Bakugou came back to himself in the hospital waiting room. His Auntie had been in and out of surgery for several hours and it was now mid-afternoon, he was sitting beside Deku while his mother paced and his father failed to calm her down.

Had he called them? Maybe the police or ambulance workers did? How did he even get to the hospital?

He didn't remember anything after seeing his Auntie on the ground, covered in blood.

Deku's father dashed into the waiting room loudly, practically tripping over himself. Deku didn't react—he seemed to still be in shock, his usual cheerful face twisted into a pitiful, blank expression. Bakugou quickly looked away, unwilling to see that expression on his childhood friend's face any longer. His heart ached dully, but in a familiar way. It's always his fault because he's never good enough—first All Might, and now his Auntie has to suffer.

Deku's dad demanded to know what happened from Mitsuki, who just shook her head and shrugged. His eyes zeroed in on Bakugou.

His eyes…

Bakugou unconsciously shrunk into himself and reluctantly explained what had happened with a dull voice. He omitted his unsuccessful attempt to coax Auntie into fleeing as well as the sheer amount of blood that gushed out of her, among all of those other, "minor" details.

Deku's dad stepped closer and lifted his arm as though he was about to grab him by the collar, but a male nurse stepped into the waiting room and declared that Auntie was awake and willing to see visitors.

Bakugou said nothing as they filed into the room.

Bakugou said nothing as they sat there for hours.

Bakugou said nothing as Deku's mom woke up.

Bakugou felt crushed when he saw Deku remain just as silent and numb as he himself felt.

Nothing made sense.

A few days later and Bakugou still hadn't seen any of the Midoriyas outside of the occasional run-in at Inko's hospital room. Deku never said a word to him every time—only clutching onto his sleeve and giving him a small smile as if to tell him it wasn't his fault and it was going to be okay. Deku's father, however, only ever glared at him as though he were hellspawn when his parents weren't looking. Not that he was there at the moment, apparently he had left Deku here alone for a while. That didn't feel right to him, everything was wrong.

Nothing was right, and he had significantly altered the timeline. Bakugou now not only traumatized Deku, but also probably just fucked everything up for the rest of the timeline.

He had majorly fucked up.

Auntie was going to be okay after this, according to the doctors, but that didn't change the fact that she would spend half a year in the hospital for it.

Deku tapped him on the cheek, catching his attention before giving him another million-watt smile. Where the hell had those been when he needed them in the not-future?

Oh right.

It had been beaten into the ground, left bloody and unrecognizable by yours truly.

He felt like he was about to hurl, but his mom ruffled his hair and told him that it was time to go home.

She was leaving Deku alone too? What the hell?

Trying to stay in character, he only gave a small, lingering glance from the doorway as he left Deku behind in the big hospital room with only a steady beeping to keep him company.

A few more days had passed, a depressed aura hung over their family even though the hag had tried to brush it off and pretend that everything was normal.

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

Everything had seemed to be correcting itself—slowly improving and returning to the way it should have been—but then there was a complication and now a medically induced coma.

A fucking coma.

FUCK!

Fuck.

What had he done?

Since then, a week had passed, Bakugou literally saw neither hide nor hair of any member of the Midoriya family. His mom had forbidden him from going to the hospital room, probably afraid of his reaction. She did think he was a child after all.

He was just so lost on what to do.

They were on the two-week summer break, so the daycare they went to was closed and he had nothing to do. Deku's birthday had passed the day before without so much as a whisper from anyone. He supposed that Deku's and his own mom organized the parties for them, their dads were clueless.

It still rubbed him the wrong way, but he couldn't do anything more than ask after Deku to his mother like a pathetic lost child. He had to do what he had to do, and resolved to push past the embarrassment and went to confront her in the kitchen.

"Mom, where's D-Izu?" Wow, this was always harder than it should be, "Why didn't we celebrate his birthday yesterday?" He tried adding an innocent lilt to his tone, but all it did was make him want to smash his face into the nearest wall.

He sure as hell wasn't convincing anyone.

"Oh, well I suppose I forgot! Haha, silly me. I'm sure we can do it later this week, my little victory!" She smiled and pinched his cheeks.

