Work Text:
The scene before him was a battlefield, but Izuku could clearly see in his mind’s eye what it used to be--a peaceful city business block, a few banks (now on fire) and business firms (collapsed, rubble). He wonders when it’ll be back to normal, no longer filled with smoke and ash. After a moment, he shakes his head, stopping that train of thoughts. He’s floating away. He needs to focus. Taking in a deep breath, the smell of disaster overwhelms him. He’s been here before, and he’ll be here again. This is nothing new.
The crackle of his radio comes back to him, and he listens in. He only floated for a few seconds, but in this line of work even that can be dangerous.
“Team One radioing, we found more civilians, requesting back up, over and out.” He hears. His eyes scan over the map, and after quick consideration he radios back.
“Management radioing, Team Five head to Team One’s area to assist, over and out,” he says, finger’s tracing where everyone is. Another specialist shouts over her shoulder that the firefighters would be there soon, and Izuku thanks everything above as he hears another explosion rumble in the distance. He looks to the direction he heard the noise in, before consulting the map once again.
“Management radioing, Team Two check in, over and out,” he says. Distantly, as if just out of reach, he can feel his nerves, but in the moment they just won’t come to him.
“Team Two radioing, we’re too close to the fight, evacuating on route 3 now with civilians, over and out.”
Izuku traces route 3 with his finger and nods approvingly. The team leader picked the perfect choice, so he leaves them to it. He hears another explosion and sighs.
It’s going to be a long day.
After another hour of fighting and destruction, the villain is finally caught. Izuku nearly wept with joy when the news came in over the radio, but sadly for him his job isn’t nearly over. The villain may have been arrested, but damage was done, and now he needs to work on fixing what he can.
Areas three and two had been fully evacuated and were just in need of the firefighters, however one, four, and five still needed confirmation. Izuku looks up, rolling his head a little as he’d been crouched over the map for so long. He notices some people meandering about. Most are in the blue t-shirts of civilian volunteers, but in the distance he notices someone in the bright orange of his team hopping out of one of the ambulances. He grabs his radio and rushes over, wondering why they were here and what had happened. ‘I didn’t hear anything over the radio,’ he thinks.
“Hey!” Izuku calls, but the man doesn’t turn around. Annoyed, Izuku reaches the man, spinning him around by the shoulder. “What happened? Why aren't you with your team?” He asks, looking the man up and down. He seems fine. The man scowls in confusion, red eyes glaring.
“Hah? The fuck you talking about,” he says, using his height to lean over Izuku. But this is all a terrible mistake on his part. Izuku is in disaster management mode, and he will take no bullshit.
“Do not speak to me like that,” he says, voice deep and low. The man flinches back in shock, but Izuku is already moving on. “Management radioing, who’s in need of assistance? Over and out.”
If this man has time to come all the way to the front and be an ass, then he has the free time to help out with any team in need, Izuku angrily reasons.
It looks like the man is about to speak, but before he can get any words out the radio crackles to life. His mouth clicks shut as he stares wide eyed.
“Team Three radioing, we could use another pair of hands, over and out.”
“Main street, three blocks down,” Izuku says to the man. He raises his chin, bright green eyes icy cold. “Go.”
The man moves quickly in the direction Izuku had pointed him in, and without delaying any longer, Izuku too returns to his post.
Clearing out civilians takes another 3 hours, but finally the entire area has been cleared of people. Izuku sighs in relief, glad to know part of his job was finally over. Clean up was next, but that could wait a little bit. He takes a swig of water, and hums happily. When was the last time he hydrated? He doesn’t even remember. Working always took so much focus he often forgot to pay attention to certain things. He watches as the teams make their way back, a small smile on his face as there were no team casualties today.
A loud laugh catches his attention, and his eyes are drawn to the team leader of Team Three, Mio, and… the guy he had directed earlier. Izuku squints at the man… before feeling his stomach drop. ‘Wait… I kinda recognize this dude but… I have no idea what his name is. I would know his name if he was on one of my teams,’ Izuku thinks with dawning horror. “Oh shit,” he whispers.
Darting out from behind the management table, Izuku runs over to the two of them. The man, this poor man, looks at him with bewilderment as Mio looks on with amusement. “I am,” he takes a deep breath, “so sorry. It was in the moment and I didn’t realize you weren’t on any of my teams, but of course that’s no excuse to put a civilian life in danger,” Izuku says, before bowing deeply, “please forgive me.”
There’s a pause, before Izuku hears Mio begin to chuckle. He glances up at him, before looking at the man, who now has his arms crossed and a… strange look on his face.
“Izuku,” Mio says, barely holding it together, “do you… do you not recognize him?”
