In Your Shadow [Chapter 34]

[Chapter 33.5]

“It’s been months,” Mitsuki pointed out, and Katsuki quickly hit the volume-down button on his phone. “You’re telling me the number one hero can make time to visit his poor mother, but not you?”

Familiar laughter rang out in the background of the call, and despite his annoyance, Katsuki found himself smiling faintly.

“Sixteen years I raised you! Sixteen years of feeding you, clothing you, cleaning up after you, changing your diapers—”

“You did not change my diapers for sixteen years,” Katsuki pointed out stubbornly. “You were legally required to do all that shit.”

“How did I end up with such an ungrateful brat for a son?”

“How did I end up with such an ungrateful mother?” he huffed right back. “How’s your friend doing? Manami? The one with the son in prison?”

“That is not the point.”

Rustling came through the phone, and Katsuki winced a little, leaning away from the sound. A different voice hit him, though, and he froze in his tracks, hand barely gripping the phone still.

“Sorry, Kacchan!” he laughed.” She dropped by to see my mom and one thing led to another.”

“S’fine,” Katsuki said, a little reluctantly – it wasn’t like he could give any other answer, though.

“I may be number one, but you’re a full-time student along with balancing work studies and family life! I’m sure your mother understands that. Right, Mitsuki-san? I don’t envy you, the student life is hard! At least when I did it, I got to live at home with my mom; it must be hard being in the dorms!”

“Sometimes,” Katsuki admitted. “The mattresses suck.”

Deku laughed brightly, and Katsuki heard two more chuckles in the background, realising far too late that Deku had put him on speaker for them all to hear.

“And the food?” Deku prompted. “Mirio said you’ve been making the most of your apartment kitchen, and they’re tiny, the school one must be terrible if you prefer the apartment one.”

“My classmates are shitty cooks, they keep ruining all the pans.”

“That’s not surprising! I definitely couldn’t cook at that age.”

“You still can’t,” Inko piped up. “We both know you live on pre-made meals.”

“Guilty as charged! Did I tell you Kacchan made me food for my birthday? So sweet. It’s been delicious, too – thank you again, Kacchan! Now get back to work! I left you jobs for a reason!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled. Deku hadn’t left him any work to do, but he appreciated the subtle deflection for their mothers’ sakes. “See you next week. Bye Mrs. Midoriya, bye Old Hag.”

“Katsuki! Be nice!” Deku reprimanded him. “Try again.”

“Ugh. Bye, Mom.”

“Bye, Katsuki,” Mitsuki returned. “Be good and shit.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The call disconnected, and Katsuki sighed as he chucked the phone onto his bed. Truth be told, he did feel a little bad about not visiting, but mostly for his dad’s sake. He never nagged and whined about it, but Katsuki knew he missed him, and to be entirely honest, Katsuki missed him a little too. Not his mother, they just spent the whole time at each other’s throats, but he did like spending time with his dad on occasion. Maybe he’d spend a few days with them over the summer, when he got a chance. He knew the text saying staying at the agency for summer break would have been the real catalyst in her complaints, after all. Deku wouldn’t care if he spared them a few days, though – he was already gonna have to disappear for an entire week for school camp, apparently.

How unhappy would Aizawa and Deku be with him if he decided to skip it?

With a last sigh, he shoved his phone back in his pocket and headed out. Mirio had told him to come by whenever he was free, after their gym session that morning, but he’d been weirdly secretive about why. It had to be something to do with Deku being away—presumably—but he wasn’t sure what.

Regardless, he headed down to Deku’s office, smiling faintly when he found the door wide open and Mirio sitting comfortably at the big desk. It suited him, in an odd way. He really should have been a hero, it sucked beyond belief that the universe had decided to halt that dream for him.

“Hey! There you are!” Mirio grinned, waving him in. “You can leave the door open, unless you want to talk about anything private.”

Katsuki was pretty sure that Deku never left his door open.

