Notes: Day 3 (18/9) - Worth Winter Hero Costume Vigilante

Including a cameo by Hamimawari Koichi from 'Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals' manga.

It annoyed Katsuki sometimes, just how easy it was for the nerd to dart into his line of sight. Sometimes even just a waver of nervous breath, or the weird clap of sound he heard, whenever Deku cupped his mouth with his fingers as he was about to embark on another muttering spiel, was enough to catch at his attention. It made him want to hurl.

'Kacchan!'

But what was even worse, was when Deku tried to catch at his. And with such a goddamn cheerful tone as well.

But he weathered it as he always did. And even though he knew now, that Izuku wasn't secretly laughing at him when he told Katsuki that oh, your winter costume's so great, simply because you used your head and came up with an idea any idiot could come up with! More cloth +less bared skin =more sweat for explosions!

Yeah, no kidding, Deku. Genius.

…

Yeah, yeah, he got it. Deku was being nice and peachy keen, and it turned out his words had never been as barbed and veiled with sarcasm the way Katsuki always thought they had been. Deku wasn't the great sinister actor, with his shining eyes and words of praise, that Katsuki had wanted him to be, if only to justify all the shit he'd given Deku over the years. No, turned out the joke's on him, as it always tended to be since coming to UA. Should have known. Deku was Deku. Sucked at anything that required being something more than a nerd. As an actor, he sucked, and as a liar he stank; shitty nerd couldn't even keep his mouth shut about the quirk he got from All Might to the one person who would have been happy to beat the idiocy out from him. And damn did, too.

It didn't mean it wasn't hard though. To refrain from the lightning pulse of fury that seized hold of him and made his eyes bulge whenever Deku dared to speak. Dared to be nice. To him.

I DON'T WANT IT! STOP IT! His mind screamed, even as it was aware of the parallel, of Deku trembling before him throughout the years, yelling in his quivering, scaredy-cat voice for Kacchan to STOP IT too.

Damnit. The joke really was on him.

'STOP PRAISING ME, DAMNIT!' he near howled now, teeth grinding at the sound of that voice. If he could have swallowed down Deku's words and spat them right back out at the nerd, he would've done it. Would've grinned to see them leave a mark too.

But Deku just smiled at him, un-phased, even if there was a slight, wry twitch to his smile, a little tired gleam to his eyes that seemed to speak all on their own and say aaaah, same old Kacchan. It made Katsuki fucking furious.

He spun round, despite the itch between his should blades, the same jumping, driving need to spin and give Deku the fright of his life. He had some class B extras to fight, and grind down beneath his heel. And maybe then, the suffocation he felt around that scummy nerd would go away.

Weeks later, and Katsuki was beginning to feel like he could breathe again. He had a provisional license to his name, and could now let heat dance in his palms in public without having to worry about being arrested. Best of all, he was paired up for battle practise with some woman in a bunny-like outfit who didn't want to hit on him the way Pixie-Bob had, or make weird faces at him the way Midnight sometimes did. In fact she seemed far more interested in hitting other people.

'C'mon on, Sparky,' she taunted, her long hair artfully whipped out of her face by the force of the kick she sent spiraling into Katsuki's gut. 'PUT SOME MUSCLE BEHIND IT!'

This cry fell into Katsuki's ears and pounded into his head as he rolled over and over, grit shoved into his teeth, as his hands slammed out to cushion his fall with a blast of orange heat. She was no All Might, but then who was? Besides she didn't have to stick her arms out to save herself from a nasty fall the way he did; most of the time her hare-like legs could absorb the impact of the nearest hard surface and have her bounce off the ground or wall like a freakin' bunny. Kind of like Deku.

The thought pissed him off, and deciding to throw caution to the wind (he wasn't at fast as her, but then again, standing still and waiting for her to kick out at him again was just plain dumb) he ran forward to greet the whirlwind of limbs that she became whenever he was within striking distance. Long range blasts did nothing; she was too quick to be caught, at least at his current level, but if he could fire off a quick shot within skin-grazing distance? Well. All bunnies hated to get their fur burnt, right?

He grinned. 'C'mon on, rabbit,' he said lowly.

Something flashed in her eyes and she came at him hard and fast in response; but this time Katsuki managed to avert disaster by ferrying two quick rapid blasts at her face and legs simultaneously, leaving her to duck and weave into a rushed jump, her body braced by the waves of heat either side. Spinning in midair, and forced into a narrow margin of fire-free space, she came hurtling towards him feet first in a rocket-like propulsion. He grinned, slammed the open hollow of his fingers and thumb into his other open palm and ran his tongue over his teeth in anticipation. The curled shape allowed his next explosion to come out as a stream of quick-fire dots, bullets that barrelled into the sole of her incoming foot.

