Chapter Text
Those children were going to be the death of him. He was more than a little certain of that. They weren’t, technically, children anymore. He knew that. And still, he felt responsible for them in some way. He was the eldest among them, after all, and he had known them for most of their lives. Before, even, they came to be under his care, in fact.
“RESPECT YOUR ELDERS!” Katsuki was screaming again, and Shouta sighed, sitting up in his bed and questioning the decision to care for them. The apartment was not, technically, big enough for all of them. He’d had to pull strings to get them the place, though, and the children had been so excited for it at first. The cats ran into his room, jumping onto his bed on their way to hiding under the dresser. Even if he had slept through it all, that definitely would have woken him up in defense mode.
He heard the low murmur of Shouto’s response but couldn’t make out the words. Small explosions sounded in the following silence, and that got him moving again, scrambling to the door with sheets tangling in his legs to stop Katsuki from sending their entire apartment to the ground. “What are you guys doing?”
The situation that met him was Shouto, standing between Katsuki and Hitoshi, glaring at the explosive member of their group while Hitoshi was on the bed, looking like he had been shoved. Katsuki looked just as angry as Shouto, which meant he wouldn’t get a word of explanation out of them. “Hitoshi, come here.” He said with a sigh, waving the man to him with one hand while keeping his eyes on the two more temperamental of his students.
The youngest of their group slowly stood up, slipping past the other two to come to their acknowledged leader. “What happened here?” He asked, gentling his tone as he looked down at the younger male.
“Um, sir… B-Bakugou said that I stole his game.”
“My favorite game. You stole my favorite game!” His voice was going up again at the end, and he had turned to face the youngest again. The oldest, meanwhile, groaned softly. His head hurt already, and the day had just started. He still had to go to work.
By that point, Shouta had managed to untangle himself from his sheets and sighed heavily as he leaned against the doorframe. “Katsuki, when’s the last time you cleaned your room? Are you sure it’s not just lost?”
The anger turned to him, and Shouta felt his defenses raise out of habit more than genuine concern. “What? Of course, it isn’t lost!” He pointed angrily to his room’s door. “I left it on top of the console, and it isn’t there anymore!”
The responding sigh was hard, and Shouta found himself moving towards the kid’s door, helping himself to the chaos beyond. A small bout of searching resulted in him pulling the game up from behind the desk the system sat on.
Silence. “You should apologize, Bakugou.” Shouto’s voice was arctic, and he watched in exasperation as the oldest child’s temper ignited once more.
“He could be a thief. He does so out on the streets, what’s to stop the same from happening here at home? Maybe you’ll steal from me!”
That lit tempers all around the room. “Katsuki!” Shouta’s voice was sharp, and all three children flinched. “We all do what we have to out there. Don’t you dare shame anyone for what they’ve had to do. Hitoshi’s work is just as important as yours, or Shouto’s, or mine.”
“Are you saying you’d steal from us, Mr. Aizawa?”
The room chilled, and Shouta immediately erased Shouto’s quirk. “Katsuki. If I were you, I’d curb my tongue.”
The kid scoffed and marched forward, snatching the game from his hands and continuing into his room, slamming the door. The door, which hit Shouta’s bare heel. He’d be lying if he tried to say it didn’t hurt. In fact, it hurt quite a bit.
He could hear hits from the kid’s room, and he closed his eyes, releasing Shouto. “Mr. Aizawa, I’m sure it’s just the stress is getting to him. He didn’t mean it.” Hitoshi said from beside Shouto, prompting the oldest group member to open his eyes once more, faintly touched by the kid’s attempts to soothe him. “And Todoroki… maybe… you shouldn’t have said that? I get you were just trying to defend me, but it would have been okay. If you hadn’t gotten involved, maybe Mr. Aizawa could have slept a little longer.”
