Death... it seemed to be a constant presence, one that you should have been used to by now. But no matter how many times you experienced it, that sharp pain in your chest never seemed to ease.
Maybe the reaper had taken a liking to you, attached itself to your spirit, and began to take from your life whomever it pleased. Because you'd lost too many people, many of whom had so many years ahead of them, too young to meet the fate that ended their lives.
As Kura continued to explain to you the villain attack that had been the cause of Hawks' death, you found that your body had begun to tremble. Whether it was from sadness or rage, you didn't know. What you did know was that someone else in your life had been lost, another mark had been placed on your soul.
You wished that people could see those marks, that it would serve as a warning to anyone wanting to get close to you. They would be able to see the deaths that followed those who chose to be a part of your life and spare themselves from meeting the same ends as the ones who'd come before them.
"I'm really sorry that you had to find out this way," Kura said after a long stretch of silence.
"Yeah," you took a shaky breath. "I just- I thought that he'd be ok. He was the number two hero, he wasn't supposed to be taken out so easily. If I'd known then I could've-"
"There's nothing you could've done. You know how strong those villains are, and Hawks is arrogant, he let his guard down thinking that he could still manage to survive if something like this happened. From what I heard, you did everything that you could to try and make him see reason, but you know how he is." She paused, "or... how he was."
Kuras voice shook when referring to Hawks in the past tense. You knew that the two of them had been close, you'd constantly made jokes about trying to set them up together but they'd always laugh and dismiss the thought. Hawks would say that she was simply a close friend of his and that he would never do anything to mess it up.
She'd been hired by him when his agency had first started and she'd stuck with him the entire time. They were both close in age and liked much of the same stuff. Of course, Kura would joke about how tedious it was to make sure he got to his hair appointments on time and constantly have to remind him to take his hero costume to the dry cleaners, but you could see how much she cared for him. How much they both cared for each other.
"It isn't fair," you whispered.
"I know, none of it is." Kura took a breath, and when she spoke again her tone was laced with worry. "Your voice doesn't sound good, did something else happen?"
"Yeah, the villains got to us too, the same ones that killed him."
She gasped, "are you ok? Are they-"
"They're dead, and I'll be fine." You said the words casually, as if you weren't speaking of the fact that you'd killed someone.
Kura didn't respond, and you had to check to make sure that the phone hadn't died before she spoke again. "I'm so sorry, honey. You don't deserve this, any of this."
"Yeah, it sucks, but you don't need to apologize. It isn't like any of this is your fault."
"You know," she continued. "From the moment I met you I could see those shadows that haunted you, but I also saw that light in your eyes, there was just a little bit left but it was there. I saw your determination and your strength, even as people rejected you, as you were thrown into battle after battle, you kept pushing. And I wish that you didn't have to, no kid should need to be as strong as you are."
Her words struck something inside of you, the feeling almost causing you to tear up. The only other person to say something like that to you had been Aizawa.
"I just want you to know that no matter how shitty things get, I'm here. We may not know each other super well, or anything, but I'm rooting for you. Never forget that, you're not alone, ok?"
Just as she said that, Bakugou stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a similar robe to the one you had on. When he saw that you were on the phone he raised his eyebrows questioningly.
A soft smile tugged at the corners of your lips. "Thank you, and don't worry... I know I'm not alone."
"Good," she sighed. "I hate to do this but I need to go. People from the commission are on my ass trying to figure out what happened even though Hawks sent me away days ago so I have no way of knowing anything."
"He sent you away?"
"Yeah, I thought it was weird at first but I realize now that it was probably to protect me." Her phone began to buzz and she huffed a breath of annoyance. "Alright, I'll talk to you later. Stay safe... or as safe as possible, ok?"
You chuckled, "I'll do my best."
"Hey, before I go, promise me something."
Promises, you didn't exactly have the best track records with those, but you responded anyway. "What?"
"Promise that you'll win this thing."
Now that was something you could do. You'd already sworn it to yourself that All For One would be taken down no matter what. "I promise."
With a final goodbye, Kura hung up the phone and you sat down on the edge of the bed, not sure what you were feeling after that conversation.
