Izuku was baffled. Everyone was baffled. The series of events that were playing out was peculiar. First, Izuku was excluded from the hero course on the authority of the Hero Safety Commission, then he was kidnapped by said government body (which had been infiltrated by a villainous organisation), and finally, he was admitted back into the hero course after returning from being kidnapped. There was something extremely fishy about the entire sequence of events. 

"This is dodgy," Kaminari whispered from the back of the crowd. 

"Yeah. No offence, Midoriya, but why would they change their minds so suddenly?" Sato mused. 

"That's none of your concern, dear students," Nedzu chirped, "Let us teachers investigate this strange series of events. All of you have lessons tomorrow and I think you should retire to your rooms to ready yourselves for bed."

With disgruntled expressions, every student aside from Izuku, Katsuki and Todoroki shuffled towards the stairs. Katsuki led Izuku towards the kitchen with Todoroki following in tow. All three boys came to a stop around the kitchen island. 

"Oi, why the fuck are you following us, half and half?" Katsuki grumbled.

"I wanted to greet Midoriya and apologise for not being present when he woke up. I was called away by my father. He had to tell me something concerning... Dabi." Todoroki explained, when he reached the villain's name, a pained expression flickered across his face. This was a common reaction to any mention of Dabi. Todoroki looked vaguely uncomfortable and tried to change the subject of the conversation as quickly as possible.

"Thank you, Todoroki," Izuku tried to sound like his usual upbeat self, but he struggled. He was just too mentally tired to deal with anyone or anything. Nothing made sense to him anymore, and there was the constant concern for his mother that lingered ominously at the back of his mind. 

"There's no need to thank me." Todoroki dismissed quickly, "What are you doing, Bakugo?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, dipshit. I'm cooking." Katsuki grumbled, "Now, go away."

"What are you cooking?" Todoroki, in fact, did not leave. Instead, he made himself rather comfortable beside Izuku. They were both perched on stools, watching with attentive eyes as Katsuki flitted around the kitchen. 

"I'm just making a sandwich for the nerd. Why do you care?" Katsuki replied sharply.

"Oh, ok. I'll leave you to it then. See you tomorrow." Todoroki waved in farewell, a wave that was returned by Izuku and completely ignored by Katsuki.

"Bastard. He wanted to steal any food I made." Katsuki fumed under his breath. If Izuku had the energy, he may have laughed at his boyfriend's clear disgruntlement. But... he did not have the energy. In fact, he had no energy. Instead of laughing at his boyfriend's plight, Izuku simply smiled slightly before his head hit the countertop with a dull thud.

"Tired..." Izuku groaned. 

"Yeah, yeah. Just fucking eat this and then you can go to bed, ok?" Katsuki grumbled. A plate was shoved in front of Izuku. Sluggishly, he raised his head and beheld the artistically made sandwich. His empty stomach growled and grumbled at the sight.

Only five minutes later, both Katsuki and Izuku were dressed in their pyjamas, laid in Katsuki bed. They were face to face, no words were exchanged between the two, and there was no need to do so. They knew what the other wanted to say. They knew each other better than perhaps anyone (aside from their parents) knew them. 

"I love you, Kacchan," Izuku whispered into the silence.

Katsuki remained silent for a few seconds, internally struggling with the vulnerable words that fought desperately to break free. But, finally, he managed to croak out "I love you too, Nerd."

A single kiss, chaste and sweet, was exchanged before both boys shuffled in their bed and fell asleep. 

Pain rocketed through his body. It stemmed from his arms, neck and legs. He couldn't breathe. All that entered his tired, battered lungs was liquid. A liquid that was then extracted from his lungs via a peculiar device attached to him. He didn't like it. He didn't like any of this. 

Blurry faces observed him with keen, sick, interest. Obsidian eyes were detached. Amber eyes were alight with lust for blood and violence. Shining turquoise eyes were shimmering with delight at his pain. Blood red eyes gleaned with hatred and desire. He was scared. Why were they doing this to him?

The metallic tang of blood invaded his senses. It assaulted his tongue and desecrated his nose. It was hard to say whether the blood was his or somebody else's. After all, there was a body sprawled on the floor in front of him. Chunks of flesh had been torn violently from muscle and bone, leaving behind oozing blood and craters that marred the person's body. Maybe the worst part about it all was the fact that they were still alive. Even after three-quarters of their leg had been ripped apart by blunt teeth, only to be spit back onto the ground beside them. Even after their ear had been torn from their head and forced into their own mouth with giddy laughter by a blond girl. Even after their head had been yanked back harshly by the hair and their eye had been gouged out with a blunt spoon. They were still alive. Somehow. He wanted them to die if only so their suffering would stop.

