Chapter Text
Katsuki was about to explode. That wasn’t exactly out of the normal for him, considering his quirk, but the man in front of him was about to realize that explosions don’t just come out of his hands. The blonde pro-hero glared down at the insurance agent sitting behind his stupid little desk.
“I’m sorry, Dynamight sir, but I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do. The amount of property damage claims exceeds the amount covered by your hero agency. You’ll have to cover the rest of the cost out of pocket.”
Katsuki couldn’t stop the tiny pops that emanated from his palm. “That’s bullshit! Hawk’s stupid agency had more than enough money to cover all the damages.”
“Yes,” the man gulped. “But sidekicks don’t get full coverage. There’s a limit per month for each hero.”
“I’ll kill that bird bitch,” Katsuki growled. “How much fucking money do I have to pay?”
“$9,372.56.”
Yup, Katsuki definitely was going to explode. He stormed out of the insurance office, slamming the door behind him and then made his way to the shiny elevator down the hallway that would lead him to the upper floors of the hero agency. Hawks had some explaining to do.
It’s not like Katsuki was trying to destroy two buildings that morning. There was a goddamn villain wreaking havoc in the middle of the street. Was he supposed to just let them get away? It wasn’t Katsuki’s fault that the villain had some sort of shield quirk that reflected all of his attacks.
He huffed as he listened to the annoying elevator music playing while he tapped his foot impatiently. “Hawks!” He yelled as soon as the metal doors slid open. Katsuki stormed to the office door and pounded three times before walking in without an invitation.
“Oh, how wonderful,” Hawks drawled from behind his desk. The number one Hero was apparently on his lunch break despite how late it was. He had a half empty bucket of fried chicken sitting on his lap while his legs were propped up on the desk in front of him. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Dynamight?”
“Cover the property damage from this morning’s attack, asshole!”
Hawks sighed and begrudgingly set aside the bucket of food before sitting properly in his chair. “No can do.”
“What?! Why?!”
“Because,” Hawks said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You need to learn to take things down a notch.”
“The fuck?”
“You are by far one of the best heroes we have on staff, but you’re too reckless with your surroundings.”
Katsuki barked out a laugh. “You’re calling me reckless? Stupid Deku is the one breaking his bones and getting injured all the time.”
“Don’t get me started on that one. He’s reckless with his body, but you, Dynamight, are reckless with everything around you. Last month, you had double the amount of collateral damage than any other hero within the agency.”
Katsuki glared at him.
“Look,” Hawks said in a slightly softer tone. “Hero work isn’t all defeating villains or saving people. Heroes need to be able to protect the city itself, and that includes buildings and cars and whatever else you think is acceptable to explode.”
“So, you would rather I just focus on protecting inanimate objects rather than taking down the bad guys? That’s fucking dumb!”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying don’t cause unnecessary damage when taking down the bad guys. Sometimes its unavoidable, but most of the times it's not. If making you pay to fix what you break will help you learn control, then so be it.”
There was some truth to birdbrain’s words, but never in a million years would Katsuki admit. He could see that Hawks wasn’t going to change his mind, so Katsuki just turned around and stomped out of the office, giving the number one hero the middle finger. “Fucker!”
“It was lovely chatting with you!” Hawks called after him.
Well, shit. Katsuki was at a fucking loss. The money he would have to pay to cover the damages would practically wipe him out. Not to mention that he had bills and rent due next month. He tried to brainstorm some ideas as Katsuki went to his own desk and slumped in his chair.
It was about two years since he graduated, and frustratingly, Katsuki was still only a sidekick. A damn good sidekick, but a sidekick nonetheless. He had plans to open his own hero agency right after graduation, but things didn’t work out the way he wanted. Opening up a hero agency required a good hero standing and a shit ton of money, neither of which Katsuki had at the time. In the past two years, he managed to climb the ranks and make it to the top 100 but he still lacked in the monetary aspect. Damn, no wonder so many heroes supplemented their incomes with merch and commercials and shit.
That was one thing Katsuki never really put much effort into, unlike several other of his classmates. Dealing with the media and fans wasn’t as important as patrolling and doing actual hero work in his mind. Maybe that would have to change if he didn’t want to go broke.
Katsuki was pulled out if his thoughts when the door opened. Icyhot and Deku strolled in with nerb rambling on about some new hero that just debuted. His rant was cut off short when he saw Katsuki sitting at his desk. “Kacchan!”
“You’re too damn loud,” he said, a little halfheartedly.
“Sorry.” Deku smiled sheepishly as he sat down at hos own desk, right next to Katsuki’s of course. “I heard you had an exciting morning. I’m jealous that I missed the fight.”
“Tch. That scumbag barely put up a fight.”
“I think destroying two buildings would count as putting up a fight,” Icyhot said with a blank face.
“Motherfucker! Do you wanna say that again?” Katsuki held up his hand and let off some small explosions.
“I would not like to say that again.”
Normally, Icyhot’s bullshit wouldn’t get on his nerves as much, but his patience was practically nonexistent. Before Katsuki could lunge across the desk and pummel the half and half bastard, Deku intervened.
“He didn’t mean it like that, Kacchan. We heard about the damages over the radio and we were worried.”
Katsuki grumbled and slumped back into his chair. “I don’t want to hear anything else about the fucking damages. I get it!”
Deku cocked his head to the side. “Did Hawks lecture you again?”
“That fucker did more than lecture me. He’s making me pay for the damages too.”
“Then maybe you should be more aware of your surroundings, Bakugou.”
Icyhot didn’t even bother looking up from his paperwork as Katsuki slammed his hands on the desk and tried to strangle the other hero. Before he could get his hands around the other’s neck, Deku grabbed Katsuki around the waist and had to carry the struggling blond out of the office.
