to work on his essay quietly and Katsuki crossed his fingers hoping for as few
mistakes as possible on it since he’d be the one reviewing it and making corrections.

The only person not surprised by Aoyama not joining them for the rest of their classes was Katsuki.
By the time they were headed to heroics that afternoon, everyone had stopped wondering when he
would rejoin them out loud. The question was still on everyone’s mind, obvious because of the
tension in the air as they made their way to the locker rooms. But Katsuki was distracted from that
by the sight of Yamada standing outside the boy’s locker room with Izuku bouncing in place next
to him.

“Kacchan, I get to train with you today!” The kid screamed the second he laid eyes on his brother,
right before he launched himself at the blonde. Katsuki easily caught him and settled him on his
hip.

“Is that right? Did Yamada decide it was time to start your hero career already?” He asked his
brother, poking his freckled cheek to get a giggle out of the boy before looking at Yamada for
actual answers.

“Sorry about this Katsuki, I would have warned you but I only found out the meetings I had
scheduled today were going to go on for this long an hour ago. We had a break while waiting for
the people scheduled for the next meeting to arrive so I went ahead and picked Izuku up early. I
already let All Might know he’d be staying in the viewing room today and there’s no issue with it.”
Their guardian smiled at them sheepishly, “Aizawa is also attending these meetings and it’s
looking like we won’t be done until late tonight so you boys will be on your own for dinner. Or
you can go eat at the dorms, whichever you want. Sorry to take off so quickly, but I really have to
get back to the conference room.”

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the meetings Yamada would be having were
about if you knew about the traitor business so it was unsurprising that they would take a while.
Katsuki wasn’t going to give any of his classmates the chance to ask about the meetings.

“Okay we’ll eat at the dorms tonight, no problem. Come on Izuku, I need to get changed into my
suit.” Izuku trailed after Katsuki happily, making no protest when his brother picked him up and
set him down on the bench right by his locker. It wasn’t until Katsuki was pulling his suit out of
his locker that Izuku spoke as he looked around at the other boys getting ready for training.

“Kacchan, I thought they didn’t let fags change with the other boys.” Izuku’s voice held only
confusion and curiosity, a child asking a question about a situation they didn’t understand. That
didn’t stop everyone in the locker room from freezing in horror.

No one in the room would be stupid enough to blame the four year old for repeating hateful shit,
Katsuki knew that. He also knew several of these motherfuckers probably thought he was the one
teaching him the hateful shit. Every one of them was watching the blonde as he turned around,
setting his suit down next to where Izuku was standing on the bench and squatting down so they
were eye to eye.

“Izu, nobody is mad at you. But you mixed up the words. Gay is the word you can use and fag is
the bad word.” Katsuki rubbed his hands up and down Izuku’s arms to comfort him as the boy
started tearing up when he realized that he’d accidentally used a slur, “And gay people are allowed
to change in the locker room that matches their gender, doesn’t matter that they’re gay.”

Izuku shuffled his feet for a moment before sniffling, “So they don’t make you change with the
girls?”

Katsuki crushed the panic trying to rise up in his chest. He wasn’t going to try to deflect or hide
who he was in front of his brother because Mitsuki had fucked him up so badly, he wouldn’t be the
person to teach Izuku to hide in fear of judgement. Besides, if any of the fuckheads in his class had
an issue with him being gay he could easily kick their asses.

“Nope, I get to change with all the other boys because I’m a boy. Doesn’t matter that I’m gay.”
Watching Izuku give a shaky smile and a small nod was not him trying to avoid his classmate’s
reactions. Fuck off.

“Sorry I used a bad word, Kacchan.” Izuku’s chin was wobbling, a second away from crying.

“It’s okay Izu, you just mixed up the words. Everyone gets confused sometimes.” Katsuki smiled
at him, ruffling his hair.

“Yeah Izubro! I’m gay too and I’m not upset you used that word on accident. You didn’t mean to
so there’s no problem.” Kirishima was flashing that huge ass smile when the brothers looked over
at him. Izuku’s chin was looking less wobbly and his smile was a little bigger. Sparky threw an
arm over his boyfriend’s shoulders and threw up a peace sign.

