Melody of Love

CHAPTER THREE

Being a prodigy at anything was never easy. Bakugou and Melody had this in common.

Bakugou was a heroic prodigy all his life, blessed with a fantastic quirk, pretty face, smart mind, and determination to last a lifetime.
Melody was a musical prodigy, blessed with a rare quirk, thrilling charisma, musical smarts and more instrumental skills than she knew what to do with.

No man is perfect.  Both Bakugou and Melody were blessed, that is true, but they were equally as cursed with intense emotions that hit them both differently. Those emotions being;
Rage
and despair.

It had been two weeks since the visit to the King household and class A was becoming more and more concerned with their class favourite, Melody King.
It had been four days since she stopped eating with her friends, three days since she stopped speaking in class, two days since she stopped teaching Bakugou, and one day since anyone last heard her speak.

No one knew what was wrong. Melody went from being loud and lovable to quiet and…

“I want to be totally honest… Don’t you guys think its kind of rude that King wont talk to anyone? At first it made me sad but now I’m getting upset. Like in the angry way.”

Kaminari was the first to say what many were thinking.

“Well, we don’t know what she’s going through.”

Midoriya was staying positive despite his doubts.

“I can hear her next door all night playing different instruments. I try to sleep to the music but then I hear her grunt and start over.”

Mina tried to piece the puzzle together.

“Can’t believe that bard freak left me with this stupid fucking thing and started acting like a baby.”

And Bakugou was being Bakugou.

Meanwhile, Melody sat in her darkened dorm room, face red and tear stained, eyes bloodshot and drawn with sleeplessness.  She took a moment to set down her violin and stumble to the bathroom.  Timidly, Melody looked at herself in the mirror.  Her lips were swollen red with the overuse of different mouthpieces, her body bruised from her rage disputes in which her own body was the enemy.  She started to run the water and wash her face, also taking note of her raw, almost bloody fingertips.
Sighing, Melody dried her hands and face, applied bandages to her fingers, and stepped out into the hallway. Seeing herself really made her realize just how much time she had been locked away.  Wearing a huge hoodie and a pair of shorts, Melody looked like the embodiment of the word ‘rock bottom’.
Slowly, she stepped down the stairs with a heavy heart and heavy body.  Every step echoed with the numb feeling Melody could feel filling her conscious little by little.  Every flight of stairs induced a shaking inhale and nervous exhale.  As the voices downstairs got louder and clearer, Melody’s body shook more and more with anxiety and pent nerves.

When she stepped into the light of the common room, not a single eye fell on her.  Melody assumed her appearance would be like that in a movie where everyone notices the new presence.  It was not.  She was invisible. For now.
Her steps were quiet and quick as Melody made her way to the kitchen, hoping she could get in and out as fast as possible without being noticed.  But life isn’t fair, is it?

“King?”

Great.

“That’s me.” Melody stuttered, voice hoarse from hushed vocal chords.

Now all eyes fell on the female.  A shiver went down her spine as her comfort began draining away to make room for vulnerability.

Ochako, who had originally called her out, was close enough to see the physical turmoil plastered on King’s body.  All the doubts the girl had for Melody’s intentions washed away.
“King, are you okay? We haven’t heard from you in a long time.”

Melody shook once, then began fiddling with her fingers, “I was busy.”

“Busy?” Ochako questioned, “Busy with what?”

King glanced to Bakugou across the room, noticed his rage and quickly looked away, “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

The sounds of scoffs and groans echoed through the room.  Melody wasn’t expecting such harshness from her peers, even if she internally knew that her actions were selfish.
A chord struck within her suddenly.
Who were they to judge? They didn’t know her life, her struggles, her worries or pain, so they don’t deserve to criticize.

“Don’t you groan at me.” She said firmly for the room to hear. When she was met with silence, her heartbeat started to pick up and she felt her body react before her head, “I said don’t you groan at me! Who gave you the right to judge my actions? If I feel like being in my room for a few days then I’m entitled to do that!”
The sudden outburst scared more than a few classmates, prompting a few to stand up from their seats.
The rising heat in her body sent Melody into a mess, horns growing and eye glowing, tears knocking at the gates, threatening to fall, “Don’t you look at me like that! None of you! You’re so quick to judge those around you without first considering how they feel!”

Kirishima, a natural born consoler, took a step forward with a determined clenched fist, “King, we did consider how you felt, we just want to understand—”

“Well you can’t understand! For once, Kirishima, there’s an issue you can’t fix, so get over yourself!” Melody spat, her whole body shaking with rage and sleep deprivation.

“King!” Ochako gasped, taking a step back from the female.

