Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His name was Katsuki Bakugou, he was a teenage hero in training, he was fighting in a war that was not his own, but one he would win nonetheless.

He was a bully, some even called him a villain, he hurt the people he was meant to protect, and only now does he know how much he fucked up.

And now, he was fighting not only to win the battle, but to protect and to save.

So when he saw Shigaraki send an attack that would hurt and could kill the person that Bakugou had hurt the most…

He didn't even hesitate.

His body just… moved on its own.

It hurt, holy shit it hurt. Those spikes that Shigaraki sent out sent red-hot pain through his body as they pierced his body in way too many places. The only reason he didn't scream was because he was too stubborn to let the sound pass his lips.

That and all the blood in his lungs.

Choking on the iron taste quickly filling his mouth, he was able to spit out the words he knew Deku needed to hear.

“Don’t try to win this by yourself.”

He knows the nerd and he knows he’ll try to carry the world on his shoulders. He always preached how he wanted to save everyone with a smile on his face, yet here he was, not letting anyone save him.

Well too fucking bad then Deku. He wasn’t gonna let the nerd do this alone.

Then he fell.

He could feel gravity’s pull on him as the wind rushed past his face. All the while it took everything in him just to force his lungs to work, leaving him helpless to the incoming impact that would do nothing but break even more of his bones.

God his everything hurt, but most of that hurt was in his chest area which was real god-damned annoying since most of the important parts are right around there. Like his heart that slowly felt like it was shriveling up and burning in an eternal fire in his chest, and his lungs that were filling with blood and filling fast if the constant mouthfuls of the stuff he spat out meant anything.

The impact came quicker than he thought since he knew they were a good couple hundred feet in the air. At first, he thought he had blacked out for a minute during the fall, it’d make sense with the shit ton of pain he felt, but the impact was a lot softer too, and it was a fast push on his side rather than a crushing hit on his back.

After blearily blinking out the black in his vision he looked and oh- Icey hot had grabbed him out the air. It looked like he had his old man in his other arm as well.

A sneer pulled at his lips but another gush of blood from his mouth kept him from really growling at the other. As if he would let the half-n-half bastard pull him out of the fight. Yeah sure his everything hurt like a mother-fucker but if stupid Deku could run around with about ten different broken bones at any given time and still fight, then Bakugou was sure as hell not stopping anytime soon, least of all for some stupid internal bleeding shit.

Black dots continued to plague his vision and he blinked to push that and the rising nausea down. By the time his vision cleared enough Icey hot was reaching the ground and all of a sudden his chest felt like it was collapsing into itself and his bones decided now was a great time to scream at him and force him into absolute agony. 

They had landed and in the process his body was jostled in the impact, causing said agonizing pain, and then he was slowly let down to rest on the ground.

Fucking ow.

He was now on his back which just seemed to make the pain in his chest unfurl to the entire rest of his body, the pain seeping into his limbs and blood filled his mouth. He turned his head away from the blue sky and the fight he could see was still being waged in the air by Deku and Shigaraki in hopes to let the constant iron taste drip out of his mouth.

Breathing was important, he needed to breathe, he needed to breathe in air and not his own blood. His lungs were already too filled with the stuff.

He turned and turned until he turned too much and searing pain erupted from his lower hip, causing him to seize up at the pain and move back. Once again his head was facing up into the sky above and all Bakugou could think of how fucking stupid this was.

The sky was nothing but clear blue, with only a few pleasant clouds littering its peaceful expanse. As if people weren't fighting for their lives down here, like people weren’t risking everything they had to protect people here, like he himself wasn’t fucking dying here.

Bakugou coughed out another gulp of blood, or tried to. With how his body was positioned he could do little more than suffer with the feeling of drowning on dry land. 

He wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all himself here. He needed medical attention fucking yesterday with his injuries. It’d be a miracle for doctors to even get to the scene in the next hour, let alone find him with a still beating heart and lungs even partially full of oxygen.

He was dying.

Hah, even with this Deku was ahead of him huh? Deku had fought half-broken and on the edge of death what felt like a dozen times by now, the nerd only recently learning how to fight without crumpling his limbs like they were nothing more than wet toilet paper.

And of course as soon as Bakugou had even an inkling of an idea of what to say to Deku, how to even face him again, the universe decided now was a great time to cut his life short.

At least he was able to tell Deku something. At least he was able to protect him this time, even if it was nothing compared to all the times Deku had been protected from him. At least…

At least…

He didn’t want to die.

He wanted to see his friends, he wanted to see his family! He doesn’t want the last thing he sees and hears and lives in to be a fight he can’t even help in! A fight where he’s nothing more than dead weight, where he’s helpless to the world around and his own blood in his lungs and a slowly fading sky that slips into black.

And he couldn’t even tell Deku what he wanted. Just a last-ditch attempt to make things right.

He just… he just wanted… to make things right…

He’s sorry…

Izuku…

He opens his eyes again.

It’s slow and it takes far too much effort than it should, but he does.

The first thing he sees is a white ceiling, and with the last remnants of his memories intact, he realizes he must be in a hospital.

But it was wrong.

Everything was wrong.

The world came to him in bits and pieces, slowly until he was able to paint a picture (albeit a pretty shitty picture) with all of his muddled senses.

He was warm and wrapped up in something tight. There were people speaking around him with joy in their choked-up voices. The blank white ceiling was occasionally obscured with blobs of color that suspiciously looked like people's faces.

Except their faces were just a collection of unrecognizable colors with everything so muddled and these overjoyed voices weren’t familiar at all.

It could be explained by just him being beyond out of it, but he could swear that he’d never heard these voices a day in his life. That could be because he was surrounded by doctors and not anyone he knew, but the way people were talking about him, they sounded like they were happy he was alive. Happier than any random doctor assigned to him had any right to be.

This happiness was from someone who knew him, or at least cared for him. Too bad their voices were nothing more than a jumble of noises and hums that his still fuzzy mind simply refused to translate into actual fucking words.

Everything was so off, nothing felt right, the hell was even going on?!

He was moving, something was pulling him up and bringing him somewhere, something he did not fucking like thank you.

He tried to squirm in whatever was holding his arms and legs close to himself and as he did he was becoming more and more aware of how different his body was. His limbs, even with whatever it was that was holding him down, felt beyond weak, not to mention how round and flimsy he felt.

One good thing that came from the squirming was the fact that the world seemed to clear up some with it. As he was moved the white ceiling became less blank color and more unified design of a familiar square pattern that lined the surface. It also meant that the random blobs of colors were turning into actual fucking faces he could perceive.

He was looking up at someone, only able to see their chin from the angle, but already he knew everything was wrong wrong wrong.

He was being moved, he was being carried, held preciously in someone's arms and his head resting on their chest as he was carried off with his body wrapped in what he now saw as a blanket.

And he was too fucking small.

His eyes moved around desperately as his wiggling grew more frantic. He was in a hospital, he was small, he was wrapped in a light blue blanket, he was a god-damned baby, and he was being carried over to a woman lying in a hospital bed.

For a brief moment, Bakugou thought he might have gone back in time, for as absurd that the idea sounded. He was a baby, so already the situation was beyond insane, but he was also a baby slowly being brought to a loud blond woman.

Was this his mom? Was he getting another chance at life? Could he fix things?

Could he make things right?

But as he got closer he was able to see more than just her paler complexion and blond hair.

Her face was wrong, it was slimmer and longer than his mother's. Her eyes weren’t narrow with pinprick red irises like his were either, instead they were smooth oval with wide green eyes. Then he looked back at her hair, longer and a darker blond instead of ash blond with a short and spikey haircut.

They had finally reached the woman, her wide eyes shining with unshed tears as she slowly took him in her arms. 

As she took his baby body Bakugou was finally able to hear the world around him clearly, the soft voice of the person who had brought him over now spoke actual words and not a droning hum.

“Here Miss Haruno,” Haruno, he’s never heard that name before. Why was he being handed off to this random extra? “He’s a healthy baby boy.”

“Oh look at him,” She sniffed with a tired smile but incredibly warm eyes, “My sweet baby.”

Bakugou’s eyes were locked onto the woman. The woman who called him her baby. The woman who looked similar but still so different from his mother. The woman who isn’t Mitsuki Bakugou, she isn’t his mother…

But… she is his mother, isn’t she?

Bakougou wasn’t stupid. The current situation he’s in is absolutely stupid and wrong and actually fucking insane but… he knows what’s happening.

He just hates every single fucking part of it.

Instead of getting a chance at making things in the past right again, he was getting another chance at life.

Except it wasn’t his life anymore.

“Litte Katsumori. My little Katsumori.”

He wasn’t Katsuki Bakugou anymore. He wasn’t a teenager or a hero in training anymore. He wasn’t fighting in a war, and instead, he had died in one.

And had been reincarnated.

What a fucking joke.

Chapter Text

The next week had been a blur.

He was asleep more often than not in the hospital as the doctors did whatever the fuck doctors do to newborns.

Because, oh yeah, he was a fucking newborn baby!

Bakugou wanted to throw a fit every fucking time that thought ran through his head, and after the day or so after being brought to what would be his ‘home’ in this new world full of new shit, he decided to indulge in that particular want.

He was a fucking baby, so he was gonna throw a fit like one.

He screamed and kicked and did everything he could with his stupidly weak baby limbs and raged.

He died. He fucking died. And now he was somewhere new with new parents and a new place and new fucking everything.

He had lost everything. Not just his life but everyone he’s ever known and cared about. He can never look at Mitsuki Bakugou and call her mom or Masaru Bakugou and call him dad. He can never speak to shitty hair or raccoon eyes or dunce face or tape arms the same way. He can never give shit to Icey hot for grabbing him from the air. He can never lecture Deku for not fighting alone like the self-sacrificing idiot he was.

He can never apologize to Izuku.

So yeah, he thinks he deserves a good few hours of screaming and fussing and causing as much chaos as he can with the excuse of ‘he’s a fucking baby’.

This lasted a couple days, days where his ‘father’ Kizashi Haruno, a man with blue eyes and dull pink hair with frankly stupid looking sideburns, tried to calm him down to no avail. All the while his ‘mother’, the woman in the hospital named Mebuki Haruno, tried to rest in the other room, though his constant screams led to her trying to help her husband in his futile attempt to calm him down more often than not.

But after he raged as hard as he could with his stubby limbs, he just felt… tired.

He figured it was because he was a newborn with newborn stamina, aka none at all, but he wasn’t just physically tired.

He was tired of all the bullshit he was having to go through of being born in a new home with a new family.

And he was tired of knowing this was his new life, and that the only thing he could do now was accept it.

So in stark contrast to how he acted when he was first brought to the place he would have to call home, he was dead silent.

Predictably, this sudden change caused both his new parents to become a little freaked out. The first morning when his constant screams turned to blank stares, they were relieved for the first few hours or so, thinking he was just tired or something similar.

But that relief soon turned to worry when well over half the day had gone by and he had yet to make a single peep. And that worry turned to pure fear when the next day he hadn’t moved an inch on his own and still refused to scream or cry like a normal baby.

And that was how he found himself back at the hospital.

The doctors checked on him again and soon enough found that he was in good health, telling the married couple that he must have just tired himself out during those first few days.

The two seemed skeptical but quickly took to this new normal like it was an oasis in a desert. They let him lie in his crib and stare blankly against the ceiling with either thoughts running rampant in his mind or no thoughts at all as he just existed in his new life.

He was lucky that babies aren’t expected to do more than lay down and cry, so after the initial scare from his change in behavior, the couple left him to his thoughts.

They didn’t try forcing him to play with toys or move around too much, other than some basic stretches the doctors recommended. They took care of his needs and kept him healthy, just like any good parent, no matter how awkward some of it felt with him being a teenager trapped in a baby’s body.

So he found himself lying down more often than not, either in his crib or on the soft carpeted floor, just tired of everything.

This routine continued for what Bakugou thought was a little less than a month in this new home until he was eventually brought out of the house in a stroller.

And that was when he realized just how new his new life was.

He hadn’t paid much attention the last couple times he was brought out of the house, with him having slept through it the first time he left the hospital and the next visit and return from the hospital being occupied by two panicking turned skeptical parents who made sure the trip was quick and filled with nothing more than mumbled worries.

But now the couple were having a pleasant walk at a leisurely pace with him snuggly strapped in a stroller, and he was able to see everything.

He looked across the buildings and at first, nothing caught his eye. The street his new home was on was filled with modern two-floored houses like the one he had before. The couple pushing his stroller around kept blabbering on about nothing in particular to their newborn, the excitement of their new family still as potent as ever.

Bakugou wasn’t listening to the two, just eyeing the area lazily until he felt something close by before noticing movement in the corner of his eye. He couldn’t help but look over, and that was when he saw what looked like a group of people jumping from building to building.

His mind was immediately brought back to the present as he watched the group practically flicker out of sight, a slight buzz under his skin somehow being the only thing reassuring him that they were there and not some funky baby imagination bullshit.

All he could do was stare at the spot where the people had disappeared from. They didn’t look like heroes, they looked too bland for that, but they couldn’t be normal civilians either with that ability. Were they underground heroes? 

This confusion forced his mind to take in the world around him, the mindless sounds turned to words and conversations and the blurring colors of the street turned into recognizable shapes of people and buildings.

Desperate for something to latch onto, for any chance of answers, Bakugou decided to tune into the couples constant word vomit in the hopes that they would have any answers as to who those extras on the roof were, but to his dismay and ever-growing annoyance it seemed like the two adults hadn’t even noticed the people at all.

Instead, the two went on and on about nothing at all. There were a few times when they would say something interesting that caught his attention, like how they were passing by some of the ‘clan districts’ or how some ‘Inuzuka’ thing was close by. They talked about how they enjoyed stretching their legs and were excited to show Bakugou the ‘village’ and how they should head back to the ‘civilian district’ soon.

Most of it was useless nonsense, but the thread of information he found in their words was enough for him to realize this place wasn’t like the home he had before.

Especially the shit about the ‘shinobi’ that ran around the place.

Because there were actual fucking ninjas here. And if what he heard was correct, those people he saw on the roofs before were some of said ninjas.

They had mentioned it offhandedly, just like they did with everything they talked about as they walked, nearly half an hour after Bakugou had seen that weird group on the roofs. Bakugou was feeling that same buzz as before and he looked over to another group that was walking by, one that had the same colors and clothes that Bakugou had seen from the people he noticed on the roofs.

Sideburns had talked about how all the shinobi seemed to be more lax today as he made a weak gesture toward the group they had walked past. Said that he hadn’t seen many running around like normal, that their patrols seemed fewer and farther between.

Bakugou’s thoughts screeched to a halt at the words even as the man’s wife tried to reassure him. Bakugou looked to the woman in the hopes she would fucking elaborate but she just said that the whole point of their patrols was that people didn’t see them. That stealth and efficiency were the ways of a shinobi. 

While her words did reassure her husband slightly, Bakugou was left reeling with the information.

There were shinobi, ninjas here. Was that just what these people called their heroes here? They went on patrol, that sounded like what heroes did. But then the triangle-bangs said they were supposed to stay hidden, that was practically the opposite of what heroes did. Heroes were praised for how eye-catching and flashy they were, stealth only being reserved for underground heroes like his hobo teacher from before.

And why the hell would they call their heroes shinobi anyway?

Unless… unless these shinobi weren’t like heroes at all. Unless they were something else entirely.

The walk didn’t last long after that, and while he hated to admit it, Bakugou was glad when he heard the couple say it was time to get back home. He had more than enough information to sort through.

Too bad the universe wasn’t done with him yet.

As the couple turned the crib around, Bakugou was able to see what looked like a mountain, one that looked to sit right at the end of this village. His eyes went wide as he looked at the three carved faces that jutted out towards him. 

He looked on with even more confusion and the couple seemed to notice this, the man giggling and the woman going right into a spiel about ‘Hokage mountain’.

“The left one is the first Hokage, he was the one who helped build this village with the help of his younger brother, the second Hokage. You can see him in the middle there can’t you little Katsu.” She pointed eagerly as she called him that stupid nickname like he couldn’t see the literal giant faces carved into the mountain. “Then there’s the third Hokage, the one we have now. He’s the one on the far right. The Hokage are the strongest ninja in the village, they lead with their incredible power that is known across the land. Especially lord first. He was the first to make a village like this one, and soon there were the five great ninja villages, and with each village came their own Kage.”

This was by far the most information he had gotten about this place and it all kept coming in droves as the woman went on and on. The rest of the walk was filled with how the ‘shinobi of the leaf’ were here to protect us and how oh so strong they were.

Bakugou was sure most of it was simplified beyond belief for his little baby ears, the most details he was given being about that Hokage mountain from before, but still what he heard left him with more and more questions.

What about the heroes? What was the leaf village, Konoha? He had never heard about the place. And the fuck were these Hokage people? They were the leaders but also the strongest? 

None of these terms were familiar at all to Bakugou, which should be impossible.

Everyone still spoke Japanese so he wasn’t born on the other side of the world, he had to still be in Japan right? But nothing was familiar at all! He aced his fucking geography and history classes, but still, nothing made sense!

Then again, he was already in an impossible situation here, wasn’t he?

He was reincarnated, and even if reincarnation was normal it definitely wasn’t normal to be born with his memories of his past life still intact. If that was the case there would be a hell of a lot more people talking about it. But here he was, a baby again with a family that wasn’t his own and in a place he couldn’t recognize.

So what if… what if Bakugou wasn’t just born again in a new family? What if he was born in a new world?

Looking out at what was the village Konoha, a place he had never heard of before, with ninjas running around instead of heroes, and the Hokage who were apparently both the strongest and the leaders… it was the only thing that made sense.

Wow… the universe was just the fucking worst, wasn’t it.

Chapter Text

Even with Bakugou’s quite literal world-shattering revelation, life kept going.

The days continued to pass and the people who were his new parents kept pestering him. Kept cooing and fawning over him. And it got real annoying real fast.

But they still let him lie down a lot. Not much else for a baby to do. Bakugou used this time to sparse out the new information from the walk around the village, and as he did, he felt himself slowly and begrudgingly accepting his situation.

He was here now. There was no way back. He would have to live his life here… alone.

This also meant that he would have to accept who these people around him should be to him. Triangle-bangs was supposed to be his mother here, and Sideburns was supposed to be his father here. And unless he wanted to be the weirdest toddler in existence, he would have to call them that.

And he has to let them coddle him too. Ugh.

That also meant that he would have to adapt to live in this new place, this new world. 

And so that’s what he did. He was somewhere new and different, so he just had to learn more about it.

He didn’t fuss too much when the couple- his parents, would take him out in a stroller and walk around. He would look around or point to anything and everything in hopes of getting the two to talk more about the place. 

From what he heard, when it comes to everyday life, this world wasn’t too different from the one he lived in before. If a little less technologically advanced.

There were no cars or big buildings which was strange, especially if his parents were right and this village was one of, if not the biggest in the world. So this world was like his world in the past, they had similar animals and plants (even if the trees here were fucking giant like seriously what kind of fertilizer were these people using?), the only difference seemed to be these shinobi people.

That’s why anytime he felt that weird buzz under his skin and in the air he snapped his head over to the direction it was telling him to look. He didn’t know what it was or why it happened, he just knew that it always pointed him to these shinobi people. Be it when they were running across the roofs and looked nothing more than a blur in the sky or when they were just standing around on the road, he always babbled as loud as he could as he flung his little baby arms at them.

The couple would indulge and coo at him, a simple “Yes that’s a shinobi good job Katsu,” or “Good Job Katsumori! Wow look at them go, there so fast! Woosh!”

But after one particular loud wail from him since the two continued to not give him any actual information, the couple hushed him before shoving an actual fucking binky in his mouth.

“Now now Katsumori, I know you like the shinobi but you can’t go screaming like that.” His mother said sternly.

