Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was hard to remember that he didn't work alone anymore. 

Izuku was so used to throwing himself headfirst with reckless abandon. Although he liked to think he had matured from when he was fifteen, sometimes he was still like that kid who had broken his finger to prove a point in a ball toss.

Except he didn't work alone anymore. His actions affected people other than himself.

Which was why he was standing next to a very pissed off Dynamight: who had a crowbar jammed into the meat of his forearm.

"Kacchan! You're—" Izuku's white gloves were stained red from where he was trying to staunch the wound.

"You're a fucking idiot," seethed Kacchan, and Izuku looked away sheepishly. "Pay attention to your surroundings! That bastard was going to brain you with this!"

"I'm—"

"Save it," he hissed, leaning forward. "Is your learning curve a horizontal line?!"

The medics had arrived, taken one look at Kacchan's forearm and ushered him over to an ambulance, Izuku following in tow. 
"Deku-san, you should listen to your..." The medic trailed off, looking at them with a furrowed look.

"He's my dumbass hero partner," said Kacchan while the medic examined the stab.

He was not freaking out enough for someone who had a piece of metal stuck in their body. 

"I'll listen," said Izuku sincerely, gripping Kacchan's free hand in his. 

It was hard to remember, but if forgetting meant Kacchan getting hurt?

Izuku would try his hardest to ensure that it wouldn't happen.

ii.

"No," said Katsuki again, as the morons crowded against him. Fuckers didn't understand the meaning of personal space.

"Blasty but pancakes," said Alien Queen, holding out her hands reverently. 

"No. Also, why the fuck are we meeting up with the rest of the leeches today? I already have to see their fucking faces every day at the agency."

And at the apartment complex they all shared. Honestly, who's idea was that? Why the hell had he even agreed to it?

"Hi, Kacchan!" said Deku, swinging the front door open and Katsuki resisted the urge to slam his head into the overhead cabinets. 

Five pro heroes lived in the apartment and yet, the main door was always fucking unlocked.

"Who left the fucking door open?"

While the rest of the idiots hesitantly looked at each other, wondering whom to fling under the bus, Deku unearthed a plate from the dishwasher and held it out.

"Did you get the shitty forms?" Katsuki flipped the perfectly golden and jiggly pancake onto Deku's waiting plate.

"On the table." Deku drowned the pancake with half a bottle of syrup. "I'll get started while you finish up."

"Eat less syrup or you're going to get fucking diabetes," said Katsuki, pouring batter onto the griddle.

He looked up at saw the dumbasses staring at him with expressions that ranged from heartbroken to utterly betrayed.

"Why does Midobro get pancakes and we don't?" asked Shitty Hair. He looked like a sad puppy that had its bone stolen away.

"He's doing all the paperwork as payment—"

"Wait, all of it?!"

"Do you want the fucking pancake or not, Deku?" asked Katsuki, brandishing the spatula like a knife.

"I want the pancake," said Deku petulantly, shoving another syrup-drenched piece into his mouth.

(Katsuki got a toothache just from looking.)

"Aw man," mumbled Tape Face under his breath and Katsuki knew he'd won.

"Benefits to being hero partners," said Deku, humming with delight as he ate the final piece.

He then looked at the massive stack of paperwork and blanched. "Well, there are cons too—"

"What the fuck do you mean by that Deku—"

iii.

Izuku prided himself on being a generally nice person and a good hero.

He had a great social media presence, was well-liked by the public, and even without official pro hero rankings, he was regarded as one of the new pillars of hope that strengthened hero society.

He liked doing interviews and answering questions, remembering how precious the information about pro heroes used to be to him.

But they'd just finished apprehending a villain who controlled mold and the humid conditions meant that it spread fast. He couldn't wait to get back home and take a two-hour long shower.

So when a journalist shoved a microphone in his face and asked:

"Hero Deku, care to comment about the amount of taxpayer's money wasted fixing the damages caused by Dynamight?"

Well, Izuku didn't take it very well.

One thing he'd never been able to stand was people saying ill of the people he cared about. And when it came to Kacchan?

"I must have misheard you," said Izuku with a saccharine smile. "I thought you said structural damage caused by Dynamight when the villain Mucor was responsible for the accelerated growth of the fungus that lead to the foundation crumbling and half the building collapsing. Controlled detonation via Explosion was the most efficient way to remove the rubble and evacuate the rest of the civilians.

"On top of that, Dynamight is one of the heroes with the least infrastructural damage in the district ever since his debut as a pro. I suggest that you do your research—"

"Deku!" said Yaomomo, yanking him away from the cameras and the dumbfound journalist. "There you are. All the civilians are accounted for but the spores are a serious health hazard. We need to go to the hospital for a check-up. Thank you for your time!" she added to the media as she physically dragged him towards the rest of them.

