Chapter Text
Combat drills, fucking perfect.
Izuku sighed as he lined up ready to be sorted into a pair. With the sports festival on the horizon combat took centre stage, all other hero training being postponed until after the festival.
Izuku zoned back into the lesson to hear who he had been paired up with.
“Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou.” Aizawa said drolly, his voice entirely disinterested in the huge error he had just made.
Blood drained from Izuku’s face, making it even paler. Katsuki, conversely, looked fucking ecstatic, his manic grin matching his eyes which held promises of pain and burns.
Izuku looked to his homeroom teacher for guidance…
Only to see him slipping into his sleeping bag as everyone moved to their designated arenas.
Izuku paled further.
With another sigh Izuku made his way to the arena with Bakugou stationed there, ready to fight.
Well at least the blonde wasn’t stupid enough to actually try to kill him…
Right?
Oh great, this was just absolutely fucking awesome. Bakugou fucking Katsuki, AKA the bane of his continued existence was launching himself at Izuku at high speeds, the greenette being unable to react or even fight back.
Izuku saw a glowing orange palm coming through the air at blistering speeds.
With a quick and practiced movement Izuku ducked under the offending hand.
Emptiness, without warning sudden emptiness struck Izuku, as if his body were a vacuum of power, the flooding presence of One for All was nowhere to be found as Izuku unconsciously reached out to grab Katsuki.
Izuku watched in morbid fascination as a hole opened up in the palm of his hand, with quick movements Izuku pressed his palm against Katsuki’s unguarded forehead.
Katsuki screamed.
It was a scream Izuku recognised well, often being the one to make the horrific noise.
Agony.
Izuku heard the cry of agony as power flushed his senses, unbelievable euphoria flooding his body.
Izuku leapt back, Katsuki collapsing onto all fours.
Everyone looked at them now, Izuku who had ecstasy painted on his face and Katsuki who looked…
Drained.
Izuku watched as Katsuki got up slowly ready to trigger an explosion to launch himself…
Nothing happened.
Katsuki looked at his hands confused obviously trying to fire another explosion…
Once more nothing happened.
A sudden rush of instincts assaulted his brain, raising his palm Izuku aimed at Katsuki, with a simple command Izuku triggered something.
A big fuck off explosion.
The fireball seemed to move toward Katsuki in slow motion, the blonde’s arms raising to try and mitigate the damage.
The fireball engulfed Katsuki.
Everybody looked on in vague horror as the reality of the situation dawned upon them.
As the dust cleared most people almost threw up.
There stood Izuku, his arm covered in unnatural burns and peeling flesh, his palms being raw bloody.
Katsuki stood on the other side of the arena, his clothes scorched and soot stains on his arms.
Katsuki’s arms dropped as exhaustion hit his body in waves.
He came to a tired realisation, which he voiced out loud, “You… stole it.”
Izuku tilted his head.
“You stole it, you stole…”
“Explosion.”
Izuku stepped back, the shock of his actions finally hitting him, with his uninjured hand Izuku fired a small explosion.
Izuku seemed to finally see the severity of the situation, “Kacchan I’m so sorry I-“ Izuku was cut off.
“Sorry? You fucking liar, you waited for this didn’t you! Huh! I bet you were waiting, lying in wait to spring this shit on me! I bet you let those league of villain fucks into this place! I bet your villainous ass fucking made that Nomu fucker.” Katsuki continued with his verbal abuse as Izuku fell to the ground loud sobs being heard.
And still Katsuki hurled insults at the crying teen.
“I bet yo-“ Katsuki stopped, a feeling of unease filling him, he saw the look on Izuku’s face, on everyone’s faces. Deku, round face, engine legs, the icy-hot bastard all of them. Even Aizawa.
A mix of fear, fear toward Izuku, fear toward Katsuki. Some looked to Katsuki with anger.
He paused for a second, looking at Izuku’s arm, a web of fresh burns coating the boy’s right arm. The holes in his palms…
…
The look on his face.
The tears. The real pain.
It was an expression that Katsuki had never seen on Izuku in his long years with the boy.
Light at first, Katsuki felt the faintest brush of cloth on cloth.
