Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia.

Notes: This fic is my attempt to explain Bakugou's pathological behavior towards Midoriya, which is at once abusive and strangely intimate. Everybody's a hero in their own story.

Warnings: Contains an underaged teenaged boy engaging in unsurprising but perhaps uncomfortable teenaged boy activities.

The Chain

Even before he manifests his quirk, Katsuki knows he's special.

He knows it because Izuku says it all the time:

You're so cool, Kacchan. I wish I was more like you, Kacchan. I want to be with you forever, Kacchan.

Oh sure, there are other kids that follow him around, but Izuku is special. He's not very strong and can be kind of dumb, but he never, ever gives up. He's as brave as Kastuki is, and has a smile that makes Katsuki feel all warm inside.

But after he manifests his quirk and Izuku doesn't, things start to change between them.

Izuku gets sadder and sadder every day that he doesn't get a quirk. He smiles less, and gives Katsuki less praise. Katsuki can feel him drifting away, even though their mothers still make them play together.

And it makes him mad. It makes him so, so mad.

It makes him so mad that he wants to teach Izuku a lesson.

That's when he decides to look up the kanji for Izuku's name.

It's only natural that Deku had never manifested a quirk. He was always useless; always following Katsuki around like a lost fucking puppy.

Still, it would've been one thing for Deku not to have a quirk, but it's another that he doesn't fucking act the way he should. 'Cause Deku still acts like he's better than him. Quirkless, useless, and treating Katsuki like he needs protecting.

But that's not even the worst of it. What really makes Katsuki's blood boil is how Deku acts like he can protect others from Katsuki. Treating Katsuki like he's a fucking villain for putting weak secondary characters in their place.

It's Deku's own damn fault, for forgetting who he belongs to. It isn't villainous to punish someone for stealing.

Because really, they should've known better than to get close to Deku in the first place. What the fuck kind of right does Deku have to go and act like he's anything without Katsuki, then pretend Katsuki's the fucking bad guy for teaching him a lesson?

But hey, pissing Katsuki off seems to be the entire point of Deku's existence.

The worst part about the whole fucking mess is that it shouldn't matter. Kastuki shouldn't give a single fuck about weak, pathetic, useless, stubborn Deku. It shouldn't matter what Deku thinks, or who Deku speaks to. Deku looking at somebody else the way he used to only look at Kastuki shouldn't make him want to scream.

It does, though. Always, no matter how much Kastuki tries to pretend otherwise.

By the time they're in middle school, Katsuki's made damn sure that nobody will risk going near the fucking nerd.

But it doesn't make Deku any less infuriating.

And of course, of-fucking-course, Deku's still angling to get into U.A..

He wouldn't bother to do anything about it if he didn't think Deku had a chance. Because yeah, Deku's weak - but he's also tenacious and stubborn as all hell. If anybody in the world could get into U.A. without a quirk, it's motherfucking Deku.

So Katsuki has to nip that shit in the bud.

He destroys Deku's notebook, tells him some shit about wanting only a certain caliber of person to even try for U.A..

But the truth is that he wouldn't give a flying fuck if some other quirkless asshole decided to try their luck at getting in. It's just Deku that can't be there. Deku is a distraction that's been holding him back for years, after all. Like an itch in the center of his back that he can't quite reach.

It's just his luck that he lives in a stupid, shitty podunk town and goes to a stupid, shitty municipal school, and somehow always ends up with Deku in his class. Deku, who has the fucking gall to act like he's better than Kastuki. Deku, with his big green eyes and soft pink lips.

Deku, who he wants so badly, and who has the fucking nerve not to want him back.

And he's fucking tired of it. Tired of catching himself staring, tired of popping boners during gym class, tried of having to rush to the bathroom in order to jerk it when he looks at Deku's mouth too long.

He thinks later that he may have gone too far, telling Deku to jump off a roof. He'd just wanted to get through Deku's thick fucking skull.

But what if he actually does it?

His chest constricts at the thought, which only serves to piss him off more.

Because fuck, he fucking hopes Deku does it. It'd be like ripping off a bandaid, is all; temporary pain until that shit scabs over and heals. It'd put the both of them out of their fucking misery.

Still, that night when he's in his bed, he pictures Deku jumping off the roof of their school. He'd be crying, and he'd be too scared to do it at first, but then his stubbornness would take over and he'd take the plunge.

Only Katsuki'd be there to catch him. He'd say, "You're so fucking useless that you can't even kill yourself right," and then kiss his stupid fucking mouth. Kiss Deku all over his weak little body until he was fucking shaking, begging.

"Please, Kacchan. Please, oh please."

He can't imagine any farther than that without accidentally blowing up his own bed, but he doesn't need to. Just picturing Deku begging is enough to make him come like a fucking rocket.

Deku may never really stand up for himself, but he also never begs.

Not for Katsuki to stop, and certainly not for him to keep going.

At U.A., it would be a little bit too telling to try to keep people away from Deku, since it would actually make him break a sweat for once. Still, seeing people fawning over him makes it a difficult impulse to resist. Glasses, treating him like a legitimate rival; Roundface, drooling after his dick.

It's not like it's a surprise that Deku's popular, though. People eat up Deku's sweet, earnest nature like pigs eat up shit. If they didn't, then Katsuki wouldn't have needed to go to the trouble of scaring anyone off back home.

But it suddenly all makes sense, why Deku had always been looking down on him for all these years. He'd had a quirk all along, but had been hiding it. It might've been easier if Kastuki could believe that Deku'd been doing it as revenge - had been secretly laughing at Kastuki behind his back.

Instead, he knows it's because Deku still thinks that he needs protecting. Whether from harmless falls or sludge monsters or from his own pride.

Stupid, stubborn, selfless Deku, playing the hero as always. Making Kastuki look like a piece of shit in comparison.

There have only ever been two things Katsuki's really wanted in this world, and he knows that he's never going to get one of them. And since Deku's already made sure that one of his dreams is impossible, there's no fucking way that Katsuki's going to let him take away the other one too.

He's going to be the number one hero, no matter what it takes.