To Defend the Weak from the Wicked

by Scarlet-Songstress

If Iida could be a knight for anyone, he could be a knight for her. Which is why it stings when he can't be.

The library is alive in its quiet in the warm rays of late afternoon sun.

The scratching of pens on paper, the turning of pages, the subtle murmurs of group projects and gasps and quick breaths of excited readers. It thrums and beats like a young heart. Every drum the thuds of bound knowledge coming home in the return slot. Every beep of the checkout scanner a pulse on the heart rate monitor.

The library is not a quiet place.

To Iida, the school library roars in its hush like a proud lion.

Among the shelves of books and scent of paper, he cuts through non-fiction with a stack of study materials in his arms back toward his favourite table and friends. Today they are working on a long-term group assignment for Heroics class, Quirk Combination and Application. One part theoretical one part practical, the theoretical is due at the end of the week.

He is passing the biology section when he hears them.

"No! Fucking listen round-face, like this!"

"Wait-wha-Ohhhh!"

On instinct, Iida hugs the side of the shelf he's by and peers over the edge of a section of books. He frowns at the sight.

It's Ochako and Bakugou, sitting side by side at set of tables surrounded by tall library shelves. Bakugou looks mildly annoyed (but when does he not) and has one of his hands in his pockets the other pointing out details. She's leaning forward, mechanical pencil in hand, jotting notes on the margins of whatever textbook they're using. Sero is slumped in front of them seemingly napping. The group's bags and stationary are scattered around the small study nook in a subconscious display of territory. A small den of study.

Drink bottles are sitting against table legs and on nearby shelves and Ochako takes a swig from hers before writing something down. An eyebrow twitch later and Bakugou barks something about idiots and grabs the pencil out of her hand making minor corrections before throwing it back to her. She fumbles with it and huffs back, taking the young man's anger in stride and focusing back to the problem.

Iida's eyes narrow.

Even in his relaxed state, Bakugou feels dangerous. Like a grenade with the pin pulled and waiting. Iida doesn't like that Ochako is in the explosive boy's group for the project instead of his but he trusts All Might and Aizawa to have a reason for the match up he doesn't understand. They always have a good reason.

But Iida can't help the bad feeling that travels down his spine to his gut.

A few moments pass and with one of her sweetest smiles, Ochako seems to finish whatever problem with extra energy and enthusiasm turns back to Bakugou. Iida witnesses Bakugou roll his eyes and tilt the corner of his mouth up in a small cocky smirk as he grumbles something like praise. She smiles.

Iida feels like he's just watched a trap close shut.

"Alright, idiot. Do the next one," Bakugou grunts with a straightening of his posture. He leans over the textbook and their arms brush. Ochako doesn't seem to notice, in fact she joins him pouring over it.

"Ok!"

Iida grits his teeth.

Doesn't Ochako see how dangerous Bakugou is? Doesn't she feel the tension when Bakugou slowly invades her space? Does she know she's letting him? Can she not see how dangerous getting close to that man is?

He watches Bakugou roll his eyes again and frustratedly grab her hand to point at something in the book.

Said hand lingers.

He's got to get her out of there.

"Oi! Class Prez! What are you doing here?"

Kirishima's voice is happy and loud and so very obviously behind him, he freezes in place—caught like a deer in headlights. Both Bakugou and Ochako look up simultaneously from their positions and Iida notices Bakugou's hand retreat back in his pocket from where it held over hers. Sero wakes from his nap and is rubbing his eyes when Kirishima and Iida round into full view.

The tone shifts.

"Iida!" Ochako, all smiles, steps out of her seat and to greet him with a small hug, "I didn't know you were studying here too!"

"Yes, we're at another table," he supplies, distracted. His gaze drifts from her to the young man to be wary of and he can't help but stiffen at eye contact.

While Occhako looks up at him in a glow of happy surprise, the coldness that betrays the heat Bakugou can emit is startling. While it lacks spite, smite lays deep in its ruby core. Without any words, Iida feels like he's being intimidated into silence— as if he's seen something he shouldn't have. The strength behind those eyes looms over him.

Like he's in a dragon's den.

He tries to ignore this quiet ferocity and turn back to Ochako's shining visage. She is oblivious, so very oblivious to the danger of this man. He resists the urge to physically take her from this place, beyond the shelves and back far, far away. She shouldn't be here. He should get her out.

"Midoriya and the others are there too," Iida baits, in hopes she'll join him.

"Oh!" she smiles. "Tell them I said hi!" She doesn't take it.

