Archive of Our Own ^beta

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ALL FOR ONE DEFEATED BY VIGILANTES AND PROS, END OF WAR ON THE HORIZON?

Early this morning, millions around the world watched the dust clear to reveal a young boy, now identified only as the former hero-in-training Deku, his fist held high in the air after the final defeat of the villain known as All for One, who had been terrorizing the country for almost a year. The resolution came after an earth-shaking – literally – fight that started sometime yesterday afternoon and lasted well into the early hours of the morning. The others on the scene have since been identified as Pro Heroes Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist, as well as the aforementioned vigilante Deku and another unidentified though-to-be vigilante, who also seems to be a teenager. The…

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“We’re going on a field trip?” Kaminari gasped, splaying his hands out on his desk in open-mouthed, wide-eyed excitement. Izuku mustered a similar expression from his own seat, equally excited at the prospect but struggling to keep his eyes open due to lack of sleep from the night before. Nightmares can’t get to you if you’re busy doing reps, right?

“We’re going on an educational school trip,” Aizawa-sensei clarified with his signature withering stare, apparently trying to emphasize to his group of rowdy, traumatized second years that an outing to Hamamatsu, the most populous city in their prefecture, to visit one of biggest hero agencies there was not supposed to be for fun. “We’ll be learning about the Kitsune Agency’s role in rebuilding sections of Hamamatsu and moving citizens in and out of temporary housing shelters as well as the normal inner workings of an agency that big,” Aizawa-sensei continued, making Izuku’s smile falter.

Right, the work to rebuild the parts of the city destroyed during the war when villains ran wild across the country and Izuku could do nothing to stop them because he could barely handle All for One even though that was supposed to be his job, the reason he was given this power, this power he couldn’t even use well enough to save–

Skkrch!

Izuku inhaled sharply and startled upright in his seat as his desk jolted with the force of someone’s kick against one of its legs. Kacchan withdrew his foot, keeping his face and body resolutely forward in his seat directly in front of Izuku’s. Izuku froze, intrusive thoughts wiped from his head like Kacchan undoubtably was trying for but replaced by new, somehow equally guilty ones.

He swallowed thickly, shaking his head slightly and trying his hardest to tune back into Aizawa-sensei’s lecture about proper behavior outside of the school environment – something the teacher surely knew was falling on deaf ears based on his student’s behavior inside the school environment. There had been an undeniable damper that had fallen over Izuku’s classmate’s smiles at the mention of the war, as one might expect, but most of the group was intent not to let that get them down, shouting out suggestions for detours spanning from museums to underground dance contests and hundred things in between. Only two students stayed quiet, in fact, but…Izuku sighed. He and Kacchan didn’t talk much anymore.

Especially not to each other.

Not that Kacchan didn’t try, but Izuku couldn’t handle that. Not after what happened, not after how bad he screwed up and how much Kacchan had to hurt for it. Better not to risk that ever again than to talk.

“Remember to get your parents to sign the permission forms over the weekend,” Aizawa-sensei said as class came to an end, “We’ll be leaving Monday morning and I can’t let you on the bus without one.” He eyed a few specific students, including Kaminari and Mina. “Class dismissed.”

Izuku drew in a deep breath, rubbing his face with one hand and trying to blink the tiredness from his eyes as he reached by his table to grab his bag, only to stand and lock eyes with the familiar crimson that often featured in his nightmares. Kacchan gave him an unreadable look – Izuku used to be able to read him like a book, but he was working to unlearn that skill – then turned away and followed Kirishima out of the classroom. The small action, for some reason, made Izuku feel sad.

“Deku?” Uraraka asked gently, startling him away from the empty space where Kacchan had been and turning to meet her concerned gaze with a shaky smile. “You okay?”

Izuku raised his eyebrows, almost not processing the question until he finally answered, “Yeah.” He shook his head. “Yes, I’m okay. Just…tired.”

Uraraka frowned at him. “Did you stay up too late again?”

Izuku just shrugged and averted his eyes, swinging his bag over his shoulder and starting out of the classroom. Uraraka and Iida quickly caught up to him, both frowning like concerned parents with a detached child. But neither of them said anything. While once a moment like this would’ve been full of chiding about the necessity of sleep and proper health, all three teenagers knew the harsh reality of night terrors, knew how it felt when staying up for a week on end was better then closing your eyes longer than it took to blink.

“Are you looking forward to the trip?” Uraraka asked instead, changing the subject.

Izuku tried his best for a smile. “Yeah, it sounds like it’ll be a really good thing to do.”

“I’m looking forward to the part where we get to explore the city for a bit,” Uraraka smiled, looking between the two boys at her sides.

Iida nodded in agreement. “Yes, Hamamatsu is a very interesting city and I’m sure we will learn much from Kitsune and their sidekicks.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “And I’m grateful for the opportunity to help the community recover.”

“Something to look forward to over the weekend, then!” Uraraka chirped in an obvious attempt to cheer Izuku out of whatever brought him down, and he felt guilty for not responding to it but far too tired to force any more enthusiasm. Uraraka, probably seeing this and figuring it was a hopeless cause, steered the conversation towards discussions of weekend plans and let Izuku walk beside them in silence.

--

“Oh, mom, before I forget,” Izuku said on Sunday evening as he finished washing the dishes from dinner. His mother glanced up from the couch with a questioning look, and he quickly wiped his wet hands on his shorts and moved to get his bag from his room. “My class is going on a day trip to Hamamatsu tomorrow to visit the hero Kitsune’s agency and help them out with some stuff, could you sign my permission form?” He found the paper in the bag along with a pen and handed them to his mother.

“Oh, that sounds like fun,” she smiled up at him, a bit hopeful. He smiled back, mostly with genuine excitement at the prospect. His mom signed the paper. “Will you get to hang out with your friends?” she asked, “That boy Todoroki and…Uraraka, was it?” she paused. “And Katsuki?”

Izuku tensed slightly, his heart twinging with guilt. “The whole class is going,” he answered, almost robotically as he took the paper back from his mother. He averted his eyes from the heavy concern in her gaze. “Thanks mom, I think I’m going to head to bed early. Love you.”

He heard his mother sigh behind him. “I love you too, honey. Good night.”

He didn’t fall asleep until two am, and he woke up in a cold sweat what felt like an instant later, scrabbling at his bedsheets for someone that wasn’t there and hyperventilating into the stuffy air of his room. He threw off his comforter and dove for his window, flinging it open and sticking his head out into the cold evening, letting the cold wash over the searing in his lungs like ice on a burn.

As soon as he caught his breath, he slumped back onto the floor of his bedroom, glancing over at the illuminated All Might clock on his bedside table. Almost six am. He could get a run in before he went to school, maybe.

A few hours later, he had run, showered, eaten a meager breakfast, and made his way to school on time to meet his peers outside the campus, where the class was gathered outside a bus. Uraraka waved to him, but he elected to wait over by some others since she was talking with Mina and Kirishima, Kacchan leaning up against the bus beside them. Avoid Kacchan at all costs, that was his life now.

The bus ride to Hamamatsu was full of energetic chatter from his classmates that Izuku found comforting, glad to have something almost normal. Listening to Mina and Hagakure gush about the latest song from their favorite artist, Aoyama shooting rapid-fire French at Tokoyami as he tried to keep up, or Kirishima and Kaminari take part in an overly competitive game of rock-paper-scissors as Sero pretended to be a sports announcer for it, all felt right. Like he was in a group of high schoolers, not war-weary soldiers.

Even Shinso was talkative – by his standards, at least – drawing Izuku into a conversation about some new zombie video game with him and Oijiro that carried them to other things until they finally reached the city and parked in the Kitsune agency’s parking lot. Izuku even managed a grin at the sight, a familiar spark of excitement at heroics flickering somewhere in his chest as he followed his classmates out of the bus. Aizawa gave them a short lecture on the laws of the city and told them to meet back at the agency in ninety minutes, then waved them all off with a hand.

“You look excited, Deku!” Uraraka chirped, noting Izuku’s smile.

He nodded. “Yeah, Kitsune is a really cool hero and they’ve been around for a really long time! In fact-” he trailed off as he unconsciously turned his head to his other side like he was expecting someone to be there. Like he was expecting Kacchan to be there, because Kitsune had made their debut when the two of them were little kids, and Izuku had marveled at the giant fox hero while Kacchan scoffed about them being nowhere near as cool as All Might and therefore irrelevant. But Kacchan wasn’t there, having most likely joined Kirishima wherever he was going.

“Midoriya?”

Izuku startled a bit at Todoroki’s voice, looking back at his friends gathered by his side, looking concerned. “Sorry,” he said, “I was just…reminiscing about some stuff. Kitsune debuted when I was a kid and I still…remember it.”

“Oh, what was their debut?” Tsuyu asked.

Izuku smiled, trying to find the spark again. “It was crazy.”

An hour or so later, Izuku had more or less slipped back into the comfortable feeling while walking around the city with his friends, following them into stores and being coerced into trying on clothes that made Uraraka cackle hard enough she lost control of her quirk and made a chair float while Iida was still sitting on it. Tsuyu had to pull him back down, and Uraraka was still laughing at Izuku in a mash up of all the worst things one could find in a thrift store. He was laughing too. It was nice.

And then, as they were walking out of a pop culture store full of figures and merch Izuku already owned, Uraraka lifted a hand, waved excitedly at someone coming down the street, and called, “Mina!”

“Ochako!” Mina called back, grinning. Izuku glanced up and stopped short in his tracks. Todoroki stopped beside him as the other three went ahead to join Mina, Kirishima, and Kacchan.

“Midoriya, are you alright?’ Todoroki asked.

“Yup,” Izuku managed, watching Kacchan stand in slumped silence as Uraraka, Kirishima, and Mina chattered loudly around him. “I just thought about a…place I wanted to go.” He forced a smile. “A place that everyone else would probably find really boring, so I can just go on my own!”

Todoroki frowned at him. “Are you afraid of him?”

Izuku blinked in surprise at the bluntness. “Of…who?” he asked, eyes slowly drifting from Todoroki to wear he felt a pair of eyes watching him, accidentally locking eyes with Kacchan again across the short distance between them. His breathe caught in his throat like a thorn and looked back down at the ground. “No, I’m not afraid of Kacchan.”

Todoroki kept watching him with those heavy, knowing, slightly unsettling, mismatched eyes. “You two are friends now, I thought. All three of us.”

Izuku had no idea how to respond to that. “I…”

BOOM.

All eight heroes-in-training on the street jolted up immediately, Izuku’s heart starting to race at the familiar noise of a fight on its way. The loud crash was followed by screaming, and Izuku didn’t spare a second thought before he took off in a sprint towards the noises. The ground started to shake beneath his feet, and he leapt into the air just as the sidewalk cracked, flying up above the tops of surrounding buildings.

A massive villain stood in the middle of the city, the largest he’d seen since Gigantomachia and possibly even bigger. Their back was hunched, shoulders as broad as mountains and arms as thick as the office buildings they could crush in one squeeze of their giant fists. Each footstep was like a miniature earthquake, and this was a highly populated civilian area. Getting them out was top priority for now.

