Katsuki loved the stars. They weren't something he saw regularly, too much light pollution in Musutafu. But when he got the chance, he loved to get away from it all and head up the nearest mountain. The number of hours he had spent starring at the sky, it was a miracle his neck hadn't grown funny.
As a child he'd spent many a day hiking, often accompanied by Deku and their "friends". They would stay and watch the sun disappear behind the clouds until the glistening white dots of the stars were visible. Deku would always complain, he hated having to climb down the mountain in the dark. Looking back now Katsuki could see that it had been a dangerous thing to do, his parents concern was warranted.
He could convince the others that it was cool, that Deku was just being a baby about it. After Katsuki had been grounded for it the first time, that just made it seem that much more badass. Every single time without fail Katsuki would get into trouble for climbing the mountain by himself. It wasn't truly a mountain, more like a rather large hill, Katsuki preferred much more challenging climbs today. Great hulking behemoths of stone and soil, reaching to the skies as if to commune with the Gods.
When he had explained to his parents the reason why he kept breaking curfew they were a lot more forgiving. As long as he promised to keep to his curfew in the future Mitsuki and Masaru promised to take him up there as much as he wanted. Which meant every day after dinner they would take their dogs and walk up the hill to see the stars.
He knew the names of several constellations and knew how to recognise them. When he was younger, he had loved to point them out to his parents and tell them all he knew, which must have got old pretty fast, but they never stopped him.
His love for stars only grew as he got older, when he was seven, he had begged his parents to buy him those little stick on glow in the dark stars for his roof. He and Masaru had spent hours arranging and rearranging the stickers until they were perfect. Then one day whilst he was at school his mother had connected the stars with black lines of paint.
Now almost ten years later they were still on his ceiling. The rest of his room had changed over the years; a bigger bed, All Might posters exchanged for fancy artwork and bookcase replaced for something much larger, yet the stars remained.
He was never scared of the dark, he didn't need them to help him sleep or anything like that, they were just comforting. That was something he needed now more than ever.
Blue flames licked at his skin as blood dribbled down his spine. High-pitched laughter filled his ears, making him spin around. A flash of yellow and pain as the knife dragged across his skin. Katsuki screamed and the flames got closer.
Figures cloaked in black lunged at him; arms outstretched, and weapons drawn. Dry fingers brushed against his flesh and a tingling sensation spread up his arm. Looking down, Katsuki saw his skin begin to crumble. He leapt back, crashing into a scaled body. A muscled arm wrapped around his throat and squeezed.
Oxygen escaped him as he gasped for breath. His nails clawed at the arm around his neck, but the grip just tightened. The pressure increased and Katsuki went numb, everything fading to black.
Katsuki shot forwards, clutching his covers, fighting against the explosions. He panted heavily, pulling his knees up against his body and he ran his hands through his hair. Tears pooled in his eyes. It was too tight; everything was too close to his skin. He grabbed his t-shirt that was soaked sweat and pulled it over his head.
His breathing quickened as the fabric wrapped around his face, smothering him. He ripped the offending item off his head, squeezing it in his hands.
He screamed, hoarse and broken, throat dry. The tears ran, leaving thick tracks down his face. He chocked back sobs and tried to calm his breathing, but it was no use. Oxygen wouldn't come and the tears wouldn't stop.
Suddenly, his mother was there, flicking the light on and coming to sit beside him. He continued to cry, pressing the t-shirt into his eyes to absorb his tears. Mitsuki wrapped her arm around his shoulder and pulled him close to her body.
He let go of his t-shirt in favour of his mother's, gripping it tightly with both hands, burying his head into her neck.
"Hanabi?" her voice full of concern. "Do you want to talk about it?" she ran a hand through his hair, not caring about the sweat soaking it.
"I was back with them." Katsuki gasped between tears. "But no one was there to help me. I had to fight all of them. I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't breathe."
"It's okay, you're with me now. You're at home and you're plenty strong enough."
"I wasn't," Katsuki cried, "I let everyone down."
"No, you didn't, you tried your best."
"My best wasn't good enough."
If someone asked Katsuki what his favourite star was, he'd have to think. Of course, everyone knew Sirius; the brightest star in the sky. But there were so many more to choose from: Pollux, Cygnus, Lyra, Eltanin. So many little bright dots lighting up the sky.
Someone had asked him once. Deku, the only person besides his parents who had noticed his love for them. They were fourteen, on one of the days when it was just the two of them walking home from school. Katsuki was tired and couldn't be bothered to start a fight. Deku sensing his apathetic mood had tried to talk about something that the other was passionate about.
