Chapter Text
Screams filled the air. All around was chaos as the villain killed everyone in sight. Five year old Katsuki stared wide eyed as his own parents were cut in half. Suddenly his vision was filled with Auntie Inko’s face. She had grabbed him and Deku, sheltering them with her own body. Tears were streaming down her face and her eyes were full of fear.
“Listen to me very carefully, Katsuki.” Her voice wavered as she spoke. “I need you to get Izuku out of here. Promise me you’ll protect him.”
Katsuki swallowed hard before stammering out, “I-I promise.”
The woman shoved the two boys away from her toward one of the buildings moments before half of her head disappeared. Deku screamed and tried to run to his fallen mother. Katsuki wasn’t about to break his promise. He grabbed his friend by the arm and pulled him away from their fallen family. The green haired boy cried and struggled, but Katsuki was stronger. He didn’t stop until they were far enough away that they could no longer hear the sound of screaming from the villain attack.
As soon as Katsuki let go of Deku’s arm, the crying boy collapsed. “Why, Kacchan?” He sobbed. “Why did you leave Mom there? Why didn’t you let me go to her? What if she was still alive?”
Katsuki starred in disbelief at his friend. Did he not see what had happened? There was no way Auntie was still alive after that. He supposed Deku was not thinking very clear at the moment. Katsuki leaned down and wrapped his arms around the other boy. “She was gone, Deku. She’s gone and so are my parents. We’re on our own now.” As his own words sank in, the young boy couldn’t stop the feeling of helplessness that washed over him.
————
“Katsuki.” At his name, Katsuki turned to face the overly cheerful woman in charge of the orphanage. “There are some nice people coming to meet you tomorrow. Maybe, if you behave yourself this time, they’ll want to adopt you.”
He glared at the woman. “What about Deku?”
She sighed as if the question was silly. “Now, now. You know that most people don’t want to adopt a quirkless child. That doesn’t mean that you need to ruin your own future just for his sake. You’re a smart child, Katsuki. I’m sure you can see how this is what’s best for you.”
Katsuki decided not to waste his time talking to the woman who he knew did not care. She was just a stupid extra. Her opinion did not really matter. What mattered was that he promised to take care of Deku, so that is what he would do.
After a little searching, he found the other boy hiding in the garden outside. “What are you doing, Deku?”
“Nothing,” Deku squeaked and pulled himself further into the bushes.
With a roll of his eyes Katsuki reached over and pulled his friend from his hiding place. He frowned at what he saw. Deku had a big bruise on his cheek and a split lip. “What happened this time?”
The smaller boy fidgeted with his hands. “It was just a misunderstanding with some of the older boys.”
“You use that excuse every time they hurt you,” Katsuki narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Have you tried telling what’s-her-name that’s in charge about this.” Katsuki knew he should probably know the lady’s name by know, but he did not really care.
Deku shrunk in on himself a little. “I told her, but she said that it was just rough playing and I shouldn’t take it so seriously.”
That was an even worse excuse, especially when they all knew the truth. Deku was quirkless. This meant that no one would want to adopt him or care if he got hurt. The grownups saw him as simply a drain on resources and the kids saw him as an easy target. That was when Katsuki decided that anything would be better than this. “Deku, we’re leaving.”
————
If there was one thing Hitoshi had gotten good at, it was taking care of himself. It was a necessity. When a kid is kicked out on the streets at the age of seven the only options are learn to survive or die miserably. He had managed to do the first. After spending half his life out here things were starting to look up. He had people who regularly gave him enough odd jobs that he could usually buy food and he had found a place to stay that even had indoor plumbing. He finally felt like he might have things under control. That is until he heard crying on his way home.
His first thought was to ignore it. It wasn’t his business. He had no responsibility to do anything for anyone. But the crying person sounded young and all he could think of was how hard he had it the first few years on the street. Reluctantly Hitoshi followed the sound through the winding back alleys.
