Chapter Text
Most children would be afraid of starting at a new school smack-dab in the middle of the year. She was not most children. If there was anything she knew how to do, it was how to assert dominance. She squared her shoulders, chin held up high with her father's wild smirk on her face, and announced to the losers and minor characters staring back at her,
"My name is Katsumi Bakugou! I'm 7 and a half years old! My momma's a model and my old man's a firefighter! That means I'm pretty and I can kick your butt!"
Their stunned silence was all the applause she needed. Proudly, she strutted over to the only empty seat near the back of the class as her teacher, Mr. Aizawa, rubbed his face with his hands.
She found herself seated in front of a girl with the same strange eye color as her Pops, but with long, silver silky hair instead of his blonde.
"Your Momma lets you dye your hair?" Katsumi whispered. "That's so cool. My parents wouldn't let me when I said I wanted mine to be green."
The girl started, and seemed to curl in on herself. Rather than responding, her face turned a brilliant shade of red, and she sank in her seat. It was...weird. Katsumi didn't care though. She didn't need to make friends. Instead of forcing her, she shrugged, then turned back to the front.
A few minutes later, as Mr. Aizawa began a lesson on decimals, a tiny voice spoke out, so small and meek she would've missed it if the tapping on her shoulder didn't spark her attention,
"I was born like this...but I think green hair would be cool."
And that's how she met Eri Togata.
As all girls in the single digits were wont to do, they became friends quite fast.
Eri was a shy kind of girl. She was pretty with her long oddly-colored hair, but she often hid behind it, wrapping it around her mouth or ducking her face so it would cover her like a veil. Even when she had the answer to a question right, she wouldn't raise her hand. Katsumi didn't like this at all. So she'd read the answers off of Eri's paper and raise her hand to speak them aloud. There was no fear nor self-doubt. She didn't really believe in that.
But she wasn't the best with numbers. Or grammar. Or history.
So it seemed to be the perfect partnership. Eri would be all the brains, and Katsumi would do all the talking. They were like a well-oiled machine. A Wonder Duo. They were the perfect pair. At least, she thought they were. That dream came crashing down when Mr. Aizawa summoned them to the front of the classroom one day, keeping them back during recess.
Katsumi liked Mr. Aizawa. He was like Eeyore the donkey, with his sad eyes and low voice. Eeyore was her favorite character from the Hundred Acre Wood. (She wondered if Mr. Aizawa would let her put pink bows in his hair?).
The man pulled out their latest math quiz. There were no red marks, a shining '100' at the top next to their scrawled 'K.B and E.T'. Some of their best work so far.
But he was frowning.
"Now girls. I know that you two are...friends. But when I give you a test, you need to take it by yourself. You can't sit together and share the answers."
Eri, as expected, tucked her head, but Katsumi knew what she needed to do. Protecting others was what her old man did after all. It was in her blood. So she set her jaw, stepped in front of the smaller girl, and made her case,
"But if she tells me the answers, and I write them down then we're not sharing with anyone else. It's just us!"
"And when I give you an exam, I expect Eri to fill out her quiz and you to fill out your own. Separately. She can't keep giving you the answers, otherwise we don't know who knows what."
"What about teamwork? I thought you liked it when we all got along."
Mr. Aizawa dragged a hand over his scruff. His dark eyes were dead and sad, but she saw the quirk of his lips. He was like her Pop, fighting down a smile till the corner of his mouth quivered from the effort. She fought the urge to tell him that fighting smiles was the quickest way to get premature wrinkles.
"Teamwork only matters when you're getting paid kid. Now, you'll both have to stay after school to take the test again. I've already called your parents about picking you up. Understood?"
Katsumi wanted to protest, but Eri grabbed her hand, and nodded. That took all the fight out of her.
"Good girls. Here, pick one." He slid open his lower-most drawer to reveal the holy grail and fountain of youth. Katsumi bit back a squeal as she dipped her hand into the Dum-dums, swiveling around till she got the flavor she wanted.
Watermelon.
"Twinning." Eri said excitedly, showing off her own. They clinked their sweets together, then unwrapped, popping the pink suckers in their mouth. Hand-in-hand they walked down the hall.
"Wat'rmelon's my fav'rite flavor." Eri mumbled around her sucker.
"Mine too!"
"Twins." Eri said again, smiling. Katsumi liked that. She'd never had a sister before. Or a brother. Or a cousin.
This could be fun. They could do sister-things together, like braid each other's hair, and share snacks and-. Well, basically everything they were doing in school. But this time at their house.
Yes, she decided, walking with a pudgy hand in hers, that'd be perfect.
