the only exception | bakugou katsuki

11 | clandestine quasars

Nothing changed.

Standing there was Yuna with Bakugou beside her, but she was more familiar with the place than she ever did before—a scenery ingrained in her brain for a day each year, sometimes more than that.

She remembered the day it rained like this—soft drizzles and soft winds dancing with snowbell leaves. They were merely angels embracing the sad, but not as sad anymore as the years passed by, leaving mortal humans alone with their life. Though life has shown Yuna what it really means to lose someone and nothing could ever change that.

She scrutinized the granite memorial in front of her—it almost looks as good as new just like the very first day she wept over it, the first time she learned that time was limited, even now. Her eyes hovered over the withered flowers, thinking that there was no point in replacing them with new ones anymore—bright and alive, only to wither and die as the weather and time changes—the only thing that will ever change.

The only thing that will never ever change was the name that was carved exquisitely on the granite stone, the one thing that Yuna knows she can't change, and so does fate.

Yuna Rii
22xx – 22xx

Nothing changed.

"Hey, Rii."

Though she was fully aware of another presence beside her, staring intently, silently—Yuna tries her best to hide the sorrow in her voice.

"It's been a while eh? How're you doing up there? Hooking up with some angel I hope?"

She hears a scoff beside her and she couldn't restrain her smile for making a joke at a place like this, yet she turns and glances at the blond who was observing the entire scene.

"Hey, Rii? This guy here? His name's Bakugou Katsuki. I call him Kat though. But he didn't like it very much."

"Shut up." He mumbled.

Yuna softly chuckled. "He's a friend too. Well, um—I don't know. You know me, Rii. I don't have a lot of friends."

She bit her lip. Something about the way she said made her heart leapt to her throat, choking, strangling her as a forlorn wave suddenly hit her, tears already brimming, fixating her gaze onto the tombstone.

"Kat, wait for me at the gate will ya?"

Though she didn't hear an answer, she hears him shifting from where he stood—like he was contemplating whether he should leave, but he complied like she wished, leaving her alone with the other—except that the other was lying seven feet under while Yuna, stood in the rain.

And the second his footsteps became hard to hear, she lets the tears fall.

"Nii-san." She finally cracks, vulnerably giving in to the sorrow she's been holding back for so long, feeling relief yet regretful at the same time. "You're lucky to be up there ya know? Too bad, I'm having a shit life here."

She lets out a broken laugh, nothing was funny at all.

"I'm doing just fine, Rii. Shiro never fails to make the best damn sushi. Mum's okay.. but she worries sometimes and dad's, um, he's fine too. He's just sad you know? And when he's sad, he drinks—like, all the time. A-And I'm.. I'm just quirkless, you know? Powerless. Useless. I'm not the best. I can't do my best—"

Yuna whimpered, veiling her sobs.

"I'm not, Rii. I'm not fine. Not ever since you're gone. They argue every fucking night and I can't even sleep properly these days. I feel like shit's getting worse day by day. I tried so hard to fix everything since then."

She wipes away her tears, though she couldn't tell if she was when the rain kept tainting her cheeks.

"But then, why do I try so hard for people who don't even try for me?"

To find yourself bothered by someone's death more than you would have expected, as if you assumed they would always be part of the landscape, like a lighthouse you could pass by for years until the night it suddenly goes dark, leaving you with one less landmark to navigate by—still able to find your bearings, but feeling all that much more adrift.

Yuna once had a dream. She didn't know when but it was beautiful. Perhaps it was when she inadvertently fell into a pit of tenebrosity she didn't know she created like it was made for her.

She was loved in that dream. It echoed through her like thunder—she felt it through and through. And when she woke up, she couldn't shake the feeling of Rii's arms around her in a protective way when laughter resonated her small ears, the sound of her brother's voice assuring her that she was safe—all already half-forgotten.

The loss was indescribable. And she couldn't help that feeling of certainty that she has felt this way before. Somewhere in time, throughout the ages, she was loved—she was loved and her eyes were wide open.

That was the last time she will ever remember she was loved.

Yuna composed herself—took deep, measured breaths and made sure her eyes weren't feeling like marshmallows. Made sure she stood there long enough for the red tint in her eyes to fade away before she could finally leave like nothing ever happened.

Nothing changed.

"Bye, Rii. Hopefully I won't be able to come back here so soon. If I do then you'll know why. But that's okay. I'll try to be positive like you told me to, even though I'm already doing a great job at that to some people apparently—in an annoying way."

She chuckled and smiled, sighing as she took one last lingering look, stepping away.

"Just be there for me, okay?"

And then she meets up with the blond waiting at the gate.

__________

There is a girl who smiles all the time, to show the world her constellations every night.

Bakugou believed that in every star was a core ready to implode. It could be now, the future or the end of the fucking world, but no one would know. Some stars may be dead, but he knows every star in her constellation wasn't.

Her stars were merely flickering every now and then—he noticed. It was undeniably perceptible to witness them stuttering a hint each time, like hidden clues hidden between dots—small stars that are found within constellations which makes it hard to see with the naked eye, but better with a telescope to uncover the truth behind those tiny stars, only to reveal there were more to them in another galaxy.

Yuna was those stars.

The stars conquered the night—countless constellations he couldn't pronounce in which he finds it fucking annoying—trying to decipher each of those meanings like the obnoxious girl beside her, cackling mindlessly when he pronounced a constellation wrongly.

"It's Del-phi-nus. Not Delpenis." She cackled again, throwing her head back.

Huh. There's that annoying laugh. How can the star that was flickering earlier still be glaring at him in the eye?

Yes, he knew she cried back in the graveyard when she walked out with that shitty grin—that one shitty star that wasn't aligned within its own constellation, and Bakugou could clearly see that from the way she constantly, relentlessly, pestered him all the way to Minisu when it was all clear to him that the end of the fucking world almost happened.

But then, every constellation has its ruler, its name and its meaning—and Bakugou knew better than anyone that Yuna Rei was definitely one of them.

A constellation that shines in everyone's nights and continues to shine in everyone's day.

Even when they couldn't see her.

__________

let's just assume that the bnha world is like 2200,, ah yes, that was bakugou's pov indeed. plus, imagine me getting a dollar each time i type 'constellation' in this book lol