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ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʟᴍ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴏʀᴍ ` - ᴠᴀʟᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ & ᴍɪɴᴄᴄɪɴᴏ

As soon as Shoto froze the Nomu in place, Katsuki lunged for its head, slamming into it with the divided force of a Howitzer. If the Nomu was frozen to the point even its cells couldn't regenerate, all he needed to do was smash it to smithereens. The point of impact combusted like a bright explosion, blasting off a telephone pole nearby as the Nomu's head shattered into pieces.

He thought he'd gotten through it, but the Nomu was strong, somehow alive even after its head had been pulverized to bits. Its arm broke through the ice, grabbing Katsuki by the throat and squeezing hard enough to nearly snap his neck in half.

If Katsuki blew up that arm, he'd hurt himself, too, but...

Still held up by his throat, Katsuki aimed his shots at the Nomu's frozen leg, hoping to chip it away just the same, but he was losing his breath, fast, and his spine felt like it might snap.
 
Shoto saw the point the second Katsuki dived, and moved into action, making sure the ice was staying. He dodged when the explosion hit and held his ground but ... that arm.

Shit. If he blew fire in that direction and any of Katsuki's sweat was scattered, he'd cause an explosion. He didn't think Katsuki was burn proof. He filed that away for later. There better be a later.

While Katsuki focused his explosions on the Nomu's leg, Shoto sent a flame to the monsters arm, midpoint, trying to focus the heat to the point that it would force the thing to let go.

It was like he'd forgotten that the thing had two arms, because the second one snapped out of the ice and had him off his feet in seconds, slamming into the brick wall hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.
 
Damn it, what now? They had blown the thing's head off and it was still moving like it didn't need one. Somehow, it was still able to sense where they were, and how to grab them perfectly. As Shoto's flames loosened the grip just enough, Katsuki propelled himself into the air with a downwards blast, and dove from above, picking up just enough momentum to spin and try at a Howitzer Impact. All he had now was to just pulverize it, chip away at it faster than it could regenerate.

He blasted off the arm that had slammed into Shoto, switching to rapid-fire to burn away the flesh faster. He barely had time to even ask if Shoto was okay, he couldn't. His throat was crushed and his head rung, but if he didn't put this thing down now, this thing would kill them both.

"Fuck," he coughed, as the Nomu just sprouted another arm, and punched him so hard he spun and skidded across the asphalt.
 
The world was spinning, but Shoto was on his feet. He was following Katsuki's movement by hearing more than sight, and following blast with spurts of ice that bordered on hypothermic, attempting to freeze the flesh off before it ever had the chance to regenerate.

He didn't know how long they were at it. He didn't know when he had fallen to his knees. He didn't know if he was using ice or fire or if he had just given up, when he heard voices.

Heroes. There were a lot of them, shouting off commands. He saw a flash of red feathers and recognized Hawks before Aizawa's face was suddenly in front of him.

"Todoroki," he asked, confused, catching his shoulders when he fell forward.

"Where's Katsuki?" He asked. There were sirens now.
 
Up until that moment, Katsuki felt like he'd been vindicated. Too many times had he just allowed the villains to do whatever they damn pleased and he'd gotten kidnapped twice, but now he was able to hold his own against the thing that had nearly taken down All Might and Endeavor. Not only that, but with Shoto...

By the time he saw a streak of red, Katsuki had fallen to the ground, struggling as every broken bone protested in his body. "Damn it," he wheezed through his crushed lungs. "Damn it, that kill was ours!"

But he lost consciousness soon after, only after confirming for himself that Aizawa had Shoto safe.

"We'll take it from here, little Todoroki," Hawks said.

"He's being loaded into the ambulance," Aizawa said. "It was reckless, but the two of you did a good job keeping the Nomu here. Can you walk?" The pro hero helped Shoto to the ambulance nonetheless, where medics had already loaded Katsuki onto a stretcher, just barely able to keep his shredded clothes on him.
 
"Ambulance," he repeated, like he didn't know what the word meant, before his eyes suddenly went wide. "Ambulance?!"

He scrambled to his feet and his left leg gave out from under him with a painful lurch that had him down on one knee and his hands, but he pushed up again. Aizawa caught him that time and helped him over.

The second he saw Katsuki he was moving again, catching the edge of the stretcher he was on. A medic reached for him but Shoto shook him off, clinging harder. Katsuki wasn't awake.

He heard Aizawa sigh. "Shoto, your leg is broken. And I don't like the way you're breathing."

Shoto turned a glare on the only adult male he had ever respected and said quite clearly, "If anyone moves me from him I will burn this entire city down."
 
With Recovery Girl on the way to the hospital, the medics tried to keep Katsuki stabilized the entire time. His throat had been crushed and his ribs shattered, jamming bone into his lungs. It was a miracle he was even breathing, but even in his unconscious state, Katsuki still had his hands bunched into fists.

"We have to keep him breathing," an EMT told Shoto, understanding his desperation but worried for the kid's injuries as well. "You can sit on that stretcher, we'll check your vitals and get your leg in a makeshift splint."

