4When Katsuki woke up, he couldn't remember what happened to him.
Though from the familiar dull throb in the back of his head and thick bandages, at least he knew why he couldn't remember; a fucking concussion wasn't something he needed right now. The ever-constant and goddamn annoying beeping of the heart monitor beside his head were enough to clarify where he was, not that it would help explain how he got there in the first place. Katsuki tore his eyes open only for the blinding white lights to send a sharp pain dancing across his skull. He hissed loudly, snapping his eyes shut and grinding his teeth together. Why the fuck did doctors think it was a good idea to put a patient with a goddamn concussion in a bright white room when it was going to cause them pain? Was it too much to ask to close the curtains?
Katsuki attempted to turn over onto his side, but a searing pain in his shoulder immediately stopped him. "Fuck!" he growled, pushing himself flat on his back. His shoulder felt like it had been ripped off his body and sewn back on. Cracking a crimson eye open, he ignored the more bearable pain and glared down at his right arm that rested against his chest in a sling as if the material personally offended him. It most certainly did. As if he was so weak he needed it. He couldn't imagine any of those extras in class 3-A injuring him so bad it warranted time in the infirmary. "Tch." It'd be a cold day in hell before that ever happened.
When he finally managed to open both of his eyes, a crippling sense of unease crept into his lower stomach. He scanned the room and found it empty. No-one, no classmates, no parents or otherwise. Not that he wanted, or needed anyone with him when he woke up. It was just unusual. He normally found a mop of green curls intruding in his personal space, with his incessant muttering and all. Instead, the room was devoid of any evidence that anyone other than Recovery Girl was ever in the room. It took that stupid nerd long enough to learn about personal space; only seventeen goddamn years. Even if they no longer hated each other- he might even go so far as to say he liked the stupid nerd, but Katsuki needed his space.
He dragged his left hand down his face in an exhausted manner, he couldn't shake the sense of urgency and dread welling in the pit of his stomach. It was fucking with him that no one was there to explain to him what the hell happened; the feeling was only getting worse with time. The old lady was taking her sweet-ass time coming to check on him. Katsuki scowled and began using his left arm to push himself into a seated position. The room spun, everything blurring together momentarily. He gritted his teeth at the pain, he wasn't a weakling, he could take it. He had injuries much worse than this before. The incessant beeping of the heart monitor sped up to match his racing heart and it took a conscious effort to not blast the machine into the next fucking week. It was making his headache worse.
Just as he sat up and the room stilled, a small wooden stick pushed his good shoulder down and he was too fucking light-headed to resist. Not to mention his reaction time was so slow he didn't even notice Recovery Girl enter the room. Must have been during that goddamn vertigo spell. "Not so fast, child." she tutted. The anger that was always simmering just beneath the surface threatened to spill when he realized the feeble old woman used her stupid walking stick to push him back down.
"What the fuck?" He snarled.
"Oh, hush. You need to rest. I was unable to fully heal your injuries." She said as if she were talking to a spoiled child, both of her hands rested on her cane as she stared at him. He didn't want to hear about his so-called serious injuries. Katsuki could feel the constant painful throb in his shoulder and the rest of his body, he could already tell they weren't the norm. But it was worse not knowing how he got them.
"Tch. I'm not here half as much as Deku," he said defensively. Recovery Girl didn't say anything and if she reacted, he didn't notice. "Oi, why the hell am I here anyway?" Katsuki asked impatiently.
She quirked a wrinkled eyebrow. "So you don't remember," she said unsurprised; like she already knew.
"Obviously I fuckin' don't!" Katsuki spat. He wouldn't be fucking asking if he did. Crimson eyes glared expectantly at the old woman as she busied herself with the medical equipment. If she knew he wouldn't remember why didn't she fucking say so in the first place?
"I don't know all the details," she finally said, turning to him. "but you sustained severe injuries from a villain attack while on patrol last night. That boy Todoroki and girl Uraraka were the ones that found you and brought you to me. You're lucky they found you when they did."
