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Some people say they were not surprised by a tragedy happening. They say that they could already feel it in their bones when they woke up and they regret not listening to their gut feeling telling them to stay home, to not let their loved ones leave their sight.
For some that may be true.
But most tragedies will hit you when you least expect it. Everything seems fine and then something happens that comes so unexpected, so devastating, that it blindsides you completely and you have to do everything in your power just to stay afloat. Not everybody manages it. Some drown in their sorrow, their heartbreak, their pain.
Some keep treading water, just to get one more breath, just one more and everything will be fine.
Some manage to save themselves from their grief.
Some don’t.
And some have already accepted their fate but the sorrow and heartbreak and sometimes even danger to their loved ones is what gives them the final push under, making the experience so much more traumatic and horrible.
Izuku wasn’t sure how he would react to something horrible happening to him or one of his loved ones. He hoped he would never have to find out.
But hopes and dreams were often not enough.
Izuku was rushing through the house, his open tie hanging loose around his neck, searching for his briefcase. He thought he had left it in the office after finishing up his presentation yesterday, but apparently it had grown legs overnight and ran away.
“Deku!” the voice of his husband called out to him from the kitchen. “Hurry up or you won’t be able to eat breakfast!”
“I’m coming!” Izuku yelled back and ducked down to look under the bed. “Kacchan, I can’t find my bag!”
“It’s by the door already!”
“What?! Why?!”
“You put it there so you wouldn’t forget it! Now come down here!”
Izuku hurried down the stairs and slid into the kitchen on his socks. Kacchan was standing next to the stove, an apron thrown over the barebones of his hero costume and despite Izuku’s stress, he couldn’t help but stop and simply stare at him. He knew he had a besotted look on his face but he didn’t care. He had the Pro Hero Dynamight standing in his kitchen clad in an All Might apron cooking breakfast for the both of them. He really had won in life.
Kacchan scowled at him and gripped the loose tie around his neck.
“I swear to fucking god, Izuku, if your head wasn’t attached to your neck you would lose that as well.”
“Probably,” he giggled in answer and stood still while Kacchan turned his tie into a neat knot.
“An All Might tie? Really?” his husband asked with a raised eyebrow and Izuku refused to feel even an ounce of shame.
“It’s my lucky tie, you know that! I need to lead a big presentation today!”
“You’re going to crush it, lucky tie or not,” Kacchan said and leaned closer to give him a quick kiss.
“Now sit down and eat. If my food goes cold I’ll kill you.”
They sat down for a hurried breakfast together. Both of them had to leave early, Izuku for his presentation and Kacchan for his patrol.
“Where is your work thing today?” Kacchan asked while handing the bento box he had prepared this morning over to Izuku. “Maybe I’ll drop by and we can eat lunch together. Beats having to babysit a bunch of intern extras.”
“Aww, Kacchan, I would love to spend my lunch break with you! We’re going to be in one of the hero commission buildings, the one in Shinjuku.”
Katsuki nodded.
“I’ll see if I can make it. But don’t you dare even think about skipping lunch! If this box isn’t empty when you come home tonight you’re going to regret it.”
“Yes, honey,” Izuku said just to see a faint flush appear on Kacchan’s cheek. Even though they had been married for almost five years now, sometimes Izuku still managed to fluster him. He grinned and pressed a quick kiss against his husband’s cheek. “Have a good day at work!”
“You too,” Katsuki grumbled before turning around and walking further into the house to get the rest of his hero gear while Izuku left to catch a train.
While he took a seat on the train he reminisced about his life and how different it was now compared to what he hoped it would be as a child. He wasn’t a hero in the regular sense, but he still did good work as a quirk analyst that was employed by the hero commission. He helped other people grow and become the best version of themselves. And even though he wasn’t Kacchan’s hero partner, he was his partner in all the important parts of their life. He had his best friend back and even managed to marry him. What more could he want from his life?
No, he knew he wouldn’t change this for anything.
Life was perfect for them.
Katsuki’s thoughts were still back with Izuku and how cute he had looked this morning, his cheeks full with the food Katsuki had cooked him, and his face flushed with a happy glow. He pushed open the doors to the agency and headed to his locker. If he was smiling behind his face mask that was no one’s business but his own.
