Chapter Text
Katsuki couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t bring himself to truly relish in the fact that Izuku was alive. And that this was Izuku— no quirk affected him anymore, he wasn’t lying when questioned by the police, nor was there any evidence of mental tampering.
They put him through extensive questioning and everyone thought it prudent to remove Katsuki from the room. They didn’t need his temper getting the best of him and ruining the process or hindering it.
They stuck Shouto with him, in a separate room that live-streamed the process. They called in Eijirou, too. More like, Shouto called him so the two of them could stop him if he did something the police didn’t like. At this point, the two idiots were sitting at the table, while he leaned against it and watched the monitor in silence.
Katsuki thought it was stupid. He wanted to know what happened; he needed to see that it was actually Izuku. He wasn’t going to do anything to hider that process, yet they put him in a timeout room. At least he could watch the questioning, Katsuki thought. He could analyze the nerd’s mannerisms to see if it was Izuku.
He couldn’t make the call to Auntie without making sure it was him.
“This is absolutely insane,” Eijirou said, rubbing the back of his neck.. “That looks like Midoriya, sounds like him, and all the tests say it’s him. But I can’t help but feel. . .”
“That this is impossible?” Shouto finished, tilting his head as they watched Izuku answer another question.
Izuku looked more or less like himself. He was a bit thinner than he had been before he left for that raid mission. The bags beneath his eyes could almost compete against Katsuki’s. There were new scars on his arms and he knew there was a large one spanning the entire circumference of Izuku’s waist. But the tests showed that he was in remarkable health for what he had been through.
“We cremated him, man,” Eijirou frowned. “Bakugou saw his body. So did Ochako. None of this makes sense.”
“You can turn your skin into rock, Bakugou can create explosions with his sweat, and I can create ice or fire out of thin air,” Shouto deadpanned. “We’ve seen crazier things.”
Eijirou stayed silent before he sighed, his arms coming down to cross over his chest. “Maybe, but this is pretty insane. We had a whole funeral, they took him off the Hero Roster, and they even confirmed there was too much blood for Midoriya to survive that.”
“They confirmed the Doctor that was imprisoned was a fake double,” Shouto said, a shuffling of papers telling Katsuki that IcyHot had reached for the notes the police gave them. “They think he was the fake the entire time, especially with the chaos that went down during the first war. He probably stuck a Nomu close to Izuku for any shot of taking him. Turns out that psychotic bastard might have saved Izuku.”
“Fucking stalker,” Katsuki muttered under his breath.
“I thought the whole thing with All for One and One for All was over,” Eijirou said. “There were two wars. Did he not get the memo?”
“One for All didn’t die,” Katsuki replied, making a noise of disapproval as he watched Izuku try to sit up and his features scrunch up in pain. “It’s the only link the Doctor has to All for One. Desperate times call for desperate fuckers. But he had this planned— there’s no way he did everything by himself. The body, the autopsy, the tests, the ashes— hell, even the amount of blood at the site of impact.”
“You think there’s rats?” Shouto asked.
“I think that’s a reasonable conclusion,” Katsuki said. “Don’t you?”
The answering silence was enough of an agreement for Katsuki. He saw the doctors and police finally begin packing up, so Katsuki pushed off the table and headed for the door.
When the other two went to follow him, he turned back and held up a hand.
“Let me talk to him,” Katsuki said in a low voice, unwilling to let them hear any more emotion from him. “Alone.”
“Yeah, right, okay” Eijirou said, immediately stepping back.
Shouto didn’t step back, nor did he say anything. When Katsuki raised an eyebrow, it must have willed the IcyHot bastard into speaking.
“Make sure it’s him,” Shouto requested, not even reacting when Katsuki’s face scrunched into a sneer. “Ask him something only you would know.”
“Doc could have scanned his memories,” Katsuki muttered. “That’s not a sure fire way of knowing if it’s him.”
Shouto leveled his stare. “There are things no one in this world knows the details about. Except for you two.”
