𝔄𝔫 ℑ𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔄𝔴𝔞𝔶 | Katsuki Bakugo x OC

Chapter 46 - A Compromise

"I don't forgive you." She said, turning around and staring him down. "But I refuse to let this- whatever happened yesterday- corner me like it did in the past. So we will work around it, instead of against it."

Katsuki looked up, his eyes finally meeting hers and nodded in agreement, his voice still lodged in his throat.

She huffed in annoyance and his shoulders slump further. "Since your command said I can't leave alone, I'll leave with someone you trust. I'll do this for two days and then I'll try to leave alone. We'll see what to do after that."

He swallowed, nodding in agreement again, his eyes flitting from her patronizing, angry gaze to his plate and back to her.

She clenched her jaw, pointing at him, her voice soft yet sharp at the same time.

"You have to verbally say you agree. My inner omega won't listen otherwise."

His eyes widened and she nodded in irritation. "Yeah, my inner omega isn't fighting back like she was with Sti- Dabi's voice."

He cleared his throat, and swallowed saliva down his dry throat while trying not to whimper from the disgust she felt. Even though he doesn't know exactly what disgusted her, it wasn't too hard to assume it was he himself that caused it.

"You can leave with someone I trust today too, Hina. You don't have to wait two days. But-" He exhaled, meeting her eyes with a desperation that left her lips parted in shock despite the anger still in her tense brows. "-can you let me know who you're gonna go with? And where? We still have a traitor in the ranks."

She sighed, frowning and tears welling at her waterline. "I don't exactly have a choice, Katsuki." She said bitterly and he flinched from how the words slapped him. "Not after you used your voice-"

"You do." He interrupted, "That's why I'm asking if you're willing to. If ya don't wanna, I'll take away the condition. I just-"

"That's okay." Her voice was tired and her hands shook as she hugged herself. "I understand."

Even if I don't want to, were her unsaid words he understood.

He nodded, freezing when she left a seat empty between them, and feeling the dread spread across his chest when her warmth was nowhere near him.

With a hollow breath he ate his breakfast that tasted like cardboard.

This was torture. But his consequences lead to this.

And he knew that he deserved it all.

-----

The agency was too normal today. Patrol was uneventful, there were no updates on the investigation with Nakamura Enterprises, and any leads on the NVA were nil.

It didn't matter much to Katsuki. Not when he could feel Hina's emotions the whole day. The spurts of discomfort in his own skin, the hatred bubbling into anger and sudden waves of deep foreboding depression were all echoes of a past he wished to suppress. But knowing they came from Hina's darkest emotions, the guilt of his own shortcomings was enough for him to give the little comfort he could through the link.

He called the empathy link shitty in the past. But now he's grateful for it since it gave him a chance to reach out and hopefully sear the open wound before it was too late.

Annoyance scratched in his lungs, annoyance that didn't belong to him but to her. His push and pull out of her misery must've been the cause.

Before he could further ponder on the rope-like empathy link they were wrestling over, his phone pinged.