Song: Head Up - The Score

This song literally inspired the events of this chapter

The holiday break was over and the dorm was bustling with activity and chatter. I sat down on the couches among it all while I listened to everyone discussing their home visits and what they got up to. It wasn't common for me to sit amongst such chaos, but my friends were wise enough to not comment and I mostly kept to myself, letting Deku absorb the words of everyone around us gleefully. It was defiantly more for his sake than my own as I just zoned out till it was all background noise and even closed my eyes for a bit, giving Deku my ears instead. He didn't complain about the loss of sight to the outside world. His Deku-dar was enough to still pick up anyone close.

I had asked Kirishima earlier to look through his photos on his phone from throughout the year, he often snapped pictures of me with everyone else before I realized and cracked it at him and he was practically beaming as long as I promised not to delete any. And I kept that promise, as painful as it had been. I focused on flicking through all the photos since Deku's death just to monitor how my hair slowly changed. Even in the pictures the change was so slow and subtle that it was hard to pick out, but I did see it. Ever since I had asked Deku to stay with me, my hair had slowly softened and changed shade.

With my eyes closed I was taken to our hill beside Deku and I rested my head on his shoulder while he propped himself up with his arms behind him and hummed happily as he listened to our classmates chattering around us. He leaned in and nuzzled his cheek against my hair at one point and I hummed in return. I felt content and relaxed and calmer than I could ever remember being when around so many people and it was actually nice.

Kacchan, hummed Deku and I grumbled sleepily in return, We should get up. If you fall asleep here, I will too.

I don't want to move, I groaned and nestled my nose into Deku's neck. I felt another wave of his affection wash over me and it made me smile.

If you fall asleep here, you know everyone will pick on you, he spoke more teasingly and I let out a long groan and sat up, opening my eyes to the real world.

"You're awake?," smiled Kirishima from beside me, "was worried you'd fallen asleep there"

"Nah," I huffed back, trying to stifle a yawn. I stood up, stuffing my hands in my pockets and began to move around the couch to leave.

"Night" I called back to the red head and if he was shocked, he didn't say anything. The time I chose to leave for bed was nothing new, in fact I had stayed up for an extra half hour already but it wasn't often I actually said night to anyone. I rolled my eyes to myself over my moment of weakness. Deku leaned in on me with a gentle smile.

Being nice isn't being weak, he told me and I sighed back. I knew that. He had told me enough times. Maybe he was rubbing off on me. His smile to me widened at the though and I playfully pushed him off as I made my way up to bed, happily collapsing down on it. Deku reminded me to at least get under the covers and with a grumble I did. He rewarded me with a soft kiss and then settled down beside me to sleep.

I loved this boy and life with him was so smooth and simple these days that I didn't feel sorry for snapping at All Might the last time I saw him. Deku had always been a part of my life since the first time we'd met and I never wanted to part with him again. He picked up on my thoughts and smiled with his eyes closed. I pulled him in closer to my chest to sleep. As long as I had Deku with me I felt complete.

School started up again not long after Christmas. This term we were to focus on team up missions with an assortment of pro heroes to gain a wide range of practical experience. Our teams were chosen at random from within the class, consisting of anywhere between two to four of us and our teams were paired with a pro hero. Our teams and the hero we worked with changed each week and early Saturday morning we were shipped off to our meeting points and worked alongside the pros till we were sent back to U.A Sunday.

It was an exhausting rotation, going straight from an entire school week, hero course classes included, to a weekend of hero work and then back again. There was no time to spare and it only got harder with studying and training with All Might on top of it all. All Might didn't bring up Deku being with me again but I could tell from the faces he pulled that more than once he had wanted to say something that he knew I wouldn't like to hear. He was smart enough to keep him mouth shut. At first Deku had grown uncomfortable being around All Might for those first few training sessions again, the feeling of being judged radiating off him. But Deku soon settled again when All Might didn't bring the topic up and things started to move smoother again.