“Leave the strong shinobi to their jobs ok?” His father piped in, “They do very important work, you don't want to disturb them now do you little Katsu?”

Bakugou spat out the binky and scowled at them in defiance but other than that relented to the couple's request. All they did was coo at him more at his ‘cute little baby cheeks’ and Bakugou wished not for the first time to throw a god-damned chair at something.

The world continues to move on and before he knows it, he’s moving.

More specifically he’s crawling, but hey it’s something.

His parents cheer as he works his little baby limbs into motion. When they leave the house on their walks all they talk about is him and his great accomplishment of having less than basic motor skills. Granted he apparently started crawling pretty early at a nice five months old, but still, they didn’t have to tell the whole world about it.

At the thought, Bakugou couldn’t help the bitter feeling in his gut. Before he would preen at the barest of praise and growl at anyone who dared disagree, and here he was wishing his stupid parents would shut up about it already.

It felt cheap. All he did was move around, he didn’t earn anything, didn’t do anything great. He just got tired of staying put and not being able to move his body the way he wanted.

Whatever, putting aside his literal baby accomplishment, by now he was content with the information he had. It wasn’t a lot, but he knew it was all he was gonna get with baby babbling and random gestures.

He knew the place he lived in now was a shinobi village called Konohagakure, or Konoha for short, and that it was located in the land of Fire. He knew the village was one of five great shinobi villages, the other villages presumably all being in other countries or ‘lands’ like this one was. So far he had only heard of the land of Earth and a different village entirely called Suna.

He also realized on his own that this place didn’t have quirks. He guessed that made sense, new world so new shit, but it just seemed so… impossible. His entire situation was impossible but this part in particular, it was like an additional slap in the face from the universe.

But that also meant that whatever power these shinobi had weren’t quirks. No, what they had was more uniform, something every shinobi he saw had. All the ones on the roofs were fast enough to be nothing but a blur, all the ones walking through the street that he never would have noticed and instead just knew they were there thanks to that buzz he felt were all quiet enough to walk in complete silence and be unnoticeable.

They all had these skills, these abilities, that weren’t quirks. He had no idea what those abilities were, which as always was beyond infuriating, but it was all he was gonna get about that particular topic for now.

He knew his mother and father were civilians who owned a small textile shop, mainly selling different clothes with some embroidery commission work his mother does on the side. He knew they lived in the higher middle area of the civilian district thanks to the higher demand for the military clothing that shinobi needed.

That was another thing he learned. Shinobi weren’t heroes in this world (that much was obvious with the emphasis on stealth and lack of quirks), they were soldiers. Or at least, people talked about them like they were soldiers.

But then other times, as the small family walked around the village, Bakugou would hear whispers of how people feared them. How some would speak of them with a disgusted sneer on their face or terror in their eyes.

They were powerful, that much was obvious, but unlike in his old world, some people here feared that power.

But they were also the strongest. They were also the closest thing this world had to heroes.

And so Bakugou came to a decision.

If he was gonna be forced to live in this world of shinobi and villages, he would grow strong. And the only way to grow strong was to become a shinobi.

It was around the same time that Bakugou was able to get his feet under him and actually walk when he was able to force his new vocal cords to work.

This wasn’t on purpose and he didn’t mean for it to end up like that. Honest. It was all an accident. An embarrassingly wholesome yet fucking hilarious one if you asked him, but an accident nonetheless.

He was being pulled around by his father, his little hands in the man’s bigger ones as he waddled around on unsure feet. He kept his eyes down as he scowled at the opposing appendages. He was done being stagnant, of having to crawl to get anywhere or rely on his parents to do anything. He wanted to fucking move already.

He was steadier than he had the last few times he tried, but even now his parents clapped and cheered for his meager achievement of standing unsteadily on his own two feet at nine months old.

It kept rubbing him the wrong way. He understood it, to them he was just a baby learning about the world and how to move his body for the very first time. Why would they think any different?

But he wasn’t learning this all for the first time! He was fifteen damnit! Or was he sixteen now? Whatever- either way, the fact that this stupid fucking body kept refusing to do what he wanted made him want to punch something. Or explode something. Yeah exploding something would be real nice right about now.

But instead of the prickle of an explosion in his palm all he felt was disappointment and grief at the accidental reminder of his past life.

He shook his head and refocused on his stubby feet but looked up when he realized his arms were at his sides instead of held by his father's gentle hands.

Both his parents were crouched down in front of him, waving and cooing and trying to get him to move closer. They were trying to get him to walk on his own.

Well fine by him, he just needs his body to fucking cooperate.

He moved one foot forward, it landed on the floor easily enough, and then he moved the other.

A triumphant grin started to grow on his face despite himself as he kept moving forward, not falling or stumbling but actually fucking moving.

One step at a time he got closer and closer to his parents, eventually feeling confident enough in his little baby limbs to look up at them instead of his feet and the floor. His mother was bouncing on her knees from where she sat on the floor and his father had a giant grin on his face, his stupid sideburns even stretching with how big his beaming smile was.

They both had a slight sheen of wetness in their eyes, his father more so than his mother, and they both looked so damn happy, Bakugou couldn’t help but hasen his slowly unsteadying steps in an attempt to get closer.

He was so close now that he had to look up to his parents faces. He reached his hands up to their extended arms and found himself swaddled in a soft yet crushing hug from his father as he grabbed him and his mother laughed a warm and excited laugh.

They congratulated him again, kept praising him for something he knew was barely an achievement for him and instead should just be another grim reminder of everything he lost like basic motor skills. Except this time, he couldn’t help but feel warm inside with their words and love swaddling him.

They weren't just exaggerating or praising him for no reason. They truly were happy for him and his meager achievements. They were happy with every stumble and every additional step because it was something new, something that meant he was growing.

They loved him.

He could see it with the happy tears that occasionally made their way down his dad’s face and the way his mom kept jumping up and down as she clapped for him.

They loved him, and why wouldn’t they? He was their child.

And they were his parents.

He laughed with them, giggling that slowly grew to what felt like a maniacal cackle as his dad stood with him still coddled in his arms and spun around with a hearty laugh of his own. All the while his mom’s cheering slowly morphed into a crazy laugh much like her son as she joined the two of them, the woman leaning against her husband as he carried their child.

His dad nuzzled his cheek against the top of Bakugou’s head, the man’s sideburns tickling his face and he smacked the face away, all with a grin with not enough teeth still plastered on his face. His mom laughed while his dad wined sorrowfully at Bakugou’s heartwrenching betrayal, in which Bakugou and his mom both laughed even harder.

The man pouted before slowly lowering back to the ground, his mom following him down as her chuckles slowly dwindled. They were both smiling down at him, his dad with an occasional tear still and his mom slowly carding a hand through his short blond hair.

He closed his eyes with a smile as he leaned into his dad’s embrace. For what was probably the first time since he had come to this new world, he was happy. He felt like he could live in this world and not just exist in it. He felt like he had people he could care about, no matter how many he had left behind in his past that didn’t exist here.

He felt loved.

He let the warmth fill him for a long moment before getting restless and wanting back on the ground.

He had finally started walking without falling flat on his face, he wanted to move.

He squirmed in his dad’s arms before the man got the point and let him down with a fond smile while his mom snorted to their side. The man held him around his sides with Bakugou’s feet touching the ground before slowly removing his hands.

Bakugou wobbled for a moment but eventually stabled out enough to feel confident again to take a step.

He moved one foot up, readying himself to move it forward and get going, and immediately fell on his ass.

“Fuck!” He said with feeling, he thought he had this shit handled already! Stupid fucking baby limbs…

It wasn’t until he heard a sharp gasp followed by a maniacal cackle crazier than he’d ever heard in this world behind him that he realized what he had done.

What he had said.

He looked back and saw how his mom was dying laughing on the floor, her face hidden by her arms as she gasped for breath, and his dad staring at him with shock and betrayal but also pride and joy. It was a confusing-looking face but Bakugou figured it made sense, the man was probably feeling a lot of things at the moment.

His kid just said a swear word, yeah, but it was also his first word.

Uhh… ops?

In an attempt to salvage the situation, because while he was with his mom on this that the situation was fucking hilarious, having a child’s first word being ‘fuck’ wasn’t something to brag about, he began to babble uselessly as he tried to brainstorm what normal babies usual first words were.

It was only after a good few seconds where he spoke useless nonsense that he realized that most babies say something simple like ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ and immediately Bakugou wanted to slap himself.

Instead he settled for actually saying something that wasn’t baby nonsense or a swear word.

“Mom!” He chirped as the woman had finally gotten her breathing under control, and immediately her face glowed in awe as a new sheen of unshed tears crossed her eyes.

“Dad!” He said next, the man finally snapping out of his trance from his earlier swear when Bakugou called out to him. His dad blinked before refocusing on Bakugou with wide eyes and he felt the need to reassure the man that he did in fact hear Bakugou say something other than a swear.

“Dad dad!” He said again before looking back to his mom, “Mom! Mom, dad! Dad mom.” He nodded to himself with a smile and once again he found himself wrapped in warm arms as his parents scooped him up as they continued to sing his praises for not only walking on his own but also using his vocal cords.

And unlike almost every time before, where these praises felt hollow and like salt rubbing in an open wound, he felt warm.

Chapter Text

It was officially one year since he had died and come to this strange world. 

He woke to hushed whispers as his parents waited patiently for him to wake on his own, but from what he could hear of their quiet conversation, they were excited to get his first-ever birthday in this world started.

He didn’t know what they were doing, what does a one-year-old birthday even look like anyway? He didn’t have any friends since he still hadn’t met with any other toddlers, so what were they doing?

He figured they were setting up a party, something small since a tiny one-year-old brain wouldn’t remember or really comprehend much else, but from the sound of it, they had done a bunch of stuff downstairs.

Bakugou could hear them doing something hours after they had put him down to bed in his tiny crib. He had wanted to stay up and hear more, but his body demanded he sleep so he found himself falling in and out of a dreamless sleep as he occasionally woke to more sounds of his parents working on the main floor.

But now the two were sitting on their bed whispering to each other, and Bakugou could feel their eyes flicking to him what felt like every other word as the two had an exited yet hushed conversation.

Granting mercy on his parents and their rising anticipation, he blinked open his eyes as he turned over, slowly starting to push himself up.

Before he could get his feet under him though his mom had jumped up and was already at the side of his crib looking down at him.

“Good morning Katsumori,” She sang, “You slept well last night didn’t you?”

She lowered her arms and scooped him up before holding him against her hip and booping his nose.

“Oh look how his little nose scrunches,” His dad said as he walked closer to the two and Bakugou made sure to scowl at him, “Aww now his whole face is scrunched up! My cute little man.”

His dad leaned down and held Bakugou’s face in his hand, pushing his thumb to his cheek. Bakugou was kind and allowed the affection for a good two seconds as the man continued to coo at him before he pushed the hand away.

His mom laughed as his dad stood with an exaggerated pout, though the man couldn’t completely hide his glee as a smile still tugged at his lips.

“He’s not so little now though, is he honey?” His mom said as she smiled at her husband before looking down at Bakugou with a fond smile.

“Your right,” he conceded walking closer to his wife before wrapping an arm around her back, also looking down at Bakugou with a fond smile.

“Happy Birthday Katsumori!” They both cheered, his mom bouncing him on her hip as his dad waved his free arm up into the air.

He giggled at the two adults' performance, their excitement was contagious as they brought him down to the main floor.

As they walked down the stairs that led to the kitchen on the main floor Bakugou looked around to see what all the couple had done, curious as to what all they had been up to to cause all that noise last night.

There were a few streamers taped from the ceiling and around the closed door that led to the dining room and more around the open archway that led to the living room and the rest of the house. Other than that the kitchen seemed rather normal, but from the colors he could see around the corner in the living room he figured that most of the decorations were in the other room.

His mom set him down on his high chair before giving him a quick peck on the cheek and hugged him tight, “Be good for your father alright sweetheart. Momma’s just gonna grab some stuff from the market ok?”

Bakugou blinked up at his mom before looking to his dad, the man had his back to him as he struggled to open the new jar of baby food.

“Whay,” He said before scrunching his nose again, stupid baby voice, “Wha-what?”

“Oh no baby don’t worry,” She was quick to comfort, thinking he was sad that she was leaving when Bakugou was just curious. At his wife's worried voice, his dad spun around to look at the two of them, “Mommy’s just gonna be gone for a minute ok? I’ll be back before you’ve even finished breakfast, promise.”

“Don’t worry little man,” His dad walked closer, and as he did his mom stole the jar from his hand, “She’s just givin’ us some good old father-son time. Special treat for your big day huh, isn’t it?”

His mom rolled her eyes as she quickly popped open the jar and handed it back to his dad, “Right, lovely time for the men of the house.”

His dad smiled sheepishly as he took back the jar, “Thank you dear.” 

She snorted before shaking her head and turning her focus back to him and smiling.

“Be back before you know it.” She promised again before giving another kiss on the top of his head, ruffling the still slowly growing blond hair.

She walked away with a wave, something he and his dad reciprocated as she walked away into the living room.

“Byeeee!” He yelled, and he could hear his mom start giggling to herself.

“BYEEEEE!” She screamed back making Bakugou laugh.

He took in a deep breath of air before screaming with all he could, “BYEEEEEEEE!!” 

He heard his mom giggling turn to full bouts of laughter, Bakugou and his dad joining in as well. Soon though he heard his mom get her breathing under control before the sound of footsteps coming closer.

She poked her head back into the kitchen with a beaming smile and she waved to him before whispering, “Byeee.”

Bakugou gave a grin right back before also responding just as softly, “Byeee mom.”

“Bye Katsu,” She said one final time before turning and leaving the house.

The rest of the day held that same happiness and energy that his parents showed as soon as he woke up that morning. His dad made him food and played with the little animal crackers on his plate, all while making silly faces to push Bakugou into fits of giggles.

True to her word his mom was back not even a half hour later, the woman popping back in and jumping on her husband's back and scaring the man so bad he spun around and banged his hip against the counter.

As the man crumpled around his side Bakugou let out a maniacal cackle with his mom, though the woman hugged the man as she laughed and he laid in pain.

The three of them soon moved into the living room where Bakugou got a good look at the mess his parents had made of the place. They had moved all the furniture out (where they put it, he had no clue), leaving only the couch that was now pushed against the wall instead of in the middle of the room in front of a small table. Said table was nowhere to be seen, and instead in its place laid a pile of wrapped boxes.

There were, frankly, a fucking ridiculous amount of presents. So much so that Bakugou couldn’t help stopping in his tracks as he stared at the pile incredulously. What even were they? What baby even needed all this shit?

“Oh wow so many presents Katsu!” His dad said behind him, giving him a soft push on his back that helped Bakugou start moving again, “Are you excited to open all of them? It looks so much fun!”

The three of them sat in front of the pile, his parents handing him present after present to rip open, and he’ll admit tearing the paper into shreds was fun and it even helped make the whole ordeal go faster. Turns out most of it was just more general baby stuff. Clothes, toys, more clothes, some children’s books, a wooden board with some wooden letters that connected with what he thought was velcro, even more clothes.

Seriously there were a shit ton of new shirts and pants in different colors and styles. He swore there was one group of shirts in particular that were the exact fucking same other than the color.

Trying his luck with his baby vocal cords he looked up to his dad, “Why shirss?”

The man looked confused, “Why do you have shirts?”

“No no,” Bakugou scowled, his dad just cooed at him, “Why lot’sa shirts? All colors too.”

“Ah” the man nodded, “We got them so you could pick what you liked.”

“I liked?”

“Yeah, you can pick out whatever color is your favorite or what feels nice.”

“Oh.” He said dumbly before looking down, feeling a slight blush on his face, “Thanks.”

His dad just beamed at him, “You’re very welcome. Just wear whatever you like.”

The day continued and a little before Bakugou was finished opening everything he heard a knock on the door. His mom jumped up from where the three of them had sat on the floor surrounded by trash and presents alike and wandered over to the door.

Bakugou watched her go but his dad encouraged him to keep opening stuff and that his mom would be back soon.

He just shrugged and opened one of the few wrapped boxes left, pulling out a bunch of wooden blocks.

Like his dad said, his mom was back soon enough and the present opening continued as before, except now he could tell his parents were starting to rush him. 

It wasn’t hard to tell, Bakugou had been making an effort to open the boxes as quickly as he could, not wanting to be there all day thanks to just how many there were, but his parents had always encouraged him to look at the toys or play with them a little before moving on. Now whenever Bakugou opened a present they would let him set it aside after a quick once-over and readily hand him the next present.

He didn't really have time to figure out why they were doing this, however, as they had run out of presents in just a few minutes. He assumed it was because of whatever the knock on the door was about, but that was all he could get before his mom jumped up again and started cleaning up.

His dad grabbed him and set him down on the couch, now clear of the green and blue wrapping paper thanks to his mom, and went to help his mom clear out the living room. They pushed all the toys over to the corner closest to the couch, threw away the trash, and brought the clothes somewhere upstairs.

He had crawled off the couch and stood in the middle of the floor, watching them as they quickly worked, before shrugging and walking over to the toy corner. If noticing how they rushed through the last few presents because of the knock on the door was easy, the reason for this rush to clean was child's play.

People were coming over.

Probably a bunch of adults his parents knew, maybe friends or acquaintances.

And Bakugou bet his left fucking foot that they would bring a bunch of toddlers with them.

Bakugou’s face scrunched up at the thought of being not only surrounded by a bunch of snot-nosed brats, but being forced to interact and play with them too.

He looked back to his parents who were finishing up their cleanup of the house and saw the beaming grin on his dad's face as he caught Bakugou’s eye and the way his mom was walking around with a clear bounce in her step. They were excited to see him play with people his age and make new friends.

He sighed internally, shaking his head and accepting his fate. The things he does for his parents.

Chapter Text

Twenty minutes later, Bakugou was regretting all of his life choices.

Punching a kid was wrong. He knew this. Punching a toddler was even worse. He knew this too.

But as he watched this blue-haired twin ponytailed fucking menace cling to his shirt and slobber all over his personal space as she spouted a bunch of random bullshit at him, he was considering it. He was considering it so hard.

He was a toddler too. He could get away with it, couldn’t he?

Not to mention he was his parent's first and only child, they loved him so much it hurt sometimes. Maybe he could reach for his inner Kirishima Deku Izuku sunshine child and give them some puppy dog eyes and they’ll forget about it?

But that didn’t deal with this brat’s parents who’d probably throw a fit. Ugh.

Scowling as he finally managed to pull away, Bakugou used his superior motor skills to jump up and run to the other end of the room. 

Pigtails pushed herself up and tried to follow and continue the chase that had started as soon as the twerp had entered the house and locked eyes with him. Luckily for Bakugou, however, the infant immediately fell on her ass, letting him successfully escape into the kitchen and away from the rest of the toddlers.

Maneuvering his way around adult legs he found himself in the empty dining room where he let himself breathe, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall next to the door. Even in his life before he never liked kids, or people in general honestly, so now he used this moment to be alone without having to deal with a gaggle of screaming children constantly in his space.

He got a good few seconds to himself, rolling his head back and forth as the sound of the adults in the other room washed over him.

Then he felt the buzzing.

He snapped his head over to the other door, the one that led to the foyer instead of the kitchen, and met eyes with a woman with dark brown hair done in a complicated-looking bun and casual clothes.

She looked the same as any other adult in the house, she didn’t have a weird headband or blue shirt or the red swirly design anywhere on her outfit, but Bakugou knew what she was.

She was a shinobi.

“Hey there little guy.” She said as she leaned against the doorway, staring at him curiously. He felt himself tense under her gaze, “What are you doing over here? You’re the birthday boy ain’t yah?”

“Who are you.” He said, thankful that his words came out the way he wanted this time, though the high-pitched baby voice was something he could do without.

