Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hero training that afternoon had class 1-A competing to see who could take out the most robots, just like the entrance exam all those months ago. All Might had said it was a good way to see how much they had improved since then.

Class 1-A stood in their gym uniforms in front of All Might at the entrance to Ground Beta. The retired pro hero still commanded attention even in his deflated form and Deku hadn’t lost that sparkle in his eyes when he looked at him. The green haired boy was practically vibrating where he stood and Bakugou, who was unfortunately stood next to him, showed great restraint by not elbowing the nerd in the ribs.

“I will be splitting you into four groups of five for today’s class. If your group is not completing the exercise, you will be watching from the monitors in the observation room. Try to analyse each other’s performances and provide feedback where you can. Just because you are not actively participating does not mean you should be slacking off,” All Might announced to the class, although his eyes lingered on Kaminari and Ashido during his last comment.

Bakugou saw Dunce Face and Racoon Eyes wilt at the attention and turned his head away to hide his smirk. Deku caught his eye and smiled at him in amusement, which Bakugou returned with a glare before turning back to All Might.

“The first group to compete will be young Uraraka, young Shouji, young Mineta, young Iida and young Midoriya,”

Bakugou saw Deku frown at him slightly from the corner of his eye and couldn’t help but feel the same. He had hoped they would be in the same group so they could compete against each other.

“Next will be young Aoyama, young Sero, young Ashido, young Jirou and young Asui. The third group will be young Todoroki, young Kaminari, young Koda, young Sato and young Hagakure. Young Bakugou, young Yaoyorozu, young Kirishima, young Ojiro and young Tokoyami will go last. You will have 10 minutes to take out as many of the robots as you can. Just like in the entrance exam, the robots range from 1 to 3 points however unlike in the entrance exam, the zero point robot will not appear. Are there any questions before we begin?”

Sero raised his hand.

“What do we get if we win?” He asked.

“Bragging rights, of course!” All Might grinned back at him.

Bakugou rolled his eyes.

“Group 1, please enter Ground Beta and wait for my signal to begin. Everyone else, follow me to the observation room!”

With that, All Might led the rest of the class away. Before Bakugou could follow, Deku called out to him.

“Kacchan! Even though we aren’t technically competing against each other, I’m still going to do my best.” He said, green eyes burning.

“That so?” Bakugou growled back, picking up on the unspoken challenge. “Whatever score you get, I’ll double it nerd.”

With that, he walked away and joined up with Shitty Hair who was waiting for him outside the observation room. Shitty Hair looked back to where Deku was entering Ground Beta and then threw his arm over Bakugou’s shoulders.

“What was that about?” He asked as they continued walking.

“None of your business” Bakugou retorted, causing Shitty Hair to laugh and drop the subject.

Even though he had made a lot of progress with letting people get close to him, Bakugou still found himself shutting his friends out on occasion. It was a work in progress and Bakugou was grateful that Kirishima didn’t push him to open up all the time. Not that he would ever tell Kirishima as much.

As they met up with the rest of their class, Bakugou also couldn’t help but think about how far him and Deku had come. They weren’t exactly friends yet, but they were slowly patching the rift between them and saw each other as proper rivals now. Their late night fight after the provisional license exam last term had been the push they both needed to start working things out.

Bakugou and Kirishima entered the observation room and joined their classmates.
All Might stood in front of the monitors, microphone in hand.

“Ready….START!” All Might shouted into the microphone and they watched as the group on the monitors immediately started running.

Some of his classmates were cheering them on, which Bakugou thought was pointless, considering they couldn’t hear them.

He had to admit he was reluctantly impressed. Round Cheeks was able to use her quirk for much longer now without getting nauseous. Bakugou watched her send five 2-pointers into the air before releasing her quirk and sending them crashing down behind her, all whilst still running towards the next set of robots.
Mask Guy was a powerhouse in his own right and was using his multiple limbs to take out one robot after another.
Grape Fucker had mellowed out a lot in recent times, mostly due to an intervention the girls had done at the dorms to get him to realise the error of his ways. The effect it had on him had not only toned down his general creepiness, but had also made him work harder in hero training, which could be seen in his current performance.
Glasses was mowing down robots with his usual level of enthusiasm and was shouting words of encouragement to the rest of the group as he sped past.