When they were admitted to the hospital, Katsuki was still in critical condition, the doctors unable to perform surgery before Recovery Girl arrived and stabilized him first. They had him on a ventilator in the meantime, and tried to get Shoto to be treated too, coaxing him onto his own bed.
 
Shoto was nearly impossible through the entire thing. If at any point his eyesight to the other boy was cut off, the switch towards violence was too quick. Even once they were in the hospital, getting him into his own bed was a disaster, and he only did it with the promise that they would keep him and Katsuki together until Recovery Girl showed up.

Once they wheeled him into surgery, though, there was no way he could follow. They let him all the way to the doors, then someone from the psych ward was there to make sure he backed off.

Mina found him as they were walking him back to his room. He didn't remember calling her.

"Mr. Aizawa called me," she said, understanding the look on his face. She'd been his emergency contact ever since the one time his father had shown up. He made a mental note to change it to Katsuki.

Katsuki -

She caught him when he collapsed, and he buried his tears into her chest, stress and worry escaping him at once.
 
Once Recovery Girl arrived, stabilized him, and Katsuki was wheeled off into surgery for his broken ribs and crushed throat, it would be hours before he was let out. The stretcher was wheeled into the recovery room where Shoto was also staying to regain his health.

Midoriya had arrived soon after hearing the news from All Might, and even Kirishima and Kaminari had come after the news was aired on TV. They weren't allowed in, though, so they tried to comfort Shoto the best they could, worrying that he should rest, too.

"Is Kacchan going to be okay?" Midoriya asked.

"The surgery went well, he's going to recover slowly," Aizawa assured the group of friends. "Next time this happens, Todoroki, you leave the Nomus to the pro heroes."
 
Todoroki had said a few words upon Mina's arrival, but with her there he didn't even have to ask for updates - she took care of that - so he'd stopped speaking all together. Even when the rest of their friends arrived, all he could give them were nods of acknowledgement.

The worst of his injuries had been his leg, it was broken in multiple places, and he hadn't had enough stamina to get passed a limp once Recovery Girl had seen to him. He alternated between pacing when he felt a panic attack coming on, and sitting when Mina worried he was going to fuck up his leg again.

He was curled up in a window seat, forehead pressed to the glass, when Aizawa spoke. He didn't answer.
 
Aizawa left the group to handle the press, while Midoriya sat cautiously next to Shoto and reached over hesitantly to place a hand on his. "Hey... you... okay, Todoroki?" he asked. "I think you should go inside and rest in bed, maybe some sleep would be good for you."

He tried to be a comforting friend, recognizing the start of Shoto's panic attack and trying to be there for him since Katsuki couldn't.
 
Shoto shot a long look towards the hand resting on his. He wanted to jerk it back, wanted to yell, but it wasn't him. He wasn't mad. He was ... scared.

He looked up at his friend slowly, blankly, and blinked. "The man I love is in surgery right now," he said, slowly, like either he was having trouble forming words or as if Midoriya didn't speak the same language. "I'm not okay. I don't want to rest. I can't sleep."
 
Since Shoto didn't move his hand away, Midoriya took that as a silent sign that it was okay for him to squeeze it. "Yeah, I know, but, um... Kacchan's really strong, and if anyone's going to heal the fastest, it's him." He tried to be comforting, but even the kind Midoriya didn't know how to handle Shoto's callousness. "Do you want me to bring you a blanket?"

After another moment or two, the operations sign turned off and Katsuki loaded on a stretcher was wheeled into the recovery room, stable and placed on an oxygen mask. He still seemed to be unconscious though, his face peaceful from sedation.
 
Shoto didn't answer him, because he'd noticed the switch in the light. He got up faster than his leg wanted to let him but when Mina leaned forward to stable him he was already moving, an anxious bundle of nerves waiting to see Katsuki.

He was moving before a doctor came to speak to him, following the team to recovery. A nurse stopped him just before he entered the room and he huffed out of annoyance. "Can I be in there with him or not?"

"Are you family?" The nurse asked, and Mina got up to wrap her hands around Shoto's biceps and pull him back before he did anything stupid.
 
Kirishima went to help Mina to try and keep Shoto from lashing out at the nurses. This was a new side to Shoto that they hadn't seen before so Kaminari and Kirishima were a little confused, maybe even spooked.

"Hey, Roki, you should let that leg rest," Kaminari said, worried. "We'll come back tomorrow really early." He was just trying to be helpful but Mina shot him a look that said that wasn't what Shoto probably wanted to hear right now.

The doctor and a few nurses checked on Katsuki's vitals, hooked him up to a new IV, and turned on the humidifier. Katsuki still looked banged-up from the fight, his face still scuffed and dirty, though his clothes had been changed into that hospital gown.

"What... happened?" Midoriya finally asked. "We saw on the news, but why did it come after you two?"
 
