Chapter Text
Katsuki returned to his apartment feeling tired, sore and fucking miserable.
But that was just the norm for him these days.
The first thing he did after walking through the doorway was to rip off his boots, toss them carelessly behind him and throw himself face down on the couch. He was faintly aware that he was still wearing his hero costume underneath his jacket, but honestly he couldn't muster enough energy to take it off, actually doing much of anything other than slowly sink down the fluffy cushions seemed downright impossible at the moment.
His muscles were killing him and his arms and palms hurt like a bitch due to overexerting his quirk, so all he wanted now was to lie down and, if possible, sleep for the rest of the week, or at least for the remainder of the night. As soon as he had finished that thought, his cell phone started vibrating as if possessed with the arrival of a wave of new messages. Katsuki briefly considered throwing the device across the room just to silence the irritating noise, but ultimately decided against it if only because the momentary satisfaction wouldn’t be worth the effort it would take to replace it later. He tried ignoring it instead, unfortunately that option also proved impossible seeing as whoever was the asshole spamming his inbox (probably Kirishima) didn’t seem to have the intention of stopping any time soon. Finally giving up the battle as lost, Katsuki decided to check what the fuck Eijirou wanted this time so he could turn the damned thing off and return to his blissful and very needed sleep. He found 20 unread messages, each one of them less than a minute apart from the other. Katsuki huffed, typical of the redhead idiot.
[00.35] hey u home????
[00.39] already back from patrolling right??
[00.39] saw u on tv btw u were awesome!!!!
[00.39] that guy was like super tough but u beat him so fast!! So manly!!!
[00.40] AAHH BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANTED TO SAY
[00.41] u sure ur not going tomorrow???
[00.41] i mean i know it’s useless to ask u to come to the bachelor party…
[00.42] but c’mon dude at least come to the ceremony!
[00.43] everyones going to be there
[00.43] and it would be awesome if u went
[00.43] ...
[00.45] Midoriya told me he would like to see u there…
[00.45] he looked so sad when i told him u wouldn’t come :((
[00.46] i know u 2 r not the best of friends but midoriya rly cares abt u.
[00.46] maybe it would help you to go, you know, to get closure and all that…
[00.48] Bakugou...
[00.49] at least drop by for a while, i promise it won’t be as bad as u think!
[00.49] YOU KNOW WHAT I BET YOU’LL TOTALLY HAVE A BLAST!!!
[00.50] so think about it ok?? Everyone will be waiting for you
[00. 51] ok that was all i wanted to say bro, hope to see u tomorrow, bye!!
Katsuki closed the conversation without bothering to reply and pressed the power button with more violence than was needed, he briefly considered throwing his phone against the wall once again but he settled for sliding it to the other side of the table instead.
"You’ll totally have a blast!, as if... idiot."
Kirishima hadn’t been the only one to pester him about this, but he sure as hell was the most persistent; geez even his mother had gotten the hint.
Not for the first time Katsuki’s gaze slid towards the direction of the kitchen table, where he knew the invitation was still lying under a pile of mail and other garbage. He never even bothered opening it, as soon as he got it he threw it aside along with his fan mail and other such letters he never read but didn’t quite dare to discard, slowly letting more and more stuff pile up on top off it, until he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore.
More than once he had considered throwing it away, tearing it to shreds, making it explode, and so on; but not once had he dug it out of that pile. He didn’t know if it was because he didn’t dare so much as look at it, or because some tiny part of his brain was still considering attending. Whatever the reason was, the card was still there, wrapped up in its pristine little envelope, with neat, fancy writing embellished in gold innocently spelling 'Midoriya and Uraraka'. It felt a bit anticlimactic to be honest, it should have been written in blood or something equally ominous, and have come along with a knife stuck at his door, possibly accompanied by the severed head of a loved one; maybe that way the irrational fear the innocuous piece of white paper instilled in his heart would have felt more justified.