“That’s right little dude, there’s a bunch of gays in here and none of us are mad at you.” Sparky
leaned over to kiss IcyHot’s cheek and Katsuki stopped himself from rolling his eyes at the blush
on the idiot’s face, they were trying to cheer up his brother so he’d let them be disgusting for the
moment. Todoroki nodded and gave Izuku the biggest smile Katsuki had ever seen on him, it was
still barely there but that was a big smile by IcyHot standards.

“We are your friends, Izuku. Friends don’t get mad when their friends make a mistake.” Todoroki
managed to finally cheer the kid up all the way. Izuku was now vibrating with excitement again.

“If we’re friends does that mean I can give you a nickname? Can I call you Roki?”

Halfie did that slow blink that meant he was surprised before smiling again, “Yes of course you
can call me that. Bakugo, you may also call me that since we are best friends.”

“We are not best friends Half N Half. Shut the fuck up.” Katsuki growled as he stood up and went
back to changing into his suit.

“You are the one who helped me confess to Denki. Which is the reason we are dating. Who else
but a best friend would do something like that?”

“I did that because the two of you were getting on my nerves and making your disgusting ass
feelings my fucking problem. That does not make us friends.” Katsuki was putting on his suit much
more aggressively than he usually did in an effort to not blow up the moron.

“Sounds fake but go off.” IcyHot said in his monotone voice. Katsuki slammed his head against his
locker and groaned.

“Sparky stop teaching your fucking boyfriend that shit.”

“No thank you, Blasty bae, it’s hilarious.” Pikachu grinned like a fucking lunatic and Katsuki only
stopped himself from killing the idiot because that made Izuku giggle.

Katsuki put on one of his gauntlets and carried the other so he could use the other arm to carry his
brother without worrying about hurting the kid with the gauntlet. He would let him walk but Izuku
was very easily distracted and Katsuki wasn’t going to risk him wandering off in a hero school,
he’d never see the kid again. Of course, no one had bothered to warn him that the training that day
was a joint training with class B. So the teen walked into the viewing room with a kid on his hip
who was wearing his mask and pretending to shoot explosions at Tape Arms. The amount of
shocked staring from the class B extras was not surprising but was super fucking annoying. Pinky
shrieked and ran over before any of them could say shit about it.

“What are you doing here Izuku? Oh gosh you look so cute in Blasty’s mask!” She clasped her
hands together in the way Katsuki knew meant she was stopping herself from touching someone or
something. She was a tactile person but she could respect boundaries when she needed to.

“I get to watch Kacchan train today cause Zashi and Shouta have meetings and couldn’t pick me
up after school so they had to get me early.” Izuku was swinging his legs happily, pushing the
mask back up on his face. It was too loose, even tied as tight as possible and kept slipping down.

“Well we’ll all have to fight extra hard since we have the best VIP in the audience.” Pinky grinned
at the laugh she got out of Izuku as they walked across the room to where she’d been chatting with
Ponytail and Big Hands from class B. Tape Arms stood next to the blonde, letting Izuku examine
his helmet.

“Yeah dude, we all have to try extra hard to impress Izuku. Maybe he’ll leave here today thinking
one of us is a better hero than Bakugo.” He said with a smirk at Katsuki. Izuku huffed at the
brunette.

“Kacchan is the best hero ever silly. Then there’s All Might, but maybe you can be third if you do
real good.” He reached over and patted the boy on his shoulder while the rest of the group laughed.
Big Hands gave them an awkward smile, looking between all of them before getting the courage to
ask what all of class B was clearly thinking with all their fucking staring.

“So uh, Bakugo does have a kid?” She looked like she fully expected Katsuki to blow her into
pieces, but all he did was snort.

“He’s my brother dumbass.” Katsuki didn’t even yell, because anger management was clearly
already fixing him. Or he was trying to not yell as much in front of Izuku, whatever. The kid started
poking his brother in the cheek until he gave him his attention.

“Kacchan, I want down please.” He was only wiggling a little, thankfully he’d stopped wiggling
wildly when he wanted down after the one time Katsuki hadn’t had a good grip on him and he
almost dropped the little shit. The second Izuku’s feet hit the floor he took off to start running
around the room and asking question after question about everyone’s hero suits.

Katsuki was keeping a careful eye on him even as All Might walked over to their little group.

“Ah young Bakugo, I wanted to assure you that I put young Kirishima in a different group than you
so that while you’re participating in the exercise there will be someone to keep an eye on him for
you.” All Might gave him a smile when Katsuki nodded in acknowledgement before ambling back
to the front of the room where he would explain the exercise once everyone was present.

