Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku doesn’t really know what’s going on.

If anything, he’s a little bit shocked. For the matter, he knows it’s not exactly impossible for Kacchan, his recently-turned-boyfriend, to occasionally cook meals for their group of friends. However, at the same time, everyone knows how rare such an event is to happen. It usually only occurs on birthdays or special dates, and the “favor” is always, without exception, accompanied by a stream of very loud complaints and curses. Kacchan might not really mean them, but they’re always there.

Today, however… he’s silent. Eerily so.

Izuku is coming down to the common room after his daily duties are done, meaning to hang out with his boyfriend and his other friends for a little bit before it’s time to go to bed and rest for the following day. They have classes in the early morning and Izuku doesn’t exactly plan on falling behind just because he decided to go to sleep later than he should, like some of his other friends often tend to do.

Being in their third year as Class 3-A means they have a lot more responsibility, but still, it’s nothing that prevents them from seeing each other and hanging together from time to time – moderately, in Izuku’s opinion. Kacchan, his boyfriend – Izuku keeps repeating that monicker inside his head, because some days, he still can’t quite believe that’s true –, shares the same opinion, given how early he always leaves for bed.

Izuku chuckles to himself at the thought as he climbs down the stairs that lead to the common room. The image of Kacchan, grumpy because it’s past 8 p.m. and he’s feeling sleepy already, is endearing. Izuku is all in for going to bed at a reasonable time and getting proper rest, but as much as he loves Kacchan, even he must admit that 8 p.m. is way too early.

Izuku knows that, tonight, not everyone is there at the common room because of patrols and internships, but he also knows that Kacchan is, and that’s enough to make him giddy. He expects to find Kacchan yelling at Kirishima or having an argument with someone else from their class, like it happens often, and he can almost see it in his mind’s eye already, making him smile softly. Maybe he could even be fighting with Todoroki or something of that kind about who’s the best yet.

However, much to Izuku’s surprise, he arrives to find Kacchan quietly cooking some…

Pork stew? In the communal kitchen? In complete silence?

“Ka… cchan?” Izuku asks with an amused smile and a confused frown as he approaches. And then, with an equally amused giggle: “You’re cooking? What’s the occasion?”

Mina and Sero spawn in the kitchen before Kacchan can answer, holding used bowls in their hands. Izuku realizes they have already eaten and have come back for more.

“Blasty! Is round two ready yet?” Mina asks playfully.

“Your cooking’s so good I could keep coming back up to round 80!” Sero adds.

Kacchan doesn’t let out anything other than a barely hearable grunt. He keeps cooking in silence, not meeting any of their eyes, looking like…

Izuku realizes he can’t quite put his finger on the emotion in his boyfriend’s face.

“Come on, Bakugou!” Mina laments. “Why not be a sugar and give us some pork stewwwww?” She and Sero sing-song the last two words in unison, barely harmonizing.

Izuku notices something shifting in Kacchan’s eyes at the request, and he compliantly grabs the bowl from Mina’s hands before filling it with more of the stew, which is apparently ready. Then, he does the same to Sero’s, not a word of complaint or displeasure leaving his mouth.

“Yay! Keep on cooking, pretty boy!” Mina celebrates, rushing back to the common room with Sero in her heels, already stuffing the stew on their faces.

Izuku blinks at them for a moment, then turns back to his boyfriend. “Uh, is everything all right?” He continues to frown but gives Kacchan a confused smile. “It’s not really like you to cook unpromp–”

“Ay, Midoriya, my man!” Kirishima calls from the door that leads to the common room, making Izuku turn to look at him. “Come over here for a sec, we wanted to ask you about your patrol from today!”

Izuku stammers. “I’ll – I’ll be right there!”

“Blasty likes to cook alone!” Mina screeches from somewhere at the common room couch. “Leave him to brood and come chat with us!”

Izuku knows she has a point, Kacchan does usually prefer to cook on his own, without people to get in his way or end up annoying him (more than he’s already usually annoyed). Plus, despite being unusually non-vocal about his displease in cooking for everyone today, he does seem like he could use some space.

Izuku ought to leave him to do what he wants to do. They can always talk later, in private, if something’s actually bothering Kacchan.

Their relationship is still brand-new, months in the making – they’ve been together for barely a year. Izuku doesn’t want to push Kacchan’s buttons, or to smother him with too many questions of What’s wrong? What’s bothering you? What’s up? Did I do something? He knows how volatile Kacchan’s temper is, and so he’s better off not annoying him further if he can prevent it.

“I’ll… leave you to do your cooking and be right there at the common room with everyone, ‘kay?” Izuku announces, dropping a kiss on Kacchan’s cheek. He makes as if to leave, but then he remembers something and turns back to his boyfriend. “Oh, by the way – If there’s any pork left by the time you’re done, you should totally make some katsudon!” He adds playfully, knowing well how much Kacchan teases him for enjoying that dish.

Kacchan blinks for a second, a flash of something appearing in his crimson eyes, and then…

He nods compliantly, without a word.

Izuku stares at him with an inquiring look for a second, before a choir of Midoriya!!! brings him back to reality with a surprised jolt. He turns on his heels and rushes to the common room, and Kacchan doesn’t try to stop him, so that must mean he really wants Izuku gone.

They’re all discussing their latest patrols when Izuku arrives, sharing everything about how their days went and what foes they have encountered – or not encountered, in the case of Izuku, Todoroki, and Uraraka.

“So, there was the guy, right, and I puff my chest out and say, ‘Give the lady her purse back or you’ll have to deal with the consequences’. And what does he do?”

“What?”

“What?!”

“He tries to clock me! Thankfully I have cat-like reflexes –”

“You don’t, though.”

“Uh, yes I do, and so I dodge the blow –”

“You dodged the blow because I was there with you, and I saw it coming, and I yelled ‘duck’!”

“That’s not true, I would’ve dodged anyway –”

“You totally wouldn’t!”

“I totally would’ve!”

“You totally wouldn’t –”

“Guys! Guys! We get it! What happened after that?”

“Oh, I just taped the guy up and took him into custody.”

“You forgot to mention the part when you said the super corny line.”

“Ugh, Kaminari, why do you hate me so much? Can we just skip to the next person’s patrol?”

“No. Repeat what you said to the lady.”

“I don’t wanna…”

“I’ll do it for you, then. He grabs the lady’s purse that had fallen to the floor, walks up to her – she’s shaking like a leaf after getting mugged and witnessing the whole arrest, of course – and Sero says… Sero says…” He starts cackling. “He says, he deadpans: ‘Consequence is my last name.’”

The room bursts into heartfelt laughter.

“Even the lady made a face! I swear to god, her reaction was priceless! She clearly wanted to thank him for getting her purse back, but how could she do that after hearing that phrase?”

“And what did she do?”

“Yeah, what did she do?”

“She grabbed the purse and left without a word, oh my god, it was so funny –”

“Shut up, man.”

“No offense to all of you, but I doubt anyone will have a better story today…”

Izuku is paying heavy attention at first and laughing a lot alongside his friends, having fun while listening with care and joy. At some point, when Iida starts telling the group his very thorough report of the events of his own patrol, Izuku even gives his own two cents about his story.

Eventually, however, it’s inevitable that Izuku’s mind starts to wander back toward Kacchan, like it always seems to do, especially after they’ve started dating. And he simply can’t shake off Kacchan’s odd behavior from the kitchen.

He hasn’t offered the group one single grumpy comment so far, even if it’s from afar and if he’s busy in the kitchen, about how meaningless his own patrol was or how pointless it is to comment on patrols in the first place. He didn’t even mock Sero about his cheesy one-liner, which had wrung out laughter from everyone at the boy’s expense.

And well, granted, while Kacchan is definitely more of the loner type when it comes to cooking, and while he usually prefers solitude at most times – he’s always ready to chime in with a teasing remark or a grumpy complaint when he witnesses his friends being silly. But today, he’s just – silent. It’s just plain weird, sepulchral silence. Izuku can’t help but to think there’s something off, and he’s never been the type to stand aside and turn a blind eye to people who need his help.

Not that Kacchan needs his help, or any help in the first place. Izuku’s just frustrated that he can’t seem to help, that’s all. If he could, Kacchan would have said something in the kitchen, wouldn’t he? But again, Kacchan’s never been the type to ask for help – he usually despises it and those who offer it to him, no matter how much he’s grown ever since the War. Thus, Izuku is rendered incapable of coming up with a possible solution for what’s wrong – what might be wrong, what could be wrong, he doesn’t know, he doesn’t know.

Almost a whole hour of overthinking pass for Izuku. He’s still listening to his friends’ stories and even laughing and smiling a bit, dropping some short comments here and there, but his heart is no longer in the conversation. He wants to talk to Kacchan and figure out what’s going on. He can’t take the mystery and the frustration anymore. This isn’t like him at all.

After pondering, for a while, about the pros and cons of offering Kacchan his help or just someone to vent to, Izuku decides he’d better do something already. He’s about to stand up from the couch and head straight to the kitchen under the ruse of getting something to drink just to throw his friends off his scent when Kacchan appears in the living room with a bowl in his hands. Izuku freezes on the spot, not sure if he should still sit up or keep sitting down.

