Chapter 4: Surprises

Cadaver's fighters were always scheduled for the first fight of the night.

A more recent development that only started after Izuku ascended to the position of stakeholder was that Cadaver's fights only happened on nights that the healer was there.

Cadaver still brings it up when he's particularly mad at Izuku; narrowing his fight slots like that was not very cash money of him, per Cadaver. It was very cash money of him if you'd ask Izuku, and he refused to apologize for adding to the greater good. When he made the suggestion during a meeting, the stakeholders had looked at Izuku with frozen, incredulous expressions on their faces before one slapped himself on the forehead and muttered to himself about how one of them should have definitely thought of that years ago, so no matter how much Cadaver whined and promised to not go ham on his opponent after they were knocked unconscious (read: lied through his damn teeth), there was no changing their minds.

It got his opponents back into the ring sooner with less down time for healing when it was more readily available right after matches, had newer people feeling more confident going against Cadaver in the first place when there was less of a chance of them dying when they could be carted off of the stage and right to the healer after a match (which had the added bonus of putting on a good show for the spectators), and just overall put more money in the house's pocket, even after the raise they had to give to the healer for the trouble.

Nights that Cadaver was scheduled to fight were also always packed. That night was no different, especially because the stakeholder who doubled as a fighter was also on the schedule to fight one of the newer fighters.

Crowds were guaranteed to see a brutal fight with Cadaver and Viper on the roster, even if they weren't against each other, and even if that fight only lasted 30 seconds. The audience was always in a great mood for the rest of the night, too, flying high off the feeling of adrenaline from that first fight where Cadaver just always gives his best and then just doesn't stop.

The crowd had the same expectant energy when the night came for Cadaver to fight Pitbull.

The crowd was more bloodthirsty than usual, still seething with rage as Jupiter's most loyal fans pressed against the fence surrounding the fighting area, already shouting for Pitbull's downfall before the fighters were even visible, still backstage, preparing themselves for their fight.

Izuku was right against the fence, too, not having to worry about scaring either of the fighters due to his stakeholder status and wanting to witness this fight up close. Ochako was right next to him, seemingly just as bloodthirsty as the crowd.

"Give 'em hell, Cadaver!" she screamed, joining in the general chaos of the masses.

"You know he can't hear you from backstage way out here, right?" Izuku asked, just to be a dick.

Ochako shot him a glare. "It's the general spirit of support, Izuku," she huffed, indignant. "You could stand a little spirit instead of standing there all gloomy."

"I appreciate your feedback," Izuku said, nodding in thought. He then turned toward the fence, cupped his hands around his mouth in hopes that his voice might carry further than anyone else's, even if it might not carry the whole way backstage, and yelled, "Let's go, Kacchan! Kick Cadaver's ass! Be that 10%!"

Ochako elbowed him in the ribs. "What the fuck?" she hissed. "Whose side are you on?"

Izuku shrugged. "I love a good underdog."

Touya came up behind them, elbowing through the crowd, snickering as he picked up the tail-end of their conversation.

"I bet you love to be under a good underdog, too," he interjected as he found his place on the opposite side of Izuku from Ochako.

That earned him two blank stares. Ochako's because did Touya not see that Katsuki was a terrible person and Izuku would never lower himself to that standard? Izuku's because that was a terrible phrase, and he told him so, causing Touya to slug him in the arm.

"Oi!" Izuku complained, rubbing his shoulder. "Hands off the merchandise! I'm slotted to fight today, too!"

"Aw, poor baby," Touya drawled with fake remorse in his voice as he faux fretted over Izuku's shoulder. "Scared to go against Fugue, who was beaten by Cadaver after you beat Cadaver last time, you big baby?"

"Shut up," Izuku pouted. "You know as well as I do how fast a fight can turn. Just because I miraculously beat Cadaver and Cadaver beat Fugue doesn't mean that I'll be a good matchup against Fugue myself."

And Touya should know that as well as anyone, being one of the ones who stood a chance against Cadaver, but often losing to Viper, even as Viper more often than not lost to Cadaver. Izuku was about to mention this and deal a devastating blow about how Touya can't remember such vital information because of all of the head trauma he'd been dealt, but the fighters were being announced, and that took precedence.

