Archive of Our Own

"Oi, Sensei! Move your ass or you're gonna be walking back home. This is my last warning!" Katsuki barks through his rolled down window and hits his hand on the wheel, causing it to honk for the third time.

He was tired after the whole day of chasing after small villains and their petty crimes. For god's sake, from how many old ladies can you steal purses in the span of eight hours? Just rob an ATM at this point, it's way less annoying. All he wanted to do was get back home, shower, and eat a fine meal. But no, of course, he had a weak spot for a certain, green-haired nerd, and he just had to text him and offer him to pick him up on his way back home. And of course, this certain, green-haired man had texted him back in a span of two minutes, gladly taking the offer.

Izuku hurriedly finishes talking to one of his students by the entrance and then hastly turns back and runs all across the parking lot to his life-long friend. He looks so goofy, running clumsily, his poorly tied yellow tie swinging side to side, his shiny shoes squeaking, it's making Katsuki's eyes roll.

Don't get Katsuki wrong, Izuku looked good, SO fucking good like that, but this attire wasn't something the blonde had gotten quite used to yet. Considering he knew Izuku all his life and his clothes looked like they were taken straight from the dump bin most of the time.

And now? Mister Fancy Pants makes it to his car, at last and flops on the seat next to Katsuki, panting.

"Any longer and I would've ditched your ass. When I say 'See you at four' it means I see you at four, not later!" Katsuki complains as he starts up his car and reverses out of his parking spot.

Izuku struggles to buckle up, but once it clicks, he fixes his messy hair and reaches for his case, and places on his knees, holding the beloved gift closely.

"I know, I know--But Kacchan, it is four now! You're the one who arrived too early!" He defends.

"You sound like you know me since yesterday. I'm always ahead of time." He scoffs and speeds his car up once they hit the open road.

"Then that's on you. Don't put the blame on others that you can't manage time properly." Izuku teases.

"It's not me that's too fast, it's yall who's too slow." Katsuki sneers.

"And stop honking so much whenever you pick me up, I already get enough smack from everyone in the faculty room the next day!" Izuku huffs out and Katsuki snickers.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I disturbing the lectures?" The blonde smirks.

"No, everyone rather laughs at how eager you are to announce everyone around that you're my chauffeur." Izuku lies with an innocent look and Katsuki groans.

"I'm not announcing it and I'm not your chauffeur-- My honking is in a disturbing manner! To piss yall off." The blonde deflects, taking the bait.

"Sure, sure... I will let them all know." Izuku sighs and sinks further into the seat, relaxing after a long day at work.

It's not as soft and comfortable as the backseat and now he was sort of regretting sitting in front. He still has no idea why the back of Katsuki's car looks the way it does, but hell it was GREAT to fall asleep in after a hard day.

"Oi, if you want a nap, go into the back."

"Nah, I will settle for this. Too tired to complain."

"So, your brats had given you hell today as well, huh?"

Izuku re-opens his eyes at that and perks up at Katsuki.

"Rough day at work too?"

"You know it."

"Wanna tell me about it?"

"Sure, but not much of a story to tell. Some guy whose quirk is--Get this--Sticky Hands." Katsuki mocks and a smile returns to his face.

"Oh no. What did he do?" Izuku asks amused.

"He just kept snatching people's purses all day."

"Right." Izuku chuckles, but then he remembers that despite how funny the story sounded, there were still people who had fallen victims. "But did you manage to catch him?"

"Of course I did!" Katsuki exclaims right before the freckled man can even finish his question, offended that he even dared to question that. "Who do you take me for?"

"Geez, I just asked." Izuku raises his both hands in defense. "Didn't expect any less from you, Kacchan."

"Yeah, that's better." Katsuki grins and takes a turn, heading outside Musutafu.

Izuku looks through the window with curiosity.

"Where are we going?"

"Izuku, don't freak out, but there's a car that's been following us through the past three streets." Katsuki casually drops the bomb, looking straight ahead.

Izuku halts and slowly turns his head to peek at the said car. He didn't want to make it obvious that they had spotted them, so he can't get a full look, but he sees a black car with what appeared to be just a one driver, trailing from afar.

"How do you know they're following us? Maybe they're just headed in the same direction." Izuku unsurely suggests.

"That's what I thought until I decided to go outside town and look, they're still behind us."

"Maybe they're leaving too?"

"Dammit, Izuku just--Want proof? Watch." Katsuki scoffs and upon seeing the next turn he speeds up and slides right into it.

A moment later, the black car re-appears in their rear view. Izuku tenses at that and looks at his friend.

"Could still be a coincidence..."

"You're not this dumb, Deku."

Izuku sucks in a sharp breath and turns his head a bit to look back again.

"Okay. If that's the case, what would they want from you?" Izuku raises his brow.

"Come on, I am a Pro-Hero. Best bet? An old villain who holds a grudge against me. Or a friend of the said villain who is on their quest to get me for putting their pal behind the bars." Katsuki rolls his eyes and takes another sharp turn.

The black car speeds up. The game was on.

"Dammit." Izuku breathes out and clutches the case with his hero suit close. "Do you want me to go and deal with it?"

"Hah?! Like I need you to run my errands!" Katsuki barks and kicks in another gear. "Let's play this game of cat and a mouse for a bit longer, I wanna see where this gets us."

"Do you have your hero uniform?"

"Nah, left it at the agency. But I should have one of my gauntlets in my trunk, I was taking it for a repair, still works, it's just the hinge that's been causing troubles lately." Katsuki shrugs, not bothered to even spare a glance at his worried friend.

"Trunk? How the hell am I supposed to get to your trunk when we are speeding?!" Izuku retorts.

"You don't have to, I can confront them with my bare hands. Just letting you know it was in there. You know, in case things go south." Katsuki's tone turns serious, and Izuku frowns.

They really can't ever catch a break, can they?

They drive for a bit longer, and then suddenly, the black car speeds up, causing Katsuki to hit the gas in the last moment before their stalker could bump into them.

"Oh, it's on, you fucker." Katsuki growls with a strained smile and takes another sharp turn.

They end up on a one-way road, near a lake. Izuku can't help, but feel some kind of uneasiness. The place was devoid of any houses and cars. Empty. A perfect spot for an ambush.

"Kacchan?" He turns his head to face his friend.

"Yeah?" Katsuki also faces him, but as soon as he does so, the car behind them gains on them again, and Katsuki is forced to go even faster.

It was getting too risky.

"Kacchan, this is too convenient. I think they're planning to get us away from the city on purpose. " Izuku says.

"Already noticed that." Katsuki quickly answers, his grip on the wheel steady.

"We need to head back. I don't think they're bold enough to attack us with witnesses."

"I will, but it's a one-way road, we need to drive all the way--...What the hell?" Katsuki leans a bit forward and narrows his eyes.

Izuku quickly snaps his head in the same direction as the blonde and his breath hitches.

Another car, a navy blue one comes right at them from ahead.

"What are they doing, it's the wrong direction!" Izuku shouts.

"Motherfuckers--They planned this all along!" Katsuki warns and tries to turn into the ditch on their right side, knowing he can't turn the car around with the other car tailing them.

Unfortunately, the car in front of them is way quicker and it straight up rams right into hood of Katsuki's Porsche, causing it to sharply sever to the left.

The collision is loud and nasty, the impact causes Katsuki's car to do a 360° in the air and then it lands in the lake with a loud splash.

It doesn't take long, until the crashed vehicle gets fully submerged in the water and sinks to the bottom as the two drivers on the land observe the fruits of their work with pride.

Inside the sinking wreck, the two men try to recover from the impact. They wouldn't be inside the car anymore if they didn't have their seat belts on, that's a one thing for sure.

