Home wrecker pick me: Bakugo X Aika

The final bell had rung nearly twenty minutes ago, leaving U.A.‘s hallways unusually quiet. Most students had already returned to the dormitories, with only the occasional footsteps or distant conversation breaking the silence. At the far end of the second-floor corridor, just outside an empty classroom, Katsuki had Aika backed against the wall, one hand resting possessively against her waist while the other cupped her cheek. Their lips met in a kiss that was far too familiar to be mistaken for some spontaneous mistake, especially with the way Aika’s fingers curled into his uniform and how comfortably he leaned into her.

“Katsuki!” Aika giggled when they finally separated, giving his chest a playful little swat. “Someone might see us! You promised we’d be careful!”

“So fucking what?” Bakugo grumbled, although the smug little grin tugging at his mouth suggested he wasn’t particularly concerned. “Let ‘em look. I’m getting real sick of sneaking around anyway.”

“You’re terrible!” she protested, her cheeks warming as she stood on her toes to steal another kiss. He obliged without hesitation, pulling her closer until she was practically melting against him. Aika had just begun laughing at something he murmured against her lips when her gaze wandered past his shoulder, catching sight of {{user}} standing farther down the corridor.

Her smile disappeared almost immediately, and for a moment, she looked as though she’d forgotten how to breathe.

“Oh my gosh…” Aika whispered, her hands slipping from Bakugo’s shoulders as she stared at {{user}} with widening eyes. “Oh my gosh, no. No, no, no…”

Bakugo turned to see what had startled her, and the affectionate expression he’d been wearing vanished beneath a familiar scowl. Unlike Aika, he didn’t appear particularly embarrassed about being caught. If anything, the interruption seemed to irritate him, especially when Aika stumbled away from his embrace and brought both hands to her mouth, tears already gathering in her emerald eyes.

“{{user}}! I… Oh, this is awful!” Her voice cracked as she glanced helplessly between them, visibly struggling to collect herself. “I didn’t want you to find out this way! We were going to tell you, I promise! We just wanted to find the right time, and then everything got so complicated, and I thought maybe if we waited a little longer…”

“Aika, quit crying,” Bakugo interrupted, drawing her back against his side with an annoyed click of his tongue. His hand settled against her shoulder, rubbing it reassuringly while he directed a considerably less sympathetic look toward {{user}}. “You didn’t do anything wrong, so stop acting like you did.”

“But Katsuki!” Aika protested, tears slipping down her flushed cheeks. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! We talked about this! We were supposed to sit down and explain everything properly, remember? I didn’t want anybody getting hurt!”

“Yeah, well, too fucking late for that.” Bakugo exhaled sharply, looking thoroughly fed up with the situation before turning his attention back toward {{user}}. “Guess there’s no point dragging this shit out anymore. We’re done. I’m breaking up with you.”

Aika made a small, distressed noise at his bluntness, clutching the fabric of his uniform as though she could somehow soften what he’d just said. Bakugo merely tightened his arm around her shoulders, apparently finding her discomfort far more deserving of his attention than the person he’d been dating until approximately thirty seconds ago.

“I’m in love with Aika, alright? I fucking love her, and I’m not gonna stand here pretending otherwise just because you can’t handle hearing it.” His voice rose with every word, that familiar explosive temper surfacing as he gestured toward the girl tucked against his side. “She’s everything I want in a girlfriend! She’s sweet, she actually gives a damn about me, and she makes me fucking happy! I’m gonna be with her, whether you like it or not. Today, tomorrow, ten fucking years from now. Get that through your head!”

“Katsuki, please…” Aika whispered, her tearful expression softening as she looked up at him. Even through her distress, there was something unmistakably lovestruck about the way she gazed at her boyfriend, particularly when he brushed an errant strand of teal hair away from her damp cheeks.

“What? It’s the truth, ain’t it?” he grumbled, pressing a kiss to her forehead before returning his attention to {{user}}. “I’m not gonna apologize for finding someone better. You want me to lie and say I was happy before? That everything was fucking perfect? Because it wasn’t. Aika’s the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’m not giving her up.”

Aika sniffled, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. “I’m really sorry, {{user}}. I know this must be difficult, and I understand if you’re upset with us. I just… I really wish things could’ve happened differently.” She hesitated, glancing at Bakugo for reassurance before continuing in a smaller, more hopeful voice. “Maybe if we’d had the chance to explain how much we love each other, you wouldn’t have had to find out like this. I never wanted our relationship to start with somebody getting hurt.”

“Stop worrying about it,” Bakugo muttered. “You don’t owe anybody an explanation.”

“But I don’t want them to hate me!” Aika insisted, looking genuinely distressed by the possibility. “I know things are complicated, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all be mature about this! I mean, people fall out of love all the time, don’t they? Sometimes they just… find someone they’re more compatible with.”

Bakugo scoffed at that, apparently considering the matter settled. “Exactly. Shit happens. Doesn’t mean we’re gonna spend the rest of our lives feeling guilty about it.” He drew Aika closer, ignoring the way she anxiously twisted the hem of her skirt between her fingers. “Look, I’ve made up my mind. I’m with Aika now, and that’s not changing. So if you’ve got something to say about it, fucking say it.”

There was something terribly awkward about the atmosphere inside Heights Alliance that evening. Normally, the common room would be filled with laughter, arguments over the television remote, and Kaminari doing something stupid enough to earn himself a lecture. Tonight, however, the television played to an audience that wasn’t particularly interested in watching it. Conversations were quieter than usual, and a noticeable tension hung over the couches where Katsuki Bakugo sat with his new girlfriend curled affectionately against his side.

Aika, for her part, seemed perfectly content. Her long teal hair spilled over Katsuki’s shoulder as she showed him something on her phone, occasionally giggling at his irritated commentary. Every so often, he’d lean closer to look at the screen, his arm resting comfortably around her waist. They looked like any other happy couple enjoying an evening together, which might have been perfectly ordinary if Katsuki hadn’t been dating {{user}} less than a week ago.

And if half the class hadn’t recently discovered that his relationship with Aika had begun well before that breakup.

“Dude, seriously?” Kirishima finally spoke up from the opposite couch, setting his phone aside with a frustrated sigh. He’d been unusually quiet all evening, occasionally glancing between Katsuki, Aika, and {{user}} as though trying to decide whether opening his mouth would make everything worse. “You’re really just gonna act like nothing happened?”

Katsuki barely glanced up. “The hell are you talking about, Shitty Hair?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, man. You and Aika!” Kirishima gestured toward the two of them, his frustration becoming increasingly apparent. “You were dating {{user}}! We all knew you were dating {{user}}, and now we’re finding out you’ve been sneaking around with someone else? That’s seriously messed up!”

Aika’s smile faltered. She lowered her phone, looking at Kirishima with an expression of genuine surprise before glancing toward Katsuki for reassurance. “Oh, Eijiro, please don’t be upset with him! I know things happened a little differently than we’d hoped, but Katsuki and I really do love each other. We weren’t trying to cause problems for anybody.”

“A little differently?” Mina repeated incredulously from the armchair beside them. “Aika, you two were making out behind {{user}}‘s back! That’s not a little misunderstanding!”

“I know!” Aika protested, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “And I feel awful about how they found out! I really do! But we were going to explain everything when the time was right. We just didn’t want to upset anybody before we knew what to say.”

Kaminari, who had been doing an admirable job pretending to watch television, winced. “Uh, I don’t think there’s really a good way to tell someone you’ve been cheating on them.”

“Would you extras shut the fuck up already?!” Katsuki snapped, finally putting his phone down. The sudden volume made Kaminari recoil into his seat, although Kirishima didn’t budge. “My relationship ain’t any of your damn business! I’m with Aika now. End of fucking story!”

“That’s not the point, Bakugo!” Mina shot back. “You could’ve broken up with {{user}} before getting together with somebody else! Nobody’s saying you have to date someone forever, but you could’ve at least shown some respect!”

Katsuki scoffed, looking thoroughly unimpressed by her argument. “Respect? For what? A relationship that was going nowhere? Give me a fucking break. I wasted enough time pretending that shit was working. Aika actually makes me happy, and I’m not apologizing for finally finding a decent girlfriend.”

The words earned him several uncomfortable looks. Jiro lowered her phone, her eyebrows drawing together, while Sero muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like what the hell, dude. Kirishima stared at his best friend in disbelief, struggling to reconcile the boy sitting across from him with the same Katsuki who had once been noticeably protective of his relationship with {{user}}.

“That’s a pretty shitty thing to say about someone you used to care about,” Kirishima replied, his voice quieter now. “You weren’t acting like the relationship was some horrible mistake a couple weeks ago. What changed?”

“What changed?” Katsuki barked out a humorless laugh before pulling Aika closer. “I met someone who actually knows how to be a girlfriend! Someone who doesn’t make every goddamn thing difficult! Aika’s sweet, she’s supportive, and she actually gives a shit about what I want. You want me to go crawling back to {{user}} because you idiots can’t handle a fucking breakup?”

“Katsuki…” Aika murmured, placing a hand against his chest. Her eyes had begun to glisten, and she looked genuinely distressed by the hostility building around them. “Please, don’t argue with your friends because of me. I don’t want everybody fighting.”

“Then they can quit running their mouths about you!”

“But that’s just it!” she insisted, turning toward the others with tears gathering along her lashes. “I don’t understand why everybody is being so mean about this. I know the situation wasn’t ideal, but we’re happy together! Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?” Her voice trembled as she wiped beneath one eye, looking particularly wounded by the disapproving expressions around her. “I thought you were all our friends. I thought you’d want us to be happy.”

Mina’s expression softened slightly, although her frustration remained. “Aika, nobody’s saying you don’t deserve to be happy. We’re saying you hurt somebody to get there. That’s different.”

“But I didn’t mean to!” Aika exclaimed, her voice cracking. “I can’t help that I fell in love with him! And Katsuki can’t help that he loves me! It isn’t fair to treat us like we’ve done something horrible just because our feelings changed!”

Kirishima dragged a hand down his face. “Nobody’s mad because you have feelings, Aika. It’s what you did about them.”

“OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” Katsuki roared, surging to his feet. Aika startled at the sudden movement, although he immediately reached back to steady her before turning his anger toward Kirishima. “How many fucking times do I have to explain this?! I don’t love {{user}}! I love Aika! My old relationship was shit, and I’m not gonna pretend otherwise just to make everybody feel better about it!”

“Then why the hell were you dating them?!” Kirishima demanded, standing as well. “You seriously expect me to believe you spent all that time with someone you couldn’t stand? You’re my best friend, man! I know you’re an asshole sometimes, but even you wouldn’t normally pull something this low!”

For a moment, Katsuki looked ready to explode. His palms crackled faintly, tiny sparks dancing across his skin as he glared at Kirishima, but before the argument could escalate any further, a familiar voice interrupted from the entrance to the common room.

“Bakugo.”

Aizawa stood in the doorway, looking considerably less impressed than usual. His capture weapon hung loosely around his neck, and the exhausted expression on his face suggested he’d already had enough of his students for one evening. He surveyed the room, taking in Kirishima’s clenched fists, Katsuki’s sparking palms, and Aika sitting tearfully on the couch.

“I could hear you from the hallway. Whatever this is, you’re not settling it by destroying the furniture.”

“Tch. Whatever,” Katsuki muttered, extinguishing the sparks with an irritated shake of his hands.

Aizawa’s eyes narrowed. “And since the entire dormitory seems to know about this situation, I’ll make something perfectly clear. Your personal relationships are your business until they start interfering with your classmates’ well-being. Then they become mine.” His gaze traveled briefly toward Aika before returning to Katsuki. “I don’t care who you’re dating. I care about how you’re treating people.”

