Bakudeku/Dekubaku Oneshots

Background Noise

Izuku’s out on patrol, calmly strolling through the streets and waving at civilians who pass him by, when he gets a phone call from Kirishima. 

It makes Izuku smile; he hasn’t gotten a chance to talk to Eijiro in a while, and he glances around to make sure things are still quiet before answering the phone. “Hey, Kirishima! How’s it going?” 

“Midoriya,” Kirishima says. “Are you near a TV? Computer? Can you turn on the news?” There’s a hard edge to his voice, like he’s angry about something. 

Izuku frowns. “Is everything okay? Is someone hurt?” He glances around for a storefront or news stand or something, and he jogs towards the end of the street when he spots a stall with a TV hanging from the ceiling.

“You really need to see this,” is all Kirishima says. It makes Izuku’s heart beat faster, and he’s already running through multiple disaster scenarios inside his head. As he skids to a stop in front of the store with the TV, Izuku freezes as he takes in the information on the screen. 

There’s a video playing on the news channel, set in a familiar location. The words on the bottom of the screen say that it was sent by an anonymous source, and Izuku’s whole body tenses as he realizes what he’s seeing. 

It’s from the fight in the candy factory; clearly the villain had a trick or two up his sleeve, and managed to sneak a hidden camera somewhere in the warehouse that the heroes missed. Izuku doesn’t know how the video made its way to the press, but playing on loop for all the world to see, in full view of the camera, is one Katsuki Bakugo, Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, covered in molasses and trapped in the throes of a bad flashback as Izuku tries to help snap him out of it. 

Why would they air this? Who even sent it? Izuku can only stare, reading the subtitles on the screen as it cuts back to news anchors reporting on the video. They’re all picking Kacchan’s panic attack apart, wondering how someone so weak who freezes at such a low-stakes villain attack can possibly protect the citizens of Japan. They’re going on and on about Dynamight’s history, and his volatile personality, and just generally poking at every bit of self-doubt that Kacchan’s ever felt and tossing it back in his face for the entire world to see. 

Izuku is seething with barely-restrained fury, as one of the reporters just barely comes close to mocking Kacchan’s PTSD on live television. The press has never been Kacchan’s best friend; they constantly question whether his fierce personality is going to make him a villain someday. But this is so much worse than his usual bad press. It’s like they’re all suddenly pouncing on the opportunity to kick Kacchan while he’s down.

“What the fuck,” Izuku whispers. 

Kirishima curses quietly. “It’s everywhere. It’s from that fight a week or so ago, right? When he had that bad flashback?” Kirishima knows about that of course; Kacchan tells him pretty much everything. “The press and the public are having a fucking field day with this. They’re all wondering how Dynamight managed to hide his weakness from everyone for so long. Some people are being really fucking vile about it— there’s all kinds of social media shit making fun of him. Not everyone- there’s some folks and outlets being supportive, but only a few.” 

Izuku can hear the cold, hard fury in his voice. It’s the tone he usually reserves for particularly nasty villains, the kind of voice you would never expect to hear from kind, good-hearted Red Riot. But Izuku knows that, just like himself, there’s nothing Kirishima wouldn’t do for Kacchan.