Katsuki thought his life was going to be so much easier when he started UA. He would finally be able to just put all of his focus on becoming a hero and not have to deal with all of the extra shit. He'd been looking forward to three years of putting his nose to the grindstone and only coming up to breathe when he graduated and had his license.

Sure, his therapist was a little concerned by how convinced that was going to be the case he was but it was fine. He was fine. So long as he got to leave most of the bullshit behind.

And then the fucking League of Villains happened.

And then the sports festival went sideways fast thanks to Half n' Half

And then Stain almost killing one of their classmates because he was stupid enough to go into a fight without backup.

All of it leading up to the fucked up situation he was in now, chained to a chair in a musty smelling bar surrounded by villains.

A part of him registered the bullshit coming from the leader's mouth but the rest of him almost refused to believe that this was his shitty lot in life. This was the exact opposite of every expectation he'd had at the beginning of the year. Or for his life in general.

A quiet voice in the back of his mind unhelpfully reminded him that he didn't even know if most of his classmates were alive right now and it was all his fault that this had happened. He hated that voice most of all.

Scratch that, he hated the bastard in front of him most of all. Shigaraki was droning on and on about how perfect he'd be as a villain and how it would be such a blow to UA and all Katsuki wanted to do was punch him in the face till he swallowed his teeth.

Katsuki's lip was curled up in a snarl, hands curling into claws within the confines of his shackles. Fuck that. Him? A Villain? Not a fucking chance. He had too much riding on being a hero. Too many things to atone for.

Before he could spit venom at the silver haired moron, though, the door of the bar was thrown open with enough force to rattle the frame. All of the assembled villains immediately were on the alert as a figure stormed into the room, stopping just inside the door and letting their eyes roam around the area. None of the villains attacked as they were sized up, most of them relaxing a little as if they knew the person.

So another villain, then. Lovely.

The snarl on his lips, though, froze completely when those eyes fell on him.

A familiar shade of green. Duller than he'd ever seen it but familiar nonetheless.

And fucking impossible.

His mouth hung open uselessly as he took in the sight of the kid he'd grown up with and had mourned for the past two and a half years.

His hair was shorter, the sides almost shaved, and he was a little bit taller than the last time Katsuki had seen him. There was also a deep, dark, rage simmering under the surface of his gaze. The way he held himself screamed that he was ready to spring into action at any moment, hands curling and uncurling at his sides as those green eyes lingered on him.

"Deku.." He breathed out, shifting in his seat to turn himself more towards the familiar stranger.

The teen shook himself out of whatever thoughts he was having, hands disappearing into the folds of his large, dark, hoodie as he whirled back to face the leader of the League of Villains without answering Katsuki.

Panic shot through Katsuki as he stalked towards the silver haired man. All his mind's eye could conjure was the picture of Aizawa during the USJ attack, broken and unconscious in a crater.

Said panic was replaced as his world once again flipped on his head as the green haired teen pulled a knife out of his sleeve and hurled it directly at Shigaraki's face. The only thing that saved the man child was the warp gate user intervening, the knife appearing a moment later out of a gate near the teen's feet and embedding in the wood of the floor.

"Are you fucking stupid?" The teen snarled, reaching back into his sleeve for what Katsuki assumed was another knife. "First USJ and now this? Really? I knew Stain didn't join up with you! You don't have two brain cells to rub together."

Katsuki could have sworn the teen's eyes shifted towards the scared face bastard's direction and he stored the info away for later, still too off balance to do much more than watch the situation escalating in front of him. Shigaraki was snarling as he stalked closer to Deku, hands outstretched.

Deku seemed more than willing to brawl with him, only stopped by the warp gate that had sprung up between them that was keeping them from meeting in the middle of the bar.

"Stain wanted hero society to fall and so do I! That's all you need to know." Shigaraki yelled, trying to sidestep the gate only to have it follow him. "When this kid joins up with us it'll show them all that it's all better off crumbling to dust!"