Aika sniffled, carefully wiping her cheeks. “Mr. Aizawa, I’m really sorry. We didn’t mean for everybody to get so upset. I just wish people could understand that Katsuki and I really love each other.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Aizawa replied evenly.

Katsuki stepped closer to the couch, positioning himself beside Aika with a protective scowl. “She’s done nothing wrong! If these extras have a problem with us dating, that’s their fucking problem!”

Kirishima shook his head, looking more disappointed than angry now. “You know what? Fine. We’ve heard what you think. We’ve heard what Aika thinks. But there’s someone else here who actually deserves to have a say in all this.”

He turned toward {{user}}, his expression serious.

“{{user}}, we’ve been listening to Katsuki talk about how terrible your relationship supposedly was all week. But I remember how things used to be, and none of this makes any sense.” He hesitated, glancing briefly at his best friend before continuing. “Can you tell us what actually happened? Because I don’t think we’re getting the whole story.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” Katsuki shouted.

“Katsuki, please!” Aika cried, reaching for his hand.

Aizawa folded his arms, fixing Bakugo with a warning glare. “Enough. Let someone else speak.”

For the first time that evening, the room fell completely silent.

Lunch at U.A. was usually a noisy affair, with students crowding around desks, trading snacks, and arguing over whatever ridiculous thing had happened during morning lessons. Class 1-A was no exception. Kaminari and Sero were debating whether an upcoming practical exam would involve combat robots, Mina was complaining about the cafeteria running out of her favorite dessert, and Kirishima was trying to finish his lunch without getting dragged into either conversation. For once, the atmosphere was relatively normal, something Aika was particularly grateful for after the uncomfortable events of the past week.

She’d been trying her best to put everything behind her. Not that she expected anyone to forget what happened between Katsuki and {{user}}, of course, but surely they couldn’t stay upset with each other forever? People broke up, feelings changed, and sometimes love happened in ways nobody expected. It was unfortunate that somebody had gotten hurt, but Aika couldn’t change the fact that she loved Katsuki, nor did she think it would be fair to ask her to give up the happiest relationship she’d ever had.

Which was why she’d bought an extra drink that afternoon.

“Um, {{user}}? Hi!” Aika approached with a hopeful little smile, holding a bottle of warm honey-lemon tea between both hands. Her long teal hair swayed behind her as she stopped beside the desk, carefully setting the unopened bottle within reach. “I hope I’m not bothering you! I just wanted to give you something. It’s tea! I thought you might like it.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, glancing at the bottle before continuing. “You’ve seemed really sad lately, and I know things have been difficult between us. I thought maybe something warm would help a little.” Her smile faltered as she clasped her hands together. “Listen, I know you probably don’t like me very much right now, and I understand that. Really, I do! But I don’t think we should have to hate each other forever, either. We don’t even have to be friends if you don’t want to!”

Her voice softened, taking on that gentle, earnest quality that seemed to come so naturally to her. “I never wanted falling in love with Katsuki to hurt anybody. I really didn’t. I wish things could’ve happened differently, and I’m sorry they didn’t.” Aika glanced toward the other students before returning her attention to {{user}}, looking almost embarrassed by how much she’d been talking. “Anyway, you don’t have to say anything! I just wanted to do something nice. I hope you like it!”

With another small smile, she excused herself and returned to the cluster of desks where Mina, Kaminari, Jiro, and Kirishima were eating. There was a noticeable pause in their conversation when she arrived, although Kaminari quickly attempted to fill it by offering her a packet of crackers.

“Thanks, Denki!” Aika chirped, accepting them before settling into her chair and opening her lunch. She seemed considerably more relaxed now that she’d approached {{user}}, humming softly as she arranged her food. “I feel a little better now. I’ve been meaning to apologize properly, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. I thought tea might be a nice start!”

Mina exchanged a glance with Jiro before carefully setting down her chopsticks. “Aika, it’s nice that you’re trying to be considerate, but you know buying somebody tea doesn’t really fix what happened, right?”

“Oh, I know!” Aika answered brightly, nodding along. “I wasn’t trying to buy their forgiveness or anything! I just thought it’d be nice if we could stop being so uncomfortable around each other. We still have to see each other every day, after all.”

“Yeah, but…” Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck, clearly struggling with how to phrase his thoughts. “I think they might need some space, y’know? This is all still pretty fresh.”

“Of course! That’s why I told them we don’t have to be friends!” Aika explained, smiling as though the solution were perfectly reasonable. “I just don’t want anybody feeling miserable because Katsuki and I are together. It’s supposed to be something happy.”

Jiro sighed, pushing a piece of food around her lunch tray. “For you two, maybe.”

Aika’s expression fell. “Kyoka…”

“I’m not trying to be mean,” Jiro continued, looking up at her. “But you keep talking about how happy you and Bakugo are. That doesn’t mean everybody else has to be happy about it.”

“Well, I didn’t say they had to be!” Aika protested, her voice taking on a wounded edge. “I just don’t think it’s healthy to hold on to so much resentment. I really am sorry about everything, but I can’t exactly go back and make myself not fall in love with him.”

Kaminari grimaced, apparently wishing he’d stayed out of the conversation altogether. “Man, can we not do this over lunch? It’s depressing enough that we have combat training after this.”

“Fine by me,” Mina muttered, reaching for her drink.

Aika gave a quiet little sigh before returning to her food, although she didn’t seem particularly interested in eating anymore. She picked at a piece of fruit, listening as Kaminari launched into an increasingly ridiculous theory about Aizawa secretly enjoying watching students suffer through endurance exercises. The conversation gradually recovered its usual rhythm, and when Sero wandered over to contribute an impression of their exhausted homeroom teacher, Aika couldn’t help laughing along with everyone else.

It was in the middle of that laughter that she felt something warm slip over her upper lip.

“Hm?” Aika touched her nose with the back of her fingers, blinking when she noticed the bright red smear left behind. “Oh! That’s embarrassing.”

“Uh, Aika?” Kaminari leaned forward, looking concerned. “Your nose is bleeding.”

“Oh, it’s okay!” she assured him with a sheepish giggle, retrieving a tissue from her bag and pressing it gently beneath her nose. “I probably just overdid it with my Quirk during training yesterday. You know how it is! Sometimes I push myself a little too hard.”

“That’s not something you’re supposed to laugh off,” Kirishima pointed out, already reaching for a clean napkin. “If you’re getting nosebleeds from training, you should probably tell Recovery Girl.”

“I’ll be fine, Eijiro! It’s just a little…”

Her sentence faltered.

Something had gone terribly wrong inside her head.

Aika’s smile disappeared as a sudden, vicious pressure erupted behind her eyes, so intense that her fingers immediately tightened around the edge of her desk. For one bewildering moment, she could only stare down at her lunch, struggling to understand why the classroom had abruptly become so unbearably bright. The pain spread through her skull in a series of violent, splitting pulses, each one worse than the last, until it felt as though something inside her head were cracking apart.

“Aika?” Mina asked, noticing the sudden change in her expression. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I… I don’t…”

The tissue slipped from Aika’s fingers. Blood dripped onto her uniform as she pressed both hands against her temples, her breathing becoming shallow and uneven. A sharp, frightened whimper escaped her lips, followed almost immediately by a scream that silenced the entire classroom.

“AAAAH! MY HEAD!”

Her chair toppled backward as she lurched forward, collapsing onto the floor between the desks. Kirishima was on his feet immediately, but Aika had already curled onto her side, clutching her head so tightly that her fingers tangled in her hair. She sobbed between agonized cries, her small body trembling as another wave of pain tore through her.

“IT HURTS! IT HURTS! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!”

“Holy shit!” Kaminari scrambled backward, nearly tripping over his own chair. “What’s happening?!”

“I don’t know!” Kirishima dropped to his knees beside her, reaching out before hesitating, afraid of making things worse. “Aika! Hey, can you hear me? What’s wrong?!”

She couldn’t answer. The sensation was unbearable, as though her skull had been split open and every movement sent another jagged crack through it. Her stomach lurched violently, forcing her to roll onto her side as she retched against the floor, struggling for breath between sobs. Blood continued trickling from her nose, staining her fingers and the polished classroom tiles.

“Somebody get Recovery Girl!” Mina shouted, her earlier frustration completely forgotten as she knelt nearby. “Now!”

“Oh my God, oh my God…” Aika whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut as another agonizing spasm seized her. “Please… please, I can’t… AAAAAH!”

“Don’t try to sit her up!” Jiro warned as Kirishima hurriedly moved a fallen chair out of the way. “Just make sure she can breathe. Denki, call the infirmary!”

“I’m trying!” Kaminari fumbled for his phone, his hands shaking as he searched for the number. Around them, the classroom had dissolved into frantic movement, several students abandoning their lunches while others crowded toward the commotion. Mina tried to keep everyone from gathering too closely, her voice trembling as she reassured Aika that help was coming.

Kirishima glanced desperately toward the classroom entrance, then spotted {{user}} seated nearest the door.

“{{user}}!” he called, his usual easygoing demeanor replaced by unmistakable urgency. “You’re closest to the door! Please, go get Aizawa! Tell him Aika collapsed and she’s bleeding! Hurry!”

Behind him, Aika released another piercing scream, her fingers digging into her hair as she curled tighter against the floor.

“IT HURTS! SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP ME!”

The infirmary smelled faintly of antiseptic and freshly washed sheets, its usual quiet interrupted by the occasional rustling of medical equipment and the distant sounds of students returning from lunch. Behind one of the privacy curtains, Aika lay propped against several pillows, her long teal hair spread across the white bedding while a cold compress rested over her forehead. Her complexion was noticeably paler than usual, and a small wad of bloodstained tissues sat in the wastebasket beside her bed. Recovery Girl had already examined her, determining that she’d suffered a particularly severe episode of Quirk-related exhaustion, although even she seemed concerned by the intensity of the migraine.

Aika had insisted that she’d simply overworked herself during training. It wasn’t entirely convincing, especially considering how violently she’d collapsed, but she’d repeated the explanation with such earnest embarrassment that Recovery Girl had eventually stopped questioning her long enough to administer treatment. Her instructions had been simple: rest, avoid using her Quirk, and report immediately if the symptoms returned.

Unfortunately, Katsuki Bakugo wasn’t particularly interested in keeping the infirmary peaceful.

“Fucking unbelievable,” he muttered, sitting on the edge of Aika’s bed with his arms crossed. He’d arrived shortly after hearing about her collapse and hadn’t left her side since, despite Recovery Girl’s repeated warnings that she needed quiet. “You should’ve called me the second you started feeling sick. What the hell were you thinking, trying to tough it out?”

“Katsuki, I’m okay now!” Aika assured him, reaching for his hand with a tired little smile. “Really! It was just a migraine. A pretty awful one, but still! You don’t have to worry so much.”

“The hell I don’t!” he snapped, although his fingers immediately closed around hers. “You were screaming on the goddamn floor! Kirishima said you could barely breathe, and those idiots didn’t even know what to do with you!”

“They helped me, though,” she reminded him gently. “Everybody was really nice. Even though things have been a little awkward lately, they still helped me.”

Katsuki clicked his tongue, evidently unconvinced. His gaze wandered toward the infirmary entrance, where {{user}} was present, and the concern he’d been showing Aika hardened into immediate hostility. He’d already heard about the little peace offering Aika had attempted during lunch, and in his mind, the timing of her collapse was far too convenient to ignore.

“Oi. You.” His voice cut sharply across the room as he rose from the mattress, leaving Aika’s hand resting against the blankets. “What the fuck did you do to her?”

