Chapter Text
When Bakugou got kidnapped their first year, it was absolute Hell, and yet, possibly one of the best things that had ever happened to him. Sure, dealing with that stank breath Dabi was not a walk in the park, nor did he appreciate the knife play that the twin bun bitch wanted to do with him.
But they actually took the muzzle off of him when he wanted them to, despite knowing how foul-mouthed he was. Not like at the sports festival where he was chained and made to shut his mouth like a rabid animal. And during the time he was gone, tucked away in some damp and musty basement, he had a lot of time to think.
Why the fuck the villain group that took him from ‘safety’ treating him better than the heroes that were supposed to help him for a better future? Two plus two ain’t equaling four.
The night he was ‘rescued’, Bakugou was so fucking pumped to finally stop hearing those wannabes and their long-winded monologues about their plans and hopes for a new future. Which was so fucking dumb to listen to because obviously, the heroes were going to win, they had All Might. He was the best out there.
The whole thing was a blur to him after All Might smashed through the wall of the hideout. The battle, Kirishima catching him in the air, the police station, everything.
But when he was able to actually think about things, he was in his room after the fact. After all of the questions, after all of the tests, everything, he found himself sitting on his bed staring at the wall, unable to fall asleep.
He was Bakugou Katsuki, ain’t no villains going to stop him from being himself.
Really it wasn’t the villains that got him overthinking though. It was the police at the station. The two that were questioning him and getting his statement kept on implying that he was purposefully leaving details out, or that he was lying for some fucking reason. It was so frustrating, seeing the people that he was supposed to trust, not even trust him. It’s not like he wanted to get taken.
His mother looked just about ready to rip apart some of the police officers, and he really rather not watch that carnage after all of the bullshit he was put through. He still couldn’t get the smell of the burnt skin from that one fire bitch out of his nose.
There was a tink on his window, and he flinched. No one was supposed to know where his house was. He flexed his fingers, ready for whatever threat was waiting for him outside. Unlike when he was kidnapped in the woods, he was going to fight back with everything he had.
With slow and cautious steps, he crept to the window, pushing out a bit of extra sweat for some potent explosions. But instead of some bitchass villain, he spotted a mess of red spikes. Shitty Hair. There were a few other shadows with him and Bakugou was able to see that one of them was that one girl, the pink alien chick.
Okay, okay, he can handle some nosey classmates. Whatever.
He opened his window, very mindful that it was currently four in the morning. In a harsh whisper, he yelled down at them. “What the fuck are you guys doing here?”
“Hey hey!” Shitty Hair waved up at him and there was a far too wide smile on his face. He looked back and reached out, pulling someone into the dim moonlight for Bakugou to see. It was the Pikachu dude, and he looked up at Baugou with a smile as well. Though his was more awkward than anything else.
“Kaminari here was worried, and I’m not going to lie, I was too bro! So we’re here! Can we come up?” Shitty Hair was looking up at him expectantly like he was going to come up whether Bakugou said yes or not.
He really wanted to say no, the word was already at the tip of his tongue but his mind drifted to his sleeplessness. Maybe it was his sleep deprivation that pushed him to comply, maybe it was the fact that his room looked far bigger than it usually did. Whatever. “I ain’t opening up my front door, so if you want to come up, you have to figure out how to do it.”
There, at least with an obstacle like that, they’ll think twice about disturbing him. But he really should have outright said no because as soon as the words came out of his mouth, one of the shadows stepped forward and shot out tape to his windowsill. That fucking soy sauce tape elbows limp-haired toothy bitch.
Before he could even fully realize what was happening, Shitty Hair started climbing up the tape like some gym rope exercise. Bakugou wanted to unstick the tape from his windowsill, he wanted to burn it, he wanted so many things, but he did none of them. Shitty hair got to his window and tumbled in with all of the grace of a newborn horse.
One by one, they all came in, and Bakugou had never been so ready to blow up his own room.
The pink chick came forward and enveloped him in a tight hug, one he initially struggled to get out of. His efforts were for naught though when someone else crowded behind him and joined in on the hug.
One person was already too much for him, and two were out of the question. His hands sparked and a loud boom sounded out from the room. He was flung back and he landed against the base of his bed, his legs scrambling to get as far away from them as they could.
“Katsuki!” The yell was muffled and he was sure it came from his dad, though the sound wasn’t processing so well. There was a long zing filling his right ear, and he already knew the sound of a bout of tinnitus. His room door burst open and his mother was there already, a bat bandish in her hands. She stood there, fury evident on her face, ready for whatever villain was coming back for round two. When her eyes flickered over the five kids, her shoulders sagged just a hair, but she raised them back up, the bat very much still intimidating.