When Pitbull was announced, much to the crowd's dismay if the booing and jeering could be any indication, Izuku pressed himself up against the fence to see better.

Touya laughed. "You definitely want to hit that." Izuku shot him a glare, which was weird, because Touya was expecting a blush. Touya lit up with malicious understanding. "Unless you already have been hitting that."

There was the blush that spread over Izuku's freckled cheeks. Oh, I've done it now, Touya thought.

Ochako gasped, scandalized. "You have not!" she screeched, even as the horror of the probability of the truth settled over her. "Tell me that you haven't!"

Izuku attempted to stutter out some type of response, but that was answer enough in itself. Ochako groaned, slamming her face forward into her palm.

While Cadaver was being announced and was taking the stage, Ochako punched Izuku on the other arm.

"Ow! Hey!" Izuku complained, rubbing his other arm, now. "I'm serious, guys! I do have a fight later, you know!"

When the bell rang to announce the start of the fight, it was quick and brutal, both fighters not hesitating to go all in, knowing that if they hesitated, they would allow their opponent to have the upper hand.

They were pretty evenly matched and had made it to the third round, both fighters breathing heavily and sporting the early signs of bruising, redness and swelling starting where the hardest and most frequent hits had happened scattered about their sweating bodies.

"That was close," taunted Cadaver over the noise of the spectators as he wiped sweat from his forehead before it could reach his eyes.

Pitbull did have a nasty right hook. If it had connected, Cadaver was pretty sure he would have been unconscious, and Pitbull would have won that fight. Instead of Cadaver's temple taking the hit, though, he moved and threw up his arm in a block in time. Still smarted like a bitch, his left arm, but better than being knocked out on the floor, and it gave him another chance to give it back to Pitbull tenfold.

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," Pitbull muttered, his hand briefly leaving the defensive position in front of his face to tap the back of his ear.

And didn't that look and sound familiar. Uncannily so. So much so that Cadaver could almost picture unruly green hair and freckles on the figure in front of him at the ease of the movement as the man tapped behind his ear so habitually as he said a line so familiar.

The round continued, but Cadaver had a new purpose for winning.

When Pitbull finally dropped to the ground, Cadaver wondered if the referees were a little biased or if the adrenaline made him feel like time slowed down because he felt like he had more time with Pitbull than he did with other fighters once they fell unconscious.

This time was different, though.

For the first time since he started fighting in the Pit, Hitoshi's instincts didn't tell him to make sure the fucker was down for good and stayed down.

No.

Hitoshi's instincts told him that he had to find out if what he believed to be impossible might somehow be true.

He leaped onto Pitbull's body and he could feel the heat coming off of Pitbull's unconscious form under him just as he could feel the confusion wafting off of the crowd around him, hear their voices shifting from excitement to bafflement at why Cadaver is not raining down more punches to Pitbull's lax face, but instead turning his head to left, hastily brushing his hair away from his ear, and when he didn't find what he was looking for, turning his head to the right and repeating the process.

Maybe the referees thought that Cadaver was getting ready to kill this man by snapping his neck or something because he was hauled off by both referees, each taking an arm and lifting him up and away, but he had already seen what he had needed to see.

It was right there behind Katsuki's right ear, hidden by his spiky, ash blond hair: A tattoo in the shape of a grenade.

"You didn't get healed, yet?" Izuku asked Katsuki in the back room that was assigned to Katsuki before his fight. "I went to check with Asane and you weren't back there."

"I think Corpse knows about us. Or at least suspects," Katsuki said. "I don't know if that'll mess things up for you here."

"It doesn't matter," Izuku waved off. "Ochako and Touya figured it out, too."

"What?" Katsuki asked with a cocky grin. "How'd they figure it out?"

"Touya made a smart comment about me "hitting" that, and I turned into a tomato," Izuku said as Hitoshi entered the room unannounced behind him.

"Could have spun it around to "hitting that" in the ring," Katsuki said.

Izuku groaned, throwing his head back in utter despair. "Why didn't I think of that?!"