She promptly spat out a curse his mother would be proud of, and swung round, face set in a heavy scowl of pain as she dragged her foot through the dust to wrestle the burns into more presentable bruises. Simultaneously her arm swung up from underneath as she spun round to rake it way across his chin into a harsh uppercut.

Katsuki only managed to dodge part-way, his own arms climbing round the thick muscle of her bicep as he fell, his legs shoving him forward in order to get in close, hopefully close enough to affect her usual pivoting steps and to narrow the scope of her kicks. Up close, too close, and she could drive him away with as much force as before. Besides, up close and personal, he could make her burn.

'Die,' he half-whispered, half-growled, drunk on the idea of victory, before she promptly punched his jaw.

'Kacchan!' he heard Deku shriek in the background, like the goddamn girl character in the 'All-Mighty Dukedom' cartoon they had watched together a decade back.

He grit his teeth, moments before his back hit the ground. Stay out of this, or I'll kill you, he thought savagely at the nerd, not even having the time to spit it out. Because Damn Bunny Woman and her hoppity steps-

She kicked him aside, bouncing away in a manner so reminiscent of Deku and his stupid Shoot-Style that Katsuki spent the next few minutes incredibly focused on stopping her movements or at least hindering her. He wanted to win, but he wasn't dumb. He knew he wasn't quite there yet; she was no.5 for a reason.

Four minutes later, he was on the floor, bruises clambering their way over his arms beneath the thick black material; or so it felt like. All of him hurt and was sore, and to make matters worse, Deku was hovering over him like a bothersome fly that just wouldn't take a hint.

'Kacchan, that was really cool the way you aimed your blast to try and make her hair fall in her face like that!' he exclaimed, attempting to unsuccessfully push a bottle of water into Katsuki's hand. Katsuki merely grunted and let his hand flop off the curve of the plastic, too tired to swat away Deku's offending fingers.

'Don't need your damn charity,' he spat out with fire none the less, utterly unsurprised to see Deku shoot him an exasperated look in return.

'You need fluids, Kacchan,' he said firmly. 'You're sweating even more because of your winter costume, after all; you don't want to get dehydrated.'

'I'll rather lick sweat off a dog than-'

Katsuki was cut off with an ill-timed snarling grunt as Miruko unpeeled his back from the charred tile of her indoor gym, with just her metal-plated foot. It was like the damn thing was a spatula. One Katsuki did not appreciate.

'Oi,' he barked out, only to be greeted by an ominous grin in his direction. One that widened as he bared his own teeth at her.

He ignored the sound of Deku muttering 'Uwah, such a scary combination,' as she stared him down.

'You wanna faint, brat? Go ahead. I could do with a new cushion.'

Katsuki twisted his face even more. What was it with pro hero women and their need to fuck with underage-

'No,' Miss Thumper said, almost leering at him now, and not with the sexual kind of fervor Katsuki had thought of accusing her of, but with the battle-crazy lust he had felt flooding his system his whole life. 'Make that a door-mat. Perfect for wiping my dirty feet with. You don't even deserve to be a cushion I could pummel with my fists, if you don't even have what it takes to keep yourself alive.'

She ripped the bottle from Deku's hands, twisted the top off with a crack and damn-near slammed the thing down his throat like it was a basketball and Katsuki's mouth the hoop.

And Deku for his part, damn near started hyperventilating at the sight, his hands whirling and spreading like a fan in a panicked flurry of motion, and Katsuki just wanted to bite at him, snarl out at him to quit worrying and-

Damn Miss Thumper seized the back of Deku's stupid jumpsuit with a sly curl of her fingers.

'Your turn!' she announced with a wild grin.

And Katsuki abruptly relaxed, his own grin lazy and mellow as Deku panicked even further.

'Aaaah,' said the nerd sixteen minutes later in the street outside, hair dusty and streaked with dried sweat. 'I really need a shower.'

Katsuki snorted, and rapidly set the pace, taking a grim satisfaction in the way he heard Dkeu's panicky steps behind him race to catch up. 'You need a lot of things,' he said shortly. 'Like my fist in your face to make you quit yapping.'

Deku, the sly fucker, gave a world-weary sigh and, when Kacchan whipped his head round to shoot him a furious glower, he was met with a look that spoke of a bone-aching tiredness. 'Don't you want a shower too, Kacchan?' the loser asked. 'You must feel as gross as I do.'

'Don't lump me in with you, nerd.' Katsuki informed him briskly, marching off even further into the wide, open space of the street. 'I can last until we get back to the dorms. I don't have to go bitching and moaning about the sweat in my crack to every sorry fucker that comes along.'

Deku went quiet at that, his thumbs in their long white gloves, twitching and pressing together, almost twirling above the open slot of space the curve between his fingers and palm opened up. Katsuki, never slowing his pace for an instant, not even to turn his head, let an eye linger on the streams of green poking out beneath each finger. He observed the way they seemed to seep out beneath the white to cover the entire underside of the glove, spreading across the palm with a rich turquoise colour.

