A Means to an End | Katsuki Bakugou x Male Reader

Chapter 9

Lmfao im so stupid

I wrote 8 whole chapters before remembering i had already written shoji in the first book 💀

Anyway I rewrote him to be ojiro instead so we just gonna pretend like this mixup didn't happen :)

Also this a big boy chapter, enjoy

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(M/N) stopped trying to sleep after his first few attempts were interrupted by unspeakable nightmares. After that, he just laid still and did fake breathing whenever someone checked on him. In the morning, he was released from the hospital and instructed to take it easy. Ryuko asked him to record a few lines for a new Mockingjay propo. At lunch, (M/N) kept waiting for people to bring up Katsuki's appearance, but no one did. Someone must have seen it besides him and Denki.

He had training, but Shoto was scheduled to work with Tenya on weapons or something, so he got permission to take Denki to the woods. They wandered around awhile and then ditched their communicators under a bush. When they were a safe distance away, they sat and discussed Katsuki's broadcast.

"I haven't heard one word about it. No one's told you anything?" Denki said. (M/N) shook his head. Denki paused before asking, "Not even Shoto?" (M/N) was clinging to a shred of hope that Shoto honestly knew nothing about Katsuki's message. But he had a bad feeling that wasn't the case. "Maybe he's trying to find a time to tell you privately."

"Maybe," (M/N) said.

They stayed silent for so long that a buck wandered into range and (M/N) took it down with an arrow. Deki hauled it back to the fence.

For dinner, there was minced meat in the stew. Shoto walked (M/N) back to Compartment E after they ate. When (M/N) asked him what was going on, again there was no mention of Katsuki. As soon as his mother and sister were asleep, he slipped the pearl from the drawer and spent a second sleepless night clutching it in his hand, replaying Katsuki's words in his head. "Ask yourself, do you really trust the people you're working with? Do you really know what's going on? And if you don't... find out." Find out what? From who? And how could Katsuki know anything except what the Capitol told him? It was just a Capitol propo. More noise. But if Kan thought it was just that, why didn't he tell (M/N) about it? Why didn't anyone let him or Denki know?

Under this debate was the real source of his distress: Katsuki. What had they done to him? And what were they doing to him right now? Clearly, Nezu did not buy the story that he and Katsuki knew nothing about the rebellion. And his suspicions had been reinforced, now that (M/N) had come out as the Mockingjay. Katsuki could only guess about the rebel tactics or make up things to tell his torturers. Lies, once discovered, would be severely punished. How abandoned by (M/N) he must have felt. In his first interview, he tried to protect (M/N) from the Capitol and rebels alike, and not only had (M/N) failed to protect him, he brought down more horrors upon Katsuki.

In the morning, (M/N) stuck his forearm in the wall and stared groggily at the day's schedule. Immediately after breakfast, he was slated for Production. In the dining hall, as he downed his hot grain and milk and mushy beets, he spotted a communicuff on Shoto's wrist. "When did you get that back, Soldier Todoroki?" (M/N) asked.

"Yesterday. They thought if I was going to be in the field with you, it could be a backup system of communication," Shoto said.

No one had ever offered (M/N) a communicuff. He wondered if he asked for one, would he get it? "Well, I guess one of us has to be accessible," he said with an edge to his voice.

"What's that mean?" Shoto said.

"Nothing. Just repeating what you said," (M/N) told him. "And I totally agree that the accessible one should be you. I just hope I still have access to you as well."