Katsuki felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle as the low growl filled the room. It didn't go on for long, but it was enough to make Katsuki's stomach tie itself in knots. It was strange, seeing him act out like this. The Midoriya he'd known wouldn't let his quirk slip so flagrantly, let alone going so far as to growl at his mother. He wasn't scared, not in the way that most Omega would be if there was a growling Alpha in their kid's room, but a different emotion filled him.
Regret.
Regret, for the first time in a long time. It hung heavy in his body, a swirling mass of pain and exhaustion.
Because as much as he hated it, maybe his mother was right. Maybe he had ruined his life. Even if he'd never admit it in front of the blonde haired girl who was slowly but surely inching her hand closer to the wild green sparks that were coming off of Midoriya's body. Trying not to have him notice as her curiosity got the better of her.
He'd never admit it to Mitsuki either, knowing that even the smallest hint of victory would go straight to her head. To her, the one thing had ruined him was his choice to keep a kid as a teenage omega. To her, the only way he could have gotten out of this was to let a doctor take care of the problem before it had time to spiral.
The thought had terrified him then and it still scared him. He understood where she was coming from and he understood that yeah, that probably would have been a solution. But the thought of her not being born in the first place wasn't what chilled him to the core. No, the thought that kept him up was the simulation he'd run over and over in his head. Of the life they could have lived, if he'd been honest from the start. Perfect and saccharine, where they could be both the Doting parents and pro heroes. Where Akashi's very existence wasn't a scandal that would drag them down. Would they be in love, having worked out their bullshit and baggage? Working as heroes while looking after a pup they could actually claim as their own, graduating together and doing their best. Akashi wouldn't have a distant set of parents, wouldn't have to grow up to learn that it had all been a lie.
He dismissed the thought as quickly as he could, letting out a light sigh. He only met Midoriya's eyes briefly, looking away as soon as they made contact. Something about them ate away at him. Or at least that's what it felt like. Pits of darkness, stripping away every wicked lie and pretense Katsuki tried so hard to hold on to even now. The pride and the anger, an old friend. An old protector, keeping his sincere thoughts and feelings hidden away. What was once sincere rage had dulled down into this mask, lies keeping his poker face impeccable.
Akashi cocked her head at the question, completely oblivious to the changed mood or the growing tension between the two. She gave a small smile, putting her thumbs up.
"That's fine, I'll find something else cool to show you when you come back! Oh yeah! Get him to show you his fancy drums he never lets me touch."
Katsuki let out a sigh, trying to keep his tone light and conversational. Appropriate.
"I don't let you touch them because the last time I did you fell face first into the snare."
He let out a hissed sigh, turning to Midoriya for a moment. "Fuck it, fine." Katsuki growled, rolling his eyes as he finally caved. "We'll be back in a minute, tell the hag to fuck off if she comes back." He huffed out to Akashi who gave him a quick nod before he turned on his heel and walked out of his sister's bedroom.
Katsuki led the way down the hall, double checking the hallway was empty before slinking out. He didn't say a word until they were safely in his room, away from the prying eyes and ears of his family members.
He let the door to his room click shut behind them both, running a hand through his hair and letting out a shaky sigh. His room was smaller than Akashi's, and much more sparse. Not lined wall to wall with collected items like her room, instead his hero outfit was hanging up on the closet door and there was a beat up drum kit by the window. Everything else was relatively neat and tidy, hidden from view. Comic books all tucked away into shelves and photo frames set out on his dresser.
"What." He snapped as he turned to the alpha, trying not to let his fear or his anger show through his gritted teeth, instead trying to be as civil as he could, even if it came off somewhat curt.
.....
He didn't even notice the little hand reaching for the crackling energy around him. Thankfully, despite its dramatic appearance, the arcs of what appeared to be green electricity were harmless, a good thing too or everyone he carried during a rescue would be shocked! No, one of the flashiest aspects of his quirk did little more than cause a tingling sensation almost like a static shock that was not quite strong enough to be painful. It seemed it was enough to grab his attention, however, as he looked down at the little girl playing with the brilliant green arcs almost the instant she touched it.
He calmed jarringly fast then, as if the sight of her was enough to wash all his worries away. It didn't, but he couldn't seem to help being gentle with her. He allowed for his quirk to continue to flicker for now, his attention turned back to Bakugou when his answer finally came only to look back down at her, quirk finally dissipating. Dropping into a frog-like squat once again, he smiled to her softly. "I'm sure whatever you find will be really cool! I'll try not to take too long, but I haven't seen your brother in a long, long time so I'm sorry if I get a little distracted. More time to find something to really wow me, right?"
With a final smile he stood himself up and started to follow the other blond out of the room. His tension spiked the moment they entered the hall, looking down the hall and simply standing there for a moment. All that defensiveness was crawling back and like before he wasn't hiding it well. When he was sure it was safe, he entered the other's room looking around curiously out of habit. He shouldn't be surprised that this looked completely different than he remembered, but a part of him was. Strange how the brain works. The last time he'd seen Katsuki's bedroom was in middle school. After that, it had only ever been the dorm back in Yuuei. Even then, he hadn't visited often by the time they were in middle school.
At the same time, it did fit him, from what he could remember. Neat, with only a few personal things left out, such as the drum kit that was simply too large to tuck away. Judging by the condition of the multi-piece instrument, he still worked out his frustrations on it. He was glad he was using a healthy outlet like this, but it didn't make him feel too much better, all things considered. Honestly, the most surprising changes were with Bakugou himself.
There was plenty left to know he was the same person, but he seemed to have matured. At the very least he had better control over his temper. He'd feel more proud of him for that if he wasn't so upset about the situation. He wasn't looking forward to this conversation either... He wasn't sure just how much Katsuki had changed while he was gone, but he had a very strong feeling that he wouldn't like what he had to say. He couldn't let it go unsaid, however, this was too important to keep quiet about for the sake of not stepping on the blond's toes.
"You can't stay here and she sure as hell can't either." Shit. That was not how he should have started this conversation. Quick, keep going before he can have an outburst! "I know you don't like people helping you, but this isn't just about you, it's about your little sister as well. Look, I was planning on moving back to Japan soon anyway. All Might told me that when I was done with my stint in the U.S. that I had a job waiting for me when I got back. I was going to start looking for a place tonight. Originally, I was going to find a two-bedroom place so I could have a room for my collection, but together we can afford a three-bedroom place in Tokyo, I'm sure of it. We'd all have our own rooms and it would also facilitate me being able to watch her if we lived together. If you refuse to do that then..." He hesitated for a moment, looking at the bedroom door.
With a deep sigh, he forced himself to continue. "If you refuse, then I'm going to have to pick her up and take her somewhere else to babysit her. I'm legitimately afraid I might put your mother in the hospital if I don't." Those emerald in obsidian eyes finally trained back onto Bakugou's own rubies and remained. It seemed he was done with his rant and was finally giving the blond a moment to speak, assuming he hadn't interrupted him earlier.
.....
"Okay! I'll see if I can find something real cool..." Akashi grinned, before flitting off to find something new. Small hands brushing over worn old skulls and mismatched books as she went through her shelves. Trying to find something really special.
It soothed the hideous ache in Katsuki's neck to see Midoriya doing so well with his kid. *Their* kid, as he often forgot in the days spent raising her, running to get her to school on time, or making her lunch while he got up to go on patrol. Because to Katsuki... Akashi *wasn't* his. Midoriya hadn't been there, simple as that. Not that he'd had any choice in the matter, but still.
But part of him couldn't help but fawn a little. Not much, but a little.
But then Midoriya had to open his fucking mouth and Katsuki saw *red.*
Over the years, his anger had faded. Pushed down, pent up. Because it didn't help, it didn't change anything. But before he could notice, it had shifted and changed, warping into something potentially more dangerous. Less impossible fury and explosive outbursts and into something more sinister.
Cold and venomous, taking over his body before he could stop it. Ruthless and vile, but *patient* all the same.
He liked to think he'd changed, he'd grown for the better. And in some ways he had, he'd definitely learned a lot since they were kids.
But no matter how much he tried to think he was better, that he'd shaped up? That rage boiled inside him. And it grew closer and closer to boiling over with every word Midoriya uttered. His scar *hurt*, bitter feelings and resentment seeming to throb alongside the sharp pain.
"...You’ve really got some fucking nerve, huh?" Katsuki spat, fists clenched and tone icy.
Sure, he had his fantasies. His stupid 'what if's' of what their lives could be like. But that was fantasy, chances wasted and shit he couldn’t change.
And for him to come barging in, like he mattered and saying shit like that? It felt like a slap in the face. Because it was a joke, it had to be! Some ridiculous pipe dream, silly and childish just like the dreams in his head.
"You don’t get to make that call. You seriously think you can just fucking rock up and uproot everything like it's no big deal? And people call *me* arrogant, *jesus fuck...*"
"It's not *my* fault you can't keep your shit in check." Katsuki snapped, gaze cold. As if Midoriya was nothing but a stranger, no, less than that. Because he couldn’t look at him as anything more. Anything more than some nuisance, intruding in his life yet again.
Because if he didn't, he knew he'd fall apart. Because the life Midoriya had so rudely inserted himself into was nothing but a lie. Lies piled on top of each other, band aids and placebo pills for the sickness hiding beneath. He'd never been one for lying, but over the years he'd gotten better at it. When he was younger he'd been content on hiding from his issues, but now lying was the new flavour of his self destruction.
But despite how much he told himself it was Midoriya who was to blame he knew, ultimately that...
It was *his* fault.
He let out a harsh sigh, running a hand through his hair. Letting his rage fade the best he could, shoving it into the back-seat with the almost jarring admission. This... this wasn't Midoriya's *pity* it was his fucking knotheaded bond.
He moved to sit on the edge of his bed, rubbing at his neck. Putting subtle pressure on the area to ease the pain without alerting suspicion or smearing his makeup.
"Look, I get it. She's a cunt. But she's not going to hurt Akashi, she's too scared to set foot in the damn room. Sure she yells and throws shit, but..." He trailed off, letting out a frustrated huff. He didn't know what to say, how to justify his rage as well as the admittedly fucked up situation in the house. God, he didn't even know if he could explain it without it seeming fucked, not with how much of it would have to be lies. But then he realised... he didn't have to. He didn't owe him a thing.
"It's none of your damn business. If you can't keep your shit under wraps, why should that be my problem?" He sneered, rolling his eyes.
.....
"I'm sure you can find something really amazing!" He assured confidently, as he stood and left her to search around his room. It seemed like she'd be safe in here, but it still made him uncomfortable leaving her on her own. Hopefully, she would stay in there as Mitsuki seemed unwilling to even enter the room. He didn't like having to trust in something like that alone, but he would only be just down the hall. If he needed to run back, he could.
A pity his currently bottled up anger and instincts got the better of him. Dammit... He should have been more careful with his words at the very least. Sure enough, he'd angered the explosive blond like he'd been afraid he would. A fumble of frustration left him, but it lacked the angry fire he'd been displaying before. Despite the fact he was clearly upset about the whole thing, he wasn't starting to posture again either. He remained in what had become his usual hunch, though he didn't seem to be having any trouble holding eye contact unlike when they were younger.
"It isn't your fault I'm having trouble controlling my temper, you're right, but that doesn't change much. You're wrong. This is *literally* my business. I have been asked to come here to make sure Akashi is safe and everyone around her is too. I was selected for this job both because I could survive being at the epicenter of her detonation and also able to quickly get her away from everything to keep collateral damage and injury to a minimum, not to mention keep villians from getting to her." He took a deep, calming breath, reluctantly turning his gaze back to the door.
"Ka-chan... She's learned that what's happening here is normal. She doesn't think there's anything wrong with a mother attacking and harming her own child. She's already learned that. I've watched you on the news whenever I could. I know you're making waves here in Japan. You must be able to afford to move out on your own, but you haven't. You won't abandon her here, but can't afford a place big enough for the both of you because Tokyo is expensive, but your ambitions will settle for nothing less. Is that about right?" He turned his gaze back to his old friend, his look making it clear that one thing hadn't changed between them. Midoriya was no less determined to save everyone he could and he'd set his sights on the curly-haired little blond in the next room.
"I wanted to include you in this because even if you hate me, I care about and respect you. I feel you deserved this much at the very least. If you thought she would be safe here, you would have moved out without a worry. You know, deep down, that you don't think she's safe. Besides... You don't have to lay a finger on a person to hurt them." Shit... Katsuki was not going to like what he had to say, but it seemed inevitable at this point.
"I... I thought we'd finally reached a point where we... No. Nevermind, that doesn't matter, not here." He could feel his throat getting tight at the thought that someone he still cared so much about hated him and he didn't even know why. He wasn't here to fix things with Katsuki, as much as he desperately wanted to. Katsuki wasn't the one he was here for. "If you won't work with me to help that little girl then I'll have to do it without you. I'll speak to Mitsuki about having surrendering custody of Akashi to me for the time being. She can stay in my old room at Mom's till I have a place of my own."
A part of him realized that telling Bakugou his plans would likely blow up in his face, but he couldn't help it. He respected him too much to go behind his back and he knew he cared about Akashi. It would be wrong to leave him in the dark, even if it damaged the tattered remains of a failed friendship. It made his heart ache. A part of him had desperately wanted to raise the little girl together. He still wanted that, but he knew that he couldn't force something like that.
"Fuck..." His head hung as the longing grew worse the more he thought about it. "Please... Please, just... Think about it? You deserve better than this. I want to see you be safe and thrive. I know you could. I-I'd stay in my room. You could ignore me all you want, we don't even have to talk, I just... Please, just think it over? I'll hold off speaking to Mitsuki till tomorrow. You can sleep on it..."
.....
Katsuki didn't say another word, not for a long while. Instead sitting in semi stunned silence. Because as much as he hated to admit it, wanted nothing more than to push Midoriya as far away from him as be could, the alpha was right.
It was his business, even if Katsuki wished to dear god that he could just be allowed to settle things himself. Like that had ever worked before. Not to mention he knew if Akashi ever used her quirk on him, he'd probably end up very dead. So, like it or not, Deku was intent on worming his way into his life.
That he could tolerate, but something about what he said next struck a nerve. He could only scoff and roll his eyes at him as he sneered from his seat on the edge of his bed. "Attacking? She threw a *plate*. Big fucking whoop! What, have the villains in America been that piss weak that throwing plates counts to you? And anyway, if I was faster it wouldn't have even hit me in the first place."
Something about what he'd said had caught him off guard. Because he didn't... *hate* him. Sure, his feelings were very demanding and maybe weren't the most positive, but he didn't hate him. It was complicated. So complicated that Katsuki himself wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, so he didn't quite blame him for coming to that assumption. Katsuki wasn't about to correct him either.
But even so, Midoriya had a point. He didn't trust Mitsuki with Akashi. Not without him in the picture somehow. He could only glare daggers into the floor as he listened to him go on, gripping the fabric of his jeans tightly as he tried to keep his own temper under control. He could feel heat on his legs and smell the slightest tinge of burned fabric. He ignored it.
"Man, you haven't changed a bit, huh?" It wasn't a compliment, that was clear just by the way he said it.
He nearly squared up then and there. But, he had to stop himself. Force himself to stay where he was sitting, ignoring every implication and possible failure. But Midoriya didn't know, couldn't be aware of the hidden tripwires or pressure plates that plagued their conversations. Impossible for him to avoid until he was setting them off and dealing with the ramifications. Because to Katsuki that was a *threat* plain and simple. If anything, he wanted to strengthen his conviction out of pure and utter spite.
But then he mentioned his mother and cold fear gripped him before he could process what had been said properly. He knew if his mother had to even be in the same room as the man, he'd be in the biggest mess of his life. He didn't like the thought, and Midoriya was making a very compelling case. Even if it would mean being a lot more careful to keep everything under wraps.
He let out a heavy sigh, running his hands through his hair before spitting out-
"...No. Don't bother with her, I'll talk to her myself. You've got a deal, but stay the hell out of my way, got that?"
.....
"Oh, for fuck's sake... Assault is an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. Which means you don't even actually have to hit someone for it to count as assault. Battery is the actual intentional striking of someone, with intent to harm, even if the injury is slight. The punishment for either is a fine, imprisonment, or both. Add in the fact that you're a registered pro hero and that's upgraded to a felony. This has been happening all your life so we can add on a count of child abuse. Or has that count gone up to two while I've been gone? The laws are the same in both countries and your tough guy bullshit is putting a very dangerous little girl in a very delicate situation. The fact she doesn't think there's anything wrong with hitting other people is both disturbing and a comfort because that's probably the only thing keeping her stress levels down." He took a deep, calming breath then, running scarred fingers through his deep green curls.
"And don't tell me if she's actually hit her or not. I've never needed to take extra suppressants before so I don't carry them and it's taking everything I have already to keep from doing something I'll regret as it is..." The scent of burning fabric drew his attention and he had mixed feelings about it. Bakugou was extremely angry if his normally perfect control was slipping, but he wasn't actually lashing out. He might not be happy about it, but he was clearly coming to terms with the truths he was laying out for him. Still, that didn't mean he would go along with what was being requested of him. He might just let it happen, though the passive route was one he'd never known Katsuki to take willingly.
He couldn't help the somewhat bitter laugh that left him when the blond finally spoke. "Sure I have. I break my bones less." He countered half-heartedly, though it was true that broken bones were extremely rare nowadays. What had changed little was his almost obsessive need to help others. In Bakugou's experience, he would do this regardless of how the blond felt about it and that seemed to still hold true as well.
He wasn't helping his case by openly admitting that he was going to go right over Katsuki's head and speak with his mother directly. Would it really come to that? Would he sit back and let it happen? As the girl was her daughter, what he was saying was legally sound. If made her legal guardian, he would be allowed to remove her from the house, even if his status as guardian would be temporary. The wait wasn't a long one after he'd literally begged, but the sigh told him all he needed to know. Katsuki was relenting and accepting a situation he didn't like.
What he hadn't expected was for him to only agree if Midoriya stayed away from him. The pain those words brought on was expected, but the degree of said pain was not. He broke eye contact, ducking his head to his the hot tears welling up far too quickly for him to keep up with. He closed his eyes against the pain, throat tight as he forced himself to speak. D-deal... Tonight I'll look up apartments for us. I'll focus on finding ones with an en-suite bathroom. If you'll let me have that, I'll let a little hot plate and mini-fridge, then you won't need to see me at all. I'll go to my mother's if either of us come into season..."
He sounded so very heartbroken and, the truth was, that's exactly what was happening. Bakugou was forcing himself to go along with it for his sister and that was the only reason he could tolerate being in the same space as Midoriya. It must be so hard to willfully live with someone you hate... He must love his little sister very much to subject himself to that. "We should get back before we're missed. Just... Give me a moment. I'm sorry..." He scrubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, but fresh tears replaced the ones he wiped away just as quickly. It seems that's something else that was the same. He was still quick to come to tears.
.....
"Watch yourself, Deku. I get your concerns but you really need to stay in your lane and butt out for once in your goddamn life."
Katsuki wasn't an idiot. Even if 'home calls' weren't his thing and dealing with battered kids wasn't something he was ever really called in for. If the comission wanted a villain dealt with or made to talk, that's when Katsuki was usually brought in. But even do he was aware of the law, even if that fact had never really clicked. Even now, it was hard not to make justifications, excuses. That Midoriya just didn't get it, was just overreacting as always.
He couldn’t accept anything else, because that would mean admitting things were a lot more fucked up than he'd realised. Couldn't accept that yeah... Mitsuki was a little abusive. But he couldn’t just run off with her, it would be a nightmare for all of them. He'd thought about it, but ruled it out quickly. He could apply for custody and it would likely be granted, but the media would know the truth. He didn't know who's name was on the birth certificate, he'd been too drugged out to remember and his mother held onto it for dear life. So, they'd find out, but this could be an opportunity. An opening to slip away.
But even so, he refused to let this opening be some fairytale shit. He knew that was never going to happen, so there was no point even entertaining the idea. No point in getting his hopes up. He didn't hate Midoriya, he just... he couldn’t let himself get close to him.
"Tch, you're seriously struggling? Jesus what kind of hero are you if you can't even keep yourself together without suppressants!" He mocked, rolling his eyes dramatically. Making a point to ignore his own hidden hypocrisy. All the while the gnarled scar on his neck throbbed.
He wondered if maybe his baseline was low. He'd spent years with a grand total of fuckall pheromones and was often pinned as a beta because of it. Which worked very nicely for their little con. So now seeing other people express them so freely was strange to him. Even if he knew it was the bond, it still felt jarring. Suffocating.
He gritted his teeth, trying to keep his composure. Trying not to lash out due to his own frustrations. It was hard not to be paranoid under it all. Because if anybody picked up on the hormonal storm that was a little inappropriate for an 'older brother' he'd be fucked. The plan would go to shit before it could have kicked off. So he'd had to keep everything under wraps, learning to supress a lot of his body language and pheromones to the best degree he could. But even then,it was still a struggle sometimes.
God, he really felt like under it all they were the same garbage people. Idiot kids at UA, fighting against the League and trying to be their very best. Everything had changed and yet nothing had at the same time. But while Midoriya still had that compulsion to help whoever he could, Katsuki still had his cruelty. His sharp tongue and aggressive stance. It had helped him keep the man at a distance before, so it would surely aid him now.
He let out a sigh. He wasn't going to tell a word to his mother, outside of the briefest of snippets that they were all safe. Just out of spite, but he wasn't sure what he was going to tell Akashi. "Works for me. Fuck, now we've gotta explain to Akashi that 'hey, since you're a ticking time bomb and mom's a huge cunt we've gotta move so you don't destroy another city block!' And that's going to end fucking wonderfully."
"Jesus, clean yourself up. For fuck’s sake." He sneered the second he saw his old friend sobbing, getting up from the bed and moving over to the door. Checking the hallway again before walking out, somewhat more casually but still keeping his steps light against the floorboards. He wasn't *scared* of her, he just didn't have time for her shit. Not right now.
Akashi was waiting in the door way for them, holding a jar full of a gruesome yellowed liquid that glittered in the light. She grinned and held it up for Midoriya to see the small chunks of flesh suspended in them. The flesh was degraded, but it was visibly a torn up human finger.
"This, is a human hand!" She beamed and Katsuki let a dry sigh, putting his face in his hands.
"Well, kinda."
"That's part of what was salvaged from Deika city, that Shigaraki freak's hand." Katsuki explained, the chunks of the mans finger had been salvaged. "I got it DNA tested and it's definitely part of his finger, I conned a friend at the station into giving it to me. It was sitting in a freezer for DNA evidence or some shit, but now it's in a jar with glitter." Katsuki sighed, letting out a light snicker.
"Isn't it cool! I knew you would like it! Just make sure not to drop it." Akashi grinned, handing him the jar.
.....
"I butted out about this all our lives and here we are. I feel like I failed you for not saying anything and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. Out of respect for you, I'm not calling the police even though I should. If you won't step up to protect that little girl both physically and mentally, I will. If you want to pretend that you're somehow the exception to the law, you're an adult so that's your problem now, but it won't be hers." He shot right back though the aggression he was displaying ended at his words, never extending into his body language.
What finally got a snarl out of him was the jab at his qualifications of being a good hero. Even then, like before, he made no move on the omega, simply vocalizing his displeasure. "Shut it, Ka-chan! The only time I've ever had a flare-up like this was... Well, when you left school so you didn't get to see it. Once I got on the suppressants I'm on now, I've never once had a problem. Hn... Maybe it's you. I've always cared too much about you, haven't I...?" He lost momentum as he spoke, mumbling more to himself than to Bakugou by the time he'd rolled to a stop.
"I'll keep my suppressants on me from now on. It won't be an issue after today. If they're not enough, I'll see a doctor about booster shots." He added, once again focusing on his breathing to bring himself back down again. He really wasn't used to having to wrestle with himself like this. It was honestly embarrassing. He had always been the emotional type, that was still true too, but he'd learned more control. He could reign himself in to wait for a better opportunity, to move forward safely rather than surge forward recklessly. He had grown past these childish outbursts yet here they were, cropping up again. Why...? Why couldn't they have both grown to a healthier place and actually get along? Or even just be properly civil?
Heh... 'Civil'... He didn't want to be 'civil'. He wanted more than that. So much more than that. For as long as he could remember, his mind had tormented him in his sleep with the life they could have had. Now his imagination would just have an updated appearance for him to love as he slept. Instead, he was having to negotiate to share an apartment with the crush that despised him for the sake of keeping his little sister safe. The blond had always hated him helping, he couldn't honestly be surprised that this wouldn't be an exception.
He knew Katsuki... He would pay half of the rent at least as well as half the utilities. This was assuming he didn't insist on covering 2/3rds out of pride because his sister was occupying one of the rooms as well. Despite his notoriously bad temper, he was almost always fair in matters like these.
"There's no reason to say it like that. You don't have to mention the element of your mother to her. Use me as the scapegoat. If I'm going to be working out of All Might's office, I need to be in Tokyo and you want to work there too. Make her feel special by telling her how much you'd miss her so you got your mom to agree to let her come with you." He offered, though he wasn't sure if the blond would go for the softer lie he was offering, nor was he sure if the two of them were close enough to make him want her to come with them realistically. He was fairly sure they had a close enough bond, but he hadn't seen them interacting enough to be absolutely sure.
Despite his somewhat strained sounding advice, the tears were enough to get Bakugou to want to end their session. "Wah, wai---dammit..." He grabbed the end of his shirt, lifting it up to his eyes to dab them dry. He forced himself under control, something he'd learned to do at this point, but he certainly didn't like doing. Once he'd gotten himself back in check, he straightened his shirt, took a steadying breath, then followed after him.
Sure enough, when out in the hall, he was once again looking down the length of it to make sure the woman stayed away. Thankfully, she was nowhere to be seen. He knew he'd have to cross paths with her again sometime this visit, but he'd rather avoid her as much as he could get away with. At least he was feeling calmer as time dragged on, even if he was still very upset about the situation as a whole. He just hoped the smart little girl didn't pick up on the fact that he was crying only a moment earlier.
Then they were there and she was holding up a jar. Filled with what he assumed to be formaldehyde or something similar. And what were clearly pieces of a preserved hand. Considering they had gone from a bug collection, to animal skulls, to a jar of teeth, bits of a preserved hand really shouldn't have been that shocking, but he couldn't say he'd expected this one. It was even more shocking to find out who exactly had been the previous owner!
"This was Shigaraki's?!" He looked over at Katsuki in shock, then back at the jar held up by little hands. He reached out and took it from her, sure enough bringing it close to peer at the remains inside. He'd been a working hero since he was 18. This was not the first time he'd seen dismembered human remains. Seeing some in a jar was honestly a lot easier than splattered across the ground in pools of blood, worse if they were fresh enough to still be twitching.
"This was really his? Wow... I would have never imagined something like this would have ended up in your collection. He and I met several times too. I've even talked with him. Like, not yelling across a battlefield or something, like actually just talked. I was only sixteen then. Me and a bunch of friends had gone to the mall to buy some things we would need because we were about to go to a training camp. It was supposed to be fun because we knew how hard it would be, even if we were excited about it. I got separated for a bit and he found me. We didn't fight, he just wanted to talk and ask me some questions." He shifted the jar close to himself, holding it against himself with his left arm to make sure he didn't accidentally drop it.
Right hand free, he brought it up to his own neck, closing his fingers loosely around it though his middle finger remained pointedly raised. "To make sure I didn't call attention to us, he held me by the throat. I was a lot smaller back then so his fingers could reach almost all the way around my neck. By the end, I couldn't breathe because he was squeezing tighter and tighter, but one of my friends found us and Shigaraki excused himself like we were friends and left. It was really scary!" Story finished, he removed his hand and went back to holding the jar securely with the two and even going back to looking at the contents, unable to help to wonder if this had been the hand that had held him hostage.
.....
"Yep! Oh wow! You really talked to him?! That's so cool!" Akashi gasped, starry eyed with her hands clasped tightly in front of her. She wasn't a huge hero buff, but she was grateful for the morbid item all the same. The finger of a famous dead guy? How could she pass up an opportunity like that! But she couldn't help but shiver when she thought about the man Shigaraki was, how scary villains could be.
Katsuki did his best to supress a shiver of his own at the mention of the training camp. It was an old wound, but still tender. Not something he enjoyed thinking about. He was damn glad he'd never have to see Shigaraki's crusty-ass face ever again.
Part of him wanted to rip the band aid off now. He knew for certain there was no way he was telling Mitsuki about this. He didn't have to! Akashi was his kid on those hidden away documents, they hadn't been able to change that. But being a pro hero came with certain connections, meaning that for the most part it didn't really matter what the paperwork said, their plan could go off without a hitch. And even now, he knew Mitsuki probably wouldn't make too much of a fuss. She wanted them out of the house anyway, so what did she care?
He hated to admit it, but Deku had a point about breaking things to Akashi smoothly. But he wanted her to be the first to know, so she knew the gist of the plan and could have a say. Before things got swept up by the bureaucracy.
"Hey, how would you feel about a vacation? Moving up to Tokyo for a while, seeing the city..." He sighed, leaning against the wall. Akashi blinked, thinking for a moment.
"...Is this a you and me vacation like going to the servo at 8:30 so you can buy cigarettes?" She blurted out without a care in the world and Katsuki let out a hissed sigh. Due to his packed schedule most days, especially when Akashi was younger, he'd have to go get cigarettes while babysitting her. It was just an unspoken truce between them. She wouldn't say a word, and he wouldn't say a word when she brought home another dead animal. It worked.
"...Yes."
"Meaning we don't tell Mom. And this would be more than just you waiting in the car for 20 mins. And Deku is coming." He explained, watching her rock on her heels, thinking over his offer for a moment. There was a wicked gleam in her eye as she presented her terms.
"Do I have to go to school?"
"If you're up to it, but you don't have to right now if you don't want to." Katsuki shrugged, speaking pretty plainly. It felt obvious. Considering the situation, she could stay home watching TV all day with Midoriya for all he cared. That was why he showed up, if he had a problem with it he only had himself to blame.
Akashi's eyes lit up and she moved to grab the gorey hand back from Midoriya, making grabby hands at him.
"...Hm... okay!"
.....
"It really wasn't, but I understand what you mean." He smiled awkwardly, thankful that she didn't seem to pick up on his recent crying fit. "It was interesting though... He seemed to be having a bit of a crisis about where his life was and how to move forward. Even villians worry about that kind of stuff, I guess. Even when they seem really evil, these things tend to be more shades of grey than black and white. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be held responsible for what they did though!" He backpedaled a little, not wanting her to think it was okay to do bad things just because it was understandable why you were doing it.
He looked away from the contents of the jar, shocked that the topic of moving was already being broached. Katsuki was also choosing to make it seem less permanent than it actually was. Not that he thought they would stick to this arrangement forever, but it was a 'for the foreseeable future' kind of thing. What caught him off guard was finding out that Bakugou had picked up a rather nasty habit. When had he started smoking cigarettes? He could remember that he was rather opposed to them when they were younger. Then again, he didn't have a school-record to worry about and they were too young to legally get them at the time.
He'd always assumed that his quirk helped his lungs deal with smoke inhalation so it was probably less unhealthy for him to do such a thing than it would be for other people, but there were so many bad things in cigarettes... Surely he wasn't resistant to all of them. Hm... He should make sure their apartment had a balcony so he could go out there to smoke. Regardless of his feelings on the matter, he didn't comment on it for now, though he wasn't exactly hiding his surprise well.
He smiled to her when it was revealed offhandedly that he would be there to, nodding confirmation. Ah, there was school to worry about too, wasn't there? "It's okay to take a little break to adjust to living in Tokyo, but school is important too. Hmmm... Ah! We could do it together! When you're ready, we can enroll you in online classes, then I can help you. Not that I think you need the help, you're so smart! If you finish you class stuff early, maybe we can go out and do fun stuff together too." He offered as an incentive.