Suddenly, with the force of a vice, the capture tool closed on his body, he felt himself be pulled toward Aizawa.
Being turned to face them man he could only see one emotion on the teacher’s face now.
Fury. Pure and unadulterated.
It was a new kind of rage, an emotion he had never seen on even the most hateful person, much less Aizawa.
“Katsuki, Principal’s office. Now!” Aizawa finished the sentence with a rare shout.
Katsuki stumbled, his brain grasping at reasons to stay, “Not until Deku gives my quirk back.” Katsuki spoke more steadily than he thought he would.
The way Aizawa’s face contorted even further into rage told Katsuki that this was the wrong thing to say.
“Repeat that, I fucking dare you.” Aizawa spoke with barely restrained fury, sounding only a second from unleashing hell onto the blonde teen.
Katsuki tried to match the withering glare with one of his own.
He quickly crumpled under the sheer force of Aizawa’s furious gaze.
Katsuki slowly started towards the exit.
Stopping when he saw Aizawa walk over to Izuku.
The man’s hair floated, gravity losing it’s hold on the lank black strands as his quirk activated.
The holes in Izuku’s hands didn’t close, and almost seemed to glow, Aizawa’s hair falling as he backed away.
Izuku’s sobs still filled the room.
Aizawa seemed to freeze before his eyes flashed to the doorway. Seeing Katsuki still standing there.
“I thought I told you to go to the Principal’s office.” Aizawa ground out.
Katsuki looked at him, “Not unti-” Aizawa cut him off.
“I don’t care what you say! Go to Nedzu’s office right now or I will expel you on the spot without a second thought! And if I get there to find that you aren’t there you won’t even have the chance to be sent to general studies!” Aizawa shouted at the stubborn blonde.
Katsuki flinched, his mind reeling from the tings Aizawa had said.
He decided to make his way to the Principal’s office before the irate underground hero could make good on his threats.
Aizawa bottled his fury as Bakugou left the room, heading in the direction of the principal’s office.
Turning around Aizawa moved toward the problem child, sobs wracking the small teen’s body.
“Uraraka, Iida,” The two students snapped their gazes to him, “Try and bring him down, he’s having a panic attack.” The two students nodded, springing into action to help their friend.
“Does anybody else here have experience with panic attacks?” Aizawa asked the crowd of students, Mina and Kirishima raising their hands.
“You two also try to help him,” The pink skinned, and red-haired teens practically leapt to the green-haired teen’s side.
“Now I need at least two of you to grab Recovery Girl and All Might. ASAP.” Aizawa watched as Asui and, surprisingly enough, Mineta ran toward the door, nodding at each other on the way out.
Aizawa sighed as he rubbed his eyes, the full force of the situation forcing his tiredness to a new extreme.
Three minutes later All Might was in the room, followed by Mineta.
One of the students put their hand up, “Mr. Aizawa, what will you do now?” Momo asked as he went to the door.
“Now… I have to discipline a problem child.”
Katsuki huffed as he waited on one of the chairs outside the principal’s office, it had been seven minutes since he had been sent here and three since he gotten here.
His ears perked up as he heard heavy footsteps.
He looked up to see Aizawa walking toward him.
“Stand up, we’re going to talk to the Principal now. He is not happy about what’s happened.” Aizawa growled at him, Katsuki couldn’t find it within himself to try and argue with the pro hero.
Aizawa knocked on the old style, grandiose, varnished oak doors with force, loud banging noises accompanying the vicious movements.
Katsuki watched as the Principal opened the door, an expression of concern briefly flashing across his features when he saw Aizawa’s odious face and Katsuki’s tired expression. Almost as if the two had switched.
The large rodent welcomed the two into his office, it was mostly empty. The only furnishing was a large oak desk, varnished similarly to the door, and three chairs, one of which was an elegant looking chair, the other two, situated on their side of the desk, were small, unpadded, almost as if they had been torn from the halls of Aldera rather than U.A.
Other than this the room was empty… devoid. It was unnerving, not even a speck of dust was out of place in the frankly enormous office.
“Please take a seat,” The principal spoke, trying to even maintain an ounce of politeness while witnessing his employee’s sheer fury, “So why are you here with Mr. Aizawa, Mr Bakugou?”