And maybe Izuku’s, but his husband wasn’t here right now.
He finished changing into his hero costume before heading into the office he shared with Kirishima. The one thing you didn’t realize as a student in the hero course was just how much paperwork was involved in hero work. He still had to catch up on some case files from the last few days before he was scheduled to go on patrol and he was determined to finish them.
Kirishima came in half an hour after him, already changed into his costume too.
“Morning, bro!” he said and Katsuki gave him a nod in return. Before either of them could say anything more, there was a loud noise coming from outside and the floor started shaking. People were screaming and both of them tried to stay upright.
“Earthquake?” Kirishima yelled in question, but Katsuki shook his head.
“Feels different!” he answered. It didn’t take very long for the building to settle down again, but the screaming outside didn’t stop. The door to their office was flung open and one of the agency's secretaries looked into the room, a scared look on their face.
“There is an emergency meeting in conference room C. Both of you need to hurry!”
Without wasting a second they sprinted out of the room and down the corridor. They could see the other heroes of their agency doing the same and within minutes every pro on duty was ready for action.
In front of them stood the dispatch commander for their agency, a map of Tokyo open behind him with four districts marked. He cut straight to the chase.
“The Hero Commission has been attacked by terrorists. Four buildings have been hit simultaneously. They’re in different states of collapse and are putting the surrounding buildings and the people there in danger. We are going to dispatch every hero on duty and on call to different locations, based on your quirks and rescue abilities.”
“Which buildings have been hit?” someone in the crowd asked.
“As I said, the targets were buildings of the Hero Commission, mostly office buildings that handled administrative and analytic work.”
Suddenly, Katsuki’s whole body turned cold. His eyes snapped towards the map and the marked districts.
Arakawa.
Nerima.
Shibuya.
Shinjuku.
No.
“Bro, are you okay?” Kirishima whispered next to him, concern clear on his face. “You turned really pale all of a sudden.”
“Izuku is working from Shinjuku today,” he whispered and Kirishima’s eyes widened.
“Shit.” His eyes flickered over to the map. “The Hero Commission has several buildings in that district. Maybe it’s a different one.”
“Maybe,” Katsuki answered but somewhere in his gut, he knew it wasn’t. He couldn’t point out what it was, but since the shockwave that shook their building went through him there was a feeling like lead in his stomach. Something was very, very wrong and he knew that he had to be fast. He wasn’t sure what for or where to go, he just knew he needed to get there.
The dispatcher's voice separating them into teams snapped his attention back to the front.
“Dynamight, you’re going to Shibuya.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I want to be on the team in Shinjuku.”
“That is one of the buildings that have the highest danger of collapse. Your quirk is the worst choice for that.”
“Don’t care. My quirk won’t be much help at any of these places. Let me go to Shinjuku.” He took a deep breath before looking the dispatcher right into his eyes. “Please.”
The room was completely silent after that. The number of times that Katsuki had used the word ‘Please’ could be counted on one hand and everyone in that room knew it. The dispatcher cleared their throat before looking down at his notes.
“Fine.”
Kirishima had been dispatched to Shinjuku as well and he had stuck close to Katsuki’s side for the entire time it took them to get there. Katsuki had tried calling Izuku several times but each time he had been sent to voicemail. It wasn’t anything unusual, especially when Izuku had a big presentation that day. But still, it only helped to grow the feeling of terror and dread in him. Kirishima’s words echoed in his head.
“Maybe it’s a different building.”
It wasn’t.
When they arrived at the site Katsuki wanted to collapse to his knees in horror. The adjacent streets had been sealed off and the neighboring buildings were in the middle of being evacuated. Scared people were being ushered in tight lines away from the building and toward safety.
Heroes were performing first aid on the wounded while they waited for more ambulances and paramedics to arrive and still more and more injured people were carried out of the building.
His eyes looked around, desperate to find even a sliver of his most beloved shade of green, but there was only gray everywhere.
“Dynamight, Red Riot,” the field commander called over to them to get their attention. “Get yourself a respirator and some first aid gear and get in there. We need every hand on deck to evacuate the building before it comes down.”
“How likely is that?” Kirishima asked. The commander frowned.
“Very fucking likely. We’re racing against time. Even the reinforcement quirks can only do so much when the entire foundation is crumbling. We need to get as many people out as possible before the worst-case scenario happens.”
