Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything was fine, relaxed, even. The 'Bakusquad', as Ashido had named their little group, were bathing in the manliness of doing absolutely nothing productive for 5 hours straight. As it were, they were huddled on the floor of Kaminari's room in a mess of blankets and pillows staring at his laptop as the American webshow, 'Mysterious mysteries and other unsolved cases' played. Eijiro thought it was a bit of a long title but it was actually a pretty interesting show. It had funny hosts and it was some good practice for English, but a focus on some terrifying stories that he's definitely not afraid of -well, okay, maybe a little afraid, but Crimson Riot had said that true bravery was staying tall in the face of your fears, and that's exactly what he was doing now! One of the hosts then talked about the grisly death of a young woman in slightly too much detail and Eijiro huddled down into the blankets with a quiet whimper that Kaminari caught and giggled at, leading to a shoving war between them that Bakugou glared to a stop. 

Bakugou was really into this whole murder mystery thing that the show was getting into; he would come up with these wild theories that made so much sense when he started to explain them, he could've become an amazing police detective if he wasn't so single-mindedly determined on becoming a hero.

"Dude, the theories for this episode are wild." Sero said as he clicked to the next and final video in the playlist.

"Sero, I have no idea what constitutes as wild to you, because the one about how the murder of Mabel Williams was actually a government cover-up for the discovery of 34 alien artifacts that could erase humanity was fucking insane." Kaminari replied from where he was draped across Sero and Ashido's laps.

"Yeah but no one really believed that one," he waved away with a grin on his face as the intro faded out, "but the only theories for this case are the insane ones."

The hosts started up with information on the case ‘The captivating disappearance of Bayan Nikolov’, which made Eijiro’s gut squirm. Why did he agree to this? He hates horror stuff like this, he won’t be able to sleep for the next few weeks without imagining that there’s some murderer hiding outside his window, waiting for the perfect moment to break in and slice his achilles tendons so he can't run before killing him. But looking at the entranced faces of his friends and the slight grin on Bakugou’s, he knows he wouldn’t change this for the world.

Sero was right about the theories in the episode being the craziest yet. I mean, an ancient Mothman relative being the perpetrator? Who comes up with this kind of stuff? The choked laughter from Ashido and Kaminari meant that he wasn't alone in his thought process.

"Okay so it's like a couple of minutes until the next upload so are we just gonna chill here for a bit or…?" Sero asked.

"Well, my legs have died cause this fatass has been laying on them." Ashido replied as she kicked Kaminari.

"Oi!"

"Not my fault you're heavy as fuck."

"Rude." Kaminari shifted to lay even more on Ashido, elbowing Sero in the stomach.

"Ow, fuck Kami! Do you mind?" 

Eijiro felt a shift next to him as Bakugou stood up, shooting him a questioning look as chaos took over the other three. Bakugou rolled his eyes with a smirk.

"Relax shitty hair, I'm coming back."

The others had quietened down after Bakugou left the room, with Kaminari pinned underneath Sero's legs with Ashido sitting on top to prevent any movement from him. Kaminari looked up at him, a pleading look in his eyes. Eijiro smiled at him as he placed his legs on top of Sero's.

"I hate you all, you're the worst, why do I hang out with you people."

"Because you love us. Now, shut up and accept your punishment." Sero said with a smug smirk on his face as Kaminari groaned. 

Sero clicked the reload button until the latest upload appeared: "The terrible Musutafu missing children's incident". He'd heard about this in passing on the news, it happened about 8 years ago now. When he'd first heard about it he got so scared he couldn't sleep, imagining someone stealing him away forever. There was never anyone who disappeared where he lived, only in Musutafu, he can't imagine living here when it was going on. 

The intro faded out as Bakugou opened the door. 

The hosts introduced themselves as Bakugou took a step forward.

The hosts mentioned the name of the episode.

Bakugou froze. Breathing stuttered. Eyes wide open with something cold and dead in them.

"Bakugou? Ar-," he didn't get to finish his question before Bakugou turned and walked out of the room. He got up to follow with the other's worried gazes on his back as he walked out the door. 

Eijiro looked down the hall to watch the lift doors closed, going upwards to the 5th floor. He turned to run up the stairs. Finding Bakugou opening his door as he reached his room, only getting there as the lock clicked shut. 

"Bakugou? Bro? What's going on?"

No reply.

Eijiro knocked, just in case Bakugou wasn't listening.

"Talk to us dude. We're worried."

No reply.

"Bakugou please open the door."

No reply.

"Katsuki?"

Silence.

The rest of the Bakusquad reached the floor.

"What's going on, Kiri?" "Is he okay?" "What's up with Bakugou?" Their voices overlapped as they asked about their friend.

"I dunno he's not answering the door." Worry seeped into his voice, clawing up his throat with barbs and spines. Bakugou doesn't get quiet. He will scream and rage but he's never quiet. And Eijiro has no idea what to do.

"I'm gonna get Midoriya." He said before he realised it.

"Huh? What's Midoriya got anything to do with this?" Sero asked.

"Well we have no idea what's going on, and clearly something very bad is going on, but Midoriya might." He replied. "They grew up together. He might be able to help."

He walked down to the common room where Midoriya and his friends were. He was glad that it was a Sunday so most of the class were at their parents' houses or on a shopping trip that Yaoyorozu organised, this was something that Bakugou would rather die than let the class know about. Reaching the common room, Midoriya was sitting back with Iida, watching Uraraka destroy Todoroki at a fighting game. They all looked so happy, shame Eijiro had to cryptically ruin it.

"Midoriya, can I talk to you?" 

"Yeah sure." Midoriya looked up expectantly, not moving. 

"Um, like, in private." He knew he had one of those slightly frantic but trying to desperately hide it expressions on his face with the way that they were looking at him.

"Okay?" Midoriya got up with a confused but concerned look on his face and shrugs at the questioning looks of his friends.

