A Means to an End | Katsuki Bakugou x Male Reader

Chapter 3

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Buttercup's eyes reflected the faint glow of the safety light over the door as he laid in the crook of Eri's arm, back on the job, protecting her from the night. She snuggled closer to their mother. Asleep, they looked just as they did the morning of the reaping that landed (M/N) in his first Games. Right before Eri woke up in need of comfort. (M/N) had a bed to himself because no one could sleep with him anyway, with the nightmares and the thrashing around.

After tossing and turning for hours, he finally accepted that it would be a wakeful night. Under Buttercup's watchful eye, (M/N) tiptoed across the cold tiled floor to the dresser.

The middle drawer contained his government-issued clothes. Everyone wore the same grey trousers and shirt, the shirt tucked in at the waist. Underneath the clothes, (M/N) kept the few items he had on him when he was lifted from the arena. His mockingjay pin. Katsuki's token, the gold locket with photos of his mother and Eri and Shoto inside, and the pearl Katsuki gave him a few hours before he blew out the force field. District 13 confiscated his tube of skin ointment for use in the hospital, and his bow and arrows because only guards had clearance to carry weapons. They were in safekeeping in the armoury.

(M/N) felt around the drawer, sliding his fingers inside until they closed around the pearl. He sat back on his bed cross-legged and found himself rubbing the smooth iridescent surface of the pearl back and forth against his lips. For some reason, it was soothing. A cool kiss from the giver himself.

"(M/N)?" Eri whispered. She was awake, looking at him through the darkness. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just a bad dream. Go back to sleep." It was automatic. Shutting Eri and his mother out of things to shield them.

Careful not to rouse their mother, Eri eased herself from the bed, scooped up Buttercup and sat beside (M/N). She touched the hand that had curled around the pearl. "You're cold." Taking a spare blanket from the foot of the bed, she wrapped it around all three of them, eveloping (M/N) in her warmth and Buttercup's furry heat as well. "You could tell me, you know. I'm good at keeping secrets. Even from mum."

She was really gone, then. The little girl with the back of her shirt sticking out like a duck tail, the one who needed help reaching the dishes, and who begged to see the frosted cakes in the bakery window. Time and tragedy had forced her to grow too quickly, at least for (M/N)'s taste, into a young woman who stitched bleeding wounds and knew their mother could only hear so much.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to agree to be the Mockingjay," (M/N) told her.

"Because you want to or because you feel forced into it?" she asked.

He laughed a little. "Both, I guess. No, I want to. I have to, if it will help the rebels defeat Nezu." He squeezed the pearl tightly in his fist. "It's just... Katsuki. I'm afraid if we do win, the rebels will execute him as a traitor."

Eri seemed to think it over. "(M/N), I don't think you understand how important you are to the cause. Important people usually get what they want. If you want to keep Katsuki safe from the rebels, you can."

(M/N) guessed he was important. They went through a lot of trouble to rescue him. They took him to 12. "You mean... I could demand that they give Katsuki immunity? And they'd have to agree to it?"

"I think you could demand almost anything and they'd have to agree to it." Eri wrinkled her brow. "Only how do you know they would keep their word?"

(M/N) remembered all the lies Shota told him and Katsuki to get them to do what he wanted. What was to keep the rebels from backing out on the deal? A verbal promise behind closed doors, even a statement written on paper - those could easily evaporate after the war. Their existence or validity denied. Any witnesses in Command would be worthless. In fact, they would probably be the ones writing Katsuki's death warrant. (M/N) would need a much larger pool of witnesses. He would need everyone he could get.