Chapter Text
Izuku sat at Katsuki’s side, holding his limp hand in his left and his mother’s shaky one in his right. Doctors had come a few minutes before and asked him to go with them for a check-up, but he had refused.
He knew he might be clutching Kacchan’s hand just a bit too hard, not that he was awake to tell him so, but he couldn’t force himself to lighten his grip. He had almost lost him, again. Or technically, Kacchan had almost lost him this time, but the fact remained. They were almost separated.
So he made sure he’d be with Kacchan, even while getting his own treatment.
Izuku narrowed his eyes, trying to keep himself from wincing against the uncomfortable sensation permeating out from behind his lids. He needed to put on a strong, convincing façade for his mother, who stood across from his chair, looking and clutching at him worriedly.
“Again, I’m so sorry about this,” the girl said sympathetically, pulling more of her quirk out of his eyes. “I know it must feel weird.”
“It’s fine,” Izuku grimaced, resisting the tempting urge to cry as the last of the cotton-like pressure slipped out of his eyes. “I know you weren’t in control of yourself when your quirk was used to blind me.”
“Well, can you see me now, honey?” his mother asked, grasping his hand harder.
He blinked a few more times, squinting against the sudden bright light that entered his eyes. His irises slowly adjusted, letting him finally see his poor mother and her tear-streaked cheeks, Kacchan laying pale on his hospital bed, and the girl from the gen-ed class whose quirk had blinded him a few hours before when Soul Psyche had control of her body.
“All better?” the girl asked tentatively, smiling slightly at him while she fiddled with her ponytail. “There shouldn’t be any lasting effects, I made sure to get all the smoke out that I could.”
He beamed at her, all discomfort gone and replaced with relief. “Yeah, I feel great! Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.”
Her small grin widened slightly. “Yeah, for sure. But,” she dug into her uniform pocket before pulling out a small slip of paper with some numbers scribbled on it, “call me if anything goes wrong with your vision.”
“O-okay, sure,” he stuttered, before taking the offered paper and waving goodbye to her retreating form.
His mom raised her eyebrows at him, her wobbly bottom lip quirking slightly. “Well, she was nice… and pretty cute, right?”
Izuku hummed noncommittally, not sure what to say. With the girl gone, he could turn his attention back to Kacchan, checking to make sure he was still there. He was sleeping just as he had been for the past few hours, his IV dripping in his arm steadily.
His mom bit her lip, glancing between him and Kacchan. “…Izuku?” she started hesitantly, moving to sit in the chair adjacent to his.
He reluctantly looked away from his childhood friend, turning to put his attention on his mom. “Yeah?”
She opened her mouth, hesitated, looked between him and Kacchan again, and closed her mouth once more. “I… I’m just wondering…”
Izuku turned more towards her and squeezed her hand encouragingly, curiosity piquing his interest as he did. “What is it, Mom?”
“Are you… well, I was wondering if you were maybe… dating anyone at UA?” she finally said, wincing slightly. “Because it’s fine if you are! I don’t want you to… to think you have to hide any of that stuff from me, okay?”
Izuku frowned, tilting his head in confusion. “Um… I’m not. But thanks, Mom. Is… is everything okay?”
She nodded faintly, her resolve for whatever else she had been planning to say crumbling before his eyes. “Yes, everything’s fine.”
A pause.
His mom cleared her throat. “Alright, well… Work was okay with me coming since it was an emergency, but I should probably get back.” She got up from the chair and let go of Izuku’s hand in place of her purse and phone. She smiled at him fondly. “Tell Bakugou I’m glad he’s okay for me.”
He returned her grin. “Yeah, will do. Have a good time at work.”
She closed the door behind her soon after, leaving him alone with the sound of Kacchan’s soft breathing and the heart-rate monitor. Izuku couldn’t help looking down at him, mapping his features. It might’ve been Izuku’s face, with his freckles and bone structure, but it was Kacchan underneath it all.
So much had changed in their relationship dynamics since entering UA, and even more so in the past week since they were forced to switch bodies. Izuku couldn’t tell what was different between them quite yet, but he was sure that it was there. It was something that made him want to keep Kacchan as close as possible to him, made him want to… to hold his hand for as long as he could.
And that had almost been taken from him. Again.
Which was why he had refused to leave his side back in the ambulance, stubbornly keeping his hand interlocked with Kacchan’s even at the doctors’ pleadings to leave him alone. Izuku refused to leave his side since he couldn’t see a thing and Kacchan’s grip on his was the only thing grounding him, the only way to confirm nobody would try to take him away again.
