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theolddarkmachine · 4 years

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Imaginary- Chapter Four

Midoriya Izuku’s life was turned upside by fate.

Eri’s life was turned upside down by circumstance.

And Bakugou Katsuki is about to learn that even imaginary friends need to grow up.

Also on AO3

A/N: So this is a day later than planned cuz shit be crazy lol apologies for that >.< I’m going to try and maintain my weekly Monday posting but due to the circumstances I have gotten a chapter behind in my writing so next week maaaay be delayed. Just a heads up. But hopefully today’s chapter will make up for that <3

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“Bakugou, my man!” The file room attendant exclaims with gusto, finger guns, and a smarmy smile that makes Katsuki’s skin crawl. A 4 foot tall thorn in just about everyone’s sides, the guy had more or less been banished to the darkest, innermost workings of the imaginary friend offices.

He’s sure he found it some kind of upgrade.

Barely containing his eye roll, Katsuki fixes his glare on the purple colored half pint. What was his name again?

Monoma?

Monokuma?

Whatever.

“Shut it, Purple People Eater,” he scoffs, not returning the smile or the fist bump that the grape fucker has held up to him.

“Mm, I prefer One Eyed Monster, thanks,” the small man says, unperturbed as he gives his eyebrows a waggle and a quick thrust of his hips. “If you know what I mean.”

He doesn’t, and he really, really does not want to.

“Whatever, let me in,” Katsuki growls, throwing his sunset red gaze over the short man’s shoulder and toward the gleaming glass that separates the rest of the waiting area from the file room.

To be quite honest, he isn’t sure he actually has the authority to enter, but he sure as hell knows that this little purple shit wouldn’t know either. At least he could help him out in that way.

“And what will you give me if I do?” He asks, putting an elbow on the white surface of his desk and leaning his cheek into his palm. Looking up at Katsuki, his smile reeks of shit as he traces the ring finger of his free hand blindly around the desk’s surface. It pulls a loud groan from deep in his own chest as he drops his palms down onto the desk and leans danger close into the attendant’s space.

“I won’t punch you in the goddamn nuts, now let me in,” Katsuki threatens, throwing the weight into his words in a way that would work on anyone else. Faux shock and surprise cracks the purple man’s mouth wide as he pushes back.

“You would threaten the Mineta family jewels?” He chokes out, eyes almost comically wide as he drops his hands to his lap. Though covered by the desk, Katsuki doesn’t need to see to know he’s cupping his junk in some show to protect them.

That’s right, he thinks as he rolls his eyes again. Fucking Mineta was his name.

“I’ll threaten more than that if I’m still in front of this desk in the next 30 seconds,” Katsuki growls low and slow, flicking his gaze between Mineta and the doors in hopes that he would be free of this conversation quicker than that.

“Fine, fine, some friend you must make,” Mineta sighs, pulling his hands back up above the desk. “Is making the kids cry part of you schtick?”

Briefly, Katsuki wonders if anyone would really mind if he put the purple fuck out of his misery.

“Now, Mineta!” He snaps, throwing his annoyance behind his words and turning them into blades. It seems to have the opposite effect of what he wanted, as Mineta’s mouth twists upward into a smile.

“Aw, you said my name! I knew we were friends,” Mineta preens as he stabs a finger into a button tucked into the corner of his desk. The soft sound of the glass doors sliding open behind him is the only thing that keeps Katsuki from throwing himself across the desk and strangling the little shit.

Instead, he growls, saying nothing else as he stomps his way loudly through the now open doors.

On the other side, the file room looks clinical, almost sterile, as it stands proudly wrapped in white and chrome. Several shelves fill the space and line the walls, all filled with what looks like endless files separated by alphabetized dividers.

Fuck, he thinks, moving further into the room, pushed forward by the soft hush of the doors closing behind him and leaving him alone to the silence of the file room.

Truth be told, Katsuki doesn’t truly know what he’s looking for. All he knows, is that he can’t get the way Midoriya had looked at him that fateful day in his mother’s backyard. Or, had looked through him.

The jungle lush of his stare had seemed to haunt his dreams, and Katsuki could almost swear he felt it in the house while he was there with Eri. Of course, he knows that can’t possibly be true given these past few days he’d done everything in his power to try and get the man to acknowledge his existence again.

