Katsuki traded blow after blow with the insignificant cannon fodder who tried to get in his way. As soon as the fight had started, Izuku and Shigaraki had started fighting, steadily moving away from the main body of the battle and towards the forest, where Katsuki wouldn't be able to see them. Katsuki had complete faith in his boyfriend, he was by no means weak, but he couldn't help the anxious fluttering that swarmed his chest. And when Katsuki got anxious, he tended to show that through anger. His anger was only exacerbated by the small-time crooks who thought they stood a chance against Katsuki's explosions. 

"Move you asshole!" Katsuki yelled as he launched a villain with some sort of wind quirk across the garden. 

Katsuki was baffled as to how the LOV had managed to rally so much support for their assault on UA. This wasn't like the first time when they had attacked the USJ, they were more widely known as murderers. Sure, their notoriety may have gained them some attention and respect from those who had similar ideas to them, but Katsuki refused to believe that this many people detested heroes to the degree that they would dare to attack a hero school. The only other option that Katsuki could think of during the heat of battle was that the masses of people attacking him and his classmates were members of the Hero Safety Commission. Neither option was great, they both gave insight into how corrupt society had become and how little faith people had in heroes.

Katsuki batted away another small-time loser and took a second to look around. It looked like 2B and the third year hero students had joined his class in battling against the swarm of invaders, Katsuki thought he could also see some of the pro heroes who had been tasked with protecting the school in the absence of the rest of the teachers. Katsuki thought, somewhat snidely, that they hadn't done a very good job. 

To Katsuki's right, he saw Todoroki battling against his brother, Dabi. Katsuki knew that Todoroki had been training for this moment since the end of the war, and it looked like he was fairing well enough considering what a murderous monster Touya had turned into. The rest of Katsuki's classmates were in a similar position to him, easily knocking down weak villains, only for their opponent to be replaced by an equally as weak bastard who thought they were strong enough to take down the class that had been through hell and back. 

Katsuki desperately wanted to leave everybody behind and blast himself into the forest. Even from where he was stood he could see tendrils of blackwhip and sparks of green lightning in the forest. Izuku may not need Katsuki's help, but he would certainly appreciate it. Taking Shigaraki down would be easier with two people rather than one. Plus, with Izuku's hero complex, Katsuki wouldn't be surprised if he got himself killed whilst he defeated Shigaraki. Katsuki needed to get to his boyfriend, he just had to crush all of the extras in front of him first. 

Fighting Shigaraki wasn't easy. Though, Izuku would be an idiot if he ever thought that taking down one of the most wanted villains in the country would ever be easy. Izuku exchanged blow after blow with Shigaraki, often being forced to make defensive moves in favour of attacking. Shigaraki was relentless, Izuku only managed to get in the occasional hit when Shiagraki's onslaught slowed down for a few seconds, and even then the blows he dealt weren't hard-hitting enough to defeat the villain in front of him. Again, Izuku knew that this fight wasn't going to be easy. 

Izuku scarcely stopped himself from colliding with a tree, he used a combination of blackwhip and float to swing himself around the tree, putting it between Shigaraki and him. The milliseconds of the reprieve he had were used to quickly check himself over for injuries and wind up to attack Shigaraki when he inevitably rounded the tree and resumed his relentless onslaught. 

Just as Izuku had predicted, Shigaraki rounded the tree, and as he did so, Izuku unleashed a barrage of air force strikes, pushing Shigaraki back. There was no time to let Shigaraki rest. The last shot of air had barely been fired before Izuku was racing forwards and dealing a swift kick to Shigaraki's side at 20% power. Ordinarily, that would be enough to take a villain out, but Shigaraki was anything but ordinary. He had high endurance and regenerative abilities, they would be hard to contest, but not impossible. 

Whilst Shigaraki's head was still being carried backwards by the kick's momentum, Izuku sent Blackwhip out. It snaked across Shigaraki's body, tendrils squeezed Shigaraki in a suffocating hold. Izuku just wanted to end the fight as soon as he could, prolonging it would only decrease his odds of winning. He trusted in his own abilities, but Shigaraki's determination to win always seemed to wax and wane as he fought and Izuku didn't want to see him put 100% of his effort into the fight. 

Just as Izuku thought he had knocked Shigaraki out, the ground beneath his feet started crumbling. With an aborted gasp, Izuku launched himself into the air in an attempt to avoid the deadly consequences of Shigaraki's quirk. Izuku had only stopped paying attention to his control over Blackwhip for a second, if that, and yet it had been enough time for Shigaraki to break free from the quirk's grasp and launch himself at Izuku. 

