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"He's dead meat if he thinks he can die on me."
Katsuki's head spins as he marches through the clean, pristine, all too pale hospital hallway, the weight of his friends hands pulling him back almost too overwhelming for him to bear. But he marches on.
With each footfall, his head throbs, his arms ache, his torso stings. his entire body, his brain, all common sense yells at him to lie down. To rest. To recover. But he can't. He knows he can't.
Not when Deku--
Katsuki doesn't even want to think about it. He stretches his lips back into something a mix between a grimace and a sneer, his eyes narrowing at the approaching door, just at the end of the hallway.
He can hear Sero's voice echo, the taller boy's tone shifting into uncertainty after Katsuki had questioned about the whereabouts of everyone right after he'd sat himself up.
Almost everyone was fine. Almost everyone was conscious, recovering from what they had endured. From the war that had happened, the near massacre Shigaraki and his damn League tried to attempt.
Almost everyone, except Deku.
"He's shown no sign of waking up."
That nerd...
He hears Mineta call out something as he finally manages to shake off the grasps of the purple little twerp and Sato, nearly stumbling forward as he body tries to balance by itself. He soldiers on, holding a hand to the closest wall to steady himself. His teeth clench, and with vigor he continues.
"Bakugou, c'mon man-"
"Shut it! I didn't--"
His voice falls short, a frustrated sound escaping in its place, because he doesn't know what.
Katsuki can only catch fleeting memories of what had happened, during those last few hours of fighting. He remembers evacuating civilians, before it all went to shit. He remembers watching as Deku paused in his tracks, before taking off to where the main battlefield took place.
He remembers not wasting a moment before he was following, knowing what the damn nerd was thinking. The two moved very much in sync.
He remembers the feeling of death as the pair came upon Shigaraki. He remembers the burning of his palms, unleashing an almighty explosion upon Shigaraki's downed body, only for it to have no effect.
He said he would take Shigaraki down with absolute victory, and he knows he'd failed. Shigaraki's taunting, mocking voice loud in the back of his head.
His explosions had only felt like fireworks, while Deku's punches felt like thunder.
The blond hadn't known what he was thinking, watching Deku fight Shigaraki by himself. Watching Deku tank the villains hits, watching Deku strike back, keeping their enemy up in the air. Deku was smart, he was calculating, he knew it was their only chance. He was their only chance. He was one of the only ones able to keep the villain at bay.
Even as his arms broke, and broke. And his legs followed. As he shattered, hit after hit, the wind trying to blow the heroes on the ground off their feet. Immense power was traded between the two figures in the air, blows that would put normal heroes to shame.
But Deku still, he still...
He still didn't let up.
It had only been a matter of time before Deku ran out of steam. Before Deku was out of options. Before Deku was cornered, useless, with nothing let to stop Shigaraki.
With no way of saving himself. With no way of escaping, alive. And when those black and red tendrils shot out of Shigaraki's hand, a last-ditch effort to catch them off guard, after Endeavor's final attack, after shaking the older man off--
Katsuki had been pierced. He remembers his body suspended in midair, the thick ribbons of blood escaping through the punctures, filling his mouth, iron hitting the roof of his mouth. He remembers his eyesight dulling, able to focus his gaze on Deku for a last moment. And seeing Deku's battered and bruised face, his torn up body, a look of sheer confusion and almost calmness, a strange mix of expression, crossing the other boys face. A split second. A last minute decision to move.
"Stop trying...to win this...on your own!"
He'd seen Deku's mouth move, the other saying something, but all Katsuki remembered was the ringing in his head, the tendrils of Shigaraki's quirk retreating, and his body rushing to meet the ground, his sight finally failing him as he fell unconscious.
Falling within the stillness of the oncoming, raging storm that with no doubt, hit.
Katsuki hadn't known if he was thinking, in that crucial moment. A moment of self-sacrifice. And all of that, all of that--
He reaches his destination, ignoring his protesting body as both hands grip the handle of the room, swinging the door with all his might. He nearly slipped on the cold floor, his senses assulted by the smell of bleach and pine, the ringing and throbbing of his head now joined by the soft beeping of several machines. His red eyes zeroed in on green, and he stepped forward.
One foot missed its mark.
A loud scraping made the boy more aware, a pair of thin, skeletal but firm arms wrapping around his torso, keeping him upright. "Young Bakugou!"
All Might. Yagi Toshinori. His chair, seated once beside Deku's hospital bed now lay on the ground, clattering in the mans attempt to get up and catch the unwell teen.
Katsuki wanted the scratch, to snap at the older man to get off him, that he didn't need help. He found no strength to do so, and groaned as his wounds, still fresh and healing, scraped against his hospital gown in an attempt to step upright. The student doesn't protest as All Might softly tells him to be careful, his hands moving to Katsuki's shoulders before gently moving him back, back, away from Deku.
He doesn't know how long it is before he's sitting on a slightly softer chair than the plastic one All Might had, the man crouching in front of him. They hadn't left the room, now seating in a corner, but his teachers head blocked Katsuki's view.
"You shouldn't be up."
"Shut up," Katsuki spits out, his sides burning as he hisses slightly at the new pain. "You don't, you can't say that. You don't get to."
All Might's gaunt face doesn't change, and Katsuki for a moment hates it. He hates how All Might-- he hates how he can just sit there and just look tired and sad. As if Deku wasn't laying there, comatose. As if Deku wasn't laying there, unmoving. Unmoving and--
"You shouldn't see him, like this," All Might starts, sighing as he rubs the younger's shoulder. "You shouldn't have to see him in this condition. It won't do you any good, young Bakugou."
"He can't-- I saved him! He can't just..." Katsuki didn't want to say it, the dreaded word he knew had escaped him once, in an attempt to cut Deku deep.
But not like this. Never like this, not now. Not when Katsuki still hadn't...
"He'll be fine," and Katsuki knew a lie, despite everything, when he heard one, "He's resting. He hasn't woken up yet, but the doctors are doing everything they can. He has the best care he can get right now."
"You were supposed to, help him." Katsuki pushes on. "You, you, with that damn quirk. You still haven't-- how can you say that?"
"And I will. Both of you, after you have recovered, and Young Midoriya has woken--"
"And if he doesn't?"
All Might's voice dies, and despite the predicament, Katsuki can't help a sneer cross his face, despite the ache that follows. He tastes iron in the back of his throat. He doesn't realize the shaking, how tight his shoulders are, the clenching of his hands, so hard his nails cause indents into his palms. He doesn't realize how badly he wants to blow something up, not able to look at All Might's tired face any longer. He gazes down at his lap, and blinks.
He doesn't notice the tears sliding down his face, falling onto his lap, as the realization dawns on him. As everything catches up, bottled up so tightly it all spills out. He doesn't realize how his voice now breaks, unable to look past All Might's shoulder, to see the condition of Deku like he had come here for. He couldn't do it. He couldn't, not now, not when Deku could...
"What if he never wakes up?"
All Might has no answer, and Katsuki can't hold it in.
His teacher, Deku's mentor, the retired no. 1 only murmurs something he cant distinguish, a hand resting on Katsuki's back, and brings the boy forward until his head rests against a bony chest. Katsuki still hadn't, he still hadn't--
He still hadn't said sorry.