Luckily as far as studying goes, Deku was the only study partner I needed to stay on track and top of the class. He retained information for me and gave me a second opinion or perspective when he felt I needed one.

I had worked under well-known pro heroes such as Fatgum, Mirko, Hawks and Endeavor. All big names and I ate up every second of experience I could get, but when there was nothing to do it was a bore fest and Deku would roll his eyes and remind me that hero work wasn't action all the time, which I groaned at. As much as I was at the top of the class, there was still plenty to learn and Deku was right there with me, watching my back and absorbing information for me like the green sponge he was. He narrowed his eyes at me with a pout at the thought and I flicked his forehead with a playful smile. He knew I loved him no matter how much I teased and he smiled back.

We were on our second month of the team up missions and I had been assigned my new team for the coming weekend.

"Are you excited Bakugo?" asked Pink Cheeks cheerfully behind me once she had been given her number and I scowled when I turned back to face her. She took a step back but her smile didn't falter. Deku frowned at me with disapproval but I couldn't deny the warmth that blossomed in his chest when she approached me. As much as I knew Deku loved me, I knew he had once harbored feelings for the round faced girl and traces of that fondness still remained there.

"Why the hell would I be excited to work with a bunch of extras like you lot" I spat back, referring to her and French boy who winked my way over her shoulder. I snarled back at him.

"Well it will be our first mission together. It will be exciting" she smiled on, undeterred. Inside, Deku vibrated with the excitement of the job. Even if he couldn't be doing hero work himself, he enjoyed working alongside me during our missions. He greedily took whatever rush, thrill and spike of adrenaline he could get from me and he glowed with my sense of pride when I caught the bad guy.

"I'm not going to let myself be held back because of you" I warned but Deku's excitement and happiness to be so close to Pink Cheeks, his friend, again was starting to seep into me more and more and my words didn't carry as much bite as I had wanted them too.

"We can all meet at the front of the dorms Saturday morning and head there together?" she smiled, ignoring my glare and the French wanna-be chimed in. It was a battle I couldn't win and turned away with a growl.

I did try to avoid them Saturday but they ambushed me outside the front of the dorm as I tried to leave before them.

Kacchan, they're being nice and wanted to go with you, pushed Deku. I rolled my eyes with a snort.

"Fine" I spoke aloud gruffly and the two extras looked to me, "hurry the fuck up" I told them as I stomped past with my hero costume case over my shoulder.

We were partnered with the dragon hero, Ryuko, for the weekend and with nothing amazing happening we were simply spending the afternoon patrolling behind her while Pink Cheeks chatted away. Sparkles walked with me, more than once trying to strike up a conversation about god damn cheese. Luckily, unlike Pink Cheeks, my glares were enough for him to stop talking.

"Help! Thief!" someone rose the alarm and I instantly perked up, lifting my head and squaring my shoulders. It was such a second instinct for everyone to halt and assess the situation in a second before they launched into action. But while I had been glaring at Frenchie, Deku had been paying attention and he saved me that second it took to absorb what was taking place and I blasted myself forward before anyone else to take chase on the escaping criminal.

"Bakugo!" I heard Ryuko call behind me but I didn't stop. I was catching up to the criminal fast and he threw aside his bag of stolen cash to run faster. I felt my lips turn up into a smirk, twisted enough that Deku would usually tell me not to pull such a face but we were working now and our focus was entirely on the man ahead of us.

The man ran and with my blasts powering me forward he ducked down an alley to the right before I could grab him. A blast to the front reversed my trajectory and I dropped to my feet and ran after him with a growl. He didn't get far with Deku's eyes glued to him. The man threw his body against a back door and stumbled into it. I skidded to a halt and gripped the door frame to vault myself in after him but he was gone. Not even Deku could see through walls.

The space was dark without any lights on and I waltzed through the room into a large open space with some light coming in through opaque windows on the far side. The perp had fled into a closed indoor pool and it was eerily quiet inside with the lack of people.

