Chapter Text
Katsuki tore open his backpack and yanked out his stack of notebooks. He dumped them on his desk and flipped through until he found his planner. It was small, and got lost easily in the shuffle, especially since he hadn't been using it this week.
Deku's shadow stopped in the desk corner, not quite close enough to block light.
"If you're gonna hover, be helpful," Katsuki said, flipping open the first notebook. He kept the syllabus of each class stapled inside the front.
"Oh, okay," Deku said, and stepped closer. Now it was dark exactly where Katsuki was trying to read.
Katsuki ground his teeth, but no insult came to his mind. Instead he snatched up the books again and threw them into Deku's arms.
Deku caught them easily. He'd been watching.
"Downstairs," Katsuki ordered. He still had sixteen people to talk to.
"Mmm," Deku acknowledged, but he only took a few steps before stopping. "Um, do you want to change clothes?"
Katsuki looked down at himself. His right side was still splattered in blood. "Yeah," he said, and walked over to the dresser. The first drawer he pulled open was empty, and he immediately shut it again.
Deku hadn't moved. He had that soft, caring expression that could still make Katsuki's insides crawl.
"Why are you still here?" Katsuki demanded, glaring at the notebooks.
"Because you are," Deku said.
Katsuki set his arm and forehead down on the top of the dresser. It was the closest thing to five minutes alone that he was going to get, the closest thing he deserved.
"Do you want to borrow something?" Deku asked.
"No," Katsuki mumbled, and reached down into the corner for his dirty clothes hamper.
The kitchen crew was all actually cooking, so Katsuki claimed one end of the empty dining table for his school books. It was easy enough to check the homework schedule for each class and make a list of everything he needed to do tonight. Deku even ran back upstairs to grab whatever textbooks he asked for. But when Katsuki opened to the first set of practice math problems, he didn't understand them at all. He'd spent the math lecture writing an essay.
"Do you want my notes?" Deku asked.
Katsuki bit the end of his pencil. Deku's notes were comprehensive and insightful. They also had a tendency to jump sporadically around the page, dancing from thought to thought. Also, due to the state of his hands, they were completely illegible to everyone else.
"I'll get Iida's notes," Deku said, and walked away.
Katsuki grabbed the literature textbook and started searching for the assigned short story. He could at least read that while he waited.
"Can I take your order?" Kaminari asked, leaning over him from behind.
On instinct, Katsuki elbowed him hard.
"Ow!" Kaminari yelped, but he didn't move away. He was also holding his phone suspiciously.
"Stop filming," Katsuki demanded, grabbing the phone so his palm covered the camera, "I'm doing homework."
"Dude, I'm taking orders," Kaminari said, yanking the phone away. Then he turned it around, showing that the screen was open to the notes app and not the camera. "Satou started stress baking and a bunch of people joined him. Do you want cake, cookies, mochi, banana bread, or a crepe?"
That explained the party in the kitchen. "I want whatever Satou's making. No one else here can cook."
"That's harsh," Kaminari said, rubbing his chin, "Satou is the best baker though. Maybe I should change my vote."
"Do you want your All Mights back?" Todoroki said.
It was extremely startling. Luckily, Katsuki went perfectly still in response instead of jumping. When his heart stopped feeling like it might explode again, Katsuki turned toward the other side of the table. "No."
"You can have them back," Todoroki went on, voice and face completely flat.
"Do you have a concussion?" Katsuki spat. He let his textbook drop and smack the table, and only realized afterwards that he'd lost his place. "I wouldn't have given them to you if I didn't mean it. The point of this week was to get rid of regrets, not create a bunch of new ones."
"I got them!" Deku said, running over with Iida's folder of notes in his arms.
"Deku!" Katsuki shouted, "Get over here!"
Deku slowed down before he hit the table and carefully set the folder down on the corner, just separate from Katsuki's carefully arranged materials. "Um, try not to blow any up."
"Tell your friend to stop being an idiot," Katsuki demanded.
"Okay," Deku said.
Todoroki cleared his throat. "I was—"
"Kacchan," Deku said, "Stop being an idiot."
Katsuki ground his teeth and did his very best not to growl.
"Oh," Todoroki said, "Because you're his friend too."
"Yeah, I got that," Katsuki said, grabbing Iida's notes, "I'm reading now. Everyone leave me alone."
"You're studying in the common room!" Jirou shouted from the couches, "What did you think would happen?"
Katsuki threw the folder open. Then he remembered that these were Iida's notes, and carefully turned to the correct page.
For about five minutes, everything went well. Katsuki refused to respond to anyone, and he managed to get the gist of the first lesson he'd missed. Then he opened his math textbook to the first problem set and his math notebook to the next blank page. Only, there weren't any blank pages left. He'd filled them with notes for his friends.
"What's that?" Todoroki asked.
Katsuki looked up. Todoroki was still standing in the exact same spot, frozen by Katsuki's demand to not be bothered. Even Deku had wandered across the room, distracted by a conversation with Uraraka.
"Here," Katsuki said, and handed him the book. He'd have to use something else anyway.
Todoroki took it, confused. Then he scanned down the page, and his eyes widened. "I shouldn't read this."
"Find the one that's yours then," Katsuki said, pushing his chair back.
"Before you stand up," Shouji said, walking out of the kitchen. One of his arms held a plate of several pastries.
Katsuki waited for the rest of the sentence, but it didn't come. Instead, once he got close enough, Shouji set the plate down beside him.
"Satou didn't make all of those," Katsuki said.
"Guess which one!" Kaminari shouted from far away.
Shouji shook his head. "Satou helped everyone, so we put some of everything."
"Shouji," Todoroki said, and held the book out over Katsuki's head.
Katsuki pulled his chair forward again, grabbed a random book, and pretended to be totally engrossed.
"Bakugou," Shouji said, "I think our teachers would give you an extension on your homework, given the circumstances."
For some reason, that was what finally did it. An extension meant he could have more time to get the work done. It meant he had more time.
Katsuki put his forehead down on the top of the book and pulled the cover in, a tent to hide his face. No one said anything, but after a moment, Todoroki patted his shoulder.
"Should I show this to everyone?" Shouji asked.
"Yeah," Katsuki croaked, setting the book down, "Somewhere else." Then he pulled the plate closer. He had a lot of haphazard concoctions to try.