Anger rose within him just as quickly as it withered away. Who the fuck did IcyHot think he was? Just because he’s the only one they’ve remotely eluded it to, doesn’t mean jackshit.
The second war took a lot from them. And all of that crap got spewed across media platforms as some radical apologists tried to undermine the heroes still standing. But there were a few things, just a few, that no one spoke about. And even rarer, something only Deku would know. Something only Katsuki could confirm.
“The fuck did he say to you?” Katsuki narrowed his eyes, looking the bastard up and down as if he would turn into the Doctor himself.
“Enough to know it weighs on him,” Shouto shrugged. “I don’t know what it is. But you do.”
“I do.”
“Great, so you can ensure it’s actually him.” Shouto clapped him on the shoulder. “Glad we can count on you.”
Katsuki didn’t snarl the way his body wanted him to nor did he say anything else to the two-toned bastard.
He simply walked out of the room and nodded at the group standing beside Izuku’s door.
“He’s in a fragile state,” A doctor warned him. “You have five minutes before we remove you so we can continue with testing.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Katsuki grumbled. “I got it.”
After shared looks, a guard opened the door for him.
Katsuki almost hesitated. That room would put him in the same space as Izuku, the person he thought he lost forever. The one who still haunted his day to day life.
Seeing him in the flesh. . . Katsuki didn’t know if he could handle the chance that this was all a ruse.
“Turn off the cameras,” Katsuki said, because this obviously wasn’t hesitating. It was important.
“Dynamight, it doesn’t work like that,” A policeman said calmly, but Katsuki shook his head.
“Nah, we want to know if that’s him?” Katsuki asked, looking at the group. “Turn off the cameras and mics. This shit, if it’s him, doesn’t need to be said to anyone else but me. No one looks in.”
“And how do we know you’ll tell the truth?” The policeman said, gesturing for the guard to close the door. “What if you want to believe this is the Hero Deku so you say it is?”
With no one to stop him, Katsuki took a large step and invaded the man’s space, looming over him with a cutting glare.
“I don’t fucking lie,” Katsuki hissed. “And I don’t do anything but the real thing. If that’s not fucking Deku, you can blast his ass or secure him in a cell for the rest of its miserable life.” He leaned in even further, making the guard gulp at his overwhelming presence. “I don’t settle for anything but the best. Deku was the best. Got that?”
The officer’s nostrils flared and his eye twitched, but he nodded nonetheless.
“Affirmative, Dynamight,” He managed to get out. Katsuki didn’t care if the damn officer choked on the words, so long as he got to go into that room without any surveillance.
He didn’t care what these pricks thought of him, especially with the entire world assuming that his and Deku’s partnership didn’t stop at their work life. He never confirmed it nor did any of the heroes who actually knew, but word got around. It wouldn’t be surprising if these idiots thought he was moved by his emotions enough to cloud his judgement.
Katsuki smirked, stepping back and not bothering to look at the guard that silently opened the door for him.
When he walked in, Izuku wasn’t looking at him.
Instead, the nerd was tense in the hospital bed, his head tilted up and eyes screwed shut. Even when Katsuki closed the door, Izuku didn’t move.
“You’re dead for two months and you think you can ignore me?” Katsuki said, his words harsh but voice quiet. “Izuku, what the hell?”
”I don’t remember much, Kacchan,” Izuku answered, still keeping his eyes shut.
Irritation prickled beneath his skin and one of his eyes twitched without his consent. He didn’t know why he cared, it’s not like the nerd was looking at him anyway.
“Tell me something you do remember,” Katsuki requested, standing at the foot of the bed. Sitting down didn’t seem appropriate yet— he didn’t have confirmation that this was his Izuku.
“Are the cameras and mics off?” Izuku whispered, grimacing as if he was in pain.
Katsuki wished he could say his skin was itching because there was something wrong, that his hands were starting to shake with the anticipating of having to fight some disgusting villain masquerading as his dead partner, and that the stupid tears in his eyes were from his anger. But he knew none of the was true, not when every instinct in his body begged him to move closer, to touch Izuku’s face— to caress his cheeks, kiss his eyes until the opened voluntarily, and whisper reassurances as he held Izuku close.
