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"Sound off!" Ingenium's voice rang out through the dust cloud, strong and steady, moreso than Katsuki felt as he peeled himself up off the chunk of rubble he'd been blasted into.
"Dynamight, still kicking." he shouted, and winced at how hoarse he sounded, how raw his throat felt. The slapdash bandage Ears had plastered to his side over the stab wound where some no-name wannabe-villain thug had caught him with a knife was peeling off a little, and he gritted his teeth around a hiss of pain as he pressed it back into place. Until the scene was secured the police wouldn't let medics in, and his blood had to stay inside his body until the medics could get at him to disinfect and clean the wound.
The stab wound was, surprisingly, the worst of his injuries. Sure he'd be black and blue all over tomorrow, and his left wrist felt sprained, but nothing was broken or missing and he hadn't been impaled on exposed rebar like the poor sod he could half see through the fog ahead of him. They were groaning, so as long as nobody tried to pull them down they'd probably make it until the medics got in. If they got it wrapped up. Villains like this booger-flicking idiot were gonna give quirks like his a bad rap if they didn't get this shit.
Ears sounded off that she and Creati were both fine, apparently shielded by one of Creati's constructs, and a tense minute later Dark Shadow began to caw loudly, so Tsukuyomi was probably down and badly hurt, but not entirely out.
"Riot, sound off." he called, and wished the blast that destroyed most of the building and sent the lot of them flying hadn't also totally trashed their comms. Silence greeted him, too deep and total, and his breath caught in his throat. He knew the statistics, they all did, but-
"Red Riot?" Ears called out into the slowly settling dust. Katsuki could hear footsteps, heavy and clanking, Ingenium making his way towards Tsukuyomi's last known location. Not a whisper of their last unaccounted-for Hero.
"Shitty Hair, you better not be fucking with me!" he shouted, and wished his wrist was still sound enough to stand him activating his quirk. If he tried to fly now though, he'd just break it and get lectured and spend at least a week off duty.
If he went back to the agency alone he'd be down for longer, but he couldn't think about that. Couldn't think about how pale even sun-gilded skin got when all the blood ran out from under it, how quirked skin shattered and stayed hardened after it was detached. The rubble around them was becoming more clear by the minute, and Katsuki hurried for the highest point he could see, trying in vain not to dwell on how quickly blood loss could render even a grown man unconscious, how many bodies recovered from buildings collapsed by quakes suffocated alone and scared in the dark, buried under tons of rubble.
No, no. He couldn't think like that. The rest of them were here on top, they all had to be up here.
"Tsukuyomi and I have the primary villain in custody." Ingenium called out, and Katsuki relaxed a tiny bit. One thing dealt with, at least. The rest of the guy's crew were small fry, save maybe for the lady with a cheap version of Uravity's quirk, but she wasn't much of a threat without someone else to keep her target pinned while she set up an attack.
"Red Riot, where the hell are you?" Creati shouted, her voice weak. Shit, how much body mass had she burnt in the fight? Last glimpse he'd gotten her costume was looking loose, and a blast shield wasn't light. No wonder she'd passed out. He'd have to make sure Ingenium bullied her into an ambulance, if Ears didn't beat them to it.
"Kirishima you get your stupid ass over here right now or so help me-" he threatened, throat tight and chest aching. Ingenium and Tsukuyomi's voices joined in, but as visibility kept improving and Katsuki kept scanning their surroundings, every splash of red was either clothing or a splash of blood. Fuck. Fuck, shit, no- no, this couldn't happen. This wasn't allowed to happen.
"Eijirou, where are you?" he screamed, throat burning, voice cracking as he spun in place, eyes frantically scanning for spiked red hair and broad shoulders and that stupid, stupid cavalry skirt he insisted on keeping in his costume for no damn reason.
Rubble shifted behind him, and Katsuki spun on his heel, feet finding steady positions immediately as he raised his good hand in warning, fingers curled forward to direct a blast if it was a villain. His hand fell almost immediately though, and he let out a wordless shout as he charged from his high ground, stumbling over the uneven rubble as he rushed headlong to meet the man scrambling towards him just as unsteadily. He crashed into Eijirou at full speed, and the sound that left his wrecked throat as their arms wrapped around each other was absolutely not a sob.
“You scared me, you big idiot.” he gasped, burying his face in Eijirou’s chest.
“Dynamight, what is it?” Ingenium asked, and Katsuki took a few deep breaths to force down the tightness in his throat enough to raise his voice.
“I’ve got him.” he called out. “Riot’s with me.”
“Is he hurt?” Ears asked, and Katsuki turned his full attention back to the man in his arms, standing steady and strong. There was some blood smeared across his temple, already drying down the side of his face, but if Eijirou wasn’t swaying on his feet it was probably superficial. Katsuki pulled away as much as the arms wound like steel cables around him would allow, hands checking where his eyes couldn’t see, and when he found nothing but familiar scars and unbroken skin most of the tension left his body, sending him pitching forward into Eijirou’s chest, which wasn’t at all an unwelcome thing, though it did make replying harder when he realized Eijirou wasn’t going to do it himself.
“No physical injuries.” he reported, and Eijirou removed an arm from around him to sign Temporary Quirk. He relayed the information, and soon as he was done shouting let the rest of the tension drain from his body, his legs going weak as he slumped into Eijirou’s warm embrace. “Never do that to me again.” he demanded, and Eijirou smiled, bright as the sun and ten times as warm for how it stoked the flames in Katsuki’s heart.
“No promises.” Eijirou signed, then slid his fingers up the back of Katsuki’s head, carding up into his filthy hair until he had a solid grip. Not that he needed one, Katsuki would’ve leaned in to kiss his favourite idiot at just about the slightest touch, right now. They’d defeated the villain, Ingenium and his sidekicks had gotten all the civilians out before the building came down, the day was well and truly saved. Until the cameras showed up, professionalism could go fuck itself.
“I was so scared.” Eijirou whispered when they parted. It didn’t sound like a whisper though, more like someone had recorded him speaking normally and was playing it back at the lowest possible volume. “Kats I thought- I couldn’t hear anyone, I couldn’t find you.”
“C’mon, Ei.” Katsuki raised his voice just enough Eijirou would probably hear him. “I’ve survived worse than this.”
“Just, stay close for a while, okay?” Eijirou asked, and Katsuki rose up on his toes to press a chaste kiss to his husband’s lips.
“I thought you were dead, Ei.” he murmured, tightening his arms around Eijirou’s solid frame. “Nothing short of surgery is getting me away from your side ‘til tomorrow.”
“Good.”