So Much Worse Than A Phantom Limb

He was trying to ignore the second point. After all, maybe he'd texted his nerd squad instead.

Aizawa dragged himself into the classroom at the twenty-minute mark. Iida even started to scold him until he recognized the haggard set of the teacher's face. He looked even worse than usual.

"Midoriya was involved in a villain attack. He is currently in the hospital. No one is permitted to see him—" he paused, eyes sliding to Katsuki who tensed immediately. "Except you. His mother requested your presence specifically."

Katsuki, who had gone deathly still, nodded once.

"Excuse me, but why him?" Uraraka asked, voice saccharine but shaded with disbelief and annoyance. "They can't even be in the same room together without fighting."

"It's what Mrs. Midoriya requested, and therefore the final answer. If I hear that any of you try to see Midoriya against his family's wishes, you will be immediately expelled." He stated, dark glare cutting across the room to the most likely perpetrators.

"Sensei," Bakugou called his attention back. "Do you mind if I call my mother to make sure she knows? Auntie shouldn't be alone in the hospital until I'm done with classes." Katsuki spoke, face carefully blank—almost bored to a careless observer. Aizawa was not a careless observer. He took in the rigid set of his shoulders and tight press of his lips and clenched fists and paling features and read the fear and concern in his student like an open book. After months of observing his two most problematic problem children, it wasn't a surprise to him. The rest of the class, however, seemed shocked that he even had a considerate bone in his body.

"Of course. Take your time." Aizawa gestured to the door, and Katsuki hurried out, ignoring the shock on his friends' faces or Uraraka's steely stare.

He was hooked up to a ventilator. There were dark purple bruises under his eyes. Katsuki had seen him less than three days ago, and now he was in a hospital. Hell, his mother had seen him healthy less than 10 hours ago, and he already looked emaciated and pale.

Something was seriously wrong.

Aizawa was with them, discussing the minutiae of Deku's clearly serious quirk incident. He wasn't listening, because Deku was so still and quiet that if it weren't for the monitor, Katsuki would think he was dead.

Dead.

An intrusive picture flitted across the back of his mind—an image of what life would be like without Deku. He shoved it aside.

He couldn't think about it. Not in front of Auntie Inko.

But then he finally heard what the adults were saying. Took in every detail about what was wrong with Deku. And he thought about it anyway.

There was a buzzing under his skin and a tightness in his chest. Lesser mortals would call it panic—or maybe terror. But he was the strong one. He didn't even panic when he'd been kidnapped. If he panicked now, everyone else would break.

He didn't have that luxury, but he supposed that was the price of being the strongest. Only one person could handle the full weight of his fears.

He could panic when Deku woke up.

A fucking coma.

On Friday, the nerd left to see his mom for the weekend. On Monday, he was in a goddamn coma.

With a concussion.

And two skull fractures.

And a shattered tibia.

AND under the effects of an unknown but obviously deadly poisoning quirk.

Thankfully, Aizawa had been there and had gotten that information first hand, so he wasn't responsible for relaying it. Unfortunately, the eighteen other idiots he lived with didn't see it that way.

"Any news?" Eijiro asked him before he'd even taken his shoes off.

"His medical care is confidential. Fuck off, Shitty Hair." He grumbled, beelining for the kitchen where every-fucking-one else was waiting. He bit back a growl of sheer frustration and exhaustion and powered through. He needed to eat like...six hours ago.

"Bakugou! How's Deku doing?" Uraraka called as soon as he was in sight.

"Fuck off, Round Face." He grunted, grabbing his leftovers from the fridge and slamming the door behind him.

"C'mon! If you're the only one who's allowed to see him, you gotta tell us how he's doing!" She insisted, crowding him.

He's fucking dying. He thought vitriolically. And there's nothing I can do. "I don't have to tell you shit. Get the fuck away from me." He snapped, moving to stalk past her.

She grabbed his arm. "Hey! Don't walk away—"

He detonated the hand she wasn't clinging to right next to her face. "Get the fuck off me." She dropped his arm immediately. "Let me leave this fucking kitchen or I'll blow up the fucking building." He snarled.

He stormed into his room, shoulder checking anyone who tried to stand in his way or ask him fucking questions. He knew they were curious and worried, but fuck why were they putting the responsibility on him to be the bearer of disastrously shitty news? Did he seem like the type of person who handled emotional bullshit well?

He slammed the door to his room behind him as loudly as possible without actually breaking the door, ate his cold-ass leftovers, and dropped himself onto the bed.

And finally—finally—he cried.

"Walk to class together? I can help fend people off," He offered. Katsuki studied him skeptically. "I heard you last night, man. We share a wall." Fantastic. Shitty Hair had heard him crying like a bitch. Spec-fucking-tacular. "And you're right, his business is confidential and it's not your responsibility to keep us updated."

"Like that'll stop the nerd squad from prying anyways," Katsuki grumbled, pulling his door shut behind him in acceptance of Eijiro's offer to be his human shield. They walked in silence most of the way, but fuck Eijiro was a good friend, so he knew what was coming next.

The redhead stopped him just outside the main entrance. "I'm only gonna ask this once because I know you'll blow me up if I go overboard," Eijiro stated. Katsuki tried hard not to crack a smile. "Are you okay?"

Katsuki stared at him for a long moment, considering his options. He could lie. He could tell him to fuck off. But Eijiro was a good friend. "No."

Eijiro looked surprised at the admission but schooled it down quickly. "Anything I can do?" Katsuki shook his head. "Well let me know if that changes, okay? I'm here for you Bakubro."

"What are you doing to find a cure?" he asked when the doctor stopped by to check in on him.

"A lot," she promised. "We have multiple people working on finding an acceptable antidote, and your teacher has recruited multiple teachers from your school to cross-reference CCTV footage of the villain's escape route with the Quirk Registry to try to find the culprit."

Katsuki's lips flattened into a thin line. That could take months, especially if the villain hadn't used any train passes or credit cards that could surface a name. "And how long does he have?"

The doctor paused, hesitant. "That's hard to answer. If there were a set rate of decay, based on how quickly his condition deteriorated in the beginning I'd say a month. But it's not moving at a set rate of decay. In fact, right now I'd say we hit a lucky break. The decay rate seems to have slowed. Realistically, I'd say two months."

Two months. Ice spilled through Katsuki's veins, stealing his breath like a sucker punch. That's not enough time.

Deku—Izuku. Izuku is going to die.

He had long since learned to take her seriously. "Look, I get that you don't want to give us the gritty details, but you're turning into a basket case. We're worried about you, dickhead. We're not gonna give you shit, but at least let us listen." She demanded as she pushed her way into his room.

Katsuki studied (glared at) her for a long, pensive moment before whipping out his phone, texting the rest of his idiots. "I'm gonna do this exactly once." He growled when she asked him what he was doing. "I'm barely keeping my shit together, so we're talking about this once, and then we're not doing it again." His (mandated) therapist had been trying to get him to open up to people for almost a year now. This was a good time to start, right?

Kirishima showed up first, followed by Kaminari and Jirou, then finally by Sero. They made themselves comfortable in his room, understanding the space after almost two years of friendship. They sat in silence, waiting for him to speak, but he was kind of at a loss for words. Words had never been his strong suit, after all.

"What's up, bro?" Kirishima asked so gently that it set his teeth on edge.

"Ears, can you listen for eavesdroppers? Kirby's been so far up my ass I'm surprised I don't need a colon cleanse," Katsuki grumbled.

Jirou made a face at the mental image but nodded. "Yeah, dude, of course. You gonna tell us why you asked us here?"

"Pinky said you wanted to listen and that you wouldn't give me shit. And uh," he scrubbed his hands over his face. "And you've probably noticed that I'm kinda losing it right now, so if she's right..."

"Of course she's right," Kirishima assured him. The rest of his idiots nodded frantically. He was so grateful for these assholes.

"Deku...Izuku was involved in a villain attack. You know that—that's all that Aizawa was really allowed to tell you—but it's...it's really fucking bad." He admitted, lowering himself into his desk chair and scrubbing his hands over his face. "The villain had a poison quirk and he's in a coma. He honestly looks like a fucking corpse most of the time and two days ago he had a seizure while I was there that went on for three minutes. And I spent those three minutes thinking he was just gonna fucking die in front of me, so I am barely keeping it together—" he gritted his teeth against the lump in his throat.

It was silent for a long moment. He knew if he looked up at them, they'd be looking at him with fear and horror. So he didn't look.

"He's gonna make it though, right?" Kaminari asked hesitantly. Katsuki dug his palms into his eyes again.

"He might. But I don't think he is," he admitted, voice shaky and strained. He heard their sharp inhales of alarm and a small sob that he suspected had come from Mina. "They don't have an antidote. They don't know who the villain is. Two weeks ago, the doctor said she thought he had two months. Now they think he has one month left at best, and they're no closer to finding a cure or the villain."

"I know it's not really my place to ask," Sero started hesitantly. "But if it's that bad, why hasn't Mrs. Midoriya let anyone else visit? Why only you?"

"Because with anyone else there, she'd have to be strong," he replied with a wry smile, finally looking up. "She's known my mother for twenty years. When it's just us, she can break down as much as she wants to. She knows the hag and I will take care of being strong, so she can lose her shit as much as she wants."

Jirou frowned. "When do you get to lose your shit? This is hard on you too, Blasty. When do you get to break down? When do you get support?"

He looked her in the eyes. "Either after he wakes up or after we've buried him." He replied firmly. "No one can know how bad it is or else they'll hound the fuck out of Auntie, and if I break down they'll know it's bad."

"What about here?" Mina asked. He slid his gaze to her, only to find silent tears spilling down her face. "What about here with us, where no one else can see you?"

"No."

"Why not?" she demanded, a little desperate.

He fought back tears. "Because if I start now, I don't think I'll ever stop," he insisted with a pained snarl.

And yeah, they understood that.

Eventually, some of the other members of the class had taken their lead—most notably Asui, Yaoyorozu, and Tokoyami. Tokoyami had been subtly holding back the rest of the class, scolding and reasoning with them in turn. He was out of his depth with Deku's friend group though. That's where the other two came in. In fact, the rift it had caused between Asui and Uraraka was monumental. Four weeks into Deku's coma, Uraraka had decided to badger Katsuki during a group study session and Tsu had snapped. They had screamed at each other in the common room.

"For fuck's sake Ochacko, leave him the hell alone! Midoriya's condition is confidential and he's respecting their wishes, so you should too!" The shock of hearing Asui curse froze the entire common room.

"You're siding with him? We have no idea how Deku's doing, and he's not telling us anything! It's selfish and manipulative and you're a fucking idiot if you think he's doing this to respect Deku's wishes. Aren't you worried about him?" she demanded.

"Don't you dare suggest that I'm not worried about him. I just have the clarity to know that Midoriya and his mom's needs come first, something that you are ignoring. You're an idiot if you think insulting Bakugou and making his life harder is gonna get him to tell you anything about Midoriya's condition! You've been making his life harder for a month and you haven't achieved anything except pissing people off, so just leave it alone! You're like a dog with a bone!"

While they screamed at each other, Denki and Eijirou had smuggled him out of the common room. Mina filled them in later and apparently, the fight had gotten ugly. Like, bringing-up-Uraraka's-rejected-confession ugly.

The next day at lunch, Tsu had come to sit with them. "You don't have to tell me anything," she assured him. "But I want to make sure you know that I'm here for you, ribbit."

He broke eye contact and stared down at his food. "Thanks, Asui."

"Call me Tsu, ribbit."

Two days later, Iida pulled him aside to let him know (loudly) that he disapproved of Katsuki withholding information. "Allowing us to continue worrying about Midoriya like this is unacceptable. Your actions are causing rifts within the class. The stress you're allowing your classmates to experience is on par with the level of disdain one would ascribe to a villain."

And then all of a sudden, Momo was there to punch him in the face. Katsuki stared at her, jaw dropped and eyes wide as she seethed over the fallen class rep. "Ponytail!" He exclaimed. She ignored him.

"You're lucky it was me, Tenya." She snarled. "If Midoriya had heard you say that, he would have kicked you into the stratosphere. Being the class rep doesn't give you the right to Midoriya's medical information, and it certainly doesn't give you the right to try to guilt-trip it out of Bakugou. Neither does being Midoriya's friend. It's an invasion of privacy and incredibly disrespectful to the Midoriyas to flout their wishes like this. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"Stand down, Momo. Jesus." Katsuki muttered, placing a hand on her shoulder. She rounded on him, still tense and a little shocked that he'd used her first name. "Hey, it's chill. Thanks, though."

"You are nothing like a villain." She told him seriously. Katsuki grimaced because that wasn't always true. "I mean it. You're supporting Mrs. Midoriya and making sure to collect all of Izuku's assignments and notes. They might not notice how this is affecting you but I do, and I'll be damned if I let them make you feel small when you're already doing so much."

He was not going to cry. Don't cry don't cry don't cry—

"Thanks, Momo." Mina said, appearing out of nowhere. "Mind if I take it from here?"

"Not at all. I still have a bone to pick." She replied, glaring over her shoulder at an uncommonly obstinate-looking Iida. Mina steered him away from the common room at top speed.

"You've got this Blasty," she murmured once they were alone in the kitchen. "You wanted to hold it in, remember? Conceal, don't feel."

He snorted. "Frozen? Really?"

"It got you to laugh! That's a tall order on a good day." She chuckled. "Seriously, though. If you want to change your mind, we can go to your room and you can let it out. But if you want to keep it all in, you've got this."

He shook his head. "Can't."

She smiled at him, soft and understanding. Mina was so warm. "Alright, then. Pull it together, Lord Explosion Murder."

They stood in the kitchen quietly, one of Mina's hands gripping his, and the other rubbing his back.

"IS IT TRUE?" Denki demanded, bursting in and interrupting the silence. "Did Yaomomo punch Iida in the face? Did I miss it?"

"I think Tooru caught it on camera. She was making a recording of trying to get Ojiro to blush. I think she panned to Iida when he started pretending to whisper," Mina scowled.

"I'll be right back I need to see it—" he was out the door to find Hagakure before he'd even finished his sentence.

All Might had been there, though. Katsuki hadn't looked away from Deku as he slammed on the nurse call button, but he heard their mentor splutter on his own hacking coughs as he gasped in alarm. Maybe he was coughing up blood, too.

Their idol had been at Izuku's bedside as much as Katsuki had, but once Deku was 'stable' again, he'd turned his serious, scared eyes to Katsuki. "I want to be here for both of you, but I have to do something. I can't just sit here and watch. I'm sorry that I won't be here with you, but I need to try to find the villain. I hate to leave you alone, though."

"I'd rather be alone with a better chance for him to wake the fuck up." Katsuki had replied, raw and afraid; eyes stinging and heart pounding. "If you think you can help, then help."

He felt bonelessly tired. The type of exhaustion that followed mind-numbing fear. He nearly sobbed when he saw his friends at one of the common room tables with dinner that was clearly meant for him. He dragged himself over and slumped into the seat they'd saved for him, dutifully eating his curry (holy shit it was spicy, did they get Sato to make it for him with his own spice stash?) and drinking the tea that Momo brought him without complaint.

Unfortunately, the 'without complaint' bit seemed to be the Class A equivalent to blood in the water.

As Deku's time drew to a close, he'd been getting more and more volatile with each passing day—snapping from surly and brooding to outright violently deranged in the blink of an eye. The only people allowed to train with him were Kirishima and Icy Thot because he'd been unleashing his pent up rage and aggression in training like never before.

But right now, he was positively docile. That meant three things—one, something had happened when he was at the hospital. Two, he was too tired from whatever it was to lash out, and his 'protection squad' was too caught up in taking care of him to create an effective wall.

Three, Uraraka and Iida had noticed and intended to take full advantage of the opening.

"What happened?" Uraraka demanded as soon as she was within earshot.

"None of your business." He replied, standing to leave. Iida grabbed his arm, and Todoroki (who hadn't been as infuriating about pestering him but had still tried to pry information out of him) stood in his path.

"If something happened to Midoriya at the hospital today, you need to tell us. We're his friends and we're worried about him," Iida insisted. Katsuki shook his arm off.

"Shut the fuck up, Glasses. Don't tell me what to do."

Apparently, that was enough to thoroughly piss off Uraraka. "You're being an ass Bakugou! You won't tell us anything about how he's doing and you're acting like an asshole. You don't even like him, so why don't you let the people who actually care about him know how he's doing?" She demanded.

"Uraraka—" Eijiro tried to slow her roll.

"You're snapping at everyone, you're volatile and you're dangerous." Her voice was becoming poisonous. "You lash out at anyone who asks for any updates. We fucking get it, you hate him so much that you don't even want to hear his name, so let someone who actually gives a damn take care of him."

He turned on her, very slowly. There was a calmness to his movement that was so unheard of that it sent chills ricocheting down Eijiro's spine. Next to him, Denki shivered and he could see Mina backing away in his periphery.

"You don't know shit about me and Deku. You may think you're close to him, but I have a whole ass decade on you."

"Yeah, as his bully," Todoroki drawled. Katsuki flinched. "As an abuser who made him feel terrified and small his entire life."

"Todoroki, shut the fuck up," Eijiro snapped. Denki spasmed beside him in shock. The nerd squad didn't seem to even notice him.

"You strut around here trying to make everyone cower for you, treating everyone—especially Deku—like shit. You're an irredeemable asshole and he keeps coming back for more and I'm sick of it," Uraraka snarled. "His Stockholm Syndrome level devotion to you is going to damage him for life if it doesn't get him straight up killed."

Katsuki froze, then stumbled back from her, breathing growing ragged and eyes widening in sheer panic. Killed. Deku was dying. Deku was going to die. What was the last thing they'd said to each other? He couldn't remember. He couldn't breathe. Don't cry don't cry don't cry—

Eijirou pushed Uraraka aside and reached out to grip Katsuki's shoulder. "Katsuki, breathe." He could see Denki shoving Todoroki aside and Hanta and Kyoka standing in front of Iida.

"I can't—"

"You can. You have to. Breathe with me okay?"

"I can't, Ei," he wheezed, eyes blurring. Fuck, he was going to cry in front of all of these extras and Deku was going to die.

"You can. You have to. Until Mido gets up, his mom needs you to be a hard-headed stubborn asshole, remember? You said it yourself—she can't break if you do," Kirishima reminded him quietly.

"Can't I—" Katsuki sobbed, squeezing his eyes shut. "Can't I change my mind? Can't I break here? Where she can't fucking see me?" He tried to keep his voice down. Really, he did, but he couldn't breathe.

Kirishima glanced around the room, eyes narrowing when he caught Uraraka rolling her eyes. "Not here. How about up in your room? You can let it out with the five of us, how does that sound?"

Todoroki scoffed behind him, but Katsuki was silent for a beat longer than most of them expected, pushing harsh breaths through clenched teeth. Finally, he nodded and Kirishima turned him around to push him from the room.

"Hey! We're not done here!" Uraraka demanded, lurching after them.

"Yes, you fucking are," Mina snapped,  moving to block her. "Blasty's been going through the wringer trying to be there for Mido and his mom, and you're making this all about you. Have you even considered the emotional toll this is taking on Bakugou? Shut the hell up and back the fuck off you selfish cow! Any information we're allowed to have will come from sensei."

Todoroki scoffed again. "Emotional toll? Bakugou? The only emotions he has are anger and violence."

At the same time, Uraraka went off. "I'm making it about me? He doesn't even like Deku and he's acting like he's all torn up so that you five idiots will stop us from getting information—"

"Information that you have no right to have," Sero interrupted, furious. "Don't you think Aizawa would have told you if we had any right to know?"

"The only reason Deku's mom is telling Bakugou what's going on instead of us is that she doesn't know what Bakugou is actually like!" Uraraka snapped. "Deku probably sugar-coated Bakugou's bullshit so much that she thinks they're still friends—"

"They are friends. Just because you have your head too far up Mido's ass to see his relationship with Bakugou for what it is—for what it's become—doesn't mean that you have the right to spout baseless accusations or make judgment calls for the Midoriyas!" Mina snarled.

"She would be able to make more informed judgment calls if we were permitted to talk to her." Iida insisted. They couldn't really tell if he was yelling since his baseline volume was always earsplitting. "If Bakugou had done the responsible thing and told Mrs. Midoriya that we are closer to him than he is, I'm sure she would have—"

"Midoriya's mom has known Katsuki since he was born—a hell of a lot longer and better than any of you," Denki interrupted, yelling. "If you're so goddamn close, Midoriya would have told her about you, right? So she knows that you're friends and is still choosing Katsuki as her support system. Who the fuck are you to dispute that?"

"What the hell is going on here?" Aizawa demanded from the doorway. Beside him, Koda was shifting his feet and wringing his hands, looking nervous and stressed as fuck. The quiet boy had clearly gone to go get Aizawa as the situation escalated. Mina spared him a grateful glance before turning her rage back on the fuckfaces that stood before her.

"Stay the hell away from him or so help me god, I'll melt your face off." She swore before storming away to catch up with Katsuki and Eijirou, Denki and Hanta scurrying after her. She trusted that the rest of the class would fill Aizawa in.

Kyoka went to Momo, who had graciously supplied them with bedding so that they could congregate on Katsuki's floor while he cried the night away. He let Mina and Eijirou hold him, curling into them like a child as he sobbed until he ran out of tears and collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

With the sound of his cries echoing in their ears, none of them slept.

Katsuki held back a scoff. Auntie Inko was curled into his mother's side, sobbing. The bitter derision he felt for the doctor's stupid statement would not be well received. But really, 'ready for any outcome'? They would never be ready for Deku to die.

"Katsuki?" Auntie pulled away from the hag to curl into him instead. "Thank you for maintaining our privacy. Enforcing it, even. Aizawa told me about your troubles at school and how you've remained firm so that I could deal with this the way I need to. But maybe it's time to let them know. If we have to say goodbye, I mean."

There was no way to hold back the tears this time.

Uraraka had not stayed the hell away from him. In fact, all three of Deku's holdout nerds had doubled down so naturally, they were waiting to pounce until he returned. They didn't hold back just because he was still crying. They had to be restrained by tape and tongue and rock-solid arms just for Katsuki to get past the doorway.

"Momo," he called, raspy and raw. She was at his side in an instant. "Give me half an hour, then call a class meeting. Invite Aizawa and Eyebags. Maybe the 3-A streaker too. Just—" his breath hitched, and he took a second to speak past the lump in his throat. "Just give me some time to get my shit together."

"Eat dinner first," she replied, quiet and firm. His friends were still holding back the trio of dickheads, yelling at them for crowding him and not letting him have a moment of peace. Momo's concern was evident on her face, and for once he was grateful for it. "We'll have a class meeting in two hours. Eat dinner, wash up, get yourself together, then decide if you really want to do this. Because you don't have to. If Mrs. Midoriya gave permission, I'm sure Mr. Aizawa will do it for you."

He paused. "I'll take the two hours. But I need to—" he gritted his teeth. "I need to do this."

"There's time to change your mind."

They both knew he wouldn't.

They called the class meeting. Both Shinso and Mirio were there, but Ojiro and Hagakure were missing. "They went on a date off-campus. Do you mind if I record the meeting so that I can just forward them the video instead of explaining?" Tokoyami asked him. He shrugged. It beat having to repeat himself. He'd rather only go through this shit show once.

They congregated on the couches, waiting expectantly as Katsuki stood before them and dithered with red-rimmed eyes white-knuckled fists clenched at his sides.

"I'm not gonna sugar-coat this," he said, soft but firm. This would be the first time he'd say those words out loud which, illogically, made it feel so much more real. He very seriously thought he might be sick. At least barfing all over his classmates would get him out of making this announcement. Alas, his stomach stayed steady, even as the rest of him twisted and churned. "Deku is dying."

He had expected the instantaneous uproar, but he hadn't counted on it being so loud.

"What do you mean he's dying?" Uraraka demanded above the din, but Katsuki refused to raise his voice over the crowd, so he waited silently for them to calm the fuck down.

A sentiment that Aizawa clearly supported when stepped in. "CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" He bellowed. Even if he tended to yell at them, Aizawa rarely swore. As a result, his demand was as effective as one of Katsuki's own explosions. The room fell silent. "Shut up and sit down if you want him to continue." They complied, still on edge and flighty.

"On the morning he was admitted to the hospital, Deku was involved in a villain attack. That villain had a poison-based quirk. He's been in a coma since then. At the two-week mark, he started having seizures. At the five-week mark, he started coughing up blood. Today his doctor informed us that his organs were failing. He thinks Deku has about a week left. They haven't been able to find an antidote for whatever's wrong with him, and the pros and police haven't been able to find the villain who did it. We have to be ready for the worst-case scenario. We might not find the fucker, so—" He furiously willed away his tears before continuing. "Auntie wants to set up times for everyone to visit in small groups and," he exhaled sharply. "And say goodbye over the next week."

Todoroki was the first to speak up. "You've known he was dying for a month and didn't tell us?" His voice was cold and sharp. Katsuki flinched back from him.

"We could have been with him this whole time!" Uraraka snapped. His eyes dropped to the floor.

"Mrs. Midoriya specifically requested that Bakugou keep Midoriya's condition to himself." Aizawa interrupted. "In the interest of supporting her, Bakugou did the right thing. Furthermore, you would not have been permitted to see him if you'd tried to visit him."

"But why did she choose him instead of us? Why has he gotten to be with Deku for an entire month?" Uraraka demanded, volume climbing.

"That's enough, Ochako!" Tsuyu interjected. "It was the choice Izuku's mom made, and you don't get to question how she chose to get support. She probably didn't want to have to deal with all of us when she was going through such a hard time."

"It seems strange that she chose Bakugou to support her when he so clearly dislikes Midoriya," Iida added, loud and stern. "If you knew his condition, you should have told her to allow someone closer to him to support her. That was quite cruel of you, Bakugou."

Uraraka seemed to agree with that thought wholeheartedly. "Is that what it is? You hate him so much that you don't even want him to be cared for on his death bed?" It was clear to him that they were lashing out because they were upset and afraid. That didn't make it hurt any less. But he also knew that his friends were less understanding and more...protective.

Katsuki moved quickly, grabbing Mina around her waist as she lunged for the 'Dekusquad'. "They just got some really shitty news," he muttered. "Give them a break."

"No." She snapped. "They've been shitting on you for over a month, Katsuki. This has been eating you alive and they've just been pouring salt on the wound the entire time, and I'm sick of it!" she crescendoed into full-volume shrieking.

"What wounds? He's probably over the moon! Isn't this what you wanted? To get rid of him?" Uraraka needled.

"Every time he tried to get close you, you pushed him away." Todoroki agreed, furious. Was the temperature dropping? "How do you feel now that he'll be out of the way permanently, Bakugou? Glad?"

Okay, that was over the line.

He turned to them, face contorted and jaw clenched. When he spoke, he was quiet and hoarse. "Sixteen years. That little shit has been by my side for sixteen years, and we may have our problems but he's my most important person. Do you know what it was like to watch him run into danger when he couldn't use his quirk properly? Every day I had a brand new fucking heart condition. At the beginning of our first year, he still couldn't use his quirk without his bones snapping like fucking crackers, but he still ran headfirst into danger. It infuriated me. If—when I lose him, that's it. Everything I've ever done—good, bad, or irredeemably shitty—was to keep him safe. To avoid visiting his grave before we'd graduated high school. But no matter how hard I was on him, he was always there. Right behind me, reminding me what a hero really is. Reminding me how to be a good person. Pulling me back when I go too far or pushing me forward when I fall behind for my entire life. The old hag used to joke that the universe gave me twice the strength and gave him twice the heart, so we should stick together because without me he'll be weak and without him, I'll be a monster." He laughed, but it wasn't a funny thing—it was raspy and choked and full of self-hatred that made most of those present flinch.

