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Yamada knew that Bakugou was volatile.
Or… maybe volatile wasn’t the right word?
Unstable?
No… that wasn’t right either.
He couldn’t figure out a word to use, but for now, he would just stick with what he had.
What he had was a potentially dangerous student who was slowly warming up to U.A. it was mostly Ashido, Sero, Kaminari, and Kirishima, the self-proclaimed Bakusquad that were slowly making him into their friend.
Kirishima was leading the charge.
Now, there’s a thing about Yamada as an openly gay teacher. All the LGBTQ+ students unconsciously or consciously flock to him. He loves it. Adores all these students. Kirishima is one of them, a proud pansexual that Yamada can’t help but be happen for.
Yamada didn’t know about Bakugou.
But when Kirishima comes into class one day, holding Bakugou’s hand, Yamada assumes, and smiles back.
So then, Bakugou is a gay (or bi, or pan, or whatever sexuality) dangerous student.
He just seems to get more and more complicated as he opens up.
Kirishima is very good for him though, toning him down and calming him when Bakugou gets too riled up.
Turns out, Kirishima also makes Bakugou open up.
“Hizashi. I’m… I’m bringing home another student,” Shouta said, his voice soft in my ear.
“Which one? Are they okay?” Yamada asked, worried.
“He’s fine. It’s Bakugou. His mother has, apparently, been physically and verbally abusing him for many years. Kirishima finally convinced him to step forward,” Shouta said, voice drifting into anger.
“Okay. I’ll get the spare room ready,” Yamada says, and hangs up.
So now, Bakugou is his gay, dangerous student/foster child.
Yamada makes the bed calmly, ready to start dinner as well, Hitoshi gets home from his run, sweaty.
“Hitoshi?” Yamada says.
“Yeah? Is everything okay?” Hitoshi asks worriedly.
“Bakugou is going to be staying with us. We don’t know how long yet,” he says and Hitoshi nods.
“Is he… like me? Or like Eri? Or a different case?” Hitoshi asks, purposefully asking vaguely.
“He’s… it was a rough house,” Yamada answers simply, and Hitoshi nods, heading up the stairs, scooping Eri up as she was heading down the stairs, causing the little girl to shriek playfully and giggle.
Aizawa and Bakugou enter the apartment 10 minutes later, and Yamada smiles at them.
Bakugou looks so incredibly awkward, and uncomfortable, that Yamada just wants to embrace him, but a quick glance at Aizawa tells him that no physical contact is good for now.
Shinsou seems… a bit skeptical of Bakugou, but his face softened when he saw Bakugou dodge away from Yamada’s waving hand.
Bakugou looked like he wanted to avoid all of them, not meeting anyone’s eyes, staring at his socked feet.
The first dinner was… tense. Bakugou only had one word answers.
Yamada tried to keep the conversation the conversation going, and thankfully, Aizawa understand his efforts, and works on speaking, about his day, prodding Hitoshi for answers too, Eri, the blessed bean, goes on about her day, grinning and giggling, just like a normal girl.
They were struggling to make connections with Bakugou.
Bakugou, who would flinch everytime Yamada said he would do something. Or didn’t let Bakugou clean every room in the house, cook every meal. He looked like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
For Aizawa and Yamada to punt him to the curb.
He didn’t even unpack the one backpack he had.
Hitoshi ended up being the first to make a connection with him.
Yamada knew that Hitoshi had insomnia, paired with nightmares. He had a prescription for a heavy dose of sleeping medicine that he used sometimes, but then he couldn’t wake up from the nightmares.
He didn’t take it until he needed to. When he got so sleep deprived he could barely stand.
So Yamada knew that Hitoshi was an early riser.
Or didn’t sleep at all, and actually came out of his room early.
Bakugou turned out to be an early riser too.
He was an active early riser, going out for runs as the sun rose, and then coming back when everyone was awake.
Soon enough, Bakugou and Hitoshi were going on morning runs… together?
Yamada didn’t know what happened.