But, during the crash, the belts had roughly held them back, saving them from flying through the windshield but still putting a lot of pressure on their ribs in the meantime. It hurt like hell now, making it difficult to breath. Izuku was almost certain one of his ribs had broke.

But he doesn't pay attention to his pained lungs for long as his eyes widen upon taking in their surroundings. They were in the car still, and the car was...

"Fuck." Katsuki wheezes and holds his hand to his chest.

"Kacchan...?" Izuku grits his teeth as he discovers a new injury on himself.

His priority is still to tend to Kacchan first, of course.

"Kacchan, are you alright?" Izuku asks with worry, trying to ignore the seething pain from below.

Katsuki struggles to breathe for a moment and Izuku sweats upon remembering his heart. Fuck, his heart was already in rough shape thanks to Shigaraki's doing ten years ago. Maybe it got fractured from the belt and his friend acquired an instant medical help right now? And he can't do anything to help him and prevent him from dying and--

"Kacchan!" He whimpers, desperate to aid to his best friend.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, 'Zuku." Katsuki slurs and raises his hand in order to shush his already sniffling friend. "Shit."

"Are you okay? Do you feel like you can't breathe?" Izuku frantically asks.

"I'm okay, don't worry. What about you? Your side took most of the impact--"

"I'm okay, too!" Izuku lies through his teeth.

"Alright. Good. That's good. Shit. Looks like we have a much bigger problem on our heads now." Katsuki mutters, his breath still labored.

Izuku swallows dry and looks around. Yeah. They were stuck in a wrecked car that had sunk to the bottom of the lake by now. Izuku presses his head to the window and tries to check how deep they were until something cracks from behind them and a sound of a rushing water makes them both jump in their seats.

A leak. They already had a leak. Fuck, fuck, fuck--

Another one comes from the side, right behind where Izuku was sitting. Oh great.

"For fuck's sake." Katsuki murmurs and reaches his hand down to undo his seat belt.

"Kacchan?"

"Izuku, it's just a lake. We can see the sunlight from above clearly so we are not even that deep." Katsuki says as he wiggles his way out of his seat, and crouches on top of it.

"I don't think--"

"I will kick down the window on your side, just unbuckle yourself first. And then once the water starts flowing in, just take a deep breath and squeeze through the opening and swim straight up. It's a short trip, don't worry. I will be right behind you." Katsuki orders as he places his back against the door on his side of the carseat and stretches out his right leg right across Izuku's face.

Izuku takes a breath and looks at Katsuki, defeated.

"Oi, move it, we don't have the time before the car completely fills up." Katsuki hisses and reaches out to undo the seatbelt for his friend.

Once he does so, he halts and looks at his friend's legs and then slowly raises his head to face him.

"...Izuku?" He asks, sensing that something appeared to be wrong with what he was seeing.

"I can't. I can't get out. My foot got stuck somewhere in there when that other car hit us. It's completely crushed as well I think-- I can't even wriggle a single toe." Izuku weakly admits, looking away in shame.

Katsuki stares at him, his eyes straight up burning holes through his friend's ashamed figure.

He backs away a bit. And suddenly, he slams his hand on the dashboard with a yell, startling the freckled man.

"Fuck!" He slams it again. "Fuck!" Once more. "FUCK!"

Izuku recoils into his seat a little bit as he observes Kacchan's outburst.

"Dammit! Goddammit, Izuku, I asked you if you were alright! I asked you, dammit! Fuck!" Katsuki shouts, slamming the dashboard for the final time.

"I'm sorry. But, uh, it's not like me telling you what was up immediately would've changed anything..." Izuku unsurely speaks up and Katsuki glares at him.

It takes everything in his considerable power to not rip off the tie out off Izuku's neck and strangle him with it.

"For fuck's sake, why are you always like this?" Katsuki groans and drags his hand across his face.

"I'm sorry." Izuku doesn't really know what else to say.

The water reaches his ankles now. They were running out of time.

"How the hell am I supposed to get you out of here now?" Katsuki asks and flexes his palm to activate his quirk.

"You're not planning to blow off my leg?!" Izuku shrieks as he tries to move away a bit from the hissing crackles flying out from his friend's palm.

"No. But honestly, it's what your reckless ass deserves right now." Katsuki clicks his tongue and looks around.

He comes to realization that there was no use for his quirk right now. He can't just blow up the entire dashboard. Not unless he planned on actually maiming his friend that is. So he turns off his quirk and moves the hand away from Izuku, much to the other's relief.

"Shit. Shit. Alright, think. Do you feel like you could try and somehow move your foot?"

"No. I told you, I can't even feel it anymore. It hurts so bad." Izuku admits.

Katsuki bents down to take in the damage the crash had done to Izuku and if he can find a way to try and slip his foot out of the carnage below. But yet another window, this time right next to Izuku cracks almost entirely, and suddenly the lake water comes bursting in.

It almost fills the car to the brim, leaving the two men even more panicked.

"Kacchan--Kacchan, you gotta get out now!" Izuku shouts and lifts his head up, try to prevent getting completely submerged yet.

"You're fucking crazy. I'm not leaving you." Katsuki hisses and dives down to take another look below when Izuku's hand grabs him by the back of his T-shirt and forcefully yanks him upwards.

"Oi, what gives?! I'm not leaving you, you moron!" Katsuki spats out.

"Kacchan, you gotta break the window and leave. You gotta do it now." Izuku orders, the water almost getting into his mouth.

"No, screw you!'

"Kacchan, just do it-- You can come back and get me later, okay?"

"No, I'm not--"

"Break the window next to your seat and get out! I'm not telling you to leave me, but entrapping yourself in the car with me won't help either of us!" Izuku shouts and sputters, the water level rising to his nostrils.

"...Fuck." Katsuki rasps and flexes his palm, his quirk warming up.

He gives Izuku a concerned look.

"Take a deep breath. I will be right back. I swear." He murmurs and swings his fired up arm right at the window next to his seat.

It shatters completely, ultimately sealing Izuku's fate. The car completely fills up and Katsuki gets out through the broken window and swims around the car to get to Izuku's side. He pulls at the door and manages to get it completely open. There he can see Izuku's leg more clearly and it is in fact completely crushed underneath the bent that the car crash had dented into this side. Shit.

How the hell is he gonna pull Izuku out of it?

He reaches down and gets a hold of his friend's leg. He yanks it and Izuku jerks away a bit at the way the friction was causing his injured foot pain. Katsuki gives him an apologetic look, but doesn't stop what he was doing. He doesn't want to hurt Izuku, but also if he wants to make it out alive, he is just gonna have to tough it out.

He gives it another sharp tug and Izuku can't help but to yelp in pain. The blonde immediately lets go as the other smacks his hand across his mouth, trying to stop himself for wasting any more of oxygen. This was so dumb of him, what the hell was he thinking?

And Izuku wasn't exactly the greatest at holding his own breath for a long amounts of time, Katsuki knew. He's pretty sure his record still stayed the same as it were back in their U.A days, when during their last summer as students, they decided to hang out by the pool and compete as always. At some point, Kaminari brought up "who can hold their breath the longest" competition and let's just say, 31 seconds wasn't exactly the result to be proud of on Izuku's behalf.

All that meant he didn't really have much time left to try and get him out now and it stresses the hell out of Katsuki. Each passing second was bringing Izuku closer to death and Katsuki still had no real plan to free him. He grabs Izuku's leg, more gently this time around, but the weak tugs don't do nothing.

Time flies. More and more air involuntarily escapes through his friend's clasped lips and Katsuki fears the inevitable. Fuck, fuck, fuck, what the hell can he do?

He swims up to Izuku's level and cups his face, forcing him to look him the eyes. He knows what his presence does to him. Always makes Izuku try and put up a bigger fight. Even when he's past all of his limits, Katsuki motivates him to press on.