"She was half right because he got strong on his own, so suddenly he could do it all without me. But I'm still the same, and he's still the true north on my shitty moral compass. Without him, I'm volatile and ugly. He's the only thing that makes me good. When he dies, I doubt I'll have what it takes to become a hero. I'm not even sure I'll survive it, because it'll be so much worse than a phantom limb; I'll have a fucking phantom soul."

He was trembling now, but now that the emotional verbal vomit had started, he was having serious trouble reigning it back in. "Do you get it now? Why I was always so pissed off at him? He went racing into shitty situations with his eyes wide shut, knowing that if he died, I'd end up destroying everything I touch. He's always known that. And he's still going to leave me behind—" His voice broke, sob echoing in the crowded room.

"Really? You hurt him because you care about him? Give me a break." Uraraka was still sneering, but it was losing its conviction.

"You're not hearing me." He rasped. Uraraka opened her mouth to interrupt, but Katsuki powered through. " I love him more than I love my own parents, and I'm gonna fucking lose him. I always knew he was going to die too young because he's so goddamn reckless, so I tried to hold him back long enough that he would think before he acted or learn to defend himself before jumping into shitty situations. But none of that worked, and now he's dying and I can't even be mad at him about it because it wasn't because of his reckless martyr complex. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of the time I spent being angry with him was fucking wasted. I have to deal with that now, so unless you want to schedule a time to go visit the nerd in the hospital, I'm done talking about this. So fuck off with your judgmental bullshit and leave me the fuck alone to mourn in peace." There were silent rivers of tears spilling down his face. He was still holding onto Mina, but no longer holding her back. Instead, she'd curled into his chest so that he could clutch her close like a child clutching at a stuffed animal when they were afraid of the dark.

Uraraka and Todoroki looked like they wanted to keep pushing, but Aizawa put his foot down. "Drop it now, or I will ban you from visiting him period." He snapped. "How would you like to organize this, Bakugou?"

"One group a day, up to five people in each group for the rest of the week. Auntie said she didn't want people to linger for more than two hours. Even that's pushing it—I don't think she can hold it together that long," he admitted.

"Fine. I'll have a signup sheet posted in the common room by 9pm. Anyone who wants to visit Midoriya needs to be ready to leave immediately after classes so that Bakugou can return in time to attend to his own studies."

"Why would Bakugou's availability impact our ability to see Midoriya?" Iida demanded. Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

"Because he's the one registered with family privileges at the hospital. If you want to see Midoriya, he needs to escort you if you want to even make it to his floor." Aizawa drawled. Iida, Todoroki and Uraraka stayed quiet, but clearly didn't like the idea that they had to be with Katsuki in order to see Deku.

"Bakugou," Shinso called. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Whadd'ya mean, Eyebags?" Katsuki mumbled, still clutching Mina who had taken to rubbing soothing circles into the small of his back.

"I...don't really know. To try to find the villain? To help Mrs. Midoriya? I just...feel kinda useless." He admitted.

Katsuki shrugged. "I was gonna make dinner for Auntie and my parents over the next week so that they don't have to leave the hospital. If anyone wants to help with that, they can. I was also thinking of going to tidy Auntie's apartment after I take the first group to the hospital tomorrow so if anyone wants to help with that, they can meet me in the common room at 6. But I don't know if we can do anything about the villain. I've been focused on Auntie and my parents," he replied.

"Anyone who wants to help sort through CCTV or social media footage for the villain is welcome to," Aizawa offered. "But each student will be limited to an hour per day. You still need to attend to your health and studies. Anyone interested can see me about it in the morning."

The class meeting split, but people lingered to make plans or just...hold each other. Tsuyu and Tokoyami were comforting Koda and Shoji. Momo was hugging Aoyama tightly as he sobbed into her shoulder. The Dekusquad had left together. Satou approached the Bakusquad where they were bundled tightly near Katsuki, who was still clutching Mina like a lifeline.

"I'd like to offer to take over the food preparation for the week. You have enough on your plate, Bakugou." He offered, voice awfully small for someone so hulking.

Katsuki hesitated. "Let him, Blasty." Jirou murmured. "Let us help. You've been taking care of your parents and Mido's mom. Let us take care of you." He buried his face in Mina's hair.

"Fine. Okay. Thanks." He grunted.

"'S the least I can do." He replied. "Any requests?"

Katsuki choked on another ugly sob. "Katsudon."

Katsuki turned to the voice right behind him, but there was no one there. "Deku?"

"Kacchan, where are you?"

He spun in a circle. "Where the hell are you, nerd?"

"Kacchan!" He sounds so scared. Where the hell is he?

He ran toward the voice, running through the park and into the woods until he came to a log bridge—old and weathered. From the way it creaked, he thought it must have rotted through. Deku stood in the center, but he was so small. "Deku, get away from there."

"Kacchan, I'm scared." He whispered. Katsuki gritted his teeth and slowly—so slowly—crept onto the bridge. As soon as his foot made contact, the world went fuzzy.

Now they were on a roof. Katsuki glanced around—Aldera? Why were they on the roof of Aldera? He looked back at Deku and froze. He was perched on the ledge, facing away from him. "DEKU. Get the fuck away from there." He snapped, panicking.

"Kacchan?" Deku asked, looking over his shoulder. "Why are you crying?" He turned around but didn't step down.

"Deku, please," he reached out. "Get down from there."

"But I'm tired, Kacchan. Isn't this what you wanted?" He asked, before leaning back.

"Deku!" he screamed, blasting forward and reaching out—clutching the nerd's shitty middle school uniform in tight fists. The world blurred again as they fell together.

They were on a battlefield, and Katsuki clutched Deku tightly. His body was riddled with holes and he spluttered as he choked on his blood. "Kacchan?"

"Don't talk, goddamnit." He snarled, pressing hands futilely against Deku's gaping wounds.

"Gotta. No time. Tell mom I'm sorry."

"Tell her yourself, shithead."

"I need you to do something."

"Stop. Talking."

"Take One For All. I need you to take it."

"Fuck you."

"Kacchan, please," he gasped. "No time."

And the asshole was right. He could feel Deku's pulse slowing. His eyes were dimming. "How?"

Deku lifted a ravaged arm to slide his bloodied hand into Katsuki's hair, and pulled him down for a kiss filled with blood and gravel. "Glad I got to do that. Love you, y'know." He went limp in Katsuki's arms.

Katsuki woke up screaming.

"No matter what happens, I'm proud to have you as a friend, mon ami," Aoyama had sobbed.

"You're so strong, ribbit. It seems ridiculous to say goodbye when it feels like you're around every corner," Tsuyu croaked. "So do us all a favor and hang on."

"You should come back now," Sato cried quietly. "But if you have to go, don't worry. Bakugou's been taking good care of your mom, and we'll take good care of him." His breath hitched. "But you should come back. If you do, I'll make you that matcha and lavender roll cake I was telling you about."

Shoji was quiet and morose. "I'm sorry this happened to you." There wasn't much more for him to say.

"Katsuki hasn't said goodbye yet, so neither will I," Sero admitted softly, brushing Izuku's hair back. "He's scared, but I can tell he hasn't really given up. So as long as he's got hope, I will too. You want to be the symbol of hope, right?" Katsuki didn't look at him the whole walk back to the dorm.

When they arrived, Sato planted himself back in the kitchen, and a small group congregated in the common room to wait for Katsuki so that they could go to the Midoriya's to help tidy. "Bring your homework, Kat," Mina instructed. "We'll clean while you work. You've been losing valuable study time at the hospital."

"I'm supposed to be helping you guys clean up," he argued.

"No." She put her foot down. "We'll tidy. You study. If we have questions about where something is supposed to go, we'll ask." Katsuki looked like he was going to argue, but Mina actually stomped her foot. "I'm not taking no for an answer. Let us help you." He sighed but conceded. When they arrived, he excused himself to Izuku's nerdy All Might shrine of a bedroom, sat at his crowded desk, and tried not to cry as he did the homework for Ectoplasm's class. He didn't succeed, and Mina found him curled in Izuku's bed, sobbing into his pillow.

The next day wasn't any easier, but at least they wouldn't be going to Auntie Inko's that evening. Nonetheless, he listened diligently to his classmates as they spoke to Izuku's prone body.

"We're still looking, Midoriya." He heard Shinso whisper. "If there's something to find, I swear we'll find it. We're not gonna let you go without a fight. Not when you've fought so hard for us."

"We decided not to bring Eri, or that kid you saved at your training camp. We thought this might be too hard for them. Eri especially, since she'd feel bad for not being able to use her quirk to help. She's just not in control enough," Mirio smiled. "You and I both know you wouldn't want her to be upset about something she can't control. But this still sucks. I hope you wake up, buddy. We miss you already."

"You're our lynchpin, Izuku." Hagakure whispered to him. "We'll fall apart without you. We already are." He didn't have to see her to know that she was a wreck. "Please come back. Please."

To his surprise, Momo was angry. It was a quiet sort of anger, but it was anger nonetheless. "I thought you were gonna be number one, Izuku." She hissed, pressing her palms into her eyes. "How are any of us supposed to survive if you can't? You really want Katsuki to be the one we look to for inspiration? We'll all be screaming expletives at victims within a month."

"Hey!" he interrupted, affronted. She gave him a very dry and irritated glance.

"I'm not wrong. He needs to come back. He's the balancing act. The calm to your storm. Iida and I might be the class reps, but when shit hits the fan, it's you two that we look to. We need both of you or else we're all gonna go off the rails." She turned her gaze back to Izuku. "I know I'm supposed to be proper and polite, but this is ridiculous. Get the fuck up. Please get the fuck up."

It was quiet with the first two groups. They huddled around his bed and cried. They offered Auntie Inko their support and hugged Katsuki's parents. They brought flowers and carried the meals that Sato had prepared. Tsu and Momo attended to Katsuki, holding his hand under the guise of needing his support while knowing that it was the other way around. Katsuki remained strong-jawed and dry-eyed throughout. Only Tsu and Momo knew how his hands shook as he stood at Deku's bedside.

With the first two groups, he had time to check on Auntie Inko as they spoke to her son. "How are you holding up, Auntie?"

She gave him a tearful smile. "Not great. But you're taking such good care of me, so better than I could have hoped," she admitted. "Thank you for dinner, Katsuki."

He shook his head. "Sato made dinner." Her smile turned knowing.

"Because you said that you were going to, right? How else would he have known what to make?" She placed a trembling hand on his cheek. "You've been so strong over the past month. Are you taking care of yourself, too?"

He looked down at his feet. "Trying to. I have some help." She smiled a little wider.

"That's good, sweetheart. We all need help sometimes. I'm sorry I haven't been there for you like you've been here for me. And I'm sorry for asking you to keep it from them. I just—"

"I get it." He interrupted. "He's your son. You need me more. And don't feel bad about not telling them. Focus on him. Don't worry, Auntie—they're taking care of me," he promised. She pulled him in for a hug, and he reminded himself not to cry.

"You're a good boy, Katsuki. You're bad at expressing yourself, but you're so good. Don't forget it, sweetheart."

He pulled away, looking into her teary eyes. He wished he could blame hyperactive Midoriya tear ducts this time. "I actually—tomorrow Izuku's closest friends will be here. We're not super friendly with each other, and I don't want to intrude on their time with him. Do you mind if I wait outside while they're in here?"

"Of course not, Katsuki. You do what feels right. I can keep it together for their visit if you need to excuse yourself." She smiled sadly. "You don't need to do it alone."

He looked back down at the floor. "Thanks, Auntie."

"What's in there, Bakubro?" Eijirou asked as they walked.

"Memories." He replied. Eijirou eyed him.

"Wanna share them with us when we get back? Might make you feel better."

"...Sure."

And he did. His friends brought dinner to his room and bundled in blankets for show-and-tell. He showed them the pictures that his parents had taken of them over the years, from their wild adventures as toddlers in All Might onesies to the uncomfortable photo evidence of middle school "family" dinners. Even when things were strained, Izuku had been in his orbit.

He showed them the little gifts Izuku had given him over the years—at least the ones that had fit in the box. That included a limited edition All Might keychain, a "World's Spiciest Recipes" cookbook, and a bookmark with a pressed and preserved leaf—a leaf from a tree on one of Katsuki's favorite hiking trails. Simple, warm-hearted, and thoughtful—entirely Deku's style.

Throughout the evening, Katsuki's heart ached with impending loss. Nobody knew him better than Izuku.

"What's that?" Mina asked, pointing at the folded notepaper in the corner of the box. He sniffed and wiped at his eyes. He didn't even remember when he started crying. Maybe around the time they'd looked at Christmas pictures.

He unfolded the notes carefully. They were worn and old, yellowing around the edges. "His very first analysis of my quirk. 'S where I got the idea for my hero costume. He's the one that came up with the gauntlets," he admitted, flattening the pages gently before handing them over. The handwriting and accompanying sketch were messy—they'd been done by a six-year-old—but they were detailed and precious.

"He would have been a kick-ass quirk analyst if he wasn't a hero," Hanta muttered, reading over his shoulder. "Those notebooks of his are insane. He came up with so many applications for my quirk in our first year, I'm still learning how to make most of his ideas work."

"He's the one that figured out how to increase my voltage without short-circuiting my brain," Denki smiled.

Mina cackled. "He's the one who figured out that I could make LSD if I ate certain grains!" They all laughed at that and oh it felt good to laugh.

"He's helping me design more versatile support gear with Hatsume," Jirou added, before pausing. "Oh. We should invite Hatsume to come with us to the hospital. We only have four people in our group." She said quietly. "He's one of her only real friends. I'm pretty sure he's the one who makes sure she's taking breaks and eating regularly when she gets all scary about her inventions."

They were quiet again. "Anyone have her number?" Katsuki grunted.

"I don't have her number, but I have some time to stop by her workshop tomorrow." Jirou offered. "Our group is going the day after, so that gives her some time to shift plans around."

"Okay."

"Those three need time with him. They're so pissed at me that if I'm in the room, I'll be the only thing they focus on," he muttered. "Auntie already knows I'm not coming in. I'm gonna be in the cafeteria doing some homework. Come find me when you're ready to leave."

Koda frowned, before bringing his hands up to sign at him. 'Are you sure?' the timid boy asked. 'You should spend as much time with him as you can.'

"I've got a month on you guys. And I'll see him tomorrow. Don't worry about it. Thanks, though," he replied before turning to leave. He missed the look that Tokoyami and Koda shared.

The reception staff smiled warmly at him as he passed. "Oh, Katsuki! You're not staying with your friends today, honey? Don't you want to see Izuku?" One of Izuku's nurses—Yui, if he remembered correctly (he wasn't exactly good with names)—asked as he passed her in the hall.

"Homework. Gonna work in the cafeteria so that his friends can have some privacy and I can play catch up," he mumbled in reply.

"Aw honey, that's so thoughtful," she simpered. She dug in her pockets before handing him a little white card. "It's my employee discount card for the cafe. Get yourself some coffee and a snack. Just leave the card on Midoriya's bedside before you leave."

He frowned. "I can't accept this."

"You can, and you will. Don't think I haven't noticed you running yourself ragged taking care of your family, young man. It's very admirable. Let me do something for you in turn."

"You already are. You're keeping him alive as long as possible."

"And if he wakes up, I bet he'll be pissed if you're all skinny and malnourished," she replied, stern. "Just take the card."

He sighed. "Fine. Thank you."

"No sweat," she smiled, before sweeping away from him.

He bought himself a coffee and a curry bun before settling into one of the hellishly uncomfortable cafeteria chairs. All of his teachers had given him extensions, but he was loathe to use them. The longer he put off his work, the harder he'd have to slog in order to catch up.

He jolted when Tokoyami and Koda scraped chairs up next to him and took their seats. "You're done already?"

"We asked the other three if we could go first so that they could have alone time with Midoriya. They agreed. In fact, they seemed grateful," Tokoyami replied. "We thought we'd see if you need any help catching up. You're not far behind, but your mind hasn't been on academics lately."

He knew what they were doing. "You know I'm capable of being alone, right? I'm not gonna spontaneously combust or some shit. You should be taking advantage of your time with him."

'We'll do that when he wakes up.' Koda signed, jaw set stubbornly. 'Besides, you're doing a lot. The least we can do is help you stay caught up to the class.'

"After all, Midoriya will need tutoring when he returns."

What if he doesn't return? Katsuki wanted to ask. But they seemed to be stubbornly refusing the very high likelihood that Izuku was going to die, and Katsuki supposed he could let them have that for now. "Fine. Can you look over my outline for Cementoss's class? I haven't read the whole book yet but the test is next week."

"Sure," Tokoyami agreed, taking the notebook from him.

'Anything I can help with?' Koda asked.

"I'm stuck on the math homework," he admitted. Koda gestured for him to show him, and they got to work. They set up a steady rhythm, where Koda coached Katsuki through the math homework while Tokoyami read through his Lit outlines and made notes. Time passed faster than he expected, and he was grateful for the distraction.

He was not grateful for what happened next.

"Katsuki—" It was Nurse Yui. He got the impression that she would have been running if it weren't against hospital policy. "Your classmates had to be escorted out by security. Mrs. Midoriya and your parents are really upset."

"What happened?" he demanded, pushing out of his seat urgently.

"I'm not sure. I wasn't in the room, I just got there after your mom pressed the nurse call and asked me to get security. Mrs. Midoriya was nonverbal." Behind them, Koda and Tokoyami were packing his bag for him. He glanced at his phone and frowned at the time. It had already been two hours?

"I need to go check on our parents and find out what happened," he said, turning to them. Tokoyami handed him his bag.

"I'll go back and find out what happened from those three. Then I'll let Aizawa know that there was an incident. Koda, you stay behind with Bakugou and find out what happened from his parents' perspective. We're relatively neutral parties, so we should be able to sort out what happened calmly and diplomatically."

'Will do. Get going,' Koda instructed before turning to follow Katsuki who was already moving, following swiftly after Nurse Yui.

'Go to the gym and blow something up. It's fine that you're pissed but at this rate, you'll blow up the dorm and you don't need to deal with that right now. I'll tell Aizawa what happened and send Kirishima your way.'

"I'm gonna rip them a fucking new one. You're nuts if you think I'm gonna let them off easy for this shit."

'Good. Don't. I might even yell at them,' he glowered. 'But before you go off you need to let off some steam. You don't need to deal with property damage liability on top of everything else.'

He made a good point. "Send Ponytail, too. She can make dummies that look like their stupid fucking faces for me to blow up," he snarled. Koda flashed him a thumbs up before splitting off from him to find Aizawa.

Momo and Eijirou found him in record time, and Momo didn't even hesitate before making the dummies he requested. "Wanna tell us what went down? Koda just told us where to find you and dipped to find Aizawa," Eijirou said as he helped set up the dummies around the gym.

"Tokoyami looked angry when he got back," Momo added.

He didn't look at them. His eyes were trained on the dummy-doppelgangers; glare fierce and furious. "They wanted to stay past their welcome. They'd been there for two hours and Auntie told them that she'd like to have time alone with Deku, but they hounded her to let them stay. Eventually, my mom tried to step in to put her foot down and they went off at her." He gritted his teeth, jaw grinding in anger. "Said it was her son's fault that they hadn't gotten to see Deku during the time that he was dying and that it was unfair that they'd kept the people who cared about him from seeing him. Auntie started crying and the hag called the nurse and told them that they were upsetting Auntie, so if they didn't leave she'd call security to escort them out. Apparently, that set Icy Hot off, and he said they said that she was 'as malicious and selfish as her son' and yelled at auntie, saying that she couldn't see that we were keeping out people that we didn't approve of by making her dependent on us. So when the nurse got there, Ma had her call security to drag them out. The hospital might not let the rest of the class visit after that episode. Auntie might not want the rest of the class to visit."

It was quiet for a long, pregnant moment. Then there was a series of loud thunks. Both boys turned to Momo and found her producing more copies of the training dummies. "That should be enough. Stay here until they're all destroyed," she instructed before turning and stomping out of the gym, ponytail swishing violently behind her.

"Where are you going?" Eijirou called after her.

"I didn't punch Iida hard enough last time!" she called back before disappearing through the doors.

"Not only did you nearly get the entire class barred from visiting Midoriya, but you also caused Mrs. Midoriya and the Bakugous extreme emotional distress," Aizawa had snapped at them in the common room. "That poor woman is on the verge of losing her only son, and you three—in a fit of selfish, thoughtless anger—not only made her cry but also insulted the people she considers closer to her than the majority of her family. It took me hours to assure her that any future visitors wouldn't distress her further. I have never been more ashamed of my own students before in my entire teaching career, and I teach Mineta who is on the verge of expulsion for sexual misconduct."

"I'm not that bad!" Mineta protested.

"Yes, you are," Momo and Tsu snapped in unison.

Katsuki was glad that Aizawa had taken responsibility for dressing them down. He'd never been good with words, so having Aizawa articulately explain why they were being dickheads was almost a relief.

He'd worked out most of his blind rage on Momo's damn near indestructible training dummies anyway. Now he was just quietly angry and burning with frustration. He didn't want to have to expend energy on this shit show. He wanted to focus on Deku and Auntie and his parents.

Unfortunately, their concern for Deku had sort of blinded them to how shitty and bullheaded they were being. As soon as Aizawa left, Todoroki turned to him. "You had us barred from the hospital?"

"You threw us under the bus as soon as you got back!" Uraraka yelled.

"No, I did," Koda barked out loud. Most of the class took a step back in sheer alarm. "Bakugou went to let off steam. I told Mrs. Midoriya and Mrs. Bakugou's side of the story to Aizawa when we got back. Bakugou wanted to give you time alone with Midoriya because you're his best friends, and instead of taking care of his mother and supporting her, you made her snap. Weren't you saying at the beginning of this that you'd be better candidates to support and take care of the Midoriyas? Since when does support include violently berating a grieving mother at her son's deathbed?"

"We were trying to support her but his control-freak mother was trying to force us out!" Uraraka shrieked, jabbing an accusing finger at Katsuki.

"I've seen a relationship like the one your mother shares with Mrs. Midoriya. It reminds me of my own parents," Todoroki added, quietly furious.

Katsuki stilled, shoulders going tight with barely restrained anger. Damn, and he thought he'd worked out most of the poison in the gym. "Are you calling my mother abusive?" he whispered, vision tunneling. "Are you calling my mother abusive because she tried to enforce what Deku's mom specifically fucking asked you to do? Auntie asked you to leave, and you didn't. My mom is Auntie's best friend, and she told you to leave because you weren't listening. I fucking told you that she didn't want visitors for more than two hours. You tried to stay anyways and didn't leave when Auntie asked, so my mother had to step the fuck up. No one else has had a problem. Everyone else in the class has respected Auntie's wishes. You are the problem here; not me, and definitely not my mother. You made a grieving mother cry. You tried to fucking guilt trip her into letting you stay." He had crescendoed through his little speech and was now yelling. He had been trying so hard to avoid yelling when people were already upset. "Thanks to you three fucks I had to talk her down from a whole-ass panic attack!"

Iida was silent, but he was also eyeing Yaomomo and sporting the beginnings of a black eye. Eijirou put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon dude. Momo and Mina'll take care of them. You need to finish your homework and get to sleep," he murmured.

As soon as Eijirou tugged him away, the space they vacated was filled with not only Momo and Mina, but Koda, Tsu, and Aoyama. Denki and Kyoka flanked them as they retreated. "From now on, it's not your responsibility to talk to them," Kyoka told him. "They clearly won't listen to you, so forget about them. They can go through us if they need something."

Katsuki didn't have it in him to protest.

"Hey, bro," Eijirou greeted him as though he were listening. "Denki blew up the toaster this morning. It was hilarious."

"I did not!" Denki cried, affronted. "I tripped over Mineta and landed on the toaster. I just happened to be charging phones at the time, so I had to redirect my current to the toaster, or else I would have fried the phones!"

"Sure," Jirou snorted. "We'll go with that."

"For once, s'true," Katsuki spoke up. "Knocked the grape fucker out for like ten whole minutes."

"Katsuki!" Inko swatted his arm. "Watch your language, young man."

Eijirou barked a laugh. "All due respect, Mrs. Midoriya, but I think that might be a lost cause."

"Stuff it, hard head," Katsuki grumbled, ears going red. They snickered at him, but he took it in stride. This was already the most chill and positive visit he'd had thus far.

Mina and Hatsume reentered the room. Hatsume's eyes and nose were red. "Hey, Broccolini," Hatsume greeted him quietly. Mina squeezed her hand. "I miss you. I have so many new ideas and I wanna run them by you. Oh, and I finished your bracers!" She sniffed, smiling. She turned to Jirou. "And your new recording gear. You'd love it, Izuku. There's an impulse recorder that fastens to her earphone jack that feeds to a recording device. Great for stealthy info-gathering."

"You finished already? When can I come to test it out?" Kyoka asked.

"Tomorrow, if you want." Hatsume shrugged, looking back at Izuku. She was silent, studying him carefully. Then: "You gotta come back," she whispered. "I'm gonna help find who did this to you, but you gotta stay put until then. You're my first friend. I can't lose you, okay?"

Auntie Inko clutched him tighter.

"You okay?" he asked her quietly. Her eyes didn't leave her son.

"I'm so sad," she admitted. "He was finally getting everything he wanted. He was becoming a hero. He has so many friends who love him so much. It's unfair that he's come this far just for his life to be cut so short," she sobbed. "He was meant for more than this." His friends had turned to listen to her, and their hearts broke.

Mina stood and took up Auntie Inko's other side. "Even if he doesn't wake up, he's going to be a legend," she said. Inko looked up at her. "It's not really a comfort, I know. We'd all rather have him here. But if he's stolen from us, we'll make sure everyone knows how much of an impact he's had. We'll rise to the top and shout his name from the rooftops. We'll make a textbook out of his hero analysis so that everyone knows that their heroes learned how to be heroes from him. He's had an impact on all of us—none of us would let his legacy end here in a hospital room. We love him too much for that."

Auntie threw her arms around Mina and sobbed into her neck, latching around the bubblegum girl as though she were adhered there by Hanta's tape.

"Your son is brilliant," Hatsume said quietly, eyes fixed back on Izuku as his mother cried. "He's the first person who's ever been able to keep up with me. Part of me wishes he'd been in the support course. He's an amazing hero, but I can only imagine what we could do with that mind of his in the workshop. He's had a hand in almost all of the costume improvements for Class A, just because he keeps a running file on his observations that he provided to the support department," she smiled. "Did you know the entire school adopted that system? Now teachers can enter notes and observations on students' quirks and fighting styles for the support students to reference while we work. Just because he came waltzing in with a stack of notebooks one day and scolded me for getting ahead of myself with inventing before considering the strengths and weaknesses of each student and their quirks."

None of them knew that. They never really thought about what went on in Support, as long as they got what they needed. "He always pushes to make things better," Kirishima offered. "He got Momo to recreate my civilian wardrobe using Kevlar so that I'd stop tearing all of my clothes."

"He got me diagnosed for my dyslexia when I was failing Lit and Math," Denki mumbled.

"Asked me to teach him how to dance so that I'd take the time to relax and move around when I'm stressed," Ashido added.

"Little shit literally knocked me out and dragged me to an Audiologist to get my tinnitus diagnosed," Katsuki grumbled. "Even though he gave me a goddamn concussion in the process." They laughed at that, even Auntie Inko. It felt like an accomplishment. "He's a hero, Auntie. He's been a hero for years. And if he can't do the rest himself, we'll just follow his lead."

Later, when they'd left, Eijirou pulled him aside. "You made a promise in there, you know," he began. "Even if he doesn't make it, you need to keep being a hero. It'll be hard and it won't be the same, but you can't stop now. I know you said you didn't think you could do it, but now you kinda have to."

Katsuki looked down, swallowing against more stupid, useless tears. "Yeah, I know."

They hated seeing a student injured. They hated seeing students at death's door. And most of all, they hated seeing Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo quiet. Between the two of them, they normally produced the full spectrum of noise—from a quiet but constant background murmur to short but deafening bellows.

