Karin couldn't sleep so well that night. Nightmares kept taunting her through her subconscious mind, making her constantly wake up with tears in her eyes. The rooms were too hot and her head felt as if it was splitting open with each and every second that passed by. She wanted Bakugou to at least be by her side. She missed him.
Maybe it was stupid for her to get so attached so quickly, but she couldn't help but want to be near him.
She clung onto her bedsheets, crying silently in the small room as she felt too discouraged to get help. This wasn't like home. This was summer camp. Meaning that she had absolutely no comfort in the dark anymore and no way to drown out these nightmares. She also missed her auntie as well as her uncle Sato. And Ryo..
She wanted nothing more than to be at home, snuggling up on the couch with Bakugou while they drank hot chocolate. Maybe Kai would sing a song for her and she'd find the relief to keep her asleep through the night. But everyone else seemed better than that.. she had to be strong and had to be capable of pulling it through. Kirishima never had trouble like this, neither did Shouto or the others. Her body still ached from the training done that day, and yet she couldn't help but fall into complete despair.
Everyone else made their lives seem so easy. She still felt so below all of them, and part of her new that she probably wouldn't last too long out in the real world. Her mother's words taunted her, dragging her down until it felt like she was drowning. A lump formed in her throat and her breathing became heavy. The world was spinning. Her skin broke into a cold sweat. Her eyes were red from crying so much.
Karin was falling into the same routine again with having events in the night. It would happen almost every month.. and it seemed so long ago since she had one. But that pit of terror in her stomach was finally back..
And she didn't know how much longer she could take it.
***
"Karin.. what happened to you?"
The morning sun was just starting to rise as a soft breeze swayed through the forest. Class 1-A was the first to wake up for the day since they needed a head start for training. The objective was to completely overuse each of their quirks. That way, they'd improve- just like how the body improves with exercise. All of the students were forced to work their limits, making them feel as if they were dying.
Bakugou was pouring his hands into hot water to increase the sweat glands within his skin. The nitroglycerin within his body was then activated with his quirk, allowing for his explosions to become massive in size. Todoroki was stuck in a container of hot water as he used both of his quirks to change the environment around him. The intense training was working him to hopefully to become stronger and to allow himself to use both quirks at once in the future. All of the students were pushing themselves just as much as them.
Except Karin. Aizawa pulled her off to the side to deal with her quirk use personally. One on one training was the best course of action when considering her... limits as he thought. At the moment, his arms were crossed as he stared her down with a sharp gaze. The bags under her eyes were clearly visible and everyone could tell that she's been crying the previous night. "What's wrong?" He sighed.
She lowered her gaze to the ground while she fidgeted with her gloves. She decided to wear them today along with her class uniform so she could hide away her scars. She was still a bit self conscious about them, and hearing about class B joining only made it feel worse. There was no way that I'll let them see it all...
"I'm sorry sir... I'm just not in the right state of mind. I'll work hard to use my quirks..."
He raised a brow while examining her even more. If he didn't know any better, he would've guessed that she'd been crying almost all night... her eyes were too squinty for her to just have done it recently. Maybe his students may have noticed it sooner, but seeing it clearly in the light was a discouraging sight. He frowned slightly before tapping his index finger against his arm with a slight dose of anxiety rushing through his veins. She was his responsibility and he was determined to keep her on track with the rest of his class. "Karin... why were you crying? Did you get any sleep last night?"
"I couldn't..." That was all that she spoke off. She was shutting herself down from almost any conversation with him.
"Tell me. I'm tired of being left in the dark Kirishima. You can't train with your mind not focusing on the task at hand. You're doing nothing but wasting time and keeping yourself living up to your full potential. Was it something going on with the other students? Is it something at home? Did someone hurt you?" She bit the inside of her cheek while figuring out on what to spill out for him. Mainly, her thoughts were consumed by Dabi. Karin new that he'd probably be disappointed in her by now, but ever since Midoriya told her about him possibly stalking the group at the mall made it all even worse.
He was dangerous to her friends. Plain and simple. She could never truly see him again without them both being in trouble...and she had no clue of where he was hiding. "I miss him..."
