Chapter Text
From a young age, Izuku knew he was different than other people. He cared about people differently than everyone else did and while he doesn’t understand what’s wrong with how he loves, he did understand it generally wasn’t seen as acceptable. At first it hadn’t mattered too much. Izuku held little interest in other children outside of their quirks and only interreacted to write down information on their quirk for his analysis. His classmates meanwhile avoided him like the plague as if able to tell something was wrong with him. The only people that he cared for, that were his, were his mother and father but there wasn’t much he could do as a small child to show his devotion. It wouldn’t be until high school that he was able to show his devotion in ways that didn’t feel superficial.
When he was 10 his little cousin Katsuki was born. Technically he was just the child of his parents’ close family friends, not actually his cousin, but Izuku didn’t care. He knew from the moment he was born that baby Katsuki was his. His to keep and his to protect forever and ever and he would allow nothing to come between them. The adults found how taken he was with the baby cute, even allowing him to babysit as Katsuki got older. When he babysat Izuku was sure to teach his baby cousin how much he cared, how Katsuki would never escape that care, that he’d be Izuku’s to care for forever. By the time he was 5, Katsuki had to learn how to accommodate Izuku’s obsession without causing action to be taken. He’d already learned there were no lines to what Izuku would do if he got hurt after Izuku broke another kid’s arm for hitting Katsuki on the playground.
Izuku was punished, of course, though he managed to wriggle out of anything serious legally. Being denied any access to Katsuki was worse than any legal consequences as far as Izuku was concerned anyway. He never regretted or even felt bad about what he did. Instead all he learned was that acting so obviously wasn’t going to give the results he wanted. He needed to work in the shadows. He needed to take care of problems without anyone ever knowing. To do that he couldn’t let people know his true nature. He’ll never be kept from his loved ones again if people think he’s just like everyone else.
So, he adapted, learned to blend in, stopped letting his differences be seen on the surface. Eventually it worked; by the time he started high school nobody could tell he was anything but an average 15 year old. Without the vibe of wrongness hovering around him, the strangest thing about him became his lack of quirk. That seemed significantly more acceptable than whatever aura he’d been giving off before as his classmates started actually talking to him. He had acquaintances now, acquaintances he had little real interest in but hung out with as they were good cover to make him seem even more normal.
It worked. His outburst was treated as a one-time event and he was allowed around Katsuki again. Inko was very happy to have her only son being normal and fully believed Izuku had changed while Hisashi seemed wary but optimistic or at least willing to ignore it as long as Izuku doesn’t do anything obvious or provable again. Katsuki, as young as he was, seemed to be the only one that understood Izuku was just playing pretend. That being said, he’d already been conditioned to accept Izuku’s abnormal so he didn’t say anything about it.
Izuku was much more efficient from then on out, working mostly digitally to care for his people. He found he could do lots of things via the internet with just a bit of hacking. For example, he could get his mom’s shitty boss fired or make the coworker harassing his dad quit or even make the upper classman that was always mean to Katsuki have to moved away. The internet made it so much easier to stalk people too. It’s safe to say Izuku got quite good at using computers.
Now that Izuku is 25 he’s all but perfected the art of appearing, at least on the outside, to be completely normal. People have conversations with him, work alongside him, even spend hours interacting with him and never once suspect he’s anything but your average analysist. He has coworkers he’s acquaintances with that invite him to things which he attends because it’s what normal people do. He has neighbor’s he’s friendly with and who aren’t worried about their children being near him. He even has an opinionated cat who hates everyone except for him. No one looks at him and finds anything wrong or abnormal about him. By all accounts he’s perfectly and utterly normal.
So why is Nezu messaging him?
Izuku stared at the message on his work computer.
You are a very interesting person Izuku Midoriya.
Shall we have tea?
Nezu – Principal of UA
No. He is not supposed to be interesting to someone like Nezu. Izuku has been careful not to catch the eye of people like Nezu. He’s not interesting, he doesn’t stand out, he’s normal. Why in the world would Nezu want anything to do with him?! This is bad, this is awful, this is-
“Hey Midoriya, you ok buddy? You look like you just saw a ghost.” One of Izuku’s acquaintances, Mira Takamata AKA twilight hero Feather Light, said as she came up next to Izuku’s desk.
Izuku quickly deleted the email, instantly becoming just the right amount of friendly. “I’m fine. It was just one of those scam emails we’ve been having so much trouble with.”
