In Your Shadow [Chapter 38]

[Chapter 37]

Katsuki glanced up when he heard the door open, reluctantly raising one hand in a little wave. Shouto just nodded at him, pausing for a moment to talk to the waiter who greeted him, and gesturing Katsuki’s way. With a couple of bows exchanged – Shouto’s one much more awkward than the waiter’s – he headed Katsuki’s direction, sliding onto the stool beside him.

“Bakugou,” he said in greeting.

“Half ‘n half.”

Shouto huffed, but when Katsuki glanced over, there was a tiny quirk to his lips, and Katsuki realised it had been a laugh. That sure as hell didn’t happen often, at least not with Katsuki around.

“Your last name is stupid,” Katsuki defended himself.

“How so?” Shouto asked, setting his bag down and getting comfortable.

“It’s his. A hell of a lot more than your quirk is.”

“Oh.” Shouto paused, looking weirdly contemplative. “It belongs to my mother and my siblings, too, though.”

“Your mother still uses it?” Katsuki asked, grimacing. “You’re all weird.”

“I think I’ve had the name for long enough that it’s always been mine, and my siblings’, so I didn’t really think about it like that.”

Katsuki raised an eyebrow at him, and Shouto cracked a tiny smile again.

“I know,” he said. “I’m working on it.”

Katsuki signalled a waiter who walked by, and Shouto picked up his menu, barely glancing at it before he pointed out his favourite soba meal. Katsuki almost picked out a rice dish just to be contrary, since the menu was ninety percent soba, but with a little sigh he asked for the same, instead – Shouto was probably the expert between them when it came to the best soba, after all.

“I brought you something,” Shouto said, once the waiter left. “Well, it’s from my sister.”

He reached into his bag and pulled out a plastic container, and Katsuki felt himself light up, when he saw the food inside. Even if he hadn’t felt it, he'd have known it from the way Shouto’s face changed, when Katsuki looked at him with wide eyes as he slid the container across the counter. Katsuki pulled it into his grip protectively, making sure it was out of Shouto’s reach, before he spoke again.

“You won, though,” he admitted.

“It’s not for the bet,” Shouto assured him. “My father mentioned he’d seen you at some meeting, that you told him you were missing Fuyumi’s cooking. She was flattered, and asked if he was likely to see you again any time soon, to pass on a meal for her.”

“And he said fuck no, because I’m working with Deku, so like hell if he’s gonna come close when it’s not absolutely necessary.”

“Yes,” Shouto agreed, clearly a little amused. “But when you messaged me yesterday, I told her I was coming to dinner with you, and she insisted on cooking for you so I could bring it along.”

Katsuki looked at the container again, holding it like it was made of gold. It was rare that anyone else cooked for him, these days, let alone someone who was such a good cook. The one benefit of going home for a day was that he got to eat his parents’ cooking, and it had been a long time since he’d last done that.

“Thank her for me,” he said quietly. “I can’t wait to eat it. Hell, I might cancel my soba order and just ask them to microwave my tofu for me instead.”

“You shouldn’t, the soba here is excellent.”

Sighing dramatically, Katsuki moved the container into his bag, to avoid the awkwardness of carrying leftovers around in a restaurant. He leaned down to make sure it was safe in the basket under the counter, where it wouldn’t somehow get knocked around and broken by accident, but when he sat back up again, Shouto looked weirdly hesitant. Katsuki could only raise an eyebrow at him questioningly, waiting for him to spit it out.

“Plus, I wanted to say thanks,” Shouto admitted quietly. “For the other day.”

“What did I do?”

“Believed in me.”

Katsuki mimed gagging, and Shouto laughed weakly, the stupidity of it all thankfully interrupted by the waiter bringing them drinks.

“I know it’s dumb,” Shouto assured him. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“It is,” Katsuki agreed, narrowing his eyes. “But are you… doing okay? Since then?”

Shouto tilted his head slightly, like a confused puppy.

“Are you asking if I’ve warmed up?”

“Your brain, dumbass,” Katsuki grumbled. “The whole incident was such a fucking mess. It’s not making you… anxious?”

“Is it making you anxious?”

