Glass Heart

Glass Heart - Chapter Fifty-One

"So?" Katsuki said, as Izuku approached. "Why did you want to see me, Iz- Aizawa?"

"..." Izuku turned away slightly and sighed. "I - I just... wanted to know what had been happening with everyone after I..." He trailed off, remembering that fateful meeting when he was nine.

"After you got adopted by that creepy homeless man?" Katsuki asked. A sharp wave of anger flooded through him at the insult towards Shouta, but it also quickly left - his curiosity and desperation to learn about what had been happening in his neighbourhood overwhelming him.

In addition, he was slightly surprised to learn that Katsuki didn't know about his... attempt. Thinking about it further, neither Shoto nor Hitoshi knew about it either... Izuku placed a hand under his chin in thought, unsure of whether it was a positive or negative thing that they didn't know.

"Tch." Katsuki turned around so Izuku was facing his back, raising his hand to his neck awkwardly. Izuku waited a few moments, and then Katsuki began to speak.

"After you left and went to that other school, our own school stayed quiet for a while. I... thought you might have gotten hurt or something-"

"Were you worried about me?" Izuku asked, so shocked he didn't even flinch when Katsuki yelled at him to shut up. "You were!"

Katsuki sighed, and just moved on. "Anyway, the other classmates... wouldn't shut up about you, saying things that were... untrue...?" Katsuki paused, and then shook his head. "They had to be untrue. And then, well... I saw the court case."

Izuku froze. "O - Oh...?"

"I... realised something... something important." Katsuki's face lowered, and his fringe shadowed his face, turning his serious expression into a sombre one. Izuku's curiosity piqued, but he didn't ask, recognising the expression on Katsuki's face as one he'd worn often when he was nine - an expression he's seen on Hitoshi and Shoto's faces, among others.

"O - Once I realised it..." Katsuki continued, cutting off Izuku's train of thought. As Izuku glanced back at Katsuki, he realised his expression had changed once again - to a highly vulnerable one. "I - I had to confess everything."

"C - Confess?" Izuku felt like the world had turned upside down.

"Yes, confess. I told the ha- my mum and dad about what had been happening. W - What I had done to you. I..."

He took a deep breath in.

"I told them everything."

~Flashback~

"And... that's everything." Katsuki slowly began to unclench his fists, trying to calm down. Blood dripped from his hands, having clenched his fists so tightly and for so long that his nails ended up cutting his palms.

Blood wasn't the only liquid that could be seen on him though.

"Oh, Katsuki..." Mitsuki crouched to Katsuki's height, and slowly wiped away his tears. "You... fucking IDIOT!" With the same hand that wiped away his tears, she sharply hit him on the head, being careful to not properly hurt him. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Masaru turned away from Katsuki. "Katsuki..." He muttered, a dark aura surrounding him. Mitsuki and Katsuki both flinched and stepped back. "You... will be going to therapy. You have no choice in the matter."

"Therapy? I'm not that messed up! I'm not broken!"

"Anger management therapy."

"Oh." Katsuki couldn't think of anything else to say. The tears the three of them spilled that day were more then Katsuki had seen any of them cry in his life. "Do you... do you hate me now? Do you not love me anymore? Am I a... villain?"

He shut his eyes closed, already knowing the answer to all three questions. He just needed to hear them say it - to say they hated him - and then he'll get out of their lives forever. He may only be ten, having just turned ten a little over a month ago, but he'd figure something out.

"Katsuki..." Mitsuki wiped her eyes and crouched back down, bringing Katsuki in for a hug. "Of course we still love you."

As Masaru joined the hug, Katsuki slowly opened his eyes, in surprise. "What...?" He gasped.

Mitsuki held him tighter. "We're upset, and angry and horribly disappointed in you, but you're our child. You're our boy. We'll always love you." Masaru nodded, showing his agreement, and Katsuki almost felt like crying again. "And as for that villain question... do you actually want to be a villain?"

"No!" Katsuki shouted in return.

"Then you're not yet. You have a chance to redeem yourself. You have a chance to become a hero."

And that was all he needed to hear.

~Flashback~

"I started therapy, and I even made some friends at this new school." Katsuki finished, pulling out his phone, and showing Izuku a picture of him with a boy with red hair and a girl with pink skin. "I... I'm doing my best to change. I want to be a hero. Not a villain."

"Kacchan..." Izuku muttered, his mind reeling. Katsuki really had changed.

"I know I can't go to most hero schools - I didn't want to hide my bullying from anyone, it wouldn't be fair to you. The black record will probably make all hero schools bar me from becoming a hero, but I'll still try! I'm not going to give up! PLUS ULTRA!" Katsuki raised his fist in the air in forceful determination. He wasn't smiling, but Izuku knew he was happy. Katsuki had a long way to go - but if anyone could make it, Izuku was certain it'd be him.

"A - Anyway, I saw you at school, and... well... you know how that went. Then one day I saw you go down that shortcut while I was heading to the nearby grocery store. I didn't know if you knew that alleyway had become a major crime area, instead of just the regular shortcut it used to be, so I followed you down there - and saw you were being attacked."

"Thank you for that, by the way." Izuku replied, glancing away.

Katsuki nodded and sighed. "I should probably head back home. I know you don't want to be friends with me, and I respect that - but would you consider heading to my house at some point to see mum and dad? They've been missing you."

"That... might be nice. Maybe in the winter holidays?" Izuku replied with a smile, before walking ahead of Katsuki, heading to the school gates, where Shoto and Hitoshi were waiting for him. Izuku was slightly annoyed they hadn't headed to the cat café like they planned, but he wasn't overly upset, as how he gets to spend more time with them both.

He turned on his heels and gave Katsuki a small wave, smiling wider when it was returned. Things here were really changing.

Hopefully it's changing for the better.

Hi again everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a bit late this morning, but hey, I still posted, haha! I'm hoping to get some extra writing done today, however I also have some school work to catch up on so... I guess we'll see!

The next few chapters will probably mostly filler fluff - based on the winter holidays. I skipped a lot of Izuku and Hitoshi's birthdays, so hopefully a few chapters based around Christmas might be a nice replacement - and also who doesn't want a fun snow chapter? Well, I really wanna write it anyways... After that, I'll probably go back to the main plot, as I do have an idea for how to steer it back.

Being honest, I don't have a massive idea for what to do for a replacement exam for the UA robots. I have multiple ideas, but they're not very interesting to read (for example having spars or having a treasure hunt based thing, or just the written exam, or... stuff like that), so I'd be quite interested to hear your ideas! If I end up choosing your idea then I'll credit you, same as with Izuku's hero costume struggle, haha. Either way, it'd be nice to hear what you all think about it.

Anyways, I should get back to writing, I have quite a busy schedule XD

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