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The door slammed shut behind Shouto as he stormed out of their apartment, his left side steaming dangerously due to the rage currently coursing through his system; he'd had another argument with Katsuki over some useless shit. He loved the blond on normal days - adored him actually - even if his personality could scare off a troll, but at times like these, when they had foolish arguments that had one of them storming out, he wanted to do nothing more but to throttle the other.

They'd be back to normal the next day anyways - that's how they always worked; argue, cool down, talk about it briefly, go back to normal, and repeat. It wasn't exactly healthy, but what would anyone expect from two extremely emotionally stunted people. What mattered is that they loved each other, and if they went too far in arguments, then neither of them hesitated in apologising. They've been together long enough to be mature about it.

Since he had been the one to storm out this time, Shouto decided to simply go for a stroll until he could stop thinking of wanting to throw a punch at Katsuki. The weather wasn't so horrible, which slightly made his mood better, and after an hour or two he would come back to their apartment and they would either talk it out while watching a movie and eating dinner or have amazing make-up sex. Depended on the mood of the situation.

It was only his luck that he got caught in a villain attack. No hero costume, nearly no time to react, and definitely no energy, though he couldn't exactly do nothing - so he did an Izuku and rushed straight in the middle of the chaos. No other heroes were on the scene, which was understandable seeing as he was there when the attack literally began, and maybe the lack of distraction from worrying about others made it possible for him to have the villain (who seemed to posses some strong form of telekinesis) cornered so quickly.

Cars had been carelessly thrown at him, trucks, bins, even pieces of a building that the quirk had ripped off, especially one single building that they kept fighting nearby. Shouto's ice deflected most, his training some others, and his fire on some smaller things, until eventually the villain ended up knocked over on the ground with Shouto standing over him, two seconds away from obtaining him.

Then everything went downhill because the villain got desperate in that exact moment, and in an attempt to save his own skin, he reached out his hands to rip away another piece of the already damaged building, but he had apparently not been paying enough attention to what he was doing, as his quirk must tugged at the one of the major support pillars. Suddenly, all Shouto heard was a booming crack from behind him. And judging by the way that the villain's eyes widened, it had most definitely not been intentional.

Turning swiftly, Shouto saw the building rapidly crashing down towards him, making him quickly erect an ice barrier abound himself, hoping that no civilian had been stupid enough to stand anywhere close to him and the villain during the fight, and therefore anywhere near the collapsing building. It was inevitable for him to be crushed, but nobody else had to suffer. At the high risk of death, he suddenly had an image of Katsuki during their fight earlier pop into his head, and the only thing Shouto thought was, maybe this is karma, before the world around him went black.

When he came to his senses again, Shouto realised that he must have lost consciousness and had probably been knocked out for a while as everything around him was deadly silent and dark. There was a stillness in the air like what it'd feel during the night in the countryside, but when he tried to breathe in air, he instead got a mouthful of dust that sent him into a painful coughing fit. Moving, even when he was simply coughing, made it feel like his body was on fire - and not in the way his quirk worked thank you very much - but actually being burned alive.

Next, he realised that he was lying on his stomach with his arms above his head; the ground below him felt freezing and if it weren’t for his quirk, then he would surely be a shivering mess right now. Shouto tried to wiggle slightly, but the small action only made him release a mewl of pain when a sharp stab of agony travelled through his midsection. There had to be something pinning him down then, but he couldn't feel the pressure.

He felt numb; that was the next worrying observation that he made - it hurt when he moved and he was aware that he was injured, but when he laid still like this, Shouto could almost pretend that nothing was wrong with him. There was also a coldness seeping into his bones, and it had nothing to do with his quirk, or the freezing ground below him, but it was more like his whole body temperature had suddenly dropped ten degrees, mixing perfectly alongside the numbness in his limbs.

He needed to analyse his injuries, quickly.

There was no light however; if he had to guess, then he must have been buried deeply beneath the rubble as he had been right underneath the building during it's collapse, but there wasn't anything directly next to him that he could feel when he slightly moved, so he would say that for now there was a little cave around him created by parts of the broken building that kept him safe from being crushed to death. Maybe the wall of ice that he had erected around himself was what had partly saved him, or maybe it was a pretty messed up miracle - nevertheless, that meant that Shouto was safe from becoming a pancake for now within the little safe space.

However, that also meant that he had a limited supply of air.

