Archive of Our Own ^beta

Izuku wasn't sure how long Katuski wanted him to wait for things to settle down, but now that he'd noticed the tension, it was hard to ignore it. It was even harder not to analyze the patterns. Everyone in the class was avoiding Tenya, Ochako, and Shoto. More than that, at least half of the class shielded Katsuki from interacting with them at all. If Izuku was with his squad, Katsuki was nowhere to be found. If Izuku was with Katsuki, his squad was typically nearby, but there was a goddamn wall of classmates between them.

So despite Katsuki's reassurances, Izuku wasn't very reassured. It had been weeks since he'd asked about it—now nearly three months since he'd woken up—and things weren't settling down at all. In fact, the rifts seemed to be getting deeper, and Izuku wasn't exactly the type to let that go lying down.

"Hey, Hagakure?" Izuku approached the class gossip. Hagakure turned to him, and he noted how her shoulders went up the way they typically did when she smiled—or rather when she was happy. He couldn't actually tell if she smiled or not, after all.

"Hey! I told you to call me Tooru," she scolded him, gloved finger-wagging at him in rebuke.

He chuckled. "Sorry, Tooru," he replied sheepishly. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Mido!" she replied. He waved his hand towards the front door of the dorms, indicating that he wanted to leave to get some privacy. "Let's go," she agreed, flouncing away with him following after her. "What did you wanna talk about?" she asked when they were out of eavesdropping radius.

"So a few weeks ago, I asked Katsuki if people were avoiding Tenya, Ochako, and Shoto," he began. His suspicions were confirmed when her shoulders went stiff. "He said that things were tense, but didn't give me any real details. He said things would go back to normal on their own, but they haven't. If anything, things have gotten worse."

"Mido—"

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked, barrelling over her before she could find a way to back away from the conversation.

Hagakure pressed a fist to what Izuku assumed was her mouth, clearly weighing her options, so he waited patiently. "I don't know, Izuku," she replied hesitantly. "There's a reason Katsuki didn't tell you, and he really thinks things can go back to normal if we let it lie."

"But they haven't," he insisted. "Hagakure—Tooru, please. It's driving me nuts. It involves me, right? Shouldn't I know if it involves me? Maybe I can help."

Tooru heaved a sigh. "Okay, fine. But I can show you better than I can tell you," she said, her gut churning in trepidation. It kinda felt like opening Pandora's Box. "I have videos of most of the incidents that caused the rift. Some of them were coincidences—I just happened to be taking videos with my phone when something happened—but some of it is part of my training with Aizawa as a stealth hero. You'll need to wait for a bit while I compile the footage."

Izuku nodded enthusiastically. "Of course," he agreed. "Text me when you're ready?"

She hesitated again, clearly wondering if this was a good idea. "Yeah, sure. But Mido," she continued, clearly fretting. "I'm warning you now, you're really not gonna like what you see."

He gave her a serious stare in return. "Maybe not, but that doesn't mean that I don't need to see it."

Two hours later, Tooru called Izuku to her room. "Everything you need is on the laptop. Just press play. Feel free to text me if you need to talk it through. I'm gonna tell Aizawa that you need a combat training room and ask Momo for some indestructo-dummies for when you're done," she told him.

Izuku's gut churned with trepidation as he entered Tooru's hot pink wonderland of a room. If she thought he'd need Momo's indestructo-dummies, he knew he wouldn't like what he was about to see.

When Izuku pressed play, there was no way for him to know exactly what kind of ugly he would be witnessing. But he got the idea pretty quickly.

Tooru had been kind enough to timestamp the footage, so he could better understand what was happening and when. He had a feeling that she did that with all of her footage for documentation purposes, but it was useful so he was grateful.

The first video was from the early days of his hospitalization, and once he understood what was happening, his blood turned to ice.

"You're siding with him? We have no idea how Deku's doing, and he's not telling us anything! It's selfish and manipulative and you're a fucking idiot if you think he's doing this to respect Deku's wishes. Aren't you worried about him?"  Ochako had screamed at Tsu in the common room.

He reminded himself to breathe. He was grateful when Tsuyu fired back, but it was ugly—shots going below the belt far faster than he could have ever anticipated.

"Allowing us to continue worrying about Midoriya like this is unacceptable. Your actions are causing rifts within the class. The stress you're allowing your classmates to experience is on par with the level of disdain one would ascribe to a villain." Iida had scolded Katsuki in front of the entire class.

He clenched his fists, teeth scraping together. He smiled in bloodthirsty satisfaction when Momo (Momo!) had appeared out of nowhere to slug Iida across the jaw.

Then came the day that, if he remembered correctly, Katsuki had seen him choke on his own blood. He knew that because it was it was a few days before the last time before Katsuki had last blown up an entire block in one of the training grounds, and it was displayed on the whiteboard in the common room—'Days Since Class A Needlessly Destroyed a Training Ground."

"You're being an ass Bakugou! You won't tell us anything about how he's doing and you're acting like an asshole. You don't even like him, so why don't you let the people who actually care about him know how he's doing? You're snapping at everyone, you're volatile and you're dangerous. You lash out at anyone who asks for any updates. We fucking get it, you hate him so much that you don't even want to hear his name, so let someone who actually gives a damn take care of him."

He could see the stress in Katsuki's face and shoulders as Ochako had screamed at him.

"As his bully. As an abuser who made him feel terrified and small his entire life." Todoroki had drawled.

Izuku scowled as Katsuki flinched on screen. Breathe, Izuku. Breathe.

"You strut around here trying to make everyone cower for you, treating everyone—especially Deku—like shit. You're an irredeemable asshole and he keeps coming back for more and I'm sick of it," Uraraka had snarled. "His Stockholm Syndrome level devotion to you is going to damage him for life if it doesn't get him straight up killed."

Izuku had watched in horror as Katsuki stumbled back from her, breathing going ragged as he fell face-first into a panic attack and Eijirou tried to comfort him. His appreciation for Katsuki's inner circle skyrocketed as Mina had blocked his Izuku's friends to cover Katsuki's retreat.

"Emotional toll? Bakugou? The only emotions he has are anger and violence." Todoroki had spat.

"I'm making it about me? He doesn't even like Deku and he's acting like he's all torn up so that you five idiots will stop us from getting information—" 

He never thought he'd see Uraraka or Todoroki sneer like that, and his anger was growing in a way he couldn't contain.

"The only reason Deku's mom is telling Bakugou what's going on instead of us is that she doesn't know what Bakugou is actually like!" Uraraka had snapped. "Deku probably sugar-coated Bakugou's bullshit so much that she thinks they're still friends—"

Is that how they saw him? Incapable of making his own decisions and in need of this terrible brand of protection? Did they think so little of him? Of his mom?

"She would be able to make more informed judgment calls if we were permitted to talk to her." Iida had insisted. "If Bakugou had done the responsible thing and told Mrs. Midoriya that we are closer to him than he is, I'm sure she would have—"

He was glad Denki had interrupted Iida before he'd said something mind-numbingly judgmental and stupid.

Then came the day that Katsuki had told the class about the true nature of his condition. He looked so small and sad and scared—Izuku wanted to reach through the screen to comfort him but instead, he had to wait and listen to the vitriol that came next.

"You've known he was dying for a month and didn't tell us?" Todoroki had rounded on Katsuki, and Katsuki had actually flinched back.

"But why did she choose him instead of us? Why has he gotten to be with Deku for an entire month?" Uraraka had demanded, undermining his mother's decision on whom to ask for support.

"It seems strange that she chose Bakugou to support her when he so clearly dislikes Midoriya," Iida had added, loud and stern. "If you knew his condition, you should have told her to allow someone closer to him to support her. That was quite cruel of you, Bakugou." 

Izuku wondered if it would be overkill to break into his room and break all of Iida's glasses. Or better yet, wipe them all down with pepper spray. Then he realized he wasn't even halfway through the video, and he considered that maybe it wasn't enough.

"Is that what it is? You hate him so much that you don't even want him to be cared for on his death bed?" Ochako had lashed out.

He watched Mina literally lunge to defend Katsuki and felt unfathomably grateful to her, but then his attention was diverted back to Uraraka and Todoroki.

"What wounds? He's probably over the moon! Isn't this what you wanted? To get rid of him?" Uraraka had needled.

"Every time he tried to get close you, you pushed him away." Todoroki had agreed, furious. "How do you feel now that he'll be out of the way permanently, Bakugou? Glad?"

