Quirks of the Soul

Izuku knocked on the door to the Bakugous’ house. This was it. His hands cradled the letter in his hands gently, making sure to avoid any creases or unfortunate accidents. The letter had to be in as perfect a condition as possible before he left.

The well-oiled door to Kacchan’s house opened. Bakugou Mitsuki had a surprised expression as she looked at him.

“Oh, Izuku-kun! What are you doing here? My stupid son isn’t back yet.”

“Hello, Bakugou-san. I was just wondering if you could pass this to Kacchan for me,” he said, smiling at her. He felt affectionate emotions welling up in him as he gazed at Kacchan’s mother. Izuku carefully handed her the letter in his hands.

Mitsuki reached out for the letter with a slightly puzzled expression. “Of course,” she said, subconsciously handling the letter with more care.

“Thank you, Bakugou-san. It was nice seeing you again.”

Before she could further inquire about why he was passing her a letter for her son instead of passing it to him himself, Izuku left.

 Izuku reached the front of his door and sighed. He’d covered all his bases. Everything was prepared. His sufferings would finally end. He felt a mix of complicated emotions. Some part of him was still crying out for him to wait a little longer. Hold on for a little while more. Another part had already given up. Frankly, everyday hurt. The look in Kacchan’s eyes as he mocked him felt like a slow but ever steady stream of pain.

The green-haired teenager unlocked the door and stepped in, greeted by silence. He took a slow glance across the room, taking in the sights for the last time. He felt a small pang of loss, reminiscing about how his parents danced together across the living room. The living room couch they cuddled on as they watched the News. The kitchen his mum cooked in as she hummed tunes. His bedroom where he and Kacchan –

Izuku shook his head, steadfastly pushing away any lingering regrets to the back of his mind. He spotted the letter that he had written on the dining table that explained everything.

The teenager stepped on the cool tiles of his bathroom. He silently climbed into the bathtub, sitting inside comfortably. This was it. He’d already left his last words for Kacchan. Hopefully what he would say would convince the other that it wasn’t his fault. This was his choice, and no one else’s. He would never let his selfish actions affect Kacchan’s chances of getting into UA.

Since he couldn’t have Kacchan’s affections, rather than the malice and despise that the other felt every time that was directed at him, he would rather feel nothing.

Izuku let out a hollow laugh. It seemed every Midoriya would suffer from this quirk. At least it would end with him. The Midoriyas would no longer exist. No one else would suffer like him and the rest who shared his name.

The messy-haired teen sucked in a light breath as he brought the razor to his wrist. Before he could talk himself out of it, he cut deeply, repeating the same actions on the other wrist.

Crimson drops immediately welled up from the cut, before rivulets of red steadily made itself down his arms. Izuku took the time to admire the color, running his fingers through the life liquid that was inside him moments ago.

The pain that he felt was so strange. It was different from the kind of hurt he had gotten used to. This was so much more… physical was the only way he could describe it. It was a wonder he hadn’t already done this before. He felt like he was centering on the pain from the cut, rather than the ache inside him when he thought of Kacchan.

He stretched out his hand, watching the glistening liquid under the artificial light from his bathroom. It was the exact same shade as Kacchan’s eyes.

Izuku lowered his hand, feeling tears well up at the thought of Kacchan. He wouldn’t be able to see Kacchan ever again. Even though the other hated and despised him, nothing would diminish the feelings that still burned bright inside of him. Unrequited love. He never imagined it would hurt this badly.

He felt the tears silently flow down his cheeks, allowing himself a moment of weakness before his death. Surely, no one would judge him. Crystal drops fell onto the red already pooled at the bottom of the bathtub, creating ripples.

Izuku felt the grasp he had on his thoughts slowly becoming hazier as he leaned back onto the cool plastic of the bathtub, closing his eyes as he let his consciousness drift away.

The words “Making a leap of faith from the roof and believing with all your might that you will have a ‘Quirk’ in the next life” cut him deeper than he had imagined, because they came from Kacchan specifically. Kacchan’s feelings at that time were a mix of contempt and disdain. His eyes gave him chills with how they projected his hate.

Hopefully, in his next life he wouldn’t be born with this Quirk again. Hopefully, he would find a love that would be requited.

It would all be ending soon.

I love you, Kacchan.

 Bakugou Mitsuki felt slightly puzzled and worried as she thought about Izuku-kun. His goodbye to her had felt slightly off to her. It felt strangely final, as if he was prepared to leave without further contact.

She recalled his gentle smile. It was dazzling. She hadn’t seen her son’s friend smile like that in a long while. Not since Midoriya Inko and Hisashi had passed away.

Mitsuki pressed down whatever lingering concerns she had about Izuku. Perhaps he was just trying to reconcile with her son? She knew they had their disagreements. Most of the time her son was in the wrong, but he would never acknowledge it. Perhaps he would finally heal from the scar that the passing of his parents had left him. She knew he was never the same after seeing his mother in that state.

She placed the letter she received from him in Katsuki’s room. Hopefully the two of them would make up.

As she prepared dinner, she heard the front door slam shut, instantly igniting the rage within her. “BAKUGOU KATSUKI. What did I say about slamming the door?!”

“Ahh, shut up you old hag. I know, I know,” said Katsuki, rolling his eyes at his mother. He threw his school bag at the side of the door.

Katsuki groaned as his mother started swearing at him whilst lecturing him. Whoever said that his mother was pretty calm compared to him had obviously never seen her at home.

After she ranted to her content, she suddenly realized she hadn’t told Katsuki about the letter yet.

“Izuku-kun dropped by around 2 hours ago. He left you a letter. I left it on your bedside table.”

“Hah?” said Katsuki. Why would that Deku pass him a letter? He had just exploded his Hero notebook a few hours ago.

Katsuki frowned, heading up to his room. He felt irritation spike within him as he looked at the plain white letter on his bedside table.

He gripped the paper roughly, opening it with a flick. What could Deku possibly be thinking?

His eyes drifted to the black words written on white paper.

His eyes drifted to the black words written on white paper.

“Kacchan—” it started off. Stupid Deku. He’d already left the letter specifically for him. Why would he need to address him again?

“Before anything else, I want you to know that my decision was not your fault. Don’t worry, I would never let something that I do affect your future. Just in case they overlook it, I left a letter explaining everything on the table. I can’t live without you, but I also can’t live in the face of you despising me at every encounter.

There isn’t a day that doesn’t hurt.

The Midoriyas, that is, a person who contains the slightest bit of Midoriya blood, tracing back up to a hundred and fifty years ago from when Quirks first manifested, have a mutation Quirk. It wasn’t always the same, but before Quirk manifestation, Midoriyas all possessed some form of Empathy.

Our Empathic powers used to be a general Empathy, which was directed at every individual we came across. Before Quirks, Midoriyas were well known to be charismatic, social butterflies. Psychiatrists, nurses, doctors, anything to do with mental and social health, there was a Midoriya who topped the field.

Everything changed when Quirks emerged in China. To be honest, this manifestation happened to our Clan before any discoveries were made. The Midoriyas all developed some sort of mutation in our Empathic abilities.

Specifically, our Empathic abilities became focused on a single individual. They later theorised that the first person we exchanged a full kiss with, lip on lip, would be the person that our Quirk locked on to.”

As Katsuki read the letter up to this point, he had a slowly growing sense of horror that was budding in his chest. His knuckles whitened as he unintentionally wrinkled the paper slightly with how hard he was gripping it. Deku –

“Midoriyas call our Quirk the ‘Soulmate Quirk’, or ‘Soul Quirk’. There are also some who call this manifestation ‘True Love’s Kiss’, and ‘Certain Death’.

It doesn’t matter who we first exchange a kiss with. Something in our brain gets triggered, and Midoriyas experience their ‘First Love’ and their ‘Only Love’. Nothing will change the course of our feelings. They can be nurtured and grown over time, but all of us will love unconditionally.

Partners of Midoriyas who are infidel, who don’t love back, even those who murder, etc. It doesn’t matter. Midoriyas have one shot at love, and only that one shot. Later generations learned to zealously guard our first kiss, but the damage had already been done.

Midoriyas were once a widespread and well-known name, but after our Quirk made its appearance, there were no shortage of us who essentially became a Villain in the name of love.

Everything depends on the Midoriya in question, as well as the person whom they first exchanged the kiss with.

On the contrary, something that will never change is the suicide of the Midoriya who has lost a partner to death. There are also those like me, who will never be able to receive any positive emotion from their love, who choose to end their life rather than suffer the pain of the contempt and hate from the other party.

Our Quirk allows us to feel the other party’s emotions in depth, and while it may seem to outsiders that this is an invasion of privacy, we have no way of control over our Quirk, and whatever the other party feels specifically for us is multiplied, often overriding our own emotions in whatever context.

We would never allow ourselves to hurt the other party, regardless of what has been done to us. Living without the other is impossible, but living with hurt every day is preferable from being apart from them.

There have been some of us who have successfully furthered ourselves from the other party in the case of them not returning our affections, but the hollowness in our Soul drives us insane.

Rare are the chances of a Midoriya finding a love that lasts long. My father was one of the rare minority that was able to build a family.

Of course, everything changed the day my mother died in a Villain attack. What happens next doesn’t need to be described in detail, but he tried to hold on longer out of love for me, but ultimately succumbed just like many others of our Clan.

Now, I am the last of the Midoriyas. May this Quirk end with me, and never have any others who suffer like I do.

Kacchan, I don’t blame you, nor do I regret having my first kiss stolen by you.

Living day by day with your hatred directed at me, I’ll be honest. In the beginning I was mainly startled at the changes of your emotion when you first had the conclusion that I was “Quirkless”.

Our Quirk is a secret Midoriyas hold close to our heart. Oftentimes, many significant others do not know of our Quirk. I’m leaving this behind only to explain in hopes that you don’t blame myself for your death. Even my mother knew nothing about our shared Quirk.

Should you want to know more, we have the books containing the Midoriya Legacy left behind in the study room.

The day you stole my first kiss was the day my father had sat me down at the table, explaining everything. When you kissed me as ‘the Hero gets a kiss from the Damsel in Distress’, that was the first day the love I hold for you bloomed in my heart.

I’ve held your affections for two years, and that’s much longer than some of the other Midoriyas who have never experienced anything. Whatever positive emotions you had for me changed to despise, annoyance and contempt. I tried to hold on longer, but I can’t. I’m sorry.

I don’t regret having my first kiss with you. Even if I could change it, I wouldn’t. I’ve never thought of trying to forget you, like how some of the Midoriyas before me have tried to do. Your existence fulfils something deep inside of me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

It’s better I go now before my death can have any impact on your future ambitions. If I could go after you’ve made it into UA, I would, but I don’t have the strength to continue struggling on anymore.

If there’s anything I regret, it’s that I have nothing that can help you, besides being some emotional support should you ever need it, and knowing you, Kacchan, you probably don’t.

Unfortunately, I’m just Deku.

I’m no help to you for your Hero ambitions. The data I’ve collected on other Heroes, you don’t need. The research I’ve made on your Quirk, you don’t want.

I have no reason to continue living.

I’m worthless.

I’ve made the arrangements for my body, but if you are willing, would you consider doing me a favor and scattering my ashes in the wind? That way I’ll always be around you. If you don’t want to, that’s fine as well.

I love you, Kacchan.

I hope you find love one day, and that they will love you just like how I’ve loved you.

– Deku”

Katsuki had completely crumpled the paper from how hard he was gripping it. Deku – he was…what? Going to kill himself…? No!

What did he think he was doing?!

The blonde tore out of his room, dropping the paper on his floor in the process.

Mitsuki is startled as her son barrels down the stairs. She gets a shock as she realizes that Katsuki’s face is completely devoid of blood. He looks pale and panicked.

“What happened?”

“Mom!” he yells, gripping onto her wrists. “Did Deku tell you where he’s going?”

The moment the words “No” make it out of her mouth, he’s out the front door, running as hard as he could towards Izuku’s house. He doesn’t hear the startled words of his mother, his mind completely focused on Deku.

No. He can’t just die like this. He can’t end his life only at the age of fourteen. Katsuki made no move to suppress the horror and dread growing within him. It was all his fault. If only he could look past Deku being “Quirkless”, treating him the same as he had before. If only he hadn’t let other people’s perceptions influence him.

His pride wasn’t worth this. Wasn’t worth Izuku’s life.

The moment Katsuki arrived in front of Deku’s – no, Izuku’s door, he prayed harder than he ever had that the door wasn’t locked. He could blast the door down, but what if Izuku was behind it? What if – he pushed his errant thoughts away, refusing to entertain the thought that Izuku might already be dead.

Katsuki felt the dread and horror overflow within him. Luckily, the door was unlocked. Was that so when we come for his body we wouldn’t have to expend extra effort –

The teen hurriedly stepped in.

He had never heard a silence quite so loud.

The scent of blood was overwhelming. It was overpowering. The metallic scent that he had become intimately acquainted with over the years had never gave him the dread that it did today.

Izuku’s blood.

He wasn’t quite sure how he found his way to the bathroom, but the sight that greeted him would surely give him nightmares in years to come.

Izuku’s unmoving body lay in the pristine white bathtub. The mossy-haired teen’s lips were tinted blue from the lack of oxygen and blood.

Katsuki collapsed to his knees.

Izuku looked like he was already dead. The tears that hadn’t come before suddenly sprung to his eyes now. The green-haired teen was covered in his own blood. In the back of his mind, Katsuki deduced that the other had slit his wrists.

The teen’s originally white uniform shirt was mottled with spots of blood. The blood was pooling underneath his body. Trails of blood were on the sides of the tub, and his face had a few errant drops here and there.

Most prominently, Izuku had evidently pressed his lips to his wound, covering his lips with a deep shade of red.

Deku – Izuku – no – no – he can’t be dead.

Deku – Izuku – no – no – he can’t be dead.

Katsuki felt like he couldn’t think properly. It felt like things were running in slow motion. It was as if someone had hit the pause button on a television screen. A million thoughts were running through his mind, but it felt fuzzy and out of reach. It felt like someone had replaced his brain with cotton wool instead. Nothing made sense. Things were unconnected and hazy as he looked at Izuku’s body.

He felt strangely detached.

His eyes traced Izuku’s features. His chest was barely moving.

Katsuki scrambled forward, ignoring anything else. He’s alive! Thank god, he’s still alive.

Katsuki pressed hesitant fingers to Izuku’s wrists, where his blood was escaping sluggishly out of the wounds, before gritting his teeth in determination and pressing harder, trying to stop the blood flow. His fingers were instantly coated with the congealing blood.

It should have been warm, but the blood from Izuku was already slightly cool. Not surprisingly, this caused him to feel even more worried. The green-haired boy’s skin was clammy and cold to the touch. He could feel the rapid, weak pulse. Katuski felt so relieved that his friend was still alive. He also felt unbelievably panicked.

He’s going into shock. Izuku’s going into shock!

The weight of the situation slammed into him like a two ton truck, leaving him winded and breathless.

Phone. Where was his phone?! He lifted the hand closer to himself to rummage shakily through his pockets, leaving fingerprints of red.

“Fuck,” Katsuki chanted, paling further. “Fuck, fuck fuck fuck!”

He’d chucked his phone inside his bag the moment school ended. Then, when he got home he flung aside the bag like a fucking moron.

He immediately pressed his fingers back to Izuku’s wound, trying to prevent him from losing even more blood. The weak pulses that came from the other were an indication of how he couldn’t stop Izuku from losing blood. It was just leaving the wound at a slower pace.

What did he do now?

What did he do now?

“Izuku, don’t die on me. Don’t you fucking dare die on me, you hear me?” Katsuki couldn’t feel his hands anymore from how hard he was gripping Izuku’s wrists, but he refused to let go.

‘I – I still have to – to apologize. Don’t take everything I’ve said seriously, stupid Deku! Stupid, stupid. Why did you take me seriously?! I’m just a fucking moron.” Katsuki took a shallow breath, trying to reassure himself that Izuku could hear him.

Katuski gave a bodily flinch as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

“Please let go now. We have to rush and give him a blood transfusion,” said the gentle yet firm voice.

Katsuki looked behind him to see two paramedics dressed in blue. As soon as he realized they could help Izuku more than he could, he tried to remove his fingers quickly, but they were unresponsive. He grit his teeth and pried his fingers off the bloody wrist one by one.

One paramedic gently herded him aside, before quickly and efficiently helping the other stabilize Izuku’s prone body on the stretcher. They seemed to be using some kind of Quirk to help Izuku, but he couldn’t tell just what it was, or what it was doing.

They fitted an oxygen mask over Izuku’s mouth and nose, trying to get him more oxygen into his lungs.

The two paramedics quickly loaded him into the ambulance, speeding away to the nearest hospital, horns blaring loudly.

Katsuki knelt down heavily on the floor, his hands pressing onto the cold tiles of the bathroom, breathing heavily. He felt such stark relief that Izuku had managed to get help even though he had been completely useless in forgetting his phone in his rush.

Please.

Katsuki didn’t believe in a higher authority, but right now he was praying with all his heart and every inch of his determination to any god he could think of that Izuku would be okay. He was even willing to give up going on to become a Pro-Hero if he could have Izuku back. Anything, he prayed.

Bakugou Mitsuki slammed into the apartment, breathing heavily. She had run to Izuku’s apartment at her fastest speed. She spotted her prone son, kneeling on the floor as if all strength had left him.

“Katsuki,” she said, sobbing. She gathered him into her arms.

Katsuki buried his head on his mother’s shoulder. For all that he had grown, he wasn’t taller than her yet, and at this moment he had never felt as relieved about that fact.

It felt like the dam of tears gathered within him was threatening to break free, but he forcefully held them back, squeezing his eyes tightly, pressing his head deeper into the crook of her neck. He didn’t deserve to cry. Not after putting Izuku through all those things.

He felt the tears in his hair, and he allowed his mother to cry for him. It felt like a heavy weight was pressed on top of him. He felt stifled. He pressed his hands onto her back, hugging her tightly.

She must have read the letter he dropped on the floor after seeing him rush out like that. Thank god. Thank god she was there. That she had read the letter. That she’d called the ambulance for Izuku immediately.

Katsuki didn’t know how long had passed before he felt emotionally stable enough to let go of her.

He swiped roughly at his eyes. He might not have let any tears fall, but that didn’t mean they didn’t gather. The regret felt like a huge shadow in his heart. He had never meant to push Izuku to this point. Since when had his feelings for his friend start turning down a darker path?

It was his fault. Social preconceptions had influenced him deeply, preventing him from staying by Izuku’s side like he should have upon thinking that he was Quirkless. Izuku had never wavered from his side. Even when he had thrown punches or explosions at him, the other had stuck by his side.

Katsuki stood up shakily, intending on heading to the hospital to look for Izuku.

“Hospital,” he said.

Mitsuki startled at his voice. It was hoarse with suppressed emotions. She nodded and got up as well, heading towards the door.

Katsuki felt as if a sledgehammer had slammed into him. His eyes locked onto the two red palm prints on his mother’s back.

He felt tears well up again. Izuku’s blood. The life blood that flowed through his veins that kept him alive and healthy. It was splattered everywhere.

As the two of them left the apartment, they heard a loud explosion in the direction of the hospital, followed by the screams of civilians and sirens blaring.

Katuski paled. A Villain?

A Villain is attacking the ambulance Izuku is in?

A Villain is attacking the ambulance Izuku is in?

Katsuki broke into a run. They’d better not have fucking attacked Izuku’s only hope at survival, fucking Villains!

He felt the rage bubble and explode, enveloping him. He wasn’t seeing red, like how other’s had described it, but instead his concentration and focus was narrowing on the single thought of Izuku’s safety.

How the fuck was he supposed to catch up?

Katsuki ground his teeth in anger and pushed himself to run faster. Adrenaline was overflowing. He was running faster than he’d ever before.

Soon, he spotted debris and a couple of wrecked cars that were still smoking. The blonde teen slowed down his pace slightly, desperately scanning the wrecked cars. Katsuki exhaled a sigh of relief. He didn’t spot any white vehicles resembling the ambulance within the scene of carnage. There were a few people who sported minor injuries helping each other away from the area.

Katsuki felt his heart squeeze in worry. While he was slightly relieved that the Villain evidently hadn’t attacked the ambulance, he knew that Izuku wasn’t out of danger just yet.

He prayed harder that nothing happened to Izuku. Hopefully, the ambulance was already far from here and hadn’t been affected by the Villain.

Katsuki spotted a non-existent shop window, glass fragments were littered on the ground. That must have been what he heard explode earlier, along with the screams.

The ground shook suddenly, making him wobble and fight to steady himself.

“Have no fear! For I AM HERE!”

His thoughts jolted to a stop. All Might is here?

Katsuki shook himself out of it. Now was not the time to fanboy over All Might, no matter how much Izuku might want an autograph.

He grit his teeth and continued running in the direction of the hospital. He spotted All Might battling it out with a disgusting blob of green slime. It wobbled all over and was reaching out for All Might, trying to envelop him. All Might punched it and it exploded into smithereens, before abruptly reforming itself and running away.

Katsuki ran past them with determination, trying to keep out of their way.

All Might roared and dashed forward, his white teeth blinding.

The Villain dodged nimbly, fleeing down the street with All Might hot on his heels.

Katsuki subconsciously registered everything in the back of his mind, but took no heed of them and ran harder towards the hospital, leaving behind the Villain and All Might, ignoring the two of them as best he could.

All Might would be able to handle it.

Behind him, Katsuki didn’t realize the Villain had tried for him as he ran past, but had to dodge at the last second as All Might tried to punch him again as he caught up. Not having a hostage, the slime wobbled slightly in annoyance and dashed for the sewers, successfully evading All Might, leading to a city-wide chase of the Villain.

The worry for Izuku was almost crushing for Katsuki. He wasn’t used to feeling these emotions. Katsuki was accustomed to rage, pride and glee, but not these. They felt heavy and dense. He felt like he couldn’t breathe from the vast amounts of stress and worry he was under emotionally and mentally. He felt very unbalanced

He felt useless, pathetic and worthless. He could only worry senselessly, but he couldn’t help Izuku at all.

The shiny, silver metallic building that was the hospital arrived in his sight before he could feel too breathless. He didn’t know how long he had been running, but the sight of the hospital allowed him to reassure himself that Izuku would surely have gotten help in time.

He hadn’t seen the ambulance crashed anywhere on the road that he had been running on, and that was the quickest road towards the hospital.

He burst through the hospital doors, startling several patients and nurses.

The receptionist glared at him. Her look softened slightly as she caught sight of his face. It was pale and pinched in worry. He was also covered in sweat, his bangs sticking to his forehead.

“Don’t run in the hospital next time! You never know what might happen if you accidentally crash into someone.”

“Okay,” agreed Katsuki, heart clenching. What would have happened if someone like Izuku was being rushed through and he crashed into them due to his running?

“Please tell me where my friend is. His name is Midoriya Izuku. He was rushed here earlier due to excessive amounts of blood loss.”

Katsuki didn’t even have to work at being polite. He was so desperate for some answers that everything was coming out naturally.

“Ah… that boy,” she said, shooting Katsuki a sympathetic look. She’d seen him rushed in earlier for a blood transfusion. He’d looked inches away from death’s embrace. How traumatising must it be the one stopping his friend from committing suicide. She’d spotted the blood splatters on his clothes.

“Room 11 Ward 41, Section A. Midoriya Izuku. He’s in his own room on possible suicide watch.”

“Thank you,” breathed out Katsuki, finally allowing himself a moment of relief that Izuku had received medical help in time. He walked at a brisk pace whilst keeping an eye out for his surroundings.

“Section A, Room 11 Ward 41…” he muttered to himself.

Katsuki hesitated in front of the door. His heart was pounding in his chest. It felt like his heart was trying to escape his body with how hard it was beating. He wanted to go in, but his feet were rooted to the spot. It felt like he had been anchored down.

His hands hovered over the door handle. His hands were clammy and unresponsive. He wiped the sweat that had gathered on his pants. He wouldn’t even harbour the faintest chance of his emotions getting the better of him and causing an explosion where Izuku was in the vicinity.

A janitor with his cart pushed past him, clattering noisily. Katsuki startled out of his stupor. His hands unintentionally gripped down on the door handle.

He hesitated again, before gathering the strength to slide the door aside, stepping in and sliding the door close again.

His eyes hungrily drank in the sight of Izuku.

Inside, Izuku lay on pristine white sheets. He looked so fragile laying there. Katsuki felt like he would simply drift away while he wasn’t looking. His face was still pale, but at least had a hint of color in his face, unlike before. Izuku’s wrist had never looked this thin to him before. It looked delicate and fragile on the pale white sheets, with a needle inserted into it that was attached to the blood bag.

Katsuki’s eyes lingered on the white bandages decorating Izuku’s wrists. Beneath them lay the wounds that he wished Izuku didn’t have to bear.

The door to the room slid open with a slight whoosh. Katsuki turned back to look at the intruder to the room. It was a doctor. He looked tired. His face held a reassuring smile that was well-practiced, but his eyes betrayed him, showing how weary he looked.

The doctor gestured for Katsuki to step outside. Katsuki struggled with himself before stepping out and sliding the door close.

“As Midoriya Izuku no longer has any living relations, I can only tell this to you, Bakugou-san. Midoriya-san passed out from massive blood loss. At the point he was attended to by the paramedics, he’s lost more than half of his total volume of blood. His brain was oxygen deprived for one minute, but we managed to get him a transfusion before it could be any worse. Bakugou-san, Midoriya-san is very lucky that you managed to stop more blood from being lost, and he owes you his life.”

The doctor paused in his explanation, before continuing in a softer voice. “I know this will be hard to hear, but we don’t know if he will ever wake up, but there is a chance he will.”

Katsuki felt his nose sour and held back his tears for the umpteenth time that day, taking a deep breath and thanked the doctor with a heavy heart. He stepped back into Izuku’s room.

Please wake up, Izuku.

Katsuki collapsed in the chair next to the bed. He lightly touched Izuku’s hand to reassure himself that he wasn’t dreaming, that Izuku was still alive. He was still breathing.

The teen pressed his hands together in a praying pose, praying hard that Izuku would come back to him. His knuckles were white from how much strength he was using.

Katsuki pressed closed eyes to his hands, eyes scrunched shut. His heart and nose felt sour. His eyes were stinging. They were just watering, that’s all. He wouldn’t allow himself to cry if Izuku didn’t wake up. Katsuki sucked in a couple of breaths to keep the waterworks at bay.

What have I done?

What have I done?

I fucking did this to you.

Please , Izuku.

I promise I’ll be a better friend.

I don’t know if I love you, but we can work on that.

Please come back, Izuku.

Please come back, Izuku.

Katsuki sat at Izuku’s bedside for an undetermined amount of time before he was dragged kicking and screaming into Morpheus’ thrall.

Mitsuki sighed, spotting the edge of her fallen son’s uniform from the window in the door. She’d allowed him some alone time with Izuku-kun whilst she waited in the hallway. She entered the room as quietly as possible, trying not to disturb the rest of her son. She cast worried looks at her two children, one who had barely escaped from death’s grip, and the other who had silently worried himself to sleep.

She brushed blonde locks softly, trying to impart some reassurance to her son. His brows were furrowed even in his sleep, not able to escape from his worries and regrets as his subconscious tormented him. She had hoped that he would be able to get some form reprieve in his sleep, but it looked like it wasn’t happening.

He was lying prone on the edge of Izuku’s bed, one hand reaching for Izuku’s. His fingertips were barely touching Izuku, as if afraid of inflicting further hurt on the other, whilst simultaneously reassuring himself that he was there.

She hadn’t seen her son look this vulnerable in years. He hadn’t allowed himself to be vulnerable. She knew he his ego had been developing to, frankly, unhealthy levels, but she hadn’t known that this change would have hurt Izuku deeply. She’d thought that the two of them were engaged in friendly bickering, and that was what she had gathered from the way Katsuki had muttered about him with complaints, about him being ‘shitty Deku’.

When she looked at Izuku-kun, she couldn’t help but suck in a breath of shock. He looked markedly different from how she saw him mere hours ago. He was so pale. The stark contrast of the red line going into his skin caused her to feel nauseous. His adorable freckles stood out sharply on this pale skin. Usually, they were hardly noticeable unless you got close. She could almost feel the lingering, cold, bony fingers of death trying to drag her second son into its embrace.

She longed to see her second son open his eyes and flash his pretty smile at her. She wanted to see green eyes light up as they gazed at Katsuki.

Izuku-kun, her heart cried out. It was aching and swelling with worry and concern. Her heart was weeping silently. She considered Izuku a son to her, just like Katsuki. These feelings had become especially pronounced after she learnt that Inko had passed away in a Villain attack, which was consequently followed by Izuku finding his father’s body hanging in their apartment barely two months later.

To learn that he had been driven to suicide had triggered every single protective motherly instinct she held inside her, especially because it was the cause of her fucking son’s actions.

The two of them had been as thick as thieves in their younger days. She wasn’t quite sure when it had changed, but she swore to herself that she would make this right.

Mitsuki allowed silent tears to fall as she gazed at the two teenagers. She allowed herself to cry for Katsuki, who didn’t allow himself. She cried for Izuku, who had gone through suffering, loneliness and uncertainty. She cried for herself, who had almost lost a son.

She had been blind to everything that he had been going through. She should have realized something was wrong when the times her son brought Izuku over had dwindled and slowly faded to nothing, no matter how often she had inquired and prodded him to.

She let out an unintentional sob. Mitsuki quickly checked whether she had unintentionally caused Katsuki to waken. She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it to her face, muffling her sobs.

She’d chased after the doctor after he left. She had just arrived at that time and hadn’t heard what he told Katsuki. Every word he spoke felt like a heavy blow to her chest.

Don’t know when he’ll wake up, he said. She almost felt like Izuku had already crossed death’s doors. She shook herself out of it. She had to stay positive. Izuku would awaken, and they would be able to right the wrongs that they had done to him.

She thanked every instinct that made her read that letter Izuku left for Katsuki when her son had run out of the house like a demon possessed. She thanked every course in university that made her an avid reader, helping her speed up her reading. She shouldn’t have ignored the alarm bells that rang when she had last seen Izuku.

Mitsuki let out a slightly hysterical laugh that was muffled. Her voice was choked with tears. Thank god she listened to that little voice in her head and called for an ambulance immediately. Her stupid, fucking idiot of a son had left his fucking phone in the house. She put aside the matter of Izuku’s Quirk for the time being. They would be able to discuss this when he was awake. She felt the stirrings of anger arise in her as she recalled the contents of Izuku-kun’s letter. What the fuck had her son been doing?

The blonde woman grit her teeth as she pushed down the cocktail of feelings she had inside her.

Her hands trembled slightly now that she had confirmed that Izuku was relatively alright physically. He hadn’t come back to them yet, but he would. He would. She took deep breaths to try and calm herself. Unfortunately, in this moment, she happened to glance down at her hands.

Mitsuki shuddered as she keenly felt the blood that was left flaking under her fingernails. She had gotten blood all over her in Izuku’s apartment. She felt dizzy and faint. She felt light-headed. Her phobia was hitting her unprecedently hard. There was a reason why she wasn’t a nurse or wasn’t a Pro-Hero, like her son and Izuku were aspiring to be. Her teeth started chattering slightly.

She’d lived with this fear for as long as she could imagine. There hadn’t been some traumatising incident where she had developed a fear, but rather, it had always existed. She thanked every god up there that she had been able to put aside her fears for her children.

It wasn’t until she had let herself feel everything and stopped compartmentalizing the emotions that her phobia hit her at once.

The bloody marks that Katsuki had pressed into her almost caused her to hyperventilate. She took measured breaths and controlled her breathing, stopping herself from having a panic attack. She didn’t know how she got blood under her fingernails, and she didn’t want to recall.

Mitsuki flinched at the sight of crusty red. She stood up abruptly, heading to the bathroom attached to the side of the room. She still had the state of mind to quietly shut the door.

She fumbled a few times as she tried to get the tap to turn on. As the water tumbled from the taps, she pressed two hands quickly into the hot water.

Mitsuki scrubbed hard as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her breaths were coming in short pants.

She scrubbed and rubbed, until her hands were raw, but not bleeding. Never bleeding.

When she felt satisfied that she had gotten every inch of her hands and fingernails clean, she felt her heartbeat slow down significantly.

Mitsuki valiantly ignored the voice in the back of her mind telling her that she still had blood on her clothes.

Now was not the time to be weak. She had to be strong for her boys. She had to be here to support Katsuki and Izuku. She had to… call her husband?

Mitsuki gawked. She had completely forgotten about her husband!

The fumbled for the phone in her pocket, quickly calling him and informing him of what happened.

When she entered the room again, Katsuki was awake. He was staring at Izuku with a blank face.

Mitsuki enveloped him in a hug in a re-enactment of the scene from Izuku’s apartment, whispering soothing words to her hurt son.

She hurt deeply for the two of them. She was still angry with Katsuki, but she knew her son didn’t have a bad heart. He’d just been led slightly astray.

Come back to us, Izuku.

Katsuki grit his teeth when the nurse on duty tried to get him to leave. Like hell he would leave Izuku now. Not when he was still unconscious and fucking vulnerable.

The nurse could take her fucking pitying and disapproving glances and fucking shove them up her – Katsuki felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder, stopping him from lashing out.

Katsuki’s bared his teeth in a snarl. He wouldn’t leave Izuku now. He wouldn’t.

“Katsuki,” his mother started, “leave the nurse alone. She’s just doing her job. Visiting hours are over.”

Visiting hours are over, so fucking what? He would fucking stay with Izuku until he woke up, and no one would be able to stop him!

“Katsuki,” his mother repeated sternly. “We are going home. You are going to clean all the blood off yourself, freshen up, get some food, get more sleep, then we can visit Izuku again tomorrow, alright? Listen to me. Do you think Izuku-kun will be happy to see you in this state?”

He felt an absurd amount of hopelessness and regret surge within him at his mother’s words. That was a low fucking blow. Using Izuku against him. Katsuki felt his eyes water traitorously.

His nose felt sour.

He knew she was right, but –

Katsuki cast a lingering glance at Izuku. He still looked frail and vulnerable in the bed. He looked ridiculously small. Awake, Izuku exuded a wordless presence to him. He always felt like Izuku drew his attentions and his eyes way too easily. He couldn’t ignore him even if he wanted to, and that had made him furious. It had felt like a slight on this pride, that he was always categorizing and monitoring Izuku’s reactions, even unconsciously.

Looking at the unconscious form on the bed, Katsuki felt the overwhelming urge to protect this fragile existence from the outside world.

No one else will ever fucking hurt you again, he swore, not even myself.

Katsuki felt torn.

Knowing Izuku, he definitely wouldn’t want to see him like this. That suicide note left for him confirmed that fact multiple times. The stupid, considerate moron tried to reassure him several times.

How would he ever be able to make up for causing harm to Izuku?

Katsuki stomped down on the cocktail of feelings that were threatening to surge. He would only let out his feelings when he was alone. Not in the presence of some stranger.

Katsuki left the hospital with his mother, his anger sizzling under his skin. As he sat in the car, he felt anger at himself, anger at his mom, anger at the nurse, even anger at Izuku himself for allowing things to get this far.

