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These Nomu. These fucking Nomu were getting worse. These sadistic fucks were a whole new kind of problem. They were fueled by torturing their subjects. We heard about them but hadn’t run across them. With All For One and Shigaraki taken out, we were left with their shitty messes to clean up. They had abandoned different facilities that housed these “torture chamber running” Nomu. Since most of them were simple as fuck and left to their own devices, they just carried out the base tasks they were designed to do. So how did Deku and Dynamight, fresh third years at UA, already seasoned fucking heroes end up in this shitty predicament you ask? Well, I’ll fucking tell you.
Quirk-fucking-canceling bullets. That’s how. These weren’t the kind that lasted forever thank the gods. But they lasted long enough for a long ass torture session that could be the end of Deku and me. So that’s the gist of it. Investigating what we thought was a new lead on Dabi who was still at large. Asshole. Instead, we get shot at by fucking Nomu and then captured. And now tortured. Deku and I were both chained to each other, but the chain was threaded through a hole at the top of a huge cement pillar. Deku on one side, me on the other. I pulled on the chains and tried to see if I could reach Deku from the side, but he would be lifted up and still was a couple of feet out of reach. Obviously part of the fucking design.
So both of us were chained up against a giant cement pillar. I pull down on my chain, Deku gets lifted up. A fucking sea-saw out of the lowest level of hell. It’s like some Hieronymus Bosch shit. Yeah, I take Art as my elective, get off my dick, it calms me.
These Nomu lived to torture. But it was known that if you passed out, they’d kill you. Deku was already pretty badly fucked up before we got chained together so I was trying not to lose my shit. They’d kill him if he passed out. They had already burned him and branded him several times. The screams still echoed in my ears and the acrid smell of burnt flesh was still in my nostrils. For me, however, they decided to use some hedge trimmers on my fucking hand. I had glanced down when they were done and saw my ring finger and pinky on my left hand were just stubs now. Fuck. Luckily, I don’t play guitar and I’m right-handed. So a big “Fuck You,” to the brown and black Nomu. Motherfucker’s gonna have to bring his “A” game if he’s gonna break me.
But if they can’t have their fun, it’s over. And Deku had gone really quiet all of a sudden. I yanked on the chains that connected us trying to keep him up. I had hoped it would keep him awake, but now I felt the chains pull me up slightly, which meant he had gone limp on the other side. Deku was getting weak. How do I keep him awake? The inspirational shit hadn’t worked. I tried. I was never much for words of encouragement anyhow. Maybe I could try to get him angry. But this was Izuku Midoriya. How would I do that? Especially considering we were friends now. Think you fucking idiot. You’re at the top of the class, you can figure some shit out. Wait. Ochako. That was how to get it done. Shit, that’s fucking brilliant.
“I’ve always had a thing for Pink Cheeks…” I said loudly to be sure that Deku could hear me.
This was a lie. I respected her, but I had been pining for someone else the last two years. Not that it mattered now if we ended up being Nomu-fodder due to our fuck-up.
I felt my chains pulling me up even higher. My wrists, which were shackled, were now over my head. I knew Deku had passed out.
“Deku! Wake the fuck up!” I bellowed.
The chains slackened. “Stop…” Deku said, his voice weak and shaky. But I felt the chains slacken so he was standing, even if barely.
“Those couple months you left UA? Went vigilante? Remember? Yeah. I…..” My head suddenly reeled, and I felt nauseated. The two remnant stubs on my left hand pulsed. I felt the still-warm blood sliding slowly down my forearm. I felt it drip suddenly on my ear and I tried not to vomit. Wait… what was I saying? What was I doing? That’s right…. Deku… I have to keep him awake or they’ll kill him… “Deku! Do you fucking hear me?”
“What….”
“Ochako and I got together. Before you two even started dating. She never told you because she knew you would never go out with her. How does it feel to have my seconds?”
