Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“We’ve got some type of cell block system down here. Crazy fuck might have people trapped inside.”

Katsuki gripped the radio on his shoulder, “Move in.”

He was the first to descend down the grated stairwell.

He raised his hands to blast open the first cell door.

It was empty. Each one after that were empty as well. Many of them contained some type of restraints and splashes of blood.

The last door on the right fell to the ground and Katsuki froze.

Kneeling on the floor, was a man. He wore nothing, and he could see deep scratches and wounds all over his body.

He was thin, dangerously so. Katsuki’s anger boiled when he saw the collar and thick chain running from his neck to a grate in the floor.

Katsuki moved closer, removing one of his gauntlets and reaching out to touch the man.

The man didn’t look up at him, still kneeling on the floor. He didn’t seem aware he was here.

Katsuki knelt down beside him, something gripping his heart in a tight squeeze.

“…Deku?”

He brushed some of the dull green hair out of his face and realized that he was right.

This was Midoryia Izuku.

His eyes were hollow, empty.

“Deku, it’s me, Katsuki. What the hell happened to you?”

Deku didn’t respond. He didn’t meet his eyes, only kept his own trained on the ground in front of him.

Katsuki needed to get him out of there.

He had no jacket to give him, so he settled for using his other hand to blast through the grate and the chain anchored to it. The metal collar would need to be removed later, on ground level.

“Holy shit, is he alive?”

Katsuki bent to pick him up, angry at how light he was, “Yea, but something is wrong.”

“Hey, is that Deku?! I thought he was overseas for an assignment?!”

“Yea, it’s Deku alright. That fucking animal must have tortured him. Look at these wounds.”

The police liaison leaned in, “Shit. Look at the marks on his neck.”

Deku’s neck was raw around the metal collar, trickles of fresh blood still trailing down his collarbone. Katsuki needed to get that fucking thing off.

Deku’s eyes remained open, but he doubted that he was seeing anything.

Katsuki took him to the nearest ambulance and helped lay him on a bed.

He looked closely at the metal collar. If he calmed himself, he could blow the pin that hinged it together.

He warned the medical personnel and they exited the car, to be safe.

His heart had been aching and thundering in his chest since he had first seen Deku, kneeling in that room.

He took several deep breaths and got to work. It was fairly easy and the pin slipped out to drop on the ground.

He moved to pull the metal off of his neck but quickly realized something was wrong.

“Oi, the fucking thing is spiked into him!”

The EMTs ushered him out of the way and piled back in. They began to run an IV and oxygen while one of them examined the metal spikes anchoring the collar to his throat.

“We can’t remove this here, let’s get him out.”

They nodded to Katsuki as he was left behind, doors slamming shut, separated from Deku.

He wandered back to the gaggle of police cars, dazed and unable to think of anything else other than murmuring threats to the sick bastard that had done this to Deku.

“You okay? I can start the wrap up.”

Katsuki nodded his head automatically.

Kirishima laid a hand on his arm, “Go. Look after him.”

Katsuki nodded in relief at his friend.

He couldn’t imagine taking a car; his blood was beginning to boil over.

He took the overland route, blasting his way into the sky.

He was more calm once he touched down on the hospital roof. He took more steadying breaths and made his way inside.

“He is in surgery right now. You were right, the collar was deeply embedded in his neck, several steel spikes punched through his skin. His vocal chords show significant strain. It looks like he may not be able to talk for awhile. That’s unfortunate, we were hoping to ask him some questions when he comes through this.”

Katsuki glared at the officer, “Where are we at finding the bastard who did this to him?”

“He’s in the wind as of right now. I have officers combing that house and underground block as we speak. We will let you know as soon as we find anything.”

Katsuki nodded once and continued to stare at the door leading into the emergency OR.

Katsuki was shaken awake by a gentle hand to his shoulder.

“He’s out. His mother is here as well.”

Katsuki’s heart clenched at the thought of Auntie Midoryia. He stood, trying to stretch as he followed the doctor to Deku’s room.

He was exhausted.

The way that Deku was laid across the bed made him look imbossibly small. His skin was pale, the freckles standing out starkly. He had bandages covering his cheeks and arms, as well as thickly across his neck.

He looked frail, sick.

Katsuki was nearly taken down from behind, Auntie finally rushing in.

“Oh my god, my baby!”

She launched herself at her son, throwing her arms around him, practically crawling on the bed.

Katsuki moved to sit in the chair opposite them.

His skin was even paler up close, as if he hadn’t been outside in a long time. He likely hadn’t been.

He didn’t know how long Deku had been missing, but it very well may have been the entire length of the overseas assignment.

His hair was lank and brittle. His once muscular chest and arms were sickeningly thin.

Katsuki awkwardly leaned forward to place a hand on Auntie’s back. His other hand rested on Deku’s shoulder.

He felt his own tears trickle down his cheeks.

“Why won’t he talk? What did he do to my baby?”

Inko had been hysterical since Izuku had first opened his eyes.

Katsuki frowned, feeling just as frustrated and upset.

“Auntie, his neck is still wounded and the doctor said it may be awhile before he can speak.”

The explanation did nothing to make him feel more at ease, but it seemed to work for Auntie a little bit.

Inko nodded, still clutching at his hands.

Izuku continued to stare at the wall, hardly blinking.

“Can he go home now? This place isn’t fucking helping.”

Izuku had been able to get up and out of bed a few times, and he seemed to be feeling better. He still said no words. He still didn’t look at them with any understanding of who they were.

“I suppose it’s fine. I have specific instructions, however.”

When Katsuki assisted Izuku into getting up, he stayed by his elbow, slightly back.

When Inko reached over to touch his arm and lead him away, he slowly avoided her hand.

Inko was already crying, but the effect was tenfold now.

“Baby? Don’t you want to go home with me?”

Izuku didn’t answer, or look at her, only stayed at Katsuki’s side.

Unable to watch it any longer, Katsuki took Inko aside, Izuku stepping up behind him, staying close.

“Hey, Auntie. I can take him home with me. You and he can stay in my guest room. He kinda seems to want to be with me for some reason.”

The suggestion was acceptable to Inko.

Katsuki nodded and then reached around to lead Izuku towards the parking lot.

Upon returning to his flat, Izuku stood in the entry way, not moving further into the house.

Katsuki showed them to the guest room and then offered to go out to pick up katsudon, Remembering it easily as Izuku’s favorite meal. Izuku only moved with a gentle hand to his back, following Inko towards his spare room.

He regretted making it into a semi-home gym. At least there was still a bed.

He went all the way to east town, searching for the shop that he and Izuku had eaten their last meal together, before he left for America.

Izuku and he had been close friends since graduation. He knew he was still rough around the edges, and he swore more than live TV was comfortable with, but he and Izuku had been regularly hanging out up until he left on his long assignment. Going so far as to grab a weekly coffee and also a weekly dinner out.

He’d known that he was in love with him four years ago. It had struck him one day, as random as possible.

He and Izuku had been doing their work study underneath Endeavor for the second time, working more seamlessly that ever before.

Izuku had saved a kid, one moment from falling out of a 27th floor building, while Katsuki crashed through the window, bursted out after the villain that was terrorizing that part of the city.

Izuku quickly handed the child off and rushed out after him. He used Katsuki’s combustion to his benefit, waiting for one burst to time it with his float effect.

Katsuki had watched him soar towards the ground, faster than he could move. The sprinkling rain affecting him slightly.

Izuku landed a smash that rocked the foundation of the city block, destroying the villain, practically killing him.

Katsuki landed, skidding forwards until slipping on the wet surface. He landed hard on his back, glaring up in embarrassment.

“G.D.!”

Katsuki had smiled, thinking it was nice that Izuku had remembered that he didn’t want the general populous calling him by such a kiddie nickname. As it stood, Izuku shortened his preferred name, ‘Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight’ to just G.D.

He was still smiling when Izuku had skidded to a halt on his knees, next to him.

His hair was slick, dripping water at the ends, but he was smiling widely down at him.

“We did it! I won’t bother asking if you’re okay, I know you are!”

His smile was infectious, Katsuki letting a similar, smaller, one to mirror on his face.

He was struck by the sudden desire to tell him he loved him. Suddenly it dawned on him that he always had.

He had gaped up in shock. The fuck? When did that happen?

He didn’t question it much. Kinda sounded a bit too right. He did question his desire to pull him down so he could kiss him.

Ultimately, he hadn’t.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t think of doing it every day for the next four years.

He knew he was being a coward, but he couldn’t expect Izuku to just forgive him and jump into his bed, no matter how much Katsuki tried to change.

He settled for fucking pining instead. Lucky for him that Izuku wanted to be the number one hero and afforded himself no time for dating.

As he waited for the food, he got his phone out.

“I’d like to speak with Lieutenant Tenya.”

He listened for a moment. It only took two more breaths before he was seething mad.

“Are you fucking serious? No one fucking checked in with him directly? This is the dumbest fucking shit I have ever heard. What the fuck? They knew he’d gone off the map and all they did was send another pro?! I need their fucking names. Right fucking now.”

His palm was popping dangerously. He curled it into a fist to stop the sparking. He wasn’t mad at Iida, he hadn’t been privy to the details behind the assignment that Izuku had taken. Tenya had immediately begun investigating as soon as he heard Izuku’s name, hearing he was found in a fucking dungeon.

He aggressively made another call.

“Old hag. I need to tell you something. And I need a favor.”

By the time he had made it back to his apartment, his mother and father’s car was outside.

He heard Inko crying and his mom talking loudly as soon as he opened the door.

“Inko, we will try to find out more information. I have retained our company’s lawyer and he is already getting started on this.”

“I was talking to him! Just three days ago, on chat! How could they fake that?!”

Katsuki set the food down, thankfully having gotten enough for the five of them.

So his captor had been communicating with Auntie? To ensure the notion that he was perfectly well, instead of being a prisoner. Katsuki knew that he had been held underground for a lengthy amount of time, if not a year.

Izuku hadn’t eaten much, but if a dish was set in front of him, he would automatically eat.

While his parents and Inko talked, he took a bowl of curry into his guest room.

He was surprised to see Izuku kneeling on the floor, naked again.

His face was expressionless.

Katsuki quickly set the food down and swept a blanket off of the bed to wrap it around his small shoulders.

“Jesus, Deku. What did he fucking do to you.”

Izuku didn’t answer, but he clutched at the blanket anyway.

He tried to get Izuku to get back on the bed, but he gave no indication that he heard him.

When he placed the bowl in front of him, he was surprised when he took it, slowly eating it.

“That’s it, Deku. Eat all of it.”

Katsuki sat across from him on the floor, just watching him.

His usually wide eyes were half-lidded and there were dark circles underneath them. He had let go of one edge of the blanket to hold the bowl and Katsuki could see down his chest.

There were bruises all over his skin, as well as stitched together wounds standing starkly against Izuku’s pale skin.

The anger and frustration that constantly boiled under the surface raged still, but he was gentle as he took the empty bowl from Izuku’s hands.

He set it to the side and leaned forward, wrapping the blanket tighter around him.

The bandage on his neck was gone, the wound cleaned by Inko. The antiseptic was drying. He moved to the bags on the other side of the room and got out a roll of gauze and ointment.

He returned to his position in front of Izuku and began to dab ointment on and around the large stitches.

Each wound was about an inch long, and a gruesome line of them circled his neck, just under his Adam’s apple.

“I’m going to kill that mother-fucking bastard.”

His words were whispered. He tried to catch Izuku’s eyes, but he continued to stare down at his lap.

“C’mon. Let’s get you back in bed, nerd.”

His heart ached at the familiar nickname. He hadn’t said it in almost two years.

When Izuku didn’t move, Katsuki picked him up.

Izuku was docile in his hands, making Katsuki more incensed by the fact that he seemed to be used to being manhandled and moved around without complaint.

He laid him on the sheets and pulled another blanket up from the foot of the bed.

Izuku didn’t stir, but he closed his eyes just as Katsuki said, “Close your eyes, Deku. Rest.”

His voice was low.

He left Izuku there, turning off the lamp.

Izuku seemed to tense, so he turned the light back on.

“Want the lamp on still? That’s fine. G’night Deku.”

He lingered at the door, just looking at him for a moment.

His mother and father said their goodbyes. His mother promised to get in touch tomorrow after talking with their lawyer.

Inko hugged her son, saying that she knew Izuku would be safer while he was with him. She would be returning home, however, she would return in the morning with breakfast.

He hugged her tightly when she came up to him. He tried to radiate assurance as he did so, despite his growing concern.

When he was alone, he cleaned up, distracted.

When he was finished and flicked the lights off in the kitchen, he went back in to see Izuku.

His heart clenched when he saw that Izuku hadn’t remained on the bed. He was laid curled up on the floor, exactly where he had been kneeling. He hadn’t bothered with the blanket and was still naked.

Katsuki just looked at him for a moment.

What had he gone through?

He picked him up and wrapped him in the blanket again before settling him back in bed.

Izuku didn’t stir.

Katsuki stayed in the nearby chair, and stretched out to clasp his hands.

Even his fingers seemed too thin.

He slept, on and off, waking up to reassure himself that Izuku was still safe.

Chapter Text

Over the course of three days, Katsuki learned little.

Izuku struggled to keep clothing on. If he left him for too long, he would return to the room only to see plenty of Izuku’s bare skin, pallid as it was.

He quickly became used to drawing a blanket around his narrow shoulders, probably for his own sanity than for Izuku’s.

Under normal circumstances, having a naked man in his house would be a pleasure, but the way that Izuku just knelt on the floor, sometimes shivering, and staring blankly, made Katsuki angry.

He wasn’t angry with Izuku, only the man that did this to him.

He didn’t want to assume sexual abuse was to blame, it was too horrible to even think about. He couldn’t imagine a different reason that Izuku would be so accustomed to kneeling naked on the floor.

Katsuki’s apartment was cold, his body temperature usually running high.

He turned the heat up after the first couple of times he saw Izuku without his clothes.

He was trying to be patient with Tenya, and Kirishima too. He had heard no new information on Izuku’s case.

The lack of progress caused him to pace around his apartment, yanking at his hair, frequently.

Izuku did and said nothing, usually just kneeling, sleeping, or staring. He had remained in the spare room, rarely even opening his eyes.

Katsuki was yelling on the phone, talking to his mother about the legal case they were building, when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

He turned to see Izuku ducking back into his room.

He dropped the phone, not caring that his mother’s voice continued on the other end of the call.

He strode into the room in time to see Izuku settling back into his kneeling position. He was clutching at the blanket around him.

Katsuki’s mood lightened when he saw that, Izuku had never brought the blanket with him.

His mood tanked quickly, however, when he reached down to touch Izuku’s hair and he flinched.

Katsuki recoiled as if he’d been electrocuted.

God, if he was scared of him…

Katsuki felt tears pricking at the corner of his eyes, dropping to his knees in front of Izuku.

Fuck, it was probably all of his yelling. Why the fuck hadn’t he thought to control his anger?

He hung his head, itching to reach out and hug Izuku, but denying himself.

He wasn’t usually an overly affectionate guy, but he desperately wanted to be in this situation.

Izuku’s mother had hugged Izuku no less than a hundred times since Izuku had been found, but he never reacted to them, never brought his arms up to hug her back.

He didn’t think his embrace would help when he own mother’s didn’t.

A single tear had just escaped his lashes when he was startled by thin fingers, stretched out to touch his cheek. His tear was caught on the tip of one small, thin finger.

Izuku had brought his hand back to clutch the blanket before Katsuki could even look up.

He tentatively reached out a hand, more tears spilling when Izuku flinched, ever so slightly.

He powered through the feeling to drop his fingers, and made them touch Izuku’s hand.

To his surprise and amazement, Izuku let go of the blanket and gripped his long fingers tightly.

Katsuki was officially crying now, thinking only of how Izuku had been the one to cry, at the drop of a hat, regardless of what was going on.

But this… this was the first time he’d shown that he was still in there, somewhere.

Katsuki didn’t know how long he sat there, awkwardly stretched hand clasping Izuku’s, until the ring of his phone brought him out of his stupor.

Izuku reacted first, pulling his hand back to grip at the blanket as if Katsuki had burned him. He quickly looked at his palm, worried he might have.

His palm wasn’t hot.

He stared at Izuku for a while, only getting up reluctantly when his phone continued to ring, the person evidently not giving up.

“I’ll be right back, Deku.” His whisper was shaky.

Izuku showed no sign that he heard him.

Katsuki snatched up his phone and quietly locked himself in the bathroom.

“What?” His voice was higher than usual, and he cringed.

His tears were still tracking down his face and he avoided looking at himself in the mirror.

“Kats, the fuck did you disappear to?”

His mother’s voice was loud.

“Mom…”

“Hold up, Kats are you crying?” Her usually harsh tone changed into seldom offered concern, “Is Izuku ok? Fuck, I’ll call Inko.”

Katsuki bit out his words, “He’s fine. He fucking grabbed my hand, mom.”

“Shit, that’s good right?”

“Yea, he just-fuck. I think it’s a good sign.”

“I’m calling Inko anyway. She’ll be glad to hear it.”

Katsuki tried to stop his tears, aggressively scrubbing the back of his hand over his face.

He grasped at their earlier conversation, “What- what were you saying about the case?”

“Talking with Inko, it seems as though the person communicating with her, pretending to be Izuku was very good. She didn’t question a thing. I’ve got the lawyer looking them over now.”

“Fuck.”

He was stunned, why hadn’t he thought of how Auntie wasn’t burning the world down to find her son before all of this shit came to light? She had thought everything was fine. God, he was a fucking dumbass.

He felt some determination bolster his voice on his next words, “That would mean there actually is a fucking lead to follow. Good. Do the police have this information? Mom, you’ve got to get me those fucking transcripts. I know-“ he cut himself off, heart sinking, “I knew Deku well, maybe I can figure out if there are any clues to who the fuck did this.”

“I already sent them to your email. Let me know what you think. Now, get the fuck off the phone and go hold that boy’s hand.”

Katsuki savored the feeling of Izuku’s cold fingers in his, slowly warming by the heat of his palm.

He was definitely going to try.

Hanging up, he exited the bathroom.

When he stopped in Izuku’s doorway, he was immeasurably relieved to see him still covered.

Instead of opening his email immediately, he tucked his phone away, just coming to sit before Izuku.

Auntie would be by any minute with dinner for the three of them. She had been coming to his place at least three times a day, crying loudly for every minute of each visit. Even though it was distressing to him, and potentially distressing to Izuku, though there hadn’t been any visible reaction to the tears, he couldn’t blame Auntie. If he’d been more of an emotional person he’d be sobbing just as much.

Enjoying the quiet for the moment, he slowly reached his hand out again.

A hope, small and flighty, echoed in his chest when Izuku didn’t flinch away from him. It burned brighter when Izuku’s fingers loosened on the cloth. Katsuki didn’t rush it, just waited to see if Izuku would initiate the touch or not.

Izuku’s face was as impassive as it had been since he’d first found him in that fucking cell, but his skin was beginning to hold more color.

Katsuki traced his features with his eyes, eventually focusing on those thin fingers, trying to refrain from begging Izuku to just hold his fucking hand again.

He didn’t have to beg, after all. Izuku slowly reached over to take his hand again.

Katsuki marveled at the sight. Izuku’s hand was cradled in his palm, and he closed his fingers over it, twining them together and squeezing gently.

He rubbed at Izuku’s scars, aware that there were many more on his skin than the last time they’d met. The raised edges of the scars signified the lack of care taken of the wounds at the time they occurred. His anger boiled at the thought.

Katsuki, still moving slowly, raising their hands up to his face. He brought his other hand up to cup that small hand in the both of them. He kissed his small fingertips.

His eyes shot back up to Izuku when he heard a short, but sharp, intake of breath.

He froze, trying to determine if he’d gone too far, but Izuku’s tense arm relaxed. He did it again, trying to see what else he could try that wouldn’t overwhelm him.

He didn’t get much further than that as he heard the door handle jangling outside.

Katsuki had given Auntie a key immediately, knowing that his days of cooking naked where gone, at least for now.

Izuku tensed again, pulling lightly on his hand, weakly trying to remove it from Katsuki’s grip.

Katsuki planted another soft kiss to his finger tips before guiding his hand back to the blanket, clutching it lightly as well.

As soon as Inko’s watery voice echoed from the kitchen, Izuku’s posture relaxed. Also a good sign.

Knowing that his mom had told Inko about the minimal progress made tonight, he still wanted to talk to her before she came in here.

“Auntie brought dinner, I’m going to help her get a plate ready and then I’ll be back, okay?” It would be too much to ask at this point to have his words illicit a response.

He flexed his fingers as he left the room.

“He’s still really skittish I think, I only realized today that my angry phone calls might be distressing to him. I’m not sure if he’ll allow anyone else to do it but I think you should try, just go slow.”

He hated to be giving instructions for how Auntie should be handling Izuku, but he was relieved to see that she was nodding, determined to do anything to help her son.

He let Inko go into the room, hearing her talk quietly to him, tears still evident in every syllable.

He prepared plates for the three of them and joined them.

They had taken to kneeling on the floor as well, around Izuku but not immediately within his space.

Izuku’s hands were shaky as he reached out to take the plate.

As usual, he ate almost on auto-pilot. His chopsticks rose and fell until no food remained on the plate. He would just hold it, until Katsuki took it away.

Katsuki left the two of them together, headed to the couch instead.

He took a deep breath and got his phone out to read through his emails.

The texts were sent largely during nighttime, in line with Izuku being in a different time zone, but the frequency had decreased slightly from the first four months, and the rest of them.

After that subtle mark, the texts became more sporadic, sometimes in the morning, or afternoon to literal midnight.

‘12:00 am’ was time stamped under multiple texts. Enough to stand out.

Katsuki rifled in his coffee table for a notebook and began to scribble down his observations.

The next thing caught his attention. He brought the pen up to bite at the end, a disgusting habit that he only continued because it pissed other people off for some reason.

The text leapt out at Katsuki almost immediately. Of course he knew the night the words referred to, a story that Izuku had told countless times to the masses when asked about his desire to become a hero.

Katsuki used to be fucking livid when Izuku told the story in school, up until Izuku stopped bringing his name up in the narrative. Then, it just brought mild irritation to tick along his eyebrows.

He could only ever think about how weak he was back then; that a quirk-less kid had to save him.

The wording was what snagged his thought. When Izuku told that story, he said that he wanted to be ‘the best hero, for them’, referencing the people he aimed to save.

If Izuku had been the one sending this message, he would surely stick to the same verbiage, right?

He didn’t fucking know.

He thumped his phone to his forehead in frustration, taking a moment to breathe before looking back at the texts. He felt like he was grasping at shadows.

Katsuki hummed in concentration as he saw three similar texts referencing the spot.

That was odd. He didn’t recall Izuku having a favorite cafe back in their old neighborhood. He had his favorites in the city, sure, but he was usually happy to go to whatever venue was picked by his friends.

He made a note to check it out.

He jumped when he heard Auntie’s voice, so engrossed in his thoughts.

“He’s sleeping now. You were right, after I offered my hand up several times, he took it. He didn’t hold it for very long, but he reacted to me.”

Katsuki took her hand and pulled her down to sit on the couch with him.

Single-minded, he asked, “Auntie, I’ve been reading the transcripts of the communication you had over the past two years. It references a cafe down the street from your place. What’s it called?”

