A Dragon Called Halfie

Part 34/ wut

"Hey, Kiri. Can I come in?" Mina asked as she stood by the cave.

Kirishima's eyes were only half open. He watched her walk in, but he pushed his body away from the approaching person and into the wall. Everything was blurry. He couldn't see who it was, but who else would it be?

"Please-, please don't put me back in the cage. I don't like it there! It's hard to breathe! Can still fight! I'm okay! I promise I'm okay!" His voice was low pitched and breathless. It was hard for him to breathe.

He flinched as Mina took a step forward, and his wings involuntarily wrapped around him, trying to protect himself.

"Oh honey!" Mina murmured, her face falling. "That's - I'm not here for that sort of thing!" She tried to act as calm as she possibly could, but the man who hurt Kirishima before Bakugou rescued him better be glad Mina didn't know where he lived.

She tried to smell as calming as possible so her scent wouldn't throw him off.

"I'm just here to make your tummy feel better. Doesn't that sound nice?"
It almost sounded like she was talking to a toddler.

Kirishima stared at her and didn't say anything, still pressed up against the wall.

"You're freaking him out, Pinky. Just back off some." Bakugou said as he walked into the cave. He reached out and forced Mina back a few steps.

As soon as kirishima laid his eyes on him, his whole body relaxed. He takes a deep breath in and finally seems to realize who Mina is.

"What? Apples?" Kirishima asks as he looks at Mina.

"No, that's just me, Kiri. I smell like apples. You smell like pinewood."

"Wait... that smell is him?" Bakugou looked confused.

Mina sat down next to Kirishima and held out her wrist to him. "Here, take a sniff."

"Woah! You do smell like apples!" Kirishima exclaims.

He still seemed like he was in pain, but he wasn't doubled over anymore, so there was some progress.

"Does your stomach still hurt?" Mina asked him.

"Not as much. The apples are helping? I don't really know."
His voice seemed to be getting stronger, too.

Bakugou was listening to their conversation and glaring. He started to kick at yesterday's fire, cleaning out the chard remains of sticks and leaves outside of the cave.

Why did Mina smell like apples?
To him, she smelled like that cheap perfume that she stole off a merchant they had met a couple of months ago. And if Mina smelled like apples, what did Bakugou smell like? Kirishima would know, but he would never ask him that.

"Come here." Kirishima said.

Startled, Bakugou looked up and realized he was talking to Mina.

She leaned closer to him, and he pulled her close into a bear hug. And started petting her hair.

In half a second, his whole demeanor seemed to change. From slightly hostile, to absolutely infatuated.

"Awww! You're so little! Come closer, my little pup, I'll keep you safe." His voice had changed too.

Then he looked up and made eye contact with Bakugou.

"Hey, toss me that blanket from over there." He demanded. "She's going to get cold!"

Mina started to laugh and said, "Well, this is better than the other direction this could have gone. Go ahead and throw him a blanket. He's trying to make a nest of sorts."

Bakugou threw her a blanket off of the bed and asked cautiously
"What do you mean 'other direction?"

"It means he got super cuddly and motherly- protective instead of murder-y. But trust me, it would have quickly gone the other direction if there wasn't another dragon's sent here. And since I'm only a beta, I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm his kid..."

Kirishima took the blanket and wrapped it tightly around Mina and himself.

"Bakugou," he called. "Get over here. We need more body heat!"

When Bakugou touched kirishima's hand, though, his skin felt very hot already.

"How are you not suffocating in there?" He asked Mina.

"I'm a dragon. I can literally sleep in a bonfire and be comfy."

"Dam-" That was all Bakugou could say before Kirishima grabbed his wrist and dragged him down next to them.

"Shhhh. Snuggle time. "

:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:

Hours. Four four hours they had been stuck in this position, and Kirishima would go between purring and rubbing his head into Bakugou's neck, petting Mina's hair, checking both of their temperatures to see if they were warm enough, and just straight up hugging them and telling them what good pups they were.

At one point, he's even sure that he saw Kirishima go through Mina's hair looking for bugs.

Despite the autumn quickly approaching and the lack of a fire in the cave, sweat beaded on Bakugou's forehead.
Apparently, the normal body heat for a dragon was significantly higher than that of a normal human.

Bakugou ran hot anyways, and he was still sweating.

Bakugou thought Kirishima had fallen asleep half an hour before, and tried to shift out from under his arm, but as soon as he moved, kirishima pulled him even tighter against him and mumbled underneath his breath,

"No.. stay right here. We are safe here. I will keep you safe."

There was no escape.

Then, from the other side of Kirishima, he heard a whisper.

"His temp is already going down. Apparently, this is only last about 2 or 3 days. It should be over sometime tomorrow."

But if truth be told, Bakugou didn't want it to end so early. It had been years since someone had held him with so much feeling.

:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:

(Kiri)

The moment that he had grabbed Bakugou's hand to pull him closer, he had known instantly that he couldn't let him leave.

He had felt warm, but it didn't burn. And it made a lot of the burning that he still felt go away. He didn't know how to express this, so he just wrapped him in a blanket.

'I'm going to keep you safe,' he thought to himself.
'I have to keep everyone safe.'

But that wasn't exactly it, was it? It felt stronger than that. It was different from how he felt towards Mina.

In a rare moment of clarity, he realized that all these little things that he had been feeling weren't what he had thought.

The gratitude, friendship, and loyalty?

No, it was different.
Maybe a bit stronger?
Was... was it love?

Words: 108

Leaf out~