Everyone stops talking as soon as Kacchan appears, staring at him. The lively common room goes dead silent and gulps as Kacchan stands there by the door. His eyes are downcast and blank, not at all angry like they usually are, which is a telltale sign that something’s wrong. Izuku frowns, worried, and decides that yeah, he should probably stand up.

“Kacchan –” He tries to start, but Kacchan crosses the distance between them with few large steps and hands the bowl over to Izuku.

“Here. Katsudon,” he says simply.

Then he turns around and basically dashes out of the room.

A few seconds pass in complete silence. Then, the room bursts back to life with noise and several overlapping conversations.

“Aw, that was so sweet!”

“A bit uncanny.”

“Midoriya gets a special dish!”

“Of course he does, they’re boy-friends!”

“Where did Blasty go?”

“He likes to sleep early, remember? We kept him busy cooking and now he’s probably too grumpy to interact!”

“He’s always too grumpy to interact!”

“You have a point there.”

Izuku stares down at the bowl. It looks perfect and delicious, just like everything Kacchan cooks and does, but something still feels a bit off about all this. This isn’t like him. He didn’t even tease Izuku as he handed him the bowl.

Worrying at his lower lip, Izuku makes a choice.

“Hey, guys, I think I’ll have this in my room, actually. I’m feeling worn out,” he announces, only half a lie, not really meeting anybody’s eyes. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow at class?”

“Ay, Midoriya!” His friends cheer. They start telling him goodbye all at the same time, some tapping his back, some telling him to enjoy his katsudon, some teasing him about Bakugou showing favoritism toward him. Izuku smiles through it all and waves his friends goodbye as he heads to the stairs with something nagging in his brain.

Here. Katsudon.

Something’s off. Something’s off. He has a bad feeling in his gut. It’s not quite the embers of Danger Sense or anything, but it’s a bad feeling all the same.

He blinks and finds himself standing in front of the closed door of Kacchan’s dorm bedroom. He shifts the still-fuming bowl of katsudon from both hands to just one and knocks on the door softly with his spare hand.

“Kacchan?” He calls in a low, gentle voice. “Is it okay if I come in? I wanted to talk to you.”

Silence. It’s unlikely that Kacchan has already fallen asleep given that no more than 10 minutes have passed since he left the common room, but Izuku wouldn’t doubt it. He really is an early sleeper.

“Kacchan, I just want to see if you’re okay. You seemed a bit off downstairs. Can I come in?” He insists, a bit worried.

Silence. Izuku stares down at the katsudon in his hands and sighs, immensely frustrated. He just wants to help.

“I really think you should open the door, Kacchan…” He ends up saying.

A beat.

Katsuki opens the door, already in his pajamas.

Izuku can’t help but to smile brightly. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Katsuki greets back in a hoarse voice, with a look on his face that Izuku can’t really understand.

He frowns. “Can I come in?”

Katsuki sighs, seeming very tired – and something else that Izuku can’t put his finger on. “Izuku… I…”

That’s enough of an answer. I won’t be a pushover in this relationship. “Ok, all right. I got it. I won’t bother you. I just wanted to check if you were okay. I was – I am worried about you.”

Katsuki stares at him with the hint of a frown between his eyebrows. “…Whatcha mean?”

“It’s just – You were overly quiet tonight, especially back at the kitchen,” Izuku explains with a forced smile. “Cooking for everyone, not saying a word of complaint about it…”

Katsuki swallows dry. “You could tell?”

Izuku’s frown deepens. “Tell what?”

Katsuki blinks, lowering his head with a blank look in his eyes. “It’s just – I mean – I don’t know how to explain. Everyone kept asking me for stuff, and when I realized, I was already doing them. Whatever people asked.”

“Whatever people asked?” Izuku blinks.

“Yeah,” Katsuki scratches the back of his neck, eyes averted. “But I didn’t think anyone would notice that I was – that there was something off. Even I took a while to wonder about what the hell I was doing.”

Izuku smiles. “Of course I noticed. I know you better than most, don’t I?”

Katsuki smiles too, meeting Izuku’s eyes. “Oi, don’t go bragging yourself over that.”

Izuku chuckles, glad to see that some of their banter seems to be coming back to normal. Maybe he’s just tired, is all. “It’s okay, Kacchan. Why don’t you sleep for a little bit? Get some rest. We can talk better in the –”

Morning, Izuku means to finish, but he never does. Because as soon as he finishes saying the phrase Why don’t you sleep for a little bit, Kacchan’s face drops and becomes completely blank again.

Then his eyes roll back into his head and he literally collapses like a puppet whose strings have been cut, falling face first on the floor without even attempting to protect his face. Izuku doesn’t even get a chance to try to grab him before his skull connects with the ground with a sharp snap!, staring with a gaping mouth and in complete horror at Kacchan’s unmoving body at his feet.

“Kacchan?! Kacchan!” He yells in despair then, placing the bowl of katsudon on the floor carefully as if not to spill it before turning his passed-out boyfriend to his side. His nose is bleeding, possibly having broken from the impact with the floor, two trails of red running down his lower lip and cheeks. He seems to be out cold, which makes Izuku despair more – he shakes him by the shoulder and taps his face, trying to rouse him, but it’s all for nothing. Kacchan stays unconscious.

He's so deeply passed out that he even seems to be… snoring?

Izuku doesn’t have the time to think about what that means. His boyfriend has just collapsed to the floor out of nowhere in front of him; it could have something to do with his heart condition or worse. Izuku doesn’t waste time, he doesn’t hesitate to grab him bridal-style and flee the dorm building at once, heading to Recovery Girl’s medical bay and ignoring the calls of a few friends who see him rush by with an unconscious Katsuki in his trembling arms.

🦢🤿

“A quirk.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“He was hit with a quirk that makes him – do whatever people tell him to do?”

“Almost. The command must be phrased as a suggestion. Orders or requests don’t work.”

Izuku blinks at Recovery Girl, stupefied. “And you know this how?”

Recovery Girl sighs. “The teen who hit him with the quirk by accident during his patrol earlier today got in touch with us a few moments ago. Aizawa was about to go after Bakugou-kun to try and mitigate the consequences when you came rushing in with the boy in your arms.”

Izuku turns to look at the sleeping face of Kacchan, who is tucked in neatly at one of Recovery Girl’s medbay cots. He looks peaceful sleeping like that, even if his nose is bruised and bandaged and the undersides of his eyes are a deep shade of purple – a result of breaking his nose after collapsing headfirst to the floor.

Because Izuku suggested it.

Guilt pools deep inside Izuku’s belly. He takes one of Kacchan’s hands into his own and caresses the back of it idly with his thumb, turning back to the elderly lady. “So, as long as people don’t suggest anything to him, he should be fine?”

“Yes,” Recovery Girl nods promptly. “The quirk effect should wear off in two, maybe three days at most. He’ll be fine after that, as long as he keeps out of trouble,” she points a trembling finger at the two of them. “Aizawa does have a point in calling you two his trouble kids…”

Izuku smiles softly at her, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. The guilt for what he did, even if it was an accident, even if he didn’t know, still leaves a sour taste in his mouth. “Right. I’ll tell everyone they should be careful around Kacchan in that meantime.”

“No need for that,” Recovery Girl stops him. “Aizawa has gathered everyone from your class in the dorm and is instructing them to behave as we speak.”

Izuku blinks. “Oh. O-Okay…” He hesitates. Then, biting his lower lip, he asks: “And do you have any idea when Kacchan might wake up?”

Recovery Girl quirks an eyebrow at him. “You tell me. I don’t know what you said to the boy to render him this deeply unconscious.”

Izuku blushes and stammers. “Ah, I – I didn’t know, I just thought he looked tired, and he was acting weird, so I said, ‘Why don’t you sleep for a bit?’ or – or something like that, I can’t really remember the precise words…”

Recovery Girl hums and nods. “In that case, he should wake up ‘in a bit’ too. I know it’s useless to try and make you get back to your dorm room while he’s here, boy, so please – try not to get into any more trouble while I’m gone, okay?”

“Y-You’re leaving?” Izuku’s eyes widen. “But what if he needs you when he wakes up?!”

Recovery Girl sighs tiredly. “Midoriya-kun. It’s just a broken nose. Nothing points to a concussion or anything severe that should cause more concern. Besides, I’ll be right in the next room writing the reports for today. You can call me if anything out of the ordinary happens. Stay away from suggesting things to him when he comes to and you both should be fine.”

Izuku hesitates but nods, turning back to Kacchan. “O-Okay. Thank you for healing his nose, Recovery Girl.”

“No need to thank me, it’s my duty,” she offers him a tired, elderly smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Izuku is left alone in the room with his unconscious boyfriend as Recovery Girl leaves slowly, the tap-tap-tap of her cane disappearing in the background. He keeps staring at Kacchan’s bruised face and feeling that everlasting sense of guilt, knowing that, if he hadn’t phrased his words the way he did, Kacchan wouldn’t be passed out with a broken nose.

