We All Need a Friend Like Katsuki

Katsuki was in a bad mood.

It started when he woke up. There had been a text message waiting for him on his phone.

"Thank you for last night, Katsuki. I loved it. I love you."

Why did she have to send that stupid message? Why did she have to say something so… so fucking… irritating?

What the hell was even supposed to say to that? What was she expecting him to say? He wasn't going to say that he loved it too, because he didn't. Not even a little. Not at all.

Besides. Of course, she loved it. He was awesome. Why wouldn't she be thanking him?

But to top it all off… "I love you."

He wasn't going to say that back. He couldn't be paid to say it back. And that girl knew he wouldn't say it. So, why did she say it in the first place? To mock him? To tease him?

He ended up ignoring her, which was the most sensible thing to do.

Then he thought his day was on the upswing when they trained on ground beta that morning. He got to obliterate half of the city with one fell swoop, and that made him feel much better.

But then Deku told him that he looked cool out there which wrecked his mood again.

Then, at lunchtime, Aisla had to take Todoroki to the nurse's office because he got hurt during training, which was his own damn fault and he didn't deserve an escort for it.

After that, he was so pissed that he wasn't watching where he was going and smacked his knuckles on the corner of a wall hard enough to split them open.

And then Mr. Aizawa lectured him again about how he'd let down that stupid second-year douchebag with an attitude problem who was supposed to be his pupil at the start of the term. Katsuki refused to apologize. The punk-ass crybaby deserved what was coming to him. He told Mr. Aizawa that next time he should pair him up with a worthy apprentice.

Irritations stacked and stacked on each other until he felt like he was going to explode. And there was only one thing he could do when he got this worked up. This was the perfect time to beat the pulp out of Kirishima.

The problem was, he couldn't find him anywhere.

That was kind of an ongoing issue with the spiky-haired freak lately. He was never where Katsuki expected him to be. He couldn't find him in his room or out on their usual jogging path. He wasn't watching tv in the common area or contemplating life and shit on the patio. He wasn't anywhere.

People kept saying that Kirishima was spending his free time with some pipsqueak second-year girl who embarrassed herself at the sports festival. But everyone who said that was a moron. They clearly had no idea just how far up rainbow-hair's ass Kirishima was. There was no way in hell he'd be prancing around with some other chick. Kirishima was as loyal as a trained dog. As persistent as a wart that kept coming back. Katsuki would have an easier time believing if someone told him that Shigaraki ran a non-profit charity for orphans on the side of his League activities.

So, then where was he?

He could have texted him but it was much more satisfying to stomp around campus trying to spot spiky red hair somewhere. Although, after about five minutes, Katsuki was even angrier than before.

At last, he saw Kirishima peering around the corner of a building outside.

"Hey!" Katsuki yelled. "Kirishima!"

Katsuki thought he'd yelled more than loud enough for the guy to hear, but he seemed to be paying attention to something else. He was tensed like a cat about to pounce, fingers tapping on the wall, eyes latched onto something around the corner.

What the hell is he doing?

Katsuki approached just as Kirishima leaped.

"Gotcha!"

He rounded the corner in time to see Kirishima's hands groping the sides of some jailbait little middle-schooler. At least, that's what she looked like to Katsuki.

The girl let out a shrill squeak of surprise before turning on his friend. She put her hands out defensively, which activated her quirk, and brought both of them to the ground.

Katsuki nearly blasted her across the campus for this unwarranted act of aggression, but he was stopped short by an unbelievable sound.

It was Kirishima's laughter, joyously bouncing off the surrounding buildings like nothing weird as fuck was happening right then. Like he didn't have a jailbait preschooler sitting on his hips right now, hands on his chest, eyes wide and confused.

"Amiru!" Kirishima grinned. "You did it! You used your quirk on me when mine wasn't activated! You brought me down and didn't hurt me!"

The toddler's eyes widened even more. "I-I did! Oh my god, senpai, you're right! I did it!"

Senpai? What in the actual role-play bullshit fuckery is this?

The pipsqueak suddenly threw her arms around Kirishima, hugging him the way a kid might hug her mom's leg when she's begging for ice cream.

Then, the worst thing happened, sending Katsuki into a state of barely bridled fury.

Kirishima hugged her back.

"I'm so proud of you," he said. "Good job, student."

