Ring

Inspired by My Hero Academia

By Melanie O’Hara

Bakugou Katsuki had an explosion quirk. This was common knowledge amongst the public, he’d won the sports festival in his first year and came in second this year (fucking Deku,) so his quirk was widely known. While his quirk was amazingly strong, it inevitably came with some repercussions. The one Katsuki found to be the most inconvenient was the ringing in his ears.

When he was a kid, it would happen with every tiny explosion he launched off and he hated it. Then he grew older, and his quirk grew stronger, and the ringing got worse and more frequent. Nowadays it took a much bigger explosion to set it off, thank fuck. He’d also gotten these weird earplugs as part of his hero gear halfway through first year to help, plus he rarely used the kind of force it took in the practicals. He got special permission to wear the earplugs outside class and it was the best goddamn thing ever.

He’d lived nearly the entire year without that godawful ringing, and he knew for a fact that he’d remembered his earplugs that day, so he had no fucking clue why he could hear it louder than ever. His thoughts were fuzzy around the edges and his head hurt like a bitch. He was sweating like crazy because, wherever he was, it was also hot as fuck. It took him longer than it should have to realize his eyes were closed.

He forced them open and immediately screwed them shut because, turns out, it was also bright as fuck. Cursing to himself and pushing to a sitting position that left his head swimming and in spite of his screaming muscles, he opened his eyes much more slowly to give them time to adjust. What he saw snapped his memory back into place and set his stomach plummeting to his feet.

They had been doing another practical at school on some backlot they’d somehow never seen despite a year and a half at this goddamn school when some no-name villains hijacked the speaker system. They blabbed on and on about some agenda he hadn’t fucking listened to because Deku and he had split off from the others and tried to sneak their way over to the observation box the villains had to be in. Katsuki knew that just a year ago he wouldn’t have been so amenable to working with fucking anyone, let alone Deku, but they’d both come so far that the second the announcement started, he looked to Deku, met his eyes, and both nodded before moving out. He remembered crouching behind stone pillars, scattered debris, and anything else they came across but not whatever the fuck had separated Deku and him, set the room on fucking fire, and knocked out his earplugs. He hoped it wasn’t him but the ringing in his ears didn’t bode well.

He shook his head, ignored the dizziness that brought on, and stood up. First things first, he had to find Deku. Either the explosion had thrown them away from one another or they’d tried to surround one of the villains, but either way, he wouldn’t be safe and if Katsuki himself had gotten knocked out it was more than likely Deku had too. He tried his damnedest to move quickly and silently, staying light on his feet and never fully planting them, but he was light-headed and off kilter, so he doubted he had much success. After wandering aimlessly for a bit, Katsuki decided to head towards the observation box and hope they were blown back, not forward.

Walking for a while let the adrenaline die down and the shock wear off, which fucking sucked because apparently he hadn’t entirely avoided injury, his knee was fucked up, and his side was bleeding sluggishly from a puncture wound he knew better than not to check. It was shallow and sure as fuck not life-threatening, so finding Deku took priority. The fucking nerd had a habit of being the most grievously injured every goddamn time. So Katsuki kept moving.

It took him too long to find him, and when he finally did it was under a fucking pile of rocks with a single, scarred arm sticking out. Katsuki threw stealth out the window, yelled “Deku!” at the top of his fucking lungs, and ran. He slid on his knees which fucking hurt ’cause his knee was still a mess, but he didn’t care because Deku is under there. His vision tunneled and his mind was encased by the singular effort of getting him the fuck out. He knew he couldn’t just start pulling at the rubble because if Deku was in an air pocket, it’d just collapse and fucking crush him. More gently than he thought himself capable of, especially with desperation coursing through his veins, he held Deku’s wrist and felt for a pulse. It was thready and weak, but it was there, and he was alive, and Katsuki had never been so damn grateful in his entire life. Then his own goddamn brain turned traitor and thought, I didn’t kill him, which of course started him off thinking, I did this to him, in an echoing and endless chant.