Hell, he probably didn’t even want to make Izuku that katsudon, thinking back to it. Izuku had phrased the request as a suggestion, which meant Kacchan had no choice but to obey. This quirk feels wrong and invasive.

“I’m sorry, Kacchan, I really am,” Izuku says sadly, squeezing his boyfriend’s hand, even if Kacchan is sleeping deeply right now and can’t hear him. “I swear I’ll make it up to you. And I’ll also make sure that no one else makes you do things that you don’t want to. That’s a promise.”

Izuku’s phone had been buzzing nonstop for a while now, but he’d been too busy talking to Recovery Girl about Kacchan’s state to pay any attention to it. Now that he’s alone with the sleeping Kacchan, the buzzing is less ignorable.

Izuku grabs his phone with his free hand, never letting go of Kacchan’s other hand while he’s at it, and checks the source of the constant vibrating, which turns out to be his class’s group chat.

From: Mina Ashido

Omg! Is Blasty okay? @Izuku Midoriya please send news ASAP!

From: Mina Ashido

Aizawa sensei just told us about the quirk! We swear we didn’t know anything about it, we would have never taken advantage of it! Cross my heart!

From: Tenya Iida

@Izuku Midoriya Please send news as soon as you can. We are all deeply concerned about Bakugou-kun’s well-being after witnessing you taking him to the medical wing.

From: Ochako Uraraka

I hope he gets well soon! @Izuku Midoriya how is he faring up? Sending our best wishes!

From: Kaminari Denki

I feel bad for teasing him earlier now

From: Kaminari Denki

@Izuku Midoriya Tell him we’re sorry about what happened when you can

From: Hanta Sero

His cooking is so good tho it almost made up for it

From: Hanta Sero

Just kidding I feel bad too

Mina Ashido has removed Hanta Sero from the UA HEROES!! group chat

From: Mina Ashido

Don’t worry, guys, I’ll make sure he never says something like that again.

Izuku almost immediately receives a message on a private chat and opens it, finding it to be from Sero.

From: Hanta Sero

Sorry about what I said in the group chat. I was trying to be funny to diffuse the tension, but it was just stupid. I hope Bakugou feels better soon. Tell him Mina and I are sorry for making him cook against his will when he wakes up, okay?

Izuku locks his phone screen without replying to anyone – whether in private chats or in the group chat. He knows it’s not rational of him, but he’s… He’s a bit angry.

He has his own fair share of blame in this story – for making Kacchan cook katsudon and for making him pass out so hard he broke his nose from hitting his head on the floor, which is honestly the worst part of it all in his perspective. But still, he had noticed something was up. He had recognized Kacchan was behaving oddly, even if he didn’t quite know what was happening. He hadn’t spent the entire night making selfish suggestions and observing Kacchan obey helplessly, like a circus monkey, without catching the hint that something wasn’t right and – and –

Izuku takes a deep breath. Lets it out slowly.

He never gets all that rational when it comes to Kacchan’s well-being. Deep down, he knows his friends aren’t to blame – or, in the very least, they’re as much to blame as Izuku is. They all should have realized sooner, Izuku included. They all should have done something before Kacchan got hurt. Izuku’s no less guilty than they are in this whole situation. He also took advantage of Kacchan in his vulnerable state. He also has his own forgiveness to ask – beg – for.

But right now, Kacchan is still asleep, and Izuku can’t really do anything just yet other than wait and look out for him. He’ll probably be confused as hell when he regains consciousness, since, from what Recovery Girl said, he didn’t know about the quirk yet, either. Izuku can only imagine how confusing it must have been for him, hearing people’s suggestions and just obeying helplessly like a mindless puppet. Nothing like the fiery Kacchan he knows and loves at all.

Plus, he will also be in pain because of his nose, so Izuku needs to make sure to take care of him, even if Recovery Girl has left some painkillers for him to give Kacchan when he woke up. He needs to make sure to explain everything and, more than anything, to look out for Kacchan in the following days until the quirk effect wears off and he goes back to normal. So that no one tries to take advantage of him, knowingly or not knowingly. Izuku needs to protect him, even if Kacchan gets mad about it, even if he barks and yells that he doesn’t need protection from anyone. Izuku just can’t risk it.

He just can’t.

He grabs one of Kacchan’s limp hands and takes it to his lips, dropping a heartfelt kiss on the back of it. Then, he turns the hand and drops another kiss on the palm, which is usually so menacing and dangerous to get close to because of Kacchan’s quirk, but that no longer scares Izuku in the slightest. He knows Kacchan would never hurt him, and so he leads the palm to his face and cuddles it, holding it close to his cheek, making the unconscious Kacchan cup his face.

He’s going to wait there in the medical wing with him until he’s good to go back to the dorm, no matter how long it takes. And then, he’s going to take care of him.

That’s what boyfriends do, after all, right?

🦢🤿

“Eeh? What do you mean I can’t go patrolling today?” Katsuki yells. The bruising on his face makes him look less menacing than usual, though.

“Kacchan, please, calm down…” Izuku tries shyly, grabbing his hand, but Katsuki yanks it away from his grasp.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” He booms, pointing a finger at Izuku. Then, turning toward Aizawa, he continues: “I’ve already told you all I’m fucking fine –”

“You’ve been hit by a quirk,” Aizawa argues with a sigh, verging on impatience. “A quirk that can be extremely dangerous if it falls in the wrong hands.”

“All I have to do is not talk to anyone!” Katsuki barks. “Having an excuse to not interact is a plus!”

“Not talking to people doesn’t prevent people from talking to you,” Aizawa point out. “If someone in your patrol catches the hint you can’t say no to suggestions, things can and probably will take a downturn. You’re staying in the dorms for the next three days until the quirk’s effect wears off and that’s final. Be glad I didn’t ban you from attending classes in the first place, Bakugou.”

Katsuki fumes, nostrils flaring and hands tightened into fists. “But sensei –”

“I’m not wasting any more of my time arguing with you. You’ve been warned. Midoriya, I’m trusting you to keep an eye on him until this whole mess is over.”

“Y-Yes, sensei!” Izuku replies promptly.

He’s so eager to please that Katsuki thinks it’s almost impressive he didn’t downright salute the teacher, from the amount of ass-kissing that –

“Ah, Kacchan,” Izuku interrupts his thoughts as Aizawa spins on his heels and leaves the infirmary room. “Don’t be mad. Aizawa sensei is only worried about what’s best for you, and I am too –”

“I know what’s best for me,” Katsuki protests, annoyed. “I didn’t know that asshole from patrol had hit me with some – suggestion quirk, or I wouldn’t have gone down to the common room like I did. Now that I know what’s wrong, I don’t need anyone to look after me like I’m a toddler.”

“You’re not a toddler,” Izuku smiles softly at him. “You just need to be careful. For a few days, that’s all.”

Katsuki grunts and glares away from Izuku. “I know how to be careful on my own. I don’t need no babysitter.”

“I’m not a babysitter,” Izuku argues patiently. “I’m your boyfriend and I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t need people to be worried about me –”

“I’ll always worry about you! Even if I know you’re the strongest,” Izuku tries to soothe him with the praise, caressing the back of his hand with his thumb.

Katsuki doesn’t move away from the touch this time, but he continues to scowl. “I don’t want anyone to be worried, Izuku. I don’t want people to pity me –”

“No one pities you,” Izuku frowns.

“And I don’t want you to be all over my business just ‘cause I broke my nose!” Katsuki concludes. “I’m fine enough on my own.”

Izuku looks a bit hurt at this.  “Why do you want me to leave so badly? I thought you liked me being around you.”

Katsuki turns to face him, looking conflicted. “’Course I do. I just don’t like it when you get all overprotective of me, ‘s all.”

Izuku blinks. “Overprotective? When do I ever do that?”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “Ugh, literally all the time. If I as much as stub my toe, you act like you’re going to bring down your wrath on whatever table I happened to bump into.”

“That’s not true!” Izuku chuckles.

“Sure.”

“I just – I hate seeing you hurt,” Izuku admits, squeezing Katsuki’s hand that he’s holding. “Especially when I know I could have prevented it. Especially when I know that I was the one who caused you to be hurt,” he reaches forward and cups Katsuki’s face, thumb stroking his bruised cheek. “I’m sorry I suggested you should fall asleep. I’m sorry I got your nose broken. I’m sorry I –”

“Izuku,” Katsuki interrupts impatiently, grabbing the hand that Izuku’s using to cup his face and squeezing it into his own. “I don’t need you to be sorry for any of that. It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know. You don’t have to – repent for it or whatever it is you think you’ll be doing if you become some sort of security guard for me.”

“I don’t –”

“As long as I lay low and keep out of anyone’s businesses in the next days, I should be fine. The entire class already knows about this ridiculous situation. Despite being assholes, they’re my friends – I know they wouldn’t do anything to hurt me or – or humiliate me on purpose. I’m going to be fine. Stop worrying about me so much, it makes me feel weak,” he admits, averting his eyes.

Izuku purses his lips. “But I need to stay close to you,” he tries to explain. “I need to prevent something bad – something worse – from happening.”

“We’re at UA, idiot,” Katsuki huffs, meeting Izuku’s eyes again. “The worst thing that’s gonna happen is me ending up cooking for someone by accident again.”

