me: i gotta stop writing stuff where Kacchan rescues Deku. That says too much about me, probably

me two minutes later: okay so Deku gets kidnapped in ms and sold as a pet to a wealthy couple and years later Kacchan as a 3rd yr UA student is at this fancy party w/ his parents--

Okay NO I'm not gonna actually going to write it--

It was just an errant thought--

UGH FINE

cw: kidnapping, disturbing and dark implications of human imprisonment, you can make your own assumptions. [Suicide] mention

written as/by a bkdk but it's not gonna be romantic

--

Katsuki's bored as fuck and doesn't want to be there. He came along at his parents' insistence that there would be hero agency reps there.

There aren't.

After an hour of mind numbing social garbage, he goes off to the bathroom. Finding it in use, he goes looking for another.

This penthouse is so disgustingly huge there has to be more.

But the room he winds up at, down a twisting hallway far from the sounds of the party, doesn't look like a bathroom.

There's a lock on the /outside/ of the door. It's not a padlock, just a basic latch.

Anyone could open it from this side, and it wouldn't be able to hold much in except for an animal, or a child.

Katsuki is obviously not supposed to be here. He blatantly ignored the 'no guests beyond this point' sign on his way, a sign that would keep all polite company away.

Katsuki isn't polite company.

With a glance over his shoulder, he flips the latch and pulls the door open.

The room is dark, and sparse. There's an empty bed to the left that's little more than a mattress, a stark difference from the excessive luxury everywhere else.

The light spilling in from the hallway cuts a sharp swath across it. Katsuki's skin crawls. Bad things happen here, he can just feel it.

A metallic rattle pulls Katsuki's attention just as his gaze sweeps into the darkness.

He's immediately on edge, his palms flexing.

Katsuki can hear breathing.

He narrows his eyes, and he can just make out the shape of something on the floor, and he thinks it must be a dog. Reaching back, he pushes the door further open to let more light in.

It sweeps across a dog bed and its occupant, chained to the wall by a thick collar around their neck.

But it's not a dog.

It's a child.

“Jesus fuck,” Katsuki swears, feeling his stomach drop. None of his hero courses had adequately prepared him for this.

The child stirs, and their huge green eyes catch the light and Katsuki's heart stops.

Not a child.

Hardly any younger than Katsuki himself, but he's so /small/--

“Kacchan?”

It's hardly a whisper, but it slams into Katsuki like a freight train.

How long has it been? How many years since Katsuki's heard that nickname?

Since Katsuki's seen the boy on the missing posters?

“Deku,” is all Katsuki can manage; it's automatic, it's cruel, but it rolls off his tongue before he can stop it.

Deku shrinks back away from the light, as far from Katsuki as the chain will allow.

And Katsuki snaps into action.

He whips out his phone and takes a few quick shots. He feels awful as the flash lights up Deku's miserable, scared face, but he can't spare him the indignity.

Waiting around for the proper authorities isn't an option. The people that live here are very powerful.

If Katsuki leaves without Deku /right now,/ Deku won't be here when the police show up.

But that's what his provisional license is for, right?

Katsuki closes the door and calls his mother.

“Brat, you better have a good reason for calling me when we are at the same goddamn party--”

“Oi, shut up. You both have to leave, now. Say I already fucked off and you have to go get me, I don't care. Get out of here.”

Katsuki's mother is silent for a moment.

“What have you gotten into, Katsuki?”

“Get out and call the police, and I'll tell you later.”

Katsuki's tone is low and serious, and for once in his life his mother doesn't argue.

“Fine. We'll be right there.” And she hangs up.

Katsuki checks the window, expecting metal bars but just finding it sealed shut with a twenty story drop. Don't need much else to keep a quirkless kid from escaping.

This way only held death as an exit.

Although the windowsill is littered with scratches in the paint.

Katsuki tries not to think about them when he pries the window open. It takes some effort and some micro explosions to loosen the seal, but Katsuki can manage it. Deku never had a chance.

Though, for that Katsuki is selfishly grateful.

His phone buzzes.

A text from his mother: 'We're out. Now get the fuck out of there and tell me what the fuck is happening!!'

Katsuki sends her the photos.

It's insensitive, it's not the right protocol. But the fastest way to bring the police in is through a livid Bakugou Mitsuki.

Katsuki puts away his phone and returns his attention to the task at hand, to Deku who hasn't made a peep since saying 'Kacchan' a few minutes ago. Deku who's shivering in nothing but a ratty t-shirt, curled up in a dog bed and chained to a fucking wall.

A wall that's hung with all manner of unspeakable things, from what looks like doll clothing to myriad restraints and blunt objects whose only possible purpose is pain.

There's a worn and faded All Might doll in Deku's arms.

His favorite hero that never came to help.

Kneeling before him, Katsuki reaches out. Deku flinches.

“It's okay,” Katsuki tries, although he knows it's not. Although the Bakugou Katsuki of today, molded by several years of UA and hard knocks, is a hero-in-training, the last one Deku knew was anything but.

Katsuki never forgot about Deku. Never stopped wondering if his disappearance could have been prevented if he hadn't been alone that afternoon. If he'd just had any friends.

UA had made Katsuki want to be a better hero but it was Deku that made him want to be a better person.

“It's okay, because.. I am here.”

