Zero: The Fate of the World's Best Hero Duo

by Toboe1087

Summary:

Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku are determined to take their place as All Might's heirs. They both have defeated villains and gained society's trust, but will they be able to stand firm as villains gain strength and society begins to crumble?

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This work is a sequel and the final installment of the Zero series! First read Zero: The Birth of the World's Best Hero Duo and Zero: The Rise of the World's Best Hero Duo!

Chapter 1: Prologue

Notes:

The M rating is not because bkdk's relationship will become more explicit, but because the manga's material becomes darker and bkdk are going to have more difficult trials ahead of them. I've always considered Zero to be borderline between T and M because of the intense anguish these boys go through, and this final installment will most likely land more on the 'M' side of things during climactic moments and the last arc.

There are MANGA SPOILERS in this work.

“Woah! Guys, Endeavor and Hawks are fighting over Hakata Bay!”

“What the hell, Pikachu?!” Katsuki glared at the dumbass. “You’re supposed to be doing your math homework, not reading shit on your phone!” They were all downstairs for one of their group study sessions (which were always inefficient as hell, but whatever), and Katsuki could have sworn Glasses had already confiscated his damn phone.

Brain Fucker leaned over to look at Pikachu’s screen, both of them ignoring Katsuki. “Is that a noumu?”

Katsuki’s stomach twisted at Pikachu’s nod. Hadn’t the warehouses those civilians mentioned been near Hakata bay? So they hadn’t been imagining shit?

Katsuki swallowed, memories of the last weekend of his internship darting through his mind. He’d told the Feathered Menace about them. Yelled about it when he’d been confronting the hero about his fucking—

“You guys, this thing is huge! And Endeavor just—” Pikachu stopped talking, his eyes darting over to Half and Half.

Half and Half stared right back at him. “What happened? ‘Endeavor just’ what?”

Pikachu didn’t say shit.

Invisible Girl grabbed the TV remote before Glasses could say jackshit, quickly flipping to the closest news channel, and Katsuki stared at Endeavor’s crumpled form on the beach. Above him, the Feathered Menace was still fighting, but it was all the number two hero could do to keep the noumu out over the water and away from the Flaming Bastard’s still form.

Small flames burst from Half and Half’s body, though he quickly quenched them. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

A tense silence stretched over the class.

Deku’s hand reached for Katsuki’s, and he clung to it.

The Flaming Bastard’s back heaved, then slowly, finally, he stood up, his face covered in blood.

His fire flared brighter, stronger, propelling him back into the sky, and he was fighting again even though he looked like he was at death’s door.

The Feathered Menace’s sidekicks were scattered over the bay, evacuating people and fighting other noumu, and the camera caught Hummer flashing into her human form and slamming a knife into a noumu’s fucking brain, but then the camera switched back to the sky, both the top heroes fighting the noumu as it fucking taunted them. How the hell could it talk? Weren’t noumu walking corpses or some shit?!

Fuck, this really wasn’t good. The top two heroes were obviously struggling, doing their best to keep the thing distracted and out over the water instead of attacking the nearby land.

But as the hero’s feathers flew behind the Flaming Bastard, pushing the other hero even faster, Katsuki’s eyes widened.

They weren’t burning.

That…

Katsuki glanced over at Edgelord, who was staring at the screen in concern, but was also frowning in confusion as Abyss hit his shoulder, demanding they go help Hawks.

Katsuki wasn’t imagining it, then. Or remembering shit incorrectly.

He clung to Deku’s hand, suddenly feeling lightheaded.

The hero’s feathers had always been weak to fire. For that weakness to suddenly disappear…

He had to have sealed the bond.

Shit.

Fucking hell, how could he have….

But then the feathers suddenly were burning again, the Feathered Menace wincing as he pushed the number one even higher, propelling him far above the bay as he grappled with the noumu.

The Flaming Bastard exploded in a blaze of fire, burning the noumu and himself alive, the light flaring so bright it was hard to look at. The flames morphed, suddenly falling, crashing toward the bay faster and faster, and Katsuki had no clue if it was because the Flaming Bastard had been defeated, if all of Hawks’ feathers had been burnt up, if the hero—

The meteoric fire slammed into the earth, sand flying everywhere as a crater formed. The whole damn class watched with baited breath, second after second passing with no further answers.

A fist shot out of the flames, raised high as the Flaming Bastard stood there, victorious. The Feathered Menace ran to his side, supporting him. Both of them looked beat up as hell, and the number two only had half of his feathers left (though it should have been way fucking fewer), but they were standing.

Cheering erupted from the shoreline

The Feathered Menace said something to other hero, but then golden eyes widened in surprise—no, not surprise, recognition—and the cameras panned back to capture the approaching figure.

Frankenstein.

Katsuki felt his stomach twist, his hand tightening around Deku’s

Fuck.

Except… why was his hair white?

Blue flames erupted around the top two heroes, preventing any interference from the sidekicks who were still handling the other noumu and evacuation efforts.

Yet Frankenstein didn’t seem to be attacking. Instead he was saying something as he held up one hand, his flames alternating between blue and red. What the hell was going on?!

The Flaming Bastard’s face looked… shit, he looked like he was seeing a fucking ghost.

Katsuki glanced over at Half and Half, but he somehow looked just as shocked as his father, small flames bursting from his skin once more. What the fuck was going on?

The Feathered Menace stood up, positioning himself between the villain and the number one.

Fuck.

No. Shit!

What the hell were these two thinking?! They were soulmates! They couldn’t fight like this! Especially on live TV! Did they want to reveal themselves?!

Except Frankenstein wasn’t sending out any more flames.

He was raising a gun.

The Feathered Menace darted forward, but the noumu had injured his leg, making him stumble.

In that second, Frankenstein fired.

The number one hero clutched his arm.

The Feathered Menace tackled Frankenstein, but it was useless, he ran straight through a black liquid that now covered Frankenstein's whole body.

The same black liquid All for One had used to warp Katsuki, Deku, and the League at Kamino Ward.

And then Frankenstein was gone.

All that was left were the blue flames rising even higher around the heroes.

The Feathered Menace was immediately at the Flaming Bastard’s side, putting the man’s uninjured arm over his shoulders.

No.

That... Katsuki swallowed, staring at the television screen while his classmates heaved sighs of relief.

The Feathered Menace hadn’t reacted to his soulmate’s disappearance.

He hadn’t reacted.

Even if Frankenstein was still close by, putting distance between them so suddenly should still have affected them both, but the Feathered Menace hadn’t even flinched!

Katsuki felt like he was going to throw up.

There was only one reason: they had sealed the bond.

The camera zoomed in on the both heroes, talking about how the bullet wound didn’t seem to be bleeding.

Deku's hand tightened around his, the nerd's gasp audible.

Katsuki swallowed, staring at the number one hero’s right arm. At the bullet wound—no, the injection site.

The Feathered Menace reached up, yanking the bullet out and pocketing it.

“Kacchan…” Deku’s eyes were wide, his voice filled with horror.

Katsuki nodded, not trusting his voice.

That had been the same as the bullet that had been shot at Shitty Hair and collected as evidence. The same bullet Overbeak had used on Senpai.

Which meant…

The Flaming Bastard was now quirkless.

The Feathered Menace was the new number one hero.

And it was his villain soulmate who had just put him there.

Fucking hell.

Katsuki’s brain swam. He couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but hear those damn mocking voices—

My goal has always been to save people, Ground Zero. This bond changes nothing about that.

Figures you’d notice. Still worth him owing me a favor, though.

How was this saving people?! They'd taken down the number one hero! Was this shit Katsuki’s fault? Because the Feathered Menace owed Frankenstein? How was this a fucking equal trade for helping Katsuki with PR shit?! It couldn’t be!

Katsuki couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be his fault. It couldn’t! But why else would the Feathered Menace let Frankenstein shoot the number one hero?! Katsuki fucking hated the Flaming Bastard, but he was still society’s number one hero! It didn’t make sense. The Feathered Menace had even said society was too unstable to lose another top hero! So why—

The TV screen crackled, the picture blanking out for a second before being replaced by another: Frankenstein again, still with white hair, but this time he was sitting alone on a couch in nothing but a tank top and shorts as he stared straight at the camera.

Notes:

>:D >:D

And so it begins.

You can now read through chapter 24 of Error without any major spoilers.

Zero:Fate will go through the war arc of the manga and will include Heroes Rising. It may include World Heroes Mission; I'm not sure yet. Updates will begin in January. My current plan is to finish an arc, post it in weekly installments, then wait until I have the next arc finished before beginning the next chunk of weekly posts. I will still post chapters in Error & Other Sides while the main fic is on hiatus/in planning phase. Feel free to leave suggestions for side scenes that you'd love to see. Here, discord, tumblr, twitter, wherever is fine ;) I can't guarantee I'll write them, but if it sparks my muse, I might ;)

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of Zero there, as well :)

Chapter 2: Todoroki Touya

Notes:

The first chapter is here!!! This work will have MANGA SPOILERS unlike the other Zero installments. Namely, the other quirks within One for All.

“I am Todoroki Touya, the eldest son of Endeavor.”

Fucking hell.

The entire class was silent, staring at the television screen. You could’ve heard a damn needle drop on the carpet.

Flames flickered around Half and Half’s head and arm, but he wasn’t even trying to douse that shit. He was just staring at the TV screen.

At Frankenstein.

Who was claiming to be Half and Half’s brother, and the sick thing was, Katsuki could see it.

Deku was watching his friend in concern, but Katsuki couldn’t tear his eyes from the television, his brain still trying to process the shit Frankenstein had said.

But Frankenstein wasn’t stopping.

“To date, I’ve killed over 30 innocent people in cold blood, and today I’d like everyone to know exactly what drove me to such despicable acts.”

What. The. Fuck.

The Feathered Menace’s soulmate had…

Katsuki couldn’t understand.

He wanted to deny it, wanted to shout that it had to be fucking fake, but Frankenstein was sitting there, now airing the Todoroki family’s shit for the world to hear.

Plus, Half and Half clearly wasn’t denying that it could be true.

Shit!

Frankenstein was Half and Half’s brother.

The Feathered Menace’s soulmate was Endeavor’s son and Half and Half’s brother..

Fucking hell.

The Feathered Menace had said Frankenstein had a goal. That as long as Katsuki didn’t get in his way, the villain would ignore him.

If he was the Flaming Bastard’s son…

His goal had to be bringing down Endeavor. The man was a fucking asshole of a father. And Frankenstein had just made the bastard quirkless on live television, even if no one fucking realized it yet.

It had to have been that injection. Unless it was a fake? But then why hadn’t the Flaming Asshole made more fire for his usual shitty flame beard? He’d clearly wanted a damn victory pose.

Fuck.

Why was the Feathered Menace ok with this shit?! Endeavor was fucking terrible, he needed to be kept away from Half and Half and never allowed to train anyone again, but society needed him! And the Feathered Menace knew it! He’d even said the exact same shit!

Was that a lie?

Or had something else been a lie?

How could the Feathered Menace actually… fuck.

They’d sealed their bond.

That had to be it.

The Feathered Menace knew about Frankenstein’s goal. He’d made that obvious when he’d talked with Katsuki. But he not only knew it, he’d fucking supported it. There was no way Endeavor had been there by chance. Hakata Bay was near Hawks’ agency, not Endeavor’s.

The Feathered Menace said he wasn’t siding with the villains, though! That he was still a hero!

But how could a hero…

But it was Endeavor. The Flaming Bastard deserved some payback, especially from his family.

But it was Frankenstein.

And Hawks owed him a favor. Because of Katsuki. Because Katsuki couldn’t fucking deal with that shitty villain fast enough, and Frankenstein had stepped in.

It couldn’t be his fault.

Not after All Might.

He couldn’t be the reason Japan lost its number one again.

Something pulled at his arm.

Deku.

Katsuki blinked at Deku’s green eyes, and the nerd gave him a relieved smile. “Hey. Aizawa-sensei wants to talk with us.”

What?

Katsuki looked around.

The TV was off.

When had Sensei gotten here?

Pinky was yelling about how Sensei didn’t need to pull Half and Half away to talk–the class had figured out about his shitty father a long time ago. Even Pikachu and Deku’s friends were agreeing.

When had they figured shit out? Not that Half and Half really hid it.

Aizawa-sensei ignored her, pushing a non-responsive Half and Half toward the doors.

Deku tugged on Katsuki’s wrist again, and Katsuki shook his head and nodded at the nerd, switching so that he held Deku’s hand.

His feet felt like lead. Like he wasn’t actually the one walking, the one holding Deku’s hand. But he was. But everything felt weird. Muted.

The doors slammed shut behind them, and Katsuki let out a pained gasp as the cold air prickled against his skin. Shit. He rubbed a hand over his face, letting Deku’s vision guide him as they followed Sensei.

He had to hold it together. He couldn’t afford to fucking fall apart or any shit like that.

Sensei sighed, and Katsuki’s hand fell back to his side as the hero spoke. “We’ll talk at the house where Bakugou and Midoriya’s parents are staying, that way none of your classmates will overhear and you each will be able to speak privately.”

Each of them? “What the hell do you mean, each of us?”

Sensei looked over his shoulder, evaluating Katsuki. “Are you trying to pretend that you didn’t go into shock just as much as Todoroki did?”

Shit.

Katsuki glared at the asshole.

“You and Midoriya can talk with me together if you want, but I’ll talk to Todoroki separately.”

Half and Half shrugged. “I’ve told them everything. They can stay when we talk. We don’t have to leave the dorms, either. Touya-nii…” Half and Half paused, his face disgruntled. “Well, he already said everything.”

Sensei didn’t stop walking. “If you want their company, that’s fine.”

Half and Half shrugged again, but then he nodded, rubbing his arm absently as flames still flickered around it.

“Then they can stay. But I’ll need to talk to them alone afterward.”

That made Deku frown. “But Sensei, don’t you think Todoroki-kun should kn—”

“It’s not our secret to tell.”

Katsuki scowled. “It’s pretty damn clear what side that bastard chose.” If Hawks was siding with the villains, why the hell did they need to respect his privacy and shit?

“Bakugou.”

“But Todoroki-kun could help us figure out their next move!”

“Midoriya.” Aizawa-sensei stopped on the sidewalk, his hair lifting off his shoulders and his eyes red as he turned to glare at them. “Not another word. Not until we’re somewhere private. Got it?”

Deku looked somewhat abashed and glanced around them quickly before nodding.

Katsuki scowled. “It’s not like there’s anyone nearby.”

Aizawa-sensei’s quirk deactivated as he turned around, continuing down the path. “Both Shouji and Jiro can hear us at this distance. Hagakure could have been following us, but my quirk would have made her visible just now if she was. Kota could ask any of the nearby birds to repeat what we’ve said. Pay more attention to your classmates’ quirks.”

Katsuki’s scowl deepened. As if any of the idiots would go that far. Well, maybe Rock Girl would. And Octopus Arms might if the others bothered him enough.

Damn it.

Katsuki kicked at a rock, but they stayed silent as they walked toward their parents’ house.

They’d had two weeks since the school festival. Two weeks where Katsuki had managed to put the Feathered Menace and his shit in the back of his mind, focus on Black Whip, and actually fucking relax because they were safe at UA. Deku had been scrolling on social media constantly, giggling and pointing out everyone’s reactions to the festival pictures and performance recording. They’d helped Eri-chan move into the dorms and rearrange her room with Yamashita-sensei, and they’d been planning on helping the Blonde Asshole paint her walls this weekend.

And now this.

Katsuki kicked another rock.

Damn it.

While they’d been enjoying the peace, Frankenstein and the Feathered Menace had been planning this shit.

Flames were still flickering around Half and Half’s hand. Every time he quenched them, more flames would appear a few steps later.

Fucking damn it.

The second they entered the house, Katsuki heard Auntie’s gasp.

“Shouto-kun!”

Half and Half tensed, but then Auntie was there, hugging him to fucking death, and Katsuki could see his parents and Eri-chan hovering about six meters behind him. “You must be so shocked! Everything happened so suddenly like that. If you ever need to talk to someone, we’re here, alright? Or if you need a quiet space to think, I know teenagers can be so loud sometimes even if they mean well and—”

“Mom!” Deku put his free hand on Auntie’s shoulder, shaking her gently. “I think he needs to breathe.”

“Oh!” Auntie immediately released him, “I’m sorry, Shouto-kun. But are you doing alright? Learning about your brother like that… At least I assume it’s true? I’m afraid we forced the boys to tell us about your father when we were worried about you a while back.”

Half and Half stared at her, then looked over at Deku, who shrugged and nodded. “Sorry, Todoroki-kun.”

Hah. As if the Old Hag would’ve let Katsuki get away without saying shit.

“It’s fine.” Half and Half’s mismatched eyes glanced back at Auntie, his face still expressionless. “It’s true, I think. Father will probably have his own DNA test done, but…” Shouto shrugged. “I don’t know how else he could have known. And Touya-nii would be around Dabi’s age if he somehow survived that night. Plus, he would have a fire quirk and blue eyes and white hair, and Touya-nii was always more lanky than the rest of us from what I remember, so…” He shrugged, his arms wrapping around himself.

“It’s ok.” Auntie put one hand on his shoulder and gave him a tearful smile. “Family issues aren’t a reflection of who you are. Everyone here supports you. And this means that your brother is alive, right? So that’s a good thing.”

Half and Half stared at her. “A good thing? But he’s a villain. He’s killed people. He almost killed Dad, if Hawks hadn’t been there.”

Katsuki and Deku both winced, but thankfully Half and Half was too focused on Auntie to notice.

She gave Half and Half another hug, but a gentler one this time. “It’s good because he’s alive. You may still want nothing to do with him, but now you have a choice. Before you didn’t. And as long as someone’s alive, they may change.” She pulled back, tears shining in her eyes. “Just be careful not to lose yourself in that hope, alright? Protect your heart.”

Half and Half stared at her, but slowly he nodded. “Thank you.”

Aizawa-sensei cleared his throat. “Midoriya-san, do you think we could have some privacy to talk?”

“You can use our work room.” The Old Hag’s eyes drifted over the group, pausing on Katsuki and Deku. “Everything ok with our brats?”

Why the hell did she have to sound all worried and shit? “We’re fucking fine.”

“Uh-huh. You still haven’t told us why you ended your internship early, and don’t think I haven’t noticed that you tense up every time you hear the name ‘Hawks.’”

“Fuck off.” Katsuki’s hand tightened around Deku’s as he gave the Old Hag his middle finger.

Aizawa-sensei was rubbing his forehead. “Bakugou, can you at least try to remember that there’s a six-year-old in the room?”

Deku laughed nervously as he glanced over at Eri-chan, who was hiding behind the Old Man. “Kacchan was cussing this badly when he was six, Sensei.”

“Katsuki-kun, please try. I doubt that type of language holds good memories for her.” Katsuki’s eyes widened. Shit. Before he could respond, though, the Old Man continued, “And we’re just worried about you. I’m glad you’ve discussed it with Eraserhead, but leaving an internship isn’t like you.”

Katsuki glared at the Old Man. “I’m fine.” This was entirely the Feathered Menace’s damn fault. It wasn’t Katsuki’s problem.

“In this instance, I’d say Bakugou’s reaction was predictable and the right decision.” Aizawa-sensei rubbed at the back of his neck, then shrugged slightly. “Saying more than that would be involving others’ secrets, however.”

The Old Hag’s mouth tightened, but before she could start yelling about shit, the Old Man put his hand on her shoulder. “He’s safer without continuing that internship, then?”

Katsuki growled. They’d been over this shit! He knew his parents were confused because he always wanted to do the damn internships, but Katsuki wanted to stay away from the Feathered Menace!

“Yes.” Aizawa-sensei nodded, then nudged Half and Half toward the back rooms. “If you’ll excuse us.”

“Umm… Eraserhead?” Eri-chan stepped forward cautiously, one hand still holding the Old Man’s. “We’re about to make cookies. Would you like some?”

Sensei glanced toward Katsuki’s parents’ door, but then he looked back at them, studying each of their faces before he nodded. “That would be appreciated. But knock before you come inside.”

She nodded, giving them a bright grin. “I will!” Eri-chan let go of the Old Man’s hand, running back over to the kitchen where Katsuki could see some bowls and cookie sheets out, and it looked like the oven had just finished pre-heating.

Auntie gave Sensei a nervous smile. “I’ll make sure she knocks.”

“Thanks.” Sensei nodded to her, then moved through the living area toward Katsuki’s parents’ room.

Katsuki scowled, but followed after him with Deku. “You have your own damn room upstairs. Why do we have to talk in my parents’ room?”

“Hawks’ feather that you gave me is in my room.”

Shit. Katsuki didn’t want to be in the same room with that thing again. He couldn’t trust it.

But his parent’s workroom was a damn mess. Fabric was fucking everywhere. Katsuki rolled his eyes and shoved aside a pile of fabric scraps before hopping up to sit on the desk while the others pulled over two chairs. Deku, the sappy idiot, jumped up and sat on Katsuki’s lap, not that he was complaining. Katsuki wrapped his arms around the nerd’s waist, resting his head on Deku’s shoulders and watching Half and Half through Deku’s vision.

The nerd’s shoulders tensed, his hand resting on top of Katsuki’s and squeezing it lightly. And that was all the warning Katsuki had before Deku spoke, “Dabi is Hawks’ soulmate. He’s helping Hawks spy on the League.”

“Midoriya!”

Mismatched eyes shot up to stare at Deku in disbelief.

Katsuki almost banged his head on Deku’s, he’d lifted it up so fast. “Fucking hell, Deku!” You didn’t just out people as fucking soulmates!! Of all people, he should know that! Even if Frankenstein was a villain and the Feathered Menace was a fucking…

FUCK why did this all have to be so damn complicated?

“My brother has a soulmate?”

Deku was glaring at Aizawa-sensei now. Katsuki loved this dumbass, but what the hell. “Todoroki-kun won’t tell anyone! And it’s his brother! He deserves to know that there’s an actual reason to have hope.”

“We don’t know that.” Shit, Aizawa-sensei was ticked. His quirk wasn’t activated, but his voice was soft and angry. The only time Katsuki had heard him like this was when he’d punched All Might.

Half and Half looked lost as he stared into the air in front of him. “My brother is alive. He’s alive, he’s a villain, and he has a hero for a soulmate.”

Katsuki hadn’t known Half and Half could somehow look more broken, but now his flames weren’t even fucking flickering, they were a steady presence along his hair.

Katsuki groaned. “For fuck’s sake, Deku. That whole shit with the Flaming Bastard screamed set-up. The Feathered Menace let Frankenstein have that opportunity and you and I both know it! There is no hope! If anything, Frankenstein is converting the Feathered Menace into being a damn villain!”

“That’s not true!” Deku’s eyes squeezed shut, and he shook his head, his hair smashed against Katsuki’s cheek. “Hawks said he was still a hero and I trust him!”

“Then you’re a fucking idiot.” Katsuki’s arms felt heavy as he held onto his soulmate. How could Deku believe that shit after being betrayed by his own damn father?!

“If there’s a chance his brother might change, we should tell him. I’d want someone to tell me.”

Fucking hell. Katsuki knew Deku was thinking about Shitstain. There was no way that asshole would change, and Deku knew it, but he still wanted to cling onto any damn strand of hope he could find.

“Just listen! Dabi mentioned Hawks owing him a favor. The way Hawks talked about their relationship, they calculate the worth of each decision. They don’t work like we do, Kacchan. They don’t automatically have the same goal or see everything the same way. Or at least not yet. I think they make deals with each other. If Hawks wants to spy on the League, he’d have to give Dabi something big in exchange. And if he knows about what Endeavor’s doing to his family, he’d want Endeavor to face justice. Hawks said that Dabi’s goal wasn’t antithetical to saving people. It has to be making Endeavor face consequences for treating his family so horribly. Hawks is still a hero!”

“That’s a lot of speculation, Midoriya.” Aizawa-sensei sighed, running a hand over his face. “You might be right, but there’s too much we don’t know, so we can’t be certain. And even in that scenario Dabi could be using Hawks and refuse to help him or he could tell the League that Hawks is a spy.”

Katsuki shook his head. “He won’t do anything to endanger the Feathered Menace. They’ve sealed the bond.” Even if it made Katsuki sick to his stomach, he couldn’t deny what he’d seen.

That made Aizawa-sensei frown. “How are you sure?”

“That asshole’s feathers are weak to fire. They should’ve burned up and they didn’t. Something about their ability must be making them fireproof. Plus the Feathered Menace didn’t wince when Frankenstein was teleported.”

“He could have coated his wings in a fireproof substance before the fight, and he’s the number two hero. He would have a high pain tolerance.”

“Then why did the feathers start to burn again when Endeavor got too high up while the Feathered Menace was grounded? There was a distance trigger. The feathers stopped burning when he was closer to the damn ground again.”

“That’s more solid reason—”

Half and Half suddenly started chuckling, and they all three stopped and stared at him. He gave them a disbelieving smile. “This is… Don’t you see? Touya-nii is the oldest. My father cast him aside and kept trying because Touya-nii wasn’t strong enough to beat All Might, but my brother has a soulmate.”

Oh, fuck.

Deku swallowed. “He’s destined to shape the tides of fate.”

“Exactly.” Half and Half grinned at them, but it wasn’t his normal hesitant smile. This one looked… shit, it almost looked more like the smiles Katsuki had seen Frankenstein make. All filled with anger and self-hatred and shit. “Endeavor wasn’t strong enough to be a soulmate, even though he looked for a fated partner. Having one is the ultimate revenge: immediate proof that he’s stronger than our father.”

“Yet Dabi didn’t reveal their soulbond, even though this attack was seemingly about his vengeance.“ Aizawa-sensei sighed. “Bakugou might be right about him being unwilling to endanger Hawks, but we won’t get any further talking about it. I’ll contact Hawks. He probably won’t give us any direct answers, but he’ll be expecting me to ask questions after today since he knows we know his soulmate’s identity.”

Yeah, like why the hell did he just hold a coup to become number one.

“Would Hawks let me talk to him? To Touya-nii?”

Shit, Half and Half actually sounded somewhat hopeful. Like he wanted to talk to that bastard.

Aizawa-sensei stared at Half and Half for a few seconds, then sighed. “I’ll ask. I’ll need to tell him that Midoriya saw fit to inform you that they are soulmates, anyway.” Red eyes looked back over at Deku. “Never do that again. I don’t care what the situation is, it’s not your call to make.”

“But it’s Todoroki-kun’s family!”

“And would you want everyone in your family to know everything about you?”

Deku’s jaw set in a firm line as he glared at their teacher. “This is different. Todoroki-kun won’t use this to hurt his brother.”

“And would his brother agree with that assessment?”

“Of course not.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. “He’s a fucking villain.”

“Exactly. And he still has a right to privacy. Heroes respect others’ rights, even if they’re villains.”

Deku slowly nodded. Sensei stared at him for a few more seconds, then switched his attention back to Half and Half. “And you’ll tell no one, not even your siblings. I’m sorry for putting you in that situation, but it’s necessary. Japan can’t afford to lose a third top hero right now, and we would if people found out about Hawks’ soulmate.”

That made Half and Half’s forehead crease. “But Father was still standing after the fight. He’ll recover.”

Shit.

Half and Half didn’t know about the quirk bullets.

Aizawa-sensei’s eyes closed in pain, and he rubbed a hand over his face as his shoulders sagged. “Even if nothing is certain, it’s a likely enough possibility that I should probably tell you. It’s not the kind of thing you want to find out in public. But it’s just a possibility.”

Half and Half stared at him, his eyes wary. “A possibility that you think is highly likely.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s clear from the video footage that Dabi didn’t shoot Endeavor with a normal bullet. It was an injection.”

Half and Half swallowed. “And you have an idea of what the injection was?”

“We don’t know for sure, but the League likely has in its possession the injection bullets that Overhaul developed. Once the target is struck by one of those, the drug rewrites their DNA and removes their quirk. Most of the bullets are temporary, but we are relatively certain that the League has the four remaining bullets that cause permanent quirk loss.”

Half and Half’s eyes widened. “Endeavor’s quirkless?”

“We’ve seen the bullet’s effects before.” Deku’s shoulders sagged. “He can still be a hero, of course, but the likelihood that he’ll be able to stay the number one isn’t um… well, it isn’t good.”

Half and Half made a choked sound that turned into a chuckle, then threw his head back, now full-on laughing.

“What the hell?” Had the dumbass gone insane or some shit? Katsuki didn’t think he’d ever heard Half and Half laugh, much less like this, and now it had happened twice in the last ten minutes.

“Todoroki-kun? Are you ok?”

“If nothing else proves that Dabi really is my brother, this does.” Half and Half finally stopped laughing and shook his head. “He knew right where to hurt the bastard. He ruined his reputation and any chance Endeavor has at staying number one. Right before he was finally announced as the top hero, too. Everything my father built has been destroyed.”

“Everything your father built…” Aizawa-sensei frowned. “Dabi used that logic in the video, only he was referring to you, as well.”

Deku froze. “No. That…”

“He would.” Half and Half’s face was twisted into a grimace. “If Touya-nii really wants to wipe out Endeavor’s chance to have any success, then he’d have to ruin my future as a hero, as well. My brother would know that Endeavor views any success I have as his own.”

“Hawks won’t let him.” Deku’s voice was determined, but it wavered when he squeezed Katsuki’s hand. “Right, Kacchan?”

Shit.

“I don’t… fuck, how should I know, Deku?” Katsuki remembered those eyes watching him, saying that he was still a hero, still wanted to help people… The Feathered Menace had seemed so serious, but then he’d done this. “That asshole never reveals what he’s fucking thinking. I was there for months and didn’t even realize he had a damn soulmate! A soulmate that had fucking kidnapped and tortured me and was in the same damn building the entire time! How the hell should I know if the Feathered Menace will stop this asshole?!”

Damn it.

Half and Half was staring at him.

“Fuck off.” Katsuki buried his head in Deku’s shoulder, trying to focus on his breathing.

He hated… fuck, he hated thinking about Frankenstein. It always made him remember that shitty needle.

“Sorry, Kacchan.” Deku’s voice was soft as his hand rested on top of Katsuki’s glove. “I know you don’t like thinking about that.”

“Ignoring issues—”

“I fucking know, alright?” Katsuki looked back up and glared at the teacher. “I’ve talked with the Ghost Woman about it and shit. Doesn’t mean I like thinking about it.”

The man sighed, but before he responded, Katsuki was surprised to hear Half and Half’s voice saying, “I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Katsuki didn’t understand. Half and Half was looking down at the ground, his hands clasped together in his lap. What the hell did Half and Half have to be sorry for?

“My brother did all that to you.” Half and Half frowned, then shook his head. “I don’t know how I could have stopped him, but I’ll try my best to make sure he can’t do it again.”

Katsuki scoffed. “Like hell. This bastard’s probably targeting your idiot ass.”

Aizawa-sensei rubbed at his right temple, a note of frustration entering his voice. “You still only have your provisional license, Todoroki. You are not allowed to go looking for your brother.”

Half and Half shrugged. “I won’t. But chances are he’ll find me.”

“He won’t have the chance to target you.” Aizawa-sensei’s voice was firm, but Katsuki scowled as the hero continued, “UA will do our best to keep you safe, just like we’ve been keeping these two safe.”

Half and Half stared at their teacher. “They’ve both been kidnapped and tortured, and it sounds like something happened during Bakugou’s internship with Hawks, too. And my brother seems to have been involved with both incidents.”

Aizawa-sensei’s eyebrow twitched. “We will keep all three of you safe.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “That being said, it’s probably for the best if you suspend your internship contract, Todoroki. We can talk about it again in the new year once I’ve had a chance to talk with Hawks and determine how much of a threat we’re dealing with.”

Half and Half shrugged. “Alright.”

There was a knock on the door.

Sensei paused, frowning at the door behind Half and Half, but he raised his voice, responding, “You can come in.”

Auntie entered first, carrying a huge plate as Eri-chan trailed behind her, carrying a stack of paper plates. “The chocolate butter cookies are done. Fresh out of the oven, too!”

Eri-chan was hiding behind Auntie as she watched Half and Half, but she slowly took some cookies and put them on a plate before walking toward him. “You should have some. They’ll help you feel better.”

Half and Half stared at her for a second, confused, but took the cookies. “Thank you. I haven’t had these before.”

“Really?” At his nod, Eri-chan grinned. “Then you have to eat them! Auntie Bakugou says everyone has to eat them because they’re amazing. I tried them yesterday and they’re super yummy! I don’t know if these are as good, though, but Auntie Midoriya says they are.”

Auntie Bakugou?

Auntie Midoriya?

The fuck?

Eri-chan had lived here for less than a week and already their moms were pulling this shit?

Half and Half was eating the cookie now, and he nodded to her. “It’s good. Thank you.”

She went back to Auntie to grab more, then thrust them into Half and Half’s hands. “Eat lots so you won’t be sad.”

Half and Half stared down at the pile of cookies, then nodded way too damn seriously than shitty cookies called for. “I will.”

And then Eri-chan was forcing Sensei to take some cookies, but she paused when she turned to them. “Hour-san? Why are you sitting on Ground-san?”

Katsuki snorted as the nerd immediately started to stammer, but he tightened his grip so Deku couldn’t jump off. “I.. Um.. Well, hugs are nice, right?” Eri-chan had to think for a second, but then she nodded. Deku swallowed, “This feels a lot like a hug. When, um. When I get stressed or uncomfortable I like it when Kacchan hugs me. But it’s hard to talk with other people like that, right? So instead we sit like this.”

Eri-chan frowned. “You’re not feeling good?”

“Um. I’m just worried about some things, but it’s ok! We’ll be fine.”

Eri-chan grabbed a few more cookies and piled them on Deku’s plate, pushing it into Deku’s hands while making eye contact with Katsuki. “He has to eat those, ok?”

Katsuki grinned. “You got it.” The sweet taste would be fucking annoying, but it’s not like they could tell her no.

Eri-chan nodded firmly, and Auntie Inko set the last plate down next to Katsuki. “If you want them, there are a few here for you, too, Katsu-kun.”

“Yeah, thanks.” As if he’d eat that shit. Katsuki wrinkled his nose as Deku bit into the sweet cookie. They’d added way too much damn sugar, what the hell, Auntie.

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed as Auntie patted Eri’s head. “Eri-chan worked hard on making the batter!”

She knew it was too damn sweet, but was feeding them this shit, anyways.

“It’s great, Eri-chan!” How the hell did Deku sound like he actually meant that?

Sensei grunted in agreement, and Half and Half nodded his head.

Liars. All of them.

“Ground-san? Do you not like cookies?”

Shit.

“Kacchan’s really really picky!” Deku’s voice rose a few octaves in panic, and he rushed to reassure her. “He only likes cookies that taste weird.”

“Why does he like them if they taste weird?”

Deku leaned forward, whispering to her, “Kacchan hates sweet food. When we were little, he thought it would make him weak.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened. Oh hell no! “Deku!”

Eri-chan tilted her head to the side, her voice confused as she asked, “Why would he think that?”

“Because he thought if things tasted good, that meant eating them was too easy and only weak people did it. But I’ve been eating them all this time, and I’m just as strong as Kacchan, right?”

Eri-chan nodded eagerly, and Katsuki scowled and looked away. Fucking traitor. “I was five.”

Auntie Inko giggled. “You thought that was true until you were at least seven, Katsu-kun.”

“I fu–freaking didn’t!”

“You can tell yourself that all you want, Kacchan. We know the truth.”

“Damn Midoriyas.” Katsuki could feel his cheeks starting to burn and he hated it. “There’s no reason to bring that up.”

“But if he doesn’t think they’re weak anymore, why doesn’t he eat them now?”

Katsuki glared at her, but Deku elbowed his ribs, cutting him off before the nerd leaned forward to whisper to her, “He refused to eat them for so long that his tastebuds changed and now he doesn’t like them any more.”

Eri-chan gasped, holding the last cookie close to her chest while Deku continued, “So make sure you eat the things you enjoy, alright? And let us know what food you like so we can make sure you always have some.”

Eri-chan nodded fervently. “Ok!”

Auntie Inko patted her head. “Still, it’s important not to eat too much of one thing all the time or you’ll make your stomach hurt. Don’t worry, though, we’ll help you know when to stop.”

“Thank you!” She clutched the few remaining cookies tight to her chest and the whole scene had no damn right to be as cute as it was.

Auntie smiled at them all, then gently started leading Eri-chan from the room. “They need to keep talking, so why don’t we go clean up?” She opened the door, nudging Eri-chan toward the living area before closing it behind them as Deku called out another thank you.

The nerd swallowed. “Aizawa-sensei, Eri-chan’s quirk could—”

“We’re not asking her to heal anyone. It’s no different than with Mirio. What kind of heroes would we be if we can’t spare her from this world of stress and violence? Whenever possible, we can’t allow a small evil for the sake of a greater good. We already failed her by allowing her to stay with Overhaul for so long. She should enjoy the rest of her childhood without stress or pressure from adults.” He sighed, rubbing at his eyes for a second and then looking at him, exhaustion clinging to his face. “I’d spare you both from that fate, as well, if I could.”

Right. Eri was just a damn kid. They couldn’t use her quirk as a shitty fix-it time machine. Katsuki and Deku were different. They were soulmates. But she didn’t have to deal with this shit.

Half and Half held up his phone, showing the screen to Aizawa-sensei. “Nee-san texted me. She’s at the hospital with Dad. Apparently he’s in surgery now, but he was asking for me.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. He stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets as he read Half and Half’s text. “I don’t like the idea of you leaving campus, but it would be good to get Endeavor’s opinion on all this. Not the soulmate information, though. I’m serious about that staying a secret.”

“You want to go now?” Half and Half straightened, confusion furrowing his brow. “But didn’t you need to talk to Bakugou and Midoriya?”

“It was about Dabi being Hawks’ soulmate, which Midoriya saw fit to inform you.” Sensei glared at Deku, who looked down at his lap, but Katsuki knew the little shit didn’t feel guilty about it. The man sighed. “Todoroki should be there when his father gets out of surgery. You two stay safe and don’t leave campus. And don’t tell any of your classmates about what we discussed, even the things that will soon be public knowledge. If you need to talk to Yamashita-san, go see her before returning to the dorms.”

Katsuki scowled. He didn’t need to talk with the damn therapist.

Deku was nodding, though, the annoying idiot. “We will, Sensei.”

“Damn it, Deku! We just saw her three days ago! We don’t need to deal with her shit again.”

“Kacchan, please?” The nerd shifted in his lap, turning so that his big green eyes were pleading with Katsuki as Aizawa-sensei led Half and Half out of his parents’ room. “I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine.”

The door shut behind Aizawa-sensei, and Deku’s face shifted, his eyes gaining the steel determination that meant Deku would never fucking give up. Usually Katsuki loved that look, but right now it was annoying as hell. “I felt like you were going to pass out when Dabi appeared on the TV screen. You are not fine. And that’s ok. But please come talk to Yamashita-sensei with me?”

Fuck. Katsuki hadn’t realized his reaction had been bad enough to affect Deku. “Whatever.”

“Thanks, Kacchan!” Deku hopped off Katsuki’s lap, giving him a bright grin as he took his hand.

Katsuki scowled, but let Deku lead him out of the room and toward the stairs. He still flipped off the Old Hag when she asked where they were going and then gave him a knowing look when Deku answered.

Katsuki didn’t know why everyone was so damn worried about him and shit.

He took a deep breath, steadying his anxiety as Deku knocked on the damn therapist’s door.

A few seconds later it opened, black eyes blinking at them. The Ghost Woman was wearing a simple blouse and jeans, unlike the kimono she usually wore when she knew she’d be using her damn quirk. “Midoriya-kun. Bakugou-kun. I wasn’t expecting you both so soon. Is it because of the broadcast?”

Katsuki’s scowl deepened. “You know I hate that asshole.”

She stepped aside, holding the door open. “Please, come in. Eri-chan is downstairs at the moment, so we’ll have some privacy.”

“We know that. She made shitty cookies. And we’ve already talked to Sensei about shit and I’m fine, but Deku and Sensei said I should talk with you.”

“I see.” She sat at the edge of the bed, then looked at the room with a frown. “I apologize, but I don’t have two chairs at the moment, since things have been moved around for Eri-chan. One of you could bring one up from downstairs?”

The nerd giggled and shook his head. “It’s fine! I don’t mind using Eri-chan’s chair. If it can hold my weight?”

She nodded. “It should. It’s new and sturdy.”

Deku tentatively sat down at the kiddie table and Katsuki rolled his eyes, grabbing the desk chair as Yamashita-sensei turned to the nerd. “Why did you want to come, Midoriya-kun?”

“Kacchan was umm….” Deku looked over at him, but Katsuki glared right back. If the nerd wanted him here, the least he could do is be bold enough to say why. Deku winced. “…Hyperventilating a little. He was tense while Hawks was fighting and umm… lightheaded, I think? But it got a lot worse when Dabi appeared.”

Like hell Katsuki could explain that here! Deku couldn’t even explain why he knew Katsuki was lightheaded, the dumbass!

“Were you worried for Hawks, Bakugou-kun?”

“Hell no!” Obviously the Feathered Menace was going to be fine. Fuck, how could he explain this dumbass scenario. “He did stupid shit during the fight that made me realize he’s been doing even stupider shit.”

“Alright…” She stared at him for a few seconds as if he’d said something unclear. “So you’re not worried about him, you’re angry at him.”

“Of fucking course.” How could the asshole bond with a fucking villain and, to top it off, let his soulmate shoot Endeavor?! The guy was a complete asshole, but fuck, without him… shit!

The Ghost Woman made a soft hum, tapping her chin in thought. “It’s hard when someone does something you don’t like, but we can’t control what others do. We can try to understand why we’re reacting that way and think about other ways we can react instead. What is it about his actions that makes you angry?”

Katsuki glared at her. He couldn’t exactly say ‘because he’s a fucking traitor.’

Deku shifted nervously at Katsuki’s silence. “It’s hard to explain without saying things we shouldn’t.”

“Well, does it personally affect you?”

Katsuki frowned. He sure as hell felt like it fucking did, but at this point he’d already quit the internship. And it hurt Deku’s friend, not him. But… shit, without the number one, people were going to count on Katsuki and Deku even more, and they were still in their damn first year.

They would be fine! They had to be. They were soulmates.

Katsuki leaned forward, resting his forehead against his hands as his fingers tightened into fists around his hair. The slightest slip-up meant that Japan would lose its third number one, on top of that. And the Feathered Menace was hiding a huge bombshell that could take him down any second.

And then it would be who? Jeanist? Three top heroes down and only #4 left standing, who was recently put out of commission by All for One?

Fuck.

They were fucking screwed, and it was all Hawks’ damn fault for siding with his soulmate.

But what kind of world was it where soulmates couldn’t support each other?

Katsuki’s breath shuddered, but he forced himself to release his hair and drop his hands. “Yeah. It adds a fuck-ton of pressure.”

The Ghost Woman didn’t say anything at first, then she sighed. “You boys already have a lot of that.”

“We can fucking handle it!” Katsuki glared at her. They had to.

Her expression didn’t change. “Whether you can or not isn’t the issue. You shouldn’t have to.”

“Of course we should.” The nerd shrugged, looking down at his lap. “We’re soulmates. That’s what soulmates do.”

“Is it what first year high school students do?”

Katsuki glared at her. It wasn’t and they fucking knew it, but that didn’t matter. Someone had to do it, and no one else could.

She sighed at their silence and folded her hands neatly in her lap. “Why don’t we look at the situation from a different angle? Is there anything good that resulted from today’s events?”

Something good?

Katsuki couldn’t think of shit. Auntie had said it was good that Half and Half’s brother was alive, but Katsuki wasn’t so sure. Sure, wishing someone was dead was cruel as shit and all, but fuck this bastard had done so much. And if he’d died when the Todorokis thought he had, he never would have brought Hawks into his shit.

Deku shrugged. “I think there are things to be happy about for Hawks, but that I also worry about. And well… I’m kind of happy about two things for Todoroki-kun, but I’m really worried about those, too.”

The fuck? Something happy for Hawks? Even sealing their bond wasn’t exactly good.

“And you, Katsuki?”

Katsuki still didn’t know what to say. Was he allowed to confirm what Frankenstein had said about the fucking Todoroki mess? “I’m glad Endeavor’s movements are limited in a way, I guess.” He wouldn’t have done it this way, though. Being quirkless… there wasn’t anything bad about it, but people treated them like shit. Katsuki wouldn’t wish that life on anyone. And to go from number one to quirkless, when he’d been obsessed with quirks even more than Deku… “It’s the fucking perfect revenge, even if it’s terrible.”

Silence.

Had he said too much? All that shit was public knowledge, but nothing had confirmed it… Katsuki glanced up to see the Ghost Woman evaluating him. “It sounds like you’re happy that Endeavor can’t hurt your friend.”

“He’s not my friend.” Half and Half was Deku’s friend, not his. It was different.

“Your classmate, then.”

Katsuki shrugged. “Half and Half already wasn’t seeing his bastard father, though, thanks to the dorms.”

“Still, focussing on the positive outcomes from a situation can help lighten the negative aspects.”

Katsuki didn’t think so. Not in this scenario.

“It sounds like there’s still a lot you have to process. Why don’t you write journal entries tonight about today’s events, and we can talk again later this week?”

“Yeah, whatever.” Katsuki looked away with a sigh. They’d managed doing more of that shit now that internships were over.

“Would you like me to use my quirk?” The woman was already moving to sit on the ground next to her bed, knowing their answer even before Katsuki nodded.

He hated relying on this shit. But he couldn’t let it keep affecting Deku. And this did help.

Shit, Deku’s voice was so damn tired when he answered, “Thank you, Yamashita-sensei. We’d appreciate that.”

The ghostly form of her quirk immediately rose from her body, drifting toward them, and Katsuki felt all his anger and frustration slip away, his shoulders immediately relaxing.

Fuck this felt nice. Still weird as hell, but nice. Like they didn’t have to worry about shit.

Deku thanked her again as they left, frowning at the woman’s strained smile in response, but Katsuki nudged his shoulder when the door closed. “Stop that, dumbass. Worrying about her ruins the whole damn point.”

“I know! But she always looks so tired afterwards. It has to be a lot to take on.”

“She’s a grown-ass woman. She knows her damn limits.”

“Katsuki.”

Katsuki looked across the room to see the Old Man frowning at him where he sat on the couches with Eri-chan and the Old Hag.

Damn it. They’d only just gotten downstairs! How was Katsuki supposed to realize they were out in the living room?

“I didn’t know you were there.” Katsuki scowled, looking away from the two.

The Old Hag stood up, straightening her skirt. “I take it you’re heading back to the dorms? Or do you want to stay here for dinner and sleep on the couch tonight?”

Deku shook his hand. “Thank you, but we’ve got a lot of homework to catch up on. We were working on it when the fight began.” He grinned, then turned to Eri-chan. “We’ll be back this weekend to paint your room still, alright?”

“Ok!” She nodded, then picked up the pink horse from her lap. “We’re going to make it pink like the unicorn, right?”

“Whatever color you want!” Deku nodded, adding another ‘see you later’ before pulling Katsuki toward the front door.

The second the door shut, the smile immediately fell from Deku’s face. They both felt relaxed as hell after the Ghost Woman’s quirk, but…

It was hard to be happy after what had happened today. Hard to keep the anxiety and shit from invading again.

They clung to each other’s hands as they walked, neither one of them saying a word.

No matter what happened, they would have each other.

The dorms were madness.

All their classmates were demanding answers because of course Half and Half wasn’t back yet, and Katsuki never thought he’d be fucking thankful for Glasses’ demands that everyone follow Sensei’s instructions and stop bothering them.

Somehow, they managed to actually get some shit done.

When Half and Half finally came back that evening, though, even Glasses couldn’t stop them. All the damn idiots crowded around Half and Half, shoving cake in his face and reassuring him that they didn’t care about his shitty brother (if they were brothers). Eventually Half and Half managed to retreat to his room, though Deku couldn’t take that as a damn obvious sign that the asshole wanted to be alone and followed him.

Katsuki sighed, but didn’t move from the kitchen where he was washing his and Deku’s dirty dishes from dinner. Deku would always be a nosey little shit.

The nerd had taken the stairs instead of the elevator, so Half and Half didn’t even realize Deku had followed him until he was standing in his doorway, glancing nervously around the traditional room. “Ummm… I’d ask if everything’s ok, but I know it’s probably not, I guess, just uh… are you doing ok, Todoroki-kun?”

Half and Half sighed. “You can come in, but close the door.”

“Ok!” Deku darted inside, shutting the door behind him and then settling onto the floor by Half and Half’s low table.

Half and Half went over to the side of the room where he had a tea set, his hands mechanically going through the motions of brewing a pot. “You were right. Father is quirkless now. The doctors are frantically trying to find a solution and have contacted international aid looking for help, but so far there have been no replies.”

Shit.

“Oh.” Deku looked down at his hands. “I’m sorry, Todoroki-kun. I know being quirkless isn’t an easy life. He can still do hero work, though! Surely with his experience and some support gear—”

“Dad barely said anything the whole time we were there.” Half and Half lit a flame underneath the pot, his back rigid. “It’s like Touya broke him.”

Deku didn’t say shit, just sat there, watching his friend.

“He kept staring into space. He’d given the doctors permission to run a DNA test with some of Touya-nii’s hair Hawks found, and it was a match.”

Right. The Feathered Menace had found the hair. Wasn’t that convenient.

The plate cracked in Katsuki’s hands, splitting cleanly in two, and he dropped it into the sink with a growl. Fuck! He’d been getting better at controlling Deku’s shitty quirk! He hadn’t messed up since before the damn Overhaul mission.

Katsuki could practically feel the dumbasses staring at him, too, so he wasn’t surprised when Shitty Hair got up from the tables and came over, his hands hardening as he reached past Katsuki and picked up the broken pieces. “You ok, man?”

“Fucking fine.”

Shitty Hair looked down at the plate in his hands. “Yeah… not really buying that, to be honest. It’s been a long day. I don’t know what Aizawa-sensei talked with you three about, but it can’t have been good.”

Katsuki took a deep breath, trying to cling to the relaxed feeling from the Ghost Woman’s quirk, but failing.

Damn it. How could the effects already be going away?

“You want to talk about it? Not details or anything, just… we’re worried about you three.”

Katsuki shrugged. “Deku’s talking with Half and Half about shit, but it’s nothing we didn’t already know.” Well, except for the fact that Endeavor apparently wasn’t taking shit well, but that was why Frankenstein had done it. He’d known it would upset the bastard more than anything else.

Shitty Hair watched him for a few seconds, but when Katsuki ignored him and returned to washing the dishes, he went to throw away the plate. The dumbass didn’t leave, though. He came back with a towel, then started drying shit. Katsuki glared at him. “You don’t have to fucking stay.”

“I know.” Shitty Hair gave him a bright grin, then held out his hand for the pot Katsuki had been rinsing soap out of.

Katsuki scowled and handed it to him. “Whatever.”

Maybe having someone here was nice. It had helped distract him, at least.

Deku and Half and Half were both kneeling at the small floor table, now, and sipping tea. Half and Half was frowning at his cup. “Does talking to her help?”

“Huh?” Deku looked over at Half and Half, startled. “Talking to who?”

“Eraserhead says I should talk to Hound Dog and that he’ll look for a personal therapist for me, if I want. Does talking to Yamashita-san help you?”

Katsuki growled, she was fucking annoying more like.

Deku rubbed at the back of his neck. “Kind of? It’s nice to be able to talk through things with a person, but with confidentiality and everything, it can be a bit hard sometimes to talk about what’s really bothering us.”

“I don’t really care if other people know about my family.” Half and Half paused, then shrugged. “Touya-nii’s already told everyone, anyway.”

“I think it would be good.” Deku bit his lip, then added, “Yamashita-sensei helps us understand why things are bothering us and how we can try to be um. More mentally healthy.”

Half and Half hummed in thought. “I’ll go talk to Hound Dog.”

“That’s great.” Deku tried to give his friend a smile, but Katsuki knew without seeing it that Deku was forcing that shit.

Katsuki rolled his eyes as he handed Shitty Hair the next dish. He supposed Half and Half had plenty of messed up shit to talk about, at least. He probably could use a damn therapist.

“I um…” Deku bit his lip, then looked back up from the tea cup Half and Half had given him. He took a deep breath. “Todo-kun, I haven’t told anyone this, but my Dad’s working with the League, too. So if you ever want to talk, I know how it feels to suddenly have a family member who’s a villain.”

Half and Half stared at Deku, his mismatched eyes wide in surprise. “You stopped eating lunch with him. We all assumed it was because UA tightened security or you finally listened to Bakugou’s worries.”

Deku shook his head. “I ran into him during the Shie Hassaikai raid. I was so shocked that my quirk went haywire.” Deku paused, taking a sip from the tea, his gaze focusing on the liquid. “I found out a new ability from my quirk because of it, but I’d trade that for those lunches any day. It was nice when I could think that he cared. I… I still wish it was real.”

The bowl fractured in Katsuki’s hands. “Damn it!”

Shitty Hair shoved his hands aside, grabbing the broken pieces. “I’ve got it, man! That was the last one to clean, anyway.”

Fucking hell.

Deku.

Katsuki closed his eyes, leaning against the sink. He couldn’t even help him! Deku was hurting so much and the Old Man was never enough and Katsuki couldn’t do anything about this fucking Shitstain.

“I never really spent time with Touya-nii. Endeavor wouldn’t let me.”

Katsuki let out a shaky breath, stepping away from the counter.

“You going back up to your room?” Shitty Hair was by the trash, watching him.

Katsuki frowned. “Deku’s.” They had to do the shitty journals.

“Oh.” Why the fuck did he sound disappointed? “I was hoping I’d hear you drumming some tonight; you haven’t played since the festival a few weeks ago.”

Katsuki glared at him. “I don’t have time for that shit.” Not now that there wasn’t a purpose for it. They had to master Black Whip and unlock all the other damn quirks.

“Relaxing’s important, too, man. Sometimes even more important when you’re stressed.”

“Fuck off. I saw the Ghost Woman earlier. I’m fine.” Katsuki ignored his shitty sad eyes and went over to the tables to grab his shit, growling when Pinky latched onto his arm.

“Blaaastyyyy.” She pouted, tugging him toward the couch between her and Pikachu. “You gotta help us! I don’t understand Midnight’s homework.”

“What the hell? That was the easiest shit.”

“To you, Mr. Fashion Designers’ Son.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but let her push him onto the couch. He’d rather help them out than do that journal shit, anyway. And Deku was still talking to Half and Half, so he wouldn’t be in his room. Not yet. “You don’t need good fashion sense to remember art history, dumbass. We’re in a unit on architecture.”

“But the book keeps comparing it to formal Shinto fashion procedures and I just do not understand.”

“Yeah!” Pikachu chimed in from Katsuki’s other side, his own worksheet completely blank. “Like how does fashion even have procedures?!”

Katsuki groaned. “The way they fold the damn kimono, you idiots.” He looked over at Brain Fucker, who was working through their English assignment. “Why the hell didn’t you explain that shit to them?”

Brain Fucker shrugged, an amused glint in his eyes when he looked up. “Oh, is that what the book meant? I couldn’t understand it.”

“Asshole. He’s your damn boyfriend, I shouldn’t have to correct all their shit.”

“But you’re super manly like that and know everything!” Shitty Hair must have finished drying shit because now he was sitting down next to Pinky in front of another empty worksheet.

Katsuki groaned and looked over at Spider Man, “Did you at least understand this shit?” Please let one of these dumbasses have at least one fucking braincell.

Spider Man grinned at him. “I figured it out well enough from watching Shinsou-kun, I think.”

Pikachu gasped, one hand over his heart. “You cheated with my boyfriend?!” Hurt golden eyes turned to the purple haired idiot. “Toshi, how could you? It’s because you’re internship buddies, isn’t it? I’m just not good enough for Eraserhead’s student.”

“I didn’t do anything. He looked at my worksheet while you weren’t paying attention.”

“Betrayed!” Pikachu fell backwards on the coach, making Katsuki growl at his melodrama.

“Do you want my fucking help or not?”

“Of course!” Pinky latched onto his arm again, shoving her paper in his face. “What’s the answer to the first question?!”

“I’m not telling you the answers, damn it!” Katsuki freed his arm and shoved the worksheet back at her. “I said I’d help, not do all the work for you.”

The dumbasses predictably groaned at that, except for Shitty Hair, who wanted to know about the third question.

Katsuki’s shoulders relaxed a little as he leaned forward, grabbing the textbook off the damn table and letting the loud dumbasses distract him from shit.

Like Deku about to cry as he and Half and Half bonded over their shitty relatives.

Katsuki dropped the open book in Pinky’s lap, pointing at the shitty passage she needed.

One damn thing at a time.

Notes:

Related side stories:
Yamashita's PoV on all the other ppl in the adults' house

---

I so couldn't resist posting this on Dabi's bday. It was just too good of an opportunity. And now Zero: Fate has officially begun! I will be updating something in Zero-verse every Friday, in this fic or the side fics. Next week will be a chapter in "Other Sides" from Mina's PoV about what 1A talks about after Aizawa leaves with bkdk&todo. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I tried my best to give you all some small breaks from the angst, but the poor boys were just hit with an angst train, courtesy of Dabi. Tysm to angle & Ollie in my server for beta-ing! And as always, thank y'all so much for all the comments and kudos! I appreciate them so much and am super excited to be sharing Zero:Fate with y'all <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 3: The Hero Billboard Charts

Notes:

Me: The chapters in Zero: Fate are going to be *shorter*
Also me: the drafts for chapters 3-6 are all over 12k...

The day after the Hakata Bay incident, Auntie wanted to talk to them before school, so they dropped their school shit at the adults’ house and cut their morning One for All practice short before going to see her instead of heading back to the dorms.

The second she opened her damn door, Katsuki wanted to flee.

He knew that look. That was the ‘you’re in big trouble and I’m disappointed in you’ look.

Fuck.

But what the hell had they done?

And then she fucking smiled at him. “I need to talk to Izu-kun for a bit, Katsu-kun. Why don’t you go ahead and use the guest shower?”

Katsuki stared at her, then turned to Deku, who looked like he wanted to run. Why was Deku in trouble but not him?

Oh, shit.

Somehow, she must know about Deku telling Half and Half shit.

Deku could definitely face the fucking consequences for that alone. Katsuki would’ve told him not to do it if he’d asked, but no, the nerd saw his friend in pain and just dumped that shit. Katsuki nodded to Auntie, giving Deku’s shoulder a squeeze before he turned and headed to grab his shit for the shower.

The nerd meekly followed Auntie into her room.

“Aizawa-kun came to talk to me last night.” She sat down on her bed, but Deku didn’t move from the door. “He said he was in a bit of a pickle because you’d done something that needed to have consequences, but because of your already busy schedules and who you are, he couldn’t give you more work or keep you from your training. Since it wasn’t school related and we live together, he wondered if I had advice.” She rested her hands in her lap, giving Deku a knowing look. “Can you tell me what you did, Izu-kun?”

Deku bit his lip and glanced down at his shoes, shifting his weight a little. “It’s um… it’s hard to explain. Todo-kun was hurting so much, and I knew something that might make him feel better, so I told him. I wasn’t supposed to, but it did help him feel better, Okaa-san!” His last words were rushed and desperate at the end as he looked back up at Auntie.

“Oh, Izu-kun.” Auntie sighed, then patted the bed next to her. “Come here, baby.”

Deku immediately ran to her, hugging her from the side, and she returned it.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, grabbing his clothes and toiletries and heading to the damn shower. This was definitely going to be a Midoriya tear-fest, damn it.

“Izu-kun, you have a good heart, but you have to think before you say things you shouldn’t. I’m glad it helped Shouto-kun, but he wasn’t the only one involved in the situation, was he?”

Deku shook his head.

“I know you’re dealing with a lot of things high schoolers normally don’t have to think about, and it’s tough, but you have to think about other people involved and not just your friends.” She squeezed Deku a little tighter as the nerd sniffled.

“But he was so sad! You saw him, Okaa-san.”

“I did. But did revealing that information make someone else sad? Aizawa-kun made it sound like it was important.”

Deku nodded against her shoulder, hugging her tighter. “Not sad, exactly. But umm…” the nerd frowned, his voice turning into a mumble, “probably really frustrated and stressed.”

“I don’t think I need to tell you that those can be just as bad as making someone sad.”

Deku nodded again. “But Okaa-san, Todo-kun—“

“Even if someone’s your friend, it’s not a good idea to make someone else stressed so that your friend can be a little happier.” Damn it, now Deku was fucking crying, and Auntie was sniffling. She managed to control that shit a little, though, and kept going. “Aizawa-kun only told me that you had breached confidentiality with someone, would you agree with that description?”

Deku winced. “It wasn’t part of an actual contract or anything! But um… I guess. It was supposed to be a secret.”

Auntie’s fingers ran through the nerd’s hair, her tone calm. “I don’t think Aizawa-kun would have phrased it that way if it wasn’t a similar situation. Was what you told Shouto-kun really important to keep secret?”

Slowly, Deku nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then you were very lucky this time. Aizawa-kun said he’d talk to the people affected and they weren’t likely to do anything legal, but Izu-kun, you know that breaking a confidentiality contract would mean that the law would punish not only you, but Katsu-kun as well.”

Oh, shit.

Katsuki’s hand froze in his hair as he suddenly realized why Auntie had wanted them both here. She knew he was listening, even if she was only talking directly to Deku. And whatever this punishment was—

“So I’m going to ask you and Katsuki both to give me your phones. If you’re good and you’ve learned your lesson, we’ll talk again Friday night before the Hero Billboard Charts and you can have them back. But only if you behave this week and convince me that night that you won’t do it again.”

Fuck.

“Our phones?!” Deku squeaked, pulling back from Auntie’s arms. “I know I have to think of everyone in the situation before saying things, but society’s crazy right now! We have to be able to know how people are reacting!"

“Why? Why do you, a first year highschooler, have to immediately know what people are posting?” Auntie sighed, hugging Deku again. “I know people are putting you under pressure, but right now you’re not in an internship or leaving UA’s campus. Training and schoolwork are the best you can do to help society right now. And if you truly need to read articles, you can still use your computers. I’ll also let you ask your friends for their phones, but you have to tell them why you don’t have yours, if you do.”

Deku winced.

Katsuki leaned against the shower wall, closing his eyes in frustration. Damn it, Deku!

“I’m not sure you really understand why this is so important yet, Izu-kun, so I hope that having to consider whether or not you’ll tell your friends will help you to remember to think about others and what consequences you’ll face before you speak. I know you care about your friends’ opinions. You can just say that you said something you shouldn’t have or that you broke a confidentiality agreement. But I need you to promise me that you’ll do that, alright?”

The nerd swallowed, then closed his eyes and nodded. “What if we need a phone for an emergency and one of our friends isn’t there?”

“We thought of that.” She gave Deku’s shoulders another squeeze, then stood up and walked over to her desk, picking up two small black devices off the table. “Aizawa-kun gave me these. They’re pagers with built in tracking devices. He and I have the matching set. If you hit the red button, he’ll know you need help and where to find you. If you hit the green button, then I will.”

The nerd accepted the pagers, his eyes staring at the small boxes and the flashing green and red buttons on top. “Thank you.” He swallowed, his hands tightening around them.

She smiled at him, reaching up to brush some tears away. “I love you very much, Izu-kun, and I know you just wanted to help, but you have to think these things through. I wish you had more time to learn this lesson, but already people are treating you two like adult heroes. You need to start thinking about these things before the consequences are worse than losing your phone for a week.”

The nerd rubbed at his eyes, frantically trying to hold in his tears. “Ok, ‘kaa-san.” Annnd there went the waterworks.

Katsuki took a deep, shuddering breath as their bond forced him to start crying, as well. He was fucking angry, damn it! Not sad! He hadn’t done shit, but he was still getting fucking punished. Katsuki growled in frustration while he finished his shower, and thank fuck the two of them eventually calmed down.

As Katsuki rinsed off the last of the soap, Auntie held out her hand to Deku, and the nerd pulled his phone from his pocket, handing it to her. “Did Katsu-kun hear me?”

“Yes. I heard every damn word.” Katsuki turned off the water, twisting the nob with a harsh pull because he was so fucking annoyed with this shit. “My phone’s in my bag.”

Deku repeated what he’d said (without the cussing, the dumbass), then went to get Katsuki’s phone, handing that to her, as well.

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched when he saw the notifications for unread messages from the dumbasses’ group chat.

“Make sure to give him the other pager, Izu-kun. And thank you for cutting your training short by a little bit to talk with me this morning.”

Deku nodded, staring glumly at the second pager in his hand, but then giving her a hug back when she hugged him.

“You have a good heart, Izu. But sometimes that heart of yours needs to let your head catch up a bit before you act on things. You’re getting better, and I know you’ll keep improving. We love you both too much to let you keep going without realizing this is a problem–if you break a real confidentiality contract, you and Katsu-kun will both be in trouble. ”

“I know. I love you, too, Okaa-san.” The nerd sniffed, rubbing at his eyes again, but nodded.

She opened the door for him, and the nerd shuffled into the small entry hallway outside her door. Katsuki was almost done getting dressed, so he tossed the UA jacket over his arm and kicked the door open, stomping into the entryway.

Deku winced when he saw him. “I’m sorry, Kacchan.” He held out the pager, and Katsuki growled as he took it.

“You fucking better be. You know if Auntie knew what shit you’d said, there’s no way she’d even give us the chance to have our phones during the billboard charts. We’ve spent our whole damn lives knowing how important this secret is.”

“I know! But Todo-kun actually has hope and—“

“It doesn’t matter, dumbass! I know Shitstain is the fucking worst, but isn’t it worse to give Half and Half hope when it might be fucking fake?!”

The nerd practically flinched.

“Just go take your damn shower, nerd. And think about what Auntie said.”

“Ok.” Fuck, Katsuki hated seeing that defeated slump in Deku’s shoulders. But Auntie was right: if this had been something legally binding, they’d be in deep shit right now. Technically, the Feathered Menace could say it was, since they’d learned about it during Katsuki’s internship, but there’s no way in hell he’d pursue that since it would reveal his own damn status as a soulmate to the whole fucking world.

Being without their phones wouldn’t be too bad. They could still look up shit on their computers. They just couldn’t do anything in between classes or text or shit like that.

So of course the second they walked into the cafeteria for lunch that day, they were assaulted by whispers about the Flaming Bastard holding a press conference and every damn extra in the room was glued to their phones.

Damn it.

“Zu-kun? Everything ok?” Round Face sat her bento down, already pulling her own phone out to watch the conference. “You look worried. Isn’t it a good thing that we’ll be hearing from Endeavor-san?”

The nerd flinched. “I… um… I don’t have my phone.”

“Oh! You can watch with me on mine!”

He jerked back, shaking his head vigorously. “That’s ok! I’ll just um, listen!”

“Oh, I guess you can listen to Baku-kun’s, right.” She gave him a thumbs up.

Katsuki rolled his eyes as the nerd mumbled some shit that no one could even hear. Katsuki didn’t bother trying to ask the idiots for theirs—Pikachu had the volume turned up so loud they could all hear that shit even if they weren’t close enough to see the screen.

Deku would have to fucking ask someone to see this shit and be forced to explain why he didn't have his phone, or he’d have to sit there and squirm.

“Dude, he looks really beat up.” Pikachu’s tone was worried as hell, but they’d known Endeavor was beat up.

Deku groaned.

“Actually, Ochaco-chan, could I watch with you? Kacchan’s um…. Eating.”

Brat.

“And I um… I…” The nerd bent down in a hasty bow. “I don’t have my phone because I said something I shouldn’t have and I’m being punished. Mom said I could ask friends for theirs as long as I told them I was being punished, though!”

Round Face stared at him, and Katsuki could feel his own face starting to burn from how bright red Deku’s was, damn him. Glasses and Half and Half were staring at Deku, too, as he straightened in his seat. “So… um. Can I please watch on your phone with you?”

“Midoriya-kun!” Glasses’ voice was scandalized. “What did you do to deserve punishment?!”

“I… uh…” The nerd bit his lip, staring down at his lap, but he was saved as the announcer said some shit about Endeavor coming up to talk now. Round Face glanced back at her phone, then showed it to Deku with a sigh. “We’re still talking about this later, Zu-kun. If your mom’s condition is telling us about the punishment, you’re not getting out of it.”

The nerd’s shoulders tensed up and he nodded, but his eyes were already focused on the screen as he mumbled a thanks.

The former number two hero really did look like shit.

There were bandages wrapped around his forehead, a long scar already covering the left side of his face, and his right arm was in a sling. His shoulders were stooped as he stood behind the podium, and his eyes looked fucking dead. Like he couldn’t even bring himself to fight.

Fucking hell, Frankenstein really had known what to do to make this asshole spiral into hell.

After the silence stretched out far too damn long, the man cleared his throat. “Many want to know about the claims made yesterday by the villain Dabi.” He closed his eyes briefly, then swallowed before opening them and meeting the camera dead on as he declared: “They are all true.”

There were shouts from the media and camera flashes going off, while whispers filled the whole cafeteria.

No one from 1A looked surprised.

Round Face reached across the table, putting a hand on Half and Half’s, but he didn’t move.

The Flaming Bastard continued, “We’ve had doctors analyze DNA samples from Dabi, and it is a 100% match for my son, Touya. The information he provided about my family and how I raised my children was also correct.”

Katsuki’s hands clenched into fists at his side. He could practically feel the whole cafeteria shift, staring at Half and Half.

“My goal was always to raise the best hero. When I saw Touya’s body was ill-suited for his quirk, I stopped training him and focused on training Shouto. But he was determined to be a hero, no matter the physical cost. He kept practicing without our knowledge, and then he had an accident, lighting an entire mountain on fire. We thought he died that night. It was my own stubbornness and failure to see my son’s pain that led to that death. That led him to hate me so much that he became a villain. I treated him like he didn’t matter because he couldn’t be a hero. And now society is paying the consequence for my mistake. I have no right to say this, and I know he will never forgive me, but I am sorry.”

The Flaming Bastard stopped talking, his body rigid and eyes downcast as he stepped back from the podium. Reporters shouted questions one over another, but the hero said nothing.

He just left.

And now everyone was staring at Half and Half, whose back was as rigid and defeated as his father’s.

Fucking damn it.

Katsuki could practically feel it in their gazes—they were wondering if Half and Half was going to turn out like his piece of shit brother. After all, he’d had the same upbringing.

Katsuki growled, standing up and flexing his hands as explosions burst from his palms. Deku was standing up, too, but he stopped at the explosions, glancing over his shoulder and back at Katsuki.

Katsuki glared at the whole fucking room. “You’re a damn idiot if you think Half and Half is anything like his piece of trash brother or asshole of a father. If anyone has the right to be mad or suspicious of Half and Half or any of that shit, it’s me. I’m the one his brother fucking kidnapped. But I’m saying Todoroki Shouto isn’t like that. So if any one of you bastards bothers Half and Half about this shit, I’ll personally shove your face into the dirt. Got it?” A small blast burst from both his hands, but Katsuki was too ticked off to care if he’d singed shit.

The nerd gave Katsuki a grateful look, but his face quickly turned serious again as he took a deep breath. “Please respect Todo-kun’s privacy. I know his father and brother have done terrible things, but Todoroki Shouto is training to be a hero just like the rest of us, and I have no doubt that he’ll be amazing. And that he’ll never do anything like Endeavor has done to him or become a villain like his brother.”

“Yeah!” Pinky stood up, pointing out at the cafeteria. “He’s our classmate and my sparring buddy, so don’t you dare say anything bad about him!”

Glasses stood then, clearing his throat. “I will not condone violence, but I too wish to express my support for Todoroki-kun and that I believe he will be an amazing hero.”

“Me too!” Round Face stood, grinning at Half and Half’s shocked expression before facing the cafeteria. “Todo-kun needs our support right now, so let’s give it to him!”

As if by some sort of fucking plan, the rest of 1A stood as one, and then, a few seconds later, the big hand girl and iron dude from 1B stood, followed by the rest of those shitty losers. The blonde copycat started to say shit, but the big hand girl knocked him unconscious and then nodded at Half and Half. “1B has never had any doubt that Todoroki Shouto will be an amazing hero. You have our support, as well.”

No one else moved.

Katsuki snarled. There weren’t any other hero students in the cafeteria since the second and third year heroics classes ate at a different time, but none of the other first and second years in the room even looked like they wanted to support Half and Half. Just because his father was an asshole and his brother was a villain. More explosions burst from Katsuki’s hands, and he opened his mouth—

“It’s fine.” Half and Half was standing now, and he looked around the room, making eye contact with all of the first year heroics students before giving a brief bow. “Thank you. I understand I will have to earn back trust after what my brother and father have done.”

He sat back down.

Deku looked uneasy, but the rest of their table sat back down with Half and Half, and slowly the other heroics students did, as well. The low murmur of different conversations slowly began to rise to normal levels.

Katsuki snarled at all the people still glancing over at Half and Half, but Shitty Hair grabbed his arm, pulling Katsuki down onto the bench from where he was still standing. “You’re super manly wanting to support Todoroki like this, but he knows we’ve got his back.”

Katsuki growled. “It wasn’t about that flowery support shit! People are being fucking stupid and it’s annoying!” And if this was how society reacted to Half and Half, how would they react to finding out about Deku’s fucking father?

Damn it!

The nerd was already insecure as hell about that bastard, too!

Katsuki fumed for the entire lunch period, not even paying attention to Deku’s conversation with his shitty friends about his damn phone. Why couldn’t people see that Half and Half wasn’t like his fucking family?!

When heroics came around, Shitty Hair quickly partnered with him before anyone else could have a chance. Not that anyone else besides Deku would want to partner with Katsuki when he was in a bad mood.

And, of course, that evening Half and Half pulled Deku aside, since it was so damn obvious that Deku was in trouble because of what he’d told him. The dumbass thanked Deku again, but to Katsuki’s surprise, he also said he was glad that the adults were making Deku think about that shit. The idiot wasn’t happy about not being able to tell his family, but he said he knew it would cause a lot of problems if more people knew. And that even if Frankenstein was helping Hawks now, it didn’t change the fact that he was a villain and had done terrible things in the past.

Deku moped for the whole night after that shit, and even stayed away from news websites for a few days, but eventually he caved and logged back onto hero chatrooms and news websites to figure out people’s reactions.

Now that Endeavor had said it was all true, society was torn about the supposed number one hero and his villain son. Some people thought what he’d done for society outweighed anything else he’d done. A lot more people were yelling that he should have his license stripped not because he had committed a crime, but simply because he was related to a villain and couldn’t be trusted.

Katsuki fucking hated it. The nerd never said anything, but Katsuki knew Deku was thinking about what people’s reactions might be if the public ever found out about Shitstain. Thank fuck they would be helping paint Eri-chan’s room after school on Friday. After a week of being without his phone and then reading the shitty articles anyways, the nerd desperately needed a damn distraction.

Of course, Deku apparently had the same thought about Half and Half, grabbing the asshole the second they finished changing after Friday’s heroics class and dragging him with them to the adults’ house, claiming they could use the help painting.

As if you needed five heroics students to paint half of one damn room.

By the time Deku convinced Half and Half to come with them and they finally made it upstairs, the Blonde Asshole and Pointy Ears were already moving the girl’s shit into the small living area.

Katsuki frowned. He knew the third years wanted to help, but did they have time for this shit? “If you’re taking an afternoon off, does that mean you’re finally ready for a damn spar again?”

The Blonde Asshole laughed, setting down a paint can and turning to face them. “I started attending classes again last week, so I’m about ready, yes.”

“Hell yes!” It was about fucking time!! “When can we spar?!”

“You’re really back in classes, Senpai?!”

“Yup! And maybe next week? I’ll have to check my schedule. I’ve been trying to help out at Nighteye’s agency.”

Deku’s mood immediately dimmed, but thankfully Eri-chan emerged from her room, and Deku put on a bright smile for her. “Hi, Eri-chan!” Deku waved, then gestured toward Half and Half, who was hiding behind them in the hallway. “We brought Todoroki-kun to help, I hope you don’t mind.”

She shook her head. “Todoroki-san is nice.”

“He is, isn’t he?” Deku beamed at his friend, while Half and Half bowed his head. “I’ll try my best to be of assistance. I’ve never painted anything before.”

“You haven’t?” The Blonde Asshole stopped behind Eri-chan, his eyes wide in surprise. “Today will be super fun, then!”

Katsuki frowned. “We’re not having a f—freaking paint fight and getting it everywhere.”

“Aw, but paint splatters give things character!”

Deku laughed, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at the small table and chairs in the hallway. “Senpai, maybe we should stick to plain coats of paint.”

“Good Luck.” Pointy Ears appeared in the room’s doorway, holding a roll of parchment paper. “I finished covering the floor, so we can paint the walls now.”

Wonderful. “Let’s get this started, already.” Katsuki moved past Pointy Ears and was surprised to see Yamashita-sensei sitting down on the parchment in jeans and a t-shirt, next to an open can of paint and a fuck ton of other cans. “How much paint are we using?!”

The Ghost Woman’s smile was soft and gentle like always. “Eri-chan says she’d like the back wall to be pink. She also wants a rainbow over the door and several things on her side of the left wall.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched. Maybe they would need all five people. “Deku gets the pink wall, then, because he can’t draw.”

“Kacchan!” Deku groaned. “I don’t mind, but did you have to put it like that?”

Katsuki shrugged. “It’s the d—truth.”

“I’ll help you, Midoriya! I’m not the best artist, either.” The Blonde Asshole laughed behind him as Katsuki knelt down by the paint, examining the different colors.

“Thanks, senpai!” Deku was practically vibrating now. Katsuki shook his head and looked over at Pointy Ears and Half and Half. “Can you draw?”

They both stared at him.

Fucking perfect.

“Tamaki draws really well!” The Blonde Asshole threw an arm over his soulmate’s shoulders, and Pointy Ears shrugged before nodding. “I’m ok at it.”

“Why don’t you talk with Eri-chan about what she wants on the left wall, then, Tamaki-kun?” The Ghost Woman smiled at him, but Pointy Ears still looked reluctant.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Half and Half, I’ll outline the rainbow for you above the door, then you just fill it in.” He looked at Eri-chan, who was now standing beside the Ghost Woman and looking at them all with wide eyes. “You like unicorns, right?” There had been unicorns on the blanket in the living room.

She nodded. “And cats.”

Perfect. Hopefully Pointy Ears could manage a cat. “I’ll make a field of unicorns under the rainbow, ok?”

Her eyes practically lit up, a huge smile covering her face as she stared at him in excited disbelief. “I can have a whole field of them?!”

“Of course.” As if he’d do a simple design. If this girl wanted unicorns, then she was getting some damn unicorns. Katsuki was taking time away from training to do this shit, so he was going to make it the best fucking paint job ever.

Yamashita-sensei had a pencil he could borrow, so Katsuki worked on outlining the rainbow while the Ghost Woman tried to make sense of what the hell Eri-chan wanted on the other wall. It had something to do with Sensei’s cats that had moved in with her, though they usually stayed in the heroes’ bedroom and were suspicious of every other damn person except Brain Fucker.

Deku slipped away at one point to talk to Auntie and Aizawa-sensei downstairs, and thank fuck he managed to convince them that he was actually sorry and they could have their damn phones back. Even if it had just been a week, that had been getting really damn old. The dumbassses kept bothering him about never fucking responding.

Drawing and not thinking about shit was kind of nice, not that Katsuki would ever admit it to the Ghost Woman. Outlining the rainbow was easy, so soon Half and Half was working next to Katsuki and using tape to guide him as he carefully painted within the lines. Katsuki pulled up some pictures of unicorns for reference, then sketched out a medium-sized version at the foot of the rainbow, adding a few smaller ones in the background and then a foal at the bottom.

By the time Katsuki was finished sketching out shit, Half and Half was done with the rainbow, the back wall was completely pink (with white paint splotches everywhere, the damn idiots), and the other wall had several cat-like figures crawling around the bottom.

Katsuki felt something wet hit his back.

His eyebrow twitched. “Who the h—heck just did that?” He’d been so focused on the foal, he’d not been paying attention to Deku’s vision. And thank fuck they’d changed into old shit and not their uniforms.

There was still silence behind him.

Katsuki turned around with a growl, glaring at Deku and the Blonde Asshole, but then he froze because Eri-chan was fucking giggling

“It looks like a smiley face on your back!”

Damn it.

Deku hid a smile behind his white hand—it was completely covered in paint, what the hell had they even been doing?!--“It does, doesn’t it, Eri-chan?” The nerd got a mischievous grin, and Katsuki watched him warily as he moved closer. Why the hell was he dipping his hand into the paint can?

“Deku, don’t you dare.”

“But Kacchan, you want to match us, right?”

Huh? He glanced over the group, only then realizing that everyone else was covered in white paint splotches.

What. The. Hell.

“Deku if you get any sh-stuff on this wall—“

“Relax, Kacchan. Unicorns are supposed to be white, right?”

He flicked his hand.

All the damn paint on his hand got everywhere. Well, everywhere except the damn rainbow that Half and Half had finished because Deku could actually aim, thank fuck. Katsuki was covered in the shit, far more than anyone else, and so was the wall behind him.

He fucking tackled the nerd, sending the near empty paint can rolling across the paper-protected carpet, and then quickly taking off his shirt and rubbing it all over the nerd’s arms, but Deku just fucking laughed.

“Kacchan, it’s almost seven and you haven’t even even started painting the unicorns. We had to get the white paint on the wall somehow.”

“Now I can’t see any of the pencil marks I sketched out, idiot!” Katsuki glared down at the nerd, but Deku just stuck his tongue out.

“You can see plenty. And it’s just white, so we can paint over it on the other areas.” The nerd stretched up, kissing his cheek.

“Once it dries!” Katsuki refused to be distracted by Deku’s shitty cuteness. How was he in love with this dumbass?!

“We can paint around those spots today and Eri-chan and I will do the rest another day.” Katsuki looked up to see Yamashita-sensei smiling at them both, and Eri-chan was still giggling in the background while the Blonde Asshole poked her cheek with a paint covered finger.

Ah, whatever.

Katsuki stood up with a scowl, then helped Deku back up, too. “I’ll re-do the outlines in black paint.” He could do the eyes and shit, too.

“I can help, if you want.” Pointy Ears fidgeted behind him, and Katsuki glanced over at the cats on the far wall.

“Did you paint the gray cats?” Those at least were passable. At Pointy Ears’ nod, Katsuki gestured at the half-visible smaller horses. “You can do those.” As for the background… “Half and Half, can you paint the area around the horses green and the part around the rainbow blue? Avoid the white patches or you’ll mess up your brush and make the colors lighter.”

Half and Half nodded, and they all rearranged themselves to keep working while the Ghost Woman and the Blonde Asshole went outside with Eri-chan to paint her table and chairs pink.

When they finally finished, Katsuki’s unicorns kicked ass. He wished that he’d had more time so he could’ve done shading and shit and made them fucking amazing, but Eri-chan was thrilled with the five unicorns and the rainbow, and at least the cats the dumbasses had made weren’t terrible.

The white paint was still fucking splattered everywhere though.

“Thank you very much!!” Eri-chan bowed when they finished, practically enthralled by the different unicorns, but Deku reassured her they were happy to do this shit.

Katsuki yawned, picking up the half-empty green paint can as he left the room. Fuck he was tired. He rubbed at his eyes with his free hand—something rammed into his shoulder, making the paint slosh as he stepped backward.

“Sorry! That was my fault, it’s obvious you all were moving paint around.” The Lioness looked down, stepping to the side hesitantly. “Oh dear. I hope someone can get this out of the carpet.”

Katsuki stared.

Lioness was standing there with Ragged Mane right behind her, but both of them were completely dry. The paint had fallen all around their feet, but somehow there wasn’t a single speck on either one of them.

But her quirk was just writing in the air. Katsuki looked over at Ragged Mane, who was stepping away from the paint spill now, too, neither one of them surprised that they’d avoided being hit. Was it something with his quirk?

No, Katsuki remembered Deku reading that this guy’s quirk was just having flexible fingers or some shit like that.

So it had to be something to do with their soulmate abilities. Did they have a shield of some sort? It was their fucking last name, after all.

“Kacchan? Are you ok?” Deku was walking toward him as Pointy Ears went to grab shit for the paint.

Katsuki shook his head, walking past them and setting the can over with the others, then grabbing its lid that was resting on the pink can instead. “Yeah. I was just distracted.”

“You ran into them because you were distracted? Are you sure everything’s ok?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “It’s late, that’s all.”

“Yeah, it is pretty late for you.” Deku bit his lip, evaluating him for a second, then turned to the others. “Sorry, but do you mind if we leave this to you, senpai? We have training early in the morning.”

“That’s fine!” The Blonde Asshole gave them a thumbs up, even though Pointy Ears was the one who went to grab cleaning supplies. “We can clean everything up!”

“Thanks!”

Katsuki shrugged and ignored everyone’s shitty goodnights, yawning again as they climbed down the stairs and headed toward the dorms. Fuck that had taken forever. Katsuki had been planning on getting some of his damn homework done tonight.

“You think they used one of their abilities, don’t you?” Deku’s voice was soft as he stared straight ahead, but his hand reached for Katsuki’s. Oh. So the nerd had noticed the spill’s weird shape, after all. “I wonder if what All Might did affected their abilities. Sensei seemed to think it would keep them from feeling All Might’s pain, but they have to have other abilities, too.”

“Yeah. That paint should’ve been all over both of them, but instead it just landed in a circle around their feet. It doesn’t make any damn sense unless you consider their soulmate abilities.”

Deku hummed. “I hope this means that they’re recovering.”

“They could be able to use shit partially without him, though. Like they might have been able to feel each other’s pain without feeling All Might’s.”

“Yeah.” Deku’s voice sounded sad, and the nerd shrugged. “I guess I just want to have hope that something good is happening, you know?”

“Of course something good is fucking happening. Did you see how happy Eri-chan was? We made her room look kickass.”

Deku laughed. “Yeah! You’re right. It’s super nice of Yamashita-sensei to be ok with us painting half of the walls like that.”

“She’s a fucking therapist. She knows the room needs to make Eri-chan comfortable and all that shit.”

“Yeah.” Deku yawned, rubbing at his eyes. “Your early bedtime is infecting me, Kacchan. No fair.”

“About time. It’s taken, what, fifteen years?”

Deku stuck out his tongue at Katsuki, but then started yawning again. “Maybe we should’ve just slept there, after all.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “And deal with more of the Old Hag’s questions? Yeah, right. I don’t think we’ll have nightmares from painting shitty unicorns. Besides, the Ghost Woman and Eri-chan are using the pull out bed while their room airs out.”

“There is that.” Deku sighed, looking up at the night stars as his steps slowed down and he swung their hands back and forth. “Tonight was nice. We should take breaks more often.”

“We don’t have time for that shit. We have to master your quirk.”

Deku’s nose wrinkled, but after a pause, he nodded. “I know. It would be nice, though.”

Katsuki squeezed Deku’s hand. “Maybe after we figure out Black Whip, we could find a way to go on a date to celebrate.”

He was rewarded with Deku’s bright grin, which still made his stomach feel unsteady, even now. “I’d like that.”

The nerd looked forward, still swinging their joined hands as they walked. Katsuki adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, then reached back, pulling his phone out and skimming through all his missed text messages from the week—the fucking idiots had sent several texts about him being a meanie and not responding because he was too cool for them.

Katsuki rolled his eyes and put it back in the bag, not wanting to risk getting paint on it from his jeans.

Shit, the November air was damn cold without a shirt; his had been so wet from paint that Katsuki hadn’t wanted to put it back on. Thank fuck it wasn’t too long of a walk.

The nerd shivered next to him, rubbing at his arms, but it served him right since he’d been the one to ruin Katsuki’s shirt. Deku’s breath steamed a little in the night air. “The hero rankings will be announced tomorrow.”

Ah. Katsuki had wondered when the nerd would want to talk about that. “You think they’ll continue trying to cover shit up? Endeavor can’t even produce his shitty flame beard right now, and the billboard reveal is always done in full hero costume.”

“I don’t know.” Deku shook his head. “Todo-kun says Endeavor isn’t answering his texts other than to tell him to work hard in heroics class.”

Katsuki glared at the ground in front of them. “Whatever the Commission decides, we’ll figure shit out. It’ll only be a few years until we graduate.” Hopefully Hawks could handle shit until then.

But his soulmate was the villain who had put them all in this situation.

Katsuki’s eyes shut, his breath unsteady, and they both stopped in front of the dorm, encircled by the warm light from the street lamps, although it did little to ward off the chilly air..

Deku’s arms wrapped around him. “Sorry, Kacchan. You’re right. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out. Tamaki-senpai and Mirio-senpai will graduate soon, as well.”

Other hero soulmates would be there to help.

Katsuki nodded stiffly. Somehow, they would manage. Deku stretched up, kissing him gently, then pulled back, his smile somehow a little sad. “Come on, we should get some sleep.”

Katsuki shrugged and followed the nerd into the dorms, flipping off the idiots when they asked where his fucking shirt went.

The next day, all of class 1A slowly trickled into the common room as the announcers discussed the year’s top rescues and shit (notably not mentioning Hakata Bay, the cowards). Well, everyone came downstairs but Half and Half.

Except when the announcers listed the heroes ranked 50-40, Katsuki stared at the screen in shock.

Number fifty: Zero Duo.

Their fucking duo name was right there!

What. the. Hell.

“Kacchan… Kacchan, I’m not seeing things, right? That’s real?”

Katsuki was dimly aware of their classmates shouting and Shitty Hair pounding his shoulder, but Katsuki couldn’t see anything except for the screen. “But we haven’t fucking done shit.” How could they be ranked? Much less ranked that high?! They didn’t even have their full licenses yet!

“Dude. You totally have.”

“This again.” Brain Fucker gave a dramatic sigh. “How about instead of listening to whatever inferiority issues are going on in your head, you listen to the announcers singing your praises?”

Katsuki glared at Brain Fucker, about to yell at him, but then the announcer said Deku’s hero name and Katsuki stopped, switching his attention back to the screen.

“Zero Hour defeated the villain Overhaul, ending the raid on Shie Hassaikai, and he managed to do it without causing any structural damage on his own, limiting the fight to the areas that the villain had already destroyed. And Ground Zero captured Gentle without any help, and that fight did not cause any structural damage at all, even though this villain had been causing police and detectives significant problems for months.”

“Exactly! They’ve only defeated one villain each, but both of them avoided property damage and managed to land fairly high profile villains, especially Overhaul. That combined with their status as soulmates and their popularity would lead to a high debut ranking.”

“Of course, there’s already been some concern over the attention they’re receiving at such a young age–”

Fucking hell. “That villain was a damn wuss. The police were shitty, that’s all. I–”

“Boooo.” Pinky stuck out her tongue at him. “Just accept that you’re awesome, ok, Blasty?”

“Yeah, man.” Shitty Hair nudged his shoulder grinning at him. “You two have worked really hard! Let us be happy for you.”

Happy. Right. They should be happy about being ranked on the charts. They’d always wanted this.

Why did it feel like another crushing weight had just landed on his shoulders?

“It… it really is amazing. No hero has managed this before.” Deku swallowed, his hands tight in his lap, “But I guess if we’re having merch and things like that, then this is the other side of it, huh?” Green eyes turned toward Katsuki, shiny with both tears and determination.

Fuck, that look.

“We can use this to help more people, Kacchan.”

Katsuki leaned down, kissing the nerd and then resting his forehead against Deku’s. Damn it, he wanted to kiss him so much more right now, but the other idiots were already whistling and shit just from that.

“We’ll rise to the top even faster than Hawks.” It was still their goal, but shit Katsuki hadn’t realized how heavy that goal felt when he’d first said it.

Deku nodded, and they stayed like that for a second, just holding each other. When Deku pulled back to look around the room, Half and Half had appeared at some point, and the others were watching the program as it kept climbing up the ranks of heroes. The higher it went, the more tense Katsuki felt. Endeavor’s name wasn’t anywhere.

And when the top ten walked on stage, Endeavor wasn’t there, either.

The whole crowd burst into whispers, and Deku winced at the notifications blowing up on his phone screen—all from assholes yelling on hero forums about Endeavor losing his license.

Fucking hell.

Katsuki grabbed Deku’s phone and turned it off, shoving it into his pocket before taking the nerd’s hand. Deku was nervously watching Half and Half, who was now staring at the ground in front of him, his whole body tense.

“Uh… Todoroki-kun?” Pikachu’s voice held a tinge of panic as he looked over at Half and Half. “Endeavor didn’t really lose his license, did he? Why isn’t he on stage?”

“Is Endeavor alright?” The Vice Pres’ voice was filled with worry.

Even Round Face was looking at the dumbass with concern. “Did the press conference and everything Dabi said have that big of an impact on his rating?”

Of fucking course it would, idiots. Like the number one hero could be known to break the law and abuse his damn kids.

Half and Half looked up at them all, then closed his eyes and shrugged before looking back down. “I don’t know what the Commission decided about his ranking. It doesn’t really matter. Not anymore.”

Everyone was staring at him.

“What do you mean, not anymore?” Pinky looked scared, and no shit. Even after what Endeavor had done, they’d just lost All Might. Losing Endeavor, too…

Damn it, Hawks!

Half and Half’s shoulders hunched inward. “Endeavor has to take a break after the last attack.”

“WHAT?!”

Fucking hell, suddenly everyone was shouting at once, clamoring about how Half and Half had said he was going to be ok and what would they do and —

“Shut the fuck up!” Katsuki glared at them all as everyone immediately fell silent. “They’re gonna say shit during the program, alright?! Half and Half wasn’t fucking allowed to say anything!”

They all stared at him.

Deku nodded, finally looking away from Half and Half as he addressed the class, his voice firm. “It’s true. Don’t be mad at him, please.”

Katsuki hated all this damn secrecy, but he understood it. People would fucking panic if they knew that villains had a way to make everyone, especially heroes, quirkless.

Pikachu looked between the three of them and then sighed, shaking his head. “And yet, you two knew about it. Soulmate privileges must be nice.”

“Shut up!” They’d figured this shit out by themselves! “Just watch the damn program and you’ll learn shit soon enough.”

“They didn’t figure this out because they are soulmates, kero. I had wondered about it. The bullet that hit Endeavor looked like the ones from the case we worked on during our internships.” Frog Girl looked over at Half and Half, offering him a supportive smile or some shit. “If you need to talk with someone about it, we’re here for you, Todoroki-chan.”

“Yeah!” Round Face nodded. “Me too! When the news didn’t say anything, I assumed I was wrong. Really, I hoped I was wrong.”

Shitty Hair’s face paled. “From our internships?” He stared at Half and Half, who stared back at him, his face as expressionless as ever. Shitty Hair gave a determined nod. “I’m here for you, too, Todoroki-kun.”

“What?” Pinky was sitting up straighter now, looking between their classmates in alarm. “What do those bullets do?”

“We can’t say, Mina-chan.” Deku sighed, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “But doctors are working on how to heal the damage.”

The rest of the class exchanged uneasy looks, but the heroes on screen were talking now, each of them giving some shitty answer about how they were going to work hard to help society, but no one was addressing Endeavor’s absence.

The Feathered Menace cleared his throat, holding out his hand for the mic even though Jeanist had barely begun speaking. The number three—no, number two hero gave Hawks a disgruntled look, but handed it over.

“I’m just gonna get straight to the point here, because we all know what you’re thinking. Endeavor was heavily injured after the fight at Hakata Bay, so he won’t be returning to hero work any time soon.”

A gasp rippled throughout the stadium, voices immediately beginning to buzz, but the new number one held up his hand, his wings lifting him into the air as the crowd fell silent again. “And as your new number one, I know you’re looking to me for reassurance and all that, but I’m not that kind of hero.” The Feathered Menace shrugged, adding, “My back just isn’t broad enough to give people a sense of safety.”

The fuck was that supposed to mean? Sure, Katsuki hated the asshole right now, but even if his shoulders weren’t fucking broad, his wingspan was more than enough to make up for that shit, if it had mattered. Fuck, the hero’s feathers were everywhere. No one could take a shit in that town without the Feathered Menace knowing. Of course he was damn reassuring or whatever! And right now, he had to be.

“You know what I think?” The hero’s mouth twisted into a frown as he glanced down at his coworkers. “I think Endeavor did damn good hero work, but it seems like he was a terrible father. He broke laws, and he should face charges for that. And I think Stain had a point: some of us heroes aren’t exactly hero-like.”

What. The. Hell. Was he trying to make people give up on heroes?!

“So here’s my promise as your number one: I’m going to leave hero society better than I found it. I’ll clean up our mess, and someone’s position in society isn’t going to save them anymore. And I’ll start with myself.”

No. No he couldn’t be about to reveal his damn soulmate. Shit, that would not go over well, the fucking idiot!

The Feathered Menace twirled the mic, the flap of his wings suddenly sounding louder in the room’s complete silence. “I’m not going to hide my past any more. My name’s Takami Keigo. I’m the son of the Thief Takami, a robber and murderer.”

…

What?

“Kacchan…”

Hawks’ father was a criminal? He was like Deku? Like Aizawa-sensei? Fuck, how many heroes had ties to shitty villains?!

“An unknown road of solitary darkness.” Katsuki glanced over at Edgelord, who was staring at the tv with wide eyes. Abyss was floating over his shoulder, for once completely silent.

“The Commission always wanted me to hide my past, but with everything going on right now, that’s a load of crap. So I’ll be honest with you. Endeavor put my Old Man in prison, and I’m forever thankful for that, despite anything that has happened in his personal life.”

Endeavor did?!

“A few years later, the Commission found me and thought I was talented, so they started training me to be a hero. I was thrilled, and I’ve been working hard to be the best hero I can ever since then. Despite my father, no, because of my father, I’m here to do my best at preventing crime in Japan.”

The nerd’s eyes were shining with hope, and it made Katsuki’s stomach twist.

Damn it!

If the Feathered Menace was a hero who was the son of a villain, how did it make sense that his fucking soulmate was a villain who was the son of a hero?!

Fuck!! Every time Katsuki learned something new about this asshole, he felt like he could trust him even less! Was he influencing Frankenstein, or the other way around?!

Being the son of a villain shouldn’t even fucking matter! Katsuki knew it didn’t. But a villain soulmate… shit, how could that not influence him?

The Feathered Menace’s wings flared out, demanding attention. “That’s not to discredit anything Endeavor did in his personal life, though. As the son of a villain, I can still say that some of that shit sounds worse than how my Old Man treated me.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Hero society is a pile of junk right now, there’s no denying it. I’m no All Might, but it’s time for some change, and I am just the hero for that.” He winked at the crowd, but then his smile left, and suddenly he had that determined look in his gaze that could intimidate even Katsuki. “I will do everything I can to improve society, which includes working with all the other heroes and talking with the Commission to re-evaluate our current system.”

His grin and light tone returned as he looked down at his fellow heroes. “I’m sure everyone here will back me up in saying that the soulmate kids can rest assured that we’ll handle things and they should take their time improving their skills. By the time the Zero Duo is my age, they’ll be topping the charts in a much safer society.”

Damn it.

Take their time improving? There was no time, and the Feathered Menace knew it.

Katsuki could feel the weight getting even heavier on his shoulders, and he fucking hated it. They wanted to be number one!

But they’d seen what it took to be there.

No matter what Katsuki had tried, at the internship he couldn’t keep up with the Feathered Menace. And the Feathered Menace was claiming he wasn’t even strong enough to be a true number one.

Bullshit.

By the time they were the same age as the Feathered Menace…

Six years.

Fuck.

The crowd cheered, but the Vice Pres turned off the tv.

Everyone was silent.

Katsuki couldn’t tell if they were staring at him and Deku more, or at Half and Half.

Half and Half was watching his hands, avoiding eye contact with all the dumbasses.

Katsuki growled. “Who the fuck cares about Endeavor, anyways. Or the Feathered Menace’s Old Man. It all leads to the same shit for us: we have to keep getting stronger.”

“Spoken like the next number one.” Spider Man sighed, shaking his head as if it was inevitable. Which it was.

And Katsuki was glad that people recognized that. Glad that they had a ranking now. He was.

Pinky grinned at him. “Hawks seemed to think it was only a matter of time. You must’ve really impressed him during your internship!”

“Yeah! And you both certainly impressed the Commission.” Round Face was grinning, too, though he could see the shitty worry in her eyes.

Katsuki glared at them. “I don’t care about our fucking soulmark, Deku and I are going to earn that spot.”

“Of course, man!” Pikachu leaned back against Brain Fucker’s legs. “No one’s saying you two wouldn’t. Or that you haven’t already. It’s kind of ridiculous how far above us you two are.”

Katsuki glared at the dumbass. “Then work on shit and fucking do better!”

Katsuki swore the whole damn class groaned.

Brain Fucker sighed. “Weren’t you two just lecturing me a month ago on pushing myself too much?”

“Not all of us can work nonstop like you two.” Invisible Girl pouted over in the corner, waving an arm around, “It’s normal to want to relax every once in a while, you know!”

Deku laughed, but it was hesitant, and he was rubbing the back of his neck. “We like taking breaks, too. There’s not really a lot of time for that, though.”

Katsuki scowled and glared at the entire class. “Japan’s lost two number one heroes in one fucking year. We don’t have any damn time to relax.” He turned, heading toward the stairs and ignoring the dumbasses. “Come on, Deku. We have shitty homework to do.”

“Right…” Deku stared after him, then looked back at their silent classmates. Each one of them looked fucking worried. Good. They should be. “Sorry, guys. Things are just really tense right now, you know? But Hawks is working hard and I know you all are, too.” He gave them one last grin, then ran after Katsuki, catching his hand as they reached the stairwell. “We’re only first years, Kacchan.”

“So what?” Katsuki kicked open the stairwell door. “No one outside of UA cares about that shit.” They were the next All Might. Everyone wanted them to hurry up and take his spot already.

“I guess. But try not to take that out on our classmates, ok? They shouldn’t have to deal with our stress.”

“Tch.” Katsuki didn’t care. It was stupid to try and ignore what was going on in the world right now when three people in their class were at the center of a media shitstorm.

Despite everything, though, they still had to finish their damn schoolwork. Who even cared about art history when this shit was happening.

And maybe Katsuki was a little distracted in classes on Monday, but could anyone fucking blame him? He still hadn’t expected Aizawa-sensei to tell them to stay after class. The asshole knew they were supposed to be sparring with his damn son. Why would he take them away from that just to yell at Katsuki about being distracted and shit?

Annoyed, Katsuki glared at Sensei until their last classmates left the gym. The man sighed, then held up his phone.

Katsuki raised one eyebrow. Why the hell did he want them to look at a picture from when they’d been painting?

Oh.

Fuck.

But how could he even tell—

“You’re not wearing your wrap, but your mark isn’t scarred.”

Katsuki refused to apologize for that shit. It had been fine, but Deku looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry, Sensei. It was my idea. I know it was dangerous to work on an injury that big, but I was just so excited when I realized we might be able to get rid of the scar.”

The man sighed. “Thank you for admitting it, at least. And you’re right. It was incredibly foolish for you to do that without someone like Recovery Girl there with you. We already know healing makes you both tired. What if this had been too much and you fell unconscious again?”

Katsuki scowled. “I was fucking tired afterward, sure, but it wasn’t anything like healing that shit from Deku’s fight with Overhaul.”

“You had no clue how the age of the injury might have affected things.”

Fuck. Okay, so maybe he was right, but still, “We healed it! It was fine.”

“Just because it worked out well this time doesn’t justify you making future mistakes. You are not allowed to heal anything more than a cleanly broken bone that happened on the same day without adult supervision. Understood? We don’t know what the side-effects are for this aspect and it’s foolish to experiment without someone nearby to help if something goes wrong.”

Katsuki scowled. “The whole damn class was nearby. We just did it in the dorm bathroom.”

That made the man’s eyebrow twitch. “Fine, I’ll clarify further. You need an adult nearby who knows what you’re doing and the risks inherent in the action.”

“Of course, Sensei!” Deku fucking bowed, damn him. He was just being a fucking suck-up after getting in trouble last week.“Thank you for trying to help us!”

The man sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “Follow basic safety measures, alright?”

“Fucking fine.”

Aizawa-sensei took a deep breath as his hand fell back down to his side. “Good. Now: did you experience any other side effects besides becoming tired?”

They both shook their heads.

“And it’s completely healed?”

Katsuki snorted. Of course the man could tell an insane detail from the photo like Katsuki wasn’t wearing the band that was meant to blend into his skin but wanted additional verification that the mark was healed. Whatever. Katsuki lifted up his shirt, revealing their mark. “See? It’s fucking perfect.”

That earned a satisfied nod. “Good. I am glad that you two were able to heal it. Have you tried working on your other scars?”

Katsuki’s eyes widened, his fingers digging into his gloves as his hands tightened into fists. “I want the reminder.”

“Kacchan…” Deku sighed. “Can we at least heal the cut on your leg? It’s annoying to have to hide that as we change. And it’ll be even more annoying when the weather’s warm and we want to wear shorts.”

Katsuki scowled, but then shrugged. “Fine. If Sensei’s ok with it.”

“It should be less strenuous than the scarring over your mark, so that’s fine. You could use this opportunity to try to heal something partially, Midoriya. Then you could see if you can heal Bakugou’s hand scars enough that they don’t appear on you at all, if he’s ok with that.”

Katsuki could recognize that it would be smart to do that. And they’d still be there as a reminder. “Fine, I guess.”

“Thanks, Kacchan!”

He rolled his eyes and sat down, pulling back his pant leg so that Deku could see the scar from Stain’s sword. It was thin and light, hard to notice unless you were at the right angle, but it was also hard to forget.

“Do you need to be able to see the injury to heal it? You both closed your eyes last time.”

They both stared at each other. They… Sensei was right. They had. But Katsuki felt like Deku would need to see this shit for some reason. The nerd shrugged. “I don’t know? This just feels right. When the injury is fresh, it’s easier to feel, but it’s hard to focus on a scar.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “So sight helps you focus on the injury.”

“I think?” Deku shrugged, closing his eyes and falling silent. A minute passed and he opened them again, then shook his head. “Yeah, it’s no good. If I can’t feel the pain, I need sight to anchor me.”

“It’s good to know your limitations. Keep going.”

Deku nodded, this time staring at the scar on Katsuki’s leg as he fell silent. Slowly, Katsuki watched as it began to heal, then stopped halfway.

Deku released his breath in a loud gasp. “I did it!”

“Good. You want to learn everything you can about this process. Go ahead and heal the rest. Focus on whether it’s harder or easier now that you’ve healed it partway.”

The nerd nodded, his eyes never leaving the small scar.

And then it was gone.

“It felt pretty much the same? There wasn’t an obvious difference that I could tell.”

Sensei nodded, and Deku’s hands cautiously reached for Katsuki’s right glove. “Can I, Kacchan? Please? Even if only half way?”

Katsuki scowled, “I said it was fine. Only halfway, though!”

Deku didn’t have to look so fucking sad about it.

The nerd pulled off the glove slowly, his calloused hands trailing over Katsuki’s palm and tracing each finger in a way that made Katsuki shiver.

Fuck, if they weren’t in the gym with Sensei watching them right now…

Deku turned Katsuki’s palm up, his thumb gently brushing over the scar. “These are reminders that you were strong, Kacchan. Not that you were weak. This was the only way Stain could get you to stop fighting, because you’d do anything to help someone, even if you hate them at the time.”

Katsuki glared at the nerd. “Think whatever you want.” Deku was the one always focusing on saving people. Not Katsuki.

The nerd’s hands gently held his as he stared at the scar, and Katsuki’s breath hitched as the scar slowly shrank.

He swallowed.

It wasn’t the size of a knife any more. Well, maybe the size of a pocket knife.

Deku flipped his hand over, grinning and wiping at the tear that slipped out of his eye. “It’s barely even there, now! I can only see it if I’m looking for it.”

Katsuki grabbed the nerd’s hand, turning to look at his palm, too. Deku’s scar had been so thin that it had been difficult to find it before, and now it was next to impossible. Katsuki sighed in relief.

At least Deku didn’t have to bear these scars any more. They were Katsuki’s burden of failure, not his.

“Let me do your other hand.”

Katsuki shrugged and held up his other hand, and Deku took this glove off faster, but was still almost reverent as he held Katsuki’s hand and focused on the scar.

Katsuki’s breath shuddered when it shrank, as well.

They hadn’t even been there that long, really, but it felt odd seeing his palms without those long, angry lines.

Deku cradled his hand, his own callouses light as they brushed against Katsuki’s. “We can’t let our past failures keep haunting us.”

Huh?

The nerd squared his shoulders, then turned toward Aizawa-sensei, determination shining in his eyes. “Sensei, I want to tell people about my Dad.”

“What the hell, Deku?!” Why in actual fuck would Deku reveal that shit?! Especially right now?!

Aizawa-sensei stared at Deku. Finally, he sighed. “Why?”

“This is my secret to reveal, right? And thinking about how revealing information can help others, well…” Deku tightened both his hands around Katsuki’s. “I want to support Hawks, and I feel like telling people about my Dad will do so.”

“You realize Hawks only told people so they wouldn’t look deeper into his connections. Revealing secrets like that is a classic misdirection tactic. It makes people trust you and think that you aren’t keeping any other secrets.”

Katsuki snorted. Well, he’d been successful. For all the debate about what it meant to have a no. 1 who was the son of a villain, not a single fucking person thought Hawks was hiding any other shit.

“Still! Everyone’s insecure about heroes right now, but they trust Kacchan and I because we’re soulmates. We should use that to help Hawks, just as he’s trying to help us.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “Don’t take anything Hawks said in that speech at face value. Yes, he’s trying to hold things together until you come along, but he’s not doing it for you, specifically. He just used your name because your status as soulmates reassures people.”

“I know that, but—”

“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea.” Aizawa-sensei shrugged. “It would be bad if the League decides to do what Dabi did and leak info about your father on their terms instead of ours.”

Deku’s eyes widened. “He wouldn’t do that to me, would he?”

“Fucking hell, Deku. He joined the League of Villains. What wouldn’t Shitstain do at this point?”

The nerd looked down, his throat tight as he swallowed. “I know that. But it’s so hard to keep reminding myself that he doesn’t care about me.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed and stood up. “Media isn’t my forte. I’ll talk to Mic and Midnight, with your permission, and discuss whether it’s a good idea or not.”

“Of course!” Deku grinned and stood up to bow to Sensei. “Thank you!”

The hero shrugged. “I talked to Hawks, by the way. He’s being vague, but said we shouldn’t contact his phone any more or trust texts from him. He’s in too deep.”

Fuck.

On one level, that was probably good, but still…. “Does that mean Frankenstein helped him get in with the League like we thought?”

Sensei nodded. “But we don’t know his motive for doing so. Don’t tell Todoroki. It will only get his hopes up and bring him pain if his brother isn’t really helping Hawks or betrays Hawks later on.”

Deku winced, but nodded. “Yes, sir. Um… Did you ask Hawks about Todo-kun being able to talk with Dabi?”

“He said it would be a terrible idea.”

Shit.

Aizawa-sensei shrugged, then turned to leave. “Don’t push yourselves too far while sparring.”

“As if.” They knew their bodies’ limits.

Two days later, Deku wanted to tell his idiot friends about Shitstain.

Katsuki hated it.