“You’re lying….” he answered, his speech barely audible and his words slightly slurred. How do I convince him? I didn’t know anything about girls. I panicked. I had kissed a shit ton of girls in middle school but that was it. I had been much too busy trying to be the best hero at UA the last two years to pay any mind to the fairer sex. Not that I wasn’t interested, it just wasn’t my priority. Wait. Ochako and I talked a lot when Deku left UA. Well, Ochako talked and I listened and grunted in agreement when she would come to me wanting to talk about how worried she was about Deku.
“I’m not…. She came to me all sad and shit when you left. Talking to me about how worried she was.” The chains pulled tight. Deku wasn’t standing on his own anymore. Fuck! “You hear me Deku!” I pulled hard on the chains to lift Deku up, to try and wake him. I hit my pinky stub on the pillar not being careful and immediately retched from the shooting pain. Blackness started to push into my vision from the edges and it greedily consumed the light so I couldn’t see. NO! I shook my head, trying to will my eyes to normal. After a couple of seconds, I could see again. I had a mission I had to finish. “I pretended to care… and then one night when she was really upset and cryin’ I made my move….” I spat several times trying to get the foul taste of vomit out of my mouth.
“No….” Deku muttered under his breath.
“I did! Her face blushed real red. Her…” Dammit, what color were her eyes? I guessed. “…brown eyes all big and wanting me. I kissed her. I rammed my tongue down her throat and she liked it.”
“No! Shut up, you shit…” Deku answered finally with some fire behind his voice. Yes! What do I talk about now?
“She was grabbing my hair and kissing me back…”
“Shut up, Kacchan,” Deku said, this time a new vigor behind his words. They weren’t slurred anymore. He was lucid. Stay awake, nerd. “You’re…. lying….” his voice trailed off. Come on you green-haired little shit, get angry. Do it Katsuki, or your friend is dead! Nomu-fodder for these maniacs. I pulled on the chains forgetting my mutilated hand.
“I fucked her.”
“Stop! You’re lying!” His anger was boiling now… it was working.
“I fucked your girl, Deku!”
Deku screamed a guttural, animal scream that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle.
The door swung open loudly and the brown and black Nomu stepped back into the room. He had rods that burned bright red and orange at the tips. Fuuuuuuck. Deku wouldn’t be able to take that shit right there. He was already really hurt before we were captured and brought here.
“Hey ugly. What ya got there? Burning hot pokers, huh? That’s some pretty weak ass shit right there, not gonna lie.” I had to get the Nomu to concentrate on me and leave Deku alone. The brown and black Nomu didn't turn its head in my direction or even acknowledged in any way that I even existed. This had been how it and the light gray Nomu had behaved the whole time so far. Almost as if they were on autopilot. Fucking soulless husks just wired to do whatever sick things its creators wanted them to do. Probably that fuck Dr. Garaki. He was serving like 30 back-to-back life sentences in Tartarus. He refused to give up any information about his precious fucking Nomu. I really hoped he had some longevity quirk that All For One gave him so that my fucking great, great, great-grandchildren would be old and grey and he'd still be wasting away in prison.
"Hey, ugly! I'm talking to you fucker!" The Nomu continued to move past me with the red hot rods. Shit. "Don't be rude you stupid fuck! I'm talking to you! Didn't the doctor teach you some damn manners!" He disappeared around the pillar, towards Deku.
"I can handle it, Kacchan. I'm awake now…" Deku replied, his voice clear but still sounding weak.
I panicked. I began to scream and kick my legs. During my burst of movement, I managed to kick a metal tray over. The tray that had the hedge trimmers and other “instruments” on it, I didn’t even want to think about. The metal tray fell on the floor with a loud clang and threw its contents across the cement floor. Maybe THAT would get its attention. Me throwing its shit around. I stared at the corner of the pillar and waited.