Hitoshi was the least certain of the group, as well as the youngest, and Shouta felt his heart go out to the kid. “Don’t worry about it, Hitoshi. It’s all fine. When you live the life of a villain, that’s just how things go sometimes. Hard to trust anyone sometimes.” He yawned and looked at the clock. “You guys have fun today. I’ll be working late, as usual. Stay safe. Lock the door behind you.” He paused at the door to his own room and gazed at the one Katsuki had disappeared behind, but there was nothing to be done right now. Another heavy sigh left him as he entered his own room, shutting the door behind him.
…
Katsuki paused in his punching when he heard the door to Mr. Aizawa’s room close. It had been wrong of him, he knew, to accuse them all and sound like he didn’t trust them. He did. Mr. Aizawa had taken him in when he was only 10 years old, when his parents had been killed and nobody else wanted anything to do with him. Todoroki and Shinsou were like his little brothers… who happened to be in love with each other. He sighed and sat on his bed, looking at the TV in his room. There was one in here and in the living room. As far as he knew, Mr. Aizawa never watched TV or played games. He came home and slept, and then went to work almost immediately after waking up. When he wasn’t being asked to do things by his boss, he did petty crime like the rest of them, to take care of them.
He didn’t like the silence… and he should apologize to Shinsou. The admission of being wrong grated on his nerves, but he wasn’t a kid anymore. He had to accept responsibility. It irritated him, but he opened the door, and the younger boys jumped, turning to look at him in almost perfect sync. “Bakugou- “
“Shut up, Icy-Hot. Shinsou…” The kid jumped again, as if Katsuki had struck him. He could hear the shower in Mr. Aizawa’s room, so it made sense they were on edge. “I…” He trailed off, bringing a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “Ah, you didn’t take my game. What you do helps. Sorry.” The words were gruff and mumbled, and he hoped the brat heard him. He wasn’t gonna say it again! “Got it!?” He snapped, turning to look at Shinsou, whose eyes were wide and wet.
Panic. Sheer panic. “Ah, Hitoshi?” Todoroki asked, placing a hand on the kid’s shoulder as he noticed what Katsuki was staring at. “Hey, are you okay?”
Shinsou lowered his head, smiling faintly. “Yeah. I’m all good. Thanks, Bakugou.”
The blonde grunted an acknowledgement and then turned away, moving on to the kitchen, where he made a very easy breakfast of omelets and cooked a small lunch, boxing the second and putting the first on some plates. “Come eat, brats.” He said, pushing the plates to the edge of the counter for them.
“You’re not even a full year older than me, Bakugou.” Todoroki said, grabbing the two plates and carrying them both over to the couch. He guessed they had folded the bed back for comfort purposes, and they sat next to each other, as close as they could get.
The door opened, revealing Mr. Aizawa in his uniform, messing with his capture weapon to get it to sit right. “Mr. Aizawa.” He called, bringing the man’s attention to him. He looked guarded, and Katsuki felt irritated that he had caused that, but he felt bad, too. “I made breakfast. You should eat before you leave. And I made you lunch. Your boss didn’t call, right? So, you’ll have time to eat.”
They stared at one another for a long moment, and then Mr. Aizawa closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and came to the counter to eat. “Katsuki. I’d like to talk to you, but… it’ll have to wait.”
“Mr. Aizawa, I didn’t mean to- “
He quieted at the sharp look he got. “You meant it in the moment. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have said it.” With his eyes closed, face drawn with worry and thoughtfulness, Mr. Aizawa looked older than 33 for a moment, and Katsuki regretted everything about that. “We’ll talk about it later.”
He could only watch as his mentor ate and immediately left, swiping the boxed lunch from the counter. “Bakugou?” He snapped out of it at Shinsou’s quiet call. The kid jerked a thumb at the TV, not moving because Todoroki seemed to have gone back to sleep on his shoulder. “Would you like to come watch TV? It’s more fun with friends.”
The kid was too nice. Katsuki wondered how he even managed the work they did as criminals. He was so nice; it didn’t seem like he would be able to do the threatening and aggression needed to do things. Then again, with his quirk, he supposed the kid didn’t need to do that much. He nodded. “Yeah, be right over.” With that, he put the dishes in the sink and grabbed his own food to sit down and watch TV with the two he’d been raised with.