Aizawa was the one who answered him, “Katsuki Bakugou has engaged in physical and verbal abuse against a classmate who was in the midst of a panic attack. He then refused my order to come here three times before he complied.” Aizawa spoke in a gravelly tone, not at all hiding his anger around the situation.
Nedzu felt his hairs stand on end, “Which student?” He asked, dreading the response he would get.
“One Izuku Midoriya,” Aizawa responded, his very professional words being sabotaged by his furious tone of voice.
Nedzu would’ve paled if his skin hadn’t been hidden under a layer of white fur, “Is this true Mr Bakugou?”
“I was just putting that damn Deku in his place!!” Katsuki yelled, seemingly on instinct.
Aizawa froze. Nedzu moved slowly.
“In his place?” Aizawa growled.
“That is quite concerning wording Mr Bakugou. What did Izuku Midoriya do to provoke you?”
Bakugou looked as if he were about to speak before Aizawa pre-emptively cut him off, “He lost control of a seemingly new or hidden aspect of his quirk. If he was hiding it I don’t blame him. Its ability is terrifying.”
“Oh, and what was this ability?”
“The power to steal quirks.”
Nedzu’s blood ran cold, his irises narrowed. His breathing very nearly sped up before he could calm himself, “Do you understand how many red lists this puts Mr. Midoriya on?”
Aizawa looked confused, “What?”
“It doesn’t matter for now.”
“No, you just said one of my students was on a red list. I’m an underground hero, you think I don’t know what that means? Who and why would that put him on someone’s kill list?!” Aizawa was nearly shouting by the end of his question.
Nedzu looked on with a solemn face, “Unfortunately that is confiden-”
“Bullshit!”
Nedzu breathed in heavily, “I am sorry, but I cannot betray national secrets for a concerned homeroom teacher. And I would rather not have this conversation with young Bakugou here.” Aizawa perked up, his face remaining in a scowl, as he seemingly remembered Bakugou’s presence.
Nedzu looked towards said student, “You are to be sent to general education where you will take mandatory anger management with hound dog, it’s his speciality, furthermore if any of what Aizawa and myself said comes out of this room I will personally see to it that you never become a hero. Do I make myself clear?”
Nedzu didn’t need to say anything, that final question was addressed to both of them. One swallowing annoyance and one swallowing pride they responded in unison.
“Yes sir.”
“Good, then get out of my sight. I need to destress.”
All Might stood in shock, looking in horror at his young protégé. The boy was still on the ground, though he had stopped sobbing, Recovery Girl had also frozen when she had seen his hands.
All Might lightly rubbed his side as painful memories resurfaced, the feeling of being run through by a bone spear looping over and over again in his head.
Shaking his head, he looked once more to his successor, and instead of his arch nemesis he once more saw reality. There he was, a vulnerable teenager, burdened with two monstrous powers, traumatised, by events both recent and not.
He saw a child, on the floor, recovering from the throes of a panic attack.
He took a breath before approaching his student, the four other students who were helping him backed away slightly.
All Might touched Izuku’s shoulder, feeling the boy freeze under his touch, then he relaxed again, recognising All Might’s hand.
“Don’t worry young Midoriya, I’m with you. Every step of the way.”
Izuku blinked, he was in the nurse’s office.
Had he broken something again? He didn’t feel broken yes, he did and he wasn’t particularly tired. Okay he was tired, but it wasn’t the same tiredness that accompanied Recovery Girl’s quirk.
What had happ-
Izuku began hyperventilating as he recalled the events of class, what he had done to-
He felt a palm land on his shoulder. It was Recovery Girl.
She looked at him with caring face. She mustn’t have known.
Izuku began opening his mouth to try and explain, but she shook her head.
“We already know,” Recovery Girl said as Izuku floundered for an explanation, “You have nothing to be afraid of.”
Yes he did
Izuku let the platitude calm him down, what he once would have considered empty words soothing him.
A second, much larger, hand came to rest on his right shoulder.
All Might.
“I-“
“There is no need to fear young Midoriya…” All Might spoke with a comforting voice.
“For I am here.”