Chapter Text
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”
-- J.M. Barrie
The back of his throat was on fucking fire and someone somewhere needed to close the goddamn blinds because holy shit that light was bright. Where the hell am I? Squinting and probably making a gods awful face, Katsuki Bakugou opened his eyes against the bright ass room and tried to come to his senses.
It was a hospital room. If the bland decorating and bare linolium floors didn’t make it obvious, he’d be able to tell from the absolute clinical smell around him and the stiff fucking sheets under his ass. He looked around, partially blinded by the bright, fluorescent lights and even brighter shitty sunlight coming from the window. He was able to recognize what looked like flowers on tables on either side of his room along with cards perched atop a shelf on the wall. Well, some sorry shit wants me to get better, he thought.
“Mr. Bakugou! You’re awake!” came a voice from his doorway. An absolutely perky bitch was trotting into his room with a big smile planted on her face. She had some pink ass hair and bright hazel eyes that looked golden in the sunlight. All the bright colors were in contrast to her dark skin. “I’m Mina! Your nurse. You were in a bad accident, babe. No! No, don’t try and get up!” Katuski had been pushing himself up off his bed and he stopped to give her what could only be described as a scowl.
“Look, Pinky , I have to piss, so unless you have a better idea…” he motioned with his hand to the floor.
The pink-haired lady just grinned brighter at him. “Oh! They said you’d be a feisty one,” she hustled over to his bed and pulled the covers back slightly, indicating a tube. “You’ve got a catheter, sweetie. You’ve been out for a while.”
Katsuki sunk back down into the bed and groaned. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was or how he got there, but having a tube shoved up his dick wasn’t a great way to wake up without his memory either way. “Where the hell am I?” he said, rubbing his face with both hands in frustration. He stopped at his forehead when he felt bandages there that wrapped all the way around his head.
“Oh! I guess that’s a good question,” she muttered, busying herself with checking his IVs and heart monitor around each side of the room. “You’re in Hosu General Hospital.” She finished speaking with a pout written across her face. She patted the top of his head and Katsuki had never wanted to hit a girl so badly in his life.
“Okay… So, what the hell happened to me?” he pointed at his bandaged head.
“Well…” she hesitated, eyebrows furrowed. “How much… do you remember, Mr. Bakugou?” her cheery demeanor was gone and a look of sympathy crossed her features. Oh, shit, musta been bad, he thought.
“Well, Pinky, ” he started, rolling his eyes and held out his hand to start counting on his fingers. “I know who I am, I know that my head hurts, I know that someone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on, and I know that I’m already ready to be out of this goddamn hospital bed.” He grasped the last finger on his hand and looked at her indignantly. She simply smiled sweetly down at him.
“Do you know what year it is, love?” From somewhere, Katsuki could have guessed from between her giant tits, she had produced a clipboard and pen and was writing shit down.
“2014,” he said rolling his eyes again.
The pink-haired lady stopped writing and peered down at him. “Katsuki, honey, it’s 2019. I think you have amnesia.”
Katsuki Bakugou wasn’t the type to ever be at a loss of words, but he didn’t really know what to say to that. How in the hell could it be 2019? Was I in a coma for that long? What have I been doing for the past five years? His mind was racing. The pink-haired bitch patted him gently on top of his head again and he glared up at her. “Exactly how long was I in a coma?” he managed through gritted teeth.
“Two months,” she said matter-of-factly, fastening the clipboard to the bottom of his hospital bed. “I’m going to let the doctor know that you’re awake and that your vitals are doing fine. He’ll probably want to run some tests to see how your noggin is fairing, so just hang tight for a while, okay? And don’t try to get up until you’ve got some help because your legs are probably weak.” She gave him a sympathetic smile and walked swiftly out of his room.
He was left to gape open mouthed at her and try to gather his thoughts. The only emotion he could manage was annoyance. “Could have at least closed the curtains, bitch,” he muttered under his breath, staring down at his blanket covered form.
“Kacchan, that’s not very nice!” came a voice rounding the corner of his room’s door. Oh, no. He’d know that fucking voice anywhere.
“Goddamnit, Deku, the fuck are you doing here? Can’t I get like a moment of peace? Not only was there a perky pink haired lady, but now I’ve gotta deal with you?” he growled, as a mop of green hair paraded itself into his room. Of course he’d flock to me when I’m hurt of all times, he thought. What had it been, like two years since they’d last spoken? Well, even longer now that he’d forgotten the last five years. Ugh. What if we’re friends now? He had to stop himself from eternally screaming as he was met with a familiar but different man standing in front of him.
