Chapter Text
Every hero fought harder when a child was involved. Pro hero Dynamight was no exception.
He couldn't help. Every time a villain dragged a kid into their fight his blood boiled. Katsuki was thirteen again, completely helpless against the grip of the Sludge Monster. Every damn time.
That was what was going through Bakugou’s head as he charged head first into the burning building. Not the firemen ordering him to stay back, not the police warning it was a delicate situation, not Chargerbolt’s reminder that he should be wearing a gas mask. It was the image of a child suffering in a way he knew all too well because the pro heroes who promised to protect them weren’t strong enough.
It was just luck that Katuski had spotted the kid at all. He and Chagerbolt had been out on patrol looking for an annoying villain, Rose Tint, who had been causing them trouble for weeks. They were about to call it quits for the day and head back to the agency when Katsuki heard the girl scream.
She flailed as a woman dragged her into the empty office building. Something red hot like lava oozed off the girl’s arms and the woman yanked her hand away. The lava dripped to the floor and caught some papers on fire which set the whole building ablaze in a matter of seconds.
Katsuki was already running towards them when the woman turned to face him. Her face twisted in hate and something else she was trying to keep hidden, fear. She slapped the girl fast and hard which got her to stop crying. Then a pink gas reminiscent of Midnight’s came off of her skin and all of the fear in the girl’s face was replaced by a perverse expression of contentment. She looked relaxed as she followed the woman into the burning building. Katsuki would’ve followed them even if he didn’t recognize the woman.
Rose Tint. The villain they’d been chasing. Her quirk allowed her to produce a gas that changed the perception of people’s minds. She made everything in their thoughts seem perfect and then used that manipulation to make them do whatever she wanted. Katsuki fucking hated her.
He blasted himself out of the way of a collapsing beam. If he was any slower Dynamight would’ve been crushed. This building wasn’t going to hold up much longer. He had to find the kid and get her out of here.
He followed the oath Rose Tint took through the building while dodging falling debris. Rose Tint ran up the stairs taking the little girl with her. She must have back up or a way to escape off the roof. That is, if the building didn’t collapse first.
Dynamight was getting old. He didn’t catch up with them until they were already on the roof.
Rose Tint stood between him and the girl. She glanced up at the sky and an approaching helicopter. “You’re too late Dynamight.”
“Like hell I am.”
He blasted towards her. Years of fighting had made him faster than his middle school self could’ve imagined. Rose Tint didn’t have time to dodge before Katsuki had her in a chokehold.
“You’re the one who’s too late,” he snarled. “Release control of the girl and maybe I won’t blast you into a million pieces.”
To his chagrin, Rose Tint just laughed. “I don’t think so Dynamight. I expected better from the number two hero. You shouldn’t have let me get so close.” Pink gas filled his nostrils. Katsuki shoved her away and tried to cover his mouth, but it was already too late. He had breathed in her gas.
Katsuki had been worried about something, he knew that, but he couldn’t remember what. He looked around but everything seemed fine. Better than fine really. Katsuki couldn’t remember the last time he had been this calm and content. Maybe something was wrong with him.
“Call off your reinforcements,” Rose Tint ordered.
Her voice was beautiful. Katsuki wanted to make her happy. He wanted to do whatever she said.
He tapped the comn on his ear. “Chargerbolt come in.”
“Dynamight? Is that you?” Denki sounded confused. Katsuki didn’t know why. Things had never seemed simpler.
“Ask the police and fire department to back off. Everything here is under control.”
“Perfect,” Rose Tint cooed. “You’ve done very well. I’m proud of you.”
Katuski grinned. He wanted her to be proud of him. He would do whatever he had to in order to keep her proud of him.
A helicopter approached the building trying to get close enough for Rose Tint to leave on it. Katsuki had to wonder if she would take him with her. He wanted to go with her. He never wanted to leave her again, she made him feel good.
Chargerbolt burst onto the roof followed by dozens of police, all wearing gas masks. Denki tossed him one and Katsuki put it on without thinking. He didn’t see the need for it, but he trusted Denki.
As soon as he slipped it on, Katsuki’s head cleared. Rose Tint had fucking used her quirk on him. He cursed himself for making such a rookie mistake. If he wasn’t so distracted by the damn kid it never would’ve happened. Katuski was going to kill that damn bitch.
Rose Tint gaped at Chargerbolt. There was panic in her eyes. “You disobeyed direct orders from the number two hero.”
“Yeah I kind of do that all the time.” Denki shrugged. “Plus, no offense, but it was pretty obvious he was under your control. Dynamight never asks for anything and he’s definitely not that nice.”
“I’m a fucking sweetheart,” Katsuki snarled as grabbed Chargerbolt around the middle and chucked him at the helicopter.
