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Katsuki Bakugou is tall, blond, and fucking angry. Rody stands tall whenever the other hero cuts his gaze at him. But Pino, the little shit, hides and whimpers and sweats in his presence.
“You aren’t really what I imagined.” Todoroki says, kneeling by him. They’re sheltered behind a rock waiting out the storm of villain attacks and swarming authority figures. Rody offers him a small smile.
“Uh. Yeah. Um, you aren’t really what I imagined either.” Todoroki is the complete opposite of Bakugou. Quiet and thoughtful, soft in his words and gentle in his actions. It’s a weird contrast not just to Bakugou, but also to the roaring power that Todoroki had exhibited.
“You imagined me?” Todoroki asks, tilting his head to stare at Rody with dual colored eyes.
Rody chuckles nervously, “I mean yeah. Izuku talked a lot about you.”
Todoroki’s eyes flare, and his jaw sets, “Izuku?”
“Uh.” Shit. Has Rody managed to insult the people who had just saved his ass? Is Izuku an inappropriate thing to call him. He realizes quite suddenly how much danger he’s in. If he slips up and makes Todoroki or hell forbid Bakugou angry, he’s no better off than a shit smear on the wall of a public bathroom. “Am I not supposed to call him that?”
Todoroki looks over to where Izuku and Bakugou are conversing in harsh and quiet tones. “I. Don’t know. Did he tell you that’s what he wants to be called?”
“W-well,” Rody is floundering. Cut to the core by this intense person. Pino, is a flittering mess around his head, distressed and scared. “I mean. He hasn’t asked me to stop?”
Todoroki glares at him, “I don’t know how the culture here works, but where we come from, it is often a sign of disrespect to call someone by their first name.”
Rody swallows, “Oh.”
“Icy-Hot!” Rody never thought he’d been glad to see the other hero marching towards them. Izuku lags a little behind, peering around the rock outcropping. “The hell are you doing?”
Rody is stuck with another glare, this one angrier, more heated. Pino shudders in the junction between his neck and shoulder. Bakugou’s eyes jump to the little creature. He bends down and Rody throws a hand up to cover his Quirk.
“Oi. Calm the fuck down. I just wanted to look at the lil fucker. Wasn’t gonna hurt it.” Bakugou makes a show of shoving his hands into his pockets. Rody stares at him sceptically.
“I don’t know man. You seem like the type to hurt little birds. Or anything smaller than you for that matter.”
Bakugou glares at him hard, “The fuck you take me for? A villain?”
“Bakugou,” Todoroki warns. Bakugou holds up a dangerous hand.
“No. If this little bastard thinks he can come outta nowhere and fucking insult me after I saved his ass, he’s got another thing coming.”
Rody holds up his own hands, Pino is near tears at this point, “Listen. I wasn’t trying to insult you. I was making an observation.”
“I’m not gonna hurt a helpless fucking bird!” Bakugou snaps. “And I’m fucking insulted you think I would!”
“Kacchan,” Izuku comes up behind him, “Now really isn’t the time to be yelling.” Bakugou swivels around to look at the other boy.
“Tell your rat friend that I’m not going to hurt his bird!”
“Why are you so hung up on this?” Todoroki asks, standing and brushing the dirt off his pants. Rody looks down at his clothes.
“Rat friend?”
Izuku sighs, rubbing a hand up his face, “Rody. His name is Rody, and Bakugou isn’t going to hurt Pino.”
Rody eyes Bakugou before standing as well. “Well if you take offense to me thinking you’re gonna hurt my bird I’m gonna take offense to being called rat friend. It doesn’t even make any sense!”
Bakugou scoffs, turning away. Todoroki sighs, “He never explains his cruel nicknames.”
“I don’t need to explain your nickname, you Icy-Hot bastard.” Bakugou snarks over his shoulder, falling in line behind Izuku who’s leading them down the cliff further away from prying eyes.
“Yes, but what about Shitty Hair.”
Another scoff, “Are you fucking kidding? You’ve seen Ei’s fucking hair. It is shitty.”
Todoroki sends Rody a look that baffles him, “Weren't you mad at me like a second ago?”
He gets a shrug before Todoroki walks away too, motioning for him to follow. Rody scrambles after the heroes. The climb is treacherous and steep. Rody’s worn out sneakers slip a couple of times, sending Pino buzzing in panic. Todoroki checks over his shoulder every once and awhile to make sure that Rody is still there, and he’d like to think the hero is a little worried about his safety.
Izuku leads them behind another boulder, then crouches and pulls out the odd puzzle again. They struggle with it for a while.
“Here, hand it over, let me blast it.” Bakugou grunts. Izuku yanks it away from him.