‘And it will happen’ was the unspoken thing hanging in the air and Katsuki felt he couldn’t breathe.
Kirishima nodded before he pulled Katsuki over to the first responders who were giving out gear to the new arrivals.
“I know this is hard for you, Bakugou, but you need to focus. You can’t be sure if he really was in here when the detonation happened. You know how the subway works, he could still be on his way to work. You need to get your head in the game.”
Katsuki nodded to show he understood, but even though he could hear Kirishima’s words, they didn’t fully reach him.
‘Izuku’ his mind was yelling while he geared up.
‘Izuku’ while he was briefed on the structure of the building and handed a floor plan on a small portable screen.
‘IZUKU’ while he ran into the building to save lives and hopefully find his husband.
Izuku wasn’t quite sure what had happened. One second he was sitting at his desk and going over the notes for his presentation one more time, the next one the building was shaking and all at once the ground under his feet had caved in.
He tried to move but a heavy weight pressing down on his body and a sudden pain in his legs stopped him. He wanted to yell but couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. He started to cough instead, his body convulsing in his panic. He tried to steady his breathing, taking slow and steady breaths, and after a while he managed to calm himself down again. Slowly he opened his eyes, but there was nothing around him, just darkness. His head hurt, but he kept his eyes open and waited. Slowly, shapes started to appear in his vision. He could see the faint outline of something hovering right above his face, almost as if there was a light on the other side of it.
His eyes traveled down his own body, but it was too dark to see any obvious injuries. But he could see something big laying on his legs and the terror threatened to cut off his airflow. He forced himself to stay calm and carefully moved his hands toward the thing hovering above him. It was smooth and cold and with a sudden start, Izuku realized it was his work desk that was wedged above him. Whatever had happened here, the way the desk was placed seemed to have been the thing that saved his life since it had protected his head and upper body from most of the damage. Izuku knew the furniture in the building was sturdy, but that was almost ridiculous.
His legs hadn’t been so lucky however. When his fingers brushed against the thing laying on him he felt something hard and unyielding. Almost like stone or concrete.
‘The building collapsed’ his mind supplied after a while. ‘The debrief fell on my legs and is trapping me.’
It was impossible to say how badly injured his legs were. The pressure on his legs was constant and the pain shooting up his spine whenever he moved was sharp and biting. Carefully, he used his hands to feel up his own arms and chest. His whole body was sore and his clothing was torn, but he couldn’t feel any wetness. So at least he wasn’t bleeding, aside from some minor cuts that were burning all over his face and arms. He couldn’t be sure about internal bleeding however.
When he moved to his head he realized that his neck was bare. He had lost his All Might tie. It was ridiculous to feel sad about something like this in his situation, but he couldn’t help it. He was probably lucky that it was gone, or he might’ve strangled himself with it by accident.
His head was feeling fuzzy and suddenly he wasn’t sure how much air he had. Was he in a small pocket, only shielded by the table? Would his air supply run out soon enough? But then he remembered the faint light coming from the other side of the table. If light could get in here, so could air. He would be fine. He just needed to sit tight and wait for the heroes to rescue him
Something above him shifted and suddenly a large chunk of something collided with his table. Part of the faint light disappeared.
Izuku swallowed heavily.
He really hoped someone would come and save him soon.
He was too afraid of calling out for help, unsure if even that would be enough for his tentative shelter to collapse and bury him completely. Better to wait till he actually heard another person close by before risking it.
His thoughts wandered to Kacchan and his heart ached. His husband must be out of his mind with worry. Izuku had no doubt that he had already heard about the building collapse. He wished he knew where his phone was so he could try and contact him somehow, but his phone had been in his bag and that was nowhere to be seen.
He tried to keep the fear at bay by thinking about this morning, and how happy he had felt then. Kacchan would come and find him. And if it wasn’t Kacchan a different pro would. Izuku believed that with his whole heart. he had to. He couldn’t think about the alternative or he wouldn’t make it, he knew that.
The Kacchan in his mind smiled at him and extended a hand. Izuku closed his eyes and wished he was back home, where nothing could ever hurt him.
Above him the debris rumbled and another piece of the building crashed onto his table. The slight sliver of light became smaller.
