Chapter Text
Bakugou Katsuki is five years old and he hates nothing more than his quirk.
It’s destructive, it hurts the people around him and makes them never want to be close to him. It only brings about pain for everyone, including him. But he can’t help it, it has no off switch as Endeavor’s quirk does, he’s always producing nitroglycerin no matter the time of day. It’s caused him all sorts of problems to have it going all the time, he always had to wipe off his hands whenever touching anything, which was especially hard for a 5-year-old to remember and had resulted in many harsh scoldings since he had gotten his quirk. Once he had woken up in the middle of the night after a nightmare to his sheets smoking and his Mom barging into the room screaming about how much it would cost to replace them, not a fun way to wake up.
Only two people thought his quirk was anything but something a villain would have–Izuku and Auntie Inko.
Auntie Inko was his Mom’s best friend who she met in college and she was the kindest person he had ever met. No one had ever told him that his drawings were beautiful or hung them up on the fridge before, and it filled him with pride every time he went over to their house and saw them.
Izuku is Auntie Inko’s son, and if Auntie was the sun, Izuku was the stars that surrounded it. He is always so excited in everything he does, whether it be drawing a picture of All Might or deciding what shirt to wear tomorrow, anything he does is just so powerful with its passion. He was the first person to tell him that his quirk was just.
“So cool do you have any idea what you could do with a quirk like that, there are so many different things you could do just think of the house uses alone!”
It was refreshing from the constant put down of the thing that made him special. They both made him feel like he was important to the conversation and never made him feel like he was forcing them to talk to him.
More nights than not he stayed over with them, once his Mom had seen how destructive his quirk was she made an effort to stay out of the house more, and his Dad always did what she said.
His teachers always told him how smart he was whenever he figured out problems in school, so he figured they must be right if they had been saying it for a whole year. He didn’t feel very smart though, no one else had trouble controlling their quirk so much as to where they needed to have gloves put on, at least no one was talking about it if they were. He thought about telling Auntie Inko, but if it was just something everyone had to do he didn’t want to disappoint her and make her mad at him.
“Kacchan can you help me with this problem?” Izuku’s words startled him out of his thoughts, and he tore his eyes away from his long-completed paper to Izuku’s half-completed one.
“What’re you having trouble with Izu?” Katsuki’s question was met with a startled stare that left him feeling like he had missed out on a joke.
Did I say something weird? His thoughts quickly spiraled. What did I–oh right–Izu. Does he not like it? I’ll just apologize and hope he forgets about it really quickly.
“Sorry, I–”
“Did you just call me Izu Kaachan?” Izuku’s questioning stare was met by a nervous one.
“Uh, yeah, I figured since you call me Kaachan, I should get to call you a nickname too,” his nervous words were received with a quick nervous ramble of Izu that eventually amounted to,
“Of course, you can call me that Kaachan, I get a nickname and you get a nickname.”
Katsuki flushed with embarrassment, not wanting to admit how much he had agonized over whether or not Izu would be okay with such a familial nickname, it had kept him up at night more than he had wanted to admit, so he was relieved that he was okay with it.
“Right, yeah of course it would–dumb question. Anyway, what did you need help with?”
Turning towards him, Izu pointed at the 6th problem on the sheet, a word problem that had something to do with how many mochi someone had bought for themselves.
“I just don’t understand why someone would need 20 mochi all for themselves, so I must have done something wrong,” Katsuki laughed a little at that, “Hey don’t laugh at me, that was a good question!”
“People in these questions are just weird Izu, they buy or have too much of everything, just look at the numbers and try not to pay attention to how weird it is okay?”
Izuku laughed too, drawing the attention of their teacher, who quickly made her way over to them from the front of the room.
“Bakugou-san, Midoriya-san, what is so funny about learning math?” their teacher’s stern voice broke the little bubble of warmth they had created in the school, and they quickly turned to their teacher with twin looks of guilt.
“It’s my fault Shimada-san, I made Izu-ku laugh about a math problem,” Katsuki nervously defended Izu, quickly tagging on the -ku for his name.
“In any case, he needs to work and learn his math, and you need to learn to keep your hands to yourself–you don’t want to go and give little Midorya something do you?” Shimada-san chided gently
“N–no of course not, sorry Izuku I didn’t mean to get in your face and maybe make you sick,” he quickly backtracked, looking for a way to quickly finish this conversation and keep Izu out of any trouble.
