"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
Katsuki barged through the front door, kicked his shoes off, and stomped into the kitchen where his parents were. Eijiro and Denki trailed behind him, keeping their distance due to how aggressively Katsuki swung his arms as he walked.
Masaru, sitting at the table, hid behind the newspaper he was reading.
"I guess he saw Shouto out there."
"Yeah I did!" Katsuki scowled at his mother, who was preparing a salad at the counter. "Mom, why didn't you tell me the Todorokis were moving into Old Man Torino's house?"
Mitsuki gave him a small smile. "Because I knew you'd react this way."
Katsuki cupped the sides of his face and groaned. "I want to move."
"Nope," Mitsuki said. "Not happening."
"Please?" he whined.
Masaru set his newspaper down. "Come on honey, it's not so bad. Besides, I thought you and Shouto were getting along these days."
"They are," Eijiro said.
"We all play together at school," Denki added.
Katsuki, the veins in his temples on the verge of bursting, turned around and glared at his two best friends. "Not helping."
The boys shrugged at each other before Denki made a comment about helping Shouto unpack his belongings. With that, they excused themselves and exited the house the way they came in.
Mitsuki set her salad aside so she could give her son her full attention. "Come on, Katsuki. Is it really the end of the world that a classmate of yours is moving next door?"
"It's not any classmate," he countered. "It's Shouto. He's always following me around school and never leaves me alone. He's like obsessed with me."
"He probably looks up to you," Masaru said.
Katsuki rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. "Duh. I'm taller than him."
Both of his parents chuckled at that one, which only irritated Katsuki more. They weren't taking this seriously.
"Listen," Mitsuki said, "if you're going to throw a tantrum over it, go ahead. But you better fix that attitude by tonight. We're having Shouto and his family over for dinner as a way to welcome them to the neighborhood."
"WHAT?"
This. This was exactly the reason why Katsuki flipped out when he discovered the identity of his new neighbor. Shouto was like an annoying mosquito whose life purpose was to bother Katsuki as much as possible.
Truthfully, he was relieved when Shouto said he was no longer allowed to hang out with Katsuki and his friends on the weekends. It was exhausting to visit Takoba Beach so often, seeing as it was strictly for Shouto's benefit and no one else's. Katsuki never revealed his secret about posing as Touya's ghost, and he never intended to. It was swept under the rug, and he figured once enough time passed, Shouto would forget all about it.
But now that they were neighbors, Katsuki wouldn't even have to wait for the weekend to see Shouto outside of school. The two boys even shared a driveway! In the mornings before school, the afternoons after school, Katsuki was bound to see Shouto at all times of the day.
And if their parents were insistent on doing these neighborly gatherings like this welcome dinner more often...well, Katsuki didn't want to think about that.
"My word is final," Mitsuki said. "The Todorokis are coming later tonight and you will be on your best behavior."
"Dad," Katsuki whined.
Masaru went back to reading his newspaper. "You heard your mother."
Before he said something he'd regret, Katsuki huffed and stormed up to his bedroom, where he screamed into his pillow until his throat hurt. It didn't help like he hoped, so his next best option was to beat his feelings into the drum set his parents bought him for his tenth birthday this year. It sat in the corner of his bedroom, right next to the window. Katsuki was allowed to practice on it whenever he wanted as long as it was before 7 PM and his homework was completed, both of which were true at the moment.
If Katsuki had to suffer with having Shouto Todoroki live next door, then his parents deserved to suffer with the deafening noise that was his drum playing. He even opened the window so everyone outside could hear. Maybe if he was obnoxious enough, the Todorokis would realize they made a mistake moving in that house and would pile everything back in the truck and move somewhere else. A boy could dream.
So, Katsuki didn't care about rhythm or melody. It was the sloppiest he'd played since his first lessons with Mr. Yamada, but he didn't care. As long as he was loud.
It appeared to work. After ten minutes of pounding away at his drum set, creating what even Katsuki admitted to be an abomination of music, Eijiro and Denki toppled into his bedroom, both covering their ears. Katsuki tortured them a bit longer, a mischievous smirk overtaking his face, before he slammed his drumstick against his symbol for the grand finale. Once the rattling wore off, he tossed his drumsticks to the ground.
Eijiro wasn't amused. "What are you doing?"
