"Katsuma!"
"Mimi!!!"
Katsuma ran straight into Mitsuki's arms and was wrapped into a tight hug and squeezed.
"Oh, I miss this little boy! You've gotten so big too! You're growing too fast!" Mitsuki said as she squeezed him again.
"Mimi, that hurts!"
Izuku and Katsuki were invited by Katsuki's parents to stop by and have a little lunch with them. It was obvious that Katsuma couldn't wait to see his grandparents and rushed to the door to see them, as Izuku still had the stroller with the twins inside.
'I'm glad Katsuma still gets excited to see Kacchan's parents. Hm?'
The greenette looked in the corner of her eye to see how expressionless and physically drained Katsuki appeared.
'He doesn't look any better, in fact, he might be getting worse. He still hasn't told me what's wrong–even when I ask–and he's still ignoring me. I know Emra told me to keep an eye on him and let her know if he actually ends up passing out, but that hasn't happened yet. What's going on inside your head that you won't tell me, Kacchan?' she thought.
"Silly me, I didn't even say hello to you two or even the cute little twins here." Mitsuki stated as she walked up to them with Katsuma in her arms.
"It's alright, Mrs. Bakugo, you were occupied at the moment." Izuku noted with a laugh.
"And you-"
Katsuki barely looked at his own mother and his expression remained the same.
"Geez, you look like a wreck. Is taking care of 3 kids that difficult for you?" Mitsuki asked, but not with a lot of worry in her voice.
"I'm fine."
"H-He's just working a lot lately so he hasn't been getting a lot of rest!" Izuku blurted, trying to not make the blond's mother worried.
"Hm, well alright. Let's get inside, the weather's starting to get cooler than I expected." Mitsuki said.
"U-Um, Mrs. Bakugo, can you handle watching the kids for a second? I need to talk to Kacchan for a minute."
"Oh, we'll go on ahead then." Mitsuki said as she took the stroller from the greenette and went inside.
Katsuki was about to walk towards the house, but was instantly stopped when the greenette held her arms out and stood right in front of him.
"What're you doing?"
"Kacchan, we need to talk."
"About what?"
"About you."
"What about me? There's nothing wrong."
"There is something wrong, Kacchan, and I wanna know what it is." Izuku responded.
Katsuki sighed and averted his eyes from her, which made the greenette know that there really was something he was hiding from her.
"Kacchan-"
"There's nothing wrong, and if there was, I would've told you."
"Stop lying, Kacchan, I've been watching you for the past couple weeks and you're not acting like your usual self." she stated.
"I'm just the same, so stop worrying and let's-"
"No you're not! You've been ignoring me like you did before! You're making me watch the kids all the time like before too! I know something's bothering you because you've been losing a lot of sleep from it! I know you've been going out late every night and coming home with your hands swollen. I want to help you and know what's wrong, but if you don't tell me, then you're only going to get worse." Izuku monologued.
Katsuki remained silent, he'd figured that she'd notice the things he's been doing, but just hearing it come from her mouth made him feel worse.
"Look, I know I'm hiding stuff from you, but right now, I don't wanna talk about it."
"Then when will we talk about it?!?" Izuku exclaimed, and hearing her voice filled with frustration made his chest throb.
"I've been trying to keep all of my thoughts to myself because I thought you maybe needed space, but it's been 2 weeks, and ignoring not just me but the kids is as far as I can go! Why can't you just tell me and let me help you?!? We promised not to hide anything from each other and talk about any situation together, so why can't you keep that promise and just tell me the truth?!? What's so hard to keep what you're going through to your own family-"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANNA HURT YOU!!!!" he yelled.
The greenette felt a shiver run down her spine as she made direct eye contact with him, and his usual Ruby Red eyes seemed jaded and almost filled with fear.
"You-... What?"
"I know I'm hiding a lot from you right now, but I just wanna try and deal with this by myself. I know everything I've been doing right now is not good, but I'm trying to fix what I'm going through alone. I don't even know exactly what I'm dealing with, but I don't want you to butt in and try to fix things like you've always done." Katsuki answered.
That last sentence hurt her the most, because he made it sound like she was a burden to him.
"I-I'm... a burden to you?" she asked as tears formed in her eyes.
"I didn't say that, I'm just telling you that I-"
"That you need space from me because you're getting tired of me?" she interrupted.
