#this post is NOT coherent enough. forgive me i’m a girl who suffers

[lunaticamic]

everyday i get angrier about carlos situation. the fact that next year i’ll have to see him in midfield (or worse) teams makes me hate elkann even more. why the fuck this guy can’t have a nice life???? one of the top drivers fucked over by their team………. god i hate every single one of them

[muertawrites]

The Lovers of Ba Sing Se - Part 2 (Zuko x Reader) [Modern AU]

Part 1

Summary: You finally reunite with Zuko after the war, standing up to those from his past who would rather you stayed in Ba Sing Se. 

Word Count: 3,200

Author’s Note: As promised, I finally wrote a fic where my self-insert self gets to proverbially smash Mai’s head in with a baseball bat. Before those of you who disagree flood my inbox with arguments, please reference this post for an in-depth explanation as to why I dislike her so much. I’m tired of having to explain this to people and like honestly, I’m just a person on the internet and this is just a show (a great show, but a show nonetheless) - my opinion about her should not matter enough to you that you feel the need to take the time to go into my inbox and try to change it. There are better, more important things to devote that time to. Plus, a few people have asked to see the relationship from Zuko’s perspective, so I’ve written it as someone who has lived much of the same kind of trauma he did. This fic is truly just catharsis for myself and it is so fucking sweet.

~ Muerta

You stood in the courtyard outside Zuko’s room in the palace infirmary, leaned against the wall beside its window and chewing your nails down to their stubs. 

You’d been in the Fire Nation for a little over two months, living in the servants’ district of the imperial city and supporting yourself by working for a high end dry cleaner that catered to the wealthy and diplomatic who lived around the palace. When the siege began, you scoured the streets searching for Zuko, finding him when his confrontation with Azula ended in a massive explosion that lit up the skyline like a nuclear bomb. You made it to the palace just as Katara - who you’d met when you’d thrown yourself over Zuko’s unconscious body, distraught and fearing him dead - determined that she’d be able to heal him. You’d been stationed outside his room since then, unable to sleep or eat for the twelve excruciating hours Katara and the other healers spent working on him; it was near morning now, purple hues starting to burn the edges of the midnight sky. 

Katara finally stepped out, looking as exhausted as you felt. Her hair, knotted sloppily atop her head, fell in tangles around her face, her eyes drooping from exertion and lack of sleep, but she thankfully didn’t seem upset. She sunk down beside you, resting a hand on your shoulder. 

“He’s going to be alright,” she assured you. “He’ll scar pretty badly, but he’ll make a full recovery. You should get some sleep; I can ask someone to get a room ready for you if you want?” 

You sniffed, wiping a nervous tear from your cheek. 

“Can I stay with him?” you asked meekly, sounding not unlike a lost child asking for help from a stranger. “I just want to see him.” 

Katara nodded, gently lifting you upwards as she stood and guiding you into Zuko’s room. 

He lay on his back on a large, plush bed, wrapped in bloody bandages from his shoulder to his stomach. His hair was longer, falling in messy strands around his cheekbones, jaw, and neck, which all looked much more gaunt than you remembered. He also looked older, as if the months of running he’d done had aged him years instead of just weeks. Your eyes stung with tears, hands shaking as you reached up to your chest and clutched his necklace beneath the fabric of your shirt. 

“I’m having a cot and some blankets brought for you,” Katara told you after mumbling something to one of the nurses. The room began to clear out, and she sat with you on a chaise that backed up to one of the far walls; the room felt more like a grand master suite than a hospital room. 

“Are you the girl from Ba Sing Se?” Katara asked quietly, taking one of your hands in both of hers. You nodded, keeping your misty eyes locked on Zuko’s sleeping form. 

“He talks about you all the time,” she told you. “We haven’t seen him happy all that often, but he always looked it when he told us about you. He’s really missed you.” 

You smiled a little, taking a shallow, gasping breath in. 

“I’ve missed him, too,” you said, voice quivering. “I’m livid, but I’m glad he’s okay.” 

Katara sighed, her lips curling up just slightly with amusement. 

“Yeah, he was worried about that,” she replied. “But if you mean as much to him as it sounds like, it’s worth forgiving him. I can tell he loves you, even if he’s never admitted it to any of us.” 

