Chapter Text
The smell of burnt ozone and caramel always lingered in Class 1-A long after the final bell rang.
It was the scent of Katsuki Bakugou’s quirk, sharp, aggressive, and suffocating.
To everyone else, it was just the smell of the strongest student in their year.
To Izuku Midoriya, it was the smell of a looming panic attack.
Izuku sat at his desk, his fingers trembling slightly as he packed his yellow backpack.
He moved slowly, hoping that if he stayed quiet enough, if he made himself small enough, the blonde hurricane currently kicking his feet up on the desk in front of him would simply blow past.
He wasn't that lucky.
"Hey, Deku."
The voice wasn't a shout. It was a low, dangerous rumble that vibrated in Izuku’s marrow. Katsuki didn't turn around. He didn't have to. He just sat there, the back of his spiky hair looking like a warning sign.
"Y-yeah, Kacchan?" Izuku’s voice hated him. It cracked, betraying every ounce of terror he was trying to hide.
He was uncontrollably shaking, already trembling with fear, and Katsuki hasn’t even done anything yet.
yet.
Katsuki stood up, the chair screeching against the linoleum floor like a dying animal.
He turned slowly, his crimson eyes narrowed, locking onto Izuku with the precision of a predator.
He stepped into Izuku’s personal space, leaning down until his nose was inches from Izuku’s.
"I saw your notes today," Katsuki hissed.
He reached out, his hand moving with a terrifying speed, and snatched the notebook, Hero Analysis for the Future No. 13, off the desk.
"Still scribbling in this trash? Still thinking you’re going to be on the same stage as me?"
"Kacchan, please, give it back," Izuku pleaded, reaching out.
Katsuki’s palm let out a series of small, threatening pops. Snap. Crackle. Pop. Like firecrackers in a closed fist.
"You’re a pebble, Deku. A useless, quirkless-minded little pebble in my shoe. Do you know what I do to pebbles?"
Izuku gulped, terrified.
Before Izuku could answer, Katsuki’s hand ignited. A concentrated blast of heat and light erupted between his fingers.
The smell of burning paper filled the room. Izuku watched, frozen, as the edges of his hard work curled into black ash.
With a smirk that didn't reach his eyes. A smirk that looked more like a grimace of redirected pain.
Katsuki tossed the charred book toward the open window.
It didn't make it out. It hit the frame and fell to the floor, a smoking ruin.
"Stay out of my way," Katsuki growled, his voice dropping to a whisper that felt like a serrated knife. "If I see you looking at me again, if I see you even breathing the same air as the Top 3, I’ll make sure you don't have enough lungs left to breathe at all. Understand?"
Izuku couldn't speak. He just nodded, his eyes stinging with tears he refused to let fall.
He wouldn't give Katsuki the satisfaction. Not today.
Katsuki lingered for a second longer than necessary. His gaze flickered down to Izuku’s trembling hands, a flash of something—guilt? disgust? boredom?—crossing his face so quickly it was gone before Izuku could register it. Then, with a harsh 'tch,' Katsuki shoved past him, his shoulder slamming into Izuku’s with enough force to send the smaller boy stumbling into the chalkboard.
And so, the bullying continued, on and on. Again and again.
Katsuki starting from just using words to hurt Izuku, to light pushes against lockers and eventually, he started literal abuse with words and with body.
punches against izukus ribs, shoves against wall and rockers hard enough that Izuku loses consciousness. Hurtful words. And many many things that left Izuku crying at night even thinking if he was even worth living at all.
He never gave the satisfaction of crying in front of Katsuki tho. He promeis himself that he would do that when Katsuki was gone.
—-
“You’re useless.”
another push against the locker.
”You’re a literal freak. Look at you, green hair, green freak- eyes so bi and creepy eugh- and those freckles. You look like a complete idiot”
another push.
Izuku tried to hold back the tears. I mean, he knew he was ugly but hearing another person confirm that.. it just hurt.
He winced in pain when katsuki shoved him a fourth time against the locker, his head staring to hurt.
“I mean, why even bother living to be honest? You’re quirkless, useless, and you’re ugly too. You’re probably gonna be alone for the rest of your life.”
Izuku just looked up at him with nothing but hurt in his eyes. “Y-you used to call me beautiful when w-we were k-kids..”
Katsuki’s eyes widened but he quickly masked it, laughing a long with his friends behind him. “Oh please! Don’t make me laugh! We were just brats back then we were stupid.”
Katsuki’s friend whispers something in his ear and Katsuki smirks. “I know a way you can become a hero too. And get a cool quirk like me.”
Izuku, being the stupid trusty person he is, looked up at him with pleading wide eyes. “R-really?… how?”
Katsuki leaned down, smirking, close to his face. “Take a swan dive off the building, maybe in your next life you’ll have a cool quirk like me.”
his friends burst out laughing.
That was the snap that Izuku needed. He started tearing up, looking up at Katsuki.
“h-how dare y-you..” he said between sobs and sniffles.
katsuki looked shocked at first at seeing him cry but he quickly masked it again and laughed, before nicking him and knocking him to the floor.
