Chapter Text
In the daily life of the four year old Katsuki Bakugou, Izuku Yagi was a constant.
Originally the other boy had been someone who lived near enough that they went to the same park, then he was someone who appreciated the superiority of All Might above all other heroes, and in the end he was nothing but a nuisance.
This is how it goes, Izuku follows him everywhere and Katsuki doesn't really mind. Izuku may be kind of a cry baby as well as completely hopeless at most of the games they play, but Izuku is the only one he can talk about heroes with until he's ready to pass out or his mother drags him home. When his Quirk manifests Katsuki casts off stupid baby notions as all that. Because what really matters at the end of the day is that his Quirk is singular in it's epic potential and Izuku is a useless cry baby who can't even skip a dinky stone on his billionth try.
Of course, Izuku, who was quickly dubbed 'Deku' for all his uselessness, keeps saying that he'll get a Quirk just as cool or even better than Katsuki's own. But Katsuki knows that's just the idiot's jealousy talking. Mrs. Yagi has a super minor quirk that's good for nothing but grabbing the remote or a cookbook that's just out of reach.
In the end, Deku just stops talking about his future Quirk, just like he stopped talking about his Dad.
That's another thing that makes Deku pathetic.
While none of the adults talked about it but somehow everyone still knew. His mother even whispered it with his father when she thought he was sleeping and Katsuki was sneaking a snack from the fridge.
That's how he'd found out.
Katsuki had been sneaking an extra brownie when he heard his Mother's voice in the living room say, "It's so sad, I keep trying to be nice and offer help to Inko but she keeps rejecting me and saying that her husband sends her enough.
"It's bullshit! Like she needs to suck it up and work extra if she's going to be able to put that kid of hers through highschool and University!"
"Maybe she's fine?" His father replied, from his place on the couch, the radio was at a low mumble and Katsuki could hear the low rattle of their top of the line sewing machines, "I'm sure she'd accept if she actually needed anything."
"She's too proud!" His mother barked, "She's too proud because she chose wrong! Inko should have married that boy from down the street where we lived! He had a good thing going for him, instead she married a useless wannabe hero! Now she lives in a horrible apartment and hardly ever sees him!"
Having heard enough, Katsuki rushed upstairs and back to his room, clutching his brownie in his hand and hoping the sound of the sewing machines covered up the patering of his feet.
In the end his mother never checked on him for eavesdropping and he was burdened with the truth.
Deku's dad was living in Tokyo trying to be a hero and getting nowhere, that's why Mrs. Yagi worked, even though her husband was working too.
Over the years, the only evidence that Deku even has a Dad is the fact that Mrs. Yagi says he does and that they vanished every summer to 'Visit' him and they return with little trinkets from Tokyo.
Knowing that, it didn't surprise him when the teachers say that they need to be gentle with Deku because he's 'Quirkless' and isn't like the rest of them. That it was a rare condition, but it happened on occasion.
The child of two people with useless Quirks, would of course be Quirkless.
As they grew up Katsuki began to understand that if he was the top of the food chain, that fate had given him Deku so that he may glimpse the bottom. To see how pathetic the people below him truly were. After all, Deku was useless at everything, Quirkless and, yet,still he said he wanted to be a hero.
It would be pitiful if it wasn't so disgusting that someone like Deku thought he could even come close to what Katsuki was aiming for.
What killed him though, what made his blood boil, was the fact that Deku refused to see it. He refused to see how utterly hopeless and useless he really truly was.
Deku looked down his nose at Katsuki as if he was above him, him, the boy who was going to be the most powerful hero of their age! Deku treated him like a baby, asked him 'are you ok' when Katsuki fell down, and would even call the teacher when he cut himself.
It pisses him off.
They're 7 when they enter a new class and their teacher, young and freshly certified, doesn't skip over Deku when doing 'Ice Breakers' and asks him,
"And what is your Quirk Yagi?"
Katsuki, as well as the rest of their classmates, laughed. It was funny really, and it highlighted how abnormal Deku really was. He quietly hoped that having to acknowledge his Quirklessness would really put the useless nerd in his place.
Instead Deku stood, looked down at the ground and fidgeted before stuttering out, "I'm, I just, I'm not, I'm not allowed to talk about it."
The teacher, froze and frowned before saying, "Well it's your parent's right, but as long as you're registered it shouldn't be a problem."
The room was quiet, and all of the kids that had been in their previous classes just looked confused.
It made his blood boil, that stupid Deku would try to lie like that so Katsuki set the record straight because he couldn't abide the annoying nerd getting away with something like that.
So, Katsuki stood and pointed at the loser, "He's lying he's Quirkless"
"Is that true?" The teacher asked, "Are you lying just because you're quirkless? Because I won't abide you lying to me young man."
Deku shook his head and the tears started coming to the surprise of only the new teacher as the nerd just said, "I'm not allowed to talk about it."
"You stupid idiot Deku! You think you can lie to the teacher and make yourself look good?! We all know you're Quirkless! He's going to find out you were lying anyways!" Katsuki growled, and slammed his hand on the other boy's desk.