Inko tried to quell her fresh bout of tears, and Katsuki almost felt bad for bringing up the topic. He didn’t like the idea of some psychopath posing as Izuku communicating with Auntie Midoryia. He just waited though.

When she was able to speak again, she gave him the name of the cafe saying, “It was our usual spot when he was a kid. His father used to take him to it. Whenever he was back with me, we walked down to get chocolate croissants.”

Katsuki immediately wrote the name down in his notebook.

“Why? Is it important?” Her voice was frantic.

“Maybe, Auntie. I want to check everything out, no matter how small or trivial it may be.”

Katsuki took her hand in his again. He couldn’t bring himself to hug her, he feared that if he felt her shaking shoulders, he’d begin crying again too.

Her tears eventually slowed, still flowing but decreased.

“Thank you so much for helping him, Katsuki. He’s already making some progress, because of you.”

Katsuki blushed, reaching a hand back to rub his neck.

“I’m not doing anything special.”

“You’re keeping him safe, the best thing he needs right now.” She smiled down at him, getting up off the couch.

“I’d better head back. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Katsuki saw her to the door and finally leaned into his own exhaustion.

He checked on Izuku again, coming to sit by his side.

He had been sleeping in that chair since he first brought Izuku here, but his back was starting to complain.

He pulled the blankets up to cover Izuku up to his neck and left the room. He’d left the small desk lamp on, since it seemed Izuku liked it better than being in the dark.

He wandered down the hall, to his own room.

He slipped between his sheets, wrinkling his nose at the musty smell of them. He’d need to do laundry tomorrow.

He left his door open, and the hall light on. He determined to check out that cafe in the morning. Keeping his ears open for any sound, he slept lightly.

Chapter Text

#3

Katsuki wasn’t fucking hovering.

Katsuki was leaving Izuku in the bathroom alone for the first time.

Usually, he’d have to stay in the room, pointing his back to Izuku in order for him to bathe or use the toilet, quietly telling him what to do.

He’d tried shutting the door and standing outside multiple times before, feeling like he was giving a middle finger to any and all boundaries into Izuku’s privacy.

It was like Izuku didn’t realize what he was supposed to do in there unless Katsuki told him what to do.

Today, something was different. Izuku stood to the side, holding the door handle in a white knuckled grip, before slowly closing it behind him.

Katsuki was more excited then he should be, but his autonomy was slowly coming back, even if this was the first step.

He paced outside of the door, suddenly worried. There were multiple sharp things in his bathroom, fuck why hadn’t he moved all that shit yet?

Katsuki had taken Izuku to see a psychologist, that morning, knowing he’d need to be evaluated.

The doctor had taken him aside afterwards, leading to Izuku kneeling across the street, next to a bench in the park. Thankfully, still wearing all of his clothes. While he listened, he just watched people walk by him, most not even glancing down.

He was being fucking paranoid, but could justify it at every angle. That twisted fuck was still out there after all.

“A lot of people with PTSD can sometimes have suicidal tendencies. It’s important to watch out for the risk that he could pose to himself.”

“You mean he might try to fucking kill himself?” Katsuki watched his harsh words make the doctor wince.

Excuse him for being blunt where it was needed.

“Self-harm is common, with this diagnosis, yes.”

He held up the slip of paper in two fingers, “And this shit is going to help?”

“If he will take the medication, I believe it’ll be beneficial.”

“Alright,” He moved to cross the street, but paused, “Thanks.”

If he spared a glance back he would see the surprise of someone experiencing ‘Dynamight’ being mildly polite.

Guiding Izuku around was easy, annoyingly so. Regardless of the direction, he went without acknowledgement or complaint.

It had been eight days since he’d been found.

As it were, Izuku had been wearing his own old clothes from two years ago. They no longer fit on his thin frame and they swallowed it, making him look even smaller.

Deciding he could buy him some more clothes, he took him into a nearby clothing store.

Izuku made no indication that he was seeing the things Katsuki lifted up against his body, asking his opinion.

Katsuki liked talking to him, so he continued to ask him questions and just fill the empty air.

Ultimately, he just bought what he would like to see Izuku wear, though incorporating more bright red than his usual tastes. It offset his green hair well. He smiled sadly, thinking of those dumb red shoes Izuku used to stomp around in. He wondered what happened to them.

Making their way back through the city, he spotted their usual coffee place.

With another familiar, heartbroken smile, he guided Izuku inside.

He bought the usual frilly drink full of sugar for Izuku and his habenero infused latte that he preferred.

Izuku held the cup when it was handed to him and automatically brought it to his lips.

“Oi, nerd! Not yet, it’s still hot!”

He thought he imagined the slight uptick of the corner of his mouth.

Wishful thinking.

As he stood outside the bathroom now, he was gripped with fear. Why the FUCK hadn’t he gone in there to remove that shit before he let him close the door!

He heard small scuffing noises inside. The door wasn’t locked, but Izuku had closed it himself.

He was torn between slamming the door open to make sure Izuku wasn’t hurting himself and respecting the silent boundary that Izuku was trying to set.

He rested his forehead on the door, closing his eyes.

“Deku, I need to know you won’t fucking hurt yourself or some shit.”

There was expected silence on the other side.

“I’m just gonna. Fuck. What the fuck do I do here?”

His frustration leaked out in his words.

The image of Izuku flinching back from him was the only reason he didn’t slam his fist into the wood.

He slipped forward slightly when the door opened suddenly.

His hands shot out to grip the doorway to stop himself from falling, staring wide eyed down at Izuku.

He wasn’t looking at him, but he had several items in his hands.

Katsuki’s eyes widened, “Shit, Deku. What are you doing with-“

His mouth clicked shut as the items were held out to him to take.

Katsuki gripped his hair trimmers, scissors, and glass containers of cotton products in his hands.

Izuku did nothing other than drop his hands and stare at the floor.

“Uh, thanks Deku. Can you, um, look in there,” he gestured towards his medicine cabinet.

“The pill bottles and my tweezers, please, hand them to me as well.”

He hadn’t said ‘please’ in a long fucking time. He wasn’t that much of an asshole, but he limited how much time he spent talking to people.

When Izuku just stood there for a moment, he figured he’d have to get them himself, but he belatedly turned to complete Katsuki’s request.

Hands full of all of the sharp things he could think of in his bathroom, he just stared at Izuku.

Izuku waited until Katsuki nudged the door closed with his foot.

“Thanks, Deku. I’ll, uh, leave you to it.”

Izuku shut the door all of the way. Katsuki listened tensely to hear if he would engage the lock or not.

All he heard was the sound of water running.

He stood in the hallway for several minutes, just staring at the door.

Izuku had just shown that he was listening. He was hearing his fucking words. He was fucking in there, damn him.

He was actually making progress.

Katsuki winced, muttering a curse, and looked down at his hands. He had been clutching the items in his hands too tightly, and the point of the scissors had cut into his palm.

Here he was asking Izuku to be safe and he was the one hurting himself.

He huffed a little, finally moving from his frozen spot. He brought his stuff into his room and looked around. He had a couple lock boxes, mostly for his costume and accessories.

He found one and dumped that shit in.

He found that he was breathing fast. He tried to calm himself down.

Right.

He needed to proof the rest of the place.

When Izuku came out of the bathroom, Katsuki was examining a whisk and imagining any nefarious things you could possibly do with it.

He came to a conclusion that there wasn’t much shit you could do with a whisk to hurt yourself and put it back in the drawer.

He went to the bags of clothes that he had dropped in the entryway and turned to hand them to Izuku.

When he looked up, he dropped the bags.

Izuku was wearing clothes, always a fucking win, but he actually only had one item of clothing on.

It was Katsuki’s shirt, the one he’d left on the bathroom floor yesterday.

It hung off of him, made worse than his own clothes because it utterly dwarfed him.

Katsuki was tall and broad shouldered, two things Izuku wasn’t.

It hung almost to the middle of his thighs and the sleeves met his elbows.

The neck of the shirt was much too wide and Katsuki got a stark look at his slowly healing stitches.

While a warm and possessive feeling had been building in his stomach, an involuntary reaction to seeing Izuku in his clothes, the even clearer view of his wounds sobered him a little.

“Hey, that’s mine, nerd. And it’s dirty. Haven’t been to the gym in a hot fucking minute so it’s not that bad, but-“

He realized he was rambling. He stepped forward, leaning down to fish a pair of sweatpants and a shirt out of one of the bags.

“Bought you some clothes that should fit, remember? You don’t have to settle for my shit.”

When Izuku made no move to take the clothes and change, Katsuki stepped forward again, coming close to him.

Izuku wrapped his arms around himself, pressing the cloth to his skin.

Katsuki took in each tightening motion, eyes intent.

“If you like wearing it, that’s a different story. I… think I like it too? But at least let me get you a fucking clean one.”

He was murmuring, voice low.

Izuku stopped clutching at the fabric so tightly but didn’t do anything else.

Katsuki eventually stepped around him, tossing the clothes on the floor in Izuku’s room before going to his own and staring mindlessly into his closet.

Huh.

Izuku liked wearing his clothes.

He definitely liked Izuku wearing his clothes.

He settled on a black one with a skull on the front. It was older, one that Izuku might even recognize.

When he came out, Izuku had returned to his room, kneeling in that damn spot.

He knelt before him, holding his shirt out.

Izuku didn’t move. Damn, but he didn’t do that a lot.

Katsuki laid it in his lap and tentatively moved his fingers to Izuku’s hands, holding them and bringing them to the material.

He let his hands go, so Izuku was left holding it.

Izuku slowly brought the shirt to him and then reached down to pull at the hem of the shirt he had on.

Katsuki averted his eyes as Izuku changed. For some reason it was more intimate to watch him undress than it was to stumble upon him without a stitch on.

When the shirt was safely replaced, he looked up again.

The nostalgia of the shirt and seeing it on Izuku made his throat tighten. It was slightly smaller than the other one, but Katsuki was satisfied to see it still covered him completely.

“Doesn’t look too bad on you, nerd.”

His voice was soft, fighting against the lump trying to block it.

Before he could cry again, he stood up.

Izuku remained kneeling on the floor and stayed there while Katsuki organized the new clothes and folded them into the dresser along one wall.

“You can wear my shit whenever you want,” he paused before saying softer, “Seriously. Whenever and whatever the fuck you want, but you’ve got these too. Closer to your size.”

Unable to continue watching him, he made his way back to the living room. He flopped back on the couch, unsure of why he was so tired.

The silence was suddenly unbearable. He flicked on the TV for the first time in days, usually on for background noise before all this shit happened.

The noise was grating at first but he let the familiarity of the sounds relax him.

He rested his head back on the couch and sighed.

When he heard that one reporter’s annoying, nasally, voice speaking on a recent pro-hero win, he looked down to change the channel.

He startled to see that Izuku had left the room and was now kneeling on the floor to his left, between the coffee table and the cushions.

“I can’t stand her voice, Deku. Wanna watch something else?”

He’d given up waiting for responses, talking just to talk half the time.

He flipped through the channels mindlessly, until he settled on an old All-Might documentary.

He watched it only for a moment, before sliding off of the cushions to sit next to Izuku.

He stretched his shoulders and arms out along the soft ledge behind him.

If he dropped his arm, Izuku’s shoulders would fit nicely under it.

He didn’t move. He didn’t want to do anything that might make Izuku leave his side.

Izuku’s eyes were still trained on the floor, the realization saddening Katsuki. He remembered watching this documentary when it first came out, sitting excitedly in front of the TV, just him and Izuku. Just like this, but so different at the same time.

Izuku had been practically vibrating with happiness, talking a mile a minute. Katsuki distinctly remembered tackling him for talking over the film.

He’d kill to hear Izuku speak even one word now.

He never knew he’d miss the constant muttering.

He was entirely surprised when Izuku leaned into him, about half-way through the movie.

He froze, trying to ascertain whether or not Izuku was awake. His usual firm posture was gone, and he’d come to rest against his side.

His large eyes were closed, and he was breathing slowly, asleep.

Katsuki slowly lowered his left arm, curling it around his shoulders and anchoring him to his side, feeling that warmth wrap around his heart again.

He hated that Izuku’s shoulders were sharp, thin. He remembered Izuku having distractingly muscled shoulders and arms.

He leaned down and pushed his nose down into Izuku’s hair. He smelled like his own shampoo.

He was suddenly crying, silently. He tried not to jostle him with the shuddering of his ribs, furious with himself for just losing his shit again.

He couldn’t berate himself too harshly, too satisfied with finally holding Izuku, even just to his side, and not to just move him.

His phone began vibrating.

His sobs hitched when he looked over to see Iida’s name lighting up against the background.

He was surprised that Izuku didn’t wake up, as he slowly lifted him up to lay on the couch. He found a throw blanket and tossed it over him before silently making his way to the balcony, gripping his phone tightly.

“Yea? Please fucking tell me you’ve found something.” Jesus, he’d said ‘please’ again. Who was he anymore?

“Got a hit. Can you come down to the station?”

Katsuki straightened, adrenaline coursing through him.

“Fuck yea I can! Let me just get someone over here to watch over him.”

He hung up, quickly typing up a message to Inko.

Then, his fingers twitched over names in his contacts. He settled for being more paranoid than not and called his mom, quickly asking her to come stay with Auntie for extra support.

Bakugou Mitsuki never followed the hero path, but she still had a mean right hook and the ability to light a motherfucker on fire.

His next call made him feel more settled.

“Ei? Gotta favor. Bring Sparky if you can.”

He hadn’t left Izuku’s side once this entire time, making calls endlessly to track info, but still keeping him in his sight at all times.

He was loath to do it now, but if he could actually have a chance to catch his bastard, he had to take it.

Feeling more jittery than he’d ever been in his whole fucking life, he went back inside. He paced quietly, only having eyes for the messy, curly green hair splayed on his couch cushions.

Chapter Text

#4

Katsuki sat, stunned, in the dark room behind the interrogation room.

A nondescript man was sitting on the other side of the table, hands cuffed behind him.

Tenya obviously hadn’t been careful bringing him in. His lip was split in no less than two places.

He tuned back in to what the lieutenant was saying.

“-picked him up a couple blocks away from that underground cell block, an officer guarding the place noticed he was lingering and poking around the entrance.

I called you out here because he had a burner phone on him, a picture found on it. Of Deku.”

“Fuck.”

“You can’t go in there, but I’d like you to monitor him, watch his body language. Something that he says might strike a cord.”

Katsuki felt his rage building, every second he stood staring at the man.

Katsuki was going to blow the roof off of the building if he didn’t get outside.

As soon as the man had been taken away, handcuffs still firmly restraining him, Katsuki’s mind was going off.

“Well? Anything? I can attest to the league of villains popping up more frequently. I can’t help but feel something more is at play here.”

Katsuki took grounding breaths.

“Fuck, it was too personal. This isn’t it. Fucking gives us a start though. If there’s a trafficking ring in operation, that could get us a clue.”

He sighed, “Why the fuck has his picture only been on the site for two weeks? I’ve been theorizing that Deku was only in America for four months before he disappeared. He’s obviously been held for that amount of time, he’s as thin as a rail.”

Tenya tapped his finger to his chin, thoughtful.

“I’ll have my people decoding the encryption right now. Maybe he was sold on a different site.”

Katsuki’s anger peaked. Fucking sold.

Someone fucking bought him. Like a fucking inanimate object, not a person.

Tenya stepped back, familiar enough with his temper to know he’d need something to blow up here soon.

“I’ll go over to your place, talk to Midoryia Inko. See if I can pick anything else up. I understand you got Riot to watch over him? I’ll send him to your gym.”

Katsuki nodded, stalking out of the room and making his way outside.

Kirishima was the only person capable of withstanding Katsuki’s explosions, making him the perfect punching bag.

The man they’d arrested hadn’t been mouthy, but he did seem intimidated by Tenya’s line of questioning and more heavy handed interrogation techniques.

It heartened him to see that Izuku’s friends were almost as incensed by this shit show as he was.

Katsuki clenched his hands into fists, trying to decrease the likelihood that his sparks would catch on anything flammable.

He couldn’t fucking do this.

By the end, Kirishima was panting just as hard as he was.

He collapsed onto the scorched floor that he had just finished slamming his friend into.

Bakugou Mitsuki had been working on the designs for a training ground built specifically to withstand his explosive quirk, all while he was going to therapy.

She’d presented the plans to him when he graduated.

A year later, it was built.

It was the biggest gesture of love she’d ever made and he loved her back for it.

“Think we’ll make quick work of all this yet? I’m more impatient than you.”

Katsuki shook his head from side to side.

“I don’t know Ei. I just feel better that we’ve got something to work on.”

Kirishima rolled over to his side.

“You doing okay? I cried when I first saw him, the vacant look in his eyes.”

Katsuki closed his own eyes, “No. I’m not fucking okay. But at least he’s with me. I can’t bear to let him out of my sight, only comfortable to being gone for a few hours if I’ve got my old hag and you guarding him. Can’t get the thought of whoever fucking took him in the first place, coming for him again.”

“Still love him then?”

Katsuki opened an eye to glare at his friend.

“What if I do? Fucker.”

Kirishima gave him a reassuring smirk, “Good. He needs you.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’ll give him all I have anyway.”

Kirishima heaved himself off of the floor, groaning.

“I feel like I’ve been hit by an exploding train. Get the fuck up and buy me a shake.”

Katsuki smiled a little, quickly getting up to follow him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He pressed the phone closed to his ear anxiously.

“He’s just, he’s crying!”

He heard the conflicting anguish and delight in Auntie’s voice.

“Fuck.”

He couldn’t determine how he felt about that revelation either. Excitement because he hadn’t seen those infernal tears yet, and concern about why he was doing it now.

“I’m on my way.”

He almost left the two shakes he’d bought on the counter before making a beeline for his place.

He crashed through his door, looking around wildly.

Auntie appeared in the hallway and waved him over.

Still clutching the smoothies, he quickly followed.

The sight inside the room was absolutely heart-wrenching.

Izuku was curled up, knees to chest, in the corner.

He was still wearing his shirt, the front gripped in his small fist.

He made no noise, but Katsuki could see the glistening tear tracks on his cheeks.

His eyes were open, but his face held no expression.

Katsuki slowly approached him, noticing the subtle jerk of his spine.

He placed the smoothies on the floor to his side, scooting up to sit closely at his hip.

“Hey, Deku. It’s me. What’s going on, huh? C’mon, sit up for me.”

He thought Izuku wouldn’t move, but with the same delayed reaction, he slowly sat up.

He surprised him by laying his head down again, but in his lap this time.

Katsuki could feel the tenseness of his muscles.

When he gently placed his hand on top of Izuku’s head, he closed his still streaming eyes, relaxing under his touch.

He could hear Auntie crying in the background, realizing he was crying also.

“We’re all a bunch of fucking crybabies lately, huh,” He whispered.

He slipped his fingers into his hair, already showing more shine than when he first found him.

“I need to sleep, Katsuki. My nerves have been shot since you left. Oh! Did you find out anything?!”

Her voice was jarring in the quiet.

He ran through possible, gentle, ways to inform her of what they’d discovered.

“Auntie, we found some fucking… site that had his picture on it. A picture that had obviously been taken during his… time away.”

He rushed through the rest, burning with the need to soften the blow, “posted only two weeks ago. Definitely not the breaking lead we were looking for, but at least it’s something.”

Auntie Inko seemed to understand that he was trying to be gentle.

“Thank you, Katsuki.”

She leaned down to touch his hand resting on Izuku’s head.

“I’ll be back in the morning.”

Katsuki stopped her at the doorway, “I was thinking that I’d start cooking again, so don’t worry about bringing takeout.”

She smiled and nodded at him, leaving the two of them alone.

Katsuki liked cooking, and he often used to make extra food to give Izuku for lunch.

Maybe it would help Izuku, eating familiar dishes.

He sat twisting his fingers in the soft hair in his lap, cradling his head in his palm, sliding his thumb along his cheek.

His collarbone jutted out prominently, drawing his attention to those stitches.

He was glad he’d blown off steam by throwing Kirishima around earlier, as the close inspection of his neck always made him clench his teeth in seething anger.

Katsuki gently picked Izuku up and laid him on his bed, then went for a much needed shower.

He wandered through his routine, trying to figure out why Izuku had suddenly been crying.

When he opened the door, he was met with the sight of Izuku kneeling in the hallway, across from the door.

He was only in light sweatpants, water still beaded on his chest.

He knelt down too, immediately seeing the tears when he got on his level.

He reached out, gently placing his hand on his knee.

“Deku? You okay? What’s wrong?”

Izuku’s hands flew to Katsuki’s fingers as soon as he made contact with his skin.

Izuku clenched his hand in his, almost painfully hard.

Katsuki allowed him to hold it while he settled into a cross legged position.

He gently touched the fingers of his other hand to Izuku’s face, sweeping the tears away with his thumb.

“Deku… why are you crying?”

Izuku clutched his hand tighter, leaning into the touch on his cheek.

Katsuki didn’t think as he brought his hand up to cradle his face in the both of them, Izuku’s hands moving to clasp his forearms, shoulders shaking just a little from silent tears.

He faintly grasped for a reason why Izuku was showing such emotion.

“Were you worried when I left? Didn’t know where I was?”

Izuku’s chin dipped in an almost concession of his point.

“It’s okay, Deku, I’m here. I’ll always come back to you. I just- I just need to find this son of a bitch. You’re safe with Ei, and our moms, I promise. I won’t let anyone fucking hurt you ever again.”

He was still sweeping his thumbs at the tears cascading from under his eyelids, having closed them as soon as Katsuki began talking.

Suddenly, he had a lap full of Izuku.

He had pushed through his touch, climbing into his lap and hunching his shoulders, clinging to his chest.

He buried his nose into his collarbone and wept, quietly.

Katsuki took a moment to react, then wrapped his arms around him, loosely.

He didn’t want to make Izuku feel trapped. He never wanted to do anything that might remind Izuku of being a captive.

Katsuki rested his chin atop his hair, staring at the wall as he slowly moved his hands up and down his back, trying his best to comfort him.

For a guy who didn’t like to hug, nor had people who even considered hugging him, he sure fucking liked this one.

Granted, Izuku seemed to be gripping onto him rather than hugging. He’d take what he could get.

When Izuku’s spine stopped shivering, he rose up to his feet, carrying Izuku to his bed.

Izuku had evidently cried himself to sleep.

Katsuki left him there, coming out to sit on the couch, exhausted.

He’d made minimal progress in the case, and Izuku had done the same. He was mindless about the embrace.

He slowly slid to lay down on the cushions, closing his eyes.

When he opened them again, it was dark in the living room.

Auntie must have came and gone; he looked over the back of the couch at the kitchen and saw some takeout boxes on the counter. Damn, he’d meant to cook.

He was startled back into paying attention to his other side. His phone pinged with the notification that he’d gotten a text.

Izuku was kneeling on the floor by the couch.

He reached over to grab the phone, thumbing it open.

Katsuki swore loudly, tossing the phone away. This caused Izuku to jump, a reaction previously unseen, shoulders bunching up.

He closed his eyes, trying to control his anger, if only visibly.

Izuku was touching his arm, fingertips lightly trailing through the fine hairs there.

Then Izuku did something that utterly stopped his heart.

He’d reached for his waist, grasping the waistband and tugging at it.