"Actually," he presses, ignoring the glaring that's starting to prickle his neck, "We're working on the English project Present Mic gave us if you want to join up later?"

But Ochako claps her palms together and smiles, head tilting back to the force at the table.

"It's ok! Bakugou just helped me finished it!"

"Oh…" The words give him pause. He had made some really in-depth materials to help her with that. "Really?"

"Yeah, no need to worry about me!"

But he worries.

"Oi, Round-Face!" Bakugou interrupts, not even bothering to straighten from his low glare at Iida. "Get your ass back here. You need to finish your work so we don't fucking fail." Ochako's face changes from sweet to fiery as she glares right back at him, unflinching. Iida flinches watching her poke the beast.

"I'm coming!" she growls but turns her gaze soft again when it looks upon Iida. "I'll catch you later?"

He gasps out a last-minute plea.

"Well, message me if you require further assistance?"

"Don't worry Iida~!" she smiles. "If I need help, I'll buzz you."

Except she doesn't.

She doesn't for weeks.

Iida Tenya had always wanted a little sister.

The youngest of five brothers and child of the Iida family, he knew what it was like to look up forever and ever, on years of legacy, and feel so very, very small.

The cold unyielding helmet represented so much.

If he had a little sister, he could defend and protect her and live out that legacy from his core. He could be her hero, her protector. So, he tried every day to be like the knights his family modeled their costumes over. Iida was resolute. He would be of service to his family, to his house.

Heroes are no different than knights.

They defend the weak from the wicked, save the day and hold themselves to a code of honor and chivalry. His mother was the queen and his father the king and his brothers, lords and knights in their own right. But as time went on, even as he surpassed his friends and peers with incredible grades and accomplishments he felt no better than a page boy.

He wanted to be a knight.

When he entered UA, each hallowed step on its grounds felt like the legacy warmed the soles of his shoes, shooting up and overworking the engines in his legs. He was on his way to his dream.

But then he met Midoriya and he was reminded that heroes served a greater kingdom than family.

The young hero was so strong and smart. He exhibited so many admirable qualities that Iida's respect was boundless soon after meeting him. However, Midoriya's pedestal was already raising above him and Iida wondered if the late-bloomer was already further ahead than he knew.

But when he met Ochako, she filled a void he'd unknowingly made space for since childhood.

Ochako was a good strong hard working soon-to-be-hero. But, she was also just as soft and kind and everything he dreamed a little sister could be. She would tease him, worry about him and when she needed help with school work it would be he she turned to for help. She would look up at him with big, brown, impossibly cute eyes and hung on his every word of as he would go through a particularly difficult problem.

He relished in helping her. Often going out of the way to prepare extra materials on subjects she didn't quite understand and forming critiques he knew would aid her in the long run. In the chaos and drama of their schooling, moments like studying together felt good.

It felt good to be helpful.

It felt good to be needed.

If Iida could be a knight for anyone, he could be a knight for her.

Which is why it stings when he can't be.

It's in the smoke of combat when Iida realises he is suddenly hyper aware of every interaction Bakugou and Ochako have.

He's dodging through the debris of one of Midoriya's punches and onto a Todoroki ice slide, building momentum to deliver a swift kick at Kaminari's side during one of their quirk combo spars. Kaminari deflects with a prickle of lightning at the surface of his skin. Iida feels it more than most.

Due to the scale of the assignment, Ochako is now with Bakugou, Kirishima and Sero for a lot of their classes. This includes practicing for the final assessment, putting their proposed theoretical work into action. Today in the corner of his eye, he's seen her play with the weight of the red head's gravity, yo-yo with Sero around the practice course and fly on Bakugou's back. The latter makes him the most worried, especially as they drop from one of the higher buildings and Ochako shrieks laughter to Bakugou's intense swearing before they shoot off, flying in controlled explosions under Aizawa's careful gaze.

His team goes for a water break and he can't stop his eyes gluing to Ochako now on the trampoline, practicing in air rotations. Bakugou is below barking corrections as Kirishima and Sero practice some kind of human slingshot next to them.

"You're under rotating, idiot. Add twenty percent more to your left side when you jump." She hears and adjusts, preforming a perfect somersault. Her laughter is infectious and Iida can't resist the smile that creeps onto his face.

"Thanks, Bakugou!"

The smile drops and Iida nearly misses when Midoriya calls for him a few minutes later.