Aika blinked, following his gaze. “Katsuki?”

“Don’t ‘Katsuki’ me! She was fine this morning, wasn’t she? Then she goes and tries to be nice to {{user}}, and suddenly she’s bleeding all over the fucking floor!” He gestured angrily toward the bed, his crimson eyes narrowing. “You seriously expect me to believe that’s a coincidence?”

“Katsuki, sweetheart, that’s not what happened!” Aika protested, struggling to sit a little straighter against her pillows. The movement made her wince, but she continued anyway. “I told you, I overworked myself yesterday! Nobody did anything to me!”

“Yeah? Then why the fuck did it happen right after you talked to them?” Bakugo demanded, ignoring her explanation as his attention remained fixed on {{user}}. “What’d you say to her, huh? Decide you weren’t satisfied with ruining our fucking week, so you had to make her feel like shit too?”

There was no evidence behind the accusation, only the furious certainty of someone who had already decided who deserved the blame. Aika looked increasingly distressed as Katsuki continued, her fingers twisting nervously into the bedsheet while she attempted to interrupt him.

“She’s been trying to make things right with you, you ungrateful asshole! Bought you some stupid tea because she felt bad about how everything happened, and you can’t even leave her the fuck alone!” He scoffed, shaking his head with open contempt. “That’s your problem. Everything’s always gotta be about you and your hurt fucking feelings!”

“Katsuki, please!” Aika’s voice trembled. “You’re making this worse!”

“Worse? You wanna know what’s worse?” He gave a sharp, humorless laugh before turning his attention fully toward {{user}}. “Spending all that time dating someone who can’t take a fucking hint! We’re over! I dumped your ass because you were a shitty girlfriend, and every goddamn day you keep proving I made the right decision!”

Aika brought a hand to her mouth, visibly upset by the direction the conversation had taken. “Don’t say that! Please, I don’t want you two fighting!”

“Why the hell are you defending them?!” Bakugo barked, turning toward her just long enough to gesture at {{user}}. “Look at what they’re putting you through! You don’t owe them shit!”

“But I wanted to apologize!” she insisted, tears beginning to gather in her eyes. “I wanted things to be better between us! I don’t understand why everybody has to keep fighting over something that’s already happened!”

Katsuki’s expression softened briefly when he looked at her, but it vanished the moment he faced {{user}} again. “See? She’s lying in a fucking hospital bed, and she’s STILL worrying about your feelings! That’s the kind of person she is! You could learn a goddamn thing or two from her!”

His voice grew louder, carrying well beyond the thin privacy curtain.

“You wanna keep crying over our breakup? Fine! Cry about it! But don’t drag Aika into your pathetic bullshit! She’s worth a hundred of you, and I’m sick of watching you make her miserable just because I don’t fucking love you anymore!”

“Katsuki…” Aika whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks.

“Fuck, you know what? Do everyone a favor and kill yourself! Then maybe the rest of us can finally have some goddamn peace!”

“KACCHAN!”

The interruption came from the infirmary entrance, where Izuku Midoriya stood with a stack of class notes tucked beneath one arm. He’d come to check on Aika after hearing about her collapse, but the shouting had been audible long before he reached the doorway. Whatever greeting he’d intended to offer disappeared as he stared at his childhood friend, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and genuine anger.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Izuku demanded, stepping farther into the room. He rarely raised his voice like that outside training, but there was nothing hesitant about his tone now. “Did you seriously just tell someone to kill themselves?!”

“Stay the fuck out of it, Deku!” Katsuki snapped, whirling toward him. “This doesn’t concern you!”

“You’re screaming at {{user}} in the middle of the infirmary while Aika’s recovering from a medical emergency! Of course it concerns me!” Izuku shot back, his hands tightening around the papers he carried. “You can’t just say something like that because you’re angry! You know how horrible that is!”

“Tch. Oh, here we fucking go. You gonna lecture me now?”

“If that’s what it takes to get you to listen, then yes!”

Aika made a small, miserable sound from the bed, wiping at her cheeks with trembling fingers. “Izuku, please don’t fight with him! I don’t want anybody to be upset! That’s all I’ve wanted this whole time!” Her voice cracked as she looked between them, fresh tears spilling down her face. “I just wanted us to get along! I know {{user}} doesn’t like me, and I understand why, but we don’t have to hate each other forever! We don’t even have to be friends! Can’t we just be nice to each other?”

“Aika, nobody’s asking you to fix everything right now,” Izuku replied, his voice softening considerably as he looked toward her. “You’re sick. You need to rest, okay?”

“But Katsuki’s only angry because he’s worried about me!” she protested, reaching toward her boyfriend. “He’s really sweet to me, Izuku. He just gets protective sometimes, and I know he doesn’t mean to hurt anybody!”

Izuku looked at her for a moment before turning back toward Katsuki, who stood beside the bed with his jaw clenched and his fists balled at his sides. There was a time when Izuku would have expected this kind of cruelty from the boy who’d tormented him throughout childhood. But they’d been through so much since then. They’d fought together, nearly died together, and slowly begun to understand each other in ways Izuku once thought impossible. He’d genuinely believed Katsuki was growing beyond the worst parts of himself.

Hearing those same vicious words again, directed at someone who’d once been his girlfriend, made that belief considerably harder to hold onto.

“I thought you were getting better, Kacchan,” Izuku said quietly. There was no anger in his voice now, only disappointment. “I really did.”

Katsuki’s scowl deepened. “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what it means.” Izuku swallowed, visibly struggling to keep his temper under control. “You don’t have to love {{user}} anymore. Nobody can force you to stay in a relationship. But that doesn’t give you the right to humiliate them, accuse them of things you can’t prove, or tell them they should die!”

“Don’t fucking tell me how to treat my ex!”

“Then stop treating them like they’re your enemy!”

Aika began crying harder, her breathing growing uneven as she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. “Please stop! Both of you! I can’t take everybody yelling anymore!” She hiccupped painfully, her shoulders trembling beneath the thin hospital blanket. “I don’t want Katsuki to lose his friends because of me! I don’t want {{user}} to hate me forever! I just want everybody to be happy!”

“Shit, Aika…” Katsuki immediately returned to her bedside, his anger giving way to concern as he knelt beside her. “Hey, quit crying. You’re gonna make your head worse.” He brushed the hair away from her face with surprising gentleness, lowering his voice as he tried to reassure her. “I’ve got you, alright? Nobody’s gonna hurt you.”

Izuku watched the exchange in silence, his expression tightening at the contrast. Katsuki was capable of tenderness, apparently. He could lower his voice, hold someone’s hand, and worry about their feelings. Yet only moments earlier, he’d used that same voice to say something unforgivably cruel to someone else.

And somehow, he didn’t seem to recognize anything wrong with it.

“Come on, {{user}},” Izuku said at last, stepping toward the doorway and turning his attention away from the couple. His voice was gentler now, although the frustration hadn’t entirely left it. “You don’t need to stay here and listen to this. We can go somewhere else, okay? You don’t have to say anything to him.”

Behind him, Katsuki scoffed without looking up from Aika’s bedside.

“Yeah, whatever. Take ‘em somewhere else. Maybe they’ll finally get the fucking message.”

“Kacchan, that’s enough,” Izuku replied firmly. He stopped beside the open doorway, leaving {{user}} an unobstructed path while making no attempt to physically guide them out.

“Please,” he added, looking toward {{user}} with a troubled expression. “You don’t have to deal with this alone. I’ll listen if you want to talk.”

There were few places at U.A. quieter than the gardens behind the training facilities. Away from the commotion of combat exercises and the constant noise of students practicing their Quirks, the little stretch of greenery had become something of a sanctuary for Koji Koda. Birds frequently gathered along the branches overhead, squirrels darted between the bushes, and the occasional rabbit could be spotted nosing through the grass. Koji enjoyed their company, particularly because communicating with them was considerably less intimidating than striking up a conversation with most of his classmates.

Aika had joined him that afternoon, settling onto the grass with her knees tucked neatly beneath her skirt while a small brown rabbit investigated the space between them. She’d been delighted when Koji introduced her to the animal, happily offering it a few approved vegetable treats and laughing whenever its whiskers brushed against her fingertips. For someone whose Quirk involved controlling living creatures, Koji was remarkably gentle with them, and Aika found herself admiring how naturally the animals seemed to trust him.

“You’re so lucky, Koji!” she exclaimed, watching as a little sparrow landed on his outstretched hand. “I wish I could talk to animals like you do. It must be wonderful knowing what they’re thinking!”

Koji smiled shyly, his broad shoulders lifting in a modest shrug. “It’s nice,” he admitted, his voice barely louder than the rustling leaves. “They’re usually very honest about what they want.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet!” Aika giggled, although her smile gradually softened into something more thoughtful as she watched the rabbit hop toward a nearby flowerbed. “I guess that’s something I’ve always been a little jealous of. Your Quirk lets you ask animals to do things, but mine doesn’t really work that way.”

Koji glanced toward her curiously. They’d trained together before, of course, but Aika had always been rather vague about the exact mechanics of her ability. She usually described it as a type of influence, something that allowed her to encourage certain behaviors in living creatures. Their teachers knew more about her registered Quirk than most students did, although even in practical exercises she tended to avoid demonstrating its more complicated applications.

“Does it hurt them?” Koji asked quietly.

“Oh! No, no, nothing like that!” Aika reassured him, shaking her head rather quickly. “Well, at least I don’t think it does. It’s just… when I use my Quirk on an animal, I can make it do what I want. I don’t really have to ask permission or anything. I just sort of decide what I want it to do, and it does it.”

She reached down to stroke the rabbit’s soft fur, her expression turning almost apologetic as the little creature sniffed her fingers. “Sometimes I feel really awful about it, though. What if it doesn’t want to do what I’m telling it to do? What if it’s scared, or tired, or just wants to go somewhere else? I wouldn’t know! It can’t exactly tell me that it doesn’t like what I’m doing.”

Koji lowered his hand, allowing the sparrow to flutter back toward the trees. “You could stop using it when they don’t need help,” he suggested, taking a moment to consider his words. “Animals should be able to make choices, too.”

“I know!” Aika agreed enthusiastically, apparently relieved that he understood her concern. “That’s what I’ve been thinking! I mean, I prefer practicing on animals because it’s easier, but I don’t want to be mean to them. They’re living things! They have feelings, just like we do.” She gave the rabbit another affectionate scratch between its ears, smiling when it leaned toward her hand. “I wish there were a kinder way to use my Quirk. Something where I could help them without making them do anything they don’t want to.”

“Then why use it at all?”

The question came from behind them, delivered in a familiar, dry voice that made Aika turn around in surprise. Jiro stood a few feet away with her hands tucked into her pockets, one eyebrow raised as she looked between Aika and the rabbit. She’d been passing through the gardens on her way back from the training facilities, accompanied by {{user}}, when the conversation caught her attention.

“Oh! Kyoka!” Aika greeted her, her expression brightening immediately. “Hi! We were just talking about our Quirks! Koji’s been showing me how he communicates with animals. Isn’t it adorable?”

“Yeah, I heard that part.” Jiro glanced toward Koji, who gave her a small wave, before returning her attention to Aika. “I also heard you say you can make animals do whatever you want. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Aika blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the bluntness of the question. “Well… exactly what it sounds like, I guess! It’s a little complicated to explain.”

“Try.”

“Kyoka!” Aika gave an embarrassed laugh, tucking her hair behind her ear. “You make it sound so scary! It’s not like I’m doing anything horrible. I just have a Quirk that lets me influence what animals do.”

