Inner Turmoil & Fractured Hearts

Bakugou was struggling. Inner turmoil, shit like that. He passes Inko's place again, and he stops in front of the building. He deeply questions his options inside his head, mumbling a yes or no in response:

Does he tell the cops about Deku? Uh, could be smart, but he'll have to find the boy first. Which may not be great.

Does he tell Inko, who has completely isolated herself from everyone? He stopped in front of her apartment building for that purpose in the first place anyways.

And the stupidest question: does he try to confront Deku? Fuck, no. If he confronts the teenager, especially alone, he would be practically screaming that he has a death wish.

Bakugou finds himself walking to her door without a second thought. Stopping in front of the Midoriya's home, he hesitates. Courage, courage, courage. He needs to be what he shows himself to be. Explosive. Erratic. Manic, and impulsive.

He knocks softly on the door, a complete opposite of what the boy calls himself. Before he tries to knock again, harder this time, Inko Midoriya opens the door.

Now, Katsuki has seen Inko over the years. Being a strong woman, protecting her son first then her, and extremely caring. The woman standing at the door was not Inko Midoriya. She was a hollow shell, her green hair in a messy bun, her skin was stained red and permanent tears stuck to her cheeks.

Bakugou swallowed the growing ball of guilt forming in his throat. He gathers whatever strength he has left, and mutters a low greeting. She nods and mentally smacks herself and asks if he would like to come inside. She opened the door wide and he shuffled in and slipped off his shoes. The apartment was familiar but messy.

She looked at him as they both sat from opposite sides of the couch. She starts, "S-So Katsuki, what's happening?" She shakily exhaled.

Okay, here he goes. No turning back. "I-I saw De—Izuku. He's a-alive." The voice of said boy came back inside his head and began to taunt. He shook his head and tried to focus.

"I-Izuku…," she trailed out his name, as if trying to register the new information. "He's alive? H-How? What h-happen'd?" Her words were drowned out by her ever-growing sobs.

Here comes the hard part, the part no parent wants to hear. "Well, we had a rescue practice set in USJ and unknowingly to us, the villains attacked. They wanted to take out All Might. They were called the 'League of Villains' or something like that," he watched her face, scanning for any sense of acknowledgement of what he's saying. She gave a slight nod so he continued. "They had a villain who could create warp gates, and we were all scattered throughout the dome. From what I gathered, everyone fought in small groups, while I was left alone. I was left alone… with—"

"…Izuku," she finished for him. Tears ran freely from her eyes, and he wished to any higher being that he could replace her pain.

He felt tears prick at the edges of his eyes, and he didn't hold back. He was the reason that Deku is evil. He is the reason why his mom has crumbled down to nothing. Her heart was fractured and he wanted to repair it so bad. But he wasn't a heart surgeon.

When she regained some composure over herself, she asked the long awaited question: "Were you bullying Izuku all these years? A-Are you the reason my little Izuku isn't here?"

She got all the answers she needed when he refused to look at her, face down and allowing himself to be vulnerable in front of her.

———————————————————————————————————

Around the same time, the League of Villains are still recovering in their pub lair. Shigaraki was still injured, but healing quick as Kurogiri patched him up expertly. Deku avoided him, as he didn't want to be caught in a rant from him about how they were /this close/ to defeating the pro hero.

He realized that he actually doesn't have anything. He just has the clothes on his back and his blade, but that was it. Kurogiri asked him if he wanted to get some clothes and other essentials from the mall, and Deku nodded a little too excitedly.

"I need to cover myself, right? Who knows who will recognize me." Izuku shed his All Might hoodie and threw it away, getting Shigaraki to mutter a "finally."

Kurogiri sticks his hand in a portal and retrieves a black hoodie. "This is Tomura's but you may use it for now, remember to buy your own and whatever extra you need."

The younger boy nods and takes the money the warp gate man gives him. He announces his leave as he opens the door.

Once alone, he puts up the hoodie and walks in the direction of the big mall. He wastes no time getting there, listening to music from Kurogiri's iPod that he gave him. He has downloaded some good songs, but he also downloaded a few of his own favorites. He stepped into the outdoor mall and felt overwhelmed. It was busy as ever, and no one gave him a second glance.

He passes a couple hero merchandise stores and ignores them with a scoff and heads straight towards an alternative-style store. He carefully grabs jeans hanging on hangars and goes across the store for shirts and hoodies. While speed walking across the store, something caught his eye, and although he turned his head he didn't stop walking in the direction. He walked directly into someone.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!" The boy dropped some of his things when Izuku crashed into him, but yet, he was the one who apologized.

Midoriya snapped his head to the voice and body of the boy and he immediately felt embarrassed. "No, no! I'm sorry! I should've payed attention to where I was going! I-I got distracted…," he glanced at the boy and smiled. He may be a villain, but he wasn't rude too.

The boy bent down to pick up his fallen things, but Midoriya helped and picked it all up for him. Izuku snuck some long glances at the teenager. His hair was split, red on the left side, and pure white on his right. He had, from what Izuku could figure out, a burn scar over his eye on the left side. His eyes were heterochromatic, blue and grey. The teen caught him staring and chuckled.

He shot his head sideways, to avoid showing him his growing blush across his cheeks. Midoriya helps him up. "Oh, shit. Where are my manners..? I'm Izuku Midoriya." He sticks out his hand, making sure his bandages don't show.

"I'm Shouto Todoroki, nice to meet you Midoriya," he shook his hand with a swift motion. He organizes his hands back to under the pile of clothing he has. "Let me make it up to you."

"Make what up? I was the one who crashed into you.. I should be the one making it up to you for my rudeness." Midoriya smiled genuinely. For the first time in a month he felt truly happy, not manic happy.

Todoroki smiled back and sighed. "Fine, you got this round. Next time, I'll do something." He started walking to the counter to pay for his things, and Midoriya followed suit.

While paying, Midoriya gave Todoroki his coupon that he got over email. He questioned him but gave in after, the argument was going nowhere. Midoriya paid and they both walk out. They ended up talking about different things and Midoriya stated he was thirsty.

"My time to make it up to you now, Midoriya," he walked to a kiosk and ordered a bubble tea for himself then asked what flavor tea the smaller boy wanted.

"Watermelon," he told the man behind the counter. He watched as Todoroki paid and they hung out by the pick-up window, staying quiet so they can hear their names. Their names were shortly called, and they moved to a small round table positioned near the makeshift cafe.

Midoriya sipped on his tea, making a content noise when he started tasting the boba balls. Todoroki watched him as he did the same thing. The green haired boy giggled and almost choked from inhaling too fast. He coughed, and the other boy couldn't help but laugh at the boy's weird antics.

Todoroki managed to speak through chuckles after he finished choking, "So, would you want to hang out again? Sometime soon?"

Midoriya almost choked again. Todoroki laughed, and slid his phone across the small table so the other boy could add his contact. "I'll promise to text you once I get home," Shouto said as he stood up. He bowed slightly, "Nice meeting you, Izuku-kun!" And with that, he left.

———————————————————————————————————

Bakugou sat in the singular chair, sinking in. He felt small and inferior in the office. His group of friends managed to pressure him to at least see a therapist once, so he can at least sleep. He flinches when the door squeaks open and a tall woman strides in. Her suit pressed and dark, her hair slicked back in a formal bun. She grabbed a notepad and pen off the bookcase and went to sit in her chair.

"So," she looks down at her notepad, "Katsuki Bakugou, why are you here?"

He takes a shaky breath. "It starts with my childhood friend Izuku…"