Blood as red as his eyes streamed down his face, arms, torso, and legs. It was everywhere. However, no amount of this blood could compare to the weight of the expression on his face. And the whole world could never compare to the situation in front of him.

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He had won. It was a glorious feeling, and even though he was badly injured, he was the last one standing. Even little useless sh*tty Deku had lost, had been taken down. But Katsuki, by himself, had defeated the villain. Katsuki was the lone hero. Katsuki was the victor.

The media came. He didn't really care about them and spoke his mind, only really answering them so that they could get out of his way. They didn't though, so he walked past, brushing shoulders with some of the useless time wasters.

Ground Zero had somewhere to be.

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Izuku was on the stretcher. No big deal, Deku spent half of his life in some form of medical care. There were tear trails on the young man's cheeks. Deku always cried so that wasn't a concern.

His stare was blank. That usually didn't happen, but maybe he was asleep with his eyes open?

These were the background thoughts in Katsuki's head. But these were not known to Katsuki himself as the scene before him almost failed to register.

There was too much blood. Way too much. Katsuki knew Izuku was hurt, but this bad? No way. Katsuki would have noticed before. Of course he would have. He came from the best school in Japan.

Yeah, the little sh*tty nerd was hurt, but it was fine.

"Hey, hey, Deku." Katsuki started. "You're a little roughed up, aren't you? Take better care of yourself sh*tty Deku."

Katsuki smiled. A doubtful smile. A smile filled with more hope than it should have.

"You're alright Deku, right? Right? Of course you are. You're Deku. The l-little nerd who always gets in my way, no matter what. That's you."

Katsuki took a step closer, grinning like All Might.

"Remember our first battle training Deku? Remember? You were hurt, there was blood, but you were fine. So completely damn fine. You bounced back like the rubber ball we found on the street when we were kids."

Katsuki's smile faded and he ran the last few steps to Izuku and that soft fluffy hair.

He bent over and screamed words into Izuku's face, not unlike how he did back in middle school. Their exact meanings were lost in the cascading torrent of emotions Katsuki had, but he remembered himself saying, "Answer me, f*cking nerd, dammit!"

The f*cking nerd didn't answer him.

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Deku opened his eyes. They only opened by a slit. His eyelashes hid the gap. It was like seeing the world deep underwater with only one ray on light there to help him. Kacchan was there, shouting at him again. Izuku resigned himself to it – he'd survive, it's not like Kacchan would actually kill him.

However, in the red-ringed haze that his eyes provided him, Izuku noticed tears dripping from Kacchan's face. Why was he crying? Was that massive pride hurt too much again? These questions went round and round in Izuku's head for the few seconds that he was conscious.

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Katsuki held his head in his hands. The nerd wasn't responding. Izuku wasn't responding. The tears wouldn't stop flowing.

Katsuki threw his head back and screamed.

He brought Izuku's head to his own and did what he couldn't before. The amount of things in the kiss planted on the top of Izuku's head would take on a mother's any day.

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"Come on, nerd, let's go home."

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Hello! I love same day updates. Don't worry, this isn't the end. I've decided to split this chapter into two, since this seems like such a nice place to stop it. Well, bye!

~TheMooOfDoom