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Five years old. A training room. Enji - not Endeavour, because the number two pro hero in Japan would never act like that - standing over him. The wince as he was on the ground again, heaving and struggling for air because he'd been knocked down once again. The bandage was still over his left eye, leaving him partially impaired and clumsy. The fresh slap across his face burned as he tumbled to the cold, hard concrete, scraping his knees. His voice was weak and raw as he screeched—
"STOP!"
Shouto was jostled awake by an ear piercing shriek that could curdle blood based on how much fear was intertwined in it. He felt tears slip down his cheeks, salty as they landed against his tongue. His throat was hoarse and raw but- it couldn't be.
Was that him?
Something twisted next to him, large and heavy, yet warm to the touch. A low grumble was emitted from below the covers as he felt arms snaking around his torso, pulling him in closer. Shouto turned, bleary-eyed, staring at whatever was next to him with a mixture of sheer panic and terror.
But...
Oh.
"Ki?"
Katsuki's groans were softer than earlier as he blinked sleep from his eyes, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He shifted underneath the blankets, only to approach a wet patch from underneath the boy.
"Shou-Shou? Baby, c'mon," he said, shifting into an upright position against his headboard, "Up, up, up. C'mon, you need to change."
Change?
'Wait, what? Why?'
Katsuki slowly lifted him out of bed and into the communal bathrooms, thankful for the somewhat soundproof walls as nobody seemed to have woken up. Slowly and sleepily, the pair made it into the bathrooms, confusion buzzing around Shouto's head.
He wasn't even little right now. Being carried? Bathrooms?
“M’not little…” he whined, scrubbing at his eyes.
“Okay, baby, that’s fine. C’mon, let’s go.” Katsuki continued.
Shouto was too fatigued to continue registering anything.
Katsuki was already exhausted to the marrow in his bones and nowhere near mentally stable enough to shower a whole other human being. That shit could fuckin' wait 'til morning. Grabbing baby wipes and another pull up from under a counter, Katsuki placed Shouto near the sinks, taking off his pyjamas and discarding them into a pile. He made quick work of changing him into a fresh pull up, before picking up the boy once again. In his haze, he glanced as the waistband slightly tore at the seams and the leg holes seemingly stretched to oblivion.
'Hm.'
A problem to fix in the morning.
He transported both of them to Shouto's room this time, carding through his pyjama drawer and settling on a pair of fuzzy, blue ones.
Katsuki was partially sure that these were bought as a gag gift as homage to his likeness to Elsa, not that he typically had the mental energy to remember that now.
Shouto was again, fast asleep. Katsuki laid him down just quickly enough for him to slot a pacifier between his lips without drama before Shouto could recognise the familiar bobbing in his mouth. The clock on his wall narrated the seven seconds it took the boy to blindly drag Katsuki under the covers and drift off next to him.
Katsuki would finish this conversation tomorrow.
His thought was punctuated with an abrupt yawn as he spooned Shouto without thought, the sound of his breathing slowly lulling him to sleep.
•☽────✧˖°˖☆˖°˖✧────☾•
The next morning was harder than Katsuki had anticipated.
Thursday blues kept him confused until he realised he should've been up by now. Shouto had already disappeared from beside him, seemingly not in the room at the moment. Katsuki took this as his chance to rub his eyes and sit up in Shouto's bed.
Shouto was not gonna like this conversation.
The day went by without a hitch. A regular lecture from Aizawa Sensei in homeroom, History with Miss Midnight and English with Present Mic. Hero training after lunch and straight back to the dorms. A familiar routine to Katsuki, nothing out of the ordinary. He hadn't stopped to talk to Shouto today, hardly sparing him a glance. It wasn't like the morning's events were anything new but...
Maybe this time, a conversation was in order.
Katsuki made his way back to the dorms, Kirishima in tow as he went on about something the blonde was half-listening to. Not that he didn't appreciate the redhead's company - it could just be a bit much, sometimes. He heard something about a study session with Yaoyorozu that he should 'totally attend' because 'everyone was gonna be there' and 'Yaomomo was making tea for everybody', but honestly, the group shit was just not his vibe.
"Uh huh, uh huh. No thanks, Shitty Hair." Katsuki brushed him off slightly, waving his hand in dismissal as he neared his room.
"Oh, c'mon Bakugou! I'll pay you to come along! Please just-" A slammed door punctuated Kirishima's sentence for him.
Katsuki slid down onto the floor again, tilting his head back and staring mindlessly at the cracks on the ceiling. He had English homework to do and his room to clean and sheets to change and—
Oh. Shit.
He had gone the entire day not even thinking about this morning.
"Ah... fuck." Katsuki groaned, bringing his palms to press onto his forehead.
He really didn't want to have this conversation right now...
Fuck it. Clean up. Call him. Whatever.
