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Izuku and Katsuki are sharing a hospital room. This is because the hospital workers very quickly found out it was easier and safer (and resulted in less property damage) to let them do what they wanted, and what they wanted was to be no more than six feet away from each other at all times. So, fine—they can share a room. They saved the world, after all.
Anyway, that's where they are when there's a knock on the door, and they look up to see a man who looks… vaguely familiar. They'd been arguing about which All Might animated movie is the best, but they both stop when he enters their room.
"I'm sorry to bother you," he says politely. "It's just that they wouldn't leave me alone until I brought them to see you."
Izuku finds out what he means almost immediately, when Mahoro and Katsuma run into the room. Izuku grins at the sight of them, and he hears Katsuki chuckle slightly.
"Mahoro!" Izuku says happily. "Katsuma! What are you guys doing here?” They look mostly the same, although older in the way kids do when you haven't seen them in a while. Katsuma is wearing the same outfit he'd favoured while they'd seen him last, but Mahoro is wearing a pretty purple dress now.
"We came to see you!” Katsuma says. He is hyper and excitable; he seems more confident than the last time. "We saw your fight!"
Oh yeah—the business class had been filming. Izuku still isn't sure how he feels about that, although he understands why. He doesn't think he's ever going to watch it, though. Living it was enough, thanks.
"You guys keep saving us!"
"That’s what we're damn well supposed to do!" Katsuki says.
"Kacchan!" Izuku casts a nervous look at their father in the doorway. "Don't swear!"
Mahoro has climbed onto Katsuki's bed and is staring anxiously at his bandages. "Are you gonna be okay?"
"Tch. Not only am I gonna be okay, I'm gonna look cool as hell." Izuku doesn't bother admonishing him for swearing again. Sometimes even he can recognize a losing battle.
Katsuma has climbed onto Izuku's bed and is examining his injuries, mirroring his sister. He also looks really concerned.
"Why didn't you guys just do what you did last time?"
"What do you mean?” Izuku asks, because his mouth works quicker than his brain sometimes, so it takes him a moment to realize— oh. Maybe he should change the subject.
"You know!" Katsuma says, throwing his arms out in excitement. "When you both got super strong and your hair went all crazy and you glowed with that power—"
"What are you talking about?” Katsuki says. Oh no. He was going to kill Izuku for keeping this a secret from him.
"Yeah!" Mahoro backs up her brother and adds her signature to Izuku's death certificate. "When you were fighting on the island! You were so powerful. You should have done that again!"
"Right," Katsuki says slowly, and Izuku can feel the burning of his gaze. Why did Kacchan have to be so smart? Why did he put things together so quickly? Why couldn't he have given Izuku a few more hours of life? "That was a kind of one time thing."
"H-how have you guys been?" Izuku asks, and while he successfully directs the kids to a new topic, he knows Katsuki is not going to let this go.
"Oh! Look, Bakugou!" Mahoro exclaims suddenly, and then there’s a giant mantis in their hospital room. "Look! A shadow!" And sure enough, the mantis does cast a shadow. Katsuki has a genuine smile on his face.
"Pretty good. Now you just have to learn how shadows actually work."
Mahoro crosses her arms and pouts. “It's hard indoors!" Her mantis dissipates as she glares at Katsuki. "I don't think you could do any better, Bakugou!"
"Sure I could," Katsuki says grandly, even though how Izuku isn't sure, given that he can't create illusions. "And that's not my damn hero name!"
"Oh yeah!" Katsuma says. "What was it again?"
" Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight !" Katsuki explodes. "And don't you forget it!"
"It’s too long!" Mahoro says.
"Yeah? Think you've got a better hero name, brat?"
Izuku casts another worried look at their father, who smiles and waves his hand in reassurance.
"I do!" Mahoro says grandly. "My hero name is gonna be Houdini! He was a famous illusionist from before people even had quirks!"
"Damn," Katsuki says, begrudgingly impressed. "That is pretty good, kid." Mahoro positively beams.
Katsuma tugs on Izuku's sleeve. "I still can't pick a hero name," he whispers.
"That's okay," Izuku tells him. "You have lots of time!"
"How did you pick your name?"
