Kapitel 17: Still each other's.
"Midoriya and (Y/N) have been getting pretty close don't you think?"
The comment was a slap in the face but the way they walked in together was the punch that broke his jaw entirely. That bashful look that so differed her usual impassive guise, partnered by the almost self-assured look on that shitstain's flushed face. It made him sick. Leading her in by the small of her back, parading her around like his trophy. He'd almost think he was doing it just to spite him. If it weren't for the fact that he'd kept his eyes on her the entire route to her seat.
It was embarrassing how love-drunk that idiot was. Fawning over her all the time, being so obvious about it ~ He found it utterly cringeworthy. A damn fool chasing after someone else's soulmate. He was setting himself up for humiliation.
Or maybe he was just setting himself up for heartbreak.
He let his head rest flat on his desk, internally restraining himself from just bashing it into the polished oak and ending it all right here. This is bullshit. This was supposed to be a rigged game ~ A challenge he was meant to win from the start. Yet here he was, watching this loser beat the odds yet again, while he sits here and glares at her from afar. What was he doing so wrong!?
"Bakugou?" Kirishima poked at him. "You okay, man?"
"Yeah, bro," Kaminari chimed in. "You doing okay? You're kinda... making out with your desk there."
"Both of you." He grumbled. "Just..ugh...Go to hell."
"Yeah, he sounds pretty okay to me."
"No, no." Kirishima shook his head. "He's not." Tilting his head at his disheveled friend, he tightened his lips. "Kaminari, why don't you uh...go back to your seat for now. Class should be starting soon anyways."
Kaminari shrugged, standing from his crouched position in front of his friend's desk. "Whatever you say, dude." He yawned. "Talk to you two lovebirds later."
Bakugou didn't even move to retort at that. Just let out a short grumble in response and let him walk away unscathed. That worried Kirishima. The Bakugou he knew would have at least maimed him a bit. But this one just took it ~ Didn't even put in what little effort it would have taken to tell him to jump off a bridge. That wasn't Bakugou - This wasn't. He needed to know what was up.
"Talk to me."
"Eat shit and die."
"Not until you tell me what's wrong. Come on - Is it (Y/N)? Is that it?"
Bakugou gave him a long sigh in response. Lifting his head a bit to let it fall on the desk again with a soft thud.
"Why don't you just talk to her already?"
"I did fucking-"
"You gave her an ultimatum, Bakugou. What good relationship starts off on an ultimatum? Talk to her - Like a person. You're a smart dude. You can do that."
"It's not that sim-"
"I don't wanna hear it. -If Midoriya can do it, you sure as hell can. She's your soulmate. Start treating her like it and maybe you'll actually get somewhere."
Bakugou sat up in his seat, folding his arms against his chest and looking away from his red-headed friend.
"Get off my back, damn it. As if I didn't know that already." He grumbled. Sure, okay, he was right but that didn't mean he could go bossing him around like this.
"You're not acting like it." That earned him a hot glare. "Midoriya's been making big moves. - You need to make some bigger ones or else."
Well if he was trying to piss him off, then congrats! He succeeded. "The hell do I mean by that?! I know what I'm fucking-"
"Alright quiet. Quiet down already."
Aizawa's voice was a steady drone as he dragged himself behind his desk, pulling himself up to a lean against the chalkboard. He let his eyes survey the classroom as he spoke. "Everyone seated? Good. There should be a scantron sheet under each individual seat. Pull that out please."
Waiting as his students ducked under their chairs to retrieve their papers as instructed, he took that moment to seek out a particular vapor clad head of hair. His gaze struggled from softening when he did find her though. He had gotten news this morning. And he dreaded being the one to have to pass it on.
"Iida, you have the booklets. You know what to do."
"Of course, Sensei."
Bakugou watched as his teacher scooted pass the broad gentleman, his eyes locked on his oblivious soulmate as he made his way around the classroom to her seat. He could hear him call out her name softly before putting his hand on her shoulder. To anybody else, it would have looked like just any other form of introduction. But he knew otherwise. He had done his homework and what that was - was a precautionary method. ~ One he remembered reading about online. Announcing yourself before physical contact to avoid flinching. It was a method used often with recovering domestic violence survivors. A way to give them initial control of a situation to make them feel safer when being approached. He couldn't help but feel a little sad that it had to be used on her.
He watched as she tilted her head to the side, lending him her ear as he bent to whisper something to her. Something that surprised her, enough for Sensei to have to shoo the excited smoke away with his hand.
He could read her lips. "Okay." And the wary look on her face made him grimace inwardly. That and the soft pat Sensei gave her before walking back to his desk. A pat that seemed almost apologetic. As if he were saying sorry for something without actually saying it yet. That left him a little apprehensive.
Aizawa cleared his throat, watching Iida as he returned to his seat. "Pencils out? Begin."
~
He could barely focus on his test after that. Finding himself double reading some of the questions just so he could properly retain them. The suspicion was peeling at him. Leaving him oddly invested in something that hadn't even been explicitly said yet. The interaction just felt too weird to him. It put him off and he couldn't help but want to know why.
But his curiosity truly piqued, when the bell rang. And her and Sensei left class together. The subtle nod towards the door that gestured they needed to be somewhere, that hadn't run past him. Something was wrong and he could feel it. He needed to know. Even if for the sheer intrigue it set in him, he was going to pursue it. He'd go crazy if he didn't.