The blonde teen immediately felt ashamed and regretful the moment he had the last thought. He knew it wasn’t their fault. The nurse was just doing her job, and his mother was trying to get him to take care of himself. It definitely wasn’t Izuku’s fault. The blame all lay on himself.

Everything was caused by him.

If only he had pushed aside what everyone thought. If only he had persisted in their friendship instead of trying to drive the other away. If only he had –

The car jerked to a stop, breaking him from the cycle of self-hatred that he had unknowingly driven himself into. Katsuki woodenly followed his mother into the house.

She quickly heated up some leftovers that they had the day before, not having the mood nor the patience to start cooking.

He forced down the food, one agonising bite at a time, constantly reminding himself that he couldn’t cause Izuku any worry when he woke up.

Everything tasted like ash. He blankly thought to himself this is what it would be like if he was able to produce explosions in his mouth.

When Katsuki stepped into the bathroom, he was hit by the vivid flashback of Izuku’s body lying in the bathtub with red, red, red.

Katsuki felt bile rise in his throat. He slammed his eyes shut and took shallow breaths, trying to push away the memory. He could still smell the metallic tang in the air.

By the time he had washed up, and was lying in bed, his mother pressed a kiss to his forehead, her eyes betraying her worry and sadness, he had no idea how he had gotten through bathing.

The door closed softly behind her. He heard her move away from his door towards her room.

Katsuki categorized his room mechanically. Everything looked just like how it had always been.

As he looked towards his left, his eyes caught sight of white paper. Before he knew it, he’d sat up.

His hand trembled slightly, reaching towards the sheet that held so many words of love, both spoken and unspoken. His fingers glided over the paper gently in an attempt to straighten out the creases he had left so carelessly.

His eyes traced over the words, again and again, before a small droplet of water suddenly landed on the slightly crumpled paper.

Water?

He glanced upwards at the ceiling but found nothing, glancing back down at the paper.

Where was – oh.

He was… crying?

Him?

He, Bakugou Katsuki, was crying?

The weight of the situation suddenly slammed into him.

Katsuki squeezed his eyes shut. The feelings that accumulated during the day suddenly overwhelmed him, bursting out at once. The grief he felt for causing harm to Izuku, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. The deep-rooted regret he felt, down to his very bones at the damage that he had caused to his first friend. The one he knew now that was his only true friend. The one who had always been with him, through the years. The presence that had never faltered in his life.

Never faltered, until he pushed him too far, his mind whispered.

Katsuki let out a broken sob, before trampling down on his waterworks with sheer willpower alone.

He didn’t deserve to cry.

He pressed his face into his hands. His eyes felt hot, and his nose felt runny.

Katsuki wiped his hands to ensure they were free of tears and carefully placed the letter aside before heading to the bathroom to splash some water on his face in hopes of calming down.

The blonde spotted his reflection in the mirror.

His eyes were rimmed with red, and his eyelids were swollen, like he had just spent a long session crying. He looked dispirited and tired. He saw the faint beginnings of dark circles under his eyes.

He looked like one of those girls in the chick flicks that got dumped by their boyfriend.

Or their boyfriend died, whispered the voice in his head.

He felt tears well up again.

There are also those like me, who will never be able to receive any positive emotion from their love, who choose to end their life rather than suffer the pain of the contempt and hate from the other party.

Izuku’s words from the letter rang loudly in his mind.

Katsuki felt a surge of panic envelop him.

Would Izuku immediately try to commit suicide again if he woke up in the middle of the night?

Izuku would think that he still hated him, still despised and loathed him.

“No!” he panicked, hurriedly dressing himself. He had the sense of mind to grab his phone. The lesson from before was deeply imprinted on his soul.

Katsuki ran out of the house.

Katsuki ran out of the house.

Night had already descended. The fucking stars were twinkling condescendingly at him set in a pool of black.

Thankfully, the streetlamps were sufficient to guide him to his destination. Katsuki pushed himself to run harder. Izuku was still unconscious, but who knew when he would wake up?

If by any chance he woke up tonight while Katsuki wasn’t there, knowing Izuku, he would probably unhesitatingly hurt himself further and try to commit suicide again. The doctors just fixed him up! He couldn’t be allowed to undo all their hard work!

Katsuki felt his panic level raise a notch at that thought.

Izuku, he prayed, don’t do anything stupid.

Sweat was pooling in his palms at the thought that Izuku still thought he hated him.

He felt so fucking useless. He was completely and utterly useless in helping Izuku. He had no medical knowledge, and he had no reassurance that Izuku wouldn’t do anything stupid.

From what Izuku had written and implied about his Quirk, a certain amount of distance meant that he wouldn’t be able to feel his soul-bonded. That meant Izuku might think that Katsuki had left him all alone in the hospital, leaving him to his fate. Leaving him to his life or death without any regard.

If only he hadn’t left the damn hospital!

He shouldn’t have listened to his mother.

Katsuki rearranged his priorities immediately. He should have considered and accounted for every possibility. He’d make sure to do so from now onwards.

The hospital was like a burning beacon amidst the dim surroundings.

Katsuki panted from the exertion. He’d been pushing himself to run at breakneck speeds for the whole distance and hadn’t even realized it. As a future Pro-Hero, he should have been keeping track of his stamina consumption, but frankly, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind.

He quickly considered his options. There was no way the nurses would let him in again. Visiting hours are over. So, he had to dodge nurses, doctors and…janitors?

Katsuki hesitated, before recalling that Izuku’s room was conveniently located on the first floor. There was a window in the room, which couldn’t really be opened much, only the slightest amount.

The blonde teen circled around the hospital, finding the correct window that led to Izuku’s room. He glanced around cautiously, taking note that no one seemed to be around, nor was there a nurse in Izuku’s room. He was slightly frustrated that he couldn’t see Izuku from the window, but he pushed down the panic that threatened to surge up and instead narrowed his focus.

Plans rapidly flew through his mind. He quickly disposed of some of them, before deciding on his plan of action.

Katsuki scaled the wall, entering the second-floor window.

Inside, a middle-aged man was staring at him. He seemed slightly tense.

The man looked like a skeleton. That was the nicest way to put it. He looked practically skeletal in his thinness. He looked slightly depressed and tired, which caused faint feelings of empathy to well up within Katsuki. He knew how that felt, especially after today. He had spiky blonde hair, which was a shade that reminded him slightly of All Might, but Katsuki quickly pushed aside any thoughts that didn’t relate to The Plan.

“Just passing through,” said Katsuki, feeling the strangest need to give this literal stranger some comfort. “Ignore me.”

Katsuki quickly exited the room, leaving behind a baffled Toshinori Yagi.

The blonde darted to the edge of the hallway, making sure that no nurses or doctors were making their rounds.

He silently and vigilantly made his way down to Izuku’s room.

Katsuki breathed out a sigh of relief when he managed to get into Izuku’s room unmolested.

Relief mixed with disappointment crashed into him the moment he realized Izuku was still whole and further unharmed.

On one hand, he was happy Izuku hadn’t self-mutilated himself once again, but on the other hand, he was also disappointed that he hadn’t regained consciousness. He wasn’t quite sure what was worse.

Katsuki lowered himself into the seat he had vacated a few hours earlier. The chair was hard and cold.

He gently brushed his fingertips across Izuku’s hand.

Katsuki struggled with himself. His eyes flickered with hesitation. He wanted to hold Izuku’s hand to reassure himself, but he wasn’t sure if anything he did might aggravate Izuku’s wound.

In the end, he hesitantly hooked his index finger around Izuku’s. He instantly felt much steadier and calmer than before. Izuku didn’t feel as cold nor as clammy as he did before. His heart squeezed in relief.

Katsuki bit his lip, forcefully beating back the tears into his glands. He couldn’t afford to look away from Izuku. Who knows what stupid things he might do during his inattention.

Izuku, who had been so full of life before.

Izuku, who valiantly stood up to him when he had bullied other kids.

Izuku, who had a brilliant smile which felt like sunshine.

Izuku, whose tears had once caused him genuine distress.

Izuku, who bore the brunt of his hatred in the past couple of years.

Katsuki felt rubbed raw both emotionally and mentally. It felt like a giant open wound, oozing blood and pain. The misery and grief was slowly and steadily gathering with every passing thought.

He felt like Izuku had within a span of a day, singlehandedly tore down each brick that he had built to keep himself safe.

The bricks that were there to keep himself detached from Izuku.

Those very bricks were crumbling down.

Izuku had managed to worm his way into his heart once, but he’d done everything he could to try and keep him out, layering on the false feelings of scorn and despise.

Thinking back about it, he’d conveniently used the fact that Izuku had seemed to be Quirkless to justify himself and all his actions.

He wasn’t sure when, but the faked emotions had turned to genuine hatred.

Katsuki wondered if he would have continued down this road had Izuku not managed to knock some sense into him.

He let out a hollow laugh.

How much must it have hurt? Izuku, who had to constantly live with the thought that Katsuki would never love him? Would only ever harbour negative feelings for him?

Izuku had gone through each meeting with the feelings of hatred and despise, feeling them first-hand. He had been able to know just how genuine those feelings that Katsuki had held for him were. He couldn’t even give himself any denial that Katsuki was just pretending.

Katsuki couldn’t imagine the sheer agony that Izuku must have gone through.

At this moment, he still didn’t feel love for Izuku. But he would try. He could work on his feelings, but Izuku had to wake up first.

Katsuki had been forced to acknowledge that in his heart, he had still held emotions of friendship and goodwill towards Izuku.

“You better fucking take responsibility,” he muttered, a slight hitch in his voice.

He’d give anything to hear the words “Kacchan” from Izuku’s mouth again.

“Kacchan,” he heard.

“Kacchan,” he heard.

Katsuki almost gave himself whiplash as he looked towards Izuku, startled and hopeful at the same time. Izuku had regained consciousness.

However, he was bound to be disappointed. Izuku’s laid motionless on the bed, not a sign that anything had changed. He should’ve known better than to hope. Katsuki’s hand unwittingly clenched down on the bedsheet. Looks like he’d wanted to hear Izuku’s voice so badly that he’d hallucinated it.

Katsuki swallowed, feeling distressed.

“Please, Izuku,” he whispered, as if sharing a secret only between the two of them, “I’ll do anything for you to come back. I deserve to suffer for what you’ve gone through, but you must come back to me first. Please. Please, Izuku.”

The time seemed to pass by in a blur. It was silent. Muted. He felt like he had been transported back in time to Izuku’s apartment. Katsuki had always been prone to noise. His life was basically filled with sounds and explosions. Izuku’s noisy muttering in the classrooms, laughter and shouted words.

The silence rang loudly in his ear. It was deafening. It was so, so quiet. Katsuki latched onto the fact that he could hear Izuku’s steady breaths. He hated the silence more than ever, but he loved it at the same time.

He could still hear Izuku’s breathing, and he’d never been so relieved.

Katsuki felt like his soul was quiet. He felt chill and frost running through his veins. He felt like he was trapped in a dark void. It was consuming him. Devouring his thoughts, his emotions. Engulfing him in silence. The shadows of his heart were coming back to haunt him.

It taunted him.

The voice mocked him. Telling him what he could have done. Whispering the words, if only you’d been home quicker, if only you were a better person, if only, if only.

Katsuki felt like he was stuck. He was trapped in the never-ending loop of distress. The thoughts churned incessantly within his mind.

When he tried to distract himself with something else, he realized that the hospital room was just shades of white, and he fucking hated it.

Katsuki recalled that he’d once heard a person describe white as a shade, not a color, but he’d scoffed at them. To the him back then, white was obviously a fucking color, but who knew the day would come that he’d take back his words. He’d never experienced the feeling that only white could bring.

Some said white was the color of purity, of innocence. Maybe it was just him that felt this way. The shades of white felt like they were burning. It felt like it was scorching itself on his retina. Even the room was rejecting him. Was he so sure that Izuku wouldn’t as well? It felt like the room was asking him: How dare he blemish the innocence? How dare he press his black heart on the white of Izuku’s, marring it forever? Staining it black, black, black.

Looking at Izuku trapped in this white hell, Katsuki thought to himself that if he could, he’d whisk Izuku away, bring him back to comfort, to a life filled with color and joy. He’d give Izuku whatever he wanted and would stay by his side to right his wrongs.

A life without Izuku…he couldn’t imagine it, nor did he want to.

As he thought about a happier life, the darkness once again consumed him. It whispered about how he wasn’t worthy. Everything was his fault. Even if he wanted to, he didn’t have the right.

The thought felt like barbed wire on his heart. It dug in, causing pain, causing blood, causing wounds. He bled and wept silently. He was battered, damaged, and he deserved it. Barbed wire clung to his heart. The dark thoughts were never far away. The moment he tried to think of something else, sharp edges cut him, bled him.

There isn’t a day that it doesn’t hurt, Izuku had written. He wondered to himself if this is what it was like. If this could even compare a fraction to the hurt that Izuku had felt, had experienced. If this was his road to redemption, he would gladly take it.

Katsuki couldn’t rip his eyes away from Izuku. He traced over messy, green hair. Eyes that were shut closed, faint marks under his eyes. Pink lips that were barely parted, freckles on his cheekbones. Frail hands, delicate wrists, his body relaxed.

He suddenly thought that this was the most peaceful he had ever seen Izuku. In his presence, he always seemed to be cringing away, almost as if anticipating the blow, the hurt.

Katsuki felt the barbs around his heart squeeze a little tighter, leaving him breathless.

How much? How much have I hurt you?

Katsuki felt a scream build at the back of his throat.

He took a ragged breath and forced himself to keep breathing.

Each breath felt like a punishment, especially when he recalled that Izuku might have taken his last. He felt both better and worse. Punishment felt like repentance and solace at once.

Katsuki must have passed out without knowing, because the next thing he saw was the nurse looking at him disapprovingly.

He stared at her blearily, things weren’t making sense to him.

Suddenly, he felt something twitch against him.

Things snapped into clear focus.

Did he just imagine that?

Katsuki glanced at Izuku, both worried and hopeful. Had he felt Izuku’s fingers twitch, or was he just overthinking it again?

“Izuku?” he said hesitantly, “Izuku, can you hear me?”

He heard the nurse quickly leave the room, presumably to call the doctor.

There was no response.

No further twitches.

Nothing.

Had he just imagined it after all?

Katsuki felt despair overwhelm him.

Heaven and hell were next-door neighbours. He felt like he’d soared into the vast skies of heaven, only to be struck down mercilessly and plunge into the depths of hell.

He felt numb.

Katsuki fell back into the void of silence. He listened to the breaths Izuku took. He counted them.

Suddenly, he realized something that had been pinging at the back of his mind. Izuku’s breathing was slightly different from before.

He had felt that twitch. He wasn’t dreaming!

The relief gushed over him like a tsunami. It was unstoppable and unavoidable. It was as if a bright star had lit itself in the dark void he’d been in. It shone its light gently for all and none at the same time. It was far, yet it was near. So close, yet so far. It evaded him by the edge of his fingertips. It was tangible and intangible at the same time.

Wake up!

Izuku stared at the pretty ball that was radiating light in front of him. It was the only thing he was able to see in the darkness. It pulsed with a deep shade of crimson, reminding him of Kacchan. Moments before, he had been cold, cold, cold, but now he was warm.

Izuku felt like he spent countless hours staring at the ball of light, completely enchanted. The ball trembled, quivered, and radiated a warm heat, making him wonder if this would be what Kacchan would be like if he were to be represented by a ball of light.

The green-haired boy felt smitten, watching the calming pulses of the light. He almost felt like he was back with Kacchan, the feeling of love and affection that constantly permeated from the depths of his Soul.

The thought jolted him from his watching.

It reminded him of Kacchan?

Is this ball the manifestation of ‘Certain Death’? Am I dead? Or am I alive? Izuku thought doubtfully.

He didn’t know why he was trapped in this dark space. Shouldn’t he have either ascended to Heaven or descended to Hell? Fading to nothingness was what he thought would happen, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Izuku sat in the dark with only the ball resembling Kacchan as his friend. It shone a gentle red light, basking him in warmth and affection. He felt calm and soothed, like he was lying in his bed, under the covers.

If this ball was the result of his Quirk, did that mean that this was the manifestation of Kacchan’s Soul? In that case, that meant that whenever changes the ball experienced, was Kacchan experiencing some fluctuation of emotion?

Izuku still didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Could it be that through death, his Quirk had followed him? Izuku let out a hollow laugh. ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ indeed.

Suddenly, the light weakened, causing panic to flare up within him. Where are you going? Don’t leave!

The messy-haired boy resolutely pressed his hand towards the crimson ball of light, reaching out for it.

The emotions of guilt, sadness, regret, mixed along with hope slammed into him. Izuku gasped. The feelings were intense. Izuku felt the emotions pressing into him, confusing him. Were these Kacchan’s feelings?

The extra emotions were making it hard for him to think. He felt like he couldn’t form any cohesive thoughts. It was like a thick cloud had enveloped his thoughts, leaving him fumbling in the dark. The emotions were extremely overwhelming. They almost felt like his own. He felt like he was wading through quicksand. It was sinking him deeper and deeper into the emotions. He was being drawn in even thought he was putting up a fight.

He struggled. He tried containing the emotions. He tried pushing them out. In the end, he managed to erect a barrier within himself and the Manifestation of Kacchan’s Soul.

Izuku panted heavily, lying on the ground after his legs gave out. He’d ripped his hand away from Soul Manifestation earlier whilst trying to contain he emotions, but it hadn’t seemed to do much to decrease the intensity.

The feelings still sat on a thin layer across his skin, giving him access to the emotions, but they were less intense now. Less over-bearing.

Izuku laughed slightly, the fondness for Kacchan filling his entire being. Even Kacchan’s emotions reflected his personality perfectly. His face changed at the thought. Guilt? Sadness. Regret. Hope!

The teen struggled to his feet. He had to get out of here!

But…was he alive or dead?

If he was alive, he was probably unconscious, but if he was dead, was he just destined to remain here for eternity?

Izuku frowned, determination filling him. Kacchan was hurt. He couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. He had to at least try!

Izuku looked around him. There was nothing but darkness and oblivion. It was devoid of all things, both living and non-living. What greeted him was the void.

There was nothing there. It also seemed that trying to move away was impossible. He couldn’t leave the vicinity of five meters from Kacchan’s Soul. Izuku paused. There should be some way to return to consciousness through his link with Kacchan’s Soul.

Izuku pressed onto the Soul Manifestation with both hands this time. He was once again immediately assaulted with the feelings of guilt, sadness, hope, regret. He embraced the pulsing soul, letting go of his defences.

He sank into the feelings.

Darkness enveloped him. There was nothing in his sights. No more Soul Manifestation, no more colors, no more light. He was part of the void, and the void was him.

He felt feelings pressing insistently against his skin, a thin layer of concern, hope and guilt. Izuku felt both elated and guilty at the feelings. Were they for him? Were those feelings for him?

Izuku wished fervently for it to be so. He would take anything other than hate, contempt and despise. Wait, no. That wasn’t true, he thought, backtracking. He imagined Kacchan feeling nothing but indifference for him, and shivered, the cold permeating his bones.

His hand twitched a little at the thought, feeling distressed at the mere thought of Kacchan simply ignoring his existence. Haha, he’d rather go for another round of suicide if that was the case.

Izuku struggled against the invisible chains that seemed to bind him, restricting his movements. He felt a slight warmth against his index finger. What was that?

He almost felt like a stranger in his body. It was almost as if he didn’t have full control over his body, or was rusty, like he hadn’t used it for a long time. His breathing slightly sped up at the loss of control. He felt helpless and distressed. The feelings that were pressing against his skin didn’t help any matters. Despair and numbness mixed into one, influencing him.

Izuku struggled to open his eyelids. His eyelids fluttered as a piercing bright light blinded him in its intensity.

He opened his mouth to ask if they could turn off the lights, but only a weak rasping cough left his lungs.

Izuku tried again, his eyes watering from the light, blinking furiously.

As his vision cleared up, he spotted blonde hair in the vicinity.

He cleared his throat, saying in disbelief, “K-Kacchan…?”

Izuku broke out the waterworks. It wasn’t only because of the lights, but also the feelings that Kacchan and he were experiencing.

Relief, happiness, joy, and guilt, guilt, guilt.

The rush of positive emotions left him teary.

He was enveloped in warmth, a body temperature higher than other’s held close against his own.

Izuku realized that the body pressed against him was chanting his name.

“Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, Izuku…” the voice carried pure relief and guilt in spades.

xxx

“Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, Izuku…” the voice carried pure relief and guilt in spades.

Katsuki felt pure elation crash through his entire being, as well as the proportionate surge in guilt. Izuku had never felt as solid to him as he did then. When he was unconscious, Katsuki had felt like Izuku would just slip away from his grasp in a split second.

The moment Izuku had called his name, he had quite literally never heard a voice sound so sweet and soothing to his soul. It almost felt like the angels had descended from the heavens and taken root in Izuku.

Thinking about how he could have lost Izuku had he been even the slightest bit too late or hadn’t tried stem the flow of his blood loss, he felt the tears well up again.

He was so fucking relieved.

Katsuki could atone for his wrongs, as well as whatever else he had caused the leadup to this, but he wouldn’t have had the chance had Izuku never regained consciousness.

Katsuki felt the tears that he had been holding back spill over without any hope of repressing it again. He had tried to hold it back, but he wasn’t able to do it. Even though he still didn’t think he had the right to cry, his body had a mind of its own. His voice had gained a slightly wet quality due to his emotional state.

The angle of him leaning over Izuku whilst hugging him was uncomfortable, but it didn’t even register in comparison to how he had needed Izuku in his arms.

He choked off his words, burying his face in his friend’s hair. He didn’t want Izuku to see him like this.

Katsuki tried to hold back a sob, and ultimately failed. He drew in a ragged breath. His cheeks were wet. Tears were dripping down into Izuku’s hair. His eyes were stinging. His nose felt sour and blocked. He took solace in the fact that Izuku was in his arms. Izuku’s presence soothed him.

He felt Izuku push him away before sitting up and placing gentle hands on his face. His thumb brushed away the trail of tears from his cheeks.

“D-Don’t cry, Kacchan,” he heard. “If you cry, I’m going to—” Izuku broke off, tears welling up in his eyes.

Izuku broke down, partly influenced by Katsuki’s emotions.

The two of them cried in each other’s presence, not bothering with the fact that they were still in the hospital.

“You f-fucking idiot,” cursed Katsuki. “Of all things, why did you try suicide.” The tears that had been trailing off came back in full force.

Izuku let out a wet laugh, ignoring his question.

Katsuki grabbed his hand, and looked him in the eye, gripping it hard. “Don’t you dare do that again, you hear me?”

When Izuku didn’t respond, Katsuki felt a surge of panic and fear that Izuku wouldn’t respond with an agreement.

“Promise me,” he insisted.

Izuku closed his eyes, turning his head away.

“S-sorry, Kacchan. I can’t promise you that.”

Katsuki felt the panic growing stronger.

“Please. I’ll do anything you fucking want me to, but you have to promise me that you won’t try to take your life again.”

Izuku let out a sob, shaking his head. His hand clenched in the bedsheets below.

The arrival of the doctor interrupted them.

Katsuki waited outside sullenly, pressing his palms to his eyes, suppressing the tears. He needed to be in there with Izuku. The doctor hadn’t cared. He’d tried to protest, but when Izuku had told him to leave as well with a soft voice, he had complied unwillingly. Fucking bastard of a doctor, Katsuki thought uncharitably. He knew the man was just doing his job, but Katsuki couldn’t care less at this moment.

The moment the doctor exited the room, Katsuki immediately entered, feeling relieved when Izuku was still seated in the same position as before, not looking any different.

He knew that it was practically impossible for Izuku to disappear the moment he left his sight, but Katsuki couldn’t help how he felt. No matter what he told himself, there was still a lingering voice in the back of his mind that told him Izuku would just slip away silently.

“Izuku,” he said seriously. “Don’t avoid the fucking topic.”

The fact that Izuku said he couldn’t promise him meant that Izuku still had thoughts about ending it all. That was plainly unacceptable to him.

He honestly couldn’t feel reassured unless he got Izuku to promise him. Izuku always kept his word, no matter how hard it was.

When he received no response, Katsuki felt the tears that he had successfully stopped in the duration he was outside flow out again.

He grabbed Izuku’s hand, placing it on his chest. “You can feel my emotions, can’t you?” Katsuki paused. “You said so in your letter. Can’t you feel how I’m feeling right now?”

Izuku put some pressure into his fingertips, almost as if he could physically feel Katsuki’s emotions from his hand.

“Yes,” he whispered, voice low and unbelieving.

“Please believe me,” Katsuki said, pouring his emotions into these three words. “I will never do anything to hurt you again. Please, Izuku.”

When Izuku didn’t do anything but look away, Katsuki bit his lips. He felt raw. Izuku had been the only one to bring out such intense emotions from him even when he was young. What he was feeling now was several times more intense than the panic he had faced earlier.

Katsuki sat by him silently, until Izuku looked him in the eyes again. The other teen’s eyes were red-rimmed, and his cheeks were red. Tear stains were the only evidence anyone needed to make a conclusion on what had happened.

Katsuki mirrored Izuku’s earlier actions, brushing away the tears from Izuku’s freckled cheeks. He felt achingly desperate and protective over this small figure in the white hospital bed.

His heart ached.

The amount of pain he had caused, he could never make up for, but he could make a solemn promise to himself that he would try his best to give Izuku happiness.

Katsuki gave a self-deprecating laugh. Talk was cheap, but he would prove it with his actions, or his name wasn’t Bakugou Katsuki.

He narrowed his eyes in determination.

He would give Izuku happiness in life, even if he had to trade his.

Izuku watched Kacchan leave the room with his mother.

Mitsuki-san had hugged him in a vice-grip and scolded him severely for trying to take a permanent solution to his problems. He could sense her affection bleeding through her words. It was a very strange feeling. Although her words were harsh, she had been genuinely concerned for him. If he teared up a little during her scolding, it was because she was too harsh, that’s all.

Izuku never realized anyone in this world still cared for him, and her concern lit a warm fire within him. However, he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret anything.

He could feel Kacchan’s longing to stay with him, but he couldn’t in good conscience ask him to stay. It wouldn’t look good on his record. As far as he knew, Kacchan had a perfect attendance record. He’d never missed a day, even if he was sick.

That was how much being a Hero meant to Kacchan. Honestly. Despite Kacchan’s success at being a ‘bad boy’, somehow their peers never noticed that he attended every lesson without fail. Izuku smiled slightly. It was the little things that made Kacchan so endearing to him.

He wouldn’t allow himself of all people to mar the spotless record that Kacchan had successfully built. He wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he did. No matter how much he wanted Kacchan to stay, it didn’t hold a candle in the face of Kacchan’s future. His wants and desires don’t matter in the long run.

His sole purpose in life was to ensure that Kacchan would be happy in the future.

The lingering hug Kacchan gave left him tingly inside. He felt giddy. Kacchan’s sudden kindness left him breathless. It felt good. Really, really good.

The amount of worry and concern Kacchan was a layer of comfort on his skin. Izuku rubbed a hand up his arm, almost able to feel it physically. It made him shiver in a good way. He felt light and floaty. The difference in emotions Kacchan felt for him was very addicting.

He just hopes it lasts.

Izuku pressed a hand to his pounding heart. The sharp stab of pain from his wrist when he moved his hand reassured him that this wasn’t a dream. He wasn’t trapped in whatever dreamscape he had been in before. He buried his face in the pillow, smiling deliriously.

He thought about how gently Kacchan had treated him, feeling the rush of endorphins. He basked in Kacchan’s feelings before slowly descending from his high as Kacchan widened the distance between them, until he could no longer feel anything but his own emotions.

He hesitated as he felt nothing else. Izuku brushed a gentle thumb over his wrist, feeling unsatisfied by the slight pain. He pressed down harder on his stitches, telling himself this wasn’t a dream. Kacchan had changed, right? He wouldn’t just go back to hating him once he was over his shock, would he?

Izuku teared up at the thought.

He sucked in a breath, squeezing his eyes shut, willing the thought away. He would just go with the flow. Whatever Kacchan wanted, Izuku would be happy to give him. It didn’t seem like he still hated him at this moment, so Izuku would take whatever he could get, until Kacchan hated him again. Then, he would leave quietly.

Izuku suddenly gasped as a thought hit him, jerking up to a sitting position on the bed, dislodging the needle in the crook of his elbow, ripping the tape off and splattering blood on the floor.

Oh my god, he thought, I threw away all the pictures of Kacchan I have!

Izuku felt like slapping himself. He’d hardened his heart and threw them all away in the event that the police or whoever searched his home and found his many pictures of Kacchan and took that as evidence of his cause of suicide.

He panicked further, thinking about the explanation letter that was left on the table before calming down and feeling sheepish.

In any case, he hadn’t died yet, and the police couldn’t just go through his things without a search warrant.

He could just get more pictures of Kacchan. Perhaps this time, he would be next to him.

Izuku pulled the tube up from the floor, hooking the tube to the stand holding the blood bag in a way that stopped more blood from leaving out before leaving to inform the nurse about what had happened, not wanting the nurse to hurry here from the call button only to leave again after she knew what happened.

The green-haired teen wandered down the hallway, not encountering a single nurse. He frowned, before deciding to head up a floor in hopes of finding a nurse.

As he passed multiple doors, his frown deepened.

He was feeling…strange.

He didn’t know quite how to describe it. It almost felt like how he felt around Kacchan, but it was muted. Dull. It felt foggy. Sometimes he felt sharper emotions from certain doors.

The gears started turning in his head. It almost seemed like he was experiencing – he gasped as a heavy load of depression and loneliness slammed into him, causing him to stagger.

Izuku struggled to his feet. These emotions were strong, but they were nothing like how he felt when around Kacchan. This almost felt more like an intrusion. With Kacchan, it almost felt like he was experiencing the emotions himself. They were a part of him.

These emotions, however, he could clearly differentiate. He would never think that these emotions had stemmed from him. It felt detached, but at the same time it was present.

Izuku glanced at the nameplate on the door. Toshinori Yagi.

The emotions that the other was feeling were quite intense, especially if he compared it to the others he had felt on the way. Izuku almost instinctively wanted to deny what was happening, but something deep down whispered to him to go in.

He hesitated for some time outside the door, not sure if he should intrude or not. It wasn’t exactly polite. He didn’t know the other person, after all.

Something clicked in his mind. He was sure of it now. He was experiencing Empathy, almost like how he had imagined his ancestors before Quirks had become commonplace.

Izuku was confused. This had never happened before. What triggered the change?

He frowned, determined. In any case, he couldn’t just ignore the other now that he was aware of their pain.

He knocked on the door.

Katsuki felt like he was going insane.

Izuku, that stupid moronic idiot had been missing for ten months. TEN FUCKING MONTHS.

There hadn’t been a phone call, a letter, sms. Nothing. Fucking NOTHING.

Katsuki was equal parts worried and mad. However, the longer Izuku remained missing, the more his worry increased. There was only one thing that even eased his worries the slightest amount. He knew Izuku wasn’t planning on committing suicide again.

But still, he could’ve called or something. He just left him a single note that said, “I’ll be back, Kacchan.”

That was fucking it.

Just an “I’ll be back, Kacchan”. Then, he disappeared off the face of the fucking planet. Fucking fuck, Katsuki swore. He visited all the spots he knew Izuku frequented before, but there was no trace of him. His apartment also showed no signs of tampering, nor was there anything missing.

Just thinking about it increased his anger levels exponentially. He was so fucking worried he couldn’t even sleep properly at night. He’d spent so many sleepless nights his eyebags were practically as black as fucking night. Those fucktards at school even asked if he’d become an insomniac. Fucking extras.

It rankled that no one even gave a thought about Izuku disappearing. He’d never realized how little friends Izuku had. Was he truly the only friend he had? Tears pricked Katsuki’s eyes. No wonder he’d been willing to put up with him, no matter how badly Katsuki had treated him. No wonder he always came back, never leaving. No wonder he’d fucking resorted to suicide.

Dammit, he swore he would at least punch Izuku once for causing him to worry this much. Katsuki felt bitter. Who was he kidding? No, he wouldn’t. No matter what he said now in his fit of anger, he knew he couldn’t bear to hurt the other again, not after what he’s already done, not after all the hurt Izuku’s been through.

He was worrying himself out of his goddamn mind, and that idiot Izuku was doing god knows what out there.

Katsuki had applied to UA, like how he’d always boasted before, but his heart wasn’t really in it. How could it be, when he didn’t even know how Izuku was passing his days? Know how he was feeling, how he was faring?

He trudged to the UA Entrance Exam in low spirits.

Being a Hero had always been his dream, but now that he was on the verge of taking steps in the right direction, it felt like something was missing. It felt like a hollow victory.

Ten months ago, before Izuku’s suicide attempt, he’d imagined that Izuku would be next to him when the time come, annoying him with his timidity and muttering, not giving up despite being Quirkless. After his suicide attempt, Katsuki thought to himself that he would support Izuku no matter what he wanted to do. If he wanted to be a Hero, Katsuki would do his best to support him no matter what happened. Now that Izuku was gone, he felt out of sorts. It felt like half of him was missing. He felt incomplete. Shattered. Broken.

He’d never realized how his life seemed to revolve so much around Izuku and his presence. A single day without him had already driven to the edge of madness, more to say about being missing for a full ten months. That nerd had slipped through his defences without him noticing, inserting his presence into his life so deeply that there was no way he could recover.

He was ruined for life, and Izuku had better fucking take responsibility, or he would never forgive him.

Katuski frowned, wondering to himself if this was how friends felt for each other. If he thought about it, how he reacted was rather extreme, wasn’t it?

He’d seen friends get separated before, but the way they acted didn’t seem to hold a candle in the face of his intense emotions. Or were they just better at hiding it?

He couldn’t quite make any connections, considering Izuku was his only true friend. If he had another friend, would he also react the same way?

Katsuki’s frown deepened. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, telling himself to ponder over it later. It probably wasn’t important anyway. So what if he felt like crying every time he looked at Izuku’s empty seat. He was sure other people would react the same way if they had a friend that had almost died, then realized he’d gone missing.

His feelings were just generally more intense than other people anyway. Everyone else was dull and monotone. Even when they were angry, many of them just seemed to take it lying down, unlike him. He wasn’t sure if they just didn’t have the guts or just weren’t angry enough, but Katsuki had never claimed to understand people, and he didn’t want to.

They didn’t have significance in his life, not like Izuku. He wanted to pry Izuku’s mind apart and understand him. He wanted to know what made the other tick. Somehow, his reactions were interesting, unlike the rest of the extras. He wanted to categorize every reaction Izuku had and imprint it in his memories.

He wasn’t sure if that just made Izuku special.

The old hag loved Izuku to bits and pieces. He’d seen the way she reacted to his close call. He’d seen the red-rimmed eyes when Izuku disappeared. He’d heard the quiet crying from the bathroom door. She didn’t seem to realize that things echoed in the bathroom.

