Chapter 12

Chapter Text

Katsuki had known the moment the detective explained his quirk that he wasn't going to be able to avoid telling the truth. So he'd spilled everything, even the parts that told how awful a human being Katsuki really was. He was actually surprised to not be in custody right now. Surely his behavior toward Izuku in middle school showed a pattern that suggested yesterday's accident was probably deliberate.

It wasn't. At least that was what Katsuki had believed.

But it was pretty hard to ignore the damning evidence when it was laid out in front of him. When the detective had asked "What did you think was going to happen when you aimed a container full of nitro-glycerin at someone's face?" Katsuki had been forced to reevaluate everything he'd said and done in the past ten years.

And it wasn't pretty.

No wonder his parents had wanted him out their sight. Katsuki was a careless, jealous asshole who somehow believed that other people were less important than him based solely on their quirks or lack thereof.

At what point in his life had he come to that conclusion?

"Bakugo," Mic-sensei said quietly as he came back into the room, "we shouldn't be too much longer. We just need to get the emergency foster care paperwork filed and approved and then we'll be good to go."

"Mic-sensei," Bakugo asked, his voice raw with grief, "why would you bother? Surely the world would be better off if I was in Tartarus. I'm not worth saving."

"Oh, kid," Mic-sensei said, moving closer to the bed. "You've learned some pretty harsh lessons in the past couple days, but kids are always worth saving, ya dig? It's just like Buffy Summers said—"

"Who?"

Mic-sensei waved away the question. "Pre-quirk TV series." He shrugged. "You're cookie dough."

"Huh?"

"And you say I'm bad with words," Aizawa-sensei said as he entered the room, a smirk on his face that made him look just a little bit crazy. "He means you're not done baking. You're young and still growing and still learning about the world. You have plenty of time to change and be better."

"See," Mic-sensei said triumphantly. "Cookie dough!"

"But—"

"Nedzu," Aizawa-sensei said, cutting Katsuki's words off, "is currently planning the annihilation of Aldera middle-school and possibly the elementary as well."

"Why?"

"Because many of the things you told the detective set off alarm bells for all of us. Nedzu immediately opened an investigation into Aldera middle school and his preliminary findings are extremely concerning. Any teacher that would openly encourage a student to attack another in class, in full view of the cameras no less, needs their license revoked."

"And probably jail time," Mic-sensei added.

Aizawa-sensei snorted a soft laugh. "With Nedzu on his case that's very likely."

"But I still did—"

"Kid, we're not saying you're blameless. What you did to Midoriya was not the way a hero should act, but you were young and impressionable and surrounded by adults willing to encourage and reinforce your violent behavior." He stopped and looked at Katsuki with a slight frown. "What about your parents? Did they know?"

"Not until last night," Katsuki admitted.

"They must have been pretty shocked," Aizawa-sensei said quietly.

"They were. It's why they kicked me out."

"Are you sure they kicked you out?"

"Um…"

"Is it possible that you misunderstood what they wanted?"

Katsuki shrugged. "Maybe? I don't know. It all kind of happened in a blur."

"Kid, your mother called me when you didn't come home from school. She was shocked that you thought they'd toss you away like that."

"It's what I deserve," Katsuki said, unable to believe anything less. Why would his parents forgive him when he couldn't even forgive himself?

"No, kid," Aizawa-sensei said, "it's not. You deserve a chance to change, to do better. So do better, okay?"

"I'll try," Katsuki whispered.

"You have the potential to be an amazing hero one day," Aizawa-sensei said with a small smile. "Now your Mom and Dad are in the hallway. Can I let them in?"

Katsuki couldn't stop the tears suddenly flowing from his eyes. He nodded instead of trying to form words. Having his mom and dad squish him into a too tight hug a moment later was the best he'd felt in years.

~*~

"I'll call the social worker and cancel the paperwork," Mic said as they left the infirmary.

"Don't," Shota said, reaching a hand toward Hitoshi who was loitering in the hallway. The kid hurried to join them. "We'll probably still need it."

"You think they'll kick him out for real this time?"

"No," Shota said, wrapping his arm around Hitoshi's shoulder and giving him a quick, reassuring side hug. "But their jobs are demanding and Katsuki is left alone far more than would be healthy for him at the moment."

"So he's coming to stay with us?" Hitoshi asked.

"That's the plan," Shota said, raising an eyebrow in Mic's direction. He simply smiled, easily in tune with what his husband had organized. They'd never planned on having kids but there was no doubt that Hitoshi had been the perfect addition to their family. Bakugo staying with them was probably a temporary thing, but they'd make it work. "Mitsuki and Masaru have both arranged to have the rest of the week off but—as long as he agrees—Katsuki will be staying with us Monday to Saturday lunch and with his parents Saturday and Sunday nights. Mitsuki will drop him back at UA on Monday mornings."