"That sounded horrible," Denki said.
Katsuki smiled from his seat. "That's the point."
Denki plopped himself down on the edge of Katsuki's bed. "I don't get it, Katsuki. Do you really hate Shouto that much?"
"Course not," he spat. "That doesn't mean I want him around all the time."
Eijiro pouted. "Well why don't you?"
Katsuki abandoned his drum set and sat on his center rug. Eijiro left the doorway and joined him. With the three boys now at a closer distance, Katsuki paused to collect his thoughts before speaking.
"It's just, we never used to be friends. But once Touya died, he started following me around like some stray puppy and I don't know why. I can never get rid of him no matter how much I try. It's annoying."
"Do you think we're annoying?" Denki said.
"Kind of, but not in that way."
"Still rude," Eijiro muttered.
"But Shouto," Katsuki continued, "he always looks like he's gonna cry. I don't know. It's just not fun having someone like that around all the time."
Eijiro rested his chin in his hand. "I thought you'd be happy about this."
"Why?"
"Because." He flicked Katsuki's forehead, which resulted in a harsh outburst from the blonde. "Aren't you the one who's always talking about there's something weird about Shouto's family? Well, now they're living right next to you. It's the perfect opportunity to do some real investigating."
Katsuki's eyes widened, his lips parted open. How did he not think of that himself?
For as much as he tried to ignore the countless conspiracy theories that had built up in his head over the last three years, Katsuki hated having questions but no answers. Eijiro was right. After years of hitting nothing but brick walls, he now had the chance to get a true glimpse of something he'd been curious about for so long. Maybe, if he was successful, he'd finally understand why Shouto was the way that he was.
He grabbed Eijiro by the face and cackled. "You genius, genius child!"
"Hey," Denki whined, "I'm a genius, too."
Katsuki waved him away. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that."
Denki then leaped from the edge of the bed and tackled Katsuki to the ground. Katsuki immediately flipped their positions and soon the boys engaged in a three-way wrestling match. They rolled around Katsuki's bedroom floor, screaming and laughing, until Katsuki (as always) came out as the winner, though not without breaking a sweat.
Catching his breath, Katsuki smiled at the ceiling. Any bit of anger over his new neighbor situation had fully dissipated. As a matter of fact, he was actually looking forward to Shouto and his family coming to his house tonight.
He might not get all the answers he wanted by the end of the night, but he was bound to get some. And for him, that was all that mattered.
*
"And some soba for Shouto," Mitsuki said before setting a bowl of cold noodles in front of the boy.
Shouto flashed Mitsuki a sweet smile. "Thanks, Mrs. Bakugou!"
"Oh, you're welcome honey. I hope you enjoy it."
Shouto wasted no time to find out, instantly accumulating a large amount on his chopsticks and gulping it down. Katsuki, sitting next to him, stared on in confusion. It'd been months since Shouto tried soba for the first time during their lunch period, yet the boy still displayed the same enthusiasm every time he ate it. It made no sense to him. Did Shouto's parents not feed him or something? He supposed that'd explain why the boy was so small, the shortest kid in their fourth grade class aside from Izuku Midoriya and Minoru Mineta.
More importantly, Katsuki observed Rei's reaction to this entire ordeal, or lack of reaction to put it more accurately.
Clue number two, he thought in his head, doesn't get scolded for bad table manners. That'd certainly never fly in Katsuki's house.
Clue number one exposed itself as soon as the Todorokis arrived for dinner. When they showed up, Katsuki noticed that Enji wasn't with them. Enji Todoroki was too large and too abrasive of a human for his absence to go undetected. No one commented on it, so Katsuki didn't want to be the one to bring it up. However, he couldn't shake the idea that the silence regarding Enji's whereabouts was deliberate.
In fact, Katsuki hadn't seen any trace of the man or his belongings the entire time the Todorokis moved into their new house. And Katsuki spent a decent amount of time spying on them from his bedroom window, binoculars and all, once Eijiro and Denki left. Was this turning into a twisted obsession of his? Yes, he couldn't deny that. But he needed to know. He was so close to uncovering the truth, he could just feel it.
