Chapter Text
“What the fuck?” The lack of explosion made Katsuki falter. A small poof of smoke and then nothing. Not out of either of his palms. The sweat in his gauntlets wouldn’t even ignite.
“Now, Kacchan!” He heard Deku shout, waiting for the explosion to stun the criminals so Deku could swoop in and put the quirk nullifying cuffs on with minimal contact. It was some college kids who clearly had no idea what they were actually doing, but had powerful enough quirks that they posed a mild threat to the public.
“I can’t,” Katsuki spoke surprisingly calmly while staring at his palms. Deku had already jumped, though, ready for action as always. Katsuki could see the gears turning in Deku’s head. Already reforming a plan and preparing to execute it. Katsuki followed, going for the guy on the opposite side of the room, making sure there was no room for them to flank. A solid punch to the gut made putting on the quirk nullifying cuffs easy. The students had no experience. They must’ve thought robbing their local konbini would be simple. What pro hero would take time out of their day for a konbini? Well, it would be freshly graduated pros who were still small-time sidekicks despite saving Japan and probably the whole world when they were 16, but who is Katsuki to complain?
“What?” Katsuki turned around to see two guys already on the floor, cuffs around their wrists, but Deku was standing over them with a perplexed look.
“What do you mean ‘what’?” He called, keeping a firm hand on the back of the boy’s neck so he couldn’t stand up.
“One for All. It's gone.” Deku flexed his fingers and then stared at Katsuki wide eyed and nervous. “Completely gone. I can’t hear the vestiges.” Katsuki tensed. Well, that was bad. Like really fucking bad. One of these kids had a nullifying quirk and used it on both of them.
“Sucks to suck.” The two heroes whipped around to see one last person standing by the back exit. A gun in their hand and a wide smile. A gun? How the hell did some 20 year old get a gun? He aimed it at Deku, not even hesitating to turn the safety off and press his finger to the trigger.
“Don’t you fucking shoot that,” Katsuki snarled. Immediately, he ran toward the guy but was hit in the back with something large and heavy.
“Ow,” was all he heard as he fell to the ground. “Deku?” He turned his head to see Deku right on top of him, holding his head from where it looked like he hit it on the floor.
“What the fuck?” Katsuki shouted, looking back at the guy who stared at them stunned.
“What the actual fuck?” That was the last thing he said before launching himself at the guy and punching him in the face. With an amount of strength he hasn’t felt in years.
“You’re telling me that they swapped our quirks?” Katsuki yelled. Already thoroughly pissed off by the day’s events. A dull patrol turned into a visit to Hatsume’s lab and being examined like some science rat.
“Yep. We’ve gone through the quirk registry and found that while three of them had run of the mill quirks that they’d practiced with, the fourth has a quirk that can swap quirks! That's so crazy! I can’t believe that they never applied to a hero course! Imagine how much you could do with a quirk–”
“Hatsume, get to the point,” Izuku snapped. Startling everyone in the room. Hatsume chuckled awkwardly before going back to her computer.
“So there’s not much on the quirk. They’d never used it for anything more than pranks. It says that he uses it through secondhand contact. So it won’t work if he touches you directly, but if you opened a door that he’d also opened, then he could activate his quirk and use it on you.” Katsuki groaned. How was it so simple yet so complicated?
“How long does it last?” Katsuki asked. He was pissed but surprisingly not as visceral as he’d typically be.
“Typically between 2 to 4 days. It depends on the strength of the quirks that were swapped. The more powerful it is, the less time it’ll take to wear off. Maybe you guys will be lucky, and it’ll only last the day.” She scanned over a few more things on her screen before pulling her goggles back on and walking toward the back of her lab. “Well, the only thing left to tell you is that Endeavor has put you on mandatory leave till the quirk wears off. No desk work either. If this got out to the public, there’d be an uptick in criminal activity. Nobody else can know. Anyways,” she coughed, “that’s it. Call me if you need anything. Otherwise, don’t come past this door unless you want to help me work on my babies.” She shut the door behind her as she escaped from what would be a furious Katsuki.
“This is fucking ridiculous!” He exclaimed. He stood up from his chair and stalked toward the door. “How the fuck was a quirk like that not picked up by the police or hero commission? That kid should’ve been put on a watchlist as soon as his quirk awakened.” Katsuki was pissed, but he couldn’t even let out a few explosions to release his anger. No. Instead, he’d have to go back to his apartment and beat the shit out of his punching bag. Actually, he couldn’t even do that! One wrong punch, and he’d destroy the whole fucking thing. He had no practice using One for All, and it wasn’t like he could just go to the gym and test it out.
“Come on, Deku. We’ll get takeout or something for dinner. I’m not in the mood to cook,” Katsuki called out behind him. Instead of getting a response, he did hear a few pops. He turned around to see Deku staring at his palms in wonder. His eyes wide as he watched the tiny sparks in his hand. Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Let's go. You can stare at your hands later. I hate being in this stupid lab.”
“Coming, Kacchan!” Deku shot up, face a little guilty but not enough. Why was he acting like it was some amazing new thing? He’d been there for Katsuki’s quirk awakening. It was old news. Katsuki deliberately ignored the fact that Deku now had his quirk and would probably explode everything in their apartment.