He stands, tilting his head as he looks at the man again. He had looked vaguely familiar but--
“Holy shit!” Izuku yells, before clasping a hand over his mouth. “Oh my god, holy shit.” He turns around, his face blazing red, before spinning on his heels and bowing once again.
“I am so sorry for all this Mr. Ground Zero, sir.”
Mio bursts into laughter immediately, and Izuku quickly stands to punch him in the arm. “Shut up, oh my god shut up,” Izuku says, delivering quick punches on every word. Ground Zero (Holy shit--the Ground Zero) clears his throat, and Izuku immediately gives him his full attention.
“It’s… fuckin fine, really,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “It was kinda like… cleaning up my own mess so, no hard feelings.”
Mio, rudding the arm that had received Izuku’s barrage of punches, smiles at the two of them. “I was just inviting Mr. Ground Zero here for drinks after we get everything sorted. I’m sure everyone else would love to hear about how you--”
Before he can finish, Izuku returns to punching him once again.
“I am going to kill you, I swear to god!”
---
“Izuku! No!” Aimi, another management specialist, says as Ground Zero finishes sharing the story with the laughing table, much to Izuku’s dismay.
He playfully glares at the hero. “Look at what you’ve done. Now they’re never going to let me live this down.”
“Good, they fuckin shouldn’t,” he response easily.
---
“Hey.” Izuku hears a familiar someone say. He glances over his shoulder, only to find the Ground Zero donned once again in the bright orange that symbolizes his team. “Need any help?”
Izuku smiles, a small laugh escaping him.
“Always.”
It becomes a common sight after that. Any time Ground Zero was the hero called into action, he would often stay behind if he was able and help rescue civilians from the rubble and clear them out of the area, then help with clean up using his explosion for controlled demolition. He wasn’t always the nicest, and often used crass language, but in the field of disaster management, niceness wasn’t a necessity.
---
It was a few months after meeting Ground Zero when he received the call. It’s 1am and Izuku is watching an old superhero movie when his phone rings. Flipping it over beside him, he sees it’s an unknown number. Most of the time, Izuku would just leave it, never in the mood to deal with scams nor telemarketers, but something in his gut… tells him he needed to answer the phone.
“Hello?”
“Um… hey. It’s me…” Ground Zero replies. Izuku sits up, reaching for the remote to pause the movie. “I… um. Fuck.” Izuku hears shuffling and a few more curses. “I need some help,” Ground Zero finally seems to get out.
Izuku stands, immediately looking for his flip flops and keys. “Okay, where are you right now. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He receives the address from the hero and soon finds himself in his car pulled up beside what was once a normal apartment complex. Now, smoke curls lazily up into the air. He unlocks the car, and Ground Zero throws two backpacks in the back before quickly climbing into the passenger seat.
“Why is it that every time we meet disaster has to be involved somehow?” Izuku asks lightheartedly. Ground Zero quietly chuckles before going quiet for a minute.
“Sorry,” he says suddenly. “I couldn’t think of anyone else to call.”
Izuku shakes his head. “It’s fine, man. I really don’t mind. Do you need to drop by a convenience store to pick anything up?”
Ground Zero shakes his head. “I just… want to lie the fuck down.”
Izuku hums in acknowledgement and they drive in silence for the rest of the time.
As Izuku parks the car, he realizes something. “Before I let you into my place, I’m gonna need to know your name.”
The hero looks over at him, before rolling his eyes. He holds out his hand. “Bakugou Katsuki.”
He quickly grabs the hand, giving it a firm shake. “Midoriya Izuku,” he says.
---
It’s the next day while at the convenience store picking up what Bakugou would need that Izuku learns what happened.
“Some fucker found out that’s where I lived and decided to try and set the place on fire as some… fuck if I know? Revenge? Anyway. One of the people on the lower floors noticed and pulled the alarm. I managed to grab some stuff, but it’ll be a while before I can go back in and grab the rest of my shit because of the smoke and water damage,” Bakugou explains in the hygiene aisle as he grabs a new toothbrush and toothpaste. He scowls down at the products in his hands. “Sorry… again. I’m probably gonna be crashing at your place for a month or two.”
“Dude I already told you,” Izuku says, giving him a little pat on the back. “I really don’t mind. You can stay with me as long as it takes till you can get back into your place again.”
Bakugou’s shoulders seem to slump in relief, and the two move on to the snacks aisle.
“I do have one question, though. How’d you have my number?” Izuku asks as he grabs some salt and vinegar chips. Bakugou shoots him a look.
“You don’t remember?”
“What?”