Dinner continued on, most of the conversation carried by the two moms of course. Katsuki spent most of the evening quietly observing the three Todoroki children. This was his first time having any interaction with Fuyumi or Natsuo. While Natsuo embodied every stereotype there was about teenage boys, Katsuki took a keen interest in Fuyumi, for nothing other than she was nice to look at. He wasn't interested in girls his own age yet, but high school girls were a different story. Had Fuyumi not been smiling at her phone all evening, no doubt texting a boy, Katsuki probably would've risked it all and winked at her from across the table.
Katsuki's other main purpose at dinner was avoiding glancing in Shouto's direction. It was difficult, given the two boys sat next to each other, much to Katsuki's dismay. It wouldn't have been so irritating if Shouto stopped making that innocent but dopey grin at him, the one that had been plastered on his face since the moment he stepped in Katsuki's house.
Eventually, Katsuki grew tiresome.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
Shouto slurped more of his noodles before responding. "I'm just excited."
"About what?"
"Well, I wasn't excited when I first found out we were moving houses. But now that I know I get to be next door neighbors with one of my friends, I'm happy."
Katsuki did his best not to go under cardiac arrest upon Shouto referring to him as a friend. When the heck did they make that declaration? Sure, they were civil with one another these days, and Shouto smiled a lot more when he was invited to hang out with Katsuki's gang at recess, but the idea of them being friends was ludicrous. Just because Katsuki cared about discovering the truth of Shouto's home life, that didn't mean he cared for Shouto in any other capacity. If they were alone, Katsuki would've smacked the boy on the back of the head.
"Oh, how adorable," Mitsuki squealed. "I can't take it anymore. Masaru, get the camera!"
Masaru pushed out his chair. "I'm on it."
Katsuki scrunched his face. "What? I don't wanna take pictures!"
But then Mitsuki shot him the look, and Katsuki shut his mouth. Sure, he pouted like a toddler in his chair, but no noise escaped his lips.
When Masaru returned with his digital camera, Shouto leaned closer to Katsuki so their shoulders touched. Katsuki held back an eye roll
"Smile," Masaru said from behind the lens.
The left half of Katsuki's mouth curved a centimeter upwards. He hated smiling for photos anyway, let alone with his candy cane haired, weird little classmate. However, he instantly frowned when all five people not in the frame laughed as the camera flashed.
"What?" he said.
Shouto smiled at him. "I gave you bunny ears."
Masaru flipped the camera around for Katsuki to see. There they were, Katsuki and Shouto, with two pudgy little fingers barely poking above Katsuki's unruly mane.
"Funny," he muttered.
Of course he was lying. To Katsuki, there was nothing funny about it, not to him at least. But the night was young. And he knew if he was patient, he'd be rewarded with what hadn't left his mind since Eijiro brought it up earlier that day.
But as Masaru raised the camera to take another photo, and as Shouto threw his two fingers behind Katsuki's head again, Katsuki wondered if he had enough patience to make it through dinner without dying from despair.
*
"Your room is so cool."
Katsuki studied the boy's face. "You think so?"
"Yeah." Shouto spun around Katsuki's room in bewilderment, taking in every detail. But, like most people who enter Katsuki's room, his attention was ultimately captured by the drum set in the corner. "It's so cool that you play the drums! I liked that song you played earlier today."
"Huh?" Katsuki raised his eyebrows. The only time he played his drums that day was when he was trying to disturb the peace and sanity of everyone in the neighborhood. "You actually liked that?"
Shouto bounced on his toes. "Of course. I wish I knew how to play an instrument. Can I give it a try?"
Katsuki scowled. "No. My parents don't let me play at nighttime. Plus you'll break it."
"Oh. Sorry."
Katsuki ignored Shouto's comment and sat on his bed. Their parents were downstairs, mingling and whatever other boring stuff grownups did. Fuyumi and Natsuo had gone home, but Shouto wanted to stay and spend time with Katsuki. Also, he'd never been to Katsuki's room before, so he was curious to see what it looked like.
"Hey," Shouto said, "do you think now that we live next door to each other, we'll have sleepovers on the weekends and stuff?"
"Uh..."
"Or maybe I can ask my mom to buy a tent and we can camp in my backyard. Especially in the summer. We can catch lightning bugs at night."
Katsuki looked off to the side. "I guess."
"And look!" Shouto had pulled back the curtain to the window closest to Katsuki's bed. "You can see my bedroom window from here! We can wave to each other from our rooms!" He beamed in Katsuki's direction. "Isn't that awesome?"