To say that he was annoyed would be an understatement. When he parked his Jeep in front of the brilliant redbrick of Eraser Elementary, he had to take a few moments to collect himself. Breath. Scream. Try not to break his steering wheel, even though these stupid, fucking teachers were failing his kid.
His bright, intelligent, little firecracker who could do no wrong and was being unjustly accused by a faulty education system. His beautiful little Einstein who-
He let go of the breath he was holding, rolled down the windows to get rid of the stink of sweat and ashes. He had just come off a shift and didn't have the time to hit the showers before rushing over here. But he didn't want the kid to know that, cause then she'd feel bad and she might start crying and Katsuki was a weak, weak man when it came to his daughter's tears.
Sliding on his sunglasses, he strode to the doors just as Katsumi emerged, hand-in-hand with another little girl that could be none other than Eri. The scruffy man behind them, Aizawa, he'd met on a couple occasions. He seemed competent when Katsuki expressed his worries about Katsumi starting at a new school.
Obviously, this wasn't the case.
He felt anger jump to his tongue, hot as pepper and just as painful.
But the words that came to mind died as the girls ran away from Aizawa, hand-in-hand, towards him with bright, wide smiles on their faces. He opened his arms so she could leap into them as she normally did, but she swerved around him, screaming,
"Mr. Togata! Mr. Togata!"
And wasn't that just a bitch? His own daughter passing him up.
He was glad he was wearing sunglasses. The shock and upset coursing through him wouldn't do him any good to show itself on his face. He turned to see exactly who this new fucker was...
And nearly stumbled, because that's what someone does when facing emotional whiplash.
Attraction did not arrive at his door often, but when it did, it was usually unwanted, irrational, and uncaring of his own wants or desires. This was no exception. If anger was pepper, then attraction was ginger, deceptively comforting, reminiscent of home and every bit capable of sending sparks across his tongue till it was irritated and thick, incapable of speech.
Mr. Togata was a tiny thing, frame made even more slight by his frumpy green cardigan, hem hanging well past his waist line to hit mid-thigh, color matching the head scarf tied in long dark curls. The skinny jeans were cuffed at the end, revealing some fuzzy black socks tucked into brown moccasins.
Cozy. Effortless. There were multiple fashion faux pas, but the face made up for it. Green eyes so bright they seemed to be cut from jade fixed on the girls, spreading his arms wide as he scooped them both up into his arms, hoisting them high into the air and twirling around. The sun hit them all, giggling and laughing- the man's freckles a darker brown on tan skin as the light hit them.
"You must be Katsumi then. Eri's told me a lot about you." His voice was a soft crackle, like the beginnings of a campfire, almost melodic as it slid through his daughter's name. He wanted to hear more of it, for it to lull him to sleep after a hard day, then wake him up again in the morning.
"Eri and I are sisters now!" Katsumi announced proudly and-.
Wait, what?
"Twins!" The other girl, Eri, confirmed. Her coloring wasn't too off from his own. He wondered if...but it would be rude to ask wouldn't it? Even he wasn't that much of a dick.
Oh, they were talking about him. Katsumi was pointing. He straightened as Mr. Togata set the girls down, bidding them to wait as he marched over to where he was.
"Mr. Bakugou, I presume?"
Fuck, if he didn't like the way his name sounded on those lips, sinfully full and red as cherries.
"And you must be Mr. Togata. You can call me Katsuki."
"Mr. Midoriya actually. I prefer not to use Togata."
He accepted the hand outstretched to him, expecting to shake, and nearly having his heart tear out of his chest as he was forcefully dragged forward. Mr. Midoriya leaned up, the brush of his breath against the shell of his ear sending a thrill down his spine which was completely different in nature from the thrill he got when the other man said,
"I've worked hard to get Eri to where she's at today. Now, Katsumi seems like a great girl, but if I hear even a whisper of trouble around my daughter again, we're going to have some problems."
The man leaned back, an easy smile playing on wicked lips.
"Have I made myself clear Mr. Ba-Uhhh...Kacchan?"
"...Katsuki." he said, terribly aware of the rightful anger in his chest at war with the half-chub in his pants. Whiplash wasn't the word anymore. It had gone past that.
"Yes, uh, that." Mr. Midoriya patted his shoulder. " Have a nice day."
Whistling, the man stuck his hands in the cardigan pocket, bidding Eri to follow along as they walked to an idling yellow Volkswagen Beetle. He had to blink away from the sway of the man's hip.
Fuck suburbia. Why'd he agree to move out here again?
Katsumi hopped onto his leg, latching on like a vice before waving goodbye to her teacher.