While the rest of their classmates filtered in from the locker rooms, Katsuki watched Izuku shyly
start interacting with the class B kids. He was clearly pushing past his anxiety about new people
because he wanted to know about their quirks and suits. It was particularly funny to watch the brat
yell that’s so cool when Copycat explained his quirk. Because the snotty blonde was shocked by
the excitement and didn’t pay attention to why Izuku asked him to try to copy his quirk. Copycat
didn’t even question it when the kid then demanded he try to copy someone else’s quirk right after.
The look on his pointy face when he realized he couldn’t copy someone’s quirk after trying to copy
a quirkless person’s was the funniest shit Katsuki had ever seen.
Izuku thought his little experiment was the coolest shit ever, he yelled for his brother until Katsuki
came over to where Izuku was bouncing around Copycat.

“Kacchan, he copied my quirklessness! Isn’t that so weird? Why did it just not copy it?” He was
tugging on Katsuki’s pant leg as he questioned the teen. Katsuki smiled down at his brother, loving
the enthusiasm for quirks he hadn’t lost after finding out he would never get one.

“Well I bet his quirk works by copying something in the quirk factor in a person’s DNA and
instead of giving up when you didn’t have a quirk factor it just copied the absence of one.”

Izuku threw his hands up and did a weird little dance thing, “Kacchan is so smart! It will wear off
though right? I didn’t make him quirkless forever did I?” His voice got small and worried. Katsuki
ruffled his hair playfully.

“Course it will wear off. This asshole isn’t cool enough to be quirkless for life.” He moved his
hand from Izuku’s hair to poke his nose and get a giggle from the boy. Copycat finally seemed to
get his wits back at that moment.

“Your brother is quirkless, Bakugo?” The normal hostility was missing from his voice, but the
question still had Katsuki on edge.

“Yeah you got a fucking problem with it bitch?” He snarled, gently moving Izuku so he was
between him and Copycat. The other blonde looked away, glaring at nothing and clenching his
hands into fists at his sides before snapping his head back to stare at Katsuki.

“I just figured someone like you would have a problem with it.” Was the response. Katsuki
couldn’t hold back a mocking laugh at that.

“Other than having a flashy quirk what have I ever done to make you think I’m a quirksist?” He
paused for a second before sneering, “Did it ever occur to you that you assuming every person with
a flashy quirk is a quirksist is you being quirksist? You’re making assumptions about a person
based only on their quirk, aka quirksism.”

Copycat was gaping like a stunned fish and Katsuki was about to steer Izuku back to his classmates
when the knock off Kirishima stepped up next to Copycat with crossed arms.

“I’ve heard you say shit about not wanting to fight someone with a weak quirk. Thinking a quirk is
either strong or weak is quirksist.” Metalhead sounded smug, like he’d caught the explosive boy
with his hand in the cookie jar. Katsuki didn’t even try to stop the eye roll.

“A quirk is only weak when someone doesn’t make the effort to learn how to fucking use it
properly. I’m not wasting my training fighting someone who never took the time to develop their
skills, that would be pointless. You can’t make it to the top if you only ever go up against the
weakest motherfuckers out there. So stop running your mouth when you don’t know what the fuck
you’re talking about.” Katsuki spat out his last sentence and turned on his heel, motioning Izuku to
follow him.

The kid was all too happy to comply, not liking being so close to a confrontation like that yet again.
They rejoined the group that Pinky had in the corner, now with Kirishima, Sparky, IcyHot, and
Shinso in it as well. Katsuki stood next to Kirishima and nudged his arm.

“All Might put us on separate teams. Can you keep an eye on Izuku for me when it’s my team’s
turn?” He asked lowly so he didn’t catch the kid’s attention while he held his finger out for Sparky
to give him tiny shocks to see if he could make his hair frizzy.
Katsuki would stop that little science experiment after he got Kirishima to agree. Izuku, like most
kids, didn’t like being reminded that he was too small and young to not have someone watching
him. He would also get upset that his friend was acting as a babysitter, he would start believing
that Kirishima was only spending time with him because he had to and not because he liked him.
Katsuki didn’t want to deal with a four year old having an existential crisis.

“For sure bro! You know I love hanging out with the little dude.” The redhead flashed his big ass
smile at the blonde and Katsuki sighed.

“Yeah you’re a freak who loves kids, we get it.” He grumbled.