“The name’s Aoki,” She says nonchalantly with a disarming smile, the curious look washing away from her face. All it did was make him tense further, “I’m an old friend of your mom. You… are Mebuki’s kid, right? Katsumori?”

Bakugou nodded slightly, watching as her shoulders seemed to ease as she pushed herself off the doorway and started walking over.

He took a step back as she approached, eyeing her warily. She stopped a few steps away from him before crouching down and wrapping her arms around her knees casually. That curious look reappeared for a moment before a smirk took over.

“Do you know who I am? Little Katsumori?” She asked with clear amusement in her voice.

Bakugou didn’t say anything as he stared into her deep hazel eyes that, even with her crouched down, were a few inches above his. 

He couldn’t help the tension in his body, this woman was a shinobi. He heard how people talked about them, yet he still knew practically nothing about them. Nothing about what they could do, about their abilities other than their flickering speed and unnatural silence.

He just knew that shinobi could do a lot, and that he was still in a weak one-year-old body.

“Hmm,” She tilted her head and Bakugou tried to stand taller against her stare, “Let me try again. Do you know what I am, little Katsumori?”

“Shinobi.” He said clearly, and her smirk grew from sly and teasing to amused and intrigued. 

“And how would you know that?”

At this, Bakugou stayed silent once more. He hadn’t even told his parents about the constant buzz under his skin that seemed to pull his attention to the people around him, the buzz that practically screamed at him whenever there was a shinobi near him.

The woman’s smile softened and immediately Bakugou felt himself prickle at it, “How about we go and see your mom? You’re not in trouble or anything kid, promise, but I think your parents should know this. C’mon”

She slowly stood and nudged Bakugou towards the door leading to the kitchen before walking ahead. He followed along, keeping his arms stiffly at his sides as he kept his eyes on the shinobi woman.

They weaved through the small crowd before quickly finding his dad, the woman waving over to him with Bakugou tight on her heels.

“Oh hey, you’re one of Mebuki’s old academy friends aren’t you? Glad you could make it.” His dad nodded his head in greeting as they approached.

“Yup, the name’s Aoki. Aoki Uta.” The woman replied, and as she did Bakugou walked past and moved to his dad’s side, grabbing onto his pant leg.

The man looked down to him, “Oh hey Katsu, what are you doing over here?” He reaches down and picks him up, “Why aren’t you playing with everyone else?” He asks while giving a confused glance to the woman.

“I saw the little guy in the other room,” She said pointing her thumb behind her and towards the dining room.

The man gave a quick laugh eliciting a confused look from both Bakugou and the brunette.

“Of course you find a shinobi as soon as they step one foot inside the house.” He says to himself with a shake of his head, failing to answer either of the two confused looks. “He’s always been interested in shinobi, pointing them out as we walk or watching the roofs for any shinobi running by.”

“Huh,” She says, looking like she had just obtained another piece to a particularly interesting puzzle. It did nothing to quell his unease around the woman, “Well… do you mind if I steal you and your wife from here for a bit?”

“Oh? What for?” His dad says as he slowly goes to set Bakugou down.

“Actually,” She stopped the man before he was able to set Bakugou on the ground, “The little guy should come with. Don’t mean to interrupt his big day, it’ll only take a minute, but I think you should all know about this.”

“Ok,” The man straightens with a worried face, glancing at Bakugou before nodding, “I last saw Mebuki heading over to the living room with the kids.”

“Oh don’t worry it’s nothing bad,” She says as they move to find his mom, “It's just… interesting.”

His dad's face pinches slightly but otherwise he seems to believe the woman's words as he doesn't say anything in response.

They find his mom quickly and after the shinobi woman vaguely tells his mom the situation she suggests heading somewhere more private for the rest of the conversation.

His mom agrees and suggests they head upstairs to his parent's room. The two adults agree and soon the four of them are alone with only the slightly muffled sounds of the party downstairs.

His mom closes the door and looks at the shinobi woman, “So Aoki, any chance you’ll actually tell us what's going on with my kid now?” Her face is serious as she speaks, a glare slowly sharpening her usual soft green eyes.

The woman takes it with a laugh, “C’mon Mebuki, don't you enjoy a mystery every now and then?”

“Not when it concerns my family,” She replies tersely. His dad's grip on him tightens ever so slightly.

“Fine fine,” The woman rolls her eyes, “Geeze, I even said it wasn't anything bad! You're no fun anymore…” She pouts.

His mom's glare just sharpens in response.

Sighing, the woman finally gets to explaining, “As soon as I walked in Katsumori knew I was there even though I knew I was silent. Then when I asked him if he knew what I was he said ‘shinobi’ even though I'm wearing civilian clothes. Nothing on me should make me look anything like a shinobi, especially not to a one-year-old.”

Both his parents' eyes widen and they look down towards him. Bakugou doesn't shy away from the attention but he does scowl at the realization that he'll actually have to explain the weird buzzing he feels.

The woman opens her mouth and Bakugou already knows the question before she even asks it, “So Katsumori, wanna explain how you knew what I was now?”

He looks between his parents before taking a breath, his hand grabbing onto his dad's shirt and tightening.

“I feel… when people are around I can feel them.” He begins, “I feel… a lot when there are shinobi around, but iss- it's there with other people too.”

“What exactly do you feel Katsumori?” The woman asks, her subtle surprise easily turning to excitement.

Bakugou thinks for a moment, trying to find words to properly describe what he feels but scowls when he can't think of anything.

Frustrated he just blurts out what he can, not really caring if it makes sense. He's a toddler anyway, might as well sound like one.

“It buzzes around. Like with dad, I can feel iff- it a lil, but with mom I feel more. And then shinobi I feel a lot.”

“So you can even tell how cultivated someone’s chakra is?” The shinobi woman says with a wide grin, “Mebuki you've got a real prodigy on your hands.”

Bakugou blinks at the woman, not having a damn clue what chakra was, but can't help both the ease and triumph he feels at her words.

The fact that apparently this buzzing he feels is something that just happens here sometimes and not him going crazy or having some lingering effects of being reincarnated makes his shoulders lighten from a weight he didn't know he held. Then her praise of calling him a prodigy made him feel like he was glowing.

It wasn't him having a fucked up sixth sense or something, or even if it was it sounds like it's a known and expected thing here. In fact, it's something worthy of praise here.

He looks to his mom with a grin expecting joy and congratulations from her but stops short once he sees the expression on her face.

Her eyes are wide with shock yes, but they also hold fear as her hand shoots up towards her face and covers her mouth with a gasp.

Bakugou sits frozen in his father's arms for what feels like minutes as he stares at his mom when only a second has passed before his dad bounces him on his hip. Bakugou looks up to see his dad giving him his signature sunny smile full of excitement before the man starts to excitedly congratulate him on his new talent like he thought his mom would.

His dad must not have seen her face, he thinks. He turns to look at his mom again, to reassure himself that he wasn't seeing things but stops short once again as he sees the woman smile at him as she rests her cheek in her hand.

She almost looks excited, she almost looks happy for him, she almost looks like he thought she would.

But her smile doesn't make her wide round eyes pinch upwards, her shoulders are tenser than they should be, her eyes aren't a flourishing forest of love and are instead flickering pricks of fear.

But the two other adults don't notice it, or at least his dad doesn't. From the glance the shinobi woman gave to his mom, he could tell she just wasn't mentioning it.

He sits there confused, to say the least, pondering what the hell just happened. As the woman, his dad, and eventually his mom talk more about this chakra stuff, something called the academy, and how he would be a great shinobi when he grew up (something that he would a hundred percent be invested in literally any other situation), he’s stuck replaying the image of his mom's concerned and scared face in his head.

The three of them continue their conversation, occasionally talking to him in simpler words to include him where he just nods back dumbly, but soon his dad mentions getting back to the party.

“We've been here for a while,” He says, “And I'm sure this one's getting bored with all this adult talk.” He bounces Bakugou on his hip again.

“Oh!” His mom yelps as she looks at the clock, “It's almost time for cake isn't it?”

His dad blinks before also looking to the clock. He jumps in place and ushers all of them out the room, handing Bakugou over to his mom before rushing down the hall and the stairs.

“I'll go and get the cake ready!” He yells back as his mom reaches the stairs as well, taking them slower than his dad did since she has him in her arms.

His mom just shakes her head fondly as she walks, giving the shinobi woman behind her a look that sparks a laugh out of the brunette.

By the time the three of them reached the main floor, his dad had already alerted the people around that he was getting the cake. He could see some parents still wrangling their kids from the living room into the slightly cramped kitchen as other parents held their kids in their arms or had them stand by their side.

Frankly, Bakugou was still confused as all hell from earlier and this sudden shift and excitement did nothing to quiet his reeling mind and instead made him feel even more wrong-footed from the sudden whiplash of emotions. The image of his mom's frightened face was on a constant loop as well as what felt like hundreds of questions in his mind.

But when his mom gently set him down on his high chair and gave him a soft and loving smile, one with no hint of hidden fear or uncertainty from before, he let himself relax.

He could think about this later. It could wait. He had an entire lifetime ahead of him, his questions could wait one afternoon.

The parents and kids alike were gathering around him and the table, readying for the big moment when itty bitty Katsumori would blow out his birthday candle. And despite himself, Bakugou felt himself getting excited right along with them as he waited.

It had been a long and hard year, even though he had barely moved with his weak baby body, but it was hard nonetheless. Growing used to this new normal, learning to love his new mom and dad, and having to accept how he had to move on from his past that didn’t exist here, it was a lot for little baby Katsumori.

But he thinks he can do it now. He thinks he can be Katsumori Haruno now.

So while this was a one-year birthday, it felt like it could be more. Like a celebration of his acceptance, like a welcoming to a new home.

Even if it’s with him surrounded by a bunch of gross and annoyingly loud toddlers.

But he has people who love him, and people that he loves right back.

So he thinks he can make it.

His dad brings out the cake and puts it down right in front of him on the table, the single candle flickering on the chocolate cake. Both his parents, now standing together and holding each other in their arms, were looking down at him with wide smiles, solely focused on him despite the rest of the loud children surrounding him and the cake, waiting with excitement for him to blow out the candle.

Bakugou smiled right back before taking a breath and blowing out the candle, wincing slightly at the ensuing tidal wave of noise as both children and adults alike cheered from all around him. The things he does for his parents.

Chapter Text

Unlike what he told himself on his birthday, Bakugou didn’t ask his mom what scared her the next day. Or the next. And the next.

He wasn’t avoiding it or anything, honest. It just so happened that his parents finally decided to tell him what the fuck was up with the shinobi of the village.

The next day during breakfast his dad had continued the conversation from the night before. Going on and on about how obvious it was and laughing all the while.

His mom readily agreed, shaking her head with a smile as if the two were sharing an inside joke about their own mistake.

Because apparently, he was something called a sensor type.

With his better grasp of speaking Bakugou was able to actually join the conversation and ask what a sensor even was, and while their answer was beyond simplistic since he was still an infant, it let him easily understand and ask as many follow-up questions as he wanted.

A sensor was someone who could feel the chakra from people around them. To that, Bakugou asked what this chakra stuff was and the answer he got was less than satisfactory if he was being honest.

They said it was an energy that all people had, that it could be used to make you strong or use powerful skills, and that all shinobi are taught how to control it.

The answer was good enough he guessed, but if their answer to what a sensor is was simplistic, this explanation was the bullet point version.

His parents had to actually take a second before they gave him an answer. His dad ended up just shrugging before saying it was shinobi magic, earning a light punch to his shoulder and a weak glare from his mom.

The woman then went on to say it wasn’t magic, it was a fundamental energy all living beings had and that shinobi were just the people who learned how to use it the best. She then paused and looked at Bakugou, who was just staring blankly at the couple as he ran those words through his head, before explaining it again in even simpler terms.

Bakugou just nodded dumbly at the two. He understood the concept, that wasn’t the problem he was having here. It was the fact that this chakra shit didn’t fucking exist in his old world.

He spent the rest of the morning rolling this new information in his head and thinking on the implications it had on him and his understanding of this place.

It made sense on a basic level, this world didn’t have quirks and instead had this new energy stuff. Basic one-to-one switch.

But the part that clung to him was why Bakugou was able to sense it.

Looking down at his little hands he squinted and focused on the constant buzzing under his skin that he had learned to block out over the year. It was an unnatural feeling, or at least, it was unnatural compared to his body before. And that was the thing, wasn’t it?

The reason he was a sensor wasn’t because of some stupid luck of the draw stuff with his new body, it was because he had gone nearly sixteen years in a body, in a world where the shit didn’t exist. And now he was surrounded by it from all sides, it was inside him. How could he not feel it?

In a sense, the buzzing he felt was a lingering effect from being reincarnated just like he had worried about before. But it wasn’t a bad one, so nothing to be worried about like he had feared.

With his thoughts in order he went on with his day with a new pep to his step. He was learning more about this world, more ways to grow strong in this world. How could he not be excited?

The next few days went on like this, either with his parents bringing something new up in conversation or with him asking questions here or there. The answers he got were always simplistic, and for once he wasn’t too pissed about it. It was a lot to take in since apparently chakra was fucking complicated as all hell and every new thing he learned needed a good hour to settle in his mind, but he was learning!

The academy was where children go to learn and train to be shinobi. His mom had even gone to the academy and had been a shinobi for a few years before settling with his dad.

That part was particularly interesting to him as he looked to his mom with wide eyes, the woman just snickered at the star-struck face he was making.

Children usually attend the academy at six and graduate at twelve, becoming something called genin which are the first teer of shinobi.

That one brought so many ethical and moral questions to his mind that Bakugou needed the entire day to really wrap his head around that.

Twelve, fucking twelve years old! He wasn’t even in UA at that age! Yet this world had fucking pre-teens running around as this world's equivalent of heroes?!

And they started at fucking six!

He eventually settled on begrudgingly accepting this as a fact of this world. Besides, his parents said it was the first level of shinobi, so maybe it was like an internship thing or just a fancy way of saying they weren’t full-fledged shinobi just yet. Something like being a sidekick in his old world.

That has to be it. Right?

He was only a student and he still died. He wasn’t a hero, not even a side kick but he still died. Were there students here, children here, who died like that?

The next day he asked more about chakra and what it could do but he just got more vague answers. He knew his parents weren’t trying to be difficult, it sounded beyond complicated and they were just trying to simplify it down for their literal infant child, but he couldn’t help but get annoyed.

All the while his parents, his understanding and sympathetic and so loving it hurt parents, just continued to explain in simpler and simpler terms every time thinking he kept asking and was getting frustrated because he didn’t get it.

After a while, he just gave up. After one too many simple explanations that did nothing to tell him something he didn’t already get, he faked a smile and said with as much confidence he could squeeze past his disappointment that he understood.

His dad gave him a big smile and an encouraging pat on his back, saying he was proud of him and happy he was able to understand something he was so interested in.

His mom had smiled as well, congratulating him with his dad, but she also sighed with something that didn’t quite look like relief.

It looked like she was condemning herself with the information.

With the new topic of conversation every day and all the answers that they were giving him (no matter how simple or unhelpful they were sometimes), it was almost too easy to ignore the memory of his mom’s scared face. It was so tempting to just let the moment slip from his fingers and focus on this new and interesting part of his new world.

But then he would see his mom’s grip on her cup tighten ever so slightly whenever the topic was brought up suddenly, or how her smile would start to tighten and become strained the longer the conversation went on.

Every time he noticed something like this the memory of that initial moment of terror that had shown on her face was brought right back to the surface of his mind.

So now, while not completely content with the answers he had, he knew there was nothing left to occupy his mind with. Nothing left to distract him from what he knew he needed to ask.

That’s how he found himself now, sitting in the living room and staring blankly at the new wooden blocks in front of him. His mom was sitting on the couch in the same room, pleasantly humming to herself as she worked on a new embroidery design. His dad was off at the store, it was just the two of them now. 

He had to ask her.

Slowly pushing himself up he shuffled over to his mom who was sitting on the side closest to him on the couch as she leaned on the armrest. She gave him a brief glance but never ceased her humming, only putting her tools to the side and moving her arms to pick him up.

He allowed it, hanging in her arms for the brief moment it took for her to place him on her lap. He leaned into her as she ran her hand comfortingly through his hair, her other arm wrapped around him comfortably and surrounding him in a pleasant warmth as her humming rang wistfully around the two.

It was so easy to sink into her embrace, to let his mind fizzle at the edges as he just lay there in the constant comfort and love that his parents always coddled him in. 

But as soon as he felt himself start to relax completely into her arms, the flash of memory of his mom’s face that night at his party shot through his mind.

He jerked back, making his mom pause in her humming as she looked down at him with concern pinching her brow.

“What’s wrong Katsumori?” She said with an innocent yet fretful tilt of her head.

“I-I…” He began lamely, shaking his head as he strived to get his thoughts in order. He needed to ask her, needed to know what made her worry, what scared her, “A-At the party, the shinobi lady said something. Ith-it was after I told you about the buzzing, how I feel chakra, you looked…”

He looked down, unable to look her in the eye as he asked something so delicate, as he asked her the question that had been plaguing his mind for nearly a week now.

“Why were you scared Mom?”

He heard her suck in a breath and Bakugou couldn’t help how his shoulders tensed as he ducked his head. His mom just rubbed a comforting hand on his back as she took a deep breath.

“Any chance you’d believe me if I said I wasn’t?”

Bakugou couldn’t help the incredulous face he had as he looked back up to his mom. She gave a half-hearted chuckle as she shook her head.

“You really are so smart.” She praised, a true smile on her face and warmth in her eyes.

“Really are a prodigy.” She continues in something barely above a whisper. She sounded so sad, so defeated.

Taking another deep breath she shuffled so that she sat a smidge taller, her posture more perfected. She was readying herself for the conversation, he could tell. She was trying to fortify herself for what she was about to explain, but her face gave away what she truly felt.

She was worried, not quite scared but it was getting there, and her eyes never left Bakugou’s face. Whatever this was, she was worried for him.

“You remember how we said that children go to the academy at six and graduate at twelve right?” She asks, and Bakugou gives a tense nod, “Well, some can graduate early, and can enter even earlier. Those Katsu… are what we call prodigys.”

His eyes widened at his mom’s words. He already struggled to comprehend the idea of twelve-year-olds running around as little shinobi side kicks, but for some to be even younger?

He swallowed as the implications started to pile in his mind much like they did when he first heard about the academy. After a moment where his mom let him stew in his thoughts, he spoke in a voice so weak he wanted to smack himself.

Because even though he had to ask, he didn’t want to know the answer.

“How old were they?”

His mom took another breath, her arm that had yet to stop rubbing small circles on his back was a strong support, for both him and his mom, as he waited with bated breath for her answer.

“It’s rare, in fact I’ve only heard of one real prodigy,” She said the name as if it were a curse, as if the word itself would bring ill-fate and misfortune onto them, “But there was one… one child. He got into the academy early, he was four I think.”

Bakugou tensed where he sat. Four? Fucking four years old? Weren’t most four-year-olds still struggling to talk? Didn’t they still stumble on their feet more often than not? Even he was six when he first went to school before, and he turned seven less than a month later. But fucking four!

“He graduated early as well,” Bakugou was brought back to the present as his mom continued, and immediately his thoughts were waging a war in his head because he graduated early too? How was it getting even worse?

She looked down and gave him a sad sad smile, as if she knew exactly what was running through his head.

Too bad she wasn’t sympathetic enough to end the story there.

“He graduated and became a genin at five. He was a shinobi at five.” Her eyes were flickering all across his face as she spoke, and vaguely he could realize that she wasn’t really talking to him anymore. She was in her own world, her eyes glassy with both tears and whatever horrors she was imagining.

“He was a true ninja of the leaf, he was a prodigy.” She spits, her hand starting to tremble from where it had frozen its comforting motion on his back, before sucking in what could only be a sob, “He was a child. He was a child who became a genin at five, who killed at six and was promoted for it.”