And so he stayed right where he was, looking at Izuku from the end of the hospital bed.
Katsuki knew this was Izuku. Call it a gut feeling, but he knew it was.
And yet he needed that confirmation. He needed to know it was the real thing before he continued, before he acted on his impulses.
There were a couple of knocks on the door, the translation easy enough to pick up on. OFF.
“Surveillance is off,” Katsuki said, as though Izuku needed him to say it even though they both heard the knocks.
“We didn’t know,” Izuku said, his chapped lips pressing together into a tight frown. “We didn’t know how that fight against Shigaraki would go. All Might said it would be near impossible.”
“But that our best chance was to face him together,” Katsuki added, remembering their meeting as if it were yesterday.
“All Might said I should be prepared for Shigaraki to use whatever known weakness I had, any I knew I had,” Izuku continued, finally opening his eyes. That gorgeous green shade appeared muddled, the color near obscured by the sheer pain and regret shining within them.
Katsuki let him continue.
“All Might warned that Shigaraki might target you because you got in the way, last time,” Izuku continued with a shaky breath. “I let you both believe that was my reasoning when I suggested,” he paused, looking away for a moment before he steeled himself and caught Katsuki’s gaze again. “When I suggested that we split OFA between the two of us. I had no idea how it would affect you, because you have a quirk.”
“So why would you risk my life-span like that?” Katsuki asked, his question only a prompt for Izuku to continue.
“The reason I told you or the actual reason?” Izuku said, waiting for clarity. When Katsuki remained silent, he continued.
“I told you that the OFA users and I believed we could section off the quirk,” Izuku explained, his eyes never breaking contact. “By breaking off All Might’s portion, we gave you an untouched piece of the power, one not directly effected by any of the past quirks. That way, your life span wouldn’t be dwindled to nothing before we hit fifty. And we could give you an emergency save, should anything happen. OFA users don’t pass on like everyone else. Their souls remain in OFA. Even if you died physically, your soul would still be within reach. All we’d have to do is save your body. . .”
“I told you that you were an idiot for thinking anyone could kill me before I beat you and became the number one hero,” Katsuki said, the ghost of a smile on his lips as he remembered it. It never came to fruition, though, as the next words came out. “Why did you really do it?”
“Two reasons that go hand in hand,” Izuku whispered. “I knew my weakness already. I couldn’t control the emotions in my heart. Namely, the emotions I had that revolved around you. I never told you that you’re the reason I unlocked Blackwhip, nor that controlling my emotions meant I couldn’t even dwell on anything that remotely sparked a reaction within me. I was afraid that I’d do something stupid if you got hurt and that I’d die. I couldn’t let there be a chance that we lost OFA to AFO.”
Katsuki nodded, having pieced together all of this over the years. They never had this conversation in great detail. Some things they just knew and didn’t revisit after the war. Not even after they got together.
“And the rest of the reason?”
“I thought Shigaraki would target you because of me,” Izuku whispered. “And I never warned you because I couldn’t accept what my feelings were. And I couldn’t let you figure it out.”
“Hell of a way to find out,” Katsuki said, forcing some humor into his words. “Nothing like the big bad villain confessing your feelings for me. What did I say to you?”
“When you woke up or when you saved me?” Izuku asked.
Katsuki snorted. “I shoved you off my body because you were hunched over it like a big baby. Tell me about what happened in OFA.”
“The predecessors. . .” Izuku started with a shaky voice. He looked down at his scarred hands and closed his eyes. “I nearly lost OFA. They were beaten down by AFO. I thought we would lose. And then you came. You saved me and OFA.”
“What did I say to you?”
Izuku opened his eyes and looked at Katsuki, water pooling around the bright viridian.
“‘There’s no sense in being one of All Might’s successor if you’re going to screw up and take yourself out of the equation.’” Izuku recited. “And. . .”