The new two-tone colour design didn't surprise him. Deku had always been such a fucking copycat. Besides, two-toned gloves looked badass and honestly, the thought of Deku imitating him in any fashion, while still annoying, didn't make him feel nearly as wrathful as it once did. He couldn't fault Deku for having the sense to try and improve his shoddy fashion sense, for one thing.

'You tryin' out a new look or sumthing?' he asking, jerking a quick nod to those two-toned coloured hands and the nervous fingers they covered.

Deku looked up, a quick look of surprise flashing over his face before he softened and looked down again, a nervous smile now perched on his face. Katsuki felt something a little like regret slice into him as his…rival spoke. 'Ah…you noticed! Yeah, the design may look bulky but it actually reinforces…'

Katsuki spend the next two minutes grunting and looking away disinterestedly while carefully absorbing and analysing every word. 'Huh,' he said after Deku had finally finished waxing poetically about something he should have come up with months ago. 'You're basically trying to turn your hands into guns, so you don't havta worry about turning them into boneless mush.'

Deku smiled and mimed flicking the street in front of him. 'That's right! They help focus the blast of force I can channel down my finger with pin-point accuracity! It's not quite a 'smash' but maybe…a sniper-like 'bang' instead!'

Katsuki grinned. 'Whatever. You'll never be on my level with whimpy shots like that.'

Deku smiled, almost privately. It was strange; not the sort of smile Katsuki was used to seeing on him. And he'd paid a lot more attention to Deku's stupid facial expressions over the years than he probably should have. 'Ah. I'll rise above that, Kacchan, just you wait and see!'

Deku's optimism was a funny thing. It hadn't been present for years, at least not so openly. But receiving a killer quirk and letting his nerdy brain turn sly like a fox, to come up with strategies for handling something that put him in the hospital every time he used it, had forced him to grow up in a way Katsuki had always tried to stunt. And Katsuki wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Mostly angry though. Because maybe a part of him had missed this, seeing Deku so happy and at home in himself. It was an uncomfortable thought.

And then suddenly, there was a scream, and all of a sudden, Katsuki felt a hell of a lot more comfortable. Deku had already sprung past him, smile wiped off his face as his eyes grimly homed in on a girl crouched beside a hair dressing salon, her hands slammed down round her skirt as though to keep it plastered round her skin.

'Miss,' he called out, already attempting to fix his face into a reassuring smile, though to Katsuki's eyes he just looked demented. 'What's wrong?'

But Katsuki's eyes had already moved on, locked and fixed onto the slim, squatted shape of something that flew by close to the ground, long and dark, rolling down the street and turning the corner as though stray stones and cracks could do nothing to hinder its movement. And. Well. Let Deku comfort the cringing victim. And long as she wasn't about to fall over dead, he would be all too happy to-

'The pervert peeked up my skirt!' she wailed. 'And then he-'

So he was Grapehead's sliding-snake cousin, got it. Katsuki raced down the street. And okay, so the fucker may not have hurt anyone, and peeking, so to speak, wasn't a jail-worthy crime. But still. That fucker was dead. Burnt and roasted to crisp. Set alight and shot into the sky. With a cackle, Katsuki shot up into the air, over a slim storefront wedged between two apartments, explosions crackling beneath his palms with force as he was granted a bird-eye's view of the area. Then he twisted, timed his explosions to let him fall into the right direction, and he was off, rapidly gaining on the creeper who swerved round a wobbly bike and halted, just in time for the fucker to raise both arms…

- and catch the little boy who was busy falling prey to gravity, sailing off out of his seat towards the harsh bite of tarmac below.

'You alright?' the toady-faced bastard asked the wailing brat, after they had both slammed into the road. 'Easy there, you're alright, see?'

Katsuki let out a harsh 'tch' and rolled to the ground. How was he supposed to punch the daylights out of someone when they had a wailing kid in their arms?

'Kacchan, wait!'

Katsuki barely spared the nerd a glance as he stalked towards the creep who was attempting to pacify the kid with a bunch of Pokemon plasters he was dragging out of his lame All Might hoodie. A hoodie Deku looked close to drooling all over, his wide eyes eagerly tracing over the blue and yellow diagonal cuts of material.

'Wow,' he said in a hushed voice tinged with awe. 'That's sixth edition version of the-'

Oh no, that nerd didn't.

'Oi,' Katsuki grit out, taking satisfaction in the way the low-life turned an unhealthy white upon glancing up into his face. 'You the pervert that likes sneaking a peek up women's skirts?' He let a familiar crackle of orange play out in his palm just for the intimation factor and was pleased to see sweat springing to the brow of the other guy.