The green haired teen let out a bark of a laugh, face twisted with an emotion that Katsuki had never seen on the others face the entire time he'd known him. He couldn't pinpoint it was but the base emotion flashing in those green eyes was rage. Murderous rage. Katsuki didn't doubt that if the warp gate wasn't between the two, one of them would be bleeding by now.

He wasn't sure if he was happy about that or not. Especially when he wasn't sure who exactly would come out on top of that fight, if he was being completely honest.

"You did no research for this, did you?" Deku laughed, the sound so far removed from the laugh Katsuki remembered that it made him flich a little against his chair. It was so...dark.

"All you saw was the way he acted at the sports festival and just decided right off the bat that he'd be perfect without looking into anything else. God, you don't even know what you've done. You're lucky that the entirety of UA hasn't descended on you by now!"

Deku carefully lunged to the side, snarling a little when the warpgate moved with him as it had with Shigaraki.

"Even if he doesn't join it will be a blow to the heroes to have one of their prized students snatched away! Even now the sheep out there are starting to see how useless their precious heroes are!" Shigaraki snarled. "Either way, he's useful for changing this disgusting society we live in!"

"Do you even fucking hear yourself spouting this bullshit or are you just that stupid?" Deku snarled right back, once again trying to duck around the gate between them. "What exactly are you going to do when the heroes fall? Step in and restructure society? You don't have any kind of plan and all you'll find from your way of going about this is dust and chaos!"

The crusty bastard didn't seem to have an answer for that, instead reduced to just growling incoherently and trying to shove his hands through the warp gate.

"Such a lively reintroduction to our base, Deku! How wonderful."

Everyone in the bar froze, though, as a new voice spoke up. The tone was pleasant but there was something about it that made Katsuki's stomach twist violently. The way the villains seemed to turn to face the TV was also another huge red flag to the teen even if he hadn't seen the way Deku's face had paled.

From where he was sitting, Katsuki could see the way Deku's fingers tightened around the hilt of his knife. He could see the way his knuckles were white and how the blade shook a little as if the teens hand was shaking.

No one spoke in answer, Shigaraki seeming to calm and the rest of the villains seemingly holding their breath to see how this new development played out.

This had to be the boss that was controlling everything, Katsuki thought to himself absently. That crusty bastard obviously took his cues from whoever this bastard was.

"Kurogiri, bring Deku to me. It's been so long since we had a chat. I'm so curious about where he's been." Katsuki could see the blood drain even further from the other teen's face and he felt dread build up in his own stomach. If Deku left, would Katsuki ever be able to track him down again?

He began to struggle against his chains as Deku seemed to droop in defeat, knife disappearing into the sleeve of his hoodie once more. The almost violent sound of his chains rattling seemed to remind Deku that he was still there, green eyes once more swinging around to pin him in place. The rage had been replaced with a sort of resignation, to the situation or to something else Katsuki couldn't tell. Even while he wished to never break eye contact with the other teen again, his stomach twisted uncomfortably at just how dull and closed off his gaze was. What had happened in the last two years? None of this made any sense to Katsuki.

"Think about what I said, Kacchan." Deku said finally, his tone sharp and angry. "Shigaraki is an idiot with no foresight. All he can offer is chaos and death."

"Deku, no!" Katsuki yelled, struggling against his shackles still as Deku turned away from him and walked towards the warp gate. The teen didn't look back at him, even as he continued to scream his name, and vanished into the swirling mist of the warp gate. Silence fell onto the bar once more once the gate closed, all eyes swinging to the blonde teen once more as he slumped down into his chair.

The scarred bastard had an odd, pinched, look on his face that set Katsuki's teeth on edge. He was distracted from it, though, as the creepy chick bounced towards him with her knife in her hand.

"Awww! Kacchan! Can I call you that? I'm going to call you that!" She cooed, giggling maddly when he snapped at her and shifted as far away as possible. The rest of the villains seemed to relax and he snarled at them as they shifted closer once more.

"Let him out of his restraints, Dabi. How can we show him we're serious if he's locked up like an animal?" Shigaraki drawled, seeming to pull himself together once more now that Deku had exited.

"We have so much to discuss."