Katsuki grumbled as he got off the train, it was more packed than usual and there was this fucker that had a quirk that made them tick like some kind of shitty human clock.
And it was kind of pissing him off if he was being honest.
Almost made him regret not taking Patchy's offer to have his hags drop him off at the Shrew's shitty hole-in-wall.
But he had his noise-cancelling headphones for this exact reason, and he just walked on so he wouldn't be late for his session with the shrew.
Taking them off when he entered the studio, which let him hear the Shrew's sucky attempt at a cheeky greeting.
"If it isn't my favorite blonde nutcase, right on time like always Blondie."
"Fuck off." Katsuki spat back, without any real heat and flipped her off as he dumped his duffle bag off at the designated spot and got ready to make some pottery.
"So how was class today?" the shrew asked him, not turning away from the large pot she was making.
"It wasn't annoying, the idiot behind me ain't tapping his pen on his desk as much as usual, but I had to spend most of lunch cramping chemistry into Patchy's head." Katsuki told her as he grabbed a lob of clay.
Katsuki settled at his favorite pottery wheel and got to work just molding the clay, he didn't have anything in mind this time around, there wouldn't be any special occasions for a while so he would just 'play' with the clay for now.
"Nice, nice. How are things between you, Patchy and Potty anyways?" she questioned, and he knew that she was fucking hinting at something again.
"They're still clinging to me if that's what your implying you fucker, going to be taking them on hike once we're finished here. The fuckers are trying to build themselves up from under the barrel and need to work on their stamina." Katsuki answered rolling his eyes and pressing the glob down so it was kind of becoming a bowl or plate.
Unfortunantely, one of the downsides of being a two-for-one deal was how much protein and shit they both needed, and they hadn't gotten that when they were younger, and that plus his avian constitution meant Patchy was little more than a bundle of sticks.
They'd need to work on that cause Potty couldn't just carry Patchy's ass everywhere damn it.
"That'll be fun, sharing your hobbies with friends can be nice sometimes." the shrew commented as she carefully cut her pot free and got it ready for the oven.
As long as Potty didn't try anything funny on the trail they would.
"That's enough beating around the bush though, why don't you tell me how things are going with Izuku and his friends, have you hung out with them since you met at the sports festival a couple weeks back?" the shrew asked.
"Not really," Katsuki answered with a shrug.
"Discount hat rack, Newton fucker and the eldritch bitch aren't braindead extras, but I don't have the energy to deal with their dramatic shit either." Katsuki confessed.
It was great Izuku had a supportive bunch of idiots to talk to, he certainly deserved to have more people in his corner finally, and even if discount hat rack gave him that stupid nickname Newton fucker could be funny sometimes.
But even though they had tried to be friendly with him like his penguins were he just, wasn't feeling it.
The shrew hummed.
"That's okay, people always try to push that old saying of 'a friend of yours is a friend of mine' on to us. But that doesn't mean you should force yourself to be overly friendly with Izuku's friends if you really don't want to be that with them." she told him.
"I know that, and those idiots seem to be taking the fucking hint, aside from Newton fucker sending me her piss-poor memes every couple days they leave me alone unless we're going to out or some shit." Katsuki spat back, reshaping his glob to what it once was.
"And what about with Izuku, you said you were talking again?" the shrew inquired, Katsuki scoffed.
"If you mean with sign and text then yeah, still can't risk opening my mouth around him though unless I want to call him a Deku to the fucker's face again." Katsuki informed her, glaring down at his misshapen glob before putting another one on to it.
"Which fucking sucks by the way, I want everyone to hear me roast the damn nerd for the bullshit he pulls." Katsuki added scowling.
"The pains of being a smartass, you poor boy." the shrew teased him, making him growl and flip her off again.
"Still though, how do you feel about how your relationship with Izuku is progressing since you've been in regular contact now?" she pressed, returning to the original question at hand.
Katsuki sighed.
"I don't know, I'm glad the dense shrub is back in my life. It ain't like when we were snot-nosed brats, and sure as shit ain't like a few years ago but, fuck if I know. I don't think we're ever going to that close again." Katsuki tried to explain.
"I can tell Izuku wants to be that bff crap or like brothers again, but there's too much shit from before now that I, I just can't let him be that close again." Katsuki admitted letting his head hang.
Was he happy to being in the little shit's life again? Hell yeah.
But was he emotionally or mentally capable to handle being more than Izuku's friend? Fuck no.
It was hard enough to be around Izuku's dumbass friends knowing they weren't aware of what he did to Izuku, something he planned on correcting that misconception pretty fucking quick since Izuku couldn't be bothered to.
And yeah, he set out to reconnect with Izuku that he wanted to go back to before they started fighting and it became corrupted by all of that toxic shit.
But now, after being with Izuku again, visiting him on Thursdays sometimes and texting him on other days, he just... couldn't.
He couldn't look at Izuku without thinking about all he did the nerd, of all he put him through or could put him through again if he let himself forget what he did.
There was just too much history between them for Katsuki to ever feel completely safe alone with him, it was part of why he felt like he couldn't risk opening his mouth around Izuku.
"It just isn't fucking safe." Katsuki firmly told her before smashing the globs to help mix them, perhaps with more force than was necessary.
"For who?" the shrew asked.
"Who the hell do you think? For me you shrew." Katsuki snapped back.
"Okay, have you talked with Izuku about reinforcing boundaries or told him what you want?" the shrew asked.
"Not yet, not the right time, the nerd's busy with something and ranting about some asshole grooming one of his students. Not the time to tell him about my crap storm of emotions." Katsuki replied shaking his head.
He never thought he'd see the day when Izuku would send him curse filled rants of promising to castrate someone, but he had the screenshots on his phone for proof, or embarrassment martial on the nerd.