Soon he came around a corner and saw two boys who looked even younger than he had been when he was kicked out. They couldn’t have been older than five or six. From the amount of dirt and grime on the boys he would guess they had been on the streets a while. The one with green hair was curled in a ball crying. The blond one was leaning over him talking. Hitoshi decided to wait and listen before doing anything.
“Come on. Get up,” the blond boy growled. “We need to find a place to stay tonight.”
“I can’t keep doing this, Kacchan,” cried the green haired boy. “We should just go back to the orphanage.”
The one called Kacchan did not seem pleased with that suggestion. “We can’t go back. They treated you like garbage there. I promised Auntie I would take care of you and going back there would be breaking my promise. So, get up, you stupid Deku. We need to keep moving.”
The words he had overheard rang all too familiar to Hitoshi. He knew how badly orphanages treated kids with undesirable quirks. Quirks like his. It’s the reason he stayed on the streets. Hitoshi tried to talk himself into walking away. He didn’t know these kids. They were not his responsibility. Yet, he found himself walking toward the kids anyway.
As he got close, the blond noticed him. He turned to growl at the approaching older boy as small explosions popped in his hands. That was an impressive quirk. The kind that gave him a good chance of being adopted. It must have been his friend that had the bad quirk. “Hey,” Hitoshi said calmly as he stopped a safe distance from the boys. “Heard you guys talking. I know it’s not easy living out here at your ages. If you need a place to sleep tonight, you can come with me.”
“Why should we trust you?” Growled the blond.
Hitoshi shrugged. “You don’t have to. For all you know I could be one of those creeps who’ll take advantage of you. I won’t force you to follow and if you do come you can leave any time you feel uncomfortable.”
The green haired boy moved closer to his companion. “Kacchan, maybe we should give him a chance. He doesn’t seem bad.”
“Shut it, Deku. We can’t just trust some random stranger.”
“True.” Hitoshi tilted his head as he studied the boys. “There are a lot of crazies out here. I don’t have much to offer, but if you want a roof over your head for the night, some hot rice, and running water you can take a risk and follow me. I won’t force you. The choice is yours.”
The two boys looked at each other. The green haired boy looked up at Hitoshi nervously. “Um. Why are you being so nice to us?”
This boy was too adorable for his own good. The kid’s wide green eyes practically sparkled with innocent curiosity. Hitoshi knelt down and smiled as he looked the boy in the eyes. “I wasn’t much older than you when I got kicked out on the street. I know it’s hard to survive and I just want to help.”
“Fine.” The blond growled as he grabbed his friend’s hand. “Lead the way.”
————
Katsuki watched the purple haired teen with suspicion as he led them to a building that looked like it should have been condemned years ago. They followed him up rickety steps to an apartment that surprisingly did have a functional lock on the door. Deku clung to Katsuki as the two boys hesitantly entered the stranger’s home.
There wasn’t much to see inside. The walls and sealing had old stains, but the place looked like it had at least been cleaned. A futon was pushed up against one wall and there was a door that probably led to a bathroom. The teen went into the small kitchen area and started making rice. Deku seemed to relax a little now that they were inside. He went to examine the few belongings organized around the room.
“By the way,” the teen called over his shoulder. “My name’s Shinso Hitoshi. I’m afraid rice is all I have to eat at the moment, but at least it’s hot.”
“I’m Midoriya Izuku,” his foolish friend volunteered. “And this is Bakugo Katsuki.”
“Deku,” Katsuki growled. “You don’t need to tell stuff about us to a stranger.”
Wide green eyes just gave him a confused look. “But, Shinso-San is nice and he’s helping us. It’s just polite to give him our names. Right, Kacchan?”
Katsuki gave a ‘tsk’ and moved to the window. There was not much to see. Just the side of another building. Their host chuckled. “The rice will be ready soon. You kids are welcome to use the bathroom to clean up in the meantime. I might even have some t-shirts you can wear if you want to shower and wash your cloths after food.”