"Thanks bro." Eijiro grabbed his wrist and practically draged Midoriya to the lift and pushed him inside. It started to move and Midoriya looked up at him, trying to work out what was happening.

"What's wrong?" He asked, and oh, this wasn't going to be fun.

"Well, we were watching a show in Kaminari's room and then something happened and now Bakugou's locked himself in his room and he's not talking to us, please help." 

"What happened." Midoriya said with a flat look on his face, eyes narrowed with the fire of anger in them. 

"Well, we were watching a true crime show and he was really into it and then we finished it and were waiting for it to upload again because it was around the time that it does and Bakugou went to go to the toilet, I think, and it had just started when he came back in and then they said the title of the video and he kinda shut down, I guess, and left and now here we are." He took a deep breath as he finished.

"What was the title?" Midoriya had gone from angry to worried now, that's not a good sign.

"Um, 'the Musutafu missing children's incident'?" 

And Midoriya froze, the spark in his eyes, gone, replaced by something cold and dead, and Eijiro realised that this wasn't a Bakugou problem, this was a Bakugou-and-Midoriya problem and that meant that either it was going to be solved easily or everything was 80 times worse than they thought. And seeing Midoriya's dead eyes and skipping breath, he really thought it was the latter.

They reached the 5th floor and Midoriya practically sprinted to Bakugou's room.

"Kacchan?" He asked after knocking twice.

"Kacchan can you unlock the door for me? I know what happened."

A thud sounded from inside the room, then the click of the lock. The door stayed closed and Midoriya didn't make a move to open it. He instead turned to face their worried gazes. 

"Can you guys leave?" Midoriya asked quietly.

"What? No! Bakugou's our friend and we want to help!" Ashido barked back.

"Okay, that's great, you're amazing friends but Kacchan doesn't want," Midoriya paused, "Kacchan doesn't want 'people' right now, which includes you guys." There was an apologetic note to his reply but it hurt all the same. That Bakugou didn't want them around when he was hurting, even after all of the progress they'd made and how much they'd been through. He always went back to pushing them away.

Biting his lip, he turned to walk away, with the rest of the Bakusquad following him. Midoriya didn't move until they were all in the lift, opening Bakugou's door as the lift doors closed. They walked back to Kaminari's room in silence. It was only when the door clicked shut that Sero piped up.

"Should… Should we watch the episode?"

Eijiro didn't know how to respond, he wanted to know why Bakugou and Midoriya were acting so strangely but he also didn't want to tread into personal territory. 

"Well," Kaminari began, "they grew up in Musutafu didn't they? Maybe they have some kind of connection to the case? I mean, we were gonna watch it anyway and it's public so I think we should."

Sharing a look with the others, Eijiro nodded and Kaminari opened his laptop again and clicked play on the video.

"So this is more recent than most of the stuff that we cover, this only happened 8 years ago unlike a lot of our cases which happened over 100 years ago" said Joshua, the person that did the research and presented the cases.

"Oh yeah I heard about this on the news, it was pretty scary." Replied Alex, the one that made comments and kept the atmosphere light, well, most of the time at least.

"You don't even know the half of it." 

Joshua continued,"Musutafu, Japan is mainly known for U.A highschool, the most prominent hero school in the country and one of the top ranked in the world but 8 years ago something a lot darker happened there. On the 28th of October 2317, an elementary schooler called Tabata Makoto was reported missing by his parents. He had gone to Orudera elementary school, the school he was enrolled at, two days ago but hadn't returned, and the school said he left with his friends and all the other children at the end of the day on the 27th. The teachers and police asked his friends about Makoto but they had no idea what had happened to him. Five days later on the seconnd of November, another child, Serizawa Harui, was also reported missing. She didn't go to the same school as Makoto, but they lived close to each other."

"Ooh, are people starting to get a little paranoid now?"

"Well, yeah, two kids have gone missing within a week of each other so people are a bit worried, but it also hadn't been long since they disappeared so it isn't anything serious, yet."

"Ominous."

"Anyway, another week passes and no new clues appear but another kid has gone missing - a six year old called Akiba Sai."

"Six!? I thought these kids were like ten or something, 'cause they were walking home without their parents."

"Well the first two were, but Sai didn't walk home alone from school, because as you said, she's six, but she did still get kidnapped."

"What, so someone broke into their house and stole her?"

"That's what the working theory is, as there's no other way for her to disappear but there was also no sign of a break in or struggle anywhere and neither of her parents heard anything during the night that she vanished."

"I bet people really started panicking, huh."

"Yeah, after this people were starting to get really worried as the police had no information or leads on any of the children and it had been over two weeks since the first child went missing and now a six year old had been stolen right out of her house. So, things continue like this for the next month or so and as we enter December, five children have gone missing, all between the ages of six and eleven, and no one knows why or where they are. The parents of elementary schoolers are panicking, basically, and the police are floundering. But they finally get a break. A local gang had kidnapped one of the kids and passed them off to another group. So they interrogated the gang, but one of the people in the group they were giving the kid to had a memory quirk, so they didn't get any information on where the kids were being taken or any further kidnappings."

"Wow, that sucks!"

“I mean, they did get something.”

“Not really. They talked to some nasty boys and found out that no one knows what’s going on.”

“Please never say that again.” 

"I will make no promises."

"So, this gets out to the press and  sends everyone into a panic, because these were all clearly premeditated but there's no information on anything else and kids are still disappearing. So moving onto three months later,"

"Quite the timeskip."

"The total of missing children is 16, there's no new evidence or leads and everything is on lockdown. Schools are shut, shops are closed, nobody is leaving their houses, even UA had closed by this point, it was that serious. Then something strange is found."

"Something weird, something real spooky."

"Yeah. An unidentified body is found in the middle of an alley."

"That's… that's not what I had in mind."

"The body appeared to be around eight years old and it was decapitated. There was this almost oily black substance that covered all of the skin and wouldn't come off no matter what. But the strangest thing was when they analysed the DNA it was a mess, like it was completely scrambled, not even human."

