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The League of Villains finally accomplished it. They kidnapped Bakugou Katsuki, brought him to the lair undetected, and have him restrained at their disposal. Everything is going right according to plan.
Except for one slight problem, and that problem is named Todoroki Shouto.
When Mr. Compress said that he captured an extra person, Tomura was all for it. Sure, the more the merrier. And when he found out that it was Endeavor's son, the second place winner of the sports festival, he was even more for it. He might not be able to be coerced to the villains' side, but he'd be great as a hostage.
That's what Tomura thought before. Now, an hour later, he isn't so positive about that.
"Someone shut him up, I can't do this shit anymore," Bakugou shouts, clanging his hand restrains hard against his seat. "He's spewing bullshit and I'm forced to listen to it because I can't cover my fucking ears. Did you bring him to torture me? Because it's fucking working."
"Bakugou, you're exaggerating," Todoroki says, cool as ice. "You do make it difficult to have a conversation with you. I tried to appeal to you with the topic of your own ultimate move, but even now you're shouting."
"Fuck you, Half and Half. Stun grenades are ten times better than regular bombs," he growls, pulling against his restraints so he can glare at him properly.
"I merely suggested that the flashiness of them seem more for show than for utility," Todoroki says calmly, straight backed in his chair. "There's no need to use such strong language."
"How long have they been arguing for?" Spinner asks, watching the two boys, each restrained to a chair, continue their disagreement. When they first woke up, their attention was on the league members, but now it's like they're pretending they're not even there.
"Half an hour," Kurogiri replies tiredly. "I do believe we should step in-"
"I'll show you strong language up your ass! Let me at him, I'll shut him up myself."
Bakugou has now taken to stomping his feet as well, and the jarring noise reverberates throughout the bar. Twice already has his earbuds in, sharing one with Toga, and Dabi's taken three painkillers just for the migraine this is causing him. Even Magne looks troubled, and she's usually the most calm out of all of them, save for Kurogiri.
"Remind me never to try and use kids again," Tomura says, scratching his neck. "I think I'm allergic to them."
"I'm a kid!" Toga objects, eyes darting to the two boys, then back to Tomura. Her knife is out, ready to strike if necessary. Or just if she's given permission; she's asked three times already if she can take "just a little bit of blood from the scarred one, he looks like his blood is sweet."
At this rate, Tomura might just let her.
"Yeah, but you're different. You don't have tantrums," Dabi says, rubbing his temples. "We're fucking villains, can't we gag both of them?"
"We're trying to recruit Bakugou to our side, remember?" Tomura hisses. "So we have to treat him decently, even if he doesn't deserve it."
"He does not. Have some compassion you asshole," Twice chimes in, and Tomura ignores both sides of him.
They were doing so well... everything was working... He scratches his neck harder, sneaking a glance at the monitor where Sensei speaks. It's been awfully quiet since the two boys arrived.
Meanwhile, Todoroki has drawn Magne to his side, and now both of them are trying to reason with a livid Bakugou.
"He doesn't mean any harm," she's trying to reason. "Flashiness is a good thing-"
"We're talking utility, not looks," Bakugou practically scoffs. "You're a villain, you should be siding with me on this. It's all about effectiveness, and the flash grenade is designed to blind, not just draw attention."
"Flashiness is good in its own right," Spinner butts in. "Good for sending messages. People pay more attention to flashy things."
"I'm not trying to make a shitty statement," Bakugou insists. "Dumbass here was asking why I bother with the flash grenades when the regular bombs do more damage. Obviously he doesn't get the different uses in different scenarios. Like I want to blow shit up every time I fight."
"Well you do have a tendency-"
"Don't even finish that sentence." He groans, shaking his hair out of his eyes. "Yo, Handsy, do you want something from us or did you just take us to be a shithead? Because my ass is getting stiff and I'm sweating nitroglycerin bullets in here."
Tomura startles at being addressed. "Yeah, I took you here to recruit you to the villains' side," he says bluntly. "Peppermint patty here is just collateral damage."
Bakugou snorts at this. "Peppermint patty, I like that one. I mean, there's no fucking way I'm joining you, but I'm stealing that nickname. Stealing from a villain is technically a heroic act, I'm pretty sure."
"Two wrongs do not make a right," Todoroki says. Apparently being called "collateral damage" didn't affect him at all. "Although you aren't technically stealing anything, since the Japanese language is-"
"We would like you to hear us out," Tomura interrupts, sending Todoroki a sharp glance before turning back to Bakugou. He's the one they have to convince, after all. They don't have all night to debate the semantics of the word steal. "We are representative of a better tomorrow. This society, with so called 'heroes' who only work for money and glory. We want to expose it, make people question-"
"You're only convincing him to be a hero more, you realize," Todoroki cuts in. His expression never changes, but his eyes have a hint of mirth in them. "Your ideology - or rather, the ideology you borrowed from Stain once you realized people like him better - hinges on the heroes of today, not the heroes of tomorrow. We intend to be the future heroes who fight for justice rather than glory, and though you may think that you are the true justice, we will stand opposite you and defeat you. Just as the heroes of today are working to defeat you now and rescue the two of us."
"Fucking preach," Bakugou chimes in, his grin full of malice. "You really monologued the shit out of that, but I think they got the message. You don't support shit, posers. Go back to skulking and tearing up cities. I'm not giving your offer a second of deliberation."