Bakugou stood behind a few feet as he watched his Sensei accompany her pass the bend in the hallway. He was leading her to the west wing. A comparatively barren half of the school, used more regularly for abandoned classes repurposed as training rooms. He could faintly recall a rumor that had circled around sometime last year about that wing. A couple of third years getting caught doing the dirty in one of the abandoned classes ~ Earning the wing the lazily put together title of "The Fuck Wing." and having it be temporarily closed off until sometime late this fall. Some say you can still see the cum stains on one of the desks if you looked hard enough.
Continuing his pursuit forward, he made sure to keep his stroll no faster than a casual gait. Walking nearly slow enough to lose the two on their detour pass the vacaning lockers.
He peeked over the corner when he finally got to it. Finding the pair piecing up a trio of the two teachers and their student ~ All Might was there. Standing in front of her with a solemn look on his sunken face. He was saying something to her. Something he couldn't quite hear from where he was. But whatever it was it didn't look good.
It wasn't chastising, or reprimanding or anything. It was...somber. As if they were breaking news to her. The body language of the two adults looking almost uneasy and apprehensive. They were tiptoeing to something, but what was it?
And then she just froze.
Still, worryingly still. Almost inanimate looking. Even the smoke in her hair had fizzled out, all of it. She was just standing there. Like a plank stuck in the floor.
All Might moved forward, wrapping his jacketed arms around her shoulders to pull her in for a comforting embrace. Her body stuttered a moment before leaning into it, still wood like and robotical. The smoke in her hair still hadn't returned.
Bakugou took that as his cue to leave. Turning away with a feeling in his gut like dejection. It was coming from her. Little spurts of it waving up his arm straight into his chest. It had to have been so much worse on the other end. He thought. That's how these things worked, right? He'd get a trial of what she was feeling tenfold. And that made him a little sick to think about. What was she experiencing tenfold that could leave him with a feeling like this? He found himself rubbing the numbers on his wrist like open wounds. Walking into his next class swallowing his loneliness. ~ He couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to be there with her. He felt like a hen for it sure but, that didn't upset him so much this time.
He wanted her to be okay.
~
There was a different kind of aura that surrounded her seat in the classroom that day. He couldn't exactly put a name to it but whatever it was, it was Blue. Blue and... muddy. Swampy, sticky like quicksand; you'd have to climb your way out of it or else you'd might find yourself stuck.
But her face didn't show it. Her attitude still appeared just as aloof and impartial as it almost always was. Her interactions with other people didn't change at least - With Deku. If only for that he would have thought that maybe she'd gotten over it. But he could tell she hadn't. His wrist could tell ~ the lack of vapor in her hair made it too obvious. He honestly didn't even care at this point that he was staring. Something in him just needed to know what had happened. He just didn't know how to go about it.
He was lucky enough to overhear her exchange with Deku after the final bell rang.
"I'm gonna lay back if that's alright?"
"Are you sure? I can wait if you..?"
"No, that's okay." She gave him a soft smile. "You can head to the dorms. I'll meet you there."
"Swear?"
"Swear."
He didn't feel as lucky though, when his green adversary bent to give her a kiss on the cheek. He found himself swallowing a knot actually. He remembered what Kirishima said:
"Midoriya's been making big moves. - You need to make some bigger ones or else ."
Were there even bigger moves to make at this point?
He felt like he had already lost.
But he stayed.
He stayed with her as the class emptied. As the room drained to a slight acoustic, as the clock became an echoing tick against the wall. Stayed as her expression sunk, and her eyes became glossy and glass-like, shading over a mirrored reflection in waxed oak. - And stood only once. To close the classroom door and to take the empty seat beside her.
She was the first to break the silence. She always was. "You suck at snooping. I could hear your footsteps from a mile away. Literally."
He didn't respond to that. Just stared at her as the class fell silent again. His gaze said it all anyway. "Tell me." It said. "What's wrong." It wasn't hard or demanding but curious. A concerned glare ~ if glares could look concerned. His body was leaned toward her. His back bent over and his hands rested between his spread legs. It was an open position, a vulnerable one. One he wasn't too accustomed sharing with just anyone.
Her voice came off flat this time, almost hard. "My dad's dead- that's what all the funny looks have been for right? He's dead."
"They found him.... in his cell. Autopsy report says he died in his sleep. That something? A monster like him gets his peaceful farewell when he couldn't even bare the same peace to the lives he took ~ to the lives he continues to take."
"But that's not it." She shook her head. He could see the tears puddling on her desk. "If only for the lack of closure, I'd be fine. Hell, I should be elated that this despicable asshole is off this earth. ~ Point me to his grave and I'll dance on it - I just," She paused. "I should be happy. I should be.... but I'm not."
"I'm not." She turned to him. "Why am I not happy?"
He looked at her for a moment. A look she thought didn't even look like him. Soft and pondering. Though barely readable through the blur of her tears.
It caught her a bit off guard when he stood up, grabbing her hand to make her stand with him. She nearly braced herself to pull back from him ~ that was until she was locked inside an embrace.
And that made her cry harder.
There was a sense of relief that came when her hair all but blew up in his face. His hold on her somewhat tightening to console her. He let his head rest on the top of hers, half solid locs of smoke cushioning his chin as he closed his eyes. Thank God the smoke was breathable. It would be pretty inappropriate to die at a time like this.
This was okay. This was good. Being with her even if he wasn't with her. That was fine. Because even if he couldn't have her he still had her. They were still each other's in some way. He could still be there. Even if just as a friend.
He was hers and she was still his.
Even if not the way he wanted. He'd like to keep it that way.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein