Chapter Text
”-ugou”
Bakugou jerked up in his chair, awoken by the deep voice of his homeroom teacher. He didn’t even realize he was sleeping.
“Glad you’re with us, please continue to listen in class”
Bakugou mustered a somewhat apologetic glare, knowing Aizawa would get his meaning, straightened himself in his seat, resting his cheek on his palm.
Bakugou wasn’t one to fall asleep in class, maybe in middle School when he knew everything and everything was boring, but never in UA. In UA he had to be on top of his game all the time, he was on top of his game all the time.
But whatever, falling asleep in class isn’t gonna give him an identity crisis, he’d just have to pay attention to his body in class more, he let down his guard too much.
On his behalf, this was hero law history class, and it was boring as hell.
He held himself tightly in his seat until the bell rang.
“Man! Why do we have to take this boring ass class I almost fell asleep” Kaminari said to his friend group during break
“Bakugou did fall asleep”, Sero sarcastically added
“Shut up tape face”
“Man don’t get angry I was just stating a fact”
“Whatever”, Bakugou rolled his eyes.
This boring ass class, as Kaminari described, must have left a number on him, cause for the rest of the day he was still tired as hell.
He had this ‘I didn’t sleep enough tonight’ headache behind his eyes, and his body felt heavy.
But whatever, he’s gonna do what he needs to do for the rest of the day; workout, homework, dinner, and go to bed early. That way he’ll avoid today’s embarrassment tomorrow. No biggie.
He went on his afternoon run, which left him fucking sore. His time was off by almost a minute a mile from his regular pace, and when he finished it he had to sit on the grass outside for almost ten minutes until his breath returned to a somewhat-oxygen-fulfilling pace.
He gets it, he didn’t sleep enough tonight or something but fucking hell, he’s pulled all-nighters before and wasn’t as dead tired the day after like today. Seriously not cool.
“Pfft Bakugou you look like a tomato” Denki said as Bakugou entered the common room
The rest of the “squad” looked up at him from their Mario Kart tournament by the couch
“At least I work out and do something with my life instead of playing video games”
“Ouch bro”
“You do look extra red today though Bakugou”, Kirishina chuckled
“You guys match now” Mina laughed, “red riot and red blasty”
Bakugou just rolled his eyes and headed to the kitchen to grab a cold water bottle from the fridge, and then headed to the showers.
The cold shower was bliss against his overheated body, but left him shivering once he finished.
He quickly threw on a hoodie, placing his towel on his shoulders, and still shivering, he got back down to the dorm kitchen and grabbed himself a protein bar.
Back in his dorm room, the half eaten protein bar now tasted too much like protein powder. Heavy on his stomach and gross in his mouth he decided to wrap it back up and save it for later.
He sat by his desk and opened his math homework.
Next thing he heard was loud knocks on his door, the room was dark now, and he realized he only finished half of his homework.
“Bakugou! Are you coming or not coming to dinner? we’re all hungry” Kirishima was yelling from the other side of his door.
Even though he wasn’t hungry, on the contrary- he actually felt quite full, he remembered he didn’t eat anything from lunch besides half of that disgusting protein bar.
“Yeah wait five minutes” he sleepily yelled back, and his voice echoed in his, thanks for the reminder, still aching head.
“K, I’ll be waiting in the dining hall in our regular table”
He walked to his room’s half bathroom and washed his face. Looking in the mirror…not the best he’s ever looked, dark circles crowning his lackluster tired eyes.
Walking into the dining hall, the smell of all the food that was offered to the UA students hit him at once. A somewhat nauseating experience.
Keeping in mind that his protein intake for today was lower than normal, he settled on a meal of rice and spicy beef curry. Taking his dish, and joining his already seated friends.
“Thank you for joining us princess Bakugou”
“The fuck do you want?!” Bakugou angrily death glared at Kaminari. Extra sick of his shit today.
“Whoa man you were just late I was making a joke! Don’t murder me”
“Were you sleeping?” Kirishima asked
“I was doing homework” Bakugou indifferently replied and took a bite of plain white rice. It tasted different today, extra ricey.
