Rescue // Shoto Todoroki x OC Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Six

Shoto remained at her side until well after Katsumi had fallen asleep. He stroked her cheek and her hair as she slept, wanting to stay longer. He knew she probably wouldn't want him to stay overnight, so he ended up leaving a little while later. 

Driving home, he couldn't get that kiss out of his head. he also couldn't help but think about how it had ended. He was stupid to think that she wouldn't have residual feelings about intimacy after what had happened to her. He should have taken that so much slower than he did. Still, he was hopeful about the whole thing, knowing she had been receptive to his advances in the beginning. 

Analyzing the kiss, he recalled the exact moment she had tensed, and it was when he'd started to kiss her neck. This told him that if he were to kiss her again, it was probably not a good idea to kiss her there. He understood why it had happened, but he still couldn't help but feel disappointed about how it had gone. 

The thought made him feel terrible about himself. 

He wanted more from her than she was currently able to give. As he drove, he ran his fingers over his lips, which were still sensitive and red from kissing her. It was going to take a lot to wipe that kiss from the forefront of his brain. It was his favorite kiss he'd ever had, no matter how brief it was. 

He wanted to dominate her. To devour her whole. He wanted every part of her. He'd known that the minute he touched her face that first time while she'd slept on the couch. He'd been stealing glances for longer than he'd liked to admit as well. But he knew that he wasn't going to get to have her in the ways he wanted, and it made him feel like shit for wanting it at all. Shoto knew better. He should have known better earlier too, when he tried to kiss her like that. 

He continued to scold himself about it, even after he reached his home and got himself ready for bed. 

* * * 

Some time had passed since that night, and Katsumi had been well enough to go to work for a while now. It was weird, getting back into the swing of things, but once the ball was rolling, she was fine. 

She went on patrol like normal, caught smaller villains, filled out paperwork and reports, and was able to catch up on the dozens of emails waiting in her inbox. 

She, along with a few other agencies had people out following a few different leads on Mind Maker, and nothing had been revealed yet. Everything seemed to be leading to dead ends, and it was starting to frustrate Katsumi. She didn't like feeling helpless, but that's what she was at the moment. If they couldn't find the guy, then there was nothing they could do about him. 

Some other heroes had pretty much combed the warehouse with a fine-toothed comb, and came up with little to no leads as to where they might have gone. Finding them again was probably going to be a similar story as before. They'd have to follow some small fry in order to find the big one. Regardless of how she felt, she needed to keep her eye on the bigger picture. No matter how badly she wanted to go out there and deal with the bastard herself, she needed to trust that people were working on it and that the time would come when she would be able to help. 

For now, it was just about getting back to normalcy. 

The Safety Commission had done a damn good job at covering up what had happened to her. While the public knew that Katsumi had been captured, they didn't know the extent of what happened while she was there, nor the fact that she had gone psycho and tried to kill Shoto when they finally found her again. 

Thinking about everything just drew her mind back to the same place it had been landing for a while now when she let her thoughts run. Shoto Todoroki. 

She often thought about the way his lips had felt pressed up against hers, and she had to stop herself from thinking about it too often. Katsumi hadn't seen Shoto since that night, and she was honestly afraid to run into him again. He never called or texted her after that night. 

Either he had kissed her and decided he didn't like her, or he was just weirded out by the PTSD episode she'd had while kissing him. She felt really bad for ruining it, and wasn't sure what she'd say to Shoto about it the next time she saw him, or if she should say anything at all. If she were him, she'd be a little tentative about reaching back out to someone like that. How do you even go about being with someone who had the issues she did?

And she hated the fact that she'd had an issue with it. Kisses on her neck used to be her favorite. She liked the way someone's lips felt on her neck. She liked it rough and liked to be kissed and bitten on the neck before. Even just thinking about it made heat pool in the pit of her stomach. But she knew that if she were ever in that same situation again, it would probably end as it did with Shoto. Even so, kissing him again was all she could think about, and she hated herself for it. 

It was likely that Shoto just didn't want to deal with those issues. Even if he had liked her before, it probably scared him off. 

* * * 

Katsumi sat across the table from Ochaco at a small restaurant near their agency.

"It's likely you're overthinking it," Ochaco told her before taking a bite of her sandwich. Katsumi had told her friend what happened between her and Shoto, unsure of what else to do. Ochaco had more experience when it came to guys, so Katsumi thought it was a smart move. Maybe her friend would have some good advice for her. 

"He hasn't reached out to me at all," Katsumi noted. 

"You haven't reached out, either," Ochaco reasoned. "And he probably doesn't want to make the first move because he thinks he made you uncomfortable." 

Katsumi hadn't thought of that. Was he feeling guilty about what happened that night? He was the one who initiated the kiss. It was likely. 

"Just try texting him. Set up a lunch date or something and talk it out." Ochaco took another bite of her food, chewing and swallowing it before continuing. "He was very adamant about being there for you after you got out of the hospital, you know. I was going to head over to help you out, but he insisted he go instead." 

This caught Katsumi's attention. "Really?" He had just kind of shown up for her after she got out. She hadn't put too much thought into it, aside from thinking it was because he felt guilty about the whole thing. There never really was much discussion as to why he'd really shown up in the first place. 

"Yep. He told me not to worry about you, that he had it covered. Seems like he did a pretty good job keeping you in line. You're a nightmare whenever you come home from the hospital, you know that? There was that one villain--the one with the arms, remember?" Ochaco held her arms out and waved them around, expecting the cheezy action to jog Katsumi's memory (and it did). "You couldn't do anything yourself for like a week after getting home. But you wouldn't let me do anything. I'm surprised you didn't run him off sooner." 

Katsumi shot Ochaco a glare. "You know I hate being babied."

"Everyone deserves to be babied every once in a while, oh Great Fallen Angel," she teased. "We're not invincible. It's okay to let people care about you." 

"I know, I know," Katsumi said. "You've told me this before. Doesn't make it any easier."

She hated being an inconvenience to others. It was one of her biggest pet peeves. If she thought she was capable enough to do it on her own, then she would. End of story. So letting people do things for her out of the blue, even if it was just some random act of kindness, felt weird to her--transactional even. She didn't want to owe anyone anything, and every time someone did something for her, it just added to the list of people she needed to do something for. 

"Just text him," Ochaco said again. "It can't hurt. If he doesn't want to see you anymore, he'll tell you. But I'm thinking it's more likely that he's just waiting for you to reach out first."