"Was that Hawks?" Bakugou asked, sitting down beside you.
"No, it was his secretary." You looked down at your lap. "Hawks is dead, the League managed to get to him."
You saw his eyes widen a bit before looking at you. "I'm guessing it was the same villains who attacked us earlier?"
"Yeah."
Bakugou blinked a few times, the surprise evident on his face. "Wow, I didn't expect that." His expression softened a little as he stared at you. "I know you guys were close, even after what he did. How are you holding up?"
"I don't know, honestly."
"Are you blaming yourself?" He asked.
You looked up, "no."
"Good, because I really don't think I would've had the energy to lecture you right now."
You rolled your eyes and felt him place his hand over yours, entwinging your fingers together. "We've gotta end this," you said. "I don't want to just sit here and wait for more people to die."
"We will, as soon as we figure out where the bastard is hiding we'll make our move." Bakugou brought your hand to his lips and softly pressed them against your skin. "But you need to rest right now. There's no point in fighting All For One if you're just gonna pass out before getting a punch in."
You pulled your hand away. "Let me see your injury first."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "Not until you heal yourself."
"Don't be an idiot, that looked like it was getting infected. I don't think I'd be able to heal it if it gets much worse."
Of course, he didn't back down. "Damn, I guess you'd better heal yourself fast then."
Although you didn't have much energy, you could probably manage to pin him down and forcibly heal him, but doing so could also make the injury worse. So, with an exasperated sigh, you glared at him and walked into the bathroom to examine the burn on your neck.
Luckily, Dabi hadn't managed to go as deep as he had with the burns on your legs. The skin was still raw and inflamed, and it had begun peeling around the edges. It would take a good amount of energy to heal but you would be able to do it. The rest of the injuries on your body were minor ones, so you wouldn't worry about them until you were back at full strength.
You lightly placed your hand to your neck, wincing as the skin made contact, and activated your healing quirk.
The quirk was similar to Recovery Girls, but instead of a kiss, the healing only required he touch of your hand. It also differed in the way that the quirk took energy from you instead of the person being healed. So, the more worn out you were, the less efficient the healing would be.
The burn took a couple of minutes before fading, and you took your hand away when it had almost healed completely, only leaving behind small remnants of what the skin had been like before. Your throat still hurt due to all the smoke that you'd inhaled, but there was a significant difference without the presence of the injury.
Bakugou was still sitting on the edge of the bed when you walked out of the bathroom. Gesturing to yourself, you gave him a look. "Happy?"
"Sure," he looked you up and down and then pulled the top part of his robe down, exposing the injury on his side.
The shower must have helped clean it because it looked better than it had when you'd seen it in the woods, but it definitely wasn't as fine as he claimed it was.
You walked over and sat down in front of him, trying to ignore how tired you were. It took much more effort than it had before to activate your healing quirk.
After a few minutes, the wound had closed up and there was no longer any blood or pus coming from it. The area still looked somewhat irritated but you couldn't do any more, you pushed yourself but it remained the same.
Bakugou put his hand on your head. "You don't need to heal it completely, as long as it isn't leaking anything then it should be fine. You can check on it in the morning."
"Does it hurt anymore?" You asked.
"No, it's just a little uncomfortable."
"Promise?"
Bakugou rolled his eyes, "yes. I promise, now go to bed before you fall asleep on the floor. I don't trust that they vacuum this place regularly."
You lifted yourself onto the bed and felt your eyes shut as soon as your head hit the pillow, Bakugou climbed in beside you and the familiar warmth of his body made you much more comfortable. With him, it was almost easy to forget that the mattress was stiff and the blankets were thin, it was easy to simply drift off.
-----------------
The next morning, you woke up feeling uncomfortably hot. You looked and saw that the blankets had been kicked to the edge of the bed, and the soft rumbling of the AC could still be heard. If anything, you should have felt cold. You sat up and realized what the source of the heat had been. While sleeping, you and Bakugou had drifted close to one another, and you'd been pressed against him before waking up.
