⚠️Somewhat strong themes I guess⚠️
Kota and Eri clung to Midoryia for dear life, shaking him around and fighting over him while the rest of the class only watched in both confusion and pity.
"No! I wanna play with him!" Argued Kota.
"No! I wanna play with him!" Eri argued back.
"Should we do something...?" Asked a sweatdropping Uraraka from a small distance.
"Kero. Maybe." Tsu replied awkwardly.
They pulled Izuku back and forth as if they were playing a game of Tug-of-War. Midoryia had no idea of how to act or what to do so he just took the abuse, though he was getting very tired, especially from the constant yelling in each ear.
"It's time for bed!" Called out Hagakure from the sidelines. "Tomorrow we have a big day, don't we guys?" She nudged Kaminari with her invisible elbow.
"O-Oh! Y-Yeah!!" He stuttered out after being called upon so suddenly. "Sleeping is so cool!"
"And manly!" Kirishima added, sending a wink and a thumbs-up via the fight's way.
Both children looked defeated but nodded anyways, agreeing over their unjust sleep schedule. Kota parted ways, feeling jealous of Eri, who walked hand-in-hand with his idol. She stuck her tongue out at him and pulled at her eyelid slightly.
Ge grew even more vexed, fighting the urge to fight her for the greenette, but knew he was better than that. He had self-control unlike a certain one-horned girl.
As Izuku and Eri walked to their respective room, the freckled teen gave his upmost gratitude to the invisible female who saved him from being ripped in half like some old doll.
Once they arrived in their room, now fully furnished and set-up comfortably, they sat on Izuku's bed. The room wasn't as nice or comfortable as they made their other room back at the hideout. That one had all their belongings and family, while this one had only a few cherished artifacts and a new set of close friends they could confide in vaguely; as well as Midoryia's boyfriend.
"Can we call Tou-nii?" Asked the light-haired girl.
"Do you miss him a lot?" He asked.
"Of course!" She said almost in disbelief at his absurd question.
"More than me?" He asked, feigning pain. "Betrayal!" He fell back dramatically, causing the mattress to bounce slightly.
"No way!" She pounced on his chest, causing the other to lose some air. "I love you this much!" She extended her arms out as much as possible.
Izuku sat up with a gasp. "That much!?! Well... I love you THIS much!" He copied her action before engulfing her in a tight hug. The younger giggled as they played around.
As they ran around the room, the phone rang, snapping both of their attentions to it. "I'll get it!" They said in unison, running to the phone and trying to snatch it from the other's grasp.
"Who is it?! Who is it!!" Asked the shorter, jumping up and down in curiosity.
"Jin." I announced, picking the call up.
"I wanna talk to him!" She changed over and over, trying to get the phone away from her older brother.
"Hello?" Izuku answered the call.
"Shrimpy Junior? It's me, Jin!" Said the older blond male with slight urgency. "Ugh! Hang up!"
"What's up?" Izuku asked worriedly. "Is everything okay there?"
"Yeah! Hell no!"
"Oh? Then what's the pleasure of hearing from you guys?"
"Bored. We miss you! Gross! Feelings!"
Izuku held back a laugh, placing the call on speaker so the younger child could hear as well. She excitedly greeted the blond who in reply was ecstatic to hear from her once again.
"Hey Shrimpy Junior Junior!!"
"Hey uncle Jin!!" She beamed.
"How's everything going back there? Is that stress-guy treating you well? He hasn't poisoned any of you, has he?"
"Not yet! He buys us fancy sushi though! Yuck!"
Eri turned her head towards her brother with that usual puppy-like look of hers. "Can we get fancy sushi too?"
Izuku blinked a couple of times trying to fight the urge to do as she pleaded, but she pushed forward, finally convincing him. "Fine." He sighed in defeat. Eri did a little victory dance as she cheered for convincing him, bringing a small smile on Midoryia's face.