"Don't you want to hang out with other people? What about Deku?"
"Izuku," Shouto corrected him.
"Whatever. Why are you so happy that you'll be seeing me a lot more?"
Shouto offered a doe eyed expression. "Well, we're friends aren't we?"
Katsuki opened his mouth before immediately shutting it. He sat there silent, each passing second somehow more agonizing than the last. He didn't want to deliberately hurt Shouto's feelings, but he also didn't want to lie. Shouto, however, seemed to register exactly what Katsuki's lack of a response meant.
"Why aren't you answering? Do you...not like hanging out with me?"
"I never said that."
"But you won't say that you're my friend. How come?"
"Come on Shouto," he said, "we never used to hang out. We only started being nice to each other because your brother died and everything got weird."
As soon as he said it, Katsuki wished he hadn't. He broke the cardinal rule: never, under any circumstance, bring up Touya Todoroki in front of Shouto unless Shouto mentions him first. And while Katsuki couldn't call Shouto his friend, he didn't want to cause the boy pain either.
Shouto fidgeted with his hands. "Oh."
Katsuki's face softened. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that."
He shook his head. "Yeah you did. It's fine. I can just go."
Shouto then shuffled across Katsuki's room, heading directly for the exit. Katsuki, not backing down that easily, leaped from his bed and followed after him.
"Hey!"
He clamped his hand around Shouto's forearm. Intensity lied in his gaze as he spun the boy around. But when the two locked eyes, Katsuki was taken aback by what he was met with.
Pure terror overtook Shouto's face, his body trembling as Katsuki held onto him. His lip quivered, his cheeks a light pink.
"Woah." Katsuki loosened his grip on Shouto's arm. "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah," Shouto answered. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Katsuki blinked twice. "You look like you're scared I'm gonna hit you or something."
Shouto swatted Katsuki's arm away and brushed himself off. He was still frazzled, much to Katsuki's confusion. Shouto looked toward the door and grabbed the back of his neck.
"I wasn't scared."
"Yes you were."
And then, every small bit of information Katsuki collected over the years flashed to the front of his mind. About Shouto. About Shouto's family. About Shouto's father.
He mumbled it before he could stop himself. "Does your dad hit you?"
Shouto's eyes widened, which only tightened the knots in Katsuki's stomach. "What?"
"Your dad," Katsuki repeated. "Has he ever hit you?"
The pink hue in Shouto's cheeks deepened to a scarlet red, soon carrying down to the base of his neck. He flared his nostrils, his breathing heightening. "Of course not. Why would you even say that?"
Katsuki couldn't stop at this point even if he wanted to. This wasn't about uncovering some juicy secret anymore. This was about Shouto's safety. He needed to know.
"So then where is he?" he asked. "Why isn't he here?"
Shouto bared his teeth. "That's none of your-"
"Why haven't I seen him at all today? Why was he avoiding you guys at the funeral? Why don't your mom and siblings talk about him?"
"Stop it!"
Katsuki gestured toward Shouto's eye. "How'd you get that scar, Shouto? He gave it to you, didn't he? How long has he been hurting you?"
"SHUT UP!"
Shouto shoved Katsuki, who stumbled backwards. The bed broke his fall, but the push wasn't painless. Katsuki straightened his posture and stared at Shouto, not knowing what to say next.
Shouto, on the other hand, had no trouble filling the silence.
He pointed at Katsuki as he fought back tears. "You know nothing about my dad! Got it? Whatever's going on with my family, that's none of your business! So just stay out of it! And don't talk to me anymore!"
He stormed out of Katsuki's room, slamming the door behind him. Katsuki stood there and wondered how things went so badly in the span of a few minutes.
More importantly, Katsuki hated that his first instinct was to chase after him. He didn't, but he wanted to. Because whether he liked it or not, Shouto was a part of his life now. That meant for every time Shouto annoyed him to no end, there were even more times that Katsuki's heart felt better just from having the other boy around.
And Katsuki's curiosity, his invasive, insistent, and outright stubborn curiosity, just ruined all of that.
A/N: I'm so sorry if this chapter is bad or boring. It was a STRUGGLE to write, hence the late posting. But the rest of this story is planned out and I'm happy with it, so things will get better I promise!