A/N: Soooooo, I missed a month of posting, but as a compromise, you all get two chapters this month instead of one.
Warnings: Swearing, mentions of suicide
Katsuki wakes to the blaring of his alarm, and the angry shout of his mother to, "Turn off that damn alarm!" He slams his hand down on the off button of his alarm irritatedly, rising from bed and stretching. It's all a part of his routine, which he thrives off of. He's dressed and downstairs eating an apple in just over two minutes. It doesn't take much longer to finish the apple, and then he's stretching outside with his headphones in, Hero by Skillet blaring from them.
He stretches for five minutes and then he runs. The crisp fall air fills his lungs and clears out his brain, lifting the haze of sleep from his consciousness. All around him are trees covered in brilliant shades of reds, yellows, and oranges. He doesn't pay much attention to them, too focused on the road ahead of him. The scenery to the side, passes by in a blur, much like his classmates' attempts to distract him. If they want to waste their schooling on frivolous games, that's their choice. As for him, he plans to stay focused. Pure determination and focus are the only way he will become number one. He's been sure to discourage anyone from getting too close to him by acting aggressive and unapproachable. That's worked well for the most part, but there are a couple of exceptions.
Kaminari is, well, not always the sharpest tool in the shed. At least he never acts like it. He's actually quite intelligent, despite his quirk's weakness. He's too kind-hearted and enthusiastic for his own good and decided after one interaction that he and Bakugou are friends. Bakugou has begrudgingly allowed some non-aggressive interactions to transpire between them. That doesn't mean they're friends, of course.
Kirishima is another story altogether. He seems determined to win Katsuki over, or something. He stole his phone on the first day of class, punched his number in, and basically said 'we're friends now'. Since then, Bakugou has been invited to play video games at his house a total of three times. Has he gone? Not yet, but he's about to accept one of these times if nothing else just to shut the red-haired freak up. Not that Katsuki doesn't think that playing some Smash Bros. with Kirishima would be fun, but he can't let himself get distracted. Number one heroes don't have time for video games. Neither should number one heroes-in-training.
By the time he's back at home, his father is up, getting ready for work.
"Good morning, Katsuki," Masaru greets him.
"Sup," Katsuki tosses back carelessly. He's on a tight schedule, his mornings are always planned out to the minute. He showers, eats breakfast, then rides the train to school.
Wouldn't you know it would be just his luck that Deku was riding the same train that morning?
He sits next to him. Not because he wants to be near him, but he'd rather sit with him than some stranger. Besides, he needs to clarify something from the day before.
"Hey, Deku!"
"O-oh. H-hey Kacchan," Izuku stammers.
"Aizawa clearly thinks you have potential to become a hero," Katsuki colors his words with just the right amount of contempt. It isn't like he cares about Izuku. He just- okay, he cares a little bit. But Deku doesn't need to know that.
"Y-you think so?" Deku's nervous stuttering is grating, as usual.
"Last year, he expelled his entire class for lack of potential. Him saying he's gonna expel somebody isn't an empty threat," Bakugou has talked to Izuku more in the past twenty-four hours that he probably had in the past year. Honestly, it's exhausting. "If he didn't expel you, there's obviously a reason for it."
"M-maybe he's not allowed to e-expel people on the first d-day."
"That's a ridiculous idea, and you know it," Bakugou shakes his head irritatedly.
"O-or m-maybe he feels like he can't expel me," Izuku ponders.
"Why? Because you seem like the innocent protagonist of some cliche anime show where a small child gains some great super power, and now it's suddenly up to him to save the world?"
"I w-was thinking because I-I'm new to my quirk, a-and he doesn't want to seem like he's being discriminatory against someone who's been quirkless most of their life."
"Mr. Aizawa doesn't seem like the type of person who cares what people think," Bakugou rolls his eyes.
"I guess not," Izuku still sounds unsure, but at this point Katsuki will take it. Besides, he still has one more important thing to say.
"And another thing, nerd," he clears his throat, (for emphasis, not because his voice cracks with emotion or anything). "You better not be selfish enough to actually jump off a building. You can't do that to your mom. She's too fragile to handle that."