Kirishima chuckled, “Of course I like kids, but Izuku’s my favorite. He’s the best little dude ever.”

“Bet you say that to all the older brothers.” Katsuki winked at him, it felt a little unnatural to him,
Katsuki wasn’t the type to make jokes that required winks a lot and he sure as shit wasn’t the type
to wink for other reasons, but Kirishima’s eyes widened in surprise and his cheeks pinked up a bit
before he started laughing and that made the awkward feeling worth it.

When Pikachu looked over and demanded to know what was so funny, Katsuki glanced around the
group for a second before he caught the look on Shinso’s face. It was pinched, looking somewhere
between sad and nauseous for just a second before it smoothed out to the normal blank face Shinso
walked around with. Katsuki felt irritation and anger building up in his chest, someone must have
said or done something while he was distracted to make the insomniac upset.

There was no way for him to figure out who it was since Shinso wouldn’t admit to it if he asked.
Katsuki knew him well enough to know he wasn’t going to admit something was bothering him
unless it was really bad. Looking around the small group didn’t give any answers either, no one
looked smug like they’d just torn someone down or upset like they’d just been in an argument.
Katsuki decided to keep an eye on them all for the rest of training, just in case.

Once everyone was present and ready All Might gathered them around to announce the teams and
explained the exercise they were doing. Before he could start talking, the little horse girl from class
B raised her hand and the hero let her ask her dumbass question.

“Um, not that he’s not totally cute, but why exactly is there a small child running around in here?
Is he part of the training because that seems super unsafe.” Katsuki wondered how someone who
thought a four year old was going to be part of a hero training exercise had passed the written part
of the entrance exam. Before he could snap at her, All Might saved her from his wrath.

“Ah, Present Mic and Eraserhead are in an important but spontaneous meeting with Nezu that will
end well after pickup time at young Midoriya’s daycare so he is here to watch his brother train
today.” The blonde hero clearly thought that was the end of it since he opened his mouth up to
continue with the lesson, but the Copycat bitch couldn’t let it go.

“What does Present Mic and Eraserhead being in a meeting have to do with Bakugo’s brother
having to be here?” Why could no one at UA mind their own fucking business? Katsuki was tired
of this, they could already be starting the fucking exercise if these assholes would shut up.

“Because they’re our fucking guardians fuck face. Who’s gonna watch the little shit if our
guardians are in a meeting, all the teachers are busy, and it’s too short notice to find a trustworthy
babysitter?” Katsuki only stopped shouting at the moron because Izuku was patting his hand on his
leg and when he looked down his brother was making the pick me up grabby hands. He huffed
fondly before scooping the brat up to put him on his hip.
Copycat was fucking lucky he got distracted helping the kid adjust the mask Katsuki wasn’t sure
he’d be getting back at that point or there would have been more yelling. Before anyone else could
further delay the lesson, All Might clapped his hands together and quickly launched into his
explanation of the exercise. Kirishima’s team was up first, a mix of members of both classes,
because they needed to “learn to work together with people whose fighting style they aren’t used
to”.

Mixing them up made sense, but that didn’t mean Katsuki was happy about fucking Metalhead
being on his team. At least he wasn’t Kirishima who’d gotten stuck with Copycat, Tape Arms, and
some extra whose quirk was something like glue? Tape Arms could come in handy but what did
you need glue for when you had tape and none of the quirks on the team were good enough for
combat to warrant being copied except tape but it required a painful mutation so he couldn’t copy
it, Katsuki had seen him try. So Copycat, if he was smart, had copied other quirks before the match
and would need to end their plus ultra version of capture the flag before his time ran out.

It was mostly the murderbots wandering the training area between the bases that held the flags that
made it plus ultra. Katsuki set Izuku on his shoulders so he could get the best view of the screens
to watch Kiri kick all their butts! He ignored the class B extras that were staring more at him
allowing his brother to pull on his hair and kick his chest in his excitement over the match than
they were at the actual match.

Of course Kirishima, being the too friendly puppy that he was, tried to work with everyone on his
team. Tape Arms very obviously made an attempt as well, he was too “go with the flow” to be the
one not trying for teamwork. The glue kid made some effort, setting traps around their base with
Tape Arms to catch the opposing team and covering any approaching bots in glue but not jumping
to taking any hits for the class A members.