He allowed his Quirk to activate and smoke began coming from his hand, "Tell the truth!"
But Deku just shook his head, "I'm not allowed to talk about it!"
It was useless though, because the teacher just sighed and said, "Ok, OK, Well we'll keep going, everyone just calm down.
Katsuki frowned and just turned around angrily, he felt a surge of vindication when the next day the teacher opened class saying, "Now Yagi, it's come to my attention, and with confirmation with your previous teachers, that you are quirkless. You shouldn't lie like that, just because you're embarrassed. It could be really bad if people though you had a Quirk and were too rough with you or something."
Deku just cried again and Katsuki rolled his eyes at how pathetic he was.
The only time they talk anymore is when Deku feels like getting uppity and Katsuki fulfills his moral obligation of putting the useless nerd in his place. That's when Deku decides to be a buzz kill and put himself between Katsuki and whatever pathetic dweeb needed a lesson.
He hates the feeling it gives him, like Deku thinks he's too good for anyone at all, like Katsuki is someone the little shit can order around.
It looks like it will be that way forever, until it stopped.
They were a whole nine years old when Deku is called out of class for some sort of emergency.
Katsuki didn't think about it too much, there wasn't much Mrs. Yagi could get up to.
It would have been something lost to his childhood memories, if that moment hadn't been where everything started to change. Because after that Deku stopped coming to school. Katsuki would have understood a week or so to deal with whatever emergency had happened, but after almost 3 weeks he finally asked his mother.
"Yagi? Oh, that's right you used to be friends huh? They moved to Tokyo, something about moving to be with Mr. Yagi," Mitsuki Bakugou, his mother, declared nonchalantly while she prepared dinner, "It's about time, I'd say, If he's in Japan there's really no reason to be living apart like that!"
Katsuki frowned and realized that the day Deku left their classroom, was the last time he'd ever see the other boy. It was stupid so he just shook the odd feeling that had crept up on him away, he should be glad. Now shitty Deku wouldn't be around to bother him with his absolutely irritating and condescending attitude.
His life goes on then and he tells himself that he hardly spares a thought for the useless nerd of a boy that had been a constant in his life. Katsuki had cooler people to hang out with, kids with actual quirks, there was no reason for him to care about Deku's fate, so he didn't.
One day he came home from an afternoon spent in the park. His mind was primarily on homework and dinner, they had played with Kyo's new kick ball so he'd worked up an appetite.
Katsuki was almost ten years old when he came into his living room and found his parents watching the news. The News anchor was speaking excitedly declaring, "The Footage of All Might and his family was taken by an unknown source, his agency is saying that a statement will be released soon but the truth is in front of us! The Symbol Of Peace has a wife and son!"
His co-worker, a woman with horns nodded, "While it's surprising, we should be talking about why All Might felt like he had to hide them! Plenty of heroes have children, just look at Endeavor! I for one feel a bit lied to, as if he was being a bit dishonest."
On the screen a picture of a man whose identity no one could deny, All Might, and while the woman was blurry, anyone who knew her could recognize Mrs. Inko Yagi. If her identity was in doubt, then when the video played, and All Might swooped in to lift his son into the air there was a small moment when the boy's face was in sharp focus.
Deku.
If the woman on the news felt lied to, then the liquid hot rage that rushed down Katsuki's throat was nothing compared to the raw and feral cry of, "BULL SHIT!" that ripped it's way from his mouth.
Mitsuki whipped around quickly and scolded him, "Don't curse in this house young man!"
Katsuki just barreled forward, "Those people are saying Deku is All Might's son and that can't be true!"
In an instant his father shut off the t.v. and said, "Katsuki maybe you should go change OK? You can calm down and we'll talk about this OK?"
"NO!" he resisted his father's offer, "Deku lied! He lied!"
His mother smacked him over the head and ordered him, "Go upstairs right now! Change and we'll eat but I don't want to hear about this again until you've changed!"
Knowing better than to resist, Katsuki swallowed the fire in his throat and rushed upstairs to change.
His mind spinning, Deku, who had looked down on him for seemingly no reason, had been looking down on him because he was All Might's son. Shitty Deku with no Quirk looked down on everyone else because he was a stupid Elite.
All Might had a useless shitty Quirkless kid that thought he was hot shit because his Dad was Number One.
Later, after he watched the 'Heroes' Initiative' interview, he'd recall how Deku had refused to talk about his Quirklessness and the words 'I'm Quirkless' had never actually passed the bastard's lips either.
That when Deku was 4 he'd assured Katsuki that he'd get an amazing Quirk.
Katsuki never cared about anything regarding Deku, except that the useless nerd had looked down on him, but now? Now he didn't know why he felt so much rage at being deceived. They had never been friends, so why did he care so much?
It was stupid, and in the end he decided that it wouldn't even matter if Deku was Quirkless, and if he wasn't, then that it would be a pleasure to crush someone who thought himself so above everyone else because of his Father's hard work.