The most obvious improvement was Deku though. He hardly ever broke his bones in training classes any more and he was currently hurtling through Ground Beta like a man possessed. Any robot that crossed his path was demolished in seconds and at the 10 minute mark, he had won with a total of 99 points.

The group was greeted with cheers and praise from the rest of the class as they entered the observation room. Deku met Bakugou’s eyes and nodded.

Challenge fucking accepted, Bakugou thought staring back.

Whilst the other two groups took their turns, Bakugou was thinking about the best approach to take. By the time it was his group’s turn, he had decided to do what he did best. Blast the shit out of anything that got in his way.

Standing inside Ground Beta with Shitty Hair, Tail Guy, Birdbrain and Ponytail, Bakugou stretched and got himself into position.

“Ready… START!” Came All Might’s booming voice from the speaker system and Bakugou blasted himself forward.

Straight ahead, he saw a 3-pointer and three 2-pointers and wasted no time in blowing them to pieces. He flew through the smoking remains and zeroed in on his next target. From there, it was smooth sailing. Any robot he saw, was taken down without mercy and he was quickly catching up to Deku’s score.

Flying through the makeshift city, he saw Shitty Hair and Tail Guy teaming up to take down a 2-pointer. Bakugou rolled his eyes and shot past them.

“Oi, idiots, this is meant to be a competition! If you’re going to hold hands through it, you’re just going to make it easier for me to win.”

Kirishima was about to retort, but Bakugou had already turned a corner and was hurtling towards a 3-pointer. Deciding to have some fun with this one, Bakugou launched himself over the robot and twisted until he was behind it. He fired an explosion at the back of its head which brought the robot crashing down to earth and his score up to the triple digits. He grinned to himself, excited to rub his win in Deku’s face. All Might did say the winner would have bragging rights and Bakugou had just taken the lead.

“Time’s up!” All Might’s voice rang from over the speaker system.

The angle that he shot the explosion from made Bakugou trip as he landed and he ended up falling back into a railing, his back smarting on impact.

“Good job, everyone. Report back to the observation room so we can discuss your performance.” Came All Might’s voice again.

Bakugou frowned as he pushed himself upright. He rolled his shoulders as he headed to meet back up with the rest of the class. It had been a while since he messed up a landing, even if he had just tried out a new move.

“Hey Bakugou, wait up!” Kirishima called and Bakugou slowed his pace down slightly to let Shitty Hair catch up.

“You were so manly out there bro, how many points do you think you got?” The red head asked once he was walking next to him.

“102… wait did you not keep track of yours?” Bakugou snapped.

Shitty hair laughed sheepishly, “well, I mean, I tried to? Think I got to 70 but maths had never been my strongest subject.”

“You literally just had to keep adding 1,2 and 3 together, that can’t even be classed as maths!” Bakugou shouted.

“It doesn’t matter anyway! All Might has been telling everyone their scores. It’s all good bro.” Kirishima smashed his fists together and Bakugou huffed in exasperation.

Back in the observation room, class 1-A welcomed them back enthusiastically and congratulating them on their performance.

“Excellent work out there! I think it is safe to say you have all improved by leaps and bounds from the start of the year.” All Might addressed the class proudly. He then turned Bakugou’s group.

“Now then, to confirm your scores. Young Ojiro finished with 65 points, young Yaoyorozu finished with 72, young Tokoyami finished with 78 and young Kirishima finished with 81 points.” All Might beamed at the group and Kirishima rounded on Bakugou.

“Did you hear that? That’s like 10 more points than I got in the entrance exam!” He grinned, flashing his pointy teeth. Bakugou wasn’t going to ruin his mood by correcting him and instead offered his friend a rare smile.

“Good job,” he said quietly and looked away, not wanting to see Shitty Hair get emotional over the compliment.

“The final and overall winner of today’s class is of course, young Bakugou with 102 points! Congratulations young man” All Might clapped, smiling at him brightly.

Class 1-A joined in, clapping and cheering and Bakugou felt his face warm slightly. He still wasn’t used to how nice his classmates were.

Finding Deku in the crowd, Bakugou couldn’t help but smirk slightly. Putting his hands on his hips and jutting his chin out proudly he mouthed ‘I win’ at the green haired boy and was only slightly annoyed when he received a thumbs up and a smile in response.

“Now that that’s out of the way, does anyone have any feedback for the last group?” All Might asked.