Don't panic, Shouto thought quickly before he could, breathe slowly and save air.

After a few seconds of collecting himself, he carefully moved his arms and thanked every god above when he only felt a small stab of pain in his left wrist - it wasn't unbearable, so he predicted that it wasn't broken or shattered, though with the way his whole body felt numb he couldn't exactly be sure of that. His right wrist felt completely fine however, so at least he could move his right arm and could fully rely on his right side - and that was fine, he had spent years doing so after all.

A sudden coughing fit overtook him again, and it only got worst as Shouto accidentally inhaled more surrounding dust. He felt confused though, as he had been careful not to inhaled deeply and therefore didn't know what brought the coughing attack on, because there was no way that he was coming down with a cold right this second-Oh. 

Shouto's mind shut down for a moment as he felt himself cough up a liquid that sent a metallic taste in his mouth.

Well, shit, he thought.

When the coughing slowly resided, leaving his mind just a little bit foggier and his body a little bit number, Shouto realised that he really must get a grasp on his injuries. It was no use lying there helplessly when he could have a rib piercing his lung that was causing him to violently hack up blood. There was no way to tell how long he'd been passed out, he had no idea if his colleagues were already at the scene dealing with a collapsed building, and clue if they even knew that he was buried underneath it in the first place. 

Had the villain survived? Maybe he used his quirk to shield himself, but hadn't Shouto tried to do the same thing? Didn't get him particularly good results, did it?

Stop it, his mind snapped at him, feeling depressed will get you nowhere - focus on staying alive, you idiot.

He needed light to see - the cold numbness that continued spreading through his limbs sent alarm bells even in his foggy brain. Fire was the first thing that came into his mind, but Shouto had no idea how truly mangled his wrist was, and more importantly, there was so much dust around him that a spark of fire could lead to a catastrophe. So, his whole quirk could not help him in any way, shape, or form right now. Great. There had to be something else that he could do surely to help catalogue his injuries -

His phone, which he had thankfully taken with him when he left the apartment after the fight. That conclusion took way too long to reach.

Carefully, Shouto wiggled his right arm, bending it at the elbow and then reached slowly into the pocket of his jacket, painfully feeling the strain that the action put on his body. Thankfully, he had put his phone into the pocket on his right-hand side, so he didn't have to use his injured wrist, or even - god forbid - try to lift his torso. It took around half a minute, but eventually he was able to take out his phone and lie it next to his head, breathing out a sign of relief when he stretched his arm out next to him. There was something horribly wrong with his midsection, and it didn't help that he could vaguely feel his right hand being covered in a sticky liquid after reaching into his jacket pocket.

He couldn't allow himself to panic yet, so instead he tapped the screen of his phone and then promptly winced once the thing lit up brightly. A hot throb of pain spread through his head and he hoped to the gods above that he didn't also have a head injury. After a few seconds as the pain slowly resided, Shouto tapped his once again blackened phone screen, and this time he was slightly more prepared for the brightness, even if it hurt the same. He noticed distantly that his screen was severely cracked, though he decided that that was the least of his concerns right now when his dual eyes locked onto his right hand that was hoovering over the minimal source of light.

A hand that was soaked in blood, and thus leaving red fingerprints on the electrical device.

Shouto sucked in a slow breath and shakily turned on the flashlight option, suddenly feeling like he was in one of those horror movies that Katsuki loved to watch - he then flipped the phone upside-down, causing the light to slightly illuminate the space. With slight hesitation, he next twisted his head to look over his shoulder, his neck protesting terribly at the action, but was forgotten entirely a moment later when he realised that -

Oh. That's why he felt so cold.

There was a metal pole impaling him through his midsection. And there was blood everywhere.

He felt the blood rush from his face, probably leaving him looking like a ghost, if he already wasn't and he had to fight against the sudden nausea that tried to overcome him. Shouto's foggy brain thought of anything he could do in this situation as he took controlled breaths against the bile threatening to come up his throat, but he soon realised that there was no way that he could help himself right now. There was no way that he could apply pressure, it'd be pointless anyways, and cauterising the wound (if he daringly used his quirk) would still leave him with a massive pole going through his abdomen.