Izuku makes a face. “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. Even if it’s just cooking.”

“And I won’t,” Katsuki vows. “Because now I know what’s going on, and I’ll take care.”

Izuku bites at his lower lip. “Still…” He tries. “Let me take care of you.”

Although caring, these words are definitely the wrong choice. “I don’t need to be taken care of,” Katsuki barks, flinching away from Izuku’s touch and facing away from him. “I’m not a damsel in distress.”

“I’m not saying you are!”

“Sure sounds like it!”

“I just care about you! Is that such a crime?”

“I can handle anything anyone throws my way!” Katsuki barks.

“I know! You’re the strongest person I know! Doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to worry about something bad happening! Quirks like this are usually unpredictable –”

“Ugh, you can be so insufferable when you want to, did you know that?”

A pause.

Izuku’s eyes poll with tears. “T-That’s mean, Kacchan.”

Katsuki has the decency to look a bit regretful upon Izuku’s reaction. “Look,” he sighs, a bit more patiently. “I’m just – I’m stressed out over what happened. Okay? I’m not a huge fan of being told what to do, you know that. Especially if I can’t say no to it. I just want you and Aizawa sensei and everyone to give me what little there’s left of my free will in these next days. It’s bad enough I can’t say no to suggestions, I want to be able to say no to something. D’ya understand?”

Izuku lowers his head. “I understand. But Kacchan –”

“I’ll lay low,” Katsuki promises. “I’ll stay in my business. I won’t – go around doing stupid shit. I promise. ‘kay? I just – I need some fucking privacy, Izuku. That’s all I’m asking. You know I love you to hell and back, but I can’t have you breathing on my neck 24-7 these next days, or I might actually go off the deep end. You get way too overprotective for my liking when there’s something wrong, and it gets me antsy. Makes me feel humiliated ‘n shit.”

Izuku sniffs and glances away. “I never meant to make you feel that way.”

“I know. I’m not saying we can’t hang out and spend time together, either. All I’m saying –”

“I – understand. You need some time.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki nods, offering Izuku a small smile. “I just don’t want to make this an even bigger deal than it’s already become. But you can stick around. I want you to be around. Just don’t – I mean, try not to crowd me, or I’ll end up lashing out like a rabid dog. Yeah?”

Izuku returns the small smile, although he still seems a bit uncertain. “Yeah. That’s a deal. I won’t crowd you. Promise.”

“Good,” Katsuki nods. “Now, when can I get the hell outta this shithole?”

“Kacchan…” Izuku shakes his head in reprimand. “Don’t call Recovery Girl’s infirmary that…”

“Go call the old hag so she can clear me outta here,” Katsuki demands, crossing his arms above his chest, face grumpy. “I want to go back to my room.”

Izuku stands up from the visitor’s chair he had taken and moved beside Katsuki’s infirmary cot. “Right. I’ll go call her so she can check on you and give you clearance to leave. S-Stay here.”

“Not like I can go anywhere without the clearance, anyway” Katsuki scoffs. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Be right back,” Izuku smiles and drops a kiss on the back of Katsuki’s hand before basically rushing out of the room in search for Recovery Girl. Katsuki is left on his own.

It takes him a huge amount of self-control not to get up on his own and rush out of the room and back to his dorm bedroom before he gets the chance to be examined by the old lady while being scrutinized by his boyfriend. Katsuki hates this whole situation so much.

He hadn’t even known something was wrong until he started taking orders from his friends like a loser back in the dorm common room. When he had bumped into that kid on his patrol earlier, he hadn’t expected him to have a significant quirk, or that it had been activated at that moment. He didn’t feel any different or like there was something wrong. He felt absolutely normal. As normal as always.

The scariest part for him is that when his friends unknowingly made suggestions – suggestions that he couldn’t help but to obey –, he didn’t feel revolted or repulsed by complying. In his idle mind, it had felt like he wanted to do those things that people asked of him – he had felt like had wanted to cook for Mina and Sero and the others, and like he had wanted to make Izuku some katsudon. That’s the part that makes him most worried.

Not that he’s going to tell anyone about that or something. But as he sits alone in Recovery Girl’s infirmary, he can’t help but to wonder what would happen if someone sinister learned about his current vulnerability – if someone ill-intended gave him an irresistible suggestion that his brain interpreted as his own will. Maybe it’s for the best that he doesn’t go patrolling, after all.

He doesn’t want to have to rely on Izuku’s protection – as much as he loves his boyfriend with all his heart, he still has a huge sense of pride to attest to. Katsuki trusts himself to take care and keep out of trouble, at least for a few days, but still, he can’t shake that uneasy feeling that something might end up going wrong, no matter how careful he is. This quirk is dangerous. This quirk is messed up.

Izuku suddenly comes back into the room accompanied by Recovery Girl, who examines Katsuki quickly and clears him off from the infirmary with a wave of her cane. Izuku looks, the whole time, like he’s trying his best not to offer Katsuki help as he gets up from the bed and walks off the medical wing. On their way back to the dorm, they walk side by side, hands bumping against each other’s until their fingers intertwine.

“I felt so terrible,” Izuku admits, head hanging low, biting his lower lip. The sun is still rising on the horizon, the day is clear and chilly. He squeezes Katsuki’s hand into his own. “When you went limp like that and passed out just because of what I said, I…”

“It wasn’t your fault. Stop beating yourself over it,” Katsuki interrupts. Then, a bit more honestly, he repeats: “Makes me feel weak.”

Izuku shrinks into himself. “I know. I’m sorry – I don’t want you to feel like that. I just – It’s important to me that you know I care. That I didn’t do it on purpose. That I – I am sorry.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “I know all that, idiot. I know you. You’d never do something like that on purpose.”

Izuku smiles a little, even if it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m still sorry, though.”

“Yeah, you keep repeating that. I know, Izuku. But it’s just a stupid quirk. It’ll wear off soon, nothing bad will happen, and you have nothing to feel sorry about. Okay?”

“O-Okay,” Izuku nods. “How about we head back and watch some TV at your room before we have to go to class, then?”

Katsuki’s face goes blank at the suggestion, and he stops on his feet, hand letting go of Izuku’s. Izuku turns to look at him with a question in his eyes, but then he spots the blank look and realizes that he’s phrased the damn question like a suggestion.

“Sure,” Katsuki says emotionlessly, and Izuku starts waving his arms desperately at him.

“No, no, I’m sorry! Crap, I didn’t mean to do that! We can do whatever you want, okay, Kacchan?”

“Head back and watch TV,” Katsuki blinks. “I want that.”

Izuku gulps. He needs to free Kacchan of his accidental suggestion, and he needs to do it now. The only way he thinks of doing that is to use another suggestion to cancel the first one out, but he’s not sure it’s going to work. “How about you ignore my last suggestion, and we do whatever it is you truly want to do now?”

Katsuki blinks for a second before the focus returns to his eyes. He looks at Izuku as if he’s just woken up from a trance. “Huh?”

“I’m s-sorry,” Izuku says, tears in his frantic eyes. “I – I accidentally – I made a suggestion to you without really thinking about it – I’m sorry, I’m so sorry –”

“What did you say?” Katsuki frowns. “I don’t remember.”

“I told you – oh, god, how do I phrase it?” Izuku’s nervous. “I told you that I thought we should go watch TV in your room before classes start, and your face went all blank and you were like ‘yeah’, and then when I realized the quirk had kicked in, I suggested you should forget about it and do whatever it is you truly want to do.”

Katsuki frowns. “I don’t remember shit. That’s… creepy,” he comments, seeming embarrassed.

“Probably because I – suggested you should forget…” Izuku’s eyes widen before they narrow with determination. “This quirk is too dangerous, Kacchan. You need to let me take care of you.”

Katsuki makes a face. “Not when you phrase it like that.”

“I need to make sure no one takes advantage of you – not even by accident –”

“Look,” Katsuki breathes out impatiently, resigned. “Let’s talk to Aizawa sensei and ask for me to be dismissed from class for the next days until this shitty quirk wears off. That way I’ll run into less people who might set it off by accident, and you can record classes and bring annotations to me. It’s not fucking optimal, not gonna lie, but this whole interaction right now creeped me out enough that I’m willing to play it safe. Okay?”

Izuku seems relieved at this, and he nods. “Okay. Okay, Kacchan – I’ll do everything you asked.”

“Good. Now can we go back to the dorms already? I want to lie down for a bit.”

Izuku frowns. It’s not like Kacchan to just lie around – it’s early morning. “You feeling okay?” Izuku asks.

“Yeah. Just tired of this whole shit. I wanna get some proper rest before I go do some work out in peace. Sleeping at the old lady’s infirmary doesn’t count for much real rest.”

Izuku continues to frown, but nods. “O-Okay… I’ll walk you back to the dorms. Then I’ll go find Aizawa sensei for you and ask him to dismiss you for the following days. I’ll explain what happened right now.”

Katsuki sighs. “Thanks. But there’s no sense in you walking me to the dorms just to come all the way back to talk to Aizawa sensei. Just go find him already, I’ll be fine going back on my own.”