And fuck, the blonde loved him so much for that. Nobody in this world held him so high on a pedestal like Izuku did. And what, he's just supposed to accept losing him? To never hear his nerdy rants again? To never embarrass him in front of his coworkers at U.A again? Is he supposed to learn to live in a world devoid of Izuku's constant presence in his life? No matter at what memory he recalls, Izuku is always there. He's been a part of the course of his entire life. And that wasn't ever gonna change.

Katsuki holds Izuku's face between his palms firmly. Izuku stares back through half-lided, tired eyes. God, it was a pitiful sight, it was pulling Katsuki by the heartstrings.

Why did this day have to turn to shit?

Izuku weakly shakes his head and looks away, not being able to bear the disappointment that would appear on Katsuki's face, as he awaits his demise. His mouth twists into a grimace as his lungs begin to burn.

And suddenly he is pulled forward and a pair of lips presses against his, softly.

His big, green eyes, that looked like the one of a doe that just saw a car drive past it, look at the display in front of them with disbelief. Katsuki's face is so close, almost entirely smushed against his. His eyes are shut tightly, eyebrows completely furrowed in focus. Both of his hands are holding onto Izuku's face, holding him in place. It feels forbidden to even have him this up close to himself.

For just a moment, he had actually managed to forget the predicament he had found himself in. But it manages to catch up to him soon enough.

Right. He's stuck in a wrecked car, at the bottom of a lake, his foot trapping him underwater. He was on the verge of passing out when--

Katsuki briefly exhales right through his parted mouth, and Izuku immediately melts into the kiss, at last allowing his eyes to close. A little bit of air escapes through their locked lips, and he tilts his head a bit to get a better angle, and Izuku mimics his movement. His grip on his cheeks never loosens, making sure to keep Izuku as close to him as possible.

Izuku greedily takes everything given to him, the painful, burning feeling in his lungs finally subdued.

And Katsuki, as glad as he were to be of any use, can't help but feel like he's taking something away from Izuku. This wasn't right. Izuku hadn't had any feelings for him. He's pretty sure he hadn't dated anyone so far either, which could only mean this was his first time ever being kissed. And Izuku himself had no say in this matter whatsoever.

Because Katsuki, the guy who spent most of their childhood and teenage years bullying and putting down Izuku at every possible occasion, had now just straight up went and put his mouth on his.

He just needed to buy him some more time, while he thought of a way he could actually get him out, he defended.

But was it really? Wasn't he a little bit too eager to pick this option out all given? There were no other options, he deflects, but then again why was THIS an idea in the first place?

Eventually, Katsuki is completely out of any air to give, and he's forced to pull away. As he does so, Izuku looks at him as if he were made of gold. It does something weird to the blonde's heart. Eases off some of his guilt. He's stuck down there, struggling against the element and suffocating, and yet he still has enough energy to admire Katsuki, even for something so silly as coming up with this half-assed idea to save someone. Half-assed and very intimate way, mind you.

Katsuki lets go of Izuku's face, but not before looking him in the eyes. Making a silent promise to come back. Izuku still looks so worn out, but at least a little bit of light returned to his eyes. He truly trusted Kacchan with his life. Whatever he had come up in his mind, he knows his childhood best friend was gonna help him get out. One way or another.

Before Katsuki can head back up to the surface, Izuku catches his left wrist and brings his palm up to his face, gently holding it against his cheek as he momentarily relaxes into his friend's touch. His only source of comfort in this fucked up situation.

And believe him, it took everything in Katsuki's considerable power not to lean back in and kiss Izuku again.

He probably would've, if he hadn't been completely out of air himself. But if he wanted to save Izuku, he had to save himself first, as much as it annoyed him. So he hesitantly attempts to pull his hand out of Izuku's grip, and the other gives him a slightly disappointed but understanding look. He willingly lets go of the blonde, and the other kicks his legs and swims towards the surface.

Once he reaches it, he sharply inhales and coughs, but immediately brings his hand to his face and bites it in order to shut himself up. He was no idiot. As he expected, their attackers were still there. He swims a little bit closer to the shore, where the growing flora was kind enough to provide him some kind of cover. He pokes his head out from behind a bit, as he tries to steady his ragged breathing.

Their attackers appeared to be two men. Each was leaning against their car, the one that had hit them directly had smoke coming out from it's engine, but its owner paid no attention to the damage. He was enjoying his casual talk with the other, sitting almost entirely on its hood while he smoked a cigarette.

"Enjoying a hard day's work, you fuck?" Katsuki whispers to himself as he watches the men with disgust.

He had no intel on them. Had no idea who they were, what they were after, what their quirks were. Only one thing was sure and it was the fact that they very much wanted him dead. Him and Izuku too, probably. So it's best if he doesn't get spotted.

Once he manages to steady his breathing a bit, he sneaks away from the shore, sucks in a big breath and dives back in.

He's so damn lucky that the lake had no actual depths or otherwise they'd be screwed. He makes it back to Izuku in just a few seconds.

Izuku's eyes perk up at the sight of his friend's return. It does something weird to Katsuki's chest, but he wasn't gonna acknowledge that for now.

He swims down a little bit to reach the dented part of the car that was keeping Izuku's foot trapped. He examines it and ultimately comes up with a plan. He flexes his palm and activates his quirk, causing the water to furiously boil around it. Izuku's eyes widen and he instictively jerks his head away, burying it into his own shoulder, as he braces himself for a painful sensation.

Nothing comes however, and he slowly turns his head back to look at Katsuki with a puzzled look on his face.

The blonde just glares at him. They couldn't speak down there but it was very clear Katsuki's eyes were asking the freckled man if he had just seriously thought that he was gonna carelessly blow his foot off.

He lets it go, deciding he was gonna give shit Izuku for that assumption later and presses his hand against the bent part of the car, heating it up. Izuku watches him with curiosity. The water boils frantically and flies upwards, and Katsuki gets uneasy, worried that this was gonna reveal the fact that they're still alive to the their perpetrators above. But then again, this was his only way to get Izuku out and he wasn't willing to slow it down or try and come up with something else (blowing his foot off was STILL not an option).

The metal entrapping Izuku's foot gets heated up a bit and Katsuki attempts to bend it in his hold away from Izuku, in order to make a small opening for his friend to try and wiggle his foot out. It's not enough yet, but it actually works. It bends, ever so slightly, but it's enough proof for Katsuki to keep going.

Except...

Katsuki stops what he was doing and gives Izuku a questioning look.

Izuku awkwardly stares at him. Then he averts his gaze somewhere else, but it quickly makes its way back to Katsuki. And then it slowly, almost hesitantly falls down onto his lips.

And Katsuki catches on in an instant. He swims back up to Izuku's level and cups his face again. The other appears to be sort of flustered, red hue taints his cheeks and Katsuki really tries not to think about too much. Yeah, yeah, the things were the way they were, okay? He wasn't kissing him, he was saving him. Yep. He wasn't gonna guiltrip himself over that now.

(He was gonna do it later however. )

He dips his head down and presses his mouth against Izuku's. The other opens up for him and melts into the kiss as his hands reach to grab a hold of Katsuki's face as well. Some bit of air escapes through their locked lips and Izuku presses his mouth harder into Katsuki's, causing the tips of the blonde's ears to turn red as well. It makes him question, if Izuku even had any complaints about being saved this way in the first place.

Katsuki hates it, but eventually, he has to break the kiss once more. The look Izuku gives him once it's over makes him quite annoyed for not having gills.

He then swims back to the surface. As much as he hates it and tries to fight it, he needily gasps for air and sputters and then immediately prays that the two men didn't hear him. He goes back to his hiding spot and spies on them again.

"Oi, for how much longer do we have to hang around for? If the impact didn't kill them, then they must have drowned by now anyhow." The driver of the black car complains.