Mina was right, because the look Shoto shot his friend was damn near homicidal. The fact that he was letting the other two hold him back was at estimate that he hadn't completely lost his mind, because he could get out if he wanted to. He stayed where he could see his boyfriend until the nurses stopped messing with him.

"Did it come after us?" He asked. He didn't remember. They'd been leaving the mall and then ... "It was just there. In public. We didn't want anyone to get hurt, so ... I mean this is what we're all working towards. Right?"
 
Midoriya nodded slowly. "Are they trying to get Kacchan again? Or maybe you this time?" He didn't linger on the thought for long because Mina made sure to give Midoriya a death glare for being nosy, too.

It wasn't long before Katsuki slowly regained consciousness, blinking a bit and taking in the white ceiling. He breathed heavily, and the first thing on his mind that he spoke out weakly was "Shoto". He looked around, trying to get up and pushing at the doctor in a futile effort to get out of bed. "Sho-" he wheezed, his throat feeling like it was on fire. Fuck. Was this what a panic attack felt like? He was sure it wasn't one, not really, but nothing else could explain the sheer adrenaline he felt, the chest-tightening fear when he realized his boyfriend wasn't here.
 
He didn't know, was the thing. He didn't know anything and it was making him feel worthless.

He heard the machines going off before the nurses did, and there was no stopping him that time as he ripped his arms away from his friends and slid into the room.

The doctor was saying something, trying to get Katsuki to lay back again. Shoto ignored him and pushed into the stretcher, leaning over his boyfriend. "I'm here, I'm here," he said quickly. "Breathe."
 
He didn't know what it was about Shoto, but as soon as Katsuki confirmed for himself that Shoto was alive, his erratic heartbeat slowed steadily. His expression evened out and he struggled to lie back down, trying to get onto his elbow to at least be closer to Shoto.

"You're..." he croaked out. "You're okay?" He searched him over, finding comfort in his boyfriend's face, the smell of him that he could pick up even through the oxygen mask.

"Todoroki," the doctor said. "If you'd like to stay in the same recovery room, you're going to have to let one of our nurses take care of your leg. You shouldn't be walking yet, even with Recovery Girl's efforts."
 
"I'm okay," he confirmed. He was banged up, there was a bandage on his face and one on his arm, but he was okay. He pressed gently at his boyfriend to ease him back down, off his elbow, and almost literally growled when the doctor spoke.

"Fine. Whatever," he said, his voice going back to that flat tone he'd been stuck with ever since arriving, not the calming one he'd been using on Katsuki. "Do what you have to just leave me alone."
 
Katsuki blinked and glanced at the doctors, then Shoto when his boyfriend growled at them. He hadn't seen Shoto so agitated before, like he was about to bite their heads off. That was his job, usually.

The doctor nodded to a nurse to help Shoto into a splint for his leg, and handed him crutches that he could use if he needed to get around. Then, she left, leaving the two alone in the room, while their friends seemed to stick around just a bit longer before they poked their heads into the door to wave goodbye at Katsuki and Shoto.

"Hey," Katsuki croaked when they were finally alone, trying to inch over to make room for his boyfriend. "Come... here..."
 
Shoto had almost forgotten that their friends were there, and he felt a momentarily stab of guilt over that, but he brushed it aside because Katsuki was awake. He was okay. They were okay.

Hs made for the bed immediately, crutches be damned, but hesitated before throwing himself into it. His hands went to Katsuki's chest, fluttering over him in a worried manner. "I don't want to hurt you."
 
"You can't hurt me," Katsuki snorted, and it hurt to even chuckle. It felt like somebody had ripped out his lungs. "Fuck, that hurts." He tried rolling towards Shoto, taking off his oxygen mask to bury his face into the crook of his neck.

There was a long pause as he contemplated something before whispering out. "Sorry," he muttered, reaching up to comb his fingers through Shoto's hair. "Sorry I... made the wrong move." Maybe they shouldn't have fought that Nomu. Maybe they should have just backed off until the pros came. He'd let his ego get to him and had nearly gotten Shoto killed. Katsuki would never apologize but where Shoto was concerned, he had no pride stopping him.
 
Katsuki's reaction seemed to kill any hesitance in him and Shoto settled into the bed. It was a tight fit, especially because he was keeping himself from blanketing over his boyfriend, but he didn't care.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Shoto mumbled. "We were unprepared, didn't have our gear, and up against something overpowered." He believed it, though maybe Aizawa had been right, they should have waited it out. Maybe if Katsuki hadn't worked up, he'd be singing a different tune. "We need to train together, when we're back on our feet." They'd talked about it, but they hadn't actually made the time.
 
"Yeah," he mumbled weakly. He just couldn't stop thinking about how he'd almost gotten Shoto killed, how he'd let his ego take on something that had nearly killed Endeavor and All Might once. Maybe they still had a long ways to go. Though, for an improvised fight, Katsuki also thought that they'd held their ground pretty well and accomplished some tight combos.

He rolled onto his back again when breathing got difficult, staring at the ceiling. "We almost killed something that took All Might at nearly his full power to beat," he mumbled. "I think... I think we're good together."
 
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