bakugou katsuki did not like it when his neck was touched.
you didn’t know why, not really. you just knew he tended to avoid restricting materials around his neck—collars, necklaces, ties. his hero suit (the winter version, anyways) guarded that area particularly well, and he often snapped at people whenever they tried to take measurements or make him model certain items for hero magazines. he never liked headlocks either, even when they were from his friends messing around with him, and always shut them down quickly.
you knew katsuki didn’t want to tell you the reason why—didn't want to burden you with the clearly deep-seeded issues he'd been dealing with for who-knows-how-long. but you saw the signs, saw the way he reacted and evaded questions like the plague. he was running from something. his own vulnerability, maybe. you could only worry and guess and worry some more. you were just... curious, morbidly so, and this curiosity stemmed from the concern you had for him.
you ended up asking deku one day when the opportunity arose, knowing that he and katsuki had been friends for a long, long time.
"ah"—deku grimaced at your question, one of his hands rubbing at the back of his neck—"it— it's personal. he went through a lot when we were younger." he gave you an apologetic look. and that was all he said on the matter.
deku's words made you drop your inquiring, guilt festering in your gut for essentially going behind katsuki's back to ask about something so... sensitive. but if katsuki wanted to tell you, then he would. you could be patient. and you trusted he could handle things on his own if they got too intense.
but then... the incident happened.
you got called in to deal with rescue and relief while a villain was running rampant somewhere in downtown musutafu. your agency wasn't too far from the devastation site, so you used your quirk to get there as fast as you could, arriving right after katsuki and chargebolt.
the villain looked to have some sort of dark, slippery tendril quirk. there were so many of them, oozing a dark substance as they whipped around and destroyed anything they landed on with brute force. cars got crushed under their grip, lampposts got ripped from the ground and tossed into the sides of buildings. the destruction made your stomach twist, left something bitter in your mouth.
katsuki and chargebolt were focused on trying to subdue the villain. the air prickled with the electricity in the area, made the hairs on your arms and neck stand up straight. the smoke and ash falling from the sky captured the bursts of fiery orange that erupted like an imploding star from sweaty palms.
you felt as though you were caught in the middle of a devastating storm, lightning and its accompanying thunder roaring around you. tumultuous.
you worked fast to get straggling pedestrians out of the way of the fight, ensuring that your coworkers wouldn't need to worry about that particular detail. teamwork, in situations like these, was essential, a sort of trust binding you all together. you trusted katsuki and chargebolt would take care of the villain just as they trusted you would take care of civilians.
you tugged innocents away before tendrils could crush them to the streets, tossed them to safety before debris from crumbling buildings could land on them. it was taxing work for you alone, but luckily for you, other heroes soon arrived on the scene as well.
you became so accustomed to hearing the shooting whistle of chargebolt's electricity, the thunderous detonations of katsuki's explosions, that when they suddenly stopped, your head snapped up.
and you were just able to let out a gasp as you watched a tendril—thick, slimy, constrictive—wrap around katsuki's neck before slamming him into a building next to you.
a repetitive drone, like static in your ears, was all you could hear as you immediately used your quirk to boost yourself up to the collapsing hole katsuki had been thrown through. the tendril that had captured him still extended from the hole like a taut zipline—holding him down, you realized.
before you could use your quirk to cut it, slice through it, you heard a yell—raspy, bordering on frenzied—followed by an explosion that sent smoke and hot air shooting outside from within the building. the villain screeched as the single tendril squirmed and receded from the hole. it gave you the chance to land inside, eyes honing on katsuki who was before you on the dusty floor.
his hands gripped at his neck, clawing, scraping, at the viscous piece of tendril that was still latched onto his skin. tight, tight. he let out another yell and turned towards you standing with your body backlit by the ashy light from outside. ruby blood ran down his face from his head, his body covered in a layer of white from the building's concrete wall. his bloodstained lips were stretched out in a rabid snarl that showed off the watermelon pink of his gums.
but what caught your attention were his eyes—pupils tiny, trembling—the pools of carmine fogged over like hot breath on a cool window. yet they simmered with an indescribable rage that made you feel as though you were being boiled alive.
