Rain's Writing Archive

you're so traumatized (it makes me wanna cry)

Originally posted to Ao3 on 4/24/2022. Completed on 4/24/2022.

Summary
He tries to open his mouth to ask what the actual fuck, but realizes there's something keeping it shut.
A muzzle.
They put a fucking muzzle on his face.
***
What could have happened during the award ceremony after the Sports Festival if it hadn't been a gag played for laughs.

A/N: im bitter, okay?

Chapter 1

Katsuki comes to in a dark room made completely of cement. He feels taller than normal. Is he on a podium? Why's he on a podium? Why can't he remember? His thoughts are sluggish. He only feels about half conscious. He tries to move, but to no avail, finding his arms are bound together and his body is chained to a cement wall behind him. 

Alarm flutters in his stomach. He tries to open his mouth to ask what the actual fuck, but realizes there's something keeping it shut.

A muzzle.

They put a fucking muzzle on his face.

With this realization comes indescribable rage, pooling in his gut like scalding water, but also panic. Why was he chained up? Why was no one releasing him? What had he done to deserve this? 

In the back of his mind, a voice whispers, "You know exactly what you did." He ignores it.

Katsuki feels his heartbeat quicken, pounding against his ribcage as if it were trying to escape. He tugs on the chains and belts that hold him in place. He tries to scream. He tries and tries and tries but nothing's working he can't get free why can't he get out!?

His palms are sweaty. He hasn't let off an explosion to expel the extra nitroglycerin in a while. They itch so bad it hurts , but he can't blow anything up with the restraints on. He'd end up blowing both his hands to smithereens. Even as they sting from overuse, they itch and burn and they hurt so, so bad.

Bird Face and Half and Half stare at him emotionlessly. Why aren't they helping!?

Katsuki thrashes and kicks and screams for help. Cementoss-sensei - when did he even get here - looks at him with disapproval. He opens his mouth and says something, but Katsuki hears nothing over his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.

Seconds later, the ceiling opens above them and they're lifted into the light.

Katsuki looks to Icy Hot and yells and hollers at him behind the muzzle. He cries for help in a rare show of weakness. All that comes out is a string of muffled sounds.

And the bastard doesn't even look in his direction.

The stadium cheers and laughs as Katsuki pulls against the restraints and screams and cries for help. The stadium is bright and loud and it grates on Katsuki's frayed nerves. His breath quickens and he can't seem to pull enough air into his lungs.

Unwittingly, he's reminded of the sludge villain attack.

The situation is frighteningly similar. He can't move, he can't breathe, and the heroes - the ones that should be helping him - stand there and do nothing. He's helpless again, and this time he can't even use his quirk-

And Deku is no where to be found.

Deku would help him. 

…

Wouldn't he?

"Why should he? Why should he help a bully like you?" His mind whispers.

Pressure builds behind his eyes. He feels his breath hitching even as he continues to scream. He keeps pulling, trying to set himself free.

He's drowning in sludge. There's fire all around and no one dares to get close. Why are the heroes fust standing there? Why aren't they doing something? Oh god he's going to die -

Then there's green.

Katsuki is pulled back to the present and he focuses his full attention on the head of fluffy green hair that parts the crowd of students like the Red Sea.

Katsuki's thrashing and yelling only gets more intense as he cries out to his childhood friend.

Deku's covered in bandages from head to toe, one arm in a sling, and he has a slight limp, but he pushes through the crowd effortlessly. His usually vibrant green eyes are dark and narrowed. There's righteous fury rolling off him in waves.

Against his will, Katsuki relaxes slightly. That anger is not directed at him, but rather at the Pro Heroes and students that crowd around them.

Deku storms up to the podium and scales the stairs up to Katsuki. As soon as he gets there, Katsuki stops fighting, allowing Deku a chance to unbuckle the muzzle and pull it off. The relief of finally being able to pull in a proper breath hits him like a freight train. He nearly collapses then and there.

But Deku's not done, apparently, as he grabs the arm restraints in his left hand and rips the damn thing apart. And then he yanks the belts keeping him strapped to the podium and snaps them almost effortlessly.