That hurt more than it has any right to, you old hag! Stop fucking pinching my cheeks, dammit!

But it also didn't escape his notice that she had totally dodged his question, and when she thought he had left, she frowned worriedly.

Bakugou frowned.

What was going on here?

One morning, his mother and father both had to go to work and decided that it was a good idea to leave him home alone. He didn't exactly understand their logic, but whatever, mentally he was mature enough. Unfortunately, boredom arose as the morning dragged on. Around lunch time, there was frantic knocking on the door. Bakugou was startled, but figured that he could handle whatever it was, nobody would expect a child to have a level head during an emergency, ha!

When he opened the door, Deku was standing there, breathing heavily with panic in his eyes. He frantically looked around the house and then behind him, only shouting, "Run!"

Then everything happened in a flash, Deku pushed him into the house and tried to lock the door behind him. His dad came up and slammed the door open and started yelling and waving a gun—what the hell? Guns are illegal, how did his dad get one?!. At first it was directed towards Deku, but then his dad turned his attention onto him. Suddenly, his body froze in the face of the gun and his mind went blank. He couldn't do anything but stare down the barrel that threatened to kill him. Suddenly, a loud bang echoed and a sharp pain blossomed in his abdomen. He hit the floor right before Deku's dad did the same and passed out.

He woke up in the hospital feeling floaty, recognizing it to be the distinct feeling of heavy pain killers.

What the hell just happened?

Bakugou felt his face pale as he stared at the ceiling, it all came back to him in an instant. He tried to shift because his joints were aching when they had no right to do so. However, it was all he could do to not gasp out loud at the sudden throbbing of his wound and pounding of his head. The darkness led him to assume it was night as he began to compartmentalize the pain and push it to the back of his mind in order to focus and think clearly again. His third mental track began to realize that he had no idea what had happened with Deku after Bakugou had gotten himself shot like an amatuer, though his two main tracks were too focused on shoving away the pain to build up panic. But the more pain he was able to ignore and pack away, the more clear his thoughts became.

His heart began to race, the heart monitor he was hooked up to mirroring it. Bakugou could feel his breathing becoming uneven and he squeezed his eyes shut and let the pain wash back over him in its entirety. But instead of overshadowing the panic as he hoped it would, it only amplified it and he could no longer tell where he was or why he felt like he was dying.

He thought he heard noises but he couldn't be certain beneath the pounding in his ears and the off-rhythm heartbeat beating at his ribcage.

When he blinked awake again the lights were on and Bakugou grumbled to himself as he quickly slammed his eyes shut. Damned fluorescent lights. Whoever thought they deserved to be in a hospital needed to be shot.

This time, opening his eyes slowly, he allowed himself to take in the lights with a blurry vision. The feeling of pain killers was more distinct this time, the weird feeling this time was more akin to morphine than whatever the hell he had been on previously.

Bakugou absentmindedly rubbed his tongue over his teeth as he tried to make sense of his thoughts and memories for the second time. He hoped that he wouldn't keep getting put on morphine before his career as a hero took off because then he'd have built up a tolerance for it and that would not be favorable for when he would really need it.

He huffed to himself and immediately regretted it as his chest began to ache again. Well, with Deku's luck it'd be unlikely to remain unscathed.

And then he remembered the event that landed him in the hospital in the first place. Again. Fuck, right. That happened. What fucking day was it again? Ha, again. As if he had even known the date in the first place.

The squeaking of the door caught his attention, he instinctively whipped his head around to look at the door and once again regretted the action. A nurse poked his head in and blinked at him.

Bakugou blinked back in annoyance because he was too tired to make a scene of it.

The nurse helped the blonde into a sitting position (which hurt like hell) and asked him a few simple questions in a baby voice that pissed him off even more. Where the fuck did this nurse get certified?! And why the fuck was he in the pediatric ward?! This guy had no idea how to handle kids!

Using all of his willpower to hold back his anger and frustration, he used his fake kid voice to ask after his idiotic parents. But the damned nurse just gave him a half-hearted smile and promised Bakugou that he'd see them soon and that the nurse would bring him some water and stuff to eat later.

And then he just fucking left.

He fucking left!

