Chapter Text
Izuku fell from the sky, exhaustion starting to set heavy in his bones. He had pushed himself in the fight with Lady Nagant, but that was necessary. In order for things to turn out okay, he had to push and push, he had to overexert himself. He glanced over to the figure of Lady Nagant and Hawks, a small smile on his face as he saw that they landed safely.
His own landing, however.
A sharp pain erupted in his shoulder and the back of his head as he collided with the pavement, his head hitting the hard surface as he rolled. Izuku knew he was probably concussed now, but it was fine, he’d be fine.
He had to be fine.
The boy drew a sharp breath in, taking a moment before standing up, wobbling on his feet with his knees weak underneath him before he stood up properly. He heard the voices of All Might and the top three heroes, but it sounded so far away from him right now.
Green curls shook slightly as he looked around, trying to read the lips of all the different people around him. It seemed that Best Jeanist, Endeavor, and Hawks were preoccupied with Lady Nagant, the slight lightness in his chest returning as he saw her getting the treatment she very much needed.
“Young Midoriya!” All Might’s voice finally broke through, the sounds around him starting to come back as he looked at him, his head tilted a little to the side, completely unaware of how injured he looked. “You’re injured, come on.”
All Might’s voice was soothing, it made him think of home. He missed home. The boy blinked a few times before shaking his head, holding his hands up defensively, “I need to keep moving, I’ll get away from here before I get medical attention, but I promise I’ll get it,” Izuku plastered a too-fake smile to his face as he spoke to the ex number one hero.
The blonde blinked in confusion, opening his mouth to dismiss the boy's words but Izuku put a stop to it as he held a hand up and spoke again, “Nothings broken, I’ll be okay. There’s too many of us in one area. It’ll be safer for all of us if I put distance between the top three and myself. You know it's true.”
A shudder made its way through his body, he was starting to get cold. That wasn’t good. He didn’t wait for All Might to reply before he started walking away from the scene, going closer to the buildings to blend in with the shadows, “I’ll be okay, All Might. I’ll send the signal on the radio once I get treatment, should be an hour tops,” he threw another plastered smile onto his lips before he disappeared into the shadows.
He honestly didn’t know where he was going. There was no plan, he was injured badly, he was bleeding pretty severely too. If his mental calculations were right (which they might not be due to his concussion), he had about an hour before anything particularly life-threatening happened.
A sigh left his mouth as he grabbed the rope from his pack that he had some point collected (he hadn’t remembered doing that, memory loss after a concussion was bad usually). He leaned onto the wall, tying a somewhat loose tourniquet around his right leg. He moved to collect gauze next, pressing it into his abdominal wound and the large cut on his left arm. After a few seconds they stuck because of the blood.
A full body shudder made its way to the surface as he pressed gauze into the spot where his head hurt, grimacing as he pulled his hand away. He rubbed his hands off on the pants part of the costume before pulling both his mask and mouth guard over his face.
His feet seemed to be moving in ways that he didn’t know, his grip on reality slipping slowly as he wandered the streets. Danger Sense would warn him if anything was coming his way, he was sure of it, he trusted the past holders and their Quirks.
***
The dorms were quieter now, after the fight in Jaku the once lively atmosphere of the dorms had died out. Deku leaving hadn’t helped at all, at first it was waiting for the nerd to wake up, and then once he did he had run off.
A sigh left Katsuki’s lips as he peered at the note in his hands. The note now had crumpled edges and small tears that had been taped over, if someone were to squint at it, they would be able to see the slight bleeding of ink due to tears that fell onto the paper as he read it night after night.
He inhaled deeply as he looked at the letter once again, his eyes glancing over to the clock above his bed, the red letters glaring back at him as the clock read 12:00AM. A dull sadness setting into his psyche.
It was midnight now, which meant that it was April 20th. Katsuki’s birthday. And it would be the first one that Deku missed.
His eyes found the note again, being sure to focus his eyes even through the cloudiness of unshed tears.
Katsuki,
A soft noise made its way through his lips, Deku had never once called him Katsuki. The nerd had always said “Kacchan” this and “Kacchan” that. One time when he was really mad, he had resorted to a very stern and upset sounding “Bakugou”, but never Katsuki, never his given name.
Even though he had read it so many times by now, the one word alone brought him to tears. Katsuki had read some of the other extra’s letters, they all sounded hopeful, they explained everything.
His letter was different.
