Whumptober Masterlist

Whumptober Masterlist

This is my first masterlist, but let's see if I can pull it off haha

Bakugou "Doesn't Get Sick"- Katsuki's fine. He's totally fine, it's just too hot outside. and inside. It's nothing, his headache is from dealing with everyone's bullshit, and getting annoyed at Todoroki for being his assigned partner. He's fine.

Prompts 1, 2, 3, 7, 13, and 15- Swooning, Thermometer/Delirium, "Make it stop", "Can you hear me?", Cold Compress, and "I'm fine"

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I'm Fine (Don't Peek Behind the Curtain)- Honestly, Shinsou hasn't been in class 1A for long, but god, it seems like Bakugou has the biggest case of 'main character syndrome' he's ever seen. His entire personality is just being an asshole, and Shinsou is already tired of it. But when a villain makes Bakugou's internal pain show externally, Shinsou sees just how wrong he was.

Prompt 4, 6, 22, and 29- Shock, Made to Watch, Watch Out, and Troubled Past Resurfacing

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Lost in the Darkness- Katsuki is already having a seriously shitty day when the building he, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Uraraka is in collapses. From there, everything just gets worse and worse. He should've known better, he said "today couldn't get any worse", and he jinxed himself.

Also known as trying to keep the blindfold on Katsuki as long as possible ;)

Prompt 5, 9, 10, 17, 18, and 30- Pinned Down, You're A Liar, Stranded, Touch Aversion, Blindfold, and Bridal Carry

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Stricken- Trying to rescue Kaminari from his own dumbassery, Katsuki gets struck by lightning.

Prompts 8, 11. 16, 25, 27- All the Things I've Done, "All the light's gone out and my hope's destroyed", Chasing Cars, Storm, and Scars

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Never Shall We Die- Katsuki walks the plank to save his crew, willing to die so they don't. Waking up on a beach alive wasn't something he'd thought possible, and his rescuer is even more inexplicable.

Prompts 14, 21, 24, and 28- Water Inhalation, Restraints, Goodbye Note, Sacrifice

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shidekobushi- Katsuki has a stalker who gives him something she shouldn't

Prompt 19 and 23- Floral Bouquet and Stalking

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Friends Are The Best Obvious Solution- Katsuki hasn't been able to properly sleep for a while, having nightmares that leave him unable to get back to sleep until he has to get up again. The squad notices something's wrong, and decide that they're gonna help no matter what Katsuki says.

Prompts 12, 20, 26, and 31- Insomnia, Found Family, "Sometimes I Get So Tired, I Don't Know Myself", and "I thought I was getting better"

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Day 12, 20, 26, 31- Friends are the Best Obvious Solution

Prompts- Insomnia, Found Family, "Sometimes I Get so tired, I Don't Know Myself", and "I thought I was getting better"

Katsuki hasn't been able to properly sleep for a while, having nightmares that leave him unable to get back to sleep until he has to get up again. The squad notices something's wrong, and decide that they're gonna help no matter what Katsuki says.

ao3 link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/51255391

Katsuki couldn’t count the hours of sleep he’d lost in the past couple of weeks. He’d tried everything to help him sleep, all sorts of tea, white noise, melatonin, and even yoga and meditation. Nothing worked. Every day was becoming the same, go to bed at 8:30 like normal, fall asleep, have terrible nightmares, wake up terrified and shaking just past midnight, stare at the ceiling trying desperately to fall back asleep, fail, and then get up at five when his alarm goes off. He’d had this routine since getting to the dorms, it was very similar to his old routine except now he could train and shower instead of showering before getting on the train. He very much liked it, even with his friends calling him an old man for going to bed so early. He never cared about what they said anyways, they had shitty routines of their own, and he just laughed at them when they complained about being tired after going to bed at 2am. His routine was far superior, and let him get actual rest to be prepared for the next day.

Except now, he wasn’t getting any rest at all. He didn’t understand. The nightmares that had started after the sludge villain incident had died down, resurfacing with the USJ and Kamino, but they had died down again. Nothing violently traumatic had happened again, so the fact that they had come back with a vengeance made no sense. It had been months, he shouldn’t be having these nightmares! He’d moved on, everything was different now, and he should be fine!

But he wasn’t fine. Katsuki didn’t do well without sleep. Simple things that he’d never put any thought into, like taking notes or staying awake in class, had suddenly become very daunting tasks that he struggled with every day. It was even getting a little hard to read his own handwriting, though it was usually crisp and clear. At this point, it was only his pride that kept him from going to Recovery Girl or his family’s doctor for some sleeping medication. He was fucking Bakugou Katsuki, and he didn’t need fucking medication to do things he’s always done.

Though, his pride took a heavy blow in favor of the meds when he got his last math quiz back. Katsuki excelled in school, in all subjects, and it was rare that he’d get anything below a ninety-eight percent.

This one was a ninety . Shit.

“Hey, I did way better this time!” Kirishima said happily, shoving his seventy-eight in Katsui’s face. Through the fog of sleep deprivation, he was at least proud of his friend. Especially since he’d worked hard to get all that damn information into Kirishima’s head.

“Finally.” Katsuki muttered. “Bout time you started retaining the shit I teach you.”

Kirishima gave him an abashed but still ridiculously bright smile. “You know, I may learn better without you whacking me on the head all the time. What did you get?”

“Fuck off, that’s my business.” Katsuki said, immediately trying to shove it into his backpack. However, his behavior must have set off alarm bells in Kirishima’s mind, so his stupid fucking best friend tried looking even harder than his casual glace of before.

“Ninety?!?” “Shut up!” Katsuki hissed, his cheeks heating up without his consent.

“Dude I’ve never seen you get a score so low.” Kirishima’s voice was irritatingly worried, and Katsuki hated it. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, keep your nose out of my fucking business.”

“ Something’s wrong.” Kirishima pressed. “You’ve been off lately, like way off. I just thought maybe you were studying really hard but something’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Katsuki insisted.

“Come on, I’m your best friend, you can tell me.” Kirishima said, his eyes gratingly sincere.

“There’s nothing to tell.” Katsuki growled, and thankfully, class was over for the day now, and they could go home. Katsuki just quickly grabbed his stuff, and left, ignoring Kirishima’s urges to talk.

Thank fuck it was friday. Now it was time to stare at the ceiling for long past five am. At least he could still stay in bed however long he wanted to.

Katsuki just went straight to his dorm room, again ignoring all of Kirishima’s attempts to talk to him, and locked his door behind him. His bag thudded heavily to the floor, and he flopped down onto his bed, cradling his head in his hands. Gods, what he wouldn’t do to just sleep. 

His bed was comfortable, his room was the perfect temperature, he’d changed into comfortable sweats and an oversized t-shirt, and he didn’t have school tomorrow so he could sleep in as long as he wanted, and still he couldn’t sleep. Closing his eyes just left him in the dark, and trying to do stupid breathing exercises to calm his mind did nothing. Sleep eluded him like common sense eluded Deku, and Katsuki just lay in bed, wishing with all his might that he could sleep and not getting it.

A knock startled him out of his desperate attempts for sleep, and he just sighed. Impatiently, the knock sounded again.

“Kaaaccchhaann.” Kaminari whined from the other side of the door.  “We know you’re in there.”

“No shit I’m in here, it’s my fucking room!” He shouted back.

“Come on, bro, open the door!” Kirishima was there too apparently. “We wanna hang out.”

“Yeah! It’s friday!” Aaaaand there was Sero. Dammit, he hated when all of his friends ganged up on him. It was always much harder to resist when all of his idiots were yapping at him. “Time for a smash brothers tournament!”

“We’re not gonna leave you alone until you come with us.” Ashido. Great, now the whole squad was outside his door. “So you might as well just give in and come out.”

He sighed again, loudly and dramatically. Fucking hell, his friends were annoying. But playing video games was mindless, and he did at least enjoy it. Maybe it would exhaust him enough to finally let him sleep.

“Fine.” He sighed, and the squad cheered. “But I’m player one, and no one complains about it.”

“Deal!” was chirped and Katsuki reluctantly got out of bed.

Apparently tonight was in Kirishima’s room, so at least he didn’t have to go far. They often cycled through the squad for video game tournaments and movie nights (except his. No one went into his room but him). But this time it was Kirishima’s turn to host, and so they all shuffled into the horrible brightness of his best friend’s room, and all spread out on the only available room to sit, the bed. Katsuki wasn’t sure how, as he didn’t like people coming into his personal space, but somehow, he ended up in the middle of Kirishima’s bed with Kirishima on his right side and Ashido on his left. Kaminari and Sero were sitting on the floor, leaning against his legs. This felt very intentional, but his friends weren’t acting suspicious, and since none of them could act well, he let it go. Maybe he was overthinking it?

He was handed the player one controller, and the others were passed around. The game was familiar enough to be relaxing, yet high speed enough to take his mind off his problems a little bit. He got comfortable and barely noticed it, sagging where he was sitting, body growing lax and complacent with a desperate need to rest. Everything started to fade into the background, the colors began to blur on the TV. His hands pushed the controller buttons automatically, on pure motor memory, but as his surroundings turned to white noise, he forgot that he was actually competing with anyone. His hands slowed as his mind sank into the comfort of where he was, the people around him. His friends’ animated chattering turned to a quiet buzz in his ears, sharp but familiar. He was warm on all sides, and Kirishima’s duvet was surprisingly soft.

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, yanking him out of his reverie, and the controller was being pulled out of his hands. He was confused until he managed to refocus his vision and see Ashido looking at him with big, worried eyes.

“Okay, Kirishima was right, something’s wrong.” She said.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Katsuki insisted. “Let’s just finish playing.”

“Dude, the game’s over.” Sero said, staring at him with the same worry in Ashido’s eyes.

His eyes flicked to the screen, and it had returned to the selection of characters for the next round. Shit. He hadn’t even noticed. His eyes came back to his friends, and everyone was staring at him. Even Kaminari was giving him an uncertain look.

“Come on, Bakugou, talk to us.” Kirishima said, and the walls Katsuki put up were becoming too exhausting to keep up. The sincerity even he couldn’t mistake for pity was too strong, the room too comfortable for him to be able to resist. He was just so tired. “We’re your friends. You can tell us anything.”

“I’m fine.” Katsuki hissed, his last desperate attempt to get them to back off before his walls fully crumbled. How had he lost so much ground so quickly? He was normally so much stronger than this. But dammit, he was exhausted and keeping up this act just added to his exhaustion.

“But you’re not.” Kirishima said. “You’ve been way off in training, you haven’t been getting your normal scores, and you just zoned out for like ten minutes without even realizing it. That’s not ‘fine’, dude. It’s just not.”

No matter where he looked, he couldn’t escape this sincerity, and he was trapped, with Sero leaning up against his leg so he couldn’t just storm out. Fuck.

“Icantsleep.” Katsuki whispered, his voice barely audible.

“What?” Chorused from his friends.

“I can’t sleep.” Katsuki sighed heavily. “Everything’s fine, I’m just really fucking tired.”

“But… you’ve been going to bed every night super early like normal.” Kaminari said, surprised. “We’ve seen you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you stay up past nine on school nights.”

“I don’t.” Katsuki said. “I just… I don’t know. I get into bed, and I just can’t sleep. I mostly just lay there.”

His friends exchanged worried looks.

“How long has it been since you last got decent sleep?” Kirishima asked.

Katsuki just shrugged, since honestly at this point, he really didn’t know.

“Have you tried, like, melatonin or tea?” Ashido asked.

Katsuki nodded. “Yes, I’ve tried those, I’ve already tried all the fucking obvious methods. Meds, tea, all the different noises, I even tried fucking yoga . Nothing worked. I just can’t sleep.”

“So is it like a mental thing?” Kaminari asked. “I sometimes can’t sleep because my thoughts are going too fast.”

Katsuki just shook his head.

“Well then, do you know what it is?” Sero asked. “That’s keeping you up? Because it sounds like it’s not a physical thing, if those other things didn’t work, and you say it’s not a mental thing, so I feel like there’s a puzzle piece missing.”

Katsuki just shrugged, not wanting to admit the nightmares, but his cheeks turned light pink anyways. Dammit.

“Okay, come on, what are you not telling us?” Kirishima asked directly. “I know that face, Bakugou, that face means you’re hiding something.”

“It does not!” Katsuki shot back.

Kirishima just raised an eyebrow. “How long have we been friends? And next door neighbors?”

“I keep telling you fucks, we’re not friends, I just can’t get rid of you.” Katsuki said, curling into himself unconsciously.

“Since the USJ at least.” Kirishima said, answering his own question. “I know you, man. We know you.”

“And that face means you’re hiding something.” Ashido finished. “You always get the tiniest blush when you know something we don’t know.”

“I do not.” Katsuki grumbled.

Several versions of “yes, you do” were echoed from all sides.

Katsuki just slumped harder. Fuck his friends. How the fuck did they know him so well? He hadn’t even known them a year! And yet, they knew him better than anyone in his life, outside of his parents and maybe Deku.

“Fucking fine, I have nightmares, okay!” Katsuki shouted, the jagged remains of his internal walls becoming like porcupine quills, trying to stab his friends with his anger. “I don’t fucking know why, but I’ve been having them basically every single fucking night, and there’s no goddamn reason for them! Will you shits leave me alone now?”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Kirishima asked, placing a hand on his shoulder for a moment.

“What the fuck would I say?” Katsuki snapped. “So you could call me a fucking pussy who gets nightmares for no fucking reason?”

“We wouldn’t call you a pussy because you get nightmares, Bakugou.” Kirishima said. “I get nightmares too.”

“Yeah, we all do.” Sero said, with Kaminari and Ashido nodding along.

His confusion must have been written on his face because Kirishima continued. “Dude, I’ve gotten them ever since Kamino. And the Shie Hassaikai raid made them come back for a while too. I still get them every once in a while.”

“I got them after the USJ,” Kaminari said, “and mine came back for a while too, after that whole fiasco on I-Island.”

“And not to mention Nabu Island too.” Sero added.

“I still have nightmares about that woman.” Ashido shuddered, and Katsuki knew she was also talking about Nabu. “Sometimes I even have nightmares about failing out of school.”

“Oh gods, girl, same.” Kaminari said, leaning back on Katsuki’s leg to look directly up at Ashido. “I have that nightmare the night before every test.”

Katsuki unconsciously filed that information away for later, he’d come back to that when the next test came around, but mostly he was still confused. “But none of you ever said anything. You shits literally talk about every subject under the fucking sun and you’ve never mentioned that. I would’ve noticed.”

“I mean, I guess not, but like.” Kirishima shrugged. “That doesn’t mean we’d call you a pussy for having them. You’re too hard on yourself, bro. Nightmares happen.”

“Not to me.” Katsuki hissed. “I’m fine , there’s nothing wrong with me!”

“We’re not saying anything’s wrong with you, Bakugou.” Ashido said, placing her hand on his shoulder for a moment, like Kirishima did.

“Nothing has to be wrong with you for you to get nightmares.” Sero said. “Honestly, with all the shit you’ve been through, I’d be shocked if you didn’t get them.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine getting kid-uh, I mean battling villains the way you did and not getting nightmares.” Kaminari recovered quickly after almost fucking up, reminding Katsuki of what he did not like being reminded of . Kamino could go die for all he cared, and he hated any reminder of it with a passion.

“But we haven’t had any battles lately.” Katsuki snapped, his hatred for his own weakness coming out as a spat at his friends. “There’s no fucking reason for this.”

“I don’t think nightmares need a specific reason to happen, bro.” Sero shrugged. “You just get them. There doesn’t always need to be a reason.”