"Me and Eri are sisters!" she announced excitedly, once they were on their way.
"I don't think you can just stand up and say you are sisters. It's more complicated than that."
"Eh? How so?"
"Google it kiddo. You've got a phone. What have I told you about research? The smart kids-."
"Read up on it and the dumb ones have it handed to them."
He grinned. That was his progeny. Maybe...maybe he did fuck up by not making sure she had someone to play with. She must've been lonely with only him around and he wasn't....well he wasn't a 7 year old, physically or at heart.
But he'd be damned if he had another kid with that psycho. The divorce was messy enough with Katsumi alone. If they had another one, she definitely would've said some shit like 'You get one and I get one.' and wouldn't that be even more fucked up? No, that wouldn't have worked at all. He deserved time with his kid. He worked hard and made time and put her above-.
"-And then we found out that we both like watermelon the fruit too. We're so alike! We're thinking about wearing the same clothes so that we're really twins, so I have to wear a pink shirt tomorrow, and Eri's gonna tell her Dad to put her hair in pigtails like mine!"
"Okay kid," he pulled into the driveway. "Go pick out the shirt you want while I get dinner started."
They had a good life. He was doing the best he could.
But Katsumi still felt like she was missing something, and he couldn't help but think he was at fault.
"So, we're going to be doing family trees. Each of you will have to turn in a creative display of members of your family. You can choose how many members you want to include. I suggest you ask your guardians for help, when it comes to spelling someone's name right. All further instructions will be found in the handout. Pack up."
Katsumi scrunched the paper in her hand. Turning in her seat, she made eye contact with Eri and nodded. This would be the perfect time to ask.
Practically boiling over in excitement, she could hardly keep still on the bus ride home, biting down her grin even as they came to a slow stop in front of her house.
"CanEriComeOverToDoASchoolProject?" She asked, in lieu of a greeting. Her old man blinked down at her.
She smiled.
He narrowed his eyes.
"We'll see."
Which was how Katsumi found herself opening the door to Eri's smiling face a day later, Mr. Togata-No, Mr. Midoriya was the name he liked- right behind her. Squealing with glee, she took her friend by the hand and immediately took her to her room.
"Your room's...cool." Eri said softly, peering up at her (signed!) Earjack poster. Katsumi beamed with pride.
"Yeah, my old man helped design it a little bit," she said breezily. She went over to her stereo, pushed play and let the music resume, turning up the volume to set the mood. Earjack blared as she pulled out construction paper and crayons, spreading them over the floor. Taking markers into their hands, they got to work.
The old person came in to check on them once or twice, delivering snacks and water, but for the most part, he left them alone.
(Which was a good thing. She didn't need her dad saying something uncool and ruining her life.)
An hour or two later, filled with many dance breaks and chip-munching, they compared results.
"Ready? One, two, three!"
They whipped out their work at the same time. Katsumi took her friends, eager to find out more. Eri used fruits and veggies to represent different family members. She herself was an apple. Mr. Midoriya was a piece of broccoli. Izuku was his name, then Eri's mom was a cute little watermelon slice and her name was...
"Mir..Myre...Me-."
"Mirio. My Poppa's name was Mirio."
"Was? Are your parents divorced too?" Katsumi asked, eyes darting up to Toshinori and Inko the grandparents, represented by a peanut and grape respectively.
"He's dead."
She dropped the paper.
At the age of 7 (and a half!) Katsumi was not an expert on grief, nor how to handle it in others. As a single child, she was grossly under-experienced when it came to the tears of those other than herself, and thus was faced with extreme discomfort when she saw Eri's lower lip tremble.
"My Poppa died when I was five." She said, and for once, Katsumi did not have a witty retort. Words were complicated things, even more so when meant to comfort. So rather than appease, her mind whirred to find a solution before Eri's tears could come to fruition, pushing the thing making her feel uncomfortable as far away as possible.
"W-W-Well," She coughed, feeling her face grow hot as she turned away. "Google says if our parents get married, then we can really be sisters. Then our family tree will be one big one."
She chanced a look back. Eri still seemed close to tears, but the girl was considering her idea. She just needed to bring it home. Trying a confident smile,
"It won't be same, I don't think, but you'll have me and my dad! All we have to do is...!"
And she dove into the plan she'd been setting up in her mind. When she finished, she looked to see her friend’s reaction. Unshed tears still lingered at the corners of her eyes, but she was wearing a little smile that was much too tired for a face that young.
"It could work." she said it softly, but it was no less of a green light.
Katsumi grinned.
"Alright, Eri! Operation: Get Our Dads to Marry Each Other Is a Go!"