Now fully free, Katsuki lets out a few small explosions to burn off the nitroglycerin buildup under his skin. They're small, equivalent to that of a sparkler, but it effectively calms him down, and his racing heart finally settles back to a normal speed.

He looks up from his hands and into Deku's eyes.

"...Why'd you do that…?" Katsuki's voice comes out hoarse and scratchy and thick with overuse. It hurts, but he needs to know.

"You looked like you were asking for help," comes Deku's immediate reply, an echo of what he'd said during the sludge villain attack. It sets something off in Katsuki's brain, and the next thing he knows, he's pulled Deku into a hug.

Katsuki feels him tense up, and he has about two seconds to doubt every choice that led up to this moment before Deku unfreezes and hugs him back.

For a moment, Katsuki forgets that this is all being broadcast on national TV and that there are thousands of people watching them in the stadium.

And then, he remembers.

Everyone around them is suspended in total disbelief at what they're watching, before everything erupts in chaos.

A/N: help me lol

Chapter 2

Summary
the staff's reactions

A/N: ahaha this was supposed to be a one shot oops
edited 6/26/24 for screen reader compatibility

When the podiums rise from the ground for the awards ceremony, Nemuri notes that Bakugou had been restrained to a cement wall that stuck up from the first place podium. His hands are inside a quirk suppressing contraption that Power Loader had been showing off for use on villains. There was a muzzle on his face, too, and from the noises he's making, it's a good thing it's there.

She'll admit, it does seem a bit overkill. But the way he's facing Todoroki and fighting to get free, maybe it's a good idea to keep them on.

Just as she's about to announce All Might will be giving out the medals, a deep sense of wrongness shakes her to her core. The crowd in the stands abruptly goes silent.

Nemuri feels her breaths and heart rate quicken as the wrongness turns into fear and fear into terror. She finds herself unable to move, to even twitch a finger. She squeezes her eyes shut and forces herself to take a deep, shaky breath. It does little to quell the fear, but she can move again.

Even as she looks to see what could have possibly caused this much instinctive terror, her brain screams fear danger don't look don't look don't look-

She fights against her instincts and looks anyway, watching as the first year students back away from something (someone?) that moves effortlessly through the crowd. A villain? What villain would be stupid enough to attack the UA Sports Festival?

Then, a head of green hair belonging to one Midoriya Izuku breaks free of the crowd.

He's got bandages on almost every limb, there's gauze on his cheek, and his right arm is in a sling. He walks determinedly forward, despite an obvious limp. His green eyes are narrowed and dark with anger, focused solely on the first place podium.

Nemuri realizes, belatedly, the dread that had coiled in the pit of her stomach was because of him.

But it doesn't make sense, she thinks, Midoriya wouldn't hurt a fly. There isn't any danger. And yet, the thought isn't as calming as it should be. Her racing heart carries on pounding away in her chest.

Midoriya scales the stairs up to the podium, and Nemuri has half a second to look at the murderous aura around Midoriya and the panic that she hadn't noticed before in Bakugou's eyes and think, "Oh Kami, he's going to kill him."

Except he doesn't. He slowly moves his left hand behind Bakugou's head and unfastens the muzzle, pulling it off and tossing it carelessly to the side. It hits the second place podium about a meter from Todoroki's feet.

Nemuri notices that Bakugou immediately sucks in a huge breath as soon as the muzzle's off. Had it been restricting his breathing? UA isn't that cruel, putting something like that on a child… Right?

Now that she thought about it, this is actually pretty fucked up.

Scratch that, it's really fucked up.

Even as Bakugou looks like he's barely keeping himself standing, Midoriya's tearing apart the restraints around Bakugou's hands. Nemuri wonders how he's destroying the metal so easily. Doesn't his quirk break his bones?

Then, she suddenly understands. He's not using his quirk at all.

And isn't that a terrifying thought?