A low rumble erupted from Katsuki's mouth and his scowl deepened. He didn't remember being on patrol yesterday and it annoyed him, but hearing that the Half 'n' Half bastard and Round Face were the ones to find him made him angry. Not only did he lose to some shitty villain, but those stupid extras were also the ones to find him. "I didn't need help from fuckin' Round Face and Icyhot." Katsuki barked, looking away from Recovery Girl. He refused to be seen as weak, especially by that extra- Uraraka he didn't mind so much. He may not like her, but they had a mutual respect.- Deku may have softened his ego over the years at UA - not that he would admit that to anyone - but that didn't mean he threw away his pride completely. He wasn't so full of himself that he didn't recognize his classmates' strengths, but he was still him and called them names 'out of affection' as Kirishima put it. They were still stepping stones in his pursuit to become the Number One Hero.
"Was the villain captured?"Katsuki asked roughly. The old woman sighed and held her closed fist up to Katsuki expectantly and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes and put out his hand. Recovery girl dropped two gummies into his open hand and he glared at the sweets with disdain before he popped them into his mouth. He had long since gotten over the fact that the gummies helped give him the energy he needed for the old woman to use her quirk on him, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. The longer he was stuck in a hospital bed recovering, the more time he gave those extras to catch up to him. The more time Deku had to get stronger than him, and he'd be damned if he let that happen.
"I'm afraid not. Your injuries were serious, you were the priority." Said Recovery Girl with a regretful look.
"What the fuck? You're saying those extras let him get away? Fucking perfect! I got my ass handed to me by a villain for nothing!" He snarled. How useless could they fucking get? Katsuki tried to sit upright again; ignoring the pain in his shoulder, but Recovery Girl pushed him down again.
"If you insist on getting up, I'll have to sedate you."
Katsuki growled at the threat and scanned the white room slowly where he found the digital clock in the same right-hand corner as it always was. Classes let out for the day soon, he'd finally be able to get some fucking details about what happened instead of the old woman's cryptic answers. Now, at least he knew why there was no one around when he woke up. Though he was surprised Deku hadn't managed to snake his way out of class and into Katsuki's infirmary room, it wouldn't be the first time that happened. The green-haired boy was practically glued to his side every time he was injured. It got annoying fast, but he had grown to expect it. Not that he wanted to see Deku or his large emerald eyes filled with worry as he asked if Katsuki was okay, or those stupid freckles that reminded him of stars against his pale skin, tch. Not at all.
The nagging feeling that something was wrong grew stronger, but when Katsuki glanced around he didn't see anyone else on any of the many cots that filled the room. Only empty beds with scratchy sheets folded neatly over them. Whoever was with him on patrol wasn't injured, badly. He wasn't so sure if that meant they were just lucky, or something else... Katsuki sighed heavily, the exhaustion was starting to overcome him. His eyelids felt heavy as struggled to keep them open, failing more each time he blinked. He glanced down and saw an IV in his arm that he didn't notice before. She actually sedated me. He thought with a small humourless laugh, though he couldn't find it in himself to be angry; the pain was melting away along with his consciousness. His surroundings started to blur, sleep working its way to him. Katsuki's eyelids finally fluttered shut as he succumbed to the darkness.
"Kacchan! Kacchan! Don't forget!"
Katsuki awoke with a start. His crimson eyes snapped open where he was met with a pair of worried scarlet ones staring down at him, mere inches from his face.
"What the fuck Kirishima?" Katsuki tried to growl as he pushed Shitty hair's face away with his hand, but his voice only came out in a hoarse whisper. He was panting, his breath coming out in quick heavy breaths. His tongue felt like sandpaper in his mouth, heavy and dry. When he tried to speak again he choked on his words and ended up coughing roughly. Someone brought a cup of water to his lips, he didn't look at whoever was helping him and instead drank deeply. Normally he wouldn't accept anyone's help, but his hand was shaking so bad he didn't know if he could handle not spilling it everywhere.
"You okay, bro?" Kirishima said, hovering over Katsuki with his hands up as if he was trying to appear harmless - as if Katsuki was some wounded animal. The way his scarlet eyes were wide with worry was pissing Katsuki off. He glanced behind the redhead to see another three familiar faces that almost mirrored Kirishima's. "What?" Katsuki snapped. He was already feeling on edge. The way he felt when he woke up from a nightmare, yet this time he couldn't remember what he had been dreaming about. Only the intense feeling of loss lingered in his chest.