Several hands were raised and Bakugou listened as their classmates pointed out areas of improvement for the other four members of his group. He smirked slightly when Glasses mentioned the Shitty Hair- Tail Guy team up being ‘inappropriate’ for a competition and felt Kirishima poke him harshly in the side in retaliation.

“Bakugou’s last move was impressive, but he did stumble a bit on the landing, kero” Frog Girl pointed out.

Oh. Shit. He’d almost forgotten about that.

“Very good everyone! I am pleased to see you were all paying close attention.” Again, All Might glanced briefly towards Dunce Face and Racoon Eyes, who both looked away pretending they hadn’t noticed.

“We will end today’s lesson here. Go get changed and head back to the dorms.”

Chapter Text

Bakugou did not head back to the dorms.
He was pissed, mostly at himself which only made it worse.
He was trying this new thing where he didn’t take his anger out on other people, which meant he had to think of other ways to release his frustration. Training, he had found, was a great way to do so.

As his class made their way back to the dorms, Bakugou slipped away to one of UA’s many gyms, determined to perfect the move he had attempted earlier. He was mad at Frog Girl for pointing his failure out to the rest of the class, but he was more mad at himself for messing up in the first place. That, coupled with the fact that he hadn’t double Deku’s score as he had so confidently stated he would, had left him feeling particularly shitty.

He put his school bag on a bench by the wall, then rolled a training dummy into the centre of the room and stood across from it.
Taking a deep breath, Bakugou aimed his hands behind him and fired off a series of explosions which propelled him forward. Getting as close to the dummy as he could without crashing into it, he shot himself into the air, contorting until he was behind it just like he had done earlier with the robot.
When he was in position, he fired an explosion at the back of its head, causing the dummy to topple over.
Now horizontal with the floor, he twisted so that he would land on his feet but found himself unbalanced and landed on his ass.

“…FUCK!” Bakugou shouted, shoving himself to his feet. He marched back over to the training dummy, heaving it back upright and stood across from it again.

And again and again and again.

No matter what he tried, he kept finding himself in similar positions on the floor. The move itself was flawless, he was able to replicate it perfectly every time, but the landing continued to trip him up.

Righting the dummy for what felt like the millionth time, Bakugou felt his shoulders and hands burn from overusing his quirk. He was panting heavily, sweat pouring down his face and dripping from his hands. The longer he went, the more violent the explosions he released were becoming.

The anger he had come here to work out only grew stronger with each failed attempt. Bakugou completely lost track of time, the only thing that mattered was sticking the fucking landing.

Again and again and again he tried until finally, when he felt like he would collapse from exhaustion, he landed on his feet and stayed there.

Still panting, it took him a second to realise what had happened.

“FUCKING FINALLY!” He yelled, quickly running to set the dummy back up and performing the manoeuvre again to confirm it wasn’t a fluke.

“Yes!” He cheered as he remained standing a second time. He collapsed to the floor, throwing his arm over his face as he tried to catch his breath, feeling like he could fall asleep right there on the gym floor.

“Bakugou.” A gruff voice called out after an undetermined amount of time and he looked up to see Aizawa stood by the door of the gym.

“Sensei,” Bakugou pushed himself into a sitting position.
“What are you doing here?” He asked.

Aizawa raised an eyebrow at him incredulously, “it’s past curfew, problem child.”

“Shit, really?” Bakugou stood up quickly. He had to wait a second to let the dizzy spell that come over him pass. He walked over to the bench, grabbing his bag and headed over to his teacher.

“You ok?” Aizawa asked, failing to hide the concern in his voice.

Bakugou frowned, “why wouldn’t I be?”
He side stepped the man and exited the gym, heading towards the dorms.
Aizawa matched his pace. Neither of them said anything for a short while but Bakugou could tell the silence wouldn’t last.

“Given the fact that you are still in uniform, I am going to assume you went to the gym straight after heroics class?” Bakugou could tell it wasn’t really a question, so he didn’t try to cover for himself. He was too tired to try anyway.

“Yeah. Lost track of time.” He grumbled, hoping his flimsy excuse would be enough to avoid being punished for staying out past curfew.

“You were in there for seven hours, Bakugou.” His teacher reprimanded, looking slightly concerned.

“I didn’t mean to stay for that long! I was just trying something out. Couldn’t stop until I got it right.” Bakugou tried to stop himself from pouting but the way Aizawa’s eyes glimmered with mirth let him know he was failing.