'No, no, I don't care what the statistics say, I've never-'

'Kacchan,' Deku hissed, actually having the gall to grab his arm before Katsuki had the time to do anything helpful with it, like lowering his explosion-generating palm into the creeper's face. 'He's the Hauler.'

The guy below them immediately let out a groan, releasing the kid to rub a tired hand against his face. 'It's the Crawler,' he said to no one in particular. 'I just…I don't understand why that's hard for people to remember.'

Deku must have had a death wish or something, because he immediately looked horrified as though he had a right to feel concern for the guy's hurt feelings. 'Oh! Oh! That does make more sense, actually, I'm sorry!' His head then whipped back to Katsuki, so caught up in his dorky self, that he failed to be significantly cowered by the glare Katsuki was currently blasting him with. Katsuki promptly tried to glare harder. 'Kacchan! He's a vigilante along with Knuckleduster! He's seen frequently working with him to take out the victims of the Trigger drug while the public idol Pop Step takes on a sort of look-out role! I mean, I know he's not a pro-hero-

'That's right,' Katsuki drawled loudly, abruptly shaking Deku off his arm with a singular hard thrust of his shoulder blade. 'He's not.' He glowered down at the Crawler head-case, hands on hips. Why the hell was the nerd going all starry-eyed over this freak? Wasn't it heroes and quirks that Deku had such a weird hard-on for? Oh…

Katsuki rolled his eyes up to the heavens.

'You have some weird quirk that keeps you close to the ground, don't cha?' he said, feeling dismay weigh down on him. Damnit…he had really been looking forward to ramming some punk's teeth down his throat, now that he legally could. 'That's why that woman was so up in arms about you getting an eyeful of her underwear or whatever. Tch.'

Deku laughed, hair twisting itself up into the knots of his curly bush of a mop as he did that typical I'm-unsure-of-myself-and-need-something-to-hold-onto-in-the-face-of-my-uncertainty move that he hadn't grown out of since he was four. It was pathetic. 'Actually…she admitted that he gave her back some photos she had taken at a booth that had slipped out of her hand,' he admitted, with a shy smile. 'I guess she just jumped to conclusions.'

Katsuki was surrounded by such morons that it wasn't even funny. Actually, it never had been funny. Full. Stop.

He quickly bit back whatever irritation he felt at the fact that Deku had done the right thing in actually stopping to listen to the wailing girl who was too paranoid for her own good, and squared his shoulders, raking his eyes over the other Deku-wannabe. Honestly. If Deku has been born with a quirk, one too weak to help him pass a hero exam, would he have ended up like this guy, constantly crawling on the ground and taking everybody's else shit?

Katsuki growled. He thought he knew the answer to that question, and it sent a searing, sharp rage through him, like a knife.

'Get out of here,' he barked at the lame idiot before him, who had probably woken up too late to go to a proper hero exam when he left middle school or something. Why else would he be gliding round in an All Might hoodie nowadays? 'Before I kill you,' he finished off menacingly, cracking his knuckles together.

Deku looked at him with such a judging look, that Katsuki felt his face twitch, his lip jutting out to push his snarl into an even uglier shape. Meanwhile the other idiot, the one on the ground, blinked up at him. 'Alright,' he said, shooting a glance at the kid who had now been reduced to sniffles instead of wails. 'You okay? You know you should really stay on the pavement next time…'

Katsuki curled his hand into a fist. How dare that jerk ignore him! Then the jerk raised his eyes to Katsuki again, a rather steady look within him that Katsuki didn't like one bit.

'You should give Makoto Tsukauchi a call, one day, if you ever need some publicity ideas for your hero image,' he said to Katsuki with the same sort of well-meaning smile Deku had often aimed in his direction. 'She has some…interesting ideas.' His lips twitched as though he had thought up something 'interesting' himself, but before Katsuki could kill him for real, the guy placed his hands flat on the ground, bent his leg at an ankle and was suddenly whizzing off like a human greyhound. No, not a greyhound, he amended in his head, this bastard was more like a long, lean, puny insect that skated over the water, practically weightless. He hoped someone fly-swatted the bastard.

Unfortunately Deku didn't share his distaste.

'Such a cool quirk,' he was whispering to himself like a complete nutter, as he crouched down to make sure the now red-eyed child was okay. 'I wonder if he had to have all the fingers of his hands on the ground to activate it kind of like how Uraraka has to bring her hands together to release objects under the effect of her quirk…'

Katsuki twitched. 'Oi. Why are you so focused on someone who's breaking the damn law!'

The nerd looked up him, blinking owlishly as though he had no damn idea what he'd done wrong. And honestly, Katsuki wasn't sure if there was any point trying. Words, snarls, fists; none of that had any impact on Deku. Not when it came to his delusions.