It was as if the air in his lungs had frozen to ice. Killed? This- this fucking infant killed someone.

Then came the thought that he was promoted for it, that other people knew about it. A shinobi killing someone wasn't bad or something to cover up. No, it sounded like that was something they were supposed to do.

“Everyone always called him a prodigy, the youngest shinobi in village history after the warring era ended.” She continued, her voice cutting through the horrid static that was humming in Bakugou’s ears, “And before I agreed with them. He was a good shinobi, a remarkable one already at his age.”

“But now I-” She sobs, pulling Bakugou closer into her arms and tucking him under her chin, “I can’t help but see that future for you. I can’t see anything that would keep you from going down that same path, that you would be a prodigy just like him. My b-baby, my sweet baby, I can’t-”

Her words dissolve into soft sobs as she holds him close. Bakugou can’t bring himself to speak as the horrors of this world settle in his mind, the implications of her words creating a fog in his brain as his thoughts run rampant.

Shinobi weren’t heroes, he knew that. They were more like soldiers, he knew that.

They killed people.

He did not know that.

And this kid… this boy who was called a prodigy but was nothing more than a child soldier. A child who must have had their life ripped away from them before being pointed to whatever enemy this village had and being told to kill them.

It was just one more horror that this world had to offer.

Then the rest of her words filter into his head. The reason why she was so scared all this time, it was because he could be just like that boy. That he too could have his life as a child cut short and his role as a killer shoved into whatever empty space remained.

He hugged his mom tight, using whatever strength he could muster into his tiny little arms arms that this world thought should have the opportunity to kill in just a handful of years to try and comfort his mom as she continued to cry around him.

She jolted at the action, pulling back and looking down at him as if seeing him for the first time since she had broken down. Her eyes were shining with tears, a couple drops still continuing their journey down her face as she blinked down at him.

“Oh no I-I didn’t,” She quickly wipes her face, desperately trying to hide her tears from her child, “I’m s-sorry Katsu you shouldn’t- momma’s gonna be ok in just a minute!” She slaps a smile into place as she wipes the last of her tears, “Me and your father really n-need to, uh, clean up the place when he gets back. A whole wave of dust just c-crashed into my face, bleh!”

She’s trying to reassure him. Even with an occasional tear still falling from her eyes and as her voice continues to shake from her emotions, she’s putting on a show to comfort him.

He feels his lip wobble as he looks up at her. She loves him. She loves him so much that it hurts her. And he loves her right back.

Moving around from where he still sat in her lap he got up and stood on the couch cushions. His mom gives him a curious look but blinks when Bakugou reaches up and gently places one of his small hands onto her cheek.

“Iths ok Mom,” He says, and immediately he can see her mask start to crack as she visibly holds back another sob, “That won’ be me. Promise. I won’ go there early or leave early.”

Her eyes widen and she takes a shaking breath. Slowly, reluctantly she shakes her head no, “Thank you Katsumori, but you don’t need to worry about me. I shouldn’t hold you back from you’re future. You’re already so smart, you’ll be even stronger, I just know it.”

Bakugou frowns as he looks into his mom's eyes. It’s true that he wants to be strong, he wants to be strong so that he can win, so he can save.

But he can get strong as he grows, he can take his time here. He wants to be strong yes, but the strong in this world are different than the strong in his world before. The strong here are expected to kill.

“But I’m your baby,” He says simply, and she sniffles as her eyes widen with barely held-back tears once again. Because it really was that simple.

He was a baby, a child, no matter how old he was mentally his body was still small, weak. The idea that any five-year-old was able to get their limbs to work the way they wanted and to such an extent that they could become a shinobi sounded impossible to him.

Not to mention how it would affect his family. While his dad apparently didn’t know this horror story of child soldiers, or at least hadn’t come to the conclusion his mom had, he knew it would break them. 

He was seeing that right now with how his mom was holding on by a thread, how she was one misstep from an abyss of sadness and terror at what her child might go through as a horrid prodigy.

So he’ll wait. Even if the offer of a promotion or a way to skip grades ever came his way, he’d refuse. He’d stay his parent's baby boy just a little longer.

His mom wiped her eyes one more time, moving Bakugou’s hand away in the process, “Ok little Katsu,” She whispered lovingly to him, “Whatever you want.”

She slowly pulls him back into her embrace and he easily settles into her warm arms. The two of them stay there for a long while, the world continuing to spin outside but in that one room, that one moment, it felt like the world was on pause and waiting for them and them alone.

Bakugou takes a deep breath, fully settled and content in his mom’s loving embrace even with the abysmal cloud of horrors that now floated over his head.

But for that moment in time, he ignored it. He sat with his mom as the two of them slowly calmed down, trapped in her arms yet loving every second of it.

He wanted to be strong, but he would wait. For both himself and his family.

The things he does for his parents.

Chapter Text

Nearly half a year after Bakugou’s birthday, he found himself once again surrounded by a gaggle of toddlers.

Apparently his parents were now returning the favor to one of their parent friends by bringing him over to some other infant’s one-year birthday party.

At first, he had welcomed the distraction. For the past few months he’s been asking his parents what exactly shinobi do and despite his questions once again being met with watered-down answers as they attempted to shield him away from whatever other horrors lay in this world, he could get a basic understanding.

Shinobi were what this world had instead of heroes, yes, but they weren’t heroes. If anything they were heroes taken to their deepest darkest extreme. 

They were strong, but they were not heroes. They were soldiers. They were sent off on missions to fight, to kill.

With all of this, he couldn’t help but start to question his goal of becoming a shinobi when he grew up, especially after what his mom had told him.

But shinobi were strong, and where there were no heroes to protect people in this world, shinobi took that role. And while Bakugou wants to be strong, he still wants to protect like a hero.

If nothing else he wanted to save like he had tried to before, wanted to keep that last wish from one life to another keep the memory of Izuku from one world to another. 

So even with this harsh truth that he has realized, he decided he would still be a shinobi. He will still be strong. He will still grow to be strong not just to win, but to save.

But he had come to that conclusion rather quickly, so that wasn’t what he was struggling with.

He would be a shinobi yes, but what was he going to do as a shinobi?

They were expected to kill. So that meant he would be expected to kill.

Were they ordered to kill or was it just something that only happened in dire situations? Would he eventually be forced to kill, if not on orders then by circumstance? What would he do when faced with that option? Would he stick to his own beliefs, beliefs that came from an entirely different world, or would he find himself sinking into what this world now expected from him?

All these thoughts brought him back to a state he thought he had overcome a year ago. A state where he was angry at everything. For dying in his old world, for being forced to come back somewhere so different, for being expected to just accept it.

Because what else could he do? He couldn’t rage against the universe itself. Nothing he could do would bring his old life back. He had lost everything. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Other than stand up and not let the universe that had fucked him over keep him down.

Didn’t mean he had to like it though.

So yes, a house full of loud and excitable toddlers sounded like a great distraction. Something that would make it literally impossible for him to dwell on his thoughts. Especially after his remedial classes from before where he was forced to take care of a bunch of brats with Icey hot and those other extras.

That first class alone was enough for him to instinctually keep himself from getting distracted away from the kids, lest they do something stupid and get themselves killed. Something like grabbing his explosive gauntlets and playing with them like they didn’t have the power to level the entire building.

But now that he was actually here and expected to play with these rugrats, he was starting to wish he stayed home.

The blue-haired pigtails kid was here too. Apparently she was actually older than him and by now was able to speak more than an occasional word or two like before. She still clung to his side though.

At least she wasn’t spitting all over him now. Instead, she was just saying whatever came to mind as she latched onto his sleeve.

He had tried to get away like last time by jumping up and making a run for it, but it seemed in the months between his birthday and now, the twerp had improved on their motor skills and had followed him around the house.

Now he just stood on the opposite side of the room from the party with a permanent scowl on his face and his hands firmly in his pockets so as to not give into the urge to shove the kid as she stuck to his side with one hand latched onto his sleeve as she babbled on and on. 

The thought that at least she wasn’t spitting all over him like last time was the only thing keeping him from grabbing her arm and pushing her back hard. This was one of his favorites out of the new shirts he got on his birthday, it was black with deep orange long sleeves and trim at the bottom, and the girl was clinging to it with all her might.

Deep breaths. Just nice, deep, calming breaths. It was just one kid, she didn’t know any better, and she wasn’t tugging or anything, just hanging on. It could be worse.

“Hey blueberry!” Some brat yelled particularly loudly.

Bakugou was content to ignore it, to let the kids continue to do whatever the fuck kids did at a birthday party while he stood in the far corner with only pigtails to annoy him.

But then the girl flinched at the voice before moving behind him.

Oh fuck no.

Bakugou snapped his head to where the voice had come from and he focused on one brat in particular who had choppy light brown hair and looked to be taller than damn near every other kid in the house.

The twerp was a good few inches, maybe even reaching a foot taller than him and had a pompous grin on his face as he looked down at the two of them. There were two other ankle-biters on either side of him, both grinning as they stood behind the tallest and clearly eldest of their group.

He turned to face the kid fully, the girl maneuvering so that she stayed behind him even if she wasn't fully hidden with her being a few inches taller than him as she cowered away from the group of bullies.

Because that’s what they were. Not even needing to hear another word out of this fucker’s mouth Bakugou knew what they were and what they were trying to do.

“C’mon you baby,” The brat said with a tilt of his head as he tried to see around Bakugou, “Why don’t you come out and have fun? It’s a party, isn’t it? What are you doing just standing here?”

He didn’t look away from the brat, even if the kid was obviously ignoring him, so he couldn’t quite make out what the girl was doing behind him. He heard her shift side to side as her grip tightened on his sleeve, but other than that he couldn’t tell how she reacted.

But he didn’t really need to know how she reacted. It was beyond obvious she was scared of this kid, that was all he needed to know.

“We can all have fun together,” The twerp continued after the girl didn’t respond, “Bet there are some great cupcakes in the other room. I’m sure that icing would look great with the rest of your bright hair. Maybe they’ll even have blueberry flavor too.” The two brats giggled at his sides.

Bakugou’s frown grew but otherwise he stayed put as the girl poked her head out from behind him, “I-I don’t-”

“Don’t say that, who doesn’t like sweets?” The bully interrupts.

“Yeah there’s no reason you can’t hang out with everyone,” Minion number one pipes in from the leader's side.

“I’m fine. I-I already had some!” She says with a jump as she moves from behind him, no longer clinging onto his sleeve. She was trying to sound like she did before, when she was just spouting random nonsense and not standing afraid.

“Liiiiiaaaar.” The third one said.

The second one nodded before joining in, “Liar liar pants on fire.”

The leader’s grin grew wider, “My mom just brought out the cupcakes so I know you haven’t had any.”

The girl got tense again but didn’t move back to hiding behind Bakugou, letting him get a good look at how she slowly sank into herself.

“Hey,” He growled, or at least tried to with his high-pitched baby voice. It didn’t matter though as the group continued to ignore him.

“You don’t want me to tell your mom you lied, do you?” He asked, “She already has to deal with that eye-burning colored hair on you, now she has to deal with a liar too.”

The girl bit her lip before reaching her hands and pulling at the ends of her pigtails, hard, “I-I’m not a liar!”

“Hey!” Bakugou went to take a step closer to the girl but his attention was pulled back to the asshat of a twerp.

“And there she goes again!” He said with a laugh. Both of the other kids nodded their heads before once again singing, “Liar liar pants on-”

“Leave her alone!” He yelled cutting them off, this time taking a step forward to make them fucking look at him already. He finally got to the point where he can use his words without sounding like a dumb kid, so now he’s gonna fucking use them.

“Oh who even are-” The kid finally looked at him and as soon as their eyes met the brat flinched back.

Bakugou's scowl narrowed as the boy’s eyes flickered back and forth all across his face. When the brat had flinched back he looked scared, but now that he continued to scan him the kid's face scrunched into confusion.

Ignoring the kid's weird reaction, Bakugou rolled his eyes before taking another step forward.

“Look here yah dipshit,” He spat, and again the brat flinched back, this time with his little posse of toddlers, “Yeah, it’s a party, so what? Not everyone wants to hang out in a crowd of snot-nosed, booger-eating, stupid bunch of extras like you.”

The three of them stared in varying degrees of anger at him. The leader looked like he was sucking on a particularly tart lemon as his face scrunched up and slowly grew red, the brat on his left was looking between Bakugou and the leader with a scowl, and the last one just looked lost but still generally angry.

“Y-you,” The main brat stuttered, gaining both Bakugou’s full attention and glare, “You can’t s-say that-”

“Oh who gives a shit, you gonna go cry to mommy then? Gonna tell her that you got your ‘wittle fewings huwt’ after trying to scare a little girl?” He mocked, “Go ahead, let everyone know how much of a fucking crybaby you are that you couldn’t handle one silly little insult from a fucking toddler.”

Bakugou looked away with another roll of his eyes as the kid started crying angry tears and continued to scowl at him. This bully wasn’t anything more than a stupid kid, it was only right to make sure that kid knew his fucking place.

“Ey pigtails,” He called to the girl, he saw her flinch again but otherwise stayed put as Bakugou approached her. 

He slowly reached up and grabbed her arms from where she was still clinging on to her pigtails and gave a soft tug, “Let go.” He said in a much softer voice.

She listened and lowered her arms but still kept her head down. Bakugou then noticed how quiet it was and went to look around only to see that everyone in the room, children and parents alike, were all staring at them.

Ah.

Well shit.

“Thank you,” The girl whispered and Bakugou focused back to her instead of paying attention to the little audience they had.

He didn’t move for a moment as he tried to figure out what to do next. He never did well with the whole comforting civilians part of being a hero, he needed to get the hang of the whole saving thing first, so for a solid ten seconds he did nothing but stare blankly at her hunched form.

When he saw the girl slowly tense up again Bakugou said a mental screw it and reached up to pat the top of her head.

Immediately the girl relaxed and that was enough for Bakugou to call it a job well done.

He then turned on his heel and marched over to where he saw his dad staring at him with a slightly gaping mouth.

“I think we should leave.”

His dad just gave a muted nod and the two went to find his mom.

Chapter Text

His mom was just in the other room and while she had heard some of the commotion, she didn’t know the full scope of what had just happened.

That meant that when her stubbornly stone-faced child and still slightly gaping husband came rushing into the room only to immediately tell her they needed to leave as soon as they found her, she was quite confused.

She was even more confused when a pair of raging adults came bashing through the same door only moments later. 

Turns out the bully was actually the older brother of the birthday kid.

Safe to say the three of them didn’t stay long.

On the way back, after his parents had thoroughly apologized to the parents and scolded him, he told his parents what happened.

The brat was being an asshole and scaring a little girl so Bakugou told him where he could shove it.

This explanation did little to appease them. Correction, it did jack shit to appease them as his dad shook his head and a disappointed scowl grew on his mom’s face.

His dad then explained to his mom in detail about what he had heard during the ‘confrontation’ between Bakugou and the bully. It just so happened that he only started paying attention when Bakugou cursed out the trio of bullies. His mom was not pleased.

When they got home his parents deliberated on what to do after setting him down in his crib. He could hear their harsh whispers on the other side of the wall as they talked it out, he even heard his dad asking more than once to no one in particular where Bakugou had even learned those words. He couldn’t resist a small chuckle at that.

He sighed as he went to lay down, absentmindedly running a hand back and forth along the bars of his crib. His parents were in the process of setting up an actual room for him, but that wouldn’t be finished for another couple of months.

He admits that he went a little overboard when dealing with the tiny bully, but he had a lot on his mind and even more anger along with it. And the kid needed to be knocked down a peg anyway. Besides, Bakugou didn’t even hit the kid or anything, no fists were thrown and everyone got away without bruises or anything! He thinks that’s tame enough.

When his parents came back they gave him a long talk, telling him he couldn’t say those words to people or pick fights for no reason. Bakugou then responded that there was a reason, the kid was being a bully and scaring pigtails, and that was reason enough for him.

The both of them paused for a moment before his dad piped in and doubled down on not using that kind of language. Ever.

Bakugou had to keep himself from rolling his eyes, yeah like that was gonna happen.

But he did nod and accept the reprimand.

That was the first time Katsumori Haruno was grounded.

A little over a month later Bakugou found himself sitting on the floor of the dining room and looking outside the window. The year was almost over yet the world outside looked nearly the exact same as it did months ago. The only sign that it was getting colder was a handful of trees losing their leaves.

But it was almost December! Autumn should have already done its thing months ago but still Bakugou could clearly see the green wall of stupidly tall and stupidly not autumn-looking trees on the horizon that surrounded the village.

It was barely even chilly outside! All he needed was a long-sleeved shirt and Bakugou’d be fine to head out unaffected.

That’s how his dad found him, sitting close to the wall as he scowled out towards the world beyond the window.

“Uh, you ok there Katsumori?” His dad asked as he took a step towards the window and looked around outside in an attempt to see what Bakugou was focusing so intently on.

“When’s it gonna be winter?” He asks instead of answering.

“Officially? Just a little over a week.” His dad answers before blinking and taking another look down at Bakugou, “I mean uh, it starts in December, the last month of the year, and last allll the way to February. All the seasons last three months each and after winter comes-”

“I know Dad.” He grumbles as he pushes himself up. His dad just watched him as he left through the kitchen and made his way to the living room.

His parents were finally starting to treat him like he wasn’t a baby, explaining things more casually without constantly simplifying or exaggerating. The thing is, he is a baby, or at least should be one, and whenever they give him a normal answer they seem to remember that fact and backtrack and talk to him like he doesn’t understand a thing.

He knows he doesn’t act like a normal kid his age, hell he doesn’t act like a normal kid twice or even three times his age, and frankly, he doesn’t care about that. No one is questioning him about it and the only real effect was that his parents treated him like he was older… sometime. So he doesn’t see the point in acting like just another mindless brat who doesn’t know a damn thing about the world.

That also means that all his toys that are meant to help him learn all that simple stuff that he already understands are pretty much useless to him.

And it’s just his luck that, now that he’s grounded, those are the only toys he’s allowed to have.

Walking into the living room he sees the pile (if you could even call it that with how small it was) of toys left in the corner next to the small bookshelf that held a bunch of simple picture books on the lowest shelf just for him. 

He walks dejectedly towards the corner and looks blankly at the ‘educational’ toys he’s left with. There was that one board with the velcro letters that he had configured into a type of puzzle game where he’d use the letters as puzzle pieces instead of making any words. Then the box that had shapes cut out of it where he was supposed to match each shape to each hole but instead he, out of spite, shoved every piece into the wrong hole, even almost breaking it when he shoved the square into the pentagon hole.

And last but not least, the pile of wooden blocks with letters on them, aka Bakugou’s saving grace.

His parents had deemed the simple letters on the blocks to be educational enough for him to keep, and honestly, if it wasn’t for that Bakugou thinks he might have broken earlier.

Because Holy Shit being a baby was boring.

He had managed to hold on this past year and a half because of all the new stuff that came with being in a new world. But after a while, everything seemed to settle, leaving Bakugou with nothing more than his fraying mental state mind and some stupid baby toys.

But now those toys were gone, and he swears if he has to play with those fucking blocks again he’s gonna throw one out the god-damned window. 

That leaves him with nothing more than to sit and think about this new world as a whole, the struggles he will have to face as a shinobi, the moral questions of being a shinobi and the horrible spirals that come after them.

He blinks one more time at the pile before slowly crouching and laying down on his back against the soft carpet of the living room and blankly staring up at the ceiling.

A little while later his father once again finds him, only now he’s accompanied by his mom, and the two stare at him as he stares up at nothing. The staring, from all three parties, ends when his dad clears his throat and Bakugou moves his head slowly to look at his parents.