"Your blush would have given you away anyway, though." Katsuki reached out to brush his thumb along his freckled cheek in thought and hummed. "More like a strawberry, I think, than a tomato." Izuku blushed, as if on command, and Katsuki nodded, eyes stormy. "Definitely a strawberry."

"Get a room," Hitoshi complained. "What am I missing here?" he mused as if to himself.

"We have a room, Eye Bags! This room is assigned to me!" Katsuki barked back.

His eyes glazed over as Hitoshi's quirk took hold.

"Honestly, Izuku. What do you see in this guy?" Hitoshi asked.

"Mean, Hitoshi," Izuku pouted, looking between the two and sighing in defeat. "It's complicated."

"Well if that isn't the understatement of the century," Hitoshi complained. "Go to Asane to get healed," he commanded Katsuki. When Katsuki was gone, he turned to Izuku expectantly. "Explain it to me. Uncomplicate it."

"Okay, so, in middle school, the teacher wasn't grading my work fairly, but we noticed that they would when the other kids would pick on me, like it was some kind of fucked up balancing act or something," Izuku said, diving right into it. "It was my idea that Katsuki should act like my bully to keep the other kids off our backs. The teachers didn't like us being friends, either. It would be like an undercover mission or something where we would be friends outside of school. He said no at first, but when my grades kept going down and it was clear that we wouldn't be able to get into UA together, I guess he changed his mind for that reason instead of the original reason. But then just the regular bullying wasn't enough."

"He turned it physical," Hitoshi said, a grimace on his face.

"It was almost a relief when that happened," Izuku admitted. "It was easier than hearing the things that I knew were lies, but when you hear them so regularly… it's hard, you know?"

Hitoshi nodded. He knew.

"Any time we plateaued, though, the teacher would revert back to dropping my grades, so it kept amplifying. But we were always on the same page, and I think it hurt him a lot more than it ever hurt me."

Hitoshi snorted, not convinced. "How do you figure?"

"Our parents found out," Izuku said, walking across the room and sitting down at the provided table, as if the memory was too heavy to talk about while remaining standing.

"Oh," Hitoshi said, sitting down across from Izuku.

"That's why it took so long for him to find me again. He told me that my mom wouldn't tell him where I was. They were intentionally keeping us apart. They wouldn't listen to our explanations, thinking I was just making excuses. He was really worried when I never showed up at UA. He said the only way he knew I was alive was because my mom was always just mad whenever he asked her about me and didn't break down into tears or anything," Izuku explained, tracing random patterns onto the top of the table with his fingertips. "It really wasn't fair to him to shoulder that blame, but no matter how many times I tried to explain, even after it all cooled down, no one believed that he did it all for me. I think the thing that pissed him off the most, though, is that I didn't even end up going to UA anyway."

"But the name?" Hitoshi inquired. "Deku?"

"When it started, I'm sure it reminded Kacchan of his own failures more than it was even meant to hurt me, but now I think it's just habit. When we were learning how to read, he read my name wrong before, so to use that specifically–he really made it hard on himself on purpose, I think," Izuku said.

Hitoshi just sighed. "Out of everyone that's been dying to get into your pants, and you hold out for that guy?"

Izuku just shrugged. "It's always been Kacchan."

"Was that your quirk?" Katsuki asked, coming back into the room, the evidence of healing already showing around the worst of the bruises. "Holy hell, Mind Fuck. What the fuck? First Deku doesn't go to UA, and you weren't at UA, either? Where the fuck were you? Huh?"

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Izuku said.

"You got this in one of your notebooks?" Katsuki asked, gesturing to Hitoshi.

"Yeah, of course."

"Show me later?"

In lieu of a verbal answer, Izuku stood from his chair, knocking it over in his haste to get to Katsuki, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him into a kiss.

"Gross," Hitoshi said. "Get a room."

Katsuki flipped him off without removing his lips from Izuku's.

With the revelation that Izuku held no grudge (and, in fact, the opposite was true), Katsuki was hesitantly welcomed among the group as they waited for Izuku's fight with Fugue where they eventually fell into easy conversation on semi-safe topics.

