"D-d-dada!" Little feet padded on the wooden floors, claws ticked along after. "Pa-papa!"
"What is it Aka?" Bakugou swung around, paint splatter clinging to his forearms and face. "Oh..." He knelt, carefully setting the paintbrush down. "Oh what happened?" Slowly turning on a bended knee. "Eiji? Babe-"
"Hmm?" The redhead turned on the step ladder, immediately swaying as shock gut punched him. "Oh fuck!"
"A little more tact?" The blond hissed, turning back to the weepy four year old. "What happened baby?"
"I-I was petting the puppy and-and it-it got-" She hiccupped, wiping her nose, smearing snot across her cheek.
Bakugou grimace, pulling out a rag and wiping her face, pulling the poor, whimpering animal close as Kirishima hurried off the ladder and to his husbands side. Easily he took their daughter into his arms, rocking her gently as he whispered to her, stroking the wild black hair, plucking a leaf out of the depths. She shivered against him, her sobs quieting as time passed allowing Katsuki the time to inspect the wounds on the animal. The smell of burnt fur and flesh was nauseating - bringing back too many gruesome memories of times when the pro hero had been just a little too late.
"It got hurt." She whispered after a while, fingers tangling in once-again long red hair, comforting herself in the strands, in the strength of her Dada. "It was scared and it bit me and I hurt it." Her eyes watered again, "I didn't mean to!" She insisted, lips quivering. "It was a accident! I got scared and it got scared!"
"You?" Katsuki's eyes snapped up for a split second, then back down to the scorched claw marks. "The wound's already cauterized... it's not bleeding... But... I-I don't-" He looked to Kirishima helplessly. "The puppy will be okay sweetheart." He smiled, his voice didn't waiver though his eyes were cold as they carefully inspected the deep gauges in it's skin. "I'm gunna go give the filthy mutt a bath. Do you wanna help, baby?" He stood slowly, cradling the small thing in his arm, hand extended to their trembling daughter.
She sniffled, turning from Eijirou's chest. She rubbed at her nose again, looking at her Dada. He gave a sharp toothed grin, nodding, "C'mon, Aka." He grabbed her up over his shoulder as he stood, wincing and flexing his back at her gleeful shrieks, eyes widened.
Bakugou caught his gaze, questioning without saying a word. Eijirou shook his head, spinning in a slow circle instead of answering. His right shoulder blade was hardened, his shirt ripped and scorched through to where his skin should be, black lines following the trail of her tiny fingertips. Little Akane's fingers and forearms were the same rough, opaque texture of Kirishima's when his quirk was active before he had changed, though the texture was more like small scales and circles as opposed to her Dada's squares and angles. Her fingers were glowing white hot and despite Kirishima's ability to withstand the heat Katsuki couldn't believe he didn't feel the pain at a least a little.
"Oh, Dada." She looked down at her hands, her little voice hitching up as she raised her fingers to her face. "Oh, Papa."
"Now, now." Slowly Katsuki lowered the puppy in the bathroom, closing the door quickly, never letting his gaze leave Akane's. "Don't touch your face baby. It's just your quirk. Like Dada's or Papa's. That's all. That's it. Your's is just a little different. That's all it is." Worry and anxiety filled his chest as the puppy began barking and yelping in the bathroom, adding to the stress in the room.
"My-my fingers... I hurt the puppy." Her chin jumped as tears fell down her cheeks. "I hurt the puppy."
"Shh, shh." Eijirou pulled their daughter from his shoulder, hand gently wrapping around her hands as he hardened his fist, his other arm cradling her. "I know quirks can be scary." He nodded to Katsuki who eased open the bathroom door, capturing the grey and brown mutt before letting the other two in. Eijirou immediately sat on the floor with their baby in his arms. Her glowing fingers casting fractured light through his crystalline skin. "But look how beautiful it can be when we learn to control ourselves." He smiled softly at her, large deep ruby eyes wide with wonder.
"Rainbows..." Her one little fanged tooth poking through the gap where she'd prematurely lost her lower teeth leaping off the kitchen counter into Katsuki's arms and slipping, face planting into the apartment floor.
