*Katsuki's POV*

When I woke up the next morning I felt terrible. My throat burned. My chest ached. My eyes stung. It was my third day with the stupid love curse and I already felt like I would be better off dead. The world spun dangerously as I stood up from the bed with a heavy head. It felt like I was about to fall right back down. I didn't like the feeling at all. What was worse than that was the fact that I could feel a warm liquid running down my chin and onto my chest. I looked down only to see a crimson trail of blood. I remembered what that lady had said in the park: 'On the third day, you may start to cough blood'. Well, I was hardly fucking coughing. The blood was just streaming from my mouth like a waterfall. It wasn't long until the metallic taste of blood became too much to handle. I knew I had to get the taste out of my mouth. Luckily, by the time I had cleaned away the blood on my body, it had stopped spewing from my mouth like a fucking fountain. I was lucky I woke up early that day because I didn't want people seeing me in such a sorry state, it was embarrassing. 

I was quick to make it to the kitchen and chug glass upon glass of water to clear my mouth of the putrid taste of blood. It seemed to be working which was good. Everything was perfect until stupid (adorable) Deku had to come along. "Oh, Kacchan, why are you awake so early?" the nerd asked. I turned around to see him rubbing his eyes tiredly. Why was he so fucking cute! He was wearing a large white t-shirt which clearly didn't belong to him because it was hanging off of one of his shoulders. It was decorated with half an iceberg and half a flame. I remember buying it for Icyhot for his birthday. "None of your business!" I whisper yelled in reply to his question. Deku didn't even flinch as he walked closer to me and raised his hand to my chin. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as his finger swiped over my chin. His eyes shone with concern. I was too busy admiring him that it didn't occur to me what was actually happening. "Kacchan, how did you get blood on your chin?" he asked calmly.

*Izuku's POV*

I had woken up rather early on that particular Sunday. When I looked at the alarm clock by my bed I saw it was 7 am. Far too early to be awake on a Sunday morning. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I was parched so I decided to quickly get a drink of water.

I walked down to the kitchen and saw the back of a familiar person. At that moment I was glad I had decided to wear trousers to bed because Kacchan seeing me walking around without trousers would have been mortifying. "Oh, Kacchan, why are you awake so early?" I asked. Kacchan turned around and stared at me for a while. I don't think he was aware that he was staring. I didn't mind. Having Kacchan stare at me felt good. When Kacchan finally answered, he looked up and said it was none of my business but I wasn't really paying attention because I had spotted something red on Kacchan's chin. I walked towards Kacchan and watched as his cheeks turned pink at my proximity to him. Ordinarily, I may have blushed alongside him, but I was set on finding out what was wrong with Kacchan. I raised my hand to his chin and used my thumb to wipe away the faded trail of blood on his chin. I was really worried by this point, but I had to remain calm. "Kacchan, how did you get blood on your chin?" I asked calmly. 

Kacchan tensed up for a second and I could tell he was about to start shouting, but I silenced him by yanking his head down and pulling his head into my chest. I could feel the heat radiating off of his face as I stroked his hair. A two years ago I wouldn't have had the guts to pull such a stunt. But throughout our first year and the first half of our second year, Kacchan and I had fixed our relationship. 

I would say that we were close friends, as we had been before I was declared quirkless. Of course, Kacchan would deny this but we all knew that he agreed with me. My love for Kacchan had been stewing since childhood, it left briefly throughout middle school, sure I still looked up to him but I no longer loved him. The love came back in full force when we saved Kacchan from the Leauge of Villains. By this point, I was already dating Shoto and felt insanely guilty until Shoto admitted his attraction to Kacchan as well. Together we wanted to pull Kacchan into our relationship, but it was hard to do when Kacchan was so closed off emotionally.

I continued to stroke Kacchan's hair, I didn't have a reason to do so, his hair was just insanely soft. "Let's go to my room so you can explain. You don't get a choice in the matter." I whispered into his ear. I didn't give him the chance to respond before grabbing his hand and dragging him up the stairs.

*Katsuki's POV*

I knew that Deku could be assertive, he had shown me plenty of times that he could be bossy, but I didn't expect him to push my head into his chest and demand that I go to his room with him. The entire situation could be interpreted very incorrectly. I was too surprised to utter a word. 