'He's helping people,' the nerd now had the nerve to say, though he kept his eyes from Katsuki's as he did so. He carefully propped the bike up on the road again, smiling slightly as the child stubbornly shook his head and refused to get on. 'I know he's doing something…illegal, but he's also doing things a lot of pro heroes wouldn't really do either, like picking up items people have dropped. I think that's a really-'

'Dumb, illegal thing to do,' stressed Katsuki, finally losing his patience and grabbing the bike by the handlebars, before yanking it rather aggressively to the side of the road. 'Oi kid, wear a helmet, next time,' he snarled, stalking off quickly so he wouldn't be forced to hear Deku babble and apologise for something he didn't cause.

He scowled at the road, fighting the urge to kick at the pavement tiles nearby. He hated this, this feeling of being pissed at Deku turning his eyes elsewhere, getting enthralled by something that had nothing to do with his goal.

'Kacchan!'

The name made his shoulders hunch, his glare worsen. And still he let Deku run up beside him, and pant a wet, 'our break's almost over,' into his ear.

Katsuki glanced up, at the slim strip of blue ahead, the thin pillar of sky suspended by the tall buildings that shrank next to its colour. The breeze whispered across his face, tugged at his head, and he waited for it to pass, before he turned round.

He grunted, and started walking back, still angry, but calmer somewhat. And if Deku kept sneaking anxious peeks at him, as though waiting for his approval. Well, tough. The nerd could wait for eternity to pass if that was the case.

Still, though, something eased in his gut at the sight.

'Heroes who form teams are sissies,' the Bunny Woman told them self-importantly, five minutes later. 'Honestly, the only time you should work together is when there's some bad guy who really needs to be taken down. But other than that? Nu-uh. What kind of coward wants to share a ranking with someone?'

Katsuki hadn't sniffed, or glowered, just remained standing, arms crossed, with a slight jut to his jawline. Privately, he agreed with her, at least in terms of ranking. On the other hand, some hero teams functioned better the way they were, mostly because they were focused on specialised work, like the Wild Pussycats did with mountain rescues and avalanches. For such a grueling task, one that often stretched out over hours, rather than a simple battle with a villain that could last seconds, teamwork was an essential component.

The shit nerd must have had the same thought, as he frowned. But he didn't say anything. Unusual.

'You know why I got you two?' rabbit woman asked unexpectedly. 'Because I was pushy. I stormed in and ask for the two most destructive kids they could give me, ones who wouldn't complain after an odd bruise or two. You won't get that on a team. You're expected to play way too nice with each other.'

Deku frowned again. And finally opened his mouth. 'Um,' he said.

Wonderful, thought Katsuki. Here it comes

'But isn't it easier for heroes who work in teams to get decent practise in battle scenarios?' Deku continued, a familiar stubborn light in his eyes. 'They can arrange practise sessions with each other much more easily, than opposing heroes can with their usual schedule clashes.'

Miruko stared at him, then grinned, slow and small. 'You're cockier than you look, with that wimpy face of yours, yeah? Good. Aizawa wasn't screwing me around.'

Katsuki would remember that moment fondly, just for the gobsmacked look on Deku's face. And the pained one, later on, when Rabbit Woman made them go through another dose of battle training, because that smart remark had got her 'all pumped up.' Though honestly? Katsuki could relate. Many of the things Deku said or did cut under his skin in a way few other people could manage.

And later than night, he found himself running through them all, all those faces and words Deku would make and what that awoke in him. From that angry, determined face the nerd wore when Rabbit Woman kept kicking him to the floor, to the way blood had smarted his forehead, dripping down to the floor when he ended up ramming himself into a wall, and the weird sense of 'huh' Katsuki had felt upon seeing it. He would remember the fright that seared that damn nerd's quavering voice too, as Katsuki had rolled across the floor for the third time in a row minute later, and he would remember the softness in the other boy's eyes, and that same trembling glimmer in them that still would not die after all those years, no matter what Katsuki snarled at him.

Katsuki would remember the way Deku had been close that morning, as he had attempted to roll the bottle of water into Katsuki's hand, and how close he had been to him, crouched down, his thighs coated with the heavy black tread of armour that helped him crush rocks without shattering his femur. They would make for the world's most uncomfortable lap pillow, bumps and rubbery ravines digging gorges into your cheek. Then, at least, Katsuki wouldn't be the only one who could kill with his knees anymore.

Katsuki snorted at the thought, unamused at himself and turned over, dragging his blanket more firmly over his hip. Hopefully whatever else he dreamed up about Deku wouldn't have him muffling his screams into his pillow the way a select few had done in the past.

Maybe one day the nerd wouldn't haunt him, wouldn't burrow so far down into his thoughts, that it would actually be a surprise when he eventually cropped up in them. Katsuki could hope. And he could dream. But he suspected the joke would still be on him.