I don’t even know if I could say any of this to your face, but I have to thank you. Without you, I would never have become the person that I am today, I would never have become the hero that I’ve become. You’ve always made me stronger, Katsuki. Even through those years you hated me, you still pushed me to do better. I had to explain my quirk to everyone… I kind of wish it was still our secret. I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to you, I know you’re going to be mad, but I needed to. I had to leave, Katsuki, please believe me. To protect UA and our class; to protect you. I needed to leave. When I come back, we can be the wonder duo or whatever they’ll brand us. Maybe we could even get Todoroki in on it, we could be the wonder trio, or actually, you come up with a better name for us. I’ll find a way back home, Katsuki. One way or another, I’ll find my way back home.
There wasn’t even a name signed. His letter was the shortest, he knew that logically it was because he had already known about All Might and One for All, he knew all the secrets everyone was getting clued into late in the game. But he still expected more. More of a goodbye, more of a promise to come back, just… more.
Katsuki had been many things in his life, a liar was one of the many things that made up the main portion of his personality. Not that he ever tried to lie, he just hated people knowing about his feelings and his weaknesses, and that cover up, more often than not, meant lying so people wouldn’t find out.
The biggest lie that he had told himself was that he hated Deku.
Even if it was the most convincing lie he always told both himself and everyone else, the green mess of curls always knew better, he could always see right through Katsuki, and even stayed. Despite everything, Deku always stayed.
And now that he was gone, Katsuki felt his iron grip on his mask slipping.
Without Deku he wasn’t himself. He had spent so long pushing him away, running away, hurting him to make him be scared and hate him that he never took into account how he would feel once the other finally ran away.
Now that he was gone, Katsuki just didn’t know anymore. Anytime he ever looked over his shoulder, Deku and his shining happy eyes were always there, and when they weren’t it’s because they were beside him or in front of him. There was never a point before that Katsuki existed and Deku wasn’t there.
“Damnit, nerd,” he whispered out, dropping the note before he balled his fists, taking a deep breath in. He couldn’t cry. He was going to be the best, and in order to do that, he couldn’t cry. But, right now, in this moment, with this guilt, it seemed to be the only thing he knew how to do.
The blond closed his eyes and leaned his head back, trying to even back his breathing when a loud clang of metal-on-metal disrupted his thought process. He sat up straight and raised his arms defensively, his palms starting to heat up as small pops danced in them. It was a warning for whatever or whoever might be there.
His phone lit up next to them, he glanced at it while listening for more noises.
[IcyHot Extreme] : Are you okay?
[IcyHot Extreme] : There was a loud bang that sounded like it came from your porch.
[IcyHot Extreme] : You know what. Nevermind, I’m coming down.
[IcyHot Extreme] : Don’t do anything stupid until I get there.
Katsuki sighed and rolled his eyes as he raised off the bed, a slight shuffle sounding on his balcony as he froze again. He waited another moment before lowering one of his hands, using it to pull his curtain back to get a good look at whatever was out there.
A crumpled looking mass was the only thing that seemed to be out there, he blinked in confusion as his eyes tried adjusting more, the storm outside making it harder.
The mass moved as he popped more small warning sparks in his palm. It was definitely a person.
What the hell was a person doing on his balcony and how the fuck did they get to be four stories high from outside. Not that it was exactly uncommon for the students to use the balconies as a way of transportation to other rooms, but for a stranger to be doing it put a sick feeling in his stomach.
When the form moved again, he saw it. A tattered and torn bunny ear and the glint of a metal mouth guard.
Shit.
He threw open the sliding glass door, the wind immediately smacking into his figure and making him shiver. Damn, he hated the cold. Katsuki collected the mass in his arms before pulling him inside and closing the sliding glass door, placing the figure on his bed.
“What is that ?” Todoroki’s voice halted his tunnel vision as he looked up towards his door, not having heard the other enter, “I had to tell everyone I was checking on you and that the noise was probably just something blown up to the balconies from the storm. That’s why it took me so long.”
The dual color haired boy turned around to lock the door before looking back towards Katsuki and the tattered figure that laid on his bed, squinting his eyes to try to see what exactly was there, “Go into the bathroom and bring out the whole bottom drawer, just take it out of the cabinet and bring it here, and turn the lights on, but don’t look until after you’ve got the drawer,” he instructed carefully, his voice sounding too level, even for himself. “Now, Todoroki.”
He heard a sharp intake of breath before the darkened figure by his door seemed to nod, turning towards the bathroom before switching the lights on.
