Author's Note: I liiiivvvee! And so does this story. And my other stories too, but I have pre-written chapters for this one, so it gets updated now rather than making everybody wait for however long it takes me to finish AMOSC's or Ballad's latest chapters (still working on them, pinky promise). Hope you enjoy this! The next chapter should be longer, though this one is arguably my favorite because Katsuki is just such a blast to write (no pun intended). Also, I'm still paranoid after that virus went around infecting author profiles, so for the moment, we're back to review response's in the chapter. At least until I stop feeling so utterly paranoid about losing my account.

Also, I have an account on Ao3 (finally)! Not much up there yet, but I'll start crossposting when I have time and I hope to have my second BNHA AU going up soon (probably on Ao3 at first because it's so much easier to post on that site).

Review Response: Dear Ryoji Mochizuki, greetings! Glad you think so! I hope you continue to enjoy!

Dear AzureLazuli, hi there! Aw, thanks! I hope you enjoy Katsuki's POV!

Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia or any references made in this story. The only things I own are my OCs, my character interpretations, and the plot.

Chapter Four: Lightning

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While Izuku was willing to take the blame for Kacchan, Ochako-san, and Tsuyu-san —because he had been directly involved in the incidents that led to either their activation or their becoming friends with him—, the events leading up to Eijirō-kun joining their Element Set was all on Kacchan.

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It started with Weird Hair ambling over to Katsuki after a hard session of combat training and complimenting the Storm on how powerful and "manly" his quirk and his ability to work with Sunny was. Katsuki, tired and irritable from being forced to work Sunny, —who was a living, breathing incarnation of rainbows, puppies, and sparkles even on a bad day— promptly responded with a dark, "Drop dead, Weird Hair."

Apparently, that was Manly-Weird-Hair-Speak for "I think you're cool too, let's be friends".

Weird Hair began hanging around Katsuki whenever he had the opportunity. Chatting, laughing, and seeming generally —much to Katsuki's frustration— immune to the aura of bad attitude and death that Katsuki emitted around anyone that wasn't Deku —and Sunny by extension because Deku would make those f*ing kitten eyes of his if Katsuki made her cry—.

Of course, since Katsuki was busy keeping Deku from getting himself mauled to death or jumped by his growing fangirl club —that the nerd wasn't even aware of because of course he wasn't, it wasn't like he had super instincts or anything— ninety-eight percent of the time, that meant Weird Hair was there too.

Which was a pain because then Katsuki would have to find something to distract the idiot with every time Deku tried to research how his quirk interacted with his growing "symbiotic, inter-balancing quirks set" because Deku wanted that to be kept a secret as much as possible. Something Katsuki agreed with because who knew what villains —or even Pro Heroes— would do if they found out what Deku's quirk could do? Even Deku didn't know just how dangerous his quirk was, had no f*ing clue just how Deku's mere presence was enough to make Katsuki —and now Sunny— want to do anything to keep him happy and safe, even if it meant murdering the first jack*ss who looked at him wrong.

Katsuki had always said he wanted to be the top hero —and he still did— but somewhere along the way the reason had morphed from "be the most powerful and awesome" to "be strong enough to blow up anyone who threatens Deku". H*ll, after so many years bonded to him through their quirks, if Deku ever asked him to, Katsuki would turn villain in a heartbeat. And while Sunny and Froggy weren't quite to that level of loyalty, he was pretty sure they would at least consent to aiding and abetting the two of them.

But back to Weird Hair and his annoying clingy tendencies.

Katsuki tried his usual tried-and-true methods of running off a potential threat to Deku —yelling, screaming, curses, threats, insults— but it just … didn't work. It was like Weird Hair's quirk had turned his brain to rock or something, because the idiot just Had. No. Fear. Of anything. Katsuki could curse him six ways to Tokyo and back and insult all of his relatives and his progenitors in the process and all Weird Hair would do was pat Katsuki on the back and ask if Katsuki needed to eat something. Which … seriously? Seriously? What did Katsuki look like? Some kind of middle-school girl who needed chocolate and warm food and Midol to soothe her pain-induced temper?

Shut the hell up Deku, that was a f*ing rhetorical question, stop laughing.

He tried his less-usual-but-still-true methods —only less usual because Deku hated violence that he didn't deem 'necessary', never mind the fact that all of Katsuki's violence was necessary just because— next. He singled Weird Hair out in spars and training, going after him with the intent to pound him into the dirt each and every time with a ferocity that had all of the Extras cowering and evacuating the area.

