Chapter 21

Katsuki Bakugo woke up confused. Why is he in the infirmary? He looks around and frowns when he sees Midoriya as well, is he ok? He's still unconscious, worry fills inside his chest , “Deku?” He asks, sitting up.

“He's fine, don't worry about him, he'll be waking up soon,” Recovery Girl says, smiling at the blond boy. “It's nice that you're worried about him though.”

“I'm not worried about him,” Bakugo scoffs.

Recovery girl raises a brow, “ok then, once you're feeling up for it, you can go back to class,” she says while wiping down the counter.

“I'll wait for Deku, just in case,” he says, his eyes never leaving Midoriya's body.

“Ok, that's your choice.”

“So,” Kirishima starts as he and Karminari head to English class, “do you just want to walk home with me after school?”

“Yeah sure, let me just text my parents,” Karminari replies, giving Kirishima a small, shy smile. Over the past few weeks, Karminari had started to develop feelings for the red haired boy. He wasn't sure exactly what that meant but did he know what to do about it, all he knows is that he wants to spend more time with him.

After sitting down at their desks, Karminari quickly texts his parents before putting it away, and giving his attention back to Kirishima. “So, what do you normally do after school?” Kiri asks.

“Well,” Karminari says, thinking about it. “Normally, I read or study.” He replies, “sometimes I go out but not too often since I don't have many friends to go out with.”

“We should all go out one day!” Sero grins, “we can bring Bakugo too, it'll be fun!”

“Hell yeah!” Mina exclaims, joining in on the conversation.

Candy and Jiro, the two quietest of the group both nod their agreement, “as long as it isn't like last time,” Jiro chimes in.

“Yeah, let's not repeat that night,” Kirishima agrees.

Not more than ten minutes later, Midoriya and Bakugo walk into the classroom. Bakugo heads over to sit with Kirishima and the others while Midoriya heads over to Ururaka, Iida, and Todoroki.

“Hey extras,” Bakugo says, sitting down with the others.

“Hey Bakubro, your back! We’re glad to see you're ok!” Kirishima grins.

“Of course I'm ok!” Bakugo grumbles. Kirishima smiles at Bakugo, “did you and Midoriya end up talking?”

“Why would I have anything to talk about with that extra?”

“Did you hit your head? You and Midoriya are always going off and talking before coming back to class,” Karminari chimes in.

“No…we didn't talk about anything, we just both woke up at the same time.”

“Sure,” Mina says, grinning. Bakugo rolls his eyes and turns to face the front since Present Mic was walking in.

Midoriya and Ururaka were talking when Todoroki came over, sitting down at the desk in front of them. “How are you feeling Midoriya?”

“Physically, I'm fine. I didn't get hurt, I just pushed myself past my limit I think.”

“You and Bakugo seem to be evenly matched,” Ururaka says, glancing over at the blond.”

“No, not at all,” Midoriya says, shaking his head. “Kacchan is much stronger than me!”.

“You were going easy on him,” Iida says, appearing out of nowhere.

“Holy fuck!” Uruaka exclaims, jumping out of her seat.

“Uraraka, language!” Iida scolds, hand chopping the air.

“Oh right, my bad,” she mumbles, looking towards the ground.

“Why did the two of you arrive at the same time?” Todoroki asks.

Midoriya shrugs, “he was watching me when he woke up, I think he was waiting until I woke up to come back to class but then we both ended up coming back around the same time.

“It's interesting that he waited on you even though he claims to not want to be around you,” Ururaka frowns.

“Alright everyone, listen up,” Present Mic says from the front of the room. “I'm glad to see everyone back and ready to learn, so we're going to pick up where we left off.” Mic made sure to talk at a normal level and keep the class calm for Bakugo, he cares about the kid too much not too.

As class goes on, Midoriya’s mind starts to wander back to when he woke up in Recovery Girl’s office. When Midoriya woke up, Bakugo was sitting on his bed, watching him with a look of worry on his face. “Deku, please be ok,” Bakugo muttered just as Midoriya had started to wake up.

“Kacchan? Why are we here?” He asks, getting out of the bed he was in.