There was slight shuffling in the background where the rest of the villains greeted happily, exclaiming how much they missed the duo and wished they could go back.
They talked for a while about their usual days lately. Izuku had been in contact with Tomura Shigaraki the most since he had to deliver the plan to the leader of the group.
"So excited for next week! We get to see little Eri-chan again!" Toga cried happily. "I'll show her my newest additions to my collection! I also got Hello Kitty stickers for us to use!"
"Really!" Eri's eyes sparkled as she talked to her big sister.
Midoryia was slightly against the idea of Eri being near Toga's collection, thinking it may be the knife collection.
As they chatted and laughed away with the league, a spiky blond was leaning against the door overhearing the entire conversation.
"What the hell..." He said under his breath, gritting his teeth in fear. "This nerd is with the League..?!?"
He took his phone out and recorded the conversation trying to get important details for the heroes.
Izuku had become trustful in the idea no one would be out of their rooms past eleven, as they had motion sensors out of the windows of each room and window to track each of them in case of emergencies such as a villain attack of some sort.
The motion sensors activated a camera once activated, so it recorded only at those times. It reminded Izuku of ghost hunters and their strange devices.
Izuku had taken note of this when he first arrived and even made sure there were no cameras or anything. He was safe due to him just being a teen who was attacked and kidnapped.
Just some troubled teen with a rough and traumatic experience.
Harmless.
As they chatted behind the closed door happily, Bakugo listened. With every word, his stomach sunk in guilt and disgust. Vomit threatened to exit from his mouth, but he swallowed it back down with a sour and disgusting feeling.
He'd come up to apologize to Izuku after all he'd done to him.
Izuku's words earlier had somehow managed to reach him, causing him to feel embarrassed over his past actions towards the greenette.
'Is this my fault...?' He kept asking himself as he listened to the shorter male talk to a strange voice that kept on splitting between nice and completely rude, yet Izuku seemed to remain unaffected by it.
Around an hour went by until they finally hung up the call. Bakugo quickly scrambled out of the hallway and left to his own room, completely shocked on the conversation he just overheard. He sat on his bed with a creak in utter disbelief. His entire mind shut off completely from reality as he debated wether the call was real or not.
He placed his phone by his bedside and pulled the blankets up to his eyes as he stared at the dimly lit ceiling of the room. "There's no way..." He said trying to convince himself. "Right...?"
He spent the night trying different ways to get himself to sleep, but the reality around him seemed to pry his eyes open all night. He listened to music, counted sheep, exercised to tire himself out, read a book, played games, yet nothing could get him to shut his eyes even for a second.
At some time, he heard birds chirping and the sun started to seep through his closed blinds. "Morning already..." He croaked tiredly, looking at the time on his phone.
All he wanted was to sleep and wake up to a new day where that stupid conversation he overheard Izuku have, didn't exist.
He knew what he had to do though.
Bakugo got ready for the day as he would usually do. He did his best to remain calm and unbothered as per usual, but today it somehow felt harder than he would've ever imagined.
He made the plan to spend the day as usual before meeting with one of the UA staff and showing them the recording he had of the greenette. Deep down, he didn't as it would incriminate him somehow, or he felt it would. He drove Izuku to madness.
And for what?
To bring himself up? To get a few good laughs? Strike fear onto others? To seem above someone? Jealousy of his intellect?
Become number one?
Why he felt the need to do so to Midoriya Izuku, we'll never know. Hell, even he didn't know why he loved to bother the boy.
He gripped onto the counter of his sink with a sigh. He hissed in annoyance as more thoughts clouded his mind.
"Just shut up!" He exclaimed feeling vexed at himself. "Shut! Up!" He clutched the side of his head before crumbling down to the ground in defeat.
"It's all my fault..." He said in defeat as tears threatened to fall. "I am the reason this is all happening."
He recalled the day he pushed the boy down a flight of stairs at the school for no reason. It was the day Izuku managed to get the same score on his math test. Both were at the top spot and he didn't like that.