This disgusting display of affection lasted only a moment longer when the infant girl realized that she was in a compromising position. She jumped up, her face as red as Kirishima's hair, then offered her hand to help him up.

And. He. Took. It.

Katsuki was livid. What the hell happened to magic-unicorn rainbow girl? Did they break up or something? No, they couldn't have. If they had, Katsuki wouldn't have heard the end of it. Kirishima would have been at his door pouting every day wanting to talk about his girly feelings.

But if he was still tasting the rainbow, then what the hell was that tiger pounce onto the shrimp?

There had to be a logical explanation for this. Of course. The answer was obvious...

Kirishima was an idiot.

The realization made Katsuki feel a little better. Kirishima was too stupid to realize he looked like an unfaithful child-predator right now. He just didn't know any better. Poor loser.

"Kirishima," he called. He'd just have to forget about what he'd seen and chalk it up to Kirishima being born with a rock for a brain. Besides, Katsuki still needed someone to beat up.

Kirishima heard him this time. He let go of the girl's hand so fast and looked at Katsuki with an expression so obvious that it immediately reignited the rage that Katsuki had been trying to tamper down. Kirishima had that same, dumb look in his eyes that Deku had back when he was trying to hide the truth about his connection to All Might. That guilty-as-hell, red-handed look of terror that seemed to scream "are you gonna tell on me?"

That meant that Kirishima wasn't being an idiot after all. He knew damn well what he was doing.

"Hey, Katsuki!" He grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Didn't see you there!"

Of course, you didn't, idiot. If you had, you wouldn't have put on that display, huh?

"Um… I'll talk to you later, Senpai." The girl waved at Kirishima.

"See you, Orine."

And now he's gonna act like he didn't already call her by her given name.

The girl ran away, which was the smartest thing she or Kirishima had done in the past few minutes.

"Yo, you looking to spar?" Kirishima asked, stretching casually in front of Katsuki like nothing had happened.

Katsuki stared at him.

"What's up, man?" Kirishima chuckled nervously. "Hey, I don't know what you're thinking right now, but you know that I'm Orine's tutor, right? It's nothing weird."

"Shut the hell up," Katsuki seethed.

"Huh?"

"I SAID SHUT THE HELL UP."

Kirishima flinched but didn't respond.

Katsuki couldn't stand to look at his guilty face a second longer, so he shoved his hands in his pockets and stormed away. To further emphasize Kirishima's guilt, he didn't chase him down like he normally would have.

Unbelievable.

Katsuki made straight for Heights Alliance. He barreled through anyone who stood in his way and went immediately to Icy-Hot's bedroom because he knew that was where Aisla would be.

Sure enough, both Aisla and her BFF looked at him in shock when he came bursting through the door. It looked like they'd been doing homework or something, based on the textbooks and papers strewn between them.

"Katsuki?" She stood up and looked at him with concerned blue eyes. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

He ignored the question and went right up to her.

"HEY," he roared. "IF I EVER CATCH YOU SITTING ON ICY-HOT'S LAP, GIGGLING AND CALLING HIM SHOTO, I'LL KILL YOU BOTH."

She blinked, looking equally confused and startled. "Okay… but we haven't done anything like that…"

"Must you cause a scene everywhere you go, Bakugo?" Todoroki asked with a sigh.

"THAT'D BE CHEATING, RIGHT?" Katsuki asked, feeling the rage boiling inside of him.

"Um… I feel like I'm missing some context here, but…" she studied his face in that way that he hated. "I guess it could be?"

"COULD BE?" His temples pulsed in irritation. "Let me ask you this. If you saw some chick sitting on MY lap, hugging me and shit, and I called her by her first name, would you think it was cheating?"

She frowned. Her gaze slid over to Todoroki, who shrugged.

"But, you wouldn't do something like that, Katsuki…"

"WHAT IF I DID?!"

"Then I'd knock some sense into you," Todoroki said, calmly. "Because cheating or not, that wouldn't be fair to Aisla."

She shuffled uncomfortably. "I think… that would hurt my feelings."

"I knew it," Katsuki said. Their reactions reinforced his thoughts on what he'd just had the misfortune of witnessing.

Satisfied, he turned around to leave.

"Wait, Katsuki!" Aisla grabbed his wrist. "What's going on?"