So the doctors eventually relented, leaving him to clutch Kacchan’s hand while they figured out how to stop his skin from burning off his muscles, the effect from the slime quirk still making itself known. They eventually put the poor teen under, knowing the pain was getting to be too much for even him to bear.
Izuku had sat next to him through the whole thing, terrified, unable to see what was happening. His only reassurance was the steady beep of the heart-rate monitor and the doctors’ assurances that Kacchan would be just fine. Izuku just hoped that would stay the case until they were cleared to leave the hospital.
Kacchan shifted in his sleep, disrupting Izuku from his thoughts. He looked so peaceful, napping like that in the hospital bed. If it weren’t for the heavy bandages wrapped around his arm and cheek, Izuku knew he’d be none the wiser to the extreme discomfort he knew he had been in before being put under from the pain meds.
Izuku still didn’t know exactly what happened during the fight after he had been blinded, the explosions and vague shouts he had heard leaving too much to the imagination. But from the intense acid burns that covered Kacchan’s arms and cheek, he knew it couldn’t have been anything good.
A boy from the gen-ed class had come to visit an hour prior, his neon orange slime-covered skin still sticking out in Izuku’s memory. He had said he came to apologize to Kacchan for whatever his quirk had done to him under Soul Psyche’s influence, though he didn’t elaborate when Izuku pressed. The boy didn’t remember any of it, apparently. Izuku had promised he would tell Katsuki he had come, then the boy had left soon after. He hadn’t even left his name.
Sighing, Izuku started to trace his friend’s hand with his free fingers, drawing a figure-eight pattern between the knuckles that jutted out from his pale skin. Though the scars were familiar to Izuku, it was still jarring to see them on someone other than himself. With a glance at his own, unmarred hands, Izuku was reminded once again how much more amazing Kacchan was compared to himself, able to be top of his class without any scars to show for it. Without any mistakes.
He decided he liked these hands.
Izuku felt a weak squeeze from the previously limp hand held in his own, and he jumped a little from surprise.
Looking up, Izuku felt relief and an intense warmth swoop in his gut, almost leaving him breathless, at seeing Kacchan blinking blearily at him, a tired, small frown on his lips.
“Kacchan! Y-you’re awake!” he stammered, a truly happy smile crossing his face for the first time since entering the hospital.
Kacchan grimaced, motioning with his free hand for Izuku to pipe down. “Shh. Still feel like shit, ‘n your yelling ain’t helpin’.”
“Oh, sorry,” he whispered, squeezing the other’s hand again.
Kacchan glanced at where their hands were clasped together and back up to Izuku’s face, his expression unreadable. Izuku was surprised his hand hadn’t been slapped away or otherwise discarded in the moments since Kacchan had woken up, but he wasn’t complaining.
“You fuckin’ nerd,” Kacchan murmured, “you don’t need to apologize.”
Izuku laughed quietly, surprised at his quietness. The painkillers must still be in his system or something. That would explain the uncharacteristic gentle tone. “Well, apologizing is a force of habit, I guess,” he whispered back, careful to keep his tone low.
Kacchan’s eyes softened, his brow furrowing a tad. He looked like he wanted to say something, but Izuku wasn’t having it, not wanting the mood to depress any more than it already had. “Anyways,” he said, straightening up a bit, “you went under from the pain killers about two hours ago. It’s past dinnertime now, I think.”
Kacchan grunted lightly. “Didn’t think I’d be out that long… I’m guessin’ you got your sight back, right?” he croaked out, sleep still evident in his speech. He started to sit up in his bed, careful to keep his hand clasped gently within Izuku’s.
“Yeah, the girl with the quirk came about ten minutes ago and took care of it. My mom was here too, she says hi and that she’s glad you’re okay.”
Kacchan raised his brows a bit. “Oh. Well, that’s… I mean, I haven’t seen her in fuckin’ years, I’m surprised she’d want to…” he paused, grimacing in remembrance of their middle school years. “I’m glad though,” he finished lamely.
Izuku chuckled a bit. “I’ve talked with her about our stuff, she knows that you and I are doing better. She knows how much…” he faltered, unsure if it would be okay for him to continue, or if he’d be pushing a line. A glance down at their intertwined hands told him it was okay. “She knows how much you mean to me now.”
Kacchan matched Izuku’s small grin, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his free hand. “Right.”
They sat quietly for a moment, just glad to both be alive and breathing.
A knock on the door startled the two teens, clearing the charged atmosphere they had found themselves in.