“Hey Katsu,” His mom begins as she walks toward the couch with his dad close by, all while waving him over, “Why don’t you hang out with Mom and Dad for a bit? We wanna talk about something.”

And Bakugou, desperate for literally anything attention retaining, immediately jumps up and walks toward the couch.

His mom smiles as both she and his dad sit down, his dad reaching down to pick him up when Bakugou gets close and placing him on his lap.

“We wanted to start by saying your grounding is almost over,” His dad says and Bakugou can’t help the relieved sigh that escapes him as he leans over. His dad just laughs and bounces his leg making Bakugou straighten again, “ Almost over, you’ve got another week before you’re in the clear little man.”

Bakugou just grumbles weakly under his breath as he nods. Even if it just means he’ll have different toys, he’s just glad he’ll have something different again.

“Which brings us to our next thing,” His mom continues, easily gaining Bakugou’s attention, “While what you did at the party is not ok,” She says with a slight glare and Bakugou can’t help how his shoulders rise up to his ears, “It did show us that you are more than able to take care of yourself, even when it comes to kids older than you.”

Bakugou cocks his head to the side, confused at where this conversation was going. He gives a look to his dad who just nods before continuing where his mom left off.

“Katsumori you are very smart for your age, and… aggressive too,” He says with a tight expression and Bakugou has to resist the urge to snort, “So we’ve been thinking that, next week when you’re no longer grounded, we could bring you out to the park to play.”

“What does that have to do with me being smart?” He says now looking between both his parents.

“There are a lot of older kids who hang out in the park,” His dad answers.

“Honestly the idea hadn’t even crossed our minds before your little stunt where you stood up to the oldest kid in the party. He was what, three, four years old?” His mom says with a look to his dad who just nods his head.

“And then you got along well with that one girl who was also older than you, though not as old as that other kid.”

“He was a bully.” Bakugou corrects with a slight scowl to his dad, “He was being mean to the girl. I just made him regret it.

“Yes yes we know,” His dad nods and gives him a soft pat on the back, this topic having been brought up a few times by now in the almost month and a half where he’s been grounded, “And you did a good job in making him stop, but did you have to say all that?”

His mom lets out a snort as his dad just lets out a long sigh. After everything cooled down his mom started to see all his swearing as something humorous, meanwhile his dad just looked more and more defeated whenever it was brought up.

Neither of them encouraged his swearing at home per se, but with his mom’s amusement and his dad’s defeated acceptance of the fact, they didn’t quite discourage it either. Other than the grounding. But that would be over soon anyway.

“What we mean by all this Katsu,” His mom began again as his dad lightheartedly shook his head at Bakugou’s smirk, “Is that we think that you’ll be able to handle playing with other kids who are older than you at the park. Would you like that?”

Bakugou didn’t even need to think before he enthusiastically nodded his head with a relieved grin. More opportunities to be out in this new world and fewer chances of getting surrounded by literal infants? Fuck yeah he’s ok with it.

Not to mention he’ll finally not be bored.

“Well then it’s decided then.” His dad says as he grabs Bakugou at his sides and raises him up in the air, “Next week, before it starts to get cold, we’ll head out to the park!”

His mom and dad both cheer and Bakugou cheers along with them as he flings his hands in the air, his mom clapping with a wide grin and his dad laughing behind him as he holds him up.

Chapter Text

The week was finally over. He wasn’t grounded anymore. And they were going to the park!

The weather outside was chilly but not quite cold enough for winter, or at least to Bakugou it wasn’t. He was used to winters being filled with endless blankets of snow and the constant need for three layers, at least, to go outside. 

In this world all that was changed from the different seasons were a few trees that were a pleasant mix of browns and oranges with an occasional leafless tree as the world got slightly cooler with pleasant, though slightly nippy, breezes that made him pull down at his sleeves.

Just another change he would have to get used to.

No, don’t think about that, think about going to the park and seeing kids who haven't just graduated from diapers.

His parents said that there would be older kids here but Bakugou doubted they meant teenagers or anything. While he was more mature than any other kids his age, he was still tiny, so while he wouldn’t be surrounded by one to two-year-olds he thinks the max would probably be around five or six.

But Bakugou didn’t really mind that. He was going out to a park, he didn’t need to actually hang out with the twerps, he could just have fun on his own. And that was only if these slightly older brats were as bad as the actual babies he had to hang out with before.

He knows at some point he’ll have to get used to being surrounded by children the same age as he was physically, but he could wait until he was older and those children could actually speak or walk like he could.

When they had reached the park Bakugou looked around to see that there were only a few kids around, and just like he thought they all looked to be no older than six. The three of them had gotten there pretty early since Bakugou was literally jumping at the chance to do something and get to the park, so there only being a few kids around made sense.

He was held back from immediately running to the playground by his hands, each one being held by one of his parents as he had walked between them on the way there. Looking back at them they let go and he watches as his mom kneels down next to him before tugging down on his long-sleeved black shirt.

“Now I know we said you can handle yourself with the big kids,” His mom began as she tugged down one of his sleeves, “But that doesn’t mean that you should go and pick a fight or anything. They are bigger than you and I don’t want you getting hurt by doing something stupid.”

“So I can only get hurt if it’s from something smart?” He asks with a cheeky smile, earning himself a light tap on the head from his mom as she gives him a blank face.

“I don’t want you getting hurt at all.” She looks out into the park and her face softens, “But I can deal with a scuffed knee or two.”

He feels a hand ruffle his hair and goes to push it back but as he looks up he sees his dad had already moved his hand.

“It’s fine to get a scratch or two yes,” The man says as he moves his hand back to his pockets, “But still try to be careful.”

“Just have fun Katsumori.” His mom says as she gets up, wiping her knees before looking down to him with a smile.

She then leans down and gives him a soft yet firm push on the back and that’s all it took to get Bakugou running over to the playset.

Climbing to the top he could see two groups of kids, one with three and another just two, both towards the opposite side of the park from where he and his parents had come from. They were small groups but as the day went on Bakugou was sure that more and more kids would start to trickle in, so for now he would enjoy his monopoly on the slide and monkeybars instead of trying to hang out with the older than him yet still young looking kids.

He felt a little childish at first, embarrassed for being so excited just going to some little kids park when he was mentally a teenager, but right now he was a child. A very bored child. So during the week waiting for the today he couldn’t help but count down the days until he could just run around and do whatever the fuck he wanted in an open area in a fun playground.

Then when he got here and saw that it was actually a real big wooden playground with a couple slides, a swing set, a few bridges to run across, and (what was easily becoming his favorite part) monkey bars, that burning need to move grew tenfold.

After maybe an hour or so of him running around by himself Bakugou was starting to see more kids turning up. He was sitting down on one of the bridges of the playset, his legs slipping under the railings and dangling off the edge as he heavily breathed in the crisp air with his head laying against his arms that layed on the bottom part of the railing.

He was catching his breath and looking out at nothing in particular and his eyes caught a couple kids running along the dirt path and getting closer to the park. When the two reached the play area one of them swung their head around before turning to the other and pointing off into the distance somewhere. The two then went off towards the back of the playset Bakugou was sitting on and he let his eyes follow them as they got closer.

They had run over to the ladder that led up to one of the slides and he watched for a minute as the two squealed as they slid down, more often than not one of them landing on the other at the bottom of the slide.

He wondered what the other kids who were here before were doing, he hadn’t seen any of them approach the main playset that he had been running around on. Anytime he had seen any of them they had either been on the side closest to a field of trees in the back of the park or over near the swing set.

His curiosity now peaked he turned his head and looked around and sure enough he saw the group of three over by the swing set, though the duo seemed to have left at some point.

Hearing a particularly loud squeal behind him he looked back to see the two new kids starting to run up the stairs of the playset instead of heading to the ladder. The top of the stairs was right next to where he sat so he watched as they got closer, but once they reached the top they just turned back towards the slide away from him.

Those two looked to be closer to his age, maybe three years old, but they also looked to be full of untapped energy as they ran around screaming and laughing. He considered the idea of joining them, but as he kicked out his foot he felt the tight strain on his little limbs and the cool air that spread through his lungs he shook his head. Maybe if they had come by earlier when Bakugou was running around like a maniac, much like they were now, but he was tired and wanted to take a break for a bit. Maybe later if they stuck around but for now Bakugou just wanted to chill for a second.

He looked back towards the trio by the swings. He hadn’t yet gone over to that side of the park yet, with there only being a bunch of picnic tables or benches besides the simple swing set, he had stuck to the bigger and more fun looking playset. But now that he was looking for a break, and with the memory of his parents encouraging him to make friends even with older kids, the swings surrounded by children seemed like a good place to start.

Pulling his legs out from under the railing he hopped down the steps before making his way over.

As he got closer he noticed that they looked to be quite a bit older than him compared to other kids he’s seen, maybe four or five, and watched as one of them was swinging on the swing set and the other two were crouched down and looked to be talking and drawing something in the dirt.

Occasionally he would hear the third one on the swings yell out to the other two but otherwise, the trio looked to have split up for a minute, two of them doing something else entirely as the third swung in their own world.

Bakugou walked up to the swings but kept to the opposite end of the other kids. The swing set only had two swings so it didn’t keep that much space between them, but Bakugou didn’t feel like barging in and making friends just yet. After he got to swing by himself for a bit, yes, but for now he’d rather do his own thing.

However, a problem arose when he finally reached the swing itself and stared at the seat that hung just under his eye level.

He stood there for a minute, thinking about how to actually get on the swing with what feeble upper body strength he had. He ended up scowling at the swing seat when he realized that any attempt would end up with him falling flat on his ass or hanging limply with only his shoulders held up by the swing itself.

Doesn’t mean he isn’t gonna try. His mom said a scraped knee or two was fine anyway.

Reaching up as high as he could he grabbed the chain that held the swing seat and jumped up, pulling himself as he did. He landed with an ‘oof’ when his upper chest landed on the hard wooden seat, just barely avoiding hitting his chin. Pulling as much as he could he managed to get more of himself onto the swing, the seat now snugly under his stomach, before letting go of the chain.

The rest of his upper body went forward and off the swing making both his arms and his legs dangling off the seat as it swung back and forth thanks to his momentum pushing it around. When the swing finally slowed he started to shimmy his body up higher before grabbing the chair with one hand and pulling himself up and around to try and get his butt underneath him and on the seat.

He was so close, just needed to pull a little farther then he could relax and swing-

As he pulled himself he ended up pushing his lower body off and the seat tilted with the change in balance, causing him to slide off.

He tried to hold on to the chain of the swing but his hand easily slid down the cold metal as he fell, leaving him helpless to gravity as it pulled him down towards the hard frozen dirt below as he promptly fell flat on his ass.

“Oh for fucks sake!” He growled, slamming his hands to the ground before falling back and laying down with his limbs sprawled out.

Bakugou watched as the swing continued to swing back in forth above him before eventually its slight momentum ended and it hung just above him. He kicked his foot up to try and meet the seat but fell incredibly short with the swing hanging too high that his limb only barely met it halfway.

He huffed out a breath, his scowl returning in full as he stared spitefully at the swing seat. 

“Uhh…” Came a voice over to his left. Bakugou rolled his head over to see the kid on the swing looking down at him, he couldn’t help how his scowl grew harsher.

“Are you ok?” Another voice asked and Bakugou looked up to see one of the other kids walking over to him.

“Why the hell do you care?” He says, still laying on the ground so when the kid finally reaches him he sees the upside-down face of another young boy.

“I was asking 'cause the dirt’s really hard.” The kid says before pointing over to where the last kid was still sitting on the ground, “We’ve been trying to dig a hole forever and nothing works! The only thing that even dents it is the old kunai Okina swiped but she only has one so using that is cheating.”

Bakugou sits up before looking over to where the kid was pointing to see the last kid poking the dirt with a stick. He leans over and when he squints he sees a bunch of scrape marks in the hard dirt.

“Leave him alone Tomichi,” The girl calls out, “We don’t have any other sticks so he doesn’t get to help.”

“I’m not asking him to join I’m asking if he’s ok!” The kid yells back before crossing his arms with a huff.

Bakugou shakes his head before pushing himself up on his feet and wiping his legs, wincing slightly when he feels sensitive skin on the back of his leg. He twists to look at the back of his leg as he pulls up his pants to see bright red skin on his lower calf.

His pants must have pushed up letting his lower leg scrape the ground when he fell. He pokes at it a little and while it is sensitive it doesn’t seem to be bleeding so he pushes back down his pant leg.

Looking back to the swing with a scowl he pushes the seat away angrily before taking a step to the side to avoid getting hit in the face by it when it swings back. Playing on the swing seemed to be a bust, might as well try doing the whole ‘be friendly to kids only somewhat older than him’ thing.

He walks past the boy over to where the girl was still poking at the ground.

“I said you can’t help,” The girl says as she looks up, pointing the stick in her hand at him threateningly, “We don’t got any other sticks.”

“He said you had a kunai.” Bakugou says pointing a thumb back to the boy behind him.

“No, Okina has a kunai,” She says pointing with her stick to the girl on the swing, “But when we said it was cheating she got all pouty and stuck to the swings.”

“Hm,” Bakugou looks over to swing kid for a moment before looking back at Pointy, then over to swing kid again, “If I get you a stick to use can I see the kunai?”

Swing kid's face brightened up but before she could say anything Worry-wart bopped her on the head, “No he can’t! He’s little! Little kids can’t have kunai.”

Swing kid looked between Worry-wart and Bakugou for a second, “B-but… if he finds a stick…”

“I didn’t say I wanted to have it,” Bakugou rolls his eyes, “I just wanted to see it. I’ve never seen a kunai before.”

Swing kid lit up again before nodding her head, “That should be fine then, right Tomichi?”

Worry-wart’s face scrunched up before he looked back to Bakugou, “Fine. Only if you find a stick though. A-and tell us your name. And where your parents are! You’re too tiny to be here alone-”

“Who you calling tiny!” He interrupted.

“You! You’re tiny!” The kid yells back, “And if you don’t tell us your name then I’ll just keep calling you tiny.”

Bakugou reeled back, nicknames were his thing asshole!

“Katsumori.” Bakugou points over to the table where his parents were talking a little ways away, “Those are my parents,” He then turns and walks toward the forested area behind the park, “And I’m gonna get your damn stick.”

Chapter Text

It was finally getting colder after the new year, cold enough for Bakugou to need an actual jacket along with his long sleeves. He wasn’t too bothered by it since it was still nothing compared to what he was used to, even if he was leaving the house pretty often now.

When he was home he would play with all his other toys that he got back after his grounding. Sometimes he would ask his mom some shinobi or chakra questions but other times he’d just watch as she sewed beautiful floral designs for her commission work. When his dad was home the man would indulge in his every whim and play whatever stupid game Bakugou could come up with.

But as the days went on he found himself wanting to get out of the house more and more after his grounding ended despite the frigid air.

He would ask his parents almost every day if he could go to the park and while they did indulge him a lot, they couldn’t take him all the time, and they didn’t want him off on his own with him so young. So for a compromise, they would take him out with them as they went about their day in an attempt to appease his want for the outdoors.

Sometimes his parents would just take him out to see parts of the village, mostly the shopping area or just to walk the streets and let Bakugou look around. They eventually started bringing him to their store where he could play or draw on the counter near his dad. He enjoyed being able to people-watch and even made a game of how long he could pay attention to a shinobi without them noticing.

He sucked at it at first. He would look at a shinobi maybe two seconds longer than he would a civilian and he could immediately feel their chakra sharpen slightly when they noticed his attention.

He only realized what exactly that sharpening meant when one day he thought he was doing a good job of not being noticed and glanced over again at a shinobi when he felt their chakra tense as soon as his eyes landed on them. As soon as the feeling registered Bakugou looked up only to meet the eyes of one slightly confused shinobi.

Bakugou brought his head down as quickly as he could and faked paying attention to his little doodle but couldn’t help the grimace he made when a shadow covered his paper.

He heard the shinobi huff out what could have been a laugh before walking away to continue whatever they were doing. It was only when the approaching silent footsteps made their way to the counter did Bakugou look up at them again.

The shinobi was looking down at him as they laid out a handful of the green military-looking jackets to his dad to buy, “Y’know staring is pretty rude kid.”

He could feel his face heat up as he clicked his tongue and looked back down only to turn and scowl at his dad when he heard a small chuckle behind him.

The man just continued to laugh and only stopped when Bakugou threw a crayon at him.

After that Bakugou would still try to focus on the shinobi that came by but now with even more caution, especially when time after time he could feel their chakra tense after not even a minute had passed. It was something to focus on though, a goal to try and reach.

So far his longest time was just over two minutes, though he’ll admit that one was a very big outlier. They were a kid who looked to be barely a teenager if that. They were stupidly loud and if it wasn’t for the simmering warmth Bakugou felt from their chakra and the obvious Konoha headband they wore then he wouldn’t have even thought they were a shinobi at all.

It wasn’t even them who noticed Bakugou’s attention but another shinobi entirely who wasn’t even in the shop! The kid had turned to leave but as soon as they had a foot out the door another kid who was wearing a mask said something and the first kid immediately spun on his heel and locked eyes with Bakugou, their eyes wide as they stared at him behind orange goggles.

Bakugou just smirked before sticking his tongue out and going back to the ball that he was rolling around the counter he sat on.

He heard the kid yell something but it was quickly muffled and Bakugou couldn’t help the snort he let out as he still refused to look back up.

So other than that one time, his longest time was around forty-five seconds.

Like he said, that one time was a big outlier. Felt like he was cheating having that as his high score.

And when his parents didn’t take him to the store or let him follow them around the village, they would take him to the park.

He would get to go by every few days, more often than not just with his mom since his dad still had to work at the shop. He started to remember the faces of some of the kids who came by but still tended to stick to himself for the first couple of weeks since he was un-grounded, running around and throwing himself around on the monkey bars.

Now that he was getting more used to being outside and not being bored, he would push himself to do more exhausting stuff, things that would make his little limbs work even in the cold weather that made every panting breath come out in a cool misty smoke.

He would try to pull himself up as he swung on the monkey bars or run around the park in as many laps as he could. All having fun and burning energy while making his body just that much stronger.

With him seeing more shinobi around, or at least paying more attention to shinobi around, the fact of how weak he was kept weighing down his mind.

But he tried to keep those thoughts away from him. Much like his thoughts about what his life here would become, what being a shinobi was like, what he would have to do-

So he would run around like a maniac not just to have fun, but to strengthen his baby limbs.

Occasionally he would go out and talk to other kids, though as time went on he found himself hanging around the other kids more when straight running wasn’t enough to distract his mind, and more often than not he would hang out with kids that were closer to his age than he would really like. Maybe a year or year and a half older than him. 

They could talk pretty well and were able to run around without falling too many times so he wasn’t too annoyed at having to stick by them, but still, he would have preferred to talk to kids who were a little older.

Or maybe he just didn’t like how anyone who was older kept… avoiding him.

There was no other way to say it. Almost every time he went up to a small group of older kids they would take one good look at him and not so subtly get the hell out of dodge. He could count on two hands the number of times he actually hung around with kids four or older. That one lucky time during his first trip to the park included.

At first he thought they just didn’t want to play with a literal infant, and while he wanted to punch and swear at them for looking down on him, he couldn’t really blame them since he was doing the same thing when he tried to find people older than two-years-old to hang around.

That and… he promised his parents he’d ‘play nice’.

He almost broke said promise after one too many times of getting looked over or pushed to the side and he was inclined to start some shit with people both twice his age and height when his mom, who was sitting at a table close by, snapped her head in his direction and let out a piercing whistle.

He winced and when he looked over to her was met with a fierce glare and a slow shake of her head.

Bakugou scowled back before kicking a rock and grumbling to himself as he marched back to the play area.

He was ok with the explanation he came up with for a while, not quite ok with the reason but able to see some sense in it. Then, one day, he went up to another new group of older kids and it became one of the few times when they didn’t do the toddler equivalent of telling him to fuck off.