“Is it nice to be in charge?” Katsuki asked, as he sat down in his usual spot. “Head Honcho and all that?”

“I’m not really,” Mirio said, with a bright laugh. “I’m just covering his admin duties, that’s all. Ephia is handling all the major stuff.”

“Admin is what keeps the agency running.”

“Only if you ask the Hero Commission,” Mirio said wryly. “Deku told me last night that you’re not in any of our group chats, I guess it kind of slipped our minds, so I wanted to get you in and talk you through some stuff.”

“Oh. Okay.”

He turned the monitor around, showing Katsuki a screen absolutely drowned in group chats, and Katsuki swallowed hard; was he supposed to keep up with all of that?

“This is my login,” Mirio told him knowingly, chuckling to himself. “Mine and Deku’s are a little… overwhelming. Yours won’t be nearly as crowded, don’t worry.”

“What are they all?”

“Well, most of them are patrol shifts, pretty much. Like we have a chat for everyone who works Nights and Graveyards, so they can share info that isn’t very relevant to other shifts. And one for weekend staff, since they don’t have to deal with commuter rush hours and things like that. So while it’s a lot of groups, it actually makes it a lot easier to find the info you need. And a few of them are read-only things, so the admin staff can send out announcements and stuff like that. Those are the ones I mostly want you in, so you can see things like Deku saying he’ll be away this weekend, or upcoming trainings you might be interested in, especially over the summer. Sometimes we even put up polls and forms to see what kind of trainings people feel they need the most.”

Katsuki perked up a little at the thought. School training was great and all, but agency training had to be a thousand times more exciting.

“Are you officially on vacation now?”

“Technically today is the last day, but I’m excused. I’ll have to go back and grab some stuff from my dorm at some point, but other than that I’m good.”

“And you’re gonna be sticking around here, for the most part?”

“Yeah. I’ll be out occasionally, but hopefully not too often.”

“Make sure you take breaks,” Mirio said knowingly. “Hang out with your friends and family, that kind of thing.”

“I will,” Katsuki assured him. “My mother is already ready to murder me for not visiting.”

“They must miss you a lot!” Mirio said, chuckling all the same. “But we can definitely get you doing some cool stuff while you don’t have to be at school.”

“Hell yeah.”

“I’ve emailed you a link to download the app, do you have your phone on you?”

Katsuki dug it from his pocket, and sure enough, Mirio’s name popped up in his inbox.

“Yeah, I’ll download it,” Katsuki agreed. “Do I use the login you gave me for the forms?”

“Yep, that’s the one! You’ll find links to other stuff, in the chats, but all of it should be accessible with that same login.”

“Cool, I’ll do some exploring.”

“Start with the upcoming events chat, put your name down for anything you’re interested in, or send me a message and I can get you signed up. I know what you’re gonna say – you probably won’t be able to do everything, but you can do a lot so don’t stress.”

“You know me too well.”

When the app opened, the messages came flooding in, and Katsuki gave it a moment to catch up, to load everything it needed to show him. He could see the chat titles, but the messages were flying in much faster than he could ever hope to keep up with, so he didn’t bother to try – in all likelihood, most of it was outdated info anyway, he only needed to worry about the recent stuff.

“You’ll find our agency calendar in there too, which has the training dates too, and also things like meal schedules. I talked to Deku about increasing them and he agreed to try some stuff out, so you might be lucky and get fed a bunch over your break. If you find anything broken in the building, like gym equipment or something, you can report it in here for repairs too. You can even put in requests for equipment you’d like purchased, if you want.”

There was no way Katsuki was gonna put his name to such a big request, but it was nice of Mirio to offer, he supposed.

“Anyway, you can browse through those in your own time, I just wanted to chat a bit about what it was, before just shoving you in.”

“Thanks. I will. Browse, I mean.”

“In the meantime, there is one other thing I wanted to ask.”

“What did I do?”