Even his old man had seemed rather quiet in the current months. Izuku had wormed his way into his family. No. Their family. There was no way that Izuku was anything other than family.

Katsuki made his way into the hall with his hands in his pockets.

The hall was filled with a million UA hopefuls. Katsuki felt stifled. There was so many fucking people, and they were all crowding. At least no one else had any personal space in here, so he better suck it up. He’d come this far now.

Even if Izuku wasn’t here, he would represent him in his stead. He would carry the ambitions for the two of them. He felt a pang of loneliness at the thought. He missed Izuku. He missed his cute freckles, his messy green hair, his wide green eyes, red cheeks – he slapped himself mentally, scowling.

He’d fallen low to be mentally waxing poetic about Izuku’s looks. But he missed seeing his smile – he slapped himself again.

Katsuki sat down heavily on his seat, glaring down at his feet, re-evaluating his life choices.

He felt the presence of another person sitting beside him, shooting his annoyance levels through the roof. That seat should’ve been for Izuku, not this random fucking extra – oh.

He felt the presence of another person sitting beside him, shooting his annoyance levels through the roof. That seat should’ve been for Izuku, not this random fucking extra – oh.

His mind stalled for a moment before he realized the person sitting beside him wasn’t just another random extra, but the person he had been desperately looking for in the past ten months.

Katsuki drank in the other’s features, taking in his perpetually messy green hair and his fucking adorable freckles that were like the many stars set in the night sky, his green eyes and holy shit. Izuku had buffed up while he was away, and he looked nice. Really nice. He carried himself in a more self-assured way, and that newfound confidence just made him look more attractive to Katsuki.

“Hi Kacchan,” he said shyly, lightly biting his bottom lip.

As Katsuki’s eyes locked onto Izuku’s lips, something in Katsuki’s mind snapped. Before he could process anything else, he surged forward in a sudden motion, his body having a mind of its own. He must’ve startled Izuku, because he flinched backwards, but he wasn’t having any of that, no. Stupid Izuku better stay there, or else. He hooked a hand around the other’s neck, dragging his face closer.

Katsuki resolutely pressed his lips to his stupid nerd’s desperately the moment he was close enough, categorizing in the back of his mind how soft Izuku’s lips were. They felt like finely spun silk. Izuku’s lips felt like a hot branding iron on his. He was too busy with his sudden revelation to feel embarrassed about the low-pitched whine in the back of his throat that he was unable to stifle.

So. He liked Izuku. It suddenly made sense now. He had been fucking pining over the other in his ten months away. How had he never fucking put this together before? Something poked him mentally. He reviewed the last ten months, as well as his…feelings. Okay, so. He had seen a bunch of crushes first hand, and he was pretty sure there was absolutely no fucking way his feelings were as shallow as that.

So, he was in love. With Izuku. With his fucking shitnerd. To the most fucking adorable boy in fucking ever. Well. He was now buff and adorable. Good thing he knew Izuku loved him back.

Affection and relief bubbled up within him, sending shivers down his spine. He heard a distant squeak but ignored it in the face of getting more. He felt a single arm wrap around his waist, dragging him nearer effortlessly.

It sent a shudder through him. Oh god, did Izuku just…? Since when was his nerd that strong? Was it weird that it left him strangely hot?

Katsuki ran hands up Izuku’s stomach, groaning lightly at the abs the other had apparently gotten in the time he was away. They were toned and hard. Izuku was no longer the same seemingly frail figure he was before. There was strength in his frame, power in his newly acquired muscles.

He gasped when he felt a hand squeeze his waist, and another hand holding his head in place. He felt strangely giddy. Katsuki shivered, pressing closer to the warmth, mouthing against Izuku’s lips. He felt so warm and at peace in this moment. It felt like all his thoughts and troubles just melted away.

Then, of course, someone had to interrupt them.

“– and you two over there! Can you stop your PDA? It’s disrespectful!”

Katsuki felt the rage bubble up and being interrupted before the words made sense to him.

Oh my god. What the fuck had he just done?!

Katsuki broke away from Izuku’s grasp, face burning red.

He buried his face in his hands, not wanting anyone to see his red face, desperately trying to suppress the embarrassment he felt.

He’d forgotten he was in a room full of people. Possible future classmates and teachers alike, no less.

Katsuki managed to get the redness to recede from his cheeks, looking up and trying to appear as unaffected as he usually was.

He snuck a peak at Izuku, and the heat that had barely died down instantly flared back up. He felt breathless.

Izuku looked like he wanted to devour him whole. His eyes were roaming all over him, almost like he couldn’t get enough. He looked hungry, and Katsuki felt something inside him squirm in glee.

Katsuki looked away from him, cheeks tinting red again.

For fucks sake, they completely skipped the steps of confession, dating, kiss, and had just jumped straight to the kiss.

He ruffled his hair in frustration. He had just realized he was in love with Izuku a few minutes ago, damn it. Well, admittedly, it was partially his fault, but it was also Izuku’s fault, okay. Sitting there looking all innocent, like nothing was wrong.

Then, then…!

Katsuki cut off further thoughts as they were split up into groups to do the entrance exam to UA. He couldn’t afford to be distracted now. He would drag Izuku home with him, if it was the last thing he did.

He took out his embarrassment on as many fucking robots as he could, blasting them into pieces. He was still burning with embarrassment from the earlier wolf-whistles and catcalls.

Katsuki paused the moment there were no more enemies in the vicinity. Come to think of it, why the fuck was he being embarrassed?

The fucking dickbags now knew he and Izuku were together, so they better not have any fucking ideas. The thought left him smug.

He crossed his arms and leaned on the wall, waiting by the exit for Izuku’s group to finish their entrance exam. As more and more people trickled out from the exit, he frowned at the lack of Izuku.

Where was he?

Katsuki stormed in, the people who were exiting moving out of his way due to the obvious rage on his face.

He was shocked as he spotted Izuku’s prone form on the stretcher being carried away. An irrational worry hit him as he had a flashback of Izuku’s pale face in the bathtub. He suppressed it. He wasn’t dead, obviously, otherwise the people exiting wouldn’t have been that calm.

“Izuku!”

Katsuki ran towards Izuku’s unconscious form, feeling breathless with panic and worry. What happened? It was just a fucking entrance exam. How could he have gotten so hurt?

He bit his lips. Then again, Izuku might have a Quirk, but it wasn’t very useful in battle the last time he checked.

He followed behind, restraining the urge to go up to Izuku and check him. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. What if he made it worse?

They brought Izuku to a medical office and placed him on the bed. Katsuki felt relieved as he spotted Recovery Girl.

She would be able to help Izuku.

Katsuki’s eye twitched as he watched Recovery Girl plant a kiss on Izuku’s forehead. He pushed down the irrational snarl that wanted to leave his lips, inwardly sulking. She was helping Izuku with her Quirk, he told himself.

He moved to Izuku’s bedside the moment Recovery Girl left, looking over his form worriedly.

“Izuku?” he called out.

“Izuku?” he called out.

Izuku’s eyelids fluttered a little, but the rest of him remained motionless.

Katsuki sighed inwardly, the worry in his heart subsiding a little. He wasn’t sure if he was happy that Izuku was unconscious again or not. On one hand, he wouldn’t be able to feel the pain of his healing. On the other hand, seeing him like this surrounded by white walls and the white bed reminded him all too much of his prone form months prior.

They let him bring Izuku back home on the premises that Izuku was his childhood friend.

The UA staff gave them a ride back to his house, bringing them all the way back to his front door. Don’t think he didn’t know that they were making sure he really was Izuku’s friend, even knocking on the door to greet his mother.

He knew what they were doing, and he was partially grateful, as well as really fucking pissed. Did they really think he would just abduct another teenager in broad daylight? At the fucking Hero Academy Entrance Exam no less. Idiots.

Katsuki snorted and entered the house without giving a second glance to the lady behind him, carefully cradling his soon-to-be boyfriend, trudging up the stairs to his room.

He looked down at the green-haired teen that was still in the grips of unconsciousness. Picking up Izuku had been a shock. He was a lot heavier than he had been ten months ago. He looked the part too.

He’d struggled slightly back in the medical room, picking up Izuku, before he got used to the weight. Katsuki refused to allow anyone else to take care of Izuku when he knew he could do it perfectly fine himself. As if he would allow someone else to cop a feel, he thought to himself.

His new muscles didn’t look very pronounced while he had his clothes on, but Katsuki could still tell, considering how much thinner Izuku had been ten months ago. He filled out his uniform now, when instead it had been rather loose before. Katsuki had caught sight of the way the uniform sleeve had stretched during some of Izuku’s movements.

Katsuki blushed, pushing away the thoughts, feeling slightly guilty he was ogling Izuku while he was still unconscious.

He shifted his weight, opening the door. Katsuki toed off the blanket on his bed before placing Izuku down gently onto the mattress.

His arms twinged slightly, not used to carrying that much weight. He looked at Izuku, feeling worry that he was still unconscious and not waking up.

Katsuki sat down on the edge of the bed, pressing down the worry, reassuring himself that Izuku was fine. He was fine, not hurt anymore, and wasn’t in any grave or mortal danger, so he should calm the fuck down and not continue worrying like a fucking plebeian, okay?!

The blonde teen scowled and ruffled his hair furiously. He clearly knew that Izuku was already fine, why the fuck was he still dawdling like this over the fact that Izuku had been hurt slightly? It hadn’t looked that bad, honestly, and Recovery Girl told him that he’d just overworked himself, with just a couple of broken bones that had been fixed already.

Katsuki grit his teeth, feeling the irrational irritation bubble up. Why was he feeling this way?

In the midst of his anger and worry, he felt a slight tug on his shirt. He whipped around, losing his balance in the process. He sat down heavily on the floor, eyes shooting to Izuku’s face.

“Izuku?”

He felt strangely reassured at the slurred “Kacchan” that emerged from Izuku’s lips. When Izuku’s eyes slipped close again, he felt a brief flare of panic before he realized he was just sleeping.

Katsuki huffed, brushing fingertips down Izuku’s slack face. He snatched his hand away, feeling mortified at his actions.

Well, what the fuck ever. At least there was no one around.

He was suddenly hit hard with the urge to protect this existence slumbering in his bed. His hands itched to keep Izuku safe from the outside world, and any moronic Villians, so he did what any other sane person would have done.

He grabbed the thick winter blanket that he’d tossed aside earlier, feeling somewhat pleased with the weight. He’d complained when the old hag bought it, saying it would keep him warm, when she obviously knew that with his body temperature he could probably go running naked in the snow, and he’d never catch a chill, but now he couldn’t be more pleased.

He only kept it because it was the same color as Izuku’s hair, and she probably knew it. Devious old hag.

He bundled Izuku up, rolling him into the blanket. The green-haired teen didn’t even stir at his actions, deeply asleep.

Katuski got onto the bed, feeling oddly reassured and pleased. He tugged the bundle of green closer to him, pressing against the comforter. Izuku smelled like a mix of mint and rain, cool and refreshing. He nuzzled Izuku’s hair, throwing a hand over the thick bundle.

Having Izuku in his arms again was like a balm to his soul. It washed away the stress and worry that had been haunting him since that day ten months ago. He felt like the world had slowed to a stop, and he didn’t mind at all. It gave him a strange feeling. He wasn’t sure what to call it, but he liked it.

He thought about how he spontaneously had his first kiss with Izuku in front of a whole crowd of people. He thought about how soft the other’s lips were, how much stronger he had become, both physically and mentally. Katsuki’s face burned red. So fucking embarrassing, but at least no one would try to put their hands on Izuku.

He buried his hot cheeks on the soft green, taking solace in Izuku’s presence. As he breathed in Izuku’s natural scent, his eyelids grew heavier. He struggled against them, wanting to continue basking in the feeling, but months of sleepless nights had left him fatigued. His thoughts grew increasingly sluggish.

He’d protect Izuku no matter what.

His breathing evened out.

Izuku woke up feeling sore and hot. He felt like he was sweltering under the blazing sun on a hot summer day. He also felt like he went a few rounds with All Might and lost horribly. He tried to roll over, but he was stopped by some kind of external force.

His thought processes went through things slowly, disjointed and unconnected in his mind. His brain was still sluggish from excessive sleep. He was slightly puzzled. He had never been the kind of person to oversleep, so what…?

Izuku wriggled a little, trying to make sense of what was happening. He struggled to open his eyes. The teen expected for his vision to focus and give him an idea of what was happening, but he only saw a blurred mass of green.

What.

His brain took this as a cue to wake up. Then, a part of his brain jumped to conclusions and immediately screamed that he’d gone blind. His panic levels spiked, but before he could descend further into panic, another part of his brain rationalized that was impossible. Who’d ever heard of someone going blind and only seeing green?

He craned his neck, trying to see if he could somehow get free of whatever was holding him. What was happening? The last he remembered was saving that girl from the UA Entrance Exams. What could possibly have led up to this?

Izuku froze when he realized he could hear deep, heavy breaths. The entire time, he hadn’t realized there was another person in the room. In fact, the breathing sounded suspiciously close. It was quite loud, even. He frowned, realizing how short-sighted he had been. Had he already grown dependent on his Quirk?

Based on the loudness of the breathing as well as the direction… the person was… behind him?! Wait. The breathing was deep and spaced out. The other person was sleeping!

Izuku’s struggles subtly increased. He was tempted to use his Quirk to get free, but would that be overkill? He wriggled his body in an imitation of an earthworm, then tried some moves he saw a tantrum-throwing toddler pull off. After a moment of struggling, he felt a brief sense of vertigo before he hit the… ground?

He winced a little at the dull pain that spread through his body, his breathing stopping. He hoped that person didn’t wake up from the sounds he was making. The breathing had a little hitch before evening out. Izuku let out a silent sigh of relief.

Whatever was binding him felt looser now.

What was happening??

Izuku felt the faint stirrings of something. He felt like he was on the cusp of reaching a great revelation. He was almost there, but not quite yet.

The green-haired teen rolled linearly in the direction away from the breathing, trying to put as much distance between the two of them as possible.

To his great delight, whatever was binding him seemed like it was unravelling himself. Yessss, he hissed in the confines of his mind.

His vision returned to him. Izuku blinked his eyes rapidly as they watered, unused to the bright light.

This room looked familiar. Where had he…?

Oh.

This.

This was Kacchan’s room, wasn’t it?

Izuku wriggled free from the last of his bindings. He sat up and looked at what was trapping him. It was a fluffy green comforter. The shade sort of reminded him of his hair.

Izuku was baffled. What was going on??

He glanced in the direction he woke up.

On the same bed that he’d seen even in his dreams for years and years, Kacchan lay, his features held in sleep. His blonde hair looked like spun silk. He looked peaceful, like he seldom was in awakening.

Izuku traced Kacchan’s features, drinking in every detail. He frowned when he noticed the dark purple under Kacchan’s eyes. That hadn’t been there ten months ago. What had happened in the time he was away?

Was someone making trouble for Kacchan? Did some of their schoolmates shift their bullying to Kacchan?

He felt the slow-stirrings of rage build up within him, just as worry and concern bubbled up. What had Kacchan gone through in the time he was gone?

Did someone dare?

Something rang false in his mind about this.

Izuku ran through things in his head. Kacchan wasn’t the type to allow himself to be bullied. He also wasn’t the type to lose sleep over it even if it did happen. He would curb stomp them into the ground for even entertaining the thought that they could get one over him.

So, what…? Izuku’s brows furrowed. Across the room, Kacchan’s features reflected his.

Kacchan’s hand twitched in the empty space, seemingly looking for something. Izuku crawled nearer to him, stopping near the bedframe.

Izuku smiled, watching Kacchan’s sleeping face. He’d missed him during these ten months. He’d thought of him every time his training got hard, every time he faced a difficulty. He’d thought of Kacchan before he fell asleep and saw him in his dreams.

Not being able to feel Kacchan’s feelings was something that had deeply disturbed him. It felt like part of his Soul was missing. It was almost like a person who had fully functioning limbs suddenly finding himself missing one. It was unbalancing. Disconcerting.

They say, ignorance is bliss, and Izuku had to concur.

He had been dangerously dependent on being able to feel Kacchan’s feelings. In the absence of all feelings, even having the rage, disgust and contempt that Kacchan had for him was better than this void of feelings.

Of course, he could now feel other people’s feelings, but it felt unnatural. Strange. He could always tell the difference. He would never be able to mistake their feelings for being one of Kacchan’s.

He placed his hand within Kacchan’s, and the blonde teen settled down. Kacchan’s fingers curled lightly around his own, his features smoothening out.

Izuku felt a guilty thrill. The fact that he, Izuku, Useless Deku, could somehow bring even a little bit of peace to Kacchan made him deliriously happy.

The green-haired teen rested his cheek on his arm, looking at Kacchan in the throes of sleep. He could feel light, fleeting emotions from Kacchan. They were muted, but they stood out like a beacon to him.

He hoped Kacchan was having a happy dream. He didn’t look like he had much sleep recently. Izuku would have to help him some way.

Izuku’s lips curled into a guilty smile.

He’d been sick since he was three, and he’d only gotten worse from that point on.

Addiction, obsession. Call it what you will, but Izuku had never once regretted anything.

He thought about the kiss they shared in front of so many people. He went pink in shyness. He thought about the feelings Kacchan experienced in that brief duration. Izuku felt tears well up.

“You’re so cruel, Kacchan,” he whispered, burying his tears on his arm. He squeezed Kacchan’s fingers lightly before letting them go back to the loose state they were in before.

There was no way Kacchan had changed so suddenly in the ten months he’d been gone. It was some sort of shock he’d received that caused him to react that way.

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut, more tears leaking out unintentionally.

He was sick, and he loved it.

He loved it and hated it.

He breathed, and he ached.

A brief taste of heaven, before it would all be ripped away.

How much crueller could he be?

He craved Kacchan’s love, but he would never have it.

Katsuki awoke slowly. He groaned and rolled over. He opened his eyes, then immediately shut it due to the bright light. His thought processes were all muddled. This was quite a rare experience. Months of sleepless nights had left its toll on him. He could tell that his reflexes were slowing down, but what could he do?

Sleeping pills? Haha, don’t fuck with him. What kind of Hero would take fucking sleeping pills? It wasn’t just dangerous, that was practically flirting with death, understand? Taking some sort of fucked up sleeping pills that could hold him deep in slumber without chance of waking up? Like he would ever be that desperate. He would just tough it out. How fucking bad could it be? It’s not like it can get any worse, anyhow.

His hand reached out for something, his mind didn’t quite process what. He knew he was looking for something, but he couldn’t quite remember what he was looking for. All he knew was that it was supposed to be right here, and it wasn’t.

Where was it?

Katsuki’s hand thumped on the mattress. He furrowed his brows. There was nothing there. What was he looking for again?

The blonde teen burrowed his face into the pillow, trying to block out the bright light. His mind slowly trying to recall what he was looking for, akin to rusty old gears turning.

Then, it hit him like a Quirk from the blue.

Izuku!

His eyes shot open. Katsuki looked around frantically. He was right here before he slept, so how could he have disappeared in such a short amount of time?

Before his panic could build much further, his eyes landed on a sleeping form.

Izuku was leaning on the mattress, seated on the floor. All that could be seen of him was his mass of dark green curls, his face buried in his arms. He was breathing gently, and so softly that Katsuki couldn’t hear a sound.

Katsuki inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

He looked at his childhood friend, who had evidently somehow gotten out of his secure wrappings, as well as from his arms without waking him, or even stirring him. The green blanket was strangely spread out on the floor, and Katsuki couldn’t quite put his finger on why it was registering as strange to him.

He shoved the errant thought to the back of his mind. It was probably nothing. He scowled, pushing down the urge to wrap the mossy-haired teen up in the blanket again. He refused to be embarrassed about the way he acted.

Izuku evidently needs to be protected, alright? Just look at the goddamn mess he’d gotten himself into on the first day he comes back. Fucking broken bones. Not cracked, or even fractured. Fucking broken bones, for fucks sake. It was the first day! The first day.

Just what was Izuku trying to do to him? He felt like he was about to have a heart attack thinking about the months he’d been away.

The blonde teen stared at the slumbering teen on the edge of his bed, trying to ascertain if he still had any lingering injuries. He shouldn’t, since he’d gotten treated by recovery girl, but who knew? Sometimes Quirks didn’t work as they were supposed to.

He couldn’t spot any injuries as far as the surface was concerned, but he wouldn’t be able to confirm that Izuku was completely fine until he woke up. There was a reason why he’d wrapped him up in that blanket, after all.

The longer he stared at Izuku’s prone form, the more the guilt felt like waves crashing on the beach. It felt like the tide was coming in, bringing the guilt along the shores of the beach, filling up his entire being. Izuku had gone for it recklessly in his UA entrance exam. Was this his fault? Was this a result of his earlier actions? Did Izuku still have such little regard for his life that he would rather throw it away in a fucking entrance exam?

He’d never been able to clarify things further with Izuku before he left the hospital so abruptly. He hadn’t been able to clearly tell Izuku that he didn’t hate him. During these last ten months, he’d been sleepless due to guilt, worry and concern.

It felt like a hand was clenching itself hard around his heart. The thought that Izuku might have gone the past ten months thinking that he still hated him, that he might have acted differently because of the spur of the moment, left him feeling cold and helpless.

Katsuki bit his lips, then bit his tongue. He hadn’t cried in ten months, and he wasn’t going to cry now dammit. He felt a stab of pain, and tasted metal.

The blonde winced slightly, prodding the roof with this tongue to see how bad it was. It wasn’t that painful, so it couldn’t be that bad.

Then, the universe being the huge jackass it was, would choose for this moment to be the one where Izuku started waking up, at the exact the moment his guilt was at the highest point. It was probably because of his fluctuating but intense emotions, if what Izuku had implied in his letter about his Quirk was true. Distance was certainly playing a part at this moment.

Katsuki hastily tried to shove the heavy feelings of guilt back down the black abyss of his mind. He didn’t need Izuku knowing just how much guilt he felt about his past actions. He would’ve given anything to go back in time to slap some sense into his past self to prevent this from ever happening.

Bleary emerald eyes met burning red.

The two teens stared at each other, neither talking, both not quite sure what to say.

Then, of course, Izuku just had to break into tears.

Something short-circuited in Katsuki’s brain at seeing Izuku’s tears. The panic came back in full force.

The silently panicking blonde stared at Izuku’s face, suddenly at a loss of what to do. He reached out to Izuku with both hands, but then stopped. He didn’t know if his actions would be welcomed, so his hands just hovered uselessly. He didn’t know where to put them, or if he even had a right to do so.

“K-Kac-cchan,” Izuku hiccupped out, his voice thick with tears.

Katsuki silently said fuck it in his mind, and enclosed his arms around Izuku, pulling him close with great effort.

He pressed Izuku’s face to the crook of his neck, letting him cry everything out. Izuku’s tears immediately wet his shirt, making little hiccups as he tried to hold back the waterworks.

Katsuki felt another squeeze on his heart, feeling helpless and so fucking guilty.

Izuku pressed his head harder into his neck, almost like he was trying to burrow as close as he possibly could, and Katsuki’s heart involuntarily jumped. It felt like his heart was trying to make its way out of his chest. The blood was rushing in his ears. His heartbeat was thundering.

The blonde teen squeezed the other in a hug, unconsciously mimicking the squeezing of his heart.

His heart was filled with sweet, honeyed affection, along with the bitter taste of guilt, making him feel bittersweet. The guilt never left, never strayed. He was sure that it would be a lifelong companion, just as he hoped his newly budding love would be.

He damn well knew he deserved none of this, but he was so fucking selfish, and if Izuku said that his Quirk wouldn’t allow him to be with anyone else, then Katsuki was going to take as much advantage for as long as he could.

Izuku had tried to end his life prematurely, and Katsuki would have none of that from now on. The blonde felt a stab of pain at the mere thought. He’d had plenty of sleepless nights thinking back about that day. He’d fucking make sure this silly idiot would be kept safe, be it from himself or anyone else.

He’d devote his heart and soul to Izuku, and no one else, this he swore.

When Izuku’s tears started to die down, Katsuki could secretly breath the faintest sighs of relief. The green-haired teen’s crying had left him feeling… flustered? People cried in his presence (who do you think he was?) but usually he was the one who provoked it. This time, he hadn’t done anything! Well…as far as he could tell, anyway.

Izuku tried hard to hold in his sniffles, already feeling somewhat embarrassed. He hadn’t meant to break out into tears so suddenly, but the feeling of Kacchan’s intense guilt and panic hadn’t helped him any.

“Listen up,” Katsuki said demandingly, immediately recapturing Izuku’s wandering attention. He pressed his head onto Izuku’s fluffy hair.

Izuku’s heart started thumping hard, his stomach doing little somersaults without his permission. It felt like his heart had made its way into his throat. He couldn’t get any words out. Kacchan felt unnaturally still, both emotionally and physically. What was he going to say? Did he get sick of Izuku already? Did he regret everything that happened at UA?? He must have, oh god. Sure, he’d acted a little presumptuously back then, but – but. He’d already realized what a mistake he’d made? Did he just wish Izuku had died back then?

The deeply hidden emotions in Izuku shook, rushing to the forefront of his thoughts. Every little insignificant insecurity, every trifling negative emotion gushed out from the hidden little box he’d locked them away in. He didn’t think he could go through all that again. He didn’t think he was strong enough – oh god. He –

The panicking teen had his whirling thoughts screeched to a halt as he felt a warmth on his lips. What…? Oh. Oh. Kacchan. Kacchan was kissing him. Izuku. Not anyone else, but him. Izuku melted.

“Breathe, idiot.”

Izuku had never heard the term ‘idiot’ used so affectionately from Kacchan. He felt like a mixture of exasperation and fondness. It felt surprisingly good.

Breathe?

The green-haired teen sucked in a breath inadvertently at the thought, his lips breaking from Kacchan’s. The oxygen that rushed into his lungs made him feel light-headed. He gasped, the unconscious action of breathing finally occurring to his brain. Izuku’s chest heaved at as he took in the oxygen that he’d been denying his lungs unconsciously.

Katsuki snorted, burying his head into the crook of Izuku’s neck. He felt both guilty and the slightest bits of gratification that he could affect the other teen that much. He’d already known, considering Izuku’s letter, but it was nice that he could experience it first-hand.

“Don’t fucking do that anymore, understand?”

Izuku’s heart dropped to his stomach. Kacchan felt like a mix of anger and concern. Did Kacchan kiss him just to ask him not to kiss him anymore? Did he just kiss him as the fastest way of getting him to breathe? Did he not want to do that at all? Was he just taking his feelings into account and –

Kacchan frowned at the silence that greeted him. Why wasn’t Izuku responding? He heard the other teen’s breathing falter again. The blonde shot up in alarm, not sure what had set the other off this time.

“Hey,” he said forcefully. Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s hand and squeezed it. “Breathe, okay?”

When he saw Izuku nod and resume breathing, he let his concern simmer down slightly.

“What was it that I said that made you stop breathing?”

Izuku bit his tongue, hesitantly asking, “Kacchan, did you kiss me just so that I would breathe again?”

The “yes” that he heard caused his heart to shatter into a million fragile pieces. He pressed his hand to his heart, not at all welcoming to the familiar feeling. Izuku had delusionally let himself think that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have to feel this way anymore, but evidently it wasn’t going to happen.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, trying to ignore the crushing emotions.

“Did you hear me? You aren’t allowed to recklessly throw yourself into dangerous situations anymore, understand?”

Katsuki furrowed his brows. Izuku hadn’t replied to his earlier statement, so he had to reinforce it.

Izuku felt his brain short-circuit for the third time for the day. What. “Wait, so... You weren’t talking about kissing me? You mean you’re just concerned about me in danger? Not that you didn’t want to kiss me anymore?”

“What?” said Katsuki, befuddled how Izuku’s thought process went in that direction. “No, idiot. We’re obviously going to be kissing a lot. So, you better stop running headfirst into danger, got it? You obviously have these masochistic tendencies or something. You practically charging full speed into danger and –”

Izuku started blanking out, ignoring how hypocritical Kacchan was for the time being. He felt his shattered heart start to tentatively glue itself back together piece by piece.

“So, you love me?” Izuku blurted out, cutting Kacchan off.

The explosion of embarrassment and shyness of Kacchan’s feelings was enough answer for Izuku. He watched the blonde teen’s face immediately start turning red, a strange sense of disbelief washing over him.

“Shut up!” muttered Katsuki, feeling embarrassed from Izuku’s blatant staring. He used his free hand to block the other’s sight, not able to take the embarrassment much longer.

“Argh.” Katsuki wanted to ruffle his hair, but he didn’t want to let go of Izuku’s hand, and he also didn’t want him to keep looking at his flushed face. It was already bad enough that he could feel his emotions but letting Izuku look directly at his red face was just beyond his coping capacity.

“I’m only going to say it once, okay! I don’t know if this is love, but. I –” Katsuki felt his face flush further. Why was it so goddamn hard to get three little words out?

Dammit, he could do it. He would do it. He was Bakugou fucking Katsuki.

Katsuki took a deep breath, steadying his emotions.

“I – I l-like you.” Katsuki paused, feeling the burning embarrassment kick up another notch. He’d never felt so embarrassed in his life.

“I fucking like you, okay! Maybe it’s not love yet, but it’s something right? I’m sure I’ll be able to get to love eventu-”

Katsuki was cut off by Izuku squeezing the breath out of him with a single arm. How was that even possible, he vaguely wondered, his heartbeat beating dangerously fast. He still felt the slight rush of embarrassment, but he probably had it pretty good.

Who else would be able confess when they already knew the other person was in love with them?

“I love you, Katsuki.” Izuku’s voice was low and smooth. Katsuki could feel the pure sincerity and adoration in the green-haired teen’s voice.

The embarrassment that had barely died down immediately returned with a vengeance. His cheeks felt like they were glowing with heat. He could probably heat the entire room in winter. He squirmed. The way Izuku said his name gave him some funny feelings. He didn’t know how to describe them.

He felt like a mix of embarrassment and…arousal? Katsuki dismissed the thought.

“Right. So.” Katsuki buried his face in the crook of Izuku’s neck again, toppling the two of them down onto the bed.

He removed his hand from Izuku’s eyes, pressing his weight onto half of Izuku’s form and letting his arm curl around the other teen’s form.

Katsuki felt Izuku’s muscled arm wrap around his waist. He felt steadier. More anchored. It was worth going through that embarrassment if it could reassure the both of them. He hadn’t liked leaving for the UA Entrance Exam before making things clear with Izuku, but he hadn’t had a choice.

Both Izuku and Katsuki settled down on the bed, curling into each other, taking refuge in each other’s presence.

As long as they had each other, everything would be alright.

Kacchan had been anxiously checking the mailbox every day, not matter how firmly or how often he denied it. Izuku watched the blonde teen with twinkling eyes as he headed out for the nth time that day to check the mailbox, even if they hadn’t heard the mailman stop by. He’d been doing this every hour, his anxiety shooting up with each increasing day.

Izuku lowered his head as he watched Kacchan leave the room, lightly squeezing the pen he’d been holding, once again starting to write in his notebook.

A week had passed since the UA Entrance Exams, and Izuku was looking forward to the letter that would be coming. Quite frankly, he didn’t think there was much to be worried about, considering how Kacchan was a hidden perfectionist, but he wouldn’t be telling him that.

He actually quite enjoyed watching Kacchan being fidgety in the confines of his house. And if Kacchan happened to subconsciously invade his personal space when he was feeling particularly fidgety, well, Izuku wouldn’t be saying anything to anyone, especially since those were some of the rarer times where Kacchan wasn’t feeling any pangs of guilt.

Was it weird that he felt Kacchan’s cuteness was just out of this world? He was sure hardly anyone else would agree with him, but he was fine with that. All the more for him.

Izuku didn’t want Kacchan constantly feeling guilt over him. It was his decision, and his decisions were made by him, not by anyone else. The consequences and results lay entirely on his shoulders, and he wouldn’t have anyone else, especially Kacchan, carrying guilt over it.

The green-haired teen felt like his thoughts were jumbled pieces of an incomplete puzzle, but he kept everything inside. He knew he couldn’t rush these things. He was hit by pangs of terror every day. The thought that Kacchan would suddenly wake up one day and realize that this wasn’t the life he envisioned for himself.

Eventually, Kacchan would realize that before his attempted suicide, Izuku might have toted it as a lack of love, but in truth it was because he was entirely because he had been undeniably and utterly weak. Kacchan detested weakness, both in himself and everyone else.

Kacchan wasn’t only tough on others, but also to himself. Izuku had seen the trainings that Kacchan put himself through, school or not. There wasn’t a day that went by he missed training.

Izuku knew Kacchan had seen Izuku’s Quirkless state as a sign of weakness. In a world full of Quirks, the people without were practically helpless in the face of them. Kacchan just couldn’t accept the fact that one of his friends was so helpless, so useless, and it had disgusted him.

“BANG!”

The door slammed hard against the wall from Katsuki’s direct kick.

“Izuku!” Katsuki yelled out, glee coating his voice. He waved around two thick envelopes in the air. “It’s here!”

Izuku hurriedly closed the notebook he had been writing in, realizing that he’d been writing down his feelings about his distress. Hopefully, Kacchan didn’t realize. He placed the notebook on the table, waiting for Kacchan to walk towards him.

Izuku was inwardly baffled that the mail was here, considering they hadn’t heard any noise. The mossy-haired teen inwardly evaluated that the postman must have some sort of Quirk that helped him in his everyday job.

Katsuki dropped into the chair and crowded in close to Izuku, casually grabbing his hand, eyes burning with excitement.

The blonde teen ripped open the letter in his haste, the small metallic disc hitting the table. Both of them were startled as the projection appeared.

“This is a projection!” came the booming voice of All Might. Katsuki twitched subtly, not expecting the sudden explosion of sound.

Izuku felt a little helpless. He didn’t realize that he’d gotten used to being constantly surprised during the ten months he’d been gone. It seemed like his training was more widespread than he thought.

Katsuki felt slightly bewildered. He had expected a lot of things, but the one person he hadn’t expected to be briefing them was All Might. He looked down at the envelope to confirm that it was from UA before concentrating on the Number One Hero again.

“Midoriya, my boy! It’s been some time. There is much to deliberate on!” All Might’s signature grin filled the projection screen. “I am here for ONE reason, and one reason only! I am here to teach at UA!”

Katsuki and Izuku both stared at the Number One Hero with wide eyes. Being able to be around All Might all the time would be a dream come true. There would be so much to learn from just his experiences alone. It felt like the standards at UA had shot through the roof, though logically they knew it wasn’t true, that didn’t stop them from feeling it. They were even more excited than before the letter came.

“What? What did you say?! Get to the point?! Whatever I want to say to him…can be said later?! Ah, fine…”

All Might cleared his throat. “Ahem! Young Midoriya, young Bakugou. Both of you have passed the written exams with high grades! Your practical, on the other hand… Young Bakugou has passed with a grand total of… 77 points! Taking down one and two pointers, the faux villains were all itching to capture you! In the second half when the other candidates were slowing down, you started speeding up even more!”

The awe-inspiring figure of All Might paused slightly.

