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“Fuck off you old hag!”
“Katsuki stop your bullshit right now or so God help me I will fucking beat you upside!”
“Hah! I’d like to see you try, bitch! You already beat me! What’s one more time, huh?”
Well, that was apparently the wrong thing for Katsuki to say during this oh so wonderful start to the weeklong spring break from UA. His mom positively loses her shit at that moment and from the way the light catches that glint in her eye, he’d known he’d fucked up big time.
As she starts crossing the distance from the kitchen to the living room, eyes narrowed and fists clenched, he uses his Quirk to fire off a warning shot.
“Oh, now you’ve done it, you fucking asshole!” His mom yells as she closes the distance, yanking him by the shirt collar and using her other hand to slap him right across the face.
Goddamn it, that hurt. His cheek stings, head pounding, eyes teary out of reflex. She’s not done though, moving to throw Katsuki onto the ground. In retaliation he reaches up and yanks her hair.
“You fucking bitch you won’t get away with this shit without a fight. You wanted a fight, so here’s your goddamn fight.”
His words seemed to be meaningless though, going straight through her as she yells out and shoves him hard. The sudden movement has him leaving his grip of her hair and stumbling backwards. Before he can even realize what’s happening, one foot gets caught on the rug and he quickly loses balance, slamming headfirst into the solid, wooden stair rail.
His vision blacks out for a few seconds before he comes to once more. He can hear his mother going off on him, though it’s all muffled. His head is fucking pounding, and he can feel a warm trickle of blood seeping into the collar of his shirt from the back of his neck. Shit. He hisses in pain as he forces himself to get up. It’s too dangerous to be down around his mother when she’s like this.
“Oh, now you’ve done it. I’ll fucking kill you, hag!” He screeches as he lunges at her.
They violently tussle inside before at one point she has him down again, opening the glass sliding door to the backyard and roughly dragging him out by the collar. He chokes as his breathing is constricted and reaches up to grab at the arm holding onto him. Once his hand reaches it, he sets off a mini explosion with his Quirk to burn her. It succeeds and she let’s go, screaming at him. Using this opportunity to get back on his feet, Katsuki quickly recovers and takes a defensive stance. It’s getting hard to see with blood dripping down his forehead into his eyes and head nastily pounding from that tumble earlier. His mom is in considerably better shape, only a split lip and burnt arm to show so far. Maybe it’s because he never actually wants to hurt her, so he subconsciously ends up holding back on her.
“You fuckup! If I knew you’d have turned out like this I would’ve never bothered having you!”
And oh…that stung. He knew it was the truth and he’d known that, especially during these last few years, obviously. Though knowing it didn’t make it hurt any less every time he heard it said aloud to him.
“I know I’m a fuckup, but you’re the one who made me. You made this. You did!” He yells out before he can stop the words from leaving his mouth.
“Don’t you dare try to blame your bullshit on me!” His mom all but growls out at him like a wolf baring her teeth.
Before either of them can get another word in, they’re interrupted by a neighbour threatening to call the police if they don’t shut up. They don’t need that right now, especially not with Katsuki being all bloodied up and possibly concussed, and his mom’s burnt arm.
“Go to your fucking room, Katsuki.”
Wordlessly, he turns and all but runs inside up the stairs to his room. He think’s he’d throw up if he had to stare at that hag’s face any longer. He looks exactly like her. Exactly. Fucking. Like. Her.
It takes a moment for Katsuki to calm down, and he doesn’t fully calm down. It’s like his body is stuck in this limbo between “I’m gonna punch a wall” jittery and “holy shit I could’ve gotten seriously fucked up” jittery. He feels like he needs to run, but he knows if the hag found out he’d be in so deep shit he might not make it out. It’s not like his dad would help him either. He was always conveniently on a business trip anytime his mom got into one of her moods. Even when Katsuki had tried to tell him, all he got was a “Don’t aggravate her then.” Like that was any help. His mere existence was aggravating.
Back to the present though, his eyes were brimming with tears. What. The Fuck. Was he seriously gonna cry over this? He hadn’t even cleaned up yet, but he was gonna cry over it like some fucking baby? He hadn’t cried over an argument in years, but things have been building up for a while. Between all the shit at UA and being a Hero-In-Training, the last thing he wanted was to go home and even have one day to be kind of normal. At the very least, he wishes he had the guts to properly fight back against his mom. He never did. No matter what she did he just couldn’t bring himself to.
By now the tears were flowing freely. It felt kind of good. It’s been ages since he last cried. Maybe he’d needed this. Still though, it fucking irks him to cry. Why does his body have this reaction? Couldn’t he just get angry and punch something instead of breaking down? He didn’t want this. He wants to be mad. Mad at his mom for treating him like a fuckup. Mad at himself for being a fuckup. But he just couldn’t get himself to. No matter what his mom did, how hard she hit him, how hard her words hit, he just couldn’t find it in himself to hate her. It’s a real big fucking problem- being stuck in this cycle. He was tired. So, so tired.
“Breathe in. Breathe out. Calm down. Clean up. First-aid kit under bed. Look presentable. Stop crying. Change bloody shirt. Throw shirt away, it’s a lost cause. Fix hair. Stop crying. Go downstairs and try to fix this shit. Deku’s been telling you how important communication is and all that logical nerd shit. Apologize. Try again. And stop. Fucking. Crying, goddammit.” He mutters to himself in a useless attempt to get his thoughts in order.