"Please, just kill me!" the person sobbed brokenly, their throat was too raw from all of the shrieking and screaming from before to do much else aside from beg for mercy in a broken voice. 

A shining emerald eye gazed up at him with fear. He had seen that same shade of green before... somewhere. He couldn't remember. They looked rather familiar like he had seen the same face year after year, but he couldn't recall the name. There were subtle differences, like the size of the eyes and absence of freckles, but this person struck him as familiar, in a vague sense. 

He granted them the release they craved. He wasn't supposed, he knew that much, he was supposed to toy with them for a bit longer, but they looked so desperate and in pain. What else could he do? A snap and it was all over for them. Neck broken. They were dead. 

He was punished, of course. He doesn't remember how, but he remembered it hurt enough for him to continuously black out. Everything hurt. He just wanted to go back. He didn't know where he wanted to go back to. He couldn't remember. He couldn't recall anything. He just wanted to remember. 

Izuku awoke with a gasp. His chest ached with the force of it, causing him to splutter and hack over the side of the bed. Sleepily, Katsuki slung an arm around Izuku's waist and tugged at him to lay back down, and Izuku followed the motion, though he did so subconsciously. He was too focused on the baffling nightmare he had just had. 

"Why the fuck are you sitting up, Nerd?" Katsuki grumbled in his sleep laden voice. 

"Sorry, Kacchan," Izuku whispered into Katsuki's hair, "I just... Had a nightmare. It was weird, I think it had something to do with when I was captured. I barely remember anything though. I'm...I'm scared, Kacchan."

It was silent for a minute, Izuku was starting to think that his boyfriend had fallen back asleep. It was near impossible to rouse Katsuki before his alarm sounded. His body worked on a strict clock. He went to sleep at 9 pm (his bedtime had gotten a whole hour later, Kaminari said it was a miracle) and he woke up at 6 am. Trying to communicate with him effectively during that nine-hour window was near impossible. 

"It's ok if you can't remember at the moment. It's probably some sort of trauma response. Everything will be fine." Katsuki slurred drowsily. He pulled Izuku further into his chest and grumbled some more before his breathing grew steady.

As Izuku lay there, wide awake, staring at Katsuki's ceiling, he reflected on his nightmare. Already, certain details were fading away. Details he couldn't help ut feel would be vital in the days to come. Without waking up Katsuki, Izuku rolled out of bed and scurried over to the desk as quickly as he could.

His pen whizzed across the page as he tried his hardest to record every detail of the dream that he could. But it was like trying to shift water with your hands. No matter how much Izuku tried, the details of his dream were slipping from his mind. 

Letting out a forlong sigh, Izuku flopped onto the desk and let out a tired huff. Why couldn't he remember anything? Why was this happening to him? Had he not been cursed enough? 

Izuku fell into a, thankfully, dreamless sleep sat at Katsuki's desk. Maybe Katsuki was right. Maybe everything would be fine, but Izuku wasn't naive enough to believe that fully.

Katsuki woke up at exactly 6 am, as he always did. The space beside him was cold and for a dreaded moment, he thought that he had dreamt Izuku returning to him. For a heart-stopping second that seemed to last several eternities, Katsuki's heart dropped. Yesterday, whilst it certainly hadn't been perfect, had been the light that Katsuki needed to guide him back towards the correct path. A path where he (with great difficulty) apologised to all of his classmates for being an asshole for the past three months. He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, preparing to turn the dorms upside down in an attempt to find his boyfriend, though he soon found there was no need.

Slumped over the desk, his face squished, was Izuku. He snored lightly as he slept. Well, 'lightly' wasn't exactly the correct word to use. Whilst he didn't sound thunderous like some people (aka Kirishima), he wasn't exactly quiet, either. 

"Tch, what a nerd." Katsuki huffed fondly. It was just like Izuku to fall asleep at a desk. Whether he was busy with homework, scribbling down his thoughts or just getting caught up in something he was passionate about. Izuku always managed to fall asleep in the oddest of places. 