He stood there, frozen, the cogs in his mind spinning. "Icy-Hot. That thing you said. About knocking sense into me if I did that to Aisla. Did you mean it?"

"Of course," Todoroki said, seriously. "There are few boundaries that can't be crossed when it comes to protecting a friend."

"So, what you're saying is, sometimes violence is the right answer?"

"H-hold on," Aisla tugged him again. "I don't know what you're asking for advice about, but let's maybe rethink the whole violence thing?"

He reached down and gently pried her fingers off his wrist. "There's something I need to think about."

This time, she didn't stop him as he left Todoroki's room.

Kirishima, he thought, his teeth gritted with frustration. I'm gonna screw your head on right, you shitty-haired dumbass.

"Today we'll be doing a hero vs. villain scenario drill and rescue training."

Mr. Aizawa stood in front of Class 3-A who were all lined up in front of him on Ground Beta, hero uniforms donned and faces set with determination.

"You'll be split up into two groups. You guessed it. Heroes and villains. In addition, we have Class 2-C with us—all nineteen of which will be playing the roles of victims caught in the crossfire of a large-scale villain attack."

Eijiro scanned over the gathered underclassmen from general studies. He wondered why the staff had decided to choose them rather than another hero-class. He didn't know any of the students, though maybe that was part of the point.

"Class 2-C will be scattered throughout the training ground. It's the job of the hero-team to bring all nineteen students to the safe zone, here." He gestured at the rectangular area they stood on. "It's the job of the villain-team to capture four hostages. Whichever team is successful wins the challenge."

"Hold on," Ashido spoke up. "Are you saying the heroes have to rescue everybody to win, but the villains only need to take four hostages?!"

"That's correct," he said, seriously. "When there is even one life lost in a calamity, we can never consider a battle a true victory. The job is always harder for the heroes than it is for the villains."

"That's so not cool," Kaminari complained. "The odds are seriously stacked against the heroes. Kind of hope I'm a villain this time, honestly."

"The teams are shown here, on the board," he pointed behind him.

Eijiro looked through the list and found his name on the hero team. This should be fun. Luckily there were other heavy-hitters including Katsuki and Midoriya on the hero side, which stacked the odds in their favor.

"I'm switching teams," Katsuki said, suddenly.

The rest of the class stared at him, including Mr. Aizawa, whose eyes narrowed at the declaration. "It's not up for debate, Bakugo."

"Don't care," Katsuki said. "I'm joining the villain team. Switch me out with one of the other losers."

Eijiro cast him a confused look. "Since when do you look for an opportunity to play the villain, even in training, man?"

Katsuki's eyebrow twitched and he pointedly refused to look at Eijiro, which might not have bothered him so much if not for the fact that Katsuki had been avidly ignoring him for days now. It had been since Katuski caught him in that awkward situation with Orine, even though Eijiro tried to explain himself to the other boy later that same day.

"Go to hell, Kirishima," he'd said, before slamming the door in his face.

The attitude change made Eijiro uncomfortable. He was used to being on the receiving end of Katsuki's temper, but this was different. There had always been a mutual respect between them, a strong friendship that might have functioned differently than the typical bro bonding, but it was there, nonetheless. Eijiro couldn't help but think that he'd lost Katsuki's respect, somehow.

All because he'd seen him with Orine?

It couldn't be that… could it? He hadn't done anything wrong and definitely hadn't done anything to offend Katsuki. What did the blond think he witnessed that day? The position had been awkward, sure, but he and Orine weren't doing anything weird. Hadn't done anything weird. And even if they had—what did that have to do with Katsuki Bakugo, anyway? He didn't seem like the type to care about other people's private choices. Not that there was anything private between him and Orine, but even if there was…

"Fine. You can take Shoji's place. Anyone else want to interrupt me?"

No one volunteered.

Eijiro watched as Katsuki stomped farther into the training ground, never once looking behind him.

"What's up with your boy toy?" Hagakure asked Aisla, somewhere to Eijiro's right.

"I don't know… He's been acting weird lately."

Eijiro frowned. It can't really be because of me… can it?

After a couple more minutes of explanation, the teams split up and went to their designated spots to wait for the horn. They had to wait for Class 2-C to spread out through the area. Then, ten minutes later, the clock started.

