As Kazue moved into middle school, Katsuki found himself feeling more relaxed with life. After the last time Dabi had visited, he hadn't come back. And Kazue seemed to be rather..calm about it. Katsuki had been reluctant to tell him, but once he did, he felt a small sense of relief. Kazue had been more confused about why they had felt the need to lie to him about it, but once his parents had told him that his real father was a villain, he seemed to understand. Seemed to, because he never brought it up again.
About two months after the raven had started middle school, Katsuki found himself in the kitchen making breakfast, same as usual, but when he turned from the stove to set some plates on the table, he was rather surprised to see Kazue already sitting at the table. Kazue always said hello in the morning, so finding him sitting there so silently was a little worrying.
"Good morning," he said as he set a plate down in front of him. "Did you not sleep well last night?"
"..I slept fine," he mumbled, hands folding together briefly in thanks before he started to eat.
"You sure darling? It's not like you to be so quiet."
He stroked a few comforting fingers through his hair before Akiko came darting into the kitchen, yelling an eager, "Good morning!" as she took her usual spot at the table. Katsuki was a little reluctant to turn his attention away from Kazue, who obviously wasn't himself, but other duties called. Plating up the rest of the food, he set the other four plates at the table, Eijirou walked in shortly after with a yawn, hair still wet from his morning shower.
Katsuki did have to go wake Hiroki up for his breakfast before they were all seated at the table. But by the time that the blond had managed to start eating, Kazue was already done and excusing himself.
Something really was not right. Katsuki wasn't even sure of what to do though. He knew that he had been stubborn and a brat when he was younger, but he had never gone through a mood shift like this. So would talking to his mother even be helpful? Perhaps Deku or Mina would be good to ask. They did have kids around that age. He just didn't understand what was going on. Kazue had seemed fine just yesterday..
Mina chewed ideally on her straw as she looked at the blond, Izuku actually drinking from his as Katsuki seemingly vented about his predicament with his oldest child. The pink woman was the first to speak up though. "And how long has this actually been going on for?"
Katsuki sighed and rubbed his temple. "About a week now..I don't get what happened. Did I do something?"
"Are you sure it's not something at school?" Izuku asked softly. "He is just starting out.."
Katsuki leaned back heavily in his seat as he polished off the last of his drink. "I don't know. He won't talk to me. And Eiji just says I'm imagining things. I'm not crazy. His attitude just turned on a dime and I want to know why. This isn't Kazue. You know that." They both nodded before Mina dropped her straw back into her cup.
"Then why don't you go talk with his teachers? Maybe they noticed? Or maybe it's just a home thing and he's perfectly fine at school?"
Katsuki groaned just at the thought that maybe it was something at home that was affecting his mood. He really didn't want that. But it wasn't like anything had changed at home. They hadn't moved, and they rarely argued (that meant that Eijirou would raise his voice in turn rather than Katsuki just ranting and raving). Wasn't he being a good parent? He had thought he had been doing enough. He had tried to help Kazue with his homework when he asked. God, how he wished that Kazue would just ramble about his day at school, like he used to. What had middle school done to him?
Finding little help from his two companions, he was still left wondering what on earth he could do to help his son. Should he make him talk to a counselor? That seemed a little forced, but he wasn't really sure what else to do. He still wasn't..perfectly empathetic enough to try and understand what could possibly be happening at middle school to ruin Kazue's mood.
After dinner that night, he had tried to talk to Kazue again, but to no avail. What was he to do? As he slumped into his usual spot on the couch, his husband moved to join him, looking rather worn out from the days work.
"You should go to bed," he chided quietly, reaching up to run his fingers through the male's still dyed hair.
"And you should come join me." Eijirou grinned tiredly as he let his head rest against his mate's shoulder. "You look rather worried still. Kazue's just going through a mood. He might not be liking the change in school yet. I know I didn't like when I started middle school."
Katsuki knew that his husband was trying to cheer him up, but it wasn't really working. He put a fake smile on and leaned down to kiss his temple. "Just go to bed already."
The red head whined softly before moving up and out of his spot to meander towards their bedroom. The blond was slow to follow behind, pausing outside of Kazue's closed door. He looked at the wood, letting his fingers briefly graze over it before continuing on his path.
In the middle of the night though, he woke up with a start, feeling the cold sweat on his forehead. He couldn't remember what he had been dreaming about, but it obviously wasn't very good. Katsuki glanced over to the clock that rested on his nightstand. 12:32. Just wonderful. He groaned and pushed back his bangs before carefully sliding out of bed as to not disturb his husband.
Yawning as he stepped down the hall, he paused again outside of Kazue's bedroom. But this time, he had purpose to stop.
He could hear a voice, but it wasn't Kazue's.
