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It was almost 8 a.m., the start time of the school day, and almost all the students from 1-A, now 2-A, were in their classroom, more or less in their seats.
The bell rang and Aizawa entered the room at that exact moment, everyone quickly taking their seats.
Normally, Aizawa shouldn’t have remained his students’ homeroom teacher as they moved into their second year, but he hadn’t really had a choice. When he told his students that he wouldn’t be their homeroom teacher the following year, they all refused, even going so far as to threaten to purposely fail the final exams to repeat the year and stay in class with Aizawa.
To some, this reaction might seem completely out of proportion, but to these kids, it absolutely wasn’t, quite the opposite. They had been through so much during that first year of high school, and Aizawa had been by their side through it all, protecting them as much as he could from everything that was happening, going so far as to put his body, his quirk, and even his life in danger to protect them.
So no, they didn’t want to leave their teacher and certainly didn’t want to move up a grade if it meant leaving Aizawa-sensei.
When they said they were willing to repeat the year to stay with him, Aizawa wished he could say the feeling wasn’t mutual, but he wasn’t a liar.
He too had grown extremely attached to these kids and letting them go would have been difficult for him too. But he still had to save face, so he didn’t do anything. He certainly hadn’t mentioned to them that if they ever missed the next class period to go talk to Nezu and change the chimera’s mind, they wouldn’t be sanctioned. Absolutely not, I don’t know where you’re getting that from.
The high schoolers had obviously won this battle, which wasn’t really one given that Nezu had accepted almost immediately, having himself thought of making Aizawa level up so that he would stay with his traumatized kids.
But anyway, all that to say that Aizawa was still the homeroom teacher of his Hell Class, and he had just arrived at 8:00 sharp, at the same time as the bell.
“Hello everyone. Everyone to their seats and I will-” The hero stopped abruptly when he noticed the absence of one of his students. “Where’s Midoriya?” He asked, frowning.
All the students turned their heads towards their classmate’s seat, which was indeed empty.
“Maybe he’s sick?” Mina suggested, really not believing it.
“Midoriya comes to class even when he has a fever of 40°C.” Shoji retorted, shaking his head.
“Maybe he didn’t hear his alarm?” Ojiro tried.
“All 15 of them?” Sero challenged, raising an eyebrow.
Everyone then proposed their ideas, and a hubbub broke out in the classroom. Aizawa was about to silence them when Bakugo abruptly stood up and walked towards the classroom door without saying anything.
“Bakugo, where do you think you’re going?” Aizawa asked, without making a move to stop him.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’ll go get the nerd.” Bakugo replied without even stopping.
Aizawa didn’t contradict him and let him go without saying anything. He didn’t pretend to understand everything about their history or their current relationship, but he knew that Bakugo and Midoriya were extremely close. Aizawa completely trusted the blond to figure out what his classmate was doing and do whatever it took to bring him to class.
Meanwhile, he still had 18 students squawking all over the place.
“Quiet!” He demanded, activating his quirk, his hair standing halfway up on end.
With the diminution of his quirk’s power due to the loss of his right eye, what he had just done was more for the sake of it, as he no longer had the power to suppress 18 quirks at once. But that was no longer the point. He had trained his kids well and no longer needed to calm them down by force; a simple look was enough.
And indeed, the high school students gradually fell silent, looking at him like lost children, waiting to know what they should do.
“Let’s leave Midoriya to Bakugo and start this lesson.”
He could see that some people were not happy with this plan, but no one said anything out loud and the class began normally.
About 10 minutes later, Aizawa received a text from Bakugo, telling him that neither he nor Midoriya would be in class this morning, possibly in the afternoon as well. There was no reason why, and it wasn’t even a request, just information, but Aizawa didn’t argue. He knew it wasn’t easy for Midoriya every day, so if he needed to take a day off, he wasn’t going to object. And despite his rough exterior, Bakugo was the perfect person to stay with Midoriya during these times.
Aizawa simply told him to call him should they needed him and continued his class as if nothing had happened.