That is until, a little while later, one of the kids from the group started staring at him right in the eye for an unnerving amount of time. Bakugou easily noticed the staring but anytime he looked the other kid in the eye they looked away. Not away from him, just his eyes since he caught the kid looking up to his hair or away at his shirt. Eventually, Bakugou got annoyed enough to ask them what the fuck they were looking at, causing them to flinch back as well as a younger but still older than him kid in the group to repeat the swear (oh well, not his problem) before they looked away from him completely and hurriedly pushed one of the other kids to the side.

Bakugou had scowled at the two as they left, watching as the staring kid whispered something to the other, but he went on to hang around the rest of the older kids for the rest of the afternoon.

The two kids never joined back with the group.

The staring kid didn’t like him. Not just cause he was little, in fact they were ok with Bakugou joining in at first like the rest of them. There was a reason they were staring, a reason they didn’t want to be around him.

There was a reason, other than him being young, that the older kids stayed away from him.

Whatever. They’re just a bunch of fucking extras anyway, who gives a shit about them? He doesn’t care what a bunch of snot-nosed brats think of him, especially when none of them have the courage to even say anything to him about it.

All it meant was that Bakugou was stuck with the little ankle biters when he went to the park, and while they couldn’t do anything too complex, they were untapped balls of energy ready to be prayed upon for his benefit.

He would play tag with them and run as they chased him around the playground, force his own limbs to cooperate and dodge out of the way of their flailing limbs as they tried to tag him, and after a couple of weeks of winning damn near every game of tag despite his younger physical age, he would start adding hide and seek in the mix.

Unlike how he played tag, focusing on pushing himself physically, in hide and seek he did pretty much the exact opposite. While some days when he was hiding he would move around as he looked for good hiding spots in the forested area behind the park, running through the field of dead trees while avoiding stepping on loud branches and leaves or climbing up and nestling between the barren branches, it was when he was seeking that he really put himself to work.

While none of these kids were shinobi and therefore had fuck all for chakra, they did still have some. An incredibly small and hardly noticeable amount. That meant if he was able to easily search and find their chakra, finding people with not only more amounts of chakra but more refined chakra would be a breeze.

Instead of running full force through the park and trees looking for the other kids, he would calmly walk forward to where he heard the kids run off to when he had counted down (they were kids. Kids didn’t do quiet or stealth most kids at least) until he reached the center of the area they had decided beforehand was ok to hide in. Anything beyond the river was cheating, no going to the other side of the swings, and no climbing the fence on the right side.

He would then stand still with his head tilted to the sky, breathing deeply as he diluted his sensory input as much as he could so that he was only focusing on the feeling in the air. With every cold breeze that nipped at the exposed skin on his face or shifting of his feet that rustled the levees under him, he felt more.

Calling what he felt as a buzzing didn’t quite fit whenever he focused like this. When he forgot everything and only searched for the feeling of other around him, it was more than that. A thumping of pebbles behind him to his right, an occasional single drip of warm water almost directly to his left, the smooth yet harsh surface of a rock in front and a little higher than him. Even when he looked inside himself in this state he felt sharp crackles of a firework being let off and flashing brightly in the distant night sky, more prominent than anything else he felt around him but still something he had to push to the side so he could feel everything else.

Then he would snap his eyes wide open with a manic smile and run full tilt to the closest kid around him.

Sometimes the kids would accuse him of cheating. Other times they’d swap horror stories of watching how he beelined it to someone. One kid even went up to him and straight up told him they thought he was scary with a wide grin before asking him how he did it with a smile and bounce in their step.

Bakugou just laughed in their face before getting ready to hide.

His life would continue this routine day after day. Slowly but surely he honed his skills as the weeks and eventually months went by. And while he wasn’t necessarily searching for more answers about how this world worked and how it differed from his old one, there were schools here he’d learn about that junk when he wasn’t only a year old physically, he took in any and all information like a sponge.

But he never bragged. Never boasted about his achievements in chakra or shoved his accomplishments in the face of anyone who looked down on him like those stupid older kids who didn’t like him for some stupid reason and what are you talking about of course he’s over it-

No, he learned his lesson. He was better than he was before. He isn’t some self-righteous asshole who thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Sure he’s great, of course he is he’s got a decade and a half on everyone around him other than his parents, but he’s worked for this and will continue to work for it until he does become that great.

But even then he won’t be that asshole he was before. 

That and… he had a promise to keep. Well another promise. No skipping grades or getting into school early, meaning no boasting about how much smarter and better he was than other kids his age. He didn’t know how kids got into school years early and while he assumed it was because a parent applied for their kid to enroll early since that’s how it happened in his world before, after all the shit he heard about this world and all the crazy shinobi bullshit, he wasn’t taking any chances.

So that meant keeping his lips sealed and practicing in secret. Even if his ‘practicing’ was unconventional at best, they still got the job done.

And while he did the trees in the park were slowly gaining leaves and the bushes flowers. Color was slowly returning to his new home of Konoha as the seasons changed and before he knew it, it was spring. 

Chapter Text

As color returned to the world, though it never went away entirely seeing how there wasn’t a single snowflake the entire season meaning no icey expanses of white like before, the world grew warmer and more kids started showing up at the park.

Some of them were a few familiar faces that Bakugou had only seen once or twice in the four months now that he had been going to the park regularly. They would appear more often as the weather changed along with a bunch of completely new people. Now instead of there being around five other kids with him in the park, there were at least ten to fifteen, sometimes even twenty running around on any given day.

It was weird at first, seeing so many new kids who were older and there for much bigger than him instead of a comfortable few. He felt like he was getting shoved in the back of the line or ignored more and more since he was so much younger.

He had grown a little over the winter months, not by much but now he was able to get on the swings himself with minimal difficulty, but his shorter height made him easily overlooked by the other kids.

That just meant he had to get their attention some other way. Like beating all their asses at any and all playground games the kids came up with.

Tree climbing? Bakugou had plenty of practice and that was on dead trees that had branches with a fifty-fifty chance of snapping with a single touch. Challenge who could run through the play set the quickest? He had better coordination than more than half the kids here and he had been running around non-stop on this play set for months and that was with slightly slick and icey wood. Hide and seek? It didn’t matter that they never let him play seeker again after the first round where he found eighteen kids in as many minutes, he knew every nook and cranny of this damn place and would only reveal himself when he heard them cry out for mercy from their absolute defeat.

All that being said, it only took a few weeks before the kids closest to his age stopped overlooking him and instead glanced at him with either fear or adoration in their eyes as a kid nearly two years younger than them smoked their asses.

The same could not be said for the older kids. They still gave him weird glances and most stayed on the other end of the park from him. In fact, while the amount of younger kids increased, the number of older kids stayed the same if not lowered as the months went by.

Whatever, these snot-nosed brats had gotten a little older just like Bakugou had so their company wasn’t completely terrible.

As the days went on Bakugou got used to this new normal of other kids starting to trickle in and by the end of March it seemed to have all leveled out. Now whenever he went to the park he could count on there being around twenty to thirty kids depending on what time of day he got there. He even got used to some new faces. One of which caused his mom to call for him to head home earlier than normal.

Less than half an hour after Bakugou had arrived at the park he saw a new kid walk by, and while seeing new kids wasn’t unusual, this kid in particular struck Bakugou as odd.

They looked like a younger boy, around three years old though they could be closer to four, with brown shaggy hair, red marks on his cheeks, and sharp narrow eyes. That alone shouldn’t have been too odd since this new kid was one of many other kids in the village Bakugou had seen with what looked like pained marks on their faces, but for some reason, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the new kid as he approached.

Bakugou frowned from where he stood on the top of the stairs of the play set. Something was different with him, he just couldn’t quite place what.

Huffing out a breath he decided the best way to get answers was to just talk to the kid. It didn’t hurt that he had a cute little brown dog in his arms. 

Jumping down the stairs he lands right next to the newly dubbed Dog Boy, their dog barking at Bakugou when he lands and the kid snapping to attention at the noise before turning to stare at Bakugou with a surprised look on his face that quickly turns to confusion.

“What’s a twirp like you doin’ around here?” Dog Boy asks as he looks him up and down, the dog in his arms wiggles and the kid lets them go.

“The fuck are you calling a twirp?” He growls and watches as the dog jumps around before prancing up to him and sniffing his feet.

Bakugou’s sneer loses some of its sharper edges as he glances down at the dog. But it doesn’t disappear completely! He’s younger than this ankle-biter sure but he can still beat his ass.

With a defiant look still on his face he watches as Dog Boy starts to make a face, only it looks more like an unhinged grin rather than the usual angry snarl Bakugou gets whenever he shit-talks a kid looking down on him right to their face.

“I knew my mom was spouting bullshit when she said I couldn’t curse!” He exclaims with a small jump and swing of his arms, “Like I mean, bein’ a hypocrite is one thing but lying about it too?!”

Bakugou tilts his head as Dog Boy laughs to himself before marching up into Bakugou’s space, the dog now running in circles around the both of them, before putting his hands on his hip and leaning down to get right up in Bakugou’s face.

Bakugou doesn’t step back, instead, he takes a step closer with gritted teeth and a glare that made other kids start shaking in their boots, he was ready for a fight or whatever bull this kid would pull.

Once again Dog Boy’s smile grows and Bakugou gets a face full of sharp, carnivorous-looking teeth and he has to keep his eyes from widening at the sight. Then, before Bakugou could do anything, Dog Boy spoke.

“The name’s Shinsaku Inuzuka, this is Shinju,” He says with a nod to the dog who has stopped running around and was now crouched on his front paws with his tail wagging back and forth in the air, barking when his name was said, “and I think we’re gonna get along like a fucking house on fire.”

Bakugou’s sneer soon twisted into a grin similar to the other boy’s as he quickly catches on, all the while hatching a new plan.

“Katsumori Haruno,” He says with a tilt of his head, “You wanna go decimate some whiny ass kids at tag?” 

“Fuck yeah.” Dog Boy's agreement is accompanied by his sharp smile and a bark from the dog at his side.

Then they were off.

For what must have been an hour Bakugou and Dog Boy ran around practically tackling other kids to the ground during the game of tag, all the while screaming with laughter in their voices and inadvertently teaching the other kids in the park a few more words to repeat to their parents.

He would admit that Dog Boy was fast, definitely more agile than any other kids his age Bakugou had seen, but even then there was something off that kept Bakugou guessing what was different about the other boy.

Dog Boy had an unusual appearance, for this world at least. He had those sharp teeth that Bakugou had seen earlier and sharp nails that were just a tad too sharp to be normal. It was the first time Bakugou had seen someone with anything even resembling a quirk from his life before.

That wasn’t even mentioning what Bakugou had seen when he was hiding after they had switched to playing hide and seek sometime later. Like usual he was the last one hiding and from where he was perched up in one of the taller trees, hidden by the now fresh green leaves that covered the branches, he watched as Dog Boy smelled the air around him as he searched the area.

He walked by the tree where Bakugou was hiding once before smelling the air, then he turned and paced around the area all while occasionally sniffing the air. Then Dog Boy stopped right in front of the tree Bakugou was on and tilted his head back, glaring at the leaves that surrounded him before a wide smile grew on the other boy's face.

“Found you asshole!” He yelled and jabbed a finger up to point at him from where he was still hiding, “Fucking finally it’s been forever.”

Bakugou didn’t say anything. He sat there scowling and seething for being found for the first time instead of coming out well after the other kids gave up looking for him. But this kid was stubborn, having been looking around for Bakugou alone for easily fifteen minutes now as he had heard Dog Boy screaming out for him through his search.

That and somehow, even though this world didn’t have quirks, he seemed able to smell him.

A rustling noise came from one of the bushes at Dog Boy’s side causing both the kid and Bakugou to look over at the sound and watch as Dog Boy’s dog jumped out.

“Shinju!” Dog Boy yelled before crouching and picking up the dog. Bakugou watched still scowling at the two as the dog continued to bark with his tail wagging back and forth in his owner's arms, “Yes yes I know we won!”

No the fuck they didn’t! The kid still hasn’t actually seen Bakugou yet, there was no way he was gonna give away the win already.

The dog barked again, this time with a deeper growl instead of the exited high-pitched yips he had been letting out before.

“Well- we pretty much won,” Dog Boy said with a roll of his eyes, “I’m just waiting for the stupid twerp to get out of the damn tree already!” His voice grew louder until he was screaming up at the tree where Bakugou was still hidden.

“Who the fuck are you calling twirp you Werewolf wanna-be!” Bakugou screams as he launches down to the ground, landing before the boy and his dog.

“Hey!” The boy screams before stopping, “I don’t know what that means but it sounds cool so I’ll take it as a compliment!” He nods before looking down at the dog still in his arms, “Shinju do you know what a we-are-wolf is?”

Dog Boy pronounces the word both slowly and wrong meaning either this kid was too young and hadn’t heard about werewolves or the myth of them just didn’t exist here. The latter sounded more likely both with how different the world was and how the dog shook his head no before letting out a small bark.

Wait- the dog understood? And responded-

“Hmph, well whatever, all that matters is that I won and now the baby gets to seek.” The boy says with a shrug before smiling sharply at Bakugou.

“Not a fucking baby dog breath!”

“Say that again when you reach above my elbow short-stack!”

“Oh you mutt-”

Lunging at the boy with a shout he barely missed grabbing Dog Boy’s sleeve as the kid dropped his dog and the three of them ran. He chased the kid through the forest all the way back to the main play area, keeping up with Dog Boy despite his smaller limbs as the two of them ran between the trees and through the low-hanging branches.

Just when Dog Boy reached the end of the forested area and reached the smooth grassy ground of the park Bakugou jumped and launched himself the few inches of distance between them and tackled Dog Boy to the ground.

They fell with a thump, rolling across the ground and Bakugou heard a small growl just before the two of them stopped with Bakugou hanging off the back of Dog Boy's shirt and biting one of his sleeves. He felt something hit his leg as they tussled from where they lay in the grass and dirt but continued to cling to the boy, only letting go when something grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled.

Opening his mouth from where he was biting Dog Boy’s shirt he looks over to see Dog Boy’s dog biting and trying to pull Bakugou away from his owner by his shirt.

“Ey stop- let go!” He fully lets go of the other boy and twists over to try and pull the shirt out of the dog’s mouth, “I don’t care that you’re a puppy my Dad got me this so let go before I make you!”

With one final shake of his head the dog listens and lets go and Bakugou huffed out a breath before fixing his shirt. Looking back to Dog Boy he saw that the older boy had turned to lay on his back and was looking up at the sky and he smiled at Bakugou when the two made eye contact.

Bakugou watches and soon enough a small smile of his own grows on his face. This kid was a fucking riot all right, and if Bakugou didn’t know better he’d say the kid had some kind of dog quirk. A way to talk and understand dogs and even have some canine abilities. But that shouldn’t be possible. Quirks didn’t exist here.

But somehow, this kid was something Bakugou had never seen in this world yet was so achingly familiar to him.

Maybe that was what made Bakugou so curious about the boy in the first place? His ‘otherness’ that wouldn’t have been out of place in his world before?

But… no. No Bakugou still had a small itch in the back of his mind that told him there was something different about Dog Boy. Something he was missing.

Just then his thoughts were interrupted by a sharp whistle, a familiar whistle. The one Bakugou heard whenever he was too close to losing his absolute shit on the kids around him.

Confused, Bakugou looked over to where his mom should be sitting at a nearby table like usual but was instead met with the sight of his mom standing a few steps away from the table, her embroidery tools left behind, as she waved him over.

“Uh…” Glancing back at Dog Boy he notices the confused look on his face that probably wasn’t much better than his own. He hadn’t been in the park that long had he? Usually he gets to stay out until just before dinner, but it’s only been a couple hours right? “I’ll be right back, my Mom’s calling.”

“Oh gotcha,” Dog Boy says with a nod before getting up and barely wiping away the dirt that now clung to his skin and clothes, “Don’t take too long, it’s your turn to seek since, y’know, I found you.”

Bakugou rolls his eyes, “Shut it Dog Boy,” he says as he turns to walk away. He hears the kid yelp in offence or something behind him but Bakugou elects to ignore it as he makes his way over to his mom.

Did she think he was actually fighting the kid? Now that he thought about it he hasn’t really roughhoused with anyone like that here so it would make sense. He would just need to reassure her that he wasn’t picking any fights and everything should be all good-

His mom’s eyes were flicking back and forth between Bakugou and back toward the park. She looked worried, panicked even. She didn’t even wait for Bakugou to approach her fully and instead walked up to meet him halfway, looking like she was only just keeping herself from flat-out running to him.

Her face reminded him of his birthday, of that panicked look in her eye that she immediately tried to squash down and cover-up.

“What’s wrong?” He asks as she crouches down. Something was wrong, she looked scared as her eyes left the park and kids behind him to look at him fully, “Did something happen? Did you see something?”

“Oh no no Katsumori everything’s ok,” She reassures, a calm and loving look that Bakugou is more familiar with overtaking her features, “I just, I wanted to check in with you. It looked like you took a mighty tumble over there.”

Scanning her face it seemed like she was telling the truth, partially at least. She was worried for him and, as she reached down and pulled back at his sleeves and shirt to check for any scrapes or bleeding, was truely checking to see if he was ok.

But that wasn’t everything.

Something was different. Something that made his mom give anxious glances back at the park.

Bakugou turns back at the kids behind him. Nothing stood out as a cause for concern, nothing that could warrant his mom’s anxious state, but something was different. Something had to be.

His eyes caught on to Dog Boy in the group with his dog barking away at all the kids from where he was snuggly held in the kid’s arms.

He was just like every other kid there, smiling and waiting impatiently for Bakugou to return so they could continue the game. But he was also the only thing different.

Bakugou was scowling in thought when his mom finished looking him over. Relaxing his face he looks back up at her and watches as she, albeit hesitantly, gives him a smile before waving him off to join back with the other kids.

For some reason, Dog Boy being around scared his mom.

Keeping his thoughts to himself he waves to her as he rushes back to the group, easily joining back with the others and they get to playing again. Covering his eyes Bakugou counts and lets the kids run off to hide, and as he does he slowly focuses on the constant energy in the air and the trail that each kid leaves behind as they run. He hadn’t been seeker in a while, all the usual kids already aware of his track record, so it was nice to fall back into the hazy world that he sunk into when he focused on the other kid's chakra around him.

He yelled out the last few numbers before lowering his hands and falling completely into the sea of chakra he felt around him, one immediately calling out to him.

It was stronger, more refined than the others around, and different than anything he felt before too. Like the others there was a constant energy with a general feeling of nature, this one like a breeze with a hint of rain like a warning before a storm, but unlike the others, this had a hint of… something else.

He didn’t know what exactly, it felt sharp and twitchy, like an animal in waiting with claws and teeth ready to attack. And if this chakra was coming from who he thought it was, that made an annoying amount of sense.

All the other chakra felt, not familiar per se, but they fell into line with what Bakugou had gotten to know over the months. All the other kids were ones he had seen at least a few times by now. There was only one unfamiliar kid.

And all at once it was like that constant itch in his brain was finally scratched. That was it! The kid had chakra he had never felt before, and since he wasn’t focused on it he never registered it. He could sense the difference in the air but he wasn’t looking for it so it lingered in his brain, the entire time telling him something was different but only now is he able to see it.

Opening his eyes he turns to where he feels the chakra with a wicked smirk. He had a Dog Boy to find. It was only fair to return the favor after all. And maybe he can ask the kid some questions while he’s at it.

Running straight forward to where he feels the unfamiliar chakra he makes his way over, ending up close to where he had hidden earlier, only instead of the kid hiding in the high branches like Bakugou did, he looked to be hidden under a thick bush that sat near the roots of a nearby tree.