Izuku hesitates. “Kacchan…”

“Izuku, I said I’ll be fine. All I gotta do is walk up to the dorm building. Any idiot can do that on their own. Nothing bad’s gonna happen if you’re not around for five minutes.”

Izuku worries at his lower lip. “I’m not so sure.”

Katsuki squints, offended. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I trust you. I don’t trust others. I barely trust myself around you right now.”

Katsuki sighs. “Just go find that damn homeroom teacher. I promise I won’t talk to anyone until I reach my room. All right?”

Izuku stammers in hesitancy. “Ah… Promise you’ll call me when you get there?”

Katsuki sighs impatiently and makes a face. “Izuku…”

“What?! Being overly cautious in a situation like this isn’t bad!”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. “Fine, if that’ll ease your nerd mind, I’ll call you when I get there. Happy?”

Izuku smiles softly, but the worried edge is still there. “Y-Yeah.”

“Then off you go,” Katsuki tells him, takes a peck at his lips. “See you in a bit.”

“See you!” Izuku smiles before turning and heading in the opposite direction. “Take care, Kacchan! Remember, don’t talk to anyone!” He shouts over his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Katsuki nods, before shoving his hands into his pockets and walking toward the dorm building.

Little did he know that, in little to no time, he would regret ever having Izuku leave his side.

🦢🤿

The walk back to the dorms is uneventful, since all his friends must be busy getting ready for class.  Katsuki doesn’t meet anyone on his way to his room, the corridors are all empty, and he’s secretly grateful for that. Although he has no issues ignoring people when he really wants to, and although his class has been thoroughly warned about his current predicament, he wouldn’t want anything troublesome to end up happening – especially after what just went down with Izuku’s accidental suggestion.

That freaked Katsuki out more than he had expected. Well, he hadn’t expected that being brainwashed into complying with whatever suggestion appeared in his way wouldn’t freak him out, but the fact that he had forgotten everything just because Izuku had told him to do so… that was creepy. It made a sense of unfamiliar unease crawl beneath his skin.

It’s not like he doesn’t trust Izuku. On the contrary, he trusts Izuku with his entire goddamn life. Katsuki knows the boy would never do something to purposefully hurt him or mind-control him, as proved by his stratospheric levels of guilt when he came to the realization that he had just suggested something to Katsuki and that he had obeyed against his will.

Still, Katsuki hates feeling helpless. He hates feeling cornered or afraid, like it seems to be the case right now. More than that, he refuses to be so. This is just a stupid quirk whose effect will wear off in little to no time, he has nothing to fear so long as he lays low. He won’t find himself hiding in his room like a damn coward because of this; he’s always had a huge sense of pride to attend to, and it won’t simply disappear now. No, Katsuki absolutely refuses to be the perfect victim for this, to do nothing just because of a stupid quirk incident.

Still, the memory – or rather, the lack thereof – of Izuku’s accidental suggestion makes him decide, just this once, to take it easy for once and stay in his room until this shitshow is finally over. Worse than being, accidentally, a perfect victim of a quirk incident, being purposefully made a clown of by someone with malicious intent seems a rather more gruesome outcome. He has no idea how many people already know about what happened, and he wouldn’t want to risk it by being reckless.

When he gets to his room, he shoots a text to Izuku instead of calling him, unlike he had promised – but with the same expected outcome. Then, he lies down on his bed as soon as he kicks his shoes off, feeling worn out. He hadn’t lied to Izuku – he was tired, and just the thought of having to speak on the phone felt exhausting. It seemed that quirk-induced sleep wasn’t as refreshing as proper, voluntary sleep, it was more like… a slumber. And if he had to spend the entire day stuck in his room, at least he could catch some rest while he was at it.

He planned on working out later that day – at his own room, like he usually did whenever he couldn’t go to the UA gym –, so it wouldn’t hurt to rest for a bit and restrengthen his energies before he did that… As much as his body was used to it, work-out sessions always left him tired and trembling, dripping sweat. No use starting one when he was already this tired, it would be fruitless and a waste of time.

So, he ends up dozing off on his bed, thinking about how his day will go once he has the energy to get up again. He’s also thinking about nothing at all, taken over by that pleasant empty mindedness that often accompanies the early stages of sleep and floating into blissful nothingness…

“Kacchan?” A whispered, soft voice calls him back to reality, and he blinks his eyes open. Izuku comes into focus in front of him, smiling gently but brow frowning in concern. “Everything okay?”

Katsuki sighs. “Told ya I was tired, ‘s all,”, he turns on his side and sits up on the bed. This shitty quirk is taking its toll on me. He rubs his eyes; he has no idea how long he dozed off for, but it couldn’t have been long, since Izuku is back already. “Did you talk to sensei?”

“Yes, I did” Izuku nods. “I explained what happened and voiced our concerns. He says it’s okay for you to stay here and skip classes until the quirk’s effect wears off. He told me he’ll pay you a visit tonight to see how you’re faring up.”

That angers Katsuki, despite himself. He hates being babied, it makes him feel looked down on. “I don’t need –”

“I know you don’t,” Izuku interrupts before he can continue, raising a hand of peace at him. “But he’s our teacher and he’s responsible for your wellbeing while you live here at UA, Kacchan. Plus, I think he just wants to give you some annotations from the classes you’ll end up missing.”

Katsuki feels a blush of humiliation rising to his face. “I hate this,” he admits in a half-whispered voice, allowing himself to be surprisingly vulnerable in front of the only person he now trusts not to mock him for it. “Being stuck here, falling behind –”

“You’re not falling behind,” Izuku smiles, finding the statement a bit exaggeratedly humorous. He rubs Katsuki’s arm. “You’re just taking a much needed break, and you’ll be back as soon as you can. It’s for your own safety.”

“I should’ve been stronger,” Katsuki complains, even if it’s a bit half-hearted. “I should have seen something was wrong with the guy who set off his quirk on me. I should have – I should –”

“You couldn’t have known,” Izuku comforts him. “It’s okay, Kacchan. Everything will be okay soon. Cross my heart.”

Katsuki sighs, deflates. He lacks the energy to continue explaining his concerns to an Izuku who will only attempt to comfort him; he lacks the proper energy to argue with his boyfriend as he normally would. Instead of doing either of those things, he simply allows himself to fall back down on the bed, resting with his back now turned to Izuku.

“Kacchan?” Izuku asks, concerned and confused.

“I’ll get some more sleep,” Katsuki announces, voice flat of any emotion. “Then I’ll work out and study and, I don’t know, find something else to do with my fucking time for the rest of these three shitty days,” he adds, now annoyed.

Izuku hesitates, but he nods. “I – I’ll have to head back. Okay? Aizawa sensei didn’t dismiss me, and I have afternoon classes and patrol as well. But I’ll bring you lunch?” He offers softly, with a tentative shrug.

“No need,” Katsuki huffs, waving a hand. “There’s still some left-over food from yesterday downstairs. It’s enough for lunch, I think.”

“Oh,” Izuku blinks.

I don’t want to be a pushover; I can’t be a pushover, Izuku thinks. If Kacchan said no to lunch together, I’ll give him some space. He sounds like he needs it.

“A-All right. I’ll come back as soon as I’m done with my patrol, okay?”

“Okay,” Katsuki sighs, already sleepy again.

Izuku looks at him with more concern flooding his eyes – but it flies right above Katsuki’s head. After a few seconds of just gazing lovingly and worriedly upon his boyfriend, Izuku stands up, drops a kiss on Katsuki’s temple, and leaves the room, allowing Katsuki to get his clearly needed rest.

Katsuki falls back asleep in a matter of minutes, which isn’t really surprising – he’s never had a hard time falling asleep before. He doesn’t really dream of anything, mind peacefully empty like a blank canvas.

And when he wakes back up, the sun is setting on the horizon and painting the room orange.

He feels like he’s been run over by a truck.

He realizes with shock and even more annoyance that he has slept the day away. Didn’t work out, didn’t study, didn’t catch up with that manga he had starting reading after Kirishima’s recommendation. Didn’t do any fucking thing. All he did was lie in bed all day, useless, and do absolutely nothing.

God, he feels so tired. Not only that, but at the thought of it, his stomach rumbles, since he didn’t go downstairs to have lunch like he had told Izuku he would do.

Katsuki sighs and forces himself to get up from the bed.

It’s quite probable that none of the assholes who share a dorm with him are back from their afternoon classes and patrols just yet, which means Katsuki feels a bit more confident about going downstairs and grabbing himself something to eat. He feels hungry and tired, but now that he’s gotten up, he also feels a little bit more energetic than before.

He has his suspicions that his “night of sleep” at Recovery Girl’s infirmary didn’t really count as real sleep, since he had been brainwashed into doing it. That’s probably why he still feels so worn out and exhausted – at the end of the day, his body probably thinks it had spent the entire night awake.

Katsuki changes into some fresh clothes and puts his shoes on before leaving his room. In his haste to get some food – the uncomfortable rumbling in his stomach is growing increasingly –, he forgets his phone at his nightstand – and with it, the several unread messages and missed calls from Izuku asking about his current state.