“No! We don’t know what’s in it, Kacchan. We can’t risk damaging it.” Izuku reprimands him. The puzzle looks very familiar to Rody. The three heroes are arguing over the contraption as Rody searches the depths of his mind, searching for why the little thing is so familiar. It clicks suddenly when Todoroki mutters something about pulling a section up.
“I know how to solve it.” Rody says. The heroes pause to all peer up at him. “Can I try?” he holds out his hand for the contraption.
“Oh. Yeah. Here.” Izuku deposits it in his hand. Rody studies it before solving it in a few short moves. As it pops open Izuku lets out a cheer and hops up to press a kiss to Rody’s cheek. Rody smirks, holding up their prize. An odd purple thing. Todoroki’s eyes blow wide.
The two Quirked hero falls into step with him after they’d decide the best course of action was to find a computer to open what they determined to be a flash drive on. They walk in awkward silence. Todoroki keeps turning to him, mouth open, before he closes it and looks away again. It’s setting Rody’s nerves on edge.
“Do you,” he starts hesitantly, “need something?”
Todoroki cringes a little, “I didn’t.” he clears his throat awkwardly, “I didn’t realize you and Midoriya were uh, um. A thing?”
Rody lets out a bark of laughter, feeling bad about it as he sees Todoroki’s cheeks color with shame. He knocks their elbows together. “It’s not a big deal, I don’t know if we are, but well. Shit happened.”
Todoroki nods, his eyebrows are furrowed as he stares at his feet. “Yes. Lots of shit has happened.”
Rody laughs again, he can see what Izuku had meant when he had said Todoroki was awkward. It’s a little sad to watch if he’s being honest.
“I’m not gonna like, hurt him or anything.” Rody finds himself saying. “Like I don’t know if we’re gonna like, continue?” Now he feels awkward. “B-but if we do I’m not gonna hurt him.”
Todoroki looks up at him again. Eyes searching Rody’s face like he’s looking for a lie.
“That’s good. He’s very dear to me, I don’t want to see him hurt. Especially since this,” Todoroki waves a vague hand around them, ''has been a very stressful situation.”
“I get it.” Rody assures. “It’s crazy as hell, I’m more or less just going with it.”
Todoroki nods, “Yes. That’s what usually happens when Midoriya is involved with anything.”
“Hey, fuckers, the hell are you two whispering about?” Bakugou’s head is twisted around to look at them, eyes narrowed. Todoroki lets out a small breath.
“We are discussing Midoriya and Rody’s relationship.” Todoroki says. Rody swallows hard, taking an uncertain step back as Bakugou stops walking. Izuku looks like a deer caught in headlights, sending Todoroki a pained look.
“Oh. Was I not supposed to say that?” Todoroki mumbles, he’s inching around Bakugou to go stand by Izuku and leaving Rody well and truly unprotected against the ticking bomb that is Bakugou.
Bakugou looks between them, “The hell Deku? We’re in the middle of fucking Armageddon. Don’t you think the timings a little inconvenient?”
Izuku shrugs a little helplessly, “I mean. Yeah. But also no?”
Bakugou lets out a noise of frustration, “We don’t even know if we’re gonna make it out alive tonight. This,” he flaps a hand in Rody’s direction, flinging sweat in every direction. “Is not a good idea.”
“I really don’t need your opinion on it, Kacchan.” Izuku says, “Now let's go.” He starts walking and now instead of the awkward presence of Todoroki, Rody is trapped by the critical gaze of Bakugou.
“You do seem like the nerd’s type.” he says it so out of the blue that Rody nearly trips.
“What?”
“You and the nerd. You both ooze emotional wreck energy.”
Rody sputters, “Excuse you.”
Bakugou grins at him, it looks feral. “Nah. You both look like you cry over stupid crap.”
“I don’t!” Pino is nodding on his shoulder. Bakugou’s eyes flick back over to her. He studies her and she studies him back.
“So, can I hold your bird?”
Rody stares at him. A hand coming up to cover Pino protectively. Bakugou sneers at him.
“I already fucking told you I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Okay! I get it, but why do you want to hold her?”
Bakugou stuffs his hands into his pockets, “I want to take a picture of her.” he mumbles. Rody, if not already confused and overwhelmed, feels more confused and overwhelmed.
“Um. Why?”
Bakugou lets out a heavy breath, “I know someone who would like a picture of her. A lot.”
Rody looks down at his Quirk. She looks nervous, reflecting his hesitancy to hand her over. Bakugou hasn’t tried to reach out and snatch her yet, so he has that going for him. Letting out a breath Rody scoops Pino off of his shoulder and offers her up. Bakugou looks surprised, he wipes his hand on his pants several times before taking Pino. She’s trembling with Rody’s apprehension, and it seems to concern Bakugou. His eyebrows are drawn together and his lips are pressed down into a strong frown. Rody watches as he lifts his other hand to run a single pad of one finger over Pino’s back.