The Ghost Woman said it was good to open up and confide in friends and shit, but this was Shitstain and the whole fucking world was crazy right now. None of them would turn on Deku, Katsuki fucking knew that, but…

Fuck!

He just hated every damn part of this shit.

Katsuki growled, stomping across the room the second the bell rang and stopping in front of Shitty Hair’s desk. “Oi. We’re going to spar.”

Shitty Hair blinked at him. “Of course, man! We still have the gym booked on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Glad you and Midoriya have been able to join us again this week!”

Katsuki scowled, but turned to stomp toward the gym. “It’s just you and me. Deku needs to talk to Brain Fucker.”

“That’s fine, too!” Shitty Hair hurried to catch up, then fell into step beside him. “It’s nice to be able to spar with you two more often, now that we have a break from our internships.”

Katsuki shrugged.

“Is Midoriya doing ok? You two rarely miss a chance to spar.”

That made Katsuki growl. “He’s fine.” Just telling his dumbass friends about his piece of shit father. Fuck Katsuki wished the asshole had been captured that day.

Shitty Hair sighed. “That’s the I-want-to-blow-up-Midoriya’s-dad growl.”

“What the fuck?!” How the hell could Shitty Hair figure out that much?! Katsuki hadn’t said shit!

Shitty Hair grinned at him. “Only a few things can make you so angry you can’t talk, and that’s the most common one. I get it, man. Talking about it would upset Midoriya. You can fire as much of that frustration at me as you want. It’s been awhile, actually. I was starting to think things might have calmed down with him.”

Katsuki stared at Shitty Hair.

“You can tell him, Kacchan.” Deku had been walking toward his room with his shitty friends, but he’d paused in the stairwell. “Kirishima’s a good friend. And he knows about us.”

“This whole thing’s such crap, Deku.” Katsuki clenched his hands into tight fists, swallowing the desire to let loose explosions. He turned toward Shitty Hair, nodding toward the gym. “Let’s go already.”

“Sure thing, man!” Shitty Hair kept talking about how hard Ectoplasm’s class had been that day, even though Katsuki thought it had been fucking easy. The dumbass just got distracted by shit.

By the time they reached the gym, Deku had gathered all his idiots in his room, and the nerd was fidgeting as he tried to work himself up to explaining shit.

Katsuki fucking hated it.

He pulled the gym uniform over his head, looking around to make sure they were the only two in the room—not that anyone else should be here since they had the area booked. Just—fuck, Katsuki felt paranoid as shit with everything that had happened.

“You ok?”

Katsuki looked up, frowning at the fucking concern in Shitty Hair’s eyes.

“You, um… you were looking around like you expected someone else to be here. Is something wrong? It’s UA, man. We’re in the very center of campus.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. There could be other students around.” If Deku really wanted Katsuki to explain shit, he didn’t want anyone else to overhear.

“Oh.” Shitty Hair sighed in relief and pulled off his uniform pants before grabbing his gym ones. “I guess, maybe? But we booked the gym, and no one’s ever interrupted us before. Well, besides one of the teachers or our senpai. So I guess, yeah, someone else could—”

“Deku’s Shitstain Father is a fucking villain.”

Shitty Hair stared at him, frozen there with his pants in one hand.

The nerd squeaked. “Kacchan!! Did you have to say it so suddenly like that?!”

Katsuki scoffed, “I’m not gonna be vague and shit! Direct and to the point is always fucking better.”

Shitty Hair shook his head, finally snapping out of his shock. “Dude, I know you don’t like him, but that’s really not a nice—”

“I’m not exaggerating shit. He was at the Shie Hassaikai raid. He tried to stop Deku from fighting Overhaul. That’s why Deku hasn’t mentioned him since then.”

Shitty Hair stared at him. “He… Is Midoriya ok?!”

A small explosion burst from Katsuki’s palm. “As if he could be. I’ll make the Shitstain pay if I ever see him. He fucking got away and is with the League now.”

“Dude, that’s terrible!”

Katsuki shrugged. “Deku’s telling his friends about it right now, and he said I could tell you, so now you know.”

Shitty Hair stared at him again, swallowing and shaking his head for a second as he processed shit. “Oh. Thanks um, thanks for trusting me, Midoriya. He can hear me, right?” Katsuki rolled his eyes and nodded as Deku thanked Shitty Hair. As if Katsuki would relay that shit.

“You said he’s telling others right now. Does… well, does Todoroki-kun know?”

Katsuki nodded. “We told him the day Frankenstein broadcasted shit.”

“That’s… that’s good, I guess. That you can be there for each other.”

What? The dumbass sounded like he was including Katsuki in that shit. “He’s Deku’s father, not mine.”

“Yeah, but you two share parents and all because of being soulmates, right? So he should’ve been your dad, too. Like how your moms are really both of your moms.”

“That’s fucking stupid. Like I’d want another shitty adult telling me what to do. And we both have the Old Man, anyway.”

“Yeah, he seems pretty great.” The dumbass finally pulled on his pants, though he didn’t bother with the shirt. “Come on. You wanted to let off some steam while Midoriya talks with the others.”

“About fucking time.”

Shitty Hair laughed as he headed out into the gym, and Katsuki eagerly followed him.

Deku finally got the courage up to mention Shitstain to his friends and how they’d probably wondered why he hadn’t been talking about him anymore, and he was vague as shit, but eventually Half and Half caught on because his eyes widened. “You don’t have to tell people, Midoriya. Just because of what Hawks did and what I’m going through—”

“I want to.”

Katsuki launched an explosion at Shitty Hair’s face, sending him skidding backwards across the mat, then dodged his returning punch. One for All was tight against his skin as he darted behind Shitty Hair, sending another explosion—

“My Dad’s a villain. He worked with Overhaul, but now he’s with the League of Villains, just like Todoroki-kun’s brother.”

Shit, that explosion had been larger than Katsuki had intended; he’d accidentally let some of One for All slip into his hand.

Shitty Hair was bounding through the smoke, though, a grin on his face. “I told you I can take it, Baku-bro! Is that all you’ve got?”

Katsuki couldn’t help but grin back at him. Shitty Hair had gotten stronger. He wasn’t even in unbreakable mode right now.

Katsuki spun to the right, dodging Shitty Hair’s punch and sending several explosions his way, each one stronger as Katsuki backed up.

He needed some distance if he was going to try this.

He could produce it, but he’d never had a moving target before.

Focus. Feel the quirk rippling within One for All, don’t let the anger control him, just—

Now!

Black Whip shot out, wrapping around Shitty Hair in one smooth movement.

“What is this?!” Shitty Hair stared down at the quirk, struggling against it. “Did you get a new support weapon or something?!”

Katsuki ignored him, too focused on moving his arm down and releasing explosions to blast into the air.

Shit, this really messed with his balance, and he hadn’t even lifted Shitty Hair off the ground, the quirk had just extended the whip.

Damn it!

Ok, focus on reeling it—

“Blasty? An explanation would be nice?” A note of panic was creeping into Shitty Hair’s voice and it was fucking annoying.

“Give me a damn second, I need to focus!”

At least he was silent now.

Slowly, Katsuki managed to shorten the whip, pulling Shitty Hair into the air. Katsuki grunted, releasing more power from his right wrist to compensate for the added weight. Staying balanced like this was fucking annoying. “I’m dropping you.”

“What?!” Red eyes widened in alarm, but Shitty Hair went unbreakable right before Katsuki released One for All and Black Whip disappeared.

Immediately Katsuki started swerving in the air, and he had to quickly adjust shit before finally landing next to the small crater around Shitty Hair.

“Bro. Not cool.” Shitty Hair reverted back to normal and reached up to brush rocks out of his hair. “Why do you keep throwing me around in the air?”

“Stop whining, I only dropped you ten feet. You can handle it.”

“What was that? It looked like it was coming straight from your arm, but that would mean it’s part of your quirk and not a support item.”

“Deku’s quirk stores energy and we use that to enhance our strength and shit, but he figured out how to manifest it as this damn whip. I’ve been wanting to see if I can fly with someone like that, but right now the fucking whip keeps disappearing on me if I think about other shit.”

“That’s awesome, man! Is this what you guys have been working on in your training with All Might?”

Katsuki nodded. “Part of it. Most of that shit is just holding onto more of the energy and upping our stamina with the quirk, since he’s got a damn strength quirk, too.”

“That’s great!” Shitty Hair’s grin was way too damn bright. Like a fucking puppy. He held up his fist, activating his quirk in his arm. “So do you wanna try flying me around some more? If you drop me, I’ll be fine! I guess I could use the practice with landing big jumps since falls won’t break my bones. I need to use everything to my advantage, right?”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. “Do you even know how to properly take a fall, dumbass?”

“Uh…” Shitty Hair rubbed at the back of his head. “Besides the little bit we went over in class? Not really.”

Katsuki groaned. That shit had been for when an opponent tossed you in a spar—not for when you were jumping out of a damn building or some shit like that. “Come on, when I started learning to fly, the Old Hag made our old dojo sensei teach me and Deku how to do this shit.”

“Really?! That’s awesome, man!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, then blasted a few feet into the air, hovering there. “Your shoes have shock absorption, right?”

Shitty Hair blinked at him. “Uh… I honestly have no clue, man.”

“What the hell?!” Katsuki groaned. Freaking dumbass. “I don’t care if your quirk can fucking take it, make sure you have good gear, dumbass! What if you have to do a jump and your quirk can’t take more?” Katsuki glared at him. “Get that shit fixed.”

“Yes, sir!” Shitty Hair gave him a damn salute.

“You have to relax your muscles and shit, first—I don’t know how that works with your quirk, it’s practically fucking impossible for me to relax my arms and shoulders while flying, but if you can, you should. It helps your body deal with the shock of impact and all that shit.”

“Ok!”

“And if you’re in control of the jump, focus on the fucking force of the jump and not doing dumb shit like getting more altitude. And always pick a damn landing spot so you’ll have better footing.”

“Dude, you really do know a lot.”

“I told you. The Old Hag made us learn this shit. So if it’s not too big of a fall, land on the balls of your feet with them shoulder width apart, then use the rest of your foot to help brace the damn impact and bend your knees. Keep your arms tucked in and your chin by your neck. Like this.”

Katsuki let himself drop, landing with perfect form as he hit the earth. He looked over at Shitty Hair. “Got it? A roll is better, but having options is also good, and this one’s the easy landing.”

“Yeah, I think so, man!” Shitty Hair nodded, his eyes bright and eager like Deku’s when the nerd was learning something new. Katsuki grinned. “Then let’s put that shit into practice.”

Before Shitty Hair could protest, Black Whip shot out, and Katsuki blasted into the air, gritting his teeth as he focused on holding Shitty Hair about six feet off the ground. “You ready? Got a landing spot and muscles relaxed and all that shit?”

“Yeah!”

Katsuki released him.

Shitty Hair hit the ground with both feet, but then fell backwards.

Katsuki sighed. “What the hell? Do some more damn squats if you’re too weak to stick the landing.”

“I will, man! I think I just need some practice, though. I lost my balance.”

Katsuki growled. “Whatever. Let’s keep going with this shit. I’m not teaching you how to fall from a height by rolling until you’re fucking perfect at forward and diagonal rolls on the ground.”

“Aren’t those the ones we practiced in class for normal throws?”

“Yeah, but you were fucking terrible at them.”

Shitty Hair groaned. “I know, man, but my quirk just doesn’t work well with fluid movements.”

“I don’t fucking care.” Katsuki tilted his chin up as he glared at the idiot. “You’re a dumbass if you rely on your quirk and skip the basic safety shit. It’ll lead to mistakes on the field, which is fucking stupid.”

“You’re right.” Shitty Hair’s shoulders sagged. “But how do I do a roll when I’m hard as a rock?”

“How the hell should I know? It’s your quirk. Figure shit out.” At Shitty Hair’s defeated look, Katsuki growled. “Talk to Pinky or something. She’s good with flexibility shit and all that, right?”

“Yeah!” At least Shitty Hair was grinning again. “If anyone could help, she could! Thanks, man!”

Katsuki grunted, then sent Black Whip out to wrap around Shitty Hair. “Let’s keep going with this shit for now.” Even if Katsuki couldn’t manage multiple strands yet, he could get better at the quirk by flying while using it.

“I’m ready!”

Katsuki hauled him into the air, then let him drop. Again. And Again. And Again. Once Shitty Hair had the normal drop perfected, Katsuki worked on throwing him small distances, then made those longer or at unexpected angles. Slowly, they were both getting better.

By the time they needed to leave so they could get some shitty food and hit the books, they were both fucking exhausted. Katsuki had drunk so much damn water he was surprised he didn’t need to piss, but he still downed another full cup before heading to the showers.

They had to keep getting better. All of them.

Notes:

Relevant side stories:
Hawks' PoV after the Billboard Charts (It's so nice to be able to list these as 'Hawks pov' and not 'what Dabi's up to' lol)

---

Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter!!! Poor boys are dealing with a lot of stress and Hawks is starting to try to manage the backlash after the noumu incident. Plus some more Eri cuteness and updates on plot threads from the end of ZR. ;) Next week I'll post a chapter in Error from Hawks' pov, then the week after will be Yamashita's pov about living with Eri/soulmates/adult heroes. So in 3 weeks I'll post the next chapter of ZF! A big thank you to Geeky, Yoru, and Artemis for beta-ing this chapter for me!!!! And thank y'all so much for all the comments and kudos, I really appreciate them <3 <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 4: Support

Notes:

Get ready for the longest chapter of Zero yet! The chapters in this first arc just didn't want to split neatly into 7-10k chunks, which is usually what I shoot for.

Deku was reading the news way too damn much.

Any time the nerd thought Katsuki wasn’t looking, he was reading articles and chat rooms about people’s reactions to Hawks’ speech.

It wasn’t good.

Sure, most people supported the hero, but a lot of them were skeptical of having a number one hero who was the son of a villain. And guess which chats Deku read more of?

It was fucking stupid. Why the hell did Hawks’ father matter? Why did Deku’s?! It was stupid shit and Deku knew it. And he knew Katsuki would yell at him for letting that shit go to his head, so he was trying to hide it.

“Uh… Blasty?”

Katsuki glared at Pikachu, who held up both his hands defensibly. “Sorry, dude! I don’t have Kirishima’s quirk so I’m really not one to poke the sleeping bear and all that, but it’s time to head to class?” The last part came out as a squeak, making Katsuki growl.

“If it’s time, then just fucking say that.” Katsuki would have to finish the dishes later. He dried off his hands, then grabbed his shit and headed toward the door, not even glancing at Pikachu as he fell into step beside him. Deku had left early while Katsuki was making their bentos and gone to class with his friends, claiming he wanted to spend time with them, but he was really reading more of those damn articles while Katsuki couldn’t physically take his phone away from him.

“Everything ok, dude?”

“Deku’s being a fucking idiot.” Katsuki glanced over at Pikachu, then grinned when he noticed the half-empty charge on Deku’s screen. “He’s going to ask you to charge his phone at lunch. Don’t fucking do it or I’ll explode your food.”

Pikachu gave him a salute. “You got it! No charging phones over lunch!”

“No matter how much he fucking pleads.”

“Roger!” Pikachu let his hand fall back to his side. “What’s Midoriya doing that’s draining his phone? Or did he forget to charge it?”

“The dumbass keeps reading about everyone’s reaction to Hawks.”

Pikachu blinked. “Huh? I mean, that’s tough, but you’re like, super upset, man.”

“You can tell him.” Deku’s voice was soft, but Katsuki heard it loud and clear.

“What the hell?”

“Dude everyone’s—”

“Not you, idiot. Deku.”

Pikachu huffed. “Right, because logically you wouldn’t be talking to me, you’d be talking to your soulmate who isn’t even here right now. Especially when I had no way of knowing that Midoriya had said anything.”

Katsuki ignored Pikachu’s pointed look, focusing on Deku’s clenched hands and quiet voice.

“I want to tell the rest of 1A before I tell everyone else. They deserve to hear it from me.”

“Damn it, Deku.” Katsuki rubbed his face. “You’re really sure about this shit?” Telling their close friends was one thing. Telling the rest of their class and the whole damn world…

“Yeah.” The nerd was staring at his phone screen—some dumbass newscaster blathering about how kids never fell far from the tree.

“Then you do it. I’m sure as hell not doing it for you.”

“Ok.” Deku’s vision shifted as he gave a determined nod. “I will.”

There was a hand waving in front of his face.

Katsuki blinked, then turned to glare at Pikachu. “What?”

“Dude. As entertaining as that one-sided conversation was, I am so not walking alone with you to class again. Can you at least try to have a conversation with the person who is actually right next to you?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Whatever. It’s not like I’d talk with you the whole damn way even if Deku hadn’t distracted me.”

“Listening’s perfectly fine!” Pikachu adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag, then grinned at Katsuki. “I did actually have a reason to find you this morning, though! Kirishima mentioned you haven’t been playing the drums since the festival, so I thought maybe we could play together some?”

“Fuck off.” Katsuki didn’t have time for that shit. They still hadn’t mastered Black Whip yet. And then there would be five more quirks to unlock.

“Come on, man! If I only play the guitar while I’m with you, that means I won’t play as often as I would by myself. So I won’t ignore schoolwork too much, and it would make sure you got at least a few breaks. It’s a good combo!”

“Like hell.” Sure the therapist said shit like Katsuki needed breaks, but—

“You know it’s true!” Pikachu did dumbass finger guns. “Midoriya agrees with me, right?”

“Deku’s too distracted to listen to your shit.” The nerd was staring at his screen again and hadn’t even reacted to his name.

“Oh, come on! First he distracts you and now he’s not paying attention?!”

“I told you, he’s reading those damn Hawks articles.”

Pikachu frowned. “He’s that wrapped up in it? Just because you interned with Hawks, or what?” He blinked, his steps pausing slightly. “Wait. What’s that like? Do you feel like you’ve met everyone Midoriya knows, even if you haven’t actually met them? Because you’ve like, met them through Midoriya, right? So you’ve heard them talking with Midoriya and having conversations even if you’re not there.”

“It’s fucking annoying because I can’t tell assholes to shut up.”

Pikachu burst out laughing. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” Pikachu wouldn’t let the band shit drop, though, and kept pestering Katsuki all the way to the classroom, dodging the small explosive swipes Katsuki sent his way.

“Fucking fine!” Katsuki glared at the dumbass. “But you better not bother me when I’m training.”

“Sure, man!” Pikachu grinned at him, then practically bounded into the classroom. “We’re gonna have a blast!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He had more important things to deal with than playing the damn drums. He went straight to Deku’s desk, yanking the nerd’s phone from his hand and thrusting it into his pocket.

“Kacchan!”

“I told you to stop reading that shit. It doesn’t matter what dumbasses online are saying.”

“It does, and you know it! Endeavor’s situation made people remember what Stain had been saying, and Hawks’ speech wasn’t exactly reassuring. People are uneasy and they’re all talking about that online. It doesn’t help that Hawks isn’t doing his usual patrol routes or anything.”

Katsuki glared at the nerd. They both knew why the Feathered Menace wasn’t doing that shit. Not that it mattered. “That isn’t why you’re reading that shit and you fucking know it, so don’t lie to me.”

Deku looked away. “Not… Not right now.”

“Tch.” Katsuki sat down, then noticed the whole damn class was staring at them. “Mind your own business, assholes!”

“Sorry, man.” Shitty Hair looked between them both, his eyes fucking concerned or some shit. “We’re all just surprised. You two don’t really fight a lot.”

“We’re not fucking fighting.”

Rock Girl scoffed, twirling one of her ear jacks around her finger. “That definitely looked like a fight.”

“Well, it wasn’t.”

The whole class shared uneasy looks, and Deku sighed behind him. “We’re fine, guys. There’s just some things weighing on me, that’s all.”

“Zu-kun, are you sure?” Round Face was all the way on the other side of the classroom, but she was acting like she’d come over and hug him if Deku so much as hinted that he needed comfort.

Katsuki scowled and looked out the window, ignoring Deku’s response.

The door slid open, but to Katsuki’s surprise it wasn’t Aizawa-sensei who entered, but Midnight and, of all people, that female hero who could grow huge.

“Mt. Lady?!” Deku’s voice was practically a squeak again, but Katsuki scowled. Why the hell was there another hero here? Would anyone be able to tell if she was someone else? It had to be her and not Knife Bitch, right?

Shit! Katsuki was letting them get to his head again. It was fine. They were at UA. She had to get past Nezu in order to see them.

“Young heroes!!” The woman struck some kind of shitty pose, grinning at them. “Today’s citizens aren’t looking for showbiz any more, they want us to prove our worth for real! And I’m here to help you learn how to do that!”

Katsuki scoffed. She should just be blunt about it: the new No. 1 hadn’t fucking reassured people enough and now the heroes were scrambling to calm things down before the internet debates became something worse.

Katsuki wanted nothing to do with this shit. He’d dealt with enough damn autographs under the Feathered Menace. Katsuki would reassure people by becoming stronger.

As the class fussed about the guest hero, Aizawa-sensei finally appeared, which made Katsuki relax a little. If he was here, that meant they’d used his quirk to test her and make sure the woman was actually who she appeared to be. Unfortunately, Sensei was wrapped up in his shitty sleeping bag, which meant they wouldn’t be doing any heroics that day. Damn it.

Aizawa-sensei inched toward the podium, then stood to address them all, “Mt. Lady is here as your guest lecturer since you’ll have more media exposure going forward. For the first part of winter break, UA has decided to make winter internships mandatory for everyone who has a provisional license. For the second part, there will be another training camp. We’ll make sure that security is even tighter than last time.”

What the fuck?!

A training camp? And mandatory internships? So much for it being a break from school, which damn it, they should be using that time to train, sure, but…. Fuck. Katsuki had hoped he and Deku could at least manage to fit in a shitty date together, and now it was sounding like there was never going to be enough fucking time for that.

The whole damn class was whispering now, wondering about shit, but they fell quiet at Aizawa-sensei’s glare.

Katsuki didn’t understand. Why the hell were internships being mandatory?! They couldn’t trust anyone outside UA–even the new number one hero had ties with the damn League!

Shit.

Learning from someone else would be good, but… fuck. Katsuki didn’t want to leave UA. It had been so nice these past few weeks to not have to deal with looking over his damn shoulder everyplace he went…

But he had to.

He knew citizens would feel better with him and Deku on the streets. That was even what Katsuki and Deku had always wanted! And an internship would help him get stronger! But fuck—

The visiting hero held up a large press badge, and everyone immediately went silent. “Today we’re talking about the media! Our citizens mostly view us through the way we interact with the media. So while they want to see us doing patrols and saving people, in the end, how you present yourself in interviews will have a huge impact on how people see you. As a rising star myself, I’m the perfect hero to teach you how to use the media to accomplish great things! So everyone suit up and meet me in front of Gym Gamma!”

“Kacchan, we get to learn from Mt. Lady! And do internships again!” The nerd was out of his desk in seconds, beaming at him as he grabbed Katsuki’s hand to pull him down the hallway. At least Deku was excited about this shit.

“Huh.” Pikachu stared at their entwined hands when they entered the changing room. “I guess it really wasn’t a fight.”

“I fucking told you.” Katsuki flipped him off with his free hand, his other one reluctantly releasing Deku’s to grab their shit and start changing.

“Why do you think UA is requiring internships?” Brain Fucker was frowning as he changed next to Deku. “They’ve never done anything like that to first years before. Eraserhead didn’t even want to let us go on fall internships.”

“Maybe it’s because we’re stronger now!” Shitty Hair made a fist, but Katsuki rolled his eyes. As if.

The nerd sighed. “My guess is it’s because society’s so uneasy right now, but I don’t really know.”

“Maann.” Pikachu groaned. “Internships are so much work. I was thinking about sitting this one out but now that plan is ruined. I guess I’ll work with Snipe again? My aim got a lot better last time.”

“Yeah…” Spider Man rubbed at the back of his neck. “I feel like we should be using these to network with more heroes, but it’s just our first year. I’ll probably stay with Eraserhead since I can learn so much from his fighting style.” Spider Man paused, shuddering as he added, “Even if he’s brutal in training.”

Shitty Hair clamored about how working with Fat Gum was super manly or some shit, and then everyone was clamoring about where they wanted to intern. Katsuki ignored them.

He sure as hell wasn’t going back to Hawks. And Nighteye was dead, so Deku couldn’t go back there, either. The Old Grandpa? But he didn’t know shit about One for All’s other quirks, and last time Katsuki had gone to him just because he could help with the shitty quirk.

So someone new. Katsuki needed to look back over that list of heroes who had sent them invites after the Sports Festival—surely there was someone good there. Katsuki didn’t want someone who only took them because they were soulmates. And if they were both working on Black Whip, they might as well intern together this time.

That would be… shit, that would be nice. Katsuki would at least always have one person around whom he could trust.

By the time they all made it to Gym Gamma, all the dumbasses were excited about shit and practically clamoring about the different internships they wanted.

Katsuki wished he could feel like that again. He fucking wanted to learn from different heroes, damn it!

“It’s hero interview time!” The guest hero from earlier stood on a platform in front of the gym holding a mic. She’d even brought people to direct lights and video cameras toward the makeshift stage. What the hell. Katsuki supposed this was one way to go ‘plus ultra’ or some shit.

“Bakugou!” The woman pointed at him, making Katsuki suspicious. “You recently captured a villain during your internship, didn’t you? So let’s start with you!” Katsuki glared at her, but at Deku’s nudge, he made his way to the stage. Aizawa-sensei was here. This couldn’t be a trap.

But even if this tall newbie hero wasn’t an intruder, the last shit Katsuki wanted to fucking think about was the fight where Frankenstein had shown up.

“I heard you were separated from Hawks and his sidekicks and had to fight off the villain alone! Were you scared?”

“Hell no.” Wait. Was he allowed to swear in this? Katsuki scowled. Whatever. “His quirk was stupid and he didn’t stand a chance.”

“I love the confidence! But maybe work on your delivery a bit?”

Katsuki glared at her.

The female hero sighed. “Alright, next question, then. There’s a lot of speculation about you and your soulmate. What kind of hero do you want to become?”

“I’ll never accept anything short of an absolute victory. That’s why people can depend on me.”

“Oh. That’s… actually a good answer.” Of fucking course it was! She didn’t have to look so damn shocked. The Feathered Menace had made them answer tons of shitty questions from fans. “What about an ultimate move? Could you show one off for us?”

“Wait!” Deku raised his hand frantically, “All of Kacchan’s ultimate moves are really destructive, so maybe—”

“It’s fine!” The guest hero waved her hand dismissively. “A hero should get a chance to show off their stuff! Having a strong ultimate move can give people confidence in you! So go Plus Ultra! Though please avoid hurting any of us or destroying UA property.”

Katsuki grinned.

“Kacchan!”

“Relax, Deku. I know how to aim.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” The nerd groaned, pulling his bandanna up as Katsuki lifted both arms, setting his wrists close together to create the maximum surface area. One for All flickered to life around him, powering up each bead of sweat in his palms.

He let go.

Explosions roared forth, filling his vision and enveloping everything. It lasted longer than ever before, and when the blast finally cleared, everyone was coughing from the smoke, their eyes watery.

Half and Half’s ice raced up, covering the upper corner of the stage’s backdrop, and he gave Katsuki a blank stare. “You set the stage on fire.”

Katsuki shrugged, pulling his own bandanna back down from when he’d tugged it into place after the blast. “She said to go ‘plus ultra.’”

“Right.” The guest hero had taken off her mask and was now rubbing at her eyes. “You sure you’re just a first year?”

“Of fucking course I am!” What the hell kind of question was that?!

She sighed, putting her mask back on before looking over the crowd of first years nervously. “Maybe we should just describe your ultimate moves from now on.”

“That’s probably for the best.” Aizawa-sensei seemed… amused, for some reason? “His is the most destructive, but several of them come close.”

Several? Who the fuck could come close besides Deku?! Half and Half? Katsuki could destroy his glacier wall in a second!

“Right.” The newbie hero stared at Aizawa-sensei as if she didn’t want to believe him, but then she squared her shoulders and gave Katsuki a nudge. “Well, let’s keep it moving! Next hero, please!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and jumped off the stage. He didn’t need to pay attention to any of the others. Deku froze up, the dumbass, which confused the newbie hero to no end.

“You did great in that interview with Present Mic! What’s got you so nervous today?”

“Well. Um.” Deku glanced out at the audience, meeting Katsuki’s eyes. “Kacchan was with me? And it was just Present Mic. So I could act like it was class. But you’re Mt. Lady! You’re one of the fastest rising new heroes and you’ve recently teamed up with Kamui Woods and Edgeshot and—”

“Kid, I’m flattered, but this is just class. Relax, alright? You need to be able to do this without your soulmate by your side. Honestly I figured you’d be better at this than him, considering how natural you sounded on the radio show.”

“But that was just Present Mic!” Deku groaned. “I’d gotten used to him!”

The woman sighed. “Alright. Let’s try a different question. What kind of hero do you want to become?”

“Like All Might!” The answer was out before Deku even thought about shit, and he squeaked and covered his mouth as she laughed.

“So you’re an All Might fan?”

Deku swallowed and nodded. “He’s the best. I really admire how much he’s able to reassure people with his presence alone; it’s not just that he always wins (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I really admire that, too), but his focus is always on saving everyone as fast as he can and people trust him to do that and defeat the villains and it’s really hard to do both of those at once, you know, so most heroes specialize and—”

“Ok!” She held up a hand as the class all hid their grins, well, everyone but Katsuki. He so could have predicted that the nerd would ramble about heroes, especially All Might. “I get it. You admire how he saves people. If there’s a way you can find a middle ground between stammering nerves and a waterfall of information, you’ll be good.”

“Sorry!” Deku hurriedly bowed.

“You’re fine, kid, it’s cute! Here’s the next question: what’s your best ultimate move?”

“Um. Probably when I punch the ground and force it to explode. It’s a combination of my quirk and Kacchan’s that creates a huge fissure in the ground that spreads forward between me and my opponent.”

She stared at Deku. “That would certainly destabilize any foe.”

“Exactly!” Deku nodded eagerly. “Most people rely on firm terrain to fight, but Kacchan and I don’t really need that, so—”

“Woah, woah! You don’t need to analyze your own moves for the media, in fact it’s probably better not to do that, alright?” She winked at him. “Any information you give them about your quirk is information that villains can have, as well.”

“Right.” The nerd nodded again, but more pensively this time. “Like how All Might never revealed his quirk.”

“There you have it.” She fucking patted his head, making Katsuki want to growl, but thankfully she was calling for the next person after that.

Deku returned to Katsuki’s side with a huge sigh of relief. “I’m really thankful I won’t be doing those alone any time soon.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “They’re fucking annoying, but you’ll have to do that shit alone eventually. What if we do separate internships again?”

The nerd groaned. “It’s so much easier when you’re there! Then I feel more normal, but if you’re not there I feel like the spotlight is centered on me alone and I get so nervous and—”

“You’ll be fine, you damn nerd. We’re destined for this shit, remember?”

Deku rubbed at the back of his neck, looking warily up on the stage where Round Face was cheerfully answering each question. “Yeah, I guess. I think the action parts come more easily than this.”

“That’s ‘cause that shit’s more important.” Katsuki shook his hands out, wincing a little from how tender they were after the blast. The bracers helped a fuckton, but that blast had been huge.

Deku frowned at Katsuki, glancing down at his wrists before closing his eyes for a second, and shit it was nice to have a soulmate who could heal his minor aches.

Aizawa-sensei was watching them when the nerd opened his eyes, but he didn’t say shit, just gave them an evaluating look before nodding his head toward the stage.

Katsuki scowled. Paying attention to this shit was fucking boring, though.

If he’d known what their teacher had planned for after school, Katsuki wouldn’t have looked forward to the end of the interview shit nearly as much. At the end of the last class, Sensei pulled them aside to let them know that he’d talked with Present Mic and Midnight. They had all agreed that an interview would be the best way to reveal information about Shitstain. They weren’t willing to let reporters onto campus, though, so Present Mic would record an interview here and play it over the air for his show once Deku told him he was ready for it to air.

And they wanted to do the interview now.

Mic-sensei had taken one look at Deku’s hesitant face as they walked into the room and immediately frowned. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to! But you’re right that we need to be active about curbing society’s unease. But if you want to wait or talk to Yamashita-sensei first, that’s totally fine!”

The nerd shook his head. “I want to have this behind me. I’ve only known about my dad for a short time, but I’m already tired of hiding it. Telling my friends felt wonderful. So I want to tell my other classmates before the interview airs. And Eri-chan. I don’t want her to find out from the radio.”

“That’s totally a-ok!” Mic-sensei made a shitty ‘ok’ sign with his hand, and Katsuki rolled his eyes. “The beauty of recorded interviews is we can wait however long you want before we air it.”

“Ok. Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” The nerd kept ahold of Katsuki’s hand as he shuffled to the table, sitting across from Mic-sensei, a flat rectangular recording machine of some sort set up on the table between them. They’d barely sat down on the couch before the door opened and All Might slipped in.

The number one hero rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly as he shut the door behind him. “Do you mind if I join you both? Yamada-kun thought my voice of support would help assuage any doubts the public might have.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “You’re not gonna assuage shit if you sound all nervous like that.”

“I can still take my other form for a few moments, don’t worry.” All Might pulled a chair up next to the table and sat down next to Aizawa-sensei, offering them a small smile.

“Alright!” Present Mic pulled out a piece of paper, then passed it to Deku. “We don’t want your answers to sound scripted, but you can look this over in advance. Since we’re recording in advance, if you mess up, or think of something better later, it’s no problem to re-do any of the answers, alright? Unlike last time, I can edit things later. Let me know when you’re good to go.”

The nerd nodded, biting his lip as he scanned over the page. It was all questions about his relationship with Shitstain. Katsuki hated this idea so much. Deku shouldn’t have to reveal this shit.

“Bakugou. Don’t call Midoriya’s father foul names during the interview.”

Katsuki glared at Aizawa-sensei. “That asshole deserves it.”

“I know, but we’re trying to prove that you two are still heroic despite Midoriya’s father. You cursing about him doesn’t help with that picture.”

“Fine.” But only for Deku.

The nerd’s hand squeezed his, and he took a deep breath. “Ok.”

“You fine if we start off with a comment about the rankings and Hawks’ speech? People will expect a response from you two about that.”

Katsuki scowled as Deku winced, but nodded. “Yeah… I can do that. It was really unexpected since we don’t even have our full licenses yet.”

“It’ll still affect your pay rate.” Aizawa-sensei shrugged, “Only the top tier heroes will be able to afford paying you two as interns now, not that I would’ve allowed you to go with anyone else. You need a hero at your side who can fight off multiple members of the League at once.”

“Like we’d go with some weakass hero, anyway.”

The teacher shrugged. “While we’re on the subject of internships, it would be best if you two intern together. You’ll be wanting to work on Black Whip, correct?”

They both nodded. Doing an internship together after all this time…

“You should also do your internship with Todoroki.”

“What?!” Katsuki’s eyes widened. Why should they—

“Wouldn’t that be making ourselves a huge target since the League is also interested in Todo-kun?”

“Hawks still believes that the League isn’t interested in you three right now, but either way, if you’re all together that means they have to account for all of your quirks at once. It also means we can defend you three more easily when you’re in transit to your internship.”

Deku looked over at Katsuki, but he just shrugged. If they all left UA together, then they’d be able to trust that Half and Half wasn’t an imposter, too. Katsuki would rather just have Deku with him, but he could make this shit work.

“Talk with Todoroki and let me know who you decide to intern with. Preferably someone in the top twenty or with a record of over five years with UA internships.”

Shit, that would definitely narrow their list. Katsuki was fucking fine with those criteria, though. They wanted the damn best.

Mic-sensei cleared his throat, making Deku look up from the sheet of questions. “You good to go, little listener?”

Deku’s hand tightened around Katsuki’s, but he nodded.

Mic-sensei hit record, immediately launching into his radio persona. “I have with me today the rising soulmate Zero duo! You two are now ranked in the top fifty heroes! How does it feel?”

“Um. A bit unreal, honestly?” Shit, Deku’s voice sounded nervous, but Katsuki guessed it was ok. “We don’t even have our full licenses yet. We know our ranking is because of the trust that the Hero Commission and everyone else has in us, and we’ll do our best to go beyond everyone’s expectations.”

“People are certainly looking forward to when you’ll both have full licenses!” Mic-sensei turned toward Katsuki, asking him the next question. “Ground Zero, how do you feel about the rankings?”

Shit. What would be ok to say? “It’s always been our goal to be ranked number one. This is just the first stepping stone to meeting that goal.”

“I’m sure you’ll both go far!” Mic-sensei laughed, then added, “Hawks mentioned you both by name in his first speech as number one. Is there anything you two would like to say to him in return?”

Yeah, fuck off.

“We’d like to thank him for having so much faith in us. And…” Deku swallowed, his hand pulling Katsuki’s closer. “And for sharing what he did about his father. I know it couldn’t have been easy. I’ve been thinking about that a lot these past few days, actually.”

“Yeah? You haven’t known your own father for very long, right?”

Deku nodded, and Katsuki nudged him, making the nerd give him a questioning look. Katsuki pointed at the recorder. “Right! Yes. I only met my father after we were publicly announced as soulmates. It was after my last interview with you, actually.”

“That must’ve been quite the shock! Have you been getting along with him?”

Deku squeezed Katsuki’s hand even harder, then took a deep breath and started talking about Shitstain and how Deku had found out he was a fucking villain. The nerd did well for the most part, but Katsuki hated that he had to talk about all this shit. And because it was Deku, of course he eventually looked like he was going to fucking cry, which made Mic-sensei quickly look over at Katsuki.

“Ground Zero, what’s your reaction to all this?”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. How the hell was he supposed to answer that question and not cuss?! They knew how Katsuki felt about this bastard! Aizawa-sensei narrowed his eyes, making Katsuki scowl. Fine, damn it. “I’ve always hated Deku’s father because he left Auntie and Deku.” Sensei wasn’t stopping him, so Katsuki kept going. “I wanted nothing to do with him when he showed back up and I want even less to do with him now. If I ever see him, I’ll make sure he’s put into police custody and stays there, this time.”

There! Aizawa-sensei didn’t have to look so fucking releived, the asshole.

Mic-sensei made those shitty finger guns. “I’m sure we’d all like for that to happen! Now Eraserhead and All Might are with me today, as well. Eraserhead, how did you feel when you saw your student’s father during the yakuza raid?”

“Worried. I knew who he was because Midoriya Hisashi had been given permission to visit UA’s campus to see his son. I was also proud of Zero Hour. It’s all in the public record, so I’m sure someone will find it after this interview, but I’ve testified against my mother for using her quirk against others. I know what it’s like to be on the opposite side of the justice system from your parent and how much it hurts to do what’s right.”

What… the hell? Why was Aizawa-sensei talking about that shit? Katsuki and Deku both stared at the older duo, but Mic-sensei didn’t look surprised, which meant they’d planned for Aizawa-sensei to say this shit.

“That must have been painful for you.” Mic-sensei paused, but when Aizawa-sensei didn’t say anything, he moved on to the next question. “How was Midoriya Senior when you found him?”

“Unconscious and well secured.”

“Did you think it was likely he would escape?”

“Not at all. The police were just behind us. The League members would have had a very slim window of opportunity in which they could act. Nighteye and I had just forced the two of them to retreat, so we did not anticipate them reappearing any time soon. We prioritized continuing the mission, and I don’t regret that decision, even though it led to Midoriya senior’s escape. Another second of delay could have been fatal.”

“Thank you for that context, Eraserhead.” Mic-sensei turned to the former number one hero. “All Might, you weren’t on that mission, but you’ve worked closely with Zero Hour all this time. What are your thoughts?”

All Might took a deep breath, then transformed. “While I’m horrified that Zero Hour has to deal with this stressful situation, I have faith that he will continue to be a wonderful hero and aid in stopping his father’s villainy. I think it’s important to note that before his role as a villain was discovered, Midoriya Senior tried to get information from Zero Hour. However, Zero Hour upheld protocols despite his desire to reconnect with his missing father. He was put in a very difficult situation but did his best to help others the entire time.”

“You certainly seem to think highly of the young hero!”

“Of course!” All Might let out a booming laugh, and fuck it was weird to hear that after only hearing his raspier, shaky one for so long. “I think highly of both Zero Hour and Ground Zero. I look forward to a future where these two become better heroes than even I could dream of! UA is helping them achieve that. I will do my best as their instructor and am grateful to have the help of other wonderful heroes like yourself and Eraserhead, as well.”

Aizawa gave All Might a sharp look as he transformed back and started coughing, but slowly he nodded his thanks.

“Thank you, All Might.” Deku took a deep breath, his fingers squeezing Katsuki’s. “Kacchan and I are working hard to become the best heroes, and I won’t let my father stop us. Hawks said during his speech that he was going to be the best hero because of his father, and I honestly couldn’t put it better myself.”

One more question. Deku could do this.

“A lot of people are concerned about heroes having family members who are villains. Do you have anything to say to those people?”

“Our family members don’t define us.” Deku blushed a little at how immediate his response had been. He gave Mic-sensei an awkward smile before continuing, “My father… I can’t deny that at first I loved seeing the parts of me that were like him, but when I found out that he was a villain… It made me hate those parts of myself. But Kacchan helped me realize that it doesn’t matter where those traits came from. I’m my own person, and I refuse to follow my father’s path. I’ll use everything I have, including the talents I’ve inherited, to save people and undo the pain and suffering that my father and other villains have caused.”

The nerd paused, his thumb running over Katsuki’s hand as he thought for a second. “So I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry that it upsets people. But I know Hawks, Eraserhead, and Todo-kun. I know that, like me, they aren’t defined by their relatives. We each know more than anyone why our relatives became who they are today. But we refuse to take that same path. We want to face our pain and help others. More than anyone, we want to prove to you that there really are heroes out there who stand for what’s right, and that we’ll always lend a helping hand.”

Fuck, Katsuki loved this nerd.

Present Mic leaned forward, switching off the recording. “Is there anything else you’d like to say?”

“Um…” Deku bit his lip, then shook his head. “No. Thank you. I think I said everything? Unless you think there’s something I should add?”

Mic-sensei gave Deku a thumbs up. “You did great!” He paused, giving the nerd a playful grin, “Especially since I hear you bombed the interview exercise this morning.”

The nerd turned bright red, groaning and hiding behind his hands. “This is different!! I know all of you so it’s easy to forget other people will be hearing this.”

“Well, it sounds natural, so that’s good!” Mic-sensei laughed. “But if you want we can go through it a few more times and you can pick the answers you want to use.”

Deku shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut in distaste. “If that version’s good, then that’s what I want to use. I don’t want to talk about it again.”

“Alrighty! Then we’ll go with this. Let us know when you’ve talked to everyone and you’re ready for me to put this on the air!”

“Ok.” Deku shuddered, but nodded. He turned to Aizawa-sensei, his brow furrowed. “Sensei, are you sure it’s ok for you to be part of it? You’re an underground hero. If we support you in an interview like this, people are bound to—”

Aizawa-sensei raised his hand, cutting off Deku. “Our interactions with the League and Overhaul have proven that the biggest villains already know who I am and what my quirk is. I can handle it.”

Deku bit his lip, but nodded.

Mic-sensei leaned across the table and ruffled Deku’s hair with a grin. “Thanks for being concerned, kid. But Shouta’s right. The people we really didn’t want to know, already know. So now we’ve got to adjust our plans a bit.” He winked. “Sho’s good at hiding, don’t worry.”

Katsuki snorted. Good at hiding didn’t even begin to cover it.

Mic-sensei gave Deku’s shoulder a pat before leaning back. “You did great! So head out of here and give yourself a reward. I’ll handle the rest! And go see Yamashita-sensei if you need to, alright, little listener?”

“Ok. Thank you for helping me with this.” Deku let out a deep sigh, then stood up and bowed to their teachers before grabbing his bag with his free hand, his other one still holding onto Katsuki’s.

Katsuki quickly bent down to grab his own shit, almost stumbling as Deku pulled them out of the room in a rush.

The second the door closed behind them, the nerd shuddered, taking in a deep breath. Watery green eyes turned to Katsuki. “This is the right thing to do, isn't it?”

“I don’t care if it’s the fucking right thing or not, you idiot. I care if it’s what you want to do.”

Deku groaned. “I want to help however I can! And I feel like this will, and so do the teachers, and—”

“That doesn’t mean shit if you’re not ready for the dumbasses out there to know.”

“Thanks, Kacchan.” The nerd pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around Katsuki as he rested his head on his soulmate’s shoulder. “I think I probably should go see Yamashita-sensei. And maybe ask her to talk to Eri-chan with me. I don’t know how to tell her that my Dad helped Overhaul hurt her.”

“Then we’ll go do that.” Fuck, he wanted to spare Deku from this shitstorm so badly. But the nerd was right—it was better for people to learn this shit on their terms. They couldn’t let the League use this to stir up shit.

“Actually, can I… um, can I do it alone?” Deku pulled back a little, biting his lip as he looked up at Katsuki. “I like having your support with me, but I think this is something that I want to talk through alone. Without you, um… getting angry about him. Not that I don’t understand why you do, he’s terrible, but I just…”

“It’s fine, Deku.” If the nerd wanted to do this shit alone, Katsuki wouldn’t stand in his way.

“Thanks.” Deku stepped back, then glanced at the doorway and laughed a little, but it was forced. “We should probably stop standing in front of the door. Walk me to our parents’ house?”

“Of course.” Katsuki squeezed Deku’s hand, and the nerd gave him a wobbly smile before they turned as one to leave the building.

They ended up staying silent the whole walk. Katsuki didn’t exactly mind—it was a good silence. Just him and Deku, the nerd’s hand in his, each of them there for the other. Words were never necessary. Not with them. Besides, Deku was right, Katsuki was likely to cuss the bastard out if the nerd started talking about Shitstain.

When they reached the adults’ place, Katsuki gave Deku a quick kiss, trying to offer some more comfort, but his soulmate was clearly distracted, his body tense. Clearly the nerd just wanted to go inside and get this shit over with. So Katsuki let him.

And then he walked back to the dorms.

Alone.

Shit, it felt weird being alone. Even when he wasn’t with Deku, there was usually some other dumbass clamoring for his attention. There was almost never silence in his life lately.

By the time Katsuki made it back to the dorm, he was fucking annoyed and officially hated walking across campus alone. It was weird as hell. Especially when Deku was being emotional about shit that Katsuki didn’t want to hear.

Katsuki slammed the door open to the dorms, scanning the study group that had arranged itself at the front.

Perfect.

“Pikachu. I’m going to bang around on my drums. You can come or not, I don’t fucking care.”

“Awesome!” Pikachu practically jumped off the couch, the dumbass. “I’m totally down for a study break!”

“Kaminari-kun!” Glasses’ voice was scandalized as his hand chopped at the air. “You have barely started your assignments for tomorrow!”

“I’ll do it later tonight!” Pikachu jogged to keep up with Katsuki, then groaned when he turned toward the stairs instead of the elevator. “Dude, you’re on the fifth floor! Take the elevator!”

“We’re heroes. We don’t need the damn elevators.”

Pikachu sighed, waving Katsuki on toward the stairs as he kept going straight to the elevator. “I’ve gotta grab the guitar Jiro-chan lets me borrow, so I’ll join in a sec.”

Katsuki scowled. Deku was already in the Ghost Woman’s room talking about Shitstain, and Katsuki really needed a fucking distraction right now. Like hell he’d wait for Pikachu.

Since Deku was too distracted to scold him, Katsuki blasted up the stairs, then kicked open his own door, dumping his bag on the floor and going straight to his drum set. The familiar wood of his practice drumsticks was reassuring in his hands, firm and ready to pound out shit.

Katsuki sat down, taking a deep breath before he fell into the familiar rhythm of his favorite of Yoshiki’s drum solos. The solo started easy, but slowly increased the tempo and reach required between drums at each beat, and it pulled Katsuki in. He closed his eyes, focusing on the memory of each motion, following the beat as his hands flowed from one surface to the next. Faster and faster, reaching further and further, the kick drum balancing out the other shit and coming louder and louder each time, the beats all blurring together as the song climbed and then Katsuki slammed down the finale.

He opened his eyes.

Pikachu was staring at him. Katsuki must have missed when he got there. Shit, spacing out like that was fucking dangerous, he couldn’t–“Dude. That was amazing. You really were holding back for us, weren’t you? Wait! Can I film you doing that and put it on our social media page?!”

Katsuki shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t fucking care, I just need to let off some steam.”

“Right.” Pikachu frowned, studying the drum set for a second and then rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, it’s probably not my place and all, but are you guys ok? Normally you’re all stressed and anxious to train and such, but you’ve both been kind of… off… ever since the Noumu fight. And the billboard charts seem to have just made it worse.”

What the hell? The last thing Katsuki needed was Pikachu trying to act like his damn therapist. “What part of ‘I want to play the damn drums and not think about shit’ do you not understand?”

“Sorry!” Pikachu held up his hands. “I can get that. Play away, dude. We can jam and forget things for a bit. Just… I’m here if you want to talk, ok?”

“What I want is a fucking distraction.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, then started another one of Yoshiki’s solos. Pikachu quickly held up his phone to record shit. Fuck it was nice to pound shit out again.

Once Katsuki finished that one, Pikachu clamored about how amazing he was (of fucking course) and finally put away his phone, so Katsuki switched to Rock Girl’s song. It was a hell of a lot easier, but Katsuki still had to focus to make sure he didn’t speed shit up accidentally.

Deku was talking to Yamashita-sensei now. Saying he wanted to tell Eri-chan about Shitstain.

It’s not like Deku had any shit to be sorry for! It was all that bastard’s fault, not his. Deku hadn’t done any damn thing wrong, but he was still acting like he had this fucking ball of guilt weighing on his shoulders and like it was his damn job to be responsible for all the shit that asshole had done and—

“FUCK!” Katsuki slammed the drumsticks down, but he refused to give in, he was better than this and so was Deku. Katsuki growled, switching tempos and pounding out a more complicated stream of beats, nailing each hit as precise as fucking possible.

He couldn’t do shit about this, and he fucking hated it!

Couldn’t do shit for Deku. Couldn’t do shit about losing the damn number one. Couldn’t do shit about the Feathered Menace. Couldn’t figure out the damn Black Whip quirk. Couldn’t do anything!

And now there were going to be fucking internships, and he finally could do shit again, but part of him just wanted to stay and train at UA because that was so much fucking easier, but he was Bakugou fucking Katsuki and like hell he was going to take the easy route!

“Blasty?”

Katsuki growled, but looked up from the drum set, his hands finally falling still.

Pikachu was staring at him like he was concerned or some shit, and Edgelord was in his doorway, Abyss hovering over his shoulder. “Dark Shadow was drawn to the darkness of your soul.” He held up his own guitar, adding, “May I join the banquet of rage?”

Katsuki snorted. “Do what you fucking want. You dumbasses only know that one song, right?”

“Yeah.” Pikachu scratched at the back of his head. “I guess that limits a lot of what we can do. How about you teach us the song you were playing just now? It sounded super awesome!”

“Huh?” Katsuki stared at the dumbasses. “I was just…” He’d just been banging shit out. Whatever. It didn’t matter. “I don’t know the shitty guitar part, you idiots.”

“But you have the song, right? Maybe we could figure it out by listening to it?”

They wanted to try to learn by ear?

Katsuki snorted. “Whatever.” He set down his drumsticks and pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled to the song. “That wasn’t actually a song, dumbass, but this one’s pretty similar.”

“It wasn’t a song? Wait. You were just making that up?! Dude, you’re amazing!” Pikachu gaped at him for a second, but then Katsuki growled and waved his phone around again, and the dumbass quickly took it. Katsuki rolled his eyes as he sat down, playing the first five seconds on repeat as they tried to figure shit out.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He did feel a little calmer about shit, at least.

He twirled his drumsticks, trying to focus on setting a slow rhythm for the two dumbasses rather than Deku, who was now talking with Eri-chan.

She was mostly confused—apparently she’d never seen Shitstain around, and she didn’t understand why Deku kept apologizing when he barely knew the asshole and had been the one to save her anyway.

Thank fuck.

“Dude, are you crying?”

What?

Oh, shit.

Katsuki dropped the drumsticks, hurriedly rubbing at his eyes. “I’m fucking not.” Deku was the one crying! But it’s not like Katsuki could explain that shit.

“There are literally tears falling from your eyes.”

“There is no shame in relieving the darkness of your soul.”

“It’s fucking Deku’s fault!” Damn it, now the nerd was laughing while he was crying.

“Huh? Dude that doesn’t make any sense. How can you blame this on Midoriya? Is he telling a sad story or something?”

“Fuck off.”

“Sorry, Kacchan.” The nerd rubbed at his tears now, sniffling a little. “Could you text everyone and ask if I can talk to them? I don’t really want to do this more than one more time, and I’d rather get it over with.”

Katsuki sighed. Damn it. He didn’t want to deal with this shit again, either. Katsuki pulled out his phone, opening the class group chat that Glasses insisted could only be used for ‘emergencies.’

Bakugou: Everyone get the fuck down to the common area or I’ll come blast your door off.

Deku snorted. “Kacchan! You didn’t have to say it that way. I don’t know why I asked you to do it.” He wiped at his eyes again, then pulled out his own phone.

Midoriya: Please and thank you, everyone! I’d really appreciate it.

“Uh… Blasty?” Pikachu held up his phone, watching Katsuki warily as he stood up from the drum set. “Why do you want us all downstairs?”

“I don’t. Deku does.”

“Right..You know that doesn’t really clarify things?”

Katsuki shrugged. “Hell if I care. Go downstairs or I’ll drag you there.” Katsuki let Black Whip flicker out of his arm, and Pikachu fell over his feet as he scrambled backward into the hall.

“Whoa! Ok. Black energy of death is totally spilling out of your arm. This. This is new. Alright. I’m just gonna… uh, go now. To the common area. Like you want.” Pikachu fled.

Edgelord stared at him, and Abyss poked his head out over his shoulder. “This is the power that emerged and destroyed our quarters of trials?”

Huh? Oh, right. Edgelord knew about it. Katsuki nodded. “Yeah. We can control it somewhat now.”

Edgelord bowed his head slightly. “My congratulations on conquering your inner darkness. Dark Shadow and I will return the guitars to their resting places, then reconvene for the night’s revels.”

Katsuki grunted. “It’s not going to be a fucking revel.”

Edgelord paused in the doorway and nodded, then left.

The only small blessing out of any of this shit was that everyone was actually downstairs when Katsuki reached the common room. Well, everyone except Edgelord, who soon showed up, and Deku who was on his way there.

“Bakugou-kun! I must request that you only use the group chat for—”

“Deku wanted everyone down here so he could talk about Shitstain, so shut up.” Katsuki glared at Glasses, whose face paled.

“I see.” Glasses swallowed, then turned around to the class. “Very well! If everyone would please sit on the couches! Bakugou-kun, Satou-san, would you mind pulling over some additional seating?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He wished he could use Black Whip better. Then he could do that shit all at once. As it was, he and Sugar Guy took two trips each to drag the sofas from one side of the common area to the other. At least Octupus Arms and some of the others helped, as well. They’d only just finished when Deku opened the door.

“Zu-kun!” Round Face sprang up from the couch, running over to him. “What happened?! You look like—”

“I’m fine, Ochaco-chan. Thank you for caring, though.” Deku turned to their classmates offering them a strained smile. “And thank you all for coming downstairs. I know it’s sudden, but we did another interview for Present Mic and well… as my classmates, I think you should hear this from me, first.”

Pikachu immediately perked up, sending Katsuki a worried look. “Is this why you and Blasty have been weird all week?”

“Week?” Rock Girl scoffed. “More like all month.”

“Yeah.” The nerd laughed nervously, making his way to sit over by the whiteboard next to Katsuki, who took his hand. “Sorry about that. We’ve been dealing with some things. Well, really, I have.” He took a deep breath, looking from one face to the next. “What Hawks said during the Billboard Chart Ceremony, well, it really uh… made me happy, I guess? But I’ve been worried about how people have reacted. I only found this out recently, but um…” The nerd swallowed. He looked out over all their classmates, focusing on his friends’ encouraging smiles.

“Well, I guess maybe Kacchan’s right and the best way is to be blunt.” Deku took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders and looking directly at their classmates. “My father is a villain. He’s working with the League of Villains right now. I can understand if that affects your trust in me, but I promise I’ll still do my best to be an amazing hero.” Deku bowed, his eyes closed, not daring to look at their classmates again, but Katsuki didn’t close his. He made sure the nerd saw that these idiots didn’t care.

“Zu-kun! No one thinks that way!” Round Face had her cheeks puffed out as she looked at their classmates, daring them to contradict her. “We’re all worried about you, that’s all!”

Glasses nodded firmly. “We will always support you! No matter what!”

Fuck, Pinky was already crying. “Of course, Midori!! No wonder you’ve been upset, that’s terrible!”

“Seriously, dude. Are you ok?” Pikachu leaned forward, his brow wrinkling in concern. “Blasty said you were really worried about how people were reacting to Hawks, but I never would’ve guessed this was why.”

Edgelord nodded. “A true gauntlet of darkness.”

“My brother is a villain with the League, too.” Half and Half tilted his head to the side, confused by who knows what shit. “If they didn’t care about that, why would our class care about your father?”

“Exactly!” Invisible Girl waved her arms around. “You’re super amazing, Midori! It doesn’t matter who your dad is! We know who you are.”

“And even if that wasn’t enough, you’re soulmates.” Tail Guy shook his head. “I doubt anyone would ever believe you could be a villain.”

Katsuki winced. Shit, they were in trouble if Hand Fucker ever got over his issues enough to broadcast that villains could have soulmates. And the Feathered Menace would be in even more trouble, too.

Damn it.

“Thanks, guys.” Deku looked up at them all, then gave them a shy smile as he straightened from his bow. "I’m still processing it all, to be honest, but I want to support Hawks, and I feel like telling people about this would be the best way to do it. Though…” he looked over at Tail Guy, and Katsuki squeezed his hand hard, making Deku shake his head. “I do hope people can trust me eventually without having to consider that I have a soulmate.”

“Fear not, Midoriya-kun!” Glasses did his weird robot-hand shit. “You already have all of our trust, regardless of that! It will only be a matter of time before you gain others’, as well!”

“Thank you, Iida-kun.” Deku’s smile finally relaxed a little, thank fuck. “Sorry for making you all come down for this. I know everyone’s busy, but I didn’t know how else to let you all know before the interview aired.”

Frog Girl was frowning in concern. “So you’re really telling everyone, Midoriya-chan?”

“That’s super manly and all, but are you sure? We trust you no matter what, but…” Shitty Hair paused his face contorting as he tried to finish his sentence.

Brain Fucker snorted. “What Kirishima-kun’s trying to say is: People are dicks.”

That made Shitty Hair shake his head. “Not always! But yeah, sometimes… well, sometimes people aren’t manly online. Are you gonna be ok?”

Deku laughed a little, but it was empty, and he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah. I want to support Hawks, like I said. But if I don’t, my Dad might say something like Dabi did and well… I’d rather people hear it from me.”

“That sucks.” Spider Man groaned, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. “It’s like you’re being forced to do it just so that the villains won’t make you look bad.”

“Yeah.” Deku winced. “But I do want to support Hawks! So that’s not the whole reason.”

“You don’t have to support him.” Half and Half stared at Deku, frowning. “Just because… well, just because he’s the number one and everything. That doesn’t mean you have to hurt yourself to support him. I.. If it were me, I wouldn’t want that.”

Ah, fuck. Half and Half thought Deku was doing this in case Hawks’ bond with his brother was ever revealed. Which… he wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t the whole truth.

“I know, Todo-kun. Thank you.” Deku’s smile was softer now, and more real. “But I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t try.”

“You’re too damn nice for your own good, Zu-kun.” Brain Fucker sighed, unlocking his phone and frowning at it for a second before he set it aside. “On a related note… Eraserhead said I could tell everyone this if there was a good moment, and I guess this is as good as it gets. Midoriya’s not the only one who's going to have some dirty family history aired when Present Mic plays that interview. Eraserhead’s mother spent time in prison for illegal quirk usage and is classified as a former villain because of it.”

“Holy shit.” Pikachu reached over, placing his hand on Brain Fucker’s shoulder. “Really, babe?”

Brain Fucker blinked in surprise, his face turning slightly red at the nickname, but he nodded. “Apparently he personally testified against her.”

The whole fucking class was silent.

Rock Girl wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees. “There’s so many of us, even though being related to a villain isn’t common.”

Katsuki scowled. “It makes fucking sense, though. The people who’d be the most determined to stop these shitty villains are the ones whose lives have been impacted by them the most.”

“Yeah.” Round Face’s voice was sad as she gave Deku a small smile. “We’ve all been touched by heroes, but unfortunately all of us have dealt with villains ever since USJ, too. But we’re here to support each other!”

“Of course.” The Vice Pres nodded and stood up, clapping her hands together. “Would anyone like some tea? I personally find it helpful in stressful times.”

There was a chorus of begging–even Deku asked for some. Katsuki sighed and pulled the nerd into his lap, resting his chin on Deku’s shoulder and whispering, “I told you they wouldn’t care about this shit.”

Deku laughed. “I know, Kacchan. You were right. You always are.”

“Fuck yes, I am.”

The nerd giggled, turning toward Katsuki and kissing his cheek.

“Midoriya-kun!”

Katsuki grinned as Deku laughed again. “Sorry, Iida-kun. I won’t do it again, promise.”

Katsuki snorted. “Yeah, right. Maybe not today.”

Glasses groaned. “Midoriya-kun, please. I can overlook sitting in each other’s laps because friends do that as well, but the dorm rules clearly state that there should be no public displays of affection!”

Deku bit his lip and did his best to nod seriously, but Katsuki rolled his eyes, grinning as Pikachu practically lit up and jumped onto Brain Fucker’s lap.

“Kaminari-kun!”

“If they can do it, we can, too, right?” Pikachu was giving Glasses a bright grin, while his boyfriend smirked at Glasses from over Pikachu’s shoulder.

“I—you—!”

Katsuki burst out laughing. The only reason Glasses allowed that shit with them was because they needed physical contact for their bond, but Glasses couldn’t say shit to Pikachu, especially not in front of everyone. “That sounds fair to me.”

“Bakugou-kun! You are not helping!”

“Come on, President. You wouldn’t want to enforce the rules unequally, right?” Brain Fucker mimicked Katsuki’s position, resting his chin on Pikachu’s shoulder and wrapping his arms around him.

Glasses groaned. “Oh, fine. If you absolutely must.”

“I’m afraid it’s definitely necessary.” Brain Fucker somehow managed to look completely damn serious, but Pikachu ruined it with his shitty, unrepentant grin.

The Vice Pres returned then, carrying a tray with some cups, and the group slowly devolved into chatting before Glasses started checking to make sure everyone had finished their shitty work. Which of course Pikachu still hadn’t even started. Katsuki had finished most of his last night, but he resigned himself to helping the dumbasses for the rest of the evening.

Deku’s phone vibrated, and the nerd unlocked the screen to see a text from Invisible Girl with a picture from when Deku was sitting in Katsuki’s lap, laughing at something that Katsuki was whispering to him. She said she figured that they wouldn’t want the pic posted since Deku looked like he’d been crying, but apparently it had been ‘too cute’ and she hadn’t been able to resist taking it. Thank fuck she wasn’t going to try to post it. Deku didn’t seem concerned; the little shit immediately made it his background.

Whatever, at least Deku was happy.

The nerd then texted Aizawa-sensei, letting him know that it was ok to air the interview, and the hero texted back that Mic-sensei would edit it tomorrow and air it in the evening.

Waiting for that shit the next day was terrible, not that Deku could bring himself to listen to it when the interview went live. Instead, he just watched the online reactions as people reacted. Which… well, it wasn’t as bad as it had been for Hawks, though even that hadn’t been terrible, really. And if anything, more people seemed to support the new number one after Deku’s interview, which was what they’d fucking wanted. But there were also people yelling about how they couldn’t believe soulmates were related to a villain and it all had to be a publicity scam.

Katsuki fucking hated it.

Why the hell would Deku make all that shit up?! Who faked being related to a damn villain?!

Katsuki threw himself into training for the rest of the week and took Deku’s phone away from him whenever he could. They had other shit to focus on. While they were making steady progress with the amount of One for All they could use, they’d hit a fucking wall with Black Whip.

No matter what they tried, neither one of them could manage to successfully manipulate two strands independently of each other. Deku could at least grab two different objects with the quirk, but the second the quirk connected with each object, the two strands would dart toward each other and merge into one.

It was so damn annoying!! They could use the quirk just fine and make it longer and even somewhat multi-task, so why couldn’t they figure out how to use multiple strands?!

Even Aizawa-sensei wasn’t much help. Sure, he could teach them how to think more creatively with the quirk and shit, but his capture weapon was really just one long strand, too.

By the time Friday arrived, Katsuki was desperately hoping Aizawa-sensei had planned something good for duo training because Katsuki really needed to explode shit.

Katsuki cracked his knuckles as Deku opened the gym doors, and his eyes widened when it wasn’t just Aizawa-sensei inside.

“Hell. Yes!!” The Blond Asshole was finally ready to spar! The third year and his soulmate were standing next to Aizawa-sensei, and they all three turned toward Katsuki and Deku as they entered the gym.

“Senpai!” Deku ran toward them both, grinning. “Are you ready to spar again?!”

“You got it!” The Blond Asshole winked and gave them a thumbs up. “I’ve sparred with all my old classmates and beat them! Though it was a close call a few times.”

Holy shit.

He’d beaten all of his classmates?!

Senpai was really going to do it. He was going to be the first quirkless hero. Katsuki couldn’t help but grin. “You found a damn good support weapon, then?”

“Yup! Melissa-san came up with the idea and invented it for me, so thanks for introducing us! Actually, she wanted me to give you two these, as well!” He held up a case and Katsuki’s eyes widened. Shit, he’d forgotten about the visors they’d asked for after the Feathered Menace had suggested them. It had to be those, though, right? “Apparently she and Hatsume-san got really into making your visors and added lots of features for you, so you’ll have to read their handbook on it.”

“That’s amazing!” Deku was beaming and practically vibrating with excitement as he bounded toward the case, opening it and immediately pulling his out before passing the case to Katsuki.

Katsuki took out his visor, setting the case on the ground so that he could look at it more closely. They’d replicated his mask’s design like he’d asked, though it was dark gray instead of black. It was almost opaque, but when he slipped it over his head Katsuki could still see through clearly.

Immediately a small video feed started in the bottom left, showing the view from Deku’s visor. It was disorienting as hell to see that from Deku’s eyes and Katsuki’s own visor, but after a few seconds Katsuki was able to ignore it.

Katsuki turned to the nerd to see what Deku’s visor actually looked like on his soulmate—its edges were more rounded like the Feathered Menace’s, but it was see-through green with a lightning bolt extending back on each side, mirroring the explosions on Katsuki’s. Katsuki snorted–they were on the side of his head instead of on a hood, but they also kind of mimicked the fucking bunny ears the nerd had wanted on his original costume.

“These are amazing!” The nerd glanced longingly at the thick packet of instructions in their case, but shook his head and turned toward the Blond Asshole. “I’ll have to read about all the features later. Senpai, what support weapon did you pick?!”

The third year laughed and held out his fist, opening it slightly to let one heavy metal bar fall down, dangling from a chord that could only be as wide as his shoulders. “It’s based on the kusari-fundo, but there’s an indent I can press as I throw them that will make the chains release a thin layer of sticky tar that will trap anyone I hit.”

Katsuki narrowed his eyes. That was definitely a long distance weapon. “I thought you also wanted something that could absorb a shitty physical attack if you needed it to?”

“It can!” The Blond Asshole’s grin turned challenging. “Wanna see?”

That small piece of shit could absorb a hit? “Hell yes. Let’s fucking spar already.”

Aizawa-sensei shrugged and picked up their visors' case before walking over to the wall and leaning against it. “You have ten minutes. Don’t make any of your attacks too large, we don’t have anyone with a quirk on staff who can repair this forest easily.”

Pointy Ears sighed, reaching into his pouch to eat who-knows-what shit before he stood behind his soulmate, waiting for him to make the first move.

An electronic voice over the speakers began to count down.

The second it reached zero, Katsuki blasted forward, aiming straight toward the Blond Asshole, but switching at the last second and sending a larger blast at Pointy Ears as Deku rolled underneath it, then sprang up to punch the Blond Asshole in his stomach—

But the taut chain caught the underside of Deku’s wrist, forcing his punch harmlessly up into the air as the Blonde Asshole rammed his knee into Deku’s stomach, making both Deku and Katsuki grunt at the force.

Damn it! They still couldn’t control his reactions when each other were hit. Not when it was something that hurt like hell.

Pointy Ears peeked out from behind his shitty clam shell shield that he'd erected right before the attack landed. “Frontal assaults aren’t going to work, but the switch was a good idea.”

“Stop lecturing us in the middle of the damn spar!”

“I wasn’t—”

Katsuki released another huge explosion, forcing Pointy Ears to shut the hell up, then blasted upwards, landing on a tree limb before showering both third years with an AP shot.

And then the shitty chain slammed into his legs, knocking him off the damn tree and making him tuck and roll as he hit the ground since both his legs were still fucking wrapped together.

Katsuki glared at the damn chain, kicking it away. The Blond Asshole hadn’t even bothered activating the sticky shit.

“Kacchan! He’s got—”

Another chain slammed into his side—this one had to be longer, because it wrapped around his arms and chest—but Katsuki ripped it off with his free hand. Still none of the damn tar. “Stop going easy on us, you asshole!”

Pointy Ears had disappeared when Katsuki hit the ground, but the Blond Asshole was a few feet away, holding up his hands defensively. “I’m not, promise! I have to reload the tar, so I can’t use it every time I throw them.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. That better be the reason. Still, that shit had hurt. “You could break someone’s fucking bones if you’re not careful.” All it would take was the solid iron handle hitting their leg first instead of the chain.

“Yeah… It took a while to learn how to aim them well.” The Blond Asshole rubbed at the back of his head. “The point is to keep people from running away, so I need a lot of force to trip them up, but obviously breaking bones isn’t my priority, even if that does stop people from running.”

Wait. The Asshole was still keeping his left fist tight. Katsuki quickly jumped up, blasting backward to narrowly avoid a third chain. The third year’s hands were so damn big, he could completely hide that he had the shitty weapon in them!

The Blonde Asshole grinned, holding up his right hand, which now had another one in it. “Now you’re catching on!”

Deku crashed through the undergrowth, a kick aimed straight down at the Blond Asshole’s leg, but the third year used the taut chain to block again, then spun to the left to avoid Deku’s follow up punch.

Katsuki growled, darting forward to slam another explosion into him, but suddenly a wall of vines separated them. “What the hell?!”

“I ate some parsley.” Pointy Ears’ voice came from the right. “It’s very flexible since it’s such a small plant, and if I make a lot of it, then it’s an effective long distance shield.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched and he held out his hand, blasting through it. “Plants are flammable, dumbass. Try again.” Katsuki scanned the trees, but the Blond Asshole had already disappeared again. “Damn it!”

He turned to glare at the remaining third year, who shrugged. “I didn’t need to delay you for long. Mirio’s still fast.”

“I’ve got Tamaki-senpai!” Deku darted forward, leaping around the tentacles that emerged to block his path. “Kacchan, go after Mirio-senpai. His chains won’t be as effective against explosions as they are against punches!”

Right! Katsuki ran as Deku blocked Pointy Ears from stalling him. He just had to find—

There was a whistle in the air, and Katsuki pulled on One for All, speeding up his movements as he ducked to avoid the chain.

“You’ve gotten a lot better at switching quirks!”

Katsuki glared up at the Blond Asshole, who was sitting on the same tree limb Katsuki had claimed earlier in the spar. “How many of those damn things do you have?!”

“A lot.” The Blond Asshole grinned at him. “The chains are really light and sturdy, and the weights on the end aren’t that heavy.”

He jumped down, closing the space between them in seconds and aiming a punch first at Katsuki’s gut, then another at his right shoulder, then his left. Katsuki flipped backwards, increasing the distance again, but then he had to dodge the damn chain that the Blond Asshole had swung at him. Katsuki rolled under another swing before dodging a right punch—he couldn’t just dodge! It was too damn predictable! Even though Katsuki was using One for All, he was still too damn slow and the Asshole could read all of his movements.

Katsuki released explosions, launching himself into the air before firing off another round of AP shots straight at Senpai.

Finally a hit!

And then he had to blast to the side, dodging the chain that went flying straight at his gut.

Katsuki panted, landing on the tree limb and watching the Blond Asshole warily. What shit would he try next? The third year couldn’t dodge the long distance explosions fast enough, but he used the fact that Katsuki couldn’t see through his own explosions to cover for that fucking chain. It only worked because the Blond Asshole could throw with enough force to overcome the air pressure from Katsuki’s explosions, but it was damn annoying.

Right now they both had an equal chance of landing their attacks.

Well, if Katsuki couldn’t attack through the air, then he might as well try the ground.

Deku had lost sight of Pointy Ears, who had used the fucking parsley to hide in the shitty undergrowth, but Katsuki wasn’t worried.

He blasted toward the third-year, releasing smaller blasts to make the asshole dodge and put him on the offensive and—there! The Blond Asshole twisted his dodge into one smooth attack, kicking toward Katsuki’s ribs, but Katsuki ducked, slamming a blast into the ground with One for All fueling his explosions and erupting the earth beneath them.

A chain wrapped around his foot, yanking him down to the ground and making him grunt from the force. Two could play at that fucking game. Instead of rolling to the side to avoid the Blond Asshole’s follow-up attack, Katsuki called on Black Whip, which darted out, ensnaring Senpai in one go.

Katsuki grinned. “I fucking win!”

“This is new.” The Blond Asshole stared at the quirk, studying it as Katsuki pulled off his chain and slowly stood up. “Did you two find another ability?”

“Deku’s quirk stores energy.” Katsuki kicked aside the chain. “We were working on finding other ways to use that energy, and we figured out this.”

“That’s awesome!” The Blond Asshole was giving him this huge ass grin, even though the quirk was completely wrapped around his torso. How could the asshole be so happy when he just fucking lost?

“I won, damn it! So you can’t—”

An octopus tentacle wrapped around Katsuki’s arms and torso. It was… weirdly slick, for some reason? But because of the suction shit on the tentacles, Katsuki couldn’t twist to rexplode the damn tentacle, which meant he was fucking stuck unless he could kick the release trigger free for the explosions on his boots–

Deku darted through the bushes, blasting the tentacles to pieces, and Katsuki immediately ripped off the damn suction cups, but as he did, the slippery shit was fucking everywhere, making Katsuki fall to the ground.

Black Whip vanished.

Katsuki growled at the Blond Asshole’s knowing grin. “If it’s a new ability, you have to focus a lot to use it, right?”

Slowly, Katsuki stood back up, glaring at the white shit all over the ground. “What the hell is this shit?!”

“Snail mucus. I’ve been eating escargot and then working on secreting their mucus through other animal transformations. It was only a matter of time before you escaped the tentacle, so I needed a secondary trap to make you lose concentration.”

“That’s fucking disgusting.” Katsuki shuddered. And he was covered in this shit since he’d fallen in it.

“I… I’m not… Mirio.” Shit, now Pointy Ears was whining and hiding under his hood.

“It’s ok, Tamaki!” The Blond Asshole gave his soulmate a thumbs up. “I think it’s cool, not gross! You worked really hard on that!”

Deku nodded eagerly. “That’s really amazing that you can use multiple transformations together, Senpai!”

“Get over yourself. It’s fucking annoying in a fight and now I need a shower, so let’s finish this shit.” Katsuki raised one hand to fling a barrage of explosions toward the Blond Asshole and Pointy Ears, but they both disappeared while Katsuki’s vision was obscured by the blasts. Damn it! He needed to go with AP shot more often.

Katsuki stood up and growled in frustration as Deku shifted, standing at Katsuki’s back to give them both full vision of the surrounding area.

The Blonde Asshole jumped out of the bushes in front of Deku, who immediately lunged forward, sending out Black Whip to grab the Blond Asshole’s leg, but he rolled to the side. “You trying to copy my moves, Greeny-chan?”

Katsuki fired an explosion at the third year’s feet while Deku followed his dodge and aimed a kick at his midsection. The chain caught Deku’s leg, and the Asshole finally activated the damn tar as he flipped the chain around Deku’s leg and rolled underneath him in one smooth movement, connecting the chain to Deku’s other leg and making him crash to the ground.

Katsuki was there in an instant, landing a One for All filled punch on the Asshole’s back that made him retreat, but Deku was already aiming Black Whip, from where he was trapped on the ground, and—

A chain slammed against the quirk, making the whip’s movements falter at the force of the throw, and the Blond Asshole escaped.

Katsuki fired AP shots into the bushes. Nothing.

Damn it!

The buzzer rang overhead, and blasts burst from Katsuki’s palms. Fuck! They’d been so damn close!! But every time they almost had him, Pointy Ears would intervene. “You can’t hide behind your soulmate in a real fight, dumbass!”

The Blond Asshole popped out of the damn bushes behind them like it was completely normal to hide in that shit. “Yeah, but this is a two on two, right? It would be silly for us to ignore Tamaki’s strengths.”

Katsuki scowled. So what if that was true. “Your reflexes with one on one sparring are damn good, but you aren’t making enough use of the fact that your punches hurt like hell.”

The Blond Asshole laughed and fucking patted his head before Katsuki swatted his hand away. “That’s because you two were expecting me to come in with only punches, right? You were both guarding yourselves for those, which meant I needed to use other tricks.”

Katsuki glared at him. “As long as you weren’t underestimating us.”

“Of course not! I had to give it my all, especially with your new attack! It gives you a lot more range, which I hadn’t been expecting. Midoriya didn’t even pause in attacking back after I trapped his legs!”

“We should go meet back with Eraserhead.” Pointy Ears walked through the trees behind him, his ears morphing back from bat ears. The third year held out at least a dozen chains to his soulmate. “I gathered all of them for you, Mirio.”

“Thanks, Tamaki!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and stomped over to Deku, who was blasting at the tar to get it to come off. “Some of us can’t fucking walk still, or did you forget you trapped Deku’s legs?”

“Sorry about that! Water’s actually way faster.” The Blond Asshole pulled a water bottle from the side of his belt, quickly moving to Deku’s side and pouring it over the chain. “There you go! With your quirk, you should be able to pull it off, now.”

“Thanks, Senpai!” Deku managed to yank the chain off his leg, then handed it to the third year as Katsuki helped him up.

“Why the hell did Aizawa-sensei only let us have ten fucking minutes to spar?” Katsuki growled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he marched toward the front of the gym, the others following behind him. Usually they had half an hour.

“Oh. Um.” Pointy ears looked down, then held up his hand, letting small tentacles emerge from each finger, then letting multiple strands of parsley come from his wrist. “He thought maybe I could help with your quirk. He didn’t explain why, but seeing the new ability you used against Mirio, it’s probably that?”

“That’s great!!” Deku grabbed onto the third year’s hand, studying how each branch of parsley was growing in a new direction. “How do you make them move separately? When we sparred you always used it as a wall, but the octopus arms operate individually, and right now the parsley is moving individually, too. Do both transformations operate the same way? Or is one different because it comes from your fingers? Or are they different because one is a plant and one is an animal? Or—”

“Whoa, whoa!” The Blond Asshole clapped a hand on Deku’s shoulder. “One question at a time, alright? Tamaki can’t answer if you give him a bunch at once.”

Pointy Ears sighed, “Let’s see if Aizawa-sensei needs anything else before I start answering questions.”

Much to Pointy Ears’ disappointment, Sensei didn’t need shit, and Deku unleashed the flood of questions again.

The third year tugged on his hood, looking away from them as he answered. “I just think of each tentacle as a finger, but you already have the pointers on your gloves to help with that.”

“Yeah.” The nerd held his hand out, studying the glove. “I can shoot out multiple whips, but then they all merge into one the second I’m distracted.” Pointy Ears watched the two black whips shoot out, each grabbing on to different trees. “The only way I can keep them separate is if the objects can’t merge, like this.”

Two tentacles emerged from Senpai’s hand, and he nodded to Deku. “Grab the ends of these. I’ll move them around and maybe that will help you get used to it.”

It didn’t.

Even his tentacles couldn’t hold Black Whip separated. When Deku tried too hard to hold them apart, suddenly the whip turned sharp, cutting through each of them and then merging together.

They all stared.

“What the fuck?” They hadn’t made the whip sharp since the first day when it had activated and destroyed all the shit around them. Katsuki looked over at Deku, who was staring at the angry, jagged edges of Black Whip in shock. “How the hell did you make it do that?”

The nerd shrugged, and Black Whip immediately retreated into his arm. “I was focusing hard on Tamaki-senpai’s tentacles and I just wanted something to work…” Deku blinked, then groaned and ran a hand over his face. “I got really angry again.” He sighed.

Pointy Ears made four new tentacles, holding them out to Deku and Katsuki. “We can work on that aspect today instead, then. You could also think about a hero whose quirk is close to it. First years have to do winter internships this year, right?”

A quirk to help with Black Whip?

Wait.

“Fucking hell, we’re idiots.” The answer was fucking obvious. Katsuki turned toward Aizawa-sensei, who was resting in his sleeping bag by the wall. “Sensei! Best Jeanist requested the nerd and I after the Sports Festival. We can intern with him, right?”

Black eyes opened and evaluated them for a few seconds, but then he nodded. “If you can convince Todoroki.”

“Whatever. We’ll convince Half and Half.” Like hell Katsuki was going to take no for an answer, and the apathetic bastard probably wouldn’t care, anyway. For now, they had more important shit to focus on. Katsuki turned to Pointy Ears with a feral grin. “Let’s figure out how to make Black Whip sharpen on command.”

The nerd gave a determined nod and turned to face the third year as well. “Right!”

Pointy Ears sighed.

Notes:

Relevant side content:
Background info on Mirio's weapon, the kusari-fundo

---

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I tried my best to balance the angst with some good fluff <3 The boys still aren't really relaxing and are overwhelmed with stress, but they've got supportive friends, at least. Tysm to Ollie and Geeky in my server for beta-ing this huge monster of a chapter for me!!! And ty as well for all the comments and kudos, I always appreciate them! Next Friday will be another chapter of Zero-Fate and then the two weeks after that will be chapters in Error!

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 5: The Teamwork Assessment

Katsuki and Deku were counting down the days until winter break.

Even if Katsuki still didn’t want to leave campus, Deku’s excitement about working with Best Jeanist was infectious. Half and Half had been a bit bewildered at first about why Sensei wanted the three of them to intern together, but in the end he’d shrugged and agreed. Despite their different quirks, he figured that it would be impossible not to improve while working with the new number two.

And Best Jeanist had agreed to have them as interns, so UA was already arranging the transportation details. Like everyone who wasn’t interning with a teacher, the three of them would be staying at the hero’s agency during the internship, but then they would have New Year's Eve and Day off before leaving for their training camp on January second. Their parents had made it clear that they weren’t allowed to train on their two days off, and part of Katsuki felt guilty for feeling thankful about that shit. He wanted to train and get better! They had to. But damn he was looking forward to the New Year holiday.

For now, though, 1A still had to do classes and shit. Today was some sort of special teamwork assessment, as well as the first day that they would be wearing their winter costumes.

Deku’s was the same except in a warm, thick fabric–Katsuki was pretty sure it was some kind of synthetic wool. Katsuki’s had the same new fabric, and he’d switched to long sleeves plus a high collar with fleece-lining—anything to help insulate him from the cold and keep producing sweat.

The others had mostly added jackets, but Shitty Hair was a fucking idiot who had added sleeves while keeping his torso bare. Katsuki glared at him. “How the hell can you save people if you die from hypothermia?”

“I just run warm, man, it’s no problem! Besides, I cut through most fabric when my quirk activates.” He shrugged, then activated his quirk in his arms, studying the sleeves as he pounded his fists together. “I’m testing things out with the sleeves since I want to be able to carry civilians without hurting them. We’re not sure how long this fabric will last.”

What the hell. “Then find a material that works and then use it as a full shirt, dumbass.”

Shitty Hair groaned. “But all the materials that work are too warm! I start burning up!”

Fucking dumbass.

“He can always try different things over this winter and see what works, right?” Spider Man shrugged, then picked up his helmet to head out to the gym. “It’s not like we’re stuck with these—you revise your costume all the time, Blasty.”

Katsuki glared at Spider Man’s back as he and Shitty Hair left the changing room. Internships were starting soon and Shitty Hair had to figure shit out before then or he’d get too fucking cold to function because of a long patrol. Katsuki shook his head. Shitty Hair would be fine. He was working with that hero Fat Gum again, so he could borrow Pointy Ears’ cape if he needed it.

Katsuki slipped his visor into place, its video feed turning on as Deku did the same. Time to head out and see what this shitty teamwork assessment was about.

Brain Fucker sighed behind them. “Are you two even capable of walking out of sync with each other?”

“I know, right?! It’s super weird!”

Katsuki flipped off him and Pikachu as he kicked open the door. They were the last four to leave the changing room, so they quickly made their way over to where their classmates were gathered in front of Aizawa-sensei and some of the other teachers: All Might, the 1B Blood Guy, and R-Rated.

Katsuki listened as Aizawa-sensei described the exercise. Supposedly the activity was to help them work as a team and consider what types of heroes they would work best with during their internships, but Katsuki knew what it really was: an opportunity to prove that he and Deku were the fucking best.

Deku was teamed up with Round Face, Shitty Hair, and Pinky, but they would be going last. Katsuki’s team was fourth, and he had Spider Man, Rock Girl, and Sugar Guy.

He could work with this.

The others sat around and tried to plan and shit, but Katsuki knew that was useless. Their opponents would expect them to play it safe since they had Rock Girl. If Katsuki had learned anything from the Blonde Asshole, it was never to do what your opponent expected. That meant they needed a full frontal assault. After that, they’d adjust to shit as needed.

Katsuki barely paid attention to the other teams other than listening to Deku’s muttered analyses. There were so many open holes in everyone’s teamwork. It was all sloppy as hell: everyone was too fucking dependent on one strategy and they flailed when shit didn’t work perfectly.

Like hell Katsuki would let his team make the same mistakes.

When it was finally his turn, Katsuki stomped toward the arena, then turned to look at his teammates. “Alright, idiots. We’re going for a fucking perfect victory: 4-0, got it? The strong don’t settle for any fucking less!”

They all stared at him.

“What’re the 1B losers’ quirks?”

Rock Girl sighed. “You’d know this already if you’d listened to us when we were planning. Their leader is probably Lizardy. She’s one of the recommendation students in 1B and her quirk allows her to split apart her body and regenerate parts like a lizard.”

Fucking useless. Lizard Girl had to be smart as hell if she’d been recommended with a shitty quirk like that. “The other dumbasses?”

“Plamo’s quirk lets him create a fast-drying glue.” Spider Man shrugged. “His quirk is kind of similar to my tape since they’re both adhesives. Welder is another adhesive quirk–he can weld together any two objects he touches.”

So three shitty support quirks.

“Jack Mantis can produce blades from his body.” Sugar Man rubbed at the back of his neck, his voice uncertain as if they wouldn’t fucking win this shit easily. “They can cut through steel, and we don’t have any good quirks to block them with.”

As if that mattered if they attacked first. All those quirks were easy to deal with. “Here’s the damn plan: follow my lead and back me up from behind. When you guys are in trouble, I’ll save you. And if I’m ever in trouble, back me up.” Katsuki unfastened some grenades from his belt and tossed them each one, rolling his eyes when they fumbled to catch them. “Take those. They’re shit, but they might help. Along the way, Rock Girl will keep her ears open and track them—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Spider Man shook his head as if Katsuki had lost his damn mind. “We’re going straight for the kill? But their team specializes in defense. Since we’ve got Jirou, why not play it safe and wait for an opening?

“Dumbass, that’s exactly why we’ve gotta make the first move or we’re dead in the water! We can’t wait for a shitty opening. We have to smash in and make our own! As soon as we spot them, they’re ours!”

The others exchanged uneasy looks, and Katsuki glared at them. “They’ll expect us to wait for them, dumbasses! All of their shitty plans will be based on that. We have to blast their plans to pieces!”

At that the three finally looked more confident, thank fuck.

The buzzer sounded.

Katsuki blasted forward, heading to where they knew the 1B starting point was, but damn it! “Hurry it up, you fucking slowpokes!” They were going so damn slow! Katsuki was used to moving alongside Deku and the Feathered Menace and these dumbasses couldn’t even match half that!

“I have to listen as I move!” Rock Girl was extending her quirk as she ran, and Katsuki growled in annoyance.

Damn it! She should practice more so that she could fucking multi-task better. “Whatever! Just move!”

The dumbasses were grumbling behind him, but Katsuki didn’t care. They could keep up and he knew it, so he’d force them to push themselves.

There! Katsuki saw shit move in the distance—it had to be one of 1B! “Stop! They’re here!” Katsuki landed on a pipe, watching ahead of them while Rock Girl set her ear jacks against the ground. “They’ve gotta be close, find them!”

Damn it! Why was she—

“They’ve got us!”

What the hell?!

“Yes, it’s all over now.”

A voice behind him! Katsuki whirled, letting off a blast right where the sound had been, but it was already dodging.

And that’s when he saw them.

Lizard Girl had split her body into hundreds of different parts, all dancing on the pipes to distract Rock Girl.

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed.

All the different parts flew at him at once, but Katsuki twisted, blasting himself into a tight spin that created a quick shield—like a miniature version of his howitzer blast on the ground.

Spider-Man had made a tape maze to protect the others, but now it was all covered in that other dumbass's glue, which was fucking stupid and redundant. Spider Man’s tape was effective on him just like any normal shitty tape. It was a damn double edged sword.

Katsuki could see Lizard Girl’s head and Glue Dude, but what was their damn plan?

“Too slow!” Blade Guy was racing toward them, slashing through the pipes that held Spider Man’s tape.

Katsuki shot toward the others, completely destroying the tape and blasting the pipes back, then putting himself between Blade Guy and Rock Girl while shooting out a tendril of Black Whip, encircling the idiot. Blade Guy immediately started to squirm, but he couldn’t do shit—unlike Spider Man’s tape, you couldn’t cut Black Whip.

“What is this?! Neither one of you soulmates has a quirk like this!”

“Deku’s quirk stores and manipulates energy, dumbass.” One for All flashed around Katsuki as he darted forward, knocking out Blade Guy in one smooth hit before tossing him onto the ground in front of his team. “Take him to the cage!”

Katsuki pivoted with another blast, flying straight toward Glue Dude. A blast to his face knocked him out easy, but Lizard Girl had already slipped away.

Katsuki growled, tossing Glue Dude at Sugar Guy. “Take them both to the cage! Who’s their last shitty member?” Only three of the dumbasses had shown up.

“Welder!” Rock Girl shouted out, her ear jacks already in the ground, hunting for Lizard Girl.

Katsuki grinned. Explosions were good for destroying welds.

“There are fewer pieces this time!” Rock Girl called out again, focusing on the ground. “If I can focus, I can tell what’s what!”

“Fewer pieces?” Spider Man frowned.

Katsuki growled, “Does she think we’re just gonna stay here and let her regroup? Let’s go!”

He blasted forward, twisting through the pipes and following after where they’d seen Lizard Girl’s various parts disappear.

A shadow!

Katsuki flipped upwards, shooting Black Whip around the shadow and then grinning as he felt the quirk tighten around its target. Katsuki pulled the shadow back toward them. “Look who I fucking caught.” Their Welder Dumbass.

Spider Man arrived next, taping one of Lizard Girl’s pieces to a pipe as he swung down to land next to Katsuki. “Can I tape around… whatever this energy thing is? You said it’s from Midoriya’s quirk?” Spider Man gestured at Black Whip, and Katsuki shrugged. He honestly had no fucking clue.

Katsuki hit the back of the Welder Dumbass’ neck with 4% of One for All, knocking him out and releasing Black Whip as Rock Girl finally arrived. “Doesn’t fucking matter. Take this dumbass to the cage. Rock Girl and I will catch Lizard Girl.”

“Right!” Spider Man gave him a salute, then taped his grenade to the nearest flailing lizard piece before releasing it. “My guess is she’s calling those back to her body. That should help you find her.”

Katsuki grinned as the piece flew off. “Knew I let you hang around for a reason.”

“Jeez, thanks so much. I’m really feeling the love here, Blasty.” Spider Man rolled his eyes, as he started wrapping tape around the Welder Dumbass.

Katsuki was already blasting off with Rock Girl following behind him. “Ten meters ahead! The pieces are all centering around a tall, narrow structure!”

Bingo.

Katsuki eyed the tower about ten meters ahead, landing on a pipe and switching to One for All with one smooth jump, then leaping from one pipe to the next as he circled around the tower. If Spider Man was right, that grenade should be arriving soon and—

Katsuki jumped onto the tower, then let himself free fall toward Lizard Girl right as the small grenade exploded in her face. One huge blast later and the girl was unconscious, falling as her body still gathered back together, and Katsuki quickly caught her with Black Whip before landing himself.

Rock Girl came running up and Katsuki grinned at her. “Last one’s down.”

It was a fucking piece of cake to deliver the last dumbass to their cage, and they’d officially won with a 4-0 victory and the fastest time yet.

Katsuki laughed as they left the arena and Deku was waiting for him. “Beat that if you fucking can, nerd.”

“I will, Kacchan!” Deku beamed at him, determination sparkling in his eyes and damn, Katsuki wanted to kiss him, but the nerd was already turning toward his teammates and trying to fucking strategize and shit.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. Any dumbass could see what their best move would be.

And sure enough, the second the buzzer went off, Deku was blasting forward just like Katsuki had, except the nerd was carrying Shitty Hair with Black Whip as he vaulted through the pipes.

Fucking show off. Katsuki didn’t have the control with Black Whip to manage shit like that as easily, and no doubt Round Face had made Shitty Hair weightless.

The second Deku saw someone, he did a flip and flung Shitty Hair like a fucking sling shot as Round Face shouted, “Release!”

Shitty Hair went Unbreakable and rammed straight into the short guy, knocking him into the light haired girl and then overwhelming them with punches. Deku was there instantly, releasing an explosion to keep the 1B dumbasses from helping out their teammates, and then Pinky slid into the mayhem, joining Shitty Hair and melting the objects that Ghost Girl was trying to use to defend.

Deku was fighting two from 1B—a girl wearing red and Copy Bastard. Red-Outfit Girl sent some gigantic hex nut flying toward Deku, but Round Face somehow jumped off a building and landed on it, making it weightless and then throwing it around the 1B girl so that she was stuck in the nut’s center and couldn’t move.

Copy Bastard ran forward, slapping Deku to try to grab his fucking quirk or some shit, but Deku chopped the back of his neck and one second later he was unconscious.

Deku turned and grinned at Pinky and Shitty Hair, who had knocked out the other two. “Let’s get them back to the cage! Ochaco-chan, would you make them all weightless and we can take one person each?”

Katsuki glanced at the clock and growled.

Damn it! Deku was going to finish faster than him. “Fucking Lizard Girl.”

“Dude!” Pikachu groaned as Deku’s team delivered their opponents for another 4-0 victory. “You soulmates are too strong, it’s not a fair match.”

“What the hell?!” Katsuki glared at Pikachu. “If you think we’re that much stronger, then just get better! Don’t complain about shit!”

“You’ve figured out how to do a whole new technique and give yourselves even more fighting options!” Invisible Girl groaned, her costume sagging as she slouched in defeat and added, “It’s impossible to win.”

“You are fated to be the best.” Pony Girl shook her head, then added, “We cannot beat you.”

“Stop being such a fucking defeatist!”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “Do you really think these two are that much stronger?”

Complete silence.

Lizard Girl gestured vaguely at the screen. “It’s obvious, right? They’re soulmates and already ranked at number fifty in the charts. We’re just hero trainees.”

Aizawa-sensei scoffed, “You’re all just hero trainees. And there will be many times in your career when you’re fighting someone stronger than you and you’ll still need to win, not only for yourself, but for the people you’re saving.”

Katsuki frowned. What was the asshole thinking of making them do? Aizawa-sensei wouldn’t just give a fucking lecture without somehow drilling the point into their damn heads.

Deku and the others arrived back with the group, and the nerd bounded over next to Katsuki as Recovery Girl sighed and hobbled over to treat the 1B dumbasses. “I win! My time was faster, Kacchan!”

Katsuki glared at him. “I want a fucking rematch.” Katsuki bet he could beat the four Deku faced at an even faster speed.

“We do have some extra time since Bakugou and Midoriya finished their rounds so quickly…” Aizawa rubbed at the back of his neck for a second, then grinned, and it sent shivers down Katsuki’s spine. “One last round. You have forty minutes. Bakugou and Midoriya vs. all the other teams. Whichever teams capture one of them gets extra credit. If Bakugou and Midoriya manage to capture everyone in the class, then they get the extra credit.”

Katsuki grinned. “Hell yes!”

Next to him, Deku squeaked. “Us against everyone? Sensei! That’s so many people!”

“Are you saying you can’t win?” Aizawa-sensei raised an eyebrow, staring at them in a direct challenge.

“Hell no!”

Deku hesitated a second, then took a deep breath, his face settling into determination. “Alright, Sensei. We’ll do it.”

“Of fucking course we will.” Katsuki couldn’t ask for a better challenge.

“Bakugou and Midoriya, you’ll use cage B.” Aizawa-sensei looked over at the other students, adding, “The cages won’t fit everyone, so after you’re captured you can leave the cage, but you aren’t allowed to leave that area or help anyone in any way. Everyone else, if you catch Bakugou or Midoriya, put them in cage A. Remember to keep collateral damage low–it’s a good habit to develop. Now, move to Ground Beta and get in position.”

The city.

Katsuki grinned. He and Deku had sparred so much in that damn city with the other two soulmate pairs, they had the layout practically memorized.

As one, Katsuki and Deku turned toward the city arena, ignoring the whispers around them as their classmates assembled back into their earlier teams.

They had a mission.

Once they reached their "team's" cage, Katsuki flexed his hands, stretching his fingers and then shaking out his wrists.

“Reverse the strategy?”

Katsuki didn’t even bother looking at Deku. “Of course, dumbass.” To catch this many people, they needed to move as quietly as possible. Katsuki’s explosions would be like a fucking homing beacon—they’d wanted that in the previous rounds, but this time it was the last thing they needed.

Ten teams. Thirty-eight people. All of them vying to destroy him and Deku.

Katsuki grinned.

The buzzer rang.

Katsuki and Deku darted forward as one, though Deku quickly pulled ahead. The security room for this shitty mock city was on the shopping mall’s roof in the city’s center. They needed to watch out for shit, then use the room to locate where the damn spy quirks were hiding.

Deku reached the room in under two minutes, quickly scanning the screens for the surveillance type quirks, but Katsuki immediately turned and left, heading to the nearest easy target. His grip on Black Whip wasn’t strong, so he needed someone who wouldn’t be able to fight him once they were in the quirk’s grasp.

And Shitty Hair was presenting the perfect fucking opportunity. Their group was already at a disadvantage since there were only three of them, and while Round Face and Pinky were sticking close to each other, Shitty Hair was wandering further away…

There!

Black Whip darted out, circling around the idiot’s mouth and torso, then yanking him towards Katsuki in one smooth moment. The girls immediately shouted, but Katsuki had Shitty Hair on his shoulder and was darting over the rooftops and between buildings in seconds.

Neither one of those idiots had a speed quirk.

No one could have moved far since Deku last checked the monitors, so Katsuki circled around danger zones and soon tossed Shitty Hair into the cage, releasing him from Black Whip.

A buzzer rang out over the stadium, followed by a voice announcing that Shitty Hair had been captured.

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed in annoyance. That was fucking new.

“Bakugou!” Shitty Hair glared at him, “Why’d you grab me first, man?! And since when can you move that quietly?!”

Katsuki shrugged, “Don’t make yourself an easy target, dumbass.” He backed up, giving Deku space since he was approaching fast.

The nerd gave him a cheeky grin as he landed, tossing in the steel dude and some other 1B idiot with black hair. “Looks like I beat you again, Kacchan.”

Oh, it was on. Katsuki glared at Deku as the speaker announced the next two captures: Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Kaibara Sen.

“Now the dumbasses will expect us to move separately because of the shitty staggered capture announcements. We need to move together this time.”

Deku’s grin widened. “You sure you’re not saying that because you need help?”

“Shut up, dumbass!” Katsuki glared at him. “Let’s target the team you were against.” Their quirks would be easy to limit with Black Whip, and Copy Bastard would become annoying if they let him run into anyone else.

Deku nodded and was already running off, which made Katsuki growl. Without explosions, he couldn’t go as fast as the dumbass! He pushed himself harder, though, pulling on more of One for All until his muscles burned. Like hell he’d tell the nerd to slow down.

The 1B team were mostly hiding in the toy store, though Ghost Girl was out front and had grabbed shit from in there to float around her—all kinds of fucking marbles and action figures.

No one could get anywhere near the front entrance without her knowing.

They circled around and stopped on the roof above the toy store, but of course there wasn’t a fucking door from the roof–that would be too damn convenient.

The nerd dropped down onto his stomach, edging closer to the ledge. In one smooth movement, his Black Whip shot downward, circling around Ghost Girl and flinging her up onto the roof, but a bunch of other shit came with her, pelting Kasuki with all the marbles as he swung his arm to hit the back of her skull, knocking her out.

The marbles and toys all clattered onto the roof.

Shit, there’s no way the others inside hadn’t heard that.

Deku sighed and released the girl since she couldn’t do shit while unconscious.

With one down, Deku laid down and peeked over the roof’s ledge again, assessing 1B’s reaction, but there wasn’t anything.

They were all waiting inside.

Damn it, that shop had been tight to fight in even when it had just been Katsuki and the Blonde Asshole. This was going to be fucking annoying.

But they couldn’t let Copy Bastard regroup with unknown quirks.

Katsuki knelt over by the corner to the right of the door, away from the storefront window, then jumped down.

No movement.

Deku reached down, pulling on the doorknob to open it with Black Whip, but still nothing happened.

Katsuki slowly peaked around the corner of the building, blinking in surprise when his visor automatically did some shit to adjust to the dark room to make it easier to see, but wherever they were hiding, it was out of sight.

Deku jumped down, landing in front of the doorway next to Katsuki.

Still not a damn thing.

Whatever shit they’d set up, it was going to release the second they stepped through that door.

Katsuki growled. They had to keep property damage to a minimum, too, which was fucking annoying. Otherwise they would just punch through this damn wall.

Deku looked over at Katsuki and nodded, then One for All flashed around him as he darted through the doorway, using Black Whip to block the wooden crap that rained down from the ceiling, though it still managed to clip Deku’s heel.

There was a giant fucking teddy bear sitting in the middle of the store, shielding the other assholes from any attack. What the hell?

Deku’s Black Whip struck with a jagged edge, slicing through the teddy bear, but the 1B dumbasses were already moving. Katsuki darted inside as his soulmate's Black Whip circled around the shorty, its jagged edge gone, but Copy Bastard tagged the short asshole’s costume, making it rapidly expand and letting the shorty fall out of it and roll behind the teddy bear’s leg.

So Copycat had a size quirk right now. The Red-Outfit Girl’s?

Fuck!

Katsuki ducked, grabbing Deku and slamming them both into the floor as giant toy swords flew out from behind the fucking teddy bear corpse.

The Red-Outfit Girl was on top of a small table and had a fucking giant lincoln log that she was swinging at them like a baseball bat, but Katsuki left would leave that to the nerd. Katsuki rolled under the blow, jumping upright a second later to send Black Whip to grab Copy Bastard's torso and fling him against the Shorty. Katsuki then quickly wrapped them both up in Black Whip, covering their mouths.

Fucking finally. Three down.

The log thudded against the floor as Deku captured Red-Outfit Girl–the group’s last member. Deku picked her up, darting back toward the roof.

Shit!

More fucking giant toy weapons flew across the room behind Deku, narrowly missing him.

Katsuki glared at the two bastards he’d captured. He had no fucking clue which one of them was moving that shit–Copy Bastard or Shorty both could–so he covered both of their eyes with Black Whip as well. At least now they couldn’t see to aim.

Katsuki and Deku needed to move and quick. People would be shifting away from where they’d last seen them when Deku was in the surveillance room.

Katsuki grunted as he pulled the two struggling dumbasses closer and used One for All to hold them both in front of him as he jumped up onto the nearest roof. He ran to the next building, jumping from one roof to the next and—

Shit!

Katsuki saw the stone letters and barely had time to dodge as the word landed in front of him, creating a loud boom as the object blocked his path.

There’s no way people hadn't heard that.

Katsuki switched Black Whip so that the assholes were dangling over his shoulder and struggling against his back, and then he was using both hands to blast over the next giant word and fly toward the shitty cage at full power to drop off his victims.

An icy breeze came next, but it was from another sound effect, not Half and Half, and Katsuki had already warmed up, so he had plenty of sweat.

Though fuck, it was hard to use Black Whip and the explosions in the same hand! And this was a hell of a lot harder than practicing with Shitty Hair since Katsuki was carrying two people who were both fucking struggling against the quirk. Plus Katsuki’s weight balance was off and he kept having to overcompensate and now there was a fucking gale force wind.

Katsuki pushed harder, blasting clear and rocketing toward the cage, almost slamming right into it.

He didn’t have time to spare.

Katsuki tossed the two dumbasses inside and was off again, this time with Deku’s quirk and running along the streets.

They needed eyes in that damn surveillance room.

The noise had made Deku take a different route, and he was lurking on a building near their cage, waiting to make sure the coast was clear before he leaped down.

Katsuki stuck to the alleys as best as he could, and thankfully made it to the damn security room without incident. He quickly scanned the monitors. 7 down. 31 left. Pinky and Round Face had joined up with Half and Half, making that a team of 6, which was going to be fucking annoying. The other teams were even worse, though.

Sound Effects was back with his teammates—whenever he or Deku ran into Mushroom Girl, they’d have to make sure to knock her out. To make things worse, the Vice Prez had joined up with their team, making them a group of eight.

Fucking close call. They’d been using those winds to try to push Katsuki into a huge mess of a trap.

The two leftovers from the 1B team that had Steel Guy were now with Rock Girl’s team, and she’d be able to hear them coming easily.

Vine Girl’s team was still alone, but they’d definitely need explosions for her quirk, so it was better to leave her toward the end.

Brain Fucker’s group was following some birds toward the 1B idiots Katsuki had faced with his team—he and Deku needed to stop that shit before they became another group of eight.

Deku was already moving. “Stay there, Kacchan. I can’t get them all, but I’ll take two. Right now it’s more important to keep an eye on everyone’s movements.”

Katsuki growled. “Fucking fine.” He hated it, but the nerd was right. They couldn’t be caught by surprise again. If the dumbasses had ambushed him instead of trying to catch him with wind, Katsuki would’ve been forced to release the idiots he’d grabbed and it would’ve been fucking annoying to fight off ten people at once.

Deku circled behind Lizard Girl’s team with ease—she’d split herself up so she was harder to grab, but no one on her team had a search quirk.

Black Whip instantly grabbed the Blade Guy and Glue Guy, wrapping around both of them and yanking them backwards before others could react. Blade Guy had tried to dodge, but he’d been a second too slow and Deku pulled them close, wrapping them together with the quirk so that neither could fight without hurting the other. Deku threw them over his shoulder, bounding away before Welder Dumbass and Lizard Girl could reach them.

Katsuki watched on the screens as Brain Fucker’s group reacted, now running faster to reach the shouting 1B students, but none of them would make it in time. Deku was soon out of the birds’ sight and Brain Fucker’s group was slowing down before coming to a stop as they met up with Lizard Girl and Welder Dumbass.

Deku soon had his two captives in the cage, and another announcement blared over the arena. Some of the captured dumbasses were hanging around outside the cage now, not that it mattered.

9 down. 29 left

Who's next?

At this point, every group had a search quirk. Though… “Head back toward Brain Fucker. I’ll keep my eyes on the screen so you’ll know where the damn birds are. Take out the scout and whoever’s closest to him.”

Deku nodded, already running back in that direction.

If only they could use Black Whip better! The aiming gloves All Might’s soulmates had made helped, and they could make it jagged now, but that wasn’t going to help much in this scenario. They needed to be able to manage more strands simultaneously.

Katsuki grit his teeth, glaring at the screen as Deku carefully hid in an alleyway next to Animal Guy, waiting until the birds passed by overhead before snagging him with Black Whip.

Immediately the other five reacted, running toward him, and Frog Girl grabbed Animal Guy’s leg. Black Whip stretched, engulfing her, and Deku dragged them both into the alley, One for All flashing as he lifted them up and raced away from Brain Fucker’s shout—which was in Katsuki’s voice, damn him—and both Lizard Girl and Welder Dumbass, who were trying to follow Deku once again.

And failing. No one in that group had a quirk fast enough to catch Deku.

The birds were divebombing Deku, though, which would’ve been fucking hilarious if Katsuki didn’t feel every time one of their beaks pecked at the nerd’s hair and scratched against his cheek.

The damn birds didn’t fucking stop until Animal Guy was in the cage, and then Deku had to pull feathers out of his hair. They’d gotten shit in his hair, too, which was even more fucking annoying and disgusting and not worth everyone’s laughter.

11 down. 27 left.

The Vice Prez’s team of eight, Half and Half’s team of six, Rock Girl’s team of five, and two teams of four: Brain Fucker’s and Vine Girl’s.

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed when he focused back on the screens. “Brain Fucker’s group is checking all the nearby buildings. They probably think I’m spying from a window or some shit and that’s how we knew where their damn birds were.”

“Well they’re not entirely wrong.” Deku sighed, closing his eyes to focus on the screens. “The others are all staying put. It’s hard to tell what exactly they’re doing, but they’re probably setting traps and waiting for us to come to them.”

“Let’s join up and blast Vine Girl to pieces.” It was the smallest group left besides Brain Fucker’s, and it would be better to capture them before they could join someone else. If Brain Fucker’s crew was checking buildings, they’d stay put in that area and Katsuki and Deku could sweep them up later. Besides Brain Fucker, that group only had Pikachu, Lizard Girl, and Welder Dumbass left. Annoying quirks, but no one with a speed or scouting quirk.

“Sounds good! We should be careful of Shishida-san, too. He’s a lot faster than he looks.”

Katsuki scowled. Whoever that was, he still wasn’t as fast as Deku or Katsuki, so that shit didn’t matter.

Katsuki left the room, heading toward the mall to reconvene with Deku. The nerd made it there first, and Deku carefully opened the door peeking inside before entering and motioning for Katsuki to follow. They had to be careful–from what Katsuki had last seen of the surveillance footage, the chick’s vines had been fucking everywhere, and if they let off any blast, someone else would find them–Brain Fucker’s group wasn’t too far.

Deku opened the door.

Katsuki kept his voice quiet as they ventured inside, “Quirks besides Vine Girl’s?”

“Rin Hiryu has scales all over his arms that he can send flying at his opponent and also use for a strong defense like Kirishima. Shishida Jurota has a ‘beast form’ that makes him larger, stronger, faster, and hairier. Tsubaraba Kosei can make clear walls out of solidified air and now clear boxes, as well, to trap his opponents.”