But apparently even the Extras had better survival instincts than Weird Hair because repeatedly trying to turn his red-haired head into charred paste just made him even more clingy and cheerful afterward. Idiot kept going on about how "manly" Katsuki was —of course he was manly, he was a guy, not a male sunshine/kitten hybrid in human form like Deku— and how Katsuki was "really cool" for "helping him train the defensive abilities of his quirk so much" and that he was a "real friend despite his angry exterior".

Which … just … what even…? How did repeatedly trying to hospitalize someone make you their friend with their best interests at heart? Seriously, how? Even Sunny knew better than that and he'd only tried to hospitalize her twice on principle —to make sure she wouldn't slow Deku or Katsuki down or endanger Deku. Turned out the girl had a mean right hook when she wanted to use it—.

He would have gone to his third and last fallback —grievous bodily harm and genuine death threats behind the school bleachers— except somehow Deku had come to the —mistaken— conclusion that Katsuki liked the idiot Weird Hair and was so d*mn proud of Katsuki for making a new friend for the first time in years and would Katsuki like to extend an open invitation to Weird Hair to have lunch on the rooftop with them —cue kitten eyes and sunshine sparkles—?

… Katsuki had grudgingly slacked off on his threats, curses, and insults after that. Because if Weird Hair was enough of a human barnacle that even Deku —who shared an empathic bond with Katsuki— mistook Katsuki's efforts as overtures of friendship, then there was really nothing Katsuki could do to get rid of him at that point short of killing Weird Hair and hiding his body in a dumpster somewhere. Which was not something a Pro Hero would do. And would have Deku making disappointed faces at him for months.

F*ck. How was this his life again?

With great irritation and snarling, Katsuki shifted his efforts to training Weird Hair instead of running him off. Because if he was going to hang around Katsuki —and by important extension Deku— he might as well be useful. Thankfully for what remained of Katsuki's thin patience, Weird Hair was much easier to train than to scare off. Within two weeks of training, he had successfully taught Weird Hair to Fetch, Sit, Shake Hands, High Five, Keep Lookout —useful against nosy teachers and rabid fangirls—, and Distract —in case the fangirls got too close to Deku—. Katsuki was still working on Be Quiet, Roll Over, Drop Dead, and Sic 'Em, but he hoped to have Weird Hair fully trained by the end of his second high school year.

Shut up Deku, he was not treating Weird Hair like a dog instead of a person, he treated everybody like this. It was the dogs that got the treats, not the people.

Sunny had already mastered the basics and was surprisingly amendable to learning more advanced tricks like Hide Deku and the advanced variants of Sic 'Em —namely Death to Fangirls, Protect Deku, and various combat takedowns that made Sic 'Em so much more effective on villains and sparring opponents—. The fact that everyone else looked at her sunshine face and dopey smile and automatically labeled her as harmless only made it easier and more satisfying for Katsuki to teach her tricks. The looks she got when she flattened someone in training or cheerfully informed an especially annoying fangirl of exactly how easy it would be to remove someone's larynx with a cafeteria spoon were priceless.

But back to Weird Hair's training. It was going well, all things considered. Because Weird Hair responded very well to positive reinforcement and the idiot seemed to consider anything coming from Katsuki to be positive reinforcement. So really, school life was actually tolerable. He had help herding Deku out of trouble —Deku was a magnet for fanatics and crazy coincidences, always had been—, Sunny was shaping up to be a perfect undercover bodyguard, and Weird Hair was … surprisingly fun to be around once Katsuki adjusted to Weird Hair's "manliness" lingo. Katsuki could almost convince himself that their school year was going to be normal for once.

So, of course, Karma had to come in and remind him that she was a b*tch who thought she could make Deku her chew toy.

Because why else would an army of villains manage to break into the most secure hero school in the world, just when there were a bunch of students there and only two actual Pro Heroes to keep the Extras safe? And, oh yeah, on top of that, the Warp Villain managed to separate him from both Sunny and Deku just before Katsuki could blow him up, leaving Katsuki with only Weird Hair for company and Deku freaking the f*ck out with only the Token Perv and Froggy as backup.

