Chapter Text
Katsukis alarm went off at 8 am and he unwillingly opened his eyes and reached over to silence it. The memory of last night came flooding back to him. He sat up wanting to check on Deku but then deciding against it. What the hell happened last night? Was this a regular occurrence? A million questions flooded his brain.
He unplugged his phone from the charger and started to look things up. ‘Why is my friend acting like a child?’ he cringed for a second at the word friend but clicked enter anyway. The first site to come up was titled ‘Why adults act like children'. It was a psychology website, it looked legit, so he clicked on it.
‘Regression: A popular but frequently forgotten defence mechanism is age regression. When things get too difficult and a person feels vulnerable, defence mechanisms kick in as a way of self-preservation. Regression is a return to childlike behaviour as a way to avoid adult-like reality and responsibility.
Regression..? He opened a new tab and searched ‘what is age regression?’ that brought up a plethora of websites and responses. He started going through them all. It all made sense, the reason for the pacifier, baby bottle, baby-ish clothes, toys and the way he spoke and acted. Izuku was a little. Which is a term he found out by scrolling through ‘ageretwt’. There were more terms he found out about as well like CG or caregiver, someone who looks after littles while they are regressed.
Does Deku have a caregiver? If so, who..? Bakugou doesn't know why but the thought of someone else caring for him as he did last night bugged him. He imagined IcyHot stroking his hair while telling him how good his colouring was and then he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his chest. Weird.
A small knock came from the door. He turned to his alarm to check the time, it was now 10:30 am. He had been researching for two and a half hours. “Kacchan.. You didn’t come downstairs for breakfast. I know you are in there, can we talk..” his eyes grew wide. Oh shit, yeah this is happening, okay. “Come in nerd” he replies with his usual gruff tone.
The door opened slowly and Deku poked his head inside “can we talk about last night?” he said quietly “yeah, just come in and sit down, stop being awkward” Katsuki replied. Izuku shuffles in wearing a baggy light green hoodie and baggy black shorts and sits down on Katsuki's desk chair opposite him. “So.. did you want to ask anything first?” Izuku said, head hanging low.
“Are you a little?” Bakugou said flatly. Deku's eyes widened and sucked in a short breath. “Um, yeah.. How much do you know?” Katsuki looked into his eyes. “Not much, nerd. I’ve only just started looking it up” Izuku breathes in deeply “okay, well then i'm going to try and get this out the way as quickly as possible then” Katsuki kept a relaxed posture and nodded to show that he was listening.
“I regress.. I’ve been doing it since middle school, and a lot of the time it's involuntary. not many people know about it though. Mum knows and took care of me the best she could before we moved into the dorms but even then she worked a lot so it would usually be something I did alone..” Deku looked up to see Katsuki with a look of sadness and understanding.
“Is it my fault?” Katsuki timidly asked. The question shocked Deku. he continued “Online it says it can be a trauma response, and you said it started around middle school.. I can put two and two together” Deku gave a small and sad smile. “I won't lie to you Kaccan, it may have been a factor but it wasn’t just you. Everyone bullied me. The teachers didn’t care, they treated me just as bad. Being reminded daily that I couldn’t be a hero because I was quirkless and even just the fact I was always alone. It was all a factor. This isn't your fault. Anyway I don’t look at regression as a bad thing, I love being little so please don’t blame yourself”
Katsuki sat in silence for a minute before meeting his eyes “okay nerd” Izuku smiled before he continued “so who else knows? Do you have a caregiver? Between what ages do you regress? How often do you regress? Why did you regress last night? And-” “Kacchan! Slow down, I thought I was the one that asked 100 questions at once” he giggled and Katsuki felt his face flush briefly before looking down and asked, “What happened last night?”
Deku stopped giggling “ah.. Well, I have been trying to not regress as much as I think people are starting to catch on to something being up with me.. And well, I hadn't regressed all week even though there was a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me to..” Katsuki interrupted “is that why you've been acting off all week?”