Izuku smiles fondly. "Kacchan gave it to me, actually." He doesn't bother to mention the sordid history around it—after all, now Deku is the name of a hero.
The kids stay for a little while— long enough that it might lull Izuku into a false sense of security, if he couldn't still feel the power of Katsuki's gaze on him. The sun is setting, casting reds and oranges into the room, when their dad tells them it's time to go. Both the children put up a fight, until their dad reminds them that they're in a hospital and they need to let heroes recover. They both go without complaint then.
"Are you guys going home?" Izuku asks.
"We got a hotel for the night! Can we come visit you before we leave tomorrow?” Katsuma asks.
"I would love that more than anything," Izuku says. Katsuma beams at him—then his gaze flickers to Katsuki, and his smile drops away. "Um…Mr. Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight?" He steps towards Katsuki's bed, fiddling with the strap of his bag. “I want you to have this.”
He hands something to Katsuki, and as Izuku watches the way his face crumples and his eyes fill with tears and his hand shakes, he realizes that Katsuma has given him the Edgeshot pin he’d had on his bag.
Katsuki nods and reaches out to ruffle Katsuma’s hair with the hand not clasped tightly around the pin. “Thanks, kid,” he says softly.
With one last enthusiastic goodbye, the family leave, and it’s just Izuku and Katsuki alone in the room again, gentle breathing and the whir and beeping of machines the only sounds—until Izuku says, very quietly, “Are you okay?”
Katsuki takes a shaky breath before he reaches out to place the pin very carefully on the table beside his bed. “Yeah,” he says, giving it one last look before he turns to look at Izuku, and his gaze is severe and angry and oh God, Izuku is dead. He won against Shigaraki and All for One only to be blown up in his hospital room by his oldest friend. “Now explain, Izuku.”
Izuku briefly debates playing dumb but ultimately decides against it. He owes Kacchan more than that.
Instead he says, “It was the only option.”
“ What was the only option,” Katsuki says, red eyes narrowed, but Izuku knows that he knows. He just wants Izuku to say it out loud, to confirm it.
“I had to, Kacchan! I had to give you One for All or we wouldn’t have won—”
“You stupid self-sacrificing idiotic motherfucker—” Katsuki bursts out, which Izuku finds a little unfair.
“Hey! It was a mutual decision! You agreed with me!”
“And what were you gonna do if—hang on. Why didn’t it… why did it go back to you?”
Izuku fiddles with the threads of the hospital blanket. “All Might said it was—a gift. A gift from One for All for trying to save and to win.”
“But you didn’t know that,” Katsuki says, and there’s a desperate edge in his voice. “You didn’t know that, Deku, you thought you’d be quirkless again—”
“It was the only option!” Izuku says again. “We would have lost, Kacchan, and he would have taken Katsuma’s quirk and we wouldn’t have been able to save them! And you agreed with me, so you don’t get to act all high and mighty now! This was a joint decision!”
Katsuki can’t argue against that, even though he clearly wants to. “If you’d lost your quirk—”
“Then I would have lost it being the hero I always wanted to be, one who does everything he can to save people. And anyway—it would have gone to you. I was okay with it, if it was you.”
For a long moment that seems to stretch into infinity, Katsuki just stares at him.
Then he gets up. He drags his IV with him as he walks over to Izuku’s bed. Izuku wonders how he’s going to do it. An AP Shot to the head? Or will he try to be more discrete, and do something like a pillow to the face?
Absurdly, Izuku's first thought is that Katsuki is going in for a headbutt—and then, when their lips meet, he thinks, this is a weird headbutt . In Izuku's defence he has never been kissed before—also he almost certainly has a concussion.
In the time it takes Izuku to realize that this is not, in fact, a headbutt, but is a kiss, actually— holy shit he’s kissing Kacchan— Katsuki has pulled away.
“You don’t ever do that again, hear me?” He says viciously. Izuku’s brain is still trying to catch up with the fact that Katsuki had just kissed him. “We’ll figure out another way.”
Izuku is staring at him with wide eyes. Although Katsuki is trying to pretend that everything is normal, Izuku can see the way his cheeks are flushed red.