Katsuki's parents were back today, and they spoke quietly to Aizawa and Auntie Inko—largely assuring them that despite everything, Katsuki was keeping up with his schoolwork. He was somber as he informed them that they hadn't found any leads on the villain, and the parents informed him that attempts at an antidote were entirely unsuccessful.

"We're still looking, kiddo," Midnight whispered. "You're too good to let go of. We won't stop looking, I promise."

"You're so strong, Midoriya," Present Mic told him. "If anyone could pull through, it would be you. Toshinori is all the way up the quirk registry's ass looking for this guy. So just hang on. We'll find him."

On their way out, Aizawa stopped at his bedside and took Izuku's cold, scarred hand. "You are the most stress-inducing problem child I have ever met in my goddamn life. You're reckless and impulsive. I have a heart attack every time you step outside. But you're also smart and strong and good. You're my favorite student, and you've single-handedly restored my faith in the future of the hero community. So if you die, I will never forgive the world for taking you so young."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Katsuki snapped as soon as he clocked onto the new figure in the room.

"Katsuki—" Mitsuki began, but the shitstain beside her interrupted her.

"I'm just here to visit my son, Katsuki," Hisashi Midoriya said stood from his chair. "Before it's too late."

"It is too late," he snapped. "It's been too late for a long-ass time, asshole. Where the hell have you been for the last ten years? Oh right, fucking off and neglecting your family because your son was diagnosed as quirkless. Is he finally making you proud now that he's dying?"

"Katsuki, please." Inko whimpered. Katsuki fell silent immediately, shoulders straightening.

"Sorry, Auntie." He might hate Hisashi, but he wouldn't cause Inko any more stress if he could help it. "I brought you dinner. Sato decided to try making Italian food. But I didn't bring any extra servings. I didn't realize he'd be here," he said, handing each of the three parents he actually respected a tupperware container. Then he sat by Izuku's bedside and pulled out his reading, barely keeping tabs on the adults' conversation. At one point, he sent a text to Momo, requesting more training dummies for when he returned to campus. She sent him a thumbs up emoji in reply.

He sat there for hours, listening to his parents make stilted small talk with a man who had abandoned his son while trying to absorb Present Mic's study guide to no avail. This man had no claim to Deku—hadn't even looked his way in ten years. No birthday cards, no father's day, no phone calls, no nothing.

"I saw you took first place at both of your sports festivals, Katsuki," Hisashi said, impressed. "You must be proud."

"The first one wasn't a real win. My opponent pussied out halfway through," he replied, surly. "You met him a couple days ago, hag. The half-and-half asshole." He turned to his mother, who pursed her lips tightly. "They muzzled me on national television when I tried to decline the award."

"Yes, I saw. It was all very dramatic," he chuckled.

"Izuku came in second this year. That's the impressive part," Katsuki continued. "He had almost no control over his quirk at the beginning of our first year. I have twelve years of experience on him, and he nearly took me out."

"It was impressive," Hisashi agreed. "I barely recognized him."

Katsuki literally couldn't hold back the scoff, but he consciously chose to say what came next. "Probably would have been easier if you'd seen him more recently than a fuckin' decade ago."

Hisashi studied him carefully before speaking. "I know I've been gone for a long time, but I came as soon as I heard. I only left so that I could support him better."

"You could have called," he shot back. "Or video chatted. Phones do all kinds of crazy communication-based things."

"Katsuki—"

"I'm sorry, Auntie, but this needs to be said." Katsuki cut her off. "I'm heading back to campus after this, so if you want him to be here, I won't interrupt. But you need to know what you did to him." He glared into Hisashi's eyes. There was interest there—perhaps curious about what Katsuki had to say—but no remorse. "Your son once asked me why anyone would care if he died if his own father didn't want him." Auntie Inko gasped, eyes filling with tears. "When we were eight years old, our teacher asked us to make these crappy handmade Father's Day cards, but Izuku didn't know if you'd want it, so I told him we could share a dad. On his tenth birthday, he waited until midnight for you to call, but you never did. After he got his hero license, he called you twenty-two times to try to tell you the news before he gave up on trying to contact you. So now you're here because you think he's dying, but what if he wakes up? Are you still going to be here? Or are you going to fuck off again and reaffirm his lifelong belief that his life only has value if he puts it on the line?" he demanded. Still no remorse. "As far as I'm concerned, you're more of a sperm donor than a father. My dad had more of a hand in his growth than you did. So did Aizawa. Hell, so did All Might. All Might legitimately loves your son more than you do."

"Katsuki, I think that's enough." His mother's voice was soft but firm.

"Yeah, fine." He gave Hisashi one last appraising glance. "I'd say it was good to see you, but I'm an asshole, not a liar. See you never, probably." He turned back to Inko, who was staring at Hisashi like she was seeing him for the first time. "I'll see you tomorrow, Auntie. I'll drop by the house tomorrow after I'm done here, hag. Don't let her clean, old man. My dork squad is insisting."

"Goodnight Katsuki." His father pulled him into a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Katsuki."

"Dinner." He held out a container filled with noodles. "Thai food."

"Thank you, sweetheart." She took the container but held it in her lap. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I should have warned you he would be there. I suppose I didn't really notice what sort of damage he'd done. Izuku kept all of that hidden from me."

"He didn't want you to be sad," he shrugged. "I'm sorry if I made it awkward for you, though."

"You didn't. I asked him to leave once you'd left," she admitted. He was surprised. "I'm going to stretch my legs. Maybe eat this in the cafeteria. I assume you're okay here alone?"

He nodded, and she swept from the room. He took up his spot at Izuku's bedside. "Hey, nerd."

He could practically hear the answering, 'hey, Kacchan.'

He told Izuku about his day. About training, and about Class 1-A's antics. He read part of the book they were reading for their literature class aloud.

Then he stopped. The silence was loud, and he didn't know how to fill it. It felt like a black hole—no matter what he said or how loud he said it, his words were being pulled into nothingness and heard by no one. This was the first time he'd been alone with his thoughts in a long time, and suddenly he remembered why he'd been trying to avoid that. Izuku was fucking dying. The ever-present lump in his throat was back and his eyes stung. He's going to die, and there's nothing I can do. Izuku would never speak to him again. He'd never listen when Katsuki got overwhelmed or talk his ear off at a million words per minute. Izuku would be silent for the rest of Katsuki's life and there was nothing worse than that thought.

"Hey, Zuku?" he called, voice trembling. "I, uh...I'm not okay. And every day you're in here, I get less okay. I'm going out of my fucking mind. I'm trying to hold it together so that your mom doesn't have to worry about me too, but I'm really fucking scared," he sobbed, grabbing onto his hand and curling in on himself like he was in pain. "None of this is okay. You were finally getting everything you wanted. We were finally fixing our relationship. You can't leave me, because this honestly feels like dying. Everything good about me is dying with you and I can feel it." His voice was coming out in whimpers, tucked between shaky breaths and aborted sobs.

"Look, you are the reigning champ of fucking miraculous comebacks. You pull luck out of your ass like none other. And Izuku, I love you. I can't do this without you, motherfucker. I'll try, but I don't think I have it in me if you're not there pushing me or pulling me or what-the-fuck-ever. So listen to me, you beautiful broccoli-headed asshole; if you have any more miracles left in your structurally fucked body, use them," he sobbed. "Use the power of All Might and anime or fucking something and get the fuck back here. Please. Please just use one more miracle and come back to us. To me."

Izuku stayed silent, and Katsuki was still crying when Inko returned.

But it was hard to stay positive. So here he was at 10 pm with his friends scattered around his room in individual study piles—trying to perfectly transpose his notes into detailed study guides—when unbidden, he wondered what kind of flowers Auntie Inko would be ordering for the funeral.

He snapped his pencil. Before his first sob even had an opportunity to break free, Mina and Jirou had pulled him away from his desk to bundle him on the bed. Apparently, Jirou was the one on coddling duty, because she pulled him back on the bed and cocooned herself in his arms—pulling his head into her neck so that she could reach her arms up to thread her fingers into his hair and stroke there gently, humming softly as he cried.

He thought he recognized 'All the Pretty Little Horses'.

Part of him hated all of this; that he'd become so weak and needy in the span of two months. That he broke down every few hours and could barely concentrate without thinking about what Deku would think of the new quirk theory lesson or how Deku would approach a training exercise. That he needed to be coddled like this in order to get through the day.

The other part of him was grateful that despite how abrasive and caustic he could be, he'd somehow found a group of friends that were willing to put in that work. That there was someone other than Deku who could see all of his ugly and want him anyways. It would never be the same as Deku's brand of affection—the all-encompassing, in-depth knowledge of and love for Katsuki's every bitchy molecule that Deku possessed—but it still felt good when everything else felt decidedly bad.

They were on borrowed time now. Soon, the person who knew and loved him best would be gone. Every extra day was a loan that he didn't know how to pay back.

He held it together a little better the next evening. He'd gone to see Deku and he'd had dinner with his parents. He'd gone to the gym with Eijirou, and now he was studying with Momo, Mina, Hanta, and Koda. Well, Momo was tutoring Mina, Hanta, and himself, and Koda was reviewing his math notes and homework.

"Katsuki!" Denki slammed through the door, throwing it open with such force that it slammed off the wall and left a dent. The study group startled violently—Mina even fell off her seat, landing hard on her ass.

"Denks, what the fuck," Mina scolded him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I think we found him," Denki gasped. He was sweating. Had he been running? His room was only one floor away, where the hell could he have been running from?

"Found who?" Momo asked, eyeing him like he'd lost the plot.

"The villain!" Denki cried, still panting. Katsuki froze, eyes abandoning his friend's disheveled state to snap to his wild, excited eyes. "Hitoshi and I were looking through social footage and cross-referencing with facial recognition and the quirk registry. Hitoshi has access because of his work-study with Aizawa. We were combing footage within a mile radius of the incident, focusing on anyone who was avoiding the more visible cameras." Katsuki stood slowly, heart racing and palms sweating, eyes lasered in on Denki as he spoke. "We found some footage on Instagram that a tourist posted in one of the CCTV dead zones, and then found the guy in a couple of other places, always angled away from buildings and pole mounts but visible in the background of influencer pics at some of the tourist and restaurant hotspots in the area. We ran face-rec and cross-referenced with the registry and—" he took a deep breath—still panting from his sprint and running out of breath from talking so fast. "I think we fucking found him."

"You found him?" Katsuki's voice cracked. "Why the hell are you telling me?" he asked, a little lost and not quite computing what was happening.

"Hitoshi's telling Aizawa," Denki told him hurriedly. "He went to go look for him as soon as we found out but I—" he shook his head. "Of course I needed to tell you as soon as I could. You needed to know first, dude."

Katsuki trembled, eyes still locked on Denki. Everyone in the room could see the exact moment that Katuski understood what was happening. He gave a ragged gasp, and his face twisted. Then came the ragged sob, and the drop of his shoulders. He stumbled forward, grasping Denki by the arm and pulling him in; throwing his arms around his shoulders—pushing his face into the crook of his neck as he sobbed. Denki's arms came up around his back—holding him up and comforting him in turn as Katsuki cried into his neck.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you—" he whispered praise into Denki's skin, desperate tears of utter relief making the whole experience gross but neither of them gave a single fuck. Denki clutched him a little tighter.

"Kat, let's go see Aizawa," Mina urged. "We might know who he is, but we still need to catch the motherfucker. Let's go see what we can do."

Katsuki nodded, giving Denki another squeeze (Denki gave a strangled huff) before straightening. "Denki—"

"No need, dude," he insisted, grin wide and electric. "Let's find this asshole."

Unfortunately, he also knew that he'd poisoned a hero hopeful because that same hero hopeful, whose face had been splayed across every TV in the country during the sports festival, had stumbled across him right before he'd attempted to rob a tiny bakery. He'd attacked Izuku before Izuku had been able to attack him, and he'd made it the most cowardly sneak attack he could possibly manage—imparting as much damage as he could in as little time as possible.

"Is Midoriya still alive?" he'd chuckled, looking too calm and amused for someone being apprehended as he watched Aizawa's face darken. "Well if you want him to stay that way, I want to make a deal. I don't imagine he has much time left."

Katsuki stared at Takeda from behind a two-way mirror as Aizawa and Tsukauchi discussed an interrogation plan. He was shaking with barely restrained anger. Denki and Hitoshi were on either side of him.

This fucker may have been easy to track down and apprehend, but pinning down the minutiae of his quirk was not. When his quirk had been registered at the tender age of five, it had been registered as a mild paralytic toxin that was secreted from under his fingernails. That mild paralytic toxin wore off on its own within five hours. Since then, his quirk had matured into a completely different beast, and he hadn't made any updates to his registry record. They were flying completely blind.

"We can figure out what happened later, Naomasa," Aizawa insisted. "The priority needs to be getting an antidote for Midoriya."

"He won't give one up until he's granted some level of immunity. We can't give him that until we know the scope of his illegal activity." Tsukauchi argued. Katsuki gritted his teeth.

"It's like I'm fucking invisible," Hitoshi grumbled after the adults' bickering had gone on for a touch longer than he wanted. "Hey!" he barked. They turned to him, alarmed. "What about me?"

Tsukauchi squinted at him. "What about you?" Hitoshi rolled his eyes in response, before giving Aizawa a pointed look.

Aizawa hesitated. "We'd need to get authorization from the Hero Commission," Aizawa replied. "Use of a mental quirk in an interrogation setting has a full set of moral implications and legal roadblocks."

"But most of those roadblocks fuck off when there's human life in imminent danger," Katsuki snapped. He enjoyed studying quirk legislation, okay? It was fucking cool.

"That's true. That doesn't mitigate the need for authorization."

"Then fucking get it!" Katsuki snarled. "Deku is currently overdue for his meeting with the goddamn grim reaper, so can we pick up the fucking pace?"

"Toshinori is probably still there. I'll call him," Tsukauchi agreed, pulling out his phone and stepping out of the room. Aizawa turned to his students, face softening.

"Hey, we're gonna get the antidote. Getting this asshole here was the hardest part," Aizawa insisted. Katsuki gave a jerky nod, not meeting his eyes. He closed his hand down over his student's shoulder, noting the shaking. "Hey, look at me." Reluctantly, Katsuki complied. "I know you're scared. You've been amazing over the past two months. So now I'm gonna make you a promise." Their teacher's eyes darkened noticeably. "If Midoriya is living on borrowed time, then so is he. Either he's going to give us that antidote in time to save him, or he's going to meet his maker right by Midoriya's side."

Their eyes widened. "Just to be clear," Denki began nervously. "You're saying that if Midoriya doesn't make it, you're going to murder a detainee?"

"Without remorse," Aizawa agreed coolly. "Your class has been through too much, you and Midoriya especially." He looked back into Katsuki's eyes. "You are my kids, and while you're under my care I will meet anyone who hurts you with equal retribution. If Midoriya dies, I will make sure he follows." He glanced seriously between his students. "However, I have no intention of becoming a murderer, so that should tell you how sure I am that we'll succeed."

Aizawa's words in the hospital echoed through his head. If you die, I will never forgive the world for taking you so young. Katsuki wished he felt alarmed by Aizawa's declaration, but he felt astonishingly reassured. He went slack in his hold and nodded. "I'll take your word for it."

"Good." Aizawa squeezed his shoulder again. "Now, if I might make a suggestion—go wait at the hospital with Midoriya. Being here will only agitate you." Katsuki opened his mouth to argue, but Aizawa cut him off. "That guy is gunning to get a rise out of us, and you've been on edge for over a month. Any misconduct here will increase the chance that he'll get his sentence reduced, so clear out. Take Denki, and go threaten the hospital staff into keeping him alive until we get there."

"You're making a lot of really unethical recommendations today, sir," Denki pointed out. "Don't get me wrong, I'm kinda jazzed about it, but fair warning that I might bring it up later when you're mad at me in the future."

Aizawa smirked. "You'll get three free passes to throw this in my face. After that, I'll just up your training quotas."

Denki grimaced. "Noooooooo thank you. Okay, Blasty, let's bounce and go keep your broccoli boyfriend company."

Katsuki spluttered. "Do not call him that!" Katsuki demanded as Denki pulled him out of the room, too flustered to notice the kiss that Denki blew to Hitoshi over his shoulder.

"I'll call him whatever I want! He'd need to wake up to stop me!"

He followed Aizawa into the room docilely. "Have you finally decided to talk to me? I've had plenty of time to come up with a list of demands while you've had me waiting here." Takeda sneered.

"Oh?" Hitoshi smirked. "And what would those be?"

"I don't answer to children—" Takeda's eyes glazed over.

"You do now," Hitoshi smirked. "Answer our questions honestly and thoroughly. Don't leave anything out."

"How do we produce an antidote to your quirk?" Aizawa asked, voice deadly.

"Less gross than becoming worm food, Boomer." Hitoshi drawled over speakerphone so that both Denki and Katsuki could hear him. The hospital room was empty. Technically, visiting hours were over, but when they explained that there was an antidote incoming with authorization from Eraserhead and Detective Tsukauchi, they were ushered into Izuku's room by an overjoyed nursing staff who had become very fond of Katsuki.

"We have Recovery Girl coming to collect his saliva samples so that she can synthesize a more concentrated serum. Apparently, the way his quirk works is that he releases microscopic quills into the bloodstream that essentially hijack your cells so that your own body starts to attack itself. He basically poisons you with an autoimmune disorder. As his quirk developed, the length of time that it took for those quills to be destroyed by your immune system increased way past human survivability. At this rate, we'd need to pump him with like—I dunno, half his blood volume's worth of saliva. Instead, they're gonna isolate whatever will neutralize those quills and introduce it to his IV," Hitoshi continued to explain.

"Eyebags. I don't care how. Tell me when," Katsuki barked. Deku was no longer breathing on his own, and a doctor with a minor tissue reconstruction quirk was currently the only reason that his heart and stomach were still intact.

"Recovery Girl will be here in half an hour. I anticipate she'll have an antidote ready by the morning," Aizawa relayed, a little farther from the phone than Hitoshi, but still clearly part of the conversation. "If you'd like to stay the night in the hospital, you may. You're both excused from classes tomorrow. All Might will join you during visiting hours, and I'll inform you as soon as the antidote is prepared. I'll leave the honor of informing Mrs. Midoriya to you, Bakugou."

Deku just needed to make it through one more night. Katsuki's veins burned with elation. He could already see the look on Auntie's face.

"Morning, Auntie. We were given the day off, so Pikachu and I wanted to come to keep him company. All Might drove us," he fibbed. He didn't like dishonesty, but he didn't want to get her hopes up until Recovery Girl was on her way with the antidote.

"That's so sweet of you, boys," she smiled at them. Katsuki took in the tired set of her shoulders and the dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes. The only thing that excited him more than seeing Inko genuinely happy was the prospect of seeing Deku's freakishly big viridian eyes and hearing his neverending muttering. He was practically vibrating with anticipation.

"You want some coffee, Mrs. M?" Denki asked, standing and tugging on Katsuki's sleeve so that he'd stand, too.

"She drinks tea, Pikachu."

"Dangit, just when you'd started calling me Denki regularly?"

"Nicknames are how he shows affection, dear," Inko's smile was tired, but there were flecks of mischief in her expression that Katsuki scowled at. "If he doesn't care, I believe he'd be calling you an extra."

"Auntie."

"He used to call me Auntie Moss-Head. He used to call his father Spiky Potato," she chuckled.

"Auntie!" Katsuki protested, flushing. Denki was cackling.

"I'm pretty sure he only stopped because they were mouthfuls."

"We're getting you tea. C'mon lightning dolt," Katsuki pouted, dragging Denki from the room as he wheezed with laughter.

They returned twenty minutes later, caffeinated beverages in hand. Katsuki was jittery again, leg bouncing and eyes flicking from Izuku to Inko, then to his phone and back again. "Sweetheart, are you sure you should be drinking more caffeine?" Inko asked hesitantly. "You seem jumpy."

"Yeah, I'm good. Waiting for this dumbass to finish his milk with a dash of coffee so that we can read our hero analysis essays to Deku," he replied, leg still bouncing.

"Language, Katsuki," she sighed.

They got halfway through Denki's analysis essay (which All Might gave notes on as he read it aloud) before Katsuki's phone lit up with Aizawa's text.

Recovery Girl on her way. ETA 30 minutes.

Katsuki sobbed in relief, drawing Inko's eyes immediately—expression sharp with alarm. "Katsuki?"

"They made the antidote—" he rasped, letting out a crazy little laugh as he doubled over in his chair. Inko went rigid. It felt like someone had punched the air out of his lungs. "I didn't tell you earlier, Auntie, I'm so sorry—I didn't want to get your hopes up," he choked on a shuddering sob. All Might was grinning next to Inko's frozen form. "I didn't want to tell y-you just in case he didn't make it before it w-was ready. Denki and E-eyebags found the villain last night, and now Recovery G-girl is on her way here with the a-antidote. I didn't want to tell you until we knew for s-sure—" he hiccuped his way through his explanation, trying to explain himself.

But Inko was already out of her seat and launching herself at the sobbing boy, winding her arms around his neck and soaking him in tears of relief. Midoriyas and their tear ducts. He'd gladly drown in them as long as it meant that Deku was going to wake up.

Then she threw her arms around Denki, pressing an enthusiastic kiss to his forehead before squeezing him tighter than Katsuki had the night before.

"You're all so amazing," she blubbered into Denki's shoulder. He looked a little alarmed at the violent display of affection but hugged her back. "I knew that if there was a way to save him that one of you would find it. My baby couldn't have been in better hands."

Katsuki had dropped his face into his hands, now edging towards outright bawling, body shuddering and spasming from the sheer weight of his utter relief.

When they returned to the dorm, Hitoshi was held captive under a dogpile of affection and admiration. Denki was dragged in immediately after. Apparently, Mina and Momo had told everyone what Denki and Hitoshi had accomplished as soon as they'd left the dorms, and now they were throwing them an impromptu party. 

"How are you doing, bro?" Eijirou asked, throwing himself onto the couch beside him while everyone else was distracted. 

Katsuki grinned at him helplessly. "Fuckin' awesome."

Mina snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, resting her chin on his head. "He's gonna be okay, Kat." She breathed. Katsuki could feel her airy laugh vibrating across his back. He matched it with his own incredulous chuckle. He felt his entire body unclenching after weeks of constant tension. "I can barely believe it."

"Neither can I, Pinky," he agreed, grasping her arms tight. "But fuck it feels good."

Within two days, Izuku's organs had largely been healed or re-formed. On the third morning, he was weaned off his ventilator.

Katsuki spent every spare minute that he was allowed to be in the hospital adhered to Izuku's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. So did Inko. So did All Might.

Three days after the ventilator was removed, Katsuki made his way to the hospital after attending classes and changing out of his uniform, accepting the bento that Sato passed to him on his way out of the dorm.

He sat at Deku's bedside, opened his 'Ethics of Heroics' textbook, and began reading aloud.

"There are many ways to act pro-socially without taking risk but when one reaches the threshold that separates altruism from heroism, danger plays a crucial role—" Katsuki scoffed. "Well, that's bullshit. How old is this dumb book?" He grumbled, flipping to the publication info, still talking to himself. "For fucks sake, if altruism mattered to modern heroism, we wouldn't have flaming shitbags like Endeavor—"

He was interrupted by a gentle huff of laughter, and his eyes snapped to the body in the bed.

It was 5:47 pm, and Izuku's eyes were open; beautiful, amused and so alive. The amusement was rapidly replaced with extreme concern when his oldest, surliest friend dropped his textbook on his foot and started weeping. "K-" he rasped, too parched to talk, but reaching out for Katsuki.

Katsuki batted his hand away, slamming his fist on the nurse call button before practically climbing on top of Izuku in a desperate attempt to hug him. "Jesus fuck you're awake—"

He felt Izuku tap his leg three times—the universal sign for tapping out—and realized that he was essentially suffocating the bedridden nerd and hastily scrambled off of him. He whipped his phone out, gaze fixing on Izuku's alarmed emerald eyes as he called Inko, still crying. "He's awake," he croaked into the phone as soon as she picked up. He heard something crash on the other end, and assumed she'd dropped something.

"I'm on my way, I'll be there in fifteen minutes—" she hung up as she undoubtedly flew out the door to break several traffic laws in her attempt to get to the hospital.

The nurse was here now, checking on him and coaching him through tiny sips of water, testing his reflexes and whatever the fuck else they tested for after a coma.

He'd gotten some of his shit together by the time Auntie Inko arrived. She burst through the door, already sobbing. "Izuku, sweetheart, thank god!" She cried.

"Hey, mom," he rasped. Katsuki bit back more tears. God, even that croaky-ass death rattle sounded beautiful.

"I'm gonna go. I need to tell Aizawa and All Might that he's awake, and then I need to tell the rest of the class," Katsuki sniffed. He knew he was putting a wall up, but goddammit, he had been an anthropomorphized open wound for two goddamn months. He needed some recovery time.

Inko frowned, though. "Are you sure, Katsuki?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, auntie. I'll come back as soon as I can. I'll tell my parents to come meet you here, though," he promised, already packing his bag to beat a hasty retreat.

Inko knew him well, though. "Alright, sweetheart. Get some rest tonight. I'll see you soon."

Of course she would see him soon. He might need some distance, but Deku needed him. He'd almost lost that shitty little nerd, and he had pretty much committed to never let him down again. "I'll be back right after classes tomorrow," he promised before practically fleeing.

"What do you mean, baby?" Inko asked, clutching his hand as though he might disappear if he let go.

"When I woke up, Kacchan started crying. Then he hugged me. Then he ran away," he explained. "Like...kinda felt like he was trying to chew his arm off."

"He's not the most emotionally literate, dear," she reminded him, voice going soft but incredibly serious. "You've been in a coma for two months. Until two days ago, we all genuinely thought you were going to die. Your classmates all came through to say their goodbyes, just in case we couldn't find an antidote for you."

His eyes widened, looking impossibly large in his now sunken face. She'd have to get Katsuki and that sweet Sato boy to put extra effort into feeding him. "Two months?" he asked, horrified. "What happened?"

"Aizawa and your friends Hitoshi and Denki will be able to answer that better," she told him gently. "The point is, Katsuki spent those two months certain that he was going to lose you, but hoping that you wouldn't. He was here for your first seizure and the first time you—" she took a shuddering breath. "The first time you choked on blood. It was really hard on him, but he took it all on. I don't think I could have done it without him and his parents. He's been a rock. But he still thought he was going to lose you. I'd imagine that he had to escape just now because he was overwhelmed. He's been more emotionally distressed in the last two months than he has in the last ten years." She brushed his hair out of his eyes. He needed a haircut. "It was scary for him. You've had your troubles, but you're still so important to him."

"I didn't mean to worry him. Or you. I'm sorry," he sniffed.

"It wasn't your fault, baby. This time, you were just walking back to campus after visiting me and stumbled across a villain," she hung her head. "I still don't really know the details. They only caught him four days ago, and I've been preoccupied with the fact that you were going to survive. I didn't even ask when Aizawa came to visit."

They talked about the time he'd spent in his coma—his mother detailing how much Katsuki had done to help them; from bringing her dinners to cleaning their apartment to keeping her company in the hospital—how he'd organized the Class A hospital visits after breaking the news to them and offered them emotional support when they broke down.

She told him how much his friends had missed him and how scared they'd been. He cried when he thought about how profoundly he must have scared his friends. How much strain his condition had put on Katsuki and his mom and the Bakugous. How he nearly died and almost took One For All with him.

When he'd settled down a little, he was struck with a realization. "Oh crap. I'm going to be so behind in school and training—" he fretted.

Inko smiled softly. "Don't worry sweetheart," she squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Katsuki took care of that, too."

He arrived back at the dorm in a daze. It was earlier than he'd expected to return, so no one was actively waiting for him. He entered the common room stealthily, scanning the room to take stock of who was present. 

