Chapter Text
"Why doesn't Kacchan like me anymore?" Izuku asked his mom as they made their way back to their apartment building. Inko was puzzled by the question. The two five-year-olds were getting along, weren't they?
"What makes you think he doesn't like you?" She inquired.
"He uses his quirk on me a lot. I looked it up on the computer and they said it's illegal. What does ‘Illegal’ mean? I know it's bad, 'cause the TV says it a lot.” Izuku was always too smart for his own good, figuring out how to type is an example. However, in this case, it may have been for the better. Inko was incredibly alarmed. She stopped in her tracks and knelt to Izuku’s level, grabbing his shoulders.
“Izuku, that’s not a thing friends do.”
“But he said since I’m quirkless it's the least I can do to help a hero like him.” Inko was now appalled. She hoped to god that Mitsuki and Masaru didn’t know of this, or worse, encourage it.
“Izuku, for one thing, you’re not quirkless, and for another, even if you were quirkless, that’s not a thing he should ever do. You’re a person, and your worth is not based on your quirk status.” Izuku began to tear up.
“Mom…why would Kacchan do that?” Inko felt her heart break.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”
Taiyang grabbed a box and hoisted it over his shoulder as he began to pull a hand truck that carried more boxes. Taiyang had a moderate strength quirk. It helped with his job at a moving company, and it certainly helped now, moving his own things into a new apartment. As he got to the stairs, he began to pull the hand truck up the stairs, as it was designed to do. He had made sure these boxes had nothing overly fragile in them, just in case he dropped something. He was carrying quite a bit, even for him. He certainly made sure nothing of his daughter’s things were in them. He wouldn’t hear the end of it if anything of hers broke or ripped. Speaking of whom…
“Dad! Let me help!” His daughter ran up to the stairs and flashed a beaming smile at him. He chuckled, which made him almost drop the hand truck.
“Yang, You’ve been asking for a while now, and the answer is still no,” he said as he reached the top of the stairs. “I hate to say it, but you’re too small, and this stuff would crush you.”
“I would just crush it back! My quirk is super strong!” Tai shook his head.
“You don’t have your quirk yet, sunshine,” He said before going into the apartment with the box on his shoulder. Yang pouted and proceeded to try to pry a box off of the cart, one that wasn’t the top one. Before Tai could do anything about it, as he was in the process of putting the box on his shoulder down, the top box from the hand truck began to fall. He tried, but couldn't get to her in time. “Yang!” He shouted, as if it would help, he desperately wanted his voice to help.
“Look out!” Said a young boy before he tackled Yang out of the way. The box fell, but both kids were out of the way, the boy on top of Yang, hugging the life out of her. She tried to pry herself from his grip, and he let go once he noticed. “Are you okay?” He said. She noticed he had green hair and freckles, as well as noticeable large eyes that happened to have red around them as if he had been crying. He got up off of her.
“I’m fine,” She said. He offered his hand to her, and she took it. As she stood up and had her feet on the ground once more, she was taken off of them again by her doting father, who picked her up and continued what the boy started, hugging the life out of her. “Dad! Can’t breathe!” She said as she squirmed in his grasp. He put her down and proceeded to lightly chop her on the head. “Ow!”
“That’s for disobeying me! If our little hero over here hadn’t gotten you out of the way, you would’ve gotten hurt!” The boy began to cry after a few seconds. The father and daughter duo looked at him before his mother stepped in.
“Um, hi. I’m Inko, and this is Izuku. Don’t worry, he’s been a little emotional today, but to be fair, both he and I have good reason to be.” Yang walked up to Izuku.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
“D-does your dad really think I’m a hero?” He said through tears. Yang smiled.
“Yeah, and so do I! You saved me, of course, you’re my hero!” She hugged him as he cried some more.
“Thank you,” He sobbed.
Inko was, for lack of a better word, relieved. Izuku had been rather depressed as of late, and this could be something to boost his confidence, at least until his quirk finally came in. The doctor had said that it would be an odd one, but Inko was sure it would be good for hero work, considering her husband’s and her quirks. She turned to the girl’s father.
“You have no idea how much your daughter just helped my son.” She smiled at him.
“What do you mean? He saved her!” He laughed.
“Well, Izuku’s quirk hasn’t come in yet. His classmates have concluded that he’s never gonna get a quirk, so they've been bullying him, as I recently learned.” the man’s face turned sour.
“That’s awful. Why should it matter whether he even gets a quirk, to begin with?”
“Well, He’s always wanted to be a hero, and he’s quite vocal about it. Not having a quirk would crush him, but the doctor said he’s just a late bloomer.”
