For @katsudeku-kidweek

Title: The One to Save You

Prompt: Day 4 (Free Day, aka, write whatever you want)

Warnings: Spoilers to kid flashbacks in the series and the second episode

Pairings: BakuDeku/KatsuDeku

Summary: “You’re quirkless, Deku. You can’t do anything. But don’t worry, cuz I’ll be the one to save you.” 

“Let’s play a game.” Not a question, but a statement, because heroes don’t need to ask permission so neither does Katsuki Bakugou. Sandy blond hair, scuffed up knees and a missing tooth, he’s the cleverest hero on the playground, that’s why all the kids cheer when he says he’s come up with a game to play. “Let’s play Rescue Mission.”

“Aw yeah!”

“That sounds fun!”

“Let’s do it!”

“… we don’t even know what it is yet.”

The last comment comes from Izuku Midoriya, the smallest of the bunch. He doesn’t mean to sound doubtful of Kacchan, no, never, it’s just that everyone’s agreeing to a game they know nothing about.

“It’s simple, Deku,” Katsuki says, the other kids snickering at the nickname. Useless. That’s what he says it means. Izuku’s not sure if he’s telling the truth but he doesn’t have anything to prove the boy wrong. “I’m gonna be the hero, of course, and these guys are gonna be the villains.” He jerks a thumb toward the other three boys, each of them grinning, eager to get started. One of them even sprouts wings from his back.

“What about me?” Izuku asks, eyes wide and excited. He gives Katsuki his best smile and asks, “What do I do?”

Katsuki pats the top of Izuku’s head, ruffling the messy, green strands as he declares, “You’ll be the victim.”

Izuku’s entire face crumbles like sand. “W-what? But I wanna-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll beat these guys real good, just like All Might.”

“But-”

“You’re quirkless, Deku. You can’t do anything. But don’t worry, cuz I’ll be the one to save you.”

And with that, the game starts. Izuku is told to stand inside of the jungle gym dome, the other three boys surrounding the front of it and waiting for Katsuki to make his move. Izuki frowns, tiny hands gripping at the edge of his bright orange shirt. They can’t even villain right. The back of the gym is left unattended. “This game is dumb,” he mutters, always the one who gets left behind.  

“It is, isn’t it?”

Izuku turns to see two older boys standing at the back of the dome. If he had to guess, he’d say they were first graders, standing at a towering height that takes him by surprise. First graders are always so much bigger than him, in fact, they’re bigger than Kacchan, too!

“Ah… I-I um…” he doesn’t know what to say, freckled face flushed as he tries to find the words.

One of the boys steps closer, wrapping a hand around one of the metal bars as he leans in close, his face poking through one of the opening gaps. “Hey, wanna come play with us instead?”

The second boy smirks at Izuku. It kind of reminds him of Kacchan, but there’s something a bit off about it. Lopsided. Untrustworthy. This boy has plans that Izuku shouldn’t agree with. He doesn’t know these boys and his mother always warned him about wandering off with strangers. He’s supposed to stick close to Kacchan, then come straight home when they’re done playing for the day.

“Aw, come on,” the first boy says. “It’ll be fun. We’ll even let you be hero.”

Izuku’s eyes light up at that. Hero, huh? He looks over at where Kacchan and the others are. They’re fighting now — as much as four-year-olds can fight, it’s mostly them rolling around in the sand, pretending to growl at each other as they sprout out words like stop villain and die. They haven’t even noticed Izuku and the two older boys, and he knows they’re going to be playing like this for a while.

He can leave for a few minutes, right?

***

“Ha! I win! The most amazing hero always wins in the end!” Katsuki puts his hands on his hips, standing triumphant over the pile of friends-turned-villains as they let out groans of exhaustion.

“Fine, fine,” the one at the bottom of the pile mutters. “You win, ok? Help us up, Kacchan!”

“Hold on. I gotta rescue the victim,” then he turns toward the jungle gym dome and says, “Don’t worry, citizen, because I am… here…” his voice trails off when he sees an empty space where Deku is supposed to be standing. “… Deku?” Instead of helping his friends up, Katsuki runs over to the dome, gripping onto the metal bars. “Oi, Deku? Where’d you go?”

Slowly but surely, the other boys manage to stand up, each one more disheveled than the last. One of them coughs from taking in a mouthful of sand while another is trying to stop himself from crying about a busted lip. The one that had been at the bottom of the pile takes the longest to get back on his feet, his steps wobbly and the wrinkles in his shirt beyond repair. “You play too rough, Kacchan,” he says.

“Shut up!” Katsuki snaps. “Where’d Deku go?”

“Huh? How should we know?”

“Maybe he ran home to his mommy.”

“Probably. You know how Deku is.”

Katsuki shoves the poor boy who’d been at the bottom of the pile hard enough to send him toppling back down to the ground. “I said shut up! We need to find him!”

The other two boys help the third up, each one on edge. Katsuki’s starting to sweat, gritting his teeth as he narrows his eyes at all of them. One of them finally finds his voice and says, “But you just asked a question so-”

“I-I know what I said!” Katsuki’s voice is shaking. He feels warm, for some reason, and his hands can’t seem to stay still.

“Calm down. Let’s just go to his house and-”

“Idiot! He’s my responsibility! I’m supposed to save him!”

The three boys look between each other. Save him? “But… that was just a game, Kaachan,” one of them says, voice soft and hesitant, careful to not set him off again.