“What are you doing in my son’s room!?” She shouted and it hurt Baugou’s ears, and he ducked his head as a shot of pain went through him. Mitsuki’s face was overcome with concern as she pushed the bat into Masaru’s hands, rushing forward to kneel down and cradle Bakugou’s head in her hands.
Mitsuki looked over the whole scene in the room, from the smoke and soot stains to the scared-looking kids, and gave the nearest one a look. “In the medicine cabinet in the restroom at the end of the hallway, there is a blue bottle, it looks like eye drops. Bring it here. Now.” Her voice was stern, and Bakugou watched as Pikachu got up from his spot on the floor and rushed out of the room.
Just a minute passed before Pikachu came back, handing the bottle to Mitsuki. She didn’t hesitate before gently moving Bakugou’s head to the side, putting some drops in that ear, and then moving to the other, doing the same. His tinnitus drops weren’t a miracle cure but they did help with the pain, the coolness of the liquid already soothing his overly warm ears.
Mitsuki brought Bakugou’s head back up to look at her, her hands not leaving where they cupped his face. “You think you’re going to be okay?”
He hummed an affirmative and his eyes flicked to the other people in the room. She noticed and an oddly soft smile crept up on her face. “You should have told me you were going to have some friends over. I was ready to knock their heads clean off their shoulders.” There was a sound of discomfort from somewhere on Bakugou’s right, but he didn’t know who it came from.
“I didn’t invite them over. They just fucking showed up.” He grumbled low, still mindful of his ears.
“Well, it’s good you have some friends who are worried enough about you to break into our house.” She gave a quiet chuckle to herself. Finally, she let go of his face and leaned back onto her heels, still kneeling. With a look at the others, she narrowed her eyes in a warning to them all. “I do expect a heads-up next time. Good night, and we will make breakfast for you all in the morning.” With that, she got up from the floor and made her exit with Masaru. The soft click of the door latching rang out in the room.
They were all silent for a minute. Until that dumbass Pikachu broke it. “Dude, your mom is hot.”
Bakugou was far too fucking tired to even react how he wanted, but he let his hand spark small little firecracker pops, as a warning. He gingerly got up from the floor and sank down into his bed, putting a pillow over his face for a minute. While he was under, he heard the steps and movements of the idiots around him, but he didn’t give a single shit as to what they were doing. Hopefully, they were leaving though. That’d be nice.
When he took the pillow away from his face, Bakugou looked around and noticed they had not left. No, they had all found comfortable spots to sit and were all looking at him. Like they were waiting for him to say or do something. It felt gross.
“What?” He barked out, a sting of pain reminding him of his ears.
There was a beat of silence and then Shitty Hair spoke up from his spot by Bakugou’s closet. “We just wanted to come here, see how you were doing after… everything.”
Between the other three, they all nodded and gave echos of affirmation. Pikachu was next to speak up from the beanbag chair that Bakugou hated. “We know that we don’t really know you all that great man, but everyone needs someone to talk to.”
“Besides,” piped up Soy Sauce, “we also thought if you didn’t want to talk, maybe some company in general would be nice.”
Finally, his headache was subsiding, and the pain in his ears was less than a dull presence. He looked up at the ceiling and sighed to himself. He really wasn’t going to get rid of them, was he? “This whole situation is fucked up.” It was all he was giving at that moment.
“Dude, it really is. Jirou told me that she overheard a group of teachers saying that out of all of the students they’ve seen in their years, it makes the most sense that you would be targeted by villains. They said that you had made yourself a target, practically asking to get recruited into some scheme.” Pikachu was spouting some word vomit, and it made Bakugou’s heart seize up for a second. Did those teachers really think that?
“Ew, what the fuck. Victim shaming is not okay.” Alien chick immediately said it, disgust all through her voice.
“‘M not a victim,” Bakugou grumbled. “That makes me seem helpless.”
“Being a victim doesn’t mean you’re helpless, it just means that someone did fucked up shit to you. Anyone can be a victim.” She rebutted, an edge to her voice that made Bakugou pause for a moment, there was something she wasn’t saying. “Hero, hero in training, villain, civilian, old, young, man, woman, enby, anyone.”
There was silence again. Bakugou decided to sit up, feeling weird about not being able to see the other four while they were in the same room as him. It gave him mild flashbacks of that stupid villain group just skulking about as he was chained up. He scooted back on his bed until his back hit the wall, the pressure of the hard surface grounding him a bit.