Seconds later the brown and black Nomu emerged into view and walked towards me. Yes. But also no. I’m sure whatever it had planned for me was gonna suck big time. Without hesitation, it stepped towards me, grabbed my arm, and placed the brilliant orange heads of the rods into my armpit. I instinctively lurched my body away from the Nomu as the pain shot through my underarm, to my pectorals, and to my upper back. I was too exhausted to keep from yelping out, it was shrill in my ears and didn’t sound like a noise I was capable of making. Even though it hurt, I knew it wouldn’t break the skin. My hand and forearms were fire-proof, the rest of me wasn’t as fire-proof. How much fire-proof exactly I wasn’t sure. Not like I was ever gonna try and figure that out by getting burned. Guess now I’ll know.
The Nomu held the rods in place but somehow the pain had decreased significantly. Probably within a normal realm of hot for me. The Nomu cocked its head at me, as if the stupid thing was actually thinking. Yeah, you asshole. Those aren’t gonna work too well on me. I tried not to grin but couldn’t help it. The Nomu turned to the large wooden work table that was pushed against the wall across from me. It was a massive table, the top was several slabs thick and the surface was pitted and stained with use. It made me wonder how many people had been tortured and then killed in this very room using the shit on that table and I felt nauseated.
“Kacchan! Are you okay? What are they doing?” Deku sounded more alert. Good. Maybe we could make it out of this thing alive.
“Yea… fucker tried to burn me. Not sure what he’s doing now….” My voice sounded hollow. Come on, Katsuki. Buck up you fucking wimp, you got this.
The Nomu turned towards me with what looked like a cattle prod but on crack. It was much thicker than a normal prod and as the Nomu flipped a switch at its base the end began to spark with electricity that jumped around the head of the prod, the lines of living light looking like it was desperately searching for something to jump onto. Shit. Well, Pikachu had shocked me tons of times when we were training so maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. Wasting no time, the Nomu walked up and stuck the end of the prod on my neck. My fucking neck! It must have been a pretty high voltage, my body undulated beyond my control as it reacted to the shock. It hurt, but not like the hedge trimmer had. This was doable. The Nomu brought the prod away from me for a few seconds, fiddled with something at the base of the prod, and then touched my neck again with it. The fucker had turned up the voltage this time. I felt a sharp pain at my neck that shot through my body, my tongue suddenly went numb as did my extremities. I felt the hair on my body stand on end and my heart raced wildly in my chest. But I could withstand this. You gotta do better than that to break me, ugly.
The Nomu brought the prod away, made some kind of adjustment at the bottom again, and struck me so hard in the throat with the end I gagged and then started to convulse violently from the shocks. Fucker probably turned it all the way up. My vision went black, and I couldn’t breathe as the electricity rended itself through me. My ears filled with the crackle of static and the hum of electric energy. The pain wasn’t like the burn, it was as if on some deeper level every one of my cells was being jolted with invasive caustic shocks. I began to worry my heart might stop, like I was having my heart jumped, but my heart was working fine so what the fuck was this doing to me? Would this end me? Time seemed to flow differently, and I didn’t know if the Nomu had stopped and I was just feeling the aftershocks. Suddenly I could see again and I could hear Deku instead of just the thrum of electricity in my ears.
“Stay awake, Kacchan! You can do this! Your friends need you to make it back.”
It took several seconds until I could speak. My face, my whole fucking body, felt fried and numb. Shit, I felt sorry for Pikachu if this was anything like what he dealt with when his quirk overloaded. What was Deku saying? “Friends? I don’t have any fucking friends except Shitty Hair.” I couldn’t control my head for some reason… was it the electric shock? It wobbled on my neck, having no choice I looked at the top of my chest and I saw blood dripping on my hero costume top. I felt it oozing out of my mouth and dripping from my nose.
“Yeah, Kirishima. Kirishima will kick your ass if you don’t make it back.”
