A/N: This is it, guys! Thank you so much for reading and sticking with us for this long! We hope you have loved this story as much as we loved writing it!

Last time we talked, the night that I walked, burns like an iron in the back of my mind. I must have been high to say you and I weren't meant to be and just wasting my time. Oh, why did I ever doubt you? You know I would die here without you - Daughtry

The fight moved quickly, Sato disappearing and reappearing seemingly at random as Bakugo spun on the spot, locating him and aiming a blast in his direction with every reappearance. Their movements were hard to follow from the alleyway where Kirishima and Iida watched, but when the knife plunged into Bakugo's side and he fell to one knee, suddenly everything seemed to move in slow motion.

"Bakugo!"

Before he realized what he was doing, Kirishima was sprinting across the open space that separated them and he skidded to a halt beside Bakugo, his head moving rapidly from side to side as he waited for the bastard to show himself again.

He didn't have to wait long.

There was a glint of steel from the corner of his eye and Kirishima spun on the spot, his hardened arm coming up to meet it. The blade deflected off of him and he saw the momentary surprise in Sato's eyes as he lunged to grab him but the bastard disappeared before he could get a hold on him.

A moment later, the villain reappeared a short distance away, considering the two heroes before him. "I see you brought a friend, Ground Zero. Too afraid to face me on your own?" he taunted before he vanished again and reappeared on the opposite side, clearly searching for an opening in Kirishima's defense. "Are there more of you? Come out, come out, little heroes."

Bakugo grunted. "Dammit…!" He slowly hoisted himself back to a standing position, pressing a hand against his open wound.

Kacchan! Deku had been hiding in an alley on the opposite side of the street from Kirishima. One for All, Full Cowling!

A blur of green barely registered in everyone's vision for less than a second, suddenly a kick landed against Sato's face, sending him flying back several feet.

"Kacchan, are you all right?" Deku yelled.

Bakugo growled. "Deku, don't let up or else he'll do the same to you! You should've stayed out of this!"

Deku knew that was the best 'thank you' he would likely get right now. He turned around and raced for Sato again. The villain was completely stunned, probably by the hero's speed.

Sato tried to put his hands together, but Deku was faster and he landed a punch on the same side of the villain's face. But as he went flying, Sato clapped his hands and disappeared. Deku skidded to a halt. "Dammit!"

Iida had hung back while Kirishima ran to Bakugo's aid. He wanted to maintain the element of surprise and for the sake of his quirk, it would work better if the villain didn't see him coming. He clenched his fists. Todoroki and Momo were close by. The three of them had to end this before more blood was shed!

Suddenly, Sato appeared nearly a yard away from Iida, his back to him. He coughed up blood, surely the result of Deku's assault. "Well, well. If it isn't the Number One Hero Deku. I've heard about you."

Now is my chance! Thought Iida. He got into position, gearing up his engines. Recipro burst!

"TODOROKI!"

It all happened so fast. The rain seemed to come down even harder than before.

Todoroki heard Iida's voice and revealed himself instantly, turning to face the villain and he held up his right hand to blast ice from his palm in two short rounds.

Meanwhile, Iida sailed towards Sato, and before the villain had time to blink, the Hero was upon him, pinning him to the ground at the same time that Todoroki's ice blasts covered Sato's hands and trapped them against the pavement.

"Got you!" Iida yelled.

"Woah, way to go Iida and Todoroki!" Deku cheered.

Bakugo hadn't really been paying much attention to how much heavier his breathing had become, or to how damp his left leg felt from the blood that had seeped down into it. All he could see was the villain he'd come to take down was on the ground and couldn't use his annoying damn quirk.

He was quiet as he turned his body to follow his gaze and he slowly walked over to where Sato lay pinned. Iida was off to the side calling the authorities, and Todoroki had gone ahead and shot more ice down at Sato's feet to ensure he stayed put.

"Dammit!" Sato hissed, struggling in vain. His eyes rolled upward and he could see Ground Zero approaching him. "I should've killed you while I had the chance! It's a good thing I got your partner first. She was easy prey since she wasn't a coward like you, relying on her friends to save her!"