After leaving the classroom, Katsuki immediately headed towards their dorm, his hands stuffed into his pants pockets. As he exited the building, he buried his head in his shoulders to try and protect himself from the chilly wind and continued walking.
He’d noticed before the others that Izuku hadn’t shown up to class this morning but had wanted to give the other teenager the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the nerd had preferred to go running this morning and only planned to arrive at the last minute, as sometimes happened to him. But no, Izuku hadn’t shown up, and Katsuki now allowed himself to worry a little. Izuku never missed class and was never late, no matter what. For him not to have shown up this morning, something must have been wrong, and now it was his mission to find out what.
Arriving at Heights Alliance, Katsuki immediately headed for Izuku’s room, having a hunch that the little greenie hadn’t even left his bed this morning. Why, he would soon find out.
“Oï nerd, you’re in there?” He asked, knocking on the door.
No answers.
“Izuku?”
Still no answers.
Katsuki tried to open the door but found it locked. Stifling a curse, the blond took out a spare key to his friend’s door, inserted it into the lock, and easily unlocked the door. And no, he hadn’t stolen that key or made a spare key behind Izuku’s back; the other teen himself had given him the spare key, without a word.
Katsuki hadn’t said anything either when Izuku had given him that key, and had simply nodded, both to thank Izuku for the trust he had placed in him, and to promise him that he would be there if he ever needed him.
And that’s why Katsuki was using this key for the first time.
The room he entered was completely dark, the thick curtains still closed and no source of light illuminating the small space.
“Izuku?” Katsuki called again, keeping his voice low and taking a step further into the room, his eyes scanning the space and stopping on the pile on the bed.
The cluster moved slightly, and Katsuki saw a green eye.
“Kacchan?”
That single word was enough to make Katsuki understand why Izuku wasn’t in class. Pain. Because even though he tried to hide it, Katsuki knew Izuku inside and out and knew every single one of his intonations and what they meant. And now, it was his voice so full of pain it was almost shaking.
“Hey, nerd.” Katsuki said simply, stepping further into the room and closing the door behind him. “Can I open the curtains?” He asked, still keeping his voice low.
“Y-yes, a little.” Izuku agreed.
So, Katsuki opened the curtains slightly, just enough to be able to see into his best friend’s room. His best friend was still lying in bed, half curled, his face tensed.
“Why aren’t you in c-class?” Izuku asked in a small voice.
“Because you’re not.” Katsuki replied simply, moving closer to the bed.
“S-Sorry.” Izuku apologized. “I… I couldn’t get up this morning. But I’m fine, p-promise. You can go back to class…”
“Don't apologize, you idiot, and stop talking shit.” Katsuki muttered, crouching down next to the bed to be at his friend’s eye level. “You’re not okay, and it’s okay. Why didn’t you tell anyone if you’re hurting that much today?”
“I… I didn’t want to bother anyone.” Izuku admitted, looking away a little. “And I- my hands hurt too much to send a message to Aizawa-sensei.”
“We installed voice recognition on your phone for this kind of situation, ‘Zuku. How long have you been awake like this?”
“What time is it?”
“8:09 a.m.”
“Oh. It’s been almost 4 hours.”
Katsuki sighed and took his phone out of his pocket, sending a quick message to Aizawa to let him know that neither he nor Izuku would be in class this morning and that they would see about the afternoon.
After that, the blond headed to the adjoining bathroom and grabbed a few things, then returned to the bedroom. He gave Izuku a water bottle in which he had put a sachet of electrolytes and a pain pill, the special ones prescribed by doctors for days when the pain was too bad, like today in fact. Izuku usually didn’t like taking these pills because they tended to leave him groggy and out of it, but today he didn’t even protest, which further proved to Katsuki the immense pain the other teenager must be feeling.
“Don’t move, I’ll be right back.” Katsuki said as he left the room and headed towards the shared kitchen on the ground floor.
There, he took out a portion of curry rice he’d put in the freezer for later and popped it in the microwave to defrost. When he cooked, he always made too much on purpose so he could freeze some, so he’d have quick, easy meals ready for days when he couldn’t be bothered to cook. Or for days like today when he just didn’t have the time.