Kirishima. Kirishima was the best. Sure, he talked way too much, was loud as fuck at times, and had a nasty habit of falling asleep in my dorm and taking up my whole damn bed. Such an asshole the way he slept, all sprawled out like a fucking starfish. Red eyes, those red eyes always crinkling because he smiled so much. And his fashion sense. Stupid gym rat tanks and how many times did that fucker trip cause of those stupid ass crocs. The smell of sunblock and earth. Dirt. Not like dirty dirt, like the smell in the backyard back at home after it rained. Clean and pure and solid. No. I couldn’t smell Kirishima. All I could smell was blood, and sweat, and fucking fear. The Nomu hit me hard across the face. Then again. Then again. Guess the electric shocks didn’t have the effect they wanted. Guess I wasn’t screaming or whimpering or vomiting enough for their liking.
“But you have other friends too…. Every morning you sit with them….” I could tell he was getting weaker now, the way his words were spaced and how it had trailed off. The Nomu stopped wailing on me and walked a few feet away. A second Nomu, a light gray one that had been torturing Deku earlier had walked in with something but I couldn’t tell what it was. I don’t know what fresh hell they were concocting but I tried not to think about it. What did Deku say? Oh yeah… my other friends….
“What… ya mean fucking Half and Half? And Four Eyes?” I spat a few times to get rid of the pooling blood in my mouth. “And Ponytail?” I had sat with the three of them every morning for breakfast the last two years. Can’t help it that some of us in Class A actually want to succeed and be early to class and not be rushed eating our fucking breakfast. And even have a chance to study before class while everyone else hadn’t even come down yet.
Dark brown cat-like eyes in a porcelain doll face. She sometimes would touch my shoulder lightly when she asked me a question. She smiled at me every morning and on Friday mornings she made me tea. She made it for the other two as well, but she always put mine down first in front of me. And she made sure mine was piping hot because she knew that was the way I liked it…. Hot… something was too hot for a change…. Wait, nothing's ever too hot. Where’s that screaming coming from? Are they torturing Deku now? I tried to yell at him, to calm him down, but then I realized I couldn’t because I was the one screaming. It burned. It burned so hot, now I knew what a blast from my gauntlets probably felt like to fucking villains. It’s lava, it’s the center of the earth, it’s the center of the fucking sun.
After what felt like an eternity, it started to lessen. It was receding now, the pain. I couldn’t tell where they were fucking burning me cause it was too much and the pain ripped through my entire body. After a few seconds, I realized it was my chest. I finally pried my eyes open to see, now that the pain was something I could manage. My chest, I could see it. It looked like someone got red paint, and black paint, and beige paint and they poured it together and swirled it around. My uniform was melted into me. Flesh and cloth and blood all mixed together like a collage. Like something created thoughtfully, not something caused by destruction. And now that the shock of extreme pain began to subside, all I could feel now was the pulsing, throbbing sting of the burn. If you could call what they did to me a burn. More like an eruption. An explosion.
I saw the large grill the Nomu used sitting on the table. Was probably what the light grey one had brought in earlier. It was still burning bright orange as it was cooling off. It was probably bright blue when they put it on my chest. How did they get it so hot so it could break my skin? I’m kinda fire-proof but they took care of that. The burn was like a vicious animal eating into me. I felt like I was gonna vomit, I felt like maybe they burned down through my sternum to my heart. Maybe if I looked down again, I would see it beating. And for the first time I thought, maybe I should just shut my eyes. Maybe death is easier than this. And then I heard Deku, his voice clear like the flowing water of a mountain stream. His words like a soothing balm.
“I need you, Kacchan. You’re my oldest friend. One of my closest friends now. You can’t give in. I need you. Please.”
Of course he needed me. I’ve always been stronger and smarter and faster. I inhaled a deep breath that felt too shaky, but it was a start. I tried to think of other things to help take my mind off the pain. Pinky’s black and glistening doe eyes. Pikachu’s laugh, Post-it Note’s wise-ass remarks. Ear’s deadpan. Red eyes framed by red spikey tufts, those red eyes filling with tears, his voice cracking and breaking as he wept. No, I won’t let that happen. Long black tresses falling over bare shoulders on a summer day at the beach last year. Who will be there to drink her tea, to push her to keep her place at the top of the class by being her closest competition, to have the courage to maybe tell her that I like her?
