Chapter Text
[13:16]
Izuku sighed. Only fifteen minutes had passed since he had returned to his desk after his lunch break, and he was already longing to finish the day. The whole notion was a pipe dream: with the deadlines at his heels, he was probably looking at an hour of overtime today, if not more.
On some days, the numbers in his spreadsheets weren’t too terrible company. There was a certain joy to completing a table and seeing that everything clicked, the sums corresponding to each other perfectly. Since his job involved processing Quirk-related insurance claims, he sometimes even got to read fascinating case reports, the wildly improbable problems people ran into with their Quirks every day.
Well, that was the one thing he didn’t have to worry about, being firmly Quirkless.
But then there were days like these, when the numbers seemed the dullest thing imaginable. The cases weren’t too interesting either—machines short-circuited by electricity Quirks, accidental fires and water damage, broken cars and public property. Identical to hundreds of other similar cases that he had processed in his three years working for the company.
Usually, he would at least have the view to appreciate: his desk was next to the wall that was made completely out of glass, the view of the city sprawling far into the horizon when looking at it from the 39th floor of the skyscraper. But today, Izuku was out of luck there, too. Low-hanging clouds had settled over the city, leaving the higher floors of the building enveloped in a thick fog. His entire line of sight was filled with an all-encompassing, monotonous grey.
Izuku rubbed his temples to feel a bit more alert. Would going to get a glass of water help? He would need to walk past the department manager’s desk though, and he sometimes complained if he got away from his workstation too often between breaks. Izuku glanced at the time again: it was 13:21. Okay, he would focus for ten more minutes, then a quick break…
“There’s a hero fighting a villain just around the next building!”
The sudden exclamation caught Izuku’s attention. He looked up, but of course, saw nothing through the fog. The voice had come from his left side—the visibility seemed to be marginally better on that side of the building, even though there were remnants of the fog there as well. But again, Izuku couldn’t very well go stand there and watch, or he would certainly be told to return to his own desk.
Just his rotten luck. When there was something actually exciting going on, the stupid weather made sure he wouldn’t be able to see any of it.
Izuku returned his attention to his spreadsheet with a huff. The longer he spent feeling sorry for himself, the longer he would need to stay in the evening. Focus! Right, so the deductible amount…
The glass in front of him shattered with an ear-piercing sound, and a body slammed onto Izuku’s desk, knocking his laptop onto the floor.
Izuku jumped on his feet by instinct, mouth falling open but making no sound as his brain tried to catch up with the sudden turn of events. The office around him devolved into chaos, people scrambling away from their desks screaming and hurrying towards the stairwell.
“Midoriya, get moving! The villain’s about to come here!”
…The villain? But…
The body on Izuku’s desk groaned and turned its head to spit out a glob of bloody saliva. Izuku stepped closer, a shaking hand reaching out with trepidation.
They hadn’t met in many years, but he knew the person behind the black mask and blond spikes.
“Ka–”
“There you are!”
A woman’s voice prompted Izuku’s head to snap back at the hole that Kacchan had made when he had blasted through the glass. From it, a woman with a dangerous smile climbed in, and Izuku blanched. She was green all over, her large eyes sitting a bit too far from each other, creating an unsettling expression. If that wasn’t enough, her long, thin limbs that forced her to hunch to avoid hitting the ceiling of the office confirmed that she was the villain who called herself Mantis.
Izuku didn’t really need his encyclopaedic knowledge about heroes and their adversaries to tell that this villain wasn’t to be taken lightly. Izuku dropped down on his knees behind his desk to hide himself from view.
“Oh-ho! Not so high and mighty now that my partner’s venom is starting to take effect, are you?” Mantis cooed at Kacchan, voice filled with false sweetness.
Her words alerted Izuku to the way that Kacchan’s movements were indeed a bit sluggish, and his breathing sounded pained in a way that probably couldn’t be blamed purely on his visible injuries. The mantis villain stalked closer to her target, unaware of Izuku’s presence.