“Last year, when I came out to my friends at school, they started calling me slurs.” Pikachu blurted out, his eyes wide and far away, like he wasn’t even totally there when he said it. “Word got around of me being bi and a few of the guys in my gym class started trying to beat me up because they thought I was going to stare at them while they changed.”
Well, holy fucking shit, Bakugou wasn’t ready for a trauma dump, but here they were. “Trying?” He didn’t miss the word when Pikachu was talking.
Pikachu gave a humorless laugh. “Yeah, it wasn’t hard to get away from them.”
“I get groped on the train a lot. I used to get so anxious having to get on it, but now I’ve been giving out acid burns to anyone who even tries it.” Alien chick confessed as she reached over and patted Pikachu on the shoulder from her spot sitting on Bakugou’s desk. “I know quirk use out of hero work and without a special license is against the law, but there really needs to be more punishment for sexual harassment.”
The darkness really makes people braver to reveal shit, huh?
“Are we trauma dumping now? My uh-” Soy Sauce started speaking too, pausing for a second. “My parents died? When I was a kid, some villain attack with too much collateral, and my first foster family were pieces of garbage.” He pulled up his shirt and showed a few cigarette burns that had been healed up for a while. “The dad had a drinking issue and when he drank, he got angry, and decided to take it out on me for some reason.” He let his shirt go and spun around idly in Bakugou’s desk chair, like he was uncomfortable with all of the eyes on him. But he said it so casually, and it haunted Bakugou.
“Oh my fucking god.” Bakugou had seen and heard of shit, but these stories were fucking horrible. A piece of him was a bit glad that there were people who seemed like they actually wanted to be friends with him, despite his rough attitude. People that were trying to make him comfortable by revealing such things to him. But he knew he was a piece of shit, and he had to come clean before he let things go to be too much.
“Okay, I’m about to say some shit before we get too far into this. Cause this is getting too fucking serious too fucking fast. I'm just going to say it plainly. I bullied Deku, in middle school. I did and said a lot of shit that I am not proud of, and I am an absolute piece of crap. Still am. So, it’s probably good if you guys leave now.” He held his breath for a second, ready for whatever they might say in retaliation. God, he was too fucking tired.
“Bakugou, honey, we know you’re a piece of shit.” Alien chick said. He looked over at her, and she was giving him a leveled look. “I mean, I know we’re not the brightest bulbs but it’s not rocket science to figure out that you don’t like someone who you actively call ‘useless’. And I’m not going to lie, we already know some of the shit that you’ve done, we’ve asked Midoryia about you.”
He just looked at her dumbly, a bit shocked.
“And, he said that he thinks you’re changing. Plus, you have done a few nice things for us since the school year has started, so we don’t think you’re a total lost cause.” Shitty Hair added.
“I haven’t done shit for y’all,” Bakugou replied immediately. He hadn’t, he wasn’t a nice person.
“Nuh-uh, you totally have.” Pikachu crossed his legs on the beanbag, holding onto his ankles. “You tutored Kirishima, who in turn helped us with some of our homework.” Pikachu flicked a nod towards Shitty Ha- Kirishima, before continuing. “You showed Ashido some techniques for when she’s flinging her acid. You stopped calling me Dunce Face when I said that I seriously didn’t like it. AND, you were chill with Sero when he asked for some help with that one packet in math. Well, you did grumble a good bit, but you still did it. That’s more than you give other people.”
He sat there, stupified, again . Okay, well, yeah, he had done all of that.
“So in our book, you’re not horrible. Not great either, but you can get there.” Possess of elimination made Soy Sauce actually Sero.
“Another plus is that you already find us strong in some way since you asked most of us to be part of your group for the sports festival.” Came from Alien Chick. Ashido?
More silence filled the room as everyone just looked at him, waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, instead looking down at his nails as he fiddled with them, Kirishima spoke. “I feel rude not sharing my trauma too since you guys shared. It’s like I saw parts of your souls without returning the sentiment. Uh, well shit, I don’t think I’ve told this to anyone besides my moms. So uh, there was this neighbor of mine who would babysit me, and he was a sadistic prick. He knew my quirk was hardening, and he always tried to make me use it.” Kirishima lifted up his shorts and in the low light of the room, Bakugou was able to see line after line of scars along his thighs.
“My mom thought I was self-harming, and I guess I don’t blame her for thinking that, I was going through a bit of a depressive episode at the time. One day she broke down in front of me, asking for me to talk to her, and it kinda made me break down, telling her everything. I was ten at the time.” Kirishima put his shorts back down and looked around at them.