Just, all the sudden, they were running together, and they were becoming friends, Bakugou was opening up, just slightly, letting them in to see the happy smile as he stepped through the door, Hitoshi a step behind him.
Then, Bakugou was calling Hitoshi, Hitoshi, and Hitoshi was calling Bakugou Katsuki.
Bakugou and Hitoshi were attached to each other, and Yamada had hope for Bakugou. He would be a part of the family.
Eri was next.
Bakugou always offered to help in the kitchen, and when Yamada finally accepted, he discovered that Bakugou was ruthlessly efficient, knife flying as he minced, diced, and chopped.
Yamada saw Eri coming down the stairs, and he jogs over to pick her up before she causes a mess in the kitchen, swinging her onto his hip before realizing that he would need to strain the pasta.
“Here, hold this,” he says to Bakugou who takes Eri… awkwardly.
Eri, the absolute doll, is laughing at Bakugou's shocked expression.
And then Bakugou gives her a tight-lipped smile. He carried her to the table, cautiously shifting her onto his hip, and then put her into her seat, and Yamada knew that she had made her way next to Hitoshi in his heart, Bakugou looking at her so softly.
Bakugou tried to take over all the cooking and cleaning in the house.
“You don’t need to worry about that here, Shouta and I are grown men, we can clean,” Yamada said, confused as to why Bakugou desperately wanted to clean.
“But then what am I supposed to do here on weekends?” he asked, and Yamada’s heart dropped.
“Do you have any hobbies?” Aizawa was the first to recover.
“Schoolwork, cooking, training,” Bakugou listed, and Yamada looked down, while learning could be a hobby, technically, Bakugou already got good grades. He didn’t need extra credit or anything, and training for him is pretty brutal. The weekend is supposed to be a time to unwind from school. Not throw himself back into it.
“Hey Dynamite, only one of those really counts as a hobby,” he said softly, and Bakugou’s eyebrows furrowed.
“I don’t need a hobby for school,” he said, and Aizawa rolled his eyes.
“It’s not for school. Having a hobby helps you unwind,” he said and if anything, Bakugou seemed more confused and awkward.
“I hike to unwind,” Bakugou tried, looking up, eyes worried.
“That’s a hobby,” Yamada said, a small smile gracing his face.
“Well,” Aizawa said, and Yamada slapped him on the arm, and Bakugou let out a little huff of laughter.
“I have some stuff in a storage closet, if you want to try some things out? Maybe pick something to learn, that you can do if you have free time?” Yamada said and Bakugou nodded.
So Yamada and Bakugou headed to the closet, and he opened it, to reveal every hobby Yamada had tried and didn’t continue with.
Bakugou seemed uninterested… until he found the huge wad of clay… that was sealed and protected from Yamada’s abuse, and was… actually a little moist.
And Bakugou…
Yamada watched his face light up when he worked with clay for the first time, throwing it on the table, and then working it into shapes.
He closed the door quietly, and let Bakugou be.
In a week, Bakugou presents a vase to them.
It’s heartfelt, painted and fired, bright and colorful and matching their living room decorations.
Aizawa smiles at it every time he passes it.
Yamada is presented with a pitcher next, painted white with bright yellow lemons on it, and Yamada wants to cry.
He makes lemonade in it, and notices that the lemons are hand-painted and Bakugou refuses to meet his eyes, even as Yamada stares at him in shock. There’s an explosion carved into the bottom.
A week or so later, Aizawa is sporting a new mug. The thing about Bakugou was that he didn’t really “give” the gifts.
He would leave them where the recipient was sure to find them.
Like the pitcher was found with the lemons inside, so that Yamada would know that it was for lemonade.
Oftentimes, Bakugou just set little figurines around the house. Little cats at Eri’s height. (It was worth everything to see her face light up everytime she found another. All of them had names.)
Or if it was something specific for Hitoshi, sometimes a pencil mug, sometimes cats, once there was a pot for a plant that was getting overgrown, Bakugou would slip into Hitoshi’s room and set it up while the other boy was out with Aizawa.