None would require Katsuki’s quirk besides Vine Girl. Good. Katsuki would prefer leaving her for last.

Katsuki eyed the vine dangling from the ceiling of the entryway. “How sensitive are her damn vines?” Were they like Hawks’ feathers? Or did you have to touch them for her to know shit?

Deku shook his head, which wasn’t any damn help.

Whatever. They’d just be on guard.

Silently, they both ran forward to the elevator shaft, but the vines were thickest there, so they switched to the stairwell. The losers had been on the third floor from the lowest level, but who knew if they were still there, or if the damn vines had sensed them and the group had moved locations to counter attack.

Katsuki pulled open the stairwell door, then immediately rolled sideways to dodge a barrage of scales.

Deku shifted into a defensive position, his eyes watching the other two approaching hallways as Beast and Walls walked up each one.

Beast laughed. “We knew you’d be wary of Shiozaki’s vines, so we planned this ambush for you!”

Katsuki snorted. “Some ambush. You’ve already lost the element of surprise.”

Beast roared, running forward at full tilt, but he didn’t shift until he’d passed the vine hanging down from the ceiling, and then suddenly he was huge. Katsuki moved to intercept him, still having to dodge scales that shot out from the stairwell.

Shield Bastard sent clear walls flying toward them from the other hallway, but Deku charged at the attack and punched the first air-, the force of the wind from One for All breaking each successive layer behind it before sending Shield Bastard stumbling backwards.

Beast roared and Katsuki aimed a punch to his gut, but the guy moved to block with his arm, grunting when Katsuki’s hit landed.

So 10% wasn’t enough.

Fine.

Katsuki dodged the idiot’s punch, flipping backward to avoid the leg swipe and at the same time grabbing Beast’s leg with Black Whip and pulling it out from under him, but fuck was he heavy to move. Katsuki would have to use more of One for All to manage a full throw.

Deku was dealing with Shield Bastard and Scales, avoiding their attacks and breaking Shield Bastard’s shitty walls, but never landing a damaging blow because of their high defense.

Katsuki eyed the vine hanging down from the ceiling as he dodged another swipe. Why had Beast avoided touching it as he ran underneath? Katsuki circled around, making their fight move underneath the vine again and eyeing the ground as he rolled under Beast’s kick.

Sure enough, there was a vent only a few centimeters away, and Katsuki would bet anything that there were more vines hiding inside there. Especially since that asshole Beast transformed back when he had to go underneath the vine—he’d made the movement look natural by using the shift to dodge Katsuki’s punch, but Katsuki would bet he’d been avoiding touching that damn vine, too.

“Why aren’t you using your explosions, Bakugou?” Beast laughed, “Or do you really think you can best me in hand-to-hand?!”

As if. Katsuki grinned, “Beating you is easy as hell.”

At their code word, Deku immediately moved, flinging the two defensive dumbasses at Katsuki, who slammed 25% of One for All into Beast’s jaw, sending him crashing into the vine on the ceiling.

Katsuki blasted to the side, narrowly dodging the vines that shot out, grabbing the three idiots who struggled against them, but couldn’t do shit.

Before they could somehow signal the girl to release them, Katsuki’s Black Whip emerged, cutting the vines off from the vent, but leaving the dumbasses trapped in the now inanimate greenery.

After Katsuki’s hit, Beast was fucking unconscious. Scales was trying to cut through the damn vines, but Deku was there in an instant, his knee slamming into the idiot’s head as Katsuki knocked out Shield Bastard.

Now it was just Vine Girl.

“She’ll know we’re up here from the commotion.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t seem like her vines can differentiate shit. As far as she knows, the dumbasses could’ve contained us. You watch these three idiots, I’ll get the girl.”

Katsuki darted to the stairwell, careful as he descended not to use his explosions since that would give him away, then opened up the door two levels down, running through the maze of vines.

Not a single one attacked.

So Katsuki was right–she had no clue if they’d been captured or not.

And then he saw her. She was staying at the back of a long hallway, limiting how big of an explosion he could use. As if he’d let limited space stop him. These walls were strong enough to handle shit.

Vines immediately closed in on him, but Katsuki pulled on all 25% of One for All that he could manage and he was at her side in a second, releasing as much fire power as he dared–knocking her out and exploding all the damn vines in one hit.

She slumped over, unconscious, and the remaining vines immediately slumped over, lifeless. Katsuki grabbed her, exploding off the remaining long vines before he started running back. The nerd was holding the other three at the door, One for All flashing around him as he peeked outside, checking to see if Brain Fucker and his merry crew were waiting for them.

Nothing.

Katsuki handed Vine Girl over to Deku, who used Black Whip to hold her with the others. He didn’t see anyone, but it was still better to be careful and use their code. “They didn’t fucking stand a chance.”

The nerd grinned at him and nodded, then raced off over the rooftops toward their team's cage while Katsuki went the other direction. He would check the other groups’ locations and do some recon so they could plan their next move.

Katsuki jumped up to the nearest roof, then darted back to the security cameras, but right before he got there, Deku called out while he was running, “Wait! Something’s wrong, Kacchan!”

What?

Katsuki skidded to a stop, then kneeled and laid down at the edge, looking down at the surveillance room’s rooftop doorway warily. What was Deku talking about?

“I can’t explain it, Kacchan, but something’s not right. I think someone’s there.”

Huh?

Had one of the other groups found the surveillance room?

The door opened.

Pikachu stepped out, leaning against the doorframe and grinning up at him. “Yo, Blasty! What gave us away?”

Katsuki growled, standing up to glare at the dumbass. “How the hell did you find this place? You idiots were over by the other mall the last time we checked.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, Kacchan!” Deku picked up his pace, darting even faster across the rooftops despite his heavy load.

Brain Fucker appeared next to Pikachu and held up his cellphone. “A helpful tip from above. Eraserhead seems to think things were going too smoothly for you two.”

Fucking cheater.

As if on cue, the speaker announced their four most recent captures.

Pikachu’s eyes widened and he whistled. “Shiozaki already?! Jeez, you guys are too good.”

Katsuki growled. This didn’t make sense! If they knew where everyone was, why did they stay here? “Why didn’t you assholes join the other groups?! You don’t stand a chance.”

“I don’t know. Four of us against only you?”

Shit! Katsuki spun at the new voice behind him, releasing a round of explosions, but Lizard Girl was already splitting apart, and something slammed into his shoulder, making Katsuki grunt.

Fuck.

Pikachu’s target.

Katsuki blasted upwards, twisting around a building and putting an object between him and the flash of lightning that barely missed.

Annoyed, Katsuki landed on the next roof and tried to rip it off, but it had been welded to his damn suit with that other asshole’s quirk. Katsuki growled and released an explosion, frying whatever tech was in the device.

“Aw, come on!!” Katsuki ignored Pikachu’s dismayed shout from around the corner.

Deku was close.

Katsuki couldn’t think about that now, though—he was surrounded on all sides by those damn lizard pieces, and dodging their attacks took all the agility from both One for All and his explosions. Three of the pieces had Pikachu’s fucking trackers, too, and any time a tracker sandwiched him between it and Pikachu there was a blast of electricity that Katsuki had to dodge in addition to all the damn pieces trying to pummel him. He tried to blast a large section of them, but they just scattered and whatever shit he destroyed was soon replaced.

But Deku had finally arrived. His foot slammed against Pikachu’s temple, and a jolt of electricity blasted both Deku and Katsuki as the dumbass fell, now unconscious.

Deku shook his foot as it tingled from the electricity and grinned at the three remaining dumbasses. “What was that about facing Kacchan alone?”

Brain Fucker’s eyebrow twitched.

Welder Dumbass was standing in front of Lizard Girl, but Katsuki was growing tired of this dodgeball shit. Now that he didn’t need to watch out for Pikachu’s trackers, he landed and let a few pieces hit him. He raised his hand and, using One for All to simultaneously spin in a tight circle as he released blasts in a tight hurricane, he destroyed all the nearby shit at once.

Without any immediate attacks to face, Katsuki circled around the rooftops, watching through Deku’s eyes as he dodged Brain Fucker’s capture weapon and used Black Whip to throw Welder Dumbass into Brain Fucker, sending them both sprawling and then grabbing them both with Black Whip at once.

Now coming from the opposite direction, Katsuki kept silent as he ran up to his next target. Brain Fucker’s eyes widened. “Lizardy! Behind you!”

Too late.

Katsuki’s fist slammed into her head, sending her sprawling onto the pavement. The regeneration shit continued, but Katsuki nudged her shoulder and she was definitely unconscious.

“What, you two couldn’t face us alone so you had to team up?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. Brain Fucker was just being annoying so he could get them to respond to shit.

“Aizawa-sensei is helping everyone make better plans. There’s no way you’ll win.”

A bluff. Sensei wouldn’t do that shit.

“Neither of you has ever beaten Todoroki in a match when he’s going all out. He’ll win and capture you.”

Oh, fuck him!

Katsuki glared at Brain Fucker, but didn’t say shit. He might have grabbed Pikachu and tossed him onto Lizard Girl with more force than necessary, but Katsuki needed them together in order to grab them both with Black Whip at once. A quick glance inside the surveillance room showed that the other groups were still all in the same places, so Katsuki picked up Pikachu and Lizard Girl while Deku took the other two and they ran back to the base, ignoring Brain Fucker’s jabs as he tried to get them to talk.

It was fucking annoying and Katsuki wished Deku would just knock him unconscious, but no. They were friends, so he fucking wouldn’t. He’d been fine with knocking Pikachu out! Who cared if it was in the middle of a fight or not–the match was still going.

After Katsuki and Deku dumped the dumbasses in jail, they went back to the security room and stared at the screens, evaluating the three remaining groups.

19 down. 19 left. Halfway there.

Group One: Mushroom Girl, Sound Effects, Wannabe Edgelord, Big Fist, Edgelord, French Asshole, Vice Pres, and Invisible Girl had to be there somewhere.

Group Two: Mud Guy, Pony Girl, Sugar Guy, Spider Man, and Rock Girl.

Group Three: Half and Half, Glasses, Monkey Tail, Octopus Arms, Round Face, and Pinky.

They were all fucking annoying.

The biggest group had the least annoying quirks, but there were fucking eight of them, so if another group moved to help, Katsuki and Deku would be in a tough spot. It was better to take out the other two groups first.

Katsuki growled. “Rock Girl first. They’re the weakest team left, even if we know they’ll hear us coming.” They were also the furthest away from the other two groups. Katsuki and Deku could handle them before anyone could come to their aid, even if the others abandoned their traps at the sound of Katsuki’s explosions. Even Glasses couldn’t move too quickly in this maze of a city.

Reaching the team was easy. Too easy. Rock Girl had to know they were coming, but Katsuki spotted Spider Man’s tape maze without either him or Deku being attacked.

Katsuki ran over the quirks in his head again…. Besides Rock Girl and Sugar Guy, they had a bunch of quirks that were fucking great for capturing people. Which meant those two would probably attack while the others tried to restrain them. Not a problem. Deku and he could avoid shit while taking out those two.

They landed on a nearby roof to stop and reassess, but it began to sink beneath them.

Katsuki immediately blasted into the air, as did Deku, and tape shot out at him while horns shot at Deku, forcing the nerd away from Katsuki as he dodged.

Were they trying to separate them? Katuski ducked under more tape, blasting back toward Deku. Even if the ground wasn’t safe, Katsuki could keep up this aerial dodge ball game forever, but Deku had less endurance when it came to flying since his shoulders weren’t as used to this shit. He’d have to land or he’d make a mistake eventually.

Katsuki growled as tape caught Deku’s foot, and he immediately swerved to blast it away, and—

Thundering bass was everywhere

Katsuki’s head felt like it was splitting apart and the noise had caught Deku, too, so all they could both hear was that fucking attack blaring in their heads; Katsuki couldn’t focus on anything but that damn noise, it hurt. Dimly, he registered some kind of pain in his knees.

Katsuki let out a strangled gasp, but he couldn’t even hear it.

Someone… someone was saying something, but his ears were ringing so much, he couldn’t make it out. And… was he on the ground now? Was someone dragging him?

Fuck!

He was… Spider Man had tape all around him! Around Deku, too!

Katsuki’s Black Whip lashed out, cutting him free, and Katsuki wasn’t surprised to see a second whip emerge from behind him simultaneously, freeing Deku.

Damn it, he still couldn’t hear shit!

And the tape was still covering their arms, torso, and legs. They couldn’t risk cutting it with Black Whip since they might cut themselves, too.

Katsuki closed his eyes, focusing on the pain in the nerd’s ears. Deep breaths. Pull the pain away and—

“Fucking finally!” Deku must’ve been doing the same shit because Katsuki could hear completely!

He looked around, glaring at Rock Girl. “You’re dead meat, Rock Girl.”

“Aw, are you mad that we actually caught you? I’m surprised you can hear again already.” Rock Girl grinned at him as the others from their group circled around Katsuki and Deku. It was a fucking stand off. They couldn’t get closer because of Black Whip, but Katsuki and Deku were fucking stuck. “Our whole class knows Midoriya doesn’t have as much practice flying and that the second he’s in trouble you’d dive to his rescue. So we used Mud Man to make sure you couldn’t land and then Pony Girl and Cellophane kept up the pressure. Then… well, if you hear what each other hears, my attacks hurt double as much, right? Sorry about that, but it was necessary to take you two down.”

Katsuki growled, “Like hell we’ll let you win!” He lashed out with Black Whip again, forcing them all to back up a few paces.

Katsuki’s mind whirled. What was the best option? The assholes had taped Katsuki and Deku’s hands to their sides, so neither one of them could explode shit, but maybe with One for All—both of them lit up orange and green at once, and Katsuki pulled on as much of the quirk as he dared. If it was just a few seconds, Katsuki could manage thirty—

Tape ripped behind him.

“Oh, come on!” Spider Man groaned as Deku grabbed the tape around Katsuki, ripping it away from him.

“Sorry, Sero-kun. It was a really good strategy!”

“Don’t mind!” Pony Girl gave Spider Man a thumbs up. “We’re not done yet!”

Spider Man sighed. “I really hate that phrase.”

Katsuki let explosions ripple out from his palms. “Oh, you’re definitely done.”

Before Katsuki could choose which bastard to attack first, though, he heard an engine in the distance.

Shit. Glasses was with Half and Half’s crew! Why the hell had they abandoned their traps, damn it?! And how had they gotten this close so quickly?

“Kacchan! Above!”

Katsuki could see her, damn it! Pinky had somehow been launched toward them and would soon be right above them, but Spider Man and all the others had started attacking, too, and there was nowhere to—

Acid drenched both him and Deku.

Glasses appeared on the street behind Pony Girl, and Pinky landed on the other side of the group, grinning and holding up a V for victory. Katsuki growled and raised his hand to blast them all to pieces, but…

“What the hell?!” Why wouldn’t his… “Oh, fuck you, Pinky!” His gloves had to be permeable for his sweat to explode through, which she fucking knew since the Old Hag had made her gloves like his. Pinky’s acid had sunk through and messed with his sweat, and he’d used all the grenades on his belt in the shitty first match, now he would have to—

Shit he was cold.

Fucking Half and Half!

Ice swallowed Katsuki and Deku—Half and Half had avoided everyone else in the damn street, but locked the two of them in twin pillars of ice.

Katsuki growled, calling on One for All. He could feel the ice around Deku starting to crack, but… why were they moving downward? Mud Asshole!

Deku’s ice split and the nerd jerked himself free from whatever shit the ground currently was made of, but the second he broke free Round Face was there. She hit him with her quirk, making him weightless while Spider Man simultaneously lassoed Deku’s arms to his sides again and then gave the tape’s end to fucking Glasses…shit!

Black Whip darted out, cutting Deku free before Glasses could get too far, and both Katsuki and Deku grunted in pain as his momentum sent him flying into the side of a building.

Thank fuck the ice would somewhat obscure the scrapes that formed on his face. For a quick second, Katsuki stopped using One for All to try to crack the ice and instead hurriedly healed Deku's cuts before someone could move Deku and make the connection with Katsuki's own injuries.

Katsuki couldn’t let them pull Deku away! He had to break free from this damn ice!! It was starting to crack under 25% but it was too damn slow! He tried to release explosions, but this shitty cold was preventing him from building up new sweat. Katsuki was going to fucking destroy Pinky and Half and Half for this shit!

The ice finally broke with a thundering crack.

Katsuki flung out Black Whip, grabbing Round Face as she tried to charge him. Katsuki hurled her into Glasses, who had been running back into the fray.

Katsuki needed to reduce the number of opponents, and fast. He pulled on 25%, darting forward and slamming his fist into Mud Guy’s jaw, sending him sprawling. Katsuki then darted toward Pony Girl’s shitty horns, destroying them with well-aimed kicks that flipped the levers on his boots, and then he was kicking Tail Guy straight in his gut with an explosion-propelled blow.

Deku had ripped free now, but he was still weightless. The nerd used Black Whip to launch himself toward Pony Girl, knocking her unconscious with a headbutt.

Katsuki held out his arm and Deku’s Black Whip immediately grabbed it. Katsuki spun Deku in a tight, fast circle, forcing everyone to scramble to dodge Black Whip while Deku used his free hand to throw the grenades from his belt. He nailed Pinky, Spider Man, and Round face, who was knocked unconscious by the explosion, releasing Deku from her quirk’s hold. Thank fuck.

Spider Man had been knocked into a building by the grenade’s blast and was also down for the count, but Pinky was standing back up, and Glasses had managed to distance himself from the blast enough that he was standing, though he looked fucking guilty for not grabbing Round Face in time.

Round Face, Pony Girl, Mud Guy, Tail Guy, and Spider Man were down. 5 out of 11.

Katsuki growled, trying to shake Pinky’s shit off his hands, but she must’ve used the fucking sticky version. It would probably make Katsuki’s fist stick to someone if he wasn’t using fucking One for All behind all of his punches.

Rock Girl and Half and Half were limited by working in a large group. Katsuki had to target the next biggest nuisance.

Katsuki and Deku sprinted in sync toward Pinky, who squeaked in panic. Glasses got there first, grabbing her and gaining distance, but Deku threw out Black Whip, snagging her leg just in time and yanking her backward. Pinky screamed as she was jerked from Glasses’ arms and sent flying toward them until she slammed into Half and Half’s rushed glacier, blocking Black Whip’s reach.

Katsuki growled, sending out his Black Whip to grab Pinky a second after Deku kicked apart the damn glacier. Katsuki’s whip closed around her ankle and Katsuki threw her as hard as he could into Rock Girl, who was running toward them.

Two more down.

Wait.

Octopus arms had fucking disappeared?

Damn it!

Sugar Guy and Glasses were gone, too! Half and Half was the only one left conscious, and he was keeping Deku distracted by throwing up fucking glaciers and gigantic walls of flame.

Katsuki growled. The others had to be heading to join the last group! Katsuki ran, rolling under a wall of fire and pulling on as much of One for All as he dared. He had to catch up to Glasses!

Deku slammed his right heel into the pavement.

Damn it, Deku!! Why had the nerd signaled Katsuki to stay with him?!

Katsuki skidded to a stop, explosions bursting—

Wait.

Yes!!!!

Pinky’s shit had worn off!!

Deku was right, though. Now Glasses had too much of a head start. If Katsuki followed, he’d be up against twelve people while Deku dealt with Half and Half. It was better to defeat him first and take all these unconscious idiots to the damn jail.

Katsuki spun, jumping up on a nearby roof running back towards the nerd. He stopped at the roof’s ledge, waiting for the best moment when Half and Half had his back—

Now!

Katsuki let loose as big a blast as he could with this little sweat, slamming into Half and Half’s back and making him stumble forward, gasping, and then Deku was there, knocking him out with a punch to the temple.

Katsuki jumped off the roof, landing beside his soulmate.

8 out of 11.

“Damn it!” Katsuki kicked a lamp pole, but Deku was already starting to gather people with Black Whip.

“Come on, Kacchan. We have to be running short on time by this point.”

Katsuki nodded, pulling the last three idiots together with Black Whip and then using One for All to pick up the heavy bastards.

When Katsuki and Deku reached the jail cell, the idiots that were conscious acted like these dumbasses were some kind of fucking heroes—apparently Aizawa-sensei had sent the jailbirds a link so they could watch the monitor feeds of the fights on their phones.

Asshole.

Katsuki rolled his eyes and turned back around to run toward the last group. By the time the speaker had finished calling out the eight new names, Katsuki and Deku had almost reached the last group.

11 left.

And those eleven definitely knew Katsuki and Deku were coming, now that Octopus Arms, Sugar Man, and Glasses had joined them.

The last group was in the underground subway station, one of the few places Katsuki and Deku had never explored in Ground Beta. When Katsuki and Deku reached the entrance, they both frowned. The group had also turned off all the damn lights, no doubt to let Edgelord and his wannabe version have free reign. With the Vice Pres on their team, she could easily make everyone shitty heat vision goggles. But if Frenchie attacked, the Edgelords would lose their advantage.

Whatever. Katsuki copied Deku, reaching up to touch one of the small raised bumps on the inside of his visor and switching it into night-vision mode. He hadn’t had time to read the damn book that had all the instructions for their visors, but thank fuck Deku had.

Katsuki tried to adjust to the now green-tinted world as he studied the large open platform ahead. That must be where they were waiting. He moved—

What the hell?

Katsuki glared down at his feet. Why the fuck were they stuck to the damn ground?! They’d already beaten Mud Guy, and Katsuki couldn’t see any shit that looked different.

“Kacchan! It’s Aizawa-sensei’s capture tar. Yaoyorozo must have made it. It’s coating the ground all over the entrance.”

And since that shit was spread evenly over the entire area, they hadn’t noticed it. Damn her.

“Zaaa… Zaaaaa…..”

Shit. The Sound Effects asshole.

There was something shifting above them, and then the ceiling fucking poured rain, but of course unlike the Blond Asshole’s version, Sensei’s shitty tar was fucking water proof. Katsuki strained against the tar, trying to pull free. Unless they broke out of this shit, they were stuck in this neverending downpour while that asshole kept repeating the sound effect.

Deku finally broke free and used Black Whip to hang from the ceiling as he tugged at Katsuki’s leg with his free arm. Katsuki pulled on 28%, feeling his muscles scream, but then he was free and he quickly grabbed onto an overhead pipe with Black Whip. Katsuki sighed in relief, hanging there in the rain for a second to let Deku focus on healing Katsuki’s strained muscles.

The pipes creaked above them.

Katsuki and Deku quickly swung over the fucking tar pit and landed on the train platform, free from the tar and rain.

But now whatever sweat they’d gathered had been washed off, damn them.

“Brrrr, betabeta, brrrrrr, betabeta.”

Shit. Where were they?! The platform was a large open space with subway tracks on both sides. The words were coming through some kind of speaker overhead, and the temperature was starting to drop drastically. Cold and sticky. What was going to be sticky? Damn it, with this cold, it would take fucking forever to get sweat. Katsuki and Deku forced themselves to move, walking along the platform warily.

“Fuwafuwa, betabeta, fuwafuwa, betabeta.”

Now it was sticky and fluffy? What the hell were they doing?

“Poki!”

Katsuki whirled around, his back against Deku’s as they both scanned the area for what had snapped—

Above!

“What the fuck?!”

There was a giant, sticky cloud of cotton descending from the ceiling???

Damn it, it was still freezing cold, so they couldn’t blast it away! And who knew if this shit would stick to Black Whip or not if they tried to cut it.

They had two choices: return to the Tar Storm at the entrance or become trapped in the Cotton Ball from hell. And they had two seconds to decide.

Katsuki growled. As if they’d go down this fucking easy.

Deku jumped onto the subway tracks and punched a whole in the side of the wall, Katsuki right on his heels as they darted inside the fissure from Deku’s punch, avoiding the sticky shit.

Something was happening above them. Katsuki could hear rustling.

A bright red mushroom popped up in their alcove’s entrance.

Then another.

And another.

More and more showed up, covering the entrance, and then they began to emit spores.

Katsuki and Deku immediately jerked up their bandannas, but who knew if that would be enough protection.

With a growl, Katsuki called on all of One for All and punched the roof of the tunnel above them. Deku followed with a kick, and the ceiling collapsed around them, letting them both jump up—

And almost land in the sticky fluffy shit, which was now scattered in clumps around the platform.

Katsuki and Deku both scanned the area, quickly memorizing the safe places to land.

Hands wrapped around his and Deku’s leg as Wannabe Edgelord grabbed them, and suddenly Katsuki could see Abyss’ glowing eyes looming above them–Edgelord was standing on a raised platform that ran down the middle of the station.

Damn it, Katsuki did not want to fight Edgelord without explosions!

Katsuki angled his foot to hit the blast trigger, setting an explosion off in Wannabe Edgelord’s face and freeing their legs while making Abyss back off a bit. “I don’t care how fucking cold or dark it is, you don’t stand a chance, Abyss!”

“Tokoyami said you couldn’t explode right now!” Abyss was whining, but damn it, the quirk-being was still swiping down at them with its shadowy claws.

There was a loud clang to the right.

Deku spun, punching against something, then growling when his fist stuck to it. It was some kind of large flat surface, and ridiculously strong. A big wall? The cotton shit was sticking to it. Green lightning flashed against Deku’s skin as the nerd yanked his hand off the wall, and Katsuki’s eyes narrowed when that was enough to make Abyss stop swiping down at them from above.

Katsuki immediately called on One for All, as well, but there was a loud clang to their left this time, then another one behind them as two more large metal panels were shoved upright from where they had been laying on the ground next to the first one. The cottony shit on the now-walls’ surfaces slowly started to slide down, coating them like people-sized fly traps. That explained why Deku’s fist had gotten stuck. He must’ve punched the cotton residue.

But what the hell were the panels–

A fucking cage?!

There was one open side left, and Katsuki and Deku both sprinted for it but Octopus Arms was already lifting up the final metal wall from the ground. Katsuki and Deku called on more of One for All to intercept him, but Edgelord jumped down, stopping them before they could get that far. Abyss lunged forward, cackling and forcing them to stand back because it was still too damn cold to use explosions, the assholes.

Octopus shoved the last wall into place up against the others, trapping Edgelord in here with them. The walls were damn high–Deku might be able to jump that far up, but without explosions, Katsuki wouldn’t make it.

Deku slammed his fist into the earth, causing the ground to shift and metal to grate all around them, trying to force apart the walls of their new cage, but it didn’t stop Abyss, who kept attacking.

Another clang came from above, this time sounding like metal striking metal. “Are you assholes really building a fucking cage?!” Why were they trapping Edgelord in here with them?! They couldn’t win if they couldn’t take Katsuki and Deku to jail!

“Tungsten is the strongest metal. You won’t break out of it easily.” The Vice Pres’ voice sounded like it was coming from the top of the damn cube.

“You can’t win if you don’t let us out!”

“Not allowing you two to win is a victory, as well. Just like in our exams, sometimes you must make hard choices in order to win another day.”

Oh, fuck her!

“Brrr, brrrrr.” The words squeezed up under the cube’s walls, and immediately the temperature around them began to drop even further.

Katsuki grit his teeth, refusing to shiver.

Deku stomped on the words, which were apparently breakable, because they shattered and the temperature stabilized. Well, that was good to know. If they were trapped in here, they might as well take Edgelord down first—

A mushroom popped up. Red. The same kind as had appeared in the alcove. “Oh, hell no!” Katsuki cut the mushroom in half with Black Whip, but two more popped up to replace it. Deku kicked the wall as hard as he could, making a huge dent, but then had to jerk his leg free again.

Edgelord… was sitting down?

“What the fuck? You aren’t even going to fight, you asshole?!”

“My assignment is complete. The battle would be doomed from the first strike.”

Huh? Katsuki turned to look at Abyss, who had stopped attacking the second the cage formed and was now cowering behind Edgelord.

Abyss shrugged. “You’re all glowy! And even if Tokoyami says you can’t explode right now, you did it earlier, so I don’t trust him.”

Fucking asshole had been bluffing when he blocked their exit earlier. Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched and he stomped over in front of the quirk being, glaring down at Edgelord and Abyss as Deku kept kicking the wall and more of those damn mushrooms kept appearing all around them. “So what? You’re just going to sit here then?!”

“The mushrooms will lull us to sleep’s peaceful journey.”

It was sleeping gas? Katsuki growled. Shit! He couldn’t even hit him if Edgelord wasn’t fighting back! And it was still fucking cold!

The metal creaked under Deku’s kick.

Katsuki shook his hands, then rubbed his palms together, trying to get them to warm up. The spores were curling around their knees, now. They didn’t have much time.

As Deku kept kicking, each time it took less and less strength to pull free from the cotton shit.. Katsuki stomped around the edge, avoiding the cotton and rubbing his hands together as he tried to look for where the spores were thinnest so that he could yank the damn cube up from the ground—everything was so uneven after they’d punched it, there was no way it had a tight seal. The cotton shit was making up for that, though, since it was all clumped around the bottom.

Katsuki was starting to feel drowsy, damn it, and he heard a thump behind him as Edgelord slumped to the ground.

Deku hopped back a few steps, then got a running head start before kicking the wall, and there was a loud creak as the structure began to fall.

Shit!

Katsuki’s Black Whip grabbed Edgelord and threw him out from under the metal cube as Katsuki and Deku held their breath and darted through the small opening from Deku’s kick right before the cube’s ceiling crashed down where they’d been standing.

And Katsuki’s hands finally felt like they were starting to gather sweat.

A bright beam cut across the platform and they both rolled to dodge it, Deku’s Black Whip darting toward the beam’s source and grabbing Frenchie while Katsuki’s Black Whip grabbed Sugar Guy, who was standing right next to the beam. Katsuki and Deku tossed the two of them at the cotton globs, taking them out of the fight.

The air shifted behind him and Katsuki darted to the left, dodging Octo Arms’ punch. All their classmates had on night vision goggles, no doubt courtesy of the Vice Pres. It was fucking annoying.

Deku was sparring with Big Fists, so these three must’ve been supporting those damn heavy walls. Both their opponents were jumping like crazy, trying to attack while avoiding the sticky cotton shit.

Katsuki ducked a punch and went in close, letting loose an explosive punch beneath Octopus’ chin and sending him stumbling backwards. Octopus grimaced. “I see you’ve warmed up.”

“Brrrr, brrrr—“

Katsuki grinned, stretching his arm back and sending Black Whip to grab the words and slam them into the ground. “We’re not gonna fall for the same tricks!!”

He darted forward, dodging the extending arms and hands that reached for him and slamming an explosion into Octopus’ gut, then another one. They were weaker than he’d like, but it was enough to knock Octopus off balance and then Katsuki’s Black Whip was grabbing him and throwing him onto another section of the cotton shit.

There was a surprised shout as Big Fist stumbled backwards from Deku’s kick, landing in the cotton, as well.

The stupid trap worked just as well against them as it did against Katsuki and Deku, but Katsuki supposed if they weren’t trying to win, they didn’t give a shit as long as it caught him and Deku, too.

Well it fucking wasn’t gonna happen.

Five down.

They had to find Mushroom Girl. The spores had dissipated a bit when they’d broken the cube, but it was still swirling around their thighs. She couldn’t be too far—her quirk had to have some kind of distance shit built in, right?

Where would the sound booth be in this damn place? Sound Effects guy had to be there. In most stations, it would be in the center booth. “Fuck, let’s end this. I’ll go check for the idiots.”

Deku pressed his left palm against his side, then ran off to search the other side of the platform to find Mushroom Girl. Katsuki hurried as well, squinting in the darkness to find anything that looked like a sound booth or—

Hands grabbed his ankles, making Katsuki fall toward the pavement, but he rolled, raising one hand to explode the Wannabe Edgelord, but he was already gone. Damn it! That asshole kept popping up and then disappearing. It was fucking annoying as hell and never even accomplished shit except slow him down a few seconds.

Katsuki growled under his breath and kept going, this time calling on One for All. When he felt the hands around his ankle again, Katsuki thrust his hand down at the ground, exploding the earth.

Fake Edgelord was still clinging to Katsuki’s ankles, but now he was groaning from pain. Why hadn’t he done the smart thing and let go? Was Katsuki close to some of the others? He released another explosion, blasting the bastard’s arm.

“How can you blast your own leg like that? Doesn’t it hurt?”

“I have support equipment, dumbass!” Katsuki released another blast. Of course his pants were fire resistant–they had to endure his fucking quirk.

Katsuki kicked his heel against the ground, setting off another explosion in the bastard’s face. He groaned, his body emerging from the ground as he slumped over, unconscious.

“I’ll take him back and stick him with the others, Kacchan. That way if he regains consciousness he can’t continue fighting.” Katsuki nodded—Deku had finished checking the other side, but he hadn’t found anyone and was heading back toward Katsuki.

Katsuki kept running toward the central booth. Hopefully they’d turn on the fucking lights since the two quirks that needed light were now captured, but the mushroom gas was around Katsuki’s waist now and they didn’t have time to wait for this shit. The floor was practically covered in those damn mushrooms and—

Katsuki skidded to a stop in front of a wall of thin strings. What the hell? Even with the night vision setting, he’d almost missed this shit. Katsuki looked along each side, but it seemed like the strings were attached to some shit on the walls. Nothing was dripping from them, so Katsuki raised his gloved hand, knocking one of his glove’s iron studs against it. Nothing happened. His glove’s fingers weren’t permeable material like the palm, so next Katsuki plucked at one string with 25% of One for All and it came free with a snap. Fucking easy. Katsuki grabbed a fistful and pulled them free, but they were still strong enough that it was fucking slow-going to clear all this shit. Because of course the string wall was several layers thick.

The nerd landed next to Katsuki and glared at the strands, then spun on his heel and kicked with what had to be 50% of his quirk, creating a wind that rushed through the room, blasting out not only the shitty chords, but also all the damn spores.

Katsuki stared at him. “Why the hell didn’t you do that earlier?”

“Sorry, Kacchan.” The nerd gave him a sheepish smile. “I didn’t think about it since it wasn’t that thick. It wouldn’t have helped much in the cube, anyway.”

Something moved out of the corner of Katsuki’s eyesight and he jumped back.

An object hit the ground in between him and Deku, and then there was a brilliant light, blinding them both. “Crap!” How dare they use a flashbang on him?!

Something rammed into his stomach, sending Katsuki flying backwards, and he barely had time to manage a good position for hitting the ground before it hit Deku’s right side, making Katsuki gasp in pain.

Fucking Glasses.

No one else could move that quickly.

Glasses was predictable, though–his next move would be a direct attack from Deku’s direction.

Katsuki held out his hands, drawing One for All into his hands as Deku stayed down, then released as big a blast as he could.

A kick to his back made Katsuki grunt and fall forward.

“Fuck you!” Had he gotten even faster then what they’d last seen?!

Deku was there, and Katsuki’s vision was starting to clear. The nerd was exchanging blow for blow with Glasses, who was only barely keeping up now that Deku was using 50%, but the nerd could only manage that much of the quirk for a few more seconds.

Katsuki released Black Whip, and Glasses tried to dodge, but the whip followed, while Deku’s attacks slowed Glasses down, letting Katsuki’s Black Whip pin him.

“Got you!”

Katsuki grinned, but then Glasses ran.

“Shit!” He was trying to pull Katsuki back to the entrance. Black Whip extended automatically, but they’d never tested how long it could go! Katsuki grit his teeth, willing the quirk to pull back or make Glasses falter or something they just had to get Glasses to misstep and land in the cotton shit. Deku grabbed the quirk, pulling on it with all of his strength, as well. At least they managed to stop it from extending further, but that was all Katsuki could manage. Katsuki couldn’t even tell if Deku was even fucking helping, and apparently he agreed because he released the quirk and darted alongside it.

A few seconds later, there was a grunt, and Deku caught his now unconscious friend.

Katsuki sighed, releasing the quirk. Just the Vice Pres, Mushroom girl, and Sound Effects guy left.

Black Whip took damn near forever to return to his arm, but once he had it contained Katsuki turned back toward where the others had to be waiting.

“Doon, dokkan, dokkan!”

Three loud booms thundered in the ceiling, and Katsuki’s eyes widened as one pipe, then another, then a fucking ceiling tile broke free, all falling one after another and forcing Katsuki to jump back or be buried. “A fucking cave in?! Are you assholes kidding me?!” He didn’t have enough sweat for this shit! And they were supposed to limit collateral damage, damn it!

Deku was at his side in a flash, decimating the cement with repeated kicks and punches, clearing their way as they both raced through, Katsuki tailing behind the nerd. At least they could finally see, now that the ceiling and ground above them were gone.

The Vice Pres was panting as she stood in front of a booth at the back wall, holding a spear in front of her. She was obviously about to collapse from all the shit she’d made, but she was still determined to fight. “The timer is almost up. I won’t let you two win.”

“There’s just you three left, Yaoyorozu-san.”

She gave them a confident grin, making Katsuki growl. Like hell they’d lose! “As if you have a fucking choice.” Katsuki ran forward, easily blocking her spear and punching her in the gut, making her fold over, unconscious, just like Round Face had in the Sports Festival.

Fuck that felt like forever ago.

Deku was already kicking the door open to the booth, and he used 40%, causing enough damage that both the bastards inside were knocked out. The nerd quickly grabbed them, and Katsuki picked up the Vice Prez, running back toward the entrance where they’d left all the others.

How the fuck were they going to get these assholes out of here? Sure they were all stuck to that glob and couldn’t move, but Katsuki and Deku couldn’t move them, either. “Damn it.”

The nerd sighed, raising one hand and flicking his fingers to send out a string of explosions that ate through the cotton. At least it was fucking warmer now. They spread out, exploding the cotton stuck to each unconscious asshole and then setting them all in two piles to grab with Black Whip.

After that, it was just two awkward trips back to the jail cell with Katsuki and Deku using One for All and Black Whip to carry eleven classmates to the edge of the city.

Except once the speaker announced all the names, nothing happened.

Deku’s brow furrowed. “I don’t get it. We captured all the groups. Shouldn’t it be announcing that we won?”

Brain Fucker was smirking over by the cages.

What. The. Hell. Katsuki growled, stomping over to him. “What the fuck do you know?”

Brain Fucker raised an eyebrow. “Forgetting someone?”

Huh? “We captured every single one of you assholes!”

Deku gasped, making Katsuki whirl to look at him. “Hagakure-chan! Kacchan, We didn’t capture Invisible Girl!”

Oh, hell, no.

Deku was already looking at the gym clock.

2 minutes.

They had two damn minutes to find someone who was fucking invisible.

Katsuki grabbed Brain Fucker’s capture weapon, pushing him up against the cell’s walls. “Where the fuck is she?!”

“Like I’d tell you.” He was still wearing that damn smirk, too!

“Kacchan, there’s no time!” Deku was already running back toward the security room, and Katsuki turned around, growling as he ran back toward the station. She’d been with the Vice Pres’ group. There had to be a clue down there that they hadn’t seen because it was so damn dark.

But they’d switched to night mode! They should’ve seen her even if she was invisible, right?

Katsuki growled, copying Deku as the nerd switched his visor to heat vision. They would find her. They just had to cover this entire damn city in two minutes.

Fuck.

They ran as fast as they could, both calling on One for All as they scanned the entire city, covering as much ground as fucking possible.

The buzzer rang.

“Fucking damn it!!!!!” They’d fucking won! It was a damn technicality! They could beat shitty Invisible Girl with ease and they’d beaten every other damn person in the class!!

But Aizawa-sensei was calling them all back to the front for a debrief.

Katsuki kicked the wall next to him. It’s not like he and Deku had been too rough with anyone, so most of the shitty dumbasses who had been knocked unconscious had regained consciousness by the time they’d all gathered, and the ones who hadn’t were quickly healed by Recovery Girl. Though they may have been leaning on each others’ shoulders a bit.

Aizawa-sensei and the 1B teacher stared at them, while Midnight, Mic-sensei, and All Might stood in the back. Aizawa-sensei sighed. “What did you learn?”

Shitty Hair’s hand shot up, and Sensei nodded to him. “That if you have a powerful opponent, it’s better to face them as a group!”

“Correct. Just because you can’t beat them alone doesn’t mean you can’t beat them together. Anything else?”

“We should use our surroundings.” Big Fist spoke up, ”Midoriya and Bakugou were able to get so many of our groups not only because they were strong, but because they had the tactical advantage of the surveillance footage.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “This is why many pros will say you need to know your patrol routes like the back of your hand. You can’t use something to your advantage if you don’t know it exists.”

“We should also plan in advance!” Fucking Invisible Girl bounced on her feet as she waved her arm. “We wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for Yao-Momo’s plan!”

“Her plan to fucking lose.” Katsuki hated this shit! The other group hadn’t won! He and Deku were never captured!

“Accept that you lost, Bakugou. They didn’t win, either, but sometimes a draw and the ability to fight again another day is the best tactical decision.” Katsuki growled as Aizawa-sensei looked over at the Vice Pres’ team. “Would someone explain Yaoyorozu’s plan in detail?”

“I can!” Invisible Girl was still way too damn cheerful. “After we got the intel that there was a security room, Yao-Momo told me to go there since Bakugou and Midori wouldn’t know if I was in the room with them. When we got there, though, we figured they might have some way of knowing if it was disturbed, so Shinsou’s team volunteered to cover for me!”

What the hell?! Katsuki glared at Brain Fucker. “You fucking knew where she was!”

He just shrugged, wearing a shitty unrepentant smirk. “I never said I didn’t.”

Katsuki growled, but Deku put a hand on his shoulder. “It was smart. We never suspected that Hagakure-san was even there.”

“Yup! I was super quiet!” She was still bouncing in excitement, damn her. “Once you two left to attack Jirou-chan’s team, I texted her and Iida-kun to let them know where you were going.”

So that’s how they’d gotten there so fast!

“I stayed in the room until I knew you were going to Yao-momo’s team, but then I moved to the other side of the training area where no one had fought and hid in one of the store closets! That way even if you stole one of Yaomomo’s heat goggles (or apparently have special vision in your visors you cheaters) you wouldn’t be able to find me easily!” Her gloves made a fucking ‘v for victory’ sign, and Katsuki wanted to scream. “And that’s how we made sure you couldn’t win! Plus Yaomomo made tons of traps in the station to slow you down and waste your time. Not that they weren’t trying to capture you! But their main goal was to waste your time so that you’d have less time to look for me.”

Deku laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “It certainly worked. With everything that Yaoyorozu-san and everyone else was throwing at us, we didn’t even realize you weren’t there.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “It’s good you realize that. Her plan was well thought out and gave her team the tie, so she and the students that worked with her will get the extra credit for this round.”

Katsuki grit his teeth. They’d been so damn close!

“It’s ok, Kacchan. We still did amazing, right?”

Katsuki glared at his soulmate. “It’s not a complete victory, so it doesn’t fucking count.”

“Riiiight.” Shitty Hair’s arm slung over Katsuki’s shoulder from the left. “Can’t you accept that you guys did super well, man?”

“Exactly!” Pikachu popped up on Katsuki’s right, putting his arm over Katsuki’s shoulders as well. “And I was awesome, right? I totally almost nailed you that one time, and I got Midoriya when he hit me!”

Katsuki glared at the dumbass. “You landed one hit as you fell unconscious.”

“And I made you guys dodge my attacks!”

Katsuki scoffed. “Pinky and Spider Man did better.” Even if he’d fucking hated her for it.

“Thanks, Blasty!” Spider Man looked fucking thrilled.

Pinky stuck out her tongue at him. “I’ve never seen you and Midori look so disgusted.” She burst out laughing, but Shitty Hair and Pikachu held Katsuki tight so that he couldn’t fucking tackle her.

Deku was hovering around his own dumbass friends, apologizing for hurting them even though that had been the fucking point of the shitty exercise, but Katsuki didn’t have time to yell at him because suddenly he was under a fucking dogpile as the dumbasses (and even Abyss—what the hell?) jumped on top of him.

Katsuki was going to fucking destroy all of them again the second he got out from this shit.

Notes:

0__0 I honestly can't believe I managed to write 13k of solid fight scenes, but here we are. I hope everything was clear!! With all the 1B characters, I tried my best to keep Katsuki's nicknames from becoming confusing. When I started this chapter, I was honestly afraid I'd bit off more than I could chew because it would be such a long fight. I hope y'all enjoyed it!! And tysm to Bouji for brainstorming with me for the 1B fights!! Especially if you like bnha fics that explore minor characters, you should check out their fics, and they have deku-centric fics as well. Ty as well to Geeky in my server for beta-ing most of the chapter for me!! It was another long one. And ofc thank you all for the comments and kudos! Hope you enjoyed this training break from the societal stress and such. The next two weeks will have chapters in Error, and three weeks from now will be another chapter in Fate!

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 6: Danger Abroad

Notes:

Ok, I know we've already had manga spoilers in this fic, but there's a BIG manga spoiler in this chapter, so if you've been reading thinking that you'd be fine bc you already know about the Dabi/Touya thing, just wanted to let you know that more are coming from this point on.

“Christmas is coming! And then New Years!” Pinky leaned over the back of the couch, grinning in Katsuki’s face. They were supposed to be doing homework damn it, but she kept hopping off the couch and leaving the crew of dumbasses to get snacks. “Have you two gotten your presents for the class gift exchange, yet?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “We still have two damn weeks.”

“Exactly! Only two weeks left!’ She fucking poked his cheek before he swatted her hand away. “It’s hard to figure out what to do when we can’t leave campus!”

“That shit’s easy.” Deku had decided to give away Shitstain’s limited edition pachinko prize All Might, and Katsuki was stealing fabric from the Old Hag to make drink cozies.

“Oh?” Pinky leaned in, her grin mischievous. “If it’s so easy, what’cha doin’ for Midori, Blasty?”

“None of your damn business.” He’d already texted the Old Man about it one morning while Deku was asleep—the nerd’s present was going to be fucking perfect.

Spider Man looked up from their English worksheet. “It’s your first Christmas together as a couple, right?”

Katsuki groaned. The extras were going to try to make shit a big deal, he fucking knew it.

“It is, it is!” Pinky shook his damn shoulder, “That means it’s super important! You have to make it amazing!”

Shitty Hair nodded from over where he was sitting next to Spider Man, “Yeah, man. I mean, I’ve never dated anyone, but people always make a big deal out of spending Christmas Day with their partners.” He paused, frowning in thought. “Or is Midori planning something, instead?”

“I have a fucking plan.” Katsuki had wanted to go on a date after they mastered Black Whip, but… He sighed, running a hand through his hair in agitation. The match against the class had proven that they weren’t learning Black Whip fast enough. If they had mastered it, they could have captured people so much fucking faster. And then he and Deku would have had enough time to find Invisible Girl.

“Earth to Blasty.” Pikachu waved a hand in front of his face, then grinned when he finally had Katsuki’s attention. “Dude, daydreaming much? You looking forward to your Christmas plans that badly?”

Katsuki scoffed. “I was thinking about Black Whip, asshole. Deku and I still need to master that shit.”

Pikachu groaned, burying his head in his hands. “You’re so freaking hopeless. You guys are beasts! Why can’t you just relax for once? You haven’t wanted to play drums for the last month!”

Drums? That’s what he was upset about? “There’s no damn time! Our semester exams are coming up and then we have the shitty internships.” Katsuki scowled. It wasn’t like he didn’t want a break. They just didn’t have time for that shit. “We’ll relax on Christmas and New Years. Every other day, we’re fucking training.”

“You’re actually going to relax on Christmas? Midoriya hasn’t even mentioned it.” Brain Fucker set his pencil down on the table across from them, then cracked his neck. “I asked Aizawa-sensei, but he said we’re not allowed off campus. He’ll try to let us go home on New Year's, though.” His eyes glanced over at Pikachu, who blushed. He looked nervous for some fucking reason?

Whatever.

“I’m making the plans, so Deku doesn’t know shit. And I’m not telling a single damn person because then Deku will hear.” The nerd was doing math with his dumbasses on the other side of the common room, but Katsuki didn’t doubt that he was listening to every word, especially since his pencil had stopped moving.

“Midori!” Pinky stood back up, shouting over at their classmates. “Stop listening so we can hear Blasty’s romantic plan!”

“Eep!” The nerd jumped, turning bright red as his friends looked at him. “I wasn’t! I was, um…” He looked down at the math worksheet. “Working on problem three.”

“Oh?” Round Face leaned over, peeking at his paper. “But you’ve only halfway written the first number.”

“I was thinking!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Just give it up. Deku’s a snoop and I’m not saying a damn thing while he can hear.”

Katsuki did need to arrange shit with other people, but there’s no way he was talking about it while Deku could still hear him. No, he needed to make sure everyone he needed was there at the same time.

Before class was the perfect time to strike, so the next day Katsuki waited until everyone had arrived in their classroom, leaning against the nerd’s desk and talking to him about their essay’s for next week. Most of the assholes he needed came in with Deku, but there was still… the second the door closed behind the Vice Prez, Katsuki moved. He shoved his earbuds in Deku’s ears, turning the volume up full blast and covering Deku’s ears so he couldn’t take them off.

“Kacchan!!” Deku tried to push his arms away, but Katsuki activated One for All and the nerd gave up with a groan. “Oh fine. If you’re that serious about it. This is weird, though! I can’t even hear myself talk.”

Good. Katsuki purposefully looked over at Brain Fucker to confuse Deku. “Oi, Half and Half.”

There was silence.

Brain Fucker smirked. “He’s paying attention.”

Whatever, that worked.

“Don’t tell this to the nerd.” Katsuki could barely hear his own voice over the music blaring in Deku’s ears. It was fucking weird, but that meant it was working. “You can make a damn ice skating rink, right?”

“Yes.”

What the hell? Katsuki really had to strain to hear that.

“Speak louder. But keep your answers vague in case Deku hears. Make an ice skating rink on Christmas in front of our dorm. And don’t tell Deku or I’ll blow up your damn room.”

“Ok!”

Katsuki winced. The shout hadn’t been necessary, but Deku couldn’t figure out shit from that one word. Katsuki kept his gaze on Brain Fucker. “Vice Prez, you can make some ice skates for everyone, right?” Katsuki wasn’t stupid. If Half and Half made a rink, the whole class would want to use it; trying to make it a solo date would be fucking pointless.

Damn it, her voice was too damn quiet. Katsuki couldn’t hear if she was saying anything because the damn music was so loud, but he didn’t dare turn it down.

“She said yes.” Brain Fucker looked toward the left, then added, “Satou said he would make some cake and fried chicken for everyone.”

“Fine. I’m making Deku’s, though. And no one better say shit to him!”

There was a chorus of what sounded like people agreeing, so Katsuki released his soulmate’s ears.

Deku immediately took out the earbuds, turning to glare at him. “Kacchan!!! That was super loud!”

“Good. You didn’t hear shit.”

Deku pouted, looking back and forth between Katsuki and Brain Fucker, then frowning at Half and Half before taking in the rest of their giggling classmates. “Toshi-kun, what did Kacchan say?”

“I’m not supposed to tell you.”

The nerd's pout deepened, and he turned pleading eyes toward their classmates, none of whom said a damn thing . The nerd groaned, slumping over his desk. “No fair.”

Katsuki grinned and dropped into his seat as Aizawa-sensei walked into the classroom. Now everything was ready.

Before Christmas, though, they had two weeks of classes and training to get through. Their schedule for this whole damn month was insane, and both Katsuki and Deku knew it, but they couldn’t drop shit. Every day after school they either sparred with Shitty Hair and Brain Fucker or worked on duo shit with Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei. Then there was always their damn homework to finish and on weekends they still had to do fucking therapy. It’s not like they didn’t do shit before school, either–Katsuki and Deku now started off every morning with a One for All-fueled run, then worked on the quirk with All Might. Katsuki felt like he'd tear his body apart if he tried to push any damn further than 25%, but at least he was able to use it for longer time periods. Meanwhile Deku was stuck at 50%.

It was fucking ridiculous. Deku had unlocked the second quirk at 20%! They should have another quirk to work with by this point! But no. They couldn’t even perfect Black Whip and now they couldn’t progress with the quirk’s strength enhancing ability, either.

All the training was fucking exhausting. At the end of each day, Katsuki and Deku collapsed in their beds, too damn tired to move a muscle. And then they got up the next day and did the same shit all over again. They were barely keeping up in classes—Katsuki knew the nerd had nodded off a few times. Not that Katsuki had, himself! He’d never fall asleep in class. And they’d been careful to pay attention in Aizawa-sensei or Mic-sensei’s classes. And R-Rated’s lessons, too, since she’d tell the older soulmate duo if they became too distracted.

Honestly, lunch every day was a fucking blessing because at least they could let their guard down.

Katsuki rubbed at his face, blinking for a second before forcing himself to take another bite of his salmon. He needed every damn nutrient in order to stay at the top of his game. At least Auntie was making their bentos again to save Katsuki the time—they picked them up after working with All Might each morning–but he'd never admit that a small part of him missed watching Deku eat the food he'd made.

But Katsuki also missed Auntie’s food.

“Blasty, you doing ok?”

Katsuki barely glanced up at Pikachu, yawning before he took another bite. “I’m fucking fine. I was just up a little later than usual working on our final English paper.”

“The paper?” Shitty Hair was giving him some shitty look of concern. “But that’s not due for another week.”

“Yeah, but I have to plan shit ahead so that we can keep up our training schedule and don’t have to pull a fucking all-nighter next week.”

“But you’ve been going to bed late all week! Well, late for you, anyway.” Damn it, now Spider Man was all concerned. “You’re usually asleep by the time I head upstairs for the night, but this week you’ve still been working on things.”

Katsuki shrugged. “It’s just two hours later every night. We tried to keep it at one hour, but that wasn’t enough time.” He yawned again, then forced himself to keep eating. Just a little under two weeks left. And then exams would be over and they'd have a brief break on Christmas Day and New Year's.

Katsuki closed his eyes, leaning his head against his hand for a second.

Something was shaking his shoulder.

Katsuki blinked, looking to the right to see Shitty Hair looking at him in concern. “You and Midoriya both fell asleep, man. We figured you needed the rest.”

Huh?

Everyone around them was getting up and heading toward the door, acting as if the lunch bell had rung.

“Shit.” Katsuki rubbed at his eyes, then grabbed one of his onigiri, wrapping the rest of the bento up to eat in between classes and training. Deku did the same, and they both quickly tried to eat the onigiri as their class walked to heroics.

They didn’t need everyone’s fucking looks of concern, damn it.

Thank fuck today’s heroics class was about shitty rescue logistics instead of quirk drills. Katsuki had never been so damn grateful for a lecture class.

But at the gym after class, Brain Fucker brainwashed them and forced them to sleep again. Fucking asshole hadn't needed to do that! They could spar!

Only a few more damn days, and then they could rest for Christmas.

At least the Jean Giraffe had gotten back with Aizawa-sensei about the fucking internships. The day after Christmas, Katsuki, Deku, and Half and Half would travel to stay at the new number two hero’s agency and work under him for a week. After that, UA had some sort of shitty training planned until the new semester started.

They had to find a way to master Black Whip during this internship.

Katsuki hated the idea of leaving UA, but at least he would be with Deku for every damn minute. They couldn’t fucking hide. They had to fix the shitty world together, and they had to leave UA to do it.

“Deku-kun, do you really need to read that?”

The fuck? Read what? They were back at the dorms now and supposed to be doing homework. What the hell was Deku—

Katsuki growled as he saw the nerd’s phone screen.

Can Heroes be Trusted? The Dark Underside of our “Saviors.”

“Damn it, Deku!” Katsuki slammed his pencil down, turning and vaulting over the couch to stomp across the room and glare down at his soulmate. “They don’t fucking matter!”

The nerd sighed, but at least he set his phone aside. “I know people have been better about heroes being related to villains since Mic-sensei aired my interview, but some still—“

“And they always will! Fuck, Deku, some weirdos even hated All Might. So what if they’re dumbasses? We’ll beat up all their shitty assumptions and prove those assholes wrong once we’re out there doing actual fucking hero work! We can’t do shit about it right now.”

Deku gave him a hesitant smile. “You’re always so confident, Kacchan.”

Katsuki scoffed. “We’re fucking soulmates. We’ll conquer any damn obstacle fate throws at us, so of course we can handle these assholes’ expectations.” He studied the nerd. Deku looked tired, but Katsuki didn’t understand how that led to him reading these damn articles again. “What the hell is this coming from?” Katsuki thought Deku had been doing better about Shitstain.

“Ah.” The nerd rubbed at the back of his neck, looking around at all their fucking nosey as hell friends. “Like you said, things are better. I just…” He shrugged. “I’ve been feeling weird sometimes, lately, that’s all. I keep thinking something’s happening.”

Katsuki frowned. Like something was happening? What the hell? If it was weird enough that Deku felt like it was important… “You wanna go talk to that woman?”

“Huh?” Deku looked at him, confused for a few seconds, but shook his head. “No, nothing like that, promise.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. If Deku didn’t want to go talk to Yamashita-sensei about it… Well, they’d been doing shit for an hour, anyway. Katsuki grabbed the nerd’s arm, pulling him out of the chair and ignoring his protests about homework and his phone. “Come on. We’re supposed to take fucking breaks, right? So let’s go write in those damn journals.”

“Kaachaaan. We haven’t even finished our homework!”

“We’ll come back down and finish it afterwards. If you’re gonna get distracted and think about shit, you might as well make it fucking count.”

The nerd groaned, but he fell into step by Katsuki’s side. “Alright. I guess I could use a break.” He looked back over his shoulder, pulling his arm free so that he could wave to his idiots. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, you guys!”

Pinky frowned from the kitchen as she watched them walk past. “Uh… did you basically just call therapy journalling ‘getting distracted in a way that counts for something’?”

Katsuki ignored Pinky and kept walking past them.

Pikachu sighed next to her, shaking his head. “You guys have issues.” He raised his voice, calling after them, “Not every minute of your day has to be productive!”

Katsuki gave him a middle finger and kicked open the door to the stairwell.

Deku did at least seem calmer after the damn journalling, though, and was able to focus on his damn homework and not his phone. After that, whenever the nerd started spacing, Katsuki dragged him away to go do more of the fucking journalling.

But as the days passed, Deku started to stare into space for longer periods until eventually even journalling didn’t help.

Katsuki had no damn clue what was going on. They had been able to knock it back to just one hour less sleep than usual instead of two, but somehow Deku seemed to be handling it even worse than before.

It was clear Deku didn’t really know what the hell was happening, either. He’d mutter about needing to do shit, but couldn’t figure out what. Training or going on a run seemed to help, but whenever he got to pick the location it was fucking bizarre: the nerd would automatically head toward the south half of campus every damn time.

Katsuki didn’t care where they trained, personally, he just wanted to fucking train. It was like everything in his body was on edge. They had to get better. They weren’t strong enough right now.

And then two days later, it happened.

Deku was terrible all fucking day—fidgety as hell–but he’d shake his head stubbornly whenever Katsuki opened his mouth to ask him ahout it. Katsuki had taken the nerd’s phone, though he honestly didn’t know if he should have fucking bothered. Deku was such a damn space cadet he was staring out the window toward the south for the entire fucking first period. He somehow managed to hold it together in front of Aizawa-sensei, Mic-sensei, and All Might, but this was worse than Katsuki had ever seen him. It was like he was walking around in a damn daze, and Katsuki kept having to nudge him under the desk with Black Whip to get him to fucking focus.

Whatever this shit was, though, they couldn’t let it slow them down. They had to keep training. Hand Fucker and all the others were gathering strength, so Katsuki and Deku had to be ready. Thank fuck Deku agreed and still wanted to spar with the extras after classes. Though, predictably, he headed to the southern-most gym.

Except then he couldn’t focus worth a damn, so he’d ended up brainwashed the whole hour while Brain Fucker made him run laps with One for All. Whatever was happening was starting to affect Katsuki, too—he kept using more sweat than he’d intended. Thank fuck Shitty Hair was strong as hell. Still, Katsuki hated that this thing was affecting their training.

Maybe they should tell Sensei or All Might about this shit.

He and Deku were damn exhausted, but whatever the hell this was, it had nothing to do with that. And they couldn’t let it waste their time.

But when they’d returned to the dorms that evening, it had been all over the news.

Deika city.

Deku’s face had lost color with every word.

The destruction had been even greater than Kamino, but casualties had been kept lower since it was such a remote area.

A remote area in the fucking south. And the way that skyscraper looked like it had just crumbled…. Hand Fucker had probably been improving just like them, and by now he’d be able to fucking destroy that easily. Plus the scorch marks all over one part of town, and the places where buildings looked like they’d had giant circles gauged out of them…

According to the Feathered Menace, the League was supposed to be in the north, but that had been months ago.

For some reason, the news anchors weren’t blaming the League. Every channel said that Hawks had been the first on the scene—all the local heroes had been lured elsewhere by a false report before about two dozen villains had started robbing and threatening everyone and destroying shit. The citizens had done their best to defend their town until Hawks had arrived and arrested everyone all on his own.

Right.

Katsuki thought it was way too fucking convenient that Hawks was the only hero who had seen what the hell had happened. The League had to have been involved in this shit, and the Feathered Menace was trying to cover it up for some damn reason.

But why?

The city had been fucking demolished. Over a hundred people had died. Why the hell was the Feathered Menace covering shit like this up?!

All the citizens the news crews interviewed were supporting the heroes. They were cheering the Feathered Menace for catching everyone in seconds after he’d arrived, despite the massive destruction that had happened before he’d gotten there.

Nothing made sense! The Feathered Menace should have been there faster, so–

“We should have been there.”

Katsuki’s head whipped to the side, staring at Deku, who was clutching at his arms, his face pale like he’d seen some fucking ghost.

Damn it. Katsuki knew how the nerd felt. Knew how much society was counting on them to stop shit exactly like this because they were soulmates and heroes, but fuck. “We have to keep training. We have to get better so that this can never happen again.”

But they’d felt the same way after Kamino Ward. And despite all their growth since then, they’d been powerless to stop this. They hadn’t even known—

“That’s not what I mean.” Deku shook his head, closing his eyes in frustration. “We should have been there this time.”

“How the hell could we have been all the way in Deika? We’re stuck at fucking UA unless heroes travel with us.”

“Kacchan, don’t you see? This is why I’ve been feeling so weird!”

What the fuck? “Deku how the hell does that even make sense?” He’d been a space cadet because villains were attacking down south? Deku was too smart for dumbass shit like that!

Deku bit his lip, then opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it a second later, looking around the room to see their classmates staring at them.

Damn it!

Katsuki growled, then grabbed Deku’s arm, hauling him outside and stomping angrily toward the adults’ house. Thankfully the nerd was quiet at first, but once they got far enough he stopped and pulled his arm free, making Katsuki stop and turn to face him.

“Kacchan, I know it sounds ridiculous, ok? But it’s like my whole body has been telling me that something was wrong, that something really bad was going to happen, and I’ve even felt like I should leave campus and run south as fast as I could. Then this happens. I should’ve listened to it! You feel it, too, don’t you?”

Felt what? All he knew was that they needed to train so they could fucking deal with the damn League! “Even if you can somehow sense shit, we can’t just leave, damn it! Every time we fucking leave, people attack us! We have to keep training so that we can beat these fuckers!”

“But we have to help! I knew something was wrong and I didn’t do anything!”

“How the hell could you have known that whatever this shit was, it was actually real?” Katsuki stepped closer to Deku, glaring at him with their faces only inches apart. “The League have tricked us before. There’s no damn way you could’ve known that, so you can’t fucking blame yourself!”

“I’m not—“

“Don’t you dare lie to me, Deku.”

They stood there, glaring at each other, each focused on the other’s face and nothing else.

Deku’s eyes were bright and defiant, glaring at Katsuki. “Alright, so maybe I am blaming myself! We’e supposed to be helping people. How can we help people if we’re stuck here?”

“How can we help people if we go out there before we’re ready and get fucking killed? You know what’ll happen if one of us dies like that, Deku! We’d just make shit worse!”

“Are you saying we’d lose?” Deku’s jaw was set in a stubborn line, and Katsuki wanted to scream.

He couldn’t….

Fuck!!!

“Yes!! Yes, fuck, I’m saying we’d lose, damn it!” He hated this shit so much! “In a fight like that, even if we won, they’d make sure we lost something. We can’t even heal each other mid battle yet or use Black Whip fully and we don’t even know what the other five quirks are! And the League can be anyone! We’re only fucking safe at UA and I fucking hate it so damn much, but it’s the truth! Deku, I can’t let that bastard hurt you again!”

Deku stared at Katsuki. His green eyes wide and frozen, and Katsuki looked away in frustration. He hated this shit so damn much! “We have to get stronger. We’ll be number one and fucking unbeatable, but we aren’t there yet.”

“Kacchan, you… You always say we’ll win.”

Katsuki glared at the ground. “If we have to fight, we’d find a way and we would win.” He looked back up, willing Deku to understand, “But fuck, Deku, I can’t risk losing you in order to get that win.”

Katsuki hadn’t been able to do shit to stop Hand Fucker at Kamino. Or to stop Knife Bitch at the raid. Or Shitstain. Or Frankenstein, even if Deku hadn’t been involved for once. Every time the League showed up, they made sure the situation was in their damn favor and until Katsuki and Deku were stronger—

“Over a hundred people died, Kacchan!” Deku was shaking his head, and fuck, Katsuki wanted to knock sense into his damn stubborn head. “If we could have helped, we should have. No matter what.”

“We couldn’t have! We didn’t know shit!”

“I did! I should have!”

A throat cleared behind Katsuki.

He whirled around, his hand out to release a huge-ass explosion, but then Katsuki sighed, letting his arm fall back to his side at the familiar figure. “Aizawa-sensei.” The bastard must have used his ability to sneak up on them again.

“What happened?” The hero was standing on the sidewalk, watching them. “Hitoshi texted me, worried. He said that you’ve been acting oddly all week, Midoriya, and that Bakugou yelled at you and dragged you out of the dorms. He thought you might be coming to us, but when you didn’t show up, I decided to come find you.”

Katsuki frowned, then gestured at Deku. “You explain shit.”

“Right.” The nerd shifted his feet, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how to explain. “I’ve felt… off, recently.”

“Off? Is this why you’ve been distracted?”

Damn it. How much had Sensei noticed? They’d been trying to hide that shit from him.

The nerd nodded. “Everything will be fine, and then suddenly I’ll feel like something really bad is happening. I’ll check the news, but I don’t always see anything. Sometimes there’s been a robbery nearby, but it’s not consistent. Just every time it happens, it feels like I should be doing something. Like someone needs help. Like while I’m sitting here, training or doing homework or going to class, someone else is in danger and I could be helping them. And today it was really bad. I kept having this urge to run south as fast as I could, and I couldn’t figure out why.”

“And then you saw the report about Deika.”

Deku nodded. “I know it’s weird. But I think… I think this might be another one of the um…” He looked around, but Aizawa-sensei nodded.

“I checked, there’s no one nearby. What about you, Bakugou? Are you experiencing this?”

Katsuki scowled. If it was something affecting the nerd’s body like a quirk, then Katsuki should feel it. But… “I don’t… Fuck, I don’t know!” Maybe he would be able to access this later? But even Black Whip had emerged for them at the same time, it had just taken Katsuki longer to use it consciously. So how was this shit—oh. Katsuki’s eyes widened. “I keep feeling like we aren’t doing enough. Like we have to do something because everyone’s in danger, but I thought it was just needing to train.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “You’ve both stopped giving yourselves time to relax, haven’t you.”

“We do the damn journals!”

Deku nodded beside him. “And we’re spending time with our friends! Though it’s mostly to do homework.” The nerd winced as Katsuki shot him a glare. He didn’t have to add that last bit.

“What about meditation? Hero analyses? Playing the drums?”

“I played the drums a while ago.” Pikachu had uploaded that shit and the whole damn internet had gone crazy, it was fucking ridiculous.

“A while ago.” Aizawa-sensei was giving them his dry, disappointed stare, and Katsuki glared back at him.

“We have training and school shit to do! Plus getting ready for the fucking winter holidays!”

“Fine. Then you no longer have duo training with me on Thursday afternoons. Use that time for a mental health break.”

“But Sensei—“

“You both should have realized something was wrong sooner, but you didn’t because your stress is affecting how you’re thinking. You have to take more breaks before the consequences are larger than missing a few details and having a fight in your common room.”

What the hell? “We didn’t have a fight!”

“What do you mean, missing a few details?” Damn it, now Deku was wearing his worried face. “I’ve been trying really hard to figure this out.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Bakugou was oblivious to how this new sense was affecting him. And normally you would’ve caught onto this sooner, Midoriya. You’re always analyzing quirks, but you only just now realized that’s what this could be? You’ve both let your stress cloud your thoughts.”

Katsuki scowled. “It’s only been happening for a week or so. And only during lectures or studying and shit. It hasn’t affected heroics or training.” Well, hopefully Brain Fucker hadn’t told Sensei about brainwashing Deku several times for their entire workouts.

What the hell, why was Sensei giving them the shitty disappointed look again?! “In the match against your classmates, why didn’t you go into the security room?”

Huh? Why was he bringing up their matches from four weeks ago?

Deku frowned for a second, then his eyes widened in realization. “It… I told Kacchan it felt wrong.”

Sensei nodded. “Your classmates anticipated that you had set a trap to tell if someone else entered the surveillance room, but from where we stood as teachers, you two were overly confident that they wouldn’t find the room and had done no such thing. It’s one of the reasons I sent Shinsou the room’s location in the first place. You two needed to learn to be more cautious. But then you stopped before entering the room. I thought maybe you had done something and we hadn’t caught it.”

Katsuki shook his head. “We hadn’t done shit.” It had been fucking careless.

Deku nodded. “Kacchan was going to run back inside, but he paused because I told him to, even though I couldn’t figure out why it felt wrong. Then Kaminari-kun came outside. I’d forgotten about that, but… the feeling is a lot similar. That was just a lot um… softer, I guess? Less insistent. But they’re our friends, so that makes sense.”

“All Might and I suspected something might have happened with one of the other quirks at that time—he even said one of the quirks might be able to know its enemy’s movements—but neither one of you said anything, so we decided to wait and see if it happened again.”

Knowing the enemy’s movements?

Katsuki frowned. It could be valuable, but… “How the hell can we know for sure? And how come All Might didn’t fucking tell us!”

“He’s been trying to gather more precise details. All he knows right now is that somehow the fourth user was able to avoid All for One for decades thanks to his quirk.”

“If he could sense when things were going wrong like this, that would fit. He would have been able to sense All for One coming.” Deku rubbed at his chin in thought, then looked over at Katsuki. “We could meditate and try to ask the previous users? Or ask Yamashita-sensei to use her quirk on us before we fall asleep tonight? That’s how we came face to face with them last time. But they’ve tried to talk to you before outside of the dreamscape, Kacchan, even if it wasn’t very clearly.”

Katsuki wrinkled his nose. That insistent buzzing voice from way back had been fucking annoying. “Let’s try the meditation shit first.” Even if he fucking sucked at it.

Aizawa-sensei turned back toward the trees. “You two could use the meditation, anyway. In case your quirks react, let’s do this in the forest out of sight. I’ll text All Might to join us.”

They followed him into the trees out behind the dorms (though Katsuki did have a moment of doubt about following him somewhere alone, the man had known too much to be Knife Bitch).

As they sat down to try to meditate, though, Katsuki couldn’t focus. His brain kept thinking about other shit! Meditation always made him think of the fucking Feathered Menace since he’s the first one who taught him this shi, and Katsuki had no damn clue what the bird bastard had been doing near Deika, and—

“Bakugou.” Katsuki opened his eyes to see Aizawa-sensei staring at him. “You do well when you’re focusing on Midoriya’s injuries, so try focusing on One for All inside him.”

Right. Focus on his soulmate. He could do that.

Katsuki took a deep breath. Search for the quirk’s familiar buzz. But find it in Deku, not in himself. Follow the nerd’s half of the quirk and—

Everything around him went black.

Green light flickered to his left. Deku. The darkness wrapped around his legs and waist, but it was up to Katsuki’s shoulders. Maybe because Deku had better control of the quirk? Did that mean they could fucking talk now?

But even though Deku was opening his mouth, no sound came out.

Damn it!

Slowly, a figure formed in the darkness. He was tall, taller than the other one, and had gray hair and two long scars running down his face. “So, we finally meet.”

What the hell did he mean by ‘finally’?! The quirk shadows or whatever had initiated all the other meetings, why couldn’t they do that shit again? Katsuki tried to yell at the man, but no words would come out. Fucking damn it!

“I am the fourth user, Shinomori Hikage. You have been drawing on my power this past month.’ He frowned, “It gave me quite a shock. To have you call on me… it is an odd feeling.” He sighed. “I am not used to unpredictable things.”

Then the quirk was some kind of foresight shit?

“My quirk is called Danger Sense. It is simple and should not give you the same issues as Banjou’s. You cannot turn it on or off. Now that it’s active, you will always feel premonitions about approaching danger. You can choose whether to pursue that danger or avoid it. I knew I was not strong enough to face All for One, so I used my quirk to hide and help One for All grow stronger, to keep it safe for when it could finally defeat him.” He paused, his eyebrows drawing together in annoyance, then looked down at his hand, which was beginning to disappear in shadows. “Our time is still limited.”

What the hell?

The fourth wasn’t explaining shit further, though, as his form began to dissipate.

And then there was only darkness around them.

Katsuki opened his eyes, gasping for breath.

“Young Midoriya! Young Bakugou! Are you both alright?” All Might was leaning in front of them, one hand on each of their shoulders.

When had he gotten there? No, that wasn’t important. Katsuki shook his head, trying to focus on the world around them. “We’re fucking fine.”

“I was right!” Shit, Deku was practically fucking buzzing in excitement now, the nerd. “The quirk is called Danger Sense!”

“Danger Sense?” All Might blinked in surprise and let go of their shoulders. “Then it is the fourth user’s quirk.”

Katsuki glared at the hero. “You could have told us you found out shit about the other quirks!”

“I’m still discovering information.” All Might winced, then shrugged. “All I know is that my own predecessor’s was called Float, and the sixth holder could create smokescreens, but the other quirks are harder to pin down.” Smokescreens and float? Well those were fucking useless when they already had Katsuki’s quirk. But maybe it would decrease the strain on their shoulders or create the smokescreen faster? “I know the fourth user had a quirk that allowed him to escape All for One’s attacks. But that’s all I had been able to find out. I know nothing about the second or third users.”

Katsuki scowled, that shit wasn’t helpful at all.

“Making smokescreens and floating?” Deku tapped his leg in thought, his brain going a million miles an hour as he brainstormed shit they could try. He groaned and shook his head. “One quirk at a time! I have to figure out the quirks I can actually use, first. The fourth user said that I would sense whenever danger was about to happen and could use the quirk either to find the danger or avoid it. Which is why I knew going into the surveillance room would be bad for Kacchan, but I didn’t know why. And the same thing happened with Deika city!”

“You sensed that attack from here?!” All Might’s eyes widened at Deku’s nod. “I wonder if the quirk’s reach was originally that far.”

“The fifth asshole said his quirk was stronger because of One for All. That shit could be true with this one, too.”

The nerd nodded again. “Right. I had no clue what was going on, but I’ve been wanting to run south all day. Well… except for now.” The nerd grimaced. “The danger is over, I guess.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “If you feel anything similar in the future, let us know, but do not go investigate on your own, alright?”

“Yes, sir!” Deku nodded, sheepishly adding, “I don’t think I can tell exactly where or when things will happen, though. It’s more like I get the feeling that I should run in a particular direction to help people, but I have no clue how far it will be.”

“You may be able to discern more details with time.” All Might gave the nerd a gentle smile. “The fourth user was able to avoid All for One for decades, and doing so would have taken a lot of skill.”

The nerd nodded in determination, making Aizawa-sensei sigh. “Just keep us updated. We’ll start having more spars during your duo training on Monday and Tuesday afternoons so that you can work on incorporating the new quirk into your fighting. But Thursday afternoons you are still required to rest instead of our usual lessons.”

Katsuki glared at the man, but Deku’s eyes lit up. “I should be able to sense when people are going to attack! That’ll be super helpful! Kacchan, I wonder how much you’ll be able to sense? If the quirk’s not something I can turn off, it should affect you, too, right? But you haven’t felt anything?”

Katsuki shook his head. “I’ve been too worried about your ass to pay attention to that shit. Other than feeling anxious to train, that’s been it.”

“Oh.” Deku’s shoulders fell. “Sorry, Kacchan. We’ll both have to look out for it in the future, then.”

“As another way to make sure you both relax, Eri-chan’s birthday is the 21st.” Huh? Katsuki looked over at Sensei, confused about what that had to do with them relaxing. “She doesn’t want a big party, but she said she’d like it if we all could have dinner together and she could be with everyone. You two should take the night off from training and eat dinner with her and everyone else.”

“Of course!” Deku nodded eagerly. “We’d love to come have dinner! Will it just be us and the adults in the house, or will Mirio-senpai and Tamaki-senpai be there as well?”

“The third years will be invited. She knows about Shinsou and also said he could come, but that’s it.”

The 21st was what, next Tuesday? It would be annoying to have a huge, long ass dinner in the middle of the week and miss another afternoon of duo training, but whatever. Katsuki could figure out how to make her some shit over the weekend. Actually… “If that’s the case, then we’ll go back to the house with you. I need to borrow some shit from the Old Hag.”

Deku stood up with Katsuki giving him a curious look. “Do you want to make her something?”

Katsuki nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets as they walked behind the teachers. “Since Sensei’s forcing us to take Thursdays off, I might as well use that time to make her a present.” It’s not like they had time to ask their parents to go shopping or order shit or anything like that.

“Then I’ll help!”

“Huh? You can’t fucking sew!”

“Please, Kacchan! I’ll cut the fabric or something! I can do that much, right?”

Katsuki groaned. “I’m not gonna use some lameass pattern where you can follow the dotted line, you idiot. I’ll have to make this shit from scratch. So no you can’t cut shit for me.”

“Please! There has to be something I can do to help!”

Katsuki groaned, but when Thursday came around he caved and let the nerd cut the fabric for the drink cozies that Katsuki was contributing to the class gift exchange. Those followed a shitty pattern. Then he let Deku stuff each part of the unicorn before Katsuki sewed it shut—that way Deku could at least tell the girl that he’d helped without it being a damn lie.

Pikachu had been visiting Brain Fucker and had caught them making it in Deku’s dorm, so of course the little shit promptly took pictures to post on social media. At least they’d gotten him to promise to wait until after the 21st to post them so that Eri-chan wouldn’t see the pictures early. Katsuki didn’t care how much it ‘showed a softer side to him’ like the Old Hag wanted, the dumbass wasn’t going to spoil Eri-chan’s present.

The unicorn had looked fucking amazing when they’d finished. Katsuki had made sure it was proportionally the right size for her dolls to ride, too.

The next Tuesday, Aizawa-sensei made homeroom into a study hall, so Katsuki and Deku were able to finish all their homework earlier than planned since they also didn’t have duo sparring practice. It would be nice to be able to relax at the party, but fuck Sensei wasn’t being subtle–the whole class figured out he’d done the study hall to make sure Katsuki and Deku didn’t overwork themselves. Bastard.

When it was time to go that evening, Deku was practically vibrating by the door as they waited on Brain Fucker. From over by the couches, Pinky huffed at the asshole once he finally came downstairs. “Why does he get to go to Eri-chan’s birthday dinner when we can’t?”

“I’m over there a lot to bother Eraserhead for internship things, so she’s gotten to know me, that’s all.” Brain Fucker’s voice was relaxed, but his shoulders were tense, and Pikachu was watching the dumbass with concern.

Pinky stuck out her tongue. “If that was the case, then Sero-kun would be able to go, too!”

Spider Man waved his hands in protest. “No way! I usually send Shinsou-kun over there when I have questions.”

Brain Fucker gave him a grateful smile, then stopped next to them by the door. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“It’s ok! We haven’t been waiting that long.” Deku opened the door and skipped outside, holding it for both of them. “Do you have a present for her, Toshi-kun?”

Brain Fucker shrugged. “It’s not like I have money or can go off campus, so Eraserhead said he would pick something out for me and wrap it.”

Katsuki honestly had no clue whether Aizawa-sensei or Mic-sensei would be better at finding presents for a little girl, but for Eri-chan’s sake, he hoped whatever they picked was damn good.

Deku’s hand slipped into his, their fingers intertwining. “It’s nice to relax for the evening, right Kacchan?”

“Going to a little girl’s birthday dinner isn’t exactly what I’d call relaxing.“ Brain Fucker went ahead of them.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but squeezed Deku’s hand in silent agreement. “I guess it’s not bad, since we fucking have to go.”

“Mhm! We haven’t had a family dinner in forever! It’ll be great.”

Brain Fucker looked back over his shoulder, smirking, “Speaking of family dinners, I wonder if your mom will give me some more blackmail from your childhood, Baku-kun?”

“Shut up! Tonight’s supposed to be about Eri-chan, anyway, so you don’t get to ask about that shit.”

“But she’d want to know, too. Would you prevent her from hearing stories about what other people’s childhoods were like?”

“Deku’s dad’s a fucking Shitstain. Our families moved in together. We were fucking bullied a lot. We stuck with each other. End of the damn story.”

Brain Fucker’s smile slipped from his face. “Yeah. We all were dealt a bad hand.”

“Tonight’s not about that, though!” Deku squeezed Katsuki’s hand, then forced him to pick up the pace so that they could walk beside Brain Fucker. “We’re going to help Eri-chan have the normal childhood we never could, starting now!”

Brain Fucker snorted. “She lives in a house with nine adults. There’s nothing normal about that.”

Deku pouted. “There’s not really anyone her own age at UA, though. I don’t think any of the teachers have kids… well, besides you, Toshi-kun.”

“Thanks.” Brain Fucker rolled his eyes. “It’s fine, Zu-kun, I’m well aware that I’m not the same age as Eri-chan.”

Deku groaned, protesting that he hadn’t meant to imply anything, and Katsuki ignored them as Brain Fucker responded all sarcastic and shit. It was clear that the asshole still wasn’t entirely comfortable referring to himself as Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei’s son, but whatever. Katsuki didn’t fucking care.

When they got to the shitty adults’ house, everyone was already in the dining area, most of them sitting down, and Eri-chan was at the head of the table wearing a white kimono with sakura flowers all over it that the Old Hag must’ve made for her.

Was it her seventh birthday? Sensei hadn’t said, but that would explain the shitty kimono.

“Purple-chan! I didn’t know you’d be coming!” The Blonde Asshole beamed at them, and Brain Fucker froze. His eyes darted between the third years and Aizawa-sensei, who had risen to come greet him.

“Yeah. I, um…” Brain Fucker sighed, then went over to Aizawa-sensei and gave the man a half hug. “Hi, Dad.”

“Oh!” the Blonde Asshole grinned at them. “You’re their son? I didn’t know, but no wonder we get along, then! That’s amazing!”

Brain Fucker shrugged, stepping away from the hug and then blinking in surprise when Aizawa-sensei ruffled his hair.

Eri-chan was looking between the two of them, confused, and Brain Fucker sighed again when he saw her watching them. “Eraserhead and Present Mic only became my dads recently. Kinda like how you only started living here about a month ago.”

“Oh.” She stared at Brain Fucker for a second. “Did you live with not nice people, too?”

Brain Fucker winced, glancing across the table at the third years again, but he nodded. “‘Not nice’ is a good way to put it, yeah. But neither one of us is there anymore, right? And we’re supposed to think about happy things during your birthday party.”

“That’s true!” Deku bounded over to the chair next to her, grinning at her. “Happy Birthday, Eri-chan!”

Wide red eyes stared back at Deku, and she slowly nodded. “What’s a birthday party?”

Ah, fuck.

Deku barely managed to keep his smile from faltering.

“Yo, Bakugou.” Mic-sensei’s hand landed on his shoulder, and Katsuki turned toward their teacher, distracted from hearing Deku’s answer.

Mic-sensei nodded toward the living room. “Can I talk with you over there for a sec?”

Katsuki shrugged. He had no damn clue what the hero wanted, but it’s not like the man was asking him to leave the house. He followed Mic-sensei over toward the other side of the large, open room, and when they reached the other end of the table, Mic-sensei stopped. He leaned forward, whispering as he held up his bare hand. “Don’t take your gloves off in front of Eri-chan, ok?”

Katsuki’s eyes widened.

Overbeak’s quirk. That asshole always wore gloves, but he had to take them off to use his quirk. She probably associated the motion with pain.

Katsuki closed his eyes for a second, but gave Mic-sensei a tight, answering nod. “Thank fuck we caught that bastard.” He took in a deep breath, then exhaled, opening his eyes once more. “She’s ok if I’m wearing gloves, though, right? She’s never seemed wary of them.”

Mic-sensei nodded. “Yeah. Our gloves are both fingerless, and I think that helps distinguish them, you know? But that movement still terrifies her.”

“Got it.” Katsuki looked down at the gloves the Old Hag had made him. He didn’t really have to wear them any more, now that the scars were mostly healed. But he’d worn them so long that now it felt weird when he didn’t have them on.

Mic-sensei ruffled his hair and Katsuki glared at him, making the Voice Hero laugh. “Go on back to the others, little listener, that’s all I needed to tell you.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and headed back toward Deku. He assumed he was supposed to sit in the empty chair between the nerd and Aizawa-sensei, since Brain Fucker was across from his dads. Which meant Pointy Ears was across from Katsuki.

Whatever.

Katsuki plopped down into the chair, and the nerd reached over, taking Katsuki’s hand again while he listened to Eri-chan talking about how she’d gone to a shrine earlier with Aizawa-sensei.

Definitely turning seven, then, since that wasn’t a tradition for when you turned six or eight, and she looked too old to be five.

Katsuki glanced at the dishes strewn across the table—Auntie must’ve made most of the food, though the Old Man had probably picked out all the shit for the salad since there was way too much damn daikon.

The others were all gathering around at the table now: All Might and his soulmates were on the other side of Brain Fucker, with Yamashita-sensei on the end of that side, then Auntie sat across from her and Katsuki’s parents in between Auntie and Mic-sensei.

The Blonde Asshole was helping Eri-chan fill up her plate, though she refused to actually say what she fucking liked, so he mostly was putting a little bit of everything unless her eyes lit up when she saw it.

She was so damn shy. Worse than even fucking Pointy Ears.

The color of the sweet potatoes seemed to interest her, though she was much less curious about the oden (into which the Old Man had also put too much daikon).

Katsuki sighed and poured out some of the soup for himself, careful to avoid the old man’s fucking favorite vegetable.

When Eri-chan saw that he was eating it, she hesitantly picked up her spoon. Her nose wrinkled at the smell, but she took a small sip of the broth, then another.

“Do you like it, Eri-chan?” Deku was grinning as he watched her eat, and she slowly nodded. “Uncle Masaru grew all the vegetables.”

“It’s warm.”

“Uh-huh!” The Blonde Asshole nodded. “It’s a really nice soup for winter.”

She nodded, then reached for the bowl of bamboo rice to try, since Deku currently had a bowl of it in front of him.

Katsuki sighed. Was she going to copy what they ate for the whole damn meal?

Yes. Yes, she was.

Deku and the Blonde Asshole tried their best to figure out what she actually fucking liked, but in the end, she kept wanting to eat what she saw them eating the most of.

And across from Katsuki, Pointy Ears and Brain Fucker were hardly talking. Well, they were hardly talking about anything interesting. Brain Fucker had asked Pointy Ears what he and the Blonde Asshole were doing for Christmas, but apparently they were allowed off campus, so they were doing boring, cliché shit like going to see the lights in the nearest shopping district.

Whatever. Katsuki’s plan was so much better. Deku wouldn’t be missing a fucking thing, he’d make sure of it.

“I’m not really sure what to do with Denki-kun… he’s so excited about Christmas, but I’ve never paid attention to things like this. I feel like I’ll mess it up.”

Pointy Ears hid behind his cup. “I’m not sure if I’m the best person to ask for advice.”

“But you and Mirio-senpai have been dating since middle school, right? You’ve had several Christmases together. And if I ask my dads…” Brain Fucker’s voice trailed off and he looked over to where Aizawa-sensei was pointedly not listening to them as he watched Mic-sensei tell some story about shit that happened this week at his radio station.

Pointy Ears sighed. “Just have fun together. That’s the only important thing, really. At least, I think so.”

Brain Fucker groaned. “But we’re stuck on campus. And Baku-kun’s already stolen all the romantic ideas.” He shot Katsuki a glare, but Deku had immediately perked up.

“You know Kacchan’s plans?”

“And he’s not saying shit.” Katsuki glared at Brain Fucker, who smirked and nodded.

“Sorry, Zu-kun, but it’ll be more fun if I don’t spoil the surprise and get to watch your expression when you find out in person.”

Deku pouted. “Fine, then. But don’t expect my help planning your date. Though I think Tamaki-senpai is right, really. You should just do something that you two enjoy.”

Brain Fucker rubbed at the back of his neck. “Denki-kun suggested a movie marathon. He wants to watch a bunch of corny American Christmas movies.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. Of course the dumbass would want to watch that shit.

“That sounds like something you two would enjoy!” Yeah, they’d both enjoy laughing at them. Deku beamed at his friend, then turned to Eri-chan. “Are you looking forward to Christmas, Eri-chan?”

“Christmas?” Her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked between Deku and the Blonde Asshole, confused.

The Blonde Asshole nodded. “It’s where you give people you love presents, and they give you presents in return!”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “But… isn’t that today? Auntie Bakugou gave me this pretty kimono. And Uncle Bakugou gave me some clothes for my dolls.” What the hell? The Old Man rarely sewed actual clothes.

“That’s because today is your birthday! You were born seven years ago on the same date, so today we celebrate how happy we are to be your friends and that you’re another year older!” Deku smiled at her. “Christmas is more about celebrating your love together.”

Eri frowned.

“Uh-huh!” The Blonde Asshole wrapped his arm around Pointy Ears shoulder, who seemed to shrink at being drawn into the conversation. “When it’s your birthday, you get gifts. But on Christmas, everyone gives gifts to each other.”

“So… I should give everyone gifts?”

“Not yet!” The Blonde Asshole patted her head. “You only have to worry about that when you’re older and have money. Until then, Santa will come and bring you presents!”

“Santa?”

Ah, damn it. Why did the Blonde Asshole have to bring that up? Now she was going to be even more fucking confused!”

“He’s like a hero! He wears a red suit and gives kids presents on Christmas!”

“A hero?”

“Yeah!” Deku nodded excitedly. “He couldn’t get to your house before, but now that you’re here, I’m sure Santa will leave you presents!”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched. Santa wasn’t even a big thing here in Japan! Oh, whatever, Katsuki could see All Might listening and he’d make sure the other adults knew to make ‘santa presents.’ He’d been to America and knew what that shit was.

Fucking idiots.

The adults were mostly keeping to their own conversations, no doubt wanting to avoid crowding Eri-chan too much even though this was supposed to be her birthday dinner. But now Auntie was picking up plates so that they could serve cake.

Deku stood up to help her out of habit, but Katsuki told him to stay and talk with Eri-chan. Usually, when Katsuki helped cook, Deku would clean, but it’s not like Katsuki had helped Auntie this time, and Eri-chan liked talking with Deku more than him, so he’d take care of the damn clean up. Besides, Pointy Ears and Brain Fucker started helping, too, and soon they had the whole table cleared and were serving the strawberry shortcake.

Katsuki sighed. This wasn’t going to help with Eri-chan’s confusion about birthdays and Christmas. The Christmas dessert was a good simple cake when you didn’t know someone’s favorite flavors, though.

Katsuki made sure to give Eri-chan the piece with the biggest strawberry.

She definitely liked the strawberry and the strawberry glaze Auntie had made, though Katsuki couldn’t tell if Eri-chan liked the cake itself or not.

Apparently the adults had given her presents throughout the day because Yamashita-sensei had said she might get overwhelmed otherwise. Looking at Eri-chan’s wide red eyes as she took in the three new presents that were set on the table after she finished her cake, Katsuki figured she was right.

“These are for me?”

“Uh-huh!” Deku nodded, then picked up their pink present and handed it to her. “This one is from Kacchan and me. Do you want to open it?”

She stared at the paper. “From you and Zero-san?” She looked over at Katsuki, then slowly pulled the present toward the edge of the table. “And I can take off the paper?”

Deku nodded again, so Eri-chan slowly pulled at the paper, wincing when it ripped and looking up at them. “Sorry! I—“

“It’s fine! You’re supposed to rip it.”

That made her stare. “I’m supposed to rip it?”

“Yup!” The Blonde Asshole gave her a thumbs up and winked. “You want me to show you?”

She looked over at him, then back at the present. When she didn’t move to open it further, the third year reached over and slid his finger under the paper, tearing it completely open across the top. Eri-chan’s eyes immediately darted over to Deku and Katsuki, but Deku was still beaming at her, so she pulled at the paper some herself, cautiously ripping open the side. The Blonde Asshole undid the tape at the top of the box for her, then gasped when he saw what was inside, holding open the top flaps and tilting the box so she could see it. “Eri-chan, look!”

She gasped, as well, pulling out the unicorn plushie and holding it up. “It’s soft!”

“Kacchan sewed it together and I put the stuffing in!” Deku was about to cry again, damn it, the nerd was so happy that she liked it.

“You made it?” She was hugging the unicorn to her chest now, and Katsuki nodded.

“I got the fabric from my parents.”

“Thank you!” She hugged it even tighter, then held it up, staring at its horn, which Katsuki had intentionally put off-center. She reached up, touching the small bump on her head. “It’s like mine.” Her voice was soft, but she was smiling as she looked up at them, then hugged it tight again.

After about a minute, she finally looked over at the other presents, so the Blonde Asshole moved the purple box toward her. “This one is from Purple-chan!”

She evaluated the box in front of her, her expression once again blank. “I can rip it, too?”

“Yup!” The Blonde Asshole nodded. “Show us how strong you are!”

She stared at him for a few seconds, then looked back at the box. Still holding the unicorn in one hand, she tugged at the paper, and the Blonde Asshole moved his hand to keep the box in place while she ripped at the paper.

Inside was the worst cat plushie Katsuki had ever seen. Iit was fucking hideous, but Eri-chan seemed happyas she held it up. “Fluffy!”

… Right. Well, that was one quality, sure. Aizawa-sensei was definitely not allowed to pick out any more presents for Eri-chan.

Mic-sensei was audibly snickering next to his soulmate, though Aizawa-sensei hadn’t even reacted, and Brain Fucker’s expression was carefully neutral since the fuck ugly cat was supposed to be from him.

The Blonde Asshole and Pointy Ears present was next, but Eri-chan didn’t want to let go of either plushie, so the Blonde Asshole laughed and said he would open it for her.

…

Katsuki stared.

They’d gotten her… unicorn headphones? They were covered in a fuzzy pastel rainbow with horns and ears at the top, but Eri-chan rubbed the fuzz almost reverently and poked at the horn a little before she put them on her head and smiled at the two third years. “Now I have two horns!”

“Those are great!”

Katsuki turned to the right to stare at Mic-sensei, who was beaming and pointing at his head. “Now you have a pair like mine!”

What the hell. Those were nothing like his. They looked like a fucking fairyland had thrown up all over them.

Eri-chan was still smiling, though, and she nodded at Mic-sensei before thanking the Blonde Asshole and Pointy Ears.

Katsuki barely refrained from glaring at the Blonde Asshole—there’s no way that shit had been Pointy Ears’ idea.

“I’m glad you like them, Eri-chan!”

Katsuki looked back to see Deku smiling at the girl, and he sighed. Right. All that mattered was that she liked the gifts.

Though Katsuki’s unicorn was obviously the best damn present of the night.

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! With Bk's thoughts on Eri's bday: 3, 5, & 7 are lucky numbers in Japan, so they're also celebrated as special birthdays. The child will wear traditional formal clothing and visit a shrine to pray for good fortune, then there will be a family dinner. There's not too many details available online, so my apologies if I missed part of that. But yay for a relaxing bday dinner and kind of yay for accessing Danger Sense! It's giving them some trouble of a different nature, the poor boys. For why they react like they do, I figure Deku's reaction to danger is to run toward it and save ppl, while Katsuki's is to beat it up. But Bk is in severe inferiority complex mode atm, so when he feels like there's danger somewhere, his energy shifts to training so that he can beat it once it finally shows up. Anyway, thought I'd explain that since bk is a very unreliable narrator atm and that info was really hard to convey in the chapter. Tysm to Geeky in my server for beta-ing, and as always, thank y'all so much for the comments and kudos!!! They always make me smile <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 7: Christmas

When the semester was finally fucking over, Katsuki wanted to collapse in a heap, not prepare for the date and the class’s damn Christmas party. But it’s not like Katsuki and Deku could have a traditional Christmas date, so Katsuki had to bring all that shit here instead.

On Christmas Eve, Katsuki made sure Deku went to sleep early—which he was totally a little shit about—so that Katsuki could cook all their food for the next day while Deku was unconscious and couldn't see a damn thing. Katsuki would make everything about tomorrow a surprise for the nerd, no matter what.

Katsuki was determined to give Deku every single shitty Christmas tradition there was, no matter what. It took fucking forever to bake a strawberry shortcake, not to mention individually fry each piece of chicken for their main meal. Thank fuck the Vice Pres had made them a deep fryer, but it was a tiny one and Katsuki had to share it with Sugar Guy who was frying shitty chicken for the rest of the class since Katsuki was only doing his and Deku's. While they were cooking, everyone else in 1A started decorating every damn corner of the common area for the party with Christmas lights and shit.

When he’d finally gone to bed after cooking and preparing all night, it had been almost two am on the 25th.

The things he did for his nerd.

“KACCHAN!”

Katsuki’s eyes flew open only seconds before Deku jumped on him, laughing like an utter idiot.

“What the hell, Deku?!” Katsuki groaned, clutching his stomach as the nerd grinned down at him from above.

“It’s Christmas! We’re supposed to relax today!”

“I fucking know! That’s why I didn’t set an alarm.” He’d been up late, damn it! “The plan was to sleep in, idiot.”

Deku gave him a disappointed look. “It’s ten a.m., Kacchan. Only old people sleep in on Christmas.”

Katsuki shoved his soulmate onto the floor. See if he stayed up late cooking for this asshole again.

Deku jumped back up, tugging at Katsuki’s arm. “Come on! We said we’d give each other presents before the class started doing things! But I know they’re already doing things, even though every time I try to go downstairs Toshi-kun sends me back to my room and tells me I have to wait for you. Which is ridiculous since you’ve slept forever! And I still want to know what you asked Todoroki-kun about. I know it had to be about our date.”

Katsuki groaned. “Fine, fine. I’m getting up. Did you bring your shitty present, then?”

Deku was fucking bouncing on the end of his bed now. “It’s not shitty! It’s the best!”

“How are you so damn confident when we can’t even go fucking shopping?” Katsuki yawned, but sat up, grateful that the nerd had at least let him sleep in until ten.

“I was really sneaky!” Deku grinned at him, and Katsuki narrowed his eyes at his soulmate, who was practically vibrating in place. “You should come look at your drum set. ”

“What did you do to my drums?” Katsuki already had signed drumsticks. So what… Katsuki turned, and his eyes widened as he stared at the front of his bass drum.

The front skin was lying on the ground, a new one already attached to it. And the new skin was covered in signatures. Yoshiki’s was front and center, but circling around it were a all the greats: Munetaka. Yukihiro. Tetsu. Suzuku. Every single one of Katsuki’s favorite drummers.

Katsuki looked over at Deku, then back at the drum. “What the hell?” How long had Deku been working on this shit? “How did you…” They were stuck at UA! How had Deku gotten all of these signatures?!

“I got the idea at the school festival! I talked to Auntie after you went to sleep and she helped me email all the drummers and organize it. We sent the drum skin to Yoshiki-san, first, and asked him to sign it really big in the middle, then each person mailed it to the next one. We finally got it back three days ago and Hound Dog checked it over to make sure it was ok. I was super worried it wouldn’t make it in time! But it did, and I’ve looked up a bunch of videos on how to attach it, so I snuck in this morning and did it!” Deku glanced back at the drum nervously. “I’m pretty sure I got everything hooked up right.”

“You did.” Katsuki would have to test it to make sure it was on tight enough, but everything was connected in the right place. “Shit, you really went all out.”

“Of course!” Deku’s grin was fucking blinding. “It was for you! And now that everyone knows we’re soulmates, people were really happy that you wanted their signatures.”

Katsuki slid out of bed, padding over to his bass drum and crouching down. His fingers brushed over the signatures reverently. All the best damn drummers in Japan had signed this. “This is amazing as hell.”

“I’m glad you like it!”

He couldn’t wait to play it. But first he wanted to give Deku his present. Katsuki swallowed, tearing his eyes away from the drum and forcing himself to stand and walk over to his closet. “Auntie brought your present over last night after you went to bed.”

“I knew you were hiding it somewhere at their house!”

“Where else would I fucking hide it?” There was no way Deku wouldn’t have seen it and bugged him about opening shit early if it was in the dorms. Katsuki picked it up from the back corner then held it out to Deku. “Here.”

The Old Man had wrapped it and reassured him it was what he’d asked for, but Katsuki was still a little nervous since he hadn’t actually seen the damn thing himself.

Deku practically lunged for it, and Katsuki glared at him, “Be fucking careful with that!”

“So it’s breakable?” Deku paused, looking down at the package in confusion and then setting it on Katsuki’s bed to unwrap it. “You don’t usually get me breakable things.”

“Yeah, well this one is.” Katsuki scowled, but watched Deku’s eyes widen as he pulled open the paper. “Kacchan… how?? This is what I think it is, right?” He hurriedly opened the box, pulling out the gift.

The quirk pyramid was a bit bigger than the normal ones, which let it have room for four compartments at the bottom instead of the normal two. “Apparently this version is becoming more common for kids who have step parents and shit.” Katsuki went over to it, handing Deku the top. “You said before that you would’ve used my sweat for your quirk, right? Do you still want my sweat in the pyramid?”

Katsuki had been so sure that this would be what Deku wanted, and he still thought it fucking would be! But Deku was just staring at the pyramid, damn it, and he wasn’t saying shit, so…

“Yeah.” The nerd swallowed, staring at the pyramid’s top in his hands. “The fourth one should be your quirk, Kacchan. Not… not Hisashi’s.”

Thank fuck. And damn, it was nice to hear Deku’ use the asshole’s name instead of calling him dad.

Katsuki rubbed his hands together, trying to make them sweaty, and the nerd opened the top compartment, setting it beside him so he could rub his hands together, too. Katsuki managed to produce a few drops first, and he let the sweat fall into the last empty bottom compartment of the four. The one next to his had his mom’s glycerin, then across from his was the Old Man’s sweat. Auntie had put some water in hers, and it was floating in gentle circles.

Deku giggled as he slid the top back onto the pyramid, his own sweat now in the top container. “They’re all liquids. Like our quirks actually do all come from each other.”

Katsuki grinned, ruffling the nerd’s hair. “Your quirk does come from my parents, dumbass. We’re soulmates who share quirks. Shitstain’s never been part of our family, so he doesn’t belong in the pyramid, anyway. But we all… Fuck, we all love you, Deku. You’re not alone or any shit like that.”

“I know.” Deku’s voice was quiet, and he was blushing a little as he sat there, staring at the quirk pyramid.

Fuck he was cute.

Sitting there with that shitty soft smile, wearing the hoodie that had Ground Zero on it.

Deku looked up as Katsuki sat down on the bed next to him, and the nerd slid the quirk pyramid back, leaning forward to kiss him. Damn if Katsuki didn’t love his nerd.

Deku pulled back, his eyes bright and happy. “Thank you, Kacchan. I really like it.”

Katsuki grinned. “I told you my present was the fucking best.”

Deku gave him a playful smirk. “Oh really? I think my present for you might still be the best.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and holding it up to reveal a picture of Katsuki staring at the drum with his fingers on Yoshiki’s signature. “You seemed to like it a lot.”

“Brat.” Katsuki gripped, but still pulled the nerd closer, stopping when their noses were almost touching. “Your present was fucking amazing, but mine’s still the best. You wanna know why?”

Deku nodded, the playful look from earlier now gone and replaced by an expression that made Katsuki close the space between them, kissing the nerd again, this time harder, reaching for Deku’s hands and holding them, but pulling away when the nerd tried to deepen it.

Dazed green eyes stared back at him. “Kacchan?”

“Mine’s the fucking best because it’s not done yet. I have the whole day planned, remember?”

“That doesn’t count!” Deku whined, but Katsuki ignored him, pulling away and tossing his shirt off so that he could go to the closet and put on clean shit. He didn't miss the way the nerd's eyes focused on his form. “You’re only organizing the date because it’s your turn!”

“Still makes my present the better one.”

“Does not!”

Katsuki looked down as his phone vibrated—Shitty Hair said the pancakes were done. “We should head downstairs soon.”

“Breakfast? Is it pancakes?! Did Satou-san make them?”

Katsuki grunted, pulling on his ‘Zero Duo’ Mastermind shirt and hoodie, as well as some jeans. “Yeah. The class has been planning shit.”

“I know!” Now the nerd was reverting to full on pouting again. “But no one will tell me what it is!”

Katsuki grinned and kicked the door open. “That’s because it’s supposed to be a fucking surprise, idiot.”

“But you know!”

“Because I helped plan shit.” Katsuki closed his bedroom door, rolling his eyes at his soulmate’s pout. “You’ll see everything when we get downstairs.”

“Really?” Deku grinned at him, and then there was green lightning sparking around his legs. “See you downstairs, Kacchan!”

“Damn it, Deku!” They weren’t supposed to use quirks in the dorms, dumbass! Katsuki growled, already blasting after the nerd. Katsuki’s shoulder rammed against the stairwell door as it tried to swing shut behind Deku. He jumped over the railing, releasing small blasts to brace his landing, but Deku was already darting through the stairwell door and skidding to a stop, his eyes widening in wonder.

“Midoriya-kun! Bakugou-kun! No using quirks to race in the dorms!”

“Everything looks so amazing, Iida-kun!” Deku ignored his friend’s admonishment as he looked around in amazement. The whole room looked like winter had thrown up on it, with Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling and along all the windows. Plus, Christmas trees were set up in the front with fake snow scattered underneath, and there were even paper snowflakes and shit all over the windows and hanging from the ceiling.

Deku’s eyes darted from one object to the next, and Katsuki came up behind him, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. “Merry Christmas.”

The nerd’s grin was fucking blinding. “Merry Christmas again, Kacchan! It all looks really amazing.”

“Glad you two finally showed up!” Round Face bounded over to Deku, holding out a plate of pancakes covered in sugary shit that made Katsuki’s stomach roll. “I grabbed a plate for you, Zu-kun!”

“I tried to come earlier and Toshi-kun wouldn’t let me!” The nerd stuck his tongue out at Brain Fucker.

He grinned back at the nerd from the table where he was sharing a plate with Pikachu. “I was under orders not to let you down here; Baku-kun really wanted to see your reaction.”

“Kacchan!” Deku glared at him, apparently torn between being disgruntled and touched, but Katsuki shrugged unrepentantly, so the nerd sighed and took the plate from Round Face before turning to Sugar Guy. “They look delicious, thank you Satou-kun!”

“You’re welcome, Midoriya! Bakugou, there’s a few with red bean paste over here if you want something less sweet.”

Katsuki grunted and made his way over that pile—there was no way he was loading syrup and berries and who knows what the fuck else into his own mouth when he would already be tasting it from Deku. Katsuki barely resisted twisting his face in disgust as Deku took a huge bite of the loaded pancakes.

Thankfully it didn’t take long for them to get through the damn sugary breakfast, and once Deku had fucking finished and sufficiently gawked at all the shitty decorations, Katsuki pulled his soulmate outside.

Deku immediately gasped.

Half and Half had outdone himself. The entire field to the left of the pathway was a flat rink, and fucking ice sculptures lined the path. They were shaped like Christmas presents and other easy festive shit, but even Katsuki had to admit it was impressive. On top of that, it was clear he and the Vice Pres had teamed up to make some sort of stand that had fire burning underneath, keeping a bunch of mugs warm. The trees and building all had fucking Christmas lights everywhere, and some of their classmates had already grabbed skates from the large pile Vice Pres had made and were chasing each other around the rink.

“Well, nerd?” Katsuki hugged Deku from behind, resting his chin on his soulmate’s shoulder. Despite the chaos of their classmates in the background, being beside Deku always helped him relax. “Do you like the second part?”

“Huh? Oh, I mean, of course, but…” Deku stared out at the scene, still taking everything in. “Wait, is this what you were talking about with everyone before class that day?!”

“Of fucking course. Do you think they could have come up with this shit on their own? I told Half and Half to make the skating rink and the Vice Pres to make the skates.”

“And everything else, too?!”

Katsuki scowled. “They may have added shit. But it was my idea to begin with!”

The nerd giggled, turning his head to kiss Katsuki’s cheek. “It’s amazing, Kacchan. Will you skate with me?”

“That’s the whole damn point.” Katsuki scowled, refusing to acknowledge the warmth in his cheeks as he stepped back and grabbed the nerd’s hand to drag him toward the skates. The Vice Pres had labeled each pair, which meant somehow she had their damn shoe sizes? What the hell?

Whatever. At least the shoes would fit.

“It’s been forever since we’ve gone skating.” Deku tentatively stepped onto the ice, and Katsuki made sure his skates were tied tight before standing and joining him.

“There will be no quirks usage while on the ice!” Glasses shouted at them from over by Round Face, but Katsuki stuck out his middle finger.

“Kacchan!” Deku giggled and grabbed his hand, yanking it down and twining their fingers together. “We won’t, Iida-kun! Thank you for telling us!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and glided further out into the rink, pulling Deku with him. “Let’s get some damn space.”

“Kacchan, we are not racing. There’s too many people!”

“Huh?” Katsuki turned to glare at Deku, unimpressed by his exasperated look. “Then what’s the fun of a skating rink?!”

The nerd grinned, pulling himself closer to Katsuki, their breath intermingling in the frosty air. “Maybe holding each other close as we have fun so we can stay warm?”

“Midoriya-kun! Please no PDA!”

Katsuki barely contained the blasts that threatened to burst from his palms. “We aren’t even kissing, asshole!” Jeez, what the hell was his problem? It's not like they were doing some kind of scandalous shit!

“We are outside and the teachers can see us if any of them decide to come by! Please remain a proper distance apart!”

The teachers? Screw that. Katsuki pulled Deku closer, sticking his tongue out at Glasses. “They won’t fucking care!” Aizawa-sensei, Mic-sensei, and All Might would be the only ones who might bother stopping by today, and they’d seen Deku and him sitting in each other’s laps too many times to fucking count, a hug or even a damn kiss wouldn't phase them.

Deku’s face was red, though, and he apologized to the fucker with the stick up his ass, even putting a small distance between himself and Katsuki, which fucking sucked. They never got enough time to relax together, and now even today Katsuki couldn’t do the shit he wanted because their classmates were fucking nosey.

The nerd looked back at him and gave Katsuki a small smile, picking up on his mood. “It’s ok, Kacchan. We can still hold hands, right?”

Katsuki scowled. “Whatever.” It wasn’t the same.

Katsuki wanted to race, damn it! And if they couldn’t race, then he at least wanted to hold Deku close while they skated, but no, the class had to ruin all his plans.

“It’s fine, Kacchan.” The nerd squeezed his hand, and Katsuki looked over at him. “Stop looking so annoyed, silly! It’s Christmas! And we have an ice skating rink! It’s perfect.”