“Get outta here you fucker,” Kacchan croaked under his breath, trying to address Izuku without attracting the villain’s attention to him.
The words snapped Izuku back to his own head from the initial shock. He really needed to leave. He wasn’t a pro, and Mantis had already mentioned a “partner”, which probably meant…
A strange rippling sound, like dozens of small feet tapping against the glass, came from the wall. Izuku peeked from behind the desk, and the sight made cold terror run down his spine. A giant centipede-shaped villain, yellow from the front and jet black from the back, crawled inside the building. Her hair and eyes, however, were the colour of fresh blood.
Mukade. A name that had first popped up in the public consciousness only about a year ago, but had already spread far and wide.
While Izuku’s attention was focused on the second villain, Kacchan had readied himself for action. He jumped upwards from the top of the desk only to kick against the ceiling to give himself a boost when he rained explosions down on the villains. The floor shook from the force of the strikes on both sides, and Izuku dodged the office supplies flying his way as he tried to look for a chance to make his exit undetected. The heat from one of Kacchan’s explosions set off the sprinkler system, causing water to spray everywhere and turning the papers scattered on the floor into slippery mush.
Izuku had managed to crawl his way past the two neighbouring desks, when a feral roar compelled him to look behind him. Kacchan had managed to climb onto Mukade’s back, avoiding her venomous bite and holding her head between his hands to shock her with an explosion through the hard, protective shell. She shrieked and thrashed around, twisting her long body to try and shake him off, but Kacchan was like a particularly stubborn parasite clinging to its host. Finally, he managed to produce an explosion that knocked her out, and she collapsed on the floor.
One villain down! Izuku rejoiced for a moment, but then he noticed that Kacchan seemed to be struggling more than earlier, too. He tried to push himself from the floor, but his arms gave out repeatedly and his head drooped low, breath coming in short, laboured pants.
Meanwhile, Mantis stalked closer to him, ready to give payback for the treatment of her partner.
Izuku stopped in his tracks. Kacchan was in trouble. He couldn’t fight another villain like this. The realisation filled Izuku with a feeling that reminded him of the Sludge villain incident many years ago.
His body moved without thinking.
Mantis had just raised one of her terrifyingly sharp-edged arms to strike, when a mid-sized fax machine flew through the air and connected with the back of her head. She let out a grunt and turned towards her surprise attacker, too-large eyes gleaming.
The next couple of seconds seemed to stretch on forever, and everything stood still. Izuku stared at Mantis. Mantis stared at Izuku. Kacchan fought to raise his head to see what the hell was going on.
The spell was broken when the door of the office was slammed open and a group of armed police officers barged inside. Mantis glanced at her partner and Izuku in turn, then clicked her tongue before looking down and picking something up from the floor. Izuku realised with horror that it was his company ID, attached to its lanyard that had fallen from the desk during the commotion. Taking in the face on the card photo, the villain smiled at Izuku cruelly.
“This won’t be the last you see of me… Midoriya Izuku.”
With that, she slivered out of the hole she had entered through. The police reached the spot in seconds, but didn’t have anyone with a Quirk that was able to follow her.
The centipede villain was apprehended in seconds, restrained so that she wouldn’t pose a threat if she suddenly regained consciousness. One officer exchanged words with Kacchan, who by now had pulled himself into a half-sitting position leaning against the nearest desk. Izuku wanted to go see him, but he was pulled aside by another officer to give a statement. He repeated the events that had unfolded in as much detail as he could remember, including the words Mantis had spoken to him before her escape.
By the time Izuku was freed by the officer, Kacchan was nowhere to be seen. Izuku was told that the medical team was taking care of him—they had come prepared with antivenoms knowing what kind of villains were involved. Izuku was made to reiterate several times that he hadn’t been in contact with Mukade’s venom at any point.
When the police were done with him, they told him to just go straight home.