The pole wasn't the only thing leaving his immobile, as there was also a huge chunk of the building wall settled across his legs, obstructing him from moving or even feeling them. Another coughing fit overtook him, and he turned his head sideways again, giving his neck some relief while he started to violently hack, blood spilling past his lips again and bringing the nasty metallic taste in his mouth. At least it distracted Shouto from vomiting, though this time his mind was aware enough of his injury to register the fact that every time he coughed, his abdomen muscles tightened and moved the pole agonisingly within him - definitely not good. 

The sudden ringing resounding from his phone made him flinch, and it took a second for him to realise that he was being called. Hastily, the heterochromiac moved his right hand and flipped his phone right-side up again, shrouding the space in near darkness once more as the flashlight faced the ground, but he wasn't focused on that now - he felt so weak that he nearly cried when he saw Izuku's face on the broken screen and quickly accepted the call, pressing the speaker button straight after.

"Hey, Shou," Izuku said over the phone, and it felt so fucking good to hear the voice of his best friend that Shouto could almost imagine that he wasn't buried beneath a building. "Listen, I know that it's yours and Kacchan's day off, but there was a building collapse caused by a villain and we really need all the help that we can get at the moment. Do you think that you two could come along and help clear it up? You can tell Kacchan that I'll owe him a favour if it makes it better."

It honestly took a moment for Shouto's dazed brain to realise that he should respond after Izuku stopped talking. "I'm already at the scene," he said hoarsely, and then winced at the pain that speaking caused to his throat.

"You are?" Izuku asked in surprise and then paused. "Everything alright? You sound a bit rough and if you're coming down with a cold then maybe you should go back home. I don't want you overworking yourself if you're not feeling well."

"I'm not—" Shouto broke off, thinking of the best way to tell his best friend that he was currently lying in a small pocket hole under a ton of rubble and slowly dying because there was a pole going right through his body.

"Shou?"

"I'm right at the scene," Shouto croaked out desperately, his voice straining against the effort it took to talk. "'Zuku, I'm right here at... at the scene. The villain- I was here when he... he..." The sentence was so easy, yet so hard to finish - when he collapsed a building on top of me.

There was silence on the other end of the call and Shouto feared that maybe his phone had run out of charge or something. He closed his eyes tightly, feeling the tears welling up within them - he felt so exhausted, and he was still so cold, and numb, and trapped.

"Shou, what happened?" Izuku's voice was sharp now, a tone that expected no bullshit, yet the usage of Shouto's nickname brought such a sense of familiarity to the heterochromiac that he knew that the tone was simply used to make him focus, because Izuku was smart, he was so smart, and there was no way that the other didn't realise that there was something terribly wrong - if Shouto had to guess, then Izuku probably already realised the situation that Shouto was in now.

"We... we were fighting, I nearly had him apprehended and... and then he used his quirk to catch onto the building behind me," Shouto rambled, his hoarse voice sounding horrible to his own ears, but it didn't deter him because Izuku could hear him, could know what had happened, even if speaking caused him more pain. "I... I must have blacked out, but I'm stuck here now - and it's so dark and cold and—" Another coughing fit overtook him before he could finish speaking and the blood coming up his throat caused him to choke slightly.

"Fuck..." He distantly heard Izuku say - it was shocking slightly, as the other rarely swore.

Shouto could feel the pole moving against his muscle tissue again and it hurt so badly that it brought tears to his eyes. The coughing came down to a gradual decrease, leaving tremors to go through his body and soon he lay there exhausted, breathing in raspy breaths that would have made him wince if he didn't feel so dissociated.

"'Zuku?" he asked weakly, grasping onto the most solid thing right now.

"I'm right here, Shou, right here," Izuku said comfortingly, his voice sounding wobbly as if he was keeping his emotions under check. Shouto had known him long enough to realise that Izuku was trying not to cry and he wanted to do nothing else but to hug his best friend right now. "Shou? I need you to listen to me carefully, alright? I'm right here at the scene and I'm going to get you out - the team is going to be here soon to help, 'kay? But right now, I need you to give a status report - tell me all your injuries, even if it's a broken finger. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah," Shouto said, clearing his throat and swallowing to slightly get rid of the metallic taste in his mouth. "Yeah, I can... I can do that."

"Good, that's great," Izuku replied. "Let's start small, alright? Smallest injury, Shou, what is it?"

"My head," he answered after a second of thought. "It's pounding beyond belief and my... my brain's a bit foggy, but I don't... I don't think I have a concussion."