He paused and took a deep breath. “And that All Might believes in us. He trusts us to continue his legacy after the war is over. And that he’s sorry he won’t be there to. . . To see our progress in person. But he’ll watch over us through OFA.”
“Because All Might sacrificed his life force carried within OFA to save you once Edgeshot saved your body,” Izuku finished. “His vestige is with you. Well. . . In spirit. It’s not like Yoichi and Nana.”
“The old man really knew how to make me feel guilty as hell,” Katsuki said. “ Who would have thought I’d be butt-hurt that All Might chose you to give his power and then turned around to give me his damn life force and portion of OFA? Fucking insane.”
Katsuki made a disapproving noise. The truth behind his revitalization was a closed guarded secret. No one questioned it too much— they took Edgeshot’s sacrifice and applied it to whatever science couldn’t explain. And All Might suddenly leaving the military’s surveillance room to essentially disappear mere minutes later. . . Everyone was willing to just blame the war between OFA and AFO having consequences they couldn’t explain.
Izuku and Katsuki were more than willing to let them all believe that. There were some things that they didn’t want everyone else to know.
“Do you believe it’s actually me?” Izuku asked, looking up with a ghost of a smile. “That was your own interrogation to figure it out, right?”
“Nah,” Katsuki shook his head, coming around the bed to sit on the edge. Izuku’s hand instantly found its home within his own. “Whose katsudon do you like more? Mine or Auntie’s?”
Izuku answered with a snort. “My mom’s. Kacchan is amazing but he sometimes goes a little too much with the spices.”
“Yeah, it’s you,” Katsuki concluded with a smug grin. His expression then melted as he drunk in Izuku’s features. When Izuku was unconscious, it was easy to believe it wasn’t real. That the freckles could be a mirrored copy, that the rough skin of his scars were just his own mind’s creation, one that begged it to be true so he wouldn’t have to spend another morning wallowing in empty movements as he tried to regain a semblance of normalcy. And then when Izuku woke up, it was easy to overlook any of the details, being so far away and with a one-way glass between them.
But now, Katsuki saw them all. The bare tracings of tiny freckles scattered across his cheeks, how prominent the four on each were, the darkness beneath his eyes that were comparative to how the nerd looked when he spent all night looking into cases, and the viridian color surrounding his pupils nearly encased by the darkness as Izuku met his stare.
“Hi,” Izuku whispered, the atmosphere shifting as Katsuki leaned in closer.
“Hi,” Katsuki said, taking his tone to roam his eyes over Izuku’s face. His other hand came up, brushing the long curls back. “Your hair grew a lot.”
“I missed that hair appointment, I guess,” Izuku said, leaning into the touch, even when the movement made him wince. “I missed a lot.”
“Nah,” Katsuki reassured, pulling back a bit when there were knocks on the door. “You didn’t miss much. But you’re off the Hero Charts.”
“That makes sense,” Izuku breathed out, his gaze only leaving Katsuki’s when another round of knocks sounded. “Does that mean you have to go?”
The words were small, barely audible. Katsuki knew that even if there were microphones in the room, they’d have difficult picking up the audio.
“Yeah, you aren’t in the best shape, Izuku,” Katsuki said with a frown. “I lost you once. I can’t go through that again. If this was some long-term plan to get me back for the scare I put you through, then consider me beat.”
“Kacchan,” Izuku started, but a heavy round of knocks banged on the door.
“That’s my cue to go,” Katsuki said, his head lowering. “I’ll be right outside.”
“Don’t go,” Izuku said, even if they both knew it was a futile request.
Izuku’s hand tightened around Katsuki’s as he started to move. Katsuki shook his head, muttering about how clingy the nerd can before, as he pushed his body weight forward, just close enough that their noses were a hair away from each other.