Katsuki huffed, unhappy with that answer.

“We can figure out the reason tomorrow.” Kirishima said, successfully putting a pin in the conversation. He was good at that, at getting Katsuki to come back to shit when he felt better. “Right now, I think we just need to focus on helping you sleep.”

“I don’t need anyone’s fucking help.” Katsuki growled.

“Uh-huh.” Kirishima was also good at calling him out on his bullshit. Dammit, when had his stupid best friend gotten so good at that? “Come on. Lay down. You’re staying with me tonight.”

“No.” Katsuki said, very confused at to what the fuck his friend was even planning. “That’s dumb.”

“Fine, I’ll just tackle you.” Kirishima stated seriously, and honestly, Katsuki believed him.

“Whatever.” He grumbled, pulling himself back a little so he could properly lay down on Kirishima’s bed. For someone who’s entire thing was hardening, Kirishima’s bedding was unexpectedly soft. “Now what, geniuses?”

Apparently ‘now’ was everyone climbing onto the bed with him, Ashido pressed against his abdomen and the wall, Kirishima on his other side, and Sero and Kaminari back on his legs. They weren’t on him enough for him to feel trapped, but enough for him to feel that they were there. It felt oddly comforting.

“Okay, now close your eyes.” Ashido said.

He just glared up at her.

“You have to close your eyes to sleep.” She rolled her eyes. “Unless you sleep with your eyes open. Wait, do you sleep with your eyes open?”

“No, I don’t sleep with my eyes open, that’s weird.”

“Okay, so close your eyes.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes at her, and he sighed unhappily, but he did as she said.

“Breathe in for four seconds, and then exhale for seven.” Sero said.

“Tried that.” Katsuki replied. “Didn’t work.”

“Do it anyway.” Sero said, and he could hear him rolling his eyes. His bastard friends had a lot of nerve to roll their eyes at him, considering what they were doing. “You need to relax, and stop fighting us. Otherwise, you’re never going to get to sleep.”

“I’m never going to sleep with all you fucks watching me either.” Katsuki mumbled.

“We’re not watching you,” Ashido said. “We’re helping you.”

“Same thing.” Katsuki muttered.

“Just do the fucking breathing exercises.” Sero snapped.

Overdramatically, he took a big breath in, and blew it out. Afterwards, he started counting to four and seven as he breathed, and his body did start to relax. His mind was still very much wide awake but at least his body wasn’t as taut as a rubber band anymore. It felt a little strange, as he hadn’t felt anything when he’d tried this on his own, but it was working so he didn’t question it.

A hand suddenly came to his hair, brushing through his spikes, scratching lightly. His eyes immediately snapped open, and he found the hand belonged to Ashido. 

“Fuck are you doing?” Katsuki asked, but he was taken aback a little by his own voice. He sounded like he was half-asleep, but he knew that was untrue. His mind was still very awake.

“Shush, and keep your eyes closed.” She lightly chastised him. Katsuki didn’t even notice that she hadn’t answered his question.

Instead of standing up and telling his friends this didn’t work either, his leaded eyes just slid shut. His mind sank back into the comfort from before, a quiet voice of anxiety and fear effectively silenced by the warmth and safety his friends emanated.

Distantly, he could feel hands pull at his feet, taking his shoes off for him, and he didn’t have the words to respond to them. The fingers in his hair became his only real focus, feeling the gentle strokes of Ashido’s hand as she lightly dragged her nails over his scalp. No one but his parents had ever attempted anything like this, but he found he didn’t really want her to stop. Her fingers seemed to turn his exhaustion into a soft brook across his body, seeking out tension and washing it away. After an amount of time he couldn’t distinguish, the only things he could feel anymore were his friends comforting weight against him, and Ashido’s fingers in his hair. There were soft noises around him, gentle but garbled. Katsuki only caught the words ‘sleep’ and ‘night’, and couldn’t decipher any of the rest.

In an instant, Katsuki’s mind had gone from being completely awake to hanging by a thread, and Katsuki wasn’t sure when that had happened. Sleep hit him like a freight train, the thread of his consciousness didn’t stand a chance, and he was asleep between one breath and another.

After being so used to waking up shaking and sweating, Katsuki didn’t notice he was actually awake at first. He woke up slowly, an easy rise to consciousness not tainted by fear and terror. He felt warm on all sides, with heavy pressure all over his body, and he was so comfortable that he could’ve slipped back into sleep without much issue. Even more surprising, he felt rested for the first time in what felt like weeks. This was one of the best sleeps of his life. He idly wondered what brought it on after those debilitating nightmares.

Oh yeah. His friends. He could hear their soft breathing, feel their bodies all over him. Ashido was still sandwiched between him and the wall with her legs across his waist, Kirishima had flopped almost onto him, and the idiot’s legs seemed to be hanging off the bed, Sero and Kaminari were all tangled up on his legs, using his thighs as pillows. Kaminari was drooling on him, of fucking course the idiot drooled, but he was so comfortable that he let it go (for now). It took a bit of work to extract his hand from the pile that was him and his friends, but he checked his phone that was still in his pocket. It was a little past 5. Wow, he’d actually slept through the whole night.

Even with all the sleep he'd gotten which made him feel sooooo much better, he was still exhausted. His sleep deficit had only increased the more this went on, and he had a lot to make up. So, since no one was awake, he just snuggled in deeper to his friends, pressing into all of them, and he let the safety of his friends (who were practically family to him at this point) take him right back to sleep. And he slept long after everyone else had woken up, though they all still stayed cuddled up to him, their presence keeping the nightmares away.

When the Past Comes Calling, I Can't Breathe

Day 1 Panic Attack, Day 2 Trust Issues, Day 11 Loneliness, Day 13 Team as Family, Day 14 Left for Dead, Day 15 Childhood Trauma, Day 28 Exposure

When an old "friend" of Katsuki's resurfaces, he tries hard to keep that sludge villain incident a secret from his squad. Unfortunately, it's harder said than done.

Class 1-A had been kept inside of UA’s walls for a while, and as soon as they were given the greenlight to finally go out again now that they all had their provisional licenses, Katsuki’s extras roped him into a trip to the arcade. He hadn’t wanted to go with them, but one of the conditions Aizawa-sensei had set was they had to go in groups, and his extras were some of the few in their class that Katsuki could stand, so he was left with little choice. The allure of going outside and not having people stare at him or whisper about him just out of earshot was worth dealing with his extras being overly excited and overdramatic for a little while. They’d gone back to their system of having one person choose their destination, as they had done before the dorm system, and it was Sero’s turn. He’d chosen to go to the arcade, and Katsuki figured at least he’d have some fun wiping the floor with his extras at all the games.

Somehow, the day had actually been going rather smoothly, as they hadn’t gotten kicked out yet, they hadn’t broken anything in their enthusiasm, and the only time they air hockey puck went off of the table, which surprisingly hadn’t been his fault, no one had gotten hurt. Katsuki had actually smiled a couple of times after watching his extras play, and seeing their disappointed faces whenever he won. He really should’ve known better than to trust and let his guard down a little thinking it would just be a simple day with his extras. His life was never that easy anymore.

“Hey, Katsuki. Long time no see.”

Katsuki went completely still, his heart beginning to pound in his chest as a voice he hadn’t heard in months drifted back into his ears.

“Come on, Katsuki, don’t ignore me. We’ve been friends for too long for that.”

Katsuki’s temper flared at that, feeling like he wanted to tear the bastard’s face off, but he tried his best to keep his anger under control. His fists however seemed to have different ideas, and he only noticed he’d been crushing his cup when soda started to spill down his hand.

He took a shaky, deep breath, turned towards the bastard, and said, “I have no idea who you are. Leave me alone.” Then he turned to his extras, who had mercifully been very absorbed in the shooting game they’d been playing, and just muttered, “I’m getting another drink.”

His extras acknowledged him briefly, and he stormed off to the nearest trash can, hoping that the damn bastard would get the hint and leave him alone. But it seemed the bastard was just as stupid as he was in middle school, and followed him.

“Don’t be such an asshole, Katsuki. Just because I didn’t end up going to UA doesn’t mean you can ignore me now.”

Katsuki whirled around, facing Koshinuke, his heart still pounding in his chest from anger and an emotion he was trying to smother with anger. He wanted to scream in this fucker’s face, he wanted to tear his throat out, but he couldn’t, that would draw too much attention, so he just settled on a low growl filled with hatred. “I told you, I don’t know who you are, leave me alone.”

Koshinuke rolled his eyes, and lightly glared at him. “You can’t just pretend you don’t know me, asshole. Come on, we’ve been friends for years, and suddenly when you get into UA, you just block everyone and drop off the face of the planet? Not cool, man.”

Katsuki’s hand clenched even harder on the paper cup, and he threw it into the trash can as hard as he could, some drops of soda still spilling down his hand. “I won’t tell you again, leave me the fuck alone.”

“What? Are you afraid to be seen with me with your big shot UA friends, or something?” Koshinuke asked presumptuously. “You can’t just ignore the past.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened as keeping his temper under control became even harder. Middle school Katsuki probably would’ve blown him up, but he didn’t want to ruin today for his extras, they’d been so restless and antsy being kept inside the dorms all the time. If he used his quirk, they’d get kicked out and he just couldn’t do that to his extras.

“You have no right to bring up the past with me, you selfish bastard.” Katsuki hissed, his voice full of venom. “You ever think I fucking blocked you because I didn’t want to fucking talk to you ever again after what you did to me?”

Koshinuke scoffed. “Seriously, dude, are you still mad about that? That was forever ago.”

“Time makes no goddamn difference, you abandoned me to that thing.” Katsuki growled, some of his emotions leaking into his voice.

“We knew you’d be okay.” Koshinuke dismissed. “You’re Bakugou Katsuki, you can do anything. You always said you could.”

“Don’t throw my own fucking words back in my face, you traitorous bastard!” Katsuki’s heart was beating so loud, everyone in this arcade should’ve been able to hear it, and he didn’t think it was only from righteous anger.

“Ugh, why are you still so mad about that, Katsuki?” Koshinuke sighed as if Katsuki was annoying him. “You’re fine now. You got into UA, you’re becoming a hero, everything you always said you’d do, you did. It’s not like it really did anything to you.”

“That’s not the goddamn point.” Katsuki sneered. “And stop calling me Katsuki, you lost that right a long time ago.”

“Why are you being so sensitive, dude?” Koshinuke groaned. “I swear, you’re sounding like pathetic Deku or something.”

Katsuki had never wanted to punch someone in the face so badly in his life. His body was trembling with anger, his heart was beating out of his chest, and his fingernails were digging into his palms as he tried his best to keep his anger under control.

“ You left me there to die. ” Katsuki whispered out, his voice gravelly and rough as his throat closed as he spoke.

“This guy bothering you, man?” Katsuki was startled to hear Kirishima, but his extras were suddenly behind him, looking mildly upset. They must have finished their game and gone looking for him when he hadn’t returned.

“We’re old friends from middle school.” Koshinuke said, smiling in a way that made Katsuki want to stab him in the eye.

“No we’re not.” Katsuki stated flatly. “And yes, he is bothering me. I told him to leave me alone, get him out of my sight before I blow this whole damn building.”

The words had thankfully come out like an order, but there had been an inflection in his voice he hadn’t wanted. He just hoped his extras chalked it up to him being ridiculously angry.

“You heard him, beat it.” Kaminari said, looking as serious as he could be. In any other situation, Katsuki would’ve found it hilarious. “Kacchan doesn’t want you around.”

“Yeah, leave us alone, dude.” Sero said. “We don’t want any drama, okay?

Koshinuke seemed affronted by his extras. “Katsuki, come on, we’re friends-”

“Don’t make us get the security guard.” Kirishima interrupted, crossing his arms. “Bakugou told you to leave him alone, I suggest you listen this time. Trust me, man, you don’t want this fight.”

Koshinuke looked between his extras, still looking offended, but when all of his extras glared right back, moving closer to him as if to protect him, something they’d started after Kamino, he finally backed off to Katsuki’s relief.

“Fine, whatever, man. Guess you’re still the same asshole you always were.” Koshinuke scoffed, sneering at him. “Hope you all enjoy being an asshole’s lapdog.”

Koshinuke put his hands in his pockets and stormed off. Katsuki was still trembling with anger, but hopefully his heart would calm down soon. He wasn’t sure why it was beating so fast, it didn’t usually, but he hadn’t been this angry since Ground Beta.

“You okay, dude? You seem really upset.” Kirishima said, placing his hand on Katsuki’s shoulder, which he immediately shrugged off.

“I’m fine. The fucker just wouldn’t leave me alone.” Katsuki said, still glaring at the bastard’s back as he walked away. He held up his hand, which was still covered in sticky soda, and he just sighed in annoyance. “Need to fucking wash my hands. I’ll be back.”

Before his extras could say anything, he stalked off the bathroom, trying to hide how his hands were shaking. He ran his hands under the cold water, scrubbing them intensely, and tried to push the interaction out of his mind. His breathing was coming faster and faster, and his heart was beating so hard in his chest it was painful. His wet hands then came to his throat, clawing at it as breathing suddenly became much, much harder than it should be.

Suppressed memories started to break through to his mind’s eye, flashing across his eyes and devastating them with his power. The sight of his shaking hands in the shower as he scrubbed his body raw trying to get rid of the feeling of sludge all over his body, his stomach rolling as he still felt disgusting no matter how hard he scrubbed. The panic that had been caused by the attack, the fires that had started, the way his quirk had turned from a defensive measure into an uncontrollable weapon for the villain. Coughing as much as he was breathing, feeling the villain’s sludge go down his throat, only being allowed to breathe on the villain’s terms. His friends staring in terror at the monstrosity swirling around him, his arm still outstretched as he silently begged for their help. Watching in horror as the people he thought were friends turned around and ran away from him, abandoning him to be at the villain’s mercy, letting his body get swallowed by the darkness he couldn’t escape on his own.

Katsuki crashed to his knees, his soapy hands still clawing at his throat, his heart beating so hard it must be cracking his ribs. Up until that point, Katsuki had never felt so close to death, and now it felt like he was right back there, his body trembling and weakening from the inescapable power of the memories that seemed to be slowly killing him.

“-kugou! Bakugou! Katsuki!” A strange hand grasped his, holding it tightly.

Instinctively, Katsuki’s quirk went off, as if trying to protect himself from a threat he couldn’t recognize. But the hand stayed, unaffected by his explosion, and another hand then cupped his cheek. Again, Katsuki’s hand came to the foreign feeling, setting off another firecracker. Again, the hand didn’t pull away, and Katsuki didn’t know why.

It took a little bit, but eventually Katsuki recognized a red blur, recognizing the color of Kirishima’s hair anywhere. He blinked hard, just now realizing that he was crying and that was why he couldn’t see, trying to focus on the sight of his friend to keep him grounded.

“You can do it, Katsuki, just try to breathe with me, okay?” Kirishima said, pulling Katsuki’s hand to Kirishima’s chest. He breathed in slowly, a soft voice besides them counting to four, and then breathed out as the voice counted to seven.

Breath slowly scraped through Katsuki’s lungs, his body still trembling as he tried his best to focus on his friends. The voice belonged to Mina, who wore the same worried expression that Kirishima did as Katsuki became dizzy from the lack of oxygen.

“Maybe we should call Aizawa-sensei.” He heard Sero whisper to Kirishima. “Or take him to the hospital, he’s not calming down.”

Katsuki whimpered as he shook his head quickly, as the thought of someone else seeing him like this made his skin crawl. He was still gasping for air, but he managed to whisper, “no hospitals.”