“Can we get some barbecue from the place next door? I really want some of their yakiton!” Katsuki groaned but ended up conceding. It’s not like he was going to tell the nerd no.
“Whatever. I’m picking out the movie we’re watching later, and no, it's not going to be an All Might documentary.”
“I still can’t believe you lassoed me today,” Deku teased, laughing at Katsuki’s red face.
“Shut up,” Katsuki grumbled. “I didn’t even mean to. I should’ve let him shoot your sorry ass.”
“Oh, please, you would have thrown me out the window with Blackwhip if you could’ve to get me out of there.” Deku wasn’t wrong, so Katsuki said nothing.
They were at an awkward point in their friendship. They’d graduated a year and a half ago and decided to move in together. They’d save on rent and grocery money. Apparently, Deku was keeping Katsuki from turning into a hermit. Which Katsuki vehemently denied. Just because he didn’t go to dive bars with the extras doesn’t mean he’s a hermit. It means that he doesn’t want to babysit a bunch of grown adults on a Friday night when he could be at home.
He and Deku had truly become friends, not that Katsuki would admit it, after first year. The fight against Shigaraki made Katsuki realize that keeping Deku at arm’s length wasn’t helping anybody. Especially not the two of them. He’d accepted his crush on Deku when he was 15. He’d literally sacrificed himself twice for the guy! But there was no way he’d risk their friendship over some stupid crush.
“Do you want to cue up the movie, Kacchan?” Deku smartly didn’t continue his teasing. It would only make Katsuki get annoyed with him, and he’d go to bed early.
“Yeah,” He stood up and placed his dishes in the sink. He and Deku had a system. Katsuki cooked, and Deku did the dishes. They’d tried alternating when they first moved in. It wasn’t that Deku couldn't cook. He technically could. But it never tasted good, and if it did, it was two servings away from giving you diabetes. So now Katsuki only cooked. Deku never complained. The nerd had always loved his food. For all he knew, Deku could’ve been faking it just so he could have Katsuki’s katsudon every Thursday.
“What’s it going to be tonight? Another one of those American sci-fi movies?” Deku called from the kitchen. Katsuki got comfortable on the couch, grabbing one of their blankets. One thing he noticed was that without his quirk, he was much colder. He’d almost considered putting a hoodie on when he got home.
“Fuck no. You’re the one who always picks those! We’re gonna watch Carved.” Deku whined from the kitchen while Katsuki eagerly set the movie up.
“Are you serious? You know I hate that movie!” Deku joined him on the couch, pouting as he sat in the opposite corner.
“And? This is a great movie. You’re just a big baby,” Deku shot him an unimpressed look.
“Really? A baby? God, what are you 12?” Katsuki snorted, kicking Deku’s shin before tucking his leg back under his blanket. “Yes, yes, you are.” Deku sighed, resigning to his corner of the couch and grabbing a blanket for himself.
“Whatever. Shut up and watch the movie. If you scream, I’m kicking you out.” Deku aimed his own kick at Katsuki’s legs in response.
This was one of Katsuki’s well-liked movies. They didn’t watch it often, but they watched it enough for Deku not to jump at every single little scare. Yet there was Deku, gasping and flinching every ten minutes. It wasn’t till they got an hour in that Katsuki began to smell something burning. He looked over to see Deku gripping the blanket tightly and wafts of smoke drifting up from his fingers.
“Hey! Quit using my quirk! You’re gonna set fire to the blanket!” Katsuki snatched the blanket away from Izuku, who looked between his hands and the scorch marks in surprise.
“I didn’t mean to, I swear! I didn’t realize how easy it was to set off your quirk. That's not one of the nice blankets, is it?” Izuku asked nervously. After giving it a quick look, Katsuki shook his head, and Deku sighed in relief. “Thank god. It is a little funny, though. Haven’t you bought like four new sets of sheets because you keep setting them on fire?” Katsuki flushed from the sudden shift to attacking him. As a response, he threw the blanket at Izuku.
“You only get to use that blanket till we go back to normal. I don’t need you burning all of our shit.” Katsuki grumbled, pointedly ignoring to answer Deku’s teasing. That had become one of Deku’s favorite pastimes. Normally, Katsuki would continue and jab him back, but he just didn’t feel up to it tonight. They’d both had a long week and an even longer day. He kind of wanted to just fall asleep on the couch, but Deku would never let him hear the end of it.
“Seriously?” Deku huffed, taking the blanket and smoothing it over his lap. “Whatever. It's your fault for choosing this movie anyway.”
“Uh-huh. What you wanna tell yourself.” Katsuki smirked once Deku stayed silent. He was still gripping the blanket, but as the movie went on, Deku inched closer and closer till they were sitting next to each other. They might as well have shared Katsuki’s blanket at that point. Katsuki most definitely had not chosen the movie just so Deku would sit close to him. And even if he had, it wasn’t like Deku was actually going to do anything. Katsuki would take anything he could get, even if it was just Deku seeking solace from a horror movie.