“Nothing like that,” Mirio assured him, chuckling. “I was thinking… You know how you asked me to spar with you, a while back?”

Katsuki felt himself light up, ready to jump out of his chair and sprint to the gym if that was what it took to stop him from changing his mind.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Mirio laughed, before Katsuki could find words. “I keep thinking about it.”

“I’ll do anything.”

“I would be relying on you to do a lot of things,” Mirio told him. “To be gentle with me, for one, since I don’t know how much I can still do, or how I’ll hold up.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“If I say stop, I need you to respect that.”

“Of course,” Katsuki repeated.

“And you’d probably have to do it quirkless, at least for now.”

“Mirio,” Katsuki said firmly. “I would never do anything to risk genuinely hurting you.”

Mirio’s face softened, and Katsuki felt himself turn pink, quickly looking away in the hopes that it might stop Mirio from noticing.

“Most importantly,” Mirio said, cracking a smile. “You can’t tell anyone. Not even Deku. If any of the heroes here got wind of it, they’d never stop hounding me. Especially Deku.”

“I promise,” Katsuki assured him. “Not a word. Want to do it late at night or something?”

“Maybe,” Mirio admitted sheepishly. “Are you jumping on patrols today?”

“I don’t think you understand exactly how much I’m willing to do for this. Ditching a patrol is nothing.”

“Are you, though?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki conceded. “I told Plasmatic and Spark I’d do the back-to-back with them soon, and maybe Flare right after, but they won’t care if I change.”

“No, that’s fine, go wear yourself out before it,” Mirio said with a chuckle. “So you’ll be back at eightish, Flare usually takes off pretty quickly, Spark is on Graveyard… that could work. Maybe eight-thirty? After you change and everything, should give you a little time to recover.”

“I’ll be there,” Katsuki promised. “Ephia is normally on tonight too, right? What’s happening with Deku gone?”

“Igneo is coming in early. He’ll tease if he catches us, but he’ll keep his mouth shut.”

“Perfect. Eight-thirty it is. This is gonna be the best night ever.”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Mirio said, a hint of excitement thankfully sneaking into his expression. “Just don’t expect too much of me, alright?”

“I’ll expect absolutely nothing,” Katsuki assured him. “Whatever you have to offer, it’ll be a pleasant surprise.”

“Sounds good. I should let you go, get on that patrol grind. Thank you for your help, I know Deku won’t say it, but it’s been really nice having you here. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks.”

“Me too,” Katsuki said, grinning as he stood up. “See you later, good luck up here.”

“Thanks, I’m gonna need it.”

———

Katsuki cursed as he launched himself across the river, eyeing the mess that was quickly developing below. He’d always thought Glimpse’s quirk seemed so useful, but it turned out ten seconds wasn’t nearly enough to actually use it properly. Rose had managed to reach the bridge just in time to seal one side, to let a handful of cars finish their passage safely, but the rest of it had crumbled into the water, the world erupting into screams and crashes, and distant sirens quickly dispatching from wherever they could. Solar Flare and Cascade had gone after the villain who caused the issue, but Katsuki hadn’t even hesitated. He’d grabbed Rose by the hand and slung her across the water with everything he had, letting her seal the other side of the bridge before it, too, caved in – that alone had managed to keep about six cars on dry land, a few more dangling precariously while Rose made her way up to them to halt them in place, but Katsuki had bigger concerns than what she was doing.

Namely, how the fuck he was supposed to get so many people out of the water, when half of them were trapped inside vehicles.

Glimpse had called for back-up immediately, but even that wasn’t a reliable plan. Spark Plug was the leader on call, and his quirk wasn’t exactly useful in water – well, not if they wanted the civilians to live. He would’ve killed for Maelstrom to be on back-up, but he was pretty sure he’d left by noon. God damn it.

“Bakugou!”

Katsuki whirled around, and for the first time in his life, he was actually relieved to see that stupid, scarred face standing on the riverbank.

“Make a path!” he demanded, cutting off his quirk and dropping straight into the water.

