The Deku-Shaped Hole - Chapter 5

By the end of day three, every piece of paperwork in Izuku's office had been filled out, signed, and filed in the appropriate places. Katsuki had everything in triplicate, records kept of every message or transaction with anyone else, he'd even gone so far as to clean up prior work, sorting Izuku's files into some semblence of a useful order. The staff, frankly, were surprised. They'd expected big scary boom man, not massive perfectionist nerd. 

He glanced up when the knock sounded on the door, quickly taking off his reading glasses as a head poked inside.

"Mister Bakugou, do you have a moment?"

"I'll make it fit, come in."

He vaguely recognised the face of the girl before him, one of Izuku's former-interns if he remembered correctly. Another one trying to find out about potential job offers, no doubt.

"Are you here for this?" he asked, pulling out a pre-prepared folder of documents he'd organised late in the night. "Have a read, fill out the preliminary paperwork and get it back to me, then we can talk about the future."

"Wow," dark eyes widened, feeling the weight of the folder in her hands. "I'm amazed, Sir, you've been working hard."

"It's just a shorter-term version of what I use in my own agency," he explained. "If you could give me an indication on whether you actually want to stay on, that would be a great start."

"I would love to, if there's an opportunity!"

"Alright, so you need to fill out the green forms first, that tells me who to talk to about your fieldwork experience and gives me authority to access any files on the jobs you've worked. If all of that checks out, we'll offer you a contract position for around three months, and in that time I'll personally come and see your work to see how you measure up and how you fit in. Assuming that goes well, I'll recommend that the n- that Deku keeps you on, when he comes back. It will be up to him to give you a full-time position, I'm afraid I'm only in a position to offer shorter contracts, not permanent positions."

"No, that's fine!" she nodded eagerly, gripping the folder between her hands. "I'll fill them out right away and get them back to you by the end of the day!"

"Much appreciated. Was there anything else?"

She paused, and Katsuki waited knowingly.

"You're convinced he's coming back," she said gently. "A lot of the others say 'if' a lot. How bad is it, really?"

"He won't be back into physical work for the foreseeable future, but I trust he will be back on administration soon enough."

"I'm glad. You're amazing and all, Sir, but it's strange for him to not be here."

"I agree," Katsuki nodded faintly. "Just have faith in him, he never lets people down."

"I will! I can't wait to see him again!"

Something about the way she said it made Katsuki's insides squeeze. It wasn't a surprise that his interns would crush on him, in fact it was completely understandable. It was also so weird though. This was Deku they were talking about. Flustered, awkward, giant nerd, with his stupid muttering habits. What did they see in him?

The ass, probably. That boy did a lot of squats. The abs probably helped too. He certainly did enough questionable modelling shoots, that shit had to be selling to somebody. 

Katsuki sighed, leaning back in his chair and covering his eyes with his arm. He was ready for a nap, truth be told. He hadn't slept well the night before. Or any night, really, since he'd gotten the first phone call. It was much easier to fall in bed completely exhausted and nap for a few hours than it was to get a decent amount of sleep at a normal time.

He scribbled out a note on a sheet of printer paper, taping it to the door before he locked up behind himself. He would head off for a few hours, get some rest, and come back to finish off the day with the other employees. No one ever had to know he wasn't out on patrol, after all. Who was really going to question Number-Two-Hero Bakushinchi about his whereabouts?

Other than Number-One-Hero Deku, but he'd be more than happy to accept those complaints. 

The next billboard rankings weren't far away, it would be interesting to see how they dealt with it. Katsuki would never accept first place just because Deku was gone, but he supposed he could keep it warm until they had the chance to compete for real.

It was Deku's spot, though, really. Katsuki had never tried to deny that the nerd deserved it. He worked harder than anyone else, both mentally and physically, and Katsuki wouldn't dream of trying to take that away from him.

One day they would fight it out for real. Katsuki had no doubt about that.

Until then, he just had to keep everything afloat.

─────

Katsuki hated to admit it, but Izuku's interns were... Alright. 

There were three of them, hand-picked by the nerd for roles he thought his agency needed. The managers had offered to show him the notes Izuku wrote about the various prospectives and why he chose those ones in particular, but Katsuki had thought it might be a fun game to figure it out for himself, to see if he came up with the same answers without being biased toward Izuku's preconceptions. They seemed respectful, for a group of teenagers. Fairly quiet, taking in any advice he deigned to grunt at them, smiling politely at civilians and not causing a ruckus. They were-

Oh.

"Are you fuckin' scared of me?" he demanded, whirling around to watch their eyes widen.

"N-No! Of course not, S-Sir- Uh, Mister Bakushinchi, Sir!"

"Out with it, lose- Uh, shit, look I don't remember your names, but that's... That's a thing, it's not you, or- Fuck I'm so bad at this."

The trio stared at him in silence, and Katsuki sighed, folding his arms.

"Why are you scared of me?" he asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral.