“Young Midoriya, with a total of 20 villain points, this would not be enough for you to get into Class A…”

Izuku suddenly felt Kacchan’s elation from passing turn into dread and concern, his hand squeezing down hard on his for comfort. He felt emotional that Kacchan would care this much about him. It felt like a dream. If this really was a dream, he hoped he never woke up.

“But! That’s not the end of the story! Look here!” All Might pointed at the screen behind him. A petite brunette appeared on the screen behind him.

“Excuse me! I’d like to give some of my points to the teen who saved me earlier in the test! He saved my life!”

“You see?” boomed All Might, “In this exam, we weren’t just watching for villain-based points! We, of UA, produce Heroes! And Heroes who reject doing the right thing isn’t a Hero at all! Do you think we do all of this just to look good in front of the camera? You can think what you want! As a Hero, we risk our lives and put the money where your mouth is! Rescue points were also a factor! 60 points for Midoriya Izuku! And 45 points for Uraraka Ochako!”

All Might took a deep breath, his smile seemingly growing to impossible brightness.

“Welcome to the Hero Academy.”

Katsuki suddenly crushed Izuku in a tight hug. He was surprised to find that he had no jealousy or any negative emotions that Izuku had beat him. His entire being felt like a great weight had been lifted off him. He felt as light as a feather. He was just that happy.

“We did it, Kacchan!”

Katsuki didn’t respond to him, just squeezing his boyfriend tighter. He was so glad he wouldn’t be going in alone. Suddenly, something occurred to him. He felt like he’d been struck like a Quirk out of the blue.

“You’ve met All Might before?”

“Ah…”

Izuku felt his stomach drop.

Izuku bit his bottom lip, his mind running miles per second, thinking about what he should say, before deciding. “Yes, I have. Other than that, I can’t tell you yet. It isn’t my secret to divulge, but I’ll ask All Might if I can tell you.”

Katsuki frowned a little before his expression loosened up. At least Izuku wasn’t hiding anything from him. He nodded in agreement.

The green-haired teen inwardly cheered, knowing that his decision not to keep it a secret from Kacchan was the right thing to do. He didn’t want to bring lies into their slowly mending relationship. That magazine said that relationships were built on communication and trust, so Izuku was going to try that. Hopefully it would work.

Izuku could feel the trust that was radiating off Kacchan like a lighthouse in the dark and he wasn’t going to mess that up. He felt like he could float off the surface of the earth with how happy he was feeling. Kacchan trusted him.

He couldn’t help the light laugh that escaped from his lips. He spontaneously gave Kacchan a kiss before he could think too much about it, feeling like a bunch of clouds had replaced whatever braincells he had.

The blonde teen looked delightfully startled at the sudden show of affection. Izuku couldn’t stop the grin at how cute Kacchan looked, similar to a startled kitten. Kacchan flicked his forehead, wearing a scowl that looked more like a pout to him. He emitted a sulky air mixed with embarrassment.

Katsuki let out a startled yelp as Izuku effortlessly picked him up from the chair he’d been sitting on moments earlier, not having any time to protest being carried in bridal style before he was dropped onto his bed with a little bounce facedown.

The blonde stayed still, completely blindsided and still uncomprehending of what just happened.

Izuku waited until Kacchan craned his head back to look at him before pressing a kiss to his cheek. Then, he casually straddled the blonde teen, pressing powerful hands to the blonde’s back, keeping him down and from bucking him off.

The green-haired teen bent down till his mouth was flush with Kacchan’s ear.

“Let me take care of you,” Izuku breathed.

Katsuki was immediately sent back into flustered territory by the turn of events. It felt like he was doing math problems and he was so sure of the answers, but in the end, they were something completely different and he was just baffled like what was even happening right now??

Izuku leaned back and watched as Kacchan’s ears slowly started changing colors. It started off with a slight tinge of pink before deepening to red very quickly. He kind of wanted to see the blush on Kacchan’s face, but he let it go for now. He wanted to try pushing boundaries, but not too hard.

“Toshinori-san!” Izuku called with a grin, eyeing his mentor. He took in how the other looked like he had a good night of sleep, looking slightly better than he did at other times. He had a bit more color in his cheeks as compared to before, although he was still just as skeletal, but as he seemed to be getting slightly better, Izuku let it slide.

Toshinori and Izuku stood in the beach they had been visiting everyday for the past ten months. The beach was clean of any debris and old junk.

“Izuku, my boy! Congrats on passing!” Toshinori rubbed his protégé’s hair, silently conveying his pride and affection.

“Thank you!”

“I haven’t told the school about our relationship. You seem like you’d silently worry about whether it was favouritism.”

The green-haired teen silently basked in how Toshinori felt like a mix of affection and exasperation.

Toshinori had come a long way mentally in these ten months as he was helping Izuku with his training. No longer was he depressed every time he was alone. It still came in occasionally, but he was able to steer himself back onto happier thoughts easier nowadays. He was thankful to the pale boy that had knocked on his door ten months earlier.

The changes had happened slowly, as he was reminded of how he acted when he was younger, desperately doing his best during training as he got ready for One For All.

Toshinori explained to Izuku about how he went through his training in the earlier days, giving him examples about how he went about mastering it.

“You should go about it with caution. Just like how a person who’s suddenly grown a tail cannot control it straight away. Your body still needs time to get used to having One For All. The more you temper your body, the better you can control your power. Just like how a cup can only contain a certain amount of liquid, any more and it will overflow. The bigger your cup gets, the more it can hold.”

Toshinori paused his explanations, gauging Izuku’s reaction.

Izuku had a strange look on his face.

Without saying anything, Izuku bent down and picked up two spray paint cans. He exerted around 1 percent of One For All and crushed the two cans in his hand with a loud crunch.

Both Izuku and Toshinori stared at the flattened cans in his hand, uncomprehending.

“I…is that not supposed to happen?”

Toshinori’s eyes moved from the cans to his protégé, shocked.

“I just… I had a feeling, you know?” Izuku stuttered out, not quite sure how to explain it. The teen floundered a little, scrambling for words to describe how it felt. “It’s just this like this pool of something inside that I can reach out for, and it goes through this little tube and I just –” Izuku waved his hands about, trying to articulate something he couldn’t put into words.

“Izuku.” Toshinori put his hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “That isn’t normal,” he said, before realizing his words could be taken the wrong way by the green-haired teen in front of him.

“It’s not normal, but you seem to have a grasp on how much your body can currently take. That’s good. Very good. You must be careful of overloading your body. Too much, and your bones will snap. Your muscles will tear, and your skin will rupture.”

Izuku gawked at his mentor. “You could have told me that earlier?!”

Toshinori looked at him sheepishly. “Well…there just wasn’t enough time. But everything worked out all right. Or shall I say… All Might!”

Izuku groaned inwardly at the pun, lightly facepalming, but didn’t say anything.

“Perhaps this has something to do with your own Quirk.”

The two of them paused to take in this statement, reflecting on the past ten months of discovery.

Toshinori suddenly felt a wave of enthusiasm and hope, spontaneously transforming into All Might and striking a dramatic pose.

“Yes! The torch burns bright!”

The two heard the distant screams of them recognizing All Might’s form, causing them to set off down the beach at a fast pace.

All Might thought to himself about how he had fulfilled his duty and that now his flame would wither and die.

Izuku felt the changes emotionally in his mentor, feeling the complicated mix his self-deprecation, hopelessness, joy and sadness, glaring at the back of All Might’s yellow blonde hair.

All Might could almost feel the weight of Izuku’s glare physically and tried valiantly to suppress his negative feelings.

He subtly sped up in his running, feeling the weight of Izuku’s glare increase even more.

“I know what you’re trying to do! We have to talk about your feelings!”

All Might shuddered.

The sounds of the bed creaking increased as more weight was pressed on it. What seemed to be sounds of little involuntary gasps and low moans filled the quiet space of the room, leaking into the hallway.

Mitsuki was standing in the corridor, her face contorted in stunned disbelief. A little voice inside her was screaming that her babies were only 14 years old. They shouldn’t even be in puberty yet, right…? She knew that nowadays boys seemed to be going through puberty early but look at her volatile little monkey of a son.

She had been so sure she would have some sort of warning signs for the impending crisis, and yet look at her now. Here she was, standing outside his room like a statue as that angry little cat her son was prone to being did some unspeakable things to Izuku. God, should she barge in to save Izuku’s chastity? Another part of her said she should just let their relationship run its course.

Dammit, it only she didn’t have this accursedly sharper hearing than regular people. God knows it should have become worse in the 14 years her son had existed. There was hardly a day that went by without his loud shouts. She could have been totally oblivious to what was happening, but no. She could only blame her superior genes from her parents. Why did they give her such good genes in terms of hearing? Now that she knew what was happening in that room, she couldn’t just walk away and pretend nothing happened.

She stood outside Katsuki’s room, not sure if she should charge into the room to put a stop to this or not. Things seem to have gotten rather intense, considering she’s only been standing here for the past ten minutes, but should she be enabling this while she’s still in the house? What’s the right thing to do?

For fucks sake they didn’t even have any decency to make sure she wasn’t home before getting started.

The concerned part of her warred with the gleeful one, so in the end she could only stand in front of the door as she tried to decide what to do. Should she go in or not? On one hand, Izuku’s chastity, on the other, being able to keep Izuku in her family forever. What to do, what to do?

Mitsuki pressed her ear to the door, trying to see if she could hear anything else other than the little sounds Izuku was making. She squinted her eyes in concentration, trying to filter out the filthy sounds that were coming out of the room.

Why the fuck wasn’t her son making any sounds? Considering his personality, she had been rather certain he would be cursing out involuntarily or otherwise.

She heard a gasp louder than the rest of the little sounds that had been coming out.

“Ah! Izuku. Harder. Ngh, harder. Ah! Yes!” What followed was the increase of the little whines and gasps.

She heard Izuku’s low laugh. “Kacchan you’re begging so prettily for me.”

“Shut up!”

Mitsuki’s mouth felt open slightly in shock. Okay. So. It was her son losing his chastity instead of Izuku. The thought made a round in her brain, before making a few more rounds. It still hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Her son. Who went around exploding at practically every little prod or nudge.

Her son which had the same volatility of a landmine.

Her thoughts stalled to a stop again.

Then, all of a sudden it felt like her son’s Quirk had exploded in her mind.

Woah Katsuki’s on the bottom! She screamed inwardly, feeling a weird mix of glee and mortification.

Mitsuki pressed her ear harder on the door, trying to decipher more sounds. This was a bit too close to voyeurism for her comfort, but she just couldn’t put her curiosity down, dammit. She just had to know.

As immersed as she was, she didn’t realize that her weight on the door had caused the door to creak open, smoothly depositing her onto the floor of her son’s room.

Her son’s moans immediately screeched to a halt.

She threw up her hands to block her innocent eyes.

“Are you decent?!”

“What the fuck, you old hag?!”

She hastily stood up while blocking her eyes and tried to exit the room, only to bang into the doorframe. “Ow!” She was not going to let her hands stop blocking her vision before she could hastily retreat.

A hand steadied her.

“Bakugou-san, are you alright?”

“Yes! I’m fine. Izuku-kun, didn’t I tell you to stop calling me Bakugou-san? Considering you’re fucking my son, you’re practically another son to me, so you better drop the formalities, got it?!”

She was greeted with a pregnant silence.

Mitsuki suddenly felt the weight of a soft object smack into her head, causing her to grab it with both hands out of reflex, and much to her horror, caused her hands to stop blocking her vision. She wanted to close them, but it was too late. They were already within her line of sight.

“What the fuck, mom! We weren’t fucking!”

What.

“What?”

“It’s true, Mitsuki-san. I was just giving Kacchan a massage.”

She took in how the two of them still had their clothes on, though her son seemed rather ruffled. She looked at him in suspended disbelief.

“You still look like you just went through a very vigorous round of making out or groping.”

Mitsuki watched with interest as her son’s face went from its usual tone to bright red in an instant.

He made several aborted attempts at speaking.

“Well, we didn’t, alright?!” he managed to stutter out at last.

She grudgingly nodded, since Izuku’s clothes looked as impeccable as they usually did.

Izuku seemed to be fighting down a grin while Katsuki looked like he wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it or set of a few rounds of explosions.

She heaved a sigh of relief and walked out the door. She made to close the door, but not before leaving a few words of advice.

“Well…alright. But if you do, make sure you use protection. And plenty of lube, okay? You don’t want to accidentally get hurt, after all.”

She casually closed the door, just in time to hear the muffled thump of a pillow hitting the door.

“DIE!” she heard.

Mitsuki smirked.

Her son was so predictable.

Katsuki scowled when he didn’t receive a response after knocking on Izuku’s door. He must have gone ahead to school already. He knew Izuku was the sort to make sure he was punctual. It was one of his subtle little obsessions. He hated being late. If he had to describe it, it could be said that he hated being late almost as much as Katsuki hated being around idiots. Katsuki didn’t understand. Izuku didn’t even care if other people were late, just that he himself wasn’t late. Wasn’t that weird as fuck?

He didn’t quite know why he was feeling so irritable. Sure, they hadn’t made any plans, but he thought they had an unspoken arrangement between them. Who the fuck just left for school without picking up their boyfriend?! He didn’t have to specify, did he?

He sulked, not quite sure what to do with these fucking feelings. Should he just get over it or does he have to shove them into the abyss of nowhere? Damn Izuku for making him feel things.

Katsuki furrowed his brows, contemplating what he should do as he walked towards the school. He kicked a random can lying on the street with sudden viciousness that surprised even himself. He was inwardly baffled at what he was doing. Why was he so pissed? It’s not like anything major happened, so what was he doing?

The blonde teen ground his teeth at the feelings of annoyance, anger and something else that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He hadn’t felt this way for a while. He didn’t miss it. He thought that maybe he’d left this part of him behind after – Katsuki stopped his thoughts there, not willing to go down that memory lane when the day was just starting.

Today was supposed to be a happy day, dammit. It should be one of the happiest days in his life, right? He was finally going to get proper training on how to be a Hero. He shouldn’t be wallowing around in his anger. He should be filled with happiness as Izuku was by his side, walking to their glittering future –

Katsuki exploded when he saw the next can. He kicked it high into the sky, unintentionally shouting, “DIE!” as his rage spiked exponentially. What was he doing?? Katsuki seriously didn’t understand himself sometimes.

This was just one of those times. He would get over it. Fuck knows he’d done the same thing countless times. Maybe he’d never know what set him off, but whatever. Maybe it was due to hormones or something.

That teen article Izuku left out said something about hormones causing an increase of moodiness and aggression. That’s probably what it was. Katsuki furrowed his brows again. Wait. So, was he undergoing puberty even when he was six? That’s when all his aggression and anger started manifesting for larger periods of time.

Katsuki allowed himself to hold his forehead for a moment. Does this mean he’s going to continue going through this until puberty ends?? That was still a year away. Fuck. He refused to give in and hold his forehead again. The blonde shoved both hands into his pockets, restraining himself.

Oh, fuck. What if he was one of those people who ended puberty late? But then, if he entered puberty early, does that mean he’s going to end early? Or was he just going to defy all expectations and end late as well?

Does this mean he’s just going to continue being an angry person until all his hormones get with the fucking program and leave him alone?

Katsuki exploded in rage the moment the next can entered his peripheral vision. Who the fuck was leaving these damn cans around?! The trash can is LITERALLY RIGHT FUCKING THERE. He crushed it into the ground with startling vindictiveness, using his Quirk so that it exploded into tiny little burning metal fragments.

He felt marginally better. He would pound whatever fucker was leaving these fucking cans around. Not only was it unhygienic and disgusting, it made him angry as fuck for some reason.

The blonde continued onwards to school, grinding his teeth at the various cans lying along the road or footpath. What the actual fuck was wrong with people nowadays. Did he just not notice the fucking cans in the past or was it just occurring recently?

Did he just mentally filter out these cans or were public morals just degrading by the day? What the fuck were the Heroes doing, as a matter of fact. Did they just not care that people were leaving garbage everywhere?

Katsuki almost said he felt relief the moment he saw UA in the distance, right before he noticed the fucking can on the fucking floor in front of the fucking school gates. He felt something snap in him.

The blonde teen charged towards the eye-catching red can on the floor with a roar, screaming, “DIE!!!!”

He kicked it into the air with all his might, his Quirk exploding into action. The can exploded into even tinier little burning pieces in the air, akin to fireworks in the night sky. The blonde dutifully ignored the extras loitering in the background as he stormed towards the classrooms.

Behind him, Katsuki didn’t notice the gawking students and teachers that stared at him like he was insane. Some shook their head, muttering about how youths nowadays were totally disregarding public morals. Some of the older years despaired about their dreams for a peaceful school life. Their hopes were dashed already, this early in the year. The school day hadn’t even started, for goodness sake.

Katsuki forcefully slid open the door, still in a somewhat bad mood. The first thing his eyes landed on were Izuku and a brunette getting cosy.

His face darkened. The sudden surge of annoyance and another feeling he couldn’t describe right away caught him by surprise. Katsuki frowned, before he realized he was feeling jealous of all things.

He, Bakugou Katsuki, was feelings jealous.

Izuku tracked Kacchan as he moved towards the school. He felt slightly puzzled. Why was Kacchan feeling angry so early in the day? What could possibly have happened on the way to school?

He chatted absentmindedly with his new friend and classmate, Uraraka Ochako, as he subconsciously focused on Kacchan’s presence. You’d think it’d be extremely difficult focusing on a single Aura, considering the amount of people in the school now. On the contrary, it was extremely easy.

It was practically a subconscious reaction to focus on Kacchan’s Aura. He didn’t even need more than a fleeting thought to locate Kacchan now. It felt as natural as breathing. The only way he could liken it to was that his soul was resonating with Kacchan’s. It might not make much sense to other people, but just felt right.

He smiled at Ochako, as he inwardly basked in the feeling of Kacchan’s Aura. Whatever he was feeling, even if he was angry, he just couldn’t help himself. Kacchan felt warm, like the sun. Whether or not he flew too close, causing him to crash and burn, Izuku couldn’t keep himself away. He’d already been burned once from flying too close to the sun, but he couldn’t help it. The pure allure that Kacchan presented to him would bypass whatever defences he mocked up without fail.

The weight of Kacchan’s anger was almost calming. He was outside the door now. Izuku tried to stop himself from looking towards the door too eagerly. He kept his eyes on his new friend. It would be rude to look elsewhere when he was still amid conversation with her.

It took every ounce of his willpower not to look at the door when it slid open. The sudden flare of jealousy that appeared in Kacchan’s Aura sent delicious shivers down his spine. There was a mix of jealousy and possessiveness swirling around his Aura.

The green-haired teen’s heart started doing miniature seizures as he valiantly tried not to look. He struggled with himself for a moment. His stomach was doing little somersaults without his permission. Izuku gave in. His eyes snapped to Kacchan’s red ones, trying to calm his loudly thumping heart.

If anything, it only sped up more. He could only pray no one in his class had any kind of super hearing Quirk. Even then, it felt like his heart was beating so loudly that people would be able to hear his heartbeat even with normal hearing. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to look them in the eye if he knew they were able to hear how embarrassing his heart was being, even if only subconsciously.

His heart wouldn’t calm down. His mind wouldn’t calm down. He didn’t know if he wanted it to, either. He still wasn’t quite used to having part of Kacchan’s attention again. He felt like he was navigating blind. He was taking tentative steps forward; not sure which direction was the correct path to take.

Izuku tried to suppress his shudder as a stronger feeling of jealousy ran over him. Why was he jealous anyway? It wasn’t like Izuku hadn’t had other friends before. Then again, perhaps Kacchan didn’t know since he didn’t pay any attention to him outside of the feelings of hate that were directed at him when he was in his line of sight.

Izuku flinched inwardly at his own thoughts. What was he doing, hurting himself? He shoved the depressing thought away. He managed to control the blush that threatened to cover his face as Kacchan’s eyes roved over him with such intensity.

He watched as Kacchan’s eyes left his form, only to land on Ochako’s. He fought down his own irrational surge of jealousy when he realized that Kacchan was glaring at her. His gaze then quickly returned to meet his eyes. Kacchan’s Aura had a bit of… Izuku felt the most inappropriate amount of glee when he realized that Kacchan’s Aura gave off the feeling of pouting. He was behaving like a kid who had his favourite toy taken away, or a kid realizing he had to share his favourite toy to play nice.

“Ooh! Deku, who’s that?” said Ochako.

Izuku opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by another voice.

“If you’re here to socialize, then get out.”

The voice was low and deep. Izuku followed the direction of the voice, his eyes sinking to the floor to look at the man.

The man was lying on the floor in a strange yellow sleeping bag of all things. He looked like a caterpillar. Izuku watched with interest as the person he assumed was their teacher inhaled some sort of nutritional drink.

Their supposed teacher looked tired. He looked somewhat unkempt with his messy black hair and bloodshot eyes. Izuku watched with growing interest as he realized that their teacher’s Aura pulsed with anticipation, excitement and sadistic pleasure. It contrasted with his blank look which didn’t betray his inner emotions. Izuku didn’t know if it was a façade or if it was just his natural disposition, but his interest was piqued.

He introduced himself as their homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. “Now, put these gym clothes on and head out to the grounds,” he said, pulling a blue shirt with a white UA design.

Izuku eyed them dubiously. How did Aizawa-sensei manage to fit all those clothes into his sleeping bag? Did he have some kind of Quirk to do with space?

As they changed, Izuku realized that Kacchan was still poking him with spikes of jealousy that was tinged with sulky feelings. He also glared at the rest of their male classmates when their gazes turned in their direction, radiating possessiveness.

Izuku suppressed a laugh. Silly Kacchan. There was no way they were looking at his body. If anything, they were probably looking over because they were curious about why Kacchan was glaring at them for no apparent reason.

Katsuki crossed his arms as he leaned on the locker, scowling. “Why did that extra call you Deku?!”

Izuku’s traitorous heartbeat increased again, feeling giddy at Kacchan’s green-eyed envy.

“Kacchan,” he said patiently, “you can’t go around calling my other friends extras. Also, she asked if I had any nicknames and I told her the one you gave me when we were younger.”

Izuku was unprepared for the enormous amount of guilt that Kacchan practically shoved at him. They were strong. Much stronger than the minute amounts of guilt that Kacchan had on and off the past couple of days. This felt more like when he woke up on the hospital bed with Kacchan at his bedside.

It felt heavy.

“Kacchan? What’s wrong?” he asked.

Izuku noticed the number of eyes staring at them increase at Kacchan’s outburst.

He grabbed the blonde by the arm, dragging them out the door and into a dark corner where they could converse in peace.

Izuku turned to look at the other teen. Kacchan’s intense bout of guilt hadn’t decreased any, nor had it waned in intensity. He looked stricken.

“Izuku. You know I don’t think that of you anymore, right?” Kacchan said desperately. “I haven’t for awhile now. I was wrong before. Even if you really didn’t have a Quirk, I shouldn’t have said or implied anything like that. It was wrong of me, so please don’t think you’re useless anymore, okay? I –”

Izuku covered Kacchan’s mouth with his own, trying to convey all his sincerity with the kiss. The surge of adoration that passed through him left him feeling floaty and happy.

“Thank you. You know, Ochako told me ‘Deku’ screams ‘do your best’, so I don’t really mind if you call me that again, Kacchan.”

Izuku leaned up to press a kiss to Kacchan’s cheek, feeling at peace with himself. Intellectually, he already knew that Kacchan had regretted doing those things in the past, but no matter how much he had convinced himself, it hadn’t quite sunk in. He hadn’t realized that there was still a part of him that needed to hear it out loud before he could fully put it to rest.

Katsuki scowled, his Aura radiating conflicted feelings. The crushing guilt that lessened somewhat, still simmering in the background, but it wasn’t threatening to overflow any time soon. The tinge of jealousy and possessiveness as well as unwillingness came back.

Izuku smiled at his friend. He’d tried as hard as he could to restrain himself from kissing Kacchan silly too much over the past couple of days. It was hard. Really hard. But they weren’t a couple yet, so he had to work step by step. Hopefully he wasn’t acting too entitled by sneaking a couple of kisses here and there, but he couldn’t quell all his feelings.

The two of them left for the grounds outside the school, quickly joining back with the rest of the class as subtly as possible.

“Bakugou. Midoriya. You’re late,” came a dark voice. Aizawa-sensei did not look very happy. He didn’t reflect it in his Aura, however. In fact, the amount of sadistic pleasure seemed to have increased. It had a distinct flavour of schadenfreude mixed with a healthy dose of anticipation. “Well, whatever.”

Katsuki and Izuku gathered together with their classmates obediently, waiting to see what they were going to be subjected to today.

“You’re going to be testing your Quirks today.”

Majority of the class broke out into whispers, some of them lobbing questions at their new teacher.

“What about the entrance ceremony? Or guidance sessions?”

“No time to waste on stuff like that if you want to become a Hero,” Aizawa-sensei said, his Aura radiating glee. His expression was nonchalant, as if he didn’t care about anything that they thought.

“UA is known for its ‘freestyle’ educational system. This goes for teachers as well. Soft ball throw, standing long jump, fifty-meter dash, endurance running, sprinting, side to side stepping, upper body training, seated toe touch. All of these you covered in middle school as your standard No-Quirks-Allowed gym tests. What part of it is rational that Quirks are not allowed to be used when calculating the average of those records? Quirks have already been around for some time and they’re still dragging their feet. Honestly.”

Aizawa-sensei cast a pointed look at Katsuki. “Bakugou. How far could you throw in middle school?”

“Sixty-seven meters.”

Aizawa-sensei gestured for Katsuki to step into the circle.

“Use your Quirk. Just don’t step out of the circle.”

Izuku’s eyes devoured Kacchan’s lean form as he stretched to get ready for the throw. His Aura was lit up with competitiveness and anticipation. His eyes sparkled lightly in the morning sunlight showing how much he enjoyed competing with others, if his almost maniacal grin didn’t say it already.

Katsuki wound up his arm with the ball gripped securely in his hand. He took a step forward and abruptly released the ball with maximum strength, activating his Quirk at the last possible moment to increase the ball’s momentum.

“DIE!”

The ball shot forward in a straight line, a testament to how much power had gone into the pitch that it cut through all air resistance.

The students of 1-A squinted in the direction that the ball flew, trying to make out how far it went.

Izuku felt Aizawa-sensei’s slight gratification at having chosen Kacchan as his example. The sadistic glee was at an all-time high, probably the class would be hard-pressed to follow Kacchan’s example and had to subsequently push themselves for the best result. It would allow him to better test his students and know exactly how capable they were.

He showed his class the device that read how many meters the ball went.

“705.2 meters.”

Aizawa-sensei fed them his real-life experience as the class made a fuss about how they could use their Quirks in the Hero course. The sadistic glee that he’d been feeling earlier was non-existent now. Instead, it was replaced with a grim feeling, with a sad tinge.

Izuku reserved further judgement on his new teacher. Had he lost some students before? Regardless, he seemed to have their best interests in mind. Or rather, he was invested in making sure no one died due to incomplete preparation or slacking off.

“The one with the lowest score will be expelled.”

Aizawa-sensei was perfectly serious. He meant every word and would expel the person with the lowest score.

Izuku watched as Aizawa-sensei put on a look of false glee. He still felt slightly down. “Your fates are in your hands. Welcome. This is the Hero Course at UA.”

The green-haired teen pumped himself up. He had to give his all. Then, he didn’t have to do that anymore. Quite frankly, the intense amount of anticipation and glee that was radiating from his classmates were giving him what he could only describe as a high.

It felt like his body was being overloaded with positive emotions. Izuku sucked in a steadying breath, almost subconsciously focusing on the only presence on the field that wasn’t radiating competitiveness.

He would have focused on Kacchan, but… Izuku gave a slight laugh. Kacchan’s Aura was practically the strongest out of everyone else. He could get a high just on Kacchan’s emotions alone.

Izuku locked his focus on Aizawa-sensei as a steadying factor in his mind. It felt like he was a beacon of light from the lighthouse to a boat in the middle of the choppy oceans.

The green-haired teen breathed, focusing on Aizawa-sensei. He let the gentle feeling of One for All wash over him, pushing it into his muscles and bones, reinforcing everything. He managed to push in around 11% of it, otherwise he would be overloaded and be liable to break something.

The future teen Hero blasted through the first event, achieving a great increase from his middle school scores. He ran it in 4.13 seconds, crossing the finishing line the same time as Kacchan. They exchanged grins, equally pleased for each other.

Izuku could practically hear the gears turning in Kacchan’s mind about how he could use his Quirk for the other events. He grinned, feeling the blood pumping through his veins. His heartbeat sounded loud in his ears. The adrenaline was giving him a rush.

The green-haired teen unintentionally hyper focused on the following events. As he came out of his daze, he realized that he was the only student standing on the field. Kacchan had already performed earlier in front of the class for the softball throw.

He looked around, realizing that he was the last student. After his turn the scores would be tabulated to see who would be the last in rank, and subsequently expelled.

The moment he came back from his tunnel vison, he was already winding up for the throw. The anticipation, sheer ambition and aggressive emotions slammed into him akin to a rock smashing onto an egg.

He was immediately overwhelmed by the Aura of his classmates as they unintentionally influenced him. Izuku’s eyes widened. In that brief moment, he accidentally pushed too much of One for All into his body. It was too late to release it as the softball flew from his fingers.

Then all of a sudden, all the built-up momentum stopped as One for All abruptly left his body. He couldn’t feel the Quirk anymore. The softball flew a pathetic 46 meters. Izuku was startled. His mind raced as he tried to figure out what happened to One for All.

As he fumbled around, he suddenly realized how quiet was. The world was muted and silent. Startled, he turned around to look at his classmates. They were still there. So was Aizawa-sensei. Kacchan was staring at him with surprise, which seemed like it was slowly morphed into concern. Izuku categorized these changes detachedly. It felt like he was an observer. His body wasn’t listening to his commands.

The world was just a piece of white noise. He couldn’t feel them. He couldn’t – he couldn’t feel Kacchan. He took in a stuttering breath. Izuku started trembling lightly. It felt like a part of his Soul had been ripped away from him. He felt incomplete. Deficient. Fragmented. It felt like half of him was gone.

He couldn’t feel Kacchan. He couldn’t feel the warmth from his Soulmate. Couldn’t feel his little fluttering emotions, couldn’t feel his Aura, that was like basking in the warmth of the sun. God, he couldn’t feel Kacchan.

He couldn’t feel the all-consuming love that had haunted his every thought since the day he was four. Everything felt unfamiliar and alien. He was whole, but at the same time, he wasn’t. The love and affection that had been a constant in his life, the only thing that kept him going nowadays was gone. It was gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

His world had been ripped apart at the seams. The foundations of his very being were crumbling down. He felt like he had been dropped into a world filled with ice and coldness. He rubbed his arms, feeling the chill, shivering. He felt so, so cold.

He felt something soft grab him. Aizawa-sensei was saying something, but he couldn’t hear him over the sound of the rushing blood in his ears. His heart was beating erratically. He couldn’t put together his thoughts. They didn’t make any sense. It was hard to breathe. It felt like he was breathing, but no oxygen was entering his lungs. The world was so cold. So white. So quiet.

His hands and fingers were numb with cold. He clenched them lightly but felt nothing. He tried pushing One for All into his fingers, but he felt nothing. He saw people, but they didn’t look familiar to him. A sense of terror started threading its way into his heart, unlike any he’d ever felt before. It felt like someone had taken a hammer and smashed it into his chest. It felt like something had broken deep within him.

Izuku called out for help – Kacchan. Then, he knew nothing.

Shouta inwardly panicked even as his face was still the epitome of cool when his student passed out while his support item was still wrapped around him. Sure, people passed out on him all the time, but usually before that, he had to bash them into oblivion before they passed out. People didn’t just pass out because he used Erasure, for fucks sake. There was something wrong.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

What just happened? He needed to get Midoriya to Recovery Girl stat. He bundled up the other with his support item, keeping him securely in the cloth as he rushed his student towards the medical wing.

He might have called out a few instructions to his students as he left them rapidly, but damned if he could remember what he said right now.

Shouta quickly pressed speed dial 1, which was Recovery Girl’s number and informed her what happened. It was at this moment that he realized Bakugou was still running behind him, looking somewhat desperate with a mix of terror and concern on his face.

“Bakugou, get back to class with the other students,” he said, voice coming out sharper than he intended. These Hero course students were all full of passion and youthful ideals. He couldn’t believe it was coming from Bakugou of all people, though.

Watching his performance in that Entrance Exam had already made a few of his weaknesses available for all to see. He thought he would have to work on getting this boy to tone down his aggressiveness a little, but he was pleasantly surprised that he would be following him out of concern for his classmate.

Wait. Would people feel that much over a classmate that they hardly knew? He saw their exchange earlier in the field. Dare he say they almost seemed friendly? The gears in his head started spinning rapidly. Why did Midoriya just collapse like that? It was eerily reminiscent to a puppet with its strings cut.

Shouta’s eyebrows furrowed. Did Midoriya have some sort of internal Quirk? That shouldn’t be right. Based on what he saw, Midoriya seemed to have a Quirk that was similar to All Might’s, in which it increased his physical speed and strength. It also seemed to have a toll on his body.

Holy shit he was totally panicking. He knew he had to keep a hold on himself so that the students wouldn’t panic as well, but it was all he could do to keep his mask of calm on his face. He couldn’t even let any of it show since Bakugou was following him.

It took way too long for the sight of the door to Recovery Girl’s medical office to appear. Intellectually, he knew it was only a few meters away, but most of the time, he was able to handle any accidents before they got too disastrous. And frankly, it was usually due to the student’s own stupidity that got them into any of such messes in the first place. This time, however, was by his own hand. By his own Quirk, even. Or so he theorized.

“Chiyo,” he called out, bursting into the room.

She gestured for him to place Midoriya on the bed for her to examine. She hopped up onto a stool, efficiently checking his vitals for what was wrong.

Shuota’s feet moved him to the other side of Midoriya’s bed, only to find that what he anticipated to be his most problematic student already standing there like he had his feet rooted into the ground.

The teacher and student silently stood by the green-haired teen’s bed, almost beside themselves with worry. Shouta felt like his eyes were dryer than ever. He had dry eye a lot of times, but that was due to him using his Quirk. He rubbed his eyes, feeling tired. It didn’t help.

He stared at his student, his mind blank. Exactly what went wrong? He hadn’t expected that something would really happen. It was only the first day, for fuck’s sake. In fact, he’d used his Quirk on Midoriya exactly for the hopes of him not hurting himself.

It looked like he had been out of control. He could tell from the slightly wild eyes the other had thrown his way unintentionally. He managed to hit the other with his Quirk before he could release whatever latent energy his Quirk was going to release, but evidently something still happened.

Why did he just pass out like that?

Fuck, he’s never hurt a student unintentionally, and especially not without knowing how they got damaged.

Shouta startled inwardly when Recovery Girl shook her head.

“There’s nothing wrong with him, from what I can see.”

“What the fuck do you mean nothing’s wrong,” Bakugou interrupted rudely. His voice contained an underlying terror, so the two of them let it slide this once.