“I love you,” Katsuki whispered, pressing forward until he managed to capture Izuku’s lips in a soft, an oh so heart achingly soft kiss. It was reminiscent of so many kisses they’ve shared in the past, but this one felt a bit different, tasted a bit different too. The slight trace of salt on both their lips as broke apart and opened their eyes. Katsuki was sure the tears falling down Izuku’s cheeks mirrored his own.
“I love you too,” Izuku said with a watery smile.
The door opened, so they both leaned back. Katsuki stared at Izuku another moment longer, until the doctor cleared their throat. He used his fear hand top wipe the tears from Izuku’s cheeks and then his own. Like hell would he let those pricks see him like that. It was bad enough they saw him nearly break down at the sight of Izuku’s sleeping form when he first arrived with Shoto. Izuku’s hands were a light presence on his forearm as he stood up to leave. The way Izuku’s grasp slowly fell away as Katsuki nearly made the tear up again, but he put on a scowl in response to the doctor’s disapproving expression.
“You better take good fucking care of him,” Katsuki nearly snarled. “You got the honor of workin with the most reckless hero out there, so work with pride, will ya?”
The doctor wasn’t fazed. “If you vacate the room, I’ll be able to continue taking care of your partner, Dynamight. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Before he left the room, Katsuki looked back. It was a surreal image, but one he’d dreamt of for weeks. “Be good for the doctors, Deku. You caused them enough trouble as it is.”
Izuku’s features softened to one of quiet adoration, a look only reserved for Katsuki. “Of course, Kacchan. I’ll be good.”
Katsuki nodded, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he left the room. The doctor closed the door behind him, already talking about upcoming tests and permission they needed from the nerd to continue specific treatment. Katsuki walked back to the observation room, heading straight for the table that had his phone on it.
“It’s Izuku, then?” Shouto inquired. Katsuki gave a him a short nod as an answer. “Wow.”
“This is insane, dude,” Eijirou breathed out. “Mido-bro was definitely dead.”
“He definitely would have been,” Katsuki grunted, opening up his messages and shooting a text to his parents and Auntie to see if they would be available for a dinner conveniently in the area of the hospital. He could care less about how the Commission wanted to proceed. Auntie and his parents deserved to know.
Hell, it wasn’t everyday someone came back to life.
“How do we break this type of news?” Eijirou asked. “This ain’t exactly a run of the mill story. This is huge. Villain factions had been gaining traction since Hero Deku was gone. This’ll cause a panic. A massive panic.”
“It’ll be fucking hell,” Katsuki agreed, already receiving a confirmation from his mother. Auntie replied she wasn’t sure she could get up to the area after work, so he forwarded the message to his mother. A minute later he got his mother promising Inko would be with them.
“Fuck let the media leak the story,” Katsuki said, debating if he wanted to make the PR department and the Commission suffer today. “Let them marinate in the idea that maybe he’s alive. We deal with the first round of people who act out, space out the crazy reactions. Then we hit them with the truth.”
“You disappearing from patrols will clue people in pretty easily,” Eijirou pointed out. “You’ve been a consistent headline and presence on the streets since Midoriya… died? Didn’t die? Got kidnapped by a crazy scientist hell bent on recreating a power you two defeated years ago?”
“It won’t be a surprise when Katsuki is forced into a vacation,” Shouto said, already on his phone. “I can create threads in the hero forum that theorize Izuku is alive. Plus I can partner with Hawks to announce some reason as to why Katsuki is off the streets suddenly. Him being around his parents and Inko in a different area in Japan should help too.”
“How the fuck did you know that?” Katsuki said, the aggression behind his words falling flat. Hi looked up at the IcyHot bastard in time for him to shrug.
“You get this funny scowl when you text your mother,” Shouto answered with simple honesty. Eijirou’s impressed “Bro” did nothing to stop Katsuki from rolling his eyes at the dumbass.
“You’re a goddamn freak, IcyHot,” Katsuki muttered. “Almost as bad as Izuku.”
Shouto shrugged. “Guess his habits rubbed off on me so I could keep up the near obsession with observing your every move while he was gone.”