Left! called Deku and I swung to face that way to find the perp snarling my way with wide eyes and a smirk of his own. Deku had a bad feeling and it made me hesitate which was my mistake. The criminal swung his arms around in a large fluid motion from the pool towards me and water rushed my way, wrapping around my ankles and pulling me forward till I fell on my back, my gauntlets clanking against the tiles. I tried to kick free but the water wouldn't release me and I was dragged over the edge and into the water.

The grip on my ankles melted into the rest of the water around us as I kicked to the surface to reach the edge and climb back out but I was sucked back out to the center of the pool and dragged down again. I barely got a gulp of air in before my head went under. My costume was weighing me down and I moved to disengage my gauntlets, letting them sink to the bottom and kicking my way back to the surface. I broke free with a gasp of air before a wave crashed over me and pushed me back down. My costume was not waterproof and the material soaked up the water and added extra weight on me. Enough that even the few trips to the surface I had managed so far left my limbs burning. I squirmed under the water, kicking off my boots, removing the belt, knee guards and the metal around my forearms.

I reached the surface again, this time not even managing any air before the weight of the water moving around my ankles pulled me under and no amount of kicking and thrashing was enough to pull myself free. My chest was burning from lack of air and I was trying to bite back panic as I continued to try pull myself free from the watery grip. My quirk was useless under the water and that extra bit of strength and stamina One For All had given me was wasted now.

I bit my tongue with annoyance. I had rushed ahead of the others and disappeared down an alley. They wouldn't have seen where we had gone. The open door, if it had even stayed open behind us, was the only clue and it could be missed.

I shut my eyes tightly, trying to not think of the growing pain in my chest and the increasing panic inside while I tried to focus on a plan. Surely I could think my way out of this. Even in our shared little world behind my eyes I couldn't breath and I was frozen and helpless inside while Deku looked on with wide fear stricken eyes. I knew he could feel my fear and pain, yet he blocked it out to focus on what needed to be done.

My panic was starting to effect Deku and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and took a few deep breaths. I could feel him pushing back against my panic. When he opened his eyes again they were wet with tears and he looked scared. Inside my head he was just as helpless as I was stuck under the water. My body felt heavy and weak and I fell to my knees and leaned to the side till I was on my back staring up at the darkening sky. My chest burned so much from lack of air that the feeling crept up my throat. I knew that if I opened my mouth to breath that all I would receive is water and that would be the end of me. The end of Deku. The end of One For All. But my body was screaming at me to breath. To open my mouth and take in anything I could. No matter how much I fought it, my throat constricted with the need.

Deku lunged forward over me, clasping a hand over my mouth and pinching my nose tightly. His wide eyes searched me for anything and I could see the pain there from what I was experiencing, the fear and inability to do anything to help me more than this. His hands over my face did nothing to relieve the ache inside that demanded that I breath and the edges of my vision were beginning to blur and darken. Deku shook his head as if trying to clear it from the oncoming darkness that was no doubt starting to creep across his own vision. He clenched his jaw tightly and gazed around like he was searching for something with desperation but there was nothing around us in here other than grass and trees. Outside there was only water. If the water was still actively dragging me down and holding me there I couldn't tell anymore. My entire body felt heavy and weak and cold.

Suddenly Deku's head came back to me, his mouth pressed into a firm line and his eyes shining with determination. He didn't have a plan as much as he had a hope. Whatever it was I couldn't focus on it. I could feel my mind slipping as the darkness continued to creep over me. He closed his eyes tightly and leaned in closer to me. He wasn't giving up though, he was brimming with determination. Small green sparks started to dance across my vision yet I couldn't tell if it was Deku so close or the last throws of my vision before everything faded to black.

I couldn't see or hear my surroundings anymore. I couldn't feel anything aside from my own body which was growing numb. My right arm lifted, slowly and with effort, above my head but it didn't feel like me. It felt like a weird dream where my body moved without me. The last of whatever energy I held pulsed up that arm and to my hand where it swelled before releasing itself. A moment of nothing passed then a second later I was being pulled from the water. I could feel it trying to weigh me down but my body was moving with too much force for it to hold back and I broke through the surface, suddenly met with cold air that was enough to make my eyes snap open again. I felt weight lift from my face and suddenly I was gasping at the air and coughing back on the sudden intake. With the sweet oxygen my vision came back as the dancing dots grew smaller and smaller.

