Blame it on me

Changes 4

T i m e s k i p to the night of the provisional licensing exam, Kacchan vs Deku 2, when Katsuki finds out about Deku's quirk, whatever you wanna call it.

(The time skip doesn't mean there won't be more about the problem children in the other short stories coming up.)

Shouta was sorting out emails, and planning schedules as his class had gone to sleep. The provisional licensing exam was a blast considering the percentage of passing students in class 1-A. In fact, only two of his students failed. The two on the very top of the class. Katsuki and Todoroki. His son and his student who had a free pass to their home whenever he needed to feel safe. Like a miracle, Katsuki cooperated with two of his friends and helped them throughout the exam, yet he caused his own failure. Then there was Todoroki, someone who liked to avoid conflicts whenever possible, who failed because he started fighting with another student instead of prioritizing the exam.

Thinking about the two for too long, trying to find out the reason they were the only ones to fail, Shouta realized the only thing that tied those two together was him. He started wondering if he should have done something differently to prevent their failure.

On their way back to school, both Todoroki and Katsuki were utterly silent. In the afternoon, Shouta hadn't found the perfect moment to pull either aside and talk about what went wrong because both teenagers hid in their rooms, most likely to grieve their loss in peace. Shouta met up with his husband shortly after they got back, and they couldn't reach Katsuki on the phone. He only answered Hitoshi, saying he was fine.

Just like always, his son was fine. Perfectly fine. Or in other words, he was a mess. Katsuki hadn't been to therapy in years, and even after the kidnapping, they couldn't force him to talk to a professional, even though it was clear how desperately he needed it. Shouta started to think Katsuki's real quirk wasn't explosion but self-destruction. He was bottling his feelings up again as if he learned nothing from the past, and Shouta couldn't help but feel like it was his fault.

And there he was, pushing them away again as soon as something bad happened. Shouta knew he was ashamed as for him, any form of failure was equal to humiliation. His inferiority complex had always been a problem, forcing him to become an obsessive perfectionist. Katsuki constantly needed to prove himself worthy of existence on his own terms, reaching the sky-high expectations he set for himself, setting them higher and higher each time he achieved something instead of being satisfied with himself for just one second. Most of Katsuki's motivations were somewhat innocent, even good. The issue was the fact his son was blind to boundaries and overdid just about everything, making the worst out of the things that started out at good.

His fierceness was admirable. He motivated Hitoshi more than anyone ever until motivation turned into two damaged kids hyping each other's self-destructive tendencies up and having fun while doing so. Already knowing today's failure adding to the pile of unresolved issues in the family would end up in either or both his son's getting themselves hurt, Shouta checked the time, seeing it was half-past ten. Katsuki was probably asleep, and he was going to be mad at him for waking him up, but he needed to talk to him before he did something stupid. Just as he was about to finish typing and get moving, his thoughts were interrupted by the speaker on the wall right next to the door.

"Eraserhead. Two of your students are at ground beta, unsupervised. It's your responsibility to discipline them."

Shouta turned towards the speaker, hands still set to type on the keyboard as he lifted them.