“Yes? That’s me, King Melody, what a showboat right?” Melody began, growling at the poor girl, “Aren’t I so kind and amazing that all of you love me? Why is that? No one is always loved yet here I fucking am! A freak of nature who seems so godamn perfect and blessed!”
The class was silent again, growing less scared for their safety and more concerned for Melody’s state of mind as tears started to fall from her eyes and hit the floor, the image of their class favourite becoming more and more like the demeanour of a different, infamous classmate.
“And you know what else?” Melody dared to continue, her vision becoming fuzzy, tears blurring the faces of her class until they appeared as nothing but husks, the room felt warmer and smaller, “You all decide how you feel about someone before you get to know them and it is sickening! You all looked at me and decided I was worth your time and then saw someone like Bakugou and thought the opposite. That’s such bullshit! You know why?” she seethed, “Because he and I are exactly the fucking same! None of you got to know me so allow me to fix that shit for you right here, right now!
“My name is King Melody, on the outside, my life looks perfect and easy, and while its easier now it definitely didn’t start out that way! My life was ass! I was just so lucky we could get the hell out of Canada back then! I ran away from my problems so I wouldn’t have to face them. So really?” Melody began to slow down, voice becoming weaker, “I’m really an asshole. I’m really a horrible person and there’s nothing I can do about it. There is nothing to blame... No one to blame but myself for the way I feel. I act like everything is fine when it isn’t and—”
She stopped.
Melody finally realized her situation.
Quickly, in a panic, a sigil began to appear under King’s hooves. She stood still within it, looking around at her classmates in fear. Her heart battered against her ribcage, lungs heaving to keep up with her rapid breaths. Her ears began to ring, head pounding with a rhythm even she, the musical prodigy, couldn’t keep in time with.  The music of the drumming in her body and the screaming in her head suddenly went silent before her vision went black and she fainted, limp body plummeting through the portal and collapsing in a pile of pillows in her dorm room.

_ - _ - BK x KM - _ - _

When Melody woke up a few minutes later, her body hurt inside and out.  Her memory was as blurry as her readjusting eyes, her brain unable to picture what had happened before she woke up.
All King knew was that she felt awful.  She was covered in scrapes, bumps and bandages, her head was throbbing and her eyes were heavy.  This was a feeling the girl would be more than happy to sleep off.  Of course, though, there was a firm knock on the door, because as we have established, life isn’t fair.

“King? Its Midoriya, is everything okay?” the boy’s voice was soft and concerned, laced with sincerity.
“Truthfully,” Melody rubbed her eyes, not making a move to stand, “I feel horrible. How are you, Izuku?”
Izuku was quiet, seemingly thinking about how he should respond to such an answer.  Melody started to feel a little guilty for being snarky.
“Sorry,” she said, finally standing and walking to the door, “what even happened to me?”
As the door opened, it was clear something bad had happened, causing Melody’s ears to droop lower.
Izuku started to fiddle with his hands, “You don’t remember?”
“I wouldn’t have asked. Sorry that was kind of rude.”
“Oh,” Midoriya nervously chuckled, “Its okay, you’re right… But, a little while ago, you came downstairs and…”

Suddenly, it came rushing back.  Melody’s face turned fuchsia, her eyes started to scramble to avoid Izuku’s eyes.
“I remember now, so, um, thank you for checking on me, I’m fine. I’ll… talk to you later!” With a swift move, the door was closed, astonished and embarrassed young heroes on each side.

Melody, in almost a panic, ran to the bathroom again to look at herself in the mirror.  In the reflection, she saw the raw rage and agony she had kept locked up inside of her.  This was never part of the plan, especially so soon. No one was supposed to know that she could be like this.
This was the worst possible case scenario.
Feeling her heartbeat pick up again, her fear of fainting again rising, she decided that enough was enough; it was time to cry it all out and sleep.
Melody was quick to open her glass door a crack and light candles in her room, opting for only a single scented one to burn.  When she finished, she turned off the lights and watched as the harsh lighting turned into something warm and familiar, like home.  Melody cuddled into her bed with a pile of pillows and blankets before casting Netflix to her TV.  The film ‘A Silent Voice’, one of Melody’s favourites, was going to be the sobbing soundtrack of the night.  As she’d hoped, Melody cried herself to sleep quickly, but not before she put out her candles and trimmed their wicks.

_ - _ - BK x KM - _ - _

For the first time ever, King wasn’t awake before the other girls, and if it hadn’t been for her outburst the previous night, her late start to the day would have been the weirdest thing she’d done all week.
Melody was worn so close to the line that she hadn’t used the stairs or doors to get out of the building, instead choosing to teleport as far away from the building as possible to get a head start.  Regardless of her embarrassment and rough week, she would never forgive herself if she was late to a class.  She felt empty inside, that was for certain, but the one glimpse of hope she ever kept with her was UA, messing that up would be a death sentence.

