*)O(*
Her hand sat limply next to her in the chair. It throbbed in time with her heart beat. The semi permanent cast on it wasn't helping with the pain, but she had promised not to complain about it. One broken finger, two broken metacarpals, and a fractured carpal were quickly knitting themselves back together. Healing quirks were amazing. It meant that they wouldn't be out of duty for anything more than a week as they waited for the accelerated healing to do it's job. Maybe she could literally feel as her bones fused back together at a level that was unnatural. That was no problem, really.
She was lectured about using her quirk on high velocity objects during her treatment. Next to her Bakugou had also been given his own lecture on the dangers of flying heavy object with sharp edges. Part of her was glad she'd only broken her hand. A fractured collar bone was going to take even more time to heal than her hand. There was also the absurd number of stitches he had across his shoulder. It would scar. How badly depended on him. If he could stay still and not rip anything out of place then it might just be a small line. She paid attention as he was treated. Focusing on him was the only thing keeping her sane during the four hour wait before they got to see Izuku. The rush of the hardly breathing hero to be into the hospital was still worrying. When they finally saw him again, he was hooked up with a chest tube and a few other machines. His lung had collapsed when he impacted the building. The severe concussion was also a problem. She didn't need to remember the sight. All she had to do was look up. She wouldn't cry again. Crying had already passed. They were inside the ICU room. Just as promised they were quieter than a mouse. They stayed out of the way, against the wall where two chairs had been placed for them. They weren't to even touch him, if they wanted to stay. A very patient doctor had conceded to let them stay when they weren't supposed to have that privilege. Strict rules for their stay had been laid down. Doctors agreed to keep Izuku sedated for three days. His lung was recovering quickly, just like their own wounds. The concussion was the most worrying of his situation. Normally, keeping the patient awake was the standard treatment for a concussion. Izuku, however, had woken for a few moments during treatment and tried to rip out his chest tube and IV. Sedation until he was ready to be off the chest tube was needed. At least the MRI didn't show any bleeding or anything else terrible. "You need to sleep." The whisper almost startled her. To her left, in his own chair, Bakugou stared hollowly at Izuku. He'd been abnormally silent even before they were given their rules. "I can't." She whispered back. Scratchy, and tired, her voice didn't even sound like hers right now. "Ochako, please, you need your rest too."
"I know, but I can't." She felt the prickles in her eyes start to get worse. No more crying. "You can. Come here." Was it possible to be stern while calmly whispering? Bakugou was pulling it off anyway. Even if he was confusing. They were sitting right next to each other. Where did he want her to go? The legs of her chair squeaked almost as much as she did as she was pulled to face him, chair and all. Before she could yell at him he was slotting his hands under her arms and hoisting her into his lap. She was laid against his chest on the opposite side of his abused collar bone. His uninjured arm wrapped around her waist like they'd done this hundreds of times before. "I'm going to kick my feet up on your chair and close my eyes. You lay right here and do the same. We're here with him, okay? Now we wait. The fastest way to wait is to sleep." She wanted to fight with him about everything he'd just said or done. He could have ripped his stitches. He might have rebroken the healing bone. They could have woken up someone else in the department. How dare he lecture her like she was some child!
All of it died before she even finished a full breath. He was right here. He was okay. He was warm and soft. She was so tired. What time was it, anyway? Did it matter? They had three more days of this and Izuku's mom was going to be here soon. If anything happened, she would be right here, waiting. They would be here.

*)O(*

She was stubborn. He liked that about her. Even after she'd resigned to listen to him and go to sleep, she stayed awake for another hour. Her eyes kept opening and looking up at Izuku on the hospital bed. Katsuki wouldn't lie. He'd thought about just squishing onto the sides and sleeping with her there, next to Izuku. It would probably have gotten them kicked out the ward. No need to chance it.
He wanted to be close to both of them right now. Holding her in his arms was alleviating some of that feeling. If he was allowed he would have held both of them like this. All the damn hoses attached to Izuku might have made it a challenge, but oh well. Once the pipsqueak woke up and was free to move around Katsuki promised he was going to get what he wanted. If he never let go of either of them, he would die a happy man. Mutual warmth from Uraraka's body heat mixed with his. Sleep was pulling at him right when he heard the tiny little snores start from Uraraka. Maybe snores wasn't the correct term, but he didn't know what else to call them. It was like little puffs of air that tried to be snores. It was delicate. He tried to match her breathing. Slow, even, with a wisp of a snore right at the end. The exact time he fell asleep was a mystery. It was already morning, he knew. Past 5o'clock, but other than that he had no measure.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-)O(-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Waking up was a lesson in pain management. His shoulder rang out in fire that spread to part of his back and chest while creeping up his neck, radiating down his arms into even his fingers. His skin felt hot and itchy while too tight to comfortably stay together. His legs were gone, well, that was how it felt after having sleeping beauty sitting on them for god knows how long. There was sure to be pain once she moved and he was not looking forward to it. His shoes wiggled when he moved his toes, even if he couldn't feel it. Why he was awake was a mystery. Sleep still pulled at him, trying to take him away again. His eyes readjusted to look about the bright white of the room with displeasure. The forced pulling of air into someone's lungs instantly made him worry for Izuku. An ear splitting sob echoed in the room. "My baby! Look at you! You said you wouldn't make me worry! You promised!" Inko Midoriya clasped her son's hand in her own, weeping. That was the moment that every single particle of guilt landed on his unassuming heart. Uraraka woke with a start, jumping out of his lap and searching the room for some threat. Yep, there was the stinging and burning for his legs. "Miss Midoriya?"