Bakugo's pace quickened, and before anyone realized what he was doing, he was on his knees straddling the villain and bringing the pain down on his face.

"OH YEAH? DO YOU GET OFF ON KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE YOU DUMB FUCKING VILLAIN? KILLING CHILDREN AND HEROES WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO MAINTAIN SOME KIND OF MORALITY IN THIS FUCKED UP WORLD? HUH?" Bakugo shrieked. Blood from Sato splattered all over his knuckles. "NOT SO TOUGH NOW ARE YOU SINCE YOU CAN'T FUCKING RUN AWAY FROM ME!"

"Bakugo! Stop!" shouted Kirishima, running over.

Even wounded, it took Kirishima, Deku, and Todoroki to pull Bakugo away from Sato, who had fallen unconscious after only the first few punches. If they hadn't moved him then, Bakugo would've surely killed him.

"Easy, Kacchan. Easy." said Deku in the calmest voice he could muster.

Bakugo's vision was starting to blur.

"The police are on their way and so is an ambulance for Bakugo." Iida announced to the group.

"Bakugo, are you okay?" Todoroki asked, noticing that Bakugo's eyes seemed to be closing slowly.

"Momo! Can you make us some bandages for his wound until the ambulance gets here?" Kirishima shouted, panic in his voice.

"Yes, I can. But I'm afraid he's already lost too much blood." She turned and began creating the bandage wraps. Once she was done, she turned to hand them to Deku. "Wrap him tightly, we don't want him to lose anymore."

Bakugo could barely feel them lift his body against its will so they could wrap the bandages around his torso. Tears burned the edges of his eyes. The man who had hurt Uraraka had been caught, and he was going to be in prison for the rest of his life. If it was the last thing he did, he was glad to have avenged her.

He could die in peace, if that was his fate. He struggled to look at Kirishima. "Tell cheeks...I love her.."

Kirishima looked extremely afraid, but he gave his friend a shaky smile. "You can tell her yourself man. Help is on the way."

Bakugo gave a weak smirk before his vision went completely dark.

Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning danced across the night sky.

"Has Kirishima said anything else?"

"Not since the text an hour ago to say he was out of surgery."

The voices were muffled and distant, as if she were hearing them through a tunnel but Uraraka would have recognized them anywhere.

"...Mina…?" she tried to say, but her voice was weak. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times as the room around her came into focus.

Mina gave a surprised squeak, shooting up out of the chair she occupied beside the bed. "Ochako!"

Uraraka made a face as she attempted to clear her throat and try again but she found her mouth and throat felt tight and dry.

As if reading her mind, Tsuyu, who occupied the chair opposite Mina, reached for a bottle of water on the nearby nightstand. "Here," she said gently, removing the bottle cap and holding it out to Uraraka as Mina helped to adjust the hospital bed so that she was semi-reclining rather than laying down.

Ochako took the bottle and lifted it to her lips, taking a few sips before she passed it back to Tsuyu.

"How do you feel? Anything I can get you?" Mina asked.

"Like I came off the worst in a fight against a villain," Uraraka said with a grimace as memories of what had happened flashed through her mind. "I...I really didn't think I was going to make it."

"Recovery Girl and Eri both came to help last night," Tsuyu informed her. "The doctor said you should be back up and running in a few weeks but you're going to need to take it easy for a while."

"What about Kareino? Is he okay?"

"He's fine," the other girl assured her. "Just a couple of scrapes but after you passed out and your quirk deactivated, he was the one who was able to get you out of there."

"Good. I'm glad," Uraraka said, the corners of her mouth turning upwards slightly. "But I thought I heard you say he was out of surgery?"

Tsuyu and Mina exchanged a glance.

Mina was the one to speak first. "Oh...I did say that, but...Kareino wasn't the one who had surgery." she hesitated. "Bakugo was."

"Bakugo?" she repeated, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "But...why?"

"He...well...he got stabbed by Sato during the fight last night—"

"Sato went after Bakugo yesterday, too?" Uraraka felt a wave of guilt wash over her. If only she had been strong enough to fight him on her own, maybe then it could have all been over.