He didn’t hear a response, but he felt the cool water grow instantly colder, a burst of ice giving the civilians pathways to reach land, albeit slippery ones.

Katsuki hated water, it fucked with his quirk too much and left him feeling weirdly exposed. In that moment, though, there wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in him, as he dove down deep. He fired off what little he could from his hands, to get deep enough, and began tearing open car doors to set their occupants free. He was grateful for the brute strength he possessed after years of hardcore training, because his explosions did not help, other than propelling himself a little easier.

He managed to get three vehicles open before he had to surface for air, surprised to find Todoroki right at his side, hauling people up onto his path. They shivered, teeth chattering, but Endeavour and his crew were already on the banks, warming people up as they made it out.

Todoroki snatched Katsuki’s hands, and Katsuki was ready to tear his damn head off for it, until he felt the warmth course through him. His numb hands were quickly sweating again, and Katsuki just nodded, diving back into the water to reach more vehicles.

There were other heroes beside him – some he recognised, others he’d never seen in his life – so he ignored the areas they’d already started on, instead launching himself to the further-off victims, where people were still fighting with their mangled vehicles, trying to open twisted metal that refused to cooperate. Katsuki tore at a particularly bad one, trying to avoid looking at the woman inside who clawed at the window frantically, and finally he had to concede defeat, concede that the door wasn’t going to play ball.

Instead, he ducked down as deep as he could go, using every ounce of strength and sweat and quirk control he’d ever possessed, and hell, a bit of prayer too, and launching the car off the ground. It rose toward the surface, not nearly as quickly as he’d have liked, but then ice was forming at his feet, rapidly spreading upward. He moved away quickly, to avoid becoming collateral damage, and then the car was surfacing, and so was he, his lungs aching when he finally took a breath. Katsuki wiped his wet hands on equally wet clothing, trying to dry them even a tiny bit, before he pressed them to the car window, gesturing weakly for the woman to back up. Thankfully, she obeyed, and he set off the most pitiful explosion he’d ever seen – barely enough to crack the glass. He used his elbow to finish the job, hoping it came off as cautious rather than just pathetic, and then the woman was crawling out, and Katsuki was turning back the other way, stumbling along Todoroki’s ice platform to find the next person who needed him.

Instead, he found ropes swirling their way through the air, a familiar face at the other end who he was pretty sure he’d never actually spoken to. The ropes dove into the water, wrapping up exhausted victims in their clutches and dragging them to land or ice. Rose was there too, anchoring the ropes to riverbanks so people could continue to haul themselves out. Glimpse was right beside Endeavour’s sidekicks, pointing them to which areas to target first. Everyone was working together, doing the best they could with all their individual powers.

And then Katsuki saw him.

His tall frame that he loved to lord over Katsuki when they walked the streets together, and that dark hair that he’d recently dyed partially blue, in the most cliché move in the world.

“Be ready,” Katsuki said breathlessly, glancing over at Todoroki. “Show me how much fuckin’ ice you can make, dickhead.”

Todoroki blinked at him, but the Deku Agency heroes were already stepping aside, dragging Endeavour’s crew along with them. Katsuki raised a hand, gesturing toward where he and Todoroki stood, getting a nod in return that was even more of a relief than his damn face had been.

Slowly, the water began to move. It turned back against its natural flow, which Todoroki had partially halted with his ice wall anyway, and began to swell, rising before their eyes. Todoroki finally seemed to catch on, grabbing Katsuki by the shirt and dragging him off to the side, turning back to press his hands to their little wall. As the water rose, it quickly solidified, building the wall higher and higher until no water could hope to get past. Katsuki could see Todoroki breathing heavily, just like he was, but he knew there was nothing that could stop him, in that moment. Not the ice flowers blooming along his arm, not the crowd of onlookers who were so desperate to see Todoroki embrace his flames, not his own sheer exhaustion — Todoroki would die before he’d give up that chance to save people, to stubbornly show his father just how amazing his ice was, to show the world that he could be a damn hero with or without Endeavour.