That might have worked out just fine, actually, because Deku was brilliant when he stopped hyperventilating and Weird Hair could actually pull his weight in a fight. But then Deku had to go and get involved in a fight against the Boss Villain and Warp Guy and a giant Murder Crow Minion who was almost as strong and fast as All Might in order to save Froggy and Eraser Head. Then, after nearly getting killed by Murder Crow Minion and being saved by All Might showing up, Deku had to go and get involved again because All Might was having trouble fighting Murder Crow Minion and hey, why not help out? Deku was only an untrained fifteen-year-old who barely had two weeks of hero training, he could totally hold his own and turn the tide against a villain strong enough to make the Number One Hero pause. Totally.

Shut up Deku, he was not overreacting. And no, hitting Warp Guy with his explosive red fire quirk because the guy was trying to pin down All Might was not the same thing.

Anyway, Deku went in with his Flames blazing and managed to help All Might without anybody dying —Katsuki actually had Half-N-Half's ice quirk to thank for that, much to his annoyance—. And yes, Deku did —probably— save All Might's life by throwing up a wall of flame when Boss Villain was about to attack All Might again because apparently All Might had taken a bad enough hit a few years ago that he couldn't use his own quirk for very long and was secretly tapped out from fighting Murder Crow Minion.

But Deku's heroics —idiocy— led to him seeing All Might's "true form" —also known as Zombie-Might—. Which, on top of Deku's judicious use of fire, led to All Might offering Deku a chance to inherit his quirk —by eating hair what-the-h*ll— and become the new Symbol of Peace. Which Deku did because of course he did, he was a bigger fan of All Might than Katsuki, of course he would say yes.

And —fun fact— it turned out a foreign quirk with the power to level buildings didn't mesh well with Deku's instinctive use of Cloud Flames —only the natural durability boost of Cloud Flames kept Deku from shattering his own bones, but he did fracture them—, which meant that Deku's ability to defend himself was effectively halved until he got his new quirk under control.

While having to train for the upcoming Hero Festival.

And also helping Froggy figure out how to use her Rain Flames on the field without making anyone drop dead.

And keeping an eye out for angry villains who would definitely be coming to kill All Might and his new successor once they figured out All Might had a successor —which they would, Katsuki just knew it—.

Which left a majorly panicking Katsuki stuck in the middle of this entire cl*st*rf*ck, trying to figure out how he was going to keep his idiot Sky alive long enough to graduate high school with only Sunny and Froggy as backup.

F*ck his life. Just … f*ck his life.

If only he could get Deku some kind of shield, one that Deku would actually consent to keeping near or on his person at all times —because apparently permanent body-armor was for the paranoid, stupid-stupid-stupid-Deku!—, one that Deku would be able to use in time to protect himself. Or better yet, one that could somehow just be there to protect Deku from danger until he could get his new quirk under control, one that wouldn't have to be reliant on Deku's f*ed up sense of self-preservation-

Wait.

Weird Hair had a hardening quirk. Weird Hair enjoyed following Katsuki everywhere. Deku trusted Weird Hair and enjoyed having people around. Weird Hair thought protecting people was "manly". Maybe he could… No. That wouldn't work. Weird Hair would have to be one of Deku's Elements for Deku to truly keep him around as much as possible, and Weird Hair didn't have any Dying Will Flame- Wait. Dying Will. Katsuki remembered Sunny talking about how in the old days, people unlocked one of the seven original quirks only when they were in mortal peril, thus the name Dying Will Flames. According to Sunny's grandma, back then, anyone could activate a Flame quirk, all they had to be was just too d*mn stubborn to die.

Weird Hair was easily the most stubborn he'd ever met outside of Deku or himself.

Hmmmm….

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It took a week and two days to finally corner Weird Hair in a spacious, target rich training ground without any hero supervision, but Weird Hair was eager to train for the UA sports festival, the heroes were busy prepping external security, and Katsuki had intentionally been on his best behavior. Funnily enough, for all of his rock-headed stupidity earlier, it only took about twenty seconds for Weird Hair to figure out that Katsuki was genuinely trying to kill him this time —which was still a long time in fighting terms, but, meh—.

After much shouting —Katsuki—, yowling —Weird Hair—, explosions —Katsuki—, confused pleading —Weird Hair—, and a rockslide —Katsuki honestly hadn't meant to do that, the rocks were just to d*mn fragile when pitted against his explosions—, Weird Hair lit up the landscape with bright green lightning that skittered across his hardened skin and repelled the deluge of rocks and debris Katsuki had accidentally called down.

