In Your Shadow [Chapter 9]

[Chapter 8]

Katsuki groaned as he crawled out of bed, silencing his alarm and plodding over to his desk. Draped over the back of the chair was a stack of clothing, laid out the night prior, all in order, letting him put it on straight from the pile without having to think too much. He trudged into the bathroom, brushed his teeth and washed his face, then with his phone and keycard in his pockets, he went straight to the elevator.

“Come in!” Deku called, as soon as Katsuki knocked on his office door. “Did you get some sleep?”

He looked up as he asked, and laughed before Katsuki could find any words to answer – apparently Katsuki looked as terrible as he felt. Noted.

“Sorry,” Deku said, smiling with a rare softness. “This was the latest I could do, today, and we have some stuff to talk about.”

“It’s fine,” Katsuki assured him, thankful that he hadn’t yet been called out for slouching in his chair. “Thanks for letting me go, last night, and for changing your schedule to suit me. I appreciate the effort and time.”

“Of course. From what Mirio told me, you had some great points about why it would be beneficial, and it was nice to hear that Spark was keen to have you on board as well. What did you think of it?”

“It was good,” Katsuki acknowledged, dragging himself up a little straighter to make sure Deku knew he was trying. “Really different to the rest of the shifts I’ve done. I’m sure I’d do better at it if I was doing them regularly, but I was exhausted halfway through.”

“I know that feeling. They’re rough when you’ve been up all day already.” Deku chuckled to himself, sliding their usual timetable across his desk. “Anyway, you’re in week two now, I expect you’ve learned your way around and gotten your bearings, yes?”

“Yes, Deku.”

“I’m not going to break down your schedule in these meetings as much, anymore, or talk you through it all step-by-step like we did at the start. I'll address anything I feel I need to, and if you have any questions, you know what to do. Otherwise I trust that you’ll be able to figure out what you’re doing, where you’re going, and who you’re with, from the list. Any further specifics can be covered when you get there.”

“Understood.”

Katsuki knew that meant more changes were coming – maybe some new patrols, or new sparring partners? That would be cool, at least. With his hours of impromptu sparring with Deku the day prior, he was redetermined to do a good job, to show Deku what he was made of, to prove that he deserved the attention – no, not so much deserved it, but that Deku wanted to give it to him. If that meant following some dumb rules and saying please, so be it. At least he wasn’t going full-Jeanist on Katsuki’s ass.

He accepted the timetable from Deku’s desk, glancing over it, but froze when he reached the bottom – there were two new activities on there, one with Mirio that sounded boring but necessary, but the other…

He swallowed hard and sat up straight, bracing himself and thinking over his words carefully.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why is there a ballet class on here?”

Deku cracked a smile, and Katsuki wasn’t sure if he should be offended or concerned.

“We have an instructor in multiple times a week to run classes,” Deku began, and for a moment Katsuki was afraid he was going to avoid the question. “It’s amazing for flexibility and posture, and I think you’ll be surprised how much strength it requires, too. It helps with co-ordination in your whole body, it’s a great test of your balance and stamina, and I find it helps a lot with reflexes also. I know all the things going through your head right now, trust me, I’ve heard it all before, but you’re going to go along and try your best, behave yourself, and give everything a chance.”

“Yes, Deku,” he grumbled. “I’ll try.”

“Good boy. Now, do you want to do another Graveyard shift at some point?”

Katsuki paused. The honest answer was no, but his logical brain generally outweighed his emotional one.

“Yes, Deku,” he answered instead. “If they’ll have me, it would be good to get the experience on different shifts again, to learn what it’s all about. And I understand if you can’t fit these briefings in around the weird hours, I can try to stay up and do the briefing before I sleep, if that would work better, or you can email me the timetable and I’ll do my best to keep track, or-”

“We’ll work it out,” Deku assured him. “For now I suggest you go grab some food and get yourself awake for patrols, you’ve got a double to deal with before you even get anywhere near ballet class.”

“Yes, Deku. Thank you.”

“You’re all gratitude today,” Deku smirked, a hint of his amusement sneaking into his tone. “If I’d sparred with you for an hour on day one, would you have been all meek and obedient this whole time?”

Katsuki couldn’t quite cover up the laughter that welled up in him, a little snort coming out when he tried to swallow it all back down. His face warmed, and he hoped Deku wasn’t paying enough attention to realise he was blushing over the dumb noise.

“It was more than an hour,” Katsuki pointed out. “And… it wasn’t about that. But I did have a blast, doing it. Thank you for asking me.”

“Asking,” Deku said quietly, chuckling to himself. “I’m glad. I had fun too.”

“It’s not really about that, though,” Katsuki admitted, averting his gaze so Deku couldn’t look straight into his soul like he always seemed to do. “I just… My classmates. They’re getting a lot of attention, but… Well, they’re doing the same sort of stuff we did in our first-year internships, which I guess makes sense, but it’s also…”

Deku waited patiently when Katsuki trailed off, trying to find the right words.

“Maybe I shouldn’t jinx it, by saying this, but you’ve all treated me like a work studies student, here.”