“You’re lucky I don’t ground you for this.” Aizawa told him as they walked up the steps towards Heights Alliance. Bakugou paused, snapping his head towards his teacher.
“You can’t actually do that, can you?” He asked, shocked. Aizawa hid an amused smile behind his capture weapon.
“Of course I can. I’m in charge of you kids when on campus. Just to prove it, you’re banned from going to the gym for the rest of the week.”
Bakugou blanched, “oh come on, that’s not fair!”
Aizawa stared him down. Bakugou did his best to match it but having a staring contest with a pro hero whose quirk revolved around not blinking was a battle even he knew he wouldn’t win. Still, it was the principle of the matter.

“Considering how long you were training tonight, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. Keep pushing it and I’ll be tempted to stick you back under house arrest.”
Something told him his teacher wasn’t joking, so Bakugou just sighed and nodded in agreement.

Aizawa opened the door and they both entered, taking their shoes off in the genkan.
It was a school night, so the common room was empty which Bakugou was glad about. He couldn’t deal with being pestered by his classmates about his whereabouts that evening.

“Make sure you eat something before you go to bed” Aizawa told him, not looking back as he headed to his room.
The teachers had their own building, but more often than not, Aizawa preferred to stay in Heights Alliance, claiming it was so he was close by for damage control. Considering the shit him and his classmates tended to get up to, Bakugou really couldn’t blame the guy.

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed heading up to his own room to take a shower. The whole process of getting undressed, showering and getting ready for bed took more time and effort than it should have. He kept having to stop to let bouts of dizziness pass and by the time he had finished, he was too tired to head back downstairs to make dinner.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he needed to eat or at least drink something, especially after pushing himself so hard today. His quirk was prone to acting up if he didn’t take care of himself properly.

Funny enough, he didn’t seem to experience that many side effects when he was actively using his quirk, even when he was blasting himself at full speed through the sky or using complex movements to change direction. The going theory was that the adrenaline brought his blood pressure up and the consistent use of explosions helped to get rid of the build up of nitroglycerin in his system. It was normally after he’d finished that the symptoms would appear.

Nitroglycerin was a volatile substance, one that he had faced the drawbacks of since he first developed his quirk.
He still remembered his old man’s terrified cries and the hag screaming at him the first time he had collapsed due to them not knowing about his low blood pressure. Since then, he and his parents had to figure out the best way to manage the effects of the substance coursing through his body.
A proper sleep schedule, eating at least 2 meals a day that were high in salt and drinking lots of water worked well to manage the dizziness and nausea.

There were still some things he either forgot or couldn’t be bothered to do, like sitting or standing up slowly. He didn’t want anyone to notice so he had gotten quite good at acting like his vision hadn’t gone black when he stood up between lessons. The only person who knew about it was Deku but Bakugou had made it very clear to the nerd that he needed to keep his mouth shut about it. He wasn’t weak and he didn’t need his class pitying him if they found out.

Lying in bed, Bakugou felt the room spinning behind his closed eyes. His limbs were too heavy to move and before he knew it, he had fallen into a restless sleep.

-

Waking up was hard. Bakugou fought to open his eyes against the headache pounding in his skull. He groaned quietly and squinted towards the alarm clock on his bedside table to check the time. His eyes grew wide in shock when he saw it was nearly 8 in the morning.

Cursing, he threw himself out of bed to get ready for school. He quickly realised his mistake and grabbed the wall to steady himself, his legs shaking and his vision darkening rapidly. He was sweating profusely and his heart pounded in his chest.

After a few minutes of breathing deeply, trying to get himself under control, Bakugou was able to force his legs to carry him into the bathroom to clean up and brush his teeth.

Returning to the bedroom, he pulled his uniform on and grabbed his bag. Just then, there was a knock at his door.

“Bakugou? You in there?”

He spared a second to glance at himself in the mirror, cringing at the sight of ghostly pale skin and red rimmed eyes. He really needed to take care of this before it got out of hand, but right now he didn’t have time.

Opening the door, he was greeted by Shitty Hair waiting for him in the hallway. The red head was smiling, but it faded at the sight of him.

“You good bro?” He asked, looking worried.

Bakugou sighed, “I’m fine, come on we’re going to be late.”

They started walking towards the elevator. Bakugou could feel the other boy glancing at him. He kept opening his mouth to speak but not actually talking.