Nemuri watches the two of them with thinly veiled horror as she questions how much Midoriya had to train in order to get that strong. He pulls the - now ruined - restraints off of Bakugou's hands and drops them to the ground before starting on the belts that keep him strapped to the cement wall. They snap with what seems like the smallest of tugs.

Bakugou releases a few tiny explosions and seems to calm down.

The two exchange a few words, too quiet to hear, and then Bakugou pulls Midoriya into a hug.

That feeling of danger that Midoriya carried with him tapers down slightly as he hugs Bakugou back, but it does not disappear. Nemuri almost forgot what it's like to not fear for her life.

Everything is quiet for a few moments, and then everything erupts into anarchy.

Midoriya latches onto Bakugou's arm and starts half-leading, half-dragging him out of the stadium. The sense of danger returns tenfold like a punch to the gut, but the further away Midoriya gets, the less all-encompassing it is. Nemuri will count her blessings.

She looks up at the roof of the stadium, where Yagi is standing, deflated and stock still. He doesn't seem to be in the right state of mind to continue on with the ceremony, so Nemuri takes it upon herself.

She beckons Tokoyami and Todoroki down from the podiums and puts their respective medals around their necks. She offers them stilted congratulations, and they quietly thank her, looking slightly in shock themselves.

Well. That's one way to end the Sports Festival.

Shouta is mad.

No, that's not the right word. Shouta gets mad a lot. This is different, the kind of anger Shouta rarely gets the misfortune of experiencing.

So no, Shouta isn't mad. He is absolutely livid.

And so is his resident Problem Child, if his expression is anything to go by.

When Midoriya marched straight up to him in the teacher's lounge and grabbed him by the collar of his hero costume, Shouta was about to expel him on the spot.

The words that he spoke, however, gave Shouta pause.

He'd asked, "Why the fuck was Kacchan chained up like some- some wild animal during the awards ceremony?"

And boy, is that news to Shouta.

He and Hizashi had left the commentator's booth the second they were no longer needed, preferring to relax and maybe get some work done before they went home for the day. They hadn't bothered to turn the TV over to the Sports Festival broadcast, assuming it would be the same old nonsense as every year.

Obviously, that was not what happened.

Now, Midoriya, Bakugou, Shouta, and Hizashi are sitting on couches opposite each other in the teacher's lounge, each waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Bakugou takes the first step.

" Why was I chained up like that? " He asks, voice hoarse and barely above a whisper. This only serves to make Shouta angrier. He must have been screaming to try to make someone let him go.

And not one of the heroes even tried.

"We don't know yet. We're going to ask you a few questions to see if we can find out. That okay?" Hizashi asks, voice significantly softer than normal. Bakugou gives a grunt, followed by a nod.

"Alright. Were you awake when the restraints were put on?" Shouta asks.

"No."

He was still unconscious when they restrained him? What were they thinking!?

"Which heroes chose to ignore that you were wrongfully restrained?"

"Cementoss and Midnight. And any other heroes in the stands."

Shouta is going to have words with Kayama later.

"Did the restraints pose any significant danger to your safety?"

"Yeah. If I had that thing on my hands for too long, I coulda lost control of my quirk and blasted both my hands off."

Ice runs through Shouta's veins. He sees red.

Beside him, Hizashi isn't faring much better. His fists are clenched so tight his knuckles are white. He looks about ready to strangle someone. He probably is.

"Last question. Would you be willing to take this to Principal Nedzu to find out who did this, and get them disciplined properly?"

"Hell yes," say Bakugou and Midoriya in unison.

After a trip to Nedzu's office and a summarization of what happened, Nedzu was ready to rain hell upon whatever sorry bastard was responsible.

"We will be investigating who saw fit to restrain Bakugou-kun in this way. Rest assured that when we find out who it was, they will have their teaching license revoked, be fired from UA, and will have their status as a hero put into question." Nedzu tells them, tone dark. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

In that moment, a certain someone feels raw fear stab their heart. They shiver, finally comprehending what an egregious miscalculation they've made.

A/N: i like all the teachers so i left it vague who was actually the culprit. hope you enjoyed!