Katsuki studied the nerd’s smile for a second, then nodded before shooting Deku a wicked grin. “What are you talking about? You haven’t seen shit yet.”

“Oh really?” The nerd’s smile became more playful, and he skated in front of Katsuki before turning to the side and looking back at him over his shoulder. “What else do you have planned?”

“Just wait.” Katsuki gave Deku a confident grin of his own, knocking into his shoulder as he pulled a little ahead of the nerd, and then they were fucking pushing past each other as they circled around the rink, doing a kind of half hearted race as they dodged their classmates while never actually letting go of each others’ hands.

After a few times around the rink, though, Deku began to slow down, watching as Pikachu tried to teach Brain Fucker how to stand and move on the ice without falling down after two fucking seconds. Apparently Round Face didn’t know either, but she was learning a lot faster with Glasses’ help. “Do you think they need help?”

“Hell no.” Katsuki growled, pulling Deku out into the middle of the rink. “It’s Christmas. And that means it’s about you and me and not your shitty friends. Besides, they probably want today for themselves, too.”

The nerd blushed–Katsuki's heart did not skip a beat, it did not--but at least he was letting himself be pulled away from the dumbasses. “I guess we’ve never had a Christmas just for the two of us, since we weren’t dating before. We always spent the whole day with our parents.”

“Exactly! And now we can’t leave UA, which fucking sucks, but I’m still going to make sure you have the best damn date ever, even if we’re surrounded by our shitty classmates.”

Shit, the nerd’s smile was so damn cute. And Glasses was distracted helping Round Face up from where she’d fallen on the ice. Katsuki pulled Deku closer, kissing him in the middle of the rink, but after only a second Deku laughed and pulled back. “Maybe later, when it’s just the two of us. It’s distracting knowing that everyone’s here and can see us.”

Katsuki growled. He knew a private rink would have been better, but there was no way to manage that shit while they were still at UA. He’d have to wait until lunch before Katsuki could have Deku all for himself.

“C’mon, I want to try something.” the nerd released Katsuki’s hand, gathering a bit of speed before he jumped into the air and then crash landed like a fucking dumbass.

“Idiot!” Katsuki darted toward the nerd, sliding down beside him. He knew he would’ve felt it if Deku had actually hurt himself, but shit, Katsuki had almost fallen from feeling the impact on his ass. “Don’t just do that.”

“But we’ve always wanted to learn how to jump!” Shit, the nerd’s grin was so carefree, it made Katsuki’s heart twist and something funny flip in his stomach. “Why not try now?”

When Katsuki’s brain caught up to what the nerd said, he snorted, holding out his hand and giving Deku a challenging smirk he knew the nerd wouldn't back down from; “I bet I can figure it out faster than you can.”

“You’re on!”

Except half an hour later, they were still both only shakily managing to stick their landings. It was fucking hard since Glasses wouldn’t let them use their damn quirks and Katsuki was so used to being able to adjust himself midair and cushion his landings. At least Deku landed on his ass more than Katsuki did.

And then Half and Half went and did a fucking jump with a twirl in it, just to show off. Katsuki ground his teeth.

Asshole.

Deku groaned as he pulled himself up for at least the twentieth time. “I feel like I’m covered in bruises. How did you get so good at this, Todoroki-kun? Is it because you move around with your ice a lot?”

Half and Half shook his head, coming to a smooth stop next to them. “When I was too little to produce much ice or fire, Endeavor ordered Mother to take me to private lessons at ice skating rinks so I could at least become accustomed to cold temperatures and moving on the ice with ease.”

Fuck, every single moment of his entire life had been used to train, hadn't it? If he’d been that young… he’d been what, five at the oldest? Half and Half was smiling, though, which was rare for the asshole, especially when he was talking about his shitty childhood, so maybe this at least wasn't so bad. Katsuki frowned, half-paying attention as the nerd asked more questions.

“Do you enjoy ice skating, Todo-kun?”

He shrugged. “I guess? It was nice to have time away from Endeavor. And sometimes my siblings would come. Mom would let them skate with me even though Endeavor wanted me to focus on training the whole time.” He frowned, looking down at the ice and clenching one hand slowly, then letting it go with a sigh. “But Touya never came.”

Shit.

And now Deku was wearing his fucking determined face. “Could you teach me how to jump like that, Todo-kun?”

“What?” Half and Half blinked. “Why?”

“Because it looks like fun!” Deku grinned at his friend. “And it’s like Ashido’s dancing: learning to move your body in new ways can give you more options in a fight!”

Half and Half stared at him for a second, then nodded. “Ok.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. That was definitely not the only reason. The dumbass wanted to have fun with his friends.

Katsuki wasn’t going to leave the nerd, though, so he stayed out on the ice with them, learning how to shift his weight to land properly on the skates. Half and Half was a fucking terrible teacher, but thankfully the Vice Pres had learned this shit, too, and she came over to help. Of course then half the fucking class wanted to learn how to do the shitty jump, even if most of them could barely stand in skates.

It took four damn hours before they could land a jump passably, though Brain Fucker didn’t even try. Instead he sat at the edge of the rink and took shitty pictures of everyone crashing and face-planting.

Katsuki fucking hated it, but he supposed people would like seeing that shit on social media.

By the time they decided it was time to take a bit of a break, Katsuki felt like his whole body was a block of ice and the heater was such a fucking relief. Frog Girl and some others had apparently stayed inside and watched some shitty Christmas movies instead of skating, but Katsuki ignored them. He was really damn hungry, and he wanted the food he’d cooked last night—which thankfully none of the assholes had touched because they fucking knew better.

Katsuki grabbed their bag of shit from the fridge where he’d hidden it behind Frog Girl’s porridge, then grabbed the nerd’s hand, pulling him away from his crew of idiots by the TV. “Come on! We’re going outside.”

“We are?” Deku turned to him, surprised, his hands pausing from rubbing against each other. “But I kind of wanted to warm up…”

Katsuki scowled at him. So far they’d spent the whole damn day with these assholes! “There will be a fire.”

The nerd sighed. “Ok, as long as there’s a fire. It’ll be nice to have some time alone together.”

Before they could reach the door, though, it opened, and the Pussycat’s brat and one of the fucking Pussycats themselves walked in.

What the hell?

“Kota-kun!” Deku’s grin was fucking blinding as he bounded toward the kid.

Damn it. Katsuki wanted time with Deku alone! Christmas was supposed to be romantic and shit, and Katsuki hadn’t had time with Deku alone in fucking forever! Katsuki’s hand tightened around his soulmate’s. Today was supposed to be their one day to relax!

 

The nerd glanced over at Katsuki, his eyes conflicted even as he turned back to greet the pro hero. “And Ragdoll-san!” Ragdoll? Oh. The one whose quirk All for One had taken. “It’s so great to see you both! But… why are you here? Shouldn’t you be celebrating?”

Katuski’s stomach twisted unpleasantly as the nerd looked between the two newcomers in confusion. He didn’t want Deku to spend time with them. Not today. He knew the nerd liked his friends, but…

“We’re happy to see you, too!” Ragdoll laughed. “Eraser said you guys are housing a little girl right now and he wanted there to be someone younger at the Christmas party for her to talk with.”

“Oh! That’s great!” Deku grinned at the brat. “Eri-chan’s around the same age as you, and she’s super sweet!”

The brat scowled. “Can we play video games like last time?”

The nerd laughed nervously, glancing back at Katsuki when he growled. “I was actually just about to go eat lunch with Kacchan, but we’ll be back inside for presents in a bit! Maybe you could play with some of the others for a little while?”

The brat fucking pouted, but Ragdoll nudged him toward the back, where the kitchen was. “We should let them enjoy their date, Kota-kun! Look! There’s so much food, don’t you want to try some?”

“I guess.”

Thank fuck. Katsuki ignored the rest, finally pulling Deku outside. “Come on already.” He wanted to see if the dumbasses had done a good job. They fucking better have.

“I’m coming, Kacchan, I’m coming!” The nerd laughed, following him outside, but frowning when Katsuki pulled him past the warm fires and toward the trees.

“I though you said we’d use the fires?”

“We’ll make another damn fire, it’s not like it’s that cold.”

“It’s literally below freezing, Kacchan.”

“Barely!” Katsuki huffed, ignoring the breath that crystallized in the air. So what if his fucking quirk made them cold easily, they had jackets and shit on! And there would be a fire pit if the dumbasses had done shit right.

There! Katsuki grinned when he saw the lights through the trees, and Deku gasped. “Kacchan, did you decorate a picnic area for us?”

“I was busy cooking, but I told the dumbasses what to do and they did all this shit.”

“Aw, I’ll have to thank them!”

They stepped through the trees, and Katsuki grinned. The dumbasses had actually managed to do a good job.

Soft yellow lights circled each tree trunk around them, and in the branches overhead giant stars glowed as they hung from the taller branches—just like the Old Hag used to hang up the lights back home for the season.

In the center of the tiny clearing, Shitty Hair had dug out a fire pit for them and left a bunch of branches and moss, so Katsuki quickly started a fire to keep the nerd from whining.

“Kacchan, it looks amazing!” Deku sat down by the fire, staring up at the stars. “Where did you get those?”

“The Old Hag ordered them for the UA house, but she let me have them instead.”

“They’re great! I missed seeing them this year.” Deku beamed at him, making Katsuki’s heart twist.

He swallowed, setting the bag down by the fire pit and then pulling out the food. “We’ll need to warm shit up over the fire since it’s been in the fridge.” He handed Deku the small bento that held his food, and the nerd quickly opened it. “The rice is a snowman! Kacchan, it’s so cute!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “You’re fucking welcome.” He set his own bento aside, gently taking out the cardboard box that held the chicken.

Deku perked up, watching closely as Katsuki set the box on the ground, then lifted the top, letting the sides fall.

Deku immediately started giggling. “Is that… um.” He snorted, “Kacchan, did you really make a Christmas tree out of fried chicken?”

Katsuki glared at the nerd, then pulled the bottom of the box as close as he could to the fire. He was damn proud of this shit. It had been fucking hard to stack all of the chicken into the 45 cm tall tree, and he’d made thin strands of garland with honey mustard and ketchup that would add flavor without dominating the taste. Plus a few pickles were carefully placed as ornaments, with fries swirling around the base as a tree skirt, and the damn crowning glory: the drumstick angel whose wings were made from fries pinned in a line behind her back.

Deku was giggling even harder now as he held out his phone, taking a picture. “It looks amazing, Kacchan, but how much time did you spend on this?”

“Three fucking hours, so you better like it, nerd.”

“So that’s why you slept in so late!” Deku leaned forward, kissing him, and shit, that felt nice. “Thank you, Kacchan. It really is amazing, even if you’re completely ridiculous.”

“How the hell am I fucking ridiculous?!”

“You made a fried chicken Christmas tree. How are we even supposed to eat it?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “It’s our first Christmas as an actual fucking couple. I wasn’t gonna do basic, lame-ass shit like shoving the chicken in a takeout box.”

“Of course not.” Damn it, Deku was giggling at him again, his eyes practically sparkling, and Katsuki had to swallow thickly around the lump in his throat.

To distract himself, he grabbed the two bags of skewers and threw one at Deku. “Put the damn meat on a skewer and warm it up that way, dumbass.”

Deku stared at the skewers. “I’m pretty sure people don’t normally warm up fried chicken over campfires.”

“Who the fuck cares? It’ll work. I’ve already cooked this shit, so it’s not like the meat will be undercooked or anything.”

“That’s really not what I’m worried about.”

“Fine, use your damn hands if you want to get nitroglycerin all over shit.” There’s no way their hands wouldn’t get sweaty this close to a fire.

Deku gagged. “No thanks. It tastes sweet, and somehow our bodies are fine with it, but I’d really rather not.”

“Then use the fucking skewers.” Katsuki took the angel off the top, removing one of the fry wings and holding it out to Deku.

He stared at him, looking slightly horrified. “Kacchan, it feels so wrong to eat the angel’s wing.”

“Oh, come on! It’s not like I made a fucking All Might tree topper.” Though that would have been really damn amazing.

Deku tentatively took the skewered fries, and Katsuki rolled his eyes while pulling off the second wing. He set the drumstick back in the box for now, then held the edge of the skewer so that the fries could warm up over the flames. Deku fucking copied him, the loser, but Katsuki felt his annoyance lessen when the nerd gave him a soft smile, scooting closer to him and leaning his head on Katsuki's shoulder. “It all really is amazing, Kacchan. Thank you.”

“You better appreciate it.” Who else would mess up their already shitty sleep schedule to make their boyfriend a Christmas tree of fried chicken? No one, that’s who.

The nerd was silent for a few minutes, watching the fries over the flames and rotating them to keep them from burning. “Remember when we were Kota-kun’s age? We were so excited about being soulmates back then.”

“We didn’t know shit.” They had thought it would all be so easy. They would train hard, beat up all the bad guys, and that would be it.

“Yeah.” Deku pulled back on the fries, blowing on the gently, a thoughtful look in his eyes. “Part of me wishes we could go back to that time. Back to when we didn’t have all this pressure and All Might was there to save the day, but now I know what All Might was doing to himself to accomplish that and just… Well, I guess I’m glad we can do something to help. But I still miss those days. Everything was so much easier.” He shrugged half heartedly, then bit into the fries, smiling a little as he chewed.

“People were fucking bullying you.” How could Deku want to return to that? “I miss being naive as hell, too, but we can actually do shit now, even if there’s a fuck ton of pressure.”

“It wasn’t so bad when I was with our family. Now, though… it’s hard to relax, even when we have time together like this.”

Katsuki frowed, pulling his fries away from the fire to eat. Deku would say that. “We’re doing what we can. And you know what Aizawa-sensei says about making sure we don’t fucking burn out.”

“Yeah, but don’t you feel that urge to train, even now?” Deku sighed, finishing his fries and leaning back to stare at the lights for a few seconds. “We’re finally on a date, and part of me feels like we should be using this time to talk about how to use Black Whip better or what kinds of strategies will work best with Danger Sense.”

They probably should be.

Katsuki scowled, shoving a piece of chicken at Deku, who smiled a little as he took it. “Moments like these are so rare; I want to treasure them, but it feels like I don’t know how to talk about anything but heroics any more.”

Ah, fuck. Something not related to heroics? Their whole damn lives had been centered on becoming the best heroes. Katsuki had his drums, but Deku’s hobby had always been to analyze old hero videos. “Remember when we tried to convince the Old Hag to let us have a dog?”

The nerd laughed. “We’d seen one at the park and thought they were the best. We wanted to have one as our hero sidekick. Wasn’t his name going to be Fetch?”

“The Ultimate God of Fetch.” As if they’d pick something as simple (and lame) as Fetch.

“Right! And we would play ‘hero agency’ and I would always be your partner and be smarter than any enemy we could create. And you’d blow up all the cheap action figures Auntie would buy us, pretending they were the villains.”

Katsuki definitely wished he could go back to the days when he thought being a hero was just blowing shit up, it’d be a hell of a lot less complicated than the reality. “Remember that dumbass who was always at the playground and thought he could beat us?”

Deku laughed, nodding as he skewered a piece of chicken. “He was always so stubborn! And his plans were really dumb.”

Katsuki grinned. “Fuck, his face was great when Sandbox Girl threw up on him.”

“Kacchan, we’re eating!”

Katsuki laughed, biting into the drumstick he’d been holding over the fire. He and Deku started swapping more stories, then, remembering all the shit they’d gotten into when they were little. Things really had been easier back then, even with all the shitty bullies. It’s not like Katsuki had ever struggled to beat up those assholes.

By the time they finished their bentos and the shitty chicken tree, Katsuki felt almost like he was floating, he was so damn relaxed. Like everything that had been piling on top of them couldn’t reach them as long as they were inside these damn Christmas-light-infested trees.

At some point Deku had crawled into Katsuki’s lap, and they sat there, both of them watching the flames, content and warm despite the chilly air around them.

Fuck, Katsuki missed this.

The nerd tilted his head back onto Katsuki’s shoulder, watching the lights. “I love you, Kacchan.”

“I love you, too.” Katsuki leaned his head against Deku’s and closed his eyes, enjoying the gentle crackle of the fire and the warmth of Deku’s back against his chest.

“Everything is so insane right now, but I’d never want anyone else by my side but you.”

“Of course. We’re fucking soulmates.” That went without saying.

“That doesn’t matter. Not to me. I’d want that even if we weren’t soulmates. We’ve lived our whole lives together and no one knows me better than you do. I just… you’re so amazing, Kacchan. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

“What the hell, Deku? You're more amazing than I could ever be; your heart is too damn big for your own good. It gets you into shit a lot of the time, but that's what makes you such a great person and hero.” Katsuki could never care about dumbasses like that. He’d always just wanted to be strong and amazing.

Deku shifted in his lap, turning to look at him. “But I keep messing up. And Dad—”

“Shitstain has nothing to do with you. Not anymore. And if you’re worried about messing up, then talk with me before you jump in headfirst next time, idiot. We’re not…” Fuck, Katsuki hated talking about feelings and shit, but this was Deku. “I’m not fucking perfect, either. Fuck, Deku, I’m so messed up right now I almost didn’t want to do the fucking internships just because it would mean leaving U.A.”

“What? But–”

“I said almost.” Katsuki rested his forehead on Deku’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around him. “I can’t lose you. And the League keeps targeting us and fuck I hate that so much. And I’d burn the whole damn world down if it was the only way to keep you by my side.” When Hand Fucker hurt Deku… Katsuki never wanted that to happen again. No matter the cost. And maybe, maybe he had clouded judgment because of that. “So you’re not the only one who messes up.”

The nerd’s hands rested on his. “You wouldn’t really do that, though, Kacchan. You wouldn’t hurt innocent people.”

Katsuki scoffed. That’s what soulmates did when their partner was dying. They went fucking insane.

“And you won’t lose me. I have One for All, now.”

“You were fucking amazing before your quirk, nerd. But... shit, these villains are insane. And Hand Fucker hates you. And now they’ve got Shitstain, and who knows what the Feathered Menace is up to, and hell, Deku, I know you’re so damn strong, but these assholes keep putting us in situations where our strength doesn’t fucking matter!”

“But we can’t let that stop us.” The nerd squeezed his hand. “People are counting on us.”

Yeah. And damn if that weight wasn’t heavy as hell. Katsuki closed his eyes. He wanted people to know that he would always win for them. But this other shit… “Deku, you care about people more than any other damn person in the world, you dumbass. You always care. So just… stay you. Stay you, and I’ll always follow you, no matter what. We’re meant to balance each other out, right? So you do all the caring and I’ll do the thinking about consequences and shit.” Well, the consequences that mattered. Katsuki still thought they should’ve taken Eri-chan that day in the alley, and the Tall Bastard was a fucking idiot for not agreeing.

“I’ll be better about that, too. I don’t want my rash decisions to affect you.” Deku shifted, twisting sideways and slipping one arm over Katsuki’s shoulders before kissing him, and fuck it was so damn nice to hold the nerd and kiss him like this.

Everything just felt so damn right.

Katsuki’s hands tightened around Deku’s waist, pulling him closer and leaving no space between them.

Fuck, he needed Deku like he needed air.

Suddenly Katsuki was on his back, One for All rippling around Deku’s skin as he leaned in close to continue the kiss, but it was only moments later when the nerd pulled away, and Katsuki wanted to groan. “We should go back to the class, Kacchan. It’s starting to get dark.”

“Fuck them.” Katsuki put one hand behind the nerd’s neck, pulling him closer and kissing him again.

Deku whimpered. “Kacchan.”

Katsuki smirked. Shit Deku sounded amazing like that: his voice a little out of breath and filled with longing. Katsuki’s fingers brushed along Deku’s jaw, then slid back, tightening around his hair and pulling him closer once more.

“Kacchan." The nerd protested half-heartedly as they broke for air a few moments later. "You’re the one who’s supposed to think about consequences, remember?”

“I don’t care if we miss the shitty party.”

Deku groaned, and suddenly there were three meters between them. Katsuki hissed at the sudden cold against his skin.

Damn it. He let his head thunk against the cold fucking ground in frustration before moving to look at his nerd.

Deku’s eyes were determined, and his soulmate took a long, shuddering breath before starting to put their shit back in the bag. “The party.”

“Fine, you asshole.” Katsuki sighed and pushed himself off the ground, brushing off his shirt and other shit, then sighing and letting Deku help him get all the damn grass off. It was the nerd’s fault, anyway, shoving him like that.

The fire was easy to put out, and all too soon they were walking back into the noisy pit of chaos that was the 1A common room.

“You’re back!” Eri-chan came running toward them, grinning, and the brat was just a few steps behind her.

Katsuki stared.

Why were they both in Santa costumes?

For that matter, why was the entire class wearing santa costumes?

“Oh, hell no!” Katsuki dodged Pikachu’s swipe at his head, ducking away from the shitty santa hat. “There’s no way I’m wearing that.” It was tacky as hell.

“Yao-Momo made them all for us!” Pinky grinned at him, holding out a fucking Santa jacket. “Come on! Midori, you think it’s fun, right?”

“Yeah!” Damn it, Deku was already taking off his coat so that he could wear this shit. “Come on, Kacchan, it’s Christmas! And Yaoyorozu-san was nice enough to make them for everyone, even after all the decorations she made.”

Katsuki groaned as he slipped off his shoes. The nerd was taking both of their outfits, grinning happily and heading to the bathrooms to change. Maybe if Katsuki just didn’t follow….

“Kacchan!” Deku looked back over his shoulder, “Come on, for me?”

Damn him. His stupid, pleading green eyes were too cute for his own good.

Katsuki growled and stomped after the nerd as their entire class started to giggle. Assholes.

Well, at least she’d made the shit comfortable. Katsuki kept the Mastermind 'Zero Duo' shirt on underneath the Santa jacket, though, and refused to button it up no matter how much the nerd pouted and gave him puppy dog eyes. “It’s way too much fucking green on you, idiot.”

“I think it looks fine.” Deku stuck out his tongue, then grabbed their old clothes from where they sat on the counter of the bathroom sink. “I’ll go put these in my room and fetch our presents for the gift exchange, alright?”

Katsuki shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”

Deku kissed his cheek, then practically fucking skipped out of the bathroom.

Katsuki sighed. At least they’d gotten some time alone today, even if he would have preferred more. Didn’t the nerd want more time alone, too? It was their only day off before the fucking internships.

Annoyed, Katsuki left the restrooms, heading to the back right cabinet in the kitchen where he’d left his shortcake behind the juicer and blender that no one but Sugar Man ever used.

“So that’s where you hid it!”

Katsuki looked up to glare at Round Face, who grinned back at him unrepentantly. “We were wondering. Some of the others tried to find it, but no one could. They were convinced you’d stashed it in your room.”

Katsuki scoffed. “I know this kitchen better than any fucker, and if any of you assholes touch my shit, you’re dead meat.”

“Aww, you’re getting all defensive over it!”

Katsuki flipped her off, then pulled the top off the cake container so that he could cut it in half and then make him and Deku individual slices. If Katsuki didn’t plate all this shit at once, there was no way the dumbasses wouldn’t steal a piece.

“Kacchan!” Deku paused as he picked up their wrapped presents in his room, having seen the amount of cake Katsuki was cutting through their bond. “I don’t need half a cake! We already ate the whole chicken christmas tree!”

“You can eat this shit throughout the night for all I care, but none of the other dumbasses get any.” Katsuki swatted away Round Face’s hand as she reached for a strawberry and glared at her. “And what the hell are you even doing over here?! Everyone else is over by the damn presents.”

She grinned at him. “I wanted to see your hiding spot, of course. I knew you’d get the cake out after you two finished changing. Otherwise Zu-kun might’ve grabbed a piece from Satou-san without realizing that you’d made him some.”

Katsuki glared at her. “There’s tons of different hiding spots. Just because you figured out one doesn’t mean shit.”

“Sure, if you want to think that!” She fucking winked at him, then skipped away toward the presents.

Deku was giggling as he left the stairwell with their presents for the gift exchange, having made it down the stairs while Katsuki was defending his creation from hungry attackers. “You could just put the food in your room, Kacchan.”

Katsuki scowled. “I like my room too hot. It’s not the right temperature for baked goods and the icing would’ve melted.”

The nerd fucking giggled even harder at that, but he opened his mouth to eat the piece of cake that Katsuki held out to him, taking it directly from the fork into his mouth rather than taking the utensil. Katsuki felt his cheeks heat as the nerd’s face practically melted in delight. “Kchnssgooood.”

“Fucking finish chewing first, idiot.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help but grin back at Deku’s happy expression. Deku always deserved the best.

The nerd finally swallowed, and his grin was fucking huge before he leaned forward to kiss Katsuki’s cheek again. “Thanks, Kacchan! It’s really delicious. Do you mind if I give some to Eri-chan and Koda-kun, though? I really can’t eat all of this by myself.”

Katsuki scowled. “Fucking fine, I guess. But only to the kids. And you have to give them one of my slices, too, so it’s even.” It’s not like Katsuki had made that big of a cake. It was just normal sized.

“Ok!” Deku was humming as he placed Katsuki’s present on the counter and then moved one of the slices onto the new plate Katsuki had pulled out. He used Black Whip to hold the fork and presents, then held the two plates himself as he bounded over to the rest of the class, somehow managing not to drop shit. The nerd was getting better with the quirk, but progress was still too damn slow.

Katsuki rolled his eyes and grabbed his own plate as well as some drinks for them, before heading over to the couches at a much slower pace and taking the seat on the couch behind where Deku sat on the floor between the two brats.

“Alright!” Glasses stood up, motioning toward the presents. “Now that everyone is here and all the presents are accounted for, we can play the game! Yaoyorozu-san kindly tied a ribbon around each of the presents and laid out the strings around the pile. Each of you will grab one string and pull that, and the item attached to the string will be your gift! You may exchange gifts after we all unwrap them, but only if the other person is willing!”

Katsuki took a bite of the cake, eyeing the pile as everyone began to fight about which string was attached to which present. It’s not like they could tell shit from the boxes, anyways—some of the assholes had probably put tiny shit in a big box to throw people off. Katsuki nudged Deku with his leg. “Pick a string for me. You’re closer.”

“Ok, Kacchan!” Deku was already reaching out to the pile, but he made sure Kota-kun had gotten strings for himself and Eri-chan before he grabbed their own strings and passed one over his head to Katsuki.

Katsuki followed the green string to the stack, but then shrugged. It really was impossible to tell what string led to what—the Vice Prez had been thorough.

“Does everyone have a string?” Glasses looked around the group, and Katsuki ate some more of the cake while everyone else responded.

“Very well!” Glasses paused, taking a deep breath before he added, “Pull!”

Immediately there was chaos.

Presents were flying fucking everywhere as the dumbasses jerked on their strings way too damn hard. Katsuki's own string had been attached to a small box with a gold bow and he blinked as it landed in front of him. Deku had a medium-sized box, and one look at the kids’ laps showed that Kota-kun had ended up with Deku’s old All Might (concealed in the tacky, blue and yellow wrapped box the nerd had put it in), and Eri-chan had some huge fucking package wrapped in black—probably Edgelord’s doing. Well, hopefully it would be fine.

Everyone was just fucking going for it and unwrapping their present, so Katsuki pulled the paper off his box and opened the lid.

What the hell?

Katsuki looked up and stared at Glasses. “Why the heck did you wrap one of your spare pairs of glasses, you idiot?!”

Glasses frowned at him. “I didn’t use one with my prescription and fake glasses can be quite helpful both for undercover work and as costume items.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched.

Fucking dumbass.

The nerd was snickering, and he turned around to grin at Katsuki. “I don’t know, Kacchan. I think Iida-kun’s right. Why don’t you try them on? We’re always looking for ways to keep people from recognizing us in public, right?”

Katsuki glared at him. “Fine.” He picked up the glasses and slid them on, thankful that Glasses was right and the pair didn’t have prescription lenses. “Happy?”

The nerd’s eyes widened, a blush suddenly covering his freckles. “Um. Yeah. I uh… I don’t know if that’ll work to keep people from staring.”

What the fuck? Katsuki was starting to feel warm, too, from the bond. Why the hell was the nerd reacting like this to shitty glasses?

Pinky started cackling. “Have a problem there, Midori?”

“Nope!” Deku squeaked and shook his head frantically. He cleared his throat a little and started fucking rambling in a more normal pitch, “I mean… Kacchan is always attractive. And the glasses don’t hide that. But uh… Well, they’re also Iida-kun’s, so that um, kind of ruins the effect once my brain catches up. No offense, Iida-kun.”

“What are you talking about, Zu-kun?” The idiot adjusted his glasses, and Deku groaned, hiding his face behind his hands.

“Please don’t ask that question, Iida-kun.”

Wait. What the hell?

“My dude.” Pikachu walked over, the basketball he’d gotten from Shitty Hair now abandoned in Brain Fucker’s lap as Pikachu rested a hand on Glasses’ shoulder. “Some people look hot in glasses, and Blasty’s obviously no exception.” He gestured with his other hand at Katsuki, who glared at them both.

“No duh, I can make anything look hot.” He smirked at Deku. “So me in glasses, huh?”

The nerd squeaked.

But before Katsuki could tease his soulmate more, Spider Man cut in, grinning with mischief. “Is that a challenge?? I bet we can find something even Mr. Perfect looks awful wearing.”

“Oh, heck no! You idiots are not picking stuff for me to wear!”

“But you said you could make anything look hot.” Brain Fucker was fucking smirking again, damn him.

Pikachu nodded eagerly. “Kirishima has tons of things we could try!”

“Yeah, we can totally use my stuff!” Shitty Hair nodded, but then he paused, frowning. “Wait—Kaminari! Not ok! My stuff is super manly!”

“Uh-huh, you totally make it work, man, no worries.” Pikachu nodded at him, then exchanged looks with the other idiots.

“You guys, I can see you! I’m right here.” Shitty Hair huffed. “Use your own things!”

“But I have a great fashion sense!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, relieved that they were too busy arguing to actually carry through on their threat. Apparently Round Face had gotten the drink koozies Katsuki had made and she was refusing to trade with Pinky, who was fussing about how much she’d wanted them. Dumbasses.

Katsuki glanced down in front of him and saw that Deku had unwrapped a bag of easy-bake sliced mochi, which meant Katsuki would have to help him with it later. For now he’d set that aside and was showing Eri-chan how to play with the giant sword she’d opened from her mystery gift. She seemed fascinated by it, but mostly because it was bigger than she was. Kota-kun, on the other hand, had pulled the limited edition All Might completely out of its once-pristine package and was making it fly around and shit.

Normally both Katsuki and Deku would die a bit inside, seeing that, but with this particular figure, Katsuki hoped the brat played with it so much the damn thing broke. Ragdoll made the brat leave at that point, though, so they may never know the figurine’s fate. She was escorting Eri-chan back to the adults’ house, too, which meant there was just 1A left in their dorm.

After everyone finished opening and trading presents—Deku took pity on Kaminari and traded his mochi for the basketball, and Katsuki had heard the nerd’s whispered request not to put Katsuki in weird clothes in return, the brat. The Vice Pres put some shitty “holiday classic” on the tv and they all sat around in the couches and on the floor, munching on leftovers while watching the campy film.

Katsuki refused to pay attention to this shit and was mostly reading about the Jean Giraffe’s agency on his phone, but since the nerd was watching the movie, anyway, Katsuki still ended up seeing it, which was fucking lame.

Katsuki’s dumbasses slowly became a jumble of limbs that Katsuki couldn’t even begin to interpret. They’d somehow managed to pull in Edgelord and Abyss, and they were all watching the movie from various angles except Pikachu, who was asleep, leaning against Brain Fucker’s leg. Brain Fucker was sitting on the couch behind the people pile, watching Pikachu and not even trying to act like he was paying attention to the show. Katsuki may have taken a picture. If the asshole had blackmail on him, it was only fair if he had some, as well.

Actually… Katsuki looked around at their classmates, half of whom had fallen asleep in embarrassing positions. Round Face was leaning against Glasses’ shoulder, and he was fucking bright red, though Rock Girl was already taking a picture of that and grinned at Katsuki when she noticed him doing the same.

After fucking forever, the shitty movie finally ended and they had to clean up, then head to bed and get some solid sleep before they all started internships the next day. Well, mostly cleaned up. The extras who were interning with the teachers had said they’d clean the outside shit tomorrow morning, though how they planned to thaw the fucking ice skating rink without Half and Half or himself, he had no clue.

Katsuki and Deku hurried to finish cleaning shit as fast as possible, then ran upstairs to get their bags. They doubted they’d be able to sleep in the same bed at Denim’s agency, so they were heading over to their parents’ house tonight.

The cold air hit their faces as they slipped outside, destroying whatever sleepiness had started to weigh on them after the long day. They walked hand in hand, carrying everything they’d need for their internship the next week so that they didn’t have to stop back by the dorm tomorrow before they left.

Deku shivered, pulling his scarf tighter as his breath formed a cloud and Katsuki guided Deku off the sidewalk toward where they’d had their picnic earlier. With the darkness to offset them, the lights were sparkling even brighter. Katsuki hugged the nerd, relishing in his warmth and silent company after the day’s chaos. For a long while, they both stood there, staring at the almost surreal scene.

It was weird, watching the lights like this without their parents next to them. Katsuki remembered running under decorations just like these so many times when they were little, declaring war on snowmen or stupid shit like that.

“Thank you, Kacchan. They’re so pretty—today has been amazing.” Deku couldn’t tear his eyes from the glow, but he’d set his shit on the ground and hugged Katsuki’s arms, keeping them in place across his chest.

“You always deserve the best.” His voice was uncharacteristically soft as he pulled the nerd closer, Deku’s curls now tickling his nose. “We’re going to master Black Whip and figure out Danger Sense, as well as the other four quirks, and we’ll be fucking unstoppable.”

Deku nodded. “Not just for us, but for everyone who needs us, too. So that everyone can always enjoy holidays like this.”

Katsuki laughed. “We’ll make sure everyone always has the best fucking Christmas possible.” After all, Deku wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy it himself if Danger Sense was going off, and Katsuki would always make sure that Deku celebrated shit properly.

They were going to be the best. And tomorrow, the Jean Giraffe was going to help them make sure of it.

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!! Lots of fluff for the boys rn bc they've been stressed and need a break <3 Next week will be another chapter in Error, and then we'll start the Best Jeanist internship!! I'm excited to share that with y'all; I had to get creative again XD And tysm to Geeky and wren in my server for beta-ing this chapter!!! Plus thank y'all as well for all the comments and kudos <3 <3 They are very much appreciated <3 <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 8: Best Jeanist

Notes:

My beta has informed me that this chapter should come with a warning for terrible puns, lol

Going to an internship with Deku for once was definitely a nice change, even if Katsuki really wished Half and Half wasn’t coming, as well. R-Rated and Mic-sensei flanked the three of them for the entire trip, and Mic-sensei wouldn’t stop fucking talking!! But Half and Half was sleeping and Deku was mostly focused on the manual for their visors, which meant Mic-sensei apparently expected Katsuki to answer all his shitty questions.

Mic-sensei was chatting way too fucking loudly and everyone was staring at him, but it was weird as hell because no one ever glanced at Katsuki or Deku, even though they were sitting right next to him. The asshole must’ve been using his soulmate ability to make all the dumbasses on the train only pay attention to him.

But it was weird as hell–even with people staring at Mic-sensei, no one was really star-struck or asking for pictures or autographs or shit like that. Katsuki had thought the anti-hero mess had settled down after Deku’s interview when he talked about Shitstain. Had that crap started back up again after the Deika City attack?

It was uncanny to be out in public and have no one notice them. The last time they’d been able to do this had been what? Their date at the hero cafe? Figures that Mic-sensei had been involved in that, too, since they’d eaten in his themed booth.

Katsuki had never been happier to see a bunch of denim-clad dumbasses; they could finally leave that fucking annoying train. At least five of the dumbass sidekicks were waiting at the station to take them to the number two hero’s agency. Katsuki sneered at the sidekicks’ costumes—every single one of the bastards was wearing jeans with their hair gelled back, and the Jean Giraffe better not expect that shit from them. Mic-sensei and R-Rated talked with the one who seemed to be in charge for a bit, and after he confirmed whatever the hell they’d asked, the two teachers quickly traded escort duties so they could head back to UA.

Of course, the second Mic-sensei left, people suddenly began noticing Katsuki and Deku, and it was a little bit more like shit had been during Katsuki’s internship with the Feathered Menace. A few people gasped, then slowly a crowd began to gather. The sidekicks sighed, and four of them formed a wall before starting to answer the extras’ questions while the fifth turned toward Katsuki, Deku, and Half and Half.

Sidekick Number One, who was wearing one of the ugliest pink vests Katsuki had ever fucking seen, bowed his head to them. “Ground Zero, Zero Hour, and Shouto! It’s an honor to meet you all, I’m Fighting Fit! We’re thrilled to have such wonderful, up-and-coming heroes working alongside our agency for the week!” He straightened and gave the three of them what he probably thought was a friendly smile, but it was so damn fake Katsuki wanted to barf.

Predictably, Deku started gushing about how the honor was all theirs. Katsuki rolled his eyes; the nerd was adorable, but predictable.

“The Genius Office is in the center of Tokyo so that we can respond to crises for help within our nation’s largest metroplex as fast as possible.” Tacky Vest started walking out of the busy station, waving goodbye and letting the other side-kicks hand the crowd. “We pride ourselves on maintaining the peace of the city, and all the other agencies help us make sure that crime rates here stay low!”

Katsuki sighed and shoved his free hand into his pocket, his other one holding onto the case for his costume. People gawked on the sidewalk, their eyes widening and steps stumbling as they stared. A few of the braver dumbasses stopped them for autographs.

They never asked for Half and Half’s, though. Or Tacky Vest’s.

Katsuki scowled at Tacky Vest’s back. He was waving to everyone on the street just like the Feathered Menace and Hummer did, but he didn’t know their names like she had. Not that the two of them had always used everyone’s names, but it was always fucking obvious that they knew the people well. This better not be this damn sidekick’s usual patrol route.

After a quick block, the four of them stood in front of the office. Much to Katsuki’s surprise, it was only four stories tall, unlike the Feathered Menace’s fucking skyscraper. This place’s design was all modern as hell—glass walls along the entire bottom floor and upper levels on the right side, while sleek white walls covered the second floor and upper stories on the left. Katsuki’s parents would probably love the design, but he just rolled his eyes and followed Tacky Vest inside.

He groaned.

This interior design was terrible. Sure, the large open ground floor was nice, but denim carpet? And the large sunken stage in the back had clearly been set up a decade ago; no one fucking did that shit these days. Plus the tables looked like crap from a children’s toy store—the guy had gone overboard with the damn ‘kid friendly primary colors.’ The only nice part of the room were the modern speakers set up on either side of the stage.

Deku glanced over at Katsuki, giggling as he reached for Katsuki’s hand (Katsuki wasn’t sure whether it was to comfort him or hold him back). “Be nice, ok?”

Definitely hold him back, then. Like hell Katsuki would stay quiet. “If he’s going to have a damn tacky office, then I—“

“Excuse you? Beast Jeanist’s office is maximized to be friendly and welcoming!”

“Yeah, you don’t get to talk.” Tacky Vest clearly had even worse fashion sense. “If the dumbass didn’t want to do redesigns every decade, then he should have gone for a timeless setup, not some shit that becomes fucking dated in just a few years.”

“This is ‘dated’?” Half and Half looked around the room, his eyebrows creasing.

“The Genius Office is not—“

“Your building’s sign font looks like a fucking Sega console’s and your interior design makes me feel like I walked into a toy store from when we were little shits, not a modern hero office.”

“Children should be comfortable—“

“How about instead you do your damn jobs so kids can be comfortable anywhere and don’t have to show up here, dumbass.”

Half and Half nodded next to him. “A hero’s office isn’t a place where children should be. It can be dangerous.”

“Plus—“

“Kacchan!” The nerd groaned, covering his mouth. “Sorry! Kacchan can be, um, pretty opinionated about some things.”

Katsuki glared at the nerd, shoving his hand away. “And I’m fucking right. For someone who claims to be the most fashionable hero, his office sucks ass.”

“Kacchan!” Deku hissed at Katsuki, then quickly bowed to Tacky Vest as the other sidekicks they’d left behind finally entered the hero office. “I apologize on his behalf! It’s a great office, really!”

“It’s good to be willing to state your clothes-minded opinions.” They all whirled around to see the Jean Giraffe appear from a hallway to the right. “However ignorant and moth-eaten they might be.”

“Best Jeanist, Sir!” All the damn sidekicks saluted the hero, and Katsuki rolled his eyes. Who asked their sidekicks to do that shit? It was fucking demeaning.

“Welcome to the Genius Office.” The Jean Giraffe spread open his arms, gesturing to the room. “Where we serve everyone in the greater Tokyo metroplex, regardless of age or quirk.”

Katsuki glared at the bastard. What about lack of quirk? And Katsuki wasn’t ignorant about design trends. Fuck him! Both his parents were better designers than this asshole would ever be!

“We’re really thankful that you’re letting us intern here for the week, Best Jeanist-san!” Deku nudged Katsuki’s ribs, and he growled. Fine, damn it. He’d play nice. For now.

Half and Half bowed to the asshole. “Thank you for allowing me here, as well, despite my father’s current standing.”

The Jean Giraffe sighed. “Yes, Endeavor has landed himself in quite the scrap pile, hasn’t he? But you are not your father. And I will help fashion you all into proper heroes.”

Proper?

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed, but the man was already turning around, heading back to the hallway from where he’d appeared. “Follow me. A hero waists no time.”

Well, that at least sounded more like the Feathered Menace’s office. And like Aizawa-sensei, too. Katsuki shrugged and followed after him. The hallway wasn’t that big at all—just a small area with elevators and restrooms.

The Jean Giraffe walked into the elevator as it opened, and they all entered the surprisingly spacious area after him—Katsuki was thankful it wasn’t a tight fit. The Jean Giraffe hit the button for the second floor. “My agency has a simple design. The basement layer is where we have any training equipment. Underneath that is our garage. On the ground layer, we meet with citizens and hold events. The second layer contains our med bay and the visitors’ bunks where you’ll be spending any slack time. The third layer is our support department, and the fourth layer holds our offices. Any questions?”

Why the hell was he calling them layers and not floors? Katsuki didn’t bother responding. Six floors was a lot fucking easier to keep track of than the Feathered Menace’s office, though it still felt fucking small. Only one training floor? And there was no dining hall or any shit like that. At least each floor had more space. And it was still fucking enormous compared to Gramps’ place.

The elevator stopped and the Jean Giraffe gestured for them to get off. “The visitors’ quarters are down the hallway to the right. Change into your hero attire and deposit your materials, then meet me on the fourth floor and we’ll discuss your assignment for the week. Normally I’d ask that you wear jeans to be part of our uniform image, but the duo’s costumes are already well-known, so that stitch will be skipped.” Thank fuck! Like hell Katsuki’d wear those lame-ass jeans! He wasn’t a fucking copycat sidekick!

“Thank you, Best Jeanist!” Deku grinned at the hero, while Half and Half nodded before following the nerd off the elevator. Katsuki didn’t bother with either, instead immediately focusing on the new setting as they walked.

There was a large open doorway in front of them, but everything in that area was clearly a medical facility, so they followed the hallway to the right, like the Jean Giraffe had said. At the end was a decent sized room with maybe twenty bunks, all of which hung from the ceiling using what looked like Jeanist’s threads.

Huh. This shithole couldn’t house nearly as many guests as the Feathered Menace’s agency. But Katsuki supposed there were a lot more hero agencies in Tokyo, since it wasn’t too far from UA. The Jean Giraffe must not be as worried about housing visiting heroes or citizens in an emergency.

Whatever. At least the beds were fucking comfortable, even if there was no damn privacy and the sheets looked like they were also made from fucking denim. Katsuki dumped his backpack onto the bunk closest to the window, and Deku grabbed the bunk to the right of his. Katsuki snorted. That was the same place Deku had slept in when they’d been kids and shared a room.

Damn, that felt like forever ago, even if it had only been about a year.

Half and Half broke Katsuki from his thoughts by putting his crap on the bunk behind Deku’s, closer to the door. Right. A lot of shit was different now.

Katsuki grabbed his costume suitcase and followed the sign toward the restroom, ignoring Deku’s excited chatter behind him about it being like a fucking sleepover. The nerd always got so damn thrilled about friendship crap, not that Katsuki could blame him, really.

After months of rushed costume changes at UA, it only took a few minutes to switch into their gear before they headed up to the fourth floor where the Jean Giraffe had said the offices were located.

Katsuki scowled at all the damn cubicles. How the hell were these offices? Only the Jean Giraffe had a room to himself, but he wasn’t even inside it—he was at the far end of the room, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows as he watched the city below like he was in some cliché as hell movie.

“Best Jeanist, sir! The interns have arrived.” Tacky Vest stood up from a cubicle toward the front, and the Jean Giraffe turned, scanning the room and nodding when he saw them. He gestured to the open space on their right where a projector was already hooked up.

Katsuki shrugged and moved through the stupid-ass cubicle maze to meet the hero. If the hero wanted to give some sort of fucking presentation about their internship, Katsuki would at least hear what he had to say.

There weren’t that many sidekicks present, so the tight corridor between each cubicle was fine and Katsuki wasn’t bothered by being this close to new people. He wasn’t. The Jean Giraffe would know if one of his sidekicks was being impersonated. Katsuki could trust this hero that much, right? He was number two.

Deku’s hand reached over, squeezing Katsuki’s as they stopped in front of the Jean Giraffe and Katsuki resisted the urge to pull him closer to soothe his non-existent anxiety.

The hero looked at the three of them in silence, his finger tapping against his crossed arms. Katsuki scowled, but finally the man spoke. “Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, and Todoroki Shouto. I have offered all three of you internships before. Why join my brand now? Even with Endeavor’s health issues, Hawks would’ve taken you, and Bakugou has already interned there.”

Hah. As if Katsuki would ever go back there. Was this asshole going to be another confrontational shithead like the Tall Bastard had been? Fucking damn it. They were stuck with this bastard for at least a week!

“Um… Kacchan and I need your help with a new ability we’ve discovered my quirk can do.” Deku held up his arm, releasing a single wispy strand of Black Whip. “I was a late bloomer, so I’m still learning new things about my quirk. Recently I’ve figured out how to create this whip-like form, but we’re both struggling to use it.”

“I see...” The Jean Giraffe’s fingers tapped against his arm again, but he didn’t move. “No one at UA has been able to assist you with this? Eraserhead’s capture weapon is not cut from a different fabric.”

Katsuki scowled. “One strand is easy as hell. This shit can do multiple strands at once.”

“Ah. That would be more difficult to fabricate. And more like my own ability.” At that, the Jean Giraffe walked over to one of the empty cubicles and picked up two books. When he returned to the open area, though, he paused by the wall to flip a switch.

Partitions began to rise from the floor, meeting the ceiling with a click as they locked into place and created a ‘room’ that completely separated them from everyone else.

Katsuki immediately tensed, One for All flickering around both him and Deku.

Next to them, flames appeared a half-second later around Half and Half’s left hand.

This was Best Jeanist, right? Mic-sensei had checked the sidekicks, but what if the threat hadn’t been a sidekick? Could Knife Bitch somehow replace this asshole?

But Danger Sense would have told them if something was wrong, wouldn’t it?

The Jean Giraffe studied the three of them. “If the partition transforms you into distressed jeans, I can turn it off. I simply assumed you would be able to speak more freely about your quirk in private.”

Oh.

Katsuki swallowed, then forced himself to release One for All, Deku’s green lightning disappearing at the same second. The precaution made sense. Katsuki wouldn’t want to say shit in front of those dumbass sidekicks who mindlessly copied the Jean Giraffe.

“We’re sorry, Best Jeanist.” The nerd frowned, then rubbed the back of his neck and offered an apologetic smile. “Kacchan and I can be a bit on edge sometimes, ever since umm… well, Kamino.”

Half and Half extinguished his flames, but he didn’t add an apology.

“I see.” The Jean Giraffe’s hand shifted to cover his side for a brief second, and he sighed. “We are all still recovering from that night, it seams. My own doctors advised me against returning to the runway so soon, but without Endeavor and All Might, I can’t afford to sit back.”

Shit.

Katsuki had forgotten that the Jean Giraffe had been injured that night.

“Are you… are you doing ok?” Deku was frowning, now, and absently clutching his shirt above their mark “If you need more time to heal—“

“The world does not always give us such luxury fabrics. Do not worry, I’m all patched up and will avoid overstretching myself if at all possible.”

“I’m sorry my family’s actions have contributed to your burden.” Half and Half’s voice was tense as he looked down, both hands clenched at his sides.

“But you are here to help relieve that burden, at least for the week, are you not? Focus on doing your best each day. Endeavor and Dabi’s faults are not yours, nor is it your responsibility to mend the seams they ripped in society, and certainly not all on your own.”

Half and Half looked up, still frowning, but he slowly nodded.

“Good.” The Jean Giraffe’s attention shifted back to Katsuki and Deku. “Now, while your caution’s cause is unfortunate, it is not necessarily a bad thing, and not worth apologizing for. Caution will serve you well in this profession.” The Jean Giraffe held up the books, one in each hand. “But that’s enough about Kamino’s dirty laundry. You came here for my help with your quirk, so let me see it in action. Ground Zero, Zero Hour, grab onto one of these books using your new ability. Shouto, you’ll be the next model.”

Katsuki shrugged, holding up his arm and letting Black Whip shoot out, grabbing the left book the same second as Deku grabbed the right one.

The Jean Giraffe studied the two quirks, then looked over at Deku. “You both grabbed them at the exact same moment, even though you, Zero Hour, already had your arm raised and thus had to delay a second in order for your attacks to be in sync. Why bother with an exact fit?”

Fuck.

Deku squeaked. “I.. Um, I don’t know? I wasn’t thinking, it just felt right to—”

“A second’s delay in battle can cost more than a pair of designer jeans. This synchronization, is it because you are soulmates? It’s not just the whip attack, everything you two have done since you entered the room has been a synchronized catwalk.” He looked over at Half and Half, adding, “Are they always like this?”

Half and Half blinked, then turned to Deku, “Can I answer that?”

The nerd sighed, biting his lip as he gave Katsuki a questioning look. “I guess? He’s already noticed it, at this point.”

Katsuki shrugged. This was the number two hero. They could trust him with at least this much, right? It was fucking annoying that he’d noticed shit this fast, but he’d be a piss-poor top-hero if he couldn’t.

Half and Half turned back to the Jean Giraffe. “Yes. They’re always like this, but it stops being as unnerving after you’ve been around it for a while.”

“What the hell??!” Katsuki glared at the bastard. They said he could answer, but what the fuck was all that about being unnerving?!

Deku squeaked, his face starting to turn red. “Is it really that noticeable?”

Half and Half nodded. “Our school uniforms are bulky, so we didn’t notice the breathing in sync part at first, but you’ve always copied each other’s movements. Before we knew you were soulmates, we assumed that it was because you were childhood friends.”

“We?!” What the fuck?! What other assholeshad he been talking about this with?

“Everyone in class. They thought it was odd and sometimes would discuss it before you both arrived at school. Also on the days after the festival when you were both absent.”

Damn it! Katsuki growled, but Deku hung his head again, hiding his face in his hands as he groaned in defeat.

“So you know of this knot, and it is obvious to those around you.” The Jean Giraffe nodded to himself. “You must overcome it. After one minute of observation I was able to cotton on that Zero Hour would delay his attack momentarily because Ground Zero wasn’t yet in position, and I was right. Enemies will use this against you. I assume it hasn’t been an issue overall because you’ve both taken separate internships, but has no one at UA spoken to you about this en-sew-ing problem?”

Katsuki scowled. “Eraserhead’s told us we need to fucking work on it, but we’ve got other shit to worry about.”

Deku nodded. “Sensei said he wasn’t sure if we could break it, not entirely.”

“I see.” The Jean Giraffe sighed. “Well, while I have you both here, we’ll stitch that tight, as well. You don’t need to break it entirely—just enough so that it doesn’t snag on things in fights.” He paused, pulling back on the books slightly, but his expression didn’t change when Black Whip refused to budge. “You said your quirk could create multiple threads. Try grabbing something else.”

Katsuki grit his teeth and tried to grab a chair by the wall, but just like every other damn time, his Black Whip only wavered and didn’t form a second strand. Deku was able to grab the chair, but his second strand immediately pulled the chair right next to the Jean Giraffe, merging with the first strand and making the nerd sigh.

The Jean Giraffe looked down at the chair in front of him and nudged it with his leg, but Black Whip kept it secure. “The adjustment wasn’t purposeful?”

Deku shook his head. “No. The quirk responds to our will. So we have to want to grab both things and focus on them both separately. If our focus wavers on the first object at all, the whip will disappear. And I can’t focus on wanting both objects at the same time without it doing this.”

“I see.” The Jean Giraffe nodded, then released the books, raising an eyebrow when Katsuki’s didn’t move, but Deku’s fell onto the chair, the two strands immediately merging into one. “Very well. While you are under my brand, unless it’s a dire emergency, you are forbidden to use any abilities beyond this facet of Midoriya’s quirk.”

“What the hell?! But we can’t even use this shit well!”

“Precisely. From what I’ve seen, you both need to make its activation as breathable as cotton and as flexible as spandex. I believe that only then will you be able to use multiple threads with ease.”

Damn it.

“As for the synchronization issue, you must do everything purposefully out of sync. If you do something synchronized, I will make you repeat the process until you can do so at different times.”

Fucking hell.

The Jean Giraffe sighed. “You even become washed out in a synchronized manner. I can see what Eraserhead means about not being able to stop it entirely, but we must try. It will be like breaking in a pair of stiff jeans.”

Stiff jeans?

“Yes, sir.” Deku nodded, his shoulders straightening out, and Katsuki glared at the denim bastard. Both Black Whips disappeared simultaneously.

Damn it!

“At least you both didn’t nod.” The hero shook his head, “We start now. Summon the quirk again and dismiss it, one at a time.”

Deku’s shoulders slumped, but he went first, grabbing the book once more with Black Whip, then Katsuki summoned the quirk before Deku released it with Katsuki quickly following suit. The Jean Giraffe gave them a nod of approval, then turned to Half and Half. “As for you? Why did you choose to come here?”

That earned a blank look. “Eraserhead said I had to go to the same internship as them since the League might be targeting all three of us. They had a good reason to come here and I didn’t have anyone else lined up, since Endeavor is currently on medical leave.”

“I see. Is there nothing in particular you wish to purse-sew while here?”

Half and Half shrugged. “I want to know how a top hero operates. One who isn’t my father.”

“I can certainly show you aspects of the industry that you won’t have learned at Endeavor’s agency.” The Jean Giraffe evaluated Half and Half, his fingers tapping against his arm again. “Endeavor had a move where he could make ropes of fire. Can you do the same?”

“No.” Half and Half almost looked sad as he shook his head. “I am better with ice than fire. I resisted training with my father quite frequently. His methods…” Half and Half shook his head again, firmer this time. “I won’t make excuses. I will improve my mastery over my fire, even without my father’s help.”

“Very well.” The Jean Giraffe’s fingers stilled on his arm. “Then we shall see this week if I can help you fashion a version of your father’s rope-like flames, if that is acceptable?”

Half and Half nodded. “Thank you.”

The Jean Giraffe went back to the wall, lowering the damn partition before picking up a remote and waving it at the projector on the ceiling. The blank screen shifted, now showing a shitty, run-down amusement park. “This is Retro Town. Over the course of this past year, distressing citizens have begun to frequent the streets surrounding the amusement park, causing its customer base to decline, which in turn is encouraging more villainous activity. Our goal this week is to cuff the villains in the area while helping to promote the park and boost its clientele.”

“Oh!” The nerd nodded eagerly, “If we just caught the villains, more would most likely continue to attack the area because it’s run down and there aren’t a lot of witnesses nearby anymore, but if we can increase the area’s foot traffic and change the type of people who frequent the area, its crime rate will go back down! And this lets us use our popularity as a soulmate duo to help someone in need!”

Of fucking course the nerd would be excited about this lame-ass project.

“Interesting. When your personalities trend to different reactions, you choose different cuts of jeans.” Katsuki growled as the Jean Giraffe studied them for a few more seconds, but then he nodded to Deku. “And yes, that is the desired effect. It is not a beginner’s kit—my sidekicks will increase their patrols in the area for the next few months and my agency is donating money to help the park update its wears and hire security guards, for starters—but what we do this week can set a pattern for great improvement.”

“Do agencies often have projects like this?” Half and Half looked fucking confused again, and Deku winced in sympathy.

“Most large agencies do, Todoroki-kun.” Deku rubbed at his chest nervously, and Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. It was impossible for the nerd’s chest to be causing him pain now that Katsuki had healed it, but apparently that fucking motion had become habitual. Damn it. “Endeavor’s is one of the few that focuses solely on capturing villains without also helping the community.”

Katsuki sighed. “The Feathered Menace did that shit, too—he had homeless programs that he also used as an opportunity to gather information.”

The Jean Giraffe nodded at them both. “It’s good to see that you appreciate the different cuts of hero work. And yes, many community programs are double sided. I personally maintain that the best way to prevent crime is to sew a strong community, so I pour my energy into fashioning programs that foster lively community ties. The Best Jeanist fashion show for aspiring creative minds is by far my favorite program, but we take on many projects like this one, as well.”

The hero clicked for the next slide, this time showing a map of the area that had three different routes highlighted. There were several red x’s marked all throughout the side streets. “And here is our other task: patrolling to address crime around the area. These will be our routes. You will be with me or one of my sidekicks for every leg of the journey. Each red x is where we believe a blackmarket deal has taken place. Memorize those locations. Illegal denim dealers will frequently use the same locations unless they believe we have cottoned-on.”

What the hell? Illegal denim? Was that a weird-ass phrase or were they actually selling denim support shit? Whatever, this was so much fucking better than the theme park.

“There are two primary items to watch for: one are the drug traders who are selling off-brand Trigger, the injectable drug that boosts quirk abilities. It is a red liquid stored in small vials, like so.” The Jean Giraffe clicked the button, and Katsuki scowled at the drug. Yeah, they fucking knew what that crap was; the yakuza had been using the damn stuff, too.

The next slide showed a bunch of broken support gear, all of which looked like junk. “The other items of trade are blackmarket support gear. These can, of course, follow any model, but ever since the League of Villains began to rise, there has been an increase in people making and selling support gear without following the proper patterns.”

He clicked the button again, this time showing some guy with silver hair and a tacky purple jacket smoking a cigar. “This is the dealer for the League of Villains. He’s a known accomplice of the magician, Mr. Compress.” Damn it. Shigaraki’s soulmate was involved with this shit? Katsuki grit his teeth. The League really was fucking everywhere. “However, he has recently disappeared into a hidden pocket.” He clicked again, now showing articles about dismembered fingers, with one picture zoomed in on a dragon ring. “This ring is believed to be his, which means that there is likely a group of villains trying to needle the League. If you see him or hear any news of him, let me know immediately. Any questions?”

Wait. The League’s dealer was being tortured? Did the Feathered Menace know who was doing it?? Or was he helping the bastard hide for some damn reason? Damn it! No, Katsuki couldn’t think about that. Not right now. Not when there was no way of knowing the answer. They’d just have to try and listen for crap.

“Do you think this support gear is related to the League, or are there other villains who could be making and using it? If there’s a group that might be provoking the League, that means we’re dealing with multiple villain groups, right?”

The Jean Giraffe nodded, then clicked the slideshow again, this time going back to the map with all the x’s. “Correct. There are always small crime knots, but if one is sturdy enough to challenge the League, that is indeed a fashion crime worth watching for.” These fucking puns were getting really annoying, fast.

Half and Half wandered closer to the screen, studying each ‘x’ mark. “If the support gear can be anything, how are we able to tell what it is or who’s selling that crap?”

The Jean Giraffe sighed and opened his arms as he shrugged. “Therein lies the problem. Illegal support gear is defined as an item that has been fabricated for battle without first being approved by the licensing board. Typically, the items enhance the wearer’s quirk in some fashion. However, for someone such as myself, a simple pair of jeans sewn with special fibers qualifies as a support weapon—it would be impossible to spot it as support gear until I used it. This is why these fashion faux pas are so difficult to pin down.”

Fuck.

“If they’re that impossible to find, how can we identify them?” Deku bit his lip as he studied the map.

“You’ve seen the League’s support clothes, correct? Like Toga Himiko’s syringes?” Katsuki winced, and they all three nodded. The Jean Giraffe sighed. “Nod again please, but knot in sync, this time.”

Katsuki growled, waiting a bit for Deku to nod, but then the nerd didn’t, so Katsuki moved—fucking damn it! Again?! He glared at Deku. “You first.”

The nerd gave Katsuki a sheepish grin, but nodded, and Katsuki repeated the motion.

“Good. Now, the League’s equipment is unusual. Black market support technicians typically don’t know their customer’s quirk and instead try to fashion items that match a wide variety of quirks. In addition, the store will want to sell different styles of gear to attract an even wider variety of customers.” The Jean Giraffe paused, evaluating each of them before he asked his question, “So what kinds of sellers are we looking for?”

“Wouldn’t it be a kind of miscellany shop?” The nerd frowned in thought, rubbing at his chin. “Someone who has a large selection of items.”

“Precisely.” The Jean Giraffe clicked for the next slide, and several photos of a general store chain came up. “This is the last business we found selling illegal denim. General stores and pachinko parlors are two prime suspects because of their large variety and unique, haute couture items as well as a fast turnaround in their stock. They seam even more suspicious if they are run independently and not part of a corporate chain, but depending on the flexibility of each franchise store, some still conduct illegal affairs without the knowledge of their head seamstress.”

“Pachinko parlors?” The nerd bit his lip, and the Jean Giraffe gave him a knowing look.

“Your father’s old workplace was actually repeatedly under investigation by different agencies. We’re fairly certain he was selling something illegal, though we aren’t sure what. Now that we know of his yakuza ties, it was likely Trigger.”

Deku’s shoulders sagged. “I feel like every new thing I learn is further proof that he’s a terrible person.”

The Jean Giraffe sighed, shaking his head slightly. “I apologize for being the bearer of soggy denim. It is never easy to hear bad things about family members, even if they are estranged.”

“I’m confused.” Half and Half tilted his head to the side, adding, “What’s a parent company?”

“Ah.” The hero paused, rubbing at his temples as he began responding, “I suppose you are just first years. Franchise companies like, for example, the Don Quijote chain, are less suspicious because they have parent organizations that send out agents to make sure every individual stitch is up to the chain’s standard. Whereas if a business is entirely independent, they are able to conduct illicit business with greater ease. That does not mean all independent businesses are bad tailors, of course! Many are outstanding denim. It also doesn’t mean that all franchise businesses with parent companies are avoiding illegal stitching. Don’t be clothes-minded–this is one factor among many and we need proof before conducting an investigation into any business, regardless of the type.”

Katsuki scowled, analyzing the picture on the screen. “Isn’t that part of a fucking franchise, though?” There were several different buildings all using the same damn name.

“Correct. Which is why what I gave before was merely advice to keep in mind. Midoriya’s father also ran a business that was part of a franchise.”

If there were that many exceptions, then it sounded like a damn lousy rule.

“Once we’ve identified likely businesses, how do we look for support gear? Or Trigger?”

The Jean Giraffe sighed. “I can see there will be a lot of questions. Normally I only deal with third year interns.” He shook his head, then turned off the screen again and headed toward the doors. “Very well! I will explain more en route to the next leg of our journey. It is often easier to learn these things while facing them in person, anyway.”

Katsuki exchanged a look with Deku and they both shrugged, then moved to follow after the hero, but the Jean Giraffe paused, turning to give them a pointed look. “You shrugged and began walking at the same time.”

Deku groaned. “You first, Kacchan.”

Fuck, this was going to be so damn annoying. Katsuki couldn’t say it wasn’t important, though. The bastard was right: synchronized movements made them predictable. But repeating crap over and over again was a pain in the ass!

The ‘garage’ was huge, with what had to be a car for every single damn hero in this fucking agency. The Jean Giraffe went straight for the car closest to the elevator: a piss-poor knock-off of Batman’s 60’s batmobile. Fucking dumbass should have at least picked a good version of the vehicle to mimic.

“One of you may sit up front with me, the other two in the back.” The Jean Giraffe went to the right side, and Katsuki and Deku somehow managed to fucking simultaneously pause and look at each other to see who wanted to go where.

The hero sighed. “It seams it truly is subconscious sewing. Come sit so one of you is in front and one in back. Ground Zero, you take the front.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He didn’t want the damn front—Deku’d rather ask the hero about shit. Katuski started walking again, though, and opened the door, watching through Deku’s vision to see how the Jean Giraffe shifted his chair forward to let Deku slip into the back. Katsuki repeated the way-too-damn-complicated-process on his side, letting Half and Half in behind him before shifting the chair back. When he sat down, the Jean Giraffe was staring at him.

Katsuki glared at the hero. “What? Deku’s visor has a video feed that connects to mine and vice versa. Or do I have to ask for your fucking permission before using that, too?”

The hero sighed and started the car. “No, it’s good that you’re both observant. My car is purposefully difficult to manage—it wouldn’t do for a villain to commandeer it and sew chaos with it, after all.”

“Is that why everything is custom?” Deku leaned forward, not that he needed to. It was damn tight back there. Katsuki had no clue how Half and Half fit in the small space behind Katsuki’s chair.

“Correct.” The hero backed out of the parking spot, then turned to head up a ramp. “It’s not a far drive, but during this time we will have mission debriefs and review instructions.”

“Yes, sir!” Deku was all eager to please again, the nerd–Deku was better at that crap than Katsuki would ever be. It was too damn annoying. “You showed us the patrol routes earlier, but how will we be helping the theme park?”

“You will be expected to hand out flyers while on patrol and to help repair the theme park facilities. On your last day, there will be a special event during which the owner would appreciate some extra tailoring.”

What the hell? Why was all that so damn vague? The flyers would be annoying enough, but at least they could patrol while doing that—the other shit was going to be a fucking pain. They weren’t fucking repairmen!

Deku spent the rest of the car ride asking questions about the neighborhood and where previous suspicious activity had happened and what the damn theme park was like. The only actual important crap was the fucking folder the Jean Giraffe pulled out that had data on the design styles of known fake support gear companies. Katsuki focused on that, reading through it while Deku fired off questions and occasionally commented about something from the damn paperwork Katsuki was reading.

After the Jean Giraffe parked, he opened a compartment under his seat, then held out three identical ear pieces. “You each will wear one of these while under my brand. It is how I communicate with all of my sidekicks. You will no doubt hear them making patrol reports to each other: take note of the type of any distress they find necessary to share.”

Katsuki scowled, but took the blue earpiece and slid it over his left ear while Deku and Half and Half did the same—at least he and Deku managed not to be synchronized, this time.

“Good. Press the ‘J’ on the side to turn on your mic, then again to turn it off. Press twice to turn on the audio feed. At night, fit them back in one of my brand’s charging cases–every sidekick has one, as well.”

Katsuki nodded and got out of the vehicle, pulling up the chair so that Half and Half could get out, as well.

Shit, walking out of sync was damn hard. Even if they weren’t walking next to each other, Katsuki’s feet naturally fell into the same rhythm as Deku’s, and he couldn’t count the number of times they both almost fucking tripped.

The Jean Giraffe kept looking unimpressed as hell, too.

Katsuki wanted to explode something so damn bad, but he wasn’t even fucking allowed to use his own shitty quirk! He growled in frustration, his hands tightening into fists.

Trying to distract himself, Katsuki studied the streets around them, and hell, the area really did look run-down. Tokyo rarely had issues with litter, but Katsuki could see four pieces without even bothering to turn his head.

The Jean Giraffe held out his hand and threads shot out from his costume to grab the trash. He sighed. “This, too, will be part of your patrol duty. We must transform this area from stained bargain jeans into the designer pair it once was.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched. “Do you ever fucking stop saying shit about jeans?!”

“Kacchan!” The nerd huffed. “It’s part of his image!”

“Precisely.” The Jean Giraffe didn’t even turn around to respond, damn him. He just sent out threads again to gather more trash.

Whatever. At least he wasn’t as bad as the Tall Bastard.

When they reached the theme park, Katsuki wanted to groan. This place was fucking terrible. Everything was run-down and needed more paint or repairs.

“Welcome to Retro Land!” Katsuki stared in disbelief at the man waving to them. He was ridiculous as hell—maybe 1 meter tall and with a fucking clown costume and pointy ears. And he sounded like some kind of mouse.

To make shit worse, the ‘special event’ was a fucking play.

“A skit for our New Year’s event is sure to attract a crowd! Especially if we have the soulmate duo and young Todoroki performing to attract customers!”

Fuck him.

Just because he was right didn’t mean they were willing to do that crap!

“Sure!” Huh? Katsuki turned to stare at the nerd, who was somehow beaming. “It’ll be fun, right, Kacchan?”

“You really want to do this shit?”

“Yeah! It’ll be like when we played heroes and villains as kids! And remember how much the school festival helped cheer everyone up?”

Damn it.

“Wonderful!” Mouse boss clapped his hand, then motioned to the left where Katsuki could barely make out what might be a stage in the distance. “Our actors will tell you more when you meet with them tomorrow—they’re busy planning everything out today. Until then, we’ll need your help repairing things. The park is closed until the grand re-opening on the 30th, so right now only the park staff and the Genius Agency have access to the property.”

“Fucking perfect.” More security measures that resulted in hiding them away from the world. Just what people needed. Katsuki rolled his eyes and stomped over to the damn park map. This place did have a lot of attractions. But that just meant they’d have a hell of a lot to fix.

“You want to work on this new facet of Zero Hour’s quirk, correct?” Katsuki turned to see the Jean Giraffe holding up one hand, the threads of his jacket beginning to unravel. “You may model your other abilities during the play, of course, but this project is the perfect chance to catwalk this ability without endangering anyone during a fight. Follow me.”

Katsuki waited until after Deku started moving, then forced himself to walk at a different pace. It was one thing to broadcast to a hero that he and Deku were so in-sync, and completely different to do that with these random theme park extras. They had to get this shit right.

Fuck. If they did this damn performance, they’d definitely need to try to make their movements less synchronized. Katsuki was liking this idea less and less.

The Jean Giraffe led them over to a bench that was fucking falling apart, and his threads quickly pulled all the pieces back to their proper positions. “Shouto, can you sew the metal together while I hold it in place? My threads are reinforced with fireproof material, so they should stay in place long enough for your flames to accomplish the piece.”

Half and Half nodded, crouching down and producing flames in the palm of his hand. The Jean Giraffe hummed in thought. “Can you fabricate the fire from the tip of your finger, instead?”

Half and Half shrugged, but after a second the fire switched places, now a much smaller flame at the tip of his index finger. “Good! Focus on making that fire longer, like a thin needle. Then use that to sew the items together. That will be the first step to fashioning those flames into ropes, as well.”

Half and Half looked more determined when the Jean Giraffe added that last bit. As Half and Half worked, the Jean Giraffe turned back to Katsuki and Deku. “When you’ve finished re-fabricating this bench, go to the ninja course. The CEO says it is threadbare and in desperate need of mending, so they’ve had to shut it down. Make sure that it becomes like sturdy new denim and adhere to the safety officer’s instructions on making it child-friendly. Pick up any litter you see, as well. Once you accomplish that, we will go on patrol.”

A fucking ninja course?

Great. Those had all kinds of fucking nooks and crannies and shit that could come loose and fall.

Katsuki sighed. This wasn’t exactly the hero work he liked, but he could see how much this place fucking needed this. “Whatever, let’s get this done, damn it.” It was like Dagobah beach all over again, but this time they would both be training a new part of One for All and working on this synchronization crap.

“Of course!” Katsuki groaned, but Deku was already bounding over to the park map as the Jean Giraffe walked away. “It’s in the northwest corner, you guys!”

“Ninja course?” Finished with the bench,Half and Half stood up, his head tilted in confusion. “What is that?”

“It’s an obstacle course but with fucking trap doors and fake walls and crap.” Katsuki shrugged, following after Deku.

The nerd beamed at Half and Half as he walked backward, leading the way. “Kacchan and I would do them whenever we came to theme parks as kids and we would always beat them faster than anyone else! It was really fun because you weren’t allowed to use quirks inside.”

“Oh.” Half and Half looked around, then stopped, staring at the coin machine that let you ride a dumbass bear. He poked it, watching it shift down slightly. “What does this do? Is it broken?”

“Kids put in five yen and then ride it. It keeps them entertained while parents get their damn food.” Katsuki waved over at the empty food stands on the other side of the pathway, and Half and Half nodded.

“Have you never been to an amusement park, Todo-kun?”

Half and Half shook his head, then walked a few feet further before staring at the shitty teacup ride. “What’s this?”

Katsuki groaned. Deku eagerly ran over to the ride, jumping in and spinning the fucking teacup in a circle. “Well that part still works, at least! You spin them around and the ride spins the whole stage around, so it’s really easy to get dizzy! Lots of people throw up on this ride, actually.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Lots of people being code for Deku and Auntie. Come on, Nerd. Let’s get this ninja shit over with.”

Except Half and Half had to ask about practically every damn attraction on the way, and the nerd insisted on fixing any broken benches they saw.

When they finally reached the ninja course, it was a fucking wreck. Clearly at one point it had contained three levels of obstacles for little brats, but most of the third story had fallen into the second story and parts of the first story’s roof were now caving in under the weight. They had to remove all the broken crap first, and it was fucking hard to remember to lift with Black Whip instead of the strength enhancing part of the quirk. Then they’d bring shit to Half and Half, who would weld together what he could.

There were fucking nets that were torn, and they had to use Black Whip to hold that crap steady while they reattached knots. And they kept having to repeat practically every damn thing after accidentally moving at the same time.

It took two. damn. days.

Two days of having Black Whip out almost every single fucking minute, and while Katsuki hated to admit it, he did feel like the quirk was coming to him a lot more naturally. Deku could even finally keep the strands separate and was working on adding a third. Katsuki was finally starting to be able to work on a second strand, too! They were making progress. Well, as long as they were just holding the strands steady. They still couldn’t move multiple strands separately.

But fuck Katsuki was ready to do an actual patrol, even if it meant dealing with shitty fans. Anything was better than this cursed ninja course (which was done and they’d gone through it and jumped all over everything to make sure it was secure, and it was even fucking better than it had been before).

Katsuki climbed out of the course, glaring at the Jean Giraffe, who stood there evaluating it. “Good work. The CEO will have engineers and safety advisors inspect the tailoring before the 31st, of course, but everything seams secure.”

Katsuki scowled. “We’re not fucking engineers, bastard.”

“No, you’re heroes. And a child’s play place should be no challenge for you to repair, given proper instructions.” Hah. As if Katsuki had read that shit. Well, Deku had, so Katsuki had seen them, and he’d listened when the nerd told him to do things differently, but still. The hero turned, walking back toward the front gate. “My sidekicks and I have been re-threading other areas, as well, but now we will go on patrol.”

Fucking finally!

Notes:

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the story arc! It's inspired by one of the teamup mission chapters :D And I apologize in advance for all of the terrible puns I will inflict upon you. Blame Best Jeanist. tysm to MysticChemyst/GeekyCat for beta-ing this chapter and helping with all the puns! And as always I appreciate y'all's comments so much. I'm a little behind on responding to things atm bc life is being extra stressful, but each comment always makes me smile and helps me get through the stress, so thank y'all <3 <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 9: Practice Makes Perfect

Fuck this shit.

They could finally go on a damn patrol, and Katsuki and Deku were stuck with one of the Jean Giraffe’s lameass sidekicks while the hero went on a separate route with Half and Half.

Who cared if Half and Half was a more likely target because of Endeavor’s shitty public approval ratings? Katsuki was here to learn from the best, damn it, not from his idiot sidekicks!! Unlike at the Feathered Menace’s agency, all the Jean Giraffe’s sidekicks were practically mirror copies of the hero himself, just with different quirks. It was fucking annoying.

Whatever. Katsuki would still use this experience to become stronger. They had to.

Katsuki memorized the layout of all the buildings as they followed the sidekick out of the park, looking for anything out of place. This whole damn neighborhood was obviously on the decline. Katsuki hoped the Jean Giraffe’s plan worked and the shitty theme park could bring back some revenue.

Tacky Vest had some sort of webbing quirk that mimicked the Jean Giraffe’s threads, which he used to grab trash from the street while they walked, placing it in a bag at his side. Deku sent out Black Whip to grab other shit, so Katsuki sighed and did the same. They might as well multi-task and at least get some damn quirk-training done while on patrol.

Unfortunately, Black Whip kept merging the strands any time he tried to grab two different objects at once, which was fucking annoying. He was used to thinking of his quirk as something where the sweat combined to make one huge blast, and this shit was the exact opposite.

Plus, none of these places really looked fucking shady. Sure a lot of them were independent businesses that were family-run, which meant they didn’t have external oversight, but every time he glanced inside a place, it was all food or clothes or other normal shit. The only weird thing was that a lot of them were promoting some book called ‘Meta Liberation War.’

Katsuki paused, staring at the cover. That mark on the front looked familiar.

And why did he suddenly feel uneasy?

Deku stopped walking, too.

Katsuki looked around, but he couldn’t figure out where the hell a threat might be coming from. This had to be Danger Sense, right?

The nerd turned, staring at the shitty department store where a bunch of the red, Meta Liberation books were being displayed out front. If anything, it looked like the nicest place on the street—all the letters in its name were actually fucking lit up—not the kind of business the Jean Giraffe had told them to mark down.

“I think we should go in there.”

“What? Why there?” Tacky Vest groaned. “Look, just because a place stands out doesn’t mean—“

Deku shook his head. “It’s not that. I know it doesn’t fit any of the signs Best Jeanist told us to look for. But he also said that the signs weren’t everything, right? And something… my gut’s telling me something is off.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. It was definitely Danger Sense, then. “Let’s fucking check it out.”

The nerd gave him a grateful smile, but the sidekick grabbed their shoulders before they could step forward. “We can’t just investigate somewhere without probable cause, you two.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, brushing off Tacky Vest’s hand. “I’m gonna go buy some damn water to help me stay hydrated on patrols. That’s fucking legal. It’s a damn store and I’m a customer.”

The sidekick looked between them for a second, then sighed. “Fine. But follow my lead. And don’t poke around in places you shouldn’t. We have to respect the store owner’s rights, and a gut feeling isn’t strong enough grounds for a search.”

“Of course!” Deku smiled at the guy, and the idiot actually relaxed.

Katsuki snorted. Since Deku acted like a goody-two-shoes, people always thought they could trust the nerd to be a good kid and follow directions. As if.

The sidekick opened the door and led the way inside, and Katsuki and Deku followed, careful to vary their footsteps. The place was well swept, all its stock neatly arranged on shelves with proper labels and everything. Katsuki and Deku split up, making the sidekick give them a sharp look, but Katsuki just went to grab water on the far wall while Deku wandered toward the front.

“Heroes! What a surprise. Can I get you anything?”

“Just stocking up for patrol!” The sidekick’s hand rested on Deku’s shoulder as the nerd looked at the kitchy Retro Land shit by the cash register. “Ground Zero was thirsty.”

Katsuki eyed the bulky male customer who was standing by the drinks. He was the only other customer in here, and the closer Katsuki had moved, the more uneasy he’d felt. Plus the man’s shoulders had tensed at Katsuki’s hero name, and he was angling his head down so that the brim of his hat covered his reflection in the glass door.

Talk about fucking suspicious.

“So it really is the Zero duo!” The shopkeeper’s voice sounded cheerful and not nervous or any shit like that. Katsuki scowled. Was Danger Sense reacting to the customer, then, and not the store? “I thought you looked like them, but I couldn’t imagine what you’d be doing in this part of town.”

The nerd smiled at the shopkeeper. “We’re helping out with Retro Land’s New Year’s festival and doing patrols while we’re in the area. Would you tell your customers and help spread the word?”

“Of course!” The shopkeeper nodded eagerly, but his fingers twitched on the counter as Deku glanced down at the front case. “It’s an honor to have you interested in our small neighborhood. Would you two mind signing something for my store?”

Katsuki opened up the fridge next to the bulky asshole, noting that the customer had light brown hair. Katsuki leaned forward to grab a water bottle, but the guy shifted so that Katsuki still couldn’t see his face.

Suspicious as hell.

“Maybe another time.” Tacky Vest gave the cashier an apologetic smile. “We’re really supposed to be patrolling, after all.”

Katsuki looked back at the sidekick, confused. Since when did heroes refuse signing shit? Whatever. Katsuki brushed past the bulky customer, glancing at the glass door and catching brown eyes as the guy shifted. Despite Danger Sense’s uneasiness, the asshole wasn’t actually doing shit, though, and he was in a plain white tanktop even despite the cold weather—not exactly what you’d wear if you were planning on fucking shoplifting.

Annoyed, Katsuki went forward to the front and set the water bottle on the counter, pulling out a few yen from his pocket.

“No, no! I couldn’t. It’s on me.” The shopkeeper shook his head, sliding the water bottle back toward Katsuki. “Thank you for your service!”

“Thanks.” Katsuki shrugged, pocketing the coins again and opening the water, already starting to chug it as he walked toward the door. He hated leaving the bulky asshole there, but now the bastard was just looking through the chip aisle.

The sidekick was annoying, but he was right. They couldn’t arrest these assholes just because Danger Sense reacted to them.

Deku’s eyes flickered back toward the glass case, focusing on a watch that had four dots in the middle of its face. He reached up, running a hand through his hair, and Katsuki blinked as Deku’s visor had a small red dot appear in the corner, then disappear.

What did the nerd just do?

“Thanks for helping us spread the word! And for the water.” Deku gave the guy a slight bow, then hurried to follow Katsuki out the door.

Tacky Vest said something to the bastard shopkeeper, then joined them, sighing when the doors slid shut behind him.

Katsuki glared at the dumbass. “Why didn’t you want us to sign shit?” They could’ve bought time to look around more. He’d wanted to see what the hell was up with that customer.

“Patrol’s more important!” The sidekick put one hand on both their shoulders, laughing a little as he pushed them further down the sidewalk.

Fuck, it was hard not to walk in sync when this bastard was pushing them forward at the same rate. Once they were a few shops down, though, the guy released them and whispered, “We don’t know his quirk! You can never be too careful, especially when we’d already gotten enough evidence for Best Jeanist to come back and check the place more thoroughly.”

“The damn watch?”

That made the sidekick blink in surprise. “You didn’t even look at the case. How did you notice the watch?”

Katsuki tapped his visor. “I see whatever Deku sees.”

The nerd nodded eagerly. “I took a picture with my visor, too! I don’t know how to extract the data yet, though, so I’ll have to look back at the manual.”

The sidekick looked up at the sky, then shook his head. “First years these days have much better support equipment than I did when I was at UA. Or is it because you’re a soulmate duo?”

“Melissa Shield and Hatsume Mei made them for us! We’re really grateful.”

“Shield? Like the Shields’ daughter?”

“Yup! And Hatsume-san was the support student who made it to the third round in our Sports Festival this year. They both do amazing work!”

Tacky Vest blinked. “Oh. Her. Yeah, she definitely had an impressive amount of inventions for a first year. Usually the support department kids don’t have that much of an array to bring until their third year.”

“Hatsume-san is really dedicated!” The nerd rubbed at the back of his neck, adding, “though a lot of the time her ideas end up as big explosions.”

That made the sidekick laugh. “Great innovation comes after great failures.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, using Black Whip to grab some trash on the side of the road as they walked back toward the theme park. “The bulky asshole by the drinks was acting suspicious, too. He was hiding his face with his hat and tensed up when you said my name.”

“The customer?” Tacky Vest frowned, rubbing at his chin. “I didn’t get a good look at him, but he looked pretty nondescript. No identifiable mutation quirk.”

Katsuki shook his head. “He had brown hair and brown eyes, but that’s all I saw.” They were almost back at the theme park, now. He could see the damn gate twinkling in the distance.

“Thanks for the info. I’ll update Best Jeanist about what we found. Go report to the stage area, alright? There’s only three days left before the show, so you guys need to learn your parts.”

Fucking wonderful. Taking part in shitty stage plays was not why Katsuki was becoming a hero. Katsuki sighed, grabbing a few more pieces of trash at the entrance before dumping them all into a trashcan.

They were almost done with day two of their internship, and all they’d fucking done was one patrol, shitty repair jobs, and pick up trash. Maybe Katsuki felt more comfortable with Black Whip now, but it was still damn annoying.

“Will do!” Deku was practically bouncing in excitement next to Katsuki as they entered the park and then turned left toward the stage. “Isn’t it exciting, Kacchan? I wonder if we’ll get costumes or if we’ll just be wearing our hero gear.”

Soon they could make out the forms of several people milling around the stage—Half and Half was standing in front of it, talking with a woman who had a mutation quirk that made her head like some sort of chocolate labrador version of a werewolf or some shit. Her entire body was covered with fur, and she had a canine head and paws.

“Hi, Zero Duo!” The canine woman—at least Katsuki assumed it was a woman?—waved them over.

Deku skipped down the small incline toward the stage, beaming as he came to a stop next to her and Half and Half. “Hi! I’m Zero Hour, it’s great to meet you!”

“You can call me Howl! That’s my stage name here at Retro Land.” The woman winked at them. Katsuki scowled as he stopped beside Deku.

“As I was telling Shouto here, we’ll have a few kids volunteer from the audience to participate in the play. The 'villains' will attack the children as they’re on a journey to visit Retro Land. The 'heroes' will appear on the scene, then chase after us, fighting each of us one on one until there’s a big battle at the end. The audience will cheer you on as you’re about to lose, inspiring you to keep fighting, and the day is saved!”

Fucking basic.

The Dog… Katsuki frowned. Edgelord hadn’t liked the nickname based off his mutation. Should he call her Howl, then? But that was still mutation based. Damn it, she’d picked the name herself for this play shit, so it worked. Anyway, Howl or whatever pointed one paw toward herself. “We’re all excited to have you working with us!” She gave them a thumbs up.

Deku’s eyes widened, predictably focused on the thumbs up gesture. Dog paws didn’t have thumbs, but despite her canine quirk, Howl was clearly doing a thumbs up. Katsuki rolled his eyes fondly. Deku could be such a nerd about quirks sometimes.

“For today and the next two days, you’ll spend the last hour of the workday rehearsing with us. We know you’re too busy to memorize lines, so we’ll mostly be ad libbing as we follow that basic plot. The choreography will be the important thing for your guys to remember, so let’s make sure the play will be a success!”

“We’re happy to help!” The nerd beamed at her, but then became hesitant, rubbing at the back of his neck uneasily. “Though I’m afraid Kacchan and I don’t have any experience with acting.”

“That’s fine! We expected that, to be honest.” Howl looked over at Half and Half, “I’m assuming you don’t have any acting experience, either?” When he shook his head, she continued. “Then what we’ll do is tailor the roles so that you have to act as little as possible. With that in mind, what kinds of heroes do you three want to be?”

“A hero who saves people!” Deku was grinning again, still ecstatic about this shit.

Katsuki scowled when Howl turned to him. “I’ll be a hero who always wins.”

“We can work with that!” She looked at Half and Half, who was frowning in concentration. “What about you?”

“I think… I want to be a hero who puts others before himself.”

“That’s a great goal, Todo-kun!” Deku was fucking beaming at his friend, and Howl nodded in agreement.

“Here’s what we’ll do, then. Shouto, we’ll pick a volunteer who’s a young kid with a mutation quirk, and you’ll save them. Zero Hour, you’ll be in charge of saving the other two volunteers, and Ground Zero, you’ll be the one who focuses mostly on fighting us ‘villains.’ But don’t actually hurt us, alright? None of us are actually trained fighters.”

Katsuki scowled. “I know how to make my explosions look flashy as hell without giving them any damn force.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” She gave him a thumbs up again, but this time a claw emerged “My quirk lets me extend claws—I know, I know, that’s more a cat thing, but it’s what I’ve got. So I’ll be waving these around as we fight. I always file them so that they’re really blunt, so if I do manage to catch you, they won’t cut you or anything.”

Whatever. “I’ll be fine no matter what shit you throw at me.”

“I love the confidence! Then what we’ll focus on during our hour today will be helping you deliver a convincing performance by learning some acting techniques!”

Learning how to act? Katsuki frowned. It’s not like he or Deku would be very good at undercover missions since they were already so recognizable, but it might be helpful to learn how to fake someone out or some shit.

“The first rule of acting is that you have to enunciate! If the audience can’t understand what you’re saying, then you’ve lost them from the very start. So here are some exercises that you guys can do every night, ok? Think of them as a warm up for the muscles in your mouth.”

Katsuki took it back.

He utterly hated this shit.

Who cared about fucking tongue twisters?!

And the “machine of emotions” exercise she started talking about next was so damn ridiculous. Katsuki didn’t need to associate emotions with scenarios in order to remember what made him feel sad or some shit like that.

“And of course, one of the fastest ways to learn is by copying someone’s technique that you like! So in this case, think of the heroes who embody the kind of hero that you want the audience to see, and act like that hero. Watching some videos of their fights or interviews might help you.”

Act like All Might?

Katsuki grimaced.

Sure All Might was amazing when he fought, but now that Katsuki had actually met the man, he knew that the dumbass was all timid and shit in real life.

So who? What other hero made you feel like they’d always win, the second they showed up?

Not Endeavor. The asshole did so much property damage that he hurt the situation as much as he helped. And the Feathered Menace…

Katsuki didn’t want to think about that shit.

Miruko, maybe?

Ah, whatever. Katsuki didn’t need any damn help when it came to acting like he’d win a fight. He fucking would win, even if it was stage crap.

After the woman made sure they’d memorized her fucking enunciation exercises, she made them walk around the stage to get comfortable with it and practice talking to each other with their bodies angled toward the audience.

Their final task of the day was to get measured for their shitty costumes, which was annoying as hell, even if the nerd was excited about getting to dress up for their roles. Their real hero costumes would've been fucking better and more authentic.

Katsuki held his arms up and glared at the skinny asshole who was pulling a measuring tape out of the skin on his arm and wrapping it around Katsuki’s waist. He had weird, light blue eyes that looked almost white. The guy laughed nervously. “You seem like you’ve done this before.”

“Of fucking course I have, my parents are designers.” The Old Hag made him do this shit practically every year. It would have been more often except he put his damn foot down and refused.

“Right, right! I remember hearing about that…” The guy laughed again, then shifted the measuring tape to measure Katsuki’s shoulders. “Since we’re in a bit of a rush with these costumes, I’ll keep it simple and modify ones we already have.”

“Whatever.” Katsuki didn’t understand why they couldn’t just wear their normal gear. Sure it didn’t fit the theme of the show or whatever, but people would still love it.

Katsuki sighed and watched as the skinny tape measurer guy moved to measure the nerd next.

“What kind of costumes will they be, Tetsuhiro-san?” Deku’s eyes were practically fucking gleaming with excitement.

Those near-white eyes glanced between the three of them as the stagehand frowned in thought. “We have a lot of medieval European costumes that are still in relatively good shape, so maybe some clothes like that?”

“Really? That sounds awesome! I can’t wait! Will we get to be princes or something like that?”

“Maybe one of you, but it wouldn’t make sense for all of you to be princes in the same play.” The guy laughed again. “I’m glad you’re excited, but hold still, ok? I want to make sure the clothes will fit you well.”

When they finally finished that shit, it was already dark, so the Jean Giraffe herded all three of them back to his shitty Batmobile.

Apparently they weren’t allowed to patrol at night because villains might attack them, which fucking sucked. Even worse—during the drive back, the Jean Giraffe wanted to talk about hero personas.

As if that shit would help them. “Half and Half can’t act, Deku will always be Deku, and I’m going to win no matter what. So that persona shit doesn’t matter.”

The Jean Giraffe sighed as he turned out onto the road. “Even if you are not fashioning a new persona, it’s still necessary to follow a pattern when you speak to civilians. I suppose Hawks would be one to neglect to teach you how to avoid fashion faux pas.”

“Oi! That asshole didn’t forget shit! He made us sign all sorts of crap and talk to fans all the damn time!”

“Then perhaps he didn’t check to make sure you had followed the proper measurements.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Katsuki gave the hero his middle finger, ignoring Deku’s groan. “I’ve done fine in all my interviews and shit.”

“Yes, your interviews with your teacher, who knows you and wants to showcase your best cape-abilities. How well will you do with an adversarial interviewer who acts like you’re second-hand jeans?”

Katsuki glared at the man. “I’d make them eat shit.”

“How sloppy.” The Jean Giraffe sighed. “You’re like stiff, studded jeans, but a flexible pair is more comfortable and fits in more situations. It is your job as a hero to protect and help all civilians, even the ones who annoy you. Interviews serve a vital function by allowing us to help calm society and remain in the front pocket of people’s minds. If the interviewer hands you rough fabric, then it becomes all the more important that you soften it.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. “So I have to beat them at their own game?”

That earned an annoyed glance. “If you must put it that way. You need to have a steady hand while you sew each stitch of your persona so that even those who hate you cannot find fault with your words. So yes, interviewers can be like hostile critics and then you must give the runway performance of your life.”

Katsuki grinned. “No matter what the damn contest is, I’ll always win.”

“But how do we accomplish that?” Shit, that was Half and Half’s tone for when he was out of his depth because the Flame Bastard hadn’t explained shit. “Endeavor rarely does interviews, so I don’t know anything about this side of hero work.”

“Some heroes try to ignore them, true, but that pattern creates sloppy seams. The best tactic for interviews is to be honest and sincere, but to above all focus on keeping society calm.”

Calm?

Katsuki frowned.

“Shouldn’t it be on keeping people safe?” Deku’s voice was confused.

“If society is calm, then people will be safe. The isshoe is when our minds become so clouded that people start neglecting their good denim.”

…Right.

Katsuki wasn’t sure how much he bought that. Frankenstein had always seemed pretty fucking calm, even if the asshole was insane and bent on destroying the Flame Bastard. And All for One… that bastard was definitely calm and thinking rationally and all that shit.

“For example: have you noticed how people are reacting to the presence of heroes recently?”

So it wasn’t just Katsuki’s imagination?

“Well, they’re excited to see Kacchan and I, but um…” The nerd glanced over at Half and Half apologetically. “Not so much everyone else. Even your sidekicks.”

“Precisely. Hawks’ efforts to reform the hero profession are risqué fashion. People are excited about the new styles, but frustrated that policies need to change to begin with. They blame long-standing heroes for circumventing the proper patterns.”

“What the fuck?” What the hell had the Feathered Menace been doing? “All I’ve seen is the new policy that limits overtime hours. Were heroes really abusing that shit?” The articles Deku had read had accused heroes of purposefully waiting to do shit so they could stay after hours and work overtime to get higher pay. Had that actually been happening? Fucking assholes deserved to have their licenses stripped.

“All the top agencies have policies against it, but the others…” the hero’s voice trailed off and he gave a heavy sigh. “Yes, it was a widespread isshoe. I am in favor of the new patterns, but drawing attention to the mis-cuts has made citizens question even the most basic fashions. It’s too soon after Stain’s warnings about heroes only valuing money and fame.”

It was only too soon because it proved the bastard had been right, at least about the existence of money-grabbing assholes. “If it was a problem and the Feathered Menace fixed shit, then that’s a good thing!” It proved they could fix shit without killers like Stain!

“Not if it destabilizes society’s calm. There are other ways to fix poorly fitted garments without splitting their seams.”

Katsuki growled, his hands tightening into fists to block off the explosions.

Fuck this shit.

He turned to glare outside the window. He didn’t care what the Jean Giraffe thought about the Feathered Menace.

And Katsuki didn’t care what the Feathered Menace was up to, either.

He didn’t.

“What would you have done instead, Best Jeanist?” The nerd’s voice was tentative, like he was poking a sleeping bear.

The Jean Giraffe was full of shit—his "plan" that he explained to the nerd was basically the same as what the Feathered Menace had done, just without announcing shit to the public. Which was fucking stupid. Wasn’t it better to be open and let the public know what heroes were doing? They were fixing the problem! That should restore trust, not break it. People were stupid.

Thank fuck when they got back to the agency, the Jean Giraffe took them to the floor that held the gym. It was a lot smaller than the Feathered Menace’s, but it still had a large sparring mat in the middle. A mat that looked like it had been made out of threads of some sort, which meant Katsuki wanted to be nowhere near it.

The Jean Giraffe took them over to the weights instead, using his threads to position several in a circle around Katsuki and Deku. “Use Black Whip to bring all of these weights toward you, then put them back. Try to see if you can use multiple strands now.”

Katsuki scowled, but stood back to back with Deku—at the Jean Giraffe’s annoyed scolding, they had to repeat the motion and somehow not do that in a synchronized manner. Katsuki wasn’t exactly sure they succeeded, but the Jean Giraffe at least didn’t scold them again. Instead, he gestured for Half and Half to follow him to the other side of the gym where he made a few blocks of ice and then seemed to be trying to cut them in half with blowtorch-like flame.

As much as Katsuki really hated to admit it, doing two days of shitty repair jobs did actually seem to be helping them manage Black Whip better. The quirk felt lighter and more responsive as it darted out from his arm to pick up the weights.

But a second strand still wouldn’t fucking form.

Katsuki growled in frustration, then jumped as a hand rested on his shoulder, almost lashing out.

The Jean Giraffe raised an eyebrow. “You are safe here. I promise.”

Katsuki scoffed, crossing his arms. “We’ve been told that before.”

“Then I will simply have to earn that trust.” The hero’s hand moved off Katsuki’s shoulder, running a finger over the quirk as he frowned in thought. “You can’t bend stiff fabric to your will. When you grab items at the theme park, are you focusing more on the quirk or the items?”

Katsuki frowned. “The shit we’re fixing.” They had to hold it at an exact location, so he was always watching it to make sure nothing fucking shifted.

“Ah.” The Jean Giraffe’s finger tapped on Black Whip. “You’re putting your jeans on backwards. Don’t focus on making the quirk do something. Instead, focus on what you want done, and then your thread will follow your needle.”

That fucking sounded exactly the same! But Katsuki thought he might know what the bastard meant. He scowled, focusing on the weights in front of him. He wanted to move them to the other side of the room.

Nothing.

Katsuki growled.

“So you think we should focus on the end goal, not the process of making it happen?” Deku tilted his head, studying the three weights that he was holding midair with Black Whip.

And then suddenly all three weights were tossed onto the sparring mat five yards away.

Black Whip hovered above Izuku, still in three distinct strands.

“I did it!”

“Fuck yes!” Katsuki grinned, whirling around and staring at the weights on the far mat. Black Whip vanished from Katsuki’s arm as he hugged the nerd, who grinned back at him.

“It really helps to think of it that way, Kacchan! Try it!”

Katsuki scowled. He would figure out this shit. He stepped back from Deku and quickly summoned the quirk again, new determination filling him as he turned back to the weights. Fucking visualization shit. He could do this.

Except nothing happened.

He tried to visualize the weights over on the mat next to Deku’s, but they didn’t budge a damn inch.

Stupid shit! Katsuki was tired of arguing with this fucking quirk! The weights should just— “Move already, damn it!”

Black Whip jerked in front of him, hurling the weights behind him onto the sparring mat.

Katsuki stared.

Black Whip retreated into his arm.

“Kacchan! You did it!” Deku grinned, fucking tackling him.

Beside them, the Jean Giraffe nodded. “The cursing could use improvement, but otherwise, a perfect fit.”

They’d moved. Both weights had fucking moved! All at once!

“You may continue to work on that for another half hour, but then rest. Over-stretched denim never performs well, and we will be returning to the theme park in the morning.” With that, the Jean Giraffe drifted back over to Half and Half, who was still trying to produce a long, thin spire of flame. It was definitely better than the one from this morning, but still only about six centimeters long.

“Yes, sir!” Deku nodded to the hero, who then moved over to where Half and Half was working on his fire.

The nerd pointed his arm back over toward the mat, and the three strands shot out, picking the weights back up. “We’ve been focusing too much on how we want the quirk to do something, and not enough on what we want done.” He took a deep breath, his eyes darting between the three weights and then focusing on a spot closer to them. “Move!”

Black Whip shot out, grabbing two of the three weights and jerking them toward the spot where Deku’s eyes were focused.

The nerd groaned. “Well, it looks like it’ll still take some work, but it’s a really big step forward!” He gave Katsuki a tired, determined grin, which Katsuki couldn’t help but return.

They’d been working on this shit for months.

Finally, they’d made a breakthrough.

And it was just day two of the internship! They’d have all week to get the hang of this shit. Of course, they also had to adjust to not moving in sync, which was fucking difficult. Katsuki felt like they were each hyper aware of every single move the other made right now.

After half an hour of practicing, the lights flashed overhead, and the loudspeakers announced that it was almost eight o'clock and the lights would turn off in five minutes.

Katsuki growled in frustration. He wanted to practice more, damn it! Even if it was getting late. They’d finally made progress and they needed to get this shit perfected as fast as possible.

Reluctantly, Katsuki sent Black Whip to grab the weights and move them back onto the stand. It took a lot of focus, but he managed to move all four in only two trips.

Deku gave Katsuki a tired smile, reaching for his hand as they walked to the other side of the gym where Half and Half was melting the rest of his ice into some sort of metal bin. Their classmate looked back at them with a nod. “You’re using that ability better.”

“Yeah!” The nerd’s voice was excited, even if he looked like he was about to fall over. “I think we’ve finally figured out the key to using it! How are things going with your fire?”

Half and Half shrugged as he walked toward the door with them, leaving the water in the metal bin presumably for tomorrow night’s practice. “I’m making progress. It’s my own fault for not paying attention to Endeavor while he could still teach me.”

“Bullshit.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, punching the button for the elevator. “Your father’s a fucking asshole. It’s his damn fault for not being a good teacher.”

Mismatched eyes stared at Katsuki for a few seconds, but Half and Half didn’t say whether he agreed or not. Katsuki huffed and stomped into the elevator.

“How’s Endeavor doing, Todoroki-kun?” Deku’s voice was quiet, and for a second Katsuki thought Half and Half hadn’t heard the nerd because of the closing elevator doors, but then their classmate shrugged.

“He’s not doing well, obviously. The Commission is debating whether or not there should be a trial. There’s no one to act as plaintiff unless I file charges or the government does, since Dabi’s a villain and can’t exactly show up in a courtroom.”

Shit.

“Are you going to?”

Another shrug.

The elevator came to a stop.

Half and Half didn’t say anything as the doors opened and the three of them walked to their bunks, grabbing shit for the showers. When they finished, though, and were laying down to sleep, he finally spoke. “Is it selfish if I don’t want to do it?”

The nerd blinked in confusion, rolling over onto his stomach and peering at Half and Half’s bed in the darkness. “Do what?”

“The trial.” Half and Half was saying in bed, staring at the bunk above him. “I just want this all to be over. If he’s charged with domestic abuse, I’ll have to go as a witness. I don’t… I don’t want to talk to people about that. The news will be there and everyone will know. People already stare at me. I can’t… I don’t want them to know what he’s done. During patrol today some woman started crying when she saw me. I don’t know how to deal with that.”

“She started crying? Why? Did she feel sad for you?”

“She said she couldn’t believe Endeavor had done all of that. That my life must be horrible and how could we trust anyone if we couldn’t trust the number one hero.”

Shit.

“What’d you say?”

“I didn’t. Best Jeanist told her that the Commission was investigating the allegations, and he promised that pro heroes were still working tirelessly to keep society safe. She said if they couldn’t keep their own children safe, they didn’t deserve to be heroes.”

Katsuki scowled. “Do whatever you want to do. It’s fucked up that you even have to deal with this shit.”

“But if there’s no trial, will Endeavor keep hurting you, Todo-kun?”

“He’s quirkless now. And broken. And I’m always at UA. I’m safe from him. Nii-san… I don’t like what Touya-nii did, but Endeavor’s already had enough punishment, I think. Best Jeanist was talking about making sure society stays calm, but a trial would do the exact opposite. I wouldn’t be the only person who wouldn’t be able to move on from this.”

Katsuki scowled. Fucking ‘public opinion’ again. He hated that shit. It was important, sure, but… “What kind of heroes would we be if we can’t even fucking save ourselves? If you’d be so mentally freaked out that you couldn’t help people like you want, then don't do the damn thing.”

There was a soft laugh from Half and Half’s bed. “It’s a bit hypocritical for you of all people to say that, Bakugou.”

“Oi! Fuck off, you asshole! Deku’s the one who always does the self-sacrificing shit!”

“You do it, too. Just in other ways, like training too much.”

“What the hell? I never push my body further than it can take!” Maybe they’d cut back on sleep a bit too much, but that was it! And it had only been because of fucking exams!

“No, you’re not like Endeavor. You just don’t give yourselves enough time to relax. The whole class knows it.”

Katsuki scowled. “We don’t have that fucking luxury, you know that.” Not with the League of Villains targeting them. Not while villain soulmates existed.

Half and Half didn’t respond. Somehow even his silence sounded fucking skeptical, the asshole.

Deku sighed. “We should get some sleep, alright? We’re all tired and grumpy.”

“Sleep is good.” There was rustling in Half and Half’s bed, then silence.

Katsuki scowled.

Asshole.

Katsuki focused on Deku’s breathing, his soulmate’s reassuring presence allowing Katsuki to relax and eventually drift asleep.

Day three at Retro Land started in the arcade where they reattached shit that had fallen off over the years: targets, rings, booths, display stands, and of course, repaired more damn broken benches. Half and Half was getting a lot better at using his fire like a welding torch, though Katsuki wasn’t sure how much that shit was going to help him with the fucking fire rope move. As for Black Whip, Katsuki and Deku were each able to move shit around a lot faster now that they could manage multiple strands. They even started cleaning up litter while holding shit together for Half and Half to weld.

Once the arcade was done after lunch, they were sent to the stage to help build a better set.

These dumbasses needed more options for entrances and exits so that they’d be able to have a fight that was actually good in this shitty play.

So the three of them helped the actors and a few engineers build an elevated stage and a backdrop with a second story balcony. For the most part they were just following the Measuring Tape Guy’s instructions—apparently he was in charge of props as well as the shitty costumes. Focusing on getting Black Whip to use any kind of precision was hard as hell, though. The damn quirk liked to move fast and jerk from one place to another, not make precise, small movements.

At least they were a lot fucking better than they had been.

When they returned to the agency that evening, the four of them immediately went to the gym, and the Jean Giraffe watched as they continued to practice with their quirks.

Katsuki tried to use even more strands of Black Whip, but every time he tried to call on more than four, it was like he was hitting a damn brick wall. It was fucking annoying, but Black Whip was Deku’s quirk, not Katsuki’s, so this might be his shitty limit.

It was fucking annoying.

The next day, they arrived at the front gates to see white paint cans set out for them. The Jean Giraffe picked one up, opening its lid with his quirk, and then wrapped a brush handle with fiber strands before dipping it in the paint and drawing a smooth line over the concrete safety bollard next to the road. “Ground Zero and Zero Hour: this is today’s task that you must address: use Black Whip to paint a new crosswalk, lines for the ticket booths, and these concrete barriers. We must guarantie that everyone has a spotless first impression for tomorrow’s grand re-opening.”

“What the hell?!”

“But Black Whip always moves so quickly! How can we—“

“Will you brush aside the need to be careful when you have to save an injured civilian and end up widening a tear because you moved them too suddenly?”

Shit.

Katsuki glared at the bastard as Deku fell silent.

The Jean Giraffe nodded. “Regardless of how your quirk performs most naturally, you must be able to use it with finesse in order to properly employ it as a hero. Sew you will learn to paint with these threads of yours, and you won’t be allowed to patrol today until the area’s attire meets my standards.” He gestured to the behind the paint cans where smaller, silver cans sat. “Those contain paint remover. I suspect you’ll need it.”

Fucking bastard.

“Shouto!” A voice chimed in over their earpiece, making them all three jump. Fuck, it was still weird to hear random voices like that. “We’re waiting for you in the food court area. There’s some machinery we could use your fire to help fix.”

Half and Half nodded, wishing Deku a quiet good luck before heading inside.

The Jean Giraffe smiled at them. “I or one of my sidekicks will keep watch all day. It wouldn’t do to end up in a tangle with a villain because you are both unguarded and out in public.”

Katsuki growled at the asshole and stomped over to the paint cans, summoning Black Whip’s jagged form to open the top—thank fuck the paint didn’t seem to be able to stick to the quirk. Holding the brush with it was fucking difficult, though. It was easier to pick up a damn car than this tiny shit.

But as much as Katsuki hated it, the Jean Giraffe was right: they had to be good at the small shit, too.

Still, Katsuki hated every damn second.

Civilians fucking loved it, though, and were posting all kinds of pictures of them online as they added lines, then had to use paint remover to correct shit where they had “sloppy edges” according to the Jean Giraffe. Not that hepicked up a paintbrush. They also had to be extra careful not to move in sync, with all of the civilians watching them and taking videos.

Katsuki was exhausted from constantly focusing on all these damn details. It was like when he was learning to portion out his sweat and handle his explosions all over again. He grinned, happy that they were finally making progress, and used his shirt to wipe sweat off his face, ignoring the girls giggling over on the sidewalk.

He fucking loved a good challenge, and there was no way he was going to let this shit beat him.

At least they were allowed to patrol for an hour after they finished, but it wasn’t like they found a damn thing. They were glorified street cleaners, picking up litter and cleaning crap up one can at a time.

They managed to finish the front entrance shit before the Jean Giraffe expected them to, which was even fucking better, and he let them patrol for an hour after lunch. Katsuki wished something would happen. They could stop someone dealing the illegal support gear or find a stash of that Trigger drug, or fuck, even just a purse thief would be great.

But no.

Nothing.

The patrol ended with abso-fucking-lutely nothing exciting, and they were sent back to the theme park, this time to rehearse the shitty play with Half and Half and the theme park’s actors. After all, tomorrow night would be the performance.

The three of them were told to make each fight last at least three minutes, which was fucking ridiculous because these actors couldn’t fight worth a damn. Katsuki kept beating them in under one minute and he wasn’t even landing attacks. Just… what the hell. Deku kept telling him to fight worse, but the actors needed to come up with better fucking tactics, damn it! If they wanted a play, they should put together something that was actually fucking good, not this weak shit! At least their costumes were going to be awesome, though.

Katsuki had a damn headache from focusing on all this shitty detail work, though. It was so much worse than dealing with sore muscles, and for once Katsuki actually felt a little bad for Brain Fucker, who constantly had to deal with this crap.

When they got back to the dorms that night, later than usual, they all sighed in relief, practically jumping into the agency’s communal bath after a quick rinse off. Fuck, the warm water felt so damn good.

One more day of this shit.

“How’s your hand doing, Todo-kun?” Deku watched his friend as the dumbass stretched his fingers out and then rubbed them under the water.

“Fine, I think. Using my fingers for the flames is harder, but more precise. I have to be careful not to overheat myself, though.”

“Are you any closer to that rope shit?” Katsuki hadn’t been paying attention.

“A little.” Half and Half lifted his hand out of the water, then released a long, thin flow of fire that extended for about two meters, making the nerd squeak in surprise. “I’m having the same problem as you used to: I can only do one strand right now. I need to get used to doing this with every finger before I can copy Endeavor’s move.”

“That’s still really awesome, Todo-kun! You’ve come a long way!” The nerd was practically beaming at his friend.