Katsuki glared at the fucker, who raised his hands in defense.
“I’ll gladly be relieved of my position now that Izuku is back,” Shouto said. “I’ve seen enough of you to last me a while.”
“A while to you is maybe a day,” Katsuki said, raising an eyebrow.
Shouto looked up from his phone and smiled. “Ah, I knew you’d understand.”
“You absolute fucking-“ Katsuki started towards the bastard with a raised hand, before Eijirou placed himself between them.
“Hey now,” Eijirou tried to placate him. “None of this fighting will be good for Midoriya. He’s still recovering from who knows what. Let’s not let him hear blasts in the hospital.”
“Fine,” Katsuki conceded, smiling widely. “I’ll just strangle him then. No quirks.”
“I’ll reserve a room for us if you want to act on your primal alpha urges,” Shouto said, bringing his phone up to his ear. “Hey, can you do me a favor? No? I’ll get you a time slot so you can see my— yeah I figured that would get you to agree preemptively. Anyway, I want to start circulating rumors in hero forms about Deku. Mhm. Yeah, Kats confirmed it. No, I wouldn’t do it like that. I’d put the focus on the other side of Japan. Mhm. Got it. Oh, Kats? He’s trying to strangle me, so can we reserve a training room so he can work off the steam? Yeah. I think it’ll be fine. Seriously? Fine. I’ll get you two time slots. Thanks.”
Shouto looked at them both with a smile. “We got training rooms 8 and 9 reserved at the agency branch in town for later tonight when the doctor inevitably kick us out. And I got permission to start theorizing stuff about Deku online.”
“Dude, how do you get people to bend to your will like that?” Eijirou asked in awe.
“Easy,” Shouto said, tilting his head. “I observe and see what other people want or hope to get from others. I have a good network and can get most of those things.”
“Do me,” Eijirou said excitedly. “I wanna know what you think I want.”
Shouto looked him up and down once, before nodding to himself. “You need someone to distract Kaminari for a few nights so you can finally ask Ashido on a date. He’s been extra clingy since Momo and Jirou started dating.”
Eijirou gasped, as if it was a life-altering realization rather than a simple matter of noticing the longing looks he had for the pink menace.
“Oh my god, how did you know?” Eijirou said in a hushed voice. “I thought I was being subtle about Mina. Is it that obvious?”
“Not enough is Dunce Face can’t see your pathetic pining,” Katsuki scoffed. “This is ridiculous.”
“As if your pining wasn’t just as obvious,” Shouto retorted, raising a brow. “I distinctly remember you ranting when we would have our weekly training sessions—“
“Oh my God he had those with you too?” Eijirou perked up, completely forgetting his earlier embarrassment. “And here I thought I was special.”
“It was worse because I also had weekly training nights it’s Izuku and he had no idea what the nature of his feelings were,” Shouto shook his head. “It was certainly an interesting twist of events for Katsuki to accept his feelings and Izuku be none the wiser.”
“Dude is dense,” Eijirou agreed with a nod. “Took a while. It got kinda sad, honestly.”
“Fuck off, both of you,” Katsuki snapped. “Don’t you two have anything better to do?”
Eijirou raised his eyebrows. “Uh, no dude. I specifically got called here to basically distract you and maybe take a few blasts to the chest. I don’t think I’m even cleared to know any of this. Unlike Todoroki, you’re my main priority. I’ve got no theories to write up to piss off PR and the commission. I’m just here.”
“Then just be here quietly,” Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Or get some food. The parents wont be here ‘til later and I got a feeling those shitty doctors are going to keep me out of Izuku’s room for most of the day.”
“I can do food,” Eijirou acquiesced. “The usual for you both?”
Once Shitty Hair got nods of approval, he left the room with a promise to be back soon.
The door just closed when Shouto asked his next question. “So, are you gunna call Hatsume?”
“And tell that looney what?” Katsuki said with little bite to his tone.
“That the ring prototypes she keeps at the back of her desk drawer will see the light of day again,” Shouto said, with the decency of lowering his voice.