“Katsuki, you’re having a panic attack.” Kirishima said, still squeezing his hands. Ah, Kirishima had his quirk activated on his hands, that’s why the explosions hadn’t worked. As much as he didn’t want to be touched right now, he was somewhat glad he hadn’t hurt his friend. “I really think you need to go to the hospital.”

He shook his head again, his stomach twisting painfully, knowing that a trip to the hospital would only lead to negative outcomes. “Please. No hospitals.”

Kirishima bit his lip with his shark teeth, and Katsuki saw the uncertainty in his friends’ faces. The tiny part of his logical mind that wasn’t being drowned out by panic told him he needed to calm down or his friends would take him to the hospital. While the panic was still strong, while his body still trembled, he tried to match the four-seven breathing pattern Kirishima and Mina had shown him. Encouraged by Katsuki’s attempts, Kirishima squeezed his hand again and started breathing deeply again, keeping Katsuki’s hand pressed against his chest.

Katsuki wasn’t sure how long it took, but eventually his breathing finally calmed down to meet the four-seven pattern his friends were giving him. The dizziness that had sent his stomach rolling finally calmed down, and while stray tears were still streaming down his cheeks, he could finally breathe again, letting him think clearly.

“You back with us, Bakugou?” Kirishima’s voice was barely a whisper, as if afraid to set him off again.

Katsuki wanted to shove his friends away, to scream at them to leave him alone, but he didn’t have the strength to. Instead he just nodded, still panting.

“Are you okay, Kacchan?” Kaminari asked, and Katsuki just glared at him. He nodded, grimacing. “Yeah, got it, stupid question, shutting up.”

“Okay, what the hell just happened?” Mina asked, staring at him with her raccoon eyes, emotion shining within them.

“‘Ts nothing.” Katsuki muttered.

“Bullshit, you don’t have panic attacks for nothing.” Kirishima said, and he wondered when his friends had gotten so good at calling him out. “Come on, dude, you gotta tell us what happened. We’re your friends. Did that guy hurt you or something?”

Katsuki shook his head, and thought for a moment. His extras were like dogs with bones, once they were on the trail of something, they never let it go. He hated revealing any weaknesses to anyone, but he supposed they had just talked him down from a panic attack, and they’d want to ‘help’ him. But since he still didn’t want to talk, his still shaking hand felt around for his phone for a moment, and then pulled it out. He searched up the story, as he knew it had made the news, and then held his phone out for them to read.

His friends looked confused, but they took the phone from him. All of his friends crowded around so they could all read the article.

“All Might defeats sludge type villain… hey wait a minute I remember this, it was on the news.” Sero said, staring at the phone with a puzzled expression before his eyes went wide and his voice became incredulous. “Wait a minute, that was you? ”

Katsuki just nodded curtly.

“Oh my god, this is about you? ” Mina said, gesturing to the article. “You were the one that he…”

Katsuki nodded again.

His friends’ faces went white and he looked down at the floor, unable to take the emotions in their eyes. Kirishima squeezed his hand again, disarming his quirk so he just felt his friend’s calloused skin.

“Dude, I’m so sorry- I, I mean,” Kirishima sputtered, “We’re glad you’re okay.”

“Are… you okay?” Kaminari asked hesitantly.

Katsuki nodded again, even if his body was still trembling and the occasional tear still ran down his cheek.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kirishima said, his voice sounding far too sincere for Katsuki to handle. “We’re your friends, you can tell us stuff like this. We’re here to support you.”

Katsuki glared at Kirishima. “It was none of your business.”

Kirishima winced as if he’d been expecting that answer.

“But… wait a minute.” Sero said. “If this happened because you got attacked by a villain, then… what does that guy have to do with it?”

Katsuki squirmed a little uncomfortably. “Just drop it, okay? This has nothing to do with you. It’s none of your business.”

That got him looks from all of his friends.

“Bakugou, we’re your friends.” Kirishima said. “When some random asshole hurts you, we’re here to help you. We care about you.”

“Besides, it kinda became our business when we needed to talk you down from a panic attack.” Sero said plainly.

“Yeah. So stop being mister stoic and secretive and emotionally repressed for a little bit, okay?” Mina added. “Just talk to us.”

“I’m not emotionally repressed.” Katsuki murmured petulantly.

“Kacchan, you’re the king of being emotionally repressed.” Kaminari deadpanned. “Come on, man. We- we need to know why we need to beat up that guy if we ever see him again.”

That got Katsuki to snort, chuckling a little at his friend’s idiocy. Katsuki took a deep breath and sighed. His stomach was still twisting painfully, but his heart was at least calming a little being surrounded by his friends. There was still a part of him that wanted to scrub his skin raw again, but it was calming down the longer his friends’ spent hovering over him.

“I… was walking home like I always did. Was hanging out with that bastard and another idiot from middle school. We were… taking a shortcut, deciding what to do for the day. We… went into this alleyway, and then this wall of sludge came up from the sewers. Grabs me. And those two fucking cowards… they turned and ran at the first fucking sign of trouble. Left me to deal with it alone. I was fine, of course, All Might was right around the corner, it was nothing, but… I couldn’t forgive them for just leaving me there. Haven’t talked to them since.”

Katsuki kept his eyes on the ground, able to sense his friends’ godawful pity in their eyes without needing to see it. His friends knew him well enough that that last bit of bravado was fake. He could tell by how hard Kirishima was squeezing his hand.

“That’s so horrible.” Mina said, her voice wavering a little. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“I told you, it was nothing!” Katsuki snapped.

“Oh yeah, it was totally nothing.” Sero muttered, rolling his eyes and glaring at him. “It was so nothing that you were sent into a panic attack just by seeing that asshole again.”

Katsuki matched his glare. Sero didn’t back down.

“So we’re totally actually beating them up if we ever see them again, right?” Kaminari asked, breaking the tension a little.

Katsuki breathed out a soft chuckle. “I don’t need you to fight my battles.”

“We’re not saying you need us to fight your battles.” Sero smirked. “We’re just saying that if we ever see those guys again, they’re just gonna accidentally get punched in the face a couple dozen times. No biggie.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Katsuki scoffed quietly.

“Yeah, but trust me, we want to.” Kaminari said with a soft, idiotic smirk. “No one abandons our Kacchan to die and gets away with it.”

Katuki’s eyes went wide, looking at Kaminari in shock. “What… did you just say?”

“Oh um. When- when we were walking over to you after I kicked Sero’s ass-”

There was a soft interruption of “We fucking tied! That last kill didn’t count!”

A beat.

“After I finished kicking Sero’s ass, I um, kinda heard you say that he- that he left you for dead.” Kaminari said, obviously trying to be light despite the subject matter, trying to play it off as if it was nothing. “So yeah, we’re gonna punch those guys, like, a lot. They fucking suck.”

Katsuki flushed red, unaware that his friends had heard that part of the conversation. Fuck. He opened his mouth to dismiss his own words, but he couldn’t come up with anything that would actually work. Fuck.

Kirishima squeezed his hand again. “It’s okay, Bakugou. You don’t have to say anything.”

Kirishima then let go of him and stood up. “I think we should all go home. I’m kinda tired. What about you guys?”

“No.” Katsuki said. “You were all so excited to get out of the dorms for a little while. I’m fine, let’s go back to playing.”

His legs were still shaking a little, but Katsuki managed to get himself up. His friends hovered over him a little, as if waiting to catch him if he fell. Katsuki held his head up, and looked them all in the eye. His friends’ exchanged a couple of worried glances, but they eventually nodded, letting him not be held back by this as he wanted.

“Yeah, sure, man.” Sero said. “I say Kami owes me a rematch from earlier, we fucking tied!”

Katsuki felt a tiny smile grace his lips, and then Kirishima slung an arm around Katsuki’s shoulder. This time, Katsuki let it stay a whole three seconds longer than he usually did.

Don't Forget to Water Your Bakugou

Day 4 Hypnosis, Day 5 Heat Stroke, Day 6 Not Realizing They're Injured, Day 12 Just A Little More, Day 25 Being Monitored, Alt #10 Shivering

Class 1-A goes on a field trip. It's a ridiculously hot and humid day, and unfortunately, Shinsou's group accidentally gets lost in the woods. Bakugou ends up getting heat stroke and Shinsou, Kaminari, and Yaoyorozu take care of him the only way they can.

Todoroki always talked about how field trips for Class 1-A were cursed, and at this point, Shinsou was leaning to the conspiracy theorist being right about that. They’d traveled to Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park, an island at the end of the archipelago of Japan, a forest that was isolated and uninhabited, something that almost guaranteed they wouldn’t be attacked by villains. They’d gone to study local plant and animal life, a science project of sorts. They’d been split into five groups of four, making sure that if anything happened, they’d have backup. Shinsou at first thought it was a bit much, needing backup on an uninhabited island, but he was new to Class 1-A, and he didn’t want to question anything he didn’t have experience with. Admittedly, it did kinda seem that wherever Class 1-A went, trouble followed.

The day had been much hotter and more humid than originally anticipated, and boy did it show. Everyone was sweating, uncomfortable, and complaining about it. Kaminari was one of the loudest, which came as no surprise. Todoroki had graciously offered some of his ice, but when they’d arrived, they’d been split into their groups to explore separate parts of the island. That had elicited a groan from everyone at the thought of losing their portable air conditioner, but Aizawa-sensei had shut them up with a glare. Unfortunately for Shinsou, Todoroki hadn’t been in his randomly assigned group, but at least Bakugou had, and he could take that. Not only was Bakugou one of the best in the class, he was actually kinda becoming Shinsou’s friend.

Kaminari had assimilated Shinsou into his friend group regardless if Shinsou wanted friends or not, saying that “You look like you need a friend, and these guys are the best!” It hadn’t been an easy transition for him, as he’d never had many friends due to his quirk, no one really ever trusted him with themselves, but Kaminari just steamrolled what he knew and before he really knew it, Shinsou had become a part of the Bakusquad and there was no going back. But strangely enough, Bakugou had been the one who made the transition more tolerable, as apparently, he’d been given the same treatment by Kirishima.

“The more you tell them you don’t want friends, the more they weasel into your life.” Bakugou had said. “They at least get more tolerable with time.”

And he’d been right. The more time he spent with the Bakusquad, the more he enjoyed their company. There was still a part of him that was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for them to ask him something like using his quirk on a teacher so they wouldn’t have to take a test, or to use his voice synthesizer as a prank, but so far they hadn’t. They just seemed… genuinely interested in his friendship. Shinsou wasn’t quite sure what to make of that honestly. He’d never met such sincere people who were willing to trust him, despite knowing his quirk.

His favorite way to spend time though was when the rest of the squad was playing video games or complaining as they did their homework, was to just sit sort of next to Bakugou in silence. Oftentimes Bakugou would be reading three chapters ahead, but he never said anything when Shinsou would sit next to him on the couch to do his own thing. Occasionally, he’d glance over at what Shinsou was doing, correct him if he messed something up, but mostly they just sat together. It was a much needed calmness in the hecticness of their previously unwanted friend group. He didn’t know if Bakugou enjoyed it as much as he did, but Bakugou never refused him, so he took that to mean he liked it too.

“It’s so hot.” Kaminari whined, for what felt like the fifth time. “I hate humidity. It’s not fair that we have to be here when it’s so humid.”

“Shut up, Pikachu.” Bakugou snapped, wiping his sweat from his brow. “Not all of us are so weak that we have to complain about each and every little thing. We fucking know you hate it, stop fucking complaining. Won’t change anything about our situation. Fucking deal with it.”

Kaminari pouted, and the last member of their group, Yaoyorozu, offered to make him a cooling cloth to put around his neck.

“Don’t give him an out, Ponytail!” Bakugou snarled, glaring fiercely at her. “He needs to fucking toughen up, a little heat is nothing. What happens if you get caught near a fire? We’ve trained for worse, stop being such a baby!”

Kaminari pouted. “Don’t I get a say in this? She didn’t offer it to you.”

“No, you fucking don’t.” Bakugou growled. “You’d cheat on tests if you could get away with it, I’m not fucking letting you cheat in this shit.”

Kaminari groaned, pouting, but he didn’t take Yaoyorozu up on her offer. Shinsou watched Bakugou carefully, and he realized something as they walked. Bakugou wasn’t just being a dick about this, making Kaminari suffer alongside the rest of them. But Shinsou noticed in his words that it almost seemed like Bakugou was trying to help Kaminari train. He was right, a fire was an intense amount of heat where things like cooling clothes wouldn’t help, or wouldn’t be available in the first place. It seemed as if Bakugou was trying to toughen Kaminari up himself, which was an interesting thought. Apparently Bakugou wasn’t as detached from the squad as he made himself appear to be. Very interesting.

Together, all four of them explored their area of the forest, Bakugou and Yaoyorozu writing down their notes of the things they observed. Only one person was really instructed to write everything down, Kaminari immediately made pleading eyes with Yaoyorozu until she accepted with a smile, but Bakugou seemed to be writing his own notes anyways. Shinsou kept an eye on what he was writing down, wanting to make sure he didn’t miss anything, needing to study twice as hard to be half as good as everyone else since he transferred in so late. It was actually the journal that initially gave Shinsou the first hint that something was wrong. Bakugou prided himself on his… well, everything, but one of the things was his very crisp, legible handwriting. But as they walked, as the minutes turned into an hour, Bakugou’s handwriting seemed to be getting worse.

“You okay, dude?” Shinsou whispered as Kaminari found a frog, (and then immediately shrieked when it leapt his way).

“I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?” Bakugou snapped back, again wiping his brow.

“Just… thought your writing was getting a little messy.” Shinsou said, and when he said it aloud, he realized just how flimsy his evidence was. “You’re just usually so… neat.”

Bakugou just glared at him. “Keep your fucking nose out of my business.”

“I was just trying to help, okay?” Shinsou held up his hands. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but you and I are actually kinda friends now, and I was trying to look out for you.”

“I don’t need anyone’s help.” Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Let alone some stray that Pikachu brought home.”

Shinsou’s heart hurt a little at that, surprised by Bakugou’s testiness. Sure, the guy was always cranky, but this seemed a little strong for even the explosive boy. Bakugou had never called him a stray before, and even though he probably didn’t mean it, it still hurt to hear.

“Fine, asshole.” Shinsou snapped back. “Forgive me for wanting to be a decent human being to you. I won’t do it again.”

Shinsou then stomped off before Bakugou could reply, and went over to a giggling Yaoyorozu and a frightened Kaminari standing behind her.

“Hey, ‘Toshi, does your quirk work on animals?” Kaminari asked, staring warily at the tiny little frog. “It won’t leave me alone.”

“It doesn’t, Denki, but I don’t think we need it.” Shinsou just chuckled, and scooped the frog up gently. He then softly tossed it back near the river, and it jumped out of his hands to return to its house. “There. Now you’re safe from the itty bitty frog.”

Kamiari glared at him with a pout on his lips. “‘Toshiiiii. Don’t be so mean. We’ve already got Kacchan for that.”

Shinsou snorted bitterly. “Yeah we do.”

As dumb as Kaminari was, he said with love, Kaminari was actually very perceptive about people’s emotions. At least, when it didn’t come to flirting. “You okay?”

“Bakugou’s just an asshole, it’s fine.” Shinsou muttered.

“Oh, yeah, he gets extra cranky when he’s uncomfortable.” Kaminari shrugged casually, as if it was common knowledge. “And heat like this makes him cranky.”

