Hisashi let out a cold, harsh bark of laughter that held no humor. "The number 2 hero, an abuser. How ironic."

"I'm not certain," Tenko sat on the couch, rubbing his arms rid of the goosebumps although he wasn't cold.

Hisashi leveled him with a serious look. "But you are certain of what you saw."

"We'll, it was through a curtain, I mean-"

"What are you defending?" Hisashi's tone was hard. "Do you truly believe anything else could explain what you saw, what you've seen from your friend?"

Tenko didn't say anything. Because the truth was, no, he couldn't. He'd been able to tell there was something off about Touya from day 1. The way he avoided his last name, conversation of his home or family, how he was constantly aware of his surrounding and weary of anyone larger than him.

There were too many things that felt like the way he used to be, but better hidden. Likely because he'd been experiencing it for much longer and learned how to hide it, while Tenko was pulled from that environment when he was five.

The fact that he was considering them as in the same situation said enough of what he thought.

Touya's father was like his father. Endeavor was like Kotaro. A hero was like the person he considered a villain.

Tenko understood a bit more what Hisashi meant by fake heroes.

Hisashi taught him that villains could be heroes. Just like how heroes could be villains. Things weren't so black and white as people thought.

He was starting to understand why Hisashi hated heroes so much.

Hisashi sighed and leaned back on the couch, Inko carried over a cup of coffee for him and some hot chocolate for Tenko. She held up a second mug of hot chocolate. "I'm gonna bring this to Izuku."

Both of them nodded and thanked her before she walked off down the hall. They'd asked Izuku to go to the bedroom once they got home after picking him up.

Hisashi and Tenko sat there for a second in thoughtful silence.

"Are you gonna kill him?" Tenko asked quietly.

Hisashi looked up and met his eyes with an unreadable expression. "Do you think that's what Touya needs? To know he was partially responsible for someone's death, even if it was a bad person?"

Tenko sunk lower, but didn't look away. "If he could be happy, with his family."

Hisashi raised an eyebrow at him. "Is that how you felt? That his death was ok, as long as you could be happy with the ones you care about?"

Tenko hunched in on himself further, finally looking away. His voice was quiet. "That was different. I did that, and it wasn't only him."

Hisashi cocked his head slightly. "Would it have been ok if it wasn't your fault, and if it was just him?"

"Maybe."

Hisashi sighed. "Even so, I usually try to avoid killing. I only kill if it's necessary, like the one for all holders. I don't want to kill them, my only goal is to get the quirk from them. But they refuse to give up every time until it's too late."

Tenko blinked up at him, but Hisashi just continued. "Don't get me wron,g I'm not telling you murder is wrong. I am completely willing to kill Endeavor, anyways, even if what you're saying isn't true. He's a corrupt hero, whether he's abusive or not.

"But it's also not that simple. I will need everything I have for my inevitable fight against All Might, I don't know if I can risk that for going after Endeavor when all heroes will fall once I win anyways. All For One is also a very well kept secret, almost as much as One For All itself. I can't expose him, or make Hisashi Midoriya a villain by killing a hero and risking being caught by a coma era or anything."

"So send someone else," Tenko tried.

Hisashi shook his head slowly. "Sending anyone else risks them exposing who sent them if they get caught, which is a likely outcome since I don't know anyone truly powerful enough to take out the number 2 hero."

"We could take this to the police. Or expose him on the internet."

"No one will believe us without proof, and the HPSC will shut anything down before we have a chance to truly do anything with it. They are extremely biased towards high ranking or popular heroes, and will protect Endeavor even if they believe us. Anything within the law is practically useless here."

Tenko huffed in defeat and fell back. "Well if you won't go after him, and we can't do anything non-illegal, what do we do? I can't just sit around and wait, I have to help somehow. I feel so useless, knowing what he's going through."

Hisashi smiled fondly at him. "Well, you can start by talking to him. Or let him feel comfortable enough with you to maybe open up on his own. He might not appreciate that he doesn't even know you know. Wait for him to talk about it, and get an idea of what's really going on. It's useless to do anything if the victims themselves don't want you to, so be sure he's ok with it. Once that's done, you need proof."

Tenko nodded determinedly. He could do that.

"And, y'know, just be there," his father said softly.

Tenko looked up at him, confused. "What?"

Hisashi smiled. "Just be there for him. Be his friend, be someone he can rely on. Help him, comfort, him, support him, even just being kind to him helps. If you can't fix someone else's problem, help them get through it."

Tenko blinked at him, processing, before nodding again. He wasn't certain that would help much, but he could be a good friend. He'd help Touya any way possible.

"You don't have to, no one's forcing you," Hisashi started again, looking a bit more thoughtful and hesitant of his next suggestion, "But something that helps with trauma is knowing your not alone in it. Is being able to share that pain with someone, someone that understands."