It was Copycat that was causing issues the entire time. Katsuki could understand sometimes being
pissy for little to no reason. He could understand having issues with a person or people that seem to
have life made for them in your personal opinion. Even bringing the dumbass class rivalry into
training he could understand, when it was to antagonize the opposing team and not your own team
members.

Everyone could tell, even with the lack of audio, that the blonde was throwing insults and jabs at
the two members of class A the entire exercise. Several times his taunting left him or a teammate
distracted and got them hit by either a robot or a member of the other team when they crossed
paths. Even the class B extras in the viewing room were grumbling about how he was going to cost
his team the win if he didn’t knock it off and work with the class A kids.

So after all that it didn’t surprise anyone that Kirishima’s team lost. It was shocking however, that
the reason they lost was because right before they could carry the flag into their base, Copycat said
something to the redhead that made the boy harden his fist, pivot on his heel, and punch him
square in the face. The blonde went down hard, blood spurting from his nose that Katsuki would
bet money was broken, right as the other team crossed into their base with Kirshima’s team’s flag.
It took the two second lead they’d had for Kirishima to break Copycat’s nose and cost them the
match, but the thing that shocked everyone was that it was Kirishima that lost it.

No one had been too surprised when Katsuki had broken his jaw. The blonde was known for
violence and anger. Kirishima was known for happiness and enthusiasm and playing well with
others. So whatever Copycat had said must have been horrible beyond belief.

All Might had jumped at the control panel, ready to try to defuse the situation over the intercom
before it escalated enough they had to be physically separated by outside parties. But as soon as the
buzzer announcing the end of the match went off, Kirishima stepped over Copycat and calmly
exited the field. He returned to the viewing room and only a shouted command from All Might
kept everyone from rushing him to find out what happened. The hero and his student stood by the
door and spoke quietly for a moment before All Might clapped Kirishima on the shoulder and sent
him to rejoin the class. The redhead ignored their classmate’s attempts to find out what the class B
bitch had said and made his way over to Katsuki. Izuku leaned over Katsuki’s head, the blonde
adjusting his grip so he didn’t lose his balance and fall from his shoulders.

“Kiri, are you okay? Why’d you hit the copy quirk boy? Cause I know you know it’s mean to hit
people.” How the kid managed to ask that without sounding accusatory or nosy, Katsuki would
never know. The four year old had more tact than he ever would.

“He said a lot of mean stuff that made me mad.” Kirishima sighed, “But I was trying to ignore it
and be the bigger person like you’re supposed to. Then he said something really mean about
someone I really care about and I hit him before I could calm down enough to remember I
shouldn’t do that. I’m sorry if I scared you, Izuku.” He sounded like he expected the kid to call him
the world’s biggest monster.

“I wasn’t scared, I know you aren’t mean for no reason so I just wanted to know why. Sometimes
when I get really mad, I sing my ABCs and then I forget to be mad.” Izuku smiled brightly at his
friend and Kirishima visibly relaxed. Katsuki knew he’d been worried that seeing him hit someone
would remind Izuku of whatever it was the two of them were removed from his parent’s home for.
Maybe if it was someone else it would have, but Kirishima didn’t need to be worried, anyone
who’d spent more than a second with the sharp toothed idiot could tell he was nothing like
Mitsuki.

“I’ll try that next time, thanks little bro!” He flashed his big ass smile at the kid and Katsuki
reached out his foot to tap the teen’s shin to get his attention.

“What’s your punishment?” Katsuki, and everyone at UA, knew All Might was the most lenient
teacher in terms of handing out punishments, but he’d also never seen All Might’s reaction to
someone punching their own teammate in the nose mid-exercise.

“Three days of after school detention and a formal apology letter to Monoma for hitting him.”
Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck, not used to getting in trouble for something more serious
than goofing off at the wrong time or a prank gone wrong.

They were interrupted by the rest of Kirishima’s team entering the room. All Might immediately
took the three of them to the corner furthest away from the rest of the class and spoke with them
quietly. Everyone blatantly watched the conversation from the other side of the room like they
were in traffic passing a particularly nasty car wreck. Sero was the first to be dismissed, looking
more angry than Katsuki had ever seen the laid back boy. He joined their little group, mumbling to
them that he’d backed up Kirishima’s side of the story since he’d also heard whatever it was
Copycat had said.