Shinsou looked back at Bakugou, and saw him wiping his forehead again, panting a little. He vaguely remembered Kirishima making sure Bakugou drank lots of water on hot days, saying that Bakugou’s sweat didn’t cool him down like a normal person’s. It wasn’t an excuse, and he wasn’t forgiven, but at least Shinsou understood a little more.

Even so, Shinsou avoided Bakugou as they continued to explore, but the blond was quiet, reserved even, which Shinsou found odd but at the moment he didn’t care. He was just glad that Bakugou wasn’t yelling or snapping at anyone anymore.

“Um, guys?” Kaminari voiced after a bit, uncertainty clear in his tone. “Um. Does anyone remember how we got here? Because I can’t find the path we’re supposed to be on.”

Bakugou then stomped over to them with a snarl and a glare. “Are you saying you got us lost, Pikachu?”

“I- um, uh…”

“You stupid idiot!”

Shinsou then stepped between them, holding up his hand. “Hey! You weren’t paying attention to where we were going either. It’s just as much our fault as it is his!”

Bakugou just snarled at him and stalked off.

“Oi! Kacchan, where are you going?”

“Retracing our steps, idiot!” Bakugou shouted back.

Shinsou met Kaminari and Yaoyorozu’s eyes and nodded, following after him. If anyone knew what to do, it would be Bakugou. Kirishima had told him that he and Bakugou often went on hikes, even went rock climbing together too. He’d know what to do when lost in the woods.

Bakugou knelt down, seemingly examining their tracks. “Ponytail, make me a compass.”

“Kacchan, don’t you have one of those real fancy ones?” Kaminari asked.

“Yes, but it’s in my climbing pack, which is currently still in the dorms.” Bakugou said. “We weren’t going climbing, didn’t think I’d need to bring it. I wasn’t expecting you fucks to get us lost. So, Ponytail, make me a compass.”

“Of course, Bakugou.” Yaoyorozu said, and after a moment, handed him a compass.

“If we keep going southwest, based on our previous direction, we should make it back to the path Dunce Face wasn’t supposed to get off of.”

Bakugou then stood up, and wobbled for a moment. That caught everyone’s attention.

“Whoa, Kacchan, are you okay?”

“Bakugou, are you alright? Do you need some water?”

“I’m fine! Back off!” Bakugou snarled at them.

Shinsou noticed there was a faint flush of red on Bakugou’s cheeks as he shouted at them. A sunburn maybe? That would explain the crankiness, but not that moment where he lost his balance. Unless the sunburn was giving him a headache maybe? Most people were much more irritable when in pain.

“Just fucking keep up, I’m not fucking keeping track of you shits.”

“Why can’t you just let people care about you, huh?” Shinsou asked before he could stop himself, even though he knew that his question would piss Bakugou off.

“I don’t need your fucking pity!” Bakugou shouted back at him, wiping his forehead again. If Shinsou wasn’t so distracted by Bakugou’s anger, he would’ve noticed that Bakugou’s skin was too dry for the hotness of the day.

“I’m not fucking giving you any!” Shinsou yelled, refusing to back down. Shinsou had observed enough interactions with the explosive blond, he knew that the best way to get through to him was to not back down from his anger. “Not everyone who fucking asks if you’re okay is fucking pitying you, you asshole!”

Yaoyorozu then stepped between them. “Boys, please! Yelling at each other isn’t going to get us back on the path.”

Bakugou just snarled at him again before stomping off.

They quickly followed, Shinsou switching between fury and worry as he looked at his friend. Bakugou’s breath was coming a little faster than usual as they walked, and his skin was flushed red. But at the same time, Bakugou seemed his normal, cranky, asshole self. Though, he also knew that Bakugou would never tell them he wasn’t feeling well. Damn bastard. At this point, Shinsou didn’t even know whether or not he even should be worried. He didn’t think Bakugou was a liar, and he seemed very convinced that he was fine.

Suddenly, Bakugou stopped, and his hand came to his forehead.

When he didn’t speak, Yaoyorozu did. “Um, Bakugou? Is everything alright?”

Bakugou didn’t answer her.

Too late, Shinsou realized Bakugou was tilting to the side, and he watched in horror as Bakugou’s legs seemed to give out. His newly trained hero instincts had him moving before he could even process what was happening, his arms immediately wrapping around Bakugou’s body. But even with the strength training he’d been doing, he couldn’t stop them both from crashing to the ground, Shinsou doing his best to clutch Bakugou’s head to his chest, doing his best to protect his friend.

“Bakugou!”  “Kacchan!”

Kaminari and Yaoyorozu rushed to their side, and Shinsou pulled himself up a little, still holding Bakugou close to his chest, adjusting so he was laying up against a nearby tree. Hands came to Bakugou’s shoulders, his waist, and together he and Yaoyorozu turned the unconscious blond over. Bakugou’s head lolled limply, and Shinsou’s heart began to pound in his chest.

“Fuck, he feels like he’s on fire.” Shinsou murmured, pressing his hand to Bakugou’s forehead. “And I think he stopped sweating.”

“His heart and breathing are also going too fast.” Yaoyorozu added, her face set in a serious expression. “I think he has heat stroke.”

Shinsou’s stomach twisted painfully with dread. Irritability and agitation were also a sign of heat stroke, and Shinsou had just chalked it up to Bakugou just being an asshole. Dammit, he knew something was wrong with Bakugou, and he let Bakugou’s attitude deter him from checking on his friend. Dammit.

“Heat stroke? Isn’t that the really serious one?” Kaminari asked, fear evident in his voice.

Yaoyorozu nodded grimly. “Yes. It means his body temperature is over 40 (104) degrees. We need to cool him down immediately.”

“The river.” Shinsou said, and Yaoyorozu and Kaminari nodded.

Shinsou stood up, and grabbed Bakugou’s right arm, as Kaminari grabbed his left. Together, they hauled Bakugou up, slinging his arms over their shoulders and grabbing Bakugou’s waist, running as quickly as they could to the river. Bakugou’s feet dragged limply as they ran, and Shinsou just tried to focus on getting to the river. Bakugou would be okay, they just had to cool him down. The river was close, they just had to get him there.

“Okay, so should we just toss him in or something?” Kaminari asked, clearly panicking a little. Shinsou didn’t blame him. He’d known 1A long enough to know that when something bad happened, they looked to Bakugou (and Midoriya and Todoroki) for the game plan, Kaminari and the Bakusquad especially. And he knew how Kaminari studied, which is to say not at all, so poor Kaminari must feel like he has absolutely no idea of what to do.

“No, we need to ease him in gently, otherwise we might put him into shock.” Yaoyorozu said. Then she shifted a little nervously. “And… we need to take his clothes off.”

Awkwardness hung heavy in the air for a moment. But then Shinsou just took a deep breath, and nodded. None of them wanted to do this, but it had to be done. “Alright. Yaomomo, you get his shirt off, and then Denki and I will get his pants.”

Shinsou watched Yaoyorozu’s nimble fingers undo the buttons on Bakugou’s white shirt, exposing more and more of his skin as she went. They wrangled Bakugou’s limp arms out of his shirt, and then he and Kaminari laid Bakugou down onto the ground. Shinsou’s hands shook a little as he unbuckled Bakugou’s belt, and then the buttons on his pants. Kaminari and Yaoyorozu lifted his waist so Shinsou could slide the fabric down Bakugou’s body, then they took off Bakugou’s shoes and socks, setting them aside so Shinsou could place the other clothes on them.

After taking a few moments to splash the river water onto Bakugou’s heated skin, all three of them carefully maneuvered Bakugou into the cool water. Slowly, they laid Bakugou down to where the water was coming up just below his shoulders. The blond made a soft sound as they did, but he didn’t seem to wake fully. Shinsou’s stomach twisted hard with dread again.

Yaoyorozu pulled a rag out of her chest. She dipped it into the water and wrung it out before placing it on Bakugou’s forehead. She then took a big, deep breath before her chest sparkled as she pulled a sunbrella out, which Kaminari set up to cast them into shadow. “Okay, that should be good for now. It’s not ideal, but this should keep him from overheating even further, and should hopefully bring his temperature down.”

Shinsou didn’t like how Yaoyorozu was saying ‘should’, but it was the best they had. A hand suddenly came to his shoulder, and when he faced it, Kaminari was looking at him with a sad smile.

“Don’t worry, ‘Toshi. He’ll be alright. He always is. He’s Bakugou. If he could survive like twelve villain attacks, then heat’s got nothing on him.”

Shinsou nodded softly, grateful for his friend’s optimism. “We need to get back to the teachers, they can take him back to the mainland and get him actual help.”

“I mean, that’s a good plan, ‘Toshi, but going back to the river made us even more lost.” Kaminari sighed. “Wait, Yaomomo, can you make, like, a GPS or something? Something that could find the teachers?”

“Well, I could make a GPS but that would only tell us where we are.” Yaoyorozu murmured. “I could make one if someone decides to go looking for the teachers, that would lead them back to us. But it wouldn’t make us any less lost.”

Kaminari deflated a little. Shinsou put his hand on Kaminari’s shoulder and squeezed.

“We’ll figure this out, Denks.” Shinsou tried for a smile. “We just need to put our heads together. We’re smart, we can think of something.”

A sudden noise caught all of their attention, and Bakugou’s crimson eyes fluttered open a little. Oh thank god. As much as Shinsou had studied hero coursework, being trapped on an island away from all medical help and other people with someone with heat stroke hadn’t exactly been covered. Shinsou was really relieved that Bakugou would be back to be able to guide them back to camp.

But when Shinsou’s eyes met Bakugou’s, his heart sank. Unfocused crimson was dull with haze, and Shinsou’s shoulders slumped. Bakugou’s mouth moved for a moment with no sound before he croaked out a quiet, “water.”

Everyone scrambled to grab their water bottles, and since Shinsou’s was the only one with a straw, it was quickly decided that that would be the one used, and Shinsou brought it to Bakugou’s lips. Yaoyorozu positioned herself behind Bakugou, lifting him gently so his head rested in her lap. Shinsou pressed the straw to Bakugou’s lips, and he took a sip.

“Come on, Bakugou, just a little more.” Shinsou softly coaxed, keeping his water bottle at Bakugou’s lips.

Bakugou made a hushed noise of negation. “Mm… mm. Feel sick.”

“The water will help, Bakugou, come on.” Shinsou said. When Bakugou refused again, his voice still slightly slurred, a terrible idea came into his head.

It seemed that Kaminari had the same idea as he said, “Um, Hitosh? Maybe you should use your quirk.”

Shinsou looked to Yaoyorozu, who he trusted with making this decision. He wouldn’t dare use his quirk without everyone agreeing.

“He really does need the water.” Yaoyorozu sighed. “Feeling sick is a symptom of heat stroke, and he needs the hydration to combat it.”

Shinsou’s shoulders slumped, and he nodded. He hated using his quirk like this, when the innocent person he was using it on wasn’t consenting, but it was for the greater good.

Bakugou, please, just drink a little more.” Shinsou pleaded with him one last time, wanting to save using his quirk as a last resort.

Again, Bakugou refused, turning his head away from the water bottle. It broke his heart, but when the blond murmured, “uh-uh,” Shinsou activated his quirk. He blanketed Bakugou’s mind with his quirk, calming Bakugou’s fierce willpower with a soft darkness. Bakugou’s mind was powerful, and if he was fully conscious Shinsou doubted he’d be able to get control of Bakugou. But he wasn’t fully conscious, he was suffering and dehydrated, so Shinsou easily got a hold of Bakugou’s mind.

“Drink five small sips of water.” Shinsou commanded, using careful language. He always had to be careful in the language he used on those he controlled, as vagueness just left them confused and disoriented, able to fight back.

As commanded, Bakugou drank five more sips of water, and Shinsou used his quirk to soften the edges of the illness Bakguou was feeling right now, able to feel his own stomach rolling as Bakgou’s did. But the power of telepathy behind his quirk also let Shinsou soothe neural impulses, and he could ease the nausea within Bakugou to keep him drinking without issue.

“Is that enough?” Shinsou whispered, not breaking eye contact with Bakugou. “Has he had enough?”

He could feel his friends’ discomfort as they watched him control Bakugou, even if it was necessary, and he hated it. He wanted it over with as quickly as possible, for all their sakes.

“M-may… maybe a little more?” Yaoyorozu responded after a moment. “I-I can’t tell if he’s hydrated enough.”

“Drink five more small sips of water.” Shinsou commanded, and Bakugou instantly complied.

Shinsou felt Bakugou’s mind wavering, and he knew Bakugou was close to passing out again, so he withdrew his mind from Bakugou’s. Still, it took a moment to meet his friends’ eyes again. He knew they wouldn’t blame him for doing that, but it didn’t make him feel any less lousy for needing to control Bakugou to get him to drink some damn water. He just hung his head for a minute, needing to gather his courage to look Kaminari and Yaoyorozu in the eye again.

“H-hey, he’s shivering.” Kaminari said, which caused Shinsou to look up at the electric blond. “Does that mean the water is too cold?”

“No I don’t think so.” Yaoyorozu shook her head, feeling Bakugou’s cheeks and neck with the back of her hand. “He’s cooled down a little though. He’s not as hot as before.”

“Think we can chance moving him?” Shinsou asked, with a pit of dread in his stomach that the river wouldn’t help their friend for too much longer.

“I’m not sure.” Yaoyorozu worried at her lip. “If we weren’t lost, I’d think we could, but we still have no idea how far our base camp is from here. We can’t take him and look for help for more than… I’d say a half an hour. It would just make him worse.”

“Then you guys stay here.” Kaminari said, suddenly standing. “I’m gonna go look for help.”

“Whoa, hey, Denki-”

“No, I got us lost, I need to get us unlost.” Kaminari said. “Kacchan needs a hospital where they can actually get him out of this humidity and actually cool him off and stuff. And Hitoshi, you need to be able to help Kacchan when he can’t do it himself and Yaomomo knows the most about heat stroke and can make anything he needs. I’m expendable, I need to go looking for someone who can help us get out of here.”

“You’re not expendable, Denki!” Shinsou argued, hating that what Kaminari was saying was making a little sense, but he refused to let his friend think so lowly of himself.

“Yes, Kaminari, Shinsou’s right. You’re not expendable. You’ve been incredibly helpful.”

“Well, I’m gonna go be more helpful.” Kaminari said resolutely, and Shinsou knew they wouldn’t be able to change his mind. Once any member of the Bakusquad set their minds to something, there was no talking them out of it. “Yaomomo, can I have that GPS?”

Shinsou and Yaoyorozu exchanged a glance, and he could see a resignation in her eyes that matched his own.

“Alright, but please be careful, Kaminari.” Yaoyorozu pleaded, and within moments, she handed him a fully functioning GPS system. “Walking alone in the woods seems to be inviting trouble.”

“I’ll be safe, Yaomomo.” Kaminari gave them a thumbs up, and unexpectedly, it did kinda make Shinsou feel better. “I’ll be real careful, I promise.”

Yaoyorozu then handed Kaminari a walkie talkie. “Take this too, so we can keep in contact.”

“Check in like every five minutes, dude.” Shinsou said, his worry clearly shining through. “And make sure to drink lots of water.”

“I will. Just stay here, guys, I’ll get help.” Kaminari said, giving them both a look before turning and taking off. Shinsou watched with a heavy heart until Kaminari was out of sight. He knew that the park was uninhabited, but there was always the risk of getting injured or heat exhaustion or spooking a venomous animal. Kaminari could break his ankle or get bitten by a snake or fall down a crevasse or…

“He’ll be alright.” Yaoyorozu then said, startling him from his thoughts. “If there’s anything that Class 1-A is, it’s good in a crisis.”