In Science he nearly cuts himself when she almost floats the wrong highly unstable chemical vials together without noticing. Before he can rush over, Bakugou has both vials and puts them back in a safe place. He turns to Ochako with an angry glare she just laughs at him nervously.

"Fucking hell," he explodes stronger than anything they're handling. "Be goddamn careful or you're going to blow us all up."

"Sorry, Bakugou!" she replies unaffected, turning to Kirishima as the red haired man passes her the actual chemicals she needs for the experiment. Sero holds a notebook in front of her as she guides the vials under Bakugous critical eyes. The shade changes in the vial from clear to gold with a swirl of silver and the group cheers.

She doesn't see the red gaze drop from the experiment to her face.

Iida does.

After school she spars with her team across from her usual spot in the gym. She's dodging a two-way attack from Kirishima and Bakugou when a fist fight with the latter leaves her sprawling on the mat in pain. Before he can stop the treadmill to help she's giggling mess on the floor.

"Learn to watch your left side, round face," he can hear Bakugou say, leaning over her with a hand out to help her up.

"Maybe you should watch it for me!" he hears, almost missing her hitting the explosive man's ankle with all five fingers and sending him straight up. Loud swearing ensues and Ochako is laughing even harder than before as he floats up. Sero tags in to pull him down with tape as she escapes for a water break in the girls dressing room.

But Bakugou is the type to believe in revenge and chases her down to even more laughter.

"Looks like they're having fun!" Midoriya says over the boxing bag nearby.

Iida disagrees.

It's like this for weeks and Iida just can't stop noticing. It's not as if he and Midoriya do not spent time with Ochako at all. She still sits with them at lunches, shares smiles and stories and pesters and prods and messages. She is still the same Ochako. But he feels that something is different. He catches her nervous glances in Bakugou's direction and wonders if she's scared of him more than she says. When he asks if she needs help with him, she laughs and tells him she'll let him know.

It peaks on a Tuesday night.

It's late at night, the moon is black and missing from the sky, and it's far beyond curfew.

The quiet of the carpet crushes undertow as he walks in a silent march around on late night patrol. He smells rain coming and shuts a few of the open windows, lest the coming storm bring the rain into the building. It is in slow, measured steps he pads down to the lower floors. He hears snoring and the soft sounds of sleep, heart at ease in the knowledge his fellow classmates are at peace.

As he eventually reaches the kitchen and lounge he notices the lights haven't turned off quite yet. As far as he can tell its only one or two and an exasperated sigh leaves him at the laziness of his colleagues.

The torch light he uses for patrol bounces along the floor with every step.

When he turns the corner, he freezes in place…

…and Bakugou Katsuki raises his lips from a sleeping Ochako's forehead to meet his gaze.

Books are out, homework completed, a pair of cups and crumbed plates sit on the coffee table. Bakugou straightens from his place crouched over Ochako's slumbering form on the couch, tightly wound as a quiet storm. His ruby eyes flash against the harshness of the phone's flash light.

"Turn that fucking thing off before I make you," he growls. The voice is thunder, low and dominating and Iida can't help but follow its will. The torch light cuts and the lamp light remains, back shadowing Bakugou's form.

A beat passes and Iida feels his heart in his throat.

Bakugou had just been…?

But how long had….?

When?

The tightness won't leave. He doesn't even notice Bakugou ignore him in favour of packing up the remainders of the session and cleaning up neatly. He only refocuses when the young man returns to his crouch by her side, brushing brown hair off her forehead with the gentlest hands Iida has ever seen him use.

Iida splutters.

"Look," Bakugou's stormy voice is near whisper, his eyes never leave Ochako's face. "If you have a fucking problem, say it now, Glasses."

The weeks of build-up come to ahead in the way Iida's shoulders tighten and hands fist by his sides.

"BAKUGOU KATS-" he starts to thunder but quickly quietens when Ochako moves in her sleep.

Her eyes scrunch as if to open.

Breath holds.

Relief is brief when she settles back down.

"Bakugou Katsuki," he hisses, lower and quiet at the explosive man's back. "You are a dangerous man. You're arrogant, abrasive, angry and violent. I don't know what you're doing with Ochako, but you need to leave her alone."

As soon as the words leave his lips, a weight feels lifted. It doesn't leave, but immediately settles back on his neck when he receives no immediate reply.

Silence follows and stretches with the shadows.

"Is that it?"

Bakugou's gaze is only half on him now. It eyes him dismissively, like he's stating the obvious, as if its nothing that hasn't been said before.

Iida nods slowly.