Tenko looked down and took another long sip of his hot chocolate, not responding. The sentence was vague, but he heard the underlying words.

Tenko had gone through something very similar to Touya, he understood better than most what trauma from abuse was like. And so did Touya.

Back during the first couple of years he lived with Inko and Hisashi, and even now sometimes when he had episodes, he found himself wishing rather often that he had someone who understood.

Don't get him wrong, Inko and Hisashi were amazing and had helped him so much. And he'd never wish what he'd been through on someone else. But no one truly understood what it was like. What it had been like back then or now, with everything going through his head and the paranoia and struggle to trust.

He'd never thought he'd meet someone like him, until today, when he realized that maybe he did know someone who understood.

And underneath all the anger and sadness for his friend, underneath everything that wished Touya hadn't gone through what he did, there was still that tiny spark of hope. Because someone understood.

So he knew what dad meant, that having someone else who understood would help. Tenko knew Touya understood, but Touya didn't know Tenko did.

Even if Touya hadn't actually meant for Tenko to find out, and didn't even know he had yet, it didn't seem fair that Tenko knew about Touya but not the other way around.

It was logical, Tenko knew it all made sense.

But did that help the churning in his stomach at the thought of telling his friend? Of course not.

"Like I said, no one's forcing you. It's completely your choice," Hisashi finally spoke again, standing up off the couch. "But just think about it. I think it would do you both good to have someone to talk to."

Tenko didn't look up from his drink as the man walked away.

He'd never even really talked to Hisashi and Inko about it, they'd just comforted him on his bad days. The only person he'd ever really talked to was his therapist, but even that was rare, and he'd never mentioned how his family died.

He'd never just flat out told someone what happened, what his dad did to him or… what Tenkondid to them.

He could only mention what his dad did to him to Touya, but then he would wonder what happened to his old family. If Tenko revealed his quirk, what if Touya decided it was too villainous or dangerous and didn't want to be his friend anymore? If how his family died got revealed, what if Touya thought he was a monster? Just because Hisashi and Inko didn't think so, didn't mean that everyone would.

What if this ruined their friendship? He couldn't ruin this, he couldn't lose Touya. He didn't want Touya to hate him, but what if-

"Tenko? Honey? Breathe for me."

His head popped up to see Inko crouched down in front of him, Hisashi a few feet behind. They were both looking at him with concerned expressions.

That's when he'd realized his lungs were burning. He took a shaky gasp of breath and noticed his hands were shaking too.

"Good," Inko's voice was a calm, sing-song tone, reassuring. She smiled at him and put his hand on her chest when he struggled to take his next breath. "Follow my breathing."

He focused on following the pattern of her chest gently rising and falling and the steady paced heartbeat. His breaths slowly evened out, until he finally felt steady again and took his hand away.

"Are you ok now?" Inko asked quietly.

He nodded a little shakily as he felt his hands slowly stop shaking.

"I'm sorry," Hisashi's voice came from his left, and Tenko turned to realize he had sat down on the couch beside him and was rubbing his back. He looked guilty. "I didn't mean to make you panic."

"It wasn't your fault," Tenko looked down and started to fidget with his gloved fingers. "It's a good idea, I just started overthinking."

He missed the glance shared between his parents as he kept his gaze on his gloves. On his hands.

He had to suppress a wince as images of blood and dust flashed through his mind.

He didn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.

What would Touya think?

—-

Tenko never truly got a chance to build up the courage and talk to Touya, though, because suddenly, Touya already knew too much. Everyone did.

Tenko had been walking down the hall back to class after lunch, side by side with Touya, Keigo, and Rumi. Keigo and Rumi were laughing and teasing, and Touya and Tenko were just listening and adding in their own snarky comments when they felt like it. It was nice.

But then they turned a corner, and all four almost froze at the sight ahead.

Katsuki, without his lackies around, was slowly stepping closer and closer to a cowering Izuku against the wall. The blonde looked mad and like his quirk would activate any second now just out of pure anger.

"Don't you get it, you useless Deku!?" The blonde yelled. There was hardly anyone else in the halls at this point, class almost starting but those who were around glanced over. "You can't be a hero, just give up! You're freaking quirkless!"

Izuku flinched at the words, and so did Tenko as the entire hall seemed to fall quiet, though that could just be because of the ringing in Tenko's ears.

He risked a glance to the side at his friends, who all really were frozen now, staring wide eyed at the two little boys. No, at Izuku.

Tenko bit his lip, wishing right now more then ever that he had a mind reading quirk. He wanted so bad to know what they were thinking, but he could only see shock in their expressions.

Touya chanced a glance at him, but Tenko was already turning away again and starting forward towards the younger boys.