Shinsou huffed softly. “Yeah. Guess Fate decided that I’m supposed to see that for myself.”

“Hey-o, my dudes, I’m still alive.” The walkie talkie then chirped and they giggled a little, Kaminari’s words breaking the tension a little.

“Glad to hear it, man.” Shinsou said into their receiver.

Silence followed for a little while, but it wasn’t as awkward as Shinsou was used to. Most silences around him were awkward, people wanting too much from him or no one feeling comfortable around him, but for some reason, it was a calm silence, like how when he sat with Bakugou on the couch. If Bakugou hadn’t been so sick, it would’ve been almost nice.

As an amount of time that Shinsou wasn’t sure of passed, he and Yaoyorozu just kept tending to Bakugou. Re-soaking the cloth on his forehead with cool water, gently splashing his exposed skin, adjusting the sunbrella to keep the sun off of them. Bakugou regained consciousness a couple of times, and Shinsou was able to get him to drink a little bit more water, but he never stayed awake long enough for much else. Kaminari routinely checked in with them, telling them that he was fine, and venting a little about how all trees look alike. Shinsou just prayed that Kaminari wasn’t getting any more lost.

“I’m- I’m sorry guys, I feel like I’ve passed this tree like four times, I can’t- hey! Guys! Over here!” Kaminari shouted through the walkie talkie, and both Shinsou and Yaoyorozu perked up.

“What’s going on, Kaminari?” Yaoyorozu asked.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I finally found you guys, I’ve been searching for forever!” Kaminari said, not answering the question.

“Where the hell have you guys been, man?!” That was Kirishima, worry evident in his tone. Kaminari had found their class again! “We’ve been looking for you guys for over an hour!”

“Kacchan got heat stroke, we had to go to the river to cool him down, and we got lost.” Kaminari said desperately. “But- but don’t worry, Yaomomo made me a GPS thingy, it’ll lead us straight back to them!”

“Then let’s waste no time.” Shinsou was a little surprised to hear their teacher’s voice, but he supposed that when students were missing, Aizawa-sensei would never let his students search alone. “Lead us back to your group, Kaminari.”

“Yes, sir, Aizawa-sensei sir!”

“Thank goodness.” Yaoyorozu murmured, softly stroking Bakugou’s cheek almost absentmindedly. “I was beginning to get really worried.”

Shinsou nodded, his body untensing as relief flooded through him. “Yeah, me too.”

After a bit, Kaminari shouted through the walkie talkie. “Guys! Guys! The GPS thingy says we’ll be at your location in three minutes.”

“Understood, Kaminari, and thank you.” Yaoyorozu answered.

Aizawa must have taken the walkie talkie because it was his voice that echoed through next. “How’s Bakugou?” 

“Still unconscious, but he’s better than when he first passed out.” Yaoyorozu replied. “His shivering has calmed down a little, and we’ve been able to get him to drink some water when he does wake up.”

“Well done.”

Once everyone arrived, Shinsou thought it was like a sort of controlled chaos. Everyone else must have returned on time, as Aizawa had been walking with their whole class, probably to keep everyone together, and so many people immediately rushed in to help. Kirishima picked Bakugou up, Todoroki brushed a thin layer of ice over Bakugou’s skin, Sero grabbed all of Bakugou’s clothes, Midoriya and the girls immediately worried over both he and Yaoyorozu, checking over them as Aizawa checked over Bakugou. It was a lot of stimulation at once, and kinda overwhelming, but then Kaminari put a hand on Shinsou’s shoulder and squeezed gently, grounding him a little, and Shinsou managed a small smile.

As they headed back to the boat, with Bakugou in Kirishima’s arms, Shinsou finally felt a sense of tranquility come over him, safe in the knowledge that soon they’d be back in their air conditioned dormitory and Bakugou would be in an air conditioned hospital room. While they walked, Shinsou couldn’t help but find himself drawn to Bakugou’s slack face. It was strange, his blank face looked almost peaceful, serene. It was the gentlest expression he thought he’d ever seen on Bakugou. He wondered if the blond could tell that he was surrounded by friends and safety as they walked. He hoped so.

When Bakugou woke up later in Recovery Girl’s office, Shinsou would be there waiting for him.

Day 19, 23- shidekobushi

19 was hard, so this is what came of it. It's not my strongest work, but it's still finished. That's all that matters^^

prompts- floral bouquet and stalking- Bakugou has a stalker, one who he sees as nothing more than an annoyance. but this wouldn't be a whump story if she was just an annoyance ;) mostly really this is slice of life with whump^^

AO3 link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/50331565

A hero needed to be constantly aware of their surroundings, able to tell the slightest difference between movements to make sure they’re not caught off guard, and Katsuki lived by that code. Even though he ignored all the stares he’d become more aware of after Kamino, and very much ignored how anxious that made him feel, he still noticed who was staring at him, assessing their threat status, or how annoying they were. The top of that list right now was this dumb little brunette from support, who hadn’t stopped staring at him for almost a month now. If he flicked his eyes over to her, glaring strongly, she always turned her head to the side, and it tightened the dread that had started building in his gut. There were two scenarios where someone would need to stare at him for so long, and one was particularly worse than the other. The first was simple, they were a threat to him, either challenging his authority or prowess, and he could deal with them easily. The second drove him up the wall. Ever since middle school, where the other kids had finally begun to notice the other gender, or the same gender depending on which way they swung, he’d been plagued by other people leaving chocolates on his desk, slipping little notes into his locker, or worst of all, actually talking to him with a nervous smile and hopeful eyes, asking him for coffee or to go on a walk.

He might take a little too much pleasure shutting them down sometimes, but watching as their faces collapsed when he bluntly turned them down was his consolation prize for being forced to deal with this shit in the first place. It was their own fault really, he’d made it very clear that he had no interest in romance, especially not the ‘traditional’ way. He always thought it was so stupid, leaving terrible chocolate or pieces of worthless paper with shitty drawings all over it. If he ever became interested in romance, (which he absolutely doubted but the old hag kept telling him she was the same way when she was his age but she found herself wanting it as she got older so he supposed it was technically possible) he would be the one doing the ‘wooing’ or whatever shit it was called. He wasn’t a coward, he’d just go up to the person and tell them and start dating them. He would never be approached by anyone and actually accept it.

Katsuki had hoped to dissuade her by loudly talking about how he didn’t date around her. His friends had asked him if he’d ever dated before coming to U.A., and he’d taken advantage of the opportunity. Ashido was the most perceptive in the class when it came to unnecessary emotions, calling the couples that would eventually get together with disturbing accuracy, so he’d thought that she’d asked because she also noticed the girl and was putting feelers out if he was interested. He’d tried to make it blatantly obvious that he wasn’t to get her to back off, but that just seemed to spur her on. Not even yelling at her to leave him alone worked, at least Deku listened to that.

When she started showing up at places he went, he started to get very uncomfortable. She would never actually engage with him, just be there, at arm’s length, constantly making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Dread mixed with anxiety that he refused to admit was anxiety, telling himself that it was just some stupid bitch who couldn’t read a fucking room. Deku had been similar, though he actually had been invited to the places he was going because the old hag had insisted on inviting Auntie Inko and inviting Auntie always meant Deku coming too. The damn nerd may have constantly stared and asked too many questions, but at least he wasn’t always at the edge of his perception, raising his hackles every goddamn time. His skin crawled every time he saw her, when he decided to get Lunch Rush’s food rather than make his own she was always there, when he went to the gym to spar or workout she was always there pretending to work out, when all of his classmates were outside enjoying the sun and he was studying away from them (but not too far away) she was always on another bench or behind a tree. This dumb extra was fucking insane, apparently, and eventually he went back to ignoring her, hoping that complete disinterest in her actions would work.

It hadn’t, much to his dismay.

“You know, dude, maybe we should just start inviting that girl to go with us places.” Kaminari said lightly, ignoring Katsuki’s glare. “We already know she’s gonna be there anyways, might as well give her an invitation.”

“I barely tolerate you fucks, invite her and I’ll stick your head to the top of the flagpole.” Katsuki growled, trying to suppress how uncomfortable that made him.

“But if we do, then she’ll see how much better boyfriend material I am.” Kaminari laughed, puffing up his nonexistent chest. “That’ll get her off your back.”

Tense muscles unwound just a little as Katsuki recognized that Kaminari was actually trying to help, just in the stupidest way possible. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised, he’d named the idiot Dunce Face for a reason, and not just because of his whey mode.

But the idea still made him pause. “Aren’t you literally always trying to get into Ears’ pants? And Mindfreak’s now too?”

Kaminari looked quickly over to where the two purples were… off purpling, he didn’t fucking know and he didn’t care. All he cared about was Dunce Face kept inviting more and more people to be in their little group that Katsuki couldn’t escape and it really pissed him the fuck off.

“I mean, yeah, but there’s always the ‘make em jealous’ route.” Kaminari said, once he realized his two purples were out of earshot.

“That literally never works, you’re just a fucking idiot.” Katsuki said, ignoring the fact that he was actually somehow giving relationship advice. God, what was his life now?

Kaminari sort of deflated with too much emotion for Katsuki to process all of them. “Well, I don’t know what else to do! I flirt with them, and they just make fun of me.”

“As they should.”

“Kacchan!” Kaminari huffed. “My point is, I’m running out of ideas here. A guy can only take so much friendly ribbing before he goes crazy!”

“Why are you asking me?” Katsuki in disbelief.

“Because I’ve already asked everyone else, and nothing’s working.” Kaminari whined.

“Maybe if you stop being such a huge idiot all the time, they might pay attention to you.” Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Get better lines, I’m so fucking sick of the shitty ones you have. If you say another corny ass bullshit one-liner, I’m throwing you out the window.”

“Hey, my lines are awesome!” Kaminari said, getting another eye roll and scoff.

“Sure, if you’re five or in one of those god awful romance movies.”

Kaminari pouted. “I don’t know what that girl sees in you.”

Katsuki didn’t either.

“Girl?” Ah, hell, Ashido. Great, way to make this conversation worse. “Is there a girl? Oh my god, Bakugou do you like someone?”

“Fuck no.” Katsuki barked, making her pout.

“Nah, we’re talking about Kacchan’s stalker.” Kaminari said, saving him from another lecture about not yelling at people who ask stupid questions. “We don’t know what she sees in him.”

“Fuck you, I’m great.” Katsuki snapped. “If I did want to date someone, which I don’t, but if I did, I’d be the greatest fucking boyfriend ever. Your stupid pickup lines wouldn’t be good enough to lick the dirt off my boots.”

Kaminari cringed at his crudeness, but Ashido just stared at him with her too knowing eyes. “You know, Bakugou, if you keep that up, you’ll end up single for the rest of your life.”

“Good.” Katsuki snarled. “Romance is for the weak minded.”

“Mm, you say that now.” Ashido said, still staring at him. “I still swear by the end of second year, you’ll be with someone. I just know it.”

Katsuki blanched a little, deciding to never date anyone ever while he was here at U.A. just to spite her, even if the world turned upside down and he somehow actually wanted to. Kaminari laughed at his face, which Katsuki ended with a hard smack! to his arm.

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“Sorry, Kacchan but you should’ve seen your face.” Kaminari said, rubbing his arm but still giggling a little. Bastard.

“I don’t date. At all.” Katsuki stated bluntly. “Least of all her. She’s a fucking creep.”

“If you’re uncomfortable around her, why don’t you just tell her to leave you alone, and that you’re not interested?” Mina asked.

Katsuki’s eye twitched. “I have. She won’t take the fucking hint.”

“Just tell someone, then.” Mina shrugged, as if it were that easy. “I’m sure one of the teachers would step in for stalking. Pretty sure it’s against the rules or something. Or we could do it, maybe she’ll listen to us.”

“I don’t need anyone to ‘step in’, I don’t need help.” Katsuki growled. “I can handle this on my own, without anyone meddling in my fucking business.”

Katsuki just needed her to just make her stupid public confession, so he could embarrass her in front of everyone to get her to stop. Humiliating her was becoming his last option to get her to fucking stop. He didn’t know if anything else would work since nothing else was.

Mina just shrugged at him again, and the conversation moved back to Kaminari’s pathetic attempts to get into their other friends’ pants, and Katsuki tried to forget about her for a while.

“Bakubro, stalker alert.” Kirishima murmured to him as they were at their lockers, the last bell having rung a few minutes ago.

Katsuki turned and the dumb bitch was actually walking towards him, her arms behind her back, like she was holding something. Finally.

“What, stalker?” Katsuki snapped as she finally came up to him.

“Um, it’s Seiko.” She said, and he internally facepalmed that she thought he had just mispronounced her name. Though, the fact that her parents named her ‘psycho’ seemed apt.

His throat was getting a little tight, and he wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t dangerous, just creepy. He should’ve been able to breathe just fine. His eye had twitched at her stupidity, but it was still going, and Katsuki was starting to get a little dizzy. What the hell?

“I’ve been admiring you from afar,” not too fucking far, “and I thought that maybe, since I know you like coffee,” she sounded like she knew some personal secret, and Katsuki rolled his eyes. Everyone knew he liked coffee. “a-and well. I thought that maybe you’d like to go out for a coffee with me this friday?”

Katsuki meant to yell at her, but his throat was now very tight, as if it was closing. Something was wrong, he just couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.

Taking his silence as hesitant permission to keep going, she went on, “I-I brought you these! I overheard you saying you liked them the other day, so. Here.”

And then it made sense.

This dumb fucking bitch pulled out shidekobushi from behind her back, her hands jerky in her movements. She was right, he had mentioned them the other day, but not because he liked them.

He’d been telling his friends he was deathly allergic to them.

They’d been discussing taking a weekend trip somewhere, to blow off steam and just spend some quality time together, and he’d been forced to join the conversation. Mina had floated the idea of going to Tajimi, because this was the season the rare flower shidekobushi were in bloom, and Tajimi was one of the only places in Japan to see them.

“We’re not going there.” Katsuki had said authoritatively.

“Kacchan, just because you don’t really like flowers doesn’t mean it’s not a cool experience.” Mina had protested, frowning.

“We’re not going there.” Katsuki had repeated. “If you go there, I’m not going.”

“Come on, bro, the point is to do things as a group.” Kirishima had put his hand on Katsuki’s shoulder briefly. “Everyone goes, even if it’s not our first choice.”

“I’m not fucking going.” Katsuki had snapped. “I’ve been there before.”

“And we’ve all been to the maid cafe Denki dragged us to too, and that’s still an option.” Mina had insisted. “Besides, I’ve never been, and I want to go.”

“I can’t!” Katsuki had sighed angrily, rubbing his nose trying to deal with their annoying bullshit. His voice had gotten low, instinctively trying to protect himself from being overheard. Admitting this was already hard enough. “Last time I went, I ended up in the hospital.”

That had caught his friends’ attention. “Dude, why?”

“Because I got fucking taken out by fucking flowers.” Katsuki had whispered grumpily. He hated admitting any weakness, but he couldn’t play with his own life like that. He couldn’t be a hero if some stupid flower fucking killed him, no matter how much he hated it. Stupid bastards for pushing him all the time, they always made him admit things he didn’t want to. How fucking dare they learn his weaknesses? “I can’t be around them, they make me sick.”

Thankfully, Kirishima had had the good grace to also whisper because they all knew how hard this was for him, Kirishima especially. “Like allergic? Like how bad?”

“Bad.” Katsuki had said. “If you wanna go there, I’m not going. I don’t fuck around with that.”

They’d all agreed that that was off the table, and Katsuki had all but forgotten talking about it.

