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Everything started when Katsuki woke up.
He was used to get up early and make breakfast for his classmates and himself, but that day something unusual distracted him from getting ready and reach the dormitory kitchen.
There was a letter under his door.
Katsuki took it, and gave it a confused gaze when he read the words ‘To Kacchan’ wrote on it.
He huffed. Why the nerd had wrote him a letter if they’d see each other in about half an hour in the common room?
They wouldn’t see each other, because on that April day, Izuku left the academia.
At first, Katsuki was furious. That was idiotic even for the nerd to leave without anyone knowing where he was, and the reason why – him not wanting his friends, him not wanting Kacchan to get hurt because of him – was even more idiotic.
He forced himself to believe that the Pro-Heroes would have found him. That was their job, making sure people were safe, and if Izuku was out there all alone, he surely wasn’t safe.
As the days passed however, Katsuki began to lose his hope. No one told them anything. They had to keep going to school, follow those stupid imitation of lessons Aizawa had prepared for them, and train to become stronger. The professors were extremely concerned, but no one thought about telling them if someone knew were Izuku was, if they managed to contact him, if he was okay. And slowly, Katsuki got quieter.
His classmates noticed immediately that he didn’t yell at anyone that often any more, but no one tried to reach out for him when he stopped talking at all.
Eijiro was the only one that tried to involve him in some training sessions with their friends, that invited him over when they studied together, but everyone of them felt awful, and they couldn’t be as united and joyful as they used to.
And then it came. His birthday.
That day, Katsuki didn’t want to get up at all.
He had a nightmare, and he wasn’t sure his anger towards Izuku was only because he’d left him behind.
He was worried, frightened something bad had happened to him, and that that was the reason no one told them anything.
But the nerd had One for All, he was strong, and if Shigaraki had defeated him, they would be much more in trouble. He tried to convince himself that was true. After all, he had no right to worry for Deku. He had always looked down on him, always mistreated him just because he didn’t like how he felt like when he was with him.
Katsuki curled up in his blankets, refusing to do anything that wasn’t crying.
At some point, he didn’t even knew why he was crying, if it was because he was terrified or because he felt so helpless.
“Bakubro, can I come in?” Katsuki didn’t even know how much time had passed when he heard Eijiro’s voice.
He had no strength at all, his whole body was sore and he couldn’t answer him, but he felt grateful when his best friend went in anyway, without waiting for his consent.
“Bro,” Katsuki could hear just by his tone that he was worried, but he couldn’t do anything.
“Please, come with me. We prepared something for you.”
Katsuki didn’t move at all. They both knew that his old self would have hated those words, that he would have reacted bad, and Katsuki hated himself for that too, but Eijiro didn’t give up.
Katsuki closed his eyes, refusing to start to cry again, and he didn’t bother to see what Eijiro was doing in his room.
He opened his eyes again only when he felt a bottle being placed on his lips.
“Come on, take a sip,” Eijiro said, gently.
Katsuki hadn’t realised how thirsty he was until he started drinking that water.
“We can stay here for a bit and keep you company for a bit if you want us to.” Katsuki tensed when he turned and saw his friends in his room.
“It’s okay Bakugo. We just don’t want you to be alone.” Shoto said, with his usual serious tone.
“We even made a little cake, can we eat it together?” Katsuki looked at Denki and wondered why they were so kind with him. He didn’t need their pity.
But that was no pity. They were his friends, and they were trying to stay close to each other.
Understanding that reason, Katsuki used all the strength he had to sit on his bed, and let them settle down.
His whole body was trembling for the effort, but no one said anything about it.
It was hard for them to start chatting, trying to distract themselves from any worry and be as natural as they could. Hanta reminded them about the movie they watched the last time they reunited like that, and Mina tried to imagine what they would be doing if things in that moment were different. But that was almost impossible to do.
They all were worried about Izuku, and they missed him.
The mood changed when the class representative reached them.
“He’s with All Might.” Those five words were all they needed.
“How do-”
“Professor Aizawa just told me. All Might, Endeavor and Hawks are protecting him and hiding him from anyone’s eye.”
“But why they didn’t told us anything?” Mina asked, very disappointed.
“Even professor Aizawa was upset. They didn’t say anything to him too.”
Shoto stood up, looking really mad. “We had the right to know something at least.”
But Katsuki was the one that was angrier. He clenched his fists on his blankets, and needed all of his self control not to use his quirk to vent.
Instead, he let out a sound of frustration, and all of his friends turned to look at him, being that the first sound they heard him make in days.
“We’ll find him Kat.” Mina said, determined. “At least, if he’s with them, we can be sure he’s okay.”
Katsuki could accept that for that moment, but he’d do anything to bring Izuku back, even if that meant risking anything he had.