Katsuki catches the chain in his palm and melts clean through it, tamping down any hot links still attached to the collar. It's thick and metal and Katsuki doesn't have time to get it off him now, though the sight of it makes him sick. Deku is a person, not a thing.

..Izuku.

Izuku is a person.

Izuku stares, his eyes just visible in the darkness, alleviated only by the small amount of city light filtering in from the open window. “No,” he croaks, finally speaking. “No, no, Kacchan, no, I can't--”

He shakes his head rapidly. “They'll be mad, I have to be a good boy, I've been so good-- Kacchan put it back, put it back!” Izuku reaches for the hot chain on the ground and Katsuki has to snatch his hand away. Izuku is so weak, so fragile, it's no effort at all to stop him.

Izuku stops struggling immediately anyway.

Silent tears stream down his face as he clutches All Might to his chest, shaking.

“Izuku,” Kacchan says calmly. “I'm getting you the fuck out of here.”

Izuku's eyes widen. “Kacchan?” he asks, as if seeing him for the first time.

“Yeah,” Katsuki says, shrugging off his stuffy suit jacket. He didn't want to wear it but he's glad he did; he'd be flying completely bare-chested otherwise.

“You're r-really here?” Izuku's words catch on a sob as he tentatively reaches out like he wants to touch Katsuki.

He pulls his hand back to his chest like he's done something wrong. “Really, actually h-here?” he whispers.

“Really, actually here. Izuku, listen to me. I'm gonna need you to get on my back. Piggyback, you remember that right? We used to do that shit as as kids.”

Katsuki glances at the door. It might be his imagination, but he thinks he hears footsteps.

He spins on his polished heel, offering his dress-shirt clad back to his childhood friend. What's left of him, anyway.

“I d-don't know.. I'm not.. I'm not supposed to--”

That was definitely a footstep.

They don't have time for this.

Katsuki reaches back with both hands and pops Izuku up onto his back with a squeak, the All Might plush crushed between them. He's so light, he barely even feels like a backpack.

Katsuki whips his jacket around his back, over Izuku, tying the sleeves tight around his waist. He's going to need both arms for this, and he doesn't trust Izuku's ability alone to cling to him while flying.

“Oi, you need to trust me, got it?”

There are probably better things Katsuki could use from the wall to secure Deku in place, but just the thought makes him so sick he casts it out as an option completely.

Izuku's slender arms wrap around Katsuki's neck.

“Okay, Kacchan,” Izuku says softly. “I trust you.”

Katsuki stands up like there's nothing weighing him down at all. He strides to the window with sure steps, his heart pounding.

They reach the window and Izuku's grip tightens. “I'm s-scared, though,” he whimpers, burying his face against the back of Katsuki's neck.

Katsuki can feel the metal of the collar against his skin.

“Done this a hundred times,” Katsuki says with a confidence he only half feels. Sure he's flown a lot, but never in these exact circumstances.

“Kacchan's amazing,” Izuku says with reverence, and Katsuki's heart twists.

“Gonna count to three, then we're gonna say 'Plus Ultra' together. Can you do that for me, nerd?” The insult slips out without intent and Katsuki curses himself for it.

But Izuku doesn't seem to mind. “Y-yeah.”

“Alright. One, two, three--”

The door opens.

“PLUS ULTRA!!”

And Katsuki steps out into empty air.

Izuku's arms and legs pinch tight around him as Katsuki sails downward, pumping explosions out of his palms to keep their trajectory steady and slow. He can't risk descending too fast and losing his precious cargo.

He's not Superman.

But this is still nowhere near an overextension, and Katsuki makes it to the next rooftop down without incident.

Izuku is sobbing, and Katsuki scrambles to get him down, until, “Th-that w-was so c-cool, Kacchan,” wheezes behind him.

Katsuki can't help the grin that spreads on his face. “You like that, you should see me fight.”

“M'not allowed to watch fights,” Izuku mumbles, and Katsuki's grin disappears.

“You're allowed to do whatever the fuck you want,” Katsuki growls, pulling out his phone.

A flurry of screaming texts from his mother confirms that the gears are already turning, but Katsuki can't just call the police and go home. He can't call an an ambulance and hand Izuku off to never see him again.

No, there's just one person to call. One place to take him.

“This better be good, problem child,” Aizawa's sleep-deprived voice rumbles in his ear.

“It is. Sent you my location, need a personal escort. Have someone with me I gotta take to the old woman.”

“Bakugou. Are you okay?”

“Will be, once you get here.”

“Be there in ten.”

“Who was that?” Izuku asks quietly from his perch still on Katsuki's shoulders. His voice shakes with fear.

“Don't worry, I ain't handing you off to anyone.”

He can feel Izuku relax against him.

“That was Eraser Head, he's an underground hero turned grumpy UA teacher.”

Katsuki finds himself grinning again. “You'd like him,” he assures. “He's a hardass but there's hardly anyone I trust more. He puts up with my shit.”

“Wow,” Izuku says. “Kacchan really became a hero, didn't he?” An arm pulls away from Katsuki's neck to wrap around the doll.

“I'm glad,” Izuku hiccups. “I always knew you would.”

Katsuki stares out across the city. His jaw clenches for a moment.

It's going to be a long road, and it's going to start with a long night.

But he can do this, at least.

“Oi, Izuku. How'd you like to meet All Might?”

.end