Smoke Screen (Bakugo x Reader )

Chapter Eight: The Letter

Instead of following behind the other students, Bakugo leads me up and around the main campus and back to the bench we went to the other day. He takes a seat and looks expectingly at me until I sit next to him.

"What's up?" I speak up after about sixty seconds of silence pass between us.

He sighs heavily, avoiding looking at my face. "I want you to eat lunch with me from now on." He pauses with his mouth agape. "Please?" This last word is barely above a whisper.

       I can't help but smile. So it did bother him that I ate lunch with Shindo and when we weren't paired up. "Okay. I can do that. I do have one question though."

       Katsuki's red irises meet mine for the first time today, a slight tinge of rose coloring his cheeks.

       "Why didn't you ask me to eat with you today?"

       "During training you seemed to be having a lot of fun with him. You were smiling and laughing and joking around." He sounds dejected. "I didn't want to... I don't know."

"You know, I wanted to eat with you. I wanted you to say we already had plans for lunch," I smile, a blush creeping over my own face.

He opens and closes his mouth a couple times.

       Is he flustered? He's totally flustered. Lord Explosion Murder— Mina told me about the catastrophe he had when trying to pick his hero name— is floundering for words.

       "We should probably get back," he says, standing up with his hand extended.

       "I want to take a nice long bath and pass out." I place my hand in his. His warm fingers wrap around my wrist as he helps me to my feet. His touch is gentle and firm, but it doesn't last long.

       "Just don't pass out in the bath," he chuckles.

       "At this point I can't make any promises," I laugh, but the soreness resonating in every muscle of my body including my eyes are trying to contradict the joke.

       We get back to the dorm and part ways outside the fourth floor landing. I tiredly collect my shower caddy, towel and a change of clothes. I make sure to take the envelope from my pocket before heading to the baths.

       "Hey Y/N," Jirou says when I walk into the changing area. "I'm gonna wash all the girls gym clothes so don't be alarmed when you can't find them when you get out."

       I go ahead and hand my jacket and pants over. I hear running water from further inside and head back.

       "Hey Y/N!" Ochaco stops lathering her scalp to give me a genuine and exhausted smile. "Who knew that today was going to be so grueling."

       I give a courtesy chuckle as I fill up one of the empty baths with water. "Who knew that you were so good at hand-to-hand combat? You should have been teaching the class today."

       "I trained with Gunhead after the sports festival and it helped a lot," she giggles half-heartedly. "Though it wasn't as intense as today."

       "I can't believe we have four more days of this," Mina groans, sinking further into her bath.

       We talk about the day and how we dread trying to simply move in the morning as the water in each of our tubs slowly turn cold.

       Back in my room I take a seat on the floor with the envelope. Tearing it open I pull out a piece of yellow paper torn from a legal pad.

Y/N,
             You might have left Rodeo, but that doesn't make you untraceable. Class 1A. Seat 21. Teacher: Shota Aizawa/Eraserhead. Dorm: 1A Alliance. Floor 4. Currently joint training with the Smile Heroes second-year class. No matter where you go we are always watching. The path of heroes is no longer noble. You aren't the only one who left Rodeo to pursue a dream. Your parents weren't killed randomly. The direction your life has been "forced" to take wasn't by accident.
       Harrison

       My heart stops. It seems like the letter was written in a manic state of mind. Nothing really makes all that much sense. However it doesn't make me calm. Up until two days ago no one knew where my room was and the joint training with Ketsubutsu isn't public information. All that aside, this doesn't sound like the quiet and reclusive Harrison I went to school with.

       I'm not quite sure what compels me to look out the window, but I scream when I do. Just along the tree line is a clear silhouette of someone watching me. Moments later Mina, Bakugo and Kirishima force my door open causing me to scream a second time. I try to explain what I just saw, but naturally when they look outside there's nothing out of the ordinary. Bakugo picks up the letter.

       "This has to be a sick joke," he says handing the paper to Kiri. He doesn't sound all that confident though. "Who is Harrison?"

       "We went to middle school together," I say. "He was put in general studies at the same high school I went to back in America. He was quiet and kept to himself mostly, but he never seemed angry or anything."

       "Should we tell Mr. Aizawa?" Eijiro asks sitting crisscross opposite me.

       I shake my head. "It could just be some pulling a prank like Bakugo said."

       "But you said you saw someone outside," Mina says, rubbing her fingertips in a circle on my back.

       "Trick of the mind?" I'm trying to convince myself more than anything. "It was a creepy letter after all. I stopped watching scary movies a few years ago because I was always convinced I heard something after I went to bed. It's probably what happened now."

       Bakugo takes a seat on my bed. We all sit in tense silence for a few moments before Kirishima and Mina decide to turn in for the night.

       "Do you know of any reason why he would send you something like this?" Katsuki asks sliding off the mattress landing next to me on the floor. Our shoulders touch and I have the urge to rest my head on his.

       "No," I sigh. "We didn't run in the same circles, but we were still friendly in passing. We were science lab partners in our second year of middle school. He insisted on doing most of the work while I took notes and wrote the final report so even then we didn't talk much."

       The ash-blond nods his head and drums his fingers together. "Are you gonna be okay?"

       My eyebrows knit together. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure it was just my imagination paired with my exhaustion from today." I do my best to give him a reassuring smile.

       "Okay." He moves to stand. "If anything happens come and get me. Even if you're just feeling a little scared."

       "I will." I stand with him.

       In a swift movement he pulls me into his chest, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. I wrap mine around his lower back. I can't help but notice the way he smells of rain on a summer day mixed with the sweet scent found in bakeries and candy stores.

       "Goodnight, Y/N," he whispers into my hair.

       Although the embrace lasted longer than a normal hug it still feels over too quickly.

       "Goodnight Katsuki." I watch him leave and stare at the closed door for a second before turning my lights off and burrowing under my blankets.