Immediately, Katsuki wanted to look at the person on his bed, he needed to. But he was scared to have his worst fears confirmed, but he needed to be sure.
Slowly, he turned his head and looked at the mess of a boy on the bed, his suit torn in several places, the mud and blood seeming to make it a darker green than it already was because of the rain. His breath caught in his throat as relief spread through his body, he could see Deku breathing, but it was shallow and slow, but at least he was breathing.
“Don’t look until you’ve placed the drawer down too,” Katsuki added, glancing back towards the open bathroom door, a sound of metal popping out of its tracking in the cabinet before Todoroki emerged.
There was a somewhat worried look on his face, not that Katsuki could really tell, but there was a slight creasing in his eyebrows that gave it away, “What do you even need all this stuff for?” Todoroki asked as he approached the bed, placing the box down next to Katsuki before going on, “Did an animal or something get in-”
Katsuki observed the other boy carefully as he opened his eyes, his previous joke dying on his tongue as he saw Deku lying there. “He needs our help,” Katsuki spoke softly, turning his attention to the drawer next to him.
He pulled out several rolls of gauze and a sewing kit, taking a deep breath before he looked back towards the almost unmoving figure on his bed. Katsuki slowly took the mouth guard off before peeling the mask off of the green hair boy’s face, the bags under his eyes and the almost translucently pale complexion speaking volumes to just how hurt he was.
His eyes fluttered aggressively as he tried to clear the blurriness in them, moving to take Deku’s suit off with almost practiced precision, he wouldn’t admit it, but he’d watched the nerd in the dressing room out of his peripheral vision far too many times to know exactly how to both put on and take off the now beaten hero costume.
As he pulled the sleeves down and the costume pooled around Deku’s waist, his breath caught in his throat once more. He swore he could taste the acid of bile in the back of his throat as he was greeted with a scarred and bruised chest, his vision hastily making its way to the gunshot wound on the lower left side of his body, the soaked gauze stuck to his skin.
“I should get Aizawa,” Todoroki’s voice seemed distant from beside him, the other boy having not moved since he opened his eyes and first saw what exactly Katsuki had dragged in from his balcony, “I should really grab…” he trailed off, probably knowing that the explosive blond would have shot his idea down.
Katsuki looked at him, his voice cracking as he spoke, “Help me see if this is a through and through shot,” the dual haired boy nodded before he even had to repeat himself, going to the other side of Katsuki and gently helping him sustain the somewhat upright position that the blond had gotten him into.
He shook his head once before going to peel the used gauze off of the wound, his vermillion eyes caught sight of the wound on his arm, but that could be dealt with later. “It is,” Todoroki said, the foreign sound of emotion seeping into his voice - he sounded almost relieved - “It’s through and through.”
A breath that he hadn’t known he was holding left his lips as he passed Todoroki a roll of gauze, “Put this on it for now before helping me lay him back down,” he waited for the other boy to be done before he grabbed the sewing kit, easily threading the needle.
His body moved on autopilot as he cleaned and prepped Deku to get stitched up.
He didn’t like to admit it, but he was pretty good at stitching himself up. After many years of falling out of trees and into rivers, getting bumps and cuts that he didn’t want to explain to his parents, he learned how to fix himself.
He always knew that the only person he could fully trust was himself, anyway.
Well, himself and Deku.
But, he knew better, he knew that Deku would never feel safe with him, and would never trust him completely after everything. He deserved it, it hurt, but he deserved it after everything that he had done to the smaller boy. Plus wasn’t that the whole point?
“If you hurt him, he won’t be so eager to run after you. If you push him away, he won’t chase after you anymore. If you make yourself hate him, then he’ll never see how weak you are - especially how weak you are for him - isn’t that right, Katsuki?” The menacing voice in his head spoke to him for years like that, it was only almost after he lost everything, after he almost lost both himself and Deku that he stopped listening to it.
He had heard stories, Todoroki had told him on more than one occasion in the past 20 days about how distraught Deku had been when he was taken by the league, about how his yell haunted not only his dreams, but the other people’s who were there as well. How after just barely getting out of the hospital, only days after shattering himself, he had made a plan to try to save him with the help of Kirishima and Todoroki himself.
“You can’t die on me nerd, you fucking hear that? You can’t fucking leave me again,” He gritted out, stealing glances at the mess of curls as he stitched up his side, using his teeth to help himself tie a tight enough knot. “Help me flip him, IcyHot.”
