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Katsuki should have been asleep hours ago.
Nobody would tell them where they were going, just that they had to be suited up and ready to go well before the asscrack of dawn to get there.
He know he needed to be well-rested, but his brain refused to shut down. After staring at his darkened ceiling for what seemed like forever, he hauled himself out of bed and made his way to the roof. He needed some fucking air.
As he emerged, sky open above him, he felt some of his tension ease. He walked closer to the edge and settled in to think.
He wasn’t worrying. Bakugou Katsuki didn’t worry. That was for weak-ass losers who didn’t have the discipline to fucking focus.
No, Katsuki was planning. Strategizing. Pulling up and reviewing every battle he’d ever been in, practice or real. Every battle he’d ever watched. Picking them apart: what had worked? What could he have done better?
Where had he fucked up?
He didn’t feel the cold as he sat on the roof, elbows hooked around bent knees spread wide, gazing unseeingly past the forest to the lights of the city far below.
His mastery of his Quirk had come far over the past year. He could propel himself longer, faster, farther. He’d continued to refine and expand on his Ultimate Moves, building an arsenal any villain should fear.
He’d proved himself. Hell, Half-and-Half’s old man may be a shit dad, but he could hold his own as a hero, and Katsuki had thrived on the challenge.
And he’d grown, himself. He was still determined to be the absolute goddamned best #1 hero ever, and yet….
”I’ll save you, and if I’m in trouble, you come save me.”
Working as a team, watching each other’s backs, he and his joint training partners had achieved a flawless victory with no casualties.
No casualties.
A couple of days after the work study kids had come back from the raid on the Shie Hassaikai stronghold, Katsuki had been heading out for a run when he saw Round Cheeks sitting on a sofa in the common room, facing away from him. Her back was as stiff as a freakin’ board.
Frog Girl was curled up on the couch next to her, talking softly. Suddenly, Cheeks crumpled, her entire body shaking as she folded in on herself and sobbed. Katsuki had hurriedly slipped out before he was seen.
Casualties.
The door to the roof clicked open behind him, footsteps stepping out, then hesitating. The door closed again, and Katsuki’s shoulders tensed.
“Kacchan?”
Katsuki took a deep breath and released it slowly, keeping his eyes locked outward over the trees. After a moment, Deku came and sat cross-legged beside him, tugging at the hem of his pajama bottoms to cover his ankles in the chill night air.
“Can’t sleep?”
Katsuki cut him a contemptuous glare. No shit, dumbass.
Deku continued as if Katsuki had spoken aloud. “Yeah, me neither.” He absently picked up a bit of debris from the ground, rolling it in his fingers for a while before flicking it off the roof. He sighed.
“It’s just…. When we rescued Eri, I had no idea what to expect, and everything I thought might happen got turned all upside down.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Katsuki saw Deku chewing on his lip for a moment before he started to mutter, lost in his own analysis. Katsuki didn’t need to hear it; he knew what the nerd meant. Kirishima had told Katsuki some of what had gone down on his side, and the news footage?
Yeah. Katsuki understood.
It’s why he kept going over every single goddamn scenario he could think of, practicing in his head: if they do this, he’d do that, or if they do this other thing, he’ll do this, and so on and so on and….
He’d be ready.
Deku’s muttering eventually faded away. Silence stretched out, surprisingly not as awkward as Katsuki had expected. They’d grown, too.
Finally, Katsuki’s eyes started to droop. He cracked his neck to each side and got to his feet.
“C’mon, nerd.”
Deku started and looked up at him, eyes wide and bleary. Katsuki rolled his eyes and headed for the door, scuffling noises telling him that Deku was scrambling to catch up.
“Kacchan….”
Katsuki paused, one hand on the knob, and turned his head to show he was listening.
“Thank you for…” Deku waved a hand vaguely. “... helping me with my training. I feel like I’ve got a lot more control.”
Katsuki clicked his tongue. “As if you could ever actually catch me.” He opened the door, and the two of them started down the stairs.
When Katsuki got to his floor, Deku smiled at him as he passed, shoulders straight in that determined stance that he seemed to slip into so easily now.
And if Katsuki lingered in the doorway, eyes following Deku until the other boy had disappeared before continuing on to his own room, well, it was late, and he had a lot on his mind.
Because Bakugou Katsuki didn’t worry.