The rest of the day passed in a bizarre state of unreality. It felt like he had to have imagined it, but it was undeniably real: he saw reports about the incident when he checked the news online, his work clothes were soaked wet from the sprinklers, and his knee and thigh were slightly bruised from hitting some furniture while crouching on the floor.
He had seen Kacchan, as an actual Pro Hero. Had Kacchan recognised him? Izuku couldn’t be sure. He replayed the events over and over in his mind, but couldn’t come to any real conclusion. He wasn’t even sure which option he should hope for.
After all, it had just been a fluke, a crazy accident that had caused their paths to cross after so many years. There was no reason to expect it would happen again.
The next morning, Izuku jolted awake to the sound of his doorbell.
Sleep-addled and confused, he opened the door to find a man in a black suit and sunglasses standing at his doorstep. The man bowed politely.
“Good morning, Midoriya-sama. Apologies for disturbing you, but I must request that you join me. Here is my affiliation.”
He handed Izuku an ID card. Peering over the information, Izuku realised that the card was assigned by the hero agency that Kacchan worked at.
“Can uh…can I change clothes first?”
Izuku was suddenly extremely aware of his shirt that said “sleep shirt” and All Might-themed pyjama pants.
“Naturally. I will wait until you are ready.”
The man bowed again and then stepped next to the door in a way that let Izuku know the conversation was over for the time being. Izuku closed the door and blinked rapidly several times. What was going on?
He scrambled to find clothes that were acceptable and brushed his teeth before going outside the door to let the man know he was ready. He was led into a black car parked one block away, since there was no parking space for such a big car next to Izuku’s building.
After a short drive, the car stopped in front of the hero agency and Izuku was instructed to introduce himself at the reception. As soon as Izuku stepped inside and saw his reflection in the sleek wall of the lobby, he realised that he had neglected to brush his hair.
“How may I help you?”
The receptionist’s voice was bright like a wind chime, and her impeccable uniform made Izuku feel even more embarrassed by his bedhead.
“Um, my name is Midoriya Izuku. I was called here for…something.”
The receptionist looked at her computer, slender fingers clicking away with professional smoothness.
“Midoriya-sama, we have been expecting you. Please take elevator A to the 15th floor.”
As soon as the doors of the elevator closed, Izuku’s hands flew to his hair to try to even out the worst of it, but the ride was woefully short. At his destination, he was greeted by yet another person, a stern-looking woman.
“Good morning, Midoriya-san. My name is Sumeragi, director of this agency. Please follow me.”
Izuku’s head reeled. Kacchan’s boss had invited him? Why?
He was taken into an office with big windows, offering an impressive view over the city. However, Izuku was much more concerned with Kacchan, who was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest and a sour expression on his face. He was out of his hero costume, sporting a pair of baggy pants with combat boots and a black jacket. He seemed to be well, as if the previous afternoon’s fight hadn’t even happened.
What a relief…
When Kacchan didn’t acknowledge his arrival in any way, Izuku forced himself to not stare for too long, taking the seat he was offered. Sumeragi sat in her own chair behind the desk and crossed her fingers before she began to speak.
“I’ll go straight to the point. The reason why you are here today is that based on Dynamight’s mission report and your statement, one of the villains involved in yesterday’s incident got away. She took an ID card with your information, which combined with your involvement with the incident strongly suggests that she intends to seek you out and possibly attempt revenge of some kind. As you are a civilian without a Quirk or clearance to protect yourself, we have decided to assign you a hero to ensure your safety until the situation changes. Dynamight is our choice for the task.”
Izuku blinked. Kacchan would be personally assigned to “ensure his safety”? It sounded preposterous.
Kacchan opened his mouth.
“Look, I’m-”
He received a sharp glare from Sumeragi.
“I’m angry at you, so you would do well not to start running your mouth.”
“I caught a villain from the damn Most Wanted list!” Kacchan bristled.
