There was no fixing this. When he was done with him, there'd be no fixing this. That boy was screwed. Because Bakugo freakin Katsuki was going to whoop his ass.
Bakugo screamed at the sky. He called Eiji 43 times last night, and he didn't answer once. The least he could've done was tell him where he was! And the worst part was that Bakugo hadn't slept a wink since Eiji stormed out of the house to God knows where.
That was it! He was making a phone call with the once person that could handle his anger!
"Morning Bakubr—"
"Kirishima!" He shouted over the line before the poor man could even answer.
"Gah! Uhh, Bakubro? Good morning?" Kirishima rubbed his ear in pain.
"The gym! Now! I gotta! I gotta! Grr... KILL SOMETHING!" Katsuki fumed.
"Your offer to take me to the gym and kill me is tempting as always, but— OOF— I'm a little busy right now. Is it important?" Red Riot asked nicely. Calming himself down, Bakugo sighed,
"...It's about Eiji. He ran away and— GRR! He's being a total ass and idiot!" Bakugo screamed, blowing off the angry sweat on his palm.
"Oh, okay. Yeah I can head on over to the gym. Lemme just finish up here."
"Just hurry up."
Turning off his earpiece, Red Riot cracked his neck and looked at the pile of unconscious crooks at his feet. He gave a nonchalant punch to last standing villain and stood with a huff.
"Hmm. That was easy." He nonchalantly tapped an unconscious body with his foot. "Well, time to turn these guys in!"
## Ash!do Stud!o
Eiji nervously tapped his fingers as he heard the elevator climb the floors of the building. It dinged, and anxiously, he entered the floor. Despite it being a Sunday morning, there were still people bustling about in the studio.
"Oh! Eiji!" Mina bounced to the nervous and timid teenager, "We were just about to ship the latest magazine! And guess what I found— a fossil! A trophy!" She dragged her former intern into the other room where she shoved an old magazine into his hands.
"..."
"Do you recognize that guy?" She pointed at the man on the cover, "Our very own Pro Hero Ground Zero! Back in his prime! I thought it'd be fun if you modeled the same outfits? People love that cross-generational stuff!" Mina laughed.
Eiji held the magazine with a weird look on his face and a sink in his shoulders. He was reminded, even from that old picture, just how much his dad hated modeling. The look on his face in the photo screamed it.
"Oh, you're probably here to get your check, huh? Couldn't wait two more days? Oh well, I can write it for you right here..." Mina dashed over to her desk and quickly scribbled on a check and tore it off for him. Eiji grabbed it and deflated even more. He gently placed it and the magazine back onto her desk.
"Huh? Something wrong, Eiji?" She cocked her head with a bounce of her pink curls. Eiji licked his lips and bit them, nodding silently.
"Auntie Mina... I lied to you..." He croaked.
"Huh? Lied to me?" She didn't like where this was going. Nodding, Eiji squeaked,
.
"I faked my dad's signature..."
.
"..." Mina just sat there with her mouth open. Then, squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered, "Oh no..."
"I-I'm really sorry, Auntie Mina—"
She abruptly stood and quickly walked to the few people organizing magazines into shopping crates.
"Call back shipping immediately."
"Gasp! M-Ma'am? Are you sure?!" Her employee stuttered.
"Auntie Mina! You don't have to—" But Eiji couldn't stop what had to be done.
"Cancel the orders, send out emails to our customers. You. Can you recall all of our unsold magazines from the last six months?"
"M-Ma'am! You want us to pull it back?! All of the old and new magazines?! Th-This will cost us up to 1400000 yen!"
"Oh my God!" Eiji gasped in shock. That was a lot of money... even for a business...
Oh no...
This was really going to hurt his Auntie Mina's business.
"We're going to have to. Start making the edits on our last magazine. From now on we legally can't show any photos of Eiji." She said solemnly.
Eiji couldn't believe this. He was hurting Mina's side-business! He felt like a terrible human being!
"A-Auntie Mina! Oh my God I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean for you to loose so much money, and I-I do whatever I can to pay you back and—"
"Eiji. This isn't about money, anymore..." Mina gently put her hands on the whimpering boy's shoulders and lovingly said, "How are you going to regain my trust?"
"..." The poor boy trembled in place, his eyes threatening to shed tears.
"How are you going to regain your dad's trust?"
With snot and tears ready to fall at any moment, the quivering boy choked and rubbed his arm against his eyes.
"I-I-I... d-don't-t... know..."