"I think it's more accurate to say Bakugo went after him," Tsuyu cut in.

"He...what?"

Mina sighed, deciding they may as well tell her everything. "After they let us all in to see you last night, Bakugo said he was going to the bathroom and never came back. Momo knew he might try something like that so she put a tracking device on his phone and she, Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida, and Deku went after him. By the time they caught up with him, he was already trying to draw out Sato himself. There was a fight and Iida and Todoroki took Sato down before it got too bad. There were only a few injuries and Bakugo got the worst of it, but Kirishima said the surgery went well, so now they're just waiting for him to wake up."

Uraraka listened to all of this in silence, her concern evident. "Is he at this hospital?"

"Yes, but...just where do you think you're going?"

As soon as Mina had confirmed his location, Ochako had sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "To see him," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Now wait just a minute, you're not exactly in any condition to be moving around the hospital on your own."

Uraraka gently pulled the heart rate monitor off and the machine beeped in protest. "Then come with me."

Mina and Tsuyu exchanged a glance. They'd both known her long enough to know it was clear this was something Uraraka wasn't going to back down on.

"I'll go get a wheelchair," Tsuyu said, rising from her seat and heading to the door where she was met by a nurse who had come to investigate why the machine set to monitor Uraraka's vitals was beeping.

The nurse also protested Uraraka's decision to get up before a doctor could come in to see her, but after a quick review of her vitals, agreed that she could go as long as they took her IV with them and she didn't over exert herself.

Five minutes later, they were on their way down the hallway, Mina pushing the wheelchair while Tsuyu kept pace beside them with the IV rack. Uraraka's room was in the east wing of the ICU, but Bakugo's was in the west wing. To get there, they had to cross the waiting room where the majority of those who had been there the night before still waited.

Todoroki sat closest to the door, his wife sleeping soundly against his shoulder after being exhausted by their sleepless night. He looked slightly surprised to see the three girls as they entered. "Uraraka...how are you feeling?"

"Been better," she replied honestly. "But I'll be fine."

Iida sat across from Todoroki and Momo. He'd been reviewing news articles about the prior day's events on his phone until he heard Todoroki speak and he looked up. "Don't push yourself too hard. You don't want to make your recovery any harder than it needs to be."

"I'll be okay," she reassured them. "Have you heard anything about how Bakugo's doing?"

"Not since they brought him out of surgery. Kirishima and Deku are in there with him now."

Something on the screen of Iida's phone caught her eye. Even though the man's face was partially obscured by Iida's hand, it was unmistakably a mugshot of Sato on the screen. "Is… is that…?" She motioned toward the phone.

"Hm?" Iida glanced down at the device in his hands. "Oh. It's the arrest report. Do you...want to see it?"

She nodded and took the phone from him as he held it out to her. She was surprised to see how bruised and bloody the man looked. His nose was crooked, most likely broken sometime in the fight.

Uraraka hadn't realized her hands had started to shake until Mina gently reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey...it's okay...he's somewhere where he won't be able to hurt you or anyone else ever again."

Uraraka didn't speak, but nodded to show she had heard as she held the phone back out for Iida to take.

"Oh, that reminds me," Mina continued, digging in her own pocket and handing Uraraka's own phone back to her. "I've been holding onto that for you."

A quick glance at the screen showed quite a few notifications, but Uraraka didn't have time to review all of those now so she clasped the phone in her hands and rested them in her lap as she thanked Iida and Todoroki for everything they had done and the three girls continued their trek down the hall.

Mina stopped and knocked softly on a door halfway down the hall.

Kirishima jumped slightly when he heard the knock on the door. He'd been staring at Bakugo's unconscious body for hours now. Deku was with him, which made the time pass more quickly from conversation, but it still felt endless.

He and Deku both stood up, and Kirishima walked over to open the door and step out into the hall. He nearly toppled over in shock at who he saw. "Uraraka?! Should you be out of bed?"

Deku joined them a moment after. "Uraraka!" His face lit up. "Are you all right?"

"She shouldn't be out of bed." Mina said, giving Kirishima a quick peck on his cheek. "But the doctor gave her the all-clear as long as she took all her tech with her." She rolled her eyes and gestured to the IV and monitor.