My thoughts swam, like I was dreaming even though I was awake. Familiar faces, familiar places. Class 3A and Aizawa-sensei. The dorm dining room. Books in a pile, Notes being passed around. Glasses being pushed up to the bridge of his nose. Red and white hair that was hitting his shoulders, idiot needed a haircut. “Bakugou, do you have notes for April 7th?” his hand chopping through the air swiftly as he asked. Maybe I was dreaming. And if I was that meant I was asleep. And if I was asleep…
“Kacchan!” It snapped me awake as sure as if he had slapped me in the face. I opened my eyes and neither of the Nomu were there. My vision was extremely sharp, the colors in the room, mainly my blood on the floor, seemed more vivid.
“Kacchan!” Deku screamed again, his voice strained and full of worry. I tried to speak, but no sound came out at first. “Kacchan! Please!” I felt my chains lifting me up by my wrists. Deku was pulling on them even in his weakened state. He was trying to keep me awake. To save me. I kept gasping in air until my lungs were full, but somehow I couldn’t make my body exhale, like I didn’t know how to consciously do it. It was like my body was broken. I felt my face straining in a grimace and finally I let out a deep breath and began to cough.
“Oh thank god…” Deku said, his voice breaking.
“Shit… yeah… I’m awake…. I’m alive…” I gasped out.
“Did the Nomu leave?”
As if asking fucking summoned them, the brown and black Nomu returned and this time he had a gun in his hand. The gun with the quirk canceling bullets. The Nomu placed it on his work table of torture across from me. It was nearing the hour mark, and he would be administering it to both Deku and I soon to keep our quirks subdued. The Nomu kept an hour timer with big red numbers on the table and they had started it when they brought us in right after capturing us. Had to keep track of time somehow to keep us quirkless so they could keep fucking with us. Did I have another hour in me? Did Deku?
I felt the chains above me go taut. “Deku?” My voice was hoarse and low. I cleared my throat. “Deku… wake up Deku….” I pulled on the chains to try to stir him but they stayed taut. Had he passed out? Shit shit shit shit. I took a deep breath to try to calm myself. And then it dawned on me. There was a way out of this. I felt it now deep in my very being like some fucking miracle. I couldn’t help but let out a deep, crackling chuckle. The brown and black Nomu approached me and grabbed my wrist. “I got news for you, you stupid fuck.” The brown and black Nomu looked past me as it brought a hand saw to the middle of my forearm, like it was about to start sawing off my fucking arm. I couldn’t help grinning ear-to-ear. “I run at 99.9 degrees Farenheit due to my quirk. Which means I metabolize shit faster than normal folks. Which means your fucking bullets don’t last as long on me as everyone one else, which means,” I felt the familiar warmth in my palms and couldn’t help but cackle. As the blast left my hand and shot the brown and black Nomu across the room I couldn’t help the ripple of pleasure that shot down my spine. All my pain disappeared for the moment, and I felt invigorated. I immediately melted the chains around my wrists with additional blasts. I had to be quick because the blast I used on the Nomu wasn’t a very powerful one since I had not been able to build up my fuel. The chains whipped away above me as soon as I split them, and I knew Deku was lying in a heap on the other side. I rushed to him, threw him over my shoulder, and went through the one door that led into the torture chamber. A long, dark hallway lay out before us.
My mind was too muddled to remember what hallways and stairs the Nomu took when they brought us down to the bowels of the building or maybe up several floors if we were lucky. If I could just find a window…. I ran down the hall and began to feel the adrenaline escape my system. The pain in my chest returned, blistering, burning, I felt my lower abdomen soaking wet with my own blood. Deku suddenly felt like he weighed a ton like I was carrying an elephant on my shoulder and back. I started to slow down, and my legs started to buckle underneath me. I was losing too much blood.