"Damn, Mido," said Mina, ruffling his hair. "You really went off, huh?"

Izuku's actions caught up with him and dragged his hands over his face, letting out a muffled: "Oh no."

"Deku!" Izuku looked up and saw Kacchan glare at him as he stomped his way over and immediately hid behind Ochako. 

"Deku, I'm not going to be much help—"

"You're vicious, Chako. You can take him on, no problem."

"... That's not what I meant but thanks."

Izuku sat half asleep at the dining table, thoroughly chewed out after his media stunt.

"All hail Midobro!" shouted Kaminari, back from patrol and Izuku groaned into his sweater sleeve. This was going to be turned into a huge spectacle, huh?

"@greenbeanstan says that 'Damn, Deku snapped'," called out Hagakure.

"It was so manly," said Kirishima, wiping the corner of his eye.

"@iced_mocha says that 'I have never seen someone destroy a whole man's career with such sickly sweetness'," said Sero.

"@sobaenthusiast just put a picture of a frog puppet drinking tea," said Shouto with a frown. "Wait, I need to change my username."

"This one just says 'I suggest that you do your research' in all caps—"

"This one—"

There was the sudden, deafening shriek of a foghorn, which left all of them dazedly blinking and removing their hands from their ears.

Ochako was standing on the coffee table, holding the canister high above her head, earbuds tucked into her ears. On the side, Tenya and Yaomomo were the only other ones who remained unaffected.

"Okay, enough now," said Tenya, clapping sharply. "We're starting to make Izuku uncomfortable now."

It had taken five whole years for Tenya to call them by their names, and even now he still used them infrequently. Warmth bubbled inside him at the sight.

"Sorry Mido," said Mina sheepishly, ruffling his hair. She tended to do that a lot. "We just got caught up in it."
"I get it," said Izuku, pushing himself out of the chair. "I just wanted to defend Kacchan. He's my hero partner."

"Right," said Ochako with a strange glint in her eye, dragging the word out.

Izuku frowned. What was that supposed to mean?

iv.

Every single day, Katsuki wondered what the fuck possessed him to open an agency with his entire class.

And then decide that it apparently wasn't enough to see them every fucking day at work, they should all stay in the same building too.

(The thing that he would never admit to anyone else—he barely admitted it to himself—was that he was just as codependent on the others.

Alliance Heights had been theirs, and the notion of losing what they had there had been so ridiculous that all of them had pooled their resources and invested in the agency and another home.

Alliance Heights wasn't theirs anymore, but they had Rising: even though it was different, it was still good.)

So Katsuki did know what he was thinking when he'd agreed to the clusterfuck but he sure as hell hadn't agreed to what Pinky called 'Monthly Media Melee'.

But he still found himself seated on one of the sleek yet extremely comfortable (not that he would admit it) sofas in Ponytail and Ears' apartment.

He could still see Pinky's influences in the wildly abstract paintings on the walls to the tinted glasses on the coffee table, even though it had been months since she'd barraged into their apartment and refused to leave.

"They can't keep their hands off each other since they stopped pining," she had said, and that had been that.

 "Welcome," said Invisiline with an unnecessary flourish. "To the monthly media melee."

Polite applause followed by some hoots from his morons.

Katsuki groaned and downed whatever was left in his glass.

There were stacks of magazines and newspapers, not including the several tabs open on the laptop placed on the table.

This was going to take fucking forever.

They weren't even reviews about the agency or interviews with one of them being featured.

No, the Monthly Media Melee was all about fucking gossip rags.

Katsuki hated himself for remembering that fucking name.

He'd learnt not the try to leave in the middle when the morons had dog-piled on top of him. So he was stuck, bored and suffocated.

"Todoroki once again gets the most mentions for being 'an ethereal beauty'—"

"I am so thankful that we decided to make him the agency's poster boy, we're raking in so much money—"

"Here are a dozen different articles about Kiri petting dogs when he was on patrol—"

"It wasn't like there was an attack going on!"

"Oh no, they're just going on about how precious it was."

"Okay, that's manly. Continue."

And it went on and fucking on. As the clock ticked closer to midnight, the stories and rumours got wilder and the excitement grew directly proportional to it.

Even Katsuki was begrudgingly enjoying himself, even though his joy came from the morons being utterly and completely humiliated.

"Here's that article of Kami with that lead actress from that new action movie," said Ears, holding up her tablet.