“By disregarding the rules, ditching your hero partner and causing so much collateral damage the paperwork is going to take a whole month to sort out. Not to mention involving a civilian.”
Kacchan’s eyes blazed for a moment, but then he seemed to abandon the current discussion and continued in a calmer tone.
“As I was gonna say, you should pick someone else for him. I don’t think he’ll want me sticking around for who knows how long.”
“Will this be a problem?” Sumeragi redirected the question to Izuku in a heartbeat.
“Ah, no. It’s…I don’t mind.”
“Well, that’s that then.”
She nodded with finality and began to peruse the papers on her desk.
“So, you have a choice of staying at home like usual with Dynamight accompanying you, or we have an agency-owned apartment available for these kinds of situations. Right now, the closest one available is…”
She read out the name of the area and Izuku shook his head.
“N-no, I don’t think I can go quite that far… I’d rather stay home, if that’s okay.”
“Very well,” Sumeragi said, pulling out a form and checking a box with her pen adorned with the agency logo.
For the next few minutes, she explained to him the terms of the protection programme and had him write his personal information on the form. At the bottom of the final page, there were three squares and three dotted lines. The director’s ornate seal was already stamped on the paper, her name neatly written on the side.
“Please write your name and sign with your seal,” Sumeragi advised.
Izuku took his inkan out of his bag and, with trembling hands, stamped his much simpler personal seal on the paper and wrote his name with the pen offered to him. The pen was much heavier than it looked.
“Dynamight?”
There was a slight pause and for a moment, Izuku wondered if Kacchan would refuse to sign. But then he heard footsteps, saw Kacchan stamp his own inkan and write Bakugou Katsuki on the dotted line.
It was official.
“That concludes the formalities. The contract is in effect immediately, which means that from now on, Dynamight is responsible for your safety, Midoriya-san. Takahashi will take you home.”
“Um…won’t Kacc– I mean Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight…Should we stop by his home and let him, uh, pack or something…?”
“Already done.”
Sumeragi waved the question aside as Kacchan picked up a duffel bag from behind one of the chairs. When she bid them goodbye, Izuku got the impression of being dismissed from a sovereign’s court.
Before he knew it, Izuku was back in the back seat of the nice black car. The second time wasn’t any less intimidating than the first, notably because this time Kacchan was sitting on the other seat, looking extremely sour and stubbornly facing away from Izuku the entire time.
Suddenly, Izuku was hit by two separate but interlinked realisations.
Firstly, Kacchan would be coming to live with him, and he didn’t seem happy about it.
Secondly, Izuku had a bit too much Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight merch for comfort.
As soon as Izuku thanked Takahashi for the ride and the car turned away from the street, Izuku turned to Kacchan.
“Um…I didn’t expect to have guests over and it’s a little bit messy up there, so…you take a moment to uh, check the premises or something! I’ll clean up real quick! See ya!”
Without waiting for a response, he sprinted up the stairs and dashed through the door, barely remembering to kick his shoes off in his hurry. Posters came down from the walls, figurines were taken off shelves, and the themed mug, lunch box and kitchen towel were banished from their usual spots into the shadow realm. Just as Izuku pushed the cabinet door closed, he heard a demanding knock from his door.
“Coming!”
Izuku kicked a stray pair of black-and-orange socks under the sofa before opening the door.
“Kacchan,” he said needlessly.
Kacchan walked in, deposited his shoes at the genkan, and put his bag down before moving further into the apartment.
“Nerdy-ass place,” he said, eyeing the All Might goods that had been spared Izuku’s emergency purge.
“You can’t be surprised,” Izuku said, rubbing his arm.
“Nah. ‘S bigger than I thought though.”
“Well, my mother actually owns this apartment. We used to live here together when I was a university student.”
Kacchan frowned.
“So where’s she now?”
“She had to drop out from work to go help grandpa in Tottori,” Izuku said. “So while she’s gone, I look after this place and send her some cash every month.”