"Dabi," Katsuki greeted when he immediately recognized who "Touya" was.

"I go by Touya, now," he said. "Or Phoenix in the ring."

"You're a fighter," Katsuki said. "Not a villain anymore."

"Not since the League broke up," Touya said, shrugging. "Maybe I'm just a bad luck charm."

"So, you wouldn't try kidnapping your favorite hero again, would you?" Katsuki asked, just to be sure.

"What do you mean?" Touya asked. "I've never kidnapped Hawks before."

Katsuki snorted, leaning forward onto the fence, that being the only outward sign of fatigue. "Did I find the secret Hawks fan club or what?" He gestured distinctly toward Ochako. "If he could take his wings off, I might try to convince him to come around and give this place a shot. Might even bribe the coordinators so I could take my shot at him."

"You'd fight him?" Touya mused.

"I like Hawks," Katsuki admitted. "But hell yeah, I'd fight him in a heartbeat given the opportunity. See if I could come out on top."

"Why is Hawks your favorite?" Touya asked Ochako.

"He's hot," Ochako said, making Katsuki laugh. "Besides, Izuku makes a compelling argument," Ochako continued, making Katsuki's laughter die out as he paid careful attention to what she said. "Get him started on hero rankings and quirk theory, and he can just go on and on about Hawks, and what he says makes sense. He's Izuku's favorite, too."

"No, he's not," Touya said easily.

Ochako whipped around to look at Touya. "What do you mean? Have you heard him talk about Hawks before? He just goes on and on!"

"But have you asked him who his favorite hero is?" Touya asked.

Ochako opened her mouth, then closed it, stumped.

"It's All Might, isn't it?" Katsuki guessed. "He wouldn't care if anyone said he didn't count because he's retired."

Touya shook his head, smiling like a cat that got the canary. Katsuki would never admit it, but it made him a little nervous. All Might was always proclaimed as their favorite hero growing up, and he felt a sense of calm in the idea of All Might still being Izuku's proclaimed favorite hero. If it wasn't All Might, Katsuki didn't know how he would feel, how he could compete, because he had the overwhelming feeling that he wanted it to be him.

"If you did ask, he wouldn't answer straight out. He would go into the same rant about hero ratings and how Endeavor is number one even though he doesn't have a very likable personality and how Hawks creeps closer to that number one spot every year, which also makes sense because of his versatile quirk. Then you get the quirk theory lecture," Touya said. "But once he's finished with that, he starts going on about up-and-coming heroes, recent graduates that are sure to fly through the ranks at rates that have never been seen before. The hero he talks about the most when he gets to that point is Dynamight."

Katsuki looked taken aback. "What? Me?" Would it hurt him to allow himself to hope?

"Him?!" Ochako echoed the sentiment.

"Unless there's another Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight in Japan that I should be aware of," Touya said. "He talks about Dynamight's quirk, his morals and values that align so well with heroics, his top-tier schooling at UA, his support system to fall back on during hard times," Touya listed on his fingers. "Everything that adds up to predict that he is going to fly through the rankings and become the youngest number one hero that Japan has ever seen, potentially trading the spot back and forth with Hawks on a yearly basis, depending on who had the biggest villain takedown of the year, once he manages to break into the top ten and gathers a lot more attention."

Katsuki looked through the fence as Viper was announced and the crowd cheered. Izuku walked through, waving to the crowd like he was on a float at a parade and not about to fight a stranger for money in front of a bunch of onlookers thirsting for blood.

"I'd bet money on Izuku's favorite hero being you," Touya said.

Katsuki locked eyes with Viper for just a moment as he made his way around the ring, soaking in all the positive attention now that he never got in middle school. Katsuki wanted to ask someone to use their quirk on him to shrink his arms down enough to fit through the chain link fence and to stretch far enough to reach the nerd so he could pull him in close and question the fuck out of him. He didn't care how ridiculous he would look with his long, skinny arms chasing the nerd around the ring, and he only slightly cared that Izuku would think of a better way to be united once again if their positions were switched; he probably knew the quirks of at least half of this crowd clocked by now and could find someone to melt the fence or someone to help him just phase right through it or some shit.