"Was this, like, connected or anything because that is fucking wild..."

"Well, no one really knows if it was connected or something else was going on but it had a big effect on everything."

"Gotcha. The police are being really shit at their jobs here, aren't they. No leads or anything and now there's a body!"

"Yeah, the police and everything received a lot of flack for having basically no evidence this whole time so whoever was masterminding this plot was very clever, very powerful and not afraid to stick their neck out a bit to show off."

"Or the police were corrupt as fuck."

"That too. And a couple of days after this, two more kids go missing and that's it. They all just suddenly stop."

"What? Really? No fanfare, just 'okay, fun time's over, go back to whatever you were doing before' kinda thing?"

"Alex, nothing about this was fun."

"I'm just saying that's it's weird that there was no big 'aha you'll never catch me' thing that happened, 'cause that seems like the kinda thing this guy would do."

"True, but personally I'm glad that nothing like that happened."

"Oh yeah."

"So, the kidnappings have abruptly stopped and there are zero leads on any of this except that a group has someone with a memory quirk and pays gangs to kidnap children for some reason. And no new leads have appeared. The only charges that were made were against the gangs and that was for kidnapping and human trafficking."

"Good riddance."

"Yeah."

"God I feel sorry for everyone that lived through that."

"Yeah especially the parents because your child has gone missing and nobody can tell you why or where they are."

"I mean, I was thinking about the kids too, because some of them must be old enough to understand that their friend hasn't shown up to school today because they're missing and most likely dead  and none of the adults are talking about what's going on but are stopping you from going outside and doing things in your own."

"God, yeah, this whole thing is so fucked up, and it happened so recently too. Like, I thought our forensics and stuff was good enough to avoid all of this but shit like this still happens."

"I hope that if the kids are dead, they rest in peace, y'know, that they're chilling in heaven and they can't be hurt anymore."

"Yeah. And on that sentiment let's get onto so-"

Kaminari hit the spacebar with a click to pause the video. Eijiro looked at his friends faces and saw a range of horror and concern that he knew his expression echoed.

None of them spoke, none of them could after listening to everything that had happened. He couldn't imagine living through any of that now, but Bakugou had to when he was eight. Bakugou and Midoriya had to live through all of that when they were eight. How many of their friends did they lose? How much of their childhood innocence was ripped away by this? Eijiro had never had anyone close to him die before, how could he cope with watching the people around him, his friends, be picked off one by one and not be able to do a thing about it? It made his skin crawl and his throat close up. 

Eijiro took out his phone and typed a text to Midoriya.

Kirishima: how are you 2 doing??

It took a couple of minutes for the reply to come.

Midoriya: dw we're good 

That made him breathe a little easier. He told the group about how they were alright and he felt some of the tension bleed out of them too.

"I think we should have a sleepover in here." Ashido stated.

"Huh?" Kaminari said.

"Well, it's getting late, we're all tired, and-," she said, "and I don't want to sleep alone tonight."

"It's a plan." Sero agreed.

Eijiro didn't say anything but nodded in agreement with the plan. Having his friends around would probably help with the shitstorm that was going to be his sleep that night. They didn't move that much, just put Kaminari's computer out of the way and set an alarm for the morning, and huddling down together and wondering how they could make it up to Bakugou, before they drifted off into fitful slumber.

Chapter Text

Shouta wasn’t awake enough for any of this. Despite it being nearly five minutes into homeroom, the two problem children hadn’t shown up yet. And despite all the trouble they caused, they were never late except for serious, extenuating circumstances. He really hoped they hadn’t gotten into another fight, he didn’t need all that extra paperwork. Searching around the classroom, he saw the worried glances of Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Ashido along with the concerned gazes of Todoroki and Iida, and the frown of Uraraka as she texted someone, presumably Midoriya.

“Kirishima, where is Bakugou?” He drawled.

“Oh, um, uh-” Floundering. Perfect. “I don’t know?”

“Is your memory really so bad that you can’t remember whether you know where your classmate is?”

“No, um. I don’t know where Bakugou or Midoriya are.”

Finally a clear answer. Was it really so hard to just say what you know without resorting to miscellaneous stuttering and meaningless questions? Apparently not.

“And, Uraraka is your phone really more important than the work you’re supposed to be doing.” 

“A- wha-what? I’m not- I don’t-" What? Did she really think he wouldn’t notice? 

“No please share with the class what has captivated your attention so thoroughly.”

She shrunk in on herself. 

“Well, I was texting Deku because he hasn’t arrived yet and I’m worried about him and he said he was with Bakugou but that was half an hour ago and he isn’t responding and-”

He cut her off with his hand before standing up with a sigh. It was far too early to deal with this but as a teacher he guessed it was his responsibility or something. He texted Hizashi to come and stop his class from doing anything too idiotic while he was gone. 

“Right, I’m going to find Bakugou and Midoriya, Iida, Yoayorozu, you two are in charge until President Mic gets here. Don’t destroy anything or you’ll all be getting detention, am I clear?”

Mutterings of “yes, Aizawa-sensei,” filled the room as he turned and left.

Shouta went to the CCTV room first to make sure the problem children weren’t causing any property damage by fighting things out like they always try to do. He checked the cameras to find they weren’t on any of the school grounds; that only left the dorms. He looked through the backlog to see if they fought during the night but nothing came up. With nothing else to do he got up and left.

Shouta felt a sense of dread seep its way through him as he entered the dorms. There was something about how quiet and lifeless everything felt without his students talking and laughing that made him silently pray that they could all stay as carefree as they were now. They didn’t deserve to be crushed by the horrors that hero work could bring. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he approached Midoriya’s room. He waited outside for a second to see if he could hear any signs of life inside the room but there was only silence.

“Midoriya? Are you in there?” There was no response. He tried again with a knock.

“Midoriya you’re late for class. Open the door or give me a sign of acknowledgement.” Still, there was no reply. 

