Chapter Text
“Guys!” Denki came bursting into the homeroom class of Class 3-A with a shout, slamming the door open and earning a reproachful glare from Iida.
Katsuki rolled his eyes. It was too early for Denki’s nonsense. Don’t get him wrong, Katsuki loved his friends. It had taken a lot of time and patience on the part of said friends to get Katsuki to admit that to himself, let alone them, but it was true.
Over the past two years at UA, he’d gone through a lot. He’d faced down real villains head on, he’d gotten a little carried away in the Sports Fest finale his first year, and he’d been kidnapped by villains who had become convinced that Katsuki fucking Bakugou would ever want to join them.
All these things had forced him to take a hard look at himself and examine some of his own flaws. Honestly, half the battle had just been getting him to admit to himself that he had flaws. His therapist was a champ just for putting up with him.
But his friends had been there for him the whole way, supporting him at every step. Katsuki had spent many nights in Eijirou’s room venting out his own thoughts, fears, frustrations, and regrets.
In fact, all of his “squad” (not something Katsuki had ever asked them to call themselves; that had been their own stupid decision) knew a lot about him. But no one knew better than Eijirou the fucked up kid that Katsuki had once been. Well, no one but Deku maybe, but Katsuki hadn’t seen or spoken to Deku since they’d gone to different schools after middle school.
Wait, how did Katsuki get off on this mental tangent?
“Sorry Iida! I promise I’ll respect our school property in the future.” Denki recited almost mechanically, but it seemed enough to placate the class president.
Oh right, Katsuki was thinking that he loved his friends, but that didn’t mean he always had the patience to deal with them, and right now he definitely was too tired to deal with whatever bullshit Denki had dragged in with him this morning.
“Guys, you’ve got to see this video! This kid is amazing!” Denki shouted towards the assembling BakuSquad (minus the Baku, who was slumped in his desk and glaring out the window).
“What is it, Denks?” Mina questioned as she sidled up next to him to look at his phone, which he’d propped up at the edge of his desk so that people could gather around him to watch.
“It’s this kid, he looks maybe our age? But he wears a mask so I don’t know. But his voice. His voice ! It’s amazing. He’s the greatest singer I’ve probably ever heard.” Denki explained with so much enthusiasm, Katsuki was briefly worried the idiot might accidentally activate his Quirk and zap the whole class.
“Katsuki, you gotta come see this! He’s so good!” Denki urged.
“Fuck off, Pikachu. I don’t give a fuck about some nerd’s singing voice.” Katsuki grumbled, but without any venom behind it.
“Whatever, just at least listen then!” Denki shouted as he hit play. Several of their classmates even outside the squad had gathered around to watch, drawn in by the electric blonde’s enthusiasm.
Despite his grumpiness, Katsuki did listen in on whatever the video was. At first, he didn’t hear much of anything, besides a few mutters from classmates commenting on whatever mask the kid in the video was wearing. He thought he heard someone mutter rabbit ears?
He heard the sounds of shuffling and scratching, like someone was adjusting a live mic, which was probably exactly what was happening.
Then there was a soft clearing of the throat, a few bars of a piano intro, and suddenly Katsuki was listening to the most beautiful voice he’d heard in his entire life.
Have you ever felt like nobody was there?
Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere?
Have you ever felt like you could disappear?
Like you could fall, and no one would hear?
Well, let that lonely feeling wash away
Maybe there's a reason to believe you'll be okay
'Cause when you don't feel strong enough to stand
You can reach, reach out your hand
And oh~, someone will come running
And I know~, they'll take you home~
Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need a friend to carry you~
And when you're broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streaming in
'Cause you'll reach up and you'll rise again
Lift your head and look around
You will be found~
You will be found~
You will be found~
You will be found~
You will be found~
As the song and the video ended, the classroom was filled with a stunned silence.
It took several moments for Katsuki to realize a tear had run down his cheek as he listened.
He surreptitiously wiped the tear away as he heard several sniffs and shuffles among the gathered students, realizing that several other classmates had had a similar reaction.
“Wow, he’s amazing.” Uraraka was the first to break the silence, sniffing slightly as she wiped her eyes clear with her sleeve. “But why does he call himself that? It’s like he doesn’t even know how good he is!”
“What do you mean? What’s his name?” Jirou asked. She was sitting at her desk, but was unable to see the screen from where she was sitting, her view blocked by others gathered at Denki’s desk.
“I don’t know, but his username is Deku. Does he really think he’s useless?” Uraraka responded.
Katsuki froze. No way. There was no way. It had to be a coincidence, right?
Katsuki shook himself from his stupor and forced his way through the gathered students over to Denki’s desk. Only one way to find out.
Katsuki snatched up the phone, ignoring Denki’s shouted protests, and stared at the screen. For the second time in a short period, Katsuki felt himself freeze, his eyes widening in surprise.
The video had reverted to its thumbnail, which was a boy about their age, the singer, sitting in a chair in what looked like a bedroom. He had a cheap but decent quality USB mic set up in front of him, and he was wearing a baggy gray hoodie that covered his hair paired with a cheap plastic rabbit mask that covered the upper half of his face.
But Katsuki knew.
He recognized the freckles that peeked out from under the mask. He recognized the eyes of deep emerald green that were visible through the mask’s eye holes. The All Might merch plastered all over the room behind him and the Deku username were the final nails in the coffin.
There was no one else this could be but the Deku he knew. But since when could the nerd sing like that? Come to think of it, Katsuki didn’t think he’d ever heard Deku sing at all, even when they were kids.
He quickly recovered his composure and dropped the phone on the desk, returning back to his own seat.
“What the hell was that Blasty?” Mina chided.
