PLASTIC FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 25

' promises unkept '

━━━━━

In evenings where the rain poured on gutters and rills, slid down roofs and leaves, the youth would pull a blanket over her head and press her face to a pillow- determined to muffle the sound. She had hated rain, although it wasn't the prime weather when she was struggling in the streets, the casual downpour of rain didn't make it easier for her.

Shivering beneath torn fabrics, the sick clammy feeling of cheap fabric clinging to her skin like a second layer, puddles covering feet infecting wounds, cold cold cold.

And she could feel it now, the cold trailing her bare shoulders, the cold moving in like two three four five cold fingers creeping on the surface of her skin and- blood red eyes were revealed and she clutched the dagger underneath her pillow, pointed it towards the intruder but she held back when the familiar face of Tomoe Shimura greeted her.

"If I'd known you'd react like this," he breathed, two pants. "I wouldn't have volunteered."

Kaede wasn't alien to early midnight interruptions like this, but being woken up was different. Usually, she would have been informed earlier on and they'd knock at her door.

"What is it?" she asked and sat straight, covering her almost exposed chest with a blanket. She was wearing a thin chemise and shorts (she hadn't bother cleaning up the stains of blood on the chemise so Tomoe wrinkled his nose in disgust).

"Sensei wants to talk to us in private," he said, and turned around to give her space to change, but the youth was already heading towards the door, her nipples surfacing beneath the thin material and Tomoe had no choice but to throw the blanket towards her general direction.

"Why did you do that, you bastard?" she growled like a feral wolf, pushing the peach blanket away.

"Your breasts you uncouth thing!" he shrieked, turned away, a pale pink cast on his cheeks and he was grateful for the darkness of the room for it spared him from further mortification.

"You uncouth thing"- she drew quotation marks in the air while glaring daggers at him-"what? You hijacked someone from the Victorian Era now?"

As soon as she saw the surprised expression on Tomoe's face, she put her hands to her lips. She shouldn't have said it. She didn't know why but there was a part of her that rang one two three four alarm bells when the words escaped her mouth.

The youth let silence take its place, hoping that it could erase, replace the words her mouth had just uttered.

Instead of anger or anything relating to that particular emotion, Tomoe merely ran his fingers through his stylishly messy white hair and looked at her- in the way that pierced souls and made icicles melt, in that selcouth way where even the pitter pattering of the rain outside didn't make a tint of cold approach your body- with vulnerable crimson eyes that almost looked like her own.

Craving for something.

( Afraid. )

"How did you find out?" he asked and you wouldn't be able to tell he was furious if you couldn't see the trembling fists beneath his pants.

She opened her mouth to speak but no voice came out, the girl who had sworn to make Fear fear her, she was afraid. And maybe it wasn't the prospect of being mutilated by Tomoe, it was the fear of facing that betrayed look on his face.

"Answer me, Kaede," he said. "How?"

The youth was nothing but a calamity this time, she was an animal, cornered, afraid, helpless and she did what animals do in those times- she attacked, she put on a façade of spite and let venom coated words flow like her guard.