Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 16

THE HERMIT

✧༺✦✮✦༻✧

Chapter 16

After dinner had been passed out—if you could even call the stale, bland rations dinner—and the lights finally clicked off for sleep, the room settled into a wary, uneasy kind of quiet. Darkness stretched out over rows of bunks and bodies, turning faces into indistinct shadows and whispers into threats. Katsuki didn't trust a single damn person here not to slit their throats with a rusted piece of metal the second they closed their eyes.

Desperation and greed had a nasty fucking way of making people forget their humanity, stripping them down until survival was the only thing left, and he wasn't about to let him or Izuku fall victim to someone's midnight panic attack or cold-blooded ambition.

He'd muttered as much to Izuku, low and wary, eyes narrowed sharply across the dimly lit room. Izuku had agreed without hesitation, worry clear in the quiet, careful way he'd glanced around, assessing the same risks Katsuki already saw. And then, softer but stubborn, Izuku had suggested inviting Iida and Kirishima into their little alliance. Katsuki's first instinct had been to push back, to growl out that the fewer people they had to trust, the better off they'd be. But Izuku had given him that quiet, pointed look that made Katsuki grumble under his breath.

Besides, maybe having a couple of extra sets of eyes wasn't exactly a bad move.

So, with a low, grudging grunt, Katsuki had agreed. They'd barely gotten the words out, just a quiet explanation to Kirishima and a subtle nod to a tense but grateful Iida, when a familiar figure quietly approached through the gloom. All Might, asking quietly, almost apologetically, if there was room for one more.

"Fine," Katsuki had said roughly, voice low but firm. "But we sleep in shifts. No exceptions."

The following morning, they were jolted awake by that same grating, goddamn music echoing through the speakers as the lights came on. Katsuki growled under his breath, rubbing a rough hand down his face as he sat up, feeling every muscle protest from sleeping tense and alert, coiled tight even in rest.

He glanced across the bunk to see Izuku was already up, sitting with his back too straight, thumbing his bottom lip like he hadn't slept a damn secondl and Katsuki caught the twitch in his fingers, that restless, almost compulsive motion he got when he'd been running the same thought loops for too long. For everything that had been said between them, Katsuki half-expected the nerd to be... lighter. Brighter. Hell, even a little shy or awkward after what they'd admitted. But instead, Izuku looked dulled around the edges, like he hadn't slept a damn minute, eyes rimmed dark and heavy with something Katsuki couldn't exactly name yet but didn't like.

They'd crashed in the same bunk last night; it wasn't like it was new, sharing that cramped space, breathing the same air. But fuck if it didn't feel different now, closer. Warmer. Like every inch of space between them had been burned away by the shit they'd said, and the trauma they shared. Didn't matter if some of the players around them let out a couple muffled laughs. no one had the balls to mouth off where he could hear. Still, the lack of sleep, the quiet tension in Izuku's shoulders... it wasn't nothing.

Katsuki filed it away with a low grunt and forced himself upright, already bracing for whatever fresh bullshit the day had waiting.

Breakfast was as pathetic as dinner had been, dry, tasteless rations that barely scraped the edges of their hunger, but Katsuki forced himself to choke it down. Weakness wasn't an option, not in this ticking time bomb of a place. Izuku sat quietly at his side, shoulders tight but expression unreadable, and Katsuki couldn't help but nudge his knee gently against Izuku's, trying to subtly remind him they were still here, still breathing. Still together.