“Nerd just came back to life,” Katsuki grunted, situating himself at the table and looked in on Deku’s doctors fussing about him. “I ain’t dropping a marriage proposal that fast. Gotta let him heal. Gotta rework us. It’ll be different. Not much, but enough that we have to do things right. Then, I’ll ask him.”
“He’d say yes no matter when you asked,” Shouto said, coming over to sit in the chair next to him. The bastard followed his gaze and sighed. “It’s hard to believe this is real.”
“You’re the one who said he couldn’t accept that he was dead,” Katsuki replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “I get it though. I had a conversation with him, felt his hands, and heard the secrets only the two of us know about. Still doesn’t feel real.”
“I was in denial of his death,” Shouto nodded. “And now we’re in shock that he’s alive. I don’t think either of us got through the grieving cycle.”
“Denial, huh,” Katsuki repeated. “Is that what we were in?”
“I think so.”
“What about everyone else?”
“Trying to get through the stages, some were better than others.”
“And me?”
“Don’t you know how you were feeling?”
Katsuki laughed, short and filled with empty humor. “No, Shouto. I don’t know if I’ve felt anything genuine since he died.”
“Oh,” Shouto said quietly. “I think I understand.”
“Course you do,” Katsuki shook his head.
“Well, I understand in part,” Shouto amended his statement. “I didn’t grow up with the majority of my emotions revolving around Izuku, good or bad. But he was the first person who made me want to feel something of my own and I guess he inevitably was tied up in those emotions even if it didn’t concern him. So when he was gone, it felt a lot like all those emotions had no place in the world anymore. Does that make sense?”
“It’s an unhealthy way of processing shit,” Katsuki said. “But yeah, it makes sense. Nerd has a way of doing that.”
“I wonder how it’ll be now that he’s back,” Shouto pondered. “ Those feelings no longer had a person to cling to. And now that person is back. Will they just revert back? Or is this life’s way of telling us to get a grip and stop being codependent.”
“Hell if I know,” Katsuki raised his left hand and focused on that ring finger. “Eventually I’ll ask, after we sorted out our shit. Maybe that’ll help. Maybe it’ll make it worse. We’re heroes. Dying ain’t exactly uncommon in our profession.”
“Yeah. . . Do you want me to support the DynaDeku fans or make it seem like you two were just close Hero Partners?”
Katsuki laughed, an inkling of something genuine in his voice. “Half of your users support it, half of them don’t. Create some fucking chaos. If I wanna let the world know that Deku is mine, I’ll do it my own way. Serves them right for collectively deciding that we were together romantically without any confirmation.”
“You never denied it,” Shouto said.
“And I never confirmed it, either,” Katsuki snapped. “So fuck with them. I’m sure it’ll be amusing.”
“Okay,” Shouto shrugged, already tapping on his phone. “Oh cool, I’ve already got a thousand hits on this one post. I think that might be a record.”
“That fast?”
“I’m just that good at theories.”
“Your theories are shit, IcyHot.”
“But they have some grounding.”
“Fuck off.”
“Once Izuku is healed and okay mentally, sure. You’ll go back to sharing my friendship.”
“The fuck is this then? The VIP version of it?”
“Yup,” Shouto affirmed. “Izuku can explain it to you. I don’t think you quite get it yet. But all in good time.”
Katsuki’s face contorted in confusion. “And what the hell does that mean?”
“Did you not hear me?” Shouto asked, his words laced with mock concern. “We are in a hospital; I’m sure someone can look at your eardrums—“
“Fuck off, IcyHot.”
And to think, dinner with his parents and Inko was the light at the end of the stuffy ass room he’d been locked away in all day. He had made reservations and even went as far as contact Inko’s manager and his mother’s assistants to ensure thei duties for the next couple day were covered. He quoted an internal hero investigation that they would be assisting with. The shit worked easily, even securing their secrecy with the promise of signed merchandise.
