Chapter Text
If nothing else, Bakugo Katsuki was a creature of habit. He had a routine for every morning, making sure he was up earlier than most (no one was getting up before Iida) in order to get a quick jog and workout in before breakfast. That hadn’t changed upon moving into the dorms, it simply meant he didn’t have to go far to reach the gym. Every morning for the last two months Katsuki had climbed out of bed, shut his alarm off with a little more force than necessary, then gotten dressed and head down to the living room and out the door. Very few times had he ever encountered anyone while leaving the dorms. Iida in the kitchen, Aizawa coming in from a night patrol, Tokoyomi dozing on the couch after staying up all night. But those incidents were very few and far between, and none of them ever disrupted his daily routine.
So Katsuki was absolutely not prepared for the problem he was facing this morning. When he had arrived downstairs, he had spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Normally he’d brush it off, assuming it was one of the extras, but the only classmate he had that short was the grape fucker, and he definitely didn’t have hair as long and white as Katsuki saw whipping around behind the kitchen counter.
Now, Katsuki was far from superstitious, and so he automatically ruled out any chance of it being a ghost. He could have just ignored it, blaming a trick of the light. But he knew he had seen something, and after three separate attacks by villains on his class, one of which was personally directed at him, he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. So instead, Katsuki carefully stalked his way towards the kitchen. As he got closer he could start to hear small noises. Light footsteps, cabinets creaking softly as they were opened and closed. There was someone in there alright, and Katsuki was never one to do anything but face problems head on. He quickly moved around the counter, hands hung loosely at his side but sparking a little just in case. “Who the fuck’s in here?” he growled.
The explosive teen wasn’t sure exactly what he had expected to see, but the last thing on the list would have been a little girl in a white dress with equally white, waist-length hair. The girl let out a quick “eep!” in surprise, quickly slamming the door of the cabinet she was looking in shut. She froze, shock still as she stared at Katsuki with eyes just as red as his own. Katsuki noted the little nub of a horn growing slightly up from under the left side of her forehead. Must have something to do with her quirk he thought, filing the information away just in case. The girl certainly didn’t seem like a threat, especially with the way she behaved, but you never knew in the world of quirks.
“Who the fuck are you?” he huffed, relaxing his aggressive stance a bit but not letting his guard down entirely. In the most likely case she was somebodies kid sister come to visit. Or one of the teachers’ kids. Either way, Katsuki needed to figure it out so he could decide how to handle this and get back to his routine. He quickly scanned the kitchen for anything that would clear this mystery up, but nothing presented itself. Realizing that the girl hadn’t answered him, hadn’t even moved since he made his appearance, Katsuki focused back on her. “Well? I ain’t got all day” he barked.
The girl flinched at his rough voice, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Aw fuck. Katsuki was never one for dealing with little kids. Sure, he’d managed to get that class of brats to behave back at remedial training, but that had been exactly that. Training. Katsuki was willing to do almost anything in the name of training. And besides, those kids were so manic it could almost have been considered combat training, which Katsuki excelled at. Now he’s confronted with an, apparently lost, little girl on the verge of tears. Far from the comfort zone of the explosive hero-to-be.
Contrary to popular belief, Katsuki wasn’t heartless. He actually cared quite a lot. He just showed his concern in a way most people saw as hostile. He shouted at others to stay out of the way when they almost got hit by a stray blast. He shoved his classmates heads into textbooks instead of calmly showing them the answer. He challenged others to spar instead of reassuring them when they had doubts about their abilities. It’s something Best Jeanist noticed about him and tried to polish out during his internship. It’s what cost him his hero license at the exam. So it was something Katsuki was well aware of, and something he was honestly working on fixing. Or at least, fine-tuning so he didn’t come off as the egotistical asshole everyone assumed he was. That didn’t mean it was something he could fix in a day, though, but maybe here was a good chance to work on it. Like training he thought to himself.