After pinpointing the kid Bakugou slowed his steps, careful of every branch and dead leaf under him as he crept up to where Dog Boy was hiding. Slowly but surely he made his way over and grabbed the bush before quickly pulling away at the branches that hid the kid.

Dog Boy yelps as he’s uncovered, the dog in his lap barking at Bakugou who just laughs at the two of them.

“Found ya.” Is all he says before he has a dog jumping up at him and nearly pushing him over.

The other boy grumbles to himself as he pushes himself out of his hiding spot, “C’mon Shinju,” The boy calls and the dog turns away from Bakugou to head back to his owner. Dog Boy seems intent on ignoring him as he mopes back over to the park, but as the kid turns away Bakugou yells out to him.

“Hey!” He calls with the intent to say something though he’s not sure what exactly. If anything he has too many things to say.

Why is your chakra different? Why are you different? Why would you make my mom worried? Why would some kid like you scare her?

But when the kid turns around with a grouchy expression and lets out a snappish “What?” Bakugou can’t get the words to come out.

He was just a kid, what would he know? Bakugou barely got all the chakra nonsense and he was mentally a teenager. This was an actual toddler he was talking to.

So instead he presses his lips in a line before finally speaking, keeping those questions inside, “You’re the first one I found.” He says with a grin that wasn’t quite like his normal mocking smile.

“Wha-” The kid sputters, quickly flipping from moping around to anger and embarrassment, making Bakugou bark out a laugh.

“Payback for last round!” He yells back before turning to run to the next closest chakra around.

“All I did was find you ya twirp!” He hears behind him but Bakugou is already a ways away, deep in thought as he continues his search for the other kids still hiding around.

He had pieces of a puzzle. He knew why Dog Boy pinged something in the back of Bakugou’s brain, he knew the kid was the reason why his mom was worried, he knew that this kid was something more compared to the other kids and not just because of his slightly different features or more refined chakra that held hints of something unknown.

But what connected the pieces together? Why was this kid different? Why did he have more refined chakra, and why did it have traces of something Bakugou had never felt before? And why was his mom scared of some three-year-old at the park?

Questions questions questions, and he had no idea what he could ask, making him furious beyond belief.

And all the while the memory of her scared face from almost a year ago now plagued his mind, only now it overlapped with the face he saw only minutes prior as she glanced between the other kids and him.

Snarling at nothing, he continues with the game as he tries to bury his worry with other things, despite how those questions never leave his mind for long.

And when he’s heading back to his mom an hour later so that they can head home, he catches a glimpse of her face as she continues to cast wary glances to the group of kids, to Dog Boy, and resigns himself to having another conversation with his mom.

Later though. Later. Right now, he needed to go home. And who knows, maybe it was just normal motherly worry. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe it was nothing.

He really hoped it was nothing.

Chapter Text

When they got home from the park, his mom once again looked him over, stopping them as soon as they walked through the door and kneeling in front of him. Pulling at his sleeves and checking for any scratches he might have gained in the barely half hour it had been since she checked back at the park.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Bakugou asked her, “Why are you so worried?”

“Hm?” She hummed while still inspecting the small scuffs on Bakugous hands, “Oh, well like I said you took a fall earlier. Just want to double-check.”

Bakugou squinted at her before asking again, “Does this have anything to do with Dog Boy?”

That got her to pause and finally look at him, “Dog boy?”

“Y’know, the brat that I was roughhousing with.”

“Oh. Oh-” She cut herself off with a laugh as she let go of his hands and continued to laugh as she stood.

“Hey what- why are you laughing?” He can feel his shoulders rise and his face getting hot. Was he wrong? She had been acting weird and worried and- and-

No don’t laugh harder lady!

“I-It’s nothing Katsu,” She said with a giggle in her voice, waving him off as she toed off her shoes and put them up before walking inside the house proper.

“No it’s not nothing!” He yelled back as he hurriedly kicked his shoes off and followed her inside, “What’s so funny!”

“Don’t leave your shoes flung around like that,” She scolded with a point, though there was still a slight smile on her lips, before she cleared her throat as she turned and walked into the kitchen.

“Wha- but-, ugh,” Bakugou groaned before spinning around and grumbling to himself as he put his shoes up on the small shelf. He walked to the kitchen to find his mom but before he could ask anything again she started talking about what her plans for dinner were all while looking through and listing out what ingredients they would need.

Bakugou scowled before letting himself dismiss the questions that still nipped at his brain. She didn’t seem all that worried now, didn’t have a tight expression when he mentioned the kid like how she worried whenever the topic of shinobi and chakra came up all those months ago. It was probably nothing, he was just overreacting.

It was fine.

He sighs before helping out his mom and talking with her about different options for their meal, grabbing ingredients from the pantry and standing on a stool to cook with his mom as much as he could. Though she didn’t let him do much to help, constantly getting denied with the excuse of him being too young as always which continues to annoy him the more they used it, just handing his mom ingredients or stirring the pot.

All things to get him to forget. It was nothing. She was worried cause it was the first time he had taken a tumble like that, just like she said, and she only glanced at Dog Boy cause he was the one Bakugou had wrestled with. 

It was fine. That answer was fine.

Just not satisfying.

Which is why, nearly two weeks later on his second birthday, when he looked at the crowd of small toddlers who were invited and didn’t see Dog Boys face, all those questions came rushing back.

The morning went similar to how his first birthday went, waking up with his parents itching to wake him and celebrate. Only now they waited at the door to his room instead of across the room from his cradle. Then there were the different colors for the decorations and wrapping paper, a mix of oranges, reds, and blacks since those were his favorite colors instead of the softer greens and blues from last year. Finally there was the pile of presents and batches of newer clothes, some more complex puzzles, and even some new furniture to be added to his room.

Then came the party.

When his dad opened the door and invited the people in Bakugou saw a bunch of familiar faces instead of the random assortment of kids like his last birthday. They were all kids he had seen at the park.

And among them, there was no sign of Dog Boy.

He tried to excuse it as only knowing the kid for barely a few weeks instead of the nearly months he had been seeing some of these other kids around, but he’d also only known some of these kids for the same amount of time if not shorter than he’d known Dog Boy.

He wasn’t going to bring anything up now. It was a party, one he could tell his parents had worked hard on for a while now with just one glance at the amount, and even more eye-catching the price (furniture isn’t cheap), of all the presents he got. Then there was how there were streamers stuck to the ceiling and balloons in the corner, all in his favorite colors meaning that they knew him now and got him things he liked instead of the generic placeholder colors of last year, not to mention how any time he caught a glimpse of them he could see their smiles plain as day and… Bakugou just couldn’t bring himself to take his parent's joy for the occasion away just yet.

So instead he let a now slightly older Pigtails drag him around the house as she had once again latched herself to his side as soon as the two made eye contact.

She was smarter now, able to ask more complicated questions and remember things clearer than she could before. To be fair it had been over half a year since she’s stuck by him last, though she did wave to him in the few instances they saw each other outside in Bakugou’s walks with his parents. That being said, she asked what he had been doing over the winter and Bakugou reluctantly told her that he’d been hanging out in the park.

That got her face to shift from her constant smile and into a determined look as she asked what park specifically and when Bakugou told her it was just the one down the road she nodded before letting go of his sleeve and marching off.

Bakugou watched blankly and confused before shaking his head and standing near another group of kids he vaguely remembered seeing at the park. It had to have been only a handful of minutes before Pigtails returned with a triumphant grin on her face as she practically jumped with joy on her way over.

They both hung around that same group of kids for the rest of the party, Pigtails jumping around and talking with kids more her age while Bakugou just stayed an appropriate distance away to look like he was included without actually participating. 

It had been hours at this point and he was getting tired of hanging around these kids. At the park he could easily go off and do his own thing at the play place when he got tired of them, but now he was home and expected to interact with these ankle biters otherwise he’d look like a loser loner kid and he didn’t want any adults looking down on him when they didn’t know a damn thing about him.

Or his parents to see him and get sad thinking he was lonely.

So he stuck around the kids even though Bakugou would much rather head up to his room and nap.

Luckily enough his dad had brought out the cake for everyone and soon after that the party was called to a close. He did have to wave most of the people out, something about ‘being a polite host’ n shit, but all he had to do was sit in his dad’s arms and not glare too hard at the kids as they left.

Though when Pigtails left she did so with a smirk just a touch too sweet on her face as she waved goodbye and practically skipped away with her family.

When he looked at his dad in confusion he just looked at him with a wide smile before snickering at Bakugou’s confused face. That got him a slap to the chest and an angry “Shut up” that only made the man laugh harder at Bakugou’s annoyance.

Overall the day was fun, light, an easy distraction with only slightly lingering anxiety.

The next day however, was very different.

Because that’s when he talked to his dad.

His dad had brought him along to the store early that morning before Bakugou had a chance to ask either of them what their deal was about Dog Boy, and they’d been there for a while now and in twenty minutes or so they would be getting ready to leave. It had been busy all day with now being the first time it had been empty. It was just him and his dad.

So he asked.

“Hey Dad?” He looked up from where he was coloring, meeting eyes with his dad who was writing something down in a journal Bakugou knew he used to keep track of inventory for the store. Sometimes Bakugou would run down the aisle counting some of the shirts or other clothes when he was bored and whenever he told his dad the count the man would write it down. Or well, now he did, before he would nod before ‘secretly’ (wait until Bakugou was ‘distracted’ and eating a snack that did nothing to actually distract him) go and double-check Bakugou’s count.

“Yes Katsu?” He says before finishing what he was writing and closing the book and setting it down on the counter, turning to give Bakugou his full attention.

“Why wasn’t Dog Boy at my party yesterday?”

His dad blinked back a look of surprise before clearing his throat, “I don’t know who you’re talking about.” He lied with an awkward chuckle before continuing in a calmer tone, “I mean, uh, remember what we said about nick-names Katsumori? You need to remember their real names too.”

Wow. His dad is not a good liar.

“Yeah yeah,” He rolled his eyes, “I’m talking about the kid with the red marks on his face. The literal only one I know who has a dog?” He gave his dad a stern look and the man sighed before nodding, “Well? Why didn’t he come over too?”

“Ah, well,” His dad squirmed in his seat, “I’m sure he would have loved to come by but he was busy. Family stuff. Maybe next time you’ll see him-”

He takes it back. His dad is a horrible liar.

“Bullshit.”

His dad blinked from where he was cut off before rounding on Bakugou with a stern look that he knew meant there was a reprimand on the tip of his dad’s tongue but before the man spoke Bakugou continued.

“You didn’t even ask him did you.” That made his dad flinch and Bakugou’s stare turned into a glare, “You and Mom both have a problem with him, don’t you? What is it?”

“Wha- No, Katsumori there’s nothing I pro-”

“Don’t lie.” Bakugou cut him off again, “I know something’s up so there’s no point in it. Tell me what the hell your guy's problem with him is.”

His dad didn’t immediately respond and Bakugou watched as the man bit his lip with a contemplative look. He scanned Bakugou’s face and an emotion Bakugou couldn’t place flashed on the man's face before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before sighing and shaking his head.

“Your Mother should be the one to explain this.” He says, eyes looking down and away from Bakugou.

“So it’s shinobi shit?”

“Language,” The reprimand was light and had no heat to it, if anything his dad's face pinched up in amusement at Bakugou’s stubborn use of curses as he looked up to meet Bakugou’s eyes, “But yes. The reason the Inuzuka child wasn’t at your party is because of… shinobi stuff.”

Bakugou frowned, noticing how his dad said Dog Boy’s family name (or what he thinks is his name. It was vaguely familiar) with an air of weariness and a flick of his eyes to the door of the store.

“Well, can’t you tell me anything?” Bakugou said with a glance of his own to the door but looked back when he saw nothing over there, “You tried to change the subject so I know you know something.”

“I wasn’t-”

Bakugou gave him a flat look and his dad took another deep breath.

“Well…” Another glance at the door, “I guess I can say something.”

Bakugou was starting to get worried with each anxious glance his dad was giving the door. Was this bigger than he thought? What was making his dad so nervous?

“There are some families that are all shinobi. And between those families, there’s a sort of… hm.” His dad paused for a minute, this time with a contemplative face instead of an anxious one, “OK this part would be what your Mother would better explain but for right now, just know that some of those clans are more important, and therefore more powerful than others.”

“Wait clan?” Bakugou asked, “The fuck is a clan?”

“Oh clan, in loose terms, is just another way of saying family.” His dad explains, “We usually just call the important ones clans, though most families have clan crests and traditions.”

“Wait so, do we have a clan?”

His dad let out a chuckle, “Yes Katsumori we are part of a clan. Though it is quite small, nothing to brag about unlike other families. Even our symbol’s just a plain circle.”

“We have a symbol?!” Bakugou straightens as he asks with wide eyes.

His dad laughs again with a nod before standing and turning around. Bakugou was confused for a second before his eyes caught onto the circle on his dad’s shirt that rested right between his shoulder blades.

“See?” He says with a look over his shoulder and Bakugou furiously nods his head. Bakugou had just figured it was a symbol for a brand or something since he’d seen it on some of his parent's shirts but never thought more about it.

He blinks before pulling at his own shirt, twisting his head to try and see behind him. He had seen it on a bunch of his parent's shirts, his mom more than his dad he thinks, but he’d never seen it on his own.

Turning back to his dad he asks with a scowl, “Why don’t I have any with the symbol on it?”

“Well that’s because you’re too busy growing huh?” His dad says with a wide smile before getting closer and poking at Bakugou’s cheeks, “My little man is become not so little every day and can’t stick to one size shirt for more than a few months.”

Bakugou scowls and slaps away the hand with a huff but his dad just moves to tickle him, “Stop- stop it!” he says between laughs, he’s not whining thank you, but his dad only continues until Bakugou flips out and around his hands and jumps on him with a sharp smile.

The man laughs and Bakugou continues to giggle even when the man boops his nose before putting him down.

“Ok ok no roughhousing Katsu,” Bakugou just sticks his tongue out at him, “Wanna run through and count the green vests for me? I know you like looking through the shinobi clothes.”

Bakugou nods and turns to do that but stops. Turning around he looks to his dad, only briefly noticing the slightly pitched face he was making and asks, “Can I start wearing the clan symbol too?”

His dad’s expression eases, “Of course you can buddy, I’ll bring some clothes and your Mother can embroider some of them.”

Bakugou grins before turning back to the aisles and running off to count the vests like he was told to.

It was only nearly half an hour later on the way home that he realized his dad distracted him from the question.

“Oi!” He yells and looks up to his dad with an affronted look as soon as the realization strikes him, “You changed the subject again!”

His dad looks down with a guilty but mostly an ‘oh crap’ looking face to where Bakugou was walking by his side, his hand holding Bakugou’s much smaller one as they walked home. 

He pulls his hand out of the mans grip to jump back and point accusatory at the guilty man, “Why won’t you just answer the question!” He yells in the middle of the street, most certainly gaining a bunch of attention from the other people on the street but not caring as he continued, “What’s your and Mom’s problem with Dog Boy! Answer! Me!” He finishes with a stomp and glare.

His dad quickly neals down in front of him and grabs ahold of Bakugou’s hand that was still pointing at the man, “Hey hey calm down Katsu.”

“No! I won’t until you answer the damn question old man!”

“You- I- ugh,” The man sighs and hangs his head. Taking this as a sign that his dad was finally listening to him Bakugou grins.

When the man looks back up and catches sight of Bakugous vicious smile of victory he sighs again before speaking, “Yes I will, but do you remember what I said back at the store?”

Bakugou scowls as he thinks back but all that comes to mind is how his dad changed the subject and how Bakugou fell for it which frustrates him more and he swears if he still had his quirk he would have blown up the entire damn street with how pissed he was getting.

No don’t think like that. Just forget about his quirk, forget it, he’ll never have it again. Not here. Not ever.

“I said that your Mother would know more about it.” Bakugou blinks himself out of his anger at his dad’s words, “I told you what I know and we’re saving the rest for your Mother when we get home.”

Bakugu scans his father’s face for a moment. That answer sounds right enough, but then why didn’t his dad just say that back at the store instead of distracting him?

His scowl sharpens, “Would you have brought it up when we got home if I didn’t say anything?”

His dad’s face pinches and Bakugou takes it for the answer it is before pulling his hand out of his dad’s grip again.

“Katsumori-” His dad begins but Bakugou ignores him as he marches his way home.

“I’m gonna go ask Mom.”

He’s beyond pissed. About how he got tricked by something so stupid as a clan crest no matter how cool that sounded, about how his parents kept trying not to tell him things as if anything could top the whole living in a village raising child soldiers situation, about how his dad would have let the question stay buried and unanswered if Bakugou hadn’t brought it up again.

So when he gets home he practically kicks the door open, flings off his shoes, and marches off into the house to find his mom.

She’s upstairs in his parent's room, lying on the bed and reading a book when Bakugou finds her. She looks up at him with a smile that pauses before sinking into a worried frown as he climbs up on the bed.

“What’s wrong Katsumori?”

Her sentence barely finishes before Bakugou growls out, “What’s your problem with Dog Boy.”

She blinks at him, her mouth opening and closing a couple times in her surprise.

His hands curl into fists when the silence goes on for a second too long, “I know it’s about this clan shit! You don’t like him and Dad doesn’t wanna talk so what the fuck is your problem with some kid with face paint and a dog!”

“Ok,” His mom cuts his rant off in a firm but calm voice, “I think there’s been some confusion.”

“What kind of fucking confusion could there be when you haven’t told me anything!”

“Katsu, I will explain, I promise. Can you just take a deep breath for me first? Like this,” She sucks in a slow deep breath, eyes staring back at him imploringly as she holds it and blows it out. When he doesn’t follow she speaks again, “Yes it is slightly because he’s from a clan but I will only say more if you breathe with me.”

He clicks his tongue before following his mom’s breathing once, then twice, before he huffs, “Ok I'm fine now just answer.”

She rubs at her forehead with a sigh before explaining, “What do you know about clans?”

“It’s a fancy way to say family.”

She huffs out a laugh, “Most of the time yes, but when it comes to shinobi villages there’s more to it. Shinobi clans are a family that have special jutsu or techniques passed down throughout the family. Because of this clan children are stronger than civilian children their age since they are on track to become shinobi, sometimes from birth.”

“So what, you don’t like him cause his family’s strong?” Bakugou asks, though his mom’s explanation does leave him with some other questions like what the hell a jutsu was, but he decides to focus on the main topic. Especially since his parents apparently take any opportunity to change the subject when he gives them one.

“No Katsumori, why-” She cuts herself off before scanning him over, “Why do you think we have a problem with him?”

“Wha- because you looked at him like he was dangerous!” He flings his arms up in anger at the stupid question, “Back at the park you look- you looked worried and- and- scared about some brat and then he wasn’t at the party and then Dad wouldn’t answer me-”

“Shh shh it’s ok Katsumori I understand,” His mom picks him up and places him on her lap, one hand rubbing his back and he has to swallow through the slight lump in his throat from all his emotions, “I’m sorry I scared you, and I’m sorry your friend couldn’t come to your party. And your Father is sorry for ignoring your question. Isn’t he?”

He looks up from where he was glaring at the bed blankets at her sharper tone only to see her glaring at the door. He looks over and sees his dad standing there looking properly scolded by his mom’s glare.

“I am sorry Katsumori,” He says as he slowly walks closer and sits on the bed next to them, raising a hand and resting on Bakugou’s head, “I didn’t mean to upset you or ignore you, I didn’t know this meant so much to you. I’m sorry little man.”

He huffs before muttering, “It’s ok,” and looking back up at his mom.

She nods before continuing, “When I saw you playing with that boy I will admit I was worried, but it was because I was worried you had hurt yourself trying to keep up with him. You’re so young still Katsumori and when I saw you fall back into the park and- and fighting that boy, I was a little scared. I’m sorry that made you worry.”

