Chapter Text
Sure, going over to Inko's apartment was an impromptu thing, but Katsuki didn't really have anywhere else to turn. He knew Inko the best, he grew up with her, and he knew that she wouldn't turn him down. She was a sweet lady.
Though Katsuki remembered her being a bit more laid-back.
Katsuki supposes that years of stress will probably do that, make you jittery and nervous.
Same thing happened to Deku, Katsuki realizes.
"You can put your bag in Izuku's room. I'll help you set up the cot later," Inko nodded.
Izuku's face went red.
"Mom! My room!?"
"Izuku! Manners. Yes, Katsuki, you can stay in Izuku's room while you're here."
"No, you can't!"
"Izuku!" Inko shouted, looking shocked that her son would act so rude.
Katsuki just huffed out a laugh, and picked up his bag, walking past them— they didn't even notice him through their arguing, and down the hall to Izuku's room.
It felt like muscle memory. Katsuki hadn't been here in eight, or nine, even, years, but he didn't even have to think twice about where Izuku's room was located.
Amongst all this chaos— Katsuki completely forgot the fact that there's a chance that Deku is extremely mad at him. There's a chance that Deku knows that Katsuki is Murder— fuck, they really should have come up with better nicknames. Murder? Really? And there's a chance that now, they're gonna have to spend a week and a half together. Maybe more.
Well, fuck.
He opened Izuku's bedroom door, and, well, naturally his eyes were assaulted by the mass amount of hero merch in his room. What the actual fuck? Doesn't this guy know anything about room decor?
Obviously not, Katsuki doesn't even know why he's asking in the first place.
But it felt weird. It felt weird knowing that he was in Kiru's room. Katsuki looked at the desk placed on the front wall of the room and realized that it was the very desk Kiru sat at while they spoke.
He felt jittery. Not the same kind of jittery as Izuku and Inko, but he could feel his heart racing and his hands shaking. His face felt hot and his hand felt sweaty. Well, sweatier than normal.
It was so fucking unfair.
Katsuki, one of these days, had to come to terms with the fact that Deku is actually a cool person, and Katsuki has been missing the fuck out by bullying him all these years. But really, what was he supposed to do? Deku, who hasn't trained a day in his life, Deku, who doesn't even take UA preparation courses, was certain that he was just as strong as Katsuki, just as likely to get into UA as Katsuki, who has been training and studying and working as hard as he could, for as long as he could remember. It didn't feel fair.
But Katsuki supposes that doesn't mean that he should have taken his anger out on him.
Another thing Katsuki noticed is how fucking messy Deku's room is. His bed wasn't made, his trash can was overflowing with soda cans and other various garbage, he had dirty laundry on the floor and clean laundry on his dresser that hadn't been put away yet— despite the fact that it looked like it had been there for weeks. Youch.
Hell, even his figurine shelf was dusty. Dusty. Kiru would always tell Murder how important is was to not let your figurines get dusty— because eventually the dust could stick to the clear coat on top.
Seems like Kiru didn't care too much about that anymore. Or maybe he was just too exhausted to care.
"Kacchan!" Izuku rushed into his own room, looking out of breath.
"No- no, don't look in here yet, drop your bag."
Katsuki furrowed his eyebrows and did as Izuku said.
"Now back up," Izuku warned, putting his hands on Katsuki's torso and slowly pushing him out of the room.
"What the hell are you doing?" Katsuki huffed out a laugh, taking a few steps back.
"I didn't know you were coming. My room isn't clean yet.." he whispered, closing the door, and therefore blocking Katsuki from coming inside.
"The fuck?" Katsuki mumbled to himself, resisting the urge to laugh.
Yeah. What the fuck.
Katsuki, after a moment of standing in place, turned around and started walking back down the hall and towards the kitchen.
He nodded at Inko and sat down at the kitchen table.
"You don't have to hang out in here, y'know, Katsuki. Unless you want to," she smiled.
"I'm just bored. I think talking is a bit less boring than sitting in an empty living room," Katsuki said quietly, rolling his eyes again.
Inko's smile turned into a more sad one.
"I'll make sure to talk to your parents, Katsuki. I'm sorry they left you alone. That's far too much responsibility for a bit your age to handle."
"Thank you!" He shouted, making Inko flinch a bit out of surprise.
"Finally, someone with some fucking sense around here. What the fuck were they thinking."
Inko chuckled, and shook her head.
"You're always so brash, Katsuki. Though I can't say I don't appreciate your honesty. It's a good trait to have."
Katsuki mumbled a thanks, and then looked away.
"So, what's new with you, Katsuki?" She asked politely, sitting down across from him.
"Nothing much. Just got kicked out of my own substitute guest room, so, that's cool."
Inko laughed a bit to herself.
"Yeah, Izuku's a sweet boy, but he's.. well, he's never had anyone over to the house before. Not since you stopped coming over. He's very secretive about his things, but I'm sure that's just the regular teenage angst."
Katsuki frowned. He knew Deku was a loser, but to think, that he never even had friends over? Fucking sad.
"But I'm sure he'll come around. I understand that you and Izuku fell out a bit, but I think he still really admires you. I don't think that he'd rather share his space with anyone else, really."
Katsuki suddenly had the urge to tell Inko about the fact that he's been terrorizing Izuku since age six, but Katsuki decided to cut himself some slack here, since he was really trying to change. Even if telling her would be the right thing to do.
And they brought up the question; did Izuku really never tell Inko about the bullying? that's dangerous. Why the fuck does the nerd have to be so dumb all the time?
"So, what's up with you," Katsuki asked, returning the question. He always tried to be respectful to Inko, atleast, she was a nice woman who didn't deserve to be bullied by someone a third her age.
And it definitely didn't have anything to do with the fact that Katsuki had been deathly scared of her from ages 7 to 12.
For some reason his mind had figured that she was a serial killer? More specifically, that she dressed up as a clown in her off-time and went around strangling people with rope. Maybe it was a dream Katsuki had, he wasn't sure. She wasn't a killer clown, that's obvious enough. She probably gets whoozy when she sees roadkill, but still. Didn't really matter where Katsuki's respect came from.
"Oh, about the same. Ah.. Izuku broke his phone earlier today, which is unfortunate, I'll have to buy him a new one." She sighed.
"Oh, and I worry about him sometimes, Katsuki. How is he doing at school? Does he seem.. I don't know. I don't know, really. His teacher called me to say that his grades have been getting substantially worse over this quarter, so I'm just wondering."
Katsuki's muscles tensed.
"I.. I haven't noticed anything."
"That's good, atleast. I.. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him. I'm aware that he's not exactly doing the best, but I don't exactly know what I'm supposed to even do about that," she frowned, fidgeting with her hands.
Izuku and his mother have a lot of the same fidgets and mannerisms, Katsuki's noticed.
"A couple of days ago I had to take away his laptop because.. I worry that he's spending too much time on electronics. A lot of articles and other moms say that it can cause mental health issues, and.. I don't want Izuku to be sick for multiple reasons. You know?" She spoke quietly.
Katsuki swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth. Okay, so, one, Izuku's mother is aware that he's not doing well. To what extent, Katsuki doesn't know. But two, Izuku, or rather, Kiru, had his laptop taken away. That means, most likely, that's the reason why he's not messaging back.
There's still a slim chance that Izuku knows about Murder's identity, but at this point, Katsuki doubts it.
Now, to spend more than a week in the same apartment as his online best friend, who doesn't even know that Katsuki is his online best friend, and he can't let Izuku know that he's said online best friend, or else Izuku will freak out on him and probably hate him forever. Great. How could this possibly go wrong.