Wow. Yup, it's been two and a half years since I last updated… I really have no excuse for myself besides COVID happening and me falling out of the MHA fandom. It's honestly crazy how much has changed in my life since I last updated. I'M REALLY SORRY.

I honestly have no idea if I'll even finish this story but I apparently wrote most of this chap so I decided to go ahead and finish it for you guys. I'm so sorry for making y'all wait but thanks for being so sweet and supportive in the comments since the last update :)

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Chapter Four: Hourglass

After Deku had found the canteen in his bag, I snatched it from his hands before unscrewing the lid. I had also found a small towel in my bag when I'd looked, and I figured I'd use it to clean Deku's side now and in the future.

"Uh, where do you w-want me to sit?" Deku stammered. "Right here?" He gestured to where he was sitting on his blanket.

I grunted. "Do whatever you want. Just make it quick."

Deku nodded and shifted into a more comfortable spot. "Um… I'm ready, I guess…?"

"Well, it's about time! And remember, right after breakfast, we're getting out of here. The others are probably miles ahead of us by now and it's all thanks to you. This is all so freaking annoying."

Lowering his gaze, Deku didn't respond.

With a roll of my eyes, I bent my knees and crouched next to him. I still couldn't believe I was doing this. Of all the things I had to be doing for Deku, why did I have to be cleaning his side?

I yanked his shirt up. Deku yelped but I ignored him. After pulling down his makeshift bandage, I felt around with my fingers to find where the blood was oozing thickest. I grimaced. There it was. A gash, a little more than three inches long, where the flesh gave beneath my touch. Deku must have gotten slashed by something- a rock, maybe a twig- on the ground after I'd blasted him backward.

I pressed the cloth against his side while he held still. Neither of us said anything. After a long minute, I took the cloth away and saw that the original stark-white color had been soaked through with red. There was so much blood.

After pressing the cloth down again, Deku let out a slight hiss and I clenched my jaw. "Don't be a baby. It could have been worse."

He swallowed. "I know."

"Good." There was a long silence. "The bleeding slowed down a little," I finally muttered.

"Really?"

"Didn't I just say that?" I said. "You act like you're so smart, but honestly, Deku, it only feels like you're getting dumber."

Deku let out a pained laugh. "So, that's what you think of me?"

I looked up. "What?"

"Dumb."

I didn't know how to respond to that. I couldn't deny that he was smart, but it wasn't like he was a genius. No, he wasn't dumb, I admitted to myself. But otherwise, there wasn't a word that came to me when I thought of him.

"Think whatever you want," I said. "It doesn't matter to me."

"O-okay."

A second later, I pulled the towel away from his side and lifted the canteen of water from the ground. After dumping a fair amount of water onto it until it was soaked, I pressed it against his side again and began to wait.

"Um, thanks for doing all of this," Deku said. His voice was trembling as if he were in pain, but I ignored it. "I appreciate it."

"Yeah, yeah, well you owe me big time now. And for last night."

He cocked his head. "Wait, last night?"

I suddenly remembered that he hadn't been awake when the wolf had attacked. In fact, he'd been just about unconscious because of his fever. Acting as annoyed as I could, I filled him in on the ordeal and watched as his eyes widened.

"A w-wolf? And… you scared it away? For me?" he repeated.

"Are you stupid? That's what I told you!" I jabbed him a little harder than necessary into his side with the towel.

He winced but didn't call me out on it. "I mean… I just can't believe I didn't wake up," he continued. "But-but thanks for saving me and everything! I had no idea anything would attack us."

"Well, me either." I silenced and went back to focusing on cleaning his side. I was worried- no, not worried, just not liking the fact of how bad the wound was. I wasn't stupid, I knew how much blood you could lose before things started to get dangerous. And… Deku had just about passed that point. He needed to get to a hospital, but with the stamina he had, he could probably last at least one more day out here.

Apparently, Deku seemed to take my silence for loathing, because a moment later he blurted out, "I'm sorry you had to do this! I didn't mean to make you-"

"Shut up," I growled, not taking my eyes off of his side. "No one ever tells me what to do. No one. Got it? The only reason I'm helping you is so that we can finish the training exercise. I don't give a crap whether you're hurt or not. And if you say otherwise to anyone else..."

"Yeah, I got it," he whispered.

"Good." I removed the towel from his side and studied the injury. The bleeding had slowed since before and was looking a lot cleaner than when I'd first seen it. It had been a good choice to decide to clean it. Now, at least his chance of infection had lowered. "Alright, that's done," I said, and I wrung the bloody towel up into a ball. I wasn't sure where I'd put it since I didn't want my own bag to be getting dirty, but I'd worry about it later. "Now, eat. I don't want you passing out again and slowing us down more."