“As far as I’m concerned, if you have your provisional license, that’s what it should be.” Deku’s voice was back to that firm, authoritative tone, but this time it felt like it was on Katsuki’s side, fighting his battles with him. “I’ve never understood why some agencies treat every intern the same way. They watch a few meetings, talk to a couple of sidekicks, and walk a quiet patrol once in the whole week. You’ve been around long enough, at enough agencies, to know that this is what you want to do. You don’t need Baby’s First Hero Agency, you need opportunities to learn and grow as a hero.”

“Thank you.”

Deku just shook his head, smiling slightly, and gestured toward Katsuki’s timetable again.

“I’ll let you head off, get some rest time in before you have to head out. Unless there’s anything else you want to talk about?”

“No, I’ve got it covered.”

“Glad to hear it. Good luck on your patrols, and I’ll see you in the morning, at the usual time.”

“Thanks. And uh, have a good day.”

“Thank you, Katsuki.”

The name sounded weird on his lips, and it took Katsuki two flights of stairs before he realised why.

Why the hell had Deku called him Kacchan after they’d sparred??

─────

Mirio gestured toward the small table, in one of a few identical rooms where they regularly held their post-patrol debriefs. Katsuki sat down obediently, and Mirio sat at his side, rather than across the table like Katsuki had expected. He set down a binder thick with papers, and laughed when he caught Katsuki grimacing.

“It’s not as bad as you’re expecting, I promise.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“As part of your time here, Deku wants you to write up a report about your first week, and he’ll ask you to do the same at the end of this week, to conclude your internship. The plan was to do it yesterday when things were a little slower, but, well… I’m sure you preferred the alternative.”

“It was a lot of fun.”

“Deku thought so too, you did well. Anyway, it’s ultimately up to you exactly what you include, but I would start off by treating it like we do our patrol reports, so I’ve brought a couple of old ones along, for you to take a look at.”

“A couple?”

“You don’t have to look at all of them,” Mirio grinned. “I thought these ones on top would probably be the most interesting to you.”

He handed over a small stack of papers, and Katsuki was surprised to see they weren’t what he was expecting – they weren’t anything he’d seen before, even.

“This one is from the patrol where you helped take down a villain,” Mirio explained, pointing at the first page. “So you probably have a decent gauge for everything that happened in that shift.”

“Yeah, I remember it well.”

“So that one should be pretty handy. I’ve got all the other patrols you did this past week here, too, and these ones are just some of my favourite examples of what a good report looks like. This last one is the most recent time Deku filled one out himself, so I thought you might like to see that. Unfortunately you can’t make copies of these or take them out of the archive room, generally, so this is a one-time thing – you’ll have to figure out a process today and use it again at the end of the week. If you end up staying on with us later, he’ll ask you to do these more often, so it’d be in your best interests to set yourself up for the future, if you still hope to stay longer.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I’m here to help you through it, don’t worry. We’ve got a solid couple of hours if we need them, before you get to do your first ballet class.”

Katsuki grimaced, and Mirio chuckled knowingly.

“Give it a chance, you might enjoy yourself.”

“Do you have to go to that shit?”

“I don’t have to do anything, but yes, I often go. It's pretty enjoyable, along with being really good for you athletically. I won't be there tonight, though. I’ve got a meeting with Deku and all the patrol leaders at that time, but there should be a few sidekicks there who you recognise from your patrols, you won't be all alone."

“Ugh.”

“Give it a chance,” he reiterated. “You’re too intelligent to go making up your mind about things you haven’t even tried. Gather some evidence first.”

“Fine,” Katsuki huffed. “Whatever, where do we start?”

As Mirio began to walk him through the patrol report process, he actually found himself becoming interested in the information. There was far more detail included that he wouldn’t have expected – not just a list of any criminal activity that occurred, but analyses of how the group responded to various issues, the results of their actions, what they could improve on in future, “near misses” where something could have gone wrong but was prevented, and of course, what Katsuki called the “whatever bullshit the leader felt like writing” section, which usually seemed pointless and silly, but occasionally gave him some interesting little tidbit of information. Even the patrols where nothing had happened seemed to include a decent amount of detail, with updates on areas where there were recent incidents and how they were recovering from it, or where they had ongoing or frequent problems, and were on the lookout for any sign of things getting worse. There were even a few notes about Katsuki and what he was learning or what they'd talked about - it was no wonder Deku seemed to know everything at all times.

Katsuki was gonna have to start taking notes, if this was what Deku expected of him.

“Alright,” Mirio said, when Katsuki finally had a decent amount of info pieced together into an account of his week. “That’s looking pretty good to me. I’ve gotta head to my meeting, and you have ballet soon. Go change and maybe have a quick snack, and give it a chance – for me, if not for yourself.”

Katsuki glanced at the time and grimaced, conceding a nod as he rose from his chair.

“I’ll try,” he agreed, “but no promises.”

“Of course.”

“Um, thanks for the help.”

“My pleasure, Katsuki! I’m always happy to lend a hand.”

“Yeah. I uh, I appreciate it. Good luck with your meeting.”

“Thanks!”

With a last quick nod, Katsuki headed for the stairwell, clutching his papers in his hand tightly – he’d finish it off before bed, glance over it again first thing in the morning, and maybe tweak it a bit or add a few sentences if he came up with anything new. Then, hopefully, Deku would be pleased with it.

But for now, he had to attend a stupid dance class.

[Chapter 10]