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palephilosopherstranger · 3 days ago

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Doctor Midoriya

CW: mentions of blood & injury, angst

Pain.

That was the last thing Katsuki remembered. The feeling of his insides being ripped apart, the metallic taste in his mouth, and darkness. It was possible that the adrenaline dulled the pain a little at first, but eventually it hit like a freight train. It was an odd feeling all together, being on death’s front door. He had done his own research into near death experiences, not that he ever planned on dying in the line of duty, but it didn’t hurt to be prepared.

A battle waged within him. Fighting for control; for hostile takeover. There was no blinding light, no silver lining. He was definitely not numb, there was no euphoric, overwhelming sense of calm. Just pain.

Agony.

Darkness.

The blinding light came when he finally woke in his hospital bed, and needless to say, he was a bit disoriented. The sterile smell of antiseptic stung his nose while the chill in the air covered his body in gooseflesh. His throat was sore, severely dry, and the still present taste of iron wasn’t helping either. Worst of all, his whole body was still in a continuous state of agony.

He wiggled his toes, finding he still had both his legs. That’s good. He tried to sit up, and a bolt of pain shot through his midsection and ricocheted off his left shoulder. Katsuki gritted his teeth, and tried to pull his arm toward his abdomen on reflex, but that just hurt more. What the fuck happened?

“Oh, good! You’re finally awake,” said a voice at his side. He hadn’t even noticed anyone standing there, his surroundings coming second place to checking his body, and the sudden voice made him flinch away. Katsuki groaned from the sudden movement, more electricity shooting out from his abdomen.

The voice apologized. They sounded sincere. There was an odd, sultry familiarity to that voice. It struck him deep; knocking at the door to his memories.

Katsuki tried to look over and up at the person standing next to his bed, eyes still swimming and struggling to focus. "Water," Katsuki asked, his voice scratchy and harsh.

As if his return to consciousness had been predicted, a plastic cup with a bendy straw was already sitting there waiting for him. They placed the cup in front of Katsuki, and maneuvered the straw to his lips.

He had been parched alright; The water in itself seemed to bring new life to him, soothing his achy soul like balm.

“Where am I?” Katsuki asked.

“You’re at the Musutafu General Hospital,” the man responded, and took the cup back. “You got here just in time, I might add.” He turned to pick up his clipboard, then sat down on a stool.

Now that the man was closer to him, or at least more in his line of sight, Katsuki could see that this man was definitely a doctor. As if the white coat and the stethoscope around his neck wasn’t telling enough. And he was handsome—strong jawline and a friendly face. Surely, the kind of face anyone would want to wake up to. Though his lighthearted smile didn't seem to match the way his emerald eyes observed the blonde with a certain absence of emotion.

The first sight of green curls caused Katsuki’s anxiety to spike. Although they were combed back and styled in a professional manner, Katsuki could still make out the wavy locks under whatever product he was using. Katsuki's heart skipped a beat upon seeing the freckles that lightly speckled his soft features. His eyes bounced from one to the other as if he were studying to make sure each freckle was in its proper place. They were all there all right … Those freckles … ?! Katsuki immediately tried to sit up again, out of shock, at the sight of the childhood friend he hadn’t seen since middle school.

Katsuki hissed in pain, the other put a hand out to stop him. "Please, don't pop your stitches. They took me forever."

Oh gods, his voice too.

His voice.

What the fuck?

For someone with such a beautiful face, his voice was like an intoxicating poison, made for a slow death. Was he hallucinating? There's no way this is happening right now. Katsuki couldn't come up with a reasonable enough response, still gawking at the sight of him. There was only one word his mind could conjure.

"D-Deku?"

Their eyes met, and they held each other's gaze. The stare brimmed with too much potential meaning to begin to interpret. After a brief pause, his expression hardened. "Don't call me that." Izuku was the first to look away, bringing his attention back to his clipboard. "How are your pain levels?"

"Wha-?"

"Pain levels. On a scale from one to ten, what level is your pain?"

Katsuki typically had a high pain tolerance, but this was excruciating. Every movement felt like he was being stabbed, but there was no way he was going to let the nerd know that. "Four," he replied, simply.

Izuku looked up at him again. Then after a moment, he nodded and scribbled something down. "Just as stubborn as ever, aren't you? You know you really shouldn't lie when it's your health in question." Izuku stood up from his stool, and removed his stethoscope from around his neck. "May I?"

Since when did the nerd get so fucking hot?