I was in the air, gravity starting to take over again and the black tendril from my right hand broke away before I was falling towards the pool side and my body landed with a roll. I was a passenger in my own body as it stood, shakily to begin with and my now clear gaze locked onto to criminal who's eyes were wide with shock and they turned to run. I felt my teeth grit together and my arm shift upwards, releasing another black whip towards the man. Because that was what it was. Deku's black whip. The black tendril wrapped around the man's middle. Deku tried to take a step forward but our legs were still weak so he yanked back his arm to pull the man towards us, he let out a yelp as his body was propelled closer. My body sparked with green as Deku clenched a fist and struck the man when he was within reach, releasing the black tendril as he did. The man stumbled, Deku struck him again till he fell and then all was silent.

I turned my head to face Deku, my body still feeling too weak to sit up from where it lay on the hill. Deku was standing beside me, green sparks rippling across him and he was panting and trembling from the fight. It had been brief, but my body had been so exhausted and he had taken it all onto himself. I could feel my exhaustion being absorbed by him and as I grew stronger he fell to his knees. I sat up and his sparks faded. I reached up a hand to rest on his back and he turned his face my way with a weak yet triumphant smile

"You damn nerd," I wheezed through a smirk, "you saved me" his smile grew and we both huffed a laugh just from the sheer joy of having survived the encounter. I felt my body regaining its strength by the second almost as though Deku was feeding it to me. He lowered his body to lay on his front on the hill, his cheek pressed against the grass.

"Bakugo?" my head snapped up at attention, back in control of my body to see Pink Cheeks staring at me with wide eyes from the same doorway I had come in from. I hadn't noticed my physical body falling to its knees before Deku had relinquished it back to me. I stood, finding my legs still aching. She opened her mouth as though she wanted to say more while her wide brown eyes were glued to me but didn't get another word in before Ryuko and Sparkles rushed in and paused to take in the scene. Me drenched and exhausted and the criminal on the floor unconscious by my feet.

"What happened?" demanded the dragon hero.

"I got the guy" I replied a little out of breath still. She narrowed her eyes at me before coming forward to check on the criminals condition and calling the police. French Boy tried to ask me if I was okay and I merely shrugged away his concern. Pink Cheeks said nothing and Deku slept.

The train ride back was uncomfortable with Pink Cheeks being unusually quiet and Frenchie over compensating with never shutting up about cheese yet I didn't snap at him. I was too busy lost in my own thoughts over what had happened. Inside, Deku still slept and while I remained beside him, letting his head rest on my thigh, I itched with concern. Never before had one of us slept without the other since he had stayed with me. I knew he was okay; I could feel that he was only exhausted having taken it all on himself and no doubt whatever he had done to enable himself to take control of my physical body for that short period of time had drained him. So I expected he would wake soon and continued to tell myself that to keep my worrying at bay.

Having someone else control my body while I was aware of it was the weirdest fucking thing I had ever felt and if I hadn't been so exhausted I felt I would have naturally fought against it. I knew Deku had been doing me a favor, saving me the only way he could and I didn't have a problem with that, but it had just felt so wrong not being in control. And maybe that was the point. He could only do it because I had been too weak to move myself. If he did it any other time it might be impossible for him because I had strength. Perhaps if I chose to step back and give him control he could? Neither of us had thought of trying before. I had never stopped to think if Deku could take control of my body. It had just never come to mind. More interestingly, Deku had used his quirks with my body. That brought its own train of thoughts with it.

Deku didn't wake again until the next day. When I had collapsed into my own bed to sleep he was ahead of me and gently snoring away. That morning my muscles ached like a bitch and Deku apologized but I waved his concerns away, fighting a losing battle against a water quirk was bound to be more at fault then Deku's brief take over.

