They settled into a routine quickly.

They'd come back from school, eat a delicious dinner made by Midoriya-san, go to Midoriya-kun's room and do their homework together, then they'd go out and walk around the block just talking while the green haired boy showed him different hang out spots and various places. Then they'd come back home, play video games or watch tv and go to sleep.

The routine was comforting.

Until Midoriya-kun had to go to the library to give back a book, and Hitoshi thought it would be a great idea to wait for him outside the school.

He was rapidly changing his opinion as Bakugou cornered him outside the building.

"Who the fuck are you?" he loudly demanded, and his words were underlined with explosions. His hands sparked with them, and Hitoshi was beginning to realise he didn't care at all about using his quirk in public.

Welp. Time to speak.

"What do you mean? I was already introduced to you," he stated carefully.

"No. Who the fuck are you? Deku clings to you like a lifeline, none of the teachers speak to you, no one told us you'd be coming and I know for a fact that Auntie Inko doesn't have an extended family!" he screamed, letting off a few explosions way too close to his face for Hitoshi's liking.

Still, he wanted to laugh. Auntie Inko? Really? He bullied her son but still called her an auntie. Oh the irony…

"I don't have anything to say to you," he replied coldly. "My name is Shinsou Hitoshi and I'm Midoriya's family now. That's all."

"You said 'now' this time," Bakugou pointed out smugly.

"Yes. And?" Hitoshi wouldn't give him the satisfaction of cracking him.

They stood there for a moment, just holding each other's gazes unwavering.

And then Midoriya-kun appeared and Hitoshi mentally hissed at what he knew would be the situation escalating. He's only seen Bakugou interact with Midoriya-kun one time, but it was enough to know what would happen.

"Shinsou-kun—" Whatever he was about to say was instantly cut off by the sound of explosions.

"I. Want. Answers." Bakugou seethed. "Now."

Hitoshi kept stubbornly silent, while Midoriya-kun trembled without speaking a word.

That was a wrong move.

Bakugou lunged forward and pinned Midoriya-kun to the wall, his hand still sparking where he held him against the surface.

"What are you doing!?" Hitoshi shouted in surprise. "Are you crazy!? Let him go!" It was at the moments like this that he wished he could use his quirk without legal repercussions. Bakugou was doing exactly that, but experience told him if they both used their quirks without proof, only one of them would end up being punished. And it wouldn't be Bakugou.

"Who is he!? I don't buy your bullshit!" He shook Midoriya by his shoulders violently.

"Why are you so obsessed with this anyway?" Hitoshi tried to somehow distract him or to at least get an answer. Maybe he could— No, he would stay in this family. He wouldn't get in trouble. He wouldn't use his quirk, no matter how much he wanted to.

"He's— He's fostered," Midoriya suddenly spluttered out. "My mom fosters him."

For some reason Hitoshi's shoulders fell. He felt… he didn't quite know what he felt, but it wasn't a pretty emotion. It was an ugly and jagged thing and it threatened to overflow him until it went straight through his eyes. But no, he wouldn't cry. He wouldn't. There was no reason. There was no reason to keep his status a secret either, yet he did. Uselessly. It would've come up at some point anyway.

Bakugou turned towards him slowly, with a wolfish smile.

"Oh? Are you an orphan?" he asked with a slight giggle in his voice. "Or maybe your parents didn't want you?"

Hitoshi grabbed him with a steel grip and something in him just sparked. Anger, fury, rage, whatever you name it, it bubbled inside him violently telling him to grab, to tear down, to scratch, to make Bakugou small and insignificant and—

Bakugou glowed white, and Hitoshi stepped back, surprised. The blonde bitch was equally startled and let go of Midoriya-kun. Bakugou stopped glowing and immediately turned his ire on Hitoshi.

"You fucker! Did you just try to fuse with me? What the fuck!?" He was fuming, but somehow subdued. As if he felt some of the feelings Hitoshi harboured towards him.