The man who had driven head on at them shifts on the hood of his crashed car, and slowly takes a puff of his cigarette.

"You have no idea how sneaky pro-heroes can be. Look, we got paid to do a job, the guy said he wanted us to hang around for a bit after the crash, and that's what we are gonna do. Capiche?" He takes a long drag of his cigarette.

"Damn, fine. Shit."

A moment of silence.

"What is it, Hiroto?" The one with a cigarette sighs in annoyance.

"I... Dammit. I hope they at least died on the impact." Hiroto sighs.

"Too soft for this line of work, eh?" The smoker guy clicks his tongue, drops the butt of his cigarette onto the ground, and steps on it in order to put it out.

Hiroto doesn't answer.

"Alright, look." The other man reaches out for a box in his pocket and takes out another cigarette. "I will finish this one, and then we can go. Cool?"

"...Yeah, sure whatever. Make it quick."

Katsuki listens to the whole exchange carefully. Okay, so those two guys were just hired goons. Someone was pulling the strings and were willing to pay for his death, and he really couldn't recall which villain would have had it out for him this badly.

As he sneaks away again, another conversation starts.

"You know, Hiroto, if I had a quirk like yours, I'd be not wasting it on being sentimental."

"Come on, it's nothing impressive."

"Still, a hundred times better than mine."

Katsuki doesn't know what to make of it, but then a sudden realization that he's been up there for a very long time catches up to him and he curses under his breath for leaving Izuku waiting for so long. He hurriedly dives back in.

"...Did you hear that?"

_________________________________

Izuku doesn't even have the time to react to Katsuki's return because as soon as he notices he's back, he is hastly yanked forward, and their mouth crash against each other, teeth clacking. It earns a confused muffled noise from the freckled man, but it doesn't really take him long to melt into it as he had been doing all this time. He enjoys being this close to Kacchan. He enjoys it very much.

Once Izuku's feels like he has enough oxygen for now, he slowly pulls away and gives Katsuki a reasurring look. Only then the blonde goes back to heating up the bent metal.

It takes a long few seconds. He manages to move it another bit further and unfortunately, it exposes a lot of blood, that undoubtedly belonged to Izuku. Shit. He sort of dreaded what he was gonna see eventually, but then again it only meant he was getting closer to freeing Izuku.

Besides, it's only a foot. It wasn't gonna be life-threatening to Izuku, no matter how bad it was, right...?

Katsuki halts and turns off his quirk as he feels the need to return to the surface. Dammit, he made fun of Izuku, sure, but he wasn't really the best at holding his breath either. Shit, he really should practice his apnea skills in case another crazy shit happens like that again in the future.

He kicks his legs and heads back up.

He only breaks the water surface for a moment when something sharp suddenly wraps itself around his neck and tightens. Katsuki instantly grabs onto the rope(?) that had been holding him with both of his hands and he pulls at it, trying to loosen it, but it doesn't budge. The panic settles in and he vividly thrashes in water, coughing and choking.

"Son of a bitch--See, that's exactly why I told you to wait! Of course Dynamight would've survived this shit." The cigarette loving guy exclaims. "Bring his ass back over here."

Katsuki cracks his teary eyes open and tries to look at his attackers. He notices Hiroto was the one who was nearly crushing his windpipe. A dark-purple thin wire seemed to come out from his wrist all the way across the lake, to Katsuki's neck. Ah. So that must have been his quirk.

He wants to say something, yell, curse, but all he makes are strangled noises and grunts. Black spots begin to dance in front of his vision and another set of adrenaline kicks in. He thrashes once more and pulls at the wire, tries blowing it away with his quirk but it doesn't loosen even a tiny bit.

"Fuck, I can't. I'm sorry, not like this." Hiroto shakes his head and recalls his quirk back.

It unwraps itself from Katsuki's throat and he wheezes painfully. He coughs and curses and coughs some more, frantically sucking in breaths as he brings his hand to his face to wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth. Fuck. Fuck.

He snaps his head towards the two men and if looks could kill, they would have been obliterated off the face of this Earth fifteen times by now.

"Hiroto, what the hell--"

"I know!" Hiroto stretches out his arm and another purple, thin wire zips out of his wrist and lunges straight at Katsuki. "But not like this."

Katsuki tenses up and immediately sets off a big explosion, hoping that the feedback will push the wire back, but it isn't strong enough and it gets a hold of his left arm this time.

"Fuckers!" He seethes and uses his right one to try and explode the wire away, but it doesn't work.

And suddenly he is yanked forward. And then closer and closer to the shore.

Dread pools around in his stomach as he realizes what that meant.

No. No. No.

Izuku.

He had to go back.

"No, fuck! Let me go! Let go of me!" He yells as he squirms and tries to push back, but he can't really put up much of a fight in water.

He is yanked once again. Closer to the shore, but further away from Izuku.

Izuku who was waiting for him. Izuku who was depending on him. Izuku who needed him.

"Dammit! Let go! LET ME GO!" He roars as he attempts to dive head on, but he is effortlessly pulled back right after.

"Jesus, like a wild dog on a leash." One of the perpetrators shakes his head, amused.

"LET ME GO! I HAVE TO GO BACK! DAMMIT, DAMMIT! LET GO OF ME! LET GO OF ME ALREADY! IZUKU!" Katsuki yells at heavens as he flails and struggles, feeling the urgent need to aid to his friend.

He wails all the way until his throat gives out. Once they pull him onto the ground, he thrashes and immediately tries to jump back in, but it's in vain.

"You motherfucker--" Katsuki attempts to threaten, but his voice unexpectedly cracks, and he suddenly feels bare, stripped out off any last bits of dignity he had left.

Izuku. Izuku. Oh god, Izuku.

He looks at the lake and his eyes sting.

Knowing that his best friend was trapped right underneath it, waiting for him, as his time was running out.

"Let me go." He demands again, his voice broken.

The clock was ticking.

"Dammit--Why the hell are you doing this?!" Katsuki shouts and pulls at the wire, but a few more shoot out from Hiroto's hand, restraining him completely.

He's pretty sure a full minute had passed since he got caught.

His stomach swirls.

He collapses onto the ground and falls on his knees. He is silent. Wide eyes fixated onto the lake. His mouth trembles. Was this his own doing? If he had only not texted Izuku today, he wouldn't be in his car. If he had only listened to him and intervened as soon as he spotted the car, instead of playing the game of catch, today would've had a completely different outcome. And now, instead of being safe back at home, grading his students' tests or whatever boring shit teachers do, he was...

A sudden, violent sob escapes through his throat. He hiccups and tries to stop himself from crying, but the dam had crumbled down already and soon he is a weeping mess.

A vision of Izuku's limp body floating inside his car plagues his mind and causes him almost to gag as he chokes on his tears.

"Shit, what are we gonna do now?" Hiroto unsurely asks his partner as Katsuki's sobs interrupt his every word.

"I don't know, look at least we know the other one is dead. Let's just snap his neck or something."

"Oh, just snap his neck! Okay, then you do that, Kazuma!" Hiroto complains.

"Me? Why me, I did most of the work!"

"It was supposed to be a clean job and now look at this mess! Shit! We can't snap his neck, it was supposed to look like an accident!"

"Then just use your wires to drag him underwater and make sure he drowns this time around!"

"This won't work this time, he has clear marks around his neck now! Someone will find out other people were involved!"

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Kazuma shouts and spits out his cigarette. "We had one job. Christ."

_________________________________

As soon as Katsuki left, Izuku could sense something is wrong. Sure, he is stuck and can't see much from his position, but he hears a lot of splashing coming from above, but he is not certain whether it has something to do with Kacchan until a few moments pass and his friend still doesn't return.