"Does this have anything to do with the crap that's being posted on the Internet?"

"Toshi?" Shota asked, apparently having been too busy to see the latest shitstorm brewing online.

Toshi unlocked his phone and started skimming social media. "All of Bakugo's old classmates are posting stuff about what he did to Midoriya, some even have pictures and video." Mic had no doubt Nedzu was collecting them all as evidence for his investigation into Aldera. "There are a few people condemning Katsuki's actions as if he killed Midoriya deliberately, but most of his classmates are congratulating him on a job well done."

"What?" Shota asked, seeming shocked by the depravity of morons on the Internet.

"This post is titled Could have saved me a ton of money on spider-lilies."

Mic wrapped his arm over his kid's shoulder. Toshi had experience with suicide baiting, so this situation was probably bringing up a whole lot of bad memories for him.

"It ends with about time he killed the useless, quirkless piece of shit."

"Fuck," Shota said, reaching over to pluck the phone from Hitoshi's hands. "Social media blackout for at least twenty-four hours."

Hitoshi didn't complain; just leaned into Mic's hug.

"Cookie dough," Mic muttered, trying to remind himself that these kids went through the same hate-filled school system as Bakugo. They were all bound to have a skewed understanding of the world. Hell, it would seem Aldera had almost been a training ground for villains.

Fuck, a school for training the next generation of villains was not something Mic wanted to think about.

~*~

Eight hours later Shota carefully extricated himself from his husband's sleeping embrace and turned the alarm off before it could wake Mic or Toshi. They all needed sleep and Shota was going to make sure they got as much as possible while they could.

Thank fuck they'd decided to postpone 1A's visit to the USJ. Introduction to rescue scenarios was an important part of the first year curriculum, but Shota honestly didn't feel up to corralling twenty wide-eyed teenagers.

Except is wasn't twenty any more.

Even with Hitoshi replacing Midoriya the class was down to eighteen. Actually that could be less since Shota hadn't even checked his email yesterday afternoon. He grabbed his phone from the charging station and found several emails. One each from Uraraka's and Yaoyorozu's parents wanting confirmation in writing that their hero costumes would be changed to something more suitable. Shota was happy to assure them that he'd already submitted the changes to Power Loader and that the girls would not be required to wear a hero costume at all before they were fixed.

Shota and Nedzu had met briefly yesterday to discuss what had happened in homeroom and they'd both agreed that week one of 1A's curriculum was a total loss. It meant they were already behind 1B, but not even Shota's competitive streak could make him rush through the first week's lessons. They would simply have to start over—probably Monday next week since three of the other emails Shota had in his inbox were from parents advising that their children were taking the rest of the week off due to unspecified illness.

Shota really hoped they were getting some form of counseling, but he also had faith that Hound Dog would fill in any gaps when they came back to school.

An email from Nedzu advised that Ojiro and Koda had both requested to be transferred to the general education course—which the principal had approved—and that Aoyama's and Sato's parents had been contacted regarding their sons' unexplained absences on Wednesday and that both would be in class today. Jiro's parents had confirmed that she would be returning to school but requested a parent-teacher conference. Shota quickly composed an email suggesting three different times he should be available and then crossed his fingers that nothing else would go wrong this week.

So that meant his class was down to sixteen.

Damn, how was it only Thursday?

~*~

"Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri said in his usual calm, low tone, "I do not believe this to be a wise course of action."

"Don't care what you believe," Shigaraki said, scratching furiously at his neck. "I have Nomu and we're going to go kill All Might."

"It is unlikely that the school schedule has remained unchanged," Kurogiri said, trying to be as calm as possible to avoid threats of disintegration. It didn't work, of course. Shigaraki was very consistent that way.

And if he persisted with the plan to invade the USJ and kill All Might in front of his class of little herolings, Shigaraki was very likely going to embarrass himself in front of many potential allies.

"Perhaps," Kurogiri said, striving to find a compromise, "I could warp you, me, and the man with the jamming quirk before we mobilize the rest of our allies. If the class 1A is not attending the USJ today we can reschedule the attack without causing embarrassment for sensei."

"But I want to kill All Might today!"

And I want to know why I have no memories of my life before you and sensei, Kurogiri thought bitterly, but we don't always get what we want.

"Fine," Shigaraki said after scratching at his neck even more furiously for a good two minutes, "but only because I would never do anything to embarrass sensei."

Kurogiri breathed a soft sigh of relief.

One more disaster avoided.