Katsuki and his two tagalongs had finally managed to take out all the villains where they had been sent. "Oi shitty hair, dunce face we need to make our way back to the plaza where Aizawa-sensei is." He popped off a few small explosions. "We need to make sure the damn warp villain doesn't get away this time."
"I'm all for trying to fix our mistake bro but what about the rest of our class? Wouldn't be manly not to help them if they need it." Kirishima said, brushing off Katsuki's use of the nickname.
"Dunce face?" Kaminari said quietly in the back, pointing to himself confused.
"Against these d-rank villains? Our class'll kick their asses. Hell practically anyone could take these idiots out. That warp villain is far more dangerous and a better use of our time to take out." Katsuki said, starting to walk away.
Kirishima grinned. "It's super manly to believe in our class Bakugou. Let's go get that warp villain!" He turned to Kaminari. "You coming bro?"
Kaminari nodded. "No way I'd wanna seperate from you guys now. Plus I feel kinda bad for letting the villain go in the first place."
"Don't blame yourself idiot." Katsuki said, flicking Kaminari none too gently as he walked past. His resistance to letting these two in had been worn down considerably throughout the events of the day and the days before. "Just do better this time."
Kaminari stared after him confused while Kirishima's grin widened. Without another word the three made their way to the plaza. Katsuki spotted the warp villain quickly but froze when he saw a familiar hooded figure hiding around the center of the plaza. "I'm gonna kill that damn nerd." He thought angrily.
"Who's that? I don't recognize them from our class." Kaminari said, following Katsuki's gaze.
Kirishima, who was closer to Katsuki could have sworn Katsuki said something like, "A goddamn idiot that's who." under his breath. What Kirishima did clearly see was a look of what seemed to be concern on his classmate's face; which wasn't an emotion he'd thought he'd ever see on the explosive boy's face.
"Let's just focus on the warp villain for now. Let the damn ne- whoever the hell that is do what they want. Not like we couldn't take em if we needed to." Katsuki said, turning his attention back to the villain.
Kirishima and Kaminari nodded. Katsuki was in the middle of working out a plan with the two when Kaminari, who had been keeping an eye on their target, cried out in shock. "G-guys? Sensei he…" Kaminari trailed off, eyes glued to the plaza.
Katsuki looked up to see the bird-headed villain pinning Eraserhead to the ground. He also spotted a dark green blur rush across the plaza towards the villain. All heads snapped towards it. "Damnit Izuku. You better fucking handle yourself." Katsuki thought. "We move now while they're distracted!" He said launching himself out of their hiding spot. Kaminari and Kirishima were quick to follow.
Izuku barely took note of the oh so familiar explosions off to his left as he pushed his support item to the max to get to the villain faster. He pulled out his weapon of choice; a staff. This particular support item was a well used one in his arsenal. One side could be electrified while the other made use of some of Katsuki's sweat to trigger explosions. As he reached the villain pinning Eraser down he brought the staff to the face of the villain and let off an explosion. He then managed to get Eraser out of their grasp and put some distance between them and the villains.
By now they had all recovered from the initial shock, but this had given Katsuki's group plenty of time to approach the warp villain. Katsuki pounced on him and let some smaller explosions pop off against the villain's neck armor. "Try anything funny and I guarantee you won't like the result." He punctuated the threat with more small explosions.
Izuku glanced down at Eraser. "Are you ok?" he asked as he gently sat him down, thankful Katsuki had gotten the villain's attention.
Eraserhead blinked up at him, confused. "Rabbit? What are you doing here?" he thought for a moment before putting on his best authoritative look in spite of his injury. "Shouldn't you be in class?"
Izuku shrugged. "Felt this was more important."
Eraser shakily got to his feet; denying the help Izuku offered. "How the hell did you even know something was going on here problem child?" His eyes narrowed as he looked around. "Also where's Wolf? I've never seen you two apart."
Izuku nervously wrung his hands. "He's around. Helping others. We figured splitting up would be best so we could help more people." He answered. It was partially the truth.
"You didn't answer the first question." Eraser turned a sceptical look at Izuku.
Izuku shrugged and waved off the question. He turned back to face the villains as the one covered in hands spoke up. "Nomu, free up our ride will you?"
