Rejected Stones

Reforge the Soul

Beta'd and edited by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

69. Reforge the Soul

"The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear."

― Daniel Defoe

Something made Bakugo start awake, and he suddenly sat up in bed, breathing hard. He looked down at his trembling hand in the dim light, and snapped his fingers. No. It still didn't work. Something just wasn't there. But his heart was pounding, as if he'd just run a mile. Iida. Damn him, why did he have to-

"Katsuki?" Uraraka's groggy voice said, and she sat up in bed, rubbing at her eyes. "Is everything OK?"

Bakugo glanced at her, then out the window. It was still dark, the stars shining brightly in the night sky. The city itself had gone dark then. "Yeah. It's fine."

He lay back down, and Uraraka put her arms around him. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to. He squeezed her tightly, then drifted back off to sleep.

They both awoke again several times throughout the night. Uraraka once, screaming in terror, then weeping. Bakugo twice again, each time desperate to reach for something that still wasn't there. He did that frequently, more tonight than most, but ever since he'd lost his quirk, he'd felt as though something was gone. Most of the time, Uraraka had been there though, and somehow, they'd gotten through together.

Even Hari seemed to have given up on trying to keep the two of them apart, or any of the couples that had formed in Class 1A. Well, except possibly Izuku and Mei, but that made sense. Still, it wasn't just Uraraka's cries of panic that disturbed the night. No one in Class 1A slept well these days. Tonight was worse than most. Now, 1A had lost one of their own. Not a mentor, not a friend, but one of their own. Iida was gone.

Bakugo and Uraraka got up before the sun, taking turns in the bathroom before heading out for their turn on patrol. Izuku had sent a text message to the class with a schedule on it, organized into teams. Bakugo and Uraraka would be doing the pre-dawn patrol with Todoroki and Yaoyorozu. He was pretty sure that Izuku hadn't set the patrols up like that on purpose, but then again, you never knew with the nerd.

It didn't surprise Bakugo to find Todoroki and Yaoyorozu emerging from her room together. Hagakure had been gossiping about their budding romance for a long time. What did surprise him were the tears on Todoroki's face. He'd thought the other boy more stoic than that. Well. Even Bakugo would probably have shed a few tears if his old man had died. Hell. He'd even be pretty broken up if his mom died.

"You up for this?" Bakugo asked Todoroki as he checked his grenade launcher. He had a fresh supply of ammo, and had a bandolier wrapped across his shoulder. His only other piece of gear was a stun baton and a radio. Izkuku had offered to make him a damn robot suit, but that wasn't Bakugo's style. He looked down at his hand. If he did get his quirk back...best not to think of that now.

"Yeah. I need to do something. Anything. I just...I didn't think I'd miss him this much," Todoroki admitted as they stepped outside, his breath misting before him. The ground crunched slightly as they walked over it, there must have been a frost the night before. Spring couldn't come soon enough.

"He was your old man," Bakugo said, squinting at the shadows, his head always moving. You saw best out of the corners of your eyes, and especially at night, you had to keep your head moving on patrol.

"I hated him. For years," Todoroki said, his tone pained. "It wasn't until...well, maybe yesterday, that I realized I loved him. Despite all of it."