Now that Katsuki could see him better, he looked … bigger— broader. Perhaps even a little taller too. It was hard to tell since Katsuki had to look up at him from his hospital bed. His boyish, chubby cheeks had filled out and his eyes seemed to harden with maturity. Obviously, Izuku wouldn't look the same as he did in middle school, but he didn't expect Izuku to age in such a way.

Not that he thought he'd ever see Izuku again. But still, he almost expected scrawny, clumsy Deku. With his bright, curious, trusting eyes … always chasing after him. Always right behind him.

Katsuki almost didn't hear Izuku's question, finding himself too baffled and transfixed by his old friend.

" Fuck —yeah, whatever."

Izuku's hand slipped through the small v-neck opening of the hospital gown, placing the cold diaphragm to Katsuki's exposed chest. A shaky breath escaped his parted lips as he did so, and Izuku gently placed his other hand on Katsuki's back to support him. Katsuki took notice of how cautious he was; taking care not to actually touch Katsuki's bare skin as he checked his vitals. Izuku checked Katsuki's heart, and instructed him to take deep breaths to hear his breathing.

Katsuki hadn't realized how hard it was to breathe in his condition, like there was fire in his chest. According to Izuku, everything sounded fine, but he sure as hell didn't feel fine.

"What the fuck happened to me, Deku?"

Izuku rolled his eyes, then placed his stethoscope back around his neck. "I don't know exactly what happened. Long story short, you were injured while fighting off a villain. You have three fractured ribs, and you hit your head as you fell. You were impaled three times."—Izuku pointed with two fingers as he spoke—"Once in the shoulder, again in the abdomen, and also in your upper thigh." Izuku paced slowly, and stopped at the foot of the bed.

"Clearly, the villain was trying to hit the most viable places. The barbs you were impaled with contained a toxin, which ultimately immobilized you. You lost a lot of blood. Luckily we had O negative available, and we were able to quickly perform a blood transfusion. And since the villain was caught, we had quick access to the toxin so an antidote could be made for you. You've been out cold for two days while your body extruded the rest of the toxin."

Katsuki couldn't help his look of shock. "Two days?!" Izuku nodded. "Fuckin' christ, are there no healers here at this shitty hospital, Deku?"

Izuku ignored Katsuki's sly remark about his hospital being shitty, and cut directly to the source of his irritation. "Listen, let's stick to the formalities, all right," Izuku demanded, crossing his arms across his chest. The sleeves of his coat strained against his biceps, accentuating just how broad he was now. "The staff here are under the impression that we don't know each other. So, no 'Deku' , no 'Kacchan' . That ship sailed a long time ago." Izuku paused, letting his words marinate. "So, you can call me Doctor Midoriya."

Katsuki was still stunned. Fuckin' what?! "Doc—?"

"Now, would you prefer Bakugou, or Dynamight?"

The blonde grimaced, and groaned with disgust. Neither his name, nor his hero name, seemed to sound quite right coming from him. Something akin to nails on a chalkboard. "Ugh—don't call me that!"

Izuku shrugged, and said: "Right! So, Bakugou it is, then." Katsuki felt his left eye twitch. "And to answer your question, there are healers here, but with your injuries, low stamina, and severe blood loss, any healing quirk would have killed you."

At that moment, Katsuki couldn't find it in himself to care. Too distracted by the way the fluorescents sharpened Izuku's features, and gave his emerald curls a certain glow.

There’s no way this was happening. Was he hallucinating? Fuck, he could actually be dead right now, unable to really tell based on the angel that was standing at the foot of his bed, or maybe it was the mind fog clouding his judgement.

"What the fuck, why—why wouldn’t they know about us?"

The words were out before Katsuki even realized what he said. The way Izuku's brows furrowed made Katsuki worry that he didn't understand the question, but then he realized, in hindsight, the answer to that question was obvious.

"You want to be associated with me all of a sudden," Izuku asked softly. Disbelief was obvious in his tone. It might have been a little sad too, but surely Katsuki was imagining that as well.

Katsuki stayed quiet, not really knowing how to answer that question.

Us.

It sounds so foreign on his tongue. There hadn’t been an ‘us’ in a long time, especially after how he had left things between them. He knew that. Why would he say that?

Izuku sighed, and stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat. "Doctors aren't supposed to treat friends or family. And for what it's worth, I wanted to oversee your treatment and recovery."

“Fuck—” Katsuki breathed. He seemed to be growing more confused as this went on. Katsuki couldn't decide if he was surprised and delighted, or if it was just karma coming back to bite him in the ass. "It feels like it’s been fucking forever."

