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Katsuki leaned against the railing on the dorm porch, eyes distant as the day’s events ran through his head. Auntie Inko had just showed up to drive Deku to the hospital, where Aizawa had taken Half-n-half. The whole thing just seemed off to Katsuki—and most of the students of 1-A, to be honest. Endeavor might be a popular hero, but enough of the students had gotten a hint of his bad side to be wary of him.
(Not to mention the conversation Katsuki had overheard at the sports festival.)
He spotted a group of his classmates on their way back to the dorm, the class rep in the lead. Iida had gotten permission to use an empty classroom for some afternoon tutoring, and he’d spent the last few hours caged up with those idiots. Katsuki couldn’t envy him.
One student was straggling behind the others. Head down, arms tucked suspiciously close to his body, favoring his right side.
Katsuki waited until the others passed and stuck his arm out to stop Kaminari before he could walk inside. “The hell happened to you?”
“Huh?” Kaminari stared at him. “Dude, what’re you talking about? I’m fine.”
“You’re limping.”
“Oh, that.” He laughed, and it sounded fake as hell. “Just tripped down the stairs, that’s all. I’m such a klutz, man.”
Katsuki grunted. He didn’t try to stop the other boy, who dodged around his arm to follow the others inside.
That wasn’t like him. Kaminari was an idiot and a scatterbrain, and he could be a little clumsy and forgetful but not like that. He wasn’t the kind of guy to just fall down the stairs—that was more Deku’s thing.
An unpleasant memory wormed its way into Katsuki’s brain. Deku, late to class as usual, pants torn and dirt on his chin as he stammered out to their teacher that he’d just fallen down the stairs.
The stairs Katuski had pushed him down.
They’d been twelve, and he’d been lucky the shitty nerd hadn’t tattled.
He huffed out an impatient sigh and pushed away from the railing to stalk inside. The extras had filled up the common room, talking about Half-n-half’s rescue or his shitty dad or whatever they’d been up to all afternoon.
Kaminari was nowhere in sight.
Katsuki pushed past all of his classmates, ignoring their calls for him to join them or give his opinion or cook dinner or whatever they wanted. He took the stairs up to the third floor, then walked straight to Kaminari’s room and knocked on the door.
“I said I was tired, Kiri, come on,” Kaminari replied, voice muffled through the door.
“Do I really sound like him?” Katsuki demanded. It was just ridiculous to get the other blond’s attention, and Kaminari yanked the door open after a moment to stare at him.
“What?” He wasn’t crying, but his face had that pinched, miserable look that showed that tears weren’t far off.
Katsuki took a step closer, right into Kaminari’s space. If the other boy slammed the door in his face he’d leave him be, but if he didn’t….
Kaminari sighed and stood aside to let Katsuki in. “I just fell down the stairs, man. Don’t know what to tell you.”
“Uh-huh.” He hadn’t even asked. Katsuki folded his arms and leaned against Kaminari’s desk, staring at him.
The other boy fidgeted. Closed the door. wound the string of his hoodie around one finger. He never looked at Katuski, never cracked a joke, just stood there with his shoulders bowed in and his arms tucked close to his body. Like he was waiting for an attack.
Katsuki sighed. “Did someone push you?” The last couple of weeks hadn’t been the best. Katsuki would regret not following that general studies asshole into the bathroom sooner; maybe he could have kept him from putting his hands on Kaminari.
Kaminari shook his head. “No, I don’t…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know if someone pushed you,” he replied flatly.
“It was crowded, and there were a bunch of us.” He shook his head again. One hand went to his head, fingers twisting in his hair to tug on it. “I didn’t…someone bumped into me, yeah, but I don’t…I don’t know.”
Katsuki snorted. You don’t know.”
“I don’t know!” Kaminari nearly shouted. His words poured out now, his voice higher and tighter with emotion. “Class D just got out and I got surrounded and someone bumped into my shoulder and it was…I know it wasn’t him, but for a second…and when I tried to get away someone knocked into me again, and next thing I know the stairs were there and I tried to grab the railing but I couldn’t reach it—and Iida grabbed by wrist before I could hit the bottom, anyway—but I couldn’t see anyone and someone was laughing, and—”
Katsuki caught his wrist as he yanked on his hair. “Settle down, dumbass. There’s nobody here but us.”
Kaminari nodded, still not making eye contact. “I don’t know,” he repeated lamely.
“All right,” Katsuki conceded. “You don’t know. What else?”
The other boy shrugged. “I just fell.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t give me that. Something’s been up your ass all afternoon, ever since Aizawa left.”
Kaminari shrugged again. Katuski took a deep breath, forcing his jaw to unclench before he said anything else. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me,” he finally said.
“It’s stupid.”
He snorted. “Of course it is.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” Kaminari protested, yanking his hand away. He wrapped his arms around his chest, shoulders bowing forward. Making himself smaller. “It’s…it’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, why—”
“No, I mean literally, nothing,” Kaminari replied, finally meeting Katsuki’s eyes. “You don’t…I keep thinking something else is gonna happen, right? Every time someone else comes into the bathroom…every time I open my locker…every time I see a new flyer on the bulletin board. Is this it? Is it another message, another picture another…who else knows? What’s going to happen? And I…I….”
Katsuki suddenly felt way out of his depth. He could handle most things, but even he would admit he had trouble with this emotional shit.
What would Kirishima do?
Awkwardly, stiffly, he wrapped an arm around Kaminari’s shoulders and pulled him close. The other boy grabbed onto him, burrowing into the tenuous hug with a dry sob.
Katsuki held him awkwardly, patting his back with his free hand. He’d been thinking about this, too. If he hadn’t waited for Kaminari to come out of the bathroom…if he’d been five minutes later.
That asshole had torn his shirt open and put his hands all over him.
He cleared his throat. “There’s an easy solution to this, dumbass,” he announced.
Kaminari sniffed but didn’t pull away. “What?”
“Just stick with us. Me and Kiri and the others. We won’t let anything like that happen again, all right?”
The other boy was quiet for a few seconds before finally—finally—pulling out of the hug. “I don’t know. What if they start on you next?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Let ‘em try. Think I’m scared of a bunch of gen ed extras?” He sparked one hand off for emphasis, and Kaminari jumped back with a yelp as the air exploded a little too close to his face. “I mean it,” he continued, more seriously. “Stick with us, okay?”
“Okay.” Kaminari seemed calmer. There was a hint of a smile on his face as he met Katsuki’s eyes. “You sure you can handle it?”
He snorted, turning to leave. “I had to deal with shitty Deku following me my entire life. You couldn’t possibly be that annoying.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes, glancing back at his classmate. He felt his shoulders relax a little at seeing some of Kaminari’s usual energy return—even if it was annoying as hell. “Whatever. Just don’t get in my way.”