"I know school can be boring, but you can learn some really cool things too and you need to go to school for a lot of cool jobs. Like... A forensics expert or an entomologist, or even a mortician. I think you'd really enjoy being an entomologist though. Imagine going to countries around the world to study insects and arachnids. I bet you would even discover new species no one has ever seen before!" He offered, figuring those careers would be of interest to her.
Handing back the jar carefully, he straightened back up to his natural hunch. "Oh! Have you ever been to the Ueno Zoo? We went there on a field trip when we were little, maybe we can go once we're done unpacking?"
Honestly, the while thing was making him anxious, but at least he'd convinced Bakugou to agree that the three of them should move out together. That was easily the hardest part. Now he would just have to find them an apartment. He figured Katsuki would want the final say, but as Midoriya's schedule was much more open than his, it just made sense that he would do the bulk of the apartment hunting. He needed to look up some other things too, but those were less important and could be done between. Shit. There was a snag in this plan...
"Um... Ka-chan? Is your phone number still the same?" He'd texted him from time to time during the years they were apart but had never gotten a response so he couldn't be sure the number was the same. His texts might have just gone ignored and deleted, but he couldn't be sure with the lack of response whenever he tried. Hell, his number may have been simply blocked. He would need to be able to contact Bakugou from now on so he hoped that the grumpy blond would accept that as part of their lives now without too much fuss. Or even with a lot of fuss, so long as he did it, really...
.....
Katsuki looked away at Midoriya's comment, rolling his eyes. But he still got what Midoriya meant, even if he was being bitter about things. Stubborn. Just keeping an eye on things, watching the two of them interact.
He noticed the look on Midoriya's face and only gave him an icy glare back.
It helped calm him down, or at least that's what he'd come to tell himself. It was a soothing ritual in of itself at the end of the day and he wasn't about to let Midoriya take it from him. Either perched on the curb of the servo or when he'd be sitting in hospital beds after getting his ass kicked in the field. He could sit down and have a cigarette and a think.
The deadly aspect of it didn't scare him. He honestly didn't know if his body was at all protected by the cancerous smoke. And he didn't really want to at the end of the day.
Katsuki had done the math and it was more likely he'd get killed during work than by the looming figure of death in a hospital bed with rotting lungs and withered skin. He was dead either way so fuck it. He just had to rise to the top as quickly as he could. He was climbing up the rankings, making a name for himself but he knew his career was struggling. And it hurt, because he needed to get to the number one spot. Every failure in the field felt like the world was ending, that he'd been knocked further away from his goal than he'd ever been.
It was all that mattered, because for the most part he'd played life on speed run. He had about now until he was 40 to make it, and that's if he pushed it. And by the time he was 40... Akashi wouldn't need him anymore, so. What happened after that didn't matter to him. He was jolted out of his thoughts by Akashi's dramatic sigh.
"I don't mind school, I just *hate* my classmates. They're all so dumb! All Baka-shi this Baka-shi that." Akashi huffed, pulling lightly at her hair. Katsuki knew she'd had a pretty hard time at school, and he didn't know what he could do about it. He'd tried to scare the crap out of them a couple of times to no avail, but hopefully this recent disaster would finally get them to back the fuck off.
Akashi seemed to prefer Deku's idea of staying at home to do classes, rocking on her heels as she muttered mostly to herself. "Well... I guess I won't have to worry about them if we do school at home..."
"Man, I could meet some cool bugs in the city too..."
"Or I could probably make some now with my quirk, right? Go into entomology and nuclear science and make a whole new species of my own..." She blinked, snapping back to reality and out of her muttering spell. Intrigued by the capabilities of her quirk and being able to try it out in morbid ways. Katsuki wasn't too phased, he'd seen kids do a lot worse so if she wanted to mutate butterflies and spiders that was better than her making a deformed puppy.
She quickly perked up at the mention of the zoo. "Nope! Usually I just go to the museum or the library, but the zoo sounds fun!"
"Just don't go fucking with any animals okay, they have feelings too remember?" Katsuki huffed, rolling his eyes. He wanted to make the boundary clear from the start, and why it was a bad thing to do otherwise he knew she could easily get way in over her head.
Katsuk let out a hiss between gritted teeth, pulling out his phone. "Yeah, I'll unblock you..." He said it freely, without much of a second thought.
......
He couldn't say he was surprised that his shock when finding out about Bakugou's new smoking habit was met with a I-dare-you-to-say-shit glare. He had no intention of speaking up about it with their relationship in such a bad place, much less in front of Akashi, though he might have to have a talk with her later about how bad cigarettes were for your health, just in case. For now though, he was definitely letting that rest and focusing on the situation at hand.
"Baka---No...! That's not you at all!" Without hesitation, he made sure the jar was set aside where it wouldn't be knocked over then reached out, very gently coaxing her to let go of her pretty blond curls. "You're so smart... Don't listen to them, they're wrong. I know hearing it over and over can make you think it might be true, but just because they say it doesn't make it true, no matter how many times it's repeated." He gave her little hands an affectionate squeeze with his own large, scarred ones then finally let go.
"I understand how you feel though... Here." He pulled out his phone and opened up a memo, typing out his own name before showing it to her. "When I was little, I didn't have a quirk either... This is my name. This character here, it can be read as 'deku'. That's how I got my nickname. Everyone used to tell me that I was useless because I didn't have a quirk. I was made fun of and even beat up a lot. I liked school too, but... I didn't really like going. My mom asked me if I wanted to be transferred or do classes online, but I decided not to. I thought it would be lonely to never see my friends again, even if they all bullied me..." He deleted his name then and put his phone back in his pocket.
"That was my choice to make though and that doesn't mean it was the right one or that it's the right one for you. If you don't want to go to school in person, then you can do it online. If you feel lonely, I can help you find a club to join so you're with other kids that have the same interests as you! No matter what, I'm sure you'll make good friends, even if you might not have them now, I promise." He assured gently, smiling sweetly to the little girl before him.
"Tokyo is a different part of Japan so I'm sure at least some of the bugs will be different there. Uh... I'm not sure that's how radiation works, but... Your quirk is so new that it's hard to say. I'm sure that your radiation could potentially alter the DNA of living things if they're exposed to it long enough, though from what I've been told the halflife of your radiation is extremely short. Not a bad thing as you could make people around you sick if it didn't dissipate fast. I wonder if you could learn to lengthen or shorten the time your radiation lingers with practice... Or weaken and strengthen the explosions! We'll need to take you to specialized facilities for something like that though. It's amazing that you would already need a facility like that! Most kids aren't strong enough for something like that till high school at least, with a few exceptions of course, like your brother or Todoroki-kun. Your quirk is so amazing! I hope we get to train together, I would love to watch how your quirk grows and all the stuff you might be able to do with it! O-Oh! Shoot, I'm rambling... S-sorry! I do that sometimes... It's just I'm really excited! I've never met someone with a quirk quite like yours and I really want to write more about it in my notebook!" And with that, he betrayed a bit of information. Apparently, she was already in one of his hero notebooks. He may have entertained himself while on the flight over for a while...
He gasped dramatically when she revealed to him that she had never been to the zoo. Hilariously, despite how over the top it was, it seemed he wasn't actually faking it. "Never? Not even once? Well, he gotta go now! There's three different bird houses, and a nocturnal animals house, and a small mammals house too! They have a bunch of animals native to Japan, but also a bunch from other countries like giraffes, rhinos, and elephants! You never realize how big they are till they're in front of you! A whole lot bigger than me, that's for sure. Oh! There's a petting zoo too! One of the goats tried to eat my shoelaces... I wonder if he's still alive... I doubt it, he was already big when we visited as kids." He hoped Bakugou wouldn't mention that the same goat also butted him in the stomach and in turn onto his butt for attempting to get him to stop eating said shoelaces.
Some of his excitement was squelched when it was confirmed that his number had indeed been blocked. He wondered how many 'Happy Birthdays' and such had never even reached him... He sent them every year without fail, even if he didn't expect a response. "Thank you, Ka-chan..." He muttered with a sigh. How was he ever going to survive living with him...? "I'll be sure to only text you if it's an emergency. Oh, and to show you what apartments I found, but only emergencies after that."
.....
Katsuki rolled his eyes the second Midoriya started talking. Not out of completely genuine disdain, but a mix of posturing and old habits. Echoes of an old dynamic that felt familiar and foreign all at the same time. He was remorseful, and he understood that this was probably something Akashi needed to hear. But jesus fuck he didn’t. He didn’t need the bitter reminders of a life he’d tried to forget, of the person he’d been.
Akashi on the other hand was pretty much oblivious to Katsuki’s shitty attitude, instead blubbering up to Midoriya’s words in a way that was quite reminiscent of the freckly middle school kid he’d used to be. It made Katsuki’s gut twist with guilt, but he wasn’t about to show it.
Akashi didn’t hesitate to latch onto Midoriya, pulling him in for a hug. Instinctively liking him from day one, it seemed. Getting a honestly slightly gross amount of tears and snot onto his clothes, Katsuki couldn’t help but curl his lip up at the gesture, still caught in the gymnastics and mental spirals of his own fractured memory, trying not to see the echoes of somebody he’d long tried to leave behind. Consumed by a mix of bitter jealousy that Akashi had immediately clung to fucking *Deku* within not long of meeting him, and his own internal hang ups being dragged brutally back to the surface. He didn’t make a move to comfort her like he normally would, instead just lurking in the corner til she calmed down. He didn’t quite know where the boundary was anymore, not with Deku lurking around the house. He couldn’t do the normal shit he did with her because he knew it would just raise more questions. So, he waited for her sniffles to subside and she started to perk up again at Midoriya’s reassurance before letting out a relieved sigh.
“I hope there’s centipedes in the city! I love their legs, there’s so many! Will you come help me find bugs like Kacchan does, Midoriya? He’s really loud so he scares them away…” Akashi muttered, pulling back from the hug to look up at Midoriya with a watery uncovered eye, giving it a wipe on her sleeve.
The mention of one of her brother’s school ‘friends’ had the gears in Akashi’s head turning. Oblivious to Katsuki’s bitterness at the situation and more clicked on to the lightbulb that had gone off in her head. “Do you think we could use Kacchan’s old school uniform to sneak into UA and use the school? I know they have all the good training areas, and I bet he could get me in there if I annoyed him enough!” That seemed to be Akashi’s best move in her toolkit. Emotionally oblivious to everything but nails on a chalkboard.
She cocked her head to the side, giving a little laugh. “No no! It’s fine, I don’t mind it. Just talk faster if you mumble, because it’s easier to listen to that way- and I think Kacchan’s about to throw a tantrum every time you do it and if you talk faster the time will go quicker.” She immediately put her older brother on blast with a subtle jab and an oh so sweet smile, shrugging as Katsuki brooded in the corner.
Katsuki couldn’t help the prickle of bitter jealousy that crept up his spine at the mention of the notebooks. Or more precisely, that he’d already been keeping tabs on his fucking kid. Maybe it was misplaced paranoia, logically he knew Midoriya was here to do a job. But it still creeped him out to think about the man writing god knows what about his kid, that he already had notes on her. He would have thought the habit of burning the books to ashes would have deterred him from writing the creepy things.
He let out a light sigh, trying to calm himself down. Just because Midoriya had a weird hobby didn’t mean it was fair of him to be an asshole about it, he told himself as he tried to stuff the sickly rage back down inside of him where it wouldn’t be an issue. Weird hobbies were fine, he couldn’t judge Midoriya for it because look at the weird shit Akashi loved. It was a difficult balancing act, logic and pure emotional garbage thought. He couldn’t play too much into the other without disastrous consequences, either he’d be cut off or uncontrollable. And even if severing the violent rage was good in the short term, he knew it would only bubble up to the surface eventually.
But that was future Katsuki’s problem.
He was snapped back to the conversation by Akashi nudging him harshly with her elbow, and he blinked back into reality and out of his thoughts.
“Woah! Kacchan- why have you never taken me! The zoo sounds fucking awesome, why am I only hearing about it now!” Akashi grinned, rocking on her heels once she’d fully scrubbed the tear tracks from her face. Eyes lit up at the thought of the mishmash of wild animals she’d only really seen in books. Katsuki huffed, rolling his eyes and explaining it up front- “It’s in the opposite direction to UA, if it was on the route we’d have gone sooner. But I guess now we can borrow the car and go…” He mused, trailing off before the mention of the goat drew a light snort out of him.
“Oh that fucker better be alive. That goat was fucking awesome.” Katsuki quipped, snapped out of his spell by the memory. While Midoriya had a very bad run in with the beast, it had loved Katsuki like no tomorrow. He hoped Akashi would have a similar experience, and that the goat wouldn’t pick up on the genetic mashup and decide to kick her ass too. Not that she couldn’t handle it, quite on the contrary- he was afraid of her more getting frustrated and nuking the poor thing. Kids were volatile and kids with quirks like that could be even more so, he knew that much. He wasn’t sure if it was nature or nurture, but to him that hardly mattered. The results were the same. Or that’s what he told himself.
The spiral of denial was an awful thing to cope with these days. Stuffing down parts of himself, his emotions, everything just to get through the day. Running away from his thoughts and problems. He didn’t think about things because he knew if he did, things would just spiral out of control. So, he lived in this bubble of thought. Of infuriating paradoxes in order to maintain the status quo. In his eyes, as long as his kid was provided for somehow and wasn’t in harm’s way, he was happy. Deku just wouldn’t fucking get it. Get what that felt like, knew how hard this had been. He didn’t want to think about Mitsuki because the more he thought about it, the more fucked up it all seemed. And he wasn’t prepared for that particular realisation, not yet anyway.
“Good, keep me updated on details so I can work shit out on my end…” Katsuki huffed, doing nothing to hide the snide edge to his tone, the annoyance and frustration and lack of regard for Midoriya’s feelings. He didn’t care, or he told himself that and took sadistic glee in the action. The self fulfilling prophecy, hurting others to detract from the gaping wounds he squirreled away. He glanced around the room before letting out a little groan, muttering mostly to himself about the plan for things he was constructing alongside the self deprecating bullshit thought train. “...I’m gonna need to start getting all of this into boxes fuck me…”
.....
Too focused on the little girl before him, he didn't notice the inner turmoil the older blond was struggling with. His heart broke at the way her eyes welled up with tears, intimately familiar with how good it could feel to have your sadness validated, not to mention defended against those that have hurt you. Though he'd always been a rather awkward individual, physical touch was surprisingly something he'd always been comfortable with, despite how much he was bullied as a child. He didn't hesitate to not only hug back, but actually scoop her up into his arms for a cuddle. The greenette even went so far as to gently rock her as she cried out her feelings.
He couldn't say he was surprised that Katsuki didn't tease her about crying despite the fact that his own teary upset had been scoffed at and forced to be cut short meer minutes ago. In his experience, this was par for the course. Even when they were in high school, Katsuki had always treated him differently, harsher than he would everyone else. Well... At least up till nearly the end. They'd grown so much and he had been so sure they were going to be proper friends again! His long-standing crush had even been hoping for more... Then everything had suddenly and without warning taken a turn for the worse and he had no idea why.
"Shhhh... It's okay. It'll all be okay... Sometimes life can be really hard or even unfair, but if you do your best and keep reaching for something better, it'll work out in the end. It'll get better, you'll see. You don't even have to do it alone! Your big brother loves you very much and I'm sure he'll always have your back." The greenette meant every word too. He continued to hold and rock her till she'd calmed down. Leaning in without thinking, he pressed a gentle kiss to her temple before setting her down on her feet again, oblivious to the jealously he was inducing in the older blond.
It seemed she'd bounced back quite well, as children tended to. "Centipedes? Those are venomous so I don't know if I would want to be near one aside from catching them in a cup to put outside. Do you like millipedes too? More legs, less dangerous." He chuckled softly at her enthusiasm. "Of course I will! Ka-chan and I used to catch bugs together when we were little too! We used to catch horned beetles in the forest near where we lived. He was a lot better at it than I was though so usually I carried the bug cages for us and he did the catching. It feels like forever since I've gone bug hunting... I look forward to doing it with you! I hope I'm better at it now and if not, I'll carry the cages for you like I used to."
"Eh? N-no, no! The security at Yuuei is super tight, we could get in a lot of trouble for trying to sneak in! There are places you can rent that we can use. Pros have to practice too and they can't all be going to a high school to do that in, right? Besides, they're stronger than high schoolers so there are places with even better facilities. They can get kinda expensive depending on the place and the destruction your quirk can cause, but they're good places to let loose in as well as work on precise control. That second one is more important so we'll probably be focusing on that with you till you get the hang of your quirk. My quirk was super late and came at me with a vengeance so I know first hand how important it is to learn how to control a destructive quirk as quickly as possible." He explained, hoping that offering himself up as an example would help her feel better about the whole thing.
"I... Don't know if that would help. I don't think he likes it when I talk. Like... At all." He smiled weakly and gave an awkward shrug of his broad shoulders. Another pang of pain made his heartache at the thought that one of the conditions for them living together was the fact that they wouldn't speak to one another. Hell, he was expected to stay in his room as much as humanly possible. He wasn't even sure how well that would work, but for Akashi's sake at the very least, he had to make it work.
He sighed, though he couldn't be surprised that Bakugou hoped the grumpy goat he'd befriended as a child was still alive. Not to say that he hoped the nippy beast was dead, but he would rather not have another incident with him. "If he is, I hope he's mellowed with age... He'd be ancient for a goat by now," he pointed out though he couldn't seem to help but to smile. Sure, he hadn't had a very good experience with the goat but the field trip, in general, was a fond memory. Sure Bakugou had bullied him there like he always did, but there were a few points where he was having enough fun to forget he was supposed to. He cherished those little moments when they acted like proper friends.
"I'm sure you guys will have lots of fun together when you go! I hope you'll have fun with me too when we go." And there it was. Already he was trying to keep himself out of activities that involved Katsuki himself, assuming that he wouldn't want the greenette there. Even these actions hurt, but he'd made it more than clear that he wasn't welcome in his life and only tolerated him out of necessity. "He's right though, be nice to the animals while you're there, even if they're mean to you. They can't talk like us so they can't tell us how they feel which is why they bite and scratch sometimes. Or headbutt..." He added, once again thinking back on the billy goat.
Emerald in obsidian eyes flicked up to meet annoyed ruby ones, finally picking up the glittery jar and standing back up to his hunch. "I will... I'll do my best to find something nice for us," he turned his attention to the little girl again then. "Would you like to help me, Akashi-chan? I'll be with you mostly while Ka-chan is at work after all." He offered the jar back then with care. "Here... Better put this away so nothing happens to it."
The greenette chuckled softly at his old friend's words, looking at the things in the room himself. "Yeah... I came here with only as many clothes as I could fit in a couple of suitcases. I'll have to hire some movers to pack all my things so they can be shipped to my mom's. I'm gonna have to get shelves for my collection or something..." He figured Bakugou wouldn't be particularly interested in what he had to say, but he couldn't seem to help wanting to include him in his life as well as be included. He was going to have to figure out how to kick this habit really fast if they were going to be living together with no contact. He was going to be such a mess and he knew it...
Clearing his throat he spoke again, this time to Akashi. "You have a lot of stuff in your collection! This is your chance to reorganize it and even rediscover stuff you may have forgotten you have. Is there anything you've always wanted in your collection, but haven't managed to acquire?" He was just trying to keep the conversation going and wondering how long it would take before he'd overstayed his welcome and was forced to leave. He didn't want to leave her here, but he also didn't know if it was a good idea to take her to the hotel with him. Katsuki would be here with her, surely that would be enough to keep her safe.
.....
“Millipedes are alright, but centipedes like me better. They’ve got such nicer colors too, I know it’s part of signalling to other creatures that they aren’t good to eat but they’re so pretty and creepy!” She grinned, unaware that their proclivity towards her was likely just aggression. Despite her ability to bounce back, she still rubbed at her eyes, scrubbing the tear-tracks from her cheeks with a frustrated huff after she’d been put down. She didn’t like crying, she found it unbecoming and stupid. So she tried her hardest to swing back into the conversation at hand. “Yess! You’ve gotta come bug hunting with me then! Do you think your spot would still have bugs? Unless it’s been turned into a car-park...”
Akashi didn’t look convinced by his explanation about why sneaking in would be a terrible idea, even if his anecdotal evidence did help to sway her in the right direction. “I guess you’re right. Pro’s do have to train too… I dunno, I bet it’d be easier just going to UA. I’m small enough to fit in the vents, too. Auntie Mina started working there didn’t she? I bet she could sneak me in, and then I could give the hero students a run for their money!” Akashi cackled, and Katsuki rolled her eyes. Agreeing with Midoriya, but not wanting to make that overt.
“Yeah, dunno if she still is now. But no fucking way, we can’t trouble her like that jesus.” He wasn’t wrong, he wasn’t about to cause problems for her like that. Although he couldn’t help but think of how it could serve as an example for UA to increase their goddamn security, if a little kid could just wander in.
Katsuki just snorted, glad they were on the same page there. “Not in the fucking slightest. It’s like a cheese grater on my eardrums. Thanks for trying though kid.” Katsuki ruffled Akashi’s hair, tone softening as he addressed her. He didn’t want to control what Midoriya did exactly, it was his house too but at the same time he wanted things to go smoothly. Which meant as much isolation from him as humanly possible, hell the man should be happy he didn’t have to be around his shit attitude. He hadn’t missed the hurt behind that wobbly smile, but that didn’t mean he actually cared.
But, even if he didn’t care in the slightest about what Midoriya felt, he was quick to catch onto Midoriya’s sentiment with the zoo. The distance was expected, something he understood and something part of him honestly did want. But on the other side of the coin, Katsuki didn’t want to deprive him from shit like that. Even if he was the only person who knew, Midoriya should at least get to take his kid to the zoo, no matter his own petty feelings about him. So, he bottled down that angry, possessive part of himself and just shrugged.
“...She’s off from school for a while longer, take her if you really want to. You’re on babysitting duty so you can do what you like while I’m at work, go to the zoo, aquarium, whatever.”
“The hag’s not gonna be bothered to take her and I’ve got shit to do, if you’re going to be hanging around you may as well make yourself useful.” He finished the sentiment with a harsh, backhanded jab, as usual because he refused to talk to the man in any way that wasn’t utter garbage. He needed to keep his facade up and strong, with no room for doubt in it or this just wasn’t going to work, he’d… get too attached himself or Deku would actually think he was warming up to him. Bleh.
Katsuki tried his best to suppress a shiver when their eyes met. Those weren’t the eyes he remembered from his childhood, he honestly found it kinda creepy. He knew it was likely to do with his ‘borrowed quirk’, a side effect that came with really making it his own. But that didn’t mean it didn’t give him the heebie jeebies, enough to make him quiet down while he zoned out.
“Okay!” Akashi took the jar, hiding it back away in the crevices of her room before saying- “Ooo what if we got a big mansion, with tons of rooms! And a butler to take care of all those rooms too!”
“You both get paid enough to get us a butler, right?” She cocked her head and Katsuki tried to suppress a laugh as she continued, “Oh who am I kidding, of course you do! You’re heroes!”
Katsuki was snapped out of his stupor by the offhand comment about his things, riling up his hackles. “And you were supposed to be staying here for how long? Jesus, I thought you’d at least have the sense to pack more.” He sneered, not genuinely having a go at him. In all honesty, he didn’t really give a shit. But any opportunity to rag on him he would take without a second thought, even if it wasn’t genuine. He almost felt flattered that Deku still bothered to tell him shit at all, he knew if it were him he wouldn’t give himself the time of day. They would be a mess indeed, fuelled by attempts at communication that fell flat on their face, subtle things that would probably just add to the fire in the long run. “I’ve got some shelves I’m probably not going to use once I move out, if you want to use those. Better than buying brand new shelves for your fucking nerd shrine.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, pretending that he didn’t have his own ‘nerd shrine’ at the top of his closet. The lot of them really were just a big group of nerds, huh? That much was made evident when Midoriya started asking the little girl about her collection and she replied avidly.
“Hm… I guess that is true, tons of stuff gets lost in here… and prolly the Necro… shit. Ne-cro-nom-i-con.” Akashi huffed, struggling with the world for a moment before sounding out the syllables. Katsuki snorted, flicking her forehead lightly.
“The Necronomicon isn't a real book, you know that right?”
“Nuh uh! It is so! Imagine all the forbidden knowledge it contains!” Akashi huffed and Katsuki just rolled his eyes, not wanting to argue with her on that one. She thought for a moment, fictional books full of eldritch novels aside, she had a few dream items in mind… “But… either that or a piece of the elephant’s foot in chernobyl. In most people it kills you just by going near it, but I should be fine because of my quirk! Hopefully!”
“Or… If Kacchan wasn’t such a prick, I’d be able to fish through the pounds dumpster and get myself a kitty cat… But that’ll have to remain a dream because someone is a party pooper and a snitch!” She huffed, putting her hands on her hips and sticking her tongue out at her older brother.
“Oh I’m sorry I won’t let you fish through the trash for dead animals, how fucking terrible of me.” Katsuki growled, rolling his eyes and doing nothing to mask the sarcasm in his tone. He knew he couldn’t stop her tirade for bits of dead animals, her indignant cries of ‘you’re not my mom’ had him stumped there, but he drew the line at dumpster diving. They were better than that.
Katsuki didn’t like to agree with Midoriya on anything, but he had a point in not wanting to leave, even if he’d eventually had to kick him to the curb. Katsuki knew if Mitsuki was going to go off, she would go off at him, he could keep Akashi out of it the best he could and manage the situation without an over-emotional, so called ‘hero’ loitering around in his business. It wasn’t great, but it was the best he could do for now. The thought of Midoriya running off with the kid made his fucking blood boil, he knew it was entirely petty jealously and not actually anything warranted but that knowledge didn’t change the fact that that’s what he was feeling. But, he allowed it. It was convenient to get her out of the firing line and his own insistence on driving her to meet with him allowed him to cut the contact between Deku and the hag.
In the meantime Katsuki just did his best to re-direct Mitsuki’s anger. Any arguments were with him, and he wasn’t going to let it spill out and affect his kid while he got everything in order on his end.
The move-out was a secretive operation that Katsuki had made sure Midoriya had nothing to do with when it came to things at the Bakugou household. Lest the man get involved with any dirty laundry his mother wanted to air out, hell he’d gladly use Midoriya’s distaste for the woman to keep them as far away from each other as was humanly possible. Better than the hag letting something slip and causing problems later, ‘playdates’ were done at the park or at Midoriya’s hotel room. Going through properties together to find something affordable, Katsuki really didn’t give a shit so he barely kept in contact with the man about that side of things. As long as there was enough room for all three of them to live there, aircon and it was in his patrol range, he was happy. He’d just been sent a property and had agreed to it without much thought, too stressed out by goings on to really look at what he was signing on.
Akashi’s room was cleared out and sorted into boxes discreetly at first, rearranged so Mitsuki wouldn’t even notice they’d started packing. Katsuki had kept the girl quiet by buying rare candy from the foreign food store in town, and when Midoriya gave him the move in date he really got to work. All her stuff was loaded into the back of the car and all the furniture would be picked up by the movers in the coming days, provided his mother didn’t hold onto that shit out of spite. (He’d made sure to dismantle his shelves and pack them under the seats of the car, Midoriya on his mind, even if he wasn’t about to admit it.) He left his mother a snide, facetious note. A note full of bullshit just to keep her off their trail, something about moving out with Midoriya in a way that heavily implied they’d ‘worked things out’ and now Mitsuki wouldn’t be burdened with his kid anymore. The man made a point to stress that, taking the birth certificates and doctors notes with him as well- so Mitsuki didn’t have anything she could go public with. The plan was flawless, if somewhat dickish.
Katsuki didn’t like it at all, even if he took initiative in it’s construction. The thought of being stuck with Midoriya all the time made his skin crawl, less out of genuine hatred and more the tepid feelings any close interaction with the alpha dragged out of him, difficult to bear in the moment. It would be difficult to keep his baggage hidden and under wraps, the only way he’d managed to make it work the first time was cutting him off cold turkey because he knew Deku would know something was up. Maybe this time he could pull some bullshit (Claim the distance over the last few years had removed any right for Deku to make assessments on his behaviour) to keep him off the scent of the truth, but it wasn’t exactly going to be easy. He didn’t like lying or cheating or any of that shit, but right now there was more at stake then some hurt feelings.
They both pulled up to the property early that morning, before the sun had risen, if only to slink out of the house before his parents could wake up and cause a scene. He’d gotten fast food on the way in to keep Akashi quiet about things and the girl was munching on a hash brown in the passenger seat as Katsuki got parking sorted.
“Well, here we are sprog.” He sighed, turning off the ignition and getting out to grab a box of Akashi’s stuff from the back of the car. He’d gotten rid of most of his own shit just to conserve space, so he didn’t have as much stuff to lug with him here- especially considering he wasn’t sure how much space he’d be working with.
“Oooo can I get the room with the balcony?” Akashi grinned, looking up and spotting a large window on one of the bedrooms.
“I think that was the plan… means I don’t have to interact with the bastard, so I’m happy.” He shrugged, trudging through the carpark and up inside the building. Checking his phone for the unit number and floor, he let out a sigh. God he wasn’t looking forwards to carrying all his shit up those goddamn stairs, but even so he made his way up them. Akashi huffing up the climb behind him. When they finally got to the door, he banged loudly on it with his boot- yelling out,
“OI! DEKU! You in there?” He gave a click of his tongue, rubbing the back of his neck. “Jesus, probably sleeping in, if he’s even here yet…” Thinking fast, he set down the box and looked around the hallway. There had to be a key here somewhere right? Didn’t most people keep spares, under the doormat or some shit? Maybe at the front desk? Goddamn it, maybe he shouldn’t have avoided Deku so feverantly else he’d likely already have the key to his own damn apartment.
.....
"They do come in a lot of bright colors..." He relented reluctantly, knowing very well exactly why they were that colorful. "Please don't go playing with them though, they can make you really sick or worse!" He warned, seriously hoping she didn't actually go around playing with highly venomous insects.
"Oh, hey, hey... Not so hard. It's okay to cry when you're sad. Or even when you're not sad. Tears are just... Well, your body can only hold so much emotion, right? So when you feel a whole lot they just spill over. There's nothing wrong with feeling how you feel. Cry when you need to and when you feel better, get back up and keep moving forward with your life. Keeping it in all the time isn't healthy. Keeping all those bad tears in, sometimes they can turn to poison and make us really sick." He murmured, worried that she was already teaching herself not to cry.
"I'm sure it's still a park! I'll take you there soon, you'll see!" Though he worried about her bottling things up, he also found himself in the position of wanting to cheer her up too. Ugh... Emotions were so complicated. "I'm sure we'll find really big beetles then we can take pictures so you can show everyone before we let them go."
He bit the inside of his cheek when she insisted it wouldn't be hard to sneak into U.A. and worse that she was going to try to get Ashido involved. Thankfully, her brother was quick to step in and discourage her half baked plan. "H-he's right. Ashido could get into a lot of trouble for something like that and there aren't any vents in the perimeter wall anyway. That's also trespassing which is against the law!" He insisted, a touch panicked. He really hoped that Mina wouldn't actually agree to try and help her, that could only end badly. "B-besides, you shouldn't be fighting with the students there either. You don't have control over your quick yet. Even if some of them are strong, you could seriously hurt someone or even yourself if you don't have control of your quirk. That's exactly why you and I have to train in places specifically for quirks like ours."
