Chapter 2: Katsuki
Katsuki woke up feeling absolutely horrendous. A sharp stab of pain jolted through his hip as he stretched, just as he normally would, and the scarred hand that moved when he tried to rub the knot out sent a small jolt of panic through his chest.
It took him a few more moments to remember what had happened the day before. Deku. A villain's last-ditch effort. 24 hours.
He grimaced. Every part of this body ached in the most annoying way- like a dull bolt of lightning ping ponging through his upper body. Despite wanting to curl back up into a ball and stop breathing (because for some shitty reason, even that hurt), he hadn't missed a day of school at U.A. yet, and he wasn't about to start just because Deku's body was the equivalent of a folding table that only saw the light of day once a year and still managed to cave in at the center.
He pulled on his uniform and was extraordinarily irritated to find that the pants in his closet wouldn't cover Deku's stupid thighs. He growled, crumpled the pants into a ball, and stormed upstairs. He couldn't bring himself to care that Kirishima had seen his All Might underwear as he did, because that would require much more energy and several more fucks than he had to give.
He reached Deku's room and pounded on the door as hard as he could. Instead of simply rattling the doorframe a bit as he intended, the door flew into the room. Then, Deku squeaked as the door crashed through the window.
It even flew past the tree line in the garden, then landed in what Katsuki could only assume was a bush, given the noise.
"That wasn't-," Deku started. "Did you-? I wonder if-?"
"I can't tell which parts of your shitty body weren't hurting in the first place, so I don't know if that did something," Katsuki grumbled. "Dunno what the second question was, and I don't care. I need uniform pants. Mine don't fit."
"Ah," Deku hummed. "Sorry, I should've thought of that. Different regimens, different muscle densities."
"Or you've just got stupid thick thighs for no reason," Katsuki snapped. "And I have normal ones. So…yeah."
Deku snorted as he rifled through his closet for a pair of pants, before balling them up and throwing them at Katsuki. "We're going for a run tomorrow morning. I don't want you to be in pain the whole time if we do it later today like normal."
Katsuki scoffed, and spat, "and it's okay for you to be in pain the whole time? Deku, it feels like my body is crackling like a bowl of goddamn Rice Krispies every time I move. Why the fucking shit haven't you told Aizawa? Or for that matter, even Recovery Girl? She's got that whole doctor-patient confidentiality shit going on, right?"
"Recovery Girl said she didn't want to heal any self-inflicted injuries after my battle with Shouto last year. I'm not going to make her do something she doesn't want to do."
Reflexively, Katsuki opened and closed his fists, smothering sparks that weren't there. He hissed, and clutched at his right hand. He waved Deku away, grumbled, "just…whatever. Don't smile in front of anyone with my face. And don't fucking cry, either."
"God forbid the great Katsuki Bakugou has a healthy relationship with his emotions like a normal person," Deku scoffed.
"Shut the fuck up, Deku," he hissed. "Whatever. Just fuckin'…get to class. Loser."
~
Both boys did, in fact, get to class. Though Katsuki was far later than Deku ended up being. It had taken him a whole five minutes longer than usual because he had to take a break to stretch halfway through. Every time his breath hitched when the cold wind blasted against him, Katsuki noted a stabbing pain on his left side, right near his third rib. Katsuki also distinctly remembered blasting Deku into a building and the bruising near the same area that followed for weeks afterward.
He trudged into the classroom and tried his damnedest to scare away any conversation.
This immediately failed when Kirby materialized in front of him.
"De-wait, no," Uraraka started. "You're Bakugou, right?"
"It's too early to have to listen to you, Round Face." He winced as he sat in his usual seat.
"Yep, that's him," she sighed. "I don't think I'd like to see the day Deku just walks around angry like that."
"I have to admit, it's unsettling to see Midoriya's face all scrunched up and grumpy like that," Kaminari sighed. "Like seeing a tiny puppy growling at you."
"I have to agree," said Todoroki. "It is strange."
"I'm not smiling for you assholes at 8:30 in the morning." Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Or ever."
"God, I really hate that," Kaminari muttered. "Kacchan, can you just like…pretend? To smile, I mean. For like two seconds. Maybe it'll help me get over the shock of seeing such a pure little-"
Katsuki snorted. "You think Deku's pure?"
"Generally speaking, Midoriya is pleasant to everyone. You are not," Shouto replied, as if this was the most obvious statement in the world.