The glue extra apparently hadn’t heard anything and was quickly dismissed while Copycat told his
side of the story. And then they all watched as All Might talked at length to Copycat, never letting
him get any arguments out and his face turning more and more red the longer he spoke. When he
coughed mid-sentence, he didn’t even bother wiping the blood off his mouth as he continued to
lecture the boy. Eventually he pointed at the door to the exit that would take him to the locker
rooms and everyone watched as Copycat slouched his shoulders and stomped from the room like a
scolded toddler.

Then All Might turned back to the room and called for the next teams to head to the field.
Katsuki’s team was going last so he stood next to Kirishima and Tape Arms with Izuku on his
shoulders as they watched Shinso, Pinky, and two class B extras he didn’t really recognize go up
against Cheeks, Froggy, Big Hands, and a guy who was made of shadows or some shit.

Izuku cheered for Shinso and Raccoon Eyes just like he’d cheered for Kirishima and Tape Arms,
enthusiastically and loudly. Katsuki was going to have so many bruises on his chest from the little
shit slamming his heels into him as he squirmed around on his shoulders. But the kid was happy
and he wasn’t about to complain about a little pain if it meant Izuku got to have some well
deserved fun.

Shinso’s voice modulator was a real stroke of genius because he managed to knock both class B
kids from the other team out of play quickly. Raccoon Eyes somehow managed to slip past the one
guard the other team left outside their base even in her eyesore of a hero suit and was skating on her
acid back to their base before the other team had even reached the class B guards they’d left
behind. By the time she crossed into the base holding the other team’s flag, they still hadn’t made
it past the guards, barely holding their own in the fights to get past them. Shinso’s team won by a
whole fucking landslide and Izuku was screaming so loud Katsuki thought he might go deaf a
second time.

The second the purple haired boy was in range, Izuku was begging for permission to hug him
congratulations. He got permission and decided the best move was to dive bomb at him from
Katsuki’s shoulders the second the blonde had removed his hands from his legs to reach up so he
could lift the boy off. His terror of a brother kicked him in the side of the head as he leapt from his
shoulders at the boy who, thankfully, was only an inch taller than Katsuki so he didn’t have to dive
to catch the kid.

Katsuki let Izuku hug Shinso and chatter about how cool he was for a moment before he gently
took hold of the kid and pulled him out of Shinso’s hold. Holding him up with hands under his
armpits so they were face to face, he looked his brother directly in the eye.

“You could have gotten hurt doing that, Izu. I know you got excited but you have to not do
dangerous things like that. If you get hurt, who's gonna be my best sidekick? You think Shitty Hair
over here could be a better sidekick than you?” Katsuki nodded his head in Kirishima’s direction
and ignored the affronted noise he made in response.

“M’sorry Kacchan, I won’t do it again even if I’m excited. Don’t make Kiri your sidekick.” Izuku
stuck his bottom lip out and flashed his puppy dog eyes at his big brother and Katsuki rolled his
eyes.

“Fine, Shitty Hair won’t be my sidekick as long as you don’t go injuring yourself before you get a
hero license. Now Eyebags, you get to hold this again.” Katsuki thrust his giggling brother back at
the insomniac who acted put out even with the small smile on his face. Then he made his way to
the field, ignoring Kirishima’s loud protesting behind him that he would make a fantastic sidekick.

His team consisted of Metalhead, Ponytail, and some third guy who Katsuki decided to call Scales
since that was literally his whole fucking quirk. So there was another hero course kid with some
kind of armor skin, but at least this Kirishima knock off could use his scales as projectiles.

They discussed their plan on the walk to their base and Katsuki only showed a fraction of how
smug he was when Metalhead realized Katsuki’s plan was the best one after he’d spent the entire
walk arguing that the blonde didn’t get to just make a plan. If Metalhead could come up with a
decent one, Katsuki wouldn’t have to make all the plans himself.

The training field they were using was urban with mostly smooth streets and any debris from
previous fights had been cleaned up by bots between matches. So Ponytail and Scales stationed
themselves in the most obvious routes to their base after Ponytail had set a few traps along other
routes. Katsuki had been glad at least one member on their team knew how to roller skate or the
plan wouldn’t have worked the way he wanted.

Ponytail made the necessary equipment before they split up and left the base and Katsuki found
himself with sturdy cable wrapped around his waist as he used explosions to propel himself
through the air. At the other end of the cable was Metalhead, wearing skates and holding onto a
tow cable handle fashioned like the ones used by wake-boarders. It was a stroke of luck that it was
Metalhead that knew how to skate since he could harden if Katsuki took a corner too hard and
threw him into buildings, it didn’t happen but it was nice to not have to worry about accidentally
killing a teammate.