Izuku shot forward, releasing Black Whip in every direction imaginable to block civilians from flying rubble or lift fallen people to safer areas. A wash of cold air from his left let him know Todoroki was on it as well, using ice walls to stop cars or carry civilians away from the villain. A flash of Uraraka’s purple shirt let him know she was using her quirk to search for anyone buried under the rubble, but he was sure she was also collecting the floating bits of concrete to use as a weapon. The others were also working on damage control and civilian rescue, leaving Izuku to focus on the villain.

The smell of smoke slammed into him as an explosion detonated by the villain’s face. Well, most of the others were working on rescue.

Izuku leapt into the air again as Kacchan hit the villain with well-aimed explosion after explosion, summoning the most power he could into his fist and slamming into the villain’s arm with the full force of his quirk. The rock making up their skin shattered on impact as they roared and moved to swat him away, but Izuku was already kicking them square in the nose and sending them stumbling back.

He darted forward, intending to hit them from the back to avoid more buildings being destroyed, but Kacchan was already there, the full power of a Howitzer shot blasting into the villain’s back and making them cry out loud enough Izuku’s ears started to ring. This villain was nothing but a big guy with stamina, not too much of a challenge – if he wasn’t in the most densely populated city in the prefecture, that is. Limiting destruction and casualties made this a lot harder.

To make matters worse, the craggy skin on the villain’s arm where Izuku had hit had healed itself in no time. This villain might take time to take down. At least until civilians could be evacuated, which was happening fast thanks to the Kitsune agency showing up.

He and Kacchan went on like that for what felt like hours, blasting and kicking holes into the giant as they continuously healed and tried to rampage. Izuku’s lungs burned as he blinded the mountainous creature with smoke and rained down hits on everywhere he could reach, darting away from their attempts to grab him and trying not to think to hard about Kacchan doing things so naturally with him, often taking action just before Izuku did the exact same thing.

Izuku’s only solace was the giant fox he spotted in the distance from high in the air, Kitsune carrying civilians on her back and out of the destruction zone. Soon, he’d be able to one-punch the villain without fear of casualties.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to wait, because in a single moment of distraction the villain put something in their mouth and grinned horribly, suddenly starting to glow from the inside out. Shit.

“For Shigaraki,” the villain rasped, voice deep and craggy like the mountains on their body, “for chaos.”

Izuku registered what was going to happen a millisecond before it did, only giving him time to yell for Kacchan before the villain before him detonated, setting off the largest explosion he’d ever seen, easily big enough to level half the city. A blur of blonde slammed into him at the same moment the explosion hit him with a wave of searing heat, sending him upward, his eyes burning and throat raw with a scream as he gripped onto Kacchan’s shirt as hard as he could, trying to protect him but unable to as they both hurtled through the air. High enough to avoid the brunt of the explosion that would’ve surely killed them if Kacchan hadn’t been smart enough to go up.

But what goes up must come down and, try has he might, Izuku couldn’t summon enough strength to use Float except to slow their descent the smallest amount. It was enough, though.

They crashed into harsh concrete with enough force to break a normal person’s body, which is why Izuku was infinitely glad he hit first and was able to cushion Kacchan’s fall as much as he could as the two of them skidded across what might have been a rooftop before the building was destroyed and slammed into a wall of rubble. The impact forced the bile up and out of Izuku’s throat, making him retch pathetically through a scream of pain. His back was burning, surely soaked with blood and scrapes, but all he could do was hold Kacchan tightly as they both coughed and gasped for air.

“You better…,” Kacchan wheezed, pressing Izuku’s face into his chest in a protective curl around him, “you better not fucking puke on me.”

Izuku laughed through a sob, digging his fingers into Kacchan’s back and surely forgetting himself because that was the exact opposite of what he should be doing. He should be pushing him off and yelling at him for not running when he had the chance, pushing him away because he once again got hurt and Izuku couldn’t stop it, but he’s too exhausted for any of that. He forced himself to pull away to take deeper breaths, meeting Kacchan’s eyes.

“Are you good?” Kacchan asked, reaching up to brush hair out of Izuku’s face. The gentle touch is like electricity that shocked Izuku closer to his right state of mind, releasing his death grip on Kacchan and bringing his hands to his chest.

“I’m fine,” he lied, wincing in pain. “You?”

Kacchan narrowed his eyes at him and withdrew his arms from around Izuku. “I’m fine,” he echoed with far more venom in his words and gaze than Izuku was expecting. Maybe he deserved that – no, definitely – but he was too in pain to worry about that now.

With a few more grunts and groans of pain, he maneuvered himself into an upright position and gingerly brought a hand to his back. It came away slick with blood and stung like hell, but it was far from the worst he’d ever had. He glanced over at Kacchan as the other boy also sat up, glaring at Izuku’s wounds.

“Take off your shirt,” Kacchan demanded, and Izuku complied without any protest, too busy assessing the burns he saw on Kacchan’s arms. Those would need treatment else they’d get infected. Kacchan made a motion with his hand and Izuku turned a bit to show his back better, only realizing after how easily he understood and listened. Suddenly, Kacchan reached out to touch his back and he hissed in pain at the burning pain that flared up at the contact. “Shit,” Kacchan swore, “we need water.”

Izuku glanced back at him. “For your burns, too.”

Kacchan glared at him. “Thanks for the fuckin’ concern, Deku,” he spat, rubbing a hand over his face with a huff. “What the hell even happened back there?”

“I…I don’t know,” Izuku answered, looking down at his discarded, bloody t-shirt and deciding he was better off without it. “Some kind of quirk enhancement or…they ate a bomb.” That blast must’ve leveled half the city. It could’ve killed thousands. Please dear god let the civilians have escaped.

“Foxie’s evacuation was almost done when it went off,” Kacchan said, offhanded like he wasn’t reading Izuku’s mind, “And from what I hear they got a sidekick with a forcefield quirk. The civs are probably fine.”

Izuku sniffed, wiping a few stray tears from his eyes. “And our classmates, let’s hope.”

“Those bastards?” Kacchan scoffed, “I’d like to see some B-rank, All for One wannabe ass try to get them down for good.”

Izuku smiled despite himself, laying back against the detached part of the wall behind them and staring up at the sky. “We should probably get moving,” he said quietly after a few moments of silence.

Kacchan huffed again next to him, and Izuku half-expected some witty, don’t tell me what to do, shitty nerd comeback. Instead, Kacchan just said, “Yeah,” and stood up. Izuku’s heart felt a little heavier, but this was what he wanted after all. Distance.

He shoved himself to his feet on legs that wobbled a little, and almost missed the way Kacchan’s hands twitched as if to help him but stayed where they were.

“Shit,” Kacchan said, walking down the broken section of the roof they were on and looking out at the scene around them, “this place is fucked.” Izuku surveyed the scene at his side and no choice but to agree. Almost everything was at least partially destroyed or falling apart at the seams, and they had to be a good distance away from the epicenter of the disaster when he thought about how far they’d flown.

Izuku and Kacchan took careful steps off the piles of rubble and around crumbling buildings until they got the road, which was cracked and covered in small debris but still walkable. Finally, Izuku spotted a konbini beside the road, half caved in but still standing enough to hopefully have so salvageable goods inside.

They collected water bottles, first aid supplies, and few snacks in tense silence – in fact, neither of them said more that a word or two, even as Kacchan yanked on Izuku’s arm to pull him to the curb on the side of the road and start to clean out his wounds. Izuku tried to insist he could do it on his own, but the beginning of his protest was cut off by Kacchan pressing a finger into a wound a bit too aggressively and shutting him up.

“Thanks,” Izuku managed when Kacchan finished patching up his larger scrapes, shuffling around to face him again. He held a hand out, expecting Kacchan to hand him the water so he could return the favor, but Kacchan ignored him completely and set about washing the burns on his arms. “I can…help you with that,” Izuku offered.

Kacchan glanced up at him with a momentary glare, then looked back down at what he was doing. “Don’t need it.”

Oh. Well.

Izuku sighed, pulling his legs up to his bare chest and resting his chin on his knees. “What now?”

“We figure out how to-” Kacchan cut himself off with a small hiss as he kissed his teeth and continued wrapping the biggest burn on his shoulder at a very awkward angle. “How to get the hell out of…here…” This time Kacchan trailed off because Izuku, without much thought, had taken the bandages right out of his hand and started fixing the wrapping around his shoulder. “Really.”

Izuku frowned, not meeting his eyes. “It’s easier if I do it.”

He must’ve hit a nerve with that small statement, because Kacchan immediately tensed and shoved Izuku back with a hand on his chest, glaring at him with menace. “I don’t give a shit about what’s easy for you,” he snapped.

Izuku blinked at him in confusion and surprise. “Wha-”

“Just shut the fuck up, Deku,” Kacchan interrupted, and Izuku must not be doing a very good job at unlearning Kacchan because he can see the hurt behind the hatred in his eyes, “And go fuck yourself while you’re at it, I don’t need your damn pity points and I don’t need you to pretend you care about me.”

It was probably the most he and Kacchan had said to each other in months, and it left him reeling, but before he could respond Kacchan got to his feet and stalked off back into the konbini, leaving Izuku shell-shocked on the ground behind him.

--

Fuck Deku. Fuck Deku and his shitty mind games and his stupid face and his damn lies, Katsuki was tired of it. Tired of being avoided and glanced at and watched from afar like something terrible would happen if Deku got within ten meters of him. He’d love to scream at him until his throat hurt and then start using explosions instead, but he knew Deku still wouldn’t listen – he hadn’t when Katsuki nearly died the first time, and he certainly hadn’t the second. Katsuki didn’t know how he could be any louder than that.

As far as he was concerned, Deku was an asshole beyond belief and not worth a conversation anymore. He had no right to look so fucking worried for his pain when he ran off the second Katsuki tried to reach out, when Katsuki was on the brink of death for weeks because he saved his sorry ass and all he got when he woke up was a shitty message passed between mothers. When Deku hid behind a wall of friends every time Katsuki came in the room and avoided him like the fucking plague, like he was some deplorable not worth talking to, but still kept watching him like he used to. It didn’t make any damn sense and Katsuki was fed up with it.

He growled into the empty konbini, slamming his fist into a nearby pack of chips and popping it. He huffed a deep breath, collecting himself because he was not letting this selfish fucking bastard who thinks he can just do whatever he wants to Katsuki and still play nice get to him any more than he already had. He made his way back out of the store to find Deku still sitting in the road where he shoved him, wide-eyed and staring at nothing.

“The fuck is wrong with you,” Katsuki sneered, maybe enjoying his moment where Deku can’t run away from him anymore.

Deku just blinked and looked up at him, looking so damn hurt Katsuki wanted to slam a fist into his face because how dare he. Now he’s decided Katsuki’s the bad guy, is that it? Fuck him.

“Get your ass off the ground, Deku,” he snapped, “we need to find out where the hell we are.” He turned on his heel and started down the road before Deku could say something stupid, hearing the other boy get up and trail behind him in silence. What else would he expect? Even forced to be alone with him Deku was too much a coward to say shit. Actions spoke louder than words, anyways, and Deku’s actions were plenty fucking loud.