Recovery Girl whacked him with her syringe. “Don’t get sassy with me. Wait until I’ve finished talking.” Or so he thought.

“By all accounts, he seems to be just sleeping. There’s nothing wrong with his vitals from what I can see. Aizawa, what exactly happened? I wanted to ask you, but you hung up without explaining.”

Bakugou’s eyes were especially intense when they locked onto him. It kind of felt like how a lion would stare down its prey as it decided whether or not to eat it.

“I used Erasure on him. His Quirk didn’t manage to activate. He seemed rather startled before he turned to look at the class. I started scolding him about how if he recklessly uses his Quirk like that, he’d end up hurting himself by saving a single person before being out of action.”

Shouta paused to scrutinise the memory and think about whether or not he had unintentionally left out any details about the accident. “Then, he just seemed to collapse. Luckily I already used my support item to try and drive the point in.”

He heard Bakugou mutter “Luckily my ass” but he was gracious enough to ignore it. It seemed like these two already had some sort of friendship before school started, so it was understandable that he would be this worried.

He was watching Bakugou’s face as it suddenly paled. It seems like he had an inkling of what might have happened.

“Wait. Erasure. As in Erasure of Quirks? You used it on Izuku?” Bakugou said, his voice slightly shaky.

Shouta nodded to confirm it, a bad feeling starting to grow when his student lost what little colour he had left in his face.

“I – he has a Quirk,” Bakugou said, stumbling over his words. “Or rather, he has two Quirks. One of them is the one that gives him super strength and super speed, but he has another Quirk as well.”

Shouta and Recovery Girl waited patiently to give him more time to collect himself and explain further. They waited for two minutes before Shouta felt like he needed to interfere.

“What’s the other Quirk?”

Shouta watched as Bakugou was conflicted whether he should tell them or not, going through internal conflict.

“He hasn’t recorded it down,” said Recovery Girl, clicking her tongue, looking displeased. “We’re going to have a long chat about neglect after he wakes up.”

“He has a Soulmate Quirk,” Bakugou blurted, evidently having made up his mind.

Oh, thought Shouta. Then he paled as the implications hit him. Fuck, if that Quirk works the way I think it works, then – doesn’t that mean I just Erased whomever he imprinted on. Shit. I hope this doesn’t have long-lasting consequences for Midoriya.

Katsuki inwardly beat himself up as soon he blurted out that Izuku had a Soulmate Quirk. It didn’t seem like something Izuku was keen about sharing. He didn’t know why, but he knew that such a Quirk was unheard of.

Katsuki had combed through various reports about Quirks, both reported officially and unofficially, but he’d never heard of a similar Quirk manifesting. If they did, they didn’t have any information on it. Those were a long ten months that he’d spent in a sort of frenzy, looking for anything that might have helped him find Izuku.

The blonde grit his teeth before powering through, casting aside any future repercussions for later thoughts. Right now, the most immediate worry was that Izuku was still passed out. Their teacher was Eraserhead. This little fact only seemed to increase his stress levels even more. His Quirk of cancelling other Quirks ended as he blinked, but why was Izuku still passed out?

This was quite literally uncharted territory. Mutant, Emitter and Transformation type Quirks were the three categories that existed currently. Erasure affected both Emitter and Transformation type Quirks, but not Mutants. A Soulmate Quirk didn’t fall under any of these. When he flipped through Izuku’s books in the study, his ancestors seemed to classify their Quirk as a manifestation of the Soul. Since it was always in effect, awake or asleep, they classified it as a Passive Quirk.

Katsuki was inclined to agree.

The blonde teen bit the inside of his cheek. He felt both terrified and worried. And guilty. You can’t forget the guilt. His mind kept replaying the scene of Izuku throwing wild eyes at him, his eyes filled with a deep terror and panic as he reached out towards him before collapsing.

Nails dug into flesh, drawing blood from how hard he was pressing down. He felt useless. He wasn’t even the one to catch him when he fell. Instead, it was their teacher. Katsuki felt his eyes burn. He’d swore he would be the one to protect Izuku, but…

Katsuki was startled out of the depressive spiral he had trapped himself in as a slight pain appeared on his cheek. His eyes followed Aizawa’s fingers as they retreated.

“Snap out of it, kid. Explain more. We can’t help him unless we have all the details.”

Aizawa looked emotionless, but Katsuki could somehow feel the underlying stress that the teacher was going through. Katsuki absentmindedly laughed that maybe being around Izuku all the time these days had rubbed off on him more than he thought even if he didn’t have Izuku’s Quirk. He inwardly shook himself out of it. Right. Now wasn’t the time to reflect. He had to help Izuku first. He could beat himself up later. When he knew Izuku was safe.

“He –” Katsuki stumbled over his words, still haunted by a feeling that he was betraying Izuku’s trust. He struggled to get the words out. “I – he told me that his Quirk was a manifestation of his Soul. That’s why they call it a Soulmate Quirk. He inherited his Quirk since it passes down through bloodline. The Quirks are all identical. It manifests whenever they’re first kissed directly on the lips. Basically, they fall in love with that person irreversibly.”

Aizawa and Recovery Girl were silent as they digested the information. If this was true, then they had no relevant information. They had no way to ascertain whether there would be any lasting damage to Midoriya before he woke up, if he would wake up, to confirm their theories.

Wisely, they didn’t say anything. The blonde already looked highly stressed out. They would cross that bridge when they got there.

Katsuki fixed worried eyes on his boyfriend as he silently ran through the implications of having his Quirk erased for a short period of time might do to him. Would it harm him permanently? Would it just return to normal without further complications?

“Did Midoriya already kiss someone?” Aizawa asked aloud. Even he himself wasn’t sure whether he wanted that answer to be a positive or a negative.

Katuski nodded silently, his eyes still locked on Izuku’s still form. Seeing Izuku like this was giving him flashbacks. He felt vaguely ill. He wasn’t quite able to bring himself to voice it out loud. It still felt a bit like a dream these days. Like it hadn’t quite sunk in. It hadn’t helped that Izuku had disappeared for so long after his short stint in the hospital. It felt like speaking about it out loud would break whatever magic that had appeared in his life now. It still felt like a dream that Izuku had survived some days.

But then, Izuku was so fucking still on the bed.

“Who?”

It was surprising how that single word managed to drive a stake through Katsuki’s chest. It felt like an accusation and an admonishment all at once. That’s right. Izuku should have someone else. Someone better. Someone who would be able to cherish him and love him, that had never picked on him cruelly, that had never crushed his feelings under the sole of his foot. Someone who would treat him how he deserved to be treated.

His breaths were coming faster now.

“Bakugou. Bakugou. Kid,” Aizawa lightly patted him on the shoulder, trying to snap him out of it. He blocked Bakugou’s line of sight using his body. “Calm down. Don’t panic. You aren’t helping him by panicking. If you can’t, we’ll have to ask you to vacate the room if your emotions are affecting your judgement.”

“No!” Katsuki snapped out of it. It felt like cold water had been poured over him. He gripped Aizawa’s forearm subconsciously.

Aizawa felt Bakugou’s fingers twitch on his forearm, belaying his distress at the turn of events.

“Me. It’s me,” he grit out, not quite comfortable with two virtual strangers knowing about something so private to them. He made sure his words were said without a stutter. He knew he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself in the future if he couldn’t say this without faltering.

The teacher and nurse exchanged a glance. This was bad. It was worse than they thought. Should they get him to leave? He was obviously compromised, and they weren’t sure if his information would be accurate. But he was their only source of information. This couldn’t be good for his mental state.

Recovery Girl tried to break it to him gently. “Since this is unprecedented, there’s no telling what might have happened to the Soul bond. It’s entirely possible that the bond might be broken, or it could have just stretched a little and snapped back in place after Erasure was cancelled. Since Erasure can’t erase underlying Quirks, its unlikely that his Quirk is gone.” She paused, not quite sure how to continue without breaking the blonde.

“It’s possible that his bond with you might be gone. So, you have to prepare yourself for when he wakes up. He might still be in love with you, but its also possible that he might not anymore.”

Katsuki paled as the implications that had previously escaped him hit all at once. No. No, no, no. His heart was pounding a frantic rhythm in his chest. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. He. Izuku. Might not love him anymore?

The blood completely drained from his face. He felt a round of tears build up in his eyes. Would… would Izuku still have his bond with him? He choked, collapsing next to Izuku’s. He groped for Izuku’s hand. It felt clammy and cold.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Katsuki couldn’t quite bring himself to react as he usually did. He didn’t shrug the hand off, nor swear at the teacher. He detachedly sneered at himself inwardly for needing reassurance like some pathetic kid.

He pressed his face into Izuku’s hand. He felt a few stray tears escape. He had just been thinking about how Izuku should have someone who would have him as a priority, that would cherish him for what he was worth and would be there every step of the way. Would he stop that if the bond was really gone? Would he really be that selfish?

A sob escaped. He didn’t even know if he loved Izuku. He knew he liked him, but he also knew there was no plausible way that his emotions even matched up to an iota of Izuku’s love.

Izuku deserved the world, and Katsuki…Katsuki couldn’t give it to him.

His breath caught in his lungs. His eyes were burning. Would he really have to let Izuku go? Izuku had never been the one to initiate the kiss. He had never voluntarily subjected himself to his Quirk. A fresh wave of tears broke out. Izuku probably wouldn’t even love him, even if he wasn’t under the influence of his Quirk. His teeth were chattering, making obnoxiously loud sounds in the silence of the room. Katsuki grit his teeth, trying to hold it in.

Izuku’s hand twitched, causing him to make unpleasant connections to how he had been in a similar state just ten months prior. His breath caught for a different reason. He felt conflicted. He felt such a huge amount of relief that Izuku was waking up, but he was also filled with terror.

He wasn’t ready.

He wasn’t ready to let Izuku go. But he should. He should be free to love whomever he chooses. Shouldn’t he? He was chaining down Izuku for his own selfish desires when he didn’t even know if he loved Izuku.

Katsuki’s heart trembled.

He should let Izuku go.

Izuku didn’t so much as wake up as he was jolted back to reality. It felt like what he imagined being hit with an electric shock felt like. There was something wet on his hand. It wasn’t completely wet, like he’d stuck his hand out into a drizzle. Why was his hand wet?

Behind his eyelids, the world slowly clicked back into place. It trickled in slowly. He could sense and feel the emotions surrounding him. Worry. Shock. Fear. Anxiety. Guilt. Hope. Anticipation.

Izuku furrowed his brows. Why? Why did everything feel… strange? It felt like he was sensing the emotions through a fogged glass. Like it was there but wasn’t at the same time. He knew they were there, but actually making sense of the feelings was a whole different story altogether. Pinpointing what the emotions were had given him a splitting headache.

The green-haired teen tentatively opened an eyelid, flinching almost immediately from the bright glare of the lights above him.

“Sorry about that, dearie,” he heard, the lights dimming behind his eyelids.

He felt someone clutching at his hand. It was almost painful. Who was it? The only one who possibly would worry that much would be… Kacchan?

At the thought, the emotions he had been sensing earlier hit him like a freight train with a driver high off his own Quirk. The fog blocking him out earlier dissipated all at once, like it had never been there. The clarity and focus snapped back into place like it never left in the first place.

Izuku gasped a little and mentally flexed his senses, his range expanding. He categorized every Aura he was feeling before retracting his senses again. He subconsciously focused on the Aura next to him.

Kacchan? Why was he so worried?

Wait… Kacchan?

Izuku’s eyes shot open at the thought, his eyes immediately darting to the person clutching his hand. Tears started filling his eyes. He could feel Kacchan again. He could feel him. Izuku was immediately flooded with a pure, unadulterated sense of relief. It felt like all the tension had been released from his body.

He felt good. He could feel Kacchan. He could feel other people as well. It was almost like the previous incident didn’t happen at all. What happened?

Little droplets slipped down his face. Kacchan looked emotionless. He made a little aborted motion towards Izuku’s face before stopping. He felt like he was holding himself back. A strong sense of self-reproach was tinting his Aura. The relief that Izuku had been feeling earlier evaporated as he felt the emotions the other was projecting. Why? Why? What happened?

The hand clutching Izuku’s slowly retreated. Izuku tried to grab the other’s hand, but Kacchan subtly rejected him. A sense of panic started to make its way through Izuku’s body. Did Kacchan not want him anymore?

Izuku shot Kacchan an alarmed look, still not sure what was happening. He looked around for his teacher, wondering if he would fill him in. Kacchan didn’t feel like he wanted to do that. Kacchan was projecting a grim determination, along with the guilt that had been plaguing him ever since that one fateful day.

Izuku found Aizawa-sensei and Recovery Girl watching him carefully. It felt like they were waiting for something to happen. Like they were waiting for something to go wrong or were waiting for him to do something radical.

“I – I – Aizawa-sensei? What happened?” Izuku asked tentatively, not sure if they had the answers he was looking for.

Once Izuku looked back at Kacchan, he couldn’t bring himself to look away. The blonde’s Aura was plagued with indecision and apprehension. Why? What had he done? Kacchan wouldn’t meet his eyes. He was looking away, refusing to look in his direction at all.

Izuku tried to think back to the incident, desperation mounting inside him. He didn’t think he did anything wrong. In fact, he was pretty sure he just fainted or passed out without doing much. Did he do something while he was unconscious?

Aizawa-sensei pinched his chin and turned his head gently towards him, making him tear his eyes away from Kacchan.

“Hey. How are you feeling?”

Izuku’s eyes darted towards Kacchan, but he couldn’t quite see him, only seeing the faintest colour of blonde from his peripheral vision. His eyes returned to looking at his stressed-out teacher. He was projecting worry, just like Recovery Girl, even if his face was set to be neutral.

The green-haired teen struggled to answer, not quite sure what they wanted to hear.

“I – I’m fine.”

Aizawa-sensei hit him with a deadpan look, his exasperation tinging his Aura. “I’m sure,” he said, “Do you want Bakugou to leave the room while we try and explain what happened?”

“No –” Izuku immediately blurted out, hurriedly stopping any thoughts of expulsion of the blonde from the room.

Kacchan’s Aura swirled with a mix of gratefulness as well as unhappiness. There was something that felt familiar to him. He hoped he would never feel it again, but there was the slightest bit of Kacchan feeling the hints of rejection, like he had before Izuku’s trip to the hospital.

“Okay,” his teacher said, causing him to relax the slightest bit. “Now, answer truthfully, okay?” the teacher said, waiting for his nod before he continued. “Is there anything wrong with your bond with Bakugou? I used Erasure on your Quirk earlier, and I’m sorry. I didn’t know about the potential implications that might have happened because I didn’t know about your Quirk.”

Izuku gave a jerky nod, not quite sure where this was going. Wait. Erasure. His teacher was Eraserhead! Erasing of Quirks. Erasing of his Soulmate Quirk. Erasure of… his bond with Kacchan?!

The green-haired teen paled immediately. No. He regained some colour in his face. He could still feel Kacchan, and his feelings were still as strong as ever. But, why was Kacchan rejecting him? The little colour that had returned to his face fled again at the thought.

He could feel the eyes studying his reactions, but he had no liberty of any other thoughts now. Was this why? Was this why Kacchan had rejected him? Was still rejecting him? Did he think their bond was broken? Did he think that now that Izuku’s bond to him was gone, he would be able to absolve himself of any guilt? Kacchan was going to leave him?

Izuku felt the tears prick his eyes, his traitorous tear ducts bringing out his tears. The teen struggled with himself. If… if being away from him made Kacchan happy, who was he to deny the teen that? How could he be so selfish as to keep Kacchan all for himself? Kacchan never wanted this in the first place. Izuku had been the one shoving his feelings in the other teen’s face. This all developed because of him, after all. Because of his Quirk.

Kacchan had been feeling the guilt for so long. Wasn’t it better for him to pretend that the bond was gone so that Kacchan would be free? He would no longer be chained down by Izuku’s emotions. Izuku felt a hysterical laugh bubble up inside of him. What a joke. He was wandering in a maze of his own creation, a labyrinth of his own making, and he was the one making Kacchan play alongside him.

It felt like a heavy weight had sunk to the bottom of his stomach the moment he made up his mind. “Yes,” he said, voice barely a whisper, shaky and uncertain. “I don’t feel the bond anymore.”

Kacchan’s Aura spiked with distress before it was gone almost immediately. Izuku wasn’t sure if he imagined it or not. Maybe he was just looking for things that weren’t there to keep the blonde for himself.

“I see,” came an emotionless voice. Izuku shuddered hearing that, the weight in his stomach increasing. He had a sinking feeling. He didn’t know if he could handle life without Kacchan again.

Izuku couldn’t bring himself to look over, the blonde teen’s emotions surprisingly masked. He wasn’t sure if it was because Kacchan had somehow learnt how to hide his emotions from him or if he himself was subconsciously blocking out how the other felt in his apprehension.

There was a silence in the room. The silence was deafening. Then, he heard the door open and shut gently. Izuku’s body shook with involuntary trembles, instantaneously hit with a tidal wave of regret. He felt disgusted with himself. He was so selfish that he wished he could take back those words the moment they left his mouth. Kacchan really was better off without a selfish person with him.

The freckled teen squeezed his eyes shut, a few stray tears escaping from his eye ducts once again. The fingers on his chin retreated, allowing him to drop his head, shielding anyone else from seeing the regret filling his eyes.

Aizawa ran a hand down his face as his student let out a sob. “Shit.”

Aizawa sighed inwardly as he looked at the crying teen on the bed. He sat down heavily on the bed next to him. This was not what he expected on the first day of school. At most he expected to have a bit of sadistic fun when he revealed the fact that the person who ranked last would be expelled.

Izuku hiccupped, trying to muffle his sobs. Recovery Girl and Aizawa-sensei were still in the room. How embarrassing. Part of him couldn’t care less, but another part of him still wondered if he was making a bad impression on the adults in the room.

He heard the door open and shut again, causing him to flinch inwardly as Recovery Girl’s Aura of exasperation and concern left the room.

Izuku tensed up slightly before relaxing when he felt a hand pat him awkwardly on the back. His vision was still blurry when he tried to look at his teacher.

“There, there,” he heard. Aizawa-sensei’s Aura was expressing awkwardness and concern. Izuku couldn’t help the small laugh that left him when he felt the sheer amount of awkwardness his teacher was radiating, which also showed in his awkward reactions.

He pressed his fingers to his eyes, wrestling his fluctuating emotions under control. He harshly rubbed away the remaining tears in his eyes. Now wasn’t the time to cry.

The green-haired teen looked at his teacher with swollen eyes, which felt a little dry, feeling a little calmer than before.

“So, kid,” Aizawa-sensi said, still completely discomforted. “Mind telling me why you lied about your bond being broken?”

Izuku’s thoughts screeched to a halt when he registered what his teacher said. What? How did Aizawa-sensei know?

“How do you know?” he blurted out, completely puzzled. Did this mean Kacchan knew as well and he left because he was so disgusted with him? Izuku’s breath hitched at the thought, his mind falling into a state of chaos.

He distantly heard a groan. “I didn’t know for sure, obviously, but you just confirmed it.”

Izuku’s trembling fingers slowly calmed down as embarrassment started creeping up on him instead. That was the oldest trick in the book. He couldn’t believe he fell for it! Aizawa-sensei wasn’t helping things any with his tinges of amusement.

The green-haired teen buried his face in his hands, trying to hide his burning face.

“Is there a reason why you lied about your bond being broken?”

Izuku struggled with himself before he recalled what the teen magazine said about how you should confide things to at least one person instead of bottling it all inside to wait for it to explode at the worst possible moment. At the thought of Kacchan, he felt a sharp pang in his heart.

“I – my Quirk…I didn’t exactly have Kacchan’s consent when it was used. Anyway, it only affects me. My feelings, I mean. Kacchan felt guilty when I tried committing suicide around ten months ago, so he started developing some feelings for me because of that. I don’t want to force him into anything. He’d be happier without me. I – I –”

Aizawa cut him off abruptly, unable to let this negative train of thought go on for any longer than it should. “You’re rambling, kid. Listen to me,” he said, looking deeply into his student’s eyes. He desperately wanted to look away with how awkward he felt, but he continued looking sternly at his student for his own sake.

“For a relationship to work, it has to be a two-way street, understand? I can tell that kid there,” he said, nodding at the door, “definitely has feelings for you. It was all there in the way he reacted while you were still unconscious. If you want a relationship to work, both of you have to put in the effort.”

Izuku shoved down his reflexive denial of the words his new teacher told him, slowly digesting the meaning behind the words.

“You don’t get to say what the other person is feeling unless you ask first, and you didn’t do that.”

Izuku flinched.

“But I – I can feel emotions. Kacchan rejected me. He rejected me. I could feel it.”

Aizawa-sensei gave him a dry look, his exasperation multiplying with every word that came out of Izuku’s mouth. The green-haired teen hunched in on himself a little, feeling slightly defensive, and vulnerable. He’d never shared his thoughts and emotions with anyone before.

“Have you ever thought that maybe, you know, Bakugou had already half convinced himself that your bond was broken even before you woke up? How would you feel if the person you liked, who you knew for sure liked you back, would no longer feel that way any longer?”

Izuku paled, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. A bad feeling started dawning on him, horror slowly building inside him, inch by inch. His heart rate started increasing exponentially.

The door opened silently as Recovery Girl strode in as quickly as her short stride let her. She was carrying a thick book that was half as tall as her. Izuku subconsciously tensed up as he felt her Aura radiating what he could only describe as similar to how Mitsuki-san felt when she was about to chew Kacchan out.

She placed the heavy book in his lap, flipping the book open to where the bookmark was placed. “Read this,” she said, tapping her finger on a line.

Communication, he silently read. The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. A letter or message containing information or news. Social contact. The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings. Izuku paused and ran through the words again, his mind tripping on the use of the word ‘successful’ in the last definition. His thoughts were running a mile a minute, frantically spinning over the one phrase. He felt like he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but he wasn’t quite there yet.

“Do you understand, young man?” Recovery Girl said sternly, but kindly. “The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings. And what have you done?”

Izuku sucked in a shocked breath, what he’d done suddenly hitting him in full force. What little blood he still had in his face left rapidly, leaving Aizawa and Recovery Girl looking at the new student in concern and worry.

Izuku lurched to his feet, stumbling. Aizawa-sensei quickly stabilised him before he was running out the door, using as much of One For All as All Might had deemed usable.

He had to fix this.

Behind him, Recovery Girl and Aizawa exchanged looks.

Aizawa shot the elderly doctor a dry glare. He’d been doing so well too. What Recovery Girl just did was akin to launching a nuclear bomb at the poor student. He was breaking the news to him gently, but what the fuck was up with that dictionary. Did she go all the way to the library to pick that up just to shove that in his face?

Recovery Girl felt both slightly relieved as well as worried that she took it too far. There was a reason why she specialized in physical recovery and not just because of her Quirk, either. Her medical professor had told her she had practically no tact, after all. She’d been getting slightly better over the years of being a professional, but there was always room for improvement.

Izuku didn’t know how long he ran around aimlessly, trying his hardest to find Kacchan. Subconsciously, he ruled out the places that Kacchan wouldn’t have gone, leaving him a plethora of places he might have instead. Izuku tripped over his feet in his haste, sending him tumbling down onto the ground. He blinked away the pain, discarding it without a second thought.

He hurriedly stood up, a sense of panic filling him at allowing Kacchan to have the thought they weren’t bonded anymore. Wait. He mentally slapped himself. What was he doing? Why the hell was he not using his bond with Kacchan to track him down. He had partially blocked away the feelings he received from the bond, forcing it to the back of his mind.

He took a breath to calm himself down. Slowly, the green-haired teen pushed away the various other Auras in the area, letting his subconscious fall back onto the bond that was the most important to him.

Izuku jerked like he’d been shocked. Horror suddenly burst forth at what he’d done to Kacchan. The feelings that he thought were his own were mirroring and reflecting what Kacchan was feeling, his own feelings feeding off Kacchan’s feelings.

The grief, devastation, anxiety and the sense of loss. Everything he’d been feeling, Kacchan had been feeling too. Kacchan’s feelings were pure and unadulterated in intensity, just like his explosive personality. He wasn’t sure if it was because it was Kacchan, but since his Quirk had mutated, or maybe grown, he realized that Kacchan’s feelings were just much more potent than most regular people’s.

Izuku stumbled over his feet again, any grace he might have gained during those ten months went straight out the window. He ran in the direction the bond was leading him, praying hard that Kacchan hadn’t been running when he left. If Kacchan left his sphere of sensing, then how would he manage to find him?

A sense of desperation was steadily building up with him. He wanted to go back in time and slap himself for letting those words out just thirty minutes prior. Tears pooled in his eyes as he felt the feelings that Kacchan was feeling too. He should have just died ten months ago. Maybe then, Kacchan would still have some semblance of happiness.

Izuku searched desperately, single-mindedly running in the direction of where he could feel the bond. He could have broken into tears when he caught sight of Kacchan’s back. Immediately, the green-haired teen launched himself at the other’s back.

“Kacchan,” he cried out, not giving the blonde any time to react before the two of them collided and tumbled to the floor.

The blonde seemed stunned, staring blankly into the sky before quickly trying to detach himself from the other teen. He looked away from the green-haired teen, hurriedly scrubbing his face as best he could before trying to glare at him.

“What do you want? We don’t have anything to do with each other now that the bond isn’t there,” he said, voice coming out oddly subdued.

Izuku struggled to hold back the tears, realizing that the blonde’s eyes, as well as his nose, were red, presumably from crying. He gripped Kacchan’s hands in his, feeling the sadness and heartbreak the other was projecting in his Aura, feeling his own heart break into little pieces. How could he have done this?

Kacchan tried to pull away from him, trying to stand up. Izuku gripped his hand tighter, pulling him back down. The blonde landed with a whump.

“What the hell, Izuku?” Kacchan said, his voice lacking the sharp, familiar heat that had been present during their middle school days. Now, he just sounded defeated, though he was trying to hide it well.

The blonde tried to put up a tough front, keeping his emotions from surfacing on his face, but Izuku could feel the unhealthy cocktail of negative emotions emitting from the blonde.

“Kacchan, don’t go,” he murmured, clutching onto the other’s hand.

Katsuki’s brows furrowed. He started and stopped, feeling like he wanted to say something, but there was nothing that came out. All he felt now was depressed and hurt. Why was it so hard to let go? He knew this was better for Izuku, and he really was trying his best, but why? Why? Why was Izuku coming after him? Why was he making this harder than it had to be?

“I have to go home,” he said at last, trying to pull away from his…ex-boyfriend? Is that all they were now? Tears sprung to his eyes at the thought, the feeling was sharp and agonizing. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Izuku let out a sob. “Wait, Kacchan, don’t go. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Katsuki grit his teeth, not sure what the other was talking about. “What are you talking about? I’m the one who’s sorry, okay? I’m sorry I took your first kiss, your first love. You should have been with someone who would love you how you deserve to be loved, but instead, you’re stuck with me,” he said self-deprecatingly.

Katsuki teared up at the ever-present thoughts that Izuku was too good for him. There was no way that Izuku loved him even without the bond. Who would love someone like him? Someone who had bullied, had hurled sharp insults, had given bruises, cuts and burns. Life wasn’t a fairy tale. Reality hurt.

“I’m sorry,” Izuku cried, breaking down in front of Kacchan. Why was he so weak? He couldn’t even keep his own emotions in check. Kacchan was hurting, and all he was doing was hurt him even further.

“I – the bond wasn’t broken, like I said back in then. It wasn’t. I still love you as much now as I did back when I was only four. Please, please don’t go.”

Izuku trembled inwardly when he felt Kacchan go so very still. It was unlike how he’d ever felt him before. His heart was pounding hard. This could all go very wrong. But he would accept whatever came his way as a way of atonement. Then, he felt the blossom of hurt that welled up within Kacchan, and if he thought what Kacchan was feeling before was bad, this was a hundred times worse.

“Why?” came a quiet voice.

Kacchan was never quiet. It just wasn’t in his nature. Izuku’s heart broke a little further when he realized he was the one who did that.

Katsuki didn’t know what to think. He was having mixed feelings over what Izuku just told him. Izuku lied about their bond being broken? Why? Why did he do that? Did he just not want their bond anymore? Was Katsuki such a bad person that Izuku no longer wanted to be around him even with a fucking Soulmate Quirk?

The blonde carefully studied his…boyfriend? Were they still together? Katsuki flinched inwardly at that thought. He tried to read the emotions showing on the other’s face. He didn’t find anything but regret and anxiety. Something within him broke quietly, before he slowly pieced the pieces back together. He still wanted Izuku. Did it matter that he lied about their bond being broken?

Maybe the Katsuki ten months ago might have been able to brush it off and move on, but the Katsuki now knew that his feelings for Izuku weren’t that shallow. He was at least half in love with Izuku. Maybe his feelings for Izuku weren’t as deep yet, but he had a feeling that time went on, his feelings would only deepen.

He was already this far in. He didn’t think he was going to be able to get out now. He didn’t quite want to either. He wanted Izuku. That’s why it hurt so much when he heard that their bond was broken. Izuku had given him a sense of safety that he’d never found with anyone else.

He waited for Izuku to answer him, but he already knew that no matter what Izuku said, he was still going to end up clinging onto him. Katsuki chucked dryly at himself. He never took himself to end up being the clingy type. He’d always thought he wouldn’t ever end up with anybody. He hadn’t been able to imagine himself in a committed relationship. Now, however, he didn’t think he would ever be as fond of another person as he was of Izuku.

When Izuku had said the bond was broken, it had taken every inch of his willpower not to press his lips against Izuku’s to see if they would be able to reproduce the bond. Katsuki squuzed Izuku’s hand in comfort even as his own heart squeezed as he waited for Izuku to calm down.

Katsuki watched with worried eyes as Izuku’s frame shuddered, feeling worried and helpless. He wanted to help, but what could he do? Izuku was the one who had tried to break their bond. Since he didn’t know why, how could he comfort him?

Eventually, Izuku’s frame relaxed as his tears came to a halt. Katsuki tried his best to wait patiently even as anxiety ate at him. He tried to press it down so that it wouldn’t affect Izuku, but he knew he wasn’t entirely successful when Izuku flinched.

“Kacchan. Do you…do you think I’m a burden?”

Katsuki felt entirely stunned when the question registered. What did Izuku think he was asking? Did he really think that Katsuki would think of him that way? Katsuki winced when he remembered how he acted months ago. Before he’d changed, that did seem like something he would think, and the blonde teen felt glad that he wasn’t that way anymore.

“Don’t be an idiot. I told you, didn’t I? I like you. I really, really like you.” Katsuki paused when tears filled Izuku’s eyes again, sending him into a panic. “Why are you crying?! What did I say wrong this time?” Katsuki hastily wiped the tears trailing down the other’s cheeks with his free hand, inwardly fretting.

Izuku let out a watery laugh. “I’m just. Really happy. I’ve been an idiot, haven’t I?” The green-haired teen pressed his face into the other’s warm hand that was still wiping his tears. “I just thought – you know, I’ve been forcing this Soulmate bond on you. You don’t have a choice at all. I thought that the bond was causing you nothing but trouble. Aren’t you just feeling guilty that I tried to commit suicide back then? If I didn’t have this bond with you, you’d never give me a second look, right?”

Katsuki grit his teeth. The things that were coming out of Izuku’s mouth were causing him to see red. Was that really what he thought? Katsuki reflected. Those were the things he’d been thinking too, only in reverse.

“Idiot! Moron!” the blonde huffed a breath, pulling his boyfriend closer into a hug. If he was secretly more secure when they were closer together, no one but Izuku would know. “We’re both idiots, so let’s call it even, okay? I had the same doubts as you, just the other way around. If I never kissed you when we were playing when we were younger, there’s no way you would want to be with me. I bullied you for so many years. You’d be a masochist if you still wanted to be with me after all of that.”

“Kacchan, I still think I would love you even without the bond. When Aizawa-sensei used his Quirk on me, I think I still felt my love for you, just that it was hidden down under the panic I was feeling at that moment.”

Katsuki snorted, still disbelieving. He was completely certain there was no way he would, but they could agree to disagree for now. The blonde pulled away for now, suddenly attacked with a feeling of shyness.

“You don’t believe me,” Izuku said, frowning. Katsuki’s eyes zeroed in on the pouty looking lips, his mind instantly going into the gutter.

“Kacchan,” he heard distantly. “Kacchan, are you listening to me?”

He snapped out of it, feeling his face heating up. Ahh, fuck, what was he doing! That was so fucking embarrassing!

“Well, we’ll never know, anyway. Isn’t that better? You better never fake our bond being broken again, you hear me?” Katsuki said in as firm a voice as he could manage, looking away from his boyfriend. He was so fucking relieved that the bond wasn’t broken. He hated himself a little that he couldn’t bring himself to be happy that it wasn’t broken. Selfish, that’s what he was.

But he knew now that he’d never let Izuku go in the future, even if the other ever came to hate him, he didn’t think he had it in him to let Izuku go again. Doing it once had been hard enough. He’d felt like his soul had shattered. Like he had crushed his own heart into dust himself. He never wanted to feel that way again. The thought of Izuku being with anyone else made him want to grind his teeth as he stabbed the person in his imagination. Izuku was his, dammit.

“We’re good now, right?” he asked tentatively, squeezing the green-haired teen’s hand slightly. The resulting smile from Izuku made him feel like a blind man that had seen the sun for the first time. He blinked dazed eyes as stars danced around his vision.

Fuck why is Izuku so cute?! Fuck, fuck, fuck. Katsuki’s face darkened as he thought about the various boys and girls that would try to steal Izuku away from him.

They better fucking stay away. Or he would help them do it. Permanently.

Katsuki dragged Izuku back to his house. There was no way he was going to let Izuku go back into that house where he tried to commit suicide. Not today. Not ever, if he had anything to do with it. He tried to keep Izuku from going back before, but the green-haired teen had refused to listen to him and insisted on going back. The blonde had mixed feelings about that. On one hand, the apartment held memories of Izuku’s parents, but on the other, it was also the place where Izuku had tried to end his life.

The blonde bundled the both of them up in bed, squeezing the green-haired teen tightly. He felt bone-achingly tired. Today had been a rollercoaster of emotions. His emotions had fluctuated so vastly that it left him feeling drained. With how often he cycled between feeling fine and being mad, you’d think that he would be used to the feeling, but he had never felt as tired as he did right now.

All he wanted to do now was snuggle with his boyfriend in bed, and hopefully catch some uninterrupted sleep. Sleep had seemed so elusive for months. He even knew how to use foundation now. He would never call makeup girly again. Learning how to use it had been an arduous task.

Katsuki waited until Izuku’s breathing evened out before cautiously pressing his ear to Izuku’s chest. He listened to the sound of the slow, steady heartbeats, a sense of drowsiness overtaking him. He was slowly lulled into a sense of security as he calmed down, feeling safe as he pressed near the other teen. Izuku’s heartbeats. Izuku’s breathing. Izuku’s presence. Everything meant he was still alive.

He was alive, and he would stay that way. Katsuki would kill any of those fuckers who tried to take his boyfriend away from him. Or semi-kill them, Katsuki corrected himself grudgingly. Izuku probably wouldn’t be too happy if he really did end up killing them.

