Untethered: Bakugou x OC x Todoroki

Chapter 19: New Plans

"Katsuki Bakugou, tell me why you feel like crying."

"I-" the ash-blonde choked, straining to hold back his confession as he felt the effects of Yui's quirk willing him to spill free the words that hid behind his lips—usually locked away in the farthest reaches of his mind, never uttered to anyone aloud, not even Kirishima; not even himself—just as his knees threatened to buckle. "I...d-don't want t-to tell you," he managed to force out around the urge to spill his secrets, gritting his teeth to fight the desire to let his admission breathe truth into everything he struggled to admit as his trembling body struggled against her power.

Yui closed her eyes and sighed to herself, annoyedly, clearing her mind of any errant thought that could distract from her goal of helping this man fight his demons. She had never in her life entertained the idea of becoming a hero of any kind—rescuing people wasn't her forté—but for some unknown reason, having an actual pro-hero standing right in front of her, who so very obviously needed saving, fueled a foreign desire inside her to help. Heroes needed their own salvation sometimes too, right?

"Just s-spit it out already," the brunette grunted, straining to pinpoint the blonde's urge to escape his inner turmoil and tip it over the edge into a proper confession.

A restrained growl grated against the back of Bakugou's throat intensely, forcing his body to convulse as if he were being electrocuted and Yui felt his muscles tense beneath her touch as she sent another wave of her quirk surging through his neurons. His fingers tightly gripped the handle of the sliding glass door as he hit his knees and he could feel the sweat starting to bead down the back of his neck with how hard he strained against the effects of her quirk. Yui's breath came out in quick pants as she rested her entire palm against his shoulder in an effort to further influence his verbal impulses and break through his control.

Bakugou's thoughts were racing as he finally decided that he'd had enough and all he wanted to do was escape this situation. He knew what she was doing and he hated it. He hated having to face all the words swarming inside his brain, let alone the urge to speak them aloud. He hated the exhausted feeling overtaking him as he internally fought with himself to not admit what he so feared to. He even more-so hated the fact that now that he'd finally decided he'd rather leave, and though he wasn't staying just out of curiosity any longer, he was physically stunned in place and couldn't move a muscle on his own volition. His limbs felt as though they were frozen and he panicked when he realized he couldn't even muster up the strength to slide open the door with how much effort he was using to keep himself from spilling all of his protected secrets.

"E-enough!" He growled through his teeth.

Yui ignored his plea and placed her other hand against his opposite shoulder, flooding his body's neural pathways with a stronger push of her quirk's influence, yet again. Bakugou's torso shook under her touch, a guttural yell gritted against the back of his throat, slicing minuscule cuts up the flesh of his esophagus with the immense force the sound produced. When Bakugou wrenched backward to fight the forced urge, beginning to lose his balance, Yui changed tactics as his chin faced the stars with his eyes clenched shut and she kneeled behind him to pull them both to the wood beneath them, gently. She suddenly threw her arms around his abdomen once he was seated with his feet tucked underneath him, and she pressed her chest and face firmly against his back, letting as much of her body touch him as she could, in this moment.

Yui knew that Bakugou's reluctance to open up was rooted in fear, she could feel the hesitation vibrating within her own neurological system, and although he seemed to be in pain over what she was doing, she knew in her heart that he needed it.

"Come on, Bakugou! Just do it! You know there's no point in stalling anymore, or you're just going to hurt us both!" She panted heavily with her heaving chest against his back, her voice shaky with exhaustion as her quirk was reaching its limit.