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Warning? Uhm… Kyoya. And Bakugou's language.
Kyoya sat with a quiet huff in the chair next to Reborn's hospital bed, the aches and pains of the day finally catching up to him. His body was near collapsing as the adrenaline wore off, the after-effects of forcing his Flames past their limits, for even just a moment, draining away what was left of his energy. Not to mention the pain in his leg; now that the fight was well and truly over and Kyoya had a moment to really think on the fight, the pain was actually more than he had thought it would be.
He probably shouldn't have tried to go for the thing's back, but it had honestly seemed like a good plan of attack – aim for the biggest threat. So what if he had injured his leg? He earned himself and the others a couple of extra seconds to plan out an attack and implement it. And the creature had it coming; it was hurting the one person Kyoya had a connection to from his past - his friend.
Kyoya huffed another sigh as he slumped down in his seat, getting ready to sleep there for the night.
A couple of hours later, the steady beat of Reborn's heart monitor a lullaby, Kyoya awoke suddenly. At first, he wasn't sure why – nothing seemed out of place even to his trained senses – but then not two seconds later, Reborn stirred. Just one eye blinked open, the other hidden behind bandages, and the hitman with eyes as sharp as any blade stilled a moment, presumably to take in his surroundings.
"You're in the hospital," Kyoya spoke quietly. The hitman didn't move, didn't flinch at the sudden voice next to him, but the monitor jumped for a beat and a half, giving the man away.
"I take it we won the fight?" His voice was rough like his vocal cords were injured even though his neck was fine. The sound was simultaneously a blessing – he was alive – and a curse – "I couldn't save him." – and Kyoya allowed himself a moment to immortalize the sound in his head. It would be the reason for him to get stronger – the injuries Reborn and his other herbivores sustained because he wasn't enough-
"Whatever you're thinking about needs to stop right there." Reborn's stern voice startled him from his odd thoughts, but Kyoya blinked back down at the man like he hadn't been having those weird thoughts at all.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Reborn gave him the most deadpan stare he could muster – rather impressive for a man who was working with one eye and was immobilized on the bed. As ashamed at his own weakness as he was, Kyoya still wasn't about to back down from a fight of any kind.
The stared for an impressive 5 minutes before they were interrupted by a nurse who came in to check Reborn's injuries and change his dressings.
"How are you feeling Aizawa-san?" Irritation filtered into Reborn's eyes as he stubbornly continued to stare at Kyoya – right up until Aizawa forced a switch between them and gone was the hitman that had taught Kyoya a lot of the things he knew in his past life.
"I'm fine." The teacher answered. "I was just asking my student some questions about the whole event. I was knocked unconscious before it was over."
"Oh, I see! Well, visiting hours are over, sadly, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave, ok honey?" the nurse said kindly as he flicked on a light above the bed. Kyoya bristled at the man, and firmly remained seated. The nurse's smile turned strained as Kyoya refused to move.
"Please don't make me call security."
Kyoya sighed and moved to get up. It probably wouldn't look good if being escorted from the hospital was added to his already horrible meeting about Heroism he was going to have to bear from All Might and the principal he had yet to meet personally. He pushed off the seat armrests, shifting his weight to his feet-
And barely stopped his scream of pain. It came out a strangled grunt as he plopped back in his chair. Both adults looked back at the teen in shock – until Aizawa seemingly slipped away for Reborn.
"What did you do." He asked in his most dangerously monotone voice Kyoya had heard since his past life.
"I saved your life, that's what I did."
"Kyoya." Oh! That was Reborn's 'Final Warning' voice! Kyoya almost felt like he won an award with that – if he didn't feel like he was about to die by the hands of said hitman, or like his leg was on fire with the pain.
"There is a chance that I may have broken something. Possibly."
Reborn's eye narrowed, the intended words ringing clear in the silence. 'Do not make me repeat myself.'
"Ok, a little more than a chance that I have." A low, rumbling growl thrummed from Reborn's chest with Kyoya's refusal to tell him more then that.
"What do you think you broke? I can get the X-ray machines up and running again if you need me to." The nurse asked, coming to Kyoya's rescue without even knowing how close the teen had come to a maiming. The teen glanced at the man, from his chocolate brown eyes to his bright blue hair, the concerned tilt to his head and his stance that said he was ready to grab Kyoya and carry him to the X-ray machines if he needed to.