Before Katsuki knew it, Fugue was also announced (and also received cheers, much to Katsuki's chagrin. Why does that guy who is also new receive cheers when he loses and Katsuki receive boos and jeers when he wins his first match? This crowd was a bunch of extras who just couldn't be pleased), and the fight began.

It was a longer match than Fugue's first fight with Cadaver, but Fugue didn't fare much better, and Katsuki was entranced by the way Viper moved as he fought. "Viper" truly was an appropriate name for the nerd with the way that he ducked and weaved and blocked only to wait and strike at just the right time when he knew his hits would land with power and precision.

During the second round, when Fugue got behind Viper, Katsuki thought that he might see Viper take an actual brutal hit during this fight, maybe not get back up again, like in middle school, but then he saw an actual, wide, feral smile on Viper's face, and Viper's body twisted as he threw his whole body into the move as he smashed his elbow across Fugue's cheekbone. Katsuki even winced for Fugue for that one.

Soon after that, Fugue was unconscious on the floor and Viper was declared the winner.

Katsuki went looking for Izuku and only caught him on the way out of the healer's.

"Oh, look at you," he said, voice full of fondness as he stopped in his hurried tracks to gently caress the bruised but healing skin on Katsuki's jaw. "You look just like I did when I first faced Cadaver. You remember that, right? You were so worried."

Katsuki grunted, mind whirring with this new information that didn't quite make sense. Instead of responding, he asked, "where are you going?"

"Stakeholder meeting," Izuku said, practically pouting. "I'm running a little late, but they'll be pleased that I won! See you later, Kacchan!"

That left Katsuki standing in the hallway outside the nondescript door of the healer's quarters, wondering if Izuku just had a random meeting with all the stakeholders or if he was one of the stakeholders himself. He made a mental note to ask him later as he pushed open the door to be greeted by Asane, inviting him to take a seat as they were taking care of Fugue's injuries.

"Good job out there," Nato, one of the stakeholders, said, as he welcomed Izuku into the meeting room, slapping Izuku on the shoulder and laughing when Izuku winced. "I bet on you, you know?"

"You always do, Nato," Izuku said. "Stakeholder camaraderie or something, right?"

"That's right!" Nato confirmed, taking one of the seats at the large, round table. "Now that everyone's here, we can begin!"

"Urasugi," Izuku greeted, seemingly ignoring the initiation of the meeting. "You're looking great. Did you do something new with your hair?"

The stakeholder in charge of the referees, and now the healer now that the Pit employed one, sighed.

"Asane wants another raise, don't they?" Urasugi asked, rolling her eyes.

"They have been working extra hard," Izuku said, going to bat for the Pit's healer. "And with Pitbull now added to the ranks, it's well-deserved."

Urasugi perked up at that. "How has that been?"

"Getting on everyone's bad side, as to be expected," Izuku answered with a half-shrug. He looked between Nato and Urasugi. "What do you say, then? Can we move things around in the budget? Offer a raise for what they have to put up with?"

Urasugi and Nato shared a charged glance and with a slight nod of permission on Nato's end, Urasugi sighed heavily again. "What were you saying about my hair, Midoriya? I really wasn't sure if it suited me or not."

Izuku beamed. "It definitely does!"

"And do you see how hazy it is in here?" she continued, patting down her hair anxiously. "I'm hoping that this new style will help me not get all puffed up when we have these humid, muggy nights."

Once the details of Asane's hefty raise were detailed and signed off on, the next item up for discussion was brought up and immediately brought down the mood of the room.

"I scoured every piece of the security footage since Eraserhead was first spotted and have only found him a few more times, and just a few glimpses on the cameras. He seems to know where the cameras are placed and moves quickly through those areas when it cannot be avoided," Igamo debriefed, jumping right in and capturing everyone's attention as easily as Eraserhead captured villains with his scarf.

"Have our security cameras been compromised at all?" Sumiya asked. "I could increase security until you get that straightened out if that's the case."