He reacted instantly to the nimble fingers edging around the skin above his pants, but wilted immediately as the implications of this act hit him like a fucking lightning bolt.

This felt like true confirmation. Izuku had been trafficked. For sex.

Why else would he be kneeling on the floor, naked, trying to peel his pants down, all while he was crying and staring at the floor?

The thought caused his stomach to roil.

He regretting how fast he was immediately, but he gripped Izuku’s hand and jerked it out of his pants. He got up, unsteady, and ran to the bathroom.

He barely made it to the toilet before he was throwing up.

He hadn’t eaten more than drinking a smoothie earlier in the day, and he was soon only dry heaving, spitting stomach bile into the bowl.

When the horrible, involuntary reaction, subsided, he fell back against the wall, knocking his head hard against it.

Dazed, he barely noticed the sound of a lock clicking.

Fuck.

Where the fuck was he going?

He crashed out of the bathroom, knocking his door off of its hinges in his haste to stop Izuku from leaving him.

Izuku had made it out into the hallway outside the apartment before he caught up with him.

Izuku tried to run but Katsuki spun around him, placing himself between him and the hall leading out of the building.

His hands opened, aching to hold him, but he stopped.

Izuku was sobbing openly, raw emotion clear unlike how he had been previously. His mouth had opened to let out a ragged low sound, eyes tightly shut and nose scrunched up. His arms came up to cover his face.

God, what the fuck had he done?

Katsuki slowly stepped forward, reaching out to pull him into his chest.

Izuku struggled weakly, trying to evade his touch, but Katsuki persevered when he began to still.

He couldn’t stand to just watch him fall apart.

He enveloped him in his arms, holding him tight.

He ducked his head down, whispering, “I’m so sorry, Deku. I didn’t- fuck! I didn’t mean to react like that. Just-fuck! You don’t have to- you don’t have to do anything like that, okay? You never have to do fucking anything like… that ever again if you don’t want to. I don’t need that. All I need is for you to be with me, that’s it. Just stay with me.”

He hadn’t said ‘sorry’ in a hot fucking minute either.

He was crying again. Jesus fucking Christ, he was wrecked.

He cried all the more when Izuku slipped his thin arms around him, tightly returning his embrace.

He walked them back, kicking the door shut with one foot when they crossed the threshold.

He picked him up, carrying him to the couch.

Izuku made no more noise as he laid him down. Features stilling in only a few moments.

Kasuki gripped his hand tightly, bringing it up to his face, kneeling by his side.

He pressed light kisses to each finger available, reeling from the news.

He’d known. Fuck, he’d known since the second he saw that collar. He just hadn’t wanted to actually know it. He didn’t want to hear the facts.

He laid he head down on Izuku’s chest, still crying.

He listened to his heart beat, feeling it thump against his forehead.

How the fuck could Izuku heal from this?

Chapter Text

Izuku came to his room for the first time, one month after he’d brought him home.

Izuku had become more active. He regularly reached out to touch Katsuki’s arm or shoulder, sliding down to hold his hand.

He was still mostly expressionless, and hadn’t said a fucking word, but Katsuki was still pleased with even this much progress.

He still kneeled whenever he wasn’t doing anything, a sight that never stopped upsetting Katsuki.

He still kept his eyes downcast, never looking directly at him.

The progress in the case had hit the doldrums, however.

Katsuki arranged a small guard for Izuku at least once a week, to accompany the lieutenant and follow potential leads.

Despite arresting three more individuals in the ring, they didn’t know any more information since the first man’s interrogation. Each one reported only transporting ‘purchases’ and not attendance to any auction. None of them recognized Izuku’s picture.

He’d return to the apartment late, but somehow, Izuku was always kneeling on the floor of the living room, apparently waiting for him to return.

Auntie would smile up at him, leaving the house to go home, tired for having stayed up so late. He tried telling her to head home early, his mom and Kirishima were always around, but she refused. She only left when she knew Izuku was in his direct care.

He’d drop his bag and slowly take off his costume, shedding articles as he walked over to him.

No matter how tired or frustrated he was, he always had a small smile for Izuku. He’d pull him gently to his feet, then up into his arms, whisper a quiet ‘goodnight, Deku’, and take him to his room.

Tonight, as he came in, he very quickly noticed that he wasn’t in his usual spot. His heart stopped for a beat.

With mounting panic, he was ripping off one of his gauntlets, running to Izuku’s room.

It was empty.

“Hey, it’s alright. He’s here. Wanted to sit in your room, I guess.”

Auntie was smiling reassuringly, walking towards him from the hall.

Relief so strong swept through him that he slumped against the wall.

Despite Inko usually giving him space, she touched his arm.

“He’s safe. Especially so, now that you’re here.”

She slipped out of the apartment quietly.

He wondered what was different tonight than all of the others.

Izuku usually stayed out of his room, though he never locked it.

His heart thundered again, what if he’d found the lock box with all of the sharp shit?

Izuku hadn’t used a hint of his quirk the entire month, but he could easily bust the lock if he wanted to.

He skidded into the room, still wearing half of his costume.

Izuku was kneeling on the floor, opting to only wear one of Katsuki’s shirts instead of any of his other clothes.

Izuku had taken to wearing his shirts with his own pants lately. If it wasn’t so adorable, making heat warm his stomach, he’d laugh.

His eyes casually roved to see if the lock box was still on the top of his bookcase.

Nothing looked out of place.

Sighing, trying to calm himself, he sat on the edge of his bed.

He wearily took off his other gauntlet, allowing it to fall to the floor.

They’d arrested a woman this time, seeming to run in the same circles as the other three men.

Despite Tenya working on her, she hadn’t spoken a word.

Still no closer to a lead.

He took his boots off and tossed them aside. He hadn’t had much energy to keep as tidy as he used to, Auntie being the only reason the place wasn’t a disaster.

He rose with a groan, one of his knees stiff, but still smiled down at Izuku.

He touched his hair briefly before getting a change of clothes and heading to the bathroom.

He wasn’t a goddamn repair man so the door to it was screwed in, haphazardly. It stuck in the frame sometimes and you would need to force your way in.

He’d found that out the couple of times he’d been frantic about how much time Izuku had been in the bathroom.

When he’d busted in, Izuku was only kneeling on the floor.

He was glad he hadn’t seen signs that Izuku was thinking of, or actually hurting himself.

He showered quickly, eager to get in bed.

When he came out, towel ruffling his hair, he stopped short in the doorway.

Izuku was kneeling on his bed, instead of the floor.

Izuku had never, not once, gotten into a bed by himself. Katsuki had no issue with lifting him up and placing him there, but he’d never seen this.

“What’s up? Haven’t ever seen you in here.” Despite his concern, he made himself move to stand at the foot of the bed.

Izuku didn’t respond, but he slowly made eye contact.

Katsuki was so floored that he dropped to his knees. They thumped loudly on the hardwood, but he barely noticed the sharp pain in his knee. He couldn’t imagine standing right then.

He hadn’t seen those emerald eyes directed at him in over two years.

They were wide, anxious maybe.

He reached up to touch Izuku’s knee.

His mouth was dry.

Izuku reached out to him. Gripping his shirt front, he tugged, as if to get him up onto the bed with him.

“We never- well shit. We never actually talked about this any more than that night, but I meant what I said. You don’t have to do anything like this.”

He gestured at Izuku’s spot on the bed, nerves causing him to wave his fingers excessively.

“I’ll never force you into doing anything. Well, I’d do it if you stopped eating, of fucking course, but-“

“Just, go back to your own bed, Deku. You don’t need to do this.”

He sighed, closing his eyes against the building pressure behind them, rubbing his forehead.

He opened his eyes again at the tentative touch to his hair.

Izuku’s fingers continued their slow path into his damp hair, gently scraping his scalp.

He let out a low moan, without thinking.

Fuck.

He hadn’t been feeling particularly aroused, he couldn’t even fucking imagine it, despite Izuku starring in his wet dreams for years before this.

But he instantly worried that he’d made a mistake by making such a sound.

“Fuck, I’m sorry- just felt nice, that’s all. Never had someone touch my hair before. I fucking swear, that’s all.”

He pulled himself to his feet. He needed to get out of here.

“You can stay in my bed if you want, I just- can’t.”

As he pulled a blanket over himself on the couch, he couldn’t help but notice that Izuku stayed in his room.

From then on, Izuku could be found in his room, usually kneeling on the floor, but occasionally on the bed.

He never made eye contact after that one, and apparently only, time.

Katsuki adjusted to his routine by simply shortening the distance to settle Izuku in his dark sheets.

He couldn’t manage sleeping on the couch much more so he’d brought the other mattress into his room, and put it next to his closet. He tried to stay as far away from the door as possible, wanting to make sure Izuku knew there was always a way out.

He never even thought about moving into the spare bedroom instead. He was soothed by hearing Izuku’s steady breaths as he fell asleep.

Izuku sometimes tried to get him up on the bed with him, but he couldn’t make himself cave.

He knew that if he was in the same sheets as him, he’d wake up with him underneath his body, not something he wanted to do even unconsciously.

He stuck to the spare mattress, but still offered his smile and whispered ‘goodnight’.

“Roughly four months in? I fucking knew something was off in that chat! She said what? Are you fucking kidding me?! The FUCK?! I’m coming, shit, I’ll be there in like 15 minutes.”

It was too late to get Kirishima out there, but he started texting his old classmate’s chat without thinking. Kirishima was off on a job, Pikachu with him. It wasn’t the usual time that he needed a guard.

The chat was usually running with the same inside jokes, meet up times, and lately, an influx of conern for Izuku.

Two people immediately responded, Ponytail and Pinky.

He blinked, Ponytail was going to bring Icyhot?

Fuck, he never thought he’d invite Katy fucking Perry into his home, but he texted his address and hurriedly called Auntie and his mom. Icyhot might be one of the best pros out there to guard Izuku, so he was grudgingly pleased.

He didn’t look at the ping on his phone as he got ready, missing the third person to respond to the chat.

As soon as Icyhot was in his kitchen, he was bursting out the door.

Maybe they’d get somewhere tonight, finally. His head was whirling at his conversation with the lieutenant. None of what he just heard made any fucking sense.

Katsuki slammed the photo down on the table, the heat from his hand warping the edges of it slightly.

“You’re fucking telling me, this woman. This woman here? She’s the one you saw at this fucking…auction?”

Tenya hadn’t been able to stop him from bowling his way into the small interrogation room, unable to tug him away either.

The woman in front of him, looked haunted.

Tenya must have implored Creepy Eyes to fuck with her mind a little. Probably illegal, and he’d have to set aside time to be in shock that Tenya even had an illegal thought in his brain.

She nodded, quickly, quailing under his fierce gaze.

“S-she d-d-didn-“

“Fucking spit it out already!”

“S-she didn’t buy. She didn’t buy anything! B-but she was looking at the green haired one really c-losely!”

Katsuki leaned in, “Who. Fucking. Bought. Him.”

“I-I don’t know! I s-wear! I left as soon as I sold! She left before then and the green-haired one was still there when I left!”

Sensing the truth, in all of her words- even the mindfucking ones, had him storming from the room.

He stalked down the hallway a ways, twisting sharply and glaring at the lieutenant closing the door behind them.

He strode up to him, “Why in the fucking FUCK did she just identify Floaty Round Face?!”

“I admit, I didn’t think she’d be telling the truth, but you saw her. She wholeheartedly believes that Uraraka was at that auction. She couldn’t have been though.”

His mind jumped around from concept to concept. If she had been on a mission, she would have reported seeing Izuku there that night. Why the fuck hadn’t she?

“You’ve got to get her down here, now!”

His phone rang. He pulled it out and answered without looking at the screen.

“What?” He was all but yelling.

His mother’s voice was scratchy on the other end.

“You’ve got to get the fuck back here! We can’t stop him! Todo what’s his fucking face is holding him off but he won’t stop!”

“Who, mom, who?”

“Izuku! He just, he went crazy as soon as she stepped in.”

“Ponytail? Pinky? Why?”

Despite being engrossed in the call, he motioned for Tenya to follow, “Meet me at my apartment. Bring everyone you can.”

“No, that little hamster girl!”

Fuck.

He’d called Round Face that at one point.

“Just- Hang on, I’m coming.”

He shoved his phone in his pocket, already running.

Chapter Text

Katsuki could see the purple and blue flashes of Izuku’s quirk flashing blindingly through the windows of his apartment when he finally got in range.

As soon as he prepared to smash through his balcony doorway, he realized all of the glass was gone already.

He landed heavily, the crunching of glass beneath his boots was completely cut off against the other sounds.

He rushed in, taking in the scene. It was fucking with his mind already.

Waves of crackling dark energy were pulsing through the air. The flashing light emitted cast the shadows longer.

He could plainly see a strong obsidian barrier between Izuku and whatever was behind it. Ponytail.

Blackwhip was tangled around the barrier, occasionally whipping up in a new tendril to smash against whatever was behind it.

Katsuki skirted around to see Izuku’s face. His face was a mask of rage. His mouth was set in a baring of teeth, a snarling growl barely audible over the sounds of his energy breaking against something.

He held his arms out, but his entire body was crackling with energy, full cowling at one hundred percent.

He shifted over just a little more to see Icyhot behind the barrier, not seeming worried that the black tendrils would hit him. He was creating a continuously building wall of ice around a small, crouching figure, that smashed and reformed faster than he could believe.

“Bakugou! He’s trying to kill Ochako! Hasn’t hit any of us, but it’s all we can do to just keep her alive!”

Katsuki would like to murder Round Face Hamster Girl himself, but not until he got some answers from her.

Without hesitation, he moved in between Izuku and the barrier.

Immediately, his power was arcing around him, not touching him.

Izuku didn’t stop, it seemed like his power even increased. A second barrier flew up to the top of their location.

It didn’t matter, Izuku flung blackwhip along the sides.

Katsuki raised his hands, beginning to walk towards Izuku.

He saw Inko and his mom clutching one another in the hall behind Pinky, over his narrow shoulders.

“Easy, Deku. Easy. I want to fucking rip her apart too, but I need you to let me question her first. Can you do that?”

Izuku glared directly into his eyes, a hatred so deep that it chilled him to the bone.

He took another step closer, and he was able to see the clearly portrayed hurt and sadness behind the immense anger, in those blazing emerald eyes. His energy made them look alive for the second time, fierce.

He was close enough to take Izuku’s arms, and curl them around his waist, doing the same.

He held on, the dark lighting making the hairs on his skin prickle.

Izuku’s power slowly began to fade. The crackling decreased in intensity, his hair slowly blowing in the waves still around them.

Izuku’s knees gave out, and Katsuki sank to his knees with him.

Katsuki kept Izuku’s gaze, holding it even when the door slammed open and officers rushed in.

He waited until a swat member stated that the ‘girl was secured’, to move.

He only moved closer, though, wrapping his arms around Izuku tighter. Izuku clutched his waist in a surprisingly strong grip.

He ducked his head, finally sobbing.

He was loud, the sound coming out cracked and disused. He was struck by a thought.

He was grieving.

As soon as he’d heard that Round Face was there, he’d known that woman was right.

For Izuku to react like this, she had to have played a big role in what had happened to him.

Katsuki was unaware of the blurring motions around them, only cradling the back of his head, pressing his tears into his shoulder.

By the time Izuku had quieted, so had the room.

Even though Katsuki wanted to follow Round Face, do anything he could to make her fucking tell him what she’d done, he didn’t.

Not even that was enough for him to leave Izuku right now.

His apartment was destroyed, but he couldn’t give a shit about any of his belongings.

His mom brushed by him, “Take him to the room, we’ll clean up here. I don’t think it’s a good idea to get a hotel. He needs some familiarity. He needs you.”

He barely looked at her, nodding. He bent to grip Izuku’s thighs and pulled him up into his arms.

Izuku’s arms wound their way around his neck, still pressing his face into his shoulder, shaking.

Katsuki laid Izuku on the bed, reaching up to remove his arms from around his neck.

Izuku didn’t let him, holding on more tightly, refusing to let go.

Katsuki eventually sat back on the bed, pulling him into his lap, trying not to startle him.

He still had no idea what motions might be irreparably traumatic so he did everything as slowly as possible, watching for any sign that he should stop.

Izuku began pressing him, pushing him weakly back.

“Want to lay down, Deku? You can do that. I’ll sit right here.” He caressed his hair lightly.

Izuku shook his head, pressing on his chest more firmly.

“Deku…”

He was stunned. Izuku had never responded to him in any discernible way, only doing something that he had asked, with no visible or audible response. A shake of the head was a fucking miracle.

He laid his hand on his back again, splaying his fingers between his shoulder blades, bumping along the prominent bones of his spine.

Izuku pushed at him again.

“Fuck, Deku. I want to, holy fuck I want to- but I don’t want to, uh- I don’t want to remind you of anything.”

As blunt as he usually was, the skirt he threw around the proverbial elephant in the room was impressive.

He had no idea how to talk about it. Maybe when Izuku actually talked back to him, he’d figure that out.

For now, his blood just boiled at the mere thought of what Izuku must have gone through.

Izuku pressed against him again, and Katsuki allowed himself to fall back on the bed, catching them on his elbows.

Izuku followed quickly, clinging to him.

Izuku was soon practically plastered to his chest, flush against him.

Despite the discomfort of his worry, he wordlessly embraced him, letting his head fall back to the blankets.

They were sideways on the bed, and his feet were still planted on the floor, but he didn’t give a fuck.

His heart broke for this moment.

Izuku eventually began twitching, puzzling Katsuki until he realized that he was finally feeling chilled in only his thin, oversized shirt.

When Katsuki sat up, he began to protest, shaking his head and making a low whimpering sound, deep in his throat.

“I’m not leaving, Deku. Look, just getting you into the blankets, you’re fucking shivering.”

Izuku didn’t calm, not until he got Katsuki into the sheets with him.

He did so reluctantly, just fucking worried.

He very hesitantly reached down to begin removing his boots. He let them fall to the floor and twisted to face Izuku.

He was staring at him, appearing as if that’s all he could see entirely.

It was surreal to see Izuku looking him directly in the eyes, from so close.

Izuku twisted away from him, suddenly, and he let out a breath in relief. If he got any more settled into the bed, with Izuku in his arms, he’d fall asleep. He couldn’t control what he did after that point.

He was, what his mom called, ‘a fucking demented octopus’ when he slept. He only had to think of any night that he’d stayed over at Izuku’s house as a kid, to remember how he’d cling onto the boy like a leech.

Izuku had usually woken up first, so he seldom dealt with the awkwardness of waking up to having both of his legs and arms twined around his body.

He imagined he still did that, if only because his pillows always ended up in random places, clutched in his hands.

The next breath caught in his throat as Izuku shifted back, lifting his arm and arranging it around his waist, like a belt.

He wouldn’t deny Izuku comfort, especially when he was asking, silently, so plainly. He’d gotten this far, just listening to Izuku.

He shifted down a bit, then pulled Izuku snugly in so that his back was pressed to his chest. He moved his hand up further, away from his waist and pressed his palm to his heart.

He told himself he would see if he could slip out of the bed once Izuku fell asleep. He’d never take any choice from him. Not even while sleeping.

Despite his self-affirmations, he set a vibrating alarm on his watch.

He started feeling uncertain, as Izuku had yet to relax his shoulders. He shifted back, only slightly, and Izuku went boneless, letting out another whimper at the inch of space created between them.

Even if that was the only noise he got, he’d fucking take it, again a request in the sound. He moved back, so he could feel each breath Izuku took.

He slid his fingers through his wild, green hair. Trying to soothe, but also feeling more calm himself. His mind was all over the place.

He couldn’t imagine why Round Face would have hurt Izuku like this. She was annoying, and vapid, but she wasn’t a villain.

Was she?

His arms tightened a little around Izuku.

Regardless, Izuku’s reaction to her meant that she was tied up in this somehow, he just didn’t know to what degree.

He’d make sure Izuku never saw her again.

He rested his cheek on the pillow, and buried his nose in his hair, trying to press how much he loved him into it.

Chapter Text

Katsuki woke to the warm feeling of Izuku’s breath at his throat. He quickly realized that his vibrating alarm was going off. He flicked his wrist to the side, silencing it.

Taking stock of the situation, he quickly realized that he really was a demented octopus.

Izuku was so wrapped up in his arms and legs that he almost couldn’t tell where his limbs ended and Izuku’s began.

Izuku may very well also be an octopus of some kind.

He was holding him back, thin arms twined around his neck, face pressed against his throat.

Thankfully he was still asleep.

Taking a look at his watch, it was almost dawn. His watch had been going off for a long time.

Hopefully it hadn’t disturbed Izuku.

Holding him, like this, felt so damn good that he felt his heart beat stronger.

He had one arm around Izuku, pillowing his cheek on his bicep. His other hand was gripping his thigh, thrown over his hip.

His fingers lightly pressed into the naked skin of his leg.

Izuku’s other knee was settled between his thighs.

He spent several seconds just breathing his closeness in.

He needed to extricate himself before Izuku woke up.

He did so, expertly and slowly.

When he finally had his feet on the floor, he wondered how much power Izuku had been using last night.

As pros, Katsuki himself had only melted Icyhot‘s ice a few times, usually resorting to close combat instead. They hadn’t sparred in quite some time, but he imagined he was just getting stronger.

For Izuku’s blackwhip to break through his shield, constantly and quickly, the force of it must have been insane.

He grazed his fingers along Izuku’s cheek.

He left Izuku sleeping in the bed and wandered out into the hall.

His mom had put in some serious work out there. All of the balcony windows had been boarded up, and the glass swept away.

Patches of drywall were haphazardly covering the many holes in the walls that hadn’t withstood Izuku’s assault.

There was an old looking armchair where the couch used to be and a new coffee table and TV sat across from it.

His kitchen seemed largely untouched, only a few appliances missing.

He was happy to see that his coffee maker was still there. He just finished putting coffee grounds in the filter when his phone rang.

Seeing Tenya‘s contact, he quickly swiped to answer it.

“Before you ask, yes she was questioned, and not by me. We’ve been… involved in the past and I didn’t want to obfuscate the situation. Listen, she has an alibi for the night of the auction.”

Katsuki couldn’t help saturating his words with venom.

“You weren’t here Tenya. Deku went fucking crazy, trying to kill her! He hasn’t used his quirk in who knows how fucking long. If I hadn’t been able to stop him, I have no doubt that he would’ve beaten Icyhot and actually fucking done it. She has something to do with this, I fucking know it.”

“I did take statements from all present and all accounts are the same. Todoroki reported that he and Momo had been at the apartment first, and garnered no reaction to them at all. Ashido arrived and spent time talking to him, and he seemed to relax.

Then all hell broke loose when Uraraka arrived, a half hour later, knocking on the door. Todoroki let her inside and Izuku immediately stood up, backing away.

Todoroki said it looked like he was scared out of his mind, but after a moment, he was in a rage.

Based on these accounts, I believe you that she would’ve been killed without your intervention.”

Katsuki nodded, seeing how it went down all too easily.

“However, her alibi is airtight.”

“I find that hard to believe, what the fuck is it?”

“It’s me, Bakugou. A year and four months ago, when we were still together, I took her on a month long vacation to see my parents and visit sites around Okinawa. I was with her the entire time, the night in question included. It… was the night I asked her to marry me. Completely corroborated by my family and many others throughout the evening. She couldn’t have been at that auction.”

Floored, Katsuki slumped against the counter.