The time he hurt Izuku as a child for defending a weak-quirked boy at the playground. In the end, the weak guy left without even the smallest form of a thanks.
The countless days he blew up his journals, told him to die, kicked him, punched him, called him names, shoved him.
To top it all off, he even suggested for the boy to jump off to maybe be reborn with even a dumb quirk in his next life.
He was the lowest of the low, yet he called himself the next number one hero.
Was Shigaraki right?
Maybe he was more fit to become—
"Yo! Bakubro! Let's go or we'll be late!" A certain red-head's voice said behind his room's door.
"Huh...?" The ash blond snapped out of his clouded thoughts.
'Was I out of it for that long?' He asked himself as he got up and finished his routine, getting a quick look at his soulmate mark. A small yet rare smile reached his lips, before brushing the feeling off and slamming his door open and causing the redhead to jump in shock.
"Jeez! Scared the life outta me man!" He exclaimed with a hand over his quick beating heart.
"Yeah yeah let's go." He grumbled out as he began to walk down the hallway, hands shoved deep in his pockets.
"W-Wait up!" Kirishima exclaimed running behind the ash blond, just to catch up with him.
~
"Are you okay Bakubro?" The red haired teen asked, poking the explosive male in the arm carefully as it was like poking a bear with a stick. Dangerous.
"Leave me alone shitty hair." He sighed tiredly, head dropping to the palm of his hand.
"No way! You have dark circles under your eyes! Did you not sleep??" He asked fully concerned.
"I'm fine dork. See?!!" He jumped up angrily and pulled at his dark circles. "Just bad sleep."
"You never have bad sleep though!"
"JUST DROP THE DAM TOPIC OKAY?!?" He blew up at the teen.
"Ok! Ok! Jeez...!" Kirishima sat down defeatedly with a huff. "Whatever..."
Bakugo never let go of his device once even during class. His hand remained in his pocket the whole day, causing him to get some strange and concerned looks from his classmates, especially from his odd behavior all day.
Bakugo had dark circles under his eyes, kept tapping his foot against the floor, kept looking at the clock all day, he was rather quiet for his usual explosive behavior and filthy vocabulary, he didn't pay much attention to the lessons (not that he even needed to as it all came rather easily to him), and not once did he let go of his phone.
Aizawa took notice of his odd behavior since the moment he laid eyes on him that day. It worried him slightly.
Once the bell rung to signal the end of the day, he jolted up and ran out of the room after sloppily shoving his belongings in his bag.
"Bakugo?" Denki called out in confusion. He'd usually tag behind with Kirishima to the library at this hour, but today he had a bad feeling. So did everyone else other than Todoroki, Tokoyami, and Midoriya, who ignored the whole thing completely. "Wonder what's up with him..." He finished.
Bakugo panted, running down the hall exasperatedly towards Nezu's office.
'Should I do this? Is it really the right thing to do?' He questioned, shaking his head at even the thought of not acting on physical evidence that has been harming him and his classmates. 'What if they expel me? No! It's what I deserve.' He accepted, pushing himself to run faster.
Once he arrived at the office, he knocked loudly at the door. "Come in!" A voice chirped from the other side. He opened the door, waving his phone around frantically. "Young Bakugo? How may I help you?" The animal-thing spoke, head leaning against his clasped paws.
"I have the traitor."
This immediately peaked the furred creature's interest. "Take a seat! Take a seat!" He offered, signaling towards the seat in front of his shiny wooden desk.
Bakugo unlocked his device and showed the recording to the principal of the prestigious hero school. "I was walking towards Izu—Midoriya's room, when I overheard him talking over the phone with some shady people. I didn't want to interrupt, so I was gonna leave the nerd's room before he mentioned many of the League of Villain's names. He talked with them. He was all buddy-buddy with them too." He explained.