A tension that he hadn’t noticed before seemed to leave Todoroki’s shoulders as he used the nickname, the boy nodding quickly as he moved to turn the frail body under them. The gauze had done a good job of stanching the blood, he nodded again as Todoroki moved away.
“I’ll be right back, I’m not getting anyone, I’m just getting a book from upstairs, you’ll understand once I get it,” His even and emotionless tone had returned as the dual quirk user moved swiftly to the door, unlocking it before leaving.
Katsuki blinked a couple times in confusion before pulling particularly hard on a stitch. God, could he do anything right just once without hurting the nerd?
A pained groan distracted him from his thoughts as his attention was brought to Deku, who was blinking a few times.
There was a far away, unfocused look in his eyes, the green haired boy smiled softly as his eyes fell shut again, panic rising in Katsuki’s chest.
“Izuku!” His voice came out almost desperate as he moved back to look right at him, relief flooded his system as the green eyed beauty opened his eyes again.
Now where the hell did using his given name come from.
A sort of huff escaped Deku’s lips as his eyes finally caught his own, the smile on his face widening a little, “Kacchan?” The broken boy whispered.
Katsuki quickly nodded, leaning back onto his thighs as he maintained eye contact with Deku, trying to make sure he was opening his eyes again after every blink. “It’s me, nerd. Now stay still and stay awake while I finish up your stitches. IcyHot will be here in a few minutes to help.”
Deku nodded a little as he closed his eyes again, a breath went by and then another before he opened his eyes, a scared look in them. “My leg,” his voice was weak, but it was there. “I got shot in my leg too.”
***
He didn’t know where he was, or maybe he did? The surroundings seemed familiar enough even if he couldn’t consciously recognize it. Before he could even register what was going on, he felt One for All charge in his veins, and then he was jumping into the air, grabbing desperately onto metal and throwing himself over it.
He stuck the landing, but his victory feeling didn’t last long as his legs gave out under him, the side of his mask clanging off of a metal bar, luckily it protected his face from becoming more battered.
Izuku smiled to himself as he laid on the ground, the storm outside seeming to pick up. He didn’t know where he was, but at least he felt safe.
He closed his eyes.
The next time he opened his eyes, he felt warmer, and dry. He couldn’t really tell what was going on, he couldn’t even see, but he still had that safe feeling in his gut, and that was enough for him.
A smile crept on his face as he let the warmth surround him again.
His bliss was shaken seconds later when he heard a faint and distant ”Izuku!”
Who was calling him?
The voice itself sounded familiar, but he couldn’t tell who it - wait.
Puzzle pieces started connecting in his brain as he tried to get his eyes to focus, connecting with the eyes of the fantasy in front of him, “Kacchan?” He asked warily.
If he wasn’t sure he was concussed before, he definitely was sure now, it was mean of his brain though, to make him hallucinate Kacchan like that. As far as he knew, Kacchan was still in the hospital, still healing after being wounded because he took a hit that was meant for Izuku himself. And that was looking at the bright side of things.
The One for All holder couldn’t even begin to fathom the other possibility.
Then, the Kacchan next to him was talking more, and he tried so hard to focus and listen, but the throbbing of his head and the deep set pain in his bones hurt so much. He blinked a few times, trying to push everything in his mind to the back so he could just focus on the words that this imaginary Kacchan was telling him.
“It’s me…” His attention was already starting to fade, stupidly enough, “stay still…” that sounded easy enough, possibly, “finish…” finish what, exactly? His head was spinning already as he attempted to focus more on the words, “minutes to help.”
He nodded to show that he had been listening, stay still and someone would be here soon, that’s all he really gathered, but it was simple enough. He trusted the illusion enough.
The gears in his mind started working again as he saw flashes of the fight, he could feel someone attending to the wound on his abdomen, but his legs still felt cold and wet, probably from the rain, “My leg,” he started, inhaling deeply, “I got shot in my leg too.”
He heard muttered curses next to him as his abdomen wound was attended to once more, a harsh tug on the wound drew a pained sob out of his mouth.
Since when did he sound so pathetic? Has he been crying the whole time? He couldn’t tell anymore, the only thing he could even fathom right now was pain.
Izuku found Kacchan’s eyes again, he seemed clearer now, it seemed as if clarity was slowly returning to him, “Can I take the rest of your suit off?” The Kacchan in front of him said, a look on his face that Izuku has never ever seen before.