After clearing away his notebooks and stray pens from his desk, he went into his closet for fresh sheets and stripped the bed.
How was he even gonna go about this? He remembered the slight ripping of the pull up. It was obviously too small and he hadn't noticed it before. Shouto was probably going to cringe into himself before he even got a word out. Then, to end up going to get more and it becoming a whole thing and just... ugh.
The room was clean, fresh sheets on the bed and nothing on the floors. Homework to be done later because his brain was already fried from just existing. Picking up his phone, he entered his contacts, selecting 'Shou-Shou'.
Wait. When did he change that again?
Whatever, who cares.
Clicking the call button, he let it ring. Once, twice, three times before ultimately going to voicemail. Katsuki was not about to try that another five times and so he picked himself up and took himself to Shouto's room.
He knocked on the door lightly (or lighter than he would for anyone else), and waited until he heard shuffling and the click of a doorknob.
"Oh. Hi..." Shouto's voice was small, eyes darting to the floor and suddenly very interested in his socks.
"Hey. Can I come in?" Katsuki kept his voice soft.
"Um, sure."
Shouto cracked the door open, just enough to let Katsuki in before closing it again.
Katsuki observed the room slowly, noting the open textbook on his desk, phone discarded on the bed with something that looked suspiciously like a kids cartoon, Yumi lingering in the corner of his bed and a stray pacifier that seemed slick with spit. He stared quietly at Shouto, noticing how he crossed and uncrossed his legs as he stood awkwardly by his bed, fingers tapping against his thigh.
"Are you regressed?" Katsuki sat himself on the floor, eyeing the other as if to analyse him.
"Um... not anymore." Shouto began, following suit and leaning against his bed, " I- I was. And then... you came in... and I..."
"You can regress now. Again. If you want to." Katsuki didn't mean to sound so awkward but the eventual conversation kept swimming laps through his mind, shifting his focus more than he'd have liked.
"No!" Shouto almost yelled, before curling back into himself. "I- I mean... No. It's okay. Just... um. What... brings you here?"
The awkwardness made Katsuki cringe, though he did his best to keep that internal. He felt bad all of a sudden. Like, obviously, Shouto probably knows why he's here and, let's be honest, no one typically wants to talk about needing pull ups regularly and suddenly needing different ones because you've outgrown yours. So, yeah, fair enough. But, regardless, Katsuki stoned his face and powered through.
"Last night," he began, locking his eyes onto Shouto and then shifting his gaze to the bare walls, "Your pull up leaked. And when I went to change you..."
Katsuki noticed Shouto reaching for his hands. He shuffled closer until their knees touched and their fingers were interlocked, soon resuming his words after a brief pause.
"The pull up was, like, tearing? Along the sides. It wasn't like — fuck— it doesn't fit you, properly. So, now you need new ones. And, like, we need to probably go into the store or some shit because we don't know your size and shit now and..." Katsuki trailed off after info-dumping all over Shouto, glancing back up at him to gauge a reaction of some kind.
"Um..." Shouto began, hesitant and averting his eyes, "I- I knew they didn't, like, fit. Kind of. They haven't for a... a while. Um.."
"Why didn't you say anything, Shou-Shou? I mean, I know why, but you know. We can just go get some more over the weekend, it's fine."
Shouto stared straight through Katsuki, eyes glazing over as his face stayed neutral. His body trembled slightly as he slowly began curling into himself.
"Hey- " Katsuki's gaze sharpened, hands flying to Shouto's cheeks to bring him back, stroking his scar softly and slightly heating his hands. "Baby, baby. Come back, Shou, c'mon."
Shouto felt a pacifier being placed into his mouth as his vision cleared up again, his face heating up as he registered Katsuki's panicked eyes in front of him.
"Ki?" He mumbled around his pacifier, tilting his head to one side.
"Hi, Shou-Shou. You okay?" Katsuki exhaled, shoulders dropping.
"Mm. Mhm. Wanna watch 'uffin rock."
Katsuki hadn't meant to push him back into regression. For fuck's sake.
"Okay, you go watch Puffin Rock. Ki is gonna call someone, okay?"
Shouto nodded slowly, flopping back onto his bed and resuming whatever was on his phone.
Katsuki grabbed his phone from the desk, dialling Aizawa Sensei's number and just hoping he'd pick up the phone. After two rings, a gruff voice came.
"Hello?"
"Sensei. Shouto and I need to go out this weekend. The mall. Regression supplies."
"Regression supplies? We can facilitate you here, if need be. But, yeah, go. It's fine."
"Thanks, Aizawa."
The phone cut off immediately, Katsuki exhaling any and all oxygen left in him. He glanced at Shouto, content and staring with purpose at Oona as she spoke onscreen.
'Saturday. To the mall. Let's fucking do this.'
