Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia and its characters are not mine to own.

Bakugou Katsuki's natural reaction to almost everything and anything built a majority of it foundations under one word, anger. It was almost sad, if his parents were to put him underneath the eye of a therapist. In which they didn't. Or hadn't, more like.

Nevertheless, the cruel fists and crueller words normally stemmed from anger tinged with annoyance at first, then anger coloured with a need to defend his pride; over what, only the male himself would know.

But the next step was a touch more complicated, trickier to understand and given exclusively to one person and one boy only. An anger that tinted red; where the colour green had no place to be in the first place.

Bakugou Katsuki hated Midoriya Izuku. It was a fact.

Like how elementary students learnt the letter B always came after A. That if they added two and two, number four was always the correct answer. Similarly, how every plant needed sunlight and water and carbon dioxide to live.

Kacchan and Deku were never meant to get along. Not if the shitty nerd continued to think he was better than Katsuki. Not if he never got a Quirk in this lifetime. Never, since the day Deku offered his hand to Katsuki, betraying the last speckle of dirt sized trust Katsuki ever had in Izuku.

Fourteen and perpetually angry, not even Katsuki himself could answer why he felt the constant need to belittle Deku over every little thing. He knew he was stronger than the squirt, smarter, equipped with a better Quirk. Everyone said so as well, the whole world understood the fact, so of course Katsuki got the hint too. But there just something about Deku, something his soul couldn't tolerate about Deku's existence.

Was it the way his eyes widened with fear whenever they caught sight of Katsuki? How he flinched whenever the blond spoke, or how he cowered with a few words from the people around them? And got back up even after those?

Perhaps it was the weakness that caused the terribly annoying itch beneath Katsuki's skin, the way everything about Izuku screamed PREY as he trailed behind Katsuki mumbling like some incoherent moron.

Whatever it was, Katsuki got angry at it all anyway. And in his anger, strings of insults and jabs at a person's self-worth that hurt worse than his Explosion Quirk followed.

It changed when Izuku stopped responding, let nothing feed the third stage anger that always sprouted its ugly head with flowing molten eyes whenever Katsuki came in contact of Izuku.

Class had been like usual, but for the past month, Deku missed attendance as frequently as Katsuki let his Quirk spark in his palms. Which was every single day since the useless shit called in sick looking all pale with his freckles looking like dark splatters of shit all over his stupid face.

Katsuki convinced himself that it was the best month of his fucking life. Not having to see the shitstain for over two weeks cleared his already clear skin and grown his crops. An absolutely fucking delight really, peace and quiet without the background mumbling from where Deku sat.

Then Deku had to go and ruin the streak. Having the audacity to even come in late, so Katsuki couldn't even give him a piece of his fucking mind. It was last period, 20 minutes before the bell rang when the teacher pulled up a stack of familiar looking places. The form that Katsuki wrote down his sure-to-be high school in.

The bespectacled shit called upon Deku's choice, announcing to the world how the nerd wanted to get into UA too. How dare he?! Katsuki thought, the Quirkless shit had no right getting his fingers into something he'd never reach in his dreams!

Standing up and letting the legs of chair screech his inner rage for him, Katsuki contributed with his own opinions that might as well be facts at this point. "Come on, Deku! You think you can try to beat me? Even though you're totally Quirkless? HAA?!"

Deku sighed.

Honest. To. Fucking. God. Sighed!

"WhAT THE FUCK DEKU?! YOU'RE NOT BETTER THAN ME, USELESS PIECE OF SHIT. Don't get fucking ahead of yourself, shitty nerd!"

Head of awful green looked up from where Katuski had been looking down on him while standing up. His once bright eyes looked dull. Dead. Katsuki suppressed a shiver at the last minute because Deku was Deku and he'd rather die than be scared of the weak piece of shit that worth nothing more than the stone by the road side.

"You're right, Kacchan. I'm not." He deadpanned, expression unchanging.

"Sensei," the nerd then shifted his eyes to the teacher as everyone watched on with awkward silence. "Can I have my paper back tomorrow for a resubmission? I'm not going to UA anymore. I don't want to be a hero."

The bell rang just then, and Deku got up and just left with his childish as fuck yellow bag straps slung over both his shoulders. Walking slowly, steadily, and back straight. Katsuki took a step back when the boy exited the classroom, teeth grinding when he realised he couldn't recognise this Deku.

The one that looked at Katsuki like he was prey instead.

It continued like that for days. Katsuki fucking chased the shit like some attention starved dog. Obsession stirring strong in his veins as something drove him to do anything in his arsenal to get a reaction out of Deku. Taunting, goading and even getting physical in places he wasn't supposed to.

Rational left him quicker than a slut could drop their panties from of the first hot shit they saw. Deku's reaction never wavered. He always agreed to what Katsuki said in whatever bullshit the blond came up with. Subservient almost, if it weren't for those fucking eyes that wouldn't stop haunting Katsuki's every waking moment.

"Okay, Kacchan."