Kacchan gave a hum of understanding, not pursuing the topic further. A moment of silence stretched between them.
“You going to work tomorrow?”
Izuku shook his head.
“Well…no. The office was kinda…destroyed in the attack so we were placed on leave until they sort everything out.”
“...Huh.”
In other words…he would need to find a way to pass the time without the majority of his day being occupied by work—with Kacchan looming behind him at all times. Oh no. Oh no.
The silence was stretching on again. He needed to find something to talk about…something…anything…
“I’ll make us some tea!”
Izuku hightailed to the kitchen. After he put the kettle on, he started to rummage through the cabinets. He was pretty sure that his mother had a proper pot and matching cups somewhere…
He almost shrieked when he realised Kacchan was standing right next to him.
“Wah-chan! Um…”
Izuku followed the other’s gaze, which led him to the empty cup ramen package on the counter. Wordlessly, Kacchan stepped past Izuku and towards the fridge.
“H-hey!”
Protesting was, of course, useless. When Kacchan got something in his head, he went through with it no matter what. In this case, it meant opening the fridge and witnessing the state of the contents during a busy month at Izuku’s company: a packet of udon, a couple of shrivelled carrots, a suspicious cabbage, several half-open sauce bottles, and on the topmost shelf, a plastic container of some leftovers that Izuku had been avoiding for longer than he cared to admit.
Kacchan closed the door.
“Put on your damn coat.”
“But…the tea?”
“Forget it. We’re goin’ shopping. Right now.”
Some twenty minutes later Izuku was in the neighbourhood grocery store, walking after Kacchan who was picking up products left and right, dropping them in the shopping basket he had pushed into Izuku’s hands at the entrance.
Later, when he found himself sitting awkwardly at his dinner table while Kacchan occupied the kitchen, Izuku wondered if this was part of the normal protocol. Somehow he doubted it.
The awkwardness didn’t alleviate when they sat opposite to one another, each looking at their own plate of (predictably delicious) food. Under different circumstances, Izuku would be over the moon about having an actual Pro Hero in his own home. He would probably talk the poor guy's ear off, asking endless questions about how everything worked and what the top heroes were like behind the scenes. Not only that, he had plenty of things he wanted to ask about Kacchan , not just Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. But now…it felt hard to start that kind of conversation.
He exhausted the easy topics like asking about the Bakugous, mentioning a recent win in Kacchan’s career, and complimenting the food. Then, he played for time by pretending to be utterly interested in some boring TV show until the clock struck eight in the evening and he had a revelation.
“Oh, look at the time! I’ll draw a bath.”
He prepared the bath as slowly as he dared, and offered Kacchan the first turn—he was a guest in a way, after all.
When Kacchan had gathered his things and closed the door of the bath-adjacent dressing space behind him, Izuku sat on his sofa to have a moment of personal crisis.
Kacchan was in his bathroom. Right at this moment, he was using Izuku’s shower, and his sweat (both the normal kind and the nationally acclaimed explosive kind) was washing down onto Izuku’s bathroom tiles. Oh. Oh wow.
Izuku’s brain provided several potential ways to continue this scenario, but he shoved them all away, because they were absolutely not something to be considered for as long as the real Kacchan was in his apartment.
Izuku’s phone sprang to life, and the sound made him jump in his seat. He checked the caller ID and put the phone to his ear.
“Uraraka-san?”
“I’m so glad you picked up! I just heard that you were involved in yesterday’s villain attack, and I was so worried… Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
Hearing the concern in his coworker’s voice made Izuku instinctively lower his head in a bow that she couldn’t see.
“Ah, I’m alright! Sorry to have worried you… “
“That’s a relief,” she sighed. “In that case, can we meet tomorrow? I don’t suppose you have any plans either, since we got time off so unexpectedly. I just read about a nice cafe…”
“We-well…I don’t exactly have plans, but…”
Izuku glanced in the direction of the bathroom and lowered his voice.
“Actually...Kacchan is here.”