"You just gotta calm down. You need to relax and know that nothing here is going to hurt you so bad that you won't be okay from it." He winked with his scarred eye. "I got this when my quirk first developed. My hand hardened and I cut myself. My skin wasn't hard back then, it was really soft and crumbly like chalk so it broke off and I was so scared. I wasn't half as tough as you are."
Her eyes swung to her Papa, who grinned softly. "He's right you know. When my quirk developed I broke my arm first thing. Oh I cried forever. Like a weakling."
She snorted in disbelief. "You?!"
"Oi, you don't tell anyone you little snot butt." He threatened, splashing some water over the tub, much to the mongrels delight. "It looks like puppy is feeling better too."
"We still should get it to the vet. That's a lot of missing... y'know. Meat ." Eijirou looked down at their preoccupied daughter as she climbed the side of the tub, her pants and shirt already on the floor. "Jeez she's a quick one."
"Takes after her dad."
Eijirou smiled, "Which one."
"Does that really matter?" Katsuki lifted a brow.
~*~*~
Red Riot grunted, heaving the massive villain through the wall.
"Fuck that's hot." Ground Zero panted, wiping the blood from his forehead, smearing it out over his cheekbone. "C'mere, I'mma blast you up there." He pointed to the third story where their comrades were.
"And how're you gunna-?"
"God. I love you, but you're an idiot sometimes."
"Ah... " Red Riot banged his fists together as he crouched, "Right."
"Let's go Howitzer!" Ground Zero screamed, blasting Red Riot up with just enough power to send him straight into the wall beside the window. "Ohhh." The hero winced, chuckling as his husband held out a thumbs up, wiping at his bleeding nose and swinging in through the glass. "Fucking idiot."
"Ey, Ground Zero."
The voice was cold and familiar. He spun on his heel, eyes narrowed, hands popping.
"Mmm yeah. You thought you'd gotten rid of me?"
Ground Zero tsked. "I mean, yeah. To be blunt."
"You-you-" The criminal pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes in frustration. "This is what's wrong with you heroes. You think that you can just, what? Fight violence with more violence? A great American once said 'Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that'."
"Cool story and all," Bakugou flicked his palms up, grinning wickedly in the glow of his quirk. "But this isn't America and I don't have to love you. I actually get paid to grind your bones into dust."
The criminal leaned down, pulling off his half mask revealing an ugly scar. "You've already tried. Let's see if you can be more successful this time, Bakugou Katsuki ."
He faltered.That was all it took. His name.
It probably wasn't too hard to find. How many other pro heroes were openly gay and had a daughter? How many had a lumbering redheaded giant for a husband?
But the fear of being called out so blatantly was chilling.
Because now he knew the terror of having his daughter accessible. Of having his family accessible. Of having Kirishima-
"No." He growled, a primal rage searing up in his chest white hot.
He met the villain half way, his hand colliding with his face, narrowly dodging the first blade, the second cutting deep into his arm. He didn't care. He didn't feel it.
"No." His growl worked up as he threw the man the way he'd seen Kirishima do so many times, following quick and surpassing with a well times explosion, turning quick and planting a kick along the mans back. Something inside of him snapped at the connection, a wordless scream flew out of his mouth along with a blood tinged spray of spittle. Ground Zero didn't see it.
"You wanna threaten my family?" He hissed, grabbing the villain by the hair. "You wanna try and take them away from me?" He leaned in close, "I'll kill you. I'll leave you a blood smear on the brick and I won;t think twice about it."
"You'll never be Number One." Pink teeth grinned back at him in macabre humor.
Ground Riot rocked back on his heels, his grip still tight against the villains scalp giving a hard shake. "Idiot. I don't need to be Number One anymore."
I need my family . His hand rose even as he heard, as he felt rather than saw Red Riot fall the three stories down, his heavy gait eating the distance between them, tackle him to the ground.
"What were you thinking?" Red Riot yelled, shaking his husband by the shoulders, anger making his eyes small and wide. "You could have- there's a hard line there-"
"He knows." Ground Zero's voice was steady, calm. Cold. "He knows who I am. Who you are."
Realization dawned as Red Riot paled, looking over his shoulder before catching those eerily calm red eyes again. No. Not really-?
"Akane." Ground Zero whispered, glance flickering to the meaty fist that rose, the sharp pain, the darkness.
~*~*~
"I'm in!" Akane screeched, Pogo yapping at her feet dancing happily, divoted scars gleaming in the reflecting snowlight around their cabin. "Yuei accepted me!"
