Kacchan, can I put my shirt back on now?"

"No, now shut it!"

He holds his phone up and takes another shot. Swipe. Check. Back. Zoom. Click. Repeat.

"Kaaacchan."

"FOR FUCKS SAKE DEKU! IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN ONE MINUTE! STOP COMPLAINING!"

"But Kacchan-" "QUIET!"

He sighs and attempts to reel in his anger before he accidentally blows up his own phone. Wouldn't be the first. Probably won't be the last. If he breaks it though then he'll have to talk to the old hag about getting a new one, and that's just not something he can't deal with right now. Dealing with Deku so early in the morning is enough to grate on the little bit of patients he has.

He holds his phone up to take another picture of Deku's uncovered back. "Hold your hair up. I can't get all of your neck."

Deku peaks back at him before reaching with one hand to hold his hair out of the way. The other he keeps tight against his chest holding his shirt in place like the dainty little Deku he is. He'd call him a princess, but he's pretty sure that would be an insult to princesses everywhere.

He takes the last shot before dropping his phone onto his bed, picking up a roll of bandages, and moving over to Deku. Deku tenses a bit at his touch, but doesn't jerk away. Just obediently holds his arms up and lets Katsuki re-wrap the 'healing' wounds.

"Why are you doing this Kacchan? You know you don't need to do this. I already told you yesterday that it's okay. "

"One For All," he answers. It's the excuse he came up with last night. The excuse he came up with after cradling Deku in his arms for what felt like hours with drying tears on his own cheeks. The excuse he came up with after finally letting Deku pull away. The excuse he came up with after he decided he needed to be alone to think. The excuse he came up with after kicking Deku out of his room.

It's the excuse he's trying very hard to make himself believe. It's so much easier to think about then the truth.

"One For All? What does that have to do with my scars?"

"None of our classmates know you were quirkless, right? That's why you haven't told them, right? Don't you think their going to start asking questions?"

"Oh! I hadn't thought of that."

"What do you mean you haven't thought of that? Most of your scars literally mention being quirkless!"

"I know that. I meant the uh... the quirkless thing." The quirkless thi-

And then it hits Katsuki. Deku hadn't thought of that. He hadn't told anyone about the quirklessness because of One For All like he'd always thought. Yea, getting a quirk in life at a later age, though rare, wasn't unheard of, but still...

Deku hadn't told them because of One For All.

Deku hadn't told them because he didn't want them to know. "Kacchan?"

He sighs. Breathes deeply through his nose.

"Yes, Deku?"

Just how deep did these scars really go?

"You know I wasn't planning on showing anyone my scars. Recovery Girl said once they're healed enough, I can wear specific clothes to cover them. She even mentioned looking into modifying my suit to make sure no one can see them. I kind of need a new one anyone given the condition of my last one. You really don't need to worry-"

"Shut up, Deku."

He secures the last bandage before gesturing for Deku to put his shirt back on. "You should finish getting ready for class."

Deku looks like he wants to say more, but he just mutters a soft thank you with one of his dumb little smiles and waves good bye.

There are cracks in his smile. Why hadn't he ever noticed that before?

He watches Deku go. He still holds his shoulders a little tense, but given with the amount of pain he should be in he still moves with too much ease.

Like it's nothing. Just another day. Just how good of an actor was Deku?

He picks his phone back up and swipes through the photos. Compared to the original pics everything does look slightly better. Some of the words had whitened more. Some going from dark red to soft pink. 'Quirkless' and 'DEKU' are still the worst. They've stopped bleeding, but the skin around them is still an ugly mix of bruises and dark red. Swollen and painful looking. He's pretty sure with one wrong move they could easily start bleeding again.

The sentence on his neck looks much better though. The words of sunken slightly. The skin less pink and now closer to Deku's natural skin tone. It looked less like the words were constantly choking him and more just a constant reminder now.

Is it even possible to heal scars this deep?

Katsuki hopes more than anything that new scars can't form.