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Bakugou Katsuki had an explosion quirk. This was common knowledge amongst the public, he’d won the sports festival in his first year and came in second this year (fucking Deku,) so his quirk was widely known. While his quirk was amazingly strong, it inevitably came with some repercussions. The one Katsuki found to be the most inconvenient was the ringing in his ears. When he was a kid, it would happen with every tiny explosion he launched off and he hated it. Then he grew older, and his quirk grew stronger, and the ringing got worse and more frequent. Nowadays it took a much bigger explosion to set it off, thank fuck, and he’d gotten these weird earplugs as part of his hero gear halfway through his first year to help, plus he rarely used the kind of force it took in the practicals. He got special permission to wear the earplugs outside class and it was the best goddamn thing ever.
He’d lived nearly the entire year without that godawful ringing, and he knew for a fact that he’d remembered his earplugs that day, so he had no fucking clue why he could hear it louder than ever. His vision was blurry and his head was foggy, plus it hurt like a bitch. He was sweating like crazy because wherever he was, it was hot as fuck. It took him longer than it should have to realize his eyes were closed.
He forced them open and immediately screwed them shut because, turns out, it was also bright as fuck. Cursing to himself and pushing to a sitting position that left his head swimming and in spite of his screaming muscles, he opened his eyes much more slowly to give them time to adjust. What he saw snapped his memory back into place and set his stomach plummeting to his feet.
They had been doing another practical at school on some backlot they’d somehow never seen despite a year and a half at this goddamn school when some no-name villains hijacked the speaker system. They blabbed on and on about some agenda he hadn’t fucking listened to because Deku and he had split off from the others and tried to sneak their way over to the observation box the villains had to be in. Katsuki knew that just a year ago he wouldn’t have been so amenable to working with fucking anyone, let alone Deku, but they’d both come so far that the second the announcement started, he looked to Deku, met his eyes, and both nodded before moving out. He remembered crouching behind stone pillars, scattered debris, and anything else they came across but not whatever the fuck had separated Deku and him and set the room on fucking fire and knocked out his earplugs. He hoped it wasn’t him but the ringing in his ears didn’t bode well.
He shook his head, ignored the dizziness that brought on, and stood up. First things first, he had to find Deku. Either the explosion had thrown them away from one another or they’d tried to surround one of the villains, but either way, he wouldn’t be safe and if Katsuki himself had gotten knocked out it was more than likely Deku had too. He tried his damndest to move quickly and silently, staying light on his feet and never fully planting them, but he was light-headed and off-kilter, so he doubted he had much success. After wandering aimlessly for a bit, Katsuki decided to head towards the observation box and hope they were blown back, not forward.
Walking for a while let the adrenaline die down and the shock wear off, which fucking sucked because apparently he hadn’t entirely avoided injury, his knee was fucked up, and his side was bleeding sluggishly from some sort of wound he didn’t check. He knew enough to know it wasn’t immediately life-threatening, and finding Deku took priority because the fucking nerd had a habit of being the most grievously injured every goddamn time. So Katsuki kept moving.
It took him too long to find Deku, and when he finally did it was under a fucking pile of rocks with just a scarred arm sticking out. Katsuki throws stealth out the window, yells "Deku!" at the top of his fucking lungs, and runs. He slides on his knees and it fucking hurts 'cause his knee is still a mess, but he doesn't care because Deku is under there. His vision is tunneled and his mind is bombarded by the singular effort of getting him the fuck out, but he knows he can't just start pulling at the rubble because if Deku is in an air pocket it'll just collapse and fucking crush him. More gently than he thought himself capable of, especially with desperation coursing through his veins, he holds Deku's wrist and feels for a pulse. It's thready, and it's weak, but it's there , and he's alive , and Katsuki has never been so damn grateful in his entire life. Then his own goddamn brain turns traitor and thinks I didn't kill him, which of course starts him off thinking I did this to him in an echoing and endless chant.
Katsuki feels sick. He thought his days of hurting Deku were done, and they'd only just started to move past years of torment and violence, and then Katsuki had to go and fuck it up. His own pulse is throbbing in his throat as he tries to wake him up with soft calls of "Deku?" that he could barely hear over the ringing of his shitty ears. There's no response, but he takes a deep breath and tries to keep from panicking. Deku's alive, just unconscious. Katsuki considers going to find a teacher or maybe another classmate, but can't bring himself to leave Deku. Then he thinks about waiting for someone whose quirk could actually help Deku instead of fucking hurting him, only ever hurting. Maybe round-face is nearby, her quirk'd be fucking perfect, she could lift the rock away. Katsuki had just made up his mind to wait for help, even if it went against every instinct in his body, when the rubble shifted and Deku made a quiet, pained whimper. He was still unresponsive but clearly waiting wasn't a goddamn option and, with shaking hands, Katsuki started trying to lift the topmost stones. He'd just make some headway, he decided, move some of the non-loadbearing pieces so round-face could get him out the fucking second she arrived.
After a few minutes of carefully selecting and removing rubble and sporadically checking Deku's pulse, no one had come by still, and Katsuki felt his panic building again. He hadn't called out for help yet, just in case the villains were nearby, but he didn't know how long Deku had been trapped for because he had been fucking unconscious, and he was pretty sure he had a concussion because his shitty brain found time unprocessable and he had no idea how long he'd been awake. He had no idea what state Deku was in, either. What if he bled out or suffocated while Katsuki was wasting time? With that new, disturbing thought, Katsuki made up his mind, took in a breath, and shouted “help!” as loud as he could, which was pretty fucking loud, and hoped the villains weren’t nearby. He didn’t know if anyone heard him, this place was fucking gigantic and he couldn’t really remember where everyone was, but there wasn’t a goddamn chance in hell he was leaving Deku if the villains were still in play, so he continued trying to unbury the nerd and waited.