"And another one of Kami with the lead actor from the same movie," said Racoon Eyes, delighted. 

Brain Dead scowled and took another sip of whatever toxic concoction Floaty had made.

"Here's another magazine raving about Momojirou," said Sparky with a wink and Ears jabbed him in the side with her earjack. "Hey!"

"I mean," began Round Face, which was never good news for anyone. "Yaomomo and Kyouka have the most mentions in the media ever since they've started dating but who do you think is second?"

Fucking called it.

"Ojirou and Hagakure?" said Frog Face, reasonable as always. But from the smirk of McFloaty's face, Katsuki had a feeling of impending disaster.

"Not quite."

He really didn't like where this was going to fucking go.

The rest of them rattled off names, till Icy Hot of all fucking people said with quiet authority, "Bakugou and Midoriya?"

Silence before Round Face went, "Ding ding ding. We have a winner!"

Katsuki tipped his head back. He knew the fucking chaos that was going to ensue.

He belatedly wondered if it was worth being crushed under the weight of five pro heroes to get the fuck out of here.

"Since they're hero partners, right?" continued Half n Half, putting his foot in his mouth yet fucking again but Katsuki could work with this. 

He just didn't know why the thought of refuting the claim, refuting them felt so fucking overwhelming.

"Right," said Deku, before Katsuki could say anything. He was glaring at Round Face, harsher than usual. "Hero Partners."

Katsuki didn't understand why the words made him unsettled: like he didn't belong in his own skin.

v.

Izuku sat curled up on the hospital chair, staring at the chip on the opposite wall as the ECG beeped in the background.

"Midobro," said Kirishima gently. "You should go back and get some sleep. One of us can stay here till you come back."

Izuku smiled weakly. "It's okay Eiji-kun. You guys go back, I can stay here."

"Zuku," said Ochako patiently, running comforting circles across the back of his hand. "Do you think he'd want you to do this to yourself? You haven't left that chair for more than fifteen minutes in the last three days."

"He'll wake up," said Izuku, still staring at that same spot on the wall. Why hadn't anyone covered it up yet?

"We know that, but—"

"Good night," said Izuku finally. They snapped their mouths shut at the steel laced in his voice.

"We'll be back in the morning," said Kirishima, sighing.

Ochako ran her knuckles across his scalp. "You better eat the food I brought you."
"I will."

When they were gone, Izuku half-heartedly picked at the takeout that Ochako had brought him, trying to take his mind off the fact that it was close to sixty hours since Kacchan had been injured in the villain attack.

He'd flitted in and out of consciousness a couple of times but never quite aware of his surroundings.

And it felt like all of it was Izuku's fault.

If Kacchan heard him, he probably would have smacked him upside the head with a roll of newspaper.

The doctors had said he should be waking up soon, and Izuku couldn't bear it if he wasn't there.

(Years ago, Kacchan had told him that he hated hospitals, their bleached walls and the reek of disinfectants.

Izuku, thoughtlessly, said, "Why?"

He'd looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Why the fuck do you think Deku? I wasn't allowed to see you and then I woke up you were gone.")

Izuku couldn't let that happen again. He wouldn't.

He'd heard what had happened, second-hand from Ochako and Shouto's hushed confessions, Ochako's obvious guilt bleeding through, and then from Kacchan and all Izuku could think of was the way his voice broke at the word gone.

When he had eaten as much as he could stomach, he'd snapped the container shut and picked up the writing pad the nurse had left beside the table and flipped through it.

Izuku's own first aid lessons at UA gave him context for some of the medication listed, the rest were from Yaomomo's scattered talks during those long months of the war.

Izuku had been starting to nod off by the time he reached barbiturates ('hypnotic, that is, sleeping drugs' supplied Yaomomo's voice in his head helpfully) (ironic), when he heard a quiet rustle of sheets.

He pressed the call button as Kacchan's eyes flickered open.

"Kacchan?"

Izuku saw him mouth 'Deku' under the ventilator mask fitted over his face and all he could do was reach out and hold Kacchan's hand, trying not to cry.

The nurse came in and gently asked Izuku to move aside and he did, even if it felt like peeling his skin.

They checked up his vitals and conducted a few basic tests, Izuku fretting from his chair.

By the time they were done, almost ten minutes later, Kacchan's eyes were closed again.

"Is he—"

"He's fine," said the nurse kindly, updating the patient sheet, their accent vaguely foreign. "He just needs rest."

They handed the clipboard to Izuku. "Are you his—"

"Hero partner," said Izuku, before anything else is said: like 'boyfriend' which had happened a couple of times, and it gave Izuku enough trouble breathing that he wasn't keen on repeating it or god forbid, brother.