Izuku shifts on his seat as he feels an anxiety spike creeping up. He has a hard time telling whether the time was dragging out or flying right through. He frowns and tries to recall if it ever took Kastuki so long to get back to him, but his memory proves unreliable under such pressure. Hell, he could SWORE he'd been down there for hours, even though his still a little more rational side knew it had just been mere minutes since the crash.

And soon, he feels his time running out, and he figures that he was left to his own devices. He pulls his leg and the fact that it was moving around more freely around the spot it was stuck in, gave him hope.

A short-lived one, however, because all of the yanking did not do anything, setting Izuku back in the same place he began. He lets out a low, exhausted growl, and he opts for looking for anything that he could use to escape instead. He lets his hands wander across the dashboard, feeling for anything that could be of use, he turns his head to check if Katsuki didn't have anything useful in the back but all he does is his gauntlet and Izuku couldn't even reach that, considering it was still in the trunk.

Some air flies through his lips, and he gets anxious again, a grim reminder that he had no time to waste.

His eyes subconsciously search for Kacchan. Some part of him still hoped that he was fine, that it all was just a slight setback, and he's gonna return here any second now. He would return like nothing happened and continue working on freeing him from his car, with that calm and firm look on his face, wordlessly reasurring Izuku that he won't let him die for as long as he's here.

But that was the problem now. He wasn't there. And Izuku was quite frankly screwed without him.

Izuku shifts on the seat again and mindlessly pulls at his ankle, trying to shake the uncomfortable feeling off, but it was nagging him, so, so much. What happened to Kacchan? What could've possibly occupied his mind so much that he forgot about Izuku?

No, he was an idiot for thinking that--Kacchan WOULDN'T just straight up bail on him or think that anything was more important now than saving Izuku. So whatever it was, it must have been keeping him away by force.

And Izuku's head hurts just by imagining all of the scenarios of what horrid things could've happened to his best friend. He knows he shouldn't do that, hyping up his spiral of doom, but he can't help himself from worrying sick when it came to Kacchan out of all people.

He might have had a broken rib, caused by the seatbelt digging straight into his chest during the crash, and it punctured his lung, and he moved around so much while swimming up and down, trying to save him and caused it to completely collapse and he--

Izuku closes his eyes and shakes his head, trying to eradicate the thought from his mind.

No, being reckless by hiding an injury like this was his domain, not Kacchan's. If he felt like something was wrong, he would've told him right away.

So that leaves another option.

The guys who got them into the mess in the first place.

What if they were still around? What if they spotted Kacchan? Oh god, what if they got him and decided to finish the job?

Izuku's eyes widen as a new task gets burned into his mind. He didn't have to set himself free for his own sake anymore; but for Kacchan's as well. If their attackers thought he was dead, he had the element of surprise. He had to get out of the car first, though.

He yanks his foot, more harsh than ever before, and the pain makes him want to scream, but he manages to keep it down. A sudden new burst of energy, caused by obtaining a new goal, makes him regain some kind of control over his scary thoughts. He lifts his arms up to get a hold of the roof of the car with his hands and tries to lift himself up, but it's still not enough.

He's feeling himself running out of air, and his heartbeat becomes twisted, knowing he had less and less time. He hunches over and tries to try and bend the metal away from his foot with his bare hands, but without Kacchan heating it up first, it doesn't budge.

He grabs at anything. His hands desperately grope at anything that was lying on the dashboard again, but all they find is some debris from the wreck. Crap. Crap.

Izuku grits his teeth and closes his eyes tightly in frustration as his lungs burn. He wants out. He wants Kacchan. He doesn't want to die like this.

Still not looking, he yanks his leg again and again. With no effect. His hands do a last one, blind search across the dashboard, and this time around, he feels something small and plastic of a familiar shape wedging in between his fingers. He cracks his eyes half open out of curiosity to take a look at what he has found, and once he makes it out, his eyes widen.

The All Might card that belonged to Katsuki.

He brings it up closer to himself with a fond look. It was sealed in a small, see-through plastic case, making it clear how precious it was for the blonde. It had All Might's photograph on it, written in ink, a once cheerful memory of a teenage boy whose idol thanked him for saving his own life with such a small gesture. And if you looked closely, it also still had Kacchan's dried up blood splattered across it. Reminding everyone that once it was a bare witness to Katsuki's death.

Izuku keeps flipping the card over between his fingers, lost in thoughts. Was it gonna watch him die as well?

He stops fidgeting with it and swipes his thumb across the case's surface. No. He couldn't die here. Not like that. Come on, what would All Might say if he found out that his heir had drowned at the bottom of a lake because of such a silly thing as a stuck foot? He would be heartbroken, but Izuku feared him being disappointed more than he feared for All Might's broken heart.

And he decides he doesn't want to let down anyone today. He puts the card between his teeth and lifts his hands up, getting a strong grip on the car's roof once more. And he lifts himself up. Once. Twice. Makes sure to pull his leg upwards along.

It hurts. But he pushes through, as he always had been. He pulls himself up once more, and his foot actually makes it halfway through the opening. Fuck. It was working.

He can't give up now, he reminds himself as he desperately tries to hold on to the last bits of air in his chest. He's almost there. His fingernails scratch the roof pretty badly, but he figures Kacchan won't really mind it now, considering his car was already in a very poor state. He pulls. He tugs. He yanks. All of the friction made his foot burn and throb, but it was the only way for it to get out.

He gathers some strength. A small, naive part of him calls out for the ember, but it had been put out a long time ago. And then, in a a one final attempt, he uses all of his energy on to fully pull himself up and strongly yank his leg at the same time.

It works. The foot finally slips through the slit. But it doesn't go at all as smoothly as ne anticipated, the seething pain from the harsh movement causes Izuku to let out a muffled groan as his lets his teeth fully bite into the card. His jaw locks on it with a full force, and a crack spreads across the entire plastic case in a second.

Completely out of any air, he takes the card out of his mouth and clumsily slides into his front pocket of his jacket as he heads up straight for the surface. It's hard to swim with just one leg, considering his injured one was too sore to even move due to all of the previous yanks and pulls, so he has to mostly use his hands, but he manages.

And once he breaks the water surface, he feels reborn. He hacks. He wheezes pitifully. Pants, coughs. Needily sucking in all of the air, one lungful after another as he sputters and coughs more. Finally. Oh god, finally, he can breathe. He clutches his chest where the front pocket with Katsuki's card inside was, naively thinking it had anything to do with saving him.

He quickly tries to calm himself down, however, remembering he is out in the open. But it's hard, he's getting so high on fresh air, it's making him lightheaded, it feels like no matter how much air he inhales, it's not enough. You can't really blame him for that, considering he had been stuck below for a good few minutes and all he could get where faint puffs of air from Katsuki. Sure, enough to save him, but it was draining. It felt so goddamn good go finally take a proper breath on his own.

He takes a few more shaky breaths and scans his surroundings. And he almost squeaks and dives back in upon seeing the two cars right in front of him. He calms down when he realizes none was inside them, making him more confident he hadn't been spotted yet.

But some distance away, he spots two men. He can't recall how either of the two attackers looked, the crash happened so fast that Izuku didn't pay attention to the one that rammed straight into them. And the other who trailed behind them didn't have anything special going about himself that would catch Izuku's eye either. But it's not hard to guess that the two men hanging by the lake now must have been them.

He slowly swims towards the shore, but it's hard not to let out a hiss now and then as his injured foot flung behind him, aching and making him worried. He hadn't gotten a good look at it yet. But he still couldn't move a single toe, and this couldn't be a sign for anything good. He is quite sure it got completely crushed during the crash. And while yeah, people tend to get WAY worse injures in car crashes like these, he still wasn't exactly the happiest.

'Could've always been your spine instead, nerd.' A made up Kacchan in his head says, created in order to lift Izuku's spirit up.