Hitoshi… was mostly confused but through the haze of it another emotion came to rise. He was horrified. With himself.

Because that wasn't a fusion attempt.

He just almost force-fused Bakugou.

Without realising what he was doing.

Oh Kami what the fuck.

"Go home, Bakugou." He heard himself say through the haze of the horrible terrible realisation. "And don't touch either of us again."

"Fuck you, creep!" Bakugou said, but didn't try anything else and petulantly went away.

Hitoshi waited until he was gone, before collapsing near a wall and curling into a ball, shaking uncontrollably. And then the tears came. and he sobbed his heart out.

God, he was horrible. He just tried to force-fuse someone! That was a crime for a reason. What the fuck? He didn't mean to. He didn't. But he did do it and oh Kami he was so lucky it didn't come to fruition. Bakugou would sue the fuck outta him. Akiyama-san would be so disappointed. Midoriya-san would be so disappointed. She'd throw him away. Midoriya-kun would think of him as a monster and— Kami. He was already going to think of him as a monster. Bakugou might not have been in a position to see what exactly happened, but Midoriya-kun was, and he certainly was bright enough to piece what happened. What if he tells his mom? Oh Kami. He was so done. So done.

Something touched him on his crossed arms, and that made him stop pathetically whining to himself and raise his head up a little instead. Midoriya-kun was gently touching him with a worried expression on his face. He could see no recoil, no disgust, not a single negative emotion. Just worry.

"Are you alright, Shinsou-kun?"

Hitoshi's body shook as he cried, and he couldn't seem to control himself. He didn't want to cry in front of Midoriya-kun like that, but he literally couldn't stop. "I'm sorry," he managed to choke out between sobs. "I'm sorry." He didn't even know what he was apologising for. For crying, for being a monster in human skin… Maybe those people were right, maybe he was a villain after all. Who else would force-fuse someone?

"No, no, Shinsou-kun, don't cry, you… You saved me." That made him stop sobbing in favour of rapidly sucking in his breath. What was he talking about? "You saved me from Kacchan. You stood up for me, twice now," he continued talking with utter conviction. "No one has ever, ever done that for me."

"I almost— I almost force-fused him," he pointed out the elephant in the room.

"But you didn't. And you disrupted him enough that he didn't try to blast off my face, that would be hard to hide from mom, believe me." That made the tears stop instantly. Because oh right, he wasn't the one pinned to the wall by a freaking maniac with bombs for hands.

"Oh Kami, why am I crying when you're— Are you hurt?" He reached out towards the crook of Midoriya-kun's neck and found burns on his uniform.

"Not much, are you feeling better?" Hitoshi almost replied, before narrowing his eyes.

"You're deflecting."

Midoriya-kun smiled wolfishly. "Maybe."

That made him snort. He curled into a ball again, but this time from laughter.

"Gods, we're pathetic."

"We are," Midoriya-kun agreed with him. "Let's go home, shall we?"

At their house (their house. what nice wording. he didn't lose it. yet.) Midoriya-kun made quick work of salvaging his uniform and patching it up while Hitoshi distracted Midoriya-san. It was easy. She seemed to smile each time she saw him talk, probably informed about his history. It made him feel a bit of unease, but he was slowly getting used to it.

They ate dinner, did their homework… but in the evening instead of their ritual of watching hero news and playing video games, Midoriya-kun ushered him to his room upon making sure that his mom was busy with something.

"I was thinking. About what happened today," he said and Hitoshi felt cold sweat drip down his back.

Clearly this was the moment where Midoriya-kun came to his senses, told him he's a villain and a fool, and went to tell his mom.

"What about it?" he choked out, praying he was wrong.

"Clearly you didn't want to actually force-fuse Kacchan. You wouldn't have a breakdown afterwards. So it happened involuntarily, right?"

…Hitoshi had no idea where this was going now.

"Right…"

"So that means… to avoid doing it again, you should train!" …The dots were not connecting in his head.

"Train what?"

"Force-fusing!"

.

.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"