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"Cupid?" Izuku asks, eyes wide. "Like the baby with bow and arrows? That kind of cupid?"
"No." Katsuki sneers. "C.U.P.I.D. as in Calamity of Unresolved Problems Investigation Department. We don’t use bow and arrows; we prefer to use guns and bullets instead. "
He blinks. "What's a calamity?"
Katsuki stares at him deliberately. "You."
Izuku jolts in his seat, pointing to himself. "M-me? But I haven't done anything!"
He sighs, pulling out his digipad to find Izuku's information. "Toga Himiko," he reads off the first name on file, "girlfriend no.3 and calamity no.0807, tried to stab you, claiming that she can only be 'one' with you by drinking your blood."
He scrolls down. "Todoroki Touya, boyfriend no. 7 and calamity no.0118, is an arsonist who burned down half of the capital building and said you were his inspiration." He skips pass a few more to land on a red tag next to a name. "Akaguro Chizome, known as Stain or calamity no. 0614, who killed nine people in the past six months."
"I never dated Chizome-san!" Izuku protests, face red. “We’re just friends. He visited me sometimes.”
“Friends?” Katsuki snorts and looks up from his digipad. "His last victim was a man who been harassing you for several days. All his killings were dedicated to you."
"I—" Izuku's face drops, pale and shaken. "I'm cursed. That fortuneteller was right. There's something about me that make people around me crazy."
"No, you idiot," he snaps, slamming his digipad down on the table. "They're already a fucking psycho from the start. Don't make excuses for them."
"But I—"
"Do. No. Justified. Their. Actions," he bites out each word with heavy emphasis.
Shrinking in his seat, Izuku nods.
Katsuki huffs. "And I don't fucking believe in curses,” he continues. “Nobody can make someone crazy. That's utter bullshit."
Izuku straightens up and smiles sardonically. "How many names you got on my files though?"
His lips thin out. "Forty-four."
Izuku clenches his hands. "That's too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"
Katsuki clicks his tongue in annoyance. He doesn't have an answer for that.
On paper, Midoriya Izuku, calamity class V, is not dangerous himself but because of his unique fatal attraction it makes people around him loves him too much, loves him to the point of obsession, of murder. Or that’s the theory anyway, but it sounds like B-rated horror movie trope.
"Even if you don't think it's a curse, I'm the reason you’re here right?" Izuku asks resignedly, flashing him a half-hearted smile. "What is it that you do at CUPID that brought you to me?"
"We deal with crimes center around love," Katsuki explains, eyes twitching. Something he hates clarifying more than anything.
"Love?" Izuku's brows furrow. A common sight whenever Katsuki’s talk about his career choice. "Is that something to build an entire investigation department around?"
"You be surprise what people will do for love. Love for money, god, family, or others. It can drive people to insane length," Katsuki says coldly. "Love is the common dominator in many of the worst crimes ever to be committed; it’s the most vicious motivator."
Izuku's eyes flutter as he trembles. "Are you here to arrest me then?" he asks, quiet and resignedly.
"You're an unusual case. You haven't committed any crime, but plenty of crimes are linked back to you," he says, tapping his fingers on the table. "You're the heart of it all."
Izuku's gaze drops to his lap. "So, it's my fault. I caused them to do all this."
Katsuki reaches over and holds Izuku's chin, forcibly tilting it up to look at him in the eyes. Red on green. "Hey, hey, what the fuck did I say?! None of this self-blaming shit," he snarls. "You didn't hold their fucking hand and force them to commit atrocities. They did that all on their own. You don't owe them shit and," he narrows his eyes, "it's better if you stay clear of them."
"How? I can't stop them from finding me," Izuku says, shaking his head in Katsuki's palm.
"I'll protect you," he finds himself saying, "and keep them fuck away from you, Deku."
Izuku's eyes go round and huge, nearly swallowing Katsuki in its depths. "Kacchan," he says, hush and achingly familiar. The childhood nicknames still hold as much weight back then as it does now.
Katsuki quickly draws back, tucking his quivering hand behind him. The heat of Izuku's skin still hasn’t left him.
"I'm glad it's you who's assigned to me then," Izuku continues shyly. "I thought I never see you again, Kacchan. I miss you." Sweet, coy, and fucking dangerous. "It been almost eighteen years since we last saw each other, hasn't it?"
Seventeen years, five months, and twenty-six days. "I don't remember," Katsuki says dismissively with a shrug.
"Oh."
And he can hear the heavy disappointment laced in that single word from Izuku. He steels himself against the burgeoning guilt. No, he won't crumble.
'Calamity No.0715 is extremely dangerous. Midoriya is not to be underestimated just because his hands are clean. Previous agents assigned to him are either dead or locked up after making contact with him.' Supervisor Aizawa leveled him a look. 'Do you understand, Agent Bakugou? Midoriya is not your childhood friend. He is a calamity class V and countless of people of fallen under his spell. Do not be another statistic. I don't want to add your name to his long list of victims.'
Calamities are killers, monsters wearing the suit of man, and Katsuki had seen them all. They murder without repent, guilt, or fear of retaliation and all for the name of love. It gives love a bad name. Twisting it into something ugly, crooked, and wicked to serve their purpose.
And it is Katsuki's mission to put these filthy animals behind bars for good, but here is a calamity class V in sitting front of him and he neither want to put a bullet in Izuku or lock him up.
It's discerning. Aizawa's warning to him still plays in the back of his mind.
"Well," gathering up the pieces of his disappointment, Izuku perks himself back up, "I'm certainly happy to see you again even under this, uh, unfortunate circumstance," he says. "I would wonder how you're doing. Are you happy? Safe at least wherever you are? I didn't know, but I always hope the best for you." He flashes Katsuki an earnest smile before catching himself in time, waving his hand in protest as his face goes completely red. "N-not that I think about you a lot. Just a little bit. Sometimes. It's just I was curious after you and your family suddenly moved away. I—w-wonder you know...?"
Katsuki hurriedly looks away, balling his hands into a fist under the table. "As you can see, I'm perfectly fine now, so you can stop worrying," he says, nails digging into his flesh. The pain offers a mild distraction.
"Y-yes, of course," Izuku says, embarrassed. "I'm just glad you're doing good. So very glad."
Even out of the corner of his eyes, Izuku's unmistakable joy is uncontained. He practically emanates elation. It's sickeningly sweet and suffocating in its sincerity.
Katsuki breathes. In and out. Like he can exorcise Izuku's existence out of his body. His head. His heart.
Aizawa said he didn't want to put Katsuki's name in Izuku's file, but he didn't have to because before the first victim of Izuku was ever found by CUPID, there was Katsuki at eight years old with bloodied and bruised knuckles.
“We can't leave!” Katsuki had cried out. “Deku still need me!”
His mother had shaken her head, holding him close as he tried to fight her off. “Izuku-kun is a good kid, but that boy will ruin you. You can't stay with him. We must go.”
And so, they did. His parents took him away, as far as they could, and Katsuki grew up fine, normal as it can be, but there's always something missing. Someone. And now he has found it again.
Seventeen years was not enough distance between them, it seems.
"This isn't a reunion," he says, voice steady, revealing none of the disturbance rippling underneath his façade. "You're my duty."
"Right, and I'm looking forward to it!" Izuku says cheerfully against Katsuki’s iron-clad resolved, and it sounds like a threat. The most dangerous threat Katsuki had ever face.