Izuku sighs, but agrees with his head. He only gets the message when it's delivered to him via Kacchan and he's aware of that. He can't help but think it's kind of funny just how much impact he allowed that man to have on his life.

He makes it to the growing nearby the shore plants and typha and enters, not even aware he's choosing the same hiding spot as his friend previously did. He's balancing on his good leg as he leans forward, curious about all of the shouting coming from the two men. At their feet, on its knees was a slumped forward figure, fully restrained by some sparkly, thin rope, keeping its head low, soggy blonde hair covering its pale face--

Izuku's breath hitches.

Kacchan.

Immediately, all parts of him want to rush forward, to try and get to him, but he knows better. He can't jump in without a plan. But the sight of his best friend, still alive, makes him unsteady with joy, and he almost reveals himself by falling backward into the water with a splash. He manages to regain his composure pretty fast, kind of embarrassed by the amount of excitement the mere sight of Kacchan was doing to him.

Katsuki remains on his knees. But something feels off about him. He keeps his head low, his bangs cover his puffy eyes. His lips form a hard, thin line, his facial expression dull. Cold. Devoid of any emotions. Only a small sniffle there and there could reveal that he had been crying his eyes out just a few minutes ago.

"All done? Got it all out of your system?" Kazuma taunts upon noticing the pro-hero's wailing quieting down.

Katsuki doesn't answer. He doesn't even bother to turn his head in his direction.

"What? You swallowed your own tongue in the hysterics?" The man mocks, agitated by the lack of acknowledgment coming from the blonde.

Katsuki's eyebrows furrow slightly.

And right after he gets decked across the face with a shoe, as the irritated villain kicks him. He doesn't dare to lose his composure however. He just spits the gathered blood out from his busted lip and swipes his tongue across it, finally tasting something that wasn't salty.

"Dude, come on... You see the state he's in. He's grieving." Hiroto tries to put a stop to it.

Izuku scowls as he watches the entire scene. He knows he can't just straight up launch himself at at them, but it's getting harder and harder not to. He swears if he still had One For All, he would've broken the jaw of the guy who dared to kick Kacchan as soon as he saw him lift his leg up.

He figures he doesn't need OFA for that. He still planned to do that.

He had to think rationally, however. There were two of them, and only one of him. With Kacchan, he would stand on a equal ground, but he wasn't exactly gonna help him in the state he was in. He needed a distraction, something that would allow him to walk up from behind at least one of them.

And his only option was still none other, but Kacchan.

He had to let his presence known to the blonde somehow, without ALSO alerting the attackers, and that was the tricky part.

He shifts around in the plants slightly, trying to make a small noise, but it does nothing. He takes a few bold steps forward, risking getting caught. Somehow, when it comes to Kacchan, he has no restraints. He only stops when he is absolutely sure that only one last step separated him from almost completely revealing himself.

"Kacchan! Psst, Kacchan!" He whispers, but his voice barely is audible to himself, let alone the man sitting few feet away.

Katsuki still refuses to lift his chin up. The two men have a lively discussion about the many ways they can get rid off of him, and he can't really bring himself to care. The fiery, most well-known part of him wants him to up a fight and at least try and go back for Izuku once the two men are taken care of. He could still get him out and try to resuscitate him, but those were only high-hopes. The only thing he would retrieve now, was his friend's corpse, and he couldn't bear it.

And the other makes him just stare dully at nothing. He doesn't quite let the reality of the situation sink in yet. Izuku is dead? As if gone? Forever? No, that can't be right. He wouldn't allow that to happen.

A funny realization strikes him. Just look at him. Pathetic and sniffling excuse of a pro-hero, fallen onto his knees, unable to do nothing. If it were Izuku, if only their places were swapped, Izuku would raise hell in order to avenge Katsuki. He would thrash and bite and kick and yell, trying to get a single hit on their perpetrators. He would be crying, but he would be at least doing something. And Katsuki just can't bring himself to do the same.

He doesn't want to exist in a world if it doesn't have Izuku in it. Such a simple thought, and yet it held him down just as much as that guy's quirk did.

Some kind of rattling comes from nearby him, but he tries to pay it no mind. It continues. And at some point, he thinks his ears are deceiving him because he could swear he hears someone calling out for him. And not by his actual name, but...

His slightly lifts his head towards the source of the noise. A bunch of cattails wiggle back and forth and he squints his eyes and...

There, he sees him. He almost doesn't, his green curls make him blend in between the flora perfectly, but the yellow tie is what gives him away.

His puffy, sore eyes snap open in an instant.

Izuku.

His lips slightly part and his breathing unevens. No, no way. He was fucking hallucinating. He had to. Izuku was still stuck in his fucking car. He knew it. He saw it with his very own eyes. If that other guy was fucking with him by using his quirk, he was gonna actually gonna blow his face off.

But the look the supposed fake Izuku was giving him, felt genuine. His big, green eyes stare directly into his tired, bloodshot rubies and god, there's so much affection crammed into them, Katsuki knows no quirk would ever be able to recreate that.

That was his Izuku.

The freckled man brings a finger up to his lips, gesturing Katsuki to be quiet, and the blonde squints at him.

Making Izuku feel like an idiot. Oh, as if he ever needed to be telling Kacchan to be quiet. Only he out of the two of them would be dumb enough to cry out Katsuki's name if he were to spot him after his supposed death, he thinks. He then tries to signal with his hands his plan--He turns his right palm and makes his pointing and middle finger wiggle, mimicking the movement of two legs. He then gestures at where Kazuma was standing and then bails his hand into a fist and smacks it against his left, open palm, suggesting a takedown.

Katsuki glares. Unimpressed.

Yeah, that was Izuku, alright. He had no doubts now.

As Izuku retreats back, ready to go along with his plan, he accidentally puts too much weight on his bad foot. He grits his teeth and lets out a muffled noise, managing to stop himself from crying out in pain, but as he does so, he completely loses his footing and falls backward.

Katsuki sharply inhales and takes it upon himself to cover for his friend in an instant. He hurriedly pulls at the wire, causing Hiroto to lose his balance, his guard let down as he assumed that Dynamight would just be sulking all day now. As Izuku falls, Katsuki lets out a loud and brash explosion from where his hands were tied behind his back, making sure the noise cancels out the splash.

He assumes it's safe to say it worked because the two men turn their attention solely on him, and he lets out the breath he had no idea he was even holding since he saw his friend mess up. Izuku recovers quickly and now clumsily heads towards the shore.

"Getting feisty again?" Kazuma barks.

Katsuki doesn't let his eyes linger on Izuku for long, in order to not probe anyone's curiosity in order for them to turn their head and check what he's seeing and finally shoots his perpetrator a dirty look.

"Fuck you!" He barks back.

He sees Izuku sneak past and taking cover behind the navy blue car. That's good. He just gotta keep the attention on himself. Thank god it's the thing he's best at.

He harshly pulls at the wire again, it cuts into his flesh, but honestly, compared to all of the injures he had ever faced, it was nothing. He tries to drag Hiroto closer to himself, rather than to try and get away, and it freaks him out.

"Hey, cut that out!" He warns and makes his quirk even tighter, more painful to deal with.

"I told you we should've dealt him from the start. Snap his neck already, I'm done, let the boss deal with the aftermath. If he wanted a pro-hero dead, he should've prepared himself to take the heat." Kazuma orders and takes a step forward. "If you don't have the guts to do this, I will."

"Moron, we are gonna be next on his hitlist if we fuck this up!" Hiroto protests, struggling to fight back against thrashing hero.

Katsuki flails and kicks again, making sure to tire himself out properly. He needed a whole bunch of sweat on his body, in order to detonate all of the beads and lift himself off the ground when the time is right.

Izuku takes his chances during the commotion and walks up all the way until he is right behind Kazuma.