“Why the fuck does life give its hardest battles to its dopest people?” Pikachu lamented, a bit of a humorous tilt in his voice. A vain attempt to lighten the mood.
There was a murmur of agreement before more silence. It was becoming oppressive. Bakugou didn’t want to think about depressing shit anymore, was it avoidance, yes. But whatever, he had just gone through some shit.
“Hey, uh- Sero? In the bottom right drawer of my desk, I have some extra controllers in there, we can head to the living room and play on my PS4 if you guys want. I don’t have many multi-player games, but we can make do.” Bakugou slowly got up from his bed, still cautious of any balance issues he might have because of his ear.
They all went downstairs and spent the rest of the night playing games and talking about anything and everything. Bakugou was fighting his instincts all night to call what they were doing pity.
Breakfast came and went, with some waffles as a special treat.
More time passed and they all had to go home, where the rounds of the UA dorms were released. Before Bakugou could even get told about it, one of the others had added him to a group chat and they were all discussing it. He wasn’t even able to tell his parents what he had learned because All Might was at his door.
They performed the same act they always did, he only called it an act because he knew his mother put this front up with others, especially teachers. He knew she actually cared about him. They were just both the same person, with different fonts. There had been plenty of heart-to-hearts with each other, both personally and with a therapist.
Packing his life into just a few suitcases and boxes seemed wrong, but if he was going to be stuck in a hellhole dorm with a shit ton of people, he might as well be fucking comfortable.
Really, the first few weeks didn’t feel horrible when it came to his actual classmates, it was the teachers that made him feel icky.
He heard their whispers as he walked the halls, he knew what they said when they assumed he didn’t care enough to pay attention to his surroundings.
It was the same shit, over and over and over again.
He was a villain, should have stayed with the league, too volatile of a person to be there, he was a rabid animal.
It was the same shit just said differently each time. Sometimes there would be something new. Something to do with chains tying him up, or that the muzzle should have stayed on.
There were countless students echoing the teachers, complaining about having to be away from their homes. They hated him, and usually, he wouldn’t care. But there was only so much he could get hounded with before his inner shield started to chip.
For some fucking reason though, those four idiots were there to fill in the gaps as best as they could. And for once in his life, he was grateful to be surrounded by people.
It came to a boiling point one day when that shit-stain Mineta started going off at Bakugou after he accidentally bumped into him in the kitchen. Like shit, the dude was like a meter tall, at best, he was a bit hard to see sometimes.
Mineta was spewing the same drivel that he had heard a million times before. It normally wouldn’t bother him, it really wouldn’t. He’s heard worse before. But he was so fucking tired from training that day. Bakugou had shot explosion after explosion non-stop, testing his limits.
Bakugou’s fingers started to twitch as Mineta continued. Like they were itching for him to explode the little rat. Cheeks came into the kitchen in the middle of it and saw what was happening. She unceremoniously grabbed the fly swatter that was hanging by her on the wall and started slapping Mineta with it.
“Uh uh, get. Get!” She yelled at Mineta like the nuisance he was. He shielded his head and rushed away, lisped obscenities getting yelled at her as he fled.
While Bakugou was thankful for what she had done, he couldn’t find his voice, so he only nodded thanks. With a heavy weight on his shoulders, he finished cooking his instant noodles and shuffled away. He pretended not to notice the worried look on Cheek's face as he passed by her.
Bakugou made it to the safety of his dorm room, and sat on the floor, slurping his noodles absentmindedly. There was too much to even decode his thoughts, they all seemed like a static screen of a TV, too much and yet too little all at once.
There was a soft knocking at his door, and he didn’t even yell something for the person to leave him alone. He was too fucking tired to even try. The door opened up anyway, and he looked over to see who was brazen enough to enter without waiting for a reply.
It was Ashido. He mentally patted himself on the shoulder as he continued to remember her actual name, not the one he gave her.
“Hey there buddy. Are you doing good?” She came in slowly like he was some feral animal that she had to be patient with. Maybe those teachers and students were right. Even one of his few actual friends had to be careful with him.
He gave a non-comital hum, still slurping some noodles. Very noisily if he had to add. The overly salty beef flavor was comforting in a way, as it was a meal he loved as a kid. He didn’t have it very often anymore since he put himself on a strict diet and exercise plan. He didn’t need trash plugging up his arteries, but sometimes you just needed a comfort meal, ya know?
Ashido came forward and sat in front of him, grocery bag in her hands. Without any more words, she started to dig through it and pulled out a few cans of drinks and some snacks. He looked over the cans and noticed one of them was the tea that he liked, while another one of the bars was a chocolate bar that he had told them was his favorite. Along with them were, of course, some drinks and snacks the others liked, along with Ashido’s.