“And now we’re going to have to update the filter again.” Mira groaned. “That’s always a pain. I totally get the look now. I’ll go tell Tanaka in IT for you, ok? You just focus on all that work I know boss saddled you with for the upcoming raid. Curse of being the best analysist in the agency I suppose.”
“Thank you, Takamata, I appreciate it.” Izuku said like he had any actual emotional investment in any of this. “I do want to finish most of this by the end of the day.”
“No problem!” Mira grinned. “You coming to Haru’s shindig on Saturday? It wouldn’t be the same without you!”
Izuku gave a feigned apologetic grimace. “I’d love to but we’re celebrating my baby cousin winning the UA sports festival that day. Everyone was waiting for my day off to celebrate just so I could be there.”
“Oh well you definitely can’t miss that.” Mira nodded with understanding. “Well, we’ll miss you at the party. Be sure to tell your cousin I said congrats! He really blew away the competition.”
Izuku faked a laugh at the bad pun. “I will.”
As soon as Mira was gone from his corner of the agency Izuku’s face fell back into neutral disinterest. While Izuku has a good relationship with all his coworkers Mira is one of the more friendly who will stop by just to chat. It can get irritating having to pretend to care about whatever she’s talking about but normal people engage in friendly conversation with people they’re pretending to be friends with. He’s happy he doesn’t have to go to Haru’s (underground hero Night Owl) party at least. Instead he gets to celebrate his dear sweet baby Katsuki’s sports festival win. It’s been days since he’s seen Katsuki in person and he just can’t wait to show his precious cousin how much he loves him. Watching the signal from track chip he put in Katsuki barely gets him by.
Izuku turns his eyes back to his computer.
The email is back.
He deletes it again.
By the time he’s heading to his little Katsuki’s house on Saturday he’d been fielding the email for days and was growing irritated. He’s yet to reply to the messages at all, engagement encourages pursuit, but that hasn’t stopped them from showing up in his inbox. Nezu is a persistent creature but Izuku isn’t one to back down either. He likes his life; it’s functional and he’s already gone to all the trouble of making himself seem normal to the people in it. Giving into to whatever Nezu wants will only jeopardize everything he’s built he just knows it.
Izuku ignores his phone buzzing in his pocket and just focuses on walking up to the Bakugo’s front door. He had a gift bag in one hand because even if it isn’t Katsuki’s birthday his special boy deserves gifts for doing such a good job at the sports festival. In his other hand he held a box of mochi because it’s polite for normal people to bring food when invited to a party and Izuku is very good at being normal. A quick knock on the front door had it swung open almost immediately.
“Izuku! I’m so glad you could make it.” Mitsuki grinned at him. “It’s been like it’s been forever since we’ve seen you.”
“Ah, you know, work keeps me busy and my coworkers keep inviting me out.” Izuku shrugged, pointedly not getting twitchy. “I hope I’m not late, I had to stop to pick up the mochi.”
Mitsuki swiped the mochi from him. “Oh you really are too sweet and you’re just on time. Inko and Hisashi got here just a few minutes ago. Come on in I know you’re just dying to say hi to Katsuki.”
“Am I that transparent?” Izuku pretended to be embarrassed as he stepped into the house.
Mitsuki smacked him on the back. “Oh I think it’s sweet how close you two are. Go give your gift to him; I swear half his merch is from you.”
Izuku stepped further into the house intent on finding Katsuki as quickly as possible. Well, he stopped by his parents to quickly check on them but it was only a short catch up; they’ll get a more thorough amount of attention later. Finally he found Katsuki when the teen stalked into the living room looking grumpy about all of this. Oh he looked just like he did yesterday via the cameras Izuku has hidden in the Bakugos’ house.
“Kacchan!” Izuku tackle hugged Katsuki before the teen could run; Izuku has long since learned not to give Katsuki an opening to flee. “Oh my precious baby Kacchan! It’s been so long since we were together!”
“God damn it Deku! GET OFF!” Katsuki snapped, trying in vain to wrench even one of his limb free of Izuku’s bruising hug. “It has not been that long since you’ve seen me!”
“Yes it has!” Izuku whined, holding tighter and resting his cheek in Katsuki’s hair.
“You stalked me around the fucking mall for 3 hours last week!” Katsuki growled, looking like he was contemplating gnawing his way out. “And I know you still have god damn cameras around here.”
“Neither of those count.” Izuku pouted childishly.
“Like HELL they don’t!” Katsuki continued to squirm to no avail. Izuku was incredibly strong and Katsuki had yet to become a match for him.
Izuku hummed happily. “Come on Kacchan, let’s sit together and you can open your gift.”
“I don’t need a gift.” Katsuki huffed. “Get out of my space!”