Even though it felt like years later that he finally heard voices approaching with crashing footsteps, Katsuki was pretty sure it was something like a few minutes. He stopped moving, listened intently and, recognizing shitty hair’s voice, called out, “Over here!” just loud enough for his classmates. He’s pretty sure they noticed the panic he couldn’t quite keep from his voice because Kirishima looked worried when he rounded the corner. Kaminari and, thank fuck , Uraraka were with him. He knew he had to look wrecked, that his side was bloody and his leg was fucked, and he probably looked desperate, but when he opened his mouth, probably to ask if Katsuki was okay, he talked over him without a second thought. “Deku’s stuck. Help him.” Everyone looked kinda stunned and Katsuki didn’t know if it was his words or the fear in his voice, but he needed them to move, dammit, so he looked at round-face and tacked on, “Please.” He was so grateful that spurred her forward that he didn’t even give a shit that his voice had cracked.
The three of them stumbled over to the pile of rubble with the same horror Katsuki felt shining in their eyes. He didn’t know if it was because he wasn’t the only one who could help anymore, but Katsuki felt himself fraying at the edges as round-face started levitating huge chunks of stone off of Deku. He can’t help because he’d only get in the way with his shitty leg, and shitty hair and Pikachu are moving the weightless rocks away while he hovers uselessly to the side.
“I don’t- I don’t remember what happened,” he says, stumbling over his words like a goddamn toddler. “I just… I know we went off on our own, to try and find those shitty villains, but I’ve got a shitty concussion, and my goddamn ears won’t stop fucking ringing-”
“Hey, dude, it’s okay,” Kirishima says, moving towards him with his hands raised, like Katsuki’s some goddamn animal, while Pikachu takes over helping Uraraka. Katsuki wants to yell at him to get his ass back over there and help Deku, dammit, but he can’t get the words out around the lump in his throat. Understanding dawns in Kirishima’s face and he must know what Katsuki wants to ask, what he needs to know, because he lowers his voice and says, "You didn’t set it off. There were bombs surrounding the observation box. After they went off, everyone rushed over and took the villains down. A couple groups came back to find you two.”
Katsuki didn’t know it was possible to feel so relieved and still have a heavy pit of worry in his gut. The crushing weight of guilt he’d felt since he first saw Deku’s arm sticking out of the rock fell from his shoulders and he heaved a shuddering sigh before nodding once. Kirishima nodded back and returned to the task of unburying Deku.
With an actually helpful quirk, it didn’t actually take long to get him out. Round-face shouts when she sees him, and Katsuki trips three separate times when he rushes over. Uraraka is crying when they lift him out, and Katsuki feels his heart stop. He drops down next to Deku, who is fucking covered in blood and isn’t moving, and fumbles for a pulse. It’s even weaker than before, but it’s there, and he nods to the collective relief of the others.
The first thing they do is try and stem the bleeding from the most egregious wounds, and the second is to make sure none of his injuries would be aggravated by moving him. Katsuki is tearing his costume into strips to make bandages for his head and thigh, and he just knows Deku will cry and complain about it when he wakes up because he’s a goddamn nerd and he never shuts up about how cool Katsuki’s costume is. Katsuki can admit to himself that he kinda loves it.
Far as they can tell, his worst injury is the piece of rebar sticking out of his leg, and they’re quick to tie a tourniquet around his thigh a few inches above, just like they learned in that mandatory first aid class that Katsuki had never been more thankful for. Deku also has a head wound that’s bleeding like a bitch, like head wounds always do, and his goddamn arm is broken because of fucking course it is. Recovery Girl is gonna give him so much shit for that one, even if it wasn’t his fault this time. The others try to treat Katsuki too, but he yells at them until they agree that getting Deku to an actual fucking doctor takes precedence. Katsuki is reasonably certain that his neck and back are fine, and the rest agree, so round-face uses her quirk on him. Katsuki picks Deku up and glares when Kirishima tries to take him. Katsuki doesn't see the problem, it's not like the fucker weighs anything with round-face's quirk activated.
Pikachu takes the lead and heads towards the exit while shitty hair and round-face hover worriedly. For every second Katsuki can feel Deku breathing, he feels himself relax a little more.
Then they're outside, he's ushered over to the paramedics, and they take Deku from him. Round-face and Pikachu follow after, explaining what injuries they found and their in-field treatment, but shitty hair stays with him. Katsuki ignores him and the paramedic trying to get his attention, and instead watches as the entire class rushes over to Deku as he’s loaded onto a stretcher and lifted into the ambulance. Katsuki watches fucking icy-hot grab Deku’s hand, and look about as damn close to frantic as he’s capable before climbing into the ambulance with him. Katsuki watches them drive away, and the ringing in his ears drowns out everything else.
He’s still staring at the rapidly shrinking ambulance when fucking Kirishima snaps his fingers in front of him. Katsuki blinks and turns to scream, curse at him until his throat hurts because he’s suddenly so, inexplicably angry. Unfortunately, when he sees him, he sees the worry and sadness in his eyes, and then Katsuki just feels drained. He slumps back against the stretcher the paramedics had dragged him to and answers their questions. He doesn’t fight it when they load him into another ambulance, doesn’t even complain when Kirishima clambers in after him. He finds himself hoping he and Deku are in the same room.
He spends the entire drive to the hospital sorting through the mountain of emotion he’d experienced since he woke up. Confusion that quickly became fear, so much fucking worry and panic when he finally found Deku, the raging anger he felt when he saw icy-hot grab his hand, followed by cool resignation. The oh-so-fucking familiar self-hatred when he thought he’d hurt Deku. No fucking wonder Katsuki felt drained.
He closes his eyes, and wishes he had his goddamn earplugs.