K.BAKUGO X READER (Cover art by me)
In a life where I'd be safe in one moment and on the brink of death in another, I realized that he was the only force that could ground me. Of all the people in the world. My volatile co-worker. My menacing rival...
AN: writing the final chapters as I post this <3 Warning that I might make minor changes to this chapter in the coming days. Hoping to finish the story before my birthday. I always enjoy hearing your thoughts :) thank you for reading
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part twenty-four
━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━
Before me was a distant dream I thought I'd never see again. A sliver of hope in a drowning dark. I'd always recognize that big, stupid head of blonde hair and the weight of his clunky footsteps.
My body moved on its own. Moth to flame. My legs carried me across the tile, stumbling into the wall, clutching for purchase. I couldn't look away from his face crying out to me.
A blast rippled through the floor, sending my knees crashing to the ground as I sheltered my head from debris. Boots echoed through the smoke. The air was foreign, heavy, and metallic. Missing the sweet of nitroglycerin...
"Come on! We have to go!"
My partner didn't fool around. With his arm on my shoulders, we hobbled away, locking ourselves into a maintenance closet to hide out the surge of bodies.
I collapsed onto the floor, clutching my chest to keep my heart from escaping.
"I'm glad you're okay," he finally said, pulling me into his arms. "What happened? Did they hurt you?"
The sweet of his words caught me off guard. I didn't know where to start. All I wanted was to be in his presence, to soak in my small victory that my partner was still alive and well.
"...I don't know what they did to me. But, we can't worry about that now. I think I know where we need to go."
"No, I do," he huffed. "I got a lead from the captain. There's something in the basement of this place. A power bank keeping the emergency systems running. If we take it out, there's nothing they can do."
Bakugo was holding my shoulders, looking over me, inspecting quietly. He'd lost his balaclava, and his gear looked different. And his skin was pure and clean, like he'd woken from a good sleep and hadn't spent the last many hours desperately searching for me... Did that much time really pass? Was I mistaken?
"...Do you have my earring?"
He paused.
"I dunno. It probably got lost somewhere in the scuffle back there. Doesn't matter. We need to go."
Lost. In that instant, I felt winded, clutching the other gem in my ear. The last piece I held of my past. Of my family, of my life before all I could do was disappoint people. The intimate treasure that I only showed to him because maybe I thought...