He sighed softly, figuring he'd been right about that. Each new confirmation made his heart ache more too. He wanted desperately to fix things between them and even more desperately wanted Katsuki to be happy. Sadly, those two things seemed directly opposed to one another and as had always been the case, he was willing to sacrifice himself for the happiness and well-being of others, this fact particularly true of those he cared deeply about. Like it or not, his childhood friend and bully was at the top of that list. "Sorry, Ka-chan..."
His eyes widened and snapped up to stare when he was actually encouraged to spend time with her, nodding dumbly, that wobbly little smile he donned when he felt like he was getting more than he deserved spreading pulling at his lips. "O-of course! I will! We'll have lots of fun together, right, Akashi-chan?" His smile was brighter and more natural when he looked at her, honestly beaming with excitement at the thought of going to places like that with her.
His smile did faulter when she made assumptions about their incomes, however. "Uh... Well... Some heroes can afford stuff like that, but... That's mostly the really high ranking heroes. I got pretty high up there in the U.S., but my rank is pretty low here." He failed to mention that he'd never actually planned to live more than comfortably. The thought of living in a huge and lavish estate like the Todoroki's had was kind of intimidating to be honest. He would rather live modestly and donate whatever he didn't need.
He jumped when scolded for the amount he packed, bowing his head. "I-It was an emergency! I only had a few hours to get everything sorted before I was on a plane here. I haven't even gone to sleep yet!" He defended, still more willing to talk back than when he was much younger, but he was having a little trouble making eye contact due to his embarrassment. "When I found out it was your little sister I couldn't waste any time..." He added, more of a mutter now than before.
He was startled back to looking at him properly when offered some shelves. "W-what?! Y-y-y-you don't have to do that! Don't you need them?! I-I can just get myself when my next paycheck comes in!" He insisted, unable to help flushing at the generous offer, not to mention the fact that there was still that damn crush he couldn't shake. Despite his words, Ka-chan was being unusually nice, all things considered. Maybe it wasn't too much to hope they could be friends again, at least? Maybe it was a long shot, but he could hope...
Attention turned back to the girl, he blinked lightly. "You want the Book of the Dead...?" He really shouldn't be surprised that he'd heard of such a thing already. Considering her collection, it was right up her alley. "Uh, th-that's not a good idea! The radiation has gone down a lot, but anything taken from there would get people around it sick even if it didn't get you sick. What's more, the radiation is different from yours so you would get other people sick with the radiation from it alone." He reasoned quickly, really wanting to get that idea out of her head really quick. That was not happening. She wanted to find a cat from a dumpster? He didn't know what he had expected, but none of these things were even close to it. "You're brother's right... Please don't go dumpster diving in general. You could get sick." He muttered, still trying to recover from the information he'd admittedly asked for.
In the end, he drew out his stay as long as he could, but he of course had to leave eventually, if reluctantly. When he'd gotten back to the hotel, he passed out on the bed in his clothes, barely toeing off his shoes before doing so. Come the next morning at the sound of his alarm, he started to look for apartments before going over to do his first shift of actual babysitting. His time was spent like this for the next couple of weeks, scrambling to find a place that fit all of their needs while also being within a budget they could manage between the two of them. In the end, he found a place that wasn't terribly expensive, but it sure as hell wasn't cheap. It had everything they needed, was more spacious than he had expected they would be able to get, and had the bonus of a balcony that connected two of the rooms, a feature he had a feeling Bakugou would like. Sure enough, of the several he'd deemed good enough to show to the grumpy blond, that's the one he went for.
He arranged for the movers to pack his things, cancel his lease back in the U.S., rented the apartment, and was there to receive everything in the morning. He worked frantically for the rest of the day, trying to get everything done only to do the same the next morning. It was during this mad scramble that he was jarred out of his almost panicked work when the door was kicked only to roll his eyes when the door abuser announced himself. There was a doorbell... Why couldn't Katsuki do anything like a normal person? All the same, he rushed to the door to open it so that he wouldn't keep making so much noise. "Ka-chan! We have neighbors!" He scolded as he stepped aside to let them in. Sadly it was true. On such short notice, it was the best he could find and he honestly thought they were very lucky to have gotten it. 22nd floor out of 27 so they had people both above and below them. They had gotten exceptionally lucky that this building was set up in such a way that the apartments like theirs had no side neighbors. Small blessings... Still, there were other people on the same floor and Bakugou was shouting in the hallway.
"I've gotten most of my stuff settled here, but my apartment was a lot smaller than this one so... It's kinda empty looking. We have the basics at least though." Sure enough, there was a couch, a TV, a table that looked too small for the area it was in that could sit four people with the appropriate amount of chairs, a kotatsu because like hell was he getting rid of that in the move, and a cubby to put shoes in a closet by the door. Just next to the door on the wall was a little plaque of key hooks. There were two sets of keys hanging there, one which had many keys and a little All Might key chain attached to it while the other was only the one key and had a flat but slightly domed pendant that was black with a familiar orange 'X' on it. He was very much correct that the place looked rather bare... Most of his own things had been placed inside his own room so none of his collection was out here.
"I made extra for breakfast this morning if you guys are hungry. Just some eggs and toast." He added, noting how little they had with them. "Is there more downstairs?" He hesitated then, but figured it was only polite to offer, even if he would probably be turned down. "I could help you bring everything up. Oh! Uh, quick tour! That door is a toilet, through there is the living room, past that is the kitchen. The hallway on the right goes to the utility room then another toilet and ends in a bath. To the right is my room and to the left are both of your rooms." He brought his babble to an end, knowing that if Akashi didn't remember it all, Katsuki would. There was also an entrance to the balcony by the living room and what could be considered a dining room which was were the table with chairs were, but he didn't think that detail was important for right now.
(( In case we need it for later!
www.realestate-tokyo.com/rent/B0011133/ ... /R0044064/
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 3767_1.png ))
Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
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NicTheDjinn
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Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
Deku|266B53|Shouto|719CC2|Dabi|367F88|Baku|E7771C|Kiri|C72B20|Mina|A7637C|Kami|E5BD67|Sero|EBA43B|Jirou|D3464F|Toko|7A67B6|Shouji|709099|Tetsu|7B8191|Neito|8793AA|Kama|5A8A44|Shin|635EA1|Tenko|5C5B6B|Toad|80BF80|Sun|B4952A|Moon|322B63|Peter|03466C|TK|809A51|Mochi|FA53A6|Togi|87CEEB
Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
For the first time in a long time, Katsuki actually found himself agreeing with his childhood frenemy. He had a very valuable point, be it crying or anger or pain. If you bottled it up for long enough, it was like a pipe bomb, destroying everything in its path when it finally went off and became too much to hide, twisting into something uncontrollable. That was honestly a lesson he knew she could benefit from, but of course she’d had to inherit his stubbornness, she’d likely have to learn it herself from trial and error, if history was any indication.
“Yeah, but crying is for babies and I’m not a baby! I can’t be crying over every little thing if I want to be taken seriously! That’s just how the world is.” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sure, it’s not good to keep it all in but sometimes you just have to suck it the hell up! If you spend all the time crying, you won’t get anything done!” Akashi continued scrubbing at her eyes with her sleeves until she was satisfied, perking up a lot more at the mention of future outings. She was honestly looking forward to it, even if she didn’t know this Midoriya-person very well, and her older brother’s hangups weren’t a great sign either, but she couldn’t help but trust him.
“Hell yeah!” She laughed, eager at the prospect of hunting all kinds of bugs. Most of her collection had been either gifts or things she’d found herself, and she made a mental note to add another regional section to her book-box, so she’d have a place to keep all the new bug friends she’d make, or maybe even getting a few plastic boxes to keep them in… “Let them go? Why would we do that?”
“Because I don’t want the house crawling with bugs you’ve dragged inside, you know the rules- don’t bring anything alive home.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, answering the question before Midoriya could impart more of what Katsuki considered to be bullshit judgement on their lives without any kind of context or understanding of their situation, not that he could even be fucking blamed for it because Katsuki sure as fuck wasn’t about to give him any more information. God, this whole situation was a mess and he really wasn’t sure if he could do this. Mind you, it wasn’t looking like he had a choice in the matter, but he knew he had to put his foot down somewhere before Deku kept prying into places he didn’t belong.
“Okaaay.” Akashi growled, letting out a little huff.
Emotions were complicated, children especially so. Katsuki wasn’t sure if he’d learned the ropes yet, after all this time he’d like to think he had a grip on things but kids were weird.
His kid especially, it seemed. Honestly, he didn’t know why he was that surprised, all things considered. It had become something he’d grown used to over the years, judgement eroded by the care he had for his sister, he couldn’t find it inside of him to genuinely think lesser of her for the things she was passionate about even if he wanted to. The girl was dragging home dead animals with the biggest grin on her face and he couldn’t do anything more than gather the cadavers with gloved hands and help prepare the dead alongside her, listening to her rambled explanations of the process in those evenings after they’d come back home, masks worn to try and mitigate the smell of rot. At least she wasn’t hurting anything or being violent like he’d been as a child, compared to that a couple of roadkill birds wasn’t anything he was honestly too concerned about. Sure, maybe he was raising a serial killer, or he was just raising a girl with some pretty weird fascinations, only time would tell. He just hoped he hadn’t fucked her up that badly.
“If we find dead bugs I can preserve them too…” She muttered, trailing off into thought and Katsuki just let out a little sigh. Zoning the absolute fuck out as Midoriya rambled on, trying to dissaude Akashi from her newest fantasies. He’d snap back into the conversation when he needed to but for now he let his brain take him into a kind of numb, thought filled haze where nothing was quite happening, but it wasn’t not happening either. Like he was watching a movie of sorts, disconnected from all of this shit.
He’d long learned it was simply wasted breath, but he was more than content on watching Midoriya waste his time trying to get through to the girl who, while she had some modicum of respect for him, likely was going to try and do whatever the hell she wanted anyway. He just held hope that there was no way her plans would work, and he’d try and stop her from doing something genuinely dangerous by force if he had to, but now this could be Midoriya’s problem, now he’d decided to take up some de facto role in their lives.
Maybe this could be good after all, not for his fragile grip on reality but to ease his droning boredom, it really would serve as fantastic entertainment. He just hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with anymore of Midoriya’s misguided ‘concerns’ because any more passive aggression and he’d just fucking puke. God why couldn’t Midoriya just yell and get angry like a normal fucking person. Katsuki just didn’t get it.
Thank god for Katsuki’s inferiority complex, because if all of Midoriya’s affections hadn’t been warped by Katsuki's bullshit, he might have caved and fallen right the hell back. Pushed into a love he couldn’t blame on some chemical reaction, a love he’d have to accept. And no way in hell would he ever do that mushy shit. It was better, easier for them to be standing at different sides of a rift, Katsuki couldn’t afford anything else. Let alone comprehend the thought of confronting any positive feelings they had towards each other, because he knew Deku just thought he could do better. That’s what it was. What it always was. Deku, perfect shining fucking golden child. Chosen by the best of the best, the idiotic, pathetic all knowing meddler. It pissed him off, if he was so much better than him in apparently every way, why the fuck did he bother doing anything but rubbing in his victory? What was the point of this whole charade, or was it genuine? Katsuki wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the truth on that matter.
Sure, he was here on a job. But he’d seen many a dead eyed hero, working for the sake of work without any of this weird emotional shit. Clients and civilians were but numbers on paperwork, nothing more nothing less. Why the hell couldn’t Deku just keep to himself and be some shitty monotonous hero for once? Goddamn it, why the hell did they outsource this shit in the first place, he could look after his sister just fine on his own! He made a note in his head that if he kept prying, the commission would have a very angry Bakugou Katsuki on the phone who didn’t give a single shit for courtesy. Surely they’d known something, to send him of all goddamn people?
Maybe, maybe not. He wasn’t privy to the inner workings of his superiors, so perhaps he’d never know. Tuning vaguely back into the conversation as Midoriya tried to get her not to drag Ashido down with her, Katsuki just snickered, knowing the woman would probably be up for the affair if he asked her nicely enough. Not that they’d ever tell that to Midoriya.
“Screw the law! We’ll find a way in, right Kacchan?” Akashi rolled her eyes, turning to Katsuki for validation who didn’t give her an inch. Instead lightly flicking her on the forehead with a disapproving glare.
“You can’t just say screw the law, both your brother and babysitter are heroes, it doesn’t fucking work like that. I’m not about to have you drag my career down by getting caught, jeez.” He hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. “And he has a point for once, you’d probably rupture some poor fuck’s insides by mistake.”
“I wonder what that would look like… Would they die?” Akashi questioned, the morbidity of the sentiment not phasing her in the slightest, more thinking about it with scientific curiosity, choosing her wording to shock Midoriya.
“Yes, they would fucking die.”
“Can I dig them up afterwards? A skull cup could be really cool…” She gave a sly grin, twisting her hair around her finger. Katsuki just gave her a look and she gave a sheepish laugh.
“No.”
“That’s fair, I guess… Still that sucks though! Why does there have to be so many rules, ugh!” She huffed, pulling lightly at her fringe in distaste, before getting back into the flow of conversation. She didn’t get why if you had the money, you wouldn’t go live the rich life. “If I had lots of money, I’d live in a big mansion. With lots of rooms that don’t get used and a maid who can do my homework when it’s too easy and I can’t be bothered.” She giggled and Katsuki rolled his eyes, trying to keep a straight face while Midoriya spluttered to explain himself like he owed Katsuki something, like his opinion of him even mattered.
A long time ago it would have really pissed him off, but now he could only try not to laugh out of this mixed malice and detached amusement. But his gaze turned colder when he flushed at his proposition, trying to insist on not taking his offer. Bah, no way. There was no damn point in paying for something that he had that would just get thrown away anyway. But he couldn’t take the same amusement from his attempts at a rebuttal, not when he was looking at him like that.
Like a lost puppy, spurred on by some fragile sliver of hope, an expectation of him that Katsuki just knew was mulling around in the back of the man’s head. Friendship, yes. But he wasn’t naive to the deeper feelings behind that seemingly cut and dry desire. That stupid red face, flustered by even the smallest signs of generosity, lapping up his fucking attention like it was honey he wanted to throw up. He hated it. He wasn’t an idiot, even an incomplete mating bond was still a fucking mating bond. That’s all this was, it’s all it would ever be, even if Midoriya seemed to be woefully oblivious of that fact, he on the other hand was not. And he wasn’t going to have Midoriya following him around like a damn lost puppy because of a mistake he’d made all those years ago.
“It’s just a fucking shelf, don’t get your goddamn panties in a twist, I wouldn’t be giving you them if I didn’t need them dumbass.” He snapped, rolling his eyes. Maybe someday, they could be more than bitter echoes of things best left in the dust. In some other life, detracted from the mistakes of drunken teens and more pride than was good for anybody, to Katsuki, that was the only possibility for that nonexistent future, that hopeful, pitiful maybe he didn’t want to admit kept him awake at night.
“Mhm! Kacchan used to read me old lovecraft excerpts from the backs of his comics before bed, and I’ve wanted it ever since! It’d be probably pretty hard to find- which is why *some idiots* think it’s fake!” She grinned, completely oblivious to the malice coming off of Katsuki like a cloud.
Akashi just let out a laugh as he spluttered, trying to dissuade her from her grandiose plans. It was a genuine plan, to get a piece of the thing no matter what this stranger said, he couldn’t stop her, and she was sure there was a way to get it done. But it was absolutely hilarious to see the shock on his face, so saying things that were a little confrontational felt like part of the game of human interaction for her. Prying for a reaction that would satisfy her, not unlike Katsuki’s old torment of him, but at least her mockery was slightly less degrading than Katsuki’s had been. More for her own amusement.
But she could only let out a huff as she was scolded, and she could see the point in Midoriya’s side of things, dumpster diving probably wasn’t the best idea. Plus if she took too long she could get taken by the garbage truck and squished into a ball of meat… but even so she pouted and huffed,
“God, you two are no fun!”
“Please, we’re going to be looking after a fucking kid. They’ve gotta expect some noise.” Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes without a care in the world. The way he saw it, it was just a door they were paying for anyway and the neighbours could fucking deal with it. There was a lot more noise to be had in the future, Midoriya really didn’t have a clue of the ride he was getting himself into. He had to keep himself from laughing at the thought, god maybe he’d prove that all of his scheming had been worth it. Or maybe not, it depended on how great of a babysitter he was. Katsuki wasn’t really taking much of this moving out thing seriously, it was temporary after all. All of this was, including Midoriya. He wouldn’t be around for long, he’d break eventually and Katsuki would be proven right time and time again. He’d put money on that.
“Hey! I’m not that loud, meanie! You’re a lot louder than I am you know!” Akashi huffed, walking inside behind him.
“Can it kid, I’m still right.”
He stepped into the threshold, looking around at their new ‘temporary’ home for a small moment. Taking in the layout, the exits, the small screws on the door… this place would definitely need a security upgrade he mused.
“Not bad, I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting but eh…” Katsuki huffed, glancing around at the apartment and then at the key dongle, a small grin on his face. Okay, the key tag was kinda cool. He was half wondering where Deku had gotten the thing, was it a custom or did he make it himself? Hell did he even have this shit as part of his brand? He hated most of the advertising stuff and tried to ignore it most days so he couldn’t tell for the life of him if he’d signed off on this or if Deku really was just that dedicated to the details.
Akashi made a beeline for the Kotatsu after kicking off her shoes. Katsuki put them in the little cubby pretty much without thinking, picking up her sneakers from where they’d been unceremoniously dumped and slipping them into the right spot. .
“Thanks, we got breakfast on the way but she’s always hungry…” He sighed, before cutting him off before he could even try to assist him in moving stuff up. “Yeah, there’s not much though. I can do it.”
“Oi sprog! Eggs?” He called to Akashi, who had gotten halfway under the Kotatsu, poking her head out from underneath-
“Are they done like the window?” Akashi blinked, making a window motion with her fingertips.
Katsuki blinked. The fuck was she talking about, the hell did she mean by the window? “The wind… Oh. Probably fucking not, how would he know to do the window, goddamn kid,” He rolled his eyes, Deku didn’t even have to make them eggs in the first place so there wasn’t any room for requests right off the bat.
“True true, I’ll have to teach him how to do it for next time then!” Akashi grinned, before diving back underneath to kotatsu to soak up the warmth. Katsuki just took mental notes in his head regarding the little tour he was being given, resolving to tell her where her room and the bathroom was later. Once he’d gotten an idea of the layout of the place, he moved into the kitchen and grabbed the smaller portion of eggs. Moving over to the kotatsu, he set it on top and knocked on the wood to let her know the eggs were up.
He *really* wanted to dip right now. His neck hurt to fuck, so it felt like a small reprieve to turn on his heel and go back from whence he came, on his way to carry all the shit himself because not entirely unlike a petulant child, *he* wanted to do it. *Fuck Deku anyway.* He’d already thrown a wrench in things majorly as far as he was concerned, he had no reason to like him after all the ways he’d messed up his life, for better or for worse. Honestly he just wanted him to quit doing it.
He took a moment to appreciate the apartment on his way out, it *was* rather nice. He could move some of Akashi’s books out here… Maybe it wouldn’t be all bad, if Midoriya was considerate enough to make them eggs… Katsuki felt a terrible little itch in his mark and felt his face flush at the sentiment. No no *No*. Fuck that, fuck this. He was out! He wanted to get out of this goddamn room as soon as he could, run away from the dumb part of his brain that perked up seeing fucking Deku being sickeningly nice, even if he was just reading too much into it, he didn’t want that, if he’d wanted that he would have done it.
It was too late to think about what could have been now, much, much too late. He’d missed the boat, there was no point in holding any regrets. He was in way too deep to consider changing trajectory now, to let this damn mark leech into his rational thought. He had to stick to his guns before he made even more of a mess of things. He rubbed at his neck as he went down the stairs, stepping down two at a time. Going back out to the car and grabbing as much as he could carry (Maybe even a little more just to prove a point) before starting the journey back up the stairs.
Akashi on the other hand was very taken by her surroundings, looking up at everything, torn between touching everything and just inhaling it all with her eyes. Grubby hands balled up in the soft fabric of the kotatsu as she curled up beneath the heater, practically purring.
“This is a big house.” She blinked, rolling over and looking up at the ceiling before looking over at Midoriya. “Can I have my buckets on the balcony? And betsy?” She didn’t give any more explanation to the ‘buckets’ knowing that if she did it would likely be a hard no. Most people tended not to be the most accepting of having buckets of rotting meat soup on their balcony, so she just wouldn’t tell him that. Akashi was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps in the hall, Katsuki’s heavy boots approaching as he returned back up the stairs.
“Shit-” Katsuki huffed, dumping down a sealed box and a smaller plastic tub full of more fragile trinkets of Akashi’s. He brushed off his hands, stopping in place to think for a moment as he glanced over the contents of the box. “Fuck. Okay.”
“Go put this on the ‘sil, ‘kay?” He piped up, nodding over at Akashi and picking up a small terracotta pot from in the tub. Inside, was a very well looked after venus flytrap with a ribbon tied gently around it. Akashi ran over, taking it from him and holding it close. Katsuki, while understanding of her more morbid interests, also didn’t trust her to look after an actual animal at all, so when she’d begged him for one, they’d settled on betsy. At least she was rather taken with the plant.
“Okay! I’ve gotta let her meet Deku-kun first, you know she’s scared of strangers...” She mumbled, giving one of the ‘heads’ a ‘pat’, if it could be called that, before she moved over to Midoriya, holding the pot up for him to inspect and parse judgement on.
“Here! This is betsy!” She beamed, careful to hold the pot tightly while Katsuki slipped quietly out the door to go get more of their stuff.
“Yeah, but crying is for babies and I’m not a baby! I can’t be crying over every little thing if I want to be taken seriously! That’s just how the world is.” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sure, it’s not good to keep it all in but sometimes you just have to suck it the hell up! If you spend all the time crying, you won’t get anything done!” Akashi continued scrubbing at her eyes with her sleeves until she was satisfied, perking up a lot more at the mention of future outings. She was honestly looking forward to it, even if she didn’t know this Midoriya-person very well, and her older brother’s hangups weren’t a great sign either, but she couldn’t help but trust him.
“Hell yeah!” She laughed, eager at the prospect of hunting all kinds of bugs. Most of her collection had been either gifts or things she’d found herself, and she made a mental note to add another regional section to her book-box, so she’d have a place to keep all the new bug friends she’d make, or maybe even getting a few plastic boxes to keep them in… “Let them go? Why would we do that?”
“Because I don’t want the house crawling with bugs you’ve dragged inside, you know the rules- don’t bring anything alive home.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, answering the question before Midoriya could impart more of what Katsuki considered to be bullshit judgement on their lives without any kind of context or understanding of their situation, not that he could even be fucking blamed for it because Katsuki sure as fuck wasn’t about to give him any more information. God, this whole situation was a mess and he really wasn’t sure if he could do this. Mind you, it wasn’t looking like he had a choice in the matter, but he knew he had to put his foot down somewhere before Deku kept prying into places he didn’t belong.
“Okaaay.” Akashi growled, letting out a little huff.
Emotions were complicated, children especially so. Katsuki wasn’t sure if he’d learned the ropes yet, after all this time he’d like to think he had a grip on things but kids were weird.
His kid especially, it seemed. Honestly, he didn’t know why he was that surprised, all things considered. It had become something he’d grown used to over the years, judgement eroded by the care he had for his sister, he couldn’t find it inside of him to genuinely think lesser of her for the things she was passionate about even if he wanted to. The girl was dragging home dead animals with the biggest grin on her face and he couldn’t do anything more than gather the cadavers with gloved hands and help prepare the dead alongside her, listening to her rambled explanations of the process in those evenings after they’d come back home, masks worn to try and mitigate the smell of rot. At least she wasn’t hurting anything or being violent like he’d been as a child, compared to that a couple of roadkill birds wasn’t anything he was honestly too concerned about. Sure, maybe he was raising a serial killer, or he was just raising a girl with some pretty weird fascinations, only time would tell. He just hoped he hadn’t fucked her up that badly.
“If we find dead bugs I can preserve them too…” She muttered, trailing off into thought and Katsuki just let out a little sigh. Zoning the absolute fuck out as Midoriya rambled on, trying to dissaude Akashi from her newest fantasies. He’d snap back into the conversation when he needed to but for now he let his brain take him into a kind of numb, thought filled haze where nothing was quite happening, but it wasn’t not happening either. Like he was watching a movie of sorts, disconnected from all of this shit.
He’d long learned it was simply wasted breath, but he was more than content on watching Midoriya waste his time trying to get through to the girl who, while she had some modicum of respect for him, likely was going to try and do whatever the hell she wanted anyway. He just held hope that there was no way her plans would work, and he’d try and stop her from doing something genuinely dangerous by force if he had to, but now this could be Midoriya’s problem, now he’d decided to take up some de facto role in their lives.
Maybe this could be good after all, not for his fragile grip on reality but to ease his droning boredom, it really would serve as fantastic entertainment. He just hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with anymore of Midoriya’s misguided ‘concerns’ because any more passive aggression and he’d just fucking puke. God why couldn’t Midoriya just yell and get angry like a normal fucking person. Katsuki just didn’t get it.
Thank god for Katsuki’s inferiority complex, because if all of Midoriya’s affections hadn’t been warped by Katsuki's bullshit, he might have caved and fallen right the hell back. Pushed into a love he couldn’t blame on some chemical reaction, a love he’d have to accept. And no way in hell would he ever do that mushy shit. It was better, easier for them to be standing at different sides of a rift, Katsuki couldn’t afford anything else. Let alone comprehend the thought of confronting any positive feelings they had towards each other, because he knew Deku just thought he could do better. That’s what it was. What it always was. Deku, perfect shining fucking golden child. Chosen by the best of the best, the idiotic, pathetic all knowing meddler. It pissed him off, if he was so much better than him in apparently every way, why the fuck did he bother doing anything but rubbing in his victory? What was the point of this whole charade, or was it genuine? Katsuki wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the truth on that matter.
Sure, he was here on a job. But he’d seen many a dead eyed hero, working for the sake of work without any of this weird emotional shit. Clients and civilians were but numbers on paperwork, nothing more nothing less. Why the hell couldn’t Deku just keep to himself and be some shitty monotonous hero for once? Goddamn it, why the hell did they outsource this shit in the first place, he could look after his sister just fine on his own! He made a note in his head that if he kept prying, the commission would have a very angry Bakugou Katsuki on the phone who didn’t give a single shit for courtesy. Surely they’d known something, to send him of all goddamn people?
Maybe, maybe not. He wasn’t privy to the inner workings of his superiors, so perhaps he’d never know. Tuning vaguely back into the conversation as Midoriya tried to get her not to drag Ashido down with her, Katsuki just snickered, knowing the woman would probably be up for the affair if he asked her nicely enough. Not that they’d ever tell that to Midoriya.
“Screw the law! We’ll find a way in, right Kacchan?” Akashi rolled her eyes, turning to Katsuki for validation who didn’t give her an inch. Instead lightly flicking her on the forehead with a disapproving glare.
“You can’t just say screw the law, both your brother and babysitter are heroes, it doesn’t fucking work like that. I’m not about to have you drag my career down by getting caught, jeez.” He hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. “And he has a point for once, you’d probably rupture some poor fuck’s insides by mistake.”
“I wonder what that would look like… Would they die?” Akashi questioned, the morbidity of the sentiment not phasing her in the slightest, more thinking about it with scientific curiosity, choosing her wording to shock Midoriya.
“Yes, they would fucking die.”
“Can I dig them up afterwards? A skull cup could be really cool…” She gave a sly grin, twisting her hair around her finger. Katsuki just gave her a look and she gave a sheepish laugh.
“No.”
“That’s fair, I guess… Still that sucks though! Why does there have to be so many rules, ugh!” She huffed, pulling lightly at her fringe in distaste, before getting back into the flow of conversation. She didn’t get why if you had the money, you wouldn’t go live the rich life. “If I had lots of money, I’d live in a big mansion. With lots of rooms that don’t get used and a maid who can do my homework when it’s too easy and I can’t be bothered.” She giggled and Katsuki rolled his eyes, trying to keep a straight face while Midoriya spluttered to explain himself like he owed Katsuki something, like his opinion of him even mattered.
A long time ago it would have really pissed him off, but now he could only try not to laugh out of this mixed malice and detached amusement. But his gaze turned colder when he flushed at his proposition, trying to insist on not taking his offer. Bah, no way. There was no damn point in paying for something that he had that would just get thrown away anyway. But he couldn’t take the same amusement from his attempts at a rebuttal, not when he was looking at him like that.
Like a lost puppy, spurred on by some fragile sliver of hope, an expectation of him that Katsuki just knew was mulling around in the back of the man’s head. Friendship, yes. But he wasn’t naive to the deeper feelings behind that seemingly cut and dry desire. That stupid red face, flustered by even the smallest signs of generosity, lapping up his fucking attention like it was honey he wanted to throw up. He hated it. He wasn’t an idiot, even an incomplete mating bond was still a fucking mating bond. That’s all this was, it’s all it would ever be, even if Midoriya seemed to be woefully oblivious of that fact, he on the other hand was not. And he wasn’t going to have Midoriya following him around like a damn lost puppy because of a mistake he’d made all those years ago.
“It’s just a fucking shelf, don’t get your goddamn panties in a twist, I wouldn’t be giving you them if I didn’t need them dumbass.” He snapped, rolling his eyes. Maybe someday, they could be more than bitter echoes of things best left in the dust. In some other life, detracted from the mistakes of drunken teens and more pride than was good for anybody, to Katsuki, that was the only possibility for that nonexistent future, that hopeful, pitiful maybe he didn’t want to admit kept him awake at night.
“Mhm! Kacchan used to read me old lovecraft excerpts from the backs of his comics before bed, and I’ve wanted it ever since! It’d be probably pretty hard to find- which is why *some idiots* think it’s fake!” She grinned, completely oblivious to the malice coming off of Katsuki like a cloud.
Akashi just let out a laugh as he spluttered, trying to dissuade her from her grandiose plans. It was a genuine plan, to get a piece of the thing no matter what this stranger said, he couldn’t stop her, and she was sure there was a way to get it done. But it was absolutely hilarious to see the shock on his face, so saying things that were a little confrontational felt like part of the game of human interaction for her. Prying for a reaction that would satisfy her, not unlike Katsuki’s old torment of him, but at least her mockery was slightly less degrading than Katsuki’s had been. More for her own amusement.
But she could only let out a huff as she was scolded, and she could see the point in Midoriya’s side of things, dumpster diving probably wasn’t the best idea. Plus if she took too long she could get taken by the garbage truck and squished into a ball of meat… but even so she pouted and huffed,
“God, you two are no fun!”
“Please, we’re going to be looking after a fucking kid. They’ve gotta expect some noise.” Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes without a care in the world. The way he saw it, it was just a door they were paying for anyway and the neighbours could fucking deal with it. There was a lot more noise to be had in the future, Midoriya really didn’t have a clue of the ride he was getting himself into. He had to keep himself from laughing at the thought, god maybe he’d prove that all of his scheming had been worth it. Or maybe not, it depended on how great of a babysitter he was. Katsuki wasn’t really taking much of this moving out thing seriously, it was temporary after all. All of this was, including Midoriya. He wouldn’t be around for long, he’d break eventually and Katsuki would be proven right time and time again. He’d put money on that.
“Hey! I’m not that loud, meanie! You’re a lot louder than I am you know!” Akashi huffed, walking inside behind him.
“Can it kid, I’m still right.”
He stepped into the threshold, looking around at their new ‘temporary’ home for a small moment. Taking in the layout, the exits, the small screws on the door… this place would definitely need a security upgrade he mused.
