Chapter Text
Relaxing was weird.
Used to be Katsuki never did it – never got the chance. Hag was always on him to push himself, be better, do better, all that shit. He never got the chance to just stop.
And then he and Zuku had reconnected, and he’d found one person he could relax around.
Not a lot, and not for a long time. The urge to work train study started buzzing under his skin the longer he lay around doing nothing. But damn, it was always nice while it lasted.
Then they’d started with their game nights with Sero, and it was tense at first, yeah, awkward, because Katsuki didn’t get comfortable with people, never had. Only with Izuku because Izuku was different, Izuku was special.
But then somehow, one broken controller and a lot of barely-averted explosions later, he started to relax around Sero, too.
It hadn’t happened with that shady fuck Shigaraki, thank God. The guy might be a worthy rival in video games, but it made him uncomfortable how comfortable Izuku was around him. He barely knew the guy!
Then again, Katsuki barely knew Sero, and he’d gotten comfortable around him, so. Maybe it was only a matter of time.
Shigaraki was older, was the thing. Shigaraki was, according to Izuku, nineteen years old – an adult.
And Katsuki had kind of learned not to trust or listen to adults, ever.
“He’s a teenager!” Izuku liked to protest. “And come on, have you seen how immature he is? No offense, Shigaraki.” Katsuki wasn’t sure why he’d said the last part – Shigaraki wasn’t there.
“He’s an adult,” Katsuki would always respond. “It’s shitty adults’ fault I was allowed to beat the shit out of you for so long. They don’t give a shit about us. You can’t trust them.”
“Yeah, well, my mom is an adult. So.”
“Your mom is a goddamn Midoriya! You’ve got angel blood or some shit! It’s literally impossible for you to be shitty!”
“What about Aizawa?”
“What about him? I still say he’s gonna rat us out to the police any day.”
“You have trust issues.”
“You should have trust issues! Trust issues are a goddamn survival skill!”
“Paranoid.”
“Gullible.”
“Yeah, well, I’d rather be gullible than paranoid.”
“Speak for your fucking self.”
(Even through all the natural frustration of arguing, Katsuki had to admit it made him pretty goddamn happy to see Izuku not backing down from him.)
So, yeah, Katsuki was not comfortable around Shigaraki, no matter how much Izuku insisted that they’d get along great if they just gave each other a chance. Because he was an adult, and Katsuki could not get comfortable around an adult.
Thing was, though… he kind of was. With Aizawa.
They were still doing the vigilante thing, which meant Aizawa was still coaching them on fighting. Izuku had gotten the hang of the basics by now, with how fast he learned everything, and Katsuki…
“Do you always lead with a right hook?”
“He does!” Izuku, the traitor, had chimed in.
Katsuki was used to being yelled at for fuck-ups. Somehow, Aizawa’s disapproving stare was so much worse. “Do you not understand how recklessly irresponsible that is? Any villain with a brain that you fight more than once, or who’s even heard of you, is going to have an immediate counter in their pocket.”
…Katsuki maybe wasn’t as great at fighting as he’d always thought he was.
Aizawa never yelled at him. Aizawa never hit him. Just gave him that fucking stare… and then showed him how to work around whatever stupid mistake he’d made. It was weird, getting help when he was struggling. Even weirder to admit he’d been struggling in the first place. Different from his teachers, way different from the hag, who took one look at a homework sheet he’d gotten stuck on and told him to “figure it out, dumbass”. Which, he usually did, but this was faster, and a whole lot less angry.
Katsuki wasn’t comfortable with Aizawa. But he was getting close to something like trust.
Which meant of course he had to ruin it.
“Kacchan?”
Izuku’s voice, muffled behind the mask, which meant he should really be calling him Kiki, but they hadn’t actually left Izuku’s apartment yet, so it was fine. “Yeah, Zuku?”
Izuku’s gaze was so steady and calm that what came next was a genuine shock. “Aizawa’s worried about you. He asked me a while ago about our, um, home situations? And I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything, and he kinda moved past it, but…” Izuku took a deep breath. “I think I need to tell him. About… your mom, and…”
Katsuki stared at Izuku. Izuku – finally – looked away.
“I’m sorry,” Izuku whispered.
Katsuki looked down at his palms. Dry. He clenched them into fists. Took a deep breath.
Ripped off his mask, threw it on Izuku’s bed, and walked out of his apartment before Izuku or Inko could stop him.
Went home. Hag was yelling something. Katsuki ignored her. She grabbed him by the shoulder. Katsuki shoved her off. She shut up after that.
Went into his room. Locked the door. Pressed himself up against the wall. Put his fists up against his forehead.
And exploded.
The first few times he’d done it, back when he was a kid, it had hurt. A lot. He was pretty solidly blastproof, but not completely, especially when he was younger. But it felt right, too. He fucked up, so he got to hurt for it.
Then the hag had heard him, and come running, and –
“Oh, Katsuki –”
“Shh, shh, no, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m gonna hold you now, ‘kay?”
“Listen. Shh, I know, just listen.”