While the food was defrosting, Katsuki also grabbed some gel packs and heated them up.
Once everything was warm, the blond took it all and went back up to Izuku’s room.
“It’s me.” He said softly, entering again.
Izuku hadn’t really moved and was still lying in his bed, although his face seemed a little less tense.
Katsuki placed what he had in his hands on the desk and then set about repositioning Izuku so that he was in a little less pain. With the help of a ridiculous number of pillows, he managed to find a good position for his friend, half-upright in his bed, his legs and arms supported in a position that didn’t hurt any more. Once that was done, Katsuki placed the warm gel packs on his friend’s right arm and hands, because he knew those were the most sensitive and stiff areas in this kind of situation.
While Katsuki helped him settle in, Izuku remained mostly silent and let it happen. Perhaps a year ago, this situation would have been highly awkward for the two high schoolers, but they had been through so much since then that it wasn’t strange anymore.
Once satisfied with his friend’s setup, Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s laptop that was lying on his desk and quickly opened it, entering the correct password on the first try even though he wasn’t supposed to know it.
Katsuki scoffed. “Don’t you ever change your password?”
“What for?” Izuku asked with a slight shrug.
“Because if you have the same password for 15 years, someone will eventually guess it.”
“You’re the only one who knows me well enough to guess my password.” Izuku replied as his only justification.
Katsuki grumbled but didn’t press the issue further and continued to search in the computer for something in particular. “Ah, ah, I was sure you had it somewhere.” He said triumphantly, having found what he was looking for.
“What were you looking for?” Izuku asked, starting to straighten up.
“Don’t move.” Katsuki countered, gently pushing him away, forcing his friend to stay still.
“Kacchan…” Izuku complained. “At least show me what you were doing on my computer.”
“Patience, I’m coming.” Katsuki said, moving closer to the bed, placing the bowl of curry and spoon on the bedside table so he could easily grab it from the bed.
The blond then sat down next to Izuku, being careful not to move his friend too much so as not to hurt him even more, even making sure not to touch the younger one at all.
This plan didn’t seem to suit Izuku as he shifted a little so that he was completely pressed against Katsuki, resting his head on the taller man’s chest, shifting slightly to find the best position, half against his bed and half against Katsuki.
Katsuki didn’t protest and let his friend settle back against him. Once the green-haired teen was comfortable, Katsuki grabbed the laptop and placed it on his lap, turning the screen slightly so Izuku could see as well as he could. After that, he launched the video file he had opened and mountain scenery with light music appeared.
In less than 5 seconds, Izuku knew what it was.
“The Sound of Music?” He asked, looking up at his childhood friend.
“It’s your favorite movie.” Katsuki defended himself. “And it’ll keep you quiet for three hours.”
“You know I’m going to sing all the songs, right?” Izuku questioned with a small smile.
“You’ve been doing it since you were 3, I don’t see why you’d stop now.” Katsuki confirmed with a small sigh of defeat. “Eat a little before Maria starts singing.” The blond demanded, however, handing Izuku a spoonful of curry.
Again, there was a time when Izuku would have completely refused to accept Katsuki feeding him like that, but he too had learned to put his pride aside and let his friends help him when he was feeling down. And currently he was less than good, so he let Katsuki take care of him.
Honestly, Izuku couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend the morning. When he woke up in the middle of the night in so much pain that he couldn’t go back to sleep or get up, he hadn’t thought he’d find himself in this position a few hours later. But life always has surprises, and here he was, cozy in his bed, cuddled up with his best friend who regularly fed him curry, watching his favorite childhood movie and singing along to the songs from that old movie as loud as he can without it hurting too much.
And even though Katsuki rolled his eyes for the sake of it, Izuku caught him humming the lyrics to “Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss” under his breath.
And as the Von Trapp children went to bed after the reception, Izuku sighed contentedly, thinking that he definitely couldn’t have dreamed of anything better right now.