“Why does it matter? The only thing that matters is that I won our fight,” he replies, walking out of the room.

Midoriya frowned and ran after him, “Kacchan, will you please tell me what's going on with you?”

“Nothing is going on with me damnit, I'm fucking fine!” He grumbles, storming off towards his next class. Midoriya stood there and watched him leave before quickly following after him.

“Midoriya?” Mic asks, snapping the green haired to attention, “is everything ok?”

“Yes! It is! I'm so sorry!” He exclaims, his eyes wide. “What was your question?”

“That was my question, you were muttering a lot,” Mic frowned.

“I was? I'm sorry, I must have gotten too much into the lesson,” Midoriya says, blushing from embarrassment.

“Ok then,” Mic says, turning to the board to finish the lesson. Midoriya sighed in relief, he couldn't believe his thoughts entered the real world, he needs to make sure this doesn't happen again, he doesn't want to get in trouble.

After class ended, Midoriya, Todoroki, Ururaka, and Iida headed towards the cafeteria. “Is everything ok?” Ururaka asks, looking towards Midoriya.

“Yeah, I'm fine, why do you ask?”

“What happened in class then?”

“I was just deep in thought and I guess I accidentally let the thoughts out.”

“What were you so deep in thought about?”

“Nothing important,” Midoyia replies, “let's just get lunch.” He says, as they enter the cafeteria.

“Ok then,” Ururaka says, following him inside, Iida and Todoroki following as well. The four of them get their food and sit down at a table together.

“We should hang out after school,” Ururaka says, “I'm off today so I'm free all day.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Iida agrees, a smile on his face.

“I can't, I have to go home.” Todoroki says, looking down at the table, his fists clenching in his lap.

Midoriya glanced at Todoroki’s hands and frowned, “Todoroki, are you ok?”

“Yes Midoriya, I'm fine! Stop asking me that!” He snaps.

Midoriya blinks and nods, “alright,” he says, looking at Iida and Ururaka, “I'm free.” Todoroki is showing the same signs that Bakugo had. First, he flinched and was shaking when they were at the park, and now he can't even think about going home without seeming like he's scared? Something is definitely going on. Maybe I should bring it to Aizawa's attention? I know I don't know for sure, but it can't hurt, right? I'll talk to him after lunch.

“Midoriya!” Iida exclaims, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” Midoriya asks, looking up at Iida.

“Are you ok? That's the second time you've gotten lost in thought today alone!”

“Yeah, I'm fine. I just get lost in thought a lot, I think too much,” he replies, chuckling.

“You should be more careful, you won't be able to do that during a battle.”

“Oh I know,” Midoriya nods. “What do we want to do after school today?”

“We could go to my place,” Iida suggests, “I can text my parents and ask them.”

“Sounds good,” Ururaka says and Midoriya nods his head in agreement.

Midoriya glanced at Todoroki who was busy trying to act like everything was fine. Just hang in there Todoroki, I'll get you some help.

Bakugo, Kirishima, Karminari, Jiro, Mina, Sero, and Candy were eating lunch at a table in the middle of the room since Kirishima thought it'd be manly.

“I'm so glad you decided to eat with us today, Bakubro,” Kirishima grins.

“Uh huh,” Bakugo replies. He’s too focused on eating to actually talk.

“You do realize your food isn't going anywhere, right?” Kirishima asks, raising a brow.

“Yep,” he replies.

“With the way you eat, I'm surprised your skin and bones,” Karminari says. “Is your metabolism that good?”

Bakugo pauses, “why are we talking about this?”

“I don't know,” Mina says, “why are you dodging the question?”

“I'm not, now stop being extras and eat your damn food.”

“You must really like your food,” Sero says, his brows raising.

“Let's just drop the subject,” Candy says, noticing how tense Bakugo was getting.

After that, nothing else was said about it and they all continued eating and chatting about random things.

Thirty minutes later, lunch had ended and Midoriya made his way to Aizawa's classroom, knocking on his door.

“Come in,” he says, not looking up from the papers he was grading.

