𝔄𝔫 ℑ𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔄𝔴𝔞𝔶 | Katsuki Bakugo x OC

Chapter 37 - My Heart On Your Sleeve

He flicked her forehead, slightly amused at her flicker of anger and whine of irritation. "What was the cost?"

"A scratch on my cheek that I didn't even feel." Hina poked his chest, her knitted brows now mirroring his.

Suddenly, she was engulfed in warmth, his arms circling around her torso and his face hiding in the crook of her neck as he bended down to her level. He whispered something against her skin, but it was so quiet, she barely even heard the inflections of his voice; she could only tell from how his breath stuttered and his lips brushed against her gland.

"What?" She murmured, hesitantly hugging back.

"I'm proud o' you." He said louder, expertly hiding his inner turmoil of not being good enough; of being useless in keeping her safe. "Just be careful."

She worried when he spoke again with his breath hot and restless with fear, with an underlying anxiety that matched the dread spreading in her gut. However, it wasn't his uncommonly feeble voice that made her so tense, so disturbed. It was his tightening grip; specifically, his sudden need to show affection.

So to alleviate the apprehension weighing on his shoulders and puffing out of his breath, she grumbled in a half-annoyed, half-snarky tone.

"Careful is my middle name."

He scoffed in disbelief, his grip loosening as he received some respite of the churning anxiety from her unexpected quip. And then she could feel his lips curving upward on her ski; it made her smile too.

A pause was left for them. Just Katsuki holding her lightly while he revealed his face from the safety of her neck and now rested his forehead on hers. And Hina brought one hand to entangle into his blond tufts.

When she started to lightly scratch his scalp, untwining the knots of his perturbed self, a deep sigh left him.

"I sensed it." Katsuki said, the thumb of his hand on her hip gliding softly, the other hand resting on her shoulder.

"What?" Hina asked, noticing the hand on her shoulder tightened for a moment.

He swallowed, his eyes closed shut as he whispered into the tiny space between them. "The danger sense."

She held her breath, the anxiousness on his end pushing her emotions away for just a brief moment. Then she hummed in acknowledgment.

"It was shitty."

It was such a true and raw and such a childish statement, Hina couldn't help but snort out a chuckle from the way he grumbled.

"That's one way to put it." She said as she pulled away and cupped his jaw to force his face to face hers.

He opened his eyes, the uncertainty in them reflecting the words on his tongue. "How would you explain it?"

Hina smiled a barely there smile; something that gave one of melancholic reassurance and empathy which Katsuki found just as mesmerizing as her eyes.

"Like electricity zapping down my spine. And then a rock sinking in the pit of my stomach while my throat is closing up, and it's just so hard to breathe." Those blue eyes sparkled with an emotion, with a lingering pain, he could feel it in his chest too. "God it's so hard to breathe."

He couldn't recall anyone who has ever articulated his inner turmoil as perfectly as she did. And he couldn't help but show his own form of reassurance with a squeeze of her shoulder as she shuddered from recounting an emotion he just witnessed.

She noticed how his expression had wound up again, those angry brows tangled like string and his lips tilted down. "Was it like that for you too?" She asked, pressing between his brows to untwine them with her touch.