Chapter Text
Deku sighs, settling onto the couch after Bakugo leaves with his mom. He stares off, deep in thought.
Why doesn’t Kacchan see what I do? He’s amazing, like the brother that I never had and always wanted. I know he deals with a lot of insecurities, but how could he think that it’s ok for him to stay with her and be treated like that?
“Deku!” Mina yells, shaking his shoulder lightly.
“What?!” Deku yelps.
“I’ve been saying your name for three minutes now. What do you want for dinner, and are you alright? You’ve been acting strange since Bakugo left.”
“I know, I’m just worried about him.”
“That makes sense. He’s been off, and he’s had a lot of things happen to him. So, we just have to give him some time.”
“Yeah, I know,” Deku says, flashing her a smile.
If only that was what I was worried about. I’m just hoping that he comes back.
“Also, I’d like Udon if anyone is willing to make that. I can’t make it to save my life.”
Mina laughs,” I can do that. I’ll come get you when it’s done.”
Deku nods and starts staring at his phone. Dinner is stressful, and he feels very awake when he climbs into bed that night. He doesn’t manage to fall asleep until three a.m. When he wakes up, it’s still dark outside. It takes him a moment to realize why he woke up in the first place. His phone is ringing. He picks it up, rubbing his eyes.
“Hello.”
“Hey,” Bakugo says, sounding tired, but alright.
“Kacchan, hey, what’s up? Why did you call?”
“I just wanted to make sure that you were ok. You tend to over worry.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. What’re you doing up so late? It’s only five.”
“Yeah, this is when I normally get up. I just forgot that you don’t get up that early. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, I’m glad you called. To be honest, I was worried. How did last night go?”
“I didn’t end up eating with them, but my mom wasn’t as mad as I thought she was going to be. So, I’m alright.”
“That’s great, I’m glad. Do you want to get off the phone so you can go for your run?”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll text you later, alright?”
“Of course.”
“Ok.”
Bakugo hangs up, and Deku sighs happily.
At least it wasn’t so bad.
He lays back down, feeling relieved and peaceful. It doesn’t take him long to fall asleep this time. When he wakes up again, it’s bright and he can hear the birds chirping. He glances at his alarm clock and it’s almost eleven a.m.
“Wow, I can’t believe I slept so late,” he mumbles.
He stumbles through getting ready and going down the stairs.
“Hey there, sleepyhead,” Ururaka says, kissing him on the cheek.
“Hey.”
“You look better than last night,” she remarks.
“Yeah, I do feel better. I spoke to Kacchan,” he explains.
“Ah, that makes more sense. I don’t know what you were so worried about anyway.”
Deku shrugs, then walks to the kitchen to get breakfast. He grabs one of Bakugo’s protein bars and starts eating as he walks to Aizawa’s room. He knocks, wondering the man would even be in there at this time of day.
“Come in,” Aizawa calls.
Deku opens the door, stepping inside. Aizawa is on his bed with one leg tucked under him, glasses perched on his nose, and his laptop open in front of him.
“Hey, I’m sorry if I interrupted anything, but I wanted to let you know that Kacchan is ok. He called me this morning once he got up, and told me that it went pretty well.”
Aizawa looks down through his glasses at Deku. “When was that?”
“Five this morning.”
“Why would he call you at five?”
Deku shrugs. “He said he forgot that I wouldn’t be up.”
“Are you certain that he wasn’t lying? He doesn’t just forget things.”
“Why would he lie about that?”
“What if he was calling you because something was wrong, and then he got cold feet?”
Deku’s face turns white as a sheet of paper.
“It’s fine, Midoriya. I’m going to check on him now.” Aizawa stands up, grabbing his capture weapon.
“Can I come?”
“No, stay here. I’ll be back in like forty five minutes, and I’ll text you if everything’s alright.”
“Ok,” Deku says, his voice wavering, tears threatening to fall down his face.
Aizawa ignores all of that, and brushes past him.
He walks calmly until he clears the dorms, but then he races towards his car. It takes him a while to get to the Bakugo residence, due to random traffic, but the neighborhood is calm when he gets there. He raps on the door, resisting his urge to knock the door down. The door opens to show the startled face of Bakugo’s father, Masaru.
“Hello.”
“I came to check on Katsuki.”
“Well… well… um-”
Aizawa brushes past him into the house. “Is his mother here?”
“Yes, she’s in the kitchen.”
“Who’s here?” Mitsuki yells.
“It’s Katsuki’s teacher, Aizawa.”
She blows into the room, immediately locking eyes with Aizawa. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“I’m here to check on Katsuki. Where is he?”