“Hey” he began softly. Hesitatingly. Katsuki had never felt the need to actually think about the words he was saying before, instead of just the intent. At least his softer tone got the tears to retreat a bit. The little girl looked up at him with wide, wet eyes, hiccuping slightly. “What’s your name?” Katsuki finally asked. Start with something simple, try not to scare her.
The girl seemed reluctant to open up though. She shied away from the teen, until her back hit the cabinet behind her. Her eyes moved around the room, not really focusing on anything but more like she was trying to quickly think of an answer. What got to Katsuki though was how she still looked scared. This girl, standing in the kitchen of the 1-A dorms in the middle of Yuei grounds, surrounded by literally hundreds of heroes and heroes in training, still felt scared from a simple question about her name.
Katsuki decided to change tactics, squatting down so he was at more of an eye level to the girl. “ Okay ” he muttered . “ Look, I’m one of the students here. I’m gonna be a hero, so you don’t have to be scared of me”. He reached a hand out to her, pausing as she flinched again, but still offering the chance to come over. “ Why don’t you come sit on the couch and tell me what you were looking for? B et I can find it a lot easier than you can”.
There was a long silence between the two of them, agonizingly long for Katsuki. If things had gone his way this morning he’d already be at the gym making good progress on his workout. But no, here he was, squatting in the kitchen and trying to convince some random child to let him help like she was some kind of stray cat. Slowly, the girl uncurled from her defensive crouch by the cabinet and took his hand.
“Fucking finally” Katsuki couldn’t help but mutter, a little louder than he had meant to. The girl almost took her hand back, but Katsukis’ grip was gentle but firm. He quickly gave her a small smile, tryin g to make sure not so show to o much of his usual feral grin. “Come on. Let’s go to the living room so I don’t have to crouch here on the tile all day ”.
The girl nodded slowly as Katsuki stood up and lead her out of the kitchen, past the long dining tables and into the living area. Once she was sat on the edge of one of the couch cushions she stared back up at Katsuki with her wide crimson eyes. He couldn’t help but notice how similar their eyes were, but that wasn’t completely out of the ordinary in th is day and age . Katsuki stepped back a bit to give her some space before crossing his arms, cocking an eyebrow. “Well? You gonna tell me what you were looking for?” he asked, slipping a bit back into old habits but trying not to be to o demanding.
He must have missed the mark this time around, because the girl seemed to shrink in on herself at his question. She did answer though, in a voice so soft and tiny Katsuki almost didn’t hear it even in the morning quiet. “I was looking for one of the juice packets Mr Eraser eats”.
Katsuki nodded and marched back into the kitchen. He knew where Aizawa stashed his stupid juice pouches. Personally Katsuki was somewhat offended that the man who was teaching them to be heroes survived on such crap. At the beginning of the year Katsuki had just assumed they were snacks to last throughout the day but once they had moved into the dorms it had become apparent that Aizawa almost exclusively ate juice pouches. It was anyone's guess how he stayed healthy enough to move, let alone do hero work and teach a class. Dunce Face thought the man was a vampire.
Katsuki grabbed the first juice pouch he saw and started back to the living room. He paused by the fridge before shrugging and grabbing a water bottle out of it for himself. As much as he wanted to give her the stupid snack and be done with it, leaving her alone in the empty dorm common areas didn’t sit right with him. So, Katsuki figured he could do some basic workouts in the living room and keep an eye on the brat. Honestly, almost anyone else in the dorm would be a better choice, but going to fetch them would require leaving her or taking her with him. Neither option was appealing. He deserved some kind of reward for dealing with this bullshit.
“Here” he grunted, tossing the juice pouch towards the girl before cracking open his own drink . The girl startled and barely managed to catch the snack. She stared at it for a while, eyes glancing over at Katsuki once or twice. Katsuki, for the most part, ignored her and quickly gulped down half of his water . Setting it down on the coffee table, Katsuki started stretching and crafting a mental list of basic exercises he could do in the living room.
