Chapter Text
"Is he... is he gonna make it?... Please... please let him live... he.. he has to... but.. but what if he doesn't?..."
Izuku could barely think straight as he held off with Shigaraki, his mind racing as he prayed Mirio was quick enough to save All Might from AFO, his mind mainly fixated on if Katsuki was gonna survive or not.. if Edgeshot's attempt to save the boy was gonna work or be for naught...
Izuku woke up in the hospital. The sterile smell of disinfectant in his room matching the soft crinkle in the clean bed sheets he laid on.
His entire body ached, his arms especially. It felt like a throb of distant pain corsed through him as he lay there.
As he gained focus of his surroundings, his vision sharpening, his fingers feeling the bandages tightly wrapped through the pain that seemed to drown out all else, his hearing sharpening to over hear a conversation between the doctors outside his door.
"He has vitals we have no idea how but he does. It's impossible... but sir, you have to understand, patient 214, Katsuki Bakugo, he will suffer consequences for what happened... and we're afraid they'll be worse than just..."
Izuku tuned everything out after that...
"He's alive.. He's alive!" His mind raced, filled with excitement making him momentarily forget about the pain in his entire body.
He shot up, every muscle in his being arguing in protest, but he ignored the disagreement from his body as he opened his door, taking the doctors off guard at the sudden open to the room beside them.
"Kacchan- Katsuki- he's- he's awake?" Izuku aksed, his mind racing with a million different thoughts.
"Yes- but- Mr. Midoriya- you- you shouldn't be up right now- you-" a doctor tried speak, but Izuku didn't care what he had to say.
"Which room is he in?" Izuku asked, slowly becoming impatient as he ignored all protests to him being up.
"Room 852"
Izuku heard the number and didn't even acknowledge the hesitation in the answer, immediately rushing to find Katsuki's room.
Izuku flung the door to Katsuki's room open, making Katsuki jump.
The blonde looked over to him, confusion in his eyes, his chest rising and falling with huffs of departing panic.
Izuku muttered under his breath, even he didn't know exactly what he had said, but he knew it had something to do with the boy sitting in front of him despite being dead last he knew.
"Kacchan? I- I thought you were gone! I-" Izuku couldn't help but blert put, he felt himself on the verge of crying.
He stumbled forward as tears streamed down his cheeks falling to the floor of the hospital room.
He stepped towards Katsuki's bed but his knees let out and he practically collapsed onto the sheets, barely avoiding hitting Katsuki as he wrapped his arms tight around him, trying to ground himself in reality as he held Katsuki, tears damping the blanket of the blonde's bed.
"You're alive.. you're actually alive.. I-" Izuku said,his breath hitching as he held Katsuki oh-so-slightly tighter, "Don't- don't scare me like that.. I- I can't lose you..."
Katsuki put his hand on Izuku's back, a form of comfort and reassurance of life.
But Izuku was so caught up he didn't notice that something was off about Katsuki's entire demeanor...
"Yeah.. I'm alive?..." Katsuki said.. it was then Izuku's subconscious realized something was seriously off... was that... hesitation?... but he refused to acknowledge it. He was alive... that's all that mattered...
... Right?...
Katsuki's hand rested on Izuku's back for a moment longer before pulling back awkwardly and applying slight pressure on Izuku's chest, gently pushing him away...
"Look- I'm sorry," Katsuki said as he looked to Izuku, an apologetically confused look in his crimson eyes, "do I know you? You seem like a wonderful person, and from how you reacted I'm sure we're close, but I just woke up a few hours ago and can barely remember my own name.."
Izuku stumbled back, taken slightly aback by Katsuki's words, his tears immediately coming to a pause in their seemingly never-ending flow.
"Wh- what?... no- Kacchan, it's me.. Iz- Deku? You- please..." Izuku said giving a desperate plea that what he was hearing was fake, that he was just messing with him...
"'Deku'? I'm sorry.. I don't think I know that name, is it a nickname or something? otherwise I don't know if I know you... I'm Katsuki Bakugo I think they said, but I'm not sure we know each other.. sorry..." Katsuki said, confusion in his words, "You're- You're... Izuku Midoriya, right? I think I heard the doctors mention that name. I- Izuku, I'm sure you're a wonderful person, and I'm sure we're close, but unfortunately I'm struggling to remember things about myself right now... so maybe once I can gather my thoughts we can talk again? I have a pretty bad headache right now..."
Izuku didn't know how to respond, he felt the tears that had paused threaten to spill yet again.. he took one last step back his mind wanting to say something to help Katsuki remember... but everything felt like it might be too much..