“Kaachan you don’t have to say sorry, I know you wouldn’t mean to make me sick–and you helped me with math,” Izuku quickly came to his defense, not wanting him to get in trouble like he would otherwise.
“You don’t need to defend him Midoriya-san, Bakugou-san doesn’t think he needs to focus just because he can finish the problems quicker.”
“No that's not what I–”
“Bakugou-san, since you decided your peers’ education wasn’t important, you won’t have recess time for the rest of the week!” Shimada-san’s declaration was met with a shout of objection from Izu that was quickly cut off with an elbow to the ribs from Katsuki.
“I understand Shimada-san, thank you for teaching me how to be a better classmate.” Katsuki’s downtrodden response received a sharp nod from the teacher, who promptly turned away to help another classmate.
“Kaachan,” Izu’s harsh whisper chided, “You didn’t have to do that–I could have just said that I thought the mochi was yummy or something!”
“But then you might get in trouble, and you know that as much as they hate my quirk they hate you not having one even more.”
“Well–yeah, but I still think that you shouldn’t have made yourself get in trouble, what would Auntie Mitsuki think?”
Izu’s words brought a chill over Katsuki who quickly turned towards him with a wild look in his eyes that held more years than any five-year-old should ever hold.
“Izu, you can’t say stuff like that so loud, people might think that something’s wrong.”
“Well maybe something is wrong, don’t you think it’s weird how I never come over to your house with bruises?”
“That's just because you’re stronger than me, everyone knows it even though you don’t have a quirk. I have a villain’s quirk which is worse than everyone else.”
“There's so much wrong with that, Kaachan–”
“Can we please talk about this after school,” Katsuki pleaded, “I don’t want to have this conversation in a place where everyone else can hear.”
“Alright Kaachan, we’ll talk about this after school–but you can’t avoid me, you’re coming over to my house anyways.”
Katsuki sighed, knowing Izu was right, but still not looking forward to the inevitable talk.
“Okay Izu, we’ll do this after school.”
Izu gave him a bright smile then mischievously, “As payment for me being such a good friend you should let me copy your math problems.”
“Wha–no, I’m not gonna let you cheat off of me!”
“But Kaachannnn!”
~~~*~~~
After the bell rang for school to end, Katsuki and Izuku quickly darted off toward their route to Auntie Inko’s house, wanting to avoid the older kids who liked to pick on them. After they were sure no one was following them, they slowed, and Izu inhaled sharply.
“Kaachan, I know we’re only 5 and I know we shouldn’t understand this stuff, but we both know we can understand stuff better than we should, and since we both know that I think we need to talk about this.” Izuku rushed all of this out in one breath, almost like he was fearing some disagreement, but Katsuki just nodded silently along.
“Ok well–first I guess, could you explain why you think that I’m stronger than you.” Izu’s question was met with a pause which then morphed into Katsuki’s answer.
“Everyone says it,” Katsuki kicked a rock down the sidewalk, “Mom always says I’m nothing like you, that you wouldn’t cry or be so weak all the time.”
“Kaachan,” was Izu’s weak response.
“And the other kids say it too, even if you don’t have a quirk at least you don’t destroy everything you touch like I do.”
“Kaachan,” Izuku stated firmly, “You aren’t weak for crying–I cry all the time, am I weak for that?”
“No, but it’s different with you–”
“How?” Izuku replied.
“Well–you–I–you’re not annoying like I am!”
“How’re you annoying?! You’re my absolute best friend, you aren’t annoying!”
“Everyone says it.” was Katsuki’s muttered reply.
“Well then everyone’s wrong!” exclaimed Izuku, “Just because they think something doesn’t mean it's true, if I thought that something tasted good and you didn’t, would either of us be wrong?”
“Well, no I guess, but doesn’t that just prove their right?”
“No! It means it's a matter of opinion, but taste buds change, and so can people and their feelings about other people.”
“Oh.”
“Anyways that's not what I wanted to talk about, that was more of a jumping-off point, but just, why do you think that your quirk is a villain’s quirk?”
“Why not?” was the derisive reply, “It ruins everything it touches, it's nothing but destruction, how could that not be seen as villainous.”
