Chapter Text
On Tuesday, Bakugou Katsuki’s world was normal. His classmates, one by one, had begun to receive their quirks at the start of the year. One after another, each student rushed to school to show off their wonderful new powers and abilities to their friends, flaunting them like huge achievements.
Most of these quirks altered the way these toddlers looked. Some grew a few centimetres taller, some built more muscle overnight, some came to school with a different hair and eye colour than the day before. One child’s skin colour even turned blue, while others found themselves to have a different anatomy than the day prior to their transformation, be it the more stalky legs or a more nimble frame.
Tsukasa, one of Katsuki’s more boisterous classmates came to class with his hair blue and a small stream of water shooting from the palms of his hands. Everyone around him stared in awe and praised the boy for such a hero-worthy quirk. Even the teachers were impressed, saying things like, “Wow, you’re going to become an amazing hero one day, Tsukasa!”
Katsuki’s mother picked him up from kindergarten like usual after work, looking as beautiful as she always did. Her quirk enabled her to have flawless skin, and thus even at age thirty-seven, even after giving birth, Bakugou Mistuki’s modelling career continued to thrive. While Katsuki respected the way his mother had turned her quirk into a job opportunity, he couldn’t help but wish for a flashier quirk, since he wanted to be a hero. He wanted his father’s quirk, to be able to light small sparks at the palm of his hands. Though he hoped it would become a much more powerful quirk when it eventually got passed onto him.
He’d dreamt of becoming a hero ever since he watched All Might on television for the first time, defeating his opponents and saving civilians with a smile on his face, laughing despite the fire surrounding him. Katsuki wanted nothing more than to be just like him, saving people like it was as easy as breathing.
On Wednesday, Katsuki’s mother woke him up like she always did every weekday morning. Her voice raised, she tugged the blanket from him and yelled at him to get up. Red eyes widened in surprise and the blonde boy quickly sat up in his bed. He stared at his mother, rubbing his eyes to clear the sleepiness and looked up at the blonde woman again.
He could tell the person before him was still his mother, of course. It was still her spiky blonde hair and her ruby red eyes that she’d passed onto him, but her skin was wrinkled and blemished. She looked her age for once, like she was thirty-seven.
He kept quiet and went to kindergarten wordlessly. If his mother noticed the way Katsuki would stare at her, eyes calculating, thoughtful and confused, she never once mentioned it on the car ride.
Eh?
Tsukasa greeted him at the entrance, loudly asking if his quirk had come yet. Katsuki stared at Tsukasa’s black hair, no longer the bright blue colour it had been the day before, then hesitantly shook his head.
What was happening?
“Hm.. maybe it’ll come tomorrow!”
“Yeah...”
He looked around the classroom and studied the children. Tatsuya’s skin was no longer green, and his eyes had returned back to being brown. Kagami no longer had those ridiculously long limbs he’d flaunted last month. Red eyes glanced to where Tsukasa was holding a hand over a cup, but no water came pouring from the child’s hand.
Katsuki told his mother about it when she came to pick him up that evening. She had taken him to a quirk specialist at once, where Katsuki went through several tests and trials. And then, a few hours after they’d arrived at the office, he finally got the name of his quirk- Immunity. The blonde boy didn’t understand what that word meant and had immediately yelled at the doctor to explain.
“Katsuki!” His mother reprimanded him, smacking the back of his head.
“It means you can’t be affected by quirks.” The specialist explained calmly, not at all bothered by Katsuki’s rudeness.
The blonde child scrunched his nose, not understanding, “Then why... why can’t I see Tsukasa’s blue hair?”
“Ah, that’s a side effect. Your quirk also means you can’t see, hear, or touch quirks either.” The old man pulled up a video of All Might on his phone, “But! You can see see quirks if they’re recorded, or if it’s through a camera!”
Red eyes stared unblinkingly at the phone screen, at the hero’s ferociously yellow hair and bright hero costume. He heard All Might’s laughter echo in his ears, feeling something unfamiliar yet ugly settle at the base of his stomach. He swallowed the lump in his throat and clenched his small hands into tiny fists. His confident claim from months ago rang in his head.
I’m gonna become like All Might!
“Can I still... become a hero?” Katsuki tried to smile as he asked the question, but it was strained, and it made him feel like crying. He blinked back his tears though- He was a good boy, after all. Good boys don’t cry, his mother always said.
“I... can’t say. It’s likely, of course! With enough determination, I’m sure you can become a great hero!” Bakugou’s smile disappeared immediately. Liar, he thought, a frown plastered on his youthful face. The doctor was lying. His smile was too wide and he wasn’t even looking at him.