“Not bad, I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting but eh…” Katsuki huffed, glancing around at the apartment and then at the key dongle, a small grin on his face. Okay, the key tag was kinda cool. He was half wondering where Deku had gotten the thing, was it a custom or did he make it himself? Hell did he even have this shit as part of his brand? He hated most of the advertising stuff and tried to ignore it most days so he couldn’t tell for the life of him if he’d signed off on this or if Deku really was just that dedicated to the details.
Akashi made a beeline for the Kotatsu after kicking off her shoes. Katsuki put them in the little cubby pretty much without thinking, picking up her sneakers from where they’d been unceremoniously dumped and slipping them into the right spot. .
“Thanks, we got breakfast on the way but she’s always hungry…” He sighed, before cutting him off before he could even try to assist him in moving stuff up. “Yeah, there’s not much though. I can do it.”
“Oi sprog! Eggs?” He called to Akashi, who had gotten halfway under the Kotatsu, poking her head out from underneath-
“Are they done like the window?” Akashi blinked, making a window motion with her fingertips.
Katsuki blinked. The fuck was she talking about, the hell did she mean by the window? “The wind… Oh. Probably fucking not, how would he know to do the window, goddamn kid,” He rolled his eyes, Deku didn’t even have to make them eggs in the first place so there wasn’t any room for requests right off the bat.
“True true, I’ll have to teach him how to do it for next time then!” Akashi grinned, before diving back underneath to kotatsu to soak up the warmth. Katsuki just took mental notes in his head regarding the little tour he was being given, resolving to tell her where her room and the bathroom was later. Once he’d gotten an idea of the layout of the place, he moved into the kitchen and grabbed the smaller portion of eggs. Moving over to the kotatsu, he set it on top and knocked on the wood to let her know the eggs were up.
He *really* wanted to dip right now. His neck hurt to fuck, so it felt like a small reprieve to turn on his heel and go back from whence he came, on his way to carry all the shit himself because not entirely unlike a petulant child, *he* wanted to do it. *Fuck Deku anyway.* He’d already thrown a wrench in things majorly as far as he was concerned, he had no reason to like him after all the ways he’d messed up his life, for better or for worse. Honestly he just wanted him to quit doing it.
He took a moment to appreciate the apartment on his way out, it *was* rather nice. He could move some of Akashi’s books out here… Maybe it wouldn’t be all bad, if Midoriya was considerate enough to make them eggs… Katsuki felt a terrible little itch in his mark and felt his face flush at the sentiment. No no *No*. Fuck that, fuck this. He was out! He wanted to get out of this goddamn room as soon as he could, run away from the dumb part of his brain that perked up seeing fucking Deku being sickeningly nice, even if he was just reading too much into it, he didn’t want that, if he’d wanted that he would have done it.
It was too late to think about what could have been now, much, much too late. He’d missed the boat, there was no point in holding any regrets. He was in way too deep to consider changing trajectory now, to let this damn mark leech into his rational thought. He had to stick to his guns before he made even more of a mess of things. He rubbed at his neck as he went down the stairs, stepping down two at a time. Going back out to the car and grabbing as much as he could carry (Maybe even a little more just to prove a point) before starting the journey back up the stairs.
Akashi on the other hand was very taken by her surroundings, looking up at everything, torn between touching everything and just inhaling it all with her eyes. Grubby hands balled up in the soft fabric of the kotatsu as she curled up beneath the heater, practically purring.
“This is a big house.” She blinked, rolling over and looking up at the ceiling before looking over at Midoriya. “Can I have my buckets on the balcony? And betsy?” She didn’t give any more explanation to the ‘buckets’ knowing that if she did it would likely be a hard no. Most people tended not to be the most accepting of having buckets of rotting meat soup on their balcony, so she just wouldn’t tell him that. Akashi was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps in the hall, Katsuki’s heavy boots approaching as he returned back up the stairs.
“Shit-” Katsuki huffed, dumping down a sealed box and a smaller plastic tub full of more fragile trinkets of Akashi’s. He brushed off his hands, stopping in place to think for a moment as he glanced over the contents of the box. “Fuck. Okay.”
“Go put this on the ‘sil, ‘kay?” He piped up, nodding over at Akashi and picking up a small terracotta pot from in the tub. Inside, was a very well looked after venus flytrap with a ribbon tied gently around it. Akashi ran over, taking it from him and holding it close. Katsuki, while understanding of her more morbid interests, also didn’t trust her to look after an actual animal at all, so when she’d begged him for one, they’d settled on betsy. At least she was rather taken with the plant.
“Okay! I’ve gotta let her meet Deku-kun first, you know she’s scared of strangers...” She mumbled, giving one of the ‘heads’ a ‘pat’, if it could be called that, before she moved over to Midoriya, holding the pot up for him to inspect and parse judgement on.
“Here! This is betsy!” She beamed, careful to hold the pot tightly while Katsuki slipped quietly out the door to go get more of their stuff.
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NicTheDjinn
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Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
"But... See, that's the point. It's really important to let yourself feel, but still move forward in your life. People used to make fun of me because of how much I cried all my life. Even in high school I was teased about it a lot. The thing is, when I need to do something I do what I need to. While I lived in the United States, I made it into the top ten that way. If I was fighting a villain, even if something really upsetting or sad happened, I couldn't just cry in the middle of a fight. If it was still with me after work, then I would let myself feel it when I got home. Crying right now wouldn't keep you from doing anything. Does that make sense?" He realized this wasn't a lesson that would sink in easily, particularly not in the household she was raised in or thanks to the people she was raised by. He had the urge to try and help, but was this something he could really do? Sure he would be taking care of her now, but this was supposed to be termperary till they figured out what to do with her.
He was very happy that she was excited to go bug hunting with him, but also felt bad about explaining why she couldn't keep them. Thankfully, Katsuki stepped in so he wouldn't have to try to reason with her. It also occurred to him to add that wild insects like that often carried parasites and wouldn't likely live long. It also occurred to him that the fact they would die and she would be left with a dead bug wasn't as much of a deterrent as it might be with most other children so he thought better of voicing that. Sure enough, she went right on to comment on how they could preserve any dead ones they may find.
While he was used to working with children, he was also very much aware that he failed miserably with certain personality types. That type happened to be ones similar to Katsuki's and it seemed that Akashi had definitely gotten some of that. At the same time, she wasn't a carbon copy of him so he was doing better than he usually did with this personality type. He wasn't quite prepared for how eager she was to break laws though... "Uh... A-Akashi-chan that's not good..." He started, honestly not sure how to even approach that one. At least Ka-chan was there with him once again on that front. He couldn't say he was surprised that he was in this particular case, though he couldn't say he would have expected for him to agree as much as he had so far in her upbringing. Sadly, always agreeing in what was best for her was not something they would always do and this fact came up immediately after.
"Ka-chan, nooo..." He whined softly, rubbing the spot the older blond had just flicked. "Don't teach her it's okay to hurt people..." He added, knowing he'd probably get chewed out for the correction, but to this day it seemed that inciting Katsuki's wrath still wasn't a deterrent.
The reaction the little girl got out of the greenette for her curiosity was definitely not what she would have expected. He frowned in concentration, honestly thinking about it. "I don't know very much about your quirk, but it would really depend on your control and how exactly your quirk works. From what I understand, your quirk centers around you, though I don't know where you emmit your quirk from. If it's from your hands like Ka-chan, then you could control the direction of detonation, but if it's in all directions, then it's a lot harder to control. With the assumption that you could concentrate the blast in a particular direction... Well, again it comes down to your control I guess. If your quirk is all or nothing, then it doesn't matter if you can point it, anyone within range that isn't durable enough would be obliterated at close range considering the collateral damage at the museum... Oh. I wonder if you would leave those shadows if you're powerful enough..." By this point he wasn't even looking at her, head bowing a little and starting to play with his lower lip. A very familiar sight for Katsuki at the very least.
That idea held his interest and he seemed to come back to them, looking down at the little girl. "Have you ever seen the shadows I'm talking about? I'm pretty sure you're not powerful enough to do something like that. I'm not even sure where we would go if you got that strong... I'm sure I can find a picture somewhere, if you don't know what I'm talking about." Of all things to fail to trigger Izuku's shocked response. Seems he couldn't resist interesting quirk theory, regardless of its nature. "But yes, they would definitely die. That's why we have to train together so you can learn both what your limits are and most importantly, fine control. Also... There's easier and more legal ways of getting a skull cup... I know getting a fake one sounds lame, but real born is porous so it would soak up whatever you put in it. There are some really convincing resin ones though, I'm sure. We can look together sometime."
"You were read Lovecraftian bedtime stories." It wasn't a question. Honestly, that explained so much... Somehow he had a feeling that the realization that the Necronomicon wasn't real would be more devastating to this child than finding out Santa didn't exist. Goodness, this little girl was full of not-so-great ideas. Perils of being so intelligent perhaps. Minds as sharp as hers needed proper stimulation and her's had taken a bit of an unusual turn. Now if they could just teach her to keep within legal and safe bounds... Still, like everything else, he noted her wants anyway, ill advised or no.
"Give her more credit. She's very intelligent which means she can learn how to adapt to new situations instead of continuing to make the same mistakes over and over." Picking a fight with the blond when he was trying to get him to quiet down was probably not the best idea, but he needed to get his point across. "Ka-chan, this isn't a privately owned home. The two of us combined couldn't afford that in Tokyo yet. If we get enough noise complaints we can be kicked out and then where will we go? You couldn't afford to move here on your own, much less afford a place big enough for the two of you so you might want to be a little more considerate to our neighbors. I'm already looking into soundproofing for your room so you don't have to give up your drum kit. Once that's all installed you can yell all you want in there."
"You didn't know... Ka-chan I sent you floor plans, pictures, and a list of amenities for all the apartments I found, including this one. You had the final say on which apartment we moved into!" He didn't even know how to feel about this information. They were going to be living in this place, shouldn't he have cared more about what place he picked?! He sighed a bit dramatically and tried not to think about that too much. They were here now regardless and it actually was a really nice apartment. He couldn't help smiling softly when he noticed Akashi going straight for the kotatsu and crawling right under the blanket into the warm space under it. As it wasn't too cold outside he'd only had it at the lowest setting while he ate breakfast. Lucky for the little girl, he'd forgotten to turn it off and the auto-off hadn't kicked in yet so it was nice and toasty under there.
"If you're su---wait. Not much else? This isn't all your stuff. What happened to the rest of it? Where's your drum kit? Is the rest coming later?" He looked honestly confused and a little alarmed. He would have assumed that Bakugou would have wanted to get the move done all in one go so he wouldn't have to deal with his mother in going back again for anything.
He was even more confused about the breakfast request. Window? Well, he supposed that the little girl would be teaching him, possibly tomorrow morning. Oh, and there went Katsuki in a huff... What could he possibly be thinking about to have upset him again? He had no idea and it could be so many things that he just accepted it and tried to move on. Living with him was going to be so stressful... Maybe it would get easier once they were both settled in and they started to avoid each other. The thought alone made his heart ache. He tried not to think about it too hard and instead turned his attention back to the little girl.
"It is a pretty large apartment. There's a really big balcony too, you can see part of it through the sliding glass doors there. It stretches all the way down so that you and your brother share it. I think that's why Ka-chan liked this one. You two can get to each other's rooms directly this way." Before he could ask about the buckets that indeed were confusing him, let alone who Betsy was, he too was distracted by the sound of boots in the hallway, looking over only to see the older blond return and put down what he was carrying. "Ka-chan... We're on the 22nd floor. Use the elevator." He pointed out the obvious.
He watched the exchange over the plant and his heart warmed. That was adorable! When offered the plant, he looked it over and found that it looked very healthy indeed! "Ah, so this is Betsy. Hello! It's very nice to meet you! You're very pretty. I hope you like living with us here." He politely introduced himself to the plant, even smiling for it. "You have a very pretty bow, by the way. Very stylish." He then straightened and motioned for her to follow him, walking over to one of the large windows in the living room. "How about we put her here? The view is very pretty from here and she can watch TV with us if she wants to." He pointed to the TV so she could note the clear view the plant would have from here.
"Oh! Before I forget! I got you two housewarming gifts! I got one for your brother too, but I think I should wait to give him his when he's done bringing your stuff up. Wish he would let me help him, it would go faster... Anyway! How about I give you one of your gifts now and you be good and help us unpack your stuff in your room and when we're done, I'll give you the second gift. I think you'll really like it. For now, let me get the first one for you." He affectionately ruffled her hair then left her side, heading back to his room to fetch her gift. When he returned, he peeked at her from the hallway. "Close your eyes. No cheating!" He urged before coming out of hiding.
Once he'd closed the distance between them, he knelt down and brought the gift out from behind his back as he'd hidden it there in case she peeked early. "You can open your eyes now. I hope you like it." Perched upon his hands was what appeared to be... Well, a yellow ovalish thing. "It's an egg. Why don't you open it up and see what's inside?" He coaxed, handing off the plush toy and pointing out the black zipper along one side.
He was very happy that she was excited to go bug hunting with him, but also felt bad about explaining why she couldn't keep them. Thankfully, Katsuki stepped in so he wouldn't have to try to reason with her. It also occurred to him to add that wild insects like that often carried parasites and wouldn't likely live long. It also occurred to him that the fact they would die and she would be left with a dead bug wasn't as much of a deterrent as it might be with most other children so he thought better of voicing that. Sure enough, she went right on to comment on how they could preserve any dead ones they may find.
While he was used to working with children, he was also very much aware that he failed miserably with certain personality types. That type happened to be ones similar to Katsuki's and it seemed that Akashi had definitely gotten some of that. At the same time, she wasn't a carbon copy of him so he was doing better than he usually did with this personality type. He wasn't quite prepared for how eager she was to break laws though... "Uh... A-Akashi-chan that's not good..." He started, honestly not sure how to even approach that one. At least Ka-chan was there with him once again on that front. He couldn't say he was surprised that he was in this particular case, though he couldn't say he would have expected for him to agree as much as he had so far in her upbringing. Sadly, always agreeing in what was best for her was not something they would always do and this fact came up immediately after.
"Ka-chan, nooo..." He whined softly, rubbing the spot the older blond had just flicked. "Don't teach her it's okay to hurt people..." He added, knowing he'd probably get chewed out for the correction, but to this day it seemed that inciting Katsuki's wrath still wasn't a deterrent.
The reaction the little girl got out of the greenette for her curiosity was definitely not what she would have expected. He frowned in concentration, honestly thinking about it. "I don't know very much about your quirk, but it would really depend on your control and how exactly your quirk works. From what I understand, your quirk centers around you, though I don't know where you emmit your quirk from. If it's from your hands like Ka-chan, then you could control the direction of detonation, but if it's in all directions, then it's a lot harder to control. With the assumption that you could concentrate the blast in a particular direction... Well, again it comes down to your control I guess. If your quirk is all or nothing, then it doesn't matter if you can point it, anyone within range that isn't durable enough would be obliterated at close range considering the collateral damage at the museum... Oh. I wonder if you would leave those shadows if you're powerful enough..." By this point he wasn't even looking at her, head bowing a little and starting to play with his lower lip. A very familiar sight for Katsuki at the very least.
That idea held his interest and he seemed to come back to them, looking down at the little girl. "Have you ever seen the shadows I'm talking about? I'm pretty sure you're not powerful enough to do something like that. I'm not even sure where we would go if you got that strong... I'm sure I can find a picture somewhere, if you don't know what I'm talking about." Of all things to fail to trigger Izuku's shocked response. Seems he couldn't resist interesting quirk theory, regardless of its nature. "But yes, they would definitely die. That's why we have to train together so you can learn both what your limits are and most importantly, fine control. Also... There's easier and more legal ways of getting a skull cup... I know getting a fake one sounds lame, but real born is porous so it would soak up whatever you put in it. There are some really convincing resin ones though, I'm sure. We can look together sometime."
"You were read Lovecraftian bedtime stories." It wasn't a question. Honestly, that explained so much... Somehow he had a feeling that the realization that the Necronomicon wasn't real would be more devastating to this child than finding out Santa didn't exist. Goodness, this little girl was full of not-so-great ideas. Perils of being so intelligent perhaps. Minds as sharp as hers needed proper stimulation and her's had taken a bit of an unusual turn. Now if they could just teach her to keep within legal and safe bounds... Still, like everything else, he noted her wants anyway, ill advised or no.
"Give her more credit. She's very intelligent which means she can learn how to adapt to new situations instead of continuing to make the same mistakes over and over." Picking a fight with the blond when he was trying to get him to quiet down was probably not the best idea, but he needed to get his point across. "Ka-chan, this isn't a privately owned home. The two of us combined couldn't afford that in Tokyo yet. If we get enough noise complaints we can be kicked out and then where will we go? You couldn't afford to move here on your own, much less afford a place big enough for the two of you so you might want to be a little more considerate to our neighbors. I'm already looking into soundproofing for your room so you don't have to give up your drum kit. Once that's all installed you can yell all you want in there."
"You didn't know... Ka-chan I sent you floor plans, pictures, and a list of amenities for all the apartments I found, including this one. You had the final say on which apartment we moved into!" He didn't even know how to feel about this information. They were going to be living in this place, shouldn't he have cared more about what place he picked?! He sighed a bit dramatically and tried not to think about that too much. They were here now regardless and it actually was a really nice apartment. He couldn't help smiling softly when he noticed Akashi going straight for the kotatsu and crawling right under the blanket into the warm space under it. As it wasn't too cold outside he'd only had it at the lowest setting while he ate breakfast. Lucky for the little girl, he'd forgotten to turn it off and the auto-off hadn't kicked in yet so it was nice and toasty under there.
"If you're su---wait. Not much else? This isn't all your stuff. What happened to the rest of it? Where's your drum kit? Is the rest coming later?" He looked honestly confused and a little alarmed. He would have assumed that Bakugou would have wanted to get the move done all in one go so he wouldn't have to deal with his mother in going back again for anything.
He was even more confused about the breakfast request. Window? Well, he supposed that the little girl would be teaching him, possibly tomorrow morning. Oh, and there went Katsuki in a huff... What could he possibly be thinking about to have upset him again? He had no idea and it could be so many things that he just accepted it and tried to move on. Living with him was going to be so stressful... Maybe it would get easier once they were both settled in and they started to avoid each other. The thought alone made his heart ache. He tried not to think about it too hard and instead turned his attention back to the little girl.
"It is a pretty large apartment. There's a really big balcony too, you can see part of it through the sliding glass doors there. It stretches all the way down so that you and your brother share it. I think that's why Ka-chan liked this one. You two can get to each other's rooms directly this way." Before he could ask about the buckets that indeed were confusing him, let alone who Betsy was, he too was distracted by the sound of boots in the hallway, looking over only to see the older blond return and put down what he was carrying. "Ka-chan... We're on the 22nd floor. Use the elevator." He pointed out the obvious.
He watched the exchange over the plant and his heart warmed. That was adorable! When offered the plant, he looked it over and found that it looked very healthy indeed! "Ah, so this is Betsy. Hello! It's very nice to meet you! You're very pretty. I hope you like living with us here." He politely introduced himself to the plant, even smiling for it. "You have a very pretty bow, by the way. Very stylish." He then straightened and motioned for her to follow him, walking over to one of the large windows in the living room. "How about we put her here? The view is very pretty from here and she can watch TV with us if she wants to." He pointed to the TV so she could note the clear view the plant would have from here.
"Oh! Before I forget! I got you two housewarming gifts! I got one for your brother too, but I think I should wait to give him his when he's done bringing your stuff up. Wish he would let me help him, it would go faster... Anyway! How about I give you one of your gifts now and you be good and help us unpack your stuff in your room and when we're done, I'll give you the second gift. I think you'll really like it. For now, let me get the first one for you." He affectionately ruffled her hair then left her side, heading back to his room to fetch her gift. When he returned, he peeked at her from the hallway. "Close your eyes. No cheating!" He urged before coming out of hiding.
Once he'd closed the distance between them, he knelt down and brought the gift out from behind his back as he'd hidden it there in case she peeked early. "You can open your eyes now. I hope you like it." Perched upon his hands was what appeared to be... Well, a yellow ovalish thing. "It's an egg. Why don't you open it up and see what's inside?" He coaxed, handing off the plush toy and pointing out the black zipper along one side.
Deku|266B53|Shouto|719CC2|Dabi|367F88|Baku|E7771C|Kiri|C72B20|Mina|A7637C|Kami|E5BD67|Sero|EBA43B|Jirou|D3464F|Toko|7A67B6|Shouji|709099|Tetsu|7B8191|Neito|8793AA|Kama|5A8A44|Shin|635EA1|Tenko|5C5B6B|Toad|80BF80|Sun|B4952A|Moon|322B63|Peter|03466C|TK|809A51|Mochi|FA53A6|Togi|87CEEB
Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
“I still don’t get how anybody could make fun of you Deku-kun! You’re so nice! But thank you for saying that, it does make me feel a little better…” Akashi muttered, pulling him in for another hug. Burying her face into his shirt, trying not to let those wobbly tears spill over. Katsuki didn’t say another word, averting his eyes at the casual display of affection, knowing any of the garbage he had to add to the conversation would be tainted with his own warped perceptions and wouldn’t help matters in the slightest.
If there was one skill katsuki had tried his hardest to develop over the years, it was the ability to hold his goddamn tongue. He didn’t have to stop being an ill tempered asshole if he could just put a sock in it and hide it, right? It wasn’t his problem everyone was so sensitive, but if he didn’t stop himself from saying whatever he knew it wouldn’t get him far at all. But, applying that to her felt wrong. Of course she was sensitive, she was a child. She needed to be, she needed love and affection and he wasn’t about to belittle her for that, let alone for showing normal emotions. He remembered just how much his own mother berating him for that kind of shit had screwed him up, and just because the older members of the Bakugou family were above that mushy shit didn’t mean that she couldn’t learn from their mistakes and be better and healthier than they ever could. Especially considering the kind of danger that could come with bottling up emotions, he already felt like he was walking on eggshells around them both and knew while that was a necessity to get this situation to be functional, eventually it would cease to work and things would have to change. He would have to change. But, he didn’t have to do that any time soon, so he wasn’t going to worry about it now.
Katsuki didn’t think they’d ever agree on how to deal with her, part of why he hadn’t been bothered to even work shit out with him. In his eyes it simply wouldn’t work, they were just too different. Even if opposites attracted, they certainly shouldn’t raise a fucking kid together. It pissed him off sure, but he’d grown more mature over the years, explosive anger simmering down into a more tired, colder rage. Easier for everyone to handle, even if it still wasn’t ideal. That much was clear from his reaction, considerably less snide and aggressive than he could be. Holding his tongue, as usual.
“Oh fuck off I flicked her head, barely even hurt. God you’re such an only child it fucking hurts, a hell of a lot more than a flick on the head ever will! Ha!” Katsuki rolled his eyes, doing nothing to hide his annoyance, while Akashi held her head and by extension Midoriya’s hand.
“It did so!” She huffed.
“Sure it did kid- Ow!” He yelped, as she jumped up and flicked him on the nose.
“You know what, fair. I deserved that one.”
“Damn straight you deserved it!” She huffed as he rubbed at his nose.
She perked up at the quirk discussion, even if quirks weren’t her area of expertise, she could still appreciate his passion for it and engage him in conversation, she was eager to learn the ins and outs of her quirk. Becoming aware that she did indeed have a quirk had made her a lot more interested in the idea, where originally she’d wrote it off.
“I think it came from my hands last time, but the blast was so big it was kinda hard to tell… they did get kinda glowy though…” She mused, tapping her finger on her chin as she thought.
“Shadows? What do you mean?” She questioned, cocking her head to the side.
“Yeah as cool as a skull would be, I don’t really want to kill anybody. I feel real
bad for hurting my classmates, even if they do suck balls…” She huffed, kicking at nothing on the floor.
...
“Never said she wasn’t, just coming from a place where yelling is the norm means you kinda end up loud. It’s just how it works, hate to break it to you Deku but that’s just how things are.” He retorted, tone icy. Then again, he couldn’t really get a gauge on how she’d react to a different environment. Maybe she would learn, he knew she was certainly smart enough, but on the other hand of the coin he remembered enough about being a dumb kid to know even the brightest bulb in the box could still be dumb as dogshit. That’s what happened when you didn’t have the experience to back up a brain that needed stimulation, smart minds tended to wander and while he’d managed to encourage her interests the best he could he knew that someday she’d be left alone to her own devices and able to do whatever she saw fit. Like dumpster diving. He suppressed a shudder at the thought, while trying to similarly supress the stupid preening inside of him at the fact that even now, Deku was still considerate as hell.
“Ugh, fine. Jesus, you’ll annoy the neighbours with your lecturing, I’ll be quiet, whatever.” he rolled his eyes at Deku’s chiding, but he could admit he had a very valuable point. Probably why he didn’t continue with an angry tirade back. It became harder to do that with Deku’s next round of exasperated critique, but he tried his best.
Don’t say something shitty, don’t say something shitty, don’t say something shitty. Katsuki stumbled around the corners of his head, biting his tongue and repeating that sentiment like a mantra as he tried to work out just how to answer Deku in a way that wouldn’t have him coming off as the most uncooperative asshole in the world, because while Midoriya’s chiding just rolled off Akashi without a second thought, unfortunately it tended to stick to him a little more than that and he really couldn’t handle that right now.
“Yeah I barely skim your messages.”
Fuck.
That was the opposite of the tact he’d tried to scramble for, but hey at least he respected him enough not to lie to him, he lied. He honestly wasn’t sure what to say to him to excuse his careless lack of knowledge, he certainly couldn’t tell him reading his messages had his brain all in such a stupid hormonal tizzy he didn’t have time for, stupid and red faced like a schoolgirl. So instead he fell back on a long developed habit without a shred of remorse.
“You mutter just as much in text as you do in real life and it makes my head swim so just I pick out the details I need. Like the address.” He shrugged, before giving him a cold look. “I’m not gonna apologize.”
Katsuki just rolled his eyes at Midoriya’s confusion, grinding his fangs together lightly. “I got rid of a lot of my shit, my drums are in the trunk with the furniture and all my clothes are in a duffel bag. If it doesn’t fit in the car, it can’t come with. Pretty fucking simple.” He shrugged, before continuing somewhat idly. “My room was pretty small anyway, so most of it is just Akashi’s stuff shoved in the back seat.” And with that he was gone, as if he’d never occupied the space in the first place. A stranger in this house, owning a key and calling it partially his own but never really feeling completed in the space. He couldn’t, couldn’t allow himself to even start to get comfortable here. The lack of the things he’d once held dear made that even more clear to him, an empty room to make it all the more clear the liminal status of this place, not to mention the fact he wasn’t quite sure the size of the next apartment he could get. Downsizing was a strategic move, plain and simple. Don’t have to go back for anything if it no longer exists.
Although Katsuki would never admit it, the isolation between the two of them wasn’t out of genuine malice. Moreso, he’d managed to stem the progression of this stupid bond as much as he could, but the more time he spent with him, the more attached he got, the more it would make him sick and he simply couldn’t afford that. Both couldn’t afford to have Midoriya seeing him waste away in silence, or have it risking the career he’d worked so hard for. If that happened, there wouldn’t be a future for either Akashi or him, no matter what false aid Midoriya wanted to provide as if he was making everything better. Part of him knew coming clean would be the right thing to do, but it would be much too painful to even imagine the look on his face. How would he even broach that topic? It felt impossible!
He knew Midoriya may not like him much, for all he’d done to him, Katsuki wouldn’t blame him for that. He was honestly surprised he cared enough about him now, he knew if it were him he’d leave him to rot in the dirt. Fear and terror were hard emotions to shake, after all. Even now, he wouldn’t blame him for being scared of him, of the sheer damage he could cause. But something like this? This was more than violence for violence’s sake, this was twisted dishonesty. A lie that ran this deep wasn’t something anybody could forgive. Izuku would hate him, truly hate him after this. If he was particularly unlucky he didn’t doubt Midoriya would up and run off with his kid, clearly he had no qualms about uprooting her from her life so what was stopping him from doing something like that? It would only be fair, in a sense considering he’d kept her away from him. It would simply be a taste of his own medicine to have her ripped away, even if it was a different sort of loss. A loss for what never had the chance to be, compared to loss of everything he’d worked so hard to build. There was no way this could end well, regardless of how he went about it. It would be easier to take the choice of lesser evils, and continue living this terrible lie. He was much too far into it, caught up in it to ever think of undoing the mess he’d caused.
Not to mention that terrible part of him that he blamed on his mark fully without any insight to the fact that it was absolutely connected to something much deeper inside of him that had existed long before the man’s teeth had ever met the junction of his neck, the part of him that would anguish and mourn Midoriya if he were to leave again. The part of him that truly cared even if he’d go to the end of the earth to deny it. The same bitter loss he’d experienced leaving his mate the first time, he knew it would all be so much worse and he didn’t think he could take that again.
“Oh my god that means I can get midnight snacks with Kacchan! That’s such a good idea! He may not appreciate your genius, but I certainly do Deku-kun!” Akashi grinned, pumping her fist at the prospect of just how much freedom that balcony would afford her. She grabbed the plate Katsuki had set down and began eating “Man, these midnight snacks are gonna be great if your eggs are anything to go by!” She laughed, wolfing down the food without a second thought while Katsuki started sorting out the second load he’d brought with him on his voyage up the stairs.
“...There’s a fucking elevator.” Katsuki breathed, scrunching up his face and letting out a long sigh. God fucking damn it of course there was an elevator how dumb could he be?
“You tell me that now!? Are you fucking kidding me?” he hissed, throwing up his hands in indignation. Small, pop-rock like sparks coming off of his fingertips, remnants of a frowned upon habit he’d tried to shake as he stormed back out into the hallway, this time taking the elevator down.
The plant, due to the fact it was a plant, gave no response. But Akashi felt more than comfortable replying for it, “That’s nice of you to say! She likes the green of your hair, and the ability to watch television too!” Akashi laughed, keeping a close eye on Midoriya while he moved the precious plant over to her new home.
“Oh my! The view is very pretty! This way we can sit together while I do homework!” Akashi smiled, clapping her hands together. “And it means I can watch TV instead too… hehe…” She snickered, going back over to the plate of eggs and wolfing down the rest of it before grabbing the plate and putting it in the sink.
“Aw okay!” She huffed at the mention of a surprise, she liked surprises but was pretty impatient despite that enjoyment of surprised, as most children were. The anticipation simultaneously part of the fun and frustration. She covered her eyes with her hands, rocking on her heels. Eyes flicking open and lighting up at the small plush orb set in his outstretched hands. She took it and immediately zipped it open, letting out a gasp. “Huh?”
“Oh! A larva, and- oh my gosh that’s so cool! Aaa thank you so much Deku! You remembered!!” She grinned, after unzipping it and further folding it open to reveal the bright red color and accurate spots on the ladybug’s soft carapace. Jumping on the spot from her excitement as she held it close.
“Her name is Gerold now, and I think she’d made a fantastic hat.” She stated plainly, giving Gerold a small hug before placing her gently on her head. It was at that point that Katsuki came back up, dragging the next load of boxes in. Having taken off his jacket so he could drag his drumset in without having to balance everything precariously in his arms and risk dropping something, and that method allowed him to transport Akashi’s strange smelling maceration buckets up too. He turned to the girl, raising a brow.
“...Why the fuck are you wearing a ladybug on your head…”
“Why aren’t you Kacchan?” She replied cooly, giving Gerold a small pat on his position on her head, nestled in fluffy blonde locks.
“...I…” Katsuki stopped dead in his tracks, dumbfounded at the question for a moment. What? His first instinct was to snap out something snide, but he held his tongue and instead shrugged. “I don’t know?”