They made it to the opposing team’s base in record time, the guards had split up just like their team
so it was just the vine chick that they had to get past. Katsuki cleared the way for Metalhead to
slingshot himself past them with a few explosions to her hair, then he stuck around to keep her busy
until his teammate came back.

It didn’t take long, considering how fast he’d been moving thanks to Katsuki’s explosions and how
far away the other guard had positioned themself. He faced no opposition and by the time he was
skating back, the vine chick’s hair was slowing down after he’d repeatedly blown it off. Katsuki
managed to keep her back long enough for Metalhead to toss him the discarded cable and then they
were blasting back to their base.

Glasses had been the obvious choice for the opposing team to send for their flag, which was why
Ponytail had set her traps specifically for someone with super speed. They were within sight of
their base before they passed Earphones holding their flag and trying to free a tied up Glasses.
Seconds later the buzzer went off and their win was announced.

They made their way back to the viewing room with Metalhead asking Ponytail if he could keep
the skates since they were better quality than his own. Scales was thankfully quiet, not trying to
strike up a conversation with Katsuki since their respective classmates were busy. The second they
came through the viewing room door, Izuku was wrapped around his leg screaming about how
awesome it was and how he wanted to come to training every day. Katsuki was just thankful he’d
thought ahead and removed his spiked knee guards before entering the room.

They listened to All Might go over the highlights of each match and were dismissed. Katsuki was
walking with Izuku attached to his leg, the kid was so fucking fond of doing that shit, but his
journey to the locker rooms was interrupted by Metalhead stepping in front of him.

“Hey man, I just wanted to say sorry for assuming what you meant by weak quirks. You aren’t as
bad as I always thought and I was being a di- uh, a dummy earlier.” He glanced down at Izuku
when he cut himself off and Katsuki snorted.

“You can say dick. He’s heard much fucking worse than that.” The blonde looked down at his
green haired parasite who was nodding with a big ass smile.

“Yeah, Kacchan loves to use big boy words. I can’t use them yet because I’m small, but when I’m
bigger I can use them too.” Izuku giggled while he attempted to open the pouch strapped to his
drop leg holster where Katsuki kept his tactical knife to cut through bindings and basic first aid
shit.

“And I don’t need apologies for being a dick, fuck knows I’m a dick so often I’d never stop
apologizing for it if that was some shit I did. Just don’t be a dick next time or whatever.” He
grumbled as he swatted the kid’s hand away from his holster pouch and pinched his cheek when he
stuck his tongue out at Katsuki for spoiling his fun.

“Okay dude, I won’t be a dick next time.” Metalhead grinned at him, watching Katsuki swat the
kid’s hand away from the grenades on his belt, “You know, you’re a really good big brother,
Bakugo. Kirishima had told me that, but I thought he was exaggerating. Oh since your guardians
are our teachers that means he stays on campus too right? You should start working out with me
and Kirishima and you can bring Izuku. Make him our little hype man and teach him how to use a
punching bag. We’ll make a boxer out of him in no time!”

“Yeah Kacchan, I’ma be a boxer!” Izuku shouted. Katsuki patted his curls, telling him he’d think
about it before making an excuse to step around Metalhead and into the locker room.

Showering and changing went quickly, because he didn’t want Izuku to get bored and get into shit
while he showered. If it also gave him less time to think about why hearing that Kirishima had
been talking about him with Metalhead made him feel weird, that was just a bonus. It’s not like it
was a surprise the redhead thought he was a great brother. It wasn’t even unusual for him to
compliment Katsuki, so why did he keep coming back to the fact that Kirishima was
complimenting him to other people?

Sometimes he missed not having friends. It was less confusing.

Speaking of confusing friend situations, on the walk back to the dorm Katsuki realized he hadn’t
seen anyone acting in a way that would suggest they’d been the one to upset Shinso before training
started. He’d kept his eye on the purple haired boy, when Kirishima wasn’t breaking noses
anyway, and he hadn’t seemed upset about anything for the rest of training.