Katsuki scowled slightly, feeling like Izuku was influencing his every thought and action. He didn’t know whether to be pleased or unhappy. It felt like his world was steadily evolving to revolve around Izuku’s every action, and he felt slightly scared by this. He didn’t think he would ever be okay without Izuku anymore. He still wanted to be a Hero, but if he had to trade being a Hero for Izuku’s life, Katsuki would have given up being a Hero in a heartbeat if it meant Izuku was safe.

It was terrifying. He felt like he had been pushed up against the edge of a cliff, staring down into the abyss as enemies pressed up from behind. Katsuki bit his inner cheek, feeling nervous and terrified. The sensation slowly built up the more he thought about things, causing worry and unrest to build up within his heart.

Then, he felt a sensation across his shoulders as a weight pressed down. He jolted, out of his thoughts, his heart settling down. He felt like Izuku was holding his hand as the two of them stood at the edge of the cliff, smiling reassuringly at him.

That’s right. They were in this together. Whether or not this relationship worked out was up to them. Katsuki didn’t want the two of them to break up. Even if they had fights, Katsuki wanted to be reassured that they wouldn’t break up. He wanted this relationship. He wanted to be committed. Even if they fought, Katsuki wanted to be able to make up with Izuku and work through their differences.

Katsuki smiled gently as he focused on the pounding of Izuku’s heart, gradually returning to the feeling of peace and contentment. They still had more things to talk about, but Katsuki knew they would get there eventually.

The blonde’s thoughts drifted off, his eyelids too heavy to keep themselves up anymore, sinking into a deep, peaceful, uninterrupted sleep.

Beside him, Izuku cracked open an eye and gave a sleepy smile, feeling warm. He was happy he was able to help Kacchan at least a little by being next to him. Affection bubbled up within his chest, causing him to feel like he’d returned home after a long and weary journey.

He silently resolved himself to talk to Kacchan better from now on. He wouldn’t haphazardly jump to conclusions before he made sure that his feelings and thoughts had been conveyed properly. He loved Kacchan the most in the world. He didn’t know if there was anyone who would love Kacchan as much as he did besides Kacchan’s parents, but he hoped no one appeared in the future.

Kacchan was his. And he was Kacchan’s. He hoped things stayed this way. Even if he knew it was selfish, until he knew for sure that Kacchan’s feelings for him were no longer viewed in any positive light, he wouldn’t back off.

Izuku squeezed the arm still across Kacchan’s shoulders a little tighter, feeling slightly more reassured at the feeling that Kacchan was really still here in his arms, under the same covers. His heart seemed to fill with sweetness. He wished he could share the feeling with everyone in the world.

He hoped they all found love as well. Perhaps the journey would be painful, maybe even heart-breaking and bittersweet, but if they managed to find love in the process, then it was all worth it. Izuku had cried enough tears to fill an ocean in the process, but things were looking up now.

Kacchan liked him. Kacchan liked him. Kacchan liked him. Him, of all people.

He still felt like he was on cloud nine when he thought about this. He felt like he was floating on clouds, carelessly, carefree and unshackled, like a baby bird learning how to fly for the first time.

Now, all he had to do was somehow confess to Kacchan and ask him to be his boyfriend. Izuku felt nervous. He hoped Kacchan would agree. He knew Kacchan’s feelings for him were only at the level of ‘like’ and not ‘love’ yet, but hopefully they would be able to get there one day. There was nothing in the world more beautiful than the feelings that he was experiencing at this moment.

Izuku took a resolute breath, silently mustering up his determination to ask Kacchan out. He wanted to be able to put a label on their relationship so badly. He wanted to be able to say proudly that Kacchan was his boyfriend, that Kacchan was off-limits.

He listened to Kacchan’s deep breaths as he slept. Izuku reached out to touch the other’s face, his heart squeezing slightly at the dark smudges under Kacchan’s eyes. They hadn’t been there before, and he hadn’t realized that Kacchan had been suffering when he had left to train with All Might previously. Izuku felt guilty. He knew he was the one who had put them there.

When Kacchan had exited the shower, he managed to control his facial expression and not to show his shock, but the moment he appeared without what he assumed was foundation covering the dark smudges, Izuku had instantly known what had happened.

He never wanted to make Kacchan experience sleepless nights again. As his fingertips touched the slightly chill face, gently brushing the dark smudges, Kacchan’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.

Izuku quickly withdrew his hand, scared of waking the other up. Thankfully, he fell back into sleep as he nuzzled into Izuku’s chest, seeking warmth.

The sudden wave of love and adoration crashed over Izuku’s heart as he took in the subconscious reaction that Kacchan had around him. Izuku basked in the endorphins that were rushing through him.

He listened to Kacchan’s breathing like he was counting sheep. He fell asleep with Kacchan’s peaceful face imprinted in his mind, giving him happy dreams for the first time in a long, long while.

Katsuki screamed inwardly. His brain was melting out of his ears from the sheer boredom he was feeling. He wanted to move his feet and hands, not sit here and listen to Present Mic go through English examples. The blonde struggled as he drifted off slightly in the middle of the lesson, even as his brain supplied him the answers for the questions on the chalkboard.

He pinked slightly. He could somewhat feel Izuku’s presence behind him. It somewhat reminded him of an affectionate cat, brushing up against his senses briefly and intermittently, reminding him that he was still there. He may not have the acute senses for Auras and emotions that Izuku had due to his Quirk, but he liked to think that he was more sensitive to other’s intentions and glances than most other people.

Did he just feel Izuku’s presnece that much more keenly? Or was it just that his fucking body had somehow gained some sort of proficiency at locating Izuku? Katsuki scoffed. Considering the danger that Izuku seemed to go through seemed to shorten his lifespan every time, it made sense that his body developed a response for that.

It felt like his body had been hard-wired to Izuku’s presence. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. On one hand, it made it hard to concentrate in class when he could keenly feel the attention on him, but on the other, being able to locate Izuku meant that it would be easier to find him in any times of crisis.

If Katsuki was a little relieved at the thought, he didn’t acknowledge it.

His eyes wandered around the classroom, only a small part of his brain still paying attention to Present Mic. The bunch of extras around him all seemed to be feeling similar feelings of boredom. Izuku wouldn’t be though, even with how he could feel the green-haired teen’s glances on him every so often, it gave the feeling of being more like a reflex action of checking whether he was still there or not. Other than that, Izuku was probably wholly focused on solving the questions on the board.

Katsuki blocked his mouth with his hand, hiding the slight smile that he couldn’t stop from breaking onto his face. He didn’t want any of those extras to get any funny ideas. He had a persona to keep up, dammit! Izuku was making him feel fluffy and soft. Not that he would change anything about that, but he couldn’t help but feel helpless that Izuku was inevitably changing him. It gave him mixed feelings, but the one thing he did know was that as long as he managed to keep Izuku close to him, he didn’t mind the fact that he was changing.

He wanted to treat Izuku kindly, and he wanted to be treated kindly in return. Katsuki felt his stomach clench slightly. He knew he didn’t have any rights to be able to ask for the same treatment back, but he really did like Izuku. He couldn’t help wanting to both give and receive affection from the other teen. No matter what Izuku said, he had spent years tormenting and heaping abuse onto the other.

Even if Izuku had forgiven him, he hadn’t forgiven himself. He was trying to change. He still felt uneasy whenever Izuku showed him affection. He knew that the guilt he felt still affected his interactions with Izuku. He tried his best to keep those negative feelings out of their interactions, but Izuku actually had a pretty good poker face when he wanted or needed to. He couldn’t tell if Izuku had noticed or not. He didn’t want Izuku to think that they were together because of guilt, because while the guilt had played a part in changing his perspective, his feelings had developed gradually, ever so slowly creeping up on him before he finally noticed.

The bell rang, causing him to flinch out of his thoughts, ignoring the subsequent cries of happiness around him. Katsuki cast a casual glance behind him, hoping he hadn’t emitted the negative emotions too much when he had been lost in thought. Izuku didn’t look any different, so the blonde gradually let down his guard.

His heart skipped a beat when Izuku smiled at him, causing him to stand up abruptly, the chair making a loud screech. He dug around in his bag, pulling out the bento he had haphazardly shoved inside earlier this morning.

Katsuki waited for Izuku to keep his belongings, shoving the embarrassment at what they were about to do deep, deep down.

“I’m done, Kacchan!”

The quicker they could get this over with, the better. The two aspiring Heroes darted off before the hallways could get too congested, aiming to complete the task earlier.

Katsuki peeked into the room where Recovery Girl had told them Aizawa-sensei usually rested in during lunchtime, inwardly disapproving as he noticed the yellow sleeping bag that contained the sleeping man.

What the fuck did he think he was doing? Didn’t he know that it was better to eat during regular hours?! Fucking seriously. Recovery Girl was right. Aizawa-sensei was neglecting his health and drinking nutritional drinks instead of having proper meals.

Katsuki eyed the offending nutritional drink sticking out slightly from the sleeping bag, itching to snatch the drink and toss it away, but held himself back because it would be rude. And Katsuki wasn’t rude. Really. No, seriously. Fuck, why didn’t anyone believe him?! It wasn’t like he intentionally set out to be as rude as possible. Things just slipped out without him noticing, alright? The blonde huffed, offended that there was a person in the world that tried to get by without properly enriching their body when they were supposed to be a Pro Hero.

That person was their fucking teacher, no less! Even if Katsuki was doing this to show his gratitude, it still offended him to the core at the lack of professionalism his teacher was showing in neglecting his body. Nutritional drinks were just an extra; they couldn’t fucking fully replace an entire meal, dammit! Especially Pro Heroes, who needed even more nourishment due to the high amount of calories they burned.

No wonder he looked so fucking tired.

Katsuki and Izuku inched closer to their homeroom teacher, not sure how to wake him up without sounding rude. They were resolved of the problem when the tired-looking man cracked open a slightly bloodshot eye, silently asking them what they wanted.

Katsuki exchanged a glance with Izuku before deciding to bite the bullet and get this over with. He thrust the neatly tied bento toward their homeroom teacher, feeling the burning sensation in his cheeks that he was steadily getting more familiar with, his embarrassment overpowering his gratitude at the moment.

“Here!” he blurted, not quite sure what to say. He powered on, despite being far as fuck out of his comfort zone. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it properly, fuck it.

“Thanks for, you know, helping Izuku and I out yesterday. If you didn’t get into Izuku’s head that we should communicate, we’d probably still be floundering around and feeling miserable. So thanks. This is for you.”

The room was silent. Katsuki felt his ears growing hot at the lack of reaction, not quite able to bring himself to look his teacher in the eyes. He abruptly wanted out as the feeling of embarrassment overwhelmed him, but stubbornly stuck to it, refusing to let his body’s reactions dictate his actions.

“Thanks for your help yesterday, Aizawa-sensei,” he heard from Izuku, echoing his previous statement.

He forcefully stopped his body from fidgeting, staring hard at the bento, feeling caught off balance. He couldn’t remember the last time he thanked anyone outside of his immediate family and perhaps Izuku. The weight in his hands lightened as two hands lifted the bento from his hands.

“Thank you, Bakugou.”

That’s it. He was done for today. Katsuki escaped from the room without a second word, taking refuge outside the room. He waited for Izuku to emerge from the room, sinking down and burying his face in his hands, feeling the heat his face was giving off. That was fucking embarrassing!

Katsuki ignored the grin on Izuku’s face when he emerged, his mind whirling as he thought about what dishes he should make tomorrow. The two of them walked to the cafeteria in a comfortable silence, feeling a little lighter now that they managed to convey their thanks to their teacher properly.

“Hey, Izuku. We’re going to be making sensei’s lunch from now on. I refuse to accept that he’s only drinking those nutritional drinks,” Katsuki said, his eyes once again narrowing in anger at the thought.

He looked away when the grin on Izuku’s face only grew, feeling the embarrassment creep up on him again. He scowled slightly. It wasn’t like he was concerned or anything, it’s just that Aizawa-sensei’s unprofessionalism offended him deeply. That’s all.

Katsuki carefully avoided looking at Izuku’s knowing grin, quickening his pace to the cafeteria.

“Hurry up, I’m starving!”

All Might entered the classroom with a bang, and all the fanfare that he contained in order to make a good first impression on his students, and if he was showing off slightly, well, no one would begrudge him for that, would they?

He was incomparably excited. He, All Might, would be able to pass down his wisdom to his little students in hopes that it would be useful for the future. He had been dreaming about this day for many nights. He originally intended to find his legacy here, where there were many potential Pro-Heroes in training, but little did he expect to find his successor in one Midoriya Izuku.

Had Izuku not made his way in that day in the hospital, he shuddered to think about how he might have missed out on finding the perfect successor for a lifetime. Furthermore, he would never have known that such a selfless, brave and courageous person existed. It was not an exaggeration to say that the presence of Izuku had seemed too good to be true. Never had he expected that such a perfect example of what he strove and looked for in a Hero to exist in such a tiny body.

“I have…” All Might paused for a dramatic effect. “Come through the door like normal!” He tried to tone down his usual dramatics, repressing the urge to burst through the door and perhaps cause it to break down.

The outburst of chatter from his appearance made his mood soar. It was always nice to know that he was appreciated. It wasn’t that he wanted to do things in a high-key way, but it just so happened that his appearance itself was already greatly different from normal people. He’d truly honed the art of appearances over the years, but he hadn’t always been like this.

In fact, in the beginning he used to go back home and roll around the bed as he recalled the things he said during the day, causing him much embarrassment at night when he finally wound down.

But he gladly endured all these things because he knew that there were people who took comfort in the things he said, in the things he did. He knew that he had a responsibility to the people and a responsibility as a mentor to uphold. He needed to set a good example.

Of course, since many people didn’t know about his secret, his life had been a little lonely before. There had only been a handful of people he trusted fully. At one point of time, he even felt like he was living a lie. That he had been living a double life, fraught with doubts and insecurities.

For this, he was thankful for his student, Midoriya Izuku. The boy was truly a ray of light in his world. He never thought someone would grow on him so soon. Part of it may have been the empathic abilities that came with his Soulmate Quirk, but most of it, the blonde Hero attributed to Izuku’s kind personality. He just didn’t seem to be able to leave someone whom he felt was feeling down or angry to themselves.

Maybe other people would call him nosy, but All Might knew that Izuku truly had a heart of gold. He wanted to help people, to take away their fears, their sadness, their anger. It was a trait that many great Heroes contained, and All Might felt like he could see his past self in Izuku.

“Hero basic training!” he cried out, informing his new students about the course that they were about to partake in. What they didn’t know was that this was the first of many tests that they would go through in the near future. Throwing them head-in to the deep part of the pool was the option that UA teachers had chosen to be able to understand their new students quicker.

As a bonus effect, it would allow them to categorise their reactions and skill levels right off the bat and focus on any weaknesses that the new students showed. Two birds with one stone! This was truly the epitome of UA’s teaching, as well as something that many other Pro Heroes lived by.

“Battle training!” All Might yelled out, pointing at the panels in the walls. The panels rumbled, smoothly sliding out rows of boxes that contained the student’s customised battle apparel.

“In accordance with the Quirk Registry and the special request forms that you filled out before being admitted, these are your costumes!”

All Might allowed the class to cheer as much as they wanted. He recalled his own days, recalling the excitement and joy he had felt as a student at this point of time. It never got old. The pure enthusiasm each student carried was like a balm to his soul.

“After you change, come out in ranking order to ground beta!”

All Might waited for the cheers to die down before starting his lecture. The true and tried facts he, as well as every other Hero had learnt was embedded in the words. “Looking good is very important, ladies and gentlemen! Costumes are part of a Hero’s job! We look good for the masses! Costumes enhance our own natural abilities, and they are filled with the blood, sweat and tears of the people who designed them! Look alive, because from today on, you’re all Heroes!”

All Might scanned the beaming faces of the students around him, his eyes landing on his protégé. He took in the sparkling eyes and deep set determination that filled the students. The blonde Hero felt a sense of joy as he looked at his students. They would be great. He recalled the days he had spent pouring over the details of his own costume with other professionals. Some of them were gone now, but he would hold them in his heart, as well as many other people.

Their dreams would never be vanquished. As long as evil was around, justice would always rise up to the challenge. Justice would always prevail!

The blonde Hero felt reassured looking at the new students. Their eyes shone and sparkled with unrelenting purity that Villains could never contain. Not even the best actors were able to produce this sort of effect. Eyes were the window to one’s soul, after all, and All Might had seen all kinds of evil and depravity.

The kids were pure, even Endeavor’s son, who somewhat resonated with him. He looked like he was slightly depressed. All Might somewhat wanted to intervene and help out, but with the way he caught sight of Izuku eyeing the other teen, he knew it was only a matter of time before he drew the other boy into his fold.

He would leave it to Izuku for now. For all he knew, he might end up making things worse instead. Sometimes, things were better left to a peer instead of having adult supervision.

They were going to be Heroes. All Heroes had things to overcome themselves. Obstacles were part of a Hero’s education. Only overcoming it themselves did they become stronger.

All Might was filled with happiness. They were good kids. The best future Heroes were going about to be born/ All Might felt like he could see a reflection of his image in each one of them.

“Well! Shall we begin?!”

Izuku suited up with an excited expression. It was finally the time! Granted, he hadn’t expected to be going into battle on the first day of school, but you couldn’t say he wasn’t excited. Because he was. Plus ultra.

The moment Izuku left the corridor, his eyes instantly zero-ed in on Kacchan. He licked his lips. He couldn’t tear his eyes away. Kacchan looked amazing. He looked like everything and at the same time, nothing like Izuku had imagined he would look like. In fact, it was even better than he could have ever imagined.

Kacchan’s designs let his explosive personality shine through, and Izuku could see that while there had been some upgrades made to the overall performance of the costume, the majority had been requested and designed by Kacchan himself. Izuku wished that he had been there while Kacchan had been designing his costume, but he would content himself with imagining Kacchan sitting by a table, twirling the pen in his hands while he thought about what he wanted in his costume.

The green-haired teen exchanged an excited glance with Kacchan, both their eyes shone with barely-contained passion. This was their childhood dream, and it was finally coming to fruition today.

He heard a gasp, turning his eyes to Ochako. She was bubbling with excitement as well as a tinge of embarrassment.

“Dekuuu, you look amazing! That costume looks really practical!”

Izuku felt Kacchan’s Aura twitch with faint annoyance at the name his new friend called him. The green-haired teen squashed down the urge to laugh.

“I really wish I’d been more specific with my design! This suit’s so puffy and curvy that it’s embarrassing,” she said, scratching the back of her head. Her Aura was lit up with embarrassment and shyness, and that just wouldn’t do.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Izuku said, smiling at her. “You look great! You should take pride in how you look.”

Izuku felt happy when the tinge of embarrassment that had been whirling around her Aura receded a little, filling with pride and a sort of surprised happiness. Then, he twitched, because he felt a burning sense of lust brushing up against his senses. His eye twitched again.

Izuku looked down to see a short boy with purple balls attached to his head radiating lust. The look in his eyes made him feel upset.

“The Hero course is the best!”

The green-haired teen frowned, not liking the implications that his classmate was making. The other’s Aura was filled with a dirty, muddy green. Izuku furrowed his brows, not liking this new classmate very much, but keeping his judgement to himself. It was too soon to judge, right? Maybe he would change along the way and not judge people by their appearances.

Izuku let it slide for the time being, but if the other boy continued down this road, then Izuku wouldn’t hesitate to give him a stern talking to. It wasn’t right to treat women or girls as objects or base them solely on their looks. The way he’d phrased that had also left him with a lingering doubt about why the other had entered the Hero course as well.

Kacchan brushed a hand against the back of his hand, soothing his nerves. His Aura was tinted with a slight worry and curiosity. A faint smile crept up on his face. Kacchan always knew how to make him feel better. Izuku bumped the back of the other’s hand back, trying to convey that he was okay.

“Sensei! This appears to be the field that we used in the entrance exam. Will we once again be performing cityscape manoeuvres?”

Izuku took this chance to scrutinise his classmate’s costume. Honestly, he felt a little plain here. Everyone’s costume was just so cool!

“No! We will be moving on to indoor anti-personnel battle training! Villain battles are usually seen outdoors, but statistically speaking, the most heinous Villains…are more likely to appear indoors.”

Izuku felt like rubbing his eyes at the Aura All Might was giving off. It was just as blinding as the man portrayed his persona to be. He was radiating a large ray of solemnness and determination so strong that he could almost physically touch it.

“Confinement, house arrest, black market deals… In this Hero-filled society of ours…” All Might cleared his throat slightly, recalling bad memories of the times he had been too late. He hastily suppressed the flashbacks, sinking back into the familiar role of his persona. “The cleverest Villains out there…lurk indoors!”

The green-haired teen hid a smile. He never realized, but when Toshinori-san played up the All Might persona, he took a lot of dramatic pauses. It was quite endearing, mainly because each of his classmates seemed to hang off his every word, even Kacchan. Every dramatic pause was followed by baited breaths and wide eyes. He could understand why Toshinori-san liked using them.

“Now, you’ll be split into two teams. Hero and Villain, and will face off each other in a two on two indoor battle!”

Izuku hurriedly tried to reign in his senses when the full force of each classmate’s shock and uncertainty hit him, heaving a little sigh of relief inwardly when the force of the emotions didn’t overwhelm him like it usually did.

A classmate made a little ‘ribbit’ sound. “So no basic training?”

Izuku could practically feel his classmates crane their ears.

“Practical training teaches you the basics!”

Izuku sweated a little. Sure, practical training taught you basics, but that was only when you had an idea what the basics actually were. He didn’t know if All Might had come out with this training plan himself, but what he was doing was practically sink or swim.

Many of them would be making potentially painful mistakes that they would remember in the future. In a way, this would kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, the students would remember the lesson, and on the other, the teachers would be able to quickly gauge a student’s strengths and weaknesses.

Class 1-A fired a series of rapid questions at All Might, getting over their brief Hero-worship for the time being. Class came first. The thought of a battle was setting their nerves on fire. They were burning with competitiveness and glee.

Izuku sighed a barely audible sigh of relief. Good thing he managed to reign himself in before anything happened. Who knew what would happen if he ended up overwhelmed again. The many times that happened, it affected his individual judgement, causing him to make uncharacteristic decisions.

“Listen up!” All Might called, bringing all questions to a halt. He pulled out a tiny piece of paper with little instructions on it, written by Aizawa. He squinted at it, not sure if this was the man’s passive aggressive way of getting back at him for confronting him yesterday about what happened with his protégé, but it was actually pretty effective. All Might gave him props for that.

“The Villains will hide a nuclear weapon in the hideout, and the Heroes have to go in and take care of it! The Heroes have a limited time to either capture the Villain or secure the weapon. The Villains either capture the Heroes or protect the weapon until the time is up.”

All Might suddenly pulled out a box with the word ‘LOTS’ on it from some hidden space, shaking it slightly. “Battle partners will be decided by drawing lots!”

“Is that really the best way?!” A voice Izuku recognized as belonging to the teenager that had protested them kissing before the UA Entrance Exams was heard.

Izuku couldn’t quite keep his mouth shut, wanting to defend his mentor. “Pros often have to team up with Heroes from other agencies on the spot during emergencies –”

The other boy immediately corrected himself, feeling chastised and genuinely remorseful. “I see! I apologize for getting ahead of myself! My mistake!”

All Might went around with the box, allowing each student to pick out a slip of paper.

Izuku drew out a slip of paper with the letter ‘A’ on it.

He looked around, his eyes landing on another classmate that had the same letter. It was the boy he had been looking at earlier. He’d been giving off a mix of sadness, rage, loneliness and detachment. Izuku had wanted to help him.

The green-haired teen shot a suspicious look at his mentor, eyeing him. The man was giving off a slight nervousness as well as a little guilt. Did Toshinori-san rig the lot drawing? How was that even possible?

All Might whistled, giving off an Aura that said he had nothing to do with it, all whilst not looking his way.

Izuku cracked a little grin. Looks like All Might wanted him to help the other teen as well.

Izuku sized up his new teammate. He was half-frosted over, with ice literally covering half of his body. The green-haired teen eyed the ice, his mind instantly making connections that the ice was from the boy’s Quirk. In place of an eye, he had some sort of red lens instead. Why would the other boy freeze half of himself?

Izuku introduced himself, smiling at the other teen. “My name is Midoriya Izuku! Nice to meet you.”

The white-haired teen stared at the other unblinkingly. “Todoroki Shouto,” he finally said, shaking the blank feeling off. What just happened?

The green-haired empath gave Todoroki a puzzled look. What happened earlier? Why did he suddenly freeze when Izuku smiled at him earlier? The only way he could describe it was a stunned feeling, but that couldn’t be right? Could it?

Seeing that the other teen was ignoring him now, Izuku’s mind drifted back to thinking about Todoroki’s strange Hero costume. If it could even be described as a Hero costume. Statistically speaking, most people who had Quirks suffered some sort of drawback when they overused their Quirk. Was that the reason why the other boy was half covered in ice? Something at the back of his mind nudged him, giving him a strange feeling. It felt like something was off with his reasoning. Something was off. But what was it? Before he could dwell further in his thoughts, All Might called their attention back to him.

“First up!” All Might rummaged around in the two boxes which had the words “Hero” and “Villain” written on them respectively. He held up two balls, ‘A’ and ‘I’.

Izuku’s mind screamed at him that this was rigged. No one else seemed suspicious, which spoke volumes about what All Might could supposedly get away with. If All Might ever became a Villai – Izuku shoved the thought deep, deep down, shushing his mind furiously. That was a thought no one wanted to contemplate. He would know. There wasn’t a bad bone in All Might’s body.

The months spent in close contact with the man had assured him of the fact. If anything, All Might was the harshest towards himself. The man still had his fits of depression, but he hid it well. If Izuku didn’t have his Quirk which had seemed to manifest this empathy – Izuku shuddered at the thought. He didn’t want to dwell on the futures that could have been, because they were living in the present. All the what-ifs would drive him crazy before long, just like how he’d been driven to desperation months prior.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure that he didn’t toe the line some days. It sure felt like he would regress, and everything would seem hopeless again, but he didn’t want to worry Kacchan. That was practically his entire reason for living this long, wasn’t it? He just wanted to see Kacchan a little more. If he was lucky enough, seeing his smile practically made him feel like his heart was about to escape from his ribcage.

“The Heroes are Team I! Villains are Team A!”

Izuku visibly felt the Aura radiating from Todoroki next to him slip slightly from its usual seemingly indifference state. It felt like he had visibly recoiled at the thought of him being a Villain. The green-haired teen looked at his teammate with concealed worry. It almost felt like the teen’s Aura had flinched or shuddered in the way the Aura fluctuated. Izuku hadn’t seen that happen very often.

He didn’t think the other teen would accept any help from him, and that just made him worry all the more. Todoroki wasn’t getting any help, if he was already like this. The teen gave him a very indifferent vibe. Or maybe the proper way to describe it was detached. It felt like the teen didn’t hold much affection for living, almost like a haunting echo that was a manifestation of Izuku’s past self. There was a sense of déjà vu, like he was looking in a mirror.

There was something very wrong. Izuku hesitated to call the other teen broken, because he wasn’t. No one was every truly broken, but if there was a way to aptly describe it, Izuku would describe him as fractured.

It was like he was still whole, but his visage had concealed cracks and hairline fractures that weren’t readily visible. There was no telling how deeply those little cracks went. Izuku felt itchy. He wanted to help. He felt like he saw himself in the other teen.

Izuku sized up the team that they would be going up against. It was two classmates that he hadn’t had a chance to interact with yet. An invisible person, as well as a boy that had a tail. His mind whirled as he tried to gain some semblance of a plan. He quickly discarded several plans that his mind came up with straight away. He didn’t know the extent of Todoroki’s Quirk, so he would have to ask him while they were in the building and make their plans quickly in the five minutes they were allocated.

“Villain team goes in first! The rest of us will watch from CCTV. The timer starts in five minutes, after the Hero team sneaks in.” Izuku sized up the building, spotting at least five stories. “Todoroki, Midoriya, you two need to adopt a Villain mindset so that this training exercise is more effective. This also counts as practical experience, so don’t hold back. Go all out! Though, of course, I will stop you if you take things too far.”

Izuku and Todoroki headed up to the floor that held the rocket they were supposed to protect. Both teens stared at the rocket. It was quite large, but that was to be expected, really.

The green-haired teen felt the other’s Aura turn slightly contemplative, his current depression and indifference felt like a world away, Izuku almost gave the white-haired teen a surprised look, but somehow managed to hold himself back.

The difference in Todoroki’s Aura was startling. It was just a tiny flicker of light, but Izuku could almost picture the way the teen was before whatever fractured him so badly happened. His heart clenched at the thought. The other’s feelings were pure and unadulterated in a way that reminded him of Kacchan. People like them just felt things deeper and purely. They formed bonds that could either make or break them.

Izuku wanted to help, but he didn’t know how. All Might had trusted he would be able to do something, but honestly, he felt like he was at a loss. What could he do that wouldn’t set the other teen off?

Shouto furrowed his brows minutely. Had he been on the Hero team, he could have just asked Midoriya to wait outside whilst he froze the whole building, but he could hardly do that whilst they were the Villain team. Or…could they? He supposed that they wouldn’t be breaking any rules should he ask Midoriya to wait outside the building until the Heroes entered, but…something niggled at him.

This was considered practical experience by pitting classmates against each other in a mock Villain and Hero scenario, but what were the teachers looking for? Power? Strength? Tactics? Efficiency? No…something didn’t sit right with him at the answers he came up with. He was sure that those were also about to be tested, but there was something else… what was it?

Izuku sucked in a little breath to fortify his determination. He would help Todoroki. But everything needed a foundation first. “Let’s work together, Todoroki-san. Please give me a quick run down about your Quirk so that we can make a plan.”

Izuku watched Todoroki’s eyes widened ever so slightly. He wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking for it, but even if he hadn’t, the teen’s Aura was giving him away. The contrast in his usual Aura with his Aura now practically blinded him. He resisted the urge to blink.

So, the answer was teamwork… Shouto mused. He had been home-schooled until now, so he was still clueless about what teachers wanted to see in their students. The only thing his father ever wanted was perfection and strength, so it had clouded his thinking slightly. Shouto instantly adjusted his mentality, taking the little lesson that Midoriya had given him with grace.

The white-haired teen nodded, opening his mouth to give the other teen a short summary of his Quirk.

Izuku and Todoroki managed to make quick work of moving the rocket-like object that they were supposed to protect to a less vulnerable and easily defensive position. Todoroki used his Quirk to freeze the windows over thickly as well as freezing the lights overhead, causing the room to plunge into semi-darkness.

Todoroki nodded to him, the two Heroes-in-training stepping out of the door. Izuku closed the door quickly, the two of them heading down the hall to another nearby door before freezing that door instead.

Izuku frowned. It was a little too obvious. “Can you make the ice less obvious? Just freeze the edges of the door instead and make it spread out evenly so that it’s hard to notice.”

Todoroki thinks about it and nods, agreeing with the general concept that they were aiming for. Too obvious and they would notice, but too subtle and it would escape detection. It was a good plan.

Contrary to expectation, the two ‘Villains’ didn’t split up but instead headed up a level, hiding themselves well enough that they wouldn’t be spotted at first glance. Izuku could practically taste the anticipation and slight worry that tinged Todoroki’s Aura, though his facial expression didn’t so much as move in the slightest.

Todoroki seemed to reign himself in, his previous emotions dying down so abruptly that it felt strange to Izuku. He had done that when Izuku had told him he could feel emotions, as well. Izuku didn’t take offense to it, but he was glad that he managed to disclose how some of his Quirk worked.

It was just strange. It kind of felt like he had been just about to take a bite from a tasty cake before it was retracted, leaving him biting down on air. More than that, the way the other could so effectively compartmentalize his emotions worried him. No one with a normal background was able to do that.

Chewing the inside of his cheek, the green-haired teen decided to put the matter aside for now. It was almost painful that he couldn’t do anything to help. Izuku took a steadying breath and closed his eyes to try and track where the Hero team was. He expanded his search range when he realized that there was no one in the building as of yet.

He could feel two Auras quickly approaching. The Auras split up, one of them more excited, the other worried and rather tense.

“One of them is in the building on the first floor. The other is making their way up the emergency stairs.”

Todoroki’s thoughts whirled as he tried to put together a feasible plan. He could take care of them but going after one would leave the other free to do as they wished while he was indisposed. He didn’t know if he would be able to get to the other quickly enough or –

Izuku tilted his head at the various fluctuating emotions the other was cycling through. He proposed his plan. “Todoroki-san, you get the Hero outside while I get the one downstairs.

It almost felt like a ray of light had shone through various dark clouds. Right. He wasn’t alone in this exercise. Shouta felt vaguely embarrassed. He had realized that they were being tested on teamwork, but he hadn’t applied it at the most critical juncture.

He nodded to show his assent and quickly but cautiously made his way down using the windows. Izuku watched after him, feeling something akin to a proud parent watching their children take their first baby steps.

He shook himself out of it, keeping an eye on Todoroki-san’s Aura that was rapidly nearing Hero number one’s Aura. As silently as possible, Izuku made his way to the stairs, zeroing in on the Aura that seemed to blaze with excitement. He would have felt this even if he was blind. He paused. Especially if he was blind. But that was beside the point.

He was mildly gratified when he realized that the classmate he would be fighting was the one with invisibility. He’d made the right call with going after the one in the building. The green-haired teen tentatively peeked out at her from the top of the stairs.

Izuku could see the small piece of equipment she was using, the earpiece hovering in the air. Or rather, she was using only an earpiece. Nothing else. Izuku squinted, trying to get a proper look at the earpiece. Based on the way the earpiece was equipped, she was facing away from the stairs.

Quickly and efficiently, Izuku managed to get the drop on her. He had been prepared to wait until she climbed the stairs before ambushing her, but he was worried that she would receive some sort of distress call from her teammate before he could put his plan into action.

The green-haired ‘Villain’ powered around 1% of One For All, landing silently behind her. He grabbed the capture tape that had been prepared for both Villain and Hero teams to use, quickly binding her mouth before she could call out for help. He then bound the rest of her, incapacitating her.

He grabbed hold of her body so that no sound would be made if she fell over. The moment he did, his face erupted into a blush. He gently put her on the stairs, beating back the urge to furiously apologise before the exercise was over.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, tentatively checking her Aura. She felt shocked and disappointed, as well as a strange mix of awe felt slightly like she was impressed? She wasn’t feeling anything negative towards him specifically, but that didn’t make him feel any better.

He cleared his throat. His face still felt like it was burning. “Todoroki-san, I’m done.”

“Same,” came the reply.

“The Villain Team wins!” came the announcement.

Izuku quickly released his classmate like he was being paid to do it by the second. He’d never felt this embarrassed in his life. He slowly sunk down to the ground, feeling tired beyond belief. He buried his face in his hands.

“Hello, I’m Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you,” he managed at last, tripping over his words.

“Hello! That was great. I’m Hagakure Touru! It was really impressive, what you did.”