Softly pressing the back of your hand to his forehead, your eyes widened and worry immediately overtook you. Bakugou's skin was hot to the touch. Hooking your fingers in his robe, you pulled the material toward you until the wound on his side became visible.
It was worse than it had been last night. Although the skin had been healed back together, the area was incredibly swollen and red. It had begun to grow infected.
"Shit," you whispered. You hadn't had enough energy to heal the wound entirely, but you'd thought that closing it was enough to keep it from getting worse until you could. But, from what you could tell, you'd closed the wound too early. It hadn't been able to get rid of the things it needed to, and now those things were stuck inside of it.
Bakugou's eyes fluttered and you dropped the robe. He groaned softly before fully opening his eyes and you noticed how red his cheeks were. When he tried to sit up you heard his breath catch and saw his face twist in pain.
"Hey," you said softly. "Try not to move too much, it could make things worse."
He shut his eyes again, breathing heavily. "What the hell happened?"
"You have a fever, give me a second." Sliding off of the bed, you went into the bathroom and grabbed a towel. After running it under cold water you took it and walked back to his side, and pressed the damp material to his forehead.
"So, I'm guessing it wasn't healed right?"
"Yeah, but you knew that, didn't you?" Knowing him, he probably knew that it hadn't healed correctly but hadn't said anything.
Bakugou didn't answer and you glanced down to his side, "it just needs a little more treatment."
Bakugou opened his eyes and lifted his head, ignoring your protests, and you swore that his face turned a little green as he studied the injury that you were supposed to have healed. "Pretty sure that's gonna need more than just a little."
His head dropped back down and you sighed. "I think we'll have to cut it open. There's stuff inside of it that needs to be taken out. Once it's drained I'll need to clean it out before healing it again."
"That sounds like a great way to start the morning," he responded sarcastically.
You tried to keep yourself calm, it shouldn't be too hard, just a little gross. "I'll just go down to that convenience store and see if they have anything that can help. This needs to get done as soon as possible or it's gonna get even more infected."
Bakugou went to sit up, "you can't go out by yourself, it's too dangerous."
"It's not looking like I have much of a choice. Just don't move and I'll be right back, ok?"You went to check for water or anything that could be used for tea so that you could leave him with something to drink, but the cabinets and fridge were all bare.
You heard rustling from the bed and looked over just as Bakugou attempted to stand up. "I'm not-" his legs buckled underneath him and you sped to his side, catching him before his head hit the corner of the nightstand.
"I told you not to move!" His skin was dangerously warm against yours and you knew that something needed to get done soon. You used your strength to lift him onto the bed, hating the way that he cried out in pain.
"There could be police, or someone could recognize you." His voice was strained and his chest was rising and falling rapidly. "There's a knife in the backpack, if you need to cut me open then just use that."
"You want me to do that without any sorry of pain medicine or stuff to clean it with?"
He nodded, "I can handle it."
With a skeptical look, you shook your head. "I'm not doing that. I don't care if you think you can handle it, even if you could, we need stuff to clean the wound with."
"Just use water."
It was almost like he wanted the thing to get infected again. "No. It's a three minute walk to the store, I'll be fine."
Bakugou continued to argue. "You don't have any clothes, you really gonna walk down there in a robe?"
"Yes," you stood up. "If I was in your position, would you really want to try and heal me without having any of the right stuff? Would you risk my life just because you were worried that someone might see you?" He looked away and you knew that you'd made your point. There was no way in hell that he'd do that, and there was no way in hell that you would either. "I'll be back in a few minutes, please don't try and follow me. Just stay there and try to rest."
You heard him grumble something that sounded like an agreement so you grabbed the cash from inside of the bag and stepped out of the room, glancing at him once more before leaving.
Just one day, can I not have one day without someone in a life-threatening situation?
-------------
Bakugou's POV:
God, he felt pathetic.
It was a small part of town with barely any people, but with your luck you'd be recognized by someone in the store and everything would go to shit... again. And if that happened, there was no way for him to help, if villains attacked or the police showed up he wouldn't even be able to move to defend himself.
He'd tried to move in an attempt to go after you, to prove that he was strong enough to go out even in this state, but the pain had nearly made him black out. So, here he was, lying in bed without the capability to do anything other than worry.