There had been a meteor shower the night before, hence Katsuki's sleepy state. Deku was going on and on about it. Then he asked.
"Kacchan, which one is your favourite? The stars I mean?"
"Betelgeuse." Katsuki had said without hesitation.
"Why's that,"
"It's red."
"Oh."
That was the end of that. At least for Deku. Later on, Katsuki would ponder why that was the first star to come to mind. Out of the hundreds he knew and had seen why was it that one that he thought of so fondly. Sure, like he had said, it was red, and red was his favourite colour. But there was more to it than that.
Leather dug into his wrists and around his chest, a steel muzzle clamping his jaws shut. His vision was blurred as blood oozed from his eyebrow and obscured his eyes. He couldn't hear properly, much worse than normal. Everything was muffled, as if the people were in the next room and he was listening through the walls.
They were right beside him though. Hot breath ghosted over his skin and a voice as rough as gravel whispered into his ear.
"You want this top stop? Then join us."
Katsuki shook his head. The figure just shrugged. A girlish laughter rang out and Katsuki flinched before the blade even grazed his skin. Undeterred the girl drove the knife home, digging it into his shoulder blade.
"Not too deep, we want him, remember?" the voice said, sending shivers up Katsuki's spine. The girl laughed again, but she didn't say anything.
Blue and black swirled around him, obscured by red. A flash of teeth and a smirk. Blinding pain and blistering heat. Everything was spinning.
He pulled at the restraints as the black haired one got closer, blue igniting his hands. He strained against the leather, twisting his arm and yanking as hard as he could. The restraints snapped and Katsuki lifted his arm towards the figure. Sweat dribbled between his fingers, he lit it on fire.
The sound of his own explosions woke him up. He was kneeling on his bed arms outstretched towards an invisible assailant. He was out of breath, as if he'd just finished a training exercise. Katsuki let himself fall backwards to sit on his bed, elbows resting on his knees.
It was morning, 7:30 to be exact. He'd slept in. The sun shone in through a gap in the curtain making a solid line of yellow down the dark blue walls.
There was a knock at the door.
"Katsuki, are you okay in there?" Masaru called from the other side. Katsuki scoffed, frown marring his features. Masaru opened the door and came in quietly. "I heard the explosion."
"I didn't mean it. Nightmare." Katsuki said, staring down at his hands.
"You activated your Quirk in your sleep? You haven't done that in a long time."
Now that was a lie. It had been happening on and off since the Sludge Villain attack. Katsuki had awoken many times to the smell of smoke and his hands crackling with mini explosions. But he'd never made one that big before.
"Maybe… maybe I should start wearing the gloves again."
He'd gotten his first pair of Quirk supressing gloves when he was six. He'd had a nightmare, tame in comparison to those that plagued him now, and had accidentally set his bed sheets on fire. His parents and the fire department believed it to be for the best.
There were designed to keep his hands cooler, preventing him from sweating as much. Of course, in the early days they weren't nearly as affective as they were now, the technology had developed. Later products completely blocked his ability to light his sweat when he wore them, which he was glad for.
He hadn't worn them since he started at U.A. Since he had gotten more control over his Quirk, he had only really worn them during P.E in middle school. After all, the more he sweat, the more powerful his explosions were, he didn't want to accidentally blow up the school.
But he had kept them, just in case. The were slim black things, covering between the first joint in his fingers down to his elbows.
"You sure?"
"I don't want to hurt anyone. If I'm activating it in my sleep, there's no telling to how much damage I could do."
"It's the smart thing to do, I guess." Masaru smiled softly, placing a hand on Katsuki's shoulder. "Do you want to talk about your nightmare?"
"It was similar to last night's," Katsuki shrugged, "I was with the League."
"You know they can't hurt you anymore, right?"
"I get that, I guess my subconscious doesn't or something."
"Right," Masaru said, "Have you considered what the doctors said, about therapy?"
"I don't want to talk some random stranger about my stupid nightmares."
"Katsu' it's their job, they're supposed to help you feel better."
"I'll be fine Dad."
"Well you can come to your mother and I with anything, you know, that right?" Masaru asked, rubbing his son's back; his touch feather light, careful not to aggravate the healing wounds.
"I do, thanks." Katsuki said, leaning against his father for a moment.
"Well get dressed and come downstairs when you're ready. I've got to go and rescue our breakfast from your mother.