Katsuki raked an aching hand through his hair, exasperated with himself for getting so mad over someone who obviously couldn’t give two shits about him or his feelings. And that was fine, Deku couldn’t hurt him, no matter how much he fucking tried to.

He forced himself to focus on the emergency at hand instead, squinting at knocked over street signs and trying to remember how this damn city worked. The villain attack had happened somewhere in the shopping district – he hadn’t been paying attention to the fucking street signs, he was just following Shitty Hair around – but they must have flown far from there in the explosion.

None of it looked familiar, but that was to be expected because last time he saw it, it probably wasn’t fucking rubble.

“Kacchan?” Deku’s voice came from behind him. He clenched his jaw and didn’t respond. “I think…I think the way out is that way.”

Katsuki stopped short in his tracks and turned to see Deku pointing awkwardly off to the side. “Why?” he demanded.

“Oh,” Deku said, like he wasn’t fucking expecting that question, “well, when we were fighting, I saw Kitsune evacuating civilians off to our right and I think the explosion sent us left, and because I’m guessing Kitsune would be running evacuation from near their agency my guess is that-”

“Ten words or less, dipshit,” Katsuki interrupted, glaring.

Deku nodded. “The Kitsune agency is that way, which means the edge of the blast zone is that way.”

Katsuki thought back to what he’d seen during the fight and what he remembered from the day, deciding his information matched up with Deku’s. “Fine,” he conceded, starting in the direction Deku pointed instead.

Hours later, the only thought in Katsuki’s head was why the hell would I trust Deku and a background of constant screaming. They’d been walking forever, and there was nothing. The sun was starting to set, for fuck’s sake.

“That’s it,” Katsuki said, stopping and turning to face Deku again, “I’m never listening to shit you say again.”

Deku blinked at him like he didn’t quite hear what Katsuki had said. “I…this city is really big.” Katsuki glared at him for stating the fucking obvious. “Maybe we should…find somewhere for the night?” Deku suggested. He shifted slightly on his feet, and Katsuki’s eyes trained on the small motion. Deku was favoring one foot over the other with his stance.

“Deku,” Katsuki growled, looking up to meet the idiot’s eyes, “what the hell is wrong with your leg?”

Deku’s eyes widened. “What?”

Katsuki glared at him and closed the distance between them, kicking Deku’s weak foot and almost sending him toppling with the tiny hit. He would’ve fallen if Katsuki hadn’t caught him and shoved him back to his feet. “You’ve been walking on a damn injury all day, why the hell would you do that?” Katsuki snapped. Same old selfish shit, like after all Katsuki had done to keep this little shit alive he couldn’t even take care of himself without being forced.

“It’s not…,” Deku said, stepping back a bit, “it doesn’t hurt that bad, I’m okay.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Katsuki huffed, “you know you can fly, right?”

Deku blinked at him, mouth falling open slightly. “Oh.” His eyes went wider. “Oh! Gosh, I’m an idiot!”

“What else is new,” Katsuki grumbled.

“I could just float up to see if we’re going the right way!” Deku said, smiling a bit.

Now it was Katsuki’s turn to blink in surprise like a dumbass, slowly glaring at Deku. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he yelled, “You’re thinking of this just now?”

Deku shrugged sheepishly. “Hey, you didn’t think of it either.” Katsuki snarled at him, but Deku made his escape quick and leapt high into the air, hovering far above the ground until he eventually came back down to floating slightly above the ground. “Well, the good news is that we’re going the right way,” Deku reported.

“And the bad news?” Katsuki asked.

Deku pursed his lips. “It was a really big explosion.”

“No shit,” Katsuki huffed, “that guy was a fucking mountain.”

“We still have pretty far to go, but it’s doable,” Deku said.

“Then let’s get-”

BANG.

Katsuki was tackled to the ground at the same time the noise reverberated through the empty street, the weight of Deku’s body slamming into him on impact with the concrete. He wheezed and shoved the other boy off of him, both of them scrambling to their feet and ducking into he nearest storefront.

“Gunshot,” Deku whispered as if that wasn’t fucking obvious, crouching next to Katsuki behind a mannequin display in disarray. “I heard them load from somewhere above, and the angle of the bullet means they were on a shorter one nearby. Possibly the tea shop, but that roof was partially caved in, so I don’t know how they would’ve gotten up there – oh, no, the apartment building with the top half missing would’ve been the perfect place for it, they’re probably there which-”

“How many?” Katsuki interrupted, knowing from experience that Deku could figure that out.

Deku fiddled with his bottom lip as he muttered too quiet and fast for Katsuki to understand for a moment, then he looked up again. “There are only two possible roof locations, but when the gunshot went off, I heard someone yell from the ground. Probably two, possibly three or more.”

Katsuki rolled his shoulders back. “No fucking problem. I got ground bitch. You get roofie.”

Deku gave him a nod and the tiniest hint of smile, then they both crept slowly out of the store, careful to keep low. As soon as they were out, Deku scanned the buildings around them until he locked on one. “There,” he whispered, and Katsuki squinted to see just the slightest bit of movement from above. He summoned the familiar heat in his palms and nodded almost imperceptibly, then shot forward the same instant Deku did.

His explosions got him across the road fast enough to avoid any bullets, not that the fucker on the roof had much of a chance against Deku. Katsuki ignored the cut-short yell from above in favor of chasing down the figure he spotted in the alleyway, slamming the woman into the ground a wrenching the gun out of her hand before she could even think about shooting. He grabbed the gun by its barrel and used the butt to whack the back of the criminal’s head, knocking her out before she could use her quirk on him, then kept one foot on her back as he searched above him for any sign of Deku. These guys were fucking pathetic.

“Kacchan?” Deku poked his head out over the top of the building. He held up a discarded gun. “Knocked him out.”

“Same here,” Katsuki said, gesturing the woman on the ground. “That all of them?”

Deku opened his mouth as if to answer, but was cut off by one of the most unsettling cackles Katsuki had heard since Crusty Bitch decided to fuse with Rotten Mr. Potato Head, coming from right behind. Katsuki whirled around to find a willowy stick of a man watching him from the mouth of the alley. “It is you!” the man cackled again, grinning. “How lucky am I?”

“Very,” Katsuki growled, “if you were hoping to get your face charred to a crisp today.” Who the hell was this guy?

“By the ones who defeated Sensei?” the man said, a strange lilt to his tone, “It would be an honor.”

Well, fuck, it’s another loser who thinks they could be the next League. Katsuki cracked his knuckles. Even the League didn’t get very far against him and Deku.

He shot forward at the villain at the same time he shot his arms out towards Katsuki, suddenly morphing them into fucking snakes with fangs longer than his whole hand. That’s fine, Katsuki’s always wondered what it was like to punch a python in the face. Felt…scaly.

He took one snake while Deku took the other, a blur of green in the corner of his eye as he wrestled the writhing snake arm to the ground and stomped on its head, then aimed a concentrated explosion at the villain. It hit the weak bastard square in the chest, sending him flying back, and he smashed into the apartment building across the street. Deku landed next to Katsuki, panting.

“Did you get bit?” he asked.

“’course not,’ Katsuki snapped, glaring at him, “Did you?”

“No-”

Click.

Deku’s eyes widened, but Katsuki only had enough time to whirl around with his hand held out before the gun went off and a bullet buried itself in his leg. He screamed in pain, blasting an explosion forward as his knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground. He shot a hand out towards Deku instantly as if that could protect him from any more gunshots, but Deku had already gone to disarm the woman Katsuki had just dealt with and knock her out again.

The second he did, the second Katsuki knew there was no more immediate danger to Deku, he collapsed fully onto the ground, face first as his leg burned. Deku dropped down beside him, breathing fast and panicked.

“Kacchan!”

Katsuki just groaned in response, then yelled as he forced himself to flip over on his back. Fuck, that shit hurt like all hell. “Fuck!” he swore loudly, dropping his head back against the pavement as involuntary tears pricked at his eyes. Deku looked close to sobbing. “Deku,” Katsuki managed to hiss, snapping the nerd out of whatever panic spiral he was starting down and startling him into action.

“Don’t move, Kacchan,” he said, searching around for something. “I don’t…I need to take off your shirt.”

Katsuki just nodded weakly and let Deku slip his shirt off over his head, leaving them both half-dressed. They needed to steal something from the clothing store down the road, because it looked like they were spending the fucking night in this hellhole.

He bit down on his tongue hard enough to taste blood when Deku lifted his leg slightly to wrap the shirt around it, then again when he pulled it tight to staunch bleeding. “Fuck.”

“Sorry,” Deku said, glancing over at Katsuki momentarily with more of that annoying worry in his eyes before turning back to his task. “Does your bone feel broken?”

“How the-hah, shit-how the fuck does a bone feel broken?” Katsuki managed, wincing again as another stab of pain shot up his leg.

“Well…”

“Don’t answer that,” Katsuki huffed, “Not everyone breaks their damn bones twice a month.” He took a deep breath, staring up at the darkening, cloudy sky above. “But, no, it doesn’t.”

“That’s good,” Deku muttered, tying the shirt off around Katsuki’s leg. “How do you feel about standing?”

Katsuki tried it out by trying to bend his leg and immediately blacking out for a second. “No,” he choked out as his vision swum with dark spots and he lowered his leg back to the ground.

“Alright, I have to carry you,” Deku said, and any of Katsuki’s protests were cut off by a yell of pain as Deku hefted him into the air.

“Fuck you!” Katsuki groaned, mostly to the pain but also to Deku. Deku just gave him that same insufferable worried look and stupid frown. Katsuki glared at him. “There was a clothing store down the road, go there.”

“Okay,” Deku agreed, activating Float to carry them there faster. He moved gingerly over broken glass at the entrance to the store, opening the door with a tendril of Black Whip and setting Katsuki lightly down on a bench made for waiting outside the dressing rooms. Katsuki lay back on it immediately, squeezing his eyes shut as his head throbbed in pain. Shit, everything hurt.

He heard Deku shuffle around the area and soon a something was dropped onto his bare chest. Katsuki forced his eyes open to find a shirt and hoodie, both covered in dust but better than nothing, and he put them on the best he could, not without a good helping of curses to go along with each movement. Why was it him who had to get shot?

A voice in his head pointed out that he’d rather it be him than Deku, and he snapped at it to shut up.

“Are you…” Deku started, and Katsuki opened his eyes again to find him, also in a new shirt and jacket, sitting on a random chair he pulled over from who-knows-where. “We need food,” Deku said instead of are you okay, which Katsuki thought was a good choice.

“No shit, Sherlock,” he scoffed, averting his eyes to the ceiling. “Just find another konbini.”

“Right,” Deku said, then didn’t move an inch. Katsuki side-eyed him with a glare.

“Fucking hell, Deku, I ain’t gonna die if you leave for five minutes, but I will if we fucking starve,” he snapped, “Now get out of my sight before I singe that stupid look off your face.”