The cars were all exposed, the water draining away to buy them time to breathe, but none of the heroes moved.

Katsuki would have to be the first, then.

He stumbled into the shallow water, letting Todoroki and Maelstrom keep working around him. This time, his hands cooperated, letting him blast open pieces of glass and metal to drag the occupants out. The Deku Heroes followed suit, right at his heels, but the Endeavour ones took a moment longer, staring at the creaking ice wall with apprehension.

Katsuki supposed that was the real difference between them all. The Deku Heroes didn’t care if they got caught in the crossfire later, they would gladly take their opportunities while they had them. Not to mention the level of trust — trusting Maelstrom to hold out, or at least warn them if he couldn’t; trusting Todoroki to keep going, to keep their safety wall intact; trusting Katsuki’s judgement, when he chose to trust Todoroki. And fuck if Katsuki didn’t trust Todoroki and Maelstrom more than anyone else in the fucking world, at that moment.

The wall continued to creak, and the water continued to pull at his ankles, but Katsuki didn’t look up. Any part of him that doubted them, even a little, got squashed down deep, never to be seen again. He refused to be the one who looked, who second-guessed.

“Is that everyone?” he asked, when he saw Endeavour heading back to the riverbank. “Have we checked?”

“Checked three times over,” Endeavour told him, with a short nod. “You’re working with Deku?”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks, I need it.”

To Katsuki’s disbelief, Endeavour cracked a smile, just for a moment. He turned away immediately, covering it up, but Katsuki had seen it. He knew the relationship between the two was tense, to put it lightly – Deku had been All Might’s successor, after all, and had overtaken Endeavour in the charts immediately – but somehow, Katsuki didn’t feel like Endeavour was mad at him, for choosing Deku’s agency over asking to return to his. At least not anymore, if he had been before.

As Katsuki crawled out of the dry river bed, he saw Maelstrom’s legs wobble, turning toward him just in time to see him collapse. Glimpse got there first, though, catching him before he could fall, and gently lowering him to the ground. Maelstrom laughed sheepishly, but with the water gone, his job was done, and he deserved the well-earned break.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Rose whispered, from right at Katsuki’s back.

“Maelstrom? I assume so.”

She nodded the other direction, and Katsuki finally caught on, glancing over to where Todoroki was on his knees, trembling, hand still pressed stubbornly against his wall.

“Who, Shouto?” he asked, a little louder. “He’s got this.”

Todoroki didn’t look up, but his shoulders tensed a little, and Katsuki knew he’d heard.

Endeavour’s heroes were moving, drying and warming the people they’d pulled from the wreckage, and Katsuki was sorely tempted to join them. The cars were moving, too – slowly and with a lot of grinding and grating, but sure enough they were moving toward the opposite bank of the river, dragging themselves up the dirt and into a thankfully evacuated street. Katsuki looked over to see one of Deku’s heroes directing them with a fierce concentration in their face, and finally he looked up, finding the shattered remnants of the bridge equally deserted – clearly they’d already worked their magic up there, with Rose’s help.

“Bakugou,” Todoroki said breathlessly.

Katsuki scrambled, hurrying over to join him, finding Todoroki drenched in sweat, despite the bursts of ice that were rapidly turning Todoroki into a snowman.

He took a mental note of that one, for nicknaming purposes at a more appropriate time.

“Are they out?”

“It’s clear,” Katsuki told him, glancing over one last time just to make sure. “Knew you could do it, Olaf.”

Fuck it, the time was appropriate enough.

“I need you to blow the wall up.”

“Can’t you just melt it? Or your damn dad?”

“It’ll flood too fast,” Todoroki told him, shaking his head. “And I’m…”

“Okay,” Katsuki agreed, before Todoroki could force himself to admit the words. “Relax, your job is done.”