Half and Half nodded. “It’s helped me learn how to be precise with my flames, as well.”

The nerd hummed, leaning his head back against the rim of the bath. “This internship definitely isn’t what I expected, but I’ve learned a lot! And it’s been nice to be focused on building up a community and not defeating villains, for once.”

“Yeah.” Half and Half frowned down at the water. “I never knew agencies had these kinds of projects. But it’s been fun. I hope it works and helps everyone.”

“The play’s going to be really great, I know it!” Damn, the nerd was using his determined grin again, and Katsuki closed his eyes, looking up at the ceiling while Deku kept talking and trying to focus on the conversation through his soulmate's eyes rather than thinking about how hot Deku’s expression was. “And it’s exciting to be part of a New Year’s celebration like this.”

It wasn’t even really a New Year’s celebration, since it was on the 30th instead of the 31st, but Katsuki was relieved that they would be able to relax on the actual holiday.

“You’re staying on campus like us, right, Todo-kun?”

Half and Half nodded. “It’s not safe for me to go home since people would expect that, so Natsuo and Fuyumi are coming to campus New Year’s morning to celebrate.”

“Not Endeavor?”

Half and Half shrugged. “Nee-san said she asked him to come, but he wouldn’t respond. She said she’ll stop by the house first thing in the morning to check on him.”

“Oh.” The nerd bit his lip, stretching out his arms under the water before he looked back at his friend, his voice more cautious this time. “What about your mom?”

Half and Half shrugged, his shoulders stiff despite the warm water. “Apparently one of the teachers will be escorting the three of us to a temple in the morning and they will take us to see her afterwards.”

“That’s good! I’m glad you’ll be able to see her. Wait.” The nerd sat up, his voice suddenly excited. “I wonder if you’re going with us to for the year’s first temple visit on New Year’s Day! One of the teachers is escorting our family, as well.”

Half and Half was silent for a few moments, then nodded. “I hope so.”

Katsuki growled and hauled himself out of the water to go dry off. As nice as the bath was, they couldn’t stay in it too long or they’d start sweating nitroglycerin into the damn water. “We should dry off, Deku.”

“Right!” The nerd sprang up, as well, then headed over to the towels. “You can stay in longer if you want, though, Todo-kun!”

“Sleep sounds good, actually.” Half and Half shook his head, stretching out in the water a bit before he got out and came to join them by the towel rack as they dried off and changed into shit they could sleep in.

“No staying up reading articles, dumbass.” Katsuki flicked the nerd’s shoulder when Deku pouted at him. “We’ve got that stupid play tomorrow.”

“Aw, I knew you wanted to do well, Kacchan!”

“Of fucking course! If I’m gonna do this shit, I’m gonna make it the best!”

“Right.” Deku giggled, the brat.

The next morning, the Jean Giraffe made them run around town handing out shitty flyers to every single damn person they saw.

It was fucking annoying, especially because they had to have the stupid sidekick babysitters and moving around unsynchronized still felt so damn unnatural.

At least they didn’t constantly trip anymore, though. Progress and all that crap.

And after lunch, the real annoyance began.

“You want us to do what?!”

The Jean Giraffe sighed. “I know you’ve signed things before. Why is it such a faux pas to do so now?”

“I’ve done that shit for like, an hour at a time!” Katsuki hated this idea so uch. “You want us to do it for six fucking hours!”

“You may take breaks. But a patrol is a high fashion risk. The crowd is already beginning to thicken, and with this high of a threadcount, it’s safer for you inside the park’s gates than out on the street.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense. It’s not like there’s a security check.” Katsuki scoffed.

“More of my sidekicks are within the park handing out maps. A rope is always stronger than a single thread.”

The nerd sighed. “Come on, Kacchan. We can take breaks whenever it gets too much for you, ok?”

“Ah.”

“I didn’t say that!”

The Jean Giraffe sighed. “If the threadcount is an issue—“

“I didn’t fucking say that.” Katsuki glared at the hero. “Like hell I’ll let a damn crowd stop me from doing something.”

The Jean Giraffe studied him for a second, then nodded. “Very well. But do not stretch yourselves too thin. You will be undistressed here in the staff room.”

“Yeah, fine.” Katsuki scowled. They wouldn’t be alone. Not that the copycat sidekicks were that reassuring, but whatever. He had Deku with him. Plus Half and Half was here. Wait. “Will Half and Half be signing shit, too?”

“He will be distributing park maps, yes. If people want his signature, he may sign things, but given his family’s frayed denim, such a situation is unlikely.”

The nerd frowned, biting his lip as he glanced over at Half and Half. “But Todo-kun isn’t the same.”

“And I have no doubt he will show off his professional jeans, given time. Tonight will be a start, since Endeavor never recycled cast-off fabric.”

Half and Half nodded. “Thank you for the opportunity.” Half and Half gave the Jean Giraffe a slight bow, then smiled at Deku. “I’m fine, I promise. I don’t actually want to sign things.”

“Finally someone with some fucking sense.”

“Signing things is part of the job of a hero. It increases the public’s calm one stitch at a time. So off you go.” The Jean Giraffe shooed them out of the staff room, and Katsuki grimaced at the gasps around them as they emerged.

This was going to be a damn long afternoon.

Katsuki cringed as people crowded around them, and he wasn’t grateful when Deku and Half and Half stood on either side of him, blocking people from approaching him by surprise.

Eventually, they finished handing park maps to the damn crowd and made their way to the front of the shitty park, positioning themselves in the open square just inside the front gates.

Even with Half and Half and Deku on each side of him, Katsuki still felt hyper aware of every movement around them.

Katsuki didn’t understand how Deku was ok.

Well, he knew the nerd wasn’t completely ok. He would jump every now and then, always quickly apologizing to whoever had startled him. But there were times when Katsuki looked up and saw the huge crowd in front of them and forgot to fucking breathe.

Knife Bitch could be anyone.

And unlike at the Feathered Menace’s agency, Katsuki didn’t think these sidekicks could reach him faster than a villain acting like a hyper fan could circle his hand around Deku’s throat.

But Katsuki wasn’t going to let this fear control him. He would face this head on and defeat it, damn it! The Feathered Menace said the League wasn’t stalking them. That it had all been chance. And even if the League did show up, there were so many fucking heroes that they would be fine. Plus they had Danger Sense, now, and the quirk wasn’t reacting at all.

They were fine.

As the afternoon wore on, Katsuki’s shoulders became less tense, even if his hand fucking hurt like hell from signing so much shit. How many people could one theme park hold, anyways? Surely they were hitting max capacity by now?

But more people kept coming, even as the sky turned dark.

Deku blinked, his pen forgotten as he looked beyond the fans toward the entrance. “Something’s wrong.”

What the hell?

Now that the nerd mentioned it, Katsuki felt… anxious. Like he should be moving toward the entrance.

Katsuki scanned the ticket lines, but they couldn’t see shit from here. Deku was already running, darting toward the front gate and using Black Whip to pull himself up onto the display so he could see over the crowd.

There wasn’t anything, though. Just people lining up to get tickets and—

Did the white paint lines just move?

Notes:

;) hope you enjoyed the chapter! Finally some progress with Black Whip! The boys are happy about that. tysm to MysticChemyst/GeekyCat for beta-ing this chapter!!! And ty as well for all the comments and kudos <3 <3 I'll be taking a break next week for some irl things, but there will be another chapter of Fate the week after that!

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 10: Act Your Heart Out

Notes:

tw: minor character idolizes death (same as canon)

Katsuki ran to join Deku, jumping up onto the theme park’s outer wall to stare at the road in front of the front entrance. Sure he was fucking tired and shit, but—

Fuck. The white paint was really moving.

And now a villain was stepping out of an alleyway, wearing a hoodie and ski mask with white stripes all over it and a crazed smile. His laughter sent chills down Katsuki's spine as the paint from the crosswalk began to move. Black Whip darted out from Katsuki and Deku simultaneously, grabbing the five pedestrians nearest to the villain and pulling them away.

String and ropes shot out from their peripheral vision, and Katsuki looked over to see the Jean Giraffe’s sidekicks pulling more pedestrians to safety. Tacky Vest moved in between the villain and the crowd, calling out behind him, “Everyone, please move closer to the front gates!”

Deku looked back over his shoulder, frantically calling out to Half and Half, who was sliding toward them on his ice. “Todo-kun! We need a barrier!”

“Wonderful! You’re all three really here!”

Katsuki’s head whipped back around to stare at the villain. What the fuck? He’d come looking for them? Was this another fucking kidnapping attempt?!

Two little kids stumbled, falling forward and away from the rest of the crowd.

Painted lines tore freefrom the crosswalk, lashing out and wrapping around the kids. They both screamed as they were yanked away from their parents, more lines of paint rising to cut through the sidekicks’ threads that darted after the captive children.

The villain laughed as the two children struggled beside him, then the end of each paint line morphed, sharpening into arrows that rested against each kid’s neck.

Fucking hell! Now the bastard had hostages!

Half and Half’s ice cut across the road, forming a barrier, and then he was running toward them. “I came as fast as I could! The sidekicks are all guiding the families inside to safety.”

The villain kept. fucking. laughing.

“Tell me, heroes! Can you do the job right this time? Can you save us?” Paint idiot pulled his captives closer, one hand resting on the little girl’s head. She was staring at them, tears threatening to fall despite her determined face. Fuck, she looked like Deku. “Or will you fail?”

The arrow moved.

“No!” Katsuki blasted forward, heading straight for the villain, but strong threads wrapped around him, jerking him to a halt. “What the hell?!!”

“What is it you want, villain? How do you want us to save you?” Katsuki looked back to see the Jean Giraffe standing on Half and Half’s barrier, threads connecting his hand to Katsuki.

“You’re the wrong one!” The guy screamed, and the paint arrow made contact with the little girl’s throat, drawing a drop of blood. “Go away! I don’t want you! Release Ground Zero!”

Immediately the threads released Katsuki. “Why are you here to sew discord?”

“I said back away! You and all your sidekicks stay behind the ice, or the kids die!”

The paint arrow pulled away.

“Good! Perfect. I only want heroes who will do the job right. No fighting just to capture me! That’s not how real heroes work!”

The fuck?

Deku had been slowly approaching, and he stopped beside Katsuki. “What do you mean by ‘do the job right’?”

“I want you to kill me! Kill me, or I’ll kill these children!” He hugged himself, still giving them a damn crazy grin. “Even in the worst times, heroes aren’t permitted to kill. But you!” He looked at Katsuki, his grin widening. “You killed villains!”

Katsuki’s mind froze.

He…

Of course people remembered.

“And you two! You’re related to villains, so you could fudge the rules for me a little, right? I’m like those noumu, really! A puppet. Not dead, not living, but somewhere in between! So rest easy and do me a favor, alright?”

Deku’s hand was warm on Katsuki’s shoulder. Reassuring. Reminding him that this asshole was insane. That not everyone believed Katsuki was a killer. Because he wasn’t. When the nerd spoke, his voice was like steel, “We’re not going to kill you.”

“Then more people will die!”

The arrows moved toward the kids’ necks.

Shit! “Look, I didn’t—that shit was an accident! And Deku and Todoroki aren’t like their relatives!”

The delusional asshole shook his head. “If it was an accident, then you can have the accident again! You’re still young! People will forgive you because you'd be saving these children’s lives.” There was some kind of red vial in his hand, and he jammed it into his neck. The villain burst out laughing and then even more fucking lines of paint rose from the road. “So please! Do the job properly and kill me! You’re the one with experience!”

Paint darted toward Deku and Half and Half, but they both easily dodged and destroyed the attacks.

Fuck, Katsuki felt like he was going to throw up.

Those screams. He hadn’t heard that shitty sound from his nightmares in forever, but now the crowd’s panicked screams behind him were morphing and fuck, he could smell the villains’ skin burning—

“Kacchan! We’ll find another way, don’t worry!”

Another way?

Katsuki took a deep breath. The nerd and Half and Half could dodge this bastard’s attacks all day long, but the kids were a problem.

He had to think clearly. Had to make a fucking plan. They couldn’t let these kids die.

With Black Whip, Deku could cut the paint holding the little ones hostage in an instant, but he’d need an opening.

An opening Katsuki could provide if he could make this bastard believe him and stop attacking.

Katsuki swallowed, then raised his voice, “Fine. I’ll give you what you want.”

“Yes, yes!!! You have to help me!” The villain nodded eagerly.

“Kacchan!”

“BE QUIET!” White lines raced through the air, managing to circle around Deku, who froze, Black Whip twisting angrily through the gaps in the paint as One for All surged, crackling in the air around him.

Katsuki met Deku’s eyes, determined. “Trust me.”

Deku stared at him. When he spoke, his voice was softer. “You don’t have to do this. Everyone knows you aren't a murderer, Kacchan.”

“I know.” He did. Because he was a fucking soulmate and everyone thought soulmates couldn’t be villains. Who knows what they’d think, otherwise. But because of that belief, they still trusted him.

Katsuki turned, slowly walking toward the villain and closing the distance between them.

The hovering, 2D arrows never moved.

The villain was watching him warily, but he grinned wider when Katsuki stopped three meters away. “Please! You have to release me!”

Katsuki shifted so that his legs were in a solid stance. “I said I’ll do it. But first, all my attacks are huge, so you’ve got to put some distance between yourself and the kids. You said no one else has to die if you do, right?”

“Yes!” The man laughed, “Wonderful! But don’t try anything! If you do, I’ll kill them! There’s so much paint here, even if you destroy my current binding, I’ll just use more!”

Katsuki waited, unmoving, until the kids got a couple meters away. “There! The kids are far away now!” Damn it. Clearly the asshole wasn’t willing to let them go further.

It would have to be enough.

Katsuki set his wrists together, spreading out his hands so he’d have a wide surface area, and then he closed his eyes to protect them and let out the brightest, least destructive, blast he could.

Immediately he could feel Black Whip racing out from Deku’s arm, but there was something cold, too—

Katsuki opened his eyes.

The villain was encased in ice.

Deku was clutching the two crying kids.

The villain’s head was the only part of him outside the ice, and he was shaking it back and forth, screaming, “No! This is all wrong, just wrong! Stop it! You were supposed to be my hope!”

Katsuki let his arms fall back down to his sides as he glared at the asshole. “Heroes don’t kill, dumbass. No one’s dying here today.”

Shit, why were the little brats crying even more, now?

The nerd gave the kids his brightest grin. “You were all so brave! But it’s ok, you’re safe. Let’s get you three back to your parents, now.”

“You have fastened him up securely, good job.” The Jean Giraffe slid down Half and Half’s ice, then walked calmly toward them. “Let us return these little ones to their parents.”

Deku nodded, looking down at the kids. “That sounds great, right?”

The little girl beamed, nodding back at Deku, but the boy stared at him for a second before nodding quickly. “Yeah! My dad’s probably super worried!”

The nerd held both of their hands, still smiling his dumbass, cute smile. “Then let’s go tell them you two are a-ok!”

All three of them moved to follow the Jean Giraffe around the ice, and Katsuki stared after them.

That little boy had looked at Katsuki with fear.

Shit.

That bastard had really thought… and those kids…

“It was obvious you weren’t going to do it.”

Katsuki looked over at Half and Half, startled.

Mismatched eyes stared back at him. “Your stance. It’s the one you use for your brightest explosion, but that one doesn’t create a lot of damage. So it was obvious that you were never going to kill him and you were going to create a distraction for Zu-kun.”

Katsuki scowled. Like Half and Half knew what Katsuki had been thinking. And since when did he call him 'Zu-kun'? That was the nickname the rest of Deku’s idiots used. “That asshole still came here because he thought I’d do it.”

“So?” Half and Half shrugged. “He also thought Zu-kun might do it.”

“Which is fucking stupid!”

“Exactly.” Half and Half nodded, then walked over to his ice barrier, releasing fire to start melting it.

Fuck.

“You were really never going to do it?”

Katsuki whirled around, staring at the villain. Shit, his voice sounded fucking heartbroken. “No, you sicko! Don’t shove your trauma on others.”

“But you did it before!! Why am I different than those other villains?! Why won’t you free me?!”

“I was sick and it was an accident! I’ve had training now so it won’t ever happen again.” Katsuki took a deep breath, then gave the villain one last glare. “Heroes don’t kill people, we save them.”

“But death is the true salvation!”

Katsuki ignored him and walked across the road, passing Tacky Vest as the sidekick went to oversee the villain. The Jean Giraffe was at the edge of the ice barrier now, and three adults were crowded around him, Deku, and the two kids. The little girl was hugging her parents and all three of them were crying, but the boy was standing awkwardly off to the side, saying that his dad was waiting for him in the ticket line.

That didn’t make sense. What parent wouldn’t fucking run to their kid’s side after a damn villain used their kid as a hostage? The family was already thanking the Jean Giraffe (as if he’d done shit) and nudging their daughter toward the gates since she still wanted to go to the park. Despite the attack, apparently the event wasn't being canceled and everyone was returning to their positions.

Katsuki scanned the ticket line, looking for any father standing alone that might be related to—

Katsuki’s footsteps faltered.

Deku blinked in surprise.

The guy from the general store. The one who had been staring at the drink section. He was standing in line at the ticket booths, watching the Jean Giraffe and Deku. Not that everyone else wasn’t doing the exact same thing, but still.

Katsuki reached up to touch his earpiece. “The customer from that general store is alone in the ticket line. Large bulky guy in the green hoodie and blue baseball cap.” It was the same one he’d been wearing that day in the shop, too. Idiot.

The Jean Giraffe knelt down next to the kid, scanning the line while angling himself so that it looked like he was talking to the boy. “Giran?” The name was whispered almost in shock and the kid immediately tensed. “Is your father Giran Arata, Hatsumoto-kun?”

Giran? Hadn’t that been the name of the League’s shitty supplier? But this guy had brown hair and looked decades younger.

The boy was nodding, though. “He… um. Well, he helps my family get healing cream to manage my quirk and he said he’d stop getting it for us unless I came with him tonight. I didn’t know he was going to push me and that other girl toward a villain, I swear!”

Fuck.

“It’s ok, we believe you.” Deku gave the kid a gentle smile and a soothing pat on the head. “What’s your quirk?”

“The boy bit his lip, then slowly pulled down the collar of his shirt. Katsuki blinked at the brown roots covering his skin. “It’s fine when it’s like this, but they grow as I do, and it’s hard to move when the roots are on my limbs. The cream makes them stay on my chest. Please, I don’t want my quirk to stop me from moving again!”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to.” The Jean Giraffe rested a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Can you do me a favor and somehow make your shirt come into contact with Giran’s? Either by brushing up against it or stumbling into him.”

Slowly, the kid nodded. “Good. Then why don’t you go ahead and go back to him and tell Giran that we just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt after the attack. I’m sure if we keep you longer, he’ll become more wary. I’ll find you tomorrow and talk to your real parents about this cream.”

“We’re just letting him go? But we can help him!” Deku turned to the Jean Giraffe in surprise, but the man shook his head even while the little boy was already fleeing back toward this Giran guy.

“I attached my threads to his clothes just then. As soon as Hatsumoto-kun bumps into Giran, I will transfer my threads to him and we’ll be able to track his shirt.”

Katsuki frowned. He didn’t like sending the kid back to the villain, but the Jean Giraffe could pull this off. Katsuki started walking again and went over to join the others. “Come on, Deku. We have to go back to handing out the damn maps.”

“Right!” The nerd stood up, beaming at Katsuki. “You did great, Kacchan! I knew exactly what you were planning and you kept calm the entire time.”

Katsuki’s frown deepened into a scowl. “Of course I wouldn’t let shit like that get to my head.”

The Jean Giraffe looked skeptical, but he added, “Your trick was well-executed and your teammates showed remarkable foresight at reading your movements.”

Katsuki glared at the hero. “If you hadn’t stopped me, I could’ve knocked him out with one damn hit before he had the chance to hurt those kids.”

“Even when he might have already sewn 'Trigger' into his system? We know the drug has been actively distributed in this area.” The Jean Giraffe shook his head. “We didn’t know enough about the situation's pattern. It wasn’t a risky stitch worth taking. We didn’t even know his motive or if he had any backup. You’re lucky Giran never fights heroes directly and would never step in to aid a person he sees as dirty fabric scraps.”

Katsuki scowled. It would’ve saved those kids some fucking trauma, though. Every damn minute you were held captive by a villain made shit worse. “Why would that asshole stage an attack at a theme park?”

“Given our current information, I assume to pick at the seams holding together people’s trust in you. Had the villain succeeded in getting any of you three to kill him, it would have begun unraveling people’s trust in the next generation of heroes. As it is, he succeeded in reminding everyone that you all are 'tied' to villains in some way. We must clean this stain before the night ends, or Giran will have succeeded.”

Damn it!! Katsuki had killed those villains on accident and in self-defense! Plus it wasn’t Deku or Half and Half’s fault that they were related to trash. How were they supposed to make people forget that shit?

“I’ll discuss the events with the police for a report, go back to your sewing stations inside the park and hand out maps, then give the best performance your audience has ever seen. For tonight to be a success, people need to be excited. We can’t let this attack fray all our hard work.”

Right. If the villain scared people away from the park, all of this shit would be for nothing.

Katsuki growled, then blasted into the sky, Deku following seconds behind him, and they both landed back inside behind the map stand—thank fuck the crowd backed off to give them a little space.

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched at the hugeass crowd that had formed in the few minutes that they’d been gone. Damn it. He sorted the maps back into a neat stack before grabbing a section and pulling a new pen out of his pocket. “Alright, who wants one first?”

Immediately the crowd surged forward.

Katsuki fucking hated this part of hero work.

Shit, any one of these bastards could be another—

Deku’s hand was on his shoulder, and the nerd shook his head.

Right.

They had Danger Sense, now. They’d know if something was wrong. Just like they had with the Paint Prick.

Katsuki forced himself to calm down, taking deep breaths as he signed the first map, then another. Next, it was time to pause for a picture before signing a third, and the never-ending cycle continued.

It was annoying as hell, though. People were more on edge than they had been before the villain attack, and while Deku’s smile calmed people down damn quick, Katsuki’s presence seemed to unnerve some.

He didn’t know what to do.

He wasn’t exactly soothing. He did his best not to cuss, though. That better be enough.

After another fucking hour of that shit (and Katsuki definitely fucking noticed that Half and Half never showed up, even though the asshole had said he would), Howl’s voice called over the theme park’s loudspeaker, asking for the Zero Duo to report to the theater and letting the crowd know that the performance would begin in half an hour.

Fucking finally!

The nerd took one last picture with a fan, and then they both jumped up, using Deku’s quirk to make sure they had space before blasting higher with Katsuki’s explosions.

Immediately the whole crowd burst into applause, which was fucking weird.

Shit, the crowd at the theater was already so damn big! All the seats were taken, and everyone had filled up the aisles, too, as well as the standing area behind the seats. Thank fuck for the monitors, or else there would be no way for everyone to see the stage.

Thankfully, backstage had plenty of landing room, and they both touched down next to Half and Half, who was already in his shitty blue tunic with gold accents, as well as tan pants and a goofy, white, long sleeved shirt. He was lucky he hadn’t ripped shit while helping backstage.

Deku grinned at his friend, “How’d you beat us here, Todo-kun?”

Half and Half stared at them both. “People were a lot more eager to have a map signed by the two of you than one from me. After the villain attack, I helped Best Jeanist give the report, and then he told me to come help prepare the play.”

What the hell?! “You didn’t have to sign shit?!”

“Not after the attack. Signing things was kind of fun, though.”

Half and Half was insane.

“We didn’t call you two over here to talk.” Howl huffed at them, then waved her paw toward the props. “Help us get everything in position and check to make sure it’s all ready.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The nerd nodded, rushing over to stage left, and Katsuki sighed and trudged behind him. Might as well get this shit done with.

“Now we’ve decided to adjust the script a little—after just having kids held hostage outside, doing that plot would be too much, you know? So here’s the new plan: we’re bandits attacking a town, and we’ll take an adult volunteer along with each of the three kid volunteers. That way a kid won’t ever be alone, alright?”

Bandits? Whatever, it worked with the shitty castle backdrop. Now the castle would just be the town instead of the evil lair.

Wait. Katsuki frowned. “Does that mean we have to be onstage from the very fucking beginning?” Before, they hadn’t shown up until after people were kidnapped!

Howl grinned at them and shrugged. “We should give the people what they want, right? And it’s pretty clear that they want to see you guys.”

Katsuki groaned.

“But who are we to this fictional village? Our costumes are supposed to be for leaders who have come to help with the kidnapping scenario. If we already live in the castle—“

“Easy!” Howl pointed at Half and Half. “You’re King Shouto, Ground Zero is the leader of the King’s warriors, and Zero Hour will be the King’s head advisor!”

What the hell? Katsuki’s costume definitely didn’t seem like ‘leader of the king’s warriors’ attire, but whatever, Katsuki could sell it.

Deku sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I guess my outfit does kind of look like an advisor’s, huh?”

“You got it! So you three will start on stage up on the balcony, ok? Just give a tagline when we introduce your characters. Two cast members will be on stage handling the village side of things, so you won’t need to say anything else new. A messenger will say ‘there’s an attack on the outskirts of town’—you three will leave, then ‘villains’ will come from the opposite direction and after that, it’ll all go the same as before, ok?”

Katsuki shrugged. It wasn’t like they’d really changed all that much of the plot. He hated that Half and Half now had a role that was better than theirs, but Katsuki would still get to fight a lot, and that was what mattered.

Half and Half looked dazed, though, even through his usually bland expression. “What’s a tagline? I’m supposed to be a king? How do kings act? What do they say?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Just say some shit like ‘I rule this town with an iron fist.’”

“Kacchan, no! It should be something nice-sounding! Like, ‘I live to serve my citizens and keep them safe.’ Todo-kun’s supposed to be about protecting one of the volunteers, remember? We don’t want them to be scared of us!”

Which they might already be, because of their real-life villain connections and shit. Damn it. Katsuki scowled. “Yeah, sure.”

Tape Measure guy, the one who’d made all the costumes, laughed and patted Katsuki’s shoulder, who glared at him for the contact. “Well, work on that, alright? If you don’t have any more questions, I have to go do a last check on all the props.”

“We’re fine, thank you, Tetsuhiro-san!” Deku gave the guy a thumbs up, and he grinned back at them.

“Just remember that the important thing is to have fun out there!” He reached out to ruffle the nerd’s hair, but paused at Katsuki’s growl. “Right, I guess you don’t want that messed up before the show starts. A king’s advisor should always look presentable!” Tape Measure guy winked and withdrew his hand before jogging off.

As if. The important thing was reassuring people that they were heroes and not villains, damn it, and to revitalize the neighborhood. They weren’t doing this for fun. They were doing this because people counted on them.

Deku immediately started mumbling about what kind of opening line a king’s advisor would give, and Katsuki rolled his eyes. The nerd could plan shit out all he wanted—Katsuki would just make crap up on the spot and it would be fine. Right now they had to get dressed.

All too soon, there was a countdown starting on the monitors and loudspeakers, and the crowd let out a thunderous cheer.

Holy fuck.

How many people were fucking out there?!

This was supposed to just be a publicity stunt!

Deku squeezed Katsuki’s hand, and Half and Half’s eyes were wide as his head turned toward the front.

Whatever. Stay calm. Danger Sense wasn’t doing shit. They were ok.

They could hear Howl on stage now, asking for three volunteers, though how the hell she was going to pick three in this crowd, Katsuki had no fucking clue.

Half and Half had snuck over to the curtain and was now peeking out at the crowd. “I’ve never seen this many people in one place.”

Katsuki snorted. “For you, somehow I don’t think that’s saying too damn much.”

“Kacchan!” Deku elbowed him, then went over to look out of the curtain, too.

Katsuki whistled.

The nerd couldn’t make out too much because of the stage lights, but it looked like a damn sea of heads. If there was a villain, Katsuki doubted they could even move, the crowd was packed so tight.

Deku shivered, taking a few steps back from the curtain and reaching for Katsuki’s hand. “There’s so many Kacchan! How are we supposed to do this in front of that many people?!”

Katsuki snorted. “Dumbass. We just have to do a fake fight. It’s the same shit as before—ignore the damn crowd and focus on fighting together with me, if that makes it easier.”

“Right.” The nerd swallowed, glancing back toward the curtain, but Katsuki pulled him closer, turning Deku’s head so that he could kiss him.

Deku squeaked in surprise, but returned the kiss for a second before pulling back with a blush. “You can’t do that on stage, ok?”

Katsuki grinned devilishly. “They’d fucking love it. We’re soulmates and all that romantic shit, right?”

“Kacchan, no! There’s like— over a thousand people out there!”

“I vote against the kiss as well, please.” Half and Half’s voice was bland, but when Katsuki turned to glare at him, Half and Half added, “I’d like to avoid Iida’s following lecture.”

Deku snorted, covering his mouth with his hand as he started to giggle. “Todo-kun! You can’t just make jokes like that! Iida-kun means well.”

“I wasn’t joking?”

Katsuki laughed. “Fine, I won’t kiss Deku on stage, you losers. We should get changed and head over to the damn balcony stairs, though, so we’re ready when they call our names.” Deku reluctantly released his hand, and Katsuki grinned at the nerd once more before taking off his grenade bracers and walking over to the small curtained changing area set up behind the stage. Everyone else was already in costume, thank fuck, so their’s were the only ones sitting out on the small bench.

“Right!” Deku bounded after him, pulling off his visor. “We’ll be out in a sec, Todo-kun! We’ll meet you at the balcony stairs.”

Half and Half nodded, but Katsuki didn’t pay any attention to other shit as he stepped behind the curtain and started pulling off shit. His costume was simple: a blood red cape lined with fur at the top, a necklace of what were supposed to be dragon fangs, black pants with leather kneepads, as well as heavy, fur-lined boots. On his arms were red braces that had some kind of tribal design? Katsuki just thought it was cool. All in all, he looked like a barbarian warrior of some sort, not the head of the royal guard or whatever.

Deku was in simple shit: a long sleeve white shirt, green vest, brown pants and boots, and a green cape around his shoulders. The nerd tugged at the cape nervously. “Does it look ok, Kacchan?”

“Yeah, you look fucking fine.” He looked like a dork, but… “It’s cute and shit.” The nerd gave him a bright grin, and Katsuki could feel his face heating up. Quickly, he distracted himself by pulling on the tooth necklace as a final touch, but his gaze paused on their soulmark, bare for everyone to see. Katsuki took a deep breath. It still felt weird to have nothing covering it up, but everyone already knew. And now there wasn’t a scar there.

They had no reason to hide.

The nerd’s gaze was focused on their mark, too, and he reached up, his fingers tracing over it.

Katsuki shivered.

Deku rested his palm over their mark, then looked up and gave Katsuki a confident grin. “We can do this.”

“Hell yes.” Katsuki reached up to Deku’s hand, and he gave it a slight squeeze before they separated and quickly stored their costumes safely in their UA cases.

Half and Half was waiting at the balcony stairs, along with Tape Measure, who was adjusting Half and Half’s mic headset.

The second they arrived, Tape Measure started putting their headsets on them, too. “Alright, Shouto’s name will be called out first, then Zero Hour’s, and then Ground Zero’s, so you should go up the stairs in that order. Got it?”

They all three nodded—it wasn’t like they hadn’t been told this shit plenty of times. Even if the script was changing, Howl had said all the other crap was the same.

“And don’t forget: your mics turn on the second Howl introduces you, so don’t whisper to each other or anything like that unless it’s something you want the audience to hear.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes as the actor told them to break a leg, then left to go help others. They’d been told that already. Deku turned to him with a nervous smile. “This is it.”

“Hell yeah. We’re going to kick ass.”

“Right…” Deku took a deep breath, but refused to release Katsuki’s hand as he followed Half and Half up the steep, narrow stairwell, no matter how awkward it made his ascent. “We can’t move in sync, Kacchan.”

“I fucking know.” Katsuki scowled. They’d been practicing so much all fucking week long, they should be fine. Hopefully. “You can’t walk on stage with my hand in a deathgrip.”

“Kacchan, don’t remind me! I’ve always held your hand in the interviews and now I won’t be able to do that and I’m not sure if this is going to go well at all, what if I mess up? What if I forget the blocking or—“

“Relax. The actors will cover for you if you forget shit, they’ve already said that. And I’ll still be with you on stage most of the damn time. So will Half and Half.”

“… Right.” The nerd looked warily out in front of him, as if he could somehow see the crowd through the backdrop.

It sounded like Howl had all of the volunteers on stage now and was beginning to give some kind of opening monologue or some shit like that.

And then Howl spoke louder, calling out, “The village is lead by none other than King Shouto!”

Half and Half looked behind at them, and when Deku gave him an encouraging nod, he pushed open the balcony door.

Fuck, the stage was bright. Katsuki couldn’t see shit.

There was a loud cheer, and when it finally settled down Half and Half repeated the line Deku had given him, like a fucking loser.

“His right hand is the wisest in all the realm: Zero Hour!” The nerd took a deep breath, squeezing Katsuki’s hand one last time before he climbed the last few steps and strode through the doors, waving.

Dumbass.

The applause was fucking deafening that time, drowning out Half and Half’s and lasting at least a full fucking minute.

When it finally quieted down, Katsuki couldn’t help but smile at Deku’s line about ‘helping to make sure everyone was happy in the kingdom.’ The nerd was such a sap, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“And in charge of our king’s glorious army is his strongest warrior: Ground Zero!”

Katsuki hopped up the last few steps, slamming open the prop door and giving the crowd a cocky grin. Thank fuck the others had gone first—his eyes had already somewhat adjusted to the bright lights.

But damn it was even louder out here without the backdrop to somewhat mute the crowd’s roar. Katsuki’s grin widened when he noticed that Howl was having to actually motion for the crowd to stop cheering. Once it was somewhat quiet, Katsuki shouted out, “I will destroy anyone who dares challenge our country!”

The crowd roared again.

Deku gave Katsuki a small smile, reaching to hold his hand again behind Half and Half’s back. Katsuki rolled his eyes, but shifted so that he stood a bit closer.

His nerd must be really nervous.

Katsuki felt more anxious than anything else. It would be so damn easy for someone to attack them right now. But the Jean Giraffe had his sidekicks positioned everywhere, and Danger Sense wasn’t signaling anything.

It would be ok.

They weren’t going to be attacked. Not again.

He glanced down at the stage, counting the volunteers—four adults and three kids. They could manage that. They were all huddled in a group, listening to some extra talk about how wonderful the kingdom was.

“King Shouto!” Everyone on stage turned as another extra ran on stage. “We’re being attacked! Bandits from the north are fighting at the gate!”

Why the hell would bandits actually attack the gate? Bandits attacked weak, isolated prey, not fortified cities. Whatever, that was their cue to leave. The first extra was talking about how King Shouto and his right hand men needed to go assess the enemy.

Katsuki turned, marching back out the balcony and quickly descending the stairs. The second the balcony door closed behind Half and Half, there were loud shouts and jeers from stage left as the narrator shouted about the King being tricked.

Katsuki hurried toward stage left—he would be the first one on stage this time. The first extra was supposed to say—

“Whatever will we do?! They’ve taken us captive!”

Katsuki blasted onto the stage, the cape whirling around him from the force of his explosions, and he skidded onto the stage facing Howl and the other bandits and snarling as the crowd cheered and Deku and Half and Half ran on stage behind him. “Your tricks won’t fool us, bandits!”

“We won’t let you harm our villagers!” Behind Katsuki, Deku was raising his fists, One for All’s lights illuminating his skin, and Half and Half lifted his own hands, fire and ice starting to form in each palm.

“It’s too late!” Howl grinned at them, showing all of her teeth, and sharp claws emerged from her paws. “Give us everything in your kingdom’s treasury, or we’ll kill your precious citizens!”

“Never! Our people depend on that money!”

Katsuki wanted to groan. What the hell kind of altruistic kingdom was Deku trying to act like they were? Kings didn’t give a shit about the poor.

Whatever, the nerd would always try to make everyone peaceful and shit. “We’ll never submit to your demands!”

Katsuki let Black Whip shoot out from his arm, circling around the smallest kid—a twelve year old girl with scales for skin, who was standing next to what looked like her Mom and older brother—and pulled her back toward them before the ‘bandits’ could react. He caught the girl and she squeaked, her face turning bright red as she looked down at Katsuki’s chest and then back up at his eyes.

Katsuki set her on the ground and nudged her toward Half and Half, who held out his empty hand. “Stay by my side and I’ll protect you.”

Shit, she actually looked like she was going to faint, but she took the other boy’s hand, so whatever.

She nodded, her eyes trailing after Katsuki as he turned and glared at the bandits. “Return all of our citizens or face our judgment!” He held up his palm, letting an explosion burst free.

Dimly, Katsuki could hear the crowd roar, but it was surprisingly easy to focus on the other actors, just like they’d fucking practiced. Deku came to stand beside him, positioning himself in front of the ‘king’ and ‘rescued citizen.’ “We won’t let you harm our citizens!”

The ‘bandits’ split apart, each taking one of their two remaining kid volunteers and the adults closest to them.

Katsuki and Deku both charged after two different groups, who each left the stage in a different direction, leaving Half and Half on stage to have his fight first with the remaining group . The dumbass had been told to start with ice and destroy most of it on his own with fire, but if there was some left when his three minute fight ended, then it was Katsuki’s job to make sure it wasn’t in the way for the play’s finale.

Once offstage, Katsuki glanced over at the volunteers—the twelve year old’s brother, who looked around sixteen and had scales like hers, although his were blue and hers and their mothers were green. Deku’d gotten the other girl and her parents, then.

Katsuki couldn’t say shit because his mic was still on, but Tape Measure guy came forward and smiled at the family. “Your sister will be fine and we’ll reunite you at the end of the play.”

“I wasn’t worried!” The guy glared at him, then turned to Katsuki. “Why are you shirtless, anyway?!”

Katsuki raised an eyebrow and tapped the mic on the side of his head. Why the hell was this kid so annoyed? Katsuki blinked, remembering how red his sister’s face had been. Damn it! It’s not like Katsuki was interested in a twelve year old girl, especially when he had Deku as a soulmate.

Fucking idiot. Getting all defensive and shit over nothing.

Tape Measure guy explained that it let the soulmark be visible, but the boy huffed, crossing his arms. The mother hurried to apologize, but once she realized Katsuki wasn’t offended she shook her head at her son.

Why were people this stupid? And Katsuki had to ‘protect’ this dumbass.

Two of the three actors reached out, holding onto the volunteers’ arms. “We’re next!” Tape Measure guy smiled at the volunteers. “Ground Zero will be fighting the actors dress as bandits, so stay behind him and away from the action, alright?”

There was a shout of dramatic anguish on stage as the family nodded, and the actors turned back to the stage, counting to five before they ran back in front of the lights, pulling the volunteers behind them.

Katsuki counted to five, as well, then blasted after them. “Stop right there, bandits!”

The bandits skidded to a stop, one of them grabbing both volunteers’ arms while the other two turned to face Katsuki—they were brothers, one was short and could create illusions of anything taller than him, while the other one was tall and could create illusions of anything shorter than him.

They immediately both made fake ogres that stomped toward Katsuki. He made a show of dodging them and avoiding the swing of each club, spinning around the stage and destroying the ice that Half and Half had left behind. Once the ice was gone, Katsuki vaulted upward, making Black Whip turn into two jagged whips that cut through each illusion, making them disappear as whisps of air.

Katsuki landed, holding up his palms wide in the stance for his flashiest explosion. “Surrender or else!”

“Never!” They threw their fake daggers, but Katsuki dodged. As they ran toward him, Katsuki released his flash bang and the actors dropped to the stage, groaning.

The third actor ran forward, pulling a long stick from his arm, and Katsuki ran to the back of the stage, jumping up and grabbing and removing one of the ‘rails’ from the balcony that was purposefully loose so that Katuski could use it.

He swung it downward, quickly falling into the familiar stances that had been drilled into him and Deku when they were kids at the dojo. If people wanted an old-school fight, they could give them tone hell of one.

After about a minute of ‘blows’, Katsuki swung his makeshift staf, stopping it just short of the actor’s head, but he crumpled to the ground as if he’d been hit.

Katsuki grinned at the volunteers. “Come, I’ll take you to the king where you’ll be safe.” He strode off stage right, not even looking to see if the volunteers followed him, because of fucking course they would.

The actors on the stage behind them groaned pathetically, each crawling toward the other side of the stage and exiting. Once they were offstage, Deku would then come running and ‘fight’ against Howl.

Backstage, Katsuki glanced to the side, making sure that the girl was now with her mother and brother and, yup, the brother was still glaring at him. What the hell?

Half and Half looked between Katsuki and the volunteer guy in confusion, then shrugged and came over to stand next to him. Thank fuck they couldn’t talk right now and Half and Half couldn’t ask him about shit.

Green lightning was flashing everywhere as Deku darted around the stage, easily dodging all of Howl’s swipes, but making it look as if he couldn’t quite manage to get between Howl and the volunteers. Halfway through the fight, Howl ‘caught’ Deku’s costume with her claws, shredding the shirt so that his soulmark would be visible, as well.

Finally, Black Whip shot out, circling around Howl and trapping her. “Surrender!”

“Never!”

All the bandits erupted onto the stage from the opening in the middle of the floor, but this time with slightly different costumes. “We’ve infiltrated your whole city and been waiting for this moment! You stand no chance!”

Katsuki and Half and Half ran back on stage, shouting, “You’ll never win!”

Half and Half couldn’t do much with his quirk in a close quarters battle, so he fought backstage, using thin ‘blades’ of fire and ice like daggers. Katsuki and Deku took up the front. The two of them did what they did best: kicked ass. One for All was tight around them as they darted around the stage, and Katsuki blasted skyward and rained down small, shitty blasts that only had the strength of a bee sting.

Moans followed as several actors collapsed on stage.

Howl ‘broke free’ from Deku’s Black Whip, and then they were both fighting her, trying to make it look convincing even while it was fucking ridiculous that they would lose to an actor. Finally, Half and Half must’ve felt like they’d hit the three minute mark, because ice shot up around Howl and each of the bandits, encasing all of them up to the knees.

“Enough! You attack is over. Now you will face justice.”

The first extra came on stage with the volunteers in tow, cheering. “King Shouto, Zero Hour, and Ground Zero have saved us! Let us rejoice!” He motioned for the crowd to cheer and everyone fucking applauded.

Katsuki and Deku used Black Whip to break the ice around all the actors’ legs, and the applause became even louder as the actors all went to the front of the stage and bowed, before gesturing for Katsuki, Deku, and Half and Half to do the same.

Shit, the cheering was so fucking loud. Katsuki squinted, unable to see anything in the sea of faces.

Danger Sense was still calm, though.

And then Howl was herding them all backstage. “Good show out there!” Once they were behind the backdrop, Howl grinned at the volunteers. “I imagine you all want some autographs, right? They’ll be happy to give those to you now.”

Right.

More fucking signing.

The twelve year old once again looked like she was about to fucking faint.

Half and Half signed people’s shirts and shit first, then headed back onstage to melt the ice and clear shit up to set up fucking signing tables.

Katsuki was going to kill the Jean Giraffe for this shit, but at least the asshole would be up here signing crap with them. Every fan had to pass by him before they could talk toKatsuki and Deku. Half and Half was able to escape yet again, damn him, and left with some of the Jean Giraffe’s sidekicks to help set up the firework show that would signal the end of the re-opening celebration.

The rest of the night was fucking miserable, and by the time the fireworks went off at nine p.m., Katsuki felt like his hand was going to fucking fall off.

The Jean Giraffe laughed when he saw Katsuki shaking his hand out after the last visitor. “You did surprisingly well tonight.”

Katsuki glared at him. “I told you I know how to do shit with fans.”

The Jean Giraffe nodded. “My apologies for doubting you. It’s simply hard to believe that Hawks would model a successful pattern for fans. Even though he is fairly well liked among the younger crowd, he wears a lackadaisical style.”

Katsuki’s glare deepened. “He beats you in rankings, so clearly you don’t know everything.” Not that Katsuki cared about the asshole.

The Jean Giraffe sighed. “I do not always appreciate Hawks’ style choices, but yes, in the end, he means well, and different citizens are calmed by his approach than by mine. We all must design Japan’s peace together.”

Katsuki glared at the asshole. “Can we just go back to your agency now?” They were fucking done with all the theme park shit.

“Of course.” The Jean Giraffe nodded and motioned offstage. “Go change back into your hero gear and we’ll meet Shouto out front where he’s waiting with one of my sidekicks.”

Out front.

Where they’d been attacked.

Fuck, that felt like forever ago.

“Thank you, Best Jeanist!” The nerd shivered and nodded, quickly moving toward backstage. “It’s way too cold to be out there without shirts for so long. I was fine during the fights, but after that I started noticing the temperature a lot more.”

Katsuki wrinkled his nose. “Thank fuck we can finally change now.” And that all their shit really was where they’d left it. Their winter gear was so much damn warmer than these costumes.

They changed quickly, but no one was around to take their stage costumes. Katsuki sighed. “Whatever, let’s just go put them in the shed where the Tape Measure guy usually gets our shit from.”

The nerd looked around again as if someone might have shown up while Katsuki was talking, but then he nodded. “Most of the other props are already packed away, and I’d hate to leave them sitting out in the open.”

When they reached the prop shed, though, Katsuki frowned as he set down his costume on a shelf inside. Next to it was a half-made vest that had four, familiar dots on the front pocket.

Deku paused, picking up from a bench a hat that also had four dots along the brim. “Kacchan, these are the same pattern as that watch I saw in the shop when we were on patrol.”

“Damn it.” Katsuki closed his eyes. These extras were annoying, but he’d never have guessed they were involved in making illegal support gear.

“Maybe it’s a mistake? They could have bought them for props.”

“This vest is clearly half-finished, Deku.”

“Still…” The nerd frowned at the hat in his hands, then sighed and reached up to his visor to take a picture. “I guess we should tell Best Jeanist about it, either way.”

Katsuki nodded and copied Deku’s movements, taking a picture of the vest, as well. They found ten other items that all had the same logo.

Damn it.

Deku tapped on his earpiece, reporting what they’d found to the Jean Giraffe.

The hero’s voice responded over the earpiece a second later, “You’ve definitely found illegal denim. I’ll have one of my sidekicks investigate before the items can be stashed in hidden seams. Finish taking pictures and join me at the front.”

Katsuki frowned as Deku responded that they had already finished with the pictures. “Did you track down that Giran asshole?”

“My threads are still interwoven in his shirt, yes. Another sidekick is following his movements to see if he’ll lead us to a hideout. We’ll need to interrogate the villain you three captured for more evidence of their ties, then we will move to cuff Giran Arata.”

Katsuki didn’t like it, but he supposed that made sense. Carefully, he and Deku put all the shit back where they’d found it, the slipped back out of the shed. Tacky Vest was walking toward them, and he waved in greeting, then made a shooing motion toward the front gates.

Katsuki scowled. They weren’t fucking three year olds. They knew where they were supposed to go next.

Seeing the front gate was… weird. Half and Half had changed the ice barrier into two gigantic ice statues of carp, one on each side of the main gate, and the Jean Giraffe said that the manager wanted to keep them there and let them melt naturally.

All the painting they’d spent so long doing had been completely destroyed, but now the road was shut down and there were wet paint signs back up everywhere. The Jean Giraffe sighed as they crossed the street to his car. “Some of my sidekicks re-sewed your work. It would be dangerous to leave it without lane dividers or markings for the crosswalk.”

Katsuki scowled.

They’d spent so damn long on that shit.

And that villain had really thought that Katsuki would be willing to kill him. That killing him would be no different than the shit that had happened at USJ.

Fuck.

Those screams.

Deku’s hand slipped into his, and Katsuki looked over to see the nerd giving him a reassuring smile. “It all ended up going well, Kacchan.”

Right.

They’d won.

Everything had been a success.

They were going back to UA and wouldn’t see the Jean Giraffe again until after their training camp.

They were going to start the New Year by finally fucking relaxing.

Notes:

Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter!! I feel like it finally came together in the end, but my brain is really scattered rn, so.... I also have no clue. a big ty to Geeky/MysticChemyst for beta-ing this chapter for me! I'm uh... dealing with a lot of irl chaos atm (like currently living on my sis's couch for one) so chapters are going to be more spreadout and I'll update Zero-verse every other week instead of every week. Sorry the wait will be longer! I just don't have as much time to write/edit atm, and likely won't until November :/ I also prob won't have as much time to answer comments, but know that I really really appreciate every single one, even more so rn since life is so chaotic. Thank y'all so much and I'm glad y'all are still enjoying Zero-verse!! I'm super excited to get to the New Years chapters for y'all. :D :D >:D ;)

I'll update ppl on discord w/ posting statuses, ofc, and I'll try to remember to update my twitter and tumblr, as well! You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :) Zombli just made a really cute pic of Deku's hero costume!!

Chapter 11: New Years' Eve

Notes:

I AM HERE! Back from hiatus!!! Whooo!!

 

... also my beta told me I needed to warn ppl about vomit-inducing food in this chapter, so uh... consider yourselves warned and maybe don't read this over lunch break.

It had been nice to sleep in the same bed with Deku again. Katsuki hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it during the internship until they were back in the pull-out bed at the adults’ house and nerd’s arm wrapped around him, warmth seeping into his side as Deku’s green hair nestled against Katsuki’s chin, his scent comforting.

It was so easy to fall asleep like that–too bad the fucking nightmares had to ruin it.

Katsuki didn’t want to think about that shit, though. They were supposed to be relaxing today.

Most of the dumbasses were spending the holiday home with their families, but since their parents currently lived on campus, it was pointless for them to go anywhere else. Same with Brain Fucker. Katsuki was surprised, though, that both Half and Half and Pikachu were also staying. Pikachu was apparently spending New Year’s Eve with Brain Fucker before going home the next day to see his parents. Half and Half was staying because his bastard father was a piece of shit.

Endeavor.

That dumbass suicidal villain had said in the interrogation last night that he thought Katsuki was like Endeavor. That they both didn’t mind causing casualties.

Katsuki’s jaw tightened.

He was nothing like that bastard.

Those deaths had been an accident.

He hadn’t meant…

Fuck.

Katsuki felt like throwing up again. He’d managed to forget that smell, but now that horrible stench of burning flesh was stuck in his nose and he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t—

A soft kiss pressed against his neck.

Katsuki inhaled sharply, and another kiss pressed underneath his ear.

Katsuki opened his eyes, turning his head to the side to see Deku staring back at him. “Morning, Kacchan.”

Shit, Katsuki loved every version of his nerd’s smile. It was soft right now—Deku was still half asleep—but it was somehow so bright and open and trusting, all the same.

A smile people could automatically trust.

Nothing like Katsuki’s.

That didn’t matter. Katsuki would prove that he could be trusted to win every time. Katsuki rolled onto his side and leaned over, kissing Deku’s forehead. “What do you want to do today since we’re not supposed to train?”

“Mmmm.” The nerd shifted closer, reaching up to toy with Katsuki’s hair. “Hang out with the others and play video games, I guess? I asked Mom if she’d make a picnic breakfast for us and she said she left it on the counter last night, but it’s kind of cold to eat it outside.”

Katsuki frowned. Picnics on campus were practically the only way they could be alone together, though. Everyone was too noisy in the dorms and school buildings. And especially at their parents’ house. But unlike at Christmas, they didn’t have a fire pit set up somewhere for them.

“I know!” Deku suddenly sat up, grinning at Katsuki, who mourned the loss of Deku’s fingers in his hair. “Let’s go to the training grounds. Those are indoors and since we aren’t supposed to be training today, no one will be there! And Ground Omega’s a forest, so it’s basically like doing an outside picnic!”

Katsuki swallowed, his eyes captivated by Deku’s bright smile. “Just the two of us?”

“Yup!”

“Those are usually locked.” They always had to wait for one of their sensei to open them. “But we can go upstairs and bother someone for the damn keys.”

Deku deflated. “I’d hate to go wake them up for something like this. We could go and see if they’re locked? If they are, we could go to a training gym. A picnic around exercise equipment isn’t exactly the best, but it’ll probably be unlocked and private.”

Katsuki sighed, then pushed himself up, kissing Deku briefly. “I guess we’d better fucking change and head out before the Old Hag can find us and make us help clean shit.”

Deku looked dazed for a second, but then he blushed, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. “Do you think they need help with anything? We usually help them clean the house the week before New Years, but—“

“Hell no. We’re having a date. Auntie made us food; she knows what we’re planning and she didn’t try to stop you.”

“That’s true.” The nerd nodded, apparently satisfied since his shoulders loosened up a bit. “Let’s get changed, then!”

… Except they didn’t have shit to change into since they’d just dropped dead onto the couch last night after they got back from their internship. They quickly folded up the bed into a couch and then grabbed their bags and the picnic basket before heading back to the dorms.

Thankfully, no one else was in the common areas. Deku could hear whispering in Brain Fucker’s room—it sounded like Pikachu was in there and they were watching some kind of movie together. Who knows where Half and Half was, though. Luckily, they didn’t see the asshole before they slipped back out of the dorms and headed toward the training grounds.

When they reached Ground Omega, Katsuki was surprised that the door to the forested training ground was unlocked. Deku frowned a little, then shrugged and grinned at Katsuki before pushing open the doors.

Katsuki blinked in surprise.

The Blonde Asshole and Pointy Ears were in the clearing at the front of the training grounds, sitting on a picnic blanket and kissing each other.

Deku squeaked.

The gym door thudded close behind them.

Their senpai jumped apart, Pointy Ears turning bright red and hiding behind his soulmate as the Blond Asshole burst out laughing. He looked at their picnic basket and gave them a thumbs up. “I guess you two had the same idea as us!”

Katsuki scowled and crossed his arms. “We wanted a place to have lunch privately .”

Pointy Ears peeked out from behind the Blond Asshole. “But Present Mic gave us the student key yesterday. How were you going to get in?”

Katsuki’s scowl deepened.

“We were kind of just hoping it would be unlocked.” The nerd bit his lip, his face still bright red as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Would you mind if we ate breakfast here, too? We’ll go further into the forest so that we don’t disturb you.”

“Of course that’s fine!” The Blond Asshole nodded. “You two have fun! We’ll let you know if we need to leave and lock up.”

“Thanks!” The nerd fucking beamed, bouncing a bit on the balls of his feet. “We promise we won’t be a bother! Come on, Kacchan!” Deku grabbed Katsuki’s hand, pulling him across the clearing and into the underbrush.

As they reached a spot where they could sit, Katsuki’s phone buzzed. He planned on ignoring that shit, but unfortunately Deku was pulling his out of his pocket and checking the screen.

Their damn internship was over for the year!

Deku opened the shitty text message anyway, and Katsuki scowled. Apparently the asshole had been busy this morning—they’d finished taking statements from the theme park workers and the Jean Giraffe thought they’d want to know that only one of the tech guys was being charged with creating illegal support gear. A few others were being fined for enabling shit and not reporting the guy, but Tape Measure Guy had been abusing the park’s resources and taking parts off out-of-service rides for his own gadgets.

“I’m glad Howl-san and the others weren’t involved.” Deku sighed in relief, setting the basket down on the grass before sitting down and leaning back against a tree. “I never imagined Tetsuhiro-san was making illegal support gear, but I’m glad we caught him. Now he can’t supply villains any more.”

“Makes sense that the store we found would have a supplier nearby.” Katsuki took the blanket from Deku, laying it out on the grass. “And that place had plenty of shit that they wouldn’t notice someone stealing—the whole park was a fucking mess.”

“It was a mess, yeah. But now everything’s back in order and they’d definitely notice if something was stolen.” The nerd pocketed his phone and sat down, setting the basket in front of him.

Katsuki scowled as he plopped down across from Deku. “The Jean Giraffe didn’t even say shit about that bastard who staged the attack.” Katsuki flipped open the basket, barely registering Deku’s sigh.

“I guess he’s still having sidekicks trail him to find hideouts.”

“Tch.” It was a fucking annoying tactic. Katsuki understood why it would be important, but if they lost this bastard because the Jean Giraffe was greedy for info…. Damn it. Katsuki tossed some bread at his soulmate. “Whatever. That bastard just better know what he’s doing.”

“He’s the number two hero, Kacchan.” Shit, now Deku was exasperated.

“Only because the ones above him are dropping like flies.” And Katsuki didn’t want to think about the Feathered Menace. Not today. Thankfully, Deku seemed content to chatter about the Jean Giraffe’s sidekicks and how cool their quirks had been. Katsuki didn’t care how good their quirks were—it was fucking stupid to specialize in one attack method so much. A strong team covered each others’ weaknesses like—

Katsuki scowled and shoved the last bite of bread into his mouth.

Those dumbasses did not come to mind. Maybe one day Shitty Hair and the others would be good sidekicks, but right now they had a fuck-ton to work on.

Damn, Katsuki couldn’t wait until he and Deku could start their own agency together and be done with this internship shit. They should probably make one as soon as they graduate. People would fucking expect that, and it was better than continuing to deal with idiots in charge.

Would Deku’s idiots want to join them?

Damn it, they probably would. They were clingy like that. Maybe not Brain Fucker since he wanted to go underground, but it might be nice to have someone in the agency who did underground work. They’d just not include him on the public members list or some shit.

Deku shoved his shoulder. “Kacchan! You aren’t even listening!”

“Huh?” Katsuki blinked, startled. “I was too! You were talking about those shitty sidekicks.”

Shit. Now Deku was pouting. “Kacchan, I stopped talking about them five minutes ago. I asked how you’re doing since Ending mentioned USJ and all.”

Ah, fuck. Katsuki finished off his second hardboiled egg, scowling. Of course Deku wanted to talk about what the paint asshole had said. If it was anyone else asking, Katsuki would refuse to say shit, but this was Deku… Katsuki sighed. “I fucking hate that he thought I’d kill him so easily, or at all. Just because he asked and had taken some kids hostage. Shit.” Katsuki closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I’d finally forgotten that fucking smell and then he just—“ Katsuki’s teeth clicked shut.

He hated thinking about that day. The whole damn thing had been terrible from the second the warp gate opened. “We’ve got to stop Hand Fucker. Aizawa-sensei wants to stop him without killing the bastard or his soulmate, and we’ll make damn sure it happens. Just like we’ll make sure All Might won’t fucking die. Anything else won’t be a complete victory.”

Shit, Deku’s soft smile still made Katsuki’s stomach flip. “You’re amazing, Kacchan. Of course we will.” The nerd leaned over the basket, kissing him, but he quickly leaned back, his eyes darting toward the bushes. “I keep forgetting we’re not actually alone, since the third years aren’t nearby. I can’t believe we walked in on them kissing each other.” The nerd groaned, burying his face in his hands, and Katsuki laughed.

“Serves them right for leaving the door unlocked.”

“But then we wouldn’t have been able to come eat here!”

“So?” Katsuki shrugged. “Anywhere’s fine as long as it’s just us.” Katsuki shifted, moving around the picnic basket before dropping his head into Deku’s lap. He smirked up at his soulmate. “The picnic was just an excuse to get away from everyone.”

Deku rolled his eyes, “Yeah, since you were so concerned with listening to me, earlier.”

“Sorry, Nerd.” Katsuki reached up, lightly flicking Deku’s nose, and he laughed at his soulmate’s wounded gasp. “I was thinking about what kind of sidekicks we’d have in our own damn agency one day.”

Deku’s eyes lit up. Immediately he started rambling about how all their friends would be helpful, and Katsuki closed his eyes as his soulmate’s fingers started to play with his hair like they had this morning.

Fuck, this was nice.

Part of him wished that today would last forever. A day where no one was watching them. Where they didn’t have some damn destiny hanging over their shoulders. Where they could just be together.

But like hell Katsuki would let Hand Fucker win.

They couldn’t rest. Not when so many things needed to be fixed. Not when there were quirkless people to help, villains to catch, and trash heroes who weren’t doing their damn jobs.

But for New Years…. For just today and tomorrow, maybe it would be ok. The adults wouldn’t let them train, anyway.

And shit, Deku’s fingers felt so nice, trailing through Katsuki’s hair.

…

“—tired?”

What?

That wasn’t Deku’s voice.

Had he fallen asleep?

Katsuki could feel Deku’s legs underneath him, but the nerd’s fingers had stopped moving through his hair. Now Deku’s hand was just resting next to Katsuki’s head.

But Deku hadn’t been the one who’d spoken.

So who?

“Oh! Looks like he’s waking up.”

Damn it. The Blond Asshole. Katsuki scowled as he opened his eyes. “Fuck off.”

“Sorry! We didn’t mean to wake you up, that looked like a nice nap.” The Blonde Asshole winked at Katsuki, and Pointy Ears sighed behind him. “Maybe because you had a good pillow?”

“Senpai!” The Nerd finally startled awake.

Katsuki growled as Deku turned bright red, and he pulled himself off his soulmate’s lap. “Shut up already. Why are you here?”

“Because we need to lock up! It’s almost one and we didn’t bring lunch with us.”

Katsuki blinked.

Almost one?

“How long was I asleep?”

Shit, Deku shifted his legs, and pins and needles raced through Katsuki’s legs in response.

Deku groaned, kicking his legs a little to try to disperse the feeling. “No clue, but I’m glad we got the extra sleep; we needed it after last night.”

Katsuki growled. He didn’t want the third years to know about his damn nightmares.

“That’s right! Are you two excited for your New Year’s dreams?”

Katsuki blinked in surprise. Sure other people thought about that shit, but no one else had ever believed in it. Well, no one except their parents, but when your kids reported that they had the same dream as each other for every damn year of their lives, it was hard not to believe in it.

“Do you two have the same dreams, too?!” Deku was on his feet in a second, barely paying attention to the pins and needles still racing through his legs and nearly toppling over in the process.

Pointy Ears nodded, rubbing at the back of his neck before glancing at his soulmate, who patted his shoulder and turned to them with a broad grin. “Yup! Mic-sensei told us that all soulmates do. I guess Eraserhead never mentioned it to you guys since New Years hadn’t come yet, and you’ve been gone on your internship all break.”

Huh. It made sense, given their own damn dreams, but it was still weird to have other people to talk with about this shit.

“We’ve never really had any strong omens in our dreams, though. Last year’s was really confusing since we had eggplants for good fortune but there were nine of them, so…” Deku winced. “I guess in retrospect, it’s obvious. We’d have good fortune and get into UA, but we would also have great suffering because of that.”

“Yeah.” The Blond Asshole rubbed at the back of his neck. “Man, it sucks when you have nine, but at least it wasn’t four! Suffering is better than death, right?” Senpai grinned at them. “We had nine eggplants in our dream last year, too, actually!”

What the fuck?

“I guess our fortune was meeting you guys and rescuing Eri-chan. And now that we’re all working together, we can definitely build a better fortune for next year! I’m sure our dreams will have great omens.”

“Yeah!” The nerd was beaming now, and Katsuki rolled his eyes as he gathered up the blanket and shoved it in the basket that had held their breakfast. It’s not like thinking positively about that shit would actually change their dreams.

“If you assholes need to lock up, then let’s get going. I want lunch.”

The nerd giggled, “Kacchan, you’ve been sleeping since breakfast.”

Katsuki’s stomach growled, and he raised one eyebrow as Deku started laughing louder. “I fucking told you. Now come on.”

“Of course!” The Blond Asshole and Pointy Ears turned to head back toward the entrance, and Deku bounded beside them.

“Senpai, do you two usually sleep on New Year’s Eve so that you have the dream then, or do you stay up all night and wait to sleep for the first time the next day?”

“We stay up!” The Blond Asshole laughed. “Or at least we have since we met. We’ve always gone to a temple at midnight, but this year we’re doing that the next morning with you guys, so I don’t know what we’ll do at midnight. Probably just watch the New Year’s specials. A few of our classmates have talked about doing some sort of party. Some of your classmates stayed, too, right?”

“Yup!” Deku nodded eagerly, and then the two were debating what New Year’s special was best. Katsuki yawned, then frowned as Pointy Ears slowed his pace, falling in step beside Katsuki.

“What the hell do you want?”

Pointy Ears shrugged. “Midoriya-kun said you didn’t sleep well.”

Damn it. “So what?”

“I assume Eraserhead is making you two journal. You should try doing it before bed. It helps me.”

“Mind your own business.” Katsuki looked away from him, kicking a rock off the sidewalk.

Pointy Ears didn’t say anything, but he also didn’t move forward to walk beside the Blond Asshole again, either.

Katsuki didn’t mind Pointy Ears’ quiet companionship as much as he minded his dumbass soulmate’s, though.

They kept walking like that until they reached the adults’ house, and the two third years went inside to return the gym key while Katsuki and Deku returned to their dorms. Auntie’s cooking would’ve been nice, but like hell Katsuki wanted to deal with their parents today any more than they had to.

When they made it back to the dorms, Katsuki wasn’t surprised to see Half and Half, Brain Fucker, and Pikachu all lounging on the couches in the common room. The TV behind them was showing some random parade, but they weren’t actually paying attention to that shit—instead they were arguing over a card game.

Shit.

That meant a group game, which Deku would want to—

“Have you ever played Old Maid?”

Damn it. Half and Half was looking at Deku, his expression bland as ever, but Katsuki knew the nerd was already getting excited.

Katsuki groaned. “Why the hell are you playing that shitty game?” Katsuki had played it a few times with Deku. It fucking sucked. “If we’re playing shitty camp games, then we’re doing the King Game!”

“Heck yes!” Pikachu immediately brightened, sitting up straighter and ignoring Brain Fucker’s annoyed grunt as he accidentally let loose some electricity. Served him right for sitting with Pikachu practically in his lap.

“What’s the King Game?” Half and Half looked between the four of them, confused, while Brain Fucker sighed in defeat as his boyfriend jumped up and ran into the kitchen.

“Fine. But you two go take showers while we explain the game to Todo-kun. I refuse to do stupid dares with either one of you while you both stink. Did you even shower after you got back from your internship last night.”

Deku winced. “We were really tired, and then we wanted breakfast… Sorry about that, Toshi-kun. We’ll go shower!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and stomped off toward the showers. They didn’t stink that bad. And he wanted lunch!

They showered quickly and changed into their duo t-shirts, which Brain Fucker didn’t need to roll his eyes at, the bastard. If Pikachu was here, that meant he’d be taking pictures of this shit, so they might as well advertise their own merch.

“We’re ready you guys!” Pikachu was practically vibrating on the couch, the idiot.

“I’m making sandwiches first. We haven’t had a damn lunch, yet.”

Brain Fucker leaned over the back of the couch. “Make me one, too, would you?”

“No fucking way!” As if Katsuki would make shit for him!

“Fine, I’ll just make you do it when it’s my turn to be king.”

Bastard.

Katsuki glared at him, but made himself a sandwich, then made another one for Deku and passed it to the nerd.

“Finally!” Pikachu grinned as they sat down with their sandwiches, and held up five chopsticks in his hand, all of their ends hidden in his fist.

Katsuki frowned at the chopsticks. He and Deku had never actually played this shit, since you needed more than two people.

“Kacchan’s always wanted to play, but we didn’t have a chance before UA.”

“Shut up! I have not!”

Pikachu’s eyes widened, and he looked around the four of them. “I’m the only one who’s played before? But ,this is a really common…” His voice trailed off, but then he looked determined. “We’re gonna play all the games you guys want, and then we’ll play them again with the class later!”

Oh fuck no. “It’s not that big of a deal, dumbass!”

“Hah!” Pikachu stuck his tongue out at Katsuki. “You, Mister Bossy, do not get to deprive our classmates of being king and ordering you around!”

What. The. Hell. Katsuki reached out, grabbing a chopstick and pulling it out of Pikachu’s hand, then grinning when he saw the lopsided crown drown on the end. He turned it around to show the asshole. “Who’s going to be doing the dares, now?”

Pikachu groaned, “Oh come on! Some guys have all the luck.”

Deku giggled, the brat, and pulled his own chopstick out, ending up with the number two.

Brain Fucker stared at them as he slowly reached out and took his own chopstick. “I might be getting this wrong, but the king isn’t supposed to know everyone else’s numbers, right?”

“Huh? Yeah.” Pikachu looked between Brain Fucker and Deku, confused, as Half and Half took the last chopstick and looked down at the end. Pikachu’s forehead wrinkled for a second, but then he gasped and pointed at Katsuki in accusation. “You guys did some soulmate thing, didn’t you!”

“We can’t um… turn this one off, sorry Kaminari-kun.” Deku shrugged.

Pikachu sighed, tilting his head back like a fucking drama-queen. “Fine, I guess. But Blasty doesn’t know our numbers, right?”

“I don’t know which numbers you dumbasses have.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. There weren’t that many of them, though, so he could narrow it down pretty fast. But what dare to do…. Oh! Fuck yes. This one would be good with Deku. “Number two and number four go find your worst shirt and the other person has to wear it for the rest of the night.”

Deku groaned. “Kacchan, you’re so mean!”

“Dude. This is payback for Christmas, isn’t it?” Pikachu laughed. “Well too bad! Because I’m not number four.”

Half and Half frowned down at his chopstick. “What’s my worst outfit?”

Perfect. Half and Half’s clothing wasn’t actually that bad. There was that hideous burnt orange button up shirt, but Deku looked fine in orange, unlike Half and Half.

“I’ll help, Todo-kun, come on.” The nerd sighed, huffing at Katsuki, “Don’t give anyone else their dares until we come back, ok?”

“Of course I won’t.” Katsuki knew the nerd wanted to play, too. Thankfully they didn’t take too long, since Deku knew which shirts Katsuki hated. Half and Half’s was easy to pick, too, since Katsuki could just tell the nerd which one to grab.

When they both came back downstairs, Pikachu sighed. “Those shirts aren’t even that terrible! Kirishima has some that are way worse.”

“Well Shitty Hair isn’t here.” It’s not like Katsuki wanted to actually do something bad to the nerd. It was just a bonus to have someone else deal with his lameass fashion sense for once. Katsuki scowled as he looked between Pikachu and Brain Fucker. Who was three and who was one? Ah, what the hell. “One sing a love song to three.”

Pikachu grinned. “Heck yes I will!”

Damn it.

Brain Fucker groaned, slowly turning bright red as Pikachu got down on his knees and immediately launched into some shitty pop love song.

Katsuki grinned, glad that the dare had still worked out—Brain Fucker was embarrassed as hell.

And now Katsuki knew that Brain Fucker was number three. The second Pikachu stopped singing, Katsuki grinned at the asshole. “Call Mic-sensei and tell him Heartbreaker is your favorite song.”

Brain Fucker groaned. “He’ll start singing it whenever I see him if I do that!”

“That’s the fucking point.” It was the perfect dare for Brain Fucker, since he always saw the loud soulmate. “You can’t hang up on him while he’s singing and you can’t tell him the truth or that it’s a dare.”

“What the hell?” Brain Fucker glared at him, “I won’t tell him today, but I’m telling him tomorrow. It’s a new year, after all.” He smirked, and Katsuki rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

Half and Half looked between the four of them, confused. “You have Present Mic’s number?”

Brain Fucker shrugged, but didn’t respond; instead focusing on his phone. He sighed as he held it up to his ear, then winced as a loud ‘yo! How’s my favorite little listener?’ blared from the other end. Brain Fucker glared at Katsuki, then moved the phone closer to his face. “I just wanted to let you know that Heartbreaker is my favorite song.”

“Really?! I play that song on the radio all the time!” Katsuki’s grin widened as Mic-sensei launched into the song’s chorus, and Brain Fucker looked like he was in physical pain. After at least a full minute of torture, the hero stopped. “Why’d you want to tell me that, anyway?”

“No particular reason. Thanks.” Brain Fucker hung up, still glaring at Katsuki. “There. I did your stupid dare.”

“You did amazing, babe.” Pikachu leaned over, kissing Brain Fucker’s cheek, and he turned bright red as his boyfriend turned to grin at them. “Time for the next round! And Bakugou can’t be king again since everyone has to have a turn!” Pikachu grabbed the cup with the chopsticks, swirling them around for a second. “Everyone draw one!”

Katsuki scowled. Well, at least he’d messed with Brain Fucker.

Shit. Brain Fucker was now grinning at the chopstick in his hand. “Looks like it’s my turn for payback.”

Damn it. Katsuki pulled a chopstick out: number two.

Brain Fucker stood up and nodded toward the back of the room. “We should move to the kitchen.”

“Are you really wasting your dare on having me make a shitty sandwich?!”

“Oh, it’ll be shitty alright, but you won’t be making it.”

The nerd whimpered. “Toshi-kun? Please be nice.”

“That’s not the way the game works, Zu-kun. I’m not gonna go easy on you like your soulmate did.”

“Oi! I did not!”

“Dude. You just made him put on one of Todoroki’s shirts.” Pikache gave him a look of disbelief. “Todoroki’s loaded; I don’t think he owns a single shirt that isn’t sinfully comfortable.”

“I didn’t know he was number four!”

“Uh-huh.” Pikachu shook his head and stood up to follow Brain Fucker into the kitchen. “It’s not like ‘Toshi or I have bad fashion sense! Just admit you didn’t want to make your soulmate do something uncomfortable.”

“Whatever.” That hadn’t been it! But if Katsuki made Deku do anything too embarrassing, the nerd would definitely have paid him back twice as much.

“I appreciated it, Kacchan.” Deku grabbed his hand, tugging him to his feet, then hiding behind Katsuki as he pushed him toward the kitchen. “I’m not facing Toshi-kun’s challenge without you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Katsuki scowled at Brain Fucker as they all stood over the kitchen island.

Brain Fucker smirked at them, then rummaged around in the fridge. He pulled out the mustard and mayonnaise, then went into the cabinets and grabbed some bread, Koda’s bunny treats, Katsuki’s powdered sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, peanut butter, and ketchup.

And then he started spreading shit all over four pieces of bread.

Shit.

The first piece was practically slathered in vegemite, and the next one he covered in peanut butter on then dumped Katsuki’s powdered sichuan pepper on top, which… fuck, even Katsuki would hate eating that. Your mouth would get all numb and start salivating and the peanut butter would be sticking to your damn teeth at the same time.

“Toshi-kun, have mercy, please.” Deku shifted behind Katsuki and stared at the bread in despair as Brain Fucker started covering the third piece in mayonnaise.

“Nah. I think I’m gonna have fun watching this.” Brain Fucker crumbled up two bunny treats on top of the mayonnaise, then covered that shit in cinnamon.

“Toshi, love, please remember that your amazing boyfriend has to eat one of these, too.”

“Oh, I remember.” Brain Fucker paused to grin at his boyfriend, then moved onto the fourth piece. “I’m hoping you get the bunny treats.”

Pikachu whimpered.

The last piece got a layer of peanut butter, and Deku gagged when Brain Fucker added ketchup and salt, followed by hot sauce.

Katsuki grimaced. No matter which piece he got, this was going to be fucking annoying, and he’d be hit with whatever piece Deku tasted, too. Shit, Katsuki wanted to hurl just thinking about it. And there’s no way Brain Fucker hadn’t picked a taste-based dare just so that he could hit both Katsuki and Deku twice, the bastard.

Brain Fucker finally stepped back, then pulled out his phone. “I’ll have to record this, of course. The public demands more social media content. So number one, you have the ketchup and salt. Two, you have the bunny treat. Three, the vegemite, and four will have the sichuan peppers.”

Katsuki picked up the piece of bread with the mayonnaise, cinnamon, and bunny treat with a grimace. This one was probably the best one, at least.

Wait. Katsuki groaned when he saw that Pikachu picked up the vegemite, while Half and Half had the one with ketchup and salt.

The nerd hadn’t moved, staring at the piece with sichuan peppers in horror. “Toshi-kun, please reconsider your dare. I’ll be extra nice on my turn, promise!”

“Nope.” Brain Fucker’s grin widened. “Couldn’t have asked for you to have a better piece, to be honest. We can save you for last, though.” Brain Fucker held up his phone and turned to Half and Half. “You first, Todoroki. You have to eat all of it.”

Half and Half looked down at the bread, then back at the four of them. “Alright.” He folded the piece of bread in half, biting into it so that the bread hit his tongue and not the shit on top, but his face twisted in disgust a second later. Katsuki would’ve been laughing if he didn’t have his own piece of torture waiting in his hand.

Half and Half kept going, bite after bite, though he did stop at one point and cover his mouth for a second.

They all stared in awe as he finished the last bite.

The second he swallowed, Half and Half went to the cabinets and grabbed a cup, filling it with water and promptly chugging the whole thing.

“Holy shit, you actually did it.” Pikachu shuddered and looked down at his in despair. “Can you get me a glass, too, actually? ‘Cause uh… yeah, this is gonna suck.”

Half and Half shrugged, now chugging his second glass. “That was terrible.”

Brain Fucker grinned at him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look that disgusted. Congrats on finishing it all, though.”

Pikachu took a big breath next to Katsuki, then chomped into the vegemite bread, immediately making a gagging noise, but he frantically put his hand in front of his mouth and somehow managed to swallow.

He looked up, glaring at his boyfriend. “I hate you so much right now.”

“Here’s your water.” Half and Half slid the cup across the counter to him, and Pikachu quickly grabbed it and drank half the damn cup.

Pikachu reluctantly set the cup down, then stared back at the bread. “Ok. Plus ultra!” He held it up, this time taking two quick bites before his entire body shuddered, but he managed to chew and swallow again before grabbing the cup and downing the other half. “It’s so freaking salty!! What the hell, Toshi, why.”

“Aw, I’m so sorry babe. Here I’ll refill your water for you.” Brain Fucker’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, but he took Pikachu’s cup, handing his phone to Half and Half. “Keep recording, would you?”

Half and Half nodded, and Pikachu groaned, but slowly (and with many refills) he managed to make it through the whole damn piece of bread.

Once Pikachu finished, Brain Fucker turned the camera toward Katsuki and Deku with a sharp grin. “Baku-kun, Zu-kun, why don’t you both go at once so we can speed this up?”

Katsuki glared at him. He knew the asshole was just covering for the fact that there’s no way they’d be able to keep from reacting while the other ate this shit, but eating it at the same time meant they’d have twice the shitty taste to deal with.

“Right…” Deku picked up the bread, still eyeing the peppers as if they were going to kill him. Green eyes met Katsuki’s and they both slowly raised their bread up, each taking as big a bite as they could both manage.

Katsuki immediately wanted to hurl.

No one should be allowed to put this much mayonnaise on bread; it was so fucking slimy and then the cinnamon did not fucking help. Shit, the bunny treat was actually pretty tasteless and the least disgusting part of this whole mess. Plus the damn peppers were already starting to affect Katsuki, and the nerd was frantically holding out his hand for a cup of water, which Half and Half gave him.

Somehow, Katsuki swallowed.

But he still had a whole damn piece of bread left, and he refused to use water. Half and Half had managed without it, so Katsuki would, too.

He took a second bite.

Shit he wanted to throw up so badly.

Deku whimpered next to Katsuki, then looked over at Brain Fucker. “Do I really have to eat all of it?”

“Yes!” Pikachu huffed, crossing his arms. “Todoroki-kun and I ate all of ours! So you do, too!”

The nerd groaned, but gamely held up the bread and took another bite.

When they were halfway through, Katsuki’s mouth was salivating like crazy and was already feeling numb, which meant the nerd must’ve become numb a while ago.

Katsuki didn’t know how he managed to swallow every damn bite of this shit, but he did, and then he was chugging milk as fast as he could while Deku finished the last few bites of his.

Brain Fucker’s knowing smirk as Katsuki shoved the glass of milk at his soulmate was completely unnecessary, the asshole.

Thankfully, Deku took the hint and drank milk along with the last two bites.

And then they were fucking done.

“You, sir, are evil.” Pikachu glared at his boyfriend from over the rim of his cup. “That was by far the worst thing I have ever tasted—vegemite is not meant to be dumped on bread like that.”

“Dares are supposed to be things you would never normally do.” Brain Fucker grinned. “Though congrats on not throwing up, I really thought one of you would.”

“I wanted to.” Half and Half shuddered. “Is that really what all dares are like?”

“They’re supposed to be things you don’t like, yeah.” Deku stuck out his tongue, still clutching a cup of milk close to his chest. “Toshi-kun’s was really mean, though.”

“Oh.” Half and Half studied Brain Fucker for a second, but the asshole just grinned back unrepentantly.

“The point of a dare isn’t to be nice.”

Half and Half nodded, then looked over at Pikachu. “Whose turn is next? Do we use the chopsticks again?”

“Yup!” Deku chugged his milk, then poured another before reluctantly putting the carton back in the fridge. “So let’s go back to the couches!”

“You guys draw chopsticks without me while I put all this back up.” Brain Fucker gestured at the various condiments and shit. “I can’t be king this round, anyway.”

Katsuki shrugged as Pikachu nodded and bounded back toward the couches, quickly gathering the chopsticks once more. After they all pulled out chopsticks, Half and Half stared at his for a second, then turned it around to show them. “Does this mean I have to think of dares for everyone now?”

“Yup!” Deku nodded at his friend. “Try to think of things that would be embarrassing for others. They don’t have to be gross like Toshi-kun’s.”

Half and Half frowned, but then nodded as Brain Fucker came over and took the last chopstick from the cup. “Ok. And I have to use numbers so I don’t know which person will be doing the dare?”

“You got it, dude!” Pikachu grinned at him. “So give us your best shot!”

Brain Fucker sighed. “Or you could think of something easy. That would be nice.”

What the hell? “Says you. You made us all eat shit!”

Brain Fucker smirked at Katsuki. “And I have every second recorded for posterity.”

Half and Half’s gaze was suddenly determined. “Ok. I have the same dare for everyone. Whenever you talk to a specific person, you have to use pet names for the rest of the night.”

“Eh?!” Deku turned bright fucking red, and Katsuki scowled. This would be annoying as hell, but whatever.

Half and Half shrugged. “Sorry, Zu-kun, but I know this embarrasses both you and Kaminari, and I don’t know what else might work as a dare. So number one, your person is number two. Number two, your person is number three, number three, your person is number four, and number four, your person is number one.”

What. The. Hell.

“Fuck no.” Katsuki huffed, crossing his arms and looking away. “Fine. I just won’t talk to Brain Fucker, then.” Easy loophole.

Brain Fucker smirked at him. “You sure you can last that long, Blasty-chan?”

Katsuki growled at the asshole, but before he could even think about responding, Pikachu was dramatically hiding his face in his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Hitoshi!! I have Midoriya!! Blasty’s gonna kill me!”

An explosion burst from Katsuki’s palm. He already knew Pikachu thought Deku was hot, which was fine, but—ah, damn it. “Just make it stupid shit.”

“Don’t worry, cutie, I’ll protect you.” Brain Fucker placed a hand on Pikachu’s shoulder in reassurance, and Katsuki laughed as the idiot turned bright red. Maybe this dare did have some good effects. And that meant…

Katsuki looked over at the nerd, who hadn’t said shit yet. He smirked, “I’m number four, Deku. What’s your number?”

Deku swallowed, his entire face bright red. “I’m um… number three? Uh… hot stuff?”

Katsuki’s grin widened. Fuck Deku looked adorable when he was all flustered like this.

Brain Fucker started snickering. “Is that really the best you can do, Midoriya? You’ve got to have some confidence and turn it against them.”

“Turn it against them?”

“Yeah.” Brain Fucker grinned and looked back at Pikachu, who had somewhat recovered and was now eyeing his boyfriend warily.

“Hitoshi. You really don’t have to show him, you know? You’re amazing, the best, really, so—“

“But sunshine,” Brain Fucker practically purred as he draped an arm over Pikachu’s shoulder, leaning in close before he continued, “Don’t you want to see Bakugou become just as flustered as Midoriya is?”

Pikachu gulped, his face red as he glanced over at Katsuki, who glared at Brain Fucker. “There’s no way in hell Deku can make me turn bright red from a fucking pet name.”

“You just talked to me and I didn’t hear a pet name.” Brain Fucker grinned, looking way too damn amused by the whole situation.

Fuck.

“...Punk.”

Pikachu burst out laughing, and Deku looked like he was trying not to join him. “I think that’s as good as you’re going to get from Kacchan, Toshi-kun.”

Tch. Whatever. He did the stupid dare, so they couldn’t complain. And Katsuki couldn’t even yell at him for it, because that would mean another pet name, damn it.

Brain Fucker sighed, one hand playing with Pikachu’s hair. “I suppose I’ll accept it, but just this once. You’re going to have to be more creative than that, Kacchan.” And then he fucking winked at Katsuki, making him growl, before turning back to Deku. “Just be confident, Zu-kun. The name you use doesn’t really matter.”

The nerd groaned, covering his face up with his hands. “There’s too much pressure now! I’ll try. But, um. Let’s start the next round.”

Brain Fucker rolled his eyes. “Coward.” They all put their chopsticks back in the cup, though, and Half and Half shook the cup before setting it down on the coffee table.

This time, Pikachu got the damn crown, so it was his turn to give dares. He grinned triumphantly, jumping up and evaluating the four of them as they sat on the couches. “Any chance you’ll tell me what numbers you have?”

“Hell no.” As if Katsuki would make it easier for Pikachu to give him a personalized dare.

“That would be against the rules.” Half and Half frowned as if he still didn’t quite understand why Pikachu would ask that shit.

“Not telling!” Deku stuck out his tongue, which was fucking adorable. Brain Fucker just raised his eyebrow when Pikachu looked at him, not even bothering with a response.

“Fiiine.” Pikachu sighed. “Number three, put an ice cube down your pants and you have to keep it there until it melts.”

Brain Fucker grimaced, but held out his hand to Half and Half. “If you’d do the honors.”

Pikachu cheered. “Honestly I’m just glad that one didn’t go to Todoroki, because that would’ve been boring.”

“Thanks so much, precious.” Brain Fucker glared at him, then groaned when Half and Half gave him an ice cube the size of his fucking fist. “Why did you make it so huge?!”

“Was I not supposed to?” Half and Half blinked at the rest of them, but Pikachu shook his head vigorously.

“No, dude, you did perfect!”

“Darling, I can’t even fit this huge thing in my pants, much less keep it there.” Brain Fucker glared at his dumbass boyfriend.

Pikachu’s face turned red again. “Fine, you can tuck in your shirt and drop it down there, instead.”

Brain Fucker rolled his eyes, but dropped it down his collar, hissing and closing his eyes for a second before he hurriedly tucked in his shirt. He exhaled slowly, then sat back down. “This is really freaking cold.”

“That’s the point!” Pikachu beamed at him, then shrugged. “Well that and it generally makes you look like you peed yourself afterward, but I was nice.”

“Jeez, thanks so much.” Brain Fucker shivered, rubbing at his arms, but then wincing when the ball of ice shifted.

“Alright! Number four, text your mom the last saved picture on your phone.”

Half and Half pulled out his phone, then shrugged. “Ok.”

“What picture is it, Todo-kun?”

“The one Howl took of us last night. She’d like it.”

Pikachu groaned. “Man, I wasted the dare, then.” He sighed, looking between Katsuki and Deku with a frown. “OK. Number one and number two, we’re going to put a blindfold on both of you and then number one has to tell who everyone is just by sniffing us.”

Deku groaned. “By sniffing you? How does that even work? And what are we using as blindfolds?”

Katsuki sighed, pulling off his shirt. “Might as well just use our damn clothes. I’m not going upstairs for a tie.”

As the nerd took off his shirt, though, Pikachu looked between them in confusion. “Ok, so I’ve been meaning to ask and if it’s super secret soulmate stuff, I totally get it, but how on earth did you guys heal Midoriya’s scar?”

Thank fuck they’d planned a response beforehand.

The nerd’s laugh still sounded fucking fake, though, as he tied his shirt around his head. “Recovery Girl figured it out for us! She had to reach out to some people, but I was super happy when she was able to heal it.”

Damn it, they were both blindfolded, so Katsuki couldn’t see if Pikachu bought it.

“That’s great, man!” Well, at least his voice sounded happy for them? Hopefully he was convinced. “Alright, we’ll all go stand in front of Midoriya one at a time.” Someone grabbed Katsuki’s arm, pulling him up off the couch and his sleeve brushed against something, and shit—damn it! He wasn’t kidnapped! And this wasn’t fucking Knife Bitch. This was their friends playing a stupid game!

Katsuki’s nose wrinkled. What was that—

“Ewwww. Ok, that’s Kaminari-kun because his breath still smells like the vegemite.”

Oh. Katsuki snorted. Figures that Brain Fucker’s game would make this easier for the nerd.

The arm moved him again, nudging him to step forward. Katsuki’s shoe hit something, and at the same time he felt a nudge against Deku’s foot.

“Kacchan!”

“What the hell?” Pikachu’s voice was incredulous. “You’re blindfolded! Can you guys just sense each other’s presence or something?”

Katsuki took a step back, putting distance between him, the nerd, and Pikachu, who must’ve been the one holding his arm. “Deku just knows how I smell, dumbass.” He pulled off the blindfold and shook out his shirt before putting it back on properly.

Brain Fucker was looking down at where their feet had touched, and the asshole sighed. “Cheaters.”

“Oi, I was blindfolded.” It wasn’t Katsuki’s fault that Pikachu didn’t notice where he was moving him.

Brain Fucker moved in front of Deku, then, and the nerd scrunched his nose in confusion. “Can you get closer? I don’t really smell anything.”

Brain Fucker rolled his eyes and bent down, then exhaled right in front of Deku’s face. “Coffee? I’m going to guess that Toshi-kun since Todo-kun drinks tea.”

“Right again.”

“Yay!”

“Does he have to smell me if he knows it’s me?”

“I guess not.” Kaminari sighed. “That one ended up being super easy after Toshi’s dare.”

Brain Fucker’s voice was exasperated. “Leaning down to let him smell our breath was still super awkward, so thanks for that, babe.”

Pikachu snorted and then grinned at his boyfriend “You deserve all the payback, man, so no complaining.”

Brain Fucker shrugged.

“Ok! More importantly, I’ve figured out which number Blasty is! Number two, for the rest the year, every time you curse you have to complement someone besides Midoriya.”

Oh, fuck him! Katsuki glared at the asshole. “Fine.” He could avoid cussing! He did it every time Eri-chan was around, damn it!

“I don’t think that’ll be as hard for Kacchan as you think, Kaminari-kun.” The nerd put his shirt back on again, grinning at them all. “That means it’s my turn, right?”

“Yeah, it’s your turn, nerd.” Katsuki honestly didn’t know if Deku would come up with good dares. They’d either be really mild or incredibly vicious, and Katsuki wasn’t sure what mood Deku was in.

They all put the numbered chopsticks back into the cup, and Pikachu shook them around before they redrew.

Katsuki was number two again, which was just fucking annoying.

“Alright! Um…” Deku studied them all for a few seconds and Katsuki sat back down next to him. “Number one, spin around ten times and then try to walk in a straight line across the room. No quirk usage to help you!”

Mild dares, then. Figured. Katsuki couldn’t tell if he was disappointed he wouldn’t get to see Brain Fucker suffer, or if he was happy that the nerd wasn’t gonna give him some annoyingly evil shit to do..

Half and Half shrugged and stood up, moving out of the way of the couches before he started spinning in circles, counting each time he went all the way around. When he reached ten, he stopped, swaying for a second before taking an uncertain step forward. And then he fucking kept walking forward in a perfect line.

They all stared at him.

“What the heck, how is that even possible, do you have perfect balance?!” Pikachu waved his arms around in disbelief, gesturing to the space Half and Half had just walked through. “You’re supposed to get all dizzy and fall!”

“I’ve trained to prevent myself from becoming dizzy. It mostly involves keeping your eyesight fixed on one object for as long a duration as possible while you spin.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched. Fucking Endeavor.

The nerd sighed, silent for a second as he no doubt cursed the Flaming Bastard in his head. He smiled again a second later, but it was a little strained. “The next dare, then! How about… number four, you have to smell everyone’s feet and rank them from best to worst.”

What the hell? Katsuki grimaced, thankful he didn’t have to do that shit.

Brain Fucker looked annoyed. “Do I even want to know how you came up with that one?”

“I was inspired by my dare last round.” Deku grinned back at him unrepentantly, and Brain Fucker sighed before kneeling down on the floor.

“Ugh, I do not want any of your feet in my face.”

“Too bad, asshole.” Katsuki held out his foot. Brain Fucker grimaced before leaning forward.

“Wait, your feet actually smell sweet? How does that even work?”

The nerd giggled. “It’s Kacchan’s quirk. Nitroglycerin smells sweet.”

Brain Fucker stared at Katsuki. “So the sweatier you are, the sweeter you smell? That’s weirdly annoying.”

The nerd held his foot up, and Brain Fucker rolled his eyes. “You’ll just be like him, right? But less sweet since you have less of the nitroglycerin.”

“Probably, yeah.” When Deku didn’t move his foot back, Brain Fucker sighed and leaned forward to smell it.

“Yeah. That’s exactly what it is.” He shifted so that Half and Half could hold his foot out, then grimaced when he got to Pikachu. “No way. I already know his feet stink like hell.”

“Rude! I’m your boyfriend! You’re supposed to say nice things about me!”

“Sorry, babe, but your feet stink like hell on earth.” Brain Fucker shook his head. “So Denki’s the worst, then Half and Half and Zu-Kun are in the middle, with Baku-kun at the top.”

Deku pouted. “I feel like you got out of that one way too easily, but oh well.” He looked between Katsuki and Pikachu. His eyes narrowed. “Number two, name everyone who you consider to be your friend, not including your boyfriend.”

“What the hell, Deku?!” Katsuki glared at the nerd. “I was nice to you!”

Deku looked entirely unimpressed. “It’s not actually that bad, Kacchan. And you just cursed.” He grinned, “So add a complement for someone, too.”

Damn it.

“Well, Blasty?” Pikachu was giving him a fucking shit-eating grin, and he held up his phone to record. “Who are your friends.”

Katsuki glared at him. “Fu—“ damn it! Katsuki grit his teeth in annoyance.

“And um, uh, Handsome! You have to use their actual names!” Deku pouted at him, but then he giggled. “Though since some of your nicknames have curse words, you would’ve had to use those names, anyway.”

Katsuki crossed his arms, refusing to look at any of them. “You’re all ridiculous. Fine. My friends are Kirishima Eijirou, Kaminari Denki, Ashido Mina, Sero Hanta, and I guess Tokoyami Fumikage and Dark Shadow, too. And Kirishima’s pretty manly, most of the time.”

Half and Half stared at Katsuki. “We’re not friends?”

“I know, right?” Brain Fucker smirked at him. “I’m hurt, Baku-kun. Really.”

“Fine!” Katsuki hated this lameass dare. “And Shinsou Hitoshi, Todoroki Shouto, and Uraraka Ochaco, but not Glasses or any other idiot!”

Deku’s grin was so damn mischievous and it would make Katsuki want to kiss the nerd if he wasn’t so fucking annoyed. “What about our senpai?”

“Heck no! They’re our senpai. That’s different.”

They all burst out laughing, the assholes, and Deku was fucking teary eyed for some reason. Katsuki glared at the dumbass—he better not make Katsuki cry. “I’m proud of you, Kacchan.” He paused, his eyes widening a bit before he took a deep breath and added, “You really are my hero.”

“Huh?” Why the hell was he proud?

“A year ago, neither one of us had any friends except for each other, and you kept saying you didn’t want any. This is a really nice change. Um… Firecracker.” Deku was fucking beaming, and Katsuki could feel his face turning red.

Firecracker? Where the hell had that one come from?

“Whatever.” It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Deku’s eyes widened. “You liked that one!”

“I did not!” He glared at Pikachu. “You better not put that sh—video on social media. It would just be painting a target on your back.”

That made Pikachu grimace. “Yeah, no worries, I’m just sending it to our group chat.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes as his phone vibrated a second later, and then again a few seconds after that. Fucking dumbasses, all of them. He pulled it out of his pocket and there was a flood of texts about how much they liked being his friend. And Shitty Hair saying that Katsuki was super manly, too, for whatever reason.

“Aw, you’re smiling, firecracker!”

“I am not!” Katsuki shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Come on, let’s go make some Toshikoshi. I need to get that da–darn taste out of my mouth.”

“Wait!” Deku grabbed Katsuki’s elbow, stopping him from getting up. “I haven’t given Kaminari-kun his dare, yet.”

Oh, yeah.

Pikachu had paled at the mention of cooking, and Deku grinned when he noticed. “Actually, I guess this works. Kaminari-kun, I dare you to help Kacchan make the Toshikoshi soba.”

Pikachu groaned. “Oh, fine. Be that way.”

Katsuki grimaced. He’d rather make it by himself, but whatever. At least he could make Pikachu squirm a little as payback. Katsuki stood up, heading toward the kitchen, and this time Deku didn’t stop him.

“You know how to make Toshikoshi Soba?” Katsuki rolled his eyes when Half and Half immediately followed him like an eager puppy. What the hell. Was he that excited?

“Of fu–Of course I do. You want it, right? I figured your trash family would follow that tradition since you like soba so much.”

Half and Half nodded. “My mom or Fuyumi-neesan would make it, but I was always training with Endeavor, so I never saw how. I assumed I wouldn’t have it this year.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “You should’ve just looked up a recipe, dumbass.”

“Those are always difficult to follow.” Half and Half’s brow furrowed as he watched Katsuki pour water into a pot. “Somehow what I make doesn’t end up like the recipe says.”

Katsuki groaned. Probably because the dumbass couldn’t cut shit and had used his fire as a shortcut. It’s not like this soba was fucking hard to make.

That was exactly why he sucked at it, because he wanted to ‘help’ and over the next half hour Katsuki had to stop the dumbass from doing that shit multiple times. “This is an easy dish! Stop using your quirk and actually cut the darn vegetables all the way through!”

Between Half and Half and Pikachu, it was a miracle they ever finished the soba and were able to eat that shit. And Katsuki had to give two more fucking complements because they were inept asshats. By the time the food was finally done, Kohaku Uta Gassen had started on the TV that they’d forgotten and left it on.

Katsuki had always made bets with the Old Hag about what artists would be chosen for the year’s top male and female singers in Japan.

They’d been so busy, he hadn’t even mentioned that shit to her.

Damn it.

“You guys watch this one?” Pikachu looked between them all as he sat down with his bowl of soba. “My family always watches the comedy routines. Not that I mind! We can totally watch this.”

Half and Half shrugged. “My family’s never watched any of the New Year’s Eve specials.”

“Mine either.” Brain Fucker looked uneasy for a second, then sighed. “Look, you’d figure this out anyways, tomorrow, I guess, Todoroki. But uh… well, you haven’t asked why I’m here when everyone else has gone home.”

Half and Half slurped up his noodles. “It’s because you’re Eraserhead’s son, right?”

They all stared at him.

“What?” Brain Fucker stared at the dumbass in shock “How do you know that? Did Denki—“

“Oi! I didn’t say anything!”

“It’s obvious. You both are addicted to coffee, struggle with sleep, prefer to be alone, like cats, have hair that floats, and then you inherited his capture weapon.”

Pikachu burst out laughing.

Brain Fucker groaned, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling in despair. “I am not his biological son. Why does everyone keep assuming that?!”

Half and Half sipped his tea, clearly not believing Brain Fucker’s shit.

Brain Fucker looked like he wanted to bang his head against the table. “Look, I’m adopted, alright? So yes he is my Dad, and Present Mic is my other Dad, though please don’t tell people either of those things, and that’s why I’m still here, but no, he’s not my biological dad. And they’ve only been my dads since the start of the school year.”

Half and Half shrugged. “You don’t have to lie, it’s ok. I know being the son of a pro means you have to keep secrets.”

Brain Fucker stared at him. “I’m not going to be able to convince you otherwise, am I?”

Half and Half didn’t say shit, making Brain Fucker sigh. “Think whatever you want, I guess, but yeah, please don’t tell people that I’m their adopted son. Or that I’m their biological son, since that isn’t even true.”

“Of course.”

Brain Fucker glanced over at Pikachu, adding, “And I’m sorry for assuming that you’d told him.”

Pikachu grinned back at him. “It’s ok! It’s a super specific thing to guess, but you guys really do act like father and son.”

Brain Fucker sighed. “Maybe I should avoid talking to him after class or something.”

“Dude. No. We’re your classmates. None of us are going to use that information against you guys, ok? So calm down.”

“Aizawa-sensei even said you could tell the class, right?” Deku smiled at Brain Fucker. “It’s ok.”

“I guess…” Brain Fucker sighed, but then he looked toward the television. “So what is this? Why are all the guys wearing red and the woman white?”

Deku immediately launched into an explanation of how the two teams were split to see which group would be crowned the best singers of the year. The Old Hag always wanted to watch to see what each team wears because of her fashion shit. It had just become habit to turn it on by this point.

They all fell silent for a few minutes, eating their soba as one of the women stepped forward to perform. Watching the show with people besides their parents was fucking weird, but at least Katsuki had Deku. And after they finished their soba, they all played card games while the singers kept going in the background.

It was… weirdly nice.

At one point, they all went upstairs to get changed into sleeping clothes, then brought blankets and pillows and shit back down to the couches, turning the front room into a small blanket fort as they all watched the singers continue to compete.

When it was almost midnight, though, they switched the channel to watch the celebration at Sensoji temple. They could look up the winners later. The nerd shifted closer to Katsuki as the news reporter counted down to midnight, and when the priest hit the temple bell with the last strike Katsuki leaned in, kissing him like the New Years’ Eve tradition called for.

Deku was smiling as Katsuki leaned back. “It’s weird to think about the fact that at this time last year, we weren’t even dating yet; I can’t even imagine not dating you any more.”

Katsuki shuddered, not even wanting to think about being without their bond. He kissed the nerd again, lacing their hands together. “We knew once we sealed our bond there’d be no going back.”

“I’d never want that, anyway. Being with you is what I’ve always wanted.”

“You two do remember that you’re not the only ones in the room, right?”

Katsuki glared at Brain Fucker. Pikachu was sitting in the asshole’s lap, grinning at them sheepishly, but Brain Fucker pointedly looked over to where Half and Half was sitting awkwardly alone on the other side of the couch.

Damn it.

The nerd scratched his cheek. “Um… Todo-kun? What does your family usually do at midnight?”

Mismatched eyes looked back over at them, and Half and Half shrugged. “Sometimes I stay up with my sister until the temple bell finishes ringing. Mostly we spend the day cleaning the house.”

Oh. They hadn’t done any cleaning, but who the hell actually wanted to clean?

“Fuyumi-neesan and Nastu-niisan go outside to watch the first sunrise, but I’m only able to join when Endeavor hasn’t made plans for me the next day.”

“Well we can definitely do that!” Deku beamed at his friend. “We’ll go up to the roof to see it before we go to the temple in the morning.”

Half and Half blinked, studying them for a few seconds before he nodded. “I would like that.”

Katsuki yawned, but he refused to give in. He didn’t want to have their new year’s dream while they were surrounded by others. “Then let’s play some more lameass games until sunrise.” Hah. Katsuki could swear again.

“You’re on, man!”

“You don’t want to sleep? We could get a few hours.” Half and Half tilted his head, then blinked when a pillow hit him in the face.

“Sleep is for the weak.” Brain Fucker grinned, “And now that it’s the New Year, all dares are off!”

Pikachu perked up, patting his boyfriend’s shoulder eagerly. “We should play again!”

“You want Brain Fucker to dare you again?!” This idiot was insane.

“Come on, Kacchan! It’ll be fun!”

“Fine, damn it.” But Katsuki was not going easy on Deku this round.

Pikachu started rummaging around in the mess of blankets, searching for the chopsticks, and Katsuki leaned against Deku, enjoying the nerd’s presence as he brainstormed dares with Half and Half.

Maybe this friend shit wasn’t all bad, but like hell Katsuki would ever admit that out loud.

Notes:

Relevant Side Stuff:
My post on New Years' traditions in Japan

---

This summer has been insane, but my fam has now made it a month without anyone visiting the ER, so I think we're all on the road to recovery and in the clear *knocks on wood*. Life's still a bit crazy as I finish up grad school and start to figure out what 'working' looks like when I can't do traditional job hours due to health stuff, but uh, I've got ideas and it'll all be good. hopefully. I still plan on going back to regular updates tho! And the next few chapters are already written, so I'll do one every week ;) after that it'll be more spaced out with one Zero-verse chapter every two weeks. So look forward to Error next weekend and then New Years Day in two weeks!! >:D ngl I'm super pumped about sharing these chapters. But uh, heads up, the next Zero-verse ch is def going to be M-rated for violence/dark themes. So handle with care and read the tw at the start and all that <3 New Years and New Years' Eve were originally one ch, but I uh... had too much fun with traditions XD see the above post if you want background on the things that come up in this ch. ALSO! A big thank you to Geeky and Yoru for beta-ing this ch for me! And THANK YOU all so freaking much for all the comments <3 <3 <3 I hope to respond over the next week or so, but they all brought very much needed smiles to my stressful days <3 <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 12: New Year's Day

Notes:

WARNING!!!! This chapter is rated M for violence/dark psychological themes. It contains torture, character death, sadism, burns, and panic attacks. Please protect your mental health and read when you're in an ok mental space <3

Deku yawned as Katsuki’s hands slid across the folds of his kimono, adjusting them. It was fucking annoying that they had to wear this shit, but at least the Old Hag had made them traditional yukata and haori jackets with muted colors—Katsuki’s dusky red and Deku’s moss green. The other shit she’d made had been fine for merch, but it didn’t make any damn sense for a temple visit.

The nerd gave him a tired smile. “Thanks, Kacchan.”

“Whatever.”

It’s not like Deku could properly fold a kimono even when he was wide awake, but it was too damn early for this shit and they’d stayed up all night, even after Pikachu left to make the morning’s first train to his house.

Katsuki was planning to take a nap as soon as they got back from going to visit the damn temple.

He stepped back, analyzing their yukata one last time to make sure the shit was perfect, then he yawned and left the bathroom to make some tea. Deku shuffled awkwardly behind him, playing with the hem of his sleeve. “I don’t know how you can move so well in these, Kacchan. It’s not like you’ve worn them any more than I have.”

Katsuki shrugged, then shot Deku a mischievous grin. “You’re just fucking clumsy.”

The nerd stuck out his tongue. “I am not!” There was a dangerous look in his eye, one that made Katsuki both nervous and strangely warm, when he continued, “You’re the one who accidentally destroyed Uncle’s whole garden!”

“That was one time!”

“Only because he never let you inside it again.”

“I was five! And it was the birds’ fault!”

“Sure, Kacchan. Keep telling yourself that.”

Katsuki growled under his breath and poured water into the kettle. “See if I make you any tea.”

“Meanie! You can't withhold the caffeine! I need that! ”

Katsuki scoffed, about to respond, but he paused and snorted at the sight of Half and Half as he opened the stairwell door.

Why the hell was he wearing a formal kimono with hakama pants? It reeked of fucking upperclass-family snobbery, but the idiot probably didn’t even realize it.

Half and Half was yawning almost as much as Deku, but managed to pause long enough to frown and stare at the kettle in Katsuki’s hands.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I’ll make you some tea, too.”

“You’ll make Todo-kun tea but not your own soulmate?” Deku pouted, wrapping his arms around Katsuki and stretching upward a little so that he could rest his chin on Katsuki’s shoulder. “No fair. I thought I was your favorite, Firecracker.” The last word was a quiet rumble in his ear, sending a shiver down Katsuki's spine.

Damn it.

Katsuki could feel his face starting to burn and desperately tried to fight his body's reaction. The nickname was so fucking stupid, and he should hate it, but for some reason it made him feel all warm when Deku said it in that voice.

“I knew you liked it!”

“Shut up!” Katsuki nearly dropped the kettle and shoved the nerd backwards, glowering at him, but judging by the look on his face, he wasn't fooled by Katsuki's annoyed shout. “I’ll make your damn tea.”

“Yay!” Shit, Katsuki needed sleep. Deku was giving him that bright fucking grin and it was making his stomach feel weird and all he wanted to do was kiss him.

“I heard Shinsou in his room, so he should be downstairs shortly. I think he likes coffee instead of tea, though.”

Katsuki swallowed hard, coming back to himself. Right. Half and Half was still in the kitchen. Katsuki looked over at him and nodded. “About time he showed up.” There were only ten minutes until the adults had told them they’d be here.

It was apparently his turn to yawn, and after barely managing to avoid cracking his jaw, he turned to focus on making the tea while Deku bounced over to his friend. “Do you always wear a kimono for Hatsumode, Todo-kun? We usually don’t, but this year Auntie insisted. She said we’d need to look good for pictures.”

Half and Half nodded. “Okaa-san always dressed us in kimono, and we kept doing so.” He tilted his head to the side, looking between them for a second. “Do you know what you’ll be wishing for this New Year?”

“You’re not supposed to say that shit aloud, idiot.” Katsuki scowled. Plus it was usually way too damn personal.

Half and Half nodded. “I guess. I never really had anyone to talk about it with.”

Shit, now Deku was getting all sympathetic. “It’s ok, Todo-kun! If you want to tell us, you can. But um, I think I’ll probably keep quiet about mine. Kacchan and I are um… kind of superstitious about the New Year.”

Half and Half stared at Deku for a second. “Because you’re soulmates? The fate thing?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Deku rubbed at the back of his neck, looking away. Their dreams felt way too damn personal to explain.

“I want to wish something about Touya-nii, but I don’t know what, yet.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea, Todo-kun! I’m sure the right words will come to you once we’re there!”

There were footsteps on the stairs, and a second later Brain Fucker opened the stairwell door, heading straight for the coffee machine. He was halfway there before he paused and blinked, staring at the three of them. “Oh. I guess I missed the memo.” He shrugged, his attention returning to the instant coffee machine. “Not that it would’ve mattered since I don’t own a kimono.”

“Lucky bastard.” Brain Fucker was wearing jeans and a black wool coat, along with a dark purple scarf. Aka clothes that were actually fucking comfortable.

Half and Half’s shoulders relaxed as he took the first sip of his tea. “You can borrow one of mine if you ever need one.”

Brain Fucker’s stare was incredulous. “You have multiple?”

Half and Half just nodded as if that wasn’t yet another sign that he was rich as hell.

Brain Fucker sighed. “Thanks, I guess. I wouldn’t want to ask—“ he stopped, frowning, then sighed. He turned back to the coffee machine, pulling his mug out from under the drip and then chugged the whole damn cup before setting it back to make another one.

Katsuki gagged. Why the fuck was he drinking that much?! “What the hell, dumbass? You’re going to kill yourself at that rate.”

“Please.”

“Toshi-kun!” Deku’s hand covered his face as if the nerd couldn’t figure out whether to laugh or scold his friend.

“What? I need my morning fix to deal with people.”

“Toshi-kun, please don’t say you drink that much every day.”

Brain Fucker didn’t respond.

Katsuki sighed. “What the hell, dumbass. There are other ways to wake up than giving yourself heart issues with a fuck ton of coffee.” Like tea. Which had finally finished brewing, so Katsuki poured himself a cup, then made another for Deku and Half and Half each. Since Katsuki and Deku always left early for training and shit and then practically ran to classes afterward, they were never around to make sure the others actually ate a fucking breakfast and weren’t idiots.

Before Katsuki could think further about whether or not he should change that habit, the front doors opened, and Mic-sensei’s voice boomed out, “Yo! Come on, kiddos! We’ve got a temple to visit!”

