Chapter Text
“Okay but why nerd?” Katsuki grumbled into the mic of his gaming headset as he scribbled down more work for his calculus homework, the panting coming from his boyfriend on the other end of the line not affecting him in the least, thank you very much. Calculus with analytic geometry was quite possibly one of the stupidest classes Katsuki had decided to take, but at least he had Shitty Hair and the Nerd in the same section class as him.
“Agh! Because, Dynamight, cosin is the square root of two over two! I think anyway. Been a while since pre-calc.” Izuku’s voice piped up from the other end, a loud whack muffled by the distance. “Also, could we not discuss this, like, right now? When I’m fighting bank robbers?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes but relented, listening in on the fight as he continued with his homework. He’d already sent in the police report, and he had Half n Half’s program running on his computer to alert him if there was anything within Izuku’s vicinity that could cause issues with the current crime being fought. He wouldn’t trust the program if it hadn’t been Izuku in charge of the coding and his own overseeing of the whole creation of the thing. It was pretty advanced, and at some point he knew that with how much of a goody-two-shoes his boyfriend was, they’d give the algorithm to All Might or some trustworthy extra in the NYPD.
As it was, the blond had to be somewhat quiet since Eijirou was knocked the fuck out on his bed, having spent the whole evening in the gym with him and Candy Cane. How tired the redhead was at least meant he didn’t have to be as quiet as usual, but then again he’d never woken Shitty Hair up before; the dude was a heavy sleeper.
He was instead thinking about how they really needed to install a camera or something into the spider emblem or the goggles whenever they made Deku-VI. It would be more exciting to actually see what the nerd was doing. He’d suggested as such and Izuku had promised to consider it. Todo the Dog wasn’t as big a fan of the idea, in case the suit got hacked. But he and the idiot knew their shit; it wouldn’t get hacked.
Giving a small hiss at a sudden rush of pain in the joints of his hand, Bakugou dropped his pencil and muted himself on the comms, grabbing his hand in the other. He started massaging it, unmuting himself when he knew there wouldn’t be any more sudden rushes of pain. Shit, this hasn’t happened in a while. I need to cool it with the fucking handwritten notes…
So he took a break, listening to Izuku’s mumbling somewhat fondly as he sipped on his pomegranate juice. It had been nearly a year at this point since he and Deku had gotten together, so just about the same amount of time of knowing and being in on the Spider-Man secret. Spidersitting had its highs and lows, but Katsuki found that on the nights IcyHot was the guy in the chair and Katsuki was the one doing nothing he felt… well, he didn’t wanna think about it. Because it wasn’t fucking true, he knew that. It was just shit stupid emotions from being a hormonal teenager.
“Hey Deku,” Katsuki spoke up after he heard the nerd stop talking to the police, handing over the bank robbers to the people that would at least lock them up.
“Nn, what’s up, Dynamight?” His boyfriend asked, a small smirk coming over Katsuki’s face at the shortened code name. Lord Explosion Murder and even the shorter version of it had gotten too long, so both Todoroki and Deku had forced him to come up with a new one. So he did, and it was the bomb – he pointedly ignored groans of frustration from the other two teens when he’d said that to their faces after finally deciding on a name to change to.
Katsuki glanced over to the bed on the opposite wall, just to make sure Shitty Hair was still asleep. When he was, he continued. “We still thinking about bringing the Ginger in on the secret?”
A moment of mumbling came over the comm. “Nn, yeah, at least, I-I dunno, I think it would be good. He’s with us so much, a-and he’s your best friend. It would give you and Shoto a break f-from helping me all the time, too.”
The blond nodded. “Yeah, dude already knows we’re hiding something, he was bothering me about it yesterday. He’s also crazy knowledgeable on all things superhero, so there’s that too.”
