Izuku stared at Bakugo with mounting horror, barely even registering his student's flared nostrils and enraged eyes. In his mind, all that kept replaying were those few words that seemed so small but meant so much.
Why would you help All For One?
Why would you help All For One?
Help All For One.
Izuku did his best to calm his racing heart, his puffy breaths that felt like they were coming too fast, but he still wasn't getting enough air. His mouth was entirely too dry, and he couldn't stop the scene that started playing in his minds eye...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Izuku crouches down as low as he can go, shamelessly spying on his two friends. At first he'd just caught sight of them past his window and thought he'd come down to say hello, but when he got closer he could hear raised voices and saw how they stood opposed to one another.
He chose to turn away in the beginning, not wanting to get involved. More than likely, it was just another one of Aki's rants about staying safe and making sure that there were no flare-ups or anything similar. But this time was different. Aki had yelled out, why wouldn't you just accept the damn ability!?
Aki almost never yelled at Yoichi. Sure, sometimes he would get frustrated and he teased Yoichi more often than not, but he had never outright raised his voice at him, at least not that Izuku had seen. And the discussion about abilities got his attention. Usually, the three of them veered away from that topic of discussion together unless it involved the science or political matters of it.
Personal things... those weren't ever really spoken of.
"Aki, you're not making any sense! I already told you, I'm not really interested! I thought you understood that?"
"What I don't understand," Aki gritted out, "Is why you think having an ability would be so bad. You're my brother! You're supposed to understand this."
Yoichi ran his hands through his hair wildly, clutching at the strands like if he pulled hard enough he could make the situation go away. "Aki, listen to yourself! You're acting like a crazy person! I don't care what points you bring up, I don't care what you think you can do, I don't want a freaking ability!"
The air around them goes silent, and for a moment Izuku thinks it's over. Then Aki says in a dark tone, "If you don't see that this is the right thing for you, then I'll make you see."
Izuku's spine runs cold from his words, limbs going heavy and breath sounding in his ears. He knows, logically, that he should be able to move, and yet he stays stock-still. He's never heard Aki speak like that, so low and ghastly and ominous. It sounded like he was threatening Yoichi, but... he wouldn't do that, would he?
"Aki," Yoichi's voice shook, "What are you doing? Sto-stop!"
As soon as Izuku heard Yoichi's yelped words, he bolted up and saw Aki reach over and grip the bare skin of Yoichi's forearm. It could have been a completely innocent gesture, in any other context.
But looking at Aki's grin... Izuku had this horrible feeling...
"Aki!" Izuku yelled. "What in the world are you doing?!"
The white-haired man didn't respond, staring fixedly at Yoichi's face. Izuku rushed forward without sparing another thought, and tore his arm away, feeling like he would yank it out of it's socket if that's what it would take.
"Izuku?" Aki blinks at him, confused. "What are you doing here? Nevermind, just leave. This is a family matter."
Yoichi was slumped down on the ground, staring at his hands with mounting horror. His breaths was coming fast and reedy, and Izuku wanted to crouch down and see what was wrong with him but didn't want to take his eyes off of Aki.
"Aki... What were you two talking about?"
Aki's gaze hardened, and Izuku saw his fist tighten around nothing. "As I said, that's none of your business. Please leave, now."
Izuku stayed firmly planted. "No, I don't think I will. Tell me what you're doing right now, Aki."
Aki stares at him with cold and impassionate eyes. "Or what?"
Izuku feels like he's never seen him before. The friend he once knew had vanished behind layers and layers of ice and steel. Has he always been like this and I just haven't noticed, or is this a recent change? Should I have done anything sooner? Could I have done anything different?
"I won't ask you again, Izuku."
Yoichi looks up at Izuku with eyes that are too wide and desperate, though he doesn't say anything. He slowly edges between the two brothers, ignoring Aki's bared teeth and glare. Whatever was going on here, he wasn't leaving until he was sure that nothing bad was going to happen.
"...Yoichi, why don't you go into my apartment while I have a chat with Aki?" Izuku brightly suggested. His breath was coming faster, but he was doing his best to even it out. He had no idea what was happening, but he couldn't let Aki see him disconcerted.