“We’re coming!” They quickly chugged their tea, and Katsuki barely had time to toss his cup in the sink before Deku grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the door. Half and Half followed with Brain Fucker trailing behind after gulping the last of his second cup of coffee.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Katsuki frowned at his teacher as they walked outside, his squinting eyes still adjusting to the early morning light. Mic-sensei had his hair pulled back in a bun and his crappy sunglasses were normal, but his leather jacket still looked padded and dense, and even though his outfit looked like street clothes at first glance, Katsuki knew from the Old Hag that the damn fabric was clearly reinforced.

The teacher winked at him. “It’s my casual, undercover outfit! Heroes can’t be in costume all the time, after all, or we’d never be great at gathering intel!”

“That’s really cool!” The nerd was asking about the fabric and shit now, but Katsuki glanced over at Aizawa-sensei… who was in his usual outfit.

The man shrugged. “Why have multiple outfits? It’s annoying to keep track of.”

Fucking typical.

Damn, there was a shitload of people gathered. Everyone from the adults’ house was waiting at the end of the sidewalk, along with their senpai, Half and Half’s non-villain siblings, R-Rated, and the 1B homeroom teacher.

“Do we really need this many heroes to come with us?” Deku looked nervously at the assembled group, but Mic-sensei patted his head and wrapped an arm around Katsuki’s shoulders, making him glare at the hero.

“It’s better to be on the safe side! Pretty much everyone would assume that we’d let you guys off campus grounds for some kind of temple visit.” Their teacher winked at them, then laughed at Katuski’s annoyed frown. “We’ll make sure everyone’s safe, don’t worry!”

Katsuki shoved the hero’s arm away. He wasn’t worried about shit! They could handle an attack. But their parents’ quirks weren’t even good for defense. Damn it. Katsuki scowled as they walked toward the other heroes. It was good to have this many heroes for their sake, at least. Katsuki would never hear the end of it if someone actually managed to hurt the Old Hag.

Katsuki grimaced when he scanned over the other heroes. R-Rated had her hair pulled back in a ponytail as she wore a loose sweater that looked like she could rip it open to release her quirk with ease. 1B’s homeroom teacher nodded toward them—he was in a traditional kimono, complete with what appeared to be the outline of several daggers hidden beneath his sleeves; not obvious enough for general passers-by to notice, though.

Pointy Ears and the Blonde Asshole were in everyday clothes and kneeling down next to Eri-chan, talking to her and Ghost Woman, who were both wearing kimono. Pointy Ears had a backpack that was probably filled with shitty food for his quirk, and the Blonde Asshole’s pockets were bulging, so he probably had his shitty support weapons with him. At least they were both armed.

All Might cleared his throat from where he nervously stood in a t-shirt and jeans between the Lioness and Ragged Mane, their daughter beaming next to him. “Vlad King will accompany the Todoroki family. Eraserhead will be with the Bakugous while Present Mic and Shinsou-kun will be with the Midoriyas. Midnight will be accompanying me and the Shields. Suneater and Lemillion will be going with Yamashita-san and Eri-chan. We’ll all be traveling in identical cars and taking different routes, but will meet up at the same shrine. There shouldn’t be any difficulties, but please be cautious and return to UA if there is any sign of trouble.”

Katsuki scowled. Why the hell were they making him and Deku travel in separate cars? It was fucking annoying. And they had to walk through the campus’ shitty forest to get to where they were all parked, too. To make things worse, when they finally got there, Katsuki had to sit in the back with the Old Hag.

Katsuki groaned when she immediately pulled out a damn comb. “Don’t give me that look! You’ll thank me later, your hair is a mess.”

“You always say that shit!”

“Because it always is!”

“Mitsuki, Katsuki, would you please not shout in the car?” The Old Man sighed up in the front seat, and Katsuki glared at the asshole as he gave Aizawa-sensei an apologetic look.

“If you’d let me sit up front, I wouldn’t have to deal with this crap!”

“You’re in the back for a good reason, Bakugou.” Aizawa-sensei paused briefly and frowned, no doubt realizing that name could refer to all fucking three of them, but then just shrugged and started the car. “Your father has the least recognizable profile, so he’s in the front.”

Damn it.

Present Mic had made Deku and Auntie sit in the back, too, but Auntie wasn’t trying to fix the nerd’s hair, even though it was way fucking worse than Katsuki’s.

The Old Hag tapped his forehead with her comb. “Turn your face toward me, already! The first temple visit of the year is important! Don’t you want to have good luck this year?”

Hell. “Tch.” Katsuki scowled, but turned his head and let her do shit, focusing on the mesh in his gloves as her fingers and the comb slipped through his hair.

At least it wasn’t a long ride, so she couldn’t get any fucking ideas about makeup or some shit like that. Supposedly they weren’t going to the closest temple because it would be too obvious, but they weren’t going to one too far away, either.

Katsuki closed his eyes, listening throught thier bond to the nerd babble to Brain Fucker about the procedure for a New Year’s temple visit, since he’d apparently never been thanks to his dumbass foster families. Every now and then Mic-sensei would interrupt by singing along to random songs on the radio–Katsuki wouldn’t be surprised if they were listening to the asshole’s station since he knew almost every damn song..

It felt like weeks later that Aizawa-sensei finally slowed to a stop and Katsuki looked out the window to see the temple. It was a hell of a lot smaller than their usual place, with only the main temple building and a few smaller stations for prayers and shit. At least the forest around here was nice, though. And there weren’t too many people despite it being New Year’s Day.

Katsuki’s eyes immediately evaluated the other visitors to the temple: two families with young children, an elderly couple, and one old woman, each of whom seemed wholly unremarkable.

He sighed. Time to get this shit over with.

Katsuki slid out of the car, groaning when the Old Hag started straightening his kimono and pulling him over to Deku’s ride so that she could do the same to him. The Blond Asshole and Pointy Ears were already up at the front of the temple, surveying the area before they both stopped to pray, while Yamashita-sensei was helping Eri-chan wash her hands.

There was a startled squeak as a little girl from one of the families tugged on her father’s arm, pointing wordlessly over at Katsuki. When Deku got out of the next car, she looked like she was going to pass out.

“Yo!” Present Mic was out of his car, waving and walking toward the families, “Sorry for disturbing you folks! Would you mind not posting anything for a few minutes while the boys pray? We don’t want them to get bombarded.”

“Here.” Katsuki looked over to see the Old Hag handing him a few hand towels with their soulmark on them, as well as a pen. “Here, I made these just in case. Sign them, get Izu-kun to sign them, and then go give them to those kids. Be sure to take pictures with them if they want it.”

Katsuki groaned. At least there were only three kids. He took the wash cloths from her, studying their soulmark pattern for a second before signing his hero name on all three. By the time he was finished with it, the Old Hag had finished with Deku, so Katsuki wordlessly passed them over.

Present Mic was talking quietly with the parents, and when he turned and saw them holding the washcloths he grinned and kneeled down to whisper to the kids. The youngest looked like she was five, maybe? And the two older ones were around ten. The three looked at their parents, who gave them a nod, before making a beeline straight for Katsuki and Deku.

Damn it.

The nerd laughed nervously as the tiny dumbasses crowded around them, and he handed each of them a washcloth. “Hi! Um, these are for you! We really appreciate you waiting to tell people that we’re here.”

“This is gonna be the luckiest year ever!” The older girl was practically gushing over receiving the shitty washcloth.

The boy who looked to be about her age nodded along, already holding out his phone to Katsuki nervously. “Can we take pictures with you? We’ll wait to post them!”

Katsuki blinked, surprised that the dumbass was asking him, the ‘angry, unapproachable one,’ when Deku was right there. Whatever. “Sure, kid. You three want a group shot or one at a time?”

“On my own please!” The boy scooted away from the two girls, and the girls laughed at him.

The older girl rested a hand on the younger one’s head. “Our parents are friends, that’s all. We’re sisters, though! And we’d be fine with one together!”

“That’s great that you guys are friends like your parents! It’s just like us!” Deku beamed at the kids, but from the boy’s face, Katsuki didn’t think he agreed with that sentiment. Katsuki laughed, pulling the nerd closer to the guy so they stood on either side of him. The kid was the tallest of the three and was fucking beaming as he held up his phone and took the picture.

“Thank you so much!” He bowed to them, then took the older girl’s phone, stepping back a few paces as Deku knelt next to the girls and the little one glomped onto his arm. Katsuki rolled his eyes and stood next to the other one, who held up a peace sign.

“Got it!” The boy held out the phone to the older girl and the three of them thanked the soulmate duo again, reassuring them that they’d wait to post the pictures as their parents called them back.

“Aw. They were so polite, right, Kacchan?” Deku’s smile was soft as he watched them fidgeting next to their parents, clearly eager to be done with shit already. “I think that’s a good sign for the new year for us, too.”

Katsuki sighed. “I guess, yeah.” While they were dealing with that shit, Brain Fucker had gotten out of the other car and was practically glued to Mic-sensei’s side. The hero had one arm over his shoulders as they walked around the right side of the temple along the forest’s edge, while Aizawa-sensei was over on the left side.

“Good job, you two. Though it’s definitely weird for us, seeing little kids fawn over you brats.” The Old Hag laughed, walking over to them and straightening Deku’s kimono where the girl had grabbed him.

Katsuki frowned, watching as the families left. “Can we go to the fucking temple now?” They should leave before more people started arriving.

She frowned, moving to straighten Katsuki’s kimono again, even though it damn well looked fine. “You’re growing up, kid. Can’t you let me have this moment?”

“Huh?” What the hell? “You’re never sentimental over this shit.”

“This year’s different.” She smiled at him, then gave him a shove toward the temple. “Go on. I think it’s time you and Izu-kun pray on your own.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened. But he’d… he’d always prayed with them while Deku prayed with his mom.

“Are you sure, Auntie?” Deku looked between them, confused. “We could all do it together, there’s not a lot of people here or anything, so—“

“Go on, Izu-kun.” Auntie smiled at him and walked over to them, holding out four 100 yen coins. “We talked about it last night. You’re both growing up and you’ve entered a new stage of your relationship with each other this year. It’s time.”

Deku turned bright red, but slowly nodded, taking the coins and giving Katsuki a shy smile as he reached out.

Katsuki swallowed, grabbing the nerd’s hand and taking two of the coins from him. He looked over at the Old Hag and the Old Man, but they were wearing shitty, proud smiles that made him want to hurl, so he didn’t even look at Auntie and just turned toward the temple, pulling Deku after him.

“Kacchan!” The nerd laughed, quickly falling into step beside him, careful not to be too in sync, since some of the civilians were still around.

They both paused at the temple gate, bowing before continuing forward, and fuck, doing this shit with just Deku was weird. The Old Hag was probably taking pictures and crying, too, damn it.

Katsuki’s stomach twisted as they both stopped at the small dragon fountain; the motions were routine, but it felt so different this year. For one, Katsuki had to take off his gloves.

He hadn’t been wearing gloves last year.

Katsuki set them aside.

Stain…

Even if Katsuki didn’t have the scars anymore, the gloves themselves were a reminder that he’d been too weak to save anyone that damn night.

Cold water poured over his hands, and Katsuki looked up to meet Deku’s calm green eyes before the nerd looked down again and got another scoop from the ladle to clean Katsuki’s hands.

Katsuki swallowed.

They’d never done it like this, either. The Old Hag had done that shit for him when he was too short, sure, but… this felt different than that. More intimate.

Deku gave Katsuki a small smile, then cupped his hands to hold water and raised them to his mouth to clean it, as well. Katsuki picked up a ladle to do the same, his body just going through the motions while his brain buzzed.

At least the temple had a dragon statue at the fountain. Katsuki remembered always thinking those were the coolest part when he was little.

Deku finished and stepped off to the side as Katsuki put his gloves back on—shit it was always so cold with their hands wet like this in the early morning air. And Katsuki couldn’t release explosions to dry them off this year, since that would attract way too much attention. Not that the Old Hag ever liked it when he did that, anyways.

Deku was looking around nervously, watching as Eri-chan and Yamashita-sensei got back into their car with the third years.

Mic-sensei and Aizawa-sensei were up at the top of the temple with Brain Fucker standing in between them, his whole body tense as the three of them bowed together.

Katsuki and Deku waited until they had moved aside, then circled around the side of the temple to the front, their breath fogging the air as they walked.

It was almost eerily quiet.

The nerd bowed before the temple doors, nudging Katsuki to do the same. It was all ceremony, really, but Katsuki bowed, too. It was hard to dismiss that shit when their dreams were proof that there was something special about New Year’s traditions.

Katsuki carefully timed tossing his coin a second after Deku, both of them waiting until the yen stopped clattering down the collection box before Deku pulled the temple bell. Katsuki closed his eyes, clapping his hands in sync with Deku before they both bowed more deeply toward the temple’s altar.

Please. Let us succeed. Let us protect everyone we need to protect. Let us keep everyone safe.

Katsuki straightened back up, forcing his hands to loosen from balled up fists.

He didn’t need to talk with Deku to know that the nerd’s wish had been for the same thing.

With this many soulmates as heroes… Katsuki didn’t like it. Why did there need to be this many soulmates as heroes??

They turned away from the temple, the two of them both reaching for each other’s hands as they circled around the temple’s edge to the small fortune stand.

Katsuki dropped his second coin into the offering slot, then picked up the hexagonal cylinder, shaking it until a small wooden rod came out of one end. Katsuki took a deep breath and passed the shaker to Deku.

Fourteen.

Fuck, already off to an unlucky start. It didn’t necessarily mean anything, though. It was just a number. The fortune could still be good. Katsuki scanned the drawers, pulling out the one with his number and then taking a card before dropping the numbered stick in its return slot.

Katsuki took a deep breath, then looked down at the card.

His eyes widened.

Fucking hell.

Half-curse? There were only two fortunes worse than that!

Deku’s breath was shaky as he turned his card over, then stared at it.

Half blessing?

Green eyes met his.

They’d always gotten the same fortune. The Old Hag called it creepy and laughed at them.

What did this mean?

Why were they different?

Half-blessing wasn’t that shitty of a fortune, but why were their fortunes different? Why would Deku have a different fortune than him? How could Katsuki be cursed and Deku blessed? They were fucking soulmates! Their fate was always tied together.

“I don’t understand.” Deku’s voice was quiet in the silence of the temple as he looked back down at his paper in confusion, then shook his head. “I don’t care if mine’s a good fortune, we’ll tie them both up.”

Katsuki nodded. Whatever kind of luck this was, he didn’t want to keep it. There was no way they were taking these sheets back to the dorms.

They were soulmates. They didn’t want any kind of fate that was different from each other.

Deku slipped his rod back into the return slot, and they walked over to the string that was tied between two trees, where all the bad fortunes had been tied to ward off the bad luck. Katsuki scowled as he watched Aizawa-sensei walk away from the tress toward Mic-sensei and Brain Fucker. Did that mean their teachers had gotten different fortunes? Or had Aizawa-sensei tied up fortunes for both of them?

Fuck, Katsuki didn’t like that any of them had gotten bad fortunes. That shit was supposed to be rare! What were the fucking odds that two people in their group had gotten bad luck?

Deku squeezed Katsuki’s hands, his fingers brushing softly against the mesh of Katsuki’s glove as he pulled away.

Katsuki scowled as he tied up his own paper, Deku’s movements one step ahead of his own, and Katsuki barely resisted the urge to kick at the gravel as they walked back to the cars. Deku’s hand tugged on his, making Katsuki sigh, but he bowed at the temple gate with the nerd.

The Old Hag ruffled his hair when they met back up with them. “Bad luck?”

Deku nodded, but they didn’t say shit about why it had been bad. That was for them to know.

The three adults exchanged looks, and Auntie looked like she was trying hard not to cry.

It may just be a fortune, but it was hard not to pay attention to that shit when you had literal evidence of fated destinies right in front of you.

Katsuki scowled, his hands tightening into fists at his sides.

Why was his fortune worse than Deku’s?

At least he had the bad one. It would be worse if Deku had gotten the curse and Katsuki had been blessed. He wouldn’t be able to stand that shit.

All Might and the Shields were walking up with R-rated now, the two women talking softly until they bowed at the temple gates. Katsuki wondered if they usually got the same fortunes. Or if they even knew.

Half and Half was getting out of the last car, now, but the Old Hag ushered Katsuki back toward the car they’d arrived in. “Come on! We’re trying to stagger this shit so the heroes don’t have to keep track of all of us at once.”

Deku gave him a quick hug before darting over to the car where Brain Fucker was waiting.

Katsuki frowned, annoyed, but climbed into the car, watching Aizawa-sensei as the hero checked the perimeter of the car again before getting in and starting it. Tired eyes looked up at the rearview mirror. “What is it?”

Katsuki scowled. Mind-reading asshole. “Do you and Mic-sensei always have the same fortune?”

Deku stopped talking mid-sentence, then apologized to Brain Fucker, saying he wanted to listen to Katsuki’s conversation.

“Usually, but not always.”

“What happens the years where it’s different?”

There was a long sigh. “Typically, it’s because of a big case that only one of us is on.”

That made sense at least. But he and Deku were planning on doing all the same internships from now on. Why would they have different fortunes?

“Who had the bad fortune?”

Katsuki glared at the man. “I didn’t say shit about one of them being bad.”

Aizawa-sensei shrugged as he made a right turn on the road. “When ours are different, one of them is always bad.”

Oh. Katsuki looked down at his lap, not liking the concerned way the Old Hag was watching him. “Mine.”

“How bad?”

“Half-curse.”

“It could be worse. Then Midoriya had half-blessing? When they’re different, my and ‘Zashi’s fortunes always mirror each other.”

Katsuki grit his teeth and nodded.

“It’ll be ok, kid. Whatever is coming, we’ll get through it.”

Whatever is coming.

Because they all knew something big was on the horizon. There had to be, with this many heroes as soulmates.

Katsuki really hoped it wasn’t this year. “How bad was your fortune?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Damn it, that wasn’t an answer! And it was definitely not reassuring.

“You two are leaving for the class internship tomorrow. Focus on doing well with that.”

Katsuki scoffed. “You’re shipping us off to an unknown remote island where shit never happens.”

“It’ll be good, practical experience. Not everything is about fighting villains. And it’ll keep you three away from where the League has been sighted recently.”

Katsuki sighed. “I know, damn it.”

The Old Hag reached over, ruffling his hair. “We’ll miss you two. It’ll be strange without having you pop up in our house making odd demands like ‘Old Hag I need your sweat! Or Old Man give me some leather for shit! Or my favorite, ‘Auntie, how do I make fried chicken festive?’ As if it isn’t already the most festive dish of the season.”

“Shut up!” Katsuki glared at her, and Deku was giggling from where he was listening in the other car, damn him, which didn’t help.

“Mom gave you the idea for the fried chicken Christmas tree?”

“The what?” Brain Fucker stared at Deku incredulously.

Katsuki growled. “She didn’t!” Auntie hadn’t been any help at all. “She said it wouldn’t matter and you would love shit no matter what I did. I found the idea online.”

“I would’ve, Kacchan. It was cute, though.”

Katsuki growled, scowling as he glared out the window. He wasn’t cute. He just wanted to make it the best Christmas for Deku.

“Aw, did Izuku say something nice? You’re bright red, brat.”

“Shut up!”

“Sorry, Kacchan. I’ll leave you alone.”

Damn it. Katsuki growled and looked out the window, ignoring the Old Hag’s cackle.

He didn’t want Deku to leave him alone. He’d rather talk with Deku than anyone else in his car, but the nerd was already talking with Brain Fucker and asking him about what Kaminari’s plans for the day were.

As if that shit was important.

Katsuki wished that he’d brought his phone, but the crappy kimono didn’t have any pockets. Then he’d at least know if those dumbass kids had waited to post on social media, but the freaking kimono didn’t have pockets, so he’d have to just hope they hadn’t.

Or ask the Old Hag.

Katsuki glanced over at her, but she was looking out the window on her side, and her shoulders were tense.

He hated that his parents were afraid to go anywhere.

It wasn’t right.

They were targets just because they were related to them, but they couldn’t defend themselves or shit, and… fuck it. “What fortune did you get?”

The Old Hag looked over at him, her eyes widening in surprise, but then she gave him a soft smile and reached over, ruffling his hair.

Katsuki growled and shoved her hand away, making her laugh. “Don’t worry, kid. Your father and I had plain, boring fortunes.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. “And Auntie?”

The nerd went quiet, his eyes focused on his mother, who was sitting in the front with Mic-sensei.

“It was better than yours. So let us do the worrying, ok? We’ll be fine.”

So she’d still gotten a bad fortune, just not as bad as Katsuki’s.

Shit.

Deku was rushing to assure Brain Fucker he was fine and apologizing for going quiet all of the sudden, and Katsuki hated it.

If anything happened to Auntie… well, whatever it was, they’d make sure she would be fine.

Katsuki ignored the Old Hag’s look of concern and turned to look out the window again. While they stopped at a stoplight, a group of girls on the sidewalk gasped and pointed at their car, but Katsuki didn’t acknowledge them.

He felt so tense. Yesterday, they’d been so fucking relaxed, but the fortunes this morning had brought reality crashing back down.

They didn’t have time to relax. They had to be ready to face whatever threat was on the horizon.

But today they weren’t allowed to train. Maybe they could slip away for part of the afternoon?

As if Auntie knew what he was thinking, the second they got back to UA, she gave him and Deku a hug and made them promise to come over for the afternoon after they changed out of their kimono, effectively halting Katsuki’s half-baked training plans.

“Mom, we have to pack! And wash our clothes and everything.”

“Then come over when you’re finished! It’s the first day of the New Year and I have to spend some time with you both before you leave us again for another internship.”

Crap, Auntie looked like she was about to cry again.

The nerd looked over at Katsuki, then sighed and nodded. “Ok. But we can’t stay too late—“

“Nonsense! Bring all your things and then you can sleep on the couch tonight.”

Ah, fuck. Whatever, it would be nice to sleep with Deku for the night. “Fine, Auntie. We’ll bring our shit and stay the night. But that means we really have to go fucking pack.”

She nodded tearfully, and the Old Hag laughed, wrapping an arm around Auntie’s shoulders and guiding her toward the adults’ house. “Come on, Inko! They’ll be back from that internship before we even know it.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but followed after Deku toward their dorm. The nerd’s hand slipped into his once more, and Katsuki held it tight.

Whatever happened, they would get through it. Together.

When they finally reached the dorm, Brain Fucker was already in his room packing shit, though Half and Half wasn’t on the same floor. Hadn’t he mentioned going to visit his mom? Whatever, Deku wasn’t concerned, so that must be it. Katsuki yawned as he piled their clothes into the washer, and then Deku took forever deciding what shit to bring, which was fucking stupid. All they needed was clothes and their hygiene shit. They were staying at some kind of hero agency, so it would have emergency essentials for them. The nerd packed his pager, though, and Katsuki figured that probably was a good idea, so he packed his, as well. The rest was just stupid, though. Why did Deku even have mosquito netting in his damn dorm?

With a sigh, Katsuki fell onto his bare mattress and pulled out his phone. He could at least look up that shit that the Jean Giraffe had been talking about. The news had all kinds of articles about people’s reactions to the new laws limiting overtime pay. How the hell were people so divided about this crap? It was like now that All Might had retired and Frankenstein aired their family drama, no one felt they could trust heroes any more.

Well, any heroes except for Katsuki and Deku, since they were fated soulmates and all that shit.

Damn it.

After an hour of the nerd packing and unpacking and then repacking shit, Katsuki couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t want to see the Feathered Menace’s name for another damn year.

Katsuki grabbed his own shit and stormed down the stairwell, stomping into Deku’s doorway.

Brain Fucker looked up at him from where he was sitting on Deku’s bed, but the nerd didn’t even twitch from where he sat on the floor in front of his pack.

“Oi. Deku.”

Deku’s head jerked up, and he turned around. “Kacchan? I thought you were reading articles in your room, sorry, I’m not quite ready, yet, so—“

“Yes, you fucking are.” Katsuki dropped his shit at the door, then walked past Deku, slamming his suitcase closed. “You’ve packed way too damn much already. Do you want to make Auntie wait longer?”

The nerd winced. “Um. Okay, yeah. I guess we can go. You’re right, I should have everything.” The nerd bit his lip, glancing over at his bedsheets for a second, but then he shook his head and grinned at Brain Fucker. “Are you ready to go, Toshi-kun?”

Brain Fucker blinked at them. “You want me to come with you to your parents’ place?”

“Of course!” Deku nodded. “Your parents will be there, too, and I’m sure they want to spend time with you before we leave, as well.”

Brain Fucker sighed. “It’s not like they’ll miss me like yours will, but sure, I guess.”

“Don’t say that, Toshi-kun! Of course they’ll miss you!”

Brain Fucker stood up as he shrugged, then shouldered past Katsuki toward the elevator. “They’ve known me less than a year, Zu-kun. Your parents have known you for your whole lives. There’s no way they’ll miss me as much as yours do. I’m lucky if they even miss me at all.”

“Stop being so melodramatic, you asshole.” Katsuki grabbed his crap again, but waited for Deku to come out and lock his door. “You’re a complete idiot if you think those two won’t miss you or some shit like that.”

“Alright, now I know the world is ending. Please never try to cheer me up again, it just sounds wrong.”

“You’re welcome, bastard.”

Deku giggled and pushed open the door to the stairwell, lifting his suitcase as he walked down the steps to the first floor. “I always tell people that Kacchan’s nice, but no one ever listens.”

“That’s because he’s one of the rudest people I’ve ever met.” Brain Fucker followed after Izuku, neatly dodging Katsuki’s bag as it almost tripped him.

Katsuki growled. “Fuck off.”

“That’s more like the Baku-kun I know and love.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. “Whatever.” He didn’t care what Brain Fucker thought of him.

At least Deku’s good mood from yesterday had returned—the nerd was practically bouncing up and down in excitement at the thought of getting to have a New Year’s Day lunch with Eri-chan. When they reached the doors, though, they were surprised to see Half and Half approaching up the sidewalk. He must’ve changed at some point, since the rich bastard wasn’t wearing the formal kimono anymore.

“Todo-kun!” Deku beamed at his friend. “Did you have a good visit with your Mom? You should come with us to get lunch!”

Half and Half blinked in surprise at them. “My apologies. I already had lunch with my mother and siblings. But yes, it was nice to see her.”

“I’m glad you had a good time! And you can still come. Everyone will mostly be snacking on leftovers since it’s New Year’s Day and all.”

Half and Half frowned. “But if they aren’t expecting me—“

“Just come already.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, grabbing Half and Half’s arm and pulling him back down the path. “We’re not going to fucking leave you here while we go have lunch and celebrate New Year’s and shit.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Half and Half sighed, but Katsuki dropped his arm since the dumbass looked like he was going to stop resisting.

“Don’t worry, we can be awkward together.” Brain Fucker pulled his jacket tighter around him as he fell into step beside Half and Half. “You’ve at least been to one of these before.”

Damn it. Every time Brain Fucker said shit like that, Katsuki wanted to go blow up every fucking foster family he’d stayed with.

“Endeavor never really celebrated New Year’s. He would give us an envelope of money in the morning and then leave for hero work. But Nee-san would usually make lunch”

Katsuki scoffed. “Isn’t the whole point to make enough shit the night before that you can eat leftovers the next few days?” At least Endeavor gave them the New Year’s money, though. Katsuki wouldn’t put it past the bastard to overlook traditions like that.

Half and Half shrugged. “So everyone really will be eating leftovers, then?”

“Yup!” Deku grinned, practically skipping down the sidewalk. “I’m excited! I had fun with you guys last night, but I missed my mom’s food.”

Their classmates exchanged a look, and Half and Half shrugged. “I’ve not had your mom’s cooking before except for that one time she cooked for 1A. She’s the one who taught Baku-kun how to cook, right?”

Deku nodded. “Yup! Her cooking’s the best.” At Katsuki’s huff, he grinned and added, “Kacchan’s too, of course.”

“And you’re totally not biased there.” Brain Fucker shook his head, his steps slowing down as they walked up to the adults’ house.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “You’ve been here before, idiots. It’s just lunch.”

Deku bounded up the steps, opening the door and quickly taking off his shoes as they all followed him inside. “We’re here!” The nerd slid open the coat closet and quickly hung his up, then hung Katsuki’s and the others’ before storing his and Katsuki’s luggage at the bottom.

From around the corner, Katsuki heard the Old Hag shout, “We’re all in the living area!”

As they entered the open common area, a wave of nostalgia hit Katsuki at the smell of Auntie’s New Year’s dishes. And fuck, she’d made twice as much shit as usual—the huge dining room table was completely covered. All Might and the Lion Trio were there eating, but the other adults were all over by the couches.

“There you all are!” The Old Hag grinned at them, then waved Katsuki closer to where she was sitting, holding up several red envelopes. “We thought you had forgotten us and we’d get to keep our money instead of giving it to you.”

Katsuki grinned, quickly moving toward her and accepting the envelope she held out to him. “As if you would actually withhold this shit, Old Hag.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She passed Deku his envelope. “And here you go, Izu-kun.”

“Thank you so much!” The nerd bowed, taking the envelope with both hands.

“Hitoshi.” Aizawa-sensei’s voice was soft, but shit Brain Fucker looked like he was about to bolt. What the hell? The man sighed, then stepped forward, holding out an envelope and reaching up to pat Brain Fucker’s head. “Here. Happy New Year.”

Brain Fucker stared at him in shock. “You… you didn’t have to do this.”

“We wanted to!” Mic-sensei fucking tackled Brain Fucker, then took the envelope and shoved it against his chest, grabbing his hand from by his side and putting his hand on top of it. “So take it already, ok?”

“Right.” Brain Fucker clutched then envelope, doing his best to bow to them despite the fact that Mic-sensei was still hugging him. “Thank you.”

“Oh! I thought I heard voices. Are we handing out the envelopes now?” Auntie poked her head out of her room, then ducked back inside, coming out a second later and heading straight toward Half and Half. “Here you go, Shouto-kun!”

“I… for me?” Half and Half stared at her as if she was fucking insane.

“Of course! You’re a good friend to our boys. And it’s New Year’s day! So have a good new year, Shouto-kun.”

Half and Half swallowed, then reached out, carefully taking the envelope from her and bowing. “Thank you. I wish you a good new year, as well.”

“Thank you, Shouto-kun!” Auntie beamed at him before wavingover Brain Fucker, who didn’t move until Mic-sensei shoved him toward her. “Here you go, Hitoshi-kun!”

“You really didn’t have to.” Brain Fucker bowed as he accepted the envelope. “Thank you, Midoriya-san.”

“Nonsense! You’re both great friends to our boys. We’ve never given these to anyone but them, so it’s so nice to be able to do that for a change!”

“Okaa-san!” The nerd groaned, hiding his face, but Auntie just marched over to them, handing them both their envelopes, as well. “It’s a good thing, Izu-kun! With friends like this surrounding us, of course we’ll have a good year.”

Damn it, Katsuki could feel Deku’s fucking tears starting to well up.

“Thanks, Auntie.” Katsuki bowed his head and accepted the envelope, wincing as the Old Hag called out behind him.

“Oi! You two tall kids come over here, as well!”

Brain Fucker exchanged a look with Half and Half, and the two of them approached as Katsuki and Deku moved out of the way, grinning. Katsuki was distracted from watching her give them shit, though, when something tapped Deku’s elbow.

They both stared at the envelopes Aizawa-sensei was holding out.

Deku blinked up at the man. “For us?”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “We’re really going to have to do this with all four of you, aren’t we? Yes, for you, problem children.”

“Sorry!” Deku quickly bowed, taking the envelope almost reverently, and Katsuki did the same. “No one but our parents have ever given us any. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Katsuki bowed his head as he took his, as well. “Happy New Year and all that shit.”

The man sighed again. “Go see All Might next. He’s never done it before and keeps getting nervous. It’s annoying.”

All Might, too? They both turned to look for the hero, who was in mid-conversation with the Lions. Katsuki and Deku grinned at each other. New Year’s money from the number one hero!! Sometimes their life really did feel surreal.

“All Might!” Deku grinned at the hero, who looked at both of them in surprise. “Um, Aizawa-sensei said you have something for us?” The nerd’s voice turned nervous at the end, as if their other teacher hadn’t told them to come bother the man.

“My boys!” All Might coughed, patting at his chest, and Katsuki caught sight of two envelopes next to the Lion Cubs plate. One had a tiger playing with a ball, and the other had a lucky cat pattern.

“I, um…” All Might pulled at the side of his sweater, fishing inside the pocket. “Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. Where are…” he looked over to see Brain Fucker and Half and Half, both of whom were standing in the living room, staring at the envelopes in their hands in confusion. “Young Shinsou! Young Todoroki! Come over here as well.”

Katsuki didn’t think either one of the dumbasses could look more confused, but somehow they managed.

“Go, go!” Mic-sensei put a hand on each of their shoulders, pushing them toward the retired number one hero, and they both stumbled the last few steps.

“I have something for all four of you, actually.” All Might beamed at them, then handed out envelopes with each of their names. “May you each have a wonderful new year.”

Half and Half looked like someone had fucking broken him. He stared at the envelope in his hands. “You… All Might is giving me New Year’s money?”

“Ah… yes?” All Might looked over at the other adults around the room. “Did I do it incorrectly?”

“You did it right!” Half and Half hastily bowed, and it was deeper than he’d given to the other adults. “Thank you.” He straightened back up, clutching the four envelopes. “I’ll treasure all of them.”

“You ok, Todo-kun?” Deku was watching his friend in concern, and Katsuki frowned. What the hell? Why did Half and Half look like he was about to fucking cry? He used his arm to wipe at his face, then took a shaky breath.

“I apologize. Nee-san… she stopped by father’s house before coming to UA this morning, but he… she said he didn’t even realize what day it was. She tried to give me the New Year’s gift instead, but I wouldn’t let her. And then Mom had a gift ready for each of us even though she is in a hospital and now even everyone here did.” He paused, shaking his head, then turned and bowed to the other adults. “I appreciate the wishes for a good New Year. They’re the best I’ve ever been given.”

Brain Fucker gave a soft laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck. “What he said, I guess. Thank you. No one’s ever done this for me, either.” Brain Fucker bowed next to Half and Half, and then the two of them straightened.

All Might cleared his throat. “You are both very welcome, and I hope they bring you a fortunate year. Young Todoroki, I am sorry to hear that Enji still isn’t doing well. Perhaps I could arrange an off campus trip to go visit him.”

Half and Half gave All Might a bemused look, then shook his head. “I don’t think he’d appreciate that, but thank you.”

There was a noise on the stairwell, and Katsuki looked over to see Eri-chan emerging from the stairs, now in jeans and a t-shirt with a pink unicorn on it, and carrying what was the ugliest cat plushie Katsuki had ever seen. What the hell.

The Ghost Woman appeared behind them, and smiled at them all. “I’m sorry I missed your arrival! I was helping Eri-chan find places for her new toys.”

New toys? All the adults must have given her toys instead of money as a New Year’s gift. Their parents did that when they were really young.

Katsuki rolled his eyes as Eri-chan bounded over to Brain Fucker, showing him the damn cat and babbling about the other gifts she’d been given.

“Kacchan, will you get us food while I go put our envelopes in our jackets?” Katsuki shrugged and nodded, handing his envelopes to the nerd, who almost fucking skipped back toward the closet. Brain Fucker and Half and Half trailed after him, still looking somewhat dazed.

Katsuki wandered over to the kitchen to grab plates, then started piling them high with Auntie’s food.

Fuck it was always good to eat her cooking. Katuski plopped down on the couch, setting their plates on the end table, and Deku soon joined him with their drinks. The adults were watching the New Year’s bike race, and Katsuki absentmindedly watched as the different teams vied for first place. The nerd was trying to explain shit to Eri-chan about the race, but Katsuki kept the majority of his focus on his food, and when he finished that, he curled up against Deku’s side, resting his head on the nerd’s shoulder.

Damn, he was tired.

Katsuki didn’t want to have their New Year’s dream surrounded by everyone else, but it’s not like they could slip away to take a nap when the couch was their fucking bed. Katsuki yawned, fighting to keep his eyes open and watch the race. Slowly, though, they started to drift shut.

Deku’s entire body tensed.

Katsuki’s eyes shot open, staring in shock at the screen.

The bike race was gone.

Instead, in the middle of the screen, Hand Fucker lounged on a dingy couch with Marble Asshole sitting next to him, one arm resting behind Hand Fucker’s shoulders. Behind them, the other members of the League were all leaning back against the wall, minus Magnet Girl and the Warp Villain. Even Shitstain was there, standing in the corner and looking like he’d rather be fucking anywhere else.

Bastard.

The whole room was frozen, and then it burst into sudden activity as all the heroes ran to where they could see the tv and the Ghost Woman grabbed Eri-chan, picking her up and saying some shit about going upstairs.

Katsuki couldn’t tear his eyes from the screen. It was like Frankenstein’s video, but worse. What the hell was so important that the League would risk televising that they were all in the same damn location?!

“Welcome to the New Year! I wonder how many of you prayed this morning for us to be defeated when you visited a temple? Probably not many. We’re not your concern, after all. Not when there’s heroes who can stop us.” Hand Fucker sneered. “None of you care about people unless they’re standing right in front of you, stopping you from doing something you want to do.”

Hand Fucker leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees as he stared directly at the camera, a manic gleam to his eyes. “I know you don’t care. You think those little soulmates will save you. That they’ll let you keep living in your perfect little cookie cutter world. You’ll believe in any small ray of hope you can, as long as that means that you don’t actually have to do anything.” He spread his arms wide, laughing, “And how perfect! Two soulmates have appeared to save the day! You want two high schoolers to defeat a group of villains that even your precious All Might couldn’t destroy.”

Damn it! They would! People could trust them! Hand Fucker didn’t need to—

Shit.

The Marble Asshole and Hand Fucker were breathing in sync.

Katsuki’s heart skipped a beat. He wanted to fucking explode something. Anything. They were supposed to have more time before those bastards completed the bond.

But he couldn’t attack them. They weren’t actually here. They were on tv, and all Katsuki could do was watch. Frozen and useless.

“You ants think it’s ok to depend on high schoolers because they’re soulmates. That of course they’ll succeed because it’s fate. You think they’re so good, so virtuous that they’ll never do anything wrong. But those assumptions are wrong for two reasons.” Hand Fucker grinned as he held up two pale fingers. “I think it’s time that everyone should know the truth.”

Fuck.

No.

Was Hand Fucker going to tell everyone that he had a soulmate?!

They weren’t ready for that! Hand Fucker was supposed to hate his soulmate!!

The villain’s grin widened. “First: All Might has two soulmates. And second, your precious hero did something that even villains find terrible: he left them both.”

The man in question froze on the couch, both inventors automatically reaching to hold his hands.

“If anyone has shaped this society, it’s the number one hero. But not a single person questioned the supposed ‘fact’ that he doesn’t have soulmates. When he does! But David Shield couldn’t fight side by side with All Might, so your hero cast him and their other soulmate aside. He abandoned them, just like he’s now abandoned all of Japan.” The triumphant tone in his voice made Katsuki sick.

“Toshinori don’t you dare listen to him!” The Lioness’ voice was firm, but All Might didn’t get a chance to respond because Hand Fucker was speaking again.

“You’re all so eager to believe in the fantasy that soulmates are all-powerful that you don’t even realize soulmates live in fear of being discovered. Look at your precious little heroes: has their life gotten better since you brainless cowards found out about them? Why do you think their parents didn’t tell everyone the second they realized their kids were soulmates?” Hand Fucker’s grin made Katsuki shiver. “I bet your precious Zero Duo is miserable. I bet you’re driving them so insane with all your expectations that I’ll barely have to lift a finger to destroy them. Maybe I’ll make their dad attack them and do the dirty work for me.”

Shit, this asshole was enjoying this.

He knew they were overwhelmed, and he thought it was some kind of sick joke.

Katsuki wanted to throw up.

His head felt weird.

But it didn’t matter! They would win. They had to.

“So, mindless sheep, keep showing your precious duo how much you love them! Force those two to work themselves to death as they try to beat me. But remember they can’t shape fate if they’re dead! And guess what? It takes two sides to fight over a society’s fate.” Hand Fucker theatrically reached toward his shirt, and Katsuki swore his heart stopped as all five fingers touched the black fabric and it shriveled to dust. Marble Asshole’s shirt disappeared simultaneously, transformed into a marble with a flourish.

There, too vivid to be ignored, was a soulmark. A bloody hand stained both their chests, two cracked marbles nestled between its extended fingers.

Shit.

Fuck.

 

Hand Fucker grinned at the camera. “I doubt you’ll believe me that villains can have soulmates. You’re all so stuck in your stupid fairytales that you probably think these are merely tattoos. Well, Atsuhiro and I both just showed you our quirks. And unlike quirks, soulmate abilities have to involve two people, right?”

As if on cue, Frankenstein grabbed Shitstain’s arm, shoving him in front of the couch.

No.

“We’ll provide a demonstration, then, to prove our claim.” The Marble Asshole spoke for the first time and placed one hand on Shitstain’s shoulder. “Midoriya Hisashi, your quirk is on public record, but just so no one can doubt us, why don’t you go ahead and breathe some fire?”

Shitstain looked hesitantly between Hand Fucker and Frankenstein, who were standing on either side of the couch, blocking any escape. His shoulders sagged and he closed his eyes for a second, then took a deep breath, weak flames emerging from his mouth before he coughed on the smoke.

Frankenstein smirked.

No.

This… it was really Shitstain. Fuck, he didn’t remember Deku reaching for his hand, but now he was gripping it back as tight as he could. It felt solid. Real.

This couldn’t be happening.

The Marble Asshole’s hand stayed on Shitstain’s shoulder. “There you have it. Of course, he could be one of Twice’s doubles, but those are destroyed after too much damage, which means we can easily prove that’s not the case.”

Hand Fucker grinned. “It’s New Year’s Day, right? We have a gift for you, Zero Duo.”

Oh, fuck. NO.

Deku’s grip had become so tight Katsuki half-wondered if the nerd was going to break his bones, but he didn’t care, he was clinging back just as tightly.

“Get them out of here!” Aizawa-sensei was moving toward them, but Deku shook his head frantically.

“No! Please! He’s my dad. I have to know!”

Sensei paused, a pained expression crossing his face, but then Hand Fucker was talking again.

“Your dad’s so terrible he’s never even given you a New Year’s gift, has he, Midoriya? Instead he’s been helping your enemies for his entire life.” Hand Fucker sneered, and the hatred in his eyes terrified Katsuki. “I know how much you want to hurt him, Midoriya. How when you found out what he’d done, you beat him up so badly he’d broken multiple ribs and was unconscious for days afterward. How you must wish that you’d been able to kill him.”

“No!” The nerd shook his head, frantic tears starting to prick his eyes, yelling at the screen as if the bastard behind it could hear him, and Katsuki pulled their twined hands closer. “I didn’t… I’d never want that!” Deku’d never thought that shit!! He’d been terrified! But fuck, they hadn’t told the media how bad Shitstain had been hurt! They’d just said he was unconscious. That had been the right thing to do, hadn’t it?

Hand Fucker shrugged. “Of course, I’m your enemy. I couldn’t let him die, not when you’d want that, so we healed him. These days he’s a passable member of the League: your dad’s pretty good at information gathering and analysis, but I bet you already knew that you got that from him, didn’t you?” Hand Fucker’s grin widened. “Today, though, I’m feeling generous.”

Deku whimpered.

Katsuki flinched.
Fuck, what were they going to do? They knew from the attacks around the Feathered Menace’s agency that Hand Fucker’s soulmate ability could let him inflict injuries with just one touch, and they’d killed people with it, but the heroes didn’t know how it actually worked, not yet. The information would be valuable, but figuring out that info by watching them torture Shitstain—Fuck!

Hand Fucker held out his bare arm, and Knife Bitch skipped forward, fucking giggling as she lazily twirled a knife, then reached up, slicing across Hand Fucker’s arm. He didn’t even flinch as the long line of blood stretched across his entire forearm, a few drops falling to stain the ground.

Shitstain suddenly closed his eyes, hissing in pain, and the Marble Asshole grinned, leaning down and speaking in a calm, deadly voice. “Show your arm to our audience, Midoriya Hisashi.”

Shitstain took a steadying breath, then raised his arm, and Katsuki’s eyes widened.

It was in the exact same place as the cut on Hand Fucker’s arm, and it kept going, lengthening along his arm until it reached the same length as Hand Fucker’s cut, seemingly without cause.

Except the Marble Asshole was still holding his shoulder.

Katsuki looked over at Hand Fucker, who was now wiping the blood off with a small rag, revealing that his arm was once again uninjured.

Shit.

Fuck.

They could heal. And they healed by shoving their injuries onto someone else.

Damn it!

But this had just been a cut. There had to be limits, right?

Hand Fucker glanced over at Frankenstein and nodded.

Blue flames erupted around the leader of the League of Villains, disappearing a second later as Shitstain suddenly screamed, his whole body contorting in pain as angry burns suddenly appeared along every inch of visible skin.

Fuck.

Holy fucking hell.

Katsuki’s brain felt weird. Like… like he wasn’t connected to his body. Everything felt distant and there was this damn buzzing that wouldn’t stop.

Everything seemed slow, muffled, heavy. Out of focus. Like there was this haze in between his mind and all the shit around him, and Katsuki couldn’t fight his way through it.

On the screen, shit kept somehow getting even worse. How was that even fucking possible?

Auntie gasped, her hands immediately covering Deku’s ears to drown out the screams, not that it did any good when he could hear what Katsuki did. The nerd was staring at the screen, completely frozen as he watched searing blue flames erupt again and again, and the screaming just kept going. It kept echoing in Katsuki’s brain, piercing it over and over.

Auntie forced Deku to turn and the Old Hag was clutching Katsuki’s shoulders, pulling his head away. He shouldn’t let her do this. He should watch. He didn’t need protection, they needed more info! If they had more info maybe they could stop it. If they just did better, tried harder maybe–

But Katsuki couldn’t force himself to turn away from the Old Hag.

Those screams.

A shudder wracked his body, as if his ears were trying to close themselves by clenching his entire being.

Katsuki clung to Deku with one hand, and to the Old Hag’s shirt with the other. The fabric was soft. Her shirts always were. He needed… fuck!

They couldn’t…. They couldn’t let Hand Fucker do this. But there was nothing they could do! They didn’t know where he was! And fuck it was just Shitstain, but he was still Deku’s dad and–and no one should have to go through that and—Katsuki took a deep breath, his stomach practically in his throat.

What if it had been one of their actual parents?

His hand tightened around the Old Hag’s shirt.

He wouldn’t let it happen.

But there was nothing they could do, and the screams just kept—

Laughter.

Hand Fucker was laughing, but somehow the screams had finally stopped.

“Izu.”

Fuck, Shitstain’s voice sounded like absolute crap.

Deku shoved away Auntie’s hands, his eyes turning to focus on his father’s blackened, twisted form as the man slowly tried to push himself back up.

Katsuki felt like throwing up.

The figure lying broken on the ground didn’t even look human any more. The only thing that made it discernable were the clothes that remained eerily untouched upon his body.

And that ringing. That same fucking ringing he’d heard in the Feathered Menace’s office. Was it coming from the TV? It was filling Katsuki’s head and he couldn’t hear shit.

Katsuki couldn’t… his chest was tight.

Why was it so damn hard to breathe? Why did this stupid haze just keep thickening?!

When Shitstain spoke again, Katsuki could barely hear the pained rasp over the loud ringing, “This isn’t your fault, Izu. I don’t…”

Shitstain gasped and fell back to the floor, muscles spasming as Hand Fucker kicked his charred leg in disgust. “What, you want to give your son one last message? Tell him why you side with the villains? Why you’ve helped people who want to kill him? Try to make yourself out to be some sort of good guy?” Hand Fucker sneered, then kicked Shitstain again in the ribs.

A sickening crunching sound. Blood. Blood splattered the floor.

So much blood.

Out of the corner of Deku’s vision, Katsuki could see the adults staring in horror at the screen, but even with his own eyes closed and buried in the Old Hag’s shirt, Katsuki couldn’t stop staring at the screen through Deku’s eyes.

The broken figure heaved, unable to find the strength even to wipe the blood from his mouth and he rasped from his place on the stained floor, “I’m on your side! I told you. I hate heroes and how quirk-focused our society is.”

“That’s not good enough, I’m afraid.” Marble Bastard grabbed Shitstain’s hair, pulling him back up onto his knees, causing him to release a strangled gasp. “You see, Tomura-kun knows you can’t give the little hero soulmates a proper New Year’s gift, so we’ve decided to send a more unconventional one in your stead.”

Hollow, desperate eyes turned towards the camera. “Izuku, whatever they do to me, you can’t do anything at this distance. You’re too far away. Katsuki, soulmates should shield each other, not—“

Hand Fucker’s fingers closed around his face, and Auntie quickly covered Deku’s eyes.

Shitstain shrieked. And that sound, practically inhuman–

Silence.

The way the sound suddenly cut off sank a lead ball of dread in his stomach and stood his every hair on end.

They didn’t need to see to know what had happened.

Hand Fucker had moved with all five fingers extended.

Auntie was sobbing, her hands shaking as she hugged Deku. The nerd’s knuckles were white where he was gripping her shirt.

How could this be fucking real? How could no one have stopped him? Why hadn’t they been able to do anything! They’d just sat here and–

“Happy New Year, Zero Duo!” Hand Fucker was cackling. “You’re welcome for dealing with your pest problem.”

Bile rose up the back of Katsuki’s throat. It was all he could do not to hurl.

“Rest assured, citizens of Japan!” The Marble Asshole’s voice. They should look. They should watch what the villains were doing. But Katsuki couldn’t bring himself to push the Old Hag away. “As the descendant of the great Harima Oji, I have a message for you all: fate doesn’t distinguish between heroes and villains. We’re all equal players in this game of chess.”

Notes:

Side Scenes:
What Shiggy & Compress are up to. Well, besides murdering Hisashi (ZR spoilers)
Shinsou's PoV at the shrine
Inko's PoV of different New Years Days as the boys grow up

The boys will get lots of hugs next chapter, I promise <3 <3 Gosh, I've been waiting to share this chapter for so long. After writing that, it feels weird to do end of chapter pleasantries, but thank y'all all so much for the comments, and a big thank you to Brii, Yoru, and Geeky for beta-ing this chapter! And Pepper/ObsidianLacefor bouncing ideas around with me in the early drafts.

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 13: Dreams

Notes:

CW: This chapter starts with a panic attack. Make sure you're in a good mental space while reading, if need be <3

Static.

Buzzing filled their brains. An insistent ringing. It kept resounding on and on, like a roar inside their skulls.

Everything felt so distant and slow. Thick. They couldn’t breathe, they couldn’t—

Why were they moving? Something was shaking them. Auntie and the Old Hag had released them and were shaking their shoulders.

Aizawa-sensei was in front of them, saying something, but they couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel. Could barely see.

Nothing.

Ringing.

Buzzing.

That incessant tone reverberating everywhere, blocking everything.

They couldn’t think.

Sensei looked concerned. They should say something. Explain. They had to speak.

Katsuki opened his mouth, trying, but no sound came out. No air came in.

He… he couldn’t…

Katsuki’s hands frantically covered his mouth. Something was shoved in front of him. A basket. Katsuki was throwing up, barely registering the burn. There was a retching noise beside him, but Katsuki couldn’t move. Couldn’t look.

Fuck.

His hands felt clammy and weak, his fingers shaking as he clenched the basket’s rim.

That ringing.

Why was it so hard to breathe? The air felt thick around them. Like they were trying to force fucking molasses down their lungs.

Sensei was turning, saying something, and Brain Fucker was there.

Brain Fucker was saying something to them, his eyes desperate, but the ringing was so loud they couldn’t hear him. Couldn’t focus. Brain Fucker’s voice. They should respond.

Katsuki opened his mouth again, his throat tight.

Fog.

Why was there fog?

Had he said something? Had Deku?

Silence.

Silence!

The ringing was gone!

Brain Fucker sighed in relief, his voice strangely loud in the new silence. “Both of you take a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Keep repeating that until I tell you to stop.”

Katsuki inhaled.

Shit. Air was… air was good.

Brain Fucker rested his head on Aizawa-sensei’s shoulder, his hand shaking slightly as he gripped the man’s sleeve.

With each breath, Katsuki felt less like passing out. Thinking through the fog of Brain Fucker’s quirk was still hard, but it was hell of a lot easier than it had been a few seconds ago. One for All’s buzz at the back of Katsuki’s brain was a welcome hum, and Katsuki focused on that, trying to forget the damn ringing that had pounded his skull.

Why was the air kind of smoky? Katsuki didn’t remember releasing explosions or any shit, but the haze was thickest closer to Deku. The nerd must’ve let loose some blasts that they hadn’t heard because of that shitty ringing.

“Damn, that was some panic attack.” Brain Fucker’s voice was strained.

Panic attack?

Katsuki didn’t have… well, not besides that one in the Feathered Menace’s office. He had flashbacks sometimes, sure, but he had those under control. He’d never—

“Breathe. Slowly. In and out.” Brain Fucker was glaring at him.

Damn it. Ok, maybe he was having a panic attack. Maybe.

Fuck.

Shitstain was…

Fuck.

Katsuki focused on One for All again, frantically trying to think about any other shit than Shitstain’s scream and the way—

Fuck!.

Breathing.

Focus on anything but those damn villains.

Aizawa-sensei was still crouched down in front of them. When had that happened? He made eye contact first with Deku, then Katsuki. “I’m sorry. Neither of you should have seen that. But no matter what Shigaraki was saying, you two are not alone. You’ll never be alone; we’ll make sure of it.”

Not alone?

Right.

How could he say that with a straight face?

Katsuki was leaving tomorrow with Deku and their class to go to some shitty remote island. Even if there were other soulmates at UA, there wouldn’t be any on this internship.

They’d be alone.

Their classmates would be there, but….

Fucking hell.

Why did it feel like all this shit was crushing his chest?

Shitstain…

No one deserved that.

Not even that bastard.

“Then what he said is true? Those two are villain soulmates?” Brain Fucker’s voice was worried. Katsuki could barely remember the surprise he’d felt when Mic-sensei had confirmed that. Shit, it hadn’t even been one year since they’d learned about it themselves, but it felt like forever.

“It’s true.” Aizawa-sensei nodded. Katsuki struggled to focus on his voice through the fog of Brain Fucker’s quirk. “Usually whenever a pair reveals themselves governments will do their best to depict them as fake, and history does the rest. People would much rather believe that only heroes and public figures that they like can be soulmates, so they’ll accept any lie. But they do exist, and from everything we’ve seen, Shigaraki and Compress are soulmates. Bakugou learned about them during Kamino Ward.”

Brain Fucker’s eyes widened and he looked first at Katsuki, then Deku. He frowned. “Should I release my quirk? They aren’t fighting the command any more.”

“If you think they’re ready, yes. But be prepared to grab them again if necessary.”

Brain Fucker nodded, and suddenly the fog was gone.

Katsuki gasped, suddenly able to gulp down air instead of taking measured, forced breaths. He clung to Deku’s hand. “Fuck.”

“Dad!” Deku looked frantically at the tv, finally able to speak and move, but the screen was black. Katsuki could feel Auntie’s arms tighten around him the nerd through their bond. “He—“

“Oh, Izu!” Auntie was sobbing even harder, and the nerd froze at Aizawa-sensei’s grimace.

“They killed him.” Deku’s voice was almost a whisper. “I didn’t want to believe… I thought maybe…” He trailed off, his arms clenching around Auntie before he turned, burying his head in her shoulder once more. “They killed him. And they did it because he’s my dad.”

“Don’t you dare blame yourself, Izu!” Auntie shook her head, her voice firm as she pulled back to look at him. “Hisashi chose this path a long time ago when he started hanging out around villains and helping the yakuza. This isn’t your fault, you hear me?”

“But if he wasn’t my dad, the League would have left him at the yakuza house. He’d be safe in police custody! Not—“ Deku’s jaw clicked shut, but then he swallowed and continued, his eyes haunted. “Not dead.”

“Bullshit.” The Old Hag wrapped her arms around Katsuki again, her head resting against his, and the Old Man’s hand stroked Katsuki’s hair.

He couldn’t bring himself to move. One hand clung to Deku’s as his other twisted into the Old Hag’s shirt.

She was squeezing him way too damn hard, but Katsuki couldn’t bring himself to care like he usually did. “Hisashi knew this could happen when he started hanging around the wrong people. For all his faults, the guy was smart. He knew the risks.”

Deku fucking whimpered. “But…they tortured him! I never… I never wanted that! They said I wanted it, but it was an accident, back during the raid… I swear! I didn’t mean… Black Whip took over and I just…” The nerd’s eyes squeezed shut. “I never wanted to hurt him.”

“I know, Izu.” Auntie’s voice was soft, her hand stroking Deku’s hair. “I know. I believe you.”

Fuck.

Shitstain was dead.

Katsuki had wanted the bastard to leave Deku alone, but damn it, not like this! He didn’t actually want the bastard to die! To be fucking murdered as a sick present just because he was Deku’s father and the Leauge was claiming to do them some sort of twisted ”favor”.

Katsuki’s body shuddered. What if… He didn’t care about Shitstain. He didn’t. But… Katsuki pulled back, frantically looking at the Old Hag. “You have to stay at UA. While we’re gone on this stupid internship shit, tell me you’ll stay here and you won’t leave, not even for work.” He paused, glancing behind her at the Old Man and then turning to look at Auntie. “All of you.”

Deku’s breath sounded choked, and the Old Man’s hand shifted from Katsuki’s hair to his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “Of course we will. I’m sure our bosses will understand the need for us to work completely remotely right now.” The Old Man looked over at Aizawa-sensei before adding, “Is that internship still what’s best? Surely we could make the Commission reconsider things so that the boys can stay safe at UA.”

Aizawa-sensei sighed and exchanged a look with Mic-sensei before shrugging. “We’ll ask Nezu to work on it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. The Commission has been annoyingly insistent.”

“But Hisashi was just—“ Auntie stopped, her voice choking, and she pulled Deku closer. “Oh, baby.”

Fuck.

Now Auntie was crying again, which meant any second and— shit. Deku was starting to cry, too, and unbidden dampness was pooling at the corners of Katsuki’s eyes because of the bond.

Katsuki felt numb.

He hated Shitstain.

He’d hated him, but…

But Deku was crying.

The nerd had always wanted to know his dad.

And now the man was dead. Dead because Hand Fucker knew it would hurt Deku.

“We’ll make sure the boys are safe.”

Safe.

Katsuki didn’t even know what that word meant anymore.

They were going to be heroes. They couldn’t hide from these bastards. But their parents… fuck, they were the ones that needed to be kept safe. All three of their quirks were fucking useless in a fight.

Damn it!

“We’ll hold a press conference tomorrow.” All Might was talking. Katsuki couldn’t bring himself to turn and look at the man. “After what Shigaraki said, Dave, Jess, and I will need to make a statement. And a press conference will keep everyone focused on us while the boys travel.”

Katsuki didn’t want to go.

They had to go.

He wanted to do something.

But he didn’t want to leave their parents. Not right now.

Mic-sensei said something. He’d left at some point? Katsuki didn’t know when. But now he was back and talking about something Nezu had said. Saying the Commission insisted the mission would be important “experience”.

Katsuki didn’t understand.

Deku’s fingers flexed against his, then tightened their grip once more. Katsuki’s shoulder felt strained from the awkward angle, but like hell he’d let go of Deku’s hand right now. He also still couldn’t bring himself to pull away from the Old Hag. Usually Katsuki hated it when she and Auntie hugged them at the same time because it was way too damn much. Their bond made each of them feel both hugs at once, amplifying the sensation, but right now Katsuki didn’t mind.

He closed his eyes, trying at least to focus on the low rumble of conversation.

Deku was crying. So was Auntie.

Katsuki’s cheeks felt wet.

Hawks?

Why the hell were they bringing up Hawks?

Katsuki shifted, turning in the Old Hag’s arms so that he could see Mic-sensei.

Oh. Because he was a fucking “spy”.

Katsuki didn’t know whether to believe that or not, since his shitty soulmate was Frankenstein.

Hawks had somehow gotten news to their teachers that the villains had gathered a lot of allies. They were planning something big, but would be stuck in the north for four months. Aizawa figured that Hawks must’ve told the Commission as well and that’s why they were insisting Katsuki and Deku wouldn’t be in any danger on an island in the south. .

That… that was good.

Shitstain had been an easy target. He’d been right there. But their actual parents were at UA. UA wasn’t in the north. Hand Fucker couldn’t get to them as easily.

But he’d managed to hurt All Might, even while the hero was ‘safe’ at UA.

Katsuki glanced over at the former number one hero, who had moved back to the kitchen table at some point and was whispering with his soulmates and their cub.

Fuck.

All Might… fucking hell, why had he been so damn stupid? Why had he abandoned his soulmates like that? If everyone lost faith in soulmates… Shit, they were already losing faith in heroes, as it was.

And their New Year’s fortunes…

They had to leave.

They had to show people they weren’t afraid. That they were still going to help society. If even All Might’s name was tarnished, then society had no one else to turn to. Katsuki and Deku were their last hope.

They couldn’t hide at UA.

Katsuki knew that.

They couldn’t afford to stay safe.

Aizawa-sensei was talking to the Old Man. Saying they were going to find a way to send someone with 1A, even if the Commission insisted that the heroes were spread too thin to spare any.

Someone had turned on the news. The Old Hag was watching it. Some shitty news anchor was saying Shigaraki might be right about All Might. That the Shields had all been staying at UA since Nighteye died.

The news didn’t know whether it was true or not.

At least they didn’t think Deku had wanted Shitstain dead, because of course the nerd hadn’t.

Katsuki didn’t know how long they stayed like this. How long he let the Old Hag hold him. How long the Old Man stroked his hair. How long Auntie clung to Deku. How long the nerd’s hand was glued to his.

He felt weird. Distant. Like the touches weren’t actually happening to him, even though he knew they were. His family was here.

That scream.

It wouldn’t leave his mind.

It was stuck on repeat, over and over and over and—fuck.

The Old Hag was moving. Pulling away from him.

Katsuki looked up at her, and she stroked his forehead, straightening out his hair. Katsuki wanted to scowl at her soft smile, but he couldn’t bring himself to. “It’s always been hard to accept that you two had some history-changing future. Part of me wanted to ignore it. There’s so much pressure to raise kids right, even when they’re normal, but you two… How do you raise a kid who’s supposed to shape society?”

The Old Hag shook her head. “There have been so many times that I wished you didn’t have this bond. That you were just two normal boys and you didn’t have to deal with any of this. Because you shouldn’t have to. You should be able to just enjoy high school and train at a normal pace. But for whatever reason, fate’s a bitch and she decided you two boys would have to live through hell. But we’ve always been there to support you, and we always will be, even if we’re not standing right beside you.”

Damn it.

It was Deku’s fault that Katsuki was crying. He wasn’t… he was fine! They were fine. He wanted this! They’d always wanted this. They were going to be the best heroes this world had ever seen.

But they hadn’t known what it would mean.

Not really.

They had never thought about the fact that even the best heroes still lose people that they love. Still struggle to keep going.

The Old Hag’s hand brushed softly across his hair again, distracting him. “This trip will be like when you went to elementary school—we’ll be behind you, making sure the teachers and principal and everyone else don’t make shit worse.”

Katsuki snorted. Fuck, it had been so long since he’d heard the Old Hag go off on someone for quirkless discrimination. “Hand Fucker’s not some scaredy-cat principal you can intimidate.”

“And that’s why we’ll stay safe at UA.” The Old Hag squeezed Katsuki close once more. “But like hell am I just going to sit back and let that bastard think he can sway public opinion without anyone fighting back.”

A smirk tugged at the edge of Katsuki’s mouth. “You’re not a fucking reporter.”

“But I know some. And I know how to convince everyone to follow a new trend.” The Old Hag winked at him. “So you let us worry about public opinion and all that shit. You two go on your internship, relax and take lots of pictures. The normalcy will help.”

“But…” Deku paused, sniffling, and he shifted in Auntie’s lap so that he could face the Old Hag. “If we post pictures, won’t people know that we’re down south? There’s only so many places in Japan that are warm this time of year.”

“There’s a lot of islands in the East China Sea.” Katsuki looked over to see Aizawa-sensei leaning against the wall next to Mic-sensei, where apparently they’d been talking to each other. “And who’s to say you’ll even still be in Japan? We’ll spread rumors that after Shigaraki’s video, we decided to send you abroad for your safety. Make sure that the photos don’t include any street signs, business names, or anything in Japanese. And turn off location marking on the photos. Hatsume can help you with that.”

“Ok. We will.” The nerd’s breath stuttered, and he closed his eyes. “Just… stay safe. Please. If Shigaraki hurts one of you, I don’t…”

The Old Hag reached over, setting her hand on top of Deku’s and Katsuki’s joined hands. “We will, kid. I promise. And you two have to stay safe, too. This island is supposed to be quiet, but if any damn thing happens, you let us know, ok?”

Deku nodded.

Aizawa-sensei spoke up from the other side of the room. “The Commission has all the UA teachers working on various cases over break, but some of those cases are down south. We’ll make sure that one of us is always close to where the island is.”

“Thank you.” Auntie sniffled. “I know you all are so busy, but we really appreciate how dedicated you are to keeping the boys and us safe.”

“Of course.” Aizawa-sensei nodded awkwardly, then pushed himself away from the wall. “It’s late, and we’ll have a busy morning, plus the boys really need to sleep.”

“Yes! Right. You’re right.” Auntie squeezed Deku tight one more time, then bit her lip as she stood up. “Why don’t you two go take your showers and we’ll clean up the room and pull out the bed for you?”

Katsuki blew out a shaky breath. About the last thing he wanted right now was to be alone with his thoughts, but he was fucking exhausted.

He blinked, only just now realizing that Half and Half and Brain Fucker were gone. They must have headed back to the dorm or some shit.

…

It was already dark outside.

Fuck, how out of it had they been? How much time had passed?

“That, um. That sounds good. Thank you, Okaa-san.”

“Use the bathroom upstairs.” Mic-sensei grinned at them. “It’s communal like the ones in the dorms, and you two probably want to stick close together right now, yeah?”

Deku nodded, his hand still clutching Katsuki’s as they both slowly stood up from the couch.

Nothing felt real. How could the rooms look just like they had yesterday? Like nothing had changed? It all felt like someone would jump out any second and tell them it had all been a lie. That the villains hadn’t just…

Damn it.

Katsuki stared at the blank entryway wall as Deku grabbed the bag from the closet that had their clothes for the night. The Old Hag had pictures everywhere in the entryway of their actual house. This one, though, had always been empty.

This blank wall was normal, but at the same time, so far from what ‘normal’ used to have been.

They trudged back through the common room toward the stairs, but Deku couldn’t even smile when Eri ran to greet them the second they reached the second floor. The Ghost Woman quickly intercepted her, but Katsuki didn’t even know what she said. Or what Deku said back to her.

Everything felt numb.

Katsuki forced himself to keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other. To enter the communal bathroom, clean himself off, then sink into the warm water with Deku. Thank goodness the layout to this one was like the dorm’s bathroom, just smaller.

They had been hiding so much shit… and now everyone knew. Everyone knew Deku had attacked his shitty dad. Everyone knew All Might had soulmates. That he’d abandoned them. Everyone knew Shigaraki had a soulmate.

Fucking bastard.

There had been that other shit at the end, too. The Marble Asshole had said something. Some name. “Who the fuck is Harima?”

Deku’s eyes slowly opened from where he sat across from Katsuki, his head halfway submerged. He hummed a little, then pulled himself up so he could talk. “Harima Oji’s an old villain—a thief who took money from the rich and gave it to the poor. He’s one of the top five most famous villains in Japanese history.”

Katsuki leaned his head back against the rim of the tub. “You know I never bothered with remembering dumbass villains.”

“The League is probably using the connection to bring in new recruits. It doesn’t even matter if Mr. Compress is really related to him as long as no one can prove that it’s false.”

Katsuki scowled. He hated all this shit. He just wanted to blast them all to hell. “Do you think it’s true?”

“There is a physical resemblance to old photos of the thief, but who knows.”

Katsuki didn’t know what to say. It was easier to talk about this shit than….

Damn it.

Not even Shitstain had deserved that.

“I think the Shields might be in danger.”

Huh? Katsuki opened his eyes and looked back at Deku. “Dad…” Deku paused, swallowing, then continued, “I think he knew they were going to kill him, but for most of it he was still trying to find a way out. Then at the end when he realized he couldn’t, he… His last words don’t make sense. Why would he tell you that soulmates should shield each other?”

Fucking hell. “Do you really believe that spineless coward would defy them by trying to slip us a hint?”

The nerd couldn’t meet Katsuki’s eyes. He was silent for a few seconds, studying the scars along his arm from when Katsuki had been kidnapped. “I think it was more out of spite than defiance.”

Katsuki snorted. Yeah, that tracked.

“I feel terrible, though. Because I want it to be true. If the League is focusing on the Shields, then they’re less likely to attack our parents. And if it’s true…Dad will have done one thing that’s at least a little good.”

Katsuki frowned. Was Shitstain even capable of trying to do the right thing? “The Shields are staying here in the same house as our parents. Is it really that damn different?”

Deku groaned, sinking back into the water so that only his eyes and hair were visible.

Katsuki needed to say something. Needed to reassure Deku. “Aizawa-sensei—“ No. Sensei had said some shit about staying on the coast near them. Damn it. Well, it’s not like the principal ever left. “Nezu-sensei will make sure they stay safe at UA. Apparently the Old Hag still has tea with him and they’re best friends or some shit.” Katsuki shuddered. At least that alliance was working in their favor.

Deku’s eyes looked dead.

Like Hand Fucker had already beaten him.

Katsuki hated it.

Deku’s eyes always revealed what he was thinking. But now they were just…. Empty.

Katsuki nudged the nerd’s foot with his. “Oi. We’re gonna win.”

Deku offered him a smile, but it was weak and it didn’t reach his eyes and Katsuki wanted to wipe it off his face. “We will.”

The nerd pulled himself out of the water again so that he could talk, his arms now wrapped around his legs. “But what else will we lose? I can’t… I can’t lose anyone else, Kacchan. First Nighteye, now Dad, I can’t…”

Damn it!

Katsuki surged forward, ignoring the splashing water as he grabbed Deku and kissed him, clinging to the nerd’s shoulders and slightly breathless when he pulled back. “To hell with all that shit. We can’t show weakness. We have to move forward and be strong. Neither of those deaths was your damn fault. And we’ll save as many fucking people as we can.”

“Right.” Deku’s grin was at least a bit more genuine this time, even if it was still weak. “But we can be smarter about things. Post fewer photos of us with our friends. Make it hard for these villagers to be able to know who we’re close to. I don’t… I can’t pull away from everyone. Not like All Might did. But I have to do what I can to protect them.”

Katsuki scowled. Deku was the one who had wanted shitty friends for his entire life. And now he wanted to hide? Hell. No.

Fucking bastard.

Katsuki would destroy Hand Fucker for daring to make his soulmate scared. Deku was never afraid! The last time Katsuki had seen him look this weak, this uncertain….

Katsuki couldn’t help but remember Deku’s blank, tear-stained face after he’d been told he was quirkless. Of the way he’d watched the All Might video over and over, not even saying a word.

At least Deku was talking this time, but Katsuki still hated it. He growled. “Oi. We’re fucking soulmates. So what if they are, too? We are going to shape fate. We are going to beat their asses. And we are going to make sure that the future looks the way we want.”

The nerd nodded, his eyes gaining more of their usual determination. “You’re right. If we focus on the what-ifs, we might as well be letting them win. We can’t do that. We have to move forward as best we can.”

Katsuki grinned back at the nerd. “Let’s make the most of this damn training.”

“Right!” The nerd’s nod was a lot stronger that time, and he stood up, climbing out of the bath. “Come on, Kacchan. There’s one more thing we can do to make sure we’re prepared for the new year: sleep.”

Katsuki swallowed, his eyes following Deku as the nerd moved toward the changing area.

The New Year’s Dream.

Fuck, with everything that had happened, he’d completely forgotten about that shit, but they hadn’t slept enough last night to actually have their first dream of the year.

Katsuki sighed, pulling himself up out of the water and following Deku to dry off and change. “I don’t even know how the hell I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I want to think about training regimes and all that shit, not fucking dreams.”

“Yeah…” The nerd’s smile fell, his arms pausing for a second before he shook his head and continued pulling on his shirt. “Mom usually has some sleep aids. We should probably ask for some. I don’t want… Well, it would be better to have the dream while we can still talk about it with Aizawa-sensei.”

Katsuki grimaced and nodded. He hated relying on that shit, but Deku was right. If they wanted to be as prepared as possible, they needed to have this dream. They’d never had a ‘bad fortune’ dream, so maybe it would balance out Katsuki’s shitty fortune from the shrine.

When they went downstairs, the room was empty except for Auntie and the Old Man, who were putting up the food from the afternoon. The nerd went straight to her, hugging her and wrapping his arms around her waist. “Promise you’ll stay safe?”

“Of course, Izuku. Mitsuki and the heroes are with Nezu and the other teachers right now, planning out how we can all stay safe.”

“Good.” The nerd stepped back, then awkwardly looked between Auntie and the Old Man as Katsuki walked up beside him. “Do either of you have something to help us sleep? We haven’t had our first dream of the year, so…”

“Of course!” Auntie nodded, immediately moving toward the fridge and pulling out a container. “You two didn’t have dinner, either. Masaru, would you warm up this salmon for them? And get some almonds and walnuts. I’ll go get some melatonin from my room.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and grabbed the nuts for them while the Old Man started warming shit up. It’s not like this place was organized that differently from their house. He knew where all the shit was and didn’t need the Old Man to do it for them.

Once they got their food and the sleeping aid, Auntie asked Deku if he was sure he didn’t want to talk to the Ghost Woman before they left. The nerd shrugged, saying he didn’t really want to talk to anyone about it, or at least not yet, and that the Ghost Woman should stay with Eri-chan. Auntie had looked at Katsuki, then, but he had glared back at her, so she had just sighed and returned to cleaning up.

The Old Man didn’t leave, though. He’d made himself a salad and sat next to Katsuki, eating with them in silence.

It was nice. It reminded Katsuki of when the Old Man would work at the dinner table sometimes while Katsuki and Izuku did school shit.

Fuck, middle school felt so long ago.

By the time they’d finished eating and taken the melatonin pill, Katsuki felt exhaustion creeping up on him as his head hit the pillow. The nerd latched onto him, curling around Katsuki, and he shifted, his eyes closing as he rested his head against Deku’s green curls.

This was how every night should be. Here with Deku, feeling comfortable and secure in each other’s arms. No matter what happened, they would always have each other. Anything else simply wasn’t an option.

Katsuki let his body slowly relax, focusing on Deku’s soft breaths as he fell asleep.

 

He was surrounded by a forest. The morning air felt brisk and cold, urging him to fly faster. He gazed across the treetops, calling out as he stretched his wings.

Another hawk gave a cry of joy, circling around him and then pulling slightly ahead, chirping back at him in a clear taunt.

His mate.

Katsuki flew faster, returning the challenge, and the two of them darted over the trees, dancing in the sun’s early rays.

Two larger hawks joined them, calling out and veering toward the mountain that towered in the distance. His mate gave a happy chirp and followed the two, and Katsuki pushed himself past his partner, urging their race to continue as they darted toward the older hawks.

As they neared the mountain’s base, catching an updraft that would help them climb to its heights, the ground began to rumble and crack. Katsuki cried out in alarm, veering to avoid the collapsing trees and quickly flying higher toward safety as the ground began to cave in, opening into huge bottomless pits. The mountain kept groaning, the ground crashing all around them and dust rising, making it impossible to see anything, to even find his mate, something slammed against his chest, sending him plummeting toward the bottomless chasms, rocks being flung all around them, a pained cry pierced the air—

Katsuki shot up, clutching his chest, and the nerd’s arms instantly wrapped around him. Katsuki barely registered that the room was pitch black—What the fuck was going on with that dream?! “What the hell does that shit even mean?!”

Hawks and Mt. Fuji were two of the most auspicious symbols you could get! But shit. Four hawks?! Four meant death! Which was obviously the worst symbol! And Fuji had fucking collapsed! Plus there was the fact that the hawks could mean the Feathered Menace and fuck, Katsuki really didn’t know what the hell to think about this shit. Or if the other hawks were supposed to be another soulmate pair with them—it could be their Sensei or the third years, and hell, Katsuki didn’t know if he wanted it to be one or the other because Fuji had fucking collapsed on top of them.

Katsuki clung to Deku’s arm as the nerd buried his head in his shoulder. “I wanted a good dream. I wanted something that could help. Not--” The nerd stopped with a choked sob. “After this morning’s fortune… I don’t want you to be hurt.” Fuck, Deku sounded like he was about to cry. “Kacchan, we got the symbol for death.”

“I won’t fucking die.” He couldn’t. They had too much shit left to do, and like hell Katsuki would leave Deku behind like that. “That dream was confusing as hell, but there were still hawks and Mt. Fuji. Maybe we’ll have a lot of great shit as well as a lot of shit that’s fucking terrible.”

Deku’s arms tightened around him. “No matter what, we’ll stay together, right?”

“Always, you dumbass.” The hawks had stayed together. Even if Katsuki hadn’t seen Deku through the debris, he knew they had stayed together.

There was a quiet creak across the room, and Katsuki and Deku immediately turned, squinting at the stairwell. Someone was holding up a cellphone and using it to light the room, but they couldn’t tell who. And now a second figure was behind them?

Katsuki heard a soft sigh as the two figures approached.

Oh. Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei. Their homeroom teacher was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but Mic-sensei… The adults all must know about their status as soulmates, because he didn’t have a shirt or chest wrap on.

Katsuki couldn’t help but stare at their soulmark.

Shit, it was nice to see a colored mark that wasn’t their own. After seeing that bloody hand on Hand Fucker and Marble Asshole’s chests… Katsuki shuddered. He hoped he never had to see it again.

Aizawa and Mic-sensei’s mark was so much more comforting: a lion roared in the center of Mic-sensei’s chest with a silent, red-eyed panther lurking behind it.

Damn it. No one could look at that and wonder who either of their soulmate’s was. Just like Katsuki and Deku’s marks.

Katsuki swallowed.

He loved their mark, but every day he understood more and more why Aizawa-sensei was so paranoid about hiding them.

Not that it mattered anymore. Not for them.

Aizawa-sensei stopped next to the bed, setting his phone on the couch’s armrest but leaving the flashlight setting on so that they could see each other. “How bad?”

Deku looked down at his lap, and Katsuki glared at him.

The hero sighed. “It was your first of the year, correct? You didn’t look like you got any sleep last night.”

“We got a little sleep, but um.” The nerd shrugged. “Not enough to dream.”

Katsuki wanted info. “If you’ve already had your damn dream, what was it?”

“Not pleasant, but there were some positive signs.” Damn him. Aizawa-sensei’s voice wasn’t revealing shit.

Deku’s hand reached for Katsuki’s as he started talking, “We were hawks, flying together, along with two other hawks, and we’d almost reached Mt. Fuji when the whole mountain just… crumbled, and we lost sight of each other. Something hit Kacchan and someone cried out in pain, and then we woke up.”

Mic-sensei groaned and sat down at the end of the bed, rubbing a hand over his face. Aizawa-sensei sighed and looked at the ceiling. “That’s the same dream for all six of us.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened. “What?!”

Mic-sensei’s fingers idly brushed against his mark as he looked out into the dark room. “We had the same dream. Toogata and Amajiki, too.”

Aizawa-sensei frowned. “Text All Might.”

Mic-sensei nodded absently, already pulling out his phone.

“All Might?” Deku looked up at their teacher, confused. “But there’s three of them. All the hawks were in pairs.”

“If six of us are having the same dream, the numbers are purely symbolic.”

“But that’s…” Deku’s voice trailed off, afraid to say it.

Death.

Four meant fucking death. And when a soulmate died… fuck. Holy hell, that could easily lead to a disaster worthy of a symbol like Fuji collapsing.

Mic-sensei’s phone vibrated, and he sighed before setting it aside. “The same damn dream. Two hawks at the start, joined by two others, and then Fuji collapsing as one of them is hit.”

Aizawa-sensei was silent for a moment. “I’ll reach out to Hawks.”

“You’re still in contact with him?” Katsuki knew he’d failed to keep the surprise from his voice. They’d mentioned Hawks earlier, but Katsuki hadn’t wanted to think about that asshole.

Aizawa-sensei noded. “Somewhat. He’s too deep in enemy territory for even coded messages, but I can talk to the feather that he gave you. Dabi will usually text me later with an answer, but the number he uses changes every time. He’s clearly never happy about not knowing who I am.”

Katsuki scowled at the mention of the villain’s name. Was it really enemy territory if the Feathered Menace was with his fucking soulmate? “Do you think Hand Fucker and the Marble Asshole had the same dream?”

“It’s hard to say. Certainly not impossible, but Shigaraki and Compress are acting on their own and these hawks were clearly acting as a group. To our knowledge, Shigaraki and Compress aren’t even aware of Dabi’s mark.”

Which meant the grouping of four would only fit the heroes.

Damn it.

But if any soulmate deserved to die, it should be one of the fucking villains who were going to cause whatever shitstorm would happen!

Katsuki growled in frustration, his free hand clenching to prevent an explosion from escaping.“What does the dream even fucking mean?!”

Another heavy sigh before Aizawa-sensei responded, “There’s no way of knowing until it happens, unfortunately. Whatever it is, it will involve all of us, and will likely include both great victories and great tragedies.”

“But Sensei, if one of us…” Deku squeezed Katsuki’s hand, his voice trailing off.

“We’ll do everything we can to prevent the worst case scenario, little listener.” Mic-sensei’s voice was too tired to be reassuring, even if he was trying to be. “You know we will.”

Katsuki took a deep breath and looked over at Deku. “The Tall Bastard said that soulmates defy fate, right? It’s our fucking job. With all of us working together on whatever this shit is, there’s no way one of us will die.”

The nerd gave him a wobbly smile.

Aizawa-sensei’s hand rested on Katsuki’s shoulder, and they turned as one to look at the hero.

“Whatever this trial will be, we’ll face it together. You two won’t be alone. So don’t seek danger on your own. When the time comes, you’ll have help. The dreams prove that much.”

“Which means it won’t happen during this training shit.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “Yes, but you won’t be alone on the island—This evening we negotiated and the Commission allowed us to send the Big Three as well as require everyone on the island to sign an NDA about your presence there.”

“But if Mirio-senpai and Tamaki-senpai are going, we’ll still be a group of hawks! What if this disaster happens to two groups and not all of us at once?”

“Then it wouldn’t make sense for ‘Zashi and I, or All Might and the Shields, to have the exact same dreams. Whatever happens, all of us will be there.”

“But there could be different details!” Damn it, Deku’s voice was still panicked.

Aizawa-sensei sighed, then launched into a description of a dream that was word-for-word exactly what they had seen, with him getting hit instead of Katsuki. At the end, Sensei paused, then ruffled Izuku’s hair. “The exact same as yours, right?”

The nerd slowly nodded, his shoulders relaxing. “So… whatever it is, the chances of it happening on the island are slim.”

“Exactly.” Mic-sensei gave them a tired smile. “But still let us know if anything happens, ok? We’re serious about you never facing anything alone, no matter what the Commission says.”

But if they didn’t face it alone, someone might die.

Could it really be worse if they did shit alone?

But that might guarantee that either Katsuki or Izuku might die, damn it!

“Don’t think about it.” Katsuki looked up to see Aizawa-sensei frowning at him. “We want to help. Remember, All Might and the Shields also had the same dream.”

“Sho, Melissa’s going, too. She’s supposed to help with their support equipment.”

Aizawa-sensei’s eyes closed in frustration. “Still. The pieces don’t all fit. What fortune are we on the verge of achieving?”

Mic-sensei shrugged.

Aizawa-sensei sighed, then looked back down at them. “Even on the island, you won’t be alone. You’ll have UA’s big three at your side, as well as all of your own classmates. Work together, and you can overcome any trial. But this island hasn’t seen a villain in decades. Logically, the chances of the incident happening this week are slim.”

But big villains had a tendency to attack Katsuki and Deku, no matter where they were or who they were with.

Mic-sensei cleared his throat. “I could ignore the Commission and go with them.”

“Be logical. We didn’t get enough official hours of Hero Work in over the summer. If we don’t file some work this week, the Commission could put our licenses on probation.”

What the fuck?

“They won’t. We’re UA teachers. Teachers regularly don’t make the required hours and it’s always overlooked.”

“Yes, normally that’s true, but if you don’t meet the hours because you specifically disobeyed them?” Aizawa-sensei shook his head. “They might not look the other way after something like that. We can’t jeopardize our ability to help everyone in the future.”

“Wait.” Izuku frowned, looking between the two heroes. “You’re always training us. And guarding us. Are you in trouble with the Commission because of that?”

“Not yet, little listener.” Mic-sensei gave them a tired smile. “And guard-duty technically counted as work hours, even if we didn’t get them approved as an official mission or whatnot! But because of the new rules about overtime work, a lot of people are questioning how heroes spend their time. Which means we can’t afford to step out of line more than we already do.”

Aizawa-sensei rubbed at his eyes in frustration. “I’ll help with cases down south, as close as I can to that island. I don’t like this.”

“I know, Sho.”

A week on their own. A week without bodyguards. Where the League could come and… no. “If the Blond Asshole and Pointy Ears will be with us, the four of us can take on anyone. And we’ll have the other third year and all our classmates, too. We’ll be fucking fine.” Even if Hand Fucker himself came after them, with that combination of people, he couldn’t touch them.

“That’s the theory, but let us know if anything happens.”

“Of course, Sensei!”

The man sighed. “Will you two be able to get some more sleep? We have another three hours before we’re supposed to load the vans.”

Katsuki grimaced. After dreaming that death was somehow in the future for, if not them, then another pair of soulmates?

It used to just be him and Deku that they had to worry about. But now…

Damn it.

A hand rested on his head, and Katsuki looked up to see the two heroes watching them.

“We won’t let any soulmates die.”

Katsuki swallowed. Right. They’d spent years fighting for soulmates’ lives.

Mic-sensei gave Izuku’s shoulder a pat, then stood up. “At least use this time to rest, even if you can’t sleep, alright? You have a long day tomorrow, whether we like it or not.”

Notes:

I'm back!!! again!! I've got this arc mostly finished and every Monday I plan on posting chapters here or in one of the other Zero fics. So stay tuned! Thank y'all for waiting so long and with such an evil cliffhager, and ty to my server members and Geeky for beta-ing this chapter!

Also uh, I can't remember what I've said in prior A/Ns, but school is officially over for me :D Yay for life milestones! But uh... I can't do anything with my degree bc of chronic health/disability stuff that happened during my degree program. I was in a... low mental state, let's say, for a while as I processed that, but I'm mentally better now :D Self-employment is pretty much my only job option, so I'm starting a business by using my graphics and 3D printing skills to make anime merch. Which... yeah, that probably surprises no one given the merch details in this series XD Anyway, if you're interested in supporting me in that, here's my linktree.

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 14: Nabu Island

How the hell everyone in this damn house managed to be subdued while running around and preparing for the shitty day, Katsuki had no clue, but they managed. It was like no one had gotten any damn sleep last night, not even their parents.

Which…

Fuck it, Katsuki could understand why Auntie didn’t sleep well. Maybe the Old Hag had stayed up with her? But neither of them had come out of Auntie’s room while Katsuki and Deku had been talking to their teachers. And All Might and the lions had their shitty press conference today, so… ok, yeah, maybe everyone had a fucking good reason for a terrible night’s sleep. Katsuki didn’t know what the hell All Might could even say to fix his mess.

Auntie had been the first to emerge in the morning, insisting that Katsuki and Deku still try to get some sleep as she rummaged around the kitchen. They had plenty of leftovers, but she probably wanted something to keep her mind off shit.

Katsuki had curled around Deku and pulled the covers over their heads, but eventually they both got up, as well.

It’s not like they could get any sleep.

Auntie didn’t ask how their dream was. Either she’d heard them talking last night from her room, or their expressions said enough.

When the Old Hag emerged, she brought a huge fucking box of their merch keychains and dropped it next to their luggage, ordering them to sign each one and hand them out before returning from the island. All fucking 1,000 of them—one for each resident on the island.

After way too damn many hugs from their parents, Aizawa-sensei herded them toward the dorms where the buses were waiting. Thank fuck the man got them there early enough that no one else had arrived, yet, and Katsuki could retreat to the back with Deku.

Brain Fucker soon joined them, sitting across the aisle and giving them a tired nod.

As the rest of their classmates arrived, it was like they were walking on fucking eggshells.

No one was mentioning the League’s broadcast.

Glasses and Round Face sat in front of Deku and Katsuki, acting like some kind of barrier and shooing off anyone who dared to approach.

Well, anyone besides Pikachu, who just stuck his tongue out at them and slipped past Brain Fucker to sit in the window seat. Half and Half sat in front of the other couple, soon joined by Shitty Hair as Katsuki’s other two idiots sat in the next seat up.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. They were being fucking ridiculous. “You don’t need to create a damn wall. We’re fine.”

All eight of them froze.

Round Face turned around, her cheeks puffed out in annoyance. “Maybe I’ll believe you when Zu-kun actually remembers to say ‘hi’ to us.”

Damn it.

“Hi, Ochaco-chan. Everyone.” The nerd managed a small smile. “Sorry, I’m just a bit tired, that’s all. Didn’t sleep well last night.”

Brain Fucker immediately stiffened, giving them a worried look, but Katsuki glared back at him. Hopefully the bastard was just tensing because of the nightmares that fucking broadcast could cause, not because he knew about the damn dreams.

“Try your best to get some sleep on the bus, then.” Glasses probably thought his smile was reassuring, but it grated on Katsuki’s nerves. He didn’t want to deal with anyone right now, damn it. “We’ll do our best to make sure it remains a quiet ride.”

As if it would be anything but. You could hear a damn pin drop in this vehicle.

“Thanks, Iida-kun. We’ll try.” Deku yawned, then curled up, his knees resting against the seat in front of them as he leaned his head against Katsuki’s shoulder and closed his eyes.

Katsuki scowled at the others, who were still watching them, and they all gave him apologetic looks before turning back around.

“Remember how when we were little, you would always force whoever was in the back to give us this seat?”

Katsuki scoffed, looking down at his soulmate. “Little shits always tried to put stuff in your hair if I let anyone sit behind us.”

The nerd gave a soft hum and nodded. “This is better. Everything else sucks. This, though. This is nice.”

Katsuki was too exhausted to deal with this sentimental shit. He grunted, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the nerd’s. Maybe it was nice to have people watching their backs instead of plotting pranks on them, but like hell Katsuki would ever admit that crap.

There was a shout of surprise, but it didn’t sound alarmed. Katsuki opened one eye to note that the Blond Asshole, his soulmate, and the floaty girl had arrived and were greeting people, along with the Lion Cub.

Right.

It wasn’t going to be just their classmates on this internship.

For better or worse, there would be two soulmate duos.

At least if one of them was going to get hurt badly, it would be Katsuki or one of the third years. He wasn’t looking forward to that, but fuck it, Katsuki never wanted to sit uselessly on the sidelines again, only able to heal Deku like in that damn fight with Overbeak.

The nerd wrapped his arms around Katsuki’s, somehow nuzzling even deeper into the crook of his neck, and Katsuki closed his eyes again with a sigh.

Sensei and the third years would be able to react fast enough if something actually happened on the bus ride.

They could rest.

The next thing Katsuki knew, something was shaking his shoulder. Wait. Not his shoulder. Deku’s shoulder.

Katsuki opened his eyes, glaring at Round Face, who blinked and looked between him and Deku in confusion.

Oh. They’d both opened their eyes at the same time again. The Jean Giraffe would be mad at them for that.

“Ok, your whole synchronous thing can be really disconcerting, but good morning! Again.” Round Face’s smile faltered, and she looked over her shoulder toward the front of the bus. “We’re at the harbor. Aizawa-sensei wants us all to switch from the bus to a boat. Apparently the hero Tsu-chan interned for will be taking us somewhere.”

Right. Sensei had mentioned this place was an island in the south.

Katsuki yawned, his jaw cracking as Deku thanked his friend, then leaned forward to grab their shit. Everyone else was mostly off the bus, only a few of their classmates remained, all at the front struggling to get their bags over the bus seats.

Damn idiots had overpacked. They would only be here for a week.

Katsuki put on his backpack and kicked his suitcase down the aisle, not even bothering to pick the piece of shit up.

“Kacchan, you’re going to break it.”

“Am not. It has wheels for a reason.”

“Yeah, but the bus floor isn’t exactly smooth.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes affectionately and picked the piece of shit up once they got to the front and he had to carry it down the stairs. “Look, it’s still intact.”

Deku gave a soft snort and stepped off the stairs behind him. Everyone else was already on the damn boat, so they quickly moved to join the class, only barely noticing Aizawa-sensei following them.

His damn soulmate ability made it so easy for him to sneak around everywhere.

The boat wasn’t small by any means, but the deck was still cramped as hell with twenty-three students and a full crew on board.

Katsuki and Deku managed to squeeze themselves along the railing, sitting on their suitcases so that they took up less room. Deku had the box of keychains in his lap, still closed and unsigned.

Aizawa-sensei cleared his throat. “Besides a few select personal at the Hero Commission, only Nezu and the people on this boat know your destination for this internship: Nabu Island. You will all be tasked with helping the citizens with whatever they need and learning how to run a hero agency. The locals have all signed a non-disclosure agreement promising not to reveal the identity of their interim heroes this week, while the rest of the world believes that UA is sending you all somewhere international for your training. It is of the utmost importance that you do nothing to make them believe otherwise. Social media posts are fine, encouraged, even, but check everything to look for even the slightest hint of your location. Amajiki must approve each post. In all other matters, Selkie is in charge on this boat and follow Toogata’s instructions on the island as if they were my own. Any questions?”

“Sensei, you’re not coming with us?” Frog Girl was frowning, and the others looked increasingly worried. Katsuki couldn’t blame them. The last class trip…

Fuck.

The League was in the north.

Aizawa-sensei shook his head. “I have other missions that need my presence this week, as do all the other teachers. Originally this was intended to be a mission for solely 1A, but given yesterday’s events, we’ve asked the Big Three and Melissa Shield to accompany you. We do not, however, believe that you will be in any danger. Nabu Island’s crime rate is the lowest in the entire country.”

Their classmates all exchanged looks.

“Is it true then?” Abyss peeked out from underneath Edgelord’s cloak, his golden eyes creased with worry. “The forces of darkness also possess a pair acknowledged by fate?”

It was like the entire fucking class froze.

No one would look at Katsuki and Deku.

Damn it! If even their own classmates were this psyched out by this shit, how badly was the rest of society reacting? They’d been in too much of a daze yesterday to watch the fucking news, but—

“From what we know, yes, it’s true.” Aizawa-sensei’s voice was calm, as if he was stating what they’d be eating for breakfast and not confirming the existence of a villain soulmate duo. “All Might is holding a press conference this morning to go over that and other matters.”

Pinky gasped. “What?! But… If All Might’s holding it, did he really…” Her voice trailed off, horrified, and Sensei’s jaw tightened.

“All Might had his reasons, and you can watch the recording of the conference once you reach the island. But we cannot stay here for much longer. He’s holding the conference right now so that everyone will be watching him while you all are en route. We have to stick to the schedule or that effort will be in vain. Any further questions about your training?” When everyone was silent, Aizawa-sensei nodded to the Seal pro hero. “Then I leave them in your care.”

“We’ll make sure they all reach Nabu Island safely!” The Seal saluted, then turned and started some damn lecture on boat safety. Katsuki didn’t pay attention, instead watching Aizawa-sensei as he left the boat and slunk back toward the bus.

Something felt wrong.

Aizawa-sensei paused, turning back toward the class. “If you have questions when you return, any of the staff will be happy to talk with you, including All Might himself. Do not bother Melissa Shield with questions just because she happens to be your support staff this week. For now, focus on this firsthand experience of learning how an agency functions.”

Why did Katsuki not want Sensei to leave?

It wasn’t danger sense. It was probably just fucking paranoia after all the shit had happened.

According to the Feathered Menace, the League was in the north.

1A was heading south.

So why did Katsuki feel like someone was going to jump out and attack him at any fucking second?

Shit, they’d actually been able to relax for a one damn day, and then…

Fuck.

“Bakugou?”

It was only a whisper since the Seal was still talking, but hearing his name jolted Katsuki from his thoughts. He blinked, turning to look at Brain Fucker. The asshole raised one eyebrow. “You two ok?”

Katsuki scowled. Were they that fucking obvious?

“We’re fine, Toshi-kun. Well, not fine, really, but better than yesterday.” Deku gave his friend a tired smile, and the asshole nodded, even if he clearly didn’t believe a word Deku said.

They weren’t going to fucking hyperventilate or whatever that shit yesterday had been.

They couldn’t afford to.

Their classmates kept looking at them when they thought Katsuki and Deku weren’t watching, which meant they couldn’t afford to show any kind of fucking weakness. Not where other people could see.

It was just Shitstain. They’d known everything else before this. They’d known about All Might’s fucking terrible decision. They’d known Handfucker and the Marble Asshole. Hell, they knew about Frankenstein, too.

Nothing had changed, really.

Shitstain had already been dead to them.

The fact that he’d actually died, that he’d been tortured just to get to them…

Damn it!

Katsuki fought to keep from shaking his head to try to get rid of the memory–like hell he’d give these dumbasses more reasons to worry about them.

To distract himself, Katsuki pulled out a bag of keychains from the fucking endless box, and the permanent pens packed with them, and started signing shit. A few seconds later, Deku took one of the keychains Katsuki had finished and added his own signature.

Katsuki wished there was a better way to distract his stupid brain. Signing shit just wasn’t enough. It at least worked a little bit, though, because Katsuki had no damn clue how long the boat ride lasted. It had to have been at least a few hours, but he couldn’t tell you shit about what route they took. They’d never been on a boat ride like this because the Old Hag got seasick.

Thank fuck Katsuki hadn’t inherited that particular issue.

Or maybe he had? His chest felt… weird. Tight. Like there was this burning pain on the left side. Wasn’t seasickness supposed to be nausea or some shit?

He glanced over at Deku, who had stopped signing shit and was rubbing his chest absently—the left side. Deku always rubbed where their mark was, right in the middle.

What the fuck? Whatever the hell this was, Katsuki didn’t like it.

“Alright everyone! We’ve arrived at Nabu island! As I take us to the dock, get ready to disembark and listen to Lemillion-san’s instructions!”

Deku started putting the keychains away, and Katsuki sighed, ignoring the pain for now and sorting the keychains so that all the signed ones were in one part of the damn box. They’d finish this shit later. Right now, they had to do hero work. Every second in the public eye counted, and there was already a crowd gathering as the boat approached the shore.

“Everyone ready for your first job as independent heroes?” The Blond Asshole’s grin was wide as ever—no one would guess that he was worried about these stupid death-predicting dreams. “The mayor is supposed to meet us at the dock and he’ll give us a tour of the island before taking us to the agency. Once we’re there, everyone will suit up and I’ll begin assigning you your tasks. So let’s get ready to… ____.” The Blond Asshole put his hand up to his ear as if listening for something.

Silence.

Katsuki rolled his eyes as a few of the dumbasses gave a polite chuckle and the blue-haired third year giggled. “You always try so hard, but your jokes are so bad!” She stood up from where she was sitting by the Lion Cub, then patted the Blond Asshole’s shoulder. “It’s ok! I think you’re funny. I’m gonna go say hi to everyone and get people to back away from the dock, ok?” Without waiting for a response, the third year floated into the air and flew toward the shore, waving at the gathered crowd.

The boat was slowing down now, the rumble of the motor quieting to a low hum as they began to approach the dock. The slap of the waves quieted, too, no longer slamming against the side of the boat as it raced over the water’s surface.

Even though the people looked excited, there was a tense energy about the crowd. Despite their smiles, everyone’s shoulders were tight, their eyes darting toward the boat and then glancing away.

Damn it.

Deku’s grip tightened on the box of keychains. “We should hand them out. The ones we’ve already signed today, at least.”

Katsuki grimaced. “Yeah, sure.” It would be a pain, but whatever. “At least that way we won’t have to stop and sign their shit.” Between his interning with the Feathered Menace and the Jean Giraffe, Katsuki had learned that it was definitely faster to hand out pre-signed shit.

“Why don’t you two follow me off the boat first?” Katsuki glanced over to see the Blond Asshole giving them a thumbs up. “We can draw the crowd further away and make room for everyone else to disembark.”

“Ok.” Deku’s smile was still tired and fake, but if the Blond Asshole noticed, he didn’t say shit. “It’ll be great to have the chance to thank them for hosting us on their island.”

Hah. As if the Hero Commission would’ve given these people a choice. From the sound of it, the Commission had been determined to ship the two of them off for a week. What Katsuki didn’t understand was why.

The boat slowed to a stop, and some girl with fin ears tossed a rope to the third year girl who’d flown ahead so she could pull the boat’s edge closer.

An older man stepped forward from the crowd of villagers, smiling at all of them, though it was a little strained. “Welcome to Nabu Island! We’re thrilled to have you as our interim heroes for the week!”

Right. Because everyone wanted to host teens who were regularly attacked by villains.

Damn it! They wanted to reassure people with their presence, not scare them!

That stupid asshole’s livestream had gotten to everyone’s heads. They had to find a way to fight back and beat the bastard at his own game.

“Thank you for hosting us this week!” The Blond Asshole bounded off the boat as if it had always been the plan for him to be there. “UA will be happy to help you however we can.”

Katsuki followed behind Deku, grabbing their shit and slowly weaving through their classmates. He focused on stepping out-of-sync, making sure that his movements didn’t match up with his soulmate’s.

Katsuki’s steps did not waver at the sudden change in terrain. And Deku’s didn’t either. If anything, the nerd’s steps became more assured as he came to a stop next to their senpai, his fake-ass ‘reassuring-hero smile’ falling into place. “If there’s anything we can do, let us know! Kacchan and I brought some gifts for everyone. I hope it wasn’t presumptuous of us…” The nerd’s voice faltered as he looked down at the box of keychains in his hands, but one of the little girls in the crowd squealed, darting past her mother’s legs and peering into the box. “Keychains! They’re all new and signed! We never ever get stuff like this here!”

That made the nerd smile more genuinely, and he picked one out of the box, handing it to her. “I’m glad you like them.”

She nodded, bright blue pigtails bouncing before she dashed back to show her mom.

Deku looked up at the crowd, then back at their classmates. “Um, if you don’t mind, can we give these to everyone on the other side of the pier? That way our class will have some room to unload everything.”

“Of course, thank you so much!” The first old guy responded, shuffling the crowd over to the side. “We were so surprised when the Hero Commission informed us that you two would be coming as interim heroes while they looked for a more permanent replacement for the area’s now-retired hero.”

The Blond Asshole responded, but Katsuki tuned them out, focusing on being nice and shit as he passed out the damn keychains. At least he had Deku by his side and the crowd wasn’t able to surround them. If anything happened, they could launch backwards and—

Fucking damn it!

These were civilians.

The League wasn’t here.

There weren’t any villains and danger sense would alert them if shit happened.

Everything. Was. Fine.

What had the Ghost Woman said? Something about fear being illogical, so rationalizing shit didn’t always work. Not that Katsuki was afraid! But she said to focus on observing details around him to calm himself down and internalize that the situation was fine, if shitty.

So Katsuki counted how many of the villagers were wearing blue. Then how many of them had brown hair. Then started guessing ages. By the time they finished passing out shit, Katsuki was feeling a little less like launching himself off the pier so that he could watch for any threats from afar. Their classmates had unloaded the boat and were waving goodbye to the Seal Hero as the boat backed away from the pier.

The old guy that had welcomed them took the lead, giving them a tour of the island as he walked away from the beach, through a tourist-trap shopping center, and toward a building in the very center of the island.

Katsuki carefully memorized the route, recording the name of each street they passed and all the different buildings. The shopping center was pristine, its landscape beautifully designed and overflowing with color, but as they started walking through the residential area, flowers were replaced by trees and bushes in desperate need of pruning. Weeds pushed their way through sidewalk cracks and ‘roads’ were really just packed dirt.

Their classmates kept looking back at him and Deku, and it was annoying as hell. They didn’t need to be this fucking worried! They shouldn’t be worried at all, damn it!

It had only been Shitstain.

They were fine.

Katsuki ignored the dumbasses.

When they reached the hero agency, Katsuki wasn’t surprised to see that the building was falling apart. It wasn’t as bad as the Grandpa’s agency, but it could use a fuck ton of remodeling. Besides everything looking like a twenty year old office space, it wasn’t too bad. Creaky floors, dying plants, and holes in the rice paper walls were annoying, but at least the place had two floors and there would be plenty of room for everyone to spread out.

The second the villager left, the Blond Asshole took over, sliding open the rice paper doorways upstairs to create a large, open sleeping space for all the guys, and a smaller one next to the bathroom for the girls. “Alright everyone!” The third year clapped his hands and grinned at them all. “Put your things away and meet me downstairs after you’ve changed into your hero costumes! We’re officially on duty for the week.”

Katsuki didn’t care where the other idiots slept; he and Deku made sure to get spots underneath one of the front-facing windows so that they could slip out quietly if needed.

Nothing was supposed to happen. But if it did… well, they would be ready. And if nothing happened, after all, they could always use the windows to slip outside at night and get some extra training. They had to make the most of this week without classwork.

Once they’d rolled out two futons under the window—thank fuck Glasses didn’t protest them sleeping next to each other—they headed to the restroom to change into their hero costumes before meeting back downstairs for whatever briefing the Blond Asshole wanted to give.

Except when they walked out of the restroom, all their shit had moved.

Katsuki glared at their classmates, who were all standing around the room, watching them both warily. “What the hell? Why’d you move our shit?!” Instead of by the window, their futons and bags were now in the center of the room, surrounded by everyone else’s crap. Katsuki stomped toward their bags as he growled, “We don’t need your fucking protection!” And they didn’t want to be surrounded by anyone, no matter how much they might trust these dumbasses.

“We know, man!” Shitty Hair—whose bag was suspiciously right next to Katsuki’s—clamped a hand on Katsuki’s arm, stopping him from moving their shit back. “We know you guys are awesome, ok? But we want to help. And don’t lie to us and say you’re ok. You’re not. You guys aren’t even doing the walking in sync thing!”

Katsuki groaned. “That’s because we’re around civilians and have been practicing to hide that shit. It has nothing to do with yesterday!”

“Really?” Round Face’s eyes were narrowed. Fucking asshole, doubting them about shit.

“It’s the truth!” Deku turned toward Half and Half, “Todo-kun! Tell them Best Jeanist made us practice it!”

Half and Half nodded. “You have been training to do things differently. But you are upset about yesterday.”

Deku winced. “Yeah, but…You guys, yesterday is exactly why you can’t do this. We really appreciate the support, but this is dangerous.”

“That attitude is exactly the problem!” Pinky huffed, crossing her arms across her chest before adding, “This week is supposed to be about relaxing and being out of the public eye for a bit. We’re on a beach island! You should be having fun and forgetting about the League, not training yourselves to death or worrying about where the best defensive spot in every room is.”

What the fuck? “I don’t know what crap you’re here for, but that sure as hell isn’t what we’ll be doing.” Pinky had to be joking. UA was out of the public eye. Every minute they were on this island, they would be watched. Evaluated. Judged on whether or not he and Deku could protect the nation’s future.

“Kacchan’s right.” Deku sighed. “We know not to overwork ourselves with training, and thank you for caring about us, but this really is dangerous, you guys! Every minute we act close to you all is a chance that a villain might decide to target you. What if one of the villagers comes upstairs and sees this arrangement? They’ll immediately know how much you care about us, which could be used against you.”

“Deku.” Round Face marched over to them, standing square in front of the nerd and glaring at him. “Do you really think one of these villagers would tell a villain about that?”

“Not intentionally, but if they made a post about your support being nice or something, then—“

“It doesn’t matter.” Round Face shook her head. “Everyone already knows that Class 1A is close. We’re in “candid” pictures with you guys all the time! And even if people didn’t know we’re friends, you two don’t get to decide if we can risk our lives to help you. That’s our decision. And I’m going to be selfish and spend every minute I possibly can right at your side.” She glanced over at Katsuki, adding, “At both of your sides. And you’ll have to fight me to make me move.”

“Me as well!” Glasses nodded and moved to stand beside Round Face. “You two have helped me through my own troubles and reminded me what true hero work should always be about. I will gladly risk my life to help you, just as you both did for me.”

Half and Half stepped forward from his futon, which was right by Deku’s shit. “You are the first friends I ever made, and you’ve always cared about me, not my connection to Endeavor. I don’t care if people know we’re friends. In fact, I’d like people to know that.”

“Me too, man!” Shitty Hair grinned at Katsuki. “I don’t care what people say or do. I’m super happy that we’re friends, Baku-bro! And I always will be, no matter what happens.”

“Yeah!” Pikachu was fucking beaming, the idiot, and his stupid-ass boyfriend was nodding along.

“Dumbasses. Don’t you fucking get it?! If villains think they can hurt us by hurting you, then they could kill you, just like—“

Deku’s hand squeezed his, and Katsuki’s mouth clicked shut.

“I care about you guys. I care about you so much more than… than him. You’re my first friends. My only friends besides Kacchan. And I can’t—“ Deku bit his lip, and Katsuki could feel his fucking tears already, damn it.

“Midoriya-san… “ The Vice Pres stepped forward, wringing her hands. “I think I speak for us all when I say that we were so worried for you yesterday. And we still are. We are going to be heroes. We are not afraid to put our lives on the line to do what’s right. And today, the right thing is to support our friends however we can. So please, let us be here for you both.”

Deku sniffled, “I can’t ask that of you all.”

“You’re not asking us, ribbit.” Frog Girl tilted her head to the side, giving Deku a small smile. “We’re telling you that we want to support you, no matter what. Aizawa-sensei is right: we’re stronger together.”

“Uh-huh!” Pinky stuck out her tongue, pointing at Katsuki. “You’re stuck with us mister! And you! You still owe me that shopping trip to Mastermind.”

“What the hell?!” Shopping trip? Oh. Right. He’d promised they could use the Old Hag’s discount or some shit, but Hand Fucker had shown up. “We can’t go to malls right now, dumbass!”

“You still owe us, though, dude.” Spider-Man was grinning now, too, damn him. “So you can’t get rid of us.”

A shopping trip could be in disguise! It was not the fucking same as risking their lives by being seen with them, damn it! Fucking idiots.

“You’re going shopping?!” The blue-haired third year floated up from the stairwell, gasping in surprise. “Take me, too!”

“We’re not going shopping, damn it!” Katsuki glared at the girl. “I just said we weren’t!”

“Awwww.” The third year pouted, then shrugged. “I guess most of the shops here are closed this week, anyway, since there aren’t any tourists. Mirio wanted me to come check on you guys since you’re taking so long. Is everything ok?”

“Of course!” Glasses chopped at the air, then motioned for them to head toward the stairs. “We were merely having a discussion, but that has been resolved. Right, Midoriya-kun? Bakugou-kun?”

Damn him.

Deku frowned at the class. “I guess. Just… be careful. Please.”

“We will be, Zu-kun!” Round Face gave the nerd a hug before turning toward everyone else and pumping her arm up in the air. “Let’s go, everyone! It’s time to be heroes!”