“Mr. Aizawa, can I talk to you about something?”

“What is it, problem child?”

“I think Todoroki is going through the same thing. Bakugo was going through.”

This caught enough of Aizawa's attention to stop grading papers and look up at Midoriya, “what are you talking about?”

“Everytime he brings up going home, he seems scared and won't talk about it, plus he just seems really withdrawn.”

“I'll look into it, thank you Midoriya,” he says, going back to the papers he was grading. Midoriya nods and heads out of the room to go to his next class

After school was over, Shota met up with Hizashi at principal Nezu’s office. Aizawa knocked on the door, looking over at Hizashi while he waited. “Midoriya gave me some interesting information for us to look into.”

“What about?” Hizashi asks, placing an arm around Shota’s waist.

“The Todoroki family.”

“I've always felt like something was off with them,” Hizashi says, looking towards the door once it opened.

“Good, you're both here, come on in,” he says, hopping down from the chair beside the door. Midnight, Cementos, and Recovery Girl were already there.

Shota and Hizashi sat down beside each other and looked towards Nezu who was standing on his desk. “What is this about?” Hizashi asks Midnight who was beside him.

“Not sure, he hasn't said anything yet,” she replies.

“Now that everyone is here we can begin. Anyways, with recent events that have happened lately, we’re going to be implementing dorms into the school. We will be doing home visits with all the students to get their parents permission. We want these parents to know that their kids will be safe in the dorms.”

“Will we be required to live here as well?” Shota asks.

“We’ll probably have a routine where we all switch out weekly.” Nezu replies.

Shota nods, glancing over at Hizashi. Unfortunately, he and Hizashi will need to be on opposite weeks due to Eric which means 2 weeks out of the month, they won't be together at night. Could he handle that? After everything they've lost? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, needing his mind to leave him alone for now.

“When will the dorms be ready?” Cementos asks.

“Hopefully by next month. We're going to build them as quickly as possible.

“Is there anything else?” Midnight asks.

“No, that is all,” Nezu says, hopping off his desk. “Enjoy the rest of y'all's day.”

Midnight and Cementos left first, leaving Shota, Hizashi, and Nezu in the room. “Nezu, there's something we need to talk to you about.”

“What is it?” Nezu asks, turning around.

“I've heard from others that we might need to look into the Todoroki family for abuse.”

Nezu pauses, “is this a joke?” He asks, raising a brow.

“I don't think so,” Shota replies.

“Well you better make sure before you make any reports. It won't be easy going after the number one hero for abuse.”

“Of course, we'll make sure that we're right beforehand.”

Nezu nods, “enjoy the rest of your day,” he says to the both of them as they head out of the room.

“Do you think Bakugo is still here?” Hizashi asks.

“Probably not, he normally leaves as soon as school lets out.” Shota says, “however, he normally gets here pretty early, let's talk to him in the morning.”

Hizashi nods, “that sounds good, let's go relive Hitoshi, he might still have time to go out with Monoma tonight if we hurry.

Shinsho was lying on the couch while Eri watched TV when Aizawa and Mic walked into their house. “How's it going you two?”

“It's going great!” Eri exclaims, jumping up and running over to them. “Toshi let me do his hair!”

“Sounds like you two are having fun,” Mic grins, crouching down to Eri’s height. “Why don't you go set up a tea party and in a few minutes we can have a tea party together.”

“Yay!” Eri grins, running towards her room.

Mic stood back up and looked at Aizawa who was watching Eri as she ran to her room, “what's wrong?”

“I just wish she could always be this carefree, I hate that she's dealing with so much.”

“I know what you mean,” he sighs, “but we'll make sure she grows up with enough love to erase all of it.”

“You can't just erase it Hizashi, you and I both know that.”

Mic didn't answer but instead walked over to where Hitoshi was turning off the TV and cleaning up. “Do you still have time to meet up with Monoma?”

“Yeah, I do, but are you done with everything that needed to be done? I already told him we might have to hang out tomorrow instead.”

“Yes, everything is done. Go and meet up with him, we'll finish cleaning up.”

