Chapter Text
Shota’s eyes were glued to the screen of his phone. More specifically, the contact he had just added, with an accompanying message staring innocently back at him.
Hizashi sidled over in an exaggerated manner. “Sho~ What’s got you thinking so hard over here in this corner, all by yourself?” He dragged out, teasingly.
Hizashi’s brows furrowed when Shota didn’t move to acknowledge his presence, and shifted his teasing demeanour. “Shota? Is everything okay?”
Finally, Shota blinked, and turned to face his friend.
“Yeah, Hizashi. Sorry. I was just… thinking.”
Hizashi gestured towards Shota’s phone. “Is it something to do with why you couldn’t take your eyes off your phone?”
Shota slumped. “It’s… well, take a look for yourself.” He passed his phone to his friend and leaned his head back against the wall.
Hizashi blinked at the message, and looked at the contact details. He smiled softly as realisation set in, and looked back over to Shota. Shota was worrying his fingers pensively, but turned to meet Hizashi’s gaze as he passed the phone back.
“Hey Sho?” Shota hummed. “You really love the little listener, don’t you?”
Shota jolted. Hizashi searched his eyes imploringly, unusually serious. “You really love the kid.” He stated instead of asked. “So let the two of you have this nice thing.”
Shota took a moment before a smile he couldn’t hide formed. He did… love Izuku. Frankly, he couldn’t love the kid more even if he were his own flesh and blood. He only now realises they’ve never said those words. Maybe they didn’t need to, but…
Shota looked up, a warm feeling in his chest. “Yeah. I do love the kid.” Hizashi pat his back gently before going to his desk to prepare for the last class of the day. After a moment of rummaging through papers, he looked back at Shota, who was looking down at his phone again, typing something this time. He let out a soft, toothy grin. Shota had come a long way, and Hizashi had never been more proud of his best friend.
5 minutes after sending a tentative message, Inko Midoriya’s phone lit up with a response.
She let out a shaky breath.
~~~~~~
Izuku fiddled with the straps of his bag in consternation. The last class had just finished up, and instead of going to a meeting where concrete plans of action would be made against the looming threat, he had to talk with a moody Kacchan. Honestly, he’s not sure which of the two made him more nervous.
But… he also knew that this conversation would be a good thing. Like their fight in ground beta, this was a way for them to move forward. At least that’s what he was really, really hoping for.
He just wanted his friend back.
His friends gave him sympathetic smiles as they waved and left the room. Izuku waved back weakly, dropping his hand in a sigh, before snapping to attention as Kacchan straightened up.
He grunted as he slung his bag over his shoulder, and wordlessly indicated for Izuku to follow.
The old Izuku would have never dared to contest Katsuki, but he didn’t want to leave the main building of the school because he would be even more late to the meeting.
“Kacchan, it’s okay if we stay in here. Nobody is going to come to the classroom.”
Katsuki grumbled, but ultimately swung his bag off his shoulders, and closed the classroom door with an air of finality as poor Koda, the last to leave the room, rushed off to avoid the tension.
Izuku wanted to tell Kacchan to be more considerate, but the teenager was already agitated.
They stood in silence as Izuku let Kacchan get his thoughts in order. Honestly, he was kind of proud of Kacchan for taking this step a bit earlier in the school year than last time.
“A pebble.” He murmured, catching Izuku’s attention. “That’s all you were meant to be.”
He looked up, intense red eyes boring into Izuku’s vivid green ones. “So what am I meant to do when I wake up one day, and that pebble has become a mountain bigger than All Might?” He ground out. “Not only that, but with your fancy quirk, and extra years, we’ll never be on even footing again, will we? You were always below me, but now…” He looked off to the side.
“Tell me what All Might saw in you.” He demanded. “Why you? What makes you stronger than me? Even in the future. What makes you stronger than every other hero in Japan?”
Izuku wasn’t sure if Katsuki himself knew if he wanted Izuku to actually give an answer or not, but he wouldn’t let him discredit himself like this.
“I can’t tell you what All Might saw, but as for the future, what I do know is that it wasn’t because I was stronger than you. It was the opposite actually. We fought and you won, and our strength grew at the same pace. The day you died…” Izuku let out a shaky breath.
