SOLD

War

It is exactly as it seems.

~~~

A little over a week had passed. So far, behaviour was uneventful. The hourly updates from surveillance detect nothing, and a handful of people had started to lose faith in getting any action. Of course, none were willing enough to throw their toys in the pram and head home just yet - this was more based on the anticipation that none of them could cope with for an entire week.

There was hardly a routine anymore. The main army took turns around the fire to cook food for everyone else, except for the advisers who get their own fire further out, where Todoroki cooks for himself, Kirishima and Bakugo, and Bakugo cooks for Izuku. Only Izuku.

He refused for anyone else to feed his Omega.

They had certainly gotten closer, Izuku and Kacchan. The Omega himself was acknowledging it. Kacchan had thrown the box of cigarettes off the roof after the two had parted, and after a very heated debate, earning a soft cuddle as a reward. From that day onward, Izuku was glued to him, seeking the molten comfort of his rough hand or that warm chest or those strong arms enveloping him into a sanctuary he would gladly call home. At nights, Izuku barely allowed Kacchan out of his sight, squeezing like a vice around him and refusing to stop mumbling until his arms wrap around him. And Kacchan, having a tender spot for Izuku, couldn't bring himself to sneak out of the Omega's embrace, always dosing off before he could wake himself up. He was glad those sheets were warm and that body doesn't tremble in fear or with another nightmare. Blessed Izuku - he'd gone through so much and yet, still, he keeps getting back up.

He never gives up.

The damn nerd!

It was the ninth night when commotion had reached Izuku's ears. He jolts awake, rubbing at the sleep that stuck behind his puffy eyelids, blinking several times to rid the blur before stumbling to his feet, only to acknowledge how there was no comfy Alphan torso beneath him, but a body pillow - where the hell did that come from?!

He darts his head around when his ears focus on voices of excitement and slight panic, the sounds of knives sharpening on stones and the familiar clinks and cocks of a pistol being cleaned. It was only when he heard the word "enemy" from another person's lips that he realised what was going on.

Shit was about to go down.

Instantly, his sense of smell sharpens as he tries to find a trail of that delicious smoky scent, slipping through crowds when he catches it, right into the heart of the market place. Kacchan was talking into the earpiece, secluded from the group of readying army, his voice a little slurred with fatigue and quiet. It also had a slight edge, like the face he'd make when speculating a stranger. Izuku sees right past it, striding straight up to the Alpha with a tired smile. Kacchan, whose eyes instantly pull towards the breath-taking Omega, jumps a little, mumbling a few extra pieces of information, the only audible bit being "Keep me updated" before his hand moves away from his ear.

Those eyes hold something akin to... despair.

"Kacchan?" Izuku asks, his throat grainy like sandpaper.

"What are you doing," Kacchan grumbles, and Izuku doesn't at all ignore the hostile voice he uses.

"I woke up," he shoots back, but it lacks the bite he was looking for. "Wha's goin' on?"

Kacchan sighs. "Shoulda been asleep," he mumbles, before shifting uncomfortably. "Crusty face's extras are half a mile or so from us. We're leaving at dawn and I told those idiots to be quiet. Now that you're awake, don't suppose you'll stay here, will ya?"

Ah, Kacchan! If only he hadn't grown so emotionally attached to the most stubborn and selfless Omega to have ever existed - the exact embodiment of All Might, if he were a real person. "I'm not staying here!" he confirmed, demanding no further debate.