Deku sat up a bit and opened and closed his mouth like a damn fish, eventually closing it and swallowing. “Okay…I’ll be right back.” He left with one last glance back at Katsuki, who flipped him off before flopping back down on the slightly cushioned bench, screwing his eyes shut and taking deep breaths, trying to soothe the pain. He eventually started counting each one and got well past one hundred before Deku finally returned.

“Here,” Deku said, offering him a bottle of water that he downed in one go, then crushed in his fist and dropped the ground. Deku also brought an array of shitty snacks Katsuki had no option to argue with, and he managed to move himself into a sitting position, injured leg held out gingerly. “Those guys were weird,” Deku said eventually, breaking the silence.

“They were fucking pathetic is what they were,” Katsuki grumbled, crunching down on a handful of dried seaweed.

“They knew who we were,” Deku pointed out.

“All of fucking Japan knows who we are,” Katsuki countered. It was true, thanks to shitty reporters with no sense of privacy.

Deku sighed. “I guess…do you think they were with the giant?”

Katsuki stopped eating for a second to glare at him. “Are you trying to start a fucking conversation with me now?”

Deku blinked at him in surprise. “I…I don’t know.”

Katsuki huffed at him. “Save it,” he snapped, letting venom drip into his words. He didn’t need Deku trying to be friends in here just to go back to being a coward once they got back. Bastard needed to learn he couldn’t just string Katsuki along and have him on call whenever he fucking wants, its either you got him, or you don’t. And Deku made his damn choice.

“You’re mad at me.”

The chip bag in Katsuki’s hand started to melt from the heat of his palms. “Fuck you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Katsuki blew up the bag with a miniature explosion, levelling Deku with a glare he hoped would melt him where he sat. “Fuck,” he growled, “You.”

Deku looked halfway to shattered. “Kacchan-”

“No,” Katsuki interrupted vehemently, “No, you don’t get to fucking do that, Deku. You don’t just get to decide to apologize out of fucking nowhere, decide that you’re finally going to talk to me. Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on.” He dropped the ashes of the bag over the floor. “I may be an asshole but at least I’m not a selfish fucking liar.”

“Kacchan,” Deku said, tears forming in his eyes like he had a right to victimize himself here, “please just listen to me, I-”

“Like you listened to me?” Katsuki yelled over him. Deku mouth snapped shut and he stared back at Katsuki like he’d been slapped. “Yeah, exactly, shut the fuck up and wallow. You missed your damn chance.”

Deku gave him a look so full of hurt he wanted to puke, tears coming in full now as he sniffled weakly.

“Stop,” Katsuki hissed, clenching his fist hard enough to dig crescents into his palms, “stop looking at me like that.” Deku opened his mouth to speak but Katsuki beat him to it with a yell. “STOP LYING TO ME.”

“About what?” Deku cried. If he had been able, Katsuki would’ve stood up and blasted Deku through a wall.

“You know what!” he shouted, “Just make a fucking choice Deku, do you…” Katsuki trailed off there, unable to finish that question, unable to let himself be that vulnerable after it hurt so badly the first time. After Deku took what he offered him and crushed it under his heel. He despised it more than anything, but Deku had the power to hurt him. Deku had hurt him.

“I could never hate you,” Deku said, somehow reading Katsuki’s mind but skewing his words halfway through. “Kacchan, I’m sorry, I swear I don’t hate you and I’m not…I’m not just pretending to care, I only…I-”

“Liar,” Katsuki spat like the words were poison in his mouth.

Deku’s lips trembled. “No, I swear I’m not-”

“I KNOW YOU ARE,” Katsuki screamed, finding that he could use words just fine when he couldn’t use his fists to solve his problems, “And I’m not falling for that shit a second time.” His chest rose in fell with the force of heavy breaths as he glared Deku down, aggressively wiping at the tears that pricked at the corners of his eyes. Deku just stared back at him in confusion, and not for the first time Katsuki wondered if he really had made the whole thing up in a pain-delirious dream, a comforting hallucination on the brink of death. But Deku’s screams echoed too painfully in his nightmares and memories, his words too perfectly etched into Katsuki’s brain.

The words that stuck in his mind and echoed in his ears every time he woke up in that hospital bed, all the way up to the point he woke up for good to find Deku gone. To the day he went back to UA and Deku ran away from him again. The day Katsuki realized he never meant what he said.

I love you.

Bullshit.

--

“Kacchan!” Izuku dropped to his knees besides the blood-stained body of his friend, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it gushing from the gruesome wound in Kacchan’s side. He pressed a hand into it in a desperate attempt to help, using the other to push the sweat and blood-slicked hair off Kacchan’s forehead, pleading and sobbing for him to open his eyes. “Please,” he wailed, voice shattered, “Please, Kacchan, please don’t go, you can’t-I can’-.”

A painful sob wracked through his burning chest like broken glass, coming out as an unearthly wail he hardly recognized as human, let alone his own. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything other than scream and beg and cry, collapsing in on himself and pressing his forehead into Kacchan’s.

Warm, shaky air fanned out over his face and Izuku sucked in a breath so sharp it felt like a knife buried itself in his chest. He sat up even quicker when Kacchan wheezed, gripping his friends shoulders so tightly he might have thought he’d turn into nothing before his very eyes, gasping and choking through sobs. “Kacchan?”

“You…” Kacchan coughed, barely above a whisper as he cracked one eye open, “you better be here ‘cause you won.”

“Yeah,” Izuku sobbed, trying to wipe the blood and dirt off of Kacchan’s face but only succeeding in creating streaks with the grime on his hands. “Yeah.”

Kacchan smiled, just barely. “Then do the thing.”

Izuku almost didn’t understand what he meant, but when he finally got it, he broke into a harder round of sobs, doubling over to press his forehead into Kacchan’s chest. His chest that was moving up and down far too shallowly, far too little. Kacchan’s fingertips brushed lightly over his exposed arm.

“Like All Might.”

Slowly, shakily, painfully, Izuku raised one fist into the air, not lifting his forehead from Kacchan’s chest for fear the heartbeat would stop the moment he did. This wasn’t a victory, not if that heart stopped beating.

Kacchan sighed, far too final a noise. “’m proud of you, nerd.”

“Stop,” Izuku wailed as another sob ripped through him, “stop that. You’re not-you can’t-you’re not…you’re staying. I’m not…please, I can’t…” I can’t live without you, I can’t be responsible for this, I can’t lose you.

“Izuk-”

“No,” Izuku spat vehemently, dropping his fist and sitting up, “This isn’t-you’re not dying for me. You’re not.”

Kacchan’s eyes were closed again, but Izuku wasn’t giving up on this, he wasn’t letting Kacchan throw his life away on some shitty Deku, he just couldn’t. He fumbled shaking hands through his belt until he found his contact device and managed to get his location to the Pros, then set to work doing all he could to stop Kacchan’s bleeding as the other boy lost consciousness. Ignorant of his own wounds, ignorant of the passing of time, ignorant of anything but Kacchan and Kacchan’s life.

After minutes or hours, Hawks came swooping in from above, dropping down by Izuku who stayed staunchly focused on his task. A hand reached out for him and he swatted it away, curling protectively over Kacchan’s body as he did. Eventually, All Might arrived.

“Young Midoriya, we need to take you and young Bakugou to-”

“NO!” Izuku shrieked, panic suddenly seizing his lungs, breathing fast, “No you can’t take him he’s going to die he can’t die please he can’t die don’t take him away from me I can’t please-”

Endeavor tried to drag him away from Kacchan, but he couldn’t leave his side or else he might stop breathing and then Izuku would stop breathing because there’s no living without Kacchan, never has been and never will be, he has to get to him, he has to -

Izuku fought his way out of Endeavor’s arms and dropped to his knees beside Kacchan again, doubling over and pressing his face into the crook of Kacchan’s neck and sobbing harder, completely wrecked from the inside out and hardly aware of his own searing pains, the blood gushing from his own wounds, the full power of One for All boiling under his skin. He dug his fingers into the dirt beside Kacchan, choking out three quiet, intelligible words in a mess of crying; “I love you.”

--

“You lied,” Kacchan repeated, his voice full of so much hatred and hurt it broke Izuku’s already shattered heart. “You don’t give a shit about me.”

No.

No, no, no, this wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.

“No,” Izuku said aloud, shooting to his feet as his entire body and mind reacted vehemently to the idea that he could ever hate Kacchan, like he could ever not mean what he said. Like he could ever hurt Kacchan on purpose when everything he’d done was to try to protect him. “Don’t say that. Please don’t say that.”

He made the decision right then and there that he couldn’t do this anymore, he couldn’t live with Kacchan thinking Izuku thought of him like that. He was an idiot to try.

Izuku met Kacchan’s glare and begged. “I…I meant it. I meant it more than anything, Kacchan.”

Kacchan’s face fell at his words, slowly morphing from surprise to a look of hatred so harsh Izuku felt like he was under attack. Crimson eyes locked on his and burned. “Get out.”

“Kacch-”

“GET OUT!” Kacchan yelled, shooting to his feet only to scream in pain as his legs buckled under his weight. Izuku darted forward to catch him, grabbing Kacchan’s arm only for it to be wrenched away as Kacchan hit the ground with another yell and pushed himself up against the wall.

“Fuck you,” he panted before Izuku could say anything.

Izuku almost started pleading with him again, almost said I love you right there, almost dropped to his knees and apologized until his throat ran dry, but he stopped himself. That would never work, and Kacchan was right – it didn’t mean anything. Not after what he did. Words alone didn’t mean anything.

He needed to prove it.

So, for now, he did what Kacchan said, and he left him alone, moving far enough away that he couldn’t be seen but close enough to help Kacchan if he needed it. Then he sunk to the floor, buried his face in his knees, and tried not to cry. He didn’t deserve to be hurt here, not when it was all his fault.

He’d made the decision to push Kacchan away after the other boy was brought to the brink of death in the final battle with All for One, once again jumping in to take a hit for Izuku who had been unable to handle it on his own. He thought Kacchan would be safer that way, far from Izuku who only brought him into danger, who he was for some reason willing to throw his life away on. But he never in a million years imagined that Kacchan would think Izuku hated him, as stupid as that sounded, because how could he ever hate Kacchan? He’d never cared about anyone more.

Almost losing Kacchan felt like almost getting his heart ripped out of his chest. He figured it hurt less if Kacchan was still alive, just far away, without Izuku holding him back or weighing him down.

Izuku exhaled, long and slow, knocking his head back against the wall behind him. He fucked up so bad, hadn’t he.

He just…he needed to fix this. He needed to.