Hitoshi smiles, “thank you both.”

“Don't thank us, we're the ones that almost made you change your plans, I'm sorry about that,” Aizawa says.

“You know I don't ever mind helping with Eri or around the house.”

“I know but it's not fair to you, now go, have fun. Be home by midnight though,” Aizawa grins.

“Midnight? That's generous of you,” Hitoshi grins.

“You deserve it, now go before I change my mind.”

He nods and hugs both of them before running out of the house.

Hizashi turns to Shota, “will you be feeling generous tonight?” He grins.

“Shut up,” Shota chuckles.

“That's not a no…”

“It's not a yes either,” he replies, walking towards Eri’s room. “If you're nice, you'll get lucky tonight.”

Hizashi grins as they start the tea party with Eri.

Walking home from school, Bakugo’s mind wandered back to what the group was saying about his eating habits. He's aware that he's skin and bones right now and definitely needs to get some more body fat but why would they comment on his eating habits? Does he eat weirdly? Is he disgusting when he eats? He blinked back tears as he put an annoyed face on, not wanting anyone to see him crying, no one can know he's actually weak.

He walked into his house and went up to his room to rest. Having no body fat meant that the school day exhausted him, especially after his fight with Midoriya…Midoriya, he missed him so much but he can't be friends with him, he doesn't deserve Midoriya. He's the best thing to happen to his world, his beautiful green hair, his freckles, and the shoes that Bakugo bought him a few years before middle school. His father had secretly given Bakugo some money to get Midoriya a present for his birthday one year and Midoriya had continued to buy those shoes every time he needed new ones.

Uruaka and Midoriya followed Iida to his house after school was out. “This is going to be so much fun!” Ururaka exclaims.

“Yes, I agree but remember we're keeping it PG-13.” Iida replies.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Ururaka says, rolling her eyes. “You're no fun, you know that?”

“I'm just practical,” Iida says.

Midoriya stayed quiet during the entire walk. He wasn't really feeling up to being social anymore but would feel bad if he ditched them. When they arrived at Iida's house, Iida led them through the door and towards his room.

Uruaka looked around his room in awe, she loved how neat everything was. “Wow, you really are perfect,” she mutters under her breath.

“Did you say something, Ururaka?”

“Me? Oh no, I didn't say anything!” She says, quickly, a blush forming on her face.

“Why are you blushing?” Midoriya asks.

“No reason,” she says, “let's just get to hanging out.”

“What do we want to do though?” Iida asks.

“How about truth or dare?” Uruaka suggests.

“How do you play that?” Iida asks, confused, he doesn't normally play trivial games.

“You don't know how to play truth or dare?” Uruaka asks, her eyes wide.

“I don't play games normally.”

“What do you do then?”

“Study or train mostly.”

“That's it? That's so boring!”

“Just tell me how to play.”

“Well basically, we take turns asking each other, truth or dare. If you choose dare, the person asking you gets to choose something for you to dare. If you pick truth, the person asking gets to come up with a question and asks if it's true or not.” Ururaka explains.

“What happens if we don't want to do the dare or don't want to answer the question?” Iida asks, curiously.

“Depends on who's playing. If we were drinking, we'd take shots, if we were interesting, we would take off items of clothing.”

“How about we just owe the person asking a favor, the other options seem…unorthodox for a group of teenagers.”

Ururaka pouts, she wanted Iida to pick the stripping option, why? She didn't actually know but the thought of him taking off his clothes… “sounds good! I'll start! Iida, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Iida says, hand-chopping the air. He thought about choosing dare but honestly, he was kinda nervous, it was his first time playing and all.

“Is it true that you're straight?” She asks, choosing her questions carefully.

“Yes I'm straight,”  Iida replies frowning, “is this the normal set of questions?”

Ururaka files that information back for later, “there are no set questions, we can ask whatever we want! Anyways, Iida, it's your turn!”

“Ok then,” he says, turning to face Midoryia, “Midoryia, truth or dare?”

Midoriya, who was staring off into space answers without looking towards Iida, “truth.”

“Is it true that you and Bakugo are friends?”