Izuku hummed on the other end, and there was some loud noise in the background. Sirens could be distantly heard and there appeared to be people talking, but the green-eyed boy seemed to be focused on Shouto entirely. "That's good, at least you can think straight - now slightly bigger injuries. Tell me about those, Shou."

Shouto blinked twice to clear his head more. "My wrist," he said. "It's... it's something - I don't know if... if it's broken or sprained, but it hurts, 'Zuku." Somewhat distantly he realised that he sounded like a small child whining to their mother about a cut, and the ridiculous idea of having Izuku as his mother figure brought a small, amused smile to his lips - at least he'd be better at being a parent than Shouto would, and maybe... maybe he would live long enough to meet Izuku's kids in the future.

"Shou? Still with me?" Izuku's worried voice reached his ears and he realised that he must have spaced out - not good, he needed to keep a straight head.

"Yeah, I'm still here, 'Zuku," he said, hearing an audible sigh of relief from the other end of the call.

"Alright, Shou, tell me your biggest injuries, 'kay?" Izuku said softly, and distantly in the background the talking and the noise got louder. Shouto would have wondered more on what was happening on Izuku's end if he wasn't trying so hard to focus on the conversation.

"A chunck of the... the wall is lying across my legs," Shouto stated hoarsely, feeling the way his body was quickly starting to weaken and the numb feeling starting to spread worryingly fast. He didn't want it there, because if he actually felt the pain he was in then it wouldn't be so appealing to simply lay back and soundly go to sleep. Something he most definitely didn't want to do, because sleep meant death. "I can't... I can't move my legs, neither of them - I don't know if they're broken or shattered. I can't feel the pain, 'Zuku, it's... it's so cold and I don't want to feel so numb because I know that pain would keep me grounded."

"Shou—" Izuku choked out.

"There's... there's also a—" Shouto broke off here, clenching his eyes tightly to try to stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks - he was unsuccessful, but he didn't want to break it to Izuku that he was currently bleeding out, badly, and that by the rate that he could feel his heart slowing down, there might be a chance that this would be the last time that they would ever talk. The thought made him want to curl up into a ball and cry. Nevertheless, he took the steadiest breath that he could so that he could rasp out, "'Zuku, there's a pole imbedded through my abdomen and... and it's pinning me to the ground."

A choked sob sounded from the other end, but then almost immediately Izuku started talking, even if his voice was watery and thick with tears, "Shou, Shou, listen to me, 'kay? We're gonna get you out of here. The others are - oh thank fuck." Shouto could suddenly hear the background noise that he'd been hearing (specifically the talking) increasing, meaning that Izuku must have moved towards it before the green haired boy was speaking again, all the tears gone and determination in his voice thicker than Shouto had ever heard it before, "We're gonna get you out of there, do you hear me, Shou? You're going to be alright and we're going to go to that fucking premier next Tuesday of the movie made about us like we had planned, because if the team and I have to suffer through it, then so do you."

"You're sounding like Katsuki now," Shouto muttered fondly.

"If it gets the idea into your thick skull then I count that as a win," Izuku stated. "Now, I need to do something - I'm right here, but I'm moving the phone away from my ear for a second. You are to stay with me no matter what, alright? Don't you dare close your eyes until we get to you Todoroki Shouto or I will make sure that you're not allowed to eat cold soba throughout your whole recovery."

"Cruel," Shouto croaked out, but a small smile was on his lips. "Love you, 'Zuku."

There was a pause at the other end. "I love you too, Shou - please don't close your eyes, okay?" Izuku whispered softly. And then the noise got even more louder and Shouto could hear Izuku saying something - maybe it was because his brain started to feel like it was more and more underwater, or the fact that the phone was pressed onto something to block out the noise, but the voices sounded uncomprehensive to him. Then the distinguishable volume of someone shouting started and Izuku was saying something back.

Shouto stopped listening minutely to what was happening when another coughing fit overtook him, and it was so much worse than before. His abdominal muscles squeezed tightly around the pole and a sharp gasp left him, only for him to started choking again on the blood filling up his mouth. If he had been more aware and less in pain, then he would have realised that the noise from the phone had quietened down, but the only thing he could do was cough harshly and let the blood dribble disgustingly out of his mouth.

It took longer than he wanted it to for Shouto to catch his breath and once he could breathe again, he only coughed a few harsh hacks and then let his head fall weakly onto the ground again from where he had slightly raised it. His cheek landed in the small puddle of blood he had ejected but he felt so exhausted that he didn't even care anymore.