"Good," and with a gentleness Iida never thought possible, Bakugou lifts Ochako in his arms and begins walking toward the stairs.

"B-Bakugou!" he starts, but the explosive man sharply halts him with a growl.

"Shut the fuck up, Glasses," the thunder returns. Red eyes glance down to the bundle of young woman in his arms and the voice lowers. "You wake her, I kill you."

It's not a threat.

It's a promise.

Iida is a silent guard as he trails Bakugou and Ochako to her room on the fourth floor. He almost voices a protest at Bakugou entering it until he sees him open it with ease even with her in his arms like it's happened before.

Which it might have.

The sudden sense of loss is dizzying in Iida as he hangs like a shadow at the doors edge, fingernails digging into his palms. Just how much did he not know? Just how long has this been going on? He feels so confused he nearly misses Ochako waking as Bakugou places her down onto her bed. One of her small hands reaches out and touches him on the face nearly poking a rogue finger up his nose.

Bakugou snorts a little.

"Katsuki?" she mumbles eyes bleary and unalert. Iida watches him squeeze the hand on his face before running his own fingers down hers, lowering her eyelids. She sighs softly and smiles, eyes closing under his fingers.

"Shut those eyes, Angel Face," he orders softly, "Sleep decent." She mumbles a reply and Iida catches the edge of Bakugous lips tilt up just slightly. He holds his breath.

Iida didn't know Bakugou could smile.

The moment is so fragile and soft that Iida feels like an intruder, near as much as he feels like a stranger. Thousands of questions are running through his head as Bakugou brushes her hair behind an ear and slowly, so very slowly, leaves the roundness of her face. As her breath evens out, the explosive young man rises quiet but purposefully. He picks up a rogue tie on the floor and places on its hook as he exits. He doesn't look as he does it, a fact Iida notices and turns the handle slowly as he steps out of the room.

It is only then does he round on Iida like a dam about to burst.

Eye to eye, there is barely any space between them and somehow Bakugou manages to make the taller boy seem so much smaller.

"Listen here, fucker," he snarls. "I'm not nice, but she cares about you so I'm going to say this fucking once. You breathe a word about what you saw tonight and I will end you."

Iida feels the armor of his outrage, the adrenaline through his lungs and gets furious.

"How dare you!" he hisses, "I don't know exactly what I saw tonight. All I know is that it needs to stop." The red eyes blaze. "Leave Ochako alone."

A savage bark of a laugh.

"Until she kicks me out of whatever the fuck this is, I'm here to fucking stay. No whining or bitching from people like you, or fucking Deku, or anyone else is standing in my fucking way."

Iida's eyes narrow at his arrogance.

"You are not good enough for her," he near roars.

Bakugou sneers and for a brief moment all Iida can see is the anger and fire and frustration in his eyes.

The disgust.

"At least I fucking trust her."

Iida's freezes.

Above all others, these words cut quick, cut down, and suddenly his guard seems to crumble. Like something has found the gaps in his chain mail piercing his confidence and righteousness. A deep sinking feeling like drowning in reality stings the edge of his heart. Yet...

(No.

Wait.

It couldn't be.)

"I-I trust her!" he stammers. Suddenly his words aren't as strong and he feels Bakugou's mood shift to predatory. He feels himself step back.

"Don't think I haven't seen you," the young man sneers, "Every day, every class, every moment she's in sight fucking waiting for her to fuck up so you can come in to save the day and stroke your goddamn ego. Ochako—" he breathes and Iida can't "—is fucking capable without an idiot like you watching her back."

"She. Doesn't. Need. You."

Bakugou has to lie.

"Especially when she has me."

His reality is his truth.

He's walking by Biology in the library when he catches them.

Bakugou and Ochako sitting together, workbooks out, personal affects decorate the four-person table between them.

This time, however, they're alone.

He watches Ochako cast her magic— a smile, a laugh –and Bakugou's spines retract. He watches the porcupine of a man soften under her charming glow and a hand aggressively shoot from a pocket out over hers. She giggles. He scowls but makes no move to remove the hand.

They start talking.

The majority of their fingers thread together.

Iida waits and watches and minutes pass.

Ochako laughs.

It takes a step, and then a second and slowly, he turns away from the shelf and walks away.

He walks back to his favourite table with most of his favourite friends and sends Ochako a small message wishing her luck with the final assessment tomorrow. She replies immediately with a cute bunny sticker wishing him the same.

His lips tilt up.

But they tilt up sadly.