“Midoriya if you don’t answer me I will have to open the door.” There was no reply from inside so Shouta opened the door to find the room empty, not a sign of life. The bed was made like Midoriya had gotten up but the boy was nowhere to be found.

He left Midoriya's room and continued upwards to Bakugou’s. Uraraka did say that they were together, so maybe Midoriya would be with him there. As the lift took him up to the fifth floor anxiety pooled in his gut. What if the League of Villains broke in and kidnapped both of them? What if the League of Villains broke in and killed both of them? He took a deep breath to calm his mind before the lift doors opened and he stepped out into the silent hallway.

He stood outside of Bakugou’s door and listened. He thought he could almost hear the rhythmic sound of breathing but the door blocked most of it so he couldn’t be sure. He knocked on the door. 

“Bakugou are you in there?” He waited for a few seconds before opening his mouth to speak but a small voice from inside cut him off.

“Sen-sensei?” It sounded like Midoriya but it was weak and cracking and Shouta didn’t like a single bit of it.

“Midoriya? Is Bakugou in there with you?”

“Um, y-yeah he’s- he’s in here.”

“Are you two okay?” 

He didn’t get a reply this time but he could hear what sounded like choked, muffled sobbing. He didn’t panic, but it was a near thing at the sound of one of his students having a breakdown. 

“Midoriya can you open the door for me?”

“Midoriya if you don’t open the door I’m going to have to open the door to make sure you two are okay.”

There was no response but the sobs stopped. Shouta opened the door to find the room to be reasonably tidy, the bed was made and the desk was cleared and in the corner were Midoriya and Bakugou. They were curled up on each other, Midoriya sitting on the floor with his back against the wall with Bakugou on top of him in a loose hug, with Bakugou’s head resting on his shoulder. Bakugou had shakily done bandages on his arms, covering burns going by the marred skin that peaked out from them. Midoriya looked up at him as he entered the room, drying tear tracks on his cheeks, eyes wide, expression pained, and Shouta’s heart broke. He slowly walked over and crouched down beside them, sighing slightly before wrapping his arms gently around them and pulling them into a hug. He felt Midoriya begin to cry again, but what concerned him the most was the complete lack of reaction from Bakugou; he just let himself be moved without resisting or complaining. 

They stayed on the floor for a while, until Midoriya’s tears slowed and hiccuping subsided. He pulled away from the hug, relaxing into the wall, shifting Bakugou to a more comfortable position.

“Do you want to talk about what’s going on?” He pressed gently. He needed to know what was happening because something was horribly wrong, but he didn’t want to go too fast and risk them shutting him out.

Midoriya looked at Bakugou and gave him a light squeeze and Bakugou nodded slightly into his neck, the first thing he’d done since Shouta had entered the room. Midoriya took a shaky breath and started to explain what had happened last night with the video and how everything had spiralled. Shouta remembers the incident, he had only left UA a few years before and had gone off on his own, but he was woken up in the middle of the night by calls from Kayama about how those kids never deserved any of this, it was clearly a villain behind the scenes but no one could prove anything. All these kids were dying and there was nothing she could do, to say nothing of the people left behind. 

Shouta wanted to hit himself, he knew these boys grew up in Musutafu, he knew about everything that had happened but he didn’t realise that, of course, they would've been affected by it. They would’ve been eight. They would’ve been eight and had to watch as their friends disappeared and they were smart enough to understand that they would never be coming back. And, oh god, the summer camp. He thought Midoriya’s reaction had been a bit extreme but with this it made so much more sense. He was putting these two in therapy whether they wanted to or not.

Midoriya’s explanation of what it was like eight years ago was a mess, stuttering and broken off words littered every sentence he spoke, with pauses to take a shaky breath and compose himself before continuing. His arms wrapped tighter around Bakugou as he spoke, turning into a bear hug instead of the loose one that he had when Shouta entered. 

Midoriya finished talking with tears down his cheeks and clinging onto Bakugou for dear life. Shouta gathered the two boys in a hug, running his hands through their hair and he felt them relax into the comfort. 

“I’m putting both of you in therapy.” 

“Oh. That… that makes sense.”

“Bakugou?”

“Kacchan will be up for it too. Won’t you Kacchan?” 

He felt Bakugou huff and lean into his hug, the first acknowledgement of his presence since he came in. He felt something warm blossom in his chest as he squeezed them tight before slowly pulling away. 

“You’re both excused from lessons for today and, depending on how you’re feeling, tomorrow too. I won’t say anything about this to anyone except for Recovery Girl so she can organise therapy for you both, however, your classmates are worried about you and I suggest you tell them at least the bare bones of what you’ve told me, as they know that something’s wrong and they aren’t stupid, okay?” 

Midoriya noded in response. Shouta stood up, stretching out his legs and back, sore from being crouched for so long, and checked his phone, it was 9:20, well into first period. He felt slightly sorry for Hizashi, having to put up with a restless class of heroes-in-training as they worried about their friends. He then remembered how Hizashi had stolen all of his juice pouches to try to “get him to eat some actual food for once” and all of his pity suddenly disappeared.

“I’ll go and get you two some water and something to eat before I leave.”

“Thanks.”

Shouta didn’t particularly want to leave them alone but he had a job to do despite how much he wanted to stay here and wrap the problem children up in comfort and reassurance. They were only sixteen, not old enough for this kind of grief to hang over their shoulders. Eight and losing their best friend. When he lost his it nearly killed him, but he was old enough that he understood that's how his world works, old enough to not have his childhood innocence taken from him. But these two had it ripped away so young, without care or anyone to guide them, going by the way they’d suddenly grown dependent on each other instead of the antagonistic mess that was their usual relationship. He was probably the first adult they’d ever really told about all of this. Oh god, he was the first adult they’d ever really talked about all of this to.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down as he entered the kitchen, he opened the cupboard to get two glasses, which he filled with water, before moving to another cupboard to see what food they had. He grabbed some cereal bars and fruit before moving to the medical cabinet to search for some burn cream. He found a bottle, then left to return to Bakugou’s room. When he reached the door he heard Midoriya's voice coming from inside.

