Chapter Text
Extras:
1
Their first memory of existence is the day Izuku Midoriya opened his eyes.
They exist for a purpose, a reason. They shift around the world, pulling strings as needed and existing as a whisper in the back of people’s minds. “Sit here.” “Don’t eat that.” “Touch it.” “Ask her.” “Laugh.”
It is meaningless and it is everything. They watch the world take shape with gentle nudges when someone thinks twice and someone else hesitates. They watch Izuku Midoriya learn to walk and talk. They watch his father run away and his mother make friends with the strong willed Mitsuki Bakugou as planned.
The first time Izuku Midoriya meets Katsuki Bakugou, they feel a tug. Sharp and bright against the edge of their consciousness and they reach out not with a thought but with a hand and feel, for the first time in their existence, confusion.
They think it might have to do with Izuku Midoriya and so they step back, let the Story carry on and focus on the people around them. Izuku spends his days playing with Katsuki, following Katsuki, emulating Katsuki.
The children are in kindergarten the next time they feel it. A sharp tug like a rope tied around their wrist dragging them away from Izuku, who is about to be named Deku, to the child destined to play the biggest part in Izuku Midoriya’s life.
Katsuki Bakugou is a storm with an anger far too great to be contained within that little body. They have no control over the Story, but if they did perhaps this is one thing they might temper. And when he opens his mouth to name Izuku, they nudge him forward and frown when they see him hesitate before the name slips out.
But even then they do not worry until Katsuki gets his quirk and they smile--because they can smile now--and let the sensation of smug satisfaction fill their airless lungs. Right on time.
And Katsuki turns to look right at them.
2
Katsuki saving All Might for the first time!
3
Izuku runs as fast as his legs will carry him. The park is only seven minutes from the Bakugou’s house but it might have been hours for all the good it does him.
“Kacchan…” Izuku pants as Uncle Masaru grabs the car keys and Auntie Mitsuki picks him up. “Sick… Park…”
The car ride takes two minutes and 30 seconds. Izuku knows because he counted. Because he knows something is wrong, had felt it like a chill down his spine.
The park is empty when they pull in. The Bakugous leave him in the car but he can see the spot he left Katsuki. It is empty.
The cops cone and then his mom is there, soothing him as he cries and snarls at the officers to do something !
“It’ll be okay,” his mother promises. “They’ll find him. You’ll see, Izuku.”
But Izuku doesn’t believe her. He knows there’s something… different about Kacchan. Ever since that day in the forest, when the bridge came crashing down. Kacchan is Kacchan which means Kacchan is the best.
But that doesn’t mean Kacchan isn’t special. He talks to himself when he doesn’t think anyone can hear and just… knows things. Like their tree bridge and the truck and the way the ice cream shop always runs out of chocolate ice cream before they even step foot in the store.
So Izuku knows something bad has happened. He wonders if someone took Katsuki, has nightmares about villains like Sliver Gun or The Snap Squad holding Katsuki somewhere dark with ropes and chains and screams himself away every night so his mother has to come rushing in and rock him back to sleep.
So of course Katsuki comes home for his birthday. And when All Might attends, smiling wide for the camera as he throws Kacchan and Izuku up in the air like a couple of beanbags, Izuku knows, despite the joy and the shock of seeing his ultimate hero, that something went terribly, terribly wrong.
4
The last time Toshinori-sensei had to chase him down before he became an official hero he was ten and running circles around the yakuza.
He hadn’t understood it really, not then. He’d been too young. The world had still felt too beautiful and he’d been too innocent. But there was a boy with auburn colored hair and aqua eyes with a quirk to heal anyone with a few drops of his blood. And Nari said they had to help him.
He’d thought about telling All Might, he really had. Because All Might always took care of big guys like that but Nari said it wasn’t a good idea so he’d gone, stolen in the back of a moving truck that took him from his hometown up and up to Akita Prefecture. It’d been dark and he had to sneak food when the delivery drivers weren’t looking and peeing behind a few bushes but he wasn’t afraid because Nari told him it’d be okay.
The boy had been kept in a big house and he’d snuck in through lush gardens, passing by guards and big men with guns. One had almost spotted him but he hid in a large air vent until the guard passed and Nari told him it was all clear.
The boy, Kase, was in a back room hooked up to a hundred machines. He’d startled when Katsuki walked and he’d raised a finger to his lips and smiled because he felt like a hero. He was going to save Kase, Katsuki had decided after he’d gotten nightmares of machines and men and dark rooms like some kind of horror movie. So here he was even though his parents were going to kill him when he got back home because it was the right thing to do.
Nari walked him through how to remove all the needles and tubes carefully and quietly so not a single alarm went off. When it was all over and Kase was free, the boy had hugged Katsuki like he’d seen other kids hug Toshinori-sensei on the news.
It should have been just as easy getting out.