He knew that he was acting like a coward and a brat despite already being a grown ass 23 years old man, but it wasn't like he had ever boasted of his maturity of all things, nor of his ability to deal with his problems in the healthiest way. Katsuki was used to evading his feelings like a plague, especially all those relating to one Izuku Midoriya, a defense mechanism so deeply ingrained into his psyche it came to him as naturally as breathing.
Of course, not that evading and denying his feelings had worked out for him either way, in fact if it had done anything it was to completely ruin his relationship with Izuku and practically his ability to interact normally with the rest of his peers for a good part of his life; but although they had been able to rekindle their tattered friendship for the most part, there had always been a stone that neither Izuku nor Katsuki had been able to move, a pebble that he kept kicking aside over and over until it accumulated enough momentum to spiral away from his control, like a snowball that gradually escalates into a huge devastating avalanche.
His cowardice and indecisiveness had hurt himself above all people, he was painfully aware of that. But the knowledge would no longer serve him, just like his stupid feelings.
Because the harsh reality was, that Izuku Midoriya was getting married tomorrow afternoon, and that no matter how Katsuki felt about it, there was nothing he could do to change that fact.
And he knew with all the certainty of the world that no matter how hard he tried, or how much Kirishima and the rest of his friends attempted to distract him with alcohol, jokes and good intentions, there was no damn way that Katsuki could just stand there and watch Deku, the fucking love of his life Izuku Midoriya, celebrating and laughing in that stupidly adorable way of his as he promised his life to someone else, and pretend that it didn’t break his heart in a million pieces.
Besides, even if he wanted to he couldn’t go, he was too busy with his work as a hero, and tomorrow he had a very important mission scheduled.
Or at least that was the excuse he used to convince himself.
But it was too late now to take the day off or cancel the mission anyways. He along with a selected taskforce made up of pro-heroes were involved in a major investigation of a human trafficking organization, and they had recently received valuable intel about some sort of possible hideout located in the Tokyo warehouse district. Katsuki and another hero had been assigned to a reconnaissance mission scheduled for tomorrow, it was the most important lead they had found in months, and Katsuki couldn’t afford to spoil it now.
Anyone who knew him would think that assigning a reconnaissance mission to Katsuki of all people was absolute madness, seeing as he wasn't very well remembered for his ability to be silent of all things, but Katsuki would tell those people to go fuck themselves, he could do any fucking thing he wanted if he tried, including being sneaky and furtive or whatever; moreover, the reality was that Katsuki was the hero with the most raw power and fighting ability of the whole team, and they needed someone who, in the event of a battle taking place, could handle the situation well enough until the arrival of reinforcements. In other words, he would be there as insurance in case the mission went to hell.
Needless to say, with Katsuki there, the mission would go perfectly; he was one of the best damn heroes that this city had seen in years, after all.
And on that note, he succumbed to a restless and anxious slumber, expectant of the busy day that awaited him.
Katsuki couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when everything went to hell, but that hardly mattered to him as he ran desperately from a horde of thugs, carrying a grown man on his back and a little girl in his arms.
First of all, the information they had received was not incorrect per se, but it had been severely incomplete, so imagine their surprise when the supposed operation facility in question turned out to be THE FUCKING HEADQUARTERS OF THE WHOLE DAMN ORGANIZATION.
Secondly, no one had informed him that his mission partner was an incompetent dumbasss of magnificent proportions, although in retrospect, he should have anticipated it. It was his own fault for not automatically assuming that everyone else other than him was completely useless, all those years attending Yuuei in the company of decent heroes had clearly clouded his judgment.
When the guy introduced himself as Niteveil for the first time, the name didn’t ring a bell at all, but Katsuki rarely remembered anyone's name unless they had attended his class in Yuuei or were ranked among the top 10 in the hero billboard chart, so that detail didn’t bother him too much. Apparently his quirk was to camouflage himself and a limited group of people with their surroundings for a short period of time, which supposedly made it "ideal" for reconnaissance missions; at the time it had seemed passable enough, so he hadn’t questioned too much to trust his back to this guy, and things had been going well until right after running out of fuel and losing slight control of the situation, that the man had become a complete and absolute burden, literally speaking, seeing as he was currently carrying his unconscious body over his shoulder as if it were a sack of potatoes.