The blond pressed his ear up against the door, trying to make out what the voice was saying, but it was too muffled. Pulling back, he knocked at the door before quickly opening it. If someone were inside, there would have been no time to hide. But as he opened the door, there was noone. Kazue wasn't even sitting up in bed. He was just curled up with his back towards the door and the window open.
Katsuki stood for a few moments before finally calling out in a whisper to his son, but there was no response. Had he been hearing things? Was he really going that crazy? He really hoped not.
As he moved to shut the door, there had been no way for him to notice that Kazue was in fact still awake, eyes wide open and staring in horror at the wall just meer inches from his face.
Over the next week, Katsuki kept getting up late at night, and every time, he would hear that voice coming from Kazue's room. And when he asked, the raven would just say that he had probably been talking in his sleep. Katsuki didn't really believe that, but what could he do? He wasn't just going to call his son a liar without any solid proof of it. And of course, Eijirou was of no help, saying it was silly to be checking in on him in the middle of the night.
He knew that something wasn't right, and it was obviously only affecting Kazue, because the other two were completely fine. So he had went and talked with his teachers at the end of the week. Of course, they had said they assumed he was always like that, quiet, keeping to himself and little group of friends.
Katsuki thanked the teachers as he left. Standing outside of the school building, he glanced up at the roof, seeing the sun slowly sinking behind it. Same as it always had been when he was going to school. It looked peaceful, but Katsuki's inside were still twisting with guilt that he had possibly done something to affect his little boy. His footsteps were heavy as he walked home, but he put a smile back on his face as he opened the door, greeting his younger two with a hug.
Another week went by like this. Katsuki had never felt so..helpless. He wanted to help Kazue, to know what was really going on with him, because this wasn't the little boy who's picture was proudly hanging on the wall in the main hallway. It looked like him, but it just..wasn't his son. Katsuki also started noticing that Kazue was slowly coming home later in the evenings; of course though, when asked, he just shrugged his shoulders and would mutter something about it not being important.
He tried not to think about it, but soon, it was two hours after Kazue was supposed to be getting out a school. And he knew that Kazue hadn't joined any clubs, so what on earth was he doing? He looked over the clock again worried before his phone was going off. Akiko of course was hopping up off the couch to grab his phone off the table, running it into the kitchen to hand to him.
"It's auntie Deku, Momma!" She said, bouncing before the male took it from her hand.
"I can see, thank you darling." He stroked his fingers through her hair as he brought the phone up to his ear. It was a little strange to be getting a call from Izuku in the middle of the week. "Hello-"
"Kacchan."
Instant panic shot through his body, just from the sound of Izuku's voice. He'd never sensed so much fear from him before. "Izuku, what-?"
He was cut off again. "Kazue! At the school, you gotta hurry!"
Katsuki removed his fingers from his daughter's hair and moved to step out of the kitchen. "What happened?"
"It hasn't..Kacchan, you gotta," there was a large intake of breath, "-he's up on the roof.."
Then of course he heard his mate's phone going off. But, he couldn't even think straight enough to tell him. Katsuki jammed his feet into his shoes and bolted out the door. There was so much panic, so much fear coursing through his blood, it was a miracle he even made it to the school, because he wasn't really aware of what street he was on.
On the roof, where there had never been a chain put up. Kazue..on the roof. He felt sick. He could feel the burn running up his throat, but it never made it out.
There was already a small crowd standing at the base of the building by the time that he had gotten there. No police yet, but he could finally hear the siren. And he looked up, to the figure, very clearly standing on the edge of the roof. His little boy. Hair whipping back and forth in the wind.
But Deku was soon there, grasping his shoulders, panic and fear, not even in his hero costume. Why had he been here? His gaze wandered, easily spotting Shouto not that far away, on his phone, clutching tightly onto their daughter's hand.
Katsuki pushed the smaller omega aside, in a daze as he approached the building. He..he couldn't make out Kazue's face. What expression was he making. Why?
"Kazue!" He felt the sting in his eyes as he cried out his name desperately. There was a shift in his figure, but no response. Then the hand on his shoulder, and he glanced away to find his mate, panting, probably from running after him.
There was still so much fear running through him, even his mate's scent did nothing. "Kazue!" He stepped closer. "Kazue please, why? What happened? What did I do?" He needed to get up there, to pull him away, hug him..never let go because if he..He didn't even want to think about it.
A voice came on the wind, but it was so soft, he couldn't make it out. Fuck. He needed to get up there. The blond broke away from his mate's hold, dashing inside the building. His foot falls were so loud, he felt like he was going crazy as he raced up the stairs. Then the cries from outside. He could hear it from an open window, and he panicked again, skipping every two steps as he burst out onto the rooftop. There..was no Kazue.
