#heeeeelp i love eriiiiii TToTT

[theolddarkmachine]

Imaginary- Chapter Eight

Midoriya Izuku’s life was turned upside by fate.

Eri’s life was turned upside down by circumstance.

And Bakugou Katsuki is about to learn that even imaginary friends need to grow up.

Also on AO3

A/N: Would you believe I got this all done in one day? It’s like I can almost keep up with my own writing schedule XD Anyway, please know that I really love Eri and would 100% protect her with my life.

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Katsuki doesn’t know why he went with the lie.

He still doesn’t know why Midoriya Izuku can see him.

Most importantly, he doesn’t know why the fuck he’s in the Midoriya household, sitting at their dining table eating semi stale chocolate chip cookies and pretending to like coffee, while also pretending to know anything about Eri’s progress at daycare.

Katsuki supposes he can just go ahead and add that to the ever growing list of things he apparently doesn’t know. What the hell was one more item anyway?

“It’s funny how we bought your grandma’s house,” Midoriya chuckles, ripping him from the depths of his thoughts. His eyes watch him closely as he blows over his coffee before taking a sip. Sitting across the table from him, Midoriya is still in that damned worn tank top, and still distracting. Even more so now that Katsuki can’t help the way his gaze helplessly tracks his throat as he swallows the hot liquid.

This had been the last thing he’d expected when he’d woken up this morning and decided to bit the bullet and make his return.

He was Bakugou damn Katsuki after all, and he was one of the best god damn imaginary friends out there. A green haired nerd of a father seeing him wasn’t going to keep him from doing his job.

That’s exactly what he had told himself as he’d gotten ready, ignoring the slight pulse of his brain against his skull thanks to the the previous night’s alcohol.

It’s what he had continued to tell himself as he’d finally make his way over to the Midoriyas.

And that’s what he tried to remind himself as Midoriya himself had stood there looking wholly indecent on his front step.

Averting his eyes when the man resurfaces from the edge of his mug, Katsuki takes a sip of his own bitter coffee for something to do, and promptly chokes on the scalding heat.

“Yeah,” he says lamely after catching his breath, voice husky from the coffee’s attempt on his life. “Really funny.”

“Guess that’s a small town for you,” Midoriya hums, happily supplying Katsuki his own cover up for his lie.

“Yeah,” he says again, lower this time as he lets his eyes drag towards where Eri sits between them. With her tongue poking out slightly and a look of concentration across her face, she covers the paper in front of her with marker.

Calm settles out over the room as Katsuki watches Eri add a bright orange butterfly to the corner of her paper. It stretches over the length of several minutes before he sees Midoriya open his mouth, ready to say something, when the sudden loud chirp of his phone causes him to snap it shut.

Turning his attention from the paper, Katsuki watches as he stands, letting his gaze linger as Midoriya walks to the counter and picks up his cellphone. His brows pinch together as he looks down at the screen.

“Sorry, I got to take this,” he says, not bothering to wait for Katsuki’s nod before answering and walking out of the kitchen. The sudden urgency in his voice causes Eri to look up from her work just in time to see him leave.

“Hey, brat,” Katsuki mutters, pulling her attention away from the entrance of the kitchen where Midoriya’s voice is just a dull hum. A small frown plays across her lips as she looks up to him with darkened eyes.

That just won’t fucking do, he thinks silently to himself before contorting his face into something ridiculous. There’s a momentary hesitation as Eri looks on before she laughs loudly. Settling his face back into an approximation of his usual steely look— even as his lips curve upward slightly— he grabs for a marker. Popping the cap, he starts to add a doodle beside her colorful rainbow.

Smile pulling wider as she watches him, she leans back down to continue decorating the paper beside him.

It isn’t until several minutes later that Katsuki feels the heat of a weighted stare on him, brushing his skin with a firelight glow and raising goosebumps across his arms. Snapping his attention upward, he catches the last vestiges of fondness that still cling to Midoriya’s stare as he stands in the doorway, gaze intent on the scene before him.

An unfamiliar twist rocks deep in his stomach as their eyes meet, and Midoriya nods his head back, beckoning him to come over.

“Mind finishing this off for me?” Katsuki asks Eri, eyes still fixed on her dad as he blindly points at the small dog he’s outlined with the name King Explosion Murder written in block letters beside it.

“Okay!” She cheers, pulling the paper closer to her as she gets to work on making the fearsome dog purple.

The loud sound of the metal chair legs against the linoleum signals his movement as he stands, making his way to where Midoriya stands in the hallway just outside the kitchen. Curiosity fills him with an odd liquid warmth as he stands before the shorter man, still not used to the weight of his gaze finding him instead of looking through him.

“I have a huge favor to ask you,” Midoriya says without preamble, looking just shy of sheepish as a pink flush paints itself across his cheeks. The rush of electric admiration tickles along the edges of Katsuki’s ribs with the realization that Midoriya is a couple inches shorter than him as he looks up.

“Go on,” Katsuki says, voice brusque with his interest as he crosses his arms over his chest in a vain attempt to stop the buzzing in his chest.

“There’s a pretty big wreck about 30 minutes out of town, and we’re the closest police department,” Midoriya starts, rubbing at his arm absently as he keeps his eyes set just over his shoulder. “They need all hands on deck.”

“So you need me to sit in with the kid,” Katsuki finishes for him, watching as the flush goes a deeper shade and makes his freckles stand out more against the pink.

It’s a beautiful shade, a small voice at the back of his head whispers.

Wait, what the fuck?

“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind,” Midoriya says, shifting his gaze the few inches to the left to catch his ruby touched look dead on. There’s a challenge there, nestled in the depths of his own jewel toned stare as he doesn’t back down, even as his cheeks radiate his chagrin.

“I’d ask my mom, but she’s the next town over with a friend, and I don’t really have anyone else here.”

Breath holding in the base of his throat, Katsuki tilts his head, looking at Midoriya for what feels like the first time. He knows it must take a lot to ask him for the help, if the fire in his eyes is anything to go by, and something about that makes another rumble of warmth go through his chest.

“You don’t know me,” he hears himself say before he can stop the track of his thoughts from falling from his lips. It causes Midoriya to laugh, the sound of it tinged with an odd sort of disbelief as he shakes his head.

“Yeah, but Eri seems to like you well enough,” he replies, eyes shifting to where the young girl is still at the dining table, happily coloring.

Decision makes his gaze bright as he returns it to Katsuki.

“Between you and me, she seems to like you so much that she named her imaginary friend after you.”

Quick panic shocks all of Katsuki’s senses as the statement too close to the truth.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, especially since it must be your day off, but please,” Midoriya’s voice goes soft and hopeful. Mouth going dry as he finds himself pinned beneath a vast forest of green, Katsuki nods his head dumbly.

“Yeah, alright,” he agrees quietly.

Looking down as Midoriya’s eyes light up, Katsuki doesn’t know why the bright gratitude slips straight through his rib cage and lands directly at his heart.

Mentally, he adds that to the list.

***

I owe you one, Midoriya had said, right after giving him a quick tour of the home and pointing out the location of every one of their emergency first aid kits.

Yes, plural, because apparently on top of being a cop, he was also a top notch worry wart.

Staring dumbly at the front door that Midoriya had just left out of, Katsuki counts to ten before turning to where Eri is now situated in the living room. After putting up a bit of a fight upon hearing that her dad had to go into work on his day off, the four year old had finally let him off the hook only after he’d promised that she could pick what they had for dinner. Now, she sat with her legs crossed in front of her, sandwiched between the couch and coffee table as her eyes fixate on the television, leaving her drawing supplies abandoned before her.

A small wave of emotion rolls over him as he looks at Eri.

He really had missed her.

“Tsk,” Katsuki hisses under his breath as he moves into the living room. I’m getting soft.

Dropping down next to the small girl, he folds one leg in front of him and stretches the other out to the side. Katsuki isn’t sure he was ever small enough to fit in between the two pieces of furniture, but he sure as shit isn’t now.

Lowly, he tsks again as he tries to adjust himself enough free his back from the near painful press of the couch against his spine.

“So, brat, not that I’m usually one to talk about morals, but you do know lying is bad, right?” Katsuki finally says after giving up on his futile endeavor, instead setting his attention on Eri as she turns to him. Her little brows pull together in confusion as she tilts her head.

“You know, how you told your dad I’m from daycare,” he continues, waving his hand as if it helped in his explanation. A small smile turns her lips upwards, and he isn’t sure what he expected her reaction to be, but that wasn’t it.

“Silly, Kacchan, that wasn’t a lie!” Eri laughs, shaking her head almost like she knows something he doesn’t.

A muscle just beneath his eye twitches.

“Okay, but it’s still not really the truth either,” he grits out, wondering for the first time in his existence if this is how it felt to be a parent.

“You had seemed really worried about Daddy Izuku seeing you,” Eri explains as a brief pause, her shoulders slumping and voice small as she speaks, filling Katsuki with instantaneous regret. Her eyes fall to the carpet between them before she speaks again,

“I was just trying to help.”

The admission presses heavy on his heart as he sighs, reaching out slowly to drop his hand on her head, giving her hair a quick ruffle.

“You’re too damn smart, kid,” he says lowly. “Thanks for that.”

A beaming grin starts to spread across her features as he drops his hand, mouth opening around a statement before he cuts off her excitement by holding up a finger in the universal sign of ‘wait.’

“But next time, if we need to lie, let’s come up with one together, okay?” Katsuki says, breathing a bit easier when she nods in agreement.

Good, he thinks to himself as she turns her attention back to the TV. A pleasant, comfortable quiet hushes through the room as Eri watches her cartoon. Reaching forward, Katsuki pops the cap off a marker and starts to mark an empty piece of paper with bold black lines. It’s an easy sort of silence as he loses himself to the simple work of drawing, time passing steadily around them for an undetermined amount of time before Eri speaks again.

“Kacchan?” She asks quietly, not turning to look at him as she does.

“Yeah, squirt?” He answers, voice preoccupied as he grabs for the green marker and begins filling in some of the spaces between his lines. The high pitched sound of cheering blares from the television, filling the space of her silence for long enough that Katsuki wonders if she’d heard him.

