Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

From a prompt on tumblr: "imagine the injured after being treated for their wounds, asking, "can... can I?" And after hearing "yes", passing out."

Katsuki didn't want to admit it, but the fight had been a hard one. He had sweat trailing all the way across his skin, pooling inside gauntlets and overflowing because there was just so much. He was a walking bomb - not that that was anything new, he'd been a walking bomb since his Quirk manifested and he was proud of it - that a single spark would set ablaze.

He made a point to steer clear of Half-and-Half, just in case. His own tolerance for his explosions was wearing thin, and he had no interest in pulling a Deku and needing to be treated for self-inflicted injuries because he couldn't control his Quirk. Besides, he had somewhere else to be. Someone else to see.

Shitty-Hair's Quirk was impressive. Katsuki had known that since the start, and a begrudging respect for the guy himself had grown like a fungus as the red-haired boy plastered himself to his side and proved that he could handle Katsuki's explosions, both figurative and literal.

They'd both grown since then, and somewhere along the way Katsuki had found his growls losing their bite when directed towards Shitty-Hair, and then the rest of the posse that insisted on hanging around him.

It was that posse he was heading for now. They'd been separated - hadn't been able to keep up with him - and there was a gnawing feeling in Katsuki's gut that the armour-plated something that had been smashed past him at some point during the fight might have been Shitty-Hair. Maybe. Not that he was worried - taking hits was what the other boy was good at. He could handle a hit or hundred.

But that nagging sensation wouldn't go away, reminding him of their first sports festival and the way he'd won. More recently, the mess with Eri that Deku and Shitty-Hair had ended up in the thick of, where his - he still didn't use the f word, saved that for pansies like Deku, but if he did, Shitty-Hair might actually qualify - had ended up hospitalised. Shitty-Hair was powerful, could take the hits, but in a battle of attrition his Hardening would eventually fail him.

The area was carnage, the gang of villains being herded up and dragged away by the law enforcement while Pro Heroes and Heroes-in-training looked out for the idiot bystanders that had got themselves all mixed up in the mess. Some of Half-and-Half's ice structures had yet to melt, and in other places small fires blazed. Some of them were his. Buildings were reduced to rubble, collateral damage unable to withstand such a full-scale battle, and dust hazed the area.

All in all, it made locating his targets irritatingly difficult. Shitty-Hair's red hair didn't stand out too well when there was blood splattered around, every flash of crimson a red herring. Somewhere off to his left he saw the tell-tale green sparks of Deku's Quirk, still not powered down, and moved in the opposite direction before there could be any annoying calls of Kacchan!

It was Raccoon Eyes' bubblegum pink hair that caught his attention. The girl was still, unnaturally so for someone with apparently inexhaustible levels of energy, and the disturbing feeling in his gut twisted a little. The splash of red near her did nothing to quell it, and if his strides lengthened just a little as he headed over, well, anyone who commented on it would get a close-up view of his Explosion.

"The medics will be here soon," he heard her say tearfully as he got within earshot. "Sero and Kaminari went to fetch them."

"What the hell happened?" he barked out, uncaring that he was interrupting her conversation with the prone Shitty-Hair on the ground. He looked awful, streaks of red criss-crossing his exposed skin in almost a scale-like pattern. The battle of attrition had been lost; Katsuki could see that immediately. From the pattern, many, many thin lines of crimson where his skin had split open, his Unbreakable had once again failed to live up to its name.

"Hey..." Shitty-Hair croaked, one red eye peaking open at the sight of him. "You okay?"

"I'm not the one lazing around with blood leaking everywhere," Katsuki snapped, an instinctive twitch almost - almost - igniting his palms. "Answer the question."

"Kids." Sharp teeth pulled into something that could have been a grimace, Shitty-Hair furious that children were involved. He'd always been touchy about picking on the weak, and after Eri that had only got stronger.

"There were three children," Raccoon Eyes took over the narrative, wiping her leaking eyes with the back of her hand. Her skin was glistening too, her Quirk manifesting its overuse similarly to Katsuki's own. "The villains tried to get at them. Kirishima stopped them."

"'nari fried 'em," Shitty-Hair rasped, before Katsuki could demand what happened to the goons that managed to take the toughest guy in the school - one of the toughest Heroes in Japan, even if he was still in training - down. Pikachu's Quirk would do the job well enough. Katsuki's would have, too, and he grit his teeth at the fact he hadn't been there to blow them away before Shitty-Hair had shattered.

"You need to work more on your endurance," he said, instead of voicing those thoughts. Shitty-Hair, damn him, seemed to read him anyway.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But for now... I I'm gonna need a nap." His eyes were starting to close again, blood loss and pain clouding them. "Can... can I?"

Katsuki knew without asking that those words were aimed at him, even before Raccoon Eyes chirped a miserable sounding "hold on a little longer! The medics are on their way!" The fact that Shitty-Hair didn't let go despite her answer confirmed it.

But she was right; a quick glance up showed the medical unit running their way, a somewhat fried Pikachu leading the charge, and Katsuki figured Shitty-Hair had earned the break. Just this once.

"Yeah," he said, quietly. "Get some sleep, Shitty-Hair. And when you wake up again, I'm dragging you straight back to the training grounds."

"Sounds... good..." Shitty-Hair even had the audacity to grin his shark-tooth grin at him as he faded out of consciousness. Katsuki scoffed.

"It'd better."

I've never posted anything for this fandom before (I do have an AU longfic in my WIPs that might one day see the light of day if I get past writing the first chapter!) so this is a bit of an experiment in characterisation. To that end, it was a little bit of playtime! I sat with my favourite characters for this because I can... It's been a little while since I last read the manga - and longer since I watched any of the anime - but hopefully I haven't forgotten too much!

Thanks for reading!
Tsari