“Don’t you ever fucking hurt my kid like that again, okay?”
“Katsuki, firebug, look at me. Look at your mama.”
“You are the best thing that ever happened to me. You are my tiny angry goddamn little miracle. And it fuckin’ hurts me to see you hurt yourself like that.”
“Firebug, the world could be falling down around my ears, and all I’d think about was if my baby was okay. ‘Cause I don’t care about the world, you got it? I care about you. So don’t you fucking hurt yourself. Don’t you hurt the only thing that fucking matters to me.”
“I love you, Kats.”
It was the only time he’d ever heard his ma – she hadn’t been the hag back then, she’d just been his ma – sound scared.
The memory flooded his veins, and explosions burst out from between his knuckles, and his head banged against the wall from the force, and fire licked his forehead, and his ma didn’t come.
Levelling Charisma did a lot of things.
It made him more confident around Kacchan and the League. It stopped him from slipping into stammering apologies over tiny mistakes. It let him snark back at Kacchan instead of cowering.
It did not, unfortunately, cure what Izuku was starting to suspect was clinical anxiety.
It had not been an easy decision. He could see how it might’ve come out of nowhere for Kacchan, but he’d been worrying about it since Aizawa had asked. And the hero’s concern came through in other ways – his furrowed brow when Izuku explained an injury he’d gotten during parkour practice, his too-close stares at Kacchan when he got particularly upset and tried to hide it, his attempts to follow them home (Izuku had only noticed a few of those, but he was sure there had been more).
And Izuku hated lying, even by omission.
He hadn’t told Aizawa, even after he’d told Kacchan. Because Kacchan had just – just stormed out, without saying a word, like Izuku wasn’t even worth looking at. Izuku felt like he had broken something that had just been beginning to mend, a feeling made worse by the fact that Kacchan’s relationship score had dropped by ten and his status read ‘Hurt’.
Izuku should tell Aizawa. But Izuku was a coward, and he could not lose Kacchan, not after only just getting him back.
So he didn’t.
And Kacchan came back around eventually, and before he even got a word out Izuku had been promising that he hadn’t told Aizawa and never would, and Katsuki relaxed just a little, and that was the end of it.
For about a week.
And then something happened that Izuku couldn’t ignore anymore.
His comms crackled to life. “Eraserhead, I’m picking up on that vigilante kid Boba yelling for you in Musutafu?”
Fuck. Shouta wrapped up the fight he was currently in with a kick to the head, knocking the small-time villain to the ground and leaving him unconscious. “I’m on it.” He gave them his current street address so they could actually take the villain in.
He’d told them, goddamn it, he’d told them they were in over their heads. They’d denied continuing their vigilantism with completely straight faces, but that didn’t change the countless reports Shouta had heard of two tiny vigilantes running around various cities. Boba was making quick work of the fundamentals and Kiki was making strides in control, but they still weren’t ready.
And now Boba had been spotted screaming for him. Alone.
When he finally landed, the kid didn’t look hurt. Distraught, crying, but not hurt. Kiki was nowhere in sight. “Where’s Kiki?” Shouta demanded.
“Oh!” Boba jumped when he realized Shouta was there. “Um, Eraserhead, he –” He took a deep breath. “His mom kicked him out. I told my mom and she said he can stay with us but that’s not gonna work long-term, she doesn’t make enough money to support two kids, so he’s safe for now but he needs help, and you seemed like you wanted to help, so…” His voice trailed off.
Shouta took a deep breath. He’d suspected as much. He’d tailed the both of them home a few times and managed to gather that Boba was Midoriya Izuku and Kiki was Bakugou Katsuki. Midoriya seemed entirely comfortable entering his home. Bakugou always tensed up when he walked through the door to his. But he couldn’t act on anything, not without hard evidence or the testimony of one of the kids. “Right. Where is he now?”
Right on cue, rapid footsteps sounded behind Midoriya. Midoriya’s face paled. “I’m sorry!” he yelled.
Bakugou came to a stop facing Midoriya. “What the fuck, Boba?” he screamed. “You fucking ratted me out to a pro hero?”
Midoriya’s lower lip trembled. “Your mom kicked you out! I didn’t know what to do! It’s not your fault, Ka – Kiki, you’re not gonna get in trouble!”
“I don’t need your fucking help! You’re just gonna ruin everything! It’s not even a big deal anyway! It happens all the time, and she always lets me go back after like a week, so –”
Shouta’s heart stopped. “Say that last part again, kid.”
Bakugou glowered at him, taking threatening steps closer. “It happens. All. The time.”
This time, it happened like this.
Katsuki and Izuku had a sleepover with Sero, and when Sero had seen the weird look on Katsuki’s face, he’d offered for Katsuki to come back the next night, and Katsuki had accepted. Which turned into three nights, which turned into four nights, which turned into Sero’s parents sitting down with him and negotiating a firm sleepover limit.
By that point, he’d known what was going to happen when he went home. He was just delaying the inevitable. So he asked Izuku if he could sleep over for a few nights, and he said yes.