Katsuki figured going over what he knew had been going on right before he caught that look on his
friend’s face was the only way he’d figure it out. So he turned it over in his head the entire walk
back. Sparky had been playing electroshock therapy with Izuku, which he would be having words
with the other blonde about later, Tape Arms and Pinky had been in a debate about music with Big
Hands, IcyHot had been staring at his boyfriend like a stalker, and Katsuki had been talking with
Kirishima. Katsuki had winked at Kirishima as a joke. He looked over at his two friends out of the
corner of his eye as the dorm came into view. Shinso was staring at the redhead as he regaled him
with a tale about his sister supergluing rhinestones to his eyebrows in middle school. Shinso was
laughing at the story in that free, comfortable way he rarely laughed.

Oh.

Oh.

Shinso had a crush on Kirishima and he’d thought Katsuki was actual flirting instead of joke
flirting. Shit.

Friendship was seeming less and less worth it to him that day. Because what the fuck was going on
in his fucking chest? When he’d figured out Pikachu and Halfie had feelings for each other, it
didn’t feel like this. It was annoying. It was a bother. This was something he didn’t understand. It
confused him and pissed him off and he wished it would go away.

It wasn’t like he didn’t want them to be happy. They were both amazing people who deserved to
find amazing people to be with and live happily ever after with a picket fence and snot nosed kids
and all that shit. He didn’t want them to not have that and it would make sense if they found it with
each other. Kirishima was happy and bright and kind while Shinso was more pessimistic and
moody and snarky in the good way. Opposites attract and all that. Plus they were both attractive in
 their own ways and they were already friends so they knew actual shit beyond looks about each
other.

Maybe the feeling in his chest was what knowing your time was limited felt like. Because it
dawned on him as they entered the dorms and Kirishima asked Shinso to help him with the math
homework while Katsuki went to help prepare dinner. Eventually they would get together and he’d
be the third wheel, they’d want more time together and less time with him. But more than that,
once they were happy and in love it would be more obvious how unnecessary he was in general.
How angry and damaged he was, always causing problems and destroying the good things around
him. Fuck, he’d been friends with Kirishima for less than a year and the other boy was breaking
noses all of a sudden. He was already fucking up the decent people he’d latched onto.

They would realize what he was and they’d drop him like garbage and he couldn’t even blame
them for that. And the worst part was he wasn’t going to bow out gracefully. He wasn’t going to
step back before they walked away. He was going to cling onto them like a leech until they
realized they didn’t need him. Because he’d always been selfish, it’s one of the things Mitsuki was
right about.

So he was going to pretend he didn’t know about Shinso’s feelings. He wouldn’t do any of the shit
he’d done for Sparky and Half N Half, because the longer they stayed just friends the less likely
they were to cut him out. He wouldn’t even try to figure out if Kirishima felt the same, nope,
Katsuki was going back to living in oblivious ignorance when it came to their romantic feelings
instead of helping them be happy. Because another thing Mitsuki was right about, he was a horrible
person.

With that decided, he shoved away all thoughts that weren’t keeping Izuku from touching anything
hot or sharp while he yelled at the other people making dinner about their abysmal skills in the
kitchen. Seriously, IcyHot should be put in jail for the horrible things he’d done to the potatoes
when he was supposed to be peeling them.

Everyone on dinner duty laughed about what a tyrant they decided he was in the kitchen. Since
he’d been eating at the apartment every night he hadn’t cooked with anyone in the dorms, only for
himself, Izuku, and Kirishima and he didn’t need a second pair of hands for that. So none of them
had expected him to demand excellence from them. Well they called it excellence, he called it
basic fucking life skills. Honestly, these people would be dead in a day if left to fend for
themselves. When he said that to Cheeks she’d thrown a carrot at him and almost started a food
fight so he kicked them all out and finished the curry himself.

They were all eating dinner, everyone throwing compliments and teases about him being a house
husband one day at him, when the text came in. Aizawa sent his first ever message to the class
group chat letting them know there was going to be a class meeting that night. Katsuki realized
right away that it was conveniently scheduled for after Izuku’s bedtime and he knew it wasn’t
going to be a fun meeting. At least he probably wasn’t going to have to sit in the same room as a
traitor anymore.

Chapter End Notes

Katsuki: comes out to the male population of 1A

Also Katsuki: winks at his friend but ONLY AS A JOKE OKAY!!!!
Katsuki like two hours later: obviously the feelings about my two male friends are
 BAD feelings and not me wanting to kiss both of them

He's a disaster and I love him.

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