Denki screamed a string of unintelligible curses but he grabbed onto the leg of the helicopter and pulled himself up. Katsuki knew he could handle whatever dumbass villain was flying it and land the helicopter somewhere safe so he focused his attention back on Rose Tint.
She got in a couple decent hits, but she was no match against Dynamight. One solid blast to the face and she was unconscious.
Cries pierced the air as soon as Rose Tint black out. The little girl was finally free from Rose Tint’s mind control which Katsuki knew from recent experience she had been pulled out of bliss and plunged into a burning combat zone.
A nice hero like Eijirou or Deku would’ve tried to comfort her. Katsuki grabbed her around the middle and started running. The building was seconds away from collapsing. He sure as hell wasn’t going to die because he had stopped to smile at a child. He had a husband to get back to.
Katsuki ushered the police, two of whom held the unconscious Rose Tint, out of the collapsing building. He exited it himself seconds before the integrity of the structure failed and the building fell in on itself.
Paramedics rushed them, but as far as Katuski could see the only major injury was Rose Tint’s and even that wasn’t fatal. Chargerbolt had managed to land the fucking helicopter in the middle of the street and capture the two sidekick villains inside. Not bad for an unplanned villain raid.
Katsuki handed the girl off to one of the EMTs and she started screaming bloody murder. After about a minute of listening to the doctor failing to calm her down which made it impossible to check her for injuries and kept Katsuki from being able to have a proper conversation with the police, he had enough. “Shut the fuck up kid. They’re trying to help you, so fucking let them.”
Denki, who was standing right next to him, elbowed him. “When will you learn you can’t scream at victims? Or curse at children.”
But the girl stopped her screaming. She let the medical team inspect her for injuries. Denki stared at her. “Why did that work?”
“Nobody ever raised their voice in her visions,” the girl whispered just loud enough for them to hear her. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly. “They were always nice and fake perfect. He is not.” She pointed her tiny hand at Katsuki. “So I know this is real.”
Everyone within listening distance fell silent. They had known this girl had been with Rose Tint but none of them had realized exactly what that meant yet. Fuck she had been emotionally manipulating a child.
“Damn right I’m real,” Katsuki said in a slightly kinder voice moving towards the girl. “And I never lie or sugar coat anything.”
“That’s true,” Denki cut in, trying to ease the tension and make her laugh. “I’ve known Dynamight for twenty years and he’s never nice.”
Normally Katsuki would have a retort, but right now he was focused on the little girl. “That’s how you know you can trust me when I say I won’t let her hurt you again.”
The girl studied his face with red eyes that were too mature for her age. She nodded and Katsuki backed away while the doctors rushed her again.
Katsuki returned to his talk with the police but his attention remained focused on the little girl. “What’s her name?”
“Yukishira Akari,” the head of police answered.
Denki wandered over to them. “Yukishira? Isn’t that Rose Tint’s name?”
“We’ve been chasing her for fucking weeks and you don’t even know her damn name?”
“Of course I do, but that means this kid must be-”
“Her daughter,” The head of police nodded. “At least that’s what our intel indicates.”
“Intel you didn’t fucking give us?” Katsuki snarled. He and the police had a tumultuous relationship at best and he was not in the mood to deal with their bullshit.
Denki, sensing the incoming fight, stepped between them. “I’m sure the police just forgot it in their reports. Surely they wouldn’t intentionally withhold important information from the number two hero. Right?” He added, eyeing the police.
“Of course,” the head of police said with a thin lipped smile. He looked like a fucking weasel. If Katsuki didn’t know he had some lame heat quirk he might have thought he had one of those biomorphic animal quirks. “It was an accidental oversight. It won’t happen again.”
Fat chance. The Weasel didn’t trust him to be careful when there was a child involved. The Weasel didn’t trust him.
Katsuki wanted to explode his face to hell, but that wouldn’t give him what he wanted. He could be careful goddammit. “What are you going to do with her now?” he asked in a barely contained snarl.
Weasel shrugged. “I’ll take possession of her for the time being. I’m sure the Hero Commission will be interesting-”
“No,” Katsuki cut him off.
“No?” Weasel repeated.
“I’m taking her,” Katsuki snapped. “She’s coming with me.”
Denki chuckled nervously. “Dynamight you can’t just take a child.”
“Who says I fucking can’t? Heroes take in kids they save for a couple months all the time. Aizawa did it with Eri. Deku and Round Cheeks always have an extra brat running around their house. This isn’t any fucking different.”
“With all due respect,” Weasel said. “The number one hero, Deku, and his wife, Uravity, are considerably more-”
“Finish that sentence,” Katsuki snarled. “I fucking dare you.”
Denki put a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Calm down dude, you’re not going to help your case,” he said in a low voice. Then he turned back to Weasel with a fake cheery smile. “I think it would be best if you let Dynamight take care of the girl for the time being. Otherwise our agency might have to do an investigation about why we were not informed about important intel on one of our targets.”