The nurse Katara spoke to before returned, carrying a foldable cot and a sleeping roll, setting it up under the window beside Zuko’s bed. She made everything up for you, fluffing the pillows and smiling kindly at you as you approached, thanking her. 

“We can get you some clean clothes,” Katara offered, standing in the threshold to the courtyard. “Do you need anything else?” 

You shook your head, giving her a spent, appreciative grin. 

“I’m okay,” you told her. “My apartment is in the city. I’ll send someone to get my stuff later.” 

Katara nodded, wishing you pleasant dreams before slipping out the door, sliding it softly shut behind her. You fell back against the cot, not even managing to take off your shoes or tuck into the blankets before falling asleep. 

When you woke, you found the bag you left Ba Sing Se with resting against the wall beside your cot, pinned with a note from Katara’s brother explaining that he’d taken care of having your belongings retrieved while you slept. A table had been set up nearby, stacked with lidded dishes - each one held rice, pickled vegetables, and a traditional omelette. You took the container of rice and crossed your legs atop your cot, slowly filling your empty stomach as you allowed the sleep to ease out of your heavy eyelids. 

Halfway through your little meal, Zuko stirred, whispering your name and sending you careening to his side. 

“Zuko,” you gasped, clutching his hand and holding it tight against your chest. He blinked heavily, his dreary expression brightening as his vision cleared and he realized he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. 

“How did you get here?” he murmured, head swimming with confusion. “How long have I been asleep?” 

“Only about a day,” you told him, speaking slowly as you brushed his hair back off of his forehead. “I've been here since a little after you left to join Aang. I wanted to meet you when you came back.” 

Zuko attempted to sit up, dizzying himself but unconcerned with his own state, instead worrying only for you. 

“You smuggled yourself in?” he slurred, still hazy with sleep and pain medication. “Why would you do that?? Do you realize how fucking dangerous that is??” 

You laughed softly, tears rising behind your eyes as you placed a hand on the uninjured side of his chest to lower him back onto the pillows. 

“Stop being so concerned about me,” you scolded him. “It's making it really hard to stay mad at you.” 

Zuko sighed, his exasperated expression falling into one of deep regret as he curled his fingers with yours, grasping your palm tightly against his. 

“I’m… I’m so sorry,” he breathed. “I was an idiot. I felt like an idiot the moment I left Ba Sing Se. I should never have betrayed you and Iroh.” 

You hushed him, bringing his knuckles to your lips. 

“You are an idiot,” you admitted, “but we can talk about that later. Right now you need more rest.” 

He nodded, removing his hand from yours to stroke your hair, running his fingers through it in the same tender, delicate way he did in the mornings you used to wake up together. The action made you shiver, stirring up more tears. 

“I'm sorry,” Zuko mumbled again. “I'm so, so sorry. I love you.” 

Zuko healed quickly over the next few days. You spent all your time by his side, being offered your own room multiple times but always declining it, having missed him so much that you didn't want to be apart. Instead of the cot, Zuko made room for you in his bed, and it almost felt as if things were back to the way they'd been before. 

As soon as he was coherent enough, Zuko explained himself to you. He told you about how conflicted he felt after returning to the Fire Nation, how reuniting with the people within it only proved to him how spiteful and miserable they made him. He told you about confronting his father, about earning the trust of his friends and finally learning how to exist among people who didn't use and manipulate each other for their own gain. 

He told you about Mai, his retelling of the events at Boiling Rock filling you with rage. 

“How could you let her do that to you?” you howled, eyes flashing wild with hatred. “You just sat there and let her turn your own problems against you? After everything you went through??” 

You frustratedly slammed your hands down on the table you both sat at, knocking over the teacup you'd previously been drinking from. 

“If she comes here, I’ll kill her,” you growled. 

“Babe, please…” Zuko attempted to quell you. You held your hand up, fixing him with a steely glare. 

“No,” you snapped. “You know how long I suffered that shit. How my closest friends turned every hurt feeling I had around and convinced me I was the one causing harm to them. You know how badly it fucked me up - it's the exact same thing your father did to you, Zuko. Just because she called herself your girlfriend doesn't give her the right to abuse and gaslight you like that and get away with it. If you don't stand up for yourself against her, I will. I refuse to let anyone get away with that bullshit anymore.” 