He snarled, then. How dare he. He was so furious, he couldn't even take time to enjoy the veritable love letter of a speech that Katuski had given the class. He'd have to ask Hagakure for a copy of it so that he could watch it over and over again for the rest of his life, without the rest of the bullshit to pollute it.

But that wasn't the worst part—that came next, after his three 'best friends' visited the hospital.

"Not only did you nearly get the entire class barred from visiting Midoriya, but you also caused Mrs. Midoriya and the Bakugous extreme emotional distress," Izuku watched in thinly restrained rage as Aizawa took them to task in the common room. "That poor woman is on the verge of losing her only son, and you three—in a fit of selfish, thoughtless anger—not only made her cry but also insulted the people she considers closer to her than the majority of her family. It took me hours to assure her that any future visitors wouldn't distress her further. I have never been more ashamed of my own students before in my entire teaching career, and I teach Mineta who is on the verge of expulsion for sexual misconduct."

They had made his mother cry. They had made his mother cry for asking them to leave, and for accepting support from the Bakugous—the only people who had consistently supported them for the last fifteen years. Why hadn't anyone told him about this?

"We were trying to support her but his control-freak mother was trying to force us out!" Uraraka had shrieked, jabbing an accusing finger at Katsuki.

"I've seen a relationship like the one your mother shares with Mrs. Midoriya. It reminds me of my own parents," Todoroki had added, quietly furious.

Izuku nearly broke Hagakure's pretty pink desk. How dare they imply that his mother's relationship with Auntie Mitsuki was abusive? What the fuck did they know about it? He was officially seeing red. He felt a cold thrill of satisfaction when Katsuki stood up for his mother and laid into them for their behavior, and was grateful when Momo, Mina and Koda—the quietest and most mild-mannered member of Class A—scolded them as Eijirou, Denki, and Kyoka pulled him away.

The next section of the video started about a week after he returned to the dorm.

"You're stopping us from helping with his physical therapy now? You can't control his entire life, Bakugou, and you can't control who he spends time with!" Todoroki had yelled, storming into the common room to confront the explosive blonde.

Izuku watched with a sick satisfaction as Katsuki defended himself. Izuku hadn't even realized that the three of them hadn't been adhering to the particulars of his rehabilitation plan; so naturally, Katsuki was within his rights as Izuku's caregiver to remove them from his PT plan. Obviously. But apparently, they didn't agree.

"Of course you're defaulting to profanity and childish insults. Why would we ever expect maturity out of an emotionally stunted bully?" Todoroki glared.

"Did you ask Izuku if he wanted his medical information shared with you? It sounds like you're strong-arming him into doing things your way, just like you always do," Iida interrupted, pushing into Katsuki's personal space. Izuku wanted to yank him away, but was unfortunately limited by physics. "Midoriya looked uncomfortable with us sharing the information with you, which is why we opted not to."

He was glad Katsuki understood him well enough to understand that his discomfort wasn't related to Katsuki's involvement, but rather the burden he was placing on others. But even if it was Katsuki-related, Katsuki had been his primary fucking caregiver. What the hell had they been thinking? Did they understand how dangerous it was for them to withhold information regarding his care?

The next confrontation made furious for both Katsuki and himself, and it was a few weeks after he'd finally been cleared to start training. Those first weeks after he'd been medically cleared had been some of the best of his life—like taking a breath of fresh air after being locked in a basement for months. Training with Katsuki and All Might had been the highlight of his days. And yet—

"If you think I won't beat you down to make you listen, you're wrong." Todoroki had cornered Katsuki, sealing them into the kitchen with a wall of ice—trapping him there. "Back off of Midoriya. You're taking up all his free time with 'training', and you're injuring him almost daily. He could barely walk when he came in here."

Katsuki was right. Injuries came with the hero gig, so that's how hero training worked. But from the look on Todoroki's face, he'd prefer if Izuku were wrapped in bubble wrap for the rest of his life.

"You think I can't tell that you're taking the opportunity to beat him up while he's not at full strength?" he demanded. "You're taking up all of his free time so that his friends can't spend any time with him. You know he'd take anything you offer because you treated him like crap for so long, and you're taking advantage of that. Not only are you controlling who he spends time with, but you're also pushing him past his limits and it's unhealthy and dangerous!"

"He's obviously pushing himself too far, and it's to impress you! His relationship with you is unhealthy—"

"You're not good for him."

Izuku couldn't actually tell what was making him angrier—the fact that Todoroki seemed to think that he needed to be coddled, the fact that Izuku thought he was pathetic enough to blindly follow Katsuki with no thought regarding his abrasive personality, or that Todoroki thought he had any right to dictate the terms of his friendships—to the degree that he'd told Katsuki to stay away from him.

Izuku's brain was a feedback loop, running through all of the things he'd heard in Tooru's near-traumatizing home movie. With each interaction, his anger grew, then grew again each time he remembered it until he wasn't just angry; he was livid—veritably shaking with rage.

He emailed himself the video, then he pulled out his phone and texted Tooru. She was back within a minute. "How are you doing, Mido?" she asked, quiet and hesitant.

His jaw clenched, a vein in his temple jumping. "I would rather not answer that right now. I'm gonna head down to the training room, but I wanted to ask a favor. That speech that Kacchan made when he told you guys about my coma?" Tooru nodded to show he understood what he was talking about. "Can you make a copy of that for me? I want to listen to that when I don't feel like literally beheading someone." He knew he had the full video but he never wanted to have to endure the rest of it again, and he didn't have the editing chops that Hagakure did. His voice was a low growl that sent a terrifying chill down Tooru's spine. She had never seen Izuku like this—eyes dark and voice cold—tense muscles holding back poorly veiled rage with razor-thin control.

"Y-yeah, of course I can," she agreed. "You've got training room nine. Go take out your aggression on something inanimate, Mido. I'll have it in your room by the time you get back."

"Thanks, Tooru," he replied, but his attention was no longer with her. "And thanks for showing me that. It answered a lot of my questions."

"What are you gonna do?" she asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"Don't know yet. Don't tell Kacchan you showed me that video, though. I want to deal with this myself, and he's handled enough bullshit over the past five months." His expression went, if possible, even darker. "It's my turn to deal with them," he snarled, and Tooru was reminded of a feral animal.

"Understood," she agreed. "It's between you and me."

He made his way out of Tooru's room and took a moment to collect himself; affixing a neutral expression to his face and taking care not to stomp as he moved through the dorm halls.

He caught Momo's eye as he exited the dorm and she shot him a thumbs up, even though she looked concerned. He gave her a thin smile and she seemed to relax, even though she still looked worried about him. He couldn't dwell on it, though. He was still too angry.

He ran into Mina and Denki on his way to the training room, and they waved cheerily at him. He smiled tightly and waved back. Apparently, he wasn't doing a great job of masking his emotions, because both of their faces dropped in concern. "You good, Green Bean?" Mina asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just gonna go work out some of my frustration," he replied. "Kind of a private thing."

Denki eyed him suspiciously but Mina nodded, curling her fingers around Denki's wrist, ready to pull him away. "I gotcha," she smiled. "Let us know if you need to talk, okay?"

His smile grew a little more genuine. "I will. Thanks, Mina."

Denki kept staring at him, clearly considering something, but after a few seconds of waiting for him to move on his own, Mina tugged him forward.

He didn't run into anyone else on his way to the training room, and that was probably for the best. With each step, his footfalls grew heavier and his glare grew fiercer—in no time at all, he was storming forward and his eyes were burning with unmitigated fury. How fucking dare they?

Aizawa was waiting for him when he arrived. "Yaoyorozu helped me set up the training room, and I was concerned when I saw who her custom training dummies looked like," he explained when Izuku raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad you're taking your aggression out on dummies instead of your classmates, but may I ask why these measures are necessary?"

Izuku eyed him. "You were there. You saw how they treated Kacchan. How they treated my mother. I've been hanging out with them like everything was completely normal because nobody told me how much damage they did, and I just found out about five months of verbal abuse. So either I hit the dummies, or I hit them. And trust me, if I see them before I punch some of this out, I will hit them," he snarled.

"I told Bakugou that you'd be pissed when you found out," Aizawa sighed. "And I told him you'd be pissed when you found out that he'd kept it from you."

"Oh, I want to be, trust me." Izuku clenched his fists. "I want to be fucking furious with him for keeping me in the dark after he promised that he'd communicate with me when something was wrong but I can't, because he was being so goddamn selfless. He wanted me to make it out of my rehab with my friendships intact, no matter how hard they shit on him."

"Listen, problem child," Aizawa sighed, opening the door to the training room and letting them both inside. "What they did—what they're doing is wrong, but they're doing it because they care about you."

"Maybe they care about me, but that doesn't give them the right to dictate my life," Izuku snapped. "They've decided that I need to be protected and coddled, and now they're trying to mess with my autonomy. That's not caring, that's control, and I don't want it. I'm not a child and I'm not fragile. I don't need protection, I need support, and I need my peers to trust me to make my own decisions. Todoroki told Kacchan to stay away from me. After all the work we've put in and progress we've made, Todoroki tried to ruin it. Not only that—I was on my deathbed and they made my mom cry. They berated her for leaning on Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru for support, and made her cry for doing what she needed to get through that."

Aizawa looked pained, but he understood where Izuku was coming from. It had taken Aizawa a long time to figure out what his quirk was, and how to use it. He remembered what it was like to be told to take it easy and hold back because he was viewed as less capable. And he had been furious when he'd learned how his students had conducted themselves at the hospital. It would sadden him, but if Izuku never forgave them for that, he wouldn't blame him. "I'm not going to tell you how to handle this because you're right. They crossed a lot of lines over the past few months, and it's up to you whether you want them in your life after that. The ball is in your court, but make sure you think about it."

"Yes, sir," Izuku replied, fists clenching and unclenching by his sides.

"As for Bakugou, I'm going to give you some advice. He may know how much he means to you on a surface level, but he doesn't really know. Do both of you a favor, and find a way to let him know. Get him to understand."

Izuku gritted his teeth, irritated as fuck with his thick-skulled pomeranian dickhead. "Understood, sir."

"Good. Let me know if you need to talk any of this through. I might not be good at it, but I'll do my best," he said, placing his hand on Izuku's very tense shoulder. "Now work out some of that poison, and try not to get hurt. Or else Chiyo will be after my hide."

As soon as the door shut behind Aizawa, Izuku turned to the training dummies. There were three dummies spread through the room, with some spares stacked in a corner. God bless Yaomomo. She had made them simple from the waist down, but their facial features were distinct. She knew exactly who he wanted to beat the crap out of.

Now that he was alone, their voices sounded loud in the silence—spilling caustic, condescending words into the recesses of his brain. He saw Katsuki flinching back or grimacing or crying—flashing like the most infuriating movie montage he'd ever seen across the back of his skull. He imagined how hard they must've made his mother cry in order to get banned from the hospital. How nasty they must have been to Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru as he lay dying in the hospital bed right next to them.

He saw red, and One for All flared under his skin. He was pretty sure he had pushed beyond 10%—probably closer to 15%—but he was too enraged to moderate his output. He felt his feet leave the floor, Float activated, and then he was off—propelling himself toward the dummies with Air Force and kicking the absolute shit out of the Iida dummy's face with Shoot Style.

Black Whip unleashed itself from his arms and back like an avenging angel's wings, lashing out at the two dummies that he wasn't attacking—picking them up and launching them at the walls. They were a manifestation of his feelings and intent, after all.

Izuku let out a feral roar, as enraged tears started to spill over his cheeks and he pummeled the dummy in his grip. It was followed by a snarl of satisfaction as the dummy crumpled and crumbled beneath his fist. His muscles ached in protest and his body creaked with the use of his quirk—he was well beyond his current limit.

Within half an hour, he'd obliterated the dummies and most of the training room. Now, with his knuckles bloody and body bruised—welts along his arms and back from Black Whip and throat raw from screaming—he sat against the wall, face buried in his knees as he cried angry, frustrated tears.

Eventually, he slumped further into his knees, tension leaving his spine and sagging in defeat. He was out of tears, but he was still so frustrated. His heart was still burning with anger on Kacchan and his mom's behalf. After a long moment, he looked up at the carnage. The shattered training dummies and battered walls didn't feel like enough. He was still vibrating under his skin.

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts before he landed on his mom. After a moment of hesitation, he called her.

"Hi baby," Inko greeted her son as she always did—bright and adoring. "You usually call me on Sundays, is something wrong?"

He hiccuped. "Yeah," he replied. She cooed, trying to comfort her son.

"Oh, sweetheart, are you crying? Tell me what's wrong."

"Can y-you tell me what happened when Ochako, Tenya, and Sh-shoto visited me in the h-hospital?" Izuku asked, breath catching on random words, making him sound like a small child after a nightmare. "I saw the aftermath, but I-I'd like to h-hear what happened from you."

She hesitated but ultimately told him. She told him how his friends had cried at his side, talking to him and begging him to wake up. Apologizing for not being there to save him. They'd stayed there for two hours, and it was only when they'd started berating Katsuki for withholding information from them that she'd become uncomfortable. Mitsuki and Masaru had been in the room and simply listened as their anger at their son grew, allowing them to grieve in whatever way they needed, as long as Inko was comfortable with it.

When she'd asked them to leave, they'd refused—demanding more time since they'd been robbed of it over the previous month. But Inko had asked, so Mitsuki enforced, just like she always did. That's when they went from upset to downright poisonous, and Mitsuki had called for security.

"For days after that, I felt so guilty for keeping them from you. But Mitsuki reminded me that I was losing my son, and I was allowed to grieve however I needed."

"Kacchan tried to keep it from me," Izuku said, heart hurting. "He wanted me to come back and have my friends at my side, so he didn't tell me about the things they said and did, and I kept hanging out with them while they kept doing it," he sobbed, crying again.

"You know I believe in forgiveness, Izuku. In healing and repairing relationships. But I also know that sometimes you have to cut the cord when a relationship is bringing you more harm than happiness. That's not to say you can't mend it in the future," she assured him. "But it sounds to me like they have to actually understand what's wrong, and sincerely apologize. I only recently realized how much damage your father did—to both of us—and cut him out of our lives. I realized we both deserved better, and that he'd been quietly cruel to us for a long time. He might decide he wants us back in the future, but I don't think I'd accept him back into our lives unless he proved himself to us. Does that make sense, baby?"

He sniffed. "Yeah, mom. Thanks."

"Of course, sweetheart."

"I need to do something. I'll call you tomorrow?"

"Whenever you want, Izuku," she replied, tone light and loving. "I'm always happy to hear from you."

When his mom hung up, he scrolled back through his contacts to make another call.

"Izuku? What's up, kiddo?" Mitsuki answered on the first ring. Fondness punched through him at the concern in her voice, then froze as he remembered how she'd been treated at the hands of his friends.

"Hey, Auntie," his voice sounded raw and strained. "I need a favor."

"...Am I burying a body? I always thought I'd be having this conversation with Katsuki. This is unexpected," she joked, and Izuku barked out a laugh.

"No bodies this time, Auntie, but maybe next time. No, I just...can you distract Kacchan for me tomorrow? Get him off-campus? There's something I need to do, and I don't want him in the middle of it. He's been through enough the past few months."

Mitsuki was silent on the other end for a few beats longer than Izuku hoped. "What's going on, 'Zuku?" she asked softly.

"I uh...I found out that some of my classmates were really awful to Kacchan while I was in the hospital. And to you, and to mom. And I found out that they haven't stopped. And Kacchan has been taking it lying down and keeping it a secret from me because he wanted things to go back to normal for me. I'm going to talk to them about it tomorrow and considering what they've said about Kacchan over the past few months, I want him as far away from it as possible," his tone darkened. "Because it's gonna get ugly."

He heard Mitsuki's breath hitch at his tone. There was a pregnant pause, and then: "Okay, kiddo. I'll get him off-campus. Thank you for looking out for him."

"It's nothing he wouldn't do for me," he replied. He hung up the phone and took a deep breath. He'd had years of practice pretending to be happy when everything felt like garbage. It was practically an art form. So he stood, shaking out his tense muscles, grabbing a towel to wipe the crusted blood off of his knuckles and to dust the debris from his hair and shoulders. He'd need a shower, but that would do for now. He schooled his features into an easy smile and rolled his shoulders back to fix his posture, unclenching his fists as he went. Another deep breath.

He was ready.

"Are you kidding old Hag?" Katsuki yelled into his phone. "I'm not a fucking mannequin!"

Izuku was settled onto Katsuki's bed with his head in Mina's lap—an old All Might movie paused as Katsuki yelled at his mother over the phone. Eijirou and Hanta were watching in amusement as he argued. Denki was asleep on the floor with his head cradled in Hitoshi's lap. He heard Mitsuki yell back, but not loud enough that he could hear what she was saying.

Izuku had to give her credit—she came up with a way to lure him away from campus fast.