Hand outstretched, a savage grin on his face, Shigaraki rocketed towards Izuku. It seemed as though victory was practically guaranteed for the villain, the two combatants knew that there was no way for Izuku to avoid Shigaraki's hand. Izuku didn't dare close his eyes, if he was going to die, he was going to do it with his eyes open, blazing with the same determination which had toppled the likes of Overhaul and a plethora of other villains. Izuku would face his death with the same courage as All Might had faced his battle with All for One. He would not cower in the darkness of his closed eyes. 

It was a fruitless attempt, but all the same, Izuku raised his hand and directed a concentrated air blast at Shigaraki as well as several tendrils of Blackwhip. As he expected, Shigaraki evaded his desperate attacks. He was practically on top of Izuku, there was no way for him to evade it. 

Had Izuku been religious, maybe he would have whispered a final prayer there and then. Maybe he would have thanked his mother for bringing him into the world and doing her best to raise him into an upstanding citizen, he would have apologised for putting her through so much grief. Maybe he would have thanked Kacchan for standing by his side for the past year or so, thanked him for apologising and putting their differences behind him. Perhaps he would have given gratitude to his classmates and teachers for being his friends and teaching him to become a better person, inside and out. Maybe he would have done 100 things in his last seconds, but he wasn't religious, and he doubted that he would have had enough time to convey just how thankful he was for the life he was given. All he could hope was that the pain of being disintegrated wasn't as excruciating as he thought it was. 

Shigaraki's touch never landed. 

An explosion echoed through the forest. Izuku's hand was grabbed by a familiar gloved hand. Shigaraki's head snapped back with an ominous crack, sending him into a tree. Izuku's vision blurred as he was carried to the ground and held in muscled arms. 

"Don't you dare die on me, you fucking nerd," Katsuki's gravelly voice sneered next to Izuku's ear.

Izuku's heart was galloping 100mph in his chest, not only because he had just escaped what he was sure was a death sentence, but also because Katsuki was there. Katsuki was with him. Katsuki was by his side. 

"Kacchan..." Izuku stuttered, "What... How are you here?"

"Doesn't matter. Are we going to beat this fucker or not?" Katsuki sneered as he turned to glare at Shigaraki.

Whilst Katsuki's blow had certainly caught Shigaraki off guard, he hadn't done enough damage to make sure that villain didn't get up again. It would require a lot more work to make sure that Shigaraki wouldn't be a threat anymore.

Izuku nodded resolutely, his gloves creaked when he clenched his fists. Sparks of One for All filled the air. The two teens shared a look, a look full of conviction and determination before they launched themselves toward Shigaraki and started levying attacks against him in tandem. 

Like so many times before, Katsuki and Izuku worked together as one cohesive unit to pummel Shigaraki down. When Izuku went in for a kick, only to have to redirect his attack when Shigaraki's hand stretched out to take a hold of his foot, Katsuki compensated for his failed attack with a powerful explosion dealt directly to Shigaraki's midriff. When Katsuki was batted away from Shigaraki with a gust of wind, Izuku was there to knock Shigaraki to the ground with rapid kicks, punches and bursts of air. The two teenagers worked as though they could telepathically communicate, they were always there to defend each other and attack when the other couldn't.

Izuku thought that the entire situation was rather reminiscent of their time on Nabu Island. It felt like it had been an age since they had fought Nine, protecting the residents of the normally peaceful island from the villain's tyrannical greed. Izuku had tried gauging how much Katsuki remember about their fight against Nine, but his efforts were for nought, Katsuki only remembered up until the point where they were captured by Nine's hydra quirk. Maybe one-day Izuku would tell Katsuki how they had shared One for All, even if it was for a brief time. Maybe he would divulge that he was on the cusp of giving up his dream of becoming a hero, content to watch Katuki from the sidelines if it meant that Mahoro and Katsuma lived another day. But now wasn't the time for that. The fast-paced fight that he had been engaged in for the past however long was only speeding up. Shigaraki was getting desperate under the onslaught of combined attacks from both Katsuki and Izuku.

"I think we're nearly there, just one more push..." Izuku panted.

"Yeah, give it all you've got, Nerd," Katsuki smirked. 

They held each other's eyes for one long moment. A moment in which their lives were not in danger, a moment when they could be normal teenagers with normal teenage worries, a moment when they weren't facing one of the most dangerous villains in the world. But, that's all it was, a moment. A snapshot in time which they would look back on with slight grimaces and relief that the danger they had been in had passed. 

As one, they launched themselves at Shigaraki. Izuku's leg pulled back and Blackwhip reached out to keep Shigaraki exactly where he was. High above him, Katsuki was spinning at a dizzyingly fast speed, collecting momentum so that when he reached out his hand, the oxygen that had collected in his tornado fueled his explosion.

