Chapter Text
Iyashino Kokoro - Healing Heart
Chapter One
Bakugou hated the flowers.
Always had, but this was the worst.
Slicing up living things to arrange their corpses in pretty wrappings, only to leave them to slowly rot in the view of the mourning was the stupidest way people could use to 'honor' the dead, in his opinion.
A terrible way to pay respect to the loss of One For All and the number one hero.
None of the posies, bouquets or single blooms were red - His favorite color - Not a single fucking petal. They didn't even know the person they were supposedly paying their respects to.
"Tsk," he scoffed, harshly turning away in disgust, pulling his hood up further to shield his face from the light drizzle of rain that was not helping lighten his already dismal mood.
It had been three days since the mission had gone wrong, with disastrous consequences. Three days since Deku had been buried under a collapsed building and hadn't emerged.
Initially those heroes who had been on the mission with Deku at the time had started searching through the wreckage, in a frenzied attempt to get to the number one hero, but the rescue attempt had ceased fairly quickly. Everyone knew that with the strength of his multiple quirks Deku would easily be able to free himself... if he was still alive.
Searching for a corpse was deemed an unnecessary use of a hero's time, not when there were others alive who needed help.
But Bakugou hadn't left.
Instead of taking bereavement leave as he was advised and instructed, Bakugou had continued the rescue mission solo. Digging through the wreckage, with strength, quirk and sheer determination, refusing to give up on Deku. None of them understood the nerd's irritating ability to prove all those who doubted him wrong and his stubborn refusal to admit defeat. Heroes always won, and his childhood playmate had always been a hero in his heart. It was what Bakugou admired and hated about him the most.
Of course no one, but Bakugou, knew that One for All had been steadily failing since the demise of All for One. The raging powers ebbing away over time, now that it had served its purpose. Only Bakugou knew that Deku not freeing himself didn't mean he was dead, only that he may be trapped and unable to.
And so while everyone else had gone to grieve, make funeral arrangements or lay their stupid flowers, Bakugou had kept on searching. Heaving and blasting his way through the rubble in a circular pattern expanding outward from the last place Deku had been seen, until finally... FINALLY he'd spotted a sliver of an all too familiar costume.
"Deku?!" Growling, he heaved the largest piece of debris up, blasting it away from the pair of them. "Deku?"
Deku was deathly still as Bakugou hurriedly cleared away the concrete and steel rebars that covered him, with fear causing a painful lump to clench in his chest.
Biting the tip of one finger, he yanked off his glove, feeling unhindered for a pulse on the side of the bloody, battered and still immobile Izuku's neck. "Come on, come on, come on," he whispered under his breath.
"Ka... cchan?" Izuku's head turned towards the sound of his voice.
The sigh of relief Bakugou let out at the sound of Midoriya's pet-name for him was so forceful it hurt, but he pushed it aside as he scanned over the other with eyes and hands, searching for injuries. "Yeah, Nerd. It's me... I got you. Lay still."
Deku was covered in blood in multiple places. But the blood was dried and stuck to his skin and clothes. Meaning it had been heavy but had since stopped. The pressure of everything he was buried under had probably helped, saved him from bleeding out, even as it trapped him. He was hurt, but he couldn't find any sign of spinal damage and didn't appear to be in any immediate danger.
Bakugou freed the water bottle he had attached to the back of his belt, Izuku's dry looking lips and the time he'd spent buried telling the pro hero that he'd be dehydrated. Twisting off the cap he brought it to Midoriya's lips.
"Slowly, ya idiot!" Katsuki chastised when Izuku coughed up the first mouthful.
Gently lifting his head, Bakugou managed to get a quarter of the bottle into him before pulling it away, despite Izuku's whine of protest. He pulled out his phone.
"Who're you calling?"
"An ambulance, Dummy! Who do you think?!"
Izuku reached up, grabbing at his forearm, halting him. "Can't do that, Kacchan," he said, shaking his head as slowly as possible so as not to aggravate his already aggressive headache. "I can't go to a hospital."
Bakugou paused as the realization hit him. "...Dammit!" Bakugou hated that Deku had a point. Half the villains in the country had a personal vendetta against them both for defeating Shigaraki and All for One. Laying in a hospital bed, wounded and quirkless, Deku was a sitting duck... not to mention the danger the other patients and hospital staff would be in just by him being there.
While he was still presumed dead, Deku at least was safe.
Izuku could see the cogs turning in Katsuki's head, before he pocketed his unused phone. Midoriya had learnt in his time training and teaming up with Katsuki that no one could assess the situation and formulate a strategy quicker than Katsuki Bakugou.
Shouldering off his hoodie, Bakugou threw it over Midoriya. His hero costume was so filthy it was practically unrecognizable, but the dried blood that was mostly coating his top half would definitely draw unwanted attention and would need to be hidden if they were going anywhere without being spotted or recognised. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah, I think so," Midoriya said after a moments thought. He eased himself up, before wincing and clutching at his injured side, reconsidering his previous statement. "I might need some help."
Of course he did. How the Nerd made it this far was unfathomable. Katsuki turned his head away. "You can lean on me," he replied gruffly.
"You mean... you'll be my cane?" Izuku replied, looking up at Katsuki with a cheeky half grin.
"Do you want me to re-bury your ass?!"