[ THREE: DEKU ]

Katsuki has recently realized something that has managed to slip past his mind for quite a while.

School.

Or to be more specific, kindergarten.

Imagine his shock when he realizes that for someone his age, he has to go to kindergarten like any other kids like him. He's been excused for a week or two because of his little quirk accident (and more that follows, because ouch, his quirk is hard to control), but now that he's shown that he's stable, he needs to go back.

Holy shit, he has to go to kindergarten. He has to meet small little kids! He'll meet brats like Lambo and only this time they won't be Family like Lambo, what the fuck. Does his mother want him to suffer? Even though Katsuki's childishness lingers—because really, he is a kid, past life or not—the memories of being Hayato is enough to make him grimace in distaste at the thought of spending time with kids.

Kids are wonderful, sometimes, especially if they're nice little ones like I-Pin or Fuuta, and he guesses Lambo can be cute too, but mostly in his teenage years, Hayato had thought of Lambo like an annoying little brother. Stuck to him like a burr and made him soft sometimes, but gave him headaches nevertheless. The amount of times teenage Hayato threatened to blow Lambo up weren't little, after all.

Now, for Katsuki to willingly step into kindergarten, where there are probably smol Lambos around, screaming kids with most likely newly developed and uncontrolled quirks? Katsuki would rather crawl under his bed and scream. He'll rather train to control his quirk (his hands still accidentally blow up on him sometimes, it sucks) than meet tiny Lambos. What if he gets irritated and loses control of his quirk? He might end up blowing something up and setting those kids on fire.

Oh god, at this point Katsuki is basically a fire hazard, what the fuck. He can't be trusted around kids, he'll accidentally kill them or something!

"Mom, no," Katsuki grouches out. He's wrapped himself with his blanket like a burrito, glaring ferociously (or as ferociously as he's able to as a four year old) like an offended cat. He hisses loudly when his mom tugs on his comfortable burrito wrap, to which his mom simply responds by shaking him around harder.

Seriously, Katsuki's family are wild as fuck. His father is more mellow, but his mom? Loud. And Katsuki, if his four year old memories are to be trusted, is equally loud. It took him quite a while to compartmentalize between his mom when he was Hayato and his current mom, but he managed to do it in the end. It's easy now, to treat his mom as his real mom because honestly, she is.

He just had a hard time because before this, before his reawakening, when he was no-one else but Hayato, he only knew of Lavina. The gentle piano tutor, his mother who died before she could take care of him as a mother, before Hayato even knew she was his mother.

But now Mitsuki is here, too. His loud, foul-mouthed mother, who takes no shit from anybody—not even her own family. There has to be some repercussions to be loud both in voice and in actions if Katsuki were a normal child; the amount of times his mom smacked his head are a lot. If Katsuki were not Hayato, he has an inkling he'll end up communicating with punches more than with words as a child, considering his mom's way of educating him. Granted, Katsuki is a little bit of a little shit, even when without Hayato's memories. But armed with Hayato's memories? It only gives him a little bit of nostalgia.

Violence isn't a rare sight within any mafia families, after all. Heck, as loving his family was in his childhood years, his father used to let Bianchi feed him poisoned cookies out of love. Bianchi fed him poisoned food out of love. Whether that love his father exhibited was for his daughter who tried her best or his illegitimate son who was foaming at the mouth, he wouldn't know. He does know, however, that Bianchi, with her violent and eccentric side, truly loved him. But hey, trauma and stomachache aside, at least he got stronger poison resistance from it.

Speaking of poison resistance, wouldn't that be nice if Katsuki has it too?

Katsuki blinks, some sort of an epiphany building itself in his mind. He's familiar with his sister's poison cooking. Even if he's not the Poison Scorpion, he's sure he can replicate it with the right ingredients. With that, he can slowly build up his poison resistance! He couldn't make those random worms though, not that he wants to, really. He doesn't even know how his sister could have that, but she had the Poison Touch, so he's content to chalk it up as yet another weirdness Mafiosi in his old world had. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Although his world is relatively peaceful, since he's nothing but a four year old kid (dammit) and he's a civilian (DAMMIT), if in the future he really ends up pursuing the hero career (he still grimaces at the thought of "hero". What a puny title given to puny humans trying to obtain fame and money. Where even is the sincerity? The Tenth would balk at these kinds of people, truly), he would need at least some poison resistance.