"She wanted to see him." Tsuyu chimed in.

Deku frowned down at Uraraka. "He's still asleep. But you're welcome to go in. Kirishima and I have been in there long enough, I think." He glanced over at the redhead with a pointed look.

Kirishima blinked, then understanding dawned on him. "Yeah, that's right. But he's gonna be okay! You shoulda seen him bringing down the pain on that villain! Pretty sure his face got a nice little makeover after all that Bakugo did to 'em!"

Uraraka smiled weakly back at them. She'd barely done anything since waking up, but already she felt exhausted. She knew it was the price to pay for the speeded healing Recovery Girl's quirk had provided her though.

After the two men had departed, Mina and Tsuyu moved her into the room and set her up in her wheelchair next to Bakugo's bed. "We'll be right outside if you need us," Mina said, resting a hand briefly on Uraraka's shoulder before she and Tsuyu stepped out, pulling the door closed behind them.

Uraraka didn't allow herself to look fully at him until she heard the click of the door. When she did, her breath caught in her throat. She'd seen him injured before but those times all paled in comparison to this.

She'd fought Sato herself and she'd likely bear some of the scars for the rest of her life. If not the physical ones, then still the mental ones. She'd been certain she was going to die. It was a miracle that she hadn't.

As she'd laid there on the pavement, the pool of blood forming around her, all she had been able to think about was what her parents would go through when they found out and her biggest regret: not telling the man she loved how she really felt when she'd had the chance.

His face didn't have it's usual color, but she'd heard he'd lost a lot of blood. She couldn't see the stab wound because of the blankets that were tucked around him, but she glanced up at his vitals monitor to reassure herself that everything was as it should be.

The steady beep from both his monitor and hers filled the room and she finally looked back at her phone, unlocking the screen so she could see the notifications, scrolling down to look at the oldest first. These were mostly text messages received before anyone had heard the news. Then there were several missed calls from her parents. These were stamped after she would have been brought to the hospital and they had been notified. It broke her heart to think of her mother desperately calling her phone repeatedly as they drove here to see her. Her parents had gone home shortly before she'd woken to shower and change clothes, Mina had told her. She was sure they'd be back soon.

There were several notifications from her apps that she scrolled past before she saw something that made her stop: a missed call from Bakugo time stamped from the night before well after he would have heard the news and a voicemail. She looked up at his still form on the bed, then back at her phone as she pressed the button to play it.

"Hey there, Round-face. I'm just calling to...well. Actually. I'm not sure why I'm calling to tell you this. I should have told you to your face in the first place. And now you're lying in a hospital bed out of my reach. I couldn't do anything for you but stare at you. What the fuck good does that do for anyone?" There was a pause before he continued. "I failed you, Cheeks. I know that. And now I'm gonna live with that forever. I'll never forgive myself for letting him hurt you. I should've been there. I should've been by your side. I could've protected you. That's all I've ever wanted, ever since high school. To be close to you and to protect you. And I fucking failed. I don't know...if you'll ever know how sorry I am." His voice was starting to shake. "I love you. I love you now, and I loved you when I was angry with you. It was so hard to give you the time of day after we fought because I knew one good look at those eyes of yours would do me in and I'd let it all go. Fuck if I know why I didn't want to let it go. I guess that's just how I've always been. But that's not how I want to be. I know you don't care about Deku...not like me. I'm just so sorry that it took all of this happening for me to really believe it." He took a breath. "I'm about to go now. I hope you get to listen to this. They say you'll be okay, but anything can happen after the damage you took. You're so strong. You have to wake up and you have to keep going. You're the coolest hero I know. I hope I'm there when you wake. I'd like to be my usual cocky self and tell you that I'm about to annihilate this dumb villain...but we both know this guy has an advantage with his quirk. I may not come back. But I'll be damned if he hurts you like that and gets away with it. So. You know what? I am going to annihilate this dumb villain. If it's the last thing I do. I love you, Ochako."

