Izuku didn't head home, he couldn't. After everything had unfolded, he couldn't stomach the thought of being stuck in an apartment with tenants surrounding him. Being out in the open, where he could properly lose his mind was the only option. 

He ignored the multitude of missed calls and texts from Toga. It didn't matter if he told her where he was, his loyal lap dog would sniff him out in an hour, he didn't doubt it. Until then, he decided to enjoy the peace he found in downtown Musutafu. 

His peace came in the form of destruction.

One For All crackled around him as he hurled an old dumpster through the brick wall of an already crumbling building. He hadn't been so pissed off in years, not since his father was still alive. 

For one, fleeting moment, Izuku caught himself wishing his old man was still around. The hard training, the torture, it had been a part of his life for so long. In an effort to save himself from it, it developed into a release of some sort. He craved the chaos and pain of it, the only time his brain ever seemed to fully shut off. 

"What did the dumpster ever do to you?" 

Izuku tensed at the words. He recognized the voice, how could he not? Katsuki Bakugou was hard to forget. 

He didn't respond, unsure if he could even form words through his fury. His flames had set his shoulders ablaze, their irritation at the interruption was obvious. Unlike the Seros, Bakugou held no such sympathy with them. 

"You fell off the face of the planet for seven years to do what? Throw shit?" 

"Shut the fuck up, Kacchan," Izuku snapped, turning only his head. The rest of his body remained frozen, facing the crumbling brick in front of him. If he so much as flinched, there was no promise that Bakugou's face wasn't the next thing he threw into a wall. 

"Look at that," the blond pro drawled, his heavy boots thunking against the pavement as he stepped forward. "You are capable of speech." 

"I'll snap your neck without a second thought," Izuku threatened, turning to face the hero with slow and calculated movements. Not only did he have to fight against his own urges to attack, but his flames were growing restless. Bakugou had really picked the worst night for a reunion. 

Red eyes bore into green, daring Izuku to take another step. "You're still playing this  fucking game?" 

The villain rolled his eyes, willing the green sparks to vanish. One out-of-control quirk was tiring enough, adding One For All into the mix was grating on his patience. He knew he'd need all of it to deal with Bakugou. "What'd you want?" 

The blond crossed his arms, the bands around his wrists clicking together softly. "I wanna know why you've suddenly crawled out of whatever hole you've been hiding in." 

"I haven't been hiding," Izuku corrected, letting his flames dance in his palm. It was a dangerous game to play with the man they wanted to burn alive standing only a few feet away, but he was starting to sweat from the effort of keeping them caged. It was a tentative compromise. "You've just been too blind to see me." 

"Cut the shit, Deku." 

The nickname caused the fire to crackle and pop, growing a few inches in size. The pro hero had enough common sense to take a step back at the sight, but it wasn't enough to shut him up. 

"No one's seen you since you busted out of prison seven years ago. Now you're dragging tape face around like it's high school again and throwing shit around out in the open. What're you playing at?" The words were said through a sneer, pure rage at the fact he couldn't puzzle out Izuku's motives. 

Green eyes danced with amusement, an eerie glow from the flames making the expression look even more sinister. "After all these years of obsessing over me, you still haven't figured anything out, have you?" Izuku asked, poking the sleeping bear in front of him. If his father wasn't around to beat the shit out of him, maybe Bakugou could step up to the plate. He was just itching for a fight. 

"Drop the act," Bakugou spat, running a hand through his ruffled hair. "You'll never be anything other than a crying toddler to me, Deku." 

The flames gave another roar before he was able to extinguish them. It took more effort than he'd ever admitted to control their rage, but eventually, they fizzled out. "You're gonna get yourself killed one day," he grumbled, crossing his arms in annoyance. 

Bakugou shook his head, the faintest smile slipping onto his lips. "I don't know why you even bother to pretend that you don't care." 

"Because people die when I care, Kacchan," he said with a sigh, still feeling too much heat in his stomach. Even if he didn't want to kill his childhood friend anymore, his fire held a nasty grudge. 

"That's why you left." 

"For the number one pro, you're pretty slow," Izuku pointed out, not missing a single opportunity to poke fun at the other man. He didn't want him dead, but that didn't mean he couldn't bully him back. 

Bakugou sighed at his words but didn't rise to the bait, much to Izuku's disappointment. An explosion at point-blank range was exactly what he wanted at the moment. "I should arrest you." 

"But you won't," Izuku mused, the warm sensation traveling down his arms and causing his fingers to tingle. He really needed to get better at leashing his quirk. "Because Hanta didn't and you actually respect your friends now." 

"Shut up, nerd," Bakugou grumbled, staring pointedly at the wall beside them and not at the green-haired maniac in front of him. 

"This is cozy." Toga's voice was enough to snap what little control he still had, his flames rushing from his hands and shooting off in her direction. A high-pitched giggle rang through the empty night air. "I didn't know you missed me so much, Iz." 

Izuku rubbed at his temples, a headache starting to take form there. "They've been chomping at the bit all day." 

Bakugou remained silent as Toga appeared next to the shorter man, his fire now lavishly draped over her shoulders. His was impassive as he took in the sight of her. 

"I figured you two would be fighting already," she said while looking between her friend and his old rival. 

"Kacchan's a softy now," Izuku shrugged, holding up a hand as his flames zipped back to him and disappeared from sight. He rolled his shoulders back, more at ease now that they had spent time with their favorite person. 

"Awe, they were keeping me warm," she said with a pout, absently touching her shoulder that used to house the flames. 

Izuku rolled his eyes, touching his hand to her bare arm. Toga flinched back with a short hiss from the burn. "What the hell happened? They're pissed." 

"Who the fuck is they?" Bakugou asked, finally reasserting himself into the conversation. Izuku was a little surprised it took him so long. 

"The fire," Izuku explained cryptically. The heroes had never come close to even guessing what Izuku's full quirk was, no one but Hanta and Toga knew. He wasn't about to give up any sort of valuable information to his childhood friend. 

"Is it fucking sentient or something?" The question was supposed to be a joke, but the silence that met Bakugou's words made him rethink it. "Holy shit, they are." 

"We're leaving now," Toga said quickly, grabbing onto Izuku's sleeve and pointedly avoiding his skin. He was boiling from the inside out. She was determined to get him into a cold shower as fast as possible. Izuku's body was built to house the quirk, seeing as it was never his to begin with. There was no telling what would happen if they kept his internal temperature too high for an extended period of time. 

"Amazing idea," Izuku mumbled, starting to feel a little faint from the constant heat. It rarely got that bad, but the whole day had been too much for him and the flames. He either needed to drown himself in ice water, or get knocked out. He didn't have a preference, but Bakugou didn't seem to be in the mood to offer his services, so ice bath it was. 

Toga flashed a testing glance at the pro hero as if to ask if he was going to stop them. 

The hero rolled his eyes at her worry. "He already threw his hat back in the ring, I'll see him again soon enough." 

His words did nothing to comfort her. 

I've been feeling guilty about not updating this fic in so long, only to realize as I was writing this chapter that I literally uploaded the last one five days ago. Also I'm toying with the idea of BakuToga, a shit ton of people asked for it on one of my other villain au's and I'm pissed I didn't do it then, so maybe in this one.