“Katsuki?” a woman’s voice called out, worry laced in her tone. The door opened the rest of the way to reveal who Izuku recognized as Kacchan’s mother, walking into the middle of the room.
Kacchan rolled his eyes, the soft look he had had a second ago quickly wiped away in favor of an annoyed expression. “Took you fuckin’ long enough to show up, where the hell have you been? I asked the hospital to call you fucking hours ago.”
So much for him being ‘soft from the painkillers’…
Mitsuki scoffed. “Work doesn’t give a shit about that stuff, you know that. I came as soon as my meeting was over.” She walked over to Katsuki’s bedside and pulled him into a hug, which he reluctantly accepted with his free hand. “Your father wishes you the best, but he’s on some project deadline so he’s stuck in the office.”
Izuku watched, a bit embarrassed, as she looked down at their intertwined hands and then up to Izuku from over Kacchan’s shoulder. She raised her eyebrows at him, but he just stared at her wide-eyed as a response.
“Oh, Midoriya honey, so good to see you again!” she said brightly, pulling away from Katsuki. She walked over to hug the other boy too, which Izuku was quick to accept.
“Y-you too! It’s been a while!”
She pulled away and gave him a warm smile. “Katsuki never hugs me like that, you could definitely give him some pointers, I think,” she teased with a wink.
Izuku felt his cheeks flush as red as the Bakugou family's eyes as he started to stutter so much he almost choked.
Mitsuku let out a loud laugh, patting his shoulder reassuringly. “I’m only teasing, honey. Don’t suffocate on us, the last thing we need is for you two to stay in the hospital for another damn reason.”
He attempted a laugh, not sure what to say while he was still recovering.
She turned to Katsuki, her face warping into something… less than kind. “Now then, what the hell were you thinking?! Letting your skin get all burned like that, I thought you knew how to fight!” she yelled, throwing her hands on her hips. “You could’ve gotten killed, dumbass!”
“Not like I had a damn choice, you hag!” Bakugou growled back, the freckles on his cheeks pulling down as he scowled. “If I hadn’t taken those hits, Deku here would’ve been fucking kidnapped!”
Izuku looked between her and her son anxiously, starting to stand up out of his chair. “Should I go? I don’t want to intrude if you needed to… to talk or—”
He yelped when he felt his hand suddenly being crushed, Kacchan glaring him back down into his chair. “Don’t fucking move, Deku.”
Izuku blinked, nodding slowly. “R-right.”
Kacchan and his mother went back to bickering as if nothing had happened, Mitsuki playing the parts of both a concerned mother and an angry witch with ease. And while some of the words the two of them exchanged made Izuku blush from how vulgar they were, he knew that that was just the way they communicated, it was just how their dynamic worked.
“Goodness,” the woman sighed, shaking her head. “Midoriya, I don’t know how you deal with this idiot day in and day out. I’m already getting a headache, and I’m his mother!”
Izuku smiled sheepishly. “It’s been a process, but I think it’s been worth it, right Kacchan?”
“You’ve never had the best taste in people, Deku,” he scoffed. “But… yeah. Whatever.” He started to rub at one of his bandages, wincing slightly. “Anyways, does anyone know when Recovery Girl is gonna get her ass over here and help me out? The pain meds are wearing off, feels like hell.”
“She still hasn’t come?” Mitsuki asked, exasperated. “Alright, I’ll go find her. You boys stay here and rest, okay?”
Both the teens nodded their assent, and she left soon after, letting the door close quietly behind her.
Izuku winced, glancing at the unfortunate array of bandages wrapped around Kacchan’s torso and arms. “I saw Recovery Girl earlier, she’s still working on the people who got badly burned by the explosions. Apparently it took her a long time to get to this hospital from UA… at least that’s what my mom told me.”
Kacchan frowned. “The attack happened right outside UA campus, she should’ve been right on our heels on the way here.”
Izuku shrugged. “Must’ve been napping or something, I dunno. Besides, I didn’t know the bombs had hit you so hard, it didn’t look like you were that close to any of them when they went off.”
“These bandages aren’t from the explosions,” Kacchan said, scowling. “It’s because of that shitty orange highlighter fucker.”
Izuku tilted his head in confusion. “Who?”
“Ugh, he was this dumbass who jumped out of the tree after that other girl had blinded you and fought me. Well… he tried to. He had no fucking clue what he was doing.”
“Oh! Did he have, like, slime covering his whole body?”
Kacchan frowned at him. “Yeah. Wait, have you seen him?”
“Yeah, he came in earlier while you were still out and asked me to apologize to you for what he did on his behalf.”