Much to Katsuki’s surprise and disappointment, though, when he gets to the common kitchen and checks the fridge for his lunch-turned-dinner that he means to heat up, he finds that the pork stew and the katsudon he had cooked the night prior are… gone. There’s a high chance one of his friends ate the rest of those last night, and now Katsuki’s been rendered foodless thanks to the biblical level of greed of those assholes.

He considers cooking himself something for a second, but that would take time and effort that he doesn’t have, added to the fact that he’s spent over 24 hours without eating anything – in his haste to get back to his room that morning, he had skipped breakfast too, and that’s not healthy for his body or his physical shape.

Katsuki looks around at the empty dorm, faint memories of laughter and yelling echoing in his brain, and decides that, yeah, not only that, but he’s also done cooking for a while after his experience from last night.

He still needs to eat, though, and his stomach’s protests are only growing. So, he does the one thing he can currently do.

He spins on his heels and heads to the UA cafeteria.

Everyone’s at either their classes or their patrols, right? Everyone is gone, the place should be empty. Even if there are a few random people there, they won’t be anyone Katsuki knows, thus they’ll have no reason to talk to him or suggest anything to him. Katsuki should be fine.

Katsuki will be fine.

He can do this. He’s a grown man, almost a proper adult; he can handle walking to and back from the cafeteria. It’s not a big deal. He’ll grab some food in a takeout bag and come back to the dorm ASAP.

The walk to the cafeteria, just like his earlier walk back from Recovery Girl’s infirmary, is uneventful. But he arrives there and immediately spots the blond asshole from Class B, Monoma, which isn’t good – not because they hate each other; after War ended that became past them; but because they’re more-or-less sort of friends now, which means he’ll probably attempt talking to Katsuki in that teasing manner of his like he’s grown fond of doing ever since he saw Katsuki die and then recover in a hospital room for months.

Katsuki considers spinning right around and power walking back to the dorm because he has a bad feeling in his gut, but he’s already come all this way and the smell of food coming from the kitchen makes his stomach scream. He supposes he’ll have to put his pride aside and tell Monoma about what’s happening before the idiot accidentally makes a suggestion they’ll both regret.

Praying for the mercy of being able to walk up to the buffet without being approached by Monoma is useless. As soon as Katsuki walks into the queue formed by a few students –

“My, my! If it isn’t the pride of Class A!” Monoma manifests beside him, teasing as always, intertwining his arm with Katsuki’s good one – he always seems mindful of the bad one, somehow - and accompanying him in the queue. “Shouldn’t you be patrolling right now? Slacking off, I see?”

Katsuki rolls his eyes and playfully shoves Monoma away. He decides to cut to the chase, because like he said, they’re more-or-less sort of friends now, and flashes of his earlier interaction with Izuku appear in his brain. He doesn’t want anything like that to happen again, even if Monoma wouldn’t be to blame, since he doesn’t know about what’s happening yet. “Got hit by a shitty quirk. Better not to talk to me at all or else I might do something stupid. Also, right back atcha. Shouldn’t you be patrolling right now?” He quirks an eyebrow.

“That’s not important right now – What do you mean the mighty Bakugou got hit by a quirk? When did that happen?” Monoma exaggeratedly raises his eyebrows.

Katsuki sighs, grabbing himself a paper bag and a take-out container to put the food in. The lunch lady starts serving him, Monoma next. “Doesn’t matter. Just keep the hell away from making suggestions to me and it should be fine.”

Monoma looks genuinely shocked. “You got hit by a suggestion quirk?” He leans in and asks in a half-whisper, as if he doesn’t want to catch anyone else’s attention. Oddly wise, coming from him.

“You fucking heard me,” Katsuki huffs. “Now get outta my business. I can’t be around for too long; I need to head back to my room and wait for the shitty effects to wear off.”

Monoma stays near him as Katsuki starts to pack his food into the paper bag so that he can take it back to his dorm. “And how come your guarding dog isn’t around to protect you when you’ve been hit by such a dangerous quirk?” Monoma asks.

The playful tone is lost to Katsuki. Monoma had always known precisely how to push his buttons, and it seems he won’t be so forgiving with this annoying behavior just because Katsuki happened to be hit by a dangerous quirk.

(Katsuki would be grateful for the normal treatment – rather than being treated like porcelain – at any other occasion, if only Monoma hadn’t brought Izuku into this.)

“He’s not my guarding dog, and I don’t fucking need anyone’s protection,” he barks, now genuinely angry. “I’m fine enough on my own,” he adds with a grunt.

Monoma smirks. “Ah, I see. He probably doesn’t know you came here, all exposed, to grab dinner by yourself, then.”

“Shut the hell up, Copycat,” Katsuki snarls, losing his temper for real. “Stop testing your luck. I’m already in a shitty enough of a mood.”

“All right, all right,” Monoma’s tone is still teasing, but he gives in quickly – something that definitely wouldn’t have happened in the past, before their dynamics changed. “Take your dinner and head back, then. Don’t let –”

Whatever he is about to say next is cut off by a huge man bumping into him – from what it seems, purposefully. Monoma gets hit so hard that his tray of food flies from his hands and falls to the floor, spilling everything beyond salvation. Monoma loses balance and he too falls to the floor on his butt.

“Hey!” He shouts in protest, turning to face the person who did this.

He’s a first-year student, from what it seems. Katsuki’s seen him around sometimes, being pushy and rude to other people – even his senpais –, but he had never tried anything against Katsuki or any of his friends, or else he wouldn’t have heard the end of it.

“Watch where you go,” the student tells them, scoffing in disdain. Then, he looks at Monoma’s spilled dinner and adds in a mocking voice: “Clean that up while you’re at it.”

Katsuki fumes. Despite his regrettable past, he has grown to fucking despise bullies. He feels second-hand embarrassment for this kid, who, despite his young age, already has the body and the shape of a middle-aged pro-wrestler. He probably thinks his size will automatically make him win any sort of dispute, which is ridiculous mentality. Katsuki feels the need to put him in his place.

“Don’t,” Monoma senses Katsuki’s about to step in, probably by his posture, and gets up in a haste, grabbing him by the good arm. “I can handle this.” Then, he turns to the kid, who’s still walking away, and yells: “You clean that up, rookie. Preferably with that filthy tongue in your mouth.”

The cafeteria is mostly empty, but some of the few people who are watching the confrontation make “ooh” sounds in low voices.

The younger-yet-huge student stops walking, turning back slowly to face Monoma. “What did you just say to me?”

“What, just got into UA and you already think you’re the greatest, huh?” Monoma quirks an eyebrow at him. “You still have a long way to go before you can even think of calling yourself my equal. Show some respect for your elders – be a good boy and clean after your own mess.”

The kid growls and starts marching up towards Monoma, hands tightening into fists and knuckles cracking. Monoma stands his ground, unafraid, and so does Katsuki, silently by his side.

“What are you going to do? Punch me in the face and get yourself expelled from your dream school before your first semester even ends?” Monoma teases in that annoying way only he can manage.

The kid continues to growl – evident anger issues here, Katsuki thinks. “Might as well, loser. Getting you to shut your clever mouth is worth having to attend another hero school.”

Katsuki knows he should keep to himself, or else things might escalate too quickly – he’s not the most patient person in the world, and he’s aware of how susceptible he is to provocations. He manages to keep quiet, but he’s ready to jump in and defend Monoma if needed. That’ until –

“You try it, rookie,” Monoma scoffs with disdain. “Let’s see where this ends.”

The first-year scowls. “All right, senpai,” the world is spoken with evident scorn. “Me vs. you. See where you’ll end up without your rabid boyfriend here to stand by your side and defend you.”

Katsuki blinks, frowns, and squints in confusion, whereas Monoma’s eyes widen. Everyone in UA – hell, everyone in Japan – probably knows that Katsuki’s dating Izuku, so to hear from this – clearly oblivious – guy that he’s dating Monoma, of all people… 

“What in the goddamn hell are you talking about?” Katsuki finally joins the argument, barking despite his best efforts to keep his mouth shut.

Monoma grabs his good arm tightly again, but Katsuki yanks himself away from his grasp and takes a menacing step forward towards the guy, who must be twice his size.

“Oh, my bad. Didn’t you know?” The guy says with fake sympathy in his voice. “Everyone in Class 1 gossips about how you’re cuckolding Deku with this blond loser whose name I don’t even know, from the amount of time you seem to spend together. I saw the way he intertwined his arm with yours just now. That’s outrageous. Favoring a wannabe small fry over the guy who saved Japan from the Symbol of Fear? Who would be dumb enough to do that?”

Katsuki growls lowly in his throat, the risks involving his suggestion quirk completely forgotten. Him, cheating on Izuku? With Monoma? With anyone? And this whatshisname calling him dumb for allegedly doing something he would never, ever do? He’s about to lash out – rabid, like this guy had said.

Monoma grabs his good arm again, tighter this time. “Don’t fall for it, c’mon!” He whispers at Katsuki, but it’s fruitless.

It’s fruitless, because Katsuki doesn’t bother arguing. He doesn’t bother yelling, doesn’t bother defending himself. He straight up decks the guy, punching him in the face, his food bag falling forgotten to the ground.