A wide smile found it’s way on his face as he let out a wet laugh, “At least… at least take me on a date first,” he joked, something similar to a smile flashed on Kacchan’s face for a millisecond before it disappeared again, “But yeah, how else are you going to heal me?” he questioned.
Kacchan gave him an unreadable look before he helped Izuku lay on his back, several loud whimpers and broken sobs made their way past his lips as he lay down. There were two pairs of hands on him now, but he didn’t know who else was there.
He twisted his hips slightly as Kacchan pulled his costume the rest of the way off, a whine as he moved his head, “Fuck,” he slurred out, laying back down completely and twisting his eyes shut.
“Midoriya? What hurts?” he could identify this voice as Todoroki, when had he gotten there? Well, it explained the second pair of hands on him.
He turned his head a little and moved his hand with crooked fingers up to touch the area of impact, a hiss coming from his mouth, “Hit it when I fell from the sky…” he didn’t need to see the faces of the other two to know that they were upset with that answer, the silence did all of the talking for them.
He heard Todoroki say something, but couldn’t exactly discern the words that were spoken before he felt the most gentle touch on the back of his head, observing the wound.
That was when the darkness started seeping into the edge of his vision again and for the first time he noticed that his body seemed alarmingly cold and numb.
No.
He couldn’t end like this, he couldn’t kill All Might’s legacy like this without succeeding his goal.
He needed-
He didn’t know what he needed as Todoroki moved his head to make him look at him, his mouth moved, but all Izuku could hear was distant speaking that he couldn’t make out.
“Kacchan,” his voice was weak as he spoke, he was fairly sure that the boy that he thought was a hallucination, was indeed not. And if he wasn’t, then Izuku had to do something.
What was that something?
“Kacchan,” he repeated, vermillion eyes finally finding his own, in that one moment, everything became clear in his head.
He was injured, nearly gravely so. He was injured, low on stamina, low on health, his immune system was either incredibly strong, or incredibly weak right now and he couldn’t tell. But here he was, laying in the UA dorms, with Kacchan and Todoroki trying to patch him up the best they could.
He didn’t know if he was going to make it, and his brain was too scrambled to run the numbers and the probabilities. He needed assurance that One for All was going to live past him, especially right now, especially as Shigaraki geared up for the final battle.
Kacchan looked at him, a feeling that Izuku could now identify as worry painted on his face, “I need…” he breathed up, crooked fingers going up to his hair again, pulling a hair from the top of his head, hoping to whatever power above that the strand didn’t have blood on it. “I need you to take it, to… to protect it.”
The look that crossed Kacchan’s face in those few seconds made his heart twist painfully in his chest, Kacchan looked absolutely betrayed at that moment.
“No,” the blond replied simply, his face contorting into the angry scowl that Izuku was much more familiar with.
“What’s he talking about, Bakugou?” Todoroki’s voice was to his side again, but he didn’t dare look away from Kacchan.
He collected his breath and his last remaining strength, fighting away the darkness that was slowly consuming his vision, “I need you to protect it…” he whispered, extending the strand to the other, “Katsuki,” the name left his lips quicker than he could even stop himself, the anger on the other’s face growing more noticeable.
Kacchan made a nearly feral sound as he swatted the hair out of his hand, Izuku watching as it got lost on the floor, “I said no, shitty nerd!” his voice carried, the nickname making him upturn his lips in a smile.
Izuku knew he couldn’t pass it to Todoroki, that he couldn’t burden him if he did die. He didn’t want to burden Kacchan either, but at least Kacchan knew. At least he’d know what had to be done, and one day, maybe, he’d understand.
“Katsuki,” he whispered. He was never good at lying, but right now, he needed to, this had to be done. As sick as it made him, as hurt as he felt, he knew deep down it needed to be done. And if he lived? Then Kacchan could just pass it back to him. “I can’t… hear you, come closer,” he hoped that was convincing enough.
Apparently it was because Kacchan got in his face and began to repeat himself, “I said -” Izuku cut him off as he leaned forward, connecting his lips to Katsuki’s. He had never kissed anyone before, but this assured him, this was what had to be done. And if he could apologize for it later, he would.
He brushed his tongue against the blond’s ”Take it, protect it for me, Katsuki,” he thought as he pulled away, catching his frozen wide-eyed starstruck look.
A laugh made it’s way past his lips as he laid back down, blinking heavily as the tiredness closed in around him again.