“He’s actually asleep right now.”
“Ok, I’ll just head upstairs real fast then,” Aizawa says, walking towards the stairs.
“I’d actually prefer it if you didn’t wake him up. He has trouble sleeping.”
“Yeah, but I have to see him. As his teacher, I need to visibly check on him. Although, I’ll try not to wake him up. Which room is his?”
Neither of them say anything, so he just walks up the stairs and starts checking doors. He can tell which one is Bakugo’s room, although it’s untouched. Completely dusty without any prints on the floor or anything. Aizawa walks back down.
“He wasn’t up there. Can you tell me where he actually is?”
Masaru shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe he left early, before either of us got up.”
“Huh, you think so? He definitely didn’t go into that room at any point. I think I’ll just have a look around the house, see if I can find him. Maybe he decided to sleep somewhere else.”
“You can’t just go snooping around our house. Either you leave, or I’m going to call the police,” Mitsuki replies, raising her voice.
“Go ahead, you have no way of stopping me before they get here. Your only hope is that I don’t find him before that.”
They share a slightly panicked look before she grabs her phone to dial 911. Aizawa goes through the bottom floor, looking for Bakugo. Around eight minutes later, he comes across a locked door. Instead of taking the time to pick the lock, he just busts the door down.
“Bakugo?” he calls, descending the stairs behind the door.
The basement is dark and musty, so Aizawa turns on his phone light. It takes him a minute to find Bakugo. He’s curled up in the corner with his arms around his midsection.
“Bakugo!” Aizawa races over and shakes him. “Bakugo, wake up.”
Bakugo cracks his eyes open. “Not now, teach. I’m busy.”
“Bakugo, now is not the time.”
He hears the door upstairs slam open.
“Come on, we’re leaving. I’m going to pick you up.”
He picks Bakugo up, who makes a small noise of surprise, but doesn’t do anything else. He makes his way up the stairs as Mitsuki tries to make some excuse. Aizawa, holding Bakugo with one arm, flashes his hero license at the cops.
“This woman had her son locked in the basement, and he’s hurt.”
Two of them share incredulous looks, but the third one looks completely unsurprised. “I told you she was suspicious by the time we got the third domestic disturbance call,” he says exasperatedly.
“Just go ahead and arrest them both. We’ll get everything sorted out with the kid once he’s been taken care of,” Aizawa says, stepping towards the door.
“Alright.”
Aizawa puts Bakugo in the passenger seat, buckling him up. Bakugo blinks slowly, seeming to realize where he is.
“What’s going on?” he mumbles.
“I’m taking you to the hospital to be checked out. Midoriya told me you called, so I thought I’d come check on you,” Aizawa says as he climbs into the driver’s seat.
“Oh, ok. Where are my parents?”
“They’re not coming anywhere near you. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hmm, ok.”
Bakugo closes his eyes again, sighing softly. Aizawa glances at him as he drives towards the nearest hospital. Bakugo is quiet during the ride there, and only wakes up again as his door is being opened. Aizawa picks him up. Bakugo’s head lolls.
“Bakugo, I need you to talk to me for a minute. I’m worried about your blood pressure.”
“Huh?”
“Talk.”
“Bout what?”
“Anything. Tell me something embarrassing about one of your classmates.”
“Kirishima wears crocs.”
“I know that,” Aizawa says, hoping to prompt him into saying something else.
“Ok, well, Deku takes notes in his sleep. Also, he takes imaginary notes. He’s been doing it our whole lives, and it’s really weird.”
“He takes notes in his sleep?”
“Yeah, but only when he’s legitimately asleep, not like a nap on the couch. He used to do that when we had sleepovers. Sometimes he does it when he falls asleep while I’m tutoring him.”
“Nice.” He flags down a nurse, who immediately walks over.
“Is he alright?”
“Not exactly. I need someone to check him out right now.”
“Ok, what am I looking for?” she asks as she leads him into the back.
“Mainly his blood pressure, but I’m not completely sure what’s wrong with him.”
“Alright, I am going to need you to fill out some paperwork in the waiting room while we’re doing this.”
Aizawa nods.
“You can get the paperwork from the front desk.”
He steps back into the waiting room, walking up to the desk.
“Hello, I just had one of my students get taken into the back, and I was told that I can get the paperwork that I need to fill out here.”
“Of course, sir.”
Bakugo is back there for a while before anyone comes to find Aizawa, who’s just sitting with his filled out paperwork.
“Hello, are you Shouta Aizawa?” the doctor asks.