“Kaachan, your quirk is amazing, it's so different from all our classmates’ quirks, theirs have no potential to be awesome hero quirks but yours is everything,” Izuku’s face took on a passionate expression, “You could do so much with it, the offense you could have with it, the rescue hero approach–Kaachan you could fly with it if you control it well enough.”
Katsuki’s head snapped up from its lowered gaze on the sidewalk, “Fly?”
“Just think about it, you could do so much with this quirk that long fingers or a giraffe neck or pulling your eyes out of your skull could never dream to accomplish.” Izuku never liked putting down other people's quirks, every quirk had a use in his opinion, but he figured it was more important to make Kaachan feel better than protect the feelings of bullies who weren’t even here.
“I–yeah you’re right, but that doesn’t mean it's not a villainous quirk.” Katsuki lamented.
“Then make it a heroic one,” Izuku stated firmly.
“What?”
“Become a hero and prove them all wrong.”
“And what if they’re right?”
“They’re not”
“What about you then? If I become a hero then you have to too–prove to them that being quirkless doesn’t mean you can’t be a hero.”
“Okay Kaachan, we’ll become heroes together.”
“Do you swear it?”
Izuku’s close-eyed grin didn’t hide his excitement, “I swear it”
Izuku decided not to mention Auntie Mitsuki, he didn’t want to shatter the happy atmosphere they had–besides, stuff like that could wait a little longer, it’s not like anything bad would happen.
~~~*~~~
Things with his mom were rarely simple, as Katsuki came to know, 6 years after his conversation with Izu. They had officially started their prep to becoming heroes about two years ago and it was showing. Izuku was learning how to use all sorts of martial arts strategies and designing support items while Katsuki was honing his quirk and technique. They both designed their hero costumes and had finally come to a conclusion that–thank god–did not include that awful bunny thing that Izu had originally or the grenade launcher armbands that he had originally.
His mom and dad had recently come home from a business trip abroad–something about a fashion show for fancy rich people that he didn’t care about–and she was berating him for his grades as she seemed to do every time she came home.
“Katsuki, why is your History grade so low? You always claim to be so smart and yet all you can manage to come up with on the test is a 93. This won’t cut it for that little hero school you think you’re getting into.” Her words were punctuated with small slaps to the head after every other word, resulting in his head bopping back and forth through her hands.
“I–I’m sorry Mama, the teacher didn’t explain this one bit well and everyone else got a worse grade than me on it so I thought it was oka–”
He was cut off by a sharp slap to the side of his head, whipping his head around to stare into the living room, where his dad was sitting. His dad looked up gave a deep sigh at the proceedings before him, and looked back down at the book he had been previously reading. Tears formed in Katsuki’s eyes, but he refused to let them fall.
“You can’t blame other people for your mistakes you little brat,” she stated sharply, “You have no one to blame but yourself for anything that happens to you.”
“I know,” was the small response, “I’m sorry for blaming my teacher Mama.”
“And don’t call me anything other than Ma’am when we’re inside the house, little villain children don’t have mothers.”
He looked up quickly at that, searching her face for something other than contempt, and when he didn’t find it quietly said, “Yes Ma’am.”
I’m not a villain, Izu said so.
“Good, now get out, I can’t stand to see you right now.”
This time he couldn’t contain his exclamation, “What?”
“What part of that did you not understand, are you deaf now as well as stupid?”
“No” A little.
Her gaze turned no less sharp, her message was clear–get out now or you’ll wish you had before.
“Okay Ma’am, I’ll go.”
“Good–God, Masaru I need a drink, do we have any sake left from the last time we were here?” She quickly forgot about him in favor of pushing her husband to find her some sake, leaving him to stew in his thoughts as he quickly pulled on his shoes.
Last time you were here? Do you mean three months ago when you stopped in only long enough to make sure I hadn’t burned down the place and give me some money? Don’t even pretend that it’s only been a little while.
Katsuki could feel his thoughts growing more bitter as he continued that train of thought, so he decided to shake off them and figure out where to go. He knew, as an eleven-year-old that he should not be out and about on his own, but in the end, what can you do, get beat for sure, or get kidnapped maybe? It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the answer was to him.
After standing on his front lawn and thinking for a minute, he decided to go to the creek by the woods where he and Izu liked to play and train to be heroes. It wasn’t too far away, and in the unlikely event that someone did try to kidnap him, he decided that he could use his quirk to defend himself there. He could also practice his quirk while he was there like he did anyways.