Chapter Text

MASSIVE VILLAIN ATTACK LEVELS 25% OF HAMAMATSU

Yesterday afternoon, Hamamatsu was hit with one of the largest villain attacks since the end of the war that started with a giant-quirked villain’s rampage and ended with an explosion so large it took out a quarter of Shizuoka prefecture’s most populous city. Miraculously, the casualty count so far is only around 32 of the approximated 200,000 people in the area at the time, thanks to the evacuation and rescue efforts of hero agencies like Kitsune and of hero students from UA High School who were in the area on a school trip…

Continue reading on shizuokanews.com

Hamamatsu Villain Attack: Deku and Dynamite Among the Missing

…Among the roughly one hundred civilians reported missing in the attacks are internationally known former-vigilantes Deku and Dynamite, UA students in the area for a school trip best known for their defeat of All for One only seven months ago. Survivors of the attack report last seeing the two battling the villain, and the explosion detonated about an hour later. Rescue efforts for those missing are in process, but the affected area is surrounded by high rubble and heroes and police are forced to slowly comb through the wreckage to search…

Continue reading on japannational.com

--

Izuku woke up the next morning to a loud boom resounding through the empty store, startling to his feet and activating his quirk as quick as trained, experienced instincts and an aching body would allow.

“Fuck!”

Kacchan.

Without a second thought or even a first, Izuku darted through knocked over clothing racks and dust-covered rubble back to where he knew Kacchan was, finding the other boy laying on his back on the ground, face contorted in pain and breathing heavily.

“Kacchan?” Izuku said, trying to keep his voice steady. Kacchan’s eyes snapped open, and he stared up at Izuku with wide, almost terrified eyes, sitting up partway. Did he not recognize him? “Kacchan, it’s Deku,” Izuku said gently, lowering himself to the ground. He knew from experience what waking from a nightmare felt like, had once tried to fight his own mother just for trying to touch him.

Kacchan stared at him a moment longer, then finally the haziness cleared from his eyes, and he dropped his head back to the ground, glaring at the ceiling. “I can fucking see that.”

Izuku swallowed nervously, heart racing like he was tiptoeing around a field of landmines. “Did you-”

“Shut it.”

Izuku bit back the instinct to apologize again and just nodded, sitting down fully on the floor beside Kacchan and pulling his knees into his chest. Kacchan kept panting at the ceiling, and a bead of sweat on his brow had Izuku reaching out to press the back of his hand against his forehead. Kacchan growled and slapped his hand away. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re clammy,” Izuku told him, wiping the back of his hand on his hoodie and trying to slow the panicked racing in his chest as everything Aizawa-sensei had ever told them about blood loss and symptoms of shock ran through his head, “and cold.”

Kacchan kept staring at the ceiling, then wiped a hand across his forehead and dropped it to his side. “Well…” he sighed, “Fuck.”

Yeah.

Izuku forced in a deep breath, looking down at Kacchan’s leg to see the shirt still tied around it, having probably loosened overnight. He got to his feet. “Just wait here, Kacchan, I’ll be right back,” he assured, starting off towards the racks of clothes.

“Where the fuck would I go,” he heard Kacchan mumble before he got just out of earshot. He might’ve laughed it the situation wasn’t so bleak. He found the store’s clerk desk that, luckily, hadn’t been crushed by anything, and shuffled around in the cupboards and drawers behind it before finally finding a first aid kit, thank the stars. Grabbing another hoodie and thin t-shirt as he went, Izuku returned to Kacchan with the supplies and set them down beside him.

He folded the hoodie into a square, then warned Kacchan quietly before he lifted his injured leg up and shoved the hoodie under to give it a little relief. He saw Kacchan’s jaw clench, but he didn’t make a sound.

Then, using the meager contents of the first aid kit and the t-shirt, he removed the old shirt from around Kacchan’s leg and bandaged him back up, tying it off as tightly as he could and wincing at Kacchan’s hiss of pain.

“Are you al-”

“I’m fine, Deku,” Kacchan interrupted in a way Izuku was sure he meant to sound harsh but just sounded pained as he drew in another shaky breath.

Izuku frowned. “Are you sure? How’s your-”

“I said I’m fine,” Kacchan snapped, glaring at him, “Stop fucking worrying about me.”

“No,” Izuku blurted more forcefully than he meant to, looking Kacchan in the eyes. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “You worry about the people you care about, Kacchan, that’s how it works.”

Kacchan stared back at him for a moment, a flash of something passing in his eyes before he averted them to the ceiling with a huff. “How the hell are we getting out of here?”

Izuku glanced down at Kacchan’s wounded leg. “If you still can’t walk, I’ll have to carry you.”

Kacchan sneered at the ceiling. “Fucking wonderful.”

“I mean…you could use me as your cane instead if you can stand,” Izuku said with a barely-there smile.

Kacchan furrowed his brow, then snorted a laugh that startled Izuku so much he almost fell over. “You were a shitty cane.”

“Well then I’m sure I won’t be much better as a wheelchair,” Izuku said, smiling a little wider.

“Maybe if you shut the hell up for once,” Kacchan grumbled, almost like a tease if Izuku was being hopeful, then pushed himself up a bit so he was sitting upright, hands propping him up. “Let’s fucking get this over with.”

“Okay, Kacchan,” Izuku said, getting to his feet and reaching out to Kacchan, “You need to stand then get on my back, it’s easier to carry you that way.”

“Yeah, for a weak ass like you,” Kacchan snarked, grabbing Izuku’s hand and allowing him to be pulled up on one leg, keeping his injured one off the ground to avoid putting weight on it.

“What,” Izuku smirked, turning around slowly to let Kacchan get on his back, “you’d rather I carry you princess-style again?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Kacchan shot back as he grabbed Izuku’s shoulders and allowed himself to be hoisted up, “I’ll kill you.”

“Right,” Izuku smiled, grabbing Kacchan’s thighs and adjusting his weight on his back. Kacchan sucked in a sharp breath and the small movement and Izuku froze, too worried about hurting him to get flustered about the fact that Kacchan was literally breathing on the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

“Fuck,” Kacchan groaned, dropping his head onto Izuku’s shoulder, so close Izuku felt like he was holding his breath. “Think ‘m gonna puke.”

Izuku winced. “Please don’t.”

“You deserve it,” came Kacchan’s muttered response against Izuku’s hoodie.

Izuku sighed, starting out of the store while moving Kacchan as little as he could. “Fair.”

He spent the next hour or so walking or floating down the city streets, keeping vigilant attention on Kacchan’s breathing and any sound around them that could single another attack. The villains from yesterday were a surprise, as he didn’t think there would be anyone still around the area, let alone non-civilians. But maybe they had been with the mountain villain, some sort of planned chaos or terror attack on a recovering city. It had happened a few times since the war ended, most attempts in downtown Musutafu where any Pro Heroes left were constantly on guard. The ranking system was gone, the Heroes’ Commission was gone, the only people left were civilians, police, and the people who became heroes for more than fame. And thankfully for the world, there were a lot more of those than some people might have thought.

Many of those heroes were probably working to help anyone else trapped inside the blast zone like Izuku and Kacchan were. When he flew up to get a better view of the city, he could just make out people on the other side of a wall of rubble around the affected blast zone. It might take time for them to work through, but they’d be able to do it, and Izuku could always fly them over the wall anyways. They’d be fine. It was only a few more hours until he could get Kacchan the help he needed.

“’m gonna murder you,” Kacchan suddenly muttered right by his ear, making Izuku startle out of his zoned-out mutterings with a tiny yelp. Kacchan hissed at the noise. “You’re too damn loud.”

“Sorry,” Izuku squeaked, face burning.

“Take a fuckin’ break, Deku,” Kacchan grumbled, “You keep shifting me ‘cause you’re tired and it hurts like hell.”

Izuku started to protest and insist that he was fine, but his arms were aching, and he didn’t want to hurt Kacchan, so he caved and made his way to the curb to gently lower Kacchan to the ground. The second he pulled away, Kacchan flopped back on the sidewalk, closing his eyes and heaving in deep breaths. His face was far too pale, and Izuku resisted the urge to scoop him right back up and sprint the rest of the way. Instead, he grabbed the spare water bottle he brought from his hoodie pocket and offered it to him. “Here.”

Kacchan cracked one eye open, then snatched the bottle out of his hand and chugged half like he hadn’t tasted water in days. Izuku mentally cursed himself for not handing it over earlier.

Not to mention the guilt that he couldn’t stop some low-rank villain from shooting Kacchan right in front of him. That was pathetic. No wonder Kacchan didn’t believe him, he-

Izuku’s train of thought was cut off by a half-empty water bottle hitting him square in the forehead then bouncing to the ground. “Ow!”

“Oi, dumbass,” Kacchan snapped, glaring at him, “wipe that dumb look off your face. I’m the one who got myself shot, not you.”

Izuku really shouldn’t be surprised at this point, so he just sighed and sat on the curb next to Kacchan. “I know, but I could’ve-”

“You couldn’t have done shit, Deku!” Kacchan interrupted, whacking his arm, “Hell, you’re annoying. And confusing. I hate it.”

Izuku frowned, glancing over at Kacchan who was glaring at a point in the sky like that one specific cloud had done something to him personally. He was confusing? “What do you mean?”

“I mean you need to make up your fucking mind,” Kacchan muttered.

“About…what?” Izuku asked, only feeling slightly guilty about pulling answers out of Kacchan he knew he wouldn’t get if the other boy weren’t halfway to delirious.

“Kacchan’s amazing!” Kacchan answered in a mocking high voice, performing half-hearted jazz hands as he did, “But also fuck that guy. Except I meant what I said.” Kacchan closed his eyes, scowling. “Fuck you.”

Izuku stared down at his oldest friend and thought of a million things he could do or say, but none of them felt like enough. Not nearly enough, so he sighed and laid back on the sidewalk beside Kacchan. “For what it’s worth,” he started quietly, “I made up my mind.”

“We’ll see.”

It felt like Kacchan had at least unlocked the door, even if he was still to hurt to open it or invite Izuku back inside. That was fine. Izuku could wait.

--

Katsuki considered cutting his own leg off once or twice as Deku carried him on his back, wondering if that would at least make the pain in his head go away or if that was a separate thing altogether. But the one thing he did know was that he was thinking about giving Deku that chance, and he hated it. He hated Deku’s soft voice and that he couldn’t think straight and did he mention that his leg fucking hurts? He’d been stabbed through the stomach twice now and he might prefer it to a gunshot to the leg, at least he passed out after the stab wounds. This was just constant pain.

He felt Deku lay down next to him and briefly wondered why before deciding he didn’t give a shit, but unable to brush off his I made up my mind with another fuck off. Because no matter how mad he was, how much he wanted to punch Deku in his stupid face, he wanted to believe him just as badly. And if that wasn’t scary and frustrating as hell.

His train of thought was cut short by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, and he shot up at the same time Deku did, both whipping their heads around to face the girl running towards them as she suddenly skidded to a stop, panting and shaking. She couldn’t have been older than eight, her face covered in dust and scratches, and Katsuki knew a terrified child when he saw one.

“Hello,” Deku started gently, getting to his feet with his hands held at his sides to show the girl they meant no harm. She jolted back all the same, and Deku froze. “Hey, hey, it’s alright. I’m Deku, and this is Kacchan,” he said, gesturing to Katsuki on the ground. “Who are you?”

“Go away!” the girl shrieked, clenching her fists in front of her.

“I’m sorry,” Deku responded, keeping his hands held out, “I don’t mean to scare you. We’re heroes.”

The girl sniffled, looking him up and down. “You’re…you’re a hero?”