As fate would have it, Mai did show up to try and reclaim her hold on Zuko - little did she know she was stepping into a dragon’s den, in which neither inhabitant was likely to let her come out unscathed. 

You were moving with Zuko back to his chambers, which had been renovated while he was in the infirmary; he requested that everything be taken out and redesigned so that each room was unrecognizable, wanting to let go of the horrible memories that lay within them. You helped him into a silken robe, slipping it over his injured arm and lightly  pecking his lips - the moment was broken by a raspy, grating voice cutting through the peaceful morning din. 

“I never thought you were the type to rebound so fast, Zu.”

Zuko’s face hardened, and you whirled around, knowing before he even said her name who was bold enough to intrude on your moment of intimacy. 

“And after I spent four months in prison for sacrificing myself to save you,” Mai drawled, glaring at you from under her bangs. “You really did want to break my heart, didn't you?” 

Zuko took hold of your arm with his uninjured hand, attempting to keep you back - you shoved him off, unable to obscure your rage. You prowled forward, stopping a few feet from Mai and looming over her in the threshold, holding yourself high. 

“Leave,” you spat lowly, calmly, but with force. “There's no place for you here.” 

“Says the the Earth Kingdom trash being used as a fuck toy,” Mai jeered at you. 

She didn't realize her mistake until it was too late. 

Without a second thought, you raised your hand and slapped her across the face, digging your nails into her skin as you struck her. Zuko jolted, curling his good arm into a fist, ready to defend you; Mai stared up at you with wide eyes, shocked, holding a hand to her cheek. 

“Don't you dare speak to me that way,” you hissed. “How dare you think you can come back here so easily after everything you did to him?? How dare you turn his trauma against him and make him feel as if you were the one being wronged, when you knew exactly the situation he was leaving?? How dare you contribute to it by staying faithful to his psychopathic sister until his life was at risk - not even for the first time, just when you could finally see him being threatened?? Get out. You're done using him for your own validation.” 

Mai let out a primal cry, striking you back with a palm to your cheek - she hit you so hard you bit the inside of your mouth, causing blood to trickle over your bottom lip and down your chin. 

“He wasn't the only one who was hurt!” she shrieked at you. “Do you know how hard it was for me growing up in a family that didn't let me be myself?? How painful it was to have to suppress myself?? I don't care what you think I did - I love Zuko, even if I don't always show it because of everything I've suffered from showing people how I feel.” 

You spat the blood pooling in your mouth at her, squaring your shoulders. Her sudden outburst didn't scare you - you refused to back down. 

“If you loved him, you wouldn't have let your own pain hurt him,” you stated. “I've been broken to the point of facing death, but I never once let my anger or insecurity hurt the people I love. People who truly care about others don't repeat the cycle of abuse - you're too weak to overcome it. And it has no place here.” 

In a swift motion, Mai slammed her forearm into your chest and drove you backward, crashing your shoulders into the wall behind you, hard enough to knock the wind out of you. 

“Mai!” Zuko shouted, advancing in an instant and reaching to try and force her off you; she produced a knife from her back pocket, raising it to your neck in a silent threat to slice if he attempted to touch her. She pinned you where you stood, pressing the blade of her dagger to your throat with her face only inches from yours; the red marks you noticed your nails had left in her flesh gave you a morbid, loatheful satisfaction.  

“Do it,” you dared her, defiantly holding her gaze. “It still won't convince him to take you back, or make up for anything that you've done.” 

She glowered at you for a long, tense moment, tears brimming in the nooks of her eyes. She shifted towards Zuko, still holding you down with all her strength. 

“Please, Zuko,” she begged. “I know you can forgive me.” 

Zuko shook his head, gazing down at her with a somber, pitiful expression. 

“I have forgiven you, Mai,” he told her. “There's just no way I can forget.” 

Another moment of awful, biting strain passed before Mai backed off of you, shoving her arm deeper into your sternum before releasing you. You gasped, heaving in to try and catch your breath as Zuko’s arms formed a shield around you, steadying you against his chest without a thought towards his own wounds. He held you close, unwilling to ever let go. 

“Have it your way,” Mai drawled bitterly as she walked away. “I'm sorry I couldn't be more to you.” 