Most of the class. Grape-sack was missing, and so was Hanta. Usually, that meant that Hanta was wrapping the perv in a tape cocoon and sticking him somewhere out of reach of the majority of the class. Not all heroes wear capes, or whatever.

But Hanta needed to be here, so he texted him to meet him in the common room. He arrived within a minute. "You're back early, Blasty!" he called from across the room. Seventeen pairs of eyes turned to look at him. Well, maybe sixteen. He couldn't see Hagakure's eyes.

"Yeah," he agreed, stepping further into the room. He took in their faces as he stepped forward, watching as each individual classmate realized that he had an announcement to make. He couldn't hold back his wild smile and his heart was in his throat. "Deku's awake."

A screaming cheer made its way through the common room and before he knew it, he was being tackled from all directions with full-bodied hugs and violent thumps on his back. His ears were assaulted by their whoops of joy and he grinned even wider. Eijirou picked him up and spun him around. 

He could hear someone asking when they could see him and honestly, he didn't know. He'd just woken up for fuck's sake—he probably needed time to recuperate or something. Upon investigation, it was someone who wasn't allowed in the hospital anyways, so he just ignored it and let himself revel in the fact that Izuku was awake as his classmates celebrated around him. 

Suddenly he was hoisted up onto Eijirou and Hanta's shoulders. "What the hell? Put me down, dumbasses!"

But they ignored him, opting to march out of the dorms with him perched on their shoulders, the class following behind them as they bellowed an elated chant into the darkening campus: "HE'S AWAKE! HE'S AWAKE! HE'S AWAKE!" 

When they passed by Class 2-B's dorm, Kendo stuck her head out of the door to see what the commotion was. When she realized what was happening, she yelled back into their dorm. Before long, Class 2-B had joined them, then the 1st years, then the 3rd years, until the entire hero course was in the Heights Alliance courtyard screaming: "HE'S AWAKE! HE'S AWAKE! HE'S AWAKE!" 

Katsuki enjoyed the show from his perch on his friends' shoulders, and he couldn't have stopped grinning if he tried. 

"Hi, Kacchan," Izuku greeted him softly, smiling at him like he was something precious.

"Hey, Deku," he replied, relieved but uncomfortable—completely out of his depth under Izuku's scrutiny. He shuffled into the room, strongly considering running away again. But he wasn't a little bitch, so fuck that. "Where's your mom?"

"She was here all day. I asked her to give me a couple of hours alone with you, though." Izuku's eyes were warm but determined, and that urge to run the fuck away from whatever he wanted to say was strong as hell.

But the past two months had kinda proven that running away from Deku and his never-ending fountain of emotions would only lead to insurmountable levels of regret and pain. So, he donned his emotional jock-strap like a big boy and moved to the chair at Izuku's bedside. "Why'd ya do that, nerd?"

Izuku raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, and Katsuki repressed the instinctual need to flip him off in response. "So that I could thank you, stupid."

"Don't push your luck, asshole," Katsuki growled half-heartedly. "I'm still pissed at you for nearly dying on me. Pull that shit again and I'll set your appointment with God myself."

Izuku rolled his eyes. "Something gives me the impression that you're full of shit," he replied dryly. "Something like how you took care of my mom and your parents and our friends, destroyed the school gym when I had a seizure, and cried at my bedside."

Katsuki glared at him, and Izuku smirked back. "Makin' it real fuckin' hard to remember why, fucker."

"Liar," Izuku replied, fond. "It would have been the same for me, if it were you, you know."

Katsuki swallowed. Whatever bravado was left in his sails seemed to leave him all at once. "Yeah, I know. Probably would have handled it better, though."

Izuku scoffed incredulously. "I would have flooded the dorms with the sheer magnitude of my tears." Katsuki snorted.

"Yeah, maybe. But you were always better with the emotional shit," he shrugged. "Way better at supporting people and making them feel better. I was just—" he exhaled shakily. "I was a mess. And kind of an asshole for the first few weeks."

"That's not what mom said," Izuku disagreed. "I'm more inclined to believe her. You're always too hard on yourself. She said you were incredible. You took care of everything so that she could focus on me. And you were there for me, too. Took care of my friends and spent time with me while I was out. You try to hide it, but you're always there for me. I don't think I thank you enough for that, Kacchan."

"You're the same, Deku," Katsuki reminded him. "Even when I didn't want it, you were always right there offering to help me up when I'm on the ground." He looked straight up at the ceiling, willing gravity to push the oncoming tears back into his eyeballs.

"I'm sorry," Izuku murmured. Katsuki's eyes snapped back to him. "For worrying you so much. I'm sorry you spent two months thinking that I was going to die."

Katsuki considered his options carefully. He could brush it off. Tell him that it was nothing, but that wasn't really the direction he wanted to go. This was an opportunity that he shouldn't pass up, no matter how hard the conversation would be. "It's not the first time I've thought you were going to die," Katsuki replied. Izuku's eyes widened. "It was just the first time I thought you were going to die and I couldn't be mad at you for it."

"What are you talking about?"

"This was the first time that you've been in the hospital for something that was completely out of your control. I've been terrified for you in the past. It's why I was so fucking angry with you all those years. You have that big ass nerd brain, and you go running into danger with only two active brain cells and it scares the shit out of me. All the time. This time was different and so much scarier because you were fucking ambushed when you were minding your own business so the only thing I could do was be terrified that you were going to die, right when you were finally becoming what you wanted to be. Right before we were ready to fix our issues," he paused, looking back up at the ceiling. "I spent so much time wondering how to get you to consider yourself before pulling some kamikaze bullshit because I was so fucking sure that was what was gonna kill you. I was completely unprepared to see you waste away quietly in a fucking hospital without a fight."

Izuku stared at him, mouth parted in surprise. "That's why you were mad at me?"

Katsuki looked back at him and gave him a wry smile, eyes suspiciously wet. "For years, I was sure you were going to get yourself hurt doing something reckless. I was terrified that I'd end up depending on you, and you'd fucking die on me. So I tried to push you away, but you kept on pushing yourself closer. But you still kept pulling reckless shit right in front of me. I wasn't just mad, Izuku," he replied. Izuku jolted at the use of his actual name. "I was furious. And then it actually happened. You finally managed to get closer to me again, and I started to depend on you. And then this happened, and I nearly broke."

Izuku was crying now. Not his usual quirk-level waterworks, but a steady stream that was quiet and pained. "I'm so sorry, Katsuki." He understood why Izuku had jolted when he'd said his name. It felt like a livewire. "I'm sorry for putting you through that. I promise you, I'll work on my recklessness. I know I overdo it, I've known that for a long time. I don't really know how to switch it off, but I promise you I'll try."

"That's literally all I want," Katsuki replied, relieved.

"Can I get something in return?" he asked. "It's by no means a condition for me to take care of myself, but—"

"Spit it out, Deku."

Izuku swallowed thickly. "This is the first time you've told me how you felt. The first time you've really told me where I went wrong. I've been fighting to stand beside you my entire life, and it feels like you want that too, now. But when something's bothering you, I need you to tell me. I need you to communicate. Not exactly your strong suit, I know—"

"Fuck you!"

"But we need it. Don't you think we've wasted enough time on miscommunication? You're too important to me to lose over a misunderstanding, Kacchan."

Katsuki rubbed his palms over his face. "I can try. I can definitely try," he agreed. "The next time one of us is in this shit, I don't want either of us to have regrets."

Izuku reached over to squeeze his hand. "Me neither." There was a beat of silence, where they both reveled in the fact that they'd just had an emotional and honest talk that didn't end in shouting or black eyes. Progress.

"Hey, Deku?" Katsuki gripped his hand a little tighter. "I uh...I asked you for a miracle. When you were still out, I mean. I asked you to pull one of your crazy miracles out of your ass again and just come back. And you did, so—" he swallowed thickly. "So thanks for listening."

Izuku chuckled. "I'm not sure I had anything to do with it, but uh—" he glanced at Katsuki out of the corner of his eye. "If you're gonna give me credit for that, I think I know how you can pay me back for it. Mom mentioned something about study guides?"

It did give him a lot of time to catch up on his schoolwork. Katsuki hadn't let up on his hospital visits—staying by Izuku's bedside as soon as school let out until visiting hours ended each day. Most of the time he did his own homework and only helped him when he got stuck or had a question about the (shockingly elaborate) study guides that Katsuki and Momo had put together.

It was a good system. Izuku was on par with Katsuki's intelligence and hardly needed help playing catch up. But it was a lot of information to cram into his skull in a short amount of time, and he was still so goddamn restless.

It didn't help that Katsuki was currently the only person in Class A that was allowed to visit. He had family privileges, and he was completely immune to Izuku's petulant persuasion tactics. That meant he'd make Izuku sleep if he was tired or straight up leave if he was going overboard. The rest of the class didn't have that kind of discipline. Being completely honest, Katsuki was glad that the class wasn't allowed to visit, because then he'd have to explain why Deku's best friends weren't allowed to take part and he did not want to do that. He just wanted things to go back to normal. Unfortunately, that left him feeling isolated.

But there was good news on that front. When Katsuki had gone to Aizawa and asked if there was a way for Izuku could complete his rehab from Heights Alliance, he'd almost immediately agreed. The condition, obviously, was that Recovery Girl had to agree to oversee Izuku's treatment plan.

"I don't know, Bakugou," Recovery Girl replied when Katsuki had gone to her. "Of course it's possible, but there's a good chance that he'll push himself too hard if he's surrounded by classmates who are at full strength. You and I both know how he is."

"He'll push himself regardless. That's how he is," Katsuki argued. "He's going nuts. He feels useless and isolated in the hospital, and he's getting frustrated. It's a recipe for disaster, and you know it. If he's back in the dorm, he'll be surrounded with support and the entire class can help make sure he doesn't push himself. He can do his school work during the day, and do rehab exercises with Class A's help in the evenings."

Recovery Girl eyed him thoughtfully. "I'll discuss it with his doctors. You'll have an answer within 24 hours."

Katsuki sighed, tension leaving his shoulders. "Thank you."

"It's the first time you've asked me for something without using five expletives per sentence, kiddo. I'm assuming that means you'll take his recovery seriously and make sure he doesn't go overboard," she replied sternly.

"I will," he promised. Recovery Girl shooed him out, which was fine. He was late, anyways—and he still needed to grab dinner from the dorm before heading to the hospital. He felt bad eating Sato's cooking in front of Izuku though. Deku wasn't approved for solids yet, but maybe he could clear a smoothie with actual flavor with the nerd's doctor.

"You been doing your homework, nerd?" he barked as he barged into the room. Izuku was propped up by pillows and elbows deep in their quirk theory textbook. His head snapped up and he looked at Katsuki with wide, slightly red eyes. "And have you been sleeping?"

"Do the homework or get sleep, Kacchan. Can't be both." Izuku replied, a little bleary.

"They are never gonna let you out of the hospital if you don't take care of yourself, fucker," Katsuki snapped. "You know that."

"I'm trying to catch up!" he cried, frustrated.

Katsuki glared at him fiercely. "If you focus on your physical health now, it'll be easier to do the catch-up. It'll go faster because your body will be able to handle it. Do this shit the right way, nerd. You know I'm right."

Izuku pouted. It was not cute. It wasn't. "I just feel pathetic," he mumbled.

Katsuki took a deep, calming breath. Yelling in the hospital was bad form. "You nearly got  fucking deleted by a villain, Deku. Two weeks isn't enough time to fully recover from two months of internally dissolving. What if it were me in the bed? What would you tell me?"

Izuku flushed and looked at Katsuki sheepishly. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Katsuki mocked him. "I get being restless, but you gotta be smart, dumbass. Take it easy in the beginning and work your way up to doing more every day."

"Fine." Izuku flopped back into his pillows.

"Take a nap while I check over your work," Katsuki instructed. "I'll wake you up when its time to review."

"Don't you have your own homework?"

"Yeah, but I'm basically studying by checking your work," he shrugged.  "Don't sweat it. I got some of it done during lunch, and I'll get to the rest after they kick me out."

Izuku seemed to know better than to argue with him (for once), and settled in to take his mandated nap while Katsuki picked up his binder of makeup work and began to flip through it.

Katsuki, Momo, and Aizawa had come up with a makeup plan for Izuku almost as soon as he'd woken up. It included a lesson plan, the notes and study guides that they had compiled, and a binder of assignments that he'd have to complete in order for Aizawa to deem him caught up enough to take the semester's final exams.

It meant that Izuku would likely be working to catch up for the duration of their two- spring vacation, and he wouldn't be entirely caught up for a while. He was months behind his classmates after he'd been doing so well and it frustrated him to degree he'd never experienced before. It made him angry.

Fuck Hiroki Takeda. Izuku wanted to Detroit Smash him in the face for stealing two whole months from him. For terrifying his friends and family, too. He kinda wanted to slap the villain's head off. But he wouldn't because he was a hero. Dammit.

Katsuki let Izuku sleep for two hours before waking him up to go over corrections. He could feel Deku's bubbling frustration, even as he tried to absorb what he was being taught with a positive attitude.

"Oh good, you're still here." Deku's doctor let himself into the room and addressed Katsuki. They were reviewing the math assignment that Izuku had done almost perfectly. There were a couple slip ups, but they were minor. Better safe than sorry, though. Both boys looked up at the intruder, blinking owlishly.

"Uh...yeah," Katsuki uttered intelligently.

"Hope you're not overworking yourself, Midoriya," the doctor warned, eying them suspiciously. "Or else I might rethink my decision to discharge you and allow you to complete your rehab in Recovery Girl's care."

Izuku's eyes widened. Damn, Recovery Girl worked fast. Katsuki was impressed. "What?" Izuku yelped, jolting forward.

"I understand that you've agreed to be his primary caregiver in the dorm, Bakugou? You're planning on managing his recovery and academic plans?" the doctor continued as though Izuku hadn't interrupted. "That had a fairly large bearing on my decision, so I'd like to confirm some details with you before I officially sign off on it."

Katsuki nodded, even as Izuku turned those wide eyes on him. "What?" Izuku demanded.

Katsuki ignored him. "Yeah, that's the plan. Our classmates will be helping, but I agreed to be the main contact. Aizawa will be monitoring his progress, too, so that'll be an extra set of responsible adult eyes on the nerd."

"That's good to know," the doctor agreed, both of them ignoring Izuku's incredulous sputtering. "If we do this, Recovery Girl will be taking over as the primary physician. You'll need to go to her for weekly checkups and report any problems to her as soon as possible. I've already sent her the care plan we've following, but I'd like to go over it with you. There are a lot of physical therapy exercises that he'll need to do daily, and a fairly strict diet plan. He'll also need to take medications, and there are signs of fatigue you'll need to watch for."

"Kacchan, you don't need to—"

Katsuki cut him off with a ferocious glare. "Do I ever—ever—do anything that I don't want to do?"

Izuku opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking like an odd green fish out of water. "N-no?"

"Then shut up and let me talk to your doctor, nerd."

"O-okay. Alright," Izuku complied, sitting back but not taking his huge, amazed eyes off of Katsuki. He tried very hard not to flush under the scrutiny.

"Hit me, doc."

The doctor (who was thoroughly amused by the two flustered boys) outlined Izuku's care thoroughly, handing Katsuki sheets of paper and explaining them in detail. Pointing out particulars of Izuku's injuries and weak spots on the boy's body and explaining how each exercise was done and how it helped. Katsuki's focus was laser-sharp, and he asked questions attentively—turning over every detail until he was sure he'd be able to take care of the nerd flawlessly.

"I think I feel comfortable releasing you into UA's care, Midoriya. You're lucky to have friends like Bakugou, here," the doctor smiled. But then his face darkened slightly, and he cut his eyes to Katsuki. "Not many people would take such good care of their friends' families in situations like yours."

Katsuki remembered then, that this was the doctor that had banned the 'Dekusquad' from the hospital. Katsuki shook his head ever so slightly. This was not the forum for that conversation. The doctor pursed his lips, but moved on, even as Izuku eyed them both suspiciously. "I'd like to keep you one more night so that we do one more round of regen therapy before you leave. Bakugou, you can pick him up in the morning. He'll need a wheelchair any time he's walking more than fifteen feet—do not argue with me—it is non-negotiable."

Izuku grumbled but agreed because honestly, he was way more excited about getting to leave the hospital than he was bummed about his lack of mobility. "When did you agree to be my caretaker?" he asked once the doctor had left.

"Today, after class," Katsuki replied, turning back to the homework. "Went to Recovery Girl. Noticed you were getting antsy." He looked up when Izuku didn't say anything because a silent Deku was nearly unheard of (unless the asshole was in a fucking coma), and found Izuku staring at him with a look so soft and warm that it made him want to tuck tail and flee. "What?" he demanded, self conscious.

"Nothing! Just...thank you, Kacchan. You're amazing."

Katsuki squirmed. "You've been saying that since we were four. Careful or it'll lose meaning."

"You're also a complete dick," Izuku replied, a little wry.

"Watch it, or I'll push your wheelchair down the stairs, Freckles," Katsuki barked. "Let's finish this chapter, and then I'm gonna go baby-proof the dorm for you."

"I'm not a baby!"

"Hey! How's our little green bean doing?" Mina asked. Now that Katsuki was almost completely functional and not primed for a breakdown, they'd turned their overbearing amounts of concern to Izuku's recovery.

"He's good. Stir crazy, but good. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm gonna grab a few people. Meet me in my room?" he asked, tossing his key to Eijirou.

"Sure, dude," he agreed, and they stood to leave. "Hey, Denki and Hanta wanted to do a movie night. What do you think?"

Katsuki paused. "We should do it tomorrow instead. The whole class, down here."

That made them both pause, eyebrows raised. "Uh...did you just suggest a class activity with the extras? Are you feeling okay, Blasty?" Mina joked. He gave her shoulder a shove.

"We'll talk about it later, Pinky."

He tapped Hanta and Denki, then Kyoka, Momo, and Tsuyu.  

"What's this about, dude?" Hanta asked, throwing himself onto Katsuki's bed like he owned the damn thing.

"Deku's coming back tomorrow," he declared. "We want to surprise everyone when I bring him back tomorrow, which is why I didn't tell everyone—" he didn't get to finish because there was a sudden commotion— Mina squealed and launching herself at Katsuki, Eijirou and Denki bellowed loud exclamations, and Tsuyu...disappeared for a second? Camouflaged in shock? Something like that. Katsuki didn't have time to dwell on how strange frogs were.

"OI! Focus up, dipshits!" he yelled. How could seven people make that much noise? "Jesus, you fucks are loud."

"Have you met yourself?" Hanta drawled, still lounging on the bed. Katsuki flipped him off for good measure.

"That's why you wanted to do a movie night tomorrow!" Eijirou cried, pointing an accusing finger at him. He rolled his eyes.

"As I was fucking saying," he snarled, allowing Mina to continue sticking to him like a leech. "We want it to be a surprise for the class, but we also have to rearrange some shit so that he can feel comfortable in the dorms. He's temporarily in a wheelchair—he only needs it if he's moving more than fifteen feet, but his mobility is limited. I want to swap his snack shelf with either Tsu's or Mina's."

"Mine is lower, ribbit. He can have mine," Tsu offered.

"I'll help you switch them. He has shit tons of food." Eijirou offered.

"Great. Momo, I was hoping you could make some kind of extenders for the light switches. He had trouble reaching the ones in the hospital and the ones in the dorms are higher up."

"Sure. I can also make a temporary ramp for the stairs to the front door. And maybe some laminate rolls for the carpet so that he can move around more easily?"

He nodded. "Sounds good. There's no need to go crazy with it. He can walk and he's regaining mobility pretty fast so far, but he's not supposed to push it. That's the third thing. His care and study plan."

They all sat straighter, listening attentively, and Katsuki (who had just about had it with all of this emotional bullshit) felt warm and pleased that Izuku had such good people around him who wanted to help him. "Lay it on us, bro!" Eijirou said, looking positively hyped.

"The first point, which I'm expecting some dickishness about, is that I am Deku's primary caregiver. His entire care and recovery plan runs through me and Recovery Girl. That's what I offered when I asked Recovery Girl to make this happen, and it was how we got Auntie to agree." He looked around the room, looking for any dissent, but found none.

"Okay, but you can't do it by yourself," Momo said. "You're planning on splitting everything up, right?"

He nodded. "I'm gonna put up a schedule for his care requirements, and anyone who wants to help out can sign up. It'll mostly just be hanging out with him while he does exercises so that he doesn't overdo it and hurt himself. He doesn't need to be babied or anything. But there'll also be meal prep slots. He's got a kinda strict diet plan for the first month or so, but it would be cool if it didn't taste like shit. I don't currently trust him with knives, considering he dropped his book on my  foot twice today because his grip strength is shot, so it would be cool to take that in shifts."

"You can probably work that out with Rikido tomorrow, ribbit," Tsuyu said.

"He'd probably take it on himself, if you asked," Mina agreed.

"Probably," Katsuki shrugged. "Okay, last thing. Kinda the most important." They looked at him expectantly. "The 'Dekusquad'," he began, making sure to grimace and use air-quotes so they knew how they felt about the ridiculous nickname. They all scowled to various degrees. "That! That right there is what can't happen," he instructed. "They're his best friends and yeah they were assholes, but they were worried about him. So quit being bitchy about them. And I need you shits to help me get the rest of the class with the program on that."

"They might have been worried about them, but that doesn't excuse how terrible they were to you, Katsuki," Momo frowned. "I meant what I said to Iida—if Izuku had heard what he said to you, he would have—"

"Made a goddamn crater with his body," Mina finished firmly. Momo pointed at her as if to say 'yes, exactly that.'

"Which is why I don't want you little shits to talk about it. I want things to go back to normal," he groaned, dropping into his desk chair and scraping a frustrated hand through his hair.

"They made his mom cry in the hospital," Sero stated bluntly.

"They thought he was going to die. They wanted to spend more time with him while they still had the time. I'm not excusing it, you know how pissed I was. But Deku needs support and he needs his friends. They're important to him, and I don't want to upset him with this," Katsuki insisted. "The cold shoulder thing needs to stop. I don't matter here, he needs to have space to get back to a hundred percent without distraction, and the class divide would be a huge fucking distraction. He runs on the goddamn power of friendship—he would completely ignore himself if he focused on the infighting," he insisted.

Everyone present looked displeased. "Fine. I'll try," Eijirou grumbled. There were similar mumbled assents. But Mina and Denki looked obstinate.

"You don't have to talk to them, and you don't have to play nice. Just...ignore them and don't give them shit. And help me get the class to play nice, too."

"He's gonna figure out that something's wrong, Kat," Mina warned. "We'll try, and if it's what you want, we'll work on getting the rest of the class to chill. But they were really awful to you, and they made a terrible situation so much worse. Some of the things they said about you are unforgivable. Mido is smart, and he'll figure it out."

"Yeah, but maybe we can save his martyr act until he's feeling better," Katsuki replied, feeling so tired. "He doesn't need to focus on petty drama, you know? I don't give a shit what they think about me. I'm pissed that they upset Auntie, but I don't give a damn about their opinion of me. I know what Deku thinks of me, and I know what you dumbasses think of me. That's enough."

"Dude, if you keep that shit up, you are straight-up gonna make me cry," Eijirou warned.

"Crying's manly," Mina chuckled. He shoved her.

"Bakugou," Tsuyu began, but hesitated. "I appreciate what you're trying to do. But you arguably went through more than Izuku did. He was unconscious for the whole thing. You went through the hard work and pain of worrying for him and caring for your parents while being verbally attacked almost every day. I understand that you're taking pains to care for him, but please don't neglect yourself in the process. You have to promise me—us—that if you're feeling overwhelmed by any of it, you'll ask for help or reach out to talk. I don't think that Ochako and Shoto will play nice just because you are. Iida might, since he's been punched in the face twice," she said, eying Momo. "But they've displaced their anger and frustration on you. I won't sit back and let them belittle you, especially if I feel like you're not taking care of yourself," she warned.

He gave her a halfhearted salute, and she supposed that would have to do for now.

"So ready," he replied, practically vibrating. "Let's go, Kacchan, come on!"

"Alright, you impatient little shit," Katsuki grumbled, pushing him forward. 

The common room was still empty when they entered, but Izuku looked elated to be back regardless. Katsuki shot a quick text to Momo, whom he knew was probably sipping some fancy-ass tea in her room with some romantic classic novel on her giant-ass bed. "Gonna make you breakfast. Wanna hang out with me in the kitchen? Or do you wanna go up to your room and sleep until people wake up?"

Izuku cut him a glare that was not intimidating because he was basically a woodland creature. "If you coddle me, I'm gonna kick your ass when I'm up and running again."

Katsuki scoffed. "Okay, short stack. I'm not coddling you. It's early as fuck. Do you want to watch me make a boring-ass breakfast or do you want to take a nap because it's the ass-crack of dawn? Since when do I coddle you? I haven't coddled you a day in your nerdy-ass life, dweeb."

The freckled disaster gave him a sheepish smile. "You're right. Sorry."

"S'fine, nerd."

"It's just...remember in middle school when Ryoji pushed me and I ended up falling down the stairs and broke my arm?" Izuku asked hesitantly. Katsuki did remember. He had been an asshole, but he rarely got physical aside from gentle shoving. He'd nearly killed Ryoji when he saw Izuku fall. "Before that, people made fun of me, but they'd never treated me like I was gonna break if they touched me wrong. After that, they all treated me like I was gonna break all the time because I was the quirkless kid who broke his arm. As if kids don't occasionally get hurt roughhousing, you know? Everyone treated me like glass. Even my mom," he huffed a dry, unamused laugh. "I mean, my mom has been treating me like I'm frail since my diagnosis. She didn't mean to, of course, and I told her eventually. But everyone treated me like that." He looked at Katsuki with something akin to adoration. "Everyone except you."

Katsuki smirked at him. "And what the hell made you think I'd start now?" he asked, wheeling Izuku into the kitchen.

Izuku shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe I'm just worried everyone else is going to. And it's easier to yell at you about it because I know you won't let me get away with being an actual asshole. Like, they might because they feel bad for me or whatever, but you..." he hesitated. "Are a dick. In the best way possible."

"Gee, thanks."

"In the best way possible!"

They bickered the entire time Katsuki cooked, and it felt so good. It was good to have Deku back, it was good to get back to their easy banter, and it was good to feel comfortable again. Katsuki been crawling out of his skin for months now, so feeling settled and calm was a welcome relief.

Momo joined them, giving Izuku a hug when she saw him. "It's good to have you back! How are you feeling?"

"Not perfect, but definitely better!" he grinned.

"Good. We missed you," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'd say 'never do that again' but one, I know you, and two, I feel like that would be tempting fate."

Katsuki snickered from the stove while Izuku pouted. "I'm not that bad."

Momo fixed him with the most unimpressed stare he'd ever seen. "You're joking, right?"

Momo made him tea and filled him in on the broad strokes of what he'd missed—like Ojiro and Hagakure's relationship and how Uraraka had hit Hanta with a semi-truck during training. Izuku didn't notice how Katsuki had tensed when she said Uraraka's name, nor how Momo's own jaw had set in irritation.

Halfway through their meal, they were snapped out of their calm morning conversation by an earsplitting shriek. "You're back!" Hagakure cried, from the kitchen door. Ojiro was with her, and he looked as delighted as Hagakure sounded.

"Welcome back, man," Ojiro greeted him before glancing at Katsuki. "Did you make breakfast for everyone? Or am I gonna have to put effort into my morning?"

Katsuki rolled his eyes but jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the stove, and Ojiro moved to get helpings for himself and Hagakure, while Hagakure herself moved to give Izuku a bear hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"Good to see you too," Izuku paused when he realized the idiocy of his statement. Hagakure was fucking invisible. Katsuki snickered. "Well, like...you know what I mean."