Katsuki was helping another person out of the building. The woman had a nasty cut on her forehead and had twisted her ankle, so Katsuki helped her over to the paramedics who took her name and started treating her wounds. Before he could run back inside, the dispatcher called out to him.
“Dynamight! We need to update your PDA.”
He handed over the small tool and watched as it synchronized its screen with the big one in the command center.
“We finally got our hands on the records for today,” the dispatcher explained and Katsuki perked up. “We know who was clocked in at the building when it collapsed, so hopefully it will be easier to locate and identify missing people. We already crossed out the ones out here, so the list will be updated continuously.”
The tool was handed back to him and Katsuki wasted no time scanning over the names of the employees who had been in attendance that day.
There.
Bakugou Izuku had clocked in at exactly 8:28 AM, roughly half an hour before everything went to shit.
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath and tried to hold back the automatic reaction of his body. His hands flexed and the sweat gathered in his gloves, sliding down into his gauntlets. For once his quirk was completely useless. Even one of his explosions could bring the rest of the building down and potentially crush Izuku and countless other civilians underneath. He couldn’t risk it, so control was of the utmost importance right now.
He turned back toward the building, The entrance had been reinforced with quirks and firemen were still running in and out of the building, bringing people out with them or getting more material to try and dig safely through the rubble.
He spotted Kirishima running into the building and he sprinted after him. Now that he knew for sure that Izuku was somewhere in there his adrenalin spiked. There was no way he would lose his husband today. He was Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight and he would save the fucking day and his husband or he would die trying.
He lost track of time and how many people they managed to pull out of the rubble. Once the easily accessible floors were cleared the hard part started. They were forced to slow down and wait for heroes with fitting support quirks who were able to stabilize floors, stairwells, and walls so that the rescuers could move in.
He was covered in soot and concrete dusk and his muscles were aching with a different kind of exhaustion to regular hero work. They were waiting for another stairwell to be clear and stabilized when another tremor ran through the building and new cracks appeared on the wall.
“Things are starting to get really dangerous,” the dispatcher said over the comm link. “We need to hurry or we won’t have enough time for all of you to make it out of the building.”
“I’m not leaving,” Katsuki growled out but wisely didn’t activate his comm. Next to him, Kirishima gave him a worried glance.
“Bro, we need to listen to mission command. If we stay we could put everyone in danger.”
“Izuku is still in here somewhere!”
Katsuki could see the conflict on Kirishima’s face. He appreciated that his friend was only looking out for him, but he simply didn’t understand. He wouldn’t leave if Mina was trapped in here, so he shouldn’t ask the same thing about Katsuki.
The heroes in front of them moved, splitting off into different directions to search for more survivors. Katsuki turned down a hallway, his eyes alert. It seemed the floor above had caved in and several rooms were completely covered in debris and concrete. Some had even punched through the floor again and dropped into the level below.
Frustrated, he turned away from the sight before him. There was no way he could do anything about the rubble, not with his quirk. If Uraraka was here, she could maybe search for survivors, but without guidance, Katsuki would probably cause more damage than actually helping the rescue efforts.
But before he could walk away his eyes caught a piece of fabric. It was ripped and barely recognizable. Still, Katsuki would know those colors everywhere. He dropped to the floor and carefully moved closer to the hole in the ground. The last thing he needed was the floor caving in even further. When he wrapped his fingers around the scrap and pulled it from the edge of the hole his heart stopped. He had been right, he knew that piece of clothing. He had held it between his fingers just a few hours earlier when he wrapped it around Izuku’s neck.
‘It’s my lucky tie!’
Lucky indeed.
“Izuku?!” Katsuki yelled out, for a second forgetting about being careful. Was Izuku here somewhere? Buried underneath the rubble? Injured? Or even worse, crushed and bleeding out?
Katsuki felt his chest expand faster and faster as the panic took over momentarily. Visions of Izuku filled his mind, one more horrible than the next. What if he was too late?
He snapped himself out of it before his thoughts could spiral even further. He needed to get it together. If he lost it there was no one coming to look for his husband and Katsuki would lose him for sure.