Katsuki wanted to snap at him, wanted to punch him or something just for daring to ask, but he swallowed it down valiantly, taking a sip of his cold drink to help cool his temper. And maybe to stall for a little more time to think about his answer.

“A lot of things make me anxious,” he said finally. “But yeah, that one has been… a thing.”

“I didn’t realise.”

“It’s not exactly something a hero wants to talk about. At all, let alone to their… rivals, or whatever.”

“No, I guess not,” Shouto agreed, thankfully looking away and giving Katsuki a chance to breathe, to make his shoulders sag a little rather than scrunching up around his ears. “I don’t think I know what anxiety feels like.”

“Lucky bastard.”

“I don’t think I know what a lot of things feel like,” Shouto continued. “It still surprises me when someone at school makes me laugh. Or when you did, just before.”

“Oh. Fuck.” Katsuki grimaced, drumming his fingers on the counter. He knew he had to say it, but he hated that he had to be the one. Since when had he become the person who had to talk to shitty extras about their emotional issues and shit? “There are… people who can help with stuff like that, you know.”

“What, like a feelings quirk?”

“Like a therapist.”

Shouto didn’t answer right away, but those mismatched eyes drilled straight into Katsuki’s soul, seeing right through him, judging him.

“That’s why you asked Aizawa,” Shouto concluded finally. “You’ve been talking to someone.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki admitted, a little reluctantly. “A lot of people talk to them about… trauma. You know, things in your past that still fuck with you. Like the kidnapping, for me. And for you… well, you know. All of it.”

“Huh.”

“If, uh, you want to try it,” Katsuki mumbled, blushing despite his best efforts. “I can… help. I’m sure Deku would let you come see one of his, without telling The Asshole.”

Shouto cracked a smile again, and Katsuki just shrugged.

“Think about it,” he finished. “Let me know if you want help to sort it out, or I guess just if you decide to try it in general, if you want to tell someone.”

“I will,” Shouto agreed. “I’ll think about it.”

Their food finally showed up to break the awkwardness, and Katsuki sighed with relief. Considering he’d known them all for so much longer, it was weird that he still felt so awkward spending time with half of his classmates, compared to the sidekicks he’d only known for a few weeks. Maybe, admittedly, because he’d shown up on the first day of school as a shitty teenager who thought he was better than the rest of them, only for them to not only challenge him from day one, but to see him hit rock bottom multiple times over the years. That probably contributed. Compared to people who he’d met recently, while he was the best he’d ever been when it came to strength and intelligence and frankly everything else, who could only really judge him on his actions now that he’d grown? There was no contest, really; the recent ones were much easier to work with than the ones who knew what a piece of shit he’d been in the past.

Look at him and his self-awareness, Yutaka would’ve been proud.

“Are you working with him for the summer?”

“A few days a week.” Shouto nodded, slurping up some soba and making an appreciative noise before he continued. “He wanted more, I said no.”

“Really?”

“I told him it’s my last real break before graduation and I want to spend time with my friends.”

“Look at you, growing a pair.”

“A pair of what?”

“Forget it.”

Shouto just shrugged, reaching for his soba again, and Katsuki couldn’t help but smile as he took a mouthful of his own.

“Iida told me you’ve been borrowing his class notes.”

Katsuki almost choked on the damn noodles.

“Did Aizawa tell you to get them, or something?”

“No,” Katsuki grumbled. “My friends are shitty note-takers.”

“No I’m not.”

“We’re not friends, dumbass.”

“Sure we’re not, bestie.”

Katsuki glared at him, but when he saw the smile on Shouto’s face, he knew it had softened a little. After that shit about surprising himself with happiness, Katsuki would’ve had to be a villain to not feel at least a tiny bit good about seeing it. Fuck, at this rate he was gonna have to stop denying it.

“Really though, if you need more, I have plenty,” Shouto offered. “It must be hard to ask Iida all the time.”

“I only asked once, now he just sends me everything. It’s… kind of nice, I guess. I don’t have to tell him which subjects I need or whatever, he keeps track of what I’m not there for.”

“Class is much more peaceful without you around, it’s not hard to tell when you aren’t there.”

Katsuki flipped him off.