Bakugou was absolutely done with all of the idiots in this world. His teachers, his parents, apparently the nurses and people who thought fluorescent bulbs were a good idea around recovering people who might have sensitive vision. Kids were stupid, but at least they had an excuse of not knowing better and having been taught by their idiotic parents and teachers.

He sighed as he struggled to lay back down in a comfortable position as he waited for someone to come back and supervise this child like the good adults they were supposed to be.

He wasn't sure why he couldn't see his parents, but he had a feeling it wasn't good.

Not to say that would create any problems for him in the long run. He knew they would be the last people to cause issues for him.

He'd bet his life on it.

The third time Bakuou regained consciousness, he finally did have a familiar face sleeping at his side.

It just wasn't the face he had been expecting.

Though in hindsight, it sort of did make sense.

Izuku's face was almost angelic, the childish innocence that he couldn't help but miss as time went on was all over his face. The only issue was that he was drooling, which was one of Bakugou's biggest pet peeves. Ew, that's so fucking nasty.

Trying to ignore the slobber on the sheets, Bakugou attempted to push himself into a sitting position while the pain shot throughout his body from his side. The movement seemed to startle Izuku awake, and tired, green eyes blinked up at him.

"Kacchan…? You... awake?" he whispered lethargically.

His voice felt scratchy as he tried to speak, so he settled on simply nodding instead.

The tired excitement faded away with the smile on his face. It looked as though he was trying to decide whether to tell him something, the concentration on his face reminded Bakugou of when he was first told about One for All indirectly.

That introspective look made Bakugou feel sick, though that could have been from the pain, he wasn't sure.

Before Deku could decide what to say to him, his mother barged into the room.

She paused in the doorway, "Oh! You're awake now, Katsuki. What the hell took you so long!"

His father pushed her in the room and closed the door behind them, "Mitsuki, dear. Stop yelling in the hospital. It's not his fault that he was shot, dear. There's no need for that."

Bakugou blinked. Had his mom started fighting with him this early in his life? Or was she just stressed and taking it out on everybody around her?

Wasn't that just sad. He couldn't even read his own mother's tells anymore. (Or would it be once more?)

Well, if he was being honest, he seemed to have lost the grip on a lot of the passive skills he used to pride himself on. It was becoming quite frustrating actually. Which brought him back to the present.

His father forcefully pushed his mother out of the hospital room, her yelling somehow growing louder the further away she became. For a minute, both kids were alone in the room, though Bakugou was still loath to admit that he would be rightfully considered a child. (Especially considering the fact that he still technically hadn't graduated high school.)

Deku blinked at the scene, seemingly unphased. Though, after a particularly loud shout followed by muffled pleadings and a distinctive smack, he flinched.

Which was odd, considering there wasn't much for Deku to have to flinch at yet. That's right, asshole. You haven't done anything to him yet!

Except maybe he did have a reason to flinch now, considering what had just happened.

Well shit.

Deku's eyes locked onto Bakugou's by accident. They bore into his soul, digging, searching, breaking him down until they understood him to his core. A sense of dread built up, but he couldn't bring himself to look away.

Luckily, the argument between his parents seemed to have reached a temporary conclusion and his father stepped back in without his mother.

"I'm sorry about all that. She's just stressed, and stress always makes your mother… uh… loud," he smiled sheepishly, but his eyes told a different story.

His father was tired and also stressed, but he continued to put up a placating facade. That reminded him of a certain idiot he knew. Or rather, used to know. Because at this rate, Deku was gaining different trauma by the baker's dozen and he'd have no idea how to handle the nerd with different tendencies.

"Katsuki," Masaru began hesitantly, "what exactly do you remember?"

And he, like a smart person, decided he would play dumb. He wasn't willing to put up with their "babying" shit with him. He was almost an adult dammit and he could deal with this on his own! Er, he used to almost be an adult. Fuck it, he practically was an adult at this point! He refused to stand for that bullshit.

So he stared at his father blankly and blinked.

Bakugou saw the relief flutter over Masaru's face, but he could feel Deku's stare burning his skin. He tried his best not to look away from his father, but the temptation drew his gaze toward his "friend."