Blackwhip's tendrils locked themselves firmly around Shigaraki, his attempts to escape the quirk's grip were fruitless. With a resounding crack, Shigaraki's head was thrown backwards from the force of the kick Izuku dealt to his head. Izuku wasn't done yet though, as soon as he landed on the ground, his fist shot up, hitting Shigaraki with a surely fatal uppercut. Then, Izuku swept his legs out from underneath him and used One for All to launch himself away from Shigaraki, just in time for Katsuki's Howitzer Impact to land. 

Izuku felt the heat of his boyfriend's explosion wash over him. It should have scared him. The amount of power that Katsuki wielded was unbelievable, he was 17-years-old and yet he could level entire buildings with the power he wielded in his hands. He had worked to hone the power he was dealt by fate, he may have been lucky at birth, but it was Katsuki's own hard work and dedication that made him this powerful. 

When the smoke cleared (aided by Izuku directing a blast of air into the black screen in front of him), Katsuki was standing on top of Shigaraki, a sneer of disgust on his face. Below Katsuki's boot, Shigaraki was knocked out. His white hair was matted with blood and his mouth was hanging open comically. Izuku would be scared that they had killed him had he not seen Shigaraki survive worse, as well as the fact that he could faintly see the villain breathing. 

"We did it..." Izuku whispered in shock. 

"Yeah, seems that way," Katsuki muttered as he pulled a pair of quirk restraining cuffs from one of the pouches on his belt and put them around Shigaraki's wrist. 

The joy of their victory didn't keep Izuku in its thrall for long before he suddenly jumped up from the dirt beneath him and turned to face the school, "Kacchan! We need to go and help the others!"

"Chill out, Nerd, they're fine. When I left to come here there were only a few more small fries to deal with anyway. Todoroki took down Dabi, and the rest of the 'villains' were puny nobodies anyway," Katsuki dismissed easily.

"OK," Izuku whispered, "Ok,"

Izuku couldn't describe how tired he felt if he tried. Finally, it felt like they had reached the end of a terrifying chapter in their lives. Shigaraki had fallen, and without their figurehead, the LOV and all those who flocked to them in hopes of attaining some meagre amount of power would crumble to ashes. Izuku and his classmates would no longer have to deal with the constant threat of villains who had a vendetta against them, well, at least not until they became fully-fledged heroes. It seemed to Izuku that everything was being set right in the world. 

Aizawa and a slew of other heroes arrived back at UA mere minutes after all the fighting had concluded. Of course, the students of UA came out on top, with no severe casualties and all of the villains captured. Dabi and Shigaraki were secured and loaded into a truck headed for Tartarus with heavy sedatives pumping through their veins. 

Katsuki hadn't been able to rest, truly, for a year now. He'd always had a lingering fear of the LOV taking him or somebody he loved again, but now that fear was put to rest. Izuku was safe. He was safe. Their friends were safe. He couldn't ask for anything more, except a bed to fall unconscious onto, but he had to wait for Aizawa's de-briefing before he could do that.

"All members of the LOV have now been captured, putting an end to their organisation. Of course, the police and a select number of pros will be purging Japan of any underlings and accomplices, but the main threat has been dealt with. In terms of the Safety Commission, it had been dismantled due to rampant corruption and a temporary establishment has been created by the government will deal with the Commission's duties until such a time when it can be re-established anew." Aizawa announced to the class, "Now those with injuries that need tending to, go and visit Recovery Girl's office, otherwise, go and bathe before heading to bed. I can see that you're all extremely tired."

Mumbled words of assent sounded through the class as people went their separate ways. Some people shuffled towards Recovery Girl's office whilst others moved towards the baths. Katsuki didn't dawdle in the bath. He was in and out within ten minutes, being sure to clean himself thoroughly lest he tracks blood, dirt and sweat into his bed. 

As soon as Katsuki's head hit his pillow, he could feel sleep tugging on the edges of his consciousness. The adrenaline he had felt during his fight had long since left him, he was bone tired and ready to sleep for an eternity. 

"Kacchan," Izuku whispered from Katsuki's doorway, "Can I come in?"

Katsuki answered with a grunt that he trusted his boyfriend to understand as him allowing him to enter. A minute later, Katsuki's bed dipped as Izuku shuffled under the covers and wrapped his arms around his partner. 

"Good night, Kacchan," Izuku whispered, he pecked Katsuki's lips before settling his head on Katsuki's chest.

"Night, Nerd," Katsuki yawned. 

The gentle intimacy between the two boys lulled them to sleep. It had been a tiring day, all they needed was the knowledge that they'd be there for each other should the other need them. That was all that was needed for them to sail away into the land of restful sleep.

Nearly there. Just the epilogue to go, hopefully, that should be out within the next few days seeing as it will not be very long at all. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.