He laughs, deep and full, and Izuku’s stomach does weird flip flops. “That first time I went drinking with you all, you got wasted and basically forced it on me.”
The salt and vinegar chips fall to the floor, Izuku quickly turning into a big red tomato. “I did what?”
“Stole my fuckin phone and everything.”
“Really?” Izuku squeaks, now hiding behind his hands.
“Yup,” Bakugou says, popping the ‘p’ as he picks up the chips and throws them in the basket.
“I am… so sorry.”
And Bakugou laughs.
---
It’s been about two weeks since Katsuki started crashing at Midoriya’s place and he’s… noticed a few interesting things about the man--like how he has a deep obsession for old hero movies, or that he sings in the shower (which Katsuki refuses to tell Midoriya that he knows for fear that he’ll stop), or how his work hours are just as crazy as his own.
Which makes sense. Midoriya’s whole job is coming in to clean up his and other hero’s messes, so of course he’s also on call at all times. There’s been more than one occasion where they’re sharing a meal, and he’ll get a call and rush out with a ‘sorry’ and a stony look on his face--that was another thing. When Midoriya was working it was like he was a totally different person. Off work, it was all smiles and laughter, blushing cheeks and occasional stutters and mumbles. When he was working it was a cold, calculating stare and clipped, sharp commands. It had shocked Katsuki, that first time they met, how much confidence resided in such a small body. Now… he isn’t so shocked.
Midoriya is passionate. Even off work he talks about work, about how “this new evacuation plan is going to save so many lives, Bakugou!” or “the department has finally decided to listen to me and this is how banks are gonna start dealing with villain attacks--look!” It even scared Katsuki a little, how much Midoriya put into his work. How could a body handle so much stress?
But then he remembers all the times he’s seen him on the field, commanding teams from the hastily set up management base tables, and he can’t help but think this is what Midoriya was born to do. Saving people just like he does, but from the ground instead of in the skies. Katsuki sometimes wonders what it would’ve been like if Midoriya had gone the hero route instead of disaster management. Would he have gone to UA? Would they have been… friends?
The front door unlocking shakes him from his thoughts. Turning on the couch, Katsuki watches as Midoriya returns home from a disaster scene, something that has never happened before, and thus Katsuki is a little… unprepared.
Midoriya looks rough. He’s covered head to toe in dust, moving slowly, and his eyes seem a little glazed over. He doesn’t seem to even realize that Katsuki is there. He begins removing his jacket when he just… stops, jacket pulled halfway off and stares at the floor, unseeing. Katsuki waits a moment, but Midoriya doesn’t move and the sight becomes far too unsettling for him.
‘We’ve had victim training but…’ and he looks to Midoriya again, ‘okay. I’ve got this.’ He stands from the couch and slowly approaches Midoriya.
“Midoriya?” He asks, hands slightly out reached. The man doesn’t seem to hear him, so he tries again, “Midoriya, can you hear me?” He hovers his hands over the other’s shoulders, afraid to touch him. Luckily, the second call seems to do something. Midoriya’s eyes trail up and he looks at Katsuki’s face. He blinks. Once, twice, then hums a little in acknowledgement.
“Is it okay if I touch you?” He asks quietly. Midoriya thinks about the question for a long minute before slowly nodding his head. The hands that had been hovering slowly lower, before sliding down the man’s arms to help finish taking his jacket off. Once hung up beside them, Katsuki takes Midoriya’s hand and slowly leads him to the couch. He gets the other seated before crouching before him so he can look up at the other’s face. He holds one of the man’s hands still, desperate to keep him grounded.
Katsuki feels so out of his comfort zone. He doesn’t know what to do next--the training only ever told him to get the victim to a professional but… the professional here is Midoriya and he’s currently out of commission. “Well, I’ll just have to try my fucking best,” he whispers to himself, before speaking louder in as clear a tone as he can manage. “Midoriya, I’m gonna go make you a drink okay. I’ll just be in the kitchen for a little bit, yeah?” His voice shakes a little at the end. Midoriya nods, eyes falling to his hands in his lap.
Katsuki has never made a cup of tea faster in his life. He grabs what he’s pretty sure is Midoriya’s favorite (green tea with peach) and the softest blanket in the apartment before returning. He tests the mug, finding it to be warm and not blazing hot (so maybe he hadn’t let the water boil all the way--sue him he’s in a rush) and helps Midoriya wrap his hands around it. The warmth seems to do something as his shoulders relax, and his face seems to soften a little. Next, Katsuki wraps the blanket around him. He doesn’t know if it’ll do anything, but it’s worth a try. After that, he does the only thing he can think of.
