K.BAKUGO X READER (Cover art by me)
In a life where I'd be safe in one moment and on the brink of death in another, I realized that he was the only force that could ground me. Of all the people in the world. My volatile co-worker. My menacing rival...
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part seven
━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━
At that time, when I woke, coated in sweat and tangled in my bed sheets, I knew the battlefield was just a dream. No war could be solved with my cowardice alone. My death – losing a forgettable hero – wouldn't bring answers to a problem like that. It wasn't that simple.
I'd been a spectator to my dreams thus far. Always watching through the eyes of myself. My actions weren't really my own, yet they still carried a weight on my conscious.
I always panicked when time shifted; when my feet lost their footing, and I couldn't ground myself. My quirk had given me the power to help others and grant me a life where I'd be useful, and yet, we'd never been at peace with each other. It was as if the nature of Tear was to rip me apart, not just space-time. I thought the solution had been to run, to self-sacrifice, but maybe I already knew thinking that way had been wrong. Was I secretly an egomaniac? Or did I just convince myself otherwise? Bakugo was right to think of me as a moron.
My fingers fisted the covers, trying to hold myself in the present. Time didn't stop even when I wanted it to. I couldn't slow it down, skip ahead or make it faster. I couldn't always run away. I was bound to the river, only, the river didn't flow one way but all ways, and it was up to me to decide which path to turn. How could I know my choices wouldn't lead me to a bottomless rapid or a waterfall?
Every answer only ended in questions... I rolled out of bed, ignoring the dream as I got dressed and hurried to the medical bay.
Once the tiny, tired nurse patched my brain injury and healed the swelling, I nearly felt as good as new. No more head injuries meant no more crappy dreams where I tried to off myself... What could I say? We were making progress. She warned me with the wrath of her exhaustion not to let that feeling get to my head. When I laughed at her irony, she looked at me unamused. Strictly business. Tough crowd. I was able to muster a sheepish 'thank you' before suiting up and meeting Bakugo in the receiving bay.
When I spotted his stupid, blonde, head of hair, he was heckling some scrawny soldier outside. I couldn't make out what he was saying from my distance, but when the tired boy led him to the vehicle garage, the reason became more than obvious to me. He couldn't see the roll of my eyes. Probably didn't hear my short burst of laughter at his childish fantasy either.
"What are you laughin' at, dumbass?"
Or at least, that's what I thought. I tried to feign ignorance.
"If you don't wanna walk five miles, you better wipe that stupid smile off your face before I do it for you!"
Like the natural-born asshole he was, he revved the engine under my nose, sitting atop a bright, orange snowmobile.