Deku was definitely older than he remembered, and larger. He had the faintest line of crows feet ghosting beside his eyes and his chin and cheeks now sported a dusting of five o’clock shadow. It also seemed like the last five years had buffed him out and given him a growth spurt. The fucker was tall and built. It was like he’d finally discovered what a fucking gym was and had been hitting it up for the past five years regularly. His voice, he also noted, was a little deeper than before but carried it’s same pitchy cadence he remembered from high school.
His freckled face pouted at him dramatically. “Oh, Kacchan,” he said simply, walking to the flowers by the bed. “They should have watered these!” he whined. The flowers were wilting a little. Deku huffed and sat down in the chair by his bed. He was acting so normal and casual that Katsuki wanted to knock him in the back of the head like, hello, dipshit, we don’t know each other like that.
“I’m so glad you’re awake, Kacchan, I’ve been waiting for so long and I was so worried about you,” he said, suddenly very serious. He approached the bed and Katsuki gaped at him as he reached for his hand.
“THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, DIPSHIT?” he nearly screamed jerking his hand back. Deku recoiled and fell back into the chair slamming it against the wall. His eyes were wide and already brimming with tears.
“You-- you really don’t remember do you?” he said, voice heavy with emotion.
“That’s the understatement of the past five fucking years,” he said, reaching up to brush his fingers against his bandages. He was mildly aware that he was shaking. “I’ve been out for two months, nerd, but I still thought it was 2014 when the nurse bitch came in here acting like she had a stick of sunshine shoved up her ass.”
The tears in Deku’s eyes started to fall down his stupid freckled cheeks. “2014?” he said incredulously. “They said you might not remember much about the accident, but you-- you don’t remember anything at all, do you?”
Katsuki leaned his head back against his pillow and groaned. “What don’t I remember, nerd? My head hurts too much for all this cryptic bullshit.”
“Us, Kacchan, us ,” he said, leaning over to self-soothe, wrapping his arms around his body.
Katsuki raised his head back up to look at the green haired man sitting across from him, his heart hammering in his chest. How much could really happen in five years? How much could shit have changed?
In high school, Katsuki was the star rugby player and Deku had played the fucking piccolo . It was the age old story of the jock and the band geek being mortal enemies because the jock was just an asshole. Who knew Katsuki himself would make it more of a cliche by adding being really fucking gay and really fucking far in the closet to the mix. Katsuki had anger issues back then, the kind that only therapy could tackle and subdue. He’d been an asshole to Deku all four years of high school. He was relentless about knocking books from his hands, name calling, shoving him into lockers, pulling sick pranks…
When they’d started at the same community college, Deku pursuing teaching and Katsuki general studies, it had only gotten worse. Katsuki could admit (only after a few years of therapy) that his cruelty was due to his loneliness and a new-found inadequacy that he hadn’t had in high school. The classes were harder, the lectures were longer, and the papers were graded more harshly. All of his friends had gone on to bigger and better things, so really, the only familiar thing was being an asshole to Deku.
He almost failed his first year of college, and it took a struggle through the second year to teach him that he needed something more practical, something less boring than a textbook. That’s when he’d found EMS. For some reason, knowing what to do in emergency situations came naturally to him, and he’d excelled in every aspect of the schooling besides bedside manner. He was so goddamn good at the rest of it, though, that his supervisors let him slide, excusing his brash way of telling people to shut the fuck up by reasoning that he’d probably contribute to at least half of their city’s saves in his first year of service.
This effectively separated Katsuki and Deku from each other around 2012. Katsuki moved on to pursue his career and of course became the best damn paramedic on his team. Katsuki would be lying if he didn’t say he’d missed the green-haired freak every now and then. He often found himself wondering what sorta bullshit Deku managed to get into throughout the years. He was a nerd, yeah, but he was really the only constant in Katsuki's life until EMS came around.
Coming back to reality, Katsuki stared dumbfounded at Deku, sitting despondently across from him in the chair. How had they met back up? What the hell could have happened in such a short time frame? Because the last that he remembered, he was about to take over his team and follow in his boss’s footsteps. In their city, they rarely lost anyone on calls and as humble as Katsuki wanted to be ( not), the local EMS contributed it to Katsuki’s work with his team.
