Give You Love

Pour it out 'til I'm empty, more than I can afford

"Hey!" Katsuki called out as he stumbled into Recovery Girl's office, the door smacking against the wall and shaking the shelves. "Old lady, I need your help." He didn't look up, just slumped over to the surgical bed where she always told him to lie down, and pulled himself up onto it, his limbs quivering from pain and exhaustion.

"Alright, boy, I'm coming." He was grateful that the old lady didn't seem as inquisitive as usual. Normally, she'd be on him the minute he entered. Bakugo sighed at his own selfishness. Maybe he wished someone would ask so he could finally tell, but he didn't want to be more of a bother than he already was and had been. "Take your shirt off, I need to see what I'm working with here."

"I, uh - " Katsuki struggled back into a seated position and looked down at the black t-shirt he was wearing. There was no way that he would get his arms over his head without screaming or throwing up, and he really didn't want to draw any more attention to his situation than he felt he already had. "Do you have scissors?" He watched the old woman wander over to the shelves and dig along the bottom one to find a pair he could use.

"Are you going to tell me who's doing this to you now?" Recovery Girl's voice was laced with something that Katsuki couldn't quite grasp. It felt threatening in a way that curdled deep in his stomach and brought his heart into his throat. He turned away from her and kept his mouth shut, considering his options.

"I - " he looked down at himself for a moment to find the words before continuing. "I'm not ready." He finally responded as the woman began to shuffle back to him, waving a pair of cloth scissors as though they were a medal of some sort.

"You are ready, Bakugo, but I can see that you're afraid. Is it fear that's holding you back?" The old woman asked as she passed the scissors up to him. She watched carefully as he held the t-shirt away from himself and cut it cleanly up the middle as though he'd done it a thousand times. Because he had and she'd been there for every single one.

"I am not afraid." He snarled huffily as he pulled the t-shirt away from where it had stuck to the bloody wounds on his back. "Let's get this over and done with, I've been monopolising your attention long enough." He stripped it off and threw it on the bed beside him with a wet smack, which left him in only a pair of boxers that were dusty and grubby from sleeping outside.

"Oh, my child!" Katsuki was taken aback by the sudden outcry, flinching away only to be brought back by the devastation on the old woman's face. He grew uncomfortable as she stared for a moment too long before asking him to turn so that she could see his back. "Oh, my poor, poor boy!" She cried out, startling Bakugo again, at the sight of his back.

He turned at the neck to look at her, fresh blood dripping down his back. His red eyes glinted nastily as he glared. "I don't need your fucking pity, woman!" He snarled through clenched teeth. "Fix me up so I can leave!" His fists clenched as small explosions began to ignite on his palms. He was frustrated and hurt, but that was no excuse to attack the old woman. She was the only woman in his life who had ever treated him with kindness, other than Inko whom he doubted he would ever see again, and he felt an unignorable urge budding deep in his gut to keep her sweet so that she would stay. Bakugo needed any friends he could get, and if they were all adults, so be it. His own hands were already fried, so the pain wasn't as noticeable as it once would have been. "Please," he added gruffly. "Hurry."

Recovery Girl helped him return to his prone position. She apologised needlessly every time his back arched off the bed to alleviate the agony, she'd done nothing except help him if anyone should apologise it was him for his bad attitude. "I'll be as quick as I can, my child," the old woman's hand cupped his cheek, and she ran her thumb over the bruise there with tender care. "But this is a lot to heal, and it's going to knock you right out."