Hagakure giggled. "Yeah, I do. Just wait till you see the finished updates Hatsume made to my costume," she told him excitedly. "Watching those old superhero movies was genius. You were totally right about Hatsume being able to make retro-reflective material. It's so cool—"

"She already finished it?" Izuku asked, amazed. He turned wide eyes to Katsuki, who nodded and whipped out his phone to text the psycho support engineer. "That's awesome! Have you used it yet? Was she able to make it flexible enough to accommodate your normal fighting style?"

As expected, Izuku spiraled into a full-blown nerd meltdown that only got worse as more people joined them in the kitchen to welcome him back and fill him in on their lives both as hero hopefuls and as teenagers with an excess of gossip.

Katsuki had to come up with a system, and fast.  With gossip came the class rift that had formed, and he had been serious when he'd said he didn't want it to be an issue. At least not yet. He wasn't so naive that he thought that Deku would never find out, but he at least wanted his first few weeks back to be pleasant and relatively stress-free. In response to the potential disaster, he had posted up in a position where he could glare at people who brought up the Dekusquad tension without alerting Izuku himself. People threw him awkward looks and in response, he'd hold up his phone so that they'd check their texts, then he'd text them to shut the fuck up about it.

Then Uraraka came down for breakfast. She'd shrieked with joy and launched herself at Izuku, and Katsuki had to physically restrain himself from dragging her off of him. The nerd wasn't made of glass, and he didn't want to start a confrontation right in front of Deku's breakfast.

"You're back!" she screamed, not heeding Izuku's grunt of pain.

"Ochako, I think you're hurting him," Hagakure called, a little colder than she'd have normally said it. Katsuki gave her a warning look, but he couldn't really tell if she'd seen it.

Thankfully, Izuku didn't really notice and Uraraka jumped off of him, stuttering apologies as he reassured her that he was fine. "Just take it easy with the full-body tackles for a few weeks," he laughed, unbothered.

Iida arrived next. "It's good to see you, Midoriya! We were worried about you, especially since we weren't permitted to see you in the hospital!"

Katsuki gritted his teeth. "You weren't allowed to visit me?" Izuku asked, confused.

"We all visited you once," Momo explained loudly, cutting a warning glare at Iida. "We only found out that you were in a coma towards the end of it. Your mom was having trouble coping, and kept your condition private."

"The only person who visited you more than once was Katsuki, at your mother's request. But we all visited in groups towards the end," Kyoka explained.

"Oh. To say goodbye, you mean," Izuku murmured. The kitchen went tense, those present likely remembering their own almost-parting words. "You all must have been so worried," he fretted. "I'm sorry for stressing you guys out again."

"Hey man, it's all good! We're just glad you're back and ready to rock!" Eijirou interrupted the pity party from the doorway, flanked by Mina and Denki. Hanta probably wouldn't be waking up until well past noon.

Uraraka was giving them all weird looks but seemed to understand that a ceasefire had been called. Katsuki hoped Todoroki would be able to grasp that concept. He had a bad brain-to-mouth filter at the best of times.

On the other hand, Katsuki supposed he should give the asshole more credit. He'd been forced to lie about his father's indiscretions for years. Maybe Icy Hot could keep a lid on it if he saw Kirby and Glasses acting 'normal'.

Sure enough, Todoroki entered the kitchen (half the class stiffened just slightly) and he observed the scene quietly before making his way over to Izuku to greet him with a soft, "Welcome back, Izuku."

Izuku smiled up at him. "Thanks, Shoto."

And Katsuki thought that maybe they could get past this without confrontation.

Blamed might be the wrong word. Because it was such a good thing.

It took two weeks for him to ditch the wheelchair with Recovery Girl's genuine blessing. He still had to be smart about it—so Katsuki had asked Momo to give the nerd a panic button. Izuku had nearly slapped it out of Katsuki's hand, but he'd been able to reason with the stubborn dork. Izuku a lot of muscle mass to regain, which meant a lot of tedious physical therapy exercises and treading lightly for a while, but he was doing so well. It was just a matter of patience and effort, and that meant he had to be careful. Katsuki was relieved when he took the button. Baby steps.

The academics were slower going, but Izuku had already been ahead when he'd been attacked, so he wasn't as behind as he could have been. He supposed that was the upside of chasing and competing with Katsuki for the top spot. In order to keep up, he had to get ahead. That said, he was still about a month behind the curriculum.

The whole class had pitched in to get Izuku back on top of school and back in fighting shape. Just like he'd planned, Katsuki had posted a sign-up sheet (that Izuku had grumbled about) in the common room, so that everyone could help and spend time with the nerd.

There was a sticking point, however. One of the rules for taking a PT shift with Deku was that they had to text Katsuki any and all details and observations during the session so that he could accurately report results and concerns back to Recovery Girl. The problem was, none of the Dekusquad were willing to share details of Izuku's care with him. They wouldn't even talk to him. In front of Izuku, they acted like everything was normal, but the second his back was turned, it was like Katsuki didn't exist.

"I don't fuckin' know what to do," he snapped. Eijirou was watching him pace back and forth in his room. "I'm trying to be the bigger person here, but they're—"

"Take them off the sign-up sheet and put someone else up," Eijirou interrupted, booking no room for argument. "And if they fight you on it, tell them they have to keep you updated on the session or you'll go to Aizawa. You hold the cards here, dude. You're his primary caregiver."

"I don't wanna fuckin' pull rank. Those are his friends."

"His friends that are currently jeopardizing his well-being because they're being petty," Eijirou replied darkly. "His health is a priority, dude. I know you want everything to blow over, but it can't be at the cost of his care. You gotta put your foot down."

Of course Eijirou was right. Of course he was. "Fine."

He fully expected the confrontation that came after he replaced Uraraka with Sato on the PT signup. He just wasn't expecting it to be so public. Or so heterochromatic.

"You're stopping us from helping with his physical therapy now? You can't control his entire life, Bakugou, and you can't control who he spends time with!" Todoroki barked at him in the common room. Luckily there weren't that many people present, and Izuku was in his room studying. Katsuki cut his eyes over to Tsuyu, who correctly interpreted his glance and sighed but stood up to go keep Izuku away from their spat.

"You removed us from the list?" Iida demanded. "You can't do that!"

"Actually," he snarled. "I can. I'm his primary caregiver, remember? I was trying to be cool about it and let you shitheads help with his PT, but there was one condition—you report his progress and setbacks to me so that I can make sure his plan is still working. You refused to do that, which puts his progress at risk. So yeah, motherfucker. You're no longer on the list. I'm not gonna stop you from spending time with him because who he's friends with is his business, but it's not gonna have anything to do with his recovery. That's on you for not following basic directions."

"Of course you're defaulting to profanity and childish insults. Why would we ever expect maturity out of an emotionally stunted bully," Todoroki glared. Katsuki held up a hand to stop Eijirou and Hanta in their tracks. He was gonna have to say no to any physical altercations that would make this shitshow worse.

"You can be pissed at me all you want, Icy Hot," Katsuki snapped. "I don't give a shit. I'm not letting you fuck with his progress because you're too petty to work with me for his benefit."

Momo moved forward to stand beside him when Iida opened his mouth to object. "You've been withholding medical data from Katsuki, and therefore Recovery Girl," she glared at them, gaze colder than he'd ever seen it. "Katsuki was well within his rights to take you off the list. It's not only his choice, it's his responsibility. I expected better from both of you. And if you harass him about it any further, I'll be going to Aizawa," She glared down at Katsuki. "Because apparently, you won't."

"I have been trying to make the nerd's transition back to the dorms as normal and peachy as fucking possible. I can't do that if his dickhead friends are on house arrest," Katsuki defended himself.

"Did you ask Izuku if he wanted his medical information shared with you? It sounds like you're strong-arming him into doing things your way, just like you always do," Iida interrupted, pushing into Katsuki's personal space. "Midoriya looked uncomfortable with us sharing the information with you, which is why we opted not to."

"He was uncomfortable because he doesn't want to be a burden to people, not because he didn't want you to follow his care plan!" Katsuki spat.

"You all need to take a step back," Kyoka said, stepping between them. "I could hear you yelling from the first floor. Iida, Todoroki, Katsuki is in charge of Mido's care. That's not up for discussion or negotiation. If you can't get with the program, then you can't be part of the program. That doesn't mean you can't spend time with him outside of PT. You can still help him with his studies or even just hang out with him. But his care is Katsuki's responsibility. So back off."

They didn't look like they were done, but Momo cut them off. "I mean it. You try to fight him on this, and I'm going to Aizawa. The best-case scenario is house arrest. The worst case is that Iida will be stripped of his role as class president for endangering Izuku's wellbeing, and you'll both be barred from helping him in any part of his recoup that Katsuki is involved in. Pick wisely."

They let Katsuki leave, but he could tell they weren't going to let this blow over. He hoped they would come around before Deku noticed the tension, but at the end of the day, all that mattered was that he recovered. He wouldn't let anything distract him from that.

He smiled brightly. "I think I've got it! Thank you so much, Tsu," Izuku replied. "Are you coming to movie night tonight?"

Tsuyu tilted her head, tapping her pointer finger on her chin. "I haven't heard about a movie night. Who will be there?" she asked.

"The usual. Ochako, Shoto, and Tenya. You didn't know about it? That's weird," he replied, idly glancing back over the notes he'd been working with. When she didn't reply, he looked up. "Tsu?"

"Sorry, Izuku, I have plans tonight that I forgot about," she replied, smiling at him. Her fists were clenched under the table. "Katsuki and Eijirou were going to teach me some of their upper body strengthening techniques today, and then we were going to play Mario Kart in Denki's room."

"You've been hanging out with Kacchan a lot, lately," Izuku observed, curious but nonjudgmental. "It's nice. Different, but nice. He doesn't really open up to people easily," he chuckled.

"That's an understatement. But he was a really good and supportive friend when you were in the hospital. First to you and your mom, and then to the rest of us when we figured out what was going on. I felt really bad, though."

"What do you mean?" he frowned. "Why would you feel bad?"

"When he first found out, he wasn't really supposed to tell anyone what was going on, you know? He didn't want your mom to be burdened, and he carried that all on his own. I think you've realized how much you mean to him, so it can't be hard to imagine what he felt like when he thought he was gonna lose you," she explained patiently. "But we didn't know what was happening. Just that his temper was getting shorter and that it felt like he was keeping a secret. Some of us got frustrated with him and didn't really consider what was going on with him, and he started to break down. In the beginning, the only people who had his back were Eijirou, Mina, Denki, Hanta, and Jirou. At first, they were confused and frustrated too, but one day it was like a switch flipped and they were basically his bodyguards. That's when I realized how much it was affecting him. I was really grateful to them for helping him deal with it, but I felt really bad for not trying to understand how much of a toll it was taking."

"Sounds like you figured it out, though," Izuku pointed out. "You've always been the most level-headed person in the class."

"Yeah, but it took too long. I feel bad because I let him feel like he had to do it alone for too long. We may not have been close, but this class sticks together, you know?" she shrugged. "So yeah, I started spending more time with him and finding ways to make it a little easier on him. Making sure that he was getting his assignments done and making sure people didn't pester him too much. Momo, too. We didn't have to do much, though. The main Bakusquad took really good care of him."

"I'm glad someone was taking care of him. He always carries so many expectations with him, you know? That's where a lot of his anger comes from," he explained. "He was always told that he was the coolest and strongest and those expectations got to him. It's where he got that pathological need to be the best—"

"Pot calling the kettle black—"

"And that weird idea that asking for help is some kind of weakness. And hey, my pathological need is to prove myself, not to be the best," Izuku denied with a wry grin. "My therapist calls it a dangerous crossbreed between my inferiority and martyr complexes."

"As long as you're aware," Tsuyu smiled back, equally dry. Aizawa's mandate that all of Class A receive mental health counseling was the smartest investment the school had ever made. Of course, now they just threw each other's mental imbalances around as playful jabs, which one could argue was a questionable way of using humor to cope with trauma.

"But yeah, I'm glad he had the Bakusquad. And I'm glad he had you. You're probably the best person to have around when you're losing your head. Even when things are getting to you, you seem to hold it together enough to make a plan."

"Flattery won't get you out of calculus, Izuku," she scolded. He flushed.

"That's not what I was trying to do!"

It had, of course, begun as a very stern and disappointed lecture. Mei was a brilliant inventor, and undoubtedly would take the world by storm, but she had a tendency to have a one-size-fits-all approach. She so wanted each of her inventions to be appreciated that as soon as someone requested something that had even one point of compatibility, she would try to jam her mismatched jigsaw piece into the wrong slot.

With that new critique in mind, they'd become a near-unstoppable nerd force. Katsuki's words, not his.

They were going over new designs for Kendo's hero costume now, workshopping ideas that stemmed from her requests. Hitoshi was with them, too, quietly doing his homework while they argued about the structural integrity of armor that could vary in size. When they finally decided to figure out how to make retractable Kevlar gloves, Mei breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad I won't have to find out what I'd do without you," she said.

Izuku jolted, words lancing through him like a dagger. Hitoshi's head snapped up. "Mei—" Izuku breathed.

"Sorry, 'Zuku. I know we haven't really talked about it, but that was really scary," she continued. Hitoshi just flicked his eyes between them. "You looked so awful, and we had no idea how to fix it. We had no idea who we were looking for and you were running out of time so fast—"

"It was pretty awful," Hitoshi agreed. "I came to see you with Mirio. You looked so bad that Aizawa wouldn't let us bring Eri, but it still took me by surprise when I saw you. And Momo wasn't just sad, she was mad. She was so mad at you for not waking up."

"Seeing you lying there all still and quiet is so fundamentally against who you are, it was infuriating," Mei agreed. "I almost wanted to slap you to snap you out of it. You're lucky Mina was holding my hand."

Izuku snorted. "You were gonna slap a coma patient? Not nice, Mei."

"Neither is playing a corpse," she shot back. Izuku flinched. "It's not your fault. And this is the career path we chose. It's dangerous. I just didn't really consider that it could happen when you were walking back to school instead of on a battlefield. That fucked me up a little," she explained. "I'm serious, Broccolini. I'm so glad that we didn't lose you."

"I think that's why Denks and I went so hard into finding Takeda. We were pissed that after everything, you were gonna go out with a whimper. We don't want you to go out with a bang, either, so don't get any ideas," he warned. "But the idea that some cowardly villain had snuck up on you and that we'd be the only people to understand how much you'd done for us? It was maddening. The world doesn't deserve you, but you give so much—however you can. That's what we were losing."

Izuku was crying now. Not a huge surprise, and he knew that, but god. What could he even say to that? "You guys give me too much credit."

"Tch. You don't give yourself enough," Mei scolded. "You should have seen Bakugou. You should have heard him. You know what he said?" she asked, laughing incredulously. "He said 'he's been a hero for years. And if he can't do the rest himself, we'll just follow his lead.' It was the first time I'd ever actually heard him say something serious or sentimental. I'll remember it forever." Izuku was basically flooding the workshop at this point.

"He said that?" he sobbed, hiding his eyes behind his hands as his spine bent with sadness.

"He spent two months considering how he was gonna live his life without you, dude," Hitoshi replied. "I think most of us realized just how intertwined you two are over those two weeks. And we also realized how much of an impact you'd had on our heroic perspective. It was impactful. In a really shitty way."

"Super scary," Mei agreed.

"I'll try not to do it again," he promised, wiping his face.

Hitoshi scoffed. "We're heroes, Izuku. There's a certain degree of inevitability. And like she said, this wasn't your fault."

"But," she interrupted. "You can wear this when you're out and about. Make the whole villain tracking thing easier. I'm considering making them for your whole disaster class," she said, tossing him a little box. He opened it.

"An earring?" he asked, confused. "Are you gonna pierce my ear?"

"Only if you consent," she shrugged. "But that's not just an earring. It's a bodycam. Obviously, I can make one as a pin or something that you can stick to your bag, but if it's an earring it can't be taken off or forgotten without some intention, you know?"

"A bodycam? Who would have access to the footage?" he asked, trepidation growing.

"It would be a closed feed. You'd have to take it off to download the footage. So anyone who knows that it's a camera," she replied, shrugging.

"Mei," Hitoshi drawled. "That sounds like a fast track to Class A's first sex tape."

Izuku blushed violently. "Excuse me?"

"Not you, dude. But thanks for confirming that you're a virgin. There's a bet," Hitoshi smirked as Izuku sputtered. "She said she wanted to make them for all of Class A. Denki, Mina, Eijirou, Hagakure, and Ojiro are the weak points in that scenario."

"Denki's dating someone?" Izuku asked, confused. Hitoshi gave him an incredulous look.

"Yeah, me. That twink sat on my lap the entire time we were studying on Tuesday, Izuku. Did you not notice that?"

"I did! But Denki has no physical boundaries at all. I thought it might just be a thing you do. It's not like you made out in front of me or anything," Izuku insisted, embarrassed.

"Is that what it takes?" he drawled. "Because we could, if you want—"

"Stooooooop," Izuku whined, now beet red with his face tucked into his hands. Hitoshi laughed. It was good to have him back.

It was an interesting decision, but he didn't disagree and he didn't really mind. He could still spend time with them outside of PT, and he was getting to spend tons of time with classmates that he didn't usually end up working with. In a round-about way, it was a gift.

"You're doing great, Green Bean!" Mina smiled. "How're you feeling? Any pain or discomfort?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but it's pretty in line with what Recovery Girl said I should expect at this stage. And I'm not getting tired as quickly."

"Good!" Eijirou smiled, taking notes. "We're supposed to finish up with clamshells and stretches. Feeling up for it? Or do you want to take a break?"

He hesitated. "Let's take a quick break," he replied. She flashed him a thumbs up and they sank to the floor to sit cross-legged on the floor. Eijirou wanted to keep asking him about how he felt regarding the exercises, but he had other plans. "Hey," he began. "I wanted to thank you two."

Mina grinned at him. "It's no problem, Mido!"

Yeah, we're all excited to have you kick our asses in training again," Eijirou joked.

"Oh, yeah, thanks for helping with my PT, but that's not what I'm talking about," he chuckled. "I've already talked to Denki, but I need to thank you two, Hanta, and Kyoka. I was hanging out with Tsu, and we ended up talking about how hard my situation was on Kacchan.  We also talked about how you guys forced him to open up so that you could support him. I'm sure he would have found a way to deal with it on his own, but I'm so glad that he didn't have to."

Mina smiled sadly. "We were sad and scared too, you know? So helping him stay strong gave us something to focus on that was productive."

"We wouldn't have let him do it alone," Eijirou agreed.

"Still," he said. "It's not exactly easy to get him to open up."

"He needed to take care of your mom and his parents," Mina explained. "I think he knew that he couldn't let pride or bravado get in the way of his ability to support them, you know?"

Izuku nodded, but it was absent in a way that told both Mina and Eijirou that he was trying to figure out what to say, so they waited. "It's comforting, you know," he said. "Not in a good way, and I promise I'm going to be more careful and conscious in the future, but it's comforting to know that if something happens to me, the people I love will have each other. Kacchan will have you guys, my mom will have him, you'll have him—" he sighed. "It's always been me, my mom, and the Bakugous. My dad left when he thought I was quirkless, so for as long as I've really understood what family means, my family was just the five of us. But now we have all of you, and that's a comforting thought."

Mina's control seemed to snap then, and she crawled forward to throw her arms around Izuku. "One of these days, I'm gonna get back at you and Blasty for making me cry so much," she sniffed into his neck. He let out a surprised chuff of laughter.

"At least now you know how I feel," he laughed, hugging her back. "I could water a forest with the sheer volume of my tears."

"I'm not sure this is a competition you should be trying to win, dude," Eijirou chuckled. "But I'm glad you think of me as family. I'm honored, man."

Mina pulled back. "Okay, you ready to keep going? I wanna get you back in shape so that I can kick your ass without feeling bad for beating you up."

Izuku snorted. "Yeah, sure. Good luck with that," he replied, standing.

"No dude, lie back down. Clamshells, remember?" Eijirou reminded him, grinning when Izuku grumbled and lowered himself back onto the floor.

While Eijirou coached him through his exercises, Mina complained about her struggles with the unit they were studying in English. "English is just so weird. Nothing is ever pronounced the way it's spelled," she grumbled.

"If you want, you can crash my study session after this. I'm actually pretty good with English," he admitted, face a little pink from exertion. "I watched a lot of news footage from All Might's time in America, so I kinda ended up teaching myself."

"That would be awesome!" Mina gushed.

"Great," he replied. "Shoto is going over the curriculum with me to make sure I didn't miss anything. Kinda weird that he's the one tutoring me in English when Denki's top of the class, though." He didn't really notice that Mina had gone tense.

"I didn't think about asking Denki! He's usually such a knucklehead that I keep forgetting that he's top of the class in English," Mina laughed a little too brightly. Izuku's eyes snapped to her, narrowing in consideration. "I might ask him if you don't mind me backing out on you."

"Of course not," Izuku replied, warm but cautious. He had the feeling he was in the vicinity of a landmine. "You'd probably be more comfortable studying with him, anyway. Shoto can be kind of intense about studying."

"I'm sure he has nothing on Bakubro," Eijirou joked, moving Izuku into a stretch. "I'm pretty sure I had a concussion after our first study session."

"He hit you with a textbook?" Izuku asked.

"Does he do that to everyone? Dang, I thought I was special," he grumbled.

"Right, because he totally takes time to tutor just any old extra," Izuku replied sarcastically. "You're his best friend, Ei."

Eijirou raised an eyebrow. "Second best." Izuku looked up at him, confused. "You, dude." He watched as Izuku blushed and re-busied himself with his exercises.

Later, when Izuku had left to go study with Todoroki, they settled onto the bed and pulled out Eijirou's laptop to watch a movie, Mina settling against his shoulder. "Hey, Ei? They'll figure it out, right?"

"Hm? Who will?"

"Green Bean and Blasty. They'll figure it out, right?"

Eijirou scoffed. "They already know," he replied. 

"Just a little tired. I wanna finish this worksheet before I head to bed, though."

"You shouldn't push yourself too hard, Izuku," Iida scolded. Izuku rolled his eyes playfully.

"I have the luxury of sleeping in while you guys are in class. The beauty of independent study," he joked. They still looked concerned, and he sighed. "I promise, I'm okay. I didn't even really push myself in PT. History is just boring." He gave them a small smile.

"If you're tired, you should rest," Todoroki tried. "You could finish the worksheet during your independent study hours, right? You'd be more alert, anyways."

"Really, I'm fine. I already went over my care plan with Kacchan to check in with him, and he agrees that as long as I go to bed before midnight, I should be fine," he assured them.

If anything, they looked less confident. "Bakugou isn't exactly a good example of moderation or pacing," Iida warned.

Uraraka laughed. "He's kind of the definition of overboard, Deku," she smiled at him. "Are you sure he's adjusting his standards to consider your recovery?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. He got everything approved by Aizawa and Recovery Girl," he shrugged. Uraraka shared a look with Iida.

"Well, as long as you're sure Aizawa and Recovery Girl approved, I suppose I have no protest. But please make sure to tell us if you're feeling overtaxed," Iida instructed, stern as ever.

"I will! I promised Kacchan that I'd start taking better care of myself. If I get too tired, I'll go to bed." This time it was Uraraka and Todoroki who shared a look, but Izuku was looking at Iida.

"Will you promise us the same thing?" Uraraka spoke up. "We know you put a lot of importance in your relationship with Bakugou, but it would make us feel better if you promise us."

"Of course, I will," Izuku frowned, confused and a little frustrated. "I'd like you to trust me at my word, though."

"We do," Todoroki replied. "But sometimes actually saying it out loud helps you remember it when you're actually in a situation that demands it."

"Oh yeah! Present Mic taught us that in study hall!" Uraraka clapped. "It totally works. If you study out loud, sometimes you retain information better."

"Why do you think I mumble?" Izuku demanded, laughing. "But yeah, I promise I'm committed to taking better care of myself. I'm sorry to have worried you in the past, but I'm really working on improving myself."

They smiled at him. "Thanks, Deku," Uraraka said sweetly.

"Kaaaaaaccchhaaaaan!" Izuku bellowed, running into the common room. The inhabitants all jumped to varying degrees. "Is he in his room? Where is he?"

"What's wrong? What did he do?" Todoroki asked, standing. Izuku's mind blanked for a second.

"What did he do? Nothing! Why would you ask that? No, I just need to talk to him," Izuku explained, nearly shaking out of his skin with excitement. He was too excited to really note the dark look Kyoka and Momo shared with Koda.

"I think he's with Kirishima, Mido," Hagakure called from her spot on Ojiro's lap.

"Thanks!" he called back before running for the elevator. He was in front of Eijirou's door in record time, knocking vigorously. Eijirou pulled the door open, alarmed.

"Jesus Mido, what happened? You okay?" Eijirou asked, looking Miroriya over to see if he was injured or unsafe, only to be ripped back and replaced by Katsuki.

He grabbed Izuku by the shoulders and shifted him around to do a full-body scan as the smaller boy struggled to get him off. "Kacchan, I'm fine!" he whined. "I came to tell you that I got approved for training today!" Katsuki's eyes snapped to his, a wild grin spreading on his face. That was the expression Izuku was chasing—the one that set his heart racing and made his muscles tense. There was nothing in the world that was more exhilarating than training and growing with Katsuki.

"Dude, that's awesome but did you have to scare the crap out of us?" Eijirou shot him a dirty look, but it lacked any heat. He was excited about this too. "I thought the dorm was on fire or something!"

Katsuki's grin fell into a half-hearted scowl, and he smacked Izuku upside the head. "He's right. You could have just texted, nerd," Katsuki scolded.

Izuku whined. "But I'm excited!" he pouted. "And I left my phone in my room when I went to Recovery Girl."

"That's another thing," Katsuki replied as he pulled away, looking affronted. "Why'd you go to granny without me?"

He shrugged. "She emailed me to come to see her this morning. I think she looked at your updates for the last week and thought I was ready to start training again. She did tell me to take it easy for the first couple of weeks, but she seemed okay with how I'm progressing."

"That's awesome, nerd," Katsuki grinned again, reaching up to ruffle his emerald curls. Izuku grinned back, flushing with delight. Completely forgotten behind them, Eijirou smirked knowingly. "We gotta put together a training plan," he continued. "You probably can't get all the way up to full strength without crumbling like a cracker oof—" he wheezed as Izuku jabbed him in the stomach.

"Mean, Kacchan!" but he was still grinning. "I'm gonna email Aizawa and All Might to let them know that I'm cleared to start on a training plan."

Katsuki looked over his shoulder at Eijirou, who raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Of course you should go with him, Bakubro, you're his number one training partner. The brain cells are low with the Wonder Duo today."

"Fuck you!"

"Hey!"

They ended up having a meeting with All Might on the same day. "I'm proud of your progress, young Midoriya," All Might smiled, and Izuku tried very hard not to literally glow with pride as Katsuki smirked at him. "Getting you caught up with your classmates won't be simple—you're still better developed than you were before I gave you my quirk, but you have to gain a lot of muscle mass before you can handle the continuous 35% you could maintain before. I'd say you should start testing yourself at 5% and work your way up."

Izuku practically felt Katsuki wilting beside him. "Hey, don't pout! You get to pummel me until I get up to speed!" Izuku joked. Katsuki was unamused.

"I always pummel you nerd," he drawled. "And I won't be able to pummel you at my max until you can hit 20%. So we better start training, because training with Ei is fine, but—"

"But he can't match your feral pomeranian energy? That's what Kyoka said the other day," Izuku gave him a teasing grin, barely flinching when Katsuki punched him in the shoulder.

"I'll have a diet and training plan ready for you two by this afternoon," All Might told them, watching them in rapt amusement. "And I'll keep Ground Beta clear for you every day for a few hours. Just let me know what time you think you want to train. How's your schoolwork coming, kid?"