“Izuku?!” he called out again and closed his eyes to listen carefully. There was nothing, except the slight shift of rubble and the hissing of dust in the air. Desperation threatened to claw his throat shut, but then there was something. A tapping sounds, almost as if someone was knocking on a door or a table.
It came from below.
Katsuki turned his head to holler over his shoulder.
“Red Riot! Over here!”
Izuku wasn’t sure how long he had been laying there. He only knew he was in pain, thirsty, and in danger. The building kept shifting around him and more and more debris was falling down from above and colliding with the table above him. He wasn’t sure what he feared more: the debris completely burying the table and Izuku or the table giving in and leaving him without protection.
His eyes were burning from the dust and the tears that he refused to shed. He knew one of his main problems right now would be dehydration and his habit of crying easily could very well doom him right now. He tried to listen for signs of life outside of his small bubble, but nothing came. Either no one had found this part of the building yet or they had overlooked him.
Or maybe no one had been looking for him in the first place.
No.
He crushed that thought. There was no way Kacchan wasn’t looking for him. He knew that Izuku was here and a collapse of this magnitude would have alerted every single hero in the city. Kacchan was looking for him, either by himself or by proxy through other heroes.
He tried to imagine what it would be like when Kacchan finally arrived to save him. He would storm into the building and blast all the debris away and Izuku would be free. Of course, the logical part of his brain pointed out that that wasn’t how it worked. The debris resting on Izuku could very well be what was keeping the ceiling upright right now. The room needed to be stabilized and the rubble removed one by one and the process could take hours, maybe even days.
But thinking about it reasonably didn’t really help in cheering him up. Now, it was much better the way he imagined it. Kacchan would look glorious when he came in and he would yell out-
“Izuku?!”
Izuku’s eyes widened. Was his imagination that good? There was no way Kacchan would actually be here yelling his name right now. Right? He strained his ears to listen, to try and hear footsteps or something that indicated another person was on the other side of his table.
But there was nothing.
His hopes crushed, Izuku lost the battle against his tears and a quiet sob ripped out of his throat. He tried to calm himself down, to get his breathing and tears under control again, but it was hard. Once the floodgates had been opened he had trouble closing them again.
He just wanted Kacchan to tell him everything was going to be okay again.
“Izuku?!”
He choked as his name was called again. This time he was sure of it. This wasn’t just his imagination, someone was really looking for him. He tried to open his mouth, to call back, to let them know he was here, but his throat was parched and he could only croak out a few miserable sounds. Desperate, he lifted his hand and started knocking on the table. The sound reverberated through the air and Izuku hoped it would be enough.
The voice called out again, but Izuku couldn’t quite understand what it was saying. He kept on knocking, hope rising in his chest. Someone would find him and save him. He would get out of here. He would see Kacchan again. Everything would be okay.
More voices joined the one above and Izuku didn’t stop himself from crying this time. The relief was almost as overwhelming as the terror had been. He could hear movements and shuffling, but also more debris falling. It took a long time before he could hear voices closer to him. It was a female voice that Izuku didn’t recognize.
“The room seems reasonably stable,” she called out to whoever remained up there. “I’ll create some pillars, but they won’t be able to hold the ceiling forever. I can’t see anyone down here though.”
Quickly, Izuku knocked against the table again. He tried to clear his throat to speak, but it wasn’t working.
“Wait, I hear something.” The voice moved closer. “Hello?”
Izuku knocked louder.
“Someone’s here!” the woman called out and Izuku sobbed in relief. They found him!
There seemed to be a commotion upstairs and several voices were yelling. Then the woman spoke again.
“Just let him come down on the rope! As long as he’s careful there shouldn’t be an issue right now!”
There were a few seconds of silence before a new voice spoke, gruff and agitated, and the best thing Izuku had ever heard in his life.
“Where is he?”
“Kacchan,” Izuku croaked out.
“He’s underneath here. I don’t know if I can move the table without destabilizing this whole pillar. I’ll use my quirk to build up a few more foundations to be sure, but I need you to keep an eye on any falling debris for me.”
“Got it. Get him out of there.”
Then sounds Izuku couldn’t quite place resonated in the space around him. He could hear Kacchan let out a curse and something hit his table. Then there was silence.
“Okay, we should be good to at least remove the table. But we need to do it carefully.”