Until he had those exact flowers shoved in his face by a crazy stalker who’d only overheard part of the conversation.

Katsuki’s eyes went wide as his throat immediately closed, his hand coming to his throat as the world began to spin. He gasped for air like a fish out of water, the air never making it to his lungs as his throat closed completely. He stumbled backwards, feeling Kirishima catch him as his eyes unfocused as the room began to spin faster. Kirishima lowered them to the ground, Katsuki’s body jerking convulsively as he kept trying and failing to breathe.

Voices filtered in his head, and he lost track of them, black spots flashing across his eyes so fast he didn’t notice when his eyes rolled back in his head.

“I don’t understand! I heard him!”

“Get those flowers away from him! He’s allergic!”

“Does anyone have an epi-pen?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Someone get Recovery Girl!”

“He can’t breathe!”

The convulsions stopped, his eyes fluttered closed, and his attempts at getting air stopped. Darkness overtook him like a tsunami, not even giving him time to lament the fact that he’d just been killed by a fucking flower of all things, only giving him the slightest feeling of something sharp in his leg.

The first thing he became conscious of was breathing a full breath and then immediately choking on it, coughing as he wheezed awake. He got his eyes open, blinking heavily at the too strong light, but the world stayed in place instead of spinning and he could breathe again so he could thank the stars he hadn’t just been killed by a fucking flower. Stupid fucking immune system.

“Easy, Bakugou, take it easy.” It took a moment but his vision justified Aizawa into focus. “Recovery Girl will be here in a minute, just breathe.”

Honestly, breathing was still a little hard to do, but he shook his head anyway. “Can walk.”

“I know you can, I’m just not letting you.” Aizawa said. He opened his mouth in protest, but the hand he discovered was on his shoulder pressed down. “Epinephrine is taken best laid down, we need to make sure it’s still properly in your system, and right now what I say goes. You can yell at me later, problem child, after this is over.”

Katsuki decided he was definitely going to do that, this pissed him off. He was perfectly capable of walking to Recovery Girl’s office under his own power.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Aizawa said, distracting him from his anger. “I’m getting a lot of conflicting stories.”

“Crazy stalker bitch.” Katsuki panted, his eyes searching for her. But he found there wasn’t anyone else around him, they were all down the hall, Vlad King blocking off anyone from getting near him. Alright, maybe he won’t yell so much at Aizawa, that was clearly his doing. “Brought stupid fucking flowers as if I’d like that. ‘M allergic to them.”

“We noticed that.” Aizawa muttered. “Your friends say she’s been stalking you for about a month now, and that you repeatedly turned her down. Do you think it might have been intentional?”

Katsuki shook his head. He hated this bitch and hoped to never see her again, but he wouldn’t purposefully get someone in trouble for something they didn’t do. He had his own code of honor, even if other people didn’t understand it. “Don’t think so. Think she just misheard me. She never got close enough to hear shit properly, and she asked me out rather than say it was revenge, so I think she’s just fucking dumb.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Aizawa asked. “She did shove them in your face from what I’ve heard.”

“I’m sure.” Katsuki nodded. “Not the first time someone’s shoved stuff at me because of this romance bullshit. First time it was flowers though. Usually it’s chocolate.”

“Alright, that’s good.” Aizawa said.  “And you didn’t come to anyone about having a stalker for a month… why?”

“She was just a girl with a stupid crush.” Katsuki said obviously. “She wasn’t a threat. Figured she’d ask me out eventually, and thought turning her down would get her to stop. Wasn’t supposed to be a big deal.”

“If there’s a next time, problem child, tell me anyway, I don’t care.” Aizawa said bluntly. “Stalkers can devolve very easily into dangerous situations, or they can do dumb things like get you flowers you’re allergic to and become threats in a matter of seconds.”

Katsuki pouted, didn’t nod but also didn’t refuse. Aizawa took that as acceptance.

“Get better students and I won’t have to deal with this.”

Aizawa glared at him. He glared back.

“Since it seems to be accidental,” Aizawa said. Katsuki declared the staring contest a draw. “I don’t think suspension or expulsion are necessary, just an apology and maybe a restriction order. Do you agree?”

“I don’t want that bitch anywhere near me.” Katsuki growled. “And she can stuff her apology up her ass, I don’t fucking need pathetic words.”

Aizawa just nodded at him. “I’ll have her write one anyway, you don’t have to read it.”

Katsuki just huffed.

“Alright, Recovery Girl is here.” Aizawa said, and Katsuki could hear the whir of a transport and crutch along with footsteps. “Be nice, problem child.”

Katsuki opened his mouth, and Aizawa just glared again. “Be nice.”

He was yelling at his bastard teacher again.

Day 5, 9, 10, 17, 18, 30- Lost in the Darkness

aka Working very hard to keep Bakugou blindfolded the entire story

prompts- pinned down, stranded, you're a liar, touch aversion, blindfold, bridal carry- building collapse, broken bones, head injury, Bakugou being Bakugou, Kiri not taking his shit hehe

AO3 link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/50415793

Sometimes Katsuki entertains the idea that he might regret coming to U.A.

He didn’t, he would never accept anything less than the school that All Might attended, but circumstances like this gave him plenty of time to think. Especially since he couldn’t do literally anything else at the moment. Currently, he was blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back, suspended in the air hanging from a rope that was connected to a harness, being forced to pretend to be a hostage. As much as the training scenarios were as close to real life as they could be, hanging from a singular rope tied to a ceiling was not something to be fucked around with, and Katsuki could be grateful at least that he wouldn’t get injured by his classmates’ idiocy in this shitty simulation. He wouldn’t put it past them to just cut him down without warning him so he fell flat on his face. They really were that stupid. As soon as they’d gotten him in the air, he’d wanted to get out of his restraints himself, perfectly capable of rescuing himself, but Aizawa had told him that if he didn’t play his ‘randomly’ assigned role (bullshit, Aizawa never left anything up to chance) as ‘regular citizen’, then Katsuki would lose an entire grade over it. Damn fucker was using his stellar academic record against him, and Katsuki had to admit, it was currently working. As impressed as he was that Aizawa had found something that got him to go along with this dumb exercise, Katsuki also never hated his teacher more than right now.

So, unfortunately, here he was. Hanging here, in complete silence, cut off from the world around him. God, this fucking sucked. Had to be one of the most humiliating things he’d done since getting to this school, and to make matters worse, he was so bored. The classmates who were pretending to be the villains who ‘captured’ him had left him ages ago, off fighting the heroes of the exercise, being serious fucking idiots as you should never leave a hostage alone because you don’t know what they’ll do or the heroes plan and then you lose your bargaining chip. … Sue him, he was bored, he could think both sides’ actions through, and he certainly wouldn’t have acted this dumb, and he’d win the battle against anyone assigned to be his enemy. That first fight with Deku was an outlier, and Katsuki refused to count it.

Noises caught his attention, and Katsuki hoped that this shit would be over soon. He just wanted to go to his room, make a pot of coffee, and forget today with some violent video games he could take his anger out on. Maybe if he was lucky, Kirishima would be down to play too. He always felt better after annihilating one of his friends. But then the noises shifted, and Katsuki carefully turned his head, trying to pinpoint where they were coming from without getting the rope to spin.

“Bakugou!” Dunce face. Wonderful. “Guys, I found him, come on!”

More noises followed her shout, footsteps, and he sensed the area around him fill up with people. He’d been right, as he always was, going off to the fight and leaving him alone was a dumb move by his classmates and they’d gotten their asses kicked. From what he could hear, since they still hadn’t taken off the damn blindfold, dunce face, pink cheeks, and shitty hair had come to his ‘rescue’. Joy. At least pink cheeks had some measure of sense when Deku wasn’t involved, and Kirishima would hopefully keep Kaminari from being too stupid for his own good. He supposed this was the best out of a shitty situation since he was stuck here anyways.

“So how do we get him down?” Kaminari asked. “If we just cut him down, he’ll fall.”

Katsuki bit his lip, trying to keep himself in check. The answer was so obvious Katsuki could’ve screamed.

“Ooh, Uraraka, if you float him, I can cut the rope.” Thank god, Katsuki thought that discovery was going to take them three more years as they chattered.

“On it, Kirishima!”

Five fingers came to his chest, and the horrible feeling of weightlessness infected his whole body. Katsuki had never liked pink cheeks quirk in the first place, and he hated it even more now. He hated not being in control of his own body. Katsuki bit his lip harder.

Katsuki swung a little as Kirishima sawed through the rope, and he felt it when the rope attached to his harness suddenly went limp. He floated around for a moment before he got too fed up with their idiocy.

“Let me down. Now.” Katsuki hissed, his voice as venomous as a snake.

He could tell he surprised pink cheeks in her gasp, even though they still hadn’t taken off the goddamn blindfold, but he seriously didn’t give a shit. This day was shitty enough, he didn’t need her to add to it more than necessary. He heard her speak her stupid words, she really didn’t need to say it every time, from what he could tell of her quirk, but he used the sound to prepare for the sudden fall he was about to experience.

The freefall he was expecting got interrupted by strong arms, Kirishima balancing him so he could stand on his own without falling over. Under the blindfold they still hadn’t taken off, his eye twitched. And he thought today couldn’t get any worse, but he supposed he’d underestimated just how fucking stupid these assholes were.

“What do we do now?” Kaminari said, doing fuck knows what.

“How about you untie me?” Katsuki growled, his desire to keep his grades perfect fighting with his desire to just fuck all this shit and take the fucking hit so he could be fucking done.

“I got you, bro!” Kirishima said, and Katsuki heard Kirishima’s quirk go off again. He felt a swish behind his back, and his arms were finally freed from those damn uncomfortable ropes.

“Fucking finally.” Katsuki muttered, rubbing at his wrists. “Took you idiots long enough.”

Katsuki’s hand went to the blindfold, ready to rip it off himself, when the whole building shook. He instinctively put his hands out to steady himself, and before anyone could speak, Katsuki felt the ground crack and split open, and they were all freefalling with a shout. Katsuki had a single moment to curse in his head, as apparently things could get worse, and he’d just jinxed himself. But before he could try anything that might mitigate the shit the building collapse had started, his head crashed into something hard and unyielding, sending bright sparks across his eyes before he fell into a darkness a blindfold couldn’t create. 

~~

Katsuki’s first thought as he slowly rose to consciousness was that his whole body hurt, and he didn’t know why. He could feel heavy weights pressing down on him, completely covering his right arm, left hip, and there was one pushing directly on his face. His face was sticky, his arm was sticky, and his hip was throbbing two beats faster than his heart. He groaned, trying to move to escape the weights but they kept him pinned down, his legs scraping on dust, sliding through the dirty ground like a waterslide.

“Hold on, I think I heard him.” He knew that voice. That was… that was…

Oh shit. As he heard his best friend, memories came rushing back to his mind. Putting on the harness in the unhappiest way, being lifted into the air, and Aizawa handing him the blindfold to put on before his teacher gently tied his hands behind his back. Chattering voices from his idiot classmates, who joined him only to leave him there a little while later. Other voices of different people, Kirishima cutting him down, cutting the ropes, and then the ground disappearing out from under them. The building must’ve collapsed, that’s what the weights were, debris from the cave in. And the blindfold was still on his fucking face.

Kirishima must’ve found him, because soon the weights were being lifted off of him, and he heard a soft, “fuck.” The weight on his face was lifted very slowly, gently, and fingers probed at Katsuki’s temple, and he twitched as Kirishima disturbed the dried sticky shit on his face and in his hair. He was pretty sure it was blood, but he couldn’t be sure, as who knows what kind of plumbing had been disturbed when they’d fallen. Be easier for him if it wasn’t blood, though.

“Kami, get over here, turn up the light. Bakugou’s hurt!” No shit, Kirishima. Why not say other obvious shit like they were in trouble or that they were trapped?

Kaminari must be using his quirk to have his electricity crackle around him, giving them what light they could get. Light began to penetrate his darkness, and he shut his eyes harder, the light stabbing needles into his brain. A pained gasp slipped out unconsciously, and his left arm tried to shield his eyes from the light, but Kirishima took his hand, and held it.

“Easy, bro, you took a lot of damage.” Kirishima murmured. If Kirishima kept saying super obvious things that didn’t need to be said, Katsuki was going to blow him up.

Katsuki ripped his hand out of Kirishima’s, and came to his face. Since none of these assholes would finally take off this goddamned blindfold, he was going to do it himself. But as he pushed the fabric upwards, strobe lights blinded him, his vision going white as he screamed. A hand pulled his away, the blindfold falling back into place. Firecrackers of light assaulted his mind, taking away his ability to process the world around him. Flashes of what he’d managed to see popped through his mind, Kirishima with minimal cuts and a few bruises, Kaminari’s jacket tied around Uraraka’s bloody shoulder as a tourniquet, and Kaminari was nothing but an essence of overly powerful, bright light.

“Bakugou, what’s wrong?”

All he could manage was a strained, “bright.”

Kirishima’s fingers pinched at the blindfold, putting himself in between Katsuki and Kaminari, and through the shining light setting his nerves on fire, he could see his best friend frown before putting the blindfold back. “Shit.”

“What is it, Kirishima?” Kaminari asked, sounding unsettled, like he had in the mall training. Two was enough for a pattern for Katsuki, he was going to rage at Aizawa for letting this happen to him again, and swear that he wasn’t doing anything like this again until the teachers fixed this shit so a third time never happened.

“Bakugou, I think you have a concussion or something.” Kirishima muttered, knowing to talk to him despite the fact that it had been Uraraka that had asked. Katsuki hated being talked about like he wasn’t there. “And your arm totally looks broken, dude.”

Even though Katsuki couldn’t see it, he knew Kirishima was biting the inside of his cheek. It was one of his nervous habits. But a head wound meant the stickiness on his face was blood, and that complicated shit. Adding a broken arm to the mix was a disadvantage he would struggle to get through, but Katsuki refused to let this stop him. The marathon this had been going to be had just turned into a triathlon. Fuck. Still, he could do a triathlon with his eyes closed.

Actually, he was going to have to. Katsuki could see the overpowering light still through the blindfold, but it was easier to deal with with the blindfold on. Goddammit, his day could not get any-- stop. Don’t jinx yourself again. He didn’t know how this could get worse, and he didn’t want to know. Today fucking sucked ass, he should leave it at that.

“You with us, bro?” Kirishima asked, and he realized he’d been getting talked to, but honestly he couldn’t care less.

“Yeah.” He muttered. “Just figuring out how to get us out of here.”

Since Kirishima had removed the debris, Katsuki was able to lean to his left side, using his good side to get himself up. He could practically hear Kirishima wanting to help him, but he also knew Katsuki wouldn’t accept it. His left leg was shaky, his hip screaming at him to stop, but pain was just a call he didn’t have to answer. Pain never stopped All Might, therefore it wouldn’t stop him.

But as soon as he got himself as upright as he could, a bout of dizziness hit him, and he lost his balance, crashing into Kirishima. His best friend fumbled a bit catching him, making a surprised noise, but got him standing after a moment.

“Okay, dude, I’m sorry, I know you hate this, but you can’t walk by yourself.” Kirishima said, regret lacing his words, infuriating him. Kirishima was the only one he could trust not to pity him, but he still hated needing his help. Kirishima had learned the language Katsuki spoke, to know when to ask for something because Katsuki needed it but wouldn’t say it, to brush everything off as not an issue because Katsuki didn’t want to talk about it, ever. This wasn’t his language and Katsuki growled at him, the warning sign that he was about to get his shit rocked.