"Pretty good!" Izuku replied, excited. "I'm mostly caught up, I just have a couple of assignments left for each class. If I work through the weekend, I might be able to come back to class this week! Everyone in the class has been so helpful. Kacchan made this awesome study schedule and everyone signed up to take turns tutoring me; it was so nice of them—"

Katsuki couldn't keep the fond look off his face as he listened to Deku ramble about his study plan. To a random observer, his face would probably look blank or disinterested but to anyone acquainted with his resting bitch face knew that his current expression was downright affectionate. He clearly knew it too, because as soon as All Might caught his eye, he plastered on his trademark neutral scowl.

"I'm glad to hear you're feeling good about your progress," All Might smiled. "Once you're officially caught up in class and Aizawa approves, we'll reallocate some of the time you've been using for provisional study into extra training."

Izuku grinned. "At least I won't have to clean up Dagobah beach again," he joked. Katsuki paused, then very slowly turned to Izuku.

"You're the one who cleaned Dagobah?" Katsuki asked. "That place had whole-ass cars and appliances. When?"

Izuku frowned. "Uh, basically the ten months after the sludge villain up until the entrance exam. I could have sworn I told you about it. It's how I was trained to hold One for All. If I hadn't, I would have like...exploded as soon as I used it. I would have actually died in the entrance exam like you thought I would," he chuckled.

And oh, Katsuki didn't like being reminded of what a dick he had been. How mindless fear and pride had warped his intentions until he was cruel and caustic to the only person that stuck with him because of who he was, not for his quirk. "That's fuckin' insane, nerd," he replied.

"We started with the small stuff," he shrugged, silently noting the subtle shift in Katsuki's demeanor. "The microwaves and car tires went first. I worked my way up to appliances and cars."

"Did you hear the sentence that just came out of your face?" Katsuki demanded. "You could carry a car in middle school. That's what I just heard. Our classmates were lucky you don't have a vindictive bone in your body, or else there would have been some busted heads."

Izuku rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't have beaten any of them up, Kacchan," he insisted. "That would have put me on their level." This time when Katsuki shifted, Izuku's eyes lasered in on the movement.

"The training plan, boys?" All Might recalled their attention. "While you wait, spend the time you'd typically spend doing physical therapy doing basic strengthening. If you want, I can send you a list of exercises to do every day."

"I think Kacchan and Eijirou can help with that," Izuku replied, cocking his head at Katsuki who nodded. "They've been helping Tsu with her upper body conditioning. They should be able to bulk up my new noodle arms." He prodded his now nonexistent biceps with a petulant pout.

"Self-pity is unattractive, Deku," Katsuki scolded chopping him on the head. "It'll happen when you put the work in. Chill out."

All Might laughed at them. "All right, boys, get out of here. The faster young Midoriya finishes his work, the sooner he can get back into training. I know you're both itching for one of your training brawls."

They grinned at that, eyes glinting with the nearly psychotic competitive spirit that All Might had come to adore about them. It was destructive and ridiculous, sure, but spoke volumes of the trust and respect the two held for each other.

They stood to leave, Katsuki throwing his arm around Izuku's shoulders to drag him into a headlock as he pulled him out the door. "Kacchan leggoooooo," he whined, wriggling in his grip.

"Make me, Freckles," Katsuki jeered. He yelped and dropped Izuku a second later when the nerd dug his fingers into Katsuki's sides. "Playing dirty," he scolded.

"You said to make you!" Izuku grinned, grin mischievous and taunting.

They talked about training plans on the way back to the dorm, but about halfway there, Izuku stopped them, pulling Katsuki to the side of the walkway. "Hey, you know I've more than forgiven you for middle school, right? It's in the past and we've come really far. And I know why you did it, now."

Katsuki grimaced. Another talk about emotions? Why was this happening to him? "Just because you know why I did it, doesn't excuse my actions, Deku," he replied seriously. Izuku considered him carefully for a moment, before gripping Katsuki's wrist and dragging him away. "Where are you taking me, nerd?"

"Somewhere where we can sit and talk," Izuku replied. When Katsuki realized they were headed to Ground Gamma, he dug his heels in. "We're not gonna fight Kacchan, Jesus," he complained, yanking a little harder. "I'm physically incapable. But I found this spot in Ground Gamma that's really calm when we're not doing battle sims."

And sure enough, there was a small courtyard tucked away between a building, with a small fountain surrounded by benches. "Why the hell would they put something like this on a battle sim training ground?" Katsuki grumbled. "It probably gets destroyed every fucking day."

"It does," Izuku agreed. "Midnight showed it to me when I had a panic attack at the beginning of the year. She said she comes here to relax since going off-campus is a pain in the ass with all the security measures. Cementoss rebuilds it for her every time it gets wrecked."

Katsuki squinted. "Please tell me Midnight isn't banging Cementoss."

"Not really my business," Izuku laughed. "But I'm pretty sure Midnight is banging Ectoplasm, and Cementoss is asexual. But I obviously can't confirm that without having a few very uncomfortable conversations."

Katsuki wrinkled his nose. "I said tell me she's not banging Cementoss, not tell me she's banging someone else, nerd. Jesus, I don't want to think about my teachers banging. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"So much, but we don't have enough time to get into that. I have homework to do," he replied, dragging Katsuki to a bench. "Sit."

"What am I a dog?" Katsuki grumbled.

"No, but you can be a bitch sometimes," Izuku fired back without missing a beat. "I asked you to communicate with me, Kacchan. If you're still in your head about the stuff that happened in middle school, we need to talk about it."

Katuski sighed, sounding very put upon by this whole ordeal. "I know things are better, nerd. I just think you let me off the hook too easily. I told you to jump off a building. That's something I actually said to you. I didn't mean it, and I knew you wouldn't do it, but I still said it. I haven't even apologized, and you've forgiven me anyway."

"But you have," Izuku groaned, rolling his eyes hard. "You're not good with words, and you think that actions speak louder. Do you think I don't notice everything you've done for me over the past year and a half? How hard you work to be there for me? I'm not blind. You did more than just apologize. You atoned, and that's so much more valuable. But even if you hadn't I  would have forgiven you, because I know you. Sure I lose sight of your intentions sometimes, but I knew you cared even when every move I made seemed to piss you off, because the second I got myself in trouble, you'd be right there to help me. Even in middle school—after the stairs, you never let anyone get physical with their bullying beyond like...pushing me into a locker or something."

"I could have stopped them from bullying you at all," Katsuki reminded him, looking down at his hands that were twisting in his lap. "If I had swallowed my pride or supported you from the beginning, none of it would have happened. It took me being here to really get it, you know? You could have been a hero without a quirk. You could have. I mean, Caterpillar-sensei fights quirkless for the most part, why not you? And you're smart. If it weren't for that kamikaze streak, you would have been an ideal underground hero," he looked up at Izuku and found him tearing up.

"And that's why I want you to get out of the past. It might have shaped us, but it doesn't matter anymore. You've grown to see me for what I am, and that's all I ever wanted."

"I gave you an inferiority complex the size of the entire Asian continent," Katsuki replied, tone a little hysterical. Izuku placed his hand over Katsuki's where they sat on his lap. "You've always had the martyr complex, but I made you think you were useless."

Izuku scoffed. "That was my dad, Kacchan, remember? That festered for years before you ever started bullying me. Yeah, you started calling me Deku, but that was because I couldn't bounce a ball properly, not because I was quirkless. Then you started bullying me because you thought I was looking down on you when I was trying to help you out of the river, and you've been petty since the day you were born. My dad is the one who said that he couldn't live in a house with a son who wouldn't amount to anything."

Katsuki stared at him in shock. "When the hell did he say that?"

"Uh, the day he left? Really loudly. I told you about it literally the next day. Cried about it right in the middle of the playground." Izuku replied incredulously. He watched Katsuki's face go through an unpredictable series of expressions before it settled on fury.

"I remember now. I couldn't actually understand anything you were saying except 'dad left' because you were blubbering so hard," Katsuki growled. "And that motherfucker had the audacity to come to the hospital?"

Izuku felt like he'd been electrocuted. "What?"

Katsuki met his eyes. "Auntie didn't tell you? He showed up the same wee that the rest of the class said goodbye. I told him off and Auntie ended up kicking him out. Did she know what he said when he left?"

Izuku shook his head, both shocked and sheepish. "I didn't want her to be sad like I was," he replied. "Martyr complex, remember? But that's my point. You take care of me and defend me when I can't do it myself. You took care of my mom when I couldn't. There's no one closer to me than you, Kacchan. Why wouldn't I forgive you?"

"I'm an asshole," Katsuki insisted.

"Just another thing I love about you," Izuku grinned, nudging his shoulder with his own. "Now stop beating yourself up for stuff we've moved past and come help me with my calc assignment."

Katsuki sighed. "Fine, nerd. You win."

With his reintroduction to class came his reintroduction to training. For three hours after classes every day, Izuku belonged to Katuski and All Might—not just training and sparring but also taking the extra time to make sure that he wasn't too injured or strained. If he managed to get through without breaking anything, then they'd table their visits to Recovery Girl for the following morning. Then, at the end of every week, they had to check in with Recovery Girl regardless. It was time-consuming and exhausting, but Katuski could see the joy and determined fire in Izuku's face at the end of every day.

Now, a month later, Izuku had finally made it to 10%, and they'd celebrated by destroying a city block in a battle sim on Ground Beta. Izuku came out worse for wear but exhilarated, and Recovery Girl had given him a kiss. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to completely fix him up since his stamina was now at rock bottom—exhausted to his core.

He limped into the common room, Katsuki flanking him in case he collapsed. "Gunna take a nap," he slurred, eyes practically closed already. "Wake me up fer dinner?"

Katsuki smirked. "Sure, nerd. Need help up to your room? Your leg's all fucked up."

"Nah, m'good," he smiled blearily before turning to limp to the elevator.

"Bakugou," Todoroki said, appearing at Katsuki's side. Katsuki did not jump.

"Jesus Christ, IcyHot, wear a goddamn bell," he hissed before turning toward the kitchen. Todoroki grabbed his arm.

"We need to talk," he replied, cold. Katsuki pulled his arm out of Todoroki's grip.

"No, we fucking don't," he kept moving toward the kitchen, hoping that someone was there to bear witness to whatever bullshit was about to go down.

The kitchen was empty. Fuck.

"You're going to listen to me, Bakugou," Todoroki snapped, and to Katsuki's extreme discomfort, he walled off the door to the kitchen with ice.

"If you think I won't blast my way out of that, you're wrong."

"If you think I won't beat you down to make you listen, you're wrong. Back off of Midoriya," he growled. Katsuki almost wanted to appreciate how much emotion Todoroki was displaying—he'd never seen this many facial expressions out of him in the two years he'd known him.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You're taking up all his free time with 'training'," Katsuki resented the air quotes, thank you very much. "And you're injuring him almost daily. He could barely walk when he came in here."

Katskuki looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "That's how hero training works, Halfie."

"You think I can't tell that you're taking the opportunity to beat him up while he's not at full strength?" he demanded. "You're taking up all of his free time so that his friends can't spend any time with him. You know he'd take anything you offer because you treated him like crap for so long, and you're taking advantage of that. Not only are you controlling who he spends time with, but you're also pushing him past his limits and it's unhealthy and dangerous!"

Katsuki fell silent, studying Todoroki intently. "So not only is my mother abusive, you think I'm abusive, too," he gave a harsh laugh. "Fine, at least I know what you think of me now. But listen up because I'm not saying this again. First of all, his training plan was put together by Aizawa and All Might, and it was approved by Recovery Girl. He asked me to be his training partner, and I accepted. You're free to ask him if you can help him train too, but that's not my business. He decided he wanted my help and I gave it. Second of all, who the fuck are you to decide what his limits are?"

"He's obviously pushing himself too far, and it's to impress you! His relationship with you is unhealthy—"

"It definitely used to be," Katsuki agreed. Todoroki fell silent, clearly not expecting that admission. "But we've both grown a lot, and we've been working on it. That said, it has nothing to do with you, and it has nothing to do with his training which is supervised by a teacher at all times," he snapped. "Trust me, IcyHot, there is nothing that Deku hates more than being treated with kid gloves. Trying to hold him back for his own good will end very badly for you."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a fact," he replied seriously. "If he feels like you're coddling him, he'll pull away from you. You have to trust him to know what he's doing. He deserves that much—he's come this far and has more than earned your trust. Even if he pushes too far, that's his choice and all we can do is be there if he falls. You can't decide how far he goes or how hard he pushes."

"Neither can you!" Todoroki bellowed. Someone was pounding on the wall of ice now.

"And I don't!" Katsuki bellowed back. "I know your dad is an abusive, controlling piece of shit, but you can't just transpose that relationship on everything you see that doesn't fit your picture-perfect view of what a good friendship or relationship is."

For a flash, Todoroki looked like he'd been slapped. "You're not good for him." Sato broke down the ice.

"That's not for you to decide," Katsuki replied.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Sato demanded, Koda right behind him.

Todoroki and Katsuki stared each other down. "Nothing," Katsuki finally replied. "Get out, IcyHot, I need to make dinner."

Todoroki maintained his glare for a long, uncomfortable moment before scoffing and storming away in a manner that closely resembled a temper tantrum.

"You good, man?" Sato asked, approaching cautiously. Katsuki gave him a tight-lipped smile. "That's a no."

"I didn't say anything," he protested.

"You didn't yell. That's what we in the Bakugou-interpretation business call a 'red-flag'," Sato chuckled as Koda nodded sagely beside him.

Katsuki snorted a disbelieving laugh. "Get outta here unless you wanna help cook," he replied dismissively.

Five minutes later, Kyoka slipped into the kitchen and posted up on the counter. "Airpods," he greeted her warily.

"Blasty," she replied softly. Katsuki groaned.

"You heard the whole thing."

"Y'all were yelling. Couldn't have missed it. Shoji probably heard, too," She replied. "He was way out of line."

He shrugged. "So was I, bringing his old man into it."

"Maybe," she agreed. "But that doesn't mean you weren't wrong. And he made it fair game when he accused you of hurting him. You were right, Izuku's earned the right to decide how far he wants to go on his own, and no one has the right to tell him who should be helping him recover or what his limits are."

Katsuki nodded absently, stirring his stir fry. "Have they been treating him like he's fragile?" he asked softly. Kyoka hesitated.

"Not really sure," she admitted. "I've been avoiding them." Katsuki shot her a look, and she gave a sheepish grin. "Want me to find out?"

He pondered that. "Nah. He can take care of himself. If it bothers them, he'll find a way to let them know."

"He's the most polite little cinnamon roll I've ever met," Kyoka replied, dubious.

Katsuki snorted derisively. "Not when you piss him off."

Luckily they were eating, so Katsuki could take his time chewing his food while he considered his answer. "They might be," he finally replied. "Why do you ask?"

"When I was doing PT with Mina and Eijirou, Mina was complaining about how she was struggling with English. I asked if she wanted to join my study session, and she was super on board. Then I mentioned that it was weird that I was getting tutored by Shoto when Denki was top of the class in English, and she backtracked. Then, I wanted to talk to Momo about some ideas I had for her costume that would leave her less exposed and she seemed really excited about it until I invited her to lunch to talk about it," he replied. "I asked Tsu if she wanted to come to movie night, and she said she was busy, but only after she asked who would be there. Then I was gonna hang out with Denki and Hanta and play video games, but when I asked if I could invite Shoto they said I should hang out with him, and we'd play another time. I'd think they were avoiding me but they seem fine until I mention one of my friends, you know?"

Katsuki pursed his lips. "Things are a little...strained," he admitted. "When everyone found out that you were not only in the hospital but in a coma and dying, it freaked everyone the fuck out. There was a lot of tension and people said things they didn't mean. Now we're all just trying to go back to normal. It's a work in progress. Don't think you should worry about it, though," Katsuki explained, discreetly avoiding Izuku's eyes by inspecting his sandwich for the most structurally sound bite. "Things'll go back to normal eventually." He took a bite. He knew he wasn't really living up to the promise of communication he'd made, but things were starting to calm down, just like he'd planned. Yeah, the class wasn't farting sunshine and rainbows anymore, but they were functionally fine in their new relationship lines, the Dekusquad's vitriol for Katsuki excluded.

Izuku hesitated, studying Katsuki's face. "You sure?"

"F'coursh m'fuckin sure, nerd," Katsuki replied irately with his mouth full. Izuku wrinkled his nose. Katuki swallowed his bite before continuing. "It fucking sucked when you were in the hospital. Your dork squad was really fuckin' worried, but Auntie wasn't in any state to have visitors every day. They were frustrated, and then other people in the class got frustrated, and it got heated. It'll work out, though, because we've got you back and you're basically the universal switchboard for the fuckin' power of friendship or whatever, so relax. Let things settle on their own, nerd."

Izuku felt skeptical, squinting at Katsuki like he was looking for something, but Katsuki seemed so sure. "Okay, Kacchan," he replied. But he couldn't quite get rid of that nagging feeling in the back of his head that told him he was missing something big.

Izuku wasn't sure how long Katuski wanted him to wait for things to settle down, but now that he'd noticed the tension, it was hard to ignore it. It was even harder not to analyze the patterns. Everyone in the class was avoiding Tenya, Ochako, and Shoto. More than that, at least half of the class shielded Katsuki from interacting with them at all. If Izuku was with his squad, Katsuki was nowhere to be found. If Izuku was with Katsuki, his squad was typically nearby, but there was a goddamn wall of classmates between them.

So despite Katsuki's reassurances, Izuku wasn't very reassured. It had been weeks since he'd asked about it—now nearly three months since he'd woken up—and things weren't settling down at all. In fact, the rifts seemed to be getting deeper, and Izuku wasn't exactly the type to let that go lying down.

"Hey, Hagakure?" Izuku approached the class gossip. Hagakure turned to him, and he noted how her shoulders went up the way they typically did when she smiled—or rather when she was happy. He couldn't actually tell if she smiled or not, after all.

"Hey! I told you to call me Tooru," she scolded him, gloved finger-wagging at him in rebuke.

He chuckled. "Sorry, Tooru," he replied sheepishly. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Mido!" she replied. He waved his hand towards the front door of the dorms, indicating that he wanted to leave to get some privacy. "Let's go," she agreed, flouncing away with him following after her. "What did you wanna talk about?" she asked when they were out of eavesdropping radius.

"So a few weeks ago, I asked Katsuki if people were avoiding Tenya, Ochako, and Shoto," he began. His suspicions were confirmed when her shoulders went stiff. "He said that things were tense, but didn't give me any real details. He said things would go back to normal on their own, but they haven't. If anything, things have gotten worse."

"Mido—"

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked, barrelling over her before she could find a way to back away from the conversation.

Hagakure pressed a fist to what Izuku assumed was her mouth, clearly weighing her options, so he waited patiently. "I don't know, Izuku," she replied hesitantly. "There's a reason Katsuki didn't tell you, and he really thinks things can go back to normal if we let it lie."

"But they haven't," he insisted. "Hagakure—Tooru, please. It's driving me nuts. It involves me, right? Shouldn't I know if it involves me? Maybe I can help."

Tooru heaved a sigh. "Okay, fine. But I can show you better than I can tell you," she said, her gut churning in trepidation. It kinda felt like opening Pandora's Box. "I have videos of most of the incidents that caused the rift. Some of them were coincidences—I just happened to be taking videos with my phone when something happened—but some of it is part of my training with Aizawa as a stealth hero. You'll need to wait for a bit while I compile the footage."

Izuku nodded enthusiastically. "Of course," he agreed. "Text me when you're ready?"

She hesitated again, clearly wondering if this was a good idea. "Yeah, sure. But Mido," she continued, clearly fretting. "I'm warning you now, you're really not gonna like what you see."

He gave her a serious stare in return. "Maybe not, but that doesn't mean that I don't need to see it."

Two hours later, Tooru called Izuku to her room. "Everything you need is on the laptop. Just press play. Feel free to text me if you need to talk it through. I'm gonna tell Aizawa that you need a combat training room and ask Momo for some indestructo-dummies for when you're done," she told him.

Izuku's gut churned with trepidation as he entered Tooru's hot pink wonderland of a room. If she thought he'd need Momo's indestructo-dummies, he knew he wouldn't like what he was about to see.

When Izuku pressed play, there was no way for him to know exactly what kind of ugly he would be witnessing. But he got the idea pretty quickly.

Tooru had been kind enough to timestamp the footage, so he could better understand what was happening and when. He had a feeling that she did that with all of her footage for documentation purposes, but it was useful so he was grateful.

The first video was from the early days of his hospitalization, and once he understood what was happening, his blood turned to ice.

"You're siding with him? We have no idea how Deku's doing, and he's not telling us anything! It's selfish and manipulative and you're a fucking idiot if you think he's doing this to respect Deku's wishes. Aren't you worried about him?"  Ochako had screamed at Tsu in the common room.

He reminded himself to breathe. He was grateful when Tsuyu fired back, but it was ugly—shots going below the belt far faster than he could have ever anticipated.

"Allowing us to continue worrying about Midoriya like this is unacceptable. Your actions are causing rifts within the class. The stress you're allowing your classmates to experience is on par with the level of disdain one would ascribe to a villain." Iida had scolded Katsuki in front of the entire class.

He clenched his fists, teeth scraping together. He smiled in bloodthirsty satisfaction when Momo (Momo!) had appeared out of nowhere to slug Iida across the jaw.

Then came the day that, if he remembered correctly, Katsuki had seen him choke on his own blood. He knew that because it was it was a few days before the last time before Katsuki had last blown up an entire block in one of the training grounds, and it was displayed on the whiteboard in the common room—'Days Since Class A Needlessly Destroyed a Training Ground."

"You're being an ass Bakugou! You won't tell us anything about how he's doing and you're acting like an asshole. You don't even like him, so why don't you let the people who actually care about him know how he's doing? You're snapping at everyone, you're volatile and you're dangerous. You lash out at anyone who asks for any updates. We fucking get it, you hate him so much that you don't even want to hear his name, so let someone who actually gives a damn take care of him."

He could see the stress in Katsuki's face and shoulders as Ochako had screamed at him.

"As his bully. As an abuser who made him feel terrified and small his entire life." Todoroki had drawled.

Izuku scowled as Katsuki flinched on screen. Breathe, Izuku. Breathe.

"You strut around here trying to make everyone cower for you, treating everyone—especially Deku—like shit. You're an irredeemable asshole and he keeps coming back for more and I'm sick of it," Uraraka had snarled. "His Stockholm Syndrome level devotion to you is going to damage him for life if it doesn't get him straight up killed."

Izuku had watched in horror as Katsuki stumbled back from her, breathing going ragged as he fell face-first into a panic attack and Eijirou tried to comfort him. His appreciation for Katsuki's inner circle skyrocketed as Mina had blocked his Izuku's friends to cover Katsuki's retreat.

"Emotional toll? Bakugou? The only emotions he has are anger and violence." Todoroki had spat.

"I'm making it about me? He doesn't even like Deku and he's acting like he's all torn up so that you five idiots will stop us from getting information—" 

He never thought he'd see Uraraka or Todoroki sneer like that, and his anger was growing in a way he couldn't contain.

"The only reason Deku's mom is telling Bakugou what's going on instead of us is that she doesn't know what Bakugou is actually like!" Uraraka had snapped. "Deku probably sugar-coated Bakugou's bullshit so much that she thinks they're still friends—"

Is that how they saw him? Incapable of making his own decisions and in need of this terrible brand of protection? Did they think so little of him? Of his mom?

"She would be able to make more informed judgment calls if we were permitted to talk to her." Iida had insisted. "If Bakugou had done the responsible thing and told Mrs. Midoriya that we are closer to him than he is, I'm sure she would have—"

He was glad Denki had interrupted Iida before he'd said something mind-numbingly judgmental and stupid.

Then came the day that Katsuki had told the class about the true nature of his condition. He looked so small and sad and scared—Izuku wanted to reach through the screen to comfort him but instead, he had to wait and listen to the vitriol that came next.

"You've known he was dying for a month and didn't tell us?" Todoroki had rounded on Katsuki, and Katsuki had actually flinched back.

"But why did she choose him instead of us? Why has he gotten to be with Deku for an entire month?" Uraraka had demanded, undermining his mother's decision on whom to ask for support.

"It seems strange that she chose Bakugou to support her when he so clearly dislikes Midoriya," Iida had added, loud and stern. "If you knew his condition, you should have told her to allow someone closer to him to support her. That was quite cruel of you, Bakugou." 

Izuku wondered if it would be overkill to break into his room and break all of Iida's glasses. Or better yet, wipe them all down with pepper spray. Then he realized he wasn't even halfway through the video, and he considered that maybe it wasn't enough.

"Is that what it is? You hate him so much that you don't even want him to be cared for on his death bed?" Ochako had lashed out.

He watched Mina literally lunge to defend Katsuki and felt unfathomably grateful to her, but then his attention was diverted back to Uraraka and Todoroki.

"What wounds? He's probably over the moon! Isn't this what you wanted? To get rid of him?" Uraraka had needled.

"Every time he tried to get close you, you pushed him away." Todoroki had agreed, furious. "How do you feel now that he'll be out of the way permanently, Bakugou? Glad?"

He snarled, then. How dare he. He was so furious, he couldn't even take time to enjoy the veritable love letter of a speech that Katuski had given the class. He'd have to ask Hagakure for a copy of it so that he could watch it over and over again for the rest of his life, without the rest of the bullshit to pollute it.

But that wasn't the worst part—that came next, after his three 'best friends' visited the hospital.

"Not only did you nearly get the entire class barred from visiting Midoriya, but you also caused Mrs. Midoriya and the Bakugous extreme emotional distress," Izuku watched in thinly restrained rage as Aizawa took them to task in the common room. "That poor woman is on the verge of losing her only son, and you three—in a fit of selfish, thoughtless anger—not only made her cry but also insulted the people she considers closer to her than the majority of her family. It took me hours to assure her that any future visitors wouldn't distress her further. I have never been more ashamed of my own students before in my entire teaching career, and I teach Mineta who is on the verge of expulsion for sexual misconduct."

They had made his mother cry. They had made his mother cry for asking them to leave, and for accepting support from the Bakugous—the only people who had consistently supported them for the last fifteen years. Why hadn't anyone told him about this?

"We were trying to support her but his control-freak mother was trying to force us out!" Uraraka had shrieked, jabbing an accusing finger at Katsuki.

"I've seen a relationship like the one your mother shares with Mrs. Midoriya. It reminds me of my own parents," Todoroki had added, quietly furious.

Izuku nearly broke Hagakure's pretty pink desk. How dare they imply that his mother's relationship with Auntie Mitsuki was abusive? What the fuck did they know about it? He was officially seeing red. He felt a cold thrill of satisfaction when Katsuki stood up for his mother and laid into them for their behavior, and was grateful when Momo, Mina and Koda—the quietest and most mild-mannered member of Class A—scolded them as Eijirou, Denki, and Kyoka pulled him away.

The next section of the video started about a week after he returned to the dorm.

"You're stopping us from helping with his physical therapy now? You can't control his entire life, Bakugou, and you can't control who he spends time with!" Todoroki had yelled, storming into the common room to confront the explosive blonde.

Izuku watched with a sick satisfaction as Katsuki defended himself. Izuku hadn't even realized that the three of them hadn't been adhering to the particulars of his rehabilitation plan; so naturally, Katsuki was within his rights as Izuku's caregiver to remove them from his PT plan. Obviously. But apparently, they didn't agree.

"Of course you're defaulting to profanity and childish insults. Why would we ever expect maturity out of an emotionally stunted bully?" Todoroki glared.

"Did you ask Izuku if he wanted his medical information shared with you? It sounds like you're strong-arming him into doing things your way, just like you always do," Iida interrupted, pushing into Katsuki's personal space. Izuku wanted to yank him away, but was unfortunately limited by physics. "Midoriya looked uncomfortable with us sharing the information with you, which is why we opted not to."

He was glad Katsuki understood him well enough to understand that his discomfort wasn't related to Katsuki's involvement, but rather the burden he was placing on others. But even if it was Katsuki-related, Katsuki had been his primary fucking caregiver. What the hell had they been thinking? Did they understand how dangerous it was for them to withhold information regarding his care?