The heroes spread out to locate the victims. They combed the city, performed basic first aid, and escorted citizens to the safe zone. Less than five minutes in, a fight broke out in the east. The villain team was trying to take its first hostage. Eijiro was far from the action, however, so he focused his efforts on locating more victims.

He carried a class 2-C student on his back for a few blocks before depositing him in the safe area. A few heroes were guarding the safe zone, including Uraraka, Koda, and Yaoyorozu.

"How are things looking out there?" he asked Uraraka.

"Not good," she sighed. "The villains have two hostages already. Deku and Tokoyami are trying to rescue them right now, but we still have nine more citizens to bring to safety."

"Any areas that still need to be combed?"

Yaoyarozu looked at a map laid out in front of her. "Kirishima, if you could scout in the North-West sector, that would be great!"

"Got it!"

He headed in that direction, keeping his eyes and ears open for sounds of movement from either villains or citizens in distress. Either by some stretch of fortune, or misfortune, he seemed to be distant from the sounds of fighting. Bummer. Bet it would be awesome to be on the hostage rescue squad. Then again, this was realistic for hero-work. He'd learned that from Fat Gum's agency, too. Hero-work wasn't all glamour and newspaper headlines. Most of it was working in silence, long stretches of nothingness, and random bursts of activity. What mattered was being prepared for anything to happen at any time.

Eventually, he came to the back wall of the training ground. He listened again for sounds of movement. This time, he was sure he heard something. It was faint, but there was a voice out there, whimpering for help.

He made his way toward it, keeping his eyes peeled for signs of building instability as he went. Finally, he found the source of the sound. It was one of the class 2-C students, hiding under the beams of a building and doing a good job acting up the scared citizen role.

"Can you move?" he asked.

"My… uh... leg is broken," she said. "Wait, let me check that." She looked at a piece of paper that was folded in her pocket. "Yeah. My leg is broken."

Which meant that he'd have to carry her.

He carefully maneuvered inside of the building and hoisted the citizen into his arms. "It's a long walk back," he warned. "Hope you don't mind."

"Oh no," she said, dryly. "A sexy, shirtless upperclassman is going to carry me across the training grounds. Whatever shall I do?"

He gave an awkward laugh. "Just… keep pretending to be hurt."

"Wouldn't want to ruin the immersion," she sighed. "Ow. My leg."

He shook his head, then made his way back toward the safe zone. He could still hear fighting in the distance, which at least meant that the villains hadn't gotten all of the hostages yet. He wondered how many citizens were remaining to be rescued.

He'd made it halfway across Ground Beta when he heard someone else crying loudly in a mountain of rubble.

Why is she being so loud? That's going to draw the attention of every villain in the area!

"Detour," he said, before carrying his injured citizen closer to the sound.

He spotted the other citizen in a bus that was half crushed by a fallen building. She saw him too, and dramatically flailed her arms. "Hey! Hero-guy! Help me out here! I can't walk!"

"Okay, but I'm going to need you to keep your voice down!" he called.

He considered his options. He would probably be able to carry both of the girls if he could get to the second one. The problem was, he wouldn't be able to scale the rubble to the second girl while still holding the one in his arms. He could carry the first one to the safety zone and then come back but then he risked the possibility of the second girl getting taken hostage. What he really needed was backup, but he had no idea where the other heroes were. He'd have to handle this himself.

What do I do?

The sound of fighting had diminished in the distance, and he didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. If the villains had won, it meant that they had at least two hostages and were only two short of victory. All he knew for sure was that he was in a time crunch and had to make a choice right away.

Mind made, he moved to the shadows and sat down the girl he'd been carrying.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she protested.

"Stay here. I'm going to grab that other girl, come back, and take both of you to the safe zone."

"Hold on, you're just going to leave me here?"

"If you stay quiet, you'll be safe. I won't take long."

"Can't you just take me to the safe zone first?" She complained. "It's creepy out here!"

"I promise I won't be gone long, okay?" He flashed her a grin. "Just wait for me."

The girl huffed but didn't complain further.

Eijiro let out a sigh of relief before making his way toward the bus.

"Hurry up!" The girl on the bus yelled. "It's freezing out here!"

He gestured for her to be silent, then carefully made his way toward her.

This is fine. I can save them both.