But Kirishima never took his shit, so he just adjusted Katsuki so his left arm was slung around Kirishima’s shoulders. And he thought that being tied up was humiliating.

“Bakugou,” Kirishima said, lowering his voice so only he could hear. “You can’t take the blindfold off, Kami’s light is too strong for your concussion, and you can’t walk. Just this once, let me help you. Let me be your crutch.”

Oh damn him for using that shit against him. He let Deku be his crutch one time and they never let him live it down. Katsuki was going to find a reason to blow Deku up for this, whether it was a good reason or not. This was all his fault anyway.

Regardless of how he felt though, Kirishima was right. He couldn’t see, and being trapped under a bunch of debris was not something that he could get out of on his own if he was blind. He couldn’t even see what was in front of him, the light radiating off Kaminari too bright for him to see anything but blurs and blobs of where he assumed people and objects were.

It felt like swallowing broken glass, but he ground out a quiet, “fine.”

“Thanks, dude.” Kirishima whispered, wrapping his arm around Katsuki’s waist. He hobbled them over to the others, Katsuki struggling to walk in step with Kirishima since he couldn’t fucking see where the bastard was stepping. God, he just wanted today to end.

“Dude, Bakugou, you look like shit.” Kaminari exclaimed, crackling faintly.

Katsuki tried to shy away from the bright light without looking like he was doing that. “If anyone else says one more blatantly obvious thing, I’m gonna blow all three of you up.”

He heard Kaminari’s, “yeesh, sorry” but it was soon drowned out by pink cheeks.

“Hush, Bakugou. You can’t do that anyways, you’ll just make this worse, unless you want this to cave in more. Now, we need to take care of your arm. Okay, what can we use to make a sling?”

Lots of ideas were discussed, and shot down violently by Katsuki, but eventually he allowed Kirishima to take the harness off and use that, Katsuki using his good arm on Kirishima’s shoulder to keep himself upright. Katsuki refused to let any noise of pain out again, but internally he was screaming as Kirishima moved. Oh yeah, his arm was definitely broken, it felt like almost a Deku level of broken, and when Kirishima finally stopped and took his waist again, Katsuki was trying to minimize his heavy panting and shove down the tears in his eyes.

“Here, Kirishima, I can make Bakugou float so it’s not as hard for you to carry him.” Uraraka said, way too chipper for what she was saying.

Katsuki felt a flash of panicked anger ignite in his chest. Not being in control of his body when he was trapped and blind was a step too far, and he didn’t care what it meant for him to refuse it. He’d rather drag his own ass out of here on his own, completely blind, then have the last thing he had taken from him. Control over his body was something he refused external assistance for, and he would not let her steal that from him, he didn’t care how hurt he was.

Sensing her fingers as they began to brush his skin, Katsuki kicked out at her. “Don’t touch me!”

He must have connected with Kaminari accidentally, as he got a static shock from it, but the “ow!” Kaminari made made up for it a little.

“Bakugou! Don’t kick me!” Pink cheeks squealed, which just made his resolve stronger. He ignored Kaminari’s, “don’t kick me either!”

“Then don’t fucking touch me.”

“Come on, man.” Kirishima said in his ear. “We need to get out of here.”

“I’m not letting that bitch touch me.” Katsuki growled back.

Pink cheeks made an affronted shout, but Kirishima was quick to understand what Katsuki was actually saying, that her quirk was off limits.

“He doesn’t mean it, Uraraka,” uh, yes the fuck he did, “but I’ve got him. He’s not heavy to me.”

Somehow Katsuki got a sappy vibe from that comment and he promptly ignored it.

“If you say so, Kirishima.” Uraraka said, doing that stupid pouty face she made when she was trying to be serious. He didn’t have to see it, he could hear it just fine.

“Come on guys, let’s get out of here.” Kirishima said, and they started walking. “There’s a path, Bakugou, if there’s anything you can trip on, I’ll handle it.”

Kirishima kept to the back, not leaving Kaminari’s light but also trying to keep as much of it off Katsuki as he could. This is why Kirishima was his best friend, even though he hadn’t actually wanted a best friend when he came to this school. But Kirishima understood him, helped without helping, didn’t shove his weakness back in Katsuki’s face. When they got back, he supposed he could make too much gyūdon and give the other bits to Kirishima for this. He supposed it’s been a while since he had that, and he could just randomly have a craving for a meatier dish.

The more they walked, the more Katsuki couldn’t help leaning on Kirishima. Each step with his left foot sent another bolt of pure agony to his hip, and every step with his right jostled his arm, and Katsuki’s head was already swimming from so much movement that he could barely keep track of the world beyond the pain. With the blindfold keeping the torturous light away, he couldn’t see the worried looks his friends were shooting him, only being able to sense a tension rising in the air, unable to place where it was coming from. It was strangely quiet as they walked, which unsettled him. Kaminari usually was a motor mouth, Katsuki always had to yell at him to be quiet. But now, no one was talking, and that didn’t seem right.

Suddenly, the light stopped, and they all froze.

“Kaminari!” Pink cheeks shrieked, the sound sending another bolt from his ear to his brain, and then back. He couldn’t be worried about Kaminari for a minute, he was so wrapped up in agony.

He heard knees and hands hit the floor along with winded gasps. Kaminari must have been pushing the limits of his control, his quirk more suited for attacks rather than support, keeping the volts so close to him had been exhausting him. As worried as he wouldn’t admit he was for his idiot, he was more worried that this would make dunce face go into whey mode. Not only would they lose what little light they had, but Katsuki wouldn’t be the only one out of commission, and Katsuki didn’t think their little group could take much more.

“I’m okay.” Kaminari panted, and the light started up again, but it was duller. “I’ll be fine. Plus ultra, right?”

The light was so dull in comparison to what Kaminari had before, that he reached around Kirishima’s neck, strangling him a little but for a good reason, and he peeled back the blindfold for a moment. It was still too bright, driving icepicks into his brain, but he could make out his friends now. Uraraka had knelt down to Kaminari’s level, and Kaminari was trembling, but from what Katsuki wasn’t sure. To let Kirishima breathe, he let go.

“Take a breather, man, you’ve been going for like, forever.” Kirishima said, and again the light went out, as the sound of shifting echoed in the darkness.

Katsuki never liked darkness, not that he was afraid of it like a baby or anything, but he never liked being able to see what and who was around him. Especially since… well. He supposed both. Kamino had only added onto what had happened with the sludge villain. But being plunged into darkness now wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, and he was glad to hear Kaminari’s breath evening out.

Standing was becoming unbearable as they waited for Kaminari to be ready again. His left leg was trembling fiercely, and his right wasn’t doing much better. His arm was still against his chest, but just being upright was making him dizzy, the world spinning painfully, like being stabbed into a ceiling fan as it rotated. At this point, Katsuki was standing on pure willpower alone. He wouldn’t fall, he already had to lean on Kirishima, he wouldn’t embarrass himself further and fucking fall. He wasn’t Deku, clumsy as fuck and idiotic. He. wouldn’t. fall.

“Okay, I’m ready.” Kaminari said, though they could all hear the exhaustion still in his voice. But the relief Katsuki felt might’ve slipped through, as Kirishima adjusted his hold a little, taking on more of Katsuki’s weight.

The sound of electricity crackled in the air, the light reappearing. It wasn’t as bright as when Katsuki had first woken up, but it was better than Kaminari’s second attempt. Still too bright for him to take off the blindfold, but instead of thirty icepicks digging violently into his brain, now there were only twenty.

Katsuki realized he’d been wrong before, standing wasn’t agony, but continuing to walk now was excruciating, so much worse than standing. His steps shuffled a little, his mind unable to send the signal to lift them up all the way, and Kirishima had to take more of his weight. He was practically carrying Katsuki by his waist, Kirishima’s arm wrapped almost all the way around.

A rumbling sound in the distance.

“Did you hear that?”

“That sounded like--”

The rumbling got closer. Katsuki could just barely make out the sound of roof cracking under too much stress.

“Shit, run!”

Footsteps took off, but instead of his own following, Katsuki felt Kirishima shove him to the ground, cracking his head again on the hard ground, and he just barely felt Kirishima’s hardening activate before he passed out again.

With every breath he took, he felt his chest brush something stiff, and he could hear heavy breaths that weren’t his own.

“Shitty hair.” Katsuki moaned out, coming back to consciousness for the second time that day. Honestly he was just pissed off at this point, he hadn’t even jinxed them this time!

“Hey, Bakubro.” Kirishima said, and the awful sounds of rocks shifting and falling to the ground echoed too loudly in his ears. “Was a little worried I put you down too hard.”

“Fucking threw me.” Katsuki groaned, opening his eyes to darkness. His heart beat a little quicker. “Where’s dunce face? ‘S dark.”

“I’m not sure.” Kirishima sighed. “I knew I could only protect you with my quirk, so I told them to run. They did. Hopefully they outran the collapse.”

Katsuki did hope they outran the collapse. He was no doubt someone was coming after them, but it was probably the other idiots in their class. Aizawa hadn’t even set foot in the mall when it collapsed. And knowing his idiots, it would take them two days to find a sponge in a sink. With Kaminari and Uraraka trapped alongside them, it would be even harder to find them.

God, he just wanted to go to bed.

“Bakugou, wake up, hey don’t sleep.” Kirishima suddenly said, shaking him a little.

Katsuki let out a noise that meant that hurt and if Kirishima did it again, he’d regret it.

“Sorry, bro, but you can’t sleep.” Kirishima said. “I don’t know what’s going on with your head right now, but I don’t think it’s safe for you to sleep.”

Shit. He hadn’t been trying to fall asleep, he must have been passing out. That was a problem.

“What… what does this shit look like?”

“What shit?”

Katsuki’s good arm grabbed Kirishima’s face awkwardly, and rolled it around, trying to gesture to the space around them. He stopped when he heard the debris.

“Oh.” If rolling his eyes wasn’t painful, he would’ve. He settled for huffing. “I don’t know. I can’t see anything either. I can feel the debris on my back, but it keeps shifting around when I breathe. But don’t worry, I can keep this up for a while, you’re safe, bro, I got you.”

Right, Kaminari had been their only light source. He hadn’t really been worried about his safety, he’d wanted to be able to crawl out of here. But that wasn’t happening apparently. They were just stuck here until someone found them.

“Hey, Bakugou?”

“Mm.”

“Do you ever think about death?”

“Hah?!” Kirishima’s voice was way too blasé for this subject. “The fuck kinda question is that?”

“I’m trying to keep you awake and that was the first thing I came up with!” Katsuki heard Kirishima’s blush in his explanation. If he wasn’t hardened, he’d have gotten a smack for that. Katsuki just kept telling himself that rolling his eyes would hurt, rolling his eyes would hurt, don’t do that.

“Think of something better!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!”

There was a beat of silence. Katsuki groaned. God his friends were stupid.

“Are you and Midoriya exes or something?”

And he thought the death one was bad. “Excuse the fuck me? Has he been saying that? I’m going to fucking murder him!”

“No, no he hasn’t!” Kirishima said, saving Deku’s life, for now. “He’s never said that, or implied that or anything. We all just… we just wonder why you hate him so much. Like, I know you hate pretty much everybody, but your hatred for him is intense, dude. So we all kinda have a sort of bet going on, trying to figure out why. Couple of people think it was because you two dated and then had a bad break-up, especially since he knows so much about you.”

Katsuki blinked. That was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard, and he’d known Deku for over ten years. Holy fuck.

“Shut down this ‘bet’, shitty hair, you all can stop fucking guessing.” Katsuki snarled.

“Oh yeah?” Kirishima perked up. “You gonna tell me?”

“No.” Somehow Kirishima deflated without moving. “First off, you assholes can stay the fuck out of my business, it makes no fucking difference to you why I hate him.”

“Yeah but we like Midoriya.” Kirishima sighed. “And we like you. We thought maybe if we could figure out why you hate him, we could help fix it.”

Katsuki supposed it was well-intentioned, but the idea still made his skin crawl. His relationship with Deku was his own, and… he didn’t want to think about it. His head already hurt too much.

“You can’t fix it, shitty hair.” Katsuki sighed. “None of you can. It’s only between us. Personal. Though if you could get him to stop crying every other second, that might help.”

Kirishima laughed breathlessly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

It was quiet for a minute.

“Does it… bother you, that I don’t like him?” Katsuki didn’t like how unsure his voice was, and he fully blamed it on the nondescript head wound.

“Bother, no, but it kinda makes me sad.” Kirishima said, shrugging and then freezing as more debris shifted. “I mean, you’re my best bro, and Midoriya’s a good bro, and it kinda sucks that we can’t like hang out together or do fun stuff. But if you don’t like him, I’m not going to force you to do stuff with him. You’re allowed to not like people. We’ll all just hang out separately.”

Katsuki couldn’t name the emotion in his chest, and he refused to try.

“You know, you could do better.” Katsuki said. “You’re one of the only idiots in our class who’s somewhat tolerable.”

“Aww, I love you too, Bakubro.” Kirishima chirped, and Katsuki’s eyes widened. “It’s not like that though, we’re just friends.”

“I didn’t fucking say that.”

“Maybe not in those words.” Kirishima said. “But I know you.”

“Not well enough apparently.” Katsuki muttered. “I didn’t fucking say that. I don’t say that shit to anyone, let alone you.”

“Aww, Bakubro!” Kirishima whined, and Katsuki knew he was wearing the stupid smile he was always wearing when he teased Katsuki. “You’re breaking my heart.”

“That was the intent, yes.”

Kirishima laughed, and the echo died in the walls of fallen debris around them.

“How’s your quirk?”

“I’ll be alright, Bakugou.” Kirishima said, and Katsuki could hear the strain Kirishima was trying to hide from him. “I’ve got you. I can keep this up a while longer.”

Katsuki didn’t doubt that, Kirishima had already risked his life for Katsuki once, it didn’t surprise him that he’d do it again and again. He was a good friend.

Silence followed for a moment.

“Bakugou, you still alive?” Kirishima asked.

“Mhm.” Bakugou murmured. “If I die, I’ll let you know.”

Kirishima huffed a strained laugh. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

The tiniest shines of light then filtered through the cracks of the debris. A spark of hope ignited in both of them. A muffled voice echoed through.

“Kaminari? Uraraka?” Kirishima shouted, and Bakugou whimpered. Damn, that hurt. He understood its necessity, but goddamn that hurt.

The voices got stronger, and so did the light. The debris was being shifted around, pink cheeks obviously using her quirk to move the debris safely. Thank fuck.

“Kirishima?” Kaminari’s voice rang through, and Bakugou just groaned quietly. That seemed to be answer enough, as he heard a, “I can hear them!”

Debris began to move quicker, and the light kept getting stronger, a pocket shining through. Katsuki didn’t have to see the head popping through to know that Kaminari was able to see them now.

“How buried am I?” Kirishima asked. “Can you see it?”

“Yeah I can see it, sheesh man, you’re under a lot of rock.” Kaminari said. “But Uraraka should be able to get you out, bro. Just give us a little time.”

“Thanks, bro.”

Without a watch but with a head wound, Bakugou couldn’t tell how it took them to move the debris, and the sounds sort of amalgamated into a noisy blur that he couldn’t quite distinguish. Eventually, he felt the chest he constantly brushed as he breathed disappear, and he could hear Kirishima shift around without the debris falling off of him. A hand came to his shoulder, but thankfully didn’t shake him. 

“You still alive, bro?” Kirishima whispered.

“I haven’t told you I’m dead yet so what do you think?”

Kirishima laughed quietly. “Come on, Kaminari unburied me. We can stand up now.”