Moving the living room furniture, decorating his walls, and starting a bubble party had all been a bust, but there had been the brief moment after the roof incident where Midoriya had seemingly threatened him.

That, however, might have just been the poor guy cracking. The jury was still out on that one.

Even so, the words had stuck like a barb between his ribs, and followed him to bed that night, leaving him restless and somewhat wanting. Which had been a whole other can of worms on its own.

Katsuki wanted to know more about the circumstance, and if he listened to the annoying small voice at the back of his head, wanted to know more about Midoriya. The latter he couldn’t really do much about, but the former, well, he at least could snoop around in past files to try and find out more about.

As far as he knew, no imaginary friends were ever heard or seen by anyone aside from the friends that they had been assigned to. He’s sure if they had, it would have spread through the office like wildfire, carried on the back of every goddamn gossip that worked there. If anything, it would have gone as an office myth, almost like the Mothman or Bigfoot.

He knows he could probably just ask an Administrator, but that same annoying voice had stopped him, instead urging him to keep the development close to his chest for now.

So he did, and now here he was, and he didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to be looking for.

Sighing to himself, Katsuki stops his mindless shuffle toward the back of the room and blindly grabs a file that had been shoved just behind the T divider.

Quickly opening the light colored folder, he scans his gaze quickly over the neatly written paperwork.

Name: Togata Mirio

Age: 5 years

Friend: Sasaki Mirai

Assignment Administrator: Yagi Toshinori

Skimming through the boring administrative information, Katsuki briefly reads the administrator notes that detail the reasons for the child needing a friend. Jumping word to word, Katsuki barely registers the notes on the following page of the file. Scribbled in Sasaki’s neat handwriting, it does nothing more than note that after a few months with him, the kid’s sunny demeanor had blossomed into something a lot more genuine, especially now that he’d made a friend that wasn’t imaginary.

A happy ending, but nothing that could help Katsuki in the slightest with his current dilemma.

“God dammit,” he huffs angrily, dropping the file on the shelf in front of the space he’d pulled it from. Turning quickly over his shoulder, he skims the shelf, looking for anything that might catch his eye in some vain hope that it might offer him some kind of answer.

Blindly choosing another file, Katsuki flips it open and moans seeing his own name listed at the top of the page.

The smack of the file on the metallic shelf as he throws it down echoes through the room as he stalks away from the shelves he stands in front of and toward the one situated along the back wall.

“Come on,” he grumbles lowly to himself, casting his glance across the files and grabbing them at random.

Open, skim, get pissed, shut, move on.

Repeating the process several times over, Katsuki finds himself in the front corner of the room, anger scalding his veins as he drops down into a squat. Pushing his elbows into the meat of his thighs, Katsuki presses the heels of his palms into his eyes and tries to breathe.

“What a fucking waste of time,” he grumbles to himself, timing his breathes to the sparks that light up the backs of his eyelids with the pressure of his hands. It had been a long shot to think he would find anything that might help him with this situation, whatever the fuck this situation even was.

That knowledge didn’t make the disappointment taste any less bitter at the back of his throat as he finally drops his hands. The light cuts brighter across his vision when he opens his eyes, making him grumble once more.

Placing his palms on his knees, Katsuki makes to push himself back up, only stopping when his gaze finds a dark blue folder tucked into the very bottom corner of the shelf.

Extending his reach toward it, he frees the file from its tight fit, noting carefully that it seems to be far thinner than the others. With a low, curious hum, he flicks it open.

Name: Torino Sorahiko

Age: 7 years

Friend: Shimura Nana

Assignment Administrator: Banjo Daigoro

Administrator Notes: Recent loss of both parents. Child exhibits aggression towards uncle, who has taken him in. Friend should prioritize healthy coping, and providing a mentor figure to look up to.

Turning the page over, Katsuki feels his eyebrow quirk as he notes the handwriting of the Administrator once more in the section meant for the kid’s friend.

Friend Notes: Friendship terminated after one week. Shimura Nana reports child caretaker made verbal acknowledgement of her presence. Replacement chosen and new file started.

Interesting, he thinks, rereading the short notes twice. Each time the word terminated stand proud and bold amongst the rest, catching on his thoughts. Katsuki supposes it makes sense that that would be the course of action. The secretive nature of the job was an unspoken requirement. They may not have touched base on what to do if anyone besides your friend sees you, but the certainly didn’t encourage being seen either.