It took some time but he finally reached her, scooped her into his arms, and started back up the rubble toward the first citizen.

Almost there.

Suddenly, there was an explosion. The rubble in front of him was strewn in all directions, wind from the blast cutting his skin as it threw debris in all directions. He'd know those explosions anywhere.

His eyes widened as Katsuki leaped from the cloud of smoke in front of him. In his arms… was the first citizen.

"Dammit!" Eijiro sat down the girl he was holding. "Stay here!"

"Wait, you can't just leave me!"

But Eijiro was in a panic, now. He'd left the girl behind thinking she'd been safe but Katsuki must have been watching his movements. The fact that he'd slipped up and the fact that Katsuki was going out of his way to make this more difficult for him made his reasoning abilities falter even further. He lunged in Katsuki's direction, planning to rescue the girl he'd abandoned.

He and Katsuki made eye contact for a brief instant. In that sliver of a moment, something passed over Katsuki's eyes that made Eijiro feel like he was the size of an ant. Something deep, shrouded in anger and disappointment. It happened so quickly that Eijiro didn't even have time to register the expression. He simply stopped moving, a sinking feeling of dread plummeting in his stomach.

Then, the girl behind him screamed.

He whipped around as fast as he could but it was too late. The second citizen he'd attempted to rescue was now being pulled onto a rooftop by Tsu's tongue, far beyond Eijiro's reach.

The horn sounded. The villains had won.

Eijiro made his way back to the safe zone where the rest of his class was gathering. It was his fault the heroes had lost. He'd been responsible for the villains getting their last two hostages. This alone was enough to fill him with unrivaled shame. But there was something else, too… Something about Katsuki Bakugo.

"Hey, what happened out there?" Uraraka asked as Eijiro crossed the threshold to the safe zone.

"I… might have screwed up," he admitted, weakly.

"Not just you," Tokoyami said, with a sigh. "Midoriya and I failed in retrieving the two hostages as well."

"Who are we missing?" Mr. Aizawa asked, scanning over the faces. "We still need… ah, Bakugo."

Eijiro turned in time to see Katsuki stomping toward him. His fists were balled, his face was red, and the ground shook with every deliberate step he took toward him.

The class watched in shock as Katsuki came to stand right in front of Eijiro, face-to-face. Eijiro was as immobilized as his classmates in that moment, unable to comprehend the other boy's actions or motives.

"Kats—"

He was cut off by the bone-crushing impact of a fist to his jaw.

He staggered backward, stars exploding in his vision. He was vaguely aware of his classmates gasping, then the feeling of Katsuki's hand tightening around his mask. His friend pulled his head forward, forcing him to make eye contact with him, though his vision was now blurry from the impact.

"YOU IDIOT!" Katsuki shouted in his face. "WHY DID YOU LET HER GO?!"

Eijiro had no idea how to respond to this. He couldn't respond. His body was in a state of shock and that sinking feeling of dread was rapidly unfolding within him.

"YOU LET HER GO FOR THAT OTHER CITIZEN AND I GOT HER!" He was snarling so viciously that Eijiro could feel the saliva being expelled with every furious word. "I GOT THE GIRL AND THEY BOTH GOT HURT AND YOU LOST, KIRISHIMA!"

He was shaking now. Never had he been at this end of Katsuki's true, unbridled rage.

"You had one job!" Katsuki continued, a little quieter now, though still a shout. "All you had to do was stay by her side! That was all you had to do! But your head wasn't in the game and YOU. LOST. HER."

There were murmurs and whispers all around them. Time stood still for a long moment as Katsuki panted for breath and Eijiro trembled in front of him. Finally, Mr. Aizawa shoved between them.

"That's enough!" the teacher yelled. "It was a training exercise, Bakugo, you need to calm down."

Eijiro cupped his bruised jaw and looked at Katsuki again. His friend's face was contorted with that same expression from earlier. That heart-wrenching look of rage and something like disappointment or disgust. Disappointment in Eijiro. Disgusted by Eijiro.

"Aisla," Hagakure whispered hurriedly somewhere behind him. "What's wrong with your boyfriend? Can you translate for us?"

The girl hummed quietly. "I don't know, exactly, but… I don't think that was about the exercise."

"Okay, then what was it about?" Hagakure asked.

Eijiro had a feeling that he knew.

He knew exactly what it was about.