“Deku,” he said, finally finding his voice. “What--how-- what does that even mean, us? ” he stuttered out. Deku didn’t get a chance to answer, though, because a tall, beefy man that Katsuki instantly recognised was entering his room.
“Toshinori?!” he said, bolting upright and instantly feeling the recoil of his movements rush to pain in his head.
“Bakugou, my boy! It’s so good to finally see you awake!” His voice was deep and booming, accompanied with a bright ass smile, but that was normal for his old paramedics team captain.
“I can’t believe-- Are you my doctor, sir?” he said, reaching for Toshinori’s hand. The large man covered Katsuki’s one hand with both of his and nearly shook him off the bed with his embrace.
“That I am, kid. I’ve been watching over you for the past couple of months, trying to get you in tip top shape to get back out there to your team!”
Katsuki breathed a sigh of relief at that. At least he was still working for EMS. At least he was still captain. His past self had at least done something right.
“So,” Toshinori started, releasing his hand, “What have they told you, kid? What do you remember?”
Katsuki laid back on the bed, resting his hand on his aching forehead. “Well, I thought it was still 2014, if that tells you anything. I don’t remember anything about this mysterious accident everyone keeps telling me about.” He took the time to glance at Deku sitting in the corner chair. He was recoiled up into it, knees pulled to his chest. Katsuki couldn’t really bear to look at him with tears still in his eyes. He looked pathetic.
Toshinori glanced down at his shoes for a moment. “It was a car accident, and you were very lucky. The vehicle was hit by a semi-truck and the wreckage was… Your team came to pull you out, but they weren’t on their a-game without you there barking orders.” The man’s large hand draped over Katsuki’s knee, a comforting gesture. Katsuki’s heart swelled as he thought about his team of rescuers working to pull him out of some unfathomable twist of metal, fire, and smoke.
“Are they okay, the team I mean?” he croaked out, suddenly feeling his throat closing up in emotion.
“Yeah,” he said solemnly. “That’s where the cards came from and most of the flowers.” He gestured to the corners of the room. “They’ve been coming here at least once a week to check out your progress. We called them as soon as Mina said you’d woken up.”
Katsuki groaned. “About that pink-haired bitch, I need a new nurse, sir. I can’t take another minute of her sunshine filled ass.”
Toshinori laughed a hearty, booming laugh that filled the room and made Katsuki’s head throb. “I missed you, kid. I’m going to order some tests for you to just check how you’re doing. As for Mina, she’s my personal nurse and I’d rather have the best working on my best kid, so…”
“So, I’m stuck with sunshine and rainbows,” he said dryly. Toshinori just beamed a smile in his direction before turning on one heel and trudging out the door.
He was alone again with Deku much more quickly than he would have liked. He didn’t really want to have the conversation about how in the hell they’d went from enemies who didn’t talk to…
“Oi, shit for brains, what the hell did you mean by us earlier?” he said, furrowing his eyebrows in the direction of the still teary eyed man.
“Uhm, Kacchan, we’re married,” he said, hiding his face in his hands.
“MARRIED?!” he shouted and almost choked on the word. His mouth flapped open for a minute, unable to form words. “Married?” he lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “Deku, the last I remember, I wasn’t even out of the fucking closet yet. How in the actual fuck did I go from that to marrying you in a swift five years?”
Fucking Deku just shrugged. “We dealt with all of that once you admitted you liked me.”
The way that he was talking about this so matter-of-factly was making Katsuki incredibly uncomfortable. In some weird universe, he guessed that this could have been some prank Deku was pulling to get back at him for all of the abuse in high school. However, that idea was immediately shot down. He couldn’t see him using some awful accident as a way to get back at him. Fuck.
“Fuck,” he said, outloud this time.
Deku nodded in agreement. “Yeah, fuck indeed.”
Something akin to happiness stirred in Katsuki’s stomach. He grinned lop-sided up at the green-haired guy, unable to help himself. “You cuss now, too? I must be a great fucking influence.”
“You can’t even imagine.” The green-haired boy was staring at the floor, eyes wide, probably in shock at realizing that Katsuki had forgotten their entire relationship.
Katsuki sighed and ran his hands over his face again. “So, fuck ,” he groaned into his hands, slipping them away and slapping them down onto the bed in frustration. “Fucking help me remember, Deku.”
This seemed to please him, and he pulled his legs up into the chair crossed over each other, a big bright smile fluttering across his face. “Well, for starters, you don’t call me that anymore. You call me Izuku.”