Under normal circunstances, Katsuki would simply have left him behind. It was his own damn fault for not seeing that attack coming, but right now he couldn’t allow the enemy to get a hold of him, the last thing he needed was for the guy to be taken hostage, or worse, as a prisoner.
On the other hand the girl, well, he shouldn’t have to explain why he was carrying her, that was his job after all. But truth was that he shouldn’t be doing it, this was supposed to be just a reconnaissance mission, and rescuing a child only made for another unnecessary hindrance besides the idiot over his shoulder that wouldn’t allow him to fight freely. In addition that there was a whole basement full with other children like her, no doubt stolen from their homes and brought here to be sold to the highest bidder due to the special qualities of their quirks.
However, it had been this girl who had ventured from her hiding place and helped Katsuki to find an escape route, despite the risk it represented to her life. There was no way that Katsuki could continue to call himself a hero if he just left her there to fend for herself.
Besides, there was something about her small trembling figure and her big yellow eyes full of determination that resonated with Katsuki's heart, she reminded him of how Deku was once, the Deku that the part of himself Katsuki had fought so hard to deny had wanted yet failed to protect.
"There, Oniichan, right there!" The girl yell-whispered, pointing to a door hidden somewhere on the side of the corridor. Katsuki didn’t hesitate and headed towards it, he knew better by now than to doubt her, it was probably not the first time that she had sneaked out if she knew the lay-out so well, Katsuki thought with no small amount of admiration. The door was locked but that didn't prove an issue for him, a small explosion was enough to open it. The room turned out to be a service room, but it had many places to hide, as well as a small window in which a little girl could pass through, if the situation warranted it.
"Great, we can hide here for a while while I catch my breath" Katsuki deposited the girl on the floor and closed the door, then looked for a secluded corner to hide the sack of potatoes that was his partner. Katsuki honestly doubted they could get through this without a fight, at least not until the reinforcements arrived, the ones Niteveil had at least the good sense to call before falling unconscious like a damsel in distress.
Once he had deposited Niteveil with other literal potato bags and covered him with a blanket he found lying around (hopefully that would be enough to hide him), Katsuki dusted himself off and addressed the other little refugee by his side "Hey kid, what's your name?"
The girl recoiled at the sound of his voice, which made Katsuki feel a bit guilty for alerting her "M-mischa..." she answered with a hesitant little voice "Who is oniichan...?"
Katsuki smiled indulgently, and tried to invoke a little of the characteristic grandiosity that represented him "I’m the explosive hero, Ground Zero, and I’m here to save you, of course!" He declared with an arrogant smile and puffed out his chest.
"Ohh!" Mischa exclaimed with eyes full of astonishment, the black feathers that adorned her head swelling adorably "Oniichan is a, a real hero?!"
Katsuki crouched on one knee until he got to Mischa’s level, gave her one last smile and then looked into her eyes, expression serious "That's right, but although I'm an amazing hero, not even I can take you and all your friends from here on my own, that's why other heroes and the police are coming to rescue you" Katsuki placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed them gently, trying to communicate the importance of his words "So, Mischa, listen carefully, now your big bro has to go fight the bad guys that are chasing us. I want you to stay here and wait for me, if I don’t come back in twenty minutes, I want you to go through that window and get out, here" Katsuki took the communicator Niteveil carried on his belt and handed it to her "Contact the others heroes with this, they’ll know what to do, tell them that Niteveil and Ground Zero are still inside, and they’ll help us, okay?"
Mischa grabbed the radio with both fists squeezing it in a death grip "Oniichan, I don’t want you to go, I'm scared..."