Back cracking slightly, Katsuki stood from his bed and walked over to Izuku, intending to wake him up before he could damage his back and neck too much, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw what Izuku had been writing. 

Scrawled across a piece of scrap paper in messy handwriting Izuku seemed to have written what he could remember about his dream. With curious eyes, Katsuki read over the paper, heart stuttering and plummeting the further he read.

-Can't breathe. Lungs full of... liquid? What liquid?
-Black, yellow and red eyes.
-Blood, lots of blood. 
-Something about a person in danger? Dead?
-Punished

To say the brief list was concerning was an understatement. If Izuku couldn't remember every detail of his dream/ memory, and yet this was what he was writing, Katsuki was extremely concerned. 

From the desk, Izuku snorted slightly and started moving around, a sure-fire sign that he was starting to wake up. With a heavy sigh, Katsuki placed the list of disturbing events back on his desk and slouched over to his wardrobe to retrieve some uniform for both him and Izuku.

Izuku woke up with a crick in his neck, which was only to be expected given the awkward position he had fallen asleep in. An almost silent groan slipped past his lips as he sat up. The stiff pain in his neck and back was terrible, Izuku would go as far as to say it was one of the worst pains you could experience after just having woken up. Which, for Izuku, was saying a lot given the sheer amount of times Izuku had woken up in a hospital bed with an aching body.

"Tch, what do you expect after falling asleep at my desk, idiot?" Katsuki grumbled from the opposite side of the room, "You could have just gotten back into bed."

"I didn't mean to fall asleep, Kacchan, it just happened," Izuku yawned in a slightly indignant tone, "Besides, you probably would have kicked me out of the bed. It's impossible to slip back into bed with you, you're so violent."

Katsuki merely grumbled incoherently at that. He could scarcely deny that even in his sleep he had the tendency to kick and punch people if they distributed him, but he wasn't exactly keen to own up to his actions. 

"Whatever." Katsuki scoffed, "Hurry up and get dressed so that we can go down to breakfast, The earlier we're there, the better food we'll get." 

Izuku quickly got dressed into a uniform that was ever so slightly too big for him before following Katsuki out of the door to breakfast. 

As expected, the breakfast that Katsuki prepared was delectable. How he managed to make every meal taste so heavenly was a mystery to Izuku. Cooking was such a difficult skill to master, and yet Izuku's boyfriend was a master chef at the age of seventeen (though 'master chef' may be pushing the boundaries, perhaps it was simply Izuku's bias that swayed his strong opinion).

"This is amazing, Kacchan. If being a hero doesn't work out for you, you could always open up a five-star restaurant." Izuku teased. Predictably, Katsuki whipped around from where he was doing the washing up to glare at Izuku with the power of a thousand suns. 

"Hah? Are you doubting me, nerd?" Katsuki hissed threateningly.

 A year ago, Izuku might have stuttered and reassured Katsuki over and over again that he would never look down on somebody as cool as Katsuki, but a year had passed, and a lot had changed in that year, including Katsuki and Izuku's relationship. 

"I'm just saying. I'm gonna be the number one hero anyway, and it's always been all or nothing when it comes to you, hasn't it, Kacchan." Izuku hummed in a saccharine sweet tone. 

"You little shit!" Katsuki laughed in a somewhat shocked manner, "Why don't you come over here so that we can settle who's gonna be number one with our fists, hm?"

As he spoke, Katsuki slowly started to advance towards Izuku, cracking his fingers and neck as he slowly stalked closer and closer.

Izuku couldn't help but smile at his boyfriend's (not so) threatening behaviour. This was exactly what he need to get his life back to normal. His usual joked and banter with Katsuki. To not be treated with kid gloves, like he was liable to snap and shatter at any given moment. He just wanted everything to go back to normal, and whilst it might take some time given Izuku's new nightmares, the mystery surrounding his disappearance and his still comatose mother, Izuku was sure that, sooner or later, everything would right itself and he could go on living a normal life. (Well, as normal as it could get when you were in UA's hero course.)

When Katsuki arrived at Izuku's side, that same faux look of anger smeared across his mouth, Izuku simply looked up at him with a cheeky grin. "Do you want something, Kacchan?"

"Don't get cocky, Izuku, just because you just got back, doesn't mean I won't kick your ass." Katsuki sneered in a low tone. The use of his given name made Izuku's heart flutter and stomach tighten with love.