“Iida, she had something to do with this, I fucking know it. You asked her to fucking marry you? I thought you broke up before graduation?”

“I hold no harsh feelings for her about it, but she laughed at me, that night. It… didn’t work out. Happier for it really.”

“I fucking need to question her.”

He couldn’t just leave this up to others. He needed to talk to her personally.

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I’ll even submit to anti-quirk methods.”

“We all know you’re just as much of a weapon without your quirk.”

“Tenya, I’ve got to fucking do this. Quirk-lock an observation room and I’ll talk to her from there.”

He heard a heavy sigh on the other end.

“Very well, I’ll arrange it for tomorrow. It’ll take some doing placing a quirk lock. I’ll let you know the time.”

“Thanks.” Katsuki’s voice was tight. He should really consider how much more fucking polite he could even get.

“We’ve been searching the sites related to, or time-stamped similarly, as much as we can. I’ve had analysts on it this entire time. We are trying to get results of the auction, or video of it. It’s my understanding that videos are taken to ensure the people know that evidence of them attending is out there. We might have a lead, but I’ll call you if it pans out.”

Katsuki grunted and hung up. He could only say thank you so many times before his skin crawled away.

He was still looking at his phone, answering texts from Inko about Izuku, when he was knocked hard against the counter, his head banging on the cupboards above it.

Izuku had launched himself at him, crying.

He quickly caught them from falling, while Izuku climbed up into his arms.

“Hey, hey. What’s up?” He leaned back to look into his wide eyes.

He was still startled to see them meet his, fear evident in them.

“It’s okay, I was just making coffee. Not gonna leave at all today, promise.” He rubbed his back, soothingly.

Izuku was shaking, seeming so frightened that he couldn’t stop.

Katsuki pushed off the counter, realizing that Izuku wasn’t about to let go of him. Holding him with one arm, he quickly added the coffee filter to the machine and started it.

“C’mon, Deku. You used up a lot of fucking power last night. You’ve got to rest.”

Izuku allowed him to carry him to the bed, but wouldn’t let him let go. He found himself not putting up much of a fight. Instead, he twisted back, settling him in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed.

Izuku laid his cheek against his chest. He shifted so he could touch his hair, tangling it in his fingers.

“I get it, Deku. Never seen you like that before. What did she do to you?”

Izuku tensed, a choking sob rising from his throat.

“Sorry, I know this is hard. I don’t really expect an answer, it’s okay. Just wish I could help more.”

Izuku patted his chest.

Katsuki was struck with an idea.

“Hey, could you maybe communicate that way? One tap for ‘yes’ and two taps for ‘no’?”

He held his breath, waiting. It felt like a century.

Then Izuku tapped his chest once.

“Oh fuck yea, fucking perfect! Goddamn it all, I fucking love you. I love you so fucking much.”

He pulled Izuku tighter, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He was so fucking relieved and stunned that he didn’t catch up to what he’d just said for a long moment, just holding Izuku close.

“Oh shit.”

He quickly pulled back, trying to search Izuku’s usually expressionless face.

Izuku’s eyes watered, but he still met his gaze, unflinchingly, eyes even wider. His mouth was slightly parted.

“Well, fuck. Didn’t mean to say that out loud. It’s fucking true, just so you’re aware.”

He was blushing. He pulled Izuku closer, resting his chin on the top of his head, unable to look into his eyes anymore.

“Doesn’t change anything, promise. Just I, um… loved you for a long time, I guess. Just so fucking happy you’re here, with me. Fucking talking to me, in a way.”

He felt the tears coming. He knew he was rambling and he couldn’t stop the words coming out of his mouth. He tightened his grip even more, choking a little with an aborted sob.

“When I found you- when I found you in that fucking cell… I thought my heart would fucking drown in my anger. Just fucking, fuck! I can’t let them get away with this. Get away with fucking hurting you.

But now you’re here, with me. And I love you so fucking much it’s almost impossible. Love holding you, and taking care of you. Fucking can’t believe how much you’ve let me know you’re in there still. You’re still my Deku.”

He was full on crying, messy and uncontrollable. He slid to the floor, back resting heavily on the side of the bed, knees up to just hold onto Izuku.

He wasn’t aware of anything until he felt hesitant fingers on his cheek.

Izuku was wiping at his tears, and making a low noise of distress.

He tried to get a hold of himself. Jesus fuck, before all of this, he hadn’t cried in months. Now he was crying every goddamn day.

“Sorry. I’m such a fucking mess,” he sighed as he slowly got to his knees. He turned around and set Izuku on the bed. His hands slid down to hold his hips, loosely.

Izuku stared down at him, resting his hands on the back of his neck.

Unable to manage the idea that he had just confessed his love and fucking cried about it, he looked down.

He saw the rough and bloody mess that Izuku’s knees had become.

He tutted, so wrapped up in himself that he didn’t think to check Izuku out for any new scrapes and bruises.

A few of the wounds were split open, bleeding slightly.

Yearning for a sense of normalcy, he grunted, “C’mon nerd. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Izuku surprised him by getting up on his own. Katsuki was able to take his hand and lead him to the bathroom.

They stood there, just looking at one another until Katsuki snapped out of his daze.

He shook his head, then lifted Izuku to sit on the counter. He knelt down to look for the first aid kit in the cupboard.

Oh shit, that’s right, he had moved it to that lock box with the other sharp odds and ends.

He rose to move away, but Izuku gripped his shirt, large eyes looking up at him.

Katsuki smiled softly, “Just getting the first aid kit to clean up those cuts. It’s okay, I’ll be right back.”

Katsuki didn’t exactly want to show or remind Izuku of where he had put the lock box.

Izuku let go of his shirt and Katsuki was able to quickly retrieve the kit.

When he returned to the bathroom, Izuku was standing, arms wrapped around himself.

“Not leaving you. It’s okay.”

He embraced him and pushed him gently back up onto the counter.

He knelt once more, leaning over his work.

Izuku’s skin was thin, soft.

He used a wet cloth to wipe at the blood, and get the remaining bits of debris out of the cuts. He imagined it was little shards of his TV and couch that was the cause of them.

He remembered kneeling in the wreckage, not thinking about Izuku’s bare legs at all.

“Sorry Deku. Didn’t think to do this earlier.”

He spread some antibacterial salve on the cuts and then pressed two large bandages to his knees.

He looked up at Izuku. Guant and unsmiling as he was, he was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Izuku touched his face, bringing him in closer.

Katsuki made a noise of surprise when he felt his trembling lips against his forehead. A thank you, maybe?

Either way, it made his heart skip.

Unable to stay, lest he do something he’d regret, he straightened.

“Want some breakfast, Deku? I can make something for us.”

Izuku slid off the counter and took his hand.

Katsuki led him out into the kitchen and soon realized that he had no table or chairs. The only chair was the arm chair in the living room.

“I suppose it’s the counter for you today, nerd.”

He lifted him to settle on the counter next to the coffee maker.

He was happy to touch him, keep him near, as long as Izuku wanted that too.

He couldn’t be sure that he did, so he kept his touch brief.

Izuku let him putter around the kitchen, first filling up two mugs with coffee. He was pleased to see that he still had the sugary powdered creamer he kept around for Izuku in his cupboards.

When he settled the mug into his small hand, Izuku patted his fingers on his arm.

“You’re welcome.”

He was getting good at this shit.

Izuku remained close for the remainder of the day.

He’d found his laptop and settled in the armchair. It took some doing, but Katsuki was able to get him up from his default kneeling pose. He pulled him up to settle in his lap, straddling his waist.

He easily had a long enough reach to use his laptop and rest his chin on Izuku’s shoulder.

Izuku made a humming noise every once in awhile, barely audible but he could feel it in his chest. It was comforting somehow.

He occasionally took a break just to touch Izuku’s hair, and curl it behind his ears. It had almost regained its emerald sheen, soft against his cheek.

He fell asleep a few times, but didn’t move from his lap.

Katsuki got some work done in the mean time.

Chapter Text

“I’m telling you, it’s what I fucking saw.”

Katsuki was getting more fucking frustrated by the minute.

“Is there a possibility that it was someone who looked like him? You know as well as I do that he’s-“

“Dead? Yea I fucking know, he almost killed Deku six years ago. But I fucking saw him so get your damn laptop and open your goddamn email!”

A heavy sigh sounded into Katsuki’s ear. He heard the rustling on the other end so he didn’t urge him to fucking listen to him again.

“Look, we are all wound up in this mess. I know you’re stressed and I know Deku means a lot to you. We all know it. When was the last time you took a break? Maybe take some time just to relax away from everything.”

Despite the tips of his ears reddening, Katsuki couldn’t stop himself from biting out his next words.

“He is my fucking everything, dipshit.”

A dry chuckle was his only response. Then, he heard Lieutenant Tenya Iida curse for the first time since they were in school together. He’d died laughing at the time because the word was only, “damn”.

He could only grip the phone tighter in his fingers while he heard him say, “Are you shitting me?”

“I fucking told you. It’s him.”

“Chisaki is dead. But you’re right, it’s definitely him. Time-stamped two years and five days before Deku was assigned.”

Katsuki had watched the video multiple times, pausing and playing over and over again.

Deku was finally sleeping soundly, the events of yesterday overwhelming his apparent anxiety. Katsuki leaned heavily on the kitchen counter, the lights dimmed. He hadn’t risked moving Izuku, he just wanted him to rest.

There was something achingly vulnerable about how he looked when he was asleep. It made Katsuki want to curl himself around him, protect him from every fucking thing on the planet.

He had finally remembered his initial notes on the chats he was sent of the communication between him and Inko. He’d meant to follow up but hadn’t and he was kicking himself now.

With Izuku curled up on his chest, he’d begun using some of his less reputable skills that he had ironically learned from his miserable time under Best Jeanist.

His hair would never recover.

He’d been able to tap into street cameras around the cafe, the establishment itself having no such security measures.

He’d been tired, scrubbing through hours of footage, just hoping for a sign of Hamster girl or anything else that stood out.

He’d been in the middle of a yawn, tightening his biceps around Izuku’s small frame when he saw it.

His yawn aborted into gaping disbelief as he paused the video.

He hadn’t believed it. He still didn’t.

“Alright. I’ll head out there now, shops won’t be open, but I’ll spend the night there and get to it first thing in the morning. Whatever… this is, we’ll get to the bottom of it. Good work, Bakugou.”

Katsuki sagged against the counter, the chaos of the past few days making him feel even more exhausted.

His dissatisfaction with the idea that he wasn’t hunting down this lead himself was tempered by the reminder that he had Deku right here, contradicting his will to ever leave.

He’d just made up his mind to head to bed, when he felt a hand pressing lightly on the small of his back.

Startled, but not wanting to scare him, he remained there, standing with his hands on the counter, leaning over his dark phone screen.

Izuku’s hands seemed to gain confidence as he looped his arms around his waist, holding him from behind.

Katsuki covered his hands with his, pressing them firmly to his stomach. He would never get tired of izuku touching him, of his own comfortable accord.

He closed his eyes, just enjoying the feeling of him behind him.

Izuku made a small sound, and he slowly twisted in his hold to face him, leaning his hip back against the counter.

Izuku kept his arms around his waist, sliding easily around to press against the small of his back again.

Katsuki could never get tired of looking into his wide eyes either.

“What’s up, Deku? Can’t sleep?”

He pushed his hair back away from his forehead.

Deku leaned in further, resting his. chin on Katsuki’s chest, simply looking up at him.

“Me neither, but you should try to rest. It’s been a fucking rough couple of days. Dunno how you were able to channel so much power yesterday without breaking anything. I guess it’s a testament to how strong you are.”

Izuku tightened his grip in response.

Still delighted at his small communications, he smiled down at him.

“C’mon nerd, let’s go to bed.” He pulled him into his arms once again, never tiring of doing so. It felt so good just to hold him, physically aware that he was safe. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he wasn’t tired of a single fucking thing about Izuku. He probably never would be.

When he laid Izuku down on the bed, he was unsurprised by Izuku trying to tug him in with him. He was still reluctant. He had no way of knowing what state he would wake up in, and he couldn’t be sure if he would wake up before him, so he could ensure that appropriate space was afforded to Izuku.

The more he hesitated, the more distressed Izuku became.

“Want me to get in the bed with you?” He knew the answer to that, but Izuku tapped his chest once anyway.

“Remember when we were little and I’d fall asleep in your bed after watching some fucking B-list hero movie? Remember how you’d always wake up to me smothering you?”

He didn’t think that Izuku would respond at first, but he tapped his chest once again.

Katsuki smiled tiredly down at Izuku.

“I don’t want to force that on you if I can help it. Don’t wanna make you feel trapped.”

Izuku tapped on his chest twice, still insistently tugging at his arms, trying to pull him down.

Katsuki tilted his head, “That okay with you then? I would seriously like to not fuck this up, just don’t think I can control it. I fucking love you, remember?”

His cheeks heated a little at his words. He wasn’t quite used to saying the words out loud, yet he couldn’t stop himself from letting them spill out. His earlier confession seemed to have opened the floodgates on those three words. Well, four words, if he took into account his curses.

Izuku tapped his chest again, once.

Katsuki was still hesitant, but he slid into the sheets next to him.

Izuku immediately cuddled close to him, taking his arm and wrapping it around his back.

Izuku’s eyes remained open, looking at him.

Izuku rubbed his cheek into the pillow, eyes sleepy.

He was so fucking adorable it made his chest tighten.

Katsuki finally couldn’t bear to keep looking into his eyes, so close to him, without kissing him. He blanched at the thought, he definitely couldn’t do that. He’d want more, and he would never take from Izuku. Not ever.

He pulled Izuku to his chest, wrapping his arm tighter around his back.

Izuku’s breath puffed slowly against his neck.

Katsuki kissed the top of his head, unable to control even that much.

He held on to conscious long enough to feel Izuku fall asleep, muscles relaxing and going boneless in his arms. He pulled him even tighter, until Izuku’s nose was brushing the hollow of his throat.

“Love you, Deku. G’night.”

When Katsuki opened his eyes, Izuku wasn’t in his arms.

He blinked, briefly wondering if he had been dreaming before going into full panic mode. His questing hands found nothing but cool sheets around him. He heard the clicking of the lock to his front door catching.

He leapt out of the bed, legs getting tangled in the blankets. He was lunging through the door when he collided with something.

Izuku was knocked to the floor, having been coming back into the room.

Katsuki tried to stop the fall, but he ended up slamming down on Izuku, punching the breath from him.

“Oh fuck, Izuku, I’m sorry!”

He rolled off of him, pulling him onto his chest so that his back was to the hard wood floor.

“So fucking worried for a minute when you weren’t all wrapped up in my arms, sorry.”

Izuku was tilting his head, staring down at him with those wide eyes.

“Fuck. Good morning I guess,” he tried for a smile as his heart stopped thundering.

It had only taken a few nights with Izuku in his arms to make him freak the fuck out when he wasn’t in them.

He realized that Izuku had something clutched in his hands.

He sat them up, pulling the item up to look at it.

“What’s this?”

It was a small letter, not addressed to him. It was addressed to Izuku.

He stood and settled him gently on his feet.

“Wanna open this? Gonna be fucking real here and say it seems weird someone would drop off mail to you here… you’ve only been with me for a short while.”

It only took scant moments for Katsuki to be back on alert.

Izuku shook his head slightly and began opening the letter.

The envelope fluttered to the floor, leaving a single sheet of paper.

Izuku read it, and Katsuki tried to read him.

Izuku’s eyes began to well up with familiar tears.

Katsuki bent to pick up the envelope that had fallen, quickly searching it to see if there was any indication of what the letter might say.

If he wasn’t actively trying to encourage as much of Izuku’s autonomy as possible, he would have snatched the letter away to read it himself.

After a moment, Izuku handed the letter to him.

As Katsuki read it, Izuku twined his arm through his, gripping onto his hand tightly.

Katsuki’s quirk tried to burn the letter, but he dropped it before his popping explosions could get to it.

He glared down at Izuku, softening only a little when he seemed afraid that Katsuki was mad at him.

He pulled Izuku tighter to himself, walking them around until he was able to lift him up onto the kitchen counter again.

Izuku wrapped his legs around his waist and patted Katsuki’s head.

“Don’t listen to a fucking word written in that. I can’t fucking believe someone would- Jesus fucking Christ.”

Izuku patted his hair again, and Katsuki was struck by the realization that he was trying to comfort him.

He groaned.

“I’m fine, Deku. This isn’t about me.”

He buried his face into Izuku’s collarbone, trying to keep his shit together.

He letter was from Floaty Round Face’s mother. It detailed a reprimand for “accusing” her daughter of a crime and Izuku’s “responsibility” to exonerate her of any wrongdoing.

The fuck? It made him want to kill off that whole family tree.

Izuku tapped on his back, insistent.

Katsuki tried to bury his righteous anger as he pulled back to look into Izuku’s face.

Izuku’s brow were furrowed, tears still flowing.

“What is it?”

Katsuki moved his hands up to his face, sweeping his tears away with his thumbs. Izuku very rarely made discernible facial expressions. His heartbeat stuttered.

Izuku reached his hands up to Katsuki’s face, mirroring him.

Katsuki wanted to close his eyes at the touch, to just revel in the feeling, but he continued to stare into Izuku’s eyes.

His own eyes widened when Izuku leaned forward, pressing his lips to his in a soft kiss.

It was barely a kiss, only a gentle press of lips against lips, but it still made Katsuki melt into Izuku.

He slid his hand into messy green hair to cup the back of his hand in one palm, kissing him back for only a moment.

If fireworks were going off inside the kitchen, Katsuki wouldn’t have noticed in the slightest. There was a roaring sense of relief and love coursing through him so strong that his knees weakened.

He finally remembered himself, and pulled away quickly.

He breathed hard, heart thumping wildly.

Izuku glanced down once, then twice, before returning his gaze to Katsuki’s each time. He was frozen.

“Oh fuck, I’m sorry! I got fucking- fucking caught up in… that.”

He trailed off lamely, mouth agape and staring at Izuku in a mix of awe and horror.

“Jesus- I’m sorry Deku-“

Izuku made a noise of what could only be frustration.

Katsuki tried to step back, but Izuku stopped him by smacking the top of his head, not hard, but enough to startle him into inaction.

“Shit, Deku, did you-“

His phone rang.

It kept ringing, a distant noise in the background as Katsuki just stared.

Izuku made a grab for his pocket, surprising him again.

He took the phone out of his sweats and pressed the screen to accept the call.

Katsuki hesitantly reached out to take the phone, bringing it to his ear.

“Bakugou. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you, why haven’t you been picking up?”

Katsuki took the phone away from his ear and checked his notifications. There were three missed calls from Tenya.

“Uh- well, what do you want?”

He couldn’t manage to care much about what Tenya said on the other end, still wrapped up in watching Izuku. He was desperately trying not to pass out at the knowledge that he now knew what Izuku’s lips felt like, against his.

“What do I want? You’re the one who begged me to arrange this for you. Listen, you need to get down here quickly. Ochako’s family have been hounding the captain to either make an arrest or release her.”

Katsuki’s mind sped back up, snapping out of its daze and he frowned.

“Sure, sure. Now? I’ve got to get a guard for Deku.”

Izuku’s fingers reached over to rub against the corner of his frown. He was shaking his head, a wild determination almost hidden behind the fear that crept into his gaze.

“Now if possible, I’ve only been given an hour before I have to turn her over to the captain.”

Despite Izuku’s growing panic, he told the lieutenant that he was on his way.

When he hung up the phone, Izuku clutched at him, tears starting to soak the collar of his shirt.

“Shh, Deku. It’s too late to get Shitty Hair over here… I’ll need to take you with me. Can I do that?”

Izuku was nodding furiously, clinging to Katsuki as much as he could.

“M’kay. I have to change.”

He looked down at Izuku’s bare thighs.

“So do you.”

By the time he had finished pulling on fresh clothes, Izuku was dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie.

They were clothes that he has purchased for Izuku, so the fit was much more exact.

He slid aside one of the boards blocking the balcony doors and Izuku followed him outside without prompt.

He replaced the board and turned to hold Izuku by the waist.

“Ready? I won’t make you come into the room with me, unless you want to. But Tenya will be there to watch over you. You okay with that?”

Izuku nodded his head, but still tapped Katsuki’s chest once.

Katsuki smiled down at him. His eyes dipped to Izuku’s lips for a moment. He was a selfish bastard, but he wanted to kiss him again. And again.

“You’ll need to hang on tight.”

Chapter Text

Katsuki stopped on a rooftop directly across from the station.

Izuku had climbed onto his back, and his arms were squeezing tight around Katsuki’s neck, legs wrapped around his waist in an effort to hold on.

Katsuki tapped his ankles, signaling for Izuku to relax and bent his knees.

Izuku slid off of his back and Katsuki turned to look at him.

“Didn’t really explain much, so I figured I’d do that before we go in.”

He was reluctant to start, suddenly, the memory of Izuku’s terror and rage playing across his features too starkly remembered.

Izuku put his hand on his arm, encouragingly.

“Well, I asked Tenya to allow me to interrogate Floaty Round Face…”

He watched Izuku’s face carefully.

There was a spark of anger, yes, but mostly sadness tinged his eyes.

Relieved, he continued.

“I know they already questioned her, but I need to hear it for myself. Gotta fucking figure this out Deku.”

He pulled Izuku into a hug, resting his chin on his head.

When he pulled back again, Izuku had dry eyes, but he looked troubled.

“When we get in, I’m going to question her in a separate room. Tenya will be right there, and I’ll be out as soon as I can, okay?”

Katsuki waited for the tap.

Izuku began to look more nervous by the moment, but he tapped Katsuki’s hand once.

“Gonna go get Katsudon after, okay?”

He smiled down at Izuku before swinging him back up into his arms.

He had the strongest desire to kiss him, just once, but he refrained. He would never take.

He jumped from the building, causing two small explosions with his boots to cushion the landing.

He let Izuku down to stand on his own, and took his small hand in his.

Izuku allowed himself to be led into the station.

Katsuki’s mind was all over the place as he sat in the observation room.

It was a lengthy process to remove most of his costume, knives, and grenades.

He knew Tenya was right, he could kill her just as easily without his quirk. He had no doubt that he could smash through the glass with only the strength of his fist.

He imagined himself wrapping his hands around her throat, squeezing the life from her.

Tenya looked at him with a concerned gaze, while Izuku watched the process from the hall.

He knew he was generally homicidal, but he was going a little too far for even his own comfort.

He took one look at Izuku’s defensive stance, arms wrapped around himself, shoulders curved inwards and took deep breaths.

Not gonna murder, not gonna murder… murder was okay sometimes, right?

He sighed and held out his hand.

Tenya seemed to understand what he wanted quickly because he felt the cold metal of a pair of handcuffs meet his fingers.

He deftly attached one ring to his wrist and the other to the metal railing bordering the sloping ramp into the room.

Tenya nodded in satisfaction, taking his leave with the warning that it would be several minutes before she would be brought in, having taken extra precautions to assist Katsuki in not killing a suspect in an ongoing investigation.

Izuku had a hand outstretched, towards him, as the lieutenant closed the door with a final thunk.

Katsuki closed his eyes, trying to order his thoughts so he could coherently and quickly question Hamster girl.

He still felt the burning rage like acid in the pit of his stomach, but the desire for answers was far greater. At least for now.

