✓THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS|| BakuDeku Au

Chapter Nine: I Know . . .

Stay↲ 
Rihanna & Mikky Ekko

"Not really sure how to feel about it. Something in the way you move. Makes me feel like I can't live without you. It takes me all the way. I want you to stay . . ."

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Izuku marveled quietly to himself as the quiescent streets of his neighborhood whizzed by him in a mournful swirl of colors and disproportioned shapes. 

This was it. He had reminded himself as he slung his duffel bag over his shoulder, his suitcase gripped tightly in his other hand as he entered the crisp five a.m. air. His skin had been prickled and painted with goosebumps, the faint trace of green hair that rests on his arms becoming slightly more salient against the cadaverous milky white of his flesh. The younger watched painstakingly as the blood in his veins pulsed and rippled across him—as if it were attempting to warm itself in the cool environment he had put himself in. As more ripples of blood trickled beneath the thick surface of his skin, he could not help but want to draw his arm in its current state.

Replace his bloody veins with thriving vines with unfurling flowers instead. He bit his lip as his eyes narrowed, trying to plan out how that particular piece would look like as he took out his phone—snapping pictures of his arm, and how it looked now, at different angles in order to draw later.

The arctic air covered Izuku in a thick blanket as he stood quietly on the dew-drenched grass of his home. Taking in its breathtaking beauty which displayed brightly on the outside, whilst harboring the bitter memories that occurred within. He knew it was not forever; eventually, he would have to come back in a few months.

But maybe his life would be different then.

Izuku allowed a bittersweet smile to carve onto his stone features at the seemingly implausible notion—yet basking in the warmth it provided nonetheless. He was still waiting for the heart-dropping moment when he'd wake up. For he was half-expecting for his alarm clock to begin screaming angrily in his ear for him to get up, or for a hidden camera crew to make themselves known from the bushes yelling "Surprise! It was all a prank, kid,". 

How had this happened? One moment he was your average broke college student barely hanging on by a thread, and now he was here. Soon, about to announce himself as a famous person's boyfriend for the whole world to see. And not just any famous person, Katsuki Bakugou, Ground Zero, his idol. How he managed not to make a fool of himself yesterday was rather puzzling to Izuku now.

Nevertheless, he agreed to the proposition given to him. Having to think intellectually with his head rather than the hammering disorientation of his heart as he stood so close to the boy the day before. He had to do this.

Finally, the distant crunching of rubber tires roaring across the pebble-coated concrete of his neighborhood ricocheted off the barren road and onto his ears. Moments later a glossy black car pulled into view, coming to a stop on the curb before him as the person in the driver's seat rolled his window down.

"Are you Izuku Midoriya?" the man questioned gruffly, raking his fingers through his locks.

"Yes," 

Heaving a tired sigh, the driver rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Get in, kid. Mr. Bakugou is waiting for you," he said, inclining his towards the back seat.

Now, here he sat. Those colors and shapes flooding his eyes and filling them with the odd sensation of nostalgia. He nearly laughed at himself for feeling such things, he could always come back and visit his mother within the next three months he'd have—it was not as if he were moving out of town—checking on her to make sure she was still alive. Izuku sighed to himself at the thought of leaving her by herself.