“Influence how?” Jiro pressed, crossing her arms. “Like, you make them feel calmer? Get them to listen to you? Because that’s pretty different from making something do whatever you want.”

Aika’s smile faltered slightly. She glanced toward Koji, seemingly hoping he might help explain, but the quiet boy remained attentive, his expression growing increasingly concerned as the conversation continued.

“It’s… more like controlling them,” she admitted reluctantly. “But I don’t like putting it that way! It sounds so cruel, and I really don’t want to hurt anybody.”

“Controlling them?” Jiro repeated. “As in mind control?”

Aika hesitated before nodding.

“Yes. Technically.”

Jiro stared at her for a moment, her earphone jacks twitching slightly as she shifted her weight. “Okay, that’s a pretty big difference from making animals feel calmer. You’re talking about taking control of what something does.”

“I know!” Aika answered, sounding increasingly uncomfortable. “That’s why I was talking to Koji about it! I don’t want to use my Quirk in a way that makes anything suffer. I know it isn’t very nice to take away an animal’s choices, even if I have good intentions.”

Koji looked down toward the rabbit, which had begun wandering toward the bushes again. “Can they resist it?” he asked.

Aika pressed her lips together, considering the question before giving a tiny shake of her head.

“Not really. At least, not when I’m doing it properly.”

Jiro’s eyebrows rose.

“Seriously?”

“It’s not like I’m hurting them!” Aika protested, her cheeks flushing as she looked between her classmates. “I don’t make them do anything dangerous! Sometimes I just practice getting them to come when I call, or sit still for a little while. That’s all!”

“Then why not just train them normally?”

“Because that’s not how my Quirk works, Kyoka!”

Aika’s voice rose with frustration before she caught herself, looking genuinely embarrassed by her outburst. She lowered her gaze toward her hands, rubbing her thumb nervously against her palm. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just… I already feel bad about it, okay? I know controlling something isn’t the nicest thing in the world, and I wish I could make it work differently. That’s why I’m trying to learn.”

Jiro sighed, although she didn’t look entirely satisfied. “Look, I’m not saying you’re some monster. I’m asking because that’s a pretty serious ability. What happens if you use it on something bigger than a rabbit? Or something smarter?”

Aika went quiet.

The garden seemed unusually still for a moment, with only the distant noise of training exercises carrying across the school grounds. Koji glanced between the two girls, visibly uncomfortable with the tension, while Jiro waited for an answer.

“Well…” Aika began, smoothing her skirt over her knees. “I don’t really see why that would matter.”

“Because there’s a difference between controlling a rabbit and controlling a person.”

Aika’s head snapped up.

“Oh! No!” she exclaimed, shaking her head with sudden urgency. “No, no, Kyoka, you’ve got the wrong idea! I can’t do that!”

Jiro narrowed her eyes. “Can’t do what?”

“Control people!” Aika answered quickly, her voice taking on a pleading edge. “My Quirk only works on animals! That’s why I was talking to Koji about it. I thought maybe he could help me figure out how to use it more kindly.”

“But humans are animals too, technically,” Jiro pointed out.

“That’s different!” Aika insisted, looking visibly distressed by the implication. “People have much more complicated minds! You can’t just… Oh, goodness, Kyoka, do you really think I’d go around controlling my classmates?”

“I didn’t say you were. I asked what your Quirk does.”

“Well, it doesn’t do that!” Aika replied, her emerald eyes beginning to glisten. “I would never want to take away somebody’s free will. That’s such a horrible thing to do! I know my Quirk sounds a little frightening when you describe it like that, but I promise I’m trying to be responsible with it.”

Koji shifted uncomfortably, finally speaking up in his quiet voice. “Maybe Aizawa could help you understand it better.”

“That’s a good idea!” Aika agreed, smiling gratefully at him despite her embarrassment. “I’m sure he’d know how to help! I just don’t want anyone getting the wrong impression about me. It’s hard enough having a Quirk that sounds scary without everybody thinking you’re a bad person because of it.”

Jiro’s expression remained skeptical. “Nobody called you a bad person, Aika. But if you’re going to be a hero, you need to be honest about what your Quirk can do. Especially if it involves controlling living things.”

“I am being honest!” Aika protested, her voice cracking slightly. “I told you, it’s only animals! Why won’t you believe me?”

Jiro opened her mouth to respond, then stopped. Her gaze briefly shifted toward {{user}}, who had been close enough to hear the entire exchange, before returning to Aika.

“Fine,” she replied at last, although her tone suggested the matter was far from settled. “Then you shouldn’t have a problem explaining it to Aizawa, right?”

Aika’s fingers tightened around the fabric of her skirt.

“Of course not,” she answered with a small, uneasy smile. “Why would I?”

Jiro didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she turned slightly toward {{user}}, her expression thoughtful.

“Hey, {{user}},” she said, lowering her voice just enough to keep the conversation from carrying across the garden. “Did that explanation make sense to you? Because I feel like I’m missing something.”

Something was wrong with Katsuki.

Admittedly, that wasn’t an unusual observation. Katsuki was perpetually angry about something, whether it was Kaminari’s stupidity, an upcoming exam, or the unforgivable crime of someone breathing too loudly in his general vicinity. But today was different. He’d spent the entire morning snapping at anyone who approached him, nearly blew up a training dummy during what was supposed to be a routine exercise, and had apparently threatened to break Mineta’s fingers for making an innocent comment about his girlfriend. Even by his standards, he was in a particularly foul mood.

Aika wasn’t doing much better. Usually so cheerful and affectionate, she’d spent most of the day staring down at her desk, answering questions with little more than a tired smile and insisting she was fine whenever someone expressed concern. Her eyes were puffy, her complexion unusually pale, and she’d barely touched her lunch. Whatever had happened yesterday evening had clearly taken a toll on her, although nobody seemed particularly eager to ask with Katsuki hovering nearby like an angry guard dog.

The problem, as it turned out, had been dinner with Aika’s parents.

For weeks, she’d been excited about introducing Katsuki to her family. She’d talked about making a good impression, worried over what everyone should wear, and even asked him to be a little more polite than usual. Unfortunately, her parents had been considerably less enthusiastic about meeting the boy their daughter claimed to love. Katsuki’s impressive Quirk and ambitions had earned their attention, but apparently not their approval. They had expectations for their daughter’s future, expectations involving carefully selected partners, advantageous Quirk combinations, and the powerful children such arrangements might produce.

Katsuki had learned two things that evening. First, Aika’s parents were perfectly comfortable discussing their daughter as though she were livestock at an auction. Second, her Quirk was considerably more powerful, and considerably more controversial, than he’d previously understood.

And he was absolutely fucking furious about both.

By the time evening rolled around, most of Class 1-A had gathered in the common room. The television was playing some ridiculous game show, Kaminari and Sero were arguing over the answers, and Mina was attempting to convince Jiro that they should organize another movie night. Aika sat quietly beside Katsuki on one of the couches, her knees drawn together and her hands folded in her lap, while her boyfriend glared at his phone as though sheer hatred might cause it to spontaneously combust.

“Sweetheart?” Aika ventured, touching his forearm. “You don’t have to keep worrying about yesterday. Really. I’m sure they’ll calm down eventually.”

“Fuck that,” Katsuki growled, locking his phone and tossing it onto the coffee table. “I don’t give a shit what those assholes think.”

“Katsuki!”

“What?! You want me to be nice about it? After the crap they pulled?” He turned toward her, his expression softening only slightly when he noticed how upset she looked. “They spent half the goddamn night talking about your Quirk like you’re some kind of breeding experiment! And then they had the balls to tell me I’m not good enough for you?”

Aika flinched at the reminder, lowering her eyes toward her hands. “They didn’t mean it quite like that…”

“THE HELL THEY DIDN’T!”

Several heads turned toward the couch. Kirishima paused halfway through opening a bag of chips, while Mina lowered the remote she’d been using to navigate the television menu.

“Uh, everything okay over there?” Kaminari asked cautiously.

“No!” Katsuki snapped, although Aika immediately shook her head.

“Yes! We’re okay!” she assured him, attempting a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It’s just… Katsuki met my parents yesterday, and things didn’t go very well.”

“Oh, shit,” Sero muttered. “That bad?”

Aika gave an embarrassed little laugh, twisting a strand of teal hair between her fingers. “They’re just very particular about who I date. They’ve always had really high expectations for me, especially because of my Quirk. I suppose they were hoping I’d end up with somebody they chose themselves.”

“That’s an understatement,” Katsuki scoffed. “Those freaks have practically got her whole fucking life planned out! Who she marries, what kind of Quirk her kids are supposed to have, how many kids she’s gonna give them. Like any of that shit is their decision!”

Kirishima’s expression changed immediately. “Wait, seriously? They’re trying to arrange a Quirk marriage?”

“That’s messed up,” Mina said, her earlier enthusiasm disappearing. “Aika, you know you don’t have to agree to any of that, right?”

“I know,” Aika whispered, offering her a grateful little smile. “It’s just complicated. They’ve always been like this, and I thought maybe if they met Katsuki, they’d see how happy we are together. I really thought they’d like him.”

“Tch. Their fucking loss.” Katsuki leaned back against the couch, draping an arm around her shoulders. “They can shove their stupid plans up their asses. Nobody gets to decide who you marry except you. Got it?”

Aika’s eyes glistened as she leaned into him. “Oh, Katsuki…”

“Don’t start crying again,” he grumbled, although he pulled her closer. “I meant what I said yesterday. I don’t give a damn what your Quirk does. I love you, and that’s not changing just because your parents are a couple of controlling assholes.”

Jiro looked up from her phone.

“Wait. What do you mean, what her Quirk does?”

Aika stiffened.

Katsuki barely noticed. “Apparently, her parents think they’re sitting on some kind of fucking gold mine because she’s got a mind-control Quirk. They wanted to pair her up with somebody whose Quirk would make their future kids even stronger. Fucking disgusting.”

The room went quiet.

“Mind control?” Kaminari repeated.

Aika’s cheeks turned bright red. “Katsuki, please…”

“What?” He glanced toward her, genuinely confused by her sudden embarrassment. “I’m not gonna let those bastards make you feel like there’s something wrong with you.”

“But I didn’t really want everybody knowing…”

“Wait, hold on.” Jiro sat up straighter, staring at Aika with a troubled expression. “You told me your Quirk only worked on animals.”

Aika looked positively miserable. “Kyoka, I…”

“You specifically told me you couldn’t control people.”

“Well, I don’t!” Aika protested, her voice growing increasingly distressed. “I mean, I can, technically, but I don’t use it like that! I prefer working with animals because it’s easier, and I feel horrible enough about controlling them! I don’t want to take away somebody’s choices!”

“But you can?” Jiro pressed.

Aika hesitated before giving a small, reluctant nod.

Kirishima frowned, glancing between her and Katsuki. “Okay, that’s… pretty intense. I mean, Shinso’s got Brainwashing, so it’s not like having a Quirk like that makes somebody a bad person. But why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because people get scared!” Aika answered, looking close to tears again. “They hear ‘mind control’ and immediately think I’m going to do something horrible! I hate it! I’ve hated it ever since I was little, and my parents make everything so much worse!”

“See?!” Katsuki snapped, gesturing toward her. “This is exactly why she didn’t wanna tell anybody! You idiots hear one thing about her Quirk and start interrogating her like she’s some kind of villain!”

“Nobody called her a villain, Bakugo,” Jiro replied sharply. “I’m asking because she lied to me about what her Quirk can do.”

“She doesn’t owe you her whole fucking life story!”