The small glimpses of light disappeared as hands filled the space around it. Then, slowly, the light came back and became bigger and bigger. And then there was Kacchan right in front of him. He was covered in concrete dust and blood but he was the most beautiful thing Izuku had ever seen. He let out a sob and reached his arms out to his husband.
“Izuku,” Katsuki said and it sounded as if the air had been punched out of his lungs. He dropped to his knees and lunged for Izuku. The space was too small for Kacchan to really wrap his arms around him, but he took his hands and pressed a kiss against his forehead.
“You found me,” Izuku croaked out, his voice breaking in the middle.
“Of course, dumbass. I’ll always find you. Now let’s get you out of here.”
“Dynamight,” the female voice from before interrupted them and Kacchan turned around, a snarl ready on his lips. “His legs.”
“Fuck!” Katsuki exclaimed and the grip he still had on Izuku’s hands tightened. “Izuku, how bad is it?”
“I’m in pain,” Izuku answered and tried to return the squeeze on his hands. “Which I think is a good thing. It would be worse if I didn’t feel anything at all.”
“That’s good,” the woman who Izuku now recognized as the rescue hero Quartz said. “We’ll need someone with a different quirk for this. Maybe Uravity and Cementoss so we can lift the rubble and keep the stability of the ceiling intact at the same time. I’ll inform the others and come back with reinforcements. I think you’ll stay here, Dynamight?”
“Of fucking course I will.”
She nodded before walking out of Izuku’s field of vision.
“So, Kacchan,” Izuku said with a wet chuckle. “You didn’t happen to bring some lunch? I’m starving.”
After making sure Izuku didn’t suffer any head injuries after his ridiculous comment, Katsuki started to inspect his husband’s body for injuries. He seemed to have been lucky since the worst things Katsuki could find were bruises and cuts. Nothing seemed broken or severely damaged. Of course, he couldn’t be sure until he had hauled him to an actual doctor who could scan his body.
But there was the problem and main cause of Deku’s pain right now.
Katsuki glared at the pile of rubble that crushed Izuku’s legs from the knees downward. He could blast it apart, get Izuku out of there no problem, without even grazing him with his explosions. But if he did it would probably bring the whole building down, so it wasn’t an option.
The only thing he could do right now was to stay by Izuku’s side and make sure he didn’t panic. He squeezed his husband’s hands tighter.
The building shook again and another piece of debris came loose and crashed down on them. He and Quartz had removed the table so they could get to Izuku, but thanks to the quartz pillars the other hero had left behind they didn’t get hit. But Katsuki didn’t like the cracks that appeared in those pillars with each and every piece of concrete that hit them.
As Quartz had said, they wouldn’t hold for very long.
Instead of subsiding, the shaking kept going and Katsuki could hear a loud rumble. He curled up over Izuku in case he needed to shield his husband with his body. After twenty more seconds, the shaking stopped.
“That didn’t feel good,” Izuku whispered and Katsuki nodded. He swiped his thumb over Izuku’s cheek and revealed the familiar freckle pattern that he loved so much.
“Let’s hope the fucking reinforcements get here soon.”
The sound of Katsuki’s communicator overlapped with Izuku’s answer.
“Dynamight!”
“What?” he answered and lifted one hand to his ear so Izuku would understand who Katsuki was talking to. “I’m waiting here with a trapped victim, where the fuck are the reinforcements.”
The silence on the other side was a bit too long for his liking.
“The building is too unstable right now for us to send in any more people,” the dispatcher said and Katsuki felt cold dread grow in his stomach.
“What the fuck? There are still people trapped in here!”
“We are aware of the situation. To not endanger more lives we have called back every hero to the outside to wait for further instructions. That includes you, Dynamight.”
“Get fucked!” Katsuki snarled out and Izuku gasped.
“Kacchan!”
“Dynamight, this is serious,” the dispatcher said without caring about Katsuki’s outburst. “We are ordering you to retreat. If you can safely extract the victim you can do that, but if they are trapped and there is nothing you can do, it would be useless to keep you in there while the danger of the building collapsing is growing with every minute.”
“Fuck no!”
“Dynamight, this order is absolute. Retreat. Now.”
“And I said. Get. Fucked.”
He ripped out the communicator and stuffed it into his pocket. There was no way he was listening to these shitheads. He wouldn’t leave Izuku here. He’d rather die.