"…My leg. I… I landed on it weird. It didn't hurt during the fight, but now…"
"Now that your life isn't on the line, you feel it?" the nurse smirked – not a condescending one, it was more like a smile than that. Kyoya pouted at the man and nodded, studiously ignoring the hitman staring into his very soul through his head.
"It's ok. I'll go get you a wheelchair, and get you some X-rays, see if we can't fix you up." He turned back to Reborn. "I'll check your wounds and change your dressings when I'm getting him all situated, if that's alright with you, Aizawa-san?"
The hitman nodded without turning away from his glare. The nurse chuckled nervously and turned to the door. "Well, then I'll just go get you that chair, and start up those machines." The door was closed for their privacy and the hitman was back to staring at Kyoya like the teen's only salvation from a mass beating was not the fact that he was almost tied to the bed from his injuries, but an actual explanation. Of what, Kyoya wasn't sure.
There were many things that needed to be said in the ensuing conversation. Namely, his random access to his Flames, whether or not Reborn had access to his own, and the issues he was about to face after classes the next day with All might and the principal. Surprisingly, it was Aizawa that broke the silence as the teacher puffed out his chest enough to cough, stutter his heart, grimace and turned to Kyoya with an oddly understandable look of exhaustion.
"Reborn says that he doesn't want to deal with you and the pain, so he's not going to take back over anymore. Something about Sun Flames taking too long to heal? I don't know." He paused to cough, enough that even Kyoya's curiosity over his words (Sun Flames? Could the hitman use them outside of his body, or just inside like Kyoya?) waned in the offer to help the man calm his coughs. But what could he do? He couldn't move from his chair, as much as he growled at himself to move, he really couldn't put the weight down now, at all.
In the end, all Kyoya could think of was rubbing a hand over the man's chest and studiously not looking him in the eye as all the shame really washed over him. He wasn't like this in the past, was he? No, he was stronger back then, he was sure of that. He was also far less caring. Really, he had surprised himself when he had checked on his herbivores in the hospital while waiting on the X-rays for Hagakure.
When had he been even close to this nice in his past life? Had he ever been nice at all?
Something was wrong with him.
Aizawa's gasping evened out after a moment, and the teacher turned to him. "Thank you, Himura."
Kyoya narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. "For what? I can't get out of this chair; I can't, and didn't, do anything to help your coughs or breathing."
There was a smile in the man's visible eye as he said simply, slowly, in a low tone, "For saving our life."
Kyoya didn't know how to respond to that so he just blinked and sat back as a wave of some un-nameable emotion hit him hard. He pulled his hand back from the man's chest and put his chin on a fist as he leaned into an armrest. He said nothing; but really, what could he say to that? You're welcome? It was a pleasure? You owe me? Kyoya remained silent for the following 10 minutes, even when the nurse came back with a wheelchair to move him to the X-ray machine.
"So, the Hero Course, huh?" The nurse said in amazement as he started to wheel Kyoya down the quiet hall. "I've always wanted to be a Hero. I even thought about applying to U.A., like you, but… my Quirk isn't the best for being a Hero. 'Pain Regulation' isn't the most Heroic thing, you know?"
"Pain Regulation?" What? Why was this guy even talking? Really, Kyoya was starting to get a little annoyed. The nurse must have taken the question as something to continue a pointless conversation with, because he continued.
"Yeah, when I'm touching someone I can stunt their pain receptors – it's why I work best in the Emergency Room. People come in because they're in pain, right? Well, while I'm stitching up someone, or helping someone with a break or anything like that, I just touch them, anywhere really, and I can help them. So, yeah. Not the best for Hero work, but I like to think I'm at least helping out."
"Sounds pretty Heroic to me." Kyoya wasn't sure why he said that, the words just fell from his lips as he slumped down in the chair even more. He felt a hand on his shoulder then, and in a second the pain and fatigue started to fade.
"Thank you." The nurse said quietly. "So, what about you?"
"What about me?" Kyoya looked up at the man upside down, and just stared at him. The man chuckled nervously.
