His Drumming Heartbeat

Regrets

⚠️ WARNING: THIS CHAPTER WILL BRIEFLY RECALL TRAUMA. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. ⚠️

Lynnette flags a taxi down for her and Bakugo to make it back to the hotel, not caring if it's raining outside now and cursing at herself for not paying attention to the weather better. She helps get the ash-blond male into the vehicle's back seat and asks him, "can you buckle yourself in," once he's seated.

He nods his head and does that, though he struggles to try to get it in the hole. Lynnette takes a deep breath and helps him out by guiding his hand, hoping it'll help him out. It isn't her first rodeo helping someone out when they're drunk, all of it thanks to Karmin, and she can't help but feel a wave of deja vu take over her from the familiarity.

She gets herself situated in the backseat of the car and tells the cab driver the directions to the hotel they're staying at, and he tells her he knows the route because tourists coming from the club usually reside at that same hotel.

A/N: Play the song now.

Faintly, the sound of a familiar song plays on the radio, one Lynnette knows by heart and is ready to ask the cab driver to turn it up, but before she can, he is already doing that.

The cab driver takes the car out of park and gears it into drive, making his way to the hotel both the ash-blond male and the raven-haired woman are staying. The car ride there is silent besides the vehicle's sound, the music from the radio, and the outside traffic as Lynnette watches the raindrops hit the car window and cascade down the glass. The lights the nightlife brings almost remind her of driving with her bandmates in LA when they were first starting because they had so much time on their hands after recording their EP, and those times she would fall asleep in the passenger seat of the car. It makes her nostalgic until she feels something resting on her shoulder, wakening her up from that daydream.

The raven-haired woman looks over to see Bakugo resting his head on her shoulder, no sound coming out of him besides his breathing. She would have never expected the ash-blond male to be a quiet drunk, but it makes sense since he's always loud when he's sober. He must be drunker than she thought, considering he must have gone over his limit when Kaminari dared him into a drinking contest at the club.

Hesitantly, the raven-haired woman carefully rakes her fingers through his hair, not wanting to disturb him if he's sleeping. His hair is soft and feels well-kept, unlike some men she knows around her age, and she finds it oddly relaxing how the hair strands effortlessly go through her fingers.

Bakugo notices her placid gesture and lifts his head from her shoulder, startling the woman and ceasing her actions. His half-lidded eyes look into hers, her breath snags in her throat, and her heart hammers in her ears, knowing a look like that could mean a magnitude of things. Her fight-or-flight response sinks into her body, and she wishes it doesn't have to happen now. He repositions himself in the seat, tilts his face close to hers, centimeters away from closing the gap between them, and presses his hand against the glass window's cold surface. All he sees is red, a familiar hue of red he cherishes more than anything, though the pigment of red he sees is not the one gazing back at him.

Lynnette turns her head away from him, knowing this isn't what she wants or is in the mood for; she's sober, but he's not. The sensation of discontentment sinks into the pit of her stomach, and its familiarity sickens her, knowing the last time she felt like this was years ago. For how close Bakugo is, Lynnette has a feeling he can feel her pulse quickening. He hasn't mentioned it to her, so maybe she's overreacting and hallucinating, her mind thinking it's happening, yet it isn't. However, her thinking it's not happening comes to a halt; the worst-case scenario clouds her mind, and she tries to push the thought from her head as he leans in much closer than he already is.