Building up poison resistance, especially since he's young, sounds like a pretty great idea.

"Kat. Su. Ki!" His mom's voice cuts off his deep thought, Katsuki yelping when she forcefully rips him out of his very comfortable burrito. "Why aren't you wearing your uniform yet, you difficult kid?!"

Katsuki scrambles to his soft blankets to no avail, his mom having grabbed his legs to dangle him upside down. "Agh, mom!" He yells, wiggling around in place. Damn his four year old strength and dexterities! "I told you I don't wanna!"

"And I told you that's bullshit!" She shouts back, having put him on the bed and starting to tug on his All Might shirt. "You're going to school whether you want it or not!"

It's embarrassing, but Mitsuki manages to strong arm his uniform onto him (a pretty soft baby blue and yellow shorts. It's so cute and soft, very not Hayato's style that Katsuki wants to cry a little) and drag him to the kitchen so he can eat breakfast, Katsuki yelling all the while.

His old man only eats his omelet in peace, the traitor!

And so, Katsuki is dropped off to the kindergarten. His mom dropped him off without much fanfare, simply patting his head and telling him to behave ("or else, you dipshit." Man, he wants to fight his mom, but man, he loves his mom) before she leaves for work.

At the gates, children cry and yell. He can already see some children napping, slobbering and playing. He spots a few tugging each other's hair or weakly punching each other, and Katsuki skillfully turns away. He's not getting in children's petty fighting shit, no way in hell.

But this world truly is fantastic, this weird heroism system and slobbering children aside.

There are children with body shapes, colors and additions to their body—whether they're horns or wings or even extra limbs—ones that would be labeled as extra weird in his past life. There are children whose quirks have manifested: a kid making little flowers grow, a kid with particularly devastating sneeze blowing everything away, and much more.

For a while, Katsuki is distracted at the sight of such quirks.

And then, a tiny voice.

"Kacchan?"

Katsuki blinks. Blinks again.

Huh.

That voice's familiar.

Katsuki turns towards the source of said voice, and sees a boy with curly green hair.

Green hair. Wide green eyes. Chubby cheeks.

It takes Katsuki approximately 0.3 seconds to arrange his memories together and remember.

"Ah!" He says, out of reflex more than anything, chubby finger pointing at the boy. "Deku."

While the boy—Deku—smiles brightly at the greeting (fuckin' weird), Katsuki freezes in place. Because… his name is not Deku. He remembers, before, how pre-quirk Katsuki declared boldly that Deku is Deku because Katsuki can read. Of course, he's a tiny genius even without Hayato's memories, but his name isn't Deku.

Thinking about it, Katsuki definitely knows Deku isn't Deku because, well. They're childhood friends, and that's basically weird not to know your own friend's name. Even Hayato knew of Turf Top's and Baseball Idiot's name, regardless of the nicknames he bestowed upon them.

Post-quirk Katsuki thinks what pre-quirk Katsuki did… it's done out of a child's small malicious intent to tease.

(False, he knows pre-quirk Katsuki wants to insult him. But now that he's Hayato and Katsuki, he wonders the merit of putting down someone who isn't actively trying to bring him down).

Technically speaking, he can stop calling Deku 'Deku' now. It's not a pleasant nickname after all. But well, he's Katsuki as much as he is Hayato. Hayato gave everyone insulting nicknames. Even his most precious people, he gave nicknames. (Turf top, Baseball Idiot, Idiot Cow—he hopes they're fine, that they're safe. Hopes they're with Tenth and protecting him even now. Hopes that they're happy and safe and alive).

That is why, after a few seconds of hesitation, Katsuki simply bellows. "Deku!"

"Yes!" Deku—Izuku—says automatically, hands stiff beside him as if he's a soldier awaiting a command. His green eyes are wide, bemused and skittish but still so, so innocent. Katsuki wonders.

"Why the hell are you acting like that?" He ends up saying, red eyes narrowed. His flames flared inside of him, and Katsuki wonders.

"N-nothing!" Deku stutters out. "I just—I didn't think you'd be here today, Kacchan!"

"Ha?" Katsuki blinks, frown apparent. "Am I not allowed to go to school?" Because thank fuck if that's the case. He can call his mom and be at home, studying in his own pace, investigating more about his quirk and flames and about heroes.