Izuku let out a strangled sound. “Thank you,” he said. He quickly stood up and bowed deeply to her.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you weren’t wearing anything at all. Please forgive me!”

Her Aura lit up with embarrassment, making him feel like crawling into a hole and never coming out again.

“I-It’s okay,” she stuttered, voice tinged with embarrassment. “I do this a lot. It’s a tactical advantage, after all.”

Izuku felt like something vague exploded in his mind. He could practically feel that she meant every word. There was no embarrassment or shyness in her Aura, which meant she’d only felt the embarrassment because he actually ended up touching her while she was bound.

Izuku slowly buried his face in his hands whilst still bowing towards her to show his sincerity before he felt a hand tugging at him. He wanted to refuse and continue repenting before he felt the determination lining over her Aura, getting a feeling that she wouldn’t let him continue doing this.

He straightened up, his cheeks still not back to their normal color. Stupid Izuku, he scolded himself. He should have – no, wait, he inwardly wailed. He couldn’t have switched with Todoroki-san either. She was barefoot, which meant that Todoroki-san using his Quirk would have hurt her. He felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“If I may,” he said desperately, “you should suggest to the support department that you need gear that allows you to be fully invisible while wearing.”

The way her Aura lit up made him want to rub at his eyes.

“Thank you! I hadn’t thought of that.”

Izuku smiled nervously at her, finally getting rid of the blush once she started gushing about what else she could request for. He was glad she seemed to listen to him. Despite what she felt about her general state of nudity, it still wasn’t safe for a girl to go around stark naked, no matter how useful it might be.

The more he listened to her, he felt his lips quirking into a smile. She reminded him slightly of Kacchan when he was being particularly obsessed over his Hero costume designs, if Kacchan was a female and less like an angry explosion waiting to happen, that is.

He let the chatter wash over him, giving pointers where he could about the costume designs as they walked back to the rest of the class. He could feel Todoroki-san and their other classmate a short ways behind them nodding at them before continuing their discussion.

Katsuki tried to catch his boyfriend’s eyes, but the other teen seemed like he was avoiding looking in his direction at all costs. Even as the rest of the class debated about the training exercise, the blonde couldn’t concentrate as his attention wandered.

He had a niggling feeling about why Izuku had reacted that way but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. When he tried catching his boyfriend’s eyes for the nth time, the other wouldn’t meet his eyes at all. The green-haired teen’s smiling expression had instantly shuttered the moment the two of them met eyes. Katsuki grit his teeth at the memory, feeling helpless.

The moment class was dismissed for the day, Katsuki tried to get Izuku’s attention again. “Izuku!”

Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s hand, but the other teen shook him off. The blonde felt faint stirrings of shock. What was wrong? Why was Izuku reacting this way? He studied the other teen’s face, noting that Izuku’s pallor was looking exceedingly poor. He looked pale and upset.

What exactly had happened? Katsuki felt frustrated. It was at times like this that he wished he shared Izuku’s empathy so that he knew what the other was feeling. He wanted to help, but he had a feeling that it was something he had done. Katsuki tried to recall what happened but came up blank. Then, he tried to recall his earlier actions and what he may have done that might have set Izuku off with furrowed brows.

Katsuki’s head snapped up when he realized that Izuku had taken off. Immediately, the blonde chased after him. “Izuku, wait! Why are you running?!”

The distance between them slowly widened, and soon he could only make out the general outline of Izuku in the distance. Katsuki grit his teeth and pushed himself to run harder, ignoring his protesting lungs. Why was he running away from him?! Katsuki had sworn to protect him, so how could he do that if the other teen was pushing him away? Katsuki just wanted to talk and put aside whatever misunderstanding Izuku had picked up.

A slowly growing sense of hurt started creeping up on him without his permission. It felt like his heart had started contracting in his chest, almost like his lungs weren’t giving him enough oxygen, like someone had taken a hand and shoved it deep into his chest and started digging their nails into his heart. It felt like little thorns burrowing and wrapping their way around and into Katsuki’s fragile heart, leaving him bleeding and hurting.

The blonde shoved the feeling down. Now wasn’t the time for these feelings. There had to be something wrong. There was no way that Izuku would act like this if it didn’t have something to do with himself. He knew Izuku. Even during the time when they had fallen out, at the back of Katsuki’s mind, he could always predict Izuku’s general reaction.

By the time he managed to somewhat close the distance, he realized that Izuku was headed to his own apartment and not his house, where they had been living together with his mother and father.

An almost unprecedented sense of crisis made itself known to Katsuki, blaring alarms in his mind. It drowned out every other thought. Izuku was planning on going back into the apartment where he had attempted suicide, where he would probably try and keep him out.

No!

Katsuki couldn’t stop himself from shouting. “Izuku!”

An idea popped up in his head, and it must have affected him subconsciously, because when the blonde tried to push himself even faster, he slipped and tripped on the gravel in his haste, sending himself tumbling down. He couldn’t stop himself from gasping at the sharp, physical hurt that seemed to match what he was feeling inside.

He grit his teeth and picked himself up, valiantly trying to ignoring the stings and burns that he felt. He couldn’t quite help the tears that welled up when he realized that Izuku had stopped running away and had come back for him. The relief he felt was palpable.

He couldn’t help the smile that slipped onto his face when he watched Izuku hover and reach for him with his hand outstretched but wavering in his hesitance. Katsuki couldn’t help but find him cute in his relief that Izuku still cared enough about him to worry. What could possibly cause him that much harm from just a fall? Clearly, Izuku had known in his mind that he would be fine, but he couldn’t help but come back to check on him.

The smile slipped from his face when Izuku used One for All to run again, leaving him behind. He felt slightly bitter as the hurt returned. Why did it feel like he was always being left behind? He was always too late, or always in the way. The squeeze on his heart came back.

Katsuki scrambled to dash forward again, almost tripping again in his urgency, but thankfully he didn’t, because that would have put him back even further from the distance that Izuku was already gaining.

The blonde tore up the stairs, pushing himself to his limits as he chased after Izuku. He only managed to catch sight of Izuku’s face as he closed the door to his apartment. The hand that Katsuki had reached out to shove in the door opening unconsciously slowed down when he realized that Izuku had tear tracks running down his face, so he didn’t manage to stop the door from fully closing.

“Shit!” Katsuki exploded, banging a fist on the door, his anger flaring briefly before abruptly being doused with cold water. He wasn’t mad at Izuku, but mad at himself. He felt upset at the words and actions he just made. He could almost envision how Izuku had flinched behind the door, feeling his anger.

“Izuku,” he said, knocking on the door, hoping for a response. His heart fell a little when he didn’t get one. “Won’t you even talk to me? I think you got the wrong idea earlier on. There’s only one thing I can think of that might have made you upset, but the reason isn’t what you think.”

Katsuki paused, futilely waiting for a response, before he soldiered on. “I might have been angry earlier on, when you returned from your mock battle, but it wasn’t because I was angry at you, okay? I was angry at myself for being jealous, because you couldn’t possibly have known about that, and even if you did, you probably didn’t have any better ideas. I was jealous that the one you were touching wasn’t me.”

The blonde bit the inside of his cheek when there was no response. He felt tears traitorously prick his eyes again. He sighed, turning around and leaning against the door. He waited. Izuku was probably behind the door, waiting for him to go away.

Katsuki slumped down, pulling his knees to his chest in a rare moment of vulnerability. Why didn’t Izuku believe him? Was he really that untrustworthy? The guilt that never really went away returned with a vengeance. It was his fault. He had spent so many years bullying and belittling Izuku. Did he really think that he would be able to get Izuku to trust him again? Katsuki couldn’t help the deprecating laugh that bubbled up. Who did he think he was?

The blonde-haired teen closed his eyes to stop the burning in his eyes. He buried his head in his knees. His nose felt sour. “I only like you, stupid Izuku. You’re special,” he said, voice muffled from where he had buried his head.

Behind the door, Izuku pressed his hand where he thought Kacchan’s heart was around. Tears made their way silently down his cheeks against his will. His mind was telling him that Kacchan wasn’t lying to him. He could feel the other’s sincerity and earnestness, but a part of him was screaming at him that he was an idiot, that he was being stupid. Everything could end up reverting back to the way things were before. He was scared. He didn’t want to return to those dark days.

Izuku pressed his head to the door, his heart squeezing when he heard the words Kacchan murmured before his Aura went quiet as Auras usually did when someone was asleep. He struggled with himself, finally beating back that depressing part of himself and locking it back deep, deep down in his mind.

The green-haired teen unlocked the door and slowly pulled the door handle.

Izuku watched with swimming eyes as the space slowly revealed Kacchan’s slumped back, quickly supporting him when he realized that the door that would have held up the blonde’s weight was gone. The green-haired teen struggled with himself.

He hated being like this.

He hated that he was acting like a love-sick teen that took every slight from his lover like it was the end of the world. It made him feel disgusted with himself. He hated that it made him feel like he was the scum of the earth. Kacchan wasn’t even his boyfriend, for fucks sake. He didn’t have a right to act like one.

He realized now that he had been fooling himself. He had been telling himself that he was fine just being a friend if he was able to sneak in kisses here and there, but he’d been lying to himself. Being confronted with this hard fact had shattered any illusions he might have harboured.

It was laughable how he used to think that he was a pretty good person, but looking at himself now, Izuku wanted to laugh at his previous thoughts. He was far from being a good person, and it hurt to have to face the truth.

With conflicting desires, Izuku looked at Kacchan’s slack face, realizing for the first time how different he looked as compared to roughly one year ago. It wasn’t like he hadn’t noticed before, but all of a sudden, the changes hit him harder than ever. There were dark circles under his eyes that didn’t seem to fade or grow any lighter as the time passed. The worry that Izuku had somehow been suppressing gushed out in full force the moment he acknowledged it, akin to water bursting through a dam.

Kacchan’s tan seemed lighter than it had roughly a year ago, and his face was slightly thinner. The blonde looked tired and somewhat weary. Izuku’s eyes swam as his vision blurred. His heart throbbed in guilt and sadness. The green-haired teen scrubbed roughly at his eyes. Why was he crying again?! He loathed the fact that his tear ducts seemed to act on their own without his say so.

Izuku brushed a finger under Kacchan’s eyes, feeling remorseful. He silently and lightly traced the dark smudges, his heart clenching at how much darker they looked while Kacchan had his eyes closed. Without the startling intensity from the blonde’s gaze, it left his face looking somewhat withdrawn and tired. He knew he was the one who had put them there, but what could he do so that they disappeared?

He knew people called what he was going through depression, but how could that single word sum up all of these negative feelings that were churning around inside him? The only time he felt relief was when he was with Kacchan, but even then, he could feel the festering guilt that was hidden behind the blonde’s other emotions. Some days, it felt like Kacchan was only staying around him because of his guilt. That in turn made him feel desolate and lonely. No matter what Kacchan said, Izuku knew it was because he was the one keeping the blonde chained to the ground instead of letting him fly high in the sky.

Some days just seemed so much darker than others, and while he would like to hide under the covers and do nothing but snuggle with Kacchan next to him, he didn’t. He couldn’t. Not when he wanted to be able to help Kacchan with his dreams. Their dreams.

Depression. A hollow laugh echoed in his mind. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, as if admitting it would have ripped something away from him, but the more he denied it, the more he felt like he was slowly losing himself. It was slowly but steadily eating at him from the inside out. How long would it be until he turned into a completely different person?

Some days, everything seemed so far out of reach. Those days, he couldn’t muster up much to go through the hours. It just took so much effort to pretend like everything was fine. Depression was like the cousin who visits from out of town, dropping by without a notice, coming and leaving without a trace. Some days, it was easier to deny it, but on days like this, everything hit him harder than ever. His mind wasn’t his own. It felt like he had a constant echo in his mind that brought his optimism down, echoing and amplifying every little negative thought that came to him, until all he had left was the negativity that roiled around.

Izuku sucked in a steadying breath. The problems that plagued him didn’t have anything to do with Kacchan, so he’d been trying to keep a distance when he started feeling that he was overreading every single one of the blonde’s actions today, but something had finally snapped in him when he felt the anger and… jealousy? That Kacchan had projected not too long ago.

The green-haired teen couldn’t help sinking deeper into the abyss of negative thoughts that revolved around him, his heart throbbed and ached with silently bleeding wounds as he stared at Kacchan’s restless face. His brows were slightly furrowed. Izuku reached out to smooth them when his heart just about leaped out of his chest as his hand was abruptly grabbed.

Izuku somehow managed to stop the reflex from punching out at the abruptness, his heart beating wildly. He gasped, feeling the explosion of relief that he hadn’t landed a blow on Kacchan. Thank goodness he had somehow managed to reign in his reflex.

“Kacchan,” he said in a low tone, feeling the anger bubble up inside of him. “Do you know how dangerous that was?! I was about to use my Quirk! I could have hurt you!”

Katsuki sat up and glared at his boyfriend, his eyes squinting dangerously. “Yeah, so what?! What else am I expected to do when my boyfriend runs away from me all the time instead of confronting me?! What did I even do, huh?”

Izuku and Katsuki exchanged glares, before Izuku realized something, his face twitching. Somehow, Kacchan had managed to fool his Aura, coming across as asleep. There was no trace of sleepiness in his Aura at all, meaning he hadn’t been asleep previously. It was only when the blonde had grabbed him that his Aura started intensifying again. It left him feeling slightly off-balance. He knew he had been somewhat relying on the emotions that his Quirk had allowed him to feel, but while he had known it in his head, it hadn’t quite drilled itself into his brain before.

He'd been tricked!

Katsuki let out a sigh as he scrubbed at his face. “Look, I know something upset you, but you can’t just keep on running away. Didn’t we say we would communicate more? Sure, you could have hurt me just now, but what you’re doing now isn’t hurting me any less. It’s just hurting me in a different way.”

The green-haired teen swallowed thickly as the blonde’s words registered, feeling chastised. He hadn’t realized – no, he had realized, but he’d once again been running from the truth that he was hurting Kacchan with his behaviour. He’d slipped back into the habit of hiding his own feelings to try and prevent himself from hurting more.

“Listen to me!” Katsuki said, pressing close to Izuku. He stared him straight in the eyes, trying to convey his seriousness about this matter. “I don’t think you understand just how serious I am about this. We can’t keep doing this like a second-rate teen drama!” he hissed, the thought of how he was acting previously made him feel like burying himself in the ground. It was almost like all rational thought had left him when he thought of Izuku hating him for some reason he didn’t comprehend.

Something about that struck Izuku hard, causing him to flinch inwardly. It felt hard to breathe. He didn’t like being like this. Even he didn’t quite know exactly what had set him off. It was a complete mishmash of negative feelings that threatened to swallow him whole, devouring him until there was nothing left. Perhaps it had to do with how Kacchan didn’t belong to him, but he already belonged solely to Kacchan, so much so that he would gladly throw his life away for his sake. Right – wait, wait. His mind backtracked to run over what Kacchan had said again.

“Boyfriend?” Izuku blurted out, unable to stop himself in time. He jumped up in shock. Even before the words finished leaving his mouth, he already knew that was the wrong thing to say. The darkening expression on Kacchan’s face supported this, as well as the hurt and anger that abruptly spiked in his emotions.

“Are we really fucking living in a crappy teenage drama?!” Katsuki growled, feeling like he was close to exploding. Did Izuku think that he would just randomly kiss other people? What did he take him as? He took a deep breath, trying to calm down his emotions.

Katsuki shoved down the anger and hurt and smiled, silently stalking towards Izuku, who rapidly backed away with each step that he took. The green-haired teen yelped as he bumped into the wall.

The blonde slammed his hand next to Izuku’s head, his smile still strained and twitching. “Izukuuuu,” he tried for sounding amicable, but ended up sounding like he was holding a thousand grudges instead. “Do you really think I’m the type of person to go around kissing my friends?”

“But –”

“No buts! Didn’t I already tell you I like you?”

Izuku opened his mouth to speak again before he was shut up with a pair of lips appearing on his own. “Mmph,” he cried out, his voice muffled. A familiar heat started creeping up his cheeks.

Katsuki pressed against Izuku’s lips insistently, gently licking the green-haired teen’s bottom lip. His cheeks started feeling hot, as an unfortunately familiar sense of embarrassment started igniting in him. The two of them had kissed on more than one occasion, but they hadn’t gone very far, mostly pecks and closed-mouthed kisses.

It felt like a beast was growing within Izuku. All negative thoughts had flown out the window with a single kiss from Kacchan. Hope was making itself known very insistently, constantly battering against his remaining rationale.

Izuku flipped the both of them over while Kacchan was distracted, so he ended up being the one pressing Kacchan to the wall instead. He pulled away slightly, taking in the appearance before his eyes. The blonde was flushed, and his cheeks were red, making Izuku feel like taking a bite out of them. Green eyes dropped towards the blonde’s lips, taking in how they were slightly puffy. They glistened slightly under the lights.

Izuku leaned back in, lightly biting on Kacchan’s lower lip to appease the hunger that seemed to come from the depths of his soul. When the blonde gasped, he took the chance to lick his way into his mouth, their tongues instantly battling for domination. He slowly but insistently mapped out the cavern of the blonde’s mouth, leaving Katsuki clutching Izuku’s shirt for a semblance of support.

The blonde let out a slightly breathless whine, snapping him back to his senses. Katsuki eventually pushed Izuku away, feeling like his mental capacity was close to being overloaded. Any more and it felt like he would directly collapse without being able to reinforce what he had said earlier. He panted, trying to catch his breath. Doing this was even more of a workout than training, and he felt tingly all over. He glared at Izuku.

Izuku stared at Kacchan, feeling his inner beast rattle and strain against the chains, struggling to break free. The blonde was glaring at him with slightly teary eyes and a red face, panting for breath – it really made Izuku want to wreck him further – no. He mentally slapped himself.

“Do you really think I would kiss someone else like this if I wasn’t dating them?!” Katsuki growled, finally catching his breath. “Do we really need to spell out everything? Fine, then. I’ll say it properly, so you won’t be able to refute it later on. I, Bakugou Katsuki am dating you, so don’t get any funny ideas, got it?!”

Katsuki pushed past Izuku, making to stalk out of the apartment, his face burning hard because of his declarations. He felt both mad and helpless at having to specifically spell it out for Izuku, but who would have known that the other hadn’t known that they had been dating. He felt like blowing something up. Ahhh, this was so fucking embarrassing! Rather than blowing something up, he felt like blowing himself up. He was dying of embarrassment.

Izuku ran after Kacchan, hugging him from the back. He buried his face in the crook of the blonde’s neck. “Sorry, Kacchan,” he said, feeling remorseful. “I was wrong. I had hoped, but I was scared that if I was wrong, I’d end up breaking again, so I ran away.”

Izuku carefully felt what Kacchan was feeling at this moment, feeling such a strong relief it left him feeling slightly dizzy that the other was mainly feeling embarrassed and pouty instead of the anger earlier.

The green-haired teen squeezed Kacchan’s abdomen, feeling giddy and happy. He couldn’t control the giggle that spilled out of his lips. “You’re my boyfriend,” he said, voice muffled.

Katsuki buried his face in his hands, wanting the ground to open up and swallow him alive. Izuku was killing him. He made an incoherent sound, but the relief that he felt slowly drowned out the embarrassment he felt. He’d realized over the past months, but it was slowly becoming clearer than ever.

Izuku had depression.

Thankfully, it seemed like being near him helped Izuku in some way, so Katsuki would just make sure that he would stick himself close to his boyfriend, letting him feel his emotions. Hopefully that would enable him to feel better about himself and everything else.

He was sure that they would end up going through fights, but even if they did, Katsuki didn’t want to leave Izuku on his own if something like today happened again in his absence. It would be too late for tears if he left him on his own and he tried to commit suicide again. Katsuki felt a violent stab of pain at the thought, silently reaffirming his decision.

“Idiot…you better talk to me. I’m your boyfriend, so you better confide in me. In exchange, I’ll do the same for you and stay by your side. There’s no one but you for me.”

Izuku squeezed his boyfriend harder. Was this a dream? This had to be a dream. If it wasn’t, then he was the luckiest boy on the planet. The green-haired teen felt exhilarated. If this was a dream, he never wanted it to end. Izuku took in Kacchan’s Aura, noting that he felt light and happy, for once not feeling the vestiges of guilt that seemed to hang over him. He was really, really happy.

Katsuki patiently patted Izuku’s fluffy hair, feeling indulgent. A smile broke out on his lips. Now that they were on the same page, he felt like the world was back on its axis, rotating as it should be.

“…I’ll have to greet your parents formally and ask them for your hand.”

Katsuki let out a strangled sound as what Izuku said registered to him, all previous fluffy feelings disappearing down the drain. His blush returned with a vengeance.

Izuku somehow manages to miss the chaos that came in the form of reporters. He was just feeling that happy. He felt like he was practically floating. By the time he realized the chaos that was ongoing, he was already seated in the cafeteria at lunch time. He looked around blankly at everyone else, turning puzzled eyes on Kacchan, only to find him staring back with an amused spark in his eye. His Aura felt fluffy.

“Eh?” murmured Izuku. He was missing a part of his memories. How did he get here? He felt bewildered. He tried to scan his memories for what happened but came up short. The last memory he had was taking a shower yesterday – then nothing. He really had to stop doing this. It wasn’t good for a Hero to be unobservant.

“How could you just completely blank you like that,” said Katsuki. He turned his attention to his tray of food to avoid looking Izuku in the eye. “Well, it’s fine since I’m here, but you better not be dazing off without me around.”

The green-haired teen blanked out again. The embarrassment was practically radiating off Kacchan. He clamped down on the urge to squeak and coo over him. He just wanted to squeeze Kacchan with how cute he was acting right now. Kacchan is so moe!

Katsuki watched with bafflement as Izuku silently convulsed on the lunch table. What exactly was he doing? He eyed his boyfriend before shrugging it off. It didn’t seem like it was anything harmful, so he just let him be for a moment.

“Awww,” cooed Ochako, “you two are just so cute together! Who knew Bakugou was a tsundere.”

“Haaa?!” twitched Katsuki, slamming down his chopsticks. Izuku felt the embarrassment in his Aura from earlier returning with a vengeance.

Ochako watched them with starry eyes. “You make such a cute couple.”

Izuku pinked from the compliment, feeling happy that they were being praised on their compatibility as a couple. Even if she was wrong, hearing about it felt really good. Or rather, he was happy that they came across that way to others even if they did have their ups and downs.

“Speaking of which, I’m sure you’ll make a great class president, Bakugou.”

Heh? Kacchan was going to be class president? Izuku widened his eyes in wonder. Didn’t Kacchan hate doing paperwork of all sorts? You’d think paperwork was his archenemy with how much he loathed doing it.

Katsuki growled. “I don’t want to be class president.”

“Why not?” piped in Tenya from the side, evidently puzzled. “We saw how you reacted when Midoriya was hurt. You also performed well in the battle simulation, showing tactics and adaptability. If it comes down to reliability, then I’m sure you would do a fine job.”

Ochako nodded, grinning.

The blonde frowned. “I didn’t do anything particularly noteworthy. It was just me panicking when Izuku got hurt. Being class president means I have to free up training time to do paperwork.” With the way the blonde spat out the word, you’d think it was something particularly foul, and not just something that all Heroes had to slog through.

Tenya and Ochako looked like they were about to disagree but kept their mouth shut after receiving a subtle head shake from Izuku. They shot Izuku a glance, asking him to persuade the blonde, but Izuku merely looked resigned. Most of the time, there was no changing Kacchan’s mind when he had set his heart on something, and you had to be delusional if you thought Kacchan would willingly take up extra paperwork instead of his training time.

“Don’t you want to be president too, Iida? You have the glasses and everything,” said Ochako, munching happily on her lunch.

Iida nodded, looking solemn. “Ambition and suitability are different matters. I humbly made the decision that I felt was correct.”

Izuku felt like covering his metaphorical eyes with how Iida was burning with justice, duty and righteousness. He could feel that Iida believed every word that was coming out of his mouth. It was almost refreshing, how his words were steeped in truthfulness, as compared to other people’s. His Aura was bright and gentle, but thrumming with intensity, seemingly clean of impurities.

Ochako gasped. “The way you talk… Iida, are you a rich kid?”

Iida coughed, choking on his spoonful of rice, causing Ochako to thump him on the back, feeling slightly worried. “W-well,” he gulped down a mouthful of his water. “I usually don’t like people knowing,” he said, pausing for the briefest of seconds. Izuku could feel the slight hesitance before he powered through. “Yes. I come from a renowned Hero family. I’m the second son.”

Iida’s Aura lit up with excitement and pride, showing on his face. “You know the Turbo Hero, Ingenium? He’s my brother.” He pushed up his glasses, making them glint in the light. “He leads the people with unwavering adherence to rules and regulations. A truly beloved Hero! It’s admiration for my brother that’s inspired my own desire to be a Hero.”

The navy-haired teen’s lips slowly curved into a smile. “It was Bakugou that got my vote because I realized that compared to him, I’m not yet ready to lead anyone. The worry and decisiveness you barked out at us before dashing with Aizawa-sensei to see Recovery Girl proved that.”

Izuku could feel the changes that went through Kacchan’s Aura as he heard Iida speak. Part wavering, part pride and reluctance.

“No, I’m not sure if I might have acted that way if it were anyone else but Izuku,” he said gruffly, “so I’m still going to deny the role.”

Ochako beamed at him, making Izuku feel fluffiness that his friends were getting along with Kacchan. “It’s true that we can see how deeply you care about him, but it still leaves the fact that you were able to make split second decisions even when you were feeling anguished. I wouldn’t worry if you were class president.”

Izuku nodded. He was sure that if Kacchan took up the role, he would take the role seriously, as he did with all of his other duties, even if he didn’t want them. In middle school, Kacchan had protested being saddled with the duty of feeding the class’ pet fish, complaining all the while, but he still snuck in early every morning to feed it, rain or shine. Kacchan was adorable. Or maybe that was just his biasness speaking.

The shrill shriek of an alarm cut him off. He immediately snapped back to attention. What was happening? Green eyes scanned the chaos that had erupted. He frowned at the onslaught of emotions that were crashing up against his slight mental barriers. He tried to reinforce his barriers, but certain emotions were still making their way through his barrier easily. The green-haired teen couldn’t stop his breath from quickening slightly, a fact that was not overlooked by Katsuki.

“Izuku!”

Izuku looked unsteadily at Kacchan, feeling overwhelmed by anxiety and panic as chaos ensued. His hand was gripped tightly.

“Look at me,” Katsuki said, causing him to calm down slightly. “Focus on me. Don’t be affected by their emotions. Look only at me.”

The overwhelmed teen took a deep breath, focusing his senses on Kacchan’s Aura. It was calmness and steadiness, tinged with a hint of possessiveness, causing Izuku’s lips to curl into a smile involuntarily. Kacchan was so cute. Was he jealous?

“Everyone! Everything’s fine!” a voice louder than all collective sounds of chaos penetrated the haze of everyone’s panic. “It’s just the press! There’s nothing to panic about! We’re UA. We need to behave in a way that is befitting our institution!”

Under the influence of Iida’s encouragement and leadership, the chaos that filled the busy cafeteria slowly calmed down and the previously panicking students regained their reasoning, calmly exiting and heading back to their classrooms.

Izuku looked with shining eyes at Kacchan, having an inkling about what he was about to do as he stood in front of the class together with Yaoyorozu.

“Alright, listen up, extras. I’m handing the class president role to Iida,” Katsuki said bluntly, already heading back to his seat with hands shoved into his pockets.

Izuku locked eyes with Kacchan as he walked back, looking at him pleadingly. Kacchan’s Aura fluctuated with emotions so fast he couldn’t sort them out before settling on resignation and fondness.

“He managed the crisis just now acceptably, and I didn’t see anyone else doing that, so you won’t have any objections, right?!” he followed up, little explosions popping from his palm.

Immediately, Kaminari and Kirishima stepped out to agree with Kacchan’s decision, adopting the pose that he used back in the cafeteria.

“Emergency exit Iida!” they cried.

Iida made a funny strangled sound.

“Just get on with it… what a waste of time,” Aizawa-sensei said, looking like death warmed over. He threw a glare at the class. Izuku could feel from his Aura that he wasn’t really that annoyed. In fact, he even felt slightly amused.

They were walking out of the school on the way home when Kacchan spoke up.

“Izu,” Kacchan muttered, his face slightly pink.

The green-haired teen’s eyes widened slightly. His heart did a strange flip in his chest. This was the first time Kacchan was giving him a nickname that hadn’t stemmed from something derogatory. He felt slightly hopeful that this meant Kacchan was feeling a little less guilt from before.

“Kacchan…?” he asked tentatively. He couldn’t stop the hope that was blooming in his chest.

“Izu,” Katsuki said firmly, almost challengingly, like he was daring him to comment on it.

Izuku let it slide, feeling a prick in his eyes. Dare he hope…? Only time would tell.

“Let’s go on a date,” Katsuki blurted out, looking at anything but Izuku. The green-haired teen could spot how the red crept down his neck and his ears.

Did he hear that right? It wasn’t just his imagination, right? “Okay,” he said, his blush matching the one that Kacchan was sporting.

Katsuki took in the way his boyfriend’s eyes sparkled, his green eyes contrasting against his red cheeks, feeling satisfied in a way that he’d never felt before. “Good,” he said, dragging his boyfriend by the hand. He still felt a bit embarrassed but made no move to hide his emotions from the green-haired teen.

Izuku didn’t question where they were going to go, happy just by spending time with Kacchan, even if the blonde did seem to be sticking close by nowadays. He knew that the guilt festering within Kacchan was well hidden, but ever-present. He’d tried to resolve him of his guilt, but it had only seemed to make things worse and not better, so he was left worrying about it, but helpless.

The two teens ended up standing in front an arcade near their old school. Izuku’s eyes widened. He’d never been in one before. He knew what it was, sure, but he always tried to be discreet when he passed by, because Kacchan and his gang used to hang out here after school. He’d been spotted by the blonde once, and the way he felt Kacchan’s emotions change from generally pleasant to downright hostile at the drop of a hat had left him feeling distraught for days. He’d never entered afterwards for the same reason.

Izuku took in a subtle breath and took a step inside, aware of how Kacchan’s Aura radiated anxiety. Kacchan was trying to make up for it. It seemed that he still remembered that one time that he’d blown up at him when all he was doing was pass by. He beamed at the blonde, letting his feelings show, feeling relieved when the anxious feelings abated somewhat.

He looked around with wondering eyes, taking in the sights for the first time. Out of the corner of his eye, something attracted him. He looked towards the bright lights, a yellow little kitten with an angry expression coming into his sights. Without realizing, he’d walked towards the machine, pressing up against the glass to get a better look.

Loud music blared, causing him to jump, startled. Beiside him, Kacchan nonchalantly steered the joystick, eyeing it with a critical eye. Izuku eyed him appreciatively. Kacchan’s serious face was so handsome. He turned his attention back towards the machine.

“I think you have to go back a bit more,” he said, eyeing the cat dubiously.

Katsuki looked at the stuffed toy and squinted. “I don’t think so,” he said, both teens watching the claw drop, grabbing at the cat.

The claw grabbed the cat, lifting it before dropping it. The two teens on a date made a similar sound of dismay and anger.

“You try,” Katsuki said, stepping a bit to the side.

Izuku inserted a 100-yen coin, staring at the cat. He moved the joystick. Two pairs of eyes watched the claw attentively.

The cat dropped again, causing a huff to leave Kacchan’s lips. The blonde inserted another coin, his inner perfectionist flaring again. Izuku’s lips quirked. Why was it that everything Kacchan did was so charming? He was afraid that when Kacchan went Pro-Hero, he’d have to end up competing against thousands of fans for Kacchan. He hid his smile when he saw the tiniest peek of a tongue sticking out of Kacchan’s mouth in his determination.

Izuku looked at the next machine, eyes widening at what it held. He hurriedly walked to the machine to change some 100-yen coins. He plunked himself in front of the machine, starting his quest.

Fifteen minutes later, both teens held their respective prizes, winning them at the same time. Izuku stole the yellow cat that reminded him so much of Kacchan and placed the green cat he’d won in his boyfriend’s arms.

“Look,” he said teasingly, “It’s you and me.”

Katsuki looked at the green cat in his arms. It did indeed remind him of Izuku. A smile surfaced on his lips. He gathered the other teen in his arms and squeezed him. Why was Izuku so damn cute? He’d have get a bigger stick to beat everyone else off. A stick with nails.

He walked out of the arcade entwining hands with Izuku, when they came across this former gang.

“Oh…” he heard Izuku say, sounding slightly nervous.

Katsuki frowned, tugging lightly on Izuku’s hand to walk away from them, when he heard what they said.

“Hey, it’s that Quirkless fag!”

“Wait, isn’t that Bakugou? What’s he doing with the Quirkless Wonder Deku?”

“Hey, you’re right. That is him. Look, they’re holding hands. I guess that fag ended up turning Bakugou into a fag too! Gross!”

Katsuki stopped dead in his tracks, Izuku bumping into his back. He slowly turned around, placing his Izukitty in Izuku’s arms. Then, he made a dash back to the two from his old group, slamming a fist into one’s face and a kick into the other. They collapsed like a house of cards, groaning on the sidewalk.

“What the fuck, man!”

The blonde scoffed. “You can say whatever the fuck you want about me but say anything about Izuku and I’ll kill you!” He took the stuffed toy back from Izuku, entwining their hands once again, shoving it in their faces.

“We’re dating now, so fuck off!”

He pulled Izuku with him, walking back to his house. Both their faces were burning red with the blatant acknowledgement of their dating status.

“Don’t let anyone talk to you like that anymore, got it? Even if it’s me, you have to give them a good old punch and get them to shut up! Even if you really were Quirkless, it doesn’t give them the right to say things like that.”

Izuku directed a giddy smile at the other, feeling adoration and happiness. The blonde had really changed in the past year. “Hehe, Kacchan, you were like that too, you know?”

Katsuki scowled, the blush on his cheeks becoming more pronounced. “Shut up. I’ll treat you right from now on, so don’t you go letting other people look down on you anymore,” he said, tilting his chin up arrogantly, “You and I are in this together. What’s wrong with being gay, huh. If I like you, then I like you!”

Izuku discretely scrubbed at his face, the tears were happy tears. The way that Kacchan treated him now and a year ago was practically the difference between heaven and hell. The way his boyfriend had reacted instantaneously in the face of abuse towards himself gave him a little bit more confidence that Kacchan really liked him.

By the time they made it back to the apartment complex where Izuku currently lived with Kacchan and his parents, it was already dark. He pulled Kacchan to a stop in front of the door, smiling at him after he unlocked the door.

“Thanks for the date, Kacchan. I had a great time today,” he said, smiling shyly at his boyfriend.

Kacchan’s Aura was pleased but slightly alarmed. Was Izuku not coming into the house together with him? No, he wouldn’t allow it. The thoughts of Izuku staying in the apartment where he tried to commit suicide always made him feel like he was about to go mad.

“So, for the end of a perfect date, here’s a kiss,” Izuku said, leaning in to kiss him chastely before Kacchan could react.