Katsuki couldn't even get out a scream as he raced over to the ledge. There were little fingers poking over the top, he could see them. Once his hand met the ledge, he looked down to see him, his little boy, crying, feet scraping desperately against the side of the building.
"Kazue!" There was no hesitation to latch onto the boy's wrist, leaning over the edge to try and reach for his other hand.
The raven's gaze turned up to meet him. "Momma.." There wasn't fear in his voice. It was guilt.
"Baby, you have to give me your hand." He leaned further over, swiping for his free hand. He could see Eijirou, standing helplessly at the base of the building. Izuku seemed to be the one taking action to help, jumping up to one of the windows and trying to crawl his way up the building.
"Momma..I.." His fingers slipped off of the building, and Katsuki grunted as there was suddenly a lot more weight to hold.
"Kazue, baby, you need to give me your hand." He could feel his wrist slowly slipping out of his hand. He should be able to lift him. Why? Why was this so hard? Why was it so hard when this mattered the most? He tried so desperately to find the boy's flailing hand. Then, a brush of fingers. He leaned over just a smidge more and latched onto Kazue's hand.
There was a brief feeling a relief that washed over him as he started tugging him back upwards, up onto the ledge and then properly onto the roof. There was no hesitation to wrap his arms around the boy. He never wanted to let go again. "Kazue, darling.." He couldn't even get the question out. He worried that it was still somehow his fault, that he had somehow led his child to this.
The raven was trembling in his arms, clutching tightly onto the back of his shirt. "Momma..I..I'm sorry..I..I can't..he..I'm sorry." Katsuki could feel the growing wetness against his shoulder.
The blond pulled him back to look at him. "Kazue..you..you gotta tell me why."
His eyes were so watery, blue hues shining in the evening glow. "Momma..he..he said he'd hurt you..and daddy. I couldn't..I can't.."
"Who said that Kazue?"
"..Dabi..He would stand outside..my window. I'm sorry.."
Katsuki didn't hesitate to pull the boy back against his chest, stroking through his hair. "Nothing is gonna happen to us baby. What else did he say? Why, this?"
Kazue shifted in his arms. "He said..I should be a villain..That because I'm his son I should go join him. But I..I couldn't ever respond. So he would just tell me things..and it was so scary.."
"Oh, Kazue, you should have just talked to us. I was so worried about you darling, you know I was." He'd been doing nothing but asking how things were going, shouldn't that have been obvious?
"But momma..he said..you don't like me..Cause I'm a villian's kid.."
Katsuki tightened his arms around him. "Kazue, you could be a monster for all I care and I would still love you. You're my son, no matter what anyone else says, do you understand?" He could feel Kazue's head nodding. He slowly slumped onto the ground, hearing the voices of other people starting to surround them; but he didn't care. All he was worried about was keeping Kazue close until his body stopped shaking. And it didn't for a long time.
He hated having to talk with the police, but he knew it had to happen, his hand latched quite tightly onto Kazue's. When they were finally able to return home, he let Kazue sleep in their bed. Even if he was in middle school, Katsuki didn't want to just leave him in his room by himself again. The blond did his best to try and help things get back to normal, letting Kazue sleep in their room for as long as he wanted.
When the boy did finally return to his room, Katsuki woke up part way through the night, leaning outside of Kazue's door just to make sure he wasn't hearing any voices again. But there never was any. Katsuki had thought that all that bad things had finally passed them over. He wanted it to be over.
It was almost a month after that that Katsuki was out doing his usually grocery shopping, but as he turned the block to get to their house, he had to pause at the familiar figure that stood in front of him. His arms locked up tight and he growled.
"Woah, Katsuki, no need to get excited, I'm not looking for a fight." Dabi calmly stuffed his hands into his pockets, not making any move to come closer.
"Get the hell out of here. Don't you have something else to do other than torment people?"
"Not really much I can do blondie. I'm a villain, remember? No one wants to hire me even if I tried."
"That's not my fault." He was blocking the gate, he couldn't make it inside.
"Didn't say it was. I chose this." Dabi shifted his weight to his other foot. "And just so you know, I wasn't trying to make Kazue hurt himself. That's why I'm leaving him be. He's my kid too. But you can't keep me from talking to him when he gets older."
Katsuki's hands tightened around the grocery bags. "You can't make him into a villain." He started to walk forward, determined to get inside.
Right when he was shouldering the male out of the way, he felt the fingers in his hair. But they weren't harsh, just..gently brushing through it for a moment. "Right. Got two heroes living in the house. Shouldn't have thought any different. But even if I don't make him into a villain, I will see him." The fingers were gone and Katsuki watched as he walked away. He should have run after him, tackle him, get him under arrest, but he just stood frozen at the gate before those raven black locks were disappearing around the corner.