"That's not what I meant!" Aw, shit. He had been hoping too. Deku flounders for a little bit more, his hands flailing beside him. His actions remind him so much of his Tenth that it hurts. His frown deepens at that thought, his eyes shadowed.

His Boss. Tenth. Tsuna. He hopes he's alright. Hopes he's alive, breathing and well. He hopes he's forgiven Hayato for dying. For being too weak that he didn't make it out alive.

"A-Are you okay, Kacchan?" Katsuki blinks, not realizing that Deku has stepped closer to him. Damn his four year old senses. His child senses not yet the ones he had when he was the Tenth's right hand man. Deku is hovering near him, his worry apparent. Tentatively, he grabs onto Katsuki's arm.

Katsuki's flame flares.

"I-if you're not feeling well, we can go to the teacher!" He suggests helpfully, green eyes gazing worriedly at Katsuki, who can only stare at him wide eyed. That was—His flame was—

"Kacchan?"

Katsuki rips his hand out of Deku's grip, red eyes staring at Deku's hand as if it's an offending piece of limb.

"…'m fine," he manages to say. "Whatever, Deku." He avoids Deku's gaze and power walks his way to what he remembers to be his class. What kind of class named its class Peach? A kindergarten, apparently. He's in a class named Peach. Fuck his life.

He studiously ignores Deku's presence near him for a few hours as the child hovers worriedly.

Ignores how his flame reaches out.

Damn you pre-quirk Katsuki, he thinks as he stabs a paper with his red crayon. Why must you have a troublesome person with dormant flames be close to you?

In hindsight, Katsuki knows why. People with flames, the ones who haven't bonded with others, they're more likely to feel a pull toward other flame users. And when one becomes active, dormant users will feel at ease to be near them. The more close they are, the more likely those with dormant flames to be awakened. Such is the case with Vongola's Tenth Generation.

Tenth (his seal aside) and the Guardians are mostly flame-active. They've been using their flames unconsciously throughout their daily lives. An example would be Turf Top with his muscles, allowing him to run around Japan three times by feet because of his Sun Activation skill, even when he hadn't really known how to use said flames consciously. But his little sister, Kyoko, she wasn't an active flame user. When they fought Byakuran, Kyoko was declared 'null'.

But years being with Tenth and the others helped her dormant flames to be awakened, and ten years later she was a skilled Mist flame user.

Hayato was a Storm. Katsuki is no different.

His flame went active, a few days after his quirk manifested. It lays still inside of him until he gathers enough resolve to pull it back out to be used, but it's there.

And Deku's flame is dormant.

He doesn't know what Deku's is. What he knows is that his flame had reached out that morning. It reached out because Deku has a dormant flame just waiting to be activated. Reached out because his flame declared Deku is close enough to Katsuki to deserve his flame being activated.

Reached out because here, Katsuki's flames has no bond binding him to anybody.

No Tenth. No Baseball Idiot. No Guardians. No Vongola.

Katsuki hates that.

(Hayato hates that).

But watching as Deku fumbles around with his words, in an attempt to figure out Katsuki's quirk, Katsuki can only scowl and throw a crayon at Deku's face.

Deku yelps, and Katsuki scolds him.

"Deku, stop being annoying! The teacher will just announce it later during lunch!"

"S-Sorry, Kacchan!"

It hurts.

Finally, after a long long wait, Hayatsuki is back! ;w; Katsuki is still Katsuki but with Hayato's mind, and it's sometimes a bit difficult for him to adapt in this world. Not to mention the sudden flashbacks and thoughts to his precious old life... Poor Hayatsuki.

Poor Deku though, he really can't catch a break. Tsk, tsk.

This chapter is basically:

Hayatsuki: bitch i have to go to school? fuck no

Mitsuki: you think i accept no as an answer? bitch

Hayatsuki: kids are annoying

Izuku: exists

Hayatsuki: you remind me of Juudaime i would like it if you disappear from my sight

Izuku: has a dormant flame

Hayatsuki: oh come ON

Review please! Visit my twt natanije and give some tip to the tip-jar linked there if you want! Tell me what you think about Hayatsuki! And Deku! They'll be friends soon, maybe, if Hayatsuki isn't too pissy about it. We'll see!

Thank you for reading!