𝔄𝔫 ℑ𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔄𝔴𝔞𝔶 | Katsuki Bakugo x OC

Chapter 51 - Xerox Copy

Red eyes with violet in the centers.

An explosion aimed at the person holding was let off, and she vaguely heard the thump of them falling to the ground, felt the slack in her arms as she was finally let go.

He rushed to her side, falling to his knees and cradled her face in his gloved hands that were still warm from his attacks, even sweeter more than ever from his explosive sweat.

"You're here." She breathed, her tears blurring his face filled with worry, his brows untwined with relief.

"Of course I'm here, Short stuff." He whispered, his thumbs wiping her tears, his hands shaking from seeing her in a torn hospital gown, from the cuts and bruises littering her skin.

But she didn't pay attention to how his scent bittered from the anger at her treatment, all she could do was let loose a watery chuckle; she hadn't heard that nickname in a long time.

"Katsuki, I-" Her voice shook, rattling from her chest as the words from her heart just flowed out of her lips.

"I love you." She said, feeling his shaking steady, feeling his warmth bloom all around her.

She had to say it. Before it was too late. She just had to. She couldn't wait. Not when he was right here, holding her, feeling her, saving her.

"I love you so much. I'm sorry for being so weak, I'm- "

"Oi, none of that." He interrupted with a brash yet soft tone, his eyes both reprimanding yet understanding. "You're safe now, that's all that matters."

Despite her chapped lips and the pain singing in every twitch of her muscles, she reached out to hug him, to kiss him.

However, he froze, his breath not leaving his lungs, his hand gripping his suit over the left of his chest, right above his heart, before he fell on his side and then on his back.

"Katsuki!" She exclaimed, her scream grated and painfully raw in anguish.

He seized on the floor, his eyes rolling up into his skull and white froth leaving his mouth as he gagged and spasmed for seconds that felt like minutes.

And then, nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

He was completely still.

Deadly still.

Her breath ceased for only two heartbeats before she started feeling sparse breaths invade her lungs like sharp needles and pins.

"No, no, no please don- don't leave." Her hands, battered and raw till the wrists from the pulling the restraints, cupped his slack jaw; her finger tracing his threadlike scar on the right temple.

It brought her back to the mall with her parents' bodies on the floor, bullet holes in their chests and blood pooling from their lips. Brought her back to seeing her sister's light leave her eyes from the same experiments she was subjugated to, seeing her breathe her last breath.

"Not you too." She said, her tears dripping from her chin onto his cheek and into his eye that were blank and unseeing. She hyperventilated through another sob, her fingers trembling as she begged, "Please."

If she wasn't in such a delirium, she would've realized that his scars were on the wrong side of his body. She would've recognized that familiar numbness she felt when Katsuki slept.

Footsteps came closer to her, the sound of a single person's claps echoed in the room she held prisoner.

"Well, would you look at this show?" Xerox said, his hood still obscuring his true identity. "A real tearjerker. Isn't it folks?"