“Exactly Kacchan, maybe you would benefit from having a stylish hat sometime you know!” Akashi laughed and Katsuki simply rolled his eyes.
“Jesus, well you’re certainly being a suck up, ha? You didn’t have to get anything you know, you’ve already done enough setting this stuff up.” He sneered, turning his attention to Midoriya. It was unclear whether ‘done enough’ was out of gratitude or resentment. Probably both. He didn’t even know why he was angry, seeing the girl’s face light up at his gift. He should be happy, but yet his stomach was tied up in knots. Alight with what, bitter jealously? It was petty and stupid and he knew it, but it didn’t change anything. It pissed him off, of course it did. Seeing Deku bonding with his kid like that, completely unaware of the plans and machinations behind the strings, every ugly motive and emotion he kept hidden. It hurt, he’d never been able to be open and honest about things and here Deku was coming in and trying to replace him because his word was oh so fan-fucking-tastic. What a goddamn joke.
Jesus he was too tired for this shit, he mused as he made his way back the fuck down the stairs. Chugging an old cup of coffee he found in the cupholder of his car, grimacing as the nasty liquid went down. It was black and tasted like shit anyway, and it wasn’t like it smelt off or anything. Didn’t stop him from gagging as he swallowed it down, but eh. He wasn’t about to ruin it with milk and sugar. Lighting up a cigarette while he was down there, finishing it by the time he’d started to lug the flat packed dismantled furniture out of the car, thank god for ikea. And thank god for the newly discovered elevator, it would make this process so much easier. See he didn’t need Deku’s help! He could do this all on his own.
If there was one skill katsuki had tried his hardest to develop over the years, it was the ability to hold his goddamn tongue. He didn’t have to stop being an ill tempered asshole if he could just put a sock in it and hide it, right? It wasn’t his problem everyone was so sensitive, but if he didn’t stop himself from saying whatever he knew it wouldn’t get him far at all. But, applying that to her felt wrong. Of course she was sensitive, she was a child. She needed to be, she needed love and affection and he wasn’t about to belittle her for that, let alone for showing normal emotions. He remembered just how much his own mother berating him for that kind of shit had screwed him up, and just because the older members of the Bakugou family were above that mushy shit didn’t mean that she couldn’t learn from their mistakes and be better and healthier than they ever could. Especially considering the kind of danger that could come with bottling up emotions, he already felt like he was walking on eggshells around them both and knew while that was a necessity to get this situation to be functional, eventually it would cease to work and things would have to change. He would have to change. But, he didn’t have to do that any time soon, so he wasn’t going to worry about it now.
Katsuki didn’t think they’d ever agree on how to deal with her, part of why he hadn’t been bothered to even work shit out with him. In his eyes it simply wouldn’t work, they were just too different. Even if opposites attracted, they certainly shouldn’t raise a fucking kid together. It pissed him off sure, but he’d grown more mature over the years, explosive anger simmering down into a more tired, colder rage. Easier for everyone to handle, even if it still wasn’t ideal. That much was clear from his reaction, considerably less snide and aggressive than he could be. Holding his tongue, as usual.
“Oh fuck off I flicked her head, barely even hurt. God you’re such an only child it fucking hurts, a hell of a lot more than a flick on the head ever will! Ha!” Katsuki rolled his eyes, doing nothing to hide his annoyance, while Akashi held her head and by extension Midoriya’s hand.
“It did so!” She huffed.
“Sure it did kid- Ow!” He yelped, as she jumped up and flicked him on the nose.
“You know what, fair. I deserved that one.”
“Damn straight you deserved it!” She huffed as he rubbed at his nose.
She perked up at the quirk discussion, even if quirks weren’t her area of expertise, she could still appreciate his passion for it and engage him in conversation, she was eager to learn the ins and outs of her quirk. Becoming aware that she did indeed have a quirk had made her a lot more interested in the idea, where originally she’d wrote it off.
“I think it came from my hands last time, but the blast was so big it was kinda hard to tell… they did get kinda glowy though…” She mused, tapping her finger on her chin as she thought.
“Shadows? What do you mean?” She questioned, cocking her head to the side.
“Yeah as cool as a skull would be, I don’t really want to kill anybody. I feel real
bad for hurting my classmates, even if they do suck balls…” She huffed, kicking at nothing on the floor.
...
“Never said she wasn’t, just coming from a place where yelling is the norm means you kinda end up loud. It’s just how it works, hate to break it to you Deku but that’s just how things are.” He retorted, tone icy. Then again, he couldn’t really get a gauge on how she’d react to a different environment. Maybe she would learn, he knew she was certainly smart enough, but on the other hand of the coin he remembered enough about being a dumb kid to know even the brightest bulb in the box could still be dumb as dogshit. That’s what happened when you didn’t have the experience to back up a brain that needed stimulation, smart minds tended to wander and while he’d managed to encourage her interests the best he could he knew that someday she’d be left alone to her own devices and able to do whatever she saw fit. Like dumpster diving. He suppressed a shudder at the thought, while trying to similarly supress the stupid preening inside of him at the fact that even now, Deku was still considerate as hell.
“Ugh, fine. Jesus, you’ll annoy the neighbours with your lecturing, I’ll be quiet, whatever.” he rolled his eyes at Deku’s chiding, but he could admit he had a very valuable point. Probably why he didn’t continue with an angry tirade back. It became harder to do that with Deku’s next round of exasperated critique, but he tried his best.
Don’t say something shitty, don’t say something shitty, don’t say something shitty. Katsuki stumbled around the corners of his head, biting his tongue and repeating that sentiment like a mantra as he tried to work out just how to answer Deku in a way that wouldn’t have him coming off as the most uncooperative asshole in the world, because while Midoriya’s chiding just rolled off Akashi without a second thought, unfortunately it tended to stick to him a little more than that and he really couldn’t handle that right now.
“Yeah I barely skim your messages.”
Fuck.
That was the opposite of the tact he’d tried to scramble for, but hey at least he respected him enough not to lie to him, he lied. He honestly wasn’t sure what to say to him to excuse his careless lack of knowledge, he certainly couldn’t tell him reading his messages had his brain all in such a stupid hormonal tizzy he didn’t have time for, stupid and red faced like a schoolgirl. So instead he fell back on a long developed habit without a shred of remorse.
“You mutter just as much in text as you do in real life and it makes my head swim so just I pick out the details I need. Like the address.” He shrugged, before giving him a cold look. “I’m not gonna apologize.”
Katsuki just rolled his eyes at Midoriya’s confusion, grinding his fangs together lightly. “I got rid of a lot of my shit, my drums are in the trunk with the furniture and all my clothes are in a duffel bag. If it doesn’t fit in the car, it can’t come with. Pretty fucking simple.” He shrugged, before continuing somewhat idly. “My room was pretty small anyway, so most of it is just Akashi’s stuff shoved in the back seat.” And with that he was gone, as if he’d never occupied the space in the first place. A stranger in this house, owning a key and calling it partially his own but never really feeling completed in the space. He couldn’t, couldn’t allow himself to even start to get comfortable here. The lack of the things he’d once held dear made that even more clear to him, an empty room to make it all the more clear the liminal status of this place, not to mention the fact he wasn’t quite sure the size of the next apartment he could get. Downsizing was a strategic move, plain and simple. Don’t have to go back for anything if it no longer exists.
Although Katsuki would never admit it, the isolation between the two of them wasn’t out of genuine malice. Moreso, he’d managed to stem the progression of this stupid bond as much as he could, but the more time he spent with him, the more attached he got, the more it would make him sick and he simply couldn’t afford that. Both couldn’t afford to have Midoriya seeing him waste away in silence, or have it risking the career he’d worked so hard for. If that happened, there wouldn’t be a future for either Akashi or him, no matter what false aid Midoriya wanted to provide as if he was making everything better. Part of him knew coming clean would be the right thing to do, but it would be much too painful to even imagine the look on his face. How would he even broach that topic? It felt impossible!
He knew Midoriya may not like him much, for all he’d done to him, Katsuki wouldn’t blame him for that. He was honestly surprised he cared enough about him now, he knew if it were him he’d leave him to rot in the dirt. Fear and terror were hard emotions to shake, after all. Even now, he wouldn’t blame him for being scared of him, of the sheer damage he could cause. But something like this? This was more than violence for violence’s sake, this was twisted dishonesty. A lie that ran this deep wasn’t something anybody could forgive. Izuku would hate him, truly hate him after this. If he was particularly unlucky he didn’t doubt Midoriya would up and run off with his kid, clearly he had no qualms about uprooting her from her life so what was stopping him from doing something like that? It would only be fair, in a sense considering he’d kept her away from him. It would simply be a taste of his own medicine to have her ripped away, even if it was a different sort of loss. A loss for what never had the chance to be, compared to loss of everything he’d worked so hard to build. There was no way this could end well, regardless of how he went about it. It would be easier to take the choice of lesser evils, and continue living this terrible lie. He was much too far into it, caught up in it to ever think of undoing the mess he’d caused.
Not to mention that terrible part of him that he blamed on his mark fully without any insight to the fact that it was absolutely connected to something much deeper inside of him that had existed long before the man’s teeth had ever met the junction of his neck, the part of him that would anguish and mourn Midoriya if he were to leave again. The part of him that truly cared even if he’d go to the end of the earth to deny it. The same bitter loss he’d experienced leaving his mate the first time, he knew it would all be so much worse and he didn’t think he could take that again.
“Oh my god that means I can get midnight snacks with Kacchan! That’s such a good idea! He may not appreciate your genius, but I certainly do Deku-kun!” Akashi grinned, pumping her fist at the prospect of just how much freedom that balcony would afford her. She grabbed the plate Katsuki had set down and began eating “Man, these midnight snacks are gonna be great if your eggs are anything to go by!” She laughed, wolfing down the food without a second thought while Katsuki started sorting out the second load he’d brought with him on his voyage up the stairs.
“...There’s a fucking elevator.” Katsuki breathed, scrunching up his face and letting out a long sigh. God fucking damn it of course there was an elevator how dumb could he be?
“You tell me that now!? Are you fucking kidding me?” he hissed, throwing up his hands in indignation. Small, pop-rock like sparks coming off of his fingertips, remnants of a frowned upon habit he’d tried to shake as he stormed back out into the hallway, this time taking the elevator down.
The plant, due to the fact it was a plant, gave no response. But Akashi felt more than comfortable replying for it, “That’s nice of you to say! She likes the green of your hair, and the ability to watch television too!” Akashi laughed, keeping a close eye on Midoriya while he moved the precious plant over to her new home.
“Oh my! The view is very pretty! This way we can sit together while I do homework!” Akashi smiled, clapping her hands together. “And it means I can watch TV instead too… hehe…” She snickered, going back over to the plate of eggs and wolfing down the rest of it before grabbing the plate and putting it in the sink.
“Aw okay!” She huffed at the mention of a surprise, she liked surprises but was pretty impatient despite that enjoyment of surprised, as most children were. The anticipation simultaneously part of the fun and frustration. She covered her eyes with her hands, rocking on her heels. Eyes flicking open and lighting up at the small plush orb set in his outstretched hands. She took it and immediately zipped it open, letting out a gasp. “Huh?”
“Oh! A larva, and- oh my gosh that’s so cool! Aaa thank you so much Deku! You remembered!!” She grinned, after unzipping it and further folding it open to reveal the bright red color and accurate spots on the ladybug’s soft carapace. Jumping on the spot from her excitement as she held it close.
“Her name is Gerold now, and I think she’d made a fantastic hat.” She stated plainly, giving Gerold a small hug before placing her gently on her head. It was at that point that Katsuki came back up, dragging the next load of boxes in. Having taken off his jacket so he could drag his drumset in without having to balance everything precariously in his arms and risk dropping something, and that method allowed him to transport Akashi’s strange smelling maceration buckets up too. He turned to the girl, raising a brow.
“...Why the fuck are you wearing a ladybug on your head…”
“Why aren’t you Kacchan?” She replied cooly, giving Gerold a small pat on his position on her head, nestled in fluffy blonde locks.
“...I…” Katsuki stopped dead in his tracks, dumbfounded at the question for a moment. What? His first instinct was to snap out something snide, but he held his tongue and instead shrugged. “I don’t know?”
“Exactly Kacchan, maybe you would benefit from having a stylish hat sometime you know!” Akashi laughed and Katsuki simply rolled his eyes.
“Jesus, well you’re certainly being a suck up, ha? You didn’t have to get anything you know, you’ve already done enough setting this stuff up.” He sneered, turning his attention to Midoriya. It was unclear whether ‘done enough’ was out of gratitude or resentment. Probably both. He didn’t even know why he was angry, seeing the girl’s face light up at his gift. He should be happy, but yet his stomach was tied up in knots. Alight with what, bitter jealously? It was petty and stupid and he knew it, but it didn’t change anything. It pissed him off, of course it did. Seeing Deku bonding with his kid like that, completely unaware of the plans and machinations behind the strings, every ugly motive and emotion he kept hidden. It hurt, he’d never been able to be open and honest about things and here Deku was coming in and trying to replace him because his word was oh so fan-fucking-tastic. What a goddamn joke.
Jesus he was too tired for this shit, he mused as he made his way back the fuck down the stairs. Chugging an old cup of coffee he found in the cupholder of his car, grimacing as the nasty liquid went down. It was black and tasted like shit anyway, and it wasn’t like it smelt off or anything. Didn’t stop him from gagging as he swallowed it down, but eh. He wasn’t about to ruin it with milk and sugar. Lighting up a cigarette while he was down there, finishing it by the time he’d started to lug the flat packed dismantled furniture out of the car, thank god for ikea. And thank god for the newly discovered elevator, it would make this process so much easier. See he didn’t need Deku’s help! He could do this all on his own.
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NicTheDjinn
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Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
"Heh... Thank you." He was smiled softly as she hugged him, sure enough returning the gesture. Hugs were always nice... "A lot of people did make fun of me though. Mostly because my quirk didn't manifest till I was way older. Most people's quirks show up no later than the age of four. Like Ka-chan got his when he was three. Some people are even born with their quirks already manifested. You're a really late bloomer, but not like me. I used my quirk for the first time when I was fifteen. With each new generation, being quirkless is rarer and rarer. People... Well, they don't like things that are different from them. It isn't right, but it's a reality in our world. All we can do is stand up for what's right and help those people." He started to rest a freckled cheek on the top of her head, rocking her a little.
"All we can do is be our best selves, okay? To do that, we have to let ourselves feel or we won't know who we are. It's not easy to do though. Getting to know yourself and being yourself can hurt, but that's okay. It's okay to feel hurt or upset. Those are natural things to feel and you should let yourself feel them. It's all about balance. That's how it works out. You need to feel all your emotions, the good and the bad, but you can't let any of them rule your life. If you cry literally all the time, you're right, you'll get nothing done, but you need to cry because keeping it all in will poison you from the inside." He leaned back to look at her then with a soft smile still playing on his lips. "But, the opposite is true too. If you play all the time because it feels good, you also don't get anything done. You need to do things that make you happy, but you also need to work hard so you can have a happy life overall. Does that make sense?"
He looked generally exasperated when the forehead flick was defended like he knew it would be. Needless to say, he allowed his hand to be held in place by little ones. "Ka-chan, you don't have to be an only child to realize that hurting other people is wrong and you should only do it when there isn't any other choi---" And there she went retaliating. "See? Look at what you're teaching her. Aka-chan... Please, don't do that, it's not nice..." He chided gentle, though he knew better than to try and comfort Katsuki's sore nose like he'd done with her forehead. That was asking to lose fingers and those had seen enough abuse in his life already.
Needless to say, when the subject switched to quirks, he was happily lost in it, particularly as he seemed to have a captive audience. "Ah, so it is from your hands. That should give you more control in the long run. I figured there was a chance that this wasn't the case as this trait is more unique to your brother as your parents both emit their quirks from all over. The way quirks evolve is so fascinating... Anyway, being able to emit your quirk from your hands should make it way easier to point your quirk in the direction you want it to go and so control at least some of the collateral damage that may result. With practice, you might even be able to fly the way your brother does, but you'd have to get really good with fine control before you try something like that or you could get really hurt, not to mention hurt other people."
He blinked lightly at her question, then pulled out his phone, clearly searching for something. Soon enough he was turning the phone around to show her a few pictures of what he meant. "These are nuclear shadows or atomic shadows. These are created near powerful nuclear blasts. They're created because the blasts vaporize surfaces and in this way causes a bleaching effect. Sometimes it's just random stuff like this valve. But... Sometimes it's living things. These living things are vaporized entirely at such a close range. This is why it's so important for you to learn to control your quirk. You could potentially hurt many innocent people with a power like yours without even meaning to. Control is super important. At the same time, I'm sure you could do great good with a quirk like this. We'll learn how you can use your quirk to better the world together, okay?"
He chuckled softly, happy to hear that she didn't actually want to hurt people, even if some of her wants might suggest that. "That's good. You shouldn't hurt anyone if you can help it." He praised, glad that she had this foundation in her mind already at least.
.....
"And her intelligence is what would help her learn that just because you see someone else doing something it doesn't mean that it's what you should do too." He countered with a shocking amount of confidence. He hadn't known the little girl for very long in the grand scheme of things, but apparently, he already had a lot of faith in her anyway. Honestly, this was pretty fitting of his personality, even without the time gap between them...
"The soundproofing is good in this complex, we just can't be yelling in the hallway or out on the balcony." He relented with a sigh. They'd gotten lucky there. It was one of the reasons he was sure with some extra soundproofing, Bakugou could even play his drums, a very not quiet instrument. It might not hurt to throw some towels inside them though...
When it was revealed why Bakugou didn't know the apartment very well, he sighed. "Ka-chan, you weren't looking at the apartments with me. How else were you supposed to know what the difference between the apartments was if I didn't detail stuff like that? Three bedrooms, two and a half baths doesn't really tell you much about a place..."
"Aww, you didn't have to get rid of your stuff! Renting a van is only like 2,000 yen a day..." He pointed out wishing he'd known earlier so he could have suggested it before today. Katsuki had been very defensive towards him so he really didn't get to speak to him outside of instances where they were forced to be face to face. He knew even this wouldn't last too very long as once they were all settled, he would only be allowed out of his room when Katsuki wasn't around, as per their agreement.
He chuckled softly at how happy the little girl was about the news in terms of apartment layout. "You could, yeah. You two should look at the rooms and figure out which one will go to who. One is a little bigger than the other so try to be fair to each other, okay?" He flushed at the comment about his eggs, rubbing the back of his neck. "I need to stay in shape and lived by myself in the US so I had to learn to cook, but Ka-chan's probably still much better at it than me."
"Weren't you complaining that I 'muttered' too much about the design of the apartments? We're on the twenty-second floor. It's a high-rise apartment, you can't build a building that's taller than two floors without an elevator. I thought it was common sense that a building with twenty-seven floors would have an elevator. We're heroes Ka-chan. Normal people would never be able to climb that many stairs up and down every day." He shot back defensively. He was used to having Katsuki get angry at him, but this was ridiculous, why wouldn't there be an elevator in a highrise?
"She likes my hair? Oh, thank you Betsy! That's very sweet. I'm sure we'll find plenty of channels you'll enjoy watching with us too." He chuckled softly as the blonde girl marveled at the view and noted that she could slack in her homework from here. He brought a hand up to stage whisper playfully to her. "I used to watch All Might movies when I was supposed to be doing my homework. As long as it gets done on time, it's okay."
When his gift was so well received, he couldn't help smiling wide. He was honestly so very happy that she liked it. Goodness, he even got her hopping! "Well look at that! Gerold does make a very nice hat. I'm sure she'll keep you safe from any plush aphids too." When Katsuki returned, he couldn't help biting his lip at the question only to snort a little and cover his mouth when she so casually turned it around on him. He was quite sure he'd never seen the older blond so quietly let himself be teased. Even when Kaminari teased him in high school, it always got a reaction, even if it was just some glowering. It was good to see how much of a soft spot he had for his little sister.
Ah. So he would take it out on him instead. That was more like what he was used to. "I know I didn't have to, but... I wanted to get housewarming gifts... I got you one too! I was going to give it to you when we were done. I figured you wouldn't appreciate the interruption. I didn't get anything particularly... Well no, the second gift I got for Aka-chan is pretty unique, but I just wanted you guys to feel welcome and have a little something to remind you of this place even when we don't live here anymore, I guess." He shrugged, not sure how to approach this particular problem. "Would you prefer I give it to you now or wait till we're done?"
He wasn't sure how to feel about the situation. It made him happy that Katsuki was acknowledging his efforts, but it was in the same backhanded way most of their interactions went down. A part of him thought that maybe it would be easier for them all if he just gave up, but... He couldn't seem to bring himself to. Well, not much he could do about it right now. And so, he turned his attention to Akashi and the things that were already brought up.
"Come on, we should start unpacking stuff so it will be easier to put away once the furniture and stuff is in. Ka-chan seems really stressed about all this so I think we should be nice and try to make things easier for him. I... I think he'll be happier when you guys are set up and I stay in my room." He admitted, trying to ignore how much that hurt. Though he wasn't done unpacking himself, everything was already in his room in boxes so he would be able to work on his own and out of sight once they were all done. He was sure he could figure out how to organize his collection in there so it wouldn't spill out into the apartment. While he had the most spacious room with the largest closet and nicest bathroom, the apartment itself would be theirs.
"All we can do is be our best selves, okay? To do that, we have to let ourselves feel or we won't know who we are. It's not easy to do though. Getting to know yourself and being yourself can hurt, but that's okay. It's okay to feel hurt or upset. Those are natural things to feel and you should let yourself feel them. It's all about balance. That's how it works out. You need to feel all your emotions, the good and the bad, but you can't let any of them rule your life. If you cry literally all the time, you're right, you'll get nothing done, but you need to cry because keeping it all in will poison you from the inside." He leaned back to look at her then with a soft smile still playing on his lips. "But, the opposite is true too. If you play all the time because it feels good, you also don't get anything done. You need to do things that make you happy, but you also need to work hard so you can have a happy life overall. Does that make sense?"
He looked generally exasperated when the forehead flick was defended like he knew it would be. Needless to say, he allowed his hand to be held in place by little ones. "Ka-chan, you don't have to be an only child to realize that hurting other people is wrong and you should only do it when there isn't any other choi---" And there she went retaliating. "See? Look at what you're teaching her. Aka-chan... Please, don't do that, it's not nice..." He chided gentle, though he knew better than to try and comfort Katsuki's sore nose like he'd done with her forehead. That was asking to lose fingers and those had seen enough abuse in his life already.
Needless to say, when the subject switched to quirks, he was happily lost in it, particularly as he seemed to have a captive audience. "Ah, so it is from your hands. That should give you more control in the long run. I figured there was a chance that this wasn't the case as this trait is more unique to your brother as your parents both emit their quirks from all over. The way quirks evolve is so fascinating... Anyway, being able to emit your quirk from your hands should make it way easier to point your quirk in the direction you want it to go and so control at least some of the collateral damage that may result. With practice, you might even be able to fly the way your brother does, but you'd have to get really good with fine control before you try something like that or you could get really hurt, not to mention hurt other people."
He blinked lightly at her question, then pulled out his phone, clearly searching for something. Soon enough he was turning the phone around to show her a few pictures of what he meant. "These are nuclear shadows or atomic shadows. These are created near powerful nuclear blasts. They're created because the blasts vaporize surfaces and in this way causes a bleaching effect. Sometimes it's just random stuff like this valve. But... Sometimes it's living things. These living things are vaporized entirely at such a close range. This is why it's so important for you to learn to control your quirk. You could potentially hurt many innocent people with a power like yours without even meaning to. Control is super important. At the same time, I'm sure you could do great good with a quirk like this. We'll learn how you can use your quirk to better the world together, okay?"
He chuckled softly, happy to hear that she didn't actually want to hurt people, even if some of her wants might suggest that. "That's good. You shouldn't hurt anyone if you can help it." He praised, glad that she had this foundation in her mind already at least.
.....
"And her intelligence is what would help her learn that just because you see someone else doing something it doesn't mean that it's what you should do too." He countered with a shocking amount of confidence. He hadn't known the little girl for very long in the grand scheme of things, but apparently, he already had a lot of faith in her anyway. Honestly, this was pretty fitting of his personality, even without the time gap between them...
"The soundproofing is good in this complex, we just can't be yelling in the hallway or out on the balcony." He relented with a sigh. They'd gotten lucky there. It was one of the reasons he was sure with some extra soundproofing, Bakugou could even play his drums, a very not quiet instrument. It might not hurt to throw some towels inside them though...
When it was revealed why Bakugou didn't know the apartment very well, he sighed. "Ka-chan, you weren't looking at the apartments with me. How else were you supposed to know what the difference between the apartments was if I didn't detail stuff like that? Three bedrooms, two and a half baths doesn't really tell you much about a place..."
"Aww, you didn't have to get rid of your stuff! Renting a van is only like 2,000 yen a day..." He pointed out wishing he'd known earlier so he could have suggested it before today. Katsuki had been very defensive towards him so he really didn't get to speak to him outside of instances where they were forced to be face to face. He knew even this wouldn't last too very long as once they were all settled, he would only be allowed out of his room when Katsuki wasn't around, as per their agreement.
He chuckled softly at how happy the little girl was about the news in terms of apartment layout. "You could, yeah. You two should look at the rooms and figure out which one will go to who. One is a little bigger than the other so try to be fair to each other, okay?" He flushed at the comment about his eggs, rubbing the back of his neck. "I need to stay in shape and lived by myself in the US so I had to learn to cook, but Ka-chan's probably still much better at it than me."
"Weren't you complaining that I 'muttered' too much about the design of the apartments? We're on the twenty-second floor. It's a high-rise apartment, you can't build a building that's taller than two floors without an elevator. I thought it was common sense that a building with twenty-seven floors would have an elevator. We're heroes Ka-chan. Normal people would never be able to climb that many stairs up and down every day." He shot back defensively. He was used to having Katsuki get angry at him, but this was ridiculous, why wouldn't there be an elevator in a highrise?
"She likes my hair? Oh, thank you Betsy! That's very sweet. I'm sure we'll find plenty of channels you'll enjoy watching with us too." He chuckled softly as the blonde girl marveled at the view and noted that she could slack in her homework from here. He brought a hand up to stage whisper playfully to her. "I used to watch All Might movies when I was supposed to be doing my homework. As long as it gets done on time, it's okay."
When his gift was so well received, he couldn't help smiling wide. He was honestly so very happy that she liked it. Goodness, he even got her hopping! "Well look at that! Gerold does make a very nice hat. I'm sure she'll keep you safe from any plush aphids too." When Katsuki returned, he couldn't help biting his lip at the question only to snort a little and cover his mouth when she so casually turned it around on him. He was quite sure he'd never seen the older blond so quietly let himself be teased. Even when Kaminari teased him in high school, it always got a reaction, even if it was just some glowering. It was good to see how much of a soft spot he had for his little sister.
Ah. So he would take it out on him instead. That was more like what he was used to. "I know I didn't have to, but... I wanted to get housewarming gifts... I got you one too! I was going to give it to you when we were done. I figured you wouldn't appreciate the interruption. I didn't get anything particularly... Well no, the second gift I got for Aka-chan is pretty unique, but I just wanted you guys to feel welcome and have a little something to remind you of this place even when we don't live here anymore, I guess." He shrugged, not sure how to approach this particular problem. "Would you prefer I give it to you now or wait till we're done?"
He wasn't sure how to feel about the situation. It made him happy that Katsuki was acknowledging his efforts, but it was in the same backhanded way most of their interactions went down. A part of him thought that maybe it would be easier for them all if he just gave up, but... He couldn't seem to bring himself to. Well, not much he could do about it right now. And so, he turned his attention to Akashi and the things that were already brought up.
"Come on, we should start unpacking stuff so it will be easier to put away once the furniture and stuff is in. Ka-chan seems really stressed about all this so I think we should be nice and try to make things easier for him. I... I think he'll be happier when you guys are set up and I stay in my room." He admitted, trying to ignore how much that hurt. Though he wasn't done unpacking himself, everything was already in his room in boxes so he would be able to work on his own and out of sight once they were all done. He was sure he could figure out how to organize his collection in there so it wouldn't spill out into the apartment. While he had the most spacious room with the largest closet and nicest bathroom, the apartment itself would be theirs.
Deku|266B53|Shouto|719CC2|Dabi|367F88|Baku|E7771C|Kiri|C72B20|Mina|A7637C|Kami|E5BD67|Sero|EBA43B|Jirou|D3464F|Toko|7A67B6|Shouji|709099|Tetsu|7B8191|Neito|8793AA|Kama|5A8A44|Shin|635EA1|Tenko|5C5B6B|Toad|80BF80|Sun|B4952A|Moon|322B63|Peter|03466C|TK|809A51|Mochi|FA53A6|Togi|87CEEB
Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense... “ Akashi sighed, looking up at him. Taking solace in his embrace, hugs really were nice and Midoriya did have a point, if you did nothing but have fun, you’d have nothing to compare it too. That happiness would become empty and bleak, the same with sadness. If you were sad all the time, there wouldn’t be any fun in life. It was a good lesson to be imparted, even she could see that. Life was all about balancing things. “Thank you Deku-kun…” She smiled, pulling back from the hug.
“It’s really not fair just how mean some people can be, you know? Why are they do much better than us for not getting our quirks at the same time as everyone else…” She huffed, honestly frustrated at the fact of the world.
Katsuki just rolled his eyes at his disapproval of the head flick, giving his nose one last rub before moving his hand away. Sharing the same headstrong trait with the little girl of ‘i don’t care about what you think’ and it was abundantly clear in the way he scoffed and replied in a harsh tone. “What I’m teaching her? Oh fuck off, jesus can you not freak out over every little thing for a second. She’s not even your kid, loosen the fuck up.” And with that, he didn’t continue the argument further, instead just idly listening to them talking about quirks in a cold sweat.
The comment about where her quirk originated from had his heart racing, Midoriya was getting just a little too close to the truth for his comfort. Just standing there, freaking the fuck out internally and praying that Midoriya didn’t keep digging into that one and really did just chock it up to the weird ways quirks could evolve.
“It really is! There’s a girl in my class who can pop her eyeballs out of her head and still see, isn’t that weird? Everyone said quirks were so fun and all, but honestly I felt pretty normal even before getting mine. Well, normal-ish.” Akashi laughed, getting into the swing of the subject. Quirks were awfully fascinating after all, even the weird ones. “She put an eyeball in my bento once, that was pretty gross… the joke’s on her though because she got wasabi on it and had to go to the nurse’s office!”
“Wait I might be able to *fly?* Oh my gosh that’s so cool!” She grinned, face lighting up at the thought. Caught in a small daydream of flying around her classroom, providing she wouldn’t get everyone sick in the process. She turned to her older brother, grabbing onto his sleeve and bouncing on the spot.
“Can you show me how to do it Kacchan! Please please please!”
Katsuki had to snap himself out of his stunned stupor, still caught up in it and not completely aware he was being asked a question as his brain went into panic mode. He blinked, snapping back to reality and trying to keep his tone even and calm as he addressed her “...I...I think you should work out how to use your quirk in the first place, I can teach you once you have that down. Even I couldn’t fly right away, it takes a lot of conscious effort and you have to understand the physics behind it… It’s not as simple as just bam! Flying. There’s a lot more to it than that and you’d probably blow your hands up if you tried it now.”
She looked a little perturbed at that statement, glancing down at her hands and cringing. But that feeling was made all the more worse as Midoriya started explaining the shadow effect.