“You look tired man”
‘Look tired’ Bakugou mentally rolled his eyes. Why does Kirishima care if and how tired he was. Yeah, he was tired, but how did it have anything to do with Kirishima?
“You look annoying,” Bakugou replied. Was it a childish response - probably, yeah. But fucking whatever, kirishima needs to learn to fuck his own buisness.
Kirishima just chuckled at his response and got back to eating his dinner.
Now if he was being honest, maybe curry wasn’t the right choice for dinner…curry is a very strongly flavored dish, and with his new ability of heightened smell and taste, it was truly too much.
He managed down a few spoonfuls before he could practically feel the food at his throat, sitting heavy in his stomach.
The rest of his friends finished their dinner while he was still playing with his food, moving it from side to side on his plate.
“Are you not gonna finish that?” Kirishima asked
“No, you can have it”
“Ohh give me give me!” Denki grabbed the plate and took a big bite, “ah fuck man! How do you eat this shit it’s so spicy” and gulped an entire glass of water.
That reminded Katsuki how dry his throat felt, and he opted to take a sip from his own glass of water.
Only when he did take that sip, instead of the anticipated relief of cold water in his dry throat, the water sank in his stomach, adding to his overall queasiness.
No. He did not just think that he felt queasy. Full, he was just full. Bakugou doesn’t get queasy. The only thing that can make Katsuki throw up is a punch from All Might to his stomach. And the thought of maybe throwing up certainly did not just cross his mind. Absolutely not.
“Bakugou?” Kirishima’s voice brought him back to reality from his thoughts.
“Hmm?”
“We said we wanted to do a movie night, you joining?”
“No”
“Blasty pleaseeee” Mina begged
“Come on man it’ll be fun” Sero added
“Absolutely not,'' Bakugou replied.
Movie night was definitely not on his agenda for today. Working out-done, homework- done (well, partially), dinner- done, and sleep. That was his agenda for today. Movie night, not so much.
“Why are you such a party pooper” Kaminari remarked
“Bakugou pleaseee” Mina continued begging
“Yeah man, it’ll be fun, we can watch one of those scary slasher movies you like”
“Not today” Bakugou persistently replied
“Fine then promise us that tomorrow”
“Can’t make any promises”, he was starting to get tired of his annoying friends minions.
“We’re not gonna get off your back until you say yes” Mina added
“Bakugou”
“Bakugou pleassseeee”
“Bakugou!!”
His annoying squad loudly begged, really pushing his tired ass head to an edge.
“Fine! Whatever! Just shut the fuck up!” He snapped
“Yes!” Mina and Denki high fived, “mission accomplished”
“See you tomorrow blasty boy” Mina said and blew him an air kiss as she walked to the girl’s side of the dorms.
He just flipped her off.
They continued walking, separating when every student reached their dorm floor, leaving Bakugou and Kirishima, the neighbors, walking silently together.
“Hey man, are you sure you’re fine?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Bakugou replied annoyed
“You looked tired today”
“I’m fine.”
“Well, get some sleep… Knock on the wall if you need anything”
“I won’t.”
“Good night”
“Yeah”
Bakugou sat down to finish his homework, only giving half a shit about how neat his answeres are, and fucked off to bed when his eyelids felt like they can’t lift anymore, and when his brain felt like it couldn’t process light anymore.
Next thing he knew was that his dinner might make a reappearance.
It was fuck past two in the morning, and Bakugou has awoke in cold sweat. He could taste his dinner in the back of his throat. The whole room felt like it was spinning. Breathing felt heavy.
Fuck this. Fuck this shit. He was not going to throw up. And he definitely wasn’t going to throw up in his bed.
He quickly marched to his dorm’s little half bathroom and sat on the floor, head leaning on the toilet bowl.
Still, this was just a little nauseous feeling. He wasn’t going to throw up. Like he said before, only a blow from All Might can make him keel over.
Which is definitely the only explanation to why he wasn’t about to throw up right now.
He spat into the bowl and tried to control his breathing. This was more about his pride than whatever the fuck he ate for dinner.
After around twenty minutes of controlled breathing and chucking down gags, Bakugou was out of the danger zone. Still nauseous and queasy, but at least he didn’t throw up, cause he’s not a pussy. That’s a win in his book.