Other times, Yamada would catch Bakugou wrapping the gifts up with newspaper. A red dragon for Kirishima, and other knick knacks that usually went to someone in the Bakusquad.
Either way, Yamada was there when Aizawa pulled the mug out of the cabinet.
He stared at it for a solid minute, a small smile threatening his usual grumpy composure.
It’s fairly plain, black, with a faint red line around it, and an explosion on the bottom.
Yamada knows it’s from Bakugou.
All Might… didn’t?
All Might ran into Aizawa in the halls, and knocked the mug out of his hand.
It shattered on the floor.
Aizawa looked up, quirk turning his eyes bright red, hair flickering above him like he was under water.
“Just because you were the Number 1 hero doesn’t mean you’re exempt from watching where you’re fucking going,” he says, and All Might goes white.
Aizawa had broken mugs before, but this mug was special.
He treated it with care, enjoying the coffee more when it was in his signature black mug.
Aizawa didn’t brag about it to the teachers, but the mug meant a lot, and some of the more astute teachers could tell that Bakugou was the one who made it.
Bakugou seemed genuinely surprised when Aizawa apologized for breaking it.
“Uh? It’s fine? I’ll make another?” he said quietly, and Aizawa let out a little sigh of relief.
Bakugou ended up bumping the mug up in the projects, having it done in two days for Aizawa.
The new mug was… objectively even better than the first. It had more artwork on it, but a lot of Bakugou’s newer things did. Bakugou’s hands were… unbelievably steady, and that helped him.
This mug was gray, with a line of cats across the bottom. A black haired one with red eyes, a scar on its face and a gray collar, followed by a blond cat with a tall tuft of hair, then a lavender cat, a tiny white cat with red eyes, and then a blond cat, with spiky hair.
Aizawa loved the mug.
He almost started crying when he found it in the cabinet.
And they could all see past Bakugou’s hard exterior… especially when Bakugou told them to call him Katsuki.
Katsuki so obviously cares for all of them, it was a wonder that they hadn’t noticed when he first arrived with them.
Yamada notices his hearing loss… sort of on accident?
They used to think that Katsuki was ignoring them on purpose, when the boy's back was turned and they called his name and he didn’t respond… when he first arrived they thought he was uncomfortable, or still awkward around the family.
Then they thought he was zoning out.
But then Yamada noticed.
Or rather, Aizawa did.
“He’s sort of like you were when we were in U.A,” he said on an off-night, where neither of them could get to sleep.
“Oh,” Yamada said into the darkness.
“What?” Aizawa asked drowsily.
“I’ll take him to the doctor tomorrow,” Yamada said.
“Doctor? What for, is he okay?” Aizawa asked, sitting straight up in the bed.
“Shouta, his quirk is explosions. We’ve been pro-heroes long enough to know that when pros retire, 80% of them end up with significant hearing loss,”
“Because of falling buildings, screaming citizens, and… and explosions,” he says and Yamada nods.
They drifted to sleep.
The next morning, Katsuki was getting ready for school, and Yamada just blurted it out.
“Katsuki, do you have hearing issues?”
Katsuki paused.
“Maybe?” he said softly, and Yamada breathed in, understanding when to be careful treading on a topic.
“What do you mean maybe?” he asked.
“Well… my mom… she always said I didn’t. That I was pretending, but I can’t help but feel like I miss some things?” he says weakly, and Yamada feels his heart fall in his chest.
Just another thing Bakugou Mitsuki had lied to him about, had conditioned him into.
“We’ll head to the doctor’s after school then,” Yamada said, with a small smile.
“I can still be a hero?” he asked, and the hopeful look on Katsuki’s face was absolutely devastating to Yamada.
“You’re not the only hard of hearing hero,” Yamada said, briefly brushing his hair away to reveal his own hearing aids. “My quirk royal screwed up my ears when I was about your age,” he says, and some of the tension leaves Katsuki’s shoulders.
“Okay,” he says.
Yamada sticks with him throughout the whole process.
He remembers how nerve wracking it was, and doesn’t want Katsuki to feel even more stress than usual.