“What?” Midoryia asks, turning towards him, “why do you want to know that?”

“Well, you two are extremely confusing, one minute you're talking in private, the next minute you're arguing and no one can figure out what's going on “

“It's complicated and not something I'm willing to talk about,” he says, bringing his knees to his chest.

“What's wrong?” Ururaka asks, glancing at her friend.

“Nothing…Ururaka, truth or dare?”

“Hm,” she says, thinking. She wouldn't mind picking truth but both of them had already picked truth and this game needs to get interesting, “dare.*

“I dare you to call the boy you're crushing on.”

“Oh um, I'm not crushing on anyone!”

“That's not true, I overheard Momo talking to Mina.”

“Can I just owe you a favor instead?”

Midoriya chuckles, “sure.”

Ururaka was blushing profusely when she decided who to ask. “Midoyia, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” he replies, laying down on his back.

“Is it true you like Bakugo?”

“I owe you a favor,” Midoyia replies, not turning to look at her. Why do they keep asking about Kacchan? Why can't they just let it go? He can't tell anyone about his relationship with Kacchan, he doesn't even know what their relationship is!

“Iida, truth or dare?” Midoyia asks.

“Truth.”

“Is it true that you're a virgin?”

“Where did you get that question from?”

“Um, my mind?” Midoyia says, rolling his eyes. “Answer the question or owe me a favor.”

Iida rolls his eyes, “this is not an appropriate question but yes, I am a virgin, obviously. Ururaka looked over at him which a small smile on her face.

The three teens play a few more rounds before Iida finally stands up, “I'm going to get some drinks,” he says, heading towards the kitchen.

“So, you're crushing on Iida, right?”

“W-what are you talking about?” She asks, blushing.

“You asked if he was straight, you refused to call your crush and you looked at him when I asked if he was a virgin, it's pretty obvious.”

“Do you think he knows?”

“No, I don't think so. You should ask him out though, I think he likes you too.”

“It's only been a few weeks since we met though.”

“Well, if you know, then you know,” Midoyria shrugs, as Iida walks back into the room with sofas for all three of them.

“Know what?” He asks, looking between the two of them. He couldn't believe he had to answer those questions in front of Uruaka! What if she thinks he's a loser? Although being a model teenager is something that he's extremely passionate about, he just can't shake the feeling that maybe that's not as important as he thought.

“Nothing, I’m going to get some fresh air,” he says, standing up, “I'll be back.”

After he'd shut the door, Ururaka turned to Iida with a blush on her cheeks, “hi.”

“Hello,” Iida says, opening his drink. “Are you ok? Your cheeks are pink.”

“Y-yeah, everything is fine! It must just be hot.”

“Not ready, we have the AC on.”

“Oh, uh, I don't know then.”

Iida scooted closer to Ururaka, “so, are you and Midoyia close?”

“Not really,” she frowns, “he's so random, I can't keep up.”

“Is he the one you're crushing on?”

“No! Why would you ask that?”

“I was just wondering,” Iida mumbles, looking away. “So, who are you crushing on?”

“No one important,” she responds.

“Oh,” Iida says, grabbing the remote, “how about we watch a movie?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” she nods as Iida puts on a random movie.

Meanwhile, Midoriya was taking a walk a block away from Iida’s house when he heard crying that sounded familiar. He followed the sound to find Kacchan curled up under a tree and crying. His heart instantly broke at the sight but how would Kacchan react if Midoyia sat down beside him. After fighting with himself internally, he finally decided to just say fuck it and sat down beside the blond. “Kacchan,” he says, “what's wrong?”

“Izuku…,” he mutters, his voice breaking. “Why am I like this?”

“What do you mean?” He asks, running his fingers through Bakugo's hair like he did when they were kids.

“Why am I me? I'm ruining everything and I'm a freak!”

“Can you give me more details so I can help?”

“No,” he replies, shaking his head. “I don't want anyone to know.”

“Not even me? Kacchan, what happened between us?” Bakgo turned to look at Midoyia, his heart pounding as Midoyia put a hand on his cheek, “I'm here for you, Kacchan.” 