The few people at the cafeteria start a small pandemonium. Monoma’s trying to pull Katsuki away from atop the guy, but he isn’t strong enough against the explosive boy’s resolve. Katsuki’s probably just letting out all his stress from the day into this whatshisname’s face, unable to accept the mere idea that anyone doubts his love and his eternal loyalty to his boyfriend. Katsuki isn’t a cheater. He would never be.

 Monoma finally manages to wring Katsuki, kicking and screaming, away from the guy, whose face is bloodied and already bruising at this point. They both struggle – Katsuki against Monoma; the guy against the floor as he tries to stand back up without aid – and it seems some people have rushed out to call a teacher or any sort of authority to deescalate the situation.

But it’s not enough before everything goes wrong.

“You fuck! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The huge first-year shouts, holding a hand to his nose, apparently pissed that someone half his size has managed to overtake him so easily. And that’s because he doesn’t even know that Katsuki hasn’t eaten anything in the last 24 hours.

“I could ask you the same, you piece of shit! Who do you think you are to say I’m cheating on my damn boyfriend?” He shouts back. “You don’t know shit about him, about me!”

“I know enough to say he deserves better than you!”

“Shut the fuck up, I’ll make you swallow your damn tongue –”

“Bakugou, let’s head back –” Monoma tries to pull him.

“You fucked up my nose, you son of a bitch!”

“You had it coming and you deserve worse!”

“Bakugou!”

“Fuck, I wish you’d die again! Piece of shit!” The kid yells in a surge of rage. “Why don’t you do me a favor and jump off the damn roof already? Spare me the trouble!”

Katsuki’s brain comes to a halt like a TV being turned off.

His face goes blank, his arms go limp, and he drops to the floor like a puppet whose strings got cut off. Monoma looks horrified at the words this guy has just said before he even has time to glance at Katsuki and realize that something’s wrong – that Katsuki’s suggestion quirk has just kicked in.

“Bakugou? Bakugou!” He calls desperately, but it’s to no avail.

Because Katsuki’s no longer there. Katsuki’s getting to his feet, turning around, walking away, and heading for the stairs.

The stairs that lead to the roof.

Monoma instantly realizes this is way above his metaphorical paycheck.

As he jogs after Katsuki, apprehensive, he grabs his phone and dials Izuku’s number out of sheer instinct and desperation. Then, while he waits for Izuku to pick up, he turns his head around and screams at the small crowd that has formed in the cafeteria:

“Someone get Eraserhead, quickly!”

He hopes one of the two arrives before an immensurable tragedy occurs.

🦢🤿

Izuku’s growing antsy.

Kacchan hasn’t answered any of his calls or replied to any of his texts ever since he’d left his room earlier to allow him to take his nap in peace. Izuku tried his best not to freak out in those first three hours, assuming Kacchan was only sleeping away the tiredness and the stress from the previous day, but as the clock approached 6 p.m. and his boyfriend was still MIA, he decided something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. It was a gut feeling.

He tries calling Kirishima, Todoroki, Sero, Kaminari, and even Iida, asking about Kacchan’s whereabouts and begging for them to check if he’s still in his room, but none of the friends give any conclusive answers. Some of them try knocking on Kacchan’s door and receive no answer, but they can’t tell whether that’s because he’s fast asleep inside or if it’s because he’s left on his own at some point. The door is locked as usual, so none of them can check.

Because of that, Izuku asks to be dismissed earlier from his patrol duties because of an unforeseen emergency, and he heads back to UA in haste, his leg bouncing up and down from anxiety during the entirety of his trek back inside the train. Once again, what he feels is not quite the embers of Danger Sense becoming active, but it’s a bad feeling of anxiety all the same.

However, just as he arrives at UA grounds, all the hairs in the back of his neck stand up and Izuku gets hit with a pain in his head so strong that it leaves him dizzy for a couple seconds. Definitely Danger Sense, oh god.

Grunting, Izuku blinks and tries to come back to his senses as he feels his phone start vibrating in his pocket.

For a split second, he hopes with all his heart that this is Kacchan calling, even if it’s bad news, even if it’s to uncharacteristically ask for some sort of help, but his heart sinks, making him frown, when he spots the real caller.

Izuku hits the accept call button and brings the device to his ear in a hurry. “Monoma-kun?” His voice comes off squeaky with fear, but he’s past beyond caring. “What’s wron–?”

He doesn’t get the chance to finish his question or to even voice his concerns regarding Kacchan before Monoma starts screaming in his ear, making him flinch. “Midoriya! I need you at the cafeteria rooftop right now! Drop everything you’re doing and get here, I mean it!” He sounds like he’s making some great physical effort as he yells the words at his phone, grunting and panting heavily.

Izuku feels faint, even though he knows he doesn’t get to be so right now – not while something bad’s about to happen. He starts jogging in the cafeteria’s direction. “It’s Kacchan, isn’t it? Did he go to the cafeteria alone? Did you suggest something to him?”

“Not me, some idiot first-year!” Monoma yells, sounding genuinely desperate like Izuku’s rarely ever heard him. Izuku subconsciously picks up his pace. “Bakugou, stop! You’ll fucking – You need to stop!”

There’s some wrestling and struggling noises at the other end of the line.

“I want this,” Izuku thinks he hears Kacchan say from the distance, in a very similar dreamy tone from that morning’s, when Izuku accidentally made that suggestion to him and he just accepted it as his own idea.

“You do not want this!” Monoma yells, desperate. Then, back to addressing Izuku: “Midoriya, just get the hell here already, the guy suggested to him that he should kill himsel–! Argh!” Monoma is interrupted by a loud explosion, and the line goes dead.

Izuku’s eyes widen so much they look like they’ll pop off their sockets. His phone drops from his now slack hand, screen cracking on the pavement below.

Screw jogging.

Izuku activates One For All without an ounce of hesitancy or care about burning through the embers too soon. He all but projectiles himself toward the cafeteria building like a freaking missile. He’s sure he’s left some cracks on the asphalt beneath the point on which he had been standing just now, but he couldn’t care less. All that’s on his mind is Kacchan. Kacchan. Kacchan.

Kacchan, who he spots as he approaches the cafeteria at a high speed.

Kacchan, who is closing his eyes, stepping forward, and throwing himself off the roof while Monoma writhes on the floor behind him.

Kacchan, who plummets to the floor like deadweight, heading toward his demise without as much as flailing his limbs or screaming in fear. As if he actually wants this.

Izuku doesn’t think he’s ever moved faster in his entire life, probably not even during his fight against Shigaraki – but it’s still not fast enough. He activates Gear Shift and reaches inhuman levels of speed right before his body violently collides with Katsuki’s own, grabbing him a few meters before he can hit the floor.

Izuku’s going so fast he can’t change trajectories or halt himself once he’s successfully slammed into Kacchan, who can only oof in pain and shock at the sudden collision. Momentum makes him and Kacchan continue moving forward horizontally, and they break through the wall of the building – Kacchan first –, crossing it like a bullet.

The best that Izuku manages to do is to half-cover the back of Kacchan’s head and neck with his hand as they launch their way into the building, trying to offer him whatever small protection he can from the whiplash. They fall, rolling and rolling and roll across the floor, until Izuku’s back hits a column that sends his body to a stop, Kacchan now on top of him. The duo ends up in the middle of the cafeteria covered in dust and debris, coughing in pain.

Everyone still in the cafeteria is also coughing as well from the amount of dust raised by the human missile that just broke through the wall and invaded the place. Izuku feels like the definition of a bruise; his limbs, mostly his back, ache all over from the impact of breaking through a wall. He can’t begin to imagine what Kacchan must feel like, given that his own back and head were the very things that broke through the wall upon the application of Izuku’s inhuman force.

Izuku’s hugging Kacchan close to his chest, clinging to him like a lifeline, and breathing hard, so hard, that he’s nearing hyperventilation. He’s so caught up in the thought that, had he arrived one second later, he would have found Kacchan dead and splayed over his own blood on the pavement, that he can’t breathe – and thus, he doesn’t realize Kacchan isn’t really moving.

“Is – he – alive –?” Monoma arrives at some point, panting, hands leaning on his knees tiredly as if he’d just run a marathon. Izuku glances up at him with fearful tears in his eyes – when did those begin? –, breathing heavily and shortly, really at the doors of hyperventilation at this point. He notices Monoma has an ugly burnt handprint on one side of his face, probably a courtesy of a mind-controlled Kacchan trying to break himself free to – to jump.

Izuku can just picture it, Monoma trying to hold him back from literally throwing himself to his death and Kacchan exploding his face for it. It’s a sight he’d never thought he’d think of in his life, and yet here he is.

Here he is.

“He’s – He’s –” Izuku hesitates, because he really doesn’t know how to answer Monoma’s question. Kacchan isn’t moving.

Despite his panic, and his inability to breathe properly, and the shakiness of his hands, Izuku tries to move Kacchan, gently nudging him away from the top of his chest where he’s nestled and laying him on his side on the floor. Kacchan’s body obeys mindlessly, limply, without ever putting up a fight, which is terribly unlike him.