"get this shit," katsuki hoarsely screamed, voice cracking, shaking on barely suppressed panic, "offa me!"
you leapt towards him and used your hands to rip at the tendril wrapped around his neck. tugging, slicing, until he was free. he sucked in gasps of air like he had previously been drowning, and used his hands to explode the remains of the tendril until it was nothing but a smear of ash on the ground.
you hovered around him, throat and mouth feeling as though they had been lined with cotton. your hands flapped almost uselessly in front of you as katsuki pulled himself to his feet, one heavy booted foot slamming into the ground after another. he refused to look at you, his hair casting his roughed up face in a deep shadow.
"kats—" you started worriedly, but he cut you off with a growl.
"no," he spat harshly. and you could only watch as he took two powerful steps towards the hole before he launched himself through it with a roar. the explosion that followed him shook the very ground beneath your feet.
and once the villain had been dealt with, once all the civilians had been accounted for, you met katsuki in the quiet darkness of his office.
he didn't bother to turn on any of the lights, you noticed, as you slipped inside the room and gently closed the door behind you with a click. the moonlight that filtered through the ceiling-high windows to the left cast a milky look to the area that made it feel surreal—like an angel had ghosted its pale hand across everything. you softened your steps as you silently approached katsuki, sitting at his desk with his face buried in the palm of one of his hands.
you rounded the desk so you could kneel by his side, your hands reaching out to swivel his black chair until he faced you. he gave no acknowledgement of the movement apart from the tensing of his jaw. you rested one of your hands on his thigh, slowly rubbing circles into it with the pad of your thumb.
"katsuki," you said in a quiet voice, too scared to make it any louder for fear of shattering something you couldn't see. "what's wrong?"
he didn't answer, though you saw the way his adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly. you gave him a small moment. then you shuffled closer, between his legs, and moved your hand from his thigh so you could reach up to his face and softly stroke his bandaged cheek.
his head moved away just slightly. your heart sank, but you were persistent and chased his motion so you could cup his face in the softness of your palm.
"katsuki," you whispered again, "baby. talk to me."
maybe it was your voice that got him to crack, maybe it was your words. but he eventually exhaled deeply and shifted. the hand that covered his eyes lowered to reveal bloodshot eyes that twitched and watered with all the emotions he was trying to suppress. his forearms braced against the meat of his thighs, his face hovering just above your own as you stared up at his scrunched eyes, his upturned eyebrows. his hair tickled at the top of your head.
you waited. patient. understanding.
"i—" his voice cracked almost immediately and he paused to gather his bearings. he swallowed again and you used both of your hands to gently hold onto one of his hot ones. his fingers twitched. he cleared his throat, but his voice was still gravelly when he spoke. "i thought i— i was past all the shit i"—he bit the inside of his cheek then let out a shaky breath of air and scrunched his eyes shut even tighter—"i fuckin'... i thought i was okay. but— but m'not. and i— i feel so fucking weak—"
he cut himself off and made to turn his face away from you, but you reached up and caught his cheek before he could. you turned him back so he could look at you, really look at you, staring up at him as though he was the only thing that mattered. you gave him silent encouragement to continue, your thumb gently caressing his skin. he took in another deep breath, his chest expanding, then exhaled in a sigh that puffed around your face.
"i jus'"—his voice strained when he spoke again, trembled like a glass of water filled to the brim and threatening to overflow—"i want it t'be over. i— i wanna— be okay." words could not describe how your heart burst at his quiet admittance, scattering apart in a million, shredded pieces.
"and you will," you told him delicately, raising your face up so you could press his warm forehead to your own. he relaxed slightly into your hold and you held tightly onto him as you promised in a quiet voice, "you will."
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