Katsuki's eyes were heavy as he put his school shoes on. His school bag was already hanging off his shoulder, his uniform on for the first time in days.

Ejiro looked at Katsuki as the blond made his way towards the front door. 'I'm off!' Katsuki yelled before going out onto the street.

Katsuki was beyond tired. He would rather turn right back around and go back to bed for at least another five hours before wasting away the rest of his day doing nothing, but he had promised Ejiro to at least try to go to school this week again.

He had missed most of last week and it bothered him, but not enough to actually put effort into going back; it was just too tiresome.

After their trip to the cemetery Ejiro had offered to pick Katsuki up every morning so he would have a reason to get up. The blond had refused at first, but Ejiro had insisted until Katsuki just couldn't say no anymore; it cost too much energy that he didn't have. Having someone show up at his door to pull him out of bed did, in fact, help.

It was very hard for Katsuki to refuse anything Ejiro asked him to do, even though it usually took the redhead multiple tries to get his way, since Katsuki was too stubborn to accept any help whatsoever. Ejiro's perseverance was a great point of irritation to Katsuki, but he also had to admit that without it, he wouldn't have gotten anywhere.

'Did you catch up with your homework?' Ejiro asks. Katsuki glances up. He hadn't done anything since their trip last Thursday except for lying in bed, watching movies he wasn't interested in.

At one point on Saturday he had sat himself behind his desk, intent on catching up on the missed assignments, but his mind was a mess as the words on the pages were swimming in front of his eyes. It only took five minutes before he had to give up and lie back in bed to rest.

Katsuki shakes his head. 'I couldn't.'

Ejiro looks over at Katsuki, but Katsuki is looking ahead. 'You want me to help you catch up after school?' Ejiro offers. Katsuki's gaze flickers to the pavement and then back ahead, not saying a word. 'We can do it at your place.'

Katsuki shrugs. 'Probably won't help much.' Ejiro smiles and puts his hand on Katsuki's shoulder, which earns him a soft glare. 'We won't know until we try, right?' Katsuki shrugs Ejiro's hand off and turns away, but Ejiro could swear he saw the corners of Katsuki's mouth tug up a little.

After that Ejiro leads most of the conversation, reciting things they've learned last week that Katsuki ought to know, before reaching the school and getting ready for class.

Katsuki bares his teeth in irritation as another one of his blasts doesn't seem to reach full force and knock Ejiro back like he intended to. When he lands back down on the ground, sweat is dripping down his face and he's panting heavily. He can't have gotten in such a bad shape after just a week of slacking exercise, right? Still, there's no denying that Katsuki can't win this battle.

Ejiro looks at him from afar, eyebrows knitted together. He can see that Katsuki is struggling and he wants to go over and reach out, but he isn't sure if it's the right thing to do. He has to thread so carefully around the blond… it's aggravating.

'You should stop training for today,' Aizawa's voice reaches Katsuki. Katsuki glares up, his face scrunched up in pain, his chest stinging as he's gasping for breath.

'I'm fine,' Katsuki gnarls, but his voice carries no power.

'Let me rephrase that,' Aizawa says. 'You are stopping for today.'

Katsuki stands up straight, ready to challenge his teacher – he isn't even close to being done yet, why should he stop now! – when a burning feeling emerges in his throat, making him double over and throw up all over the training ground.

Ejiro releases his Quirk and sprints over to where Katsuki is standing, still heaving as the vomit dribbles out of his mouth. Ejiro puts his hand on Katsuki's back, rubbing it softly. He can feel Katsuki's back rise and fall with every breath.

Aizawa looks down, unamused at the whole sight in front of him. 'I hope this is clear enough for you,' he says before turning around and going to monitor the other students.

'Are you okay?' Ejiro asks. It's a stupid question, he can easily tell he's not, but what else to do in a situation like this?

Katsuki spits onto the ground, hoping to rid his mouth of that awful taste, but it's not helping. He pushes himself upright, looking over at Ejiro. 'I'm fine.'

Katsuki doesn't feel fine. He still feels nauseous and his head is swirling. He just wants to sit down, get rid of that acidic taste and, moreover, go home. 'Let's do another round,' he urges.

Ejiro's eyes are filled with worry as he looks over at Katsuki. His face is pale and he swears he can see Katsuki's body tremble. 'I don't think that's a good idea,' Ejiro says.

Katsuki wipes the spit from his mouth, ignoring the puddle of vomit at his feet. 'I think it is. I don't want to sit around and watch as you're all progressing while I'm still behind. Now, let's go!' Katsuki readjusts his gauntlets and stomps over to their designated training area.

Ejiro looks at him as he moves away, unsure about the whole situation. He doesn't want to fight Katsuki in the state he is in, but right now, Katsuki isn't going to take no for an answer.

Ejiro looks around one last time, hoping that Aizawa is somehow seeing Katsuki's intent to spar and shut it down before they can do anything, but he has retreated to the far end side of the gym, helping Sero with a new technique.