“That’s horrible… they just get frozen there…?” Akashi gaped, eyes wide as she listened intently to Midoriya’s explanation, looking at the disturbing images. While they weren’t graphic, they were a little traumatising and the girl found herself looking at her hands in genuine fear. She’d always looked up to her brother’s quirk, incredibly destructive but incredibly strong. It was admirable, that he’d put his power into doing something to help everyone. Even if his reasons weren’t as genuinely altruistic as Midoriya’s, she still respected him for what he did. Her brother’s explosions too could kill people if used improperly, but at least that seemed to have some sort of purpose. But hers… her’s felt disgusting, vile. Like she was just a weapon down the fibres of her being, countless atrocities ingrained in her biology. The ability to fucking turn her friends and family to nothing but shadows of what they’d been if she slipped up, lost control. She knew lots of people had dangerous quirks, and that Midoriya was here to train her for just that reason but it still had her in a cold sweat as she looked over the imprints of these people, ghosts on the rubble of a decimated city.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right... Like nuclear power or something, I know they have those!” She tried to see the bright side of the situation, take hope in his words. She was sure he could help her get this under control, they didn’t have any other option. But she couldn’t hide the way her voice wobbled. “Thank you for your help Deku-kun!”
...
“Yeah, okay. Whatever. I don’t have the fucking energy to argue, jeez.” Katsuki just rolled his eyes, no longer having the energy to argue on that particular point considering he didn’t really have a tangible leg to stand on.
“Fine, I’ll just yell inside. That’ll work too.” He said facetiously, hell maybe he’d play his drums in the early hours of the morning just to piss Midoriya off. Akashi could sleep through a hurricane after all, so she wouldn’t be affected if he decided to be a petty bastard.
“Hey maybe you need more information than that, but I just need to know where I’m supposed to be going and that’s it. Do you expect tons of information on your contracts for work? Or do they just tell you where to go and what to do?” He tried to retort, excusing his lack of knowledge on the subject in a way he hoped Deku would find somewhat palatable, if only to shut him up about it. Yeah yeah, maybe he should have paid more attention. It was too late for that now so what was the point in arguing about it, but that didn’t stop his pride from firing back a retort however.
And like the elevator situation, Katsuki immediately went on the defense. As usual. Rolling his eyes dramatically at Midoriya’s feigned concern, god who even cared. He’d already done it, there was no point in dwelling on it now. “It’s fine, I wasn’t using half of that shit anyway.”
He felt a little bit bad about the nature of their agreement, but then again Midoriya had consented to those terms. He only had himself to blame for how he was feeling. He wasn’t about to get bogged down on worrying about how Midoriya felt on something he’d knowingly walked into, just like he wasn’t about to get caught up in his own regrets. They’d made their beds and now they had to lie in them.
The mention of the room had Akashi’s face lighting up with a competitive glare, a sneaky grin on her face. She at least had the decency to wait until Katsuki had returned, before stating-
“Over my dead body, Deku-kun. First one to the room gets it, last one there is a rotten egg!” And with that she bolted, nearly toppling the plate of food she’d been holding in her rush to get the biggest room. Katsuki had to rush to grab it before it hit the floor from where she’d knocked it, managing to catch it without spilling. Usually, Katsuki wouldn’t ‘lose’ anything, ever. And he certainly made a break for it, hot on her heels until he got about halfway there and he stopped in his tracks as she skidded around the corners of the hallway dramatically, trying to get to the best room as fast as she possibly could. Katsuki watched her run for it and just turned on his heel once he was out of her field of vision, putting a hand over his face and trying to make his faux fight for the second best room in the house seem authentic for her sake. She’d brag about it to no end afterwards of course, but he didn’t really care. He knew he’d definitely have space for everything he’d brought with him, and with the size of her bed it would be a lot more practical for her to get the bigger room.
“Fuck, goddamn oh! How will I ever survive.” He yelled in feigned sorrow, before letting out a snort and rolling his eyes. He really did have a soft spot for the girl. Letting himself sit in a moment of bemusement before sneering harshly at Midoriya, flipping from pretty calm and content to kinda pissy in a split second, anger rising in him quickly and explosively.
“Oh I’m sorry I don’t know fucking high rise building codes, fuck will you get off my ass for one fucking second holy shit! You mutter too much in general, any of that shit is going to fry my brain like a fucking egg. Do it if you want but don’t expect people to keep up with it.” He snapped, spinning the argument on him on his way out without a second thought. Frustrated as he stormed back down, giving one last parting remark as he headed out the door. “And I don’t know, maybe it’d be good exercise! Who knows! Some fucking elevator it is in the fucking corner...”
“She seems to like gardening shows and late night infomercials!” Akashi stated matter-of-factly once Katsuki was gone, adjusting Betsy where she sat on the sil. Letting out a dramatic gasp when Midoriya whispered in her ear, looking up at him with starry eyes like a student who’d just seen their schoolteacher out drinking at a bar.
“Oh my god. Even adults break the rules…” She said, awestruck.
Katsuki snickered at Midoriya’s little laugh at his sister’s taunting but surprisingly didn’t go him. This time. Midoriya could laugh all he wanted, it was fair enough. It was kinda funny after all, even he’d admit to that.
“Doesn’t he? Very fashionable if I do say so myself! I could be on the cover of a fancy gossip magazine!” Akashi laughed, spinning around on the spot. Striking a few poses before bursting out into laughter at the silliness of it. Katsuki couldn’t suppress a grin of his own, it was admittedly nice to see her so happy, even if he’d give her a bit of shit for her strange antics. Their dynamic was a strange one, not quite parental, not quite that of siblings but a weird mix of the two. They cared about each other at least, that much was clear to any onlooker and Katsuki, while he mocked her from time to time in a performative way that felt ‘big brother-y’ never actually took out his anger on her. He wouldn’t dream of it. But he would do it on the next best thing, falling back into old habits.
But even then, he couldn’t be nearly as mean as he had been to Deku. While that had once been the most natural thing in the world to him, likely caused by a predisposition to violence (A predisposition he could now manage by smashing the skulls of criminal’s together, which served him quite well to sate that particular itch.) but now he just couldn’t. Being a cunt was easy, sure. But he couldn’t always stay in the swing of his performative hatred, sometimes, just sometimes it would fall away beyond his notice. Deku’s strange act of kindness did just that and he found himself standing there, a little stunned.
“Uh… Okay?”
Katsuki didn’t have a fucking clue how to respond, almost frozen in place as he tried to grapple with the discordant information being presented to him. Brain short circuiting as he tried to get a grip. What the hell was Midoriya playing at, the hell was his angle? Getting them *gifts* and shit? He didn’t trust it in the slightest. No way this was just genuine nicety, at best he was being buttered up and at worst Midoriya was on a whole other wavelength and it unsettled him. Playing 5d chess or some shit. This wasn’t how this was supposed to work at all, he was more used to their mutual distance, it was a lot simpler after all. A hundred voices talking in his head, different angles on the situation, all caught in a seemingly endless argument.
This had to be a ruse! It was so obvious! ‘Something to remember them by’ Oh come on that *had* to part of whatever this stupid game was. Or was he just projecting his own two-facedness onto him and he was actually being, surprise surprise, fucking genuine! Who knew? Certainly not Katsuki. Maybe it was a product of the fact he couldn’t be genuine with him, that he thought the same of Deku. But even if this was genuine, it unsettled him. Anybody in their right mind would hate his guts after what he’d put Deku through, mixed with the harsh way he still continued to treat him. The man had said time and time again he did care for him, but Katsuki wasn’t about to fall for that shit. It didn’t make any sense to him, it couldn’t compute and he broke out of the facade for just a moment. Letting something genuine slip through the cracks as he was caught off guard.
“Whenever you want? I don’t really mind. It’s whatever.” He shrugged, voice surprisingly soft- trying to pick his brain that had been fried like an egg and flipped onto the floor and restore it to a usable state capable of intelligent thought.
Katsuki wasn’t sure if he wanted Midoriya to give up in all honesty. It would certainly seem that way on the surface, but then again taking anything at surface value with him was a recipe for getting the wrong idea. He knew Midoriya cared, for some fucking reason. That much was clear in this proposition, he wouldn’t have offered to do this, sacrifice his own happiness if he didn’t care genuinely at least somewhat. They were the same in that regard. He knew on some level his own willingness to go through with this was caused by the very real fear that Midoriya was going to take Akashi to his mother’s and then he’d just never fucking see her again because the house he’d been raising her in for nearly the past decade wasn’t up to Deku’s standards and no way in hell would he let her go back there. But Midoriya’s standards would always feel ham fisted and clunky to him, especially considering he wasn’t privy to the behind the scenes, the fact that Mitsuki was barely even around the girl. And sure, growing up with a ‘mother’ that resented you could cause problems but if that was the case, he’d grown up with that and he’d turned out fine, right?
He’d never admit it to his face, if anything he was content taking it to his grave, but Midoriya’s feelings weren’t unrequited. That much he’d shared with him once before, but that had been a dire mistake. A mistake he’d never make again. Being vulnerable was harder, harder so after all that had happened. Being guarded and closed off was safer, easier. Even if he could see the point in Deku’s drivel about not bottling shit up, that’s not what he was doing. He was just doing the same thing Midoriya did at work, just he kinda had to do it all the time. Never having a break to feel, just moving forward and trying to live his life unburdened by all that repressed shit. He knew on some level he couldn’t keep it up forever, but he’d keep it up for as long as he could. And until then, backhanded bullshit would be his go-to method of interaction. It really did work to make it very clear just where they stood, to reinforce that. So he’d stand by it for now.
And the way he saw it it was simply a lesser of two evils. Better to be hated for his unknown insincerity, better to hurt Deku like this than be honest with him. Because he was 100% sure that would hurt him so much more, doing nothing but confuse him. Life was something that involved hardship and sacrifice, his was no exception and he’d long accepted his lot in it. Just because they’d moved to some fancy apartment and Midoriya was suddenly back in his life didn’t change that fact. It would be so much better to be known as the brutal, aggressive and fucked person he’d tried to project onto the world than be genuine again.
“Okay! Do you want me to help you go through your stuff too Deku-kun” Akashi offered as Katsuki slipped out once again.
She grabbed one of the smaller boxes Katsuki brought in, the furniture still left in a pile by the door, Katsuki bringing pieces of the bed and shelving from the backseat bit by bit as well as the boxes that contained her clothes and books. Just going back and forth without a word while they did their thing, focussed on the task at hand. It was simpler, just doing menial labor instead of bothering with social interaction, once that was all finished and the car was emptied out he’d start unpacking what few things he had.
“Don’t take it too personally, he’s always in a shitty mood. People just aren’t his thing. He should warm up to you eventually, even if he doesn’t really like you now. He’s like a grumpy cat you know? A big cranky meanie when you first meet him, but even big grumpy mean cats can purr, right?” Akashi snickered as she bounded into her newly claimed room, when Katsuki was very much so out of earshot. “Honestly you probably won’t have to do much, he just mopes in his room most of the time when he’s not at work or hanging out with me…”
“Like a grumpy cat!” She grinned, snickering under her breath, dropping the box on the floor and plonking down in front of it to go through it. Inside were over a dozen of differently sized objects, all marked fragile and wrapped in neat and tidy bubble wrap and newspaper. Clearly Katsuki’s work. She peeled the wrapping away from one of the objects and held it aloft in the light with a grin, a meticulously cleaned fox’s skull. “Isn’t he cool? He had face cancer, you can see where it eroded his jaw…” She smiled gently, pointing out a ragged chunk of tumorous bone, it honestly put shiver’s down her spine to look at it. It was kinda weird, the deformed piece of its face, it was cool but still kind of creepy.
“But, you might not even have to shut yourself in your side that often, in the grand scheme of things. I don’t really get it though, why choose to move in with him if you hate each other. Or kinda hate each-other? Dislike seems like a better word, maybe not hate...” She mused, placing the skull back in the box. Thinking ahead for a rare moment, her skulls were really fragile… would it be a good idea to take them out or should she wait until the shelves had been assembled, she would hate it if any of them got stepped on or broken... So she went and grabbed her book box, they would be better to unpack first.
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NicTheDjinn
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Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
"It's not an easy truth, I know, but it really helps a lot. It's okay to feel whatever it is you're feeling at any given time, you just can't let those feelings rule you're life is all. You're such a wonderfully smart girl... You'll get the hang of it in no time I'm sure." He let her go only when she pulled away, ducking his head with a smile when he was thanked. "You're welcome, Aka-chan."
When she went on to mourn how mean some people could be, he nodded, pointedly not addressing Katsuki's own still blatant mean streak. "Fairness doesn't really have much effect on how the world works. It's why there's heroes at all. It's not fair to steal something from a shop. It's not fair to beat up someone that's weaker than you either. These things will happen anyway which is why each individual should do what they can to fight against things like that. The solution isn't always violent though... I know watching heroes beating up villains on TV is exciting, but that sort of stuff accounts for only a small percentage of what can be done. Everyday people can make the world fairer by voting on laws to protect minorities for example. This might be a little much for someone your age though..." He mused, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I don't care who's kid she is. Corporal punishment isn't okay in general. All it's ever been proven to do is lead to mental illness on some level. Teaching her that unnecessary violence is acceptable isn't good. That's particularly true of people with potentially destructive quirks." He pointed out catching himself before pointing out how often he'd gone home and had to explain away injuries to his mother.
"Really?! That's amazing... I wonder how her eye continues to send signals to the brain even after it's been detached... It has to be transmitted somehow. Oh. That's not good! She shouldn't play pranks like that, but was she okay? I suppose it would be easier to wash off an eyeball if it's not in someone's head, but still, that must have been very painful." He resisted the urge to feel too concerned about the girl. This was a past event, there was nothing to be done about it now.
"In theory, yes." He bit his lip as he smiled, watching her happily beg her brother to teach her. Thankfully he gave her a very responsible response. "He's right. Flight, in general, is a very complicated thing and you would be doing it without wings or a tail to help you balance yourself. I learned how to do it by imitating Ka-chan and it was really hard at first and I definitely couldn't do it till I got a lot better at controlling my quirk. He's right about hurting yourself too. When my quirk first manifested, I shattered the bones in one of my arms and both my legs. Worse, I was WAY up in the air at the time. The only reason I didn't die was because a girl that was later one of my classmates saved me. It was really painful... We should definitely start you off small and work you up over time. Control is super important for quirks that can easily hurt people. Like... Ah! You've met Kaminari-kun I'm sure! Even in first year when we just started, he could use up to a maximum of 2 million volts at one time. depending on how he distributes oms and amps, it may only take 42 volts to kill a person outright. He has incredibly fine control though which is why he's so good at stunning, but not killing people. In school, he even learned how to jumpstart a person's heart with his quirk."
Her reactions to the photos worried him. He wanted to make sure she was well aware of how dangerous her quirk was so she wouldn't casually try to use it or put too much energy behind a blast, but there was a difference between making her realize that caution was important and traumatizing her. He put his phone away, sure she'd seen more than enough. "Yeah... That weapon was never used again because of it and no one has ever had a quirk that powerful. There's nothing to indicate that you could do that either. He reached out to take her hands in his, gently rubbing her palms with his thumbs. He hoped it would show he was unafraid of her. "I'm sure you'll take your training seriously and not abuse your quirk. As we learn how your quirk works exactly, we'll be able to figure out how you can use it to help people. It'll be okay, you'll see."
.....
"I don't expect my assignments to contain much detail, but the more there is the better. If there's hostages, how many, what quirks are involved so a proper team can be called, and so on. So yes. More information in that situation is a good thing, if it's available. I figured you would care about where you were going to live considering this apartment has a fixed two-year lease. That's a long time to live in a place you don't like. I hope you like this place, it does happen to be a nice apartment." Still, there was nothing for it... They were here now so they would have to live with Katsuki's overly casual choice and be thankful that it had happened to be a good one.
He laughed as the little girl took off though he was quick to try and catch the plate as it toppled only to stop short to keep from slamming into the older blond. "Good catch." He complimented urging the crackling green arcs coming off him to settle back down, the bright green glow in his eyes fading. Once the plate was securely on the table though, he was off after the little girl only to stop short. He was confused for a moment only to break out into a smile. Katsuki was purposely throwing the race. It was so good to see how kind he could be to her. Just another example of how he loved her.
He sighed when the mood was shot thanks to the elevator misunderstanding. He thought better of talking back again as surely it wouldn't help anything at this point. Instead, he focused on the little girl now that they were alone again, laughing at the gasp his 'secret' had induced. "I mean, I was still a teenager the last time I did homework, but it's okay to bend some rules a little sometimes. Not all rules though! Like I said, so long as you get your homework done on time, it shouldn't be a problem."
Did... Did Katsuki just laugh with him?! His heart gave a happy little jump, desperately missing the times they'd gotten along in the past. Still, he definitely knew better than to point it out as that would surely bring a sharp end to the pleasant moment between the three of them. "Very fashionable! We'll be seeing ladybug hats on the runway in no time!"
Was it that surprising that he would get a housewarming gift for Katsuki as well? Apparently, it was... "Alright... Um, I'll give it to you when we're done then so you guys can get your gifts together." He decided as it was being left to him.
He was a little surprised when the offer to help him unpack came up, his heartwarming. She was so sweet, even if she liked to tease him a little sometimes. "No, it's alright. Let's focus on getting you two settled in. I'll have plenty of time to sort my stuff out on my own." He assured, taking up a box of clothes and walking with her to the room she'd claimed. Setting down the box, he started to sort through her clothes and put them into her closet. He froze for a second when she tried to comfort him about her brother's behavior. He laughed weakly and continued to work as he spoke. "That's a really nice thought and I honestly would love nothing more than for the two of use to get along, but... I'm not sure it will be happening. He... Well, I don't think things are likely to change between us, even though I want it to so bad. We've known each other since we were only two years old. I don't think time alone will fix us and I can't do it by myself. It doesn't matter how I feel about it, I can't force him to be my friend."
He shook his head, allowing the subject to change a little. "I hope he spends less time in his room here. Hopefully, he'll feel safe here and use the apartment." Someone should after all... The subject was changed yet again and he paused in putting clothes away to peek at the skull he was being shown. "Cancer? Poor little guy. At least he has you to love him now and he's not in pain anymore." Reaching you, he gently stroked his hand over the smooth expanse of the top of the skull to give the good boy a nice pet. "If you're really nice, maybe he'll come back as a fox spirit to protect you."
"Hm? Oh... I don't hate Ka-chan. I don't even dislike him. I know you think I'm lying, but I really have always admired him. That isn't why I moved in with you guys though. I did it for several reasons. I wanted to help you with your quirk and it would be easier if I was close to you. The agency I have transferred to is located in Tokyo though. Ka-chan needed to move to Tokyo too for work, but Tokyo is expensive so it's hard to do it by yourself. This way, I can help you both. I don't know if it's a good idea for me to come out of my room when he's home though... The only way I managed to get him to accept my help was to promise he wouldn't have to be around me so... He agreed to let me have the biggest room in the apartment so that I could live in it and the rest of the apartment would be for you two." He put up the last of the clothes that should be hung then started to leave the room. "Come here. I want to show you something."
With that, he was leading her to his room. It was filled with quite a few boxes though all the furniture was set up. There was a bookshelf that was already stocked with books, one of the first things he'd worked on unpacking after basics were set up. The small shelf was stocked with what appeared to be notebooks and nothing else. Sure enough, he confirms this a second later.
"Remember how I told you I wrote quirk analysis notes? These are those notebooks. All of them. This one here is the newest one, but this one is the first." With a reverent gentleness she would surely be familiar with considering how delicate some of the things in her collection would be, he pulled out the very old-looking notebook. On the cover, in extremely poor penmanship, was written "Hero Analysis for the Future" and "No. 1" though this was written neater and in a different color, suggesting it was added later, probably when the second notebook was added to the now ever-growing set.
"I was only three when I started this notebook. I could barely write so at the start it's mostly drawings with little notes." He very gently opened it to the first page. "I have always been a huge fan of All Might and still am, but... I know a lot about him already and there was plenty about him online too, so he's not in my books as much as you would think. Instead, this is the first hero I ever put into my notebook." Showing her the page there was a rather poor drawing of a boy. He had little stick arms and the wrong number of stick fingers at the end of each. Above these poorly drawn digits were several little stars in yellow and orange. Atop his head there was a jagged mess of yellow that was poorly colored in and upon his face was a wide smile and two round squiggles in brilliant red.
When she went on to mourn how mean some people could be, he nodded, pointedly not addressing Katsuki's own still blatant mean streak. "Fairness doesn't really have much effect on how the world works. It's why there's heroes at all. It's not fair to steal something from a shop. It's not fair to beat up someone that's weaker than you either. These things will happen anyway which is why each individual should do what they can to fight against things like that. The solution isn't always violent though... I know watching heroes beating up villains on TV is exciting, but that sort of stuff accounts for only a small percentage of what can be done. Everyday people can make the world fairer by voting on laws to protect minorities for example. This might be a little much for someone your age though..." He mused, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I don't care who's kid she is. Corporal punishment isn't okay in general. All it's ever been proven to do is lead to mental illness on some level. Teaching her that unnecessary violence is acceptable isn't good. That's particularly true of people with potentially destructive quirks." He pointed out catching himself before pointing out how often he'd gone home and had to explain away injuries to his mother.
"Really?! That's amazing... I wonder how her eye continues to send signals to the brain even after it's been detached... It has to be transmitted somehow. Oh. That's not good! She shouldn't play pranks like that, but was she okay? I suppose it would be easier to wash off an eyeball if it's not in someone's head, but still, that must have been very painful." He resisted the urge to feel too concerned about the girl. This was a past event, there was nothing to be done about it now.
"In theory, yes." He bit his lip as he smiled, watching her happily beg her brother to teach her. Thankfully he gave her a very responsible response. "He's right. Flight, in general, is a very complicated thing and you would be doing it without wings or a tail to help you balance yourself. I learned how to do it by imitating Ka-chan and it was really hard at first and I definitely couldn't do it till I got a lot better at controlling my quirk. He's right about hurting yourself too. When my quirk first manifested, I shattered the bones in one of my arms and both my legs. Worse, I was WAY up in the air at the time. The only reason I didn't die was because a girl that was later one of my classmates saved me. It was really painful... We should definitely start you off small and work you up over time. Control is super important for quirks that can easily hurt people. Like... Ah! You've met Kaminari-kun I'm sure! Even in first year when we just started, he could use up to a maximum of 2 million volts at one time. depending on how he distributes oms and amps, it may only take 42 volts to kill a person outright. He has incredibly fine control though which is why he's so good at stunning, but not killing people. In school, he even learned how to jumpstart a person's heart with his quirk."
Her reactions to the photos worried him. He wanted to make sure she was well aware of how dangerous her quirk was so she wouldn't casually try to use it or put too much energy behind a blast, but there was a difference between making her realize that caution was important and traumatizing her. He put his phone away, sure she'd seen more than enough. "Yeah... That weapon was never used again because of it and no one has ever had a quirk that powerful. There's nothing to indicate that you could do that either. He reached out to take her hands in his, gently rubbing her palms with his thumbs. He hoped it would show he was unafraid of her. "I'm sure you'll take your training seriously and not abuse your quirk. As we learn how your quirk works exactly, we'll be able to figure out how you can use it to help people. It'll be okay, you'll see."
.....
"I don't expect my assignments to contain much detail, but the more there is the better. If there's hostages, how many, what quirks are involved so a proper team can be called, and so on. So yes. More information in that situation is a good thing, if it's available. I figured you would care about where you were going to live considering this apartment has a fixed two-year lease. That's a long time to live in a place you don't like. I hope you like this place, it does happen to be a nice apartment." Still, there was nothing for it... They were here now so they would have to live with Katsuki's overly casual choice and be thankful that it had happened to be a good one.
He laughed as the little girl took off though he was quick to try and catch the plate as it toppled only to stop short to keep from slamming into the older blond. "Good catch." He complimented urging the crackling green arcs coming off him to settle back down, the bright green glow in his eyes fading. Once the plate was securely on the table though, he was off after the little girl only to stop short. He was confused for a moment only to break out into a smile. Katsuki was purposely throwing the race. It was so good to see how kind he could be to her. Just another example of how he loved her.
He sighed when the mood was shot thanks to the elevator misunderstanding. He thought better of talking back again as surely it wouldn't help anything at this point. Instead, he focused on the little girl now that they were alone again, laughing at the gasp his 'secret' had induced. "I mean, I was still a teenager the last time I did homework, but it's okay to bend some rules a little sometimes. Not all rules though! Like I said, so long as you get your homework done on time, it shouldn't be a problem."
Did... Did Katsuki just laugh with him?! His heart gave a happy little jump, desperately missing the times they'd gotten along in the past. Still, he definitely knew better than to point it out as that would surely bring a sharp end to the pleasant moment between the three of them. "Very fashionable! We'll be seeing ladybug hats on the runway in no time!"
Was it that surprising that he would get a housewarming gift for Katsuki as well? Apparently, it was... "Alright... Um, I'll give it to you when we're done then so you guys can get your gifts together." He decided as it was being left to him.
He was a little surprised when the offer to help him unpack came up, his heartwarming. She was so sweet, even if she liked to tease him a little sometimes. "No, it's alright. Let's focus on getting you two settled in. I'll have plenty of time to sort my stuff out on my own." He assured, taking up a box of clothes and walking with her to the room she'd claimed. Setting down the box, he started to sort through her clothes and put them into her closet. He froze for a second when she tried to comfort him about her brother's behavior. He laughed weakly and continued to work as he spoke. "That's a really nice thought and I honestly would love nothing more than for the two of use to get along, but... I'm not sure it will be happening. He... Well, I don't think things are likely to change between us, even though I want it to so bad. We've known each other since we were only two years old. I don't think time alone will fix us and I can't do it by myself. It doesn't matter how I feel about it, I can't force him to be my friend."
He shook his head, allowing the subject to change a little. "I hope he spends less time in his room here. Hopefully, he'll feel safe here and use the apartment." Someone should after all... The subject was changed yet again and he paused in putting clothes away to peek at the skull he was being shown. "Cancer? Poor little guy. At least he has you to love him now and he's not in pain anymore." Reaching you, he gently stroked his hand over the smooth expanse of the top of the skull to give the good boy a nice pet. "If you're really nice, maybe he'll come back as a fox spirit to protect you."
"Hm? Oh... I don't hate Ka-chan. I don't even dislike him. I know you think I'm lying, but I really have always admired him. That isn't why I moved in with you guys though. I did it for several reasons. I wanted to help you with your quirk and it would be easier if I was close to you. The agency I have transferred to is located in Tokyo though. Ka-chan needed to move to Tokyo too for work, but Tokyo is expensive so it's hard to do it by yourself. This way, I can help you both. I don't know if it's a good idea for me to come out of my room when he's home though... The only way I managed to get him to accept my help was to promise he wouldn't have to be around me so... He agreed to let me have the biggest room in the apartment so that I could live in it and the rest of the apartment would be for you two." He put up the last of the clothes that should be hung then started to leave the room. "Come here. I want to show you something."
With that, he was leading her to his room. It was filled with quite a few boxes though all the furniture was set up. There was a bookshelf that was already stocked with books, one of the first things he'd worked on unpacking after basics were set up. The small shelf was stocked with what appeared to be notebooks and nothing else. Sure enough, he confirms this a second later.
"Remember how I told you I wrote quirk analysis notes? These are those notebooks. All of them. This one here is the newest one, but this one is the first." With a reverent gentleness she would surely be familiar with considering how delicate some of the things in her collection would be, he pulled out the very old-looking notebook. On the cover, in extremely poor penmanship, was written "Hero Analysis for the Future" and "No. 1" though this was written neater and in a different color, suggesting it was added later, probably when the second notebook was added to the now ever-growing set.
"I was only three when I started this notebook. I could barely write so at the start it's mostly drawings with little notes." He very gently opened it to the first page. "I have always been a huge fan of All Might and still am, but... I know a lot about him already and there was plenty about him online too, so he's not in my books as much as you would think. Instead, this is the first hero I ever put into my notebook." Showing her the page there was a rather poor drawing of a boy. He had little stick arms and the wrong number of stick fingers at the end of each. Above these poorly drawn digits were several little stars in yellow and orange. Atop his head there was a jagged mess of yellow that was poorly colored in and upon his face was a wide smile and two round squiggles in brilliant red.
Deku|266B53|Shouto|719CC2|Dabi|367F88|Baku|E7771C|Kiri|C72B20|Mina|A7637C|Kami|E5BD67|Sero|EBA43B|Jirou|D3464F|Toko|7A67B6|Shouji|709099|Tetsu|7B8191|Neito|8793AA|Kama|5A8A44|Shin|635EA1|Tenko|5C5B6B|Toad|80BF80|Sun|B4952A|Moon|322B63|Peter|03466C|TK|809A51|Mochi|FA53A6|Togi|87CEEB
Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
“...See Kacchan? Don’t be grumpy!” She turned to Katsuki, poking out her tongue. She’d taken on board what Midoriya had said, enough so that what he’d mentioned about ‘not letting emotions rule your life’ had struck a chord in her and she had to turn around and tease her brother for it. He liked to act like he was so above Midoriya’s advice, even if he could benefit from it.
“Fuck off.” He sneered and she just giggled.
“That just means I’m right.” She said haughtily, with a little smirk on her face.
“I don’t know how to vote… I’d rather just beat people up like Kacchan does! That seems to work, right Kacchan? Seems easier too, then they won’t do bad things again!” Even if Midoriya wouldn’t address it, she would. Kinda. In the way she understood his mean streak, due to rarely ever actually getting a taste of it, it was somewhat inaccurate. Katsuki had made sure of that, but it was unclear just how warped her perception was, unclear what exactly was truth and what was empty posturing.
“That is not what I do, but okay kid. Okay, you give that a red hot shot. See where it gets you.” Katsuki snorted, rolling his eyes, deciding to actually set the record straight. Her having the perception that was his job could cause problems in the long run. “I don’t beat people up, that’s illegal. But I do fight people who would otherwise fuck up a lot of people, but I had to get a license and train so I don’t actually cause too much damage. Even if you wanted to beat someone up, it wouldn’t be easy and you sure as much wouldn’t be able to handle yourself.” Okay he was technically just beating people up, in essence, those were the jobs he was sent on. He wasn’t a support hero or a rescue hero, he was geared for combat and he was okay with that. The system had a place for heroes like that, so he’d fit in the machine even if he was a little unorthodox. But he didn’t want her getting that idea and parroting it around without understanding the context of what he actually did and the fact that it was indeed not as simple as taking his frustrations on every villain that walked around. Sure, he could do that. But only in fights that had him going all out anyway, not just apprehending petty criminals on the street.
“I too can! Square up coward!” She huffed, trying to run at him and hit him, frustrated by his dismissal.
“Sure then.” He snorted, but instead of retaliating and getting into a fight with a literal child, he just put his hand on her forehead and kept her at arms length while she tried and failed to fight him, lashing out her little arms and legs without getting a single hit in until she became frustrated, letting out a dramatic groan.
“Hhhh! God that’s not fair!” She huffed and Katsuki only laughed.
“Not my fault you’re short.”
“Ha, yeah. Right, whatever Deku. Little late by the looks of things, it’s already embedded in there.” Katsuki just rolled his eyes, it wasn’t a great response. Dismissive, as usual. But at least not outright aggressive. He knew on some level that was true, but then again he was fine so. Eh. Midoriya must be exaggerating, but he would admit they were both a little too predisposed to hitting people, sure. But that was something that seemed to be pretty deep in the both of their psyches and removing it would be a tricky matter, especially due to the nature of their quirks. Did such behaviour come naturally with such destructive quirks, or was it a product of giving the power to main and burn everything that looked at them the wrong way to a small child? Who knew, not Katsuki. He admittedly didn’t have a lot of things down, but he could at least use his own failings to try and make a blueprint for what he was doing. If such anger was at least in part genetic, he could at least nip it in the bud before she went out and took it out on people. Even if her incident at the museum was unintentional, he knew how quickly things could spiral out of control. Half formed brains, the inability to make fully rational and empathetically minded decisions… not a great mix with intense destructive power.