Katsuki glanced around the room, and raised an eyebrow as he continued: "you all remember the training exercise with 1-B? The one where he turned into a literal eldritch abomination because Monoma said something? Or maybe when someone saw his little vigilante get-up and immediately assumed that he was a villain? Or how about-?"
"They get it, Kacchan," Deku sighed.
"If you're all finished with your chit chat, we can stop wasting time." Aizawa materialized behind the podium, looking as bored as ever.
Katsuki breathed a sigh of relief as the hobo began listing out the morning announcements. Even so, he was certain of one thing: they definitely didn't get it. No one did.
~
The day droned on, thankfully with minimal teasing from the rest of the peanut gallery. Everything seemed to be running smoothly until fourth period came around.
Aizawa and All Might were arguing in hushed voices well off to the side, and Katsuki did not like how much both of them were nodding their heads.
When they finally seemed to reach a conclusion, they returned to the two boys. Then, All Might explained.
"Since neither of you have a firm grasp on the other's quirk for, well, obvious reasons, you'll be sitting out until this quirk wears off."
A wave of anger rushed through Katsuki (well, Deku's) body. He exclaimed, "We can still have a shitty quirkless spar! I'm not falling behind just because Deku doesn't have his shitty oversized body for a few more hours!"
"Young Mid-" All Might sighed. "Young Bakugou, this isn't a punishment. You have the same level of control over your form as Young Midoriya does. And neither of you will fall behind from missing a single day of practical lessons. You're both very well-disciplined students. I have every faith that you'll be fine."
"I also don't think that Midoriya would appreciate having his body destroyed, since his quirk is so difficult to handle," Aizawa added.
"I can handle it just fine! You don't have the right to tell me what I-"
"I am both your teacher and your guardian at the moment. I have every right in the world to tell you what you can and cannot do, and you would do well to remember that," Aizawa said. "This isn't a punishment, Bakugou. I'll even plan some time to meet with the two of you after school tomorrow, if you're so worried about falling behind."
"Fucking…FUCK!" Katsuki ran his hands through his hair, then stormed off to sit near the staging area.
The entire lesson, Katsuki's leg bounced and twitched. He wanted to punch something, to break something- no pun intended. "This is ridiculous. We could have just had a shitty quirkless spar."
Deku sighed. "We can't do anything to change it, Kacchan. Just…take a break. You're capable of relaxing, right?"
"I'm capable of it, but I don't like it," Katsuki seethed. "Only losers like relaxing."
"Maybe you're right," replied Deku. "Or maybe you're just too scared of waiting around. You know, you can learn a lot about your own technique if you examine others'. It's actually kind of fun to see how everyone's fighting style changes according to their quirk, and-"
Katsuki immediately tuned the rest of the ramble out, practiced after years of having to hear the spiral in every possible topic of conversation. Instead, he watched.
Kirishima was still leaving his left flank wide open, despite being literally beaten over the head about it. Katsuki was beginning to wonder if his skull hardened just like his skin.
Dunce Face definitely had more control than he used to, but still had to visibly shake the confusion from his body toward the end of the simulation.
Uraraka was being an absolute menace to Mineta, despite having subdued him quickly, and Katsuki couldn't blame her. Showing idiots their place was the most effective way of getting them to not be idiots, after all.
Bird Brain seemed to have taken a page out of Cryptid Bitch's book and had directed his quirk to hide in the shadows of the alleyway to get the jump on Frog Face. Despite this, Frog Face immediately got the drop on the two of them by jumping from the rooftop instead of coming around the corner as expected.
It was actually sort of fun to watch the interactions, but Katsuki would never let Deku know that. No, he would take this secret to his grave.
The lesson dragged on for what felt like hours until they broke for lunch.
"So what's it like being in a different body, Deku?" Raccoon Eyes was digging for information. She always propped her chin on her palm when she was waiting for gossip.
"Kind of like…when you put two Lego bricks together and they sort of pop apart because they don't fit right, I guess," he responded. He scratched at his cheek. "Honestly, I keep walking into things because I couldn't figure out how to put the contacts in-"
"Deku, shut the fuck up right now," Katsuki cut in.
