VOID [Katsuki Bakugo x OC]

Rule #15: Go With the Flow

♪

"You seem... different now."

In the back of an unassuming car scooting toward London in the dawn-soaked hours of the morning, Cade rested her head on Katsuki's shoulder while they watched videos on her laptop, swapping between a video of him and a video of her. After finishing a clip compilation of Cade's "best" talent show auditions from her childhood (which she had no idea existed outside of her own mind and featured a lot of cringey velvet outfits and cutesy pop songs), they watched a Dynamight video on the internet, exclusively featuring his first year in high school and the Sports Festival from that year.

They still hadn't talked about the kiss.

"Different how?" Katsuki asked. Admiring his form in the final 1v1 battles against his classmates, he nodded approvingly at the screen. "I'm still my-same-fucking-self."

"Well yeah, duh, I know you're yourself, but the Katsuki here," she said, pointing at her computer screen where Kat raged at the end of the Sports Festival, chained, muzzled, and cuffed, "Is not the Katsuki I have here." Cade poked him in the chest for emphasis. "So, what gives? What made you simmer down?"

He sighed, batting her hand away half-heartedly. Kat did not want to talk about this now or ever, except this was Cadence and talking to her was nothing like talking to anyone else. She'd get it. "I don't fucking know, Blue. I guess... I just grew up," he muttered, still watching the younger iteration of himself on the screen. In the new clip, he'd just gotten rescued from All for One by Deku and Shitty Hair and the others, flying through the air with them to safety. "The world is softer when you're a kid, you know? Safer? And when you become an adult... you see the dark and grimy bullshit for what it is: the world is shitty. You finally understand that you have a job to make the world a better place. I thought I understood everything back then, but... I didn't know shit."

Trying to be sneaky, Cade glanced up and studied Kat's face, noticing that he purposefully kept his tired eyes on the screen and avoided her calculating stare. His injured hand rested against his chest in a new cast and sling, courtesy of a late-night doctor in the city, and it hurt Cadence's guilty heart to look at it too closely. "I know what you mean," she said softly, reassuringly, honestly. She'd seen her fair share of shit.

For a moment, they simply watched the younger Katsuki on her computer, listened as he screamed at Shoto, capturing that carbonation villain right after obtaining his provisional hero license.

"So... this has nothing to do with your arm?" Cade asked. "With your quirk?"

Surprising both Cadence and himself, Kat inhaled deeply and leaned his head on hers. "Maybe... I dunno." His eyes fluttered shut as he exhaled. Before he could stop himself, the truest words slipped from his lips like ghosts, like confessions, like disarmed honesty for once. "I guess... I met my goal. I achieved my dream: I became the best, the number one hero... and now I don't know what to do. For the next few weeks, I'm here with you... but after that? Then what? What will I do? ...Who will I be?"

Cadence's hand found Katsuki's, squeezing gently, reassuringly. "You have plenty of friends and family who just want to see you happy, Kat. That happiness might look a little different after the accident, but you can still find fulfillment and motivation in something else... We'll find that something else and figure it out together, Kat. No rush... okay?"

On the screen, a younger iteration of Katsuki stood on an empty stage, facing the crowd at his first-ever sports festival. He stared at nothing in particular, solemn and serious. "I just wanna say... that I'm gonna win," he said.

Cadence smiled to herself. Of course he'd say that. What a cocky little shit.

Their fingers tangled together at Katsuki's instigation. He crumpled under the weight of exhaustion, of thinking too hard about his murky future, gradually relaxing into Cadence as the soothing movements of the car lulled him into sleep. A soft snore fell from his lips as they parted, ruffling Cadence's hair with every breath.