The class cheered, a few of them rushing to go change now that the ‘talk’ (or whatever that shit had been) was over. Katsuki shoved his hands into his pockets as he stomped downstairs. They were in their summer hero costumes, so whatever pictures they took, it would be obvious that the climate was warm. He’d also left his grenade bracers upstairs since they shouldn’t be in heavy combat while they were here.

Even if danger sense wasn’t registering anything, Katsuki still felt like any second now, something was going to happen.

Deku was tense as hell, too.

Yet, as the day wore on, nothing happened.

The Blond Asshole assigned them areas to work and patrol routes to check on the whole island. They split into rotating teams and did all the menial shit that small-time heroes had to worry about, and by the end of the day, Katsuki was starting to think that this island might be as quiet as people had said.

Apparently the island usually had a fuck ton of tourists, but they had closed the harbor this week so that no one would know 1A was here besides the locals. The public reason was that they would be renovating the shitty docks, which meant that a bunch of them would be assigned to help with that damn project.

Katsuki was beginning to wonder if all heroes had to do this much fucking construction work.

The Blond Asshole put the Lion Cub in charge of distributing hero tasks at the docks since she actually knew about construction shit, and she’d picked Katsuki and Deku to help her out, along with the Vice Pres, Round Face, and Frog Girl.

They spent the entire first two days at the docks, and the third day was looking like it wouldn’t be much different. At least it was a fucking work out and they could train with Black Whip. Doing multiple tasks at once was still hard, especially if those tasks were small and detailed. No wonder the Feathered Menace loved that meditating shit, he probably had to focus on each of his feathers just like they had to focus on all these damn strands doing different things. It was way too fucking much to balance. And the Feathered Menace sent out hundreds of feathers all the damn time.

Part of Katsuki wished he could ask the bastard for tips.

But his soulmate is the villain who had fucking kidnapped Katsuki for the League.

Katsuki couldn’t trust him. Not anymore. Even if part of him wanted to.

“It’s sad because you two aren’t even trying to show off, you’re just doing this for the training opportunity.”

Katsuki looked up to see Round Face sigh as she watched him and Deku. He growled. “It’s not like this shit is easy!” It was fucking difficult to hold the boards in place with two strands of Black Whip while sharpening a third strand to cut along the lines the Vice Pres had drawn for them.

Round Face rolled her eyes. “That’s comforting, I guess.” She tossed a measuring tape to Deku, who caught it. “Since you’re not using your hands, would you hold that for me? We keep misplacing it.”

“Sure!” The nerd beamed at her as if she wasn’t using him as a fucking tool box. “Kacchan and I are almost done with cutting the wood, what should we do next?”

Round Face rocked back on her heels, frowning for a second in thought. “Yaoyorozu should be done with marking the next set by the early afternoon… Melissa-san, why don’t they take a lunch break next? There’s not really enough time for you to start a different project before the next boards are done. And Kaminari was whining that they didn’t get any good pics of you two that they could post yesterday.”

“Sounds good to me!” Lion Cub’s voice came from the other side of the pier where she was attaching some shit near the water’s edge.

Deku nodded. “Kaminari’s helping remove excess electricity from the island’s generators, right? Since they don’t have as many people here this week.”

Great. Katsuki grunted his agreement as Round Face confirmed Pikachu’s location. Posing for the camera was not Katsuki’s idea of a break, but whatever. It would probably help with peace of mind or some shit.

At least they would be able to stop at the island’s shopping district on the way there. The food selection was pretty good for a tourist trap. Deku had wanted ‘simple burgers’ last night, but he’d promised they could try the tataki today, which you could rarely find outside the southern islands.

When they finished cutting the boards and Katsuki suggested they go grab tataki, though, Deku protested, “You’re just trying to get out of taking pictures.” The nerd stuck out his tongue. “We can try the local specialty for dinner. We should eat something quick for lunch.”

Damn it. “Pikachu’s out in some shed, it’s not like right now is the perfect time for pictures.”

“True, but Kaminari-kun isn’t the only one who’s good with a camera phone. Ochaco-chan said that Mina-chan is at the beach. And no one can tell where we are if the only thing in the background is some waves.”

Katsuki frowned. The beach food had looked shitty, though. All the stalls had been advertising ‘cool and refreshing’ food rather than anything that actually fucking tasted good.

“Come on, we can stop by the agency to switch into swim gear really quickly. It’s supposed to be a break, right?” Deku’s smile was nervous.

Katsuki sighed.

The idea of taking a break like that still felt fucking weird. At least they’d be doing something productive, even if photo shit wasn’t how Katsuki would like to spend lunch. “Fine, but you better not forget the damn sunscreen.” Deku burned way too fucking easily.

Once they’d changed into beach shit, Pinky was helping pick up litter and shit, and she whistled when she saw them both. “Hey soulmate boys! Showing off your tattoos?”

Deku turned such a bright red that Katsuki could feel his own cheeks starting to burn, and he glared at Pinky. “They’re not tattoos, dumbass. The Old Hag wanted us to take some ‘casual pictures’ and we’re on lunch break right now. Can you take the damn photos or should we find someone else?”

“I can do it!” She bounded toward them, setting her half-full trash bag next to the garbage can that she passed. “You guys go play in the water for a few minutes.” Pinky grinned at them as she pulled out her phone from her hero costume’s pocket.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He’d never understand why some people enjoyed taking shitty pictures so much.

“Come on, Kacchan! Race you!” Deku ran ahead, but Katsuki was running one second later, blasting toward the water as orange and green lightning flickered around both of them.

They both plunged deep into the water, the warm waves lapping against their skin.

Deku won, but barely. And only because he’d gotten a head start! Katsuki opened his mouth to yell at the nerd, but froze when Deku gave him a bright grin. “I win!”

Fuck, he looked adorable.

His green hair was soaked, each strand plastered against his head instead of poofing up like usual. The sunlight was damn near sparkling in his eyes or some shit, and his cheeks were still a little red from blushing earlier.

Deku’s grin shifted, a mischievous glint entering his eyes, and Katsuki’s heart skipped a beat as warmth rushed down his spine.

Until something yanked on Katsuki’s ankle, pulling it out from beneath him and sending him crashing under the water.

Katsuki pushed upward, coughing water out of his lungs as he glared without real heat at Deku and the single strand of Black Whip that was floating around him. “You little shit.”

Katsuki lunged, tackling Deku and sending them both crashing into the oncoming wave. He called on his own tendril of Black Whip to block Deku’s quirk, and everything was a jumble of limbs and gasping for air as they wrestled with each other, pushing down whatever they could reach, but always feeling each shove against their own skin, slippery with the salt water.

When they finally broke apart and resurfaced, panting, Katsuki gave Deku a victorious smirk. “Now I win.”

“You do not!”

“I totally kept you underwater longer than you did to me.”

“But that wasn’t part of the race! And I pulled you under first!” Deku’s eyes shifted, and Katsuki quickly turned around to catch the beach ball that had been about to slam into the back of his head.

“You weren’t supposed to catch that, meanie!” Pinky stuck out her tongue. “If you two want me to take pictures, you need to stay above the water!”

“Sorry, Mina-chan!” Deku waved back at her, still beaming and only a little sheepish. “Thanks for the ball!”

Katsuki shrugged. He didn’t really care about the pictures, but if they were going to do this shit, they should do it right. He stepped back a few paces, making sure they were parallel to the shore before he tossed the ball toward Deku, aiming above his head so that he’d have to back up a little.

Except Deku’s eyes narrowed, and then Black Whip shot out, its tip tapping the ball back toward Katsuki.

Katsuki grinned, pulling his own Black Whip out as well, and then they were sending the ball back and forth, each trying to push the other back further, or to make them reach higher.

“Oi!” Pinky was yelling at them again, though Katsuki had no clue why. They would both be visible in any pictures. “You’re supposed to have fun, not find a new way to train!”

The nerd laughed, pulling out another strand of Black Whip so that he could hit the ball that Katsuki had sent spiraling to the right. “We are having fun, I promise!”

Katsuki didn’t even bother to respond.

Eventually, though, their stomachs growled, and they took that as their cue to head toward the shore and grab some food from one of the stands. They’d drifted out surprisingly far, and Pinky was nowhere nearby, so she must have gotten enough pictures to satisfy her wannabe-photographer side. When they reached the shore, Half and Half had just sat down at a table with three plates of hot dogs and fries. He glanced up as they neared the food area and called out to them, “I grabbed some for you. Ochaco came by and said the boards are ready whenever you finish lunch, but Mina said you haven’t eaten yet.”

Damn it. Nosey classmates. Katsuki wanted tataki, not this crap.

“Thanks, Todo-kun!” Deku hopped down onto the wooden bench next to his friend, and Katsuki reluctantly joined them.

“I’ve never had a hot dog before, but the man at the stall said it was a ‘visitor favorite’.”

“Fucking Endeavor.” How much shit had the asshole’s father ruined for him? “Hot dogs are basically a staple of fast, cheap, and easy food, so shitty stalls like these usually have them.” Katsuki bit into his. It was passably decent, he supposed.

Half and Half shrugged. “I’ve never had something from a food stall before, either. Endeavor never liked going to festivals and Okaa-san always preferred restaurants on the few occasions she took us out to eat.”

“You’ll just have to try lots of the things while we’re here, then!” Deku beamed at his friend, who nodded and ate a bite of the hot dog. His expression didn’t change, but he ate another bite, so he must’ve liked it somewhat. After he swallowed, he pulled out his phone and set it on the table with a news article on the front screen. “Can I…” He paused, frowning, then slid the phone toward Deku—it looked like one of the top fucking news sites, damn it. “I wanted to talk to you both. I don’t know what to do. Or if I should even do anything.”

Fuck.

All Might and Endeavor Guilty of Villains’ Allegations - The Top Two Heroes Confess it All.

Underneath the headline was another story–the Feathered Menace had visited Tartarus to see some prisoner.

Katsuki didn’t want to think about why the hell he’d go there.

“Endeavor held a press conference this morning. He confirmed that everything Dabi said is true.“

Shit.

“Endeavor, too? We knew All Might was going to talk about it, but I didn’t realize your father was, as well.”

Half and Half nodded. “He said he couldn’t hide from the public. Not if All Might was being open and honest.”

Fucking everything went back to All Might with this bastard.

Half and Half shrugged. “At UA it was bad enough, but I could mostly ignore things as long as I was with 1A. But here… the islanders keep looking at me. Some of them out of pity, but others are afraid. I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t want their pity, but it’s easier to deal with.” Half and Half picked up his hot dog, studying it as if it could reveal the mysteries of the universe. “The guy at the food stall, he was afraid of me until I mentioned that I was buying food for the three of us. Then he insisted on giving it to me for free. When I said I didn’t know anything on the menu, he said I should eat there for the rest of the week and he’d select different things for me to try. He gave me these little containers of cheese and ketchup and said I had to eat the fries with them.”

“That’s really nice of him! I’m glad he’s not afraid of you any more, Todo-kun.”

Deku was smiling at his friend, but Half and Half was still staring at his hot dog. He frowned, then looked up at Katsuki. “Your mom thought people would be scared of you, so she’s trying to make a positive image for you so they won’t be. That’s why Mina was taking those pictures. But I don’t understand how pictures help.”

“Hell if I know.” Katsuki frowned. He didn’t like thinking about that shit. “I just do what the Old Hag says and somehow that works.”

The nerd giggled, “It works because she doesn’t try to change anything about who you are, and people can see that. She just… um, selects what they see, I guess. So that the pictures show reasons why they shouldn’t be afraid of Kacchan, even if he curses a lot.”

Half and Half tilted his head to the side. “But how do I do that? How can I make people realize that I’m not going to be a villain like my brother? That I want to stop Touya-nii and become a better hero than my father?”

“You just have to fight that shit. Prove to them that you’re on their fucking side.”

Half and Half nodded, picking up a fry and slowly eating it as he thought. “I know I can help people. And I want to do that. But it’s hard to show people that I’m not my father or brother, when that’s all they see every time that they look at me.”

Deku’s nose wrinkled, “I wish people didn’t get hung up on that stuff so much. Maybe….” He trailed off for a second, his eyes scanning over Half and Half’s hero costume. “Your costume looks kind of like Endeavor’s. Maybe try for a look that uses a different color scheme or adds something like a coat? Not a long coat, though, since Dabi wears one of those.”

“A coat?” Half and Half stared at Deku, his expression blank as he tried to figure out what the nerd meant. “But I can regulate my own temperature just fine.”

“Yeah, but that ability means you can cool your body down and wear one even when you’d otherwise be too hot. And you could wrap a civilian in it if you have to use your ice around someone, since it would make them cold.”

Half and Half nodded. “Maybe for the winter, then. For the summer...” He frowned, glancing down at the waterproof gloves Katsuki was wearing. “But Endeavor wears really heavy gloves, and I don’t think that’s a summer thing, even if you wear them then.”

Gloves? Katsuki shrugged. “If you want lighter quirk gloves, I can ask if the Old Hag can spare a prototype pair for you like she did for the idiots.”

“That would be nice.” Half and Half picked up a fry, cautiously dipping it into a small container of cheese before eating it. He must’ve liked it because he dipped another one, eating it before sighing and adding, “I don’t know what to try.”

“Well, do you like the hot dog and cheese fries?” The nerd gestured at the small container of ketchup. “You can try the fries with ketchup, too.”

Katsuki groaned. Fucking clueless, adorable, dumbass.

“Not about that.” Half and Half shook his head. “I’m not good at costumes or coming up with a hero personality.”

“Oh. Well, there’s still plenty of time to think about it! And maybe you could ask Melissa-san while she’s here with us. Her dad designed all of All Might’s costumes, after all!”

“Thanks.” Half and Half nodded. He finished his hot dog, then added, “I don’t know how much it will help, but anything is a start.”

“Yup! And we all know that you’re different from your family, Todo-kun. Everyone else will realize that soon, too.”

Katsuki nodded, “If they don’t, they’re dumbasses and full of shit, so don’t let it get to you.”

Half and Half snorted. “Somehow I doubt that’s advice Hawks or Best Jeanist have given you.” He frowned, thinking for a second and then glancing around before he lowered his voice, “Has he… do you know anything more about Touya-nii? If I can ask?”

Deku shook his head. “Sorry, Todo-kun. We haven’t heard anything.”

Half and Half’s shoulders sagged. He picked up another fry, idly twirling it in his fingers for a few seconds before he ate it. “I don’t remember Touya-nii that well. The accident happened when I was still young, and Endeavor always kept me separate from the others. I remember that he was angry at me. That he always wanted to spend time with Endeavor, even though I could never understand why someone would want to do that. He wanted to be a hero so badly.”

And now the bastard was a villain.

Katsuki scowled. “Every time I see that fucker, it feels like he’s laughing at me.”

Half and Half frowned as he sipped at his water, then set it on the table. “I think Touya-nii has always been like that. He would try to train without our parents knowing, so he was always hiding secrets and thought he was better than Endeavor thought he was.”

“So he’s always been a manipulative bastard.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. “That’s one reason he’d like the fucking Feathered Menace.”

Half and Half blinked. “What do you mean?”

“The asshole’s really damn good at controlling how people see him. I still can’t believe he can go to a crowded as hell mall and no one even notices him. The cashier fucking talked to him about Hawks! With the guy himself right there!” Katsuki groaned, running a hand over his face. He hated remembering that shopping trip. “Plus he managed to keep the secret you already know. Which is fucking ridiculous. No one should be that damn good at hiding shit.”

“Kacchan…” Deku sighed, then gave them a sheepish smile. “At least he’s using his powers for good, right?”

Katsuki snorted. He didn’t even know if he could believe that any more.

Half and Half ate another fry. “Shouldn’t heroes be good at that kind of thing? Though I guess Endeavor isn’t.”

“Oi! You three idiots!”

Huh?

Katsuki had to pause a second, waiting so that he and Deku didn’t turn together toward the new voice. It was a little girl; she was pointing and glaring at them from the start of the tables, about five meters away. She tilted her nose up, each blonde pig tail shaking as she tossed her head. “What kind of hero just sits there eating lunch when a little boy is missing?”

“Oh!” Deku was up in a second and bounding toward her. “Do you need our help finding someone?”

“My little brother is missing! You have to find him!”

A missing kid? On this island? The brat was probably just lost somewhere.

“How young is your brother? Where did you see him last?” Katsuki rolled his eyes as Deku started asking questions, and he grabbed their shit, tossing the remaining trash into the bin.

“I’ll check the shopping area, Half and Half can check the beach, and you can do the residential area. If we don’t find him there, we’ll grab Rock Girl or Octo-Arms and extend our search.”

“Sounds good, Kacchan.” Deku beamed at him. “Mahoro-chan says that she lost her younger brother, Katsuma-chan, on the way to the beach, so it’s hard to tell where he’ll be. He’s shorter than her, has the same color hair and eyes, and is wearing blue.”

Carbon copy, but younger and wearing blue ‘cuz he was a guy. And the girl was wearing pink, too. Fucking typical.

Katsuki knew the important shit, so he blasted off toward the shopping area. Maybe there was a gacha machine or some shit the kid wanted to buy without his sister knowing. She seemed like the bossy type who would tell the kid he couldn’t buy something she didn’t like.

Despite searching all over the damn shopping center, though, Katsuki didn’t find the kid. He didn’t even find a person who’d seen the kid, though they all knew who he was talking about. And they all said this kid was never far from his sister.

What the hell.

Deku hadn’t found shit, either, and he was almost done checking the entire fucking residential area, which was huge since no one lived close together in this shitty place. Half and Half hadn’t found him, either, but evening was approaching, so they should get Rock Girl and—

Katsuki skidded to a stop.

Deku was approaching a small park, and there was the damn kid, playing on the slide.

The nerd called out the kid’s name, running over to the boy, who looked up in surprise.

And then the fucking sister jumped out of the bushes and started yelling at Deku for being late. Her brother hadn’t even been lost!

Fucking brat! They’d wasted the whole afternoon because of her! They could’ve been doing shit to actually help people. And Deku was being way too damn forgiving about it. Someone was going to have to explain to this brat that wasting a hero’s time wasn’t ok. By the time Katsuki reached them, though, the kids would be far away from the park. Deku was already watching their retreating backs.

“It’s ok, Kacchan. They’re just kids. I’m glad they’re both safe.”

“We already knew they were safe, dumbass. Danger Sense would’ve notified us if the kid was in danger.”

“Not if he was upset by bullies or something like that. Let’s meet back by the docks, ok? There’s a few hours of light left, so we can try to cut the last group of boards for Ochaco-chan.”

Katsuki groaned. “Fine, whatever.” Hopefully tomorrow would bring more than fucking construction work.

Notes:

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!! :D Next week will be an update from the villains. Tysm to Geeky for beta-ing this chapter, and thank y'all for all the comments and kudos, as always <3 <3

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 15: The Winds of Change

The third day, they woke up to find out that the League had broken someone out of Tartarus.

Someone the Feathered Menace knew personally.

Someone he’d visited only days earlier.

The news speculated that Hawks’ visit had drawn the League’s attention to the villain.

Katsuki suspected the Feathered Menace had asked them to do it.

But why?

Why would the Feathered Menace break someone out of fucking Tartarus?! Did this mean he really was taking the villains’ side? Was this the only breakout the League had planned, or were they going to target other prisoners?

Danger Sense was crawling beneath his skin, begging Katsuki to lash out with his explosions.

He held it in.

Even once they’’d gone back to work at the damn docks, helping Lion Cub and Round Face finish shit, Deku kept staring off to the north. Both of them struggled to maintain the four strands of Black Whip that yesterday they’d been using with ease. The girls definitely noticed, but Katsuki scowled at them any time it looked like one of them was going to ask about it.

They had to get better at using their quirks while Danger Sense was acting up.

But what was happening in the north? Another break in? Tartarus was to the north, but at the moment, so was the whole damn country. Deku texted Aizawa-sensei, letting him know that Danger Sense was freaking out, but their teacher only replied that he’d look into it.

The Lion Cub shooed them away at lunch, saying they needed to take a break and to head back to the agency if they didn’t feel like dealing with citizens.

Despite the fact that Katsuki still hadn’t been able to eat any of the local specialties, they both trudged back to the agency without a word.

Katsuki could almost feel the tension in Deku’s muscles as he tried to keep himself from running off and staring towards the mainland.

There was nothing they could do. Not while they were here.

Hoping for some kind of information about what the hell was happening, Katsuki turned on the news when they made it back to the agency.

He almost wished he hadn’t.

The Feathered Menace was holding a press conference.

The few others inside the island’s “agency”—Pikachu, Edgelord, and Tail Guy—immediately turned toward the tv, watching what the hero had to say.

“Our leader is facing a trial of darkness.” Edgelord’s voice was all concerned, and Katsuki couldn’t help but nod in agreement. Even if the pro hero’s smile was bright as always, his eyes were shadowed. One feather kept twirling around him absently, as if he couldn’t drop his guard and was ready for an attack even while in front of the fucking press.

The Feathered Menace was a fucking genius at managing how he presented himself to the public. How bad was shit if he looked even a little overwhelmed? Or was that an act? Katsuki could never tell with that asshole.

Despite his appearance, the Feathered Menace’s voice was clear and firm as he began to speak, “I am here today to assure everyone that despite her time in Tartarus, the League is foolish if they think Lady Nagant will help them. During my visit with her just a few days ago, I confirmed a belief I’ve held for a long time: that she would never harm Japan’s citizens. She has always wanted to protect the people of Japan, even at the cost of her own life.”

A hushed murmur filled the press room, hands immediately darting into the air to ask questions, but the Feathered Menace smiled and shook his head. “I am happy to explain. Lady Nagant’s imprisonment is something that has made me uneasy for a long time, though I only learned the details of her case when I became the Number One hero. The Commission will be angry that I’m telling you this, but Lady Nagant was not imprisoned for the reason that was released to the public. She never went insane and killed a fellow hero. She was imprisoned because she killed the last Head of the Hero Public Safety Commission after being ordered to kill Japanese citizens who had yet to commit a single crime.”

Fuck.

He had asked the League to break this woman out. Because she was wrongly imprisoned due to fucking corruption within the Hero Commission and what the hell was this asshole planning?! Trust in heroes was already eroding and now he was dumping this pile of shit into the bonfire?!

“The League of Villains knows that society is uneasy. That you no longer trust pro heroes as you once did. They are trying to take advantage of that. Ever since the appearance of the Hero Killer, villains have been pointing out the corruption within the hero system.” The Feathered Menace sighed, his shoulders drooping for a second before he looked directly at the reporters. “And they’ve been right.”

Damn it all to hell. It was like something was stabbing Katsuki’s chest and it hurt. What was this sharp pain from?

 

“Nevertheless, I ask you today to continue trusting us. Trust the new generation of heroes if you can’t trust the old.”

Fuck him!

“The League has been busy, but so have we. You may have noticed different heroes patrolling your local areas. As of this morning, over 500 pro heroes have been charged with abusing their positions and stripped of their hero licenses.”

…

What?

Katsuki rubbed against his chest, trying to relieve the pain as he stared at the television screen.

That…

Over five hundred?!

“While we work on adjusting patrol routes, trusted sidekicks and newly licensed hero students are covering the former heroes’ territory across the country. We are working on uncovering the corruption in our system. There are still many of us who will do whatever it takes to protect Japan’s citizens, even at the cost of our own lives.”

Then… damn it, was this island part of that shit?! They were here because the last idiot hero had been corrupt somehow?! And that’s why the Commission had been so damn insistent! If they had just fired over 500 heroes… sure, there were thousands of heroes across the country, but there was no way the whole nation wasn’t short-staffed.

And villains would realize that.

Holy fucking hell.

How many villains were going to try to take advantage of this?

Katsuki understood now. The Feathered Menace wanted people to think he was tired. He wanted people to think he would sacrifice anything for them so that they would trust him.

Damn it!

What if he’d gone too far? What if people couldn’t trust him to deal with the upcoming surge in villain attacks because he was already fucking tired?! If they were focusing on new heroes… shit, how hard did UA have to fight to get the Big Three here on the island with 1A? No wonder their teachers were worried about what the Commission would do if they didn’t put in their hours of patrol work or whatever. Fuck.

A reporter asked a question—something about a villain targeting heroes the past few days and whether those heroes had been corrupt.

Katsuki didn’t bother listening to the Feathered Menace’s response.

This news was huge. Hawks had timed the prison breakout perfectly—firing hundreds of heroes at once would easily overshadow the League breaking one prisoner out of jail, especially if that prisoner was a former hero that the Feathered Menace himself would vouch for.

But firing this many heroes at once would create a huge opening for villains to take advantage of, and they’d just gained a powerful ally from Tartarus.

It was a risky gamble, and everything depended on what happened next.

Katsuki closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

His chest still had that sharp, nagging pain, but he could breathe just fine. This wasn’t the same as before. It had to go away soon, right? He wasn’t actually hurt or anything.

For once, shit was out of their hands. They were stuck on this island for the week, and then they’d be back at UA. All they could do was try to maintain society’s trust in heroes through shitty social media posts.

Katsuki opened his eyes, frowning—why was the nerd still staring at the television screen?

Oh, the villain again. They were showing her face. “What do you know about her?”

The nerd shook his head. “Not much. Only what Hawks said was a lie—that she was a former pro who supposedly went insane and killed a fellow pro. She was an underground hero like Aizawa-sensei, so there’s not much info on her. Her quirk lets her make bullets out of her hair, and then her arm can act as a rifle that has 100% accuracy. She’s an even better sharp-shooter than Snipe-sensei.”

Pikachu whistled, the sound startlingly loud compared to the low tones of the news anchors. Not that he seemed to notice, since he never pulled his eyes away from the screen. “Hawks says civilians shouldn’t be worried about this woman, but what about heroes? What if she’s another Stain?”

Katsuki snorted, grumbling, “With his own campaign against corrupt heroes, the Feathered Menace would just say ‘good riddance’ and look the other way.”

“Kacchan.” Deku sighed, finally looking away from the news only to frown at him. “Hawks-san wouldn’t want any hero to die.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true.” Except for maybe Endeavor, given who the Feathered Menace’s soulmate was. Damn it. Why were they talking about that asshole, anyway?! “It doesn’t matter if we’re here because of the hero firings or not. We have a job to do, so let’s fucking do it.”

“Lunch first!” Pikachu jumped up from the desk he’d been working at, grabbing Katsuki’s shoulder and pushing him toward the kitchen. “Because there’s only one reason you two would show up here mid-day, and I am not going to deal with the rest of the class yelling at me if you skip lunch.”

“We aren’t gonna skip lunch, asshole!” Katsuki was hungry! “Working without eating the proper nutrients is a stupid ass way to make yourself faint.”

“Uh-huh.” Pikachu patted Katsuki on the shoulder, then gave him and Deku one last shove into the kitchen. “Tell that to your soulmate, who was definitely turning to head back outside.”

“I know lunch is important!” Shit, Deku was blushing, but thankfully not enough for it to start to appear on Katsuki’s face, too. “I just forget sometimes, that’s all.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and then took stock of the kitchen—some fresh rice was still leftover in the rice steamer, so they could use that, and then he’d start a new helping for whoever wanted it next. The fridge had some fresh fish and fruit, so Katsuki grabbed a pan from under the counter and turned on the stove to start cooking.

Wait.

Katsuki looked up, studying Pikachu who still hadn’t left the kitchen. “You just shoved us in here because you want me to make you lunch.” Edgelord had snuck closer to the room, as well, and Abyss was peeking out over his shoulder. Tail Guy was the only one still watching the damn phones.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say no… Before you showed up, I was just gonna shove lunch meat on some bread, grab chips and call it a meal.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched. “Fucking dumbasses; all of you are helpless in the kitchen!” He went back to the fridge, grabbing more fish to fry since the idiots couldn’t take care of themselves.

“Thanks, Kacchan!” Deku beamed at him, but it didn’t make him feel any less grumpy. It was just nice to know that his cooking was appreciated, that was all. Nothing else.

The supplies didn’t have the black sesame seeds Abyss loved, so Katsuki added some normal ones to the quirk-being’s rice since the taste really wasn’t all that different. And Pikachu hated peanut oil, so Katsuki fried his fish in coconut oil first, then switched to peanut oil for the rest of them.

Once he finished cooking and they all sat down to eat, though, Pikachu was watching Katsuki and Deku suspiciously. And then he fucking sighed in relief when they both started eating. Katsuki growled, “I’m not gonna ignore food once I cook it!”

“It’s not that!” Pikachu shook his head, and Edgelord was fucking nodding.

“We have grown accustomed to your synchronous ways. Seeing you separate your motions causes our minds to be clouded with uncertainty about your well-being.”

“Yeah!” Pikachu nodded. “It’s like, we’re so used to seeing you guys in-sync that it’s super weird when you aren’t. And it’s kinda hard to tell when you’re actually ok or when you’re hella stressed because you aren’t, like, moving the way you normally do. But when you go ‘off duty’ or whatever and it’s just us, you usually relax a bit more and are synchronized again, so it’s easier to tell then how you’re actually doing.”

Katsuki stared at him.

“You guys…” Damn it, Deku’s voice was all watery. “I’m glad you all are such good friends. We’re doing ok.” The nerd’s smile was tired, but genuine. “Really stressed about what we can do to help in the current situation, but there’s nothing we can do about all the pros that were fired. And in the end, that probably is a good thing and will go a long way toward earning back people’s trust.”

Pikachu nodded, making some kind of agreeing sound around his mouthful of rice before he swallowed. “Exactly! We’re not even licensed pros yet, so you guys should take it easy when you can. I get that there’s a lot of pressure and all that, but we’re here with you! And all the teachers are trying to help, too.”

Katsuki grunted. He was getting tired of the ‘let’s work together’ spiel, even if it was nice to not be alone. They’d been alone for so damn long…. Well, they’d had their parents, but that had been it. Not that they’d really understood what being soulmates meant back then, either.

“Bakugou, may I probe the darkness of your thoughts?”

Katsuki shrugged. He didn’t really care if Edgelord wanted to ask about shit—if Katsuki didn’t want to answer, then he just wouldn’t.

“Why has our mentor lost your faith?”

Katsuki groaned, swallowing down his fish before he responded with a simple, “Classified.”

Edgelord tilted his head to the side. Abyss pouted, “How can it be classified! We did everything in the internship together, except for that last day!”

“It just is.” Though, knowing how fucking devoted Edgelord was… “You’d probably still trust him even if you knew, anyway.” Abyss would think it was cool or some shit. And Edgelord knew all about having parts of yourself that wanted to do shit you couldn’t. Abyss was kind of like his own personal villain that he constantly had to keep in check.

Which… Katsuki sighed. That was the problem, wasn’t it? Was the Feathered Menace keeping Frankenstein in check, or was Frankenstein manipulating the Feathered Menace?

Whatever, at least Edgelord didn’t look as worried anymore. That was probably a good thing. Katsuki didn’t want to destroy his trust in the Feathered Menace or whatever unless he was absolutely sure the hero was helping the villains.

Katsuki and Deku both looked at the tv playing behind Pikachu. Reporters had been busy—they were already revealing lists of heroes who were no longer listed on the public register. He didn’t recognize any names, though so—

Fuck.

The Equipped Hero? He was in the top ten! Only number nine, but still. Both reporters had gasped in shock when that name appeared on the screen, and it was no wonder, since he’d been around for as long as hell.

Shit. How many of the top ten were actually left? That was three of the top ten heroes that were no longer in action. Just losing All Might, Flame Bastard, and Equipped Asshole would be enough to embolden villains, much less five-hundred heroes being fired.

Damn it, Deku was rubbing at his chest again, and Katsuki could feel it again—a sharp stabbing pain over his heart.

But they were fine.

This didn’t really affect them. They just had to keep doing the shit they were already working on. So it was nothing new.

“My dudes, you ok?”

Huh? Oh, Pikachu was worried about them.

Katsuki scowled, forcing his hand away from his chest and grabbing another mouthful of rice.

The nerd’s hand drifted back to the table at the same time, and he smiled at Pikachu. “We’re fine, sorry to worry you. I must’ve pulled a muscle or something while working on the docks.”

Yeah, both Pikachu and Edgelord clearly didn’t believe that, but whatever. Katsuki wasn’t sure what else this shit could be. It wasn’t their mark, and they didn’t feel sick.

“Right…” Pikachu didn’t even bother to hide his fucking skepticism. “You, the guy with the super strength quirk, pulled a muscle. And you did this while using your quirk energy to lift things.”

“We’re fine, really! And I can pull muscles! We’re moving things around in a lot of different ways than we do during most hero work.”

Edgelord shook his head. “Your words create smoke that even you do not believe.”

Deku sighed, picking up his and Katsuki’s empty dishes and taking them toward the sink. “You guys should go back to the phones so that Ojiro-san can eat. Kacchan and I are going to head back to the docks. But yes, we’ll be careful not to overexert ourselves.”

Katsuki grunted and headed toward the door, ignoring the dumbasses as they tried to tell them to ‘be safe.’ They were always fucking safe! Shit just happened, that was all. But whatever shit would happen soon, it was going to be in the north, and probably not anywhere close. The last time Danger Sense had reacted this way, the damn League had completely obliterated an entire town.

Katsuki really didn’t want to think about what it would be this time.

They’d told Sensei. That was all they could do.

Of course, that didn’t stop Deku from staring across the ocean all damn afternoon. And Katsuki may have broken a few construction nails. And splashed water everywhere when a strand of Black Whip went where it wasn’t supposed to go. And cut some boards on accident when Black Whip had suddenly turned jagged on him because he just felt so damn—

“That’s it!” Katsuki and Deku both turned to see Round Face glaring at them, her cheeks puffed out in annoyance. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two today, but you’ve both been really out of it and I don’t want to have to re-cut more boards because neither one of you can focus!”

Katsuki stared at her.

He looked at the board—oh. Damn it. Apparently he and Deku had picked up the same one and hadn’t noticed before they uh… may have ripped it in two while trying to place it into different spots.

“Sorry!” Deku rushed to apologize, but Katsuki just flopped back onto the deck, staring at the clouds and focusing on the hard, wet planks beneath his back.

They needed to be able to focus on shit even if Danger Sense was distracting them. In the middle of a fight, the quirk was always helpful, letting them know when to dodge, but right now it was fucking annoying.

He was so used to seeing shit from Deku’s vision, it was hard to realize that their vision was overlapping when it shouldn’t be. Like both of them looking at the same damn plank.

“Why don’t you two go patrol the island?” Lion Cub’s head popped up from the other side of the pier, and Deku sighed before nodding.

“That’s probably a good idea. Sorry everyone, we’re just, um… antsy, today, I guess.”

“Antsy?” Now Round Face looked fucking concerned. “What do you mean? Do you want to talk about it?”

The nerd shook his head. “It’s probably nothing we can do anything about, anyway.” He was walking over to Katsuki and held out his hand to help pull him up.

Katsuki took the hand, but he made sure to look to the left so that it was in his field of vision before he grabbed it. There weren’t many civilians nearby, but they could never be too careful.

Patrolling was a nice change, even if they stayed on the north end of the island for most of the afternoon. Danger Sense would tell them if they needed to pay attention to the south side. They could see the mainland from the top of the island’s northern ruins, but it was difficult—just a thin line against the blue sky.

Running along the coast and through the trees and away from the constant watching eyes of civilians was fucking great. Sure, they spotted someone every now and then, but they were always busy doing mundane shit and not really paying attention to their surroundings.
That evening, the villagers came by in the evening with a fuck-ton of food, claiming they wanted to thank 1A for all their help. Katsuki and Deku had managed to sign all the damn keychains by then, so they gave the box to the old mayor, who said he’d make sure that everyone received one.

The entire time the villagers were there, Deku’s smile was fake.

These people never said anything as desperate as the people online; they’d never had to deal with real villains, after all. The rising crime rate wasn’t a personal threat here. But they still looked at Katsuki and Deku with that same awe that everyone gave soulmates.

They would earn that awe. They would. They’d beat whatever the hell was waiting for them later this year.

But every time Katsuki got his confidence back, he remembered that fucking dream’s omen of death.

A hero’s death was about as honorable as you could get, but you still left people behind. And Katsuki couldn’t leave Deku behind. Couldn’t be left behind by Deku.

Katsuki did his best to focus on the civilians, but fucking hell, he was on edge. Danger Sense didn’t think the problem was here, which helped. It felt distant still, like it was going to happen in the northeast.

As it got later, the anxious sensation grew worse. Unable to sleep, they both volunteered for the first round of the night shift, though Deku’s eyes never left the news that had been left playing on the tv.

A small knock on the door, though, had the nerd jumping to his feet and running to see what someone needed.

Katsuki scowled the second Deku opened the door.

That kid again.

“Ummm…there’s a villain!”

Oh, hell no. Not this fake shit again. Not tonight.

“A villain?! Where?!”

Katsuki leaped over the counter, landing next to the nerd with a solid thud. “Hold it, Deku. How do we know this brat is telling the truth? They’ve already lied to us about him being lost.”

“We can’t just ignore a villain report, Kacchan!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and turned to the kid. “Where is this supposed villain?”

“On the northside.”

Damn it.

Deku was out the door in a second, green lightning flashing around his legs.

Katsuki knelt down, nodding his head back a little. “Get on and give me directions.”

“Um…” The blond brat looked down the road toward where Deku had disappeared. “But how will Zero Hour-san know where to go?”

“We’re soulmates, remember? The nerd will hear everything you tell me.”

“Right!” His eyes brightened, and he hurriedly climbed onto Katsuki’s back. “That’s so cool, Ground Zero-san!”

Katsuki didn’t bother answering the kid; instead he focused on holding him tight as Katsuki ran down the road with One for All powering each step. “So where in the north is this villain?” Deku was way ahead of them—the fucking dumbass was just following Danger Sense, even though they didn’t know for sure that’s what was going on.

“Um. She said she saw it around the castle ruins!”

‘She’ saw it? So this was related to the kid’s sister, after all. Damn it. But Danger Sense was acting like there was a big problem in the north…. Not that Deku was even heading toward the ruins, even though they were now in sight. Instead, the nerd was veering west, facing the mainland.

So if there was a villain, it either wasn’t dangerous, or whatever was happening to the north was so bad it was eclipsing this minor shit.

Damn it.

Katsuki grit his teeth and headed toward the damn ruins.

“Where is Zero Hour-san going?” The kid pointed toward Deku’s lightning in the west. “You said he could hear me, right?”

“He saw something suspicious and wants to check it out real quick.”

The kid’s voice quivered in fear. “Something suspicious?”

“Don’t worry about it. Deku’s just being overdramatic and checking to be sure since we tend to have real fucking bad luck.”

“Oh.” The kid was silent for a few wonderful seconds. “Isn’t finding your soulmate when you’re so young really good luck, though?”

Katsuki snorted. “Some people would probably think that.” Not that he had any complaints about growing up with Deku, he loved every minute with the damn nerd, but they’d been through a lot of shit because of it.

And now Shitstain was dead because of it, too.

Katsuki growled to himself, then sped up even faster as they reached the road leading to the ruins on a small northern island. “Is this road the only way to reach this place?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So no escape routes by land.” Katsuki doubted any villain would willingly put themselves at a dead end like this. If there was a villain, they’d have a plan to escape by sea or air.

Katsuki blinked in disbelief. Was that a giant mantis? What the hell was it doing on this island? There was no damn reason for it to be destroying shit here.

Katsuki skidded to a stop, setting the kid down before he blasted into the air, shouting behind him for the kid to keep a safe distance. As he approached the mantis, though, Katsuki’s eyes narrowed.

This thing didn’t have a shadow. And it wasn’t actually destroying the ground that it was stabbing with its feet. So where was the source?

There.

The girl from earlier was hiding behind some bushes.

“Don’t be too mean to her, ok, Kacchan?”

Katsuki snorted. “Good to know you were actually paying attention and not just staring at the coastline.”

“Something bad is happening there. And Aizawa-sensei said he would stay closer to this island. I’m worried that he’s been caught up in this.”

“Then text him, dumbass.”

“I guess…that just feels like such a big imposition when he already does so much for us…”

Katsuki sighed, “Just do it, nerd. And then come here if you don’t want me to destroy these brats for wasting our time.” Without even waiting for a reply, Katsuki cut off his explosions and reinforced his legs with One for All, slamming down into the ground behind the girl.

She screamed.

Katsuki grinned at her. “So are you the so-called villain I’m supposed to be fighting? Because that sure as hell isn’t real.” He gestured at the mantis illusion, and she screamed again, scrambling backward until she ran into the bush.

“How can you tell?! I mean, it is too real! And it’s going to destroy the ruins! Those are our island’s history so you better protect them!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “No villain would care about your lameass ruins, and this shitty mantis doesn’t even have a shadow. It’s an illusion, which means it’s being created by someone else, and, oh look. You’re the only other person around here. First the park this afternoon and now this. Is taunting heroes a hobby of yours or some shit?”

The girl whimpered.

The illusion disappeared.

“Please don’t hurt my big sister, Ground Zero-san!”

“And you!” Katsuki whirled on the other kid. “You were in on this shit, too, weren’t you?!”

“Kacchan!” There was a thump as Deku landed behind him, his glove immediately resting on Katsuki’s shoulder. “I’m sure they have their reasons, ok? We shouldn’t get agitated over something small like this.”

Katsuki turned to glare at the nerd. “What if an actual villain shows up while we’re out here, huh? We’d be late to help because of this shit!”

“I know, but the chances of that happening on this island are pretty slim. And our classmates would help them, instead.” Deku took a deep breath, then smiled at the two kids. “Since it seems like that villain wasn’t actually real, is there anything else we can help you with?”

They stared at Deku.

The girl was scowling.

Deku and Katsuki’s phones buzzed in their pockets, and they immediately reached to pull them out.

Text messages? The class group chat was blowing up with new texts.

Round Face: Deku? Where are you guys?

Shitty Hair: Bakubro, you guys aren’t doing anything super brave right now, are you?

Brain Fucker: By ‘super brave’ he means ‘stupid as hell.’

Glasses: All boats are accounted for! They have not left the island.

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched, and he quickly typed back, What the hell, you assholes?!

Pinky: Oh thank God.

Deku: Is everything ok you guys? One of the kids saw something scary they wanted us to check out, so we’re out on the northwest end with them. Everything’s fine here, though.

Katsuki growled as the ‘several people typing’ icon popped up. Damn them. Why the fuck had they freaked out? Was it just because Katsuki and Deku hadn’t been downstairs?

Fuck, and now there was a notification that the damn third years had joined the chat, too.

Lemillion: I’m glad you two are ok! In the future, remember that no matter how urgent the situation, you should always let your fellow heroes know where you’re going.

Deku: Of course! Sorry, senpai.

Lemillion: Just make sure you remember for the future! I’m glad you were able to help the kid. Why don’t you see them home and then come back to the agency?

Deku: Will do!

Katsuki scowled. The last shit he wanted to do was take these two little dumbasses home.

Deku was already bending down and asking them where their damn house was, though, so Katsuki was apparently going to have to deal with it.

Wait.

Katsuki frowned, squinting at the distant horizon. Was that… He blasted to the top of the ruins, staring in the direction of the mainland.

Fire.

And a huge fire, if they could see it from this far away.

Fuck. This must be why their dumbass classmates had freaked out. A fire that big would be on the news. Katsuki pulled out his phone. “Deku, did Aizawa-sensei ever respond?”

“No.” The nerd was staring at the horizon, too, and both the kids both followed his gaze before gasping. “I only sent the text just now, though. He’s probably busy.”

Damn it. The fire was getting bigger.

“We can’t, Kacchan.” Shit, Deku’s voice sounded so pained.

“What’s going on? Why is there fire?!”

Shit, now the little kids were panicking.

“Our Dad works in that city!”

Fucking hell.

“I’m sure the heroes will protect everyone, don’t worry! Our teacher is in that city, too, and he’ll make sure everyone is fine.”

The boy was watching the distant flames, and he fiddled with the edge of his shirt for a second before reaching out to grab Deku’s hand. “Zero Hour-san? Could we um… could we sleep at the agency tonight? I’m real sorry about the fake villain. But we live alone when Dad’s not here and—“

“You can’t just ask stupid heroes to have a sleepover!” the girl stomped her foot and grabbed her brother’s other hand, pulling him away from Deku and toward the broken sidewalk. “Come on, we’ll be fine. I’m not sleeping in my overalls, anyway.”

Katsuki jumped down from the ruins while the nerd chased after them. “Wait! There’s really plenty of room there, it’s no problem. Why don’t we stop by your house for a change of clothes, then go to the agency? There are spare futons and no one will mind.”

“Please, Mahoro?”

“Fine, I guess. But only because you’re making a fuss about it.” The girl pouted, and Katsuki rolled his eyes at the hint of relief in her voice.

“You’re the best!”

Katsuki landed behind them, causing the boy to jump and glance over his shoulder. “Oh. And I’m really sorry, Ground Zero-san.”

Katsuki scowled. He wanted to still be mad at the brats, but there was more important shit right now. “Just don’t do it again.”

“We won’t! Promise!” Yeah right. Maybe he wouldn’t, but his sister didn’t look even a little apologetic.

The walk wasn’t too long, thankfully, but it did give Katsuki plenty of time to scan through different news sites on his phone while the nerd kept up small talk with the brats.

Four unidentified villains had destroyed part of the city, then disappeared. Heroes were trying to find them, but most of their efforts were going toward saving citizens from buildings as they burned down and collapsed.

No one knew what their target had been, or if the attack was actually over or not. Supposedly the villains had parked a van in the middle of an intersection before jumping out and destroying everything around them.

It didn’t make sense.

Sure, there were fewer heroes around, but most of them had just been fired this morning. Were they already seeing how much more emboldened villains felt? Or was this something else entirely? It didn’t make sense for it to be the League, not this far south, but the idea of another villain group that was strong enough to pull this off and then just disappear...

Katsuki didn’t like it.

They made it to the brats house, and Katsuki waited on the porch while they ran inside to get sleeping clothes and shit. Then they had to make the long trek back to the agency. Without the kids, he and Deku could’ve made it in under a minute, but with how slowly these two walked it was going to take fucking forever.

Deku’s phone buzzed. He immediately pulled it out of his pocket, sighing in relief when he saw that the message was from Aizawa-sensei.

Eraserhead: Everyone’s fine. Stay where you are. Keep me updated if you feel anything else.

Katsuki figured they should let the dumbasses know where they were before they all had a fucking heart attack, so he texted the group chat to let them know the kids were coming with them since they lived alone.

Immediately several of them were insisting they stay the entire damn week, the assholes.

Katsuki shoved his phone back into his pocket and ignored them. Deku was asking the kids about the hero who used to work on this island—some shitty moron named Hefty Helmet.

The little boy shrugged. “Helmet-san didn’t really do much. Apparently he helped people out a lot when he was younger, but he’s been having back problems for as long as I’ve known him. He mostly stayed at the agency and gave out candy as he walked around on patrol.

Fucking dumbass. No wonder the Commission had gotten rid of the guy—he should’ve been doing desk work or some shit if he couldn’t handle the manual labor of hero work anymore. Depriving citizens of someone who could actually help them was a shit move.

When they finally reached the agency, Katsuki wasn’t surprised to see that all the damn lights were on, and the news was on in the common room downstairs. The Vice Prez and Round Cheeks immediately rushed over to help the kids ‘settle in,’ whatever the hell that meant.

Katsuki and Deku went over to the couch where everyone was crowded around, watching the news. “Aren’t you idiots supposed to be sleeping?”

“Well yeah, man, but then Shouji-kun told us you two ran off after a villain or something?” Shitty Hair looked over at them, but everyone else kept watching the news, which thankfully was only reporting injuries and not any fatalities. “He said he didn’t catch everything because he was half asleep. And then we turned on the news and saw the attack and it’s not like any of us could sleep after that.”

Katsuki frowned at the television screen. It was clear that the heroes had the situation well under control, now. There was a lot of destruction, but no one had died and the villains hadn’t been seen for at least half an hour.

So why was Danger Sense still acting up?

Deku was already pulling out his phone, texting Aizawa-sensei a quick warning that the danger wasn’t over yet.

That was all they could do.

Their job was to protect this island, not the mainland.

The people they cared about were safe, and the heroes on the scene were handling the rest. “Come on, Deku. Let’s go to bed if these dumbasses want to stay up all night and keep watch instead of us.”

The nerd looked back at the television screen, his eyes focusing on the number of injured that was now over 200. “Right. We’ve got to make sure we’re prepared for tomorrow.”

“Bakugou and Midoriya are right.” The Blond Asshole stood up from the couch, making everyone turn to look at him. “Now that everyone’s back, let’s get some sleep. We may be called on tomorrow to help with relief efforts, and we’ll be able to do more if we’re well-rested. Tamaki, will you pick a couple people to finish the night watch with you?”

Pointy Ears nodded before looking first at Brain Fucker and then Edgelord, “You two seem the most awake. Are you up for it?”

Katsuki didn’t wait to see their response, since Deku was already hurrying over to where Round Face was leading the two kids upstairs. The nerd clearly didn’t want to let the two out of his sight, though Katsuki wasn’t sure why.

Whatever. It’s not like them sleeping here for the night was an issue.

Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched when he saw their shit still in the middle of the damn room. Part of him wanted to move it, but it was almost midnight, and he was way too fucking tired.

Katsuki unlocked his gauntlets, letting them rest by the side of the wall with all their hero cases, then took off his gloves, flexing his hands and rolling each wrist. Deku was showing the little boy something about how the guides in his gloves could help with Black Whip, and Katsuki growled when the girl came over and reached for his gauntlets. “Those aren’t fucking toys. Don’t touch them or you might blow us all up.”

She squeaked, her hand immediately retreating before she looked up at him cautiously. “You’re just as rude as some of the people online say you are.”

“Hell if I care what they think. I’m gonna save everyone’s asses by defeating every villain, no matter what.”

That made her grin. “I like that! You’re a lot more awesome than the last hero who was here. He was super lame.”

Katsuki grunted. “Of course I am. Because Deku and I are gonna be the fucking Number One heroes. No one else can hold a candle to us.”

“‘Cuz you’re soulmates, right? What’s it like? Having a soulmate.”

Katsuki groaned, “No, not because we’re fucking soulmates. We’d be the Number One heroes either way. The soulmate shit just confirms that. I’m gonna go take a damn shower, go bother the girls for one of the futons.”

The damn girl looked like Round Face when she pouted. Katsuki ignored her, shouldering past the kids and pulling Deku away from the younger brat so they could finally take their shit off and get some sleep.

Whatever. It wasn’t his problem.

Notes:

Side scenes:
Hawks visiting Nagant's cell
Toga's PoV of Freeing Nagant

---

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! It's been fun to re-imagine how some things might still happen, but differently, such as there being much fewer heroes and increased villain activity even before the war arc. The next chapter will have some action, for those of 'all waiting for the fight scenes ;) A big ty to Geeky in my server for beta-ing this chapter!!! And tysm to all of you who leave kudos and comments <3 <3 I appreciate them so much.

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 16: Under Attack

Tired or not, it was fucking impossible to relax when Danger Sense was constantly going haywire. In the end, they had to take some of the sleep aids Auntie had given them before they were able to fall asleep.

The kids had been annoying, too. The younger brother ended up sleeping in between Deku and Half and Half, which weirdly helped? The nerd felt calmer around the kid, for whatever reason.

Katsuki really didn’t want to think about why that was the case. It’s not like they’d be able to predict whatever shit was going to happen. But maybe he’d keep an extra eye on the two brats.

When their alarm woke them up the next morning, though, the kids were already gone. Apparently the girl had refused to stay longer than necessary and had dragged her brother back home for breakfast.

Katsuki made some tea to help himself shake off the lingering drowsiness, and thankfully both he and Deku were wide awake before they’d changed into their hero outfits and finished the quick breakfast that Katsuki had made.

But…

Something was wrong.

And Katsuki didn’t know what.

Danger Sense was somehow even worse than it had been last night.

Deku texted Aizawa-sensei a warning, but he said shit had calmed down on the mainland and the news was reporting the same thing.

So what the hell was going on?

“Midoriya? Bakugou? Is everything ok?”

What?

Oh, the Blond Asshole had sat down across from them and was giving them a shitty concerned look. The third year tapped Deku’s empty bowl with his finger. “You both finished breakfast a minute ago, but you’ve been sitting here, lost in thought.”

They had?

Damn it.

No one else was even in the room. Wait, Invisible Girl was on the computer at the far wall next to the agency phone.

“Sorry, senpai!” The nerd shook his head, setting down his chopsticks. “I… something feels off today. Do you mind if we patrol the north side of the island?”

That made the Blond Asshole frown. “Something feels off?”

Deku shrugged. “I can’t explain it, sorry.”

“Ok. Do you two need to be alone for a bit? The north coastline is pretty empty.”

“It’s not that.” Deku waved his arms in protest, and Katsuki scowled. He loved that Deku couldn’t lie worth a damn, but right now that was not helping them. They couldn’t explain Danger Sense, and, probably suspecting that, the Blond Asshole had handed them the best excuse they were going to get.

“Yes, it is.” Katsuki grabbed Deku’s bowl and put it on top of his own, taking their cups and shit to the kitchen sink. Who was on washing duty today? Whatever, it wasn’t him or Deku. “Come on.” Katsuki met Deku’s eyes and nodded toward the doorway.

The nerd glanced back at the Blond Asshole, who grinned at him. “It’s ok if you can’t explain, Greeny-chan. We all have our secrets.”

“Thanks!” The nerd let out a sigh of relief, then bounded to his feet, hurriedly following Katsuki out the door. They were silent as they ran, both focused on Danger Sense urging them further north.

But there was nothing there.

They raced up and down every damn inch of that fucker, and nothing was happening.

Nothing was being reported on the news, either. Just more people talking about the recovery efforts after last night’s attack.

Deku was starting to glare at the waves as if they’d personally offended him.

Katsuki was ready to explode when suddenly there was a huge, booming blast from the power plant to the southwest.

Fire and smoke filled the air.

Katsuki moved.

He was running, explosions propelling him and One for All crackling around him, trying to get there as fast as he could, but none of this made any damn sense! The quirk was still telling them the fucking danger was in the north so why hadn’t it fucking alerted them to a dangerous explosion that was going to happen on the same damn island?!!

Deku wasn’t moving.

He was staring at the northern horizon. “Kacchan, you handle that. I’m… something is still going to happen here. I can feel it.”

Fucking damn it! “Fine!” Katsuki hated splitting up, but he knew Deku wasn’t wrong. He could feel it, too, even if Danger Sense wasn’t as strong for him.

By the time Katsuki made it to the plant, there was a boat on the northern horizon. Damn it! Ships weren’t supposed to be coming here at all this week! They’d closed the island to the usual tourism shit.

But he didn’t have time to deal with that.

Deku would handle it.

Should they take the pill? They both had one with them. They couldn’t let villains figure out that they shared injuries.

He’d have to let Deku make that call.

Katsuki had to handle what was here, which was a damn huge villain with some kind of mutation quirk. He looked like a wolf, but had a shitty lizard tail.

Spider Man was on the other side of the building, guiding the last few civilians out of the fire, while Glasses and French Guy looked like they were about five minutes from fucking collapsing.

Pikachu must’ve used up all his electricity because Glasses had him slung over his shoulder, unconscious. Several of Pikachu’s targets were broken on the ground, but he must’ve gotten at least a few good hits in because the villain’s fur was charred in several places.

Damn it.

Katsuki should have gotten here faster.

“Oi, bastard!” Katsuki put more force behind his explosions, leaping over the outer perimeter of the power plant before switching his palms out in front of him and letting loose an AP Shot. “Fight me!”

“Ground Zero!” Glasses actually smiled when he saw Katsuki, but then he was frowning again as he scanned the sky behind Katsuki, no doubt looking for Deku.

“So this is where you soulmates have been hiding!” The villain laughed–a loud, harsh sound. “Sorry for interrupting your vacation while the rest of the country is panicking.”

“We’re not fucking hiding, you bastard!” And it wasn’t a vacation!

Katsuki didn’t have time to say more than that, since the villain could shoot fucking beams. What the hell was this?! He had multiple mutation quirks and an emitter quirk?!

Katsuki spun higher into the air, forcing the villain to shoot the damn beam upward so that it would destroy less of the shitty factory.

Not that there was much left to save.

This was the island’s only source of power—the whole place had to be in a black-out by now. And if they targeted this place, the cell towers—

Deku was already pulling out his phone.

No service.

Damn it!

“Not hiding, huh? Sure seems like you are with the way you brats have avoided showing anything that could identify your location!”

“What are you, some kind of stalker?” Katsuki blasted to the left, dodging the asshole’s beams and then firing back, trying to keep him distracted as Katsuki tried to think through whatever the hell was going on.

Why were these bastards attacking this no-name island? This Wolf Guy seemed genuinely surprised to see Katsuki, so it wasn’t because they were targeting them as soulmates.

The villain was laughing again, easily dodging the tape Spider Man sent at him as he swung around from the other side of the building, all while shooting beams at Katsuki to keep him airborne.

The boat Deku was watching was getting closer to the shore, but it wasn’t heading toward the harbor—instead, it was going toward the cliffs on the northwest.

Why?

There was at least one man on the prow of the boat, but Deku couldn’t see much else.

“The way everyone studies you two, you’d have to be living under a rock not to know about your ‘mysterious internship.’ There are whole websites dedicated to figuring out if you’re actually abroad or if you’ve replaced one of the fired heroes. I could get a big payout just for a good photo sent to a news station.”

Shit, he was pulling out his phone.

But there was no service. And once they defeated these scumbags, everyone would probably know their location, anyway. The internship only had a few days left.

On the other side of the island, Deku was running toward the northwest cliffs to intercept the boat, and Katsuki needed to focus on this asshole. “Go ahead! You bastards took down all the power and cell towers, so it’s not like you could send that picture anywhere.”

The villain laughed again, blocking Katsuki’s blast with his arm, and somehow his fur wasn’t even fucking singed. How had Pikachu’s quirk managed more damage than Katsuki’s explosions?!

Katsuki skidded to a stop next to Glasses. “Get Pikachu out of here. He’s used his quirk too damn much, and without phones, you’re the best messenger in our class.”

“Messenger?” Glasses paused, then nodded. “It is odd that more of our classmates haven’t run to the scene as I did. They must be detained elsewhere. Where is Midoriya-san?”

“Someone’s heading toward the island’s north shore. He’s handling it.”

The villain laughed again. “You think one kid is enough to stop our boss? That’ll never work.”

“Their boss?” Deku had landed on the ledge of a cliff and was watching the approaching figure. The guy was dressed in all black and purple, with some kind of mask covering the lower half of his face.

Trying to focus back on his own fight, Katsuki glared at the wolf villain, who had pulled out a shitty cigar and lit it. “We’re soulmates. Deku and I are more than enough to take you two out.”

The wolf’s answering grin was sharp. “Who said there are only two of us?”

Glasses immediately paled. “I will go ascertain the situation and return! Cellophane! Support Ground Zero. Cannot Stop Twinkling! Make sure the civilians make it to an area without villains.”

“I’ll shine so brightly that they all seek safety!” French Guy saluted, then ran off to the back of the building, one hand clutched tightly around his stomach.

Maybe he had used too much of his shitty quirk, too.

“Aye, aye, Pres.” Spider Man was panting, and he wiped sweat away from his forehead.

Katsuki frowned. “Just figure shit out, Glasses. Spider Man and I can handle this.”

“Aw, you didn’t dismiss my help. I’m honored.”

“Shut up. What the hell happened to Pikachu before I got here?”

“The electricity kid?” The wolf villain took out his cigar, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “I knocked him out. He was annoying—the brat had charged up or something before I got here.”

Shit. Pikachu had been overpowered and still only singed this asshole? Well, if the guy was willing to talk, “How many of you assholes are there?”

The villain smirked. “Just four.”

Four.

Like the villains that had attacked the nearby city last night.

“I’m Chimera, by the way.” His tail swished behind him as he talked around his cigar. “Not that you brats were polite enough to ask. You just started attacking me.”

“You blew up the power plant!” Spider Man waved at the building that was still on fire. “What did you expect us to do, ask if you wanted some tea to go along with your destruction?”

“It would’ve been nice, yeah.” The villain grunted, flexing his arms overhead as more feathers sprouted from his arms and talons grew from his feat. His tail swished back and forth again, somehow larger than it had been previously. “I’m always thirsty before a fight.”

Why was he talking so much? Katsuki’s eyes narrowed, focusing on the villain’s left arm where most of the fur was singed. Having been on the receiving end of Pikachu’s attacks himself, Katsuki was willing to bet this bastard couldn’t move his left arm right now. Which meant he was trying to stall in order to regain that movement.

“Spider Man, focus on dodging and tripping this guy from a distance. I’ll keep his attention on me.”

Katsuki didn’t even wait for Spider Man’s response before blasting forward to attack the villain. He had to finish this fast, or both he and Deku would be fighting powerful villains at the same time, which was not a good idea.

“You want close combat? That’s fine with me.” The villain moved to punch Katsuki, but dodging was fucking easy thanks to Danger Sense. This guy was fast, but with One for All’s help, Katsuki could anticipate every attack.

Unfortunately, this asshole was dodging all his attacks, too.

Katsuki growled and ducked under the tail-swipe that had been aimed at his head, then twisted, blasting at the talon that was trying to scratch him, then jumping backward when the blast didn’t even fucking phase the bastard.

How thick was his skin? Were his explosions fucking useless on this bastard?!

Katsuki pulled harder on One for All, allowing as much as he could control to flow into his body. After their internship, he could manage 25 percent for about ten minutes, but he was going to need more. He grit his teeth. 30 percent for five minutes. It would have to work.

“Oh?” The villain sprang back a couple meters, then spat out his cigar. “This some kind of power up? Your skin is glowing.”

Katsuki grinned. “You’re not the only one whose quirk can do lots of shit.” He raced forward, falling into the familiar pattern of attack-then-dodge. He didn’t even bother with explosions unless he needed to redirect his own momentum. Let the asshole think that Katsuki thought they were useless against him.

“You’re a lot stronger like this, but how long can you keep it up? Power ups always have a time limit.”

“More than long enough to beat your ass.” Katsuki spun himself around with a blast, finally landing an unblocked kick straight into the villain’s gut.

A grunt of pain.

Tape snapped around the guy’s ankles, pulling his legs together tight.

The villain stumbled, almost falling, but he still blocked Katsuki’s follow up kick with his right arm before ripping apart the tape. “You’re so confident, even though you’re just a kid. Is it because you have a soulmate? He’s not even here right now.”

Damn it. It wasn’t enough.

Katsuki’s muscles were starting to protest, reminding him of his time limit.

And back where Deku was, that dumbass boat was at the foot of the cliffs. Fucking dragons had emerged from the guy’s back, and he was starting to climb.

The nerd still hadn’t taken the damn pill.

Katsuki growled in frustration, but Deku shook his head. “We have to try, Kacchan. You need my quirk for this fight.”

Damn it.

Deku blasted over the ledge, Black Whip grabbing the guy to fling him back into the water.

The Dragon Villain didn’t budge.

The nerd dodged, one second away from being mauled by one of the damn dragons.

Shit.

Katsuki jumped backward on instinct, barely avoiding being whacked on his head by this villain’s fucking tail.

He had his own fight to win.

Keep the beams in the air.

Dodge.

Spider Man attacked from the left, wrapping tape around the bastard’s entire torso and giving Katsuki a few damn seconds to collect more sweat and take aim with a bigger blast.

Finally the guy reacted with more than a grunt of pain.

Katsuki grinned, then blasted forward through the smoke, holding his breath as he brought out Black Whip to—

Something slammed against his stomach.

His head was ringing.

Slowly, he put a shaking hand on the grass. He forced himself up. The world was tilting, ringing, making it hard to focus.

What the hell?

Spider Man was in front of him. Putting himself between Katsuki and the villain.

Damn it! Spider Man wasn’t a defensive fighter. He wasn’t Shitty Hair. He couldn’t pull this shit!

Katsuki’s gut burned.

He coughed, blood splattering the grass.

Grass?

No. Pavement. There was blood on the pavement beneath him, and on the grass beneath Deku.

Deku had been hit.

Dragon Villain had some kind of beam that the nerd hadn’t expected, and he hadn’t been able to dodge in time.

Katsuki forced himself to his feet right as the lizard tail slammed into Spider Man, sending him crashing into a crumbling wall.

Damn it!

He couldn’t check on him. Couldn’t be distracted for longer than he’d already been.

Katsuki wiped the blood off his chin, glaring at the villain in front of him.

“Well, what happened to you? I know I didn’t knock you down.”

Katsuki didn’t bother responding. He was already blasting forward, ready to resume their fight. Deku was running on shaking legs, one hand holding onto his bleeding side as he chased after the other villain.

Dragon Bastard was heading straight toward the damn kids’ house from last night.

Katsuki had to heal Deku. He couldn’t let Deku go into another fight with this guy when he was severely injured and had no back-up.

But Katsuki didn’t have enough time!

His own muscles were screaming in protest from using One for All this long, and it was getting harder to breathe.

He had to win!

He’d barely done any damage on this bastard; it was like his whole body was rock hard. And now the guy was using his left arm again, damn it. He’d lost the advantage that Pikachu had fought hard to gain.

Katsuki lashed out with Black Whip, wielding the quirk like two jagged whips, and he finally managed to cut the asshole.

Katsuki released the quirk around his skin, his muscles screaming in relief as he pulled out two more strands of Black Whip and let them hover above him. “Looks like I finally found something that works against you, bastard.”

He couldn’t heal Deku. Not yet. But he could at least make shit easier for the nerd by not adding to their injuries.

Black Whip slashed through the air, targeting the wolf asshole, who finally fucking dodged instead of blocking shit.

Deku had reached the house now, and the villain was behind it, holding the girl up in the air as he called for the boy to come out before he killed her.

As one, Katsuki and Deku both lunged, Black Whip circling around their opponents arms and jerking them forward as the two soulmates called on One for All and punched the bastards in the gut.

The girl fell.

The villains stumbled backwards.

Deku grabbed the girl.

Katsuki turned Black Whip’s edges jagged as he slammed his boot down on the Wolf’s chest and held the sharp points to his neck. “Fucking surrender, you dick.” He pulled out two more strands of the quirk, wrapping them around the bastard’s torso.

The Wolf grinned. “Or what? You’ll kill me, hero?”

The nerd was dodging the Dragon Villain, running backward with the girl in his arms, but he wasn’t fast enough, not while carrying the kid. The villain lunged, but Deku put himself between Dragon Guy and the girl, but then something pulled. The buzz of One for All blew up inside both of their brains, suddenly 1000% times louder as it felt like Dragon Guy was trying to pull the quirk from Deku’s body.

And then Deku was on the ground, gasping for air, as the Blond Asshole exchanged punches with Deku’s villain.

Thank fuck.

The nerd was crawling away, then stumbling and running toward the two kids, grabbing the girl and her brother (who had appeared at some point?) and running into the trees. Katsuki could hear the sounds of the Blond Asshole fighting with his shitty-ass chain weapons behind them.

Katsuki spared half a glance to the wall that Spiderman had been knocked into. He was raggedly getting to his feet. For a long-term capture, his tape would be better than Black Whip. As long as they did it so this guy couldn’t move his claws to rip the tape off like before, it should last. Katsuki couldn’t keep One for All out much longer. But right now Spider Man looked like he could barely stand.

Damn it.

Just a little longer. Katsuki let out a deep breath and glared at the wolf villain beneath him. “You don’t believe the papers?” He let a nasty grin form on his face. “I’ve killed before.”

Wolf Bastard only laughed. “On accident, sure. But you don’t have a killer’s eyes. Only wimps who’ve never killed a person would think you’d actually kill someone on purpose.” His tail lashed out, forcing Katsuki to jump upward and avoid it, unfortunately freeing the bastard as Black Whip disappeared.

Screaming.

The Blond Asshole was screaming.

Lightning was crackling in the air around Deku. He’d made it to one of the forest paths that lead to the village. The two kids were crying as he knelt and set them on their feet, then told them to run to the agency.

Damn it.

Deku was going back to help the Blond Asshole.

Katsuki couldn’t blame him, but fuck it was hard to fight two strong villains at once.

Katsuki dodged the fucking mouth-beam, blasting sideways and changing his direction to avoid being hit by the shitty thing.

What the hell had the Dragon Villain done to Senpai? The third year was fucking strong! Quirkless shit didn’t matter, he was a hero and a soulmate, too, so what the fucking hell had made him scream like that?

Two pairs of soulmates. Four of them. One hero already down.

The nerd was running back toward Dragon Villain, desperation thrumming through both of their veins.

This couldn’t be the dream.

Senpai had to be fine.

He couldn’t be—

Katsuki hissed as that stupid fucking lizard tail slammed right where Deku had been hit, sending Katsuki skidding backwards and making him cough up more fucking blood.

Katsuki glared at the asshole.

Wolf Bastard’s tail was fucking swishing back and forth again as if Katsuki amused him. He wasn’t even glancing at Spider Man, who was slowly making his way closer, but kept pausing and clutching his head. “Here’s some advice: you shouldn’t let yourself be distracted in a fight, kid.”

Katsuki called back out four strands of Black Whip, letting them hover around him even as his muscles burned against the sensation of holding onto One for All. “Yeah? Maybe you shouldn’t be giving out free advice to someone who can beat your ass.”

Black Whip surged forward, each strand striking, retreating, and striking again, forcing the wolf villain to dodge constant attacks as he—

Senpai was on the ground.

A few of his chains lay scattered around him, somehow cut in pieces.

He looked fucking terrible. There were root-like burns climbing down his face and neck–lightning burns? This bastard could use lighting, too?! How many quirks did he have! Senpai’s costume was brown and black, the pristine white completely gone. Something had taken a chunk out of his side, but there wasn’t much blood: the fucking lightning had cauterized the hell out of the shitty wound.

But Senpai wasn’t moving.

He wasn’t—

No!

Katsuki shook his head fiercely. He had to focus on his fight! Deku would take care of Senpai. He’d gone to help the Blond Asshole and the kids were safe and running to the agency.

Everything would be fine.

The Blonde Asshole had done something to the Dragon Villain before going down; the guy was clutching at his head now, and not moving nearly as quickly as before.

Katsuki just needed to capture Wolf Bastard with Black Whip. If he’d just fucking stay still! They’d trained so much with Black Whip, but even though Katsuki could move four strands around mid-fight, he couldn’t move them fast enough to catch this asshole!! How was he so fast even while being so damn huge?!

“Bakugou!”

Thank fuck, Pointy Ears was here. Together, they could easily pin down this bastard. Katsuki released the hum of One for All around his body, focusing on maintaining only Black Whip.

“Bakugou, where is Mirio?!” Danger Sense flared in Katsuki’s mind, but Wolf Bastard was still focused on dodging Black Whip, so Katsuki didn’t know what he should be—

Tentacles wrapped around him, slamming Katsuki to the ground and knocking all the air out of his lungs. He gasped for breath, barely registering that the third year had tackled him. “What the fuck?!”

Was this another shitty shapeshifter?!

Tape wrapped around Pointy Ears, pulling him backward, and Katsuki jerked free from the tentacles, jumping back and glaring at their senpai. “What the hell is your problem?!”

“Where. Is. Mirio.” Pointy Ears wasn’t even trying to rip free from the tape, just growling louder when Katsuki didn’t answer.

Shit.

If they hadn’t taken the pill….

Blond Asshole was unconscious. They had telepathy, so Pointy Ears probably heard his soulmate scream.

Not. Fucking. Good.

But what could Katsuki say? Spider Man was listening and Wolf Bastard—damn it, Wolf Bastard was running. Katsuki turned to grab him with Black Whip, but Pointy Ears was free from the tape in an instant, tackling Katsuki to the ground and standing over him, his hands like a vice grip around Katsuki’s wrists.

Shit.

Damn it.

Bastard! He knew Katsuki hated being pinned like Stain had done to him!

“Just tell me!” Pointy Ears was yelling, and Katsuki needed to figure out what to say, quick, before this became an actual fight.

What would calm down Pointy Ears? The feeling of dread that your soulmate was hurt… Katsuki fucking knew that terror. Maybe… “This isn’t the dream!” It couldn’t be. Senpai would be fine.

“You don’t know that!”

Katsuki shook his head. “I do! Deku was hurt, not me!” Katsuki twisted, shouting to Spider Man, “Go! Follow Wolf Bastard, I’ll be fine!”

“But—”

“Just fucking go!”

Shit, Spider Man had sounded horrible. It had taken him so damn long to get over here, and he hadn’t moved for a long time after being blasted away while defending Katsuki.

Katsuki couldn’t worry about him. Not right now. He glared back at Pointy Ears, “I’m telling you, this isn’t the damn–”

Katsuki yelled as some kind of fucking scorpion tail stabbed his injured side. It went in deep, jamming itself in between muscles and ripping him apart. It was all Katsuki could do to avoid screaming as the tail slowly pulled out, scraping against every nerve and setting it on fire.

Fuck.

Finally, it was completely out of his side.

Katsuki gasped for breath.

That had really fucking hurt.

Deku had stopped attacking because of Katsuki’s pain. Thank fuck Dragon Villain was also in pain and wasn’t taking advantage of this shit.

Fuck, shit, hell, fuck.

Pointy Ears was staring down at him, a completely crazed look in his eyes, and Katsuki had no damn clue what to do.

He shifted, ignoring the pain in his side and moving to flip the lever on his boots so that he could release an explosion from the storage there, but Pointy Ears lifted his damn pinky finger and suddenly a shitty tentacle was trapping Katsuki’s legs against the ground.

Damn it! Katsuki panted, trying to catch his breath and ignore the pain. Deku was ok. Senpai would be ok. This wasn’t the dream. Pointy Ears was just freaking the hell out. Katsuki glared at the third year. “Bastard. Your damn stinger better not be venomous.”

“Tell. Me. Where. Mirio. Is.” Pointy Ears snarled, his hands tightening around Katsuki’s wrists. “I know he’s with Midoriya.”

“Like hell I’m letting you anywhere near Deku when you’re—“

Fuck that scorpion tail hurt! It was like Katsuki’s entire brain short-circuited the second it pierced his skin again. And it was definitely venomous, the bastard. Katsuki felt like his whole damn side was on fire.

Pointy Ears’ voice was desperate, like he was going to tear Katsuki limb from limb if that meant he could get his answer. Katsuki really wouldn’t put it past him at this point, but damn it! He couldn’t let him near Deku! Not like this!

“Mirio said Midoriya was fighting a villain and was helping him somewhere in the north, then he was in a lot of pain and fell unconscious. Where in the north? I could comb the entire area, but it would be a lot faster if you’d just Tell. Me.”

Katsuki had to do something to knock some sense back into this asshole, and he needed to do it fast, before either one of them did something they’d regret.

Well… Katsuki could feel blood pooling in his mouth. He spat it in Pointy Ear’s face.

The third year didn’t even react.

Damn it. Katsuki tilted his chin upward, refusing to back down even under the other soulmate’s glare.

“Kacchan, just tell him!” Deku’s voice was desperate and pained, and Katsuki hated it. “I’ll move the fight. It’ll be fine.”

As if. Then Senpai would be left unguarded while two villains were still unaccounted for. Katsuki snarled as that fucking scorpion tail hovered right above his side for the third time. “We’re both protecting our soulmates. You and I both know I won’t say shit. So just go run and find him yourself.”

Pointy Ears snarled.

Blinding panic rushed through Katsuki, his heart missing a beat, making Katsuki’s brain freeze. He couldn’t. He couldn’t focus. He had to save them. Had to go. Had to get help. Had to run. Had to go north. The edge of the forest near the tallest cliff. Had to—

And then the only thing Katsuki could hear was the crackling of the burning power plant.

Pointy Ears had vanished. How much time had passed?

“Fucking damn it!” That shitty empath projecting ability of theirs!

Had Katsuki said anything?

He’d been panicking, thinking that Deku was about to die and he had to go to him….

Damn it.

Katsuki had to have said something, or there was no way in hell Pointy Ears would’ve left.

He coughed weakly, rolling onto his uninjured side and dragging himself through the smoke.

The power plant’s roof crashed to the ground in the distance behind Katsuk with a thundering boom, sending a cloud of ash and debris into the sky.

He coughed again, forcing himself upright and sucking in the clearer air.

Why was there so much smoke? Why was it centered here and not by the building? Had Katsuki released explosions when Pointy Ears made him panic?

Katsuki coughed again. He didn’t have time for this shit, he’d figure it out later. Right now he needed to make sure Deku was healed before Pointy Ears arrived.

Katsuki closed his eyes.

Deku was still fighting the villain, but they were in a stalemate. The nerd couldn’t get past the guy’s barriers, but Dragon Villain wasn’t attacking—he was just kneeling and clutching his head.

Deep breaths.

Focus on the injuries.

They hadn’t had much of a chance to practice healing shit, but Katsuki had to make this work.

Katsuki concentrated on where Deku had been hurt, hissing as he transferred the nerd’s pain into his own body and then healed it. Fuck, it was like the beam had burned their damn organs. And Katsuki couldn’t do shit about the damage Pointy Ears had done, Deku would have to heal that.

And Deku was still fighting.

He had to go help him.

Pointy Ears would get there—

Ah, fuck.

In front of Deku, the Wolf Bastard burst through the trees and charged towards Deku, but then swerved, grabbing his boss and darting away. Deku shouted in surprise, then started to run after them, but he paused, looking back at Senpai.

They couldn’t just leave him unconscious and unguarded. And Pointy Ears wasn’t there yet.

“Zero Hour-san! You’re ok!”

Suddenly the younger of the damn brats came running through the bushes, latching onto Deku’s leg. Why the fuck was the little snot there? Deku had told them to go to the damn agency!

“Katsuma-kun?” Deku looked down in surprise. How the hell did he remember everyone’s names? “I told you to go to the agency! What if the villain attacked you?!”

Now the girl was there, too, and sobbing against Deku’s other side. “We couldn’t just go! You were protecting us! You might’ve gotten hurt like the blond guy!”

Damn it.

Katsuki ran. He couldn’t call on One for All, not with his muscles under this much strain already, but his own blasts propelled him through the underbrush.

There was no way he’d beat Pointy Ears there, but these kids did not need to deal with a panicked soulmate. And why the hell hadn’t Spider Man shown up chasing after the Wolf Bastard?

Fuck!

Katsuki poured more sweat into his explosions, frantically looking for any sign of the other heroes, but—

“I can help! I can heal the blond guy.”

What?

Deku was bending down, asking the kid to clarify what the hell he’d meant.

“My quirk. It’s called cell activation. It speeds up the body’s healing process. The bad guy kept saying he wanted me to give it to him, but I don’t even know how to do that! I ran away instead. But I can use it to help the hero who helped us escape!”

“That’s amazing, Katsuma-kun!” Trust Deku to be excited about a damn quirk in the middle of a villain attack. “So your quirk is like Recovery Girl’s?”

The kid nodded. “Except it works on me, too. And I get really tired afterward.”

“Mirio!”

Pointy Ears burst through the trees like some sort of centaur, not even registering Deku and the kids as he ran to his soulmate and dropped to his side, his horse aspects vanishing as he frantically reached for his soulmate’s wrist to feel his pulse. “He’s alive.” Pointy Ears choked back a sob, his free hand gently tracing the edges of one of the many burns that covered his soulmate.

Deku put his hand on the brother’s shoulder, preventing him from running over to the Blond Asshole. “Tamaki-senpai?”

Pointy Ears didn’t even fucking react. The nerd sighed, telling the two brats to wait there while he went to check on Pointy Ears and the Blonde Asshole. He knelt down next to the third year, but didn’t say anything.

After a few seconds, Pointy Ears finally glanced over at Deku, then down at his exposed side that was covered in blood and still only partially healed, since the dumbass kids kept stopping Deku from having time to heal it. “Sorry. The pain should fade soon.” His voice was quiet and hoarse as he tugged his hood down over his eyes. “I wasn’t… I lost Mirio’s thoughts. He was screaming in my head and then he was gone and I thought…” His voice trailed off, and he looked back down at his soulmate. “I knew where Bakugou was. Ingenium showed up at the agency and updated us. And I knew Bakugou could tell me exactly where Mirio was, since Mirio had been with you.”

“It’s ok.” Deku smiled at the third year. “We’ll be ok. I know you weren’t thinking straight.”

Pointy Ears nodded. “It’s never been that bad before.”

“It feels terrible.” Deku’s voice sounded haunted, and Katsuki fucking hated it. “Like half your soul has died, but there might be this slim chance you could save it, if only you could figure out what it is.” Deku was rubbing his arm, and it made Katsuki growl under his breath, then force himself to move even faster. He was almost there! “Katsuma-kun has a healing quirk, though. And he said he wants to try to help Mirio-senpai.”

“A healing quirk?!” Pointy Ears’ head whipped around to stare at the two kids, and then he quickly scrambled backwards. “Please.”

Shit, his voice sounded so broken.

“Uh-huh!” The kid stumbled forward, then ran until he was kneeling down next to the Blond Asshole.

His sister followed at a slower pace, looking cautiously between Deku and Pointy Ears. She looked down where Pointy Ears still hadn’t released the Blond Asshole’s wrist.
“Are you close to him or something?”

The third year nodded. “We’ve been dating for five years.”

“That’s almost as old as I am!” The boy looked at Pointy Ears in awe, then bit his lip and looked back at the Blond Asshole. Slowly, he held his hand over the third year’s chest, and a soft green light began to glow.

The Blond Asshole grimaced, but then his face seemed to relax, which made Pointy Ears relax, as well.

Katsuki jumped over the hedges near the edge of the trees, barely slowing down before he stopped behind Deku, wrapping his arms around the nerd and burying his head in Deku’s shoulder as he embraced him in a backwards sort of hug.

“Ground Zero-san!” The green light flickered, but the boy gasped and then quickly focused on the Blond Asshole again.

Deku’s hand reached up, running through Katsuki’s hair and then tightening around a fistful. “Kacchan.” The nerd finally let his eyes close, focusing on the damn venom burning in Katsuki’s side and the ache in his muscles for over-using Deku’s quirk.

Katsuki never wanted to move, but eventually all the pain had disappeared, and the nerd’s hand fell back down to his side. Thank fuck his injuries hadn’t been too visible–the kids didn’t look like they’d noticed shit. “Tamaki-senpai and I can take Mirio-senpai and the kids back to the agency. You should try to find Sero-kun or the two villains who escaped.”

“I don’t wanna fucking leave you.” They may be fine now but that was only because they could heal themselves. Their wounds had been nasty. And then feeling all of Pointy Ears’ panic….

Katsuki’s arms tightened around the nerd’s waist.

“Kacchan.” Deku’s voice was exasperated, but he definitely wasn’t pulling away from Katsuki, either.

“I know.” Pointy Ears was back to normal now. Deku would be fine. And Spider Man had never shown up here, even though he’d been following the Wolf Villain.

Damn it.

Katsuki just wanted to stay here.

But he couldn’t.

He left a soft kiss against Deku’s neck, then pulled back, hating the loss of his soulmate’s warmth. “I’ll find them and meet you at the agency.”

The nerd looked back over his shoulder, his green eyes serious. “Don’t fight them alone.”

“I can—“

“Kacchan. We can’t let it happen.”

Katsuki’s mouth clicked shut.

He was the one with the bad fortune, not Deku. And he was the one who had…. Fuck that shitty dream! “Fine.”

“Bakugou.” Katsuki blinked, glancing around Deku at Pointy Ears, who was still clinging to the Blond Asshole’s hand. “I’m–”

“Don’t say shit you don’t mean.” They both knew that the second Pointy Ears thought his soulmate might be dead, the same thing could happen all over again. “It’s fine; I could take it.” Without bothering to wait for Pointy Ears’ response, Katsuki turned and ran into the forest, pulling on One for All so that he didn’t risk setting anything on fire with his blasts. “Spider Man! Where the hell are you?!”

No response.

Katsuki took a different route back toward the power plant, scanning through the trees for any sign that his classmate had been there.

Finally, he saw some tape. It was wrapped around a tree trunk? Had Spider Man used the tree to anchor himself as he swung? But then it wouldn’t be around the base…

Katsuki pulled on more of the quirk, gaining 30 percent as he dashed toward the tape.

“Blasty? Is that you?!”

Oh, thank fuck.

Katsuki jumped over some hedges, circling around the tree to see Spider Man struggling against his own tape that was tying him to the trunk. “Man, am I glad to see you. A little help here?”

“Fucking dumbass.” Katsuki sighed, lifting up a hand to blast away the tape. “How could you get tied up with your own quirk?”

“He’s fast, ok!” Spider Man groaned in relief as he was freed, then shook out his arms. “He saw me following him, and I tried to wrap him up, but before I knew it, I was stuck to this tree. Did you catch up with him? What was going on with Senpai?”

What if one of the enemies had a shapeshifting quirk like the League did? Was this—Spider Man released some more tape so that he could wrap up the ball of shit that had been used to tie him up. Katsuki sighed in relief at the clear sign that this was actually the dumbass, and Spider Man gave Katsuki a questioning look. “Everything ok, man?”

Katsuki scowled. “No, the bastard reconvened with his boss and they took off somewhere.” Katsuki scanned the foliage around them. “Did he say anything about where they might be heading?” If their target was the kid, it didn’t make sense that they would just leave. Did they have other targets? The little brats were both still with Deku, though the green glow of the boy’s quirk had stopped, and now he looked fucking exhausted.

On the other hand, Senpai didn’t look nearly as bad anymore. If it weren’t for the dried blood, no one would’ve known that the dragon had taken a chunk out of his side. And the angry, red, root-like burns had become thin white lines, barely noticeable unless you looked for them.

Pointy Ears’ fingers traced over each curve.

“No, man.” Katsuki blinked, turning his attention back to Spider Man. “Sorry. I haven’t seen Iida-kun or anyone else, either. But they might know something at the agency.”

Heading back there probably wasn’t a bad idea… odds were that their classmates had run into the other two villains somewhere on the island. Hopefully there weren’t even more than the Wolf Guy had said. And Deku would be mad if he chased after the two with only Spider Man’s help.

“Bakugou… is Suneater alright? He attacked you.”

Katsuki sighed, frowning in annoyance. “We’re fine.” How the fuck could he cover for the bastard?

“Yeah, now and I had no clue you could heal yourselves, what the hell, man, but—“

“Some villain got him with something. Doesn’t matter, I knew I could take him.”

Though the bastard had still managed to get Katsuki to cough up the Blond Asshole’s location, damn him.

“Right…” Spider Man clearly didn’t believe Katsuki, but he sighed and then turned to head through the trees. “Come on, then. The agency’s this way. If we don’t know where those villains went, maybe someone else does.”

Katsuki grunted in agreement and followed after him.

… Was Spider Man walking a little unsteadily? Every time Katsuki opened his mouth to say shit about it, though, he managed to walk the next few steps perfectly fine.

Whatever, if he wanted to hide a fucking injury, Katsuki would just make sure he got first aid the first chance he could.

Deku was still heading back toward the agency, too, so at least this would allow Katsuki to reconvene with his soulmate again. Their bond hated them being separated right now. Not that Katsuki liked it, either.

“Your phone doesn’t work, right? It’s not just mine and Kaminari’s?”

Katsuki blinked, then grunted again as he swatted a branch out of the way. “Yeah. Phone service went down right after the explosion. If there really are four villains, they must have coordinated shit and disabled the cell towers’ back-up generators at the same time as the island’s power plant.”

“So they really don’t want us communicating with anyone off this island, huh?” Spider Man paused when they reached the road, frowning as he glanced around to see if anyone was in sight. “Without phones or the internet, I can’t think of a way to ask for help, can you?”

A way that wasn’t based on internet or cell shit? Wait. “Do shitty emergency pagers use cell towers?”

“Pagers?” Spider Man shook his head as they started to hurry down the road. “I don’t think so. Isn’t it radio waves? That’s why they’re relied on during emergency scenarios. But who would have one? Does a third year?”

Katsuki grinned, “Deku and I do. They reach our parents and Aizawa-sensei.”

“That’s great!” Spider Man picked up his pace, and soon they were both running. “Come on! We’ve got to go tell everyone!”

As the outline of the agency building grew at the end of the road, they could make out two figures standing in front.

“Bakugou-san! Sero-san!” The Vice Pres waved before leaving Octopus Guy’s side and running toward them. “Are you both alright? Does anyone need first aid?”

“Someone should look at Spider Man, the fucking Wolf Villain knocked him out for at least a few minutes.”

“Dude!” Spider Man gave Katsuki a betrayed look, but then he sighed and slowly nodded. “I’m pretty sure I’m dealing with a concussion. My head was slammed into a wall.”

Damn it! Were people even supposed to be walking after that shit, much less chasing after a fucking villain?! No wonder Spider Man had ended up tied up in his own tape. Katsuki growled. “If you’re not in any condition to run after someone, you should tell me, dumbass!”

“Like you were in any better shape.” Spider Man rolled his eyes, then winced and held a hand up against the side of his head. “But yeah. First aid would be good.”

The Vice Pres nodded urgently, then looked over at Katsuki, “Were you injured, Bakugou-san?”

“I’m fine. There’s a kid with a healing quirk.”

Spider Man stared at him and then fucking sighed again. “Yeah. Bakugou’s fine now.”

“A healing quirk?! Can he help the others?!”

“Not gonna happen. He’s like, six years old. Healing the Blond Asshole exhausted the hell out of him. Deku’s coming this way with the kid and the third years, so they’ll be here soon.”

“I see.” The Vice Pres nodded, then let Spider Man lean against her as she turned back toward the agency. “Let’s get you both inside. Almost everyone is at the school securing it as an evacuation site.”

Katsuki nodded. “Deku and I have pagers upstairs that can contact Aizawa-sensei.”

“You do?!” The Vice Pres looked over her shoulder, her face lighting up in a smile. “That’s wonderful news! They should still work, unless the villains have some means of blocking them.”

Octopus Arms nodded to them when they reached the agency’s doors, holding one open for all of them to go through.

Katsuki didn’t know what he’d expected, but two villains tied up in the agency lobby definitely wasn’t it.

“Bakugou-san, Iida-san is upstairs. Why don’t you go update him while I help Sero-san?”

Upstairs, huh? They probably didn’t want to say shit around the villains. Katsuki nodded to her and headed toward the stairs, ignoring the two villains; a ninja-looking-wannabe and a woman whose quirk must be related to her hair–it was covered in some kind of goopy shit that was probably Pinky’s doing.

Katsuki shrugged and climbed up the stairs, stopping when he saw Glasses, Pikachu, and French Guy. “Where the hell is everyone else?”

“Bakugou-kun! I’m glad to see you are doing well. Most of the others were uninjured and are therefore at the local school, preparing it as an emergency shelter for the community.”

Katsuki scowled. “That shit’s probably necessary. The villains Deku and I were fighting got away, and they were damn strong. Anyone else run into the bastards?”

Pikachu looked liked he was about to fucking faint. “That wolf guy from the power plant got away from you?! And another one escaped from Midoriya?!”

Katsuki scowled at him. “I was distracted. Pointy Ears was hit with some kind of shit that made him attack me, and Wolf Guy escaped while I had to handle that.”

“I see.” Glasses frowned, rubbing at his chin in thought. “Tamaki-san is alright now, though?”

“Yeah, he’ll show up with Deku any minute now. They’re bringing the Blonde Asshole, who got knocked unconscious by the villain he and Deku were fighting. Apparently that guy’s their boss.”

“Someone managed to escape from Midoriya-kun and Mirio-senpai?!” Katsuki blinked, then noticed that Invisible Girl was sitting in the corner, covered with several large bandaids.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“That needle hair woman!” Invisible Girl groaned, sticking another bandaid on her leg. “She realized she could see me if I was bleeding, so she kept attacking me! It was really annoying. Nejire-senpai captured her with Mina-chan’s help, though! It was awesome!”

“At least that’s two of them that we’ve captured. Who took down the ninja-wannabe?” Katsuki weaved his way through the piles of shit all over the room, stopping and kneeling down by his bag.

Glasses cleared his throat, “Todoroki-san, Jiro-san, and Kirishima-san captured the other villain, who goes by Mummy.” Oh. Katsuki guessed she could also kind of look like a mummy. “Most of 1A were occupied by getting civilians to safety.”

Hell yeah. At least three of his dumbasses had done well today. Not that Spider Man had sucked, either. Katsuki unzipped his bag, digging around for the damn beeper. When he pulled it out, he grinned.

The red and green buttons were still flashing on top of the small gray box.

“Blasty? What’s that?” Pikachu came over, kneeling down next to him.

Katsuki pressed the red button, forcing it down when it resisted. “It’s a pager that tells Aizawa-sensei that Deku and I have an emergency.”

Like hell they’d let the villains do whatever shit they wanted: it was time for round two.

Notes:

Man, I've been planning and re-writing the Tamaki vs. Katsuki fight for so long now. It feels nice to have it finally posted. Though uh... don't hate me for it, I guess? They're all ok. Physically, at least. Psychologically, not so much. Hope you liked the chapter, angst and all!!! And thanks so much for y'all's comments and kudos <3 <3 they really do mean the world to me and make each day so much brighter <3. Ty as well to Geeky for beta-ing this chapter for me and helping me straighten out the mess caused by multiple re-writes.

You can find me on tumblr at haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 17: Round Two

Only moments after Katuski had sent out the emergency page to Aizawa-sensei, Deku and the others arrived. The Vice Pres was quick to remove the unconscious but mostly-healed Blond Asshole from Pointy Ears’ back–he was in his shitty centaur form again–and bring him upstairs, where Glasses told her what futon to put him on.

On the way here, the littlest brat had told Deku that the Blond Asshole would probably wake up soon, which meant no one wanted to do other shit and everyone ended up awkwardly waiting by the Blond Asshole’s futon. Pointy Ears was clutching his soulmate’s hand, completely oblivious to the brats sitting next to him and Katsuki and Deku, who sat on the other side. At the edge of the room, Pikachu, Glasses, and Invisible Girl pretended like they were doing other shit, but they were damn awful actors and he could tell they were really just watching anxiously.

Katsuki hated this.

The Blond Asshole shouldn’t be fucking unconscious. It reminded Katsuki too damn much of hospitals, and the last time he’d been in one of those had been a disaster.

The Tall Bastard had died.

The Feathered Menace had…

Damn it.

Katsuki’s fingers curled into fists, and he dropped down onto the floor beside the Asshole’s futon with a loud thump. Deku joined him a second later, his head resting on Katsuki’s shoulder.

Pointy Ears had his hood pulled down over his eyes, refusing to look at any of them as he clung to his soulmate’s still hand.

The brats were fidgeting nervously.

Their classmates kept exchanging uncertain looks, all of them worried or some shit, even though the Blond Asshole would be fine.

An eternity later, the Blond Asshole moved, his fingers tightening around Pointy Ears’. He didn’t open his eyes, but Pointy Ears shifted, looking at his soulmate’s face with absolute relief.

Telepathy.

Deku closed his eyes, letting his body relax against Katsuki’s.

The brats were looking between them all, confused as hell, and the boy finally asked if the Blond Asshole had moved or something.

The third year opened his eyes, making the brats squeak in surprise, and the bastards in the back of the room didn’t even try to hide their sighs of relief.

Katsuki ignored the Blond Asshole as he slowly sat up, acting confused about how he’d been healed and then thanking the brat when he explained. He then asked if he and Pointy Ears could be alone with Katsuki and Deku, which of course their classmates were happy to do, though the idiots gave the four of them some confused looks as they herded the brats downstairs.

Katsuki glared at the third years. “Don’t apologize for shit.” He could see it written all over their fucking faces.

Senpai rubbed a hand over his face, fingers pausing along the new, thin scars, already pink and shiny from where the snot-nosed brat had healed him. “If that’s what you want.” He shook his head, then let his hand fall down to his lap before giving Katsuki and Deku his full attention. “Tamaki said he already tried and you wouldn’t let him. That’s not why I wanted to talk, though. These villains caught us by surprise this time, but we can’t let that happen again. Tamaki said it hasn’t been very long since I passed out, so that’s lucky. We need to plan our next steps. Any news on the bad guys?”

Deku nodded eagerly. “It’s only been about an hour since you were hurt, but the villains haven’t made any moves. We captured two of them, but the other two haven’t even tried to find them or take Katsuma’s quirk, which is apparently their goal.”

The Blond Asshole frowned, his fingers absently tracing his soulmate’s wrist as he thought. “The villain we fought said his name was Nine. He definitely had multiple quirks, but the longer he fought, the more strain it seemed to put on his body. His barriers were predictable, so I was able to move around them and land attacks, which he didn’t like.”

Katsuki scoffed. No kidding, the bastard had practically tried to electrocute the Blond Asshole. “I’ve already alerted Aizawa-sensei with our shitty emergency pager, so Sensei knows the island has villains attacking.”

“That’s great!” The Blond Asshole beamed, but then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar packet of pills.

Katsuki’s nose wrinkled. “We’ll be taking these for the next fight. Telepathy can be helpful but, for us, the risks outweigh the benefits.”

“Now?! So soon after…?!” Panic tinged Deku’s voice as his eyes darted down to where Pointy Ears was still clinging to the Blond Asshole’s hand. “Will you be able to manage? I mean… when Kacchan and I started taking the pill again after Kamino…” The nerd’s hand reached for his chest, tightening around his shirt as his voice trailed off.

That shit had been fucking miserable.

“We’ve had a few more years of exposure to it.” Pointy Ears’ free hand tugged at his hood, pulling it down to hide his eyes. “It won’t be pleasant, but we’ll manage. We’ll wait until right before the fight, though.”

The Blond Asshole nodded. “What choice do you two want to make? You have some with you, right? This villain is going to be tough to bring down. And so will his partner, if he managed to hold his own against Blasty-chan.”

Katsuki hated those fucking pills.

But the Wolf Bastard had only gotten away because their soulmate abilities had backfired. If they took the pills, they could stop any kind of accident like that from happening. Plus there would be no way the villains could learn they shared injuries..

Katsuki’s quirk wasn’t strong enough against these bastards. Even One for All on its own hadn’t been enough against their leader. If they took the damn pill, they wouldn’t be able to access each others’ quirks. Not only that, but they wouldn’t be able to heal each other, either.

But if they were fighting with others to back them up…

“Please.” Deku shifted so that he was sitting on his knees, then bowed to Senpai. “Help us fight at 100%. With your help, we won’t need to take the pill.”

“With our help?” The Blond Asshole frowned. “We’ll be happy to help you guys however we can, but if one of you goes down, there isn’t really anything we can do to help the other one snap out of the resulting madness. Blasty-chan tried, remember?”

Pointy Ears put a hand on his soulmate’s shoulder, finally looking up at Katsuki. “Does this have to do with how you healed your injuries? Bakugou was already injured when I found him, but by the time I regained control, neither one of you was hurt.”

“Yeah.” The nerd sat up, biting his lip for a second before he nodded to himself and then glanced over at Katsuki, who shrugged and then nodded. He didn’t care if Deku told them shit. “Kacchan and I can heal each other’s wounds. But we have to focus on the injury and can’t have any distractions, so we can’t really do it mid-fight yet. If you can cover for us, though, we’ll be able to heal ourselves and significantly lessen the possibility of losing consciousness or having the villains discover that we share injuries.”

Pointy Ears frowned his right hand tightening around his sleeve. “Or they could discover both that you share injuries and that you can heal each other.”

“That shit would suck, yeah, but if we capture these bastards, then that shit doesn’t matter. They’ll be trapped in Tartarus with no one to tell.”

“Even villains in Tartarus can have visitors.”

The nerd shook his head. “Not since Nagant’s break-out, actually. It’s in complete lock down. Only people with the highest level of security clearance can enter the island.”

Unfortunately, that still included the Feathered Menace.

“Alright.” The Blond Asshole sighed, then gave them a tired smile. “If you two are comfortable with the risk, we’ll support you however we can. I’d feel a little more comfortable with it if a few others know to give you some time to heal yourselves after one of you is hit. There may be a moment in the fight when Tamaki and I won’t be able to cover for you.”

“Spider Man already knows we can heal shit. We can tell some of the other dumbasses.”

Deku nodded. “A lot of our friends already know more about our abilities than the public does. We trust them.”

“It’s good to have friends that support you!” The Blond Asshole beamed at them, then started to stand up, but a tentacle quickly appeared and wrapped around his waist before he’d barely shifted his weight. “Tamaki.” The third year let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m fine. Everything’s healed, ok? If we’re going to be fighting again soon, you can’t hover.”

Pointy Ears still lifted his soulmate to his feet, only pulling the tentacle back after he was standing as well. “Let me do it for now, please.”

The Blond Asshole sighed again, then reached up and tucked some loose hair behind his soulmate’s ear. “A few new scars isn’t anything we haven’t faced before, right? We’ll come out on top, just like always.”

Katsuki didn’t need to be an empath to know Pointy Ears was scared as fuck. His purple eyes drifted down to the thin scars along the Blond Asshole’s neck, and all his fear seemed to harden into steel resolve. “I want to make sure he can’t hurt anyone like he hurt you, ever again. Stay by my side and help me?”

The Blond Asshole’s answering smile was different from his usual, full-of-energy ones. “You never have to ask.”

Pointy Ears looked down at his lap where he was still holding the Blond Asshole’s hand, a blush creeping up to the tips of his ears. His thumb brushed over the back of his soulmate’s hand. “I always will.” He quickly lifted one hand, tugging his hood back down over his eyes again. “So. We need to give you two time to heal. Anything else? Are we doing this four vs. two or trying to break them up?”

Deku immediately launched into possible tactics and shit he’d observed about this guy, though what Katsuki found the most alarming was the villain’s ability to steal quirks. Thank fuck it hadn’t worked on Deku because One for All was a stubborn piece of shit.

The Blond Asshole nodded in thought. “We should try to limit those fighting the leader to long-range fighters or people whose quirks require a lot of training to utilize, like Tamaki’s.”

“Shouldn’t we also have people whose primary duty is to protect the two kids and the other citizens?” Deku went over to his shit and pulled a notebook out of his bag. “We don’t actually know if there are only four villains or if Katsuma-kun is their only target.”

“Right.” The Blond Asshole ran a hand through his hair, then stood up. “Come on, We should go through tactics with your whole class. I don’t actually know what you all specialize in, and tactics meetings always provide good experience.” The third year turned to Katsuki, adding, “How long do you think it will be before Eraserhead arrives?”

Katsuki shrugged, “I only contacted him like, ten fucking minutes ago. It’s at least an hour to the mainland, even on a speedboat.” Even if he was staying ‘close,’ Sensei was probably a few hours away. It would take him a while to find a boat and someone who was willing to bring him out here, especially after a huge attack like last night’s.

“So the villains may attack before he has time to get here—it will depend on how long it takes their leader to recover from overusing his quirk.” He paused, looking over at his soulmate before groaning, “You’re right, Tama, we’ve got those two downstairs! Someone needs to watch them so that they can’t get free and help their companions.”

“Hagakure-san said that one of their quirks was needle-like hair and Mina-chan’s acid seems to somehow be stopping that, so she would probably be good as a guard. I don’t know what the other one’s quirk is, though. Just that Nejire-senpai and Jiro-san captured her.”

“I’ll ask Hado-chan who she thinks would be a good guard for the second villain, then.” The Blond Asshole started moving toward the stairwell. “We have to choose where everyone is stationed carefully.”

Deku didn’t stand up to follow him. “Actually, do you mind if I talk alone with Kacchan for a few minutes? We’ll meet everyone at the school.”

“That’s fine!” The Blonde Asshole gave them a thumbs up, and Pointy Ears nodded, looking like he was about to try to apologize again, but Katsuki glared at him, so he just sighed and went downstairs, still attached to his soulmate’s hand.

Katsuki turned to Deku, raising one eyebrow. What the hell did the nerd want to talk about? Not that Katsuki would object to finally being alone together. It felt like it had been fucking forever, even if most of their morning they’d been alone while patrolling.

“Did you um… Did you notice the smoke?”

“Smoke?” Katsuki’s quirk was explosions. Smoke wasn’t exactly unusual. Wait, there had been that weird smoke today, though. “After Pointy Ears ran off?” The smoke had been centered around Katsuki, even though he hadn’t remembered exploding shit.

“All Might said the sixth holder could create smokescreens.”

Shit.

“There was smoke that day, too. When Shigaraki…” The nerd looked down at his lap, his hands curling into fists. “Can we try meditating for a minute? I think we might be on the verge of accessing a new part of my quirk.”

Smokescreen.

Katsuki had dismissed it when All Might first told them about that part of the quirk since he could already make those, but how the hell did it even work?

Katsuki sighed and nodded, sitting down on the futon across from Deku. They would be up against villains with multiple quirks, who knew if they’d already seen every aspect or not, so they couldn’t afford to ignore anything that would help them win.

They both closed their eyes and searched for the familiar hum of One for All.

It was always there, just out of reach in the back of Katsuki’s mind, watching and waiting. Part of his soulmate, and yet also something entirely foreign to them both.

He allowed the quirk’s thrum to control the pace of each breath.

Darkness.

Shadowy forms surrounded himself and Deku, who gasped in surprise. “Kacchan, I can talk this time!”

He could? Katsuki opened his own mouth, but no sound came out. He looked over to see that the shadows only covered Deku’s legs and feet, even though they were up to Katsuki’s shoulders.

The shadows around them slowly coalesced, forming a man who looked around Aizawa-sensei’s age who was wearing a baggy red jacket and black pants, along with white hiking boots. Who the hell wore white hiking boots? That was like asking for shit to get dirty.

“I’m En, the sixth user.” His voice was quiet, but austere, unlike the BlackWhip asshole. “Smokescreen is my quirk.” He tilted his head for a second, studying Katsuki and Deku. “Gaining access to our quirks seems to be tied into your emotions: anger, anxiety, and fear.”

Deku frowned. “Fear? I don’t think I’ve been afraid, though.”

What the fuck? Katsuki wasn’t afraid of shit!

“Were you not afraid for your father?” Calm gray eyes turned toward Katsuki. “And you felt the other soulmate’s fear, even if it did not originate from within.”

Shit.

That’s why the smoke had been everywhere?

“Fear is not a bad thing. What matters is not the presence of fear, but how you act because of it. My quirk has limitations, though, and should never be used purely in fear.”

“Limitations?” The nerd’s voice slipped into analysis mode. “Like what? Can it only cover a certain amount of space? ”

“Yes.” Smokescreen Guy nodded. “If you are up against a long-range opponent, all they must do is wait for you to emerge, and they can target you faster than you’ll be able to find their location. Also, many have trained to fight in smoke. Against someone like that or who has a mutation quirk with heightened smell or hearing, you will place yourself at a disadvantage.”

“How do we master it? Do you know what quirk might be next?”

Smokescreen Guy shook his head, but he was already starting to fade. “The time is upon us. You must hurry.”

Damn it!

He was gone.

Katsuki opened his eyes and glared at the floor, half tempted to punch it in frustration. “This cryptic shit is annoying as hell.”

Deku remained silent, still trying to meditate or some shit so he could ask more questions. Katsuki scowled, but stayed silent.

He suddenly felt so damn tired. Katsuki yawned, resisting the urge to lie down on the nearest futon. They had shit to do—he couldn’t afford to fall asleep, even if healing was always really damn draining.

A few minutes later, the nerd finally gave up and opened his eyes, groaning. “How do I hurry up? What am I supposed to hurry up?” He groaned, flopping back onto the futon. “I wish I knew the answers.”

“We’ll talk to fucking All Might when we get back.” The man hadn’t made any public appearances ever since that fucking press conference the day their internship started. Katsuki doubted the hero would have any answers that he hadn’t already told them, though. Whatever the rush was, he didn’t seem to know.

Damn it.

“Fear, huh?” Deku held his hand up in the air, watching the light between his fingers. “I don’t even know where the smoke emerges. I’ve been so focused on other things each time it’s activated.”

Katsuki frowned. If emotions forced upon them would activate it... “We can train it with Pointy Ears and the Blond Asshole. They can project shit onto one of us while the other watches.”

“That’s perfect!” The nerd fucking beamed, jumping off the futon before he deflated. “We don’t have time for that right now, though. We’ll have to work on it after we’ve at least figured out where everyone will be positioned. And Aizawa-sensei would be angry if we did something unnecessarily draining before a big fight. I’m already tired from the healing we did earlier today.”

Katsuki’s scowl deepened, but he nodded. He couldn’t say he was looking forward to training this aspect of One for All, but they couldn’t ignore the tools they had to fight. They would put up with it until they understood how the quirk felt and didn’t need shitty emotions to activate it.

“Come on, Kacchan. We need to go help the others.” Deku held out his hand, and Katsuki took it, pulling himself to his feet.

“There’s no way in hell we’re letting these bastards get away a second time.”

“Yeah!” The nerd nodded. “And we’ll have everyone else helping, too! Even if these guys are really strong, we won’t lose!”

Katsuki nodded, barely resisting the urge to yawn. Damn it. They didn’t have time for shit like naps. Thank fuck for adrenalin.

When they got downstairs, Invisible Girl–detectable only because of her myriad bandages–was guarding the villains, along with Spider Man, who grinned at them. “Yo! Everyone else went on ahead, but here.” He tossed Katsuki what looked like a fucking walkie talkie.

He stared at the yellow and black box.

It was a fucking walkie talkie.

“Yaoyorozu made these for us. They cover the range of the whole island, so we can keep in touch. Iida said he’d send some others to help us stand guard.”

Deku glanced over at the two villains, both of whom were clearly awake and listening to the exchange. “Do you want us to wait until they get here?”

“Nah, we’ll be fine!” Invisible Girl bounced on her feet, making it look like a bunch of bandaids were jumping in the air. “Both villains are secure, and we’ll contact you guys if anything happens!”

Katsuki shrugged and clipped the shitty walkie talkie onto his belt next to Aizawa-sensei’s pager as he headed toward the door. “Come on, Deku. They’ve got shit covered.”

The nerd was at his side in a second, and they both called on One for All after they opened the door and stepped onto the road. They couldn’t do a full on race because they had to save their energy and all that shit, but they both pulled out about half of what they could manage from the quirk, Katsuki using his explosions to make up for the speed difference.

No one had said where everyone was in the damn school, but thankfully it was small as hell and it didn’t take long before they found the third years and most of their classmates holed up in the teachers’ office area.

“Awesome! You guys didn’t take too long at all.” The Blond Asshole gave them a thumbs-up as they entered. “We were just talking about where it would be good to position everyone for this afternoon and tonight.”

Katsuki glanced at the white board, but frowned when Deku’s stomach growled. What time was it? He didn’t even know.

“Here, guys.” Pikachu tossed them some sandwiches, chips, and water bottles. “You haven’t had time for lunch yet, right?”

Deku nodded and thanked him, both of them opening shit and starting to eat as the Blond Asshole explained the plan so far.

Spirally–the third year girl–, Brain Fucker, and Rock Girl were in charge of the two kids and would take turns sleeping and guarding.

Lion Cub, the Vice Pres, Animal Guy, Tail Guy, and Sugar Guy were guarding the school and helping out with shit here. Shitty Hair and Glasses were the exception to that—both of them would be watching out for the Wolf Guy with Half and Half and Edgelord.

Octopus Arms, Pinky, Frog Girl, French Guy, and Invisible Girl were on villain guard duty.