“Izuku…” he replies as his head slowly gets closer to Midoriya's. Midoyia turns his head and leans in to kiss Bakugo. As their lips connect, Bakugo grabs the back of Midoriya's head as he deepens the kiss. “I love you,” he mutters, before sharply pulling back.

“Kacchan?” Midoyia asks, his eyes wide as he touches his lips, “what just happened? Did you mean it?”

“No, I'm sorry, I have to go!” He says, standing up and running off.

“What just happened?” Midoyia asks himself “and why wouldn't he tell him anything?” Did Bakugo really love him? He definitely hasn't been acting like it lately. “I love you too,” he replies even though Bakugo is gone now. He's definitely not going back to Iida's now, he sends a text in the group chat that Ururaka made to inform them that he was going home before making his way home, walking slowly as he tried not to cry himself.

Katsuki couldn't believe he just said that, what was he thinking? Stupid, stupid, stupid! When he got home, he slipped inside and went directly to his room to lay down, Midoyia is going to think that he's insane now! Midoriya is probably going to hate him even more than he already does!

“Katsuki, is everything ok?” Marsaru asks, knocking on the door.

“Yeah, I'm fine, just really tired today! I'm going to bed early.”

“Alright, I'll leave leftovers in the fridge, sleep well,” he says, walking off.

Katsuki brings the covers up to his chest as he cries.

self harm starts here

Midoyia made it home an hour later and smiled his way to his room, letting his mom know he was going to take a shower before dinner. His thoughts had a lot of time to get to him on the walk home and there was no way he could stop himself tonight. He grabs the razor from his dresser and heads to the bathroom, turning on the water.

He looks down at his arms that were full of old scars and stars making cut after cut, tears falling down his face as he thinks about Kacchan, his one, his only. He almost got everything that he wanted tonight but then it got ruined…maybe he isn't good enough? Maybe, just maybe, he'd be better off dead…except his mom wouldn't survive that. His mind went blank as his eyesight got blurry, he lost track of time, lost track of how many cuts he'd made until he started to get dizzy. He glanced down at his arm and his eyes wide ex, “oh shit, I went too far,” he mumbles, standing up quickly. Standing up quickly was a bad idea, he had to grab onto the sink to stop himself from falling. He stumbled over to the door and locked it before getting into the shower, sitting down once he was in, letting the water run over him. He'll make sure to clean the blood up after he sits and rests for a few minutes before getting back in and cleaning himself off.

Mentions stop here

Karminari followed Kirishima to his house. He was nervous and excited to workout with Kirishima. What if Kirishima was stronger than him and laughed at him because of it? “So, what do you normally do when you work out?”

“Normally I work on cardio and strength more than anything, what about you?”

“I focus a lot on cardio because I don't have much energy in that department.”

“We can go on the treadmills then,” Kirishima smiles.

“Treadmills? As in multiple?”

“Yep, my family owns one for each member of the household so there in total.”

“Oh wow,” Karminari replies. Kirishima looked at him, butterflies were fluttering in his stomach, could he ever ask Karmiari out? The most perfect and funniest boy he'd ever met? He shook his head, getting rid of such thoughts as they arrived at his house. Kirishima grabbed them some water before showing Karminari the way to his workout room.

Once they'd got there, Kirishima grabbed some towels and put them beside their waters before hopping on one of the treadmills, gesturing for Karminari to do the same. When Karminari followed Kirishima's lead, they both walked on the treadmills in silence, not sure what to talk about.

Karminari ended up staring at Kirishima, admiring the beauty that the red head is. Could he ever tell Kirishima the truth? He doesn't want to risk losing Kirishima to Bakugo but they just met and Karminari is well…Karminari. They ended up running for a bit and around an  hour later, they turned off the treadmills to catch their breath. They both propped themselves up against the walls and Karminari's eyes started to flutter shut. Kirishima glanced over and smiled at the sight. He gently pulled Kirishima onto his lap, letting him lay there as he ran his fingers through Karminari's hair, “sleep well.” Kirishima says, scrolling through memes on his phone.