As a distraction he let his mind wander back to Izuku’s lips, and how amazing they felt against his. They were so soft.

He was still daydreaming, when the interrogation room door opened.

A gaunt looking Hamster girl was led into the room, looking tired and harrowed. Katsuki couldn’t bring himself to care about what treatment she had been shown during her holding.

He felt the room pulse with energy as it sapped at the strength of his explosive quirk. He tried to breath deep, but air kept getting stuck in his throat.

He stared at her, knowing he had to be quick, but he suddenly didn’t know where to start. He was so angry he almost cried.

“Why were you at the auction?”

He barely recognized his voice, hissed lowly through his gritted teeth.

“Who’s there? I already told you all that I wasn’t at any auction! Just let me go, I’ve done nothing wrong!”

Katsuki watched her annoyed expression with disgust.

“Why did Izuku react to you showing up at my place like that?”

She quirked her head to the side.

“What? Bakugou, is that you?”

She seemed to be trying to peer through the mirrored glass at him.

“Answer the fucking question.”

His voice raised without a thought and he almost smirked as she flinched.

“I-I don’t know! Ask him! I don’t even know what’s wrong with him. Did you do something to him? He wasn’t acting like that before he left for America. Sure, we hadn’t seen one another since… but he must be acting that way because you’re an asshole and always hated me!”

She was crying now, self righteous tears making tracks down her cheeks.

Here she sat, having done something to Izuku, and she was blaming him?

“All I’ve ever done is fucking love that little nerd. I would never fucking do anything to hurt him, and if you weren’t such a jealous bitch, you’d know that. He almost killed you in a panic and rage so fucking fierce he almost beat Katy Perry. You did something to him and I’m gonna find out what the fuck it is if it’s the last thing I fucking do.”

The metal cuffs bit into his skin, grounding him a little, but it wasn’t enough when he watched a smirk steal across her face. It was absolutely eerie with tears still evident on her face.

“My alibi is airtight, Bakugou. Iida had the weirdest notion that I was dating him because I liked him, not because Izuku turned me down and I needed a decent fuck. He had the balls to propose to me on a vacation, which I obviously declined. His whole family was there to watch him flounder around. Everyone will corroborate my whereabouts on the night you are so sure I attended some trafficking auction. I don’t care what happened to Izuku after seeing him that night, all weak and scrawny. He’s damaged goods now anyway.”

Katsuki was ripping the cuff off of his wrist, cutting the skin in the process, as the words “damaged goods” was so vindictively applied to his Izuku. The metal railing bent with the force of his movement. He felt his rage build up and explode so violently that it began to overpower the room’s quirk-lock.

He smashed his fist so hard into the one way mirror that it shattered completely.

Katsuki was barely aware of the door bursting open, or the sting of something hitting his arm, as he stared in complete hatred at the startled woman before him.

He fell unconscious before he could truly take in Round Face’s fearful expression.

Katsuki became gradually aware of a scraping sensation along his scalp. He tried to blink, and almost panicked because he couldn’t. In fact, none of his limbs or other senses worked when he asked them to.

He tried to calm himself, feeling a crazed adrenaline course through him with nowhere to go.

He focused on the feeling.

Someone was touching him, scraping their nails gently across his scalp.

It felt good.

“Mmmhmm…”

He belatedly recognized the sound as his own voice, humming.

He began to feel his limbs, one at a time, excruciatingly slowly.

He tried to force his eyelids open, but they continued to refuse to obey.

He finally was able to make his arm listen to him, and it came up to wrap around something above him.

The scratches on his scalp stopped, but the warm palm still laid against his hair.

He stretched, sudden nausea making him groan, but he let out a strange giggle too. The fuck was wrong with him.

When he eas finally able to open his eyes, he gazed into the face of an absolute angel. Fuck, he was beautiful. He had the angel’s head cradled in his embrace, pressing him down awkwardly to his body.

The Angel was patting his chest, pushing gently.

Katsuki released him with with a sense of despair.

He realized his Angel was actually Izuku. He had leaned back up to be able to look into his face and patted his head again. His eyes were wide and tearful.

He was laid out on a bench, his head in Izuku’s lap.

He flushed, embarrassed, and tried to sit up.

His roiling stomach wouldn’t allow him to get up and he fell back into Izuku’s lap with a groan. He felt high as fuck.

“Ffuuucccckkkk, Deku. Gonna have to lay here for a minnn. What the fuck happened? Am I fucking high righnow?”

His words came out garbled and he laughed at them.

Izuku was patting his head again, gently curling his fingers into his hair

He glanced around.

The fuck?

“Hey why’d they pu’ me in-“

A new voice spoke up and he twisted his head to look in that direction. His vision was fuzzy.

“In jail? Bakugou you almost incinerated the whole interrogation block. I knew this was a bad idea.”

“But like, I fuckin’ dinnt though right? ‘Sides, I would have fucking annoyed you to death if you didn’t allow me to do it. You were right though, she was an absolute cunt about it. I learned nothing new and all I did was get so fucking mad that I think you drugged me?”

Katsuki’s temper was flaring again, just at the mention of his rage before, not even touching on the reason. His mind gained a fraction more clarity, at least to stop slurring his words.

He childishly crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Izuku brushed his fingers through his hair again, seeming to try to calm him.

He almost forgot to listen to the lieutenant’s answer, trapped in Izuku’s green gaze.

Katsuki was obviously a greedy asshole.

Izuku had kissed him (maybe) and now all he could think of was kissing him again.

He still wasn’t entirely sure it had been a kiss. It was so small and brief.

“-basically a horse tranquilizer since we didn’t think regular riot gas or darts would work fast enough.”

Katsuki couldn’t begrudge them too much. He hadn’t murdered Round Face, even though he sorely wished he had.

“Damaged goods.”

The label was so asinine that it truly boggled his mind. He laughed, a weird little snort that he’d surely be embarrassed about later.

“I’ll let you out if you promise not to destroy any more rooms.”

Katsuki sat up, finally. Raising his head out of Izuku’s comfortable lap was difficult, but his stomach had settled enough that he didn’t think he’d throw up.

“Why the fuck did you throw Deku in jail too? Fucking rude.”

He glared at Tenya, his vision distorting as he changed positions.

Tenya gave a small smile.

“He wouldn’t leave your side.”

Katsuki brazenly reached over to squeeze Izuku’s hand.

He smiled, genuinely, when he squeezed it back.

“C‘Mon nerd, I promised you Katsudon.”

“Hold on, you’re in no condition to go anywhere. I’m taking the two of you home. That tranquilizer will continue to mess with you for the next twelve hours or so.”

Katsuki shook his head, “‘M driving then.”

“Absolutely not, Bakugou. If you try to get in the driver’s seat I’ll make you walk home and just drive Izuku.”

Katsuki pouted up until he got into the vehicle, vision still hazy and mind swimming in and out of fog.

He forgot about his indignation when he got into the car as he cuddled up close to Izuku.

He wasn’t thinking a goddamn thing when he pulled Izuku into his lap.

“No, Bakugou, you menace! Proper car usage will be advised in this vehicle, it’s a government car! Seatbelts, Bakugou.”

Katsuki mimicked him in a high pitched voice, grumbling as he reluctantly complied and slid Izuku off his lap to settle him beside him.

He tilted his head and laid it on top of the nest of wild hair next to him.

Izuku twined his arm through his and held onto him the whole ride back to his apartment.

He was so fucking tired when they finally stumbled over his threshold, Tenya and Izuku supporting him as best as they could to help him slump into the couch.

Tenya said his goodbyes, grumbling about the ‘mess’ Katsuki had left that he now needed to clean up.

Katsuki wanted to sleep for years.

He looked up at Izuku, who had come to stand between his legs.

Izuku was looking down at him intently, and it seemed like time slowed as he leaned down to press his lips against his once more.

His scrambled brain had him moaning loudly immediately.

Something itched in the back of his mind but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

He looped his arms around Izuku and pulled him to straddle his waist, deepening the kiss.

It was so fucking good, Izuku was making a small noise of surprise and that itch in his mind intensified.

He had just licked along the seam of Izuku’s lips when clarity struck him like a thunderbolt to the chest.

He pushed back, almost shoving Izuku off his lap, he gripped his hips to save him from falling and stared at him in horror.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuck no, shit-“

He was as gentle as possible as he quickly reversed their position, sitting Izuku down hard on the couch.

“Oh fuckkkk Deku-“

“What’s all the commotion, boys?”

Katsuki shot a glance at Izuku’s mother, smiling with a puzzled expression while holding a kitchen towel in her hands.

“I’m Fucking leaving. Right now. Get Shitty- well Ei- just gotta fucking-“

His halting declaration came out so rushed he didn’t even know if he could be understood. He was trying to say Auntie should get Kirishima over there but he hoped she understood. He couldn’t fucking stay here.

He stumbled to the door, fighting with it for a moment and then lurching down the hallway.

His stomach was tied in knots and he barely made it to the roof of the building before starting to cry.

He was still sobbing as he lamented doing exactly what he didn’t want to do, force Izuku to do anything. Anything like what he had experienced while being held captive, anything related as well. Fuck was wrong with him?!

He’d been so intent on getting out, that he hadn’t seen Izuku’s eyes slowly blank, leaving them as emotionless as when he first found him in that dungeon.

He was still crying, as he curled into a ball and passed out.

Chapter Text

Katsuki woke in a groggy state. He woke up in his own bed, begging the question of whether or not his horrible actions were only a nightmare.

He groaned, and then startled when he heard Shitty Hair’s voice.

“Shit dude, you good? I heard you were high as a kite and pushed Izuku off your lap to bolt out the door. Found you on the rooftop and got you back here.”

Fuck. Him.

It wasn’t a nightmare. He’d really forced himself on Izuku. Granted, he was far from a stable state of mind, but what he had done was inexcusable.

Katsuki, somehow already used to Izuku being in the bed with him, sent questing hands across the sheets to find him.

No Izuku in his bed. Probably for the best, but he couldn’t stop his heart from sinking.

“How is he?”

Shitty Hair hesitated before answering, making Katsuki even more anxious.

His head pulsed with a throbbing headache, but he forced himself to focus.

“It’s not great. He’s back to kneeling on the floor in the spare room, clothed so that’s a plus. It’s weird though, he keeps getting up, pacing and then kneeling back down. Won’t acknowledge me in the slightest. His mom’s been in this morning but already left.”

Katsuki closed his eyes against the onslaught of overwhelmed tears.

Round Hamster Girl had been right. He was part of the problem. He’d fucked up all of Izuku’s healing progress in the span of three minutes.

He stood, groggily, and stumbled towards the door.

Kirishima pushed on his chest firmly, pushing him backwards onto the bed.

“Nope, I’m gonna get you some pain pills and you’re going back to bed. This is something you’ll want to address after more rest, I assure you. He’s safe. I’m going to hang out some more, wait until you get up again.”

Katsuki would’ve argued, but his head was throbbing too much and he couldn’t hardly focus.

He laid back down and turned away from Kirishima. Silent tears slipped down his face.

“Take these and sleep some more.”

Katsuki did as he was told, falling into an uneasy sleep.

When he woke up again, he was alone.

His headache had eased, but the sickness in his stomach remained unabated.

He pulled the covers over his head and cringed.

He wasn’t one to get intoxicated, or use substances, so he wasn’t surprised that he had managed to get “high as a kite” from being tranqed at the police station.

The whole thing had been a mistake. He hadn’t learned anything new and all he’d done was get high and force himself on Izuku.

He couldn’t really remember if Izuku had kissed him first or not, but it didn’t matter. He’d pulled Izuku down and kissed him way too readily, licking at his lips. All like he couldn’t be bothered to remember that Izuku wouldn’t want want anything like it. He’d forced him.

Katsuki wasn’t a coward, but it still took more will than usual to get out of bed.

As he stumbled into the hallway, Shitty Hair was leaning against the wall by his door.

He held a mug of coffee in his hand, which he proffered to Katsuki.

“C’mon Bakubro. The world hasn’t ended and he’s still safe. Nothing wrong here that can’t be fixed.”

Kirishima’s voice was obnoxiously optimistic, but he still put his hand out to hold his forearm, just for a moment, in thanks.

He listened to his friend exit the apartment as he took three bracing sips of coffee.

Ugh. Kirishima might be a good friend, but he made shit coffee.

Downing it, despite the still scalding temperature, he moved forward.

Kirishima had just been here, but despite how much he didn’t think he could look at Izuku without crying, he needed to see him.

When he finally caught sight of his slight form, huddled in the corner of the room, asleep, his knees almost gave out.

Despite affirmations that he was here, part of him was expecting Izuku to leave him, after what he did.

He was clothed, but no blanket accompanied him this time. He lay curled on his side, knees tucked to his chest.

Katsuki stumbled forward slightly, to kneel by his side. He almost didn’t feel like he should touch him. His hand made an aborted claw-like motion in the air before he made it drop at his side.

He knelt watching him, tearing himself up inside, for a long moment.

Finally, he agreed that whatever happened, he needed a shower.

He emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later. He was toweling his hair off aggressively, in the midst of another self-loathing diatribe, when he tripped over something.

Or rather, someone.

“Oh fuck, Deku, fuck! I didn’t see you-“

He hadn’t recovered himself fast enough to stop his fall, and he’d barely managed to stop his nose crashing into the floor.

His mouth shut with a click. Why was Izuku here? Wasn’t he back to kneeling in the spare bedroom? All progress lost because of him?

But no, Izuku was underneath him, a fact which had him scrambling back as soon as his brain caught up with his position.

His heart thudding, he inadvertently slammed the back of his head against the wall behind him. He closed his eyes as they watered involuntarily.

He felt tentative fingers slip into his hair, and if his eyes hadn’t already been watering, he would’ve started crying anyway.

Keeping his eyes closed, fearing what he might see if he opened them, he closed his fingers around Izuku’s wrist into a loose grip, just to still his motions.

“Deku, what are you doing? Don’t you want to be as far away from me as possible?”

Izuku’s arm wriggled in his grasp and he instantly let it go.

He was stunned into opening his eyes when he felt a sharp rap on the top of his skull.

Izuku’s wide eyes were scant inches from his, and full of a clouded, frustrated, determination. It was an echo of the depth they used to hold, before all of this.

Mixed in with those emotions, Katsuki could see glimpses of a fear so strong that his own reflexes raised.

He let out a low choking cry, and with that noise, Katsuki finally forgot about himself. He immediately opened his previously crossed arms and Izuku fell into them.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Shh. I’m right here. You’re okay.”

Izuku gripped at his arms, seeming to try to urge them to wrap around him.

Katsuki obliged, loosely cradling him to his chest.

He’d been so wrapped up in his own bullshit that he hadn’t noticed how hard Izuku must be trying. He wasn’t giving him nearly enough credit, thinking he alone was responsible for Izuku’s progress.

Regardless of what he’d done, he still seemed to want comfort from Katsuki.

And Katsuki would give him whatever he wanted.

He propped his chin up on Izuku’s hair, rubbing his back and letting him cry into his chest.

With his whispered words of comfort, Izuku slowly calmed in his hands.

“Fuck, I’m sorry Deku. Got all- just I’m so fucking sorry.”

Izuku sniffled, pushing against his chest to look up into his face.

Katsuki was always stunned at how beautiful he was, but the renewed depth in his gaze literally took his breath away.

Izuku was looking up at him with something similar to reproach.

He’d have to puzzle this out.

“I wasn’t in my right mind, Deku, I don’t think I’ve ever been that high in my life. I shouldn’t have pulled you into me and kissed you like that… I’m sorry.”

Izuku shook his head, appearing frustrated again.

“But that wasn’t the biggest problem?”

He felt like he was groping around in the dark.

Izuku reached around to grip one of the hands supporting his back, pressing the fingers into it.

“Oh.”

Katsuki sat up straighter.

He shifted so that he could hesitantly cup Izuku’s cheek in his palm. Izuku pressed against his hand, firmly.

“It was because I pushed you away?”

Fresh tears spilled out from underneath his eyelids, further cementing his theory.

“Fuck.”

His breath caught up before he could finish his thought.

“I-I don’t ever want to do that. Not ever, Deku. I was just so worried… I don’t want to hurt you. I went out of my mind a little bit, forcing myself on you like that.”

Izuku pushed forward to press his cheek against his chest again, tears still slipping down his cheeks.

“I won’t ever do that again. Okay? Either, of those things. I’m not going anywhere.”

He meant those words. It didn’t matter how much he fucked up, he’d never push Izuku away again.

He could see it now, his uncontrolled actions as a rejection.

Izuku remained cradled in his lap until his tears stopped falling.

Katsuki then got up, taking him with him as he made his way towards the living room.

He had just settled into the armchair when his phone rang.

He moved to get up to place Izuku in his spot and move away to answer it, but Izuku made a whimpering noise so he stopped.

Sliding his thumb across the screen, he answered.

He was feeling better, but exhausted.

“Bakugou. As much as I didn’t want to see you down at the station again so soon, I need you to come in. You should probably bring Izuku.”

Katsuki was instantly on alert.

“Why? What’s happened?”

Tenya gave a disbelieving sigh.

“It’ll be easier to just show you.”

Katsuki grunted and hung up, stomach alight with nerves.

Izuku helped by getting up himself, taking his hand and looking up at him apprehensively.

“Hear that? Up for coming with me?”

Katsuki brushed his hand through his messy hair.

Izuku nodded, forgoing any tapping.

Smiling at his silent communication, he tugged him along, urging him to change into different clothes as he went to do the same.

As he let go of his hand, Izuku stopped him from moving away with a hand to his chest.

Katsuki wouldn’t ever tire of looking at him, watching his eyes.

Izuku deliberately leaned up on his toes and kissed him.

Surprised, Katsuki didn’t react until Izuku pressed closer, wrapping his arms around his waist.

It wasn’t a chaste kiss, but not too passionate either.

He gripped his slim waist back, wondering at why Izuku seemed to still want to kiss him, but deciding not to protest.

When they broke apart, Katsuki leaned back up to look at him.

“I hope you know that you don’t have to do that.”

Izuku gave him something similar to a glare, lacking any heat.

Katsuki smiled slowly.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining in the slightest. I, uh, fucking love it. Just want you to know that having you here with me is the only thing I need.”

He pressed his forehead to his, closing his eyes, just breathing him in.

Izuku tilted his head to kiss him again, deeper this time, his tongue peeking out to lick his bottom lip.

Moaning in surprise, his hands gripped onto his waist tighter for a moment, before he made himself let go entirely and step back.

Stunned, but deciding not to comment, he smiled down at him again, pushing him slightly towards his dresser.

“C’mon nerd.”

Katsuki didn’t have the energy to carry them overland, so they walked, hand in hand.

Tenya greeted them at the door, quickly showing them to his office.

It was neat and tidy, with everything ordered to perfection.

“I’ll get right into it. I’ve been looking through footage from the cafe. I’ve only seen the one occurrence of Chisaki being there but I found someone else. This footage is from three months before your abduction, Izuku.”

Tenya twisted the laptop around to show them.

Izuku leaned in to see the video better. He had become stiff as a board when he’d heard Chisaki’s name. Katsuki reached a hand over to rest on his knee, giving it a squeeze. Izuku’s fingers gripped is back.

“Izuku, did Himiko Toga have something to do with your abduction?”

Tenya’s voice was gentle, but Katsuki could’ve throttled him. He said nothing about interrogating Izuku. He wasn’t fucking ready for this.

Izuku sat stock still for a moment, gazing intently at the image before him, showing a clear still shot of that weird blood bitch’s face, looking into the cafe windows at something. Probably Izuku and his mother.

Katsuki held his breath, waiting for whatever Izuku’s reaction would be.

Izuku started shaking. Crackles of energy began rippling off of him, even before the telltale lightning appeared along his limbs.
“Oh fuck. Tenya you dumbass!”

Katsuki pushed the laptop away, hiding her face from Izuku’s view and dropped to his knees in front of Izuku.

He ignored the way his hair raised along his arms and the adrenaline pumping through him at an alarming speed.

He placed his hands on Izuku’s thighs, spreading them out and gripping tightly.

“Deku, look at me, please.”

Izuku’s hand covering his tightened to the point of pain.

The fingers of his other hand sunk into the metal of the chair arm, creating deep impressions of each digit.

Izuku’s glare seemed to see through him, unfocused.

Katsuki pleaded again, running his hands up his legs and over his chest to frame his face, leaning up.

“Izuku, please.”

Izuku’s gaze dimmed a little and he blinked, staring at him in surprise.

Katsuki realized he hadn’t ever called him that, not out loud. Thankfulky, it seemed to startle him out of his angry daze a bit.

Izuku rapidly wrapped his arms around Katsuki’s neck and crushed into him, squeezing tightly.

The sobbing was sudden, and out of control. He was shaking, almost violently.

“Shh, Shh. It’s okay, Izuku. I’ve got you.”

Katsuki twisted his head, glaring at the lieutenant.

Tenya had the forbearance to look slightly sheepish.

“We’re going. I’ll call later and we can discuss it further.”

His words were clipped.

He didn’t care as he walked out of the room, pulling Izuku into his arms and carrying him.

Wasting no time, he blasted his way into the sky, Izuku’s tears still streaming.

He had them into his apartment and into his bed in record time.

Izuku had calmed a bit, but tears still fell, seemingly on end.

He stroked his hair and pressed himself as closely as possible, whispering words of comfort as he side tracked about the blood bitch in his mind.

She had been obsessed with Izuku, he remembered that much. And Round Face, come to think of it.

Izuku’s reaction was a distinctive indicator that the lieutenant was right, however tactless he had been about sharing the information.

“Izuku.”

His skinny frame shuddered slightly at his whispered words.

Frowning, he wondered if he didn’t like hearing it from him. He’d only ever called him ‘Deku’ to his face.

“Sorry if you don’t like that, I won’t say it again.”

Izuku made a strangled noise, shaking his head vehemently against the sheets.

“Like it, actually? I think I do too. Izuku.”

He smiled, pressing his lips to the green hair in front of them.

Izuku pressed his nose into the skin of his neck, breathing deeply.

The puff of air against his skin sent a tingling sensation down his spine each time it brushed against it.

He froze entirely when Izuku pressed a lingering kiss to the spot.

He kept doing it, shifting up a little to kiss his jaw.

As his lips found a sweet spot, just below his chin, he was horrified to feel himself begin to react to the sensations.

He immediately arched his hips away, pressing against Izuku’s chest slightly.

He remembered his promise not to push Izuku away, but he had to put a stop to this.

He kept him close, but kept his hips far away from him.

His cheeks burned with embarrassment.

“De- Izuku. So fucking sorry, ‘M fucking disgusting, shit-“

His mumbled words were overtaken by an involuntary moan.

Izuku had opened his mouth and bitten his neck, lightly.

He released the set of his jaw after a moment and licked at the spot, breath chilling it and sending a shiver of pleasure down his spine.

Katsuki tightened his grip around Izuku.

“Izuku, oh fuck. Stop.”

He didn’t want him to stop. Oh god, he didn’t want him to stop at all, but the quickly receding clarity still demanded that he shut this down.

Izuku didn’t stop, instead, giving his neck a long lick.

Katsuki’s hips bucked, without his control, cock hard as a rock from the brief attention.

He sat up, releasing Izuku and twisting to sit on the edge of the bed, gripping it in his hands, threatening to rip the edge with the strength of it. He was breathing hard.