Mina, with overwhelming love in her heart, lifted the boy's chin and sighed,
.
"Go home, Eiji. You can't fix this..."
.
## Pro-Hero Gym
.
"Die! Die! DIE!" Bakugo was faster than he had been in a long time, and Kirishima had been sore for a while now. He just got off work and now he was sparring with the number three hero? He was so tired...
"Hey bro? Can we take a breather? My back is killing me..."
"I'll kill you!" Bakugo punched Kirishima in the gut, only for his fist to crack upon impact. "Gah! Shit!" He shook his hand in the air.
"Bro. I'm done..."
"But I'm not done! I'm not done with being angry!" Bakugo blasted a few explosions in the air. Kirishima shook his head. He got that Bakugo best processed when fighting, but he really needed to figure out another way to vent. They weren't as young as they used to be...
"Then be angry sitting down..."
"No! I did that all fucking night long! I'm tired! I am tired of being angry! It's exhausting!"
"You know, you don't have to be mad—"
"Shut the fuck up!"
Kirishima rolled his eyes at Bakugo and watched him storm around the sparring room for a hot minute. He was truly pissed. Kirishima wasn't sure he'd be able to help this time.
"I just don't got a fucking clue as to what that punk-ass was thinking!" Bakugo screamed out of nowhere and banged his head against the wall. Oh! Maybe Bakugo could rant while Kirishima took a breather! Finally...
"Eiji? Right, he lied to you?" Kirishima took a long sip from his water, "But then he kept lying?"
"Yes! Fuckin' GAH! Why did he lie to me for so long?!" Bakugo threw his sweaty towel with a bang, the piece of fabric erupting into flames and falling to the floor, nothing but ash.
"..." Kirishima looked at the sizzling embers. He wasn't sure it he should say it or not. "Do you think... he was worried about you overreacting?"
"Ha?! I don't overreact! Die!" Katsuki screamed and blasted the air.
"...Umm, Bakubro? Haven't you overreacted in the past?"
"...Ya trying to say something, Shitty-Hair?" The large, angry man growled.
"I'm just saying! He might've messed up, but the reason he kept on lying might've been because..." He gestured to the decimated towel.
"...Fine. I get it. News flash! I got anger issues! But this time, I'M in the right! I deserve to be angry!" He snarled.
"Maybe? Maybe he knew that? Maybe that's why he didn't tell you?"
"God! Fine! But don't expect me to calm down! I ain't done being pissed..."
Bakugo slid down the side of his wall and held his throbbing head. So, like the good and honest friend he was, Kirishima sat next to him. A minute passed, but Katsuki was still just... too angry.
"I don't understand!" He shouted, gesturing in front of himself. "I don't get what is going on inside that punk's thick skull!"
"Hmm. Yeah, bro. I mean, I personally don't get the whole 'running away from home thing.'" Kirishima shrugged and rolled his sore neck, "I've never ran away from home before. Have you?"
Bakugo grew abnormally quiet.
"...I have."
"Huh?!" Kirishima gasped. Well, he wasn't that shocked, but the story intrigued him. "When?"
"When I was fifteen... after the... the kidnapping."
"...!" Kirishima didn't know what to say, so he silently listened.
"The police put me on house arrest-"
"You mean quarantine?"
"No! It's house arrest! Whatever. It was for safety reasons, and that was the worst two weeks of my life. My old hag was just goin' on and on about how that shit-show was MY fault! You think I *wanted* that to happen?!" Bakugo growled, his memories coming back.
"That... That sounds like her." Kirishima sighed.
"Well eventually I was done with that shit. So I tried to sneak out my window."
"Really?!" Red Riot gasped, "But the police told you to stay—"
"Well I didn't care!" Bakugo growled, "And I didn't get far, anyways." Sighing deeply and banging the back of his head softly against the wall, he continued, "My old hag dragged me inside, sat me down, and left me at the dinner table. And when she came back she slammed these papers on the table, and told me..."
He couldn't talk for a moment.
"...Bro?" Kirishima meeped. Rashly, Bakugo growled under a whisper,
.
"...She told me she and dad already signed the other half, and that if I didn't want to be in the family anymore... I could sign it and go."
.
"...!" Kirishima could never imagine doing that to his child. He just couldn't. "W-Where they real?"
"Does it fucking matter?!" Bakugo spat, "They looked real to me. And I got the message loud and clear: 'We don't want you! You're too much work! You're not worth it...'"
"..." Kirishima's eyes were permanently wide as he tried to think of any comforting words. But he couldn't think of anything.