Deku vigorously nodded and pulled his shirt the rest of the way down. "S-sure! I have a few granola bars so maybe I'll have two of those-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU EAT! YOU COULD EAT DIRT FOR ALL I CARE! JUST BE READY TO LEAVE IN TEN MINUTES!"

"R-right!"

After packing up everything from camp and having a quick breakfast, we set off to walk again with Deku trailing behind me. He seemed to be feeling better than before because he wasn't lagging as much as yesterday. At least that was an improvement.

Still, I absolutely despised having to walk with him. Even being paired up with Icy-Hot would have been better than this. At least he didn't try to make small talk.

I tried to focus on the task ahead to distract myself. We'd have to camp one more night before we were allowed to finish the exercise, and then we'd be out of the woods by morning. Our phones had no signal so there was no contacting Aizawa if something went wrong, which meant I was the one who had to take care of Deku if he passed out again.

I bared my teeth. I just wanted to finish the exercise and get out of these woods. Hearing Deku's nagging voice made me want to slit his throat and the feeling only grew as time passed.

If he faints again, I'm not taking care of him, I promised to myself. I'm not cleaning his stupid side and I'm not telling him he's going to be all right when it's his problem to begin with.

Satisfied, I nodded to myself. Yeah. It was his problem.

It wasn't long before I realized hours had passed and I hadn't heard another peep out of Deku. The feeling was nice, but also uneasy. I knew how Deku was. When he was around me, he just couldn't seem to shut up. Heck, he was like that all the time. It was like talking was a part of his personality and he couldn't function without chattering to someone.

I scowled to myself. His side better not have been acting up again. That was the last thing I needed. Still, it was already mid-afternoon and about time for lunch. He could check his side then so that we didn't have to stop later.

I halted in my tracks and turned my head slightly to glare at Deku who'd stopped behind me.

His eyes were wide and confused. "Kacchan?" he stuttered. "What is it?"

"We're taking a break, you nerd. Get out your stupid lunch and sit down or something. I don't care. This is the only time we're stopping until dinner so you better make it count."

"T-thanks…?"

"Whatever! It's not like this is for you!"

"I know! I just meant-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU MEAN! JUST STOP TALKING!"

He flinched, and at the movement, he hissed and his hands flew down to his side. While I didn't see any blood, it clearly was hurting him with his face as scrunched up as it was.

I maintained my scowl. "What's the matter? Too weak to talk?"

"N-no…" he hissed. "It's just… my side… I-I-I need to-to sit down."

"I just told you I was giving you a break, so sit down already!" I yelled. "I'm not having you slow me down again! I literally just cleaned it this morning, how bad can it be now?"

Deku tensed, and his eyes refused to meet mine. "It's f-fine, Kacchan."

"JUST CHECK YOUR STUPID SIDE ALREADY, BECAUSE I'M NOT DOING IT FOR YOU AND THIS IS THE ONLY CHANCE YOU'RE GOING TO GET! NOW STOP WASTING MY TIME AND JUST DO IT!"

"Ah, o-okay, Kacchan!"

Disoriented, he fumbled to sit himself down on the dirt. While he started to get himself situated, I took off my backpack to find my canteen of water. I made a point to have my back to Deku so I wouldn't have to watch his annoying face while he cleaned his wound.

I chugged down my water and stared up at the sky. Briefly, I considered what would happen if I dragged Deku back to Aizawa and then continued the exercise by myself, but I shook off the thought as quickly as it had come. Pro heroes didn't get to back out of fights when they got a little banged up. They made do with what they had, which meant Deku would have to last a little while longer out here. That's just what a real hero would do. Deku knew that as well as I did.

"Ow… hmm… ouch...!"

Deku's painful mumbles were slowly driving me insane. I had tried to block them out while I could, but unable to contain myself anymore, I whipped around with fire sparkling in my open palm. "Keep it to yourself, would you?"

Deku had half of his bandage folded up his side with his hand pressed against his injury. His expression was twisted in pain. From where I stood, I couldn't see the wound, and I didn't really care to look any further for a better inspection. Deku winced slightly as he made eye contact with me, and then he paused. "It looks like it's bleeding again."

Oh, this was just great. "How much?"

"Um… a lot." He held up a palm wet with blood.

I mentally kicked myself for not asking earlier. Maybe if I had, he would have been able to patch it up again and maybe we could have walked a little faster.