Raccoon Eyes, however, had an absolutely horrible grin plastered on her face. "Contacts? Bakugou wears contacts? The great Bakugou Katsuki has GLASSES?! Oh my gods, what do they look like? Are they old man glasses? I bet they're old man glasses. Like those rectangle ones with the wire rims. Oh my god, this is the greatest day of my life."
"What's up?" Kirishima placed his tray down and slid into the seat next to Katsuki.
"Bakugou wears glasses, Kiri."
"Oh. Yeah, I know." He shoved a bit of chicken into his mouth.
Katsuki blinked. He grabbed Kirishima's collar, and hissed, "and just how do you know, Kirishima?"
"Don't break out the government name on me now, bro," Kirishima sighed. "Two years of being 'Shitty Hair' is enough. I saw 'em on your desk when we studied for the math final last year."
Katsuki dropped the shirt from his hands. "Oh."
In a mocking voice, Kirishima responded. "Yeah. Oh. No worries, dude. I knew you wouldn't want to talk about it, so I just pretended I didn't see them."
"Well…that's…I guess."
"That wasn't a sentence, Kacchan," Deku said with a smirk.
"You're not a sentence, Deku. Eat your stupid fucking protein. I'm trying to bulk out before finals."
With a salute, Deku shoved a piece of chicken into his mouth. "Sir, yes sir."
Katsuki rolled his eyes and stabbed a piece of carrot.
~
By the time they walked back to Ground Beta for the second half of Heroics, Katsuki was feeling very lightheaded. He wasn't sure if it was exhaustion, or some other health disaster that Deku wasn't telling anyone about, but he was definitely certain that he needed to sit down right now.
He lowered himself, then sat cross legged in the middle of the street. Nausea roiled through his stomach, so he picked a point on the horizon and stared at it viciously.
"Uhhh, dude? Did you wanna maybe move off to the side so-?"
"Get Aizawa," Katsuki stated. Then, he blacked out.
~
When he woke again, Katsuki was staring at the ceiling of Recovery Girl's office once more.
However, he immediately noticed that there were no little twinges of pain. He bolted upright, and stared at his relatively unscarred hands. He picked up his phone, and sighed in relief when he opened the camera. Red eyes stared back at him.
"Kacchan? Are you back to…you?" Deku's stupid high pitched voice came from behind the curtain beside him. Katsuki grabbed it and wrenched it back.
"Where else would I be, Freckles?" He glared at the other boy. "You're telling them."
Deku froze. He pointed his gaze directly at the floor between them. "No. I'm not."
"Deku, I swear to-"
"Katsuki. Stop it." Green lightning flared across his skin. "It's handled, and I'm not bothering them with it."
Recovery Girl entered. "Bothering who with what?"
"Nothing, sorry," Deku said quickly. "So, we're in the clear?"
"Yes, thankfully," she responded. "If you feel any sort of lightheadedness over the next week, you will immediately come back here. If you notice any sort of out of body experiences, even dreams, you'll come right back. Do you two understand?"
"Yes ma'am," they said in unison.
She nodded. "Good. Aizawa has a question or two, just to close out the case. Shouldn't take long. I'd imagine neither you nor he would like to miss Ethics this afternoon."
Deku shook his head furiously.
Recovery Girl turned, then walked across the room to poke her head out of the doorway. She waved Aizawa forward.
"Deku," Katsuki whispered.
"Shut the fuck up," Deku hissed.
Aizawa raised an eyebrow at the two boys. "Anything interesting?"
"No, sir," Deku responded quickly. "Just wanted to plan for our workout in the morning since we missed today."
"I wasn't aware the two of you worked out together," Aizawa said. "I don't need to chaperone that, do I? Ground Beta seems to be a rather difficult place for you two. I hope that doesn't extend elsewhere."
"No sir," Katsuki responded.
"Well, I only have a few questions before we get back to class." Aizawa shuffled through a file.
What followed had to have been the most boring twenty minutes of Katsuki's life. The questions were all just simple 'yes' or 'no' confirmations of suspicions from the initial interview. He almost wished he was in sixth period with Ectoplasm and the rest of the idiot brigade learning about derivatives. Almost.
When they were 'almost finished' for the third time, All Might's head appeared in the doorway. "Are you allowed visitors yet?"
"Yes, Toshinori. Come on in." Recovery Girl rolled her eyes. "Please bother my patients."