For a while, you didn't move, cheek pressed to Zuko’s chest with his hand at the back of your head in a firm, protective stance. He buried his face in your hair, still sheltering you like a fortress long after Mai had disappeared. You cried, the confrontation bringing all of your own demons back to life, but reminding you just how strong you were in the face of them. 

“I've never seen her like that before,” Zuko murmured. “I'm sorry she tried to hurt you.” 

You shook your head, pressing a chaste, benevolent kiss to his collarbone. 

“I'm okay,” you assured him. “I just have that effect on people - for better or worse.” 

Zuko chuckled, letting out a soft, relieved sigh as he tucked a finger under your chin, tilting your face up so he could look you in the eye. His thumb traced a gentle trail over your jawline, his lips coming to rest tenderly against your forehead. 

“That's my girl,” he whispered.

Zuko asked you to marry him immediately after he was officially declared Firelord. You supposed that most men would have waited a day or two, taken you somewhere romantic and secluded and given a moving, heartfelt monologue, falling onto one knee and presenting a ring the cost of a small single family home, but not Zuko - he took ten steps off the dias where he was crowned and pulled you into his arms, kissing your fiercely and popping the question in front of his uncle, the Avatar, and half the Fire Nation government. You were terrified, never having given much thought to marriage and, whenever you did, dismissing the idea completely. But Zuko was the man you loved, and you trusted him with nothing short of your soul - there was nothing left to risk except a life spent by his side, so you said yes. 

Instead of a large, public ceremony, you eloped, returning to the city you met in and getting married at the Jasmine Dragon. You wore your favorite black sundress and Zuko wore jeans, the celebration attended by his found family and a slew of your coworkers from the lolita bar (it was a bit embarrassing having to explain your former occupation to a group of people who saved not only the mortal world, but the spirit world multiple times, but to your relief they didn't seem too bothered by it - Sokka was even somewhat pleased, nudging and playfully congratulating Zuko on landing such a catch.) 

You spent your honeymoon in the city, waking up the morning after your wedding to a view of the brilliantly sunlit skyline, Zuko standing on the balcony of your rented suite as a warm, delicate breeze tousled his hair. You rolled out from between the crisp white sheets, floating out to him in a drowsy haze so you could wrap your arms around his waist, hugging him tightly from behind. He took your left hand in his, admiring the ring on your finger and tenderly kissing your knuckles; you pressed your lips to the bare skin of his back, peppering gentle, loving kisses between his shoulder blades. 

“Let's stay here,” you mused. “You can be Lee again, and we can work in the shop with Iroh. Maybe we could even open our own shop - a used bookstore connected to the Jasmine Dragon. Momo can take over as Firelord.” 

Zuko chuckled, turning so that he faced you, his arms coming to rest around your shoulders as he kissed the top of your head. His fingers ran through your hair in their familiar, affectionate way. You missed his touch; you were glad to be with him again. 

“It does feel like home here, doesn't it?” Zuko hummed. “We have to help rebuild after the last government took over… Maybe we could stay longer. Look at houses around our old district.” 

You smiled, kissing his jaw and savoring the scratch of his morning stubble against your lips. 

Though you knew you'd have to return to the Fire Nation, that you would ultimately have to come to accept it as your own (which you could do, as it was home to Zuko’s people, a part of him you loved as much as the whole), you also knew that nothing could change your past, nor the bonds you formed while lost together in a city so foreign to you. You were lovers first on the streets of Ba Sing Se; but no matter how far you journeyed, whichever reaches of the globe you traveled, whoever happened to rule over them, you knew wherever Zuko was would always be home. 

📚 table of contents 📚

✨ join me on patreon ✨

{ subscribers: @ladylizzieofdarbyshire @celamoon @omgwhattheeven @i-am-not-a-thot @fandomtrash1616 @dream-alittlebiggerdarling @just-another-romantic @berkeliums @eridanuswave @oleander-in-the-wind @kinismanditory @lammello @peppermenty @theawesomefactor123 @loganrwebb @ijustwannabecanadian @a-hopeless-fan @softvv @oddment-niwit-blubber-tweak @pearl-stonecutter @crazy0t @commander-rex @kittyddandnyla @abbyarchie @smol-grandpa @nonbinary-rogers @themanwiththemetalarmsdoll @witchywrter @canibea-whore-yet @fuckwhateverfuck @eridanuswave }

