Triple Nightmare /Bakudekutodo

Chapter 33: Earned recovery!

Todoroki POV:
"Katsuki! I found It. A place to stay. C'mon only a little bit further!" I said, then grabbed the backpacks and led the way. Katsuki struggled to his feet again and followed me into the old mine. It was dark and cold but we knew it would be a save place to stay the night and both of us were relieved. I untied the knot of my hoody and laid it on the floor so Katsuki could put down Izuku. Katsuki sat down next to him and leaned against the wall. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. Meanwhile I immediately started unpacking our backpacks. I grabbed one of the first aid kits, a small pot, a bottle of water, the sewing kit, a pocketknife and a set of fresh clothes Magnus had given me. Then I walked outside and got some sticks and some stones. I started by picking out some of the sticks that were sturdy and relatively straight. I put them aside and made a circle out of the stones. I stacked the left over sticks inside then grabbed the matches from my pocket and lit the fire. I put the small pot on top and filled it up with some water. While it was cooking I carefully started to remove the ripped clothes from Izuku's body. They were partly sticking to the dried blood and I had to rip them off wich made the wounds bleed again. Because the clothes were ruined either way I used the pocketknife to make my job easier. Then I spread a bedroll and laid him on top.

Once the water started boiling I took it off the fire. I cut off a piece of my ripped shirt and washed it in the burning hot water. I started with Izuku's upper body. Then the arms and face. I whipped them down cleaned the wounds as good as I could and in between washed the cloth in the hot water. As I finally reached his legs I struggled not to puke or start crying because of the way they were smashed and the bone sticking out. After all the wounds were cleaned as good as possible under these conditions, I took a deep breath and grabbed the sewing kit. My hands were shaking like crazy and my eyes filled with tears as I tried to get the thread into the small hole of the needle. I couldn't do it. I looked over to Katsuki. He looked like he was sleeping. He deserved to rest so I tried again. Then I suddenly remembered how Izuku calmed me down a while back when Katsuki was the one who got hurt. My hands were shaking as much as they do now. He held them looked me in the eyes and told me that it would be alright, that Katsuki wouldn't feel anything and that the moment I couldn't go on he would take over. I took another deep breath. Then I closed my eyes and tried to imagine Izuku holding my hands again. Just as he did last time. Stopping my hands from shaking and distracting me from terrifying thoughts. I slowly opened my eyes again. My hands were calm. The didn't shake even a little bit. I took needle and thread. Put the thread through the needle and started. One wound after the other. One stitch after another. Knot and then the next. After the last one my hands were covered in his blood. Next was the first aid kit. Here a bandage and there a band aid. Then I took the sticks I had sorted out earlier and with the leftover bandages stabilised Izuku's legs. Finally I dressed him in fresh clothes and tried to make it as comfortable as possible for him.

I had been so concentrated on Izuku that I hadn't realised that it started raining. The sound of the water drops splashing onto the stone ground. The fresh air free of dust and the smell of wet wood. I just sat at the fire for a little bit looking out the opening, admiring this sudden peace I felt. Maybe it was just the relieve of having reunited and being save for now or all the adrenaline getting weaker but this feeling sure reminded me of it. "IcyHot?" I looked over to Katsuki. "You should rest as well" he said. "I'm fine, one of us should probable stay awake for now. Just in case something is up with Izuku. I don't want him to feel alone with his pain when he wakes up." I answered. "Come here." Katsuki held his arms open. I scooted over and laid my head onto his chest. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he held me tightly. "We're ok. You hear? All three of us are fine. We'll make it out of here and we will do so together. No casualties. You understand?" He gently caressed through my hair. "I'm scared-" "I know. But you are here with me. I won't let anything else happen to us. Deku will be fine, You will be fine and I will be fine. Don't be scared! We will be fine. Time for you to rest now, ok? I'll stay awake for you." I closed my eyes. His steady breath, his even heart beat and the gentle stroke through my hair made it easy to fall asleep. Not even a minute and my exhausted mind and body allowed themselves to rest. "I love you, Shoto..."

Bakugo POV:
I was woken up by a sunbeam shining into my face. Shit, I fell asleep after all. I looked over to Deku. He was still unconscious. The fire had burned out. Shoto loosened his grip around me. As I looked down to him he was rubbing his eyes. "Good sleep?" I asked. "Mhm" he nodded. Then he wrapped his arms around me again and protected his eyes from the light by snuggling his face into my chest. "Hey now, don't keep sleeping." "I won't, I won't. But let's stay like this for just a little bit longer." "Fine, but only a couple minutes, you hear me?" "Yeah, Yeah." "IcyHot, only a few more minutes!" "Ok! I get it. Only a few more minutes. Happy?" "Only if you keep your word." He grunted. I couldn't help but chuckle. "You're quaking my brain stop laughing!" I couldn't help it. He looked up at me with a pouty face. "Sorry! Sorry. I'll stop." He smiled. "What is it? You don't want to keep napping for a bit after all?" "Not if I can see you laugh instead. So don't ever stop, deal?" "Huh?" "Don't ever stop laughing!" "I... don't do stuff I'm told..." I looked away. "Fine then. Let's get up, shall we?" Half n' half said and sat up. "Stay there for a moment." He said. Then he walked over to the bag packs and grabbed another first aid kit. "Take off your shirt" he said once he sat back down in front of me. I did as he told me. He paused as he saw the scar I got from when I was stabbed and the bruises the old geezer gave me with his fishing rod and the bruises and cuts that had been recently added. He gently caressed over the scare. His expression had turned sad. I watched him as he leaned forward and kissed it. "What are you doing Half n' half?" He then moved on to the bruises. He kissed each one of them. "Shoto?" He ignored me and kept going. Once he had kissed every last one he grabbed the first aid kid next to us and started treading me. He cleaned the cuts and bandaged up wrist and ankle as much as needed. We had been really lucky our injuries didn't turn out to be worse. We could keep going like this. After putting mine back on I asked him to take off his shirt. The right side of his ribs had a huge black bruise going all the way from his waist up to his chest. "Shit, that means most defiantly a couple broken ribs." I said. He flinched as I started wrapping a bandage around his upper body to ensure it wouldn't get worse. He clawed his fingers into my shoulder until I was done. "I know this isn't comfortable but if I make it any less tight it won't support your broken bones as good as it does now." "I'll get used to it after a couple minutes" He answered. "Let's change and then you go check on Deku one last time and I'll start packing everything up."

Done. All the backpacks are packed. I walked over to Deku and IcyHot. "How does he look?" I asked. "Not good, he is slowly heating up." "A fever?" "Yes. We need to get him to an actual doctor and fast." "You're right. Let's go!"
I carried one backpack on my chest and Deku on my back. This way IcyHot didn't need to carry so much heavy stuff with his broken ribs and I could balance out the weight from Deku. IcyHot wrapped one of the bedrolls around him so that Deku would stay nice and warm. "Be careful not to slip" I warned Half n' half "It was raining quite a lot last night" "You too".
Then we left the mine and made our way further up the hill once more.

To be continued ...