My Hero Academia: Katsuki's Secret

Rated M for cursing, trauma, adult themes, and language.

Chapter 4

He found himself laying on his back staring up at the ceiling, another plate of half eaten food sitting on his desk that would be later tossed. Class had drug on mindlessly for him, not caring in the slightest that his grades were beginning to dip due to his lack of concentration, but what else was he supposed to do? Besides Hero Training he had no output for the energy that was beginning to build up and if it wasn't that it was his temper being shorter than normal. His tolerance for a certain small classmate who had a habit of being creepy towards the female gender had become nonexistent. Heck, Tenya had to intervene just as he was about to drop kick the little pervert out the window! Bakugo rolled onto his side so that he was facing billowing curtains as a cool breeze swept through as his thoughts sped past on rewind to the events of yesterday.

"Nerd, start that muttering thing you do to make some teams up. I'm gonna borrow this fucker for a minute." Kirishima didn't protest as Bakugo led him into one of the adjacent offices and slammed the door when several classmates made to follow. "Bunch of damn vultures…" the blonde grumbled but the red haired teen saw the slight smirk raising his lips.

"What's goin' on with ya, Bakubro? You've been cursing more than normal and that's saying something." Kirishima kept his body language relaxed even when the blonde reacted by slamming a fist against the nearby wall. "You're gonna explode if you keep whatever it is bottled up any longer and you need a clear head if we're gonna-"

Ruby eyes met vermillion to reveal a flash of warning. "If you don't shut your mouth I won't tell ya shit!"

He slid his pinched fingers across his mouth, as if zipping it shut despite the wide grin, and gestured for the blonde to continue. What he didn't expect was how the usually expressive and resting grimace-face teen donned an expression of regret that was borderline sadness. Time became nonexistent as he watched and listened to Bakugo, his closest friend and classmate, unload while slowly sinking to the floor until he was resting agains the same wall that he'd punched.

"Believe what you want but I can't-" Bakugo bristled as the red haired teen plopped down next to him and slung an arm over his shoulders that earned his brow to twitch. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"My dude, I never thought the day would come where you would actually like a girl!"

"Shut the hell up!"

"I never would of expected any of that, dude." Kirishima allowed his arm to fall from Bakugo's shoulders when they shrugged. "No wonder you've been so uptight lately. The anniversary of that…accident… was the day that you literally blew away the storm clouds, right? Then you turn around and find out that she's not only Hawk's niece but alive and within the clutches of a villain whose quirk is unknown? The sprinkles on the cake are the fact that she's got this super crazy quirk of her own that earned his attention. It's pretty awesome though-" He held up his hands when the blonde sent him a glare. "-right, not the time for that yet."

A hand rose to rake through wild tresses as he sighed. "I literally thought I killed her back then. She took a full blown explosion to the face, Kirishima, how the hell did she survive?" Bakugo sucked in a breath when his classmate shifted so that they were sitting across from each other. "Not that I'm not- I didn't- It's not-"

"I gotcha. Not sure how either. Your explosions can be pretty devastating and from what you just told me that crater was pretty deep, not to mention that you described her as a piece of jerky, so I'm not sure what to think either. Maybe her quirk heightened the effectiveness of the hospital drugs or treatments? You didn't see any visible scars, so that would explain how she looked the way she did." His hand rose to stroke his chin in deep thought. "That doesn't explain the different colored eye. You said both were brown when you were kids, right?"

"Breathe a word of this and you die." Bakugo pulled out the cell phone from his pocket, opened the gallery, and tilted the screen so that Kirishima could see the picture. "That's what she looked like before but now the left eye is blue."

A bite was delivered to the flesh of his bottom lip as the hero-in-training whose quirk was "Hardening" fought back a smile. He honestly couldn't believe how cute the pair looked but at the same time felt a flare of jealously. It was quickly overrun by happiness for his friend when he spotted an expression of dare he call it fondness on the blonde's face. "Dude, it's been almost eight years. How did you even recognize her in the first place?"

Bakugo for a moment looked lost in his thoughts, as if he were looking for the answer in the pattern of the carpet beneath them, then drew one of his legs towards his chest. "Her tears." He expected some sort of scoff or joke from Kirishima but received neither and continued. "She was always so timid and shy when we were kids that it surprisingly hadn't gotten annoying when I found her crying because of bullies or how her home life was." The blonde shrugged. "Guess that was how I knew since she was crying as they took her away."

"If only Mina heard that she'd be having a heyday."

"Speak one word and I'll kill you dead!" He blinked as Kirishima offered his arm.

His lips lifted into a grin. "We'll get her back for ya, Bakubro, then you can properly introduce us."

With a snort, his own arm lifted to wrap around the offered limb. "Yeah, well, don't go thinkin' she's gonna go for you instead. You're too much a dork to be her type."

"Same for you, ShortFuse."