Katsuki didn’t go home for a week, and when he finally did –
“If you’re not gonna bother letting your ma know you’re alive for a whole damn week, don’t come back at all, you hear me?”
“Fucking – can I get my shit first?”
“Fuck off.”
Door slammed.
Katsuki walked back to Izuku’s apartment and said, in a tone that suggested something completely normal, “Hag kicked me out. Mind if I keep crashing with you?”
And then Zuku had burst into tears, and hugged him, and had a quiet, teary conversation with Inko, and made up an excuse to go out, and by the time Katsuki realized what he’d been planning, he was already a block away.
Good thing Katsuki was still faster than him.
Not fast enough to stop him from ratting him out to fucking Aizawa, though, even though it wasn’t a big deal, it really wasn’t, because it happened all the time. And he told them so.
And Aizawa’s eyes had widened and Izuku’s had too, and Izuku went in for another hug but Katsuki pushed him off because he was still fucking pissed at him, and Aizawa had said, “I need to make a call.”
So now, here they fucking were, at the police station. Aizawa had at least let them take off their vigilante disguises first – he’d figured out who they were, of course he fucking had, so it didn’t matter anyway. And Katsuki was being asked questions and giving completely fucking normal answers, and he was getting back pity.
“You said ‘this happens all the time’. What did you mean by that?”
“Couple times a year, I stay out too long or fuck up too bad, and the hag kicks me out for a couple days, ‘teach me a lesson’ or whatever bullshit.”
“How long is ‘a couple days’?”
“Uh… three days was the shortest, two weeks was the longest. Usually ‘bout a week.”
“And you stayed with Midoriya during this time.”
“…Yeah.”
“Bakugou, we can’t help you if you lie to us.”
“Fucking – fine, alright? Shit’s complicated with Zuku and me, so before we got close again I’d find a street to hang out on and stay there ‘til she called me.”
“You lived on the street.”
“Yeah? I just fucking said that, dumbass.”
“Did your mother know about this?”
“I mean yeah, she’s not fucking stupid.”
“When did this start?”
“First time was last year… no, two years ago.”
“How are things when you are home?”
“Fine? Normal. She leaves me alone mostly, just likes to nag me when I’m coming home and at meals.”
“When did she start leaving you alone?”
“Uh… always, I guess.”
You’d think the detectives’ hearts were breaking the way they looked at him.
“What?” Katsuki snapped, glaring at the room in general. The loser interrogating him wasn’t so bad, but Katsuki still caught his eye twitching. Meanwhile, the security guard looked fucking stricken. “I’m not a baby. I can take care of my fucking self.”
“Can you state your age for the record, Bakugou?”
“Fifteen on July 15th.”
“So… fourteen, currently.”
“Fucking duh.”
The detective took a deep, slow breath. “Bakugou. You are, legally speaking, a child. Your parents have a responsibility to take care of you and protect you. Do you understand that?”
“I don’t need protecting, asshole!”
“That aside. Do you think your parents have been fulfilling that responsibility, regardless of whether you need it or not?”
“No. ‘Cause they don’t need to. ‘Cause I don’t fucking need it.”
“…That will be all, Bakugou.”
“Tell me again where you found these children?” Tsukauchi mumbled to Shouta.
Shouta shot another glance at Midoriya, who himself was casting anxious glances into the office where Bakugou had been questioned. No amount of ‘he’s fine, they’re not going to do anything to him, he’s not in trouble’ had been able to calm him down. “They want to be heroes,” he said, settling on a half-truth. “I’m teaching them to fight.”
“…Right,” Tsukauchi said. “Bakugou, you can come out.”
The boy made his way into the room, posture slumped, head downturned, eyes glaring defiantly up at every adult in the vicinity. “You gonna let me go now, assholes?”
Midoriya shot up. “Kacchan!”
“Don’t.” Bakugou held up a hand. “Still pissed at you.”
Midoriya’s lower lip wobbled. “I’m sorry! I just –”
“’S fine. I’ll get over it if we can get this shit settled.”
Midoriya turned to Tsukauchi. “He can stay with me,” he said. “So you don’t need to – please don’t send him into foster care.”
“Well, I’ve got bad news and good news on that front,” Tsukauchi said, glancing at Shouta out of the corner of his eye. “On the one hand, according to you and Bakugou, your mother is a close personal friend of his mother’s. We’re not saying she’s complicit –”
“Fuck you!” Midoriya blurted. Then slapped a hand over his mouth. “I mean – just, she’s not very perceptive, that’s all! She would never –”
“Until we can determine that,” Tsukauchi said, raising his voice to be heard over Midoriya’s rambling, “he won’t be able to stay with you. However.” He glanced at Shouta again. “You’re still licensed for emergency foster situations, right?”
“What?” Midoriya asked.
“Fuck no,” Bakugou said.
“You fucking tell me this right now?” Shouta muttered, rubbing his forehead. There was not enough coffee in the world for this situation.
“The alternative is to enter him into the foster system –”
“Kacchan, please –” Midoriya said.
“Fucking fine!” Bakugou snapped.
“Fucking fine,” Shouta agreed.