[makeste]

BnHA Bonus Rant #4: Bakumom

Okay guys. This is my post about Bakugou Mitsuki. This is actually my third attempt at trying to write a post on this topic; I tried to do one back when I was getting ready to post the recap for chapter 96, but wasn’t able to coherently get across all of the thoughts I wanted to convey, so I ended up deleting it. Then in response to one of the comments on that recap, I ended up writing another post, and this time I managed to get out almost 1200 words on the subject! But during the editing process, I realized that it just wasn’t something I had the energy to discuss. The topic of “is this character abusive” is obviously a very sensitive one, and something that a lot of people have very strong feelings about, and I realized that my post wasn’t going to convince anyone one way or the other, and that it was more likely to lead to a discussion that I had absolutely no spoons for. Like, all my spoons went into the post itself, and that was it. So in the end I scrapped that too (and my apologies to @temperatezone, who made a very reasonable point very tactfully, which I basically ended up just ignoring because at the time I wasn’t ready to get into it).

Before we start -- regarding spoilers, I’ve done my best to keep this post spoiler-free so long as you are caught up with the anime (or have read up to the manga equivalent, which is around chapter 125 or thereabouts). There is, however, one manga spoiler in here from chapter 165 (which, if you’ve read the chapter, you’ll know why it was unavoidable, seeing as it pertains directly to the subject at hand). It is not in any way a plot spoiler; it’s basically a single line from one of the characters, and the details regarding where and when that line is said are irrelevant, so I’ve left that out. So if you are anime-only, it’s up to you whether you want to skip this post or not, but that will be the only spoiler in here.

So now that I’m on my third attempt, I’ve done a bit more thinking on how I want to approach this. Basically, I think the problem I kept running up against before is that as far as I can see, there are two ways to look at this. The first is by looking at the author’s intent. “Okay, the scene is clearly presented in the context of humor and is a classic example of the well-established Tough Love style of anime parenting (see also: Izumi from FMA, Reborn from KHR, Isshin from Bleach, etc.) and not meant to be taken in an overly deep way. The scene immediately afterward with her ruffling Katsuki’s hair and thanking Aizawa for his understanding and mentioning her worry and relief during and after the kidnapping and asking his teachers to help guide him is meant to serve as a contrast to the violence and shouting and insults to show that contrary to that initial impression, she loves and cares about him just like any other mother. The scene is meant as a lighthearted way of showing where Bakugou inherited his loud and angry temperament from, and kind of jokingly implying that he’s more or less just a clone of his mom.”

Whereas the other approach is to look at what the author is actually portraying. “It doesn’t matter if it was intended to be a joke or not; she is abusive. She smacks him repeatedly for basically no reason, and screams at him and insults him to this degree even when there are other people present. Perhaps more disturbingly, she implies that him being kidnapped was his own fault, because he was ‘weak.’ Later on we learn that he genuinely believes this and has internalized it, and blames himself not only for getting kidnapped, but for what it led to with All Might losing his powers as a consequence. Even further down the line, Bakugou makes a throwaway remark to the effect of ‘[violence is] how I was raised.’ This implies that it wasn’t just a one-time thing and that his mother is like this all the time, to the point where violence is basically the norm for him and he doesn’t even realize how fucked up it is.”

So those are basically the two perspectives here. And for me, I realized that the problem that I had was that both of these perspectives are valid. At least I think they are. If I were to try to argue the former -- which was my first instinct -- I would in all likelihood have to try and refute the latter. And honestly, I don’t think I would be able to do that, because that argument is a completely valid argument. Not to mention I don’t have much of a leg to stand on as far as trying to argue that Horikoshi’s intentions matter more than his end results, because if you’ve read any of my recaps, you know that this is basically the one and only time I’ve ever said that, lol. I’ve never particularly cared about his harmless intentions when it comes to Mineta, or overly sexualized teenage girls, or Ochako being comically poor, or any of the other topics I’ve occasionally bitched about. So it seems a bit hypocritical for me to suddenly start arguing that now.

So I won’t. Instead, I’m going to go ahead and acknowledge that it’s a valid interpretation. Regardless of what Horikoshi was going for, if you’re looking solely at the end result, then yeah. What he showed us can definitely be taken as abuse. I don’t think it’s an overreaction, and there is a lot to back it up.