“If you’ve got something to say, just say it weirdo.” Bakugou huffed, pressing the button for the elevator.

The doors opened and they both stepped in. Bakugou leaned against the wall of the elevator, gripping the cold railing to keep himself upright.
Kirishima hesitated for another moment before speaking.
“Are you sure you should be going to school today?”
Bakugou looked at him incredulously.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Shitty Hair bit his lip, “I’m just saying,” he started, red eyes filled with concern, “you really don’t look good man.”

“Wow, thanks,” Bakugou replied sarcastically.

Normally, someone showing even a hint of pity towards him would fill Bakugou with so much rage he would make sure they never made that mistake again. However, Kirishima was different. His concern never came across as condescending. Bakugou could tell he was genuinely worried about him and decided to cut the guy some slack.

“I was training by myself last night and got a bit carried away. I’m just facing the consequences of that now. I’ll be ok.”

Shitty Hair’s pained expression eased slightly, a faint smile returning to his face.
“You always work so hard bro, it’s ok to take a break sometimes.”

Bakugou laughed tiredly. The elevator doors opened and they walked side by side towards the exit.
“Considering Aizawa banned me from going to the gym for the rest of the week, it doesn’t look like I have much of a choice.”
“Really?” Kirishima laughed back. Bakugou nodded, grinning slightly.

If he was being honest, he was secretly grateful to Aizawa. He now had no excuse but to go straight back to the dorms after school and finally try to undo the damage he had done to his body. His quirk was like a wildfire under his skin.
He was slightly concerned that he would be missing breakfast. He’d only managed to grab a quick drink whilst getting ready this morning but knew he didn’t have time for anything else.

The two boys broke into a light run towards UA. They made it to class just before the bell rang, sliding into their seats as Aizawa walked into the classroom.

The pro hero slumped against the podium, looking exhausted as always. Bakugou couldn’t help but wonder why, considering he’d seen the man heading to his room last night. Maybe he had lost so much sleep over the years that he would never be able to catch up on it?

His train of thought was cut off as Aizawa caught his eye. His teacher frowned as he looked him over and Bakugou scowled back defiantly. Fortunately, Aizawa looked away fairly quickly to start home room. Unfortunately, some of his classmates had noticed where their teacher had been looking and were now sending him their own suspicious glances.
Bakugou was getting really sick of the looks he’d been receiving lately. He may not have been feeling 100%, but he could handle himself thank you very much.

He was kind of regretting thinking that a few minutes later when the adrenaline of the rush to school wore off and he started to feel all his earlier symptoms come back with a vengeance. He was shivering slightly, both from a bone deep chill that had overcome him and from the aches and pains in his body making themselves known. Sweat dripped down his back, the sensation making him grimace. The headache he had woken up with was pulsing in time with his heavy heartbeat. As quietly as he could, he took a deep breath in and blew it out slowly, trying to stave off the dizziness that was creeping in.

He could feel Deku’s eyes burning into the back of his head. The nerd could tell something was off. Bakugou silently prayed for the boy to not get involved. He really didn’t want to deal with that right now.

“Hey,” someone whispered.
Bakugou turned his head to see Ears also staring at him. She looked tense, her ear jacks raised slightly in his direction.
“You ok?” She mouthed. There was something about the way she was looking at him that made Bakugou uneasy. Like she could see how bad he was feeling. Or hear it. Could she hear his heart racing or the way his head pounded? He really hoped not.

He mouthed “fuck off” at her and turned back to the front of the classroom, pretending to listen to whatever Aizawa was droning on about.

By the time class had ended, Bakugou had no idea what the lesson was even about. He hadn’t heard a word over the high whistling tone in his ears. His classmates stood up ready to make their way to their next class- heroics again and didn’t that make Bakugou just want to die.

He saw Deku heading his way, eyebrows furrowed and knew the boy was going to try to talk to him. Jirou too had stood up, but was looking his way instead of leaving the room. In a panic, Bakugou grabbed his bag, hoping to avoid a confrontation but made the mistake of standing up too quickly. He heard Deku call his name and Ears gasped before his vision went black and the classroom floor rose to meet him.

Chapter Text

Midoriya had known Kacchan practically his whole life. Some of his first memories were of the blonde boy.
They were there for each other’s first steps, first words and Midoriya was there the day that Kacchan’s quirk showed up.
This meant, Midoriya was also one of the only people to have seen how severe the drawbacks of Kacchan’s quirk could be.