“Katsuki,” Izuku’s tone turned low and honey sweet, “You’re going to sit next to me like the good little boy I know you are and open your gift. Then you’re going to tell me all about what UA is like and all about the sports festival. I love you Katsuki, you’re mine, and you don’t get to pretend otherwise.”
Katsuki visibly shivered but nodded and let Izuku more or less man handle him into being squished into Izuku’s side on the sofa. Izuku kept one arm tightly wrapped around Katsuki even after he decided they were comfortable. Finally, Izuku smiled happily and set the gift bag on Katsuki’s lap like a cat proudly presenting a dead bird to its owner. The gift is somewhat hesitantly unwrapped to reveal a rare limited edition All Might figure still mint in box. Only after carefully examining it for any sign of tampering and finding none does Katsuki relax and accept the gift, reluctantly giving Izuku a thank you hug that was gleefully returned.
To Izuku’s credit, he doesn’t get Katsuki weird things, instead going for thing Katsuki actually likes, and he hasn’t put any cameras in them yet. As long as he’s a good boy who lets Izuku love him Katsuki’s bedroom and they items in it stays off limits for tampering. The rest of the house is bugged to high heavens, as is Katsuki’s phone, but the bedroom its self hasn’t been touched. It’s a sacrifice Izuku is willing to make in the spirit of compromise; Katsuki get some semblance of privacy and Izuku gets to show his devotion without so much resistance.
Katsuki carefully set the figure aside then reluctantly started talking about UA and the sports festival. He was careful with what he said to Izuku, wary after the absolute rage he went into after the USJ incident. After the incident Izuku had been given leave until UA reopened due to being so close to someone affected and he hardly left Katsuki’s side the entire time, muttering promises of getting rid of those villains for him. If Izuku had been able to find the villains Katsuki’s sure they’d be dead now. If Katsuki knows Izuku the man is probably still looking.
Luckily most things have been uneventful so he didn’t have to worry too much. Katsuki was worried how Izuku would react to the sports festival but it went over surprisingly ok. Izuku didn’t seem to like Todoroki or Uraraka all that much since those matches combined sent him to the nurse but thankfully didn’t seem like he was planning to murder his classmates. Katsuki carefully did not mention how they found the tracking chip when he was sent to the nurse for fear of what Izuku would do if he thought his tracker was in danger. He’d managed to convince his teachers and Recovery Girl not to so much as touch it let alone try to deactivate it so Izuku shouldn’t suspect anything.
Katsuki works hard to keep Izuku’s obsessive tendencies focused solely on him, not because he enjoys it but because he’s uniquely suited to handle it. Izuku has been obsessed with him his entire life so part of growing up was learning how to manage that obsession. He knows how to work around him and how to keep him focused without escalating. Other people would have no idea how to handle this type of crazy and might do something stupid like call the police. Meanwhile, Katsuki knows from experience consequences don’t stop him they just make him stealthier so it’s best Izuku stays right where he is without being challenged. Really, Katsuki is providing a service to humanity by taking one for the team here.
Izuku stayed at the Bakugos’ until it was time for Katsuki to go to bed, intent on spending every second he could with his favorite little guy. The entire time he ignored his phone buzzing in his pocket. After days of ignoring emails, as of that morning Nezu had upgraded to texting him directly. Izuku still hasn’t replied and has no intention of replying; he doesn’t want anything to do with Nezu.
Izuku was plagued by Texts the entire weekend. He would have blocked the number but the first time he tried Nezu somehow managed to unblock it in Izuku’s phone. Izuku didn’t try again; he knows futility when he sees it. It was early Monday morning, or well early for him, when Izuku was still in bed that he received a phone call. Since he doesn’t usually get phone calls he was quick to answer. He fumbled with his phone, still half asleep, and put it to his ear.
“Hello?” He said drowsily. “Can I help you?”
“Hello! This would be Izuku Midoriya yes?” A high chipper voice said from the other end of the line. “Am I a mouse? A bear? A dog? I’m principal Nezu and I’ve been trying to reach you-”
Izuku hung up on Nezu.
Well, that’s certainly an escalation. Izuku silences his phone and goes back to sleep. Since he works at a primarily twilight and underground hero agency his shifts start late so there’s still time before he has to get to work. When he did wake up to go into work he’d missed two calls. Izuku pushed himself up and got dressed before grabbing his things and heading for the door… only to find Nezu and Eraserhead on his doorstep.
Izuku shut the door and left through the window instead.
Hopefully they’ll be gone when he gets home.