Friendship terminated. The words flit through his mind again as he closes the file and pushes it back into its space.

“That’s not an option,” Katsuki says, resolute in the unanswering quiet of the file room as he stood up.

In a funny enough twist of fate, he came to find he actually enjoyed Eri’s company. It had been nice not having to deal with any little punks, and yeah, he realizes he’s technically a punk, but it wasn’t like he ever said he’d be his own friend.

Eri, though.

While the girl was far more quiet than he was used to, she was smart as a whip and courageous. No matter what kind of scheme he’d come up with, her eyes had lit up with unspoken excitement in a way he wasn’t entirely used to.

Katsuki, as it would seem, had a soft spot for the girl.

Not that he’d ever admit that out loud, but there it was all the same.

Making another quick round through the room, Katsuki tucks the files he’d pulled back into their spaces.

Suddenly, it didn’t seem so bad that Midoriya didn’t acknowledge him.

Honestly, thank fuck for it, he thinks, as he replaces the last folder. As far as he’s concerned, there was nothing to report as long as Midoriya continued to be blind to to his existence. The first time was most likely a fluke, and that second time was surely just his nerves getting the best of him.

Sending a cursory glance across the room, Katsuki nods to himself.

Yeah, that’s it, he thinks before stepping back out into the room.

With that settled, it was time to go see what the Midoriyas were up to.

***

“Why do you want Daddy Izuku to see you so bad?” Eri asks, sipping loudly from her juice box and swinging her legs that aren’t quite long enough to reach from the dining room chair she sits on. Her brows pull up in question as she watches Katsuki, waiting his answer.

“It’s the opposite, squirt, I really don’t want your Daddy Izuku to see me,” he replies, settling his hip onto the edge of the counter and taking a long drag from his own juice box.

Say what you would of the profession, at least as an imaginary friend he never really had to worry about when he’d get his next apple juice fix.

“Do you not like him?” She counters, eyes growing fierce in a way that would be scary if she was several feet taller. Be that as it may, it’s just kind of cute, and Katsuki has to swallow his laugh with another mouthful of juice.

“Down, girl,” he says gruffly, pulling the straw from his mouth and holding his hands up as a show of peace. “Didn’t say that, I’m just not supposed to be seen by anyone else.”

“Why?” Eri asks, cocking her head to the side. Gaze softening into open curiosity, she waited as Katsuki sucks the rest of his juice box dry.

Friendship terminated.

The words flash against his mind’s eye, stark and cutting as he closed his fist around the husk of his juice box before dropping it in the trash across from him. Pushing away from the counter, he drops down to his haunches in front of Eri.

“Because I’m your imaginary friend,” he emphasizes, ruffling her hair and earning a small giggle. “Now let’s see that board game you wanted to kick my butt in.”

Smiling brightly around the juice box straw still caught between her teeth, Eri noisily slurps up the last of her juice.

“Okay!” She exclaims happily as she holds the box up to him and attempts to crush it the same way he had. After only managing to dent it’s sides, she puts it on the table before hopping off her seat and heading toward the stairs.

The soft thump of her steps as she ascended the stairs grew more distant as Katsuki eyes the juice box carcass laying on the table.

That brat, he thinks fondly, shaking his head as he grabs the discarded cardboard and tosses it beside his own in the trash.

With a small, thoughtful sound captured in the back of his throat, Katsuki moves his way out of the kitchen and toward the living room. Familiarity, warm and unknown, wraps itself around his shoulders as he eyes the area. It’s simplistic in its furnishings, nothing extra outside of the couch, coffee table, and entertainment center, yet every bit of it breathes the word home in a way that’s almost disconcerting.

Because this wasn’t his home.

This was Eri’s.

And Midoriya’s.

But not his.

Friendship terminated.

Shaking the cumbersome words from where they whisper at his ear, Katsuki shoves his hands deep into his pockets before moving through the room and towards the opposite wall.

Four photos hang proudly from the wall, offset in a geometrical pattern at what seems to be a bid at design.