Katsuki nodded, and looked down at the ground for the rest of the visit.
Katsuki sat alone by the sandbox, decidedly ignoring voices and laughter emitting from other parts of the playground, like the swings and the slide. Instead, his small hands were busy filling up a bucket with sand, in the process of making his third sandcastle. He quickly flipped the bucket upside down onto a flattened space and lifted the bright red bucket up, nodding in satisfaction at the crumbling mound of beige sand. The blonde then stood up, drew his leg back, and kicked the castle down as hard as he could. Watching the castle come down helped him feel better, if only slightly.
“Hey, hey, did you hear? Bakugou’s quirk came!” He heard a boy on the swings whisper to his friend, feeling a slight prickle of irritation at being spoken about behind his back.
“Really?! What is it?”
“He can’t see quirks! Can’t touch them either!”
“Really? How lame.” And suddenly, the annoyance was replaced by hurt and bitterness instead.
“And we all thought he was gonna become a hero.” More laughter rang in his ears.
Katsuki threw the bucket away to the side and huffed, taking his frustration out on the poor plastic item. He picked up a stick instead, using it to draw in the sand.
“Kacchan! There you are!”
Bakugou looked up to see Izuku Midoriya standing in front of him. The green-haired boy was smiling at him, as though it was the happiest time of the year. Katsuki didn’t have the energy to smile back.
Izuku crouched down to look at what he was doing, and Katsuki followed the motion to looked down at the sand too. The word “die” was written over and over in kanji, contrasted only by the occasional “hate”. The green-eyed boy had to tilt his head in odd angles to be able to read the words, but once he finally understood, he paled, giving Katsuki a nervous chuckle. “Uhh.... What... what are you up to, Kacchan?”
“Nothing.” Katsuki muttered defensively at once, mostly on instinct.
They heard more raucous snickers emerge from their left. Craning their necks in that direction, they could see the boys cackling as they swung on the swings. When they glanced in their direction and made eye contact with Katsuki, the red-eyed boy quickly turned to look back down at the sand, picking up the stick again and continuing to write the word “die”. He felt his eyes go hot, tears threatening to spill, no matter how hard he told them in his head to go away. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself out here in public.
“Don’t listen to them, okay?” Izuku reached out and held his free hand, the one that wasn’t writing threatening messages into the sandbox. “They’re being stupid. Being immune to quirks is great! If All Might punched you, you wouldn’t even be affected! Doesn’t that sound super cool!?”
Katsuki sniffed, trying to blink the tears away, but they just spilled down his cheeks instead. He had to let go of his stick to wipe them away. He hummed, not daring to speak.
“Oh! Imagine fighting Endeavour! He wouldn’t even be able to burn you with his fire!”
The blonde nodded to show he was listening, but he did not verbally respond, only making occasional sniffs and sad noises. Izuku spent the rest of their recess going through scenarios one by one, explaining how he could easily win against each hero or villain he mentioned, getting more and more excited with each new situation.
Katsuki sniffed, the tears slowly going away.
Izuku had been the last person in their class to get his quirk, except he hadn’t gotten it at all. He was officially announced quirkless six months after Katsuki’s quirk had appeared. At first, the other children started to treat the green-haired boy like he was as fragile as glass, only to do a one-eighty and start picking on him instead. They went from sympathetic to annoyed, finding him an obstacle that just got in the way of everyone else.
“Eww!! Midoriya’s quirkless!”
“Quick! We gotta leave before he spreads his quirkless disease to us!”
“I don’t wanna be quirkless!!”
The children ran away in the opposite direction, throwing Izuku the best look of disgust they could master on their baby faces.
Katsuki sat down next to the green-haired boy.
“Oh. Kacchan. What are you doing here?” The boy’s voice was quiet, even more so than usual. Even worse, it was completely lifeless and monotone. Katsuki turned to look at him, to really study his friend, only to be disappointed and saddened. There was no sign of the chipper, friendly boy he’d befriended on the first day of school.
“Wanna watch the new All Might movie together later?” He tried to ask with excitement. He knew the green-haired boy never turned down anything hero-related, especially if it was his favourite number one hero.
“Don’t feel like it.” Was Midoriya’s unenthusiastic response. He’d expected it, but he still couldn’t help feeling disappointed about it. He quickly racked his head for more ideas- anything to cheer his friend up.
He grinned as an great idea popped into his head. “What about a sleepover? I’m sure our moms would allow it!”
Izuku’s eyes remained overcast, and he continued to frown even as he mumbled an, “Okay...” Katsuki felt his heart break. What else could he do to cheer his friend up? Nothing was working!
“Y-you call me Kacchan... right?”