Deku nodded “yeah, going from regressing almost daily to not at all took a toll” he huffed a laugh “it felt like I was a cup on the brink of overflowing and by last night it during the horror film it all just.. Overflowed. I got scared and ended up regressing. I didn't know if I was more scared of the film or the fact that I became small in front of everyone so all I could do was cry..”
“I'm sorry.. I picked the film, and I noticed that you were upset. I should have made sure you were okay’ Katsuki sounded genuinely remorseful. Deku started shaking his head and waving his hands in the air. “No! It’s okay Kacchan! It's my fault, everyone else enjoyed it, I should have known my limits and sat this one out..” Katsuki seemed to accept this and then asked “so what happened in the four hours from the end of the film to me finding you in the kitchen?”
“Ah” Deku responds “it's a bit of a blur to be honest, when I got upstairs I was fully regressed. Not as young as I can get but still fairly young. I spent an hour or so crying and trying to ground myself a little, then when I calmed down a little I put on cartoons and then got distracted and started colouring in and playing with my stuffies..” he said as he looked away in embarrassment
“I got thirsty, I usually bring a drink to bed with me but I rushed upstairs straight after the film so I didn't get a chance to grab one. So my little brain decided it would be a good idea to go and make my favourite milk mum would make..” Katsuki raised an eyebrow knowing where this was going.
“So I grabbed my bottle and stuffy and went downstairs, I put milk and sugar and vanilla straight in my bottle and put it in the microwave, I got distracted playing with my All Might stuffie so that when I opened the microwave to get my bottle it was way hotter than I thought it would be and I dropped it, it spilt all over the floor and I slipped and landed on my butt.. I then started crying again as I was starting to feel smaller you came in..and you know the rest”
Katsuki huffed a breath and fell backwards so he was laying in the bed “okay nerd. Does anyone in class know? Any teachers or what?” Deku started fiddling with the hem of his hoodie “um, well.. No teachers know yet and two people from class know..” Katsuki raised himself on his elbows to look up at Deku “who else knows? Are they like your caregivers or something?”
Deku looked embarrassed “um, no. I don’t have a caregiver.. It just so happened that there is another little in class as well as their caregiver who noticed the signs and asked me in private if I was a regressor. We have playdates occasionally but that is the extent of it.. I can't tell you who they are though”
“That’s fine.. “ Katsuki responded.. There was a short silence before he spoke up again “um, do you want a caregiver?” Dekus eyes widened “well, I mean, yeah I guess. What little wouldn't?.. Why?” Katsuki breathed in deeply.. “It’s just, it was nice or whatever… last night. I dunno, It was relaxing” it was now Dekus turn to raise an eyebrow
“Are you asking to be my caregiver Kacchan?” Katsuki threw his head back and covered his face with his hands.. “Urg, I don't know, maybe.. Yes. I know I need to do more research on it but I know I can be the best god damn caregiver out there” Izuku laughed “it’s not easy Kacchan.. It can be embarrassing. We would have to make rules and really talk about it though..”
Katsuki scoffed “yeah I know, I know. We can do like a trial run or something, and if it doesn't work out no biggy we don't need to talk about it again if you don't want to” it was abundantly clear that Katsuki gave this some thought.. Deku smiled again “okay Kacchan, we can do that.. Can I talk to my little and caregiver friend about it?” Katsuki really didn't want anyone knowing that he actually wanted to take care of someone but thought it would give the best chance of being able to “yeah fine nerd.. As long as it's not IcyHot or some shit”
Deku chuckled “okay Kacchan. I'll text you in a bit about arranging your first trial shift” joked as he stood up getting ready to leave. “Hey” Katsuki interrupted, “I know I haven't been the best to you or whatever, but I'll change. You aren't that bad for a nerd” Izuku smiled and a subtle blush appeared on Katsuki’s cheeks. “Now who's being cute?” izuku responded as he smiled sweetly and walked out of the room.
Oh yeah, he said that last night. He crossed his arms over his face, his heartbeat speeding up ever so subtly. “Fuck. I'm such an idiot”