Izuku nodded, and sat back down. "It has been. It's been—what? Fourteen? Fifteen years?"

"How old are you," Katsuki asked suddenly. The idea that he'd somehow time-traveled or fell into an alternate dimension seemed about as reasonable as Izuku sitting in front of him right now.

At his odd, random question, Izuku set his clipboard down and leaned in a little closer to him, imploring him with eyes that seemed to know something that he didn't. Katsuki didn't move away this time. "How old are you?"

How old am I? "Twenty-nine."

Another nod. "What month are we in currently?"

Katsuki found he had to really think about it. "September?"

"That's right. So, how old am I?"

Okay, his birthday was in April; Izuku's was in July. "Twenty-nine?"

A small smile perched on Izuku's lips at that. "Twenty-nine," Izuku mimicked, then took a moment to write something else down. Maybe the questions had a purpose.

So, it had been fourteen years. It'd be fifteen years the following April. Fuck, it really had been that long. They were both fifteen the last time they saw each other; right before the start of the school year and his birthday that year. He'd had Izuku in his life for almost exactly half of it, and the other half without him in it.

Katsuki desperately wanted to ask why Izuku was there, despite him saying earlier that he wanted to oversee Katsuki's treatment and recovery. It didn't seem to answer why. But instead, another question came to mind.

"How's auntie?"

Izuku's smile dropped at his question. Katsuki wasn't sure if it was still welcome to refer to Izuku's mother that way anymore. But what surprised him more was Izuku's far off look as he stared in the corner of the room, and his mechanical reply.

"She's fine."

The blonde didn't respond, trying to analyze Izuku's reaction. Izuku’s gaze returned to Katsuki then, giving him another lighthearted grin. "Well, anyway, I guess congratulations are in order!"

"Haah?!"

"Well, despite your current condition, you did it!" Izuku threw both his arms out toward Katsuki, excitedly. "You're a Pro Hero now! I always knew you'd do it!"

The praises made his heart backflip in his chest. He inhaled a shaky breath, unable to form the right words to respond. He’d heard them plenty of times over. But it was Izuku saying it that affected him so much. Izuku was complimenting him now? In his current state? That was fucking bullshit. He was in a hospital bed, barely able to move, vulnerable as fuck, and Izuku was choosing now to be the right time for praise? But Katsuki also wasn't so sure he deserved it either, any of it , for that matter.

Izuku was smiling at him now, even though it didn’t reach his eyes. Katsuki didn't deserve that smile. If this was the real Deku, he was too good for Katsuki. It just didn’t make any sense.

It's like Izuku was being flaunted in front of him, complimenting him, and for what?

To make him realize how much of a piece of shit he was after leaving Izuku the way he did. Which he already knew, there was no need for the universe to remind him.

Quirkless, useless Deku. Why don't you do us all a favor and take a swan dive off the building? Pray you're born with a quirk in your next life, shitty nerd!

Katsuki squeezed his eyes shut at the memory, and he couldn't help the next words out of his mouth. It was easier to push Deku away, and be a mean little shit to him, than to accept his praises. "I don't need your hollow fucking compliments, Deku."

Izuku's smile dropped. "What do you mean?"

"You've always been fuckin’ jealous of me, I know you're only saying these things because you think you can look down on me. Well, you can't!"

Izuku rested his chin in the palm of his hand, observing Katsuki closely. "What have I been jealous about?"

"You know what, shit nerd! I got a quirk, and you didn't. I got into UA, and you couldn't. I'm a fuckin' Pro now, and you never will be. You fuckin’ wish you were in my position!" Katsuki tried to cross his arms, but found he couldn't without gritting his teeth in pain. So he balled the sheets in his fists instead; a motion Izuku noticed.

Izuku’s brows shot up with a kind of disheartened shock. "On the contrary, Bakugou, I don't wish to be in your position."

Katsuki leaned away from him, slightly. Who the fuck is this person? There's no way this is his Deku. "You know what? I don't think I like the idea of you treating me, Doctor Deku !" He hollered.

It was a flat out lie, of course, but Katsuki refused to let Izuku see him this way, not for a second longer! Even though it was evident Izuku had already stitched him up, cared for him, and seen him at his lowest. The words filled him with regret. He wished he pull them back into his stupid, filthy mouth.

Izuku pressed his lips together into a straight line, indents of disappointment clear on his handsome face, as if he wasn't really sure what else he expected. "Well, it's good to hear your injuries haven't affected your memory much."