"Ugh, fine, I'll be there in the morning. But you have to call Aizawa to get approval," he snarled. "You better be thankful that I'm willing to sacrifice my Sunday—"

They heard Mitsuki cut him off on the other end, volume increasing. Izuku imagined Mitsuki was replying with something along the lines of: "And you had better be thankful that I was willing to abandon my modeling career and get stretch marks to push your bitch-ass out of my vagina you ungrateful brat!"

It was a conversation he'd heard before. "Jesus Christ, Hag, and you wonder where I got my vocabulary?" he snapped. "I'll be there, alright? Quit your bitching and call Aizawa already, I was in the middle of something."

Mitsuki was saying something, but Katsuki pulled his phone away from his ear and hung up on her. Izuku tried to replace his look of vindictive satisfaction with one of concern. "What's going on, Kacchan?"

"Hag needs me to help her with movement fitting for her new men's line," he grumbled, slumping onto the bed next to Mina so that Izuku's hair brushed his thigh. "The model she had lined up is sick, but I apparently have similar measurements so she wants me to do the fitting tomorrow."

"When's the show?" Izuku asked, genuinely interested this time. "Do we get to watch?"

"In two weeks," he replied, still salty. "It's like a practice run for Tokyo Fashion week. A preview for investors. But you could probably come. She'll want to make some stuff for your wardrobe though, and you won't be allowed to wear your red shoes."

"What's wrong with my shoes?" Izuku demanded hotly, trying to sit up but getting pushed back down so that Mina could continue petting his hair. He shot her a dirty look.

"Nothing," he shrugged. "But they don't go with formal attire. Don't think I forgot about you wearing them with your 80's pimp-suit on I-Island. Your wardrobe is very you, but you need more than one pair of shoes, nerd."

Izuku pouted but knew he was right. He'd gotten that comment from multiple people over the years. Mei had insisted on replacing his shoes with high-performance, shock-absorbent tactical boots early in the year, and he had to admit that they were not only comfortable and functional but very aesthetically pleasing.

He just liked his shoes. "Fine," he grumbled. "You can take me shoe shopping."

"Mina can take you shoe shopping," Katsuki disagreed. "I hate shopping for shoes. Tedious. But if we're getting you new clothes too, I'll tag along."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing! You just can't wear a t-shirt that says t-shirt on it to a job interview. Or clubbing. You have a lot of everyday wear, but not a lot of clothes for specific situations. Chill out, nerd. You look good in whatever."

Izuku settled down, flattered and appeased. Mina shared a smirk with Eijirou and Hitoshi. Hanta made a face. "Don't flirt in front of my popcorn."

Katsuki launched a pillow at him with deadly force. Izuku was surprised he didn't' get a concussion. "Excessive, Kacchan," he scolded.

"Not even by half, Deku."

Katsuki left early the next morning, hoping to 'get this shit show over with as soon as fucking possible'. Izuku had full faith in Auntie Mitsuki's ability to drag out fashion-related tedium as long as physically possible, though, so he wasn't concerned about being interrupted. Auntie wouldn't let Katsuki come back until Izuku said the coast was clear, and he'd never been more grateful for the woman who was essentially his second mother.

He waited in the common room, like a spider waiting in its web for a doomed insect to be drawn in by the light. He wasn't usually one for dramatics, but he wanted to make sure that the lessons learned here sank into every crevice of their grey matter. You did not underestimate Izuku Midoriya, and you did not fuck with his family. He was seated closest to the TV, all the couches and armchairs around him empty.

The first person to see him was Momo. She brought him tea and sat. "You okay?"

"Not yet," he replied, sipping the expensive brew delicately. "You might not want to stick around."

Momo scoffed. "First of all, I wouldn't miss this. Second of all, I'd never leave you to do this alone."

He let the quiet of the morning permeate the room and soothe his raw energy. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't any of you tell me?" he finally asked.

"Trust me, we wanted to," she replied dryly. "But Katsuki had a plan, and we wanted to respect it. We didn't agree, but he didn't care what they said about him as long as you were happy and healthy," Momo replied.

"Oh," Kyoka breathed from the doorway. "You figured it out?" He nodded, and she grimaced. "Sorry, dude. But Momo's right, he didn't care. Not as long as you knew how he felt, you know? It didn't matter what they said as long as you two were still good."

"It did, though. Tooru showed me. The way he was reacting, it was like they were physically beating him," he replied, clenching his teeth. "I knew it was weird that you guys were avoiding them, but I thought it would just heal naturally. I didn't realize how bad it was."

"It was bad," Momo agreed. "But he had us. And we made damn sure he knew that they were wrong."

Izuku gave her a small but grateful smile. "Yeah, I know. I saw that, too. I'm still annoyed that no one told me though. Whether I forgive them and move on is my decision, and I didn't even know there was something wrong in the first place. At least not something this wrong."

They looked appropriately shamefaced. "Sorry, Mido," Kyoka replied, looking like she might start crying.

"We'll move past it," he assured her. "But I need to talk to them first. I'll handle the rest of you later."

Kyoka went about her morning, a little less lively than when she'd first turned up. Izuku pulled out his phone and rewatched the video on silent while Momo sipped her tea and read her book from a few chairs away. As more people entered the common room, they seemed to recognize the proverbial dark cloud that hovered around Izuku as a very large "Do Not Disturb" sign.

Izuku could feel their gazes raking over him, all wondering what exactly had happened. Eventually, he heard Kyoka and Mina talking below the overall volume of the room—heard Mina's breath hitch when Kyoka told her why the vibe was so tense. He looked up and caught her eye, and she looked stricken by whatever expression his face was making. His eyes fell back to his phone just in time to see Katsuki flinch back from Ochako again, breath going ragged as he imagined Izuku dying in the hospital—no hope in sight for an antidote.

"Good morning, Deku!" Ochako bounded up to him, and Izuku wondered how exactly she'd missed the thickness of the atmosphere. Across the room, it looked like Denki was struggling to breathe, let alone speak. Yet here was Uraraka, looking completely unencumbered.

Perhaps the fact that the entire class had been avoiding her had blinded her to their reactions—letting her pass them off as auxiliary information. "Sit," he demanded coolly. Uraraka's eyes widened and she froze before him, studying him properly this time. He heard some of the others inhale sharply.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"I said, sit." He didn't snap or bark. He demanded, dark, calm, and cool. He was pretty sure Koda whimpered at his tone. Uraraka complied hesitantly. "We're still waiting for some people."

"Tea?" Momo offered her, smile thin. Uraraka raised an eyebrow but nodded.

Shoto was the next target to come out. He was more aware than Uraraka, taking in the tense expressions and discomfort in the room. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Sit down, Shoto," he demanded again. Shoto frowned at his tone, but complied easily, sliding in next to Uraraka.

Eventually, Izuku lost his patience. "Ojiro," he called. Ojiro went ramrod straight instantly, and Izuku almost felt bad for the atmosphere he'd bred. But they didn't have to be here, they'd chosen to watch the spectacle. If they didn't like it, they could leave. "Do me a favor and fetch Tenya? I'd like to get started." Ojiro nodded and practically fled.

"Get started with what? Did something happen, Deku?" Uraraka asked, concerned.

His mouth formed a grim line. "Yes. And I'd like to talk about it, but I'd like my...friends to be here," he replied. Uraraka smiled at him, all understanding and soft and Todoroki relaxed back into his seat. Meanwhile, a chill swept through the rest of the room.

Iida entered, looking more rumpled than usual, but certainly awake. "Midoriya? Ojiro said you needed me," he greeted, ever-formal.

"Sit down, Tenya," Izuku demanded one last time. Iida hesitated, eyeing the other inhabitants of the room, then Uraraka and Todoroki. Apparently, he decided that Uraraka and Todoroki looked relaxed enough that he could settle in without protest.

"What's this about, Midoriya?" he asked.

Izuku didn't reply, opting to turn the TV on instead. Then, he opened the video on his phone again, and screencast it to the larger display. Hagakure squeaked when she recognized the still on the screen. "We're gonna watch a movie," he smiled grimly. "One that Tooru was kind enough to put together."

They looked confused until Izuku pressed play. His other classmates gathered closer, curious despite their discomfort. Then they understood what they were watching.

Months of ugliness spewed out through the TV, and most of the class flinched back as they relived the poisonous words that were spewed. Izuku's eyes roamed the room as Katsuki was brought low, paying more attention than ever to the three in front of him. Uraraka spent a stupid amount of time glaring at Hagakure. Shoto's jaw was set mulishly. Iida looked unbothered.