"You sure this is Midoriya? He was kidnapped by the league, you know. You and Yayorozou-San even testified seeing him get beat up by them. The traitor has been here even before that."
"Don't your stupid little..." He narrowed his eyes at the principal examining his aspects. "Whatever the hell you are's eyes see?!?"
"Watch it Bakugo Katsuki." Nezu said threateningly.
"ALL THESE FUCKING PROBLEMS BEGAN AS SOON AS HE TRANSFERRED HERE!!" Bakugo exclaimed angrily, pointing at the facts. "He could've easily thrown us off by siding with the league for some sort of half-assed revenge or something!" He sighed, playing the audio for him to hear.
"How intriguing..." They listened to the rest of the audio recorded on the device. "This is enough proof." The rat said in a serious tone before dialing a number on his own phone.
Bakugo felt as if a weight lifted off his shoulders, but it replaced with an even heavier one.
"I have the traitor. He's in the school. His name is Midoriya Izuku." He informed to whoever was on the other side of the call. "Yes... yes..." He kept saying.
The mouse then spoke over the school coms, calling all teachers. "MIDORIYA IZUKU IS THE TRAITOR! I REPEAT! MIDORIYA IZUKU IS THE TRAITOR! EVERYONE IS FREE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES IF THEY SPOT HIM! HE HAS CURLY GREEN HAIR, FRECKLES, AND GREEN EYES. HE'S AROUND 162 CENTIMETERS TALL! HE HAS A METAL BASED QUIRK! PROCEED WITH CAUTION! THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS INDIVIDUAL!!"
The message blared loudly through Bakugo's ears.
Alarms started to blare throughout the school soon after.
"Thank you, young Bakugo. You just saved dozens." The principal congratulated with a smile. "You'll really make an amazing hero one day."
"Y...Yeah..." He said before excusing himself from the office and mindlessly walking to the dorms. There was a mass panic in the halls as green-haired students were checked and tossed around like rag dolls. He bumped into a few students, not bothering to yell at them or anything of the sort, he just walked past like some brainless zombie.
He went back to the 1A dorms, walking past the commotion and to his room, where he could lock himself away from the world.
'What will happen to Midoriya now?' He asked himself, hiding under his blanket once again. The yelling and panicking coming from the lobby downstairs wouldn't let him sleep, so he just laid there in a state of emptiness and despair.
It's what he deserved after all.
~
Izuku happily walked hand-in-hand with his little sister down the aisles of the quiet library. His boyfriend held the girl's other hand which was being swung around by the shorter girl. "Can I pick the book?" She asked.
"Sure." Izuku replied, looking to the side and meeting his lover's mismatched eyes briefly before looking down at the girl. "What sort of book would you like to read? A mystery? Heroes and villains?" He suggested, taking a turn towards the kids' area.
She thought over the question before shrugging. "Is there a book about apples?"
"We can look." Izuku replied. "Have you ever read a book about apples, Sho?" The dual haired boy shook his head in response. "Then we'll ask." Midoriya sighed.
He left Eri and Shoto in the kids area, before excusing himself. "Take care of Eri. I'll go get help to find a book about apples, okay? Be right back!" He strutted away, looking for a worker before bumping into a familiar indigo-haired male.
"Midoriya?"
"Shinsou?" He smiled, hugging the insomniac boy. "How have you been!" He gasped, examining his friend. "Wow! You look so cool now!"
"Where have you been!?" He exclaimed.
"Shh!!" He shushed. "Library, remember?"
"Whatever. Why haven't you contacted me?!? Anything??" He whisper-yelled at the freckled teen.
"Kidnapped as far as I can tell." He lightly chuckled. "You?"
"What?!?" He exclaimed in shock, receiving many glares and loud shushing. "Sorry...!"
"It's fine. What are you doing here anyways?"
"Looking for a book? Obviously." Shinsou rolled his eyes.
"Sassy as ever, I can see." Midoriya nudged his arm. "Any good books?"
"Some."