First, though, Katsuki looked over at the collection of heroes, scanning them for options. Blowing up the ice was all well and good, but he didn’t exactly get to aim the remnants.

“Glimpse,” he yelled. “I’m gonna blow up the wall, give me an outlook.”

Glimpse pulled a face, and Katsuki knew what was coming long before he could say the words – maybe he had a hint of that quirk after all.

“Fine, give me a better idea!” he demanded. “I’ll take it slow or something.”

“I can lift him.”

Katsuki glanced back, grinning when he saw Windrider joining them, with that snow-white ponytail that could have made her and Todoroki look like siblings, if he hadn’t known better.

“You missed all the fun,” he teased.

“Sorry I’m late,” she laughed. “Need a boost?”

Glimpse nodded this time, when they looked his way, and Katsuki flexed his hands, only halting when Todoroki waved at him again limply.

“Warm up first,” he instructed, making Katsuki bristle. “Sweat.”

He had a point, Katsuki had to admit. Thankfully, Endeavour was already heading their way again, to check on his half-dead looking son, so Katsuki reluctantly waylaid him.

“Can you dry me out?” he requested. “And then melt your son out of that ice cube he’s become?”

Endeavour, to his credit, didn’t question the order of operations. He pressed his hand against Katsuki’s stomach, and with a little hiss, steam began to rise off them both. His costume dried out the quickest, the warmth slowly spreading through the rest of his body, and after another moment, Katsuki nodded. Endeavour pulled back right away, and Katsuki gave Windrider a thumbs-up, as he walked over to the wall.

“Oi, half-n-half,” Katsuki said, as wind swirled around his ankles. “Good job, or whatever.”

Windrider lifted him into the air before Todoroki could respond – he’d have to thank her later – and soon his head was peeking over the massive, thick wall. He started at the closest corner, blasting it off toward the middle of the river, and hearing a chorus of thuds as ice rained down into the riverbed. He walked over to the other side, Windrider’s quirk easily supporting him as he moved – other than the squishiness of it all, it just felt like walking on the ground, for the most part. He repeated the process, chipping away at the wall bit by bit, filling the trench with bits of ice and snow. Below him, that same weird movement quirk moved the pieces occasionally, spreading them out relatively evenly, and balls of fire were tossed into the mix lightly, melting chunks down and letting them flow away peacefully. It was a slow process, but a controlled one, and by the time Katsuki got close enough to the ground to hear the instructions being thrown back and forth, they’d found a steady rhythm.

“I’ve got the rest!”

Katsuki looked up, grinning when he saw Cascade and Solar Flare running back their way, looking relatively unscathed. Clearly they’d had a bit of a scuffle, but the arrest had to be sorted, for them to be returning so calmly.

“All yours,” Katsuki agreed, walking off to the side and letting Windrider bring him back to earth. “Think it’s small enough to not flood, now?”

“I hope so,” Cascade laughed. “We’re gonna find out.”

She slammed a hand against what remained of the ice wall, and instantly it vanished, a massive waterfall dropping into the empty bed. The flow that had been dammed up went rushing through, further fuelled by the wall joining it, but with the drained bed that lay beyond, it thankfully remained contained. Todoroki sat up to watch, looking a thousand times better after making use of his father’s defrost setting, eyes widening before he looked up at Cascade in awe.

“We have some pretty cool heroes,” Flare said knowingly, clapping Todoroki on the shoulder fondly. “That was a hell of a job you did there. You a new hire at Endeavour’s?”

“Classmate of Bakugou’s,” he explained.

“Oh, even better. If you want a job after graduation, hit us up, Deku would love you.”

“I think my father would murder me,” Todoroki said, though he smiled faintly all the same as he glanced over at a silently fuming Endeavour. “Maybe I’ll call.”

“You’re Endeavour’s kid?” Flare asked, lips twitching into a smirk. “Even better.”