When we arrived at Izuku's bedroom, he shoved me in and closed the door before flopping onto his bed and gesturing for me to take a seat beside him. "What's the matter Kacchan, how did you get blood on your chin?" Deku asked he sounded almost concerned, but I refused to believe that he could possibly be concerned for me. I was nothing but a dick to him. Why would he ever love me? I could feel the tears building in my eyes, but I withheld them, I had cried in front of Deku too many times. "What are you going on about? Nothing's wrong with me, I just accidentally bit my tongue!" I snapped at Deku. There go my chances at ever getting with him. I can't even be nice to the boy I have a crush on. "Don't lie to me Kacchan." Deku hissed at me. I was taken aback. "Look Kacchan, I want to help and Shoto and I both agree that something seems off with you. You didn't even eat your spicy curry last night. Plus, I've bitten my tongue in my sleep plenty of times, I know what the blood looks like and that was too much blood from your tongue." Izu deadpanned, looking up at me from his place sprawled across his bed. I kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to spill. "Please Kacchan," Izuku pleaded. He sat up from his position laying on the bed and crawled towards me. He had no place doing that. "Katsuki," Izuku whispered, the way he said my name made my face blossom red, he took my face into my hands and turned it so that I was looking deep into viridian pools which I could drown in. I felt something deep within me stir. I wanted to tell him. I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted when I felt the need to cough. I spun away from Izu and began coughing violently. I could feel warm blood dribble from the corner of my mouth as I coughed. 

Once my coughing fit was over, I looked up at Deku and saw that he had a horrified look on his face. "K-kacchan!" he squealed before grabbing my face (he seemed to be doing that a lot) and wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth. "Somethings wrong! Tell me!" he demanded. I couldn't say no. So I spilt what had happened on Friday. The more I spoke the more tears gathered in Deku's eyes. I told him nearly everything. I neglected to tell him that he and his perfect ass boyfriend were my crushes. It wasn't so much of a pride thing anymore, more of a nerve thing. "3 DAYS! No no no no!" Deku paced frantically. He pulled at his hair as he stressed over the fact that I was going to die after three more days. "Look Deku, it's fine. Nobody will miss me much." I dismissed his obsessive ramblings as I read through one of Izuku's quirk analysis books. I must say he was quite the artist, he had drawn Icyhot in a lot of detail, though I guess he could look at him all he wanted. Lucky bastard. "DON'T SAY THAT KACCHAN!" Deku yelled, startling me so bad that I dropped the book. I looked up at the nerd and saw the tears gathering in his eyes. It was 7:45 in the morning. Way too early for this shit. "I'll miss you. Shoto will miss you. Your parents will miss you. The Bakusquad will miss you. The class will miss you. Please Kacchan tell your crush. In two days you'll be bedbound and most likely won't be able to tell them." Deku began crying. I didn't like seeing him cry, it felt like it was physically hurting me. I was going to say something, but Aizawa's voice echoed through the dorms.

"You know why you're all here." Aizawa grumbled, "You're here because today is Surprise Sunday training. I give you a training task. You keep doing it until I'm satisfied. Got it!" Aizawa snapped at us. We all grumbled in reply. I hated Surprise Sunday training. It stripped me of the little free time I had. Aizawa gave each of my classmates their individual training activity until he reached me. "Bakugo... run 10 laps of the field then practice reducing the damage to your surroundings. I'll come and check on you periodically. Go!" Aizawa ordered me. I nodded my head before heading off to the training field. It was 2 kilometres around the field so I had to run 20 kilometres in total. I was so looking forwards to that.

By the time Aizawa let me finish for the day, the sun was dipping on the horizon. Of course, I hadn't been working non-stop for the entire day, but I was still fucking tired. I could barely find the energy to pick up my chopsticks and eat. I showered to ease my aching muscles before dressing and falling onto my bed. I wasn't sure if I would be able to get up the next morning. As I fell asleep it occurred to me that I hadn't had the chance to confess my feelings. I wasn't too worried though, I probably would have died of embarrassment anyway.     

Thank you for reading Chapter 3 of Countdown. I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.