Underneath the worry he felt, there was also guilt. He'd seen how you looked when telling him about how the injury hadn't healed the right way. You were blaming yourself, even though he'd been the one to make you wait to heal him.
A chill went through his body and he groaned, his body continued to switch between states of feeling extremely cold or disgustingly warm. He'd woken up a few times through the night and noticed that he wasn't feeling well, but he'd thought that it was just exhaustion. Of course, he should've known better. Nothing ever went the easy way anymore.
When he heard the sound of the door opening some of the worry he felt eased. You stepped back into the room holding two plastic bags with a variety of items inside. You'd also changed into actual clothes, which they must have been selling at the store.
"See, I told you that it wouldn't take long." You came over to the bed and put your hand on his forehead.
Something seemed off, your brows were creased with worry and your body held more tension then it had when you left. "What happened?"
"No one recognized me, if that's what you're asking." Reaching into one of the bags, you pulled out a bottle of water and a thing of pills.
"But something did happen," he said, noticing how you hadn't fully answered the question.
You handed him two of the pills along with the bottle of water. "These should help the fever go down and lessen the pain of what I'm about to do."
Bakugou took the pills and swallowed them easily, washing them down with some of the water. "Tell me what happened."
"Would you just let me focus on the fact that I'm literally about to have to cut you and clean a bunch of gross shit from inside of a stab wound? I'll tell you later." Without warning, you untied the front of his robe and pushed the material to the side, exposing his chest and stomach.
Reaching back into the bag, you pulled out a tube of something and squeezed the substance onto your fingers. "This is a numbing cream, hopefully, it works."
Hopefully, that was the key word there.
Bakugou gritted his teeth as you applied the cream to the infected cut. "And you're sure you know what you're doing?"
"Yes, I have plenty of experience with cutting people open," you replied driely.
A tingling sensation began in the areas where the cream had been applied, and once you were finished you sat up and pinched the bridge of your nose. "I'm sorry."
He responded with the words that he must have said to you at least a thousand times by now. "It's not your fault."
"I shouldn't be acting like this. I know that you're in pain and I hate it, I hate that I wasn't able to heal you, I hate that any of this happened. Things always move too quickly. We were supposed to wake up this morning and be ok, we were both supposed to be ok."
Bakugou looked up at you. "yeah, well, that's not really how things work for us."
"I know," you said sadly.
He knew how you felt, hell, he felt the same way, but there was nothing either of you could do but keep going. There'd have to be an end eventually, once this battle was won maybe the two of you could live a life without constantly fearing for your lives. You could wake up in the morning and do something normal like make breakfast, instead of having to clean off a knife in preparation to try and get rid of a potential infection, like you were doing now.
"I'm glad we managed to keep at least one of our weapons," you'd finished rinsing the knife in the sink and were now using and alcohol wipe to sterilize it. There was a flutter of fear in Bakugou's chest as he thought about how that knife would be pressing into him in just a few minutes.
"Ok, so, this is probably gonna hurt like a bitch, but it'll hurt worse if we let the thing keep growing and getting more infected. Before I do anything, though, I need you to promise you aren't gonna reflexively hit me or blow up the motel room."
"I'll be fine."
You walked over and bent down, "that wasn't a promise."
"Just get it over with already!"
"Fine!" You placed your hand on his stomach and lightly touched the blade to Bakugou's skin.
This was fine, he could handle it. He'd already been stabbed, this couldn't be much worse. And he trusted you, somewhat, to do it quickly and accurately. If he couldn't handle a little pain then he wasn't cut out to be a hero of any sort.
He sucked in a sharp breath as the first bite of firey pain exploded in his side. The numbing cream had been a waste of money because he could feel everything that was happening.
"I'm sorry, we're almost halfway there." Your voice sounded a little panicked. "Oh my god, this is really gross."
Tightly gripping the sheets in his hands, Bakugou continued to breathe through the pain. There was a feeling of pressure being released as the wound was opened further and he tilted his head back, "shit!"
"I'm sorry! I think it's working though. We're almost done with the worst part."