“Kacchan, what’s going on?” Izuku asked, His voice was steady but Katsuki knew the look in his husband’s eyes. Fear and trepidation, two things Izuku should never feel. And there was nothing Katsuki could tell him to make him feel better. There was no help coming.
“Don’t fucking worry about it, those shitheads have no idea how to properly lead an evacuation.”
“No one’s coming, right?”
“Deku…”
“It’s alright,” Izuku said and gave Katsuki a shaky smile. “The situation is really fucked up.”
“It has to be if you’re swearing, nerd,” Katsuki answered with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a solution and if I have to blast us out of here myself.”
They fell silent, their hands clutched between them. The building continued to shake every few minutes, the debris above them shifting. Then one of the pillars that Quartz had left behind broke, the shards flying everywhere. The ceiling seemed to crumble at one corner of the room and Katsuki threw himself over Izuku’s prone form to protect him.
“Everything is going to be fine,” Katsuki whispered into Izuku’s hair and waited to see if his words would turn out to be a lie. But it seemed the rest of the pillars were doing a good enough job to keep holding up the ceiling.
For now.
“Kacchan, you need to leave.”
Katsuki reared back and stared down at Izuku who looked back at him with tears in his eyes but a determined look on his face.
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.”
“It’s dangerous here!”
“Exactly, that’s why I need to stay here! To protect you!”
“Kacchan, we both know it’s too late for that.”
“Shut up!” Katsuki yelled, panic clawing at his throat. “Izuku, please shut up!”
“No!” Izuku yelled back and the tears were finally falling, rolling down his cheeks to create even more marks in his dust-covered face. “Kacchan, I know this is horrible to ask of you, but I need you to leave and save yourself! Please!”
“Izuku, I will not leave you here!
“You have to!”
“No! In sickness and in health, motherfucker! You can’t get rid of me! And if the building collapses and buries us both you still won’t get rid of me because my ghost is going to stick to your ghost and kick its ghostly ass for even suggesting bullshit like this!”
“Kacchan,” Izuku sobbed out and Katsuki’s heart wasn’t breaking, no, it was tearing itself apart. He knew why Izuku was saying the things he did. If their positions were reversed he would try anything to get Izuku to leave him behind and save himself, to live. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave him, not Izuku, his Deku, the love of his life. He’d rather lie down next to him and wait for the building to bury them both.
“Izuku,” he answered and now tears were rolling down his own cheeks as well. “I’m not leaving you. You can’t ask that of me. Please.”
The building shook again and another of the pillars broke. A part of the ceiling groaned before falling down into the room with them. Katsuki shielded Izuku’s body as much as he could and thankfully nothing more than a few smaller pieces of concrete were thrown their way. He could live with bruises. What he couldn’t live with was losing his husband.
Izuku had stopped pleading with him. Instead, he was crying silently, his hands gripping the fabric of Katsuki’s hero uniform.
Katsuki’s mind was racing. There had to be something he could do. Maybe if he was fast enough he could blast Izuku free and get them out of here before everything crumpled. Or he could blast a hole through the wall of the building. His mind flashed to the other people who were most likely also still trapped somewhere and would be endangered by his actions.
For one split second, he didn’t care.
But he was a hero and he knew the risks of the job. He only wished Izuku didn’t have to suffer with him. He wished they were both somewhere far away from it all.
“Hey, Deku?” he whispered, his mouth pressed tightly into Izuku’s green curls. “Once we get out of here we’re going on vacation. We’re long overdue anyways.”
Izuku let out a sound that was a cross between a sob and a laugh.
“We never take time off.”
“Well, then it’s about fucking time we do. Where do you wanna go?”
“Anywhere. As long as Kacchan is with me.”
“Yeah,” Katsuki whispered, his eyes closing as he heard the last standing pillar above them start to crack. “Anywhere as long as you’re with me.”
Crack.
“I love you, Izuku.”
Crack .
“I love you too, Kacchan.”
Crack .
And the ceiling above them caved in.
But there was no impact.
Katsuki’s eyes flew open and he looked up. The broken off pieces of the ceiling were floating in the air around them and between it all was Uravity, her arms still outstretched, the look on her face a mix between concentration and relief.