Seriously Katsuki, this is how it’s gonna end? You’re gonna die like this so close to escaping? Come on, you asshole, keep pushing. People are counting on you to live. All Might, Aizawa-sensei, the idiots of Class 3A, your parents. Eri. You’re supposed to take her to the festival next weekend. She wants to get a caramel apple and she asked for you specifically to take her. I collapsed with Deku in a heap on the ground. I was lying on my back, and everything was spinning above me. I closed my eyes, hoping that this wasn’t it. This wasn’t how I imagined it would be like when I died. I felt something squirm underneath me and realized it was Deku. Falling face-first on the floor must have woken him up.
“Kacchan,” I heard him whisper, but it sounded too far away. “Shit…. I still haven’t gotten my quirk back yet….” He sounded like he was talking to me from the end of a long tunnel. My feet and hands felt numb… I felt myself drifting, like I was floating on the surface of a lake, I felt weightless, I couldn’t hear anything or see anything. It was peaceful nothingness and unlike before I didn’t fight it. I started to let go. But I heard a low mumbling, at first I couldn’t make out the noise, then after what felt like an eternity, I could make it out. Deku’s voice. He was calling my name. His voice straining and breaking with emotion. The asshole couldn’t even let me die in fucking peace. I opened my eyes, and he was kneeling above me, pulling me up by my shoulders and shaking me.
“I’m awake, fuck, Deku quit…” I said, but my voice sounded raspy and barely audible. Not like myself.
“Everyone knows about One-For-All. If we try to leave, someone might target me in this weakened state. There are other people like All For One who have quirks that can steal other quirks…. Like Nine…. If you take One-For-All, we’ll be able to save it.” Deku held a green wavy strand of his hair right in front of my face. “Take this. Eat it. The second user’s power is healing remember? So it will mend your body if you take it. I’m still under the effects of the quirk canceling bullet so I am worthless right now…. But you…. take it and heal yourself and then use your quirk to get out of here. To save One-For-All. If I die or somehow end up in the wrong hands in this state the heroes will lose One-For-All. We can’t let that happen. Eat this and leave me here. I’ll only slow you down. We have to save One-For-All at all costs.”
“Don’t tell me what to fucking do!” I somehow managed to yell. Deku’s fatalist talk severely pissed me off. Didn’t know if he meant what he said or just said it to get me riled up so I wouldn’t slip back into death’s grasp. Of course I took it and ate the damn thing. He was right. We had to protect One-For-All at all costs. But if Deku thought I was going to leave him behind without a huge fight he was fucking mistaken. I sat up and waited. I wished I had something to wash Deku’s hair down with, I was worried it got stuck in my damn throat. Would it still work if that happened? “How long does this shit take?”
“It should be immediate.”
As he said the words, I felt it. A deep, warm tingle in my chest. At first I thought it was the feeling of taking control of One-For-All, but then I noticed the feeling spread to my left shoulder, then down my left arm, and finally my hand. I looked down at my mutilated hand and saw a brilliant golden light shine so brightly, it hurt my eyes. I looked away and met Deku’s eyes. I couldn’t help to ask my question with awe. “Your healing quirk… I thought you have to really concentrate to get it to work….”
“Yeah… I do. Guess you’re more of a natural at it than I am,” Deku said. I looked at him, he had a sad smile on his face. “I’m sad I won’t be able to see you wield One-For-All. You’ll be its best holder.”
I felt a catch in my throat for a second and I didn’t know what to say. There was so much I still needed to say to Deku after all this time. But we were running out of that precious time. The door at the opposite end of the hall burst open and the brown and black Nomu started running towards us, firing shots from the quirk canceling gun. A bullet whizzed by my head.
“Dammit…” I still felt like hammered shit, but I wrapped my left arm around Deku’s back and held him tight as I stood up. “Come on, nerd.”