Katsuki is tapping his foot impatiently as he's waiting for Ejiro to step into the rink with him. He wants to catch up for all the lost training time from last week, and there's no way except for going at it hard.

Ejiro walks over, but crosses his arms when meeting Katsuki. 'I'm not going to fight you.' Katsuki rolls his eyes. 'Why the hell not?'

'It's irresponsible.'

Katsuki was growing agitated with this whole fragile treatment. He understands Ejiro's point of view and he wants to act to it, but he's also still training to become a hero, and he just cannot slack. 'Fine,' Katsuki retorts, before turning around. 'Hey! Kaminari!'

Kaminari whips his head around at the sound of his name, looking quite puzzled. 'Come over here,' Katsuki calls out.

Kaminari questioningly points a finger at his own chest, in which Katsuki rolls his eyes in return. 'Yes, you! Get your ass over here.'

Kaminari does as told and makes his way over to the two of them. 'What's up?' he says with a bright smile.

'Let's spar, you and me.'

Kaminari looks over to Ejiro, who is still standing at the edge of the training field with his arms crossed. He can't really make out what kind of energy the redhead is giving off, but he has always wanted to try a match against Katsuki, so he's definitely not going to refuse. 'Sure, let's go ahead!'

Ejiro's mood sinks and he's actually glaring at Katsuki as Kaminari makes his way over to the other side of the court. Katsuki takes his battle stance, grinning, as Kaminari does the same.

'Give me your all,' Katsuki challenges.

'No holding back!' Kaminari replies.

Ejiro simply looks in disdain as Katsuki charges at Kaminari, already sending off explosions in his wake. Katsuki feels happy being able to go at it so freely. There are barely any people he can spar with like this that would make it an actual challenge; Ejiro is probably the only one that could actually take his blasts and it's the reason why Katsuki likes training with him the most. Kaminari isn't an easy opponent either, seeing as he's a long ranger with a stunning Quirk.

Katsuki is still dizzy as he propels himself into the air, making sure to take advantage from above, but as he's in mid-air, readying himself for an attack, his vision starts to blur and the nauseous feelings burble back up.

His explosions die down as he tries to get a grip on himself, but it's hard as he's plummeting to the ground. He's starting to lose track of all his surroundings and doesn't know which way is up or down anymore.

All he knows is that something is terribly wrong as he hears people calling out his name, right before a shockwave is sent throughout his body, and everything goes black.

Katsuki's body feels heavy as he slowly opens his eyes. The room is bright, and he squints before his eyes adjust naturally.

All of his muscles feel sore as he tries to lift his limbs to get up, but none cooperate. He looks around, but nobody is within sight.

It isn't very hard for him to understand that he ended up in the nurse's office after his sparring session with Kaminari. The last thing he remembers is losing control of his body and an immense amount of energy surging throughout it before making him shut down completely.

'Ah, you're finally awake,' a sweet voice calls out.

Katsuki looks aside. 'Let me go get the nurse,' she says as she turns on her heels and walks away.

Katsuki can just make out the short brown hair as it disappears behind the curtain, his brain slowly coming to life and telling him it's one of his own classmates. Uraraka Ochako. He had expected Ejiro to be there, or even Kaminari or his Aizawa, but not Uraraka.

'She's coming in a bit,' Uraraka says as she walks back over to the bed. She smiles as she notices that he's staring at her. She pulls one of the chairs that was standing next to the bed closer and sits down. 'How are you feeling?' she asks.

'Like shit,' Katsuki growls, though it comes out slurred. His mouth feels dry and he's unable to talk properly. Uraraka chuckles. 'Makes sense after what you did during training.'

'Where's Ejir-Kirishima?' Katsuki asks. It's not like he needs the redhead by his side at all times, he's just curious why he wasn't here right now. He had been there for every other of Katsuki's breakdowns and bad moments, so why he wasn't here right now was a mystery to him.

'Ejiro had a family emergency, he had to go home immediately. He got really worked up because he wanted to stay with you. I told him I'd take care of you and that seemed to be okay.'

Katsuki felt a bit bad for that. He made Ejiro worry over him and now the guy actually had problems himself as well. He would have to give him a call tonight. If he could ever move his limbs again.

Uraraka leans in closer, resting her chin on her hands and her elbows on the edge of the bed as she looked over at Katsuki. 'So tell me, what exactly is bothering you?' Her voice sounded so sweet and soothing, it made Katsuki feel at ease, but the question did not.

'It's bothering me that I'm fucking lying here not able to move,' he snaps.

Uraraka's eyes flutter closed as she takes a deep breath. 'I meant the big picture. Something has been bothering you for a long time and that's why you ended up here, right?'

Something in Katsuki stung. She couldn't really be talking about… No way. He hadn't told anyone except for Ejiro, and if that guy told anyone else, there would be a funeral by tomorrow morning.

Katsuki looks over at her, his eyes narrowed as if analyzing. She didn't seem dishonest, and from what he knew about her interactions with the rest of the class, she was a nice girl. She seemed genuinely concerned with Katsuki's health.