“You can give it back later,” he whispered out, hoping that he actually said it aloud before the unconsciousness swallowed him whole.
***
Todoroki had appeared soon after he left, a medical textbook in hand as he sat down next to Katsuki, flipping it open as he scanned the table of contents, “The fuck is that for, IcyHot?”
The taller boy rolled his eyes as he looked for a specific page, “My brother is planning on being a surgeon, I stole one of his textbooks this past winter break because I thought it might come in handy. And look, it has indeed become handy,” Todoroki deadpanned, scanning the section he flipped to.
Katsuki scoffed before he spoke, “Can you help me turn him over? I need to get this tourniquet off of him and the costume so I can inspect his leg.”
The dual quirk user didn’t make any sort of affirming sounds as he placed the textbook down and got in position to help Katsuki begin repositioning Deku. He forced his mind to block out the sounds that the boy under him was making, scared that if he focused too much that they’d break him.
After Deku was settled again, he untied the tourniquet and quickly took the rest of his costume off, trying to halt the smaller from moving too much. But, of course, in traditional Midoriya Izuku fashion, he had to move.
The second gunshot wound didn’t seem as bad, it was through and through, but went through the side of his thigh, far away from any major arteries, but it most likely screwed with his tendons and muscles. He’d be okay though.
“Fuck,” the slurred sound coming from Deku startled Katsuki, never once had he ever heard Deku curse, but here he was. Part of him wanted to be proud, but the other part, the majority of him, was becoming even more terrified because just what exactly had made Deku curse?
“Midoriya? What hurts?” Todoroki asked, which if you asked Katsuki, was the absolute dumbest fucking question. Everything probably hurts right now.
He was surprised as Deku tilted his head away, his uninjured hand going to a dark portion of his green hair, “Hit it when I fell from the sky…” his speech was slurred still, but it made sense now. He glanced at Todoroki, seeing his face fall at that revelation.
Katsuki blinked his eyes aggressively again as he worked on Deku’s thigh, stitching it up nicely before moving to the cut on his left arm, “We should get him to Recovery Girl. She might not be awake, but even using the thing’s she has would be better. My brother is on campus too, I could bring him with, he’d stay quiet and help us,” for once, Todoroki’s words seemed panicked and scared.
Katsuki was reflecting those very same feelings.
“Okay, okay, that’s a good idea. Can you go get the shower curtain from my shower? The plastic one, it’ll help keep both him and I dry as we move him, text your brother to meet us at the clinic in 5 minutes,” Todoroki nodded as he got up and disappeared into the bathroom again.
“Kacchan,” he heard the weak voice say, had Izuku been calling for him and he didn’t even notice? His eyes found the shiny, but vacant looking emerald one’s that Izuku had.
He sat there, unmoving as Izuku seemed to think, “I need…” he started, his eyes flickering as his hand moved again, eyes following it up to his head and - no . “I need you to take it, to protect it,” the words came out so soft that he didn’t even know if the bastard that had returned next to him heard them. He hoped that he didn’t.
A deep feeling of worry and utter betrayal settled in his stomach. Izuku was giving up. Izuku was trying to pass One for All down to him. He was trying to give up and pass the burden onto him, he would take any burden for Izuku, but he couldn’t give up. Midoriya Izuku could not give up on his dream. “No.”
Todoroki seemed to have heard that exchange because the next words he registered were “What’s he talking about, Bakugou?” of course IcyHot didn’t know, of course he hadn’t put the right dots together. In the few weeks without Izuku, he had heard the dumbest conspiracy theories from Todoroki, the dual haired boy seeming to enjoy his ‘Midoriya is All Might’s secret lovechild’ theory the most.
“Wouldn’t you like to fucking know, half n’half?” he spat out, keeping his eyes focused on Izuku.
“Actually, I would.”
Todoroki’s words were cut off by Izuku speaking again, “I need you to protect it,” a beat went by, “Katsuki.”
There it was, out in the air.
Izuku had called him by his given name.
All those nights of reading his own stupid fucking name on that letter, imagining how it would sound from the nerds lips accumulated to this - to that very nerd saying it while begging him to take his power from him, to make him quirkless again.
An acidic feeling of bile made its presence known in the back of his throat again as his stomach churned uncomfortably.
Izuku’s strand of hair was right in front of his face now, One for All, literally a mere centimeter away from his very being.
The anger that he had been scaling back finally broke out as he shoved the hand away, the hair being lost to the floor as his voice came out much louder than he intended it to be, “I said no, shitty nerd!”