“Izuku, please don’t.”

He chanced a quick glance back, and saw the fear and sadness on Izuku’s face.

He slid to the floor, hiding his quickly deflating erection and breathed out carefully.

“Izuku, please don’t take this the wrong fucking way here. ‘M not rejecting you. Fuck! You have no idea how much I’d fucking love to let you keep… but no, I can’t. I just fucking can’t.”

Izuku twisted away from him, curling up on his side, tense back facing him.

Fear of hurting Izuku made quick work of his arousal and he climbed back into the bed, pulling him back into his arms and settling his chest against his back.

“I can’t. Not until I can talk to you. Until you can tell me- Not until I can make sure that I-“

He choked up. Emotions flooded through him like a disorienting river.

He began to cry, hiding his face in his hair.

Izuku slowly turned in his hold, and Katsuki held his breath, hoping to God that he didn’t start kissing him again. He didn’t think his resolve would hold out. He’d wanted Izuku for too long, just not like this.

He almost pulled back when Izuku immediately aimed for his lips, but didn’t when Izuku stopped there, keeping his kiss light.

Katsuki slid down the bed and pressed his face to Izuku’s thin chest, letting loose entirely, crying in earnest now.

Izuku made small noises of distress, carding his fingers in his hair.

“‘M sorry, Izuku. Please-“

He couldn’t make a complete sentence. He was so fucking drained.

Izuku probably only wanted a distraction anyway, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t.

Izuku’s gentle hands eventually pulled him into sleep.

Chapter Text

The first time Katsuki saw Izuku smile, he cried.

Izuku sat at the new kitchen table, eating a bowl of ramen and sleepily looking around. He must be tired. He’d taken to sleeping a bit more, and Katsuki worried that was a bad sign. He was fucking adorable, eyes blinking slowly.

He still hadn’t said a goddamn word, but his nonverbal communication seemed to strengthen every day.

Katsuki walked by, reaching out to touch his hair as he passed.

Izuku pushed into the touch a little, dropping his head back so he was staring into Katsuki’s eyes.

His mouth curved into a small smile and Katsuki was fucking gone immediately.

“Oh my fucking god! Izuku are you fucking smiling right now?!”

He cried, smiling back through his tears before tipping the chair back and pulling Izuku up, away from his food to crush him in a hug.

He cried so much that tears soaked the collar of Izuku’s shirt; coincidentally his own shirt.

When he finally pulled back to look at him, Izuku had a small frown in place of that one, singular smile.

Katsuki’s jubilation waned a little. He dropped Izuku back onto his feet and stepped back.

Embarrassed but still exhilarated, he apologized.

“Sorry ‘Zuku. Just got fucking excited. I haven’t seen you smile in so fucking long… I just- fuck.”

He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.

Izuku took ahold of his shirt front and pulled him down to his eye level with surprising strength. He was filling out a little more, but still much too thin.

Katsuki stared into his eyes, a determined look in them but the smile still missing. He was bent over, Izuku not letting go of his shirt.

Izuku kissed him.

Katsuki had gotten used to Izuku kissing him by now. It had been another month since they’d found out that Himiko Toga was involved in his abduction and abuse, and Katsuki had only needed to gently rebuff a few advances from Izuku.

He’d usually just initiate quick kisses, seemingly whenever he felt like it. It rarely became more than that.

Not that Katsuki was complaining about the kisses, they still took his breath away. Amazing each time, like it was their first.

He never initiated them, something inside him still stopping him from taking from Izuku ever again. Though he kissed his cheek and hair readily enough.

Izuku’s kiss was less innocent than usual, with Katsuki quickly understanding that Izuku was demanding something from him.

He was out of breath when Izuku finally let him go.

He had closed his eyes, but when he opened them, he was met with the best thing he’d ever seen.

Izuku’s lips were quirked up in a gentle smile again. Not the full grin that used to dominate his face in the past, but a peaceful happiness still radiated from him.

Katsuki smiled so widely, it hurt his fucking face.

He pulled him into a hug again and twirled him around in his joy.

Izuku’s smile didn’t leave his face, though he pushed on his shoulder and nodded at his food.

Katsuki reluctantly let him go, but he leaned down to his level again, lips close.

Izuku kissed him again, quickly, and then turned towards his food again.

Katsuki felt like he’d smile until he fucking died or something, he felt so good.

Returning to the housework he had slowly been reintroducing to his routine, his thoughts were light.

When his phone rang, he wished he’d left it silenced.

A phone call usually wasn’t a good thing. Or at least, it wasn’t always a pleasurable feeling to get a call. He worried instantly.

Throwing the dish towel over his shoulder, he reluctantly dug his hand into his pocket to fish out the phone.

“Yea?”

He knew he sounded rough, but his unease at seeing Tenya’s contact on the screen that read ‘Glasses’, made him not give a shit.

“Bakugou. Got something you’re gonna want to look at. It is what we’ve been looking for. Blown wide open. Come down to the station, but… Izuku should probably not be there.”

Katsuki gripped his phone tighter, only easing up when he heard a faint cracking noise.

Fuck. He’d cracked his phone screen.

He hung up, only grunting to show he’d heard him.

He placed the phone lightly on the counter and rubbing his eyes with two fingers.

He didn’t feel relieved; he was anxious as fuck. He appreciated that he wouldn’t learn over the phone, or really with Izuku by his side, but he hated not knowing what he was walking into.

Hand still covering his face, he felt Izuku’s hand touch his wrist, then take it to pull it away from his eyes.

Katsuki’s eyes burned. His emotions had just flip-flopped in such a short period of time that he felt like crying again.

He leaned down to sweep his legs up so he could carry him to the couch.

He settled him down gently and knelt by his side.

“Gonna need to go out for just a little bit. You okay with that?”

Izuku nodded slowly, brow furrowing in concern.

“I’ll bring back some mochi for you when I come back, I know a new place that just opened up.”

Izuku kissed his cheek and petted his hand gently.

Katsuki sent a quick text to Izuku’s mom, telling her where he would be and if she could come spend time with Izuku.

She had been here less frequently, but at least three times a week. She always expressed feeling that the best place possible for her son was with Katsuki and he was more than satisfied with that.

She responded immediately and he mentioned mochi to her as well. She’d appreciate that.

He got changed into street clothes slowly, anticipation and dread still mingling in his gut.

Izuku had turned on the TV, something he’d just recently started doing. Katsuki dropped a kiss on his head and left the apartment.

“I want to prepare you by mentioning that this footage is very difficult to watch. I have identified key points that I think you deserve to see, but by the end of it, it should give you some peace of mind, at least a little bit.”

Tenya was guarding the laptop with his forearms, not letting Katsuki see the screen yet.

He nodded, the lump in his throat making him unable to utter even one ‘fuck’.

Tenya cleared his throat before speaking again.

“My analysts found this footage buried in an encrypted file found yesterday on a hard drive. The laptop was inside one of the properties said to have been used by Himiko Toga. It’s disturbing to the extreme, and I will only be showing you short clips.”

Katsuki nodded again, muscles tensing as the laptop screen was finally pushed towards him.

He was looking at a still frame, yet to be unpaused, but it showed a man kneeling in the center of a white walled room. He immediately recognized Izuku as the man in the center, but the room was different than the cell that he had initially found him in. His wrists and ankles were manacled, skin raw above and below the metal, suggesting that they had been on for a long time. That fucking collar was on his neck, encrusted with blood. His body was covered in lacerations and bruises.

A figure was standing just above him, someone he immediately recognized as Kai Chisaki. Alive and somehow timestamped at just eight months ago.

“Prior footage shows Chisaki only, I won’t be showing you that, it’s too… well, I imagine you know. It wouldn’t do anything other than make you angry.”

Katsuki snorted, his temper already rising. He was probably right, even if he wanted to see all of it, to know exactly what happened to Izuku. Tenya’s voice was quiet, almost gentle.

“I can tell you that he fought. He fought tooth and nail every single second of each day, for almost a year.”

Katsuki felt tortured pride well up inside him alongside his mounting fury. Izuku was the strongest person he knew, and it gave him some small satisfaction that he hadn’t given up immediately.

Tenya pressed play on the screen.

Katsuki watched with stilted breath as Chisaki walked slowly around Izuku’s kneeling form, mouth moving. The audio either hadn’t accompanied it, or Tenya had muted it.

Either way, it was clear that Chisaki was taunting Izuku.

Izuku’s down-turned face was shadowed behind his lank hair, but Katsuki could see that his eyes were open, the old hollow look in them.

Katsuki forced his eyes to rove around the screen, attempting to understand any detail about where Izuku was being held.

“The first several months show only Chisaki in the room with him, no one else. But here,” Tenya reached around to scrub the video icon forward, “three days later, you can see her, for a split second.”

The video froze on an image that was only visible for a single frame.

In the slightly distorted shot, he could see that blood bitch. He let out a surprised gasp, because just as the video continued playing, floaty round face was standing where Chisaki had been.

He continued speaking while Katsuki watched.

“It appears as though Himiko Toga was utilizing Chisaki’s appearance and that the man himself if still deceased. I want to be completely sure in that, so I have requested his body be exhumed and dental records ran again to confirm this.”

Izuku’s reaction was violent. He leapt to his feet, charging the woman.

Katsuki figured that the chains around his joints were some type of quirk-lock. The chains began to smoke for a moment, then dark lightening began to crackle around him.

Floaty round face just danced out of his way, a gleeful look apparent as she laughed.

Izuku was clearly weak, and he stumbled to his knees again quickly.

His quirk dissipated and he slumped forwards.

”Hang the fuck on. So hamster girl was never there?”

Tenya’s brow furrowed in concentration. 

“I don’t believe so, but I’m not ruling it out.”

Tenya scrubbed through some footage next, Katsuki’s eyes taking in all of the sped up actions. He felt sick, unable to look away and unwilling to truly process the abuse Izuku went through.

His eyes burned with yet to be shed tears.

“This is what I believe might give you some peace of mind.”

Tenya pressed play and sat back, giving Katsuki some much needed space.

He felt dizzy as he watched, teeth clenched.

One moment, floaty round face was standing above Izuku’s prone form, and the next he was looking at himself.

That blood bitch had made herself appear just as Katsuki did now, there was no other indication that it wasn’t him, other than the creepy smirk on his otherwise familiar face.

Katsuki was reeling, hoping to fucking god that he wasn’t about to watch his own body abu-

Izuku was staggering to his feet, clearly even weaker than he had been in the previous scene.

He leapt at the fake Katsuki, unable to make contact as the chains tightened, straining against his skin.

The fake Katsuki was grinning now, skipping out of Izuku’s reach each time he made a pass at him.

He was saying something, and Katsuki wished he could hear what Izuku had heard in his own tone of voice.

Izuku slumped to the floor again, posture defeated.

“How the FUCK is this supposed to make me feel ‘more at peace’?! He-“

He stopped talking, eyebrows raising in shock.

Whatever the fake Katsuki had been saying seemed to break something in Izuku.

He got to his feet one last time and in a blinding flash, the chains around him were gone, broken into pieces under the onslaught of an uncontrolled OFA.

Izuku’s hands pinned the fake Katsuki to the wall, pressing so hard that one of the bones in his wrist must have snapped.

The evident pain shocked the form against the wall, and it melted back into the figure of Toga.

Izuku didn’t falter. He briefly let go, but then fists began to slam against her skull, until she slid down the wall. He gripped her head in his hands and fucking pressed.

There was still no audio, but Katsuki flinched when the bone gave way, imagining the sound of it. He watched fascinated, vindictive horror ad Izuku’s elbows snapped forward, indicating that he’d crushed her skull entirely with his bare hands. He couldn’t see any of the tell-tale energy dancing on his skin. He’d just done it without his quirk.

Izuku knelt down, right in the pooling blood surrounding him, and he wept.

Tenya paused the video, but said nothing.

Katsuki realized that tears were tracking down his face, belatedly. He just stared at the still screen. The blood and gore that painted Izuku, his hunched shoulders.

“She’s dead, as you can see. I wanted to be absolutely sure, so I spent hours combing that residence for any clue as to where she’d been holding him. The tape runs out a few days later. He was left in there with her dead body for that entire period of time. He returned to the center of the room, to kneel and didn’t seem to move up until the video ends.

I had this inkling that he had been transferred back here from the U.S. Eventually, I found it. The underground facility was near the river with an entrance facing it. Her remains were inside. Our working theory is that Izuku got out on his own, but was quickly found by the trafficking ring. He was then passed along between buyers until you found him that night.”

Katsuki sat back in the chair, finally looking away from the picture.

“Holy fuck…”

Katsuki’s whole body had gone numb, but as he tried to wrap his mind around these implications he began to feel something more.

“That means… that means he’s safe?”

Tenya nodded his head, smiling genuinely.

“Yes. Izuku took care of the main threat all by himself. I won’t rest until each fact is corroborated five times over, though. Now, there are several buyers to find still, but he should be safe enough while we hunt them down.”

Katsuki’s mind was blown. He frantically searched the laptop screen for the date again.

“By the river? Holy fuck, he was so close, I should’ve-“

Tenya put a hand up to stop him.

“You cannot blame yourself. No one knew.”

Katsuki heard the words, but he couldn’t feel them. Izuku had been so close, the entire time. He hadn’t been able to do anything, he hadn’t known, but that didn’t stop himself from the sudden wave of self-hatred. God, he had to get back home. He had to see him, hold him. Despite seeing him practically every moment and several months since he’d brought him home, he couldn’t envision Izuku as he was now. He could only see his starved frame, paining with the blood of his abuser.

He jerked out of the chair and it fell back behind him.

“Thank you, seriously, but I gotta fucking get back. I gotta-“

His phone rang.

He answered before the final ring, Tenya’s subtle throat-clearing bringing him back to the present.

“Katsuki! You have to get back here!”

On alert immediately, Katsuki stared into Tenya’s face, tense.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Auntie Midoriya’s voice was in full panic.

“Izuku’s gone! There was a delay in the train and I just got here! I looked everywhere, but he isn’t here!”

Katsuki’s blood sang with poisoned adrenaline.

“On my way.”

Tenya was right behind him as he rushed out of the office.

Katsuki’s mind flew to the worst, but this new information gave him pause. That blood bitch was dead. Her obsession over Izuku was suitably gone. But, the fact that several buyers remained at large was still worrisome.

Izuku hadn’t ever left the apartment by himself, and he’d settled into the couch as he left to watch something on TV. He should’ve waited until Auntie had gotten there. He berated himself the entire way to his apartment.

He flung aside the boards in front of his windows and stormed in. Auntie was clutching at one of Izuku’s old sweaters, sobbing.

He quickly rushed through the house, finding no sign of Izuku anywhere.

All of his shoes were still there, so he didn’t leave with them.

Someone must have taken him.

Chapter Text

Katsuki was lucky that he’d made some alliances with other pro heroes, and even luckier that Kirishima was a ray of fucking sunshine and everyone loved him. Everyone had assembled first thing in the morning, before the sun was even up.

He had no delusions as to why every hero in the area was gathered in the police block, though. Every single one of them was here for Izuku. Even, allegedly, gone from the country for two years did nothing to dim Izuku’s popularity.

The press was already attempting to cover the event, and the police were out in full force to ensure privacy. Katsuki had managed to contain news of Izuku’s captivity completely, utilizing his family’s legal connections swiftly.

But it didn’t escape public notice that something big was happening. He couldn’t help thinking that there were still too many people out for just that assumption. It pissed him off.

He forced himself to listen as the chief briefed them, discussing which patrols would go where, in an effort to find Izuku.

Katsuki spied hamster girl in the crowd near the barriers and his already barely restrained temper rose. He didn’t give two fucks wether she was involved or not, she was a bitch for talking about Izuku like she did. She was talking to a film crew.

Tenya made an extra effort to assign her as far away from Katsuki as possible and he was quickly feeling completely indebted to the man.

He hadn’t slept at all since Izuku’s disappearance, and had been all over the city looking for him, up until the briefing.

He hoped the larger effort would bring forth quicker results because he didn’t know how much longer he could take not knowing. Not being able to do anything.

After viewing that footage, he had desperately needed to see izuku, to touch him. He almost wished he hadn’t even seen it yet, because he could only picture how Izuku looked in that still video frame, so much thinner and frail than he was now.

He was glad for the slight relief knowing that the bitch was dead. But the fact remained; someone had taken Izuku from his fucking apartment and he needed to find out who. Right fucking now.

His agency teamed up with Gang Orca, who had come out of retirement just to participate in the investigation. Even former principal Nedzu was with them as they split off from the group, quickly assigning sectors to hero pairs.

Katsuki was thankfully paired off with Kirishima. Having the support of his friend allowed him to ease, just a little.

The unit crowded over a map laid out on one of the several tables erected around the block.

“I already checked here, here, and here, but it would be good to cover those areas twice over. I found no sign of an abduction or altercation in my apartment, but someone will be going through it right?”

He looked up at the group of people.

Nedzu raised his small hand.

“I will be analyzing your residence and the surrounding area with the crime scene team. If I could please have your keys?”

Katsuki almost sagged with relief as he handed them over. There was no better quirk than his to find any trace left behind.

Katsuki was getting more frustrated and worried by the second. Each pass of the city continued to come up with nothing, no trace of Izuku to be found. He landed on top of a rooftop and dropped to the edge to sit. It was nearing dusk, the sun hanging low on the skyline. It would be a beautiful evening, if not for the fact that Katsuki didn’t know where Izuku was, if he was hurt, if he was safe.

He’d wondered if Izuku might have left the apartment on his own. He had never done so before, but he had answered the door once when someone had delivered that fucking letter.

Izuku had gone to the store with him a few times, helping pick out produce and generally keeping a low profile. It was shitty, but he barely resembled the ‘him’ prior to his imprisonment. At least to the public.

What if he had answered a knock on the door and someone had taken him then? If the blood bitch was dead, who the fuck would have taken him?

Tenya was working on the trafficking angle, under the assumption that whoever took Izuku was a part of that circle.

He spotted Kirishima on the sidewalk far below his feet. He jumped down, briefly relieved at the feeling of free falling before his other emotions caught up. He landed heavily on the ground, but his appearance didn’t seem to faze his friend.

“Anything?”

Kirishima looked troubled.

“Maybe… I think you should sit down.”

Katsuki looked at him balefully, unwilling to comply. His stomach flipped in anxiety.

“Look, we didn’t tell you yet because it wasn’t important and would only piss you off.”

Katsuki wasn’t in the mood for waiting.

“Fucking spit it out! What?”

Kirishima understood his frustration and quickly complied.

“We found out early today that news of Deku’s captivity and subsequent abuse was leaked to the press yesterday morning. We were tracking down some leads and getting information first before telling you.”

Katsuki rubbed a hand over his face, dragging the skin down. He was so fucking exhausted.

Katsuki could feel his palms starting to sizzle.

“Why wasn’t it on ever fucking news channel out there? A pro-hero? The beloved symbol of peace? What the FUCK!”

Kirishima touched his arm. Despite his usual disdain for physical touch, it grounded him more than he wanted to admit.

“They leaked it carefully, utilizing less reputable news agencies who in turn, kept it quiet until running the story two hours ago. We overheard the person talking to “Hero Horoscope”, that weird station that just talks about mercury in gatorade or some shit; by chance. Shoji overheard them.”

Katsuki gritted his teeth. His voice was devoid of any emotion.

“Who the fuck was it?”

Kirishima looked like he was trying to calm a wild bear, hands held out in a placating gesture.

“You’ve got to promise you won’t go nuclear and kill them.”

Katsuki contemplated it for a moment.

“Shitty hair, I can’t. Just fucking stop me. Who?”

Kirishima sighed, getting into a ready stance.

“Uraraka.”

Katsuki blinked. He hadn’t given her a passing thought since this morning. Kirishima looked like he was holding his breath.

“What the fuck is wrong with that bitch?!”

His voice was dangerously quiet.

“I don’t know: She’s being questioned right now. And no, I won’t be telling you where. Apparently she shared some very sensitive stuff.”

Katsuki began pacing, mind racing.

“We’ve got to cut it off, ban every single source from running the story.”

He felt weak.

“Trying now. “Hero Weekly” is giving us some trouble.”

Katsuki pulled out his phone, swiping it open to his contacts. He pressed the phone to his ear.

Before he could speak, his mother did.

“Working on it now, kid. Should be off Mainstream in thirty. Cleaning up the dregs too. Any luck?”

Katsuki sighed in a fraction of relief.

“Not yet.”

He hung up.

“I’ve gotta fucking talk to her.”

He looked Kirishima directly, willing to throw his weight to make him agree.

“No way, man. You’ll fucking kill her. Tenya’s got her now-“

“Tenya Fucking proposed to that bitch once; he can’t interrogate her!”

Kirishima gave him a reproachful look.

Katsuki sighed, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“You know he won’t tolerate any bullshit where Midoriya is concerned. He’ll probably go harder at her than anyone else on the force.”

“What the fuck can I do. I need to Fucking do something.”

Kirishima smiled slightly, worriedly. He tossed his phone up in the air and Katsuki caught it.

He quirked an eyebrow up in question.

“List of people working at the horoscope circus and who headed the narrative. Come with me to check them out?”

Katsuki felt immediately relieved that they finally had something to do. He couldn’t stop floaty round-face’s words playing over and over again in his mind. ‘Damaged goods’. He’d never let this go.

“I’ll stop you. I get it, but you can’t Fucking kill her.”

Katsuki shook his head, unwilling to comment.

Searching the list, he found the closest lead before taking off at a run.

“She fucking told them about the trafficking ring! She basically painted a fucking target on his Fucking forehead! You can’t seriously be thinking of fucking releasing her!”

Katsuki raged. He didn’t give a fuck about everyone in the vicinity witnessing his anger. Tenya stood straight, harrowed and eyes sunken in, as if he hadn’t slept any more than Katsuki had.

“We can’t charge her with anything other than a form of slander and invasion of privacy. Her mother already posted bail on that. My hands are tied, Bakugou.”

“Mine fucking aren’t! Where the fuck is she?”

Kirishima touched his elbow, but he shook him off, violently.

“Iida, place her in protective custody.”

“PROTECTIVE? Is that a fucking joke?!”

Katsuki was coming unhinged entirely.

Kirishima gripped his shoulder, pressing hard to keep a hold of him.

“That way she’s under surveillance while we try to find another way to make this stick. Not to mention keeping your Fucking hands clean. You can’t fucking kill someone.”

Katsuki curled his lip; “She isn’t even human at this point.”

Kirishima clapped him on the back, serious in a sobering way.

“You’re a hero. You save people. Save him.”

Katsuki felt his rage dim a little. He had to focus on finding Deku.

“Well, where the fuck are we now?”

Tenya looked grateful for Kirishima’s suggestion. He beckoned him closer, over to a large monitor.

“These people have already been checked out for connections and alibis. We are bringing him in now, he has been to a few gala’s that we placed two traffickers frequenting as well. He should be here soon.”

None of this was moving fast enough for Katsuki.

“Where are they? I’ll get him myself.”

“I need you to do something else. Midoriya-San is in the lobby. She’s been waiting since yesterday, not even sleeping. She needs to rest, some reassurance. Talk with her?”

Katsuki recognized the pacification in his request, but he allowed it. He just needed to do something. Anything. He tried to remind himself that Tenya had dedicated his whole existence to finding out the truth regarding Deku’s abduction and imprisonment. He’d even made major break-throughs, without Katsuki’s help.