It would be okay; everything would be fine. He’d go downstairs, bite his tongue and apologize. His mom would cuss him out before calling him a brat and sending him back upstairs. Then, tomorrow, they would be back to their normal banter and small arguments.
In the end, he decides to skip the first half of his plan and just go downstairs immediately before he lost the guts to apologize. He’s fine, he’s fine, he is fine. Katsuki leaves his room before he can backtrack and starts to slowly make his way to the stairs. He hears the kitchen sink turn on, so his mom is in the kitchen. Slinking down the stairs successfully, he forces his legs to move him forwards. Just apologize and leave. Apologize and leave. Apologize and leave. Easy.
“Mom?”
“Katsuki, I know damn well that better not fucking be you.”
Okay…maybe not so easy.
“I- I’m sorry” His voice chokes up from crying. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Don’t tell me you’re fucking crying? After all the shit you pull you have the audacity to fucking cry. I can’t believe it, you ungrateful brat!” Her words are spat out like venom to Katsuki.
“I’m sorry- I’ll be better, I promise.” He tries again.
“What would be better if you would listen and fuck off! I don’t want to see your face!”
Yeah okay, this wasn’t gonna work. He couldn’t be heroic like Deku and sort all his problems out by communication or whatever the fuck. He was only making it worse for himself. He wasn’t Deku and his mom sure as hell wasn’t Auntie Inko.
Before he could mess up things even worse, he turns around and bolts back upstairs. He’s now feeling the “I fucked up and can’t get out of this” jittery.
He needs to get out. Maybe he could text Deku? He was the closest and the only one who knew how the hag could get. Auntie Inko had told him why she stopped being friends with “Auntie Mitsuki”, after all. Alright, it was decided then.
You busy, nerd?
Kaachan? Are you okay?
By my definition yes.
We have different definitions.
Is it your mom again?
Take a wild fucking guess.
Are you hurt?
Kaachan?
Kaachan are you hurt?
I fucked up, Izuku. I can’t fix it.
With that he puts his phone on silent and locks it. He should just run. He can’t take it anymore, he should just-
His mom is ranting angerly on her phone downstairs before slamming the front door shut. Did she just leave? Not one to pass up an opportunity, Katsuki grabs his emergency backpack and backup shoes from his closet, putting them on. He can get out. Holy shit he can get out. After giving it a good 10 minutes in case, he makes his break for the path leading to Deku’s place. He briefly takes his phone out to send another text, ignoring the pile of concerned ones from the nerd.
I got out. I’m coming over.
Oh my god thank goodness you’re okay
Of course, I’m home. Mom is still at work so no one else here.
Good. I can’t handle adults rn
It takes 12 minutes to walk from his place to the Midorya’s. Deku is waiting on the front porch when he sees Katsuki approach.
“Oh my god, Kaachan! You’re really hurt, what the hell happened?” And just like that the nerd is on him, ignoring his protests and looking at his face.
“I’m fine, idiot” He grunts back as he drags Izuku inside by the arm, feeling paranoid at standing out in the open.
“You are not! You didn’t tell me it was this bad. Oh, we need to get this blood off of you. Does your head hurt? How’s your vision? Can you walk okay? Well, you walked here-”
“Stop rambling, Deku.” Katsuki responds, far too quiet for his boisterous attitude. He can already feel himself teaching up again and he’s so fucking sick of being a cry-baby.
“Sit. Stay put. I’ll be right back.” Izuku redirects him to the dining table before pushing him down into one of the chairs. Katsuki complies wordlessly. Its unnerving.
He can’t stop the tears once they start up again. He’s just so fucking tired of this bullshit, causing problems he can’t fix. Being the problem he can’t fix. It really fucked with him when he would try and rectify things with his mother, and she just wouldn’t even try. No matter how hard Katsuki worked, she just wouldn’t accept it. It was a different type of frustration to be on your knees begging for forgiveness only to be cast aside. He was trying, goddammit.
Izuku came back and wordlessly started cleaning him up, wiping away his tears occasionally. About halfway through, he decides to speak up.
“Do you want to talk about it, Kaachan?”
“No.”
“How does your head feel? Hurt any?”
“Migraine. Eyes hurt.”
“Was it hard enough to warrant concern for a concussion?”
“I blacked out for a sec when it happened.”
“So that’s a yes.”
“I’m done talking, Deku.”
“That’s okay too.”
Deku takes care in cleaning his friend up, disinfecting his injuries and wrapping them up best he can before grabbing his hand and pulling him up. He walks them to his bedroom, sitting Katsuki on his bed and turning towards his dresser, pulling out a set of comfy clothes.
“Put these on. I’m gonna go make you some tea and get a painkiller for you”
“Kay.” It’s the only response Katsuki can muster, voice raw and tired out from crying.
One pair of considerably comfier clothes, a cup of tea and two ibuprofens later, Katsuki finds himself laying down, head to his friend’s chest and finally feeling safe for once. Nothing can get him here. He can let his walls down.
“The kitchen smelled like peach jam.” Katsuki starts. He wants to talk about anything else than his home life right now.
“Mom made some this morning. She held out a jar just for you. Peaches are your favourite. She got a bunch from that friend of her’s that has the trees. I’ll cut some for you later. And maybe if you spend the night, we could make some peach muffins too.”
“You know I fucking love those.”
“I know, that’s why we have them.”
Maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay. It sure as hell feels like it with Deku by his side. With Deku, his Deku, he will be okay.