"Dude, you're crying," Kaminari said incredulously. "And you called him Kirishima." The other three shot him a look, but Katsuki wasn't paying attention to them. Instead, he was trying to process what the hell Dunce Face was talking about.
"Hah?" Katsuki grunted, lifting his left left hand to his face. He instantly felt the wetness on his knuckles. He ripped his hand away from his face as if it stung him and stared at the tear that collected on his finger. "What the hell?" He wiped the offending wetness from his cheeks vigorously, but the tears kept falling as if silently crying about something he couldn't remember. "What the fuck is this?"
"Are you okay, Bakugou?" he heard Mina whisper as she put a hand on his shoulder. Katsuki immediately shrugged her hand off of him. He wasn't sure he liked that pitying tone in her voice. "I'm fuckin' fine," he spat. They all looked as if they didn't believe him, but didn't say anything more about the subject. It took a minute, but he finally managed to cease the flow of his fucking tears. He wanted to be angry, to scream and yell and cover up his vulnerability with rage like he was so used to doing, but he couldn't and it was pissing him off.
"How are you feeling, Bakubro? You look like shit." Kirishima piped with a teasing grin, his entire demeanour changing back into his usual cheerful self. The worry in his eyes wasn't completely gone, but at least Kirishima had the sense to not dwell on it.
Katsuki snorted- the closest thing he ever got to a laugh- and rolled his eyes. "I feel like shit," he said, glad that they didn't bring up the outrageous state they found him in a minute ago.
"If you look like that, I can't imagine how the other guy looks," Kaminari commented with a huge grin on his face.
Sero laughed. "I don't think I want to imagine!"
"Of course the fucker looks worse," Katsuki said, though he didn't know. There was no way he could have gotten so many injuries if he wasn't fighting back hard. The defeat left a bitter taste in his mouth. It always did. But this time he didn't even know how the action went down. At least before, he had the smallest satisfaction of knowing he didn't go down without a fight. Now all he could do was take a guess. Katsuki scowled and gripped the sheets in his hand. "I can't fucking remember much about last night," he admitted, looking away from the four idiots surrounding his bed.
"Don't worry, bro!" Kirishima said, squeezing his shoulder. "I wasn't worried." Katsuki snapped, but Kirishima ignored his comment. "We got you. What do you want to know?" He felt a little less irritated after that statement. As if he was going to let his memory get the best of him.
"How you ended up in the infirmary, right?" Mina interjected. "You were on patrol with Todoroki-kun around eight, like usual y 'know, when a villain showed up-"
"You left Todoroki and chased after him-"
"Todoroki-kun called for backup-"
"But then you were already gone-"
"Uraraka was the one that responded-"
"Fuck! Shut up! You're giving me a goddamn migraine!" Katsuki growled clutching his head and tightly squeezing his eyes shut. Their loud overlapping voices felt like knives repeatedly stabbing at his head. The four immediately stopped talking and had the decency to look sheepish. It was like they only listened to him when he was in a hospital bed - which wasn't often.
Icyhot being his partner didn't sit right with him; something felt off. It didn't make sense, but he couldn't figure out why. His head hurt too much to think about it. He had more important things to focus on, like the fact that everything they told him, he already knew.
"So, you idiots are saying that you don't know any more than the old woman," Katsuki said lowly, anyone else would have mistaken the tone for calmness, his friends knew better. "Tch." Of course, they fucking don't. Why would they? They weren't there.
"Well, yeah man," Kirishima said quieter than before. He was staring at Katsuki's sling, "I mean it took a while to find you. You weren't responding to the intercoms and when they did find you, you were unconscious in an alleyway covered in blood. The villain was gone by then." Katsuki noted Kirishima looked pale, his scarlet eyes looked straight into Katsiuki's crimson ones. "I didn't want to bring it up, but man we thought you were dead when Uraraka said you weren't moving." The redhead visibly shuddered and something dark flashed in his eyes. Katsuki ignored it.
"We tried to see you last night, but we weren't allowed in." Raccoon eyes said. "Recovery Girl said you would be fine, but we were really worried."
"You shouldn't run off by yourself like that, Bakugou." Katsuki glared at Shitty hair, but he didn't back down. Kirishima looked upset and almost disappointed; it pissed him off. He felt like a scolded child, he would already have to hear an earful from Aizawa from what they were saying, he didn't need it from Shitty hair as well. It had been a long time since the last time he made such a stupid decision like run off on his own and he didn't even remember.
"Your mom was here this morning." Flat face said, not-so-subtly trying to change the subject. "I think she-"
"I said I was fine, didn't I?" Katsuki snapped, ignoring the comment about his mom. "Fuckin' drop it already."
Kirishima made a face but nodded. "Okay, man, we'll drop it, but you can't keep avoiding everything that makes you uncomfortable. It's unhealthy, bro." He scowled.
"Don't be so ungrateful, brat."
Katsuki whipped his head in the direction of the voice and scowled when he saw his mom, then Round Face peeking out from behind her with a bright smile. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the dark circles under her eyes and her face was sort of pale. "What the fuck old hag?" he said, looking back at his mom. She just crossed her arms. "I'll deal with you after I talk to your teachers." Katsuki glowered at her. "If you keep scowling like that, your face is going to get stuck."
"You're finally awake!" Uraraka said, clapping her hands together and stepping out from behind Mitsuki. The latter smirked then turned and walked out of the room. He was glad to see his mom wasn't that angry if she was laughing at him for his ever-present scowl, otherwise, he would have been in a whole lot of shit.
"Obviously." He said, focusing back on Uraraka. One of Deku's friends was the last person he expected to see, especially before the nerd himself even showed up. Stupid nerd sure was taking his time to show up. Not that he was fucking waiting for him to come. "The fuck are you doing here, Round Face?"
"Calm down, Bakubro! She came to see if you were okay" Shitty Hair said lightly with a grin. His face brightened a little too much when she walked in. Katsuki smirked, looking between the two. Round Face had that disgustingly cheery look on her face and Kirishima with his tinted red cheeks. That idiot couldn't be more obvious if he tried. "Right," Katsuki said suggestively looking at Shitty Hair who in turn blushed harder.
"Don't get your panties in a wad," Kaminari said, clearly missing Katsuki's shift in attitude.
"Do I need a reason to be here?" Round Face said pulling Katsuki's attention away from the electric blonde.
"Of course, you don't need a reason!" Kirishima piped. Uraraka smiled at him and then gave Katsuki a pointed look; oblivious to the knowing looks Sero, Mina and Kaminari were sharing.
"But you have one, don't you," Katsuki said bluntly. "Why the fuck else would you be here?"
"Am I not allowed to be worried about my classmate that I found half-dead in an alleyway only just yesterday?"
Katsuki stared. That comment was getting on his nerves quickly. There was no fucking way it was that bad, and even if it was, why wasn't Deku here yet? If he was so badly wounded Deku would've been here already. And he knew he wasn't injured since the other cots in the infirmary was empty and Recovery Girl hadn't mentioned him.
"Fine!" Round Face relented, throwing her hands up, "I brought notes from Momo, but I was worried. We all were, but Mister Aizawa said you wouldn't want everyone crowding you right after you woke up so only I came." She set a notebook down on the table by his head and he couldn't help wondering where she was holding it if not in her hands. Katsuki shook the ridiculous thought from his head and instead focused on something else; like why she came instead of Deku. It wasn't like he needed the notes. If either he or Deku missed class they would borrow each other's notebooks. They had been doing that since their second year.
After their fight at Ground Beta, it took almost half a year to get some semblance of friendship between the two of them, but somewhere along the line, before he knew it, their relationship fell into place like it was the most natural thing in the world. Deku no longer tailed behind him but walked beside him as an equal and if Katsuki was being honest, it felt really damn good.
"Whatever," Katsuki said with a roll of his eyes, the small action caused pain to break out across his skull and he snapped his eyes shut and dug two fingers into his temple as if it would stop the throbbing. It wasn't just his head that hurt, his chest hurt like a bitch, too, but at least he could hide the pain from showing on his face from that. Exhaustion hung like a thin veil over his head ever since he woke up and it was pissing him off - to no one's surprise. He knew he was hurt, but he wasn't sure he was supposed to feel this exhausted considering he had slept all night and almost all day.