Aizawa's face changed into utter confusion. "Him?"
"Dabi... he's Shouto's older brother.."
Yeah I kind of new part already.. Aizawa sighed before resting a gentle hand upon her shoulder. It sparked her attention while he tried to find out more about it. Maybe there was a chance to get her to share any information about his whereabouts or history. "I was told that he used to take care of ya as a child... and I understand that it must be hard to be in the position that you're in. I'll admit, what you did before was completely unnecessary. You ran away from everyone, creating a even bigger panic than what there already was for you... but I do understand a great reason as to why. Dabi was more than a brother to you.. and at times he may have felt like a father figure too, right?"
She nodded slowly. It was true...
Every single bit of it.
You felt like that too at times..
"As a hero though, it is your duty to uphold the future for the sake of your society. Even when you're in pain, you must be willing to fight back the sorrows and suffering in order to put others before you. Karin... I need you to understand the consequences of every action you take. It is time for you to finally let go of your past and to make strides for your future." She nodded once more, feeling her heart sink by each passing second. So... I'm not allowed to feel anything..?
"Alright. Now let's move onto training..." He patted the top of her head before leading her closer towards the rest of her group. Every individual was placed separately across the area, and so they both decided to stay by the forests edge. Karin sat crisscrossed upon the grass as she was given 100 pound weights at a time to lift. But since she held two quirks, he had another idea for the empath power she possessed.
"It was a while ago, but I was told about what you did to Endeavor, Karin." She paused in the middle of her small workout to stare wide eyed at him. Of course it was all over the news, but the tone of his voice seemed lighter, as if he was almost impressed with what she did. He's never like that...
"You managed to bring the number two hero down to tears... and Shouto told me that you didn't even touch him."
She thought back to that night and remembered how it felt to unleash all that power within her body. It was like her chest was convulsing and a splitting headache shot through her skull during that time. To sum it up, it felt as if a sound wave shot through the room. And that was the first time she's ever done anything similar to her father's true quirk use. He was able to stare someone down and easily make them bend to whatever emotion he inflicted... and she was finally able to crack that last step to accomplish it. She just didn't know how to do it again...
"I knew you were powerful, but hearing about what you did was something truly remarkable. Do you remember the first conversation we had back at the school? How I mentioned your quirk and from which parent you inherited it from?"
She nodded silently while remembering to keep up with her training. She was now conducting both arms to raise up the weights. "You said your father could it... so I had a hunch that you could do the same. This quirk you have could do some amazing things with the proper experience and training to match it. I bet your father did some incredible things with it, did he not?"
Oh.. you have no idea. "I don't r-remember too much about it," she sighed. "H-he almost tried to keep that from me as a kid, saying that it was unnecessary..."
He never expected me to be a hero either... how funny..
"Well. What I'm trying to encourage is for you to try to recreate that again. Do you remember how you did it?"
I don't know if I can....
***
Iida was seriously getting on Katsuki's nerves. It was towards the end of the day, and the sun was slowly falling down from the sky as his body ached. He'd been straining his quirk by creating multiple explosions to the point to where he could barely make them anymore. His body was covered with sweat and he leaned against the barrel of hot water for support while he glared daggers at the class president. The boy was running circles around him- constantly training by using the engines of his quirk while interrogating Katsuki.
"When did you get those?? If Aizawa saw them, you'd be in serious trouble Bakugou!!"
Oh yeah. Those fucking hickeys made him the target of everyone in the whole group.
Everyone started to question him about it during the day when they had the chance, and by now, he was getting fed up. "SHUT. UP," he hissed. Iida kept running circles around him while waving his arms around. He was too strict for his own good, and Bakugou was wondering on how he always had a stick up his ass.
"I always thought that Karin's kind naive nature would never do such a thing! What have you done to her?!"
"UGH! IM GONNA KILL YOU!!!" Katsuki began chasing after him with the last of his strength. His anger and frustration was driving him over the edge and he was tired of hearing it all from the bastard. Iida was too quick when it came to long distance running, so he managed to escape.