He knew he needed to trust him, and everyone else who’d shown up in support of finding Izuku. He just wished he could feel it. The weight of his role in this threatened to crush him. He should have waited. He shouldn’t have left Izuku alone for a second without making sure someone was there to watch over him. This was his fault.

He pinched the bridge or his nose between his forefinger and thumb. A headache that started yesterday prevailed.

Kirishima, ever oddly attuned to Katsuki’s thoughts, shook his head.

“You can’t beat yourself up about this. No one knew, and Midoriya-san would’ve been there if not for a train delay. Pure chance, man. The only one at fault is whoever the fuck took him.”

Katsuki couldn’t nod, couldn’t agree.

He shook his head, making his way down the stairs.

When he saw Auntie Midoriya, he immediately began crying. He hadn’t cried this entire time, not once. Seeing her curled into a chair, staring at the elevators broke him.

She leapt up, facial expression coming to life.

“Any-“

Katsuki shook his head, bending to hug her.

He sobbed with her as she clung to him. He’d have slipped to the floor if she wasn’t helping hold him up.

“Nothing, Auntie. I’m so fucking sorry. Fuck.”

She squeezed him tighter.

“All you’ve ever done is look after my boy. This is my fault for not taking a taxi instead of the train.” Her voice was so shaky it was hard to make out her words.

“No, it’s my fault. I should’ve waited until you arrived before leaving. I was distracted. Tenya told me to go to the station, that he’d found something-“

His words broke under the weight of another sob. He didn’t want to make excuses for himself. He couldn’t stop thinking of the anguish on Izuku’s face as he lunged at the image of him. Katsuki may as well have been there himself, the copy of him was so accurate. He didn’t know why Izuku even wanted to see him, let alone touch him, kiss him.

“He loves you. All we need to do is find him. He’s strong, he’ll be okay.”

Katsuki felt more self-hatred than he’d ever felt in his life. Izuku’s mother was comforting him. He should be comforting her.

“I’ll find him, I fucking swear it. I’ll never give up.”

Auntie Midoriya just nodded, burying her face in his chest.

Katsuki held her, trying to pass on any sense of comfort he could, despite feeling none himself.

Finally, he pulled back to take her hand.

“Cmon, you need to rest. You can go back to my place.”

She was shaking her head, but he continued.

“I need you to check in with our old principal. He was sent over there to look over my place for any sign as to what happened to Izuku. Call me if you hear anything.”

She sagged in a relief that he wished he felt, but he knew it felt slightly more bearable with a task to focus on.

He got her safely inside a taxi before leaning against the building, needing the fresh air.

His phone rang.

It barely started before he was answering.

“Yea?”

“Got something. A few possible locations. I’m sending them to you right now. Eijiro is on his way. Where are you?”

Katsuki’s blood began pumping faster.

“Outside.”

He hung up, looking at the information Tenya had sent. He groaned in frustration. A ‘few’ ended up being seven locations. Some profiles popped up too, alleged members of the ring.

He had just texted Kirishima to meet him at the nearest one, when he came barreling down the sidewalk towards him.

He just turned in the direction of the closest one when Tenya texted him again.

The plan was for all units to break up and search each location as quickly as possible. Katsuki and Kirishima headed towards business district.

The faces of each person on the profile list burned in his brain. He wouldn’t stop until they were all dead, or worse. Finally feeling purposeful, he ran even faster. Izuku needed him.

Chapter Text

“I think you should come back here, I can’t explain it well and it’ll be easier just to show you.”

Katsuki nodded before realizing he was on the phone and Auntie couldn’t see him.

“I’ll be there soon. Just wrapping up here.”

He slid his phone back into his pocket. Fuck, he was exhausted. He’d blown through every reserve of his energy, anger fueling him for the most part. Despite this, he never wanted to sleep again, not until Izuku was safe.

None of the locations or people indicated on the lieutenant’s list had proved useful, other than to lead to unrelated arrests. Interrogations were still being held, but Katsuki knew this was now a dead end.

Clenching his teeth, he tugged Shitty Hair around to begin walking in the other direction.

“Ground zero! What do you have to say about the missing hero Deku? Did you know he was missing for two years? How do you feel about his involvement in sex trafficking?”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed as he stalked up to the line separating the reporters from the temporary police barricade.

“What the fuck are you asking? Involvement?! As if he was a part of it? His fault?!”

He felt Kirishima pulling at his shoulder, trying to deter him.

Katsuki hauled the reporter who had spoken off his feet, gripping his tie in a fierce grip.

“Shut your FUCKING mouth.”

“Dude, let him go! You’re burning his fucking shirt off!”

Katsuki let him drop into a heap on the ground, growling in distaste.

He turned away, walking quickly.

“Your PR rep is gonna be working overtime. You’ve got to chill out.”

“Chill out? Fuck that. I’m not stopping until he’s safe.”

Shitty Hair didn’t comment, just falling in line next to him.

When they reached his apartment, he was surprised and put off by the lack of people he saw inside.

He touched Auntie’s arm.

“Where the fuck is everyone?”

A strangely lilted voice spoke up from behind him instead.

“I’ve finished processing, and sent the crime scene team back. If you give me a few moments, I’ll be able to show you this.”

Nodding, Katsuki collapsed against the kitchen counter.

His head fell into his palms and he tried to focus on his breathing.

His chest hurt, his heart rate fast. Why the fuck was it taking this long?

“There. If you’d please gather around.”

Katsuki pushed away, eager for any news.

“This software, designed by me, is currently undergoing beta testing. The program is able to analyze quirk energy, movement, and indication of audio of a location up to 36 hours prior to the current time. While its original coding was simple, I added AI elements. It soon began churning out more results as it evolved. It was originally built for identification, but it’s proving harder than I anticipated to provide that information.”

Katsuki didn’t give a fuck about whatever that shit was, but he leaned down to look at the screen.

He quickly recognized his quirk. It showed up as an aura, an angry and solid red color. He could make out the outline of his body, but it looked more like a heat signature radar image.

A second outline moved into view. Katsuki realized it was depicting part of his living room, entryway, and the hall beyond.

Just as quickly, he recognized Izuku. A dark green, faintly glowed from him.

He watched his own outline leave, and a pang of anger and regret shocked through him. He should’ve stayed.

Izuku’s frame stood at the door for a moment before disappearing back into the room behind him.

Katsuki had likely been gone for roughly five minutes after that, when a figure approached the door. It was a hideous shade of purple. Unlike Izuku’s, it wasn’t a solid color. It had black lines squiggling from it and crossing over one another. It pulsed, once.

Izuku’s outline returned to the entryway. His coloring appeared stronger than before.

Izuku’s outline pulsed as well.

“What the fuck is that?”

“That’s the indication of audio.”

Confused as fuck, Katsuki stared.

“Izuku hasn’t said as much as a single syllable. How the fuck is he speaking now?”

“We don’t know if he was speaking, but he definitely made sound.”

The outline of the unknown person flashed distinctly.

Izuku’s outline flashed strongly in response, longer.

Suddenly Izuku’s frame was pressed against the door to his apartment. His whole aura lit up. His grip on the door looked intense.

Then, the aura vanished, almost entirely.

Izuku stepped back from the door, took the handle for a moment, a flash of his quirk appearing for a second, then disappeared.

Izuku opened the door and followed the retreating purple outline.

“The unknown person appears to be utilizing a quirk continuously right after the indications of audio. Midoriya appears to resist whatever the quirk is at first, but is overcome by it.”

Katsuki twisted to look at his door.

The door handle was mangled beyond recognition. Izuku had obviously used his quirk to crush it. How hadn’t he noticed it?

“What does this mean? How the fuck are we supposed to use this information?”

The former principal cleared his throat.

“We know that Midoriya was under the influence of a quirk. Due to the positioning, it is most likely a mental quirk, instead of physical. Midoriya did not leave willingly, but seemed unable to stop. The largest discovery lies with the coloring.”

The screen switched to several images of other captured footage. In the outlines of the bodies, there was no color. Only black with tendrils of thick black lines wafting around them. Some of the outlines around them were pure white.

“The fuck am I looking at?”

The screen split into two sections. On one side were the black outlines, on the other side, there were outlines filled with color, a veritable rainbow of them, solid like his and Izuku’s. There were still outlines of full white around them too.

“While analyzing and perfecting the program, I was able to deduce that civilians appeared as this solid white color. Heros show a solid color, while villains show up as black with wisps of black exuding from them.”

Katsuki’s brain whirred.

“That means…”

“The person who took Izuku was most likely a hero, doing something villainous. Something adverse to the oath each hero swears.”

Katsuki was floored. A hero?

“What Fucking hero has beef with Izuku?! The guy is a lovable dork! I don’t think he’s pissed off any hero in the country.”

“I am not sure. I sent a summary of my findings to Ingenium. He should be able to run logs of heros that have mental quirks, as well as try to filter individuals based on potential motives.”

He turned to Kirishima.

“Find Fucking icyhot.”

“I am fairly certain That Deku has made no enemies, other than villains.”

“You can’t think of anyone who would have cause to hurt Izuku? No one?”

Icyhot shook his head, looking apologetic.

“No one. Deku is well-loved by almost every agency. I have no idea who would do this to him.”

Icyhot suddenly stepped forward, gripping his shoulder.

“We will find him. I’ll be right there with you.”

He nodded, already heading off into the building.

Stopping short behind Glasses, he sighed.

He couldn’t take much more of this.

“Got a list of ten people, Bakugou. I sent them to your phone. Divide them up between the groups and perform interviews. Two of them are part of the search party. Start with those.”

Tenya patted him on the back and moved off to talk to the people at a bank of computer screens. He looked as tired as Katsuki felt.

He quickly pulled out his phone to study the list.

He only knew one of them. Why the fuck was he on a list for mental quirks?

“Hey, why the fuck is he on this list?”

Tenya looked up from where he was leaning over a desk to look at his proffered phone screen.

“Who, Minoru? A recent development in his quirk was logged a year ago. While he still possess a mostly physical quirk, the substance that coats the sticky balls he throws can be used as a ‘knock out’ drug.”

Katsuki immediately dismissed him as a suspect. He was still short as fuck the last time he’d seen him.

The figure had been tall, probably the same height as Katsuki.

Still he asked, “Like unconscious? Or like dumb?”

“Drops unconscious. Based on the info sent to me be Nedzu, he doesn’t fit the profile, but I included it just in case.”

“An extra can follow that one.”

He pulled out his phone.

He turned away from him to look for Kirishima.

Nothing. Literally, nothing. Not a fucking clue or development after all of the interviews and intelligence. Former Principal Nedzu helped Glasses eliminate suspect after suspect and Katsuki wondered if he was losing his sanity.

His rage was untethered, all consuming.

He was about to explode.

A hand touched his shoulder.

Katsuki whirled around, gripping the person’s wrist and was about to throw his weight over his shoulder when he saw who it was.

Aizawa, current Principal of UA, stood looking at him tiredly.

“Thought you were in America.”

Aizawa nodded.

“I came back as soon as I heard. Anything?”

Katsuki shook his head, so angry he could spit.

“I was hoping it wasn’t even a possibility, but after Nedzu briefed me, I believe I know who took Midoriya.”

Katsuki gripped his shoulders, tight enough for his former home room teacher to wince.

“Who?!”

“I… edited his quirk registration. If none of the other heroes fit the profile, it can only be him.”

Katsuki shook him. His words were whispered vengeance.

“Who the FUCK is it?!”

Chapter Text

Katsuki stared at the picture on the screen, his rage finally had a direction. A target.

“Run this by me again, but first where in the fuck is he?”

Tenya stepped up beside him, clicking the screen to show other relevant information on the individual.

“Every team is currently working to find him. Unfortunately, he works with covert ops as a freelancer, usually spy or intelligence missions. It’s proven difficult to pin down a location, but we are working on it.”

Katsuki’s strength was dangerously close to disappearing.

“To recap, Aizawa was formally interviewed and the details were more or less corroborated by third party accounts.”

Katsuki shot him a glare, “Get the fuck on with it.”

Tenya’s jaw clenched as he pointed at the relevant information.

“Shinso Hitoshi, graduate from UA and a professional hero freelancer for the past six years. Aizawa confessed to ‘altering’ his quirk registration application to describe his quirk as a physical quirk, with some minor mental attributes. In short, his quirk is “coercion”, rather than “brainwashing”. He does not have the ability to control thoughts, only actions and movements. His quirk works-“

A spark of distant memory formed in his mind. Such an insignificant moment, brought into large focus.

“This creepy fucker faced off against Izuku in our first sports festival. He had to get him to speak to him before his quirk took hold.”

Tenya nodded.

“I believe Nedzu’s AI program fully indicates that Shinso took Midoriya.”

Katsuki twisted away from the screen.

“Why the fuck would he do that? Deku was nice as fuck after that shit was over. Wait, how the fuck did he even overpower him? Deku beat him in the festival, and he’s only gotten stronger since then.”

Tenya rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked just as strung out as he felt. Katsuki paced, looking around at the frantic activity around him. People were scrambling around, all people present searching for the same thing.

“My working theory is that Shinso had nothing to do with Midoriya’s initial abduction, nor his year and a half long imprisonment under Toga. After he killed her, he resumed a submissive persona, as shown in the video footage. Shinso somehow discovered him and due to his susceptible and weakened state, was able to overpower him then. I have no doubt that he wouldn’t have been able to prior to Midoriya’s intensive abuse.”

Katsuki couldn’t look at the creepy fuck’s face any longer.

“Why the fuck would he do something like this? Fuck, that doesn’t matter right now! How the fuck do I find him?!”

The eighth location listed, searching for Izuku, was the third that Katsuki joined in on.

He’d cleared his first, easily and without pause. His second, he was slower, perturbed with how quickly the first location had been searched.

Last out of the building, he began to question. Nothing there had provided any clue to Izuku’s whereabouts. He began to question the information, he began to despair.

The next location was targeted with two agencies. There were only three locations left. Katsuki fell in line, too concerned to worry about his place in the proceedings.

He blasted his way onto the roofs of nearby buildings. He’d be damned if he missed the initial assault. His quirk burned along his nerves like wildfire. He needed his target. He needed his enemy. His world turned to dark silhouettes and stark yellow highlights, nearing dark. The sun was setting and it wouldn’t be too much longer before the shadows overtook the light.

He landed on a lower rooftop, a mile from the reported site. Catching his breath, he turned to look out on the city. The buildings looked like they were alight with fire. As if Katsuki had burned them to a crisp in his drive to find Izuku.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

He twisted, sharply, towards the voice. He saw nothing but shadow against the outline of the air conditioner units.

He searched, until a dark shadow detached itself from the darkness.

He tensed, bending his knees to brace for an attack.

“I always wondered what kept people inside at this time of day.”

Katsuki tried to place the voice, but couldn’t.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Suddenly, Katsuki couldn’t move. He couldn’t take one more step. His muscles burned from tension, but he couldn’t do anything other than stand still. He was such a goddamn fool, realization dawning that he was right here. Right fucking here and he’d just rendered himself defenseless.

The figure finally stepped into the light of the dying sun.

Before him stood what he would previously describe as an extra. The purple haired wimp from general studies that then transferred to the hero course after the first sports festival. He hadn’t remembered his name until a few hours ago. This nobody?

His hair was wild and disarrayed. Dark circles underneath his eyes made them look sunken in, deep set.

“Don’t remember me? Typical. You were always so self-absorbed. Wonder why you can’t move? My quirk is coercion. As soon as you speak to me, your every action is mine.”

Katsuki felt his heart speed up. Of course he remembered him now. He wouldn’t ever be able to forget his face, his bored tone of words. He opened his mouth to speak.

“Be quiet. I don’t want to hear your aggravating voice.”

As much as he hated it, no sound came out. His throat burned, his muscles strained to the point of tearing.

Shinso stalked closer, hands in his pockets as if he was out for a fucking stroll.

“I hear you’ve been burning the entire continent looked for him. Don’t worry, I’ll take you to see him right now. Turn around and walk to the stairway.”

Katsuki about-faced, despite his panic and desire to break this hold, destroy it. Destroy him. His feet trembled in his boots as he staggered to disobey the command ripping him to shreds inside.

“That’s it. How do you feel? Powerless? You’re weak. Just like him.”

He felt tears slip from his otherwise stoic expression.

He was not weak. Izuku was NOT weak.

His teeth ground painfully in his mouth. He wanted to scream. He could do nothing as he opened the door to the roof stair access, jerkily taking each step without any useful hesitation.

Creepy eyes was silent until he came to the bottom of the stairs, he gestured towards a hallway and then into a room to the left.

Katsuk’s mind whirred. He could coerce him without words? How the fuck was he going to get out of this?

His legs seemed to turn to jello when he finally saw him. his joints ached against that feeling, warring with the lack of control he had over his movements.

Izuku was behind a wall of glass, in a room so stark and clinical looking that it seemed like a hospital setting. His hands were strung up, hanging from a hook descending from the center of the ceiling. His heart broke at the new wounds, some of the blood congealing on his freckled skin, but some actively dripping. He was still wearing Katsuki’s shirt, but it was ripped all over. The position had the attention drawn to the visible bumps of his ribs beneath his skin.

Katsuki whimpered, the only grieving sound he could manage.

Shinso moved to stand in front of him, blocking his view of Izuku.

“I can see the question in your eyes. ‘Why’, ‘why’, ‘why. It’s fairly simple. I wanted to see how many bones he could break before he succumbed to my quirk. Almost all, if you’re curious. He was the first hero to stand in my way, and he broke my hold. Of course I’d want to see why. I wanted to see why he was able to defy me. So yes, I coveted him. He never quite submitted. I never knew why, but maybe, you’re the key to it. I can’t count the amount of times that I heard “Kacchan” over the past several months. Almost sickening, if you ask me.”

Izuku had called out to him? For him? The knowledge burned into his heart. He hadn’t been there for him. He hadn’t saved him from this.

“It was pure luck that I chanced upon him, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. I’ve always been watching him, wondering if I’d ever get the chance to experiment. To understand. My work enables me to move through this city with impunity. My quirk allows me to have whatever I please. I own everything, and everyone. Even you, but especially him.”

Katsuki wished he could close his eyes, but suddenly Shinso stepped back, allowing him to see Izuku again. He hoped to god that the creepy fuck wouldn’t order him to stop looking. Izuku’s head was bowed, chin resting on his chest, face in shadow. He felt a small painful stab of relief when he was able to see a faint rise and fall of Izuku’s chest. How long would he breathe? How much more could he take?

“I worked on him for weeks, but he still had one ounce, one sliver of resistance. It’s absolutely fascinating, frustrating. When my research plateaued, I finished with him quickly. Couldn’t have him wandering around with my face in his mind, though. My quirk is all-encompassing, but even I have to admit to some… limitations. I can enact an order for only a finite amount of time before it dissipates and relinquishes. So I sold him, using the profits to fund my research, my training. I thought he died, after his last buyer was arrested for some unrelated crime. I wondered what became of him, and that was… unsettling.”

Shinso’s voice was so… empty. So devoid of emotion that it made his skin crawl even more.

“But your blundering ‘A’ class eventually put my concerns at ease. ‘Deku’ kidnapped and tortured’, ‘The symbol of peace destroyed’. Such abrasive headlines, still in the planning and organizing stage to sweep the country with the news.”

He stepped back into his view, finger tapping on his chin thoughtfully.

“I’ll be honest, I hadn’t expected him to be with you. I thought you two hated each other? But, your name alone was a useful tool in his breaking. When I took him again, this final time, I burned with curiosity. Could you break that last inch? That final straw that would cause his entire being to collapse into dust? I had to know.”

Revulsion and hatred curdled in his entire body, even while he stepped closer.

“Want to see him? Up close? Want to watch what I can do to him? I’d be happy to oblige.”

He gestured to the door in the glass wall. His eyes were glinting, almost feverish. Fuck, he was absolutely mad, insane.

Katsuki’s heartbeat sped up as he reached for the handle, not even fighting the order to do so.

At Shinso’s silent prompts, he stood in front of him, close enough to smell the blood, the fevered sweat of him.

“Hold his head up. Oh, and don’t be gentle. Just a little test for you.”

Katsuki wanted to tear his own hand from his body as he complied.

His fingers pinched Izuku’s chin, harshly digging into his skin as he thrust his head up, neck cracking at the sudden movement.

Izuku’s eyes were closed, but tear tracks stained his cheeks. He was so pale, so lifeless that Katsuki couldn’t even tell if his pulse was thrumming under his fingers. He heard a cracking sound from his own bones. He broke something. The pain was nothing to him, not against this. He shook, vibrating with inaction.

“Now for the real test. Midoriya, open your eyes.”

Izuku’s lashes fluttered before opening.

Katsuki’s tears coursed down his face in torrents. Izuku’s eyes were so hollow, even more empty than they’d been that first day, the first time he looked into them in that fucking cell. Katsuki let out a mangled, broken wail. He was powerless to do a single thing, only able to feel his heart breaking when Izuku’s lips slowly twisted in an exhausted smile, a relieved flicker in his otherwise lifeless eyes.

He thought Katsuki was here to rescue him.

He thought Katsuki would stop this torture, this agony.

Izuku’s eyes gradually wandered around his face, no doubt taking in his grimacing expression pleading for him, for forgiveness. Begging for an end to this.

He watched each torturous movement as the smile dropped from his lips.

“Bakugou, kneel.”

The command to drop to his knees matched up with his inability to stand on his own and he collapsed, head tilted back to continue meeting his gaze. He tried to push all of his emotion into his gaze, to somehow let Izuku know how his heart pounded for him. Izuku stilled preternaturally, almost freezing over.

“That’s it, stay still, do not move Midoriya!”

Shinso’s sharpened tone was like a distant wave against his ears.

Then, it happened.

The snapping of it almost audibly shook the room. Like a rope, pulled taut, being sliced by a blade. The intense burning inside Izuku that took Katsuki’s breath away suddenly blazed to life. He took in the determined set of his jaw that he hadn’t traced in so long. His eyes narrowed, sharpening into a focus he hadn’t seen in years.

He moved, even while Katsuki couldn’t.

Shinso’s voice was a shrill shriek, but he was only watching Izuku. Only watching him burst free, like he should have been all along.

Even though his frame was still slight, he drove his elbows down, muscles lifting him up until the hook and rope suspending him from the ceiling broke. A beautiful energy pulsated around him, sending a shiver of delight down his spine. He dropped to the ground, light and ready, still only looking down into Katsuki’s eyes, into his very soul.

The room faded to only him. His hand touching his cheek, gentle even underneath the pure wrath that exuded from him. His eyes were flashing, filled with the light of his quirk as he slowly turned his head towards the villain beside him.

In a flash so bright that Katsuki had to blink a few times, Izuku was on him, crushing his chest to the wall with a crackling fist to his sternum. A cracking sound seemed to reverberate around them.

Katsuki collapsed entirely, feeling the influence of coercion leave his body instantly. He couldn’t look away, no he wouldn’t, stop watching the glorious sight of his Deku. His Izuku, outshining the very universe around them.

His other fist punched upwards, to the creepy fuck’s mouth. His knuckles broke through skin, teeth, bone, until he gripped that vile tongue. There was a brief pause, a total cease of motion, as Izuku’s gaze burned into the villain’s eyes, still somehow open and wide, hideous purple quickly leaking vitality from them.