They didn't even look alike!

They must have recently moved here. Almost everyone in Japan had heard of the Wonder Duo. 

Kacchan claimed to hate the name with a burning passion but an article, the very first one of them together, with the words printed in bold across the top was pinned to his desk.

"You must care about him a lot," stated the nurse, as if it wasn't the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah," said Izuku softly, not looking away from Kacchan. "I really do."

1

"Young Bakugou," said All Might. "This is a surprise."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow as if to say, 'is it really?'

Honestly, it wasn't. Katsuki spent as much time in Young Midoriya's apartment as he did his own.

"Deku, All Might's here!"

He heard the dull thump of something falling to the ground in one of the bedrooms and Izuku barrelled out, his hair even more of a mess than usual as he held a puppy in his arms. 

It yipped softly, chewing at the drawstring of Izuku's limited edition Froppy hoodie. 

All Might felt his eyebrows touch his hairline. "When did you get a dog—"

"This is Mochi!" said Izuku happily, holding out the puppy. It licked All Might's nose. "Chako named her, clearly, but she's the apartment mascot."

"She's a fucking brat," said Katsuki, but even he rubbed the top of her head.

"I'll make some tea," said Izuku, handing All Might the dog. She was soft and utterly trusting; he found himself melting a little on the inside.

"Is there anything you want, All Dad—" Izuku turned a bright shade of red, shaking his hands in front of him while he babbled. "Dad Might, I mean—"

"Go," said Katsuki, pushing him towards the kitchen. "We already know he's your Dad."

"I'll have some green tea," said All Might, holding Mochi carefully. "Son."

"Get the fuck out of here before you start crying," said Katsuki, shoving Izuku again. "If you get snot in the tea, you're doing the next three night shifts alone."

"—I can't help it Kacchan! It feels—"

"Out!"

Izuku gave All Might a blinding smile before he left, sniffling suspiciously.

"You can put her down," said Katsuki as Mochi wriggled in All Might's arms. "She gets antsy real fucking quick."

All Might lowered Mochi to the floor gently, and she immediately ran up to Katsuki, circling around his legs before darting off into the kitchen.

"Where are—"

"Floaty is on patrol. Icy-Hot has another commercial to shoot."

All Might chuckled. "Young Todoroki seems to be the only one from your agency doing any of these."

Katsuki shrugged. "He likes it or something. No accounting for taste, I guess."

He straightened something on one of the shelves as All Might sat down, at in the afternoon light, All Might suddenly noticed—

"Young Bakugou is that a ring?" It didn't really seem like something he would wear.

"Hah?" Katsuki lifted up his left hand. "This one?"

It was beautiful but practical. The gold ring was expertly crafted—smooth and sparkling and had no give that could get caught in something.

It was also clearly something important. 

"What does it look like, it's a fucking engagement ring."

All Might's mouth dropped open. "What—when—" he managed to say, sounding strangled. 

He took a moment and a deep breath. This was fine, one of his oldest students was engaged to be married and All Might had no idea that he was even seeing someone.

He was a terrible parental figure—teacher!

But everything was fine.

"Congratulations," he said finally, hoping that Katsuki wouldn't able to tell he was about to cry.

He squinted at All Might. "What—"

"Tea's ready!" said Izuku, coming with a tray and Mochi tagging at his heels.

He placed the tea on the table in front of them, pouring a cup for All Might. 

"Here!" As All Might reached out for the cup, his vision zeroed in on Izuku's hand, currently busy pouring out more tea. 

Against the dark ceramic of the kettle, the complementary gold ring was stark.

All Might made a choked sound as he dropped his head into his hands.

"All Might!?"

"Young Midoriya, young Bakugou, I am sorry."

It felt like a vinyl disc had suddenly screeched. 

"Um, for what exactly?" asked Izuku, panicked. 

"For not realising you were seeing each other. I can't believe it took your engagement—"

"But, All Might," said Izuku hesitantly. "We weren't seeing each other before."

"What?"

"We weren't dating," said Izuku again.

All Might blinked.

"So, one of you just, proposed marriage out of the blue?"

"It was Deku," said Katsuki, Mochi sleeping on his feet. Both of them looked completely unbothered, while Izuku looked like he was about to break into nervous hysterics. "Said he saw some rings in a shop and just had to buy them."

Before All Might could even begin to unpack that, the doorbell rang. Incessantly.

Mochi whined and curled up under the couch.

"Blasty!" screamed Ashido. "Open up! You're on dinner duty."