"Have you by any chance seen any books about apples, per se?" He asked awkwardly fiddling with his fingers.
Shinsou quirked a brow. " 'Apples'?"
"Yes." Izuku nodded. "I have a sister. She wants a book on apples."
"I may know one." He walked back to the kids area. "Let's see..." he searched past bookshelves until he spotted a few books he recognized to have apples in them. "Here." He handed them piled on top of eachother. "Is this good enough?"
"For sure! Thank you so much!" Izuku gratefully bowed, holding the books closer to his chest.
"It's no big deal." He replied. "Can I hang with you? I don't really feel like being alone right... now..." Shinsou scratched the back of his neck shyly.
"Yeah, sure! Come." The freckled teen led the other around until he finally spotted his sister and Todoroki sitting as he read to her quietly. "Sho! Eri!" He happily called out, causing Todoroki to look up with a slight hum.
"Oh, hey Izuku." He greeted. "Did you find the books?"
"Yup! Shinsou here helped me! He's super smart and a huge book-worm like me!" He complimented, getting the lilac-haired boy to turn away in embarrassment.
"Oh? Thank you then." Shoto bowed stoically.
"Who's this guy?" He whispered into Izuku's ear, pointing discreetly at the male with the scar on his eye.
"That's Todoroki Shoto." Izuku smiled brightly. Eri came and snatched the books away from Izuku's arms, running to her past seat and opened them up, her tiny legs swinging up and down in excitement as she read her picture books.
"IT DOES HAVE APPLES!" She exclaimed, almost radiating a glow.
Shinsou blocked his eyes as the light shone brightly the more she got excited. 'Is this her quirk?' He pondered.
"We were actually gonna go get lunch after this if you wanted to join?" Izuku offered to his friend. Todoroki walked towards the girl, already used to her glow as his boyfriend had it as well. He sat by Eri and read quietly to her once more.
"I wouldn't want to intrude!" Shinsou replied, shaking his hands around.
"It's no bother, really! We just got here so we can hang like before and talk about books if you'd like." Izuku smiled.
"Sure." He shrugged.
The duo sat and talked, catching-up with things and chatting about movies just like before. By the time they realized what time it was, Shinsou had to leave to go home as his father needed help with something around the house. They sadly parted ways but promised to keep in touch during school as Izuku claimed to not have a working phone. Which was in fact true, as his phone got blown to pieces not long ago.
"Ready to go?" He asked the two sitting around a pile of picture books. "Wow that's a lot of books..."He gaped.
"More!" Eri ordered.
'She doesn't even ask me to read that much to her...' The greenette thought with a slight twinge of pain.
"Let's go eat." Todoroki contradicted, getting up from his seat.
"Please~!" She dragged out. "Last one~?"
"No Eri. We need to eat." He said quite unmoved by her puppy-dog look. Izuku, on the other hand, was at her full disposal.
"Maybe... one more?" He offered, which received a glare from the other. "Or not..."
"I'm hungry." Shoto said as he received a call.
"Who is it?" Asked his boyfriend.
He checked his phone, only to see his father's number. "Gross. My father."
"Ignore it then." Izuku shrugged.
"Can't. What if something happened to my sister or my brother?" He sighed. "If it's not, I'll just hang up like always."
"Okay." He smacked Shoto's back playfully. "Attaboy." He laughed.
Todoroki picked up the obnoxious man's call. "What?"
There was a long pause where Todoroki just remained silent, looking back at Eri and Izuku from time to time as whoever was behind the call spoke. "That can't be true." He said stoically. "I don't believe you and your stupid lies. You always want to take the things I love from me, so I won't let you take the one I love away from me with such a stupid excuse."
Another long pause.
Izuku grew worried, grabbing onto Shoto's hand, who recoiled quite startled. It left the freckled teen feeling rather hurt at his actions. "Sho...?" He asked, looking at the other's hand up to his own chest. Away from him.
