Chapter Text
The idea for a class reunion had been Ejiiro’s. Katsuki had listened to his boyfriend talk about it for weeks with Denki before they actually decided to go through with it. Personally, he thought it was too soon. They had been out of UA for two years and kept up with pretty much everyone. It kind of seemed pointless to him. But the other two wanted to have a large get together of everyone again.
“Who should we get a hold first?” Eijiro asked while scrolling through his phone. “I was thinking Hanta.”
Katsuki internally winced at the mention of the tape hero. The three of them still talked about that lost chance when they had too much to drink. As far as he knew, none of them had seen Hanta since just after graduation unless it was briefly on the news. It was a sore spot for all of them. Especially considering the fact that they never took their shot with Hanta while in school like they had with each other. Things had just never aligned.
“Is his number still the same?” Denki asked, lifting his head off the floor to look up at them on the couch. Their doberman did the same from next to the young man.
“You don’t know?” Eijiro’s incredulous tone finally had Katsuki looking up from the report he was writing.
“Weren’t you the last one in contact with him?” He asked, staring over the laptop at the blond. A nervous look crossed Denki’s face. “Let me guess, you guys stopped talking and you forgot to tell us.”
“Something like that.” The blond sat up with a thoughtful frown. “But I think he still works at Edgeshot’s old agency.”
That made sense. Katsuki knew the agency had picked up Hanta after graduation. In fact, if he remembered correctly the new director had offered him the job at their graduation in front of everyone. It was a little out of the blue considering no one else had done that but it went over alright. As far as he knew, Hanta had accepted on the spot and it made sense that he’d still be working there. It had only been two years.
Denki moved to climb on to the couch between them with his phone out. Katsuki saved his half-finished report to complete after they got situation sorted and Hanta’s new contact information. He sent a text to the tape hero’s number in his phone just in case it was the same. They had never really texted during school so the last message was from almost three full years ago. It wasn’t even that interesting of a text just Hanta asking if he had a certain manga volume they had been trading back and forth that year. Something felt almost nostalgic re-reading it.
“You’ve reached The Lurkers Hero Agency,” a feminine voice came from Denki’s phone, “how may we help you today?”
“Hi there,” Denki said, “I was just wondering if the hero Cellophane worked with you.”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“Oh.” The blond looked to him then Eijiro. “Sorry, it’s just we went to UA together. Do you know where he works now?”
“I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to give out that kind of information unless you have immediate need of a hero.” The person on the other line of the call sounded apologetic but Katsuki didn’t believe it for a second. “Might I suggest contacting your other school mates? I would help you if I could.”
“It’s alright,” Denki sighed, “thank you anyway.”
The call was ended with them having less information than when they started. Without a doubt, if Denki wasn’t in contact with Hanta then none of their former classmates were. Denki had been the closest to the tape hero in school other than Mineta and if they lost touch in just two years there was no hope of anyone else keeping up with him. Which was actually kind of upsetting if Katsuki thought too long about it.
“Well, I still know where his family lives,” Denki said while tossing his phone on the coffee table.
“Are we really going to bother his parents and siblings?” Eijiro asked, glancing up from whatever he had been doing on his own phone. “It’s only a couple days after Christmas.”
“You got a better idea?” The blond shot back.
“...no.”
Katsuki had a feeling this was going to go terribly. Three proheroes showing up on the doorstep of their former friend/classmate’s family home would probably make them think they came with bad news. But if they wanted to find Hanta then this was the next best option.
The small house Katsuki parked on the curb in front of looked unassuming enough. His redheaded and blond boyfriends were already out of the car by the time he shut the engine off. He rolled his eyes at their impatience before getting out to follow them. The cold winter air had him stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets and regretting not bringing his scarf. It didn’t matter how much older he got, he would never like the cold. (Or rain but that was neither here nor there.)
Denki was the first of them to reach the door and was quick to rap his knuckles on the white wood. By the time Katsuki joined him and Eijiro the door was opening. A short girl with long black hair stood in the open doorway. She looked to maybe be eleven or twelve with piercing black eyes just like Hanta’s. Surprisingly, that was the only similarity they shared.
“Uh, hi,” Denki started awkwardly, “can we speak to your parents?”
“Who are you guys?” The girl asked, making no move to get one or both of her parents.
“Old classmates with Hanta Sero,” Eijiro answered before Denki could say anything. That had the girl’s eyes widening before she glanced over her shoulder into the house with a far too nervous look. “Is everything alright?”
“You can’t say that name around here,” the girl said, voice lowered as if to avoid being overheard. “Mom doesn’t like it.”
“Your brother’s name?” Katsuki asked, lowering his voice to match hers. Something was off here. The girl gave him a sharp nod. “Is there a reason for that?”