The next confrontation made furious for both Katsuki and himself, and it was a few weeks after he'd finally been cleared to start training. Those first weeks after he'd been medically cleared had been some of the best of his life—like taking a breath of fresh air after being locked in a basement for months. Training with Katsuki and All Might had been the highlight of his days. And yet—

"If you think I won't beat you down to make you listen, you're wrong." Todoroki had cornered Katsuki, sealing them into the kitchen with a wall of ice—trapping him there. "Back off of Midoriya. You're taking up all his free time with 'training', and you're injuring him almost daily. He could barely walk when he came in here."

Katsuki was right. Injuries came with the hero gig, so that's how hero training worked. But from the look on Todoroki's face, he'd prefer if Izuku were wrapped in bubble wrap for the rest of his life.

"You think I can't tell that you're taking the opportunity to beat him up while he's not at full strength?" he demanded. "You're taking up all of his free time so that his friends can't spend any time with him. You know he'd take anything you offer because you treated him like crap for so long, and you're taking advantage of that. Not only are you controlling who he spends time with, but you're also pushing him past his limits and it's unhealthy and dangerous!"

"He's obviously pushing himself too far, and it's to impress you! His relationship with you is unhealthy—"

"You're not good for him."

Izuku couldn't actually tell what was making him angrier—the fact that Todoroki seemed to think that he needed to be coddled, the fact that Izuku thought he was pathetic enough to blindly follow Katsuki with no thought regarding his abrasive personality, or that Todoroki thought he had any right to dictate the terms of his friendships—to the degree that he'd told Katsuki to stay away from him.

Izuku's brain was a feedback loop, running through all of the things he'd heard in Tooru's near-traumatizing home movie. With each interaction, his anger grew, then grew again each time he remembered it until he wasn't just angry; he was livid—veritably shaking with rage.

He emailed himself the video, then he pulled out his phone and texted Tooru. She was back within a minute. "How are you doing, Mido?" she asked, quiet and hesitant.

His jaw clenched, a vein in his temple jumping. "I would rather not answer that right now. I'm gonna head down to the training room, but I wanted to ask a favor. That speech that Kacchan made when he told you guys about my coma?" Tooru nodded to show he understood what he was talking about. "Can you make a copy of that for me? I want to listen to that when I don't feel like literally beheading someone." He knew he had the full video but he never wanted to have to endure the rest of it again, and he didn't have the editing chops that Hagakure did. His voice was a low growl that sent a terrifying chill down Tooru's spine. She had never seen Izuku like this—eyes dark and voice cold—tense muscles holding back poorly veiled rage with razor-thin control.

"Y-yeah, of course I can," she agreed. "You've got training room nine. Go take out your aggression on something inanimate, Mido. I'll have it in your room by the time you get back."

"Thanks, Tooru," he replied, but his attention was no longer with her. "And thanks for showing me that. It answered a lot of my questions."

"What are you gonna do?" she asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"Don't know yet. Don't tell Kacchan you showed me that video, though. I want to deal with this myself, and he's handled enough bullshit over the past five months." His expression went, if possible, even darker. "It's my turn to deal with them," he snarled, and Tooru was reminded of a feral animal.

"Understood," she agreed. "It's between you and me."

He made his way out of Tooru's room and took a moment to collect himself; affixing a neutral expression to his face and taking care not to stomp as he moved through the dorm halls.

He caught Momo's eye as he exited the dorm and she shot him a thumbs up, even though she looked concerned. He gave her a thin smile and she seemed to relax, even though she still looked worried about him. He couldn't dwell on it, though. He was still too angry.

He ran into Mina and Denki on his way to the training room, and they waved cheerily at him. He smiled tightly and waved back. Apparently, he wasn't doing a great job of masking his emotions, because both of their faces dropped in concern. "You good, Green Bean?" Mina asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just gonna go work out some of my frustration," he replied. "Kind of a private thing."

Denki eyed him suspiciously but Mina nodded, curling her fingers around Denki's wrist, ready to pull him away. "I gotcha," she smiled. "Let us know if you need to talk, okay?"

His smile grew a little more genuine. "I will. Thanks, Mina."

Denki kept staring at him, clearly considering something, but after a few seconds of waiting for him to move on his own, Mina tugged him forward.

He didn't run into anyone else on his way to the training room, and that was probably for the best. With each step, his footfalls grew heavier and his glare grew fiercer—in no time at all, he was storming forward and his eyes were burning with unmitigated fury. How fucking dare they?

Aizawa was waiting for him when he arrived. "Yaoyorozu helped me set up the training room, and I was concerned when I saw who her custom training dummies looked like," he explained when Izuku raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad you're taking your aggression out on dummies instead of your classmates, but may I ask why these measures are necessary?"

Izuku eyed him. "You were there. You saw how they treated Kacchan. How they treated my mother. I've been hanging out with them like everything was completely normal because nobody told me how much damage they did, and I just found out about five months of verbal abuse. So either I hit the dummies, or I hit them. And trust me, if I see them before I punch some of this out, I will hit them," he snarled.

"I told Bakugou that you'd be pissed when you found out," Aizawa sighed. "And I told him you'd be pissed when you found out that he'd kept it from you."

"Oh, I want to be, trust me." Izuku clenched his fists. "I want to be fucking furious with him for keeping me in the dark after he promised that he'd communicate with me when something was wrong but I can't, because he was being so goddamn selfless. He wanted me to make it out of my rehab with my friendships intact, no matter how hard they shit on him."

"Listen, problem child," Aizawa sighed, opening the door to the training room and letting them both inside. "What they did—what they're doing is wrong, but they're doing it because they care about you."

"Maybe they care about me, but that doesn't give them the right to dictate my life," Izuku snapped. "They've decided that I need to be protected and coddled, and now they're trying to mess with my autonomy. That's not caring, that's control, and I don't want it. I'm not a child and I'm not fragile. I don't need protection, I need support, and I need my peers to trust me to make my own decisions. Todoroki told Kacchan to stay away from me. After all the work we've put in and progress we've made, Todoroki tried to ruin it. Not only that—I was on my deathbed and they made my mom cry. They berated her for leaning on Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru for support, and made her cry for doing what she needed to get through that."

Aizawa looked pained, but he understood where Izuku was coming from. It had taken Aizawa a long time to figure out what his quirk was, and how to use it. He remembered what it was like to be told to take it easy and hold back because he was viewed as less capable. And he had been furious when he'd learned how his students had conducted themselves at the hospital. It would sadden him, but if Izuku never forgave them for that, he wouldn't blame him. "I'm not going to tell you how to handle this because you're right. They crossed a lot of lines over the past few months, and it's up to you whether you want them in your life after that. The ball is in your court, but make sure you think about it."

"Yes, sir," Izuku replied, fists clenching and unclenching by his sides.

"As for Bakugou, I'm going to give you some advice. He may know how much he means to you on a surface level, but he doesn't really know. Do both of you a favor, and find a way to let him know. Get him to understand."

Izuku gritted his teeth, irritated as fuck with his thick-skulled pomeranian dickhead. "Understood, sir."

"Good. Let me know if you need to talk any of this through. I might not be good at it, but I'll do my best," he said, placing his hand on Izuku's very tense shoulder. "Now work out some of that poison, and try not to get hurt. Or else Chiyo will be after my hide."

As soon as the door shut behind Aizawa, Izuku turned to the training dummies. There were three dummies spread through the room, with some spares stacked in a corner. God bless Yaomomo. She had made them simple from the waist down, but their facial features were distinct. She knew exactly who he wanted to beat the crap out of.

Now that he was alone, their voices sounded loud in the silence—spilling caustic, condescending words into the recesses of his brain. He saw Katsuki flinching back or grimacing or crying—flashing like the most infuriating movie montage he'd ever seen across the back of his skull. He imagined how hard they must've made his mother cry in order to get banned from the hospital. How nasty they must have been to Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru as he lay dying in the hospital bed right next to them.

He saw red, and One for All flared under his skin. He was pretty sure he had pushed beyond 10%—probably closer to 15%—but he was too enraged to moderate his output. He felt his feet leave the floor, Float activated, and then he was off—propelling himself toward the dummies with Air Force and kicking the absolute shit out of the Iida dummy's face with Shoot Style.

Black Whip unleashed itself from his arms and back like an avenging angel's wings, lashing out at the two dummies that he wasn't attacking—picking them up and launching them at the walls. They were a manifestation of his feelings and intent, after all.

Izuku let out a feral roar, as enraged tears started to spill over his cheeks and he pummeled the dummy in his grip. It was followed by a snarl of satisfaction as the dummy crumpled and crumbled beneath his fist. His muscles ached in protest and his body creaked with the use of his quirk—he was well beyond his current limit.

Within half an hour, he'd obliterated the dummies and most of the training room. Now, with his knuckles bloody and body bruised—welts along his arms and back from Black Whip and throat raw from screaming—he sat against the wall, face buried in his knees as he cried angry, frustrated tears.

Eventually, he slumped further into his knees, tension leaving his spine and sagging in defeat. He was out of tears, but he was still so frustrated. His heart was still burning with anger on Kacchan and his mom's behalf. After a long moment, he looked up at the carnage. The shattered training dummies and battered walls didn't feel like enough. He was still vibrating under his skin.

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts before he landed on his mom. After a moment of hesitation, he called her.

"Hi baby," Inko greeted her son as she always did—bright and adoring. "You usually call me on Sundays, is something wrong?"

He hiccuped. "Yeah," he replied. She cooed, trying to comfort her son.

"Oh, sweetheart, are you crying? Tell me what's wrong."

"Can y-you tell me what happened when Ochako, Tenya, and Sh-shoto visited me in the h-hospital?" Izuku asked, breath catching on random words, making him sound like a small child after a nightmare. "I saw the aftermath, but I-I'd like to h-hear what happened from you."

She hesitated but ultimately told him. She told him how his friends had cried at his side, talking to him and begging him to wake up. Apologizing for not being there to save him. They'd stayed there for two hours, and it was only when they'd started berating Katsuki for withholding information from them that she'd become uncomfortable. Mitsuki and Masaru had been in the room and simply listened as their anger at their son grew, allowing them to grieve in whatever way they needed, as long as Inko was comfortable with it.

When she'd asked them to leave, they'd refused—demanding more time since they'd been robbed of it over the previous month. But Inko had asked, so Mitsuki enforced, just like she always did. That's when they went from upset to downright poisonous, and Mitsuki had called for security.

"For days after that, I felt so guilty for keeping them from you. But Mitsuki reminded me that I was losing my son, and I was allowed to grieve however I needed."

"Kacchan tried to keep it from me," Izuku said, heart hurting. "He wanted me to come back and have my friends at my side, so he didn't tell me about the things they said and did, and I kept hanging out with them while they kept doing it," he sobbed, crying again.

"You know I believe in forgiveness, Izuku. In healing and repairing relationships. But I also know that sometimes you have to cut the cord when a relationship is bringing you more harm than happiness. That's not to say you can't mend it in the future," she assured him. "But it sounds to me like they have to actually understand what's wrong, and sincerely apologize. I only recently realized how much damage your father did—to both of us—and cut him out of our lives. I realized we both deserved better, and that he'd been quietly cruel to us for a long time. He might decide he wants us back in the future, but I don't think I'd accept him back into our lives unless he proved himself to us. Does that make sense, baby?"

He sniffed. "Yeah, mom. Thanks."

"Of course, sweetheart."

"I need to do something. I'll call you tomorrow?"

"Whenever you want, Izuku," she replied, tone light and loving. "I'm always happy to hear from you."

When his mom hung up, he scrolled back through his contacts to make another call.

"Izuku? What's up, kiddo?" Mitsuki answered on the first ring. Fondness punched through him at the concern in her voice, then froze as he remembered how she'd been treated at the hands of his friends.

"Hey, Auntie," his voice sounded raw and strained. "I need a favor."

"...Am I burying a body? I always thought I'd be having this conversation with Katsuki. This is unexpected," she joked, and Izuku barked out a laugh.

"No bodies this time, Auntie, but maybe next time. No, I just...can you distract Kacchan for me tomorrow? Get him off-campus? There's something I need to do, and I don't want him in the middle of it. He's been through enough the past few months."

Mitsuki was silent on the other end for a few beats longer than Izuku hoped. "What's going on, 'Zuku?" she asked softly.

"I uh...I found out that some of my classmates were really awful to Kacchan while I was in the hospital. And to you, and to mom. And I found out that they haven't stopped. And Kacchan has been taking it lying down and keeping it a secret from me because he wanted things to go back to normal for me. I'm going to talk to them about it tomorrow and considering what they've said about Kacchan over the past few months, I want him as far away from it as possible," his tone darkened. "Because it's gonna get ugly."

He heard Mitsuki's breath hitch at his tone. There was a pregnant pause, and then: "Okay, kiddo. I'll get him off-campus. Thank you for looking out for him."

"It's nothing he wouldn't do for me," he replied. He hung up the phone and took a deep breath. He'd had years of practice pretending to be happy when everything felt like garbage. It was practically an art form. So he stood, shaking out his tense muscles, grabbing a towel to wipe the crusted blood off of his knuckles and to dust the debris from his hair and shoulders. He'd need a shower, but that would do for now. He schooled his features into an easy smile and rolled his shoulders back to fix his posture, unclenching his fists as he went. Another deep breath.

He was ready.

"Are you kidding old Hag?" Katsuki yelled into his phone. "I'm not a fucking mannequin!"

Izuku was settled onto Katsuki's bed with his head in Mina's lap—an old All Might movie paused as Katsuki yelled at his mother over the phone. Eijirou and Hanta were watching in amusement as he argued. Denki was asleep on the floor with his head cradled in Hitoshi's lap. He heard Mitsuki yell back, but not loud enough that he could hear what she was saying.

Izuku had to give her credit—she came up with a way to lure him away from campus fast.

"Ugh, fine, I'll be there in the morning. But you have to call Aizawa to get approval," he snarled. "You better be thankful that I'm willing to sacrifice my Sunday—"

They heard Mitsuki cut him off on the other end, volume increasing. Izuku imagined Mitsuki was replying with something along the lines of: "And you had better be thankful that I was willing to abandon my modeling career and get stretch marks to push your bitch-ass out of my vagina you ungrateful brat!"

It was a conversation he'd heard before. "Jesus Christ, Hag, and you wonder where I got my vocabulary?" he snapped. "I'll be there, alright? Quit your bitching and call Aizawa already, I was in the middle of something."

Mitsuki was saying something, but Katsuki pulled his phone away from his ear and hung up on her. Izuku tried to replace his look of vindictive satisfaction with one of concern. "What's going on, Kacchan?"

"Hag needs me to help her with movement fitting for her new men's line," he grumbled, slumping onto the bed next to Mina so that Izuku's hair brushed his thigh. "The model she had lined up is sick, but I apparently have similar measurements so she wants me to do the fitting tomorrow."

"When's the show?" Izuku asked, genuinely interested this time. "Do we get to watch?"

"In two weeks," he replied, still salty. "It's like a practice run for Tokyo Fashion week. A preview for investors. But you could probably come. She'll want to make some stuff for your wardrobe though, and you won't be allowed to wear your red shoes."

"What's wrong with my shoes?" Izuku demanded hotly, trying to sit up but getting pushed back down so that Mina could continue petting his hair. He shot her a dirty look.

"Nothing," he shrugged. "But they don't go with formal attire. Don't think I forgot about you wearing them with your 80's pimp-suit on I-Island. Your wardrobe is very you, but you need more than one pair of shoes, nerd."

Izuku pouted but knew he was right. He'd gotten that comment from multiple people over the years. Mei had insisted on replacing his shoes with high-performance, shock-absorbent tactical boots early in the year, and he had to admit that they were not only comfortable and functional but very aesthetically pleasing.

He just liked his shoes. "Fine," he grumbled. "You can take me shoe shopping."

"Mina can take you shoe shopping," Katsuki disagreed. "I hate shopping for shoes. Tedious. But if we're getting you new clothes too, I'll tag along."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing! You just can't wear a t-shirt that says t-shirt on it to a job interview. Or clubbing. You have a lot of everyday wear, but not a lot of clothes for specific situations. Chill out, nerd. You look good in whatever."

Izuku settled down, flattered and appeased. Mina shared a smirk with Eijirou and Hitoshi. Hanta made a face. "Don't flirt in front of my popcorn."

Katsuki launched a pillow at him with deadly force. Izuku was surprised he didn't' get a concussion. "Excessive, Kacchan," he scolded.

"Not even by half, Deku."

Katsuki left early the next morning, hoping to 'get this shit show over with as soon as fucking possible'. Izuku had full faith in Auntie Mitsuki's ability to drag out fashion-related tedium as long as physically possible, though, so he wasn't concerned about being interrupted. Auntie wouldn't let Katsuki come back until Izuku said the coast was clear, and he'd never been more grateful for the woman who was essentially his second mother.

He waited in the common room, like a spider waiting in its web for a doomed insect to be drawn in by the light. He wasn't usually one for dramatics, but he wanted to make sure that the lessons learned here sank into every crevice of their grey matter. You did not underestimate Izuku Midoriya, and you did not fuck with his family. He was seated closest to the TV, all the couches and armchairs around him empty.

The first person to see him was Momo. She brought him tea and sat. "You okay?"

"Not yet," he replied, sipping the expensive brew delicately. "You might not want to stick around."

Momo scoffed. "First of all, I wouldn't miss this. Second of all, I'd never leave you to do this alone."

He let the quiet of the morning permeate the room and soothe his raw energy. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't any of you tell me?" he finally asked.

"Trust me, we wanted to," she replied dryly. "But Katsuki had a plan, and we wanted to respect it. We didn't agree, but he didn't care what they said about him as long as you were happy and healthy," Momo replied.

"Oh," Kyoka breathed from the doorway. "You figured it out?" He nodded, and she grimaced. "Sorry, dude. But Momo's right, he didn't care. Not as long as you knew how he felt, you know? It didn't matter what they said as long as you two were still good."

"It did, though. Tooru showed me. The way he was reacting, it was like they were physically beating him," he replied, clenching his teeth. "I knew it was weird that you guys were avoiding them, but I thought it would just heal naturally. I didn't realize how bad it was."

"It was bad," Momo agreed. "But he had us. And we made damn sure he knew that they were wrong."

Izuku gave her a small but grateful smile. "Yeah, I know. I saw that, too. I'm still annoyed that no one told me though. Whether I forgive them and move on is my decision, and I didn't even know there was something wrong in the first place. At least not something this wrong."

They looked appropriately shamefaced. "Sorry, Mido," Kyoka replied, looking like she might start crying.

"We'll move past it," he assured her. "But I need to talk to them first. I'll handle the rest of you later."

Kyoka went about her morning, a little less lively than when she'd first turned up. Izuku pulled out his phone and rewatched the video on silent while Momo sipped her tea and read her book from a few chairs away. As more people entered the common room, they seemed to recognize the proverbial dark cloud that hovered around Izuku as a very large "Do Not Disturb" sign.

Izuku could feel their gazes raking over him, all wondering what exactly had happened. Eventually, he heard Kyoka and Mina talking below the overall volume of the room—heard Mina's breath hitch when Kyoka told her why the vibe was so tense. He looked up and caught her eye, and she looked stricken by whatever expression his face was making. His eyes fell back to his phone just in time to see Katsuki flinch back from Ochako again, breath going ragged as he imagined Izuku dying in the hospital—no hope in sight for an antidote.

"Good morning, Deku!" Ochako bounded up to him, and Izuku wondered how exactly she'd missed the thickness of the atmosphere. Across the room, it looked like Denki was struggling to breathe, let alone speak. Yet here was Uraraka, looking completely unencumbered.

Perhaps the fact that the entire class had been avoiding her had blinded her to their reactions—letting her pass them off as auxiliary information. "Sit," he demanded coolly. Uraraka's eyes widened and she froze before him, studying him properly this time. He heard some of the others inhale sharply.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"I said, sit." He didn't snap or bark. He demanded, dark, calm, and cool. He was pretty sure Koda whimpered at his tone. Uraraka complied hesitantly. "We're still waiting for some people."

"Tea?" Momo offered her, smile thin. Uraraka raised an eyebrow but nodded.

Shoto was the next target to come out. He was more aware than Uraraka, taking in the tense expressions and discomfort in the room. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Sit down, Shoto," he demanded again. Shoto frowned at his tone, but complied easily, sliding in next to Uraraka.

Eventually, Izuku lost his patience. "Ojiro," he called. Ojiro went ramrod straight instantly, and Izuku almost felt bad for the atmosphere he'd bred. But they didn't have to be here, they'd chosen to watch the spectacle. If they didn't like it, they could leave. "Do me a favor and fetch Tenya? I'd like to get started." Ojiro nodded and practically fled.

"Get started with what? Did something happen, Deku?" Uraraka asked, concerned.

His mouth formed a grim line. "Yes. And I'd like to talk about it, but I'd like my...friends to be here," he replied. Uraraka smiled at him, all understanding and soft and Todoroki relaxed back into his seat. Meanwhile, a chill swept through the rest of the room.

Iida entered, looking more rumpled than usual, but certainly awake. "Midoriya? Ojiro said you needed me," he greeted, ever-formal.

"Sit down, Tenya," Izuku demanded one last time. Iida hesitated, eyeing the other inhabitants of the room, then Uraraka and Todoroki. Apparently, he decided that Uraraka and Todoroki looked relaxed enough that he could settle in without protest.

"What's this about, Midoriya?" he asked.

Izuku didn't reply, opting to turn the TV on instead. Then, he opened the video on his phone again, and screencast it to the larger display. Hagakure squeaked when she recognized the still on the screen. "We're gonna watch a movie," he smiled grimly. "One that Tooru was kind enough to put together."

They looked confused until Izuku pressed play. His other classmates gathered closer, curious despite their discomfort. Then they understood what they were watching.

Months of ugliness spewed out through the TV, and most of the class flinched back as they relived the poisonous words that were spewed. Izuku's eyes roamed the room as Katsuki was brought low, paying more attention than ever to the three in front of him. Uraraka spent a stupid amount of time glaring at Hagakure. Shoto's jaw was set mulishly. Iida looked unbothered.

Izuku's expression darkened with each new conversation until he was glaring so fiercely, he was surprised that no one had caught fire. He switched the TV off when the video came to an end. "For the past three months or so, I've been wondering why the rest of the class was avoiding you. Then Tooru was kind enough to put this together for me—"

"That is not a complete picture of what happened!" Uraraka cried. "You didn't see what Bakugou was like while you were in the hospital—"

"Did I fucking say you could talk?" he growled. Her jaw snapped shut as her eyes widened in shock. "It's my turn. Let me recap what I just saw. You'll get your turn because I promise you'll be explaining exactly why you thought it was acceptable."

He briefly turned his glare to Mina when he heard her mumble, "Yes, daddy." She blushed and fell silent.

"We were just—"

"Shut the fuck up, Tenya," he snapped. "I mean it. If you don't, there is no chance in hell that our friendship will be repaired after this, so if you ever valued that you will shut your goddamn mouth for once in your life and let me speak." They stayed silent. "Let me describe what I just saw. It's almost like a play in three parts. Part one was before anyone knew that I was in a coma. I saw Kacchan trying his best to respect my mother's wishes by keeping my medical condition private. I saw you three disrespecting those wishes by badgering him. I saw Ochako try to goad our classmates into disrespecting my mother's wishes by claiming that if they didn't, they didn't care about me. I saw Tenya accusing Kacchan of behaving like a villain, just because he didn't roll over and share my confidential medical information. I saw you three viciously berating him—calling him an abusive bully and an irredeemable asshole just days after he had watched me choke on my own blood. You pushed him into a panic attack and continued to go after him. I saw you belittle our classmates for trying to help him when he was carrying that burden on his own. You insulted my mother's intelligence and her ability to choose her support system just because it didn't suit your needs," he paused, taking a deep breath to ground himself. He was barely restraining his anger. Sitting beside his three targets, Momo was looking positively vindicated. "Then came part two," he snarled.

"Part two was after you'd all learned about my condition, but before I'd woken up. Let me tell you, this part is the one that pissed me off the most. That's when you accused Kacchan of being cruel for supporting my mother instead of letting you three do it, despite the fact that Kacchan has known my mother his entire life, and has only met you three in person three times, two of which were in passing. It's when you accused him of hating me so much that he wanted me to die alone and uncared for. That he would be glad when I died. It's also characterized by the fact that during your hospital visit, you overstayed your welcome, insulted my mother's friends and support system to their faces, and made my mother cry when I was on my deathbed. Then, Uraraka called Auntie Mitsuki a control freak for trying to enforce my mother's wishes, and Todoroki had the utter fucking audacity to call Auntie Mitsuki abusive when she and Uncle Masaru were the only people there for us when my father abandoned us." His voice was rising with his temper, and Uraraka was sinking back into the couch to get away from him. Todoroki, who had clearly not understood the depth of his history with the Bakugous, was beginning to look nervous. "Then, we get to part three." He was yelling now, and his volume had caught the attention of the few stragglers who hadn't made it to the common room.

"Part three began when I got back to the dorms, and let me tell you, it is the most frustrating shit I had to experience. At first, it was just because I knew something was off, but I didn't have the whole picture. Now that I do, I'm fucking livid," he growled. "You withheld my medical information from Kacchan even though he was my primary caregiver. I consented to him being my caregiver, as did my mother and Recovery Girl. By refusing to give him that information you were disregarding my choice on whom to trust with my medical but more importantly, you were directly endangering my wellbeing because you decided he wasn't adequate, as though my opinion on my medical care was irrelevant if you didn't agree with it. Then you went after him after he justifiably removed you from my care plan. And when I was finally cleared for training, and felt like I was getting back to normal, Todoroki put the final nail in your fucking coffin by having the utter audacity to tell Kacchan to stay away from me. Because I was getting banged up in training. You had the audacity to tell him that he wasn't good for me and that our relationship isn't healthy." He was angry enough that he could no longer contain his quirk properly, and One For All was flicking green sparks off his skin as his eyes blazed with a bitter and encompassing rage.

"So here's my question," he snarled into the silence, voice crescendoing to an outright bellow. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"We were just trying to look out for you—" Uraraka spoke up, but she fell silent as soon as Izuku's eyes met hers.

"Which part of that was looking out for me? Making my mother's support system feel like crap? Making my mother have a panic attack in my hospital room? Don't make me laugh, Ochako, you felt entitled to my care because you're my friend, and you made it everyone else's problem. Kaccan was carrying our families on his back, and you made it worse because for some stupid reason you think that you know me better than he does," he snarled.

Todoroki stepped up. "You weren't here, Izuku, you didn't see how he's behaving. You didn't see how his parents treated us in the hospital, and you didn't see how he behaved when we asked him for updates—"

"Updates that you had no right to ask for!" he bellowed back. "I know Aizawa told you he would tell you what he was authorized to tell you, and outside of that, you had no right to my information. And then you had the fucking audacity to keep my medical information from Kacchan who actually did have that right. Not only are you hypocrites, but you're also so fucking self-important that you've become a literal danger to my health." He huffed a laugh that was caustic and mean, and it made them flinch away from him. "His parents are my mother's oldest friends. His parents helped take care of me when my mom had to take a second job because my shitty father abandoned us when he thought I was quirkless. His parents picked me up from school when I was sick and my mom couldn't make it. They are just as much my family as my own mother, and you not only insulted them to their faces, but you called them abusive and controlling to their only son for daring to stand up for my mother's wishes when you blatantly ignored them. If anyone is turning out to be abusive and controlling, it's you, Shoto."