“Eh, it’ll be fine. If it gets too bad I’ll get her into kickboxing or something…” He mused, ruffling Akashi’s hair. “Yo Akashi, if you ever want to knock your classmates around let me know and we’ll get it sorted, aight?”
“Aight!” She grinned, flashing her fangs, before letting up on her attack on Katsuki and tuning into what Midoriya was saying.
“She cried out of her socket, it was really weird!” Akashi laughed, it had been a weird sight. As far as Akashi was concerned, if the girl was going to try and freak her out by putting an eye in her lunch she deserved to get wasabi in it. She was lucky Akashi hadn’t put it in her mouth just to call her bluff, then she really would have been crying then!
“You shattered your bones? And you kept using it?? Do you have any idea how hard a femur is to break, let alone shatter!? That’s so stupid! And you almost died?!” Akashi gasped as he recounted his own quirk, how badly it had damaged his body. Her mind was filled with images of hideously floppy arms, not unlike animals scraped up from a hot road after their bones had been turned to dust by an oncoming car. Ew. Quirks really were intense. “Wait, *Dunce face* can kill people too? What is with you people… gosh… Jumpstarting a heart is cool though, hey if you’d died he could have just sparked you and it wouldn’t have mattered!” She grinned, chippering back up and trying to find some bright side in the situation.
Akashi didn’t know if she could produce that level of sheer destructive firepower, and frankly she wasn’t eager to find out. To just turn people into fucking nothing and leave a shadowy, bleached imprint behind. The kind of cost that would entail wasn’t worth the curiosity. He was right about starting small and she realized she would have to and likely couldn’t go further than that due to the nature of her quirk. Even if people like Deku or Dunce-Face could kill people, she’d heard so much about the kind of things that nuclear weapons did to an area and it made her feel sick. But she pushed a smile onto her face and closed her hands around his, taking comfort in his touch. “Don’t worry Deku-kun! Even if I make jokes, I do want to take my training seriously! It really is important after all… I really did like that museum, I feel bad for breaking all their stuff...”
.....
“Fine, jesus. You’re right, is that what you want me to say, ha?” He snapped, outwardly defensive and hostile. But internally recoiling at the flat edge of Midoriya’s tone, inner omega curling up like what had he done wrong? No scratch that, he knew exactly what the fuck he’d done. He’d been an antagonistic asshole like usual, Midoriya was right to be done with his shit. But that still didn’t stop the pain from flaring it, daggers shooting up his jugular and he just bit the inside of his cheek, applying a subtle amount of pressure and trying to play it off.
“Noted! Bend the rules!” She chirped teasingly, purposefully taking the worst message she could out of his point just to mess with him. She didn’t keep it up for long, letting out a laugh. “I know I know, get homework done, blah blah blah. Jeez you’re such a goody two shoes, you know Dunce face cheated off of Katsuki for his homework right? Cheating can work.” She gave a smug smile, like she’d proved some point and right on cue Katsuki had caught the tail end of her comment and jumped in to correct her.
“He only did that once and he was going to fail the exam and I wasn’t taking it, so I wasn’t about to lose all my work- don’t twist my shit kid, you know that sounds bad.” He snapped, making sure to set the record straight. It had been a one time thing and it wasn’t like Kaminari had skirted along the whole year off of his work, he’d earned his spot at UA like everybody else, but the work really was hard. He didn’t blame him for not getting it. Plus with how much electricity was going through the bastard’s fried brain he was short on a few brain cells so Katsuki had to cut him some slack.
“That’s why it’s funny.”
Katsuki could barely believe it himself. They weren’t doing great by any metric, but it was kind of nice to be able to let down his guard just a smidge around him. Actually have a laugh with him like when they used to be friends. Fall into some sense of false normalcy, for Akashi’s sake. She’d be able to realise something was up for sure, that there was more behind the scenes she wasn’t being told. On some level he wouldn’t be surprised if she’d always known, while he and Mitsuki had been quiet in their arguing over the years as to not key her on to anything, that sort of thing definitely left and impact on a child. It was weird, this new situation but Katsuki figured he could get used to it. Not comfortable or attached, but he could adapt. It would be quite strange, but he could do it.
Maybe they could be friends, at least. It had all changed when Katsuki’s quirk had come in and Midoriya’s simply hadn’t, and in Katsuki’s mind he was simply so much better than shitty Deku, pathetic and wallowing in the dirt. No matter that Katsuki had kicked him there. He’d had to address a lot of his shit with Akashi, anxiously waiting in doctors offices until they’d heard the grave news. It was upsetting that it had taken his kid being in the same place for him to learn a little humility and kindness, and he had a feeling the whole affair was definitely karma. So in some sense it had been a double sided surprise, part of him was relieved she’d had a quirk, but even then that little gnawing in the back of his mind about the potential shitfire mix of a power storing quirk and explosion. He didn’t know why he hadn’t immediately thought nuke, it felt obvious in hindsight. But it was a lot to handle and he honestly rathered when she was quirkless, even if he’d had to teach her to use a knife to protect herself. She’d need that at least, when her peers could shoot fucking fire she’d need to have the guts to hold her own if it came down to it.
God it wasn’t a big deal, it clearly wasn’t. It was clearly just a simple act of nicety, a gift to commemorate their moving here. What the hell was with him? It was strange the different wavelengths they were on. Katsuki was planning out every step in advance, questioning every action and leaving nothing unscrutinized for his own safety. Trying to pick apart any hidden motive because on some level he was picking up on the fact there was more behind the scenes, but unable to actually process that information. People never said what they actually meant, he always kept that fact in mind. Something he’d learned from the posturing and pretense of hero work, everything was facade. Therefore he could hardly be criticized for his own lying streak, how was that any different from what everyone else did every day when they went to work? A couple of white lies never hurt and it wasn’t like he was actively trying to hurt anybody with it, it was simply to keep everything afloat. Necessary to his goals, his mean shell was not unlike a customer service voice flipped on its head, nothing more.
But, even if that was a fundamental truth he’d known for the longest time, seeing people deviate from that formula caught him off guard. Shook him up, unsettled him. Midoriya had always been in that camp, so sickeningly genuine and *nice.* He couldn’t stand it, it made his skin crawl and he just didn’t get it.
“I can help if you want! Kacchan needs more friends anyway, he doesn’t have many and I’m sure he’ll grow to like you with a bit of nudging!” She said after Midoriya had mentioned wanting to be friends with him again. She wasn’t sure how much she could help, but as far as she was concerned them getting along would be nothing but a benefit to her so she was willing to work towards that goal. He couldn’t force Katsuki to be his friend, but she sure could give it a shot. “Or he’ll just get mad and throw a tantrum. But I think I’m good enough to do it without him even knowing, so…”
“We’ll see.”
“He does it more when he gets sick, which makes sense because who wants to do anything when they’re sick? But maybe he will come out of his shell a bit here. Who knows.” She shrugged, trying to add color to the situation. It really was hit or miss, depending on so many extenuating factors at the end of the day. But she had a hunch things would get worse from here on out, with how the man was cradling his neck at every opportunity, when he thought nobody would notice. But, she was quicker than that and knew on some level he was ‘getting sick’ again. That was the only frame of reference she had for the phenomena, that and lies she’d been told time and time again. But she could still get a sense of things, she was smart like that, even if she didn’t have quite enough pieces of the puzzle to put things together. “100 yen says he stays wrapped up in it though, he’s stubborn like that…”
“That’s how I like to think of it… It makes me so sad seeing them when they get hit by cars or get killed by other animals. So they get a dip in a bucket and all the flesh comes off and I get to have them on my shelf to love.” She mused, pressing a gentle kiss to the fox’s snout. “I hope so too, the dead tend to make better friends than most people. They’re quieter, for sure.”
“Kacchan made me some pretty cool soft teddies with bones and hot glue too one year for my birthday… I hope they didn’t get lost in the move…” She muttered, going through the box until she found a larger wrapped parcel. Tearing it open she revealed a very ratty, patchwork rabbit plush, with a rabbit’s skull crudely fixed in place where it’s face had once been.
“Oh! Here, see!” She grinned, presenting it to him. It was full of beans so it could be warmed up in the microwave. “Archduke Asmodeus the seventh! He was just the Archduke and a normal teddy before he got all worn to bits, then Kacchan fixed him and gave him a new face!” It would be a pretty creepy gift for an ordinary child, then again Katsuki was simply trying to indulge her interests and by the time this particular creature was concocted, Katsuki was more than sure it definitely wouldn’t scare her. She replaced him back in the box once Midoriya was done with him, he was definitely not a teddy to be rough housed with anymore lest she risk breaking his skull.
“I would do it just to piss him off. It’s your house too isn’t it? I annoy Kacchan all the time and he doesn’t do anything, his threats are all empty.” She laughed, going through the box of books. Old textbooks stolen from UA, on animals and taxidermy and science. Pilfered due to the lack of reading material at her school, as she’d also nicked all the books that were relevant from there and had just never really bothered to return them. They were hers now, rightfully scavenged. “If he wanted me to stay in *my* room all the time, I’d get pretty sick of it real quick and say fuck that.” And with that, she got up and followed him into his room.
“Who cares what he thinks! He’s stuck living here now, he shouldn’t have agreed if he can’t deal with living with you. Plus he was fine with dealing with Mom, you don’t seem that bad…” She mused, trailing off as her brain made tangential connections. Midoriya didn’t really like her mom much, didn’t he? She wondered why, why between Mitsuki and Katsuki was Mitsuki the villain to him? “Why don’t you like Mom? She’s kinda cold but she’s not that bad… And don’t say you don’t like her, I saw you guys sneaking around through the hall like mice and Katsuki only does that when he’s in trouble!”
“You’ve known him for a long time, huh? And even back then he was a hero...” Akashi smiled, running a finger over the messy drawing with a strange sense of sentimentality. Even she could see just how much Katsuki had once meant to him, this first entry, the first hero Midoriya had ever truly bothered to record. A striking rendition, if she’d say so. Had, was misleading, Midoriya still clearly cared about him and her brother still clearly cared in turn. Adults were weird and complicated
“Jeez, what did you even do for him to hate you that much? Or just to be that mean, he’s never that mean to me! Or anyone, I think.” She mused, thinking for a moment.
“Well he doesn’t like people who cut him off when he’s driving… But I don’t think I’d like that either… Or when he forgets his ID at the servo...” She listed off, trying to think of occasions when she’d seen him worked up and mean. Footage from fights was one thing, but she knew Katsuki wasn’t always like that so that wasn’t really an apt comparison. But hearing him be so mean didn’t make her feel great by proxy, mostly she just didn’t understand the cocktail of bitter emotion.
“I think you guys just need to kiss and make up honestly… you adults are so complicated…” She mused innocently, taking the book and gently flipping through it. Thankfully, gentle was something she could do, her work with insects and bones was fiddly work that required and steady and light hand so she didn’t feel too out of her depth handling the notebook.
….
While they’d gone off to Midoriya’s room, Katsuki had finished dragging everything up and had started to unpack his own stuff while they were busy. Dragging in the roll up mattress and the parts for his bedside table and drumkit, he moved everything into his room to get it set up. Unrolling the mattress in the middle of the room and quickly assembling his furniture, thanking his past self for thinking to keep the instructions and allen key. Once that was done, he folded his clothes into the drawers and set up his drumkit in the corner. Throwing some blankets and pillows onto his bed and pinning an old might poster he’d kept onto the wall, above the figures on his bedside table; he stepped back for a moment to admire his handiwork. It was simple, a lot more sparse than his other room had been and eerily hotel-like, but that felt oddly fitting for the place he knew he’d fill in this house. Transient, liminal. A space between spaces, nothing more.
He rifled through a few more boxes, grabbing his medication and shaking the pill bottles to see how full they were before popping the cap and pouring out a few pills into his hand. He’d been on these pills for a long time and knew his limits, while his doctor wouldn’t exactly recommend doubling up like this, dire circumstances called for dire measures and he knew these pills well enough to know a few extra weren’t going to kill him. He’d just be really faded, but hey he wouldn’t be in a pain so that was a plus. He swallowed them dry before stashing the bottles in his drumset along with a towel or two. He made a mental note to go to the doctor about upping his suppressants because he couldn’t do this shit otherwise, he already knew he was going to start getting sick again either way. But at least this time won’t be the same, even if he was sick in bed Deku could watch Akashi, he was getting paid for it after all.
That’s why he’d cut off Deku in the first place, the mark would have rejected regardless due to it’s incomplete nature but he knew if he’d tried to sit idly by and quiet about it, all while remaining to flit around the man would simply stir up his hormones and make it progress a lot faster. So he’d need to nip it in the bud. It had already ravaged his body enough, he wasn’t about to let it get worse on his watch.
Now he’d pretty much gotten all set up, he slunk out to the kitchen to score the plate of eggs Midoriya had grabbed him. He would eat it away from them and in silence, there would be no thank you’s, but he’d insist on making breakfast tomorrow and say it was so Akashi could make him the window. Because that was the way this worked, sincerity was bullshit and Katsuki was having none of it.
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NicTheDjinn
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Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
He bit his lip hoping her turning his advice on her brother didn't bite him in the ass. It very well could and he knew it. Thankfully, he just brushed it off rather than snapping at him for teaching her something that could be used against him. He wondered if she would be able to reach him where he'd failed to. It wouldn't surprise him, honestly. Kirishima had proven quite clearly that he was the problem and not what he was trying to teach. Katsuki could grow as a person, but he'd had to accept that it had to come from someone else. He'd thought for a while in their second year that maybe he still had a chance, but that prospect was crushed right at the end.
"You can't vote till you're much older anyway, don't worry about that, but... Beating people up isn't exactly what heroes do..." He started, but thankfully Katsuki was clearing things up. More or less. He tensed visibly as she moved to attack her brother then. At this point, he trusted the older blond to not cause her serious harm, but he was very nervous about her experimenting with her quirk in a situation like this. Thankfully, all she did was comically flail at him. He relaxed and spoke as she struggled to 'beat him up'. "Abuse of power in a world like ours is a very real concern. It's why there are laws prohibiting general quirk usage unless you have specific licenses to do so. Hero licenses, in particular, are very hard to get because it's so easy to hurt people with quirks. But... Beating someone up doesn't mean you'll stop them from being bad again. The crime rate would be much lower if beating someone once is all it takes. Like most things in life, it's not black and white. They don't just learn their lessons the first time and some never do."
"You shouldn't underestimate her, Ka-chan. I've only known her for a little while and already I can see how actively she thinks. She seems to adapt even faster than you do and that's saying something. I've always thought that was one of your strongest features." He chuckled softly as she gave up the fight, for what it was anyway. The little display was very cute, but he hoped it never escalated further than it did now, at least without very good reason.
"Yeah... Like I said, my quirk came in very late and it came with a vengeance." He showed her his hand covered in it's many scars and how visibly crooked the bones had healed. "Yeah... It was pretty stupid, but... I wanted to be a hero more than anything. I hurt myself really badly again and again till I got the hang of my quirk. Some of the damage was permanent... Still, I got a handle on it and I rarely hurt myself at all anymore. Comes back to learning fine control. Everyone else in class had been using their quirks all their lives so they built up control little by little. I had to do it all at once." He laughed softly at the suggestion of Kaminari having saved him, shaking his head a little.
"He wouldn't have been able to save me. What would have killed me is the fall, restarting my heart wouldn't have helped there. Also he didn't know how to do that yet and he was also in a different test group. The girl that saved me is a pro now too. Uravity. She'd gotten stuck under some rubble and I used my quirk for the first time to save her. Heh... Your brother can tell you, I have a habit of jumping in to save people even if I don't think it'll succeed. It was a bad habit I never quite shook off, but I'm better about it now." He shrugged chuckling softly at his own poor choices.
"But yeah, most people in a hero course have potentially deadly quirks. They have to be powerful enough to fight villains that aren't going to hold back while also trying to hurt the villain while also trying to hurt them as little as you can. It's a very hard balance to reach. Most of us could very easily kill people. That's exactly why we train so hard in school, to get stronger yes, but also to gain the control to only use exactly how much force we want to use in exactly how we want to use it. It's why Kaminari doesn't kill everyone around him, why Ashido doesn't melt people into puddles, and Ka-chan doesn't level entire city blocks. Normally you don't get that kind of training in school and if you do, it's at a hero high school, but we'll be starting your training now. You're very strong in more ways than you probably realize. I look forward to watching you grow and writing about you." Shoot... How long has he been talking? Ka-chan was going to threaten to kill him at this rate...
He smiled at the promise she made him, nodding confidently to her. "It's okay to joke if you take it seriously and I'm sure you will! I can already tell how hardworking you are! I know you didn't mean to do what you did, no one's blaming you for that. You're so much like your brother... He was always super hard working and always learning, I'm sure you'll do great too!"
.....
"I don't expect what I want to mean anything, but I'm not a pushover anymore, Ka-chan. If you push, I push back. You might have pushed it out of your mind, but I've always pushed back, even when we were really little. The only difference now is that I'm not afraid to do it anymore and I can push a lot harder." He shot right back. By this point, it was clear that the old trend of 'whine good sense at Ka-chan' had evolved into something much firmer. He'd already resorted to the same whining the blond was familiar with, but he seemed much quicker to dig in and defend himself. Despite the harder, more confident tone, there was still a shocking amount of trust on display. His body was relaxed and not posturing like he had around his mother. It was clear that even though he as agitated and in spite of the aggression he was being shown, he was fully confident that it wouldn't escalate and get physical.
"Ah! Aka-chan nooooo!" Whined the greenette, distinctly still soft for the girl. Thankfully she was just teasing him and even assured him she understood. Sort of. Right in the nick of time, the older blond corrected her and he was quick to back him up. "Yuuei is a very tough school and a lot of us helped each other study and stuff. You can't rely on cheating anyway because you won't always have someone to cheat off of. Besides, I never thought you would be the kind to be lazy and take credit for something you didn't do. You're not that kind of person, are you, Aka-chan?" He baited, already smiling to the little girl. "Also. Don't take so much pleasure in other people's shortcomings. It's mean." He chided gently, even reaching over to give her cheek a couple of playful little pokes.
They were laughing together. Really laughing together! He clung to that moment, etching it in his memories so he wouldn't forget it. It would be over soon, he knew it would be, these moments never lasted between them... Still. He would cherish every fraction of a second it lasted, keeping every tiny shard of what could have been in his heart to soothe the pain of knowing it wouldn't come to be. Or perhaps it made the pain worse... It didn't really matter which, he would love these moments with all his heart all the same. He wanted to go over to him... To hold him tight so he'd never leave again. He wanted to feel those pretty lips against his ow--- He looked away, not having realized he had been staring, cheeks flushing. Even then, the embarrassing thoughts hadn't been enough to chase off his smile just yet.
He looked over at the little girl when she'd offered to help him somehow patch up the ragged shreds of their long-dead friendship. He stared at her, his eyes widened in shock only for tears to start welling up in them. He couldn't let himself hope. Not that much. He let out a breathy laugh, blinking and tilting his head back to keep the tears from falling properly. He smiled, but... There was something horribly wrong with it. "Thank you... That means the world, but... I don't think it will work. If there's one thing that's always been true, it's that Ka-chan never gives up if he's decided he wants to do something. We were four when he decided he would never like me again. I don't think h-he'll be giving that up."
One thing the two of them had in common, without question, was the fact that they each had an emotion they displayed in a terrifyingly raw sort of way. For Katsuki, it was his frustration, but for Izuku? It was his sadness. He felt it hard and deep and it was on full display now, his pain raw and open like a still weeping wound. Like the explosive blond, he had learned to handle it and hide it better, but he instinctively trusted this child and she was prodding at the most painful parts of himself. His lip trembled for a moment before he forced it to stop and with that conscious action, he started to rein it all back in again. The whole display lasted seconds, but if anything that made is worse. It was like watching a Disney film and midway through 'A Whole New World' it jump cuts to a room covered in blood and for five horrifying seconds you watch as puppies are dismembered alive, then back to heartwarming singing like it hadn't happened. He smiled to her and again, there was something wrong with it. "Thank you anyway though. It really does mean a lot."
Tiny narrowly avoided episode over with, he forced himself to function again, frowning a little. "Sick? Strange... He's always taken such good care of himself... Maybe it's stress-related, that can really screw up your immune system. Maybe I should get some vitamins and leave them in the kitchen for him..." He mused, shaking his head and trying not to worry about it too much, though the worry hovered in the back of his mind anyway.
It was comically obvious when the realization hit him. "That's what the buckets are for..." He didn't look upset thankfully, but now he understood why she was asking if the buckets could be kept on the balcony. This was actually rather complicated. They couldn't keep them in the apartment, but the smell from the balcony might bother the neighbors. "I... I'm going to have a talk with the building manager and see if it's possible to let us have special access to the roof. Maybe we can set something up out there so we don't bother anyone..."
He snapped back to attention and quickly caught back up with the conversation. "I'm sure they appreciate the love you give them, even if they can't tell you so themselves." He blinked lightly at the description of the teddy the older blond had made her, but didn't seem at all put off by the thought that he'd done so. He'd proven several times how much of a soft spot the little girl was so it wasn't a shock at this point. Honestly the only thing that was surprising was that he'd never come off as ther crafty type. He smiled softly when the teddy was produced only for his brows to shoot up. "Archduke? Goodness, I didn't know I'd be meeting anyone that important today. I feel underdressed!" He bowed respectfully to the skull-faced teddy then. "It's an honor to meet you, Asmodeus-sama! Thank you for watching over Akashi-chan."
Ah, and inevitably the subject returned to Katsuki, because of course it would. "I would rather avoid the conflict if I can because we're going to live together. It'll be a pretty miserable couple of years if he gets really mad at me. I'm just happy I can help you guys, that's what's important. My room isn't that much smaller than my apartment in California so it's okay."
He did tense when her mother was brought up though. He considered his options and decided he should be honest. She was too smart and clearly already had ideas on the subject. "No. I don't like her. I never really did, but when I went to visit you for the first time is when I realized how much I didn't like her. I guess I was too little to really notice or take the things I saw seriously." He hesitated then not sure how honest he should be. He took a deep breath and hoped this wouldn't be a mistake. It's not like she didn't know, she was just like him when he was young and witnessing it. "You know she hits him and stuff. That's not okay. What makes it worse is that she's been doing it for so very long, that Ka-chan thinks it's normal, that's it's no big deal. I'm sure you haven't seen too much of it because he's protecting you, like he should. The day I went to go visit, he got a bruise on his cheek because she threw something at him. He's one of the most skilled fighters I know and he's fast. For that to have happened... It's proof that he wasn't defending himself. He let her hurt him because he's been taught to."
He reached out to her then, taking her hand and giving it an affectionate rub with his thumb. "Please, don't tell him I pointed that stuff out to you. You know he doesn't like to seem weak so he'll be really upset if you point out that he's doing it on purpose."
With that heavy conversation to set the mood, he lead her to his room and showed her his oldest notebook. "Our moms knew each other. I only went over to Ka-chan's house when my mom was super busy and only when I was too little to be alone by myself in the house. Most of the time, Ka-chan would visit me. It happened a lot when we were really, really little. We were real friends back then. We played together all the time and talked about how we would be heroes together. When we started pre-school he made some other friends so I hung out with them too and he was our leader, but... Well, I didn't always agree with what he did or said and he was my friend so I would tell him so. The bullying started about then." He laughed softly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I wasn't a very talented kid. I was clumsy, I wasn't good at catching bugs, I couldn't skip rocks, or juggle a ball... Ka-chan though, he was good at everything! He's always been so amazing! I wanted to be like him, even though I wasn't good at everything like he was. He... Well, he noticed. He noticed I wasn't particularly talented at anything, yet I wanted to be a great hero like he did. I drew this not long after Ka-chan's quirk manifested. A couple of months later, the doctors told me I would never develop a quirk. I wasn't very good up till then, but after finding out I would be quirkless, then I really was useless. Ka-chan doesn't keep something around if it's useless. That became our new normal and we weren't friends anymore. I've tried to understand it, but I don't. I've only ever been nice to him. We almost became friends again in high school, but I guess he realized we were friends again and he put an end to it? I don't know... He just... Stopped talking to me. He even acted like I literally wasn't there. I honestly don't know why he changed his mind again. I'd really thought that we could fix the broken thing between us. Heh... Just like I don't think he'll ever stop resisting my attempts, I don't think I'll ever stop trying to fix it either. It's just how we are now, I guess."
He jolted visibly when she suggested they 'kiss and make up'. "K-k-kiss?! N-no! I'm pretty sure Ka-chan would actually kill me if I tried to do something like that!" He stuttered, flushing comically bright and even flailing a little. "C-come on, let's keep unpacking your stuff. If you want you can look at my notebooks later!" He urged, struggling to regain control of himself and it really wasn't working. Poor bastard was so painfully obvious.
Once he'd managed to get her to return the notebook to the shelf, they returned to the living room only to find that Bakugou had returned and was actually digging into the portion of eggs he'd made for him. This wasn't helping ease his blushing... "Finished bringing everything up, I take it?" He asked, his voice comically strained in his anxious state. He wasn't exactly waiting for an answer either, already picking up another box and awkwardly heading back to Akashi's room to start unpacking that one next. The fact that he was so caught up in what he was doing that he didn't make sure she was still following him was telling.
"You can't vote till you're much older anyway, don't worry about that, but... Beating people up isn't exactly what heroes do..." He started, but thankfully Katsuki was clearing things up. More or less. He tensed visibly as she moved to attack her brother then. At this point, he trusted the older blond to not cause her serious harm, but he was very nervous about her experimenting with her quirk in a situation like this. Thankfully, all she did was comically flail at him. He relaxed and spoke as she struggled to 'beat him up'. "Abuse of power in a world like ours is a very real concern. It's why there are laws prohibiting general quirk usage unless you have specific licenses to do so. Hero licenses, in particular, are very hard to get because it's so easy to hurt people with quirks. But... Beating someone up doesn't mean you'll stop them from being bad again. The crime rate would be much lower if beating someone once is all it takes. Like most things in life, it's not black and white. They don't just learn their lessons the first time and some never do."
"You shouldn't underestimate her, Ka-chan. I've only known her for a little while and already I can see how actively she thinks. She seems to adapt even faster than you do and that's saying something. I've always thought that was one of your strongest features." He chuckled softly as she gave up the fight, for what it was anyway. The little display was very cute, but he hoped it never escalated further than it did now, at least without very good reason.
"Yeah... Like I said, my quirk came in very late and it came with a vengeance." He showed her his hand covered in it's many scars and how visibly crooked the bones had healed. "Yeah... It was pretty stupid, but... I wanted to be a hero more than anything. I hurt myself really badly again and again till I got the hang of my quirk. Some of the damage was permanent... Still, I got a handle on it and I rarely hurt myself at all anymore. Comes back to learning fine control. Everyone else in class had been using their quirks all their lives so they built up control little by little. I had to do it all at once." He laughed softly at the suggestion of Kaminari having saved him, shaking his head a little.
"He wouldn't have been able to save me. What would have killed me is the fall, restarting my heart wouldn't have helped there. Also he didn't know how to do that yet and he was also in a different test group. The girl that saved me is a pro now too. Uravity. She'd gotten stuck under some rubble and I used my quirk for the first time to save her. Heh... Your brother can tell you, I have a habit of jumping in to save people even if I don't think it'll succeed. It was a bad habit I never quite shook off, but I'm better about it now." He shrugged chuckling softly at his own poor choices.
"But yeah, most people in a hero course have potentially deadly quirks. They have to be powerful enough to fight villains that aren't going to hold back while also trying to hurt the villain while also trying to hurt them as little as you can. It's a very hard balance to reach. Most of us could very easily kill people. That's exactly why we train so hard in school, to get stronger yes, but also to gain the control to only use exactly how much force we want to use in exactly how we want to use it. It's why Kaminari doesn't kill everyone around him, why Ashido doesn't melt people into puddles, and Ka-chan doesn't level entire city blocks. Normally you don't get that kind of training in school and if you do, it's at a hero high school, but we'll be starting your training now. You're very strong in more ways than you probably realize. I look forward to watching you grow and writing about you." Shoot... How long has he been talking? Ka-chan was going to threaten to kill him at this rate...
He smiled at the promise she made him, nodding confidently to her. "It's okay to joke if you take it seriously and I'm sure you will! I can already tell how hardworking you are! I know you didn't mean to do what you did, no one's blaming you for that. You're so much like your brother... He was always super hard working and always learning, I'm sure you'll do great too!"
.....
"I don't expect what I want to mean anything, but I'm not a pushover anymore, Ka-chan. If you push, I push back. You might have pushed it out of your mind, but I've always pushed back, even when we were really little. The only difference now is that I'm not afraid to do it anymore and I can push a lot harder." He shot right back. By this point, it was clear that the old trend of 'whine good sense at Ka-chan' had evolved into something much firmer. He'd already resorted to the same whining the blond was familiar with, but he seemed much quicker to dig in and defend himself. Despite the harder, more confident tone, there was still a shocking amount of trust on display. His body was relaxed and not posturing like he had around his mother. It was clear that even though he as agitated and in spite of the aggression he was being shown, he was fully confident that it wouldn't escalate and get physical.
"Ah! Aka-chan nooooo!" Whined the greenette, distinctly still soft for the girl. Thankfully she was just teasing him and even assured him she understood. Sort of. Right in the nick of time, the older blond corrected her and he was quick to back him up. "Yuuei is a very tough school and a lot of us helped each other study and stuff. You can't rely on cheating anyway because you won't always have someone to cheat off of. Besides, I never thought you would be the kind to be lazy and take credit for something you didn't do. You're not that kind of person, are you, Aka-chan?" He baited, already smiling to the little girl. "Also. Don't take so much pleasure in other people's shortcomings. It's mean." He chided gently, even reaching over to give her cheek a couple of playful little pokes.
They were laughing together. Really laughing together! He clung to that moment, etching it in his memories so he wouldn't forget it. It would be over soon, he knew it would be, these moments never lasted between them... Still. He would cherish every fraction of a second it lasted, keeping every tiny shard of what could have been in his heart to soothe the pain of knowing it wouldn't come to be. Or perhaps it made the pain worse... It didn't really matter which, he would love these moments with all his heart all the same. He wanted to go over to him... To hold him tight so he'd never leave again. He wanted to feel those pretty lips against his ow--- He looked away, not having realized he had been staring, cheeks flushing. Even then, the embarrassing thoughts hadn't been enough to chase off his smile just yet.
He looked over at the little girl when she'd offered to help him somehow patch up the ragged shreds of their long-dead friendship. He stared at her, his eyes widened in shock only for tears to start welling up in them. He couldn't let himself hope. Not that much. He let out a breathy laugh, blinking and tilting his head back to keep the tears from falling properly. He smiled, but... There was something horribly wrong with it. "Thank you... That means the world, but... I don't think it will work. If there's one thing that's always been true, it's that Ka-chan never gives up if he's decided he wants to do something. We were four when he decided he would never like me again. I don't think h-he'll be giving that up."
One thing the two of them had in common, without question, was the fact that they each had an emotion they displayed in a terrifyingly raw sort of way. For Katsuki, it was his frustration, but for Izuku? It was his sadness. He felt it hard and deep and it was on full display now, his pain raw and open like a still weeping wound. Like the explosive blond, he had learned to handle it and hide it better, but he instinctively trusted this child and she was prodding at the most painful parts of himself. His lip trembled for a moment before he forced it to stop and with that conscious action, he started to rein it all back in again. The whole display lasted seconds, but if anything that made is worse. It was like watching a Disney film and midway through 'A Whole New World' it jump cuts to a room covered in blood and for five horrifying seconds you watch as puppies are dismembered alive, then back to heartwarming singing like it hadn't happened. He smiled to her and again, there was something wrong with it. "Thank you anyway though. It really does mean a lot."