“Ah, yeah, that too!” Deku excitedly spoke on the other end, and Katsuki just knew without even having to see his boyfriend that he was talking with his hands if he wasn’t swinging back to Manhattan, which since there was a lack of a whooshing noise coming over the comm, it probably meant the vigilante was walking or sitting somewhere.
The idly talked for a bit longer before the nerd decided to call it a night. That was something the blond missed from living back home with his parents. Unlike in the dorms, Spider-Man could climb onto his fire escape, they could unwind from a patrol, cuddle and spend time together and – yeah. It was just… nicer , ya know? But god, college was so much better. A lot of his free time was eaten up by working as a year-round part-time intern at Recovery Medical Efforts and spidersitting, but Katsuki wouldn’t change it for the world at this point.
They said their goodnights and their I love yous before Katsuki got off the call, flexing both of his hands as he closed everything down on his computer and stuffed his calculus work in his bag so he wouldn’t forget it the next morning. His knee was bothering him too, so he didn’t dare jump onto his bed like he normally did. These joint aches came and went at this point, and it seemed like tonight was just a bad kind of night. Whatever, tomorrow was Friday so he could spend the time after classes and Saturday resting and doing those stupid exercises his PT specialist had recommended.
The next day brought his mandatory freshman English and economics classes, the latter he had to share with Candy Cane. Why a biomedical engineering student had to take economics was beyond him, but it was required for credits and shit. American universities really squeezed you dry with those damn “gen-ed” courses. But after that was the calculus class that he shared with Deku and Ei, so he at least got to finish his weekdays off with people he got along with. He’d seen some old high school classmates around campus and pointedly ignored a majority of them when they waved at him. He didn’t have time for those shitty extras.
“Hey dudes, the next Spider-Man meeting is next Tuesday! You bros coming?” Ei asked the moment class ended and they started down the hallway to leave the building. They’d come to a routine at this point – leave class, go to the library, finish their weekend homework, meet up with IcyHot for dinner at the dining hall, then do whatever the hell they wanted. They’d tried parties and they were fun, but his nerd wasn’t really a fan of that kind of scene, so Katsuki didn’t feel like going to them all that much.
“Uh, nn, I dunno. The last one was kinda… weird.” Deku said, nervous as always to criticize something.
“Tcch, you can fuckin’ say that again. But that Mirio dude wasn’t there, so it was that pretentious asshole in charge instead. So long as the stupid president’s there it shouldn’t be too bad.” Katsuki remembered back to the September meeting, recalling how the majority of it was just Mono-Virus bragging and then discussing organizations to fundraise for within the last ten minutes of the meeting.
Ei nodded in solidarity with Katsuki. “Yeah bro! Mirio sent out an announcement and everything after that meeting, saying he was gonna be at all future meetings. So… you in or nah?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I’m in if the nerd’s in.”
“Ah, well, if Kacchan is going, I’ll go too!” Yup, that’s what Katsuki expected. He reached over stiffly, taking the green-haired teen’s hand in his own and he saw the smile grow on the nerd’s face. The old hag never came to Manhattan, so he was slowly getting more accustomed to PDA with the idiot, but he still wasn’t all there with it. He ignored the ache that was becoming more and more common as he held onto his boyfriend’s hand, the pain in all the joints in his fingers and knuckles flaring up in protest.
Something caught his attention though. A lot of students were gathered up in groups, all looking at their phones, whispering amongst each other. He sent a look to Deku, who also seemed to notice that when they got outside, but of course he would, with that ridiculous hearing of his. Katsuki watched his boyfriend’s face, considering the guy wore his heart on his sleeve, and felt concern grow as he saw the shifting expressions.
“What do you think’s goin’ on?” Katsuki grunted, keeping it open enough for Ei to not think the question was too inconspicuous. With his free hand he gestured around to the students as well.
Deku pulled out his own phone quickly, typing into something. Katsuki leaned over and his eyes widened as he saw what the nerd was typing. Green eyes looked up at him, Izuku speaking clearly as he said “We have a huge issue.”