"...When UA called about the dorms the next day, my mom didn't even ask me. She signed me up and threw me out."
"Bro... That..." Finally, an idea came to Kirishima.
"What would you have wanted to hear?"
"Huh?"
"When she caught you sneaking out? What did you want her to tell you that night?"
"..."
Bakugo thought about it. And thought a little longer. He looked around the quiet sparring room and wiped his mouth.
What would he have wanted his mom to say? Could he even imagine her saying anything else? There were so many other things he wanted to hear! Like...
Like...
No. He didn't want to imagine what he wanted to hear. It hurt too much.
Because what he wanted to hear was...
With only the hum of the AC masking his noises, Bakugo gave a muffled cough. And with that, Kirishima patted his best friend's back.
"When Eiji comes home, tell him what you wanted to hear."
"..." Bakugo wiped his sweaty nose with his arm and nodded silently. He stood and patted Kirishima's shoulder before dragging his feet out the door. He'll have to thank him later.
But right now, Katsuki needed to go home...
## Bakugo household
Eiji stood outside his house. He stared at the front door, centimeters away. But he was so nervous. He was coming home to tell his dad he somehow managed to mess things up even more.
Exhaling shakily, Eiji took out the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and read it out loud,
"D-Dad... You can yell at me... I deserve to get shouted at. I'm sorry I've been keeping things from you, a-and now, I owe Auntie Mina more money than I can pay off... And I don't know how to fix this... But I understand... if you want t-to kick me out..." His entire body shook. That was all he had written down, and he didn't know what else to say. But he couldn't wait outside any longer...
The creaking of the front door signaled Eiji was home. The house was eerily quiet...
"D-Dad?" Eiji squeaked.
Then softly and calmly, Bakugo walked over from down the hall.
"Dad! I—"
"Couch. Now."
"Gulp..." Eiji followed his dad and sat on the couch as far away from his father as possible. He looked remarkably calm, but he was going to snap at any moment, wasn't he?
"I-It's okay if you yell at me b-because I deserve to be shouted at and—"
"Eijiro."
Bakugo scooted closer and folded his hands under his nose. The boy's adrenaline was spiking off the charts. His dad was going to burst at any moment—
"I'm glad you're home."
"..." That couldn't have been it. Eiji pulled out the paper and attempted to read it again. "D-Dad, I really messed up and n-now I owe Auntie Mina—"
"I got the call from Raccoon-Eyes." Bakugo said with stoic calmness. But to Eiji, he saw it as a death sentence. This was the part where his dad killed him, wasn't it? Baring his teeth and wiping his misty eyes, Baachu squeaked,
"I'm so sorry... *sniff* I... understand if... you want to kick me out..." He croaked, "There's a couple kids who live— *hic* —in the d-dorms full-time-"
"Eijiro," Bakugo put both of his hands on his son's shoulders, "Look at me."
Prying his arm away from his eyes, Baachu bravely looked into Katsuki's eyes. Exhaling a shaky breath, Bakugo recalled the words of his best friend. What did he want his mom to have said, all those years ago?
What he wanted to hear was...
.
"Eijiro... There is nothing you can do, no place you could run, no way you could fuck up, where I'll stop loving you."
.
"H-H-Huh?" Eiji didn't think he heard that right. So Bakugo said it again.
.
"I know everything you've done. But no amount of mistakes will stop me from loving you."
.
"...!" Immediately, weary tears broke free. Eiji plopped his head onto his dad's shoulder and hiccuped sharply, again and again.
"We're family, kay? And you fucked up, and you're going to again, but I ain't going anywhere." Bakugo croaked with a raspy throat, wishing in all of his core that someone had said that to him. But at least... he could say this to someone else. "You don't haveta fix this on your own. We're gonna do that together too, alright?"
Sharply, Eiji hugged his dad and squished his face even deeper into his shoulder. His sobs were shakey and weary. Out of all the things he expected his dad to say, this was not it.
And it was the one thing he didn't know he desperately needed to hear.
"I... *sniff*... I thought you were going to be so m-m-mad at me... I th-thought you w-were going to disown m-me..." Warbled the boy's woeful voice.
"I wouldn't do that. Being a dad is a lifelong gig. I ain't about to drop the gun now."
"Hurk! Kck! Ch!" Eiji didn't know what to say even if his voice could work right now. He was just so relieved. Relieved that he was still loved, relieved there's help for him, and ultimately, relieved he wasn't keeping anything secret anymore.