He remembered once, when they were both five years old, Kacchan had been testing out his quirk in a park in their neighbourhood.
Kacchan was sat in front of the hopscotch game painted on the ground, trying to see how far his newly developed quirk could launch a soda can across the tiles.
His explosions were nowhere near as strong back then and he could only get the can to land on the sixth or seventh tile. Even at age five, Kacchan was ridiculously stubborn and competitive and saw this as a great failure.
Midoriya remembered being completely mesmerised and in awe of the display. He couldn’t understand how Kacchan wasn’t impressed by his abilities.
They spent the best part of the afternoon at the park, Midoriya nominating himself to fetch the can each time it landed.

When the sun was starting to set, Midoriya’s mum came to collect them.
She asked them if they’d had fun which caused Midoriya to start rambling on about how cool Kacchan was and what he had done with his quirk. Kacchan had been oddly quiet the whole walk home.
Inko tried to bring him into the conversation, but he only responded to her questions with grunts or sometimes didn’t respond at all.

The Midoriyas were having dinner with the Bakugou family that evening and so the group was heading to Kacchan’s house, Inko looking more and more worried the closer they got without the boy saying anything.
“Did something happen today?” She asked Izuku quietly, thinking maybe Kacchan was upset about something.
Midoriya had shook his head but wondered if Kacchan was sulking over not being able to make the can go further.

Bakugou’s father, Masaru opened the door for them upon their arrival.
“Welcome back,” he said with a soft smile, “did you boys have fun?” He asked leading them into the living room.
Midoriya had nodded, about to start retelling the events of the day when there was a thud from behind him and Masaru gasped loudly.
“Katsuki!”
The man ran past him, Inko following and Midoriya turned around to see Kacchan collapsed in a heap on the floor.

“What’s going on?” A voice shouted from the kitchen.
“Mitsuki, come quick!” Masaru called back, slightly hysterically.
At her husband’s frantic tone, Bakugou Mitsuki entered the room.
Seeing her husband and her best friend both kneeling over her son who was lying unconscious on the living room floor, a look of horror crossed her face. Midoriya could safely say it was the first and only time he had seen Kacchan’s mum show any emotion close to resembling fear.

With all the adults surrounding Kacchan, Midoriya was left stood by himself. He remembered tears running down his face as he begging his mum to tell him what was happening. He remembered Kacchan being cradled in Masaru’s arms as Mitsuki ran her hand through his wild hair. He remembered Kacchan suddenly going rigid in Masaru’s arms and his mum crying on the phone.
He remembered flashing blue lights as an ambulance pulled up outside the Bakugou residence.

The sight of Kacchan’s eyes rolling back as he fell to the classroom floor brought that memory rushing back.
“Kacchan!” He called racing forward, managing to catch the boy before his head hit the floor. He cradled his friends head in his hand and lowered him onto his lap.

Somewhere in his periphery, he could see some of his classmates surrounding them, but his attention was fully on Kacchan.
He made sure Kacchan was lying on his side, and placed a hand on his neck to check his pulse. It was way too fast and his breathing was laboured.
Midoriya was only alerted to the fact that Aizawa had joined them when the pro hero also knelt down on the classroom floor.
Looking up, Midoriya saw Jirou, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu all stood close by, the rest of the class already on their way to heroics.

“What happened?” Aizawa asked looking Kacchan over.
“It’s ok, he just passed out,” Midoriya sighed, sounding calmer than he felt.
“He wasn’t looking too good this morning so I was prepared for this. He’ll come back round in a few minutes.” He bit his lip, hoping for Kacchan’s sake that was true. If he had a seizure in front of his teacher and classmates, Kacchan would be furious about it.
“Has this happened before?” Midoriya only realised his slip up when Aizawa questioned him.
His eyes grew wide in alarm.

At the start of the school year, Kacchan had approached him for the first time in months to threaten him not to let anyone know about his quirk drawbacks. Midoriya had almost argued with him about it, thinking that their teachers needed to know, but as much as he was scared of the boy back then, part of him didn’t want Kacchan to go back to ignoring him, so he had reluctantly agreed.

“W-well, I mean… erm.” Midoriya tried to come up with some excuse, but the longer it took him to think of something to say, the darker Aizawa’s expression grew.
The pro hero was about to speak again but was interrupted by Kacchan groaning lightly.