Whatever Shouto started to say next was cut off by an alarm blaring from the kitchen, and Katsuki leaned over to peek through a doorway, to see what was going on. A massive flame was rising from a grill, and Katsuki chuckled, looking over at Shouto pointedly. He didn’t even look up from his food, just passed his chopsticks to his other hand to keep eating with, raising the first in the general direction of the kitchen. Katsuki watched as the flames flickered, then quickly fizzled out, the alarm quickly silenced by the stunned workers.

“Do you think I need to fill out an incident report for that?” Shouto asked quietly, making Katsuki laugh surprisingly brightly. “I don’t want to. If anyone asks, you saw nothing.”

“Deal.”

Apparently, though, it hadn’t gone entirely unnoticed, since when Katsuki went to pay the bill, they’d already zeroed it out. Shouto was hanging out in the entrance, so Katsuki just smirked and thanked them for the kindness, agreeing to pass on their thanks for the help, even though he knew it would never actually leave his lips.

“All sorted,” Katsuki said, when they met up again – it wasn’t technically a lie, after all. “Good work on that villain.”

“The stove?” Shouto snorted. “Very fearsome.”

“I feel like there’s a new nickname in the works here. Gotta be some dumb joke I can make about stoves.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Are you ever?”

“Point taken.”

They walked out to the street, to where Katsuki would go back to the agency, and Shouto would head for a train station. They wouldn’t see each other again until the training camp, in all likelihood, so he had to get one final push in, before they split.

“Let me know about the counselling thing,” he reminded him. “You can always give it a go and change your mind if you don’t like it.”

“I’ll let you know,” he agreed. “Thanks, I guess.”

“S’whatever.”

They took two more steps, pausing on the footpath, and Katsuki wondered what the appropriate way was to say goodbye, after all that. Maybe he’d just flip him off again.

“Call me Shouto,” Shouto said.

“What?”

“If my last name is stupid, use my first one,” he explained, firmer and more confident than Katsuki thought he’d ever heard him before. “Or you can claim you’re just being detached and using my hero name to act like we don’t know each other, if you prefer.”

Katsuki smirked, but he nodded slightly, already regretting the words about to come out of his stupid mouth.

“Fine,” he agreed. “Call me Katsuki.”

“Really?”

“Everyone else in my life does, these days,” Katsuki grumbled, a flash of green eyes appearing in his stupid brain. “At this rate I’ll forget to answer to Bakugou, so you may as well.”

“Okay,” Shouto humoured him. “It was good to see you, Katsuki.”

“Ugh, it sounds so weird,” Katsuki complained, more for show than anything else. “Say thanks to Fuyumi for me, I’m gonna have it for dinner tomorrow. Tell her I’ll show it off to everyone at the agency, make them all jealous as fuck that I’ve got the best dinner while they’re all eating agency buffet meals and konbini crap.”

“I will,” Shouto promised, smiling softly. Katsuki wondered if he’d surprised himself with that one, too. “See you.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki agreed, settling for a wave rather than a finger. “Later, Shouto.”

———

“Oh god, not you again,” Katsuki complained, grinning all the same.

“Oh man!” Mu grinned right back. “I thought I’d gotten rid of you!”

As soon as he got close enough, Mu clapped Katsuki on the back fondly, and Katsuki allowed it. He seemed to be doing that a lot more often, lately – if he wasn’t careful, he was gonna end up getting hugged and shit. Ugh.

“I hear you do these late shifts a lot,” Mu said, nodding toward Trax where she was talking quietly with Maelstrom. “I might be doing more of them, at least for a while, so I guess I’ll have to put up with your dumb face more often.”

“I like working with Trax,” Katsuki confirmed, shooting her a glance of his own – still occupied. “I uh, know, for the record. Why you’re doing them, I mean.”

Mu raised an eyebrow, and Katsuki cringed.

“I mean, I assume you know why you’re doing them,” he said awkwardly. “And I was there for a meeting where they talked about it?”

“About Bee?”

“Yes,” Katsuki agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank god.”

“I should’ve let you squirm,” Mu teased. “You’re lucky I took pity”

“Jerk.” Katsuki shoved him lightly, getting a laugh in return.