"Deku, you're not listening to me-"
"No, you're the one that's not listening to me! I've been trying to do everything on my own from the very start of our relationship! And though I know I've kept things to myself from you, I eventually opened up and told you my problems! But ever since we got married and had kids, you've done nothing to help me and you've distanced yourself from me and pushed away your own kids! But when you finally started being a dad to your kids, I thought you were starting to be the man that I thought I married again, but now you're doing it again! There are so many nights when Katsuma asks me if you will play with him, but I have to keep telling him that you're tired and busy! He's a child that's growing up quickly, and eventually, you're going to regret not spending time with your family because we will eventually not want you to be a part of it! So you can keep thinking of me as a burden right now, but you're going to regret thinking that way." Izuku fumed as she walked straight into the house without another word.
Katsuki sighed, he didn't think she'd express so much to him straight in the face like that, but it's not like he didn't deserve to be yelled at.
He absolutely needed to be yelled at, because it made him feel like crap for knowing that his choices were only hurting the people around him.
Ever since these nightmares have started, they've only been getting worse and worse that he feels like he's been tortured to death because of it. He's barely gotten any sleep and it's getting to the point that he's afraid to just close his eyes because he'll see that same nightmare.
He rubbed his burning eyes and looked up to see the house he was born and raised in and knew it would be a bad idea to walk in and act like that entire conversation didn't happen.
'I need to walk this off.' he thought and turned around and was leaving the house.
But just as he was about to walk onto the sidewalk, a wincing pain hit his head and he stopped in his tracks. He knelt down onto the ground to try and hope that would work, but it only got worse as he started seeing stars and everything began to turn Black.
"Hm? That brat didn't come in?" Mitsuki asked.
"He just needed to take a second to himself since he's been working a lot." Izuku answered, as she tried to keep from fighting back the tears. She felt a lump in her throat and bit her bottom lip to stop herself as Mitsuki wasn't sure what she was dealing with.
"Well he better get in here soon, he can't make his precious wife do everything alone." Mitsuki griped.
"Hmph, don't worry, Kacchan's been a big help and I couldn't be more happy." the greenette laughed, acting like everything was fine when it really wasn't.
So they continued playing with the kids as if nothing was wrong, but after almost 10 minutes, something wasn't right.
"What's that brat doing?"
"W-Why don't I go check on him, maybe he was dealing with a phone call, I'll be back." Izuku said as she got up from her seat and headed to the front door.
'Maybe everything I said was a little too much, but it's not like I wasn't lying about what I said. Maybe he's just thinking about everything I said and not-'
She opened the front door to see that the blond wasn't in sight.
'He... He left? Did what I say make him mad that he decided to leave and make me deal with the kids on my own again? Of course he would do something like this and make me do all the hard work when I'm already tired and-'
Just as she was about to walk back into the house, she heard panting from a short distance.
'What was that noise?'
Her cat ears poofed out and started twitching to find out where the noise was coming from and she followed it. The second she got on the other side of the front fence, she turned her head to see Katsuki leaning against the fence and was breathing heavily.
All that frustration and anger immediately turned to dust and the greenette was filled with worry.
"Kacchan!"
She knelt down in front of him to try and see if he could look at her, but he wouldn't, and so she rested her hand onto his head to feel that he had a burning fever.
'He's burning up, and he's really pale!' she thought.
"Izuku, did that brat leave?"
"Mrs. Bakugo, Kacchan needs to go to the hospital!" Izuku yelled.
"What?!?!"
Mitsuki ran out the door to where the greenette was only to see her son sitting up against the fence and panting.
"How did this happen? We should get him there right away! Here, take my car and drive him to the hospital, I'll watch the kids until you get back."
"Are you sure?"
"There's no time, so go!"
Izuku felt like she was getting rushed, but she had no choice and carried the heavy blond into the car and drove to the hospital as fast–and safely–as she could.
She paced the hallway back and forth and kept fumbling with her hands, hoping and praying that everything would be okay.
"Izuku!"
She looked up to see Emra running straight up to her.
"I came as soon as you called, have you heard anything about Katsuki yet?"
"No, I'm still waiting, but... Why didn't I notice this sooner?" Izuku whimpered.
"Don't put the blame on yourself right now, and let's wait for the answer." Emra reassured her.
The doors opened and Takashi walked out and looked at the two greenettes.
"Well, anything Takashi?"
"He's been affected by a quirk, that's for certain, as it's caused him to lose a lot of sleep to the point that he's got a fever of 108."
'A fever of 108?!? He's never had that high of a fever before!'
"Wait- you said he was affected by a quirk? But who could affect him with a quirk?"
"Just what I thought, looks like my assumption was right." Emra muttered.
"Huh? Emra, do you know who it could be?"
"Yes, but let's explain that inside."
Note: Hello My Little Emeralds!
Not a whole lot happening in this chapter, but it will all be made up in the next chapter!
Gonna post 3 more chapters later today!
Leave a like and comment down below!
Happy Reading from me, My Little Emeralds!