He was free.
"Oh, but don't get me wrong bub..." Bakugo said as he patted his boy's back, "I'm still pissed as hell. And there are consequences you're gonna bare the weight of. Regaining trust ain't easy."
"Mhm." Eiji broke away and wiped the snot from his face.
"So. You ready to drag your sorry ass to Raccoon Eyes?"
"Uhuh... y-yeah..."
## Ash!do Stud!o
"Huh?" Mina gasped as the two Bakugos walked out of the elevator onto the studio floor. She was still working, trying her best to fix this disaster that happened. "'Suki? Eiji? Come to talk about what happened today?" She sighed. A lot of this was her own fault too, so she wasn't angry.
"Raccoon-Eyes. Can I talk with you privately a moment?" Bakugo said as Eiji took a seat in shame.
"Yeah..." She followed him a couple meters away from the troubled boy. Making sure they were out of earshot, Mina finally sighed, "I'm really sorry, 'Suki. It would've been so easy for me to check in with you and see if your signature was legit, but it was just so convenient and—"
"Not gonna lie, I was pissed. But this is hurting you too, ain't it?" He growled and pinched his eyes. "If I sign those papers, will ya be able to save your magazines you already printed?"
"Gasp!" Mina was shook, "Yes! That would save me so much money!"
"Yeah yeah. But I don't want him working here anymore..." Katsuki growled.
"Understandable. But, if you are looking for a consequence that'll teach him a lesson, then I got a good idea..." She smiled a devilish grin. Bakugo liked the sound of that.
Ashamedly, Eiji sat on the other side of the desk from his dad and Mina. They squinted at him with skeptical looks. Mina turned to Bakugo and whispered hushed noises, and Bakugo whispered back. With a nod, it was decided. Anxiety spiked in the teen with every sideways glance they gave.
"Alright, Eiji. It's decided." Mina nodded along with Bakugo. "You can keep working here."
"Wh-Wh-Wha?!" He gasped in awe, a little smile forming on his face. Sliding her sunglasses on, she put a hand on his shoulder and spoke,
"As the janitor."
Baachu deadpanned. The janitor?! Well... he kinda deserved it.
"Oh, and bub, you ain't getting paid." Katsuki smiled a villainous smile, so smug, so arrogant.
"Great..." Eiji hated this. But... he did this to himself. And if he was going to regain their trust then he was going to do the best job he can at being a janitor! Even though he hates cleaning... "How long will I have to do this?" He winced.
"Hmmm..." Katsuki eyed Mina with a squint and nodded, "Until you make up for the trouble you did."
"1400000 yen?" Eiji whimpered. He banged his head against the table. He was going to be a janitor for a long, long time...
## Car ride home
"Alright. That was taken care of!" Bakugo couldn't help but chuckle at his deflated son in the passenger seat.
"Yay... Dad, about the money I owe you—"
"How about you just promise to never keep a secret from me again? Yeah?"
"Heh. Sounds like a deal... No more secrets."
"..." Bakugo stared at the road ahead and exhaled slowly. That applied to him too, didn't it? "Hey bub... I gotta tell you something."
"Huh?"
"I've been... I've been looking for your mom..."
For some strange reason, Eiji jumped up in his seat with a smile.
"You're dating again?!"
"What?! No! God!" Bakugo scoffed. He wasn't going to try that again... "Women are overrated!"
"Women are great! What are you saying?!"
"I'm saying I ain't dating unless someone punches me in the face and declares their love or shit. Otherwise, I ain't interested!"
"Geez! That's dramatic!" Eiji laughed.
"What I was TRYING to say is... I'm doin this investigation..."
"...?" Eiji still didn't quite get it.
"To... find whoever gave birth to you."
"Oh." He finally got it. And he sank a little in his chair. "...Umm... Did you..."
"She's sneaky. And I got no clue who she is."
"...Okay..." It wasn't a comfortable conversation for either of them.
"But I'll, uhh... keep you updated. On the search."
"..." Nodding, Eiji said quietly, "Why are you looking for her?"
"...You know she's evil, right? If she ain't already in jail, then we need to put her there."
"Yeah. That makes sense..." Eiji shrugged. "Do you know what she looks like?" He asked with wide eyes.
"..." Katsuki glanced over to the boy with big ears and amber eyes. "She looks like a crazy bitch. That's all."
"...Yeah. That's all."
And the rest of the car ride was in silence. But... things were better. No more secrets. No more miscommunications.
Finally, they were able to fix this. Together.
