Mending the Battle Wounds (TodoBakuDeku)

Chapter 25

They managed to lose the once villains, hiding out in Katsuki's room for the time being. They figured it wouldn't be long before one of them checked there.

They were all softly panting, having just run around the entire campus trying to get away from Izuku's four siblings. "So, boyfriends huh?" Shoto piped up, figuring they'd have to talk about it at some point.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. I kind of just wanted to piss them off as much as possible and that's the first thing I thought of." Izuku explained, dramatically dropping to the floor and spreading his arms and legs out like a starfish as he tried to catch his breath. "God damn, I need to train more." He said to himself.

"Thanks for that. I hope you know you just signed out death warrents." Katsuki said, sliding down one wall so he was also sitting on the ground.

"Well if everyone else is gonna do it." Shoto mumbled, taking a seat on the ground as well.

"You were already a dead man Kacchan. Shoto should be fine, Dabi wouldn't touch him or let anyone else, he's got to much guilt." Izuku explained, resting his hands on his stomach as he finally started to even out his breathing.

"Good." Shoto said shortly. What Dabi did, abandoning their entire family and then turning around and getting a new one? It completely fucked with Shoto's head. He thought he deserved the guilt.

Izuku raised his head until he was looking at Shoto upside down. "I know you're mad at him, but he really does hate himself for leaving you guys. He really wanted nothing to do with the League other than, you know, villain stuff until he fell in love with Tomura." He said, trying to defend his- Shoto's- someone's brother.

"I really don't care." Shoto responded, staring intently at an empty wall.

"C'mon Shoto, I know what you're thinking. He left your family and got a new one, but that's really not what happened. He just couldn't deal with you dad anymore, you have to understand that more than anyone-"

Shoto quickly cut the green haired boy off. "No, no I don't understand that." He snapped. "If anyone had the right to up and leave, it was me. I'm the one that bastard pushed and pushed until I couldn't stand anymore, until I was puking my guts out, until I needed a hospital, and guess what? I still stayed. I put up with all of it... Why couldn't he?"

Some small, rational part of Shoto knew he was being unfair. Everyone has a different level of tolerance for abuse and pain, and Shoto wasn't even sure what Dabi had gone through when they were kids, so he really had no right to compare them. But he was hurt. He had been hurt so many times in his life, that physical pain barely affected him anymore, but this hurt, this pain, it was different and it cut deep.

"Look Shoto, I understand that. I really, really understand how hurt you must be, but you should know his side of things before you decide to hate him. You have to remember, he was the first kid. He was the first mistake, and your dad never let him forget it." Izuku said softly. He didn't want to upset Shoto even more than he already was, but he couldn't just let him hate Dabi without knowing exactly why he left.

The room was quiet for a few seconds before Katsuki broke it. "Can we circle back to the boyfriend thing? Because we really did not cover that enough."

"Read the room Katsuki." Shoto mocked.

"Fuck off, if you don't have to then I sure as hell don't." The blond shot back.

Shoto rolled his eyes, but turned his attention to Izuku. "If you wanted to date, all you had to do was tell us you know." He said, his voice back to being it's constant monotone.