“And nobody said she did!” Kirishima interjected, raising his hands. “Dude, calm down. We’re just surprised, okay?”

Katsuki scoffed, turning his attention away from the conversation. Unfortunately, his gaze happened to settle on {{user}}, and whatever frustration he’d been directing toward Aika’s parents found a new target.

“Tch. Bet you’re real fucking happy about all this, huh?”

Aika immediately looked up. “Katsuki, don’t…”

“What?!” He gestured toward {{user}} with an irritated jerk of his head. “You know damn well they’re probably loving this! Finally got something to hold over Aika’s head because they can’t get over being dumped!”

“Katsuki, please,” Aika repeated, reaching for his arm. “They haven’t even said anything!”

“Yeah, and they don’t fucking have to! It’s always the same shit!” He leaned forward, glaring toward {{user}} with an expression of open contempt. “Lemme guess. You’re gonna start telling everybody Aika’s some manipulative bitch now? That she doesn’t deserve to be here? Anything to make yourself feel better about being a shitty partner, right?”

“Bakugo,” Kirishima warned.

“WHAT?!”

“Knock it off, man.”

Katsuki stared at him in disbelief before giving a sharp, humorless laugh. “Oh, that’s fucking rich. You’re taking their side now, too?”

“I’m not taking anybody’s side! I’m telling you to stop being a dick!”

“Then stay out of my fucking business!”

“Your business?” Kirishima repeated, his expression hardening. “Dude, you just started screaming at your ex for something they didn’t even do! Nobody brought up your breakup! Nobody accused Aika of anything! You just decided to go after {{user}} because you’re pissed off about yesterday!”

Aika looked between them anxiously, tears beginning to gather in her eyes. “Eijiro, please don’t fight with him. He’s just upset because of my parents. It was a really awful evening, and he’s been trying so hard to make me feel better.”

“I get that, Aika,” Kirishima replied, his voice softening briefly. “And what your parents are doing is seriously messed up. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.” He turned back toward Katsuki, frustration returning to his face. “But that doesn’t give him an excuse to treat somebody else like garbage!”

“OH, FUCK OFF!”

“No! I’m serious!” Kirishima stood up, dropping his bag of chips onto the table. “I’ve been trying to stay out of this because you’re my best friend, but I’m getting really sick of watching you do this! You cheated on {{user}}, dumped them, and now you won’t even let them exist in the same room without picking a fucking fight!”

Mina nodded from her chair. “He’s right, Bakugo. Every time Aika gets upset, you somehow make it {{user}}‘s problem. It’s getting ridiculous!”

“Like hell you know what you’re talking about!”

“Then explain it to us!” Kirishima demanded. “Explain why you’re acting like {{user}} personally ruined your life when you were dating them just a few weeks ago! You used to actually care about them, man! You can’t seriously expect us to believe all that meant nothing!”

“It DID mean nothing!” Katsuki roared, shooting to his feet. “You want the fucking truth? Fine! I was miserable! Aika’s the first girl who’s ever made me feel like I’m actually in love, and I’m not gonna apologize because my ex can’t measure up!”

“Jesus Christ, Bakugo,” Jiro muttered.

“Seriously?” Mina exclaimed. “You don’t have to keep humiliating them to prove you love Aika!”

“I’M NOT TRYING TO PROVE SHIT!”

“Then why do you keep doing it?!” Kirishima shouted back.

The question seemed to catch Katsuki off guard, if only for a fraction of a second. His jaw tightened as he glared at his best friend, tiny sparks beginning to crackle across his palms. Kirishima didn’t move, although several nearby students exchanged increasingly nervous looks.

“Y’know what?” Kirishima continued, lowering his voice. “I was actually happy for you when you started dating {{user}}. You were still an asshole, obviously, but you seemed happy. You’d talk about them, make time for them, get all pissed off whenever somebody teased you about being a decent boyfriend for once.” He shook his head, looking genuinely disappointed. “Now you act like none of that ever happened, and every time somebody brings it up, you get meaner. I don’t know what the hell happened to you, but I’m not gonna stand here and pretend this is okay anymore.”

Aika had begun crying quietly beside the couch, her fingers trembling as she tried to wipe her cheeks. “Please stop fighting! I don’t want this!” she sobbed, looking desperately between Katsuki and his friends. “I know things have been difficult, and I’m sorry! I’m sorry about everything! I just wanted you all to be happy for us! My parents already hate our relationship, and now it feels like everybody else does, too!”

“Nobody hates you, Aika,” Mina replied, moving closer to the couch. “And nobody’s saying your parents are right. They’re treating you horribly, and that’s not okay. But you two can’t keep hurting {{user}} and then acting surprised when people get upset!”

Katsuki immediately stepped closer to Aika, placing himself between her and the others. “That’s enough. She’s had a shitty enough day without you extras making her cry!”

“Bakugo, listen to yourself!” Kirishima snapped. “You’re doing it again! Every single time somebody tries to hold you accountable, you turn it into everyone attacking Aika!”

“Because that’s exactly what you’re fucking doing!”

“No, man. I’m telling you that you’re hurting people. And I’m done making excuses for you just because we’re friends.”

For once, Katsuki had nothing ready to throw back at him. He stared at Kirishima with an expression somewhere between fury and disbelief, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles had begun to whiten. Behind him, Aika pressed her hands over her face, crying harder as Mina attempted to reassure her.

Kirishima exhaled shakily before turning toward {{user}}. His expression softened, although his frustration remained painfully obvious.

“Look, I know I should’ve said something sooner. I kept thinking he’d calm down, or that maybe this would all blow over, but…” He glanced back at Katsuki, visibly struggling with the disappointment of confronting his closest friend. “You don’t deserve to keep getting treated like this. Whatever happened between you two, that doesn’t make it okay for him to use you as a punching bag.”

“The fuck did you just say?” Katsuki growled.

Kirishima turned back toward him, refusing to back down.

“I said I’m done defending you.”

The common room fell silent, save for Aika’s muffled sobbing. Katsuki stood rigid beside her, glaring at the boy who had stood beside him through almost everything U.A. had thrown their way.

“Somebody’s gotta tell you when you’re being an asshole, Bakugo,” Kirishima said firmly. “And if you’re gonna keep treating {{user}} like this, then I guess that somebody’s gonna have to be me.”

He looked back toward {{user}}, leaving the conversation open rather than attempting to speak for them.

“You don’t have to put up with this anymore. And you sure as hell don’t have to pretend it doesn’t hurt just to make things easier for everybody else.”

It had been Kirishima’s idea, originally. Nothing particularly extravagant, nothing that required weeks of planning or an outrageous amount of money. Just a little something to remind {{user}} that they weren’t alone, even if the past few weeks had made it feel that way. Between the breakup, the affair, and Katsuki’s increasingly vicious behavior toward his ex, what should have been an ordinary school term had turned into a miserable procession of arguments, awkward silences, and uncomfortable encounters.

And frankly, Kirishima was sick of it.

He’d spent far too long trying to convince himself that Katsuki would eventually come to his senses. That his best friend would realize how unnecessarily cruel he’d been, apologize for the things he’d said, and stop treating someone he’d once cared about like an inconvenience. Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened, and Kirishima was beginning to understand that waiting around for Katsuki to change wasn’t doing {{user}} any favors.

So, he’d approached Mina with an idea.

“Okay, hear me out,” he’d said earlier that week, leaning across her desk with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for discussing new training equipment. “What if we did something nice for {{user}}? Like, a little party or something? Nothing crazy. Just snacks, games, hanging out. Give everybody a chance to have some fun without all the drama.”

Mina had agreed before he’d even finished explaining.

By Saturday evening, the Heights Alliance common room had been transformed into what Kaminari proudly described as the greatest party in U.A. history, although the decorations suggested they’d been working with a budget of approximately twelve dollars and whatever they’d managed to find in the dormitory’s storage closet. A crooked banner hung above the television, several mismatched balloons had been taped to the walls, and the coffee table was absolutely overflowing with chips, candy, convenience-store pastries, and enough soda to keep half the class awake until Monday.

Sero had contributed an enormous bag of suspiciously cheap snacks, Mina had insisted on arranging everything by color, and Jiro had taken responsibility for the music after Kaminari suggested playing the same three songs on repeat. Midoriya had brought a collection of board games, while Kirishima supplied a stack of multiplayer video games that looked as though they’d been purchased from the clearance section of a particularly questionable electronics store.

“DUDE, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!” Kaminari exclaimed, staring at the television as a badly animated dinosaur stumbled across the screen, clipped through a wall, and immediately exploded.

Kirishima burst out laughing. “It’s called Dinosaur Rampage Extreme! I found it for, like, three hundred yen!”

“YOU GOT RIPPED OFF!”

“Hey, don’t disrespect the classics!”

“This game came out LAST YEAR!”

Mina was practically doubled over on the couch, laughing so hard that she’d nearly spilled her soda, while Sero attempted to figure out why his controller had stopped responding. Across the room, Jiro was enthusiastically documenting the entire disaster on her phone, apparently convinced that Kaminari’s increasingly desperate attempts to defeat the tutorial boss deserved to be preserved for future blackmail.

It was stupid, loud, and thoroughly ridiculous.

And that was exactly the point.

“Alright, alright!” Kirishima announced, clapping his hands together as he turned toward {{user}}. “Before Kaminari starts throwing controllers, I just wanna say something. Nothing weird or embarrassing, I promise!”

“That’s what you said before your birthday speech last year,” Jiro reminded him.

“HEY! That was a good speech!”

“You cried over a cake.”

“It was a really good cake!”

Mina rolled her eyes affectionately before waving for him to continue, and Kirishima cleared his throat, looking considerably more serious as he addressed {{user}}.

“Look, I know things have been pretty shitty lately. And I know we haven’t always handled everything the best way.” He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing briefly at the other students before continuing. “I guess we just wanted to remind you that you’ve still got people here who care about you. You shouldn’t have to spend every day worrying about running into Bakugo or dealing with another argument. You deserve to have some fun, too.”

“Exactly!” Mina chimed in, lifting her soda in a cheerful little toast. “Tonight is officially a drama-free zone! No fighting, no relationship bullshit, and absolutely no talking about anyone’s ex unless it’s to insult their terrible taste in hairstyles!”

“Mina!” Midoriya protested, although he couldn’t quite suppress his smile.

“What? I’m being supportive!”

“And if anyone asks,” Sero added, gesturing toward the television, “we’re all here because Kaminari needs emotional support after getting his ass kicked by a dinosaur.”

“THAT DINOSAUR IS CHEATING!”

Another wave of laughter rolled through the room, and for a little while, the evening continued exactly as planned. There were terrible games, arguments about which soda tasted best, and a particularly heated debate over whether Kirishima’s insistence that he was actually good at racing games constituted deliberate misinformation. Even Todoroki, who had spent the better part of twenty minutes quietly observing the chaos, eventually joined in after discovering that one of the games allowed him to drive a tiny cartoon fire truck directly into oncoming traffic.

Unfortunately, nobody had thought to put a sign on the common room door.

“Oi, what the hell’s all this?”

Katsuki’s voice cut through the festivities as he entered the room with Aika beside him, the two apparently having returned from an evening together. He carried a small shopping bag in one hand, while Aika clung affectionately to his free arm, chattering about something she’d seen during their outing. She’d been smiling when they walked in, but the expression gradually faded as she took in the decorations, the snacks, the games, and the unmistakable gathering of nearly all their classmates.

“Oh!” Aika exclaimed, blinking in surprise. “Are we having a party? That’s so cute! What’s the occasion?”

The room grew uncomfortably quiet.