Izuku paused, seeming to wait and see if Katsuki had anything else to add to his outburst. When he didn't, a pained expression flashed across Izuku's face, then it was quickly masked by something else. Katsuki felt the atmosphere shift.

"At least give me a little credit. I went through medical school, I completed my residency, and I still have the debt to show for it. I deserve to be here, just as much as you deserve to be a Hero.," Izuku raked his fingers through his once perfectly combed hair, and sighed. "But if that's the way you feel, then fine."

He stood up again, and lazily headed for the door. Even though his mouth had already gotten him into enough trouble, Katsuki was trying desperately to find his voice. Just take it back, Dammit. Why was he like this?

"My physician's assistant will do any further check-up until you're discharged. We really should keep you for another couple days for observation, but you do whatever you feel is right, Bakugou."

Fuck . Katsuki cringed every time Izuku used his name. What the hell was wrong with him?

Just fucking apologize you idiot!

"I'll make sure the nurse comes in to give you more pain medication, hopefully you can actually rest and focus on healing."

Say something!

Izuku pulled the door open, then paused half way through the door. He took a step back, and kicked the door shut.

"You know," Izuku started, and turned to face Katsuki again,. "nNot that I need to explain myself to you, nor do I think you'll care."

Izuku stuck his hands back in his pockets, and swayed one foot back and forth in thought. Like a young boy talking to his crush.

"You were right on all accounts, Kacchan—" Katsuki nearly gasped. "All but one. I did want a quirk and I did want to be a hero. I don't necessarily think I could have gotten into UA, but I didn't really see the point in trying after everything was said and done. And someone important to me, told me that I could never be a hero without a quirk."

Who? Me? No, that couldn't be right. How many times did I tell him that and he never backed down once … Aauntie? No, she would never tell him that either ...

"So, I set aside that pipe dream, and sought out a more suitable career path. In truth, all I wanted to do was help people. You knew that. I wanted to make a difference," Izuku said. "And you know what? I do, and all without having a quirk."

Katsuki just stayed quiet, continuing to listen to Izuku ramble and tell him off. If anything, this was what he deserved, and he knew that. Plus, it had been years, he could probably listen to Izuku go on and on about almost anything and everything. Not realizing how much he'd actually missed it. Katsuki didn't dare interrupt him, just continuing to clutch the bedding in his fists.

Izuku waved his hand dismissively again. "Now, I may not be a hero by your standards. It certainly isn't part of my official title. Hell, you don't even need to acknowledge that I helped you. Not here, not now, not fifteen years ago."

Katsuki's eyes widened again, completely ashamed and stunned. He hadn't thought about the sludge monster incident in years. That was a low blow, even for Izuku.

"And, you can pretend all you want that your condition isn't as bad as it is, Kacchan. But I want you to remember something …

At the end of the day, when you get injured, you end up right back here just like everyone else."

Suddenly, it felt like someone had just stolen all the oxygen from the room, as panic squeezed his throat. His words cast a shiver of goosebumps across his skin with an air of authority that radiated off his body like the crack of a whip. It wasn't a warning, by any means. Just a way of putting Katsuki in his place, and yanking him down off his high horse.

"Goodbye, Kacchan."

With that, Izuku opened the door again, and stormed out. For the moment, the silence in his hospital room was deafening. Only the sound of his rapidly beating heart filled his ears. Whether the sound was coming from the monitor or his own chest, he couldn't tell. But it was driving him mad. The more he listened, the louder it got.

There was something final about his words.

Goodbye, Kacchan —

The way he'd said it. No more chances.

Goodbye, Kacchan —

He was almost positive he'd just heard that nickname for the final time.

Goodbye …

A few minutes later, a nurse came in to administer more pain medication, just like Izuku said. But he didn't speak to her, and she didn't speak to him.

Maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought. That thought was Katsuki's only attempt at keeping the panic at bay.

I'll just apologize … Deku's always forgave me before … it's fine, I just have to apologize …

Over the next few days, as he stayed for observation, Katsuki tried to ask for Izuku multiple times, so he could try to make amends. But Izuku never came, and the feeling of unease grew with each passing hour.

For full disclosure, this was originally posted on ao3 and has several more chapters. I just wanted to try posting it here. It’s not complete yet, but I’m trying to get some motivation back. Super big thanks in advance if you took the time to read it.

#bkdk #dkbk #fanfic #angst #mha #my hero academia #ao3 #doctor Izuku Midoriya #pro hero Katsuki Bakugou

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