"Are you sure? We don't have to tell him."

Concerning, but there was nothing he could do to make the kids talk to him, just hope that they would. He knocked once so he wouldn't startle them, then opened the door. They were still curled up in the same place he’d left them. He placed the drinks and food on the desk.

“Um, sensei. There’s something else we should tell you.” Midoriya whispered, curling in on himself. 

Shouta crouched down beside them and waited for Midoriya to start talking.

“Um, Kac- there was something else that happened,” he said and took a deep breath, “Kacchan was almost kidnapped too.” 

That wasn’t what Shouta expected, but it explained why Bakugou was more affected by this situation than Midoriya.

“He was… he was walking home from school when some people grabbed him from an alleyway and,” he took a shaky breath, “and they grabbed him and put a gag in his mouth so he could scream and tied his hands up and tried to drag him away but he managed to escape.” 

Shouta wants to kill someone. How dare they hurt a child like that. He can’t do anything about it, the Hero Commission would revoke his license and he’d get thrown in jail but, holy shit, did he want to. Bakugou was shaking, only barely, but it was there. He remembered one of Kayama’s calls, she talked about a kid with an iron will and fire in his eyes that gave them the tip they needed to catch the gang, which didn’t lead to much but it was the first, and only, break the case had. She told him that he would go far, and knowing that kid was Bakugou, Shouta can’t help but agree.

His mind drifted back to the sports festival. Oh. They fucked up more than they realised. They put a gag in his mouth and tied his hands together and he just watched as it happened. It was an awful thing to do to any child but no wonder Bakugou freaked out so much if that happened in his past. Shouta moved to pull the boys into another hug, slowly so Bakugou could refuse if he wanted, he didn’t.

“I’m sorry. About the sports festival.” He felt them freeze at the mention of the event, “It was wrong and I knew that but I never did anything to stop it or make it up to you so for that I’m so sorry.”

"Wasn't your fault," Midoriya mumbled.

"But I still should've done something."

They stayed like that for a few minutes until Shouta felt Bakugou pull away slightly. He released them before opening his mouth.

"Would you like me to stay here?"

Midoriya opened his mouth to speak but Shouta cut him off. 

"Your classmates are irrelevant in this decision. They will be fine, all of the teachers at UA are perfectly good at their jobs. As your teacher your safety and health is my priority and I need to know if staying here with you is the best option for that."

They were quiet for a while, deliberating.

"We'll be fine on our own." Midoriya said.

"Okay," he sighed. "Bakugou, show me your arms."

They stiffened and Midoriya shifted himself to shield Bakugou from him.

"I'm not angry, I just need to know that they're healing okay and so I can put on some burn cream."

Midoriya relaxed as Bakugou slowly extended his arm towards Shouta. He held it and carefully unwrapped the bandages. The burns were clearly from Bakugou's quirk, going by the handprint shape, and they looked awful. The skin was blistered, red and raw, he tried to be as gentle as he could but it was impossible not to hurt Bakugou a little bit. As he finished the first arm Bakugou turned to face him, resting his side against Midoriya, and showed him his right arm. It was similar to the left and Shouta bandaged it in silence.

Satisfied with his work, Shouta stood.

"If you need anything, text or call me. I'll be here as soon as I can." 

Midoriya and Bakugou nodded so he sighed before leaving the room. He pulled out his phone as he exited the dorms, sending a text to Recovery Girl to tell her that they needed to talk at the end of the day. He sent another one to Hizashi, thanking him for taking care of his class. 

He needed to scream, punch something, anything to expel some of the anger that had rooted itself in him. It was already most of the way through second period so he had time to get it out of his system. He made his way to Ground Gamma and started to use his capture weapon to swing around the industrial area. He knew he couldn’t do anything else for the problem children now, but he wanted to make it so they never had to go through that, he wanted none of his students to experience any more trauma than they already had. 

He wasn’t sure how long he spent diving and twisting through the pipes and ladders, but the sun was beating down from high in the sky when the end of his capture weapon was tugged and he fell onto a roof. Hizashi had the scarf in his hand with a worried look on his face. It must be lunch if he was able to get over here.

“What happened, Shouta?” he asked softly.

Instead of answering he stood up and stumbled into Hizashi, resting his head on Hizashi’s shoulder. Hizashi’s arms wrapped around his torso after a second, letting him sink into the hug. They stayed like that for a few minutes, as the adrenaline left Shouta’s system, before he pulled away. Hizashi gently placed his hands on Shouta’s shoulders, his face full of concern.

“Shouta, talk to me. You only get like this when something’s really bothering you.”

He sighed. “The problem children need some fucking therapy.”

Hizashi looked confused at his statement but didn’t disagree.

“You gonna explain, or?”

“Promised them I’d only talk to Recovery Girl about it, I’m sure you’ll hear about it this week though.”

“Okay.” Hizashi didn’t look like he quite knew what to say about that, but Hizashi knew Shouta wouldn’t explain any further so he didn’t press it. 

“Are you taking the rest of the day off or am I covering?”

“I probably ought to go back for the afternoon, the class is most likely dying with worry.”

“You can say that again. I nearly had to restrain Kirishima from storming to the dorms to get Bakugou.”

“That sounds like him.”

Hizashi took a sandwich and a juice pouch out from his pocket, passing them over to him. They ate their lunch in silence, appreciating the quiet that washed over them. After they had finished, an alarm on Hizashi's phone sounded.

“We should be getting back.” He said.

Hizashi started to walk back to the main building, Shouta following behind. When they reached it Hizashi waved as he left to sort out the rest of his lessons and Shouta made his way to his class as the bell went for fifth period to begin. As he entered the classroom he was bombarded by questions about Midoriya and Bakugou. He held up his hand and they all shut up.

“Midoriya and Bakugou are fine. If you have any further questions you can ask them yourselves after school. Am I clear?” 

He heard murmurs of agreement from the class. None of them were happy about what he told them, but they didn’t have to be, just do what he said. 

