Green Hope :: BakuDeku

Shock

Izuku flinched and bit into his knuckle, eyes squinted in pain as he watched Katsuki clean the fresh wound.

Katsuki was still a little pale and clearly still processing what had just happened, but was trying to focus more on preventing infection to distract himself from everything else. He held Izuku's flashlight in between his teeth, pointed at the wound.

"Sorry..."

The blond grunted, setting aside the tequila and reaching for the gauze he had fished out of Izuku's pack.

"For not telling you sooner that I had been bitten before..."

Katsuki huffed, placing the gauze on the wound, causing another flinch, then removed the flashlight and turned it off. "Not like it would have made a difference."

"You wouldn't have wanted to chop my arm off."

"That's probably true..."

Izuku hummed, watching as Katsuki carefully wrapped his arm.

Katsuki inhaled deeply through his nose and leaned back into the chair once he finished, folding his arms over his still-bare chest. "How do I know you're telling the truth? How do I know you're not going to turn on me?"

The greenette swallowed and looked away, then peeled the glove off his right hand. Katsuki's scowl was unchanging as he spotted the pale, crescent scar between Izuku's thumb and pointer finger. The scar was deep and torn where his attacker's canines had dug deeper.

"This is the first bite... It happened two months in... A mimic... The one that got my dad killed..." He licked his lips and swallowed hard, then pulled on the collar of his shirt, down and back to reveal a second scar. More shredded, raised skin, much more vicious than the first on his hand. Katsuki's throat dried and he reached to touch it. "That one is... Is how I escaped them the first time... They didn't know I'm immune... So when Shindo saw me bitten, he just left me there... And I was able to get away in all the chaos..."

Katsuki grit his teeth, tips of his fingers brushing over the pale scar. "That's why he thought you were dead..?"

Izuku nodded, releasing his shirt. Katsuki snapped his hand back as the fabric bounced back into its place, but crumpled and uneven. He scrunched his nose and fixed it. When Izuku looked at him, he realized he was still recovering from his own shock and focusing on something completely meaningless. He dropped right back into the chair, crossing his arms.

"And that's why you're so hellbent on getting to the CDC," more of a statement than a question, really.

Again, Izuku nodded.

"Do you know if there's any more people immune?"

"Oh, yes. Absolutely." Izuku turned to more fully face his companion. "Some people don't realize it and think it's a fluke. Some people know, but are terrified of letting others know... People have been killed for informing someone they've been bitten, even if it's scarred. Some people... Some don't know it because they're limb has been cut off... People don't realize that cutting off the limb doesn't help unless it's cut off the exact moment they're bitten because of how fast-acting the disease is... You'll still become infected, just... At a slower rate, unless you are immune. Then there's those who kill themselves because they've been bitten..."

Katsuki looked down to the hardwood floors, brows pinched together. "And those who don't know at all because they haven't been bitten."

"Right."

"How are so many immune?"

"It's just like there's all the different infected." Izuku rubbed his hands together. "The CDC believes the special infected are that way due to a genetic mutation. Something in their DNA made it so they're not just practically walking around brain dead. I think it's the same for the immune. It's something genetic."