"Shouto?" It wasn't Izuku speaking this time and as much as he loved his best friend, he couldn't be happier that Izuku had given the phone to someone else because the speaker was someone that could make him feel like nothing else mattered in the world. Shouto felt more tears fill up his eyes at the familiar tender tone of Katsuki's voice - free of the anger and irritation that it had held earlier during their fight.

"Kats..." he mumbled back, wishing that he had energy to do anything more.

"Yeah," Katsuki said from the other side, audibly taking a deep breath. "It's me, and I'm right here, Shou. We're all right here - Uravity has been gradually lifting pieces of the building to carefully get to you. And we're fucking going to get to you, alright? You're going to be fucking fine and then get a fucking lecture from me about doing things Deku-style, because I honestly expected better from you, IcyHot. If the plan sounds like something that Deku would do then we don't fucking do it. It's the first fucking rule - follow it for fuck's sake."

Shouto chuckled weakly and then flinched when the action inflicted pain in his chest. "I know, Kats," he rasped. "I... I wasn't thinking."

"Dam fucking right you weren't," Katsuki said from the other end, and his voice had become different now: It was strained. Shouto felt his heart break when he realised that his boyfriend was trying not to cry - with Izuku it felt like shit, he hated his best friend crying, especially if it was for him, but with Katsuki it was so much more severe as Shouto had seen him cry a total of six times throughout seven years of knowing him.

"Kats..." he murmured sadly and felt his own eyes fill up with tears again, the little salty droplets slowly dropping down his face.

"Shou, fuck," Katsuki choked out. "You're not allowed to fucking leave me, do you understand? I'm the destructive one in this relationship, I'm the one that makes stupid decisions and then pays for them more times than not, that's fucking me, not you!" A small sob sounded on the other end of the call and Shouto could do nothing but lie there, listening to the love of his life as he broke down over the phone.

"I'm sorry," Shouto said weakly.

"No, don't- don't fucking apologise, alright?" Katsuki said softly, a tone he only heard from him when they woke up in the morning and his tough boy persona hadn't settled in properly, or when they were snuggled together on the couch enjoying each other's company. It was also used during the multiple times that Shouto had woken up in the hospital with Katsuki at his side before the lectures started - lectures that involved a fuck ton of swear words because lecturing Shouto on getting himself injured was Katsuki's way of showing that he worried and that he cared.

Their relationship was unusual, he would admit that with a straight face, but it was their own way of loving each other and Shouto wouldn't change it for the world. And Katsuki was right there, on the other end of the phone call, and the blond could do nothing right now but hold onto the hope that Shouto would live. Katsuki couldn't even see the way that the heterochromiac was exhausted beyond belief, the way that he couldn't even lift his head off the ground without wincing in pain, and the way that for the first time in his life he noticed that he was shivering.

Shouto realised that he was dying. The thought struck him somewhat suddenly, even after seeing the pole that had been impaled through him. He never properly thought about how he would die - maybe in a fight against a villain, or maybe succumbing to an injury in a hospital, but he never thought that being involved in the literal aftermath of a villain attack would be his downfall. And now here he was, lying helplessly on the freezing ground and slowly bleeding out to death - he thought of what Katsuki would do after he died. The idea of his lover suffering from grief left a bitter taste in his mouth, and it was not the blood that he had coughed up recently.

He didn't want Katsuki miserable, he didn't want anyone miserable over him and... and he didn't actually want to die yet. Shouto wanted to live long enough to meet Izuku's kids in the future, he wanted to live long enough to get married to Katsuki, to move into the house that the two of them have been observing lately, and he wanted to live a somewhat long life.

"—outo? Shouto!" Katsuki's panicked voice reached his ears. His foggy brain must have spaced out again, eyes falling closed against his will and he didn't have the energy to crack them open again, but he at least needed to respond to Katsuki.

"'M still 'ere, Kats," he slurred, his mouth not cooperating like he wanted it to. All of him felt numb now, and he somewhat knew the fact that he wouldn't be able to even lift a finger if he tried to.

"Stay with me," Katsuki insisted, desperate in a way that screamed polar opposite to his character. "I'm right here, baby, and we're going to get you out in time, alright? Shouto, I need you to- just stay with me, please."