He ripped his tongue out, with a strength that stunned Katsuki.

He was frozen for only a moment, while Izuku panted from exertion, covered in a spray of blood, barefoot and small, but so fucking strong. So fucking perfect. Then he was crawling, stumbling, towards him until they collided.

Izuku twisted to clutch him, Katsuki wrapping his arms around him as tightly as he could. They fell, but they did so together.

He was sobbing, face buried in his thin chest.

Izuku had never broken, not fully. He’d never once stopped being that beloved symbol of peace. Katsuki’s heart.

Izuku never needed saving. Not once. He only needed to know that Katsuki was there, with him. Only needed to know that Katsuki loved him so fiercely that he’d rip the stars from the sky to be with him, always.

Chapter Text

They were still pressed against one another, right next to Shinso’s leaking corpse, when the radio on his collar crackled with sound. He didn’t hear Kirishima’s words and he didn’t react. He had Izuku in his arms, and right now that was the only thing that mattered.

Izuku pressed the bottom button, activating the GPS in it, before burying his head back into the column of his throat. His eyes were dry, but Katsuki’s weren’t. Katsuki crushed him to his body, having pulled back so that Izuku was straddling his lap, as close as possible.

His still too thin arms were wrapped around his neck, almost choking him with their surprising strength. He was so fucking strong.

He snarled, an absolutely feral noise, when a rush of people exploded into the room, interrupting the almost utter silence that was filled only with his heart matching the rhythm of Izuku’s.

Someone tried to pull them apart and Katsuki’s sparking fist was launching upwards so fast that it was almost impossible. The punch never connected, Izuku having reached up to close his small hand over his clenched fingers. Izuku was pulling back, just slightly, awkwardly reaching high to grip his hand. The light of his quirk shining in his eyes made the distant sound of a smothered boom coming from his palm completely irrelevant. The pain that shot up his arm from an evident broken wrist was irrelevant also.

He was so goddamn beautiful.

Katsuki’s wild protectiveness eased a little when he felt the familiar hand of his best friend on his shoulder.

No one was going to take Izuku away from him. Not now, and not ever again.

He got to his feet, pulling Izuku up with him, noticing the wince he hadn’t tracked before. Izuku’s stomach clenched against him and he worried. Leaning down he whispered into his ear.

“What is it? Where does it hurt?”

He didn’t expect a response but Izuku was shaking his head, looking up at him with so much focus it was almost burning. Knowing Izuku was lying, he shook his head back.

“Hospital, the pair of you.”

Tenya’s voice held a relief that echoed Katsuki’s.

Katsuki had fucking scrubbed in to be with him, not even willing to part with him for surgery. The doctor’s protested heavily at first, but his determination, and success in pushing through them anyway, eventually changed their minds. His threat of blasting off their hands seemed to quicken the process.

It hadn’t taken long for the team of doctors that swarmed them to find that Izuku had several stomach ulcers that Katsuki hadn’t known about. The stress that Shinso put on his body was too much and it caused a hemorrhage to occur.

Izuku just winced, closing his eyes again as the doctors discussed his treatment planning.

Katsuki hadn’t even known he was sick, or hurting. He’d been taking Izuku to the doctor regularly, checking on his healing progress and nothing like that came up.

“Don’t those Fucking hurt like hell?! How the fuck was he hiding that from me! From a fucking doctor?”

One surgeon shrugged.

“He really gave no indication? Was he eating?”

Katsuki’s temper flared.

“Of Fucking course he was eating. He didn’t seem like he was in pain at all.”

The woman looked down at Izuku.

“What this young man has been through must have been much worse than this kind of pain, if that’s the case.”

Katsuki still didn’t understand, but he was slightly proud of little nerd. He was also pissed that he’d just wandered through his days as if he was physically fine.

He stood to the side, still holding Izuku’s hand as he slowly closed his eyes in sleep.

He was glad for the partition that hid the majority of what the surgeons were doing. The very idea of his skin being sliced open almost had him wishing he hadn’t forced his way into the OR.

Almost.

He looked into Izuku’s slackened face. Repeatedly swiping his fingers over the skin on his inner wrist, wishing his hand wasn’t suffocating in the glove he’d been forced to wear. His anxiety caused a pool of nitroglycerin to form in the latex and he desperately kept his emotions in check for the sake of this entire wing of the hospital.

His own wrist had been set and placed in a temporary cast. A quirked healer would come by later to assist in the healing process. He’d initially refused medical attention in favor of insisting Izuku was tended to first, but he’d given him a reproachful glare and Katsuki had relented. Nothing really mattered. Izuku was with him and if not entirely okay, he would be.

Katsuki couldn’t wait to take him back, away from all of the chaos, doctors, and questions. What he feared, which was Izuku retreating into himself once more, hadn’t happened.

When he woke up after surgery, his gaze wandered lazily around the room and when he saw Katsuki, that little smile that Katsuki would kill to see settled on his face. So goddamn cute.

Izuku was back, and he was there to stay.

Over the course of the next few months, Izuku became more communicative, almost aggressively expressive. His range of gestures, facial expressions, and touches grew rapidly with each passing day. He was relaxed in a way that Katsuki hadn’t seen in a very long time. He opened his mouth so often but always shut it after a moment, frustration evident.

At first Katsuki was ecstatic, but then realized his excitement seemed detrimental because Izuku got even more flustered and frustrated. In the end, words didn’t come out.

Katsuki wanted them, he wanted his voice so badly that it hurt, but he didn’t need it. He had all he needed.

Despite patiently proving that fact, he still yearned to hear his muttering, his soft voice that could get way too Fucking loud.

The first time Izuku laughed, Katsuki shook. It was such a horrible sound that it was almost crazy for him to think it was also fucking perfect at the same time.

He didn’t have a clue as to why he was laughing and it didn’t even Fucking matter.

He grabbed him around the waist and hugged him for so long his feet began to ache.

After that, it was like a dam had broken open that allowed more of that expression of happiness. He laughed more and more often, the sound coming out smoother each time.

Katsuki began working again, starting off slowly but eventually reaching his usual work output. He knew Izuku was safe and it wasn’t because of him. He missed having Izuku on patrol with him. They hadn’t been working for the same agency, but they had teamed up enough that they had been nigh inseparable.

Coming home to him was enough, though.

He worried when he came home one day to see Izuku dressed in workout gear, familiar, but still new, compression sleeves on his arms a sure sign that Izuku wanted to train.

He worried, but he happily took Izuku to his gym.

Izuku’s quirk was so powerful that his still weakened body broke once early on, a small fracture in his elbow. Katsuki hadn’t allowed him into the gym for two weeks, even after the break had long since been healed.

Izuku glared up at him, but Katsuki just smirked, holding firm. His strength slowly came back and Katsuki was always impressed by his progress. Still thinner than he used to be, his muscles gained more definition. His hollow cheeks smoothed out beneath his freckles.

When he spoke for the first time it felt like a lightning bolt to his spine. It happened randomly, but he couldn’t give a single fuck about that.

“Pick…les.”

Katsuki whirled around, knocking into a display that immediately toppled. He fell on his ass and he gaped up at Izuku. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. What in the FUCK.

“OH MY FUCKING GOD DID YOU JUST SPEAK OH MY GOD YOUR FIRST WORD TO ME IN YEARS AND IT WAS FUCKING PICKLES?!”

His voice was shrill to his own ears, surely deafening to those around.

Izuku looked around, cheeks flaming with embarrassment.

“K-Ka…cchan…shh…”

The words were raw, cracking with disuse, lower than he thought possible. The sound was slow, broken into long silences. Even different as day and night from the tone he remembered, he could still hear… Deku.

He leapt up, pulling him into his arms and crushing him to his chest.

He felt the tears immediately, but still crying even before he realized it. Izuku gave a huff of surprise as every breath was almost stolen from him.

“Izuku… Izuku… Izuku…”

His words were almost similarly broken.

He felt Izuku’s mouth frown against his throat.

He pulled back abruptly, taking his biceps in a firm grip and he pushed him away, so he could look him over, head to toe.

“Why… why now?”

Izuku’s mouth opened, but unease flickered across his features and he closed it again. Katsuki pressed a shaking hand over his lips, pressure light.

“Never Fucking mind, you don’t have to. Oh my fucking god you don’t need to.”

Izuku nodded, but determination stole across his eyes. He moved Katsuki’s hand away to open his mouth again.

“Kacch…an.”

That’s all he said, but it was Fucking perfect. Everything about Izuku was Fucking perfect. He felt fucking dizzy.

Izuku shook his head, stepping forward into his space.

Thoughts roiling in the past, Katsuki unconsciously took a step back into the grocery shelves behind him. He oddly thought about the can of spaghettios that fell at his side.

It was like Izuku completely forgot that they were in the middle of a Fucking grocery store. He stepped forward even further towards Katsuki. He could feel his breath puffing against his throat.

“You don’t- I should’ve fucking-“

Izuku sighed, reaching up to press a hand against his chest, right over his heart.

“Excuse me, could I…”

Katsuki turned to glare at the old, graying man who’d disrupted their private conversation that was happening in Fucking public.

“Fuck, completely, off, dickbag! Can’t you see you’re fucking interrupting something here?”

Deku grabbed Katsuki’s hand and tugged urgently and he’d follow him to hell and back if he needed to.

Katsuki didn’t speak until they reached his apartment.

“W-We- forgot the fucking… pickles.”

Izuku smiled, a little giggle escaping his throat. The cute sound that it used to be was still slightly rough in his throat.

Katsuki slumped back against the door. He was still reeling. It was like this was a dream. He felt like he was hyperventilating. Breaths came harder and harder.

Izuku approached him, hesitance in each movement. He slowly took his large hands.

Katsuki looked down at the thin fingers gripping his.

“I love you. I fucking love you.”

Izuku’s eyes, dry up until this moment, filled with tears. They weren’t the kind that alluded to distress, more like relief, cleansing.

Katsuki wrapped his arms around Izuku’s waist, bringing him closer.

He stared down at him as he reached up to wind his arms around Katsuki’s neck and leaned up on his toes. He thought he was about to kiss him, but he waited, mouth so close but not touching his.

Katsuki whispered into the fraction of space between them.

“I fucking love you. Hear me?”

The words were just as awkward as the first time he’d said them.

He felt them grow exponentially more comfortable.

He didn’t know why he hadn’t been saying it every moment, every second.

His every breath was pressing them against his skin, trying to make up for all of the times he should have said it before.

Izuku kissed him, and he didn’t hesitate in wholeheartedly participating.

He now knew he’d get those words, even if he waited for the rest of his fucking life. That was fine with him. Izuku had him, all of him. He just hoped that one day he’d have Izuku too.

Chapter Text

Every time Izuku spoke after that, still made Katsuki’s day. Made his whole fucking year really.

It was usually just small sentences, inane things. But he could care less what he was speaking about. Hearing his voice warmed his heart.

One lazy day, Katsuki had Izuku curled against him on the couch. He clicked through some emails and absently passed his fingers over Izuku’s shoulder.

Katsuki had gotten Izuku a cellphone, which he used to watch cat videos mostly, but he was also watching the news. He was trying to get caught up on what happened during those two years.

Izuku relaxed more and more into himself and it was breathtaking to witness.

Katsuki dropped his phone on the floor, startled, when Izuku began to speak into the relative quiet.

“I’ve missed so much.”

Katsuki’s attention was focused only on him. On his mouth forming those words. He twisted a little towards Izuku, clasping his hand in his.

“I didn’t speak at first… because nothing I said made one singular difference for so long… Then it was because saying something would be used to… control me. It made a difference in every… negative way imaginable.”

Izuku’s eyes were unnervingly dry, though distant and hazy.

“He-“

His voice choked a little bit and he swallowed thickly before meeting his eyes, that sharpness back in those emerald depths.

Katsuki reached out to touch his cheek.

“You don’t have to. You don’t have to at Fucking all.”

Exasperation made Izuku roll his eyes at him. Yet another gesture he’d forgotten Izuku knew how to do anymore. His voice became stronger.

“My resolve didn’t matter in the end. I was conditioned to reply to one sentence, one name. But, I can speak again, as uncomfortable and weird as it now feels, because of you. You saved me. My words are my own once more, not a weakness to be exploited.”

Katsuki shook his head in denial.

“I didn’t fucking save you, not at all. I caused-“

Izuku shook his head, wobbling lips smiling up at him.

“You’re right, that my actions saved me in the end. My own hands that pulled me out, clawing and finding purchase enough to crawl out of it. But, you were the one who gave me that strength. I owe you my life, my very soul.”

The grip on his hand was his only lifeline, the only thing tethering him to the earth.

Katsuki was struggling to get his head out of the past. Izuku’s past abuse.

Katsuki hoisted him up and encouraged Izuku to wrap his legs around his waist.

He started walking, still focusing solely on the feel of him.

He barely realized when he’d made it to his bed.

He laid him down onto the mattress, reverently and gently.

He couldn’t remove the marks from his skin, but it didn’t matter in this moment. The living, rosy hue of his frame was tantalizing, relieving.

He’d had Izuku back, all to himself for months, but to him, these words were the final piece.

Suddenly, Izuku was tensing with stress, a frown deepening on his face as he lowered his eyes. Eyes that previously burned into his.

Katsuki hadn’t gotten on the bed with him, and he fell to his knees beside the mattress.

Oh fuck, why the fuck had he brought him in here.

It was ‘their’ bedroom. They’d slept together every night since he got him back. But the connotations were fucking huge.

“Izuku… I’m so Fucking-“

He couldn’t get the rest out, nor could he bring himself to look at him. He buried his face in the comforter, ever looming tears making their appearance yet again. Oh fuck, he pissed himself the FUCK off.

He flinched at the first tug of Izuku’s hand through his hair, then he moved with him in surprise as he yanked hard enough on the strands to pull him up.

“You know, I’ve been coming to your bed for over six months, Kacchan.”

Automatically Katsuki said, “It’s our bed.”

Izuku smiled up at him, lopsided with emotion.

“Exactly. So get up here, idiot.”

Katsuki, no longer moving on autopilot, obeyed. He was careful, too aware of what he was feeling. It wasn’t lust. It was far from it really. It was just this fucking… suffocating love that threatened to sweep him away, his inhibitions with it.

“Stop. God, do I have to hit you every time to get you out of this?”

Izuku’s tone held mock frustration. He knew him so well. He knew all of his inflections. While the voice was so raw, it was still achingly him.

He rolled onto his side, still far away from Izuku’s body.

“Nothing about you, or what you’re doing, or what you’ve done this whole time for a whole freaking year, made me uncomfortable. Everything you did, everything you do, has been exactly what I need.”

Katsuki was already shaking his head but it turned into a snap back of his neck.

He leveled his gaze down again, looking at him with wide eyes.

Despite the hard punch he’d landed to his jaw, he was smiling, softly.

Izuku scooted closer, both still on top of the blankets, until he was inches away, still not touching him.

“Kacchan… when you finally kissed me. I mean really kissed me, I- hey!”

Katsuki didn’t know why he was surprised by the violent grip on his chin, stopping him from reeling back in self-revulsion, but he was.

Izuku forced him to look at him, tears welling up as he continued, making Katsuki want to kneel again and beg for forgiveness. Izuku’s grip was strong, so incredibly strong, and even his need to put distance between them was forfeit to it.

“It was- It was… and then you were pushing me away. You looked at me like…”

Katsuki made a distressed whine, cowardly wishing he was anywhere but right here at the moment. Izuku wasn’t flinching though, he wasn’t looking anywhere but directly into his eyes.

“Like I was, d-d-dirty.”

Katsuki’s body stilled all at once.

He’d known that the rejection was what had hurt Izuku, but he’d always felt like it was also the reminder of being… forced into something like that.

“You looked like you’d rather do anything rather than… touch me.”

Katsuki’s body moved on its own, immediately wrapping around Izuku so completely it was like he was swallowed by his arms.

“Izuku, no… no!”

Horror filled his words. He was such a fucking goddamn shitty-.

Izuku struggled a bit against him and he let go, just as quickly.

“Kacchan, I know. I know, okay? And I heard you! I did. Even through the whole… fog… I heard you, even when you weren’t speaking the words.”

Izuku latched back onto him, his turn to envelop Katsuki in his embrace, but he left enough space so he could look into his face.

“Erase it, Kacchan. Replace it. Show me I’m not… used up… that I’m still-“

He choked. A wretched sound. His gaze finally dropped as his shoulders curled inwards.

Katsuki couldn’t move. He wanted to, holy fuck he wanted to, but he just couldn’t fucking move a damn muscle. He was frozen entirely.

Izuku was truly crying now, messy and wild.

He clutched onto his shirt front, almost ripping the cloth with his strength.

A whisper broke it.

“Please…”

Katsuki finally moved, certain of one thing.

Izuku would always decide what he wanted, and needed. It didn’t matter what he’d gone through, he was stronger than anything that anyone could throw at him. Katsuki had been such a goddamn fool.

He pulled him forwards so his could roll onto his back, propped up against the fluffy pillows, pillows that Izuku had silently insisted that they buy. He would’ve hated the fucking things if Izuku hadn’t carried one around in his arms for days, looking so fucking peaceful.

Izuku melted against his chest, an honest to god Fucking puddle.

Katsuki didn’t trust himself yet not to fuck his words up, so he just held him rubbing his hands over his back soothingly.

When his tears seemed to slow, couldn’t fucking ask for them to stop completely, not that he’d even want that, he shifted them up further until he could touch his chin and raise him back up to meet his eyes.

They were puffy, red, and so sad, but they were also perfect.

“Deku… Izuku… you’re all I fucking want. All of you. And fuck whatever you were thinking, well I don’t fucking blame you but- FUCK!”

His anger welled in him from his fucking ineptitude at talking without sounding like he was detailing a plan to kill kittens later.

He ignored the soft petting of Izuku’s fingers over his chest.

“Nothing you’ve… been through could make me want you less. You aren’t fucking DIRTY. Izuku, you’re fucking- you’re fucking-!”

Izuku’s luminous eyes, still so startling clear, were so distracting that he couldn’t even focus on getting this out right.

He growled, glaring up at his ceiling in frustration.

Izuku wasn’t flinching. He didn’t react to any of Katsuki’s evident anger. He just passed his fingers slowly across his chest, slow and certain.

Katsuki suddenly shrugged down the bed, lifting a little to tear the blankets out from under him until he could chaotically pull them to flutter down on top of them, covering them in diluted darkness.

He curled around izuku, on their sides. He pressed his trembling, snarling lips to his forehead.

“I want you, I fucking want you so bad. Of course I Fucking want you, you-!”

Izuku’s little laugh undid him.

He could make that sound. He could laugh. He could smile at him.

Katsuki had no fucking part in that, not really. That was all of Izuku’s strength.

“I’ve wanted you for years, Izuku. Fucking. Years.”

His voice still sounded choked.

“When I got you back. When I brought you here-“

Izuku interrupted him.

“When you brought me home.”

Izuku’s voice was steadier than his, even though watery.

Katsuki pushed his nose into his wild hair.

“When I brought you home, I wanted you that day. You were… you are perfect. Fucking perfect. Doesn’t matter what you fucking went through to get here, to me. I just want you.”

Izuku’s back shivered with a heavy sigh, pushing his face against his throat, pressing against him until there wasn’t a part of him not connected with Katsuki.

He cried. Both of them fucking cried. And it was so needed, so different than all of the other pained tears they’d shared over the past year.

He didn’t know how long they laid together, under the blanket that smothered their rawness. It could’ve been minutes, or it could’ve been hours.

His stuffy nose couldn’t breathe well and he figured he was smothering Izuku with his pecs by this point.

He pulled the covers back so that he could peel himself away, but only to look at him.

Izuku raised his reddened eyes to his and he smiled, genuinely and freely.

He wasn’t embarrassed. Izuku had seen him break down countless times, and while frustrating and uncomfortable, he didn’t give a shit.

He slowly took his first kiss, actually the second since the fumbled first.

He hadn’t taken from Izuku since that clusterfuck of a night, not even when he found him the second time, but he now realized he was giving more than he was taking.

Izuku pushed into his lips, hungry, desperate.

He could feel his wild passion brimming along his skin, but he kept it slow, intentionally.

His lips were so soft, full against his. He tasted like… well he didn’t fucking know but it was perfect.

The softness, slowness, didn’t equate to chaste. It was claiming, and freeing. It felt like fucking coming home or some shit.

His name was instantly whispered into the air when he pulled reluctantly away.

He said it so reverently. Katsuki wasn’t worthy of the worship he heard. He didn’t fucking deserve him, but he had him regardless.

Izuku was obviously wanting more, maybe all of it, but even if he was ready, Katsuki wasn’t.

He kissed him quickly again.

“I’m gonna want you to tell me everything. Even if I’ll fucking rage after. You don’t have to, you really don’t. But, it would make me feel fucking… more conscious of what you need from me.”

Izuku brushed his fingers along his cheek.

“I will.”

Katsuki gave him a mildly reproachful look.

“I want to. I can tell you need it, and… I need to say it. But I don’t think I can do it more than once.”

Katsuki nodded, suddenly feeling the same desperate need that Izuku obviously harbored.

“I want you, Izuku. So Fucking much, you’ve gotta know that.”

He slid his hand down his back to rest on his waist, tugging him a little closer. He wasn’t hard or anything, much to his relief, but the mild action had the desired affect.

Izuku’s green eyes darkened slightly as his eyelids hooded.

“Believe me, yea?”

Izuku nodded, a shy little smile on his lips.

It was as innocent as it was coy.

Katsuki could finally break that barrier between their lips.

He didn’t know exactly how long they traded kisses, searching and exploring, but he figure it was an eternity. Spent in the only way he ever wanted to.

Eventually his recently broken wrist cramped from his firm hold on his lower back and he let go of his lips with a sigh.

Just then, Izuku’s stomach grumbled. He smiled down at him.

“Lunch?”

Izuku blushed, fuck, he was gorgeous.

Izuku told the entire story, start to finish in the half ruined interview room at the police station. He hadn’t wanted to allow Izuku to bare himself so completely in front of the lieutenant, but especially the tape recorder. He respected that he could do this, he could also respect that he wouldn’t be able to do so again.

But it hurt. He didn’t give a fuck that Izuku was sitting in his lap, social propriety out the fucking window as he anchored him with his arms around his waist.

Throughout the narrative, Izuku’s hands gripped his when he got too overwhelmed and had to breathe to continue. It hurt, actually hurt like hell, his little nerd was so fucking strong. Never helpless.

He raged inside, absolutely wrathful, but Izuku grounded him. His body in his lap the only important thing right then. Izuku’s full narrative would put a dozen or more sick bastards in prison. He was undeniably magnificent; he was always analyzing, learning, and recording, even while experiencing the worst torture a person could endure.

When Izuku walked out of the building, into the sun and absolutely free, his eyes were dry. Katsuki’s weren’t.

Izuku took his hand, smiling up at him. He looked exhausted, but he seemed more at peace. It had been a cleansing experience.

“How the fuck did I become the more emotional one in this relationship? Not fair.”

Izuku’s answering laugh was beautiful.

Katsuki had wanted to burn the building to the ground during the whole experience, but having Izuku with him was like a balm to his anger. Izuku was alive and well, and that truly was all that mattered.