𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐨 - (𝒞𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓇)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑

𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚘 𝚃𝚘𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚒

Keep yourself together. "Ah, those..." Todoroki forced a chuckle while arrant fear crawled through his veins. "My cat...clawed me when I picked...him up." Searing, bitter sweat coalesced along his vibrant flesh as he opened up his watering eyes to see Bakugou slowly shaking his head. "Why are you..."

Bakugou cautiously pinched one of Todoroki's bandages to unravel it, but he came to a halt once he realized that there were translucent flowers wilting at the inner peripheries of Todoroki's eyes. "Liar... You fucking liar... You're a cutter...aren't you?" He peered into Todoroki's glacial, glassy eyes.

Please don't call me that, even if your cutting assumptions are true. "N-No. I'm not, Katsuki. I'm fine..." He squirmed with frenetic movements in Bakugou's grasp and tore his hands free to bring Bakugou's lips into his before anything more could be said.

I forgot, Todoroki inwardly rebuked himself while traversing through the warmth of Bakugou's mouth with his tongue. How could I forget? I wasn't even thinking. I just wanted to give him everything. I really am submissive. If I can't conceal the scars, I don't let him take off my shirt. It's been a while since we've done this, though. It's been at least two months, and usually, it happens at least twice a week. Their lips spilled down into two separate puddles, but Todoroki merged them into one again. I trusted him with everything I had. That's how much I loved him. But I didn't have the strength to admit the truth about how I was doing. Now, it's too late. It really is all my fault. It's all my fucking fault. But how was I supposed to tell him? How would I have brought it up when being depressed just wasn't me? When the me he knew me as was so much stronger? When the person I was showing him was a lie, and yet, at the same time, who I really was to him?

Licking his lips, Bakugou pushed his sultry, silent lover down into the sheets again. "Why didn't...you tell me?" Bakugou queried through his saturnine grimace. "I never fucking knew, Shouto!" His glistening lips trembled.

"I'm not!" Todoroki desperately pleaded; his own stoicism and equanimity were falling apart with the facade he wore. "And please don't assume anything when you don't know anything."

"Then show me what's under there!"

"I...can't."

"Why?!"

Bakugou's voice evanesced into the thickening silence that suffused the room. Incertitude transfixed Todoroki's mind, and he hadn't the faintest clue as to how to respond.

Is that all you care about? Is that all I am to you? I also didn't want to tell you I cut because you'd hear that and immediately alter your views on me. That's not the person you know. Shouto Todoroki wouldn't slit his wrists. There's nothing wrong with his life. He's perfectly fine. He isn't someone that should be depressed. Exactly right. Everything I'm going through...is so insignificant. 'Everything.' But that 'everything' is 'nothing,' really. I'm not going through anything, but somehow, I still feel this way. Why? How? How can I be as depressed as someone that's been through hell and back when there's otherwise nothing wrong with me? It's like every good thing that happens to me just brings me down instead. Like happiness itself has been erased from my mind and replaced with sadness and emptiness. But...why?

Finally, Todoroki drowned out his tempestuous thoughts. "Because I'm weak, Katsuki," Todoroki sobbed while attempting to glue the shattered pieces of himself back together. "But I'm not... I'm not a cutter." He stared up at Bakugou with a wry, fragile lour.

Shaking his head, Bakugou hissed, "I don't fucking believe you..." Such a coruscating, pointed utterance crunched through Todoroki's skull and wrapped around his lungs.