He tiredly walked back to his bed and back to a pitiful sleepless sleep, tossing from side to side.
Around four hours later his alarm clock drilled to his head and reminded him of his miserable reality.
Very much still tired, heavy, angry and nauseous he started getting ready for school. Skipping breakfast.
“Kacchan?”
Fucking Deku first thing on the morning. Great.
“Are you feeling okay? You look kinda pale”
“Why the fuck do you care how I look”
“It’s just that-“
“I don’t care” Bakugou grit his teeth and gave him the most venomous ‘I do not have the power nor do I want to deal with you right now so for your own safety you better fuck off’ glare he could muster. Deku got the message and fucked off.
“Class has started, anyone that’s still standing, sit down please” Aizawa entered, and the class fell silent.
He started reading out attendance and when he got to Bakugou’s name his eyes lingered on him a little longer before moving to the next person on the name list.
He gave them a stupid essay assignment, which usually he wouldn’t be so eager upon, but talking was not allowed, so the overall silence in class, without having to listen to a lecture was the optimal way to spend class for poor Bakugou.
Well, the optimal way was to spend another eternity in bed and hopefully not feel like he might puke any given moment, but that was second best.
“Bakugou come to my desk for a moment” Aizawa called him, and he sluggishly obliged.
“Do you need to go back to your room?” Aizawa said, voice low enough for Bakugou to know he’s only talking to him and no other classmate can hear them.
“Why would I need to?”
Aizawa arched his eyebrows, then sighed.
“If you feel like you can’t handle any more of today’s activities, please go back to your room, I’ll authorize your absence”
Thanks for the authorization teach, but he won’t be needing it. Stupid stomach wrecking dinner won’t kill his perfect attendance. It’s just a little bit of nausea, stomach ache and headache, and two thirds of what he’s experiencing is because he didn’t get enough sleep last night. All thanks to that disgusting curry for sure.
“Okay”, he replied.
“And Bakugou, if you feel like you might throw up, please don’t do it inside the classroom”
“Who said I was gonna throw up? I feel completely fine” he whisper-yelled back at him, and walked back to his seat.
Now that he deduced this weird feeling is all the curry’s fault he’s gonna have to check on that. Theory -> research -> conclusions. And if he remembers correctly Kirishima also had curry last night, Picachu had a few bites from his plate as well. He’d have to conduct an investigation.
“What did he want from you?” Kirishima whispered at him from his seat once Bakugou got back
“Nothing,” he mouthed back, and sat back down, continuing to attempt writing a somewhat presentable essay.
“Whoa Bakugou you look dead” Denki laughed loudly, ruining the perfectly silent class, once the bell rang.
“Yeah man, you don’t look so good”
“I look fine.” He angrily replied
“What did Aizawa want?” Sero asked
“Nothing just a stupid question”
“About what?”
“About nothing” he angrily replied, ready to switch the subject.
“I wonder what they’re gonna serve at lunch today?” Denki randomly asked. But bingo! That stupid shit for brains changed the subject and gave him the perfect cover to investigate his theory on the foul curry.
“I hope curry” he said sneakily, though the thought of actually eating curry set shivers down his spine.
“I don’t know, they served it yesterday for dinner” Sero replied
“Hmm I guess you’re right” Mina replied
“Actually didn’t the curry yesterday taste a little different?” Bakugou said. Boom. Top student, hero in the making, explosion murder god dynamite, and now also a detective. If he wasn’t feeling like he might hurl, he’d give himself a pat on the back.
“No? I think it tasted normal”
“Yeah it was the same”
That…was not the reaction he expected. Maybe it was the rice? He remembers it tasting extra ricey.
“Maybe they changed the rice?”
“Nah man it was regular”
“Yeah”
“You did put a lot of hot sauce on though, I took a bite from you and it almost burned my tongue” Kaminari added.
But no it wasn’t the hot sauce’s fault, he uses the same brand the same amount everyday.
Fuck, his experiment failed. Conclusion: he has nothing to blame this weak ass feeling upon. But Bakugou Katsuki is Bakugou Katsuki. He wasn’t sick, last time he got sick he was five. What the fuck is going on then.
“You just can’t handle spicy” he replied.
