Work Text:
It was merely a normal day of school, Bakugou was on his way home when he encountered someone familiar. The person in front of him was giving him a weird vibe and he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. The man was wearing a jacket with the hood covering as much as it could, but Katsuki could still tell when the adult made eye contact with him. The strange man then turned around and left while Bakugou was still confused. Katsuki tried to brush off the uncanny feeling that told him not to let the man leave and then proceeded to walk home with his head full of thoughts.
On the other hand, the man that he encountered was slightly panicking while stepping into a grocery store. 'He couldn't have recognized me, right?' He beat himself up for not paying more attention to his surroundings while picking some things to eat. Another memory of what happened popped into his head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Kacchan." he pants as he tries to make out words through his heavy breaths. "I-I need you to go ba-back in time t-to the sl-sludge incident."
"What the fuck are you talking about now, Deku?" Bakugou was panicking about Izuku who lost a lot of blood and was now on the concrete, with a long knife through his stomach, after they fought some villain.
"You-you need to go an-and defeat the villain befo-before I try to save you. Please." Katsuki didn't look like he took the request as seriously as Deku was making it. "Kacchan, please. I'm be-begging you. You have to do it."
"Why?" Izuku chuckled and then choked on his blood. "Deku..."
"I'm fine Kacchan, you need to-"
"You're fine my ass. I need to take you to a hospital, yeah, a hospital." Katsuki crouched beside Izuku trying to lift him up.
"Kacchan, no. You can't do anything about this now. I overdid it, it's my fault. I wasn't supposed to be a hero anyway, but I-I don't want this power to die here. Please, you need to go back and stop the sludge."
"Deku, no. I'll take you to the hospital, you'll be just fine, ok? Don't-don't..." he tried to talk but the words were not coming out. "If I go back, you are not going to get One for All, right? You told me that it was that incident that made All Might choose you. If I go, then...then-"
"Then we'll both be alive, Katsuki."
"No, I-I can't."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, the man made sure not to be on the path from school to Bakugou's house. He was getting bored and decided to go to the arcade. 'He has exams coming up so he will go straight home. I don't need to worry about him seeing me here.' And that didn't go as planned. Of course, there he was, Katsuki with his friends in front of a game machine. The man turned around and left the arcade to go find something to do for the day. 'Maybe I can beat up some villains. No, I can't interfere that much.' It was annoying, he couldn't do anything yet and he wasn't a man who liked to stay still. As he was staying outside the arcade thinking where to go next, he felt a presence next to him and immediately heard:
"Did you follow me?"
He was surprised by the calm tone Katsuki talked with, but he knew the kid was ready to explode, the answer would be wrong.
"It's just a coincidence." the man then tried to leave without even looking at Katsuki, but obviously the kid didn't think that way. Bakugou grabbed him by the jacket, but the man simply kept walking. "Let go of me, kid."
"You know me and I know you, but who the fuck are you?"
In another context, the question wouldn't make any sense, but the man understood that Katsuki has deemed his presence as important and wouldn't let him go before he satisfied his curiosity.
"Tomorrow you will understand everything, but I can't stay now anymore."
Katsuki calculated the options: he could just wait until tomorrow if the person was telling the truth, or he could just blow him up and demand answers right now. The second was definitely tempting, but the man looked strong and he didn't want to take his chances.
"Fine. But you better explain everything."
"I will." and with that, the man left and Katsuki walked home.
The puzzle in his head was missing a few key pieces, but he tried his best to solve it the rest of the day. In the morning the last pieces that he had clicked and he came to only one conclusion, but it couldn't be that, right? It wasn't possible, but it was all he had. The man...was himself.