Bakugou nodded his head and as he did his shoulders started to ease. So it was her being worried about his fall like he thought and that the kid was apparently stronger than other kids.

Not better than Bakugou though, he still found the twirp in hide and seek.

That thought makes a sharp smirk show up on his face, “Don’t worry Mom, I’m stronger than most kids too! Dog Boy’s got nothing on me!”

Both his parents laugh at that, “When are you going to learn their actual names Katsu?” His dad asks.

“When they get good enough for me to remember them.” He says with crossed arms and a triumphant grin. They’re finally explaining, and it wasn’t even that bad, why did they stay quiet for so long?

There was one last thing though.

“Then why wasn’t he at the party?”

That got his parents to stop, their soft smiles twitching and his dad even looked away again.

His mom sighed, “Clan children aren’t just stronger than normal kids.”

“A lot more than stronger though I’d say.” His dad mutters but stays quiet when his mom sends the man a glare.

“Anyway, they also carry a weight with their name.” She continues before stopping and staring down at Bakugou with a contemplative look, “They… uh…”

“Just tell me.” He says with a scowl, getting annoyed again at how they always avoid things.

“Mommy’s just trying to find the word sweetheart.” She says and with the look that pulled down her brown and made her work her jaw, Bakugou thinks he can believe it.

This is something complicated huh? Something a freshly turned two-year-old kid wouldn’t get. Shouldn’t get.

He’s not a normal two-year-old though.

“Just say it and if I’m confused I’ll ask.” He deadpans.

His mom looks contemplative but eventually sighs before nodding, “Alright. Just let me know ok? So, shinobi clan’s are very important. Not just because they’re strong, but because they are a part of… the leaders of the village. They help make very important decisions. With all that, even clan children have to help carry that weight, the weight of their name. Small things they do can affect their family and other people know that and look up to those families because of it. This means that clan children, like Dog Boy, have to be careful with what they do and who they know.”

Bakugou’s eyes widen with her words. This was a lot more complicated than he thought, and all this ‘cause of some brat with a pet dog. 

He suspects there’s more, some parts must be censored just because even when he asks them to tell him straight they baby him when it comes to the important stuff. Then there’s how his dad has yet to actually face them again and was just staring off at the corner of the room.

But he also suspects that it’s not something he needs to know. Something more personal, for his dad at least. His mom seems to mean what she’s saying, that she was just worried he hurt himself and that him not showing up to the party was because of actual god damned politics which is a crazy thing to think about in regards to a fucking three-year-old. But this world is pretty damn crazy already so it isn’t a huge leap to make.

He wishes he didn’t have to make it but he does, and the knowledge that there are clan politics to worry about lodge their way into his head.

All the while there’s still one stupidly childish thought that worms its way into his brain and he wants to throw something for how silly it sounds coming out of his mouth. 

“Can I still play with him?”

He’s a teenager damnit! Mentally he’s what, almost eighteen now? Don’t think about it don’t think about it stop fucking thinking about it. He shouldn’t be worried if he can hang out with that interesting kid who can finally keep up and play with him and has a mouth almost as bad as his and has a cute fucking dog-

“Of course you can Katsu,” His mom answers with a smile, hand still rubbing soft circles on his back, “Him not being at the party was just ‘cause of some boring adult junk, don’t worry about that!” She tries to reasure him, probably thinking her explanation went right over his head but he doesn't feel the need to correct her this time. His dad also finally looks back at them and nods silently as his mom's words.

Bakugou can’t help the smile that grows on his face. It’s all fine, he really was just overthinking it.

It was fine.

His dad’s smile looked slightly forced and pinched compared to his mom's eased face, but that’s fine.

It’s fine.

Chapter Text

Another few weeks go by and Bakugou is scheming. About a couple of things.

One thing being how he can get out of his parent's ridiculous plan to force him to socialize.

Isn’t it bad enough they have to shoe him off to parties full of toddlers? Apparently not since they’re now trying to get him to agree to more regular playdates and even sleepovers and Bakugou just isn’t having it. His social battery can barely handle the few hours he has to stick around kids during those birthday parties he gets dragged to, spending a whole day with them? And a night!? Yeah, no.

But then he hears how his parents talk about walking around the village together, about how mom wants to go on a shopping trip after getting paid for a big commission, how his dad wants to show her a new spot to eat that he found.

A place to go for just the two of them.

He knows the words aren’t meant for him to hear, even after two years of him showing them how he’s much much smarter than other kids his age they still slip up and treat him like the baby he looks like. They talk about would-be plans in just the other room, or a brief mention at the bottom of the stairs when Bakugou is heading up to grab something from his room.

It makes something ugly and uncomfortable twist in his gut and he hates it so he shoves it down and ignores it.

But it does make him actually consider the whole idea of going to some other kid's house for a stupid playdate.

The other thing on his mind was how he was gonna learn more about the whole Dog Boy situation. While he believes his mom when she says she doesn’t dislike Dog Boy specifically and that she was considering the whole political mess that is ‘clan business’, his dad still seems reluctant to accept the kid and tries to change the topic whenever Bakugou brings him up, especially in public.

That’s actually how he’s gotten out of the couple of playdate ideas his parents had given him. He’d just say that he would only go to someone else’s house if it was Dog Boy. His parents would go on about how he’s only known the kid for a little while but Bakugou would just put his foot down and ignore any other option until they gave up and dropped the topic.

Too bad it was the truth. Dog Boy really was the only kid Bakugou would willingly have a playdate with, if nothing else than to satisfy his curiosity.

(It had nothing to do with how apparently the twirp's entire family had their own dog companion. Nothing at all it was just because Bakugou was curious shut up-)

But he knew his parents wouldn’t let him, or at least wouldn’t let Dog Boy be the first time Bakugou went to another kid's place.

Which meant he needed to find someone else he could tolerate.

It's just his luck that there was one other ankle-biter who’s stubbornly refused to leave him alone for over a year now.

Bakugou was over near the swings when the plan slammed into him, literally. He was mindlessly poking a stick at the dirt as he tried to figure out what the hell he was going to do when he heard a shriek that was steadily getting louder by the second.

He only realized it was getting louder because it was getting closer when it was too late, swinging his head around just in time to see the bright blue-haired girl tackle him to the ground.

He lands with a grunt as the air gets pushed out of his lungs under her weight. He quickly pushes himself back up with a sneer as the girl immediately jumps up with him, pointing a single finger right in his face.

“Found you!” She sing-songed with a smirk growing on her face, “And that other kid said you were the best at hide and seek. But I found you found you found you!”

Smacking away her hand Bakugou snarled back, “Oh fuck off Pigtails! I didn’t-”

“Ah ah,” The girl cut him off, “Take another look here loud mouth.” She points with both hands to her head and Bakugou can see her usual hairdo has changed from a pair of pigtails to a singular ponytail.

He can feel his eye twitch, “Did you do this just to fucking spite me ya rugrat!”

She just smirked with her hands on her hips.

Don’t kill the child that will make mom upset, don’t kill the child that will make mom upset, don’t kill the child-

“Well, you're the seeker now aren’t you? Y’know, since I found you right?”

Oh that’s it-

With a wordless scream, he lunges forward and the girl shrieks before running off all the while laughing as she dives out of his way.

They continued their game of ‘hide and seek’ for what felt like hours though it turned more into a constant game of tag that only ended when Bakugou tripped her over one last time and she didn’t get up, instead just staying laid out in the dirt as she giggled.

Bakugou was hunched over, panting for breath with a sharp grin on his face, “How’s that for the best! I’m the last one standing!”

“Hey! What are you shorties up to?” Comes a voice behind him and Bakugou immediately turns to tell them off.

“Oi fuck off I ain’t short!” He says with a scowl as he sees Dog Boy walk over to the two of them, his dog jumping past him and running up to sniff Bakugou’s shoes.

“Say that again when you get past my shoulders huh?” The older boy says making Bakugou sneer at the kid as he looks down at Ponytail who was still lying on the ground, “The fuck happened to you?”

She raises one hand to point up at Bakugou, “That asshole doesn’t know when to quit.”

Dog Boy barks out a laugh and Bakugou blinks in surprise, since when did this girl curse? Wow, he really is a bad influence, at least Dog Boy came swearing already. Then her words registered in his mind and he cackled.

“That’s what you get for challenging me Hairdo,” He says, “I’m the best and don’t you fucking forget it!”

“Says who?” She grumbles as she finally sits up. Bakugou is about to snarl something back but gets interrupted when she absolutely shrieks “PUPPY!”

She launches herself up before stopping and practically bouncing in place in front of the small brown dog and watches with wide eyes as the dog looks up at her before barking and jumping up to stand on its hind legs and pushing her slightly with its two front paws that just barely reached her knees.

Dog Boy barks out another laugh, “Even Shinju wants you to calm down girly.”

She glares at the older boy before looking and smiling at the dog again, kneeling down and despite her constant energy and excitement she softly pet its back, “Don’t worry little guy I won’t blame you for your owner being a meenie, you’re just an innocent little baby boy and I already love you.”

“Wow,” Bakugou deadpans as Dog Boy sputters.

“Shinju don’t just sit there when she’s insulting me!” He screams but the dog just stares back at him before turning away from him and toward ponytail, tail wagging and eager for the girl's attention, “Wha- traitor!”

Bakugou doesn't hold back his laughter and he hears Hairdo join in and Dog Boy grumble.

“Ugh- fine!” He crosses his arms and looks away, “You can go team up with her in tag then Shinju.”

“Noooo we just played tag!” Ponytail wines, her constant attention on the dog stopping in favor of her leaning back in her kneeling position to sit on the ground fully. In the absence of pets, the dog moves on, walking back toward Dog Boy and the kid smiles before picking up the dog and giving it attention in his arms.

“I thought you called it hide and seek though?” Bakugou says just to be contrary.

She sends him an angry look, “We were running around the park all day! That’s not hide and seek. And I’m tired, I don’t wanna run anymore.”

“Nice, I wanted to play hide and seek anyway,” Dog Boy says, sending a glare toward Bakugou, “I will hide where you won’t find me.”

Bakugou smirks, “Or you’ll be found first like all the other times.” He wasn’t lying, every time he plays with Dog Boy he goes after his much more prominent chakra first.

It’s what the brat gets for always finding him.

“No! I refuse to be out first!”

“Well I’m not gonna be out first either!” Ponytail pipes up, excitedly jumping up from the ground before her face sours, “Oh but, I haven’t even played here before today! That’s not fair, you both know this place better than I do.”

Bakugou’s face scrunches at her words. That’s right, this is the first time he’s seen Ponytail around, she doesn’t know the hiding places around here as well as either of them do.

And he’ll be damned if he wins because of something stupid like that. He wants this victory to be absolute.

“How’s this then assholes,” He says gaining the other two’s attention, “I seek but it only ends if I tag one of you. Doesn’t matter who I find first, as long as you get tagged by me, you’re out.”

His answer is two twin sharp grins before they’re off.

They run into the forest before Bakugou even starts counting and he can hear the two yelling at each other about how they’re gonna win as Bakugou closes his eyes with a smirk on his lips.

He has to force his mind to settle so he can focus on their chakra, and as he does he realizes he’s never actually sensed Ponytial’s chakra before despite her being the kid he’s known the longest.

The familiar sharp swirl of Dog Boys' more refined (for a kid) chakra was heading toward his right, over near the fence that closed off the park. Ponytail’s however was going deeper and deeper into the forest straight in front of Bakugou, her chakra feeling like droplets of water that were falling through crisp cool air.

Bakugou can’t help but think it’s fitting, her long hair is the color of water and she’s heading right toward the river at the back of the forest.

He frowns when he realizes no one told her that past the river was out of bounds.

Ah, oh well. It was just the three of them anyway. Besides, that was more of a rule to give other kids who were seeking a chance to find everyone, meaning it was a rule Bakugou didn’t need.

Calling out the last few numbers he snaps his eyes open, mouth set in a feral grin as he turns on his heel and sprints to the right.

He finds Dog Boy in a matter of minutes, but tagging him is a whole nother challenge. And one that conveniently leads them right toward Hairdo.

When they do stumble upon the girl in the chase, Bakugou faints a turn in her direction and away from Dog Boy. She runs away from him with a yell to Dog Boy, blaming him for her getting found and causing the two boys to laugh, and rushes back toward the play area. Instead of following her however, as soon as Bakugou is out of Dog Boy’s sight and hears the older boy give a relieved shout to his dog, Bakugou jumps around hidden by the trees and fresh spring bushes as he sneaks up on the boy and his pet.

He follows and right when Dog Boy slows to a stop to catch his breath Bakugou reveals himself with a lunge as he tackles him.

Not wasting any time he shoots off to find Ponytail, uncaring for the swears the older boy was throwing at him as he ran off, and in a handful of minutes he has her cornered and eventually tagged.

“Cheater! You cheated didn’t you!” She screams when Bakugou lets go of her arm.

“That’s what I keep saying!” Dog Boy joins in with a wine, having eventually found them after the kid finished pouting from being found and tagged first. Though judging by his scrunched-up nose and his stomping footsteps, he didn’t seem quite done pouting yet.

“You just need to get better at hiding.” Bakugou counters with crossed arms and a triumphant grin on his face, breath only slightly labored after so much running.

The two of them glare down at him. They then look at each other and Bakugou watches as they send a look to each other, one Bakugou does not like, before they look back at him.

“Well I guess it’s only fair.” Ponytail says with a shrug making Bakugou look at her confused, “Of course we gotta let the youngest win every now and then.”

“WHAT!?” He screams, he won this game fair and square asshole! No one let him win anything! Before he can actually say that though Dog Boy speaks up over him.

“That’s why I always hide in the bushes and stuff,” As the kid speaks he walks over and honest to god rests his elbow on Bakugou’s head and leans on him, “How else will this little pipsqueak be able to get us? He can barely reach us when we’re just standing here.”

With an enraged snarl Bakugou smacks the arm off his head and spins around to send a kick right to the back of Dog Boy's knees causing the kid to yelp and fall over.

“Just ‘cause you’re older don’t think I could beat your asses any day of the weak Dog Breath,” He says glaring over the older boy who just blinks up at him from where he had toppled to the ground with a surprised look.

After a shocked second of silence, he hears laughing and looks to see Ponytail pointing down at Dog Boy as she cackles. He then feels a push on his leg and moves over when the older boy’s dog tries to push him away from his owner.

He also notices Dog Boy's bright red face as he sits up with a pout, his pet eventually coming to his side and licking his face to try and comfort the kid from the embarrassment.

“How’s it feel to lose to a pipsqueak?” Hairdo says as she walks over, a laugh still bubbling out of her every few seconds.

“Oh shut up!” Dog Boy squawks and Bakugou feels his grin grow even wider.

“Hey Dog Boy!”

“That’s not my name!”

“Don’t care, how old are you anyway?”

The older boy’s shoulders rise to his ears as his face gets even redder, despite that he doesn’t look away when he answers, “Three, I turn four in a few weeks though.”

Ponytail lets out another laugh, “You lost to someone nearly half your age!”

“What- No I- How old are you!?” He points to Bakugou with a shocked look of desperation.

“Turned two last month.”

“Nooo!” Dog Boy whines and falls back into the dirt while covering his face, “That’s even worse!”

This time Bakugou joins Ponytail as the two laugh at the oldest misery, and after a moment when he calms down, an idea comes to him. Seeing these two having fun together, laughing at each other and readily playing games with him all day, it made the final pieces of the puzzle lock into place for his plan.

Ponytail seems to be getting along with Dog Boy well enough, maybe he could use her as a way to convince his parents to let him go to the older boy’s house or even just hang out somewhere that isn’t the park. A way to say, despite not needing it, he would have another kid his age he knows be there as well.

Dog Boy also mentioned he’s turning four in a few weeks. His parents had let him go to a few parties before suggesting the whole playdate stuff, so maybe that could be used as a way to get his parents even more ok with the idea. A cushion of other kids being there the first time so that Bakugou could start having one of those stupid playdates at the older boy’s place.

But until then, Hairdo was the perfect candidate for Bakugou’s first time going to another kid's house.

Plan set in mind Bakugou waits until one of them has to leave so that he can enact step one as soon as possible, and when his mom calls him over from the table she was sitting at he shouts over that he’ll come over in a second before walking over to Dog Boy.

“Hey,” He gets his attention from where the older boy looked to be practicing tricks with his dog and continues when the kid looks back at him, “What day is your birthday?”

Before the kid can answer Ponytail bounces over, “Oh oh! Are you gonna have a birthday party? Can we come!”

“Well yeah I’m gonna have a party.” Dog Boy says and his pet barks in excitement as he jumps around at the idea, “It’s next month, the fourth. And I don’t see why a couple shorties like you can’t come, maybe you’ll gain a few inches being around more tall people.”

The last comment is accompanied by an attempt to poke Bakugou in the forehead. A failed attempt as Bakugou scowls before jumping and biting up at the finger but the older boy pulls back his hand fast enough to escape. Ponytail laughs and Bakugou slots the information for later, right now he had a playdate to set up.

He grabs onto Ponytails arm before walking off. The girl makes a confused noise and Dog Boy asks where they're going and he notices Ponytail shrug before waving to the older boy and easily walking with Bakugou.

“Uh, Katsumori, where are we going?” She asks though doesn’t try to tug out of the light grip he has on her arm.

“Gotta go see my mom.” Is all he says in response.

“What for?” She asks right as they walk up to his mom.

They stop next to the table his mom was sitting at, she was putting something in her bag and not looking at them yet, though she was speaking about heading home so Bakugou guessed she had heard them coming.

“Alright Katsu it’s time to- Oh hello there Toshie!” His mom cuts herself off when she looks up and sees the two of them.

“Who’s Toshie?” He asks and Pigtails yanks her arm from his grip with a shout.

“Wha- I’m Toshie!”

“Huh. Anyway Mom-”

“Wow you must really be a baby if you can’t even remember someone’s name.” He hears her mutter and he snaps his head to her with a sharp glare.

“I AM NOT A BABY!”

“Ok ok you two let's calm down,” His mom soothes with a giggle in her voice. Bakugou continues to glare at Ponytail for another couple seconds, the girl sticks her tongue out at him in response which makes his glare tighten, before turning away to face his mom, “Now, why did you bring Toshie over her Katsumori?”

“I wanna go to her place.”

His words are met with twin looks of surprise as the two both stare at him with wide eyes, Hairdo in surprise since this kind of came out of left field to her and his mom in shock since he had been adamant and non-compromising for weeks now.

The silence is quickly broken however with a happy shout from Ponytail as she jumps up in excitement, “You mean you wanna have a playdate! Ohh or maybe a sleepover and we could play or talk and I can show you my coloring books and mom could make us some cookies and stuff and-”

“Now now,” His mom eased to the girl as she was practically vibrating in place and the show of sheer energy the girl had was making Bakugou steadily start to regret this decision, “We can’t just jump into things. Toshie, if we were to do this I would need to talk to your parents first-

“Ok!” Hairdo interrupts with a shout and exited nod, “It’ll be fine and- I’ll go ask them now be right back!”

Before she had even finished speaking she had turned and started running off to where Bakugou assumed her parents were, shouting back at them as she ran. Bakugou looked back up at his mom as the girl ran off and she looked down to meet his eyes only to smile and shake her head fondly.

Bakugou smiles a victorious smile. She had fallen hook line and sinker, and he didn’t even have to do much. Ponytail had won her over with sheer enthusiasm alone, and he was sure the girl's parents would agree to it too.

If each step went this well then Hairdo and him should be set to go to Dog Boy’s Birthday party and even start having playdates with the older boy.

(It was just about the stupid clan business. Nothing to do with the army of dogs that apparently lived there. Nothing at all he said shut up-)

“Ahh young love,” He hears his mom say wistfully and Bakugou rears back at her words.

Scratch that, Bakugou was gonna clear up that misconception and then they’d be set.