"Tryin' to," Shouto replied - he knew that he had minutes at the most and he didn't want to hear the clear pain in Katsuki's voice. "Talk to me? Please?"

Katsuki took another deep breath on the other end. "Alright, but if I'm talking to you then you better fucking listen because you know I hate it when you ignore me, Shou, understood?" If he could, Shouto would have smiled. "Fine, let's fucking talk about Deku then because I can currently see him running around like a headless chicken - you cannot imagine how fucking dumb he looks. Everyone is following his orders for some reason, and I'm surprised that none of them have decked themselves yet. I could fucking strangle the team right now: Apparently my help would be the least necessary in removing the rubble because of my fucking quirk. I'm quite adept in fucking heavy lifting, but fucking Deku always gets his fucking way. I... I trust them though, and you better fucking do so too, because like I've said, you're fucking getting out of there and welcoming a fucking lecture from me with open arms. Do you hear me, Todoroki Shouto?"

"'Course, Kats," he slurred back and the shaky sigh that came from Katsuki made his sluggish brain slightly register that the other had been preparing for the worse and maybe hadn't been expecting a reply from his end anymore. Shouto was honestly surprised that he hadn't succumbed to unconsciousness yet too.

There was a second of silence between them, only filled with a few sniffles from Katsuki's end, while the lull of sleep started to increasingly call on Shouto.

"I made a reservation at a hotel in Greece, did I tell you?" Katsuki said gently, his voice holding a smile now, and Shouto perked up in curiosity a little bit. No, Katsuki hadn't told him. "Yeah, I don't know if you remember but it's our anniversary in two weeks - we've been together for five years, can you believe it, Shou? Because I fucking can't - sometimes... sometimes I still wonder why you ever agreed to date me in the first place because I was fucking horrible in school, like, what the actual fuck was wrong with me, horrible. Anyways, I know you've always wanted to visit Greece, so I booked a fancy hotel room and decided that it's fucking time that we had a proper break. So now, you're going to fucking stay with me for us to spend a lovely weekend in Greece, yeah?"

Shouto only hummed in reply at the lovely thought of a sunny weekend getaway with Katsuki, while feeling like his tongue weighed a ton, and not having the energy to even think properly now. He felt that he could properly admit now that he was scared. 

"Shouto?" Katsuki asked tearfully. "I'm right here, baby, and I'm not going anywhere, 'kay? So, I need you to stay with me. I-I need you to stay awake and don't you dare fucking leave me, Shou, because I don't- I don't know if I can live without you." Katsuki was crying again, and if Shouto could see his boyfriend right now then he would have probably been faced with tears rolling down his Katsuki's cheeks.

A small whine escaped his throat at the image - he didn't want Katsuki crying, he never wanted Katsuki crying, but the other was reacting so badly because he must have been briefed on his injuries by Izuku, and therefore his boyfriend must be aware of the pole going through his midsection. There was only so much cold and numbness that Shouto could take.

And it seemed that his limit had been reached.

"I love you," he said in a slur in a last major effort to say goodbye to one of the people that he loved most in the world, and he didn't fight it anymore when blackness clouded his vision, dragging him beneath a blanket of calm nothingness with faint echoes of his name being frantically called out.

________________________________

Shouto came to consciousness with the feeling of a warm hand gently holding his own. There was the smell of antiseptics that everyone associated with the hospital and a beeping that his brain soon figured must have been his heart monitor. His head felt heavy, and his mouth full of metaphorical cotton, but being in a hospital, even if he was just coming around to his senses, meant one thing- he was alive.

A small groan left his lips next when he slightly moved his head and the hand that was holding his own suddenly jerked before holding onto him more tightly.

"Shou, baby?"

Katsuki, he thought blissfully.

"You're in a hospital, alright?" Katsuki told him softly and Shouto in response tried to open his eyes. His eyes lids felt so heavy that it honestly took him a few seconds to crack them open, and then promptly whimper at the light and close them once again. "Hey, shh, baby, it's alright - I'll get the lights dimmed, 'kay?"

Shouto gave the barest of nods and Katsuki's hand left his. It only took around a minute or two, but by the time his boyfriend sat down and latched onto his hand again, Shouto felt much more awake and slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust for a few seconds before he looked at the love of his life.

"Hi," he croaked, because pathetically it was the only thing he could think of.