Izuku's expression darkened with each new conversation until he was glaring so fiercely, he was surprised that no one had caught fire. He switched the TV off when the video came to an end. "For the past three months or so, I've been wondering why the rest of the class was avoiding you. Then Tooru was kind enough to put this together for me—"

"That is not a complete picture of what happened!" Uraraka cried. "You didn't see what Bakugou was like while you were in the hospital—"

"Did I fucking say you could talk?" he growled. Her jaw snapped shut as her eyes widened in shock. "It's my turn. Let me recap what I just saw. You'll get your turn because I promise you'll be explaining exactly why you thought it was acceptable."

He briefly turned his glare to Mina when he heard her mumble, "Yes, daddy." She blushed and fell silent.

"We were just—"

"Shut the fuck up, Tenya," he snapped. "I mean it. If you don't, there is no chance in hell that our friendship will be repaired after this, so if you ever valued that you will shut your goddamn mouth for once in your life and let me speak." They stayed silent. "Let me describe what I just saw. It's almost like a play in three parts. Part one was before anyone knew that I was in a coma. I saw Kacchan trying his best to respect my mother's wishes by keeping my medical condition private. I saw you three disrespecting those wishes by badgering him. I saw Ochako try to goad our classmates into disrespecting my mother's wishes by claiming that if they didn't, they didn't care about me. I saw Tenya accusing Kacchan of behaving like a villain, just because he didn't roll over and share my confidential medical information. I saw you three viciously berating him—calling him an abusive bully and an irredeemable asshole just days after he had watched me choke on my own blood. You pushed him into a panic attack and continued to go after him. I saw you belittle our classmates for trying to help him when he was carrying that burden on his own. You insulted my mother's intelligence and her ability to choose her support system just because it didn't suit your needs," he paused, taking a deep breath to ground himself. He was barely restraining his anger. Sitting beside his three targets, Momo was looking positively vindicated. "Then came part two," he snarled.

"Part two was after you'd all learned about my condition, but before I'd woken up. Let me tell you, this part is the one that pissed me off the most. That's when you accused Kacchan of being cruel for supporting my mother instead of letting you three do it, despite the fact that Kacchan has known my mother his entire life, and has only met you three in person three times, two of which were in passing. It's when you accused him of hating me so much that he wanted me to die alone and uncared for. That he would be glad when I died. It's also characterized by the fact that during your hospital visit, you overstayed your welcome, insulted my mother's friends and support system to their faces, and made my mother cry when I was on my deathbed. Then, Uraraka called Auntie Mitsuki a control freak for trying to enforce my mother's wishes, and Todoroki had the utter fucking audacity to call Auntie Mitsuki abusive when she and Uncle Masaru were the only people there for us when my father abandoned us." His voice was rising with his temper, and Uraraka was sinking back into the couch to get away from him. Todoroki, who had clearly not understood the depth of his history with the Bakugous, was beginning to look nervous. "Then, we get to part three." He was yelling now, and his volume had caught the attention of the few stragglers who hadn't made it to the common room.

"Part three began when I got back to the dorms, and let me tell you, it is the most frustrating shit I had to experience. At first, it was just because I knew something was off, but I didn't have the whole picture. Now that I do, I'm fucking livid," he growled. "You withheld my medical information from Kacchan even though he was my primary caregiver. I consented to him being my caregiver, as did my mother and Recovery Girl. By refusing to give him that information you were disregarding my choice on whom to trust with my medical but more importantly, you were directly endangering my wellbeing because you decided he wasn't adequate, as though my opinion on my medical care was irrelevant if you didn't agree with it. Then you went after him after he justifiably removed you from my care plan. And when I was finally cleared for training, and felt like I was getting back to normal, Todoroki put the final nail in your fucking coffin by having the utter audacity to tell Kacchan to stay away from me. Because I was getting banged up in training. You had the audacity to tell him that he wasn't good for me and that our relationship isn't healthy." He was angry enough that he could no longer contain his quirk properly, and One For All was flicking green sparks off his skin as his eyes blazed with a bitter and encompassing rage.

"So here's my question," he snarled into the silence, voice crescendoing to an outright bellow. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"We were just trying to look out for you—" Uraraka spoke up, but she fell silent as soon as Izuku's eyes met hers.

"Which part of that was looking out for me? Making my mother's support system feel like crap? Making my mother have a panic attack in my hospital room? Don't make me laugh, Ochako, you felt entitled to my care because you're my friend, and you made it everyone else's problem. Kaccan was carrying our families on his back, and you made it worse because for some stupid reason you think that you know me better than he does," he snarled.

Todoroki stepped up. "You weren't here, Izuku, you didn't see how he's behaving. You didn't see how his parents treated us in the hospital, and you didn't see how he behaved when we asked him for updates—"

"Updates that you had no right to ask for!" he bellowed back. "I know Aizawa told you he would tell you what he was authorized to tell you, and outside of that, you had no right to my information. And then you had the fucking audacity to keep my medical information from Kacchan who actually did have that right. Not only are you hypocrites, but you're also so fucking self-important that you've become a literal danger to my health." He huffed a laugh that was caustic and mean, and it made them flinch away from him. "His parents are my mother's oldest friends. His parents helped take care of me when my mom had to take a second job because my shitty father abandoned us when he thought I was quirkless. His parents picked me up from school when I was sick and my mom couldn't make it. They are just as much my family as my own mother, and you not only insulted them to their faces, but you called them abusive and controlling to their only son for daring to stand up for my mother's wishes when you blatantly ignored them. If anyone is turning out to be abusive and controlling, it's you, Shoto."

Todoroki flinched back like he'd been slapped. Izuku laughed darkly and continued, clinging to the momentum his anger was giving him. "Trying to control who I spend time with behind my back? Setting limits for me without my consent and trying to enforce them? My training plan is none of your fucking business, and trying to make Kacchan feel guilty for the way he's been helping me even though I asked him to is not only controlling, it's manipulative and underhanded. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you don't' trust me to know my limits or make my own decisions, you have a lot of fucking nerve calling yourself my friend."

"You're out of line, Midoriya. You're too close to the problem—you lack perspective," Iida scolded him. Izuku's vision blurred with fury, and before he knew it, he'd used Black Whip to pick Iida up and fling him across the room like a rag doll where he made a crater in the wall from his impact.

"I'M OUT OF LINE?" he hollered, voice taking on a hysterical edge. "You're our class rep, not our fucking father. You have no moral high ground here, and the fact that you had the balls to call my best and oldest friend a villain for respecting my privacy is a fucking joke, Tenya. If I hadn't stopped you, you'd be a murderer. Remember that? What the fuck gives you the moral high ground to cast judgment on others? In fact, what makes you think that you're less villainous than Kacchan? You're the most judgmental motherfucker I've ever met, and that's been true since the day I met you."

"Midoriya!" Iida rebuked him, picking himself up from the floor. "You're out of control!"

"You've been out of control for five months," Izuku hissed, glowing green. "I'm just returning the favor. But now I'm done. Done with all three of you. I don't know if we can repair any part of what we had because not only did you disrespect my family, you showed an astounding lack of faith in me. You owe Kacchan an apology, and you owe my mother an apology, and you owe me an apology. Until then, I don't even want to look at you," he snarled.

Uraraka looked wounded. "You don't mean that," she sniffed, starting to cry. "We just wanted—"

"It's not all about what you want. You've made it about what you want for way too long, so stop fucking telling me what you want. What I want is to fix the damage you did to my people. I have to make sure that Kacchan knows that he's not bad for me—that he's the most important person in my life. I have to make sure Auntie knows that we love her, and make sure my mom knows that she isn't a bad person just because she did what she needed to do when she thought that I was dying. And I need to know that I am strong, and I have autonomy. I have no interest in people who treat me like I need to be protected in some shitty bubble like I'm made of glass. I have no interest in people making my choices for me. If you still can't see where you went wrong, I have nothing more to say to you." He stood, never taking his eyes off them. "And until you can fix what you broke, don't come anywhere near me."

He moved to leave the room, making eye contact with Mina, Eijirou, and Kyoka as he went. They got the hint and followed him, pulling Hanta and Denki with them. Momo and Tsuyu followed for good measure. He pushed them into his room and shut the door behind him. "I'm not thrilled with any of you, either. I already talked to Momo and Kyoka, but the rest of you—" a chill went through them as his eyes cut to each of them. "I don't appreciate having my decisions made for me. I made that clear downstairs. I understand why you didn't tell me—Katsuki told you to, and you'd been following his lead regarding my recovery. So just this time, I'm letting you off the hook. But next time, anyone who tries to keep something like this from me will get a crater made with their body. Understand?"

They all nodded hurriedly, and Izuku—who was not accustomed to holding that kind of rage in his body—deflated dramatically, slumping against the door to his room like a rag doll. "Awesome. Then someone pick a movie because I'm fucking exhausted and don't want to think about any of this for the rest of the day."

Mina jumped to comply. "How do you feel about a RomCom, Mido?" she asked, scrolling through Netflix like it was her job.

He shrugged, and that set everyone else off—arguing over genres and actors and time periods—while Izuku moved just enough to cocoon himself in blankets on the bed. He ended up boxed in by Momo and Eijirou on either side of him, and Mina lying across his legs.

"I'm sorry we kept it from you, Mido. We really didn't want you to think about it while you were recovering. But I think most of us were planning on telling you eventually when you didn't have as much on your plate," Eijirou explained quietly as the movie started. "We didn't love Bakubro's decision, but we did kind of agree that you needed time to settle in before you had to deal with this."

Izuku nudged his shoulder. "It's good to know that you were planning on telling me. Especially since it seems like they were gonna carry on pretending that nothing had happened. It still sucks, and I have a bone to pick with Kacchan, but that makes it better." He rested his head on Eijirou's shoulder.

"We're all in your corner, dude," he whispered back. "And we know you can handle anything. Hell, you had one foot in the grave and came back. Pretty sure there's nothing you can't do."

And there was the faith that he'd been looking for.

Katsuki...felt like he'd been dropped into an alternate reality.

At first, everything seemed normal, but one morning he'd gone to help his mother with her menswear line, and when he'd returned in the afternoon, everything felt a little different.

On the more noticeable side, there was a crater in the wall of the common room. He squinted at it for a full five minutes when he returned, trying to discern what could have caused it. Everyone that he asked just shrugged and redirected the conversation.

On the less noticeable side, Izuku was spending more and more time by his side. It had crept up on him, but suddenly the nerd was everywhere and he was living for it. Within the span of a few hours, his Deku had seemed to completely integrate himself into his friend group, indelibly affixing Momo and Tsuyu there as well. Between classes and training their group study sessions, the nerd was rarely out of his sight.

The change kinda punched him in the face on the day that Izuku officially came back to hero training. The nerd was practically vibrating out of his skin with excitement, so ready to start training with his classmates again that he was practically salivating. "Chill the fuck out, nerd," Katuski scolded him.

"No, you," he'd replied, drawing Katsuki's attention to his own manic grin. He schooled it down into his trademark scowl. "Oh no, don't chill out that much," Izuku whined. Then he went silent and still for a moment, and Katsuki followed his line of sight to the Dekusquad, who seemed to be whispering among themselves while eyeing Izuku in concern. He looked back at Izuku and found his expression inscrutable.

"You good, nerd?" he asked, nudging him. Izuku snapped his eyes to Katsuki's with an intensity that he wasn't expecting.

"Fine," he replied, not sounding fine at all. "I need to talk to Mr. Aizawa before class. I'll catch up with you," he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Katsuki held his gaze for a second before nodding. Deku would talk to him about it when he was ready. It was part of their whole communication thing, right?

Izuku zipped off to talk to Caterpillar-sensei, and Katsuki found his way to Eijirou's side. "Hey man," Eijirou greeted him. "Where'd Mido go?"

Katsuki shrugged. "Said he had to talk to Aizawa. What am I, his keeper?" Eijirou gave him a very unimpressed look. "What's that look for, Shitty Hair?" he demanded, not sure he wanted the answer.

"That look is for the fact that you like him," Eijirou scolded him. Katsuki flushed but didn't protest.

"That doesn't make me his keeper, and that doesn't mean we're anywhere near ready to address that," Katsuki replied.

"You have been spending every waking minute with him for two weeks now," Eijirou replied dryly. "You're basically dating without the kissing and hand-holding and stuff."

Katsuki hit him in the shoulder. "We're not there yet," he insisted. "Isn't it enough for now that I'm aware? Leave it alone."

"Fine," Eijirou sighed. "But seriously, do you know why he needed to talk to Aizawa? Couldn't he have done it after class?"

Katsuki shrugged. "Maybe it has something to do with his training limitations," he replied. "He's still not up to where he was before the hospital. He's close, but he might want to let Aizawa know what's up."

Eijirou nodded like that was a perfectly acceptable explanation. They stretched to warm up, and pretty soon Mina and Tsuyu joined them. They both looked brassed off about something, but Katsuki sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to ask what was up. He was trying to avoid drama.

"What's wrong, babe?" Eijirou asked Mina, so affectionate that Katsuki flinched. It's not like he didn't know that Mina and Eijirou were dating, but they'd never actually said it out loud. They were just all over each other all the time, and Katsuki just happened to share a wall with Eijirou.

Mina hesitated, before relenting. "The dickhead-squad was talking about how Zuku isn't ready to start training yet," she replied, annoyed. "It was really condescending. "It's like they haven't learned anything—" Eijirou shot her a warning look and she cut off, eyes widening in the wake of her slip-up. Luckily for her, Katsuki was doing toe-touches, so he didn't see her brief moment of panic.

"Learned anything from what?" Katsuki snorted. "All the times that Deku told them off for babying him? That'll be the day." He straightened and gave them a look that was equal parts incredulous and expectant.

"Learned anything from all the times Izuku has defied the odds and kicked ass when he shouldn't have been able to," Tsuyu covered smoothly. "Even in first year, like during the USJ attack. He ran into everything with his bones broken and still came out on top every time, and they think that he can't pull off in-class training after months of rehab? Ridiculous."

Katsuki nodded, accepting that answer, and Mina let out a small sigh of relief.

"Alright, Disaster Children," Aizawa called their attention, and they all perked up to listen. "We're doing one-on-one sparring today, with quirks," he began. "The objective is to show your adaptability. You all know your own move sets and fighting styles. I want you to think outside of the box by using the fighting style of another classmate that is compatible with your quirk and effective against your opponent. For example, if I were fighting against Yaoyorozu, I would be attempting to use Ashido's fighting style because it's dynamic and would make me difficult to target with stationary objects or simple projectiles like cannons or hand grenades, and her fighting style isn't difficult to adapt to my own. Understood?" The class nodded their understanding, and Aizawa continued. "I will be picking your sparring partners."

He assigned their pairs, moving down a list that was more eclectic than their typical pairings. Katsuki was paired with Aoyama, and Eijirou was paired with Tokoyami. Mina was up against Uraraka, Tsu was fighting Koda, Momo was paired with Denki, and Hanta was gonna duke it out with Hagakure.

Katsuki scowled when Aizawa announced the last pairing. Izuku would be fighting Todoroki. He'd been hoping to spar with him, but he supposed he'd hogged the nerd enough during their private training sessions. But still, nobody gave him their all like Deku did.

During Katsuki's battle with the Twinkle-Twink, he'd adapted his moves to mimic Ojiro's—relying more heavily on close combat and martial arts and focusing on enhancing his mobility and staying low. He barely caught any of the other fights because Izuku talked his damn ear off about how amazingly he adapted the entire fucking time. He did catch Eijirou emulating Hagakure when he caught Tokoyami off guard with a vicious sneak attack, and Tsuyu imitating Ashido by skating on her own slime (yuck ). 

Then it came time for Izuku's battle with Todoroki. "I'd say break a leg, but you might take me seriously," Katsuki smirked down at the smaller boy, grunting when Izuku's elbow dug into his ribcage.

"Asshole," Izuku grumbled. Something was off, though. Katsuki cataloged Izuku's expression. Where he'd expected to find excitement—especially since it was his first day back in hero training—he found the sort of steely determination that Izuku wore when he was trying to make a point, and it was directed without mercy at Todoroki.

"You good, nerd?"

"That's the second time you've asked me that today," Izuku replied. "Careful, or I'll think you're going soft on me."

Katsuki snorted. "We're way past that, nerd," he pushed Izuku toward the training field. "Knock him dead."

"What makes you think I won't take that seriously?" Izuku muttered under his breath as he turned to leave. But Katsuki had been raised on Izuku's muttering, so he heard it loud and clear. His eyes widened in shock, and he flicked his eyes to his other classmates. He wasn't sure why—there was no way they heard him—but he still found trepidation on most of their faces.

Hence why it felt like he'd been dropped in an alternate reality.

Todoroki moved first, and Katsuki immediately noticed that something was off. He frowned, leaning forward. "What's wrong, Blasty?" Mina asked quietly. Katsuki tilted his head to the side, surveying the fight carefully. Mina seemed to get that he was still analyzing, so she waited for him to speak.