Katsuki didn't know how to feel a few days later, when he saw Deku wrap some of that expensive Golden Tips Imperial tea or whatever else that creation girl liked to sip out of her dainty cups, inside a bento box and sneak out of the dorms. But the scumbag had a shifty look on his face, one Katsuki had always felt wary of, with that deep frown dragging his big eyes into something small and downright villain-like, so, listening to his usual urges, Katsuki followed.

It was a stupid-ass decision. It was a creepy decision. It was a Deku-like decision. Katsuki mentally kicked himself all the way to the train station, hunching his shoulders and slinking into the compartment directly behind the one Deku's red-booted feet sent him tripping inside. Never, would he have thought the day would come when he'd transform into an actual stalker like Deku. How the nerd had dragged him down.

He watched Deku through the door that linked their carriages, keeping his head low, watching as the nerd glanced down at his bento box with a troubled look on his face and a familiar mutter on his lips. He bit back a smirk at the way other passengers gave him nervous glances and huddled away from him together, like bunch of penguins abandoning the sick one to the cold. The sight amused him long enough to keep the smirk on his face even after he followed Deku out to his chosen stop. In fact, he was downright cheerful by the time Deku had led him through a higgly-piggly set of streets and through a maze that must have worked out like the cross-hatch patterns on an artist's sketchbook. Old stores and run-down houses swept by their side as they walked, and Deku was too lost in himself to notice Katsuki and his quiet steps mere metres away behind him.

Katsuki only stopped, really, when Deku turned suddenly into a small, ramshackle yard, one that closed in round a local prison. He watched quietly as Deku sighed, steeled himself, and made his steps firmer, more decisive, almost a march as he walked up to the entrance. Katsuki felt no need to follow him further. He was curious, yes, but there were actual law enforcement people inside, and guards who might have licenses to use quirks of their own. He very much doubted that even Deku, with his magnetism for stupidity, could get himself caught up in the cross-hairs of a prison break-out. But he still stuck around to make sure. Half an hour passed. Katsuki leaned back against a bench, the wood made grainy and thin with splinters. And pretended to ignore the slight twitch in his gut when Deku rambled out, down the steps of the entrance again, a faint smile on his face.

He looked…relieved. Like whatever had been eating at him, and forcing frowns onto his face that morning had received a swift punch in the face for its troubles. In fact, his bento box was practically swinging from his hands, looking considerably lighter, as it did so.

Katsuki rose from the bench like a ghoul, his own strides quick and heavy, as he marched up to Deku, and bit out his name.

'Deku,' he said, low and biting, watching as the happy look on Deku's face instantly crashed and slipped away into something cautious. And Katsuki grimaced, fingers biting into his palm at the sight of it. It made him feel red-hot. Angry. But then that was nothing new.

'The hell are you doing here?' he asked as…non violently as he could. And perhaps the intention had slipped through into his voice as Deku merely glanced down for a moment. Then quickly raised his head to meet his eyes. 'Just visiting someone,' he answered.

Katsuki glared at him. Was he serious? Of course he was visiting someone! Why else would he come here? Was he taking the shit?!

Still. Katsuki had been trying now. And he was damned if he was gonna let Deku's shitty attitude hold him back and make him fail in his promise that 'things would be different now' after their fight at Ground Beta.

So Katsuki took a mental breath. And spared a look at the building beside him, at the pale yellow walls and the rust coating the thin bars over the window. The garden, what little there was of it, was run-down, green shoots peeling through cracks in the cement-covered yard, daises springing up ten-fold through whatever trace of soil could still break through.

'Someone, huh?' He stepped over, staggered even, into Deku's space. There was a few, scant inches between them and already Katsuki could feel the energy crackling between them as it always did. 'Last time I checked, your Dad was overseas, not locked up in a shithole like this.'

Deku bristled, just as Katsuki knew he would. 'You're not gonna let it go, huh, Kacchan?' He sighed, then offered up a weak frown. 'Okay. The festival's over, so it won't hurt anyone I guess, if you know…I came to visit someone I fought and helped lock away,' he admitted, irritation plain on his face. 'Alright? Someone I helped put here.' And out it stumbled, just as Katsuki knew it would; Deku had always been a motor-mouth when it came to him. He couldn't even keep the one secret he should have guarded with his life away from Katsuki's ears.

So he listened with mounting disbelief about that stupid viral video criminal Gentle, and how Deku had pounded him into the dirt. Because Deku hadn't felt obligated to leave it at that. Oh no, the mighty shit-head simply had to take it upon himself to visit the guy because the bloody tea they serve here isn't to his liking. Deku even had the gall to look guilty about it, like meeting the fucker for five minutes had been enough to earn a permanent place in his heart.

'Mostly it's just warm water,' Deku readily admitted, twiddling his thumbs. 'It's true; I've tasted it, it's disgusting, Kacchan.'

Katsuki looked at him, at the sun catching in his eyes, green as ever and yet so much more vivid than the slim stems fighting their way to life throughout the prison yard. Nothing about what he'd heard surprised him at all. But still. He couldn't understand it.