“Yeah?” Izuku replied, still just staring at the ground in front of him, dazed and unfocused.
“What about I call you... I-Izuchan?”
Izuku finally moved, turning his head towards Katsuki, his eyes finally showing a bit of light. “Izu... chan?” He muttered, taking the nickname out for a spin.
“Yeah! Since you call me Kacchan, and all...” Katsuki blurted, quickly, feeling his face heat up. “Best friends give each other nicknames, right?”
Green eyes widened, and Izuku’s lips parted. He stared at Katsuki in shock. “W-we’re best friends..?”
“Of course we are!” The blonde loudly claimed! “So I’m gonna give you a nickname! Is... Is Izuchan okay?” He finished hesitantly, watching closely for Izuku’s reaction.
Katsuki watched, relaxing as he watched the green-haired boy finally smile, colour returning to his cheeks. But soon he was frowning again. Fortunately, it was a confused frown, not one of sadness or hurt, much to Katsuki’s relief. “But... aren’t nicknames supposed to be shorter?”
“Oh...” Katsuki frowned, then smiled again, “What about Zuzu?” That managed to draw a giggle out of Izuku, and Katsuki found himself smiling even more than before.
“Yeah! Zuzu’s good!” The green-haired boy was grinning, and Katsuki once again felt himself mirroring the expression on his best friend’s face.
“Okay then, Zuzu! Let’s have a sleepover!”
“Yeah!!!”
When the boys turned ten years old, things all went downhill quicker than they could’ve ever imagined.
They parted ways in front of Izuku’s classroom one morning, just as usual, bidding each other goodbye before Katsuki left to find his own classroom. It had been months since the semester had started, but Izuku was still apprehensive about being in different classes. They’d been in the same class every other year, after all.
He sat down in his seat, which was unfortunately in the middle of the classroom. Ignoring the crude words scratched into the surface of his desk, he got out his textbook and prepared for the first lesson of the day. He heard snickers coming from his left, managing to overhear what the group of girls were saying.
“How fucking pathetic.”
“He really still needs dear old Kacchan to walk him to class, huh?”
He kept his head down and pretended not to have heard them, waiting of their homeroom teacher to arrive.
He always did his best to concentrate in his lessons, but it was rather futile if you asked him. He and Kacchan were always units ahead of the teacher, studying much quicker in their own time. They were top students in the school, and always had been. Izuku himself had no trouble with languages, History and Geography, while Katsuki excelled in mathematics and science subjects. They balanced each other out perfectly, and would help the other when necessary. They always handed in their assignments on time (when it wasn’t sabotaged by other students), and aced all their tests. They were the perfect students. Except-
Izuku felt the paper ball collide against his left cheek and fall onto his notebook with a soft thud. He didn’t even need to look to know it had been the group of girls from earlier. He unwrapped the paper.
Useless piece of shit. Fucking kill yourself already.
He flinched at the harsh message. You’d think that after all these years of cruel and relentless comments, he’d have gotten used to it, but Kacchan had always been the better one at that. The blonde had grown a rather thick skin against such words, but Izuku- While he no longer got hurt, it still upset him greatly.
The green-haired boy jumped in his seat once again when the teacher suddenly spoke, “Midoriya-kun, no passing notes in class.” He sounded tired and fed-up, as if Izuku was a troublesome student he had to deal with every day instead of the star student he actually was. “You’ll do extra cleaning duty this week. You can take over Nakamura-chan’s chores for this week.”
The girl in question giggled. Izuku thought she might’ve been the one to pass that horrid note. “Really? How lucky~”
Izuku clenched his hands into fists and suppressed a sigh, knowing “attitude” would only get him into more trouble, “Yes, Sensei.”
Mr. Yamada nodded in satisfaction and returned back to teaching, and Izuku made a mental note to not open anymore notes passed to him in class in the future.
The bell finally rung, signalling that it was lunchtime. Izuku took his time packing everything away into his backpack, ignoring the students who walked by him who would purposefully knock into him, or hit him over the head. He’d stopped leaving his belongings unattended in the classroom after someone had rummaged through it one lunchbreak and completely tore apart his sixth hero analysis notebook. He wasn’t surprised to see Katsuki already waiting outside his classroom for him, and he couldn’t help but smile at his friend.
Katsuki smiled back despite the bruise on his cheek that wasn’t there this morning, “Let’s go.”
They ate lunch together under a big tree behind the school, where none of the students really went, so it was a good place to hide together. Not that Katsuki would ever admit that they were hiding from other students. If you asked him, he’d say the cafeteria was a disgusting place and that anyone who went there for lunch was gross and daft in the head.