Katsuki was so absorbed in his stretches he almost didn’t notice when the girl spoke again. “Thank you” she whispered, carefully jabbing the straw of her juice pouch into the plastic packaging before digging in.
The blonde student snorted. “You don’t have to thank me for something simple like that” he muttered. If the girl had any thoughts about that she kept it to herself so Katsuki went back to his stretches. He was finished warming up and about to start his workout (if you could call it that) when she spoke up again.
“I’m...my name’s Eri” she squeaked. Katsuki almost snapped at her to speak louder, but he forced himself to hold that particular impulse back. He felt like he was making progress here and t he last thing he needed was to frighten her again.
“Eri huh?” he said instead, glancing over at her. The juice pouch was finished up, the crumpled remains set on the table next to his drink. “I’m Bakugo Katsuki, Class 1-A”. He figured it would be impolite to not introduce himself. At least her name’s simple enough. Wouldn’t do to call her Horn or something. To close to Raccoon Eye’s other nickname anyway. He got down and started doing push-ups, figuring the conversation to be over.
Eri, it seemed, had other plans. “Kat-su-ki?” she sounded out, testing the name. She put a finger to her chin, organizing her thoughts. “Is that your hero name?” she asked.
“Nope” Katsuki grunted between push-ups. While he was somewhat glad that his “training” in dealing with others was a success, he wished it hadn’t gone well enough to cause a distraction to his workout. “It’s m’name” he ground out between another set.
“But you have to have a hero name, right?” Eri insisted. “All the heroes I met did. Mr Erasure and Lemillion and Deku-”.
Katsuki’s hand sparked instinctively at his “friends” name . The small explosion wasn’t large by any means, not even close. Hell, he hadn’t even worked up enough of a sweat for it to even be called an explosion. But in the quiet morning it might as well have been a blast of dynamite. Even worse, the sudden noise caused Katsuki to slip mid push-up and f a ll forward onto his nose. “Fuck!” he cursed, rolling onto his back and rubbing the sore spot on his nose as he sat up. It took him a minute to remember through the pain and annoyance that he had company, turning to check on the child.
Eri was pressed as far back into the couch as she could, once again on the verge of tears with eyes watering and lip trembling. Katsuki finished inspecting his nose, confirming it wasn’t broken or anything, and sighed. “Sorry if I scared you” he muttered, not able to look her in the eye. Dammit, why’d she have to mention that shitty nerd? Katsuki thought. Caught me off guard, and now I’m back to square one.
They sat in silence for a while, and Katsuki was unsure of what to do. He still didn’t know exactly what Eri was doing here, though he could assume she was Aizawa’s responsibility. Where the underground hero was he didn’t know, though there were places he could check. Katsuki started brainstorming ideas, sure that Eri would want to be as far away from him as possible at this point. He certainly couldn’t just go back to his workout anymore, considering the entire thing a lost cause at this point. He could skip one morning, sue him.
“What does fuck mean?” The question was so abrupt Katsuki almost fell back onto the floor. The curse word sounded so strange coming from the soft voice of the little girl. Christ, is she even ten? Katsuki thought. But here she was, back on the edge of the couch and staring at him, waiting for her answer. He was almost more surprised that she was talking to him again than he was at her sudden interest in curse words.
“Why the hell do you want to know that?” Katsuki asked back. Distantly he wondered if he should scold her for cursing, but on the one hand it wasn’t really his place and on the other that would make him a hypocrite and Katsuki would be damned before anyone could call him that.
“You said it earlier, and again when you fell” Eri explained. Katsuki was about to correct her because Bakugo Katsuki definitely does not fall, but she continued. “The people I used to live with would say it sometimes too. I couldn’t ask them though, they were bad people”. Katsuki caught himself, suddenly much more interested in what she had to say. “But you’re a hero, right? So I can ask you!” She fiddled with her hands shyly, stealing glances at the teen sitting on the floor in front of her.