“We’ll be working on stealth and evasive combat, put on your hero costumes and make your way to Ground Gamma.”

None of them were going to be at the top of their game, with their minds full of worry for Bakugou and Midoriya. But, honestly, Shouta wouldn’t be either, so he was just going to take what he could get.

Chapter Text

Izuku sighed. It was 16:07 so school was nearly over and his classmates would be demanding answers as to why him and Bakugou weren't in today, especially after Aizawa had spent so much time comforting them. They had moved from the floor to the bed after he left, making things a bit more comfortable, Kacchan sprawled on top of him with his arm wrapped around his shoulder, running his hand through his hair. 

"We're gonna have to talk to them." He whispered into Kacchan’s ear.

Kacchan hummed back but made no move to sit up or pull out his phone, the bastard.

“So, what? Am I just gonna say that you’re asleep and do all the hard work myself?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Okay.”

Izuku shifted so he could actually type on his phone and opened the 1-A group chat. Iida had set it up at the start of Autumn and it was pretty active, despite most of the class normally ignoring it.

Iida: @Midoriya @Bakugou why were you not in class today? Skipping is not good conduct so I hope there was a valid reason.

Midoriya: kldafans dw aizawa said it was fine 

Iida: That still doesn’t explain why you weren’t in class.

Midoriya: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,,,,,, personal Reasons™

Uraraka: okay but like are you okay????

Midoriya: yeye 

Uraraka: then prepare to be beaten to death with a chair leg because you have ignored all of my texts but the moment Iida pings you you show up

Midoriya: yea but if you do that then my mum will be sad so check and mate

Uraraka: =-= 

Uraraka: youre on thin fucking ice

Kirishima: ohgod ohgod are you 2 geniunely ok? cause  were really sorry and were worried and everything

Midoriya: kirishima we’re fine calm down and you dont have to apologise none of you meant it

Uraraka: okay what the FUCK happened last night

Midoriya: hhhhhhh i was gonna explain that but its gonna be better if everyones here so @Aizawa dad blease ping everyone

Aizawa: fine

Aizawa: @everyone Midoriya needs to speak to you about something so get on here

Shouji: what’s going on?

Sero: yea dude are you n bakugou okay?? have u eaten anything today

Midoriya: we’re fine rn and aizawa gave us some snacks n hugs it was very nice

Ashido: what! lucky!!!

Kouji: im jealous,,,, aizawa looks very soft

Midoriya: hes not that soft but he was very comfy

Midoriya: aNYWAY

Midoriya: me n kacchan have a wholeass bag of Childhood Trauma™ so can yall watch this video cause its actually really good and then i can answer questions that yall have after cause i think thatll be the best way to go about this tbh

Midoriya : www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

The terrible Musutafu missing children's incident- Mysterious mysteries and other unsolved cases

Sero: are you sure about this?

Midoriya: ye i think this is the best way to do this and kacchan agreed

Kirishima: is bakugou okay??????

Midoriya: kacchan is okay hes asleep rn but hes fine

Yaoyorozu: may i ask why we are watching this video and what does this have to do with why you weren’t in class today?

Midoriya: so you guys know that me n kacchan grew up in Musutafu right?

Yaoyorozu: OH this makes a lot more sense now

Hagakure: oh god i heard about this on the news when i was a kid

Hagakure: it really freaked me out

Hagakure: it mustve been really scary for you two to live there while everything was going on

Ojiro: okay ive heard a little about this but i never knew there was a body? wtf?

Midoriya: yea its only really people that live here actually know about it cause the police n stuff were like ok people are already freaking out lets nOT make things worse and like we dont know if its related and it isnt even a person so the news will not know about this

Midoriya: it rly surprised me how well researched the video is

Jirou: okay you gave us a documentary but that doesn’t explain anything

Midoriya: what??

Jirou: i mean i can guess a whole lot but i still have no idea what happened to you and bakugou or how this affected you or anything i just know what the news said and nothing else

Midoriya: okok gimme like a few mins to sort out my thoughts n everything

Kirishima: its okay take your time and say as much as you’re comfy with

Jirou: yeah sorry if i seemed a little forceful i just want to understand what happened

Midoriya: okay so we were 8 and 2 years above us there was this kid that im pretty sure kaccan punched in the face once and he just disappeared and it was scary and stuff but it wasnt that bad but then some other kids wnet missing including someone from our class and that was really scary because like i saw him every day but then he was just gone and you could tell that the teachers and parents were panicking but they wouldnt say anything to us which was kinda scary but also really frustrating because like we werent dumb just young

Midoriya: and yeah we kinda worked out that the missing kids were dead or smth but even when we asked no one would confirm it for us which fucked with us a bit because its like theres a massive fire that you can see and feel but nobodys saying anything about it and you cant do anything about it which was not great but i get it cause they were only trying to protect us it just didnt work out so well

Midoriya: it was really bad the longer stuff went on like you werent allowed to go anywhere alone and you were basically always being watched so you wouldnt just disappear into thin air and never be able to see any of your friends or family ever again and then shops and stuff started closing and you could see everyone becoming colder and more closed off and paranoid and that trickled down into us and we started to get scared and cold too because we were like 8 and we copied what the adults around us did

Midoriya: and as the months went on and more kids disappeared the school shut down because there was a bunch of parents not sending their kids in and it was getting pretty dangerous n stuff which was really cool for us but also really scary because one of your friends could just disappear and you wouldnt know until school started back up again

Midoriya: and that did happen

Midoriya: one of our best friends was taken too

Midoriya: his name was tsubasa and he was a part of our 4 part friend group when we were kids it was me kacchan tsubasa and another kid called yubi and we started being friends when we were around 4 or so and we were really close but then after everything had calmed down he didnt show up and we realised that hed died while we werent in school and it was like a slap in the face because we thought by that point that everything was okay but it wasnt and there was nothing we could do about it