He felt like it would be a mistake that he couldn't fix.
"No, Yoichi, stay," Aki ordered. He narrowed his eyes at Izuku, and he realized they were in a standoff. "Honestly, Izuku, what makes you think that you have the right to interfere here?"
"Aside from the fact that I've known both of you for years and don't want anything bad to happen to you?" Izuku didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "I don't... I can tell that you're doing something wrong, and I'm not just going to let you do it."
"You can just tell I'm doing something wrong?" Aki laughed condescendingly, a world away from the friend he had grown to know. "Izuku, you sound absolutely ridiculous."
"I don't care how ridiculous I sound," Izuku snapped. "Tell me what's going on here or I'm not going to leave!"
Aki sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose like he just wanted the conversation to be over. "So if I just tell you what this is about, you'll leave?"
"That depends on what you say."
Yoichi hadn't said a word in their whole exchange, just staring at his hands with a broken look on his face. He was shaking like a leaf, and he refused to look at Aki, no matter what his brother said.
"Yoichi, do you want to head up to my apartment now?" Izuku did his best to keep his tone pleasant when speaking to the younger man. "This will all be over in a minute, I'm sure."
Yoichi didn't move a muscle.
"Yoichi?" Izuku was really worried now. All he had seen Aki do was gab his forearm for a moment, but then Yoichi had acted like he'd been stabbed. Had Aki somehow doen something that he couldn't see?
That's when Izuku realized he still didn't know what Aki's ability was.
He probably should have asked sooner, since they had grown closer, but Izuku didn't really care what Aki's ability was. Yeah, if he ever learned what it was he definitely would have tried to analyze it, but it was a subject that they stayed away from.
They stayed away from a lot of things.
Could Yoichi be under the effects from his ability? Izuku wondered. I... would he do that? If it was something that would hurt Yoichi, would he really make the decision to use it on him? I don't really want to jump to any conclusions here... but I also don't see what else it could be.
"What did you do to him?" Izuku let his tone drop down, a hint of the darkness he was feeling right now.
"He'll be fine," Aki immediately dismissed. "Honestly, he's being a child right now."
"What. Did. You. Do?"
Aki sent a nasty glare his way, and Izuku couldn't help but be shocked by how hateful and resentful it was. He didn't say anything, just stared at Izuku with contempt.
"I'm sick of listening to you. Tanaka," He looked off to right behind Izuku, "Take care of him."
Izuku whirled around, and just managed to catch a glimpse of a tall and burly man holding a gun to him before pain tore through his stomach.
After that, everything faded to black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey! Are you even fucking listening to me?"
Izuku jolted back into awareness as Bakugo shouted in his face. He felt sick to his stomach, the contents being turned around like clothes in a washer. Those memories... he was in no way proud of that particular spot in his past, no way proud of how blind and stupid he had been.
For all he knew, Aki- All For One had never cared about him as a friend at all. Izuku was certain he had cared about Yoichi, at least to some degree in the beginning, but in his darker moments he thought back and wondered if he had ever been anything more than a pawn. He had no idea if he was helping All For One whenever he geeked out about quirks with him, or if he was just an amusing distraction to his criminal life.
"Bakugo, I am listening to you, but let me just say that you have no idea what you're talking about." Izuku regretted confronting him about this right away. Maybe he should have waited until the next day, but he really didn't want to leave Bakugo alone with his thoughts until then. So he didn't wait for another teacher to be present, though it would probably be better to have Aizawa here. He was too off of his game right now.
Bakugo scoffed, a sharp glint in his eyes. "Tch. You think I'm going to be fooled like all the extras who buy that load of crap? I saw what went down at Kamino," Izuku doesn't miss the flinch the boy gives when he mentions the incident, "And I know that you and that fucking villain have some kind of history. Both him and that crazy bitch Toga said that you were friends." He sneered out that last word.
