𝔄𝔫 ℑ𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔄𝔴𝔞𝔶 | Katsuki Bakugo x OC

Chapter 13 - Conflicted Resolutions

The cool water rained down, draining all the sweat and grime off of Hina's creamy skin. She lathered the body wash, her muscles instantly unknotting from the calming buzz from the mint and eucalyptus oils. The frigid scent went in and up her nose, clearing her lungs from all the anxiety and stress that built up during their training.

As the suds started to cascade along with the water, she started to recollect all that happened since morning.

Two words she'd use to describe it: tremendously emotional.

The immense outbreak of emotions she felt was almost burdensome.

Starting with the naked exposure of her past horrors, and finishing off with the confusion from the hand-to-hand combat training.

It was all too perplexing.

She'd already come to terms with her false animosity against Bakugo, which in turn had unveiled her insecurities and shame. To think she believed a villain who'd tormented her.

She nodded her head in shame and subconsciously rubbed the burn scar on her right bicep, the embossed handprint lifted above the untouched skin. It was her constant reminder of how the purple scarred villain was always looming in the back of her mind. Her constant reminder that he will come after her again. That he was somewhere in the shadows ready to snatch her from this illusion of safety. This illusion of assurance with the ash blond hero.

Yes, Hina had finally accepted that Bakugo's company gave her a sense of security from her past demons, and no longer blaming him for her torture ever since she was brought to this carnal universe. Yet it didn't mean that every time she remembered his name, she wasn't doubling over in pain from the massive headache from hearing stitch face's gravelly voice.

Months of torture and conditioning are hard to reverse, Hina knew that. But those painful months had only temporarily made her despise the hero.

It ultimately succeeded in making her more frustrated herself.

Self doubt was a new disease she was afflicted with since her acceptance of the ash blond alpha. It crept in her lungs, drowning her breaths with anxiety of becoming someone insensitive. Of becoming someone heartless. And the mere thought of her losing herself and her morals because of a villain's sloppy attempt of brainwashing had scarred her more than the burn she caressed.

Ten days was all it took for her to differentiate her allies from her enemies since her escape. Ten days, which felt like an eternity filled with piles of dark and dirty damp rags of her nightmares.

But there were times when she was gifted with a new memory like soft cotton. Pure and clean, the scent homely and reminiscent of a peaceful summer breeze that brought warmth up her skin.

She recalled those warm, subtle gestures of care. Every time her throat was sore, he was there by her side with a glass of water. The way he bought foods that he noticed were finishing quicker than normal. How he'd been brewing her tea every morning just the way she liked it. And even his distance when she needed it, not necessarily when she wanted, was appreciated by the omega.

It was his brash anger which brought fits of her laughter, a sound she'd long forgotten after so long in captivity. His tender touches, silently pulling her away from her dark, dreary cavern of her foreboding thoughts. His little nuisances and bickering that distracted her from the foreign voice in her head.

Those memories were what she chose to hold on to.
Those memories were what helped her feel serenity in the gray house she now resides in.
Those memories would become her anchor in the raging sea of her new life.