Katsuki clenches his fists, small sparks emitting from his fingers.. Don’t these morons get it? Deku’s a quirkless, small kid who can’t defend himself. It’s Katsuki’s job, as a hero, to protect him. “Whatever. Let’s just go, all right?!” He turns his back to them and leaves the park. He doesn’t have to look behind him to know that they’re following him. They always do.

“NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

That voice… “DEKU!”

Katsuki likes to think that he can run pretty fast. He’s the fastest in their class, at least, but that’s on a grading scale for four-year-olds. This isn’t the playground, though. This is the city, a place full of people who are much bigger than him. Still, he runs forward, only coming to a stop when he sees Deku being pushed around by two bigger kids.

“What’s wrong, kid? Thought you were gonna be a hero?”

“Why aren’t you stopping us?”

Izuku tries to keep his balance but he ends up tripping over his feet and landing on the sidewalk. He scrapes his hands, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes as he yells back, “Stop it!”

“Come on, hero,” the first boy snears. “Do something.”

“I don’t think he can,” says boy number two. “Maybe he doesn’t have a quirk yet.”

“Oh? Really? He should by now, right?”

Izuku looks away from the two boys. He doesn’t want to cry but a small hiccup leaves his throat. He really is useless, huh? Kacchan told him so. That’s why he made him play the victim in that game. He should’ve stayed put.

“HEY!”

Izuku recognizes that yell, but it’s never been this angry before. It’s loud and thunderous, like a muscular hero with one of those quirks that you dream about having when you grow up. Katsuki Bakugou is here now, like the heroes they talk about on television, and he’s not even bothered by the fact that these are first graders, first graders, for crying out loud!

“Oi. Go away,” says the first boy, annoyed. “We’re busy.”

Katsuki doesn’t care. “Quit picking on him. Now.”

“Now?” The laugh from the second boy is toxic. He sounds like a cartoon villain who’s been drawn in an overdramatic style that emphasizes his poor disposition. “Are you giving us orders, kid?”

“Yeah I am,” then Katsuki pushes his hands out, his fingers sizzling in youthful rage. “Now back off.”

“Kacchan…”

“Get behind that tree, Deku.” Katsuki nods behind him. “Run.”

“But-”

“Run, stupid Deku!”

Izuku stands up and wipes at his eyes, sniffling away the tears as he does as he’s told.

Everything else happens in a blur. Izuku watches as the two boys charge at Katsuki. Two against one. Terrible odds. All Might may have made such battles look easy, but All Might’s a big, buff hero who can punch a wall into submission. Katsuki’s quirk is still new, something he’s shown off in class like a magic trick. He’s never used it against anyone, though.

Until now.

A fist comes into contact with Katsuki’s nose. Izuku cries out his name but Kacchan — brave, loud Kacchan — doesn’t need him to be concerned. He grabs onto his assailant’s shirt and a burst of flames erupt from his fingers, burning the fabric so much that it whispers against the boy’s skin. He immediately stumbles away from Katsuki, a frightened look in his eyes as his fingers continue to crackle with tiny blips of fire.

Izuku didn’t know he could do something like that.

The second boy doesn’t even bother. He sticks close to the first boy, who’s trying his best not to cry. Like spineless lackies left to lick at their wounds, they threaten Katsuki with an even older boy they’re gonna report back to.

As they run off, Katsuki’s friends make their appearance, having watched the entire confrontation from behind one of the buildings on the sidewalk. They cheer for their ringleader, but Katsuki shrugs it off as he wipes the blood from his nose. This is nothing. Heroes get punched all the time. “The most amazing hero always wins in the end.”

Izuku is awestruck, his little heart beating at a frantic pace. He can tell from the tremble in Kacchan’s voice that he’s in pain, but he’s standing there, looking all kinds of proud of himself. He wants to walk over and ask if he’s all right but he doesn’t want to ruin the moment. He was told to stay behind the tree, after all, and he’d already gotten Kacchan in this mess to begin with.

“Oi! Deku!”

Izuku jumps when he hears his name. He squeezes his eyes shut and braces himself for the oncoming onslaught that will surely be unleashed. He knows he deserves it. He’s the one who went off with strangers, all because he didn’t want to play a game.

Instead, Katsuki grins smugly at him and says, “Told ya I’d be the one to save you.”

***

It’s his fault.

Again.

Izuku stands in the back of the crowd, watching the same creature that’d nearly killed him entangle its gopey limbs around Katsuki.

Kacchan.

There’s several heroes on the scene, but none of them have the right kind of quirk to deal with the situation. As children, Katsuki’s quirk would make a few popping noises, but as a teenager in survival mode it engulfs an entire shopping area in flames.

All Izuku can do is cover his mouth with his hands, eyes wide as he hopes for a real hero to show up.

But then, oh, but then, he makes the mistake of looking into Katsuki’s eyes. Kacchan. Izuku remembers feeling that scared, that vulnerable, when he’d been grabbed earlier. He remembers feeling like he was going to die, the air being sapped away from his lungs.

More importantly… he remembers feeling that scared when those first graders had pushed him.

And Katsuki, at the tender age of four, had stood up to them for him.

I’ll be the one to save you.

Izuku Midoriya drops his notebook.

Run, stupid Deku!

And he does just that.

“Kacchan!”

***

Notes: So my shipper heart is convinced that little Izuku fell in love when he was behind that tree, watching Kacchan take on those first graders (flashback in the ep. where they have to fight All Might). So I wanted to write what led to that moment. The last part came about because, well, the song that plays when Deku runs to Kacchan is “You Say Run” so… yeah. I’m clever. Thanks for reading!