Stop it, Deku. Don't sound like that.

"Sure, Kacchan. If that's what you want."

Shut your fucking asscrack, shitty nerd. Don't spout shit you don't mean. You won't dive off the rooftop for me. Stop it, stop it.

"Yeah. Of course you'll pass the test, Kacchan."

Of course I will, who do you think I am? But it's different, Deku. Not what I meant. Something changed. You don't mean it when you say that. I haven't gauged out my eyes from your fuck ugly face yet, Deku. Stop it, stop it, stop it.

"Kacchan's sure to be a great hero."

I'm not, Deku. I'm not going to be a great hero in the way that counts. An unfair win doesn't mean anything. I'm… fuck it all. I'm afraid. What changed? Stop it, please.

"Kacchan, do you feel better now?"

I don't, but you walk off fucking bleeding and burnt like its nothing anyway. Limping assrag. Look at me, Deku, I-

"Do you need something from me, Kacchan?"

"I want your Quirkless ass to stop getting in my way, Deku."

His response got a reaction out of the nerd. Emerald eyes closed, his blank face transforming into something tired and weary. Eyebrows and forehead knotting tightly. For a split second, Katsuki swore he even saw regret in the shitty zombie's face.

"I don't like lying to you, Kacchan." Deku said, voice bland and equally unhurried. "You deserve to know, I think. More than anybody else."

"What the fuck?" Came his own intelligent answer.

"I got my Quirk, Kacchan. Late, I know. The drawback is pretty evident, though. And also the sole reason you keep on bothering me over every little thing if I'm not wrong. It takes away my emotions you see. Even my sense of pain, kind of."

"I can't bring myself to feel much and even if I did, I have to try pretty hard first. It's like a funny parallel from my Quirk's effects, so if your curiosity is filled, I'd like to go home without more wounds to show my mother. It's the least I can do for her since she wouldn't stop crying every time she sees my face."

It was the most words Katsuki's ever heard Deku say since he returned to school and something akin to fucking happiness fluttered about in his stomach. Lungs working extra hard, Katsuki released a breath he forgot he held.

"You got a Quirk? What does it do?" He asked, the most (calm) sombre anyone could've seen him. Shoulders slumped and voice low- a little bit raspy as well.

Deku smiled, a weak thing without much effort. Barely a twitch in his cheeks unlike before where even his teeth and dimples showed, deep like the goddamned Grand Canyon. "I call it Three Wise Monkeys." Deku gently relayed, the large square plaster on his cheeks crinkling.

"My Quirk basically works on the word play of 'See No Evil', 'Hear No Evil' and 'Speak No Evil'. It works literally and non-literally. It's a dangerous Quirk, Kacchan. I've taken away a man's being before on accident."

"His sight, his hearing, his voice. I left him stupid, ignorant of the world. They diagnosed him no better than a vegetable when they got him to the hospital. The effects of my Quirk are permanent. Or I just haven't found a way to reverse them yet. Either way, no one's going to be willing to be lab rat."

"I can't become a Hero with a Quirk like this Kacchan. Nor do I feel the motivation to do so. Everything is… bland now."

He couldn't help it, but the first thing that welled up from within Katsuki was-

Anger.

"THAT'S NO EXCUSE, USELESS DEKU!" Screeched the blond ball of anger as he slapped the green-eyed boy directly on his wounded cheek.

Deku gave no tell-tale signs of shock either way, looking as done as ever. He did, however, cup his cheek as he would once upon a time whenever Katsuki punched him the face. Morbidly high on the fumes of relief, Katsuki punched Deku again and again and again. The smaller boy beneath him- for he crouched some time during the assault- grumbled out a flat "… Kacchan."

"FUCKING CONTROL IT THEN. IT'S YOUR SHITTY QUIRK NO MATTER HOW SHIT IT IS. AND SO WHAT IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE BEING A HERO? GIVING UP JUST LIKE THAT, WITH A FUCK-ALL KIND OF EXCUSE. YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME? I'LL SHOVE MY HAND DOWN YOUR THROAT SO HARD YOU'LL FEEL MY EXPLOSION OUT OF YOUR LOOSE ASS, DEKU!"

"Am I nothing if you could just ditch everything I've ever worked for like a sack of rotten potatoes the moment you just feel like it? The Deku I knew might've been useless and worthless, but you're one of kind now, you piece of ugly-ass shit. You're really something else."

"And if I didn't know better, Kacchan, I'd think you missed me." Deku said, head tilted. The green haired boy then got up and patted down his shoulders and pants caked with dust. Shrugging, he walked past Katsuki from the narrow alley they were in and back home; leaving Katsuki with hot tears down his face and heart like poorly pieced shards in his chest.

Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku must never get along. It was a fact. Like how people stuck on the ground due to gravity and addition gave bigger numbers. Yet, Katsuki would be damned if he didn't at least get Deku to enter UA through means of hook or crook because his dreams couldn't just mean nothing, right?