"I know, but you have to be strong, for yours and for your friends’ sake, I promise I'll come back for you as soon as I can, okay?" he said comfortingly as he rummaged the feathers on her head. Katsuki got up and prepared to leave when he felt a small fist holding the pants of his suit, Mischa was clinging to him with all her strength, the expression on her face was a fear and a sadness so atrocious that his heart ached just by looking at her, her bright golden eyes shimmering with tears.
"N-no, don’t go!" She cried with her voice breaking between words "Mischa's parents... t-they also said they were coming back, a-and they never did, please, don’t leave Mischa alone again, please..." her grip became more desperate, now holding onto Katsuki with both hands, the tears falling in gushes. At that moment the picture overlapped with that of little Izuku on his head in a way that stole a small smile from Katsuki, but he disguised it quickly as he landed on his knee once again and looked Mischa firmly in the eyes.
"I understand you're scared, Mischa, but I need you to do this for me, okay? Think of it as an important mission that I'm personally entrusting to you, you have to make an effort to fulfill it, or are you gonna tell me that you don’t have what it takes to be the assistant of the top-ranked hero Ground Zero?" Katsuki challenged with a teasing smile.
"I-I, yes, of course I can do it!" Mischa said, straightening her posture, her eyes recovered the resolute spark they had before. Katsuki fought to contain a victorious smile, she was too predictable; just like Izuku when he was younger, their admiration for heroes was enough to overcome any obstacle in front of them.
"Yes what?"
"Yes, sir!"
Katsuki had to cover his mouth to hide the smug smile that was drawn on his face, damn it, he had never felt special fondness for children but he couldn’t conceive how she could be so cute. Katsuki held her face and delicately dried the tears with his thumbs, all while scolding himself over how stupidly sentimental he was being, this girl had really touched a soft spot in him "Don’t worry, I promise that once this is over, you’ll never have to be alone again”
Mischa looked at him with big, wet eyes, and the hopeful look she gave him was so pure it was hard to look at. In an attempt to break eye contact before he lost the nerve to leave, Katsuki stood up quickly and went to the door, and just as his hand landed on the door handle he heard a voice timidly cheer "Blow them all up, Ground Zero oniichan! "
Katsuki smirked dangerously, and without turning around he boasted "Damn right kid, that's what I do best!"
Katsuki knew that it would be practically impossible to avoid a fight, but that didn’t mean that he had to go around looking for one. His objective was to find a safe escape route, not to make a ruckus, so he stuck to the worst lit corners and the less exposed passageways. On the way he stumbled into one or two goons patrolling around the hallways but none of them made for a real obstacle and for the most part he safely avoided them, and the times he failed to do so he did his best to use their comms to spread false information on his location and create diversions in order to win time.
Unfortunately, or rather expectedly, even this tactic had its limits and it wasn’t long until Katsuki was backed into a corner and a genuine fight had been unleashed. Of course, by themselves none of those criminals could hope to measure up to Katsuki in terms of fighting ability, but with the benefit of numbers on their side and with a new foe coming to replace the last every time he took one out, well, let’s say that the situation didn’t look too good from Katsuki’s side.
“How naive of you to come here alone, Ground Zero, you didn’t expect to find yourself in quiet the predicament, did you?” proclaimed in a loud voice a huge, bald guy with an enhancing quirk, who was the one currently giving Katsuki the most trouble. He had introduced himself as something with the word fist, Big fist, Great fist, Fist… whatever; anyway, the guy wasn’t particularly strong but he looked to at least have half a brain cell more than the ones who had preceded him, also judging by the quality of his attire and the way in which the other lackeys stood one step behind him he was of a higher position in the hierarchy, ‘So this is the boss, huh?’