"No," Igamo said, shaking his head and running a frustrated hand through his hair. "He's just good at what he does, but there's no evidence of anything being compromised in any way or even any attempts at hacking to see what we see. He's just coming in blind and going off of what cameras he knows are there by sight, it seems like."

"Should we be investing in some hidden cameras right now, then?" Sumiya asked.

Nato hummed. "I don't know if that's necessary. We know he's around, but he hasn't made any moves. He just comes and watches the fights, yes?"

The stakeholders offered hesitant nods.

"Then for now, he's just a general admission participant. I mean, if Hamato can let Dynamight be a fighter, why can't we let Eraserhead be an observer?"

"I don't like it," Hamato offered, rocking back and throwing a leg over the arm of the chair to make herself more comfortable. "I didn't like Dynamight coming in either, but I wasn't about to decline someone who could bring in a lot of people once word gets around if he lasts long enough. You should see the way he gets the blood boiling in the fighters and observers alike. It's like something I've never seen before. Everyone hates the guy."

"Better recruiting pro heroes than middle school kids," Izuku said.

Hamato snorted. "When are you going to let that go, Midoriya? I got a stakeholder out of you and a spitfire out of Jupiter, so I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I did great."

"Cadaver–" Izuku started.

"-is fucking awesome as well! Everyone loves him!" Hamato stated, twirling in her chair.

"-was a foster kid that his foster father threw to the wolves to bring in some extra cash!" Izuku finished. "And you were fully aware of that fact when you threw him into the ring!"

"Yeah," Hamato said, continuing to twirl in her chair, "but we lied to his foster father about how much the winnings were and gave Cadaver his own money."

"Do you not understand how risky that was?" Izuku snarled. "How much trouble he would have gotten into if he wouldn't have hidden it well enough? That was more of a burden than a help!"

"We are not having this argument again." Nato rubbed at his eyes like he was in a room full of toddlers. "Besides, with you here, Midoriya, you have access to oversee recruitment parameters so that middle schoolers aren't actively sought again."

Izuku scrunched his face in displeasure because why should that need oversight in the first place but didn't press the issue further. Hamato groaned out a "no fun" and booed Izuku and Nato from across the table.

"So, until Eraserhead shows his hand about why he's here, we just let him be?" Sumiya clarified.

"I think that's our best course of action," Nato agreed. "All in favor?"

After a moment, everyone's hands eventually went up.

"Good," Nato said.

"Now onto the kill-fight that I'm organizing," Hamato said.

Izuku turned his head to look at her straight-on. "What kill-fight? I haven't heard anything about a kill-fight."

"Because you're one of the participants, darling," Hamato drawled, clearly excited by the dramatics.

Izuku's blood felt like it froze in his veins.

"What?" he managed.

"Viper versus Pitbull. The stakeholder versus the most hated fighter in the Pit's history. It's going to be great!" Hamato said, her voice getting progressively louder and faster in her excitement.

"When was this decided?" Izuku asked, guarded eyes looking around the room at faces that seemed guiltier the more he looked at them.

"The last meeting," Hamato answered. Was everyone else mute with the horrific realization of what they were demanding he do? "We have heard the rumors about how you two don't get along–"

"We get along perfectly," Izuku interjected.

"Don't lie," Hamato scolded like she might an insolent child. "We've all heard it and we have eye witness accounts of him calling you that awful name. This is your big chance to get back at him once and for all."

"When I signed on, kill-fights were to be eradicated upon me stepping up as a stakeholder," Izuku tried.

"Sorry, Midoriya," Nato said, and he did look sorry. "We were outvoted on this."

"It'll be good publicity. It's what we were known for before you came along," Sumiya tried to justify. "It's good to go back to our roots every once in a while."

Izuku should have known.

That was just the rule of the world, and rules were rules.

Some things just couldn't be helped.

Izuku walked on unsteady legs to the exit.

"Oh, based on your history, I don't think I'd need to tell you this, but just in case: Don't tell Pitbull about the upcoming kill-fight. We want it to be a surprise!" Hamato said with a giggle.

Izuku felt like he was going to vomit on his way out.

Then, he ran as fast as his legs could take him to the nearest bathroom and proceeded to do exactly that.