Katsuki immediately stopped attacking and stared at Weird Hair's Dying Will Flames, examining the skittering green overlapped with just a few hints of Froggy's familiar wavy blue in satisfied fascination. So Weird Hair was actually like Deku and had two Flames. Huh. Not as even a balance though, but apparently Deku's ability to call up two Flames that were almost equally strong was extremely rare so whatever.

Katsuki ambled over to Weird Hair, soothed the terrified sputtering and flinching with several gentle pats on the rock-like head and a cherry lollipop —because just this once, he would break the no-giving-people-treats rule, Weird Hair deserved it—, and herded him off to Deku for Harmonization. Deku, upon seeing the randomly sparking, lollipop-chomping, still freaked-out Weird Hair, swooped in and did exactly what Katsuki expected him to: explain everything in soothing words and get that dopey look on his face when Weird Hair Harmonized with him point six seconds after the explanation. Pleased beyond words —Deku had a living shield now, he might actually manage to live past age sixteen—, Katsuki allowed Weird Hair to yell at him —for scaring him so badly— and thank him —for seeing such manly potential in him and helping him achieve it—.

Katsuki actually felt guilty over that last bit. Because Weird Hair was just so … forgiving. And, yeah, okay, maybe Katsuki was more attached to Weird Hair than he'd thought. Because now that the crippling tunnel vision of "protect Deku from his own stupidity" was wearing off, he did actually feel terrible about putting Weird Hair in that much danger. So terrible that he didn't protest to Deku's blistering lecture about "not abusing his friends" and "not forcing people to join Deku's Element Set".

But then, Weird Hair really, really liked being part of a "secret superhero team" and really enjoyed how much stronger his Lightning Flames made his quirk so it was fine right? It all worked out just fine in the end and now Deku had another part of the original, long-lost quirk set to play around with. Only two more to go-.

Ow. Ow. Deku- Deku stop. He meant that Deku would find the last two naturally, he didn't mean- ow. Seriously, he was going to start hitting back if Deku didn't stop- no, f*ck, kitten eyes were worse, Deku-

F*ck. Fine. Fine. He promised not to go off and near-murder any of the other Extras in order to expand his roster of allies in keeping Deku's *ss alive —even if it would make Katsuki's blood pressure so much easier to maintain—. There. Happy?

It turned out that no, Deku was not happy. But he had a new Flame to train on top of All Might's quirk and the UA Sports Festival coming up and Katsuki knew exactly what kind of stuff to cook —don't laugh, Storm Flames made a killer barbecue— to bribe his Sky with so he figured Deku would get over eventually.

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Preview: Shōto's eyes flicked over Midoriya's body, taking in the shaking muscles, the pained curl of the fingers, the blooming red color up the hands and wrists like massive bruises. A breathless noise escaped him, "What, you're that beat up from defending and running away?" Green hair shadowed Midoriya's face, revealing only gritted teeth and shaking shoulders and Shōto huffed and slammed down hard on the instinct in his head that was screaming to stop-stop-don't-hurt-him, "Sorry," for you getting hurt going against me, for you having to bear the same curse I do even though you choose to flaunt it, "But thanks too, Midoriya. That Guy's face is clouded over thanks to you."

Endeavor was scowling, furious and -just maybe- uneasy as the sight of someone with such a recognizable quirk -his quirk, his faithlessness- getting so injured against "mere ice". Midoriya didn't answer and Shōto eyed the massive bruises on both of Midoriya's arms, ones that hinted at potential bone fractures if the fight didn't stop soon, "You can't fight anymore like that without risking severe injury. Let's finish this already." Ice lashed out, angry and victorious. See, Old Man? Your quirk is nothing-

"Where are you looking?" Fire. Fire everywhere. It curled and roared, consuming his ice as greedily as it would dry wood, blasting hot air in his face and sending him skidding backward uncontrollably despite the ice bracing his back. Power thundered across his senses, pushing and snarling and blazing, driving him back-back-back until he barely managed to stop himself just in front of the arena boundary.

Steam billowed clear. Gray and blue eyes finally rose to meet his opponent's gaze ... and faltered, breath stolen, at the startling violet flecked amber that burned into his core instead of familiar green.