"Hey," Katsuki choked out, and Shouto's heart squeezed tightly in his chest when the blond's eyes started to overflow with tears that fell down his cheeks without restraint. The grip of his hand tightened marginally and Katsuki's breathing fell into a stuttering pattern as he cried openly in a rare display of such strong emotions. Shouto noticed that he looked absolutely wrecked - ash blond hair dishevelled from its usual spikes, face worryingly pale, and eyebags that could rival both Aizawa-sensei's and Shinsou's.

The thought that stress was what caused Katsuki to look like this made Shouto grip his hand back in the best show of strength that he could muster in his state (which wasn't much) and he tried to use his other hand as support to sit up in his hospital bed. Katsuki's mouth immediately opened in protest, but instead a tearful hiccup come out, so he soon shakily moved his free hand to carefully help Shouto sit up comfortably against his pillow.

Once settled, Shouto didn't hesitate to weakly open his arms. "Come 'ere, Kats," he mumbled, before soon finding himself contentedly burying his face into the other's neck with the scent of coffee and nitroglycerin soothingly evading his senses. His free hand (the one that wasn't still tightly held in Katsuki's grasp, though he noticed that the wrist on this hand was bandaged) moved to rub comforting circles on his boyfriend's back while he wept into Shouto's shoulder, though he noticed that Katsuki's grip on his body was almost non-existent (apart from his hand obviously) as if the other thought that he was a porcelain doll that could crack under too much pressure.

"Y-you can't just- just fucking do th-that to me!" Katsuki sobbed, breathing uneven with gasps escaping him even two seconds or so, while his body shuddered against Shouto's, just slightly sending a painful twinge through his abdomen that he chose to ignore for now. Katsuki was his main priority - he always was. "W-when you weren't- weren't responding I—" Shouto had never had to comfort Katsuki this badly, but nevertheless he did his best by just holding him close as the other dissolved into uncontrollable weeping, placing soft kisses on the skin near Katsuki's ear and croaking soothing words of reassurance through his dry throat.

By the time that Katsuki calmed down to simple sniffles and hiccups, Shouto felt his injured body trying to lull him to sleep again, but the idea of falling into nothingness like he had done when he had succumbed to his near-death made him terrified to close his eyes. Both Katsuki and Izuku had pleaded and threatened him not to do so over the phone - he remembered that very vividly - and yet he hadn't been able to stop himself either way. He wanted to be here for them now, awake, instead of failing them again. Shouto didn't want Katsuki to sit by his bedsit in a state of near-collapsing exhaustion like he had done so for however long already.

He wanted to be awake enough to tell his stubborn idiot to eat something (because god knows that the other had been probably consuming coffee as if it was nectar instead of actually eating anything), most likely take a shower and get some goddamn sleep.

The blond raised his head from his shoulder, and Shouto was suddenly looking into a pair of bloodshed and puffy crimson eyes that stared at him with an intensity that he mostly only saw during their most intimate moments. "I love you," Katsuki murmured. "I love you so much - and I hope that you fucking know how enormous of a lecture you will receive once I can be angry at you again, because there is no way that I'm fucking holding back this time. This was the stupidest stunt you have ever pulled, and you willingly became friends with Deku."

Shouto let himself chuckle weakly. "Of course, Kats," he rasped.

Katsuki grunted his approval and then reluctantly removed himself from Shouto's personal space to reach for a glass of water that was sat on the side table next to the bed. He took the glass with a slightly shaky hand, but it wasn't bad enough that he couldn't hold it firmly in his grasp. And thankfully, there was a straw so Shouto didn't have strain himself too much to drink the water or have Katsuki tip the glass for him. Katsuki watched him carefully drain the glass like a hawk, as if he didn't trust Shouto to take proper care of himself.

Considering that he had a pole impaled through him the last time he was awake, he decided not to comment on his boyfriend's mothering.

Katsuki put the glass back on the side table once it was empty, and his crimson eyes travelled back to Shouto again, while the blond's thumb massaged over the knuckles of the hand in his now less tight grasp. "You've—" Katsuki cleared his throat when his voice broke a little. Shouto didn't comment on it. "You've been out for roughly a week. The doctors say that you'll make a full recovery, but you have to spend at least a month at home without any strain before you can even think about going back to hero work."

