Viridescent

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Animals

Katsuki had never been so baffled and furious at the same time in his entire life. He wasn't even sure if he was actually awake at this point. Maybe he was having some freaky dream in a half-awake state and he was going to open his eyes any second to find out he had to take the whole goddamn Provisional License Exam all over again.

Unfortunately, it was looking more and more like this bizarre concoction of his imagination was, in fact, real.

He could only stare at the two figures asleep on the bed in front of him—Izuku face-up on the right and Himiko lying on her side at the left. Izuku looked like he'd been mauled by a really big cat, with all the scratches and that one big bite mark on his shoulder. Katsuki had snatched the first-aid kit from Kurogiri and treated his friend himself, but he was still unconscious from blood loss. At least his color was slowly returning.

If that had been all, Katsuki would have waited until Izuku woke up, walked his friend out, called the heroes on the place, and then left Himiko to whatever fate insanity had in store for her, but that was not the case.

Because as soon as Himiko had stumbled off of Izuku's prone form in the bathtub a little over an hour ago, she had let out the most hair-raising cry he'd ever heard in his life before collapsing and vomiting blood all over the floor. Hence the reason she was lying on her side, so she didn't throw up again and choke herself to death in her sleep.

Katsuki's rage had frozen for that moment she started throwing up copious amounts of red, because he knew for a fact whatever was going on was not something that was supposed to happen. Izuku had told him that she would mellow out and calm down after exposing her five senses to blood, not start having an episode disturbingly similar to a seizure.

He'd expected to deal with some crazy bitch on a high after she got what she wanted, not a girl who looked as pale and lifeless as his friend did.

Kurogiri had been as shocked as he was, and neither of them were quite sure what to do but make the two unconscious teenagers as comfortable as possible. Katsuki was still coherent enough to not trust the gassy fuck any further than he could throw him, but he didn't make a big deal about it for Izuku's sake.

So here they were an hour later, Katsuki sitting on the end of the bed and watching for any sign of movement. Kurogiri had decided to leave for the time being and had left Himiko's phone in the kitchen in case they needed to get in touch with him.

Katsuki was tempted to blast the device into smithereens out of spite.

His eyes flitted to Izuku as the boy's face scrunched into a pained frown, and then familiar green orbs slowly opened up. Katsuki stood and walked over to him quietly, glancing at Himiko, but seeing no sign of her waking.

"Uhhh..." Izuku groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his hand against his forehead. "What..."

"Welcome back to the world of the living," Katsuki said dryly, reaching over to a small desk by the bed to grab an energy drink he'd found in the fridge. His friend needed electrolytes and sugar after losing blood so quickly. He waited until Izuku managed to sit up before shoving the bottle into his hands. "Drink."

Izuku took the drink without complaint and almost chugged it down. He didn't realize until after the cherry-flavored liquid touched his mouth how thirsty he was. After almost draining the entire bottle, he swallowed and looked up at Katsuki. "What happened?"

Katsuki nodded his head towards the opposite end of the bed, where the blonde girl was still unconscious. Izuku followed his gaze and froze. "Himiko?"

"She's out of it right now," Katsuki muttered, walking to the front of the room to grab Izuku's shirt and hoodie off of a coat rack hanging on the door. He tossed them at his friend. "Freaky shit happened. After she bled you into passing out, she threw a bunch of blood back up and keeled over. It was fucking weird."