He puts on one of Midoriya’s old hero movies, hoping with all his being that it’ll do something to help. He doesn’t know what it’s about at all, and maybe at a different time he’ll actually watch it with the man he’s now closely observing.
It’s 15 minutes in and Midoriya finally takes a sip of his drink. After another 10 minutes, Katsuki sees him smile, distantly, about something happening in the movie. Another 20 and his eyes are starting to clear. It’s halfway through the movie when Midoriya really starts to move. He places the mug down on the table and starts to slip off the blanket. Katsuki scoots closer, tilting his head towards the other’s face.
“What’s up?”
In a small, quiet voice, Midoriya says, “shower,” before standing and making his way to the bathroom. Katsuki sits there, mind reeling.
‘Is it okay that I’ve let him go alone? He still seems kinda out of it, what he falls and breaks his fucking skull? What if he just sits on the floor in--fuckin, in his clothes? What if--’ Katsuki shakes his head. ‘I’m getting to worked up and I’m no help like that.’ He checks his phone for the time. ‘I’ll give him 30 minutes and if he’s not out by then I’ll check on him.’
Distantly, Katsuki realizes that tonight he’s not going to hear any singing coming from the bathroom, and disappointment settles heavy in his gut. ‘Yeah, I’m definitely not telling him I can always hear him.’
They never finish the movie. Midoriya comes out of the shower 20 minutes later in a towel and immediately heads to his room, but not before giving Katsuki a small “thank you,” his eyes as clear as normal. Katsuki sits on the couch for another good 10 minutes, just in case, before heading to the guest bedroom that he’d set up in. He collapses onto the bed and quickly passes out.
It’s a few weeks later that they actually talk about what happened late one night. Midoriya explains how sometimes work can be so emotionally draining, but he can’t let that affect him in the moment, so he just bottles it all up only for it to hit him all at once when he gets home. In true, emergency disaster manager fashion, they come up with a plan for Katsuki to follow the next time he finds Izuku like that.
---
It’s been a good 2 months now, and something has started to, not bug Katsuki per say, but his curiosity is burning so strong and he can’t ignore it anymore.
They’re eating lunch when he asks.
“Midoriya, what’s your quirk, if you don’t mind answering.” In all the time he’s lived with the man, he’s never seen even a hint of a quirk.
Across from him, Midoriya takes in a deep, tired sounding breath, before putting his fork down. He smiles at Katsuki but… it’s so fake it almost hurts to look at.
“I’m quirkless,” he says nonchalantly, but Katsuki can see from here his shoulders tensing. Midoriya looks like he’s preparing for an attack, and that sight makes Katsuki incredibly uncomfortable.
“Oh,” Katsuki tries to force himself to sound like he doesn’t give two flying fucks. “Alright.” And he goes back to eating. Midoriya looks at him suspiciously, but as he continues to… not do whatever it was Midoriya was preparing himself for, he relaxes and continues to eat as well. It’s a few minutes later that he breaks.
“People normally have a lot to say when they hear that, you know,” Midoriya says, aggressively stabbing at the pasta.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, it’s always either apologies and sympathy or they start to encourage me to quit my job because they think it's too dangerous for me,” he says, scowl forming quickly on his face. Katsuki thinks about Midoriya at work. Strong, commanding, passionate Midoriya leading his teams, and wonders who could possibly encourage the man before him to quit.
“What a bunch of assholes.”
“Fucking tell me about it. Like I can’t handle my own fucking job--I’ve been doing it for 6 years now.” He rolls his eyes, an annoyed huff escaping him. They sit in silence for a little while longer before Midoriya speaks again.
“You know, I’m actually really happy I’m quirkless.”
Katsuki raises his eyebrows, and he continues.
“When I was a kid, I dreamed of being a hero. I was so determined to go down that path no matter what, but one day my mom--bless her for handling all my crazy kid antics--she sat me down and started talking to me about my future. She told me all her fears and worries for me, and then at the end she asked me why I wanted to become a hero. I didn’t answer her right away. I needed time to think after hearing everything she’d said. As I really thought about it, it came to me. I’ve never cared for fighting, that was never the focus--nor was arresting people,” he pauses, the dramatic fuck that he is, “I wanted to save civilians. I wanted to get them to safety. I wanted to protect people from harm.” He sighs, a small smile appearing on his face. “I think if I had a quirk, no matter what it was, I would have realized all that at the worst possible moment. Like, junior year at UA type of thing, where it feels like it's too late to back out. Being quirkless made me realize my true purpose.” Midoriya looks up at that, and Katsuki’s breath hitches in his throat.
Never had he seen anyone blaze with that much fiery determination.
“I’m here to help people.”