He had been staring at him, but the blonde couldn't tell if it was out of fear, disbelief, or relief.

None of which made much sense in this context from a four year old.

He still couldn't understand why he couldn't read anybody like he used to. It was a mental skill, not something that he could lose like all of the physical skills he would have to readjust to. Speaking of, he should probably begin training himself earlier than he had before, especially now, knowing the real threats he would have to face in the future.

His father interrupted his train of thought, "You're saying you don't remember what happened?"

He shook his head to confirm and briefly wondered how much this event had changed the future.

Maybe it hadn't changed at all, maybe he just didn't remember any of it as he was pretending to now. He supposed he had no way to know if that was the case.

Damn, he already hated time travel. It's such a complicated mess.

After admitting (or at least pretending to admit) that he had no clue what had happened, and after clearing up that he did remember other things, just not the event itself (Seriously? Why the hell was Deku worried about that?), a nurse entered the room with his mother and "kindly" asked for them to leave. Bakugou could tell that she was frustrated, probably by his screaming mother, and just wanted them to get out of her hair.

Not, of course, that Bakugou couldn't understand. For as long as he could remember, he wished he could have rid himself of the swarm of pests that followed him around like lost sheep.

The only one who hesitated while exiting the room was Deku, but Bakugou wasn't sure why that stuck out to him as important.

Whatever.

The next week was a dull blur, nurses and doctors flitting about and then leaving him alone for long periods of time that he swore they weren't supposed to do for children "his age." His parents visited in turns, Deku coming along every single day as though he didn't have other shit to do.

The first day, they had come together and his parents had begun to argue once more. Since then, it was a unanimous and unspoken agreement that they would not visit him at the same time just to spare him from their yelling. And seeing as they were really starting to piss him off, it was a relief that they finally had made a good decision.

Then at some point when he was alone, he felt like an idiot. Because of course, Deku was now living with his parents because one parent was in a holding cell and the other was in a coma. What a fucking idiot he was.

Nothing much happened, nobody told him what was going on, though he heard a few unimportant things while pretending to be asleep. Apparently Deku's dad was going to trial and his parents were planning to testify. The argument was largely about whether or not he would have to testify, which was… interesting… to say the least. They were also planning on attempting to take permanent custody of Deku.

Nothing shocking and nothing useful, in his opinion.

After another few weeks of healing and immense pain (he refused to tell them how much it hurt just so he could get off pain killers sooner: he didn't want to be in the habit of building a tolerance), Bakugou was told that he would have to go through a round of physical therapy that would likely take at least six months.

Six months? Ha, try two.

The idiotic doctors kept telling him to slow down, but he had no time to waste.

He was sent home in record time (two weeks into the sessions), with the promise that he'd continue going to the physical therapy sessions until he was told otherwise. Normally he'd have said "fuck that!" But this wasn't normal since he was a four year old child that had no actual control over his life. Luckily, Deku decided to tag along to most of them so it wasn't like he was completely bored.

But something was really off with Deku, and he couldn't figure it out.

Apparently, as he discovered his mother had taken the initiative to figure out how to sign both him and Deku up for homeschooling. This meant that she had to catch the two of them up on a month and a half of work while continuing forward.

Obviously Bakugou knew that he'd have no issue with the material and had prepared himself to have to tutor dumb Deku in everything until he got it.

Oddly enough, Deku seemed to catch on to it like fire to gasoline.

Had Deku really been that smart?

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered how much he had really affected Deku. Bakugou remembered being pissed that Deku had higher scores than him in most classes. If he was remembering correctly, the nerd rarely had higher scores than him after that one particularly bad day where he took out all of his frustrations from having an awful fight with his mother on him.

...maybe Deku was smarter than him…

How badly had he ruined Deku's future in the past?

He stared at the ceiling in his barren room with self-disgust.

It looked like he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night, so he slid out of bed, sat at his desk, grabbed a pencil, and pulled out his notebook.

On the very last page, he began to sketch the one constant in his life as he remembered him best.

Drew him as he had made him.

A kind, anxiety-ridden mess.

He didn't want to think about how this Deku was going to be different, better.

But it was the only thing that kept him going in this mess of time-travel.