A pause.
“...He’s what?”
Izuku had spilled the beans about his and Kacchan’s history to Uraraka at the tail end of a company bounenkai. Izuku’s drunken brain had decided that the best way to say goodbye to the old year was to talk about the one person he couldn’t seem to be able to take off his mind no matter how much time passed. He couldn’t remember the exact details of the conversation, but Uraraka’s gentle teasing about his fanboy tendencies gave him some clues.
In any case, this meant that she had some idea about the gravity of the situation. Izuku briefly told her about the altercation with the villain, about the threat she had given, and about the agency’s response.
“So now your childhood friend slash bully slash favourite currently active hero is staying at your place to be your bodyguard?”
“...Yeah.”
“This kind of thing only really happens to you, Deku-kun.”
“...”
“Did you show him your merch?”
“Of course not!” Izuku blanched at the very thought. “I had to hide all of it before he came in… He definitely can’t see them, or I’m finished.”
She giggled.
“Okay, we are absolutely meeting tomorrow. I’ll send you the location of the cafe.”
Izuku blinked.
“B-but what about Kacchan…?”
“Take him with you, of course! He can’t very well protect you if he doesn’t come along. I want to meet him, too. And it’s not like the agency forbade you from living your life, right?”
They didn’t…but Izuku was fairly sure that Kacchan wouldn’t appreciate the idea.
He opened his mouth to argue, but he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening, so he just blurted a quick goodbye before ending the call.
“Well uh, how did you like the…”
Izuku’s voice trailed off. Kacchan was wearing a tank top, which left exposed several red, deep-looking gashes on his shoulders and upper arms. They had been acquired just a day earlier, but they still looked…more fresh than Izuku had expected. He was under the impression that heroes’ injury recoveries tended to be faster, since their bodies were trained to withstand the strain from accelerated treatment.
“Weren’t they able to find someone with a healing Quirk?”
Kacchan shrugged.
“Said the centipede fucker’s venom could spread if they sped up the process. Gotta just take the antiserum and wait out the rest.”
He rummaged his bag for a tube of salve that he spurted on his hand and began to apply on the damaged areas in methodical strokes.
“Do–do you need help?”
The question had left Izuku’s lips without permission as soon as he had noticed Kacchan reaching in an awkward angle to get a spot behind his left shoulder. The knife-sharp look he received in response was ample proof enough that it was the wrong thing to say.
“Mind your own business. Bath’s free now.”
Well, that brought back memories. Kacchan of years in the past, who would baulk at the very idea of needing help from useless Deku, of all people.
Izuku stayed in the bath until his toes and fingers started to prune.
It took until the next morning before Izuku dared to inform Kacchan that he had planned an outing. As expected, Kacchan had been very annoyed about it, but his professionalism had won that round (or maybe he had just realised that the alternative was being stuck inside with nothing but each other’s company) and he had simply huffed and picked up his jacket.
Uraraka was already waiting at the cafe when Izuku and Kacchan arrived. Kacchan took the seat opposite to her, and Izuku was left with the decision on which side of the booth he should take. After a quick risk analysis, he slid onto the seat next to Uraraka. It was probably better not to crowd into Kacchan’s space too much.
“So, Kacchan…this is Uraraka Ochako-san, my colleague. And this is…”
“No introductions needed,” Uraraka chirped, “Deku-kun here has told me a lot about you, Bakugou-san—is it okay to call you that?”
Kacchan’s eyebrow twitched at her words.
“C-come on, don’t exaggerate! I haven’t talked about him that much,” Izuku protested.
He absolutely had, but that wasn’t for Kacchan to know. Izuku tried to signal to Uraraka with his eyes that she needed to tone it down, but she wasn’t looking his way.
“...Yeah, Bakugou’s fine,” Kacchan said.
At that point, a waitress approached them and they each gave their orders.