"The worst-" he shouted as the pain increased suddenly, feeling like a thousand tiny needles were tearing through his skin, leaving behind a trail of fire in their wake. Sweat dripped down his face and his vision began to swim.
"Ok, ok, we're done. It's done." You placed the knife on the bedside tables and had a whispered conversation with your fish (something he'd never get used to.) After saying something else, you picked up the fish's container and walked it to the bathroom, shutting it inside.
Bakugous breathing was heavy, but he could feel some of the pain beginning to receed as the pressure that had built up continued to drain from the cut. You leaned over and placed your forehead to his and he welcomed the comfort of having you close.
"I just need to clean it now, ok? It's gonna hurt but it won't be as bad."
He nodded and you pressed a quick kiss to his forehead. When you went back to begin cleaning the injury, he thought he heard you gag. "Wow, ok. This is fine, I can do this."
You took a wipe and tentatively touched it to the cut. Bakugous entire body tensed and he rolled over and bit down on the pillow to keep himself from screaming. "I thought you said that this wouldn't hurt as bad!"
"It was a hopeful guess," you responded guiltily. "Are you gonna be ok?"
"Keep going, just... talk about something, distract me."
"Ok, um," you began cleaning the area again and he clenched his fists. "You know, my quirk doesn't have a name. I barely went to the doctor as a kid, even when my quirk first appeared, so I've never known what to call it."
He focused on your words instead of the stining pain from the alcohol and you continued to speak. "At first, my moms thought that I had a speed quirk like my brother, because that was the first one that I taught myself how to do. I think my mom was relieved at the idea of me having a normal quirk like that." You laughed, "but, one day, I was in the kitchen with my mom and I showed her that I'd learned how to replicate different objects like she could. That was when she realized that it was definitely something more powerful then just speed."
A hiss of pain escaped through his lips as you poured water onto his skin. "But I still never went to the doctor, my quirk wasn't put into the registry or anything. So, I've always tried to think of what a cool name would be, but I've never found one that stuck."
You dropped the wipe and began applying a different kind of cream. "I used to think that 'mimic' was cool, but it doesn't really include the way that I can manipulate the quirks that I learned. It makes it sound like I just copy them, and I don't really want to be roped in with the annoying guy from class B."
"I'll try and think of one," he said while trying to catch his breath. The pain had finally begun to recede. "It's gotta be awesome, you're right, we can't have you roped in with the average guys."
"Exactly," you agreed. "Ok, It's clean, I'm gonna heal it before too much blood comes out, but that won't hurt."
"Sounds a lot like what you said last time," he stated.
You laughed, "weren't you the guy who was trying to convince me to do all of this without anything to help with the pain?"
Yeah, Bakugou wasn't gonna admit it but he was glad that you hadn't listened to him on that one. "I still could've handled it."
"Right," you pressed your hands into his skin and inhaled deeply.
Being healed was an odd sensation, it didn't hurt, it felt almost cold, but it was a comfortable kind of cold. Like the feeling of stepping into a pool after a long summer day filled with training. Like the days when him and his mom would argue over which ice cream flavor to get but eventually just deciding to get both to share with each other.
The thought of his mom made him feel a little homesick, something that he didn't feel often. He couldn't help but think about her and hope that she was doing ok. She was another part of his motivation to win this battle, he was determined to prove himself to her, to be a son that she could be proud of.
"It's done," you let out a breath of relief. "You should be ok now."
"Thank god," he said sluggishly, "because I'm pretty sure I saw your hands shaking and there was a solid few seconds where I was trying to think of what my last words should be."
"Oh, whatever."
Although the pain had mostly gone, Bakugou's vision was still blurry and he found it difficult to hold his eyes open. "You sure everything worked?"
"Yeah, the medicine that I gave you is supposed to make you pretty tired though." You stroked your thumb across his cheek, "get some rest. I'll be here."
He leaned his head into your touch, too tired to think of how pathetic he probably looked right now. "Don't go anywhere."
"I won't."
--------------
Y/N's POV:
About an hour after cleaning up all of the supplies that you'd used, you showered yourself and tried to fight off the squeamishness you'd been feeling.