"That's wonderful!" Eijirou smiled, lounging across the couch with S'More on his lap, now more bones and mange than cat. Her purr sounding more like a broken motor than anything remotely organic. "I'm so proud. What was your score?"
"Eh." She blushed. "I got 40 villain, 38 rescue." She shrugged, running a hand through her cropped black hair, making it poke up like Katsuki's.
It took Eijirou back how much she looked like the blond when her hair was styled like that. She had his more delicate bone structure despite being a bit more curvy, solid. Muscular. A week ago she'd chopped her waist length, curly black hair off, shaving one side to the scalp. It looked badass. Eimio had been so excited about the change, immediately suggesting piercings and dye colors. Thankfully their fifteen year old had declined. They knew she would grow up one day, but she could be their baby for a little longer.
Just a little.
"So," She leaned forward, "are we gunna move back to the city or...?"
"Hell no." Katsuki slammed his coffee cup down. "You're gunna live in the damn dorms and what? We're gunna be the old doting gay couple at the fucking agency that helps with the fashion? Fuck that."
"Dad." Akane lifted a brow. "Nobody's gunna go to you for fashion advice."
"Oh shit." Eijirou slapped a hand over his mouth. "Burned."
"What the fuck is wrong with my fashion?"
She shrugged, sitting across from him, Pogo laying on the carpet in front of Eijirou with a whine. "I mean, black and skulls is cool and all but aren't you a little too old and married for the whole disaster gay thing now?"
This time Eijirou couldn't stifle his laughter. "You've been so grumpy since retirement."
"Yeah well, this fucking stump." He frowned, rubbing at the abrupt ending of his left thigh.
"You're still fucking sexy as shit." Eijirou growled from the couch.
"Oh puke." Akane rolled her eyes. "You guys are so gross." She slid off her chair, sulking off to her room.
"Good thing we can't reproduce!" Katsuki shouted down the hall, "Or you'd have a million siblings by now!"
"OH MY GOD! DAD!" Her door slammed shut as the men laughed.
"Speaking of which though..." Eijirou sat, feeling guilty as S'More growled low in her throat, jumping down with Pogo. "How is your leg doing?"
Katsuki shrugged. "The prosthetic hurts if I'm on it too long. I can go half an hour now but... It's still... It's not the same." He frowned. "At least I don't need fucking crutches all the time. Or the wheelchair. That was God awful ." He watched as his husband rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen.
Fuck he was still beautiful, if even more handsome than ever. His body was still rock solid, large and muscular. White touched his temples just as it had with his father. His eyes were alert, not as tired as before now that they had fallen away from the pro hero game and solely worked on their social movement and awareness campaigning. Retiring in the top ten did have its perks, it afforded them a voice and platform that they wouldn't have had otherwise and there had been changes in the last ten years. There still wasn't equality, but there was change.
"I love you." Katsuki whispered, hand falling over his husband's, fingers playing over the tattoo still as clean and crisp as the day it had been etched into his skin. "This is better than the life I had planned for myself."
Eijirou grinned, then his smile fell. "I gotta admit something to you." He breathed deep. "That villain years ago? The one who... threatened you?"
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. "Yeah."
Eijirou cleared his voice. "I uh." He pulled away, fidgeted. "I uh... I may have...-"
"It's okay." Katsuki inturrupted. "I know."
Eijirou's face yanked up. "You-"
Katsuki nodded, his face serious, his gaze never leaving Eijirou's. "I don't think you any less a man for doing what was necessary to protect your family. No matter what that cost may have been. You're still Japan's Number 4 Hero to me."
He chuckled, shoulder sagging with relief. "And you'll always be my Number 5 hero."
It dawned on Katsuki, those numbers. That repetition.
As though something had been locked in place.
~*~*~
"And Seventy years ago today-" The voice rang out clear over the loud speaker, the audience gathered in rows before the statue of a cog, wrapped with the 'X' symbol of Ground Zero's grenade belts, "Two of Japan's once top heroes, come to be known as one of the most influential Pro Hero couples and agencies, made their first move to end the stigma for those who didn't apply to the socially acceptable norms. They revived the movement for equality of single parents, working poor, homosexual, transsexual, and those under any flag. Do you think they sat idly by and let others dictate what they could and could not do?!" A cheer rose from the crowd before the dirty blond as he paced, turned to face the spread of hundreds before him. His red eyes flashed to his twin brother who stood beside him, raising the microphone to his own mouth.