Katsuki started to swear, stopped himself, and sighed again scratching the back of his head. For once, he was at a loss for words. Personally, he’d learned to swear almost before he learned to actually talk. His Dad was a quiet person and his Mom cussed like a sailor so Katsuki was more than familiar with swears by the time he was Eri’s age. Once, he had made the mistake of swearing in front of Auntie Inko, however, and that earned him a lecture about how to properly use swear words. Fuck it he thought, no harm in giving her the same speech I got. “Okay, so, I guess I should start from the top” he began. “That’s what’s called a swear word and… well most people call them ‘bad words’ but there really isn’t such thing as a bad word. Adults just don’t like kids like you saying ‘em. They’re like, adult words.” Eri nodded to show she was following along.
“So, there’s a bunch of ‘em, and all together they’re really just ways of adding to what you say” he went on. “It can be, like, a sense of urgency or anger or something like that. Helps to get your point across. There’s a big difference between someone saying ‘Get out of here’ and someone saying ‘Get the fuck out of here’, got it?” She nodded again. “Anyway, that particular word is kinda… well, it’s not something you should say right now and leave it at that”.
Eri tilted her head, a curious look on her face. “But you said-”
“I know what I said!” Katsuki snapped, a little to harshly. Eri flinched back and once again Katsuki felt a twinge of shame over scaring her. “It’s just…” the teen sighed again, rubbing his temples. “That word’s one that means something I really don’t want to have to explain. So instead, I’m gonna teach you a different one”. He had Eri’s attention now, and Katsuki had just enough self-awareness to be uneasy about teaching a small child swear words, but he brushed the feeling away. “Okay, listen closely...”
---
Katsuki didn’t get to see the results of his lesson for some time. It was weeks later, quite a while after everyone had been formally introduced to Eri. The little white-haired child had become the unofficial mascot of Class 1-A, the entire class simultaneously adopting her as an honorary little sister though you’ll never catch Katsuki admitting that in public. It was getting close to Christmas time, mid-December air keeping all the students inside the dorms despite it being the weekend. A bunch of the students had gathered around the TV in the common room to play Super Mario Maker. They were trading off after each death, passing the controller around and heckling one another over poor performances. Eri was sat on the couch in the middle of them all, watching the game with wide eyes while Aizawa supervised from the armchair in the corner.
Katsuki had come downstairs from a quirk study session in order to grab something to eat. He was only in the common room for a few seconds, but that was enough. Eri had apparently asked for a turn after watching everyone play for a while. They had set her up with one of the easy levels, the whole group coaching her through. Just as Katsuki was about to make it into the kitchen, he heard the telltale sound of Mario kicking the bucket. Immediately there was a chorus of “Oh no!”s and “Good try Eri”s. But what caught Katsuki’s attentions was what came after.
“Shit!” Eri yelled. She then calmly held the controller out to the next person on the couch, only then noticing the stunned silence of the room. All eyes were on her, and as the quiet stretched, she started to wilt under the pressure.
It was Katsuki who broke the silence, leaning over the back of the couch and grabbing the controller. “Not a bad run brat” he told her, loading up one of the harder levels and starting his own turn. “Not a good enough reason to swear though. Thought I taught you better than that”.
The room exploded into yelling. Now that Katsuki had been outed as the source of pure, innocent Eri swearing, all the other students were ripping into him. Katsuki swore back at them in his usual manner, not even pausing as he ran through the level flawlessly. He spared a glance at Eri when he got the chance, and was pleased to see that she wasn’t worried anymore. She sent a small smile his way, which he was quick to dismiss with a scoff. Couldn’t let anyone think he was going soft after all.
“Detention for the next week Bakugo. It’s not proper hero behavior to teach children to swear” Aizawa announced from his corner.
“Shit!”