Chapter Text
Tenko was eight when he realized that his life was a lot shitter than he had thought.
By that time, his quirk had manifested, leaving his family (aside from his sister) distant towards him, afraid that they'd have another incident like what happened to Mon-chan, his dog. He never meant to kill the poor thing. He loved Mon-chan more than anything, more than his terrible father, who would scream at him for dropping a plate and hit him hard enough that he'd fly across the room with the force of it.
He never loved his dad. Maybe he did when he was a baby, too young and stupid to know otherwise. He didn't remember when his dad got violent with him, but he remembers sitting on the couch, bundled in a blanket next to Hana, who kept telling him over and over that he's going to be okay.
Tenko was nine when everything went downhill- well, went further downhill. Things were pretty far down the hill already, with his father scolding him over the smallest of things and his mother weakly trying to tell him off to no avail.
He didn't know what happened. It was like his mind blocked the painful memory out, along with dozens of other events that he couldn't for the life of him ever remember. Another side effect of the trauma, all the shit he went through.
The only detail that comes to mind when he thinks about that day is his mother's piercing scream and how his grandparents asked him what the hell he did while ushering Hana away like they were trying to protect her from Tenko's deadly hands. Like he would hurt her. That was what broke his heart the most - his own family was afraid he would kill them.
It's not even like he meant to kill him! It was an accident! No matter how many times he tried to explain that to his mother, she wouldn't listen.
She would sit in the living room, tuning Tenko out, telling him to go to his room when he needed her. Hana would make dinner for both of them, while Tenko pretended not to hear their conversation. How easy it was for his mom to cancel him out of her life like that. Hana was an only child at this point, making Tenko feel like a stranger in his own home.
The only person that was ever there for him as a kid was Hana.
Well, not the only person.
Tenko was eleven when he discovered that the world wasn't all that bad.
There were good people sprinkled in, he thought. The world was terrible and shitty , but sometimes, actual decent people would squeeze through the cracks and make his world brighter.
Shortly after Father's violent passing, his mom moved with him, his sister, and his grandparents up north, far away from where Father was born, like that would help her escape the tragic memories. It didn't help that she brought the problem with her, the bomb, as Tenko often referred to himself. He was a ticking bomb, and one day, he'll explode, and the rest of his family will die too.
Hana was there to reassure him he wasn't a bomb, that he would never hurt her. Hana was born without a quirk, but she still helped him train Decay, try to get it to a point where he could walk around without his hands tucked into his pockets, fearing that if he brushed up against someone, they would die.
Hana was one of the genuinely good people, he decided. The best kind. She was selfless, always putting Tenko first, making sure he ate and that he finished his homework on time, a struggle of his.
Another one of the decent people was Keigo, an upbeat, straight-A student with a tendency to annoy the absolute shit out of Tenko at any opportunity he got. Maybe it was on purpose. Knowing him, it was.
His first week of school was brutal . Kids quickly saw how easy of a target he was- he was gangly, each limb thin as a stick, had a scar on his lip and another on his eye from times where Father went too far, and he was incredibly awkward. He couldn't fight back when they called him names, too afraid of causing conflict and getting in trouble.
It's not like his mom would care. She never did.
Keigo, on the other hand, seemed to care. He was a grade above Tenko and very popular with, well, everyone. The girls got flustered when he walked by, and the boys would joke around with him and fake-fight until the teachers yelled at him.
Tenko was lucky enough to be noticed by him during his second month of school. He was surrounded by a group of boys, each teasing him about his appearance before Keigo swooped in. Before he knew what was happening, the boys backed off, saying they swear they weren't aware that Keigo was friends with him. Just like that, Tenko felt his world shift, his life change in such a subtle way.
Well, unless Keigo was dragging him away so he can pick on him by himself. That would be such a dick move.
But he didn't. Keigo never picked on him, not once. Not for his scars or how skinny he was or his reluctance to talk about home. Keigo never spoke about his home life either. Tenko found someone that understood him, maybe even better than Hana.
A year of friendship with Keigo lead to him meeting Touya, who had been best friends with Keigo for years now. Somehow, Tenko had never even heard of him. He was a bit hurt at first, with the revelation that his best friend didn't even want to talk about his other friends.
Then he realized how cool Touya was. He was two grades above Tenko, but Keigo said that his dad moved him up a year when he was younger. Touya was smart, funny in a dry way, and he did not like Tenko. He had all of the qualifications to be another one of his bullies, but instead, Touya befriended him, albeit after months of Tenko pestering him at school when they saw each other at recess.
With two big kids at his side, Tenko thrived at school, and for the first time in his life, he didn't feel like everyone was against him. His mom's negligence didn't matter because he had his best friends to be there for him. Finally, he could ignore the dirty looks he got from his family members. There was a point in his life where they were the only ones he had, but now, he had two big kids at his friend that protected him from all of his demons, both physical and emotional.
The little twelve-year-old didn't know what love was, but he was sure he loved them, different than how he loved Hana.
There wasn't anything that would ever change it.