Last week, he used Izu's calculations and analysis to figure out his balance so he could finally learn to fly. He thought that with just one or two more sessions, he could successfully do it on his own. Later, he could work towards holding people while he flew, which would be awesome, but first, he had to figure out how to fly on his own. There was no real reason behind him not having figured out flying before now, Izu had just said that they should wait until his body had developed more of an immunity to his explosions before screwing his arms up and ending his hero career before it even started.
As Katsuki was walking toward his spot, his mind turned toward what his mom had said about him being deaf. Izu and he had done some analysis on quirks similar to his and had quickly found out that most, if not all of the ones with loud aftereffects resulted in hearing loss for the hero. While not altogether awful, they further determined that his ears had no protection against his loud explosions, something they had found out through the loud ringing sound that followed every explosion. Katsuki thought that Izu probably had a whole notebook dedicated purely to just the drawbacks of his quirk, and there were quite a few that they knew about so far.
Stepping across the large log spanning the creek, Katsuki dropped his legs into a pushed-back crouch stance and faced his hands backward, deciding to start with just propulsion today and work his way towards liftoff. He sparked his hands off, felt the explosion take shape in his palms, and could barely blink before his body was being thrown through the air in a makeshift somersault towards the woods. Quickly deciding he did not want a concussion, Katsuki moved his hands in front of himself to push himself backward with explosions and ended with his backside skidding across the ground, and aching arms from the pressure of the kickback.
A few muttered curses pushed him to stand back up and try again, and just as he was readying himself to try again he heard a shout of “Kaachan” to his right just before he was rammed into by a mop of green hair.
“Kaachan I just saw that! There's no way you’re trying that again until you stop and think about why it went wrong for a second!” Izu’s worried shout in his ear calmed down his racing heartbeat.
“You don’t gotta shout Izu, I’m right here.” was his quick reply, “And I’m not gonna think about why it went wrong when I already know.”
“So why did it go wrong then?”
“I put too much weight forward when I needed more back and it caused me to flip.”
“Well duh, I already knew that I meant what’re you thinking about that made you forget that.” Izu rolled his eyes as he said this, clearly expressing his emotions on the matter.
“Sometimes I forget how scary good you are at figuring out somethings going on.”
“It’s a talent,” was the dry response.
“My parents came back today,” Katsuki quietly revealed, his face twisting up in pain at the thoughts that came to mind.
Izuku’s face dropped from the playfulness it held before into something more serious.
“Is that where that bruise came from?” he asked sharply.
“C’mon Izu it’s not like that, she just has a different way of showing that she cares–it’s not that big of a deal.”
“A different way? Last time she was in town she hurt you so badly we had to tell my mom, and then you made me lie to her about it being a bully whose face we didn’t see.”
Katsuki winced at that, he hadn’t liked lying to Auntie Inko, but she and his mom were best friends, she wouldn’t believe him, and then he would just be left with never getting to go back to Izu’s–because surely she wouldn’t want to be around someone who lies and then she would–
“Kaachan stop,” Izu’s voice cut clearly through his spiraling, “I wasn’t blaming you for her being awful, I just think that we should at least tell my mom–”
“But we can’t tell her,” Katsuki burst out, “What happens if we tell her? She tells the police and they make a visit to my house and she sends them off with a lie and then everything goes back to the way it was before but worse because now she knows that I told someone, and she knows who I told and then I won’t be allowed to see you anymore.”
Izu looked conflicted, they had had this argument many times throughout the past six years, and every time Izu eventually agreed that it would just get worse.
“Wait, Kaachan I have an idea,” Izuku’s sudden shout broke the gloomy mood, “What if we just get them to sign over guardianship?”
“To who? No one would want to take in the Villain of Aldera Middle School,” was Katsuki’s bitter response.
“My mom of course! She would believe me if I told her what Auntie Mitsuki has been doing, and she would take your side too.”
“Do you really think that’s possible?” Katsuki responded, not wanting to get his hopes up.
“Of course, I don’t know how I didn’t think of it before, they aren't even here most of the time so why would it matter if they have guardianship or not.”
“Then let’s do it.”
“Right after you make yourself fly and fly me on your back.”
“You’re on Izu, it’s gonna be the best piggyback ride of your whole life.”