"Forget me burning down the house, it'll be her."
Betelgeuse belonged to the constellation Orion and was considered to be around 20 times bigger than the sun. A Red Supergiant that is estimated to be roughly ten million years old. None of these facts explain to Katsuki why he was drawn to this star in particular.
Sure, it's cool, but why, when Katsuki gets to the top of that mountain is it the first one he looks for?
For his 15th birthday his family went camping. It was after the Sludge Villain and Katsuki wanted to escape the crowded city. His family had gone camping before, several times in fact, they were a very outdoorsy family. But this time felt different.
This was the first time his parents had treated him like an adult. They let him orientate the map and lead them up the mountain to their campsite, they'd allowed him to take control of putting up the tent and gathering firewood. Most importantly they let him stay up late, the first night at least.
He'd spent most of the night lay on his back starring up at the red star. He went through all the different facts in his head; tenth brightest star in the sky, burning at around 3200c. But nothing seemed to explain why, in that one moment Katsuki had chosen it above all others.
Maybe he was over-thinking it a little too much, he thought when the sky began to turn orange and the early morning birds started to sing.
It wasn't until after Kamino he truly realized why he related to Betelgeuse.
Auntie Inko and Deku had come over. Katsuki wasn't exactly happy with the turn of events but at the same time he'd spent the past few days with only his parents as company, so the distraction was welcome. They were sparing in the large back garden. Mitsuki and Masaru had long since turned it into a training yard for their son and Katsuki used it often.
They were practicing using their Quirks in close combat, seeing as both of them had a tendency for property damage. Again, Katsuki wasn't particularly pleased with having to help Deku develop his fighting style, but at the same time it was his only chance to spar before going back to U.A.
He wasn't doing very well. He hadn't been sleeping and his reaction time was suffering because of it. His movements were sluggish and Deku had got in a few hits that Katsuki had dismissed as "lucky", but he knew that Deku was getting better.
Deku spun around, aiming a kick at Katsuki's ribs. Bakugou jumped back, using his Quirk to propel him further away. Deku jumped after him, but Katsuki rolled forwards, landing on his back he fired an explosion up towards Deku's stomach. The green haired boy crashed to the ground instead of landing. Katsuki rolled onto his knees, getting into a stance, ready to block whatever Deku was going to throw at him.
However, Deku just rolled onto his back and sat up. He laughed and Katsuki scowled.
"Wow Kacchan, even after all the training I've been doing you're still so much better."
"Shut up nerd," Katsuki snapped. Deku put his hands up in surrender. Bakugou rolled his eyes and sat down too.
"I'm just saying, the different ways you apply your Quirk is amazing." Deku said, "You're amazing"
"Of course he is." Mitsuki said, approaching the boys with a jug of ice water and glasses on a tray. Masaru and Inko followed. "He's my son."
"Pff, shut up Hag."
"Learn to take a complement, Brat."
"I think you were complementing yourself, but whatever."
"Your Mother is right, Katsuki, you've always been so bright and explosive. It's been amazing to watch you grow." Auntie Inko said.
"Thanks Auntie." Katsuki said with a forced smile.
"Bright and explosive, that's a good way to describe him." Masaru said.
The most iconic thing about Betelgeuse is that it's dying.
Compared to other stars, Red Supergiant's don't live very long, they burn their hydrogen stores and start to cool quite quickly. Scientists predict that Betelgeuse will not die peacefully, but instead it will collapse in on itself and cause a stellar explosion. A supernova, releasing gamma radiation and destruction into the space around it.
The interesting thing about this, is due to that fact that Betelgeuse is around 700 light years away, scientists don't know whether or not Betelgeuse had done this yet. It is entirely possible that Betelgeuse no longer exists, that the light we see is just the remnants of star.
Katsuki can't get that thought out of his head. The idea that something he stared at for so long might only be a ghost of what's left. And that's when it hits him. The reason he relates to that one star so much.
He too, is a bright light that all are amazed to watch. He gets complemented on his power all of the time, all throughout school people have praised him. Even at U.A. his teachers are impressed. People watch the wannabe hero with wonder, watching explosion after explosion. Like the sun, they think he is constant. But that is a lie.
He is not the perpetual light of a yellow dwarf. He is the harsh, blinding glow of a supernova. Destined to burn quick and fast. To collapse in on itself and take out everything that has dared to get in too close.
He is the Red Supergiant whose time is running out.