Supernova

Chapter Forty One - The Fallen Angel and a Taste of Heaven

We ran recalibration for four more days. It was horrible, in every unmistakable way. Dragging Bakugo and Todoroki and their babysitter pompousness down to the gym every day, having to see Elias' eyes dance in amusement, not silencing in the slightest no matter how much pain I inflicted on him, hearing Demon's grating laugh, which was like an itch I couldn't scratch. Horrible, horrible, horrible. However, I was angry and I did like kicking the shit out of Elias. Plus, I was getting fed regularly and in copious amounts, so I couldn't really complain.

It weirded me out though, how slow the recalibration seemed to be taking, which is to say, not at all. At the end of all four sessions, Demon touched Elias and recoiled in an explosion of rage and disappointment and insults and I fought the urge to smash my head straight into the cement. Yeah, yeah! You think I'm not disappointed too? I want you two to get the fuck out of here!

And if that wasn't enough of a fucking headache, recalibration was making Bakugo restless. Or pissy. Or something. By that I mean that he was back to being a dick to me. No matter who I was with or what I happened to be doing when he got back from remedial lessons, his glare would land on me in a way that I knew was summoning me, and I wound find his side for another session of spitting venom. Did you eat or are we going to have a fucking problem? You're not the boss of me. Did you? God, yes. I'm not a fucking child. Enough? Are you kidding me? Answer the damn question! Yes, Christ! Maybe I wasn't sunshine and roses, but he started it!

It was a shame, because we'd only just recently started getting along. This whole girlfriend thing was off to a great start, huh? But it wasn't all bad, I guess. Even as our words clawed at each other, that spot on my chest tingled, as if a rabid animal was trying to claw its way out to get to him. I'd also wordlessly continued to sleep in his room, in his clothes, pressed up against his warmth, and when we were in the dark, with nothing but our breath passing between our mouths, he was pleasant. It made everything we fought about seem insignificant. If he was just on edge, I could hardly fault him for that.

I sure as hell was.

The morning of the fifth day went normally. It was a mess of bone cracking and blood and vomit and tablets and water. We broke for lunch and Todoroki watched Bakugo and I bicker with a quiet smile on his face or occasional chuckle that only fueled both of our anger. When we got back to the gym, Demon and Elias were facing each other, sitting a few feet apart, discarded food containers at their sides, nothing obviously out of the ordinary.

But the air in the room had changed. It fell over me immediately, like a chill on my shoulders.

A very strange look sat on Elias' face as he watched me, and I didn't recognize any of the flares in his eyes. They were so loud that everything else in the room became silent and insignificant. I raised my chin and told him very solidly that it was time to get back to it. He didn't fight me. Or react at all. He simply got to his feet, removed his clean clothing down to his shorts, and made his way over to me. There was something off about it. I could see it in his eyes. The way he was watching me. It was unusually cold. I thought once again that my throat might close, and that terrified me the most. When he was only a few feet away from me, he lifted his fists in front of his chest.

Trust me.

"Tch."

His right hand fell to his side and he held his left hand up, palm facing me, his thick gashing Heir scar in full view. My eyes widened. He took a single step towards me in the exact moment that I took an uneasy step back. My next breath did come unsteady, and before the instructions to grab his wrist fell from my brain into my hands, he pulled his hand back and slapped me straight across the face, so hard that the noise deafened me for a couple seconds.