Then he went right to Katsuki and dragged him the whole way home, feeling like he was going to burst. Katsuki's phone continuously rang and beeped in his pocket until he finally pulled it out, only to put it on Do Not Disturb and threw it back into his pocket, his voicemails, missed calls, and text messages going unchecked. Izuku wouldn't have minded Katsuki's attention being elsewhere for a second, though, so he could have had some time to gather his thoughts without Katsuki's scrutinizing gaze consistently on him.

"Are you a stakeholder or some shit?"

"Yeah," Izuku said, feeling the bile bubbling up the back of his throat again.

"You keeping secrets from me, shitnerd?" Katsuki joked. "I didn't know you were such a big shot."

"Didn't help me much," Izuku griped.

"What do you mean?" Katsuki asked, not liking Izuku's uncharacteristic untalkative condition.

Izuku managed to get to his apartment, unlocked the door, and yanked Katsuki inside, slamming the door shut behind them before blurting out, "they've arranged a kill-fight between us, Kacchan."

A pause.

"Well, you're a stakeholder. Can't you just say "fuck that" and not do it?" Katsuki asked.

"No," Izuku said. Katsuki didn't like how pale he looked and shuffled him into the nearest seat before he began his explanation. "They could go after my mom if I don't do what they want. When I stepped up, I put a safeguard in place that they would do away with kill-fights altogether, but it seemed that something happened that they don't feel very inclined to stick with that agreement."

"What happened?" Katsuki asked.

Izuku started off at a reasonable pace but progressively got faster as he explained, his anxiety increasing as he fell back into his mumbling habits. "Probably a mix of things. About a month and a half ago, there was a 15-year-old who was put up against me and I refused to fight. I just held them in a restraint until time ran out–refused to knock them out even though I could have. It lost money for everyone because of that, but another thing that I demanded when I accepted coming on as a stakeholder was that minors wouldn't be fighters anymore. They twisted that to be that minors wouldn't be "sought" or actively recruited anymore, but if they showed up on our doorstep wanting to fight, then they wouldn't be turned away, which is absolutely fucking ridiculous, and–"

"Not your fault."

"What?"

"None of this is your fault," Katsuki said. "And I'll do whatever you need me to do. What's the plan?"

"Plan?" Izuku choked out, slumping in his chair, letting out a half-laugh, half-sob. "I don't know how to plan for something like this, with your life on the line, Kacchan."

Katsuki reached out, grabbed both of Izuku's shoulders in a tight grip, and shook him as if to shake the sense into him.

"Then let's combine forces, yeah?"

Aldera

"Forward march, and here we go! Members of the Agency Bakugou!"

Katsuki slipped on the log that his troupe of friends used to cross the creek, falling into the streaming water below.

Of course, it had to be him instead of one of the extras. Why would it have to be him to be the one to be rescued instead of to be the one doing the rescuing? It wasn't fair! It was his agency that was the center of their pretend game!

"Kacchan!" Izuku gasped, immediately backtracking from the center of the log where he took up the rear of the single file line.

The image of Izuku splashing through the water to get to Katsuki, not even pausing to take off his bright red sneakers before trudging through the water to get to him as quickly as possible, like it was some kind of life-or-death situation, had the frustrated tears immediately clearing from Katsuki's eyes.

Of course, only the best heroes would work for his agency, and Izuku was one of the best, next only to Katsuki himself.

"Are you okay?" Izuku asked, holding out a hand for Katsuki.

Katsuki took it, allowing Izuku to pull him up, water dripping from his clothes as he stood.

"I'm fine, Izu," he said. "I was just testing you."

"Woah!" Izuku said. "That's so smart! But dangerous, Kacchan! That was too close!" Izuku continued to fret over his best friend, still standing in the middle of the stream.

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!" Katsuki declared, regurgitating a saying he had heard from his mother that she picked up from one of her trips to the United States.

Izuku laughed, pulling Katsuki from the stream to once again lead the group. Izuku was the only one he trusted to pull up the rear, knowing that no one would ever get left behind on his watch. After all, wasn't he just proven right just then in that moment?