The three of them – Ei as well, just slightly more confused than the other two – rushed back to the dorms. Right after the internet search, Deku had immediately called up Todoroki and told him to meet him back at their dorm. The redhead was concerned, wanting to know what was so serious, but Katsuki and Deku just said they’d tell him when they got back to the dorm. The blond was very thankful that he’d finally convinced the nerd to let Ei in on the whole situation, because if he hadn’t, he knew that Ei would figure it out himself. He already knew something was up anyways, knowing how late Katsuki stayed up sometimes and the hushed conversations he had on the phone with the nerd and IcyHot.
Todoroki was already in the dorm by the time they got back, his conspiracy boards uncovered as he looked at them. He turned to look at them when they came in, letting the flag of that Japanese wave painting down as he hopped down off his bed. Deku closed and locked the door, and they turned on one of their shower speakers and kept it by the door.
“Uh… is someone gonna tell me what’s going on here?” Ei asked, red eyes bouncing between the other three teens.
Deku sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Shigaraki escaped Tartarus.”
Todoroki nodded, but Katsuki looked over at Ei and could see the confusion growing.
“Woah woah woah, you guys know someone who escaped Tartarus? Like, the institutional prison? What the hell am I missing here?” Honestly, Katsuki couldn’t blame the redhead for being so confused. He didn’t know Deku like Katsuki did, and he didn’t get personal interactions with the masked vigilante. This was gonna be a big shock to the guy, they had to ease him into it.
Deku seemed to be on top of it though, the nerd always was better with people than Katsuki was. “So, uh, w-well, we have a secret.”
“No shit, Sherlock. You gonna tell me?” It was rare to see Eijirou serious, and though he hadn’t lost his friendly tone or body language, the redhead was looking between the other three boys with caution. Deku seemed to be prepping himself for how exactly to break the news when someone else beat him to it.
“Izuku’s Spider-Man.”
Katsuki spun on his heels, glaring at Todoroki. “Why the FUCK would you just say it like that you fucking Canadian flag?”
IcyHot shrugged. “When I found out it was because I’d walked in on him nearly naked with his suit on the floor and a stab wound on his stomach.”
Now,the blond turned to the vigilante in question, whose voice was failing as he tried to stammer out a response. “That is not how you told me it happened, useless idiot.”
Katsuki had gotten so heated by the new information provided to him via an emotionless expression that he was certain had a smug smirk underneath it that he hadn’t looked at Ei since. And yeah, he knew he was gonna beat himself up for a while for not giving his best friend the appropriate attention when he was snapped out of his haze of anger by a loud thudding noise. His head whipped over as he saw the redhead's eyes roll back into his head as he passed out on the floor.
Okay, Shoto knew when he had messed up. He knew his dry humor and poorly chosen words got him into trouble more than once. But he was stressed, and he really hadn’t thought that poor Kirishima would pass out at finding out Izuku was Spider-Man. The redhead was currently laying on his bed since he’d offered it up, and all three of the currently conscious teens in the room weren’t speaking to each other. He watched Bakugou place all of his pillows underneath Kirishima’s feet, not taking off the redhead’s shoes – which, yeah, Shoto probably deserved that – and loosening the belt Kirishima had on. Shoto didn’t know much of anything when it came to medical care, so he was thankful Bakugou did.
A collective sigh of relief was let out when the redhead started to stir awake, blinking red eyes open as he looked around. The paleness in his usual tan face started to recede slowly as he cleared his throat. “So, uh, that wasn’t, like, a dream, or anything, huh?”
“I-I am so sorry Eijirou, I really didn’t mean for you to find out like that.” Izuku was by the bed in a moment, looking like he was about to cry. And considering how well Shoto knew the green-haired teen, he probably was going to cry later about it. Guilt wrapped itself even tighter around Shoto’s heart, a disgusting feeling he usually didn’t receive.
“I’m sorry too, Kiri,” Shoto offered, hoping the apology sounded genuine in the way he meant it.