That being acknowledged, what I’m going to talk about instead is why I have such a strong desire in this case to ignore the clumsy way the relationship is presented in canon, and to instead view the relationship the way I believe it’s intended to come across. Why do I so badly want for Bakugou to have a (more or less) healthy relationship with his parents? Why does the idea of him having a bad home life leave such a bad taste in my mouth?

And I think this is what it is: one of the key things that draws me to Bakugou’s character is that he doesn’t have A Tragic Past. There’s this tendency in shounen manga to give virtually every important character a sad backstory (looking at you in particular, Naruto and One Piece), with the level of tragedy gradually escalating as the series goes on, until you get to a point where the fandom is literally having debates over whose past is the most tragic. And this has kind of indirectly given rise to several beliefs that I often see articulated and/or implied in fandom:

That there must always be some observable external reason for a character’s personality and temperament, rather than that just being who they are.

That there is a direct correlation between the severity of a character’s past and the validity of that character’s actions. In other words, the person with the more tragic backstory has the moral upper hand in any dispute, simply because they’ve been through more bad shit.

That a character’s potential for redemption is directly tied to how sad their backstory is.

I see this all the time, and not just in shounen fandom for that matter. The basic idea seems to be that if bad things have happened to a character in the past, then it means any bad things they themselves have done are not their fault, and they should be forgiven and given a second chance. The thing is, I’ve always disliked this way of thinking, because to me it strays from what I think is the most crucial element of any redemption arc: taking responsibility. 

Redemption, to me, shouldn’t simply be about whether we feel sorry for the character, or whether they have suffered enough and been punished enough for whatever it is they did, or even whether or not they had a good reason for it. To me, it’s about one thing and one thing only: is the character trying to be better. Do they want to change? Are they making the same mistakes over and over, or are they actually learning and trying to grow? 

To me, redemption is an active process. It’s something the character has to seek out themselves. It’s not something that’s granted to them (key difference here between “redemption” and “forgiveness”), nor does it matter whether or not anyone else thinks they deserve it. For me, at least, it’s simply a matter of whether or not the character is willing to take responsibility for their mistakes, and whether they actually take action toward becoming better.

That being said, this is the main problem I have with the “Mitsuki is abusive” line of thinking: from what I have observed (and not always, mind you, but often enough), this headcanon tends to overlap with the idea that Bakugou’s violent behavior is not his fault, and that he’s only like that because of the way he was raised. In some cases I’ve seen it taken even further than that, with basically Bakugou’s entire backstory basically being rewritten to make him out as just a poor traumatized kid who would never have abused Izuku if it wasn’t for Mitsuki’s abuse, and so the blame actually falls on her and not him. And that, right there, is probably the biggest problem I have with this. That shifting of the blame. Making it so that Bakugou is absolved of responsibility for his own shitty actions, because it turns out that he was just a victim too. 

And actually, it’s even more than that: it’s also the implied suggestion that this is the only way he can be redeemed. That he only qualifies for redemption if he had a good reason for his actions. That we can only feel sorry for him if he’s not to blame for the mistakes that he made, and if it Wasn’t His Fault.

And damn it, but I just take so much issue with this. Because to me, ironically enough, this narrative robs Bakugou of the agency that I personally believe is key to him getting the redemption arc he actually deserves. Does that make sense? Basically, I want Bakugou’s mistakes to be acknowledged as his own mistakes. Because they are. I want him to be able to take ownership of them and to realize what he did wrong. I want him to learn from those mistakes and to grow as a person because of them. I don’t want it to be all “oh sweetie it’s okay, it’s not your fault.” I want it to be “oh fuck, I really screwed up, and I hate the way I feel now because of it, and I never want to feel this way again, so I’m going to do better.” 

Because that’s the only way that real change actually happens. When it comes from within, from the character’s own desire to change. I don’t want a “he was never really bad, just misunderstood” narrative; I want “he fucked up, but he is learning from it, and he is growing.” That’s what I want.

So that, I think, is why the whole thing bothers me so much, and why I just can’t get behind the idea. Again, I won’t deny that the evidence is there. I just choose to interpret it another way. And it is just that: a choice. It’s a conscious choice to read between the lines and to add my own headcanons where necessary and insert little justifications and explanations for things when needed. 