“Yeah, they asked if I could handle doing more nights, and I’m cool with it, so here I am. I didn’t think you were much of a night owl, though. You like Trax that much?”

“I do,” he admitted. “Not in a weird way. She’s just really chill, takes me seriously, teaches me interesting shit.”

“That’s good,” Mu said, nodding faintly. “I haven’t worked with her much, so I’m glad.”

“You’ll love her, I promise.”

Trax finally looked up, smiling when she saw Katsuki waiting, and Maelstrom shot them both stupid, cheesy, finger guns.

“Guess who got a promotion,” Maelstrom said, and Katsuki couldn’t stop a laugh from bubbling out of him. “Thanks for fucking up that bridge, Dynamight, it got me my big break!”

“Do not start spreading that rumour,” Katsuki said, as sternly as he could manage.

“You’re no fun. Hey Mu, long time no see!”

“Hey man! I’m so jealous, you get a trophy or something? Shortest ‘Ord Term Ever?”

“I bet I can get one made!”

Katsuki had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t entirely kidding.

“I’ve just been told that there’s a missing person in the area,” Trax informed them all, shutting them up immediately. “Flare is dropping back-up duties to do a proper solo search, but we’re on alert as well, as we walk the streets. Paragon is on his way in to cover if we have any issues, and they’re trying to get in touch with Orus about coming in to help out, for obvious reasons.”

She hit something on her watch, and an image came up on the wall beside them, a photo of a girl who was probably barely younger than Katsuki. He glanced up, first, to spot the tiny projector in the wall that he’d never noticed before, before he turned his focus back on the face he needed to memorise in a hurry. She was pretty unremarkable, really; brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a generic school uniform. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to pick her out of a crowd.

“Do we know anything about the circumstances?” Maelstrom asked, snapping a photo of the projection on his phone – fuck, Katsuki hated it when people were smarter than him. “Runaway? Abducted?”

“According to her classmates, she talked about having an older boyfriend her parents didn’t know about, so could go either way if that’s related.”

“So potentially looking for her with an older guy, not just solo,” Katsuki mumbled. “Alright.”

He sneaked his phone out, following Maelstrom’s lead, but hoping it would go unnoticed.

“We’d better start our rounds, but be on high alert.”

Mu gave her a little salute, but Katsuki and Maelstrom just nodded, taking one last look at the photo before it disappeared again. Trax was a lot quieter than usual as they headed out, and Katsuki couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story, if there was something she wasn’t telling them. He knew he couldn’t ask, not if she wasn’t offering the information up front, but that didn’t stop him from wondering.

“So when you became a Lead,” Maelstrom said, sidling up next to Trax. “What was the first thing you used your raise for?”

“I rented a private jet and flew all my friends around the world to celebrate.”

Katsuki snorted, relieved to see Maelstrom and Mu laugh along too.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Maelstrom assured her. “Anything on a slightly smaller scale?”

“I moved into an apartment closer to the agency, but yours is already pretty nearby, right?”

“Yeah, the three of us decided to split a place nearby instead of dealing with commutes, it’s chill.”

“Three?” Katsuki asked. He’d never thought to ask anyone about their living arrangements before, but Maelstrom said it like it was such common knowledge, he couldn’t help but be curious.

“The two of us live together,” Mu clarified. “And Bleak, too. We all got hired at the same time.”

“Why do you think we give each other so much shit?” Maelstrom grinned. “When you spend the majority of your life with someone, you get overly comfortable.”

“Dynamight treats everyone like that, he doesn’t realise it’s special,” Mu laughed, despite a glare from Katsuki for it. “It’s okay buddy, I think it’s cute that you treat us all like friends!”

“Have you lifted any batons recently? I need one to shove up your ass.”

“Oooh, sounds like a fun night.”

Trax laughed, and Katsuki’s annoyance vanished immediately. The prodding from a couple of idiots was nothing if it meant getting Trax out of her own head for a moment.

“What, you want in?” Mu asked. “I don’t think I’m allowed to sleep with my boss.”

“I’m good, thanks,” Trax assured him, smiling all the same. “Stick to your little ‘ord parties.”

“How do you know about those?”

“Everyone knows about those.”

This time, Katsuki had no interest in asking.