'You got nothing better to do than have tea with criminals?' he asked quietly, anger simmering on his tongue. 'Seriously, Deku? How're you gonna surpass me, with shit like this on your mind, holding you down?'

Deku looked at him, chubby cheeks alit with the sun, and with a strange certain faith in his eyes. He made Katsuki want to hate him, want to crush him with everything he had. Already the anger was rushing into his hand, making it bunch into a fist and tremble, like an earthquake had come to root in the tense rock of his muscles, to shake them loose. He could feel it, like a heartbeat constantly trapped in his wrist.

Izuku was the fault-line, every single time.

'That's just it, Kacchan,' that same shitty nerd now said, with not even a smile to gentle his words. 'How can I be a hero if I don't help someone who genuinely wants to be 'better?'

Katsuki had always wanted to be better, no, the best, undisputed and unafraid. Even when the fear did come creeping in from all angles. Even when the stray thoughts about Deku, and the complicated knot of emotions regarding him reared their head.

Deku. The one who never stayed that way. Who dared to refuse to fade into the background and become an extra the way everyone else from middle school had done.

So then days later, when he dared to knock on Deku's door, and shove his way inside, all to drift closer to that boy who made him want to hurtle headfirst into the fucking moon, he would let it come out, that one stupid question that made him feel weak inside.

'Hey,' he would bite out, keeping the viciousness in his tone to a grueling hum. 'Whenever you're stupid enough to try and rescue me, even when I don't need it, does that mean you want to make me all 'better' too, like your Mr Gentle Tea-Drinker? Eh, Deku?'

And Izuku, much like the rabbit his costume sometimes painted him as, would freeze.

Just like Katsuki was now frozen, hours in the past. He was stuck in this stupid prison pathway, staring at Deku, who looked back at him defiantly, a glare in his eyes. The sun chose to fall over his hair in that moment, and like some stupid rom-com, or even an up-close professional photo shoot, it delicately picked out stray licks and crescent shapes within the curls there, all to paint them into a lighter hue. If Katsuki had a hint of a poetic bone in his body, he would have said they damn near glittered in contrast to the rest of that dark bush.

But he didn't. Think anything that was. He just stared. Refused to look away. Because he wouldn't be weak over anything, he refused.

'Oh?' he asked, desperately slamming himself together to project the necessary amount of menace in his tone. 'You planning to make friends with all the future villains you take down? What a sound game plan.'

Deku's face twisted up and he damn near stomped his foot. Almost. 'That's not what I said at all! Kacchan, you're not listening to me!'

'No,' Katsuki bit out harshly. 'I heard you, alright. You wanna be a hero that saves everyone, right? Even the ones who pretend they want to be saved by you, only some of them might snap round to kill you dead, when you're busy sobbing and inviting them round for tea. You're gonna meet plenty of those types too.'

Deku gave him a very offended look. 'I'm not stupid, Kacchan!'

Yes, you are, you damn liar, Katsuki thought. You've always been stupid, ever since you were a little tyke trailing after me. Especially over the things that matter.

'I'm not going to believe every villain who tells me they want to be redeemed until I see them prove it with their actions!' Deku continued, fist clenched, as though that actually proved anything.

Katsuki snorted. 'This is pointless,' he muttered. 'You wanna rip your heart out for a bunch of strangers? Let them chew it to bits and spit it out, huh? Be my guest.' And then he had turned on his heel and stomped away.

And ignored the weird anger he felt, muted and almost frightened, when Deku failed to hurry after him.

He had been aware of course, of Deku's eyes on him. All his life, they had watched him, had scurried to the side, panicked, whenever he had caught them at it. Now though, that Deku had been around other people who had a quirk as great as Katsuki's, he wasn't quite as hyper focused on Katsuki's back as he had once been. Or maybe he was distracted by having actual friends this time round.

But it itched at him, at just how strongly Deku came round to clutch at the old connection between them. He could be cross with Katsuki, plenty of times sure, really angry if Katsuki pushed it. But it was all too easy for Deku to keep greeting him afterwards, to keep smiling at him, as though Katsuki had never attempted to tear it off him in the first place.

So a few days later, when Deku didn't keep shooting him harried, furtive looks, the way he might have done once, Katsuki found himself wrestling with an uncomfortable idea. And no matter how he dug his cheek into his pillow that night, his mind would not stay down. It would rear up and bark at him like an irritating dog.

Katsuki sighed and thumped the pillow, once, then twice for good measure, just to shut it up. 'Screw this,' he muttered angrily, getting up and shoving on his slippers with a ruthless efficacy. Out he stalked into the corridor, climbing down the levels until he found that sly Deku's room.

He proceeded to then stare at the door for five minutes, before sighing and rapping his knuckles sharply on the centre.

'Oi, get your ass up!'

