"I guess he's knocked out, huh?" Ochako's fond voice said from behind him.
Katsuki startled, hated himself for it, and was already glaring by the time he looked over his shoulder.
"He deserves it," he said, stubbornly folding his arms over his chest and turning back to take in the view again. "He's the loser who let himself get kidnapped."
The majestic Christmas tree filled the room with a soft, creamy glitter glow. Torn wrapping paper and sparkling bows lay strewn across the floor in a sea of silver and gold, green and red. A testament to the mayhem of twenty teenagers unwrapping twenty presents each, all at the same time.
Except for him and Deku. Villains didn't fucking rest on Christmas Eve.
The back of Katsuki's brain was still branded with the image of that tentacle Quirk wrapped around Deku's throat, squeezing tighter until the veins in Deku's eyes began to pop, blooding spread across the whites of them, his face fading pale as new snow. Katsuki had seen the consciousness melt from his expression, his face go slack. And he hadn't even been the one to fucking save him.
Katsuki's fists clenched hard enough to ache his joints as he took in the sight of Deku, laid out on the couch upon his stomach, one arm bent and pillowed beneath his cheek, the other flopped off the side of the couch, lax fingers brushing the floor. The white tree lights pooled their mellow light around him, his freckles a stark contrast from his pallid cheeks.
They'd gone to get him healed, obviously. But the rest was up to Deku's body.
"Pisses me off," Katsuki said under his breath, his chest heavy with the tangled weight of one too many emotions.
"He's lucky you were there," Ochako said, standing beside him.
"Like hell I saved that asshole," Katsuki said.
That fucking Mirio bastard had jumped in before Katsuki could snap out of his uncharacteristic frozen horror. Katsuki hated that guy. He really needed to die.
Very gently, probably with hesitance, Ochako lightly bumped her shoulder against Katsuki.
"He's lucky you're at his side, anyway."
"Anybody is fuckin' lucky to have me on their team," Katsuki said, raising his eyebrows as he looked down at her with a 'duh' face.
"Yup," Ochako said, looking up with a gentle curved of lips. "I think Deku probably knows that better than anybody. I think –" Ochako stopped and laughed softly, waving her hand around in disregard. "I'm sorry, I'm just being nosy. It doesn't matter what I think."
"What the fuck's that supposed to mean?" Katsuki said, frowning deeply, but keeping his voice down. He didn't want to deal with a useless, exhausted, zombie Deku on Christmas morning. "Whaddayou have to be nosy about?"
"I just don't want to say something that might end up upsetting Deku," Ochako said, her cheeks flushing pink. "He's, um. He's so serious about you. I think he'd do just about anything not to lose your friendship again."
"For fuck's sake," Katsuki said, his decibels rising as he shot a glare toward Deku's angelically reposed expression. "That was my fault. Before – when we were kids. I did that. What the fuck is he so worried about?"
"Now that, he's never told me," Ochako said with a resigned smile and a small shrug. "Maybe you could find out though."
Katsuki looked back to Deku, his face set in dissatisfaction.
Why would he ever learn to understand that fucking nerd? Why did he want to so badly?
Katsuki turned to say something else and blinked when he realized Ochako had gone. Just as with some weeks ago, the lights were off across the bottom floor, but this time the tree bathed the living area in its calming radiance. Even Katsuki wasn't entirely immune.