“We made it in time! Red Riot! Quickly!”
Kirishima was dangling on the rope from the floor above and nodded.
“On it!”
He jumped down and started moving the floating pieces of concrete out of the way while Uraraka gently lowered herself to the ground.
“I’m going to remove the pieces on his legs while Kirishima stabilizes the rest of the debris above you guys. We need to be quick after this. Get ready to drag him out of there, Dynamight.”
“Uraraka-san…! Kirishima-kun…!” Izuku said between sobs, his eyes wide. Katsuki could only understand the shock on his husband’s face too well.
“Don’t worry, bro, we got you!” Kirishima said with a wide grin as he moved over them, his body hardening. He pressed himself up against the pile of rubble that was the only thing keeping the rest of the ceiling standing.
“You came back,” Katsuki said and Kirishima gave him a thumbs-up.
“Of course I did! I promised, didn’t I?”
Katsuki barked out a laugh and shifted his balance, ready to yank Izuku out from underneath the rubble as soon as Uraraka gave the signal.
“Alright, on three! One! Two! Three!”
Uraraka activated her quirk, making both the rubble and Izuku’s body weightless. Katsuki was quick to pull Izuku toward him while Kirishima pressed up and against the rubble to keep it standing.
“Okay, I’m dropping my quirk on the rubble! Red Riot, be ready to slowly ease pressure! Dynamight, get up the rope!”
“Grab onto me,” Katsuki instructed Izuku, who nodded, his hand gripping tight around the straps of his shirt.
Quickly, Katsuki climbed up the rope that dangled from the floor above them, Izuku floating right next to him. Behind him, he could hear more and more cracks and the strained voices of his friends who had defied orders and come back for him. He would never be able to pay them back for this.
Crack.
The floor above where the rope was towed started to move. Katsuki’s eyes widened.
“Shit.”
Crack .
The door opened and Kacchan entered, the tray with Izuku’s food in hand.
“Thank you, Kacchan!” Izuku said and sat up further in his bed. His legs were still sore, but his movement had returned fully, which was a relief.
“Once we get you out of here I’m going to cook you a real fucking meal,” Katsuki grumbled and placed the hospital dinner on the side table.
“Only one more night,” Izuku answered and grabbed the chopsticks.
Katsuki was quiet while Izuku ate and it gave him the time to reflect on what had happened in the last week.
After they had narrowly avoided getting caught up in the ceiling collapsing for a second time, again thanks to Uraraka, her quirk and her quick thinking, Katsuki had taken Izuku to the medics outside. His legs had been the worst of his injuries with multiple broken bones and fractures.
While Izuku had been brought into the hospital for treatment, Katsuki had gotten chewed out by his superior. Izuku wasn’t sure what exactly had been said though, since Katsuki refused to talk about it. He hadn’t been suspended though, so Izuku figured it couldn’t have been that bad.
They probably cut him some slack for the difficult circumstance of the victim being his husband.
“Hey,” Katsuki said as Izuku cleaned out his bowl. “Remember what I said back there?”
Izuku took a moment to think.
“That your ghost would kick my ghost’s ass for saying bullshit?”
Katsuki let out a snort.
“Not that, even though I still fucking stand by that if you ever decide to die, you shitty nerd. No, I meant going on vacation together.”
“Oh!” Izuku’s eyes widened and a grin stretched over his face. “Yes!”
“You still wanna?”
“Of course, Kacchan! But where do we wanna go?”
Katsuki leaned closer until he hovered right in front of Izuku’s face.
“Don’t care. Anywhere as long as it’s with you.”
He closed the distance and kissed Izuku so gently that it almost reminded him of butterfly wings beating against his skin.
Tragedies could change people. They could destroy the foundations of your life and force you to start all over again, to rethink your priorities.
Some tragedies could end everything, including you.
But if you were lucky you won’t be alone to face the pile of rubble left over after tragedy has struck. Your loved ones will help you rebuild your life and yourself and as long as you can hold onto them and their helping hands you will be okay.
Izuku knew he was lucky. He knew his life, Kacchan’s life, had only been saved by a series of coincidences. But he swore to himself he wouldn’t take his second life for granted.
It was time to grab his husband's hand tight and look toward the future.
Together.