Once Again From Better Days

Things settle over the next few days. Katsuki sticks by Izuku's side a little more than usual, but he sees no sign of bullies. He watches over his best friend with uneasy attentiveness. In class, his attention wanders from the lesson, as he thinks he sees hints of something out of the corner of his eye. He acts like he's on a battlefield again, like there's a possibility of getting attacked at every turn, and adrenaline pumps through his veins in a way that makes it difficult to sit still.

Katsuki walks Izuku home after school. Their apartments are only a short distance away, but it gives him some peace of mind, and Izuku seems to enjoy the increase in time together. 

When Katsuki returns to his own home, he asks his mother to teach him how to fight. She wanted to be a pro hero once, after all. He's wary about it at first, given that she's quite likely to flatten him without a second thought. But at the moment, there's no one better he can think of, so he petitions her. Carefully. And hopes he doesn't die.

After the first training session, he has almost as many bruises from her as he does from the bullies. But he's starting to get used to the pain and how to dodge. He doesn't tell Izuku about it either. Maybe there's a fear that Izuku will look at him differently. Maybe it's something else. But whatever the reason, he can walk beside Izuku with more confidence. Just the thought that he is training his body makes him feel, not stronger—not yet, but more like he has a fighting chance.

Katsuki thinks it lucky that he has classes with Izuku every day. It's also lucky that the rest of the class is pretty much resigned that they go everywhere together and is collectively at least a little terrified of Katsuki. The only problem is that he knows the bullies are around somewhere, but isn't sure where. He spends his days on high alert, acting as Izuku's bodyguard. 

After a month or so of training with his mother, he decides he's strong enough to deal with the three assholes who beat him up earlier. He suspects that they have something to do with Izuku's bruises, too. 

He was caught off guard, he reasons, and those kinds of idiots can't be too strong. His next problem is to figure out how to track them down and starts by organizing what he knows. They are other students at their school, and they're probably a couple years older, given their heights. Katsuki takes to peering into other classrooms when he walks past, but that doesn't help much.

Luckily, the bullies make it easy for him. After school, Katsuki and Izuku walk to the arcade, and he spies them hogging all the best games like the assholes they are. The two taller ones sit next to each other, and their screens depict similar images of brightly colored cars racing down an obstacle course. The third sits in the chair of the next game over, but his eyes are glued on the race. Katsuki sees their backpacks and school uniform jackets strewn haphazardly down the entire row of games.

Katsuki spends a good 30 seconds glaring at the back of their heads, considering whether to turn around and drag Izuku home before he can get hurt or not. But the anger that has been simmering in his vein for six weeks is about to boil over. He can't bring himself to leave.

"I'm going to beat those f.u.c.kers up," he tells Izuku. 

Izuku looks alarmed, something that's almost certainly a plea to stop shines in his eyes.

"Don't stop me. I won't listen," Katsuki says.

Izuku's mouth snaps shut. "Then I'm coming with you."

Katsuki takes one look at Izuku's face and decides it's best to let him come along. He's seen Izuku's stubbornness in action, and he doesn't want to argue now. 

He turns to the bullies and takes deliberately loud steps as he approaches. The one that's just observing the race looks up, amus.e.m.e.nt spreading across his face as he realizes who it is. Katsuki smirks.

The bullies aren't hard to bait, and ten minutes later, they stand facing each other in a park a couple blocks from the arcade. It's long enough after the end of the school day that the park is empty except for someone walking a dog on the far side and a group of high schoolers hanging from one of the trees. None of them are paying attention the the imminent fight.

"Die you pieces of shit!" Katsuki yells, and the first sparks erupt from his fingertips.

His estimation of their strength turns out to be a little off and taking on three of them at once might have been too ambitious. One of them gets Izuku in a headlock, and Katsuki can feel his blood pressure rise. If Izuku gets injured, this is his fault. Fear is one of the things he hasn't forgotten from the other universe. It rises ugly and powerful in his stomach. It spills down his throat like acid. His body goes into overdrive.

This is the battle mode he drops into when the situation feels desperate. His throat is ragged from heavy breathing and screaming, but his mind is focused. He goes for the bully that seems to have some power over the other two with explosions tearing from his hands. Behind him, one of the others shouts, and he sees Izuku drop to the ground. With that the fight is finished.

Izuku spits blood out of his mouth, and for one panicked second, he thinks it's his own. In the next, Katsuki notices that the arm responsible for Izuku's headlock has a bloody crescent of teeth marks. He grins at that. The pain from the blows he's taken hasn't registered yet, and his system is still full of adrenaline.

"Hey Deku, let's go home."