“Kacchan,” Izuku says, because he can’t ignore it any longer. “Kacchan, you kissed me.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
“But—” Izuku does not feel he is treating this with the appropriate gravity. “But you kissed me.”
“Fuck, I know!” Katsuki bursts out. “I won’t fucking do it again if it bothers you, don’t worry.”
And that’s—no, that’s not what Izuku means. That’s not what Izuku means at all. That’s the exact opposite of what he wants.
The problem is that when Izuku opens his mouth to say that, his overactive brain tries to say four things at once, all aimed at convincing Katsuki that Izuku wanted to be kissed again, and often. So instead what happens is Izuku opens his mouth and lets out what he can only really describe as a verbal keysmash.
Katsuki, predictably, just kind of stares at him in confusion—and hurt. Izuku opens his mouth to try again, but ultimately decides on another way to get his point across. He grabs Katsuki by the front of his hospital shirt and pulls him back down to kiss him again. Actions speak louder than words, or whatever.
Katsuki is frozen for a moment before he springs into action. He’s always adapted quickly. A hand comes up to rest ever so gently against Izuku’s cheek, conscious of the wounds and bandages that cover both of them from head to toe.
“Hey,” Katsuki says, when they pull away. “I’m still fucking mad at you about One for All.”
“You can’t be mad when you already agreed to it!”
“Well then I’m mad at past me, too!” Katsuki says. Izuku giggles, and he tugs on Katsuki’s shirt, and he keeps tugging on it until Katsuki finally gets the message and climbs into Izuku’s hospital bed beside him.
Maybe this is all moving too fast. Maybe they should talk about this. But as Kacchan crawls into bed beside him and spoons around him, pulling Izuku against him—well, it feels like the most natural thing in the world.
“I always thought it was weird that I couldn’t remember what happened, but I always figured I just got hit too hard. And it was weird that both of my arms were broken, and I did think huh, this is just like with Deku. But I didn’t think… I never would have thought that you’d do that. That you’d give me your quirk. All Might’s quirk. As if I ever would have deserved that.”
Izuku puts up with an intense bout of pain so he can turn around and fully glare at Katsuki. “Don’t talk like that,” he says severely. “You’re the only one I would have given it to. And All Might was fine with it when I told him! Because it was you! So don’t try and tell me you’re undeserving!”
Katsuki rolls his eyes, which means he doesn’t have a rebuttal. “Whatever,” he says, further proving that point. “Just don’t you dare do it again.”
“Well, I wouldn’t anymore, Kacchan!” Izuku says, giggling. He feels positively giddy. “Now we know people with quirks can’t hold One for All.”
“Oi! Don’t be a smartass.”
Izuku nestles closer, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world when Katsuki puts an arm around him and cuddles him in close. Like this is what they should have been doing all along, and it had just taken them a bit of time to get there. But now they’re there, and Izuku isn’t planning on going back.
He’d almost lost him. He’d gotten to that battlefield and he saw Katsuki’s body, and a life without Kacchan beside him suddenly stretched long and unwanted before his eyes, a future narrowly avoided because of Edgeshot’s sacrifice. Izuku will never be able to thank him for that. He saved both Katsuki’s and Izuku’s hearts that day.
“Hey,” Katsuki says, voice rumbling in Izuku’s head. “You okay?”
The immediate answer is yes. He’s wrapped up in Katsuki’s arms—how could he be anything but?
The technical answer is no. He’s in pain everywhere, most of his body is covered in bandages, the country is in ruins and he doesn’t even know how many people are dead. People he loves have been hurt, and every time Izuku closes his eyes he sees death and decay. So no, he’s not really okay. He doesn’t know if he ever will be again—or at least, he’ll be a different type of okay.
The bigger answer is—yes. They won the war. They beat the bad guy, they’d saved the people Izuku wanted to save. He is, ultimately, alive. He just kissed his best friend. His mom and his closest friends and his teachers are all mostly alright. He can finally truly call himself a hero.
“Yeah,” Izuku says, wrapping an arm around Katsuki’s back and ignoring the surge of pain that it sends through his body. He feels lips press to the top of his head. “Yeah, I’m okay, Kacchan.”