“Yeah,” Deku answered, smiling back at Katsuki, “Right?”

“Yup,” Katsuki answered, trying not to scowl or wince and pain as he slowly bent his good leg and lifted himself off the ground, bracing himself against the neighboring wall so he could keep weight off his injured leg.

“My mom…my mom doesn’t like heroes,” the girl said quietly, taking another step back. Katsuki bit his tongue to keep from responding to that. “But…I saw a lady on TV who was cool.”

“You did?” Deku said, taking a hesitant step forward. The girl didn’t move away, instead nodding where she stood but keeping her fists up. “Who was it?”

“A bunny lady,” the girl answered, dropping her hands the slightest amount. Katsuki grinned. “She beat all the bad guys.”

“You know, kid,” Katsuki cut in, making Deku glance back at him. “I’ve met the bunny lady.”

The girl’s eyes widened a bit. “Really?”

“Hell yeah,” Katsuki said, nodding, “She’s real cool.” Mirko was probably one of the only Pro Heroes he respected anymore. She just did her shit and took none of it from anyone else. Badass.

The kid sniffled. “I wish she was here.”

“We’re here,” Deku offered, “and we can help you out, okay? Are you alone?” The little girl nodded.

“Everyone was running away but I fell down,” she sniffled, tears bubbling in her amber eyes, “Mom said to hide in the basement if things got bad, so I did and…it was so loud.”

“That must have been scary,” Deku sympathized, now only a few feet from the young girl. He knelt down and held out a hand, palm up. “If you come with us, we can try to find your mom, okay?”

The girl was quiet for a moment, looking between Deku and his hand, then slowly nodded and placed her palm in his. Katsuki saw Deku visibly deflate with relief, but his own was cut short by the sudden feeling that he was being watched, a small noise from the building he was leaning against. He shuffled forward as Deku asked the girl for her name again, and his heart dropped to his ass as he spotted a willowy figure through the shadowed window. FUCK.

“Mizu-”

“DEKU!”

It all happened in a matter of seconds, a total blur and Katsuki threw himself at Deku and the young girl on the ground, snakes darting forward in the corner of his eye, only for Black Whip to slam into his chest and send him back again as Deku curled protectively over the kid, fangs sinking into his shoulder. WHAT THE HELL?

Katsuki, letting out a yell of pain as he did, wrapped his arms around one snake and wrenched it forward until the villain appeared, gearing up a straight shot at his chest and sending him flying back into the building again with a deafening explosion and crash. Fuck that guy.

With another cry of pain, Katsuki forced himself up on legs that felt like paper, then stumbled forward and confirmed that the villain was covered in rubble and, at the very least, unconscious. He promptly collapsed to his knees, dragging himself forward until he was next to Deku, who was still kneeling in front of the now-frozen-in-terror girl, one hand covering her eyes and the other pressing her close to his chest as he muttered things into her hair. He glanced up when he heard Katsuki approach, eyes wide and full of tears and a question.

“Yeah,” Katsuki panted, “he’s down.” Katsuki’s gaze switched from Deku’s face to his shoulder, which was quickly soaking with blood. Shit.

“Mizuki,” Deku murmured to the shaking kid in his arms, voice wavering just barely under his façade, “It’s okay, the bad guy is gone. I’m sorry you had to see that.” The girl, Mizuki, just whimpered against his chest and Katsuki resisted the urge to rip her away from Deku so he could help him. Deku slowly distanced himself from the kid so he wasn’t holding her so tight anymore. “Can you keep your eyes closed for me?”

“W-why?” Mizuku asked, her voice small and frightened as she reached up to grab onto Deku’s hand over her eyes.

“Because…I got a little hurt, and I’m embarrassed,” Deku lied. The kid was quiet for a moment, then nodded.

“Okay.”

“Thanks, Mizuki,” Deku said, slowly dropping his hand. True to her word, the kid kept her eyes squeezed shut tightly, gripping onto Deku’s sleeve like it was a lifeline. “Mizuki, I’m going to give you to Kacchan now, alright?”

Both Katsuki and the kid tensed at that, and Deku glanced over at Katsuki with a silent plea. Katsuki snarled at him and shook his head, but Deku was already using Mizuki’s death grip on his sleeve to lead her over to him. Fucking fine.

“Hey,” Katsuki said as gently as he could, holding out his hand, “You can open your eyes now, kid.”

Mizuki complied immediately, wide amber eyes staring up at Katsuki and quickly filling with tears. She tried to look back behind her, but Katsuki put a hand on her cheek before she could and kept her facing him.

“Ah, ah, kid, Deku doesn’t want you to look right now,” he chided, keeping a light grip on her chin, “I gotta help him out, but you can’t run away.” Mizuki just sniffled at him, and he bit back and exasperated groan, panic starting to knot in his stomach as Deku tried to quietly remove his hoodie behind the kid. “If you just stay with us, I can ask bunny lady to send you a letter, how about that?” he bargained, 99% sure Mirko would laugh in his face but desperate for anyway to get the brat to listen. Her eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki confirmed, “but you gotta be good, promise?”

The girl studied him for a second, then nodded. “Promise.”

Thank fuck.

“Thanks, kid,” Katsuki said, letting go of her chin, “now just sit tight here for a second and…count to a hundred or something. Bunny lady likes counting.” Katsuki left the girl where she was, crawling over to Deku who had since moved to laying on his back, lightly feeling over the puncture wounds in his shoulder, face contorted in pain. “What the fuck, Deku?” Katsuki hissed as soon as he was close enough, “What is wrong with you?”

“Can we talk about this later, Kacchan?” Deku groaned.

“No, fuck you,” Katsuki snapped quietly, slapping Deku’s hand back to the ground and taking off his own hoodie, then lifting up the bottom of his shirt to rip a strip off with his teeth. “You fucking used Black Whip on me!” He wadded the strip of fabric up into a little ball, pulled Deku’s shirt sleeve up to expose the wound, and shoved it in one of the wounds. “Why the hell would you do that?” he continued over Deku’s whimper of pain.

“Because you – ow – because you were about to do it again, Kacchan,” Deku whispered as Katsuki ripped off another bit of fabric from the bottom of his shirt.

“Do what?” Katsuki snarked, wiping some of the blood off Deku’s shoulder with his finger as he crumpled up the second strip of fabric, “Save your ass?”

“Yes,” Deku answered, looking Katsuki dead in the eyes and making him freeze. “At the cost of yourself, again.”

Katsuki glared at him. What the hell was that supposed to mean, only Deku was allowed to sacrifice himself? He huffed, shoving the second wad of fabric in his wound possibly a little too hard because it made Deku cry out, and in a second there was a brat at Katsuki’s side.

“Deku!”

Deku’s eyes went wide and Katsuki quickly grabbed Mizuki’s shoulder and tried to turn her away, but it was too late. The kid’s eyes were full of tears again as she shook out of Katsuki’s grip and stared down at the injury.

“Mizuki…” Deku started, but was cut off by the girl’s loud sniffle followed by a sob as she yanked on Katsuki’s arm and forced him to look at her.

“You’re gonna help him, right?”

“Yeah, of fucking course I am,” Katsuki said, ignoring Deku’s tiny slap to his arm at the cursing, “I’m helping him right now, but you need to let go of my arm so I can do it.”

Mizuki sniffled. “I don’t like counting.”

Katsuki resisted the urge to bang his head into a wall. “That’s okay, bunny lady will still send you a letter. But you have to sit right here and let me help Deku, alright?”

“Okay,” the girl conceded, letting go of Katsuki’s arm and sitting on the ground beside him, then looking back over at Deku. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Deku said as Katsuki took off his shirt entirely to wrap it around his shoulder, “I’ll be fine.”

“Nerd’s been through worse than this,” Katsuki added, tying off the shirt around Deku’s shoulder then grabbing his discarded hoodie to put back on. “And he’s strong as shit, so you don’t gotta worry about him,” he continued, pointedly not looking at Deku as he did. Mizuki frowned up at him, then looked at Deku, then back to him.

“Promise?”

Katsuki huffed a laugh. “I fuckin’ promise.”

Mizuki nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes with the heels of her palms. “You swear a lot, Kacchan.”

Katsuki frowned at the nickname she’d picked up from Deku, but any protest he had was cut off by Deku’s swift slap to his arm and a, “He does, doesn’t he?”

“What, you don’t like swearing?” Katsuki said, returning the slap where Mizuki couldn’t see it.

“My mom says it’s not good to say bad words,” Mizuki said, fiddling with her hands.

“Well, your mom sounds like a-”

“Kacchan!”

Katsuki tried to hold back a laugh as Deku whacked his arm again, slowly sitting up to glare at him properly. “Listen, kid,” he said, turning his attention back to Mizuki, “I’m a hero, and I say swear words, so they can’t be that bad, right?”

Mizuki furrowed her brows and evidently though very hard about that. “Mom says heroes are bad too…”

“Bunny lady swears.”

Mizuki gasped. “She does?”

“Kacchan, stop it!” Deku scolded.

“Yeah she does,” Katsuki answered, ignoring Deku.

Mizuki made a small ‘hm’ noise, staring up at Katsuki for a moment of silence. Then, very quietly, “Shit.”

“Mizuki!”

“Nice.”

“Kacchan!”

Katsuki snickered and turned back to find Deku sitting up fully, glaring at him like a protective parent. “Come on, Deku, don’t be boring.”

“You are teaching a seven-year-old to say the f-word,” Deku hissed.

“That’s fuck,” Katsuki and Mizuki responded in tandem, and Katsuki decided right then and there, looking at Deku’s scandalized face, that maybe this one kid wasn’t so bad.

“Okay,” Deku said, getting to his feet, “That’s enough from you two.”

Katsuki leaned in a little closer to the little girl at his side. “He’s just made because we’re cooler than he is.” Mizuki giggled at that, then shook her head.

“No!” she gasped, “Deku’s cool too! He saved me!”

Katsuki frowned at her. “Well I saved him!”

“You did?”

“’Course I did, I’ve saved this nerd…” Katsuki trailed off mid-sentence, eyes slowly widening as something finally clicked. “…a bunch of times,” he continued, looking up at Deku who watched him with faint confusion. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Deku asked.

“Yeah, what?” Mizuki echoed.

Katsuki just stared up at Deku in shock, his words from earlier echoing through his head. At the cost of yourself. That’s why Deku ran. That’s why he fucking ran, it was some fucked up thing in his head where he was stupid enough to think that would stop Katsuki from jumping headfirst into fire if there was even a chance of him being on the other side. Some shitty way of protecting him in the same way Katsuki used to try and protect himself from Deku – well, he knew firsthand how well that fucking worked.

Katsuki growled, grabbing Deku’s arm to pull himself to his feet with a small wince of pain. “I hate you,” he snarled under his breath, grabbing the collar of Deku’s shirt to pull him a little closer as he balanced on one leg, “You’re the stupidest person I’ve ever met.” He paused as Deku stared back at him in wide-eyed confusion, studying the stupid face he saw in his dreams and his nightmares. “Besides myself, apparently,” he muttered.