"How much does a freaking wound bleed?" I demanded as I stomped up to him, slipping my canteen back into my pack. "Every time I turn around, it's doing something else!"

He ducked his head. "Sorry. You don't have to clean it again or anything, I just need to stop the bleeding."

"Get out of the way, let me see it."

Deku's expression lifted in surprise as I kneeled next to him. I didn't plan to clean his wound for him again, but I at least wanted to see the worst of it. Deku's hands fell away from his side and I looked at it closer.

The half-folded, flimsy bandage was wet with blood and more seeped slowly out from beneath it. I ripped away the last of it before letting out a string of curses at the ugly sight of the injury. Now that the covering was gone, the wound was easily visible: a bloody three-inch gash above his hip, staining crimson all around. At one end of the groove, the flesh was badly swollen where the injury was. Coils of dark red and purple infection had appeared and the skin itself was hot to the touch.

"When did it get this bad?" I demanded and watched Deku wince as he lowered his shirt.

"I don't know, it's just been… Hurting."

I was sure it had been a lot more than hurting.

"Just give me a minute to rebandage it. I'll be up and ready to walk again in a minute or two. No more wasting time, right?"

I hated myself for hesitating. "Do whatever you want."

Without waiting any longer, I stood up and stomped over to the nearest tree. I leaned back against it, hands in pockets, and could feel smoke rising from my palms. Each one of my plans was failing, all thanks to Deku and his stupid injury. But there was no way I was giving up and retreating to Aizawa now. Deku would make it until tomorrow morning, or I'd kill him myself.

A few minutes later, Deku finally seemed to have finished bandaging himself and stood back up. He straightened as much as he could and gave me a nod. "It's mostly stopped bleeding now. I'm ready to go."

Even I could hear the tremor in his voice. Ignoring it, I stepped away from the tree. "Then let's move already."

I took off and Deku made it a point to stick to my side, like he was proving he could keep up with me. It infuriated me to see him looking so out of breath. I almost slipped into a sprint just to keep him from following me.

"So we're walking until dinner, right?" Deku panted.

I gave a grudging nod. "At least for a few more hours. Doesn't really matter how far we walk, just so we can make it back to Aizawa tomorrow morning."

"Right, the point of the exercise was survival, not speed."

"Are you asking me to slow down?"

"No!" His voice faltered as he winced. "We can keep walking like this. Not really sure where we're going, though."

I kept marching forward, keeping my eyes averted from him. He didn't say anything else. For twenty more minutes, we continued like this, and it didn't take long for Deku to start to drag behind. I admitted to myself that I'd be irritated if he went and collapsed again, so I slowed my pace. But only by a little.

I side-eyed Deku as we walked. His skin was pale under the sunlight and his breaths came out short and fast. I didn't have to be an expert to know how sick he was feeling. With his eyes as blurred over as they were, it wouldn't be long before he either fainted or called for a break.

I'm not letting him slow us down again, I thought. I'll keep his mind off things until we stop for the night.

Except, I wasn't very good at making conversations. Most of them ended up with me torching the other person. But with Deku, I had to keep his attention, just so he'd keep walking. So I said the first thing on my mind.

"Is Pink Cheeks your girlfriend now or something?"

Deku nearly stopped in his tracks. "G-g-girlfriend? No! Of course not! We're just friends…" He laughed as his cheeks flooded with color. "It's not like that."

"Shut up. I saw you two looking at each other yesterday. It was disgusting."

"No! We're-we're just… friends..." Deku shrugged, and a small smile spread across his lips. "I mean, of course Uraraka's a really nice person. She's always been there for me when I need it. Actually, I wouldn't know where I'd be without h-"

"Cut the crap," I snapped. "I don't want to hear any of that sappy stuff."

"Sappy…? We're only friends!"

"Shut up. It's obvious she's into you."

"INTO ME?!"

"STOP YELLING! It's not exactly news to everyone else." I scoffed when he still seemed lost. "You seriously didn't notice? You must be denser than I gave you credit for."

"I…" His eye twitched. "I just didn't think that she'd ever… sure, I knew we were friends, but-"

"So why don't you just ask her out?"

Deku sputtered loudly, stumbling. "A-ask her o-out? She d-doesn't like me l-like that!"

"Stop stuttering, you're being even more annoying than usual. I'm not saying she's in love with you, but she keeps on making those stupid little googly eyes whenever you're around. It makes me want to throw up." When he looked surprised, I barely stopped myself from growling. "She couldn't be any more obvious, but I guess only an idiot like you would be able to overlook that. Another trademark Deku move."