I jumped towards the window, hoping our combined weight and the measly force I jumped with was enough to break the glass and get us out. The glass shattered as we barreled through it, I held even tighter to Deku and as we fell through the night sky, we were several stories up, I ignited my right hand and blasted us up through the air to keep us sky bound. I scanned the ground below and saw several smalling buildings. I would travel as far as I could as long as I had strength and fuel to burn. After about 20 more seconds I could tell my blasts were weakening so I decided to land.
“Crash landing, Deku,” I said. He was unconscious, his whole body limp. I would have to protect him when we landed. I saw some grass between two buildings and tried to maneuver towards it to land.
As Deku and I hit the grass I wrapped my arms around him and we rolled several times before coming to a stop. I sat up and rolled Deku over and I put my hand on his chest to see if he was still breathing. I let out a sigh of relief when I felt his chest move. I tried to stand, but I couldn’t. I looked at my left hand and it was now whole. My chest no longer felt like it was burning. Those wounds had healed, but why couldn’t I stand? Maybe there was a limit to how much it could heal, and I had hit it. I didn’t know what my internal injuries were. I felt lightheaded and my head and shoulders felt too heavy. I had no choice to lay down. This wasn’t happening. The Nomu would catch us if we didn’t keep going.
“Kacchan…” Deku uttered out weakly. Blackness filled my vision, and my ears rang with white noise. Before I lost consciousness, I heard voices and felt myself being lifted up. The Nomu found us. They would kill us. I’m sorry Deku. I’m sorry All Might. I’m so sorry…. I wasn’t strong enough.
*
The beeping of machines. Before I opened my eyes, I knew I was in the hospital. So the Nomu didn't capture us. I must have gotten us far enough away, and we had been rescued. The room was filled with gray light, thin gauzy curtains covered the windows. I felt heavy blankets on my body and began to squirm to loosen them so I could throw them off me. My eyes fell on a tray pushed up against my bed to my left and I saw a vase of flowers. Genus: Cattleya, Species: Trianae. Yeah, I’m a fucking encyclopedia.
“Who brought me fucking flowers…” I grumbled to myself, not liking the idea there had been people in my room I didn’t know about. And that people knew how bad Deku and I had fucked up to get captured like we did....
“Bakugou!” A familiar voice exclaimed. My head was still foggy from just waking so I couldn’t place it, confusion still muddying my thought processes. My eyes flitted away from the tray and flowers and they fell on a face with glasses, a squared jaw, and dark blue hair.
“Four eyes,” I managed to croak out. He was sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed. What the hell was he doing here? As if he could read my fucking mind –
“As your class rep presidents, we wanted to check on you and see how you were doing! If there is anything you require, a cup of ice, an extra blanket, we can do it for you…. we also bring well-wishes from the rest of the class.” Iida placed a pile of cards and letters he had been holding on the tray next to the flowers. His voice now lowered, his tone more stilted. “They’re all very worried about you.”
“I don’t need anything… shit… just some peace and quiet…” The last thing I wanted was fucking guests. Wait. Iida said “we.” I felt some slight pressure on my right shoulder. I dared to turn my head and look to the other side of my bed. Her long, black hair was clipped away from the right side of her face. Her smile was soft, her brown eyes were dewy, and her brow furrowed with worry.
“We’ll get out of your hair in just a minute. Recovery Girl wanted to call your parents but I reminded her you’re 18 now so legally you don’t have to inform them. Since the doctors were able to get you stable shortly after rescuing you, I told Recovery Girl that Iida and I would stay with you in lieu of not contacting your parents. She reluctantly agreed. I assumed you wouldn’t want your parents here since… well since you’re you.”
Yeah, I definitely didn’t need my parents holding vigil over me at the hospital. My mom would have driven me up the wall which wouldn’t have been good for the staff or my own sanity. I swallowed not sure what to say. They had made the right call for me. They knew me. They were really my friends like Deku had said. Ponytail and Four Eyes. “Um. Th-thank you. Yeah, this is much better than waking up to my mom’s theatrics. She’d probably beat the crap out of me for almost dying.”