“Kacchan-”

“You made up your mind,” Katsuki said, forcing it to be a statement, not a question, “You…” he trailed off, then clenched his jaw and pressed on, “love me.”

Deku sucked in a shaky breath, then nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“What are you saying?” Mizuki asked from behind him, but Katsuki didn’t turn to look at her.

“Close your eyes again, kid,” he warned. Then, he yanked Deku into a kiss.

Because he was stupid enough to believe him, he was stupid enough to trust him, and he was stupid enough to know that he’d never stop trying to protect this asshole. Might as well let him know that too. He only held it for a few seconds, pulling away just as Deku started kissing back, worried he wouldn’t at all if he let that go too far and still a little pissed at this dumbass.

“It doesn’t fucking matter how far away you get, idiot,” Katsuki told him, “I’m not gonna stop jumping in front of you and I know you ain’t either.”

Deku stared at him with wide green eyes, mouth opened slightly, shock written all over his dumb freckled face. “I...okay.”

Katsuki smirked. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here.” Deku nodded, and Katsuki pulled him on close one more time. “If you fuck up again, there will not be a third chance,” he threatened, only for Deku to grab him by the back of the neck and pull him into yet another kiss so fast he only fell over on his precariously balanced one leg.

“EW!” Mizuki shouted, apparently having not kept her eyes closed, and Deku pulled back with a start. Katsuki snorted a laugh at his red face.

“I-” Deku cleared his throat, “I’m not planning on it.” He smiled a bit. “Fucking up, that is.”

Katsuki stared at him for a second of silence, sizing him up. “How could you say a word so crass,” he deadpanned, and suddenly Deku was cracking up.

--

The rest of their walk to the edge of the blast zone went slow, what with Izuku having to carry Kacchan on his back with an injured shoulder and keeping pace with Mizuki, but Izuku’s heart felt lighter than it had in years. Beyond all belief, Kacchan was giving him a second chance, and by god was he not letting that go. Not to mention that Kacchan kissed him. Twice.

Maybe the snake was poisonous, and he was hallucinating some version of paradise…if so, what a way to go.

If it wasn’t a hallucination, then it was a blessing from some generous kami, and Izuku was going to do everything he could to earn it. Kacchan was right, he was an idiot, and he should’ve known he could never change the mind of someone so stubborn and amazing.

Finally, after hours had passed and Izuku’s feet were aching, his shoulder burning, the three of them came up upon the edge that Izuku had accurately guessed took the form of a wall of rubble and crumbling buildings. But he could hear people on the other side, and he almost broke down sobbing at the sound.

“We made it,” he said instead, glancing over at Mizuki. The young girl looked up at the buildings, furrowing her brows in confusion. “On the other side of that wall is the people who can help us,” he explained, and her eyes widened a bit.

“How are we going to get over?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Deku can fly,” Kacchan answered for him, making Mizuki’s eyes blow wider.

“Really?” she gasped.

“Yup,” Izuku smiled, kneeling down while keeping his grip on Kacchan’s thighs. “I can carry us all over, but you gotta grab onto me.” Mizuki nodded, throwing her arms around his neck and latching onto his front like a koala. He wrapped her in a few strands of Black Whip to be safe, making her gasp again in surprise. “Hold on tight, you two.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Kacchan grumbled, making Izuku grin.

“Yeah,” Mizuki agreed, squeezing around his neck tighter, “don’t tell us what to do.”

Izuku rolled his eyes, bending his legs to launch into the air. “You’ve corrupted her, Kacchan.”

“Nah,” Kacchan countered, “she’s just picking the cooler one to be like.”

“Well, I think I can get some cool points for this,” Izuku grinned, then shot up into the air. Mizuki yelped and shoved her face into his neck, but his worry was soothed when she started giggling. “See? I’m cool too!” he shouted into the air, floating them high above the rubble.

“Yeah!” Mizuki laughed.

“Show-off,” Kacchan growled, making Izuku snicker as he slowly brought them down on the other side to the gasps and shouts of EMTs, civilians, and heroes below. He touched lightly on the ground a knelt back down to let Mizuki down, then Kacchan, who held onto Izuku’s arm with one hand to keep himself balanced as they stood again. The quickly gathered crowd stared at them in shock, and Mizuki reached up to grab Izuku’s hand, making his heart melt.

“Sup, fuckers,” Kacchan deadpanned at the crowd.

“Sup, fuckers,” Mizuki echoed. Izuku sighed. Oh well.

“Hello,” he said, trying for a smile, “we’re wounded, and she needs her mother, could you-”

“Mizuki?” a voice from the crowd suddenly cut in as a woman pushed her way to the front. “Mizuki!”

“Mom!” Mizuki yelped, letting go of Izuku’s hand and darting forward into her mother’s arms.

“Well, that was easy,” Kacchan noted, and Izuku smiled and bumped his shoulder.

“We should be glad for that.”

Kacchan scowled at him. “Never fucking said I wasn’t.”

“I’ll miss her too,” Izuku teased, earning a whack to his head as he laughed.

Soon enough, Kacchan and Izuku were approached by EMTs and offered a ride to the hospital and call to their parents which Izuku gladly accepted, thanking them for their help as they shuffled the two boys into the back of an ambulance. Kacchan immediately took up the entire stretcher bed, responding to Izuku’s protests with a middle finger. Izuku was considering pushing him off when, suddenly, a voice called his attention the open doors and outside.

“Excuse me?” a woman Izuku recognized as Mizuki’s mother said, this notion confirmed when Mizuki herself scrambled into the back of the ambulance and ran to hug Izuku’s leg. “Mizuki!”

“Oh!” Izuku said, reaching down to ruffle Mizuki’s hair, “Hello again, Mizuki.”

“Thank you for saving me, Deku and Kacchan,” Mizuku sniffled into his leg. Izuku grinned despite himself.

“Anytime, kid,” Kacchan said, propping himself up on his elbows.

“Heroes always help those in need, right?” Izuku said, kneeling down as Mizuki let go of his leg and wiped her nose. She nodded and he opened his arms for another hug that she gladly gave. “You’re always welcome to come visit at UA,” he said, glancing up at the girl’s mother who was watching her daughter like she might cry. She looked up and met his eyes.

“I…thank you,” she said, “I owe you everything.”

“You don’t owe us shit,” Kacchan answered before Izuku could respond, “We’re heroes, it’s in the job description. Now, kid, get over here.” Mizuki pulled out of Izuku’s hug and went to the side of the bed where Kacchan lay, holding his fist out to her. “Be good.”

“I will!” Mizuki grinned, bumping fists with Kacchan then running back to her mother. With one last wave to the both of them, Mizuki and her mother were gone, and an EMT came to shut the ambulance doors and start the ride to the hospital.

“You know I’m injured too, right?” Izuku grumbled, pouting down at Kacchan who spread his arms and legs wider in response, taking up even more of the stretcher. Izuku huffed and let himself fall forward onto Kacchan’s chest, making him wheeze.

“Oi!”

“This is what you get,” Izuku said, muffled into Kacchan’s hoodie. He crinkled up his nose. “You smell bad.”

“Fuck you.”

A short ride later, they arrived at the hospital, Kacchan was transferred to a temporary wheelchair, and they were ushered into the packed, busy emergency room. A random nurse showed them to two neighboring beds and Izuku helped lift Kacchan into his, waiting until a doctor came to assess their shirt-patched wounds and burns. She said Kacchan’s injury would require surgery to remove the bullet.

“Just fuckin’ get it over with,” Kacchan grumbled in response.

“Alright then,” the doctor said, nodding, “We’ll get you into that right away…have you been able to contact any guardians yet?”

“No, but that would be great if we could,” Izuku answered.

“Of course, feel free to speak with the receptionist,” the doctor told him, smiling kindly, “I’ll be back soon.”

“I ain’t talking to the fuckin’ hag right now,” Kacchan grumbled as soon as she left, making Izuku laugh softly.

“Don’t worry, Kacchan, I got it,” he assured, slipping off his bed and enjoying the almost total lack of pain in his shoulder thanks to the doctors minor healing quirk and the proper bandages. He paused before he left the room, stopping at the edge of Kacchan’s bed to plant a quick kiss on his cheek then dash out, leaving Kacchan’s Oi! on the other side of the door. The receptionist, a kind young woman with hair made of water, gladly gave him a phone to call his mother. She picked up after a few rings.

“Hello?”

Izuku’s heart stuttered in his chest at how weary she sounded, only just then realizing what people must’ve thought happened to him and Kacchan. “Mom?”

There was a clatter on the other end, then his mother gasped, “Izuku?”

“Hey, mom,” Izuku smiled, holding back tears, “It’s me. Uh…calling from the hospital to let you know me and Kacchan are okay.”

“Oh my god,” his mother sobbed, which meant Izuku started crying too, “Oh my god, my baby, you’re alright. You’re alright.”

“Yeah, mom, I’m alright,” Izuku confirmed with a shaky laugh. The receptionist smiled at him and gave his hand a pat. “I can tell you everything later, but right now Kacchan’s going in for a minor surgery and we need to get back home.”

“Oh god, a surgery?” his mother gasped.

“He’ll be fine, mom, nothing Kacchan can’t handle,” Izuku assured.

His mother let out a shaky sigh. “Okay. Okay, I’ll come get the both of you. Where are you?”

“Uh…” Izuku said, glancing up at the sign behind the receptionist desk, “Seirei Hamamatsu Hospital. I’ll call Auntie Mitsuki to tell her, too.”

“Please do, darling,” his mother said, “Okay, I’m on my way, just sit tight. I love you so much, honey.”

Izuku sniffled. “I love you too, mom. See you soon.” His mother hung up, and by some miracle Izuku collected himself to remember Kacchan’s mother’s phone number. Auntie Mitsuki sounded just as weary when she answered. “Hi, Auntie Mistuki, it’s Midoriya Izuku.”

“What,” came the immediate response.

“Uh, yeah, I’m calling to let you know Kacchan- I mean Katsuki and I are okay.”

“Holy shit,” Mitsuki said, “Holy fucking shit you’re alive.” Izuku lifted the phone away from his ear a bit when she screamed for her husband, then went right back to freaking out in his ear. “Holy shit, you two will never cease to amaze me. God dammit. Where are you?”

“We’re at a hospital in Hamamatsu,” Izuku answered, “My mom’s coming to get us, but I should let you know that Kacchan has to go in for a minor surgery.”

There was a pause on the other end, then a sigh. “Nothing the brat hasn’t handled before.” Izuku smiled at that. “Alright, call me from Inko’s phone the instant she gets you two.”

“Okay, Auntie,” Izuku promised, and Mitsuki hung up the phone. He went to hand it back to the receptionist, then stopped himself. She gave him a questioning glance. “I’m sorry to be nuisance, but is there any way I could call one more person?” he asked.

The receptionist sighed and gave him a comforting smile. “Of course, darling, call whoever you need.”

“Thank you,” Izuku said, typing a number into the phone he’d memorized way back in first year when the whole class was given it for emergency villain attacks only. Izuku figured this was important enough.

His teacher picked up with a weary sigh and a gruff, “Aizawa Shouta speaking.”