A once familiar nickname left regret on his lips as soon as he let it slip out, but he couldn’t stop now. He couldn’t let himself be seen as weak or scared right now.
Right now, all Izuku needed him to be was strong, he was sure of it.
“Katsuki,” his name left the smaller boy’s mouth again and his heart clenched and skipped a beat all at once, “I can’t… hear you, come closer,” he whispered as a false sense of relief settled for a moment.
Izuku hadn’t heard the crude nickname, but the fact that he couldn’t hear made the laceration on the back of his head all the more concerning.
Katsuki leaned forward, getting in his face just like old times, his voice coming out just as loud as said old times too, “I said-”
And then he was stopped.
His eyes opened up wider as he felt Izuku’s lips on his own, not daring to blink. It wasn’t a great kiss, but it was beyond good enough. And when he felt Izuku’s tongue on his own, he started to kiss back, lulled into a false haziness due to all of the feelings surrounding him in that very moment.
As Izuku pulled away, all Katsuki could do was stare at him, “You can give…” Izuku’s voice trailed off as his words slurred together, eyes shutting as he motionless on the bed, save for his chest moving to show that he was breathing.
What the fuck.
What the absolute fuck was that?
He swallowed thickly, glancing at Todoroki who avoided eye contact like the plague. He aggressively grabbed the shower curtain from him before shaking his head and shoving it back in his hands, and picking up Izuku instead.
“Put the shower curtain over all three of us, lets fucking go,” he grit out, voice stiff as he looked at the pale boy in his arms before starting to walk.
They used the stairs that no one seemed to ever actually use, going out the backdoor and staying in the shadows where they hoped one of the surveillance robots couldn’t identify and report them.
“So,” Todoroki started, and frankly, Katsuki was already beyond done with this conversation. “Are we going to talk about what just happened?”
No. That's what he wanted his answer to be anyway, but suddenly his memory recalled the fact that Todoroki had questioned what Izuku meant when he plucked the hair from his head and offered it to the blond.
“Did you not understand anything about the letter he left?” Katsuki grunted out instead, maybe if they talked about All Might and One for All, Todoroki would forget about the kiss that he and Izuku shared.
Todoroki thought for a moment and readjusted the curtain, “He got his power from All Might, from what I can recall. It never specified how, but I’m guessing it has to do with eating hair?”
Katsuki actually snorted at that theory. It was true that the exact method All Might had used was that one, but it wasn’t quite right either. “Kind of. It’s with DNA, one holder needs to pass the quirk through DNA. Hair is an easy way, if both parties had open cuts, blood too,” saliva as well, the words died on his tongue.
The taller one nodded as they approached the entrance of Recovery Girl’s clinic, a figure with white hair and an umbrella already waiting there for them.
“Saliva too, I’m guessing? He probably knew that you wouldn’t take it any other way. You’re stubborn like that,” Todoroki trailed off, leaving only the patter of rain against the shower curtain to fill the air before he spoke up again, “He told you to protect it though, so I don’t think that means he’s going to give it up. He just… needed to make sure that nothing happened to it.”
For once, Todoroki was making a lot of sense, maybe what Izuku had meant to say was You can give it back, yeah, he hoped that it was that.
Katsuki nodded as they got closer to Natsuo, “Don’t fucking tell anyone.”
Todoroki nodded once before looking at his brother, “Open the door, Natsuo. “I’ll show you where everything is once we put him on one of the beds.”
Katsuki followed after them quietly, his arms tightening against the limp Izuku he was holding.
***
Morning was starting to set in now, Katsuki leaned back in his chair as he waited. The Todoroki brothers had been attending to Izuku for hours now.
At some point, the youngest Todoroki had left, claiming that he was going to go clean up Katsuki’s room so that when Aizawa did rounds in an hour or two that he wouldn’t see the bloody mess that was left on Katsuki’s floor.
He was also painfully aware that a security robot had indeed reported them to Recovery Girl for coming into the clinic, but when she came in, the older Todoroki brother whisked her away to the secluded room that Katsuki had found to put Izuku in.
He hadn’t seen either of them since.
It gave him time to think though. Too much time.
To think about this kiss that he and Izuku shared, to think about how out of all people, or at the very least out of him and Todoroki, Izuku had picked him to hold One for All.
He reached into himself, feeling as if fire was lit in his veins as the energy markings he many times on Izuku danced on his skin, a red-ish orange lightning surrounding his arm before he let the power slip through his hands.