A knock came on the door, closely followed by the voice of a pink skinned classmate. "If you two are done making out in there, we've got some things to run by ya!"

Bakugo was instantly standing, the door opening with a bang as he towered over the pink hued classmate who wore an expression of amusement. "Shut the hell up!"

The teams had been made.

The pro heroes approved.

Now it was just the waiting game.

"Kaachan?"

He didn't turn as a shadow entered his space, the nickname he so despised more than enough to reveal who had entered. "What do you want, Deku? It's almost past curfew so you better leave before Aizawa catches you out of bed, Problem Child #2."

"Just wanted to check on you is all. I know how stressful it can be waiting, I mean kinda since I had to also when we were going to rescue Eri and I know this situation is different because we have a different sort of bond than what you seem to have with whoever we are going to rescue, but I wanted to let you know that-"

"You're rambling again, nerd, just say what you want and get out."

"Let's go."

The blonde sat upright, head snapping with a loud crack as it craned to see the freckled teen and found his expression void of fear or hesitation. Was Deku serious? Bakugo narrowed his gaze. Whatever game this was, he didn't want to play. "Get lost." A twitch found its way into his left brow as the forest haired teen instead walked across the room with a level pace and took firm hold of his shoulder.

"We need to work on fighting as a team, so everyone is meeting for some late night sparring." It was obvious that Bakugo was the more built of the two but Izuku had One for All on his side. With the help of his quirk, the successor to All Might himself dragged the protesting explosionist outside to the back where the rest of their classmates were waiting.

He managed to wrestle free of Izuku's hold as Tenya commended the young man's successful retrieval, fuming and with veins appearing across his forehead. "The hell is all of your problems?! Spar all the fuck you want but leave me out of this!"

"No one knows what to expect, Bakugo, you're the only one who can give us tips and help us prepare!" Uraraka appeared on his left, her smile in place despite the glare he sent her. "I thought it was the perfect way for you to help us out!"

"Oh yeah?!" He blinked, temper falling to simmer as he heard her words and found them logical. "Fine. I don't have all night so let's start with you, Round Face." She blinked as his fingertip appeared inches from her nose. "You need to be quicker on activating and deactivating your quirk! I swear its like you're waiting for paint to dry!"

The girl whose quirk was zero gravity pouted. "I just don't want to fall when I'm in the air-"

"That's where Deku, Four Eyes, or Grape come into play." Bakugo turned to the two he mentioned. "Those two are the fastest so they can catch you but Grape has those sticky balls. If ya have to, just stick some of those on the bottom of your feet so you can bounce when ya land." Without missing a beat, he turned his attention to Mina. "Your acid, what can't it melt?"

The pink hued classmate blinked. "I'm not sure-"

"Then find out! That trident can slice through nearly fucking anything so ya gotta see if you can melt it so he can't use it. Once you got down what you can and can't, you can start building up to those you can't!" His blazing gaze locked on the rest of the Class 1A, causing them to shiver. "As for the rest of you side characters, we've got some work to do."

Tenya, Izuku, Uraraka and Kirishima shared a look. Who would have guessed that Bakugo of all people would come up with things that would oddly not only make sense but would farther strengthen the individual by exposing then building off of weaknesses?

. . . .

"Quite complaining, ya bunch of fucking whiners!" Bakugo grinned at the exhausted students who had deep shadows beneath their eyes as they rested their hanging heads against their desks. He'd kept them up past two in the morning but none had been capable of fending off the blonde's pointers. They were surprised that he had taken such careful notes of their weaknesses and strengths, expecting it of Midoriya since he had the notorious habit of making notes of every hero fact he encountered, not the short tempered explosionist. "I warned ya that I wasn't going easy so suck it up!"

"It's not the training or tips that we're complaining about, it's our sore muscles that we didn't even know we had that are making us feel like dying!" They chorused.

Even Tenya appeared to be struggling slightly as he moved to stand beside Bakugo's desk. "Students out of bed past curfew is strictly prohibited! However, considering the circumstances, I have no choice but to include myself within the training being as I too have need to strengthening my weaknesses. The road to our ultimate potential is never ending!"

Izuku offered a sympathetic smile to his classmates as they gave lackluster cheers, becoming more concerned when it fell upon Uraraka who was massaging her thighs and legs in long drawn out motions under her desk. She's spent most of the time practicing on how to fall correctly so as not to injure herself. He and Tenya both had worked on activating their quirks faster so as to be prepared to catch her or anyone else if they were sent flying so he himself was feeling a bit worn out than normal. His quirk required a lot of physical energy so for him to constantly activate then keep it at a certain level definitely took its toll. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been run over by a train then hit by a bus," she groaned lowly while flashing him a strained smile, "but I'll manage."

"You sure you don't want to go see Recovery Girl?" He asked, shifting in his seat so they were facing rather than he speaking to her from over his shoulder. "I'll take you if you want."

