STRINGS // KATSUKI BAKUGO [2]

Chapter 15 // Comfort Within Chaos

You and Aizawa ate dinner at the living room coffee table while simultaneously watching Love Island Australia and teasing each other for your differing opinions on certain couples, and, when the late hours arrived, the two of you departed to sleep.

That was when your temporary happiness dissolved into the familiar despair that was eating away at your brain from the inside out both literally and figuratively.

As you laid in the twin bed of Aizawa's guest room, you did everything but sleep. You hummed, counted sheep, and sipped at the water sitting on the nightstand, but you didn't sleep, you couldn't.

You tried holding one of your many pillows. You tried curling up one of your blankets and tucking it into your chest. You even tried balling up one of Bakugo's sweatshirts that you had recently claimed as yours and clinging to it, but nothing worked.

Bakugo had become so intertwined with your daily routine that you didn't realize how important he was to your basic functions such as sleeping until now.

You couldn't even rest without the feeling of your arms wrapped around him and his body enveloping yours.

Question: how the hell were you supposed to properly operate with him gone?

Answer: you couldn't. You wouldn't. There's no possibly way you could rest at ease without him by your side, so why try?

You threw the covers that were suffocating your body aside and stood up, simultaneously grabbing your phone from the nightstand and unplugging it from the charger.

You quietly made your way downstairs as to not wake Aizawa, whose room was fairly close to the staircase.

In the living room, you immediately started devising a plan, and you wasted no time beginning your search.

You found some blank printer paper beneath Aizawa's home desk and taped several pieces together to make a poster, which you then attached to the closet bare wall.

You then proceeded to pull up a map of Japan on your phone, which you lazily sketched onto the poster, not leaving out one road name or building even if it was something as simple as a post office.

After the drawing was complete, you began researching the League of Villains. You learned of every attack or appearance within the last month and plotted each scene on the map.

When you had plotted the last point, you connected the dots and stood back to observe your work where you found that you had unknowingly created a messy rendition of a circle. This meant the League of Villains was most likely residing somewhere within said circle. This was something, something you could work with.

You made a list of all the buildings within the circle, and there ended up being 326 possible residences. It was a lot, but it was still a smaller number than before.

As 1 A.M. rolled around, you began narrowing down the number further by eliminating any apartments, hotels, motels, and other places that housed dozens of people at time. The League of Villains wasn't stupid enough take shelter in such a building. They were most likely in an abandoned residence or underground.

At the conclusions of decreasing the 326 to 78, you began making a list of sewer entryways and any ground stable enough to live beneath.

When 2 A.M. arrived, you heard faint footsteps coming from the stairwell, but your attention didn't stray from the task at hand.

"What are you up it?" Aizawa's voice sounded from somewhere behind you. "It's two o'clock in the morning."

"I'm aware," you replied shortly. "I'm looking for my mom and Bakugo since no one else is doing a good job of it."