A glance at his own cloths reminded Katsuki just how filthy they had gotten. It had been weeks since they ran from the orphanage and neither of them had been able to bathe since then. He looked at his friend and saw the dirt streaked across Deku’s arms and face. “Come on.” He grabbed the other boy and dragged him to the bathroom so they could at least wash up enough to eat.
After they washed and ate Katsuki insisted that Deku take the first shower so he could have a chance to question the extra that brought them here. Shinso sat leaning against the wall resting his eyes when Katsuki dropped down to sit in front of him with a glare. Lavender eyes opened to meet Katsuki’s red ones. The teen raised one eyebrow and gave him an amused smirk. The smirk made the younger boy want to explode. “Listen up, extra.” Katsuki crossed his arms. “I don’t know what your game is, but if you so much as lay a finger on Deku, I’ll blast you to smithereens. Got it?” He stretched out a hand and let a few small explosions pop to emphasize his point.
The teen continued to smirk looking amused and not frightened in the least. “You really care about him, don’t you? Midoriya is lucky to have such a good friend.”
“Don’t ignore me, Jerk.” Katsuki kept his voice just below a yell. He didn’t need to have Deku hearing him and getting all worried. “You better take me seriously.”
The smirk disappeared and the teen sat up straiter. “I am taking you seriously. With a quirk like that I have no doubt you could do some real damage if you had a reason to. However, I have no intention of harming you or your friend. I’m not worried because I don’t expect you to have a reason to harm me. I’ve had lots of practice judging people and their intentions. I’m willing to trust you because you seem to only want what’s best for your friend.”
Katsuki wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He let the words roll around in his head for a few minutes before coming to a decision. “I’ll give you a chance, but I’m not taking my eye off you. You better not try to stab us in the back.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
————
The sun dancing across his eye lids woke Izuku from his peaceful sleep. He felt warm and comfortable as he snuggled up to Kacchan under the blanket. It was the sound of dishes clinking that finally led him to open his eyes. They were still in the apartment from the night before, Shinso was in the kitchen making something, and Izuku felt more well rested than he had in weeks.
Without waking Kacchan, Izuku slipped out from their blanket and padded over to the kitchen area. He was surprised to see their host making scrambled eggs. Shinso smiled down at him. “One of my neighbors keeps some chicken in the back yard. She gives me eggs now and then in exchange for helping her out with odd jobs.”
“It smells so good,” the green haired boy mumbled.
Shinso smirked. “Don’t set your expectations too high. I’m not exactly the best chef around.” He scooped rice onto three plates while the eggs finished cooking. “I heard you guys talking about an orphanage yesterday. It sounded like it was pretty bad for you.”
Izuku swallowed. “Y-yeah. They took good care of Kacchan, but they didn’t really care what happened to me. They knew no one would want to adopt me so...” His voice trailed off. The orphanage was not something he wanted to talk about. Even living on the streets was better than that place. No one there made sure he had food. No one stopped the bigger kids from hurting him. No one even cared when the other kids stole his blanket and he was left to shiver at night. No one cared, except for Kacchan.
“I get it.” Shinso nodded as he split the eggs between the three plates. “Quirk discrimination is a horrible thing. My quirk is considered villainous, so I’ve faced plenty of that my self.” With the food ready the purple haired teen turned his full attention to the boy in front of him. “It doesn’t matter to me what your quirk is. You and your friend need a place to stay and you are welcome here for as long as you want.”
Tears started to fill Izuku’s eyes. It almost sounded like Shinso cared. “Really? Why?”
“You’re kids. You don’t deserve to be treated like that and if there is something I can do to help, I will. I’m just doing the right thing and helping out a couple kids in need. I don’t have much to offer,” Shinso shrugged. “But at least it gives you a place to stay off the streets.”
Izuku launched himself forward and wrapped his small arms around the legs of the kind teen in front of him. Shinso was like their own personal hero. “Thank you.” He sobbed. For the first time since he lost his mom, Izuku felt some small since of safety. Maybe he could have a home again after all.