"Sho-Chan?" Eri asked, feeling sad at what he just did. She knew what the expression meant as Overhaul did that plenty of times when she only wanted some form of comfort.
A hand to hold.
"Just leave me alone, okay?!" He hissed at his phone. "Stay away from me." He hung up with a sigh, looking back at Izuku and the white-haired girl. They looked seriously hurt. "Izuku?" He asked.
"What was the call about?" He asked, brushing the previous action away.
"Something about you being the traitor or something." He chuckled, brushing his hair back. "Some sorry excuse to take you away and let him shape me into the next number one hero, as always." He rolled his eyes.
The greenette's eyes widened in distress. "What did you say?" He asked, thinking he may have misheard his words.
"You're the UA traitor? Stupid, I know?"
"Did he have any proof?"
"Yeah." He crossed his arms over his chest. "But I don't believe anything he said, of course. It's all bullshit he probably made up. He has the money and resources to do so."
Izuku started to panic, as he somehow slipped-up and dropped his cover. Did Eri accidentally reveal his identity? The league's? Maybe she told the heroes what happened while he was away? His mind rushed all over to place, while Shoto stared at him in confusion.
"Izuku? Are you alright?" He asked, tapping his cheek.
The freckled boy jumped in shock, grabbing Eri by her arm, pulling her into the air and then into a piggyback ride. "Just go see what he wants." Izuku said, trying to be as calm as possible. "Meet me at the park tomorrow at seven."
"Wait, what park? Why?" He questioned, getting a bad feeling in his gut. He grabbed Izuku's wrist, pulling him along. "Just come and we'll clear this mess up."
Izuku pulled his hand away. "Just..." He looked down. "Just go and check it out. Just come with an open mind okay? Let's meet at the park around the corner of here, okay?" He kissed him quickly, yet passionately, earning a grossed-out remark from his sister, before he walked away. "Just remember that I love you..." He gave Shoto a sad smile before exiting.
"Wait! Izuku!" He chased after, but once he stepped out of the building, it was as if the greenette vanished into thin air. He looked around, calling out the boy's name but to no avail.
"I'm so sorry..." Izuku whispered into the air as Eri rubbed circles on his back with her small hands in a comforting manner, as he did to her when she felt down. He cried, but did his best to hold the tears in for Eri , yet the attempt was futile. He did his best to never show weakness around his beloved sister, yet today he just couldn't hold it in any longer. He crumbled to the ground, letting the white-haired girl down on the ground gently.
"There, there..." She frowned, patting his back. "I have something that'll cheer you up!" She exclaimed, grabbing his attention. She upended her pouch, taking out a paper full of cat stickers, placing them on his face. "There! All better!" She smiled, trying to get him to do the same.
An awkward smile managed to seep through, which pushed him to hug the girl tightly. "Thank you...." He said repeatedly, hiding his face in the crook of her small neck.
She hugged back. "No problem Izu-nii."
"I won't ever leave you." He promised, making sure she was looking at him.
"Pinky promise?" She asked, extending her pinky out. "These are the most sacred of promises." She declared.
"Yes." He interlocked pinkies with her. "Pinky promise..."
____________________
Well that was something.
Finally added other characters lol
We're only a few chapters away from the end and I'm not prepared. It's all gonna be angst, and I'm especially scared because I feel like everyone is gonna drop the book or hate me for it...
I haven't been feeling too well lately (mentally) and ofc school doesn't help either lol, but I'm glad I could get this chapter out. Almost 5000 words! Wow!
I hope you're having a great day today. Please continue to take care of yourself as much as possible.
Thank you for all your love and support on this fic as usual. I love to read all those funny comments you guys usually leave.
If you need anything (or even to talk), feel free to DM me or start a conversation down at the comments. <3 I check all comments :)
Also! Before I forget! The idea of the whole library meetup w/ Shinsou is by: @ddmcd23 (so thank them!)
-Addicted to IDV Author