I woke up the next morning feeling awful. When I tried to stand my legs gave out beneath me and I fell to the floor. I'm sure the person below me (Shoji) heard the loud thud of me hitting the floor but I couldn't find it in me to care that I was disturbing people. It was the fourth day. 'By the fourth day, you'll probably be finding it hard to breathe'. I couldn't say that I was finding it hard to breathe at the moment, but I didn't doubt that I would start to have difficulties breathing fairly soon. I lazily looked up at my alarm clock and saw that it was 8:20 am. And classes started at 8:30. "SHIT!" I screamed loud enough to be heard on the other side of the school. Even though it caused immense pain to tear through my body, I jumped off the floor and threw my clothes on. It took 5 minutes to get to the school from the dorms. On top of that, even if I'm sprinting, it took 3 minutes to get to my classroom from the front door. That was 8 minutes in total. That's not even adding in the time it took to get dressed and get down the dorm stairs. 

I got dressed as fast as I could, but I wasn't fast enough. By the time I had pulled my blazer on, I had 6 minutes to get to class. Not nearly enough time to run to class. I looked out of my window and saw the looming H-shaped building in the distance. I had an idea which would probably get me detention for the next month, but what did it matter if I was going to die in 2 days anyway. 

Standing on the balcony of my room, I wondered if I was going crazy. I probably was. I glanced at my watch and saw that I had 5 minutes until I would be late for class. There was no way in hell I was ruining my perfect attendance record. Nitroglycerin began to collect on my palms before it sparked up and I was sent flying off of my balcony. The rush of adrenaline I felt as I propelled myself through the air and towards the school made my heart speed up. I felt so alive. I almost forgot that there was a timer on my life.   

*Shoto's POV*

Izuku had told me about what had happened with Bakugo the previous day. I couldn't believe that he was going to die and he was too damn stubborn to confess to his crush. Sure it hurt that his crush probably wasn't me. It was most likely Kirishima, which would explain why he didn't want to confess. But I didn't care if he didn't love me, as long as he was alive and I could admire him from afar, I would be content. Having heard about my crushes impending death, is it really any surprise that I began to panic when he didn't show up to class by the time he usually would. 8:15 came and went yet Bakugo still wasn't in class. Nobody else but Izuku seemed even remotely concerned, of course, they didn't know that he was dying. By 8:27 I was on the edge of my seat. I was scared. I'm not afraid to admit that I was worried that Bakugo wouldn't turn up to class. That he was laid lifelessly on his bed. That I would never get to admit my feelings. 8:29. It didn't look like Katsuki would make it to class on time. If he was even coming to begin with.

I had given up hope. He had one minute and I couldn't hear any frantic footsteps storming down the hall. I could hear something else though. It was peculiar. It sounded like Bakugo's explosions. That constant pop which I associated with Bakugo propelling himself through the air with his explosions. Other people had started to hear it by this point. They looked around confused as to where the noise was coming from. "OH MY GOSH!" Mina screamed pointing out of the window. My head whipped around to see Bakugo flying through the air. He looked extremely concentrated. I quickly rushed over to the nearest window and opened it as wide as possible. I wasn't a second too late because as soon as the window was wide open Bakugo flew through it and landed on his desk. He quickly glanced at his watch and smirked. "HA! I'm not fucking late!" He cheered. The class looked at him in shock. They didn't even look away from Bakugo when Aizawa shuffled into the classroom with a "Good morning Problem Children." but everyone ignored him. "Stop looking at me, you shitheads!" Bakugo snapped at everyone. They all quickly spun around in their chairs and looked at a very confused Aizawa.   

The day went as it normally would. We had all of our academic lessons before lunch. I zoned out slightly during our history lesson. History had never been a particularly interesting lesson for me. Unlike my boyfriend, I didn't thirst for knowledge about how quirks emerged and how warfare was changed thanks to quirks. I found maths and English relatively easy that day. Nothing new really happened, we just went over things we had already learned. Lunch was normal as well. I sat next to Izuku with the Deku squad. Tsuyu and Ochako flirted shamelessly whilst Iida tried to stop his girlfriend, Mei Hatsume, from pulling apart the table and reassembling it. After lunch, we had hero lessons. Thankfully, we only did theory. The previous day's training had taken a toll on my body so if we'd had to do training, I would have probably collapsed on the floor. Aizawa lectured us on hero laws and gave us situations which we had to find the best answer to. For example, if there were two groups of people and you only had the capacity to save one group of people from a collapsing building, which one would you save? The first group consists of a pregnant woman, her 2 children and the villain which caused the building to collapse. The second group consists of an elderly couple, a newly married couple and your fellow hero who was injured and can't save themselves or the people surrounding them. There were opposing ideas throughout the classroom. I don't think Izuku fully understood the scenario. The sweet, sweet boy kept insisting that he could save both groups. It was so cute yet endearing. The class ended and everyone started walking back to the dorms after cleaning the classroom. 