“A UA graduate, huh,” Uraraka mused to restart the conversation after the brief lull. “You know, I took the entrance exam for the hero course. It was the same year as you, too! We may even have run into each other, but there were way too many people to remember, right?”
“Don’t remember anyone from the exams,” Kacchan said matter-of-factly, “not the ones who didn’t pass, anyway.”
Uraraka only looked perturbed a fraction of a second, before her face melted back to a smile.
“Well, it’s true that it was an utter defeat on my side!“
Izuku bit the inside of his cheek, fighting the urge to defend his friend. Uraraka had had some lousy luck during her exam: while the candidates were fighting robots for points, she had been pinned under some debris, unable to get out on her own and too panicked to use her Quirk properly. She had called out to her fellow exam-takers for help, but they had all been too worried about their own score or too afraid of the giant robot approaching, every single one running away instead of stopping to help.
Of course, the school hadn’t let her actually die during an exam, but the fear in her mind had been real. The sight of seeing the candidates, those who were aspiring to be heroes saving those in need, turning their backs and running away… It had changed her outlook. When she received the information in the mail that her points weren’t enough to be accepted, the emotion she felt was something close to relief.
But it wasn’t Izuku’s story to tell, if she didn’t want to bring it up herself. Just like he wouldn’t want her to spill the beans on what he had told her about Kacchan that fateful night.
The waitress returned with their drinks. Izuku sipped his iced oolong tea when, to his astonishment, he heard Kacchan break the silence.
“Ya got a Quirk?”
“Oh, it’s called Zero Gravity. It makes things float when I touch them.”
She demonstrated by tapping at her saucer, which floated a bit off the table before she brought her fingertips together and the saucer dropped back onto the surface. Kacchan hummed.
“What’re the limitations?”
“I don’t use it too much these days, except for when I need to move the sofa or something,” she laughed. “I get nauseous if I use it too much.”
Kacchan sipped his coffee and returned the cup to the table.
“Could work for a rescue hero. Gettin’ people out from collapsed buildings takes too damn long. It ain’t a bad Quirk.”
“Y-yeah…” Uraraka’s cheeks got a slight dusting of pink at the sudden praise. “I was thinking of something like that, too.”
“But there’s a lot more to it than just the Quirk. I’ve seen a lot of people with strong Quirks who didn’t go anywhere, or who became villains, or dropped dead. Even if you’ve got the strongest power in the damn world, it doesn’t mean shit if you can’t use it right.”
Izuku listened to Kacchan’s words with wonderment. It sounded so different from the Kacchan he had known in middle school. It also was the longest string of sentences he had heard Kacchan speak in one go since they had reunited.
Uraraka nursed her cup with a thoughtful expression. She seemed to be considering Kacchan’s words carefully.
“You know, I think Deku-kun would make an amazing hero.”
Izuku sputtered.
“Wha–”
Uraraka ignored him, and stared Kacchan straight in the eyes.
“Don’t you agree? You yourself just said that a strong Quirk isn’t the end-all-be-all of heroes. There have been times when I’ve wished for a hero to save me…and I think that Deku-kun would have done it, if he had been there. There’s something in his smile…that just puts you at ease, you know?”
Izuku sprung to his feet.
“Deku-kun?”
“Deku?”
“Bathroom!” Izuku yelped as he hurried past Uraraka and Kacchan, and towards the back corner of the cafe.
Luckily, there was no one else in the bathroom. Izuku went to the furthermost sink and splashed cool water on his face, trying to even out his breathing that continuously tried to accelerate.
Uraraka’s words had poked at a tender spot in his heart that he thought had long healed—but it seemed that the scar covering the wound was far more brittle than it had seemed. Oh, he was hopeless. Uraraka had actually tried to say something kind, and yet…
Izuku leaned both hands against the sink and looked at his wet face in the mirror.
He hadn’t had the courage to look up over the table and see what kind of face Kacchan was making.
After he believed he had managed to calm down, he dabbed his face with a paper towel, hoping that the cold water would deter the worst of the teary redness around his eyes.