A doctor opened the door behind the boy and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Mr. Midoriya, can I speak with you for a moment?" The doctor asked as Katsuki sat there, an awkward smile of welcome as the doctor stepped in, in which he only gave a small nod with a faint smile in return.
"I- I..." Izuku tried to speak, but no words formed properly.
The doctor led Izuku out of Katsuki's room and into the hall, far enough to be out of earshot.
"So he really can't remember anything?" Izuku asked, brokenly trying to piece together the frayed idea of what was happening in his scattered mind.
"Unfortunately, yes. We've been able to help him remember basic things like his name, his quirk, first hand family members such as his parents, a couple of his cousins and such, and a few other things, but other than that we can't get him to remember anything else.." the doctor confirmed, his heart heavy with the truth, "While he's housed here at the hospital we'll try to help him remember basic things like education, social awareness, etcetera, but I'm afraid that's all we'll be able to help him with."
The gears in Izuku's mind grinding to process the doctors words...
"So it's up to me, my class, and his parents to help him remember?" Izuku asked as he processed everything, his tone flat and cold.
"Yes... I'm- so, truly sorry you have to go through this. Please, do try to take it slow though, too much at once could put pressure on his mental stability and we could lose all that's left of him..." The doctor warned, guilty for putting this burden on Izuku's shoulders, "I'm sorry you have to go through this... it's a shame such a young life is so lost in their mind-"
"I understand..." Izuku broke through brokenly, "I'll keep my distance and let him recover..."
"I-" the doctor started, wanting to protest and say that wasn't what they meant, but at the same time they thought that might help till further notice...
Weeks passed, Izuku tried to keep his distance before they were discharged back to the dorms. But no matter how far he tried to get it was almost as if Katsuki seeked him out.
There were countless times he and Katsuki bumped into each other in the cafeteria and halls, Katsuki claimed it was accidental, but Ozuku grew skeptical, and his skepticism onl6 grew after one incident in the hall
"Hey! Midoriya! Funny seeing you here!"
Izuku turned to see Katsuki whom was walking down thr hall, a faint line across his cheeks with small stitches across it. Scar. He's definitely not the only one with them. Midoriya himself had a large scar across his face from where a blow from AFO had hit him at the last minute during their fight at war, he could barely see out of his right eye.
"Well, I mean, we are in the same hospital, no?" Izuku said awkwardly, visibly tensing as he saw Katsuki and almost immediately wanted to leave, but still trying to sound nice and not seem rude.
"Ha! Guess you got a point there!" Katsuki said sitting down on the bench Izuku had been, great. Now he was stuck. Getting up and leaving would be rude. Welp. F--k it.
"I see you got you bandages taken off! That's good! Anyway, I wanted to ask you something," Katsuki said, an alien kind in his words, his expression so... so... genuine... and purely kind... it was so wrong...
"Sure, what's up?" Izuku asked, trying to hide the pain to his words as he got a good look at Katsuki's unbandaged face since... everything... it was so bittersweet...
"Well, it might be kinda sensitive, but I was wondering.." Katsuki paused for a moment, this felt like a hard topic, but he needed to know... "Did I... do something to you? Before? You seem to like me, but whenever we talk you seem to avoid me... did I say something to offend you? If so I really am sorry! I didn't mean to! And- we seem to have known each other before from how you reacted... so if I did something then I'm sorry, truly! I-"
Izuku couldn't take it anymore... why was he apologizing? That wasn't like him at all! He-...
Izuku stood up abruptly. His hands shaking as tears that he refused to let Katsuki see streaked his cheeks.
"I have to go- I- Sorry- I- uhh... I have an appointment... see- see you later-" he said as he walked off leaving Katsuki alone, he couldn't take it...
Finnaly, discharge day came, and Izuku and Katsuki were sent off home, they sat next to each other on the subway, and they walked next to each other on the way onto school grounds.
Oh yeah, graduation was coming up soon.
...
Too bad Katsuki wouldn't remember anything from their first year...
They were a few miles from school grounds, and the tension between the two—weather it was awkward silence or unspoken uncomfort—was suffocatingly thick...
Katsuki went to say something to break the silence, but no words came to, and he gave up on it.
They got to the dorms and everyone had prepared a big party, they walked through the doors, Izuku awkwardly opening the door for Katsuki whose one arm was still in a cast while the other held his bag, and they were met with a loud
"Welcome home House Arrest Boys!!"
And countless questions from excited classmates.
Izuku said hello and answeard a few questions from his friends before he drifted away to a corner as he watched everyone excitedly greet Katsuki
...
... How did he tell them what was happening?...