He stepped in between Katsuki and Izuku just like he had too many times before and glared down at the blonde. "Get lost, Katsuki."

The blonde glared and snarled right back up at him. "As if, I'm not scared of you, you freak!"

"Freak?" Touya stepped forwards now, not quite in between like Tenko was, but in front of Izuku enough to be protective. Tenko ignored his friend's glance at him.

Katsuki scoffed and crossed his arms, and even though he was half their size or so, Tenko had to admit he knew how to look intimidating to other kids. "Yeah, a dumb freak! You're just as weird as your quirkless brother!"

Tenko felt himself tense and his breathing quicken slightly, he thought he saw a similar reaction on Touya. They were mad.

"Katsuki," Tenko's voice was venomous enough to make the brat freeze. "Leave my brother alone."

Katsuki stood his ground.

"Don't test us, you brat," that time it was Touya who stepped closer.

Katsuki tensed but didn't budge, still glaring, though it was a bit more a grimace now.

"Hey!" Came a new voice, and footsteps came down the hall. Everyone turned to see one of the boys from Tenko and them's class running towards them. As Tenko straightened up, the boy, he thought his name was Kaimatsuo, slid in between them and Katsuki. "What are you to doing to this kid!?"

"It's not what it looks like, Kaimatsuo!" Keigo and Rumi finally ran over, Keigo waving his hands frantically. "They weren't-"

"Weren't what!?" The boy cut him off. "Standing over and threatening a clearly terrified child!?"

"I'm not scared!" Katsuki tried to refute, but was ignored.

"How dare you four team up on a little kid!"

"We weren't!" Touya yelled, gesturing to the still cowering Izuku behind him and Tenko. "That brat was bullying Izuku!"

"Yeah, cause he's a freaking quirkless rat!" Katsuki yelled louder this time, and it made Kaimatsuo freeze.

He turned back to the blonde slowly, eyes wide. "What?"

"You heard me!" Yelled a clearly annoyed Katsuki, and then pointed accusingly at Izuku who shrunk in on himself further. "Stupid Deku's a quirkless freak!"

"He's not a freak!" Came multiple voices, and Tenko couldn't even tell anymore if one of them was him.

Kaimatsuo looked back at Izuku who was now crouched on the ground, and glared at him with a look of disgust. "What the heck? We have one of those things in our school?"

Tenko's vision was being clouded with red and his neck was itching like crazy, but instead of scratching he moved toward Kaimatsuo, not sure what he intended to do but intending to do something.

Then a hand grabbed his and pulled him back, and it took him longer then it should have to realize it was Touya, who was still glaring full force at Kaimatsuo, with a seeming extra layer of hate.

"How dare you!?" Screamed Rumi, stepping forward.

Kaimatsuo stepped away from them, still staring at Izuku in disgust, but then glancing at everyone else angrily. "So we have loud mouthed idiots and creeps beating up a child to protect something not worth living!? What is this, a gang!?"

Tenko's everything itched and he clawed desperately, but he couldn't scratch through the fabric of his gloves.

"You're the bully!" Keigo yelled. "This is quirk discrimination, that's illegal!"

Tenko tore his gloves off frantically and clawed at his neck, breathing heavily and heart thundering so loud he could hardly hear the conversation anymore.

Kaimatsuo scoffed. "Please, you're the ones acting like villains! Next you'll tell me one of you has secretly killed people!"

Tenko's whole world freezes so abruptly he feels like he might have whiplash. But his breathing, his heart thundering, the ringing in his ears, it all only amplifies.

Something in the back of his mind feels the hand on him tighten, and two different voice calling his name, one of them so much lighter and more scared than the other. Somewhere, an adult calls out and runs towards them. But he can't bring himself to take his eyes off of the two boys in front of him, specifically the one that had dug up thoughts and memories and emotions he hadn't felt this much of in years.

Screams flashed through his mind. Blood. Dust. Anger. A shovel. Hate. Hate. Hate.

The overwhelming itch shifted into a new itch. The itch to move the itch to grab, the itch to destroy.

It hardly registered with him that his gloves weren't on, and he moved forward, tugging out of the vague grip on his arm and towards the startled boy in front of him.

He was mad. He was scared. He was back in that alleyway, back in that panic attack where he couldn't think of anything but what he desperately wanted to do.

Back then, his only thought were don't hurt. Don't hurt. Don't hurt.

He was back in those thoughts that he'd heard on repeat for over a year after that day.

You killed them. You're a monster. You're a murderer. You killed your family. You can't hurt anyone else.

But now? Now those thoughts were still there, circling like a storm in the back of his mind.

But they were striking lightning that caught his attention much more easily.

Flashes of the overwhelming urge to destroy that almost overpowered all the emotions he felt. But didn't in any way stop them.

Five bare fingertips gripped onto a bare arm, and everything fell down around him.