❝Stars Aligned❞ » Katsuki Bakugou x Fem!Reader

80

The air smelled like scorched stone and summer rain as you stood in the middle of the mountain range training grounds, arms outstretched, lava curling up from your fingertips like molten silk. Your breaths were steady, focus sharp.

It had taken months of relentless work, early mornings, sleepless nights, and quiet reassurances from Bakugou whispered against your skin in the dark to reach this place again. But now, when you moved, the lava obeyed. The decay was silent but not gone, not forgotten.

And for the first time in nearly two years, you felt powerful again.

"I'm proud of you. It's been almost six months since you had to start dealing with this decay quick and you've made it your own." Bakugou said as he walked up from behind and held out a cold water bottle.

"Don't remind me, I'm still angry that I'm stuck with it." You sighed, taking the water and chugging nearly half of it down.

"You're still doing great."

The decay quirk had once turned everything you touched into ash. But now, it slumbered beneath your lava like a shadow under the sun. Still there. Still dangerous. But no longer in control.. for now at least.

But then the shift came three weeks later.

It started with a burn on your palm that wouldn't heal. Not because of heat but because the cells were unraveling. Decay from within.

Then the lava began to change color, darker, thicker, edged with crimson veins that pulsed like a heartbeat. And when you touched the earth, it didn't just melt anymore. It crumbled. Broke down on a molecular level. It was no longer two quirks reacting to one another. They were becoming one.

By the time you ran a test with the underground lab team you trusted for months, the results were clear. Your lava wasn't lava anymore. It was molecular combustion. A fusion of heat and decay, destruction accelerated at the cellular level. And it responded entirely to your emotions.

It was like a newborn quirk all over again.

"It's not just lava and decay anymore," the lab tech told you gently. "It's something new. Something we've never seen before. Your body's evolving with it. Which means this change might be permanent."

The news made you freeze up entirely. It made you angry, livid, furious and most of all, terrified. It was another quirk you had no control over, another quirk that could easily take over and ruin your life. It was something you couldn't shake. After all of that, you didn't bother to go home that night.

You sat alone on the old rooftop, staring at the city lights, your knees pulled to your chest. Your body felt wrong, your veins felt heavy. You imagined cracking your knuckles and watching the concrete around you fall apart like wet ash.

The spiral came slow, then all at once.

Training stopped. You began to sleep during the day and wander at night. Your gloves were back on, your touch was cautious again. Bakugou noticed, but didn't push you, not yet at least. He just watched you from across the room with fire behind his eyes, waiting for you to talk.

You kept telling yourself that this was temporary and that you were just tired, adjusting. But the truth was you were living in constant fear again.

A week later, you stood in front of your mirror with your gloves off. Your hands were glowing, softly at first, lava shimmered at the surface, but then the skin cracked like scorched earth. Black veins webbed along your wrist. Your mind screamed at you to cover it up, to ignore it. But another voice whispered you've already come this far.

The days blurred. You kept your distance again, from your teammates, from the city, from him. From everyone you've come familiar with since the decay got transferred into you.