“I figured as much,” Momo replied, her smile widening a bit. “But when you’re released, I promised Recovery Girl you would call them.”
I nodded at her. I’d do it if only to keep Momo from getting into trouble with Recovery Girl. “Wait.” I sat up quickly, my heart began to race, and I began to feel slightly dizzy. “How’s Deku?”
Iida stood up suddenly and spoke. “It took the doctors a bit longer to get him stable, he had lost a lot of blood.” He cut his hand through the air gesturing towards the door. “But he’s on the recovery floor with you, just down the hall. I checked on him a few minutes ago. His mother was with him, and he was still sleeping.” I nodded my head, and my heart rate began to slow down. I sighed and closed my eyes and I sunk back into the bed. I felt so exhausted, my body and mind had been stretched to their absolute limits. I still felt her hand on my shoulder as I drifted back to sleep.
*
“I’m not gonna say it again so shut the fuck up and just listen. Nothing happened. I was just saying all that stuff about Pink Cheeks to get you angry.” I was leaning against the door jamb in Deku’s dorm. Deku was sitting at his desk, his books spread across his desk. I had decided to check on him since no one had seen him since breakfast. Ochako was in Osaka for work-study so I burst into his room knowing I wasn’t gonna catch the two of them going at it.
“Yeah… I figured out later you were making things up… to help me… to keep me awake so I wouldn’t….”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t fucking lie. So I was hoping it would be easier for you to believe it.”
Deku grinned widely and brought his hand to the back of his neck. “That’s true, Kacchan. You’re honest to a fault. So, it was pretty convincing.”
“She’s not my type anyway,” I said.
“You have a type? Have you even been on a date with anyone since we’ve been at UA? Outside of Kirishima?”
“Fuck you,” I replied with a grin as I crossed my arms over my chest. I let out a deep breath and looked out of Deku’s open window. The cherry blossoms were still falling, drifting through the spring air, floating to some unknown destination. Before we knew it, summer would be on us. Third-year already felt like it was flying by too fast. “Kirishima’s not my type either. Too noisy, even in his fucking sleep.” Deku smiled at me. Several moments passed and we just stared at each other. With Deku, the last two years, at times I felt like there was something I needed to say to him, but I could never figure out what. Deku, who’d known me since I was a snot-faced brat. Who knew me as a whole grown-ass adult brat. But now, well now, we had moved past that point of needing to say anything to each other. It was….. nice. I honestly thought I’d never have that with him considering how things were when we were younger.
“So about One-For-All…” I finally said.
“Oh yeah…” Deku’s freckled face blushed a deep red. “I’ve been so wrapped up with trying to catch up with school work from being in the hospital, I kinda forgot.”
“You kinda forgot….” I grumbled. “I’ve had it for five days, Deku! It’s probably already siphoned off 5 years of my fucking life.” I glared at him.
“Yeah, I guess I should take it back,” he said with a sheepish grin. “You sure you don’t want to take Black Whip out for a spin? Try out Spidey Sense?”
“I don’t need all that extra stuff. I’m already gonna be the number one hero with just my own quirk. See, you had to get half a dozen quirks to even come close to being on my level.”
“You want to pull up the general population approval ratings and see where we fall….” Midoriya motioned towards his laptop with a grin.
“Ah, those don’t even count…”
“Oh, really now?” Deku laughed. We were third years. Soon we would be pro-heroes fighting for justice every day and continuing to hone all the skills we learned at UA. But the lessons I learned that day in some abandoned warehouse at the hands of deranged Nomu taught me a lot more than I realized at the time. Being there for someone when things seem hopeless means more than being there for someone when the deck is stacked high in your favor. And don’t tell anyone this or I’ll fucking kill you, but I hope in the future I can have more friends like Deku. People that know me better than I know myself.