“Yeah, I am. What’s up?”
“Well, your kid is alright. He did need a shot of adrenaline due to his blood pressure and his quirk, but otherwise I do have a few concerns.”
“The injuries?”
“Yes.”
“Most of them are from some fights he got in. He’s training to be a hero, but some of the newest ones might have come from his family. There’s no need to call CPS, they should be here any minute honestly.”
“So, can I ask how you’re related to the boy?”
“I’m his homeroom teacher.”
“Oh, ok. Well, I can’t let anyone see him until CPS shows up and confirms everything you said.”
“That’s fine, but is he awake?”
The doctor nods.
“Ok, and can he have visitors once everything is cleared up?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, thank you.”
Another nod, and the doctor walks off. Aizawa dials Deku’s number. Deku picks up on the first ring.
“Mr. Aizawa, what’s going on?”
“I found Bakugo. He’s fine, but I did have to take him to the hospital to be checked out. You can come here. It’s the one closest to his house. I have to go, Midoriya, CPS is here.”
“Alright, I’ll be there really soon. I’ll get All Might to drive me.”
Bakugo wakes up slowly. His head is spinning and his ribs hurt.
“Where am I?” he wonders out loud.
“You’re in the hospital, Kacchan,” Deku says from a chair next to Bakugo’s bed.
“Oh, that makes more sense. I thought I was going to be experimented on.”
“Oooh ok, that’s a lot to unpack. So, I’ll leave that there for now. How do you feel?”
“I feel fine, why?”
“Cause you broke two ribs and dislocated your shoulder when you fell down the stairs. Why didn’t you tell me what happened?”
“I didn’t want you to get hurt. They would have hurt you, and you’re kinda useless.”
“Hey!”
“What? I’ve always had to protect you. Even when I bullied you, I wouldn’t let the other guys beat you up. That’s just cruel.”
Deku cocks his head. “Well, either way, you’re not going back home again.”
“Where am I going? Foster care?”
“Not exactly. Hang on, I’ll go get Mr. Aizawa. He can explain everything, and how everything is going to happen from here.”
“Alright, just come back quickly, cause I want to go back to sleep.”
Deku nods, sprinting out of the room. Barely a minute later, he comes back in with Aizawa.
“How are you feeling?”
“Fine, what’s going on?”
“Your parents got arrested.”
“Ok and?”
“And you’re going to be staying with me for a while. If you don’t want that to be a permanent solution, it doesn’t have to be. I’ve already done the paperwork to be your temporary guardian, but we can start reaching out to your family members, or Deku said that he can talk to his mom.”
Bakugo laughs. “She can barely take care of her and Deku. What’s he going to tell her,’ Hey, Mom, got room and money for another kid?’”
Bakugo huffs impatiently.
“Well, we’ll talk about that later. Maybe it would be best for you to just stay with me until you’re out of school.”
“Ok.”
“You’re getting discharged later, so we can talk more on the way home.”
“The dorms were shut down for a while so Mr. Aizawa could have a chance to work all of this out with you,” Deku says.
A few hours later, Bakugo is on the way home with Aizawa. He’s never seen the guy’s apartment, but he feels nervous as they’re riding along in complete silence. Once they get there, Aizawa climbs out. He grabs a key ring with at least fifty keys on it out of his backpack. They each have a little sticky dot with a different symbol on it.
“What are all of those?” Bakugo asks, folding his arms.
“Keys to everywhere in the school, a key to my office at my agency, and my house keys.”
He unlocks the door, and walks in. Bakugo follows quickly behind, shutting and locking the door behind himself. He can hear the water running in the kitchen, but the front door opens straight into the living room. There are two cats staring at him from the couch and one batting at Aizawa’s legs.
“Toshi, what did I say about letting the cats harass me as soon as I got home?” he asks.
“What did you want me to do about it? You’re late and I’m making dinner,” Shinso yells from the kitchen.
Aizawa scoops up the small gray kitten with black strips off of the floor as the other two hop off of the couch to sniff Bakugo.
“The two sniffing your legs are Tokyo and England, and this little one here is Paris. The bigger of the two is Tokyo.”
Bakugo nods, kneeling down on the floor. He holds his hand out in offering without attempting to pet either of them. They both sniff him and then begin rubbing themselves against his hands.
“Bakugo with you?” Shinso asks as he walks in.
“Yup.”
“Hey.”
Bakugo waves before returning to petting the cats.
“Aw, even they think you’re going to like your new home,” Shinso says, leaning in the doorway.
“Yeah, I think so too,” Bakugo replies.
The End