“What a coincidence! Yang has been feeling bad about being a late bloomer as well. Oh! Do you live here in this apartment complex? If so, I guess we’re your new neighbors.”
“Yes, we do. We’re the Midoriyas.” Inko said with a smile.
“I’m Taiyang, this is Yang, and we’re the Xiao Longs.” The two adults looked at the kids, who had begun to talk about heroes. “I think we’re going to be seeing quite a bit of each other.” Taiyang chuckled. Inko nodded.
“Izuku!” Inko called her son over. Izuku, who had been playing with his new friend for about two hours at that point, looked over at his mother.
“Yeah?” he asked. He had brought his hero toys out to play with Yang, but he put them down as he walked over.
“Tai and Yang need to start unpacking their things.”
“Can we help them?” Izuku asked, wanting to be of help to Yang and her father.
“Maybe when we get back from the Bakugos’. We have to talk with them.” A bit of ice crawled into her voice as she spoke. For the first time, he was a little frightened of his mother. He ran back over to Yang.
“Yang! I have to go for now. I’ll be back later.” He said with a smile. Yang nodded and gave Izuku his toys back. He put them in his apartment and the Xiao Longs saw them off. “Mom,” Izuku started as he and his mother walked into the suburban area of Musutafu. “Why are we going to Kacchan’s house?”
“I have to tell his parents about his behavior. I can’t believe he would do that! Are the teachers incompetent or something?” Inko ranted to herself.
“The teachers know about it.” Izuku said.
“What?” Inko asked with steel and ire in her voice he had never heard.
“They say he’s just roughhousing. That’s why I thought it was normal.” Izuku responded, meekly.
“Is that so?” She asked with the same tone, speeding up her walking so that Izuku could barely keep up.
“Mom?” He questioned as they approached the Bakugo home.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. You won’t be bullied by him anymore.” Inko couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her friends and lamented the circumstances but pounded on the door. The door opened to show Katsuki had answered.
“Auntie?” He asked. His expression soured when he saw Izuku with her. Inko put on the fakest smile.
“Hello, Katsuki. Are your parents home?” He turned to the living room of his house.
“Hag! Deku and Auntie are here!” He yelled. Inko put the nickname he used in her back pocket, just in case Mitsuki hadn’t heard it.
“Brat! That name’s not nice to call someone!” Mitsuki said as she approached the door. She grabbed the door as Katsuki went back inside. She saw Inko’s face and recognized it immediately. This was her best friend’s ‘someone is about to feel my wrath, but I’m really bad at hiding it’ smile. “Uh, come in. Izuku, you can go play with Katsuki if you want.” Izuku seemed to pale, and Inko grabbed her child’s shoulder.
“Actually, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Inko said, gentle in her grip, but with the most hostility in her voice that Mitsuki had ever heard. “Why don’t we go inside and sit down. We need to talk.” Mitsuki, the generally fiery woman that she was, wasn’t normally scared of things. However, back in their school years, she and Masaru had seen Inko’s wrath in action. It wasn’t pretty, and Mitsuki remembered it like it was the day before. The group, sans Katsuki but including Masaru, sat on the couch and the armchairs respectively.
“So, Inko.” Masaru, seeing his wife shaken, took charge of the conversation, which he rarely did. “What is going on? I don’t think you’d come over unannounced for a social call,” He said, feigning ignorance. “Unless there was an occasion we’ve forgotten about,” He chuckled, trying to ease the tension. Inko, however, was in no mood for that.
“I’m sorry to have to bring this to your attention, but it seems Katsuki has been…well, extra aggressive as of late.”
“What?” Mitsuki asked, surprised. No one had brought up his aggressive behavior in years. She thought that, outside the house and with friends, he’d mellowed out. He only got praise from the teachers and even the principal of the school. He’d taken after her with his crass mouth, sure, but aggressiveness was a surprise.
“Yes. He has had a history of getting aggressive with other kids, but it seems that it has gotten worse under your noses, and mine as well. It seems to have started when Katsuki got his quirk, and, more importantly, when Izuku didn’t.” Mitsuki and Masaru had a sinking feeling.
“What…what are you implying, Inko?” Masaru asked, hesitantly.
“Implying? I’m not implying anything. I was about to say that Katsuki has been practicing his quirk on Izuku.”
“That’s…” Mitsuki said. “No…” She said. She was supposed to have faith in her son, but she couldn’t say for sure that he wouldn’t do such a thing. He talked about Izuku with such malice, ranting about his quirklessness and calling him that mean nickname and never calling him by name.