“Midoriya Izuku speaking,” Izuku responded nervously, “Thought you’d want to know Kacchan and I are alive.” There was a long pause on the other end of the line, long enough for Izuku to start wondering if Aizawa-sensei had hung up. Then, a long, exasperated sigh.

“Problem child…” Aizawa-sensei groaned, “How in the hell-you know what, I don’t need to know.”

“Are…is everyone else okay?” Izuku asked, the question that had plaguing him the entire time.

“Yes, the rest of the class made it out with the evacuation teams,” Aizawa-sensei answered. Izuku felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders and he deflated with relief. “Because they, unlike two certain someones, listen to logic and orders.”

Izuku laughed nervously. “I mean, technically no one ordered us to not fight the villain.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to have listened if they had,” Aizawa-sensei huffed, “Do you two need me to come get you?”

“No, my mom is coming,” Izuku assured, “but thank you. Could you just tell the class we’re okay, please?”

“Of course, kid,” Aizawa-sensei said.

“Thank you, sensei.”

“No problem. And…thanks for calling.”

Izuku smiled as his teacher hung up, handing the phone back to the receptionist with a thank you for her patience and returning to the room he shared with Kacchan just in time to catch him getting wheeled out of the room.

“Good luck, Kacchan!” he called after him. Kacchan flipped him off and he laughed, relishing in a certain warmth finding it’s way back into his chest from what felt like so long ago.

After Kacchan had had his surgery, Izuku’s mother drove them both back home, and only as they pulled up in front of the Bakugou’s house did Izuku realize he really didn’t want Kacchan to leave. Not after everything that happened, not when they had so much to talk about.

“Mom?” he said, leaning into the front seat from where he sat next to Kacchan, “Can I…can we stay at Kacchan’s house for the night?”

His mother gave him a look like she was about to cry, eyes soft and smile watery. “We can ask his parents, honey.”

“What, I don’t get a say?” Kacchan said as Izuku opened his car door.

“Nope,” Izuku answered with a grin, getting out of the car and offering his arm for Kacchan to hold onto, seeing as his leg still wasn’t completely healed, “You’re stuck with me.”

Kacchan stared up at him with strangely soft red eyes from his seat in the car, then smirked and grabbed his arm. “Well, that sucks shit.”

“I’m sure it does,” Izuku grinned wider, yanking his arm forward and making Kacchan stumble into a hug.

“Oi, watch it, nerd!” Kacchan snapped, shoving Izuku’s head to the side as the shorter boy laughed. Izuku tilted his head up a bit to meet Kacchan’s eyes, then reached up to grab his face between his hands.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, voice earnest as he swiped a thumb across Kacchan’s cheekbone. Kacchan’s eyes widened slightly, and, if Izuku wasn’t sorely mistaken, his cheeks flushed pink.

“Fucking hell, nerd, coming on strong here,” he said, and Izuku just smiled and pulled him close.

“That’s the point.”

Kacchan stared down at him, leaning in slightly until his eyes fluttered closed and–

“KATSUKI!”

The nose shocked Izuku out of his stupor so badly he nearly jumped out of his skin, stumbling back from Kacchan and almost falling on his butt on the grass as Mitsuki raced out of the house and wrapped her son in a tight hug, then whacked the back of his head.

“Oi, hag, what the hell?” Kacchan snapped, glaring at her.

“Do you know how fucking terrified I was?” Mitsuki snapped right back, hand on her hip, “What kind of son does that to his mother?”

“The kind who doesn’t run from a fight,” came the answer from Kacchan’s father, following his volatile wife out of the house and hugging his son just as she did, this time without the slap. “It’s so good to see you safe, Katsuki.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Katsuki muttered, patting his dad on the back.

“You too, Izuku,” Masaru said, pulling away from his son and turning to Izuku.

“Thank you, Uncle Masaru,” Izuku said, bowing slightly. His mother gave him a look. “I was…uh, I was actually wondering if I could stay over at your house tonight, maybe. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I mean, since-”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Katsuki grumbled, hobbling over to grab Izuku’s good arm and drag him towards the door, “Deku’s staying over, deal with it.”

“Your family is welcome anytime!” Uncle Masaru called after them as Izuku’s face burned. Kacchan dragged him all the way to the stairs, which he stopped in front of and glared up at. He turned around to face Izuku again.

“Float me up, I’m not fuckin’ dealing with those.”

Izuku blinked in surprise, then grinned. “Anything for you, Kacchan.”

Kacchan’s cheeks flushed pink again. “Shut the hell up, that was cheesy as fuck.”

“But it was true,” Izuku said, moving to hoist Kacchan into his arms again then activate his quirk and start up the stairs.

“Wait, fuck, this doesn’t hurt your shoulder, does it?” Kacchan asked, looking at him with concern.

“No, it’s okay,” Izuku assured him, “That doctor’s healing quirk helped a lot, it’s mostly just achy.” He reached the top of the stairwell and navigated to Kacchan’s room without being directed, having retained some memory from a childhood spent partially in this house. He set Kacchan down in front of the door, following him inside where he promptly flopped face-first onto his bed. Izuku settled in his desk chair instead.

“I could sleep for a damn week straight after that,” Kacchan grumbled into his pillow.

“Really?”

Kacchan flipped over on the bed. “No, but I wish I could.”

Izuku hummed in agreement, and a silence fell over the two of them, not necessarily uncomfortable but certainly tense. Izuku took his time to look around them room he hadn’t been in in years, noting the smaller number of posters on the walls and figures on the shelves. He wondered if Kacchan had thrown them away or just hid them.

His attention eventually returned to Kacchan, as it always seemed to do, who was staring up at his ceiling in silence with a face that could’ve been sad, could’ve been thoughtful. Izuku should really say something.

“Kacchan,” he tried, standing from his chair and sitting gingerly on the end of the bed, “I…I know words don’t mean a whole lot to you, but I feel like we should talk. Or at least that I should talk.”

Kacchan blinked up at the ceiling, then slowly pushed himself up to sitting so he was adjacent to Izuku on the bed. “Fine.”

Izuku nodded gratefully, taking in a deep breath to steady himself. “I’m not going to wallow, and I’m not going to waste time with this,” he started, twisting a bit of the comforter over between his fingers, “I’ve wasted too much time already being scared of losing you, and I…I didn’t think about how pushing you away might hurt you just as much as it hurt me.” Kacchan scoffed quietly, but Izuku didn’t let the guilty pain in his chest stop him. He looked up to meet Kacchan’s eyes, desperate for him to understand just how sincerely he meant this. “I meant what I said. I meant it then and I mean it now, Kacchan.” He swallowed a lump in his throat as tears bubbled in his eyes. “I love you so much it scared me.”

And it might have scared him more that Kacchan might have loved him back.

Kacchan stared back at him in silence, and Izuku steeled himself for him to say he didn’t actually feel the same, it was just the shock, he didn’t mean the first kiss or the second. But instead, Kacchan said, “Prove it.”

Izuku sniffled and wiped the tears from his cheeks. “I will, Kacchan, I promise I will.”

“No, goddammit,” Kacchan huffed, grabbing the front of Izuku’s shirt and yanking him further onto the bed, “I meant right now.” He lay back on the bed, pulling an increasingly flustered Izuku down on top of him until their face were inches apart. “No time like the present,” he murmured, combing a hand through Izuku’s hair, fiery red eyes locked on Izuku’s cool green, “Kiss me like you fucking mean it.”

Izuku didn’t need to be told twice.

He and his mother stayed over at the Bakugou’s house for the next week it took for him and Kacchan to heal enough to return to school, his mother sleeping in the guest room while Izuku stayed with Kacchan and slept the best he had since the war started. Like his unconscious fears were soothed by Kacchan’s presence alone, the knowing that if he did wake from a nightmare Kacchan would be there to comfort him back to sleep, and he for Kacchan. It felt like something had finally clicked into place, like a part of his life he’d been missing had returned, and he knew that’s exactly what it was. Willingly living a life without Kacchan was the worst decision he’d ever made, and he’d made a lot of questionable decisions in his lifetime. At least, this time, he got the chance to fix things.

Kacchan’s mother drove them to school the next Monday morning, Izuku practically vibrating with excitement and anticipation as his hand tangled with Kacchan’s on the seat between them. He’d convinced him to drive to UA early so they could visit the dorms before class, and he practically dragged Kacchan out of the car when they arrived, shouting his thanks to Auntie Mitsuki as he did.

“Fuck’s sake, nerd, chill,” Kacchan grumbled, still allowing himself to be pulled along. A few students milling about campus in the morning spotted them and waved their hellos, but none from their class. Izuku almost took off running when they finally approached their dorm building, squeezing Kacchan’s hand excitedly as he raced up the stair and burst through the doors.

“Guess who’s alive!” he yelled, immediately getting tackled by a pink and brown blur named Uraraka. He let go of Kacchan’s hand to hug her back as she literally lifted him off the ground.

“Oh my god, Deku!” she wailed, squeezing him almost tight enough to hurt, “I’m so glad you’re okay.” She finally set him back down on the ground, only for him to be tackled by more hugs, these from Tsuyu and Hagakure. The rest of the class was there too, and Kacchan was currently yelling at Kirishima and Mina to let him go. Izuku snickered at that.

The next to approach him was Todoroki, who he quickly pulled into a hug that the taller boy awkwardly returned. “I’m glad you guys are okay, too,” he said, pulling back and smiling at his classmates.

“Blasty, I thought you were gone!” he heard Mina wail as Kacchan shoved her back with a scowl.

“What, you think Deku n’ I could be defeated but some weak fucker like that mountain man?” he snapped.

“Dude, he blew up the whole city,” Kirishima protested.

“Weak,” Kacchan insisted, making Izuku laugh again, “No explosion’s gonna put a stop to me.”

“Of course not,” Izuku grinned, making his way back to Kacchan, “You’re the king of explosions.”

Kacchan smirked at him. “Fuck yeah, loser.”

“Mean,” Izuku pouted. Kacchan’s eyes flitted from his face to his lips then back up again, and Izuku grinned. “You’re supposed to be nice to me.”

“Who the fuck ever said anything about that?” Kacchan scoffed.

“Me,” Izuku said, wrapping his arms around Kacchan’s neck and pulling him down a bit, “’cause I love you.” Kacchan’s eyes widened, darting from their classmates still surrounding them to Izuku, who grinned wider with the realization. “I wasn’t planning on keeping it a secret,” he said, “especially if I’m trying to get you to believe me.”

“Okay, Deku, you-”

“Maybe I’ll shout it from the rooftops,” Izuku suggested. He sucked in a deep breath, only for Kacchan to slap a hand over his mouth, face definitely pink.

“Shut up,” Katsuki hissed. Izuku grinned and kissed him palm, making him flush even darker and wrench his hand away. “Deku!”

“Off to the rooftops I go,” Izuku grinned, sliding his arms off Kacchan’s shoulders and darting for the doors.

“Deku!” Kacchan shouted, running out after him as Izuku laughed freely, both of them leaving the rest of their class feeling strongly like they had missed something very, very big.