They sure as hell would be investigating anyway, but Katsuki couldn’t argue with the way Weasel paled at Denki’s words.
He was always calling Denki an idiot, but he was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. There was a reason Dynamight wanted him at his agency. Where Katsuki just shouted what was on his mind, Denki was willing to play the game with people and he was damn good at it.
Unlike most of their 1A classmates, Denki was never ambitious enough to go through all the work of starting and running his own hero agency. He was more than happy tagging along with Katsuki on his ride to the top, and Katsuki had to admit there were few other people he’d trust to have his back.
Weasel’s face twisted unhappily. “Go talk to her. If she wants to stay with someone like you, that's up to her. At least until the Commission makes other arrangements for her.”
Katuski ignored the insult and didn’t even bother telling him to fuck off as he turned and strode towards Akari. Denki jogged to catch up with him. “You didn’t get hit by a stray quirk or something did you? Maybe someone replaced my best friend with someone who's nice to kids and doesn’t kick puppies.”
“Fuck off Picakhu.”
“Nope, that's definitely him.” When Katsuki didn’t respond Denki sighed. “Look I’m not trying to tell you taking in Akari is a bad idea,” he said. “I’m not. But take it from someone who has a five year old back at home, they’re a lot of fucking work. So if you’re doing all this just to prove you can take care of kids as well as Midoriya-”
“This isn’t about fucking Deku.”
“Then what is it about?”
Katsuki didn’t know how to answer that. He hated the fear in Akari’s eyes, the distrust she had when she looked at the world, the way he could tell deep down she felt like she deserved it. He wanted Akari to feel safe. And there was no one he trusted to do that except for himself and Eijirou. He wanted to see a real smile on her face, not that fake ass smile she had under Rose Tint’s control.
But he couldn’t figure out how to say any of that without sounding like a sap, so Katsuki just shrugged. “Why don’t you just go home to your demon and Earjacks.”
“All I want is to make sure you know what you’re getting into.”
“You think I can’t take care of a fucking kid.”
“Obviously I don’t think that or I wouldn’t let you watch Yuriko this weekend.” Denki let out an exasperated sigh. “I just want to make sure you’ve thought this through. What will Eijirou say?”
Katsuki snorted. Eijirou loved kids. He was always the first to volunteer whenever any of their friend’s kids needed watching. He would love it if Katsuki brought a little brat home.
“I know what I’m doing.”
Denki didn’t look convinced, but he stepped out of his way. “I’ll finish up with the police but then I’m heading home. Yuriko’s gotten into a funk where she needs one of my stories to put her to sleep and Kyouka will have my head if I’m not home before bedtime.”
“Come in at ten tomorrow,” Katsuki barked it like an order, but Denki would interrupt it for what it was. A couple hours off in the morning as a thank you for saving his ass tonight and having his back against Weasel.
“You got it boss,” Denki said, complete with a mocking salute as he walked back to the police.
Katsuki didn’t acknowledge him leaving. He walked up to the doctors that were just finishing up their inspection on Akari. “How is she?”
“Physically she’s fine, other than a couple scrapes and bruises,” the lead doctor said in a low voice. “But emotionally, that little girl’s going through hell.”
Katsuki didn’t respond. He knew what it was like to go through an emotional hellscape. He knew what it was like to be shoved back into normal life after being under the control of a villain. But he didn’t know what it was like for that villain to be someone who was supposed to love and protect you. Mitsuki Bakugou left much to be desired, but she wasn’t a villain.
He sat down next to Akari on the edge of one of the ambulances. Now that he was here, he realized he didn’t know what to say.
“Is Mommy going to jail?” She asked with surprisingly dry eyes.
Never one to sugar coat, Katsuki said, “Yes she is. For a very long time.”
Akari nodded. She balled up her tiny hands into fists. “I guess I’m going to jail too then.”
“Why would you be going to jail?”
“She said I have to go everywhere she goes and I helped her.” That did explain some of the fires at Rose Tint’s crime scenes. They must’ve been caused by Akari’s lava quirk. “I’m one of them. I’m one of the bad guys.”
“You helped me stop her,” Katsuki said. “If it weren’t for you, she would still be out there hurting people. You’re a hero.”
Akari looked up at him with teary eyes. “Really?”
“I thought I told you, I don’t say shit I don’t mean.”
Akari nodded to herself. “I think I believe you.”
“Damn straight,” Katsuki grinned. “Now you have two options. You can either go home with him-” he pointed to Weasel who was glaring at them from a ways away. “-or you can come home with me and stay a couple weeks at my place with my husband and I.”
Akari glanced at Weasel and then grabbed his hand. “You. I want to go with you.”
Katsuki smirked. “Damn straight.