That had probably been one of the most disgusting things you'd had to do, and it had been incredibly difficult not to puke, especially when the pus had started coming out of the area that you'd cut.
Still, you'd managed to do it, and Bakugou seemed to be ok. That was what mattered.
Stepping out of the shower, you eyed Bubbles whose container sat on the counter. He'd made you bring him into the bathroom when he'd woken up and seen what you were doing. Apparently, fish got squeamish too.
You put on the t-shirt and shorts that you'd found in the back section of the convenience store, the material was low-quality but it was better than wearing a robe everywhere.
The store had been a simple task, and only one person had been present while you were there. It had been going fine until you'd made the mistake of looking at what was on the TV.
Making your way back to the bed, you saw beads of sweat over Bakugou's upper lip. You pressed your hand to his skin and smiled when you felt that it was no longer hot. His fever had broken.
You crawled into bed next to him, grateful that you'd managed to keep any of the blood from falling onto the sheets, and shut your eyes. After the events of the morning, you figured a nap was well-deserved.
You'd already checked the spot where he'd been injured at least seven times, but you checked it again to make yourself feel better. The skin was still a little pink and a thin scar showed up in the place where you'd cut him, but it looked to be healing perfectly fine. Feeling content with what you saw, you allowed your eyes to shut.
------------------
When you awoke, the sky had changed colors. The sun now casting an orange glow across the clouds. Bakugou was sitting up next to you, one of his hands placed over yours. The small TV hanging on the wall was turned on at a low volume.
You stretched your arms out and pushed yourself upright, "did I really sleep all day?"
"Yeah, it's becoming a habit of yours," Bakugou answered, his eyes glued to the screen.
You looked to see what he was watching and felt all of your worries take root once more. It was the same story that had been broadcasted while you'd visited the store.
"I knew we didn't have much time," Bakugou said, "but I thought it would be more than this."
On the screen were images of those who had died in a recent attack, it ranged from a young child to an older couple who had been casually going about their days.
All For One had made his first move.
"We have proof that this attack was caused by the head of the League of Villains, the man is known as All For One. We do not know why he targeted this area, nor why he targeted these victims. What we do know is that his return is no longer just a rumor, it is proof that what was spoken was true. The heroes have lied to us all, and because of that, innocent lives have been lost." The broadcast cut out and the screen changed to a commercial for a new phone being released next month.
"It doesn't make any sense." Bakugou turned the TV off. "Why would he go after a place without any heroes?"
"Because he's sending a message," you said. "He's telling me that he'll keep doing this, killing innocent people, until he gets what he wants."
Bakugou looked over at you. "But he's not gonna get what he wants."
"No, he's not, but this means that we're out of time."
How could you do this? You had almost no leads on the League's whereabouts and even if you did, you didn't have any kind of plan or anything. You guys would be rushing into this blindly, not sure who would be making it out.
"You know," you met Bakugou's gaze with a soft chuckle, "I don't think you ever asked me to be your girlfriend."
His eyebrows narrowed in confusion, "huh?"
"If the world is about to end, or if we're about to go into a battle like this, I'd like to know that I have you, officially."
His expression changed and he leaned closer to you, "alright, then will you be my girlfriend, I guess, officially?"
"I will," you closed the distance between the two of you and pressed your lips against his. Bakugou answered the kiss with his own, the intensity of it building with each second that passed.
You broke the kiss and leaned your head against his chest, looking up at him through your eyelashes. This was completely out of the blue and probably not the right time for any of it, but when would there be a right time? There was no point in not allowing yourself a small moment of reprieve. The world was so filled with uncertainty, but you had one thing that you were absolutely sure of.
"I know that everything's going to shit, and I know that we have no idea what's about to happen, but I need you...all of you."
"And you have me," he responded. "Always."
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Ok, ok, I know that the recent chapters have been kinda boring, but these next four are gonna go crazy in a whole lot of different ways. I'm super excited.
Next Monday's upload will hopefully be a double upload! For those of you who started school, haha that sucks, I still have three weeks left of summer, but I hope it's going well!