That left Pointy Ears, the Blond Asshole, Round Face, Pikachu, Spider Man, along with Katsuki and Deku to fight the leader. Katsuki nodded to himself. Pikachu could handle the bastard’s lightning shit, and Spider Man and Round Face were a good long-distance tag team who could also pull the dumbass from the fight if he overexerted himself.

Plus, Aizawa-sensei (maybe with others?) would be coming to help whatever group ended up in over their damn heads.

Deku yawned, rubbing at his eyes and nodding when the Blond Asshole asked if he thought the teams were solid. Katsuki caught the third year’s frown, but he didn’t say shit, just told them to split into their teams and prepare as best they could for the upcoming day. Katsuki almost thought the asshole had forgotten about it when he closed the meeting with, “Alright, you two are taking the first shift to sleep!”

Katsuki stared at him.

“We’re fine, senpai, really, we can go help—“

“Nope! Our team’s job is to be prepared to fight the villain’s boss on the north end of the island and to cover for the kids’ guards as they keep their distance from the fighting. If you two are yawning, then you’re not prepared for a fight.”

Katsuki glared at him. “We had plenty of rest last night. Let us help with shit.”

Pointy Ears glanced at Round Face and Pikachu, the only two remaining first years in the room besides Katsuki and Deku, since Spider Man hadn’t been relieved from guard duty, yet. “Can we talk openly?”

Katsuki sighed.

Deku reassured the third year that Pikachu, Round Face, and Spider Man were trustworthy and they didn’t mind them knowing shit.

Pointy Ears took some shit out of his pocket, eating it and transforming his ears into fucking bat ears . He tilted his head, listening to shit around them, but then nodded to himself. He looked at Katsuki. “Healing always takes energy, no matter how it happens. Unless you can take that energy from an external source, which it doesn’t look like since Midoriya was yawning, then you need to sleep before this fight.”

“You can heal yourselves?” Round Face blinked in surprise, turning to face them.

Pikachu groaned, “Why did you need to heal yourselves?! We’re gonna have to fight this guy again and I’m starting to really fear for my life here.”

“Relax, idiot. You just need to be a fucking lightning rod.”

“It’s um…complicated.” The nerd rubbed at the back of his head, looking down at the floor to avoid his friend’s gaze. “But yeah, we can heal each other. We had to earlier today, and we’re a bit tired from it, that’s true. We need to get better at it. Right now we need 100% focus to do it, so we might need one of you to cover for us for a bit, if we get hit badly in the upcoming fight, if that’s ok with you guys, of course, I just—“

“It’s fine, Zu-kun.” Round Face beamed at him. “You can count on us!”

Satisfied that at least Deku had been persuaded that they needed sleep, the Blond Asshole nodded. “Good! Let’s grab some food and supplies, then head to the northern ruins. Once there, we’ll start setting traps while you two sleep.” The last bit was added with a pointed look toward Katsuki, who glared back at the Blond Asshole.

He knew sleep was fucking important!

But preparing for the damn battle was important, too.

By the time they reached the actual ruins, though, Katsuki’s whole body was starting to feel heavy, and he didn’t resist too much as Pointy Ears both herded them into some kind of cave and laid out two sleeping bags before ordering them to sleep because ‘he knew how hurt they’d been, and he didn’t want them to collapse mid-fight.’

Bastard. As if he hadn’t been the damn cause for most of that shit.

Danger Sense was weirdly quiet at the moment, though, so Katsuki figured a nap couldn’t hurt. They messed around with the sleeping bags, opening them up so that Katsuki could pull the nerd into his arms, falling asleep in a tangled mess.

When they woke up, it was because Danger Sense was starting to curl at the edge of their minds, and they both quickly left the cave.

Piachu turned toward them, grinning. “You’re awake! We’re almost done preparing everything if you want to take the next watch. Not that we’re in charge of doing much—Jiro-chan’s down by the road and listening for anyone coming, and there’s only one way to the ruins since all the island’s boats are destroyed.”

“Wait.” Deku frowned. “When did that happen?”

“That was what that Mummy guy was doing when Nejire-senpai and the others caught her. Apparently she turned them all into things that attacked the islanders, so basically they had to destroy the boats to save people.”

Damn. That would take a hell of a lot of money to repair, and that plus the damage from the other attacks…. “They sure as hell didn’t want anyone on this island running for help.”

“How long were we asleep? Is Aizawa-sensei or anyone else here yet?”

Pikachu nodded. “Yeah!! They got here about half an hour ago. He said to let you two keep sleeping, though. It’s just Aizawa-sensei and Ragdoll, apparently they couldn’t get anyone else to come with them since there’s still ongoing rescue efforts from last night’s attack. Sensei said he was lucky to be able to get Ragdoll to come.”

Deku frowned. “And that’s probably because of quirkless discrimination.” He paused, sighing, before giving Pikachu a tired smile. “I’m glad they came, though. Where are they now?”

“Ragdoll went to help at the evacuation shelter, and Sensei’s…” Pikachu blinked, then frowned. “Well he was helping Ochaco-chan, but… Oh! There he is.” Pikachu pointed over to the right, where a pile of rocks was precariously balanced, only a few thin pieces of tape holding it in place. Sure enough, Aizawa-sensei was there, right beside Round Face and Spider Man.

That damn ability of his made him hard to spot even when he was standing in plain sight. He probably didn’t want the enemy seeing him in advance or some shit.

“Actually, he wanted to know when you guys woke up. Why don’t you grab some of the sandwiches from the cooler inside the cave and take those to them? You guys should have some, too, you slept through dinner.”

Katsuki glared at the setting sun.

Were the villains going to attack tonight? Or would they wait until morning? How much time did this bastard need to recharge? Now that they were recharged, should they go looking for him?

Deku was already heading back into the cave, though, his stride purposeful as he went to grab the cooler.

“Blasty…” Katsuki looked over at Pikachu, who was looking down at the ground, his posture stiff. “You sure you’re ok with me knowing that stuff? About you guys healing? I get that I know now, so it’s not like I can un-know it or anything, but you’ve never really told me that kind of stuff and over the break when I asked about the mark you said Recovery Girl fixed it, but that’s not true, right? If you can heal each other, then you must’ve healed it yourselves, and I know you tell Shinsou and Todoroki more than you tell me, so if you weren’t willing to tell us then, then it must’ve—“

“Shut up, dumbass.” Katsuki growled, and Pikachu’s head shot up, his eyes wide in surprise. Katsuki glared at him. “I said we’re friends, didn’t I? And I don’t take shit like that back.”

“Aw, Kacchan! You admitted that they’re your friends again! On purpose this time, too!” Deku teased Katsuki from inside the cave, and Katsuki would have glared at him if he was still there. He settled for glaring at Pikachu.

Pikachu’s answering grin was wide, his shoulders sagging in relief. “Man, I should’ve recorded that. You’re not gonna say it again, are you?”

“No way in hell.” Katsuki scoffed, turning to watch as Pointy Ears and the Blond Asshole walked away from the road where they’d been talking to Rock Girl.

“Then why didn’t you guys say the truth over break?”

Katsuki shrugged. “We’re used to giving out the shitty ‘public response’ for things. And we hadn’t talked about who we’d tell or shit like that.”

“Oh.” Piachu nodded. “So if our classmates ask about your healed mark, we should tell them what you said about Recovery Girl fixing it?”

“If anyone asks, yeah.” Katsuki nodded. “We’ll tell the people who need to know. Which for this fight, includes you. One day we’ll be good enough at this healing shit that we won’t need people to cover for us anymore while we do it, and then it won’t fucking matter who knows.”

Why the hell was Deku walking so slowly, damn him? He already had the shitty cooler!

“This guy’s even stronger than the Wolf villain we fought, isn’t he?” Pikachu was staring at the road leading to the island, and Katsuki rolled his eyes.

“So what? He’s got lightning shit, and that’s what you’re good at.” Katsuki hit his shoulder as Deku finally emerged from the cave. “So stop acting like you’re some weak ass extra. I don’t hang around people who can’t hold their own in a fucking fight.”

Damn it, Pikachu was fucking beaming now, and Deku was giggling. Katsuki glared at the nerd as he fought a blush. “Shut up!”

“Uh-huh. You’re just embarrassed because you basically admitted Kaminari’s your friend like, what? Five times in that conversation?”

“I did not, you damn nerd!”

“You totally did.”

“I heard it, too, Zu-kun.”

“You both need to get your hearing checked!” Katsuki glared at them, then grabbed the cooler from Deku–to hell with anyone who said he did it gently–before stomping down the hill toward where Aizawa-sensei was with the other two dumbasses.

Sensei looked up, catching sight of them, then said some shit to Round Face and Spider Man before meeting Katsuki halfway, far enough away that they couldn’t be easily overheard by the other two. “It was nice to arrive and discover that, for once, you two didn’t need a hospital visit. Suneater did fill me in on why you needed the sleep, though.”

Katsuki scowled. “We were fine. Deku was yawning, that’s all. And these bastards are tough. One of them took down Senpai. I finally had the second one pinned, but then Pointy Ears showed up.”

“You did well.” Sensei’s eyes were calm as he looked over Katsuki’s shoulder at Deku, who had just reached them. “Both of you. Everyone is safe, and we’ll make sure it stays that way.”

With five soulmates here, these bastards didn’t even stand a fucking chance. Especially since Sensei could erase their damn quirks.

“I doubt they saw me arrive—Ragdoll was able to drive a rescue speedboat here, but we kept our approach as quiet as possible.” A.k.a. the asshole had used his soulmate ability, but the bastards still might’ve seen the boat, even if they’d been quiet. “You’re sure about going into this fight without meds?”

Katsuki scowled at him. “We need to be at full power for these assholes. And we’ve got to practice healing mid-fight at some point.”

Sensei sighed, then nodded. “I always prefer caution, but ‘Zashi would probably agree with you. It’s your decision. We’ll cover for you.”

“Thank you, Aizawa-sensei!” Deku was beaming at the man, but Katsuki’s hands tightened into fists. Why did this bond shit have to have such huge disadvantages as well as the advantages, damn it! “Um…” The nerd bit his lip, then plowed on, “Will you be taking it? Or will you be able to heal yourself?”

“I’ll let ‘Zashi decide. Since we’re rarely together in fights, we usually let the person who is outside of the danger make the decision, unless it’s a situation that could go incredibly bad very quickly, like USJ was.”

Katsuki swallowed.

USJ.

Those were memories he really didn’t want to think about right now.

As if sensing that they didn’t want to talk about that shit, Sensei changed the subject. “What is your quirk telling you about the situation?”

Deku frowned, glancing over at the road that led to the island’s ruins. “Danger Sense woke us up, but it’s like something’s waiting to attack. It’s not telling me to move anywhere else, though, so whatever is coming, it will happen here.”

“Good. The other groups are prepared just in case, but Lemillion was right to put most of the strongest fighters on this side of the island. Even if they have another target besides Shimano Katsuma, we must guard the one that we do know about.”

He sighed, one hand reaching up to hold onto his capture weapon as he looked up at the darkening sky. “That even a peaceful island like this is being targeted by villains… there aren’t enough heroes to cover the country any more, and villains know it.”

Fucking damn it.

“Sensei, how bad are things?” Deku’s voice was urgent, even though he’d been reading articles up until the damn villains attacked. “With all those heroes being fired, do people trust the ones who are left? Or are they too worried about the rising rate of crime incidents?”

“It depends on the area. The people around trusted agencies like Hawks’ and Best Jeanist’s are only slightly concerned and there hasn’t been much of an increase in crime in those locations. In the more rural or historically ‘high crime’ areas, though, villains are already taking advantage of the situation. We’re also starting to see civilians who have decided to handle situations themselves, rather than calling for heroes and waiting for one to arrive.

Fuck. That shit really wasn’t good. Sure, every now and then civilians did great and saved themselves before heroes could arrive on a scene, but more often than not, their lack of training meant a much higher casualty rate than similar situations faced by trained heroes.

“We need to handle this attack well. It will help boost the nation’s confidence to see heroes responding to high caliber villains in a rural area.” He paused, nodding his head back toward Round Face and Spider Man. “Go take the cooler to them and eat some, yourselves. You’ll need the energy.”

“Of course!” Deku quickly headed toward his friend, and Katsuki studied Aizawa-sensei for a second before moving to follow his soulmate.

It was definitely Aizawa-sensei, you couldn’t fake a fucking soulmate ability, especially one like his.

But was it just Katsuki, or did he seem… off? He was always so focused on whatever was in front of him, but right now it was like he was fucking distracted by something. The bags under his eyes were even worse than usual, too.

Had there really been so much hero shit to do that he’d run himself ragged over the last few days? Or was it something else?

And everyone was making them get sleep, when this bastard clearly needed it more than they had.

“Food!” Round Face waved, then came bouncing over, eagerly grabbing the cooler from Katsuki. “I’m so hungry, gimme!”

Spider Man dropped onto a nearby rock, groaning as he stretched out his arms. “This trap better at least do something to these guys, we’ve been working on it all afternoon.”

Katsuki eyed the mountain of logs that looked like they had rocks piled up behind them. “Is it some kind of shitty dam?”

Spider Man nodded as he took the cooler from Round Face. “Yeah. If the earlier traps don’t work, this will be our last attempt to split them up. If they’ve already split up, then hopefully it’ll push their leader closer to overusing his quirks.”

“Either way would be really helpful!” The nerd studied the logs for a second, then followed where they were likely to fall. “The kids will be behind the ruins the whole time, right? We wouldn’t want them to be caught up in everything.”

“Yup!” Round Face nodded as she munched on her sandwich, then swallowed. “Nejire-senpai and them have been helping with the traps this afternoon, but they’ll keep the kids safe during the actual fight. And Sensei said we did a good job dividing up the teams! Toshi-kun was really annoyed about it, though. He wants to be part of the fight.”

Katsuki snorted. “His quirk would be too damn tempting for a villain who can fucking steal quirks. We can’t risk it. Even if we would know how to work around it’s weaknesses, there’s no telling if we’d be able to get the fucking quirk back.”

“Yeah, that’s what Eraserhead said. Shinsou was still grumpy, though. He hates being excluded, especially since this time I’m fighting with you guys, as well. He started interning with Eraser before I did, but he’s still not been able to help with any kind of big mission.”

“As long as the idiot doesn’t work himself into a shitty mess again, we’ll deal with it.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. Brain Fucker was going to be an underground hero. He’d have plenty of opportunities to work with his damn dad.

Katsuki took his chance to reach into the cooler, tossing some sandwiches to Deku before grabbing some for himself. They were just simple peanut butter and jelly, but it’s not like they could afford to be picky when the island was under attack.

They started chatting with Deku about how the other groups had been doing, but Katsuki ignored them, instead studying the others who were still making preparations around the ruins.

Pointy Ears was practically clinging to the Blond Asshole, but that wasn’t surprising, given the day’s earlier events. They probably hadn’t taken the pill yet and would be waiting until the villains showed up.

They seemed to be making some kind of trap at the cliff by the entrance to the ruins… a cave-in, maybe? Everyone was working on it, well, everyone but Rock Girl, who was watching the road toward the ruins and kneeling, probably so that one of her earphone jacks could monitor the ground.

Katsuki felt like he had to rush through the shitty sandwiches so they could help, but in the end, the assholes were almost done and didn’t need anything.

Which meant the waiting game began.

They talked about trying to find the villains first, but decided it was best to wait at the top of the ruins where they had prepared the terrain for the fight.

Katsuki hated waiting. Taking turns on ‘watch’ was even more boring than shitty patrols. They sat at the top of the ruins with Aizawa-sensei, Pointy Ears, the Blond Asshole, Pikachu, Spider Man, and Round Face, but they barely spoke.

Each second seemed to take an eternity, the sun slowly disappearing over the horizon.

When everything was dark, it happened.

Danger Sense made Katsuki’s anxiety suddenly spike, and a second later he heard Rock Girl’s voice from the walkie talkie, “Two figures are coming down the road. Their footprints sound heavy and regular—no limping or any sign of weakness. Good luck everyone.”

Katsuki’s hands clenched into fists at his side, and the Blond Asshole and Pointy Ears shifted behind him, Pointy Ears pulling something—no doubt the pill—out of his pocket. The third year shivered a second later, reaching for his soulmate’s hand.

This was it.

Rock Girl would retreat to the other side of the island to help guard the brats, and the rest of them would begin the fight. Their next cue would be when the villains arrived at the end of the road—Edgelord, Half and Half, Shitty Hair, and Glasses had built some kind of pitfall that should separate them and send the Wolf Guy into the cavern underneath the ruins. Based on the Dragon Villain’s movements, he’d be able to avoid that shit pretty easily, so he’d keep advancing while they dealt with Wolf Guy.

Edgelord and Half and Half should be able to handle that bastard. With Shitty Hair and Glasses as support, they’d be fine.

They had to be.

The Wolf Bastard was damn strong, but so were they.

Before the pitfall could collapse, though, a dense fog began to creep up the shore around the ruins.

What the hell? There hadn’t been fog the entire damn time, but now the island had fog?

“It has to be one of his quirks.” Deku jumped up onto one of the ruin’s walls, watching the fog, and Sensei jumped to land beside him. Where the hell had he come from?! Damn sneaky soulmate ability.

“His name is Nine, right? And the quirks you’ve seen are a kind of laser, air barrier, lightning and the dragons from his back. If his name is how many quirks he can have, that still leaves five others.”

“He never had to search for Katsuma-kun, so he has to have some kind of ability to find a person, as well. And if he’s still trying to steal quirks, he hasn’t maxed out.”

“That still leaves two that are possibly unknown.”

And one of those could easily let this bastard summon fog.

“You’ve all trained to fight in low-visibility scenarios.” Sensei looked back at them, then glanced over at Round Face, Pikachu, and Spider Man. “I know you three have less training in that area, but stick to the plan and support us from afar. We’ll clear the fog as much as we can, strike when you have a good shot.”

“Yes, sir!” Round Face nodded eagerly, but all three of them were eyeing the approaching fog warily. Had they really not fought in low visibility before? Katsuki thought back, but fuck, every time he and Deku had done that shit, it had been during extra training with All Might or Aizawa-sensei.

There was a thundering crash from the ‘entrance’ to the ruins.

The first trap had been activated.

“Bakugou, Midoriya, Amajiki, and Toogata. You’ve trained together. You know each other’s fighting styles. Use that to your advantage and rely on each other. Fight as a team. Got it?”

They all nodded in confirmation. They were a team of five fucking soulmates. There was no damn way they were going to lose.

Even if the encroaching fog looked more like a thick white wall than any type of fog Katsuki had seen before.

Pointy Ears shifted behind Katsuki, and he glanced back as his ears morphed into bat ears and his nose—was that a cow’s nose? Whatever, if Pointy Ears was using it, Katsuki guessed cows probably had a good sense of smell or some shit.

When Pointy Ears saw him looking, he pulled his hood over his head.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Pulling the hood down defeats the point of having good ears, dumbass.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“It’s ok, Tamaki! No one will be able to see you in the fog anyway, right?” The Blond Asshole leaned closer, adding, “And I think they’re cute.”

“Mirio. They can hear you.”

“So?”

Pointy Ears melted into a fucking pile of embarrassment on the floor while Round Face giggled. He stood up again, though, as the fog finally reached them.

Fuck this shit was dense.

Katsuki knew the others were still standing around him, and he could make out vague outlines, but—

“Uravity, Cellophane, release the dam. Ground Zero, use the crash to test your explosions—just a small one to make sure this fog is natural and not flammable.”

Thank fuck Katsuki’s gloves kept his hands dry, even in this thick fog.

He heard movement behind him, then tape ripping and suddenly all he could hear was crashing rocks and boulders slamming into each other as they tumbled down the hill. Katsuki quickly lifted his hand, releasing the smallest explosion he could.

Light flared to life in his palm, then disappeared. It was weaker because of the damp air, but Katsuki could easily counter that.

But how were they going to find this bastard to attack him? Thank fuck the kids had Rock Girl, who wouldn’t be phased by this shit.

Pointy Ears moved.

One second he was behind Katsuki, the next he was jumping in front of them all, and Katsuki ran to follow on pure instinct.

He couldn’t see him. Not anymore. But barriers of light emerged in front of them, and something shadowy slammed against the obstacles. Tentacles.

Chains whistled past Katsuki’s ears, and the barriers switched, blocking the weapon, but Katsuki could see the bastard’s outline now.

He grinned.

Time to give Sensei a good line of sight.

Deku lifted his hand, One for All crackling around him as he flicked his fingers and created a huge gust of wind, entirely clearing the fog around them.

Katsuki blasted to the right as Sensei’s capture weapon shot out to his left and chains aimed straight at the bastard’s feet.

The asshole jumped, but Deku was there, kicking him downward, and tentacles reached to grab the villain, but he fucking used the momentum of Deku’s kick to propel himself back under the fog.

Katsuki growled under his breath, throwing out a huge blast that destroyed the ground where the bastard had rolled, the concussive force dispersing a bit of the fog before it began to billow back in.

They all shifted, standing in a circle back to back, with Pointy Ears facing the direction the villain had disappeared.

The villain began fucking laughing. “You all fight as a unit. Am I being given the honor of facing the training partners of Japan’s soulmate duo?”

Katsuki released AP shot in the direction of the sound, but there was just more laughter, not even a barrier. Black Whip emerged from Deku’s arms, curling above him like it was preparing to strike.

“Chimera said that the one with tentacles attacked the blond soulmate, though. Did you have a falling out? Or has that been resolved now.” Purple beams shot from his fingers to cut through the fog, forcing them all to scatter.

Damn it!

Katsuki heard movement to his right—no Deku’s right, his left—dodge! He rolled right, barely avoiding the damn dragon mouth.

There was a grunt behind Katsuki. Sensei’s voice. The clang of metal. Sensei’s knife. Black Whip shot out from both his arm and Deku’s, but another one of the fucking dragons blocked them, and then they were rolling, dodging those damn beams again.

A snarl–Pointy Ears.

The whistle of chains–Blond Asshole.

Deku couldn’t clear the fog, not unless he knew where this bastard was. It would just reveal his own position and the fog would return in less than a second.

Lightning.

But it curved away from its target—Deku—instead lighting up Pikachu’s outline briefly before there was the crashing sound of boulders.

Where was the bastard?!

Damn it, Round Face and Spider Man had obviously pinpointed his location and attacked after the villain had let loose that lightning, but where?!

There! Circling the ruins and trying to avoid them as he headed toward the back of the ruins where the kids were hiding. Deku was definitely right about the bastard having a quirk that let him find the brats.

What had the One for All Guy said? That a smokescreen’s weakness was long-range attacks, because they could see you the second you emerged from the smoke.

The fog was moving with this guy, but that still revealed where he was heading. If they could launch a big enough attack at the front of the fog…

Katsuki blasted into the air, then used Black Whip to silently swing from an overhang and land on a higher point of the ruins. Where was the bastard?

There! Something was hitting his barriers again--octopus tentacles, Katsuki could see their whip-like outlines. Not a problem, Pointy Ears could block it. Katsuki lifted his hand, steadying his wrist as he concentrated on getting as much sweat as he could, then sending it straight out in a blast.

It thundered in his ears, roaring through the air and clashing against the damn barriers and then shattering them.

Katsuki grinned.

Deku destroyed the surrounding fog with an air-shot, and Sensei was in the clearing in seconds, his quirk activated.

The villain fucking scoffed, pulling out a vial and inserting it into some kind of device in his shoulder.

And then he grabbed Sensei’s capture weapon and fucking ripped it apart with his bare hands.

What the hell?!

That was noumu-level physical strength! But this guy was clearly rational, unlike the noumu they’d faced. Except the noumu that Endeavor and Hawks had faced…

Katsuki blasted back toward the fight.

Was whatever twisted scientist guy who was making them getting better at that shit?!

“Eraser!” The Blond Asshole lunged, blocking the bastard’s punch that had been aimed at Aizawa-sensei, before retaliating with a kick and quickly falling into the familiar pattern of hand-to-hand combat as he and the villain circled each other.

Why the hell had Aizawa-sensei been distracted? He was the obvious target while erasing some bastard’s quirk. Even if his ability was active, it still didn’t do much if the opponent knew he was there.

Katsuki flew directly above the villain, then rained down explosions as fast as he fucking could, using them to keep the bastard away from the edge of the fog, which he’d been inching toward while he fought the Blond Asshole.

Deku was reaching out with Black Whip, caging the villain on the left while Pointy Ears blocked off the right.

The bastard had nowhere to go.

And then he fucking punched the ground, making debris fly everywhere, and in the brief second that Aizawa-sensei’s vision was clouded, he started to glow purple. he wind picked up, destroying the fog around them, and summoning a fucking tornado.

Katsuki’s grin widened as the wind lashed around them.

This shit was easy to handle.

Deku landed beside him, both of them raising their hands as the other three moved behind their defensive barrier.

And then they both let loose with explosions, making them as big as fucking possible so that they’d heat up the air around the tornado and force it to change direction. Deku’s side was less hot, so the tornado veered to the left, heading out toward the sea and away from everyone on the fucking island.

Lightning again?!

And the wind was still so powerful that Katsuki was thankful that the Feathered Menace had told them to add visors to their costumes—the other three were all having to shield their eyes, since Sensei’s goggles weren’t actually meant to block wind.

Thank fuck for Pikachu, who was standing on the edge of the ruins, somehow pulling the lightning toward him like a fucking lightning rod and redirecting it all into the ground.

Even as the lightning cleared, though, the damn fog was already returning.

But this time there was an eerie purple glow that shone through it—almost in the shape of some kind of butterfly wings.

Fucking hell, why couldn’t the glow be enough for Sensei’s quirk to work?!

Katsuki blasted toward it.

A flash of purple light darted forth as the asshole shot more lasers at someone.

A grunt, then a shout of pain.

Who?! Katsuki didn’t—had that been Sensei?!

Another shout, but a different voice this time, and there was the crackling of electricity.

Black Whip shot from him and Deku simultaneously, circling around the purple glow, but before they could grab ahold of anything they had to release the quirk and focus on dodging the damn dragons. Fucking damn it!

Katsuki could hear chains hitting those shitty barriers, and then a kind of slithering sound… vines! Pointy Ears was—

Katsuki rolled to the left, dodging a dragon head and then quickly blasting away from it again as it twisted around and followed him like it had a fucking homing beacon.

Damn it, they needed to get synchronized as a team! But the dragons kept attacking them so that Deku couldn’t do the air blasts!

Katsuki’s eyes widened and he blasted upward, dodging the purple beams that had originally been aimed at someone else, probably the Blond Asshole.

Why wasn’t Sensei trying to get in close and use his damn quirk?! They knew where the bastard was now!

Fuck, Katsuki was tired of playing dodge-the-dragon. Screw this. He twisted, then blasted toward the damn shitty dragon before shoving his grenade bracer into its mouth and letting loose the largest damn explosion he could manage.

The force flung him backward, shards of the grenade blaster digging into his arm, but he grinned at the villain’s scream.

Fucking finally.

Katsuki pulled out the shards, panting as Deku paused, closing his eyes to heal Katsuki. The nerd sighed. “That was reckless, Kacchan.”

“Yeah, yeah. It worked, didn’t it?” And thankfully it made the other dragon stop chasing Deku, too. Another good thing about this damn fog, at least. The villain couldn’t see if they were injured or healing each other.

Katsuki shook out his arm, glad that Deku had also healed the strained muscles from the damn recoil.

And just in time—the second dragon was charging toward Deku again, who lashed out with Black Whip, cutting through its side. “The glow makes it a little bit easier to see and target these things.”

With the dragons down, they both raced toward the damn barriers, One for All running as maxed as they could safely use it. Deku’s fist slammed against the solid surface a few seconds before Katsuki’s.

Katsuki pushed off from the barrier, twisting to the side and flipping over the bastard before releasing a blast at his back, but another damn barrier formed.

They just had to keep pummeling him.

The Blond Asshole was throwing punches and swinging his chain weapon, effortlessly dodging the purple lasers that shot towards him. Pointy Ears had pulled some kind of red and white spine from his back and was using the damn thing like a sword. Deku was slamming into the shields with kicks and punches, and Katsuki was exploding shit with every ounce of sweat he could.

They kept breaking the damn barriers one after another, barely giving the bastard any time to form new ones, but somehow he still was, damn it!

Where the hell was Aizawa-sensei?!

Black Whip curled around Katsuki and Deku, striking at barriers out of their reach and forcing the bastard to make them even fucking faster, not even giving him time to shoot out the damn lasers.

An open space!

The Blond Asshole’s fist slammed against the bastard’s face, sending him stumbling backward. Pointy Ears had him wrapped up in vines a second later, but it was clear that the villain was already unconscious.

“Looks like your venom finally started to affect him, Tamaki!”

Venom?

Katsuki turned to stare at the third year. “Did you use that scorpion tail shit again?”

Pointy Ears shook his head, avoiding looking at Katsuki as he cut the vines free from his hand. “I don’t like using that one since it’s an extreme toxin. Sorry.” He lifted the spine he was holding, “This is a lionfish spine. Also toxic, and incredibly painful, but only an extreme dose would be lethal.”

Katsuki glared at him. “Meaning the one you hit me with could have been?!”

“Not since I only hit you twice…” It came out as a mumble, and Katsuki groaned. “Fucking hell. Whatever, I guess.” It’s not like Senpai could’ve controlled himself at the time. “Where the hell is Aizawa-sensei?”

“I haven’t seen him since…” The Blond Asshole looked back toward where the fight had been when the villain started to glow, and Deku began running, One for All flashing around him with each step.

Thank fuck the fog was starting to clear.

Katsuki followed Deku—the third years could handle the unconscious villain.

There!

A shadowy figure sitting by a tree, with another one kneeling beside it.

Katsuki called on One for All, pushing his explosions even faster.

“You guys!” Pikachu’s voice. He sounded relieved—and really fucking panicked. “Did you beat him?!”

Deku skidded to a stop. “Yes! The villain is unconscious and Tamaki-senpai has him bound.”

“Thank God. You’ve got to—“

“I’m fine, Kaminari.”

Shit, Aizawa-sensei’s voice did not sound fine.

Katsuki landed next to Deku, both of them squinting through the fog to determine what the hell was going on. Sensei was leaning against the tree, clutching his head with his elbows resting on his knees. Pikachu was kneeling next to him, one hand on the man’s shoulder.

“If the villain is unconscious, is the fog clearing?”

Fuck.

Why… why did Aizawa-sensei have to ask that?

Katsuki swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

No.

That shout—

What had the villain done?!

“It is.” Pikachu’s voice was so damn strained. “Aizawa-sensei can’t… guys, he can’t see right now.”

Couldn’t…

Fucking hell.

Had the bastard targeted his eyes?!

“You can’t see?!” Deku looked back and forth between Sensei and Pikachu, gasping when he could make out a tear down the front of Sensei’s shirt, revealing his soulmate mark. Katsuki’s eyes frantically darted to Pikachu, but the dumbass could definitely see it and wasn’t acting surprised. “What happened?!”

“It’s just a momentary setback. Go. Take Kaminari with you. You don’t want to see this.” Sensei’s voice was dry as always, like a villain hadn’t managed to damage his eyes so much that he couldn’t see.

None of them moved.

Pikachu laughed, but it sounded like he was about to fucking cry. “When I took the second lightning hit, the villain targeted me with his lasers. I couldn’t… There was no way I could dodge while I was still taking in all that lightning. Sensei blocked the attack for me, but…he…” Pikachu’s voice became strangled, like he couldn’t release the words from his throat.

Sensei didn’t have anything to block an attack like that.

Katsuki swallowed.

“The villain got mad, I guess.” Kaminari laughed again, and Sensei reached over, grabbing his knee.

“You’re hyperventilating.” Sensei’s tone was calm, but it was clear the asshole was trying to hide the pain from his fucking voice. “I’ll be ok. Deep breaths, Kaminari. You did great.”

“How can you say that when you’re—“ Pikachu gasped for air, clinging to Sensei’s hand. He took a deep, stuttering breath, and Deku knelt down, hugging him.

Piachu released Sensei’s hand, turning and clinging to Deku like a fucking lifeline and sobbing into his shoulder.

Katsuki could feel the dampness from Pikachu’s tears as they soaked into Deku’s clothes.

Fuck.

“I tried to block the beam with my knife, but it destroyed my knife and hit my arm.” Sensei paused, taking a deep breath before adding, “The blast cauterized the wound, though, so it will be fine. I’m not in danger of blood loss. Not from that attack, at least. Nine used the beams as a distraction to move closer, and his next attack targeted my quirk.”

His…

Fuck!!!!

Sensei still wouldn’t lift his head to look at them, using his hair and capture weapon to hide his face.

Katsuki couldn’t….

Damn it!

Pikachu lifted his head from Deku’s shoulder, scooting back as he sniffled a bit and wiped at his face. “I heard Aizawa-sensei shout in pain, and I could see that stupid purple glow, so I hit it with a tracker and blasted him as hard as I could. Then something happened to distract him and he left us alone, but Sensei—“

“You did exactly what you were supposed to do. I’ll recover.” Hah. Hard to believe him when his voice sounded like he was about to fucking pass out. “I told you. I’ll be able to heal myself like Bakugou and Midoriya can, I just need some time.”

Oh.

Katsuki’s eyes drifted down to the soulmark. Now that he could see a little better through the dispersing fog, the tear in Sensei’s shirt and concealing wrap looked like he’d done it himself, probably to reassure Pikachu.

Shit.

Fuck.

“Go.” Aizawa-sensei’s voice still sounded so tense, and the last thing Katsuki wanted to do was fucking leave him. “Check on the Chimera villain and make sure your classmates are safe. Take Kaminari with you.”

Damn it!

“I’m not going!” Pikachu was shaking his head fervently, turning to focus back on their teacher.

Katsuki’s feet felt like they were rooted to the ground. Leave Sensei alone? He was still sitting on the ground, his head bent down and hiding from them.

Like he had to protect them just from seeing him.

Blood covered his hands.

His goggles were on the ground next to him, broken and red.

“Go. Secure the villains. Contact Ragdoll. She knows about ‘Zashi and I since her cousin was our mentor. Let her know I need time alone to recover. Hitoshi…” He paused, taking another deep breath and releasing a slow, shaky exhale. “Hitoshi can come here if he wants, but tell him I don’t… I don’t think he should.”

“Of course he’ll want to come!” Fuck, Pikachu sounded like he was going to cry again.

Damn it!

“He shouldn’t see me like this. I’ll recover soon, I just need a few hours.”

Hours?

Mic-sensei must’ve taken the shitty pill. Damn it!

“Go. Help your classmates.”

Fucking damn it!

Katsuki grit his teeth, then spun on his heel, stomping a few steps before he blasted into the air so that the bastard would know that he’d gone.

The fight had been fine for the most part! He and Deku had been barely injured, and the same with the Blond Asshole and Pointy Ears!

But one misstep…

Fucking damn the bastard to hell!

Deku was running underneath Katsuki, wiping at his eyes and trying his best not to cry.

Pikachu didn’t follow them.

Sensei would be fine.

He could heal himself.

But the villain had…

Aizawa-sensei couldn’t see.

Katsuki gasped for breath, landing on the ledge of the cave-in and clutching his chest as that fucking stupid sharp pain returned.

Deku jumped down, running toward his friends.

Katsuki could see the unconscious, frozen form of the shitty wolf guy. But something was wrong.

They weren’t… the dumbasses should be turning toward them. Shouting. Celebrating.

Something.

Anything.

They had won.

Sensei would be fine!

But Deku was running from one prone figure to another, shaking them, and they weren’t moving. They were warm, they still had a damn pulse, thank fuck, but each one of them, Shitty Hair, Edgelord, Half and Half, hell, even Glasses–

Why were their damn friends unconscious?!

Why was Sensei blind?!

Why was Deku shouting in anguish?

Why did it feel like they were drowning?

Notes:

Side scene:
Aizawa's pov post-fight

---

So. Um. Another character needs therapy. Don't hate me? Poor Pika :( And Zawa :( The next chapter will be a breather from the angst, I promise <3 Tysm to the amazing haruhi1087 and toboe1087 on twitter (tho I'm not as active there). If you want to talk about my work, writing, art, or anime in general, come join my discord server! We recommend fics to each other and have writing and art challenges, too :D You can be active as much or as little as you want. I keep people updated there about what I'm working on, post scene previews, post chapters to be beta'd, and there’s also some awesome fan art of my work, as well :)

Chapter 18: Recovery Efforts

Katsuki fucking hated waiting.

It felt like that was all they’d been able to do before the damn villains showed up, and now it was all they could do again.

When they had rejoined the others after defeating the boss villain and saw the four of them laying there, motionless… Katsuki had fucking hated that even more than the waiting. Hated feeling like there was nothing he could do, no way to change shit so that the others wouldn’t have been hurt like this.

Shitty Hair had looked the worst, his skin completely covered in burns, and while the others looked really beat up, there wasn’t any obvious shit aside from that. Nothing like when the Tall Bastard had been speared through the gut.

The nerd had been too scared to move them, afraid they might make shit worse since they hadn’t had very much rescue training yet, so he’d run off, still crying, to get the third years.

Katsuki hadn’t moved.

He couldn’t leave them alone. Not like this.

The last blow had obviously been Half and Half’s–the villain was completely encased in ice, and Half and Half was slumped over, frost covering his right side as his back leaned against the villain-popsicle. Why the hell was Half and Half right next to the fucking villain when he was usually a long distance fighter?!

Shitty Hair was right beside him, while Glasses lay a body length away and Edgelord was even further.

Mechanically, Katsuki’s feet had moved closer to each one, and he’d looked for anything he could bandage or some shit, but it was just the same as Deku had seen–no obvious external problems besides Shitty Hair’s burns.

The third years weren’t where they’d been when Katsuki and Deku had left them. Neither was the boss villain, but Danger Sense hadn’t–and still wasn’t–acting up, so they’d probably moved him to a secure location. Deku had kept running, circling around to the back of the ruins where Spirally was guarding the brats with Brain Fucker and Rock Girl. He’d barely gotten out that the battle was over and Sensei was hurt before Brain Fucker was running, moving as fast as he could toward where the fighting had been.

Then the damn Healing Brat had started crying, too. “Is there anything I can do to help?! You all were protecting me, but people got hurt doing it, so I wanna help them if I can!”

“No way!” Through Deku’s vision, Katsuki had seen the sister shake her head, “You’re too tired! You already healed someone today so you have to sleep first!”

“But I wanna help them!”

“It’s great that you want to help!” Swirly had smiled at him before adding, “Why don’t we go that way, and if you feel up to it, you can try to heal them. But don’t push yourself, ok?”

The brat pouted, but nodded, and Deku bent down so that he could get onto his back, while Swirly had carried the girl. Even with the kids being carried, though, Deku had needed to run more slowly so that Swirly and Rock Girl could keep up.

Katsuki recalled sitting down next to Shitty Hair’s prone form, wishing he knew what to do.

He’d felt weird. Lightheaded. Like he wasn’t actually controlling his actions, just watching as shit happened. Watching as the kid came, but couldn’t heal shit before swaying in exhaustion. Watching as Rock Girl ran back toward the island to get stretchers. Watching as Swirly checked each of their classmates, showing Deku and him what to look for to determine if there were internal or spinal injuries.

Even after the stretchers arrived and they were carrying their classmates back to the island’s urgent care clinic, Katsuki had felt like his body was moving on its own. Swirly had asked where Aizawa-sensei was, and if he needed a stretcher, and Katsuki vaguely remembered saying some shit about him being sensitive to light, so he was staying inside the ruins until the quirk effect wore off.

If only Katsuki and Deku could heal other people and not just themselves. There were plenty of soulmates who had been able to do that shit—the Water Hose duo could.

But Katsuki and Deku couldn’t.

And so now they were stuck here. Fucking waiting.

Sensei had two hours left until the pill wore off, and then he’d be able to start healing. Since those two bastards were always hiding their soulmate abilities, Katsuki had no damn clue how long the process would take.

Brain Fucker refused to leave Aizawa-sensei’s side, of course. Deku had gone about an hour ago to give Sensei pain meds, and he’d let the man take his costume’s visor to hide his eyes, but the man refused to come near people until he’d at least healed some.

They’d briefly gone to the urgent care clinic with their injured classmates, but sitting in the lobby and waiting for news was fucking miserable. Everything was white and sterile, just like the damn hospitals. Katsuki couldn’t help but remember the last time they’d been in one, when the Tall Bastard died and the Feathered Menace threw up blood all over the damn floor.

Katsuki hated thinking about that day.

Deku hated it, too.

So they avoided the shitty place, leaving after a few hours to help with initial recovery efforts. Eventually, though, everyone had to settle down for the night and they all congregated back at the island’s agency building. Yet no other pros had arrived, so 1A would have to keep watch over the captured villains. All four villains were sitting on the ground in the first floor’s main room, wearing the quirk-restraining cuffs that Ragdoll and Aizawa-sensei had brought with them. Even though they were exhausted, Katsuki and Deku volunteered for the first guard shift since they’d had naps earlier in the day.

Not too long after everyone else had disappeared upstairs, though, the agency door opened and a civilian poked their head in and grinned at them before glancing at the villains and whispering loudly, “You have a visitor!”

The damn extra stepped back, and seconds later, Grandma walked in.

Katsuki and Deku stared.

“Recovery Girl!” The nerd jumped up, running over, but keeping his voice hushed. “When did you come to the island?! How?!” Katsuki frowned, but didn’t move from the counter he was sitting on as he watched the villains.

Was this really her? They weren’t expecting anyone else from UA—surely Aizawa-sensei would have mentioned it? But maybe Mic-sensei had freaked out or some shit when the damn pill wore off? Danger Sense wasn’t reacting or anything, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t wrong, just that there wasn’t any direct danger right now.

“Yamada-kun brought me here. Well, he told me where to go, and I got us here.” The old hero huffed, heading straight toward the stairs. Was that a reference to the fact that Mic-sensei would have lost his sight, too? It’s not like she could say that shit openly with a civilian listening in the doorway and villains in the room, even if they were seemingly asleep. “I understand some of the students are injured? Take me to them. I’m sure the doctors here did what they could, but there’s no time to waste.”

“Yes!” Deku nodded eagerly, following after her like some kind of puppy. Katsuki did not think it was adorable, damn it. “Iida-kun, Todoroki-kun, Kirishima-kun, and Tokoyami-kun have all been unconscious for the past seven hours or so.”

“Fucking wait!” Katsuki moved, One for All flashing around his legs as he darted between the new arrival and the stairs. “How do we know you’re actually Recovery Girl and not some fucking imposter?”

Why the hell did she look fucking sad?!

“You boys have been through too much for your age.” She sighed, then waved her cane toward the door. “I first met you at your home. No one else should know that besides your parents and All Might. Is that good enough for you?”

Katsuki nodded slowly; he couldn’t think of any way the League could guess that they’d met her before U.A.

“If that will be all, then I’ll go see to your classmates.” She hobbled past Katsuki, calling over her shoulder, “One of you two go help Shinsou-kun.”

“Toshi-kun needs help?” Deku looked over at Katsuki, confused.

“Um.” Deku looked over at the door from where the civilian had spoken, and Katsuki was careful to move his own gaze at a slower pace to disrupt their synchronicity. “Is that the young hero with purple hair? He’s with two pro heroes at a park we passed and needs help carrying them. Apparently they fell asleep after being healed.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened, and Deku was running toward the door. “Which park?!”

Deku was outside in a flash, the civilian following after him, and Katsuki glared at the still-sleeping villains. It was their damn fault he had to stay here and not help with shit. Even if they were handcuffed and sleeping, they couldn’t leave the damn bastards unguarded.

The civilian was talking with Deku as they walked, though he was having trouble keeping up with the nerd. Apparently Mic-sensei and Recovery Girl had shown up about an hour ago at the dock to see if the island needed any more reinforcements since there was still no way to contact anyone here. The extra explained that the two had asked around until they’d finally found Brain Fucker and Aizawa-sensei, who had been slowly returning to the agency. She’d healed them some, but they hadn’t been able to make it to the damn agency before falling asleep in one of the parks. Brain Fucker was waiting with them while Grandma went to get some heroes to carry them.

Once Deku knew for sure which park it was, he hurriedly thanked the civilian again and then was off in a flash of green lightning, running toward the waiting heroes.

When the nerd made it to the park, Katsuki watched through their shared vision as Brain Fucker looked up with a tired grin. Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei were both fast asleep on a bench, leaning against each other. Both of them had dark medical glasses covering their eyes as if they were extra-sensitive to light, but other than that shit they looked fine. Aizawa-sensei had put on a new shirt to cover up his mark, while Mic-sensei was in his hero outfit, except his hair was down and half-hiding his face.

Deku breathed a sigh of relief. “How are they?”

“Doing better. They’ll need more time still, but Recovery Girl’s quirk really helped. She didn’t want to use it before they knew if Dad was in an ok situation to sleep, though.”

Right. If their bond meant they were injured and healed at the same rate, then Grandma’s quirk would exhaust both of them. Fucking inconvenient.

But their eyes were healing.

Thank fuck.

“Let’s get them inside the agency where they’ll be able to sleep better.” Deku reached out with Black Whip to help position Aizawa-sensei on Brain Fucker’s back, but paused and groaned when Aizawa-sensei fucking refused to release Mic-sensei’s arm.

“Yeah…” Brain Fucker scratched at the back of his head awkwardly. “I tried and they’re not letting go. We’re gonna have to walk right next to each other or something.” Katsuki thought the nerd should just carry the both of them with Black Whip, but Brain Fucker obviously wanted to help carry the dumbass heroes, so Deku was nice and went along with his friend’s shitty idea.

The nerd sighed. “I can’t really blame them, honestly. Kacchan and I would be the same way.” He moved closer, standing beside Brain Fucker so that Black Whip could move both heroes onto their backs at once. “It would be a lot easier if they’d let go, though.” Deku bit his lip, craning his neck so that he could see what the hell he was doing as he moved all four strands of Black Whip behind him.

“I’ve got Dad.” Brain Fucker grunted, shifting his stance so he could carry Aizawa-sensei more easily.

It didn’t take too long for the two to make their way back to the agency, still carrying the sleeping heroes on their backs. Katsuki moved to open the door for them while keeping an eye trained on the shitty villains. “We’ll go ahead and make a place for them to sleep upstairs, then I’ll come back down, Kacchan.”

Katsuki grunted to acknowledge that he’d heard, his eyes carefully scanning their teachers as Deku and Brain Fucker moved past him. Even now that he could see them in the light of the room, they both looked fine except for the shaded glasses hiding their eyes.

“Actually, Kacchan, can you go—“ Deku paused as Recovery Girl came downstairs and nodded to them.

“Good, you’re back. I was able to move around a few of the portable walls upstairs so that these two would have their own space. All the lights are off, so stick to the right side and you’ll reach it.”

With the lights off and Mic-sensei’s hair down, no one would notice that he was wearing different glasses than his usual ones, thank fuck. “Thank you, Recovery Girl! How are they? Will everyone be ok?”

“Yes, they’ll be fine. Sleep is what they need the most right now. I’ll give them some treatments tomorrow and they’ll be up and moving around by evening, most likely.”

“That’s great!” Deku thanked Recovery Girl, and he and Brain Fucker moved forward, carefully timing their steps as they walked so as not to jar the two heroes on their backs.

Everyone would be ok.

That meant no permanent injuries.

“Now go on upstairs, all of you!” Katsuki blinked and looked over at Recovery Girl, about to protest, but she tapped his leg with her cane. “Upstairs, already! I can keep watch over handcuffed prisoners just as well as any other hero, and you’ve had a long day. Go get some rest!”

“But we slept before the fucking—“

“No doubt because your bodies needed it, and skipping your normal sleep hours won’t do you two any good.” She tapped his leg harder this time.

Katsuki huffed in annoyance before hopping off the counter he’d been sitting on to follow Deku and Brain Fucker up the stairwell. “You better not fall asleep and let them escape or some shit, Grandma.”

“I’ve done my fair share of night watches, you brat. I may be old but I’m not incapable of staying up a bit late.”

“Whatever. Fine, if you want to be stubborn about it.” Katsuki trudged up the stairs behind the others, keeping an eye on the two pros to make sure that they didn’t suddenly shift and fall off or some shit.

If anyone else was awake, they didn’t stir as the five of them walked along the wall and slipped into the small ‘room’ that Recovery Girl had sectioned off for the two teachers. There was barely space for three futons, so Katsuki headed toward his futon in the fucking center of the room, damn their pushy classmates while Deku and Brain Fucker carefully kneeled down and laid the two recovering heroes on the futons. Deku turned to leave, but Brain Fucker whispered some bs about staying with them for the night in case they needed shit.

Hah. It was probably just because he didn’t want to leave them alone while both were still injured.

Katsuki called on a trace of One for All, letting the orange light illuminate the room so that he didn’t step on any of the dumbasses, before making his way to his bag so he could grab his damn night clothes and change.

It was during times like this, when they finally had a chance to stop and breathe, that all the day’s exhaustion came crashing down. Fatigue weighed down each step as they went through their nightly routine, fingers fumbling through each task on auto pilot.

Finally, they laid down to sleep. The lumpy futon felt like fucking heaven after the long day, and Katsuki’s eyes drifted close as Deku’s back pressed up against his chest, radiating warmth.

They were safe.

Katsuki ignored the annoying feeling that it was only ‘for now,’ that the danger wasn’t over because the dream hadn’t happened.

Instead, he focused on Deku. Focused on the warmth beside him, on his soulmate’s slow, steady breaths, on their bond that thrummed with contentment now that they were finally relaxing together.

It seemed mere moments later that he became slowly aware of soft sniggering.

Damn it.

Katsuki pulled Deku closer, burying his nose in the nerd’s curls and refusing to acknowledge the dumbasses. His soulmate grumbled something before pulling the sheet up over their heads to block out the light.

There was a beat of silence.

Spider Man groaned. “They’re totally awake, aren’t they?”

“You two can sleep in if you want.” Pikachu’s voice was cut off by a yawn. “We’re all helping with the continuing recovery effort today, then heading back to UA tomorrow afternoon. Well, except for the people who were injured.”

Recovery shit?

Damn it, Deku was shifting in Katsuki’s arms and pulling the sheet back down.

Katsuki glared at Pikachu.

“Oi, it’s not my fault! I’m just the messenger.” Pikachu huffed, then headed toward the room in the corner where the teachers were, pausing to knock on one of the panels. “Hitoshi! Are you all coming down for breakfast or should I set some stuff aside?”

“Um.” There was a pause and soft murmurs from behind the partition wall. “Yeah, if you could set some aside for us, that would be great, thanks.”

“On it!” Pikachu saluted, then spun on his heel and headed back toward the staircase. He glanced over at Katsuki and Deku on the way, then sniggered. “You two want me to set aside something for you, too, so you can shower?”

Katsuki blinked. Shower? Hadn’t they showered last night? He thought back, groaning when he realized they’d been so tired they’d completely forgotten. And now probably smelled like shit.

Deku wrinkled his nose, looking down at the dirt and scrapes along his arms from yesterday’s fight. “At least we remembered to change out of our gear, I guess.” He nodded to Pikachu, “Thanks! That’d be great.”

“You got it.” Pikachu did his damn finger guns, then made his way through the maze of shit on the floor before heading downstairs, Spider Man following him.

“Let’s go get a shower, Kacchan.” Deku’s stomach growled, making him grimace. “And definitely some food after that. We were running around so much yesterday, we didn’t eat anything after the fight.”

Katsuki shrugged and grabbed his shower crap. “Can’t believe we only have today left here. The island was fucking trashed by those villains. The Commission better send someone to help clean up this shit.”

“I’m sure they will.” Deku yawned and stretched as he stood up, and Katsuki’s eyes couldn’t help but follow the nerd’s shirt as it rose, revealing his soulmate’s toned abs. Deku giggled, and gave Katsuki a tired smile as his eyes snapped upward. “Even if the nation is short on heroes right now, the island suffered a huge attack. Rescue heroes or agencies that specialize in relief efforts will take our place, we just have to do what we can to help while we’re here.”

Katsuki grunted and stood as well, making his way toward the showers. “Yeah, they fucking better.”

After they took off their shit and stepped under the hot water in two of the tiny stalls, Katsuki finally felt his shoulders relax a little. He shook his head, sending water droplets flying, then ducked back under the water and sighed in relief as the hot spray rolled down the back of his neck.

For just a minute, he and Deku stood there, separated by thin walls but connected by their senses and bond, letting themselves breathe in sync with their eyes closed as the water pounded over them.

No responsibilities.

No pressure.

Just them and the water.

But then the nerd sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, and the moment was gone. They both went through the motions of cleaning off, hands going just a few seconds slower than normal, neither having much desire to leave their temporary sanctuary. Eventually, though, they couldn’t put it off any longer and their fingers reached out, pausing on their respective shower dials before reluctantly twisting and turning them off.

The last drops of water flowed down the drain.

He shook himself from his damn bizarre mood before Deku noticed and they both grabbed their towels, drying off before putting back on their dirty uniforms. Deku sniffed at his, looking disgruntled. “We really need to have these cleaned when we go back to UA.”

“You can say that again.” It felt like they hadn’t fucking showered at all, putting this dirty shit back on again.

Pikachu said they wanted Deku’s help at the power plant, but Spider Man said the group at the docks needed help, too, so Katsuki and Deku split up for the day, internally begrudging the necessity of it. Deku was holding huge chunks of metal in place for Half and Half to weld back together, while Katsuki went down to the docks and hauled chunks of destroyed boats out of the bay where the villains had sunk them. They had no fucking clue what was “salvageable” and what would be thrown in a scrap pile, so they just pulled up all the shit that they could. Apparently the longer it was underwater, the worse the damage would be and the less likely the villagers would be able to use any of this crap again.

Frog Girl’s head poked above the surface, and Katsuki wiped any accumulating nitroglycerin off his hands with a hand towel before wading into the shallow water to meet her, each step pushing against the water’s pull.

“There’s a big boat underneath me, kero. It’s too deep to reach with your whip from the surface, but Ochako-chan has used her quirk on it, so it’s ready to push up.”

“Got it.” Katsuki avoided the smaller debris scattered around—Animal Guy and Tail Guy were grabbing those, while Round Face used her quirk so that Frog Girl and Katsuki would only have to contend with the drag from the water and not also the weight of the damn rubble. When the water reached his waist, Katsuki lunged forward, closing his eyes and swimming to where Frog Girl had been treading water. She’d moved on to some other shit, but the water was so damn clear that it was easy to spot the boat she’d mentioned despite the depth.

Katsuki dove, squinting against the salt water’s sting as he looked for the best place to grab the crappy thing. It was big—much bigger than the ones he’d grabbed so far—but Katsuki should be able to lift it with One for All. It would have been nearly impossible without the help of Round Face’s quirk, though. Of course by the time he finally found a good spot to grab on, his lungs were burning and he had to surface for air.

He kicked up to the surface, taking in a huge gulp of air before diving back down and grabbing the handholds that he’d seen before. He grunted, bubbles of air escaping his mouth while he heaved, One for All’s orange light crackling around him as the boat groaned in protest.

Katsuki shifted, putting himself beneath the damn thing and shoving upward. Fuck this thing was awkward as hell to move. Katsuki kicked off from the sand, using the momentum to propel himself toward the surface. One kick after another, Katsuki kept swimming, his lungs burning again when finally, Katsuki used as much of One for All as he could manage to force the damn thing to break past the surface. Water began pouring out from the sides, and Katsuki kept pushing upward until the side railing was above the waves.

Once his breathing was steady, Katsuki started pushing the boat toward the shore, then stopped to pick it up and carry the damn thing once he was in shallow enough water that he could stand. He waded forward, water sloshing around his legs, and shouted to Round Face that the boat was done. Immediately, she shouted back, “Release!”

The boat dropped down the last few inches onto the sand, and Katsuki leaned against it, releasing One for All.

“Dude, that was so manly!”

Katsuki blinked.

He ran to the other side of the boat, a wide grin stretching across his face. “Shitty Hair! You’re awake!”

His right arm was in a cast, over half his skin was covered in medical wraps and most of what was visible was bruised, but he was awake. His hair was down, and he’d changed out of his hero costume and into a T-shirt and shorts. “Yeah.” Shitty Hair moved to rub the back of his head, but then winced and let his hand fall back down to his side. “I wish I could do more to help, but quirk exhaustion is no joke. I look a lot worse than I am, though! I only broke my arm in two places; the wraps are just because my skin needs some kind of lotion to help it recover from overusing my quirk.”

“You fucking idiot. Don’t overdo it with your damn quirk! You have no right to get onto Deku and me about that shit, and then pull this crap.”

Shitty Hair looked at the ground with a sheepish smile. “I guess. I need to be a better shield. Todoroki-kun and the others shouldn’t have gotten nearly as hurt. They were counting on me, and I let them down.”

“You fucking beat the bastard, didn’t you? And you’re all still alive.”

Shitty Hair nodded. “Everyone else woke up before I did, and they’re doing ok. Some broken bones, but nothing serious.”

“Of course they’ll recover.” They had all endured way too much shit to be brought down by this lame-ass villain. “Our classmates are fucking strong.”

“Yeah.” That made Shitty Hair actually smile, and he turned to look at the others, who were all still digging crap out of the water. “I’d offer to help, but—“

“Fuck no!”

“I said ‘but’!”

“Kirishima-kun!” Round Face shouted, and then there was a lot of splashing as she bounded toward them and the other dumbasses followed her. “You’re awake!”

Frog Girl was the first to reach them, and she lifted her goggles, her eyebrows drawn together in concern. “It’s good to see you, kero, but is it ok for you to be walking around?”

“I’m fine! Well, not fine, but pretty ok. My skin just needs some lotion on it and my arm was broken, that’s all.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and turned back toward the water. “I’m gonna keep grabbing shit.” He didn’t pay attention to their responses and trudged down the sandy shore to the water’s edge, then pulled out Black Whip, grabbing shit he could see and lifting it onto the dry sand. It was always difficult to adjust to aiming at something underneath the water, since light would always reflect weird and all that shit. Training like this would help Katsuki get more accurate.

Shitty Hair was fine.

Edgelord was fine, and so was Glasses.

Half and Half would be fine, too.

Aizawa-sensei would recover.

They’d won.

For the first time since Danger Sense started acting up, Katsuki let his shoulders fully relax.

The kids were safe.

The villains were handcuffed and being guarded at the agency.

They’d won.

Sure, shit had gone to hell for the last twenty four hours or so, and there was still a bunch of shit to fix, but everything was ok.

No one had died.

This really hadn’t been the dream.

But did that mean the dream was about something worse? Something bigger? This villain had been damn powerful, and one soulmate had been knocked unconscious, though thankfully the Blond Asshole was fine now. A group of soulmates approaching a mountain, then everything being destroyed, one soulmate falling….

Katsuki didn’t know what it could represent. How there could be something worse than this shit, because there was no way in hell any of them would die.

Shitty Hair was right. They had to get stronger, and fast. But how? They were already training as much as they possibly could without overdoing shit.

Katsuki shook his head, then sent Black Whip into the waves once more. Thinking wouldn’t help. Not right now. He just had to keep using the quirk until all its aspects came as naturally to him as using his own explosions.

Strength Enhancement, Black Whip, Danger Sense, and now Smokescreen. Katsuki would never be able to use them to the extent Deku could, but they would still be useful tools.

Katsuki took a deep breath, trying to focus on nothing but retrieving shit with his quirks. One for All buzzed beneath his skin, practically begging to be used. It was so much easier to feel the quirk than it used to be. Like the earlier users were practically forcing strands of the quirk through the soulbond.

Katsuki kept his breathing even, ignoring the other idiots as they shouted and splashed around in the waves while they worked. His body moved on autopilot as he dove into the sea, grabbing the next boat that Frog Girl pointed him toward.

Stay focused. Feel each part of the quirks. Pay attention to the smallest details—where was each strand of Black Whip, how much of One for All was he using, keep everything steady and constant—

Someone was walking toward him on the beach.

Katsuki blinked, setting down the engine he’d just pulled out of the waves.

When had it started getting dark? Katsuki vaguely remembered stopping for lunch and eating shitty sandwiches, but he hadn’t realized the sun was already starting to set. They hadn’t finished pulling crap out of the water, yet, even if they’d gotten most of it.

“Come on, man. The villagers made a bunch of food and want to throw a party to thank us for all our help.”

Katsuki frowned, looking back out over the water. Shitty Hair had apparently already told the others because they were all heading away from the beach. “We still have shit to pull out.”

“The mayor said it’s fine—you guys got enough out that they’ll be able to save a lot more than they thought they would. Besides, it’s too dangerous to salvage at night; even heroes can drown, man.”

“But they could—“

“Bakugou.” Shitty Hair grabbed Katsuki’s wrist, pulling him further from the water. “Come on! You’ve been in work-mode all day! You need a break.”

Katsuki scowled. “Everyone has to go to this shitty party, right?” Deku hadn’t even been paying attention; the nerd was still carrying some boxes of shit across the power plant.

“Huh?” Deku paused, then picked up his pace, each tendril of Black Whip bobbing behind him with the box it was holding. “I at least need to drop these off first! How is it already this late?!” The nerd started mumbling, half-jogging toward wherever he was heading.

“Yeah, man. Everyone has to come.” Shitty Hair looked confused for a second, but then he grinned. “Oh! Midoriya’s still working, isn’t he? Yeah, he should stop for the night and come back to the agency, too. I think the kids from yesterday were going to go tell him.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes; those two brats were being fucking slow about it if Shitty Hair made it to the beach before they made it to the plant. Wait… “They didn’t go alone, did they?”

“Nah, Yaomomo’s with them.”

That was good.

Katsuki sighed and ran a hand through his hair, surveying the beach one last time. Even at low tide, you couldn’t see ships parts above the waves anymore—the last pieces of debris were deeper and had been the boats docked furthest out. If the citizens were fine with them calling it quits, Katsuki supposed it would have to do. Carefully, Katsuki made his way through the waterlogged wreckage piled onshore. They probably should have gotten Half and Half to evaporate some of the water in this shit, but he’d been busy welding crap at the power plant.

As Katsuki trudged back up the sand to the road, Shitty Hair fell into step beside him. He was walking slower than he usually did, and Katsuki adjusted his pace to match without a word.

“What happened to Aizawa-sensei? He won’t say, but he keeps misjudging the distance between things and Shin’s been reading everything aloud to him.”

Damn it. “His eyes were hurt in the fucking fight, but Recovery Girl said he’d be fine eventually.” He had to be. If he was being this obvious about shit, though, how was Mic-sensei hiding it? “Where the hell is Recovery Girl if Aizawa-sensei’s wandering around while still being injured?”

Shitty Hair laughed. “She left after lunch, man. Said she’d give us another treatment tomorrow when we reach UA, but then went with Ragdoll, Mic-sensei, and Nejire-senpai to take the villains to the police. She told Shinsou to make sure Aizawa-sensei didn’t do any work, but Sensei’s still been moving around the agency a lot.”

“At least we don’t have to deal with those fucking idiots anymore.” And that explained how Mic-sensei was avoiding any suspicion about his own vision—he’d fucking left the island so they wouldn’t be in the same place anymore.

Shit, separating so soon had to have been damn hard. Especially with the way they’d been glued together last night.

“You can say that again.” Shitty Hair groaned, “That Chimera guy was so hard to beat.”

“You guys took him down, though.”

“Yeah.” Shitty Hair was silent for a second, his voice still quiet when he added, “Eventually.”

“Not eventually, dumbass. You kept him away from his boss. There’s no eventually about it!”

“Ok, ok, I get it, man.” Shitty Hair was smiling at him, but it wasn’t reaching his eyes and Katsuki fucking hated it. “I just wish I was stronger.”

Katsuki huffed, glaring at the road in front of them. “We all need to be fucking stronger. But that doesn’t change the fact that we won this time, damn it.”

“Yeah. Katsuma-kun and all the locals are safe.” Shitty Hair’s grin was wider this time, but Katsuki still hated the way it had to pull at the bandages around his face.

Katsuki scowled. “When do you get to take off that shit?”

“The bandages?” Shitty Hair looked at his hands, which were wrapped in the crap like almost every damn inch of his body. “Recovery Girl said as long as I wear them all day today, then change them tonight and tomorrow before we leave. They can come off for good as soon as we get back to UA. Apparently the sea breeze on the boat would irritate my skin, or I could’ve taken them off tonight.” He sighed. “It sucks sleeping like this, man. But it’s just one more day! I can manage it.”

“Tch.” Still sucked. “At least you don’t have to be a mummy for weeks on end like Aizawa-sensei was.”

“Man, USJ feels like it was so long ago.” Shitty Hair shook his head. “I’m so glad Eraserhead is our teacher. Not that the others aren’t awesome! But he’s always been there for us, you know? Even this time, we had a way to contact him without phones or internet, and he dropped everything to come here. Even with the third years, I don’t know if we could have done it without him.”

They could have. Katsuki was sure of it. But…

Sensei had taken that hit meant for Pikachu. And he’d done a hell of a lot to wear down the boss villain.

If he hadn’t been here, Katsuki was also sure their injuries would have been way fucking worse.

“Come on!” Shitty Hair shuffled around the last corner, quickening his pace. “We’re supposed to be joining a party, not getting all serious!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. With Deku’s vision, he could tell the two brats had finally made it to the Power Plant with the Vice Prez, so they were making the nerd stop working, too.

As Katsuki followed Shitty Hair through the agency’s lobby doors, it was damn nice to see the open area empty of any villains again. All the computers and shit had been pushed back on each of the desks to make room for food, and most of 1A (even Aizawa-sensei, though he was wearing sunglasses) was already gathered around with the locals, piling plates high. All the locals cheered and started thanking him, which was awkward as hell.

“Tataki!” Katsuki grinned and made a beeline toward the grilled fish, and the man standing next to it laughed. “Your friend with the two-toned hair mentioned that you wanted to try it, so we made sure to bring some. We do make the best in Japan, if I do say so myself.”

“Half and Half?” But the asshole wasn’t even here, yet. He, Deku, and Pikachu were all coming back from the power plant together.

“Oh, not today!” The villager handed Katsuki a plate of tataki. “He mentioned it to one of the stall owners at the beach a while back.”

Well that made more sense. The guy at the beach had been really talkative with Half and Half, trying to get him to try all kinds of things. Katsuki thanked the guy, then took the plate and bit into the fish. It was tuna tataki, the fish grilled on the outside, but still raw and juicy on the inside. Katsuki swallowed the piece as Shitty Hair came over to get some, as well.

Being thanked like this was… different. Kinda like the meal service thing the Feathered Menace had done, but that had been to get information. But Katsuki wasn’t sure what info these people would have. They’d already beaten the villain that had threatened them. What other kind of info could they use? Maybe their thoughts on all the shit going down with firing heroes and Endeavor and crap? But the islanders seemed to live in their own world, not too concerned about whatever the hell was happening on the mainland.

“Ba-ku-go.” A finger poked his chest, and Katsuki looked down to see Pinky scowling at him. “We’re supposed to relax! Come on, eat some more and have fun. No work!” She poked him again, then started piling shit on his plate.

“Oi!” Katsuki swatted her hand away, narrowly avoiding the inari she’d been about to add. “That shit’s too sweet! If you’re gonna give me food, at least add the good stuff.”

She huffed, but grabbed some more pieces of tataki to add to his plate. “Here, then, since you seemed to like this. Ochako-chan’s already started a plate for Midori, so don’t worry about that and just relax, you dummy.” She grabbed his shoulders, pushing him toward the couch, and Katsuki scowled at her. “I can fucking walk on my own!”

“Nope! If I let you do that, the next thing we know, you’ll be training somehow.” She pushed him down onto the couch next to Edgelord, and Katsuki glared at her.

“We’re not that fucking bad.”

“Your mind seeks darkness.” Edgelord handed Katsuki a glass of genmaicha tea. “Even now, your thoughts drift toward gathering information for strength.”

Katsuki shifted his glare to Edgelord, but took the tea from him. “You only know that because we did the damn internship together. You know that’s what the Feathered Menace would do in this kind of setting.”

Abyss appeared from behind Edgelord, but he swatted the quirk-being away from his plate before turning back to Katsuki. “Perhaps, but he has also taught me that you must let the light pierce your darkness in order to find true strength.”

Hah. As if that asshole ever took a break.

Abyss moved toward Katsuki, one hand reaching for his tataki, but Katsuki growled. “Go get your own, damn it. This shit’s mine.” If he wasn’t going to be let up from the couch, then he was going to protect every fucking morsel of food.

Deku was almost at the agency now—the boy brat was babbling to Deku about how Recovery Girl had told him she’d be happy to help him become a rescue hero and that he should come talk to her once he got into UA.

The girl brat bounded forward, pushing open the agency doors for the others, and the locals started cheering again. Round Face practically tackled Deku the second he was inside, ushering him toward the couches just like Pinky had done to Katsuki. He rolled his eyes, but leaned back against the back of the couch, relaxing a bit now that Deku was with him, their sides pressed against each other on the cramped couch.

Deku left his plate untouched in his lap, leaning back, as well, and resting his head on Katsuki’s shoulder. “It was weird, working all day without you there.”

“Yeah.” The tiny, niggling discomfort that always lingered in his body and heart whenever they were apart, finally started to dissipate from Katsuki now that Deku was back with him. Fuck, Katsuki wanted to kiss him. In such a crowded room, though, it wasn’t a good idea. He sighed, balancing his cup on his knee as he wrapped an arm around the nerd’s shoulders, his fingers carding through green curls. The last of the tension in their bond disappeared, happy that they were back together after yesterday’s stressful fights.

Katsuki growled when he saw a shadowy hand creep back toward his plate. “Damn it, Abyss! I told you to get your own shit!”

The nerd laughed and defended Katsuki’s food for him before taking one of the tataki for himself. “I want to try one! So I’m taking it as payment for protecting your plate.”

“Very funny.” Katsuki moved his arm off the nerd’s shoulders, swatting away Abyss’ hand—Edgelord wasn’t even paying attention anymore, since he was talking with Frog Girl, damn it.

At least Round Face had gotten Deku similar shit so Katsuki wouldn’t have to worry about food tasting weird as he and Deku ate different things. She had gotten Deku some of the inari, though. Katsuki scowled at the offensive treat. That shit always tasted like someone had dumped it in a tub of honey.

“Hey! Ground Zero!” The girl brat stood in front of him, her hands on her hips. “How come you didn’t tell everybody you are soulmates? Those villains said it was because you’re scared, but I think they’re idiots.”

“Mahoru!” Her brother somehow appeared next to her, trying to pull her away, but giving them an apologetic look when he failed. “I’m sorry Ground Zero-san. Zero Hour-san. I know you’re trying to eat right now.”

“I wanna know!” The girl stomped her foot. “Everybody’s acting like heroes are stupid, and the hero who was here before was stupid, but these heroes actually try to help and stuff, so then why didn’t they want to tell people before, when it would’ve made people really happy to know Japan had another pair of soulmates! Because soulmates are awesome!”

“It’s ok, Katsuma-kun.” Deku set his plate in his lap and smiled at them.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Our parents wanted us to have a ‘normal’ childhood, whatever the hell that even is.”

Katsuki now knew what it meant. It meant being able to live without having every damn person watch every single thing you did. It meant living without villains targeting you and your friends just because of a fucking mark on your chest. Living without any of this damn pressure.

“So it wasn’t anything you decided? That’s stupid. Why didn’t you just tell someone when your parents weren’t around!”

“Well, we wanted to make our parents happy. Don’t you like making your dad happy?”

The girl scowled at Deku, then looked away. “I guess.” Her glare re-focused on Katsuki. “So you weren’t scared like the villains said?”

“Hell no.”

But they should have been.

“Can I see it?”

Huh?

Deku’s head tilted to the side in confusion. “See what, Mahoru-chan?”

“Your mark thingy!! Everyone says soulmate marks are super pretty!”

“Mahoru!” Her brother was tugging on her arm again, not that it did any good. “You can’t just ask that!”

“It’s ok! We don’t mind, right, Kacchan?” Deku glanced over at him, and Katsuki shrugged. Since everyone knew and Deku’s mark was healed, it’s not like it was a big fucking deal. Katsuki swallowed his grilled tofu, then set down his plate and cup before reaching back to pull his shirt over his head. Thank fuck he hadn’t been wearing the gauntlets today.

“So cool!”

Katsuki ignored their stares as Deku took off his shirt and bent to pick his plate back up from the ground.

He frowned.

“Damn it, Abyss!” Katsuki knew he hadn’t eaten any of the boiled apples that had been on his plate!

The quirk-being cackled next to him, promptly disappearing within Edgelord.

Katsuki growled.

Edgelord shrugged. “He is a thief of darkness.”

Deku was starting to blush at the girl’s awe, plus the fact that everyone else was fucking staring at them, now. Damn it. Why the hell did people make such a big damn deal out of the marks? Sure, they were fucking awesome, but it’s not like there weren’t pictures and shit that had their mark visible. Like that one in the newspaper after Kamino that had started all this shit.

The boy was asking questions about UA and how to get in, now, which thankfully distracted Deku enough that he stopped fucking blushing. The girl kept interjecting about how UA would be too hard, but the brother was just as stubborn as she was.

Precocious twerps.

Katsuki started eating again, nudging Deku every so often to remind him to eat, as well, and not just answer the kids’ questions. Other kids started to gather around, and it somehow became fucking ‘soulmate story time.’ It was weird as hell, but Katsuki didn’t mind too much. It was almost nice to be able to talk about normal shit from their childhood, back before they’d been attacked by a villain or met All Might. Eventually, though, they’d finished their food and needed to use the restroom, so they slipped away from the gathered crowd (much to the brats’ disappointment) and headed upstairs.

But before they rejoined the party downstairs, Katsuki wanted to take advantage of the quick moment alone. Grabbing Deku’s elbow, he turned him away from the stairwell and pulled him closer. The nerd gave him a small, mischievous grin before tilting his head upward and kissing Katsuki softly. He could feel his soulmate’s hand shift to the nape of Katsuki’s neck, fingers curling gently into the short strands there. A shiver ran down his spine.

Fuck, it felt like it had been forever.

Katsuki hummed against Deku’s lips, his fingers tightening around his soulmate’s waist. Right now, all he wanted to think about was Deku. Deku and how fucking incredible every single moment with him felt. The brush of their lips, the press of their bodies, the pleasant tingle running through their skin.

All too soon, though, Deku pulled back, his smile soft and his eyes looking fucking happy for once. And Katsuki did not feel like his insides turned to mush with that look, damn it! “We should go back downstairs. The villagers were really nice to make so much for us.”

“Yeah… eventually.” Katsuki smirked and bent down once more, kissing Deku again and grinning into the kiss when his soulmate didn’t pull away, but instead shifted closer. Katsuki let a hand trail up Deku’s bare back, delighting in the shiver he got in response.

Fuck, everything felt so damn good. Their bond was practically thrumming with happiness and Katsuki’s head was filled with Deku and nothing else.

“Midoriya-kun!”

Deku squeaked, jerking back from Katsuki.

Fucking Glasses!

But the nerd quickly grabbed Katsuki’s collar, floundering for some reason. “What the hell?” Katsuki took his wrist to steady him, and that’s when he realized that Deku’s feet weren’t touching the fucking ground.

Wide, green eyes met Katsuki’s.

Float.

The seventh’s quirk.

Holy fuck.

But they’d only unlocked Smokescreen a couple of days ago!

Whatever had activated the quirk suddenly stopped and Deku fell to the ground, still holding onto Katsuki’s arm, before he blushed as he stumbled back from his chest. “Um. That.. That was…”

Glasses cleared his throat, and their gazes darted over to him. “Some of the children wanted to thank you for the keychains.” Glasses adjusted his glasses. “You were… I didn’t realize you could levitate.”

“Right. Um.” Deku looked hesitantly back at Katsuki, his expression uncertain. “Could you give us a minute, Iida-kun? We’ll come down soon, promise. But Kacchan and I need to talk about… well, whatever just happened.”

“Of course.” Glasses nodded, then turned slightly red before adding, “But please keep in mind that such PDA would not be good for the public to see.” The asshole fled back downstairs.

Katsuki groaned, leaning back against the wall and hitting his head against it in frustration. “Fuck.”

“I… I don’t understand why they’re showing up so quickly.” The nerd sighed and sat down. “We don’t even know what the last two quirks might be, but at this rate All Might won’t have any time to research them before they appear.”

Katsuki let his back slide down the wall, crouching next to his soulmate. “What percentage can you use now?”

“Only sixty percent, maybe seventy for a few minutes if I’m really straining.” Deku had entered Mumble Mode, thinking aloud through all the different reasons why he might be manifesting the quirks earlier than should be possible, when he suddenly paused, his eyes widening as he looked back up at Katsuki. “The time is ripe. It’s manifested. That’s what Banjo-san first told us. What if he wasn’t talking about how much of the quirk my body could handle? What if there’s something else that’s manifested and is causing One for All to react?”

Something else? The previous holders hadn’t seemed to think their bond was involved, but what… “All for One is in fucking Tartarus.” And that place had even higher security than before, thanks to the shit the Feathered Menace had pulled with the League, so he couldn’t be a possible trigger.

“But Shigaraki isn’t. And the fact that Nine had multiple quirks… he has to be connected to All for One somehow. He could even steal other people’s quirks.”

Katsuki frowned, pausing before he responded to Deku. Something was off… like he’d heard a footstep, but hadn’t… “Aizawa-sensei?” Katsuki grinned as Aizawa-sensei stepped out of the shadows next to the stairwell.

“You’re becoming more aware of your surroundings. Good.”

“Sensei!” Deku spun around, “I thought Toshi-kun was trying to keep you on the couch downstairs?”

“I managed to escape after I saw Iida return without you two.” He walked toward them, pausing to sit down on the ground. “What happened?”

“I… um…” Deku turned bright red, looking down at his lap. “Well, I accidentally used Float. Just for a few seconds. But with Smokescreen and Float appearing so close together—“

“Smokescreen?”

Shit.

With everything that had happened, they hadn’t told Sensei. “New Year’s Day.” Katsuki’s hands tightened into fists. “There was smoke in the room that day, but it turns out it wasn’t from my quirk. It was from Deku’s.”

Sensei leaned back, tilting his head up to stare at the ceiling. Well, if he could even see as far as the ceiling right now. “With everything that was happening at the time, I assumed that I hadn’t heard the explosions because I’m so used to their sound. We all are.”

“En-san, the sixth user, said ‘the time is upon us.’ And before, Banjo-san said, ‘the time is ripe’ and ‘it’s manifested.’ Past tense. If it was really about my quirk opening up, then it shouldn’t have been past tense. I think… I think my quirk is reacting to something else. Something outside me. The way we’re unlocking abilities… it’s too fast for us to learn one before we access another. I’m nowhere near even being able to use all of my quirk’s strength-enhancement aspect. But I don’t—“ The nerd groaned, burying his head in his hands. “All for One is in Tartarus. But he still has people like him that are free. People like Nine. What if he has someone else? Someone stronger than Nine?”

“Then we’ll beat them, too.” Aizawa-sensei reached out, his movement slower than usual, but his hand clasped Deku’s shoulder, making him look up. “Shigaraki, Compress, and whomever else might be out there. We’ll beat them all. Together.”

Deku hesitantly nodded, and Sensei stood up, holding out his hands toward both of them. “Now come on. The locals want to thank you. This is important hero work, too, even if it’s not our favorite task. Rest so you can be prepared for the next fight.”

Katsuki and Deku looked at each other, then nodded and took their teacher’s hands.

For now, they’d relax at the damn party. Tomorrow, they’d figure this shit out, one fucking step at a time.

Notes:

Hope y'all enjoyed the fluff after the chaos of the last few chapters! A big thanks to MysticChemyst for beta-ing this chapter and arc for me <3 And ty as well to everyone who leaves comments and kudos <3 <3 y'all always make my day <3 It's hard to believe, but there's only two more story arcs left in Zero!!! 0_0 I'm going to take a 3 week break to plan out those arcs and get all the details squared away, but then updates will resume!

Check out my art or find me on tumblr at haruhi1087. I'm on other social media, but not very active. I'm most active on my discord server, where we talk about writing/art/anime/manga/fanfic/fandoms in general, and have writing/art events & exchanges. We're also doing a bnha-themed table top role playing game, so come join the fun! :D

Chapter 19: Returning Home

The boat ride back to the mainland was uneventful, but once they reached the shore… Katsuki didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t this.

The city of Kagoshima had been decimated.

They’d known that Nine had attacked this city before going to Nabu island. They’d seen the smoke. Had seen the footage on the news, but that wasn’t enough to prepare them.

It was worse than anything Japan had faced since All Might’s rise to fame. At Kamino and Deika, hundreds of heroes had swarmed the disaster zones, doing whatever shit they could to help the citizens.

But here in the rural city of Kagoshima, there weren’t many heroes. It had been too sudden. The villains had attacked, destroyed the city in seconds, and then disappeared before heroes from other cities could come to their aid. All the local heroes could do was help the survivors, they didn’t even seem to have had enough manpower to mount rescue attempts to dig through the rubble.

Most of the citizens even seemed afraid of the UA bus, unmarked and unidentifiable as it was. As it traveled through the ravaged streets, most people quickly disappeared around corners, hiding until they passed. The ones who didn’t disappear still looked wary as their hands moved to grab something defensively—a watch, a patch on their shirt, a briefcase—Katsuki noticed more than one had logos from black market support gear companies, recognizing the ones that the Jean Giraffe had shown them.

Damn it.

If Katsuki could recognize the shit for what it was, then any pro hero should have been able to confiscate it, but these civilians were all walking around in broad daylight with this shit. They weren’t even trying to hide it.

If Aizawa-sensei’s eyes had recovered enough to see the illegal support gear, though, he didn’t make any moves to do anything about this shit. .

During their entire drive through the city, they only saw one hero. She looked exhausted, her costume covered in dirt and torn in several places as she wearily trudged down a sidewalk, before she suddenly put her hand up next to her ear and started running.

The entire bus watched her turn a corner as they approached a light and rolled to a stop.

Pinky stood up, her voice hesitant as she called out to the front, “Aizawa-sensei, shouldn’t we—“

His sigh cut her off. Aizawa-sensei stood up from his seat at the front so they could all see him, and when he spoke, he sounded fucking exhausted despite the fact that Katsuki knew he’d gotten a shit-ton of sleep last night. “I suppose this news can’t wait until we’re back at UA. With the limited number of heroes, the Commission has decided that there are insufficient heroes to handle the disaster areas of Kagoshima and Deika, and that civilians should evacuate for their own safety, as no heroes will be deployed in either city until we have sufficient means to rebuild them.”

What… the hell?

“The hero we just saw is disobeying orders by staying in Kagoshima this long. The Commission finished evacuating people last night.”

“Are things really that bad, Sensei? That people have to give up their homes?!” The Vice Prez sounded shocked and Katsuki couldn’t fucking blame her. Sure they’d fired a fuck ton of heroes, but there’d been thousands before that! There should still be plenty to cover all this shit!

Aizawa-sensei looked out the window at the destroyed city and sighed. “Nine didn’t leave them much to rebuild, unfortunately. Most civilians had little to take with them. Evacuations had just begun when I received your distress signal. That’s why I could only bring Ragdoll with me.”

Fuck. Sensei had said it was bad, and they’d seen the smoke and even a bit of the news footage showing some destroyed shit, but that hadn’t given the full scale. Damn it! It was like the villains had just decided to blow everything up for the hell of it. Or were these assholes helping the League destabilize shit?

Katsuki’s attention was pulled back to the bus by the dumbasses' continued distress.

“But there have to be people who want to rebuild their lives here!” Now Glasses was protesting the Commission’s shit, his arms chopping in emphasis. “Why can’t heroes help them?! Why are we being told to just abandon this city and its people?!”

Aizawa-sensei sighed. “After Hawks found several corrupt heroes, Best Jeanist’s agency uncovered more who had been bribed by Sako Arata to overlook his criminal activities. Bakugou, Midoriya, and Todoroki, I’m told that you three were there when Best Jeanist first tagged Arata in order to find his associates.”

Deku’s eyes widened and he nodded. “Yes! He was taking advantage of a child and put them in danger.”

Huh? Oh. There had been another villain that had been working with the Sidewalk Paint Asshole. The moron who had shoved the kid toward the villain.

“On top of the 750 or so corrupt heroes that the top two have uncovered, hundreds of heroes are now resigning. They claim either that they don’t want to be in a field that supports ‘witch hunts’ or that they believe Hawks and they don’t want to work under a Hero Commission filled with people who advocate murdering civilians before they’ve even committed crimes. Of course, others argue that the resigning heroes are merely trying to spare their reputations by quitting before their own practices are thrust into the light.”

The nerd’s hand darted into his pocket, frantically searching for his phone so he could pull it out and look up articles.

On top of the heroes who had been fired, two hundred heroes had turned in their licenses since the start of the year and that number was expected to double before the end of the week.

Fuck.

His chest felt tight. His head was buzzing again, and Katsuki didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t… He and Deku couldn’t make up for the loss of hundreds of heroes!

And the article…it said a lot of hero agencies had elected to undergo internal investigations of improper use of hero licenses, and many of those hadn’t reached decisions, yet. Which meant there really would be more heroes who would lose their jobs. But those were heroes who were weak! Heroes that didn’t deserve the title and took advantage of people instead of helping them, or who were scared of public opinion or some shit.

But the public was afraid. Villains had been able to broadcast a murder live on national television. Even if it had been a fellow villain that they’d killed, heroes hadn’t been able to catch any of the villains who had committed the act.

Damn it!

That stupid sharp pain was back in their chest! Katuski couldn’t tell anymore if it was starting with him or with Deku.

They could barely keep people’s hope alive without All Might! Why was that fucking damned Feathered Menace doing all this shit?! What good would come from this?! Corrupt heroes had to be fucking fired, of course, but fucking damn it!! Had there really been so many?!

“Given our decreasing numbers, the Commission is asking all hero students to monitor the districts in which their school is located. However, that applies only to students with full hero licenses.”

“But Sensei!” Shitty Hair was standing up now, blocking Katsuki’s view of Eraserhead, but not Deku’s. “Aren’t our provisional licenses supposed to mean we should act in times of emergency like this?!”

“Please remember that your entire class are likely some of the League’s targets, given your proximity to Bakugou and Midoriya. You, in particular, are often pictured with them, Kirishima.”

“So we’re just supposed to hide away and do nothing while civilians are in danger?! That’s not what heroes do!”

Eraserhead was rubbing at his forehead now. “You are supposed to stay safe because you are still children and not fully trained heroes. You will not, however, be doing nothing.”

Shitty Hair’s shoulders were still tight, but when Spider Man tugged on his arm, he allowed himself to be pulled back down onto the bus seat.

Eraserhead was scanning the bus, and Katsuki wished he knew how much the man could even see right now. He was certainly acting like he was evaluating their facial expressions. “Given the unique situation, UA is temporarily revising its curriculum. Hero students will only be enrolled in core classes, which will stretch through the summer so that you will be assigned no homework. For the next two months, we will implement intense training schedules so that you can be tested for your full licenses earlier than any previous class.”

UA was cutting down classwork so they could fucking train more?

Katsuki and Deku let out their breath in tandem, and Katsuki suddenly realized that they had both stopped breathing. When…. When had that happened?

It didn’t matter.

They were going to train.

They would get stronger.

“I will not allow a single one of you to become fully licensed until you convince me that I’m not sending you to die.” Sensei’s quirk activated, his eyes glowing and hair lifting off his shoulders. “If you want to leave UA’s safety and fight as pro heroes, you’ll have to get past me, first.”

At the challenge, Katsuki felt a grin tugging the corner of his mouth, and he didn’t have to look at Deku to know that the nerd was wearing his own feral grin of determination.

They’d never managed to defeat Aizawa-sensei during their soulmate training.

Katsuki and Deku had brought down Gang Orca, one of the top ten heroes, but the bastard had been underestimating them. Sensei never underestimated his opponents.

Aizawa-sensei closed his eyes, his hair falling back down to his shoulders. When he looked at them again, he added, “That being said, you also have to check in with Recovery Girl every day after training to make sure that you don’t strain yourselves too much. Without her signature, you won’t be allowed to train the next day.”

That was fine. Only an idiot overworked themselves to the point that they couldn’t fight any more.

They had to get stronger.

Katsuki never again wanted to feel as fucking powerless as he’d felt just standing there, staring at their unconscious friends after their fight with that Chimera Bastard. They all had to get stronger. And Sensei was going to help them do exactly that.

The remainder of the bus ride was pretty quiet, every once and a while someone would mutter about training and shit, speculating about what kind of exercises they’d do or what moves they could work on.

They’d always been training to become heroes, but they’d never imagined that they would be working toward their full licenses so fucking soon. For shit to be that bad…

Deku was reading every damn article that he saw, and most of the fucking news stations were predicting that hundreds more heroes were going to quit. Some speculated that over a thousand might quit before two weeks passed.

Katsuki reached up, clutching at his t-shirt, the fabric rubbing against their mark. Why… why did they keep feeling this damn sharp pain in their chest? Katsuki pulled out his own phone, but the answers from health articles made him wince.

All the articles pointed to chest pain being some serious health thing or stress. Which meant if they mentioned this shit to the adults, they’d get freaked out about Katsuki and Deku being too stressed again. Damn it. Whatever. They could manage. And if it actually was some serious health thing, Recovery Girl would let them know when they did the shitty mandatory check-ups.

When the bus finally stopped outside the UA dorms, they all stepped outside into sharp, cold air.

Katsuki and Deku barely had time to feel the cold before warm arms circled around them, pulling them both into tight hugs.

His body immediately tensed, but he relaxed when he caught the familiar scent of roses. The Old Hag. To Katsuki’s right, the Old Man was hugging both of them, and Auntie was hugging Deku.

They were home.

Their parents were still safe.

Auntie was sobbing, babbling about how Deku always attracted trouble or some shit, but the Old Hag was completely silent, just hugging Katsuki tight. And then he barely heard it: a slight sniffle.

She…

Was the Old Hag crying?

Katsuki shifted in her arms, trying to look up at her face, but she shook her head. “We saw… Inko was with Recovery Girl before she left.” Another sniffle, and his mother’s arms somehow pulled him even closer. “Oh, Katsuki, I’m so glad you and Izuku are alright.”

Auntie had been with Recovery Girl? What was…

Katsuki’s eyes widened.

If Auntie had been with Recovery Girl, she’d at least seen Present Mic before he’d left. Seen the hero while he was blind, possibly been there the moment the pill wore off and he became blind.

Fuck.

“We’re fine. Sensei and the damn third years were there. So we’re fine.”

Her hair brushed against his face again as she nodded, then finally pulled back, her eyes shining with unshed tears as she studied him. “You are. Always come back to us, ok?”

Katsuki nodded, and then he was being pulled into a tighter hug by the Old Man, while Auntie was still sobbing over Deku, who was trying to reassure her.

Their classmates gave them a couple concerned glances as they past, but thankfully it was so damn cold that they all hurried straight into the dorms, leaving Katsuki and Deku alone with their parents as the bus pulled away.

Well, alone with their parents and Aizawa-sensei, since Auntie had finally moved her attention away from Deku and was babbling her thanks to Sensei (while still hugging the nerd, of course).
Aizawa-sensei carried an air of resigned acceptance as he replied to Auntie, but his attention shifted to Katsuki the second he noticed that the Old Hag was no longer smothering him. “Spend the evening relaxing, you have some hard training ahead of you.”

Katsuki scowled, then glared at the Old Hag when she nudged him. “We’re serious, Katsuki. No training tonight.”

“Fine.” A break would be nice, even if it wasn’t fucking necessary. It’s not like the last few days since the fight had been too damn strenuous or any shit like that.

“I’ve already made dinner for everyone.” Auntie wiped at her eyes, sniffling as she paused for a second. “So you won’t need to cook or anything, just warm up the containers in the fridge, ok?”

It’s not like cooking was work, but whatever. Katsuki nodded as Deku thanked his mom profusely and gave her another hug.

“I’m going back to ‘Zashi. Tell Hitoshi he’s welcome to come over if he wants.” Aizawa-sensei’s eyes flickered down to Deku at the end, but he turned to head down the sidewalk before the nerd could reply.

“Oh.” Auntie finally released Deku as she rubbed at her eyes again. “They shouldn’t have to make dinner, either, after being apart for that stressful fight.” She pulled Deku in for one final hug, then stepped back. “I’m going to go cook dinner for them, but maybe you could come over later and sleep at our house, tonight? We’ve missed you boys.”

Deku hurried to agree, and it’s not like Katsuki ever minded being able to sleep together with the nerd, so he didn’t say shit. The pull out bed was perfectly comfortable, anyway.

The Old Hag took Katsuki’s hands and gave it a gentle squeeze before she turned to herd Auntie back toward their house, and the Old Man gave Katsuki a gentle pat on the head before following her.

Without anyone hugging him, the sharp cold air stung his arms, and the nerd started shivering, giving Katsuki a quick challenging smile before they both turned and ran as one toward the dorms, racing to see who could reach them first.

They pushed open the doors at the exact same time, stumbling into the warm air. Fuck, it felt good to do things in sync after hiding that shit all week on the island. It looked like everyone else was already upstairs, and there was a stack of messy papers that had half-fallen off the kitchen tables onto the floor. Katsuki and Deku both bent to pick one up as they passed, and they frowned.

A new class schedule.

It had the Rat Principal’s signature at the bottom, but it still took Katsuki a moment to register that the paper was a real UA schedule.

No more art history classes. No more literature, world history, Japanese history, health, or home ec, either. Just physics, English, and math, with a heroics period in between each of those “core” subjects. And all their classes would be held in the gyms, not the actual fucking classrooms.

Katsuki shoved the paper into his pocket and stomped up to the fifth floor as Deku poked his head in Brain Fucker’s room to deliver Aizawa-sensei’s message.

How the hell had it gotten this bad? They’d been without internet for a few days, but somehow everything seemed to have been turned on its head. There had already been tons of problems before then, sure, but nothing like this. Nothing that had made them completely fucking change UA’s schedule in response.

Deku was dropping onto his own bed, and Katsuki unlocked his door, tossing his shit onto his desk and then looking toward his bed, his eyes resting on the Kamino poster above it.

It had been so long ago. They hadn’t even been able to call on the other aspects of One for All back then, it had just been them and their two quirks against the League and fucking All for One.

Hope from the Ashes.

That’s what they’d said in that shitty article and put on the damn poster. Katsuki and Deku were supposed to provide hope out of the ashes of Kamino Ward.

Instead, things had become worse.

Katsuki tilted his head back, staring at the white ceiling, his vision matching Deku’s as the nerd looked up at his own ceiling from his bed.

When had shit started getting bad? When they started accessing more of One for All, the previous users had said that something had started. What shit had manifested? If the ghost assholes hadn’t been referring to Deku’s ability to use One for All, then what had they been talking about?

Hand Fucker?

The USJ attack had to be when things started getting worse–when villains had become bold enough to attack a hero program. To attack fucking All Might. It had taken multiple attempts, but the League had accomplished what everyone would have said was impossible—they defeated the world’s number one hero.

And Hand Fucker had a soulmate. Whatever was happening, it had to be related to those two villains. But that stupid marble asshole hadn’t been at the USJ. They first saw him at Kamino. Still…

Eraserhead and Present Mic.

Lemillion and Sun Eater.

Shigaraki and Compress.

All Might and the Shields.

Hawks and Dabi.

Katsuki and Deku.

Why were there so many fucking combat-centered soulmates?!

What had manifested?!

What were their dreams trying to warn them about?! They’d had Mt. Fuji in them, but what the hell were heroes on the verge of achieving? It sure as fuck didn’t feel like shit!

They had to be stronger so that when whatever “it” is happens, they’d be ready for it. So that Fuji, metaphorical or not, wouldn’t fucking collapse. So no one would die. But Sensei didn’t want them to train tonight, since they’d be getting so much damn training during the week, and Katsuki was struggling to fight down his impatience.

Katsuki’s hands tightened into fists at his sides, his movements agitated as he stomped over to his drum set. He dropped himself onto the stool, picking up each stick and twirling the smooth wood between his fingers.

He slammed them down.

The snare crashed. Each drum strike, bass kick, and cymbal clash sang out. Katsuki closed his eyes, his head rocking forward. He hit the snare again, then switched to slam a side drum. The bass thundered. The crash cymbals clanged, their sharp sound hanging in the air for only a moment before his sticks slammed down on hard drum heads, pounding out a beat that hammered inside his chest.

Damn, he’d missed this.

It felt so good to not think about all the fucking bullshit and just be. Just pound out all his anger about the entire damn world and everything it fucking expected from them, everything they’d wanted it to expect from them.

Everything they kept not being able to do.

Katsuki shook his head, eyes still closed, and slammed the drumsticks down again, trying to drown out the worlds’ bullshit living in his head.

Deku closed his eyes, too, letting them both relax in the darkness.

Katsuki focused on the rhythm. One slam, one crash, one kick pedal thump after another, the sway of the beat pulling him forward. Fast. Faster. Harder. Clashing and pounding, demanding that shit follow him and obey his rhythm. Here, Katsuki was in charge. He was the one setting the pace. Deciding which strike was stronger, which slam came half-a-second too early, followed but a rattling string of beats that drowned out all other thought.

Eventually, however, his hunger got the better of him, and he set his drumsticks aside to wander down to the kitchen where Deku had drawn hishad his idiots had drawn together. Somehow he hadn’t noticed the nerd get up and leave his dorm while he’d been playing. Just how long had he been sitting at his kit, anyways?

Katsuki’s thoughts began buzzing once more, as he trudged down the stairs, but at least this time it was quieter.

They would win.

It felt like even though they’d defeated the villain this time, the world was still falling apart around them. Like no matter what villain they beat, or what shit they pulled on social media, the villains were always one fucking step ahead and the world kept getting worse.

But no matter what fucking happened, they’d beat it. They’d destroy Hand Fucker and all his shitty plans!

They just had to become stronger. And UA was going to help them reach that goal. They’d start training again tomorrow, and it would be harder than ever before. They’d figure out how to make Aizawa-sensei acknowledge that they were strong enough for pro hero work.

From looking through Deku’s vision, it seemed like almost everyone was down in the lobby, making use of their last free evening before training.

And now the Nerd was talking about chocolate? What the hell?

Katsuki kicked the stairwell door open, letting it slam against the wall as he strode through. “Why the fuck are you idiots looking up how to make chocolate?”

Deku squeaked, dropping the bag of shitty flour, which gave off a protesting puff, making him cough as the powder flew in his face. Katsuki ignored the mirrored, tickling feeling at the back of his throat and stormed over, grabbing the bag and putting it back on the shelf. “First off, no flour, damn it!”

“Kacchan! You’re um…. You finished playing the drums.”

The dumbass needed to pay more attention to his surroundings if he hadn’t heard Katsuki stop. “Yeah, cuz your stomach was growling super loud even though you were in the fucking kitchen.” Katsuki huffed, leaning back against the counter. “What the hell are you dumbasses even trying to do? You can’t eat chocolate for dinner.”

Deku turned bright red, immediately looking down at his hands. Round Face started whistling nonchalantly, while Glasses insisted that they knew how to follow a proper balanced diet. None of those were an answer. Katsuki narrowed his eyes, turning to glare at Half and Half, who was currently using his fire to melt three whole sticks of butter. Half and Half shrugged. “Midoriya said he wanted to learn how.”

Huh? Deku was the start of all this madness? “Why mess up shit when you could just ask me?”

Deku’s face somehow turned even more red. “I um… you did so much for Christmas, so I wanted to plan this next holiday.”

Next holiday?

It was mid-January. What would….

Oh fuck.

Valentine’s day.

Of course. Katsuki groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “You’re going to fucking poison me, is what you’re going to do.”

“Will not!” Deku got all huffy, his cheeks puffing out, which was adorable as hell, not that he’d ever tell the nerd that. He didn’t need to know even more things he could use to try to get away with shit.

“At least ask me or Auntie instead of the internet. You don’t need flour to make chocolate.” Katsuki scanned the messy counter, then sighed and picked up the eggs and baking soda. “What were you trying to do? Bake something? You don’t bake homemade chocolate, you melt and mix shit together.”

Deku grabbed the eggs, a challenging spark entering his eyes. “Maybe I am trying to bake something! You made a whole Christmas tree of fried chicken!”

“Baku-kun did what?” Round Face started snickering, and Glasses was clearly struggling to hold in his own laughter. Katsuki could feel his face start to heat up, but it was Deku’s fault, damn it! He wasn’t embarrassed!

“It was fucking awesome and you’re just jealous you didn’t get to see it!”

“It was!” Deku nodded, still clutching the eggs. “And now I want to do something awesome for you, so would you let me try? Please?”

Katsuki groaned. He couldn’t say no when Deku was all determined and shit, but his stomach was definitely going to regret this later. “Fine.” He released the eggs, and Deku fucking beamed at him as Katsuki set down the baking soda and leaned back against the counter.

And then the nerd realized that Katsuki wasn’t moving. “Kacchan! You can’t watch!”

Katsuki raised an eyebrow, wondering how his soulmate planned to accomplish that when they shared the same freaking vision, and the nerd groaned, putting the eggs on the counter. “You know what I mean! This is why I wanted to practice while you were distracted with your drum set!!”

Katsuki shrugged, trying to pretend nonchalance. “I said I was hungry. You going to kick me out of the kitchen or let me warm up dinner?”

“I'll handle it!” Round Face grinned in victory. “I'll bring you some of Midoriya-san's food in a bit.”

Katsuki scowled. Was it that big a deal if he wanted to nudge his soulmate in the right direction so that he wasn’t fucking poisoned? Plus Deku was cute as hell when he was all flustered and shit.

“Shoo!” Round Face grabbed his arm, then started pushing Katsuki toward the couches as he tried to turn around and shove her off. “I can’t stop you from peeking, but no input! Izu-kun wants to do this for you, not with you, dummy.”

But if they were baking then the butter shouldn’t be melted damn it! It should just be softened! They were already fucking screwing shit up! “The butter—“

“Nope!” Round Face shoved, him toward the couches, making Katsuki stumble a few steps before Pinky fucking cackled and grabbed him from behind, and then there was tape pulling him over the back of the couch and onto the cushions. He landed sprawled on his back, one leg dangling over the back of the couch.

Katsuki ripped off the tape and glared upside-down at the dumbasses. “That wasn’t fucking necessary.”

“Thanks guys! Keep him there for me, would you?” the nerd yelled from the kitchen.

“Can do!” Pinky fucking saluted, and Spider Man held up his elbow.

“You can either sit here willingly, or I can tape you up. Which one will it be?”

Damn them. “I can tear through your shitty tape.”

“Yeah, but you won’t.” Spider Man had a shit-eating grin. “Not unless we really tick you off.”

Katsuki growled, but gave in, tucking his legs toward his chest and rolling to the side so he could rearrange himself and sit on the couch like a fucking normal person, rather than on his back.

“Awesome! Glad you’re gonna watch the movie with us, Baku-bro! Should we start it over for you?”

Huh? Movie?

Katsuki looked at the screen, groaning at the frozen image of some girl who’d fallen on top of a guy. A shitty rom-com? Hell no! He stood up to leave, but tape immediately encircled his arms and torso, yanking him back down onto the couch.

“I think we should start again.” Pikachu was grinning at him, the idiot. Invisible Girl started squealing about how the opening scene was necessary, and the next thing Katsuki knew, the Vice Pres was going back to the main menu.

“We didn’t get too far into the film, so it’s no trouble. And the opening scene was rather cute.”

Damn it! Aside from the idiots helping Deku in the kitchen, the only ones who had somehow escaped this shit were Sugar Guy, Tail Guy, Edgelord, Tentacle Arms, and Brain Fucker.

The movie was terrible.

Katsuki hated every minute of it. The plot was so fucking predictable! And who swooned just because a guy was wearing a suit?!

Katsuki wanted to see Deku in a suit…

No! It was fucking stupid! And the dumbasses didn’t even untie him when Round Face brought the food over. Spider Man just asked him if he was too uncomfortable, which he wasn’t because fuck him, and then rolled his eyes and told Katsuki to use Deku’s quirk to eat, since it would be good training. Asshole.

It was actually good training, since such fine control with Black Whip was still difficult, but Katsuki was pissed about it, anyway.

At least Deku wasn’t ruining shit in the kitchen too badly, from what he could tell, even if they’d burnt the first damn cake and the second one had still been half uncooked batter when they pulled it out. Round Face was trying to salvage shit, but it was fucking impossible with those other three ruining everything. Glasses was way too damn literal, Half and Half did every fucking thing way too long, and Deku regularly mistook shit like salt for sugar.

Halfway through the second movie, the sky was starting to grow dark outside when Brain Fucker opened the door and came into the lobby. He stared at them all for a second, and Pikachu scrambled off the couch, bounding toward his boyfriend. “Hey, dude! Aizawa-sensei doing better?”

“Yeah. With Recovery Girl’s help, his eyes are back to normal now.” Brain Fucker didn’t hug Pikachu back, his whole body tense as he swallowed. “Dad’s, uh… Dad’s doing fine.”

Silence.

A bowl clattered in the kitchen.

Brain Fucker flinched.

“I knew it!”

Katsuki blinked, his brain still registering Round Face’s cheer of victory as the others began to groan.

“Thanks for winning the bet for me, Toshi-kun.” Round Face bounced over to the couches, stopping to give Brain Fucker a quick pat on the head before she held out her hand to their classmates. “Pay up, losers!”

“Maannn. I was so sure it was an uncle and nephew thing.” Pinky leaned back on the couch next to Katsuki, pouting at Brain Fucker.

“You… you thought he was my uncle?” Brain Fucker shook his head, his eyes wide as he turned to look at everyone in the lobby. “You made a bet that we were related?”

“I didn’t.” Spider Man used his tape to grab the remote and pause the movie, looking entirely too pleased with himself. “Since I already knew when they started the bet. I told them to leave it alone, but…” He shrugged, “Well, they all promised not to push you and to wait for you to explain.”

“Correct!” Glasses nodded. “I would not allow friendly curiosity to turn into something harmful!”

“How come I didn’t know about this bet?!” Pikachu was practically clinging to Brain Fucker now, who winced at his boyfriend’s loud shout.

Pinky huffed. “You would obviously spill to Shinsou-kun! There’s no fun in that.”

Brain Fucker sighed, his shoulders relaxing a little as he finally wrapped one arm around Pikachu. “Thanks for giving me space about it, I guess, but why did you guys make a bet that we were related?”

“It’s kinda obvious that you’re his favorite.” Invisible Girl shrugged. “He spends more time with you than anyone else in the class, even with all the extra training he does with our resident soulmate duo. So we knew that it had to be something!” She huffed, crossing her arms. “He’s not married, though, so I figured he had to be your uncle.”

“Right…” Brain Fucker shook his head, but didn’t contradict her as he ran a hand through his hair. “And here I thought we weren’t being obvious.”

“Dude. He’s training you to use his capture weapon.” Rock girl rolled her eyes, leaning back against the couch as she played with her earphone jack. “No one knows how to use that thing. It’s his signature. He wouldn’t give that up to just a random student, even if you both started in gen ed.”

“I told you: it makes perfect sense that you’d be his son.” Half and Half walked over with the others from the kitchen, his hand heating up a bowl with some butter in it. “You’re both always exhausted and addicted to coffee. You even kind of look similar.”

Brain Fucker sighed, about to refute the dumbass again, but they weren’t done.

“And you knew about Aizawa-sensei’s father being a villain before the rest of the class.” The Vice Pres’ hands were folded in her lap as if she was having afternoon tea and not discussing conspiracy theories about their classmate’s parentage. “Since that man would be your grandfather, of course you’d be aware of Aizawa-sensei’s heritage.”

Animal Guy was nodding with all the others, and quietly raised his hand before speaking, “They also are both friendly to the cats. All the campus cats talk about it.”

Brain Fucker started to turn bright red, and Pikachu turned to hide his snickers in his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Dude, you’re so predictable.”

“You were the only one of us that Eraserhead let stay near him after he got hurt in that last fight, kero.” Frog Girl shrugged. “There had to be some kind of reason why he only wanted to see you. It couldn’t be the internship, since Sero-kun also wasn’t told what the problem was.”

“Wait!” Invisible Girl suddenly bounced in her seat, her hand shooting into the air. “If he’s your Dad, why didn’t he recommend you?! Then you wouldn’t have had to start in the gen classes and go through that challenge-thingy to get into our class!”

Brain Fucker was tense again, and Pikachu hugged him tighter, whispering something in his ear that made him relax, but he still didn’t look at them when he responded. “I was adopted. Aizawa-sensei didn’t know me before this year, so to him I really was just a random student.”

“That’s obviously not true, man!” Shitty Hair’s hands tightened into fists as he shook his head, rejecting Brain Fucker’s bullshit. “I don’t know what you were dealing with, and I’m sorry we weren’t there for you, but I’m glad Sensei was! No matter what, though, there had to have been other ways to help you, and Aizawa-sensei just isn’t the kind of man who would adopt someone if he didn’t mean it!”

Brain Fucker’s eyes were wide as he stared at Shitty Hair, then looked down and slowly nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. He’s not.”

Pikachu grinned at his stupid ass boyfriend, then finally dropped his hug to grab Brain Fucker’s arm and tug him closer to the couches. “Come on! We’re all watching movies since we’ll be too dead to do anything after tomorrow because your Dad’s idea of training is evil.”

Brain Fucker snorted. “He wouldn’t push us too hard.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Spider Man sighed. “We know. Otherwise we wouldn’t have mandated health check-ins. But we’re still going to be exhausted.”

Brain Fucker had made it to the couches, but his steps paused as he eyed the couple frozen on the screen. “I’ll watch, but only if I can make fun of it. And why is Baku-kun tied up?”

“Because they’re—“

Pinky’s hand slapped over Katsuki’s mouth, and she grinned at Brain Fucker. Katsuki was tempted to bite it and shot her a glare. “Blasty’s being a party pooper, that’s all. And you can totally make fun of it as long as I can boo your comments!”

Brain Fucker’s mouth twitched into a smirk and he nodded, letting Pikachu lead him toward the empty spot on the couch, which he quickly claimed before pulling Pikachu into his lap. Glasses opened his mouth to protest, then sighed and shook his head, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

“Get ready for some Class-A cheesiness.” Spider Man snickered and pressed play.

The whole group groaned, and Pinky cackled, giving Spider Man a high-five for the dumbass joke.

Katsuki huffed, blowing the hair out of his eyes and resigning himself to the fate of watching the rest of this lameass movie. At least Brain Fucker’s snark made it slightly more bearable.

Notes:

whoo!!! A new update! Sorry for the break, I had some health stuff come up and couldn't do any writing :/ :( And now I'm about to start a move, so the next few updates will probably be sporadic due to that. I've got about half the next arc written and am excited for that! but unfortunately the next chapter has been eluding me. transition moments be like that, at least for me. Anyway, a big thanks to MysticChemyst for beta-ing this chapter for me, and I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter!! Thanks so much for all the comments and kudos <3 they make me smile so much, and were the highlight of my days while I was dealing with health stuff <3 <3 <3

Check out my art or find me on tumblr at haruhi1087. I'm on other social media, but not very active. I'm most active on my discord server, where we talk about writing/art/anime/manga/fanfic/fandoms in general, and have writing/art events & exchanges. We're also doing a bnha-themed table top role playing game, so come join the fun! :D

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 6 of Zero-verse