The first, is a photo of both Midoriyas, accompanied by a tired looking purple haired man. Eri’s eyes are downcast slightly, not looking directly at the camera’s lens as she smiles weakly from where she stands tucked between the two uniformed men. Kneeling beside her, Midoriya’s smile is a bit wider and a lot less tired as his arm protectively wrapped around her shoulder. The stranger stood to the other side of Eri, a bit of distance kept between him and what Katsuki can only assume was the newly minted Midoriya family as he smiles softly, eyes not actually on the camera but on the pair beside him.

Looking at the purple haired man, Katsuki feels something bristle down his spine. With a loud tsk, he moves to the next two photos that are positions as a stacked pair.

The photo on the top shows Eri, looking more like the one he can hear rummaging around upstairs. Wearing a soft yellow dress and clutching one strap of her bright pink backpack, her smile is much wider than the first photo as she points blindly behind her toward what looks like a daycare.

Briefly, he wonders if Midoriya cried dropping her off to what was presumably her first day.

Nerd, he thinks brusquely to himself with a low chuckle before moving his eyes down to the photo beneath it.

Eri’s grandmother hugs her tight in the confines of the frame, her mouth split wide around a laugh as she crushes the small girl to her. It’s sweet. Almost unbearably so, if only because the exact moment in time looks like a first meeting. One that was life changing in the best of ways, if the line of tears on the older woman’s cheeks are anything to go by.

Swallowing down a tickle at the back of his throat, Katsuki moves his gaze to the fourth and final photo at the end of the grouping of frames.

It’s different from the others.

Worn and creased, as if it had known a life stuffed in a pocket, the faded photo shows a young man and woman. Both with silvery blond hair, neither is looking at the camera, but instead between them towards a small bundle held in the woman’s arms. The baby, with it’s eyes blissfully shut in sleep, has the same shock of silver atop its head.

Feeling a sting zip just over the space of his heart, Katsuki feels his handing reaching out toward the photo when a confused sound shatters his thoughts.

“Who the fuck are you,” the voice is dark and dangerous, simmering with authority and power, “and what the fuck are you doing in my house?”

The question, in all its suddenness, makes Katsuki bristle. Shock and confusion pull his shoulders tight, his fists automatically coming together in fists as he bites down on the urge to turn around.

Friendship terminated.

The words taunt him as he swallows the bubbling anger that burns at the back of his throat, leaving blackened char and grey ash dry on his tongue.

He can’t be talking to me, Katsuki thinks. Pleads, if he’s being honest, as he keeps his gaze stuck on the happy family in the aged photo. Time stalls, dragging to a near halt as he feels his breathing shallow in almost the same way as from the man behind him.

A stare, heavy and angry sits between his shoulder blades as he chews a hole into his cheek in an attempt to keep the flare of indignant words behind his teeth.

Then, the frozen moment shatters. Quick like a car crash, the burning grasp of a hand is at the back of his neck as a foot swipes his own out from under him. The photos tilt as he’s pushed down to the ground with his cheek pressed into the carpet and a knee high on his back.

A sharp stab of pain burrows deep into the meat of his shoulder as his arm is leveraged further behind him.

“I won’t ask again, who the fuck are you, and what are you doing in my house?”

Midoriya’s question is filled with threat, which only makes the anger steaming in Katsuki’s veins go hotter until he feels like he’ll burn with it. Shaking hard against the hold that’s keeping him pressed close down into the cream colored carpet, Katsuki growls.

“What the fuck?” He rumbles angrily, to himself just as much as to Midoriya.

What the fuck, he thinks again, this time hurling it out to whatever fate could possibly be in charge of what had to be some kind of sick cosmic joke.

Friendship terminated.

“That’s my line,” Midoriya replies, mouth at his ear as he pulls Katsuki’s arm into a harsher angle that makes his shoulder scream.

“Now, who sent you?”

Confusion sluices through the cloud of pain and rage that’s muddled Katsuki’s thoughts as he tries to eye Midoriya the best he can from where he’s shoved into the carpet. Those green eyes, the ones that have looked through him so many times are trained on him now, carving into him with a hard ferocity. Anger and an oddly colored emotion fight bitterly in his chest as his brain trips over what to say.

Katsuki liked to think he was prepared for anything, but it was there, with his face shoved to the ground that he truly wished there had been some kind of crash course on what to do when your charge’s parent saw you. What the fuck was the point of all those damn manuals they gave every imaginary friend if they didn’t touch base on something as important as this.