After a brief discussion with him we decided it was something we would like to explore more when we had the time and between classes, training and the weekend team up missions finding that time would be hard to come by so rather than diving right into it, to begin with we decided to keep things simple. No jumping right into seeing if Deku could use his quirks with my body again - his strength might break me – so simple it was.

When we had the chance in the evenings I would sit on the bed with my eyes closed and allow Deku to try to find that connection he had felt while in the water. It wasn't easy for him. He had felt it once and even when he knew the feeling he was looking for to follow, he said that I was pushing back against him, which I wasn't consciously. I assumed my body just naturally pushed back against someone else trying to control it which made sense to me. Even Deku understood and concluded that it had only worked due to my exhaustion at the time.

The next evening I worked hard in the gym after classes. Harder than usual. I was aiming to exhaust myself as much as possible, pushing myself above and beyond until my limbs were left trembling and while I slumped on the ground I pushed for Deku to try again.

You don't have to do this Kacchan, he told me with a concerned look.

I want to, I shot back tiredly, now hurry up and try. He shot me another concerned look that I glared at before he conceded. He closed his eyes and leaned in till his forehead rested against mine. Nothing happened for a long moment while I panted to catch my breath and then I began to feel it, now that I wasn't seconds away from drowning. The sensation reminded me of the lightness you get in your head moments before fainting, yet I never fainted. The light headedness was there for a moment then gone the next. At first I felt like nothing had happened as Deku pulled away from me with a small smile. I didn't notice anything had changed until my body lifted an arm and clenched and released my fist a few times as Deku tested the water. It felt weird being the passenger again. I could feel that Deku was aware of that but with another glare he pushed on and slowly rose us to our feet and then stood for a moment like a toddler getting their bearings.

You did it, I breathed with a small, excited smile, trying to push back my discomfort. Deku smiled back at me. He could still feel the exhaustion of our body but he moved to lift a few weights just to try it out before putting them down with a gleeful smile.

"Yo dude," called a familiar voice, "this is where you've been?" Deku turned us to face the person speaking, still grinning, only to face Shitty Hair. He faltered a little when Deku faced him.

"Wow, what's got you in such a good mood?" he asked with a friendly smirk and then I recalled Deku grinning. I had no clue what face was being pulled outside.

Stop smiling idiot, I hissed into Deku's ear, it's weird.

Smiling's not weird, he cocked an eyebrow at me. His smiled dropped away with his confusion regardless.

It is for me, I retorted and it seemed to click. He lifted his arms to cover his mouth, causing my physical body to do the same.

"You alright man?" asked Shitty Hair with more concern and narrowed an eye our way.

Say something! I hissed again

"Sorry Kirishima," spoke Deku and I slapped my own forehead with a growl at his stupidity, "Ka- I was just working out a bit" Shitty Hair narrowed his eyes.

"You feeling alright?" he asked, stepping closer, "you feeling sick or something?" Of course the idiot picked up on Deku calling him by his actual fucking name. I could feel the nervousness building up inside Deku.

Give me back my body Deku, I ordered, now!

I didn't know how Deku had done it in the first place yet so I didn't know if I had to do the same to take over and I needed to get us out of the pit he was digging. I felt sudden concern from Deku flood me as he wondered if he could switch back that quickly but a moment later I swayed on my feet as the light-headedness washed over me again and then I was back in control.

My physical body swayed on its feet for a moment until I was back in the driver's seat and Shitty Hair had rushed forward ready to catch me if I feel. His hands braced my shoulders and the first thing I did was shrug him off.

"Get off, I'm fine" I hissed to him.

"You sure man?" I could see the concern in his eyes, "maybe we should go see Recovery Girl" he reached a hand towards me again and I swatted it away with a snarl.

"I said I'm fine idiot," I barked, "I just pushed myself too hard. I'm leaving"

Despite Deku's wallowing in his failed interaction his Deku-dar picked up Shitty Hair's worried red eyes following me out.