"Uraraka? You look just like all the photos! Oh, I'm so sorry." Inko wiped her eyes, trying to stop herself from crying. "I'm a mess and this is the first time we've actually met." "Miss Midoriya? I- I'm so sorry!" Uraraka launched herself at the woman and started to cry as well. The older woman burst out in a fresh wave of tears and held the younger to herself. He listened with muted horror as Uraraka described what had happened from her vantage point. As painful as it was to know just what it was that Uraraka was feeling, Bakugou smiled. Inko had always been big on affection. They were exactly what the other needed at the moment. "Katsuki, come here. Auntie needs a hug from you too." Inko smiled through her tears at him. He could feel his body seize up at the invitation. He didn't deserve this, but he couldn't refuse. He tentatively moved over to them and was pulled him the embrace. Awkward was an accurate description. Inko pulled away after a moment. "So he's being sedated because he was being unruly?" It was an odd way that Inko seemed to come to terms with the condition her son was in. "He's never misbehaved for doctors before. I'll have to talk to him about that when he wakes up." The familiar woman huffed and tried to look like she was being stern as she gazed at her son. To say he saw through her like a piece of glass was an understatement. This was for her, this front, this half-lie. "Now! I'm here for the rest of the day. The doctors said something about you two being here all night? You each need to go home and take care of yourselves. I'll stay with him until you get back. I won't take no for a answer either." This part of her kind-stern demeanor was true. "Thank you both for being such important people in his life." With that she hugged each of them before shooing them out of the room. Bakugou allowed it, pulling Uraraka along with him. His legs still hurt, he was reminded as he walked to the front desk. When her hand was pulled from his grasp was the moment he realized he'd been holding her hand at all. Uraraka looked up at him, her eyes, nose, and cheeks all a bright pink from crying. "I'm sorry." She said softly. "Sorry? For what?"
"I'm not strong enough. I couldn't help you two. I couldn't help him." Her eyes misted, but she didn't cry. "Bullshit," he hissed. They were in the front lobby. This wasn't the place to do this. He looked around. A vending machine area. It would have to do. He took her uninjured hand in his again and dragged her into the not nearly concealed enough room. "I don't want to hear that shit. You're the only reason both of us aren't any worse off. You're why we got him hear so soon. You kept your head. You called in the backup, the medics. You held him up." The words had barbs attached as they left his throat. Each new one tore at who 'he' was. It was painful to explain so clearly, honestly. The last part would be the worst. He didn't realize he was continuing to step into her space, forcing her to step away, until she hit a vending machine with her back and let out a squeak. The need to touch her, to be close to her, slammed into him harder than that car last night had. Slowly, he reached a hand up and cupped her cheek."You did everything that I couldn't." His ego wasn't just bruised. It was just as broken as his collar bone. "Don't you fucking apologize for that, never."
Her mouth fell open. Wide eyes stared up into his. His arm's distance was all that separated them. She then shortened it as she took a step forward. Some painful thing was trying to reach up to him from the depth of the gaze she gave. Could he reach out again? He wanted to soothe that pain, take it all for himself. If he could stop whatever it was that she was feeling to make her look like that, he'd do anything. If there was something in this whole world he could give her, he would. Anything for her. Anything for him. It was so simple all of a sudden. He could give them each other. He would help her get through these next couple days and then he would ruin everything for 'them', no 'himself'. He would put it out in the open. He would confess for them, point out the obvious attraction they held for each other, let them be happy. It was the only way he could make up for this now. One last selfish act; one last pain for her to endure. Quickly, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. Brief was too long a word to describe how quickly he pulled away, how fast he started to run away. He nearly yelled at the front desk lady, letting her know that he would be back that night. If Uraraka followed behind him or avoided him, he didn't know as he looked ahead. He'd have to take a train to get home in time to make it back tonight.
Any more thought about what he was doing was shut down. He'd made up his mind.