Tears began to prickle at the corners of her eyes before she was halfway through the message. By the time she'd reached the end, they were flowing freely down her cheeks. She hung up her phone and looked at his face, reaching over to gently place her hand over his. "I love you, too, Katsuki," she said, voice barely more than a whisper.

Bakugo felt tired. So tired. Sato's bloody face flashed in his mind, followed by a vision of Uraraka in her hospital bed. He saw his friends helping him fight in the rain. He saw his parents having drinks and eating birthday cake, Uraraka laughing at a childhood photo of him.

He felt so far away from it all, yet the images were on what felt like a continuous loop in his brain.

"I love you too, Katsuki."

That voice.

He squeezed his eyes and slowly blinked them open. The first thing he saw was white. The color of the ceiling, the wall, the blankets that covered him. He heard the heart monitor by his bed, and the sounds of someone quietly sobbing. He felt the familiar sensations of Uraraka's finger pads stroking his hand. He sighed and rolled his head to the side to look at her, giving her hand a squeeze.

"Hey...cheeks." He whispered hoarsely.

She gasped. "Katsuki…" Her brown eyes met his ruby ones and she felt a wave of relief wash over her. He was awake. She was going to be fine and so was he.

He smirked at her. "The fuck you doing out of bed?"

She made a sound that was something between a snort and a laugh. "I've been getting that a lot. How are you feeling?"

"Tired." he replied. He tried sitting up slightly and groaned at the pain in his side from doing so. "And sore. Like I got stabbed or something." His red eyes were squinted at her, his mouth upturned at his own humor.

"That sounds about right," she said, her eyes drifted down to where her hand was still entwined with his. "I...uh...I got your message…"

Bakugo blinked. "Message?" He looked at his lap and ran his free hand through his hair while he concentrated. Then it dawned on him. A blush crept into his cheeks. "Oh yeah…I did that when I was changing."

Ochako frowned at him, her eyes glancing over the bandages that wrapped around his shirtless torso. Guilt, immense, washed over her and weighed down on her chest. Her heart monitor seemed to beep a touch faster than it had been this whole time. Her eyes made their way back to his. She took a deep breath.

"Katsuki, I'm so, so, so sorry. About everything. I should've told you about Deku and what he said. I was just scared that you'd be angry considering what happened between us years ago, but I realize now that I was an idiot and I should've trusted you. Perhaps if I had, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. I shouldn't have lied. I should understand by now that lying doesn't make anything better. Only worse. I'm a fool. I've just...I've been hurt so much and I just didn't understand how else to handle my feelings. Of course I love you. Of course I do! I think I have for longer than I've actually realized. I'm sorry for not knowing then, after UA. Instead I forced you to be my shoulder to cry on and then I had to go and ruin our one chance at that party. It was all my fault! And now, I've lied because I couldn't be sure you would handle the truth, as if I was stuck in the you that existed three years ago. And that's completely unfair to you! You deserve so much better than me! And now you're hurt because you felt obligated to make amends with me for everything even though you had every right to be angry with me—"

Katsuki didn't let her finish.

He leaned forward and extended his hands towards her cheeks and cupped them gently before pulling her towards him for a kiss.

Uraraka was surprised, but also happy all at once. Oh, how she had missed the feel of his lips against hers! It felt like ages even though it had only been a handful of weeks.

Katsuki pulled back after a moment. "It doesn't matter now. It's all gonna be okay." He kissed the tip of her nose before resting his forehead against hers. "Say it again."

Ochako paused. "Um...you want me to say all of...that?"

Katsuki's red eyes lifted and made contact with her own. "You know which part."

Her cheeks flushed with warmth, she smiled weakly, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "I...love you, Katsuki. I love you so much."

He closed his eyes and kissed her again, with a fervor he had never thought possible to possess. He was never going to let her go. Not ever. Not if she made him angry. Not even if it killed him.

"That's all I've ever wanted to hear." He whispered against her lips before continuing his kiss. "I love you, too, Ochako."

Two years and just like that, my head still takes me back. Thought it was done, but I guess it's never really over. Oh, we were such a mess, but wasn't it the best? Thought it was done, but I guess it's never really over.- Katy Perry