"Why are we here?" Katsuki demanded, looking around the Principal's office. Aizawa and Nedzu were present, but so were Izuku and Katsuki's parents. Ever since Inko was arrested and charged with aiding and abetting of child pornography, the Bakugous had been Izuku's caretakers on whatever weekends the boys went home together. Once winter break came around, Deku would stay with their family, too.

"We have some news to share," Nedzu said, sipping at his tea with his usual calculating smile. "Some of your classmates have come across a video that we all found to be concerning."

Katsuki stiffened, and so did Deku. A "video" when it came to them could mean a lot of things, but there was only one thing the both dreaded. Katsuki ground his jaw. "What kind of video?"

"Tokoyami, Kirishima, Jirou and Sero were all surfing around the dark web late last night," Aizawa began to explain. At the words "Dark Web," the last of Katsuki's hope plummeted down to hell. "They were searching different classmates' names to see what they could find, and when they found Midoriya's name…" he trailed off. "Well, they found one of Hisashi's first videos."

Deku looked at his lap, his fists tightening. Katsuki didn't hesitate to reach over and take his hand, squeezing it encouragingly. Their fledgling relationship hadn't been going on for very long, but Katsuki wasn't ashamed to admit that he was already head-over-heels in love with his childhood friend. They had been through so much together that at this point, it would be ridiculous not to be. Deku squeezed his hand back and took a deep breath.

"How much did they see?" He asked. Aizawa sighed.

"Enough that they were very upset on your behalf," he answered. To the adults in the room, he explained. "We were able to track down the source of the video and take the site down. There were… well, there were a lot of videos, ones that not only included Izuku, but also your own son."

"Izuku is our son," Masaru said confidently, reaching over to pat the boy's leg. Deku looked like he was on the verge of tears as he smiled up at Katsuki's father. "But thank you for alerting us."

"Does this mean it's over?" Mitsuki asked bluntly. "Are they all gone?"

"We aren't sure," Nedzu answered, putting his teacup back in its saucer. "The chances of the videos not being distributed, shared and even downloaded are slim to none. The chances of that being the only site that Hisashi posted to are even slimmer."

" Fuck ," Katsuki spat. This time, it was Deku who squeezed his hand. He closed his eyes and willed back his anger, knowing that his hand was beginning to burn hotter. Deku didn't let go. He opened his eyes again and looked at their teacher. "How are the extras doing?"

Aizawa seemed surprised that Katsuki was asking. "They're… managing. I think they want to speak to you both."

"Of course they do," Deku said, sounding tired. "Is that all you need the two of us for?"

"I suppose so," Nedzu said. "Although, Mr. and Mrs. Bakugou, we would like to keep the two of you to discuss a further plan of action."

"You boys go on ahead," Masaru told the two teenagers, grabbing his wife's hand. "We'll come and say goodbye before we leave campus."

"Fine," Katsuki shrugged. "C'mon Deku, we'd better go find them." The two left the room, walking through the main building until they broke out into the fresh morning air. It was the weekend, so luckily they didn't have any classes to get to later. Katsuki was emotionally drained enough from the interaction that morning.

"How much do you think they saw?" Deku asked quietly. They hadn't let go of each other's hands, and Katsuki could feel how clammy Deku's palm was. He was sure his own felt the same way.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Hopefully, not much. God , why couldn't they have been smarter? They knew there were videos of us out there!"

"I doubt they thought they would find any, Kacchan," Izuku said. "And I wouldn't be surprised if they blocked the memory from their minds. They aren't like us; they didn't grow up the way that we did."

"Fucked up?" Katsuki tried to joke, although it felt flat. "Yeah, whatever.

"Hey," Izuku said, stopping in his tracks. Heights Alliance was in sight now, but Katsuki stopped with him in the middle of the path. No one else was around. "It's going to be okay, Kacchan."

"How?" Katsuki asked hollowly. "How is any of this okay?"

Izuku took the hand laced with his own and kissed the top of it, his soft lips sending a shiver down Katsuki's spine. "Because it's us. We can get through anything together."

Katsuki's shoulders relaxed minutely. He knew that Deku was right. If the two of them could stop the world's greatest supervillain, then they could face anything. Even something as fucked up as this.

"Alright," he said. "Let's go."