He loves seeing Katsuki’s face when he realizes what he was missing.
Yamada remembered the feeling, but it was different, knowing that he helped him hear again.
There were tears in Katsuki’s eyes when they walked outside, and Katsuki was wearing a smile for the rest of the week.
Well, minus one small part.
When Mineta had called him out for the hearing aids, Katsuki threatens to blow him into next week.
Aizawa pretends not to notice.
Yamada… can’t really blame him?
And then Yamada finally sees past the walls when Katsuki looks at him, with that bright smile and he just… smiles back.
Because nothing in the world was worth the same as seeing this “dangerous” student grinning like a fool because he was able to hear the birds chirping outside.
A new development that no one really considered, was the fact that Katsuki was… quieter now.
His voice at a more normal volume.
His laugh was a bit softer.
When he comforted Eri late in the night, it was more soothing.
When Hitoshi asked questions, he was no longer met with the loud answers.
Eri got to hear voices with her bedtime stories, always giggling as Katsuki turned out to be her favorite.
“He does this one voice that's like-” Eri explains, and Katsuki’s cheeks go a little pink, but he never says no to Eri.
He starts reading to her every night, and Eri’s nightmares diminish slowly.
Another side effect, is that the cats utterly adore him now.
“My body runs hot, because of my quirk,” Katsuki explained one night when he denied a second blanket.
Turns out, Katsuki is essentially a space heater.
And the cats have a field day.
If Katsuki sits down for more than 3 seconds, the cats will find him, draping themselves across his lap, or his shoulders.
They also start sleeping on him.
“We have two beds for them, and a cat tree. Plus they have free reign of the house, and they choose to sleep on you,” Hitoshi says one day, laughing as the cat that’s laying on his shoulders yawns.
Eri thinks it's hilarious, knowing that if she ever needs a cat to hold, she can find Katsuki.
Hitoshi knows that he can go to Katsuki if he ever needs help.
Aizawa’s got a new mug, and All Might won’t go within six feet of him when he’s holding it.
Katsuki finally has a good home, where he’s safe.
And Yamada?
Yamada’s heart is just a little bit bigger because of Katsuki.
Yamada never expected his gay, dangerous, student/fost son/potter… to just become his son.
He knows now that Katsuki wasn’t volatile, or unstable, or any other words he had thought before.
Katsuki had a whole list of things he could have blamed his attitude on.
But he took responsibility for his actions and apologized to Midoriya.
It’s a good feeling, having Katsuki fixing up his life.
His family got a bit larger, as he saw Bakugou working the clay, Hitoshi watching his hands.
Katsuki had a hard time showing love. Sort of. He used to, but now his family knows what to look for.
And they see it wherever they go.
Katsuki just… overflows with it, and it pours through his clay, in the little things he does, in the food he makes, in the stories he tells.
The family, in return, figures out how to express their love to Katsuki too.
It was a bit difficult at first, Katsuki shying away from every touch.
But as people were welcomed into his heart, it became easier.
It started with Hitoshi nudging him while they made dinner.
Then Katsuki retaliated, until it turned into a full on shoving match, to which Aizawa would kick them out of the kitchen, a small smile on his face.
Slowly, the touches become casual.
Katsuki stops stiffening when Yamada runs a hand through his hair.
Stops lurching away everytime Aizawa comes up behind him.
Starts relaxing when Hitoshi comes up behind him, to watch him work the clay.
Starts welcoming the hugs from Eri, who loved throwing herself at Katsuki, like she knew that he would never let her fall.
Yamada starts collecting photos to put up around the house.
His favorite is the one of his three kids.
Katsuki in the center, Hitoshi on his back, and Eri on Hitoshi’s shoulders.
Katsuki is grinning.
Yamada loves it.
He looks at it every time he passes it, and wonders…
How the hell did he get so lucky?
And when he sees Katsuki smiling at Eri and Hitoshi, he knows that it isn’t really luck.
It’s his husband, who’s essentially a magnet for troubled kids and cats alike.