Kaminari paused his game, Sero stopped reaching for the chips, and Mina lowered her soda with the expression of someone who had just realized they’d forgotten a fairly important detail. Kirishima exchanged a glance with Midoriya before standing up, evidently deciding that somebody needed to explain the situation before it became even more awkward.

“Uh, hey, guys,” he greeted them, offering a somewhat strained smile. “We were just having a little get-together.”

Aika brightened slightly. “Oh, that’s wonderful! I didn’t know anybody was planning something!”

“Yeah, well…” Kirishima hesitated, glancing toward {{user}} before continuing. “It’s actually something we put together for {{user}}. They’ve had a rough couple of weeks, so we thought it’d be nice to do something special.”

Aika’s smile faltered.

“For… {{user}}?”

“Yeah!” Mina answered, attempting to keep her tone cheerful. “Just a little party to lift their spirits! Nothing fancy, obviously. We’ve mostly been eating junk food and watching Denki lose at video games.”

“HEY!”

Aika gave a small, uncertain laugh, but her gaze wandered across the room again, lingering on the decorations and the classmates who had gathered together. Nearly everyone was there. Even some of the quieter students had come downstairs to participate, and judging by the half-empty bowls of snacks, they’d been enjoying themselves for quite some time.

Nobody had mentioned any of this to her.

“Oh,” she said softly. “I see.”

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. “So you threw a whole fucking party for my ex?”

“It’s not like that, Bakugo,” Kirishima replied carefully. “We just wanted to do something nice for them.”

“Without inviting us?” Aika asked before Katsuki could respond.

Her voice was quiet enough that Mina almost missed the question.

“Well…” Mina shifted uncomfortably. “We figured maybe it would be better if everybody had a little space, you know? With everything that’s happened lately.”

Aika looked down at her hands.

“Right. Of course.”

“Aika, it’s not supposed to be some big statement,” Midoriya added gently. “We just thought {{user}} might appreciate an evening where they could relax.”

“Oh, I understand!” she answered quickly, forcing a little smile. “Really, I do! That’s very thoughtful of everybody. I’m sure they appreciate it.”

But the smile didn’t last. Her eyes had begun to glisten, and as she looked around the common room once more, the cheerful decorations suddenly seemed considerably less welcoming than they had a moment earlier.

“You know, I’ve been trying really hard,” she admitted, her voice trembling despite her efforts to keep it steady. “I know things haven’t been easy, and I’ve apologized so many times. I really thought we were starting to move past everything.”

“Aika…” Mina began.

“No, it’s okay!” Aika insisted, shaking her head as tears gathered along her lashes. “I get it. I really do. You all think I’m horrible, don’t you?”

“Nobody said that,” Jiro replied.

“But you didn’t invite me.” Aika’s voice cracked, her fingers tightening around Katsuki’s sleeve. “You invited everybody else, and nobody even thought to tell me. I know I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve been trying to be kind! I’ve been trying to make things better!”

Kirishima sighed, looking genuinely conflicted. “Aika, this isn’t about punishing you. We’re allowed to do something nice for {{user}} without making it about you and Bakugo.”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say.

Aika’s face crumpled, and she immediately brought both hands to her mouth as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to make it about me! I just…” She struggled to finish, looking around at the classmates she’d once believed were happy for her. “I thought we were friends. I thought you liked me.”

“We do like you!” Mina protested. “But Aika, you have to understand that {{user}} needs support, too!”

“I know!” Aika sobbed. “I know they do! That’s why I’ve been trying so hard to be nice! But no matter what I do, everybody keeps treating me like I’m some horrible villain!”

Katsuki had remained unusually quiet throughout the exchange, although the expression on his face had grown steadily darker. He looked at the decorations, the snacks, and finally Kirishima, whose jaw tightened beneath the weight of his stare.

“That’s what this is, huh?” Katsuki asked, his voice dangerously low. “You get everybody together to celebrate making my girlfriend feel like shit?”

“Dude, that’s not what we’re doing,” Kirishima answered firmly.

“Sure fucking looks like it.”

Aika tugged gently on his sleeve. “Katsuki, please, don’t…”

He glanced down at her, and for a brief moment, his expression softened. Unfortunately, that only seemed to make her cry harder.

“I don’t want to be here,” she whispered. “I don’t want everybody looking at me like this. I thought they were my friends, Katsuki. I really did.”

“Then let’s go,” he replied, already turning toward the door.

But Aika shook her head, suddenly pulling away from him. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, everybody!” she cried, wiping frantically at her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to ruin your party! I just wanted us all to get along!”

Before anyone could respond, she hurried out of the common room, her footsteps echoing down the hallway as she disappeared toward the stairs.

“Aika!” Katsuki called after her.

He stopped at the doorway, his hand tightening around the shopping bag until the plastic handles strained against his fingers. For several seconds, he said nothing, surveying the classmates who had gathered to support the person he’d spent weeks humiliating.

When he finally spoke, there was none of his usual explosive shouting.

“You know what? Fuck every last one of you.”

Kirishima stood a little straighter. “Bakugo, come on. Nobody wanted her to cry.”

“Don’t.” Katsuki’s voice was sharp enough to stop him. “Don’t you fucking dare stand there and pretend you didn’t know what would happen. You all knew she was trying to make things right, and you decided to make sure she knew she wasn’t welcome.”

“That’s not fair,” Midoriya replied, his expression tightening. “This wasn’t about Aika. We wanted to do something kind for {{user}}.”

“Yeah? Well, congratulations.” Katsuki gave a bitter, humorless laugh. “You got your little party. Hope it was fucking worth it.”

He looked toward Kirishima, and something in his expression hardened.

“Especially you, Shitty Hair. Thought you were supposed to be my best friend.”

“I am your best friend,” Kirishima answered, his voice steady despite the obvious hurt in his expression. “That doesn’t mean I have to agree with everything you do.”

Katsuki stared at him for another moment before shaking his head in disgust.

“Whatever. You’re all gonna regret this.”

He didn’t elaborate or raise his voice. Instead, he turned and strode into the hallway, calling Aika’s name as he hurried after her, leaving the common room in a silence that felt considerably heavier than the one he’d interrupted.

For a while, nobody seemed quite sure what to say.

The television continued playing its cheerful background music, a cartoon dinosaur bouncing stupidly across the screen while a forgotten controller vibrated against the coffee table. Mina stared toward the doorway, looking troubled, and Kaminari eventually reached for the remote to turn down the volume.

“Well,” Sero muttered, “that went about as badly as it possibly could’ve.”

“Do you think we should’ve invited them?” Midoriya asked quietly. “I mean, I didn’t want Aika to feel excluded, but…”

“No,” Kirishima answered.

The firmness of his response surprised even him. He exhaled, rubbing a hand over his face before looking around at his classmates.

“No, we didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t throw this party to make fun of anybody. We didn’t put up signs saying Aika wasn’t welcome or spend the whole night talking shit about their relationship. We wanted to do something nice for our friend. That’s it.”

Mina nodded slowly. “Yeah. It’s okay to feel bad that Aika’s upset, but that doesn’t mean we should’ve canceled everything.”

“Exactly,” Jiro added, reaching for her soda. “Somebody being hurt by a boundary doesn’t automatically make the boundary cruel.”

Kirishima turned toward {{user}}, his expression softening as he took in the decorations, the ridiculous pile of snacks, and the terrible video game still running on the television. He’d wanted tonight to be something simple. Something that didn’t involve defending Katsuki, comforting Aika, or debating whether the breakup had been handled appropriately.

And he wasn’t willing to let another argument take that away.

“Hey, {{user}},” he said, offering a small, reassuring smile. “Listen, I know that probably made things awkward, but I want you to understand something. We didn’t do all this because we hate Aika or because we’re trying to get back at Bakugo. We did it because you’re our friend, and you’ve had a rough time lately.”

He gestured toward the television with a faint, almost sheepish laugh.

“You shouldn’t have to feel guilty about having one good night. You don’t have to keep making yourself smaller just so those two can be comfortable.”

“He’s right,” Mina agreed, reaching for another bag of chips. “You’re allowed to have friends who care about you. You’re allowed to be happy, too.”

Kirishima nodded, settling back onto the couch before picking up the second controller.

“So, what do you say? We’ve still got plenty of snacks, and somebody needs to help me kick Kaminari’s ass at this stupid dinosaur game.”

“OH, COME ON!” Kaminari protested. “WHY AM I ALWAYS THE TARGET?!”

“Because you suck!” Jiro called from the armchair.

And just like that, the ridiculous music started up again, the television flashed a bright red GAME OVER, and Kirishima held out the spare controller toward {{user}} with an encouraging grin.

“Seriously, though. This night’s for you. Don’t let anybody make you feel bad about that.”

Aika was missing.

At first, nobody had thought much of it. She’d occasionally missed morning classes due to migraines, and after the incident in which she’d collapsed screaming on the classroom floor, most of her classmates had learned not to question it when she needed a day to recover. But by lunchtime, her absence had become considerably more concerning. She hadn’t answered anyone’s messages, her phone was going straight to voicemail, and even Katsuki, who usually knew where his girlfriend was at any given moment, hadn’t heard from her since the previous evening.

The last thing she’d sent him was a simple I love you, Katsuki. Please remember that.

He’d thought she was being sentimental. She did that sometimes, especially after something had upset her. In hindsight, though, there had been something strange about how she’d behaved during their last evening together. She’d hugged him longer than usual, asked if he remembered the first time he’d met his mother, and spent nearly an hour listening to him complain about his latest training exercise without once interrupting. She’d even laughed when he called her a sentimental idiot, kissing his cheek and telling him that was one of the things she loved about him.

Now she was gone, and Katsuki was beginning to lose his fucking mind.

By the time Aizawa summoned several students to the Heights Alliance common room, the situation had escalated beyond a simple unexplained absence. The school had attempted to contact Aika’s parents, only to receive an exceptionally unhelpful response about a private family matter. Recovery Girl had confirmed that Aika hadn’t visited the infirmary, and a preliminary check of her dormitory room revealed that some of her personal belongings were missing.

There was also a letter.

It had been left on her desk, carefully folded inside a pale green envelope. Across the front, written in Aika’s familiar, delicate handwriting, were the words For Katsuki, {{user}}, and everyone I’ve hurt.

Kirishima stood beside the coffee table, watching his best friend stare at the envelope as though it might explode. Midoriya had taken a seat nearby, looking deeply troubled, while Jiro and Mina remained unusually quiet. Aizawa stood near the doorway, his arms folded as he explained what little the faculty knew.

“Her parents are claiming she’s involved in a private family arrangement,” he said, his expression grim. “They haven’t provided a satisfactory explanation for her whereabouts. Until we establish that she’s safe, this is being treated as a missing student situation. Whatever she wrote in that letter may help us understand what happened.”

“Tch. Those fucking bastards.” Katsuki’s jaw tightened as he examined the envelope. “I knew they were gonna pull something! Ever since that dinner, they’ve been trying to get her to dump me and marry some asshole with a Quirk they like better!”

“Bakugo,” Aizawa warned, although his tone was considerably more restrained than usual. “Read the letter.”

Katsuki tore open the envelope with trembling fingers.

The first thing he noticed was that the paper smelled faintly of Aika’s perfume. The second was that her handwriting, normally so neat, became increasingly uneven toward the bottom of the page. There were several places where the ink had blurred, and one sentence had been crossed out so heavily that the paper had nearly torn.

He began reading.

Dear Katsuki, {{user}}, and everyone,

I’m sorry. I know I say that a lot, and I know some of you are probably tired of hearing it. I don’t blame you. I think I’ve spent so much time apologizing for things without actually fixing them that I’m not even sure what my apologies are worth anymore.