(x)

"I just can't stop thinking about it," Jirou whispered, hugging her knees to her chest. The four of them had slept over in Tokoyami's room that night, none of them wanting to be alone. By now, she was sure that Bakugou and Midoriya had been alerted of the situation. It was a waiting game now. "He was- he was so little ." Silent tears streamed down her face. Midoriya couldn't have been older than two or three in the video they'd seen, and she couldn't get his teary face out of her mind, nor the wavering in his voice as he begged his father to stop. They hadn't seen much, but it had been enough. Enough that she would never forget it.

"I know," Kirishima agreed. "I know what you mean."

"The fact that anyone could do that to a child is sickening," Tokoyami said, petting Dark Shadow's head. The entity had been the most visibly upset, ruffling his feathers up every few minutes and constantly begging for attention. It soothed them all to pet him, which was a plus side. None of them had slept much the night before, anyway.

"Especially Midoriya," Sero mumbled. "He's always been so… so…"

"Kind," Jirou said.

"Courageous," Kirishima added.

"Blinding," Tokoyami agreed.

"All of those things," Sero nodded. "He's just so inherently good . The fact that anyone could want to ruin that is villainous."

"Yeah," Kyouka mumbled. "Yeah, it is."

After a few minutes of silence where they all stewed in their thoughts, there was a light knocking on the dorm room's door. The four of them looked at each other knowingly, already accepting their fate. Kyouka was pretty sure that Katsuki was going to barge in and begin yelling at them for being "fucking imbeciles" or something of the sort, so she braced herself. Sero was closest to the door, so he stood up and opened it without a word.

Sure enough, Bakugou and Midoriya stood outside, holding hands. Bakugou swept his eyes over the four of them, taking in the dark circles under their eyes and the tear tracks on their faces. Jirou was sure they looked as bad as they felt. "Let us in," Bakugou said. Sero stepped back and held the door open for them. Once they were inside, he closed and locked it so that they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Hi," Midoriya said shyly, biting his lower lip. "We um… we heard."

Jirou swallowed against the lump in her throat, his eyes filling with fresh tears. She refused to let them fall, knowing that Izuku would undoubtedly feel guilty, or something equally dumb. She simply nodded, not trusting her voice not to break.

"Yeah man," Kirishima said, his voice hoarse. "We didn't mean to find it, we just… we were messing around, you know?" He looked down at his hands in his lap, like he didn't know what to do with them.

"How much did you see?" Bakugou asked. He seemed neutral, although Kyouka knew better than to relax. For all they knew, he was a volcano about to explode.

"Not much," Sero said quickly.

"Tell us exactly," Midoriya demanded. None of them said anything for a moment, until finally Tokoyami spoke.

"The video… it began with your father setting up the camera-"

"Hisashi," Izuku corrected. "We don't call him by that title."

"Right," Tokoyami said. "It started with Hisashi setting up the camera, then...sitting on your bed. It was nighttime, you couldn't have been older than two."

"Go on," Katsuki urged when the boy fell quiet. Kirishima sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes. It had fallen out of its gel overnight.

"The video feed cut out before we could turn it off," he admitted. "It came back on a second later, and you were both… undressed. He was asking you to… do things. You were crying and asking him to stop."

Midoriya winced, frowning. Jirou hated to see the expression on his face. "We turned it off right after," she said.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," the green-eyed boy said quietly. "You shouldn't have had to."

"It was our own fault," Sero replied. "We should have known better."

"Stop," Bakugou snapped, his voice raising a bit. Kyouka braced herself again to get yelled at, but to her shock and surprise, he didn't berate them. "It was nobody's fault but that freak's . You- you couldn't have known, alright? So stop fucking beating yourselves up about it, it's making Deku feel bad."

"Kacchan!" the younger boy hissed, his face flushing. Jirou gave the boys a wobbly smile, feeling a tear trail down her cheek. She didn't bother to wipe it away.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Bakugou said quickly. "Just… just don't."

"Do you want to sit down?" Tokoyami asked, gesturing to the bed. He and Jirou were sitting cross-legged against the wall, while Sero sat on the ground, and Kirishima on Tokoyami's desk chair. There was plenty of free space wherever the boys may have wanted to go.

The two looked at each other for a moment, a silent communication between them. Eventually, Midoriya looked back at them with a tiny, sad smile. "Sure," he said. "Scoot over."

The six teenagers spent the rest of the day huddled together, a bond forming between them like none they had felt before. For the first time since the night before, Jirou didn't feel quite so bad.

It was a nice feeling.