The bell rang, class started again, and Bakugou was trying his best to concentrate.
He was hot and clammy and tired and nauseous and this was not fun. Especially when Present Mic’s “are you ready” got obnoxiously too loud, threatening to split Bakugou’s head right open.
Next class was lunch, it didn’t require any listening skills, but it was the period he dreaded the most.
Walking into the dining hall, same drill as yesterday, too much smell all at once.
“Hey look Bakugou, they do serve curry today!” Kirishima said excitedly, dropping his childish smile once he caught his friend’s disgusted look. “You don’t have to look this grossed out bro”
“Huh?” Bakugou hadn’t realized he made a face, “I wasn’t”
He grabbed himself a plate and sat by his friends. Regretting his life choices.
He played with his food, genuinely dreading to take a bite, when he realized Kirishima was staring at him. He took a few reluctant bites of white rice, to rest assure his friend’s worry. He uneagerly chewed down the extra chewy extra ricey rice. It set like cement in his stomach.
After lunch they went to the locker room to change into their hero costume, and really, who’s idea was it anyway to have hero course right after lunch for fuck’s sake.
They arranged the class in five groups of four, Bakugou paired up with round face, half-n-half and sugar-man. Thank god it was only an earthquake rescue drill, cause he wouldn’t want to be paired up with this group for any actual assignment.
“Bakugou come over,” Aizawa said a few minutes before their group was up.
“What?”
“I know you want to participate, but you really don’t look in shape to attend class”
“I’m completely fine”
“Bakugou, there’s going to be an earthquake simulator in this assignment”
“..and?”
“To be frank Bakugou, I don’t want to see you losing your lunch all over ground beta”
Oh he’s had it. Had. It. Even if he was going to vomit, he wasn’t going to. Just to prove Aizawa a fucking point.
“I am completely fine.”
“Bakug-“
But Bakugou has already left the chat.
He joined his group and started the expedition to find hurt civilians.
Five minutes into the drill, an earthquake simulation started, his teacher wasn’t lying. He now was also understanding why his teacher gave him a heads up…
The ground was shaking from all directions, left-right-up-down and whatnot in a nauseating circle. If he wasn’t already feeling sick, this might have given him motion sickness. What it did now was just multiply whatever he was feeling and dial it to 100.
The ground had stopped shaking, and Bakugou was still trying to even out his breath. Feeling everything he ate in the last day or so in the back of his throat, on the verge of exploding.
But this was a matter of pride. No way he’s gonna let Aizawa the treat of being right over him. He swallowed a truly foul tasting lump, nauseous as ever, and continued his mission.
“Bakugou” round face said, the fuck she want from him?
“I, um, I deal a lot with motion sickness so if you feel like you need to sit and breathe for a moment before you get back to the mission, I’ve got you covered”
“Why would I need a breather”
“Well , I know how you must feel, the earthquake made me a little nauseous too”
“Then you sit down and take a breather I’m fucking fine” he angrily replied and got back to the mission.
Hero class ended and left all the wind out of Bakugou’s sails. Thank god it was today’s last class. He was tired and sore and sweaty and warm and cold and honestly he just wanted to take a shower and fall asleep.
But of course his pack of idiots had to ruin every plan he had ever made for himself.
Ambushing him right after he finished taking a shower, the self proclaimed ‘Bakusquad’ ventured him like a pack of hyenas.
“Bakubroooi”
“Blasty you promised us a movie yesterday”
“We already made popcorn”
“Bakugou”
“You promised”
Fuck, he did. He was so tired and out of it yesterday that he was coaxed into agreeing to watch a movie with them.
Bakugou just rolled his eyes and made his way to the couch, taking the corner seat where he can stretch his legs. If he was forced to do this stupid movie night (or more correctly- afternoon) he might aswell be comfortable.
The room smelt intensely like popcorn and fake butter, and his stomach rolled in disagreement.
Ten minutes into the movie and his eyelids started to feel heavy, fifteen minutes in and he was out like a light.
“Ah fuck!” Denki screamed from a jumpscare, and Bakugou woke up.
He was covered with a blanket, and the sun just finished setting outside the window, leaving the sky with a purplish tint, just before the sky gets black.
