20

A/N Trigger Warning ⚠️ Please keep yourselves safe. Advise, extremely low self-esteem and trauma are discussed in this chapter. 🫂

Kacchan's POV

Panic, sheer panic was written all over Deku's face. He was covered in tears, his body was shivering like a leaf and eyes were either squeezing shut or so wide open that it looked like it hurt. He is still crouching on the floor trying to cover his head and memories of that piece of shit father of mine, wrapping his whip around his neck came flooding into my mind.

He really loved that fucking thing, always preferring it than actually touching us. How in the hell he managed to use the weapon like that without leaving a mark always confused me, even as a brat. Of course, it's not like it really matters when he was dragging one of us to get beaten or to try and blacken our souls with another death or torture. I felt the chill practically fly across my body as I slowly reached for my lover.

As much as my Hag haunted my nightmares, my father was the one that haunted Deku's. With my Hag it was easy, if she wanted us we already knew what we were in for; pain. And a lot of it. But with my father, it could be anything; torturing a villain, conducting illegal medical experiments (most of the time on each other), killing a lack luster thug, torturing each other… The list never truly ended and for Deku that was terrifying. We never knew when something new would be added. And unlike the Hag, who would favor me as her son, well. My father had exactly zero qualms over the idea of my dying IF he still got what he wanted in the end. I doubt he would have so much as frowned at the thought of my dying.

Only moments ago, he told me how he had been watching us for months, peeping through the curtains of the dorms only to get pissed when he couldn't find us for hours or even days at a time. Icyhot had frozen his hands together and I broke them off, removing his ability to set off the explosions his sweat could trigger. He tried to use Deku to curse me, telling me how soon enough, we would stop playing house and once he actually felt free he would leave me all alone. The fucker was actually laughing. My second explosion was against his throat and even though it didn't behead him, well he won't be able to come back from that. Fuck, most of his spine was blasted away.

Deku's chaotic energy was still sparking out of control in places but he is doing better. I ignored the zaps kneeling by him and slowly remove his mask, along with mine so that I could just look at him. At how broken and alone he is even with me in arms reach, at this point I don't even think the concept of time made sense to him. No matter how much time goes by can I ever really make him forget? Forget the horror that is our past together? Is there even a shred of a chance left that he doesn't actually hate me?

Yeah, he married me but that doesn't mean he could ever forget all the things I was forced to do to him.

I slammed my eyes shut for a second before I started barking orders at Deku's team to join the rest of the fight. Deku and I need more than just a minute but going out there now would be suicide, much like sending everyone else away while we broke down. "Icyhot, watch the door from upstairs. Do what you can to assist, we'll be up when we can." I didn't bother to open my eyes let alone look up but I could easily hear the sighs of relief from the team before their footsteps disappeared in the distance.

I don't know how long we stayed sitting there on the ground. It felt like forever before I could force myself to open my eyes and look into his now nearly blank eyes. His tears still streaming, trying to carve a path through his adorable freckles, his mask now sitting around his neck, his mouth kept returning to what could only look like a screaming position as he silently wailed at things others could only guess at. At things I never wanted to see in the first place. Things that I probably did to him in the first place. Repeatedly.

"Deku?" I asked him softly, he jumped a little obviously forgetting he wasn't alone while his hands pulled at his vibrant green hair. I scooted closer to him kissing his forehead until he relaxed enough that he was curled into my arms rather than away. "Dear God, Deku I love you so much," I whispered as I ran my fingers through his hair, fixing the damage that he had just rendered it.

He started coughing and his silent screams turned into sobs as I held him. His hands now clenching handfuls of my hero suit all while he tried to pull me closer. To try and somehow hide from all the pain that haunts his mind. I hummed an almost silent tune and the fact that Eraserhead came running into our private space was left ignored by both of us.

"Who-?" He tried to get a grip of what all happened but we don't have the time and Deku certainly doesn't have the clarity right now to explain. I held a finger to my lips still humming only occasionally, breaking the tune just enough to give him a kiss on the forehead.

"Do we have to be heroes?" Deku's sobs finally broke but the hurt and pain were still clear as day.

"No, we can just work at a convenience store for all I care. So long as you're there with me, we'll make it through," I answered once he calmed down enough to hear me. "We can do anything you want, we can even just hide away from the world, we both know how. Go off the grid and just forget everyone for a while. No one would blame us for needing to be alone. Not after what we've done."

I felt him scoff at the thought which made me smile. Even now at his lowest he can't imagine a world without heroes and he so desperately wants to be one. Eraserhead had frozen in place terror replacing his usual bitch face-like mask but it's not like we would actually leave without telling anyone and certainly not for all that long.

Deku started laughing, hiccups interrupting the sad sound of acceptance and hate. Our dream of being heroes as long since come to that, hate. We hate that there was ever a need for heroes in the first place, we hate what my parents tried to turn us into and we hate All-For-One for not only exaggerating the need but destroying the foundation on which being a hero was supposed to be in the first place. Not to mention the fact that he turned out to be Deku's father.

"Are you ready for one last kill? It's not going to be easy," I asked, pulling away just enough to wipe his tears away and kiss his forehead again letting my nose tickle at his, making him giggle.

"Yeah, I think I'm ready to smash the one responsible for everything," he cracked a grin looking up at me. He is still hurting but we both know that this fight still isn't done yet and it's only about to get harder.

"I think we need a vacation after today. Sleep, sex, and a couple 'broken' phones?" I gently rubbed my nose on his again, the smile on his face growing bigger and no longer looked so fragile.

"That sounds great, but first," he grabbed me by my shoulders and kissed me, his tongue searching mine out all while he charged his quirk and zapped me, making me moan at the unspoken promises for later. For just a few moments we let our quirks feed into each other, calming ourselves down, building ourselves back up again and then finally balancing.

"Let's go," he smiled before fixing his mask and I followed his lead. He held out his hand and I took it without a thought and we ran for the stairs, ignoring my father's now shattered, frozen remains scattered across the ground and Eraserhead who was trying to catch up to us, panic still clear on his face as we exited the basement and threw ourselves into the fray.

It wasn't long before we were breaking down the last door and just as we expected All-For-One was standing there, waiting.