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Izuku stared unsteadily in Kacchan's direction, fiddling with his hands nervously, before heading in his direction. "Hey, Kacchan? There's.. something I need to talk to you about."
The other stared at him for a moment before nodding without a word, and leading him to his room.
Katsuki opened the door for him, and he walked inside, shifting for a moment before sitting on the side of his bed.
The door closed behind the blonde, who then pulled the chair from his desk, turning it to face him, and sitting down.
He took in a deep breath. "You.. That day.. When you and everyone else came after me.. I know that probably took a lot. That you went out of your comfort zone, and that you've been trying so hard.. That you've been changing, trying to be better. And I know it took a lot to get to where you are now, so... You wrung yourself dry for me, and- You-" didn't have to do that "Well- ..You've been putting your all into this, so I want.. I want to give you all of my trust, Kacchan, like how you've put all your trust into me. It doesn't actually have anything to do with 'trust', but, there's something I've been keeping from you. From everyone. It's nothing too serious, but..."
His hands came together. "About my dad.. The truth is, I lied. Both me and mom. Well- I told you he went on a business trip to America. That he got a good job offer there, and that he's still sending back home money. That was true. ..For awhile. But at one point.. We lost contact with him. We tried reaching out to the company he worked for, to authorities, but nothing came up. It was like he just.. disappeared. Suddenly. Me and mom, we- We didn't want to believe it. That he was.. gone. Just like that. We tried everything we thought we could, short of going to the country ourselves," Izuku's voice at that last part came out self-deprecating. "We couldn't afford it. The reason why he left in the first place... Y'know, being quirkless. It doesn't just affect you. It affects everyone around you. People didn't want to work with mom anymore. I don't know, maybe they thought being quirkless was contagious, with my mom being a 'secret bearer' of some sort of gene that makes her children quirkless despite having a quirk herself. Money got tight, and then dad found a high-paying job, but it was in an entirely different country. So..."
Katsuki frowned, "Izuku.."
He interrupted, "I know, it wasn't my fault. I know that now. It's just that everything back then felt so.. dark. It felt like it was my fault. That I was the reason mom was all alone, having to bear so much stress because I was her kid. I felt kind of cursed for being quirkless, like a sin. But I've never felt unsure about whether or not mom loved me. I was her light, what she was living for. Her baby boy. If I died, it would've broken her. It didn't matter if that would've been what seemed to be the 'right' choice for me to make because of what society believes. Still, it was.. rough. I don't know when, but, we were just.. in denial. We didn't want to believe that dad was gone. We didn't have proof, there was no body, so.. I think we both knew, deep down, that he was likely gone. That if we didn't find anything then, then we wouldn't have found anything in the future. But the thought of that... Neither of us wanted to believe that, so we lied. I lied to you, I lied to everyone, and I lied to myself. That he was just. gone. To another country. That he was still there for us, that he wasn't neglectful or absent, because if he just disappeared then people would think he left us, y'know? And well, it wasn't like it was a full on lie, because he did go. It was believable. Maybe the people we contacted knew that he was gone, but.. Missing person cases sometimes get overlooked a lot. It's nothing flashy or big on the news that many heroes are interested in helping out with that, and there isn't much law enforcement can do when the trail goes cold. The longer they're missing, the more likelier they're dead, meanwhile murder cases are more prioritized because there's someone out there who took a life. A more visible threat. And even then those get cold cases as well, where they can't find anything. And by the time their gaze turns to missing person cases, what can you do? Maybe it's because people have become so used to crime that it doesn't affect them anymore. So much to seeing bad things happen that they become complacent and thus not much being done. Who knows. Regardless, it's been so long now. He's gone and I- I can't keep pretending. It isn't right. Isn't right to him. ..I hope I can say I've grown from the person I once was. That I'm more willing to face what's in front of me, even if it's tough. Even if I don't want to, because that's what I need to do to be in the present. It's what heroes need to do to be able to battle away the darkness and keep everyone's hearts even a little bit lighter. To face it head on, and then keep moving."
Izuku paused, before giving a small smile. "Now that there's nothing between us anymore, that we've moved on and become better people in the process... Bakugo Katsuki, will you walk towards the future with me?" He gave a cheesy grin, holding his hand out in a fist awkwardly.
Katsuki gave a fond upturn of lips, although something so undoubtedly soft about him, before giving him a fist bump. "Always, nerd. We're the wonder duo, aren't we?"
"Mm."
"Together."