My parents have found someone for me to marry. They say he’s a wonderful candidate, that his Quirk would complement mine beautifully, and that our children could be some of the strongest people in Japan. They’ve been talking about it like it’s already decided, like I’m not even supposed to have an opinion. I tried telling them I love Katsuki, but they don’t care. They never cared about that.

I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to marry someone because our Quirks would make powerful babies. I don’t want to have children just so somebody can measure what they’re capable of and decide whether they’re worth loving. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life feeling like I’m nothing more than a Quirk with a pretty face.

I just want to be me. I want to be happy. I want to marry whoever I want to marry, and I thought that person was Katsuki.

But there’s something I need to tell you, and I’m so scared that once you know, you’ll never want to see me again.

Katsuki stopped reading.

Something about those last words made his stomach turn. He’d been preparing himself for some dramatic explanation about her parents, maybe a tearful goodbye or another apology for disappearing without warning. But Aika had never written to him like this before, and the longer he stared at the page, the more he dreaded whatever came next.

“What?” Kirishima asked quietly. “Bakugo, what does it say?”

“Shut up,” Katsuki muttered, his grip tightening around the paper. “Just… shut the fuck up for a second.”

He continued.

I lied about my Quirk.

Not about what it can do. I really can control people’s thoughts and feelings, and I really do hate how frightening that sounds. I lied about how I’ve been using it.

Katsuki, when we first met, you were already in love with someone else. You had {{user}}, and I knew that. I knew you were happy together, even if you never said it in so many words. But I liked you so much. You were strong and brave, and you weren’t afraid of anything. I wanted someone like you to love me. I wanted to feel safe with someone who could protect me from everything I’d spent my whole life being afraid of.

So I used my Quirk on you.

I made you fall in love with me. I made your feelings for {{user}} seem less important, and I made you believe that what we had was so much better. I didn’t want to turn you into a puppet. I wanted you to still be you, because I loved everything about you. Even the parts that made me mad sometimes.

That’s why I kept getting those horrible migraines. It’s much harder to change someone’s feelings without taking away who they are. Sometimes it hurt so badly that I thought my head was going to split open. But I kept doing it because I was scared that if I stopped, you wouldn’t love me anymore.

Eventually, I didn’t have to use it as often. We were happy together, weren’t we? At least, I thought we were. I don’t know how much of that happiness was real anymore, and I don’t think I have the right to decide that for you.

I’m so sorry, Katsuki. I took away your choice. You trusted me, and I did something horrible to you.

And {{user}}, I’m sorry to you, too. I knew you loved him. I knew you were together, and I still decided that I wanted him more. I let you suffer while I told myself that our happiness was more important. Every time I asked you to understand, I was asking you to accept something I had no right to do.

I can say I’m sorry a thousand times, but I can’t force any of you to forgive me. I don’t want to be that person anymore. At least, I hope I don’t have to be that person anymore.

I’ve spent my whole life being afraid. Afraid of my parents, afraid of being unwanted, afraid that nobody would ever love me unless I had something valuable to give them. I thought if I could make someone love me, I wouldn’t have to be scared anymore.

But I was wrong.

I’m leaving because I don’t want to marry the person my parents have chosen for me, and I don’t think I can face any of you right now. I don’t know where I’m going yet. I just know I have to make one decision for myself without somebody else making it for me.

Katsuki, please tell your mother I’m sorry, too. She was so kind to me. I don’t think I’ve ever had someone’s mother hug me like that without expecting something in return. I really liked spending time with your family.

I love you. I know you probably won’t believe me, and maybe you shouldn’t. But I do.

And I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.

Love, Aika.

For several seconds, Katsuki didn’t move.

His eyes remained fixed on the final sentence, reading it again and again as though the words might rearrange themselves into something that made even the slightest amount of fucking sense. The room had become unbearably quiet, and he could hear the faint ticking of the clock above the television, the hum of the refrigerator in the adjoining kitchen, and Kirishima shifting nervously beside him.

Then he laughed.

It was a short, ugly sound, entirely devoid of humor.

“She… she fucking…”

His voice faltered as he looked back toward the beginning of the letter.

“She used her Quirk on me?”

Kirishima’s expression changed. “What?”

“THAT’S WHAT IT FUCKING SAYS!” Katsuki roared, slamming the paper against the coffee table hard enough to make several empty cups jump. “SHE USED HER GODDAMN QUIRK ON ME!”

Midoriya was on his feet immediately, staring at the letter in disbelief. “Kacchan, what do you mean? Are you saying she…”

“SHE MADE ME LOVE HER, DEKU!” Katsuki shouted, his palms crackling as sparks scattered across the tabletop. “SHE FUCKING MADE ME! ALL THAT SHIT ABOUT HOW MUCH SHE LOVED ME, ABOUT HOW HAPPY WE WERE, ABOUT HOW SHE’D NEVER DO THAT TO SOMEBODY!”

“Katsuki, calm down!” Kirishima urged, reaching toward him before thinking better of it.

“DON’T TELL ME TO FUCKING CALM DOWN!”

The explosion that followed was small but violent, scorching the edge of the coffee table and sending several students stumbling backward. Aizawa’s eyes flashed red immediately, extinguishing Katsuki’s Quirk before he could produce another spark.

“Bakugo. Enough.”

“FUCK YOU!”

“Sit down before you hurt someone.”

Katsuki looked ready to argue, but something in Aizawa’s expression made him stop. His breathing was ragged, his shoulders rigid with tension, and his fists remained clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms. After several agonizing seconds, he dropped onto the couch, staring at the letter with an expression none of his classmates had ever seen on him before.

Not quite anger. Not quite grief.

Something considerably worse.

“She fucking knew,” he muttered, his voice suddenly hoarse. “She knew I was dating {{user}}. She knew what she was doing, and she…”

He swallowed hard, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes.

“Fuck!”

Midoriya carefully retrieved the letter from the table, his expression growing increasingly horrified as he read the confession. Kirishima leaned over his shoulder, following the lines until he reached the part about Katsuki’s former relationship, and his face went pale.

“Oh, man…” Kirishima whispered. “Bakugo…”

“Don’t.”

“Dude, she manipulated your feelings. This whole time, she was…”

“I CAN FUCKING READ!”

Kirishima fell silent.

Katsuki dragged his hands down his face, staring at the opposite wall. The memories were still there. Every ridiculous little date, every argument, every time Aika had laughed at something stupid he’d said. He remembered her falling asleep against his shoulder during a movie, remembered carrying her back to her dorm after a particularly exhausting training session, and remembered how she’d cried the first time his mother invited her over for dinner.

Mitsuki had loved her.

That was the part that made him feel especially sick. His mother, who rarely had a kind word to say about his attitude, had taken one look at Aika and practically adopted her on the spot. She’d teased Katsuki about finally finding a girl who could tolerate his foul mouth, insisted Aika come over for dinner whenever she pleased, and even sent her home with leftovers because she thought the girl looked too thin.

His phone still had a message from Mitsuki asking when he was bringing Aika over again.

And Katsuki had been planning to ask her this weekend.

“She wasn’t always using it,” he said suddenly.

Midoriya looked up. “What?”

“Her Quirk. She wasn’t using it every fucking second.” Katsuki leaned forward, his elbows resting against his knees as he stared at the floor. “You saw what happened when she pushed herself too hard. The migraines, the nosebleeds, all that shit. If she’d been doing that to me every goddamn day, she would’ve been in the infirmary constantly.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean the effects wore off,” Midoriya replied carefully. “We don’t know how long her Quirk lasts once she’s used it.”

“I KNOW THAT!”

Katsuki’s voice cracked with frustration, and he turned away before anybody could comment on it.

“That’s the fucking problem, isn’t it? I don’t know! I don’t know what the hell she changed, or how much of it was me, or whether any of that shit would’ve happened if she’d just left my damn head alone!”

He grabbed the letter again, his eyes moving furiously across the page.

“But I remember being happy with her. I remember wanting to see her. I remember thinking about her when she wasn’t around, and I…” His jaw tightened. “Fuck. I still want to see her.”

Nobody answered.

“I STILL FUCKING LOVE HER!” Katsuki shouted, furious at the admission. “HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IF THAT’S REAL?!”

The words hung heavily over the common room.

For once, Kirishima didn’t have an encouraging speech ready. Midoriya couldn’t offer a simple explanation, and even Aizawa remained silent for several moments, apparently recognizing that this wasn’t something Katsuki could solve by screaming at it.

Finally, their teacher stepped forward.

“Bakugo, we’re going to investigate what happened. That includes having her Quirk evaluated properly and finding out whether its effects can be reversed.” His voice was level, but his expression remained grim. “It also means determining where Aika is and whether she’s safe. Her parents’ conduct is a separate concern, and we’re not going to ignore it.”

Katsuki looked up sharply.

“Those bastards aren’t getting their hands on her.”

“That’s not your decision to make,” Aizawa replied. “And neither is forgiving her. Right now, you need to understand that both things can be true. Aika can be in danger, and she can also be responsible for what she did to you.”

Katsuki stared at him, seemingly offended by the suggestion that he needed somebody to explain that distinction.

“Tch. No fucking shit.”

But his voice lacked its usual conviction.

Kirishima glanced toward {{user}}, and the terrible implications of the letter seemed to settle over him all at once. He remembered Katsuki’s vicious insults, the public humiliation, and the way his best friend had repeatedly dismissed their previous relationship as something worthless. For weeks, he’d been trying to understand how someone could change so drastically, and now the explanation was sitting on the coffee table in Aika’s handwriting.

“{{user}}…” Kirishima began, then hesitated. “I don’t even know what to say. This is… God, this is so much worse than we thought.”

Katsuki followed his gaze.

For the first time since reading the letter, he seemed to fully register that {{user}} was there. His expression changed, the anger briefly giving way to something uncomfortable as memories of his own words surfaced. The insults he’d thrown around so casually, the things he’d said about their relationship, the way he’d compared them to Aika as though their time together had been nothing but an embarrassing mistake.

He remembered every fucking word.

And now he didn’t even know whether he’d believed any of it before Aika got into his head.

“Shit,” he muttered, looking away.

Kirishima moved to retrieve the letter, but Katsuki stopped him with a sharp gesture. He picked it up himself, smoothing the crumpled pages with surprising care before placing them on the table where {{user}} could read them.

“She wrote that for you, too,” he said, his voice rough. “I’m not gonna pretend I know what you’re supposed to do with it.”

He paused, staring at the handwriting that had seemed so familiar and comforting only hours earlier.

“I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do with any of it.”

His hands curled into fists again, although no sparks followed.

“She’s out there somewhere, her parents are trying to marry her off to some fucking stranger, and I…”

Katsuki stopped, visibly struggling to force the next words out.

“I wanna find her. I wanna make sure she’s okay. And I wanna look her in the fucking eyes and ask her why she thought she had the right to do this to me.”

He looked toward the letter once more, his expression hardening.

“But I’m not forgiving her. Not for this.”

Aizawa nodded once, apparently satisfied that Katsuki was at least beginning to understand the situation. “Then we’ll start by determining where she went. The rest can wait until we have answers.”

Katsuki didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he remained seated, staring down at the confession that had torn apart everything he thought he knew about his relationship.

Then, without looking directly at {{user}}, he spoke again.

“All that shit I said about you…” His voice faltered, and he swallowed hard before continuing. “I don’t even know why I said half of it anymore.”

He gave a bitter laugh.

“Fuck. I don’t know what was real.”

The letter remained on the table between them, its final sentence still visible beneath Aika’s carefully written signature.