Finally taking a proper look at Kacchan, Izuku realizes he seems to be catatonic, eyes open without seeing anything, lips slightly parted in what could have been a funny look of shock in his usually angry face, but that’s nowhere near funny now. The back of his head seems to be bleeding – of course, Izuku pushed him through the wall when he hit him, using Kacchan’s body to tear a hole into the building before twisting around and gathering him in his arms.

“Kacchan?” Izuku calls, despair and anguish evident in his voice. “C-Can you hear me? Kacchan?”

Katsuki’s lips tremble and move slightly as if trying to produce words. He frowns in confusion, and the word “concussed” crosses Izuku’s mind. Izuku really did hit him like a damn train. Kacchan stammers, blinking rapidly and face scrunching up, but he never once wrings a word out.

“What’s happening here?” A new booming voice suddenly emerges from somewhere behind the crumpled Izuku and Katsuki – Aizawa sensei, much to Izuku’s relief. Izuku turns to look at him, two perfectly clean tear-tracks evident amidst the dust and blood covering his face.

“S-Sensei,” he says, voice wobbly and breathless. “Sensei, help – Kacchan – Kacchan, he –”

“That guy over there told Bakugou to kill himself and made the suggestion quirk kick in!” Monoma immediately tells on the first-year, pointing at the student who was standing far off at the back of the now dust-covered cafeteria, looking shocked.

“I didn’t – I didn’t think he’d actually do it!” The guy tries to defend himself, voice sounding genuinely horrified.

Izuku gets up on wobbly feet, stumbling amidst all the debris and dust he had produced in his hurried entry. He’s sparkling green and white, looking like a mess, covered in blood and dust, and for a moment it’s like he could actually kill this guy with his bare hands.

“Midoriya –” Aizawa tries to warn a second too late. Izuku’s already used One For All once again to launch himself af the first-year, holding him by the bloodied collar of his shirt. They fall to the floor, the first-year on his back, Izuku on top of him.

“Give me one good reason not to smash your head in right now!” Izuku screams, growls, snarls, voice guttural and feral in a way that resembles Katsuki’s more than it resembles his own.

“I was – I was just defending you!” The Class 1 student tries, raising his hands above his chest in an attempt at peace, looking legitimately afraid. “I swear, he was – He was cheating on you with that blond guy!” He pointed at Monoma. “And I called him out for it, so he punched me –”

“He was what?” Izuku demands, outraged. “Kacchan would never cheat on anyone! How dare you accuse him of that?!” And he raises his fist to, indeed, smash the guy’s head in, but then all his power dissipates like sand slipping through his fingers and he can’t help but to topple forward weakly.

Izuku blinks in shock, thinking for a moment of dread that he might have overused the embers of One For All and burned through them forever in one go, but then he looks back over his shoulder and spots Aizawa sensei staring at him with a glowing red eye from the distance. As soon as Izuku lowers his hand and untightens his fist, Aizawa deactivates Erasure.

“Leave him for me to handle, Midoriya,” Aizawa says in a tone that might have sounded tired and indifferent to newbies, but that Izuku and his other students have grown to identify as menacing – completely menacing. “You and Monoma take Bakugou to Recovery Girl. Don’t let her discharge him until I’ve arrived there.”

“Sensei –” Izuku tries.

“Go. Now. The three of you need medical attention,” Aizawa barks, sounding worried but only to those who knew him well. “Argue with me over this and this first-year won’t be the only one getting expelled today.”

“Expelled? He was the one who punched me!” The first-year protests.

Izuku swallows dry and lets go of the guy’s collar. Without sparing the boy a second look, he spins on his heels and jogs, ignoring the pain that rattles over his body because of his movements, heading back over to where Kacchan is still on the floor.

He’s writhing now, as if trying and failing to sit up, splayed amongst the debris, confused and in pain. Monoma is by his side, holding one hand to his shoulder, but he takes a respectful step back once Izuku arrives.

“Kacchan,” Izuku calls softly, gently, a stark contrast to how feral his voice had sounded like just a moment before. He kneels down and cups Kacchan’s dust-covered face into one trembling hand. “Are you all right? Can you hear me?” He almost sobs.

Kacchan looks like he’s torn between still obeying the suggestion quirk and realizing the dreadful reality behind what he had almost done. “Izuku – I-Izuku –” He calls, distressed.

“I’m here,” Izuku takes one of his hands with his free one.

“I didn’t mean to – I don’t want to jump – Don’t let me take – a swan dive –” Katsuki swallows, breathing hard and fast. His eyes aren’t focusing on anything and they’re darting around the room madly, unable to pick one thing to look at the time. He’s starting to panic and to hyperventilate the more awareness comes back to him, Izuku realizes. “I didn’t mean to – But I gotta – I wanted to do it – I really wanted to do it – But I don’t want to die – Stop me – Don’t let me – K-Knock me out before I –”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Izuku comforts him, tears in his eyes and heart breaking upon seeing someone he loves and admires so much looking so out of it. “You’re all right. You’re all right. Everything is fine. I got here on time. It’s okay,” he continues to cup his face with one hand and starts running his fingers across Kacchan’s spiky, bloodied hair with another.

“No, it’s not!” Katsuki groans. “It’s not okay! I don’t need – I don’t want to – I don’t have to be saved, I don’t – I’m not some – I don’t – Please save me – I didn’t mean to jump – I didn’t mean to come here, I was just hungry – I fucked up – I fucked up – I fucked up –”

“Midoriya,” Monoma calls in a low, warning voice, noticing that the commotion around them is becoming bigger – and more people are beginning to witness Katsuki’s breakdown. “Let’s get him out of here already. He wouldn’t want people to see him like this.”

Izuku nods, swallowing dry. He squeezes Kacchan’s hand. “Kacchan. Is it okay if I pick you up?”

Katsuki’s eyes are wide, lost, unfocused, and confused as he stares into Izuku’s. “P-Pick me up?”

“We need to go see Recovery Girl,” Izuku explains patiently, in a low voice. “It’s faster if I fly us there. Okay?”

Katsuki frowns. “B-But the embers –”

“I don’t care about that right now,” Izuku admits. “I only want us to get out of here. Okay?”

“N-No,” Katsuki shakes his head, breaths coming in hard puffs. “I don’t wanna. I’ll walk.”

“Kacchan…” Izuku tries tiredly.

“Just suggest him into doing it so we can get out of here already!” Monoma half-whispers, frantic.

“I would never do that,” Izuku barks, offended at the possibility, snapping his head to glare deeply at Monoma. Then, he turns back at Kacchan, gentle again. “Kacchan. We can try to walk, but if you can’t, I’ll have to carry you. Okay?”

Katsuki frowns. Izuku finally notices his pupils are really uneven, displaying different sizes – it’s probable that the sheer speed and strength with which Izuku shoved him against the wall concussed him in a way that’s graver than it first looked.

“C-Carry me where?” Katsuki asks, instantly forgetting what Izuku had just told him.

“Recovery Girl, Bakugou,” Monoma explains, voice shaky with concern. “Don’t you want to get away from all these extras and just be somewhere more reserved?”

Katsuki looks around, noticing all the people staring at him for the first time. He turns back to Izuku, frowning.

“You’re – hurt?” He asks, and Izuku becomes hyperaware of the streak of blood that’s running down his face along with his tears.

“I’ll be just fine. Focus on yourself,” Izuku smiles gently, getting back to his feet and offering a hand for Katsuki to grab and hoist himself up.

Katsuki hesitates. “I – did this? Because I came to get food?”

“None of this was your fault, Kacchan,” Izuku promises. “It was an accident, but everything will be fine now if you come with me.”

“I don’t remember – anything –” Katsuki breathes out in horror, chokes on air, hyperventilates. “Why can’t I – remember?”

“Because Midoriya slammed you across a goddamn wall and you’re concussed outta your brains!” Monoma offers, verging on hysteria.

“Copycat?” Katsuki frowns, as if noticing Monoma there for the first time. “Wha’ happened? What’s –” His eyes meet his own handprint on Monoma’s cheek, and he frows in shock.

Then fresh blood starts to drip down his nostrils.

“Okay, this is bad,” Izuku says frantically, well-aware that concussions added to bleeding noses never meant anything good. His heart is beating so fast it feels like it’ll burst right out of his chest. “I’m getting you to Recovery Girl and that’s final.”

“I c-can w-walk –” Katsuki tries to argue again, but then Izuku hoists him to his feet by the hand he’s still holding, and the sudden shift in position makes Katsuki immediately go limp like a ragdoll. He loses consciousness and keels over.

Izuku catches him in his arms just in time for him not to fall again, and Monoma offers to pass one of Kacchan’s arms around his shoulder to help Izuku carry him, but Izuku shakes his head. He picks Kacchan up bridal-style instead and spins on his heels, rushing out of the destroyed cafeteria through the hole in the wall and floating away without a second word.

Monoma is forced to take the long way out and follows them suit by foot, never meeting any of the eyes of the other people still there, watching the scene. He even fails to spot the deathly glare Aizawa is directing toward the first-year, and the look of absolute terror that goes over the boy’s still bloodied, now ashen face.