“It’s exactly like what I said before. You saved me. You were a hero. My hero.” He emphasised. “But because you were a hero, I lived and you didn’t.” Izuku looked to an unseen distance.
“If you didn’t move that day… maybe you would have survived to see the End in my place.”
“So you’re looking down on me now.”
Izuku startled, and faced Kacchan who had his arms crossed. “Where did you get that from?”
He glared at that response, but Izuku was genuinely confused.
Bakugo let out a frustrated breath. “Look, whatever shit I did in the future wasn’t me. Two days ago you were a bit more than a pebble. You came back from your internship, and suddenly, you could keep up. Now there’s a fucking canyon between us that I can never cross!” He snapped, and took a step forward.
“Don’t pretend like we’re the same.” He roughly shoved his hands in his pockets. “By now I’m just ancient history to you.”
Izuku wondered if Kacchan knew how little sense he would have made for anyone other than Izuku. He was almost speaking in riddles. But Izuku has had a version of this conversation before.
“You don’t get to choose that for me, Kacchan. I’m still here at UA for a reason.”
Katsuki glared. “The fuck you mean?”
Izuku felt tears build under his eye, and let himself feel all the weight of the world he had lived in. Bakugo’s brows lifted. “I never became a hero, Katsuki.” He stiffened in surprise at the use of his given name. Izuku just held his stare tearfully.
“No matter how strong I became, or the years of experience I got, by the end of it, neither of our dreams were realised. We never graduated, never became pro heroes, never got a chance to work cases as professionals, or even place on the hero charts.”
Izuku shuddered in sorrow. “And… in the end, you saved more lives than me. You saved me, and I lived. I lived, but everyone I tried to save died anyway.”
Tears fell from his eyes, and for the first time, Katsuki let an expression of heartbreak cross his face.
“Fuck!” He cursed vehemently. “Fuck!” His shoulders slumped, and he looked up, past the roof. When Katsuki’s own tears fell, Izuku couldn’t help but properly begin to cry, years of heartbreak catching up with Katsuki’s inadvertent acknowledgement of his pain.
They stood in the room for a moment, working to get their respective tears under control.
Finally, Katsuki breathed, and moved to pick up his previously abandoned bag from the floor. “All the strength in the world…” He began. “Wasn’t worth the future you and hobo-sensei came back from.”
Izuku let out a hum in agreement, and went silent at Kacchan’s oddly considering expression.
“Was getting a dad worth it?”
Izuku sputtered in surprise. “What?”
He gave Izuku an odd look. “Hobo-sensei literally hugged you in class yesterday. How the other extras missed it I don’t know. Mic and Midnight-sensei too.” He huffed. “Dumbasses, the lot of them. Literally talked about it this morning and missed everything.”
He shook his head as if to get rid of those thoughts. He spoke again, louder than the previous volume as he began to walk to the door.
“I know you’re involved in some fucked up shit. Just make sure to live through it.”
Katsuki looked back at Izuku with a challenging gleam in his eye.
“You’ve already surpassed me far beyond what I can catch up to. But know this. It won’t matter, because we’ll graduate, and I’ll figure out a way to become number one anyway.”
He opened the door, but right before he stepped through, he paused, and ducked his head. He carefully didn’t face Izuku, but spoke to him anyway.
“Glad you got some good things out of the bad… Izuku.” And then he walked away.
Izuku gaped with the widest eyes he’d worn in a while. Kacchan… had just called him by his given name for the first time since they were four. Kacchan acknowledged his hurt, and their precarious situation, and everything that was going on, and Izuku felt so seen by the one person he’d wished to be seen by for years.
It wasn’t an apology. Not yet. But just like their fight at ground beta, it was the start of something better. It wasn’t quite a rivalry. It would never be that anymore. But, wishfully, Izuku hoped that maybe they were on the path to being friends again.
Izuku smiled tearfully, before readjusting his bag which he never took off his shoulders, and left to go back to the same conference room he had spent hours in just the day prior. Things would never be the same again. But maybe that was for the better.