"I mean, to be in the Hero Course, you must have some kind of Super Quirk, right? What is it?" The man looked more like a child than a professional in that moment, but Kyoya shrugged.
"I don't have one."
"Oh, come on, no need to be modest! You must-"
"I'm Quirkless."
"…What? How are you in the Hero Course if…"
"I'm strong."
The rest of their walk was silent, and when they arrived the nurse sighed. "So this is where the 'Not Heroic' part of my Quirk comes in. When I let go the pain will come back, not worse than before, but it'll feel like it because it'll be sudden. Are you ok with that?"
Kyoya just looked over his shoulder at the man with a sullen, tired stare and shrugged off the man's hand. The pain did come back immediately, but it wasn't more than Kyoya could handle. The nurse, and two others, helped Kyoya up onto the metal bench for the pictures of his leg, 'where the pain was'. The teen watched them as they studied over the shots, watched the panic build and raised an eyebrow when the nurses all jumped into action.
As it turned out, Kyoya's pain wasn't just from muscle exhaustion. He had shattered his femur and torn a lot of his muscles out of place. He would be taken to Recovery Girl in the morning, but for now they placed him in Aizawa's room, in his own cot, so the nurse could fret over them both at the same time.
And by 'fret' Kyoya meant rant. About him being a Quirkless Hero, and how impossible that was.
Kyoya tuned him out because he has seriously had enough of that.
"I really should keep you here for the rest of the day," The veteran Hero, Recovery Girl, said as she re-checked the knee brace on Kyoya's leg. "But you seem like the kind of boy that doesn't like being held back, and today's classes should be easier to handle, as they are just normal classes so, just this one time, I'll let you go with a brace and a crutch. You come by at lunch for me to check it, and if I catch you doing anything I don't like, you are going to be in trouble!" she half-heartedly lectured with a smile and handed him a small candy, placing the sweet in the palm of his hand and curling both their hands over it.
"But I really do want you to come back at lunch, alright?"
Kyoya blinked at the grandmotherly woman and nodded as she retracted her hands. There was something about her that reminded Kyoya of his own grandmother from his past life, and he really didn't want to disobey her. Because… well…
Frankly, he felt she might rip his tongue out for disobedience. He had watched his grandmother do just that to one of his cousins when he was five; that kind of thing leaves an impression. A kind smile, all warm love and gentle hugs… until a teenager stayed out far past midnight, came back in the morning and cussed her out when she asked what had happened.
No one disobeyed her after that. Even Kyoya's father, unrelated to the woman, gave her a lot more respect after that morning.
"Now, here's your crutch." The woman said as she handed the metal work to him. "I want to see how you walk on it, so walk to the door and come back again, and if you stumble then you're staying here today." She said with yet another smile. One that promised Kyoya he really would be staying if he stumbled. Double the reason to not stumble.
(Honestly, if he had just thought about it, she was a Hero; there was really nothing to fear – at least when it came to her physically harming him. And she seemed just so nice… but so did his grandmother.)
His right leg was the one in a brace to stop it from moving, so Kyoya put the crutch under his right arm and stood up. He walked a little awkwardly to the door, then turned, went back to the bed, grabbed his bag and turned to the woman.
"Thank you very much for healing my leg as best you could, I will be back at lunch." Kyoya said as he bowed politely. She nodded to him and Kyoya made for the door again. He was halfway to his classroom when he felt the presence of a particular hitman come close.
"So, even Recovery Girl couldn't completely heal you, huh?" Reborn snickered. Kyoya glanced at him then said snidely, in Greek,
"So, even a mummified man, who got his face smashed in, can return to work, huh?" Kyoya smirked as the man glowered at the back of his head.
"I didn't get my face smashed in, thank you very much." Reborn growled in Korean, walking close to Kyoya's elbow.
"Really?" Kyoya snarked back in Mandurian. "Because that new scar on your face says a lot other wise."
"Look," Reborn snarled, in his mother tongue Italian, "Just because for some reason I can't use my Flames to the extent I'm used to, doesn't mean anything. I lost because I can't use my full strength, or a gun. Just this stupid scarf."
