Support Student Katsuki AU pt. 12
(pt. 1) (pt. 2) (pt. 3) (pt. 4) (pt. 5) (pt. 6)(pt. 7) (pt. 8) (pt. 9) (pt. 10) (pt. 11) (pt. 12) (pt. 13)
After the fight and making up with Izuku, Katsuki’s a bit drained but feeling good about himself. The Provisional License Exam comes and Izuku passes it! It was hard, there was a ton of people targeting him for being quirkless, for being in Class 1-A, for making the news and more. However, he and his classmates stuck together doing very well overall.
In fact, only one person didn’t pass.
Shouto Todoroki had been getting along with Izuku somewhat, and he had almost considered himself on non-hostile terms with Katsuki after the kidnapping.
Then he failed the Provisional License Exam while everyone else in his class, including a quirkless kid, passed. His father is furious with him, and he doesn’t understand how it ended up like this. Shouto wasn’t supposed to fail. He’s not allowed to. It’s not something he knows how to handle, failure just hasn’t been a part of his life. He’s upset, confused, and he doesn’t know where to turn or what to do. Obviously he signed up for remedial courses, but it’s not enough.
Shouto ends up taking his frustrations out on Izuku. This is partially because his father has been reminding him every chance he gets that a quirkless kid managed to pass, and partially because Izuku just takes it. If it had been anyone else, Izuku would’ve stood up for himself, but he knows Shouto’s going through some shit and is letting Shouto take it out on him out of guilt. He keeps everything from Katsuki too, because his boyfriend would get defensive, and really, it isn’t so hard to deal with. He’s not a little kid who can’t take some mean words or a few extra bruises during training. Since the Exam, Izuku has had his work-study to worry about anyways. Katsuki’s own work-study has been keeping him from tagging along to heroics training. So it should be easy to keep this under wraps until it all blows over, right?
The problem with keeping things from Katsuki, is Katsuki can always tell when something is wrong with Izuku. At first he leaves it alone but it only gets worse as time goes on. Izuku asked Katsuki not to pry but he’s worried. It’s hard for him to stand by when Izuku is clearly hurting. Interestingly enough, Monoma is the one to finally talk to Katsuki. He can’t stand how Shouto is acting because it reminds him way too much of how he was acting prior to their final exam. So he tells Katsuki everything, about the insults, about Shouto targeting Izuku in training, about all the little things that have been building up.
It’s been two weeks since the exam and Shouto hasn’t spoken to Katsuki since then, they’ve never been in the same room together what with how busy they both are. Right after Monoma talks to him Katsuki goes to confront Shouto about how he’s been acting. He’s smart enough to lure Shouto out to Ground Beta so Izuku won’t know. Shouto is upset enough to fall for the bait.
Shouto has also been very frustrated with Katsuki, though for totally different reasons. Katsuki has a powerful quirk, he has amazing combat skills, he’s so damn strong, he’s fast on his feet and he’s smart as hell; he has what it takes to be a hero. But he isn’t. Everyone around him tells him that he should be, or at least, they did at some point. Shouto even found out that Katsuki’s parents often try to pressure him into being a hero, despite the fact they themselves work in fashion design. He never meant to overhear it, but Katsuki was on the phone with his father and Shouto was around the corner. That stings more deeply than anything else.
Despite all the pressure on him to be a hero, Katsuki isn’t. He looked everyone else in the eye and put both middle fingers up as he walked down the support student pathway and... he’s happier for it. Somehow he rejected the pressure of his family, friends, teachers, and society at large and came out happy anyways. It makes Shouto doubt himself even more deeply. Was he weak for being on the heroics pathway because his father told him to be? Was Katsuki, a support student, really stronger than him for not being a hero?
In some ways, Katsuki is everything that Shouto wishes he could’ve been. Wishes he could be. Someone making their own path in spite of everyone else around them. So instead of backing down when Katsuki asks him what the fuck his problem is with Izuku, he gets angry and escalates things. He insults the both of them, calling Izuku a weak cheater who didn’t deserve to be where he was, and Katsuki a failure wasting his potienal.
Katsuki shoots back that for someone who hates his father, Shouto is the spitting image of him. Taking out his failures on someone who cares about him too much to fight back. It hits Shouto like a physical blow because it’s true and he can’t take that realization.
There aren’t any words for him to fight back with, so he attacks Katsuki. Unlike Izuku though, Katsuki fights back. He gives as good as he gets.
They keep shouting insults as they fight, Shouto trying desperately to hold himself together but he can’t anymore. Katsuki has been waiting, spiting back fire but watching with narrowed eyes until the moment Shouto’s weak, really weak. He slams into him, pinning both his hands above his head. Forcing Shouto to look into his eyes and hear him.
“Listen you asshole, I get it. You’re in a shit situation, and it’s not fucking fair. Been there, done that. But that doesn’t mean you get to drag someone else down with you!”
Katsuki’s voice is strong but he’s shaking with rage and fear.
“Izuku cares about you. The whole class of idiots cares about you. I care about you. We can’t do shit to help you when you’re so fucking determined to hurt everyone around you no matter how much we want to. If all you do is lash out, there’s no chance to heal your wounds before it’s too late.”
He’s frustrated, he’s almost in pain because even after all these years Katsuki isn’t good at caring about people. It’s not natural for him, but that’s what he needs here. Not to mention it’s so easy to see himself in Shouto’s place, taking all his anger out on the world around him instead of asking for help. But he needs this to get through. He can’t stand seeing Izuku hurt, and he can’t stand seeing Shouto hurt like this either.
“If you can’t talk to me or Izuku, fine, talk to Aizawa. He gives a shit about all of us no matter how hard he tries to pretend he doesn’t. Hell, talk to All-Might. Mic, Recovery Girl, Hound, anyone! There’s no magic fix, but they’ll listen and they’ll help you deal with it. People want to help you, but you’ve got to let them. If you don’t, if you keep pulling this projection shit, then you’ll end up just like him. I know you don’t want that. So get your head out of your ass and do something about it!”
It’s been a very long time since Shouto cried. Today though, his emotions overwhelm him and he can’t help it. For a moment, Katsuki’s sure he fucked up. He pushed too hard, too far and made everything worse. He lets go of Shouto’s hands, about to apologize when Shouto grabs onto him.
The hug is really awkward, but Katsuki returns it as best he can. Now he doesn’t know what to say.
That’s how Aizawa finds them. He had run out there after getting reports of a fight from the security system, only to find the battle over and two of his problem kids hugging it out (Alright so Katsuki wasn’t actually in his class, but fuck it, he had joint custody with Power Loader by now). It’s Shouto that speaks up, apologizing and saying the fight was his fault. He pauses then, before looking at Katsuki, searching for something. Whatever it is, he finds it and very quietly explained he’s been dealing with a bad home situation and had been too scared to do anything but lash out.
Aizawa snaps from ‘what are these hell children up to now’ to ‘who the fuck thinks they can mess with my fucking kids’ in 0.2 seconds flat, and before they know it both of them are in Hound Dog’s office. Katsuki sticks by Shouto for the entire conversation as he slowly explains everything that’s going on in his life. By the end of the night they have a plan put together. Both Katsuki and Shouto still get cleaning duty for fighting, because the school does technically have to punish that, but neither mind very much.
The next day before classes, Shouto finds Izuku and apologizes to him for how he acted. He vows to make up for it, even though Izuku tries to tell him it’s fine. Especially because Izuku tries to tell him it’s fine. This also puts Shouto and Katsuki on much better terms. Even after they finish their punishment, they start spending time together every so often. Studying. Hanging out in the common room. Shouto stops by the workshop once or twice during lunch to pull Katsuki out to rejoin the rest of the class. After a little while, Katsuki invites him to the workshop to help with a few of his projects. It starts mostly with him having Shouto test something new with Izuku. Then he asks Shouto to use his ice to help with some projects that require rapid cooling. Eventually he asks Shouto to use his fire for the first time, Katsuki’s own explosions won’t cut it, and the blowtorch has been acting up. Shouto’s nervous, but complies. It’s a small part of some project Katsuki is working on. Nothing super exciting or life changing. For Shouto, it’s the very first time he uses his fire to create rather than destroy.
After he finishes they sit in silence for awhile. Katsuki breaks it.
“You know, that quirk of yours would be really handy in the support line of work.”
It’s not exactly an offer. Honestly it’s not even a suggestion. Katsuki isn’t trying to tell him what to do. He’s too straightforward for that. All he’s doing is stating a fact.
A fact that Shouto takes several minutes to consider. He’s been thinking a lot lately, about who he is. Who he wants to be.
“It probably would be. Too bad I want to be a hero instead.”
Katsuki gives him a grin, all sharp teeth and knowing eyes. There’s warmth in that smile. It’s not like Izuku’s soft warmth, it’s focused, determined. So close to temperatures that could burn you, but not quite there.
“A damn shame. Nothing to be done about it though, guess quirks really don’t determine where you end up.”
Shouto can’t help but smile too, just a little twitch of the lips. Lots of things in his life still suck, but turns out it’s a lot easier to deal with when you have people on your side.
Life starts to improve for all three of them now that they’ve found their way again. The whole class’s mood and teamwork improves as a result. Shouto and Izuku start to work as a team, and god help everyone else. Particularly if they’ve got Monoma on their side. Luckily, he’s taken a liking to Shinsou, and the pair of them make great rivals. Shouto finds himself spending even more time with Izuku and Katsuki, as well as the rest of class. He’s smiling more. Studying with someone else more often than not. Looking forward to the day now instead of dreading it. Learning about little childhood things he missed out on.
One day Shouto wakes up. He pulls himself out of bed and trudges to start his morning routine. Finding motivation is hard that particular morning so he thinks of how Katsuki will already be up and cooking, while Izuku probably just woke up as well and should be heading downstairs at the same time as him. If he gets through everything he needs to do quickly, he’ll have a full 20 minutes to spend with them before class. That’s enough to get him going. Katsuki will be in his metal smithing clothes, a tight tank top with form fitting pants, later today too. That’s something he can look forward to.
It takes a second for Shouto to comprehend what he just thought. Fuck. He’s absolute shit at understanding his feelings, but he knows damn well they aren’t platonic anymore. And of course with his luck, it’s not just Katsuki, because now he’s thinking about Izuku’s sweet smile. The curls of his hair in the morning light. How he mumbles under his breath almost non-stop until he gets his morning coffee. So now it’s time for Shouto’s ‘Oh No, I have a crush on my two closest friends but They're Both Taken And There's Nothing I Can Do.’ crisis. He doesn’t even have time to worry about the ‘Wait I’m Gay’ part of things before crashing headfirst into tragic pining.