Being a prodigy at anything was never easy. It takes a toll on a child to be born that way.  Everyone expects so much of you that you lose yourself somewhere in the middle.  You may become a needy people pleaser, an egotistical asshole, or an emotionless husk.  Melody, who fought so hard to stop herself, became all three.  She was a musical prodigy, not uncommon in her family.  Music teachers, those who had studied for years to get on her level, held her own skill against her, choosing to make her life living hell.  Any weakness she had would be held against her viciously as long as she still had it, because it meant that those teachers had an upper hand. 
It isn’t fun to be outdone or corrected by a child, though it is a teacher’s job to support a student rather than bring them down.  Things got worse when her personality started to shatter.  Mood swings of being rude and aggressive started to appear, then were outshone only by more swings that made her silent and emotionless for hours at a time.  Later came the final step, Melody found herself constantly needing the validation of others.
It took soul searching and support from her best friend to get out of her dangerous spell, going back to her old self, but some of the traits never left her.  Melody does what she can so that people find her likable, and with every bone in her body, she tries to hide the rage that builds inside of her. Her instincts of taking challenges head on constantly battle her inner morals, causing her to lash out without meaning to.

Being a prodigy at anything wasn’t easy.  Having a rare and powerful quirk didn’t help.  The expectations piled up so fast, Melody King could not keep up.  Her whole life, people outside her herd convinced her that she needed to be a musician, this pressure came so often that she accepted it as fact. She was going to be a musician even if she didn’t truly want to.
Only her closest friend, Luella, had brought clarity to her eyes.
She needed to be a hero.
It took great love and great loss for the realization to happen, but ever since, Melody’s life has been looking up.  Her quirk became stronger, and so did her will. The music she made became less forced, less heavy, less pressured, and she learned to be free.
But freedom isn’t as simple as it seems. The great loss it took to achieve it still haunts her, the childhood torture of expectations still sends Melody into fits, like it had for the past week.  Her whole life, a concert for school meant stress, meant cramming, meant that her performance had to be absolutely perfection. Her brain told her that there would be consequences, that her peers and teachers would never forgive her for messing up, that too many people were counting on her success that making any mistakes was not an option.  She felt like a kid again, the nostalgia of locking herself away and crying, playing a tune and then ripping her hair out when she hit the note wrong, clawing at her skin when her shaking fingers made playing difficult, ruining sheet music, breaking down, staying up all night, screaming, bleeding, hyperventilating and then blowing up in people’s faces when they are trying to help.
All the physical and mental pain she put herself through made everything more and more numb, nothing felt real, nothing mattered anymore, only perfection, getting caught in a loop that her actions made her imperfect and that she already failed, her peers would hate her, her teachers would hate her, her herd would hate her.
That numbness had long since taken hold over Melody when she stopped talking to her classmates, when she stopped eating with them. Stopped eating at all.  Feeling famished and exhausted became too common, her body growing weaker and weaker, making playing even more difficult, ultimately worsening her condition.  Melody’s body was beginning to shut down, as she barely ate and only drank ginger ale.  She wouldn’t speak to anyone and hadn’t spoken to her parents since she last visited with Bakugou.

Bakugou…

He probably hated her, right? She was being horrible and rude, ignoring him after making a fuss about teaching him.  Melody wondered if he had been practicing or not, a rare smile stretched on her face thinking of him sitting alone, aimlessly blowing into the pan flute pipes rather than blowing across them.  Her smile and warmth was short lived.  He wouldn’t be making those mistakes if she were with him, teaching him.
But she wasn’t. She was locked away in her room, and had been for longer than she meant to.  He hadn’t spoken to her either, as he wasn’t the type to engage in conversation unless forced to.  Besides, he didn’t like her.
He didn’t like her.
She was making this worse.  He was going to hate her forever, maybe ask to change partners since she wasn’t doing what she promised she would, maybe he’s spread rumours and make the class start to bully her, maybe her actions would make everyone think less of her, make everyone avoid her and loathe her and never speak to her again when she finally recovered.
Sitting in class, Melody felt her lungs empty suddenly, her body kicking in to replace the air in short, loud gasps.  Her breathing was rabid and ragged, alerting more than a few classmates.  She shot up from her seat, her palm placed on her chest, instinctively, tears began to swell in her eyes as her ever aching stomach roared for food.
Midnight, who had been teaching at the time, raised her eyebrows as her student, “King? What’s wrong?”
Melody was obviously unable to answer as she stood, shoulders heaving and vision blurred.  The class was confused, somewhat scared, but not shocked. They all knew how badly she was doing, especially after her breakdown, of course this was bound to happen soon.

Midnight raced to stand next to her and hold her shoulders.  She cooed with gentle eyes to slow her breathing, asking her to do it deeply.  Though it was hard in front of everyone, Melody managed to slow her breathing, though the ache of her entire body remained.
Midnight could tell by being next to the girl that she was not in good shape.  In a split second decision, Midnight used her quirk to send Melody to sleep.  Somnambulist, her quirk, is stronger on men, but as Melody hadn’t gotten enough sleep for the past week, it took effect fast and easy.
In seconds, an unconscious King fell into her teacher’s arms.
Bakugou watched on, the way his partner’s eyes fluttered closed with relief struck something inside of him.
That crazed look in her eye, the panic, he understood it. He knew that feeling. He lived that feeling every day.
As Melody was carried from the room, Bakugou saw her differently.

Because he knew better than anyone…
Being a prodigy was never easy.