"So you're blaming your loss on the weapon, and your lack of Flame access? Tisk tisk, I thought you were the World's Greatest Hitman?" Kyoya goaded in French. Reborn paused and yanked Kyoya to a stop next to him.
"You're walking on dangerously thin ice, Kyoya. I suggest you stop this conversation, because I would hate to have to break you when we just got re-acquainted." Reborn said in a low tone, in an old and lesser known dialect of Chinese – though that just made his threat more real. After all, that specific dialect was what Kyoya was raised on before he moved to his father's country, Japan. He hadn't ever told anyone about having been born in China, let alone having been there for the first 6 years of his life.
Kyoya spent a moment weighing the risk of continuing on pride alone, or to back down from this fight.
"That's fine," Kyoya sighed in Somali, "I was meaning to ask you about your access to your Flames anyway."
Reborn continued to stare at the young man for a moment longer, before he nodded slightly, an acknowledgement that Kyoya had backed down, for now, and let go of Kyoya's arm. He started to walk toward the classroom again, a touch slower than they were before if only because he knew Kyoya had been struggling with the pace, due to his crutch.
"What do you want to know?" Reborn asked lightly, as if he hadn't been about to plan out how to 'disappear' Kyoya just a moment ago. The Gaelic language really helped in that.
"Can you use it on just your self, or outside your body, like you used to?" Kyoya asked in German.
"You mean like my Chaos Shot?" Reborn clarified in Farsi. It took Kyoya a moment to translate that one in his head, but he smiled and nodded. Since Kyoya hadn't actually responded with another language, Reborn continued in Farsi. "Well… yes and no. I can use it, but only one shot because it uses pretty much all my strength, and even then, it's not even close to the strength it used to be, since I have to force my flames to leave my body through a pointed finger, and not an actual apparatus like a gun. I can't heal other people, but I can use it internally. And this Quirk I got lets me see my target's Flames too."
Kyoya lifted a hand to his chin in thought as they turned the corner onto their classroom hallway. They both stopped a moment they heard chatter on the other side of the door to their classroom, students talking to one another about who would be substituting for Aizawa, since literally none of them had the thought that their teacher was as stubborn a man as Kyoya knew him to be. As if having heard his thoughts, Reborn flicked his ear.
"To be continued." Reborn said quietly, still in Farsi, and he opened the door. Kyoya opened his mouth to counter in Hungarian as he gracefully hobbled into the classroom.
To be entirely honest, neither Tokoyami, Hagakure or Ojiro knew what to think when they stepped into class together and saw Himura Kyoya's desk empty. They convened around it, but before any of them could give a suggestion on why he was absent, a rude blond growled out from in front of their friend's seat.
"Thank fuck he's not here. The teachers probably came to their senses about that bastard being a student here."
In silent unison, the three turned to stare at Bakugou Katsuki, not really glaring at the teen, but certainly not happy about his words. Though no one could really tell with Hagakure; because the girl was seething, her rage silent as she openly glared at the blond. She wasn't sure why, because truthfully Himura scared her a little sometimes, but she would lay her life down for him. It seemed a little extreme for her to even think, but she felt it was true. She had known him for less than a week, but she felt like she had known him all her life – like he was family. And even then, that word didn't feel quite right.
(The word Familia floated into her head, and she shook it away. What language was that even?)
"What are you talking about?" Tokoyami said lowly to the blond. "Himura deserves to be here-"
"What do you know?! You weren't there!" Bakugou snapped, half shouting half growling at the three standing at the unmanned desk. "Ask fucking Deku, or Shitty Hair, or Half-wit over there!" He rudely gestured at Todoroki, the other teen raising an irritated eyebrow at the name. "They were there! They saw that freak fight! They saw the thing that that freak tore apart!"
Silence reigned throughout the classroom, the three wanting nothing more than to deny what was being said, but they couldn't. They weren't there when it happened, and it was sounding more and more like the violent teen they knew. Quietly, one person spoke up, fear lacing his voice.
"That creature, the Nomu, it was made specifically to defeat All Might, and the Villains wouldn't have made the attack if they couldn't be at least marginally sure of its strength. And Himura Kyoya defeated it. Easily."