Katsuki looked downright murderous but Izuku just placed his hand against his shoulder. 

"Go," said Izuku softly, pressing a kiss against the corner of Katsuki's mouth. There was so much in their expressions and All Might felt he'd intruded on something private.

"Okay," he said, ruffling Izuku's hair before turning to the door and yelling back. "Fucking coming, calm your tits!"

"Get your ass out here before I allow Denki into the kitchen!"

"Fucker! You wouldn't—" And he was out within moments, slamming the door so hard the frame rattled as it bounced back open.

Izuku sighed, a dopey grin on his face.

"So," said All Might awkwardly. "Young Midoriya, I wasn't aware—"

"Hey Midobro," said Kirishima, still in costume, fresh off patrol. "Have you—"

"Your apartment, they're still—"

Kirishima winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "They're trash-talking a bit too much these days, huh? Guess your fiance really did affect us—oh, hey All Might!"

All Might waved back absent-mindedly. The word 'fiance' was playing in his head in a loop.

"I'm going to go before someone breaks the juicer again," said Kirishima, with the air of the long-suffering. "See ya at dinner. Make sure you come too, All Might! Satou and Bakubro are in charge of food today, which means it's going to be good."

"Bye!" said Izuku just as the door clicked shut. 

"Young Midoriya?"

"I'm sorry!" wailed Izuku, dropping his head into his hands. "I didn't even mean to propose, it just happened."

All Might's eye twitched. He loved Izuku like the son he'd never had, he truly did, but how on earth does a marriage proposal just happen?

"I saw these rings," said Izuku, twisting the band around his finger. "They were in a window display while I was out shopping with Yaomomo and Chako, but they'd gotten caught up because the Support Store had a deal on knives or something."

All Might remembered their third year in UA: when Young Uraraka had decided that floating knives would make an ideal weapon and Young Hatsume had created a custom set for her.

There had been a fair amount of maniacal cackling (from Uraraka) and terrified screaming (from the unlucky opponents in her way) involved. 

Ah, the good old days, when his students were focused on their studies and passions, the war behind them, none of them proposing marriage without telling their father figures.

"And I just, bought them? And got them custom engraved?" Izuku pulled off the ring, the light catching the words engraved inside. Save to win—

He'd told this to them, long ago, in a half-destroyed ground at midnight, absolutely sure that they had what it took to achieve greatness. 

"Young Midoriya—"

"I think you know what Kacchan's says."

—Win to save.

He nodded.

"I love him. I think I always have. So when I saw these, it was like a wake-up call. How long was I going to just sit around and let a good thing wait?"

"You could have asked him out to dinner?" pointed out All Might and Izuku waved his hand.

"He'd already been making me dinner for years. I mean, I would make it for him too, if I wasn't so terrible in the kitchen but we compromised. I make tea, he does everything else."

Izuku sighed. "At one point I realised that it was too small a gesture, just asking him out. Like we wouldn't die for each other, didn't always have each other's backs. I loved him, and I realised I always will so, I took a chance."

All Might smiled. "I'm glad."

"Me too," said Izuku, looking away with that soft grin. 

All Might thought to himself that it suited him—them—that look of love and contentment. "I wish you all the happiness in the world."

"So Deku had this super romantic proposal planned," said Uraraka, wobbling a little as she waved around her wine glass around. "Like super romantic—gorgeous rings, a walk on the beach under the stars, fireworks; the whole shebang! He roped the whole squad in it, we spent days planning everything: down to the picnic food and the tie he would wear."

"That is impressive," admitted All Might.

"I know right! It would woo even the most irrational person—" Katsuki scowled—"Right off their feet. Guess what this dumbass did?" 

"I'm feeling very attacked right now," said Izuku, pulling the entire table's serving of yakitori towards himself and eating it. 

"You should be," said Uraraka, brandishing her glass again. "We put so much effort into it and you proposed a day earlier in your apartment after a double shift."

"I was in the other room the whole time," offered Todoroki.

The whole table burst into chaos after that.

"Man, remember Blasty's face—"

"He was so confused—"

"Thought Midori was playing a prank on him—"

"Who has the energy for a prank after a double shift?"

"Touche—"

In the ruckus, All Might heard Izuku ask quietly: "You liked it right?"

"Yeah, Deku," said Katsuki. "I really fucking did."

All Might smiled. His kids were all grown up now, and they were really doing so well. He was incredibly proud of them.

"Could have done without fucking Icy-Hot interrupting us though."

"For the last time, I needed to go for a meeting—"

"Should have climbed out of the fucking window then."

"That's impractical—"

Well, mostly grown up.