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It had been a rough mission, and Katsuki probably should’ve stayed behind to be checked by paramedics. He had just wanted to get back to the hotel room, but Iida had ended up half-carrying him into the elevator and back out. Thankfully, Iida didn't comment on it, just opening their hotel door while supporting Katsuki's weight as if it was no big deal.
Katsuki was kind of thankful that he had been paired with Iida as temporary roommates during this internship (which had turned out to be a lot more hero work than he had been expecting) since he couldn’t imagine any of his idiots being so calm when he was exhausted. Iida gently sat Katsuki down on the couch, telling him quietly, “I’m going to get the First Aid kit, just hold on a moment.”
Katsuki leant back while Iida walked away towards the bathroom. He hissed as he put pressure on his back; it was definitely bruised to hell, but he couldn’t exactly do that much about it. Katsuki lifted his hands off of his legs as they started to spark off. He took a deep breath, ignoring how his ribs protested and burned. His breath shuddered as he let out, tears gathering in his eyes despite his best efforts. Everything hurt and burned and ached, and he couldn’t take it anymore.
By the time Iida came back out, Katsuki was silently sobbing from pain. Iida’s steps hesitated slightly before he rushed over, crouching in front of Katsuki and gently wiping at his tears, and whispered, “I’ve got you, don’t worry.”
“It’s mostly bruises… You can’t do anything about those.” Katsuki murmured back to the taller boy, taking another deep breath in order to calm himself down.
“I can still take care of your scrapes and cuts.”
“I should probably take a shower before you bandage me up.”
Iida’s eyes shot sideways as he asked, “Are you going to need help with that?”
Katsuki’s hands sparked off more intensely for a moment before going back down to what it was doing before, his face slightly pinker than he had been before, “Uh, no, there’s a stool in there if I remember right. I might need some help getting to the bathroom, though.”
Iida nodded, taking some time to take off Katsuki’s hero boots and socks. Katsuki grunted in acknowledgement and appreciation, which he hoped the other boy understood. Iida got up from where he was crouched and held out a hand for Katsuki to take. Katsuki shook his head, gesturing to where his hands were still sparking off out of his control. Iida seemed to understand, and instead grabbed Katsuki’s forearms in a gentle, yet firm hold to help him off of the couch. As they stepped away from the couch together, Iida adjusted his position to hold Katsuki’s left arm (since it was the least injured) over his shoulders, bending down slightly to make himself a more comfortable crutch for the blond.
They hobbled their way towards the bathroom, and Katsuki had to repress the urge to start crying again at the stabbing pain that spread across his hips.
Iida was quick to help him into the shower itself, and set him down onto the shower stool that was in there.
Once Katsuki heard Iida shut the door behind him, he started to get undressed relatively quickly. Luckily, most of the dangerous parts of his costume were required to stay at the agency he was interning at, so he didn’t need to worry about whether or not the nitroglycerin in his gauntlets would react and cause an explosion during the whole process.
Katsuki turned on the water and started to wash himself like he would any other time, though he was significantly slower than he would usually be. By the time he got out of the shower, his body felt less like it would fall apart anytime he moved and more like it should, so he deemed himself good enough to walk on his own. He wrapped the towel around his waist and cracked the door open just enough to peak his head out. He noticed that Iida had left some clothes out in front of the door for him, so he crouched down to grab them and ducked back into the bathroom.
Katsuki set the clothes down on the toilet, noticing that the hoodie on top wasn't one of his own. He couldn't help the slight catch in his breath at the realization that Iida gave him one of his hoodies, probably without even thinking about it. The sparks that went off on his palms were those from the pain of crouching down and getting back up again, not the fact that he was given Iida’s hoodie… right? Right.