The man senses an unknown presence behind him, but before he can even turn his head around and react, suddenly two arms appear in front of him, holding something between them. An unwrapped tie.

And just like that, they yank the villain back as they wrap the tie around his neck and keep him away from Katsuki. The man's hands immediately shoot up to grab the piece of cloth that was currently cutting off his air supply, pulling at it aggressively, but Izuku's hold remains equally strong.

Katsuki can't help but smirk upon seeing the display. That nerd was always was fucking insane when it came to him, eh? He wonders for a second how Izuku's students would react to the sight of their usually sweet and docile teacher currently strangling the living shit out of a villian with a maniac look on his gentle face just because he made the mistake of attacking the pro-hero instead of him and it makes his breath funny.

Izuku holds on to the struggling villain and shoots a glare at Hiroto.

"Let him go, and your partner won't get hurt." He announces, ready for a bargain.

Hiroto sharply pulls at Katsuki, as if he were a dog on a leash.

"You don't give orders around here. Let go of him or I will--" Hiroto growls and takes a look at the blonde. "You know what? Two can play this game." He scoffs and makes another wire slither all the way up Katsuki's already bruised throat.

And then, it tightens around it, causing Katsuki to hack.

Izuku's eyes widen, his tough facade washing away like chalk on a concrete in rain.

"Stop that! You're gonna actually slice his throat open!" Izuku cries out, noticing how sharp the purple wires actually were.

"Let Kazuma go!" Hiroto insists.

"Get your quirk off of Kacchan!" Izuku shouts back.

"...Who?" Kazuma manages to choke out weakly in confusion.

They stare dead into each other eyes, counting seconds as each expects the other to falten first.

Until suddenly, Kazuma in his last few attempts to free himself, manages to stomp the heel of his foot against Izuku's already pretty badly injured one. Izuku cries out in pain and gets distracted for just a split of a second. But that split of a second is enough for Kazuma to push himself out of Izuku's hold, the tie wet and flimsy after all slips easily out of the freckled man's grip. And then he wastes no time to clobber him right in the face.

Izuku stammers backwards, but before he can recover, Kazuma launches himself at him, knocking them both onto the ground. In an attempt to punch Izuku again, he raises his right arm and swings it, but Izuku manages to catch his bailed fist into his open palm and hold it back. He does the same with his left one, holding the man in deadlock, as he pushed down onto him with his full weight.

Once his face is pretty close to Izuku's, two angered stares tearing into each other, teeth gritted, Izuku unexpectedly leans his head a bit back and then lunges forward, slamming his forehead right againist his attacker.

The headbutt takes Kazuma by surprise, causing stars to dance in front of his vision. Izuku lets go of his opponent's fists and uses his right hand to land a clean punch right across his jaw with an angered cry, fulfilling his promise from before.

Then he wastes no time to hastly push stunned Kazuma off of himself and lunges forward, not letting up until the man was no longer a threat.

Seeing his partner losing the fight, Hiroto takes a step forward, ready to try and restrain Izuku, but soon realizes that he used up all of his wires on Katsuki. There was only so much he could shoot out of his wrists, and honestly, Dynamight is the first person ever that he had to reach his limit for in order to keep him in place. And that thought was scary, the blonde was thrashing like a wild bull and removing even a couple of wires off of him seemed risky.

Izuku topples Kazuma and raises his arm, readying himself to land the final blow, but as he lets it fall, something sharp wraps around his arm and pulls it back. Izuku tries to overpower it with a strained groan, his attempt successful as just one wire isn't enough to stop his arm from pushing downward. Leaving Hiroto no choice but to send out another one. And then the third .

Feeling wires slither off of him, one after another, Katsuki senses that this was his chance and detonates all of the sweat on his body in one go. He flings off the ground, dragging Hiroto with him with a yelp. They crash back onto the ground a few centimeters away, rolling away from each other as Hiroto subconsciously turned his quirk completely off in surprise. Katsuki wastes no time to recover, immediately launching himself off the ground by letting out a few explosions out of his palms. He is headed straight for Hiroto, trying to get to him before the man can also recover and aim his quirk at him. He manges just in time, and as Hiroto spats a petty insult and raises his hand, Katsuki kicks him right across the face, knocking him out cold.

He takes a step back, pants and hunches over, placing his hands on his knees, finally allowing himself to steady his breathing after being strangled the second time.

Some noises come from behind him, and he turns his head to see that the guy Izuku had decided to took on has also been dealt with for the moment. Their eyes meet, and they look at each other, and then down at the men they both knocked out each and their breaths get funny. They don't say anything to one another yet. All of what happened had yet to settle in their hazed heads.

Eventually, Izuku struggles to get up off the ground, given the current circumstances it's kind of hard to, but once he does, he clumsily hurries to get to his friend, dragging his injured foot behind him.

"Kacchan!" He beams, his smile big and genuine as one of a child that is running to the pine tree on a Christmas morning to unwrap his gift.

Katsuki figures it's up to him to close the distance between them, as he watches Izuku fumble in his direction, not really wanting his friend to strain his foot for much longer. So he rushes towards the freckled man, but as he is almost by his side, Izuku's cheerful face expression suddenly changes and he shoves a hand right in front of the blonde's face, making him stop dead in his track.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Izuku orders, still continuing to swat Katsuki away with his scarred palm.

He lowers his head and shoves his other hand (the one that wasn't keeping Kacchan at bay) into his front pocket, urgently searching for something in it.

"Where is it, where is it, I swear I put it in th--Ah! Here it is, Kacchan!" Izuku announces and finally fishes a small, plastic case out of his pocket.

He then takes it and proudly displays it right in front of the other man, waving right in front of his face, urging him to take it.

Katsuki blinks once, twice.

"Don't worry, I-I managed to find it amongst all of the wreck! I know it's like your most prized possession, so uh-- Yeah, I just had to bring it back to you!" Izuku stammers as the beaming grin returns on his face.

Katsuki doesn't say anything to him. He lip curls, expression blank.

Izuku's hand trembles, as the lack of any reaction from Kacchan causes him to feel uneasy.

"Look, if it's about the crack, I know I kinda messed up, I swear it was an accident, though! I put it in my mouth and then kinda bit too hard into it, and--Ah right, it might have gotten wet. I will buy you a new one, okay? Case, not the card, I mean." Izuku stammers, unsurely watching if any muscle on Katsuki's face moves.

No reaction comes, and Izuku slowly stops waving the card and just shoves it up an inch closer to the blonde, almost making it brush against his nose. Cluelessly awaits for him to finally take it.

Katsuki deadpans him. Vividly inhales through his nose. Exhales. His eyes burn straight through his childhood best friend with disbelief. Some petty remark hangs on the end of his tongue, but he forces himself to swallow it. Completely stunned by his obliviousness. His gaze lands on Izuku's cute, excited face, then down onto the card, then back up to his face again.

He finally moves. He lifts his arm up, and Izuku readies himself to hand the card over. But as he does so, Katsuki carelessly smacks the card out of his grip, like a cat does with cups on a kitchen counter.

It earns a choked gasp from the freckled man as he watches the card fall onto the ground. Katsuki doesn't even bother to spare a glance to where it might have landed. Instead, his nostrils angirly flare as he steps forward and closes the distance between them at last. He pulls Izuku into a bear hug. Wraps his arms around his neck and buries his face in Izuku's wet curls, inhaling his scent.

"Kacchan??" Izuku squeaks out, his eyes still searching for the card in the grass. "Come on, you don't really wanna lose it."

"Shut up for a moment." Katsuki mutters into his hair.

"Kacchan?"

Katsuki's breath hitches, and Izuku's words die in his throat in an instant. He wants to ask what's wrong, but that would've been stupid. He knew what happened after all. So instead of going on and about, he lets the moment pass as he wraps his hands around Kacchan, hugging him back. He hides his head in the crook of Katsuki's neck and nuzzles against it, wordlessly letting Katsuki know that he is still there with him.