The three turned to a shivering, fear riddled Midoriya Izuku as the teen stared down at his desk. He repeated the last word of his statement in a shaky whisper. (If any had watched the blond teen, they would have seen the concern splash across Bakugou's face for less than half a second, and they would have seen him raise one hand, the hand closest to the smaller teen to about hip level, almost as if reaching out to give comfort, before he sneered, turned away, and shoved his hand back into his pocket.)
"That's just… how he is." Mineta said quietly in the following silence. He knew he had drawn the attention of everyone in the class, but he hadn't meant to. He started sweating as he felt eyes bore into his head, and his mouth began moving again without prior say-so from his brain. "It's just how Hiba- I mean, how Himura's al-always been. He- he wont change now, j-just because some of us are squeamish."
"You talk like you fucking know him." Bakugou growled as he came close to the much, much smaller teen's desk. Mineta trembled like a leaf in the wind as the explosive teen closed in on him. Mineta really didn't want to explain how he knew Himura, so he played possum, an act he got good at playing in his past life. His eyes rolled back, head fell to face the ceiling, a little bit of spittle foaming at the corner of his mouth – the act went well, and the teen backed off with a very loud and irritated grumble about useless extras.
"Well, either way," Tsuyu said, gaining the attention of the class, "I wonder where our teacher is? Class started a few minutes ago, and I don't think Aizawa-sensei will be able to work today, gero."
Despite the tension still very, very thick in the air, the frog girl brought up a very valid point, and everyone started quietly chatting together in small groups. Hagakure, Ojiro and Tokoyami remained silent as they stood still around his desk –
Until the door slammed open.
"Ai-Aizawa-sensei?!" more than half the class shouted as their teacher came waltzing in… with a familiar black-haired teen in tow. Leaning heavily on a crutch.
But that wasn't even the craziest thing – Himura Kyoya was fluently speaking in another language with their teacher. They all half expected the man to send him off to his desk, in their language or at least in the one the teen was using, but the teacher responded with a different language altogether – and Himura seemed to not only understand but talk back in yet another language. The class was thrown in silent confusion the likes of which none had experienced before as the teen and teacher had what sounded like an argument in multiple language no one could even so much as guess at, until the teacher half-yelled something in anger that had everyone flinching at the tone.
There was a tense moment between teacher and student, a stare-down (or rather, a glare-down) that seemed to go on forever before they both cracked.
The class was shocked, really. Some expected an inevitable fight caused by the angered shouting, some expected blood shed at least, and one or two (*cough Bakugou cough*) all but wishing for a bloodbath. What they got turned everything they thought they knew upside-down.
The two started laughing.
Just a chuckle, as it seemed neither knew what a real laugh was, but the genuine mirth and humor were there, Himura pulling a hand over his mouth as if to stop the sound.
"What did you just call me?" Himura asked in a low tone, stuttered as if his laughs were getting caught between his words.
"I'm sorry, Kyoya." The teacher replied, a cast coming up to hide his smile, (and did the teacher just call a student by his first name?) "I couldn't remember any swear words in Hindi; I had to get creative."
"But still," the teen chuckled, "To call me a-a-" Himura finally broke down entirely, nearly doubling over in his mirth as real laughs escaped his lips. After a moment of laughing with the teen, the teacher sobered enough to finally send Himura off and address the class as a whole.
"Alright, alright. Go to your desk, Kyoya. We still have to talk about yesterday, and this appointment you have with All Might and the principal later today."
Without a word, Himura turned away from the teacher and trudged over to his desk, skillfully avoiding Bakugou's attempt at tripping him as he ignored the explosive teen. The teen brushed off the worried looks of his herbivores and sent them to their desks. Tokoyami eyed his leg brace as he stepped away, considering his desk was relatively close to Himura's, and the rest of the class settled down.
"Alright, settle down." Aizawa continued, the class frightfully ignoring how many obscenities flowed from Bakugou's mouth when Ojiro's tail 'accidentally' knocked into the back of his head. "The battle isn't over yet." The adult said ominously, the class actually paying attention again. Someone asked if the Villains came back, and the tension quickly built.
