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When Midoriya and Bakugou are four, they make a pact in the woods.
Midoriya promises to make Bakugou look strong, and Bakugou promises to help Midoriya trick everyone into thinking he’s weak. And, it works. That is, until the entire reason Midoriya made the promise is changed. All of the sudden, he’s quirkless no longer, and Bakugou is furious for all the right reasons.
Why keep this up?
Nobody looks at Midoriya and thinks he’s weak; everyone knows he is strong.
Nobody looks at Bakugou and thinks he’s strong; everyone knows he is strong and assumes he is evil.
He would’ve stopped the act the second it became unnecessary. The sour taste in his mouth and the gaping hole in his chest would be fixed, and he could treat his very first friend as one should. But, Midoriya doesn’t tell him - not at first. It takes pummeling him into the gravel, shoe on his wrist and his sweaty, dangerous palm in his face for Midoriya to bear the truth.
And Bakugou almost wants to kill him for real.
He stays away from Midoriya for a while afterwards, partially to ensure he doesn’t commit a murder, but mainly because he doesn’t think he can keep the charade up while knowing it’s useless.
It takes Midoriya cornering him at three in the morning in the common room’s kitchen, begging with tears in his eyes and a sob in his throat for Bakugou to agree to continue with their pact.
“You have to, Kacchan,” he pleads. “If you suddenly stop, they’ll know something is up and start asking questions. I know I should’ve told you the minute I agreed, but I didn’t want anything to change!”
“What the fuck does that even mean, Izuku.” Bakugou can’t call him Deku, he just can’t. “Do you like me tormenting you like this? Breaking you down, piece by piece? Don’t act like it doesn’t get to you. We both know the damage that I’ve done.” Bakugou would’ve fled by now if Midoriya didn’t have him pinned against the fridge where he had been trying to get a glass of orange juice. The grip on his wrist is bordering on bruising, but the voice in his head tells him he deserves it.
“You haven’t done any damage - don’t forget that this was my idea.” Midoriya’s grip somehow tightens, and Bakugou has to disguise his flinch for a disgruntled quirk of his brow, “I know that everything out of your mouth isn’t what you truly think. But, this is who we are now. We can’t go back.”
“So, I have to act like I hate you for the rest of our lives?” Bakugou is shaking his head before he even finishes the sentence. “Listen, Izuku, there’s no reason to keep doing this anymore. I don’t have to, and I fucking won’t.” Bakugou prys his wrist free with his other hand but doesn’t even get a centimeter away due to Midoriya just shoving a palm into his chest. He’s pushed up against the fridge, handles digging into his back, with a noise just a touch too loud.
Both of them freeze, eyes sliding sideways to look across the huge common room. This really isn’t the place to have an argument, since the living room, dining room, and kitchen are a part of an open floor plan. All it takes is someone coming down the stairs, and they’re busted. They wait tensely for a minute before turning their gazes back to each other.
“Graduation,” Midoriya, ever the people-pleaser, compromises. “Just wait until graduation and then we can tell everybody.”
“That is literally years away, you insufferable-” Bakugou’s throat closes up before he can hiss out the insult. He breathes in deeply through his nose and holds it for the recommended seven seconds before shushing it out for the eight. “You are going to make me be This until graduation.”
He doesn’t phrase it like a question, because it’s not.
He knows that’s what’s going to happen.
“You don’t do anything you don’t want to do, Kacchan,” Midoriya meets his gaze without wavering. “I can’t make you, but I am asking you.”
“You know that’s bullshit,” Bakugou’s voice hasn’t been above a mutter since he got ambushed, and it’s as if the words are being choked out of him. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess.”
Midoriya doesn’t respond, just holds eye contact. Bakugou can feel his resistance crumbling: one, because it’s three in the morning, and two, because there has only ever been one person in his life that doesn’t make him feel like he’s evil. His parents called him ‘demon spawn’, and since that fateful day in the forest, everyone around him has treated him like he’s the world’s biggest asshole - which isn't that surprising. Bakugou is, and will forever be, weak for Midoriya, pact be damned.
“Fine,” he spits out, finally shoving Midoriya back hard enough that the smaller boy slides across the tile in his socks and practically breaks the island. “We’ll keep this shitty game up, but the day of graduation, it ends.”
Midoriya nods his head quickly, curls bouncing on his head.
“Thank you, Kacchan. I appreciate you-”
“But never think, even for one goddamn second, that I enjoy it,” the bitterness in his voice shuts Midoriya up. “Every day, I have to live with what comes out of my mouth. I have to live with the looks thrown in my direction, the shit your friends say about me when they think I’m not listening,” Midoriya’s jaw drops at that one, “the punishments from Aizawa.”
During his venting, Bakugou reverses the roles, stalking towards Midoriya until he’s the one pinned. Bakugou doesn’t stop there, he’s shoving his finger into Midoriya’s chest and getting in his face. Midoriya is practically breaking his back by bending backwards to try and keep some distance between the two. The only thing that hasn’t changed is Bakugou’s volume, still quiet and intense.
“I regret making that pact with you, Izuku. I regret agreeing to treat you like dirt, to belittle you and threaten you, to physically attack you - all of it. It has only made me feel like a sack of shit, and it makes me wonder, did you really think this would benefit me?”
Bakugou’s face is inches away from Midoriya’s, and the heat radiating off of Midoriya’s red cheeks is making Bakugou’s forehead begin to drip with sweat. His lips are pulled up in a sneer - a true one -, and Midoriya’s eyes are shiny with emotion.
“People think you’re the strongest,” Midoriya whispers to him. “They see how you aren’t scared of me or intimidated by me, and they know you have to be strong.”
“I don’t feel strong,” Bakugou’s resistance isn’t the only thing that’s falling apart. “I feel like a villain.”
“A villain that gives me what I want, even when everything in him is telling him not to?” Midoriya counters, and Bakugou mumbles something unintelligible under his breath. “I didn’t think this was how things were going to play out, but you have to admit it has benefited you, too.”
“How?” Bakugou jeers.
“You’ve made friends that have only seen you at your worst, yet still are devoted to you. You infiltrated the League of Villains - oh, don’t look so surprised, I know a Bakugou plan when I see one. You have changed the way society expects heroes to be ; you’ve empowered them to have a voice, to set boundaries, to be human. Katsuki… I won’t be mad if you decide to stop this. I can’t imagine the hardships you have lived through because of this pact, but you can’t say that this hasn’t worked in your favor either.”
Midoriya makes a point.
Because of this, Bakugou has his idiot brigade of people that would die and kill for him. He was able to lure the League out of their hole and into the public eye for a smackdown. He has noticed that some pro-heroes are now putting their foot down and demanding to be treated with respect. Bakugou has made waves. Waves that couldn’t have been done without the stupid pact.
“I hate it when you make sense,” Bakugou grumbles and retreats enough that Midoriya isn’t digging his spine into marble and straightening up. “But, I still hate this whole thing.”
Midoriya hums and pats Bakugou on the shoulder, as if he’s placating a wild animal or a distraught toddler.
“Just imagine the looks on everybody’s faces when you call me by my name,” Midoriya gives him a little incentive, and the sly smirk it brings to Bakugou’s face lets him know he’s won the argument.
“Only until graduation,” Bakugou lifts his pinky and wiggles it at Midoriya.
Midoriya doesn’t hesitate to wrap his own crooked finger around Bakugou’s. Both boys bounce their conjoined hands and knock their skulls together gently, promising.
When Midoriya and Bakugou are four, they make a pact in the woods.
When Midoriya and Bakugou are sixteen, they come to a compromise.