Ah shit. This was going to be hard, but Bakugou couldn’t back down now. He hoped that what sort of rest he’d gotten laying down would allow him to be able to stand again.

Okay. He could do this. He’d stand if it killed him.

His left was already trembling as he tried to push himself up, his hip screaming at him to stop moving as he moved his body. Instead of even trying to lose his left leg, he put all his weight on his right, but using his left arm and right leg to stand wasn’t working, and he could feel Kirishima’s hands begin to touch his shoulders. Dammit, he didn’t need fucking help!

Putting any weight on his left leg suddenly became the stupidest decision he’d ever made, as it hadn’t even been three seconds before he was crying out in pain and falling back to the ground.

Several versions of his name rang out in almost perfect unison, hands touching all over, and he just groaned. Today had to be one of the shittiest days of his life. At this point, he’d rather just pass out so he didn’t have to deal with this anymore.

“Bakugou, are you alright?” Kirishima’s voice finally made a sentence instead of just an exclamation.

“Stop fucking touching me and I might be.” Katsuki hissed, and four of the hands retracted themselves. The other two belonged to Kirishima, but he couldn’t see where his friend was to smack him with his good arm.

“Please don’t hate me for this, Bakubro, but you’re too hurt.” Kirishima said, and one hand stayed under his shoulder and the other moved to his knees.

Shit, wait, no, he wasn’t ready-- Kirishima lifted him into the air, and his hip screamed through his voice. The sound he made didn’t even sound like him. The versions of his name were shouted at him again, pounding his head so hard he could barely process their words.

“Hip.” Katsuki panted, finally taking control back of his voice from his hip.

“Dude, what do you mean?” Kirishima asked. “What’s going on?”

“Left hip.” Katsuki gasped. “Been broken since I woke up.”

“Dude!” Kirishima shouted and Katsuki grimaced. “I-- sorry, bro, but why didn’t you say anything? We’ve been walking with you this whole time!”

“Could handle it.” Katsuki groaned.

“Bullshit, Bakugou.” Kirishima snapped, and he sounded angrier than Katsuki had ever heard before. “Look, dude, walking with a head wound and broken arm is one thing. Walking on a broken hip is another. Kaminari, Uraraka, you two keep going. I’m gonna stay here with Bakugou.”

“I said I can handle it.” Katsuki said, trying to push out of Kirishima’s arms. Kirishima just held him tighter.

“I don’t care what you say, Bakugou.” Kirishima snarled. He was beginning to sound like Katsuki.

“Kirishima, are you sure?” Uraraka asked. “If we go, you’ll be completely in the dark.”

“I’ll be fine.” Kirishima said. Bastard even had the audacity to ignore Katsuki’s “I’m already fine.” and continue on like he hadn’t said anything. “Seriously guys. You go ahead. I can protect him with my quirk if anything else happens. We need help, now, and you two are our best chance at getting it. We won’t go anywhere, so you’ll know where you left us. It’ll be okay.”

Katsuki could hear the worried looks his friends exchanged, but they said their goodbyes and footsteps started to fade.

Kirishima knelt to the ground, and placed him down flat on the ground. He heard a bit of shifting before Kirishima pulled Katsuki’s head into his lap. It was somewhat comfortable, the darkness keeping Kirishima from seeing Katsuki’s unhappy blush. A soft hand came to his hair, brushing softly through his spikes, and that helped his headache better than the lack of light.

“You’re such a liar sometimes, Katsuki.”

Kirishima’s voice was soft, but the emotion in it was just as strong. Caught off guard by the sudden use of his given name, Katsuki barely managed a confused, “No I’m not.”

“Yes the fuck you are.” Kirishima snapped. “Saying you can handle walking on a broken hip when you can’t see and you can’t even catch yourself if you fall because of your arm. No one can do that, not even you. I can’t believe you sometimes, hiding that from us. From me. Seriously, Katsuki, how could you be so stupid?”

“I wasn’t being stupid!” Katsuki growled.

“Walking on a broken hip is stupid.” Kirishima insisted. “You know better! If it were me, you wouldn’t let me walk on it. You would’ve made Uraraka use her quirk on me so I didn’t put weight on it. What’s wrong with you, Katsuki? Why the hell did you do that?”

Even though they were arguing, the soft hand in his hair didn’t change its rhythm.

The pout on Katsuki’s face also matched the blush spreading to his ears. He wasn’t sure about how he felt about Kirishima using his given name, and he didn’t think he could figure it out with the headache that was trying to resist the comfort from Kirishima’s fingers.

“All Might worked for years with a hole in his side.” Katsuki pouted. “I could make it for one fucking day. It’s just pain.”

“Yeah, but you’re not All Might.” Kirishima said, and Katsuki bristled. “You’re not! You’re gonna be the number one one day, I’m sure of it, but you’re not there yet. And walking on a broken hip is a good way to make sure you never get there. What if you damaged your hip permanently?”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Katsuki grumbled. “I know when to stop before it gets that bad.”

“No, you don’t.” Kirishima refuted. “If you knew when to stop, you would’ve told me about your broken hip right when you woke up. Come on, man, I’m supposed to be your best friend. Why didn’t you at least tell me?”

“Not like I can keep a secret here.” Katsuki muttered. “If I’d said anything, then those two extras would’ve overheard, and pink cheeks would’ve used her stupid quirk on me again.”

“She was trying to help you.” Kirishima sighed.

“I don’t need her fucking help.” Katsuki seethed. Clenching his jaw made stars appear over his eyes, so he forced himself to ungrit his teeth. “I don’t want her fucking touching me. I don’t want anyone fucking touching me.”

“I’m touching you.”

Katsuki pouted again. “It’s different.”

“Because I’m ‘tolerable’?” Kirishima asked, with just the hint of a smirk. Bastard.

“Somewhat tolerable.” Katsuki huffed. “Just because you’re not literally the worst doesn’t mean you’re actually tolerable.”

“Uh-huh.” Kirishima said, not believing him at all. Damn bastard. “I don’t know what it is that makes you like this, but come on, Katsuki. Keeping us out when it comes to shit like this is only gonna turn around and bite you in the ass. I mean, look at us now. You can’t move, you still can’t even see even if it wasn’t dark, and now I have to stay here with you so you don’t die or get crushed or something.”

“You don’t need to rub it in.” Katsuki snapped.

“I’m not.” Kirishima sighed. “You’re my best friend, Katsuki. I don’t want to see you hurt, and just be stuck watching as you purposefully make yourself worse to prove some sort of point. I don’t even know who you’re proving it to, none of us care that you can’t walk on a broken hip.”

“I care.” Katsuki said. “I’m not like those extras who whine and cry every time they get a tiny scratch. They’ll never even make it to the top twenty with that attitude.”

“And you think you’ll make it to the top twenty if you constantly ignore your body?” Kirishima snapped back. “You constantly yell at Midoriya because he’s always breaking his bones all the time, and yet you do something like this!”

“It’s different!” Katsuki repeated.

“Ugh, no it’s not!” Kirishima groused. “What are you trying to prove, Katsuki? That you have absolutely no regard for your own well-being?”

“That I’m strong enough on my own.” Katsuki hissed.

The hand that had been softly running through his hair disappeared, and he refused to miss it. It came to his cheek, a softer touch than Katsuki would’ve suspected for how strong Kirishima was, and how mad at him he was.

“What if someone wants to be with you?” Kirishima asked softly, his thumb brushing up and down his cheek. “What if someone wants to stand by your side, to be there as you shoot to the top, wants to help you get there by calling you out on your bullshit, wants to hold you when you have nightmares, wants to have your back, wants to help prop you up when you can’t see or stand?”

Katsuki blinked.

“What was that middle one?”

“Wants to help you get there by calling you out on your bullshit.” Kirishima said. That hadn’t been the middle one he’d been talking about, but he let it go. Maybe he’d just misheard. “And that? That was bullshit.”

Katsuki huffed. “Okay maybe… maybe it wasn’t my smartest decision.”

“No shit, sherlock.” Kirishima muttered. Katsuki ignored that.

“I didn’t figure it would be such a big deal. It’s just pain. Pain is a call I don’t have to answer. I’m not weak, pain isn’t that big of a deal.”

“Your pain is a big deal to me.” Kirishima said. “Just because you acknowledge you’re in pain doesn’t mean that you’re weak.”

“The pros get hurt all the time in the field.” Katsuki retorted. “If they can rise above and keep moving when they’re hurt, then I can too.”

“You know, when we went on the Shie Hassaikai raid,” Kirishima said slowly, obviously thinking about his every word, “I passed out after that fight with Rappa.”

“You told me about that.” Katsuki said, unsure of where this was going.

“Yeah I did.” Kirishima said. “That fight took everything out of me. I had more cuts and bruises than I could physically count. And you know what Fat Gum did?”

A beat.

“He took me out of the fight.” Kirishima answered himself. “He found a place where we could be as safe as possible, and he got me medical help. I didn’t rejoin the fight after that. Fat Gum didn’t either. He stayed with me, kept me safe.”

Katsuki didn’t say anything to that.

“So why is it that Fast Gum, the actual pro, takes pain into consideration when making decisions, making sure that the people he was with were protected, but you, the teenager, don’t?”

“You were unconscious, I wasn’t.” Katsuki deflected. “I keep telling you, it’s different.”

“I wasn’t unconscious the entire time.” Kirishima shot back. “I woke up before Overhaul destroyed the street. And Fat Gum still stayed with me. Helped me get to the ambulances, even went with me to the hospital. He didn’t go back into the fight, he just stayed with me until I was taken care of. And he’s a genuine pro.”

Katsuki refused to answer his unspoken question.

“I think you’re running out of reasons why it’s different, Katsuki.” Kirishima said.

“Fuck you.” Katsuki snarled. “And why the fuck are you all of a sudden using my given name? I didn’t say you could do that.”

“You’re deflecting again.” Kirishima called out. “Give me a reason, dammit. A real reason. Why is it so different?”

“Because it’s me!” Katsuki shouted back. “I have to do this.”

“Dammit, why?”

“Because I have to be good enough!” Katsuki shouted, his voice echoing in the empty hallway.

A choked noise of pain followed, and Katsuki lost track of reality as his world became nothing but unending agony, the pain so overwhelming that he couldn’t even be sure that he was breathing. It felt like it went on for three separate lifetimes, drowning him in a torment so excruciating he didn’t think he could ever describe it in words.

Shaky breaths were the first thing he became aware of when the pain finally began to subside. The fingers on his cheek were in his hair again, lightly dragging their nails across his scalp, and he clung to that feeling as his only salvation as he managed to get through the final assaults of the pain.

“Katsuki?” Kirishima’s voice was so quiet that Katsuki barely heard it.

Katsuki made the quietest noise he’d ever made in his life in response. He only just now realized he was crying, tears running rivers down his cheeks.

“You’re good enough, Katsuki.” Kirishima whispered. “You don’t have to kill yourself like this to prove you’re good enough. You’re good enough on your own, Katsuki.”

Katsuki couldn’t even think of a response, the pain had completely cut his voice off.

“It’s gonna be okay, Katsuki.” Kirishima kept going when he didn’t say anything. “It’s gonna be okay. You’re enough, you’re good enough. You’ll be okay. It’s alright. Yound soonna breathing, it’s okay, you’re gon it’s okay. Yound soon it’s alright. You’reat.”

The hell? Katsuki was completely losing track of what Kirishima was saying. The fifty icepicks in his brain were beating a drum beat that went two beats faster than his heart. When his mind tried to understand what Kirishima said, he just got indecipherable static in return. Darkness was slowly beginning to encroach around his mind, easing the pain by just trapping him in shadow.

“Omatsuki! Matsuki?” Katsuki couldn’t even feel Kirishima shaking him now, his mind so wrapped up in shadow. “Comake uke Kaki! Wake mase uple. Come Kaki!”

Kirishima was shaking him harder now, his voice insistent and desperate, but Katsuki couldn’t feel a bit of it. The shadow that stole him from consciousness to ease the pain had already put him completely under, the darkness of unconsciousness swallowing him whole.

Something was different. He couldn’t tell exactly what, but something was different.

Voices surrounded him, voices that hadn’t been the people he’d been stuck with. The only one out of the cacophony that he could properly pick out was Kirishima. Oh! That’s what was different! He wasn’t in Kirishima’s lap anymore, with no fingers running through his hair. That had felt really good, he was a little sad that Kirishima had stopped. It had really helped with the pain. That… he was no longer in. His hip was still throbbing, his arm still ached, but his head was kinda floaty, and that helped drown out everything else. What was going on? Katsuki tried to ask, but all that came out was a soft groan.

“Bakugou?” Kirishima must have heard him. “Hey, Bakugou, you back with us?”

He made a small, affirmative noise.

“There you are.” Kirishima chuckled breathlessly. “I was getting worried you’d sleep through the whole rescue.”

“Dum’ass.” Katsuki mumbled.

Katsuki could hear Kirishima’s relieved smile. The soft hand that was in his hair came to his cheek again. Unconsciously, he leaned into it.

“You really scared me, Katsuki.” Kirishima’s voice dropped, shaky and scared. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Hah?” Katsuki replied, and he tried to get his head on straight, get away from whatever was making him feel all floaty.

“Shh, it’s okay, Katsuki.” Kirishima said, his thumb running up and down Katsuki’s cheek again. “You’re gonna be alright now. Everything’s okay.”

“You?”

“I’m okay too, Katsuki.” Kirishima murmured, but he didn’t quite sound it. “I asked Recovery Girl, she said it was okay for you to sleep.”

Katsuki made an uncertain noise. “Don’t, sound, okay.”

“Yeah, well, when you think someone you love just died in your arms, you don’t sound okay for a little while.”

Katsuki couldn’t think for a moment, and it had nothing to do with his head being floaty. Loved? Kirishima loved him? Sure, they were best friends, Kirishima was the closest friend he’d ever had, but that didn’t mean anything. Katsuki had walked away from his friends from middle school without even thinking, he’d realized he didn’t care whether they were around him or not. They weren’t good for him, encouraging him to do shit he shouldn’t, and they were just lackeys who followed him because he was the biggest fish in their little pond. He’d figured that… he’d figured that all friends were like that. That that was why Kirishima had forced his way into Katsuki’s life, that that was why all of Kirishima’s friends had followed suit. He’d made it clear on day one that he was one of the most powerful students in this class, even if he hadn’t done it in the best of ways. The USJ incident had been a better judge of his power, and his character. He hadn’t been able to lose Kirishima after that, and as soon as Kirishima had deemed him acceptable, the rest of the Bakusquad followed suit. But he’d never thought that Kirishima had deemed him acceptable because he’d cared about Katsuki, just that Kirishima thought he could use Katsuki to get ahead, and the squad followed because he could keep them afloat academically. The invitations to movie nights, playing video games, hanging out outside of school, and now caring when he got hurt, he’d thought that was just pretenses. That they didn’t care whether he showed up or not, that if they found someone who could do what he did (who had a better attitude) they’d walk away from him without thought. Did all of the Bakusquad feel that way? When he could think properly, he had to give this a ridiculous amount of thought.

“Shh, just go to sleep, Katsuki.” Kirishima said, somehow sensing that Katsuki’s mind was going a million miles an hour. “We’ll talk later. Sleep.”

Even though it was Shinsou who could control minds, Katsuki’s mind still seemed to shut down when Kirishima told it too, only just now noticing that he was completely exhausted. The soft touch to his cheek continued, gently settling him into a comfortable sleep.

And goddammit, he was still wearing that goddamn blindfold.