Todoroki slid towards Izuku on his ice—attempting to freeze Izuku's feet in place—but Izuku was already on the move. Katsuki recognized the fighting style he'd adopted immediately—using Black Whip to pull him from point A to point B while he fired off Air Force blasts. He was mimicking Hanta's fighting style. Hanta noticed too and murmured "that's so dope," under his breath.

And it was, but Katsuki's eyes were fixed on Todoroki. IcyHot was known for subduing his opponents quickly with walls of ice that appeared faster than his victims could blink—but his movements were slowed, and he was only using his ice for mobility. Was he using Mina as his switch-style, too? No—the kick he tried to land when he got within range was clearly more in Iida's wheelhouse.

He was using close-quarter combat against Deku? Was he nuts? Deku was probably the best long-range fighter in the class, barring Katsuki himself. Todoroki put up a wall of ice, but it was thin—Izuku barely had to tap it to break it down. He threw a flame, too—but Izuku dodged. Why was IcyHot going so goddamn slow?

"He's holding back," Katsuki muttered. "IcyHot's holding back against Deku. He's probably giving it less than half his strength right now, and he picked a fighting style that Deku is really strong against. We all saw him kick Four-Eyes' ass the last time he was in combat training. IcyHot knows that Deku is strong against his fighting style. He's pulling his punches on purpose, look—" he gestured wildly as Todoroki put up another half-hearted wall of ice, even as Izuku picked up his speed.

Mina scowled. "Whatever," she replied, voice dark. "His funeral."

"You're holding back Todoroki! Fucking fight me!" Izuku bellowed less than two minutes later.

Katsuki might have to address Izuku's recently blossoming potty mouth. It's not that Izuku never swore, but recently it was like he was trying to get struck down but whatever divine force that had decided that curses were no-no words.

Todoroki did not pick up his game. "You're pushing yourself, Izuku," he called back. "I'm not going to—" but he didn't get to finish whatever he was about to say, because Izuku picked up a chunk of Todoroki's ice and swung it like a wrecking ball directly into IcyHot's face.

"Okay, now that was cool," Eijirou exclaimed.

"Beat his ass, Deku!" Katsuki cheered. And Izuku seemed to take that to heart because he swung himself around one of the fake telephone poles that dotted Ground Gamma, lithe body illuminated by One For All, and catapulted himself towards his heterochromatic opponent. Todoroki barely blocked him with a wall of ice, and still had to skate out of the way when Izuku busted through it.

It turned into a furious game of cat and mouse—Torodoki trying to dodge and block while Izuku pursued a relentless assault. Watching Izuku move was like watching a dancer—graceful and deadly and fueled by passion. After months of struggling to even move, he'd finally regained the awe-inspiring ability to move without thinking—the instinct for battle-based heroics that put even pro-heroes to shame. No matter what life threw at the nerd, he always got up and hit harder than before and it was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Maybe Eijirou had a point.

Todoroki seemed to be sticking to his stance—adamant that Izuku couldn't take him at full strength. But it was just like Izuku told him last year.

"If he didn't give it his all and you did, then you deserved the win. He lacked the spirit to be considered the strongest, and you didn't."

And Izuku was definitely giving it his all. "You're still trying to decide my limits for me," Izuku snarled, landing a bullseye hit to Todoroki's jaw. "You want to treat me like glass? I'm not—" he kicked Todoroki so hard that he flew almost twenty feet back, but he followed after him. "I'm made of steel, and no matter how much I bend, I won't break—" Izuku was pretty sure he felt one of Todoroki's ribs snap, but he was enraged and didn't give a fuck. "And I won't be treated like a baby or a victim!" He grabbed Todoroki around the shoulders and launched himself into the air.

Katsuki recognized the move—it was the one he'd used to beat Izuku at Ground Beta last year. He flipped Todoroki beneath him mid-air, raised his hand, and fired an Air Force blast at the sky that blasted them both downwards. The only difference was that Izuku used at least five times more force than Katsuki had and as a result, Todoroki was now lying completely dazed and defeated in a crater. Izuku didn't need to pin him—he just stood above him and stared down coldly. "There isn't a scratch on me, Todoroki. Worry about yourself."

"Hell yeah!" Katsuki bellowed across from the stands. But he flinched back when he saw Izuku whip his head towards them. At first, he thought the glare was for him, but then he actually followed the gaze and landed on Uraraka and Iida—the former looking very pale, and the latter frowning in abject disapproval. "The fuck?" he muttered.

Eijirou sighed. "Well, that cat is out of the bag," he grumbled. "Ask Hagakure," he instructed when Katsuki shot him a questioning glance. Katsuki tensed.

"I missed something, didn't I?" He asked, his eyes slid to Todoroki who was now being scolded by Aizawa and looking defiant.

"That was by design," Mina replied wryly. "But I don't think Izuku meant to go absolutely fucking feral in the middle of supervised training."

"Trust me, dude," Eijirou insisted. "Ask Hagakure. It'll make more sense if you see it."

He squinted at them like they'd gone a little crazy. "If you say so."

When he knocked on Hagakure's door, she let out a sigh that would have put a middle-aged single mother of five chaotic teenage delinquents to shame. "I know I'm an asshole, but I didn't think it was that much of a chore to see me," he drawled. She scoffed.

"How can I help you, Bakugou," she sounded tired, but not angry.

"Deku was acting weird, and Pinky and Shitty Hair—"

"Told you to see me," she replied with another put upon sigh. "Come in. But if you blow anything up, I'll find a way to kick your ass that you won't see coming," she warned.

"Why the hell would I blow up your stuff if you're helping me?" he demanded.

"...because I helped Izuku first," she admitted. He still didn't really get why he'd have a problem with that. He'd kinda been steering the entire 'help Izuku' caravan for months now. "Sit," she instructed, pointing at her bed.

Katsuki sat, then watched as she opened her laptop and started fiddling around in her files. "You're gonna watch two videos. The first one is what I made for Izuku. The second one was his response to it."

Katsuki's spine tingled with trepidation. "'Kay," he replied, hesitant. She picked up her laptop and dropped it on his lap.

"You have my number?" she asked. He nodded. "Cool. When you're done, text me and I'll come back. If you wanna talk, we can talk. Got it?" He nodded again. "Great. See you," she said as she flounced out of the door.

Katsuki pressed play.

Izuku stared at his phone.

He wondered if Katsuki knew that the words 'we need to talk' were the most anxiety-inducing words in the world when placed in that particular order.

Had he done something? Offended the explosive blonde somehow? He thought they'd been getting along pretty darn well! They spent all of their time together—

Oh no. Maybe Izuku was irritating him. Maybe he was tired of him constantly hanging around. But Katsuki sought Izuku out just as much Izuku sought Katsuki out, so that couldn't be it. Maybe he'd realized how he felt about him. Although, if Katsuki hadn't realized how Izuku felt about him for the past seven years, what was the likelihood of him figuring it out now? ...High. Very high. They'd been spending entire days together. And fuck he'd popped a boner during training that one time, fuck fuck fuck—

"Nerd," Katsuki greeted him, cutting off his panicked inner monologue. Izuku whipped around to look at him.

"Kacchan!" he yelped.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "You knew I was coming, nerd. You're the one who told me to come over."

Katsuki's presence did nothing to calm his nerves. "You're the one who said we needed to talk," he replied. "So, what's up?"

Katsuki was pinning him with a look that Izuku had absolutely no context for. "Yeah," he replied. "You kinda popped off in training today," he cast his eyes to the ground. "And it made me realize that things were off. So I went to Invisalign—"

"You know her name, I know you do—"

"And she showed me the video that she showed you."

"....Oh." 

"And then she showed me the video that she made of you completely blasting your friends," he continued.

"Might wanna check your definition of friends, Kacchan. Those are now acquaintances," he replied blithely, settling back into his desk chair. Izuku felt himself relax. Maybe Katsuki really didn't understand the implications of 'we need to talk', because he was here to talk about the now ex-Dekusquad. Good, he'd been looking for a way to have this conversation.

"You can't do that," Katsuki insisted. Izuku tensed, glare forming in the corners of his eyes.

"I can't do that?" Why was everyone trying to tell him what he could and couldn't do?

"I know they crossed a fuckin' line or whatever, but they were worried about you."

"And what about now?" Izuku demanded. "Now that I'm not in the hospital and cleared for training? They're still giving you shit, and they still think that what they did to our parents was okay, no apology for any of it in sight; and they still treat me like a fucking invalid—"

"You need to give them time!"

