Chapter Text
Katsuki stared at the small boy in front of him, the green hair flipping side to side as he excitedly looked between the TV and him.
“Kacchan! Kacchan!!” He exclaimed, pointing at the TV. “Look! Look, All Might just beat the villain like ‘boom boom’ and then went ‘pow pow!’ And then the villain was all like ‘bleghhh’ and All Might won!”
Katsuki looked at the TV, and sure enough, All Might was on the news for defeating a villain who’d damaged several blocks of property.
“What, is All Might your favorite person or something?” He asked, half-joking but genuinely curious. Izuku stiffened, dropping the Ingenium figurine he’d been playing with.
“What?! Kacchan, you know it’s Mommy! All Might isn’t as cool as Mommy because he can’t make katsudon when I’m sick.”
Katsuki blinked, tilting his head.
“What about your second favorite?” Izuku was obviously going to pick-
“All Might! He’s super strong and beats down all the villains with his smashes!”
…
What?
Why wasn’t he his favorite? What did All Might have that he didn’t? Was it because he was number one?
He gritted his teeth, determination worn like All Might did a smile.
He’d be number one, and then Izuku would make him his second favorite, if only because Auntie Inko was someone he was okay being second to.
She did make some good katsudon, after all.
Once he got his Quirk, he’d be the strongest hero ever. He’d beat All Might, become number one, just so that maybe, maybe-
Maybe he’d be Izuku’s number two.
Izuku would always be his number one.
Katsuki stared at his palms as small pops echoed through the daycare. Everyone was silent in awe, and then-
“Woah! You’re so cool, Kacchan! You’re going to be a great hero, and we’ll be heroes together, right?” Izuku excited asked, eyes sparkling with the reflection of the light show in Kastuki’s hands.
Katsuki’s eyes glowed, and in that moment, he realized something.
He had to be the strongest to protect Izuku. He’d be the strongest to beat All Might, to be Izuku’s number two.
He’d become number one hero to become someone’s number two hero.
His face heated up, and a grin stretched across his cheeks.
“Of course we will, Izukkun! I’m going to be number one, and you’re going to be number two with me!”
Izuku was four and a half, and his Quirk still hadn’t come in.
Katsuki had been training with his Quirk, making the explosions bigger and brighter and louder.
(In his kid-self’s hands, they were still pretty small, but it was progress.)
He’d protect Izuku until his Quirk came in, he’d promised to Auntie Inko.
Old Hag had made him promise that if someone had hurt Deku, that he’d ‘give them Hell on a silver platter!’
Katsuki nodded, not arguing with that. He would have done it either way.
Now he just had explicit permission.
He raced out the door, heading to the small forest across from their apartments.
Izuku and some other kids from their class were there, and Tsubada greeted him causally. Izuku waves Katsuki over with excited Shouta and too much energy, even for a kid.
They proceeded into the woods, and a smile rose through Katsuki’s face, splitting his cheeks. A log was in his path, though it was one he’d say on with Izuku before, sandwiches set between them.
It was about a meter and a half wide, and there were no branches extending out. He clambered over the knot of roots, then glanced back to see Izuku and the rest of their friends following.
Katsuki stepped across the bridge proudly, and Izuku was singing the loudest.
“Forward March and- here we go, member of the Agency of Bakguou-”
Katsuki’s sneaker slid on the soft spot of the tree, bark peeled away as the soft part of the tree was exposed.
He tumbled through the air before he was cold. His black tee was soaked with river water, some fishes darting away from his shoes.
He heard footsteps coming up, and he stared at Izuku as he extended a hand, forehead crinkled with worry.
The chubby and short fingers extended, and Katsuki knew somehow, in his small brain, that this was the real beginning of something.
What, he didn’t know. But if it meant Izuku?
He grabbed the hand, allowing Izuku to pull him up.
He’d gladly take it, if he could protect him or be with him.
At the age of five, Izuku had been diagnosed Quirkless. He’d come to school with tears on his eyes, and some of the kids had tried to make fun of him.
Katsuki just stepped closer, brash words targeted at the kids in his line of view.
Izuku was behind him, the easiest place to protect him right now. He let out a few warnings snaps and stared them right in the eyes, unlinking, as his explosions crackled in his palms.
They stepped away, and Katsuki smiled and turned back to Izuku.
Izuku’s eyes watered as he grabbed the All Might figurine, and Bakugou grabbed the Sir Nighteye one.
Izuku would be safe.
He’d be safe, because, well.
Katsuki was here.
At the age of seven, Izuku’s Quirk still hadn’t come in. It was almost certain he was Quirkless, unless he had an invisible Quirk or one with a hard activation, but Auntie Inko had accepted it.
Katsuki still loyally played with him, glaring at anyone who dared try getting close enough to inflict damage.
The teachers always ignored what was going on though.
Katsuki’s signature pops came out, except now they were about the size of a basketball rather than a tennis ball.
The extras drifted away, and Katsuki picked up the yellow crayon again.
At the top of the page, it was addressed to Izuku with a note saying it was from him.
He scrubbed in the hair, and Izuku glanced around.
“What’cha lookin’ for, Zu?”
“The yellow crayon.” A frown was on Izuku’s face.
Katsuki didn’t like that. He didn’t want to see a frown on his face ever again. He glanced at the hair, gave Izuku the yellow, and went to work with blue on his costume.
Shortly after, Izuku switched to the grey crayon. The yellow had only been used for a small part, and the grey had been the rest of the body. Black lines covered the majority of the googles, but the yellow stood out stubbornly.
Katsuki didn’t know of the hero, but he decided that if Izuku liked him, he’d find out more about him. If Izuku liked them, Katsuki did too.
Katsuki finished the hair, then did the blue of the eyes with a cobalt blue.
He left the smile blank, adding in some peach for All Might’s skin.
He held up the image to Izuku, who smiled and laughed, telling him how he was “the bestest drawer.”
Katsuki smiled, and then Izuku began to tell him about the hero he drew once he had finished.
Eraserhead, huh. Apparently he’d saved a kid from a mugging when Izuku was looking out his window after waking up in the night
(Katsuki knew that was a lie. There were no alleyways outside Izuku’s windows, and there was no way he would have happened to look out at just the right moment and know that much.
Katsuki didn’t say anything though.)
Katsuki would have to look him up later.
Junior high, and kids flung insults at Izuku commonly. He couldn’t get into full-on fights with them, like his mom had said, but he made sure to walk the line.
He’d walk the line for Izuku.
Izuku had begun to cower, and Katsuki made sure he found the people who did that after school.
(Coincidently, if they came to school the next day with burn marks, Mitsuki paid no attention and protested the fact that Katsuki would never do that.
They had no evidence he did.)
Katsuki got home, going through his vigorous training regimen.
He decided that it was becoming too easy, and added another fifty to each of his exercises and twenty kilos to his weights.
Remember why you do it. Remember him
Remember you need to be number one.
Katsuki found new strength and continued on, a smile on his face despite the work he was putting into it.