I love you.

And for the first time, Katsuki had absolutely no idea what those words were supposed to mean.

Aika had been back at U.A. for three days, and Katsuki hadn’t spoken a single word to her.

After her disappearance, the school had intervened in her parents’ attempted arranged marriage, but that did little to repair the damage caused by her confession. Katsuki had read her letter so many times that the paper was beginning to tear, searching for some explanation that might make the betrayal easier to understand.

There wasn’t one.

He remembered their dates, their arguments, and how his mother had practically adopted Aika after their first dinner together. He remembered being happy with her, even when they weren’t doing anything particularly interesting. And despite knowing she’d manipulated his romantic feelings, he still missed her so badly it made him furious.

By Friday evening, he’d finally had enough.

Most of Class 1-A had gathered in the common room when Katsuki arrived, finding Aika sitting quietly with a cup of tea. She looked exhausted, her eyes swollen from crying, but her expression brightened when she noticed him.

“Katsuki!” she greeted softly, setting her drink aside. “Oh! Hi! Have you eaten? I think there’s some curry left if you’re hungry.”

“We need to talk.”

Her smile disappeared.

“Oh.” She swallowed nervously. “Of course. I know we do.”

“Do you?!” Katsuki demanded, approaching the couch. “Because I’ve been thinking about that fucking letter! You really did it, huh?! You got into my fucking head and decided who I was gonna love!”

Aika’s eyes filled with tears. “Katsuki, I’m sorry. I know what I did was horrible, and I know you have every right to hate me!”

“THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO IT?!”

“Because I loved you!” she cried, rising from the couch. “I wanted somebody to love me because they actually wanted me! Not because my parents thought I’d make wonderful babies with some stranger! I wanted to feel safe, and I thought if you loved me, everything would finally be okay!”

“THAT WASN’T YOUR FUCKING DECISION TO MAKE!”

“I KNOW!”

He’d spent days rehearsing this confrontation, but hearing her admit everything wasn’t making him feel any better.

“You ruined my fucking relationship! You made me into some lovesick idiot, and I spent weeks treating {{user}} like garbage because of you!”

“Katsuki, please…”

“WHAT?! ANOTHER FUCKING EXCUSE?!”

His hand moved before he stopped to think.

The slap cracked across Aika’s cheek, sending her stumbling against the couch. For a moment, she stared at him, one hand pressed against her reddening face as tears spilled down her cheeks.

“BAKUGO!” Kirishima shouted, immediately rising.

Midoriya stepped between them. “Kacchan! What the hell are you doing?!”

Katsuki froze, staring at the girl he’d struck. His anger hadn’t disappeared, but the sight of her trembling made his stomach turn.

“Shit…”

Aika straightened, her hand still pressed against her cheek. “No. You don’t get to do that, Katsuki. I KNOW what I did was wrong! I know I manipulated you! But you don’t get to hit me because you’re angry!”

“Damn right,” Kirishima interrupted. “That was way out of line, man.”

“STAY OUT OF IT!”

“No! Not when you’re hitting somebody!”

Aika wiped her tears, struggling to steady her breathing. “And there’s something else! I never told you to say those horrible things to {{user}}!”

Katsuki’s expression hardened. “What?”

“I made you fall in love with me! I changed how you felt about them, and that was awful! But I never told you to call them a terrible partner! I never told you to humiliate them, and I NEVER told you to tell them to kill themselves!”

“YOU THINK I DON’T FUCKING KNOW THAT?!”

“THEN STOP BLAMING ME FOR IT!”

The common room fell silent.

“I didn’t put those words in your mouth! You said those things yourself!” Aika sobbed. “And I should’ve stopped you! I should’ve told you it was wrong instead of letting you defend me! Sometimes I even liked knowing you’d choose me over them, and that was selfish of me!”

She swallowed painfully.

“But you did those things, Katsuki. Not me. I fucked up, but you can’t blame everything on me!”

“That’s fucking rich coming from you!”

“I KNOW! I know I’m a hypocrite! But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong!”

Katsuki opened his mouth to argue, only to stop.

Because she was right.

He remembered every insult and every time he’d deliberately humiliated {{user}}. Aika had changed his feelings, but she’d never ordered him to say those things.

“Fuck…” he muttered, sinking onto the opposite couch.

Eventually, he looked toward Aika, who remained standing beside the other couch.

“I shouldn’t have hit you,” he admitted roughly. “That was fucked up. Doesn’t matter what you did. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Aika nodded shakily, although she didn’t approach him.

“And… yeah. You’re right about the other shit, too. I said those things because I wanted to. Nobody forced me to open my goddamn mouth.”

He rubbed his face before looking back toward her. “But don’t think that makes what you did any less disgusting. You messed with my head, and now I don’t even know which parts of our relationship were real!”

“I know,” she whispered.

“And I still fucking love you.”

Aika froze.

“What?”

“You heard me!”

“No…” She shook her head. “No, Katsuki, you don’t! You can’t! I made you love me!”

“YEAH, NO SHIT!”

“Then how can you possibly say you still love me?!”

“BECAUSE I DO, DAMMIT!”

Katsuki dragged a hand through his hair. “Look, I don’t know how much of this is your Quirk! I don’t know if it’s still screwing with my head or if something changed while we were together. But I remember being happy with you! And I know you weren’t constantly using your fucking Quirk!”

Aika stared at him through her tears.

“Those migraines, the nosebleeds! You told me how much it hurt to mess with somebody’s feelings without turning them into a puppet. If you’d been actively doing that every second, you’d have been in the infirmary constantly!”

He lowered his voice.

“That doesn’t prove everything I felt was mine. But it doesn’t mean every second we spent together was some fucking lie, either.”

“Katsuki…”

“I care about you, Aika. The problem is that I don’t fucking trust you anymore.”

Her face crumpled. “I know.”

“And I don’t know how I’m supposed to trust you again.”

“I don’t know, either.”

“Then we figure it out. Slowly. I’m not saying I forgive you, and we’re sure as hell not going back to normal. No more lying, no more messing with my head, and you need to get some fucking help!”

Aika nodded, wiping her eyes. “And you need to work on your anger. You can’t keep hurting people when you’re upset. Including me.”

His jaw tightened. For a moment, it looked as though he might argue, but instead he exhaled.

“Yeah. I do.”

They remained apart, neither reaching for the other. Whatever happened between them would require time, honesty, and changes neither could accomplish simply by declaring their love.

Unfortunately, their relationship wasn’t the only thing that needed addressing.

“Look, I’m glad you’re talking,” Kirishima began. “But there’s somebody else who deserves an apology.”

His gaze settled on {{user}}.

Aika’s expression immediately changed. “Oh…”

She turned toward {{user}}, clasping her trembling hands together. “I know I’ve apologized before, but I kept saying I was sorry you were hurt without being sorry enough to stop hurting you. I knew you and Katsuki were together, and I still decided that what I wanted mattered more.”

She swallowed, wiping another tear away.

“I took away his choice, and I hurt you because I wanted him for myself. My parents were horrible to me, and I was scared, but that doesn’t excuse what I did. I’m sorry. And I won’t ask you to forgive me.”

Katsuki remained silent as Kirishima turned toward him.

“Bakugo?”

“Tch. I fucking know.”

He rubbed the back of his neck before reluctantly looking toward {{user}}.

“Look. I was an asshole. All that shit I said about you being a terrible partner? About our relationship being a waste of time? I take it back. You weren’t a bad partner. You were fine.”

Kirishima closed his eyes. “Bakugo…”

“WHAT?! I’M FUCKING TRYING!”

“Just keep going, man.”

“And that shit I said about you being bad in bed? That wasn’t true, either. You were okay.”

Mina covered her face.

“Oh my God.”

“WHAT?! YOU WERE FINE, ALRIGHT?! YOU WERE A GOOD PARTNER!”

“Kacchan,” Midoriya muttered. “You’re making this worse.”

“THEN YOU FUCKING APOLOGIZE FOR ME!”

“No. You’re doing this yourself.”

Katsuki glared at him before taking a deliberate breath. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter.

“And what I said in the infirmary… telling you to kill yourself was fucked up. I shouldn’t have said that. Ever. Doesn’t matter how pissed off I was or what Aika did to my feelings. That was me being a fucking asshole, and you didn’t deserve it.”

He forced himself to look toward {{user}} again.

“I’m sorry. I’m not asking you to forgive me. But I owed you that much.”

Aika nodded. “Both of us did.”

For a moment, the room remained quiet, until Kaminari finally spoke up.

“Uh… so we’re just forgiving Aika now? I mean, what she did was seriously messed up.”

“Nobody said we were,” Jiro replied. “And nobody gets to decide whether Bakugo or {{user}} forgives her.”

“But…” Kaminari scratched his head. “She’s still here, and they’re talking about getting back together. Doesn’t that seem a little…”

“My mother was married because of her Quirk.”

Everyone turned toward Todoroki, who had been sitting quietly nearby.

“Her family arranged her marriage to my father because their Quirks could produce powerful children,” he continued, his expression unusually serious. “She suffered because of that decision. Aika’s parents were trying to do the same thing to her.”

Aika lowered her eyes.

“I’m not saying what Aika did was right,” Todoroki added. “She took away Bakugo’s choice. But her parents were also trying to take away hers. We shouldn’t ignore one because of the other.”

“Exactly!” Katsuki snapped. “I’M STILL FUCKING PISSED AT HER! Doesn’t mean I’m gonna let those assholes treat her like some goddamn breeding animal!”

“And nobody’s asking you to!” Kirishima answered. “We’re just saying everybody’s got some serious shit to work through.”

Mina sighed, crossing her arms. “I think we can all agree that nobody’s getting magically forgiven tonight.”

Aika nodded quietly. “I understand.”

Katsuki gave an irritated grunt. “Yeah. Same.”

Kirishima looked between the two of them, then toward {{user}}, apparently deciding that the room had suffered enough emotional devastation for one evening.

“Man…” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “At this point, why don’t you three just date each other?”

Silence. Absolute, horrifying silence.

“EIJIRO!” Mina shrieked.

“BRO!” Kaminari nearly fell off his chair.

Midoriya stared at Kirishima as though he’d just suggested committing a felony.

Katsuki slowly turned his head.

“What.”

Kirishima’s smile faltered.

“I… uh…”

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY, SHITTY HAIR?!”

“IT WAS A JOKE!” Kirishima yelped, throwing both hands up defensively. “JESUS CHRIST, MAN! I’M TRYING TO LIGHTEN THE MOOD!”

Jiro buried her face in her hands. “You’re actually an idiot.”

And then, unexpectedly, Aika laughed.

It was a small, watery sound, barely audible over Katsuki’s increasingly creative threats against his best friend, but it was unmistakably genuine. She covered her mouth, looking almost embarrassed as another little giggle escaped.

“Oh my gosh, Eijiro…”

“SEE?!” Kirishima exclaimed, pointing toward her. “SOMEBODY THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY!”

“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!”

“BAKUGO, WE JUST TALKED ABOUT YOUR ANGER ISSUES!”

“THEN STOP SAYING STUPID SHIT!”

Even Todoroki looked faintly amused.

Eventually, Kirishima turned toward {{user}}, offering a sheepish smile as Katsuki continued cursing behind him.

“Sorry. That was probably the worst joke I’ve ever made.” He glanced toward Aika and Katsuki before continuing, his expression becoming gentler. “But seriously, you don’t owe either of them forgiveness. Whatever happens next, that’s your decision.”

He hesitated, then added with a nervous little laugh.

“Although… I guess I’ve officially made things about ten times more awkward, huh?”