Izuku's patience was almost at its limit. He wasn't happy with his time with Ak- All For One, and hearing Bakugo speak about it like he had the whole situation all figured out was starting to get on his nerves. Yes, he understands that Bakugo has just gone through yet another traumatic incident, and it might be best to just let him get this out of his system, but every word was starting to feel like blunt nails being shot inot his heart.
"Bakugo, Toga was clearly trying to unsettle you, and the fight with All For One..." He faltered. "That was complicated. But let me say that I didn't have and still don't have any intention of helping him."
Bakugo hadn't stopped glaring once during their conversation. "As if I'm going to believe someone who was a fucking villain-"
Izuku finally snapped.
"Bakugo, that is enough! You don't know anything about what happened and it is none of your business! I will never work with.. With... him!"
He dully noted that his hands were shaking.
Bakugo had taken a step back after Izuku yelled at him, and his eyes went wide in shock. "You... It is my business! I know you're a liar! You-"
"That's enough!"
Bakugo pulled back, face blank for a moment. Then his arm tensed, and even though Izuku knew it was coming and could have had time to block, Bakugo's fist made contact with him.
They were both silent for a moment, Bakugo staring at his hand like he couldn't believe it moved. Izuku just watched him, not really even feeling the impact of the blow.
"I..."
"Are you done now?" Izuku wanted to flinch when he heard his tone. It was sharp, impatient, and everything that Bakugo didn't need to hear right now. With the boy's obsession with winning and losing and people looking down on him, it wouldn't go over well to just dismiss his anger.
That was probably something Hound Dog was going to work with him on in therapy.
"No! I'm not done yet. I'm sick of you looking down on me!"
Yeah, there it was.
"I am not looking down on you." Izuku's tone had softened again, and he felt like he had to shove all of the nasty emotions he felt right now into a carry-on bag just so he wouldn't snap again. "That is never what this conversation has been about."
"Bullshit," Bakugo spat out. "You've been looking down on me since Kamino, since was too weak to do anything but run."
Izuku felt like someone had sucker-punched him in the gut. "Bakugo... nothing in Kamino happened because you were too weak. Far from it, actually. If you hadn't-"
"I couldn't do jack shit. All I could do was stand by like a weakling and watch as you and All For One had a whole fucking conversation." Izuku did his best not to think back to the last conversation with the villain he'd had. This wasn't the time to worry about the information that he still hadn't done anything with. Other things were on the line here.
"Bakugo, you know nothing about that situation or what was going on. Just calm down-"
Bakugo cut him off yet again, eyes flashing dangerously as he shouted, "There it is again! You're looking down on me, expecting me to just trust you! Well, guess what? I don't! There is nothing trustworthy about you! Everything you do makes no sense and we just have to follow along with you like dumbasses!"
Izuku watched as Bakugo got himself more and more worked up, face turning red as his voice got louder. "I'm sick of it!"
His student's fist came forwards again, this time aimed at his face, and Izuku resigned himself to the fact that this wasn't going to be resolved with just words. He would have to fight back.
Though he obviously wasn't going to hurt Bakugo, he would only do enough so he could blow the steam off and they could have an actual meaningful conversation. Izuku still wasn't sure exactly what he would say about All For One, but he knew he was definitely going to clear the whole 'you're a villain' thing up.
Bakugo threw another punch at him, with more power behind it than the others had. Izuku leaned back and caught the side of his arm, pushing it away form making contact with his face. Twisted with rage, Bakugo's palms started to spark dangerously, and Izuku mentally sighed. Ugh. This was going to be difficult to explain later, wasn't it?
Izuku dodged and deflected against every blow that Bakugo tried to deal, and he could tell that his student was getting caught up in frustration.
"Why won't you just fight back?! You say you're not looking down on me, and then you don't even bother to try and stop me! You think I'm weak or some shit?"
Izuku grunted as a fist fell down on his stomach. "Bakugo, I'm really not interested with fighting you. Sorry, but I'm not going to beat down one of my students outside of a training match."
Bakugo backed up and laughed, slightly hysterically. "You- you're okay with helping an S-class villain, but you won't even try to fight me?"
"I didn't help Aki!"
Bakugo stopped. "Who the hell is Aki?"