Friendship terminated.

Those two words continued to spin round and round through his thoughts, catching them and muddying them like dirty dishwater spiraling down a drain.

“No one fucking sent me, what is wrong with you?” Katsuki finally snarls, pushing up against the hold on him again to no avail. It seemed Midoriya was stronger than his doe eyes had let on, and it would be something Katsuki would admire if he wasn’t the one caught by it.

“Then why, the fuck, are you in my house,” Midoriya says, less as a question and more as an accusation as Katsuki writhed beneath him. Twisting his torso slightly, his gaze finds the photo of Eri and her grandmother. A spark of a half formed idea lights his brain as he continues to wiggle in Midoriya’s hold.

“My grandma,” he chokes out angrily, his free hand finally finding enough purchase in the ground to push himself up. The movement forces Midoriya off him as he turns to look at him from a crouch.

The man looks almost feral from his mirrored pose as he returns Katsuki’s stare. His green eyes are almost glowing as they appraise him, more akin to a wild animal than a human, as Katsuki slowly holds his hands up to Midoriya in the same way he had to Eri none to long before.

“This was her house. I was just fucking checking in.”

Those words tumble quickly from his mouth, their insincerity making them fall like stones before him. Even to his own ears, the lie sounds paper thin. Sparks light the air between them with sharp crackles as they hold each others gazes. Chest going tight with the sudden thickness of the air, Katsuki feels his fists clench at his sides.

If he’s about to have his friendship terminated, he might as well go out in a blaze of glory.

Steeling himself for the inevitable, he sets his jaw and shifts his weight slightly back so he can be ready to spring.

“Well knock before you just walk into someone’s house,” Midoriya finally huffs, each word a defter blow than any he could have landed with his fists. Shock levels his brain and snatches Katsuki’s words as he watches Midoriya stand and dust himself off before offering him a hand.

“You’re lucky I’m already a cop, so I didn’t feel the need to call any.”

Eyeing Midoriya’s hand, Katsuki finds himself stupidly noticing the scars that have roughened them. The thought makes him grit his teeth before getting up on his own, ignoring Midoriya’s offer as he brushes at his shirt and pants.

“Some cop you are, fucking tackling innocent people,” he growls to himself, startling slightly when he hears the man chuckle softly.

“Some grandson you are, not knowing your grandma’s house got sold,” Midoriya challenges with a half cocked smile. Anger, fresh and bleeding, flashes in Katsuki as he shoves his hands deep into his pockets for the sake of having something to do with them.

“Whatever,” he says flatly as he pushes past Midoriya and towards the front door. Overtly aware to the quiet the suddenly fills the space around them as he makes his way to the exit, Katsuki can’t help the feeling of relief that floods him as grabs a hold of the doorknob.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Midoriya calls out to him in a way that doesn’t sound like he’s that sorry at all. “It’s been a weird few months, and we don’t really do too well with strangers here.”

I don’t talk to strangers, Eri’s statement from their first meeting cuts through his mind as he turns the knob.

Like father, like daughter, he supposes.

It would make him laugh if he wasn’t so thoroughly pissed off.

“Do you want a drink or something? It probably won’t make up for getting a face full of carpet,” Midoriya’s voice tapers off. At least he has it in him to sound sheepish about it. Too bad that won’t help Katuski’s pride or the brambles of what this latest development means for his current job.

“Nah, I should get out of here,” Katsuki mutters, making a mental note to apologize to Eri for disappearing when he gets the change. Opening the door, he’s met by the brightness of the sun and escaped.

“Midoriya Izuku,” he hears behind him.

Turning his gaze away from the outdoors, he fixes it on Eri’s father before inelegantly grunting, “hah?”

“My name. I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

Katsuki knows his name. Has known from the start. It was part of the job. Yet, hearing his name coming from the man himself in the form of an introduction brushes a tickle across his skin. Dragging his gaze slowly over Midoriya, as if he might be able to pull some sort of answer to abate the confusion he feels. Finally pulling his attention back up to Midoriya’s waiting look, he gives a curt nod.

“Bakugou Katsuki,” he returns before pushing his way through the door and closing it tightly behind him.

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#bakudeku #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #bkdk #*whispers* it's finally happeniiiiiiing #love you all! hope that wherever you are you're staying safe and well!

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