Tiny narrowly avoided episode over with, he forced himself to function again, frowning a little. "Sick? Strange... He's always taken such good care of himself... Maybe it's stress-related, that can really screw up your immune system. Maybe I should get some vitamins and leave them in the kitchen for him..." He mused, shaking his head and trying not to worry about it too much, though the worry hovered in the back of his mind anyway.
It was comically obvious when the realization hit him. "That's what the buckets are for..." He didn't look upset thankfully, but now he understood why she was asking if the buckets could be kept on the balcony. This was actually rather complicated. They couldn't keep them in the apartment, but the smell from the balcony might bother the neighbors. "I... I'm going to have a talk with the building manager and see if it's possible to let us have special access to the roof. Maybe we can set something up out there so we don't bother anyone..."
He snapped back to attention and quickly caught back up with the conversation. "I'm sure they appreciate the love you give them, even if they can't tell you so themselves." He blinked lightly at the description of the teddy the older blond had made her, but didn't seem at all put off by the thought that he'd done so. He'd proven several times how much of a soft spot the little girl was so it wasn't a shock at this point. Honestly the only thing that was surprising was that he'd never come off as ther crafty type. He smiled softly when the teddy was produced only for his brows to shoot up. "Archduke? Goodness, I didn't know I'd be meeting anyone that important today. I feel underdressed!" He bowed respectfully to the skull-faced teddy then. "It's an honor to meet you, Asmodeus-sama! Thank you for watching over Akashi-chan."
Ah, and inevitably the subject returned to Katsuki, because of course it would. "I would rather avoid the conflict if I can because we're going to live together. It'll be a pretty miserable couple of years if he gets really mad at me. I'm just happy I can help you guys, that's what's important. My room isn't that much smaller than my apartment in California so it's okay."
He did tense when her mother was brought up though. He considered his options and decided he should be honest. She was too smart and clearly already had ideas on the subject. "No. I don't like her. I never really did, but when I went to visit you for the first time is when I realized how much I didn't like her. I guess I was too little to really notice or take the things I saw seriously." He hesitated then not sure how honest he should be. He took a deep breath and hoped this wouldn't be a mistake. It's not like she didn't know, she was just like him when he was young and witnessing it. "You know she hits him and stuff. That's not okay. What makes it worse is that she's been doing it for so very long, that Ka-chan thinks it's normal, that's it's no big deal. I'm sure you haven't seen too much of it because he's protecting you, like he should. The day I went to go visit, he got a bruise on his cheek because she threw something at him. He's one of the most skilled fighters I know and he's fast. For that to have happened... It's proof that he wasn't defending himself. He let her hurt him because he's been taught to."
He reached out to her then, taking her hand and giving it an affectionate rub with his thumb. "Please, don't tell him I pointed that stuff out to you. You know he doesn't like to seem weak so he'll be really upset if you point out that he's doing it on purpose."
With that heavy conversation to set the mood, he lead her to his room and showed her his oldest notebook. "Our moms knew each other. I only went over to Ka-chan's house when my mom was super busy and only when I was too little to be alone by myself in the house. Most of the time, Ka-chan would visit me. It happened a lot when we were really, really little. We were real friends back then. We played together all the time and talked about how we would be heroes together. When we started pre-school he made some other friends so I hung out with them too and he was our leader, but... Well, I didn't always agree with what he did or said and he was my friend so I would tell him so. The bullying started about then." He laughed softly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I wasn't a very talented kid. I was clumsy, I wasn't good at catching bugs, I couldn't skip rocks, or juggle a ball... Ka-chan though, he was good at everything! He's always been so amazing! I wanted to be like him, even though I wasn't good at everything like he was. He... Well, he noticed. He noticed I wasn't particularly talented at anything, yet I wanted to be a great hero like he did. I drew this not long after Ka-chan's quirk manifested. A couple of months later, the doctors told me I would never develop a quirk. I wasn't very good up till then, but after finding out I would be quirkless, then I really was useless. Ka-chan doesn't keep something around if it's useless. That became our new normal and we weren't friends anymore. I've tried to understand it, but I don't. I've only ever been nice to him. We almost became friends again in high school, but I guess he realized we were friends again and he put an end to it? I don't know... He just... Stopped talking to me. He even acted like I literally wasn't there. I honestly don't know why he changed his mind again. I'd really thought that we could fix the broken thing between us. Heh... Just like I don't think he'll ever stop resisting my attempts, I don't think I'll ever stop trying to fix it either. It's just how we are now, I guess."
He jolted visibly when she suggested they 'kiss and make up'. "K-k-kiss?! N-no! I'm pretty sure Ka-chan would actually kill me if I tried to do something like that!" He stuttered, flushing comically bright and even flailing a little. "C-come on, let's keep unpacking your stuff. If you want you can look at my notebooks later!" He urged, struggling to regain control of himself and it really wasn't working. Poor bastard was so painfully obvious.
Once he'd managed to get her to return the notebook to the shelf, they returned to the living room only to find that Bakugou had returned and was actually digging into the portion of eggs he'd made for him. This wasn't helping ease his blushing... "Finished bringing everything up, I take it?" He asked, his voice comically strained in his anxious state. He wasn't exactly waiting for an answer either, already picking up another box and awkwardly heading back to Akashi's room to start unpacking that one next. The fact that he was so caught up in what he was doing that he didn't make sure she was still following him was telling.
Deku|266B53|Shouto|719CC2|Dabi|367F88|Baku|E7771C|Kiri|C72B20|Mina|A7637C|Kami|E5BD67|Sero|EBA43B|Jirou|D3464F|Toko|7A67B6|Shouji|709099|Tetsu|7B8191|Neito|8793AA|Kama|5A8A44|Shin|635EA1|Tenko|5C5B6B|Toad|80BF80|Sun|B4952A|Moon|322B63|Peter|03466C|TK|809A51|Mochi|FA53A6|Togi|87CEEB
Re: Bakudeku + Akashi [A/B/O secret baby AU]
“Tch, I’ll be fine. Quit worrying.” Katsuki knew it wasn’t going to escalate, the girl didn’t have a truly mean bone in her body, even if she’d inherited a hint of his malicious streak here and there, she wasn’t actually going to harm him. He’d taught her better than that, or at least he’d hoped he had. Even if she had some skewed views. He valued being a hero, sure, being a hypothetical good role model, sticking to all the rules. He’d even been able to quell his own flagrant quirk usage a tad. Being a hero was important, sure but he valued looking after her a hell of a lot more these days. She was his responsibility after all and it was up to him to make sure she didn’t make the same dumbass mistakes that he had done and franky he was pretty sure he’d done that, sure the girl was a little quick tempered, but they all were really but he didn’t feel uneasy around her, like she’d genuinely blast them all to dust if he made a wrong move. So, he let her get frustrated and tire herself out trying to fight him.
“That’s dumb, why can’t it be easy like that? What’s the point of having heroes then if you don’t actually stop people from comitting crime and doing dumb shit?” Akashi sighed once she’d flopped to sit on the floor, bored of going her brother. If heroes didn’t actually do the thing they were supposed to do, why the hell were they roaming around? What kind of regulations did they have to keep everything going, Akashi had a few doubts about the whole thing. It really wasn’t her thing, but she’d listen to Midoriya fanboy if it meant having an opportunity to poke holes in things.
“You’re right there though, I thought I was quick and then she came along and she always blows me out of the fucking water.” Katsuki smiled. It was a little strange to the outside observer, anyone who knew him would have thought the pair of them would have some kind of rivalry between them, using each other to one up the other without a hint of remorse. It would make some sense, and if things weren’t as complicated as they were, if the situation were truly as cut and dry as it was all made out to be, maybe they would have. This little girl seemingly better than him in every way that would chafe against that inferiority complex of his in a way that would ordinarily make him flare up a hell of a lot more than Midoriya ever would. A bitter blow against his pride, but instead Akashi was a strange extension of that pride. He was genuinely proud of her, she was better than him and it made him happy, gave him hope that fuck, maybe he had done something right here; because was that not the point of children? To create a person better than one’s self, or maybe it was due to that ideal that she’d become an extension of his pride in the first place.
He blushed a little at the compliment, and a dumb flirty part of his brain wanted to pry about what other features of his Deku was oh so fond of. But he was quick to shove that shit down, rubbing at the side of his neck. He tried his goddamn hardest not to let it show, because he was better than thoughts like that. It was a game of poker face he’d become long accustomed to, but he knew an intuitive eye could pick up the way he looked away a little to hide his red face, letting Deku become engaged in the conversation at hand while he batted off his own thoughts.
Akashi gaped for a moment, small hands moving to take his arm as she listened to him talk. Inspecting the scarred flesh and the way the bones fit together. Or more accurately, didn’t fit together as they should. “Oh yeah I can tell, your arms are trashed…” Giving a harsh shudder, Akashi cringed as she played around with his fingers, feeling the bones grind against each other as she moved the joints. She didn’t want to think about what her quirk could do to her body if she wasn’t careful, at least she was getting it earlier than he did but it was still a terrifying thought. She recognized a few of the names, most of the pro heroes she knew about were from TV, or people that Katsuki talked to. And while Ochako and her big brother had a tertiary friendship throughout school, that was one of the friendships that had fallen through like the rest, so she’d heard old stories about training exercises and the like, enough to have some idea of who Uravity was.
Katsuki rejoined the conversation with a scoff, with yet another snide remark sent Deku’s way- “I’m surprised you haven’t gotten yourself killed by how, if I’m completely honest. Don’t follow his example, heroes tend to be real fucking stupid sometimes. You can’t save people if you go down at the start of the fight because you jumped into danger like an idiot.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, resting his elbow on the top of her head in a way that made her scrunch up her nose. Hopefully they could both agree, Deku was an idiot. But, that selfless shit could be kind of helpful in hero work, important to some if you took a more compassionate stance on the profession. He bit his tongue at the thought of the sludge villain incident, the thought forcing its way into his head. He wasn’t going to tell her that story anytime soon, but it illustrated his point. If All Might hadn’t stepped in, they would have been screwed.
“So you can be stupid too ha?” Akashi quipped, catching onto his hissed frustrations and Katsuki just rolled his eyes.
“Hell no, I’m a fucking genius.” He sneered, a wide smirk on his face and Akashi rolled her eyes, moving quickly out from where he was leaning on her, catching him off guard and causing him to slip. Scrambling in freefall for a split second of terror before he caught himself, straightening up after a moment, a little stunned as Akashi giggled in the back of his awareness as he tried to regain his balance.
“And so it shouldn’t be too hard, I just need to be able to use it and control it. I don’t even have to do the same things you guys do.” Akashi reasoned, before piping up- “When should we start then?” Akashi grinned, rocking on her heels and pumping her fists. Training could be fun, right? She was already thinking of games she could play with their quirks that could be a really fun way to get more control and she knew it wouldn’t be all fun and games, she was excited. Even if hero work had never been her thing, it did feel like a bit of an honor to be trained by one, an actual celebrity compared to his brother’s rank. But that starstruckness aside, it felt good. Being quirkless had been hard, she’d seen the way that if she wasn’t treated badly and bullied, people thought she couldn’t stand up for herself, that she was weak and frail when she really wasn’t. It was nice, even if it scared her a little, to finally be strong like her big brother was, have a shot at kicking his ass for once.
As for her big brother, the girl was ignoring his fuming. It was a lot more subtle, but it was an easy thing to notice when katsuki started to zone out, then started getting frustrated, brows knitted together just so, teeth clenched. But his parting remark got him, cracked his resolve and he couldn’t help but snap. God, those notebooks. The dweeb kept writing the dumb things? Did he not see how much of a liability that could be? He’d let it slide before, swallowed his tongue but now he snapped. Thumb and forefinger pressed into his temples as he paced a bit.
“Oh no. No no no, keep my sister out of your creepy fucking notes. No way. That shit is such a goddamn liability…” He hissed. He just didn’t like it. Didn’t like the thought of Deku writing god knows what about him, casenotes were one thing but the thought of Deku’s notebook stash made his spine crawl. He knew the dude was a bit of a fanboy, but he wasn’t some idol. Some faceless celebrity brand, he and his sister were people and he didn’t want either of them to be in that ticking time bomb. Katsuki had hated the wannabe shit back then and he hated it now, but he wasn’t about to go destroying his property. “Commit it to memory, you’re smart enough for that, but don’t go writing that crap down. If a villain got ahold of any of that shit, we’re all screwed. If you were smart, you would have burned that shit when you went pro.”
…
He knew Midoriya was pushing back, he’d always pushed back but it was never enough for him. Never enough to scratch that itch inside of him. More, more, more. Always hungry, never satisfied, for what he didn’t have a clue. Katsuki had pushed him when they were kids but he’d always crumble and cry in just that right way that only made him more pissed off. And Katsuki hated it. It was the exact opposite of the reaction he’d wanted, whatever the fuck that even meant. It frustrated him, every time without fail. Even if he was supposed to have grown past that, he still couldn’t help himself. Couldn’t deny that accursed itch to rend and tear and destroy, both the things he loved and those he hated, just because he could. Just to see what would happen. He still pushed, part of him wanted to make weak, useless Deku snap, really snap. Just to see what would happen, how far he would go. But even if it had been what he was always egging him on for, trying to provoke, the slivers of it had caught him off guard. He wouldn’t raise a hand to Deku, not anymore. He’d learned better since then, regretted that shit. But if Deku snapped out and hit him first for once? That was different. Much different. Then, it would be okay, right? But he also knew the day Izuku hit him back outside of a formalized fight, hit him back to get out the anger, the hurt, would be a day he didn’t think he could come back from. It would be the end, if his own isolation hadn’t severed what they’d had.
He didn’t know why he wanted Midoriya to lash back out at him, but that didn’t change the fact that that’s what he had been digging for. Trying to dig and dig and dig until he pushed back, properly went at him. Maybe then he’d never give him that look again, that twisted glance for just a moment, betraying all of this fucking misplaced adoration that just made him feel sick. That loving look that only served to make him feel violated, confused. Why couldn’t he just hate him, truly properly hate him? Was he not worth it? Even now, what was clearly to any sane person a display of trust felt like an insult. He was oh so tense around his fucking mother but then he wasn’t awarded the same ‘respect’, hell he could fuck up the man so much more than she ever could yet Deku gave so many shits about her, what the hell? None of it made any sense to him, he just didn’t get it and it was like fuel on the eternal fire. Shouldn’t Midoriya be fucking scared of him, after all the shit he’d put him through? What kind of person still has any kind of positive feelings, hell affection towards someone who’s done nothing but cause them pain?
What kind of person indeed.
“No! Of course not, if anything my dropkick classmates would copy off of me, come on! I’m better than that!” Akashi laughed in response, rolling her eyes before she thought about the concept of cheating with a little more of a mischievous glint in her eye, baited well and truly. She could see katsuki jolt out of his thoughts in the corner of her eye as she thought to herself for a moment. Considering the technicalities, sure she wasn’t the kind of person to copy off of people, no she was too good for that. But… she could see a fair few profitable loopholes...
“It’d be a good way to make money, it’s not illegal if you don’t get caught and I could charge them for homework sheets and threaten to nuke any snitches that want to tell on me!” She muttered under her breath, letting out a sinister laugh. Still sitting on that borderline of sincerity and humour without any real indication to what was what. That was, after all, part of the play. She wasn’t really going to run any kind of homework business, or maybe she would. Deku would just have to guess and she’d get her reaction, and if she played her cards right her ‘boy who cried wolf’ routine could even get him to overlook her actual plans in the future, it was priceless!
She scoffed, poking her tongue and sidestepping, moving her cheek out of his reach. “Then mean, I shall be! It’s very fun.” She retorted and Katsuki couldn’t help but let out a scoff, knowing just how that ended.
“Have fun while it lasts, karma will get you eventually. And you really shouldn’t mess with him like that, it’ll stop working after a while and then you’ll be shit out of luck. If you’re going to do it, do it sparingly, c’mon.” Katsuki rolled his eyes, but didn’t speak to her with any real malice. It was more of a warning from one person to another, that the path she’d so gleefully chosen wouldn’t get her anywhere. He knew that more than most. And her games wouldn’t get her any further, she couldn’t just hide behind layers of mockery to keep herself safe and allow herself to float blissfully through the world. It simply didn’t work like that. Not that he could talk, but still.
Regardless of the specifics of the vice, he knew that insincerity only got someone so far. It could work, no doubt. Plays and plots, tricks of all kinds could and did work. But they were much, much more trouble than they were worth. Keeping track of those kinds of lies was difficult, let alone keeping the gambit working in a smooth way… It certainly was a crappy lot to juggle, but it was too, a shitshow he’d crafted for himself with only the best intentions.
That’s part of why he wanted to nip this behaviour in the bud now, even if he knew on some level she’d need to figure all of this out for herself. It would mean nothing coming from him, she’d need to learn these lessons through experience and as much as Katsuki wanted her to learn from his mistakes, never having to make them on her own, he knew it truly wasn’t that simple. If only he could relate to Midoriya on that front, understand and perhaps bond over that fact. That same feeling of anguish. But, alas he refused to put those two together out of sheer spite because fuck that.
This was admittedly kinda nice. It wasn’t a completely shit thing to be actually sharing some kind of joy with the man, which said a lot for him. He didn’t want it to keep happening mind you, it was inconvenient, nothing more than a nuisance as far as his own agendas were concerned, but that fact didn’t stop him from holding onto the feeling as tightly as he could. Love. Fucking love. Ugh. He was better than it, of course. But, it seemed to have a tight hold right back on him all the same. Katsuki couldn’t get rid of it if he tried and now he was left only to indulge it, throw it scraps and try to ignore it’s whining.
He’d need to get used to the feeling, he supposed. Especially if he was going to be living with the man, moments like this that had his heart racing and his stomach tying up in knots would hopefully be few and far between, but he knew they were bound to happen eventually and he’d just have to learn to live with them like the rest of this nightmare. It would be fine, he could learn to adjust. He had to.
…
“Kacchan also said he wasn’t going to have me ‘dragging in dead animals’ but I got him there, didn’t I?” She smirked, trying to ignore the falsity in his smile, the tears in his eyes. Never knowing how to respond in situations like this, did she offer comfort or solutions? She’d known Katsuki for a long time, long enough to know where his weak spots were to a degree. How to play him, it wasn’t often something she did often but if she was smart enough, quick enough, she could get the man to be playing along to her tune in no time, there would be no relenting. These two were going to be friends by the time she was finished with them. Maybe that too was a testament to just how soft he was for her. “If he doesn’t give up on anything he wants to do, convince him it’s something that he wants. It’d be so much less stress to not have either one of you hiding away, right?”
“And you’re already halfway there! He’s kinda mean, sure. Meaner than me, but he doesn’t hate you like he hates other people so that’s a start! He did agree to live with you, and I mean sure, you pulled his arm but I think that still counts for something.”
“Wow okay that advice was from experience then huh…” Akashi sighed. It was a strange, jarring thing to watch. A little traumatizing, and hard to sit through, she didn’t know what to do, how to comfort him in any way that would be helpful, if her attempts would just make him sadder. But regardless, she wrapped her little arms around him as far around him as she could reach, nuzzling into his chest. It was scary to watch, these sudden bursts of emotion. The way the people around her were able to snap from such extremes, while preaching about just how harmful that could be. “You know you can cry around me, I’m not gonna get mad you know…” She let out a huff, rolling her eyes dramatically before her tone turned just a touch more cynical.
“You guys are all big hypocrites…” It felt quite strange, illogical even to look at these people. Heroes, good people doing all they could. Giving all they could and ending up broken shells for their efforts, it made her pretty sad. Her brother was the same, she could see the same cracks in the shell sometimes. They were really quite similar, despite the differences in their presentations. The axis of their misery and how they coped with it. Just what they had to hide away and sacrifice to do the job they did. It made her sad, both for them and the people they were trying to protect. It was a worrying thing, she thought, to have a bunch of people who were that stunted and volatile being the front line of defense for the general public when it came to all kinds of things.
“For people supposed to protect us, you’re all rather fragile aren’t you?” Akashi mused, glancing up into familiar eyes with a cold look. “Preaching the lessons you all can’t seem to learn, ha!” She let out a little laugh, and pulled away when she was sure he was fine, giving him a slight smile to try and lift his spirits. But was unable to stop herself from picking at him, pointing out his fallacies, before the subject quickly changed. That was likely for the best, she didn’t really want to provoke him into a full blown episode, even if poking and prodding at him was awfully fun.
“Eh, I dunno. I think you’re right, he hasn’t been sick in a while though... But moving house is pretty hard, you’ve got to go through everything and it’s just a big mess! I don’t even like it…” Akashi sighed, before continuing on her tangent. “I know he takes pills too but I can read the names…” She huffed, flopping her head to the side with a groan. She’d tried to go through his things in moments of innocent curiosity in the past, hence the man hiding his medicine somewhere she wouldn’t look for it. She’d found the medication, but luckily hadn’t taken any before being caught red handed. Katsuki had given her quite the scolding for it, she remembered that much. “I found them once, Kastu-nii said ‘not to take other people’s pills though because it can make you really fucking sick, like die sick. So if you find them, they aren’t candy, don’t eat them’.” She informed him on wrote, in the way Katsuki would have said it, like it wasn’t something he wouldn’t already know as a sensible adult, but to her it was a new, fantastic nugget of information she’d cherished like the rest. “Mmm if you get vitamins can you get the gummy ones?” She grinned, twisting a strand of hair around her finger absentmindedly, instantly on board with bumming vitamins off of him.
“Mhm! I don’t really have anywhere to bury them where animals won’t dig them back up. Do you want to help sometime? It’s fine if you don’t, most people don’t really have the stomach for it, but you’ve probably seen worse… being a hero and all.” She offered, before stopping for a moment, lost in thought. Confused at the mention of special access to the roof, it seemed rather silly to her. “...Wait. Can’t you just fly? We don’t need a key to the roof if you can fly, Kacchan can fly and I might be able to fly.” She asked, going through the box Katsuki had brought inside earlier.
“They’d better, I don’t go through all the trouble for nothing!” Akashi snapped with a wicked grin, running her fingers over the smooth surface of the skull. It wasn’t really a feat of engineering, it was just a skull glued into where it’s ragged face had once been, embedded like well, an exposed skull would be. The glue hidden carefully behind the seam and folded over so it wouldn’t be an itchy, unclean edge. The stitches around the skull were mostly decorative, there simply for the look of the morbid doll and there was red paint crusted around that edge, attention to detail Katsuki could refuse to overlook. He couldn’t just get rid of the rabbit and buy her a new one, she’d throw a fit. Wouldn’t sleep properly for weeks, if she was that stubborn. He’d had to fix it and it would help her easily accept the teddy if it wasn’t so much of the same teddy anymore. Still the archduke, but now rotting away to expose the bones beneath that threadbare face. He’d told her to be more careful with it, not to drag it on the ground because the skull wouldn’t be able to take as much stress, even if it was real bone it was quite delicate. And she’d held to that rule, even now being gentle as she made him bow in return, making a careful effort to be conscious about everything staying together.
“He doesn’t mind, he sees commoners like you all the time, there aren’t many other archdukes around you know?” She grinned, speaking for the Archduke like she’d done for Betsy until something caught her attention and she leaned into the rather creepy stuffed animal, as if she was listening to it’s whispers.
“Who’s on my head, oh I’ll introduce you two later don’t worry! Is she coming on the bed too? Well there’s not much of a bed right now, but yeah of course. Hey! Don’t be jealous, she has as much right on the bed as you do you meanie!” She talked rather calmly and normally, games of make believe and pretend consuming her time between her research and studies. She wasn’t a girl with many friends, so things like The Archduke and her collection of dead bits tended to fill that hole. They could be trusted with all kinds of secrets, after all the dead were much less likely to spill sensitive information as her classmates were. She eventually set him down, freeing up her hands for more stuff.
“I’m happy you’re here to help, I know Kacchan doesn’t like you… yet... but I do! You’re really nice Deku-kun!” She beamed, trying to keep her smile from faltering. She could see this layer of resignation in his words, and while there was more questions on her mind, wanting to crack open that skull of his and take a look at the brain inside of his head, what made him tick behind that carefully crafted facade, that’s not what she asked. Instead she mulled it over for a moment before asking somewhat absentmindedly, “What was it like in California? Was the plane ride over here scary?”
“Is it really not? Man, I thought she didn’t like me but she must really hate Kacchan, huh?” She blinked, processing the new information. It wasn’t exactly the worst thing she could have heard, mostly a collection of what she already knew with some new stuff thrown in. “I dunno, if he’s so strong why doesn’t he just hit her back? If she’s acting like a villain then shouldn’t she be treated like one? I know heroes don’t really beat people up but still… I don’t know how he can just stand back and let her treat him like crap, he wouldn’t spare any mercy if he found out someone was hurting me.” She understood what he’d said, but it was frustrating that the world wasn’t black and white like that. That all of this wasn’t simple. Maybe if it was simpler like that, things would be much easier. “He’s done it before, why can’t he just do it again and teach her she can’t mess with him anymore. If somebody stood up to me while I was messing with them, I think I’d get the message. I know villains don’t learn that easy but c’mon! It’s so stupid!” She huffed, slowly coming to the realisation that maybe their moving wasn’t just to protect her.
“Hell I’ll hit her, if he doesn’t have the guts. It’s like animals, right? They use body language and occasional fighting to maintain the natural pecking order, and are humans not also animals?” She giggled deviously, raising a fist half-jokingly, before her tone softened and she looked at the ground.
She knew her mother wasn’t the best person, that she’d caused problems and hurt her older brother, but she couldn’t help but love her despite that. And she couldn’t help but feel guilty, knowing her brother likely didn’t share her feelings towards the woman, feeling almost selfish for feeling that way. “I know she’s kind of a hag, but will I still be able to see her? She’s still my mom… even if she ignores me most of the time, you know? I still love her...”
She sighed, running a hand through her hair before Midoriya’s hand caught her own and she gave a little sigh. “I won’t, don’t worry. It probably would just make him mad for the rest of the day and that’s never fun… He tries to hide it but you really can tell…” She did like messing with people, her brother especially but she understood this was quite a serious topic, something she didn’t spill willy nilly.
“See! If you were friends before, there’s still definitely hope!” She grinned as she bounded into the room, trying to give him hope. Assure him that it wasn’t a lost cause, but her face fell at the mention of bullying. She’d figured as much. “He can be really mean sometimes, huh? That must have sucked major ass…” But she got visibly frustrated when he began going about how he was talentless, not good at things and she just didn’t get it. She couldn’t notice anything like that, not now at least! “And you’re great at stuff now, look at all these notebooks! That’s a talent if I’ve ever seen one! There’s loads, way more than my work. You’ve certainly made quite a headway on your project, huh?”
“I’m quite envious, you know.” She grinned smugly.
Akashi listened for a moment, a small frown on her face as he spoke. “...I’m glad he didn’t get rid of me too, then.” If Midoriya was useless- *Midoriya*, a hero who had long surpassed her brother, who had created these extensive notebooks, where did that leave her? What made her so special? Was it the fact she was his sister? Was that the only reason she was even being kept around? She wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse, as she tried to find reasons for her brother’s behaviour. Even if Midoriya couldn’t understand it, she couldn’t help but try and put the pieces together. “Maybe he was just mad you couldn’t be a hero with him? He’d probably think that without a quirk you’d just drag him down if he has to pick up your slack all the time…”
“He made it pretty clear when we found out mine probably wasn’t coming that he just wanted to keep me safe, at least he wasn’t that mean to me though... But I know if I’d tried to be a hero like he was, I’d just end up dead. So I found better things to do, like my collecting!” She tried to rationalize, or at least assure him that it wasn’t his fault, that it was just how Katsuki was. Trying to add color into the fears that could have motivated his actions, but at the end of the day she couldn’t really give anything concrete. “Maybe he was just being a bully but… maybe part of him didn’t want you to get hurt by chasing after him, throwing yourself into danger like that.”
“Because I know it must suck, TV says so. You can meet some really bad people. Like Shigaraki, right?” She huffed, thinking for a moment about days spent sat in front of the TV on afternoons once school was over watching Animal Planet with her older brother when he’d come back from patrol. But she’d watch other things too, often getting glimpses of the news, of heroes and Katsuki’s work, so she knew the kind of people heroes could come into contact with. The danger that came with the job, most people with even the coolest quirks didn’t stand a chance, let alone someone without one. “If you’ve got a guy who can turn you into dust with a touch, what kind of idiot walks into there without an edge? It’s suicidal.”
“A living Deku is better than a dead one. I would miss even useless things once they’re gone, even people I hate.” She sighed, tone taking on that same cold tone and letting out a huffed laugh. “He really is like a grumpy cat, huh? Inch closer and it’s fine, but get a little too close and he’ll get all bothered and claw you…” She muttered under her breath, mostly to herself.
“But then, speculation is speculation. Maybe he just thinks you’re shit and annoying. I’m thinking it’s about a 60% 40% chance...” Akashi finally shrugged, before wild eyes flicked back up to look at him as he jolted. She sat for a moment, drinking in his reaction like it was the finest grape juice she could find, hitting a nerve like that was always fun. Immediately catching onto the flush to his features and his bashful demeanor, unable to resist throwing a bit of bait herself, the girl smiled and offered up her thoughts.
“Hehe… so that’s how it is eh? Interesting, I may need to change my game plan…” She grinned, a devious snag in her smile. Akashi already had a loose plan to get the two of them on good terms, and while this would complicate that plan, Akashi was sure she could get it to work, it would be a good deal of effort but she had faith. In herself, more than either of them. “How do you know if he’d kill you or not if you’ve never tried it? You never know...” She teased, a shit eating grin on her face as she blissfully returned to unpacking, as if she’d never said anything amiss... but refusing to drop the topic entirely, if only to watch him squirm. “He’s definitely pretty lonely and needs someone to kiss… This could work… Bah, he’d probably freak out. Letting someone in that mean shell must be hard...”
“But, baby steps, right? We’ll get there. Or I suppose, with my help, you will!” The girl smiled, patting his shoulder reassuringly before they both headed out into the living room. And following him she was, toddling behind him like a baby duck follows its mother, rather aimlessly back to her room, walking past him when Midoriya stopped to talk to Katsuki, who didn’t even look up at him as he responded. Though, he wasn’t blind to the strange look his sister gave him, then back to Deku, then back to him as she passed by. Whatever she was up to, he didn’t care right now honestly. What was the worst that could happen?
“Yep. I’ll come in and put together her bed in a minute...” Katsuki sighed, not doing everything he could to hide the sliver of malice in his voice, frustration as he brooded, unable to be completely hidden away.
He’d gotten better over the years but he was seriously doubting if he could get through this. He huffed, setting his worries aside and finishing up the plate of eggs and rinsing it off in the sink before slipping quietly into the girl’s room. Grabbing the pieces of the bed on the way and working out where it would fit in amongst her other belongings. He stepped gingerly over the boxes and semi unpacked items and moved to sit in the corner, starting to put it all together without a word to Deku. As far as he was concerned, he was quite content to set up the bed in silence and pretend he wasn’t even there.
While he got the bed together, she’d dragged pieces of the shelving one by one to the room where she could work out how to fix it herself, as well as the zip-lock bag filled with bolts and the instructions. If Katsuki could do it then so could she, it couldn’t be that hard right?