Having dinner was the easy part. They all played along and tend about miscellaneous topics and had decent food. How had Katsuki been? Was Inko’s work treating her well? How was the design industry and did they have a leg up on their competition? How were Katsuki’s friends doing, especially Shouto and Eijirou. Then, the check came and his mother decided to rip off the bandaid.
“Why did you have us drive over two hours away for dinner?” His mother asked, crossing her arms together. “It’s not like you to make requests like this. Hell, that’s the only reason I cancelled my last appointment to make sure we would be on time.”
“I am also wondering why you requested dinner here,” Inko said in a quiet voice. “It’s not the type of restaurant you usually frequent.”
“Nah, but the hag has more standards than either of us, Auntie,” Katsuki said with a shit eating grin and his mother muttered various curses. “It’s a good reason. Figured I’d drive you guys myself. Eijirou dropped me off, so I’ll drive your car.”
“Are you sure?” His dad asked, though he held out the key anyway.
“Positive,” Katsuki nodded, taking the check so he could go pay for it. “Let’s get going.”
He got the three of them in the car, with Auntie riding in the passenger seat. When he pulled into the hospital parking lot, she tensed in her seat.
“Katsuki, honey,” Inko said quietly. “I don’t want to let my mind think up explanations for why you drove us here.”
“Then don’t let it,” Katsuki shrugged. “This shit is difficult to explain, so I figured I’d just show you.”
He ignored his parents attempts at alleviating the tension with obviously wrong reasons as to why they were in the hospital. Of course he hadn’t knocked up a girl, he wasn’t knocked up himself by the work of some quirk, neither Shouto or Eijirou were injured and in need of coddling.
He only held Auntie’s hand, shooting his father a look as he did so. Seconds later, his father was holding his mother’s hand as they all stepped into the observation room.
Eijirou and Shouto were with Deku— breaking the news to him and probably having some heartfelt conversation. So the room was empty, and the one—way glass was shrouded in darkness.
“Katsuki,” His mother started slowly. “What the hell are we doing here?”
“Hawks got a call a few days ago,” Katsuki explained, his fingers tightening around Inko’s for a moment. A squeeze of reassurance, maybe.
He took a breath, just one deep enough to ensure his voice wouldn’t break or waver. He’s had his time to come around to the idea. Now he had to pull it together for them.
“He had to contact Shouto and I, before he did anything else,” Katsuki continued. “We were his Hero Contacts, so if he wound up in the hospital, we were told before anyone else.”
None of them said anything. Not even his mother, who probably had some kind of snappy retort waiting to roll off her tongue. No, they all knew only one Pro Hero had Dynamight and Shouto as his Hero Contacts.
Auntie’s grip tightened immensely, to the point that Katsuki knew he’d have indentations from the nail stubs on the back of his hand.
“Apparently someone came into the hospital,” Katsuki told them. “Well, collapsed outside of it. The medics thought he was delusional because he kept muttering something they thought was ‘mom’. They had been hit with some quirk that disfigured his appearance for a while, probably a tactic to try and limit the exposure of who he was if he was recaptured after he escaped. A no name is a lot easier to forget if you only see them once than a famous Pro Hero. But they figured out what he was muttering when the quirk wore off and they saw who it was.”
Katsuki took another breath, letting Auntie desperately hold onto his hand as he reached over and clicked the button that would the other side of the room to them.
Auntie gasped, tears already streaming down her face. Katsuki moved her grip to his other hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Pro Hero Deku had escaped from some AFO fucker’s lab and managed to get to this hospital, muttering his damn nickname for me in his delusions,” Katsuki finally said, though he was sure they all pieced together most of that.
Because there Izuku was, just beyond the glass, completely oblivious to the breakdowns happening as he smiled and laughed at something Shouto said.
“Izuku. . .” Katsuki said, drawing out his next breath. Maybe it was easier to accept now that their parents knew. He had to be there to support them, so he had to come to terms with this. “Izuku is alive.”
And suddenly, the next breaths he took felt more real than anything had the past couple months.