"Are you oka-" Round Face began,
"I swear to god if anyone fucking asks me that question one more time I'm going to kill them!" Katsuki snapped, he was more irritable than usual. How the fuck did they think he was? He woke up in a goddamn hospital room with no memories of the previous day and was being told repeatedly that he had supposedly almost died after fighting a villain. He'd be super fucking surprised if anyone was okay after that, not that he was going to say he wasn't okay because he was. A few broken bones and a concussion weren't that big of a deal to him, it wasn't anything that couldn't be healed. Tch, she was acting like he was dying.
"Fine," Uraraka said sticking out her tongue at him.
"Fucking bite me,"
"Someone's grumpy," Kaminari jeered teasingly.
"Hey, I have something else for you," Round Face piped, digging her hand into her pocket and Katsuki narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, "Aha! Here it is!" She pulled out her hand and flipped him the bird while grinning cheekily.
The self-proclaimed 'Bakusquad' burst out laughing, Kirishima even doubling over and holding his stomach.
"Fuck you, too, smartass." Katsuki rolled his eyes, but the small action was enough to make his headache. He clenched his jaw, trying to ignore the pain and dizziness threatening to overwhelm him. From one shitty action? Are you kidding? Goddamn it, he refused to believe that he was almost taken out by some shitty d-Lister villain. No fucking way, they were just overreacting like usual.
A high ringing sound assaulted his ears. Katsuki whipped his free hand up to dig into his temple again in an attempt to alleviate the pain and he hissed loudly. What the fuck were they up to now? He spaced out for like ten goddamn seconds and they already managed to get into shit. "Can you fuckers keep it down? Motherfucker-" Katsuki snapped his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths, but it didn't help much. His temples still throbbed from the sudden loud noise.
When Katsuki opened his eyes, they were all staring at him in concern which wasn't doing wonders for his bad mood. "What?" he spat.
Uraraka glanced at Kirishima, worrying her bottom lip in a nervous habit and furrowing her eyebrows. Kaminari was the one to break the silence. "Uh, dude, no one did anything. Are you sure you're okay?" The concern on the blonde boy's face was a rare thing to see, and it pissed him off. Even the happy-go-lucky idiot was worried about him, fuckin' great.
"Are you guys fucking deaf? Did you seriously not hear that goddamn high pitched ringing?" He asked, his mood was steadily decreasing. How the hell did they not hear that obnoxiously loud ringing?
"Bakugou, there wasn't any ringing sound..." Ashido said lightly, her face twisting in concern as she looked at him, then glanced around at the other four.
"Maybe we should go," Kirishima said, sitting up from the chair beside the bed he had been using. "Bakugou's probably still feeling weak even after the blood transfusion."
Wait,
What?
"Blood transfusion?" Katsuki repeated slowly, crimson eyes finding wide scarlet ones.
"Uh," Kirishima shut his mouth and grimaced like he said something he wasn't supposed to. He looked away, his scarlet eyes shifting all around the room, yet never meeting Katsuki's again.
"I had a fucking blood transfusion and you fuckers didn't tell me?" Katsuki said lowly, his voice seething with barely contained rage.
Mina stepped between them and held her hands up as if she were approaching a wounded animal. It only served to piss him off even more. He wasn't some ticking time bomb just waiting to go off, he was fucking reasonably upset. "We didn't want you to worry or anything y' know. You just woke up... and we thought, maybe Recovery Girl already told you..."
"Who the fuck was it?" Katsuki asked, his throat felt tight and he barely managed to get the words out.
"Bakugou, it doesn't matter who-" Mina started,
"If it doesn't matter, then fucking tell me!" Katsuki yelled, his hand gripping the sheets on his lap. His chest was heaving and his vision was going in and out of focus. Why- Why the fuck didn't they- just - Fuck!
Uraraka stepped forward and pulled her sleeve up to reveal the small bandage wrapped around the space just below the inside of her elbow and lifted her arm. Suddenly it made sense why she looked so sickly. She was probably still feeling the effects of the blood loss, and it was because he was weak that he needed it in the first place. Just how much blood had he needed if she looked that tired?
"It's kinda why you healed so fast and don't look as bad as you should," Kirishima said quietly as if he said it any louder it would set him off. "Recovery Girl wouldn't have been able to heal you as much in your weakened state."
Katsuki didn't reply. He was feeling dizzier than he was before. The room was spinning and blood pounded in his ears, blood that he wasn't even sure belonged to him. The thought made his stomach turn. He would've been worried about throwing up, but he wasn't even sure he had anything in his stomach to throw up.