"As such we are proud to expand upon the legacy of our great grandfathers." His voice boomed across the audience, "Welcome to the grand re-opening of the Ground Riot Pro Hero Agency!" A deafening roar rose up. "May it honor the memories of the men and women who came before us to create the morals with which we now fight!" His clenched first pierced the air along with a score of others in the crowd.
His brother stepping forward, "May we further their quest by doing everything in our power to protect and preserve the Earth as it deserves in this time of need! If you are here," He continued through the shouting, "then you already know the necessity of this war. You know why we must fight, you know why we must die for our cause. We have seen our children, our brothers, our sisters, our parents-"
"Our grandparents-"
"-slain-"
"-hunted-"
"-trapped like animals for the sport of the crooks in positions of power!" He raised a fist in the air, "BUT NO LONGER!" He screamed. "It is time for the next generation of All Mights and Endeavours, of Ground Zeros and Red Riots, of Deku's and Froppy and Uravities to come forward and claim what is ours. Claim. What. Is Yours!"
Banners rose protesting capitalism, people screamed for clean air, others still demanded the change of laws to protect the environment from pollution and stricter laws on environmental preservation. People screamed and shouted, fists banged and feet stomped.
"When Nezu betrayed Yuei!"
Boos echoed.
"When villains slithered into classrooms and struck down hundreds of potential future heroes!"
Angry roars for fallen ancestors, siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins fallen at desks, in gym class, on trains, during their internships - ambushed and swarmed like inspected on carcasses.
"When heroes who should have risked it all stepped down or jumped sides to save themselves-"
Righteous cries of shame rang out for their predecessors.
"No more will we be vigilantes stealing through the night."
"No longer will we hide away, nicking supplies from the black market like the crooks we are taking from!"
"THIS IS WAR!" The brother cried in unison, for their grandmother slaughtered fighting for her grandchildren safety, like their great grandfathers murdered in their home, like their winged father - dragged from the sky and broken on the streets below, body left for days as punishment for speaking against the new way.
The blond sighed, falling back as their mother moved to the front of the stage to silence the crowd morphing into her scaly, fiery quirked self. People slowly settled, awed by The Enchantress as she glowed, quieted and moved to their seats, enraptured by her aged voice. Not many who opposed the Corporate lived to be in their forties any longer.
"I hope we're doing the right thing." He sighed, running a hand over his face. "Do you think we're honoring them by doing this? You don't feel like we're..." He shrugged, "I dunno, taking advantage of what they stood for? Using them..." His red eyes fell to the statue behind them, flicking briefly to the one just off to the side still under construction.
Deku hadn't been found, but his own descendants were in the crowd - fire breathing, gravity defying and terrifying.
The dark haired twin frowned, "Fuck no." He hissed, purple eyes flashing. "You've been following it like I have. The Polar ice caps are gone, we're down to only 50% clean ocean water? One-third of our breathable forest is left. And it's just getting worse." His gaze drifted beyond the airtight, filtered dome. The sky was a deep brown-grey of pollution, the weather outside a mix of hail and lightning storms.
Nature was off balance. Humanity had done this to her. Humanity was the only thing that could fix it. And they were pro-heroes in the making. This was their legacy, their duty. To honor their grandparents they would fight against the criminals, the villains who had infiltrated the corporations, who had moved through the darkness and, in a sudden overnight coup, taken over the world and reigned in a nearly fifty year unchallenged period of triumph where they had wreaked havoc on the world, on the normal person. In a blood bath, well executed and unexpected, all top ranking superheroes had been slaughtered in their homes or had switched sides, easily corrupted when the tides turned.
But they would fight it. They would fight them. They would seek out the corruption and bring an end to it.
Together.
As a family.
Their clan.
And what was left of the descendants of the previous pro hero students of Yuei, of her proud sister schools, what was left of the Pro Heroes they had been raised under as young children. Gathered here, under their roof.
Their eyes fell over the intent, revenge hungry faces.
The beginning of the revolution. The beginning of a new age, the return of heroes, the dawn of hope.
The start of war.