They chatted idly about some heroes they’d seen online recently making their debut, and before they knew it, they were walking back to class, feeling a lot better than they’d felt after their morning classes. This time, they split at the stairs, since Izuku’s classroom was on the second floor while Katsuki’s was on the third, and they were already running slightly late.
Instead of their usual goodbyes, Katsuki’s relaxed expression morphed into one of panic as he hurriedly shoved Izuku in the direction of his classroom. The green-haired boy blinked, confused, until he heard the footsteps coming up the stairs. He knew better than to linger around, and hastily walked back to his classroom, trying not to think about the group of seniors who were about to beat his best friend to a pulp.
Kacchan had always been protective of him like that, knowing that Izuku’s pain tolerance was low, thus making himself the target instead. He’d intentionally insult and antagonise them so that they would leave Izuku alone, then he’d refuse to fight back when they ganged up on them, so that they’d only keep attacking him. He made himself out to be a weak and easy target, even though Izuku knew he could easily beat them all in a fistfight.
Izuku was walking by a teacher when a particularly loud cry of pain froze him in his tracks. Every fibre of his being was screaming at him to run back and help his childhood friend, but he resisted. The last time he’d done that, it hadn’t been pretty for either of them, and Katsuki had said, “Better one of us than both of us.”
He turned towards the teacher, but she appeared not to have noticed anything. Izuku’s hands shook. No, she most definitely heard it- She was just pretending not to have. The green-haired boy gritted his teeth and entered his classroom, feeling his entire body shake in rage. That was the worst thing about this school- Not the heartless students and the terrifying bullies. It was the teachers who did absolutely nothing, even though they knew Katsuki was getting beaten up almost every day. Katsuki never started any of the fights- He never even fought back- And yet...
The bell rung. It was the end of their school day. Katsuki was slow to show up, appearing when Izuku was wiping down the classroom windows, which was Nakamura’s chore for the week.
“Hey, Zuzu.”
Izuku startled. The blonde’s neck and arms were completely smothered in black, purple and red. His white uniform was heavily wrinkled and grey in some spots. Despite that, Katsuki looked at him with a grin on his face, genuine as always.
He couldn’t help the voice crack as he responded, “H-hey...”
Izuku knew Katsuki heard the voice crack, and he knew Kacchan knew he was concerned, but the blonde simply shrugged, nonchalant- Like he wasn’t in pain, or that he’d walked into class looking like that, and the teacher hadn’t done anything. Izuku felt his blood boil. “You done yet?”
“Yeah.” Izuku wrapped up and quickly grabbed his school bag, dashing out the classroom in a matter of seconds, ”Are you okay?”
“Huh? Dunno what you’re talking about.” Okay. So it was one of those days.
Izuku nodded, knowing the blonde wouldn’t talk about it if he didn’t want to. “Alright. Let’s go home.”
Home to him had always been the little apartment he shared with his mother, but recently, that had also become Kacchan’s home. When he was eight, Katsuki’s parents had turned their company into an international one, and thus they started travelling to other countries every month. Every month turned into every other week, and every other week turned into every week until they were barely home anymore. The blonde had learned to cook, clean and do the house chores, until Midoriya Inko started inviting him over for dinner, then inviting him over to stay the night, then allowing him to keep his things at the apartment. And before everyone knew it, Katsuki had begun living with them. The blonde had a mattress in Izuku’s room, but oftentimes, the two would just share the bed together. They had become that close.
A year later, Bakugou’s parents practically moved out, guardianship transferred over to Inko. Izuku knew Kacchan liked to pretend it didn’t hurt- that he didn’t care, but Izuku knew better. Katsuki had been abandoned. His parents had prioritised their work over him, their son. But even though Katsuki was known as the angry one, he wasn’t angry at all at his parents, only hurt and bitter, so Inko and Izuku had been angry for him. Inko yelled at Mitsuki and Masaru over the phone, and then they cut ties permanently. Katsuki didn’t think he’d ever seen Auntie this angry since she’d divorced Midoriya Hisashi.
So now it was just the three of them, their little family. Two crybabies and one normal human, as Katsuki would put it. Izuku would disagree, and say that they were two broccolis and one angry Pomeranian. Inko would say that it was her and her boys. But nonetheless, they were together, and this was their happy little family. Izuku doubted they were truly happy though, case in point-
Inko gasped the moment she laid eyes on the blonde, “K-Katsuki? W-What happened? Who-?”
“It’s fine, Auntie.” Katsuki shrugged off the concern once again.
It wasn’t fine. Nothing was. They weren’t really happy. But Izuku kept silent, Katsuki refused to explain, and Inko continued to worry.
Izuku really wished they would be happy soon.