“Tch. Nothing. Just wanted to see what kind of nerd would use the name Deku.” Katsuki covered. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but he definitely didn’t want to let them know that he knew Deku. Especially not with the history between them. Only Eijirou knew anything about it, and even then only in vague and abstract terms.
Mina, and several others, gave him a look that said they didn’t totally buy it, but they let it drop.
“Maybe he doesn’t use it to mean useless.” Uraraka suddenly offered, shifting the conversation away from Katsuki’s weird moment. “I mean it kinda sounds like ‘you can do it’, right? Maybe it’s like a motivational thing!”
Katsuki quietly scoffed, but kept his mouth shut. That definitely hadn’t been his intention when he’d assigned the name to the nerd...to Izuku. But it didn’t matter. Who knows? Maybe Deku really was using it like Uraraka suggested. What was that turn of phrase? Something about turning bullshit into fertilizer? He’d certainly provided enough bullshit to last Deku a lifetime.
Katsuki could only hope that wherever the nerd was, he wasn’t around people like Katsuki anymore.
The rest of the school day passed by in a blur. Katuski took what notes he could, but he found it hard to focus.
All he could think about was Deku.
With just a few minutes of song, the nerd had managed to worm his way into Katsuki’s brain and he couldn’t get him out.
That video was the first time he’d seen Deku since their last day of middle school. He hadn’t even bothered to say anything to him on the occasion, because he had still been an asshole back then.
“Congratulations on UA, Kacchan. I know you’ll do great.” Deku had timidly said as they were packing to leave.
Katsuki hadn’t said anything. He’d just made a ‘tch’ sound, then sneered and walked off to go to the arcade with his “friends” who he hadn’t spoken a single word to since starting UA.
That video wasn’t, however, the last time he’d tried to see Deku since then.
In the middle of their second year, Katsuki had finally been through enough therapy and spent enough time with his friends (his actual friends, not those extras from middle school) that he’d realized that, more than anything, he owed Deku an apology.
He hadn’t expected to be forgiven, really. He certainly wouldn’t have forgiven himself. Not for all the shit he’d put Deku through, but that didn’t matter. Deku...Izuku was owed an apology.
But he hadn’t been able to give it. He went to where he remembered that Deku and his mom lived, only to find an empty apartment, the nameplate removed from the door. He found out from his own mom later that the Midoriyas had moved away to be closer to Deku’s school, but she didn’t know where that was.
So he’d never been able to give that apology and had made peace with the fact that he may never get a chance to.
But now Deku was back. Figuratively speaking, of course. He had a YouTube channel. But it was something. And he was good . Like really good. Katsuki had never heard a voice so beautiful in his entire life.
Finally, the last bell rang to dismiss them for the day and he immediately threw his things in his bag and made a beeline for his dorm room. He slammed the door shut, locked it, and tossed his bag in the corner before flopping down on his bed and grabbing his laptop...and his headphones. He didn’t want the rest of the class to know what he was about to do.
He searched up Deku’s YouTube channel and found it almost immediately. He had quite the following. Nothing to reach massive levels of internet fame, but still a respectable few thousand subscribers.
He also discovered that the video Denki had shown them was one of Deku’s first, from about a year ago. He’d since posted several more, and had upped his setup. Instead of sitting at a desk in what was probably his bedroom and using a cheap USB mic, he now had a dedicated recording area with sound absorbing foam panels in the background and a decent quality mic on a mic stand. Nothing like a professional recording studio, but it would do a lot to improve the overall sound quality.
He also upped the disguise a bit. He was still wearing a hoodie and mask like in the other video, but the hoodie was cleaner and fit him slightly better, and instead of a drab gray it was now a deep forest green to match his eyes.
The mask looked custom made now too. Katsuki couldn’t tell the material, but it was glossy and well made. It still had the general shape of a rabbit, but had a gold engraving on it in a flowery abstract design. It was very pretty.
Katsuki spent the next few hours watching every video the nerd had ever uploaded, and each one impressed him just as much as the first.
And the nerd had a wide variety. He sang pop songs, rock songs, ballads, Japanese songs, American songs, songs from musicals, modern songs, classic songs. He was all over the map with his musical genres, and every single one of them sounded amazing.
By the end of the night, Katsuki had watched every video at least twice. In most of the early videos, Deku didn’t say anything, just started the video, sang his song, and then ended the video. But in some of the more recent ones, he started giving an outro to each video, explaining why he chose to sing a particular song.
Usually, it was just something that suited his mood for the day, or something that he felt had particular meaning to him.
It was jarring when he heard Deku speak for the first time in one of the videos. He hadn’t heard the nerd’s speaking voice in several years, and he’d almost forgotten it.
Listening to it now, he could easily detect the almost song-like quality to Deku’s voice. He had no idea how he hadn’t heard it before. How he hadn’t realized that Deku would be an amazing singer. It seemed so obvious now, just listening to him speak.
Katsuki had his cursor halfway to the Subscribe button when he paused. His YouTube account was under his hero name (Ground Zero) and the picture was himself in hero costume. There was very little chance that Deku would ever see him among his several thousand subscribers, but he still didn’t want to take the risk.
So he quickly made up a dummy YouTube account and debated for a bit before naming it KEM0715, the initials of his first choice of hero name and the date of Deku’s birthday, and he set the profile picture to be a photo he’d taken during class once of All Might in his Silver Age outfit. He figured Deku would appreciate that if he ever happened to see the profile.
He hit subscribe and set it up to alert his phone whenever Deku uploaded a new video.
Realizing that he hadn’t done any of his homework, he silently cursed himself and resolved to do it in the morning, before rolling over and going to sleep, Deku’s singing playing on loop in his head as he gently drifted off.