"Get out."
"Bakugou..."
"I fucking said GET OUT!" He roared, glaring at Kirishima before his vision started doubling and he had to look down. The beeping of the heart monitor beside him sped up, shrieking wildly to match his anger, but he ignored it.
Kirishima stumbled back from his sudden outburst and into Kaminari who caught him easily, not that he would have fallen if he hadn't. Everyone was quiet, but soon he heard the shuffling of their feet as they left. He barely heard Recovery Girl scold them for 'disturbing her patient right after he woke up' just outside his door. Their voices faded out and exhaustion hit him worse than before and he had to lay back down and close his eyes to keep himself from passing out. But, maybe, passing out wouldn't be such a bad idea right now.
The small whine and thud of the door closing just barely reached Katsuki's ears and he fought the urge to scream. Didn't he just fucking tell them to get lost? He gripped the sheets with numb fingers and clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth together. If he yelled now, he was going to give himself another headache and that was the last thing he needed.
"Leave me the fuck alone!" He snarled, snapping his eyes open to glare at the person who just walked around the curtain near the door. He was silently grateful for that curtain, despite hating the ugly faded turquoise colour of it. If it wasn't there, anyone passing by in the halls would've been able to see him, see how broken and battered he was from the fight with the villain, see how weak he had been. See how he failed.
"Is that any way to talk to your fucking mother? I'd smack you upside the head if you didn't look miserable enough already."
Katsuki blinked. He had forgotten Mitsuki was still there, and she was only slightly less unwelcome than his shitty friends, surprisingly. "The hell do you want?" he asked in irritation as his mom sat down in the black plastic chair right beside his cot.
Before he could react, Mitsuki reached over and pinched his leg. He jolted from the shock and hissed, his movements only aggravating his wounds further. "I'm here to see my idiot of a son. Just what were you thinking when you thought it was a good idea to chase a Villain on your own, Katsuki?" Her eyes were narrowed and piercing as she stared him down, conflicting emotions of disappointment and pride, fear and relief swirling in her ruby-red orbs. Only up close could he see the dark spots beneath her eyes and immediately he thought of his dad. If his mom looked like that, he couldn't imagine what his old man must look like. Guilt washed over him for the first time since he woke up and he avoided looking her in the face. Masara wasn't with Mitsuki, so Katsuki could only assume he was on another business trip and couldn't make it.
He felt nauseous again.
A calloused hand shot to his mouth and he lurched forward, his body screamed in pain as he did, but he ignored it. Mitsuki shot out of her seat, but he didn't follow her movements enough to know what she was doing, instead focused on keeping the bile from rising in his throat. His vision was beginning to swim and eyes burn. Katsuki barely heard anything around him before a steel bowl was pushed in front of him and he finally retched,
again,
and again, until there was nothing left.
By the end of it, his chest was heaving as he tried to catch his breath, his throat and nose burned and he was trembling like a leaf. Katsuki barely registered the hand rubbing soothing circles on his back nor did he feel the salty tears trailing down his cheeks. The awful smell didn't go away even after the bowl was taken from him, it probably wouldn't for a while, he could feel it in his nose, taste it in his mouth. He didn't even have the energy to feel disgusted with himself, but he knew he would remember it later.
A warm, wet cloth touched his cheek and in a moment of weakness, he let it happen. Mitsuki washed the vomit from his face silently and ran her slim fingers through his hair in a rare gentle caress, something he hadn't felt in years. Despite the tenderness, the ache in his chest- the loneliness- only intensified, but he didn't have the energy to examine it; to find the root of its cause before he felt his eyelids droop. Katsuki could barely keep his eyes open when his head hit the pillow, but he was still aware enough to see another blurry and nearly all-black figure walk into the room. Distorted voices echoed in his ears, but Katsuki couldn't make out exactly what they were saying.
"Mum," He rasped, his fingers itched to reach out, but his body wouldn't obey his brain's orders. 'Don't go' he wanted to say. His mouth didn't move. Mitsuki wasn't the one he wanted to stay.
A feather-soft kiss touched his forehead, it was strange, foreign and familiar all at the same time. Another rare show of affection from his normally volatile mother; comforting, but it wasn't the touch he wanted. Something was missing.