Rody calms as he watches the hero treat his Quirk gently. Pino stops shaking in Bakugou’s palm. Face smoothing out as she explores the heroes fingers.
“Huh. I don’t think she hates you.” Rody comments. Bakugou glares at him, but his hand remains gentle against Pino’s feathers. He pulls his phone out a second later, muttering something about dying battery, and then takes a picture of Pino. She poses for him, fluffing up her feathers.
“Heh, little diva.” Bakugou says. He stuffs his phone back into his pocket and offers Rody his Quirk again. He takes her, depositing her back onto his shoulder.
“Uh. Thanks. I hope whoever likes birds will like her?” Rody says hesitantly. Bakugou grunts.
“Fucker likes any animal. Dogs, sharks, birds.” Then he’s turning away from Rody, hopping down to the ground from the cliff face they’d just descended. Izuku smiles at him as he hops down behind Bakugou.
“He’s not terrorizing you is he?” Izuku asks, he pushes past Bakugou who’s pretending to gag as Izuku reaches to touch Rody’s wrist.
“Nah.” Rody says. “He doesn’t scare me.”
Pino is shaking her head on his shoulder.
It’s a key. And his dad made it. Rody doesn’t know how to take any of the information revealed in the half hour it takes them to figure out what’s on the drive. He feels dizzy and sick. Not only had he suddenly discovered that his dad hadn’t joined the terrorists willingly, but also that his siblings are in danger. Real danger. Izuku is watching him in quiet concern. The heroes are pulling on their suits, Bakugou’s eyes are frozen on a corner in the room as he pulls on the bulky grenade shaped gauntlets onto his arms. The atmosphere had become stale with grim determination.
“Go to them.” Izuku has taken his hands. “Rody. You don’t have to come with us. We can figure this out on our own. Your siblings need you.”
Rody sets his jaw, “Yeah, but the world is going to hell whether I’m with them or not.”
Green eyes search his face, then drop down to read Pino. She’s a sniffling mess, pressed against Rody’s neck, looking for comfort. Izuku reaches for her, rubbing his fingers over her back.
“I’m serious.” Izuku’s voice has gotten quieter. “You aren’t a coward for wanting to turn away from this. It’s never been your fight to fight.”
And Rody isn’t ready to say goodbye. He isn’t ready to sit back and watch the heroes maybe fail. Not when he’s here, not when his dad had created the integral part to ending this all.
“No. You guys need to get somewhere fast right?” he looks over to the map Bakugou had pulled up. There’s an air strip a few miles from here. He points to it, “I can help you with that.”
They steal a plane. And with Bakugou and Todoroki it goes a lot smoother than Rody would have thought. In fact Bakugou seems to find a certain type of joy in stealing the aircraft. But they get the little by plane out of the hangar, and Rody gets it into the air leaving the airport staff that had come chasing them milling about on the runway. Pino chitters at him, his hands shake on the controls.
“I know the basics.” he mutters to his Quirk. Not that it matters, they’re in the air now. Rody chuckles a little breathlessly, “Landing is gonna be the problem.”
Izuku squeezes into the cockpit a few minutes after liftoff. He leans over the seat to stare out into the sky. They won’t be flying for long, and a desperation builds in Rody’s chest. He doesn’t want to think of this as the end. But he feels like it could be. Izuku has that look on his face. Determined and heroic. There is no talking him out of anything. His heart and mind are set. Still though, he bends over and presses a kiss to the top of Rody’s head. He lingers there, and Pino hops from Rody’s shoulder to nest in Izuku’s hair. They don’t talk, though Rody could. There are words in his throat, but they don’t make any sense and if he were to try and push them up out of his mouth they wouldn’t be of any use. If this is goodbye, maybe he’ll find himself regretting not saying anything.
“Deku,” Bakugou breaks them apart, stepping up behind them. He cuts a dangerous figure in his black and orange, hands encased in his gauntlets. His face is neutral, “It’s time.”
Izuku pulls away, “We’ll jump. I want you as far away from here as you can get.”
“What? No! I’m here to help!”
Izuku looks pained, “Go back to your siblings, make sure they’re okay. Please?” he’s already stepping away, tightening his gloves and staring out towards the speeding ground.
“Yeah,” Bakugou growls, a sneer curling his lips, “We don’t have room for extras.” Then he jumps, a shout ripping from his lips and an orange explosion propelling him towards the ground. Todoroki gives him one slow nod, a smile curling his lips, a deep contrast between Bakugou’s sneer, before he jumps too.
“Izuku!” Rody finds himself choking out. The hero turns to look at him, hair whipping around his face. What is he supposed to say? There’s so much, “Don’t die.”
Izuku nods, “I won’t.”
“I’m serious. I want to see you again, Hero.” Rody tries to look as determined as Izuku, but Pino is a mess.
“You will. I promise.”
And Izuku has yet to break a single one of his promises.