“You’re in my way.” That was all he said, and he kicks Izuku in the stomach before leaving with his friends following and laughing.
The silence that followed was worse than the explosions.
Izuku spent the walk home in a haze of practiced numbness. Limping and wincing in pain with every step he made.
This was his life. This had been his life since he was four years old.
The burns and bruises all over his body were older than his memories, and the insults were the soundtrack to his dreams.
He didn't go straight home. He couldn't let his mother see the state he was in. Instead, he ducked into a cramped, dusty music shop near the station
The Soundboard.
It was the only place Katsuki never went. Katsuki hated "noise" he didn't create himself.
Izuku wandered to the back, where the used guitars hung like forgotten ghosts. He didn't play—not really—but he liked the weight of them. He liked that a string could be pulled until it was taut, until it was screaming, and it still produced something beautiful. He wished he worked like that. Instead, he just felt like he was being pulled until he snapped.
He sat on a small stool, hiding behind a rack of amplifiers, and finally let the first tear fall.
He didn't see the shadow by the door. He didn't see the boy with spiky blonde hair who had followed him at a distance, standing outside the shop window, staring at his own reflection with a look of utter loathing.
Katsuki stood on the sidewalk, his hands buried deep in his pockets, his palms sweating so much they were stinging. He could hear the faint, muffled sound of a piano from inside the shop.
He hated the way his chest felt. It felt tight like there was a quirk-suppressant cuff wrapped around his heart. He wanted to apologize today. He had followed Deku out of the school with the words 'I'm sorry' sitting like lead on his tongue.
But then he’d seen the way Deku looked at him—with that pathetic, hopeful, annoying look—and the old habit had taken over. The anger was a shield. If he wasn't angry, he was vulnerable. And if he was vulnerable, he was nothing.
"Fucking nerd," Katsuki muttered, but there was no venom in it. He turned away from the music shop and started walking toward the subway.
He didn't know then that years later, he would be the one standing on a stage, begging for that same nerd to look at him. He didn't know that one day, he’d find out that a notebook wasn't the only thing someone would burn in Izuku Midoriya’s life.
He just knew that the silence of his own house was going to be unbearable tonight.
—
Izuku became more and more depressed as the year passed, the bullying never stopped which made it worse.
he started hurting himself in ways that Katsuki never had. Then hiding the evidence with his long sleeves.
None knew. Which was fine. He didn’t want anyone to know how weak he was. Especially his mother.
Until one day, she did.
Izuku run to the roof of his apartment, crying. He stood on the edge, looking down at the street.
”take a swan dive off the building and maybe in your next life you’ll be born with a quirk!”
maybe he was right.
and maybe he will.
he took one step forward then another.
One foot dangling from the roof, in the air, the other still on the roof.
He took a heavy breath. Thinking it might be his last one.
he wiped his tears and took one last step.
He fell.
His mother was outside, just now coming home from the grocery store.
”Izuku?..” She run up to the body on the floor, with blood everywhere around it.
”oh my god! Izuku! Please tell me this is a joke! Sweetheart?? Please answer me!”
she started panicking and immediately called the ambulance.
They arrived after 5 minutes.
They were in the hospital and she was still panicking, so she decided to call the only person that could help her calm down. Her best friend. Mitsuki.
”Hello-“
”come to the hospital! N-now! P-please.. I need you..”
“Inko? Are you okay? I’m on my way.”
”I-I’m fine! M-my-.. Izuku.. I don’t know.. just please come now!”
”izuku?” She heard a boys voice from behind Mitsuki. Katsuki.
“y-yes! He’s your best friend so you might wanna come here to Katsuki..”
she didn’t know Katsuki himself was the cause of this.
They both arrived after a few minutes, shocked at the state they found Izuku in.
“L-look at all these bruises. Look at the cuts in his arms.. who did that to him..”
She kept crying nonstop.
Katsuki was just staring at the body in front of him.
“I-is he.. is he alive?..”
“yes.. he’s fine. But he’s in a coma. Doctors said he hit his head too hard, so it might take months for him to wake up.”
Katsuki’s eyes widened.
“o-oh..”
”He jumped.. he jumped off the building. I saw my own son fall right in front of me..”
“he.. jumped?..”
“Yes. I-I didn’t know im such a bad mother that I never realized how hurt my son was. Hurting himself and then eventually killing himself..”
“Inko. Stop it. You’re the best mother Izuku could’ve asks for. And we all know it. He probably hid it from you cause he didn’t want you to find out.” Mitsuki said hugging her.
“Now let’s leave him to rest and go to my house so you can rest too, okay? It’s closer to the hospital than your house.”
“o-okay..”
They left the room, but Katsuki was still in there looking at the body with wide eyes.
I… I did this..?
I didn’t mean it when i told him to do that..
I didn’t know he would actually jump..
He started panicking, trying to hold his breath from hitching and tearing up.
i-I’m.. I’m sorry..
—
End of chapter 1.