All five heads in the room snapped to the blonde haired boy as he rolled himself onto his back, head still pillowed on Midoriya’s lap.
“Fuck,” he gasped quietly trying to force his eyes open.
Attention now back on Kacchan, Midoriya held his childhood friend a little tighter to stop him from sitting up too soon.
“You’re ok Kacchan, you passed out after homeroom. We’re still in the classroom and Aizawa sensei and a couple of our classmates are here as well.”
Midoriya had found over the years that explaining what was happening to Kacchan as soon as possible stopped the boy from freaking out. He was also hoping to do some damage control before Kacchan realised people were watching him on his own.

Aizawa turned to Jirou, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu.
“You three head to heroics and let All Might know that Midoriya and Bakugou won’t be in class today.”
Midoriya had never been more grateful towards his teacher for picking up that Kacchan wouldn’t want his classmates around for the aftermath and was also relieved when the three of them shared a look before leaving without much fuss, just sharing a few well wishes on the way out.

Kacchan was finally able to open his eyes, but he looked incredibly out of it.
He looked up at Midoriya, looking less upset over their position than expected but he was probably used to it by now.
“Seiz’re?” He mumbled.
Midoriya shook his head with a smile, “not this time.”
Kacchan blew out a sigh of relief and Midoriya was tempted to copy him. Seizures were always harder for Kacchan to recover from than the times he passed out.

They had both temporarily forgotten that their teacher was still in the room with them.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” the man said, causing both boys to jump. He looked livid as they turned to him and Midoriya swallowed heavily, feeling Kacchan tense in his arms.
“Midoriya, we are going to take Bakugou to Recovery Girl and then you are both going to explain everything. Do you understand?”
Midoriya had no choice but to nod frantically as his teachers eyes flashed red.
“Good.” He growled before leaning forward and picking Kacchan up.
“Let’s go.”

He started to walk out of the room and Midoriya followed meekly behind.
“Put me down! I don’t need to go to Recovery Girl!” Kacchan argued, trying to struggle out of his teachers arms. One red eyed glare from the man had him stopping immediately.
“Not only did you pass out in class, I’ve also just had the revelation that you passing out and apparently having seizures is normal enough for Midoriya to be used to it.”
Their teacher was so angry that even Bakugou was slightly afraid.
“You are going to Recovery Girl whether you like it or not and we aren’t leaving her office until you’ve told us both what is going on.”

They continued down the corridor, kids from other classes quickly stepping out of the way at the expression on Aizawa’s face. They couldn’t help but gape at the sight of the man carrying the explosive teen from class 1-A in his arms.
Midoriya didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he walked next to them. He looked over at Kacchan who was red in the face from embarrassment and anger. They made eye contact and a silent understanding passed through them both. They weren’t getting out of this without the truth coming out.
Kacchan sighed and dropped his head back onto Aizawa’s chest in defeat.

By the time they reached Recovery Girl’s office, Kacchan had resigned himself to his fate.
Midoriya slid the door open for Aizawa to walk through, following quickly behind.

Recovery Girl did a double take at the sight of them and pushed herself away from her desk, using her stick to get to her feet.

“What happened?” She asked, gesturing for Aizawa to lay Kacchan down on one of the beds.
“That’s what we are about to find out.” Aizawa responded, crossing his arms now that they were free.
Midoriya was trying his best to blend into the background.
“I’m fine! I really don’t need to be here.” Kacchan complained from where he was sprawled on the bed. The fact that he hadn’t even tried to sit up told Midoriya that his friend was feeling worse than he was letting on.

Aizawa ignored him, turning to Recovery Girl.
“He passed out at the end of homeroom. I’m now under the impression that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened and Bakugou has failed to bring it to my attention.”
Recovery Girl frowned disapprovingly at Kacchan who tried to glare back at her.

“What makes you think there have been other episodes?” She asked, walking back to her desk to grab some medical equipment.
Aizawa then turned to Midoriya, raising an eyebrow and gesturing for him to join them.
He did so, wringing his hands together as he approached.
“Midoriya reacted almost instinctively when Bakugou fainted-“ “I didn’t faint, fuck you!” “-and their conversation after Bakugou woke up sounded like they they had gone through this before.”