"The sports festival is close." The tension was cut in half near instantly, and Kyoya found himself tempted to slump down in his seat. A sports festival? Really? Why? But then Reborn went on to explain how the world used to adore and watch the Olympics like how they now adore and watch the U.A. Sports Festival. Kyoya hummed to himself as the students around him started to chatter about the opportunity – there were going to be an amazing number of scouts at this event, watching the students with glee. An idea began forming as the class was dismissed.
By the time lunch rolled around, Kyoya almost desperately wanted to take the cast off and stretch out his leg, but he knew the veteran Hero, Recovery Girl, was probably watching him somehow, and he totally wasn't afraid of the old woman, he just knew he had to pay his respects properly by listening to her orders. (His own grandmother's face popped into his head and Kyoya supressed a shudder.)
"Himura-kun!" a voice called to him the moment he stood to go to the Nurse's Office. He blinked down at the floating uniform bouncing closer to his desk. "What happened to your leg? Are you ok?!" In less time than a breath later, Kyoya was surrounded by peers – notably none that had watched him fight the Nomu the previous day.
"I'm fine. How is your hand?" Kyoya deflected, doing his best to avoid questions he didn't want to answer just yet.
"I-I'm fine!" she squeaked. It was an obvious lie, one that caught the attention of the others standing near him too.
"Show me." Kyoya commanded, holding out his own hand for her.
"Show you? But, I'm invisible? You can't-"
"Hagakure Toru, do not make me repeat myself." Kyoya pulled back on the glare he wanted to scare her with, and instead waited for her to finish huffing and she placed her hand in his.
Normally, Kyoya would watch someone's facial expressions when he was testing an injury, as well as groping her hand to check on the injury itself, but since she was invisible, Kyoya focused on the familiarity of her Flames, checking for even the slightest issue. The muscles felt stiff and still a bit puffy, and Kyoya narrowed his eyes at her.
"Give me your notes." He commanded. Ojiro shifted behind him and he glanced at the other teen holding out his notebook. "Not you, I just wanted to confirm that she doesn't have any notes." He turned back to Hagakure just in time to see her shoulders tense. He sighed. "You can't even hold a pencil right now, can you?"
It was a rhetorical question but one that he expected an answer from anyway. Tokoyami sidled up close to her and tilted his head in a small, quick and very bird-like fashion, also looking for the answer. She sighed out a groan.
"Ok fine, I'm not ok. I can't hold a pencil, I can't take any notes, and I probably will have some trouble eating my own lunch, you happy?!"
Kyoya raised an eyebrow, but his eyes unintentionally softened. "Of course I'm not happy that one of my herbivores is in pain. Now, I need to go back to Recovery Girl, so come with me."
"I can do it!"
Before Kyoya could reach for Hagakure to escort her to the nurse, he was interrupted by an oddly… enthusiastic reincarnation of Miura Haru pumping her fist in the air. She got the members of the class she was talking to returning her cheer with a subdued 'Yeah?'
The brunette turned to Kyoya and the rest and pumped her fist in the air again. "For the Sports Festival, I can do it!" she growled out. She was once again met with a slightly less enthused 'yeah?' with a mimicked stance. Kyoya just blinked down at her as one of the teens that had surrounded him asked the girl if she was ok.
With a sigh, Kyoya nudged Hagakure toward the door and pat the brunette on the head twice as he passed her. "Yes, you can, little herbivore, and don't forget that spirit for if you and I end up in a fight."
He suppressed his chuckle when he could practically feel her shiver as he walked out the door. This would be fun.
It took three re-writes for this chapter to get out. And I am so sorry about that. And, oh, did I let something about Mineta slip long before I plan on revealing who he is? Whoops. (Insert evil cackle here)
And again, I'm sorry for how long this took to get out. There's been a lot happening in RL right now, but I'll do my best to get the next chapter out before school starts this September, but once it does, this might not really get updated more than once a month. I'll be really busy, but I promise this isn't going to end here! Were just about to hit something fun!
Ok, I love you, Bi-bye!
(I think this is my new sign-off?)
((Also guyyyyysssssss I wrote a 'What if Xanxus was Katsuki'. Go check it out! It's super small! I was also nearly intoxicated by the fact that I had, at the point that I wrote it, been awake for nearly 26 hours. Ahaha. Ha. Ha. Never again.))