Katsuki considered it a small blessing that they didn’t know that he hadn’t come there alone, at least it assured him that both the Niteveil guy and Mischa were safe for the moment. Normally he didn’t care for the classic Hero and Villain cheesy banter right before a fight, he considered it a complete waste of time not to mention ridiculous and cliched; but in this occasion his aim was to win time so he made an effort not to roll his eyes skyward and answered with a similarly pretentious comeback “I’m more than enough to take care of a flock of two-bit criminal fuckers like yourselves!”
As expected, that comment got him riled up, judging by the way his ugly mug got all pursed up like a raisin. Katsuki’s smirk grew in size in celebration of yet another small victory.
“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that you arrogant brat!” The villain’s biceps turned visibly bigger and he charged faster than he would have given credit to someone of his size. Katsuki was still quite a bit faster so he dodged the attack with no trouble, however he noticed his reflexes were getting duller fast due to fatigue and he resolved to end this as quickly as possible. Taking advantage of the weight of his opponent, Katsuki flashed an explosion at his eyes to stun him and immediately threw himself to the ground and knocked him over with a sweep kick. As he expected the guy went down like a pile of bricks, but before falling to the ground he turned quickly on himself in order to reduce the impact, Katsuki though didn’t waste another second and let himself fall over the back of the guy, pressing all of his weight over his limbs and restricting his movements; the villain struggled in an attempt to escape his grapple and tried to free his legs and kick him off, but Katsuki kept his grasp firm and threw another explosion to his face to immobilize him once and for all, leaving him unconscious.
Sadly, he didn’t have the chance to celebrate his victory because the moment he got up the rest of the extras that had been dully watching like morons as the battle unfolded barged at him all at once. For the most part he could deal with them easily enough but one or two got a lucky hit on, and an idiot that fired a gun in a moment of desperation managed to get him on the shoulder once (although the rest of his ammo ended up as friendly fire). Towards the end of the fight Katsuki was in pretty lousy conditions, he was exhausted and sore, and though he tried to limit the use of his quirk and not overdo it, he could already feel the burn in both palms and over his forearms; he knew deep down that he wouldn’t last much more than this no matter how much he pushed himself, all in all though his expression remained defiant and unperturbed, after all it would take way more than this to make Bakugou Katsuki feel despair.
To his surprise, there weren’t many opponents left, less than ten actually. The small group of thugs were watching him with a mix of fear and anger on their faces, and a touch of resignation. Katsuki didn’t realize the moment in which he took down more than fifty men all by himself, but beyond the pride and confusion, he was relieved and grateful for the chance to end this once and for all; the idea of coming home to his apartment annoyed and worn-out to lay down on his old rackety couch and fret like a loser sounded almost like a dream at the moment. For a brief instant he even entertained the absurd idea of bringing Mischa along, maybe take her to meet other heroes; she’d probably get along with Izuku like a house on fire, both of them being hero-otakus and all.
Katsuki blinked in order to rid himself of the image, he had to focus on the here and now. He was preparing to charge with a Blast Rush Turbo when he heard a cry behind him that paralyzed him on his tracks. He turned around slowly and once he did he cursed to himself at the sight.
Mischa.
‘Fuck, what the hell is she doing here?!’ he thought in frustration as he took in the sight of the previously unconscious gang leader holding Mischa with an arm on her throat. Despite the fear and confusion simmering on his chest Katsuki forced himself to keep his expression unbothered, the worst he could do in a hostage situation was to lose his cool.
Albeit he was having a hard time keeping his head straight watching Mischa struggling desperately and calling out to him in a shrill voice, all while that fucking bastard held her firmly in his arms and smiled revoltingly with his ugly, scorched face in the way of someone who had just stumbled into a winning lottery ticket, and for all matters and purposes, he had.
“Hehe, not so cocky now that I have your little princess Peach, am I right?” he said still with that infuriating smile of the cat that ate the canary “Shh, shh, be quiet your highness, you don’t want to make things hard for you oniichan right? He’d probably be very put off if I were to blow your brains out right in his face, don’t you agree?” he whispered menacingly to Mischa’s ear as he put a gun to her temple, all the while staring Katsuki right in the eyes.