Katsuki felt sick. He had thought his days of hurting Deku were done, and they’d only Just started to move past years of torment and violence, and then Katsuki had to go and fuck it up. His own pulse was throbbing in his throat as he tried to wake him up with soft calls of “Deku?” that he could barely hear over the ringing of his shitty ears. He received no response, but he took a deep breath and tried to keep from panicking. Deku was alive, just unconscious.

Katsuki considered going to find a teacher or maybe another classmate, but couldn’t bring himself to leave Deku. Then he thought about waiting for someone whose quirk could actually help Deku instead of fucking hurting him, only ever hurting. Maybe round-face was nearby, her quirk’d be fucking perfect, she could lift the rock away. Katsuki had just made up his mind to wait for help, even if it went against every instinct in his body, when the rubble shifted and Deku made a quiet, pained whimper. He was still unresponsive but clearly waiting wasn’t a goddamn option and, with shaking hands, Katsuki started trying to lift the topmost stones. He’d just make some headway, he decided, move some of the non-load bearing pieces so round-face could get him out the fucking second she arrived.

After a few minutes of carefully selecting and removing rubble and sporadically checking Deku’s pulse, no one had come by still, and Katsuki felt his panic building again. He hadn’t called out for help yet, just in case the villains were nearby, but he didn’t know how long Deku had been trapped for because he had been fucking unconscious, and he was pretty sure he had a concussion because his shitty brain found time unprocessable and he had no idea how long he’d been awake. He had no idea what state Deku was in, either. What if he bled out or suffocated while Katsuki was wasting time?

With that new, disturbing thought, Katsuki made up his mind, took in a breath, and shouted, “Help!” as loud as he could, which was pretty fucking loud, and hoped the villains weren’t nearby. He didn’t know if anyone heard him, this place was fucking gigantic and he couldn’t really remember where everyone was, but there wasn’t a goddamn chance in hell he was leaving Deku if the villains were still in play, so he continued trying to unbury the nerd and waited.

Even though it felt like years later that he finally heard voices approaching with crashing footsteps, Katsuki was pretty sure it was something like a few minutes. He stopped moving, listened intently and, recognizing shitty hair’s voice, called out, “Over here!” just loud enough for his classmates. He’s pretty sure they noticed the panic he couldn’t quite keep from his voice because Kirishima looked worried when he rounded the corner. Kaminari and, thank fuck, Uraraka were with him. He knew he had to look wrecked, that his side was bloody and his leg was fucked, and he probably looked desperate, but when he opened his mouth, probably to ask if Katsuki was okay, he talked over him without a second thought. “Deku’s stuck. Help him.”

Everyone looked kinda stunned and Katsuki didn’t know if it was his words or the fear in his voice, but he needed them to move, dammit, so he looked at round-face and tacked on, “Please.” He was so grateful it spurred her forward that he didn’t even give a shit that his voice had cracked.

The three of them stumbled over to the pile of rubble with the same horror Katsuki felt shining in their eyes. He didn’t know if it was because he wasn’t the only one who could help anymore, but Katsuki felt himself fraying at the edges as round-face started levitating huge chunks of stone off of Deku. He couldn’t help because he’d only get in the way with his shitty leg, and shitty hair and Pikachu were moving the weightless rocks away while he hovered uselessly to the side.

“I don’t- I don’t remember what happened,” he says, stumbling over his words like a goddamn toddler. “I just… I know we went off on our own, to try and find those shitty villains, but I’ve got a shitty concussion, and my goddamn ears won’t stop fucking ringing-”

“Hey, dude, it’s okay,” Kirishima says, moving towards him with his hands raised, like Katsuki’s some goddamn animal, while Pikachu takes over helping Uraraka. Katsuki wants to yell at him to get his ass back over there and help Deku, dammit, but he can’t get the words out around the lump in his throat. Understanding dawns in Kirishima’s face and he must know what Katsuki wants to ask, what he needs to know, because he lowers his voice and says, “You didn’t set it off. There were bombs surrounding the observation box. After they went off, everyone rushed over and took the villains down. A couple groups came back to find you two.”