Izuku pulled open the door and walked in confidently, calling out “I’m home!” getting an instantaneous reply from Mitsuki.

Katsuki felt like he could have melted into a puddle on the floor.

Izuku felt like he would’ve gotten a heart attack the moment Tsuyu commented how his Quirk seemed very similar to All Might. If it wasn’t for his own Quirk telling him that Tsuyu was purely curious and wasn’t trying to get any sort of confirmation from him, he likely would have.

Thankfully, he did have his own Quirk, so he was able to react calmly and maturely to the statement, especially when his other classmates started chiming in on how their Quirks really were similar. He felt like crying. All Might certainly hadn’t been very subtle about showing a bit of extra attention to him. Luckily, he could pass it off as All Might having an interest because of similar Quirks. Heaven forbid someone start a rumour that he was All Might’s illegitimate love child.

“If we’re talking about cool and strong, though, it’d have to be Bakugou and Todoroki!”

Izuku felt an urge to cover his face when he felt how Kirishima’s Aura reflected his emotions like he was inwardly grinning at his pun.

“Bakugou’s so unhinged, though. He’d never be popular.”

Katsuki exploded instantly. “Haa?! What was that, frog face?!”

Izuku nudged him, trying to hide his smile as Kacchan sat back with a huff, inwardly pouting. Why was Kacchan so cute?!

Ochako squeaked. She really did ship them together. “Aw, Deku. It’s so cute that Bakugou listens to you. You guys make such a great couple.

Surprisingly, Kacchan didn’t get angry at that. “Hmph. That’s right. So, you lot better back off. Izuku’s mine.”

Izuku couldn’t help the blush that broke out on his face at the statement. He was still feeling shy over Kacchan’s declarations. They made his heart speed up and feel light and fluffy. Kacchan was just acting so sweet nowadays. He didn’t think he would stop feeling this way for a very long time, if ever.

The green-haired teen took in the way his surrounding classmate- no, friends, were smiling at the two of them, and felt accepted. He was touched that felt happy for the two of them.

Tsuyu let out a small ribbit. “Yes, we don’t know you very well yet, but based on what we’ve seen so far, you two really care for each other. You suit each other very well.”

Kacchan looked away silently.

“Thank you,” Izuku said, making sure to look each one of them in the eye to convey how sincere he was about his thanks. He never thought that a day like this would come where his feelings would be out in the open and accepted. It was making him emotional thinking about everything that had happened in the past. Somehow, it didn’t seem as bad as it did when he was in the midst of all those negative emotions.

The moment they arrived at the destination, they were all blown away by the large and various zones that they couldn’t see the end of.

“Woah!! Is this Universal Studios Japan?!”

“The flood zone. The landslide zone. Conflagration zone, etc. Every disaster and accident you can imagine. I built this facility myself.”

Izuku silently evaluated the Hero that had started talking after they arrived. He was filled with a mix of hope and pride, and a strong desire to teach and pass on what he knew. Izuku’s evaluation of the Hero Thirteen shot up almost sky high at the moment. It was rare to find Heroes who genuinely wanted to pass on what they wanted to know, but he had felt a high number of that in UA itself.

He supposed that was what made them become teachers. The green-haired teen respected all of his teachers because he could feel from using their Quirk that they were all genuine, even Aizawa-sensei who looked indifferent most of the time. He might have seemed like he was sleeping, but he was actually awake and seriously evaluating their every move.

“I call this the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!”

Izuku smiled. It really was USJ!

Aizawa turned around so the students couldn’t read his lips, but still hid his mouth below his capture weapon for extra preventive measures. “Where’s All Might?”

Izuku silently perked his ears while the rest of his classmates were making noise over how grand the scale of the facility was.

“It seems he just about reached his limit during his morning commute. He’s resting in the break room.”

Both Izuku and Aizawa wanted to cover their face. Toshi, Izuku screamed inwardly. But he couldn’t begrudge him that. Even though he was depressed, the man was a Hero down to his bones. He couldn’t stop himself from helping out whenever he saw a Villain and someone in distress. It was part of the reason why Izuku admired him so much. He could feel it even through a television screen. He just had this special charisma that exuded sincerity from his pores.

“The height of irrationality,” Aizawa-sensei said with a black face, making it no secret that he disapproved. “So be it. Let’s get started.”

Thirteen inwardly took a breath to calm his nerves as he tried to convey how serious he was. “As you know, my Quirk is called Black Hole. It can suck in and tear apart anything. However, my power can easily kill just as it can save. I have no doubt that some of you with similar abilities.” He paused to let the students digest the information, instilling in them a seriousness that they hadn’t felt as they arrived. “In our super-powered society, the use of Quirks is heavily restricted and monitored. But we must never forget that a single mistake or an uncontrollable Quirk could cause someone to die.”

Thirteen took in how grim and solemn the students were after hearing his words. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief, knowing that he had gotten through to them. “During Aizawa’s physical fitness test, you learned of your own hidden potential. During All Might’s battle training, you experienced danger that your respective Quirks can pose to others. Now this class will show you a new perspective. You will learn how to use your Quirks to save lives. Your powers are not to inflict harm, but to help people.”

Izuku basked in the Auras surrounding him, feeling very warm as a rising sense of determination was born around him. It felt akin to a mother hen watching her eggs hatch for the first time. Everyone was growing and maturing so quickly. He would be proud to witness and grow together with the people here that he could call not just classmates but friends.

A hand grabbed his own. Surprised, he looked at Kacchan, his breath taken away at the pure determination blazing in the blonde’s eyes. Instantly, he responded to the challenge as his own determination mixed with everyone else’s, and burn just as, or if not brighter than the rest. They exchanged a smile, unspoken challenges hidden. They may be partners, but they were also rivals.

“That is all! Thank you for listening!” Thirteen bowed.

The class broke out into cheers and claps, having already learnt the most important thing from Thirteen even before the training exercise had officially started.

“Great,” Aizawa-sensei said, calling the class’ attention back to him. “First off…” he paused, something striking him with a sense of dread. He whipped around, shocked to find a black hole appearing in the middle of the air as a dry, withered hand made its way out of the hole. He immediately felt goosebumps appear as a sight that was more apt to come out of a horror movie greeted him.

Izuku felt a dense mass of manic Auras slam up against him, causing him to choke. He struggled to stamp down on the feelings of madness, glee and a general mass of swirling negative feelings before it could overly affect him.

“Huddle up and don’t move!” Aizawa-sensei shouted. “Thirteen, protect the students! Don’t move! Those are Villains!”

Izuku grit his teeth as he tried to draw his senses closer to himself and expel any negative feelings. He struggled to try and keep calm, flaring his own Aura around him. The surprised students who still had their attention directed to Aizawa-sensei moments earlier felt a wave of calm wash over them, suppressing their panic and confusion before it could fully start. Instantly, they felt their heads clear up as they felt calmer than ever before, letting them think more rationally and clearly.

“Thirteen and Eraserhead, is it…? According to the staff schedule I received the other day, All Might is supposed to be here…”

Eraserhead grit his teeth as an irrational anger surged up at the thought of how All Might was putting students in danger. Rationally, he knew it wasn’t really the other Hero’s fault, but he couldn’t stop himself from feeling that way.

Izuku, realizing that he hadn’t included Aizawa-sensei within his range, extended his Aura to try and press some of his calm to the teacher, and it thankfully worked.

Aizawa calmed down, his mind working at high speeds for a way out of this messy situation. He was alone with Thirteen with a bunch of new students who hadn’t gotten much training as of yet. The students would be more of a liability than help at this moment. He had to look out for sneak attacks against them since Thirteen most likely wouldn’t be able to handle everything thrown at him if the Villains had gotten hold of information that they would be there. There would be some of them able to counter the two of them.

“Where is he…?” came a dry, raspy voice. It sounded like a person who was unused to speaking was forcing out words. “We’ve come all this way and brought so many playmates… All Might… the symbol of peace. Is he here…? I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here?”

Izuku felt a shiver go up his spine at the chilling madness he could feel in the Villain’s Aura. He could immediately feel that the other wasn’t entirely in his right mind. He could feel that the Villain had a different thought process from other, regular people or even Villains.

Clearly, there was something that had affected his state of mind and all he could feel or think of now was destruction and madness. Izuku could feel that he was feeling a pure glee that was tinged and stained with madness. The look in his eyes could only be described with praise, and the way that the other had multiple hands all over him was pinging at something on his radar, but he didn’t have the leisure to analyse it now.

Izuku’s mind was whirling as he tried to figure out what to do. A part of him wanted to run very badly just to get away from the stifling sensation that the other’s Aura had. Just his one Aura alone outweighed every other Villain’s Aura in the vicinity.

Izuku grit his teeth, squeezing Kacchan’s hand and feeling the squeeze back before letting go.

They had to get out of this alive.

“Thirteen, begin evacuation! One of the Villains must be jamming the sensors. There’s a good chance one of those electric types is causing the interference. Kaminari try using your Quirk to signal for help.”

Kaminari jerked but quickly calmed down again under Izuku’s calming influence, nodding with determination. Izuku felt a great deal of relief that he was able to help out at times like this, even if he hadn’t known his Quirk had developed this mutation.

“Thirteen, take good care of them!”

With that, Aizawa-sensei forcefully jumped off from the top of the stairs, quickly landing at the bottom. Izuku steeled himself as the surge of sickening glee the Villains were feeling slammed into him but managed to remain calm since Aizawa-sensei was radiating focus and determination in his Aura.

As the rest of his classmates were swiftly evacuated by Thirteen, Izuku couldn’t tear his eyes from the sheer proficiency and nimbleness his teacher was showing in a real combat situation. This was what he and Kacchan had aspired to be. A Pro Hero! Brave, valiant and undaunted in the face of numerous enemies.

It was at this moment when Izuku felt a spine-chilling sensation make its way down his back, causing him to break out in goosebumps. Immediately, he whipped around, eyes wide. His heart was pounding in his chest. There was just something so unnatural about this Villain.

“I won’t allow that.” A dark suction that spread out in front of them slowly gave way to a single entity wearing a crisp suit, which was offset by the intense darkness that he radiated. He seemed akin to a black fog that smothered all light.

Izuku swallowed. Like the other Villains with hands, this one gave him a feeling that was just as intense, but it was the exact opposite. Where blue-haired Villain gave off a feeling of madness, instability, along with a mix of other emotions such as anger, greed and playfulness, the one in front of them now instead possessed a feeling akin to looking into a void.

Izuku just couldn’t feel anything from him. If he had to describe it, it was the feeling of pure indifference. Where he could feel that the blue-haired Villain was clearly alive and perhaps insane, this villain with a black fog made him doubt he was even there. He had never felt anything even remotely like this before. Izuku couldn’t tear his eyes away.

 “Greetings. We are the league of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but today we’ve come here to UA high school – the bastion of Heroism… to end the life… of All Might, the Symbol of Peace.” Izuku sucked in a breath at the shock that went through him, which was unfortunately further amplified by the various amounts of shock that were surrounding him. “We were under the impression that All Might would be here today but… it seems his schedule was revised?”

The Villain paused in his monologue, and was it Izuku’s imagination, or was the Villain’s gaze directed specifically at him? “Well… no matter. My role remains unchanged.” Izuku just couldn’t tear himself away. It was just so unnatural how the Villain put up the pretence of being polite, but all Izuku could feel was the bone-chilling indifference and lack of emotions that the Villain possessed. It was like watching a train wreck as a Quirkless person. Horrifying, but being unable to tear his eyes away.

Izuku’s heart leapt to his throat when Kacchan and Kirishima took the initiative to attack the Villain without knowing anything about his capabilities. They already knew that the Villain was able to instantly teleport people with his Quirk – that was how the Villains arrived, after all, but they knew nothing else about what he could do with his Quirk.

Katsuki used his Quirk as he directed an almost lethal explosion at the Villain. He was secretly trembling slightly, and when he realized what he was doing, he just had to do something about it on the off chance that they could take him by surprise as he was talking. There were risks and dangers, of course, but victory was never made without any risks.

Unfortunately, his joint attack with Kirishima failed, leaving him with a lingering regret that he couldn’t take care of a danger towards Izuku and the rest of his classmates.

“Bet you didn’t see that coming!”

“That was close,” the Villain said with a slightly inflection in his tone, but Izuku could feel that the Villain’s Aura had no distinction now and before. It was almost like he didn’t care about anything and nothing in the world was able to move him. All of this was making Izuku’s mind run at a mile a minute to analyse everything.

Izuku grit his teeth as he threw caution to the wind, probing the Villain to see if he could affect him. He tried to a slight hesitation in the Villain to make him feel even the slightest bit of leniency, watching the Villain’s body movement and body closely. He knew he had succeeded when he saw the Villain’s eyes widen slightly, with the faintest traces of shock that was diffused almost instantly.

“Begone.”

The black fog raged as it swallowed the students whole like a starving beast, giving them no chance to resist as they were instantly warped away.

Izuku cried out and tried to grab Kacchan, who had silently repositioned himself in front of him, but the void swallowed him just like the rest. The green-haired teen stumbled, his hands closing around nothing as Kacchan was sucked away.

The faintest traces of fear made itself known in his heart before he violently stomped it out. He didn’t have time for that right now. He was left alone with the Villain as the rest of his classmates were teleported away, and Thirteen was nowhere to be found. He was alone with no backup against an experienced and older Villain. Why? Why was he the only one the Villain didn’t touch? Was it due to the split second that he had influenced the Villain with feelings?

Izuku held himself in a ready stance, focusing but making sure he kept an eye on his surroundings as well in case of any sneak attacks. He’d debated running, but against a Villain with a Quirk that was essentially teleportation was useless. He could only face this head on.

“Again. I’m feeling again,” he heard faintly. Izuku could feel the little sparks of shock that made itself known in the Villain’s Aura. “What did you do?”

Izuku subconsciously made a step back when the Villain’s glowing yellow eyes peered into him, his face a mere thirty centimetres away from his, triggering the Villain’s notice.

“Ah, my apologies. My name is Kurogiri, from the league of Villains,” the Villain said, stepping away from his personal space.

Izuku hesitated, somehow getting the feeling that the Villain didn’t have the intention of attacking him. His fists remained raised, not lowering his guard. “Deku,” he said as he decided to give his nickname instead of his real name before he knew the intentions of this Villain. He had said he wanted to kill All Might, after all.

“Deku…” Kurogiri murmured, silently engraving the student’s name in his heart. “Your Quirk. You can allow others to feel certain emotions?”

It was strange, but Izuku could feel that the other truly didn’t mean any harm to him, and his Aura was showing the tiniest sparks of desperation that he was unable to keep out of his voice. It truly was a puzzling experience. Why did the Villain’s emotions flicker and spark before dying out? It was almost like he was desperately lighting a candle only for the little flame to be snuffed out the next moment.

Tentatively, Izuku let his Quirk unravel slightly to probe the Villain, pressing the feeling of his curiosity to the other’s Aura. The Villain gasped, and his gaseous head and hands seemed to flicker and waver as he felt. The indifference that the other was steeped in seemed to mellow the slightest bit as the oppressing feeling in his Aura melted away bit by bit, leaving Kurogiri breathless and giddy.

“Feel… I can feel again,” Kurogiri said with a voice tinted with wonder, pressing his hand to his heart. Izuku could feel the disbelief slowly bloom in the man’s Aura, slowly but steadily becoming thicker.

The green-haired teen’s eyes softened a little as his heart ached at the wonder and joy and in the Villain’s voice. Slowly, he withdrew his Quirk, causing the Villain’s Aura to slowly descend back into indifference. It was as if Izuku had jumped into a still pond, causing ripples that reverberated, but the moment he left the water, the pond abruptly stilled again.

Kurogiri’s Aura was instantly wrecked with a desperation that was snuffed out the next moment.

“Please,” the Villain said pleadingly, injecting as much of it as possible based on what he could remember feeling in his voice. “Please.”

Izuku watched the desperate Villain with wavering eyes. On one hand, this was a Villain, but on the other, Izuku really did want to help him. In the end, he decided to make a deal with him.

“If you ensure the safety of my classmates as well as my two teachers, then you can come with me.”

Kurogiri felt a flicker of hesitation. “You want me to defect from the league?”

Izuku watched him silently, waiting for the Villain to make a decision. He watched as a bright burst of determination and hope that exploded like a supernova in its brightness in Kurogiri’s Aura before disappearing.

“That is acceptable,” Kurogiri said, throwing caution to the wind.

“Really?” Izuku asked in mild disbelief. He had been taking a shot in the dark and hoping for the best. Even if he knew he held the stronger card in his hand, he hadn’t known if the Villain would react the way he thought he would. From what he could feel from Kurogiri’s Aura when it had been active, he had only felt pure sincerity and willingness, as if he had discarded all hesitation. Almost as if he had been waiting for a moment to defect and just hadn’t found a chance yet.

Kurogiri nodded silently, having already discarded all worry, or what could be considered as worry to him. Without emotions, he was only able to make decisions based on logic and facts. The emotions that everyone else took for granted was absent within him, leaving him feeling as if there was a void in his chest, just like how his Quirk itself was a void.

“Then,” Izuku said firmly, choosing to believe in his instincts. “Please help me save my friends.”

Kurogiri looked at his personal saviour in front of him seriously as he thought about the plan of action. “Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked, his voice ringing with emptiness.

Izuku frowned, not quite sure what he meant. The panic that had ebbed slightly came back in full force. “What do you mean?”

Kurogiri looked at Izuku silently. “Right now, Shigaraki is mainly focused on being able to kill All Might, so the full strength of the forces are not being used. The Villains they are facing are just low-level Villains who don’t think much or have much fighting power. They were meant to stall so that there would be more hostages to hold against All Might. You can use this as a training event for your friends to grow stronger in this time of crisis,” Kurogiri said matter-of-factly.

Izuku pondered over his words. He felt very strange, not being able to sense a person’s emotions from their Aura. It felt like he was out of his depth in a way that he hadn’t felt since his Quirk had awakened this facet.

Logically, Izuku knew that Kurogiri was right after hearing his words, but his worry outweighed his logic. Taking a breath, the green-haired teen calmed himself, looking at things more factually. Taking into account what Kurogiri said, he analysed the situation, realizing that what he said had a smidgeon of truth.

As students of UA training to be Pro Heroes, each of them would eventually face real Villains and danger. Being able to face Villains this early on would be a boon to them as they faced danger for the first time and would allow them to know if they were truly on the correct path. The danger they faced now would allow them to grow in ways that couldn’t be imagined from controlled practical training.

Making up his mind, Izuku nodded. “Please keep an eye on them and save them if they encounter any life-threatening danger.”

Kurogiri nodded.

With that worry off his mind, Izuku eventually sank into wondering why the Villains were attacking. They had figured out their schedule, as well as the fact that All Might was supposed to be here. This meant that they had some sort of way to take care of All Might. They wouldn’t appear here just to get themselves killed, so they had a secret weapon.

Thinking up to this point, Izuku had a couple of questions for Kurogiri.

“What was Shigaraki banking on to kill All Might?” he questioned, subtly testing the ex-Villain.

Kurogiri replied without any hesitation whatsoever. “Shigaraki has a bio-engineered human that he calls ‘Nomu’. It will follow any orders made by Shigaraki without any hesitation but will not do anything of its own accord. It has super strength, as well as regeneration and shock absorption. It could be argued that Nomu is the perfect nemesis for All Might.”

Izuku felt a chill at the unspoken words. They had most likely experimented on humans, leading to the creation of ‘Nomu’ just for the fact that they wanted to kill All Might. They had most likely subjected humans to inhumane torture and pain all for the sake of their ambition.

The green-haired teen felt a low, chilling anger that drove out all impulsive actions from himself. He was so angry and disgusted that the anger felt more like a cold anger instead of a red-hot anger. No excess emotions clouded his judgement. He had to take care of that artificial human before All Might got here. Toshi was still vulnerable in his state. Izuku was working on an idea that he thought could perhaps alleviate the injuries he was going through, but he hadn’t yet hit a breakthrough.

“Does Nomu have a will of its own?”

“No. It was part of the design so that he would be able to control it. All it does is listen to Shigaraki.”

Plans flew through Izuku’s mind. He discarded many of them from the new information that Kurogiri was giving him. There was no hesitation in using the information from him. Izuku had chosen and had chosen to trust his words. There was no concrete evidence that Kurogiri wasn’t lying to him, but Izuku trusted his gut instinct. Toshi told him once that there were many times where things could have gone horribly wrong if he hadn’t listened to his gut instinct, so Izuku was now trusting this baseless feeling that he had.

“Warp me to Nomu,” Izuku said.

Alarm spiked in Kurogiri’s Aura as he logically thought about what a phenomenally bad idea that was. His saviour had some sort of empathy Quirk, and though he had muscles, Kurogiri highly doubted that he would be stronger than All Might, whom Nomu was specifically bio-engineered to beat.

Feeling Kurogiri’s brief spark of hesitation, Izuku’s eyes hardened. “Warp me.”

Kurogiri used his Quirk to warp the green-haired teen as per his wishes. He would prioritize Izuku’s safety and warp him away immediately if he was in any danger. He had just found his saviour and couldn’t bear to lose him now.

Izuku was warped behind Nomu, who was strategically positioned behind Shigaraki to protect him from any sneak attacks. What he hadn’t counted on, however, was that Kurogiri would betray him and the League of Villains.

The green-haired teen’s heart and mind was calm. It was like still water in a lake, not a ripple on the surface. Instinctively, he knew that he could do this. Nomu still contained a brain, no matter that it didn’t work on its own, so Izuku had a chance at turning this around.

Using the newly awakened facet of his Quirk, Izuku stretched out his Aura and pressed his mind as well as feelings into Nomu’s mind. There, he felt something like a string that was connected from Nomu to Shigaraki. To describe it, it was like Nomu and Shigaraki’s Aura was somewhat connected in a one-way line from Nomu to Shigaraki.

Without any further thoughts, Izuku snapped the mind link between them. Izuku could feel as Nomu’s Aura withdrew and restrained himself, sinking back into his body before it disappeared completely. The Nomu was useless now. It wouldn’t listen to Shigaraki’s orders anymore. It felt eerie, knowing that the creature in front of him was ‘alive’, but didn’t have a mind of its own, somewhat like a doll. It felt like it was dead. Even Kurogiri who supposedly wasn’t able to feel emotions still had flashes of it, as well as fluctuations in his Aura, but Nomu had none.

Izuku stopped himself from taking in a breath in case Shigaraki heard him. He would never underestimate a Villain, no matter how they looked, let alone a Villain like Shigaraki who acted like he was mentally unstable. People like this were more volatile and less in control of their own emotions. As a person who had a Quirk that dealt in Empathy, Izuku had to make every precaution that he wouldn’t be affected by the Villain.

Izuku watched with calm eyes as Shigaraki fought Aizawa-sensei, looking for an opening in which he could influence the Villain and make him stumble. The Villain was dangerous, and Izuku got a bad feeling from him. The destruction and madness that swirled in his Aura was also mixed in with an unholy amount of glee. If Izuku had to compare it to something, it was almost like he couldn’t wait for the game to get started.

The teen watched without missing a single movement from Shigaraki as he waited, hidden by the Nomu.

Izuku bit the bottom of his cheek so hard when he realized that the Villain was hurting Aizawa-sensei as he held him by the elbow. He forcefully controlled his impulses and tried to calm his mind. He wanted so badly to reach out and calm the teacher and take away his hurt. The pain and fluctuation in his Aura was a show of how painful it must have been. He wanted to slam a fist in Shigaraki’s face!

It was only when Aizawa-sensei broke away from the Villain that he could make his move. He couldn’t make a move earlier because he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to control his strength when using One for All. No matter how good his control was during training, it was training and not a real battle. He couldn’t say with certainty that he wouldn’t hurt Aizawa-sensei.

“Your Quirk,” the Villain rasped. His voice could send shivers up countless people’s spines. “It’s not good in long, group battles, right? It’s kind of different from your usual work. You specialize in sneak attacks! Yet you jumped into the battle, hoping to make the kids—”

It was at this moment when Izuku finally stepped into the battle, the Villain’s Aura showed that he was completely focused on Aizawa-sensei as his mind obsessively latched onto the teacher’s presence. If Izuku was able to read his mind, he was sure that the Villain would have nothing but Aizawa-sensei in his sights as everything else fled to the back of his mind.

With the Nomu neutralised, Izuku could safely make a move. Izuku charged up ten percent of One for All, punching towards the Villain’s blind spot. He aimed to neutralize and perhaps injure, but never kill. A Hero could never kill, or they wouldn’t be called a Hero.

Almost like he had eyes on the back of his head, Shigaraki dodged to the side at the last moment, dodging the punch, but not the shrapnel and rubble that flew towards him.

“Ugh!” Shigaraki said in his raspy voice. He hunched over, clutching at his abdomen. The wound there was bleeding sluggishly as a piece of sharp shrapnel pierced him. “Hehe, and you call yourself a Hero,” he said, his cracked lips spreading into a creepy grin.

Izuku took a breath to calm himself as he let the mocking words wash over him, not taking any of them to heart. Shigaraki’s attention switched over from Aizawa-sensei to himself, and he couldn’t lie to say he wasn’t unnerved to be on the other end of that gaze.

Silently, Aizawa and Izuku moved in tangent to attack the Villain. After exchanging numerous blows, Shigaraki snapped as his impatience overtook him.

“Nomu!” he cried, frantically dodging the two’s blows.

Nomu didn’t make a sound or movement.

A bad feeling creeping up, Shigaraki kicked Aizawa away for some breathing space as he shouted again. “NOMU!”

The Nomu made no move. By now, the Villain was aware that something was wrong.

Shigaraki snarled, rapidly retreating. It looked like he would have no chance to kill All Might today. Nomu wasn’t responding to him, meaning it was time to grab it and retreat for the time being.

“Kurogiri!” Shigaraki screamed. “We’re leaving!”

Kurogiri indeed warped himself to where they were, behind Shigaraki. Izuku and Kurogiri’s eyes met for the fraction of a second as they developed an understanding.

Shigaraki turned around, preparing to dive into Kurogiri’s portal. Kurogiri opened what seemed like a portal, but instead created a void around the space to prevent him from moving.

Izuku’s eyes glowed. He knew he hadn’t made the wrong decision to trust Kurogiri.

Stunned, Shigaraki slammed a fist onto the dark screen in front of him. “What are you doing! Are you betraying the League?!” he shouted, his anger exploding. Kurogiri was ruining his game! He was a filthy traitor that didn’t deserve to live! If he knew this would happen, he would have had the other killed a long time ago instead of keeping him around! He would have asked Master to strip him of his Quirk and give it to himself instead! He screamed and raged in anger.

Izuku stared at the Villain contained inside the space, watching as he mouthed explicit words and phrases.

Aizawa instantly went into a stance that could be both offensive and defensive, hiding Izuku behind his body. Izuku felt endless affection for his teacher at the display of protectiveness. He could tell that the man wanted to scold him and berate him for throwing himself into such a dangerous situation, but he was also grateful because he had been flagging while he exchanged blows with numerous Villains. Fighting head on really wasn’t his strong suit.

“Who are you,” he said tightly. If it hadn’t been for trapping Shigaraki inside there, he would have gone on the offensive already. But since something told him not to, he stayed his hand for the time being.

Kurogiri’s fog wavered as his emotions fluctuated before returning to calm and indifference. “I am not an enemy,” he said lowly. “I wish to defect from being a Villain.”

Aizawa’s brows furrowed as he kept up his vigilance. Izuku stepped out from behind him, ignoring his teacher’s frown. “Kurogiri made a deal with me, sensei. He was the Villain’s escape route, but he doesn’t want to work with them anymore.”

Aizwaa’s frown deepened as he couldn’t quite make sense of it. Since when had a Villain suddenly defected in the middle of a battle and turn over a new leaf? However, his gut told him that the Villain in front of him really was planning on defecting.

He sighed. Problem child. Only he would be able to convert a Villain into a friend.

While Aizawa kept a wary eye on Kurogiri, Izuku took care of the other minor Villains in the area, knocking them unconscious.

Just as Aizawa was about to split them up and go rescue the rest of the class, All Might made his appearance.

“Fear not. For I am here,” came All Might’s resounding voice. It didn’t sound as bright as usual. Instead, it sounded dangerous and foreboding. His eyes scanned around but realized that the threat had already been neutralized. He inwardly heaved a sigh of relief as the anger faded slightly.

Izuku looked at him with worried eyes. All Might wasn’t in the best of moods right now. The anger that he was feeling was very strong, though it had lessened slightly after seeing that the Villains were unconscious on the ground and one was trapped in some sort of space.

“I had a bad feeling, so I cut short my talk with the principal, but it looks like everything’s under control,” he said.

It was at this moment when Izuku realized that the anger he was feeling wasn’t entirely directed at the Villains, but also partially himself. When his mind made the connection, the violent fluctuations in his Aura made sense. Toshi must be feeling angry at himself for using so much of his time up and not leaving enough so that he could oversee the training for class 1-A instead of having to arrive here at the last minute.

Izuku desperately wanted to take him aside and tell him it wasn’t his fault, but he couldn’t do it at this moment. It seemed like the day he had first entered Toshi’s room that day in the hospital, when he was filled with depression. He was worried that it was making its reappearance.

The green-haired teen grit his teeth, silently resolving to talk it out with the other man. He had to speed up his plans to try and help All Might. He was so emotionally disturbed that the ever-present and trademark smile of his was wiped off his face. Only Izuku knew what emotional turmoil he was going through right now. His heart went out to his mentor.

Before he could stop him, All Might left explosively, returning and leaving again each time, dropping off Villains and classmates alike.

The moment he spotted Kacchan, Izuku’s heart soared. The two of them hugged in relief that the other wasn’t hurt. Izuku melted as the worry that he had been ignoring was finally put to rest.

Suddenly, Izuku realized that All Might was directing angry eyes at Kurogiri. Izuku hurriedly broke out of his embrace with Kacchan as he dashed to block All Might, holding out his arms.

“Wait!” Izuku said, his mind whirling frantically. “Kurogiri’s on our side now.”

“How do you know he’s really on our side?” asked Yaoyorozu.

“I adopted him,” he said with a straight face.

Izuku got called into the principal’s office after everything was said and done.

Since they’d managed to capture Shigaraki, they’d managed to put away many of the Villains that had appeared in USJ, even if they were mostly small-time Villains instead of anyone large.

Still, a Villain that was put away was one less Villain that could terrorize society, so the impact of Kurogiri defecting to their side wasn’t as big either.

After all, Kurogiri had never shown himself as a Villain in the first place, never making his ‘Villain debut’ so to speak.

Not only that, he had information on the real leader behind the League of Villains.

So, they were here now, sitting in the principal’s office.

Izuku had never seen the principal up close before, but his Aura was bright and curious – it also gave off a crafty feeling.

He had Kurogiri, Aizawa-sensei and All Might here, just in case Kurogiri decided to change his mind. Not that Izuku thought he would, of course, but it stood to reason that the Heroes wouldn’t take this lightly.

And so was Kacchan, who was projecting an Aura that screamed he was unwilling and unhappy to leave Izuku here with a Villain that they had been fighting just barely a few hours ago, thus having bullied his way here into the principal’s office.

“So, Midoriya-kun, are you willing to vouch for Kurogiri here?”

There was a budding emotion of worry and concern in Kurogiri, with Izuku soothed. The ex-Villain’s emotions calmed lightly, yet he still felt the joy and curiosity that came from even having emotions at all.

Kurogiri subconsciously moved nearer Izuku, causing the rest of the Heroes to tense up, their eyes warily locking onto the ex-Villain.

Kacchan glared at the poor ex-Villain, wary but willing to trust Izuku’s decision regarding him.

Izuku felt warm from the trust that he experienced from Kacchan’s actions, squeezing his hand briefly before letting go.

“I am.”

Izuku pressed over his feelings of trust and willingness to trust over to those in the room, allowing them to feel it just as he did.

While it might have been illegal and impolite for him to use his Quirk in a non-combat situation, Izuku was willing to pass it off as a loss of control on his part if it meant that he would be able to help his new friend.

Kurogiri drifted forward a little before he consciously drifted back when he noticed just how much his body language – even when it was mainly void – gave him away. The faint tinges of embarrassment coloured his Aura.

Izuku made sure not to remove his Aura from the ex-Villain at any time, knowing how traumatic that would be for the man. Izuku was here to help him, not cause him to spiral further.

The principal steepled his little fingers together, looking incomparably serious. His Aura, however, reflected the strong curiosity and delight instead.

“You understand that you don’t have to be responsible for Kurogiri here, don’t you? Should he wish it, it will be possible for our research department to create something that would allow Kurogiri here to feel again.”

Izuku stopped before looking at Kurogiri, passing the decision to him. The Villain had a mind of his own, and it would definitely be better for him to have something that would allow him to feel again if only for himself.

Izuku couldn’t be around him for days on end, not when he had his own life to live. Not to mention, when he eventually became a Pro Hero, he would likely have to split from the man.

Kurogiri moved forward, speaking for the first time since they entered the room. “I would be amendable to that. Yet, I wish to follow Midoriya-kun,” the ex-Villain said. His voice was still raspy, yet there was more inflection to his voice now than it had before this. It was a good sign.

Kacchan bristled on instinct, only calming slightly when Izuku placed a hand on the blond’s.

“I think that’s better as well. I meant what I said earlier. I’ve already adopted him unofficially, so please allow me to make it official.”

Aizawa-sensei and All Might didn’t say a word. Either way it went, they would still be on guard towards Kurogiri until they managed to bring in the mastermind of the League of Villains and he managed to prove his trustworthiness.

“If you’re sure,” Nezu said, a feeling of glee lighting up his Aura. “Midoriya-kun, please understand that you will be responsible for the actions that Kurogiri here is responsible for. Should he turn back to the path of Villainy, you will be the sole person responsible.”

Izuku opened his mouth, but he was cut off before he could reply.

“Wait,” Kacchan cut him off.

All eyes in the office turned to his person, where he was frowning fiercely.

“I want to adopt him too.” Kacchan casually dropped the bomb, causing the rest of the inhabitants to stare at him blankly.

Izuku restrained the laughter that wanted to leave him. He was also touched by the strong feelings that the blond was giving off from his Aura. Izuku could feel his willingness to share the burden, as well as the feeling of staunch determination.

Izuku wanted to give his boyfriend a kiss, but it would be remiss of him to do it here.

“That’s fine,” Nezu said blandly. This time, he didn’t even turn to Kurogiri.

Kurogiri stepped forward to talk. “I am amendable to being adopted by Midoriya-kun and his friend, if that is what it takes.”

Nezu nodded. “Henceforth, you will be Midoriya Kurogiri, son of Midoriya Izuku, joint adoption with Bakugou-kun here.”

There was a faint, fragile hope and happiness that bloomed in Kurogiri’s Aura, so awed and happy that Izuku felt himself smiling just by feeling it. There was a feeling of fragility and delicacy in Kurogiri’s blossoming feelings, like a newborn discovering something for the first time.

Nezu shooed them out of his office in the end, taking care of all the troublesome paperwork. His mind was already running at full speed as he tabulated plans and adjusted them.

What an interesting child.