He looked up at her and found that she was looking at him already. There wasn’t even the barest hint of anything harsh against him. No sneer, no pity shone in her eyes, not even the slightest bit of judgment.
She just sat there, waiting. She munched on the sweet roll in her hand, her phone in her other as she mindlessly scrolled through Instagram. They sat there in silence, only the occasional hum or laugh at whatever she was looking at on her screen.
When the quietness of the room became almost stifling, Bakugou spoke. “I don’t know if I have what it takes to be a hero anymore.” It was hard, letting those words leave his mouth, like maybe if he had just kept it in, he would have been able to steam ahead without letting the doubt take hold of him. But no, he said it, and it was like a weighted blanket had been slapped down on his shoulders. The words were heavy on his tongue.
Ashido didn’t wildly gasp like Bakugou half expected her to. Instead, she gently lowered her phone from in front of her face and her expression was impossibly soft. Too soft to be directed at Bakugou, he knew that. “They must have really gotten to you if you’re saying that.”
It wasn’t a denial of his words, and for some reason, it made his ribs feel like they were closing in on his heart, the sharp edges stabbing his innards.
“It doesn’t matter how much I tried to ignore them, I guess they finally fucking became too much.” It was a bittersweet feeling to finally say the words that were thick in his throat.
“You know,” she said smoothly and low, “they don’t know shit about you. They don’t know your feelings, your efforts, or even your real personality, only what’s been ostracized and paraded on TV and the internet.”
That made Bakugou give a bitter chuckle. “Isn’t that all that matters anyway? How the world sees me?”
That gave Ashido a pause where she cocked her head in thought. “Well, yes and no. Look at Endeavor, everyone knows he’s loud, both noise wise and visually, and abrasive, and yet he’s still number one right now. But All Might was also loved by many, and he was one of the best top heroes we ever had. I think it just matters how much work you put in.”
“Thanks for comparing me to a child abuser, I feel very loved right now.” Bakugou deadpanned, his eyes boring into the bowl of broth left over after he finished the noodles.
“Yes, I do love you very much, and that’s why I’m saying this right now. It doesn’t really matter all of this bullshit that people are saying about you, it just matters what you and the closest people around you think. Also your actions. Good actions always help.” She said it very matter of fact.
“Half of the time, I think about becoming a villain just to see what people say.” That bitter seed had been growing inside Bakugou for a long time, but he didn’t want to mention it until that moment. Those thoughts usually only plagued him after he saw another rant of some rando on the internet thinking they had a hot take on him.
“I don’t think I could hurt people that didn’t deserve it.” Ashido tossed her roll wrapper into the trash and laid down on the ground after watching it go in.
That made Bakugou pause again, thinking about truly what it meant to be a villain. “Yeah, I don’t think I can either.” He trailed off, not continuing the conversation. He laughed bitterly to himself. "That's exactly what people think I do though. I- I used to do that." He placed the bowl of broth on his bedside table, then laid next to Ashido, the two of them looking up at the ceiling.
Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden Ashido began laughing. Bakugou got up and leaned on his elbow, turning to give her a curious look. She continued giggling and finally, they subsided for a second as she met his eyes. “I was just thinking about if we became more like Robinhood. Ya know, take from the rich, beat up bad guys, and yet still regarded as the bad guys too.”
It was obviously said to be a joke, but it made Bakugou have a lightbulb moment. That’s perfect. He knew he couldn’t possibly have a fulfilling hero career with the way that everyone was already labeling him as a hazard. He probably couldn’t even become anything that could benefit hero society at all, not a teacher, not a manager, not anything.
But as a villain, he could move outside of the law, outside of society, and better yet, take justice for things that fell through the cracks.
Memories of some of the many Baku-squad hangouts started to drift through Bakugou’s mind. Of all of the stories about how abuse and misuse of the law had fucked up some pieces of the squads' life. A vein of adrenaline started to open up inside Bakugou and he got up, immediately pacing back and forth as his mind raced.
In all honesty, he had a very good and powerful quirk, he could handle himself against just about anyone who came up against him, at least he had the will to. Japan was filled with horrible people, slipping under the radar of the cops and of the heroes. He could do it, he could go underground and handle shit that others couldn’t. Well, wouldn’t would be a better word for it.
While he could definitely do it alone, he had a higher chance of being more successful with others as well. He turned sharply and looked at Ashido. “Ash, do you want to become a villain with me?”
That was the catalyst for how it began.