Todoroki flinched back like he'd been slapped. Izuku laughed darkly and continued, clinging to the momentum his anger was giving him. "Trying to control who I spend time with behind my back? Setting limits for me without my consent and trying to enforce them? My training plan is none of your fucking business, and trying to make Kacchan feel guilty for the way he's been helping me even though I asked him to is not only controlling, it's manipulative and underhanded. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you don't' trust me to know my limits or make my own decisions, you have a lot of fucking nerve calling yourself my friend."

"You're out of line, Midoriya. You're too close to the problem—you lack perspective," Iida scolded him. Izuku's vision blurred with fury, and before he knew it, he'd used Black Whip to pick Iida up and fling him across the room like a rag doll where he made a crater in the wall from his impact.

"I'M OUT OF LINE?" he hollered, voice taking on a hysterical edge. "You're our class rep, not our fucking father. You have no moral high ground here, and the fact that you had the balls to call my best and oldest friend a villain for respecting my privacy is a fucking joke, Tenya. If I hadn't stopped you, you'd be a murderer. Remember that? What the fuck gives you the moral high ground to cast judgment on others? In fact, what makes you think that you're less villainous than Kacchan? You're the most judgmental motherfucker I've ever met, and that's been true since the day I met you."

"Midoriya!" Iida rebuked him, picking himself up from the floor. "You're out of control!"

"You've been out of control for five months," Izuku hissed, glowing green. "I'm just returning the favor. But now I'm done. Done with all three of you. I don't know if we can repair any part of what we had because not only did you disrespect my family, you showed an astounding lack of faith in me. You owe Kacchan an apology, and you owe my mother an apology, and you owe me an apology. Until then, I don't even want to look at you," he snarled.

Uraraka looked wounded. "You don't mean that," she sniffed, starting to cry. "We just wanted—"

"It's not all about what you want. You've made it about what you want for way too long, so stop fucking telling me what you want. What I want is to fix the damage you did to my people. I have to make sure that Kacchan knows that he's not bad for me—that he's the most important person in my life. I have to make sure Auntie knows that we love her, and make sure my mom knows that she isn't a bad person just because she did what she needed to do when she thought that I was dying. And I need to know that I am strong, and I have autonomy. I have no interest in people who treat me like I need to be protected in some shitty bubble like I'm made of glass. I have no interest in people making my choices for me. If you still can't see where you went wrong, I have nothing more to say to you." He stood, never taking his eyes off them. "And until you can fix what you broke, don't come anywhere near me."

He moved to leave the room, making eye contact with Mina, Eijirou, and Kyoka as he went. They got the hint and followed him, pulling Hanta and Denki with them. Momo and Tsuyu followed for good measure. He pushed them into his room and shut the door behind him. "I'm not thrilled with any of you, either. I already talked to Momo and Kyoka, but the rest of you—" a chill went through them as his eyes cut to each of them. "I don't appreciate having my decisions made for me. I made that clear downstairs. I understand why you didn't tell me—Katsuki told you to, and you'd been following his lead regarding my recovery. So just this time, I'm letting you off the hook. But next time, anyone who tries to keep something like this from me will get a crater made with their body. Understand?"

They all nodded hurriedly, and Izuku—who was not accustomed to holding that kind of rage in his body—deflated dramatically, slumping against the door to his room like a rag doll. "Awesome. Then someone pick a movie because I'm fucking exhausted and don't want to think about any of this for the rest of the day."

Mina jumped to comply. "How do you feel about a RomCom, Mido?" she asked, scrolling through Netflix like it was her job.

He shrugged, and that set everyone else off—arguing over genres and actors and time periods—while Izuku moved just enough to cocoon himself in blankets on the bed. He ended up boxed in by Momo and Eijirou on either side of him, and Mina lying across his legs.

"I'm sorry we kept it from you, Mido. We really didn't want you to think about it while you were recovering. But I think most of us were planning on telling you eventually when you didn't have as much on your plate," Eijirou explained quietly as the movie started. "We didn't love Bakubro's decision, but we did kind of agree that you needed time to settle in before you had to deal with this."

Izuku nudged his shoulder. "It's good to know that you were planning on telling me. Especially since it seems like they were gonna carry on pretending that nothing had happened. It still sucks, and I have a bone to pick with Kacchan, but that makes it better." He rested his head on Eijirou's shoulder.

"We're all in your corner, dude," he whispered back. "And we know you can handle anything. Hell, you had one foot in the grave and came back. Pretty sure there's nothing you can't do."

And there was the faith that he'd been looking for.

Katsuki...felt like he'd been dropped into an alternate reality.

At first, everything seemed normal, but one morning he'd gone to help his mother with her menswear line, and when he'd returned in the afternoon, everything felt a little different.

On the more noticeable side, there was a crater in the wall of the common room. He squinted at it for a full five minutes when he returned, trying to discern what could have caused it. Everyone that he asked just shrugged and redirected the conversation.

On the less noticeable side, Izuku was spending more and more time by his side. It had crept up on him, but suddenly the nerd was everywhere and he was living for it. Within the span of a few hours, his Deku had seemed to completely integrate himself into his friend group, indelibly affixing Momo and Tsuyu there as well. Between classes and training their group study sessions, the nerd was rarely out of his sight.

The change kinda punched him in the face on the day that Izuku officially came back to hero training. The nerd was practically vibrating out of his skin with excitement, so ready to start training with his classmates again that he was practically salivating. "Chill the fuck out, nerd," Katuski scolded him.

"No, you," he'd replied, drawing Katsuki's attention to his own manic grin. He schooled it down into his trademark scowl. "Oh no, don't chill out that much," Izuku whined. Then he went silent and still for a moment, and Katsuki followed his line of sight to the Dekusquad, who seemed to be whispering among themselves while eyeing Izuku in concern. He looked back at Izuku and found his expression inscrutable.

"You good, nerd?" he asked, nudging him. Izuku snapped his eyes to Katsuki's with an intensity that he wasn't expecting.

"Fine," he replied, not sounding fine at all. "I need to talk to Mr. Aizawa before class. I'll catch up with you," he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Katsuki held his gaze for a second before nodding. Deku would talk to him about it when he was ready. It was part of their whole communication thing, right?

Izuku zipped off to talk to Caterpillar-sensei, and Katsuki found his way to Eijirou's side. "Hey man," Eijirou greeted him. "Where'd Mido go?"

Katsuki shrugged. "Said he had to talk to Aizawa. What am I, his keeper?" Eijirou gave him a very unimpressed look. "What's that look for, Shitty Hair?" he demanded, not sure he wanted the answer.

"That look is for the fact that you like him," Eijirou scolded him. Katsuki flushed but didn't protest.

"That doesn't make me his keeper, and that doesn't mean we're anywhere near ready to address that," Katsuki replied.

"You have been spending every waking minute with him for two weeks now," Eijirou replied dryly. "You're basically dating without the kissing and hand-holding and stuff."

Katsuki hit him in the shoulder. "We're not there yet," he insisted. "Isn't it enough for now that I'm aware? Leave it alone."

"Fine," Eijirou sighed. "But seriously, do you know why he needed to talk to Aizawa? Couldn't he have done it after class?"

Katsuki shrugged. "Maybe it has something to do with his training limitations," he replied. "He's still not up to where he was before the hospital. He's close, but he might want to let Aizawa know what's up."

Eijirou nodded like that was a perfectly acceptable explanation. They stretched to warm up, and pretty soon Mina and Tsuyu joined them. They both looked brassed off about something, but Katsuki sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to ask what was up. He was trying to avoid drama.

"What's wrong, babe?" Eijirou asked Mina, so affectionate that Katsuki flinched. It's not like he didn't know that Mina and Eijirou were dating, but they'd never actually said it out loud. They were just all over each other all the time, and Katsuki just happened to share a wall with Eijirou.

Mina hesitated, before relenting. "The dickhead-squad was talking about how Zuku isn't ready to start training yet," she replied, annoyed. "It was really condescending. "It's like they haven't learned anything—" Eijirou shot her a warning look and she cut off, eyes widening in the wake of her slip-up. Luckily for her, Katsuki was doing toe-touches, so he didn't see her brief moment of panic.

"Learned anything from what?" Katsuki snorted. "All the times that Deku told them off for babying him? That'll be the day." He straightened and gave them a look that was equal parts incredulous and expectant.

"Learned anything from all the times Izuku has defied the odds and kicked ass when he shouldn't have been able to," Tsuyu covered smoothly. "Even in first year, like during the USJ attack. He ran into everything with his bones broken and still came out on top every time, and they think that he can't pull off in-class training after months of rehab? Ridiculous."

Katsuki nodded, accepting that answer, and Mina let out a small sigh of relief.

"Alright, Disaster Children," Aizawa called their attention, and they all perked up to listen. "We're doing one-on-one sparring today, with quirks," he began. "The objective is to show your adaptability. You all know your own move sets and fighting styles. I want you to think outside of the box by using the fighting style of another classmate that is compatible with your quirk and effective against your opponent. For example, if I were fighting against Yaoyorozu, I would be attempting to use Ashido's fighting style because it's dynamic and would make me difficult to target with stationary objects or simple projectiles like cannons or hand grenades, and her fighting style isn't difficult to adapt to my own. Understood?" The class nodded their understanding, and Aizawa continued. "I will be picking your sparring partners."

He assigned their pairs, moving down a list that was more eclectic than their typical pairings. Katsuki was paired with Aoyama, and Eijirou was paired with Tokoyami. Mina was up against Uraraka, Tsu was fighting Koda, Momo was paired with Denki, and Hanta was gonna duke it out with Hagakure.

Katsuki scowled when Aizawa announced the last pairing. Izuku would be fighting Todoroki. He'd been hoping to spar with him, but he supposed he'd hogged the nerd enough during their private training sessions. But still, nobody gave him their all like Deku did.

During Katsuki's battle with the Twinkle-Twink, he'd adapted his moves to mimic Ojiro's—relying more heavily on close combat and martial arts and focusing on enhancing his mobility and staying low. He barely caught any of the other fights because Izuku talked his damn ear off about how amazingly he adapted the entire fucking time. He did catch Eijirou emulating Hagakure when he caught Tokoyami off guard with a vicious sneak attack, and Tsuyu imitating Ashido by skating on her own slime (yuck ). 

Then it came time for Izuku's battle with Todoroki. "I'd say break a leg, but you might take me seriously," Katsuki smirked down at the smaller boy, grunting when Izuku's elbow dug into his ribcage.

"Asshole," Izuku grumbled. Something was off, though. Katsuki cataloged Izuku's expression. Where he'd expected to find excitement—especially since it was his first day back in hero training—he found the sort of steely determination that Izuku wore when he was trying to make a point, and it was directed without mercy at Todoroki.

"You good, nerd?"

"That's the second time you've asked me that today," Izuku replied. "Careful, or I'll think you're going soft on me."

Katsuki snorted. "We're way past that, nerd," he pushed Izuku toward the training field. "Knock him dead."

"What makes you think I won't take that seriously?" Izuku muttered under his breath as he turned to leave. But Katsuki had been raised on Izuku's muttering, so he heard it loud and clear. His eyes widened in shock, and he flicked his eyes to his other classmates. He wasn't sure why—there was no way they heard him—but he still found trepidation on most of their faces.

Hence why it felt like he'd been dropped in an alternate reality.

Todoroki moved first, and Katsuki immediately noticed that something was off. He frowned, leaning forward. "What's wrong, Blasty?" Mina asked quietly. Katsuki tilted his head to the side, surveying the fight carefully. Mina seemed to get that he was still analyzing, so she waited for him to speak.

Todoroki slid towards Izuku on his ice—attempting to freeze Izuku's feet in place—but Izuku was already on the move. Katsuki recognized the fighting style he'd adopted immediately—using Black Whip to pull him from point A to point B while he fired off Air Force blasts. He was mimicking Hanta's fighting style. Hanta noticed too and murmured "that's so dope," under his breath.

And it was, but Katsuki's eyes were fixed on Todoroki. IcyHot was known for subduing his opponents quickly with walls of ice that appeared faster than his victims could blink—but his movements were slowed, and he was only using his ice for mobility. Was he using Mina as his switch-style, too? No—the kick he tried to land when he got within range was clearly more in Iida's wheelhouse.

He was using close-quarter combat against Deku? Was he nuts? Deku was probably the best long-range fighter in the class, barring Katsuki himself. Todoroki put up a wall of ice, but it was thin—Izuku barely had to tap it to break it down. He threw a flame, too—but Izuku dodged. Why was IcyHot going so goddamn slow?

"He's holding back," Katsuki muttered. "IcyHot's holding back against Deku. He's probably giving it less than half his strength right now, and he picked a fighting style that Deku is really strong against. We all saw him kick Four-Eyes' ass the last time he was in combat training. IcyHot knows that Deku is strong against his fighting style. He's pulling his punches on purpose, look—" he gestured wildly as Todoroki put up another half-hearted wall of ice, even as Izuku picked up his speed.

Mina scowled. "Whatever," she replied, voice dark. "His funeral."

"You're holding back Todoroki! Fucking fight me!" Izuku bellowed less than two minutes later.

Katsuki might have to address Izuku's recently blossoming potty mouth. It's not that Izuku never swore, but recently it was like he was trying to get struck down but whatever divine force that had decided that curses were no-no words.

Todoroki did not pick up his game. "You're pushing yourself, Izuku," he called back. "I'm not going to—" but he didn't get to finish whatever he was about to say, because Izuku picked up a chunk of Todoroki's ice and swung it like a wrecking ball directly into IcyHot's face.

"Okay, now that was cool," Eijirou exclaimed.

"Beat his ass, Deku!" Katsuki cheered. And Izuku seemed to take that to heart because he swung himself around one of the fake telephone poles that dotted Ground Gamma, lithe body illuminated by One For All, and catapulted himself towards his heterochromatic opponent. Todoroki barely blocked him with a wall of ice, and still had to skate out of the way when Izuku busted through it.

It turned into a furious game of cat and mouse—Torodoki trying to dodge and block while Izuku pursued a relentless assault. Watching Izuku move was like watching a dancer—graceful and deadly and fueled by passion. After months of struggling to even move, he'd finally regained the awe-inspiring ability to move without thinking—the instinct for battle-based heroics that put even pro-heroes to shame. No matter what life threw at the nerd, he always got up and hit harder than before and it was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Maybe Eijirou had a point.

Todoroki seemed to be sticking to his stance—adamant that Izuku couldn't take him at full strength. But it was just like Izuku told him last year.

"If he didn't give it his all and you did, then you deserved the win. He lacked the spirit to be considered the strongest, and you didn't."

And Izuku was definitely giving it his all. "You're still trying to decide my limits for me," Izuku snarled, landing a bullseye hit to Todoroki's jaw. "You want to treat me like glass? I'm not—" he kicked Todoroki so hard that he flew almost twenty feet back, but he followed after him. "I'm made of steel, and no matter how much I bend, I won't break—" Izuku was pretty sure he felt one of Todoroki's ribs snap, but he was enraged and didn't give a fuck. "And I won't be treated like a baby or a victim!" He grabbed Todoroki around the shoulders and launched himself into the air.

Katsuki recognized the move—it was the one he'd used to beat Izuku at Ground Beta last year. He flipped Todoroki beneath him mid-air, raised his hand, and fired an Air Force blast at the sky that blasted them both downwards. The only difference was that Izuku used at least five times more force than Katsuki had and as a result, Todoroki was now lying completely dazed and defeated in a crater. Izuku didn't need to pin him—he just stood above him and stared down coldly. "There isn't a scratch on me, Todoroki. Worry about yourself."

"Hell yeah!" Katsuki bellowed across from the stands. But he flinched back when he saw Izuku whip his head towards them. At first, he thought the glare was for him, but then he actually followed the gaze and landed on Uraraka and Iida—the former looking very pale, and the latter frowning in abject disapproval. "The fuck?" he muttered.

Eijirou sighed. "Well, that cat is out of the bag," he grumbled. "Ask Hagakure," he instructed when Katsuki shot him a questioning glance. Katsuki tensed.

"I missed something, didn't I?" He asked, his eyes slid to Todoroki who was now being scolded by Aizawa and looking defiant.

"That was by design," Mina replied wryly. "But I don't think Izuku meant to go absolutely fucking feral in the middle of supervised training."

"Trust me, dude," Eijirou insisted. "Ask Hagakure. It'll make more sense if you see it."

He squinted at them like they'd gone a little crazy. "If you say so."

When he knocked on Hagakure's door, she let out a sigh that would have put a middle-aged single mother of five chaotic teenage delinquents to shame. "I know I'm an asshole, but I didn't think it was that much of a chore to see me," he drawled. She scoffed.

"How can I help you, Bakugou," she sounded tired, but not angry.

"Deku was acting weird, and Pinky and Shitty Hair—"

"Told you to see me," she replied with another put upon sigh. "Come in. But if you blow anything up, I'll find a way to kick your ass that you won't see coming," she warned.

"Why the hell would I blow up your stuff if you're helping me?" he demanded.

"...because I helped Izuku first," she admitted. He still didn't really get why he'd have a problem with that. He'd kinda been steering the entire 'help Izuku' caravan for months now. "Sit," she instructed, pointing at her bed.

Katsuki sat, then watched as she opened her laptop and started fiddling around in her files. "You're gonna watch two videos. The first one is what I made for Izuku. The second one was his response to it."

Katsuki's spine tingled with trepidation. "'Kay," he replied, hesitant. She picked up her laptop and dropped it on his lap.

"You have my number?" she asked. He nodded. "Cool. When you're done, text me and I'll come back. If you wanna talk, we can talk. Got it?" He nodded again. "Great. See you," she said as she flounced out of the door.

Katsuki pressed play.

Izuku stared at his phone.

He wondered if Katsuki knew that the words 'we need to talk' were the most anxiety-inducing words in the world when placed in that particular order.

Had he done something? Offended the explosive blonde somehow? He thought they'd been getting along pretty darn well! They spent all of their time together—

Oh no. Maybe Izuku was irritating him. Maybe he was tired of him constantly hanging around. But Katsuki sought Izuku out just as much Izuku sought Katsuki out, so that couldn't be it. Maybe he'd realized how he felt about him. Although, if Katsuki hadn't realized how Izuku felt about him for the past seven years, what was the likelihood of him figuring it out now? ...High. Very high. They'd been spending entire days together. And fuck he'd popped a boner during training that one time, fuck fuck fuck—

"Nerd," Katsuki greeted him, cutting off his panicked inner monologue. Izuku whipped around to look at him.

"Kacchan!" he yelped.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "You knew I was coming, nerd. You're the one who told me to come over."

Katsuki's presence did nothing to calm his nerves. "You're the one who said we needed to talk," he replied. "So, what's up?"

Katsuki was pinning him with a look that Izuku had absolutely no context for. "Yeah," he replied. "You kinda popped off in training today," he cast his eyes to the ground. "And it made me realize that things were off. So I went to Invisalign—"

"You know her name, I know you do—"

"And she showed me the video that she showed you."

"....Oh." 

"And then she showed me the video that she made of you completely blasting your friends," he continued.

"Might wanna check your definition of friends, Kacchan. Those are now acquaintances," he replied blithely, settling back into his desk chair. Izuku felt himself relax. Maybe Katsuki really didn't understand the implications of 'we need to talk', because he was here to talk about the now ex-Dekusquad. Good, he'd been looking for a way to have this conversation.

"You can't do that," Katsuki insisted. Izuku tensed, glare forming in the corners of his eyes.

"I can't do that?" Why was everyone trying to tell him what he could and couldn't do?

"I know they crossed a fuckin' line or whatever, but they were worried about you."

"And what about now?" Izuku demanded. "Now that I'm not in the hospital and cleared for training? They're still giving you shit, and they still think that what they did to our parents was okay, no apology for any of it in sight; and they still treat me like a fucking invalid—"

"You need to give them time!"

"Why?"

"Why did you give me time?" Katsuki yelled. Izuku went silent, staring up at him in shock. "You gave me years and you're cutting them off after a few months? You gotta give them time, Deku."

Izuku stared at him in disbelief for way longer than what could be considered comfortable. Or socially acceptable. He looked winded, like Katsuki had just sucker-punched him directly in his solar plexus.  "You are," he breathed. "The most colossal dumbfuck I have ever had the privilege to meet."

"Fuckin' what?" Katsuki barked, palms sparking. Izuku snorted, completely unthreatened.

"Sit down, Kacchan," Izuku commanded.

"No."

"Sit down, or get out. You're gonna listen to me, or you're gonna leave. You said we needed to talk, so I'm gonna talk. You don't want to listen, you can leave until you're ready. No time limit, completely your choice." Izuku's voice booked no room for argument.

Katsuki hesitated, still staring Izuku down, but then slowly—like a frightened animal—lowered himself onto the very edge of the bed as though he was still considering running away. Izuku smiled at him, satisfied. "So talk, nerd."

"Okay. There is no comparison between the situation with Uraraka, Todoroki, and Iida and our relationship. To compare them is ridiculous, and frankly, an insult to everything that we are."

"Bullshit—"

"It's my turn to talk," Izuku scolded him, but it wasn't like the harsh snaps and barks that Katsuki had seen in Hagakure's second video. It was fond and honestly a little condescending, but Katsuki couldn't find the will to be mad about it because he was so fucking confused. He only got more confused when Izuku remained silent, considering him carefully. Katsuki shifted in his seat, uncomfortable under Izuku's gaze. What he wouldn't give to be able to hear people's thoughts right now. Then he noticed Izuku's tapping fingers and realized that the nerd was gathering his thoughts, so he waited.

"You want to know the difference between you and them?" Izuku asked. Katsuki gestured for him to spit it out. "Choice. You always let me choose."

Katsuki frowned at him. "I'm pretty fucking sure you didn't choose the bullshit I pulled in middle school, Deku."

"No, you're right. But you told me once—if I wanted to be a hero, I should be able to handle worse than you. And it was a shitty way to try to get me to back down, but you made it my choice. And I chose to stick with you and I chose to keep pursuing heroics, and I chose to stop letting you walk all over me. I chose you, and I fought for you. We've come so far because you gave me the choice to keep fighting. The only time you ever flat-out told me to give up was the day you told me to take a swan dive off the roof, and I chose to forgive you. You let me choose to come or go after that, too. You knew you'd crossed a line, and you stopped fucking with me just in case I wanted to give up on you—then you went right back to normal when I chose to stay. It wasn't nice or pretty, but I chose it. You didn't try to cut me off from your parents when our relationship went sour. You let me choose to keep them. Then our relationship started to improve, and I chose to tell you my secrets, I chose you as my training partner, I chose you as my friend, and you only pushed back when you thought you didn't deserve it. You let me decide what I wanted and go after it, and even if you competed with me, you never stood in my way."

"You're psychotic."

"I'm quirkless. Well, not anymore, but I was. For a long time. You were there. Do you know how many choices the world has taken away from me? That's why I clung to you. You were inspirational and victorious, and you let me choose," he shrugged a little helplessly. "Those three ignored all of the progress we've made, and how happy I've been getting closer to you and made a judgment call to try to tear you down and tear you away from me. While I was unconscious. Nevermind the fact that I would have wanted you there, they also tried to take away my mom's choice to keep you around, and her choice to keep my medical information confidential by playing on your insecurities and calling you irredeemable and villainous. Anyone who's been paying attention to what I want—what I've been chasing for years—would have known that I would hate what they tried to do to you. To us. What we've rebuilt over the past two years is more valuable to me than any accomplishment I've achieved in my life, and they tried to take that away from me. That's the difference. You've never tried to take anything away from me once I've earned it."

The look that Katsuki was giving him was so open and vulnerable that Izuku almost wanted to go over and hug him, but Katsuki wasn't like him. Touch and affection had to be asked for, not given. "You—" Katsuki cut off to clear his throat, and Izuku's heart (and soul, fuck) clenched with fondness for this emotionally constipated jackass. "You really feel that way?"

"Honest communication, remember?" Izuku smiled. "I don't lie to you. Never to you."

"I don't understand you," Katsuki gritted his teeth, frustrated. He dropped his elbows to his knees and his head into his hands. "It can't be that simple, Deku."

"It is for me. Especially when it's you," Izuku replied. But then his expression darkened, mouth forming a scowl. "Although, it kinda pisses me off that it doesn't seem to go both ways. And you kinda reneged on the choice thing."

Katsuki looked up, confused. Izuku tried not to flinch at the watery eyes that were on the brink of spilling tears. "The hell are you talking about?"

"You didn't tell me about any of this. You didn't tell me what they'd done. You were gonna let me prance around with them like a fucking idiot without knowing what they did to the people I love when they thought they were gonna lose me."

"I wanted everything to go back to normal. I spent so much time fucking up any chance you had at having good fucking friends in middle school, I didn't want a few shitty decisions and hurt feelings to get in the way of your friend group."

"And that is why I said you're a fucking idiot," Izuku snapped.

"I'm an idiot for wanting you to have nice things?" Katsuki demanded, now actually crying, overwhelmed and frustrated. "Tell me where I went wrong, Deku, because I was trying to do a nice thing for once—

"You took care of me and my mom and your parents and anyone in the class who would let you. You pushed how you were feeling aside and became the backbone. And you thought that when I got back, I'd want to associate with people who made that harder for you? Who passed judgment on our relationship when they don't know jack shit about it? We've had our rough spots, Katsuki, but we are fucking infinite. When push comes to shove, we have each other's backs and more than that—we've grown. Our relationship has healed and evolved over the last two years, and it's something I treasure. They refuse to understand it. They're trying to make decisions for me—trying to decide what's best for me without my input, and you know how I feel about shit like that. They didn't even bring it up with me, they brought it up with you! They tried to push you away for me without my knowledge or consent even though I fought to be at your side, and I'll never forgive them for it. In that video, you said "No matter how hard I was on him, he was always there. Right behind me, reminding me what a hero really is. Reminding me how to be a good person. Pulling me back when I go too far or pushing me forward when I fall behind for my entire life". It goes both ways, asshole." 

"Did you memorize what I said—"

"Of course I did, Kacchan. You said you loved me. I have watched that video at least five times a day since Tooru showed it to me. And you were right. Without you, it'll be so much worse than a phantom limb. You and I are different sides of the same coin—always together, no matter how much we oppose each other, and nearly useless when we're apart. Maybe that level of codependence is unhealthy, but it works for us. You're a comfort in a world that we've learned is unfathomably cruel—"

"When did you learn to give speeches like this, Jesus Christ—" Katsuki sniffed, hiding his face.

"And if you think people who want to take you away from me in any capacity is a "nice thing", we either need to work on your self-esteem or get you a very strong reality check."

"I'm sorry," Katsuki whined. Izuku froze.

"What?"

"I'm fuckin' sorry. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, and I'm sorry I'm so fuckin' bad at knowing what you're thinking when you can read me like a fuckin' kid's book, and I'm sorry for making that decision for you. I'm sorry for pushing you away and I'm sorry for being an idiot. I'm just sorry, okay? I'm sorry."

And the Izuku burst into tears. "Please let me hug you, please let me hug you—"

"Get the fuck over here, n-nerd," Katsuki snapped ineffectively, holding his arms open. Katsuki's bark had a lot less impact when he was crying too. Izuku sprang from his seat and crawled into Katsuki's arms.

They clung to each other until they'd both calmed down—and even then they only separated enough to maneuver each other back on the bed in what Izuku would describe as a cuddle, and what Katsuki would describe as a gross lump of affection.

"You gonna forgive them?" Katsuki asked quietly, face in Izuku's hair.

Izuku hummed. "Maybe," he replied. "But only if they earn it. I'm not so desperate for friends that I'll lose self-respect for it. My friendship with them was causing me more harm than happiness. It's okay to cut that cord if it's not good for me."

Katsuki felt the familiar tug of self-admonishment—but pushed it down. This was Izuku's choice, just like Katsuki was Izuku's choice. He wouldn't just respect it, he would treasure it.

"I can't believe you made a crater in the dorm wall—"

"That was Iida!"

"Because you threw him!"

"He deserved it!"

Katsuki's shoulders shook with laughter as Izuku giggled beside him and they both let themselves enjoy the relative peace.