Throughout the day, something had constantly been at the back of my mind. Bakugo seemed in pain. His usually angry expression was gone, instead replaced with a constant slight grimace of pain which you could only see if you looked hard enough. I also noticed after we came back from lunch that his breaths seemed a bit laboured. Like every breath pained him. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I never got the chance. He hobbled out of the classroom as soon as we were dismissed. Not even his squad's calls for him to wait caused him to falter. I was really concerned and, from the look on his face, I could tell Izuku was as well. "His breathing has been getting worse since lunch." I said as I walked out of the classroom with Izu by my side. "I know. I sit right behind him. It sounded like his airways were blocked with cotton or something. It was painful just sitting there and doing nothing!" Izu shouted in frustration. I came to a stop and gently took Izu's hand in mine. "It's ok. We'll go and speak to him now, ok? Come here." I spoke softly before pulling Izuku into a warm hug. He sighed in content and nodded his head against my chest, "Ok. Let's go talk to him." his voice came out muffled against my chest. I pulled away and smiled at him. I kissed the crown of my boyfriend's head before we resumed our journey to the dorms.

When we arrived we barely stopped to drop our school bags in our rooms. We rushed straight to Bakugo's room to check on him. From outside his door, we could hear him wheezing painfully and the occasional cough which only made his breathing worse. I looked over at Izuku only to see that he was returning my look.  A look of extreme worry and anxiety about our crush.

*Katsuki's POV*

The entire day had been shitty! All-day my entire body had been aching because of the training I had done the day before and the stupid love curse that shitty brat put on me. Then to add more shit to the day, around lunchtime, I could barely breathe. The entire afternoon I had been wheezing and practically suffocating. It felt like my lungs were full to the brim with cotton balls. I fucking hated it. By the time I collapsed on my bed at the end of the day I wanted to die. In the privacy of my own room, I could finally cough as I had wanted to do all day. Coughing only made it harder to breathe. It wasn't easy to breathe with blood in your mouth on a normal day, but factor in having difficulty breathing. It was a combination which made me want to die. I didn't have to wait too long to die though. 2 more days. Nobody would miss me.

"Kacchan. We know you're in there. We're coming in." Izuku's voice called from outside my door. We? Don't tell me he brought his stupidly handsome boyfriend with him. If he was with him then it meant that Deku had told Icyhot what was going on with me. I didn't get the chance to object before my door was opened and two boys rushed into the room and to my bedside. "Kacchan you look awful!" Deku gasped. I could see my pitiful reflection in his giant emerald orbs. The bottom half of my face was streaked with blood, as well as my neck and hands. My eyes were red and tears slowly leaked from them. When had I started crying? "Go away!" I attempted to growl at the two boys. Keyword being attempted. Even to me, it sounded pathetic and weak. Icyhot sat on the edge of my bed whilst Deku went into my bathroom, presumably to get a flannel to wash off my face. "You should really admit to your crushes. Nobody wants you to die." Icyhot whispered as he weaved his fingers through my hair. I stayed silent. Mostly because I didn't know how to respond but also because I was in shock at the fact that he had his fingers in my hair. Surely him being so close and acting so intimately was some form of cheating. Yet when Izuku walked back in from the bathroom, he didn't even bat an eyelash. He just walked over and cleaned away all of the blood in my face and neck. "We really care about you Kacchan." Izuku whispered. I didn't like the fact that they were looking after me. I didn't like the fact that I was so vulnerable. "Katsuki," Icyhot started, "Please admit to your crushes. It's really not that hard, here, I'll give you an example. Katsuki Bakugo, when I first met you I thought you were an absolute dick. You were rude and inconsiderate and the way you treated people was appalling. But as the year went on, I got to know you better. And although you won't admit it, we're very close friends. The more I got to know you, the more I fell for you. I really like you Katsuki. I'd say I even love you.". I stared at Shoto in shock. That was a very clearly thought out confession. That wasn't just an example. He was actually confessing to me. I looked over at Izuku to see how he was taking his boyfriend's sudden confession. I was shocked to see him smiling fondly at Shoto. "Aww, I wanted to confess first!" Deku mocked pouted. Both boys laughed lightly as they turned back to see my shocked face. All that was running through my head was that my crushes liked me back. Surely that was sufficient enough. Surely I wouldn't have to confess to them myself now. But no, that just wasn't how love worked. 

I began coughing violently once again. Blood trickled from the corners of my mouth and streamed from my nose in rivers. My body shook with every cough which rattled my bones. I hated myself for letting this happen. If only I had moved out of the way of the little girl. If only I had confessed as soon as possible. If only. My mind became foggy and my eyes wanted to close so desperately. I thought I could faintly hear Izuku calling my name frantically and my bedroom door slam open. I thought I could see Aizawa's concerned face looming over me but it could have just been my imagination. My vision went dark. "Hang in there kid! Don't you dare die on me!".  

Thank you for reading chapter 4 of Countdown. The book is nearly completed, there's one full chapter left then a little epilogue sort of thing. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.