"Sleep, Katsuki." she murmured against his skin, his eyes fluttered shut.
Oh, that's right.
Deku never showed up.
Katsuki glared at his half-naked reflection in the mirror with uncontained disgust. His crimson eyes travelled across his battered body and lingered on his lasting injuries. An ugly white cast encased his right arm and left leg, he had multiple scrapes and scratches littering his whole body and a white bandage wrapped around his right shoulder where he had torn a ligament. Another white bandage was wrapped around his chest, but he didn't need to see beneath it to know there was a large blackish yellow bruise over his ribs, he could feel it with every breath he took. Not to mention his bottom lip was busted. It was a pitiful sight. Even after most of his 'bad' injuries (bad meaning his collapsed lung, two broken ribs, internal bleeding, the like) were healed, he still looked like this. He didn't even have enough energy left after that to heal anything else and thus had to wait to build up strength. What a fucking joke.
After one last look, he pulled his uniform shirt on carefully and refastened the sling on his arm before tossing his blazer around his shoulders. He couldn't put his cast through the sleeve and it'd look ridiculous with only one arm in, so he'd have to settle for having it hanging off his shoulders- like hell he was going outside in the cold without it. Katsuki glanced at the clock on his nightstand, grabbed his bag and left his room. He could get breakfast in the cafeteria before class started and since they had kitchens in their dorms, rarely anyone went to the cafeteria in the morning. He didn't have to worry about running into any of his nosy classmates before he had to. He was relieved to finally be able to go back to class, but what he wasn't looking forward to was the questions. That was probably worse than the conditions Aizawa set, not that the conditions weren't also stupid.
One of the conditions Aizawa had for him returning to school so soon was that he obeyed the old woman's instructions to the letter. Which meant no hero training whatsoever, no extra physical exertion until her go-ahead and he had to see her every day after class so she could check up on his condition. He still couldn't remember what went down that night, but what he found out was that it wasn't because he hit his head during the fight. It wasn't because of physical trauma to his brain or anything like that, no, it was psychological trauma. Recovery Girl had called it dissociative amnesia. His brain had blocked out the entire fight and then some because the memory was too stressful for him to handle.
It was utter fucking bullshit. Instead of dealing with it as he did with every other fucking problem he had, his brain decided to blackout the entire thing from his memory. It wasn't the first time he had fought a villain and got injured, so how the hell was this so different? It fucking wasn't, if anything it shouldn't have come anywhere near his most 'traumatizing' experience over the past three years. But here he fucking was, beaten and battered without so much as a sliver of an idea of how it happened. The injuries weren't even the worst part, it was the aftermath, the fucking recovery period.
The last two days Katsuki had spent confined in a hospital bed were awful, and he made it known to everyone who stepped foot in the room how much he hated it. Recovery Girl, in particular, was subjected to these complaints the most, even if she had hit him on the knee with her cane every time he did. He needed rest, she would say right before whacking him with the wood stick. For someone who was telling him he needed time to heal his injuries, she sure was doing a great fucking job causing him more bodily harm. Though he really couldn't blame her, he felt like punching the people that pissed him off right in the face, too. Take Deku, for example. The stupid little shitnerd hadn't gone to visit him even once while Katsuki had been stuck in the infirmary.
Which is why he concluded that Deku was avoiding him. Katsuki growled and slowly hobbled down the hall towards the elevator, the walking boot on his left leg leaving a small thunk with every step. What other reason was there? He wasn't hurt, Katsuki knew that for a fact. If he was, someone would have said something or if he had to leave suddenly for an emergency, the nerd would've already blown up his phone with messages. But no, there was absolutely nothing. So the only logical reason for his absence was that he was avoiding Katsuki. And people had the nerve to call him an insensitive bastard. Tch. If Deku thought he was going to get away with ignoring him for no goddamn reason, or a reason he couldn't even fucking remember, then he had another thing coming.