"I can tell him later, when he won't ducktail with me telling him to stop being so clingy." Katsuki added "It's not like he's hanging off my arm or making me feel like I need to bash his head into a wall." Katsuki explained.
And he wasn't, Izuku was real respectful and shit about his boundaries, letting him take things at his own pace on this weird trip to being friends again.
Katsuki only knew that Izuku wanted to be best friends with him again because of how long he knew the nerd and the fucker was the worst at lying to the people he was close to.
"As long as you take care of yourself first Blondie." the shrew told him "You did hurt him in the past, but you've worked your ass off to not be that person and shouldn't put anyone else's mental health above your own." the shrew insisted with a nod.
Katsuki tsked.
"So, moving own from your interpersonal shit. How are you feeling about you?" she inquired looking over the lumpy glob of lopsided clay.
He scowled back at her "The fuck do you want me to say?" Katsuki questioned and the shrew just shrugged back at him, the cunt.
"How about with it comes to touch? You got yourself a pet now, don't you?" the shrew asked back.
Katsuki rolled his eyes.
"Murderlord is a god damn fish, and I've never touched him before." Katsuki corrected.
"Yeah, but this the first time you've had to look after another being before and I want to know how you're holding up with that." she said before getting back to her pottery wheel, starting on another large pot.
"The air sucker ain't dead if you care, and I've been cleaning his tank once month." Katsuki told her, flatting his glob to make it into a bowl instead.
Murderlord, the stupid looking betta the penguins insisted on him taking after the festival, was kept in a little tank on his desk.
With a gravel picked out by his hag, and his old man gave Murderlord a little aquatic plant.
And the dumb fuck would just bob in the water and stare at him when he did his homework.
If he ranted to Murderlord about the occasional dickhead, then that was no one's business than his own.
How the hell a fish could actually look judgement though was fucking beyond him, but Katsuki would swear to high heaven that Murderlord could glare at him, and he would always give Katsuki stink-eye for being so loud.
Well excuse him for using his quirk in his own god damn room you shitty fish meant for cock fighting.
"Okay, okay. I'll stop digging Blondie, just know I'm proud of you for doing as well as you have." the woman told him patting him on the shoulder with her tail since her hands were covered in clay.
"Yeah, yeah, go choke on a dick you shrew." Katsuki spat, back focusing on the bowl he was making.
The woman laughing back at him.
Finishing up with his cleanup he took off his shoes to put his hiking boots on, he'd be going straight to the trail after picking up his penguins.
Katsuki took a train back down to where his birds lived, putting on his noise canceling headphones just in case there was another dickhead that ticked like a clock.
Walking down to where they lived and knocked on the door.
The non-cocktail of their hags answered.
"Oh, Bakugou-Kun, you're early." She greeted with a smile, turning back into the house.
"Fumikage, Sadi. Bakugou-Kun is here." She called over her shoulder, having to move away quickly after when Potty came racing out behind her and pounced on him.
"Bakugou!~" Potty cheered strongly nuzzling his face, the brush of shadowy feathers against his cheek.
The cool feathers leaving a soft tingling feeling behind, and their claws were more solid forms of a phantom chill, sending a shiver down his spine.
Not that he'd ever admit it, no he just jutted his chin and tsked.
There weren't many people that could touch him safely after all, Potty being one of the few he knew that didn't feel any side-effects from touching him, the fact their body was made of shadow probably being the main reason.
"If you don't let me go, I will blast you back to Patchy's body, you second-rate muppet." Katsuki threatened, and Potty cooed back to him and instead settled on his shoulders like a cat would.
Patchy came over to the door, chest moving slightly more from rushing to grab his things and Katsuki took a moment to examine Patchy's outfit.
White T-shirt which would be fine if he brought some sunscreen, the jacket hanging around his hips would be light enough to keep from over-heating if he put it on and was most likely more for Potty's sake than anything else.
The old jeans were sturdy enough, but Katsuki had to scowl at the rips near the knees, fashion choice or not it was stupid.
The boots he was wearing though, needed to be re-tied if Patchy didn't want to be tripping over himself, and the backpack was also shitty and falling apart.
"Okay you little shits let's go, we're burning daylight." Katsuki told Patchy grabbing him by the arm and dragging him with him to the nearest bus stop.
"R-right, of course Bakugou." Patchy sputtered tripping over his own feet before quickly following after him.
Katsuki rolled his eyes letting go of Patchy's arm and instead shoving his hands in his pockets and taking a seat on the bench.
"You bring enough water and shit cause I ain't carrying your dumbass down the mountain if you collapse." Katsuki warned the boy.
"Yes, Sadi and I carefully looked through a few different guides for beginner hikers to pack what we'd need." Patchy answered, taking off his backpack and showing him the contents when they got to the bus stop.
Katsuki looked through it all, then nodded before checking the time to see when their bus would be coming.
Frowning when Potty dropped themself over his shoulders.
"Doesn't Fumi look good today Bakugou?" Potty teasingly asked, their tone one he could easily recognize from both T.V. and from the conversations he's heard from his classmates.
"Sadi." Patchy hissed his feathers ruffled from his embarrassment.
Katsuki scoffed "Patchy looks like hot shit, like he always does you recycled sock-puppet." Katsuki told them, grinning when Patchy squawked and his feathers puffing up even more.
Patchy quickly tried to smooth his feathers down and Katsuki pretended not to notice as he kept his eyes on his phone.
Heh, dumbasses.
They were his dumbass penguins though.
Katsuki when he was given the fish: Eh, I don't really do pets
Fumikage reaches for the fish: Oh, well I guess we could-
Katsuki hides the fishbowl and flipping them both off: No! Murderlord is mine fuck off!
Sadi: Smug™