Izuku had actually done it.
He actually had passed One for All to Katsuki.
The revelation of that was enough to push Katsuki over the edge as he ran to the public restroom in the clinic and emptied his stomach into the toilet, a loud sob falling from his mouth as he sat on the floor. He clutched his sweatpants in his palms as he leaned over the toilet bowl, his mask finally breaking as he cried.
Katsuki didn’t know how long it was until he exited the bathroom, settling back down into his seat with red puffy eyes.
The opening of the clinic door called for his attention as he saw an extremely exhausted looking Aizawa, “Where is he?” he called to Katsuki, the student only being able to point in the direction, not trusting himself to speak.
His teacher nodded once before bringing his phone out and exiting the clinic again.
It seemed almost instantaneous as Aizawa left and Recovery Girl emerged from the hallway, a tired look on her face. Katsuki immediately rose and stared at her, panic settling in.
“He suffered a fair amount of injuries, only two were bad, but I used what little stamina he had to heal up his head wound. He’ll be concussed for a few days, but he’ll be okay,” her words nearly brought him to tears once again. He’d be okay. “He’ll be here for two days before I give him another session of healing and we move him to a different hospital. We’re going to have to move him around a couple times until he’s fully healed, but it shouldn’t take more than a week.”
Katsuki let out a breath as he nodded, letting tears fall down his cheeks, “And Bakugou,” Recovery Girl started. Damn. He almost got out of this relatively unscathed. He had expected a lecture, but he clearly wasn’t in the proper state to receive one, “Your stitches, they were well done. They saved his life.”
His whole word stopped in that moment.
He saved Izuku’s life.
Katsuki had saved him and he’d be okay.
“Go see him before the drowsiness kicks in again, the only thing he’s asked for when he’s been awake is you.”
He didn’t have to be told twice as he ran down the hallway, throwing open the door that he had picked out several hours earlier.
Izuku looked at Katsuki like he had hung the fucking moon his goddamn self, a wide smile on his face, “Kacchan, you came…” tears welled up in his green eyes, and for once, Katsuki didn’t mind it in the slightest.
“I came, nerd. Of course,” he whispered, settling down in the seat next to the hospital bed, “Do you want-”
His question got interrupted by a sputtering red Izuku, “I-I’m sorry I kissed you! I just, I knew you wouldn’t take it otherwise, and I needed to be sure and I trust you, Kacchan. I thought to myself that if I was going to give my quirk to anyone in the world that I would want it to be you because you deserve it an you would know what to do with it and you know about all of the complications that come with it, you’re the only one I could ever dream of giving it to, and-”
“You’re mumbling again, nerd,” Katsuki stated, a soft smile on his face. It’s not that he didn’t like the praise he was getting, but he surely didn’t feel like he deserved it.
Izuku became more flushed - which honestly was relieving for Katsuki who had seen him as pale as a sheet, “You’ll have to give me two days before I can take it back, I need to go through another healing session before I trust myself with it again, so keep it safe in the meantime,” Izuku muttered, looking anywhere but at Katsuki, “Please.”
Katsuki gave a soft laugh, something he doesn’t think he’s ever done before, his nerves finally getting under control, “I’ll keep it safe,” he agreed easily.
“Oh and,” Izuku got a dumb look on his face before he spoke again, “It’s the 20th, right? Happy birthday, Katsuki.”
Katsuki’s heart skipped a beat as he nodded, he could tell that his face was about as flushed as a ripe tomato in that moment. “Thanks, nerd,” he mumbled out.
A comfortable silence fell upon the two as Izuku started getting more tired from the healing that he just underwent.
“Hey, Izuku?” Katsuki mumbled, breaking the moment and calling the curly green haired boy’s attention. “You don’t have to do this alone anymore…” he inhaled deeply as he reached out, hesitantly holding Izuku’s left hand, “I’m here to help you.”
Izuku stared at him with an expression that he couldn’t identify, but maybe it was something close to admiration or adoration. “I’ll keep that in mind, yeah.”
It was silent again before Katsuki decided to break it once again, “Save to win.”
“Win to save.”
They smiled at each other and nodded, Izuku squeezing Katsuki’s hand before bringing it to his chest and over his heart, allowing the blond to feel the heartbeat as Izuku fell asleep. Not long after, Katsuki, leaning his head onto the hospital bed, fell asleep too, still holding Izuku’s hand.