The walk to UA from the dorm was excruciatingly long, but he finally made it to the front of the building. The only thing standing between him and his not-hospital-food breakfast was the stairs. Never in Katsuki's seventeen years of life had stairs looked so fucking evil before, they were practically oozing with malicious intent. He stood there for a good five minutes just glaring at the stone steps before he finally began the climb. There was a perfectly good rail at the end of the staircase, but he refused to even go near it. If he let himself use it, it'd just be admitting defeat, admitting that he was weak and Katsuki Bakugou was many things, but weak wasn't one of them. He didn't need help from a fucking railing. It didn't matter that he couldn't bend his left leg at the knee. Just think of it as another challenge, Katsuki thought with a grunt of effort.
This was only the tip of the iceberg, and if he couldn't do it, there was going to be a big problem considering class 3-A was on the fourth floor. He had another four staircases to go to get to their classroom. But that could wait until after he ate some breakfast, right now he was fucking hungry.
The cafeteria was nearly empty, just as he predicted it would be. Only a few students were milling around here and there, but Katsuki outright ignored them and no one approached him. As he sat down with his food at his usual table, he was starting to believe he was going to have a peaceful morning- other than his internal anger at Deku, among other things- when someone called him.
"Bakugou!"
Katsuki's chopsticks snapped in half in his grasp. He looks down at the splintered wood and scowled, tossing the broken utensils onto the tabletop. "Just fucking great," he muttered.
He blinked when a new set of chopsticks were set down on the table right in front of him and looked up to see the owner of the hand. He didn't know what he was expecting, but it definitely was not Uraraka. Katsuki took a moment to take in her appearance, comparing it to the last time he saw her, which was that first day in the infirmary. There were no longer bags under her eyes and her face was back to its normal colour. Katsuki shook his head narrowly and pushed the thought from his mind. He didn't want to think about that anymore.
"Good morning!" She piped, sliding into the seat across from him with her tray. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, but ultimately ignored her and began eating. Using his left hand was hard, but he could deal. It was only a few more days, then Recovery Girl could heal the rest of his stupid injuries. Maybe he could get her to fix his leg earlier, he would rather have to use his left hand a little longer than have to hobble everywhere.
"Good morning, Ochako, thank you for the extra chopsticks. You're so considerate." Uraraka said sarcastically before digging into her food, sighing in what he assumed was content as she tasted the first bite.
"What the hell are you doing here, Round Face?" Katsuki asked, getting straight to the point.
She fixed him with a deadpan stare and motioned towards her food, "Breakfast?"
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Obviously. I mean why the fuck are you sitting here with me? Don't you eat with your little Nerd Brigade in the dorms?" With Deku.
"Nerd Brigade'? is that the best you got?" Uraraka repeated with a grin.
"Oh, fuck off."
Uraraka snorted a laugh, took a bite of her rice and chewed thoughtfully. "Everyone else was still sleeping and I was hungry and I'm sitting with you because I felt like it."
Katsuki eyed her for a moment and then sighed, "Whatever," he didn't care to dig for the real reason she was there and he knew there was one.
They finished their breakfast in silence and Katsuki got up without a word and dumped his empty tray on the way. Uraraka followed shortly after him, walking in step next to him without a word. Her presence wouldn't normally bother him, but right now it only served to remind him that Deku was avoiding him and he had a hard time believing she didn't know. What he didn't get was why she was hanging around him if Deku was avoiding him. It didn't make a lick of sense. If he did something bad enough to make Izuku want to avoid him, Uraraka would've been glaring at him, not eating breakfast with him. He didn't know why it made him feel so uneasy.
"Oi, Uraraka," Katsuki asked suddenly, glancing at the girl out of the corner of his eye.
Uraraka jumped, genuinely surprised he called her by her name. "Huh? Oh, what is it?"
Katsuki took a breath to calm his nerves before looking her straight in the eyes, "Why the hell is Deku avoiding me?"
Uraraka's face scrunched up in confusion. "Um, Deku? You know I never minded your nicknames, but calling someone in the hero course useless is going too far."
The blonde recoiled in confusion. "What the fuck? You call him that, too!"
"I wouldn't call anyone useless!" Uraraka said defensively with a frown. "Who are you even talking about?"
Katsuki barked out a humourless laugh that sounded more like a scoff than anything else and levelled her with an incredulous stare. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe our classmate of three years and one of your stupid nerd friends, Izuku fucking Midoriya?"
Uraraka pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows, her whole being just oozing concern. "We don't have a classmate named Izuku Midoriya."