Katsuki didn’t know it was possible to feel so relieved and still have a heavy pit of worry in his gut. The crushing weight of guilt he’d felt since he first saw Deku’s arm sticking out of the rock fell from his shoulders and he heaved a shuddering sigh before nodding once. Kirishima nodded back and returned to the task of unburying Deku.

With an actually helpful quirk, it didn’t actually take long to get him out. Round-face shouted when she saw him, and Katsuki tripped three separate times when he rushed over. Uraraka was crying when they lifted him out, and Katsuki felt his heart stop. He dropped down next to Deku, who was fucking covered in blood and wasn’t moving, and fumbled for a pulse. It was even weaker than before, but it was there. He nodded, to the collective relief of the others.

The first thing they did was try to stem the bleeding from the most egregious wounds, and the second was to make sure none of his injuries would be aggravated by moving him. Katsuki was tearing his costume into strips to make bandages for his head and thigh, and he just knew Deku would cry and complain about it when he woke up because he was a goddamn nerd and he never shut up about how cool Katsuki’s costume is. Katsuki could admit to himself that he kinda loved it.

Far as they could tell, his worst injury was the piece of rebar sticking out of his leg, and they were quick to tie a tourniquet around his thigh a few inches above, just like they learned in that mandatory first aid class that Katsuki had never been more thankful for. Deku also had a head wound that was bleeding like a bitch, like head wounds always do, and his goddamn arm was broken because of fucking course it was. Recovery Girl was gonna give the dumbass so much shit for that one, even if it wasn’t his fault this time. The others tried to treat Katsuki too, but he yelled at them until they agreed that getting Deku to an actual fucking doctor took precedence. Katsuki was reasonably certain that his neck and back were fine, and the rest agreed, so round-face used her quirk on him. Katsuki picked Deku up and glared when Kirishima tried to take him. Katsuki didn’t see the problem, it wasn’t not like the fucker weighed anything with round-face’s quirk activated.

Pikachu took the lead and headed towards the exit while shitty hair and round-face hovered worriedly. For every second Katsuki could feel Deku breathing, he felt himself relax a little more.

Then they were outside, he got ushered over to the paramedics, and they took Deku from him. Round-face and Pikachu followed after them, explaining what injuries they found and their in-field treatment, but shitty hair stayed with him. Katsuki ignored him and the paramedic trying to get his attention, and instead watched as the entire class rushed over to Deku as he was loaded onto a stretcher and lifted into the ambulance. Kastuki watched fucking icy-hot grab Deku’s hand, and look about as damn close to frantic as he was capable before climbing into the ambulance with him. Katsuki watched them drive away, and the ringing in his ears drowned out everything else.

He was still staring at the rapidly shrinking ambulance when fucking Kirishima snapped his fingers in front of him. Katsuki blinked and turned to scream, curse at him until his throat hurt because he was suddenly so, inexplicably angry. Unfortunately, when he saw him, he saw the worry and sadness in his eyes, and then Katsuki just felt drained. He slumped back against the stretcher the paramedics had dragged him to and answered their questions. He didn’t fight it when they loaded him into another ambulance, didn’t even complain when Kirishima clambered in after him. He found himself hoping he and Deku were in the same room.

He spent the entire drive to the hospital sorting through the mountain of emotion he’d experienced since he woke up. Confusion that quickly became fear, so much fucking worry and panic when he finally found Deku, the raging anger he felt when he saw icy-hot grab his hand, followed by cool resignation. The oh-so-fucking familiar self-hatred when he thought he’d hurt Deku. No fucking wonder Katsuki felt drained.

He closed his eyes, and wished he had his goddamn ear plugs.