"I can come back if-"
"Yagi, it's fine. We're done anyway," Aizawa sighed. He turned back to the boys and said, "take it easy for the rest of the period. I've already told Iida to copy his notes for the day anyway."
"There's gonna be a million annotations to sort through," Deku muttered.
"And diagrams," Katsuki added.
"And you'll be gracious when he gives you them," Aizawa commanded with a momentarily quirk-fueled glare.
"Duh," Katsuki snorted.
"I was so worried when I heard about what had happened with you boys," All Might cut in. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"
"Positive," Deku assured him.
"That's good to hear," All Might sighed. He tapped his finger on his chin and began: "this sort of reminds me of this quirk that the Shields and I encountered years ago. Actually, it's interesting, if you-"
Katsuki did not find it interesting, and elected to watch the students stroll through the courtyard through the window instead.
~
Some twenty minutes of stories that Katsuki had heard a million times before from Deku, Aizawa stood. "There's five minutes until seventh period. We should get going."
All Might smiled, sheepish. "Ah. Well, I'm sorry if I bothered you during your recovery time, boys."
"No, no! Not at all!" Deku waved his hands frantically. "You're never boring, All Might!"
Katsuki snorted. "I think it would physically pain Deku to call anything out of your mouth boring. For good reason, but still." He pulled back the covers and slid from the bed.
There was a mirror on the closet door just across the room. Katsuki took a moment to straighten out his clothes, staying in front just a few moments longer than necessary when Deku approached behind him.
Deku rolled his eyes, then straightened that monstrosity he called a 'tie' as he smoothed everything over. "Ready?"
Katsuki nodded. "Are our bags-?"
Aizawa stopped. "I believe yours is in homeroom still, Bakugou. Midoriya, I believe yours might be in the locker room, since you wanted to take notes."
"I'll walk with you to get it." All Might smiled. "I can tell you more about Toolbelt's takedown."
Deku glanced between Aizawa and Katsuki nervously. He cast a look at Katsuki: don't you dare.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and sent one back: fine.
"That sounds great, All Might," Deku said. With one last glance over his shoulder, he left the room.
Katsuki exited right afterward, heading in the opposite direction with Aizawa.
The minute that Deku and All Might rounded the corner, Katsuki turned to Aizawa to stand in front of him. "Fucking everything hurt. All the time. All day there's these little twinges of, like….I don't even fucking know. He's a fucking disaster," Katsuki blurted. "He won't tell anyone, but it's so fucking bad, Sensei."
Aizawa studied Bakugou. Katsuki hoped that he didn't look as pathetic and desperate as he thought he sounded, but a voice in the back of his mind told him not to lie to himself.
With a sigh, Aizawa said, "I fucking knew it."
Katsuki blinked. He quickly and all too roughly scrubbed the tears that fell when he did so, and asked, "you knew?"
"I mean, I didn't know it was bad. But I knew there was something going on that he wasn't telling me. Or anyone, it seems," Aizawa sighed. "Just…wait here a second. I'm gonna talk to Chi-err, Recovery Girl. Stay. Here. Until I can sort this out."
Katsuki nodded, but his teacher didn't spare a moment to confirm the answer. Instead, he spun on his heel and practically stormed back into the office they'd just left.
It took seventeen minutes-Katsuki had watched the hallway clock very intently the entire time-before Aizawa and Recovery Girl walked out.
Recovery Girl handed Katsuki a clipboard, with a simple print out of a human outline pinned to it. "Every place you remember. And write the pain scale number next to it. One to ten."
Katsuki nodded and quickly got to work. His wrists- they were at least an eight, maybe a nine. His ribs- a four constantly, an eight in the cold. Katsuki also noted that Deku told him about the break not healing properly last year. His left hip was at a five, but apparently that was a recent injury.
When he finished, he handed the clipboard back to Recovery Girl.
She glanced over the notes, then stared at it for a moment. She took a deep breath, then said, "I think I might actually have a reason to kill Toshinori."
Aizawa snorted as he turned to Katsuki. "Thank you for telling us. I know you have a complicated re-"
"Not complicated," Katsuki corrected. "Not anymore."
Aizawa raised an eyebrow. "Well, complicated or not, this still took a lot of courage to start this conversation. So, thank you."
"You're welcome," Katsuki responded. "Now fix it."
Aizawa held his hand out. "We plan on it."
Katsuki stared at the outstretched hand for a moment. And then, he took it.