Coming Home. Bakugou x Reader x ???

15. Helping hands

(Y/N) POV

During the two months in between the entrance exam and the start of U.A., I only saw Katsuki for the few hours after his school let out and before my patrols started. Villainous activity had increased lately, meaning Uncle and I went out more frequently, often times separately, to canvass a wider area. This also meant that I was sleeping horribly. Usually, I could end a patrol well before 3 am, giving me enough time to fall asleep next to Katsuki before the sun came up and he had to get up for school. Now, we were lucky to finish up before Uncle had to go to class himself. Uncle explained that once school started, my patrols would all but come to an end, so he was getting the help he could while he could.

As much as it sucked for me, I knew it was worse for him. Every day he'd come home and practically pass out in the doorway. While my sleep wasn't the highest quality, at least I had time during the day to rest. So, when he got home, I would take out Uncle's work, grade assignments, and plan lessons while he slept and Katsuki did his homework. Katsuki started cooking every night for us too, forgoing our routine of switching houses for dinner. I was so happy for his help that I barely complained about the progressively hotter dishes each night. Sometimes Hizashi would manage to make it back in time to eat a late dinner with us too, but between teaching, his radio show, and having to do patrols of his own now, he usually just slept wherever he happened to be as soon as the work stopped.

Even though I knew what we were doing was necessary, I was still a bit resentful. I missed my sleep, I missed relaxing, but more than anything else, I missed my best friend. I could tell the strain of our current schedule was starting to get to him too. While the new bags under his eyes weren't as prominent as mine, his attitude was definitely worse, and I rarely heard his laugh anymore. Mitsuki was even going so far as to blow up Uncle's phone and beg him to take Katsuki with us on patrols, saying that she wouldn't mind if he missed a day or two of school if it meant 'getting his ass back to normal'. But that was out of the question.

Early the Sunday morning before the start of U.A., as I was getting off of a particularly exhausting 14 hour patrol, I messaged Katsuki.

Me: Coming home. You up?

It was still dark out, my shift having started Saturday afternoon, which was much earlier than usual, but Katsuki would usually try and be up when I got home on the weekends, even if he went right back to sleep afterwards.

Hot Stuff: Yeah.

Hot Stuff: At your house.

Hot Stuff: Hurry up.

I grinned sleepily and took my hair out of its binding to check the weight and color. When in my hero costume, my skin is almost completely covered, making it hard to see the glow caused by my quirk use. While this is good for stealth and night patrols, it makes it hard to tell how much energy I've used up, my body long since adapting to over exertion. Luckily, my hair was only a dim but shiny silver and barely floating around my head, meaning I had enough energy left to travel home through spacetime.

When I showed up in my room, I could tell something was a bit off. It was brighter than usual even though the lights were all off, allowing me to clearly see Katsuki who was lounging lazily on my bed in his night clothes. After one look at me though, his calm expression quickly turned to worry and panic. I made to go for him, but noticed my feet weren't on the ground, instead of stepping, I drifted across the room to sit on the bed, which I merely floated above.

"What the hell?!" Katsuki exclaimed, reaching over to grab me. I half expected his hand to go through my body in this weird, weightless state, but it didn't. Instead, he managed to keep me from floating up any further and brought me down to sit on the bed. "Why the fuck did you use your quirk to get here if you had used so much energy already?!" He demanded. His voice came out slightly muffled, distant even. I suppose I must have used up too much energy to get in this state, but I didn't feel like I had. In fact, I felt pretty incredible. I pulled my mask down and off my face, brightening up the room further still.