“Put me down, you damn nerd!” he yelled, struggling to get out of Deku’s hold. He really hated how struggle the other was even without using his quirk.
“Nope,” Deku said, popping the ‘p’. “If I let you down, then you’ll just have to pay for even more damages.”
“Fucker!”
Deku had the audacity to laugh as he carried the screaming explosion hero away. He ended up setting Katsuki down outside the locker room. “Come on. Let’s get changed and we can go get some food.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Katsuki grumbled and walked inside. He punched the nerd’s arm as payback for manhandling him but said nothing as they each changed out of their uniforms.
It became sort of a tradition for the two to get food after their patrols whenever their schedules lined up. When they first started working at Hawks’ agency after graduation, their patrols rarely aligned, though the more they successfully teamed up, the more Katsuki and Deku got assigned to work together. Now they practically had the same exact work schedule. He would never admit it to anybody, but he didn’t mind teaming up with the nerd.
They made their way to the usual ramen shop just down the street. It was late afternoon so the sidewalk was packed with pedestrians making their way throughout the city. A few people pointed out the duo as they walked, but they luckily didn’t get stopped.
Inside, the shop was small and a little run down, but Katsuki didn’t mind since they had the best spicy ramen in the city. That’s exactly what he ordered once he sat down at the counter. Deku ordered his usual pork ramen. The green haired hero chatted a bit about his patrol, and Katsuki was perfectly fine letting him do all the talking. Once they got their food, Deku steered the conversation to more serious matters.
“How much do you have to pay?” He asked in between slurping his noodles.
If anybody else asked, Katsuki would tell them to fuck off and to not butt their noses into other people’s business. But this was Deku asking, the only person who knew Katsuki better than himself. They’d been through so much shit together and if there was one person who could probably help solve the problem, it would be him.
“About $9300,” Katsuki growled, taking a sip of his spicy broth.
“Do you have that much saved?”
Again, if it was anybody other than Deku, Katsuki would’ve either yelled or ignored the question. He didn’t want or need pity, but in the years it took to repair their friendship, Katsuki knew Deku wasn’t going to pity him. “Of course, but paying it would fucking bleed me dry. My rent is at least half that and it’s due next week.”
The nerd was quiet for a moment as he thought. Katsuki didn’t bother to ask him what he was thinking, knowing that any second now he would begin muttering all his thoughts out loud. The blond smirked as soon as he heard the mumbling.
“I know you won’t accept money from me or anybody else so the best solution would be to find ways to make money. Considering the timeframe, picking up extra patrols or overtime wouldn’t make much of a difference and I doubt you could find and do any advertisements that would pay enough to cover the costs. You could try to cut costs elsewhere. Your biggest payment would be rent so you could try to get a roommate, but it would have to be someone you trust which can be difficult on short notice. Maybe you could move to a cheaper place but that still would cost a lot of money and-”
“Breathe, nerd,” Katsuki interrupted.
“Ah. Sorry, Kacchan.”
“S’fine. But your right,” he begrudgingly admitted. “I think trying to find a different place would work best, but it would have to be something five hundred or less and within the next few days. The only places like that will probably be a shithole.”
“You could move in with me!” Deku blurted, before covering his mouth with both hands like he let the words slip.
“Eh?”
A small blush started forming over his freckles. “I mean, you could stay at my apartment for a little bit. I have the guest bedroom and you wouldn’t have to worry about rent for a bit so you could focus more on saving up. I know you wanted to open up your own agency and this situation no doubt set you back a lot. I wouldn’t mind a roommate at all. I might not be the best company. I’m not a very good cook and I probably don’t clean as much as I should and I…”
As Deku continued his rambling, Katsuki actually thought about his suggestion. Living with the nerd wasn’t exactly on his bucket list. Being surrounded by hero merch and having to listening to constant chatter would be annoying as hell. But then again, would it be worse than finding a stranger to room with or moving to a rundown apartment? Katsuki had been over to the nerd’s apartment plenty of times and it was actually pretty nice.
“Oi!” Katsuki yelled, cutting off Deku who was now somehow explaining the best way to fix a vacuum cleaner. “I have two conditions for moving in.”
“Really?” Deku started vibrating with excitement. “You really want to move in with me?”
“Tch. That’s what I just said. But I ain’t going to be a freeloader. I’m gonna pay half the rent once I get this money bullshit sorted out. That’s my first condition. Second, I’m cooking. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let you poison me.”
“Deal! This is going to be so much fun. It’ll be like a sleepover with Kacchan every night.”
“We’re too old for sleepovers, fucker. You’re acting like a loser.”
Deku stuck his tongue out at him which only served to further prove his point. “I’m just excited I'll be able to hang out with Kacchan every day.”
“Shut up,” he growled, turning back to his ramen and purposefully ignoring the warmth blooming in his chest.
Stupid Deku had been doing that to him a lot recently. He would smile at him on patrol, or laugh at one of Katsuki’s jokes, or compliment him after a training session and that annoying feeling would start growing in his chest. It was fucking irritating! Maybe living with the nerd would finally get his stupid feelings in check. No doubt being constantly around Deku would stir up some arguments. At least Aizawa-sensei wouldn’t be around to punish them for fighting.
And it’s not like they would ever stop being friends. Their relationship had only grown stronger since high school, and Katsuki would be damned if he didn’t anything to mess it up again.
He looked over to man sitting next to him. Deku had gone off on another tangent about some hero show he wanted to watch, and Katsuki couldn’t help but smile softly at the sight.
Yeah, moving in together wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.