Katsuki got dressed as quickly as he could, doing his best not to hesitate when putting on the dark blue hoodie that Iida had left for him. It was oversized, which Katsuki didn’t think he should have appreciated as much as he did. It smelled like orange juice and deodorant, which was so Iida that Katsuki couldn’t help but sink into it a little bit. The hoodie was also a lot softer than Katsuki would typically wear, since it was worn in and Katsuki’s parents usually got him new clothes before he could wear down his own.
Katsuki wrinkled the sleeves into the palms of his hands before stepping out of the bathroom and back over to the couch. He sat down, pulling slightly at the collar of the hoodie when it rode up from being sat on. Iida wasn’t in the living room area, which meant he was either in the kitchen or his room.
The First Aid kit was still sitting on the couch, so Katsuki opened it and started getting the things around to clean and bandage some of the scrapes that he had running up and down his shoulders. He really didn’t want to take the hoodie off (it was comfortable and it meant that he was safe), but he knew that he was going to have to in order to properly take care of his wounds.
Katsuki sighed, taking the hoodie off as carefully as possible and setting it in his lap so that he could put it on easily once he finished. Looking down at his upper arms to check the damage, he took out an alcohol wipe and did his best to press down enough to clean the wounds despite the pain. They had already started to scab over, so he ended up making himself bleed again by tearing the scabs off on accident.
“Shit…” Katsuki hissed as he looked back over to the First Aid kit in order to grab something to stop the bleeding without a stinging pain.
As he was searching, Iida had walked out of his room to see Katsuki sitting on the couch with a bleeding shoulder. He hurried over, stopping to grab a hand towel from the kitchen on his way over, and said, “You should have called for me, so that I could help you. There’s no need to do it yourself.”
Katsuki groaned as Iida pressed the towel onto his shoulder, “There wasn’t exactly a need for help either, Four-Eyes.”
Iida huffed, but didn’t say anything, instead grabbing another alcohol wipe and checking to see if Katsuki’s arm had stopped bleeding.
Katsuki felt like he couldn’t breathe as Iida crouched down in front of him and leaned in even closer than he had been before. Iida pulled the towel away, saying, “It looks like you’ve stopped bleeding, so I’m gonna clean it again, okay?”
“‘Kay…” Katsuki replied, already leaning his head back against the couch and closing his eyes so that he could ignore how close Iida was and the warmth in his (unforgivably easy to make blush) face.
As Iida worked on bandaging up his arm, Katsuki started to relax back into the couch. His exhaustion from the day started to catch up and seep into his bones. It didn’t help that Iida smelled like his hoodie from earlier, which, of course, made sense. Zesty orange cut with a neutral deodorant, with some stink from sweat that had built up from the earlier mission. It made Katsuki feel safe in a way that made no sense logically. Katsuki clenched his fist into the fabric of the hoodie that was still on his lap.
Iida must have noticed that Katsuki was about to fall asleep when he finished up with his bandaging, since he just seemed to stop for a while. Katsuki drifted between being aware and not, so he barely felt the way Iida gently unfurled Katsuki’s fist from his hoodie and put it on Katsuki so that he was covered.
Katsuki couldn’t help the way he hummed and buried his face into the fabric, curling his body to hold it closer to him. He could hear a quiet sigh as Iida brought his hand up to Katsuki’s face, brushing away a stray lock of hair so softly that it tickled.
The next thing Katsuki knew, he was being set down onto his bed, and tucked into his blankets, which certainly didn’t help with trying to stay aware for as long as Iida was around him. He felt so warm and safe and… cared for. It was better than any emotion he had experienced in years, which included his manic joy when he won a battle.
Just when Katsuki didn’t think any of it could get better, he felt a calloused hand push his bangs up and out of the way, followed by a quick, soft press of lips to his forehead.
Something in Katsuki’s chest came to life, and he melted into the kiss with a soft smile that felt out of place on his own face. Iida must have noticed because he heard a whisper of, “The things you do to me, Bakugou, are truly astounding.”
Katsuki was definitely going to force them to talk about this in the morning, but right then he just drifted off back to sleep.