Mischa stopped struggling immediately, her yellow eyes wide with unadulterated terror. Katsuki clenched his teeth in an effort to fight off the urge to knock the son of a bitch into the middle of next week. Instead he remained immobile in his place, carefully calculating his next move.
“So it turns out the famous and tough Ground Zero has a thing for little girls. Huh, who would have guessed?” mocked the bastard as he tilted Mischa’s face with one hand, and removed the safety of the gun on her temple with the other. Mischa closed her eyes tightly, fearful expectation evident on her expression, and Katsuki couldn't help moving one step forward in preparation to act.
“Ah ah, don’t try anything or the kid pays!” he warned “You, over there! Come here and tie him up, make sure he doesn’t escape!” he commanded one of the thugs watching from the sidelines; the guy jumped noting he had been addressed and hurried to procure the rope and carry out the order he was given. In that instant Katsuki decided on his next plan of action, once his hands were inmovilized their chances of escaping would lower drastically. There was no other option, the time to act was now.
Katsuki seeked Mischa’s gaze as to silently urge her to trust him and follow his instructions. Her eyes hardened with renewed determination in response, and that was how Katsuki knew that his message had gotten across, now the only thing left was to wait for the right moment.
Once the nameless goon was standing behind him while holding his wrists together in order to tie them up, Katsuki threw Mischa a look and made a slight gesture with his head. ‘Now’.
Not a second later, he headbutted the guy right in the nose with the back of his skull; the man recoiled with a pained grunt and Katsuki turned and knocked him out in a single, efficient strike. At the same time Mischa bit hard on the baldie’s hand, eliciting a howl of pain out of him and causing him to inadvertently drop her. The villain cursed and aimed his gun at her to stop her from escaping, but at that point Katsuki had already propelled himself over, successfully blocking the trajectory of his gun. Katsuki put both his palms together and launched a Stun Grenade, looking to disarm his opponent as soon as possible as to stop him from hurting Mischa. He heard a gunshot right as the sound and the blinding glow of his explosion consumed everything around him, leaving his ears ringing for a moment. His attack had been effective though, and once he had made sure the guy was properly disarmed, he hit him (a little too vindictively) in the middle of the face, knocking him out once again.
The few ordinary lackeys that had been left were still stunned by the explosion, so they didn’t prove much trouble, but once he had finished with them Katsuki leaned against a wall, gradually slumping to the ground, exhausted.
No, this was more than just fatigue. Katsuki placed a hand on his stomach tentatively, it came out moist with a warm, slick substance, he looked at it and inwardly cursed. Blood.
That explained the feeling of vertigo and the breathlessness, fuck, when had it happened? Oh right, when he was fighting that bald son of a bitch. The adrenaline had probably dulled the pain while he fought, in fact he was starting to feel it a little already. ‘Shit, this doesn’t look good at all’.
“Oniichan!” he heard Mischa scream distantly, her voice was like a single lifeline in the drifting vasness of the ocean, Katsuki tried to hold onto it in order to remain conscious.
“Oniichan!” she yelled again once she had covered the distance that separated them, her tone sounded desperate and the look in her eyes transmitted intense fear and distress, even the third eye on her forehead, normally covered by the soft black feathers that constituted her hair, was open wide and wet with tears. Fuck, he was so glad to see her safe.
“What’s up, kiddo? That fucking pervert didn’t hurt you, did he?” asked Katsuki attempting a smirk, but it probably came out looking more like a grimace. He could feel the wound rapidly bleeding out, he tried applying pressure but to be honest, he didn’t know how much longer he could hold out.
“I’m s-so sorry… this is all M-mischa’s fault, I w-was so scared oniichan would never come back, if only I had l-listened and stayed in the shed, n-none of this, none of this would have happened!” spoke Mischa in between sobs, the olive brown skin of her cheeks now completely covered in tears. Once again, Katsuki couldn’t help remembering Izuku. ‘You’d probably cry too, wouldn’t you?'