“Oh hey you’re up” Kirishima smiled at him, “you missed almost the entire movie”
“I’ve already seen it” he said sleepily, getting up, still covered in the blanket, and walked to his room.
“What was that about?” Asked Denki, the moment Bakugou left the room.
“I honestly don’t know” Kirishima replied
“He’s kinda cute like this” Mina added
“He looks submissive and breedable” Sero joked
“I don’t know, he looked super tired these past two days, maybe we should just let him sleep” Kirishima concernally said.
When Bakugou got to his room he thumped into the bed, practically crashing on it. He covered himself with more blankets, because he was shivering and fucking freezing, and immediately fell asleep again.
Next time he woke up, stupid ducking deja vu, it was fuck past something in the middle of the fucking night.
Bakugou was scolding hot, but was still shaking, the entire room spun, and air felt like it weighed a ton. What the fuck was going on with his body.
He felt like death, but as dead as he might be, he was not going to throw up on his bed.
He finally admitted defeat, there was no way he was not going to throw up.
Every breath he took felt like a punch to the stomach. He felt like he was on a boat, he felt like he was in that earthquake simulator all over again, the ground moving and swirling. He tasted acid in the back of his throat, and that was his sign to sprint to his bathroom.
He kneeled just in time in front of his toilet. A strong gag followed by a loud heave ripped through his stomach and that was it.
That was the signal to let his body stop fighting whatever this is.
A wet belch followed by a wet splash hit the porcelain bowl and that was it for him. From that point on, his body started expelling what feels like everything he ever ate, out.
His body was hot, and sweaty, and shaky, and with loud coughs, Bakugou spent an entire hour intervally vomiting until he had nothing but stomach acid left to spew.
Once he felt somewhat better, he rinsed out his mouth with water and crashed into his bed, completely drained.
The following morning his alarm clock woke him up, sending daggers into his head.
The sunshine peeking through his curtains right into his fucking skull, ready to blind him to death.
His mouth tasted like death, and his stomach, not on the verge of throwing up at any given moment (he had nothing left to puke), still hurt like a bitch.
He got into his bathroom, disgusted by the lingering stench, and brushed his teeth, then carefully drank a glass of water, which turned into two, cause damn he didn’t even realize how thirsty he was.
When he looked at himself in the mirror, he realized he can’t even be mad at whatever joke shits for brains will make at him today, he really did look that awful.
Face at least three shades lighter than it should be, almost a grayish greenish tint, contrasting his bloodshot glassy eyes and extra flushed cheeks. Yeah, he looked just about as bad as he felt.
But hey, he threw up everything he could’ve possibly thrown up last night, so he wasn’t in any danger today, so nothing that can stop his perfect attendance.
Sluggishly walking to class early (no breakfast today) he sat and rested his warm and heavy head on his arms, blocking away any lights and getting a few more minutes of blissful sleep.
“Bro” Kirishima poked at his shoulder and woke him up, “you didn’t come to breakfast”
“Not hungry” he replied, that’s weird, his voice is all raspy now
“Oh dude I wanted to ask, do you have a sore throat or something? I heard a lot of coughing from your room last night”
“I’m feeling fine” he said back, without lifting his head from his arms once.
“You don’t look so fine”
“I look just fine, Kirishima.” He hostilely replied.
“Okay…well…Aizawa will be here in like a minute so you better wake up”, he added, and went back to his seat.
Bakugou raised his head and tried to straighten up in his seat, but the sudden light input sent daggers to his eyes. The nausea returned, full blown. He tried to even out his breaths, discreetly placing a hand on his stomach, hoping this will pass before his teacher walks in- never mind Aizawa just entered class. He’d just have to hope his facade is somewhat convincing.
His teacher made direct eye contact with him, lips going into a thin line, and arching a brow.
“Continue working on your essays from yesterday, Bakugou please come talk to me outside” he said after a quick attendance call.
All eyes, questioning and condescending were on him as he slowly walked outside. He just tried to focus on his breathing, fighting the ever increasing nausea growing in him, while he was waiting for his teacher outside the classroom.
Aizawa walked towards him and just gave him an empty trash can.
Bakugou looked at him with questioning eyes.