Deku was silent for a long moment. "You… you really think that she likes me?"

"WHY WOULD I SAY SOMETHING THAT I DIDN'T MEAN?! STOP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS!"

He held up his hands in defense. "Sorry!" There was another awkward pause. "Um, I just don't know how to… you know… talk to her."

I couldn't believe I was doing this. Here Deku and I were, in the middle of the woods with him injured, having a talk about girls. If he ever breathed a word of this to anyone, he was dead.

"Look. If you want to make an impression, do something big," I said after a long time. My voice was so low he could barely hear it. "Girls say they like those dumb flowers and chocolates and stuff, and I guess they do, but all they really want is your attention." Deku's eyes widened and I continued. "Just don't be an idiot and use hero training as an excuse not to spend time with her. If you're not going to make time to see her, then you shouldn't be asking her out in the first place."

He thought over this new information. "Huh. Right. That makes sense."

The rhythm of our footsteps was the only sound that filled the air. And then he looked up at me. "Um, so… what about you?"

"Me?" I tightened my jaw. "What the heck are you talking about now?"

"Well, you know. Any girls you're…" He smiled slightly. "Interested in?"

"ANY GIRLS I'M INTERESTED IN?" I snapped towards him and fire erupted in my palms. "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

"Calm down! I'm just saying that… well... there's more than one girl in our class." He coughed. "And maybe if you, didn't, uh, scream as much, you could-"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU FREAKING NERD?"

"Nothing! Nothing!"

"DEKU, I SWEAR-"

"Okay, sorry!" He laughed nervously as he rubbed his side, looking away. I didn't think much of it before the noise slowly turned over to a cough. It didn't take long before he was signaling me to stop from where he hunched over, unable to keep moving.

"Now what?" I snapped. "Another break?"

The color was drained from his face as he stood there, knees trembling. I was surprised to see how pale he looked, blood evidently stained on his side through the bandages. While talking, I'd been distracted, but I could see it clearly now. He really was getting worse.

"Sorry," he wheezed. "I'm just…" He swallowed, wiping the edges of his mouth as he steadied himself. "I don't know how much further I can get… before…"

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"I-It's bad, Kacchan."

A little fear entered me at that moment, but I countered it quickly. No freaking way was he going to give up yet. "Don't you get started on that again," I warned him. "Any more of that 'giving up' crap and I'm gonna start throwing punches."

He laughed weakly. "You'd punch an injured person?"

"I'd punch a dead person."

His expression told me he believed it.

I gritted my teeth. "Look, just so we're clear, this whole thing is seriously ticking me off. You're obviously slowing us down more than we could be and I have to wait for you to catch up every freaking ten minutes. It's getting annoying."

His face fell. "Yeah... okay, I understand." He gave me a weak smile. "You're going to leave me behind, right?"

Stupid nerd. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU, DEKU, IF YOU DON'T PASS, I DON'T PASS! SO—" It was beyond painful to get the necessary words out. I couldn't believe I'd ever do something like this. I couldn't believe I'd ever help Deku in any kind of way. "We're stopping. Now. We'll camp and then get out of here tomorrow morning- Aizawa can't be more than five to ten miles off, so we'll cover that tomorrow."

"But Kacchan, you said we had to keep-"

"SHUT UP! I'VE MADE MY DECISION AND IT'S FINAL!" I curled my fists into balls. I could feel myself spitting out my next words. "It's no use just wandering around out here anyway. We'll camp, and then I'll scout around to see what else is around here. That's all we're doing for the rest of the day, you understand?"

Deku's expression was a mixture of relief and bewilderment. "Thanks, Kacchan."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THANKING ME FOR?"

"Well, for being a good friend."

For once, I was absolutely silent. Deku had called me that for years, and each time I heard it, I laughed in his face or did something worse. Because how could I be friends with someone so pathetic? Someone who was so unworthy of being with me, that irritated me with every look?

But when I looked at him now, I didn't know what to call him anymore.

"If you say anything like that again, you're dead," I breathed. "Now get your butt to work and start making camp. You'll pull your weight around here whether you're sick or not."

Deku didn't respond as I stomped away. He might have looked a little disappointed, too, but by then, I was too far away to notice.

It's weird how over half of this was written two and a half years ago and some of this I wrote tonight. I also haven't watched MHA in a year or two so who knows if I've kept them in character, hehe. Maybe it's time to rewatch it soon.

Again, not sure when the next update will be, or if there will be one at all, but at least here's another chapter for you guys! Hope you liked it and thanks so much for your support!