"It's okay, Kacchan," Izuku smiles sadly. "I know how much my mom loves me. There have only been a couple of times that I've ever even thought about killing myself, but my mom is really observant, and she found me a therapist. It really helped." Bakugou doesn't respond, too far buried in his thoughts to even attempt to form sentences. Would his mom notice if his suicidal thoughts ever got too strong? If she did, would she care enough to find him professional help? Or would she just tell him to grow up, to stop being so weak? He shakes his head derisively. She wouldn't care. At least if he died she'd have one less loser disappointment in her life.
The bus pulls up to UA, and Bakugou exits swiftly, only to be ambushed by a certain spiky-haired loudmouth.
"Hey! Bakubro!" Kirishima immediately grips him in a bone-crushing hug. He pushes his friend off irritatedly.
"Get off me, loser," he demands, pretending he doesn't feel a small flash of warmth in his chest at having someone (who wasn't Deku) be excited to see him. They walk together to the classroom, because they're already next to each other, they might as well. As he walks past his teacher, to find his desk, he can feel the man staring at him. He's disconcerted, but doesn't question it. Honestly, Mr. Aizawa is weird and does weird things. That's nothing for him to be concerned about.
"Bakugou, I'd like to speak with you, please," Aizawa says once class has been dismissed.
"Yeah?" he stands with a slouched posture at his teacher's desk. Aizawa waits for the classroom to empty before turning to speak to him.
"Why are you here?"
"Huh? You fuckin' asked me to," Bakugou looks incredulous
"No, why are you here? At UA." Aizawa clarifies.
"Because I want to be the best," Duh. Bakugou makes sure that his face conveys his irritation clearly.
"Don't look at me like my question was obvious. I ask all of my students that question at one time or another. Especially when I'm contemplating their expulsion"
"What?!"
"You heard me." Aizawa is deadpan as always.
"Did I do something wrong?" Does he know about yesterday?
"You tell me." Katsuki sees right through this. He knows he doesn't have to admit to anything, his mom plays this game all the time. She tells him he's in trouble, and then wants him to rat himself out. He was done playing that game as soon as he was old enough to understand the rules.
"I don't have any idea what you're talking about."
"I think you do." Persistent, isn't he?
"Look, I don't have time for this shit, just tell me what you want from me or let me go."
"Do you have somewhere important to be?"
"Yeah, home. If I miss the train and I'm late, my mom's gonna be pissed." Not a lie. Will she care if his mom is pissed off? Not particularly.
"And how do you think she would feel if you came home with an expulsion letter?" Aizawa expects the boy to become defensive. He is not, however, expecting the brief flash of fear that crosses his explosive student's eyes.
"Fine. Let's talk," Bakugou crosses his arms. "But I'm not gonna sit here admitting to everything I've ever done, so we're not getting very far unless you tell me what this is about."
"Fine. I'll be blunt." Aizawa concedes."I'm sure you are aware of UA's zero tolerance policy in regards to bullying."
Bakugou rolls his eyes, "Yeah."
"And I'm sure you're also aware that telling someone to quote 'take a swan dive off the roof of a building' qualifies as bullying." Hearing his words repeated back to him verbally is even worse than them bouncing around in his head like they have all day. He's quiet, and tries to tell himself that the tightness building in his chest has no relation to the emotion he's feeling.
Bakugou feels small, having Aizawa look at him like that (like he's a villain), but he tries to cover it by lowering his brow.
"Yeah."
"I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but according to UA policies, I have every right to expel you right now," Bakugou will never admit to it, but he's starting to feel nervous as he realizes just where the conversation is heading. "As a matter of fact, at the start of our conversation, I had already planned to suspend you pending a full investigation and probable expulsion. The way you spoke to Midoriya yesterday, was unacceptable, and in no way was it representative of how a hero should behave." A heavy silence falls in the nearly empty classroom. Katsuki tries to maintain eye contact with his homeroom teacher, but shame forces his eyes to the floor as his head bows. The normally quick to defend himself teen can think of nothing to say. His breath catches a bit when he thinks of how his mother will react to the news. His father will be disappointed, but his mother, will be pissed which is actually the understatement of the year, because let's be honest this is Mitsuki Bakugou we're talking about, and she once forced him to stand for an hour underneath a cold shower because he accidentally burned a hole in his sheets while he was sleeping. Aizawa finally speaks again.