“He couldn’t wait and apologize in person?” he scoffed. “No wonder he’s not in the hero course.”
“Kacchan, be nice,” Izuku chided.
“When have I ever been fuckin’ nice? I’m not nice.”
“You can be nice! I’ve seen you be nice before. I mean— not often, but… Nice Kacchan has appeared once or twice.”
Another scoff. “Well—”
The door opened suddenly, revealing Recovery Girl and Mitsuki as they walked through.
“Found her!” Mitsuki sang, walking over to stand next to Katsuki on the opposite side of the bed as Izuku.
“Sorry it took me so long to get here, young man,” Recovery Girl apologized, hobbling up to Katsuki’s bed and grabbing his chart. She read it for a few moments before looking back up at him. “It looks like the other doctors did a good enough job taking care of most of the burns. I think I can heal this without the risk for any scars.”
Izuku let out a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t get any new scars to add to his collection, thank goodness.
“I can heal you now if you want,” the old woman continued, “but you’ll be very tired after, so I’d suggest having someone help you get back to the dorms, to make sure you don’t pass out on your way there.”
Katsuki looked at Izuku questioningly, asking without saying anything if he’d be willing to help him out. Izuku nodded his assent happily.
“Yeah that’s fine,” Katsuki agreed, and Recovery Girl gave him a wet peck on the cheek.
::::::::::
A half-hour later found both the boys discharged outside the front doors of the hospital with the instruction to take it easy and try not to do anything that would get them killed. For a week or so, at least.
“Alright, well you boys stay safe,” Mitsuki told them, wrapping her coat around her waist tightly. She smiled at them both fondly before giving them both a quick hug. “I’m always a call away if you end up in the hospital again. Can’t promise I’ll be there right away but… well, still call if anything happens.” And with that, she had a taxi pull up and was off on her way back home.
Izuku turned to the tired boy standing next to him, still holding his hand. “Ready to go home?” he quipped, shifting his weight from one foot to the other anxiously.
He held in his laughter as Kacchan just grunted in response, his eyes already half-closed from exhaustion.
They started for the train station which was luckily only a few minutes away from the hospital. The walk under the moon was quiet other than the light scrapes of their shoes on the sidewalk or the honk of a car a few streets down.
“Okay,” Izuku said, pulling Kacchan next to him on the train bench, “It’s a thirty-minute commute to the school, so you should try and get a little rest before our stop. Okay, Kacchan?”
Another groggy grunt from the boy. He sunk lower into his spot on the bench, resting his head heavily on Izuku’s shoulder as he let out a long yawn. Izuku stiffened slightly, his stomach flipping over itself at the contact, but he quickly shoved it down. Don’t make it weird, Izuku. He’s just tired.
The train set off, the sound of people getting on and off, with the light rain that hit the roof sporadically filling the otherwise quiet atmosphere. Not many people rode in their train car, usually it was just the two of them, and maybe a tired salaryman or mother with her baby as the stops passed by.
Kacchan’s occasional snore sometimes startled Izuku out of his thoughts, along with a few grunts he made in his sleep. At one point, while Izuku had been simultaneously scrolling through his phone and rubbing circles into Katsuki’s thumb to pass the time, Kacchan had burrowed into his shoulder, mumbling something about him being ‘too tall’ or the like.
Izuku couldn’t focus on his phone after that.
Their stop came up soon after, much to Izuku’s disappointment. He nudged Kacchan with his shoulder (which had fallen asleep awhile ago), which woke him relatively easily.
“We’re at our stop, Kacchan, let's go,” he whispered against his hair, pulling him up to stand along with him.
“Mmfpht,” Kacchan responded eloquently.
They stumbled back to the dorms relatively easily, Katsuki yawning every two minutes as they went.
There was nobody in the common room, nor in the kitchen, all of them either still in the hospital recovering or already sound asleep in bed.
“Do you have your room key on you?” Izuku asked quietly once they reached Kacchan’s room, squeezing his hand when he took too long to respond.
“Mm.”
Izuku was reminded of a zombie as Katsuki fumbled in his coat pockets, trying to find his keys. Finally, he got them out and unlocked the door.
He started to enter his room, but Izuku was pulled along as their hands were still clasped together. “U-uh, you gotta let go, Kacchan. I need to get to bed, too.”
Katsuki blinked at Deku, his eyes only opened a sliver. Comprehension finally crossed his tired face. He released his hold on him.
The groggy “g’night, Deku,” could barely be heard as he shut the door behind him, leaving Izuku in the warm hallway by himself, his hand feeling strangely cold.