“I was told this by Izuku, and he proceeded to ask if that was a normal thing for someone to do,” Inko said, the smile fully dropped and the ire in her voice on full display. “Later, he told me that the teachers at Aldera told Izuku that Katsuki was simply roughhousing. I don’t think active use of an explosion quirk on someone is simply kids messing around.” Masaru and Mitsuki were processing the information they were given. Izuku looked like he wanted to will himself out of existence at the embarrassment he was experiencing. “I would like to assume you did not know of this, but I hope you know why I would rather hear it from you directly.”
“Of course, we didn’t!” Mitsuki shouted as she finally found her voice. “Katsuki!” she yelled up to her son.
“Mom, should we leave?” Izuku asked, not wanting to be there when Katsuki got there.
“I would like you two to wait. Please.” Mitsuki said, getting up. “Katsuki!”
“What do you want, old hag?!”
“Get your ass down here right now!” Eventually, Katsuki came down from his room and was visibly irked that Izuku was still in his home.
“What do you want?” He asked.
“Have you been using your quirk on Izuku?!” She asked. He shot a hateful glance toward Izuku before nodding without shame.
“Yeah, why?” He asked. Mitsuki turned a shade of red in her anger.
“Why would you do that?!” She asked. He responded with the worst possible answer that Mitsuki could imagine.
“He’s a quirkless Deku. Why not?” He said, nonchalantly.
“Katsuki, how long have you been doing this?” Masaru asked, masking his anger much better than his wife.
“I dunno. He keeps talking about being a hero, someone has to show him how useless he is.”
“Katsuki, you’re grounded for…years! We’re moving you out of that school, god, I can’t believe this!”
“What the hell for?!” Katsuki asked, incredibly angry. Izuku flinched at his outburst.
“Because you don’t use your quirk on people!”
“Heroes use their quirks on people all the time!”
“That’s different, they're fighting villains!” Katsuki nearly pulled the hair out of his head before charging at Izuku, who had been making his way toward the door. Izuku yelped as Katsuki’s explosions knocked Izuku on his butt, and continued pelting him as he punched Izuku over and over until he was dragged away by an invisible force. He looked to see Inko, bloody nose draining the blood quickly out of her as she looked at him with contempt and had her hand held out. She was using her quirk.
He struggled against it as Mistuki and Masaru grabbed him. Inko gasped as she gazed over at Izuku. He was blazing with green fire as he got up. He had a look of rage on his face as he looked at Katsuki. He walked over to the Bakugos and, quicker than they could respond, punched Katsuki in the face, knocking him out instantly.
Inko and Izuku both woke up in the guest room at the Bakugos. They had passed out because of blood loss and general weariness respectively. They went downstairs and found out that Izuku had passed out soon after knocking Katsuki out. They apologized profusely, and after Inko apologized as well, specifically for the bloody rug, and assured the couple that they weren’t at fault and that they were still friends, the Midoriyas left and made their way home. It was dark by the time they left.
“I’m sorry I made you come, Izuku,” Inko said, her head clear now that the issue was resolved. Izuku was conflicted about the whole thing.
“I don’t think I like Kac-...Katsuki anymore.” He said. “But I got my quirk…I guess.” Inko’s heart broke. His quirk had come in after almost two years of waiting, and this was the situation it finally appeared. It should’ve been a happy day. As they approached the apartment complex, a blonde, pigtailed blur crashed into Izuku.
“Izu, Izu! Guess What!” Yang said, before noticing his melancholy expression. “What happened?”
The Midoriyas sat in their new friends’ apartment, which had its furniture in place, but their boxes were still everywhere. Inko had explained the situation. Taiyang was appalled and Yang was ready to go and beat up the one who hurt her new friend.
“So all that really happened behind their backs?”
“The teachers were turning a blind eye. Probably because of his powerful quirk. Speaking of quirks,” Inko said, hoping to switch to a lighter topic. “Despite how it happened, Izuku did get his quirk today!” The topic change caused the group to brighten up a bit.
“Another big coincidence! Yang got her quirk, too!” The two kids looked at each other with bright smiles. Yang was about to speak, but Taiyang knew what she would say. “However, she’s gonna wait ‘till tomorrow to show it off. Just because you don’t have school tomorrow doesn’t mean you don’t have a bedtime.”
“Aww!” The kids pouted. The Midoriyas eventually left the Xiao Long apartment, but not before a short conversation between the kids.
“Hey, Izu,” Yang said as Izuku was gathering his toys.
“Yeah?” Izuku asked, looking up. Yang was blushing and looking away.
“Thanks for saving me.” She took a deep breath before rushing to him and kissing his cheek. She then rushed to her room and shut the door. Izuku blushed brightly. The adults had seen the whole scene play out, and although the 5-year-olds were too young to know, their parents had a feeling they would not only be friends but possibly more.