Izuku tightened his fists and looked down at the ground, doing his best to school his expression. This wasn't the time or the place for his convoluted past to come out. This wasn't about his issues, it was about Bakugo's. He's just uncomfortable with how much of this conversation has been centered around his past, honestly.
"He's... he's nobody. Not anymore." Izuku can't help how miserable his tone sounds.
"What," Bakugo scoffed. "Did you kill him?"
"Bakugo," Izuku's words were filled with restrained fury and darkness. "That is enough."
"Did All For One help you do it?" Bakugo just wouldn't stop. "Was that what you were talking about at Kamino? When he said he solved problems?"
"He was the problem." Izuku breathed in and out heavily. You shouldn't punch students, you shouldn't punch students, you shouldn't punch students...
What about knocking them out with a pinch?
Meh, that one's probably not okay either.
"Really? I didn't see you fighting him until All Might showed up." Bakugo hunched his shoulders inward. Izuku could practically see all of the negative thoughts rushing through his head, and he couldn't help but think back to what Bakugo had said before.
Stand by like a weakling...
Too weak to do anything...
Izuku carefully broached the topic. "It's not your fault that All Might's going to retire, you know."
Bakugo sent him a weak glare before giving up and crossing his arms over his chest. "Really? Because last time I checked, he was only there because I let some freak grab me. No one else got caught, just me. I was the only one weak enough to grab, and they knew it."
"They targeted you because you were strong, not weak. And if there is any blame to be placed for that situation, it should lie solely on me." Izuku took a deep breath. "I was the one that failed to stop the villains from taking you, and it is entirely my fault that any of it happened, okay?"
His chest tightened. Izuku didn't just mean what happened at the training camp, but everything that came before that. It was his fault that All For One had even risen in the first place. If he had just seen the signs ahead of time, then thousands of people wouldn't have had their lives ruined over the centuries and all the harm he had done along the road wouldn't have been done.
In reality, he shared a large portion of the blame. The bystanders were just as guilty as the perpetrators were.
"But..." Bakugo looked lost.
"Izuku-sensei," All Might caught sight of the two of them. Or, more specifically, the small burn marks on Izuku's clothes and Bakugo's sweaty form. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened there.
Izuku cleared his throat noisily. "Yes, All Might?"
"I...?" The blonde man glanced between the two of them, and Izuku got a strong suspicion that All Might didn't just arrive.
Izuku glanced down at Bakugo and chewed on the inside of his lip. He was still trying to figure out how to answer when Aizawa came along the path to find them.
"... It's too late for this," Aizawa sighed, slouching down and glaring at them through the his eyebrows. His former student silently surveyed the scene while All Might sputtered through some more questions. It took a while before he was finally able to decide on one.
"Is everyone o-"
Aizawa cut him off. "I'm going to assume that Bakugo started a fight here?"
Izuku breathed out through his nose. "Yes, though there are some extenuating circumstances."
Aizawa stared at him. "Usually the punsihment for attacking a teacher would be expulsion or suspension."
"No." As tired as he was, Izuku made sure to make his tone clear and firm. He wasn't going to have Bakugo epxelled because of his own failures. Not in a million years.
God, I hope I don't make it to a million years.
Aizawa sighed. "Fine. Bakugo, you're placed under house arrest for a week." He glared down at his student. "Be glad that's all you're getting."
Bakugo stared down sullenly at the ground. "Whatever," he mumbled.
"Bakugo," Izuku made sure that his tone was bright and unblaming as he said, "Doesn't this seem like a wonderful opportunity to go through what we discussed earlier?"
Bakugo glared down at the ground. In a whisper that could barely be heard, he said, "Fine."
It seemed like their 'fight' had drained all the energy and resistance out of him. He just looked... tired now.
"Great!" Izuku enthused. "I'll make the appointment for... hmm, let's say tomorrow."
Izuku smiled brightly while Aizawa led Bakugo away, giving a gruff and brief lecture. The teen was slouching and glaring down at the ground, but Izuu could tell that he was listening.
All Might and Izuku were left alone, and Izuku gave himself a moments rest before turning to him and saying, "So, how much did you hear?"