He wasn't too surprised that he only needed to do it once more, before the door slowly swung inwards, away from his beating fist, just enough to reveal a large, wavering eye.

'Kacchan?' the partially revealed mouth asked beneath it.

Katsuki stared, unsurprised. 'Let me in before I kill you.'

The few stray curls of hair he could see rising above the thin strip of a face revealed before him seemed to stiffen. 'That's scary, Kacchan! Like something the bad guy in a horror movie would say!'

Katsuki's stare became a scowl. 'You saying I'm a bad guy, huh?'

That, more than anything seemed to make the nerd re-grow his spine, because the eye immediately narrowed and he stepped back to let the door swing open. 'What? No!'

'Good,' Katsuki muttered, as he swaggered in, gripping Deku by the wrist as the anxious nerd quickly pulled the door closed.

'Wait, Kacchan, what are you-'

''Bunny Woman was right,' Katsuki announced, as though he hadn't made the conversation take a swift turn. He felt Deku's eyes on him, wide and scared, just a little, as Katsuki towed him over to the bed. 'One of us in that training room would make a good pillow; but it sure as hell ain't me.'

He swung round, manhandled Deku onto the bed (hey, ow! Kacchan, what are you doing!?') and then dived down, spreading himself over the duvet and the graceless bumps of Deku' spayed out legs as they hung over the bed. Firmly he let his hand grasp the knee, tightening enough for Deku to wince, as he swung his head over him, staring down at Kacchan with a shell-shocked look.

'K-Kacchan! This-s—s is a-a-a-'

'Lap pillow' Katsuki intoned for him with a bored look, eyes fixed rigidly on the All Might poster in front of him. 'What's the matter? Too much of a baby still to say it properly?'

Deku reddened, fingers wavering above Katsuki's head like he didn't know what to do with them. Katsuki sighed. Honestly, it looked like he would have to teach Deku everything, huh?

He grasped one of Deku's hand and pulled it down, over the slim curve of his ear into the bustled spikes of his hair. 'Touch it already,' he growled. 'But no pulling, or you're dead.'

Deku squeaked. But after a few moments his fingers very hesitantly began to push through Katsuki's hair. As the seconds passed and Katsuki didn't suddenly swing round to sink his teeth into Deku's hand, he relaxed. His strokes became more confident. More calculated. He experimented, twisting and pressing down a little. Even began muttering a little.

Katsuki smiled, suitably smug. 'Hey,' he decided to break the ice with. 'Whenever you're stupid enough to try and rescue me, even when I don't need it, does that mean you want to make me all 'better' too, like your Mr Gentle Tea-Drinker? Eh, Deku?'

He felt Deku's fingers then, from where they had been gently stirring his hair, suddenly fall short, limp and afraid as they dropped into his neck like stones. And he turned, his grin half covered, dragged back by the bulge of Deku's thigh and the pull of his shorts, as they smothered the side of his face.

Deku, he knew, was by no means small and soft. But without the grip of his costume hugging his frame and the black casing he imprisoned his legs with, he was soft enough for Katsuki to rest his head inside the squat, shivering shape of his nervous, shaking lap.

Deku peered down at him, the shell-shocked look from when Katsuki had marched in, manhandled him to the bed and forced his head onto his knees , now abruptly fading away. In its place, something else emerged, another familiar look growing bold and bright, with a smile that was left soft and touched. Katsuki kind of wanted to pinch it away on principle.

'Cry on me, and I'll kill you,' he warned instead.

But Deku smiled. 'You're too tough to be phased by something like that; no way you'd drown.'

Katsuki thought about letting his palm crackle, but decided against it. Deku was a lot of things. But right now, he was comfortable.

'That's right,' he said 'The only one dying around here will be you.'

Deku hummed to himself, looking stupidly comforted by this. But then Katsuki had always known he was a head-case and a half.

'Mmmmm. I don't want you 'better', Kacchan. I want you safe.'

Huh, what a coincidence. Because Katsuki wanted Deku to be…well. Not dead was a good start. He's see how things went from there.

'Worry about yourself,' he warned finally. 'You'll never be safe, neither you or your dream; not while I'm around.'

Deku turned his head, trying to hide his smile; Katsuki saw it anyway wrapping its way round his face and peeking out over one side. 'Mmm. But I'll get 'better' too Kacchan, just watch.'

That was the problem. Katsuki had been watching. For too long, probably. He couldn't even summon the energy to grumble as tentatively, Deku's hands reached in and began exploring his scalp again, stroking through each stray fleck of yellow. He'd let Deku do as he liked, either way. Wasn't as though he had ever been stop the idiot in the first place.

It annoyed Katsuki. Made him want to hurl. Hopefully one day, he thought, all the fucking agro would be worth it.

'Tell anyone about this and I'll kill you,' he muttered. And pretended not to see Deku smile again.