'What makes you think that?' he decides to question. Uraraka looks away as she thinks about it.

'Your temper has changed from the first day you got here, you were absent almost the entire week last week, and every time you try to focus on something your mind seems occupied with something else. It just seems as if you got something bigger, more important on your mind that keeps distracting you.'

Katsuki looks away. He wasn't the type of person that was easily read, so either it must have been very fucking obvious, or she was just incredibly skilled at noticing these things. 'It doesn't matter to you,' Katsuki eventually says.

Uraraka raises her eyebrows. It was now very clear that something was actually bothering him, and Uraraka wanted to help. She usually didn't stick her noses in places it didn't belong, but something about this one blond made her morals waver just a tiny bit as she had every intent of helping.

'It's okay,' she speaks up. 'You don't have to talk about it. Just know that I'm here for you.'

Katsuki's gaze flickers over to Uraraka and then back at the ceiling. Even though he had barely ever interacted with her, she would offer to listen to him just like that. It hit a soft spot inside Katsuki's heart.

'Either way, you'll be stuck with me until you get back home safely, since you probably can't on your own.'

Katsuki huffed. 'Like hell I can,' he says as he tries to push himself upright. His arms only cooperate the slightest as he's finally able to lift them, but give way as his muscles don't have any strength in them left. As he looks up again he can see Uraraka's eyebrows furrowed in worry. He rolls his eyes. 'Fine, I'll just stay here until Recovery Girl finally shows.'

Uraraka smiles contently. 'Good boy.'

Katsuki grinds his teeth together. Uraraka looks around, searching for Recovery Girl's presence. 'She said she'd be here soon..' Uraraka ponders.

Right at that moment, Recovery Girl's head pops up from behind the curtain. Katsuki feels quite energetic, even though he can't move, so Recovery Girl uses it to her advantage and heals him as much as she can, draining almost all of his stamina to make his muscles function properly again.

After offering him a cookie and a juice box, he starts to gather his stuff to go change into his school uniform and leave, until he feels a pair of eyes boring into his back. He glares over his shoulder.

'What do you want?' he asks.

'I told you, you're stuck with me until you get home,' Uraraka replies, smiling softly.

Katsuki rolls his eyes yet again. 'You're not walking me home.' She walks up closer to him, almost sticking her face right into his, smiling sweetly. 'Yes, I am.' H

e puts a hand on her shoulder and softly pushes her away, not intending to hurt her but just to get his personal space back. 'No, you're not.' Uraraka starts to pout as Katsuki turns to leave for the changing rooms.

As Katsuki changes back into his uniform he just hopes that she has left to go home on her own, but when he gets out of the changing room, she's standing there, her hands on her hips, the cute smile nowhere to be seen.

'I promised Kirishima to look after you and walk you home and I'm not going to break that promise, you hear me!' she says fiercely. This whole attitude is not befitting of her appearance and it kind of confuses Katsuki. He never knew she had such a passion.

Her lower lip is trembling and she's trying very hard to keep the tough act up. Katsuki can't help but admire her determination to do as Ejiro asked her to.

He brushes past her, his bag slung over his shoulder. A couple of steps away he stops and looks back at her. 'Well, you coming or not?'

Her eyebrows raise in surprise, before she gathers herself and dashes to catch up with him.

'As long as you can keep up with me, you can take me home. Just today.'

She smiles, but he refuses to look at her. 'I can do that,' she says contently.

Uraraka has no problem keeping up her pace as she walks next to Katsuki out of the school building onto the streets. She doesn't live too far from here, so taking Katsuki home isn't a big deal as it will only be a ten minute detour at most.

They are quiet as they wind through the streets, Uraraka looking around fascinated at the change of scenery; it was a neighborhood she had never been to before and it intrigued her. After a while of gaping around, she noticed that Katsuki had remained silent for their entire trip.

As they reached his home, it was time to say goodbye. Before Katsuki had the chance to close the door, Uraraka turned around.

'I know you didn't want to talk about it but… here,' she says as she reached out and snatched Katsuki's phone out of his pocket, leaving a very flustered blond standing on the porch.

She typed quickly and then handed the phone back to him, Katsuki faking a glare as he looked down at his phone with curiosity. She had added herself to his LINE.

'If you need me, you can message me.' She smiled sweetly at him. 'See you tomorrow!' With that, she took off.

Katsuki stood there, watching as she rounded the corner back to the train station. She had been the second person to approach him so bluntly, and he didn't really know what to do with it.

He closed the door behind him as he put away his shoes and his bag, his phone burning in his hand as he realized he now had her number. He didn't know if he'd use it, but it was a nice thought knowing he had more than one person to rely on.

Maybe he should talk about it with Ejiro. Maybe she was a good person to trust as well.

Katsuki didn't want to jump to conclusions, so he simply got to his homework for as long as he could, before falling asleep in his bed with his uniform still on.