•☽────✧˖°˖☆˖°˖✧────☾•
Shouto awoke on Saturday morning with a pacifier in his mouth and Katsuki wrapped in his arms. He wasn't exactly sure what had left him like this, but he wasn't complaining. He sat up, slow and deliberate, plopping his pacifier out and spinning it round his finger for a moment before placing it on his night stand.
He vaguely remembered something Katsuki had said yesterday about the mall. Something about getting something but to go early when it was quieter and that he had gotten permission from Aizawa Sensei already. Shouto didn't particularly like the mall on most class outings, but just the two of them seemed okay.
He changed into a pair of jeans and Katsuki's black hoodie that he had taken a while ago, before heading to brush his teeth and wash his face.
Upon returning to his room, he found his bed empty, only to see Katsuki walking through the door a moment later.
"Mornin' Shou-Shou. You sleep okay?" Katsuki asked gently, eyes laced with concern.
"Morning, Katsuki. I slept good." Shouto smiled, remembered what someone had told him about trying to be more expressive when he spoke.
"Not little?"
"No, but I'm ready to go to the mall."
Katsuki smirked slightly, "Mkay, let's go, Shou-Shou."
Shouto gripped onto Katsuki's sleeve, staying close as they headed out of the dorms and made their way to the mall.
About five minutes away from their destination, Shouto spoke.
"Katsuki?"
"Yeah? Everything okay?"
"Mhm. Um... Why do you call me Shou-Shou? Like when I'm not..." Shouto trailed off, suddenly pausing and gesturing something small with his hands.
"Oh. Uh... I just do. Fits you more than Icyhot Bastard, don't you think?" Katsuki mused, chuckling lightly to himself.
"I guess, yeah..." the boy said, gripping Katsuki's sleeve harder. "What are we here for again?"
"Pull ups. I know you don't want to but we'll be in and out, I promise." Katsuki interlocked their pinkies at that, stepping through the doors and guiding the boy towards a regression store.
Shouto gulped. He really didn't want to be here right now. It was embarrassing enough that he was a little.
Who cares that fifteen percent of the population were?
"You look like a medium." Katsuki deadpanned.
"Huh?"
"You look like a medium. What size were your other ones? Small?"
Shouto suddenly registered that they were inside of a shop filled with regression gear. Pacifiers decorating the shelves as stuffed animals consumed the walls. The floor was carpeted in a neutral beige, contrasting the rest of the colourful store. Shouto glanced at Katsuki standing in front of him, a package of pull ups in hand.
"I- I- maybe? Um... I need- " Shouto's eyes darted around, his breathing getting shallow and quick. The lights were getting brighter and the room was spinning and- and-
Shouto was crouched outside the shop window, knees pulled to his chest.
"Shouto!" Katsuki rushed to his side, kneeling next to him and wrapping an arm around his back. "Baby... It's okay. C'mon, look at me."
Shouto glanced up, snot dripping down his face and mixing with his tears.
"Oh... baby. I know this really fucking sucks but I know and you know that you need these. You're not the only one either. There's tons of littles like you out here. I'm gonna head back in and pay for them, okay? You wanna come with or you wanna stay here?" Katsuki's voice was low and spread over his brain like honey.
The boy stood clumsily, grabbing onto his caregiver for support as they headed back in to pay.
Shouto clung closer to Katsuki, eventually wrapping his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist.
"Baby?"
The boy nuzzled further into the rumbling vibrations of Katsuki's chest.
"Shou-Shou?" Katsuki tilted up his chin to face him. "I'm gonna call Aizawa Sensei to come and pick us up okay? You okay with him seeing you little? If not I'll... work something out."
Mumbling a quick "mhm", Shouto buried himself into Katsuki's shoulder blade again, humming contently as Katsuki bounced him up and down until he felt them moving again. Suddenly, he was being pried off of Ki and buckled into a car.
"Nghh!" Shouto whined, flexing his fingers at Katsuki with his arms outstretched.
Katsuki shushed him before tears could brim at his eyes.
"Look, baby." Katsuki gestured to a mop of black hair in the front seat, "Zawa's gonna take us home. And he brought Yumi for you."
"Ba ba ah!" Shouto giggled as Yumi was placed into his arms, suddenly drifting into his own world.
A few beats of silence fell before Aizawa spoke up as he peered in the rearview mirror. The car was already moving back towards UA.
"You okay, kid?"
"Course I fuckin' am. I'm great."
"I'm serious, Bakugou. Caregiver burnout can happen, you know. Make sure you're still taking care of you. Not just Todoroki." Aizawa's voice rumbled with unease.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Katsuki rolled his eyes in amusement.
"I'm not joking, Bakugou."
"Neither am I. We're all good, promise."
Aizawa glanced at the boys in the backseat - one with a stuffed elephant, babbling to himself and the other with a content smile on his face, just watching.
Yeah.
They’d be alright.