It was weird to think that he met a grown version of himself, but all the clues he had were pointing in that direction. Firstly, it was the strange vibe that the man had, and the weird feeling of knowing him beforehand. Then his body, it was muscular, yes, but it was his ideal body and he knew that only a specific workout would build it like that, his workout. Lastly, his voice was like a deeper version of his, talking in the same tonality and all. And of course, he couldn't miss his red eyes and blond hair that was visible under the hood. It was no mistake, the man was older him. But that would mean time travel is real in an approximately short period of time. He guessed that he was 35 maybe 40 years old. The only question that was still ringing in his head was 'Why is he here?'. And that would be cleared up today.
'I guess today is the day. Time travel be damned 'cause it made me lose so many days, dammit.' He put on his hero costume around lunchtime and waited for the school hours to be over. Once he looked at himself in the mirror dressed in the costume that he didn't wear for months, the memories came back to him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What happened?" Todokori was sliding with his ice to the place Bakugou and Midoriya were on the ground.
"Icyhot, quick. We need to take him to a hospital. Just freeze the knife so he doesn't bleed his life out."
"Bakugou, that's really dangerous and you know it." Todoroki said with his usual face and voice.
"Oh my God, Icyhot. Do you have no fucking feelings? Dammit! He's gonna die, you bastard!"
"Guys... Don't fight." Midoriya said as he's trying to get up. "Kacchan, I am going to be fine as long as you promise me to go back and stop the sludge."
"Damn Deku. Don't fucking get up, are you stupid? And I'm not going to do it. You'll live! I'll take you to the hospital myself if Icyhot doesn't want to help." Bakugou proceeds to lift Izuku up but hearing the other one hissing in pain made him stop. "Icyhot can you at least immobilize him somehow?"
"You want me to make you a coffin?" his usual bored faced had now a raised eyebrow marking the fact that Katsuki sounded like a really big idiot right now.
"Your sense of humor is disgusting, as always."
"Well, you seem to forget how to think once Deku is in danger. I CANNOT make forms, so I can't make you any kind of thing to immobilize anybody. We have to find something to steady the knife until the paramedics come. We can't move him around."
"Kacchan, please."
"Fucking no, Deku! Get someone else to do it if you want it done so badly. I am not going to crush your dream once again so stop asking me!" he says as he searches for something to immobilize the knife so it doesn't do any more damage.
"It's no good if it isn't Kacchan. Pretty please?"
"Just put Icyhot to this. He's your best friend, right?"
"Kacchan, I can't...stay awake anymore. Just please...go. For me...For us. Please."
"Deku. The fuck? No! Fucking stay awake. How can you become the next symbol of peace if you die! You bastard... Just...stay awake."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katsuki was walking with his friends after school was done. The incident in the classroom with Deku really pissed him off today. And Bakugou was supposed to meet himself so where is he? The kid had way too many emotions at once and without thinking he hit a bottle with his feet. His friends were trying to get him to explain himself and Katsuki turned to yell at them before they point at something behind him. He wasn't stupid, he just faced that way, there was nothing there. The sounds he heard seconds later begged to differ his thoughts though, and as he looks over his shoulder he gets captured by some weird liquid villain. And of course, his 'friends' are gone in a blink of an eye, and Katsuki is left alone to deal with this inconvenience. He tries firing his quirk a couple of times just to realize it doesn't work. 'Or I just need more power to blast this shit off me. Damn, it's beginning hard to breathe. Like I'd let this villain beat me, fuck.' Bakugou added more power to his explosions and didn't care what he burned around him because the bastard was still suffocating him and trying to steal his body, apparently.
As he gets less and less oxygen, he somehow makes eye contact with the crowd that has been there for a few minutes and firstly sees the uniform, then the hair, and then the eyes. 'Fucking Deku, why are you running to me. I don't need you.' He starts to lose consciousness when someone blasts the villain off him and Deku back into the crowd where he's come from. The hero then goes away as fast as possible, without anyone catching a glimpse of him, but Katsuki knew: it was the other him.
After he is done with police work and shooed out the media, he goes to his house knowing that his parents aren't home and that it will be a private space to talk to his older self. As expected, he is already in front of the house. Katsuki opens the door without saying anything and the older man entered the house and made his way into the teenager's room.