The redhead waved him off, still not lifting his head up off the pillow. “Is’all gucci my dude. So… um, you’re seriously Spider-Man, Izuku?”
Izuku nodded and he spent about a half hour updating their friend on how everything had gone down and how it was currently going while Bakugou and Shoto were pulling up any and all articles on the Tartarus breakout. They were cross referencing with each other, noting down all details and saving anything important. Shoto could already picture the theory board in his mind, strings tying different pieces of information together. He was gonna have to put it down on an actual board though, because this… the details were too scarce, and too confusing. It felt like his veins were thrumming with excitement at a new puzzle.
Once Kirishima was caught up and brought to speed, Izuku walked on the ceiling to provide absolute evidence, and even showed the redhead the Deku-V mask. Shoto worried for a moment that the kinesiology major might pass out again, but he seemed to be ecstatic at the reveal. He wasn’t even hurt about not being in the know until that night.
Shoto himself had been apprehensive about bringing him in on the secret, thinking Bakugou just wanted his best friend in on the secret for convenience sake, but when Kirishima started looking through his and the blond’s notes and articles on his phone, he was surprisingly helpful. The guy really did know his stuff with superheroes and villains, more so than maybe even Izuku, and that was an impressive feat. A new budding respect was growing in Shoto for the redhead.
“Okay, so what we know is the breakout occurred early this morning when they were installing the new hardware that our high school designed – I’m still not over that, like I know our school did some stuff for Stark Industries in the past but this is like a whole different level of sponsorship projects and – “
“Stay focused, Shitty Hair.”
“Right, yeah, and everything’s pretty hush-hush about how it happened but news helicopters got images of a portion of the west side of the building being blown up except it wasn’t blown up, it was kinda destroyed, like Hulk-Smash style and – wait! Are there any villains out there that are super big and strong like the Hulk? Because Dr. Banner has already been confirmed to be out of state, so this couldn’t have been the Hulk.”
“Uh, n-no, not that I can think of. It’s kinda just the Hulk with that size.”
Shoto caught on to the idea Kiri was building. “So we’re looking at someone or something new, but not too fresh on the scene considering who they were breaking out.”
The redhead was nodding emphatically. “Exactly dude! So, this new dude has to be connected to the League of Villains in some way. Shigaraki was an enemy of the state for like, five years, not to mention he was an internationally known gangster and madman.”
Shoto wasn’t too surprised at the pinched expression that Bakugou showed. “How the fuck do you know stuff about Shigaraki? We couldn’t find shit on him for a long time, even with the Endeavor files we had access to.”
Kiri’s posture straightened up as he showed off a prideful and toothy grin. “I’m a moderator on a fan discord of Crimson Riot, who was the one responsible for putting the dude behind bars.”
Despite trying to remain passive, Shoto felt his expression start to match Bakugou’s. “You’re a discord moderator?”
The redhead rolled his eyes. “Not like that bro. It’s a conspiracy discord all about the Public Security Intelligence Agency, and there’s a major section for Crimson Riot. It’s cool shit, I swear. I’m surprised you’re not on it, tbh.”
Shoto glanced over to the artwork flag that was covering his boards. “I… prefer to work on my own theories, not talk to other people about them.” Technically my blog is just me talking about my own theories anyway, I don’t really respond to other people on it, so that’s not really a lie…
Glancing down at his phone at the buzz that signaled he got a text, he wasn’t too surprised to find who had sent it and what it was about. His father was canceling their lunch tomorrow, considering what had happened this morning. At least they all could dedicate their Saturdays to investigating Tartarus and Shigaraki.
Katsuki scoffed as he was sent off to do another bullshit intern duty; throwing shit into the incinerator and waiting around the five minutes it took for the incinerator to do its damn job. It was Sunday, and he was exhausted and aching after the weekend he’d had so far. All four of them had traveled north, taking advantage of the fact that Shitty Hair’s parents were cool with him taking the family car to a place that was ‘totally not a criminal mental institution.’ At least adding the redhead to their Spider-Crew meant they had a somewhat reliable ride on weekends now, since the guy’s family lived more on the outskirts of New York City.