"Alright, here's what we're going to do," he decides. "First you're going to call your parents, and I'm going to explain the situation to them. Then, you'll go home, and you'll take tomorrow off. You will be suspended. That should give you some time to think over how you behaved. I would also like you to take some time during your suspension to write an apology letter to Midoriya. I will use tomorrow as a chance to speak with Midoriya. I will come over after school tomorrow and speak with you and your parents, and then we'll decide where to go from there. Does that all make sense to you?"
"Yes, sir,"
"Good."
The phone rings three times, and Bakugou has the vain hope that maybe it will continue to ring, and that his mom will ignore the call. She picks up anyway.
"What do you want, Katsuki?" he resists the urge to pull the phone away from his ear at her loud tone.
"Stop yelling, hag," he growls. "My teacher wants to talk to you."
"What did you do this time?" Quick to assume, as always, that he's done something wrong.
"Just talk to my teacher," he thrusts the phone at Aizawa, not daring to look at his face to see his disapproval of Bakugou's treatment of his mother.
"Is this Bakugou Mitsuki?" Aizawa speaks into the phone.
"Who the hell else do you think he talks to like that? Now what did the brat do?"
Aizawa pans his eye towards Katsuki, unconsciously looking over the boy, his eyes stopping at his knuckles. He falters at the yellow and purple discoloration.
It could just be from a fight, he reasons. Aizawa knew that the hero course could be rough. But he also knows that any teacher worth their salt, would have sent him to Recovery Girl.
"I'm calling to inform you that Bakugou is to be suspended for his actions against a fellow student, and in accordance with our zero tolerace bullying policy, will be pulled out of class for the next day. I will be making a visit to your home tomorrow afternoon to further discuss any actions we will take."
Aizawa can hear her breathing on the other side of the line, but she's quiet and when her voice chimes back in it's missing her passion from just a minute ago.
"Was it Izuku?" she asks.
Aizawa glances back to Bakugou, watching him itch at just standing there without knowing what she was saying. For whatever reason, Aizawa is struggling with distinguishing his abrasiveness from the small flits of fear that fly across his face. The boy probably got that from All Might.
"I'm not at liberty to say."
"Katsuki has never been suspended before," she defends.
"Yes, I believe that to be a failure of his past teachers."
She pauses, "He's always been hotheaded."
"Ma'am, there is a difference between 'hotheaded' and bullying, a difference that has clearly been blurred for him in the past."
"Do you think you can fix him?" she asks.
Aizawa itches at the word'fix', and he wonders where the loud and aggressive woman from before had gone.
"You can't ruin his record," she continues, a little bit of the heat in her voice coming back, "without fixing him. You can't tear him down without promising to make him strong."
"I promise," Aizawa intones.
He can hear her smirk on the other side of the line. Aizawa has the idea that she seems used to getting what she wants, through brute force or other means. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon. Now put the brat back on." He hands the phone back to Katsuki, who looks less than excited to be speaking with his mom again.
"You will take the next train home," her voice is no longer a shout, but a deadly calm like heavy clouds before a rainstorm. "When you get home, we will discuss your behavior, in depth." Katsuki doesn't reply, hanging up the phone and turning away to pick up his bag. He shoulders the pack, and starts walking towards the door.
"Bakugou," Aizawa calls after him. He pauses but doesn't turn. "You know you can talk to me if you ever need anything, right?"
"Tch," Bakugou scoffs. "I don't need anyone's help." He doesn't. Need help that is. He has everything perfectly under control. It's not like he's some weakling like Deku who just lets people walk all over him. It's not bullying if he dishes it back some too, right?
Right?