“I know you need it” Aizawa said, “once you finish your business go to my desk” is all he said, and got back to class.
He would be angry at this patronizing asshole of a teacher, but he was too busy keeping his guts in place.
Once the door behind Aizawa closed, Bakugou walked a short distance to the end of the hall and sat down, cradling the bin.
The cold wall against his back felt like fucking heaven in comparison to his hellfire-hot body.
He held the trash can so tightly his knuckles went white, but kept it away from his face, as if it personally offended him.
Breathe in, breathe out. He kept repeating, until one particularly strong inhale got stuck in his throat.
He coughed up, leading to a chain reaction of cough-gag-retch-puke. This repeated itself a few times, until he felt like he expelled whatever the fuck is still left in his system.
Continued to sit down against the wall, fixing his breath, until the ground swayed a little less under his feet.
He went to the bathroom, washed the bin, gagging a little to see and smell his stomach content pour down the toilet, then washed his face. Noting he somehow looked even worse than how he did this morning in the mirror, and walked back to class.
He set the now clean trash can by the door and walked to Aizawa’s desk, mentally trying to ignore his stupid classmates’ eyes.
“I, Uh, finished running that errand for you” he quietly said.
“Okay, follow me outside for a second”
Once they were outside and the door behind them was closed, Aizawa placed his palm on Katsuki’s forehead.
His cold hand felt like heaven on his burning face, he leaned into it for a second, and then he remembered that he’s not a fucking baby and didn’t need he’s teacher babying him. He quickly jerked away from his teacher’s hand.
“Like I thought” Aizawa said, “you’re burning up Bakugou”
“I’m fine” Bakugou pouted back.
“So you didn’t just… run this errand?” Knowing very well they both know what they mean.
“I did”
“And how is that fine exactly???”
“I feel fine now”
“You look sick, kid, you are sick”
“Am not”
“Do you want me to forcefully send you to recovery girl’s office”
“I don’t need to”
“Then work with me here…”
Work with him, as if something is wrong with him, it’s just a little upset stomach
“So your stomach is upset.” Aizawa replied.
Shit, did he say that outloud? He didn’t mean to say this outloud.
“No it’s fine”
“Kid…just rest for today”
No he won’t. He can’t. He’s aiming to be a top hero. Number one. Heroes don’t take stupid fucking sick days, they just don’t get sick, cause heroes aren’t fucking weak. Therefore he wasn’t sick. He wasn’t a weak ass pussy
“No I can’t”, fuck he meant to say he won’t, not “can’t”, the fuck mind? Saying things he doesn’t mean.
Aizawa looked at him, eyebrows changing into something sad. Why would he be sad about it? He might've said “can’t” instead of “won’t” but what does that have to do with him?
“Listen Bakugou, I’m gonna give you a chance till the end of the class, if you don’t look better I’m sending you to your room”
“Okay, but you won’t need to send me back because I’m fine.”
“I want to see you drink water when you go back to class, now go sit down”
They both entered the class silently. Bakugou took out his water bottle and drank a few cautious sips, never breaking eye contact with his teacher.
Drinking water, though, was the wrong decision for his body. He could feel it sloshing around his stomach, making his nausea prominent again.
He only focused on breathing and trying to settle his stomach, completely filtering out the looks he got from his friends, and from his homeroom teacher.
“-ugou”
“Bakugou”
His teacher’s voice awoke him from the meditative state he got through breathing periodically. Completely fucking up his breathing pattern. Completely awakening his nausea. Stupid ass teacher.
“Come with me outside”
Bakugou got up and tried to steadily cross the room. He felt his stomach in his throat, ready to burst. He’d just have to hold it in until he gets out of class, and gets permission to go to the bathroom. Five minutes max. He honestly wasn’t sure he could handle this task.
Aizawa closed the door behind him and walked towards Katsuki, analyzing his every movement.
“Um, Aizawa sensei, can I go to-“ he gagged
Aizawa placed the familiar trash can in front of his face, and the gates just opened.
Katsuki gagged and brought up whatever water he drank. It tasted acidic and coated his tongue, leaving him to gag and dry heave a few times, even after he was done puking.
“Bakugou”, his teacher placed his hand on his back, “Go to your room”
“…yes sensei.”