When Izuku returned to the table, he was surprised to see Kacchan sitting alone. Uraraka’s coat and bag were gone too, so it didn’t seem likely that she had just gone to the ladies’ room, either…
“She left,” Kacchan said.
“Wait– what? Oh no…”
“Don’t overthink it,” Kacchan said and shoved Izuku’s phone at him.
There was a new message notification. Izuku opened it and saw that it was a message from Uraraka, sent only a couple minutes earlier. She didn’t seem offended, just thanking Izuku for the meeting and saying she was happy to have met ‘Kacchan’. But it was still strange that she left so suddenly…
“Oi, let’s go nerd.”
Giving up on the mystery for the moment, Izuku put the phone in his pocket and hurried after Kacchan to the exit.
They walked in silence for a while, but the air between them was tense. Kacchan was pissed about something, and Izuku wasn’t quite sure what aspect of the earlier conversation he was the most bothered by.
“Kacchan, about just now…”
He narrowly avoided slamming his face on Kacchan, who had suddenly stopped.
“Why was she calling you Deku?”
Izuku blinked. That was Kacchan’s main takeaway from the whole thing?
“Umm…I mentioned it at some point and she thought it was cute, or something…I’m not sure myself why she latched onto it.”
“And you’re fine with it?”
“Well…yes. You call me that, too, Kacchan.”
Kacchan’s face suggested that he thought the two cases were not comparable, but he didn’t say so outright. Instead, he just sighed.
“...I’ll never understand you.”
He started walking again. Izuku trailed after him for a while before taking a deep breath and a few jogging steps to join the other’s side.
“You know, Kacchan…I’ve been meaning to thank you.”
“Thank me?”
Kacchan looked like Izuku had just told a particularly tasteless joke.
“Yeah,” Izuku said, “for saving me that day. I could see that you had to change your battle style because I was there, choose your moves so they wouldn’t see me. You were fighting two dangerous villains, and still managed to think ahead like that… I remember thinking, ‘wow, Kacchan really is a pro now’. I didn’t get to say it back then, so…I thought if we spent a bit more time together, I’d be able to. So…thank you for that, and for doing…this.”
He gestured vaguely around himself.
“...’S just my job,” Kacchan said without looking at Izuku.
As they took a turn into the metro entrance, Kacchan went down the stairs first and Izuku followed a couple steps behind.
“I know that…” he muttered to himself.
Still, nothing could stop him from imagining that there had been another reason—that maybe Kacchan had, in some small way, wanted to have this closure between them, too.
omake:
“Bathroom!”
Deku-kun ran past the table and towards the corner of the cafe. Ochako looked after him, but decided against trying to follow. It looked like he needed a moment alone to compose himself.
“The nerd put you up to this? Talking him up to me or whatever?”
She had to laugh at the glare she was receiving from Bakugou.
“Oh come on, you don’t even believe that. He’s so sincere it goes from adorable to a bit worrying, to be honest.”
She drained the remainder of her drink and placed the cup on the saucer with finality.
“You, on the other hand, are a bit of a butthead, Bakugou-san. Though I guess you don’t need me to tell you that.”
“And you’re a real fucking charmer,” Bakugou huffed, but didn’t actually contest her statement.
“Mm, yeah. I’m not exactly my best self right now.”
She toyed with the hem of her cardigan sleeve.
“It’s just…you know that feeling when you set your sights on something…and then realise that someone else got there first, and that it’s useless to compete against that?”
“Nah,” he said, “that’s loser talk. Once I pick a goal, I fight until I win.”
“Of course you do,” she chuckled. Then, she stood up and took her coat from the hook.
“Thanks for today, I’m happy to have met you. I’m going home for today.”
He glanced in the direction of the bathroom and opened his mouth to say something.
“I’ll send him a message so he won’t be worried. Bye then, Bakugou-san!”
With that, she left.