Recovery Girl hummed thoughtfully. Whilst Aizawa was talking, she began looking Kacchan over; checking his temperature and listening to his heart.
“Well young man, you have a low grade fever and an elevated heart rate. Do you feel like explaining yourself?” She posed it as a question, but Midoriya could tell she expected an answer.

Kacchan sighed and gritted his teeth. He looked over at Midoriya.
‘What should I do?’ His expression said clearly.
Midoriya mustered a reassuring look.
‘They need to know. Do you want me to tell them?’
Bakugou shook his head and tried to sit himself up. Midoriya approached the bed and helped to prop him up on some pillows.

“It’s my quirk.” He said finally, when Midoriya backed away again.
Aizawa blinked in surprise, “what do you mean?”
“It’s not just my hands that sweat nitroglycerin, my whole body does. There’s a reason that medical professionals only prescribe nitroglycerin in small doses. It has all kinds of side effects. Low blood pressure, heart palpitations, vertigo, headaches and dizziness just to name a few. If I use my quirk a lot, I sweat more. The less I sweat, the more the nitroglycerin builds up.”
Everyone could tell Bakugou didn’t want to be telling them all this, but they remained silent and forced him to continue.
“There’s a certain amount I need to use my explosions in a day, even if it’s just creating sparks, it helps to reduce the build up. But if I use it too much, it’s like my body doesn’t know it needs to stop and it just keeps producing it. Normally I need to do something to bring my blood pressure up so it lessens the effects. Last night, I trained for too long and by the time we got to the dorms, I was too tired for that shit, so my blood pressure must have dropped by the time I woke up.”

Kacchan rubbed his face looking uncomfortable. Midoriya could understand why. Kacchan had spent most of his life trying to hide this from people, not wanting to be seen as weak. The only thing holding him back from comforting his childhood friend was the knowledge that he’d probably get hit for even trying.

“To make a long story short; my blood pressure dropped, I felt like shit, then I stood up too quick and passed out. Are we done now?” He asked looking at his teacher.
Aizawa looked troubled by the revelation.
“You’re telling me, every time you use your quirk, there’s the possibility you might be overdosing on nitroglycerin afterwards?” The man asked dangerously quiet.
Kacchan paled slightly at his tone and looked away.
“I wouldn’t have put it quite like that but sure, why not.” He replied.

Aizawa ran a hand down his face. He took a second to pull himself together before speaking again.
“What about the seizures?”
Kacchan cleared his throat, “they don’t happen often, only when I’ve really overdone it.”
Midoriya decided now was the best time to speak up as well.
“It’s true. As far as I’m aware, Kacchan has only had a handful of seizures in the past, and they’ve all happened after strenuous training or when he’s gotten sick. Even then, it’s really not likely to happen but we know what to do if it does.”

Aizawa seemed to mull this over for a few seconds before turning to Recovery Girl who was now writing notes of everything they had said.
“You said he has a slight fever right?” He asked, causing Midoriya and Kacchan to slightly tense up, shooting frantic looks at each other as if they had just been caught doing something they shouldn’t.

Recovery Girl nodded.
“Yes. I would have said it’s nothing to worry about, but given this new information, it may be best to keep an eye on him until it passes.”
Kacchan spluttered indignantly.
“I don’t need a babysitter, I’ve been doing just fine on my own!”
Both pro hero’s ignored him, Recovery Girl heading back to her desk and turning on her computer.
“I’ll update his medical file and do some more research into nitroglycerin. He can go back to the dorms for now, but I want him to be monitored and brought back here tomorrow morning. If anything happens before then, let me know immediately.” She said, starting to type away on her keyboard.

Aizawa nodded and turned back to the two boys.
“You heard her. Midoriya, you’re free to go back to class. Bakugou, I’m escorting you back to Heights Alliance. Don’t think for a second I’m going to let you pull a stunt like this again.” He said before helping Kacchan to stand up. Midoriya noticed how slow his teacher was going and inwardly smiled. Aizawa may have been angry with them, but he still cared.

“Good luck, Kacchan. I hope feel better soon.” He said cheekily, earning a withering glare. He made his way towards the door.
“Problem child,” he heard Aizawa call and he turned back to face the man, hating how used to that nickname he had gotten.
“Yes, sensei?” He asked, nervously.
“Don’t think you are off the hook from hiding this from me as well. We will discuss your punishment later.” He said, crushing any hope Midoriya had at being let off easy.
“Yes, sensei…” he said sadly.