Todoroki laughed, and Katsuki could only stare at him. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard that sound before – if he had, he’d clearly written it off as a fever dream or something, because it did not make any sense to his brain.

“We’d better head back,” Flare said, giving Todoroki one last nod. “Great work today, thank you for getting out here so quickly to help our team.”

“Any time,” Todoroki said softly. “Glad I could help.”

With clean-up crews and emergency services on deck to finish off the job, the Deku Heroes began their walk back to the agency building, the Endeavour Heroes heading the opposite direction. It was lucky, really, that the incident had happened so close to the border of their patrol areas – Katsuki wasn’t sure what they’d have done, without the back-up.

Speaking of which.

“The fuck are you doing here?” he demanded, punching Maelstrom in the arm. “You went home.”

“I live nearby,” Maelstrom explained with a laugh. “I heard the commotion and came to look. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Katsuki grumbled, but nodded faintly all the same.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I was actually wishing for your presence, for once, and then there you fuckin’ were.”

“Language,” Flare reminded him, though there was zero actual care in it. “We’re getting close.”

Sure enough, the agency building rose before them, and everyone slumped a little when they saw it, relieved to be home.

“Barely even late,” Cascade said, when she glanced at her watch. “I mean, we skipped half the patrol, but still.”

She scanned her ID and pulled open the door, holding it for everyone to pass through, and Katsuki almost froze in his tracks when he saw the clock at the reception desk. With everything going on, he’d entirely forgotten about his... appointment. He whirled around, finding Solar Flare in the crowd, and Solar Flare raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

“I have somewhere to be,” he explained.

“Go,” Flare said, before he could even finish coming up with a proper reason. “Get some rest.”

Katsuki didn’t bother to tell him just how unlikely that was, he just nodded and ran for the stairs, unwilling to wait for the elevator. He ran down them two at a time, praying he wouldn’t suddenly lose all his coordination and face plant into concrete. He slammed open the door at the other end, and ran straight to the far side, where no one would be likely to walk by and peek in a window.

Mirio looked up with a start, face filling with concern when he saw Katsuki standing breathless in the doorway, but Katsuki didn’t give him a chance to speak.

“Sorry I’m late,” he burst out, holding up his watch where eight-thirty-two flashed at them. “Got caught up on patrol.”

“It’s okay,” Mirio assured him, smiling again finally. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Katsuki lied. “I’ve got this.”

“I’m not in a hurry,” Mirio said fondly. “Take five, get cleaned up.”

Katsuki finally looked down at himself, at his muddy, slimy, beat-up costume, and cursed under his breath. All he’d cared about was getting dry, he hadn’t thought about anything else.

“I’ve got stuff in my locker,” Katsuki told him. “I’ll be… three minutes. Maximum.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Mirio promised him. “Take your time, I’m looking forward to it.”

Katsuki finally managed a smile, nodding just once before he took off the other direction again. He didn’t bother with his apartment, just ran to the gym lockers to grab his spare workout gear and dampen his towel, and in two minutes, he was back, looking a lot cleaner. His arms were bare, but he’d wiped the mud off them, and his leggings were a little twisted up from pulling them on in a hurry, but he didn’t want to wait another second.

“You’re looking more cut than usual,” Mirio told him, when he stepped into the room for real this time. “You been doing something different?”

Katsuki blushed, shaking his head immediately, but taking another second to find words.

“It’s just the shirt,” he said. “And not drinking enough water, probably.”

“I’ve seen you sleeveless plenty of times,” Mirio reminded him. “I noticed it this morning too, but that one I thought might have been because you needed breakfast.”

“Nothing special.”

“Just because you’ve been lifting so hard in the gym lately, then,” Mirio concluded, finally climbing to his feet. “You’re looking strong.”

“Shut up,” Katsuki huffed, face still burning. “Stop stalling.”

“I’m ready when you are,” Mirio assured him, grinning again. “Be nice to me, alright?”

“You can trust me,” Katsuki told him, cracking a smile of his own. “I promise.”