The girl shifted on her feet with a deepening frown. “Mom-” Footsteps inside the house cut her off. Katsuki lifted his gaze to where a short woman with scroll-like black hair was coming up behind the girl. They shared more of a resemblance than the girl did with the Hanta that he remembered.
“Can I help you boys?” The woman asked, likely Mrs. Sero.
“Er, yeah,” Denki started, glancing over at him and Eijiro, “we’re here about Hanta.”
“Oh.” Any ounce of warmth in the woman’s face and voice disappeared. It was like a completely different person was standing in front of them. “If you’re here about that bastard being in jail or something you can got bother someone else.”
“Uh, no ma’am, that’s not-”
“If he’s dead,” Mrs. Sero carried on talking over Denki, “then we want nothing to do with identification or claiming the body. He’s someone else’s problem.”
“Hold on a second!” Eijiro grabbed Denki’s shoulder to pull him out of the way. “Hanta’s your son.”
Katsuki hated the disgusted look that twisted up the woman’s face. Seriously, what the fuck was her problem? “I only have one son,” Mrs. Sero said with quiet fury, “and he’s four years old. That monster you’re here about is not my son.” The woman gave all of them a dark look. “If you’re done bothering my family with this nonsense, I’d like you to leave.”
The door was closed in their faces before a word could be said. Katsuki curled his hands into fists at his sides in an attempt to calm the rising anger. What right did that bitch have to call Hanta a monster? What the actual fuck was all of that anyway?
“Back to square one,” Denki muttered while turning away from the door.
“Fucking bitch,” Katsuki spat as he, too, turned away.
“Come on,” Eijiro walked between them back to the car, “let’s just go home and try calling Minoru or Mina. They might still talk to Hanta.”
Katsuki wouldn’t hold his breath on that but with nowhere else to go that was what they were left with. This would have been so much easier if Hanta kept his number the same. His message hadn’t even been looked at and he knew that the tape hero was damn near instantaneous in replying. He used to always be on his phone in school.
There was something on their doorstep when they got home. Denki was the first one to reach the door and stooped to pick up the medium sized cardboard box sitting on the step. It didn’t have anything marked on it, not even an address stamp. Katsuki wasn’t in the mood to deal with a bomb and told the blond to simply leave it outside for him to handle tomorrow. But, unsurprisingly, his boyfriend was already carrying it inside with Eijiro trotting in after him. Those two had the self-preservation of lemmings.
“If this sets off my monitor, I swear to god…” Katsuki grumbled to himself as he shut the door behind him. Said heart monitor was snug on his right wrist where it had been for the last three and a half years.
“Let the dog out, would ya?” Eijiro called out from the dining room.
Katsuki made a detour to open the back door for the dog. She bounded through the opening into the fenced backyard. It was the only reason they picked this house. In truth, it was too big for just the three of them and a dog but it was the only one they looked at that had a backyard, which was a must. He didn’t mind the place but then again, he hadn’t minded their apartment either.
“Oh, it’s from Hatsuko.” Denki’s voice floated out of the dining room as he walked through the house. “Right, Hanta’s sister. I forgot you don’t know.”
“Was that the girl we met today?” Eijiro asked, confusion clear in his voice. “She seems a little young to have sent a package like this to us. How’d someone get our address?”
“No, Hatsuko’s four years younger than Hanta,” the blond corrected, “I think that was Hii that we met. She’s nine years younger I think.”
“Who cares about the age gap?” Katsuki asked while entering the dining room. “What’s in the box?”
He came up at Denki’s shoulder to peer into the box on the table. It was stacked full of holodisks. There was a note card sitting on top saying that it was from Hatsuko Sero. He pulled it out to see if there was anything else written on it.
“You didn’t fucking read the card, dumb ass.” He scanned the writing on the inside with a frown. “It’s for you, apparently. They’re Hanta’s and…” He squinted at the words to see if he was reading it correctly. “This chick thinks he’s dead. They were supposed to go to you if she didn’t hear from Hanta.” That was ominous as hell.
“For real?” Denki took the card from him with a tense frown. “No way. Hanta’s not dead. No fucking way.”
“Let me see that.” Eijiro plucked the card from Denki’s hands to read it like they had. Katsuki started digging through the stacks of holodisks to see if there was anything else in the box. “Mm, no. No, there’s more to this.”
“There’s nothing but these stupid disks in here,” Katsuki muttered while pulling one of them out. He turned it over to find a date on the back. April 23rd, yr 2. It was tossed back in the box to pull out a different one. November 8th, yr 4. God, how many of these were there?
“Do we…do we watch them?” Denki asked, also picking one of the disks.
“I mean, they were sent to you,” Eijiro said, “so it’s your decision.”
“Right.” There was a long pause. “We’re watching them.”