“Why’d you leave?” Eri finally asks. Clenching his fist around his marker, he looks up in time to see her lip wobble slightly, even as her eyes remain set straight ahead.

“Do you not like me anymore?”

It’s a painfully earnest question, turned dark with its hurt, and Katsuki feels it squeeze around his heart like a vice.

“Don’t be stupid, of course I like you,” he growls, “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

Sniffling loudly, Eri just nods as she continues to not look at him. Quickly replacing the cap on the marker, Katsuki drops it before turning as much as he can in the small space to face her.

“Listen, I wasn’t gone because of anything you did. Your dad saw me, so I tried to stay away for a bit since he wasn’t supposed to see me,” he tries to explain as he chews on the anger that ripples through him, all of its heat centered on himself.

“But he still can,” Eri says, tone matter-of-fact.

“Yeah, looks like it,” he answers, though it isn’t a question.

Her nod is sharper this time as she finally tuns to look at him. An infinitesimal smile draws across her face, even as unshed tears cling to the corners of her eyes.

“Well I’m glad Daddy Izuku can see you,” she proclaims boldly, then sniffles.

“What the—” Katsuki bites off his expletive at her sudden exclamation. Sucking a steady breath through his front teeth, he starts again.

“Why’s that, squirt?”

“Because if he can see you, that means you’re friends now!” Eri says excitedly, bouncing a little where she sits. “And that means you get to be his friend for as long as he needs you too!”

There’s a moment as Katsuki looks down at the small girl as she looks up at him, eyes still watery as she echoes his words from when they had met. They shift something in his mind as a realization suddenly clicks into place.

Imaginary friends are meant to help those who have forgotten how to smile.

The Administrator’s words circle around his thoughts as a sudden flash of emerald blinks across focus, truly seeing him before fading away, replaced by Eri’s expectant look.

“Huh,” he manages as he turns back to his drawing, grabbing for a grey marker and removing the cap to continue his work.

Leave it to a four year old to figure it out, he thinks to himself as he folks his breathing to the time of his careful strokes of color.

“Does your dad need a friend?” Katsuki wonders out loud, not expecting much of an answer. He figures it’s a far bigger question than a child could probably answer, even if she was slowly proving to be one of the smartest people he knew.

There’s a small hum beside him, and he sees her tap a capped marker on her chin as she thinks.

“I think so,” she says definitively, turning her honest gaze to him. Lifting his marker, he pauses, waiting for her to continue.

“He saved me, and we had to move because of that,” she speaks low. “I don’t think he wants me to know that, but I do.”

Katsuki shakes his head slightly.

“Too damn smart,” he repeats under his breath, cutting his gaze to the side to see her expression twist into something sour. Not bothering with the cap this time, he drops the marker off to the side with a small clatter.

“What’s up, kid?” Katsuki finds himself asking as she wipes the back of her wrist across her eyes.

“Do you think I’m cursed, Kacchan?” Eri asks, voice watery as she keeps her eyes pressed into the back of her small forearm.

“No, I don’t,” he answers immediately, tone defiant in challenge of whatever fate had made the small girl feel that way. “And I bet if you ask your dad, he wouldn’t think so either.”

“But bad things always happen to the adults I know,” she cries, scrubbing furiously now at her eyes to dry away the fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Something sharp snaps at the center of his chest, forcing a growl from out from deep in his chest as he pulls Eri into his side for an awkward hug.

In that moment, he knows he’d burn the world down if that’s what it took to wipe away those thoughts from her mind.

“Listen here, brat. If anything bad happens to the adults, that’s not your fault. It wasn’t ever your fault, and won’t ever be your fault, alright?” Katsuki snarls, voice gruff in a way that he knows he should temper, but he’s angry that anything would make the small girl cry like this.

Minutes pass as he sits there with Eri tucked into his side as her tears dry up, and several minutes more before he feels her nod against his ribs.

“Good,” he huffs, pulling away from her to slip her the paper he’d been drawing on. The drawing brings her smile back to life as her gaze brushes over the brightly colored art of her and Midoriya. Grasping at the corner of the paper, she brings it closer to inspect it.

“Kaccahn?” She asks, looking over the the two grinning figures that stare up at her.

“Shoot, kid,” Katsuki answers, watching her smile continues to grow as she drags a finger over the lines of marker Midoriya.

“Do you think we could make Daddy Izuku happy?” Eri wonders. Stomach twisting at the question, Katsuki swallows down the sharp taste it leaves on the back of his tongue.

Reaching out for another blank sheet of paper, he grabs the abandoned marker that still lays on the table without its cap. Twirling it between his fingers with a quick flourish, he waggles his eyebrows at Eri, earning himself a small laugh before he writes TOP SECRET PLAN in bold letters at the top.

“Yeah, squirt. I think we could probably do that,” he finally says, offering her a smile and tilting his head toward the pile of markers between them. Excitement fills her eyes as she grabs one, pulling the cap off and settling herself up on her knees to better see the paper as she looks up at him with wander.

Nodding to her, he leans an elbow on the table and balances his chin on his palm, readying his marker over the paper.

“Now, what do you think we should do for him?”

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