Why ?

Bakugou had always known that he was an unpleasant person. An overly aggressive boy with a fowl mouth. Only a dense idiot wouldn’t have been able to see that.

But to be honest, his reason for bullying his smaller and supposedly much weaker friend had nothing to do with his personality. The blonde clicked his tongue at the thought as he watched the other wait patiently.

The deku had never had any confidence in himself. Sure, it was mostly his fault. Calling him weak, stupid and worst of all useless. That was all he ever did. And the greenette never retorted but simply accepted smiling sadly.

But that was the part Katsuki hated the most. He simply despised the fact that the other boy always believed it whenever he was ridiculed. He never doubted it when a person criticized him. And that’s why Bakugou kept pushing and pushing, hoping that one day that Izuku Midoriya would stand up and yell at him that he wasn’t an idiot or a loser. Katsuki wanted to see that happen. Katsuki yearned for that to happen.

He wanted the other to believe in himself, to speak without cowering. Sometimes his confidence would peak through and even though the ash blonde boy seemed annoyed at such times, deep down within he was secretly glad. Glad that he was beginning to realize that the others were wrong to say that he was incapable (Which was maybe just him…but hey).

The ringing of the dinner bell broke the ash blonde boy out of his thoughts. Right. Today was his and deku’s turn to sit next to the old hag. The boy shuddered at the mere thought of it.

Katsuki shot another look at his friend before moving slowly towards the dining hall. Izuku seemed to be following him from afar, and Katsuki couldn’t help but feel relieved. He wasn’t alone. The both of them were scared. Scratch that, they were terrified.

Mama was already seated when he walked in. She smiled at him, but her eyes held no warmth. Just cold amusement. The boy did his best to not let his fear show and tried to glare back angrily. Unfortunately for him, her smile just widened.

“Mama! The potatoes taste better than usual today! “The green haired boy sitting across from him said his eyes glowing brightly. Katsuki wanted to scowl but he didn’t.

The fair-haired woman just laughed happily.” Is that so? I’m glad you like it”

An act. It was all an act, and Katsuki Bakugou felt sick. The boy took a small sip of water hoping to bury his fear and disgust. Hah like that would work though.

The darn deku continued with the skit after that.

His green eyes widened slightly, and he grinned suddenly, as if he was remembering something.

“Ah that’s right mama!” he said out aloud as he turned towards cheerfully. “Today me and Kaachan read a book on Morse code! It was really interesting! We even coded a message for you!”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yup! Do you know Morse code mama? Do you want to hear it?”

The woman smiled back gently, and the blonde boy cringed internally. He hated this. He hated this so much. He glanced over at the boy opposite to him. How was he so calm?

“Katsuki dear?” the boy looked up at once, surprised at the concerned voice of who he used to call mother. Izuku was looking at him too, but his expression shocked him.

His eyes were filled with a sort of calmness and he smiled at the blonde reassuringly. It’ll be fine. This won’t last long, I’m here for you.

Bakugou wanted to cry. He had never felt this before, he had never felt this vulnerable before.

And that’s another thing he learnt that day. Katsuki Bakugou may have been smarter and more powerful than the deku. But the other boy had something the blonde didn’t.

Izuku Midoriya was both strong and kind. Bakugou Katsuki was just a weak coward.

And he would be lying if he said that that wasn’t one of the reasons that he was mean to the other.

Dinner finally came to an end and the blonde couldn’t have been happier.

But just as he was about to leave the table, their mother did something absolutely unexpected. She brought out the candy jar. If Izuku was surprised he didn’t show it.

“You were all very good today so, I thought I would give you all a small treat.” She said smilingly. Katsuki just gulped. Everyone else around him cheered.

“Now stick out your palms you all!”

Soon their table was surrounded by 18 other squealing happy children. Bakugou felt his palms sweat. Had his hands ever sweat this much before.

“Katsuki ? Don’t you want one?”

Bakugou wasn’t sure what to do. How should he act? He was facing away from her so she couldn’t see. But then Izuku’s calm smiling face popped and just like that he knew what he should do.

He turned towards her a grumpy flushed face and stuck his hand out shyly. Perfect. The play was going as planned, and Katsuki Bakugou had given his best performance.

The audience in question looked temporarily surprised but then smiled coldly as she placed the candy firmly in his palm.

“Mama! Why don’t you have one?”

All attention turned towards the smiling bubbly boy that was currently holding an unwrapped orange sweet near their shocked mother’s mouth.

“Haha no thank you Izuku I’m too old for things like that”.

Katsuki knew better though. Their mother seemed to be a lot dumber than he thought.