Midoriya: and i mean he might not be dead but i think i prefer it if he is because if he wasnt then he would be hurt so much so its nicer to think that hes dead and cant be hurt anymore and he was one of my best friends so i dont want him to be hurt

Midoriya: they built a memorial a few years ago for everyone that disappeared then but i cant look at it im sure it helped some people but its one of those things that i cant look at because its like accepting that we’ll never know what happened to them and it almost feels fake because the police built it but they never really did anything honestly me and kacchan did more than they ever did 

Midoriya: and yea thats my thoughts on it anyway kacchan might say something about it later but he might not

Ashido: fuck

Ojiro: i agree

Ojiro: fuck

Kirishima: okay im going to your room to give hugs because that must’ve been hard to talk about

Midoriya: uh well im with kacchan rn in his room so might want to not do that until tomorrow probably i think we’ll both be a bit more comfortable with that then

Kirishima: oh okay!! but be prepared for hugs then

Ashido: that’s kinda aggressive kiri might wanna cool it down a bit

Kirishima: sorrysorry i just want you guys to be okay and happy

Midoriya: its fine! i know you meant well

Uraraka: okay that doesnt explain why we’re talking about this now and why you werent in class

Kirishima: okay so last night we (me ashido kaminari sero and bakugou) were watching the show cause sero said it was cool and we were practicing english and stuff and we were really enjoying it (including bakugou) but then we finished the currently uploaded episodes and were waiting for the next upload and then it was that one and bakugou noped out so we got worried so i got midoriya and he went with bakugou and we worked out that something bad was happening but we didnt get any more out of it until now

Uraraka: okay that explains stuff

Uraraka: deku you better be ready for hugs and love because i will smother you with affection

Yaoyorozu: well i hope you two are okay and i’m sorry that you had to experience all of that

Yaoyorozu: but can i suggest that we have a sleepover when bakugou and midoriya feel up to it as i think it will ease many of us and we ought to do some more fun things together as a whole class

Hagakure: that sounds like a really good idea yaomomo!!

Sato: i’m sure i can rope people into cooking and baking for it

Midoriya: guys you dont have to do this

Sato: yes we don’t have to do this but we want to so deal with it

Midoriya: okay lemme just talk to kacchan about it

He looked down to Kacchan, he was still lying down in the same position that he was when Izuku opened the chat. He shook Kacchan, just to make sure he was awake, and he got a grunt in return. 

“I told the class about what happened, at least my perspective on it.” 

“Mm.” 

“They want to hold a sleepover for us. ‘Cause after everything they want to help us and I told them to wait a bit until you were ready, so do you want to go? You don’t have to but I think it would be nice because they all really care about you.” 

Kacchan was silent, deliberating, for a while. Izuku knew he didn’t want anyone to see this side of him, quiet and withdrawn, nothing like the explosive person their classmates had come to know. Izuku knew Kacchan saw that side of him as weak, but it wasn’t, Izuku knew that and he’s sure that their classmates would too if Kacchan gave them the chance.

“They’re not gonna see you as weak, Kacchan”

Kacchan responded by pressing his face deeper into Izuku’s neck and sighing.

“Fine.” 

That was the first word Kacchan had spoken since last night and Izuku was so happy it was accepting, at least some form of, comfort. He smiled brightly at Kacchan, which was promptly followed by a huff and a hand in his face. After a moment, he laughed and he felt Kacchan join in and it was nice. They were lying down on Kacchan’s bed, laughing at nothing and the world shifted back to being right.

Kacchan sat up, making sure to dig his hand into Izuku’s stomach as hard as humanly possible, and stretched out his arms and back. Izuku could hear the faint pop of his joints, but then again, Kacchan was curled up on top of him for god knows how long so the stiffness made sense. Izuku sat up, propping himself on his elbows, as he watched Kacchan work through a couple of stretches, back muscles only barely visible under the loose t-shirt he was wearing. Getting up the rest of the way caused unfair amounts of pins and needles in his legs which took a minute to leave like the bastard it was. He caught Kacchan smirking at his pain so Izuku did the completely mature thing and stuck his tongue out at him.

“So are you ready to go to the common room or do you want me to bring something up for you?” 

He watched as Kacchan stilled and his eyes became a little deader, no people yet, then.

“Hey it’s fine if you want to stay up here, they’ll understand.”

Kacchan breathed but something was still off, so Izuku walked over and gently wrapped him in a hug. He felt Kacchan’s arms come up around him and lean into him. Izuku ran his thumb over Kacchan’s shoulder, trying to show how much he cares with touch alone, words wouldn’t work here. 

“Do you want me to stay here?”

“No, go deal with the extras.”

“They’re not really extras if they’re in UA, Kacchan.”

“Shut the fuck up Deku.”

He felt Kacchan shift so he released the hug, rubbing Kacchan’s arms, careful to not touch the burns, before leaving the room. As he walked down to the common room he felt his anxiety steadily increase. What if something happened to Kacchan? What if Kacchan did something? He took a deep breath as he got to the stairs on the second floor to calm himself down. Everything was going to be fine.

As he got to the common room, Uraraka slammed into him, wrapping him up in a hug, he felt others join in, smothering him in affection. 

“Uh… guys, I’m fine. You don’t have to do this, um, guys?” He stuttered out, trying to get them to calm down and maybe stop suffocating him.

“No. You’re staying here where we can comfort you, so deal with it.” Uraraka replied. He wasn’t getting out of this anytime soon.

“Oh… okay.”

He relaxed into the hug, letting the arms around him support him, and it was so warm. It was like when the shouts and insults in middle school hit a little too hard and his mum just took one look at him and his red-rimmed eyes and bundled him up is her arms, telling him that she loved him and nothing would ever change that. Tears leaked out of his eyes, streaming down his face.

“Mi-Midoriya, are you okay?” Kirishima’s concerned voice leaked into his ear.

“Yeah just… just kinda overwhelmed with how much I love you guys.” His voice was doing the thing when he was crying happy tears, where it would come out slurred and a bit whiny, he couldn’t stop it from happening, no matter how hard he tried.