But god, fuck, the train ride out of the city to his best friend’s parent’s, then driving the hours north, staking out the place as Deku did his own direct surveillance, worrying to hell and back about getting caught since the whole area was crawling with the government, and then doing everything in reverse had put a heavy toll on Katsuki’s body. He’d purposely skipped going to the gym on Friday, just doing his PT exercises instead, and still everything hurt. He knew it would probably be like this for a long time, and it was kinda really fucking hard to not feel discouraged. The nanobots had rushed into his system too quickly with the nitroglycerin lowering his blood pressure, and it caused a bad arthritis-like reaction in his joints. It was especially bad in his arms, so writing, running his hands through his boyfriend’s curly hair, and weight training were all much harder than before.
He was carrying the carefully tied bag of rubbish and clinical waste to the back of the building when he paused to shake out his hand, trying to shake off the phantom ache. Recovery Medical Efforts worked out of a clinical office that took up the street-level floor of a brownstone halfway between Manhattan and Queens, which Katsuki was super thankful for, since the commute was relatively small no matter which part of the city he was in. He worked Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, considering his class schedule, and while the pay wasn’t great, it was actual hands-on work. He’d gotten his CPR, CCMA, and CPT certifications, a shiny recommendation to any university he wanted to go to, and a clear path to a decent hospital residency once he got through the MCAT and medical school all because of RME. So yeah, throwing shit into the incinerator was totally beneath him, but he was an intern. He was willing to do the dirty work for all those perks.
When he stomped into the room that had the incinerator in it, he narrowed his eyes at the retreating figure of some doctor in a lab coat. It had been a short and chubby guy, not one of the resident doctors or nurses he was familiar with. But it wasn’t uncommon for medical professionals to stop by RME, some of them advisors, some of them shadowing their peers. Deciding to look into it later, Katsuki approached the incinerator.
Swinging the large metal door open, he saw something that made him pause. Thrown not too far into the incinerator was a moving black trash bag. He tossed his own bag further in, climbing partially into the incinerator after pulling the key out of the ignition so he wouldn’t end up as a fucking extra on a statistic about workplace accidents, and reached in to grab the bag. He was furious. There was something alive in the damn bag. He’d heard of people dropping off puppies or cats in bags off the sides of highways or off bridges, wanting to get rid of the nuisance that an owner couldn’t handle anymore because they were incompetent idiots. But tossing one into a clinic’s incinerator? What kind of sick fuck did that?
Katsuki checked around to make sure nothing else potentially living was in the damn thing, slammed the door shut, and turned the incinerator on, wincing at the loudness of it. He had to be present for the full five minutes it would take for the thing to finish, but if this cat or whatever it was ended up being hurt, he’d grab some other intern extra to oversee it and take the damn thing to a vet hospital. But when he opened the trash bag, having felt something hard and definitely living from the outside of the bag that responded to his touch, he stopped short.
Inside the bag was not some broken, unfortunate animal. It was… a moving sludge. Ripping the bag open a little more, Katsuki peered down at it, sure his eyes were just messing with him. But no, that – that was definitely an intelligent mass of black goo, and he didn’t even have the time to react before it threw itself upwards in the direction of light, landing and covering Katsuki’s now screaming face. The blond teen scrambled backwards, breathing and eyesight completely covered as he crashed into some of the metal shelving, grunting from the flare of pain that shot up through his body.
Katsuki was clawing desperately at his face, trying to rip the black sludge off until he felt his fingernails clawing into his own skin, his vision and breathing suddenly returning. He stopped, panting as he was looking down at his hands, the incinerator roaring. His head whipped up, looking around the room. Where the fuck did it go?