---
Katsuki is casually relaxing on the couch, watching the news with vague interest, when the front door suddenly bursts open. Katsuki jumps, heart pounding, as Midoriya stomps his way into the apartment, a look of pure rage etched onto his face. Katsuki watches on in mute shock as he aggressively hangs up his jacket and throws off his shoes. Midoriya stomps his way into the kitchen, angrily opens the refrigerator door, and grabs a coke. Katsuki thinks maybe it’s over, until he sees Midoriya stomp over to the kitchen island and slam the coke onto the counter. He takes a deep breath in, giving Katsuki no time to prepare.
“Fuck the Hero Commission!” Midoriya yells before taking a moment to glare down at the coke he’d grabbed. He angrily opens it and takes a long swing before continuing. “They think they’re so high and mighty and have the right to get all up in my shit. Who the fuck do they think they are? Are they the one’s out on the streets? Do they ever do the analytics? No, they laze around in their headquarters thinking they can boss everyone else around. ‘Oh, you? You’re just an unimportant government worker. The Civilian-Hero Safety Department needs to listen to everything we tell them.’ Like fuck I’m gonna listen to people who have no idea what the fuck they’re doing!”
“Hard day in the office?”
“They sent back my report with ‘suggestions’ on how to do shit better!” Midoriya yells. “Like they know how to do fucking anything! The audacity. The fucking gall to try to tell me-- a specialist in this field-- how to do my shit better. Fuck them. I hope they all die a fiery death. It’s one thing for another specialist to come back with suggestions, but the fucking Hero Commission? I think the fuck not. They can suck my dick--they piss me off so much. You know they sometimes try to prevent us from getting into a disaster zone? God, fuck those people with every fiber of my being.”
Midoriya stomps his way over to the couch, collapsing down next to Katsuki.
“Wanna watch that one hero movie about the… the spider kid?” Katsuki asks.
“Please.”
---
They’re making curry, Izuku working on prep as Bakugou actually cooks everything together, when he finally asks the question that had been tumbling around in the back of his head for the past week. “Hey… Bakugou… do you wanna… maybe, I don’t know…” he trails off before taking in a deep breath. “Doyoumaybewannamovein?”
He sees Bakugou freeze, wooden spoon paused in the pan, before the man turns towards him.
“What?”
“Well, it's just,” Izuku wrings his hands together in front of himself. “I’d say we get along pretty well, and it’s so nice to have someone else around, and splitting rent would really help me out right now, and…” Izuku trails off, his heart jackhammering in his chest. “I mean… you’ve already been here for 4 months… why not a couple more?”
He doesn’t know when, but at some point Izuku had squeezed his eyes shut. He feels like he just ran a marathon and ‘oh god what if he says no and it becomes super awkward between the two of us and--’
“Yeah, sure,” Bakugou finally responds. Izuku’s eyes pop open, and he can’t stop himself from leaning into Bakugou’s space.
“Really!?”
“Why not, it’s not like I was really attached to the other place,” he says with a shrug.
Izuku can stop a big smile from appearing on his face.
“Awesome!”
---
Katsuki doesn’t know when it was exactly he fell head over heels for Midoriya, but if he had to make a guess it was probably during that very first drinking party when the man forced his number upon him.
“You call me… you call me if you’re ever in tr-hic-trouble, ‘kay? Good ole’ Izuku’s got you,” he’d said, voice filled with drunken confidence as he’d nodded his head and handed back the phone he had so aggressively snatched from Katsuki a few moments before. He'd looked down at the new contact and saw the man had put stupid little hearts around his name.
‘Fuckin… just fuckin peachy,’ he’d thought as his stomach did weird flips.
Ever since, he just could never quite keep his eyes off the determined disaster specialist.
---
Izuku doesn’t know when it was exactly he fell head over heels for Bakugou, but if he had to make a guess it was probably the fourth time he’d come to help with clean up. It had been a grueling fight, and everyone was expecting Bakugou to return home immediately after the fight to recover, but after being released from the med team he’d come over to Izuku and asked where he was needed, same as always. The man was covered in bruises, probably exhausted beyond belief, but he still came. He helped with what he could, a few controlled explosions the most he could muster, but he still came. He cursed and shouted all the while but he still came. Something about that… just tugged at Izuku’s heart strings, and ever since then he could never quite keep his eyes off the explosive hero.
---
It’s a year into their hodge-podged living situation when Izuku drunkenly kisses Katsuki after the other makes some stupid comment about how one of his old classmates would absolutely desimate the other out of pure spite.
The next morning they wake up in the same bed, laughter filling the room as they hid under the sheets from the rest of the world.