Someone laughed softly, the same way you’d laugh at a kitten or a baby rabbit when they’d done something adorable, as the arms squeezed him tighter for a second before releasing him and letting him rummage around for snacks for Kacchan.

“So are you and Bakugou up for the sleepover?” Hagakure called.

“Um, yeah. I convinced him to come but he, uh, he might be a bit quieter than usual so just roll with it and don’t mention anything.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Sero shouted back with a bright grin. Izuku was so glad that everyone in the class was so accepting of him and Kacchan and all of the messy problems that came with them. Other people would just ignore them or try to force them into situations that neither of them were comfortable with, but the class just let them be and nudged them towards getting along and Izuku would be eternally grateful for that.

Izuku picked out some bananas and some random spicy snack things he knew Kacchan liked. With his arms full of food he made his way back to Kacchan’s room, kicking the door open. 

“Okay sure, break my door down why don’t you?” Kacchan barked at him.

“Hey! I’m just bringing you food so you don’t kill everyone tonight.”

“I wouldn’t kill anyone.”

Izuku leveled him with a look.

“What do you really think I would risk my hero licence like that? Please, Deku. I would just make them regret having physical bodies. Honestly, it’s like you think I’m just some ball of rage.”

“I mean…” Izuku trailed off as Kacchan sparked his hands at him, features contorted in annoyance.

“I mean you’re such an open and affectionate person that has never done anything to hurt anyone in your life.”

“Exactly.”

Izuku snorted as he unceremoniously dumped the food onto the bed, then rummaged around for a banana. 

"Oi."

"Hey I brought all of this up here I deserve some payment."

Izuku started to eat the banana while scrolling through his phone. A news story caught his eye. 'Why Best Jeanist Doesn't Deserve 3rd Place On The Hero Ranking'

"Hey Kacchan, there's an article dragging Jeanist. You wanna come up with every single reason why they're wrong?"

Kacchan stalks over to Izuku and peers over his shoulder. 

"What dumb shit are they saying?" 

"Well…"

That night everyone crowded down into the common room for the sleepover, except for Kaminari who realised that he forgot to do the English homework for President Mic, which was due tomorrow, thirty minutes in, so left with assurances that he would be fine doing it on his own and that they better tell him all the embarrassing things they get up to. Kacchan sat sandwiched between Izuku and Kirishima, still leaning more closely to Izuku but Kirishima didn’t seem to mind.

They played spin the bottle which led to some awkward moments: like Kirishima kissing Ojiro's tail, or Shouji kissing Hagakure with eight mouths, but after Kacchan was chosen to kiss him, the threat of bottle being blown up, spraying glass everywhere, was too great to continue to play. After that, they moved onto truth or dare, well, basically just dare, as Ashido and Sero were up for anything, no matter how insane it was. They ended up tied together, dangling from the ceiling before Iida stopped the game, which was fair as the dares were getting more and more elaborate and someone was going to get hurt eventually. So instead, they just talked. About how stressful the hero course was and everything they had gone through, but also how amazing it felt to help people and watch their faces light up with a smile as you saved them.

Kacchan had fallen asleep against him pretty much as soon as the clock struck nine, garnering cooing from his classmates.

“Bakugou looks very different when he’s asleep.” Said Momo.

“Yes, he almost looks… relaxed.” Shouto commented

“Hey, Bakugou’s kinda hot when he isn’t screaming his head off.” Hagakure said

“Yeah.” Kirishima sighed.

“Kirishima, that’s kinda gay.” Sero said

“Well, I’m kinda gay, so...”

“Wait Kiri, you’re gay?” asked Ashido.

“Um… yeah.”

“Oh, sweet. Thanks for telling us.”

“Thanks for being so manly about it.”

“Wait does this mean you have a crush on Bakugou?” 

“Uhhh… I don’t have to tell you guys anything.”

“Aw, that’s so cute.” Said Hagakure, as red creeped over Kirishima’s cheeks. His gaze turned to the floor before he spoke with a shrug.

“Well, he probably doesn’t like men like that let alone me…”

“I don’t think Kacchan has really thought about that kind of stuff because he’s so focused on being a great hero, but he does really like and respect you so you never know, it could happen.” Izuku said.

Jiro looked between him and Kacchan.

“So what even is your relationship?” She asked.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“Well, you hate each other most of the time and you’re always fighting and stuff but then you get stuff like now where you’re all buddy-buddy and, yeah some of it is from the trauma, but it’s kinda weird. You’re like really antagonistic brothers.”

“I, that…” Izuku stuttered, “that’s actually… I mean, you’re not wrong.”

“Um, my mum’s friends with his dad from high school and we live really close to each other so we’ve always been together for as long as we remember so I think brothers or cousins or something. I mean, I call his parents ‘auntie and uncle’ and he calls my mum ‘auntie’ so yeah…” He trailed off as he looked at the stares of his classmates.

“That’s adorable.” Sato stated.

Izuku fumbled with his words, it wasn’t adorable it was just what they did. He felt heat rise up into his face, then gave up and groaned, shoving his head in his hands as his classmates chuckled, stupid friends making fun of him. He pulled a blanket over himself and Kacchan.

“Deku?”

“Nope sleepy-time now. Goodnight. Shut up.”

A few snorts of laughter could be heard.

“What did I just say.”

“Sorry Midoriya, we’ll let you sleep.” Said Ojiro with a laugh.

“It is getting late so the rest of us should rest too.” Iida said in an almost shout, but volume control wasn’t really his thing. Similar to Kacchan in a way, though both of them would vehemently deny anything if he said so.

Izuku heard the shuffling and groaning of his classmates as they settled down to sleep and felt a smile work its way onto his face. They couldn’t see it but that was fine, because they were here and nothing could hurt them. And he smiled because everyone was okay now and everything was going to get better. And with that thought he drifted off to sleep, only slightly dreading the wrath of Aizawa when they were all late for class in the morning.