Because to me, Bakugou having grown up in a supportive -- if chaotic -- household is important. It’s important because it shows that even people who grew up in healthy environments with no obvious trauma can fuck up regardless. And those people are still worthy of redemption.

I hope that all makes sense. (Particularly since if it doesn’t, I've just gone and pissed a whole bunch of people off, probably.) Anyways. So with all that being said, I’ll wrap this up with a list of my own personal headcanons about Mitsuki’s and Katsuki’s relationship.

First and foremost, if any of you have ever seen Malcolm in the Middle, I can very easily sum this all up by just saying that Mitsuki = Lois and Katsuki = Malcolm, Francis, and Reese all rolled up into one. That’s it. That’s the dynamic, right there.

But if you haven’t seen MitM, basically what I’m saying is that Katsuki is a precocious little brat who’s headstrong and rebellious and extremely independent and prone to only learning things the hard way, and Mitsuki is the stern and stubborn mom who is still caring and loving but also overbearing and aggressive. The two of them are always butting heads because they’re both extremely prideful and view themselves as always being right, and because Mitsuki’s overbearing tendencies clash directly with Katsuki’s independent streak.

Mitsuki actually is right more often than she’s not, which only fuels her own stubbornness as well at Katsuki’s teenage resentment towards her. She spent a lot of time when he was younger just trying to keep him from setting the house (and himself) on fire, and because he hardly ever listens, the two of them end up getting into a lot of screaming matches with each other, and nowadays that’s just kind of their dynamic and they’re just used to it.

She doesn’t actually think he’s weak, and she only said that because she knows that’s one of the few insults that rankles him enough to actually make him listen, and she was trying to get him to hush up and be respectful to his teachers, who were guests in their home and also his teachers, one of whom just saved his life and the other of whom defended his honor in a nationally broadcast press conference. And also this was part of the whole Japanese culture of being overly humble, and since she knew he was never gonna do it, she was kind of doing it for him. You know, like “thank you so much for saving me, I apologize for inconveniencing you.” Even though it wasn’t actually his fault.

He didn’t internalize the guilt about All Might because of what she said. I honestly think he barely even processed what she said because they’re always just yelling bullshit insults at each other that don’t actually really mean anything. He’s always been terrified of being weak precisely because he never has been. It’s the unknown. He wouldn’t know what to do if he wasn’t strong. It’s a fear he’s always had, and one that had been secretly growing stronger since he first started at U.A. What happened to All Might simply exacerbated that fear. It was already there, and he’d just kept it hidden for a very long time. His mom didn’t put the idea into his head, and never would have said it if she had even the slightest inkling that her cocky, arrogant, loudmouthed, forceful son was secretly harboring insecurities about that very thing.

Any violence in their household is the comedic shounen type of violence where no one is actually hurt in any way. But mostly it’s just loud.

They are so used to this being Just The Way Things Are that ironically, Katsuki would have been much more unsettled if, after he returned home following the kidnapping, his mom had been tender and affectionate. Mitsuki, being a smart mom, picked up on this, so in an effort to make him less uncomfortable, she took deliberate care to behave The Same As Always around him so that he could feel more normal. In fact she was actually still very freaked out herself for days afterward, much more so than she let on (because she’s just as bad at showing vulnerability as he is).

It actually helped. He will never ever acknowledge this out loud, but he realized what she was doing, and he’s grateful.

And I could go on and on, but I think this more or less summarizes how I view the two of them. They basically have their own language by this point, where phrases like “fuck you too” mean “I love you”, and so forth. She loves him to death and worries about him constantly and is so, so proud of him. He loves her too and she doesn’t piss him off nearly as much as he pretends, and he would be devastated beyond words if anything were to ever happen to her. He actually thinks she’s the strongest person he knows, maybe even tougher than All Might, and he would never, ever say this out loud.

Sooo... yeah. I’m trying to think of a good way to end this post now, but I can’t think of anything lol. I think I’ve said everything I wanted to. Tl;dr, I’ve made a conscious decision to view Mitsuki as a highly combative but loving parent to her troublesome tsundere son because I want Katsuki to man up and take responsibility for his own shit, because I love him. The end.