He ignored the nervous glances they shot at each other, sighing again as he waited in silence.

"You're one of the- well, right now you're the top hero, Sir. And you're, uhh... Intimidating."

"I'm an asshole," Katsuki snorted. "You can say it."

"Mister Deku always talks about you," another piped up, smiling sheepishly. "He makes you sound really amazing, so we're, uh..."

"Scared to screw up?"

"Yeah."

"Interning is meant to be a learning experience," Katsuki pointed out flatly. "How are you gonna learn if you don't ask questions and make mistakes?"

"That's what Mister Deku says too."

"Then why hasn't it gotten into that little teenage brain, huh?" he demanded, thumping a fist down lightly on the boy's head. "Talk, you little shits. Make the most of me while I'm here."

"Really? It's okay?"

"I wouldn't be here otherwise, dumbass. And yes, I'm gonna keep calling you that shit even if you ask an intelligent question, so get used to it."

"U-Understood, Mister Bakushinchi, Sir!"

"And let's cut that shit out, alright? That's gonna piss me off within the next five minutes, tops. My name is Bakushinchi, I picked it myself, so use it. If I wanted all that bullshit tacked on, I'd have put it there myself."

"Yes Sir!"

He felt a collective sigh of relief pass over the group when he turned away, but froze before he could address it, eyes darting off to the side. He held up a hand for silence when one of the interns began to question him, and immediately they fell into a hush.

"Lets go this way," he said firmly, barely looking as he crossed a road. "Down here."

The interns hurried after him, but when Katsuki started moving, it was damn near impossible to catch up. He may as well have been a mile ahead, shooting nods to people who greeted him in passing, but otherwise keeping his eyes on his goal.

"It's your turn this time," he overheard, trying to keep his gaze dead ahead and pretend he wasn't listening in. "I've embarrassed myself at the last three."

"You're the only one who doesn't look suspicious, asshole. Get in there and act."

Katsuki gestured faintly behind his back, hoping the interns would get the point, and continued with his pace unbroken. The conversation ceased when Katsuki passed through the alley, but the moment he reached the other side, the whispers started.

"That must be a good sign, right?"

"No, idiot, this is his patrol area. They must have brought him to fill in. Shit."

Katsuki halted, turning around to shoot them a scowl over his shoulder. There were only two within sight, but judging by their conversation, more had to be lingering somewhere else. 

"If you're a villain, I'm gonna kick your ass," Katsuki growled. "If you're a reporter, I'm gonna assume you're a villain, and end up kicking your ass. Either way you should get out of my patrol zone right now."

The pair looked at each other for a moment and nodded, disappearing immediately. Katsuki strongly suspected it wouldn't be the last he saw of either of them, but for now, as long as they knew he was around, that was enough.

He would come back without the interns if it came to a fight.

"Bakushinchi! Is everything okay?!"

"Yeah, just reporters trying to figure out which hospital Deku is in," he agreed, still staring after the figures. "Told them to cut it out or I'd have them blacklisted by every hero agency in the country."

"Wow! I'd never thought about that stuff! It must be hard being at the top, with people following you around everywhere!"

Katsuki gave the boy a pointed look, but he didn't seem to realise the irony of his words, so with a sigh he gave up and continued their patrol loop.

Just one more hour. Wait for me, Deku.

─────

Katsuki slumped into his usual seat, leaning his head on his hand as he contemplated the face still covered in wounds, the bandages replaced with smaller patches but still littering his features. His chest rose and fell steadily, assisted by the mask over his face, and for a moment Katsuki felt himself lamenting that he couldn't see that stupid mess of freckles.

"Hey, nerd," he said softly. "Did you miss me?"

Part of him half-expected an answer, but still the chest just rose and fell, the machines around him showing steady lines and green numbers.

"I know we don't get much vacation time in this job, but this is getting kind of ridiculous. It's not funny anymore, Deku. Time to stop being such a lazy asshole and get out of bed, don't you know you can be fired for taking this many sick days?"

Still the room remained quiet around him, and Katsuki clenched his hands into fists.

"Just wake up, okay? Let me hear that stupid laugh. Gimme an 'okay, Kacchan, I'll get back to work' or some shit, okay?"

He sighed, looking away briefly to compose himself before he leaned in, resting his arms on the edge of the mattress.

"For me, okay? I know you've done a lot for me in our lives, but one more time, and I'll never ask for anything again. Just wake up for me and I'll never ask for anything ever. I'll... I'll let you call me fuckin' Kacchan for the rest of my life and I'll never complain. And I'll stop calling you shitty names. I can't promise 'Izuku' for the rest of my life because it sounds weird but I'll try, and otherwise I'll just stick with Deku, no more 'nerd' or 'asshole' or... or anything. I swear. Just wake up and give me that dumb smile and a nod, okay?"

Still Izuku didn't move, and Katsuki lay his head down on his arms, sighing as he closed his eyes.

"Okay, I guess you need a little more sleep. Soon though, okay? Wake up for me soon."