The bird villain took off quickly towards Katsuki. He didn't move as it approached; finding himself frozen in place. Izuku bolted from Eraser's side as Kirishima, body fully hardened, got in between the two. He managed to hold it off for a second before being flung to the side; but that second was enough to break Katsuki from his trance and allow him to propel himself over the villain's head.
The warp villain quickly returned to the hand villain's side. "Nomu take care of these brats." The hand villain ordered as he started to aggressively scratch at his neck. The nomu charged and Izuku and Katsuki were yanked backwards as it struck the ground where they were previously standing.
"Thanks Eraser." Izuku said, keeping his eyes on the nomu. Katsuki nodded his head appreciatively. The nomu gave them little time to collect their thoughts as it charged them again.
Katsuki unleashed an explosion while Izuku attempted to electrocute it with his staff. Both attacks did little to slow it down as they had to quickly dodge out of the way of another strike.
"Bakugo you need to get out of here." Eraserhead said as he dropped into a fighting stance. Izuku couldn't help but feel that was also directed at him.
"Couldn't even if I wanted to. Doubt those villains would let me run away at this point. Plus you're hurt aren't you? Not gonna leave when you're injured." Katsuki said, watching the Nomu as it prepared for another attack.
Izuku twirled the staff in his hand. "Your student is right. Couldn't call ourselves heroes if we left you like this right?"
Aizawa narrowed his eyes but relented. "Fine, but you both need to be careful. These villains are the real deal."
"I'm always fucking careful." Katsuki said as he launched himself at the nomu.
It recoiled slightly and tried to swipe at him but he blasted himself out of the range of the strike. Izuku rushed in to deliver another explosion from his staff before rushing away. Aizawa wrapped its legs with his capture gear and managed to trip it while it was still disoriented. The three continued to use this hit and run tactic on the nomu. It was fast and strong but it wasn't smart. They used each other's attacks as distraction to slip out of the nomu's reach.
They couldn't keep it up forever though. Aizawa was injured, Katsuki had been fighting before this and was already drained, and Izuku had to rely heavily on his support items which were starting to reach their limit. The nomu didn't seem to tire though and kept coming at them. As the fight dragged on, the hand villain began taunting them. Saying things like how the nomu was designed to kill All Might so they didn't stand a chance and that the thing had multiple quirks.
At some point Kaminari had taken an injured Kirishima away from the fight so the three were on their own. The nomu lunged again and Aizawa prepared to throw the two kids out of the way and take the full brunt of the attack alone. The creature suddenly froze, literally. Ice encased the lower half of the Nomu's body, effectively preventing it from moving.
Shoto breathed out a cloud of cold air. "It looked like you could use a hand." he said as he looked over at the group. Shoto found himself unsurprised that Katsuki was there. More evidence to add to the pile to go through later. He was however surprised to see someone he didn't recognize at first. They seemed familiar, though Shoto couldn't place where exactly he'd seen them.
Not long after Todorioki's intervention the doors of the USJ burst open and All Might appeared. The tide of the battle turned quickly in the heroes' favor. All Might took no notice of the vigilante and told the four to get out of the way as he fought the nomu. Izuku barely managed to contain his excitement at seeing his idol up close as he warned him about the multiple quirks the nomu had. All Might gave him a thumbs up and a smile before turning to fight.
All Might and the Nomu exchanged countless blows with each other. In the end All Might was able to launch the Nomu out through the roof of the USJ. Izuku couldn't help but stare in wonder at the power of the number one hero. He turned away from the scene to two equally displeased faces. Aizawa was staring at him like a disappointed father and Katsuki was giving him a death glare. Izuku got Katsuki's silent message loud and clear; we will be talking about this later.
Katsuki turned away from Izuku after he was sure the message was received. "I'm gonna go make sure shitty hair and dunce face are ok or whatever." he said before walking off.
Aizawa watched him go before turning back to Izuku. "I'll ask this again now that we're out of immediate danger. How did you know something was wrong here? Our communications were jammed."
Izuku shuffled nervously. He now understood how strange it must be that he just showed up. He didn't want to risk outing Katsuki, but he didn't have any believable alibi prepared. He decided on a partial truth that Eraser would hopefully accept. "You know that small case we were gathering information for a couple nights ago?" Izuku asked. Eraser nodded. "Well it might have been bigger than we anticipated. I had a bad feeling about the field trip today so I came to make sure things were ok. As you know things were not ok." Izuku shrugged. Not the best explanation but it would have to do for now. He just hoped Eraser would buy it.