"I almost forgot what this room looked like."
"Quit the nostalgics and get to the point." Katsuki was already getting impatient, he needed answers. Why would he save him from the villain?
"Did you think I needed your help? I was fine by myself."
"You really need to lower that attitude. You were getting unconscious and Deku was getting ready to come to your rescue. You weren't 'fine by yourself', brat." The hero was ravaging through his stuff and seemed to relive his life again.
"Why did you come here? To save me from that villain? I wouldn't have died, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't be alive. So, what would happened if it went like normal?"
"I will answer your first question. I came to fulfill his last wish."
"And that is?" Bakugou asks, already mad at the pro-hero's vague way of talking. "You're me, you know you can fucking trust me, so spit it out. Whose last wish is it and what does he want?"
The mature Katsuki sighed and then tried to manage his words because this...is not going to be pretty.
"Izuku's."
A dead silence comes down on them and they don't talk for 5 full minutes, until:
"What?" Katsuki is very confused by that single word. He didn't say Deku now. That means it's important or what? And 'his last wish'...that means Deku's...de-...Is it his fault in the future and he is coming to repair it or something out of guilt? "Did....did I-?"
"No! No...It's not like that. Our relationship is good now. We were even friends... He had some burden on him. It made him powerful enough to stand by my side, but it also brought his death before he could have accomplished his 'mission'. He sent me here so that, and I quote: 'We will both live.' I know what will happen from now on so I didn't want to come and do it, but... I needed to."
Katsuki is again silent, taking all the new information. Deku dies, he is friends with Deku. 'Powerful enough'...does that mean like, a quirk? Meaning he was a hero with me. And Deku believes that if we both live is better than him being the hero he dreamed of, even for a little time. It is characteristic to the nerd to think about others before himself...
"Katsuki!" he tried to get the teenager's attention after he's been staring off for 2 minutes. "It's not your fault he's dead, ok? You didn't make him do it, or something."
"I wasn't thinking about that. I know the nerd wouldn't kill himself because of me or some shit like that. It would have been a villain, which means he was a hero, therefore you coming here is going to change that. He gave up his dream to keep us both alive, right?"
The hero was somehow surprised by the accurate guess he had, but he knew better. Katsuki was feeling somehow responsible for this, and he couldn't do anything about it. After all, the hero felt guilty as well.
"So, what now?"
"Now...I go back and Izuku won't be a hero anymore. I wish that you try to repair your relationship, but I can't know how you feel about him at this moment. Still, maybe don't be a bully anymore, it doesn't go well with the hero career. The adults at Aldera are really stupid for protecting you and making you think you are the strongest. You will need to improve more from here and it's not going to be easy, that I can tell you. Be ready to be a hero, Katsuki."
Bakugou didn't know how to feel after the older him disappeared. On one hand, he wanted to go to Deku and cry for him and his dream on Izuku's shoulder, but on the other hand, he knew that would be suspicious as fuck. He decided on taking things easy and started not being a bully, while also keeping his personality. People commented on his change but he just brushed it off.
~After a while~
"Hey! Kacchan! Is your patrol done?" a really energetic green-haired asked.
"Yeah. Wanna grab some food? How's work?"
"Sure. Work is fine. Is Todoroki coming too?"
"I don't think so, Icyhot is pretty busy now."
"I told you not to call people nicknames!"
"Don't be a hypocrite, Deku. You call me Kacchan all the time." Bakugou laughed as Izuku's eyes widen.
"You know what I meant. Don't make me feel like the bad guy. You call people bad names, I just call you Kacchan. Would you prefer me to call you Bakugou? Or maybe Katsuki?"
The blond went blank at his name coming out of Izuku's mouth and it didn't feel right. "No. Kacchan's fine, you damn nerd."
They both laugh as they arrive at their place to eat.