"Fuck... Izuku. Izuku." Katsuki breathes out.

He places his hand on the back of Izuku's head in a protective manner. Then he unburries his face from his hair and lowers it until his nose is pressing against Izuku's cheek. Just wanting to feel him.

"Izuku." He says his name directly into his ear in a raspy, low voice and Izuku swears his knees got so weak that if Katsuki's strong arms weren't holding him right now he would've slid off of him onto the ground.

"I'm okay. I'm okay, see? We made it." Izuku decides to speak.

"For a moment, when they got me, I thought--I couldn't get back to you. And..." Katsuki chokes out.

"I know. I know. I'm so sorry for scaring you like this, Kacchan."

Katsuki moves his head away in order to face his friend.

"You had nothing to do with it." He murmurs as his gaze lands on one of the unconscious men on the ground.

Izuku lifts his hand up and cups Katsuki's face, gently turning it so that blonde would be looking at him again.

"Hey. Don't think about that now. We will deal with them later, okay?"

"Those fuckers nearly got us." Katsuki spats out.

"I know. But we got them. And we are gonna make sure they will face justice and--"

"They were just hired guns. Whoever wanted us dead is still out there."

Izuku stays silent for a long moment.

"...then we will get them as well."

Katsuki clicks his tongue and looks away, not wanting to give the impression that his annoyed look is aimed at Izuku. Yeah, he knew. He just really wanted to get that fucker right now. He hates waiting after all.

Izuku begins to draw circles on the blonde's back in a soothing matter. It takes him a while, but eventually, Katsuki relaxes back into the hug. The other, however, notices something and pulls his head away.

"Kacchan...Oh god, your neck." He whines as he takes in the damage.

Bruises and shallow scratches covered all of his throat. They were on his arms and back as well, but it's his friend's neck that he worried for most. A painful reminder of their struggles.

"It's fine. Just stings a little, is all." Katsuki replies nonchalantly.

"Still, looks like it hurt like hell." Izuku sighs.

Katsuki thinks that's the end of this conversation until the man in his hold tiptoes and begins to place small, gentle kisses all over his bruised neck, making sure to not miss a single laceration. At first, the blonde melts right into this feeling, letting out a low hum of pleasure. But then the realization of what they actually were doing causes Katsuki to tense up as he snaps his head to give Izuku a flabbergasted look.

He wants to say his name, but only a startled little noise escapes his parted lips. But it's enough to sober Izuku up out of his boldness, and he immediately stops what he was doing and pulls away. His face red.

"Don't." Kastuki stammers.

Izuku looks like he had just been kicked.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking--I'm sorry, I'm--" He trails off, sounding afraid.

"Don't do that. You have no idea what it's doing to me." Katsuki warns, clearly hinting at something and the tips of his ears turn red again.

Izuku opens his mouth and closes it a few times, not really knowing what he should say or do next. He takes a step back, trying to wriggle himself out of Katsuki's grasp, willing to give him space since he had clearly just overstepped his boundaries. But Katsuki doesn't let him slip away, and Izuku understands that Kacchan wasn't mad at him.

So he stops and looks up while Katsuki's eyes burn down right through him, observing him like a wild animal observes its pray. Izuku feels heat spread across his face as his heartbeat becomes twisted once more. Kacchan's glare is so intense, it feels like it was gonna hammer him down onto the ground.

Izuku shifts a bit in his hold, looking at his best friend in anticipation. The blonde's lip curls again.

"I'd think very carefully about what you're gonna do next if I were you." He growls as he lets his arms unwrap from around Izuku.

He gives him a choice. He could step away, and then they can go on about their lives, pretending this never happened. Step back and all of this falls forgotten.

But Izuku, the reckless fool that he always was, gets on his tippy toes again and presses a firm kiss on the corner of Katsuki's mouth, dying to find out the other outcome. That being only ever so much he can bring himself to do.

He pulls away, feeling like an idiot. God, he holds Katsuki so high on a pedestal that he can't even kiss him properly. He feels like he has no right to do such thing.

They lock eyes for a moment. Right after, Katsuki's hands shoot straight for Izuku's face, and he yanks him forward to clash their mouth together. He wastes no time to thrust his tongue in between Izuku's parted lips and begins to lick each and every corner that he could get a hold of. It earns a muffled moan from Izuku which he eagerly swallows, as he continues to explore his mouth.

Eventually, they're forced to part to catch some air, and as they do so, a trail of saliva still remains between their mouths. It sort of drives Katsuki crazy as he licks his lips to break it. Izuku's hot breath hits his face as he pants, his cheeks so red making him look almost like a strawberry. God, he looks beautiful like that.

Katsuki lowers his head in order to place affectionate kisses all across Izuku's flustered face.

"This is what you wanted?" He mutters, his wet lips moving against his cheek.

Izuku shudders. But he can't help the forming wide smile, which Katsuki eventually kisses as well.

"You have no idea." He breathes out happily.

_________________________________

They both sit on the grass, watching as the sun almost entirely disappears below horizont. The afternoon chill gets to their clammy skins and soaked clothes, so they sit almost entirely smushed against one another. Katsuki's left arm holds Izuku's close and rests on his shoulder, while his right one fiddles with the All Might card. It catches Izuku's attention.

"See? I knew you cared for it waaay too much to just carelessly toss it away." Izuku chirps.

"I wasn't gonna throw it away, I just didn't care for it at that moment." Katsuki scoffs. "Still wild that during all of that struggle and few seconds away from dying, you still had half a mind to fetch this old thing."

Izuku sighs happily.

"Yeah, well, I knew how much it mattered to you."

Katsuki turns his head to look at him, his face unreadable and then looks away.

"You're not mad at me for getting it a bit wet, though?"

Katsuki blinks and then flicks Izuku in the forehead.

"Ow--! I'm taking it as a yes?"

"No, you moron. I'm worried that you nearly died and all you seem to care for is that piece of plastic."

Izuku bites the inside of his cheek, trying to avoid this conversation.

"Just how much pain you were in for you to bite into this? God, you must have been so panicked. This case was tough, I don't stuff important things into cheap cases--Fuck." Katsuki trails off.

"It's fine, it wasn't that bad." Izuku tries to laugh it off.

"...how did you feel when you realized that I wouldn't come back for you?" Katsuki suddenly asks, and Izuku's heart stops.

Izuku's mouth suddenly feels sour as he tries to recall the unpleasant memory.

"I...I felt scared. But mostly for you."

Katsuki's eyebrow perks up at that.

"For me? Why the hell me? You were the one stuck in that car."

"Because I knew the only reason you wouldn't come back to get me is if something bad happened to you." Izuku answers truthfully.

Katsuki lets out a long exhale, taking it all in.

"What? You think I would ever assume you'd ditch me?" Izuku teases.

"Guess. Sort of. I tried so fucking hard to get back, I swear I did. But they just--"

"I know, Kacchan. I saw." Izuku interrupts as his gaze falls onto his friend's bruised neck.

They're silent for a moment. They both had been waiting for someone from Katsuki's agency to come pick them up and detain the still unconscious men, since Izuku wasn't really eager to take one of their cars to head back to Musutafu. And Katsuki wasn't too much either.

"You know, all well that ends well, after all. It's actually the thought that your life might be in danger is what drove me to try and get out of the car. Instead of having a task to save myself, I now had to save myself and you. It was one hell of a motivator." Izuku chuckles and rests his head on Katsuki's shoulder.

"You're just like him." Katsuki scowls. "Goddamn martyr, never thinks of himself."

Izuku lets this insult slide, considering it was one hundred percent true and he had no say in it whatsoever.