“Shhh, don’t be stupid…” he shushed her, the last thing that he needed was to serve as fuel for yet another childhood trauma, this girl had suffered enough already ”This is no one’s fault other than of those villain bastards, get it into your head” he was briefly tempted to include Niteveil as well, but that probably wouldn’t help his point.
Mischa didn’t say anything, she just gazed at him with wide, melancholic eyes. It was in that moment that he understood, that this was not the first time she had seen this happen, this small girl knew perfectly well what was going on. Katsuki didn’t regret having saved her even for a second, but for an instant he hated himself for doing this to her, for becoming yet another tragedy among the dozen plaguing this girl’s life, one more reason for the shine of her eyes to dim and her smile to grow dull.
“...Hey, I’m sorry for not being able to carry out our promise” said Katsuki in weak voice, his eyesight was starting to blur and he was having a hard time staying conscious, but he still made an effort to articulate his words, if only for Mischa’s sake “But listen… in a moment the police and the other heroes will be here, they will help you. Tell them to contact Kirishima Eijirou, Red Riot, he’ll take good care of you.” Eijirou would know what to do, he was a good friend.
Mischa’s expression twisted into an afflicted grimace and she hid her face on Katsuki’s chest, holding onto his body with something approaching desperation “No! I don’t want anyone else, oniichan is my only hero!” he could faintly feel the dampness of her tears filtering through his clothes, in the same way that she could probably feel the growing bloodstain on Katsuki’s abdomen.
“Yeah I know, your big bro is so strong and cool, it’s difficult to surpass me” he said as he gently stroked her hair “But you know… There’s a hero that’s even cooler than me”
Mischa raised her head while giving him an inquisitive and slightly incredulous look, Katsuki had to fight the laugh that threatened to bubble out of his chest, knowing that it would only aggravate the wound, her round eyes and fluffed up feathers made her look a bit like an owl.
“His name is Deku, yeah I know, it sounds dumb right? Well he is, he is a dumbass, and a nerd, and a crybaby, but he’s fucking strong, and also the kindest, most amazing person I know…” Katsuki thought of his Deku, laughing stupidly and crying for every little thing, mumbling nonsense as he scribbled away and talking nonstop about heroes and Allmight and so on; battling villains, saving citizens and fighting desperately in the name of what he believed.
‘Damn it.’
‘I want to see him.’
And then he thought of the current Izuku, surely absurdly happy, celebrating together along with his family and friends and his new wife, toasting with champagne and laughing without a care in the world. All of that would probably end when they heard about what happened to Katsuki.
Shit, that wasn’t the way that he wanted to go.
He didn’t want to be remembered as just another tragic causality, as the reason Deku and Uraraka wouldn’t celebrate their anniversary next year, or for Eijirou to blame himself for not having insisted more on Katsuki attending the wedding; just another young hero in the long list that perish in the line of duty every week, today’s news and tomorrow’s fish and chip papers.
Not without having accomplished his goal, without having beat Deku fair and square and taken his rightful position as the number one hero, without having ever stood up to him on equal grounds, his pride forgotten and his feelings out in the open.
Without ever having allowed himself to love him freely.
'Huh, it's like my whole life revolves around that idiot, what the fuck...' Katsuki felt like a terrible cliché, if he had another breath to spare, he would have asked for a smoke, if only to complete the image.
Although he knew it was a useless, nonsensical fantasy, in those lasts few moments Katsuki reflected on what he would have truly wanted for himself, and the ending that he would have given to his own story, but well, he guessed he had it all coming, or hadn't it been his own decisions that had led him where he was now in the first place?
‘How pathetic' Katsuki felt his consciousness slipping, and the last thought that crossed his mind before succumbing to darkness, was how the soft, shimmering light emitting from Mischa’s third eye reminded him of the sun right in the moment of sunrise.