Todoroki overheard it all since he wasn't too far from the ash blonde at that point. The male was still sitting within the water barrel as he hung his arms over the side. Sweat rolled off his forehead while his hardened gaze stared at the ground. After the sports festival that happened earlier within the year, he thought he had a chance to change for the better... but this wasn't helping. He felt his heart twist and freeze up from pure anger. The girl he cared about most was practically snatched away from him, and Bakugou was technically flaunting and showing it all off in his eyes. Those hickeys were a reminder of what he did and how he fucking failed.
Katsuki stopped running when he lost track of Iida and was exhaling heavy breaths. Aizawa would've kicked his ass if he saw him slacking off, but by now, he didn't care. The ash blonde was nowhere in his line of sight, so this was his chance to catch a break. He sat upon the ground, feeling the grass around him. His wrists ached from the backlash of his quirk, and his mind was too dizzy to stay angry for much longer. For once, there was just silence.
Just the way he liked it.
Off in the distance, he spotted Karin practicing her quirks immensely. Two heavy barrels connected to chains were being pulled by her full muscle strength while she struggled to walk along side with Aizawa. She was focusing to use her empath quirk without touching him in any way, creating a bigger struggle through her mind. A migraine was starting to form.
Katsuki examined her for a while before realizing what she was doing. It was said on the news that she managed to take down Endeavor without even touching him. Aizawa needed to do one on one training with her and this was the best course of action from her. She was capable of pulling it through, but it's hard to strengthen your quirk use when you don't know too much about it. Ryo should be teaching her.. not him though.
Aizawa clearly didn't spot him yet, so he just sat there and admired her beauty for a couple minutes before his teachers voice cut through the air. He was calling off for all of the students to quit training for the day. Everyone was exhausted and so they complied instantly.
And you know, the worst part of the day was also finding out that there was going to be no food prepared for them back at the camp grounds. All of class 1-A returned to see that Ragdoll and PixieBob were practically flaunting their own food while preventing the students from having any. Karin's stomach growled incessantly while she dreaded cooking for the night. She wasn't really good at it, and too be honest, Curry wasn't something that most of the students new how to make anyways.
Good thing Sato had some experience.
Karin jolted when she felt someone flicked her nose. She bit the inside of her cheek and narrowed her pouting eyes at Bakugou when she figured it out who did it. "You meanie."
"You extra."
"You goofball!!" She punched him lightly in the arm while they "playfully" bickered at one another. Katsuki bared his teeth wickedly and scooped her up off the ground while the rest of their classmates gawked at the scene. "Katsu! Put me down! I have to participate," she squealed.
"LIKE HELL! AS IF ILL LET YOU COOK!"
Aizawa rolled his eyes while he chewed down on his own bowl of curry that PixieBob made for him minutes ago. That was one of the many perks of teaching at the camp; you got free food. Uraraka and Mina laughed at Karin and Bakugou while teasing them both for being too cute for each other. "Everyone's too energetic," Eijirou sighed.
Todoroki helped by lighting up the fires by each grill sight at the camp while Bakugou and Sato helped to prepare the vegetables for curry. Karin watched in awe at Katsuki's knife skills at work while she sat along the side tables. Uraraka was even impressed. "Woah! Bakugou! I didn't know that you were so good with a knife! How weird!"
"Ugh! It's not weird! Why are you extras just so bad at everything?!"
Karin has a small giggle escape from her lips while she rested her head upon her arms. Even when Bakugou was just as tired as everyone else, he still had enough strength to carry his explosive personality with him. She also noticed that he kept covering up the hickeys whenever Aizawa came walking around. Those small dainty little marks were hidden, and he was not going to get their asses in trouble for what happened.
Blush was slowly started to blossom over her face from remembering what they did last night. She recalled on how gentle and vulnerable he acted, and how comforting it was to be with him in that very moment. Knowing in the training that they did today, another night in the hot springs didn't sound so bad.
If we go again tonight... then w-will he..?
She buried her face into her arms as she mentally screamed from the thought. There was no way that he'd be ready... no wait. She wouldn't be ready! She was uncertain and possibly even curious, yes, but not prepared to go further...
But is that what he's wanting?