"Yeah?" Izuku whispered, Katsuki's lips were getting closer and closer to his. Izuku's eyes were locked firmly on them as they inched closer to his, he could already feel Katsuki's breath against his mouth. 

"Yeah..." Katsuki whispered in reply. Then their lips were touching. 

It was hardly anything scandalous. After all, they were still keenly conscious of the fact that they were in a public area and they were extremely likely to be caught kissing. It was a simple touching of their lips as well as a minute amount of movement. Besides, even if they had wanted to deepen the kiss, they wouldn't have had the chance seeing as an unholy squeal quickly split them apart. 

"OMG!" Hagakure squealed alongside Ashido, "You guys are too cute! Although you could both work on your flirting, I'm not sure how attractive threatening to beat up your significant other in a duel is."

"Oi!" Katsuki yelled, "How long have you assholes been there!" 

"Long enough to see that you and Midoriya are amazing together. Aww!" Ashido gushed. 

Both Katsuki and Izuku's faces blossomed red. Izuku buried his face into his hands and started muttering about how embarrassed he was at having been caught kissing his boyfriend in the dorm kitchen of all places. He was grateful that Iida hadn't found them, if he had, he surely would have subjected the boys to a dreary lecture about public displays of affection. 

Katsuki, on the other hand, advanced on the laughing girls with ruddy cheeks and a clear scowl on his face. "Keep laughing, let's see what happens to you, assholes!" Katsuki growled. 

Chortling amongst themselves, Hagakure and Ashido scampered towards the stairs, their laughter echoed throughout the room and in the stairwell for far too long, in Izuku's opinion. Maybe his embarrassment was amplifying their laughter, making it ricochet around his mind. 

"What's the chances that everyone knows about this by the time we head to class?" Izuku murmured into his hands. From somewhere to his left, he heard Katsuki snort. Katsuki's face, no doubt, still held that same red hue and annoyed sneer. 

"Everyone is definitely going to know, just our luck." Katsuki huffed. His embarrassment and clear annoyance didn't stop him from marching over to Izuku and pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of his head, "Don't worry about them, Nerd. Just eat your breakfast, we can deal with them later, got it?"

Izuku finally peaked out of his hands and offered Katsuki a wobbly smile, "Ok... I love you Kacchan."

Katsuki froze for a second at Izuku's words. He hadn't expected him to say them so suddenly, nevertheless, he turned around and ruffled Izuku's hair, "I love you too, Izuku."

Just as they had predicted, by the time they arrived in class, everyone knew that Izuku and Katsuki had been found kissing in the kitchen.

Some people teased them relentlessly (Kaminari, Sero and Todoroki) whilst others took to lecturing about hygiene (Sato and Iida), and some just didn't care (Tokoyami and Koda). That's to say that Izuku's classmates had mixed reactions to the news, news that Izuku desperately wished had never gotten out.

"-and that is why you shouldn't kiss or do any other sort of activity in that vein of physical interaction in the kitchen, especially a shared kitchen." Iida finished his lecture after five minutes. In all honesty, Izuku had zoned out halfway through, he got the gist of what Iida was saying a minute in. 

"Yeah, yeah, Four Eyes. It won't happen again," Katsuki scoffed, " But, it was only kissing. At least we weren't frenching or fucking on the kitchen island." 

The water Izuku was drinking was immediately sprayed across Katsuki's back whilst Iidda stood stock still and gaped incredulously. 

"Bakugo!"

"Kacchan!"

Izuku and Iida screamed simultaneously. They were both red-faced and glaring at the rather smug looking teen. In response to their outrage, Katsuki just shrugged and remained quiet with an expression that practically screamed, 'I'm just telling the truth.'

Izuku wanted nothing more than to jump over his desk and shake some sense into his boyfriend but, luckily for Katsuki, the classroom door opened with a snap, alternating everyone to the presence of their homeroom teacher.

"Quiet down," Aizawa grumbled, "Good morning."

"Good morning Aizawa." the class replied in one unanimous voice. 

Class from there went as it normally did. Izuku hadn't really thought about it for the entire morning, too scared that he would wake up and find out that his reinstation in the hero course had been a cruel dream conjured up by his grief-stricken mind. But everything seemed real so far, from Katsuki's lips and the subsequent lecture to the monotone voice of Aizawa that was somehow still engaging. Izuku found that he was exactly where he wanted to be. This was where he belonged. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.