"League meeting," Kurogiri says, motioning Tomura over to the corner before he can close his hand around the brat's throat - both brats, actually, one for each hand - and turn them to dust. Dabi looks like he's finally interested, and Twice is fluctuating between supporting their rebellious nature and spitting at them.
"Should we kill Endeavor's kid?" Spinner asks forthright. "Because I don't really see his use, and with him around, there's no way Bakugou'll come to our side. He's a total stopcock in our plans."
"I know you just wanted to say the word cock, and it's not appreciated," Dabi says. "I second the killing, though. At least then I'd have some peace and quiet." He holds up a single burning hand, miming an explosion.
"Kill the loud one too! Why can't we all just be friends?" Twice asks, toying with the gun in his lap.
"If we kill Bakugou's classmate before his very eyes, he will most certainly reject any proposal we give to him," Mr. Compress says firmly. "Also it would be bad for him psychologically. No doubt he would eventually try and stab us in the back on the off chance he does say yes."
"What if we kill both of them?" Toga suggests. "I could pretend to be Bakugou for a bit, as long as I still have his blood."
"You're just hungry, Toga," Magne says. "You know where we keep the blood bags, go get one for yourself. We will let you know if you have to suck their blood or not, although I do think there are easier ways to kill them. More painless, too."
"It feels odd to have my death discussed so openly," Todoroki says aloud to Bakugou. Evidently, the league wasn't whispering as quietly as they thought. "I am unsure whether to feel offended or not."
"Eh, they're villains," Bakugou offers. "An insult from them is a compliment from a normal person. Plus, we only have to put up with them until the pros show up, which is good, since they're a bunch of pissoffs."
"Who're you calling a pissoff?" Spinner demands, turning to face them.
"Upsetting them seems to be the wrong choice at the moment," Todoroki whispers, still loud enough for everyone to hear. "They are easily offended, especially the green one. Perhaps as a product of their low self-esteem, they-"
"I didn't sign up to be psychoanalyzed," Dabi says firmly, walking out of the room. "You guys deal with them, I'm gonna take a nap or something before I burn them to crisps."
"I'll come too! No kid will make me leave," Twice says, following him (which is a two steps forward, one step back situation). Toga follows chirpily, waving to the both of them before disappearing out the door. Spinner looks from Tomura to the boys, then dashes out.
That just leaves Tomura, Kurogiri, Magne, and Mr. Compress, all looking varying degrees of annoyed.
"I like these odds, Half and Half," Bakugou says, stretching his arms as much as he can. "Unchain us and fight, you bastards. Unless you're too chicken to fight two kids in a four on two battle. How'd'ya think you can take on All Might if you're fucking cowards? Pathetic." He spits to the side for good measure, staring Tomura dead in the eyes.
"It does seem difficult to try and sway someone's opinion while they are restrained," Todoroki observes. "Although as the 'collateral damage' in this situation, my opinion matters little. You seem to be doing so well with the strategy you are employing now, I would hate to influence you wrongly." Tomura wants to turn his stupid blank face to dust. He wants to turn the whole damn bar into dust.
"Didn't Endeavor ever teach you any manners?" Kurogiri says. "Your attitude is rather-"
"Fuck Endeavor." Todoroki's eyes bore holes in Kurogiri. The temperature in the room starts to rise, and the air around him distorts in the heat. Mr. Compress pulls off his cape, and even Tomura begins to sweat a little. The cool and collected nature seems to have been, at least temporarily, put on hold. Todoroki is exuding even more of a feral energy than Bakugou.
"What? Isn't he your father?" Magne asks, pulling her hair back. "You shouldn't say-"
"Yeah, fuck him," Bakugou agrees. "And we can say this because you've got no evidence and no one will believe a bunch of fucking villains." Todoroki looks oddly touched, and the temperature in the room cools down just a little bit.
Tomura is really starting to get sick of this back and forth. "Sensei, please lend me your power." He'll finish this once and for all, the extra be damned.
"'Sensei'?" Bakugou repeats, grinning that awful grin again. "So you're not the head honcho here? I've been wasting my fucking time on you. He should've came to persuade me himself, instead of sending his piece of shit lackey."
"Would you say that your boss also suffers from a weak self esteem?" Todoroki asks, eyes bright with what could only be mocking, even though everything else about him seems painfully neutral. "While I am here, I wish to gain a better understanding of what drives the league to do what they do."
"In normal words, he's saying that all of this is the big car to make up for your small dick," Bakugou cackles. "I hate the guy, but he knows how to fucking talk. Maybe you can take some lessons-"
He's interrupted by a knock at the door. "Hello, this is Pizza-La, Camino store," they hear a chipper voice say. The villains exchange a puzzled look, while Todoroki mentions that he's lactose intolerant, so if they bought him a slice, unfortunately he can't eat it, but he does appreciate the effort.
His lactose intolerance is a non-issue a second later, when All Might himself smashes through the wall.
***
"So let me get this straight," Aizawa says, sitting across from them a few days later in the faculty lounge. "You argued for a half an hour about bombs, called the League of Villains a bunch of thin skinned posers, called them pissoffs while they were discussing your deaths, and told Shigaraki to his face that he has a small penis, and you somehow still didn't get killed by them?"
"I believe that they suffer from delusions of grandeur and justice spawned on by-" Todoroki gets out before being cut off by Bakugou's hand to his mouth. He pauses, removes the hand calmly, then almost begins speaking again before Bakugou pipes up.
"Until they figure out how to get Icy Hot to shut the fuck up, I think we're good," he says, and Todoroki nods along.