How Can I Make it Okay? - A BakuDeku Story

I Did Something Bad

Touya hung up from his call with Shouto and decided it was time to call an old friend. They hadn't spoken since Twice's death. To be quite honest, they hadn't spoken at all. He thought he should reach out but, he wasn't exactly sure where loyalty lied. They were old friends. They went to school together, until Touya ran. And then Keigo was there, bringing food and clothes to him in order to make sure he was okay. But when you almost kill someone ... it changes things. Touya sighed and put the phone to his ear.

"This better be good."

"I need your help Keigo," Touya scratched the back of his neck, wincing as he caught skin. "The UA kids are in trouble... the green haired one specifically, and you're the only person I can trust to call."

The line was silent for a while. He imagined he was debating whether Touya was telling the truth.

"Meet me at sundown," Keigo answered curtly.

"Same place as usual?"

"No, the place where you took my wings from me." And then the line went dead.

-------------------

10 years earlier

It was storming when Touya ran into a shack he had found on the outskirts of town. There wasn't anything in there but a bed and a few bottles of some suspicious liquid that he refused to touch. The bed was enough for Touya. He had run for days and needed to sleep. He was exhausted, but still he sat in the bed and watched the rain pour. He didn't have a home anymore. He didn't have anyone anymore.

In the morning, he woke and sat at the riverbed behind the shack, rinsing the stench from his shirt. He hung it along one of the branches, careful to hook it on to something so he wouldn't lose it and then went to practicing. Just because he left home didn't mean he had to stop, but this time he had a reason. He was going to prove his father wrong; he was going to be a good at something. He was going to master his quirk.

That evening, as Touya sat in the bed, his stomach grumbling and his body covered in new burns that spread up his arm, a knock on the door startled him. He got up tentatively, unsure of who could be there. He found himself hoping for a moment that it was his mother, or his father. For a moment, hope grew in his chest that they had actually come looking for him. But when he opened it and saw his childhood friend, he just sighed and walked back to the bed.

"What are you doing here Keigo?"

"The explosion explanation didn't make sense, nothing was left, no teeth, no pieces of clothing, nothing," he answered. "So I looked for you, because you couldn't be gone."

"It's not like I'd be missed," he mumbled, pulling his legs up to his chin. He always felt small in comparison to his father, but at that moment, his friend seeing him like this made him feel even smaller.

Keigo sat down at the end of the bed, shoving a plastic bag towards him. Touya stared at it for a moment, unsure of whether he wanted to open it, but the smell coming from it made his mouth water and his stomach lurch. There was also a new pile of clothes and a backpack sitting next to the bag. He looked up at Keigo who just shrugged.

"Why?"

"No one deserves to be on their own," Keigo decided.

"I do," Touya answered. "En-...My father made sure I knew I wasn't good enough for him so I'm going to train until he realizes he made a mistake."

Keigo stared at the burns that ran up his arm.

"Maybe..." he started. "Maybe you should take it easy, I'm not saying you stop training. I'm saying we need to figure out how you can use your quirk without hurting yourself Touy."