"Why?"

"Why did you give me time?" Katsuki yelled. Izuku went silent, staring up at him in shock. "You gave me years and you're cutting them off after a few months? You gotta give them time, Deku."

Izuku stared at him in disbelief for way longer than what could be considered comfortable. Or socially acceptable. He looked winded, like Katsuki had just sucker-punched him directly in his solar plexus.  "You are," he breathed. "The most colossal dumbfuck I have ever had the privilege to meet."

"Fuckin' what?" Katsuki barked, palms sparking. Izuku snorted, completely unthreatened.

"Sit down, Kacchan," Izuku commanded.

"No."

"Sit down, or get out. You're gonna listen to me, or you're gonna leave. You said we needed to talk, so I'm gonna talk. You don't want to listen, you can leave until you're ready. No time limit, completely your choice." Izuku's voice booked no room for argument.

Katsuki hesitated, still staring Izuku down, but then slowly—like a frightened animal—lowered himself onto the very edge of the bed as though he was still considering running away. Izuku smiled at him, satisfied. "So talk, nerd."

"Okay. There is no comparison between the situation with Uraraka, Todoroki, and Iida and our relationship. To compare them is ridiculous, and frankly, an insult to everything that we are."

"Bullshit—"

"It's my turn to talk," Izuku scolded him, but it wasn't like the harsh snaps and barks that Katsuki had seen in Hagakure's second video. It was fond and honestly a little condescending, but Katsuki couldn't find the will to be mad about it because he was so fucking confused. He only got more confused when Izuku remained silent, considering him carefully. Katsuki shifted in his seat, uncomfortable under Izuku's gaze. What he wouldn't give to be able to hear people's thoughts right now. Then he noticed Izuku's tapping fingers and realized that the nerd was gathering his thoughts, so he waited.

"You want to know the difference between you and them?" Izuku asked. Katsuki gestured for him to spit it out. "Choice. You always let me choose."

Katsuki frowned at him. "I'm pretty fucking sure you didn't choose the bullshit I pulled in middle school, Deku."

"No, you're right. But you told me once—if I wanted to be a hero, I should be able to handle worse than you. And it was a shitty way to try to get me to back down, but you made it my choice. And I chose to stick with you and I chose to keep pursuing heroics, and I chose to stop letting you walk all over me. I chose you, and I fought for you. We've come so far because you gave me the choice to keep fighting. The only time you ever flat-out told me to give up was the day you told me to take a swan dive off the roof, and I chose to forgive you. You let me choose to come or go after that, too. You knew you'd crossed a line, and you stopped fucking with me just in case I wanted to give up on you—then you went right back to normal when I chose to stay. It wasn't nice or pretty, but I chose it. You didn't try to cut me off from your parents when our relationship went sour. You let me choose to keep them. Then our relationship started to improve, and I chose to tell you my secrets, I chose you as my training partner, I chose you as my friend, and you only pushed back when you thought you didn't deserve it. You let me decide what I wanted and go after it, and even if you competed with me, you never stood in my way."

"You're psychotic."

"I'm quirkless. Well, not anymore, but I was. For a long time. You were there. Do you know how many choices the world has taken away from me? That's why I clung to you. You were inspirational and victorious, and you let me choose," he shrugged a little helplessly. "Those three ignored all of the progress we've made, and how happy I've been getting closer to you and made a judgment call to try to tear you down and tear you away from me. While I was unconscious. Nevermind the fact that I would have wanted you there, they also tried to take away my mom's choice to keep you around, and her choice to keep my medical information confidential by playing on your insecurities and calling you irredeemable and villainous. Anyone who's been paying attention to what I want—what I've been chasing for years—would have known that I would hate what they tried to do to you. To us. What we've rebuilt over the past two years is more valuable to me than any accomplishment I've achieved in my life, and they tried to take that away from me. That's the difference. You've never tried to take anything away from me once I've earned it."

The look that Katsuki was giving him was so open and vulnerable that Izuku almost wanted to go over and hug him, but Katsuki wasn't like him. Touch and affection had to be asked for, not given. "You—" Katsuki cut off to clear his throat, and Izuku's heart (and soul, fuck) clenched with fondness for this emotionally constipated jackass. "You really feel that way?"

"Honest communication, remember?" Izuku smiled. "I don't lie to you. Never to you."

"I don't understand you," Katsuki gritted his teeth, frustrated. He dropped his elbows to his knees and his head into his hands. "It can't be that simple, Deku."

"It is for me. Especially when it's you," Izuku replied. But then his expression darkened, mouth forming a scowl. "Although, it kinda pisses me off that it doesn't seem to go both ways. And you kinda reneged on the choice thing."

Katsuki looked up, confused. Izuku tried not to flinch at the watery eyes that were on the brink of spilling tears. "The hell are you talking about?"

"You didn't tell me about any of this. You didn't tell me what they'd done. You were gonna let me prance around with them like a fucking idiot without knowing what they did to the people I love when they thought they were gonna lose me."

"I wanted everything to go back to normal. I spent so much time fucking up any chance you had at having good fucking friends in middle school, I didn't want a few shitty decisions and hurt feelings to get in the way of your friend group."

"And that is why I said you're a fucking idiot," Izuku snapped.

"I'm an idiot for wanting you to have nice things?" Katsuki demanded, now actually crying, overwhelmed and frustrated. "Tell me where I went wrong, Deku, because I was trying to do a nice thing for once—

"You took care of me and my mom and your parents and anyone in the class who would let you. You pushed how you were feeling aside and became the backbone. And you thought that when I got back, I'd want to associate with people who made that harder for you? Who passed judgment on our relationship when they don't know jack shit about it? We've had our rough spots, Katsuki, but we are fucking infinite. When push comes to shove, we have each other's backs and more than that—we've grown. Our relationship has healed and evolved over the last two years, and it's something I treasure. They refuse to understand it. They're trying to make decisions for me—trying to decide what's best for me without my input, and you know how I feel about shit like that. They didn't even bring it up with me, they brought it up with you! They tried to push you away for me without my knowledge or consent even though I fought to be at your side, and I'll never forgive them for it. In that video, you said "No matter how hard I was on him, he was always there. Right behind me, reminding me what a hero really is. Reminding me how to be a good person. Pulling me back when I go too far or pushing me forward when I fall behind for my entire life". It goes both ways, asshole." 

"Did you memorize what I said—"

"Of course I did, Kacchan. You said you loved me. I have watched that video at least five times a day since Tooru showed it to me. And you were right. Without you, it'll be so much worse than a phantom limb. You and I are different sides of the same coin—always together, no matter how much we oppose each other, and nearly useless when we're apart. Maybe that level of codependence is unhealthy, but it works for us. You're a comfort in a world that we've learned is unfathomably cruel—"

"When did you learn to give speeches like this, Jesus Christ—" Katsuki sniffed, hiding his face.

"And if you think people who want to take you away from me in any capacity is a "nice thing", we either need to work on your self-esteem or get you a very strong reality check."

"I'm sorry," Katsuki whined. Izuku froze.

"What?"

"I'm fuckin' sorry. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, and I'm sorry I'm so fuckin' bad at knowing what you're thinking when you can read me like a fuckin' kid's book, and I'm sorry for making that decision for you. I'm sorry for pushing you away and I'm sorry for being an idiot. I'm just sorry, okay? I'm sorry."

And the Izuku burst into tears. "Please let me hug you, please let me hug you—"

"Get the fuck over here, n-nerd," Katsuki snapped ineffectively, holding his arms open. Katsuki's bark had a lot less impact when he was crying too. Izuku sprang from his seat and crawled into Katsuki's arms.

They clung to each other until they'd both calmed down—and even then they only separated enough to maneuver each other back on the bed in what Izuku would describe as a cuddle, and what Katsuki would describe as a gross lump of affection.

"You gonna forgive them?" Katsuki asked quietly, face in Izuku's hair.

Izuku hummed. "Maybe," he replied. "But only if they earn it. I'm not so desperate for friends that I'll lose self-respect for it. My friendship with them was causing me more harm than happiness. It's okay to cut that cord if it's not good for me."

Katsuki felt the familiar tug of self-admonishment—but pushed it down. This was Izuku's choice, just like Katsuki was Izuku's choice. He wouldn't just respect it, he would treasure it.

"I can't believe you made a crater in the dorm wall—"

"That was Iida!"

"Because you threw him!"

"He deserved it!"

Katsuki's shoulders shook with laughter as Izuku giggled beside him and they both let themselves enjoy the relative peace.