"I feel like I'm getting too close to a line that I'm going to cross that I can't come back from," Katsuki said after school one day, almost reaching out to touch a bruise on Izuku's arm–one that he himself had caused–but pulling back at the last second.

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, Kacchan," Izuku sang, kicking his feet in a carefree manner as he fidgeted on the swing set next to the stationary Katsuki, sitting still as a stone, heavy with guilt and worry.

"I should have never taught that saying to you, nerd," Katsuki said, rubbing the toe of his shoe into the dirt below his own swing.

"It's our saying, though," Izuku said. "It perfectly captures how we toe the line, how we pretend to be enemies at school for our own reasons, but you're still my best friend. You know I wouldn't have near the scores I have right now if it wasn't for you."

"You also wouldn't have the bruises," Katsuki reasoned. "You wouldn't have to lie to Auntie, either."

"I'm not lying to her," Izuku quipped back automatically. "You are my best friend, and you are protecting me. Just not in the way that our parents could imagine, I suspect."

During the last year of middle school, they had a substitute teacher when their regular teacher was out sick. They were so close to making it the whole way through, but this substitute teacher actually cared about Izuku, despite his quirklessness, and word got back to Inko about what had been happening.

"Izuku, I got a call from your teacher today," Inko said when Izuku got home from school, breathless from outrunning Katsuki and his friends.

"Yeah?" he wheezed. "The substitute? I swear I was on my best behavior. What did she have to say?"

"It was about your bullies," Inko said, her voice softer than Izuku had ever heard it. Izuku paled, pausing in taking off his shoes to turn to his mother, backpack dropping forgotten from his arms. "If Katsuki was hurting you," she said, eyes filling with tears, "why didn't you tell me?"

He tried to explain the situation as best as he could, but all Inko heard was more excuses, thinking that Izuku just didn't want her to worry that he had no friends at all when she had no means of moving him to a different school.

"You're not listening to me!" Izuku yelled, taking Inko aback. He never yelled. Not at her. Not at anyone.

Izuku pulled his shoes back on and was out the door before she could stop him.

"Woah, slow down. Are you okay?" Katsuki asked when Izuku flung himself into his arms.

"I'm so sorry, Kacchan," Izuku wailed. "My mother knows, and she won't accept any of my explanations of the truth. I'm so sorry I'm such a bad luck charm, Kacchan."

Katsuki allowed himself to freak out for about five seconds before deciding that he had to take care of the nerd first and foremost.

"Come on," Katsuki said, leading Izuku to the train station. "I have a surprise for you. It was supposed to be for your birthday, but now might be better."

Izuku spent the whole train ride into the nearest city over trying to pull himself together and then stood slack-jawed in front of the tattoo parlor as Katsuki pressed a fake ID into the palm of his hand.

"What do you say? Are you ready, nerd?"

"What are we getting?" Izuku asked.

"What? Don't you trust me?" Katsuki asked with a menacing grin that practically screamed that he should definitely not be trusted.

Izuku just smiled, took Katsuki's hand, and allowed himself to be pulled into the shop. Izuku distracted himself with the art on the walls while Katsuki explained to the staff what they wanted, and Izuku and Katsuki faced each other, both snickering at each other's expense any time the winced or showed any sign of weakness as permanent ink was placed behind their ears.

"Why a horseshoe, Kacchan? Oh!" Izuku said, coming to the realization when he got a glimpse of Katsuki's new grenade tattoo on their way out of the shop. "The saying!"

"Right. Now that I'm a hand grenade, and you're a horseshoe, no one can tell us we can't be close. Not just that, though," Katsuki said. "It's because you're my good luck charm, no matter what happens or what makes you think otherwise."

Tears sprung unbidden to Izuku's eyes as he threw himself into Katsuki's arms. And, well, Katsuki figured with his parents waiting at home, waiting to chew him out for bullying Izuku and even less likely than Auntie to accept the truth as what it was, he had nothing else to lose.

"And you say you're not good at symbolism, but then–" is what Izuku was saying when Katsuki leaned back out of the hug only to take Izuku's jaw in his hands and pressed his lips to Izuku's.