Uraraka shook her head while dropping her voice to a whisper. "This is supposed to be our class's secret, right? Any one of us going to the infirmary will just raise suspicion." The classmates closest nodded; they all had to be extremely careful that none of the faculty would catch on. "I might need to take some extra time in the baths tonight."

Just as a few of the others voiced their agreement, Bakugo's gaze locked on each in turn as a smirk raised his lips. "Aw, did your poor little muscles get overused? Well too damn bad! This ain't kindergarten so if you think I'm gonna let up even a bit you better prepare yourselves now! Tonight we're going til three."

A heavy cloud of doom fell over the class as he almost manically laughed, a collective groan rising. "He's truly evil."

. . . .

Feeling a gaze, Tokoyami turned his head to find that the blonde had looked away from the pairs who were training to fix his gaze on the shadow user and earned a tilt of his head. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"You can have it surround ya like armor or a second skin, right?"

He blinked. "That is correct, yes, what did you have in mind?"

"Ever thought of having him try to kidnap someone?"

Silence fell over the group but Izuku was the first to see where the strange suggestion was going and crossed his arms. "I get it, so while some keep Black Trident busy by attacking you plan on having Tokoyami use his shadow to cover the target so that she doesn't hurt themselves or anyone else so that the Rescue Team responsible for retrieving them-"

"Quit your mumbling, nerd!" Bakugo huffed, the twitch in his brow that had risen from annoyance disappeared as a flaw practically smacked him in the face. "It wouldn't work anyway."

The stoic classmate regarded his shadow being. "It has taken me longer than I care to admit to handle him at night as I am, but with the 'Maximize' quirk even I would not be capable of predicting just how he would react once in contact with such an ability." Tokoyami's gaze met Bakugo's. "For all I know, he may attempt to take over myself or the target."

Bakugo walked until he was standing toe-to-toe with the duo quirk user. "Dabi's your brother so what can he do that you can't? Could you hold him off if things got messy?"

Todoroki looked surprised at first but the expression smoothed over into acceptance. "His fire burns blue, which means it's a hotter temperature than mine, but my ice has grown much stronger than the Festival."

"Kirishima! Mina! Start working with IcyHot when you're done!" He gestured with his hands when he found several pairs to have stopped training. "What are you all waiting for?! We're going til three so get moving!"

"Please tell me he's kidding…" Momo sighed nervously, flinching when his blazing gaze locked on her. "I-I'm working, I'm working! Trying to figure out what that trident is made of it harder than it looks, Bakugo, Mina's acid and my stamina need time to recuperate!"

"Wah-wah-wah! All I'm hearing is fucking excuses." He locked each in turn with a challenging gaze. "If you don't like it, then leave right here right now, cause we only got one shot." Bakugo shook his head. "Failure is not an option!"

Uraraka, nursing her bruised sides from falling due to lack of balance, approached with a glint in her eye. "Maybe if you tell us why this person is so special to you then maybe we'll be motivated to work harder."

Above their heads, several windows opened that corresponded with the appearance of the classmates he himself had chosen to sit out the rescue attempt not just due to their quirks but the fact that the fewer people involved the better; Denki, Tsuyu, Toru, Aoyama, and Jirou to name a few. "Yeah, I think we all need a bit more information."

"I ain't telling you shit, ya bunch of gossip hungry-" Red tinted his cheeks as Kirishima gave him an eyebrow wiggle from over the shoulders of the classmates who had surrounded the blonde. "Believe what you want, alright?! It doesn't matter who she is, all you gotta worry about is keeping your heads from rolling by Black Trident or my hand!"

Izuku had seen the shared look between the blonde and red head, feeling his lips lift into possibly the biggest grin known to human history. "Wait, did you say 'she'?!"

A collective gasp rose, each pair of eyes widening to the point where they could almost pop out of their respective owner's skulls, a few of the students who were within the windows nearly hanging over the sills with their mouths gaping. "It's a girl?!"

"Damn it all to fucking hell!" With an explosion that was large enough to knock everyone who had gotten too close were lightly knocked backwards by the blast of heat until a red faced Bakugo was revealed a split second before he rocketed himself up to the roof where they heard him stomping around muttering curses under his breath. The sound of feet landing behind him caused the heat in his face to grow but he remained facing away from them as they approached.

"Kaachan, it's okay if she means a lot to you. We all have that person so I guess we were just surprised to hear that come from you is all." Izuku came to a stop beside the silent blonde who had a shadow over half of his face. "You don't have to explain, but knowing that whoever she is must mean she's a special girl to have earned a place in your heart is something amazing." A soft smile raised his lips as he caught sight of Bakugo's throat moving in a swallow. "It doesn't make you weak or anything. I think it means you've gotten stronger."

Ruby eyes shone with confusion as his being turned in the freckled teen's direction, earning a chuckle. "Shut up, Deku." He finally grumbled, sitting with a huff and crossing his arms.

See you next time!