But Kase was scared. He cried as Katsuki urged him out of the room and down the hall, back towards the garden and the bushes they could hide in and then farther out towards the hills where Nari promised to find him a car to take them home.
But they passed another backroom with a million more locks than Kase’s room had had. And he’d felt an inkling, an urge, to check the room coming from Nari so he’d hesitated just long enough for Kase to whisper there was a baby in that room.
And then the guard turned the corner.
Katsuki is proud to say he didn’t scream. He’d been training with All Might for four years. He was old enough to handle himself and… he had Nari.
So he bit his tongue and dragged Kase down another hallway as the alarms went off. Nari instructed him through another room and then out a window and down the driveway where they’d crawled under a car and then another until they were near the tree line.
Someone somewhere took a shot and the bark next to his face exploded, wood shavings cutting his cheeks but he didn’t stop running and he never let go of Kase’s hand until they were deep in the woods.
There’d been snow on the ground. But Nari carried the winds to cover their footsteps and when Kase’s bare feet couldn’t keep going, Katsuki carried him on his back until they found a farm and a hen house to hide in.
There the owners found them the next morning because they’d come to feed the chickens and Nari had told them to look closely at the collection of tarps in the corner. Kase had screamed and begged not to be taken back. Katsuki held him close as he cried.
The old woman of the house called the police and Katsuki borrowed their phone to call All Might. The cops were closer but All Might got there first, in a big black helicopter that set down right on the gravel driveway so the old man cursed and the old woman snapped at him to be mindful of the children.
His sensei had taken one look at the cut on his cheek and the little boy at his side and sighed, big and heavy.
“Hello, little one,” All Might said gently, crouching down so he didn’t tower over Kase. “It seems you’ve made friends with my Katsuki.”
Kase clung tightly to Katsuki’s back.
“I rescued him,” Katsuki puffed out his chest and let Kase take his hand. “He was hooked up to all these machines and the bad guys were stealing his blood so I took him.”
All Might nodded slowly, processing it all before reaching out to inspect the cut on his cheek. “And you didn’t tell me because…”
“You weren’t allowed to know,” Katsuki shrugged. “But now you can.”
One day, All Might is going to yell at us, Nari warned.
That’s okay, Katsuki thought. As long as he doesn’t stop us.
So they went home and Kase had to sit in a big room while All Might and a detective talked to him. He’d insisted on having Katsuki in the room but the detective said it wasn’t allowed so Katsuki had stood behind a glass window and made funny faces where Kase could see while his parents stood next to him communicating with their eyes.
“He can’t keep doing this,” his mom had whispered when they got home and his parents thought he was asleep. “He’s going to get himself killed.”
“We can’t… stop him,” his dad replied, tucking him into bed. “If we could, don't you think Toshinori would have already? He just… slips away. One moment he’s at the park or sitting next to you in the shopping mall and the next he’s in Tokyo or God once he managed to get to Okinawa! He snuck onto an airplane, Mitsuki. An airplane!”
“Shhhh,” Mom hissed. “Do you want to wake him?”
“We can’t keep doing this. I can’t...”
“One day he’s going to go missing and he’s not going to come home,” Mom sighed, running a soothing hand through his hair.
This is the worst part. Katsuki has done this enough to be familiar with the guilt. He hates worrying them, hates making them afraid. But the thing that moves the string won’t stop just because he’s not an official hero. And Nari needs him. These people… need him.
“So what if we stop him from going missing?” Dad asked.
What… Nari? Did you…
No. I wouldn’t. Not your parents, Nari reassured. This is their idea.
“How can we do that?”
“We make it official,” Dad continued, getting up from the edge of the bed so Katsuki felt the bed shift as he burrowed deeper under the covers so his parents wouldn’t see the confusion on his face. “Let's talk to Toshinori. If Katsuki has a support network…maybe some actual gear.”
“You’re talking about turning our baby into a hero? Masaru, he’s ten!” Mom cried.
“He’s already doing it. We can’t stop him. We’ve tried. Short of locking him in the basement… this is the only way we can keep him safe.”
A long silence passed.
“I hate this.” his mom sniffled and the guilt sits like a led weight in the pit of his stomach. But he wouldn’t have stopped. Kase needed him. “This stupid second quirk and this… why our kid? Why does it have to be him?”
“Because he’s Katsuki.” his dad whispered. There’s shuffling, a shifting of fabric so Katsuki poked his head out long enough to see his parents hugging. “Because he was always going to be a great hero. I just wish… I just thought we’d have more time.”
“I know,” his mother had sighed, turning her head into his father’s neck so Katsuki struggled to hear her next words. “It’s not fair.”
The next day, Instinct was born.
5
Katsuki, age 3, and Masaru Bakugou at the zoo!
Note: Like father, like son. Neither like wearing ties!
6
PS: There are some extra illustrations in the previous chapters! :D Enjoy!!