Eraser seemed to think it over for a minute. "Fine. I know you're not being entirely truthful with me but I guess I shouldn't expect you to." Eraser stood up slowly. "You should grab your partner and get out of here before the police and other pros arrive. I haven't not arrested you two for years for you to get caught here for doing something stupid and reckless."
Izuku quickly agreed and went off to a random zone. Unbeknownst to him Todoroki watched his retreating back with curiosity.
Shoto finally placed where he knew him from. During one of his late night internet browsing sessions, thanks to not wanting to sleep for fear of his father coming in, he'd come across a thread about a couple small time vigilante. They mostly took out would be thieves and other small villains, but this had gained them favor with the people that they saved.
What were their names again? Ah right, Rabbit and Wolf. Nobody knew what either of their quirks were either. They seemed to rely heavily on support items and their own skills. Shoto had seen that first-hand today. He looked over at his teacher. It seemed that Aizawa knew the vigilantes as well. Based on the fact he hadn't tried to arrest the vigilante it might be a personal relationship. Shoto narrowed his eyes. Could it be? He turned to walk up the stairs to rejoin his class. This would require looking into later.
Izuku managed to slip out right before the other heroes arrived. He made his way back to the alley he had originally changed in and climbed back up to the roof to retrieve his backpack. He changed back into his uniform before heading home. He stripped out of his uniform practically as soon as he closed the door behind him. He took a quick shower hissing in pain when he brushed against where he was hit by the nomu. He took care of his injuries after getting out and got dressed in more comfortable clothes. Now he would mentally prepare himself for when Katsuki would get home. He was not looking forward to that conversation.
A couple hours later Katsuki trudged through the door, completely ignoring Izuku and heading towards his room. Izuku wrung his hands nervously as he watched him walk off. He had attempted to cook dinner as a peace offering, even though Katsuki had effectively banned him from the kitchen, but was confused at being ignored.
Katsuki emerged from his room about ten minutes later and made a beeline for Izuku. "Kaccha-" Izuku started.
Katsuki put a hand over his mouth and glared. "No talking now Deku. Only listening, got it nerd?"
Izuku nodded his head. If anything he was more worried now because of how calm Katsuki was acting. He was prepared for the yelling but was left defenseless against Katsuki's unusual calm.
"What you did today was real fucking stupid. I need you to understand that. You could have just alerted the pros but you decided it would be a good idea to come yourself. You didn't know the situation. For all you knew nothing was even happening and the thing just malfunctioned. You could have walked right into a war zone. You could have-" Katsuki took a deep breath and his voice became barely audible. "-you could have fucking died Izuku."
Izuku looked down; guilt clear on his face. He knew that he shouldn't have gone. It was reckless and went completely against the promise he'd made Katsuki to always approach situations as carefully as possible. He'd been stupid; he'd be the first to admit that. Things could have gone so wrong today. Thinking back Izuku was terrified fighting the nomu. One slip up and it could have easily killed him.
"I can't-" Katsuki took a shuddering breath. "I can't lose you too Izuku."
Izuku's eyes welled up with tears. He'd always been an easy crier. He didn't try to stop them from falling. "I-i'm sorry Kacchan. I just… felt the same. I was scared that you wouldn't be ok…" Izuku pulled Katsuki into a hug. Normally the physical affection would be shrugged off but for now Katsuki returned the embrace.
"Just don't fucking do it again nerd." Katsuki refused to acknowledge the few rogue tears that fell from his eyes and Izuku said nothing either; probably too busy crying himself.
That night the two opted to sleep on their couch; taking comfort in each other's presence. Their dreams were plagued with visions of flames and feelings of regret and anger. Memories that they rather forget being dragged to the forefront of their minds.
The memories didn't come complete; they never did. A burning building. The interior of a police station. A dark building. A rooftop at night. Phantom pain from an intense brawl.
The two woke up exhausted the next morning. It took the two only one look to know they'd had similar nights. Thankfully neither had school that day so they could recover.
"Junk food and All Might documentaries?" Katsuki asked, already walking over to their collection of films.
"Sounds great Kacchan." Izuku said, joining him.