Shouto hummed, having expected this already. The idea of spending a month stuck at home didn't sound that appealing to him, as Katsuki wouldn't be there to keep him company most of the time, but there was nothing he could do about it. Once he went back to work, he'd probably be stuck on desk duty for a period of time too before he could go back to his usual training schedule. In the end however, he was aware that he had undergone a major injury and after seeing Katsuki breakdown so badly in front of him, he decided that making full recovery was better than the idea of sulking about being stuck in a cosy apartment.

"Well, at least I'll have time to clean up our place properly," he said, sending Katsuki a small smile. "Whoever knows how long ago we've done that - there must surely be a new type of bacteria hidden somewhere amongst the pile of clothes in our bedroom."

Katsuki barked a small laugh and Shouto cherished the sound - he didn't realise how much he had longed to hear it after everything that had happened.

There was a small silence between them, and way that Katsuki's hand shook slightly in his grasp as he stared into space a bit had Shouto furrowing his dual-coloured eyebrows. He realised that this most definitely counted as a traumatic event, not only for him but for everyone close to him that must have been at the scene to find him. There was a vague memory of Izuku and Katsuki telling him that 'the team' was at the scene, but he didn't know who was actually involved in the 'rescue mission' apart from Uraraka. There was no point denying the fact that Shouto was bound to have nightmares about this for years to come - the cold, the numbness, the feeling of being trapped - but the others must have surely seen the state he had been in, and if Katsuki had seen it (which he must have as he had been right there at the scene) then the blond was bound to be just as traumatised as him.

They were both going to comfort each other during nightmares more frequently then.

"Hey," Shouto whispered softly, and Katsuki's eyes snapped to him. "I love you, Kats - and I'm right here."

Katsuki's breath visibly stuttered. "Your heart stopped beating on the operating table," he uttered brokenly. "You were clinically dead for nearly two minutes before they managed to revive you - then you spent fucking hours in surgery as they tried to patch you up while the rest of us fucking waited like sitting ducks for any new information about you." There was a new sheen of tears in the crimson eyes, but his boyfriend looked up at the ceiling and blinked them away. Shouto knew that he hated being this vulnerable, but he couldn't help but be transfixed on the rare sight once again, no matter how much he disliked the idea of Katsuki being like this because of him. "You're not fucking allowed to do this to me again. Never again, Shou."

Shouto swallowed slightly - hearing that he had actually died made the thought of resting at home for a while quite appealing. "I'm sorry, Kats," he mumbled.

Once again, Katsuki's eyes snapped to him, but this time they were slightly wide. "No, don't - don't apologise," he croaked, while putting his elbows on the hospital bed and bringing Shouto's left hand up to his lips to kiss his knuckles. "Don't apologise like that, it's - just wait for the lecture first, alright? Then- then you can fucking apologise for nearly getting yourself killed, but for now I want you to rest, baby, okay? I'm here too - I'm not going anywhere."

"Kats..." he said.

Another kiss was pressed to his knuckles. "Rest, Shou," Katsuki said. "I've got to call fucking Deku and tell him that you've woken up anyways, and god knows that you need all the strength you can get when talking to that shitty nerd."

The heterochromiac closed his eyes and smiled. "You enjoy his company," he argued slightly.

"I fucking do not - that is the biggest bullshit I've ever heard. Even just the sound of his voice grates on my nerves, and with that fucking infuriating nickname that just won't stop coming out of his mouth. Fucking Short Circuit calls me that too, and I have grown used to responding to it from him as well - and fucking Shitty Hair and Desk Stationary won't stop laughing about it. Annoying fucking extras that have utterly no..."

Shouto started to doze off with the sound of Katsuki's complaining, knowing full on well that every word coming out of his mouth was total lies and bullshit. Once Katsuki got close to someone, he would practically do anything for them - and the noticeably clear evidence that he hasn't gotten rid of any of the people that he calls 'extras' means that he wants them around him, and therefore cherished the friendship he had with them; even Izuku.

Katsuki was Katsuki however, so you had to read between the lines. That had always and would always be the case. And it was somehow one of the things, that he loved about the blond, with the way that he did small but very personal and meaningful gestures instead of talking about feelings. It was endearing somewhat, and it made the moments that he did talk about his emotions much more intimate.

With his hand reassuringly held in Katsuki's grasp and the sound of his voice heard over the beeping of the heart monitor, Shouto let himself fall asleep without any fear this time, as he knew that Katsuki would be there when he woke up. The last conscious thought that he had on his mind was:

Wait, was Izuku actually serious about the cold soba threat, or not?