Chapter 11: Back in Her Arms, Katsuki?

Day Two of being in UA's care. After Deku sees him bleed on the floor, he was quickly moved without a second thought. With some help from Tokoyami and Dark Shadow plus Kirishima and Satou, Katsuki had been taken to Recovery Girl's office to patch up the wounds still fresh with her quirk. Day Two started with him being moved to a nearby pro hero-exclusive hospital.

He was still in a lot of pain, his eyes opening weakly in bright hospital lights, sliding close without a hesitant thought of slipping away forever. In the moments when he was awake, he noticed a vase of flowers from the class as a whole, homemade sweets with a card from Satou, some taped-up messy cards from Sero and his friends. His wrist had an IV needle flowing nutrients in a thick liquid inside his body. It reminded him of the poison Shigaraki had injected in him.

He felt sick.

I shouldn't be alive.

He felt his heart rate climb upwards slowly, then quickly, hearing the monitor's beeps count his heart's panicking drumming.

90, 110, 127…

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Day Four, and the doctors had made a decision to send him back to UA's dorms. He would still be treated by Recovery Girl, and with the watchful gaze of his peers and teachers, he'll be able to move around the dorms. A schedule was posted on the large fridge in their shared kitchen, in the mirrors in the community baths, also near the TV in the common room.

When they weren't on the job, his peers tried their best to avoid even looking at Bakugou.

No one offered a comment, a pat on the shoulder, a "Welcome Back". He was isolated.

Katsuki tries his best to ignore the feeling of being avoided like the plague.

…It only made him feel more alone.

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Day Six, Katsuki grows more and more frustrated.

His group of friends haven't cracked a joke around him after the school day's over. Uraraka hasn't offered some of her homemade mochi, like how she used to for the exchange of after school training. Not even Deku asks if he's okay. No question about if he needs help. No comments on if he wants to go over what he's been missing in class. Not even an uncomfortable amount of time staring at the blonde like how he did before.

Katsuki's mind starts to wander to Toga. Does she miss him? He knows that he definitely misses her. Her soft voice, careful touches, the warmth his face felt when she pressed his body against her modest chest.

The blonde wonders if he can leave in the middle of the night when even the teacher assigned to watch him is asleep to find Toga. He wanted to see her.

No. That's not it.

Needed to see Himi-chan.

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On Day Ten, All Might—Yagi-sensei, Katsuki reminds himself—catches Bakugou trying to leave from his dorm room window. The skeleton of the number one hero staring at Katsuki as he tried to ignore the feeling of shame for needing to run back into the villain's arms… Well, Katsuki swallowed a pained, choked out sob and looked out of his small balcony.

The fourth floor doesn't seem that bad of a fall, his mind supplies.

"Young Bakugou," his soft voice took a cautious edge, as if he was trying to reel in an unstable mental patient. Not only did his hollowed out blue eyes keep a steady focus on Bakugou's own wide red eyes, but his hunched over posture he usually had was straightened painfully. "Turn around." A beat of silence. "Please." A beg.

The first words spoken to the teen were for him to return to the "safe space" known as UA.

Katsuki felt anger boil under his skin, they wanted to keep him away from Himi-chan.

Not like she wanted to bring you with them either; his mind wasn't helping the situation.

"She had to run…," Katsuki's voice croaked in the moonlit room.

Toshinori didn't question the statement. His eyes blinked when he spoke, confused as to why that would be the first sentence he's heard from the boy. "Come back, Young Bakugou."

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Day Fifteen, Deku visits Katsuki in his bare dorm. Three quick knocks and he moves quietly inside, closing the door behind him with just the small click of the fitted wood back in place echoing between them. The other boy gently places an old All Might figure on his nightstand, his emerald eyes scanning over Kacchan's purposely starved body.

Deku swallows, and Katsuki doesn't need to see the tears starting to trail down his face. "You need to—"

Katsuki cuts him off quickly, "Don't you dare start." An odd sense of deja vu strikes him. He half-expects Deku to turn into Himi-chan, like before.

Deku didn't. Instead he moved to sit at the edge of Katsuki's bed, half of his ass hanging off the corner as he didn't want to move and hurt Kacchan. The blonde peered at Deku from under the pillow he had thrown over his head, watching the stray fat tears roll down his face, noticing that a scarred hand move upwards to paint the saltiness into his freckled cheeks.

It was quiet. Peaceful. Even if Katsuki wanted to talk, he realized he just wanted another body in close vicinity of his own. He wanted closeness, and this was a comfortable closeness right now.

He didn't want to ruin it.

"Did you… Is she? Um—," a nervous chuckle left Deku's mouth before he could stop it. "Do you— do you want to see Toga…?" Deku's quiet whisper of a question rang like standing near a church bell's tower in Katsuki's ears.

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Day Twenty, Deku comes up with a plan. A stupid as fuck plan, that might end up with him being killed or kidnapped or both or possibly worse; Deku still wanted to try. As much as he knows very little about Toga, he does know when she attacked him on his trash night that she had mentioned doing the blood exchange for Kacchan. He only agreed to give her half a tank as long as Kacchan lives.

As much as he'd absolutely /hate/ getting expelled from UA or facing the wrath of Aizawa and Toshinori combined, Kacchan was his friend. Deku was smart, and the blonde knew this very well; he'll work his way through different scenarios easily with little thinking time.

Kacchan told Deku what he knew from Toga and the other members of the League, where he suspected they might be hiding now, the warehouse where he stayed at… And any other bits of information Deku might need to find her.

"Find Kurogiri, mention me. Although… I'm sure he knows who you are," Kacchan adds last.

"The warp gate guy?" Deku questions him with a look. "Why him?"

"He took care of me, he's the one that got ahold of the dorm layout and warped me here. He basically owes me a favor." Kacchan gave Deku a smile, the first smile Deku's seen on Kacchan's face in a long ass time. "I don't see myself even using my quirk again anytime in the near future, so the pummeling of Shigaraki and Himi-chan has to wait."

Deku cracked a humored grin of his own, taking a shaky breath in and out to quiet his nerves. "I'll try my best, Kacchan."

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Day Thirty-Five. Izuku's back in class, with some healing minor scrapes. The bandages around his torso will be removed in his dorm room alone tonight. His class must've noticed the blonde's disappearance once more, but no one mentioned a word. Not even the teachers.

The empty desk in front of him makes him happy. And kinda upset. Izuku figures he'll send a message to Kacchan's new phone. He wants to know how Kacchan's doing, especially being back with Toga again…